Man off the Moon

by FiendLurcher

A rusted hero let loose in a galaxy of myriad grays, walking the familiar steps and seeking answers beyond death at the end of that long, ever-winding road. (Currently editing ch22, took a break last month cuz of flu&brainfog)

20. The T'soni 2: With a Vengeance

Let's play this cool, Emiya thought with an exhale.

For a moment, he felt a surge of worry that the asari were intent on simply forcibly opening the airlock into the vacuum of space itself, but it quickly revealed itself to be a baseless fear.

The hatch opened with a hiss, the internal pressure difference between the Tristar and asari craft only such that there was a slight change in pressure as the two crafts reached equilibrium. As the airlock was fully opened, he could see out into what looked like a hangar of some kind just beyond the hatch, with regular life support.

Their ship is big enough for the whole shuttle to be taken inside?

That put it at a whole class above the frigate he had encountered, much less his own barely-more-than-a-shuttle Tristar. How the hell did they catch me off guard with something this big?

He did not have long to look out, as through the hatch walked in a tall statuesque asari, wearing a crimson hardsuit with golden highlights, the hard bottoms of her boot heels clicking against the floor with every step. She had an air of absolute authority and command about her as she slowly turned to look at them.

That hardsuit could only mean one thing on an asari - a Justicar.

They were an ancient order of extra-judicial enforcers, tasked with enforcing a rigid code that supposedly extended to cover all possible situations.

In theory, they could be called a form of policy-enforcing knighthood order, but in practice, there was so little oversight among their number that it was a difficult moniker to apply. Really, they were government-sanctioned executioners. They took no prisoners, they answered to no one while performing their duties, they cared nothing for the specifics of law or circumstance - all crimes carried the same penalty in their eyes.

Death.

Ruthless and unyielding, they were the closest thing to his old self he had seen in this galaxy, indiscriminate demons of justice that stopped at nothing.

Which in practice made them his worst enemy.

A Hero of Justice in an imperfect world would always do harm, inevitably leading to a conclusion where justice must be served on him who had sought to embody it. A champion of justice was an unsightly existence in the eyes of society. That, and there was a single glaring difference between himself and the Justicars. He had acted upon his ideals alone, whereas they lived by a code sanctioned by the whole of asarikind, which required a compromise on their part.

They were generally accepted and even occasionally celebrated existences among asari, something he had never been able to experience during his time as a human. Of course, he would have never fully accepted the muzzle they had, which made that difference possible.

Which was what annoyed him so about that order.

They merely protected the status quo.

In response to the Justicar order's successes, those who lived by greed and malice had simply gone to greener pastures just beyond a border, or worse yet gone and gotten themselves elected into some official capacity.

Though there were no real elections for positions of power due to the reliance on direct democracy, there were still those who had the honor of preparing certain matters for public debate, who were technically paid a salary drawn from taxes.

As such, there were dozens of more questionable republics, that were in actuality little more than shields for some shadier dealings occurring on Thessia.

And the Justicar codes were very specific in that regard, forbidding them from acting out against the democratically elected officials or the foundations of the republics themselves or outside of asari territory. If there was something he could not stand, it was half-measures that only served to prolong a problem. If cutting down a person was the best way to resolve a problem, then cut down that person he would.

But the Justicar instead looked away if their code did not allow them to confront injustice.

Thus, despite the Justicars' overwhelming individual competence and wide authority and their existence that stretched back for thousands of years, they were forced to be just as active today as ever before. Nothing had changed, because their code did not allow change.

They fought the symptoms, caring nothing for the cause.

It reminded him precisely of his early years, filled with failures and blind mistakes.

Yet, hadn't he just executed a whole ship's worth of batarians on that measure? That one easy and permanent solution for all ails, wasn't that what he so despised? Stuck between effective measures that numbed him and immature half-measures that accomplished nothing as he was, the very sight of the Justicar aggravated him.

The Justicar Order represented that very fault in his eyes to a completeness he had never reached. They did not protect the people. They did not enforce justice. They did not seek to right what was wrong. They simply blindly followed their code.

Was it the fact that they were half-boiled, or that they had been able to exist without being condemned by asari society that he found so distasteful? Did he find them too naive for their cause, or was he envious of their ability to continue with their quest at the cost of the essence of it?

He wasn't sure anymore.

Some dislikes ran too deep to be analyzed or understood.

In the corner of his eye, Emiya could see Hoana biting her lip and nervously staring alternatively between the Justicar and him. The adult asari's deep purple eyes locked onto his, narrowing as she sniffed.

Turning to look at Hoana, she spoke.

"That is not your father, child. How do you come to be here?"

"Umm..." Hoana hesitated, glancing at Emiya nervously.

"Is that any business of yours?" Emiya asked as he stood up in front of Hoana.

"I did not question you, human, stand aside and allow truth to out." The tall asari—for her race, anyhow—said as she narrowed her eyes at him.

Emiya said nothing, narrowing his own eyes in return.

Should I question her authority here? They're only supposed to act within asari space. No, that will just highlight the lawlessness of this region. Her ship has forcefully disabled mine, giving her de facto authority.

While he had gotten accustomed to Maiden-level biotics in i'usu and biotiball, he had never faced a Matriarch before. And from that experience, one thing was clear; you did not want to fight a biotic in an enclosed space without something that broke their line of sight.

He had watched and read things about what talented Matriarchs could do but clear recordings for good analysis were relatively scarce. But what he knew did not seem all that promising, especially in regards to Justicars; centuries of dedicated and patient training; hundreds upon hundreds of battles to draw experience from; the best skills the Asari Republics could offer in training and the freedom to act as they best saw fit without holding back.

This was not a fight he wanted to have on a spaceship.

"So you are not her father. By the code, I am tasked with the protection of all asari children. You will release her to my custody, so that—"

"No, you clearly have better things to be doing right now. I'm heading back to Thessia to her parents, right now. Well, was, until you so unceremoniously attacked us."

The Justicar paused and suddenly the tension in the ship ramped up.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see four additional asari standing by the airlock, garbed in black hardsuits. None had weapons on them, not that they usually needed any in such tight quarters.

"You seem to labor under the misconception that your opinions in this matter are of any concern."

Emiya shot back immediately. "And you seem to think I believe that you're a Justicar, just because you wear that armor."

He could hear five simultaneous gasps as the Justicar blinked. Though she held a stoic mien before his accusation, it was obvious she was surprised that her authenticity was being questioned from her eyes.

He could see her reigning in several impulses before she finally spoke.

"To make false claims of being one of the Sworn Order is the most treasonous of crimes. Any and all impostors are punished to match such a foolish act." She did not assert her identity directly; if she had to say that she was something, it would seem like his questioning may have had substance to it, now.

Only the Justicar wore that armor and all asari knew it by sight, after all. Only a fool would question that. A fool, or someone who knew something was wrong.

He had never been able to find a copy of the whole Justicar code since it was an ancient thing that was to be memorized in whole by the Justicar alone and no one else, but he did know one thing with relative certainty. The Justicar were only supposed to act against asari or within asari-held territory when acting out their code.

By that logic, she had no right to act against him so long as Hoana did not wish to leave him. Of course, he needed to make that clear in this situation. Now that he thought about it, however, was there any reason for him to not simply hand Hoana over? If this asari was a Justicar, that would mean she would protect Hoana if he handed her over.

He had refused her on impulse, more than anything.

Temper, temper. Play it cool.

If he offloaded Hoana onto the Justicar, Hosin was certain to think no better of him. Then again, Emiya was already fairly certain that any and all goodwill he had garnered with the quarian must have evaporated with his accidental kidnapping of the man's only child.

"So you are a Justicar, then? One who follows the code to the letter?" he asked directly, changing tack a little.

She inhaled, standing straighter.

It was one thing to be forced to assert one's authority before an implication, and another to answer a direct question.

"I am of the Sworn Order. One who judges and who executes, by the Code. Within me is naught but servitude to my Oaths and the protection of all asari," she answered, staring at him now as she recited that line.

It was iconic enough that even Hoana recognized it.

Emiya smirked. "Oh well, that makes this simple then. You were neither called nor chosen by your kind here." To punctuate his words, Hoana was gripping his leg with her small hands, half in hiding from all the other asari. "Get off my ship, Justicar."

Her expression narrowed then, as she glared at him.

He waited with bated breath for her reaction. Had he pegged her wrong?

"I am not here by the Code this day. The Third Oath of Subsumation has been evoked, and I am here as but the blade of another," the Justicar finally said, turning to look at one of the huntresses by the airlock.

Emiya blinked.

What does that mean?

One of them looked up from an omnitool, reporting out loud her findings.

"The distress signal was not sent from this ship, the tightbeam does not match the signature, ma'am!"

The Justicar frowned, looking at them again. "Take them into custody, then. I will question them once I have investigated Dretirop."

Emiya inhaled, flexing his fingers as he rolled his wrist. Five asari would be a little bit difficult to handle, especially given their biotics.

Long odds, but if he shut off the lights and managed to get the Justicar first...

"Yes, ma—"

"Is that truly necessary, Anatha?" A new voice. Everyone froze, and even Emiya felt a sudden urge to cease with his planning and to simply listen.

The Justicar frowned, turning to look at a new figure slowly emerging into the Tristar. The four huntresses bowed at her passing and even the Justicar seemed to wilt and withdraw a little at that presence.

Emiya blinked and at the same time, next to him, Hoana whispered out loud the name that was on the tip of his own tongue as well.

"Matriarch Benezia...!"

A spiritual leader, this far out in the Attican Traverse? What is she doing here? He gawked before he got his surprise back under control.

The asari wore a dark dress, which Emiya could immediately tell was of the highest quality and cut, that would serve perfectly well as personal body armor if it came to a fight.

Emiya blinked, inhaling as he focused on himself again. He ignored the sheer presence she seemed to exude, a talent for simply commanding the attention of all who were anywhere near her. She was not the first one he had met with such an ability.

Okay, two Matriarchs and four commandos. This is getting dicey.

If he tried to take one down, the other would be free to act to restrain him. Even with crossing lines of sight, one of them could always attack him.

Biotics was a game-changer of the highest order when it came to fighting in constrained environments. Everywhere here was within their range, and with Hoana he could not act freely to take them all out with one large move. He could jump out of his body and overwhelm them with his superior speed, but that would lead to questions from Hoana.

Maybe if he stunned her first...

But then he would have to lie to her to explain how they got away. If he killed these asari like the batarians, Hoana would remember the Justicar and Matriarchs, and if he simply stunned them and made a run for it, the asari would still have a lead on the Tristar that would lead them straight to Hosin's.

Even if he wiped their computers, there was no telling whether someone would remember his ship's ID. Besides, there were only so many stripped-down Tristars with scorched radiation panels in the galaxy.

And fighting would still keep him stuck in the hangar of the larger ship, meaning he would have to act out without knowing his full opposition. What if there were security measures set to blow up or magnetically lock down his ship or even something as drastic as self-destruct the asari ship in case of an emergency?

Besides, though they had attacked him, unlike the batarians they hadn't actually shot at him and were willing to talk. One massacre on his hands mere hours ago, he had no appetite for destruction at the moment.

Change of plan, get arrested, and then break out and get away once they're not grouped up together. Hoana will be a problem, though. They won't throw her in the same cell with me, if at all. I'll have to wing it from there...

"They are suspicious," the Justicar said, though somehow it seemed less like a valid argument and more akin to a petulant complaint, before the other Matriarch.

"Then we shall politely ask them to join us for a respite until the investigation on Dretirop is concluded. There is no need for such hostility, for we are clearly not in the company of enemies." The eldest asari present continued speaking. Her words seemed less like a rebuke, and more like an alternative that simply had not been considered until now, somehow. "After all, are these not the very innocent eyes you are sworn to serve and protect by the code?"

Placing a hand on Hoana's shoulder, Benezia smiled at the Justicar, with Hoana blinking and looking up between the two elder asari.

Emiya blinked.

When did she...?

Had he been too focused on Anatha? It wasn't a saccadic movement technique - had she simply retained a presence so innocuous that it went past his notice?

The Justicar frowned, inhaling slowly before shaking her head and looking away. "As you wish."

"Very well then, let us begin by properly introducing ourselves," the calming asari continued. "You may already be familiar with me by way of reputation, but let me have the pleasure of introducing myself, nonetheless. I am Matriarch Benezia, a humble guide and adviser to all asari who seek my counsel. And who might you be?"

She looked down at the adolescent asari, bowing slightly at the hip so as to not tower over her.

"Umm, umm! I'm Hoana!" the adolescent asari said, bouncing like a puppy as she excitedly stared up at the much taller asari. Benezia smiled down at her, inclining her head slightly, before looking up at him expectantly as she stood up straight.

Emiya exhaled, looking at the two. Did they set up this 'good cop, bad cop' exchange in advance?

"Saiga Fujimura," he said simply, still eyeing Anatha varily.

Benezia smiled, nodding. Somehow it seemed like a mother approving of an unruly child who had finally listened, and Emiya had to keep his face from twitching.

At least she doesn't seem hostile. I can't sense any malignant intent from her.

"Now, have either of you eaten yet?"

He blinked at the seeming non-sequitur, before immediately responding.

"Yes."

"No," Hoana answered in the same instant.

Emiya had to blink, looking down at the adolescent asari who was suddenly and studiously avoiding his gaze.

"...I thought you said you ate while I was getting the ship ready?"

"I did!" Hoana fidgeted under his gaze. "...Well, some of it. I don't like water."

He had to sigh, raising a hand to his brow.

How fickle.

"Did you at least drink properly? I even made some fruit juice for you."

"Yeah! Can you make some more?"

He raised an eyebrow at the hopeful tone. "Not if you continue to waste food like this."

"I didn't waste it, I just—!" Hoana's eyes shot wide as she raised a hand to her mouth, and for just a second her eyes wandered to the storage compartment.

The very one where she had stowed away, before.

Emiya blinked before his expression went carefully neutral as he stared at her. The littlest asari present seemed to be sweating bullets under his gaze.

"...Who did you feed it to, then...?" he asked in a very quiet voice, leaning down until he was looming over her.

Hoana licked her lips nervously, avoiding looking at him directly. "Umm..."

His eyes narrowed and he stood up, turning around to look at the baggage compartments she had glanced at earlier.

"Umm, I poured it away! I didn't..." Hoana tried to say, but the fib was obvious to his ear. He took a step forward and she jumped to follow, intending to stop or distract him somehow. "Saiga, umm, I'm hungry now, so, could you make some more, please? Please?"

Pausing and ignoring Hoana for the moment, Emiya turned to stare at Benezia who seemed content to simply stay quiet and watch this play out by the side.

Well, let's see what she does. If this Matriarch is trustworthy after all.

He grabbed Hoana under her arms and lifted her up to Benezia, who blinked at the proffered child with mild surprise.

"Hold this," he said without preamble, ignoring the flabbergasted asari all around him as the Matriarch took the child with but an amused expression.

"Umm, Saiga, I..." Hoana tried to protest but was silenced gently by Benezia.

"Hush, child."

Emiya walked up to the luggage and began to look through it.

Something small enough for her to carry, but with sufficient ventilation...

"Ah, that's it."

He pulled it out, turning around to level a disappointed stare at Hoana.

"What is this?"

"...It's umm...Kurinth, He's very nice and doesn't bite at all, I swear."

Emiya snorted, holding the little sleeping lizard by its tail in the air with one hand. It had the same strange three-way parting jaw and long tail, though it only pronged into two distinct ends, as the creature that he had to fight before in the cave where they had landed.

Do they increase with age? No, it's not a fox, is it?

"Hoana, we do not pick up strange animals from the planets we visit. Especially animals that will grow this big." Emiya said, raising his other to his shoulder height.

A few asari present stared at the extended hand, before looking back at the little lizard in his hand. Their surprise and disbelief were obvious.

"B-but, I'll take really good care of him, I swear. Papa will be okay with it, I'm sure!"

"I very much doubt that," Emiya deadpanned, thinking to how often Hosin complained about the lack of space in his abode. "We are taking him back right where you picked him from."

"B-but...!"

Benezia made a gentle laugh, disrupting the conversation. Both turned to look at her, then.

"Do you see now, Anatha? There is no cause to worry over this child's safety, in matters regarding this man," the Matriarch said, looking at the Justicar who had crossed her arms and seemed annoyed by the whole situation. "After all, does it not appear that her safety is his paramount concern?"

"...Very well. But they're not leaving until I've investigated Dretirop." The Justicar acquiesced, before turning to look at the four huntresses by the airlock. "What of the scans?"

"They are mostly complete, several unusual sites were detected. Do you wish to depart, ma'am?"

Anatha shook her head. "Send out an investigation team along with the commandos for protection detail, I will come look over the results later."

Having said that, she nodded at Benezia who smiled in turn.

"Seeing as how that is settled, I do apologize for the suddenness and circumstance of this meeting. But," the Matriarch continued, patting Hoana on the shoulders as she spoke. "As it appears the little one has not been properly fed—and by no means do I wish to cast aspersions on you, but children are wont to be stubborn—shall we adjourn to my ship for an early lunch? We also have an expert exo-biologist on staff, who could look over your little friend, as well."

Emiya hesitated.

She apologized for it, but she didn't say that she wasn't the one who initiated this attack, even if she is giving off that impression. I didn't notice anything from her while she held Hoana, so she's probably not intending to fight us? Should I ask directly whether she was the one who ordered the sudden attack, or not?

He could handle hardball with the Justicar and probably even fight it out with all of these people present.

But could he fly back to Thessia after that?

Yet at the same time, he could already tell that he was not going to win in a war of words against this Matriarch. His gut instinct, honed by years of working with exceedingly competent, headstrong, and proud women, simply shouted at him to tread very carefully with this elder asari.

Should I decline? Will she turn the matter back to the Justicar? I can handle that, but... Or is she bluffing?

As he said nothing for several seconds, Benezia only smiled.

Finally, he cleared his throat.

"Alright."

---

;

---

Emiya looked around, trying not to fidget on the rather comfortable floor cushion. Though he tried not to show it he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Is she really just going to have lunch with us? He felt more than a little exasperated.

Before him, the asari chef was preparing the various ingredients and setting up for the performance. A part of him was rather excited at the opportunity of witnessing an asari chef in person for the first time, but he tried to focus on the situation at hand.

While they were escorted into the guest hall, he had wasted no time and began to look around and gather information by all means available to him and it hadn't been promising. The ship he was on—the Dreyn N'var—was a heavily-armored and armed cruiser. The ship had it all; speed, power, and armor to spare. It was one of the first things he noticed, as he began to look through the specs of the ship and a basic schematic.

The transmitter might identify itself as a diplomatic envoy, but there was no mistake about it - this was a warship.

It almost looked like a giant flying manta ray of some kind that had swallowed his Tristar whole, not too different from the galaxy-famous asari dreadnought Destiny Ascension in shape. And while he had thought the mass effect field massive earlier, he realized that he had not even sensed a third of the core's full output as he managed to get into the ship's mainframe.

Their FTL-sensor range is absolutely massive.

The mainframe supercomputer could take in all that data in real-time and render the relevant details to the bridge personnel, even building predictive models outside of its actual range and offering variable possibilities for anything before it even happened.

No wonder they got the drop on me. They must have been aware of me while still light-minutes beyond the edge of the system, way outside of the Tristar's range at the best of times.

With his ship inside of the Dreyn N'var, it would be a rather difficult ordeal to escape by force. Even now, though the four commandos had receded, the Justicar and Matriarch were still right here next to him.

Holding his hand, Hoana was staring at everything with overwhelmed awe, only interrupted by piques of worry as she would look over her shoulder; Kurinth had been taken away by a doctor halfway into their walk here. Benezia had assured her that the lizard would not be hurt, which seemed to assuage most of the adolescent's worries but not all of them.

"Well then, Saiga. How did you come to be here?" Benezia asked, causing him to turn his attention to her. "It is quite a ways from any place where I would expect to run into an asari child."

"...She stowed away on my ship. By the time I noticed, here we were," he began, making a distraction to Hoana rather than discussing himself.

As long as he could skirt around with half-truths and lies of omission, he could handle most conversations. Even if he felt an overwhelming pressure from this Matriarch, he was sure he could hold his own for one conversation.

"We were shot down by pirates!" Hoana immediately jumped into the conversation, wide-eyed and excited to share that tidbit.

Emiya had to hold back a facepalm; he had entirely forgotten about Hoana, even as he had planned to build his conversation strategy around her.

This... isn't going to work at all, is it?

"Oh my." Benezia nodded, looking at him expectantly.

Emiya cleared his throat.

"They were probably pirates."

"You do not know?"

"They tried to shoot my ship, but they didn't exactly announce themselves over a comm-line or anything," he explained.

"Well then, we will have to check those records on your ship. For the purpose of identifying those pirates, of course?" Benezia nodded.

Did she just extract my agreement to their rummaging through my ship's computer? Well, they were doing it anyhow, but...

Even now, he could tell that three asari were poring over and through the Tristar.

"Sure." He nodded.

He had cleared it all of anything too incriminating before he had left it behind - he had confidence in his abilities that much, at least.

"And why did you decide to visit this planet, Dretirop, then?" Benezia asked, motioning for him to continue.

No point in denying it, they would have seen us getting out of orbit.

"...Personal interest in Prothean ruins. A hobby, if you will," he replied simply.

She nodded, her pupils dilating ever-so-slightly.

"I'm assuming that's why you're here as well?" he asked immediately at the tell, staring at her closely for any tells.

Are they here for Henell?

"Hmm, I wonder." The Matriarch merely smiled at his attempt. "Though now that we know that someone tried to hurt an asari child, we cannot let them remain unpunished. Other matters can wait."

...I can't exactly argue with that if I'm just here for a hobby.

Even having hacked into the Dreyn N'var's mainframe, he had not found anything that had given him any clues as to their purpose here. A few days ago, Matriarch Benezia and Justicar Anatha had simply boarded the ship and everyone had tripped over themselves to obey.

The lack of true hierarchy in the asari military forces meant that things like this could simply happen, where a popular figure would ask for help and no one would question it. For all that he could tell, only the two Matriarchs sitting at this table with him knew why they had come out here.

The asari chef walked up to the table and bowed. "Matriarch, Justicar, honored guests..."

All seated bowed in turn, as did Emiya.

Standing up, the chef inhaled and her biotics flared.

Before and around her on the floor were dozens upon dozens of small bowls, filled with various ingredients. There were choice cuts of meat, strips of fat, rendered and liquid, vegetables, fruit, ground spices as dried fruits. As many ingredients as he could name, there were two more he had never even seen or heard about before. On the side and behind her were two large vats filled with a flammable oil, and between them lay a small brazier.

"While it may be customary for the eldest to begin, I believe there is one among us who is hungrier than I." Benezia smiled, looking at Hoana. "Go ahead, Hoana, order whatever you wish."

The youngest asari blinked, hesitating for a second before nodding. She looked over the various ingredients set by the floor, clearly apprehensive over the sheer selection that lay before her.

The chef smiled, then. "You may choose any two, three, four, or five ingredients. Worry not, there is plenty of time, little one."

Hoana nodded, pointing at two bowls. The chef nodded and inhaled, curtsying as a small flare of dark energy danced across her skin.

Emiya leaned forward, eyes narrowing as he began to observe.

Here we go...

From the two ingredient bowls, pieces rose up into the air slowly. Behind the chef, from the vats of oil, a small blob rose into the air as well. It flew over to the brazier and immediately caught fire, flaring and dimming like a dancing star in the night sky as it flew over and around the chef.

She's using her mass effect fields to control the flow of oxygen into the flame, Emiya noted.

The pieces of foodstuff flew down and dipped into a thick sauce, followed by some spice being sprinkled over it.

Then, it flew up and began to orbit the burning globe of fire in the air. Suddenly, the burning sphere opened up and swallowed whole the piece of foodstuff, becoming a burning bubble that surrounded the food. And that wasn't all; with her precise control, he could see her extracting only minute amounts of liquid from the ingredients. The chef had perfect control over how juicy the food would be, just as she had perfect control over every other aspect of the process.

All the while, the asari chef had been dancing around, her graceful steps only just missing the various bowls on the floor as she continued to manipulate the mass effect fields that held aloft and spun the fire and food around her.

Two seconds later, it was pulled out again and floated onto Hoana's plate. Though with how her jaw was hanging wide open, it could have been just as well placed right in her mouth.

"Dlau N'sar, little one."

He smelled the scent, noting that it was superb even without having to taste it. He could match the taste, he knew with confidence.

But that was all.

From start to finish, it had only taken ten seconds to prepare.

With mass effect fields, it was possible to lower the thermal capacity—the amount of heat the matter could absorb without changing its temperature—and thus cook foods extremely quickly. He had replicated this with his pagoda, but lacking the finely tuned senses and experience of a centuries-old biotic, there was no way for him to replicate this level of finesse.

Additionally, the presentation and freedom with which she could produce anything from the ingredients available to her...

He simply could not compete.

How aggravating.

This was also why the asari kitchen lacked water faucets and why Hoana had complained about his stew. With the ever-present eezo dust contaminating all foods, boiling food had a tendency to exacerbate that taste. On Earth, the mineral content and acidity of the water used could affect the food to a great degree as well, but on Thessia, it was a sign of desperation and ineptitude to boil food to make it edible.

Powdered eezo was added to foods often enough, but like any spice, when used in excess it turned into something nearly inedible.

He had had to make all of his pots and pans himself for this reason.

With the two mainstreams of food being pre-made and packaged instant food, and the extremely skillful and difficult process of biotic cooking, there simply was no room for home cooking in the current zeitgeist. Not at least in the way he had been used to it.

"Well, then. How about our other guest?" Benezia asked, causing Emiya to be pulled back from his musings.

"Hmm, what? I've eaten, it's fine," he answered, noting that everyone except Hoana was staring at him. Bad manners? Right. "Err, I'll have the same as she did, then."

The chef especially seemed to be smiling quite widely at him.

Ah, was I staring?

Clearing his throat, he looked away.

A few seconds later, however, his eyes were glued right back to the action as he followed the chef's skillful handling of the ingredients.

It wasn't merely a matter of handling the fields that was the problem. Though they had to be very precise in both shape, intensity, and timing, that much could simply be handled through careful practice and recording of results. He had been able to replicate several simple cooking 'programs' simply through time and effort.

What made biotic cooking so special, was the fact that skilled biotics could 'feel' through their fields as well. It was a strange phenomenon that seemed to be some form of synesthesia, where unexplainable and undetectable feedback from the eezo nodes within a biotic's body was understood by the brain in the form of ghostly sensations with the other senses, which was the major difference between a biotic and any old mass effect field emitter.

So far, it had not been possible to replicate with machines, to the best of his knowledge or his own attempts.

A skilled biotic chef could literally feel how the food was cooking while tasting it the whole way through the process, a hundred thousand ghostly little fingers and tongues roaming over the ingredients as they cooked. Even if he masterfully copied the process and replicated it down to the finest detail, he could not replicate that function which allowed for real-time fine-tuning based on the ingredients themselves.

"Do you not intend to eat?" Benezia asked, causing Emiya to blink and look at her.

He realized just then, that his meal had been prepared and placed before him. It looked fantastic, irking him somewhat, even as he could not help noting his appetite rousing at the scent and sight of the dish.

Taking one bite, he slowly chewed before he looked up.

The chef smiled, waiting for his reaction. Somehow, she seemed even patronizing as she stood there. Yet, despite his annoyance, he could not lie about matters regarding food.

"Superb."

I would be hard-pressed to match this. And it was a simple two-ingredient dish...

"How wonderful that our guest is pleased, is it not Shiala? I believe I shall have the..." Benezia smiled, ordering and letting him off the hook.

The dinner continued in much the same vein, as everyone ordered in turn once their bite-sized portions were finished. With the speed and fine control over food, it was customary to rotate through several orders to clean the palate as you cycled through.

This way, each dish served to enhance and accentuate the next in crescendos and diminuendos.

Emiya was the only one to actually order a full five-ingredient course, selecting the most varied and difficult ingredients he could see, just to be able to observe the chef while she was at work.

I can't copy her, but I can memorize the ingredients and apply that to my next pagoda. I'm going to rip you off for all you're worth for showing off that much.

He wasn't being petty, not at all. It was merely his pride as a faker.

"I have noticed that you do not wear an omnitool," Benezia said suddenly, as her request to the chef began to be prepared.

"...It's on the ship, I didn't see a reason to bring it along."

"Then you have learned the asari tongues yourself?"

Emiya nodded.

Given the obvious limitation to his Servant form being unable to carry around an omnitool, he had taken it upon himself to actually learn the common tongues of the galaxy himself.

Even other languages than the asari were relatively doable in short order, given that he could reverse the translation software so that he was hearing a salarian translation of everyday conversations while having the translation available to him in real-time for full immersion and opportunity. He had managed to learn three of the most common asari languages, two of the salarian six commonly used in business and negotiations, and most recently the standard turian.

The fact that he had never even thought to learn batarian was coming to bite him in the ass, given what had happened on Dretirop, though.

"Your pronunciation is quite good, you must have immersed yourself quite diligently," she continued, obliquely asking whether he had learned it himself or had merged with an asari to learn it more quickly.

"I've had plenty of time to learn from the translation program."

She nodded, considering his answer and he could almost see how she was picking apart his answer in her head and drawing connections to other things he had said.

Say as little as possible, say as little as possible. Distract and digress to other subjects, he repeated in his head.

Seeing that he had no particular interest in the subject, it seemed that Benezia changed tack and settled into silence, as her own third fare was finished and placed before her.

They ate in relative silence, though Justicar Anatha declined after the first course, stating that she had already eaten rations earlier. Her presence seemed more out of custom than any hunger on her own part.

"So, how ever did you manage to elude those pirates, Saiga?" Benezia asked as they were beginning to be done with eating.

The individual courses were small, such that they could eat as many different things as possible. The chef seemed more than happy to continue dancing about, even taking to meeting his gaze whenever he began to stare again. Which happened more than once, as he got particularly deep in his thoughts as he analyzed her cooking.

"...Well, I landed in a cave, fixed the ship, and then left."

If Benezia was displeased or disappointed by his curt explanations, she did not show it.

"Without going to see the ruins?" she asked.

"It seemed unwise to stay."

"And you did not see those pirates again?"

"We didn't leave the cave, we haven't seen them since we landed. They must have left," Emiya answered, looking her directly in the eye without a waver.

Well, I did see them, but we didn't.

Next to him, Hoana nodded her head. "They couldn't find us! We hid in a really big cave."

"I see. You must have kept your starship turned off and waited for them to leave, then." Benezia nodded, turning thoughtful for a moment.

"Mm—Oh! Saiga fought off a big lizard with a tri-wrench! It was so cool!" Hoana piped up again, looking away from her half-frozen half-caramelized fruit treat.

It was a particular feat of biotic cooking, in that it was like a three-dimensional yin-yang symbol where the two ingredients combined and met in the middle. The closest equivalent he could think of that he could make was fried banana with ice cream.

I'll have to try learning how to make that one, in particular, it seems quite complicated...

Benezia nodded slowly, turning to look at Emiya as she raised a single brow.

"Was this lizard by chance... this big?" She seemed amused—yet not sounding disbelieving or challenging of the claim—in tone as she raised her hand to imitate how he had shown earlier the height.

He cleared his throat, looking away.

"Yeah!" Hoana immediately confirmed. "It couldn't touch him at all, but he didn't kill it, just fought back with the flat of his blade until it pulled back and ran away. He was just like Z'till!"

"Oh my," the Matriarch voiced, looking at Emiya appreciatively. "I did not know they taught i'usu with tri-wrenches these days. How impressive."

Emiya barely held back the sigh, as he finally accepted that he had zero control over this conversation. "...Well, something like that."

"Then, did you perchance set off an emergency beacon, of any kind?" she continued asking.

"...No, the pirates would have found us if we did, I think," Emiya answered as Hoana tilted her head, not quite knowing what they were talking about now.

Did my ad-hoc transmitter actually work like one, with another beacon in the system, hidden somewhere? Or did they receive it directly while in the system? Could they have been monitoring the frigate? Doesn't matter, if I stick to the story, they can't link me to it.

"...I see. You were quite fortunate, then." Benezia nodded, giving the Justicar who had been sitting to the side a meaningful look. "Do you know what happened to the pirates?"

Emiya shrugged, saying nothing. "We haven't seen them."

"I protected Saiga properly, so they didn't dare come!" Hoana declared, puffing up at the proclamation.

Emiya paused, turning to look at her.

Their eyes meet and he shook his head with a slight frown. Hoana blinked, realizing that he wanted to keep it a secret. She understood his cue and nodded back as minutely as she could.

"Oh my, how courageous of you. You might make a fine huntress one day, with such a strong spirit," Benezia praised her, though he could tell she had missed nothing of their silent byplay.

Emiya cleared his throat, putting his hand on Hoana's head and patting her. "She's tougher than she looks."

He looked up, only to realize that every asari in the room had homed in on that gesture. He slowly raised his hand away from Hoana, frowning as he glanced at Benezia, worried that he might have overstepped some boundary just now.

Even the Matriarch had seemed inordinately curious about that.

Does that mean something unusual in asari culture?

"Is something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh no," Benezia answered, looking at him. "But that gesture... What does it mean?"

"...What?"

"It means he likes Hoana," she answered for him proudly, looking up at the silent adults, finally settling on Emiya and smiling. "I think...?"

As one, they all seemed to nod and as suddenly as the situation had started, it was over.

Emiya blinked, realizing that he just witnessed something of the asari he hadn't ever seen before. Now, it was as if nothing had happened, all acting normally again.

A door by the side of the hall opened up, and an asari in a white and green bodysuit walked in holding the lizard in her arms.

"Kurinth!" Hoana exclaimed, getting up and running to meet the doctor, who with a smile handed the lizard to the young asari. Emiya could see that it had some form of adjustable collar around its neck, as well.

"He's in fine health and does not carry any pathogens or diseases as far as I can tell. I still gave him the neutralizer injections and a probiotic. That should cover most of it. He should be safe now, but in case of any rashes or other ailments, contact an exo-biologist on Thessia immediately," the doctor told Hoana seriously, as the youngest asari nodded excitedly, hearing only half.

"You're not keeping that thing." Emiya deadpanned and Hoana turned around with hurt eyes, staring directly at him as she held onto the lizard with desperate and protective zeal.

"I would not worry overmuch, exotic pets are common among asari children," Benezia said, and seeing that he wasn't quite convinced, she added: "On Thessia there are plenty of other doctors who specialize in these matters, it will be fine."

Emiya inhaled slowly, remembering that he had read a lot about how asari of old had a tendency to have animal companions and pets. They did not seem to require breeding out any undesirable traits either, as humanity had often needed.

But that had nothing to do with this.

"Be as it may, I'm not going to reward her with a pet for smuggling it onboard my ship. Especially not after she herself stowed on board in the first place." Emiya said, not budging.

Benezia placed her hand on his, as she smiled sympathetically—even a bit sadly—at him. He froze at the contact looking down and then back up, their eyes meeting.

"You have not been very long among asari, have you?"

He leaned back, just a bit as he furrowed his brows at her.

"I've lived five years on Thessia."

Realizing he sounded a touch defensive, he tried to relax.

"As I suspected - not very long at all," she said gently. "I know you are human, but please understand, that she is an asari child. This is my advice as a Matriach—and more importantly—as a mother. Let her hold onto it. Her own mother will surely agree. You will see."

"I..." He hesitated, glancing at the hopeful Hoana who was staring at him while holding onto Kurinth protectively.

There was a moment of complete silence, as both asari stared at him as if they could see straight through to his soul.

He cleared his throat, finally caving in.

"Fine. I'll tell her parents to send the bill to you when it chews through a bulkhead."

She smiled at his grousing, removing her hand. He frowned as he looked away, repressing the shiver that ran down his back.

Did she do something just now? No, I felt nothing and my brain chemistry is running normal.

He could not say that he liked this Benezia very much. Rather, he was beginning to wish he could get out of here as quickly as possible. In fact, he wanted payback. He realized how petty he was being, but did nothing to reign it in, nonetheless.

Putting on a friendlier smile, he turned to the Matriarch. "May I ask you something?"

She nodded, smiling. "Certainly. If I may offer any guidance then it is not only my duty, but very purpose in life, to offer it."

"Oh. Splendid." He nodded. "This was a spectacular meal, and I'd like to repay you for it, anyway I can. How about I make you dinner sometime..."

He leaned in, putting a hand on hers just as she had done to him just now, whispering the following words.

"But, let's make it a little bit more... private, shall we?" And in tone with the whispered word, he slowly ran a thumb over the back of her hand. Gently, just enough to brush her skin and to tickle, as if with a feather.

Make it personal, make it far too intimate, knock her off-balance, hit her hard and head-on.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Justicar Anatha staring at him suspiciously, unable to hear his words. And at the same time, he could see just the smallest of tremors in Benezia's eyes, before she reigned it in an instant later.

But it had been there, undeniably.

Take that, you meddling great-grandmother of a sage or whatever you are, you.

"Unfortunately, I am much too busy for such. But, I thank you for the offer nonetheless. It is a most gracious one, and you honor me with it," she answered evenly, regaining her calm as she leaned back.

She recovered quickly. Was I imagining it?

Emiya thought, nodding seriously and pulling back to pretend nothing had happened as he realized what he had just done, how he had let himself slip.

I said I was going to play it cool, yet here I am, getting hotheaded over nothing.

"Oh, well maybe another time."

She nodded, a little mirth finally entering her eyes then.

"Perhaps, when I have the time, I shall take you up on that offer."

---

;

---

"Is it really alright to just let them go?" Justicar Anatha asked, staring at the main screen on the CIC.

"They are not related to Henell's disappearance. You saw the logs yourself. We reviewed and compared them with the Mass Relay's logs twice; they only arrived here after Nirida went missing."

"...Still, they are suspicious. You should have asked them about the disruptor torpedo. That batarian ship was taken out by controlled-munitions-grade weapon in a single blast." Anatha insisted.

"Yes, a most curious thing, that. But their ship could not have handled such a payload. Also, neither set foot out of the cave during their stay on Dretirop."

The Justicar scowled. "So they say, but what proof is that? They must know something, I can feel it in my gut."

"Possibly, but I believe they are on the trail for Nirida as well."

"Huh?" The Justicar asked, turning around to stare at the Matriarch.

The Matriarch smiled. "He is attending at the University of Serrice, a noted friend of the Serrice Museum's curator, and has recently come into contact with the returnees of the Dretirop expedition. His interest in the Protheans is obvious, as is his focus on Nirida."

"It explains his interest, but for what purpose would he take on the journey to Dretirop. Especially all alone from Thessia, if we are to believe the child was there by accident? He must have some reason to come out here, no one simply drops everything to fly halfway across the galaxy."

"His initiative and haste are unexpected only if one forgets that he is human."

The Justicar frowned, before sighing. She could not argue that - it had been mere decades since their entrance, and humanity was still showing no signs of fitting in with the galactic community, too blinded by their haste and ambition to notice how many enemies they were making at every turn.

"...So, what are you going to do about it?" she asked instead, frowning.

"Huntress Shiawe has been tasked with trailing him. I believe he knows something, yes. But I also believe it more likely that we will learn more if we let him go. He is quite headstrong and wily with words, as you could well tell," Benezia explained, before turning around to walk away. "It does not do to startle a fish when one hungers, after all."

"Shiawe is too green, even for a human opponent. She needs one crushing defeat to curb her spirits before I would entrust her with such a task. Any task, truly."

Benezia halted by the doorway. "Then it is good that I have notified others, is it not?"

"...As you say, Benezia." The Justicar nodded. "And what of the batarian shadow frigate?"

"I am afraid I have no enlightening revelations regarding that matter and must defer to your expertise, Anatha," she said looked over her shoulder and inclining her head to the other.

"I shall head down to Dretirop one more time, then. They are still finding more crashed satellites, perhaps they will reveal something more."

"Your thoroughness and piety do us all honor." The Matriarch smiled as she walked away. She hesitated for a moment, contemplating asking something before she shook that thought aside and continued on her way out.

He seemed to have been watching the biotic fields, rather than the chef... Could he have... No, I must be imagining things.

Behind her, the Justicar frowned as she turned to look at the main screen showing the belly of the asari cruiser, where the Tristar was preparing to leave.

As Benezia, in turn, returned to her personal cabin, she noted an incoming call was on her personal terminal. She inhaled, walking forward and pressing the accept button on the haptic adaptive interface.

A screen opened up and she bowed to the turian.

"Saren. Have you considered my offer?"

---

;

---

Emiya glanced behind him one last time as he entered the Tristar.

It was obvious that all their things had been scanned and rummaged through, but at least the asari had had the decency to clean up after themselves. He turned around and watched as the airlock closed shut. The controls of the Tristar were restored, causing the pilot's terminal to boot up.

Are they really just going to let us go...?

He waited with bated breath, as he ran a diagnostic on the ship through the regular controls.

They must have planted surveillance and tracking devices while they were in here. That collar is tapped for sure. Is that why she was so insistent on letting Hoana keep it?

He glanced at Kurinth, still quietly sleeping in Hoana's lap on the second pilot's seat. She noticed his eyes and immediately held the lizard protectively.

Emiya exhaled, still considering simply turning back around and landing on Dretirop to boot out the thing through the airlock. He shook his head, sitting down in the pilot's seat.

I'm sure Justicar Anatha would take returning to the planet to mean I was looking for trouble.

As the engine turned on and he achieved liftoff the asari cruiser's dock doors opened, allowing him to slowly fly out as the comms officer on their ship guided him. While doing so, he began to think back to those words of advice Benezia had given him. Something about them seemed strange to him - something more than merely the surface-level impression and understanding he had.

Was she trying to tell me something about the asari? No, more than that, have I fundamentally a warped understanding of their culture?

As they flew out, he turned the scans around and looked at the Dreyn N'var behind them. It really did look like a flying manta ray, that had somehow swallowed the Tristar whole, like Jonah and the whale. Picking up speed, he continued watching the cruiser until it disappeared from his scanner's range.

Only once he hit FTL, did he properly relax and begin to calm down. At these speeds, he should be relatively safe.

He might have honestly preferred to simply fight it out, compared to the lunch he had been subjected to. As they continued to fly towards the adjacent system where the Mass Relay waited, he could sense Hoana relaxing next to him in her seat as well.

The asari as a whole are a race that seems to be very... 'motherly'. Hoana and Benezia, at both extremes of age, seem to possess that instinct to protect that is commonly linked to motherhood in humanity. Do I simply lack motherliness, making me incapable of understanding them? Or have I been watching them too insistently through that lens, which renders me unable to truly grasp their character?

"Kurinth, huh?"

Hoana looked up, smiling at him as she looked away from the main screen that showed the stars ahead, with the overlay of navigational data. At this point, he could just as well flip a flight VI on and let it handle everything.

It's actually somewhat boring, compared to diving and flying the way I first arrived...

"Yup! I named him after the goddess of huntresses because he's going to grow up big and strong!"

"I'm sure he will. Just don't come crying when he's sleeping in your bed and too big for you to fit in."

She gasped, looking at him aghast with realization.

He had to restrain the smile that almost appeared on his face at that reaction. Somehow it was extremely refreshing to simply be able to tease someone without having to think about everything all the time.

"Well... Then—then I'll have papa make a double bunk! I can sleep on top."

Emiya huffed and the rest of the way he continued teasing the adolescent asari in a similar vein. He probably wasn't going to be seeing her after all this, so he would have to make the most out of the time they had.

---

;

---

Thessia loomed just ahead as Emiya continued slowing down.

As Emiya turned on the comm-line to Hosin's he glanced at Hoana. She seemed to have suffered no ill effects of this trip, from what he could see. That much was good, at least. When contact with the orbital station went through, he found it rather peculiar that there seemed to be no mention made of Hoana over the comms.

In fact, something about the asari on the other side struck him as unusual.

They didn't ask about her at all? They can't have not noticed... Right?

Shaking his head, he landed in the customer-side dock. Through the display, he could see Hosin running out to greet them. Even with the mask covering his face, his distressed and erratic body language was obvious.

Hoana jumped out of her seat and Emiya barely had time to open up the hatch before she ran headfirst into it in her dash to her father. Getting out of his own seat and walking out to follow, he hesitated - this was not merely a working relationship, but rather the quarian was someone Emiya had come to rather like. There was a sense of camaraderie between the two, both sensing an outcast adrift in the galaxy in each other.

How would he react towards Emiya, now?

There was no excuse for having taken so long with returning. Even with the issues on Dretirop and the batarians and asari, he should have noticed the stowaway long before that.

But he hadn't.

As he walked out, he was just in time to see Hoana jumping into Hosin's lap as the parent and child embraced one another. Whispered words were exchanged, as Hosin gripped the adolescent asari tighter at Emiya's approach.

He felt a lump in his gut at that.

"...You're back," Hosin said, standing up.

"...Yeah."

There was a moment of tense silence as neither spoke a word. Finally, Emiya cleared his throat.

"We ran into some trouble and had to do a hot landing. The Tristar got a bit beat up, but I managed to fix up most of it. I'll pay for the damages—"

"Huh?" Hosin blinked, looking at the Tristar only then and noticing the scorch marks and warped radiator panels. "...Oh, uh, yeah. Don't worry about it, I'll... I'll handle it. It's fine."

Emiya blinked, frowning a little. "...Okay?"

Something is definitely wrong here.

He looked around, noting that the space station seemed somehow a lot quieter. There weren't any asari or quarian workers milling about.

"We went to a strange planet! There was a big cave and pirates shot us down! And, and Saiga fought a giant lizard! And then we met a real Justicar and Matriarch Benezia was there! We had dinner together!" As Hoana began to rapid-fire explain all that had happened, Emiya could see how Hosin was reeling with all the information he was being given.

He looked up to Emiya, his eyes narrowing behind the dark visor. It was as if a spark had gone off. He seems... hopeful? Why?

Emiya cleared his throat. "It was complicated, but she's safe as you can see."

"Yeah. She is, isn't she? You... You're actually..." Hosin nodded. "No, never mind."

Emiya paused, frowning at the quarian who seemed somehow both absent-minded and exhausted at the same time as he was overjoyed to have found his daughter again.

"Where is everyone?"

"Huh, what?" Hosin blinked. "They're off for the day. It's... Hoana, why don't you go find Serri and... What is that thing?"

"It's Kurinth! I found him! Can I keep him?" Hoana immediately piped up, causing the quarian to blink.

"Uh... Yeah. Yeah. Why don't you go show it to Serri, I'm sure she'd love to see it."

"Umm, okay!" Hoana answered and as soon as her feet touched the ground, she was off.

Halfway to the hangar entrance, she skid to a halt and ran back to wrap her arm around Emiya's leg. "Saiga, umm, thank you!"

With that, she ran back and disappeared beyond the doorway.

As they both watched the child running through the hangar, silence reigned anew. Emiya noted again how he could not hear any signs of work being done.

Inhaling, he stared at the quarian. He seemed gaunt, somehow. Tired, as if he hadn't slept since Hoana had gone missing. But somehow, the machinist did not seem to be turning any of that frustration on him, nor did his tension seem to abate with his daughter's return.

Hosin seemed more resigned than anything. Yet at the same time, almost determined.

"...Is everything okay?"

The quarian looked up at that, blinking twice and then suddenly looking around nervously.

"Yeah. Yeah. Everything's fine. Just, just been busy. And worried sick. It's... It's nothing you need to worry about."

Emiya nodded slowly, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Extending outwards, he hacked into the omnitools and computers he could reach on the station. But a cursory search found nothing unusual, beyond most of the staff being away for several days now. And... His wife isn't here?

It was unusual, but he couldn't find anything pointing to a cause. Slowly nodding, he looked at Hosin.

"I had the skycar brought here, so you can get your stuff and all, yeah?" Hosin said, pointing towards the other side of the hangar.

Emiya blinked, looking out and spotting it right there. Looking back at Hosin, he slowly nodded again.

Why would he bring it to the shop-side? That's valuable space he's wasting.

"I need to get back to work. Just leave the access card in the ship and we're good." Hosin said, turning around and leaving.

Frowning, Emiya looked at the receding back of the quarian.

Well, if he didn't want to talk to Emiya and it was square with this, then who was he to argue? With a shake of his head, he set about getting all of his gear from the Tristar and setting it all up in his skycar. It was a tight fit, but it was still manageable in no time. During which, he saw and heard not another soul on the space station.

The only activity he could note was an outbound transmission on a comm-line, where Hosin simply said that 'Hoana is back' on a broadcast. Hosin's wife, Roane, must have been on Thessia, then.

But that message seemed very curt, somehow? And a broadcast, rather than a direct message?

As he settled into the driver's seat in his skycar, Emiya gave space station one more look and scan through his cybernetic hacking, before he shook his head and set a course for Serrice. It was as he flew out, that he finally noticed what was so unusual about the asari on the comms, who had handled his docking.

It was a voice he had never before heard on Hosin's station.

Did he hire someone new? While throwing out everyone else? Emiya frowned, exhaling as he dove into the skycar's systems and looked through everything. But it was obvious the skycar had not been turned on since originally being left at the hangar. As he pulled out, he frowned.

Entering the atmosphere and taking a heading for Serrice, he considered what exactly was throwing him off about his encounter with Hosin.

He seemed drained and tired. Exhausted. He was happy to see Hoana, but he wasn't angry. Which means... He has something even bigger to worry about, right now?

Well, if the quarian wanted Emiya's help, he need only ask. That much had been made abundantly clear over the years they had known each other.

So either it's something he doesn't think I should be involved in, or he thinks he can handle it...

Sighing, Emiya decided to simply trust Hosin's judgment for now. Still, it had thrown him off a little, that Hosin hadn't asked about the pagoda at all.

When giving the device away to Roane, he had made explicitly clear how sensitive and fragile it was. He had even constructed it in a way that would obfuscate its inner workings from most means of passive scans and so that taking it apart would cause the whole thing to fall into pieces. Either she would keep him from taking it apart, or it would irreparably break when he tried. Half of the screws had been projected inside of the pagoda and could not be reasonably removed by other means.

But it was also something that would absolutely sell, a golden egg that a keen businesswoman like Roane would never let slip past her fingers.

I had hoped to rope him in properly and then use his infrastructure and connections to start selling as a series of cooking ware. It should have gotten the quarian interested in the possibility of mass-producing and selling the cooker. But it seemed that the quarian was much too busy right now.

Well, it could wait.

As Emiya rolled to his apartment's parking space, he exhaled again. He noted offhandedly how there did not seem to be any other vehicles anywhere near here. It was slightly unusual too, actually. But with the continued string of strangeness, he wasn't sure if it was simply him who was feeling off.

"Can't be helped then. Maybe I'll have to just start up the business on my own."

But that was sub-optimal.

The point had been to become partners in the endeavor: Hosin would handle the actual manufacture and selling of the cookpots, while Emiya supplied the basic design and capital for the startup. That would leave him with plenty of time to handle actually important matters while netting him some real credits that he would not have to launder, or whose origin he had to constantly keep track of in his head.

And now with his observations of actual biotic cooking, he had plenty of new ideas he could incorporate and enhance in his first functional design.

Stepping out of the skycar, he stretched as he looked around. Nothing seemed to have changed since his leaving for Dretirop, even if there were fewer people around than usual.

It was as if this whole planet never changed somehow.

Like it was stuck in time since two thousand years ago. Even the five years he had spent here did not feel like that long of a time, when no one around him seemed to change at any noticeable rate. Day in, day out. He had simply repeated what he had been doing yesterday while telling himself that tomorrow would be different.

That once Nirida Henell returned, something would change.

The worst part was, he knew exactly how to get the asari logos if that was all he wanted. He could probably get it within a week if he simply put his mind to it. Their race was rather infamous for their ability to share themselves, after all. But he had refused, thinking that it would be pointless, as all the Protheans were dead. If he simply acquired the logos without learning a means for that process, then how would that help him with his true objective?

Or is it? Is there any reason to truly uncover the mystery of their disappearance?

He had spent countless hours researching the Protheans, yet it did not seem to give back any results.

Certainly, he had stumbled upon the missing Henell, but what did it matter? It was beginning to feel as if there was no progress to be made on that front. Of course, he could simply set out and begin investigating ruins on his own, and there was a chance that he could find something out there like that.

But in doing so, he would be giving up his ability to act on the extranet.

Which was not just a small thing to give up, either. The amount of good he thought he could do through those networks was immense. He could affect the lives of billions, even if... Even if he saved no one by doing so. A part of him wholly believed that he should dedicate himself to solely his extranet activities, while another part of him decried the fact that he was not truly acting as he had during his life in doing so.

Perhaps his lack of results was simply the natural cause of his settling for half-measures of a sort. He neither focused on righting wrongs in the galaxy nor did he fully resolve to try to solve the mystery of the Protheans, thus neither was producing sufficient results?

Grabbing all that he could, he kicked shut the skycar's door and began to make for his apartment.

Is it time to choose one at the exclusion of the other?

Walking up to the door, he mentally unlocked it as he opened it with one hand. Walking in, he put down his bags by the coat rack, only to freeze. It was an immediate reaction on his part, the realization that someone had been here. The entrance mat was slightly ajar from how he usually left it; a chair in the kitchen had been moved; there was some of the outside sand by the hall as if someone hadn't quite properly dusted off their shoes—or worse yet—walked in-doors with their shoes on.

I left all the doors locked when I left.

He looked around, scanning the kitchen and the windows. They were all still locked, just as his front entrance had been. But small things, signs and tells of people walking around and touching everything, popped up to his sight. Everywhere, the more he looked, he could see that someone had been in here.

Reaching outwards, he went onto the extranet and contacted the Serrice City Hall's servers to see if he had been discovered.

The trap would tell if someone had been snooping into him.

"Wait, what...?" He blinked, frowning as he tried to parse what he was accessing. It was definitely the Serrice City Hall's server, but something about it was completely off.

He immediately pulled out and severed the connection.

Everything was off and it wasn't just due to him returning from Dretirop throwing him off.

Looks like it's time for me to leave Thessia.

He turned around and immediately reached for the door. There wasn't anything in the apartment he really cared about, beyond a few bags he had just brought in from the skycar. Food and supplies were all he needed at the moment.

Opening the door, he stopped as if he had hit a wall.

Frowning, he looked at the two familiar faces that greeted him. Three pairs of eyes blinked in unison before Tyra took initiative.

"Hey, Saiga! We came over to see if you were at home again!"

"Hello," Liara said, her tone of voice much less open as her eyes revealed a deep well of determination within. "May we come inside?"

Emiya blinked as Liara walked straight inside without waiting for his answer, glancing at Tyra who seemed just as surprised. She licked her lips, glancing at Emiya and making a slightly awkward laugh as she herself walked inside as well.

He shook his head.

"Take off your shoes, at least."

The two asari blinked, looking at him curiously. He looked down, only then realizing that they were both wearing the common fashion of Thessia, body-fitting trousers with integrated shoes.

"Right, never mind. I assume the two of you were here, before?" He exhaled, closing the door and setting the second internal safety lock in place as well. Even with a key, it could not be opened now.

Tyra blinked, nodding at him once.

"We, uh, came to see if you were home a couple of days ago, and—"

"A Spectre by the name of Tela Vasir was waiting for us, she had opened the door for us, I think, when we came the first time." Liara interrupted Tyra, whose eyes boggled as she realized what she was saying.

"Liara! You—"

"She's set up some sort of elaborate trap to arrest you, part of which involves getting us to make you confess something which she can later use to extract more information out of you, once she's captured you," Liara continued unabated, pulling out what looked like an old-style recorder from her pocket. It was pretty much entirely analog—something he could not hack or detect so easily.

He blinked, looking at the thing.

"Huh, that explains quite a bit." Emiya sighed, causing Tyra to look at him questioningly. "But that still doesn't explain what you're doing here. Now, I mean."

"Tyra was certain that you were innocent and argued that she could prove it. I don't think the Spectre believed her, but she was willing to try it anyway. I think we're a distraction while she sets up outside. They seemed to think you could spot an ambush if it was set up before you arrived."

"Liara, that's—"

"I am simply here because you are wrong, and I can prove it. And I'll prove it before you're hauled away if I have to," Liara said, her voice confident and confrontational. "But I have connections; if you wish to walk out of here, then we have ten minutes' time before they come for you."

Emiya blinked. "Wrong how?"

She sniffed, crossing her arms. "About the Protheans. You said—"

"You want to have an exo-archaeological argument with me while there's a strike team setting up just outside to arrest me?" Blinking again, Emiya turned to look at Tyra. "I can see why she doesn't have a lot of friends, now."

"Ahaha, she's, uh, she's just kidding, Saiga, you shouldn't pay too much attention to her." Tyra tried to deflect, though her panic was obvious. "Listen, what they were saying, it's not true, right?"

"But Liara, you do realize that your lips are being read right now, don't you? Your double cross has already been revealed to them," Emiya said, ignoring Tyra.

The Ularu undergraduate blinked, frowning at him. In response, he raised a thumb over his shoulder to point at one of the large windows in the living room behind his back.

"The building fifty meters that way is a perfect spot for a sniper, and I'd bet that there's a team set up there right now, with a lip reader. If they're going low-tech because they're worried about being hacked, that only makes sense."

Now that he had started paying attention, there was a tingling sensation on the back of his neck. The same one that he had always relied on to tell when someone was intently observing him from afar.

It had saved his life on more than one occasion.

"No way... You really are some kind of human superspy on the run?" Tyra asked, taking a step back in shock.

"Snipers?" Liara blinked, asking at the same time, surprise plain to see on her face.

"Well, it's not quite like that... But I see why people would make that mistake. Oh, and the windows are bulletproof, don't worry about that."

"B-but...?" Tyra blinked, still reeling from the whole situation.

Emiya himself sighed as he walked to the shoe rack and removed the whole thing from the alcove it had been stuffed in. Clenching a fist, he punched into the bottom and it cracked with just one strike. Fingers reaching in, he pulled out several boards and threw them aside, over his shoulder.

"What are you..."

He ignored them, pulling out the belt and pistol from the secret compartment he had made years ago. Checking them over, he noted that the batteries had obviously run out, but everything else seemed in decent enough condition.

Standing up, he opened a closet and took a freshly charged battery that he had left in a far more accessible location, and swapped out all of them. Whoever had investigated his house had clearly not been thorough enough and had ignored the common power cells.

Lucky for me.

Well, he had set up the shielded compartment for that exact reason.

Turning around, he could see both of the asari standing there, eyeing him with some surprise. Shrugging, he turned on the kinetic barrier belt, the pistol, and the scoped rifle he had. It wasn't quite an automatic mid-range weapon, nor a proper long-range precision rifle. But it would do, here on the edges of Serrice where he had plenty of space for maneuvering and taking quick shots between the sparsely built buildings.

In fact, he had memorized the entire neighborhood closely enough that he should be able to make a getaway.

Now, getting off of Thessia, that would be much more difficult.

He reached for the coat rack, happy to find his longcoat made out of the version two diamene weave still there. Then again, at first glance, it did not look like much more than a plain black coat, so it made sense that no one would bother taking a second look at it. Throwing it on top of his hardsuit and kinetic barrier belt, he adjusted the shoulders until it felt good.

The only real difference from his old weave was that he had changed the synthetic fiber to a modern version and given it the same liquid armor treatment.

Graphene—and by extension, diamene—still remained the best available armor material to the best of his knowledge. With the difficulties in producing solid sheets of it, it seemed that galactic production focused more on carbon nanotubes, that could be produced in larger quantities more cheaply and in more useful forms. Graphene still saw use, but mostly mixed in with various resins and rubbers to give it better properties, or in very small quantities in electronics that had to be able to bend. He seemed to still remain the only one capable of making graphene in large enough sheets that it could be fashioned into diamene body armor.

Well, his version two was slightly better with the inclusion of the newer synthetic fibers, especially at intercepting the small bullets used in common firearms today, at least. It also breathed better, which made it quite comfortable to wear. Not that it mattered right now, what with the hardsuit underneath it.

But every layer helped.

He turned to the door, moving to head out. If they expected him to remain inside for ten minutes then he needed to get out right now, before the snipers could communicate his movements. As long as he left these two behind, they should be safe from the ensuing gunfight. This apartment was a lot sturdier than it looked.

Take a left, I'll have some cover behind the pillar and jump down to the basement alcove. Go through and take the east-side window out to the streets and work from there while they're scrambling to find me.

"Wait!" Liara shouted, but he ignored her, reaching for the door. "I said wait!"

Suddenly, he was pulled off his feet and was sent sliding several meters backward. Landing on all four, he recovered and stood up to look at Liara who had just used her biotics on him. She stood, arms raised and with fire in her eyes as dark energy flared around her.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

She glared at him, "Do not underestimate me, I have—"

"I've been on Dretirop, I'll believe you can handle yourself in a fight, alright," Emiya cut her off. "But do you really think this is the time for this? When have you last slept? You look like you're about to fall over any second."

She inhaled slowly, standing upright as she gripped her fists tighter.

"'The time for this?' You have the gall to say something like that after you came to my home and had the nerve to spit on my life's work? I have been studying the Protheans for longer than you have lived! We, the asari have been studying them for longer than your people have had electricity! What could you possibly know? Did you watch some vid documentary and suddenly think yourself an expert on all things Prothean?! I have waited four days for this moment, and you will wait until I am finished!"

Emiya blinked - had he really wronged her so greatly as to warrant such an outburst?

"...I see, perhaps I was out of line in—"

"I do not want your apology. I will simply prove you wrong, that's all that matters." She ground her teeth.

This isn't just about me. She must be experiencing pressure from every facet of her life, and my intrusion into her one refuge must have triggered this. She seems shy, but at her core, her defining trait seems to be stubbornness and anger, huh, Emiya realized, clearing his throat.

"Okay. Let's... you said I had ten minutes—eight and a half, now—to talk before they storm in, right? Let's talk, then."

She exhaled, un-balling her fists and slowly nodding.

Taking a slow breath, she closed her eyes and then seemed to relax.

"Saiga, what... Who are you? I, I thought they must have been mistaken, so I..." Tyra interjected, finally finding a place where she could.

"It's complicated." Emiya shrugged.

Tyra only seemed more confused by that. Steadying herself against a wall, she stared at him with eyes that seemed as if she had never before seen him.

"You spoke of the zeioph on Armeni, before," Liara spoke up, finally. She seemed to have calmed down enough to speak clearly now.

Emiya nodded, mentally running through the map of the neighborhood as he listened to her.

I'll have to make it to the skycar if I want to get anywhere. Based on what Tyra and Liara are saying, then there should be at least a small team, headed by that Spectre, Tela Vasir. Better to assume they're out in force, though.

Exhaling, he tried to focus on ways to get off the planet. It seemed that his choice had been made for him. Like this, leaving behind Thessia with his cover blown, he would have to give up on most of his immediate activities on the extranet.

The question remained though: whether to pursue Henell or to seek out other ruins and investigate independently?

Perhaps this argument was a good way to settle that. Had his independent research led him to poor conclusions? Should he seek out Henell? Or had he been right and he was simply better off relying on himself alone in matters regarding the Protheans?

"You implied that that was the result of a concentrated effort by the Protheans to wipe them out."

"Yeah." Emiya nodded, running mentally through his resources.

I have two guns, a high-end personal kinetic barrier, and this house. It should withstand almost everything they can throw at me. A gas or biological agent could be a problem, but I can put on my helmet so that should be okay. Liara and Tyra would be exposed, as would the neighbors. Or have they been evacuated? There were no vehicles here that I could see. I'll have to hope they aren't that desperate.

"You said you had not actually been able to observe the gravesites, but I contacted those who had been the first to find it and was able to get my hands on the first pictures and vids taken when they discovered the tombs." Liara continued speaking, walking to his kitchen terminal and trying to turn it on.

"Wait, I thought you were being held under watch by that Spectre. And that that footage was to be deleted, given the sacrilege laws by the Citadel?"

"...I have my means. They did not delete all of it, in fact, there is a... concentrated effort by some anonymous individuals to look into such matters, regardless of Council laws," Liara replied, not meeting his eyes as she tried to work his terminal. "Why isn't this thing working...? Oh, did they sabotage it before? I needed those pictures from the extranet dropbox, to..."

He noticed that neither had an omnitool on their person.

That Spectre they had mentioned must have confiscated them for fear of his hacking them.

Emiya cleared his throat. "No, that was my fault. Haven't gotten around to replacing it. But I'll take you for your word on the matter. You were saying?"

She groused and let out an aggrieved sigh, crossing her arms as she leaned against it.

"I... Yes, the... the artwork there clearly showed the Protheans as a positive figure; protecting them from some other external and distinct in nature threat," she began explaining. "While they were on the outskirts of the Prothean territories, it does not mean that it was the Protheans who were responsible for their deaths. Rather, given artwork and murals, it is more believable that the Protheans were at war with some other race or civilization, and that the deaths of countless on Armeni were rather the result of a great struggle on that planet between two much greater forces."

"That much makes sense in theory, but do you have proof?" Emiya asked.

"Yes. There have been several... illegal—more or less, anyhow—investigations on Armeni into the graves. The results are clear; there are members of more than one race buried in the various chambers."

Emiya blinked, for a moment entirely forgetting all about his running analysis of the Spectre and her strike team outside.

"Say that again."

Liara smirked, more than happy to continue.

"Yes, fourteen graves that had been eroded enough to be accessed without causing further damage were investigated with small drones. The dead buried within were set into great mausoleums, with the murals on the walls depicting a great struggle where the Protheans are depicted as the leaders in a desperate struggle against an invading force. In just those fourteen graves, they were able to find six different races, all of whom were depicted as great heroes alongside the Protheans in those battles. The damage from the opened tombs was substantial and no DNA testing could be done, but the photographic evidence is still overwhelming."

Emiya nodded slowly.

"Have these been dated?"

She shook her head. "That would require taking samples and official paperwork to have suitable laboratories look them over. Those who have taken upon themselves to... have a superficial look, could not do such without revealing themselves. But it does not have any bearing on the fact that it is evidence against your theory!"

He opened his mouth to reply when he heard something hitting his living room window.

He turned around, coming face to face with a fully armored asari on the other side. The commando seemed surprised that the glass had held against her boot, a grenade held aloft in her hand, no doubt as a prelude to her entire team rushing inside to capture him.

"Well, it looks like we are out of time." Emiya shrugged, drawing his pistol and activating it as he looked around. At the various windows, he could see all the areas of importance around his house, giving him a clear understanding of their movements. He had chosen this apartment for more than just the locations and rent, years ago, as the view simply could not be beaten.

Well, the asari saleswoman had talked about the sea-view, which was also quite nice. But not what he had been most interested in.

"I am not done, yet. There is more," Liara insisted, walking up to him, only to be startled by a sudden noise that was even louder.

A triplicate crack, followed almost instantly by a muffled triple report of gunfire from a distance. Someone had just shot at the living room windows. Minute cracks spread, but the rounds had failed to punch through his Reinforced glass. Glancing at the impacts, he judged them to be from a sub-machine gun, aimed at an angle to avoid hitting any of them while breaking the glass.

"Unfortunately, I don't think they'll be willing to wait," Emiya said, flipping over the dinner table. "Get behind there."

"I said, I am not done—"

Liara's words were cut short as a massive impact could be heard against the front door of the apartment. The entire building shook at that and Emiya raised an eyebrow.

Luckily, I didn't just Reinforce the door or windows alone, or the ceiling might have come down on us just now.

Another massive impact hit the door as if a car was ramming into it repeatedly. Taking a quick look at the two asari and noting they were in cover, he exhaled and put a hand on the door.

A third impact rang.

Now.

As expected, the biotic asari who had been repeatedly Charging at the door was just in the middle of the cooldown from her third as he opened the door. He raised his pistol and pulled the trigger three times so quickly that it might as well have been one action.

All three shots hit her face, her biotic barrier flaring to protect her.

The Charge gathers static similarly to FTL ships, which is dumped into the Barrier, buffing her defense considerably.

As expected, the shots did no damage, but the flare was enough to blind and stun her for an instant. He wasted no time, taking two steps forward and putting his whole weight into a side-kick straight to her solar plexus.

It sent her back only three meters, rather than the massive impact he had expected to send her flying a dozen meters at a minimum.

Her barrier took the brunt and she had time to weigh herself down with it. Minimal damage and now we're just at poor engagement distance again.

Realizing that he had misjudged his tactic, he immediately jumped back and slammed shut the door again, all the locks back in place since they must have a key if they had gotten in before. The asari biotic wasted no time and Charged immediately at him, but was blocked by the closed door. The door held on for a fourth time, but the frame was beginning to give way.

It wouldn't hold forever.

He could hear her aggrieved roar of anger on the other side.

A biotic that strong is going to be trouble if I don't go all out - need to get distance from her.

Turning around, he looked at Liara and Tyra. The latter was staring at him with wide eyes, having finally accepted that he was, in fact, being chased by a Spectre for completely legitimate reasons.

"As I was saying, I was not done," Liara continued as if nothing had happened.

He blinked, before shrugging.

"Alright, looks like I'm not going anywhere for a while."

"Open up, Emiya! You can't run!" The asari behind the front door shouted. "The whole Parnitha system is in lockdown. There's an entire STG division coming here and the Serrice Guard has already been mobilized!"

"Tela Vasir, I take it?" Emiya shouted back. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"You know damn well why. Your hacking days are over, you've kicked up enough of a fuss already. Give up and we'll make your life comfortable so long as you cooperate and fess up to what you've done!" Tela shouted, kicking the door once to punctuate.

"Mm, let me think about it. Come back tomorrow?" he answered flippantly, before turning his attention back to Liara.

The Spectre barked an angry laugh, before throwing another Charge at the door. "Fine! I'll come and get you the hard way, then!"

The frame was starting to come loose, thus Emiya walked to grab a closet he had and dropped it in front of the door, for a little bit more support. At the same time, he projected four swords inside of the doorframe; he had made it special so that there were slots where they could fit in and bar the door effectively. This way, the frame was now taking support from the rest of the foundations.

She'll knock the house off of the ground before she breaches that door now.

Exhaling slowly, he holstered his pistol as he could see Tyra looking at it with some panic in her eyes in his peripheral vision.

Okay, so they've got me surrounded and sealed off.

Out of the corners of his eye, he could see asari and salarian operatives alike at the various windows. From the west side, he could hear what sounded like a shaped charge failing to go through an outer wall. It wasn't just the view he had liked here; even before Reinforcement, the walls have been made with extraordinary craftsmanship.

It was Tlee design, if he remembered correctly.

The city that was ravaged by waterspouts and tornadoes every few centuries, where the asari built their houses to outlast themselves.

Another loud crash against the door from the living battering ram.

"'A man's home is his castle'..." he recited with some amusement at those efforts and the loud failures they ended in all around him. He looked up to Liara, who was patiently waiting for him. "Well, go on, I'm listening."

She uncrossed her eyes.

"You also said that their rate of expansion was impossible. I assume you meant in the sense that if they were not using the systems they arrived in as labor and raw material aggressively, they could not have kept on expanding so quickly, with that."

He nodded. "Right. The Mass Relays are massive. Considering how long it would take to travel between clusters of systems, they couldn't have brought that much material and workforce with them. Even assuming an automated workforce, the infrastructure necessary is far in excess. For them to have enough fuel to make the trip to the next cluster, they would have needed even more resources and workforce. Well, unless they had some form of space travel we lack, which seems unusual considering the amount of functional starships they have left behind that work using eezo."

"Well, what if..." She inhaled, crossing her arms and then licking her lips as she looked away. It was clearly something she did not want to say. Mustering up her resolve, she stared him straight in the eyes. "What if the Protheans did not build the Mass Relay network?"

He blinked, ignoring the Charge that hit the front door again and the sound of a grenade going off against the living room windows. They merely buckled a little bit but held firmly against the explosion.

"Well, they were still as fast as the krogan and the rachni, weren't they?" Emiya pointed out.

"Indeed." She smirked, causing him to blink. "Neither of whom are noted experts in either building ships or exploring. Rather, we should look at your race, the humans, for a baseline in that regard."

"Us?" He blinked.

"Yes. Your race is not only aggressive and relentless in pushing their boundaries, but also quite skilled in matters of designing and building starships. Your expansion into the Attican Traverse and beyond is nothing short of terrifying. Yet, you have not waged war and subjugated everyone you have met along the way. Well, not to my knowledge anyhow."

He nodded slowly, considering it.

"Well, let's accept that premise, though it flies into the face of galactic convention regarding the origin of the Mass Relays. But humanity did wage a war with the turians—"

"Which only proves my point further. It was a massive drive for humanity to produce starships and related technologies, of which there remained a surplus after the Citadel intervened. The rush with which humanity took to the stars after the short war was the largest short-term push seen in the galaxy's recorded history. Similar rushes were also seen after the end of the Rachni wars, by the krogan. But perhaps due to their longer lifespans they were nowhere near as quick, taking centuries to your decades. The Prothean expansion model only makes sense if we assume that, especially given the copious circumstantial evidence for them being in the middle of a desperate war just prior to those expansions," Liara excitedly explained.

It was almost strange, how her exhaustion and anger was dissipating with every word she spoke.

"Thus, unless we are willing to debate the subjective interpretations regarding artwork depicting the Protheans—for which we lack the necessary artwork, regardless—I believe I have proved that the Protheans were not merely some brutish and warlike race of imperialistic conquerors and subjugators."

Emiya blinked, raising an eyebrow at the conclusion she had made. It was obvious that she felt very strongly about the subject, but at the same time, he couldn't dismiss her assertions quite with just that.

"...Okay, so I may have been wrong. But from the sixth age onward, I still believe they were extremely warlike, most of the artwork of that age still survives in relatively good condition and is generally considered to be of that nature."

She frowned at him, mouthing "The sixth age... Yes, the age of the cataclysm. Onward...?" before she fell deep into her thoughts again.

That was the period from which he had been mostly looking into, near the end of the Prothean's rule of the galaxy. He had been primarily investigating their disappearance, after all.

Well, it seemed that she had been mostly pacified with that for now.

I guess I don't know all that much about the Protheans after all - after Henell I go, I suppose.

Looking down, he began to rummage through the bags he had brought in. Taking only the bare necessities like food and water, he left the rest behind. Glancing at the two asari behind him, he reached into a closet and pretended to pull out a rucksack when in actuality he projected it.

Having stuffed it with everything he thought vital, he threw it over his shoulder.

Now, I just don't get why they let these two in here. They're just giving me hostages. Certainly, Spectres have the leeway to let them just be killed, but it doesn't make sense for them to still give me any leverage like that.

He turned to look at the two again. Tyra was sitting on the floor, staring at him quietly, while Liara was biting her lip and not paying attention to him at all.

They're not active combatants, so...

"Say, Tela..." He asked out aloud.

The biotic Spectre had paused as she seemed to have been listening in on his continued debate with Liara.

What does she think of all this, I wonder...

"You didn't put these two in here just so you could take them hostage against me, once you broke in, did you?"

"Hah, you've got me. Your psych profile said you were a big softie." Tela laughed. "Who am I not to leverage that to my advantage?"

Emiya realized she was as much trying to gauge his reaction as to signal her utter lack of care for their lives. Was she trying to dissuade him from taking them hostage, or double baiting him into doing so after all so she could use it against him?

He shook his head again, looking at the two again. Liara still did not seem to care one bit, even as Tyra seemed even more distraught than before.

What a mess. Again.

"Look, you're not getting out of there on your own, Emiya. Why don't you cut a deal with me? I can work something out for you. I'm your only chance; your one and only lifeline. I'm not mad about you trying to run off, in fact, I respect you for trying. It takes guts to never give up, even in a situation like this. Just let me in, okay? We'll talk this out."

"Have you tried ringing the door chime? That's what it's there for."

There was a tense silence. He had just made the equivalent of a 'say please' at her. He heard her moving, but nothing more. He had disengaged the doorbells mechanism already, after all.

He stepped back from the door as she kicked it again.

"Get out here, you son of a bitch! The fuck! Is! This! Door! Made! Out! Of!" Tela shouted again as she fired eight rounds from a shotgun—by the sounds of it, anyhow—into the door to punctuate her words.

He could hear the sound of her shotgun overheating and the warning beeping of it entering locked cooldown mode, as she panted angrily on the other side.

"I've found that asari are insistent knockers and thought it proper to modify the door because of that. Sometimes, they can chime for you wouldn't believe how long. You people can be way too insistent about house calls."

He might have misheard, but she might have growled at him then.

Reaching out with his cybernetics, he felt his skycar within reach. He turned it on, intent on calling it the bedroom windows, where he could jump from the second floor in and fly away, and noticed that none of the operatives were wearing any gear that he could detect or hack.

From the ground up, this operation had been planned around the potential abilities of 'Redhax', it seemed.

Only, the car's engine died down two seconds after it had started and landed with an audible thump, outside. It was nothing in the software, but something in the actual engine itself that had died, as he could still feel the onboard computer just fine.

So they got to Hosin, too? Explains his skittishness, then.

A second later, he felt his connection to the skycar be cut off. And then everything else; as if the whole of Serrice within his range was experiencing a total blackout.

Huh, they really did come prepared to go all out.

"Umm, S-Saiga..." Tyra piped up, rising up almost hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"What did you do? I, I thought they were wrong for sure, I swear I only wanted to help you, I didn't think this would happen!"

He shrugged. "As I said, it's complicated."

"It must be." Liara agreed, resuming her glaring of him. "For this much to have been mobilized against you. And what did you mean 'sixth age onward'?"

It seemed that she still didn't like him much.

"...Well, that's that, and this is this. If you'll excuse me," he said, walking to the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

If it's come to this, then no point in holding back.

Emiya stepped out of his body, letting it sit down on the floor. The signal could do whatever it liked at this point as it hardly mattered anymore.

He sighed, realizing that he should choose between his wearing his disguise or not.

Until now, whenever he wanted to act in his spirit form and materialize somewhere on Thessia, he had to have some kind of disguise. Something that would let him act without being stopped by most people and would keep the asari from realizing that it was a human going around and helping in disaster sites and raiding underground crime rings.

Which meant that his usual get-up had been right out in the years past. No asari had his figure even if he covered his face and skin.

Which, in turn, had led to him donning an armor that made him look like a Justicar. An asari Justicar. With the body lines and silhouette to match. Apparently, he had been given the nickname 'great red' on Thessia, considering he towered over them in his full disguise.

Still, he had avoided using it as much as possible because of how awkward it was.

Sighing, he closed his eyes.

"—Trace, on"—begin projection;

Exhaling, he ignored the high heels he was wearing as he crouched down.

Spiritualized as he was, these walls weren't a problem for him. Leaping up he spun in the air as he cleared through the roof and looked downwards. He could see twenty-two armored figures outside of his apartment. Seven teams of three, plus Tela Vasir by the front door.

Angling himself in the peak of his arc, he materialized and fell down from fifty meters in the air onto all four just behind the Spectre by the front door.

She felt the disturbance in her biotic field before she actually heard the sound of his fall he realized, the same way she had been able to react and defend against his earlier kick. She was already turning around with her shotgun to face him. But...

Too slow.

Re-directing the shotgun, he kicked her in the back of the knee and wrenched the gun from her hands. She tried to elbow him in the face, but he leaned back just enough for it to miss. He could see her face now, the utter surprise and shock, only there for an instant, before she tried to headbutt him.

He headbutted right back, just as hard. He had only had his helmet and his body as a Servant for protection, while she had a biotic barrier that could take multiple shotgun blasts head-on without trouble.

Unsurprisingly, he came out ahead as she reeled from the impact, eyes swimming.

Not letting up, he freed an arm and immediately punched her in the gut. It was a bad punch, without any hip to drive it forward or mass behind it beyond just the swinging arm. But it was enough to break the rest of her Barrier and send her reeling several meters back as she tried to catch her breath.

She stood up, eyes burning with an unspeakable rage.

Dark energy roiled around her body as she roared at him. He could see the biotic charge coming a mile away. Judging from the impacts she had made against his door, she had the strength of a runaway skycar behind her Charge.

Raising his hands up into a boxer's stance, he got on the balls of his feet. With a smirk, he gave her a universal 'come on, then'-sign.

It worked perfectly as she fueled even more power into the boiling shroud of power. And like a rocket, she exploded forward. Time seemed to slow down as he side-stepped, his rear arm lining up. Tela came rushing in at speeds beyond her own comprehension, unable to stop or change her course.

Right in time to run into his perfectly timed cross counter.

She stopped dead in the water even as her Charge pushed him back on his feet.

But the power and speed he had generated into the punch had been mostly enough to negate her built-up force.

No, more than that, it sent her flying through the air like a runaway spinning rocket. She landed a dozen meters away on the ground like a sack of potatoes, as she hit the dirt and rolled with the impact. She didn't move for a long second, until she got to her side, dry-heaving as she tried to get up on all fours and failing weakly.

Huh, gave her a concussion. Was almost worried about her there for a moment. Well, she'll live. That's good enough for me.

Suddenly, fifteen pinpricks of pain assaulted his back. An instant later, the sounds of the SMG firing reached his ears. Turning around, he came face to face with a fireteam of three salarians in black hardsuits. They blinked through their helmets on realizing that despite his lack of a kinetic barrier he had not been hurt at all.

He dashed forward, grabbing the nearest and throwing him into the second salarian. The third tried to use a tech attack from his omnitool, but Emiya batted it aside with his hand in mid-air before shattering the offender's leg with a snapping low kick.

Grabbing all three, he tossed them aside where they were out of harm's way.

Well, beyond what he had done to them.

Broken bones and bruises; medigel will fix it in hours.

As for himself...

His back was fine - the bullets had failed to penetrate more than a few of the top-most layers of the armor. This was the first time he had been shot in this mock hardsuit, but he treated the threat as real nonetheless. Through an application of his one spell that blended equal amounts of Reinforcement and Projection, he repaired the armor's back.

Emiya turned around and dashed to the skycar. Putting a hand on the bonnet, he felt his magical energy rushing out and into the engine. He found the sabotage quickly enough and felt some relief at noticing how easily fixable it was. Pulling out the radio-receiver-equipped piece used to killswitch his skycar, he blinked as he found a note attached to it.

An actual, physical paper note.

Not really paper, but a printable tag with a Van der Waals' adhesive back that made it handy for almost all surfaces, with asari common writing on it.

Blinking, he read it in an instant.

'Saiga, or whoever you are, I don't know if you'll find this or if it'll just get me in an even bigger mess. If you really are some kind of superspy that's been eluding the STG for half a decade and you actually manage to find this, then I didn't want any of this. I don't know if you actually kidnapped my daughter or not, or if you're actually coming back from Dretirop or wherever. But I didn't want any of this. I never wanted any of this. I should be mad at you, blame you for bringing this shit to my doorstep. But maybe it was a long time coming for all the shit I've been doing... Maybe you aren't supposed to get to have a happy family life after you've broken as many laws as I have.

They cut me a deal. I go to jail, Roane goes to jail, Hoana gets to live with her aunt. I was always fine with getting caught. I'd kept both of them clean. There shouldn't have been anything to implicate Roane, but that spectre didn't give a fuck. She just told me to get it done, or she'd shoot her right in front of me. Please, I beg you, please find this. Because if you don't, I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself for running away. I need to protect Hoana. Maybe you brought her back, I don't know, at this point, I can't tell. I've never been so scared in my whole life. Please. If our friendship ever meant anything to you. If you feel bad about Hoana if it was an accident. I have money. A few hundred thousand credits, even now. I swear I can pay, just please help me.

-Hosin'

He exhaled, crushing the note and putting it into a crevice of the red hardsuit he was wearing.

Well, that complicates things.

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Thanks to PseudoSteak for beta reading; had some trouble getting this chapter straight in my head at first. The heat and the seagulls are making it impossible to sleep so my head feels like mush.

Thanks to Olive Birdy and Tactical Tunic for proofreading.

Thanks to AlyrSoryu for pointing out that Emiya was reading the script/knowing things he quite wasn't supposed to.