Joe's Note: I'd like to start out by pointing out that if you leave me a review and do not have PMs turned on, I cannot respond to it. Which will then allow me to segue into… everyone slap Doombug upside the head. Because while yes, I have been away from this story for a bit - writing others, working, attending conventions and meeting George Takei, Janet Varney, and Amber Benson among others - there's really nothing like a 'this story is clearly abandoned' bitch review to make you want to close the chapter you're actively working on when the review alert pops up in your mail client. -.-
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.

"…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?!"

Pausing for a few seconds as her Phalanx vented waste heat, Luna twirled gracefully and resumed peppering her pet project with bullets. Not only had she managed to get the gun switched back over to firing live ammunition, Harry noticed, but she'd managed to turn off the blue laser sight. Made sense; it was hard to surprise people when they knew exactly where you were aiming. In between two shots, Luna reached over to pat her left wrist and then raised her arm as her omni-tool came to life around it. "It's amazing what Hermione can do for me when I ask her nicely. And unlike the real Hermione, it doesn't bore me with explanations of exactly how it's doing what I asked it to. Besides, practice mode is worthless. I don't need to know what my accuracy rating is, especially since I'm not even trying to hit them. I need to know whether their barriers can hold up to attacks. That requires real bullets."

While that actually sounded fairly logical to Harry - actual logic, even, not just Luna logic - Alyona wasn't as easily placated. Stalking over to the blonde, she forcibly separated Luna from her pistol, using her biotics to suspend it in the air where Luna couldn't reach it. Then Alyona grabbed the red and black leather outfit that Luna was wearing with both hands, pulling her in close as the maidens went silent one by one. "No. Shooting. My. Girls."

"Can I shoot you instead?"

"…no."

"Well then how am I supposed to test my theory? Discovery requires experimentation." Wriggling a bit, Luna reached up to pull her wand from behind her ear and then she twisted, firing a stunner at the nearest commando. By the time the bolt of red energy finished scattering over the asari's barrier, Alyona had shifted positions and grabbed Luna from behind, pulling the witch's arms upward and pinning them to her chest. Harry shook his head in bemused resignation as his fiancée leaned up and pressed a kiss to Alyona's jaw before grinning widely. "If you wanted to get close to me, you could have just asked."

Alyona inhaled slowly and deeply, then jerked her head to the side as Luna got more daring and tried to kiss her on the lips. Releasing the blonde, she stalked back over to where Harry was waiting with Krína, Calia, and Liselle. "You know, Potter, at first I envied you. Now I'm pretty sure I pity you. I'm pretty sure I can guess what you see in her, but… I'm also reasonably sure that it's really not worth it. I'd love to give her a corrective kneecapping the way I would if one of my commandos acted that way, but I don't need you retaliating with your crazy stick biotics or anything…"

That one made Harry raise an eyebrow. "Crazy stick biotics?"

"According to Lovegood, we have strange space magic. From my perspective, though? We're the normal ones and you two have some kind of crazy stick biotics." That seemed… fair enough, really. If Luna was going to redefine the asari's abilities using terms more familiar to her, surely they were allowed to do the same to her and Harry. Alyona looked Harry up and down slowly before directing a pointed stare at his left wrist. "Speaking of your crazy stick biotics… any chance you'd be willing to show me what you can do? One-on-one, your powers against mine? I'm not going to lie; I'm kinda curious to see how much of a waste Aria ordering us to guard you two really is. Also might distract Luna from her insane experiment for a bit."

Harry thought about that one for a moment before shrugging and nodding. Clearly Alyona - and the rest of the commandos that Aria had assigned to watch over him and Luna - were well aware of their powers and therefore exempt from Aria's edict that they keep them secret to avoid drawing attention. And it would be interesting to see what biotics were capable of, beyond that odd little 'kanquess' teleportation of Aria's, barriers, and levitating objects a few feet off the ground. Not to mention that - as Alyona herself had suggested - it would distract Luna from her little project before she did something that really pissed Alyona off. "Right then. Just out of curiosity, though, how thick is that armor?" The question earned Harry a raised eyebrow of his own, and he drew his wand before flicking it at a piece of random debris on the ground, transfiguring it into a rabbit. Alyona jumped in surprise before swearing under her breath, making Harry a chuckle. "Transfiguration. Turning one object into another. I'd really rather not try to transfigure a piece of your armor and end up taking a chunk of flesh along for the ride. I don't think you want that either…"

Opening and closing her mouth several times, Alyona watched as the rabbit hopped its way over to her, circling around her several times before flopping down across her left foot. "No, I can safely say that I do not want to get part of myself turned into… whatever this thing is." Were rabbits extinct, then? Or were they just rare enough off of Earth that not every asari knew what they were? "On the other hand, my biotics can tear up your flesh pretty badly… so I guess fair's fair? Just try not to rip any of my limbs all the way off or anything. Medigel can do a lot, but I'm not entirely krogan." Before Harry could formulate a response to that, Alyona shot him a wicked grin and thrust her hand out, sending him flying backward with a pulse of blue light.

Caught completely off-guard, Harry found himself flying through the air for several feet and then hitting the ground hard, rolling for another yard or two before eventually coming to a stop. Pushing himself up off the ground, Harry shot Alyona a glare as he clambered back to his feet. Behind him, he could hear Luna's outraged gasp and he raised his hand to keep her from rushing forward and involving himself in their duel… or quite possibly bringing it to an abrupt end by way of some truly vicious piece of magic. "So we're fighting dirty, then?"

"I'm part of a pirate queen's security force. Are you really surprised?"

"…when you put it like that? No. Not really." Harry raised his wand and cast a basic shield as he studied Alyona warily, debating what avenue of attack to attempt against an opponent that he still very little about. Given that Luna's stunner had been easily dispersed by a biotic barrier… flicking his wrist, Harry vanished Alyona's armor piece by piece, until all that remained was a clingy undersuit that was stylistically similar to the commandos' catsuits but even thinner. Then he vanished the pistol and rifle that had fallen to the floor with the armor's departure for good measure. "Hope none of that was valuable."

The next few seconds felt like an eternity as Alyona's gaze dropped to her hands, then swept up her arms to her underdressed body before finally returning to Harry's. "It took my bondmate three months to design and build that armor for me. If you just disintegrated it or something, you… are a dead man."

Harry ruthlessly suppressed the burst of regret that her words created; if the armor actually meant that much to her, he reasoned, then she wouldn't be running around in it for day-to-day work. And besides, even if she was being honest about her bondmate designing it, it had probably been created using a fabricator. Most things around here were. Flicking his wand, he enlarged the rabbit to nearly three times its natural size before siccing it on Alyona's relatively unprotected calf. "To be precise, I vanished it. I'm not sure where stuff that's been vanished goes, to be honest, but I've never heard of anyone being able to bring something back from wherever it ends up. So… oops? And for the record, scarier people than you have told me that."

Growling, Alyona gathered a roiling ball of blue energy in her left hand and then flicked it downward, letting it skitter over the skintight biotic barrier that she was generating before slamming into Harry's transfigured mega rabbit and reducing it to a bloody smear on the floor. "How many of them are the favorite daughter of a krogan mercenary?" Lunging forward, Alyona slipped into the kanquess and crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, emerging less than a foot away from Harry. The residual energy would have sent him stumbling back if not for the teal asari reaching out and fisting her hands in his shirt. "I! Am! Asari!"

And then she smashed her forehead into his face.

The floor came rushing up to greet Harry as he landed flat on his ass, staring up at Alyona in disbelief as his hands rose to cover his bleeding nose. "Ow! I… what the fuck was that?!"

"What? I'm not going to yell 'I am Krogan!' like my aithntar does." Alyona rubbed the back of her hand across her forehead, wiping off away some splattered blood that Harry was pretty sure had come from his nose. "That would just sound stupid."

"No! The headbutt! Who even does that?" Harry scowled as he used a charm to snap his nose back into the proper shape and heal it, before apparating away to put a bit of distance between them as he climbed to his feet. "I thought this was supposed to be biotics versus magic, not pub brawling."

Arching a brow, Alyona looked back over her shoulder at the bloody smear she'd created. "…your thing bit me."

"Animated animals are one of the staples of combat transfiguration! That's magic!"

"If you want, I'll hold the biotic barrier next time I headbutt you? I don't know how much of your face will be left if I do, but I can…"

Or not. Narrowing his eyes, Harry turned on his heel and apparated back across the room to a spot behind Alyona before slamming a Banishing Charm into her back and sending her tumbling. "No more Mister Nice Wizard." Thrusting his wand out, Harry gathered his power and bound it to his will before releasing it to envelope Alyona and bend her to his will.

"…my chief of security is a what?"

"According to the extranet, it's an Earth animal called a… platypus, ma'am."

Aria looked up from the datapad in her hand, mouthed the word 'platypus', and then returned her attention to the live feed from one of Omega's few - carefully cultivated and painstakingly maintained - green areas. Two commandos from her elite guard unit were sitting on the bank of the artificial river and sipping drinks as they watched over some sort of teal monstrosity that was playing in the water. "Why is Alyona-"

"You're under the impression that you're dealing with a platypus-shaped Alyona. You're not; it's merely a teal platypus made from the matter that's usually shaped like Alyona. That's why transfiguring people into animals is generally frowned upon in the wizarding world: they essentially become the animal, with all the dangers that entails. The food chain, for instance." Jerking upright, Aria's eyes widened as she realized that she wasn't alone on her couch; at some point, Lovegood had teleported into her private lounge without her even noticing. Athame's tits. Couldn't they at least pretend to respect her privacy and personal space? Lovegood waggled her fingers playfully before leaning forward, planting her elbows on her knees as she rested her chin in her palm. "I wonder if she's venomous? Generally only male platypus are, but I don't know if Harry turned her into a female platypus or a monogendered platypus. Or if a monogendered platypus would be venomous or not, for that matter."

Opening her mouth to snap at the blonde, Aria closed it with an audible click as she decided that discretion was the better part of valor. While she was the undisputed ruler of Omega… her opponent could teleport, meld through nothing more than eye contact, and - assuming her abilities were similar to her fiancé's - potentially turn Aria into a purple animal of some sort. And Aria greatly preferred her current existence as a purple asari, thank you very much. "When can I look forward to having Alyona back? Or is she stuck like that? Because if she is, I…" She trailed off, brow furrowing. "Can't have him shot without you doing something strange to me as revenge. Can't lock you two in your room because you'd like that too much. Can't lock you two in separate rooms because you'd probably seduce your guards or something. Well shit."

Lovegood tilted her head to the side before shrugging and nodding. "That does sound like something I'd do, yes. She'd have to be really cute, though, so that I can sell Harry on keeping her after we're reunited. Krína, maybe? Harry is a tad Oedipal; she may not be a redhead but she does share his mother's name…"

"Are all humans this disgusting, or is it just you two?"

"I think just us. I remember that Hermione seemed quite horrified by my suggestion that she dye her hair red and straighten it so that Harry would be more likely to let her join us in bed."

Silence reigned for almost a minute as Aria stared at Lovegood, trying to determine whether or not the blonde was being serious… and doing her best to ignore the fact that Lovegood was staring at her chest rather unashamedly that entire time. Before things could go any further, though, Bray cleared his throat. "Ma'am? Your… special guests… evidently were traveling under a non-standard IFF. Or rather, a Citadel standard IFF rather than properly identifying themselves. The Sylléktries have docked and made their way onto the station already; if the automated systems hadn't tagged a handful of the more regular visitors via facial recognition and alerted us, we never would have known."

Tearing her gaze away from Lovegood, Aria stared at Bray in disbelief. "They what? Where are they?"

"Erm…" Glancing down at his datapad, all four of Bray's eyes widened. "They've already made their way all the way here to Afterlife, ma'am." He shot a nervous look over at the entrance to Aria's private lounge area, and she followed his gaze to find a quartet of asari waiting for her. Given that Bray had mentioned 'a handful' being recognized by the computers and three of the four faces were new to Aria, that meant that there were more Sylléktries… somewhere on her station. She'd worry about it later, though, after she'd dealt with the current situation. "I'll, uh, see myself out."

"Good idea. I'm sure Aria doesn't need her subordinates seeing her getting groped like a common dancer." Stalking into the lounge like the predator that she was, Pelesa crossed the distance between them with a handful of long-legged strides. Reaching down, she grabbed the back of Aria's head with one hand and the unsuspecting asari's right breast with the other and dragged her into a rough kiss. As much as she'd missed her on-again, off-again lover, Aria did have a reputation to maintain and so even as she moaned into Pelesa's mouth, she drew her pistol and pressed the barrel against the taller woman's ribs. Her lips curling into a smirk against Aria's, Pelesa gave the breast in her hand one last squeeze before catching Aria's lower lip between her teeth and tugging it harshly as she pulled away. "Hope you've gotten a better bed since last time I visited."

Before Aria could reply - in the affirmative; she'd bought a new carbon fiber bed frame after having her century-old Thessian péfko wood bed destroyed during Pelesa's last visit - her lover was making her way over to take up a position on the left side of the lounge's entrance. As a massive asari looked the lounge over with wary eyes before assuming a matching position on the right side of the gap, Aria was reminded of her unwanted companion by a soft giggle. "I like these people already."

Aria rolled her eyes in response, rubbing Pelesa's trademark midnight blue lipstick off using the back of her right hand. "You would, Lovegood. You would." Almost perfectly in sync, the two guards reached behind their backs and pulled out a quartet of metal orbs each. Aria tensed as Pelesa and her companion tossed them into the air, watching warily as they floated off under their own power to take up positions at both cardinal and ordinal points around the perimeter of her lounge. Curving fields of hard light snapped into place between them, and then the noise of the club abruptly died off as curtains of rippling flame erupted into existence, cutting the lounge off from the rest of Afterlife. "Just so you know, I'm keeping those."

"They're a gift, glikia mou. I designed and programmed them myself." Pelesa grinned widely before blowing Aria a kiss. "Glad you like them."

How… thoughtful. Maybe she'd fight a little harder than usual when they eventually made it to the bedroom tonight, Aria mused. Her brows arched as the remaining two asari stepped through the projected flames that covered the entrance to the lounge; so her new toys served as sound dampeners and visual obstructions but weren't actually barriers. Good to know. As her visitors approached Aria and her perpetually annoying companion, it became very obvious who the Sylléktries judged most important at the moment. Namely because Aria found herself staring up at what was easily identifiable as a hanar-bred Sylléktria, pulses of blue-white light running down the length of her abnormally long and translucent crest. One of the fantastically rare Syllektrión justicars, based on her outfit.

The asari who was presumably the mysterious Matriarch Luciana, on the other hand, opted to stand in front of Lovegood, her head completely concealed by the hood of the cloak she was wearing but clearly inclined so that she could stare down at the blonde. After eyeing Lovegood in silence for nearly a minute, she finally nodded decisively and turned to her justicar companion before undoing her cloak. Shrugging it off, she lay it over the taller asari's proffered arm and then turned back to face them. The reason for Pelesa's gift - and the intense secrecy surrounding the matriarch - became immediately apparent as Aria found herself staring into four golden eyes arranged horizontally rather than in two stacked pairs. "Well, I suppose that explains the name. Collectors, eh?"