Chapter 24 - Eldar Problems

A/N - Not sorry for that cliffhanger.

'When in deadly danger, when beset by doubt, run in little circles, wave your arms and shout.' - Parody of the Litany of Command, Commissar Ciaphas Cain

Arlas had been in many hellholes before. Fallen Asuryina camps, chaos war camps, the Insane Nun extermination holdings, desolate Necron held worlds, anarchic Ork worlds, but he never had thought the humans of this universe could come up with something comparable to all of those. A dance club.

Arlas was in the back room the tournament participants had claimed, the four krogan cheerfully leading the charge to clear out the other occupants unless they were willing to put up with the swordsmen and women, and now nearly two hundred tournament participants were in a space meant for maybe two thirds of that. And then there were the apprentices and fans. He snorted at the new use of the last word, fan. A civilian that was enthusiastic enough to follow everything about something, but not enough to go out and actually learn it to stand beside their hero.

He turned his attention from the five blade wielders around to examine the room, wincing as a particularly jarring note came through the wall. Sound proofed room, they had said, but now he knew better. He could hear the powerful lower tones through the wall, though it did muffle them. Passing through the club proper had been nearly torture for him, his sensitive hearing and eyes being assaulted by sounds and flashing lights even with his helmet on. And mon-keigh claimed it was enjoyable. No wonder none of them could hear eldar moving around, they deliberately destroyed their senses before learning to fight.

He had his face plate back, so he could talk directly with the mon-keigh with him, and enjoy his fruit juice. Something that he hadn't known about before, and wasn't sure he was better for it now. He already knew that water was losing its appeal, and not having fruit juice all the time was going to be a strain on his self-discipline.

He glanced around the table again, marvelling at who he was currently talking with, the turian fighter that the quarian semi-finalist had beat, the quarian, Fel, the turian with the spring loaded knife, and an asari matriarch who had been eliminated by another salarian with a whip sword who Arlas hadn't fought. All of them were interested in the dorch marg kiar, or slaying draw in their tongue, but he was learning a number of things about their own techniques. All of them had an idea on how to do it, they weren't fools and had seen the move three times, but it was polite to ask before stealing moves, apparently.

So far he had picked up ideas for a couple maneuvers that might be useful if fighting something bigger than him, unlikely though that would be, so he didn't mind the conversation. Even if it had required him spending an hour talking to mon-keigh, but all these ones were at least… tolerable. The asari was polite, the turians were focused on the craft, the quarian wasn't trying to examine his equipment, and Fel was just softly laughing to himself about all the big wigs that had been sending him death threats for not winning and costing them credits.

The awards ceremony had been as stuffy and boring as Arlas had expected, though Fel had harrumphed as the 'ceremonial' blade was brought out to end the ceremony. When he had asked about it later, Fel had said that was the first time the actual blade hadn't shown up for the ceremony in the nearly five centuries he had been participating, and Arlas made a note to ask someone about it later, or just do some research into the sword himself. It wasn't like he had anything else to do with his free time after almost five months with the Twins except keep himself and his equipment ready, make upgrades and train.

Arlas suddenly winced at a sense of crushing pressure, causing the asari and Fel to stop their conversation about the benefits of different types of blades, and look at him questioningly. He shook his head, and finished off his juice, as he reached out to Yol'Pvera. *What is your problem?*

*Pod is suffering a major malfunction, can't open, oxygen system has died, the occupant is trapped inside. GET BACK HERE NOW! Just lost the stasis power system.*

"Shit."

Arlas ignored the curious looks as he waved his omnitool, paying the bill as he stood. *On my way, be there as fast as I can.*

He looked around for the Twins, or even Icivia; all three of them had invited themselves to the… whatever this was. "Sorry, something came up, have to sprint."

A quick glance didn't show any of the Spectres, so he typed a quick message on his omnitool as he strode for the door. (Emergency at ship, need return now. WHERE ARE YOU?)

Joannis replied first, with a less than helpful question. (What is the problem?)

Jaclyn, thankfully, saved him from having to repeat the question. (Heading for the exit, meet you at the rapid transit terminal. Should I use Spectre status?)

He was a bit surprised at Jaclyn being the practical one, but replied while still heading directly for the exit. (If faster, yes. One stasis pod just lost power, can't open. Need sword, cut open.)

That got a response he needed. He spotted the two both moving quickly but not running toward the exit from their booth. Running would attract attention and possibly panic, especially when people realized that the two were Spectres. He didn't see Icivia, but when he got outside, he spotted her already standing beside a vehicle, the Twins only a few steps in front of him. Once inside, he pulled his helmet off. "My gratitude. Twins, let healer Chakwas know of the problem, she will need to prepare for the occupant, and let C-Sec know we will be blowing through their building. I will not stop if someone is in my way."

Icivia apparently hadn't checked his last message. "Bad?"

"Yol'Pvera let me know the pod has lost power, the air exchange module isn't working, and the latch was fused shut."

Icivia nodded, already tapping away at the controls. He settled back, before looking over at Jaclyn, his expression shifting to its normal emotionless, neutral set. Joannis spoke from the front. "Alright, Chakwas knows and is heading down to the hangar. Can a couple people get on to try and force it open?"

He shrugged. "I doubt it would work without also injuring the occupant. And my two companions would react… poorly to such an attempt. I will have to do it."

Icivia spoke up. "We are about fifteen minutes away, ten if I push everything. Which I am. Hopefully your fellow eldar can last that long."

Arlas didn't reply, simply kept staring at Jaclyn, who finally looked over at him. "What is it?"

Arlas contemplated keeping silent for a moment, before deciding against it. "Deciding if I should kill you or not."

He allowed the shocked silence to linger a moment, before continuing. "However, this is more important. I will see both Twins in the briefing room after I deal with the pod to discuss why."

The eldar turned to the window, ignoring the three mon-keigh {third meaning} as he breathed slowly and steadily, linking with Yol'Pvera and Kap'Eiyl so they could track his progress. Several minutes later, the ride far more tense then it had been, they finally arrived at their destination, C-Sec Academy. Arlas was out of the rented transport before it actually stopped, and moving at a ground eating lope toward the elevator heading up. Once in, he turned back to the mon-keigh, and tilted his head, sending his impatience.

The elevator was as slow as he remembered, and they could all hear Arlas taking deep, calming breaths to keep himself in control before he finally reformed the face plate for his helm. His breathing was because now he could feel her, the pod's occupant, barely conscious, but she understood something was wrong and that she couldn't breath. He sent his reassurance he was on the way, but she couldn't hear him, she wasn't aware enough to allow for coherency. Another deep breath, and the elevator finally started to slow from its slow pace. "She is nearly gone, I am not waiting at the next one."

Once the elevator landed, he spotted the cleared area, and was slightly relieved as he outright sprinted for the other side. He heard several cries of alarm, and one of the guards near the elevator mentioning something about a situation on the Normandy's dock. Arlas snorted, damn right there was a situation. He activated the elevator as he got in, seeing Icivia talking to some of the guards, but simply nodded as she waved to him. He would remember the help they gave.

As the elevator went up, he opened a comm line to the pilot. "Joker, open the hangar bay."

The pilot was slow as always on the uptake. "The hangar? Alright…?"

Arlas closed the line, not willing to waste more time, and then opened one to the doctor. "Healer Chakwas, are you at the lander?"

"Yes, though it has been nearly ten minutes since I was notified of the problem. I know eldar physiology is different from human, but that is three minutes later than a human in peak physical condition can last. I know there was likely air inside the pod…"

"Eldar can survive twenty minutes without air without permanent damage, thirty before death."

He closed the line, and frowned as Jaclyn contacted him. With a sigh, he opened the line. "Arlas, Jaclyn, there is a situation on the dock, a scared and running slave with a gun. I know you want to save your own, but PLEASE avoid going near the end of the dock. We will deal with that, you save your own."

He sighed, before closing the comm line, but they were getting near the dock. The lift doors opened, and a C-Sec officer was turning toward. "Wow, that was fast Spec… Wait, who are you?"

Arlas didn't answer, simply stepping around the human. He ignored the C-Sec's order to stop, instead firing the grappling hook into the Normandy's side, and pulling himself up on top of it. He ran along the top of the ship, barely glancing at the human female huddled behind a couple crates at the end of the dock. At the back of the ship, he fired the grappling hook into the ship again, before jumping off and swinging around into the hangar. A glance showed the ramp of his lander down, the door open. He dashed in, sliding around the corner, and spotted Chakwas standing beside the pod, Kap'Eiyl in the wraithguard near her.

The former Shadow Spectre sent that he had politely offered to ensure she didn't touch something that might explode. The real reason was that she was mon-keigh, and if she tried something he didn't like, he would smear her across the wall. Though the wraithsight issue made it hard to tell exactly what she was doing, but most of had been examining the pod. Doctor Chakwas, however, was more succinct in her observation. "Arlas, finally."

He didn't even spare the healer a glance, instead yanking his power sword out, and placing a hand on the stasis pod. After a moment of checking the pod himself, rangers ALWAYS verified things if they had time, he shoved the sword into the pod, getting a good seven centimeters of the blade into the material along the seam, before carefully pulling it to the side. He got about two thirds of the way before the top suddenly started hissing as the seal finally gave out, and once the sword came out the side, the top separated from the bottom.

The eldar in the pod choked loudly, but didn't move or open her eyes. Chakwas immediately jumped forward, concerned only with the patient in front of her, and missed the wraithguard suddenly reaching out to grab her. Arlas simply hit the palm of the wraithguard's hand with the back of his sword, before linking directly with the dead eldar. *(Shadow spectre warrior Kap'Eiyl, what are you doing?)*

He felt Yol'Pvera slip into the conversation, likely invited by Kap'Eiyl, but ignored her as Kap'Eiyl replied. *She is gathering information about the eldar.*

Arlas sent a mental sigh to Yol'Pvera, before pushing the wraithguard, though the far heavier construct didn't move. *(She can't help our injured kin if she doesn't know what is wrong.)*

*And when she reports what she has learned, and they use that to start making a genophage for us?*

He sent disappointment to Yol, knowing his pilot was the source of the warrior's information and concern. Kap'Eiyl didn't need to worry about things like that, and the pathfinder turned to the wraithguard. *(Shadow spectre warrior Kap'Eiyl, stand down.)*

Arlas felt both of his companions' outrage as he pulled rank on Kap'Eiyl, but the dead warrior gave the only reply he could in the situation. *Very well, Pathfinder. But I am reporting this.*

*(As will I.)*

He didn't react as both of his companions abruptly disconnected their thoughts from his, but in his mind he screamed in annoyance. He didn't need this, he needed his eldar companions helping him, not shutting him out and ostracizing him. He watched the wraithguard walk back into the holder, before turning back to Chakwas, who was blissfully unaware of how close she came to getting her head taken off by an unhappy wraithguard. "Doctor, can she stay here, or do we have to move her to the medbay?"

The doctor hummed. "Medbay. My omnitool can't do much more than get scans, if she needs something more than bedrest."

Arlas could feel the glare from the two spirits, before nodding. "Fine. Yol'Pvera, finish the other pod. Kap'Eiyl, you are to protect her. Doctor, a word while we wait for a conveyance."

He pulled the offended healer outside, and made a mental note to avoid getting hurt in the next couple of months. He passed the two humans escorting a floating bed, before pausing and looking back to make sure he had seen what he had thought he had seen, before finishing escorting Chakwas outside. He spoke before she could start. "Doctor, the other two don't trust you. They know about the genophage, and that I have been in your care twice. I don't mind you sending what you have gotten from me, but if they find out you are sending information about her back, I expect Kap'Eiyl will use his wraithcannon on you. And don't do any surgeries without letting me know first."

He felt both spirits getting less angry at him, but the look on the human's face made him realize he was starting the eternal dance once again. Yol'Pvera contacted him directly. *The other pod is working fine, and will be done in two hours. Eldar hours.*

He sent back anger at the insult, that he didn't remember his own species, but didn't actually reply. Chakwas was too busy staring in shock and anger, but she quickly got her voice back. "Those files were sent back to Alliance Medical Command, so we know how to treat any other eldar that get hurt. We are certainly not sending them to the salarians to make another genophage."

Arlas' tone was so sarcastic he was surprised he didn't hurt himself. "Yes, because the salarians will bother to ask for that information."

He paused, letting her reluctantly acknowledge that point, before continuing, this time returning to his emotionless monotone. "No records. Else my companion will ensure no further ones will be sent."

Arlas was aware he was using far too many threats today already, but he was lacking options. A glance showed the wraithguard following the two assistants moving the unconscious eldar, so he stepped aside to talk to Kap'Eiyl. *(Do not attack without contacting me. They can't touch her mind to tell what is wrong, they rely on scans.)*

The spirit sent a mental snort of disdain. *Mon-keigh.*

Arlas sent a mental glare, continuing as if he hadn't been interrupted. *(So don't attack unless they start cutting. I will inform you of any procedures they will do before they start. If they talk to you, let me know.)*

Kap'Eiyl was more calm now, his anger at the situation having slowed to a mere unease again, and sent his understanding and intent to comply. Done with that emergency, Arlas turned and headed toward the elevator, joining the three humans, the stretcher, and the wraithguard. After a second, the elevator buzzed, and Arlas sighed in vexation. *Kap'Eiyl, the wraithguard is too heavy for the elevator and the rest of us. Step off, I will come back down for you.*

*Primitive mon-keigh.*

The wraithgaurd stepped off the elevator, which finally closed its doors, and started up. Once everyone had gotten to the crew deck, and while everyone in the mess hall stared at the armed Wraithguard contorting into the medical bay, Arlas bounded up the stairs, heading for the debriefing room. He stepped into the room, and moved to the center, standing just in front of the Twins who had clearly been waiting. Jaclyn was radiating fury and arms at her side, while Joannis had her arms cross and was glaring at him with unsurprised disappointment, like a Farseer seeing a ranger squad out of place.

Arlas simply stared at Jaclyn, before reaching out, and twisting the energies in the crystal he had placed in the room during the second briefing, which had been recording everything that happened in the room, and could also show it back. It showed a blurred Jaclyn by the comm console, behind the actual Twins, and Admiral Hackett's holographic image above the communicator. He gave the twins a nod toward the communicator, before sitting in one of the chairs. The record started with Jaclyn speaking. "...we encountered a pair of lifeforms that Arlas called daemons. He ordered the destruction of all records of them, muttering something about corruption. Sadly, we haven't had time to figure out what he was talking about, but I am sending the report in now so you can at least review it. Only three pictures, no videos…"

Both of the twins whirled about as the recording spoke, Jaclyn's face going pale at the sound of her own voice, Joannis just staring in shock. Arlas paused the recording, before slowly drawing his blade and examined the edge, before collapsing the face plate, and staring at Jaclyn. "Well, mon-keigh. I am waiting, as I am sure your sister is."

Jaclyn stared at him for a moment, before sighing. "Surprised that is what you are up in arms about."

He snorted in disdain, as he put the sword away, having already made his point. "What, that you managed to get a scan of the front half of my destroyed rifle? Humans have been trying to understand eldar technology for almost as long as the asari have supposedly had writing. If your people can actually understand anything about eldar technology…"

He paused, and then chuckled condescendingly. "Well, you won't. But if you desire to drive yourselves insane trying, go ahead. But Chaos is different. That insanity is a disease, and it has done before what it will do again; spread to everything, everywhere."

Joannis sighed, before rubbing her forehead. "How bad is this going to be, really?"

He gave her a glare, before sighing. "Chaos is the one enemy, in sixty million years, my people have never truly won against. Even if they went a million years without resurfacing. It is more a natural disaster than a faction, and it will consume this galaxy as inexorably as it is consuming the one my people are fleeing from."

He stepped forward, getting right in Joannis' face. "Does that mean anything to you? You have seen my equipment, you have seen me in battle. You know my… confidence in my people and abilities. And I am admitting we are running from something. And your people think you can control what we are trying to get away from? That it is safe to observe, when we have failed for sixty million years?"

Khaine damn him, he was actually trying to appeal to their sensibility here, despite mon-keigh being well known for being stupidly stubborn and…

"Fair point."

Arlas actually stepped back in shock, barely believing what he had just heard. Joannis smirked slightly but kept talking. "I will get everything about who has seen it. As long as you are promising to not kill everyone that saw it out of hand, we can track them down after dealing with Saren. I will deal with Jaclyn."

He nodded tersely. "And I will follow your orders to the letter."

That got a wince from the Twins, but Joannis nodded. Arlas stepped back, and took a breath, before nodding. "I believe we are done here, now. When you get me the information on who has been exposed and where, I will start following the intent of your orders again."

Arlas personally put the results arriving after two missions. The first for them to realize just how much they needed that intent, and the second because their commanders would need more time to get the records in question. He walked out of the briefing room, and realized that he hadn't gutted Jaclyn, before mentally demoting her to mon-keigh. Done with both emergencies, he sent a message to Wrex, asking when he would be getting his portion of the winnings, and if he wanted a one or two handed chain blade, as he headed to the hangar. He had to wait for the other pod, and might as well get to building Wrex's chain blade, though his would be modeled on the Imperium's chain blades, rather than the eldar. It would also be changed to draw power from a power pack, rather than from the psyker energies of the wielder.

Two hours later, Wrex still hadn't replied, so Arlas decided to go with the biggest two handed chain blade he could make, and then have Tali see if she could add some eezo to it to make it light enough for Wrex to use. He paused after getting the rough outline of the chain blade done, and looked down at the blade almost as big as he was, before reluctantly taking a half a meter off the length. Done with the basic outline, he set the oversized blade down, and headed for the corner of the armory, where the second pod was finally done and opening. He paused near the pod, and mentally reviewed everything he knew about gyrinx, before standing a bit back from the pod and dropping down to place both hands on the floor, and then he waited.

After a short wait, for an eldar at least, the gyrinx in the pod finally bounded out, before looking around. Arlas felt its gaze meet his, and while the gyrinx noted his position and presence, he felt the gyrinx dismiss his presence as unimportant. He took the time it was looking around the armory to look over the gyrinx. A bit thin, the four he knew about on the craftworld tended to be a bit bigger and more muscular than this one, but they were bonded to combat warlocks and farseers, and this one's tail looked to have been shortened at some point, likely a combat wound. Its fur was a deep brown, almost black, with white stripes down its sides, and its ear tufts of fur were dark red, providing an interesting contrast to its bright green eyes. Its tail trashed as the gyrinx spotted the other pod, and it leapt on top of the pod, only to snarl as it landed in the pod.

The gyrinx jumped out, and looked about the room again, but after seeing only him, huffed before jumping down and stalking toward him. The gyrinx looked up at him, before sending him a mental image of the female eldar, though the image also included smells and a feeling of firm kindness. *Where?*

Arlas sighed as he could now increase his total of 'gyrinxs that barely tolerated him' to five, before standing. *She was hurt. Follow, I will take you to her.*

The gyrinx immediately bounded toward the airlock, its destination clear, and Arlas followed. The gyrinx didn't even glance at him, instead following the path the stretcher had taken, its nose to the ground, ignoring everything else. The gyrinx got into the elevator, circling twice as it tried to follow the scent, before looking up at the slower eldar, and sending his irritation to Arlas. Taking a hint, Arlas stepped into the elevator, and started it up.

He refrained from glaring at the gyrinx as it bounded toward the med bay as the door opened. Instead he glared as what seemed like half the crew watched with confusion the bounding bond animal, before Ashley turned to him. "Where did you get a cat?"

He sighed, allowing his irritation to show. "That is a gyrinx, not… whatever a cat is."

He stalked after the cat, dreading what he would find when the craftworld gyrinx encounter the doctor. Luckily, he entered the room before the screaming could start, and noted with relief that Kap'Eiyl was kneeling in one corner of the room and out of the way, Chakwas was at her desk staring at the gyrinx in confusion, and gyrinx was up on the bed, staring down at the unconscious female. He approached the gyrinx, pausing when Doctor Chakwas spoke. "What is that cat doing in here?"

"That is a gyrinx, not a cat. And he is worried about his bond partner."

Arlas did admit that the single mindedness of the gyrinx was reassuring, he wasn't having to deal with a distraught psyker trying to kill itself or get to its bond partner in another system. The former would likely have blown out the hull in such a fragile warship, it was the reason why wraithbone resisted psyker attacks so well, but the latter would have caused a massive problem as the gyrinx did everything it could to get back to its partner. He stared at the gyrinx for a moment, before turning to the human healer. "Do not do anything to her without calling me first. Otherwise the gyrinx will defend her unless I have explained what is happening and why."

Doctor Chakwas frowned. "And how long is that one going to linger? A rifle is not conductive to relaxed healing environment."

Arlas didn't bother moving as she turned and gave Kap'Eiyl a pointed glare. "When they start listening to me again."

He didn't bother trying to order Kap'Eiyl out, instead just repeating his 'request' to be informed before the shooting started. The pathfinder simply left the room, not fighting a battle he was certain he couldn't win without losing what little authority he actually had over the spirit kin. He headed down to the lander, and simply sat down in his room, wishing he could take his meditations early, or even get some healing goddess Isha blessed sleep, but he had too much to do, and no idea how long he had. He sent Wrex a message, demanding a reply within a few minutes or he was going to get a stupidly large chain blade instead of one meant for actual combat, and that he needed to know how much the bet had earned him so he could give Tali and Garrus a portion. They were going to assist him in adding some things to some of his equipment, and he couldn't do that without knowing how much he now had.

He glanced at the door to the human's ship, before sighing and pulling the rune armor and spare shadow spectre armor off its stand, and placing both on the work table. He had an idea he wanted to try, and with the warp pack on the wraith armor stripped of most of the bulky armor, he figured it was worth a try to merge the jump jets of the shadow spectre into the already modified rune armor. He was under no illusions as to how difficult it would be though. But he was quickly discovering that sticking to the warrior paths was not going to work here, versatility was the key to supremacy on the field of battle here, not specialization.

A day later, Arlas was at the Normandy's hangar armory's workbench, having made a simple shuriken catapult after taking apart the shadow spectre armor, and was now watching Tali work on it. She was trying to add whatever was needed for their technology, but judging from the soft cursing that had been slowly growing louder of the last hour, he guessed it wasn't going well. The weapon lacked a clip and active power source, which was why he had to stay close, but he figured they would need an actual singer working with her to get results.

He glanced at a large crate, by eldar standards, containing a dozen pieces of equipment Tali and Garrus had thought the geth long rifle could get some use out of, as well as a canister of eezo and a stack of shield emitters he had asked them to get as well. Wrex had given him his share of the bet, which he was told was significant, but he had no idea how much he actually had in terms of material. He had taken Wrex's advice to 'invest,' which basically meant give it to a 'banker,' whatever that was, who would make his money make more money. He had recommended Varla Bon, a volus on the Citadel, and a quick meeting with the volus had apparently been all he needed, though the volus had insisted on explaining exactly how the process would work, which had allayed several concerns Arlas had, and a few questions had taken care of the rest. While that was happening, Tali and Garrus had been shopping.

He glanced back at a particularly vile curse in quarian from the quarian, but Tali didn't look up from the weapon in her hands. Arlas turned his attention back to the equipment, wondering at a sudden, minor spike in his dangersense. He frowned, before looking around, but other than the elevator descending, he couldn't notice anything else changing. He reached for the stack of shield emitters, trying to track the feeling down, his hand moving slowly, as the elevator dinged. He looked up as Wrex and Ashley stepped out of the elevator, his hand snagging one of the emitters, and began turning it over in his hands as the two walked past the work bench. Tali didn't look up as the two greeted her, and Arlas only got a greeting from the krogan and a stony glare from the human.

He simply nodded to Wrex, before turning the emitter in his hands over, examining every inch of it, his dangersense pulsing a warning. This was what the problem was, but why he couldn't see. Wrex stopped his forward progress, and coughed. "What are you two doing?"

Tali's reply was less than polite, but Arlas answered before she could get more than a couple words. "I asked Gemling to see if she could add your technology to some of mine. She is having more problems than anticipated. I am examining this shield emitter and keeping the weapon intact."

Tali glared at him, before picking up the shuriken catapult, and shoving it into his chest, making him gasp in surprise. Arlas felt something in the shield emitter shatter as the catapult hit it, and a blast of pale blue flecks washed over his face. He coughed, shaking his head, as Tali stalked off to the engine compartment. Arlas tried to stare after the monkeigh in confusion, but couldn't stop coughing for some reason, and shook his head, regretting his decision to wear his bodysuit and tabard today instead of the chest plate and helmet. Wrex smirked, slapping Arlas' back as the krogan started laughing. "You really have no idea what to do with a woman, do you? Don't worry, if you need help, Uncle Wrex is always here, ready to offer advice."

Arlas tried to glare at him, but his coughing was getting worse, and he could feel himself getting dizzy, and that his face was starting to feel swollen, like someone had slapped him again. He shook his head, trying to get his lungs to work right and focus, but he could feel himself getting light headed, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop coughing. Wrex paused, and looked at him with one eye, before turning to focus on him. "Uh, Arlas, you are looking kinda… what is the word? Pale? Yeah, pale, you thin hides get pale."

Arlas barely heard Wrex, but managed to shoot him a glare for the pale comment, before putting the emitter and catapult on the table, when he noticed his vision starting to darken around the edges. He reached out to try and stabilize the catapult so he wouldn't have to focus on it, when he felt a sudden searing pain, right through his throat and upper chest, before the darkness suddenly became total, and he lost track of everything.

Joannis stood outside the medbay, watching through the window as Chakwas and Liara both worked on Arlas. She sighed, before turning to Wrex. "So he started coughing, turned pale, tried to do his psyker light show, and then just fell over?"

Wrex grumbled as he picked at the bandage someone had put on his arm, and nodded. "You forget exploding eldar crap, but yeah."

Joannis groaned, looking at the crouched eldar walker in the corner, where it had moved in minutes after the female had arrived. Her gaze tracked across the medical bay, to the female eldar, and the surprisingly majestic and handsome cat standing over her. She had so many questions, and now Arlas was down, resting on the second table of the medbay. As she watched, Liara nodded and rubbed her forehead, before heading to the back room of the medbay, while Chakwas turned to talk to the walker for a moment. After watching for a second, Joannis turned to Tali, who was wringing her hands. "Tali, thanks for coming up. Wrex says you were… uh, talking with Arlas right before he had his attack?"

She caught herself before she implied there had been something else going on between the two, not wanting to fluster Tali any more than she already was. Tali nodded. "Yes, he asked me to try and see if I could combine the mass effect with his technology. I didn't think it would be that hard, but that thing had no moving parts. Nothing. Two hours spent on that bosh'tet piece of junk, and he just stood there watching. I thought he was being serious when he asked for help, but…"

Commander Shepard sighed, before nodding. "So he played a prank. What happened next?"

Tali stopped her rant, and took a calming breath. "I shoved the fake weapon against his chest, and left."

Wrex frowned, before suddenly speaking. "Wait, I heard something crack when that happened, and he put a shield emitter on the table right before he passed out."

Joannis turned and rubbed her forehead. "And you didn't mention that before because…?"

Wrex simply shrugged at her. "Didn't think it was important."

Joannis simply nodded, knowing better than to chide the old krogan. She glanced at the medbay, and then turned to the door. "Doctor Chakwas, finally here to update us on our… confrontational passenger?"

The doctor snorted in amusement at her description as she nodded. "He appears to be suffering from Eezo exposure."

All three of the people near her stared at her in surprise. Joannis spoke first. "That is it?"

Doctor Chakwas gave a small smile as she nodded. "Anaphylactic shock brought on by the exposure of eezo is my current guess. Current treatment is a endotracheal tube to facilitate breathing, while we attempt to remove the eezo from his system. How long that recovery will take is an open question, commander. So far we have removed very little of the eezo from his system. A milligram of the ten milligrams that emitter was supposed to have. And the test dose of epinephrine we gave him have not had any effect yet."

Joannis groaned, before running a hand through her hair as she thought. "Alright doc, looks like both of our eldar guests are in your hands. If you need anything, let me know. And I am authorizing you to contact medical command, in spite of any instructions to the contrary from Arlas, for assistance. The sooner we get his lanky, elfy ass back up, the sooner we can get that walker out of the med bay, and he can convince me that the cat's presence is necessary."

She watched the 'cat' turn its head to her and give her the most disgusted look she had ever seen on a feline's face, before turning its attention back to the eldar it was curled up beside. She sighed, and turned to Wrex and Tali, idly noting that most of the rest of the specialist team was in the common room. Realizing that everyone was already here, she nodded to Chakwas, before stepping forward. "Alright team, we may be down one member, but it isn't permanent, and we are more than just him. We are all the best and brightest of our respective fields, and I fully expect us to keep going, with or without the full might of our team. Saren is still out there, and he isn't going to wait for us to be at our best before he decides to fight us.

Tomorrow, we will be entering the Attican Beta sector, and making our way to the Hercules system. The System Alliance lost a scout frigate in the area to a geth patrol, and we are being sent in to recover what we can from it. Command isn't expecting survivors, but there are several isolated computers on board, and a cold probe was dumped with their scouting data according to the last logs they sent. Geth are expected, so prepare accordingly. Thankfully, we had a new mako delivered, an upgrade to the M35B, the M35D, which will let us bring everyone along as long as no one is taking up two seats. So this will be the first mission with the whole team deploying in the mako instead of the eldar's lander. I expect this to be a fairly standard mission, not the cluster frag we got on Feros with the Thorian."

Two days later, Joannis was cursing as she crouched in cover inside the crashed long range scout frigate, watching the HUD indicator for the mako sprinting for cover, chased by fire from two geth colossi. Wrex and Icivia were with her, while Jaclyn was with Ashley in the mako, leaving Garrus, Tali, Liara and Kaidan to hold another section of cover in the wreckage of the frigate. She poked her head up, counting a half dozen armatures, more than fifty infantry and the pair of colossi. She ducked to avoid another siege pulse, before turning as Wrex glared at her. "Standard mission, huh?"

"Wrex, shut up. Normandy, this is Joannis, got a slew of geth closing, need some air support to thin them out."

Joker's reply was staticy but understandable, vindicating her decision to improve the ground team's scanners and comms, and she began firing at the geth trying to edge closer, buying time until Joker could make his strafing run. As she ducked another siege pulse, she reflected she had sort of earned this situation, tempting fate as she had. But even as she poked her head up, she spotted the Normandy swooping down, lining up to bombard the geth with its weapons. Knowing Joker and the crew, they wouldn't leave much, but she stood up and began firing quickly at the geth. "Engage the geth, keep them from focusing on any of us."

She couldn't come out and say the Normandy was attacking, but her squad was smart enough to guess why she wanted the geth busy dodging bullets, rather than watching the sky.

In a distant system from the three spectres, a former spectre was having a very bad day. He glared at the communicator, but after a moment, the turian sighed. "Very well, I will send an executor of my company to secure the compound, they will be there within a week. You said the facility declared an Omega level emergency twelve hours ago?"

The salarian on the other end nodded, but didn't speak. Saren smirked softly, this administrator knew what happened to those that annoyed him, and Anoleis wanted to keep his steady flow of 'incentive' cash coming in. Saren hadn't bothered to tell him that it was about to end, one way or another, soon. "Right, keep the Board from doing anything for at least a week, and by then I will have troops there to deal with the problem."

Saren cut the feed, and tried to call his two plants inside the facility, but neither picked up. He frowned, before exerting his will, asking his vessel to send the elder asari slut to him. He needed her services one last time. He frowned as the ship didn't respond, but turned his head slightly as someone coughed behind him. "Ah, Benezia, I was just about to send for you. We have a problem on Noveria. I need you to go, get the information from the lab, and send it to me. The lab finally grew the bug, but apparently they didn't follow my orders, so something went wrong."

She stared at him for a moment, and he allowed himself to look her over one last time, admitting that while he preferred a woman with plates, she was good enough for relieving stress, and the scars added character to her otherwise flawless skin. He took a deep breath, calming the sudden rage as he remembered all the fighting, killing and dying from battlefields, while scheming asari whores like her laid around in luxury, reaping the benefits of all the good, honest, loyal turian men and women dying. He was less than pleased when she spoke up instead of leaving. "Unfortunately, we have another problem. My daughter has moved to have me legally removed as the head of the T'Soni line."

Saren groaned, his head pounding as the ship began turning its attention to its disobedient pet, and he spent a moment soothing its righteous anger, before turning his attention back to the asari bitch. "And what does that mean, Benezia?"

"You will lose access to my lineage's funds if I do not respond to the legal challenge."

Saren's head exploded in pain, and he came back to awareness with his claws around the useless toy's throat, forcing her to her knees and choking her. He let go as he regained control of his impulse to rip the failure's head from her shoulders with his bare claws, before returning to his chair, and communed with the ship, Sovereign. He ignored the pawn slowly getting to her feet, the blood trickling from the gashes his claws had made, focused only on the problem of suddenly losing more than three quarters of their funds. After he and the ship finished examining the facts, or rather he let the ship do it because it was so much faster than him, and would come to the same conclusion he eventually would, he released himself from its grip and stood up. "While we do not need the funds if our current plans succeed, they would jeopardize the plans to use the Conduit and assist Their return if we have to take longer than anticipated. You will return to wherever you need to in order to ensure you remain the head of your lineage, and return if you succeed. Otherwise, do not be taken alive. I will be sending what is left of your… 'huntresses,'" he said the word with unconcealed distaste, "with several of my men, and one of our… 'associates' to deal with the problem on Noveria."

The troops and play soldiers were already moving to the vessel that would ferry them, and a selection of geth fodder, to Noveria, while the asari skank took her own pathetic ship on her own. He didn't send any of her acolytes with her, not anticipating her success, but the distraction she would cause would throw people off the real trail. Especially if she caused significant damage. He quickly sent his plan to the ship, and had it program her course into the ship, so all she would need to do would be sit down, and either succeed in protecting the funds they might not even need any more, or die for the cause. Saren Arterius smirked slightly at the thought, amused at the thought of asari doing their own dirty jobs for a change.

He turned and watched the 'associate' chosen to replace Benezia stalk by, its four glowing golden eyes unwavering as it marched to the hangar bay, ready to do its master's bidding, crackles of red energy flashing around it. Saren smirked as he watched the creature, content in the knowledge he was saving his race from a fate worse than death, and getting his revenge on the other worthless races of the galaxy, especially the humans.

A/N - Still not sorry. For the previous chapter :P

Oh, and for those curious, the results of the tournament poll were 84.7% (or 39 votes) in favor of Arlas winning, and 15.2% (or 7) that wanted Arlas to get smacked around. So everyone go a little of what they wanted. Hurrah! :D

And this was very much a case of the chapter that would not get frakking written. I spent more time on this chapter than any other four chapters in the story. And yes, that reaction Arlas had has been planned since I started the story. Is it a universal reaction? Well, that is the question, isn't it? :P

Usual author requests go here, favorite, follow, review, like, tell all your friends, vote, etc.