Joe's Note: As promised, we're going to get one last chapter to wrap up things in 2181 before moving ahead to the events of Mass Effect. Well, kinda. We're going to see that single chapter in 2182, but then it's on to the events of the games. For those of you who are worried… while Harry's adventures will intersect with those of his descendant, the Marauder isn't going to replace the Normandy nor will Harry be leaving his ship - and people - behind to tag along aboard the Normandy during Ismene's adventures. Not only would that almost completely usurp her role as a heroine, but he just plain knows too much thanks to his affiliation with the Sylléktries. After all, how much of a mystery would the Conduit be - and how hard would Ilos be to find - when Luciana is a descendant of an Ilosian prothean?
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Alexander, Howard, Alonsis2, Connor, MJ, Daniel, Christopher, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Janne, Eric, DireSquirrel, Joseph, Jason, mpop, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Luke, Zachary, Marc, Ziryo, Elliot, Crusifikz70, Timothy, Leigh, Chris, George, Koby, Ken, Dimitria, William, Invernos, Paul, Pat, Joel, Kentucky Fried Dragon, Warren, 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. In this chapter in particular, I've drawn heavily against his backstory for Aria and why she chose to make Omega her home because while I'm not sure it'll ever be relevant, I like having that information in the back of my head.

"Seeing as how the Sylléktries possess truly remarkable information security capabilities… I don't suppose you'd be willing to shed a bit of light on why they're so interested in you?" Looking up from the terminal in front of him, Harry raised an eyebrow as Miranda stared down at him critically, a hand on her hip as she tapped her fingers slowly. "Luciana made a fairly solid case the other night as to why she's courting me. You and Luna… there's obviously something special about you if the Illusive Man sent me out here to try and recruit you out from under their noses. But for the life of me, I can't figure out what quality you two might possess that has everyone so obsessed with you."

Harry continued to gaze up at Miranda in disbelief for several seconds but in the end, he couldn't help it and burst out laughing. Luna soon joined him, the pair sharing a look before glancing back in Miranda's direction and laughing all the harder. Over and over again, the pair would start to wind down and grow more sober, and then Harry's eyes would find Miranda's indignant face and he'd be unable to stop from laughing anew. Finally, he managed to regain control of himself and took a deep breath before finally answering her question. "Well, it's actually pretty simple, Miranda: they're all after our magic."

Screwing her face up in disgust, Miranda let out a loud sigh. "Well that explains everything. I was wondering how two individuals in this day and age could be so thoroughly backward. You two are from Mindoir or one of the other agrarian colonies, aren't you? 'Magic' indeed. It's called biotics, and there's nothing 'magical' about our ability to manipulate… mass.. effect… fields…" The brunette trailed off as she found herself staring in disbelief at the faintly glowing kitten in her hand which - up until Luna had surreptitiously drawn and flicked her wand - had previously been Miranda's datapad. "How did you..?"

"Magic."

"In all seriousness, how are you affecting my perceptions so that I can see a cat? Only one known biotic technique can-"

"Magic."

It took almost a minute of poking and prodding - and at one point sniffing and then licking it - to convince Miranda that the kitten was in fact real, the brunette gingerly setting it down on the desk in front of Harry and Luna before taking a step back. "Either you're capable of altering all five of my senses simultaneously with no visible sign of using biotics and no apparent effort… or you've somehow turned an inanimate object into a living, breathing mammal. I think… I think I need to sit down."

Harry exchanged a grin with Luna before drawing his own wand, flicking it and conjuring an ornate, almost throne-like black chair directly behind Miranda. "Here you go." Rather than take advantage of the chair that he was so considerately providing for her, Miranda's eyes promptly rolled up into her head and she collapsed straight down onto the floor. Clucking his tongue softly, Harry looked over at Luna as he reached out toward the datakitten. "This is why I should stop being nice to people. I feel like nobody appreciates the gesture anymore." His fingers finding feathers instead of fur, Harry glanced back down in surprise and found Wednesday glaring up at him, interposed between his hand and the transfigured kitten. "Now where did you come from?"

Reaching out, Luna scooped up her pet and cuddled it to her chest, rubbing her cheek against the top of Wednesday's head. "I'm not sure, but I have a sinking suspicion that the author forgot about her for the last… eight chapters or so?" Harry opened his mouth… and then decided he was better off not knowing.

"You were a surprisingly gracious and accommodating hostess for a ruthless space pirate queen. I'm going to miss you."

"Lovegood, the only reason I haven't had you thrown out an airlock is because I'm not sure if even that would kill you. You've repeatedly invaded my personal space, touched me without permission, taken shots at my security staff, turned my chief of security into a platypus, tried to fuck my daughter…"

"I most certainly did not… do at least one of those things. Two, technically; I tried to talk Liselle into stripping for me, not shagging me. As for Alyona, Harry transfigured her during their duel and I was the one who was nice enough to fix her for you. You're welcome, by the way."

After spending the past two weeks in Epipsychidion's company, Harry still wasn't sure he'd ever develop feelings for her on the same level that he felt for Luna or Luna was evidently coming to feel for the asari… but he liked her well enough that he could see himself living with her long-term. It probably wasn't the best foundation for a polyamorous relationship that would someday include children, but given that the Sylléktries were itching to leave Omega behind and return to their homeworld? It would have to do for now. Harry just considered himself lucky that Miranda was supposed to be his and Luna's teacher rather than anything more; she was a nice enough woman but far, far too rigid in her thinking for his tastes. It was like an uncomfortably sexy version of Hermione at eleven years of age, complete with the oversized teeth.

Although to be fair, Miranda had far better hair than Hermione had ever possessed in the time that he'd known her.

It had been over a week since they'd introduced her to magic - albeit rather jarringly - and Miranda still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that something so contrary to her scientific education could possibly exist. That left Harry wondering… had the Illusive Man set his own people up to fail for some unfathomable reason, or had he simply not known what Harry and Luna truly were? The former seemed more plausible than the latter: if he hadn't know they were magical, then why bother with Harry and Luna at all? But if it was in fact the truth of the matter? What a fucking wanker.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, Harry found that Aria was shaking her head in disgust as she stared at Luna; her gaze then drifted to the left a bit to rest on Harry for a few seconds before sliding rightward across Luna to settle on Epipsychidion. "And just think, you're going to be stuck raising your first children with this lunatic."

Drawing herself up to her full - and considerable - height, Epipsychidion wrapped one arm around Luna's shoulders as the bioluminescent nodes in her crests pulsed with a mixture of orange and red shades. "This one is confident that she has chosen her future bondmate and the aithntar of her eventual children well. This one also thinks that you would do well to remember exactly who you are speaking to - both in terms of age and stature - before you continue to insult her choice of bondmate."

"You do realize that I have access to what passes for the extranet on Óasi through Pelesa, right? Pulling the matriarch and Justicar Mistress cards would be a lot more intimidating if you'd actually accomplished anything in your life. I'm… appropriately respectful… of Layana and her people because I've had the displeasure of crossing paths with Thessia's justicars in the past, and so I know exactly how dangerous they are. You?" Aria snorted indelicately before pointing off to Epipsychidion's right. "For all your centuries of training, I'm pretty sure that Luciana's new eye candy over there is more dangerous than you. Probably has more practical combat experience, too."

Given that Miranda was evidently a member of a terrorist organization, that probably shouldn't have been as surprising to Harry as it was. Shooting a glance over at the brunette, he found Miranda utterly unfazed by Aria's words as she stood proudly at Luciana's side… and wasn't that cute? They were wearing coordinated outfits. Presumably something from Miranda's wardrobe, given that her outfit fit substantially better than Luciana's and they both lacked some of the stylistic touches that he was starting to notice in all Sylléktrion clothing. "Even so, if Lovegood really is capable of turning people into platypuses, do you want to insult her regardless of how intimidating her new paramour may or may not be?"

"Once again, I didn't turn Alyona into a platypus. Harry did."

"My point stands."

"Meh. I don't really have to worry about Lovegood trying to turn me into an animal because she seems intent on getting into my pants and… wait, you're not into that kind of fucked up shit, right?" Aria eyed Luna uncertainly until understanding dawned, the blonde shaking her head vehemently. "Thank the Goddess. Never thought I'd be thankful that someone I hate wants to fuck me, but here we are. Besides, even if that wasn't the case? This is Omega. Loved ones and even friends are a weakness that others will try to exploit for their own benefit. Last time someone thought they'd found a chink in my armor, I had to make an example out of something like five thousand Blue Suns to prove them wrong."

Harry shuddered at both Aria's words and the cold look on her face; while he'd both killed and ordered the deaths of others during the war against Voldemort, they'd been the enemy. The idea of being surrounded day and night by people who would behave the way that Aria was describing for no other reason than simple personal gain and greed was… nauseating. At the same time, it also made some of their interactions with Aria's people - and Aria herself - slightly more comprehensible. What a terrible form of existence, money and power and pretty dancing girls aside. "Then why do you stay here? Why not follow Pelesa home? Become a Sylléktria? Raise Liselle with her?"

While he couldn't really say that silence descended because Afterlife probably hadn't experienced true silence since before the fall of the western Roman Empire, there was a distinct lull in the conversation as Aria pondered a response to that, a variety of emotions flitting over her face. Finally, she settled on an almost melancholy look, sighing deeply. "Because at the end of the day, I'm not cut out for that kind of life any more than you are. You're going to do your duty to the Sylléktries and then leave Óasi behind for adventure. And you can. Me? I wouldn't have that luxury. I know what's waiting for me outside of the Terminus, and it's even worse than if I ever slip up here. Moving to Óasi would be exchanging one gilded cage for another… and at least here, I'm the queen of my cage."

"With all this talk of cages, am I the only one who's suddenly picturing Aria as a go-go dancer?" Luna raised her hand and looked around curiously, her grin widening when Miranda hesitantly raised a hand of her own. "Also, Harry, we really are better off with her here. If she was our neighbor, it'd be much easier to seduce her and once I accomplished that, I doubt either of us would ever get anything done."

Given their interactions thus far, Harry sincerely doubted that… but he'd also long ago learned to recognize when Luna was taking advantage of her reputation for dottiness to offer those around her a way out of an awkward conversation. And either Aria had pulled more from Luna's head than he thought or she was very good at picking up on subtle clues because rather than the expected argument, she offered a faint smirk in response. "Are you sure you want to do that? Because I'm pretty sure that I could get Potter to leave you for me after he gets a taste of what a real woman can do."

Surprisingly, the rebuttal to that came from someone other than Harry's fiancée or… whatever Epipsychidion now was to him. "And how exactly did I end up getting dragged into this conversation?" Luciana did her best to appear innocent as she looked back and forth between Harry and Aria, her four golden eyes eventually settling on the latter. "I'm sorry, Aria, I could have sworn you said something about a real woman having sex with Harry?"

Merlin's saggy balls, was he the only adult left on Omega? Even Miranda and Epipsychidion of all people looked amused by what was going on. Harry shook his head in resignation before clearing his throat loudly. "If it's all the same to the rest of you? I'm actually looking forward to seeing my first starship so if we could wrap this up, I'd really appreciate it." Or hell, conference calls had existed back before he and Luna had passed through the Veil. If they really wanted to, they could sit down together over the extranet and negotiate a schedule for sharing him or something.

Harry made a mental note to never vocalize that idea, or leave it somewhere in his brain that Luna could stumble over it easily. She was bad enough as it was when it came to trying to get him to shag other women; the last thing she needed was anything remotely resembling encouragement…

Having long ago grown tired of frantic, last minute preparations thanks to his years spent with the Weasleys, Harry had gone out of his way to ensure that absolutely everything was taken care of before they ventured up to Afterlife. Luna had packed up their belongings under Miranda's watchful eye as he carefully undid the wards that he'd raised over their apartment, and then he'd prepared breakfast for the entire group. Asteria had returned while they were eating with Calia in tow, and the two had collected Harry and Luna's belongings before returning to their ship. After one last sweep of his own to ensure that absolutely nothing had been left behind, they'd set out to say goodbye to Aria and with that errand completed, there was absolutely nothing left to stand between Harry and his desire to set foot aboard his very first spaceship.

It was… simultaneously and paradoxically both bigger and smaller than Harry had expected. Hearing that they'd fit their entire ship rather than a shuttle of some sort in one of Omega's docking bays, he'd been a bit surprised at the size of the four-winged frigate awaiting them. And yet at the same time, given both Luciana's importance to the Sylléktries and that they must have at least hoped that they'd be transporting two very important guests back to Óasi? Harry wasn't sure why, but he felt like the ship should have been a bit bigger. Still, it was a spaceship that he was going to get to ride in, and that was all that really mattered to him at the end of the day. "Wicked! How fast can it go? Does it have weapons? Other than us, Calia, and Asteria, how many crew does it have?" Oh sweet Merlin, he was turning into Hermione.

"In order? Not counting relay transit, the Gilos can comfortably reach speeds of up to… I want to say six thousand times the speed of light? One of the engineering crew would be able to give you a more precise answer; I may be old and wise even for an asari, but that doesn't mean that I've taken the time to memorize our ships' technical specifications." Coming to a stop beside him with one arm around Miranda's waist, Luciana used her free hand to gesture down the length of the docked frigate. "It is in fact armed, although not exceptionally heavily. Unlike the storm cruisers that you're infatuated with, frigates are built for speed rather than strength and escort frigates even more so than their fully martial cousins. It's hardly helpless, but it's not the sort of ship that you use to pick fights. And her standard compliment is sixty-five crewmen, plus whoever they're ferrying and that person's retinue."

So in other words, it was equal parts swanky private jet and jet fighter. Nice. Harry's eyes remained glued to the Gilos as he slowly walked sideways, using one hand to feel his way along until he reached the docking tube connecting the ship to Omega. When he reached it, he spared a moment to shoot a look of glee at Luna before bounding away down the tube toward the ship. Reaching the hull, he waited impatiently as the dull blue metal doors opened to admit him, then dashed inside… and promptly slammed into someone, sending them both tumbling to the deck. "Bloody… are you okay?"

Unsurprisingly, his victim was an asari and a very unusual-looking one at that… and that was coming from someone who'd had a decent amount of sex in the past few days with a woman who did a passing fair imitation of a glow stick. Her skin was almost uniformly one shade of dusky purple, and completely flawless save for a series of faint grooves that ran down her face. Her crests were also some of the shortest and thickest that Harry had seen to date, the tips coming together to form a point near the back of her head. Oh, and she had glowing eyes with magenta irises, and each hand had only two fingers and a thumb. Those were weird too. Pushing him off of her, the asari sat up and rubbed the back of her head. "By the goddess, didn't anyone ever teach you to look where you were…" Trailing off, the woman tilted her head to one side as she eyed him uncertainly. "Who the hell are you?"

"A guest, Adikia. Specifically, one of the guests who I came here to meet." The poor woman that Harry had collided with struggled to her feet at Luciana's voice, coming rigidly to attention even as the cloaked asari raised her hand. "At ease. Are you injured? I know that your kind are some of the frailest among us."

Adikia's nervous but almost worshipful expression quickly gave way to irritation at those words. "What exactly is that supposed to mean? 'My kind'? Are you implying that I'm less able-bodied than my ship sisters just because my father was a quarian? Because I'll have you know that I'm held to - and meet - the same rigorous physical standards as any other asari on this ship." Opening her mouth to reply, Luciana was cut off by a fierce shake of Adikia's head. "Save it. You and your friends may get to sit in a plush cabin from here to Óasi, Matriarch, but some of us actually have work to do. I need to finish the preflight checks so we can undock."

With that, Adikia sniffed haughtily before turning and stalking off, leaving an entranced Harry sitting on the deck as he watched her go. It was as if someone had taken the best parts of Hermione, Daphne, and Luna, blended them with what few good qualities Ginny had possessed, and then poured the whole mess into a glowing-eyed alien body with a spectacular physique. "Who… was that?"

"Adikia'Devir vas Gilos, the ship's chief engineer." Luciana reached down, offering Harry a hand even as she glared at Adikia's retreating back. "Soon to be Adikia'Devir vas Óasi for talking to me that way."

Taking the proffered hand, Harry let Luciana pull him to his feet before nodding his head slowly. While he was obviously new to most everything alien, even he was smart enough to realize that Adikia's odd name had something to do with her current posting and that Luciana was threatening to strip her of it. "You should definitely have her reprimanded and removed from this ship. That way, it won't cause any problems when I ask you to have her assigned to the Marauder."

"…what?"

"I like her."

"You like her."

"She's… feisty." She also had one of the smallest waist-to-hip ratios Harry had ever seen, which could prove important if he had still yet to find that special Sylléktrion someone by the time the Marauder was launched…