I know what you're thinking, "FiendLurcher updated already?!" Well, I didn't, okay? This is a semi-canon omake that was just too good to ignore, written by daniel-gudman who I'm a huge fan of. So all thanks to him! More random omakes over on spacebattles, but I'll probably try to get them ported over here at some point too. Will have to ask permission from everyone etc.

But just to repeat; This is a semi-canon omake by daniel-gudman, I didn't write it.

;

"You never call, you never write. I worry about you!"

Nihlus Kryik massaged his temples. "I'm sorry, mother, but my work is important."

"Your work? Some mid-level flunky, with a stalled career? You left the Hierarchy to serve the Council, and now look where you've ended up!" His mother said, scolding him through the vid-link. Reminding him why he hated calling home.

Nihlus was a Spectre. Not one that was active on the surface, but one that kept his true identity a secret, that maintained a cover as a harmless bureaucrat. He wasn't sure if it was better or worse. He could blow his cover to impress his mother, but it would only push back the nagging, not stop it. It made it worse, he decided.

"At least your brother left a child behind, to continue the family." His mother continued.

His much-older brother, that had been disowned for marrying out-species, an Asari. That was only a scandal for people as terribly conservative as his mother, a looming shadow that had been the impetus that had drawn Nihlus towards the Council in the first place, to understand the person who had been the hole in his life.

...A child?

"I'm an uncle?" He asked, testing the words. Trying out the thought for size.

"And not getting any younger, yourself!" His mother scolded.

Nihlus sighed, the extraordinary moment broken. Ruined.

"Family is important, you know." His mother added.

Nihlus could not hold his tongue any longer. "And that's why you disowned him, right?" He snapped.

No, it was a mistake.

"Well, I never-!" His mother began, and Nihlus sighed, cutting off the connection. He would catch hell for it, the next time they spoke, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

All these years, an accomplished Spectre. And somehow, standing up to his own mother was still so… hard.

Nihlus shook the thought of.

A niece. He'd done so many questionable things, compromised so much, to protect people, and to know that there was a person out there who embodied that….

He shook himself. There was no time for this. He had another meeting to get to, after all. Wallowing in his personal business would only hold him down.

;

"...Therefore, we can tentatively conclude that the Batarian crew had been… executed, by Redhax."

Nihlus massaged his brow. "Is… is that really the conclusion of the report?"

Jondum blinked slowly, one eye after the other, before jerking his jaw sideways once. In human body language, it would have been a massive, expressive shrug of his shoulders. "There's no direct evidence, but… parsimoniously. A Batarian vessel was found drifting in orbit around Dretirop. The crew had been systemically butchered with slicing weapons. The computers were totally wiped. Matriarch Benezia coincidentally encountered Fujimura Saiga AKA Emiya Shirou AKA Redhax in-system. There's…. no evidence, but it's the only reasonable conclusion."

"Right." Nihlus said.

The best conclusion was that a freewheeling extranet hacktivist had, single-handedly and methodically, killed off a literal ship-load of Batarian special forces commandos. With knives.

The hell of it, Nihlus decided, was that it really was the most reasonable conclusion.

Redhax.

;

"The difficulty with blaming it on an intercepted asteroid is, of course, the extremely rarefied corona, which is already being called the 'Thessian Rainbow' in the popular media." Recited the meeting-chair, summarizing the salient facts.

Nihlus settled in, glad that for once, he wasn't responsible for making any decisions, just that he had to keep on top of what the Matriach Council would decide on as the cover story, so he could coordinate his own ops.

"Have we determined if it presents a health hazard?" One Matriarch asked. Rather than an interruption, it was almost ritualistic, a call-and-response way of doing briefings that had to be learned over decades, that Nihlus still couldn't anticipate, even if he was experienced enough to see it for what it was.

"As far as we can tell, it does not." The chair responded. "Although it appears to be an Eezo Aurora, it does not emit energy in the Ultraviolet and higher spectra. Although this is still only speculation, it seems – tentatively – better to consider it as a holovid special effect, rather than radioactive byproducts of some exotic weapon."

Redhax

"What about reports that pregnancies have increased in the areas under the Aurora?" Another Matriarch asked.

"That has not been statistically confirmed..." The chair began.

Redhax!, Nihlus swore again, more fervently this time. Maybe he should take a vacation from all this… this-ness.

;

"Incredible." Whispered the i'usushij expert, re-winding the footage again. The footage that had been extracted from the security cameras of Matriarch Trellani's compound.

"Yes?" Jondum asked, a coaxing tone in the Salarian's voice. Nihlus nodded approvingly. At least in all this, Jondum had been tested, and found to possess the many talents required to be a Spectre. Spirits knew Nihlus needed to find some good in this whole business.

"This is a perfectly executed ulaa-tuj, an enhanced Biotic Throw." She explained, jabbing her finger at the screen. "This technique was thought to be lost, and to see it again… and from a human, no less!" She leaned in, her gaze intense. "You have to tell me who this is."

"That's classified." Jondum replied.

"It doesn't matter." The expert said, flatly dismissing his concerns. "This is a once-in-a-generation talent. We have to recruit him… so many techniques have been lost, that even one has been reconstructed is extraordinary." She turned back to the screen, jabbing her finger again. "Look! His body is tired, he's barely able to stand, when he picks up the Serri'usushij it's clearly his first time holding it as he tests the balance – even with all that, he's still able to perform a perfect ulaa-tuj. I hadn't even known what that would have looked like, before, but the results are undeniable, and that beautiful dancing motion? A blade-maiden already, even so young into a human's lifetime? This is a genius of the sword, the kind not seen in lost millenia."

Jondum swallowed, his eyes flicking back to catch Nihlus' gaze, to confirm that he was really hearing this.

Nihlus didn't want to believe it either.

"Has he had children, yet?" The expert asked, having missed the by-play as she restarted the video again. "I've been thinking of settling down, and there are plenty of others in the i'usushij community that would be happy to bring him into their families, as well."

Redhax

;

"Our working theory for why he was able to hack a Mass Relay of all things, is that he is some kind of Prothean AI weapon that hijacked and stole a black-ops Human: Cereberus cybernetic super-soldier. This is the best, or rather least absurd, conclusion, based on the following data-points..."

Redhax. Nihlus quietly swore to himself, listening to the top-secret summary briefing, as he discreetly swallowed headache-medicating pills.

"I'm done." Nihlus decided, standing up.

"Sir?" Jondum asked, beside him.

"I haven't taken leave in over ten days." Nihlus replied. "I… I'm starting to burn out. I need to rest."

He couldn't handle any more of this… this-ness. He needed to remind himself of what he was doing this for, why he put up with this... nonsense.

He was an uncle. The thought still surprised him.

"I'm taking the day off." Nihlus said. "To visit family."

;

And his niece was on the Ardat-Yakshi spectrum. Being a Spectre, of course, he knew about such things, but it was an ugly surprise.

Institutionalized.

...For barely a week. She'd been outed in the same chaos that had claimed Tela Vasir's life. The irony was bleak.

Redhax

No, this, at least, wasn't that damned cypher's fault. This was just a quiet little domestic tragedy.

"Hey! … Uncle?" She started strong, and then lost confidence in the end.

"Indeed." He said, chuffing a laugh slightly. "Tyra T'sanis, although we're late to meet the first time… I'm your father's younger brother, Nihlus Kryik." His eyes crinkled in a smile. "It… is good, to meet you." That, at least, was certainly true.

"Ha!" She laughed, an open, honest sound. It was surprisingly good for Nihlus' own spirit to hear it. "I'm happy to meet you, too."

He clasped his hands behind his back, considering. "I understand you like Biotiball." He said, not wanting to let the conversation halt.

"Yeah." She said, with a hint of embarrassment. "There's… actually a league team organized out of the temple, so I'm looking forward to that." She frowned mighty. "But the reason I hadn't heard of them is because the team sucks, so we've got a ton of rebuilding to do before we can qualify for any tournaments."

Nihlus had been more entertained by how worked up otherwise detached Asari would get over biotiball, rather than interested in biotiball in-and-of-itself, but there was always room to cultivate new interests.

Somehow, he hadn't known her long, but the conservative and sombre robes of a temple acolyte didn't fit Tyra.

...Ah, and somehow without meaning to, he'd let the conversation lapse. He was surprisingly out of practice with civilian small-talk.

"...I'm really glad you came to visit." Tyra admitted. "It's better here than I thought, the sisters are all patient and kind, but… it was a huge disruption."

"I understand that it was traumatic." Nihlus said, with a calm tone. "Your first meld."

It was the same easy, coaxing tone that he'd taught Jondum, that had been used to wheedle information out of that swords expert. Even in this, relying on black ops skills….

"Huh?" Tyra said, blinking. "No?"

Nihlus controlled his surprise, blinking only. "But I heard… she had…" died, he didn't say, he left it implicit, deniable, falling back on the shadowy unsaid implication of Spectres out of instinct.

Tyra grimaced, looking aside. "Well, yeah, that was… hard. But, I mean," She flushed, glancing at his face, and then looking aside, "well, I didn't say because no one actually asked, but, uh, she, that is, her? That wasn't my first, you know, first-first meld."

"No?" Nihlus asked, a cold feeling settling into his stomach. If she had… if she was further along on the spectrum than they'd known, then for him, being a Spectre came first. The law above even his own fresh-found family.

"I mean, he didn't even… react, you know? I was surprised, afterward, because when I tried to meld with him, he just… he just pushed me aside, and then said goodbye. He didn't seem hurt at all." Tyra admitted, all in a rush.

Some instinct in Nihlus' gut whispered at him.

"In a way it was just… so incredible. He was so… complete, you know?" She searched his face. The idea of melding as love that completed two people's spirits was a well-worn trope in Asari fiction.

"His soul was so… wide, and so bright. Even if it was so empty, it was the emptiness of a cloudless sky. Always moving forward. Carrying that with me, I think I'll be fine, even..." Tyra hesitated. "even like this."

No, Nihlus' instinct was whispering.

"His name." Nihlus asked, forcing the words out. "He..."

"Saiga?" Tyra asked. "Well, Shirou, really."

Redhax

"REEEEEEEEDHAAAAAAX!" Nihlus bellowed, falling to his knees, shaking his fists at the sky arced over him.