Joe's Note: While I've namechecked LogicalPremise in this story's Dedications & Thanks section from the beginning, this arc literally would not exist if not for him and his writing. While it will unfold in a distinctly different manner from the mission that Shepard undertakes in Of Sheep and Battle Chicken, he's the one who developed Eingana and fleshed the thorian out into a species that was viable to write about outside of the canon encounter on Feros. An encounter that will still occur in this universe, might I add, which is why I begin looking for fanon information in the first place. I've said it before and I'll restate it again now: Harry's story is not Shepard's story, not now and not ever. His adventures will intersect and occasionally intertwine with hers, but Ismene Shepard's role as hero will not be compromised by the fact that Harry and his family are running around the galaxy. Period.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Alexander, Howard, Alonsis2, MJ, Christopher, Daniel, Brian, Crusifikz70, Rollin, Chris N, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Janne, Joseph, Jason, mpop, Riley, bloodylord, Luke, Zachary, Marc, Ziryo, Elliot, Timothy, Leigh, Chris, George, Koby, Dimitria, William, Mauday, Stephane, Ken, Warslick, Paul, Pat, Mitch, Joel, 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.

"…the humans call the being that they found on Feros a 'thorian', and the STG then applied that designation to the specimen they found on Makana. It's close enough to the native 'thoi'han' for the matriarchy's liking, rolls off the tongue a bit easier, and so we're going to adopt it as well for simplicity's sake. As a species, they hail from two cycles before the protheans, which makes them contemporaries of the inusannon." Allura's fingers danced over the haptic controls that ran along the edge of the table, calling up a hologram of a garden world dotted with what were unmistakably the scars of a titanic battle. "Most of the galaxy believes that Eingana is where the thoi'han and the inusannon went to war; thanks to the records provided to the Collective by our prothean benefactors, however, we happen to know better."

Reaching out to manipulate the set of controls on her side of the table, Deianeira furrowed her brow as she zoomed the hologram in to get a better view of the planet's surface. It was immediately apparent to even Harry's untrained eye that there were not one or two, but rather three distinctly different kinds of wreckage littering the surface of Eingana. Two were present in much larger numbers than the third, but there were most definitely the remains of three distinctly different species' ships scattered across the planet. "Are those… Reapers?"

Allura nodded as she tapped away at her own set of controls, isolating a specific wreck in the middle of the image and enlarging it so they could get a better look. "Good eye. Apart from the wreck in orbit of Mnemosyne and the infamous Leviathan of Dis, Eingana is home to the only confirmed instances of Reaper wreckage in the galaxy. Leaving the remains of their destroyed ships around where we can find them would seem incredibly arrogant on the surface but according to the protheans who visited Eingana, it's not as stupid as it sounds. A lot of their technology appears similar to ours at first glance, but it actually functions using scientific principles beyond our ability to comprehend. Literally; evidently a few protheans were driven mad trying to wrap their brains around how a salvaged Reaper's FTL drive worked. So it doesn't matter if they leave their wrecks lying around; by the time a species would be able to reverse engineer their ships, much less truly understand the workings of what they're using? They'd have to know enough to be able to invent something at least as good, if not possibly better."

"There's also the whole 'indoctrination' complication to take into account." Hypatilia let out an aggravated huff that was echoed by Adikia from her spot on Harry's right, making him grin despite the seriousness of the situation. Given his experience dealing with Voldemort's horcruxes, the idea that something inanimate could corrupt and control living beings was nothing new to him. He could only imagine how frustrating it must be for his more scientifically-minded companions, though; the Reapers possessed some fantastic technology that the Sylléktries couldn't even study properly without risking being turned into a thrall of the beings coming to destroy them. "Then again, even if we could find a way to neutralize that, I'm not really keen on the idea of being driven insane by one of my own projects. Bodes poorly for my chances of making it to matriarch."

"So their technology is beyond our ability to comprehend or replicate, we're fucked if we try, and we're supposed to be the galaxy's first line of defense when they return. That's not a pants-shittingly terrifying prospect or anything, now is it?" Thalestris shook her head as she chuckled deprecatingly, staring up at the slowly rotating Reaper ship contemplatively for a few more seconds before turning her attention to Allura. "So you said that a few of these… thorians… are still around? If they lost to the Reapers… lost badly, judging by the mess all over Eingana… what's the point of us trying to make contact with them?"

That earned the squad master disbelieving looks from everyone in the room, up to and including Harry. Allura was the first to recover, shrinking the Reaper back down and then panning sideways across the surface of Eingana to focus on what had probably been an impressive tower at one point… before a good chunk of it had been sheared off by a weapon that had melted and badly warped the impact point. "The protheans lost to the Reapers just as completely. Does that mean we shouldn't look to them for inspiration either?" Thalestris inclined her head in accedence, and Allura continued on. "The more hard data we have on the threat, the better we'll be. If there's even the slightest chance that this thorian can tell us something we don't know about the Reapers - force estimations, fleet compositions, tactics, anything - then this is a mission worth undertaking."

Nudging Thalestris with his elbow to get her attention, Harry leaned in and lowered his voice as he nodded in the hologram's direction. "Also, from what Kia's told me? The Collective is the furthest along out of all known civilizations and even we can't reproduce everything that the protheans created yet. And the protheans couldn't reverse engineer all the inusannon technology they found lying around. If we're lucky, maybe the thorian can tell us how their technology works and jumpstart our efforts to prepare for the Reapers." That earned him an appraising look from Thalestris but odd ones from the rest of the asari in the room, causing him to roll his eyes before huffing in exasperation. "What? Just because I'm younger and less educated than you lot doesn't mean that I'm an idiot. Or that I don't listen when people tell me things." Particularly Adikia. Who tended to deliver her lectures about her Technological Interest of the Week while wandering around their bedroom in her underwear.

"Fair enough. And he's right; the Council races derive their technology from prothean technology, which is in turn inferior to inusannon technology. A poor imitation of an inferior copy, so to speak. So while our primary objective - outside of any viable intelligence on the Reapers - is to convince the thorian to help us unravel what its people left behind on Eingana, we're also hoping that it might hold information that would help us better understand inusannon and prothean technology." Manipulating the hologram once more, Allura added a miniature shuttle that trailed a dotted red line as it swooped in and around the tower before coming to a stop near its base. "As it stands, our plan is simple: you'll be inserted via shuttle directly to a point close to the thorian. Harry, you'll be taking most of our ersatz commando unit to make contact with the thorian. 'Most' because Hypatilia, your squad will deploy in whole to begin assessing the nearby wrecks for salvage. Tag anything even remotely useful-looking for retrieval; we may not understand it until we gain the thorian's cooperation, but I want it ready to move as quickly as possible."

Thalestris chuckled softly as she leaned against Harry, wrapping an arm around his waist as she rested her cheek against the top of his head. "A nice leisurely walk through a ship graveyard overgrown with vicious ambulatory plants and dangerously mutated animals. You take me some of the most romantic places, Harry."

Before he could respond, Adikia pressed up against him from the other side with a soft laugh of her own, pressing a kiss to the corner of Harry's mouth and then - based on the sounds - Thalestris's lips. "I have never been more excited to be left out of you two's plans for couples time than I am right now."

"You think this is bad, Kia? This is nothing." Harry let out a rueful chuckle as he leaned into Thalestris's side, wrapping one arm around each woman's waist as he turned to meet Adikia's incredulous gaze. "Let me tell you about something called the Forbidden Forest…"

"So, I've been meaning to ask but things with Thalestris and Adikia seem to have eaten up what little free time you used to have outside of your quarters… why the Fedelma?" Deianeira paused and held her fist up, sweeping her gaze back and forth over the path ahead of them before gesturing for the group to continue following her. "Not that I was excited about the idea of serving aboard the Marauder or anything, but I'd pretty much resigned myself to it because it evidently meant something to you. Next thing I know, I'm at the christening ceremony for the Fedelma."

Flicking his wand, Harry sent another Presence Revealing Spell radiating outward and frowned as practically everything around him glowed faintly in his mind's eye. He'd taken to keeping a very loose definition of 'person' in his mind ever since he'd first arrived in the future; when he didn't, the spell failed to acknowledge the existence of asari standing right in front of him. But now he was starting to wonder if he was being a bit too liberal. While they were on Eingana to make contact with a sentient plant of some form, surely it couldn't be the source of all plant life on the planet… right?

Then again, given that they had to wear fully sealed armor at all times while on Eingana to protect themselves from the thorian's spores? And the shuttle they'd arrived in had vented its atmosphere the second it reached orbit and was currently on its way to make a close solar approach to thoroughly sterilize its hull before returning to the Fedelma? It certainly wasn't outside the realm of possibility. Harry eyed the nearest vine suspiciously as it slowly snaked through the air, drawing closer and closer to him until he created a flickering flame on the end of his wand and batted at it. Was he merely surrounded by aggressive, carnivorous plants as the Collective's intel had claimed? Or something more? Was there any way to be sure?

Deianeira's question proved to be a welcome respite from his rapidly swirling thoughts, and so he offered her a faint shrug as he allowed himself to be pulled into a conversation. "You weren't the only one who didn't like the name. One of the crew brought it up with me, Allura backed them, and I realized that I was being selfish by insisting on the name I was. So I sat down with Kia and came up with something a bit more agreeable. Fedelma was a druidess from back when my people were still religious. So close enough to your customs while still reflecting a human influence."

"Huh. So she was a real person, then?" Unable to create fire on command the way he could, Deianeira instead loosed a concussive blast from her Spear of Athame assault rifle to scare off a bit of overly 'friendly' flora before moving onward. "I tried running the name through extranet search engines, and all I could find were references to the mythology of some beings called the 'Celts'…"

Chuckling softly, Harry drew upon one of the things that Neville had taught him and sent a spell racing forward, the wave of energy washing over Deianeira with no discernible effect even as it pruned back the foliage that encroached upon their path. "The Celts were some of the first settlers of my homeland. I think. They didn't really cover that sort of thing in primary school, and I slept through most of my History of Magic classes. But a lot of things that the muggles think are just myths are actually from my community: magic, dragons, a lot of the polytheistic pantheons and related mythological figures…"

"The Loch Ness Monster?"

"Real but the muggles are way off with their theories. Nessie's actually a particularly stubborn kelpie that somehow migrates back to the area every time the Ministry tries to relocate her. What the bloody hell were you looking up that you stumbled over a reference to her?"

As Deianeira led them up the stairs toward the entrance to the tower that Allura had identified as housing their primary objective, Philaenisa sidled up on Harry's right and elbowed him playfully before interrupting the conversation. "Forget that. I want to know more about what's keeping Harry so busy these days." Before Harry could answer - he was hardly the type to shag and tell, even if his current situation meant that his love life was essentially a matter for public consumption - Philaenisa's hand brushed against his back as she reached across to punch Thalestris in the shoulder. "Sharing a bed with the magic man, a boffin, a justicar, and a loony sex junky. How's that working out for you?"

"You know, that's an awfully derisive tone of voice for someone who sent Harry the photos you did last week." Thalestris's words elicited a chorus of soft 'oohs' from the other asari even as Harry flushed darkly. What would have been an awkward enough situation had been made considerably more so by the fact that Adikia had made it a part of her daily routine to prune his inbox for him and highlight important messages each morning while he was making breakfast for the family. "But considering the 'loony sex junky' and the justicar were already part of the package when I started pursuing him… were part of the package that you were pursuing too… I'm going to assume that you're trying to mock me for sharing him with Adikia?" Already caught off-guard by the public outing of her questionable decision, Philaenisa responded with a faint, sulky shrug. "So she's an engineer instead of a marine. Not my usual type, I'll admit. But she's got salarian and quarian genes in her; flexibility and energy. I can think of worse things."

"Have it your way. But if she brings anything with tentacles on it into the bedroom, run. We've watched enough vids together to know how that ends."

Tentacles? What? Harry's eyes went wide at the mental image the woman's words evoked; was that actually a thing when it came to this century's sex toys? Asari sex toys? Quarian sex toys? Quarian Sylléktria sex toys? Because he could guarantee that Luna would be intrigued by the prospect, especially after he'd caught her conversing with one of the Fedelma's bridge crew about the maiden's experiences with a hanar and- "This is what I get for trying to keep things light. Right then. Hard ass grand master it is, then. Cut the chatter, ladies." Deianeira shot an exasperated look back over her shoulder at them before gesturing to the plant-covered walls of the tower's atrium with her rifle. "Because whether or not those vines outside were part of it, I'm pretty damn sure the thorian is all around us right now and that means we're making a terrible first impression."

His asari companions looked suitably chastised by their leader's words… with the notable exception of Philaenisa, who just snickered softly. "With the way Harry's life has been going this past year, the thorian is probably listening in and plotting how to turn itself into some sort of green woman so that it can try and seduce Harry too."

Thalestris snorted derisively at that. "You know, I'd actually like to see that. She'd probably do a better job of it than you did."

For fuck's sake, these women were supposedly older than his planet's space program by a significant margin. What the hell was it about him - and Luna to a lesser degree - that caused them to act like catty fifth year witches? Increasing his stride, Harry left Thalestris and Philaenisa behind to bicker as he joined Deianeira at the front of the group. "Luciana thinks that I've got an edge over you when it comes to dealing with less traditional sentient species, but you're older, wiser, and generally more experienced. If you've got ideas on how to play this, I'm all ears."

"To be incredibly, almost uncomfortably blunt? Fuck if I know, Harry. Fuck if I know." Deianeira made one of the few hand gestures that they'd worked out together, waiting for Harry to extend a Muffliato Charm around them to ensure their privacy before she continued. "If you weren't here, I'd swear that we'd offended the matriarchy and were being sent on a suicide mission. According to the files that we pulled from the prothean archive, this creature enthralls sentient beings, eats them once the corruption causes their body to start failing, spits out clones made of plant matter, and is generally the worst sort of being in existence. I have no idea what we could possibly offer it short of ourselves to secure its cooperation, and forgive me if I'm not wild about the idea of getting turned into plant food for the greater good."

Fair enough. Harry honestly couldn't blame her; based on what he'd read about the thorian's 'sequestration', it was a terrible way to go and easily on par with the Reaper's indoctrination. Wanting to lighten the mood, he forced himself to smirk at Deianeira before inclining his head in Philaenisa's direction. "Maybe Nisa is right and it'll spit out a green woman that'll flirt with me?"

While most of the krogan Sylléktries aboard the Fedelma eschewed the facial markings that all other asari seemed to prefer, Deianeira was a noteworthy exception to that, allowing her to ably mimic a raised eyebrow as she looked over at him. "A thorian's thralls can spit acid that's full of biotoxins and spores. I can only imagine that replaces other bodily fluids, too. If you really want to go a round that'll put you in the medbay by the time you're done, drop by my cabin after this mission."

"Et tu, Neira?"

Deianeira offered a shrug in response. "What? Just because I'm perfectly happy with my bondmate and have no desire to get involved with the insanity swirling around you and yours doesn't mean that I couldn't ride you so hard that you break something. Not that it takes much, from what I've heard." Harry would have argued that, but… well, she wasn't wrong. Especially with Epipsychidion and now Thalestris in his life. And Aceso seeming to think that girl talk was an exception to doctor-patient confidentiality. Or maybe that wasn't a thing among the asari? Or at least the Sylléktries? "Looks like we're coming up on the core. Drop your spell so that we can get this over with."

Flicking his wand obediently, Harry dispelled the charm around the two of them as they came to a stop in front of… according to their purloined thorian resources, the being itself called it the 'Tunnel of Life'. The core, for all intents and purposes. Which was attached to the 'Staff of Life', although unlike the plants that Harry was used to, the thorian's core existed outside of - albeit connected to - the trunk. Harry found himself immensely glad that Luna hadn't accompanied them; the portion of the core nearest to the ground had a vaguely yonic appearance and was dripping with some kind of fluid. As the others formed up behind him and Deianeira, Harry watched in fascination as the flesh above the dripping orifice undulated, slowly but surely forcing out… something. It hit the ground with a wet splat and then limbs slowly unfurled as a green-skinned being rose to its feet. Like the asari he now lived with, the figure was alien and yet simultaneously exquisitely feminine, and Harry found himself looking over at Deianeira as the corner of his mouth quirked upward. "I should test Nisa when we get back to the ship, because it looks like she's got some skill with divination."

"You're hilarious. Hah. Hah. My sides hurt from how hard I'm laughing. Please stop. You're killing me." Deianeira continued to stare at Harry dispassionately for several seconds before turning her attention to the green… woman… thing. "We know the thorian just consumed a Blackwatch unit assigned to confirm your existence, but you're obviously not one of them. Who… or rather what are you?"

"What I was before no longer matters; I now exist solely to speak for the Old Growth. And you are all trespassers before it."