The meeting sight was, oddly, in the easiest place to hide a secret meeting: atop a high-rise set of apartments that included, of all things, his civilian residence. No one bothered to look up here, as there wasn't anything really worth seeing - while it was the home of several rich and famous people on Chiron, most of the interesting stuff happened outside of their homes, and apparently, all of them had either perfect wedded lives or were very discreet at what happened behind closed doors. I didn't really care either way, I just wanted to get the meeting done.

To my surprise, the Commander was a relatively non-descript man - Brown hair, blue eyes, no blemishes to mare his face, but he wasn't unbelievably handsome either. At least, I didn't envy his looks. While I'll admit it was odd that his eyes seemed to faintly glow, it wasn't something that was noticeable unless you paid a lot of attention. If you just happened to see him in a crowd, you'd probably forgot who he was rather quickly.

According to the records I'd acquired, his name was Patrick Hamilton and he was a member of the ARC - high-level manager, to be exact. He'd been part of the first generation colonists to arrive on Chiron, and was one of the oldest people on the planet besides the various heads of state. Granted, I wasn't surprised e didn't look particularly old - neither did the leaders of the seeding missions, and they were older than he was. At least, on paper - I had the feeling that this man was more than meets the eye.

"Would you like tea? Or perhaps coffee?"

"No thanks. I'd prefer plain water, to be honest."

"Of course," he said, before quickly pouring me a glass of water and a cup of coffee for himself. As the host, it was expected he be kind to his guests, unless I started something, of course.

"So," he began as he took a seat," what do you want to ask me?"

"I believe the question is rather obvious: how to you know that I'm not from this universe?"

"Straight to the point. I like that," he replied, taking a sip from his coffee a moment later.

"To answer your question, well, when you have a trans-dimensional psionic network, you can see things outside your home universe. I've just been looking around, watching things happen, seeing if there are anything threats on the horizon."

"How do you have access to it, though? If I remember correctly, only unascended ethereals can access that network, and I don't think there are any left."

"Well, you're half-right. The unascended elders did bite the dust a while ago, but not all of them died with their leader. The few that survived surrendered peacefully and managed to cling on until the second, or should I say third, alien war began."

"How did they die, then?" I assumed it might have had to do with the Great Dreamer, considering how powerful its psychic powers were.

"They didn't. See, the majority of the world legalized stem cell research after the first, or should I say second, war with alien invaders. They did it because gene mods had started to become public, and felt that combining the two could lead mankind to its next step in evolution."

Interesting. "And I assume the avatars were created during or immediately prior to the third war?"

"Exactly. They were made so that our friends, whose bodies were essentially rotting, could avoid a slow and painful death. SOme of them might have been jerks, but they didn't deserve to live in corpses."

True enough. "Who came up with the idea to make the avatars?"

"I did."

"...But...But...But...But that was hundreds of years ago..."

"Indeed it was."

How could this guy be that old? I could believe him being as old as the various leaders, but what he was telling me made him older than Kavitha (who was born before the Great Mistake). A normal human from that time should be dead, and even extensive gene modding couldn't fix that. What he was saying indicated he existed before the Second Alien War, or as he called it, the third-

The third.

For that war to be the third one, the one before it must have been the second. And that meant there had to be a war before that one. Indeed, it was public knowledge (at least in XCOM) that there was a war in the Sixties. By now, everyone from that war should be dead.

Except, maybe, for one.

"Finally got it, didn't you?" He asked, smiling smugly as he did so. "I didn't even need to hint that much at it, yet you fogured it out."

"You're him. The leader of XCOM Field Operations from the First War. Not Agent Carter, though. You're"

"Indeed," he interjected. Then, he went limp.

And then, a glowing blue figure emerged from his body.

"I am Asaru."

XXXXXXXXXX

"...wow, didn't see that coming." It May not have been the best thing to say, but it was true.

"You can't predict everything."

"True. So, what was it like? The First War?"

"Brutal and tiring. All wars are."

"I see. What happened to the original XCOM team?"

"Well, Carter, after being exonerated of all charges, chose to start a farm and eventually married Weaver. I think the two of them had had enough of fighting and just wanted a rest. Weir would achieve recognition for advances created from reverse engineered Outsider technology, along with Dreamer. Faulke died in the final battle on Origin's ship. As for the others, they mostly went their separate ways. Chulsky was eventually elected mayor of her home town. We all made a point of trying to keep in touch after the war, honor those who died, and reminisce on old times."

"So what did you do?"

"Me? I stepped out of the picture for a while, Let mankind develop, see how far your kind could go on its own. Shamash was wrong of your species: you can be destructive, but you aren't evil. That's why I returned in 2010. My unascended brethren wanted your world and it's people. I couldn't allow that, so I returned, help get XCOM back to its intended strength. The Council of Nationa was surprisingly open to my help. They even made me Commander of XCOM. Guess experience mattered to them."

"So it seems. How did you avoid suspicion regarding your true identity?"

"Built a human body out of bone marrow samples acquired from hospitals. My renegade brothers weren't the only ones with advanced biotech. Whenever my old body died, I grew a new one, so that I'd always be able to help mankind."

"Interesting. So, why are you telling me this?"

"You're not from this universe. Chances are, you'll eventually leave. I just want to ask you a favor."

"And that is?"

"If you ever encounter XCOM again in their travels, help us. We're not always the ones who are winning, and a lot of people suffer when we lose badly. I've seen timeline s is the psionic network where we lose, where Earth is occupied or destroyed, and miankind defeated and/or wiped out. Please don't let that happen if you can help."

"...I will. Anything else?"

"Yeah. If you ever arrive when the unascendedforst show up...tell my alternate self to spend more time with Shen and Vahlen. They were the best allies I could have asked for, all parties taken into account, and I miss them. Especially Vahlen."

"...Did you like her?"

"Yeah, and I was pretty sure she liked me back. We we're just...too busy to enter a relationship."

"I'll keep that in mind...how do you know she liked you?"

"She seemed to get angry when people tried to make Thrones fro me horn of living humans, especially if they were willing women. I think she was also jealous in those cases."

Well, that was an amusing image. "I willing consider that. Anything else?"

"One last thing: as a thank you for what you've done here, i've Gorn one last gift for you. I'll send it to you via encripted email, but I think you'll like it. It's how I got the idea for the avatar."

"I see. Well, goodbye then."

"Goodbye."

XXXXXXXXXX

It turned out the blueprint was the design for a gateway of sorts. This was how he peered through he trans-dimensional psionic network. Surprisingly, it looked a lot like the shadow gateway from XCOM 2. That was...rather odd, but I wasn't going to examine it further.

Now, it was time to leave.

I'd pulled my forces back to the systems ai'd claimed for myself, while my ground forces retreated through the gateway, along with all who wished to join me. With all of the Artifacts in this universe in my grasp, and with all problems I could solve through force solved, I had no reason to stay. All that I was going to leave behind was a token force to guard my gateway on Chiron, and similar forces to guard the systems under my command.

My exodus had a few surprising last minute arrivals, among them several of the EXALT test subjects I'd rescued and some random girl, her brother, her parents, and a few friends, who'd happened to end up on one of my ships during the final battle for Earth. For the test subjects, it seemed thebattempted kidnapping of one of them had convinced the others to seek greater security. For the girl and her companions, well, they apparently had nowhere left to go.

The reasons they came didn't matter. So long as they didn't cause trouble, they were free to join me.

Though, first, I had some unfinished business on Earth to attend to.

XXXXXXXXX

I stared out over the ruined cradle of mankind, watching as toxic storms raged in the atmosphere. Even with leaps and bounds made in global recovery techniques since the Great Mistake, Earth was still mostly a wasteland. Most of mankind was confined to cities like Mega Primus, and those could only hold so many.

Well, today, that ended.

My ship shuddered as my parting gift entered atmospheric freefall. On impact, it generated a storm that eclipsed all others, one that grew until covered the entire world. A few drones on the surface recorded the results: where the storm covered the ground, wasteland became a new biome - jungle, grassland, forest, or natural desert, filled with the plant to match. Animals were quick to follow, seemingly emerging fro nothingness. In the North and South Poles, the glaciers reformed, and the animals that called them home were reborn. Even the atmosphere changed, returning to the way it was in the 21st century.

Only forty one harvest of my greatest terraformed now remained. But this result was worth that sacrifice.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was time to go.

The last of my recent immigrants had already left through the gateway, as had the forces I was recalling with me. Only I remained in thisnuniverse, and that would not last long.

Still, I had one last person to talk to.

Taking a deep breath, I focused my psionic power, not at any person, but on a mindstem. At first, nothing happened, but then, everything went white, and I found myself on a field, staring at a Wolf-Beetle.

"So," remarked Planet, in a voice free of emotion, "this is goodbye, is it not?"

"For now," was my answer. "One day I may return, but at the moment, I must go."

"I see. Thank you for your assistance in linking me up to my siblings Andy letting them share in the beauty of transcendence."

"It was nothing."

"Your humility is appreciated. Still, a Reward is demanded by your actions, and I think I have just the one you'd like."

Before I could ask her what she meant, the beetle disintegrated. A moment later, a worm like beast emerged from thengrpujd where the beetle had been. It had two bulbous eyes and a trio of sheep mouth parts.

Was that a mind worm-

"Greetings, Commander. It is nice to finally meet you in person."

"...and who are you?"

"I am Chiron's thebElder.", and I must thank you for giving my siblings the joys of transcendence. Few have known its majesty, and I can only pity those who do not."

"As I told your sister, it wasn't nothing." I didn't know why this planet mind was talking to me, but I wanted to avoid offending it. I was still a nice in regards to transcendence.

"I know, but I still think you deserve a reward."

"And what do you mean by Reward?"

"This."

Then, all I knew was pain...and knowledge.

SO MUCH KNOWLEDGE! BLUEPRINTS, DESIGNS, DATA, EVERYTHING! IT WAS GLORIOUS!

But how-

"This is the sum total of mankind's knowledge in my domain. All that they learned when they joined me. And now, it is yours."

"I...I...thank you."

"You are welcome. Is there anything else you wish to know?"

"...Yes, actually: what do you mean by domain?"

"...The equivalent term in your vocabulary would be universe. Your are not the only being which can exist between universes...I have reached the end fin my strength. I must end this conversation. Farewell."

With that, the worm disintegrated.

Well, that was odd.

I quickly returned to the normal world after that. Inly a few seconds hasn't passed, but now, I had a whole extra universe of tech to work woo. It felt awesome.

Smiling, I took one last look aroudn Chirpn, then entered my gateway and returned to my new home.

XXXXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!