Chapter Text
Everything felt so familiar, and yet nothing was even remotely the same.
Spade in hand, ankle deep in soft ground, surrounded on all sides by relics of civilizations long past; there had once been a time when her only concept of safety was wrapped tightly up in the fabric of this very circumstance. There had been a time when her greatest dreams involved the unearthing of a momentous new artifact that would define the understanding of Prothean culture and technology for generations to come, and her name, Dr. Liara T’Soni, being heralded as the one responsible for it all. She had, for many years, believed that she thrived in isolation, and that there was nowhere in the galaxy she would rather be than in the middle of a promising dig site.
That had all changed when she met her.
Suddenly, isolation had lost its appeal. Safety became the warmth of her arms, and the intensity of the light in her eyes. Dreams carried them away to a future together that they both knew they would likely never see.
And with her gone, again, clinging to the familiar was the only way Liara could keep her head above water.
So, she went where she was needed. She went where she was wanted.
“Did you find anything good today, Liara? I’d give anything for a glimpse at an ancient quarian diary.”
Tali plopped herself down on the ground next to Liara and dug the toes of her boots into the shifting sand beneath them. Her brow furrowed into a look of mock concentration as she mused,
“I wonder what they would have gossiped about?”
Liara responded with a distracted smile, absently scooping up a handful of sand and allowing it to trickle slowly between her fingers. As the last few grains fell to the ground, she lifted her gaze to the distant skyline and watched the bright lights begin their descent over the horizon. She closed her eyes, felt the warmth against her tired eyelids, took a deep breath. She thought of the sunsets she would never get to watch with Shepard.
“I miss her, too,” Tali said quietly.
Silence filled the space between them for a few minutes, and they watched together as the sun continued to slowly disappear from the sky. Finally, her gaze still fixed on the setting sun, Liara spoke.
“I think she’d be very proud of what you’ve done here, Tali. What you’re doing here.”
“I hope she would be,” Tali replied.
Liara turned to look at her friend and reached over to give her hand a gentle squeeze.
When Tali had first asked her to be a part of the archaeological teams excavating sites on Rannoch, nearly eight months ago to the day, Liara had refused. Shepard was gone, Thessia had been devastated by the reapers, and Liara chose to distract herself by reestablishing her contacts as the Shadow Broker and distributing her resources to assist with rebuilding the Mass Relays. She had attempted to relocate her operations hub from her old room on the Normandy to a rented shuttle, but Joker convinced her otherwise. After all, he had reasoned, if Liara was still using the Normandy, it would give him an excuse to fly her. So, she had agreed to stay on board.
Two months later, construction on the Relays had reached completion, Liara had regained her network of agents as the Shadow Broker, and Tali called for her help once again. The quarians were looking for skilled archaeologists to help them understand how life on Rannoch used to be, so that their efforts to rebuild the planet could be reminiscent of the culture they had left behind so many years ago. Although she had desperately wanted to assist in the rebuilding of her own homeworld, Liara concluded after careful consideration that her skills would be of far more use on Rannoch. So, she went.
And she had been right; her discoveries over the past few months had started giving tangible shape to some of the information about the quarians that had previously only existed in the abstract. Pieces of day to day living that had not survived the quarians mass exodus from the homeworld now returned, little by little, with each new artifact rescued by one of the archaeological teams. The result was a rush of fresh excitement within the ranks of quarian architects and politicians as they structured their newly thriving communities with the work of their ancestors in mind.
It was a beautiful process to watch, and one that Liara would have given anything to share with Shepard.
The one who had made it all possible.
Liara turned once more to the horizon as the sun finally winked out into darkness, then sighed and pushed herself to her feet. Tali did the same, and the two began walking silently back toward the small settlement they temporarily called home; Tali, to an impressive stone building reserved for the admirals, and Liara, to the Normandy. After she’d said goodnight to Tali and boarded the ship, she was surprised to find that Joker was not at the helm. When his voice came over the ships intercom, she jumped in such alarm that she bit her lip and nearly stumbled over her own two feet.
“In the lounge, Liara! And…I’m sure I probably just scared the shit out of you. So… sorry about that!”
She took a deep breath to slow her racing heart, let out a nervous burst of laughter, and headed for the elevator. On the slow descent to the crew deck, she tried to guess who their apparent guest was. Garrus had visited shortly over a week ago, so it more than likely wasn’t him. Wrex and Grunt were too busy making babies to do more than check in for a semi-regular vidcall, so they were both probably out, too. Maybe Ashley? Or Jack? It had been almost two months since she’d seen either of them, but they came when they could. And Kasumi… she wouldn’t have allowed Joker the pleasure of scaring Liara half to death. She’d have cloaked and done it herself.
Of course, Liara’s guesses were wrong on all accounts. She would not even have considered the person sitting in front of her, as no one had seen or heard anything from her in months. Even the Shadow Broker’s agents were unable to keep tabs on her, other than to confirm that she was alive and well.
“Hello, Liara,” Miranda said, attempting a smile and failing quite miserably.
Joker raised his eyebrows, his discomfort obvious and immediate, and tossed one final shot of purple liquor into his mouth before getting to his feet.
“Well, I’m just gonna go fly the ship or… something.”
“Joker,” Miranda chuckled, “we’re still on the ground.”
“Not for long,” he shot back with a wink.
He gave Liara a pat on the shoulder on his way out of the room, and when the door closed behind him, she found herself alone with Miranda. The situation immediately conjured up a number of unpleasant memories and equally unpleasant emotions that she immediately pushed to the side, attempting to prepare herself to deal with whatever was causing the distress written explicitly across Miranda’s features. The fact that she had shown up out of the blue after eight months of near radio silence did nothing to calm Liara’s nerves or slow her steadily increasing heartrate.
After a moment of hearing only the sound of her own pulse as it pounded away within her ears, she decided she needed to break the silence before it drove her to panic.
“It’s good to see you,” she said, sincerely.
This time, Miranda was able to deliver a genuine smile, albeit an exhausted one.
“It’s good to see you, too.”
“I expect there’s a reason for your visit?” Liara asked. And then quickly added, “Not that you’re in any way unwelcome. I only meant-”
“No, no. You’re right,” Miranda interrupted. “I am here for a reason.”
She stood from the chair she had been sitting in and began to pace slowly back and forth across the room. The sight made Liara all the more anxious; she wasn’t used to seeing Miranda behave with anything less than absolute composure. For something to have her this shaken, there must have been a serious problem. And Liara was willing to bet it had something to do with why Miranda had been so impossible to contact since the end of the Reaper War.
“I’ve… done something, Liara. And I’m not sorry that I’ve done it, but I’m afraid of what your reaction might be when I tell you.”
There was something incredibly familiar in the way Miranda was looking at her. It triggered a memory before she could block it out, of the very first conversation that she’d ever had with Miranda, three years ago. A conversation that had begun with that same earnest expression, and had ended with…
The realization slammed into every one of her senses at once, her eyes flooding with tears even before Miranda confirmed what she already knew.
Across the room, she watched the tension drop from Miranda’s shoulders, and a cautious expression of joy spread across her face.
“Yeah,” Miranda whispered.
“I brought her back.”