Joe's Note: One of the perks to being a fanfic writer as opposed to a published writer - unless you're famous enough to get multiple editions of your work published, that is - is that you can always go back and fix things later. Like adding more detail to Chapter 1 to outline the veil's workings, or moving a scene from Chapter 6 to this chapter and adding an additional six hundred words of conversation to Chapter 6 to compensate. Accordingly, this chapter is now part of Chapter 6 and part of the original Chapter 7 with a new scene added into the middle. And because part of the first Chapter 7 is here, what's now Chapter 8 will now be fleshed out more in a few spots. Enjoy.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Alexander, Howard, MJ, Daniel, Christopher, Jason, Chris, George, Koby, Judedeath, Ken, Thyatira, William, Wil, Thomas, Jack, Pat, Chris, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing. Additional thanks go to the incomparable LogicalPremise for his amazing set of references covering many untouched facets of the Mass Effect universe, as well as listening to me ramble about ideas for the future of this story.
"This one must confess that she is curious why you instructed Scout Yaan to use old encryption protocols that we know have been cracked-"
"By Cerberus and the Shadow Broker before them? It's actually quite simple, Epipsychidion: if they don't know what we've found and that we're coming, they won't be there to meet us. And according to our mole within their organization, Cerberus has reacted exactly as I predicted they would: they have dispatched the very operative I've been investigating on a mission to stop us from getting our hands on Yaan's prospects." Bringing her mug of hot chocolate up to her face, High Matriarch Luciana slowly inhaled through her nose and took a moment to savor the aroma before meeting her companion's eyes. "I must say, I was surprised to hear that you would accompany me yourself rather than delegating the task of my protection to another justicar."
Remaining stiffly at attention and motionless, Justicar Mistress Epipsychidion was silent for so long that Luciana would have thought her asleep or perhaps even dead if not for the slow pulses of light running down the length of her abnormally long - at least for a Thessian asari - crest. Finally, after nearly two minutes of silence, Epipsychidion spoke. "This one has been contemplating her place in the grander scheme of things as of late. Thanks to our careful genetic screening and overall approach to reproduction, her justicars have no Ardat-Yakshi to watch over. The Order has no true fugitives to hunt, nor any great conflicts to mediate and defuse. While the Code provides us with tools to navigate by, we are a ship adrift at sea with no course to follow. And so it makes this one wonder if it is selfish of us to continue to exist merely out of a sense of tradition. Our materiel could be used by the military proper. Our personnel, likewise."
Luciana arched a brow at that; she couldn't honestly say she was surprised by the admission, having picked up on the thoughts when they first started forming several years ago thanks to the gifts inherited from her aithntar. Why Epipsychidion was bringing them to her now, though, was another question entirely… a question that she didn't yet know the answer to. "And what does that have to do with your desire to accompany me?" The matriarch's brain worked furiously, rejecting theories almost as fast as she could form them. But the more possibilities she dismissed, the more Luciana found herself coming back to one that - while on the surface seemed utterly illogical - could very well be the truth. "Your oaths also forbid you from taking a mate and having a family."
"This one has been contemplating the matter for some time but yes, Scout Yaan's discovery has made it a more pressing matter. What these two humans can do is unlike anything this one has ever seen, and she has spent centuries mastering biotic powers known to as few as your true face." The pulses of light beneath the skin of Epipsychidion's crest began to grow more frequent, other colors occasionally mixing themselves into the more common blue-white. "While there is nothing in her oaths that would stop this one from exploring the potential of Potter and Lovegood… yes, those same oaths would stop her from taking part in bringing that potential fully into our cause."
Sipping at her hot chocolate, Luciana realized that she didn't disagree with the broader strokes of Epipsychidion's position. The justicars were indeed an antiquated, unnecessary part of both historical and modern Sylléktrion society that their people's founding matriarch had included solely for the sake of tradition. They were a waste of resources, and since being a justicar was still seen as incredibly prestigious? They were also a waste of some of the best genes their society could offer up. Dissolving them would free up everything from ships to well-trained warriors to prime genetic samples; as it stood, the Code meant that justicars refused to serve as even aithntars, much less mothers of future Sylléktries.
As for the more personal aspect of Epipsychidion's request? What she was proposing would be a pairing of great value: the daughter of one of her peoples' most gifted biotics and a human with 'magic' would be truly fearsome when she came of age. But… her position gave Luciana precious few opportunities to have a sense of humor, and there was no way she was going to pass up an opportunity to have a bit of fun at her longtime friend and bodyguard's expense. "You've never even met a human before, Epipsychidion, much less these particular humans. And you're asking for permission to destroy a fundamental aspect of our society so that you can throw yourself at them? I could have sworn that you were a matriarch, not some hormonal maiden. What's next, that purple armor of yours ending up crumpled at the base of a pole in some strip club?"
"This one notes that you have brought a rather interesting selection of dresses along on this mission." The corner of Epipsychidion's mouth quirked upward as she looked off to her left at where Luciana had hung a sleek black number from a hook mounted on the wall of her cabin. "This one posits that she is not the only one interested in behaving like a 'hormonal maiden' with someone she has never met before, much less spoken to."
Luciana rolled her eyes before thrusting out her left arm. The teal biotic aura unique to her particular breed of Sylléktries coalesced around her forearm and hand, and then a datapad sailed across the room and into her hand. Twisting slightly, she pulsed her biotics again and sent it flying toward Epipsychidion, who caught it neatly and activated it. "Unlike you, I've been closely studying my potential partner for over a year now." Which… given they'd never met or interacted in any way yet, sounded creepier aloud than she'd thought it would. Hmm. Moving on… "Besides, this one dares you to say that you wouldn't find this particular human interesting too."
After staring at the screen for a few seconds, Epipsychidion looked up and offered Luciana an uncaring shrug. "To be honest, this one finds blondes to be more aesthetically pleasing. And Lovegood has the superior chest."
While the latter was true and the former wholly subjective, Lawson was hardly without her advantages. A level of genetic perfection that went hand-in-hand with Sylléktrion ideals, incredibly powerful conventional biotics by human standards, eyes that Luciana was already planning to include in all their offspring, and in the immortal words of a noteworthy member of one of Earth's ancient chivalric orders? She liked big butts and she could not lie. "In all seriousness, though? I've been listening to your thoughts your years. Well, for the entire time we've known each other, but I've been listening to you think about this particular subject for years."
Again glancing up from her perusal of the datapad, Epipsychidion cocked her head to the side as she eyed Luciana uncertainly. "This one is aware of your abilities, but finds that you use them on her freely without her consent to be vaguely unsettling."
"This one is currently attempting to validate you, so shush." Setting her drink down on her desk, Luciana rose and made her way over to Epipsychidion, gently prying the datapad out of the taller asari's hands and using her biotics to return it to the desk. Taking Epipsychidion's hands in her own, Luciana stared into her longtime friend's green eyes. "In all seriousness, as much as I want to tease you about your sudden obsession with Lovegood? Your overall logic is sound and well-reasoned. At the same time, not everything needs to change at once. Might I suggest that you step down from your position at the end of this mission, and name a successor. Explain your reasoning to your followers, and then let them decide whether or not they agree with your thoughts regarding the future of the Order. Let them decide their futures for themselves. This is, of course, assuming that you even get along with Lovegood once the two of you meet. This whole conversation might be a moot point; the two of you could find each other utterly repellent in person."
That earned her a faint snort from Epipsychidion as she pulled her hands free of Luciana's grasp. "This one not only understands duty to her people better than most, but also hasn't been in a relationship for the better part of five centuries. Accordingly, this one's standards for a compatible partner are… remarkably low at the moment."
Getting ready for her day consisted of many steps, each executed with a casual familiarity born of repetition. First came her hardsuit's matte black body stocking. A wondrous piece of modern technology, the latest iteration was carefully climate controlled by a VI monitor so that she was never too hot nor too cold regardless of the environment she found herself in. Which was nice, because 'flushed' was always photogenic… but 'gross and sweaty', not so much. Then came her standard issue N7 hardsuit boots and greaves, layered with thick plates of ablative ceramic armor interwoven with kinetic barrier generators. Her least favorite step followed: the curling plates that protected her thighs from attack. Not once in her career - including simulations and training - had she ever sustained a hit to them, and they slowed her top running speed by a good four or five miles per hour. Sadly, her CO didn't find 'come on, what's the worst that could happen to me?' to be a convincing argument, and so she was stuck with the cuisses… for now.
The minute she got her first command, on the other hand…
Next came a chestplate that was remarkably sleek compared to the piece that it had replaced; an asari design from Serrice Council, the 'auxiliary power cells' meant to augment biotic abilities had been carefully retuned to enhance her… decidedly more esoteric powers. As expected given its origin, it was far more flattering to her curvaceous figure, which was part of the reason that the Systems Alliance had eaten the cost of acquiring it for her. After all, the Lioness of Mindoir needed to be as photogenic as possible both on and off the battlefield. Never knew when the press might be watching in hopes of capturing her latest heroic feat. Her vambraces, rerebraces, and pauldrons were likewise of asari extraction, each containing additional retuned power cells to boost her abilities further. She occasionally got dirty looks from more xenophobic soldiers who were knowledgeable enough to recognize what she was wearing, but fuck them. The results spoke for themselves. Or at least they did to her and the few people cleared to know about the full extent of her 'uniqueness'.
Last but certainly not least came the prototype Mnemonic Visor that she was currently testing for Ariake Technologies. Easily as expensive as a standard N7 hardsuit, the visor - like the Serrice Council components of her armor - had been designed with the intention of enhancing the abilities of biotic specialists. With some careful tuning and modification, it lived up to that claim for her: she could fling her spells harder, further, and with increased accuracy. That last part was a definite bonus; her grandmother had once snidely remarked that she had the accuracy 'of a third year boy with his first Hogsmeade whore'. Which Ismene would have disputed, had it not come on the heels of her blowing a hole in the side of the family manor while trying to duel the hundred and twenty-eight year old woman.
Although that was positively tame compared to what had emerged from her great-great-grandmother's mouth when she'd seen the damage. For a bicentenarian, Daphne Greengrass could be surprisingly energetic when she wanted to.
Pushing the visor up onto the top of her head, Ismene Shepard raised her wand and gently rubbed it over her left eyelid followed by the right, using magic to apply flawless winged eyeliner along with a bit of aubergine eyeshadow to bring out the green eyes possessed by every woman in the family since great-grandmother Eirene. Well, the women on her mother's side. Hannah Shepard had brown eyes, as did most of her relatives, but given that she'd been the source of the 'male' PGCs during the IVF process, she didn't really count as a woman insofar as genetic heritage… did she? Well, whatever she was, Hannah was responsible for Ismene's pitch black curls, her muggle genetics evidently sufficient to overwhelm a hair color that had run in the Greengrass family since the eighteenth century. Probably Ismene's freckles, too. There wasn't a single Greengrass in recorded history with anything but clear skin.
Two additional charms turned her freckled face flawless and tinted her lips black; she was in the mood for something on the darker side today. Slotting her wand into the special compartment that had been added to the top of her right vambrace, Ismene ran her fingers through her hair a few times to fluff up her curls before turning to leave her quarters… and then pausing. There was a new message at her terminal. Which she had checked right before heading into the shower. And then turned off. All the way off. Frowning, she approached it cautiously and brought it out of standby mode, the mail program opening itself to display the new message without her so much as touching the screen.
From: WITCH
The Greenest Grass:
One of the devices I enchanted before my death using a sample of Potter's blood came to life yesterday and shows no sign of going dormant again. Based on your ASVAB scores, and OCS and ICT evaluations, I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out what that means. Given my lack of body at the present combined with your current stature and position, it's highly likely that you'll reach Potter before I do. When you do, try to forget the foolishness born of bitterness that the Ice Bitch has filled your head with regarding him. While I called them both my friends - he was my best friend, even - I will never hesitate to admit that he is a frighteningly powerful wizard who holds the heart of a veritable mad woman. You are the sole good thing to come out of the House of Greengrass in the past three centuries; I would be disappointed to learn that you ended up as a smear on a wall somewhere.
Consider my debt to your family repaid.
Ismene's eyebrows slowly inched toward her hairline as she scrolled through the message. So her great-great-grandfather - and presumably the fiancée he'd disappeared with - had finally turned up, and if the stories that she'd heard about him were anything to go by? It probably wouldn't be long before he started making waves here in the twenty-second century. The corner of Ismene's mouth quirked upward. Sounded like things were about to get… interesting.
"Why do they have bagpipes, Luna?"
"I'm introducing them to my Scottish heritage!"
"You're not Scottish, Luna. You're English. The Lovegoods have had ties to Devon for generations, remember?"
"Oh. Right." Luna paused, furrowing her brow in confusion, before eventually offering Harry a shrug and turning back to what she was doing. "Well, I'm sure my mother must have been from Scotland, then. Otherwise, how do you explain my love of bagpipes? From the top, ladies! And make sure your barriers are nice and solid, because I'm switching to live ammo!"
As the sextet of catsuit-clad asari resumed playing a vaguely familiar tune, Harry shook his head and slowly retreated back over to where Liselle, Calia, and Krína were waiting for him. In the three days since Calia's revelation that they'd attracted the attention of someone powerful enough to make the self-styled Queen of Omega flinch, Harry had spent the majority of his time poring over the information available on the 'extranet', trying to learn more about the strange new world they'd blundered their way into. Luna, on the other hand, had been gone by the time he woke up each morning, generally not returning until it was time for dinner and a shag. Evidently she'd been busy. Peering back over his shoulder, Harry raised an eyebrow before nodding in Luna's direction. "I'm not even going to ask where the bagpipes came from after seeing what you lot can do with those 'fabricators' of yours. Given you lot's ability to share information via melding, I'm not even going to ask how they learned how to play them that quickly… it honestly wouldn't surprise me if Luna's been hiding a secret love for bagpipes all these years and knew how to play one. But has anyone gotten a straighter answer out of her than I just did? Because I'm kinda morbidly curious what she's up to."
The three asari standing before him all shook their heads, and then Krína looked off to Harry's right before making a beckoning gesture. Following her gaze, he found himself staring at a pair of unfamiliar asari: one with teal skin and armor heavier than even Calia's, and a decidedly younger-looking asari in the same black and white leather getup as the rest of Aria's elite security forces. Raising a hand, the teal asari finished her conversation with what was likely her subordinate before dismissing her with a wave of that same hand so that she could make her way over to join Harry and his companions. It wasn't until she was in front of them that Harry really got a sense for how massive the woman was; she was easily a head taller than him and while he was sure some of her bulk was due to the armor, there was no disguising that she was built like a Harpies beater. "Harry, this is Alyona. She's the leader of our commando unit; this is the first time you've met her because she doesn't micromanage her team leaders when she gives them assignments. Alyona, you obviously know who Harry is. Sorry for interrupting whatever you were doing, but we were wondering… what the hell is his fiancée up to with those maidens?"
"Supposedly? Testing to see if our 'space magic' will make some old human warfare techniques viable again." Crossing her arms over what was either an impressive chest or copious amounts of armor plating - or likely a mixture of the two, given the asari that Harry had met thus far - Alyona snorted. "She started out babbling about 'shield maidens' and then moved on to scaring the shit out of whatever 'Germans' are. I'm not going to lie; I tuned her out about thirty seconds in and just stared at her chest for the rest of her pitch. You're a lucky, lucky man, Potter. But since Aria's orders were to keep Lovegood busy and away from her daughter… I figured why not? It's not like she's-" Alyona was rudely interrupted by three gunshots in rapid succession, making Harry jump and spin around. Laughing gleefully, Luna shifted her aim and fired off a fourth shot before sweeping back along the line of asari and unloading a fifth, adding more ripples to the bubble of blue energy that surrounded the group. "-hurting anyone. Athame's tits, Lovegood, are you fucking insane? How did you even get the pistol out of practice mode?!"