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Turnabout-	By : Spiritwolf71 Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 7688 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This story takes place within Bioware's Mass Effect Universe, their creative property. I do not own any of Bioware's stories or characters or locations. The Author recieved no money from this story and is writing it purely for entertainment.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
To say she was angry was an understatement. It had taken every ounce of her will power to not go after her lover; she was no longer used to trusting others. She had to rely on herself for so long. Miranda had assured her she had a plan and Liara needed to trust in that. Shepard had been taken to Lazarus Station and no one knew that station better then Miranda Lawson. She had designed it and had a hand in building it and then used it to save Cayle after her first “death”. She had to have a little bit of faith.
Kai Leng’s meeting and the device took president. It was important that she keep whatever it was out of Cerberus hands. It was important to keep it out of everyone’s hands until she could figure out what it did. Last thing she wanted was a rise of the Reapers. She would destroy it before she allowed that to happen again.
Liara had just over a day till the last of the auction would take place and she actually took the time to wander the streets her lover grew up in. It was depressing and dirty and a shame that the Government did nothing to help these people. Seeing Cayle’s home did a lot to help Liara understand the drive and ambition that Commander Shepard possessed.
He mother had been killed when she was only five or six, Cayle could never remember. What she did remember was her mother singing to her. The young Shepard had been riding a bicycle she had found and fell and scrapped her knee. She had run home and her mother had bandaged it for her then soothed her by singing her favorite song. They were on the couch together when the robbery happened.
The murderers had been looking for some drugs but Cayle contested to this day her mother had none. Liara would never argue this point as Cayle still had a five year olds perspective of her mother. She had sat holding her mother’s hand, covered in her blood for over a day and a half when a neighbour finally came to check up on her.
From there Shepard went to numerous different foster homes. Some she liked some she didn’t. More often than not they could not handle her. The first couple of years after she had been found Cayle didn’t talk, and then when she did she had a speech impediment. Eventually she found her way into the home of a teacher; the woman taught her how to read and helped her with the accent Shepard had developed. She did not last long there as the teacher’s oldest son had developed an infatuation with the girl and behaved inappropriately. When this had come out into the open Cayle was sent back to an orphanage.
From there she finally gave in and joined the gangs. Cayle had done well in the Bloods, climbing the ranks quickly with every kill she made. Liara did not even need to read her lover to know how much she abhorred this time in her life. She had become a weapon wielded by people she hated. It was a necessity; her only other option was becoming drugged out hooker and she refused that. She didn’t want anyone touching her at that point in her life. She had still done many things she had not been proud of.
Liara knew Cayle’s life as much as Cayle knew hers. They had shared both throughout several melds. She knew how Shepard had ended up joining the Alliance. How she had a target that she simply could not kill. She had been tasked to eliminate an Alliance officer that had been fighting the Bloods drug trade. Shepard had never known his name or never run into him after this.
She had followed him for days, learning his patterns and way. When she had finally found a spot to set up on him she had not been able to pull the trigger. She had watched him through her scope, playing with his children, pushing them on swings. She watched him from pretty much the whole day. It was when she packed up, never taking the shot that she had run into Anderson.
He had spotted her on his way to visit the Officer and was closing in to stop her. Instead of arresting her, he took her under his wing and the rest was pretty much history.
Thinking of her lovers past, she could not help but notice all the children that would not make it and all the children that had already fallen into a life of destitute. No wonder Shepard hating coming back to Earth at least to this part of Earth.
Liara had been working on getting Cayle to bring to a beach on Earth. She had seen them in vids and read about them and had always wanted to visit one. She had actually planned on doing such last time she had come to Earth, but circumstances had gotten in the way. She had also wanted to hike through Plitvice Lakes National Park with the Spectre. It was rumoured to have a number of beautiful natural waterfalls. Someday, hopefully, she would be able to.
Spadina was the Eastern border of the slums. A wall had already been built separating the street in half. On the west side was poverty and on the East side the exact opposite. As a matter of fact it was quite glamorous. It was amazing how many people paid to be so close to the slum. There were several tall hotels along the streets that overlooked the wall. It was sickening to Liara.
It was in the largest of these hotels that Kai Leng had decided to have his auction. He would be in one room and the prospective clients all in separate rooms but on the same floor. Liara looked to the key and the bidding number she had received as she made her way up to the eighth floor. She really did not have a good feeling about this. Neither did Javik who liked to tell her this every few minutes.
“I do not like this,” he said as if he was reading her mind. Liara smiled slightly.
“Yes, you have mentioned that before, several times,” Liara commented.
“I would like it slightly more if my arm was not broken.” He accused, the Asari was uncertain if that was meant to be playful. Javik’s humour was dry, period.
“I’m sorry,” Liara looked to him, “It was reflex, I could not control my anger and you opened the door at a bad moment.”
“Perhaps you need to work on your self control.”
She had no argument for that; she had almost thrown him through a wall. She simply nodded as they elevator stopped and she stepped out to the eighth floor. It seemed empty and she figured everyone had probably been given a different arrival time so they would not know who they were betting against. Liara was not sure if she liked these arrangements. It also meant she didn’t know who she would be up against if everything went south. She could imagine who was here, who had the money for something like this.
She herself, as the Shadow Broker; Cerberus, but she doubted Leng would have invited them, the Eclipse sisters, Blue Sun and the Blood Pack. As for races she could very well see the Salarians and perhaps the Volus, the Turians, Humans and Asari were still deep in debt. Either way there was going to be a lot of fire power on this floor.
The odd couple moved to into their room and closed and locked the door behind them. They both set their bags on the beds.
“I do not like this,” Javik repeated. “We will not know who is in the rooms on either side of us, or what they have planned. We are trapped.”
Liara moved to the balcony and opened the door. “That is why we brought the rope with us. If worse comes to worse we go down, but I don’t want to do that without the device.”
“I understand” Javik said and began to go over his weapons. He still favoured his particle rifle, which was nice since he was the only one that had one. It had been in his stasis pod with him and it never left his side. Liara did not rely heavily on weapons and as such she carried a much smaller shuriken. They both had their biotics to rely on as well, but Liara was much stronger then Javik in that regard.
As they loaded and prepared Liara could not help but feel a lot of people were going to die today. She just hoped Javik or herself would manage to come out alive. She had mouse and Koylat two floors down in case of emergency. If everything went wrong they would use the ropes to go down to floor and come up from that direction.
She smiled as she holstered her weapon.
“I do not see anything humorous Liara T’Soni.”
“I was just thinking, if Shepard was here she would have started firing as soon as she got off the elevator. Everyone would know she was here.”
Javik nodded. “She was not one to be subtle.”
“I remember after a mission once, we called for Steven to pick us up and he mentioned just following the smoke,” Liara trailed off.
“I am sure that ex-Cerberus agent has rescued Shepard,” Javik said after Liara had grown quiet.
“If anyone could it would be Miranda,” Liara said trying to convince herself. She should have known that Cerberus would have come for their “toy”. As much as she wanted to pin all of the blame on Miranda she couldn’t.
“Mouse could not get in the individual room to set up the cameras but he did get quite a few in the hall way.” Javik explained and he handed Liara an ear piece. “You can hear him through this. He will be able to tell us who had come in.”
Liara turned her equipment on. “Mouse, are you there?” she looked to Javik, “don’t you think they would have some plan against this. I mean if not, I am sure everyone is probably doing this.”
Javik shrugged.
“Boss, good to hear you,” Mouse replied. “Well, got some bad news for you. On one side of you are Krogans and on the other side a group of Turians, I’m going to guess Blue suns, but they are not in uniform.”
“Krogans, which side?” Javik asked.
“If you’re looking at the door they would be on your right.”
Both Liara and Javik turned in that direction. “That wall is not going to hold them back,” Liara said. Javik simply nodded.
“I would think the bathroom would be the most secure place. The Krogan would charge through the wall in the middle and shots usually go centre mass. If anyone is in the hall they will shoot through the door.”
Liara nodded. “Any sign of Leng?”
“None,” Mouse said. “I saw him go in last night but not to the eighth floor. Koylat is trying to hack into the hotels computer to see if he can find him.”
“He has a half hour, tell him to hurry,” Liara moved into the bathroom and sat on the toilet provide, Javik leaned against the counter.
“If he is not on this floor, then perhaps we can get off this floor and move to another.”
There was a knock on the door. Javik and Liara looked to each other.
“Mouse?” Liara asked.
“It looks like a hotel employee, human, female,” there was another knock. Javik held up a finger and moved to the doorway of the bathroom. He reached out with his long hand and covered the peep hole with his fingertip. As he did the door almost exploded as if it was hit with a shot gun at close range.
That was when it all went to hell. Someone crashed into their room through the wall. As predicted, it was like paper to the Krogan. There was gun fire from down the hall as other factions sprang into action. Liara could not help but think that Kai Leng had planned this. This was not an auction but a survival of the fittest.
“Mouse where is he?” Liara growled. Javik stepped out of the bathroom and shot the woman who had been at the door. Liara stepped out the other way and threw out a singularity at the Krogan. They were three doors away from the stairs. There was an explosion somewhere down the other end of hall. The hotel was going to get torn apart.
“He’s in the penthouse. He signed in under the last name Surebrec,” Mouse finally reported, Liara rolled her eyes. Liara and Javik left the room running for the stairs. “Barricade,” Mouse shouted. Liara turned and did so as a barrage of bullets slammed into the invisible wall. Javik returned fire as two Turians dove for cover. The other end of the hall was merely a gapping maw and flames. The fire alarm started going off.
Liara turned and pushed herself through the door to the stairwell, “Javik!” She called. The Prothean joined her. “We’re going up.”
“That’s 15 flights.” Javik said. Liara smiled at him slightly and began to run. She knew they would not be able to run up all 15 flights and the fact that people were now coming down did not help.
“That bastard is probably up there laughing at the chaos he started,” Liara said with a scowl. Javik did not answer as he struggle to go up through the people. Occasionally someone would tell then they were going the wrong way. It took them the better part of ten minutes to make it up to the penthouse. Liara was out of breath and stopped. She could hear screaming from below and the sounds of gunshot. They had not been the only ones to figure out where the device was.
As a matter of fact the destroyed door told her they were not the first and they entered together, almost back to back only to find themselves in the middle of some sort of standoff. Kai Leng and a Phantom were standing by the doors to the balcony. There were three Cerberus troops, two Krogans that were not Blood Pack, three Eclipse sisters and two other Humans Liara didn’t know, present. The elevators opened and all eyes went there as Ashley and two Alliance officers stepped through.
“Liara, surprised to see you here.” Ashley said. Liara nodded to her. In the middle of all of them was a black bag. It was the only thing out of sorts in the room and Liara guessed it was the device.
“So what do we do now?” Liara said looking to Leng.
“Well, we can all put down our weapons.” Leng said. It was obvious he had not expected this either.
“You first, Human,” one of the Krogans said. Liara could still hear the chaos from down below. Liara looked to Leng.
“This is my party, I think I’ll keep my weapons,” he said calmly. It was quiet as everyone looked around at everyone. Liara began to wonder if she was going to get out of this alive. Then she heard her, somewhere behind her whispering in her ear.
“When I say the word you get Ashley and all three of you jump out of the window,” It was Cayle, obviously cloaked. Liara almost smiled.
“I think you should all put your weapons down and surrender,” Ashley demanded. “This is obviously Alliance territory and you are trespassing.”
Liara knew the Spectre would make a demand like that. A demand that went ignored. Everyone in the room wanted the device and they were all willing to kill for it. At this point Liara just wanted to get her and Javik out. Suddenly a shot rang out and one of the Eclipse Sisters fell to the ground.
That ended the stand-off as Shepard suddenly appeared, she was no longer blond but she still had the short hair. Liara moved for Ashley and set up a barricade around all of them. Ashley looked at Cayle as if she had seen a ghost.
“Go.” Shepard screamed at them. Liara moved towards the balcony pushing Ashley as she did. As they got closer to the balcony Shepard and Javik lay down. Shepard went into cloak again. Liara almost called for her to stop. Bullets rained through the room and people fell and fought for the device. Liara looked over the balcony as a shuttle suddenly appeared. Miranda stood in it.
“Come on.” She yelled. Javik did not need to be told twice as he jumped across. Ashley and Liara followed suit. Liara stood at the edge looking for Cayle.
“Go,” She heard Shepard call to them from somewhere in the room of death. There was a Krogan, a Human and Turian left in the fight and they were all behind cover. The Cerberus agents were gone as was Kai Leng and the package. Shepard was nowhere to be seen.
“We have to go.” Miranda said. “The Alliance will be all over this place and we need to get us out of here,” She looked to Ashley.
“That was Shepard,” Ashley said looking to Liara. Liara wanted to smile but she was worried for her lover.
“Let me go back,” Liara said as the shuttle moved away. “Miranda stop,” She moved to jump out but Javik grabbed her.
“Do not be foolish, Asari.” He said fighting with her. He was forced to take her to the ground as she struggled.
“No, I can’t leave her behind again.” Liara was hysterical, she couldn’t help it. Every time she left Shepard behind someone declared her dead. “Let me go.”
Miranda closed the door and Liara went limp as it clicked shut. She could not help but feel like she had five years ago when Shepard had made her return to the Normandy. Javik let her go and she sprung up quickly punching Miranda in the jaw.
“Go back, we can’t leave her there.” Liara demanded, her biotics flaring. Miranda’s crackled to life.
“Stand down T’Soni, there was a plan. If we did not get the package in the pent house she was going to get it. She will meet us,” She looked at Ashley, “Somewhere later.”

Liara was breathing deeply trying to calm her anger, her chest heaving but her eyes locked on Miranda’s. Everyone seemed to hold their breath. “She better,” Was all Liara could spit out as she brought herself back under control.

Kai Leng walked up Spadina to where his car would be waiting. He had lost his last Phantom but he had survived. Unfortunately he had also lost the device. He was not completely certain but he thought he saw Cerberus leaving with it. It would seem as though the Ambassador would get his way again.
He was just happy he had survived. That and Lissa looking a lot like Commander Shepard was intriguing. He had never really thought of it before as Lissa had no qualms about killing anyone and Shepard was a bleeding heart. He hated Shepard, but he did like Lissa. What a quandary that was, for him and probably for the woman herself. He wondered if the Ambassador was aware he had lost her yet. Not that it would matter he got the device.
Leng was a survivor but he had been hoping to make enough credits that he could go somewhere and retire. Somewhere no one would find him. He had always wanted a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. Not that he think he would retire completely, sometime he had just too much fun playing with people’s lives. Maybe he would have started up his own little band of mercenaries. He’d never know now.
He smiled to himself as he realized just how close to death he had come. His smile turned into a smile as his walk returned to his cocky sway. He was almost to his car and then he would get off this planet.
“Hello Kai,” he felt an arm wrap around his chest and before he could do anything he lost his breath. He was confused at first, struggling to get a breath. As he turned and spotted Lissa/Cayle holding a knife in her hand he understood. She had cut his throat, his vocal chords and windpipe was gone. He fell to his knees and somewhere someone screamed. Cayle walked calmly up to him, pistol drawn. “There will be no coming back this time,” she said and then fired. His world went black as the bullet smashed through his skull and slide through his brain.
Cayle looked down at the man as he died and waited until his heart stopped completely. The only regret she had was he had did not have the device. People were running from her but she didn’t care. She dropped the gun down beside his head. It would have her prints on it but she didn’t care. Shepard was back and sooner or later everyone would know. Right now though there was only one person on her mind.
“Liara,” She said with a slight smile and a tear in her eyes. She wanted her lover more than anything. She tucked her knife away and cloaked.
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