Arashu's Gift

Chapter 1

The title of the dossier simply said "The Assassin". It was the seventh that the Illusive Man had provided. She must recruit the galaxy's best, most fearless and lethal – attacking the Collector Base successfully depended upon it.

Among the new faces there was only one that gave Jane Shepard some feeling of confidence in her current situation: Garrus Vakarian. The turian had become something more than just her brother in arms – he was her friend. Together they had defeated Saren and traveled through the Mu Relay to get to Ilos, a place declared impossible to access by the Citadel Council. This time the goal was to go through the relay from which no ship had ever returned: Omega 4.

The Normandy SR-2 was already docked in Nos Astra, the luxurious city dominated by asari on the planet Illium. After Omega, the Milky Way's most notorious criminal outpost, this place seemed like an altar of tidiness and order. Shepard advanced through the countless merchant stands offering all kinds of weaponry and technology. Each vendor announced their goods as unique and impossible to obtain in Citadel Council space. She didn't doubt that. Its location bordering the Terminus Systems allowed Nos Astra to trade in all types of experimental upgrades, many of which were illegal in Council space.

The profile of the city, with its many never-ending towers fighting to cover the sun on the horizon, caught her attention as soon as she neared the border of the station. The air smelled artificial, like new metal. With her were Garrus and Professor Mordin Solus, a former STG salarian scientist they had recruited on Omega. The doctor was the very embodiment of the mad scientist stereotype, but compared to the other squadmates they had left behind – ex-mercenary Zaeed Massani, biotic psychotic Jack, perfect test tube krogan Grunt, and the galaxy's best thief Kasumi Goto – Doctor Solus seemed like the sanest of them all.

Now they had to recruit a drell assassin. In her ten years of active service in the Alliance, Shepard couldn't remember having ever met a representative of such a species. She had no idea what to expect. She only knew that if the Illusive Man, the megalomaniac at the head of Cerberus, had recommended him, there must be a good reason for it.

The sunset-orange sky of Nos Astra was on the verge of darkening. The first stop was to speak with Liara. Shepard didn't recognize her when she first entered her office. The first thing she heard Liara say froze her bones.

Liara was speaking with a man through a vid-comm. "Have you ever faced an asari commando before? Few humans have."

The memory of Noveria immediately materialized in her mind. Liara's mother, matriarch Benezia, had said those exact same words to Shepard when she finally found her. Back then, Liara was a young archeologist dedicated body and soul to the investigation of Prothean ruins. Perhaps Liara's original innocence and hope had slowly begun to die the very same day she bore witness to her mother's death.

Shepard's old asari squadmate seemed speechless when she noticed her.

"Nyxeris, hold my calls," Liara ordered her secretary.

Liara had changed. Something in her had hardened. Her sapphire gaze shone with an edge until then unknown to Shepard. Her once sweet and friendly voice now had a cold tone. With professional efficiency she explained her current employment: information brokerage. According to her, she was one of the best. Two years had passed since Shepard had seen her, and her last memory was ensuring her former squadmate boarded one of the SR-1's escape pods, all while the Collector ship cut the original Normandy in two.

The story of how Liara found Shepard's body with the help of a former agent of the Shadow Broker, and the odyssey to prevent it from falling in the hands of the Collectors, twisted her insides with a visceral dread. It was macabre. Liara had been sent to find her body, and even dead and battered as Shepard had been after the attack, her remains had been the subject of disputes and conspiracies. Back then, her former squadmate had given her remains to Cerberus to prevent the Shadow Broker from claiming them and selling them to the Collectors.