KrossoverXKing presents Chapter X of:

The Memoir of Tali'Zorah vas Yoko

a crossover between Mass Effectand Naruto

neither of which I own

-X-

"So this has the same technology as the Pro-" Ashley sighed at her near slip-up. "As the Geth, huh?"

"Yep," Tali nodded, braiding another flower necklace as she placed the ones she had used back in their place in the cockpit. They weren't dead yet, so Tali could keep replenishing them as many times as she wanted.

She and Ashley were hanging out by her ship, which was on the opposite side of the hangar as the Humans' APC. Ashley was examining the twin forward-mounted Spitifres, while Tali was doing her thing inside the cockpit.

After the shock from earlier had worn off, she realized she was very disappointed with the man she had idolized her entire life. It had been more of an interrogation than any meaningful conversation, and he had left with little more than a 'by your leave'.

But Ashley – who also was disheartened by meeting Admiral Zumaki – was a welcome distraction to her...less than whelmed mind.

"A few changes were made, of course," Tali continued, now half-hanging out the side of the fighter as she patted a small door behind the cockpit. "This is where most of the hardware is. Space is so cold, the projectiles would freeze before the could narrow out. So the barrels are longer and heated, to allow everything to needle before they even leave the muzzle."

It also reduced muzzle flash, as such was usually caused by excess gas that hadn't cooled to liquid before it left the barrel. Instead, it was all forced to merge with the rest, making the needles fired out of the Kunai-class fighter slightly larger than the ones from a normal Spitfire.

"And how old is this ship?" Ashley asked in disbelief. Such technology was beyond any race currently, but she kind of understood why Admiral Zumaki didn't give it to everyone. The more people you gave it to, the more chance the wrong person would get it. If every URSC Marine had one, for example, then any skirmish they had with the Terminus Systems had a very real chance of giving that technology to space pirates that would use it on future raids.

When the Reapers came, it was likely he would give it to the militaries, but until then, they had to make do with what they had.

"This one was actually in a museum," Tali explained. "It was the first Chakran ship built on Rannoch, as well as the first flown by a Quarian, so I'd have to guess it's almost 50 thousand years old. He built it before the Harvest to show us what we'd be creating when the Reapers left."

Ashley's eyes widened at that. While it was known Admiral Zumaki's ships, the Yoko and Jinchuuriki, were about two-hundred million years old, that was such a large number that she had no reference for it. On the other hand, 50 thousand years ago, the first Humans were just leaving Africa. It humbled her to know that Tali's race had survived a Harvest, even if it was because their Maledicta was shut down.

She suddenly jumped up, on her tip-toes as she stared into the cockpit. She grasped a flower, the same kind that was always the centerpiece of Tali's necklace, careful not to damage it. "What kind of flower is this?"

Tali glanced over as she settled into her meditation pose, intent on providing the chakra separator in the ship with enough chakra to produce the water and nutrients the flowers needed to survive. "A chrysanthemum," she said, putting a thin petal between her fingers. "It was a Chakran plant that can utilize your chakra to change its pigmentation. Because of that, it can be every color that a Quarian's eyes can. My ancestor, the one Admiral Zumaki first met, was named after this flower."

Ashley glanced at the pale purple petals as she matched them up to the young Zorah's iris. It was a good match. "What about your hair?" she blurted out.

Tali blinked her amethyst orbs, a hand reaching up to grasp the silver-green strands with burgundy roots. "My hair? Well, you know how our name means 'People of the Flower', right?"

Ashley nodded, not surprising Tali. She wouldn't be surprised if the Unitoligist knew more about the Quarian race than she did.

"Well, the Zorah Clan were more 'People of the Plants'. Sure, there were more than a few flower carriers, but there were just as many of us that wielded ferns and mushrooms and the like," she explained. "Chrysa'Zorah was one of the flower-wielders, of course, while my ancestry is more linked to the Zorahs that carried the Painted Fern."

Ashley gave a hum of understanding as she tilted her head, pondering the Last Zorah. If she had to guess, Tali was no more than twenty, and that was pushing it. But the young woman seemed to internalize her feelings too much.

Her idol, the man she had – more than likely – killed for, the man she had dedicated her life to...practically brushed her off after interrogating her. Ashley kinda-sorta understood why he didn't talk to her too much: she was just a Unitologist. She held no delusions that that made her special in his eyes.

But Tali was a Zorah. A gorram Zorah! And Ashley was sure Tali would have felt better if he had ignored her instead of doing what he actually did to her.

If she were Tali, she'd be raging up and down the ship and demanding they plot a course for the Migranta Fleet ASAP to give Admiral Zumaki a piece of her mind.

Instead, the Last Zorah was calmly gardening in her fighter jet, as weird as that sounded.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Ashley asked, as tactlessly as she was used to speaking to her younger siblings.

Tali's head whipped up, staring at the brunette as if she had grown another head. "Wha- How'd y- There's noth- I-I don't know what you're talking about," she settled on after all that stammering.

Ashley hopped up, putting her whole weight on the canard. She knew it was fine. The Sho-Kunai-class fighter was practically a space tank when it came to how sturdy it was, despite being labeled as having lower defense than the larger Dai-Kunai-class. The wings were stubby but almost as long as the ship. The engine was a yin-yang drive, as was common with small Quarian ships. The ship itself hovered about a foot off the ground due to gravity-defiant seals, eliminating the need for landing gear.

The whole thing was about fifteen feet long, making it very hard to hit in the vastness of space. It had virtually no heat signature, as well, that byproduct being internalized to provide the pilot warmth, though it was mostly used to ignite the chakra mixture that caused the heat in the first place.

"Yeah... I don't believe you," Ashley deadpanned to Tali's stuttered denial. "You're not even a little upset about Admiral Zumaki questioning you and then just leaving like that?"

Tali couldn't tell Ashley the truth. She couldn't say that she was as frustrated with him as much as she was aroused by his mere presence. She needed to figure out that part of herself by herself. It was a dichotomy if ever there was one.

So she settled on a half-truth that didn't really answer the question. "I'm sure Admiral Zumaki has better things to do than sit and chat with every Quarian that asks."

"You'd be surprised," came Nihlus' distinctive voice when Ashley opened her mouth to retort. "He actually has a Liveship just for that purpose filled with Kage Bunshin seals. You use your chakra to activate it, and one of his clones pops out ready to listen to you or talk to you. That's really the only reason the Migranta Fleet stops here: so other races can take advantage of it. It's not like the Asari allow members of the Fleet to step on the Citadael."

"You know a lot about that," Ashley said, leading the SpecTRe on.

"Every SpecTRe is an honorary member of the Migranta Fleet, regardless of race," Nihlus explained with an equally flat expression and voice. "Among other amenities, they offer us protection through the Terminus Systems and use of the X-9 if the mission is time-sensitive and not morally ambiguous."

"X-9?" Tali questioned.

"Admiral Zumaki's flagship, the Yoko," Ashley explained for the younger girl. "It's a giant Maledicta housed inside a just-as-big Liveship. It's nine times larger than a normal Maledicta, which is why it's called the X-9 Maledicta."

Nihlus nodded along with the explanation. "It also allows near-instantaneous connection to any Maledicta in the galaxy, which is of use to us who work in the shadows."

"I can understand that," Tali said, remembering her time on Rannoch. To be able to teleport to anywhere on the planet in the blink of an eye would be a boon for any shinobi, even those who just played shinobi, like SpecTRes.

A loud thunk reverberated throughout the hangar as the loading elevator made its way to the bottom of the ship. It was Jane and Garrus who stepped out, and they immediately spotted the two youngest crew members.

"Sweet ship," Jane complimented as the couple walked up. "Is it made of chakra metal?"

"Uzushionium?" Tali asked, unsure what 'chakra metal' was.

"Yep," Garrus supplied. "Chakra metal's what everyone calls it when they don't want to say the whole thing."

Tali mulled that tidbit over in her mind as she affirmed Jane's guess. Uzushionium was a big word to be saying when you had to keep saying it every time you were talking about a Chakran creation.

"Do you want to see the engine room?"

And that was enough to break her out of her musing as she exited the ship with a single fluid movement.

"Lead the way," she told Jane, who was happy to oblige.

-X-

Artemis Tau Cluster – Knossos System – Therum – Prothean Ruins

-X-

"Kuso," Liara cursed, slipping into ancient Chakran as she activated a Prothean barrier curtain, the Protectors' phasic rounds shattering upon impact with the hardened eezo defense.

"Baka Yarou!" she shouted, cursing their ironic name and that fact that they were even here. When they had arrived on Therum, there had been some initial confusion as to why they were in the Artemis Tau Cluster in the first place. After all, the Protectors hadn't left Rannoch for over 40,000 years.

Add to that was the fact that there was documented proof that the Protectors had never left the original Maledicta path that the Chakrans had created during the first Harvest, which meant they should have stopped at the Hades Gamma Cluster.

There was even more confusion for the dig team when the Protectors had completely ignored everyone there, and had spread out across the expansive underground ruins.

All that confusion turned to fear when the Protectors raised their Spitfires and began targeting everyone indiscriminately, though those indiscriminate shots never failed to hit their target.

The only reason Liara was still alive was because she had been studying the central elevator when the Protectors came, and had waved off going down to admire them.

Her work ethic had saved her life, due to the fact that she was far enough back to use a biotic-enhanced jump and avoid the searching gazes of the killing machines, their barrels still spinning with grey smoke wafting out the heated muzzles.

Her mad dash to her previous area of study led Liara short of both breath and patience. This far down, there was no chance of her civilian-grade omni-tool getting a signal out of the ruins, even if there was anyone outside to receive her, which she highly doubted.

There was no way the Protectors had entered the caves without an entourage of fans...unless those fans were already dead.

"Baka," she muttered, both at herself and the Protectors. "Baka, baka, baka..."

Had the Asari on Thessia been right? Had the Protectors and Quarians, not to mention Admiral Naru'Zumaki vas Yoko, simply been biding their time?

-X-

Serpent Nebula – Widow – Citadael

-X-

The small ship began at a position a few kilometers further than last time. In fact, it would now take less time to turn the ship around, fly to the Citadael, go through customs, and land near his favorite noodle shop than make yet another pass at the Maledicta.

There was a fine line he had to thread when accelerating. Too quickly and the engines would simply sputter out instead of trying to go that fast that quickly. Too slowly and it didn't see the point in trying and wouldn't even try to to go, assuming he could just get out and push if he was trying to go that slowly.

Problem was, the artificially intelligent venn diagram the Protectors created was ever-changing, much like their personalities.

"Push it! Push it real good!"

"Harder! Better! Faster! Stronger!"

"Nah... Slow down, brah..."

Those were the more...dichotomous personalities, but it was driving him insane listening to them.

In fact, it was driving him so insane, that he didn't hear the hail from a Turian crusier. The one who spoke seemed to be holding in laughter. "Sho-Kunai-class Fighter registered to Urdnot Wrex... Do you require assistance activating the Maledicta?"

It's too bad, because he wasn't that far behind the Normandy at the time. If he had heard, he would have caught up to the crew while they were on Feros.

Alas, he didn't. He was arguing with the Protectors that called the hard drive of his dilapidated, outdated ship home.

"You listen here you pieces of Varren shit. If you don't shut up and let me do what I need to do to get out of here and meet up with Shepard, I'll plot a course to the nearest quasar and see how close you need to be to it to finally shut up!"

This time, the Protectors were quiet enough for Wrex to hear the Turians' response. And this time, there was no supressed laughter in his tone.

Even had they still been speaking, the fact that a Turian Cruiser was now positioned between his ship and the Maledicta and he was being flanked by Turian Talon-class fighters was an unmistakable one.

"'Fraid not, Urdnot. If you wouldn't mind following our fighter escort back to the Citadael, you'll find C-Sec has a few questions for you."

Wrex complied since he didn't really have much choice in the matter. The thirteenth time was supposed to be unlucky anyways, so in a roundabout way, he guessed he should thank the Turians on that ship.

"Yeah, yeah... Make me show up later, why don't you. Not like anyone's waiting for me to join, is there?"

He wasn't going to thank them, of course. He was just...not going to be as pissed at them as he should be.

-X-

Woops. Sorry about the wait. Internet got cut off so I had to sell my pre-ordered copy of Pokemon: Moon before it even came out. Gives me another month at least until it happens again. Then the power got cut off, so I had to do a bunch of jobs to pay that to even use the wifi I had just paid for, since my mom doesn't get paid till next week. Poll's still a 4/4 dead heat, so it looks like that's not happening. Job prospects aren't too hot, either. I had an interview with Pelican Snoballs after I posted my last chapter and then they shut down for the season. So I'm not entirely sure why they even talked to me... I've been doing odd jobs for family members, but they don't really pay me that much. Eg: I house-sat for my grandparents for a week while they went to the Bahamas and I got $40. That included yard work, general chores, and taking care of their dogs.

Japanese translations:

Kuso – Shit

Baka Yarou – Idiot Asshole

Liara's a potty mouth when she speaks Japanese. For future reference, if she's speaking Japanese, it's either an insult or a bad word...or both.

Next chapter is Protecting River, like I said. Since the isn't happening, I'm not going to keep posting twice a week, more like once every two weeks. You saw I could, and that's enough for me.

This chapter's only half length, yeah, but at the same time most of the time I didn't have internet or power, and it's more of a filler between the Citadael and Feros. FYI, the missions will be done as such: Feros, Therum, Noveria, so Liara will get help soon. Next chapter will be back to 5-6k words, though.

Ja Ne!