Dax is here again. Now everyone, I did promise that I would try to pump the next chapter as I could and I did. Real life problems are just that annoying and they really just left me with almost no other time to finish my work. It's really a miracle that I could even find the time to write my story. Anyways, we are almost nearing to the main part of the story and at this point, I'm really going to need some help with some characters. See, I already kinda know what archetype of decks I'm going to give to some characters but for others, I'm having some difficulty choosing what archetype to give them specifically, characters like Ashley, Zaeed, Miranda, Jack and Jacob. I'm open to suggestions on what type of decks you believe I should give to them. Anyways, that's all I have to say for now. It's time to get this chapter rolling already.

-Alliance Intelligence, Detention Center-

Inside the cold confines of his cell, Saren lay almost motionless on the uncomfortable steel bed of his prison, his mind far too exhausted to even care after the traumatizing experience he received at the aliens' interrogation room.

Initially, when Saren knew he was forcefully being dragged by the aliens towards interrogation, he thought he was ready to face every sort of mind technique and torture method the aliens might inflict on him to get him to talk about the Hierarchy's weaknesses. His military training warned him about the possibility of being captured by the enemy which is why the Hierarchy trained their soldiers to prepare for situations like these in order to prevent their enemies from receiving any sort of advantage they might forcefully extract from their captured soldiers. Unfortunately, Saren wasn't exactly prepared for the… 'unique' techniques that the aliens employ.

At first, he was extremely adamant and defiant to his interrogator, refusing to answer any sort of question that she might ask him but then his interrogator pulled what appears to be some kind of card from her pocket and before Saren knew it, a strange light suddenly radiated from the card she is holding and Saren felt some kind of strange, malevolent mental force suddenly rip his entire free will apart, turning him into some kind of mindless puppet who is forced to obey every last command of its puppeteer.

It wasn't very long before Saren starts answering all of his interrogator's questions and to his extreme shame, anger, humiliation and horror, he is exactly aware of the entire situation as he enthusiastically answered every inquiry they asked and perform every last humiliating act they demand from him (though he still doesn't know what the word 'Zexal' even means but for some reason, saying that word leaves a very bad taste in his mouth), all of them silently against his will.

During every moment of that horrifying situation, Saren silently screamed in his mind as he mentally tried to regain control of his body which to his dismay, was not responding to his desperate appeals. Eventually, after a couple long hours of that horrible and awful experience, exhaustion begins to settle in just as Saren felt his control of his senses returning to him but at that point, it was already too late as he already spilled every possible secret that he knew which included every last detail of the Hierarchy's military forces, stratagems, tactics and numbers as well as information he knew relating towards the Citadel Council.

Knowing that he essentially became the biggest traitor to his entire race, Saren wished that the aliens had simply killed him after they were finished using him as the fate of living with the fact that might have possibly doomed the rest of the galaxy by his act, even though he was unwilling and forced into the situation, is much more cruel than simply being executed after being used.

With an extremely worn out sigh, Saren let his exhaustion claim him entirely as he slowly closed his eyes and his mind sank down as he immediately fell asleep on his relatively uncomfortable bed.

-Citadel Council Chambers-

Maintaining a calm and composed appearance, Councilor Tevos watched from her place in between Sparatus and Valern as she saw the elevator at the far end of the Presidium slid open, allowing the occupants inside to finally pour out and enter the Council's main chambers. When Tevos finally managed to get a close personal look upon their group, she immediately begrudgingly admitted in thought that she was impressed by how large the amount of species diversity is within the delegation's group. Never before had she seen such a large assortment of races gathered under one single group within her entire life (and mind you, Asari live for a very long time) and no large scale Council gathering she has ever seen, attended or experienced could ever match to the tremendous amount of diversity she is seeing right before her eyes. This thinking alone also made Tevos both curious and frightened at the same time as she thought that if the delegation group these aliens sent is already this diverse then she couldn't bear to imagine just how enormous this unknown interspecies alliance can be, especially since the number of varied alien species within the delegation group alone would greatly outnumber the total member species that encompass the entire Citadel.

As Tevos ponders these thoughts, the three main representatives from the delegation group began to walk forward and face the Council, causing all three Councilors to immediately turn their attention towards the three individuals that are beginning to approach them.

"Greetings, I assume you three are the so-called Council we have been hearing about?" The single male among the three individuals asked

"You are correct." Tevos replied politely "Forgive us if we hadn't been able to prepare for your arrival as information we had on your people is scarce and as such, we hope that you will be able to fill us in on the rest. I'm Councilor Tevos, I represent the Asari Republics. These two are my colleagues. On my left is the Turian Hierarchy's representative, Councilor Sparatus. And on my right is the Councilor Valern, representative of the Salarian Union."

The man nodded in response "It's a pleasure to meet you Councilors. I'm Ambassador David Anderson and I'm here to represent on behalf of the entire Systems Alliance. These two people at my sides are my associates."

The green haired woman at Anderson's right nodded in response as she begins introducing herself "Lt. Nina Vogel, Alliance Intelligence."

"Captain Hannah Shepard, commander of the SSV Ontario." The other woman on Anderson's left adds

"We three are the ones who have been assigned to engage you in peace talks." Anderson explained "We only hope that we can manage to clear any sort of misunderstanding we may have here as well as to reach some form of mutual agreement that can benefit both parties involved."

Tevos nodded "Likewise, we also wish the same, Ambassador. Now tell me, what topic does your group wish to talk about and clarify first?"

Councilor Sparatus grumbled "Well, for starters, why don't we begin with the Mass Relay your people had illegally activated as of recently?"

Councilor Valern immediately shot Sparatus with a stern look while Tevos started to silently panic as she feared that the delegation group might have gotten offended by Sparatus' considerably rude suggestion. Fortunately for Tevos, aside from a rather serious looking glare from the one known as Nina, the rest of the representatives didn't seem to be much affected by it,

"Straight to the point, I see." Anderson remarked "Very well. I suppose we will eventually have to discuss it at one point during this meeting. Captain Shepard, if you may?"

Ambassador Anderson nodded to Captain Shepard and the woman immediately steps forward to speak.

"To begin with, the Alliance would like to personally apologize for breaking any law that your government has implemented. However, we wish for you to understand that we had absolutely no idea of your law's existence; therefore we could not have known that our actions of activating the relay could have been considered as illegal."

Nina snorted "Well maybe we wouldn't have activated the damn thing in the first place if you just, oh I don't know… place a giant glowing neon sign that says 'Do not fucking touch or else we will invade your planet!' or any similar sort of thing?"

Sparatus growled "Are you mocking our authority here?"

Nina sarcastically rolled her eyes in response "Of course not, Councilor. I'm only mocking your incompetence here. I mean seriously, is it really that hard to plant a giant stripper sign just to warn others? At least they will obviously be sure to pay attention to it."

Sparatus was seething at Nina's remark but luckily Valern immediately spoke up before Sparatus could say offensive that might escalate their situation.

"What my colleague here is about to say was that it would be tremendously difficult for the Council to plant a warning sign in each dormant Mass Relay in existence as such process would be considered expensive and troublesome to carry out, not to mention the fact that there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of dormant Mass Relays in existence, with many located in highly hostile areas such as the Terminus Systems or hidden inside frozen asteroids and such. Therefore, the Council has deemed it much simpler to have the Turians patrol these relays instead as by that we will also be able to watch and secure our borders at the same time. However, we hope for you to understand that the Turians can be a rather bit… harsh when performing their duties."

"We recognize your aggression in response to the Turians attacking one of your fleets." Tevos adds "However, please understand that their actions, albeit reckless, were only an attempt to prevent certain events from happening again."

"You mean like the Rachni Wars, Councilor?" Nina casually suggested

"How did you know about that?" Sparatus asked, his eyes seemingly narrowing towards her for a moment.

Nina chuckled "Alliance Intelligence has already obtained a ton of information regarding your Council's history from the prisoners we have captured and interrogated and we already know how a bunch of Zerg expies had once waged war on the entire galaxy thousands of years back. You don't have to worry about the captives though; we assure you that our methods are not as… physical as other convenient interrogation methods."

Before Sparatus could shout something profane in reply, Tevos immediately steps in to cut him off, silencing him with a glare that basically tells him to keep his opinions down for the moment.

"So that means you already know the reason why your people's first encounter with the Turians had been far from pleasant, ambassador?" Tevos asked

Anderson nodded in response "Indeed. The Alliance has understood the reason behind the Turian's reckless actions, considering from the information we learned on the number of bloody conflicts your Council has faced and as such, the Alliance is willing to end any hostilities,-"

Nina snorted from behind Anderson in response to his statement though the ambassador decided to pay her no mind and went on to continue his sentence.

"-in exchange for a few certain arrangements."

Councilor Valern raised a brow in response "And what kind of arrangements is the Alliance asking from us, ambassador?"

Nina chuckled as she quickly steps in to answer the Salarian Councilor's question "Well Councilor, normally our government would demand a large offering of trading card booster packs within this situation-"*

Both Tevos and Sparatus both stared at her with a confused expression on their faces, wondering if Nina was actually being sarcastic or serious in her statement.

"-but I suppose that won't be possible given the current circumstances." Nina continued "So instead, the Alliance is looking towards another feasible alternative condition. Should this condition be met, then the entire Alliance would be willing to withdraw from any further hostilities against the Turians and as a bonus, we shall even return all of the soldiers and civilians we have taken captive."

All of that just for a single condition? This is almost too easy. Tevos thought

"And may we ask what that condition may be?" Councilor Valern asks

Nina grinned "Well Councilor, we only wished to keep at least 5 worlds that we have conquered during our battle against the Turians."

Upon hearing the condition, Sparatus almost did a spit take in response while Tevos almost stumbles back in surprise whereas Valern simply raise his eyes.

"WHAT?! 5 worlds?! You can't keep those worlds to yourself!" Councilor Sparatus screamed "Those worlds belong to the Hierarchy!"

"Just calm yourself down, Councilor." Anderson stated "If it makes you feel any better, we are only keeping the ones that are uninhabited and possess no given structural developments. Basically, the ones you are not using. The other occupied and colonized worlds we have captured, including both civilian and military, will be immediately returned shortly after we have reached an agreement."

"And with all due respect, Councilor," Nina adds "the Alliance has won those worlds fairly within the terms and conditions of general warfare and we have every right to do as we please with our spoils. Besides, a few our most well-known corporate companies had already made bids to buy one of those worlds, including KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions, the former of which is planning to turn the entire planet into a massive Blue Eyes White Dragon Theme Park."

"Wait a minute! Did I just heard that right? A theme park?!" Sparatus suddenly shouted angrily "You are planning to turn one of our planets into a FUCKING AMUSEMENT PARK?!"

Nina simply shrugged in response "Well don't blame me. That was KaibaCorp CEO Jack Harper's** stated plan. Not mine. You could try asking tickets from him in advance if you want."

"Not in a million-" Sparatus began but he was immediately cut by Tevos who shot him a look and quietly told to calm down.

"I'm sorry, but we believe that it may be a bit too much." Valern uneasily said "I mean, 5 worlds? Isn't that a bit too much? I would have to inform you, ambassador that most of the Turian Hierarchy's inhabitants won't stand for such a humiliating and tremendous loss."

"Is that so?" Anderson asks "Well I suppose our price may be considered a bit too steep but what can your Council probably offer us in return, Councilor? I have reason to believe that any technology that you possess won't be quite enough considering how the Alliance already knows much about Mass Effect technology."

"Well, what if we offer the Alliance a seat upon the Council itself, ambassador?" Tevos suggested

Anderson raised an eye in response "A Council seat? Are you saying you wish for the entire Alliance to join your little group, Councilor?"

The councilors started exchanging glances with each other and though they wouldn't like to admit it, they knew that they didn't have much of an alternative and that this is the best possible choice that they could make within the situation.

"Yes…" Tevos hesitantly said "We would be very pleased if the Alliance would join the Citadel as a species member of the Council."

"Hmm, a member of the Council you say?" Anderson mused "That all sounds quite fancy and charming in all. However, in all due respect, I believe we have to decline your offer for that."

The expressions of all three councilors immediately dropped as they couldn't believe what the Alliance Ambassador just said.

"D-D-Decline?" Tevos stuttered "B-But why, ambassador? Why would you decline our offer? Every young race we met has always wished to join the Council!"

Nina chuckled "Yes, well about that, some of our most wide eyed leaders actually consider wanting to join your group thinking that we might benefit in all from it but after we made some careful investigations, we discovered that joining you might prove to be very disadvantageous to us as a whole."

"Disadvantageous?!" Sparatus roared "How can joining us possibly be disadvantageous to you people?!"

"Well, there is the one fact that doing so may cripple our entire society." Nina retorted "We had made a great deal of research on your laws and though many of them we wouldn't actually mind, there is one law that specifically sticks out that the Alliance couldn't really abide to."

"Which is?" Tevos asks

"The one which explicitly bans the development of AI and other related technologies." Anderson replied

Valern frowned "Why? Do you have specific problem with that, ambassador? That law was made because artificial intelligence is simply far too dangerous due to the risk of AI gaining sentience and wiping out all organic life. To be more specific, 300 years ago a race called the Quarians created an artificial race of machines called the Geth to act as their servants. Unfortunately, over time the Geth began to develop sentience and eventually, they decided that they don't want to serve their masters anymore and they proceeded to engage the Quarians in a massive war that ended with the Geth emerging victorious and the Quarians being driven away from their own home planet of Rannoch. Up to today, the Quarians still remain in exile while the Geth continue to hide behind the Perseus Veil, planning to do who knows what next."

"Wait a minute, so your Council hasn't done anything at all to help the Quarians reclaim their home planet or something?" Captain Shepard suddenly pointed out as she asked in disbelief

Sparatus narrowed his eyes at her "The Quarians broke Council law. Their resulted exile is their punishment for their cri-."
"What we are trying to say here," Tevos immediately interjected "is that the Council had already been trying its best to support the Quarian race by sending a large amount relief supplies to their fleet and by lending them some of the help our best engineers from time to time."

Captain Shepard was about to speak out more of her thoughts when Anderson suddenly raised his hand towards her and said "Captain, we are not here to argue about how these aliens should run their government. There is a time where you can voice out your thoughts. Now is just not the right time."

The tone of Anderson's voice made it very clear that there is no room for argument and without much choice, Captain Shepard decides to back down from the moment.

"Thank you, Captain. Well then, I presume you would believe how serious our concern would be, Councilors. So what if I told you that the Alliance had been making widespread use of AI, not just in the military but in our entire economy and society, and we had been doing so for the last few centuries. How would you act upon that?" Anderson asks

"What!?" Sparatus gasped "You use AIs!? Are you people insane? Don't you know about the obvious dangers of using such technology!?"

"Hey jerkass! We can hear you over right here!" One of the delegation's personal security, an armored individual resembling an anthropomorphic feline wielding a pair of large claw like gauntlets***, roared causing the three councilor to glance at its direction in both surprise and confusion whereas Nina facepalms in response, saying "Great, now the cat's out of the bag."

"You don't say." Anderson sighed as he then turned his glance around to the Councilors, saying "I believe this will take a very long time for us to explain everything to you, Councilors."

*Note that since the Alliance uses Duel Monsters in their military, booster packs and rare cards are basically the equivalent of high grade military weapons in real life.

**Yes, I made you-know-who the grand poobah of KaibaCorp. At least that will explain where he got all his money from (also so that TIM can easily screw the rules if he wants too).

***X-Saber Airbellum