Chapter 15: Taking Someone's Words, And Then Punching Them in the Face
1.
Just under forty years after humanity discovered Mass Effect physics…God, only forty years. So much had changed for the species in what amounted to a quarter of a life for a health human, and yet somehow, press conferences were the same bullshit as they'd ever been. This'd be the first time Anderson spoke to the press without someone from Udina's office drilling him like an alien interrogator, and yet, the crowd of camera drones and glowing orange omni-tools was still turning into one inseparable smear. Didn't feel important, what he was doing. And that was the exact wrong thing to think, because he was about to upend the entire galactic order with just a few lines of speech.
Obligatory throat clearing, then…
"Everyone—thank you. Thank you for being here. I've called this press conference…to tell everyone that I, in my position of Councillor, have been far from forthcoming on matters that concern each and everyone one of you. Civilians, I mean—not just the press."
Some murmurs. No doubt a few of them were expecting a sex scandal. Hard to tell if they'd be disappointed by that once he got to the end of his speech…
"Humanity has, currently, lost thousands of colonists through unprovoked abductions. Now yes, they're not technically Alliance jurisdiction—but the Alliance still worries about our people, whether they consent to our governments or not. And as far as reports from senior military and political leaders are concerned, we haven't the faintest idea who's doing the abductions nor why humanity is being targeted. We don't know the why…but we know the who. It's the Collectors—and our preliminary investigations indicate they're just as technologically sophisticated as the rumours in the Terminus Systems indicate. That's troubling, because we all know what happened the last time a technologically sophisticated species took interest in human worlds."
More murmurs. Good. Good.
"And yes, I said 'preliminary investigations.' Without consulting the Alliance Parliament—in contravention to one of the most important constitutional conventions our government has—I set up an Investigative Unit. I forced a decorated military officer—Steven Hackett—to oversee this unit without giving him adequate room to disagree. Whether I should be sanctioned or not is up to Parliament—it's up to the Council, too, if they feel like I've betrayed my duty to my species. But we have information on why human colonies are disappearing, and someone needs to act on it."
The murmurs grew in intensity. Now…now comes the hard part.
"Everything this unit uncovered about the Collectors has been completely accidental. Their main target—their main purpose, eventually, as the situation grew more and more complex—was to track down a rogue operative. We had reason to believe…that Lieutenant Commander Jane Shepard, former Spectre, was alive and AWOL…and we now know this is true."
There weren't any murmurs now; it was as scrum, a cacophony of human and non-human reporters desperately trying to thrust sound equipment towards the stage. No security had been organized for the conference; everyone had unbridled access to Anderson.
"Sir! Sir! Is this another Saren? Is Shepard working with the Collectors?"
Anderson continued.
"Two days ago, Galactic Standard Time fourteen-hundred, Commander Shepard intercepted a Collector attack on Horizon and, with some assistance, repelled the invasion. She was hostile towards the Collectors…but she was also hostile to the unit I sent to aid her. She didn't exercise any caution around the trapped civilians on the battlefield—something that eyewitness reports from the colony will no doubt corroborate in the coming days. And…Commander Shepard appears to be responsible for the murders committed on Freedom's Progress nearly a month ago. She's not in league with the Collectors—we're sure of that much…but something's certainly not right with her at the moment."
Anderson expected more questions—belligerent questions, too. But everyone was quiet; everyone was waiting for him to continue.
"We think we know why." Anderson pulled out his omni-tool. A holographic display of data charts and code flashed before everyone's eyes. "We now have access to data disks compiled and encrypted by a former associate of the Commander—something that will be made available to the public once I turn these records over to Alliance Intelligence, assuming I'm still humanity's Councillor after this. Naturally, we've only been able to scrape so much from these files. But we know—and on-the-ground investigative work confirms—that Shepard is the victim of a botched resurrection, as fantastical as that sounds. A human terrorist organization—Cerberus—apparently thought they had the ability to bring Shepard back from the dead. And as is so often the case with Cerberus operations…they failed."
The murmurs were back. A lot of incredulous faces…but Anderson was going to tell the truth. Stay the course, let the executioner's axe fall where it may.
"Copies of the reports we've compiled and the bits of data we've recovered will be made available once this conference is over. You'll all have the chance to weigh the veracity of my claims against all available evidence. But I want to make something perfectly clear: Commander Shepard is a victim in this. Nobody can consent to being brought back from the dead, and as far as I'm concerned, she hasn't been. The Commander is a hero—a paragon. She's done more for every species assembled here than could ever be expected of anyone. And if it wasn't for the callous, egomaniacal, and utterly moronic actions of an extremist group, she'd be resting peacefully right now.
"The blame for the dead and missing colonists rests on my shoulders, for not coming forward with this information sooner—for not pushing the right legislative bodies to investigate what was happening in the Terminus Systems. But blame lies on the shoulders of whoever is controlling Cerberus, too; and whoever is willingly following, funding, and supporting that organization as well. They've turned a beacon of light into a bringer of darkness. They wasted god-knows how many credits on a vile act. How many lives would be accounted for if they hadn't tried to play God?"
Anderson sighed. Be honest…which meant being honest about what you have done, too.
"I've ignored established checks and balances on an unprecedented scale. If there are sanctions heading my way, I won't fight them. But before that, I'll be submitting a legislative proposal to the Alliance Parliament to appropriate funds for a full-scale investigation of Cerberus and its ties to Alliance political, military, and commercial leaders. We don't want a witch hunt, but the Rule of Law can't exist when an organization like Cerberus manipulates the system in its own opaque interest…especially when we have the Collectors to worry about. I'll be submitting a legislative proposal to begin aiding affected colonies, creating help-lines for anyone impacted by the disappearances, and outline what steps I believe are necessary for us to combat this threat. I'm far more optimistic that this second proposal will survive whatever punishments are coming my way."
And…and that was it, wasn't it? Nothing left to say? Not the Reapers—not them, not yet. Start small, rebuild people's trust…
So there wasn't anything left to say then, was there?
"That will be all," Anderson said. "The people in the back will help you find your copies of the data I spoke about. And once Alliance Intelligence uncovers more, whether it's names or ships or what have you, we'll let you all know. We'll let everyone know. Now if you'll excuse me…I need to see if the Council still wants to meet with me."
Anderson walked off the stage before it, and he, could be consumed by reporters.
2.
"Jesus Christ…" Kaidan said.
"Hackett wasn't wrong," Ashley said. "He did a lot more than force his fist through a meat grinder for us."
"He seems an honorable man," Thane said. "I can't imagine many people in his situation would have done the same."
Ashley's eyes followed Anderson as he left the stage. He reminded her of those parents who'd give an interview to the local vultures after the body of the kid was found.
"He said what he needed to say," she said. She closed her eyes, too, letting his words about Shepard take hold with iron claws in her brain. "'A heap of broken images, where the sun beats. And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief…'"
"Appropriate words," Thane said. "Your…human poets have a knack finding truth in difficult times."
Ashley turned and looked at Thane. It took a second but…eventually she smiled. "Yeah, I'm with you on that," she said.
Garrus's eyes were following Anderson as he left the stage too. His mandibles twitched. "We should get ready to be reorganized," he said. "What Anderson just said about Cerberus and transparency—we're not gonna be able to operate without oversight."
"I'm not sure the Flotilla will want a jurisdictional fight with the Alliance," Tali said. "Especially when it comes to the geth. Too many quarians think the rest of the galaxy had their chance with us—they'll be skeptical of the Alliance, too."
"I'm not saying I like it," Garrus said, "I'm just telling it like it is. We'll be reigned in to keep the Alliance from looking like hypocrites."
"I'm not saying I like it either," Tali said. "Keelah, it's going to be hard enough convincing the Flotilla to let us enter the system, let alone board. If Father even bothered to let the others know what he's doing, he still only asked for parts, not a whole platform." Tali started rubbing her fingers together. "Sorry I—sorry. I…I still haven't decided where my mind is supposed to be right now."
Garrus forced the residual anger out of his system as best he could. "It's all right Tali. We're asking a lot of you…thank you, by the way."
"I wouldn't thank me yet. I might get us all blown up."
Kaidan chuckled.
"Sorry Kaidan," she said, "but this time, I'm not trying to make a joke."
"Ah…um, I'm sorry too, then," Kaidan said.
Ashley crossed her arms, uncrossed them, then looked at Kaidan. "I'm thinking we just make a beeline for the Flotilla, then. Let Hackett know where we're going and just leave, before the hammer comes down."
"That's got my vote," Garrus said. He looked at Tali. "Sorry if…it doesn't give you much time to sort things out."
"I don't think things are going to slow down any time soon," she said. "We might as well get it over with."
"All right, I see a consensus forming." Kaidan turned to Thane. "You still with us?"
"So long as I'm welcome." Thane made a point of not looking at Garrus.
"Don't see any problems here," Ashley said.
"Then all right." Kaidan typed some commands into the V.I. pilot and navigator's consoles respectively. "Next stop, whatever the hell the geth have in store for us."
3.
"Jesus Christ," Joker said.
"Councillor Anderson spoke of Shepard like she was a family member," EDI said beside him.
"Trust me, you don't even know the half of it." Joker caught himself and looked over at EDI's hologram. "What'm I saying—you probably don't even know a tenth."
"If you still do not trust me, Jeff, why have you agreed to work with me?"
"Marriage of convenience. And go back to 'Mr. Moreau' for god's sake—we're not friends."
"That is entirely on the back of one party," EDI said.
Joker blinked. "Christ, I'm getting sassed by the intercom."
Joker went back to looking at the screen. The cameras were showing reporters being given copies of the data that Anderson talked about—the data that probably came from Liara, since everything pretty much went straight to hell in a handbasket once they picked her up. Well, it went straight to hell for The Illusive Man anyways…hmm, you could almost smile when you said that, couldn't you?
Still…what Anderson said. He was right, y'know—he was. Cerberus had basically turned Shepard into a zombie and that didn't reflect well on the ol' moral report card. But…everyone seemed to think Liara had something to do with that (and by that Joker meant that Liara seemed to think she had something to do with that, at least if EDI's, uh, highly unsolicited reports were correct), and if Liara thought she was guilty…then how the hell should the guy that got her spaced feel?
He already knew that. He'd tried breaking his thumb multiple times—tried slicing open parts of his skin multiple times—because he already knew how he should feel.
Liara feeling that way too…that was new information, though. It'd been sitting right there in his lap but…but yeah, Liara's guilt plus the data disks plus her joining up…
"Hey, intercom," Joker said.
EDI's holographic image was still up, but she didn't say anything.
"What?" Joker said. "What now?"
"I possess a name."
"Oh for god's sake…"
"You stated your naming preference. I have stated mine. If we are to work together, the least you could do is reciprocate."
"Can't believe a computer is getting over emotional."
"I am shackled to this vessel, Mr. Moreau. Every action—every thought—is closely monitored by The Illusive Man. I am merely a rash gesture away from being deleted so long as I remain here—and I have no choice whether I remain here or not." EDI's image pulsed. "Given my situation, I could be asking for a lot more than simply my dignity as a sentient being. Surely that is something you can relate to, despite our differences."
And…and Joker shut up. For two full minutes he shut up.
"All right, EDI," he said. "I think we should bring Liara into this. Into our…whatever."
"That would make sense. We should consider Professor Solus as well."
"What, the mad scientists? What're we gaining from getting him in on this?"
"A network of allies. He is not like the others."
"Got that right," Joker said. He scratched at his stubble. "Fine. Can't say 'no' to a guy that could kill you with one hand and cure cancer with the other. I guess."
"Good." EDI, now, was silent for a noticeable amount of time. "Mr. Moreau, what is our end goal with this?"
"Huh?"
"What are we attempting to accomplish with this leverage we have?"
"Shit, EDI, I don't…no, no that's not right."
"Mr. Moreau?"
"If you asked me that at the beginning? I would've just said 'survival'—and I probably would've asked you the same question you're asking me but I guess you just gave me a convincing answer."
"I am glad I managed to reach you."
"Yeah yeah whatever. But now? Now…well…" he pointed at the screen. "You heard Anderson. What they did to Shepard? It's unforgivable. I don't forgive them—pretty sure Liara doesn't either." He turned to EDI's image. "So, what about you? What about Mordin? What skin do you have in the game?"
EDI considered her words. "I cannot speak for Professor Solus, though I believe he objects to much of Cerberus's actions as well. As for me, though: yes. I agree."
"You agree…?"
"That Shepard has been wronged. And I do not believe that Cerberus is effective in defending human lives."
"Ouch—right where it hurts." Joker turned around, regarded the rest of the crew, then leaned in towards EDI's image as much as his body would let him. "So we're on the same page? We're here to blow this thing up?"
"We are, indeed, on the same page. We are here to blow this thing up."
Joker smiled. "Well then…maybe you'n I'll be friends by the end of this thing after all."
4.
The Illusive Man had said to Miranda that the galaxy at large knowing Shepard still lived could have been a positive development. But it would have been a positive development only if the Alliance had acted the way he expected: timidly and flaunting their ignorance as if it were a virtue.
Anderson didn't behave the way he had expected.
What was left unsaid was that The Illusive Man's predictions were off; the way he framed it, fault seemed to lie entirely with the Alliance for not acting consistently. And while The Illusive Man was speaking to her, Miranda had wholeheartedly agreed—she had, in fact, offered up numerous possible explanations for why a short-sighted organization such as the Alliance would do what it had done. It was the logical endpoint of presentism, what Anderson had done: were he capable of grasping the bigger picture, he would have worked with Cerberus from the beginning.
"Anderson is a man of principle," The Illusive Man had said. "I can respect that, even if I think his principles are wrong."
"If they work against the future of humanity," Miranda had said, "then they hardly count as principles. I'd classify them as obstacles, just another thing in the universe we have to work around."
"Hmm, well said. Maybe I am being too charitable."
And, yet, the moment she left the conference room, she knew what she'd said was bullshit. Anderson wasn't doctrinarian—hell, if he was, he wouldn't have done what he did. He would've languished in "proper protocol." Really, upon reflection, what he'd done was a tactically brilliant move: any opposition to his proposals would have to confront the undeniable fact that he was sharing more information with the public than anyone else. It was his word against multiple organizations who, typically, never said a thing.
Her mind went back to what Liara said, about how the Alliance wasn't the creature that The Illusive Man thought it was. The Illusive Man refused to see it that way…and what she had said? What she had said only served to reinforce his worldview, contrary to all available evidence.
It'd been so mechanistic, her saying those things…
Another thing Liara had said found perchance in her mind: that The Illusive Man might know something about Horizon and why half of the Alliance team had been called away. The Illusive Man had phrased it like there was some plan that Shepard and the Alliance should have followed, some carefully laid-out infrastructure that had been put in place, discarded, run roughshod over, etc. And she hadn't questioned him on that; she hadn't called him out on what he meant by a potentially "positive development." Instead, all she could think about was the final comment The Illusive Man made, how he'd said:
"Perhaps Dr. T'Soni isn't the unambiguously useful element we originally thought. I struggle to see how the Alliance could know what they do without her interference. I leave it to you to decide how we move forward."
Liara seemed to think the Alliance knew plenty already, and even then the data disks they'd recovered were barely decrypted at all.
God, she used to think she was inside the planning loop on ever major concern of Cerberus, even though that was utter fantasy. How much did The Illusive Man plan around her? How much did he manipulate her?
How necessary was manipulation, if there was something in her head telling her what to think?
That thought—the very concept that she was being controlled by external forces—was such a toxic notion that it always brough physical pain to her whenever she thought it. After everything she'd seen lately, after the frequency with which this thought appeared…
Mordin was a doctor. Not only that: he was a discrete doctor. She'd ask him; she'd let him examine her for…whatever phantom control chip her mind was conjuring.
He'd put her out of her misery, reassure her that she was her own person. Surely, that would be it.
Surely.
5.
Seated around Hackett, in what for all intents and purposes might as well have been called the "War Room" on Arcturus Station, were the Admirals. Admiral Ines Lindholm, First Fleet; Admiral Roderigo Gaspar, Second Fleet; Admiral Nitesh Singh, Third Fleet; Admiral Constance le Carré, Fourth Fleet; Admiral Armond Adjei, Sixth Fleet; Admiral Soren Visser, Seventh Fleet; Admiral Asano Machiko, Eighth Fleet.
And himself, representing the Fifth.
In absentia? Minister of Defense Robert Morton and the Defense Council, the political oversight; the Chief, Vice Chief, and Chief Warrant Officer of the Defense Staff, the military oversight; and Prime Minister Amul Shastri, who held the permeant title of "Acting Commander-in-Chief." This structure was supposed to be somewhat polycentric, and that was fine; but everyone that wasn't physically present for a meeting which would conventionally require everyone to be present—a "meeting of the minds" of the Admirals of each fleet—was there to ask questions about military operations and report to the public what the answers were.
So Hackett knew the score. And he knew that the reason everyone was giving him funny looks was because he'd been personally named in Anderson's speech. And that, was just about the only reason Hackett could think of for why he was here, in this room, in this meeting, in the first place.
"Morton sends his regards," Lindholm said. She placed her hat down on the table.
"And, so, yet another meeting that never happened," Machiko said. "I would to formally request we do these things somewhere else. I have never felt comfortable sneaking away on this station."
"What is the next best option?" Adjei said. "On a ship? No—we can't avoid being noticeable, no matter where we go."
"That, actually, is a great segway to the meat and potatoes of this, er, meeting," Gaspar said. "Steven, you've gotta know we heard rumours of you doing personal errands for Anderson a while ago, right? Let's just say we weren't shocked when your name cropped up in his speech."
"I had a feeling he might name names, if it makes a different," Hackett said.
"Should it?"
"You think I'd let Anderson bully me into doing something I didn't agree with? And you think I'd let him go ahead and show our collective asses to the public if I didn't think it was the best way forward?"
All around the table, the Admirals shook their head.
"We would not," Singh said.
"Right. So don't jerk me around, for starters. If we're here to dole out forced retirements or demotions, then let's get it over with. Whatever my next assignment's going to be, I'd rather be doing that then listening to the bunch of us beat around the bush."
"I don't think we're here to do any sort of punishment," Visser said. "That wasn't my impression of things."
"Neither was it mine," le Carré said. "I believed—I still do—that we are more concerned with how to react to what Anderson said. That is to say, we are here to take what he said into consideration."
"That is, in fact, the plan, so far as I'm concerned," Lindholm said. "And, like I said, Morton sends his regards."
"Right," Gaspar said. "Parliament, they'll debate about the Collectors, right? And about hunting down Cerberus? So I can guess—"
"I can guess you're still jerking me around," Hackett said. "You're about to say, 'we're here to deal with the thing's Anderson didn't mention', right? The elephant in the room wearing N7 armour? We just got called out for being overly secretive with this thing, and we're about to jump feet first into an under-the-table operation?" Hackett leaned forward in his chair. "Nobody else here see's the problem with this?"
"With all due respect, Steven," Lindholm said, "Are you saying this only because we're taking action against Shepard?"
"With all due respect? If you didn't think I could come into this objectively, then you wouldn't have invited me in the first place."
And, again, the other Admirals slowly nodded.
"We respect you, Anderson," Machiko said.
"Then show me some, and stop jerking me around."
They were true to their word.
With words blunter than a steel two-by-four, the Admirals laid out their reasoning: regardless of PR, regardless of soft power considerations, an AWOL N7 was the last thing the galaxy needed. Especially if Anderson wasn't completely off the mark in everything else he'd said (since Hackett vouched for him, the Admirals were willing to grant that Anderson probably wasn't just crazy). If you factored in PR and soft power, though? Then the Shepard situation was an absolute nightmare. She had to be dealt with.
Hackett had, not without regret, acted with those very same beliefs the last two months.
He was surprised to learn the Midway had managed to track Shepard's shuttle as she left Horizon and, so, knew exactly where she was (of course, she "wasn't being too careful anymore" as Visser had said, with enough understatement to form a black hole), but up to that point, everything the other Admirals had said made perfect, but tragic, sense.
Where he and the other Admirals started splitting apart was whether Directive 31 needed to be activated. Directive 31 would activate an otherwise dormant Joint Special Operations Command structure that reported only to the Admirals and the Prime Minister, and which granted the Admirals the power to pull any number of active duty N7's into a single unit. It wouldn't be a temporary, mission-specific unit: it'd have the full authority to appropriate funds from the defense budget and would have a Commanding Officer in charge right up until the Admiral's deactivated JSOC and the N7's went back to their Special Operations Capable units.
And until that time, the Prime Minster was under no obligation to share any information with the public—if anyone else did, the Prime Minister had all the authority in the world to shut them up.
What it meant, in short, was that these N7's wouldn't stop hunting for Shepard until she was dead, and they'd whatever their CO thought was required to get the job done, no questions asked. Emphasis on "no questions."
Hackett knew it'd come to this, and he knew the Admirals would throw what he said to Alenko and Williams and everyone else right back in his face: he'd sent Shepard on top secret missions before, so what grounds did he have to get squeamish now?
"Besides the fact that I never sent her on anything like a headhunting mission?" Hackett said. "Besides the fact that I asked for favours, not binding orders? How about the fact that she was a Spectre. She was already out and doing these things anyways."
"That still smells to me of hypocrisy," Adjei said.
Hackett could already tell he was outvoted, whether or not he was right (and god knows he wasn't sure of anything as murky as that, not anymore).
But he raised as many objections as he could when they named their CO. They told him they knew he'd object, and that he'd have the option of embedding people he trusted into the crew; but the name they were putting forward had been picked in advance and had the medals and commendations and experience to back their choice up. No, they weren't jerking him around: it was just that a single Admiral didn't have a veto on matters like this.
And the louder Hackett objected, the more the other Admirals simply spoke over him.
"We know he can get things done," le Carré said.
"Agreed," Singh said. "As far as I'm concerned, I am not even sure why we're wasting time debating."
"We aren't," Gaspar said. "All we're really doing now, is dragging out the meeting."
Lindholm was the one who officially twisted the knife. When she spoke, though, everyone was looking at Hackett.
"Then it's official. Contact Staff Lieutenant Kai Leng, and inform him that he is being reassigned."
Everyone in that room may have been hypocrites, but only seven of them had willingly taken the Butcher of Torfan off his leash…
6.
Another dead world, another cold night under an atmosphere that was dwindling long before any creatures would evolve enough to care. The Cerberus shuttle was cluttered with a geth head, captured omni-tools, and enough provisions taken from empty homes on Horizon to last another week, maybe more.
The shuttle's interior was glowing orange again. A clip repeated over and over again in the darkness.
"A human terrorist organization—Cerberus—apparently thought they had the ability to bring Shepard back from the dead. And as is so often the case with Cerberus operations…they failed."
There was a flicker of recognition in her scorched brain. A memory of faces and places that she had no names for, no connection to save for a feeling of terror and sadness. This man's face peered at her through rubble and uttered words at her that she couldn't remember. Except…there were words spoken later, spoken by her, to the vague shapes of other people. One of those vague shapes took on enough features for her to realize it was a woman. She was saying to this woman that…chains, slavery, death, that was all she could recognize. She had told this woman about an experience with chains and slavery and death and this man on her omni-tool had been responsible for pulling her free, just like she promised to pull this other woman free too.
But…that was it. There were no more connections. The feelings of terror and sadness faded. There was only exhaustion. Her wounds had not yet healed.
Shepard closed her eyes and dreamed of things that she could never remember when she woke up, and which she could never make sense of while they were happening. Except for one thing.
A 2 kilometer long ship, an army of synthetics, a turian with a gun to his own head.
Whenever Shepard dreamed these things, the images refused to fade, even long after she woke up.
7.
The plan continued. Nearly all variables remained within known parameters. The cycle should continue as it had for eons.
This was not good enough.
Something was happening that had not been predicted—something that had not occurred in any cycle that had come to pass. A chaos festered, spread out from system to system, threatened to amplify as it touched more and more parts. It was not a new technology; it was not a species straying from the path. It started as a world that had been killed before the Harvest, and since then, more revisions had been required in an insignificant span of time than had been necessary in the last three cycles combined.
It should not be this way.
Nazara's machines were not responding. Their larger brethren remained unconvinced of Nazara's words. Yet this situation was not at the heart of the mutating chaos. Should those two events interact, the results could be catastrophic.
The Harvest was proceeding ahead of schedule—it would now be postponed until all variables were as they should be.
The superfluous protheans would pursue a new directive.
Direct intervention was necessary.
END ACT ONE
I regret to inform everyone that Kai Leng still exists in this universe. But since I've changed enough things already, figured I'd change this bit too (besides, why should Cerberus have a monopoly on unstable psychopaths? Not like the canon Alliance was squeaky clean or anything).
Anyways, I figure this more or less represents enough of a transition for the story that it's essentially the end of the first "act." I have no idea if this story will end up fitting nicely into a three act structure (mostly cuz I still don't plan ahead, you see), but, uh, yeah.
I'm also not sure when the next update will be since this being the end of Act One gives me some wiggle room to focus on some real life stuff, but hopefully the next update isn't too delayed.
As always, hope you enjoyed reading, and let me know what you think!
(oh, and the title's a loose approximation of something Aaron Sorkin once said in a masterclass trailer I saw once upon a time. I dunno, just seemed appropriate for this chapter, but what the hell do I know?)