Joe's Note: This chapter is a bit of a late arrival compared to the surrounding material; staring at the original Chapter 17, I realized that there were parts I really needed to extend further to properly explain the thought processes of the characters. When I went in to do that, though, the chapter felt oddly long and a bit stilted by the end. So I dug out one of my ideas for a scene that hadn't made the original cut, snipped one scene off of Chapter 17, and then went back and added in a new - and fairly significant - scene in between the discussion between Harry and Luna and what had originally been the end of that chapter. It's going to cause some ripples going forward that I'll need to rewrite certain scenes to compensate for, but I think all the changes are for the best when viewed in the greater context of the story. Hope you all agree.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Samuel, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Beverly, Daniel, Jade, Robert, Kimeru, Charles, Crygon20, Subtle, Christopher, Stephen, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Janne, Joseph, Jason, bloodylord, Marc, Ziryo, Leigh, Chris, George, Koby, William, Dale, Dimitria, Haematite, Mauday, Ken, Paul, Pat, Edward, Roman, Warren, 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.

"We do this every day, Harry, and every day it ends the same way." Thalestris chuckled lowly as she peeled her shirt off; while the others had gone back to wearing more traditional asari exercise garments when they worked out in something other than full combat gear, she had taken a liking to the sports bras and leggings that Luna had introduced her to. Along with sundresses, halter tops, and a handful of other human fashions that were staples of Luna's own wardrobe. "I can't decide whether you're literally the biggest masochist I've ever met, or if you have a crush on Doctor Dalianis and you're just using me as an excuse to get closer to her."

Harry took a few seconds to simply enjoy the show as Thalestris twisted and stretched before answering, his hand dipping into his pocket as he withdrew a pair of vials that he'd dug out of a lesser trafficked area of his trunk that morning. One was a vibrant turquoise and completely full, the other only a third full of a dark red liquid. It was all he would need for this spar, he reckoned, and so he'd transferred the remaining two-thirds of the precious fluid to a separate vial in his trunk for safety's sake. "I last a little bit longer every day, I'll have you know. I'm learning. Improving. Today, though? I'm cheating. This… is re'em's blood elixir. It's fantastically hard to acquire and therefore incredibly expensive when you can even find some on the open market, but hey. I'm Harry Potter. Normal limits don't apply to me."

Looking more bemused than anything else, Thalestris paused from her warmups to come over and take a closer look at the potions he was holding. "And these are going to do… precisely what to help you finally beat me?"

"Well, we've been sparring without your biotics or my magic lately, but you still win every time because you're bigger and stronger than me." Uncorking the two vials, Harry knocked them back in rapid succession - the re'em blood first, obviously, so the second potion could help wash the viscous mess down - before tossing the empty glass vessels off toward the soft puddle of fabric created by Thalestris's abandoned clothes. Within seconds, he could feel new strength surging through his body and so he lunged forward, slamming into his significantly larger opponent and driving her all the way back until she hit the wall. "But can you still win against me if I'm your equal?"

Thalestris let out a gasp as her back hit the wall, her eyes widening with surprise before darkening in arousal. Contorting her body, she brought one powerful leg up between them, kicking out hard at Harry's stomach and launching him away for her. But rather than sending him sprawling ass over teakettle the way the move usually would have, he landed in a crouch and quickly rose to his feet, lunging back in to reengage her. The two began trading blows with increasing speed, Harry's punches quickly proving strong enough that Thalestris began turning aside his attacks rather than just absorbing them the way she normally did.

Back and forth they battled across the exercise room, gaining and losing ground in equal measure. Unlike their previous spars, Harry finally had pure strength to back his incredibly rudimentary hand-to-hand skills, repeatedly allowing him to get the upper hand and push Thalestris back… right up until she took advantage of her superior skill to turn aside one of his attacks and slip through his defenses. Objectively speaking, Harry was aware that they were still mismatched if for no reason other than that she'd been studying unarmed combat - among other martial pursuits - since before he'd been born. Given time, she would inevitably defeat him even today; he was stronger and more durable than her for the time being, but asari took down krogan all the time. But for once… at least he was holding his own.

Launching herself at him, Thalestris wrapped her legs around his waist as she delivered two lighting quick punches to Harry's face. For the first time ever, the attack didn't topple him over and leave him sprawled on his back, needing to tap out to avoid a knockout punch. Instead, his reinforced body was easily able to support Thalestris's weight even if momentum forced him back a step, and he quickly wrapped his arms around her waist to support her weight more evenly. Their fight ground to a halt as he stared into her dumbfounded eyes for a few seconds, and then Harry chuckled and delivered a blistering slap to her right ass cheek. Letting out a squawk of surprise, Thalestris dropped back to her feet and hopped backward, rubbing her ass with one hand as she eyed him consideringly. "Think you might have overdone it a little, Harry; you're hitting more like my aithntar than my equal. Not that I mind; you know I love a good fight. Not sure you've thought this through, though."

After taking a few seconds to ponder her next move, Thalestris went back on the attack and Harry allowed her punch to rock him backward a step before responding with a palm strike to the chest. This time, he took advantage of her momentary unsteadiness and swept Thalestris's legs out from under her. That was yet another move that he wouldn't have been able to pull off mere minutes before; the last time he'd tried, he'd end up lying on the floor nursing an aching shin as she stared down at him in amusement. "Not the first time I've been told that, Hale, and it won't be the last." Scrambling forward, he straddled her prone body and grabbed her wrists, pinning them to the mat above her head. While the match obviously was far from over, it'd was yet another first for him and so he was going to savor these few seconds in control before she inevitably threw him off and their spar continued. "What am I missing, then?"

"You know what sparring does to me, Harry. Especially with you." Grinning up at him wickedly, Thalestris wrenched her hands free before fisting them in Harry's shirt and… tearing it off? Before he could protest, she was already leaning up and sinking her teeth into his right clavicle hard, walking the thin line between pleasure and pain as she growled softly against his flesh. Pulling back, she licked her lips slowly before bucking her body in an attempt to unbalance him, to which Harry responded by squeezing his legs together around her body tighter. Compared to Buckbeak, staying on top of an asari was nothing. "You'd better hope you win this time, Harry, because if you don't? I'm going to pin you down right here in the middle of the exercise room and ride you until you beg for mercy. And then I'm gonna fuck you again."

Harry let out a strangled, incredulous laugh at that before capturing her wrists once more and pinning her arms back against the mat on either side of her head. "Sounds like even if I lose today, I win. Well, except for the public sex part. Any chance you'd be willing to throw me over your shoulder and head back to your quarters instead?" Thalestris went still beneath him, jaw dropping in surprise, and he offered a faint shrug in response. "What? We both know the terms of my agreement, Hale, and the rough timeline that I'm currently staring down. You think I've made a point of spending part of every single day for the last nine months with you because I want you to be my new best friend?"

Rather than try to buck him off again, Thalestris yanked her hands free and grabbed his hips, taking advantage of her significantly greater mass to roll them over so that Harry was pinned between her - albeit currently weaker - body and the mat. Her lips descended on his, kissing him hard and tugging his lower lip between her teeth as she pulled away. "If you were ready to meld with me, you could have just told me. Because you know what else is a form of foreplay for Sylléktries like me? Foreplay."

"I mean, sure, I could have. But then I wouldn't have bested you and proven that-"

"Harry? Are you going to drink those potions every day?"

"Well, seeing as how I only have enough re'em blood to take a dose like that again maybe five times… no?"

"So what exactly would beating me today prove to me about you?" Thalestris shook her head in amusement before pressing a second, longer kiss to his lips that was markedly less aggressive but no less passionate. When she finally pulled back, she shook her head fondly at him before giving him another quick kiss for good measure. "I never wanted you to prove that you were better than me, Harry. If all I wanted out of a partner was brute strength, I'd still be sleeping with Philaenisa. No, I wanted to see if you had the conviction to stick with something that looked impossible to accomplish. And you did. You proved you were good enough for me months ago. So if you're ready to move things forward with me? I've been ready."

"Same. Well, I've been ready literally since Deianeira introduced us, but that's mostly because I don't really care how well we connect. I'd put up with pretty much anything if it meant getting my hands on the reward that the matriarchs are offering." Thalestris abruptly went still atop Harry, and then both of them craned their necks to stare at the source of the all too familiar voice. Philaenisa stood in the doorway, fanning herself as she stared down at them. "So, that was hot. Room for one more? Although if the choices are us fucking here or us fucking in our quarters, Harry, can I put in a vote for right here? There's fewer people."

Oh, right. Harry had forgotten about the asari social preference for communal sleeping areas; apart from the space that had been set aside for his family and Allura's cabin, only the doctor and her nurses had anything resembling private quarters aboard the cruiser. The entire rest of the crew - including the marine masters, grand master, and other ranking officers - all shared a cluster of rooms situated almost exactly in the center of the ship. Which meant that going back to 'Thalestris's quarters' meant retiring to a room that was shared by several dozen other women. Many of whom wanted to meld with him. "Well when you put it like that…" Given their positions, the sharp twist that he instinctively used as a mnemonic caused him to roll on top of Thalestris as he apparated them from the floor of the exercise room to the office that he'd created for himself in his quarters. Climbing to his feet, Harry decided to take full advantage of his temporarily increased abilities and for the first time pulled Thalestris up to her feet before smiling sheepishly. "So, was that a mood killer for you or..?"

Thalestris let out an amused snort at that before hopping up to sit on the edge of his desk, stretching one long leg out to hook around his waist and pull him closer. "Right now, the Reapers invading wouldn't be enough to kill the mood that I'm in. Just out of curiosity though, what about Adikia?" At Harry's confused expression, she rolled her eyes. "To turn your own words on you? You haven't been spending that much time with her because you want a new best friend."

"Is this really the best time to be discussing another woman? Because I don't know much about women, but I feel like it's not."

"Considering the step we're about to take? I feel like it's the perfect time to be discussing another woman." Smirking as she wrapped her other leg around his waist, Thalestris ground herself against him and wound her arms around his neck. "You don't seem that against talking about a certain boffin, dear."

Given that thinking was getting increasingly difficult as Thalestris wiggled against him, Harry was a bit reluctant to discuss a certain quarian Sylléktria for reasons that actually had nothing to do with the fact that he'd essentially been courting two different women at the same time. "What do you want me to say? Again, you know what the matriarchs want of me. She was a prospect. You were a prospect. I'm making my choice."

Thalestris leaned in, planting a series of kisses along his neck before biting it playfully. "You do realize that you don't have to. Make a choice, that is." Straightening up, she shot him a wink before peeling her sports bra off and tossing it back over her shoulder. "I mean, if it was Philaenisa or one of the other masters - especially Philaenisa - maybe I'd be singing a different tune… but you're not the only one who's been spending some time with Adikia. I can see why you like her."

"Are you… are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"Probably."

"Can we discuss this later?"

"Fine. But we will discuss it. After you… embrace eternity!"

"I can't help but notice that as of tomorrow, you'll have your storm cruiser but we won't even have a bondmate on record for you much less any progress toward what you promised us in exchange for said storm cruiser."

"In my defense, I've been a little preoccupied with Epee's pregnancy, Luna's insane experiments, and getting the Fedelma ready to launch. And now trying to figure out how to be a father to a newborn asari, because Merlin knows it's the blind leading the blind around here in that regard. At the same time, just because I don't have anything on record doesn't mean that I'm not making progress. Twice over. Your spy is letting you down, Matriarch." Harry glanced up from the report that he was reading, looking over at the display that he'd routed the incoming call to and raising an eyebrow at Luciana. "Although while we're on the subject… did you know that Kat preferred the company of women when you assigned her as my aide-de-camp and conveniently available potential love interest, or are you just that terrible at screening the women that you send to try and seduce me?"

Luciana had gotten remarkably good at mimicking Miranda's imperious look, although it looked distinctly odd given her extra eyes. "Aikaterine prefers the company of both genders equally. Perhaps she told you that because she decided that she'd prefer not to keep your company?"

To be fair? Harry couldn't exactly blame the anxiety-prone maiden for not wanting anything to do with a man whose baggage already included both a wife and another woman beyond that. Especially given that on her first visit to their quarters, she'd taken one look at the scientific impossibility that was an Extension Charm and promptly fainted… and then awoken to find Wednesday sitting on her chest. Which still freaked him out, and he'd been living with the damned beast for going on two years now. On the other hand, it still seemed like a failure of leadership and decision-making on Luciana's part to have sent an operative as skittish as Aikaterine to try and insinuate herself into the circus that was his life? "Moving on. Lasira made a strong play late in the game, but I think we're both realizing that we're better off as friends. That leaves Hale and Kia, who appeal to two completely different sides of me and so-"

"You can always pick both of them, you know. That would certainly speed up your ability to fulfill your commitment to the Collective."

"Like I said, your spy is letting you down." Harry chuckled as all four of Luciana's eyes went wide, accessing his omni-tool and forwarding an image that he was particularly fond of: Thalestris and Adikia curled up together on the couch as they pored over a pacified copy of The Monster Book of Monsters. Watching the pair try to figure out how to subdue the book so they could read it had been nothing short of hilarious. Thalestris had ended up nursing an ugly bite on her right ankle after trying to kick the book away in an attempt to defend Adikia… who had come up with the brilliant idea of trying to shock the book into submission with her omni-tool. "Neither of them strikes me as the fancy ceremony type, so we'll probably just ask one of the shipyard's priestesses to do a three-way bonding ceremony at some point."

It took a few seconds for Luciana to collect her thoughts and then she offered Harry a crooked grin. "So, just out of curiosity, has Luna started demanding a second bondmate of her own yet? It seems like Adelia's fascination with the southern rachni queen is coming to an end, which I'm perfectly fine with to be honest. Never understood the appeal myself; sure, Adelia could access the genetic memory of generations of rachni whenever she melded with the queen, but-"

"Have you figured out a way to make a Mántis look like a normal asari yet?"

"No."

"Do you think you'll have it cracked within the next two years?"

"Given that we've only assigned a token team to it… doubtful."

"Well then I won't guarantee that Luna would turn down the offer, but I'm pretty sure the answer is going to be no." Harry fought to keep a straight face as Luciana adopted a distinctly sulky expression; if the Mánteis genuinely wanted him or Luna to father a child with one of their own some day, they really needed to start taking that particular demand of his seriously. Given his own situation, he had no doubt that Luna would end up taking a second bondmate of her own in the near future and had absolutely nothing against the idea of that woman being a Mántis. But if the Collective thought that he and Luna were going to surrender any of their children for the sake of the archaic traditions surrounding that particular breed of Sylléktria? They had another think coming.

Then again, even if Luciana had given him an unexpectedly positive answer to his question? Harry still wouldn't have been keen on the idea of letting Adelia in particular anywhere near his wife. Given the matron's strong resemblance to her mother, Harry had no doubt that Luna would delight in taking her to bed… but that would mean ending up with Luciana as a mother-in-law. And for that matter, Miranda. The former? Harry could tolerate in small doses, at least when she dressed appropriately and wasn't making Luna and Epipsychidion offers that she had no intention of fulfilling. Miranda, on the other hand, had turned out to be a haughty and smugly self-confident bitch who developed a penchant for deriding their abilities once she realized that she couldn't learn them herself no matter how smart she was and how hard she tried. It reminded Harry far too much of his late aunt, and he'd been glad to see the back of when his lessons on modern technology ended. "But I'm sure you didn't comm me just to gossip about my love life and try to set my wife up with your daughter…"

Luciana paused for a moment, raising both hands as she pantomimed weighing her options. "Not just for those reasons, no, but they were up there. The primary reason, though… Allura says that the Fedelma is ready to launch. Given that you have your own needs and projects going on, would you agree?" The cruiser had taken all of the charms and enchantments that he'd thrown at it without a fuss, and while they'd yet to actually field test some of the improvements that he'd made - or at least attempted to make - to the ship? Harry was confident enough in his work these days to be willing to bet his life on it. And so after a moment of deliberation, he nodded. "In that case, how would you like to visit your third planet ever? We've recently become aware of an unprotected specimen of a… unique sentient life form… that predates even the protheans. We want to send a team to Eingana to make contact and open negotiations, and I can't imagine that your skills wouldn't find some way to make themselves useful if we sent Allura and the Fedelma as that team…"