HUGELY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE! PLEASE READ!

Hello! I'm BACK! Yeah, this time will definitely try to stay for good! Yes, I'm not gone. Yes, I'm back. Yes, I know I fucked up. Again. Despite that... it's time for changes. Get my priorities straight! So this time, I'm back. For good. Just watched some statistics. The first Massed Up took me a year to finish... it's been over a year now, almost two in fact and I'm barely scratching the surface with the sequel. So fuck that! This is embarrassing. Time to get this show on the road and get it moving! I'm putting the YouTube stuff on the back burner for now. So yeah. Expect more frequent updates. Not the One chapter a year crap I've been having here. Ugh, I'm ashamed of myself. Even so, I still have a partially valid excuse for this taking so long! I've been kidnapped! Really. It's a LOOOONG story. But here it is!

CRAZY DEL STORY TIME!

So I went on a vacation to visit my mom and siblings in Israel. Yeah, in case you didn't know, my mom and siblings live there. So did I, in fact, until I left to live in frigid Russia. Going back to my roots, so to say. But the point is, I went for a visit for the first time in nearly a decade. So... how did it go? As soon as I land in the Airport I'm stopped. Then I was told to wait in the corner with the Suspicious Arabs and soon-to-be-deported Ukrainian Extremists, where I stayed for nearly 5 hours. After all that, an MP arrived, took me to a car, put handcuffs on me and drove me to the proper Army Prison, where I was locked up. Bam. First day of vacation: I'm arrested for deserting the Israeli Defense Force. Yes, if you just went full "Huh?" do not worry. That was pretty much how my own reaction went.

I got to call my mother about 7 hours after landing and only when I was in the prison already.

So... the prison. I got to the more... tame one. After spending a night in a giant cell with 20 other prisoners, rampant cockroaches and the constant smell of sweat and other bodily fluids, I was being transferred to my cell. Mind you, I arrived on one of the hottest days of the summer! It was fucking 40 degrees Celsius! And there was no air conditioning or fans or ANYTHING. I was sleeping in a puddle of my own sweat on a rock hard dry Styrofoam mattress. After some naked dude waved his dong at me from behind the bars of his cell, I got shaved bald by some awesome black dude who is actually pretty awesome once I got to talk to him. So there goes my relatively long hair. The only positive part is that for some reason, the prison guard team is pretty much all-female. All very good looking females, mind you.

So, to make a longer story a bit less long, I stayed in that prison for several days, went to trials and so on. My mom got me this amazing lawyer who got me out insanely fast! But... it's not the end. How can I be released from the Army if I was not in the army in the first place? The only solution? Join the army first. Yes. That's how I came to serve in the IDF. Got an incredibly uncomfortable uniform, dog tags and a positive first day where they explained why they need to make photos of my teeth and place an extra pair of dogtags in the boots so they'll be able to identify my dead carcass in case I get hit by a mortar shell or something.

So to make a less long story shorter, I've been visiting the main army base for so often everyone already knew me by name by that point. Some even wished me a happy birthday before they gave me a DAY OFF on my birthday. Other than that, I spent my evening getting drunk in bars, chatting up cute girls, listening to music and the mornings lugging my arse back to the army base to wait for 9 hours so they'll tell me to come back tomorrow until I get my hearing. Throughout that period I was called a liar, a deserter and a fascist lieutenant even yelled at me that "There is no freedom in this country! Only army!". Point is, I'm not even a citizen of the country. I don't own an Israeli citizenship! But, due to my mother and siblings living there, and myself living there at one point, that somehow made me viable to army service... which I never arrived to do, seeing as I was living thousands of kilometers away by that point. So they just assumed I was hiding somewhere... never bothering to give my mother a call to tell her they're looking for me or something, so I'd fucking know what would happen if I try to visit. Other than that, after nearly a decade of not living there, I STILL have a resident status there! Which is pretty much their only excuse for even arresting me in the first place.

So by the end of it all, after nearly two months of the cycle of going to the base and from the base to go bar-hopping, army people yelling at me (I met only one guy, a Colonel by the looks of it, who actually listened to what I had to say to myself and in the end, he's the one who helped me out) and calling me a liar to my face and so on and so forth. In the end, my lawyer brokered a deal with them. I was dishonorable discharged for abysmal behavior and undisciplined conduct or something like that. You know, a final blow for me. If we're releasing him, might as well let him out looking like a complete piece of shit so he'll never get a job here. Not that I want to, so that's completely useless on their part. Could care less, honestly.

So instead of being stuck in the prison for 180 days and then 3 years in the army... I got out of both in almost two months.

So that's what happened! I returned home after what could be the briefest army service in the history of the country and I even got to keep the hat and dog tags! Still, while it sounds fun and amusing it all... well, it's not that amusing in the long run.

Lawyer was incredibly expensive so my parents had to loan some money to get me out. That put them in debt. With how my family works... that put ME in debt by proxy. And they want that money. Five thousand Dollars. That's how much I owe them now. In a different country it might not be that much... but with the current exchange rate? I'll be in their debt for the next five years. And they pretty much demand some of it every month, which put a... significant dent into my financial state. And people wonder why it seems I dislike my family a bit. Enough that I might have to start wondering where I'll get money to pay for the university tuition. So... that means it's possible I'll have to find a second job soon. Working by night time... then working by day time, squeezing in sleep whenever I can. Yeah, not fun. I'd rather avoid it...

Which is why I am fairly disappointed to admit that I started out my own ! I've always been able to support myself fairly easily with my job but now that it's not enough... yeah, looking into other methods.

I will be honest here. I am not going to sell these stories. They are free and they will always remain free. I will continue updating to the best of my ability, especially now. This won't be over even if you don't support me. I'll keep writing regardless. What supporting me will do is allow me to spend more time writing. It won't be just a hobby then, but an actual and legitimate way for me to get by and thus I'll dedicate a lot more time on this.

Yeah, you might be saying that it's all greed, that I just want to get your money. Honestly, it's more like desperation. Life's just going wrong sometimes. So I got a little bit of hope from this. In the end, it's no different from a gaming channel or music artist on YouTube, or some illustration or art artist. You can make careers out of those too. Writing is no less difficult or time consuming.

You don't have to feel pressured or something like that to support me. You don't have to to if you can't or don't want to. You'll still get more chapters and some new stories I have planned here. Even more frequently than before, even without you supporting me. But all help will be appreciated, even if it's 1 dollar a month. I've set up some community goals and so on, which I'll be explaining a bit at the bottom A/N after the chapter.

But yeah, you're here to read the story, so sorry for the enormous delay, the giant rant, long story and the begging you just read.

Enjoy the new chapter!

I take another drag of the cigarette as I casually lean against the wall by the entrance to the alley I'm currently occupying. I think I look like the image of inconspicuous, someone who fits in, which is exactly the plan. I'm in the lower wards and I've taken to wearing a hoodie with my long coat so to be honest, I don't think I look out of place. Just another face in the crowd, waiting for someone by some random alley. After all, the lower you go in the wards, the less law-abiding citizens you'll find.

Pretty poetic if I have to say so myself. The less legal businesses all happen the farthest from the surface.

The reason for wearing a hood is also to hide my face, at least as much as I can. I'm just too noticeable right now and this is not exactly the best thing for when you're trying to work. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't think I should've went with the whole 'known and famous' route. Especially with the activities I've been doing the past week. Word gets around after all.

"How far is the target?" I ask quietly, knowing the ear-piece I'm wearing under my hood is going to catch my words.

On the other side of the channel I'm hearing some rough panting and a collection of interesting words about someone's mother. "Not far," Johnson replied between pants. "Why do I have to be the one running?"

Interesting question. "Because you agreed to it?" I try, taking another drag, glancing down at the cigarette, which is almost finished.

"I never said such a thing!" Johnson growls at me.

"In that case, because I'm paying you?" I try again, grinning to myself. I hear Johnson mutter something unintelligible but I ignore it. "Tilly, are you ready?" I ask the other person on the channel.

"Yes," comes the short reply. I patiently wait for him to continue and after about ten seconds of silence I think he gets the hint. "I'm about a block away from your location."

"Good," I nod to myself, "get ready to move when I give you the signal."

For everything to go according to plan, we need to move suddenly, fast and methodically. Just like professionals.

I wait for a few more minutes until I finally get a notification from Johnson. "He's on the street!" he barks out.

Alright, time to work. "Tilly, it's time!" I announce. I take a final drag from the cigarette before I toss it away, then casually stroll out into the street. To my right I immediately spot my target, or at least the commotion he's causing. A crowd of people are hurriedly moving out of the way to clear the path for a pair of humans that are running full sprint. The one in the back is Johnson, chasing our main target for today, some seedy guy named Richard, also known as "Rico". Forgot the last name.

Rico doesn't see me yet, or just isn't paying attention to me and this is just perfect for me. I wait until he moves closer and then dash into his path, lifting my left arm and positioning it in front of his neck. A perfect clothesline!

At least, that's the plan.

In execution, it turns out a lot less impressive. My arm does stop him, his legs lifting up into the air as his upper body suddenly stops moving. Unfortunately, that upper body has a bit of momentum going for it, so my arm was wrenched back along with Rico, causing me to fall as well.

Rico well for the floor with a thud, immediately coughing while I manage to spin around and land on my knees and hands, wincing at the pain in my shoulder. I guess with all his running and now the clothesline I really did knock all the air out of him. Still, he's attempting to rise back up but Johnson is there to take care of the problem. Running up to us, he simply slams a boot into the man's head, finally stopping all semblance of resistance, leaving him sprawled on the floor, groaning in pain.

Johnson simply leans down, placing his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath, looking at me strangely. "Did you just try to..." he pauses to catch his breath. "Try to clothesline him?" he asks.

I get up, rubbing my aching shoulder. Maybe I should've just barreled into him instead, or a shoulder-slam? "Yeah, kinda," I reply to him, which gets him to laugh.

He straightens out and glares at Rico. "I would've capped his knee or something. Punk had me run at least three blocks!"

"Shit, you need the workout anyway," I roll my eyes at his complaints. "You're getting that extra weight down there," I comment as I move to lift Rico up by one of his arms.

Johnson looks down at himself and pats his stomach a couple of times. "Bullshit," he finally announces and helps me pick up the groaning man.

We start dragging him to the nearest balcony, which incidentally happens to be at the end of the street, not twenty meters away from us. I look around, seeing that the commotion has attracted quite a crowd, with many people staring at us with interest and worry. In answer to that I pull down my hood to let them see who it is. "Nothing to worry about citizens!" I announce and I can almost hear Johnson roll his eyes at my words. "We're Sentinel Security and this man is wanted for questioning," I explain to them, patting the wanted man's head. With that, I turn away from them.

Damn, it feels good to introduce yourself this way.

"You probably should stop introducing us to everyone," Johnson remarks.

"No, I shouldn't," I shoot back. "This gives us good rep. People get to know about us."

"Yeah, but the friends of the people we just nab on the street get to know about us as well."

"Yes, but that's why we had Joe check them first. They're just scrubs and no one important is going to try to 'avenge' them or something. That's why we're avoiding the more competent people, since they always work for someone."

Which is sadly true. At first I truly wanted to start catching some actual criminals but that plan was immediately shot down by Joe. If I started catching those guys, the crime lords they more often than not worked for might just be pissed off at me. And that is something I don't need, nor want. As long as we stick to the unaffiliated scrubs on the underworld, no one gives a shit.

We finally get to the edge of the street, where the view opens up to show the rest of the ward and not a moment later a black unmarked van slows to a hover right above rails of the balcony. The side door opens up and we quickly drag Rico over there. Tilben has arrive and it's time to move fast!

You can't just park cars everywhere you want, that'll be utter chaos! Which is why it's pretty much illegal to park cars like this so we have to move fast before we get fined. I'm not sure exactly what it says about it if our biggest worry at the moment is getting a parking fine.

With a grunt of effort we lift Rico up and shove him into the van, before climbing in myself. "Let's go!" I say, closing the door after us and not a second later we fly off. I grab a seat and release a sigh, unable to hide the smile on my face. "Good job everyone!" I announce, feeling my smile transform into a grin.

Johnson, who is busy putting a pair of handcuffs on Rico, grunts at my words and Tilben doesn't even respond. My grin drops, but my good mood is not ruined yet! Job completed smoothly and nicely and the only thing left to do is deliver the objective.

Next stop, C-Sec academy!

"This is the fifth time this week," is the greeting I get as soon as I enter the bounty office in the C-Sec academy. Johnson and Tilly pointedly refuse to enter this building when they absolutely don't have to, so I was left alone to shove Rico into the building.

"Hey to you too, Veli!" I greet the female turian behind the desk, offering her a large grin.

Her response is a tired glare. "Don't call me that," she sighs in reassignment of having to deal with me. "Who is it this time?"

While Veli, or Velitia as she prefers to be called, is not the first female turian I saw, she's definitely the first one I talked with. Can't say she likes me much but from my experience it takes time for turians to like me. She just needs to get familiar with my charming personality, maybe?

I shove Rico towards the table. "This is Rico, wanted for questioning, pretty sure it has something to do with smuggled Red Sand," I explain with a shrug. I'm pretty sure he's wanted for smuggling, or maybe it was the last guy?

"Yes, yes, let me see..." she taps something into her terminal, looking at Rico a couple of times. This last for at least a minute before she finally turns to me with another sigh. "Richard Marques, wanted for questioning on possession of illicit materials, in this case Red Sand."

"Perfect! Take him away then," I reply with a smile. And give me my bounty too!

The Bounty Office of C-Sec was an interesting thing. I honestly did not expect it to exist, but it does! Unless you were actually proven guilty, with hard evidence to back it up, they will not search for you longer than a month. Rico, for example, was wanted for questioning since he was only suspected on smuggling (though since he ran into hiding I suspect that there's truth behind the accusations), but C-Sec was unable to find him for over two months, which is why they simply dumped his name into the Bounty Office, to let the various bounty hunters of the Citadel to find him for them.

Apparently the Bounty Office was first established four-hundred years ago when the Citadel had a sudden influx of vigilantes and 'helpful citizens' which really started interfering with C-Sec work. So in answer to that the office was created. However, only registered people – bounty hunters or like us, a private security company – could actually claim the bounty. This helped minimize the amount of vigilantes by actually organizing and registering them, both so they could keep tabs on them and make sure most of them were actually competent and not liable to do something stupid. It also helped C-Sec to concentrate on real criminal issues instead of chasing underground scrubs like Rico.

After this, it's just a bit of waiting. About five minutes pass – during which I attempt to start a conversation with Veli but she is quite pointedly ignoring me – before a pair of officers arrive to take Rico away. Once he's gone she finally turns to me and places a credit chit on the desk. "Here you go. Five thousand credits."

"Five thousand?" I ask, furrowing my brow. "I thought he was worth ten."

"His price dropped since we had a few leads on that case. He's not that valuable now."

Makes sense, sort of. I shrug and take the credit chit. They don't really pay all that well, unlike some of our clients. Then again, I'm not doing this for the money. "Alright then. It was nice seeing you!" I say with a small smile and turn to leave.

"You're doing this to make us look bad, aren't you?" She asks me with a frown before I could leave.

I bark out a laugh at that. "Trust me, you don't need my help to do that!"

She scoffs at my words. "Just go," she says and I do just that, smiling to myself at the observation.

She's partly right after all.

I'm not doing this just to make C-Sec look bad. It's just a side effect. The whole plan is to make us publicly favorable. Authority doesn't really like armed groups that are not under their direct jurisdiction, especially one lead by someone who almost publicly announced his disapproval of them. They can't really tell me not to do so now that I was legally approved – though I suspect Anderson might be getting some flak for this from the other Councilors – but they certainly can make it more difficult for me.

This is simply a preemptive strike, before they decide to turn their attention to me.

I'm not an expert, but listening to Snyder's rambling suggestions and impromptu advices had somewhat paid off. If they'll want to make things harder, all they need to do is ruin my reputation. It is after all the same thing they're doing with Shepard. Drag her reputation through a pile of crap and people are less likely to believe what she said about the Reapers. Granted, they can't really do that much to me, but they can make me get less clients with a crappy reputation. They can also just send C-Sec after me for one reason or another, or a Spectre. I am building a group of armed and dangerous people right on their doorstep after all.

However, as Snyder said, reputation is everything. They can't shut me down... especially if the people like me. I'm just building up a positive reputation, big enough that even if they decide to target me, I'll still have some support from the people. Beyond that, the next target is to befriend influential people, more accurately people that have a sway with the masses. If I have their support, I have the support of the masses as well. The Council understands reputation as well – probably better than I do – and once I'm popular enough and have the backing of several influential people... shutting me down would mean upsetting some people they might not want to upset.

Right now I'm working on the lowest level: the regular people. The citizens of the Citadel. Which is why whenever we capture someone, we do it publicly in crowded places. Where everyone could see us. We could grab them quietly, hell, it will even be easier that way, but that would serve no purpose at all. Soon enough people will start spreading the word around. 'Sentinel Security is cleaning up the streets' and so on and so forth. I'm showing the people that we're not all that bad and that they want us around.

If the Council will decide to get rid of me, they'll make the people unhappy. That's the goal of this whole thing.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid and getting so full of myself thinking that the Council even gives a fuck about me. I have no idea, but I'd rather be prepared.

Either way, it's already working. A few cops actually greet me as I make my way out of the academy. Mostly it's just a nod in my way or a look of recognition, but it's a start. Good to know that not all of them think of me negatively. Or maybe it's just Veli? Beside Pallin and Garrus, she's the only other member of C-Sec I ever interacted with for more than a single conversation.

Still, I'm on the right track! Keep this up and eventually we'll be seen as the local good guys... that you can hire for yourself for a relatively reasonable price.

I walk out of the academy and look around, not really expecting to see Johnson and Tilben outside waiting for me. They already told me they're not going to wait, so I guess it's up to me to get back to the Den. We finished out daily capture mission so the only thing I have left to do is sort through the available contracts and see if any of my 'employees' want to do one since I'm currently... indisposed.

Wrex finally got back to me with my request and he told me that he managed to find someone interested in working with me. From what he told me, I understand it's another krogan mercenary. Not bad, if I say so myself. I worked with one before and I definitely won't mind the extra firepower a krogan might bring to the team. The only thing I have to worry about is the team dynamic, since I don't know the guy and I have no idea whether he's an insane and bloodthirsty maniac who might just kill the client or an alright guy like Wrex. I guess I just have to wait and see, since he should be arriving any day now.

So on today's agenda: go back to the Den. Grab a drink. Sort the contracts and then... I guess I'll see when I get there. Or maybe just go home for a nap?

At least, that's the plan until I notice a familiar face standing near the occupied parking zone in front of the C-Sec Academy, who apparently noticed me as well. An Asian man with the same colorful tattoo on the head as I remember it. He's dressed in casual dark clothes and seems to be waiting for someone by the black aircar that is parked there. When he spots me, he sends a small smirk in my direction that I feel myself returning.

I don't really know much about the man outside of the two times I met him, but he seems to be an okay sort of guy. Plus, using a katana in battle is totally badass. Might as well go over to greet him.

"Honda!" I call out to him as I approach, offering him a hand. "Here on business?"

"Alexander," he returns the greeting, accepting my hand and giving it a firm shake. "And yes, I am. Please step into the car."

My smile drops immediately when I hear that. He gestures at the car for emphasis. Okay, this might be bad. Really bad. He's with Yakuza and I'm pretty sure that I did nothing to piss them off. Oh shit, maybe one of the guys we grabbed had ties with them? Shit... I only have my pistol on me and I get that running now would be counterproductive to my continued good health. Yeah, we're in front of C-Sec's HQ, so he won't try anything here – same goes for me, really – but once I'm out of C-Sec's sight...

"Whoa, man, I didn't do anything!" I quickly defend myself, raising both hands in a defensive gesture.

He snorts in amusement to that. "Please, just get into the car. Everything will be explained inside," he assures me, "You will not be harmed, I can promise you that," he adds.

I look at the car. It has a sleek and angular design and is painted with a matte black color. I note that it's longer than the regular aircars you see flying around, mostly due to the larger back passenger area. All in all it looks pretty expensive. I think that the closest equivalent I can find from my era is a limo.

I get the feeling that I don't really have much of a choice in the matter, so I just sigh and nod. Honda opens the door for me and I climb inside. I'm not really surprised to see that there's already someone inside. My hunch about this aircar being a limo is also correct, seeing as there are two pairs of seats facing each other inside. I take the seat in front of the unknown stranger while Honda climbs inside after me and takes the seat beside me. Not a moment later the car lifts off into the air with a soft jerk and we're off to... wherever it is they're taking me to.

The man in front of me is a turian, which comes as a surprise to me. The Yakuza is a human organization, so for some reason I was not expecting to see any aliens in it, especially turians. Then again, times had changed so it's possible the Yakuza decided to branch out? I might ask, if I survive this. The turian is dressed nicely, wearing a high-class business suit and he looks at me with analytical eyes, studying me closely. It's easy to tell that he's a high ranked member – another small surprise for me – judging by the entire setting.

"It is... interesting to finally meet you," he greets me slowly, as if he had some trouble picking his words. I find it odd that he picked 'interesting' for this meeting.

"Uh... likewise?" I try, internally cringing at my choice of words. Okay, let's try to fix this. "We haven't been introduced though. I would've prepared for such a meeting if I'd gotten a warning in advance."

"Ah, yes. Salviss Antorio," he introduces himself. "I already know who you are. We simply decided that it was time for a meeting and took the first opportunity to do it."

"Yes. Picking me up in front of the C-Sec headquarters," I deadpan. I honestly hope they did not recognize Honda. That would ruin all the good reputation I've been trying to build up. "I also have a publicly available contact number. You could have easily contacted me to set up a meeting," I did release my mail information for people to contact me about jobs, so it's not like I was unavailable.

It's probably not the best idea to be so confrontational about this thing but I don't like being almost forced into a meeting with some crime organization's representative. Especially where every goddamn cop on the station can see me.

"Yes, but calls can be listened to and messages be intercepted. I would rather we keep this conversation quiet."

I nod to myself. That makes sense, actually. "Alright. What is this about?" I ask him, "If this is about our latest catches, we checked them thoroughly before -"

Salviss interrupts me by a chuckle. "No, no. Nothing of that sort. Those fools you caught are not our concern," he brushes it off, making me relax slightly. "It has brought certain matters to our attention though."

And with that, I'm back to being nervous again.

"A new legalized armed group showing up, offering their services to the highest bidder. Some of our... clients might be somewhat upset with us and with such a group – one that has almost publicly proclaimed to be willing to fight against the less legal parts of our community no less – they might get ideas," he says in length, staring me in the eyes.

Huh. So that's the problem. So they're worrying that I might start working for their less than pleased clients – probably the unwilling ones: victims of blackmails, racketeering, threats and so on – and screw up their money flow.

"I see the problem," I reply.

"I thought you would. However, you are a legalized company with a lot of attention. We can't simply shut you down," I bristle slightly at that. I know what they mean by 'shutting down'. "Of course, we can also simply cripple your operations to a point of bankruptcy, which would also be a lot cleaner..." he pauses here to let it sink in. Letting me know that even if they won't harm us physically, they can still fuck us over. "On the other hand, we can simply come to an agreement."

Ah, and there's the reason I'm here. If they wanted to shut me down, they would not have asked to talk to me. They want something from me, probably something I can't say no to. "It's... possible," I reply, wondering how much flak I'm going to get from everyone else for agreeing to such things without their opinion.

"Perfect. Our offer is simple. We will receive ten percent of your profits and should certain clients attempt to buy your services, you will notify us immediately. In return, we will forward you some job offers – all legal, of course – and offer you the service of our friend here, who will join your ranks and help you in your work," he gestures at Honda. "Though do bear in mind that he has other responsibilities that he needs to attend to, so it would be appreciated if you could let him go from time to time... "

I glance at Honda, who remains silent, simply sitting there and listening to us. "To make sure I don't misbehave?" I can't resist asking.

The turian smirks. "Naturally. He will also be your contact to us, should any questions arise. If any of our clients will try to contact you, he will know and he will warn you. Also, from what I understand you are understaffed and need all the help you can get."

Great. Just... great. So I essentially have an assassin under my employ, who will probably assassinate me if I take a step in the wrong direction. I fucking hate my life sometimes. Still... these conditions don't make sense. "This... doesn't make sense," I finally say. Salviss hums questioningly. "You're just asking for ten percent? It's a bit too generous. No offense, but... what's the catch?" Yeah, they put a potential assassin to watch over me in case I decide to mess with them, which is something I wasn't planning to do anyway, but Honda is a skilled fighter and I have no doubt he'll be useful.

He let's out an amused huff at the question. "Consider this a long term investment. Right now you busy yourself with these petty jobs but in six months? A year from now? Once you establish yourself here those ten percent will become quite... considerable," he chuckles at that. "Make no mistake, Honda is an asset. While we have no reason to doubt your skills yet, we'd rather have assurance that you will succeed."

"I see," I say with a frown. True, right now we're not exactly flowing in cash. I think we make around eighty thousand credits between all of us in a month? But when I get enough people working for me, establish my clientele and get enough publicity to keep the clients coming? That amount might double, if not triple itself. The more I grow, the more I pay to them.

"Beyond that," Salviss adds, "I believe you will be a lot more pleasant to deal with than the Blue Suns," he says with a shrug.

Ah, another agenda here, one I can even support myself. Blue Suns will stop hanging around here and their client base might move to hiring someone else, namely me and my company.

The aircar touches down with a soft jerk, distracting me from the conversation. I look out of the window and recognize the view to be that of the street I live on. In fact, I can see the hotel from here. "We've arrived," Salviss announces with a small nod. Honda opens the door and steps out of the car, leaving the door open for me. "We will contact you soon to finalize the agreement. It was a pleasure meeting you."

I take it as my cue to leave. "Yeah, likewise," I reply somewhat awkwardly and climb out of the car.

"I will drop by Chora's Den tomorrow," Honda says to me, "We'll talk more then," with that, he climbs in the car and closes the door.

I watch the car fly away and wait until I lose sight of it before I sigh to myself. Not sure if it's a sigh or relief or frustration. Maybe both. So I guess I'm being coerced into working with the Yakuza now. I also didn't miss the whole 'we know where you live' hint they left me just now. Fucking perfect. Well, since I'm here now, I might as well go 'home' to sort things out before heading to the Den for tonight.

Okay... I have to come up with a way to tell them about this, preferably without Johnson strangling me. Or Jorrun giving me that silent 'I told you so' look he's so fond of giving me whenever I do something he told me not to. At least Tilben is easy to deal with since he'll just ignore me for a day or two. Not that different from usually, actually, considering how quiet the guy is.

I finally reach my hotel room and freeze at the sight of the green holo-lock. Huh, I'm certain I locked the door. I'm very certain of it. I slowly pull my pistol out. Call it paranoia, but after everything that happened to day you cant be too careful. I raise my gun and open the door. I slowly enter, pistol leading.

The lights are out, just as I left them. The old man sitting on the small couch was definitely not in the room when I left it. He's just casually sitting there, smoking a cigar, reading something on a small data-pad. A cane was resting against the arm-rest. What's more, I actually recognize the man.

"You better put that thing down before you hurt yourself," a gruff voice to my side says and I quickly turn around to aim my weapon at the krogan leaning on the wall in the corner, partially hidden by the dark.

He's not aiming a weapon at me, instead just giving me an unimpressed look, seeming unconcerned that I'm holding him at gunpoint. To be honest, I doubt I'd be able to do much damage to him anyway with just a pistol. In close quarters like this I'd be screwed before I manage to deal decent damage anyway.

"You can leave us for now. He's not going to do anything, am I right?" the old man asks, looking away from the data-pad to glance at me. I glance from the krogan to the man before reluctantly folding the weapon down.

If they wanted me dead, the krogan would've flattened me by now. I sigh at the situation. "Is the lock on the door not working? Everyone is just barging in... And why can't anyone schedule a fucking meeting?" I ask myself. The krogan grunts and pushes himself off the wall, giving me a small glare before leaving the room.

"Good to see you in one piece. I was hoping you'd arrive safely," the old man remarks.

"Mr. Capriotti," I greet him, feeling extremely weird at having the local mafia boss visiting me in my crappy hotel room. "With all due respect, why are you breaking into my room?" I ask. From what I heard, Don Capriotti doesn't go around much, whether to avoid assassination attempts or because of failing health. Especially with just a single krogan for a guard. Then again, I can't be sure that there isn't an army lying in wait somewhere nearby, with snipers covering the windows or something like that.

He chuckles at that. "It's not breaking and entering if it's the manager who opens the door for you," he explains casually with a grandfatherly smile, as if he's explaining some known fact to a child. "It does help that I have a krogan with me. They are really good for persuasion, as you might know."

I open my mouth to reply but find no words so I end up just staring at him with my mouth hanging open, trying to say something in reply. In the end I just sigh, resigning myself to looking into an actual place to live. "So what is this about?"

"I admit that I planned this meeting for a later date, but since certain things happened today, I decided to reschedule it a bit," he explains, puffing on his cigar. I nod to myself, figuring that this just had to do with the Yakuza meeting today. It would be ridiculous to meet one of the Crime Lords otherwise. "I figure they dragged you into some kind of long term deal that you couldn't refuse?"

I contemplate for a second whether I should be even telling him about this. "Pretty much," I eventually say. I get the feeling he'll find out later regardless, so there's no harm in it. "They wanted me to avoid getting involved in their business."

He shakes his head with a little mirthful huff. "Figures. They always do that. Don't worry about them, though. They could have done much worse."

"I figured," I reply with a grimace. "So what is this about?" I repeat the question.

"A similar deal, actually. Only a lot more honest," he answers, leaning back on the couch and looking at me fully. "While they won't say it out loud, I'm not afraid to say we owe you one. I, personally, don't like staying in debt to someone."

I blink in confusion at that. "Debt? What debt?" I'm missing something here.

"While the esteemed Council didn't have the decency to even warn us of a potential attack, you did. When the geth arrived, C-Sec was completely blindsided," here he gives me a wicked smirk. "We weren't."

"Oh," I mutter, internally cringing. I honestly never intended to warn him. I just wanted to warn Jorrun and the gang. I never even expected them to take me this seriously and mount up a defense. Didn't really think anyone would feel like they owed me anything after that either.

Apparently he knows exactly what I'm thinking about. "Oh, I know it was just an incredibly lucky coincidence I was there. I don't hold it against you and can only be thankful it turned out this way. We all try to look out for our own first. I'm no different in that regard," he says with an amused chuckle.

"I... didn't really expect anything out of it in return," I awkwardly admit.

This seems to amuse him further as he gives me a quiet laugh. "Common decency. Haven't seen that in a while," he shakes his head, still smiling.

I'm a bit unsettled by the whole thing. The grandfatherly image of the man in front of me conflict with what I heard on a whole new level. Don Capriotti, for lack of a better word, was a ruthless man and his hands are stained with the blood of hundreds. He's been in the criminal business for almost a century now and no one is capable of staying in it for so long without getting some blood on their hands. So the kind old man, or at least the image he's projecting, makes me really creeped out by the whole thing. Is he really this grandfatherly type or is it just a mask to catch people off guard?

"Regardless, you gave us a warning. We owe you one. If it weren't for that, you can trust me when I say the Yakuza would not have been so generous with their terms. They're usually not. Out of everyone else, they came out of it in an improved condition, which is probably why they're so generous, even if they don't admit it to you."

"How so?" I ask curiously.

"They like to view themselves as 'protectors of the people' or some such tripe," he rolls his eyes when he says that. "Some old Earth sentiment that lingers in that organization. Either way, they showed just that during the attack. While C-Sec was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, who stood up and protected the station?"

"The Yakuza," I answer in understanding. And everyone else, for that matter.

"Exactly. After that, a lot of people didn't feel so bad working for them."

"Yeah, makes sense, somewhat," once again, reputation changes everything. If before people might have viewed them as just another criminal organization, in the Geth invasion, they pretty much saw what they were paying protection money for. "But what are you here for?"

"Just decided to show my gratitude. I help out those who help me. But I'm also pragmatic. So I'll offer you the same thing they did. You don't mess with my business and I won't mess with you. Keep doing that and I'll help you out. You need weapons, I'll get them for you. You need manpower? I'll arrange something. You got into trouble with C-Sec? I'll get rid of them. Whatever you need. Call it a favor, if you'd like."

I'm speechless. I know the power of favor. To have someone like Don Capriotti pretty much announce that he owes me a favor... that's power. I don't even know what to ask for! This is... this is overwhelming!

The old man get up from the couch with a small grunt and picked his cane. "Don't break your head over it. You can decide on what you want later," he chuckles, patting me on the shoulder as he passes by me. "Enjoy your day," he says and walks out of the door, cane clicking against the floor.

Even when I hear the hiss and click that indicates the door closed behind me, I'm still standing here, utterly shell-shocked. This day... is insane. I absently remind myself to check if it's Thursday or something. It's both horrible and promising. It also completely destroys any options for my company to be completely legit. Now I have illegal contacts and benefactors. I'm essentially paying protection money to the Yakuza now, which sucks, but I also got Honda on my team now... who is probably there to also assassinate me if it comes down to it. Probably. Not sure if it sucks or not just yet. At least the team is finally building up...

At the thought of the team I groan to myself. I collapse on the now-free couch run my hands through my hair, already feeling the headache building up.

What the hell is everyone going to say now?!

So there we go! I'm still alive, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter! Team building phase is not over yet but you got the first view of the first member... sort of. Honda's in the team... but is he really? That remains to be seen! More team members are to come! Don't worry, we'll get back to the action soon enough!

Now, I'm going to share some future plans with you! I got a few things planned for the future, including a side-story to Massed Up. Not going to give you much details now... but soon enough! Other than that, an increased update rate as well. Other stuff too!

Now, to the thing! I've set up some community goal and pledge rewards, which you can find on the page here: dot com slash Delvaro. (Just replace the dot and slash with... well, a dot and a slash and put it in your browser. Or just go to my profile and find it there!) Since I have no idea how this thing will go just yet, I will add more goals later after a brief observation and I will make sure to add more tangible rewards for pledges.

For now, I'm offering writing advice articles, guidelines and so on, exclusive content, the chance to vote on certain things and some of my original works! The first goal is an update every month, which applies to all my stories. So once I get another story going, like the side story, it would mean you'll be getting two updates per month, one update for each. Next goal is 3 weeks, then we'll decrease it for two. The amount of stories is probably going to rise too, so instead of one, you'll be getting two or three stories from me. Considering the length of each chapter, which is about 6-10,000 words each chapter, once I get another story going, that amount would double. I think by the end of it, I'm planning to write at least 80K words a month. That's a lot. If you ever subscribed to a journal or something, you definitely know it's a lot more than that.

So yeah, check it out! Support me if you want to! You don't have to if you can't or don't want to. I'm not forcing you to do anything and this story will keep on going regardless! If you have anything to say about this, don't stay quiet.

So thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Be sure to leave a comment to tell me what you thought in a review, a PM or whatever! I also appreciate constructive criticism so be sure to leave that too! So thank you for reading and I'll get to working on the next chapter :)

Until then, Delvaro out.