Our time with the Geth had been rather tame, all things considered. The most important objective for the whole thing was for humans and geth to, well, hang out together. Not exactly, but that was a good way to put it. Geth didn't need to do regular exercise to keep up with their fitness, but they got to see us doing that. They didn't need to train like us to get better at working together, since they always worked together, but looking at how we did it could help them understand how organics work, in general. And then there was the fleet exercises. Essentially running through all sorts of scenarios, and most of them did not involve any shooting at all. They ran from stranded civilian ships to dealing with the aftermath of a pirate attack, coordinating with surface disaster relief, and a whole lot more. I kinda expected we'd run the Kobayashi Maru at some point, too, but nobody got the reference. As usual.

I also got myself to E2. If I wanted to move up to E3, I needed a whole lot more time working the medical facilities (hospitals or otherwise). Of course, it was basically being early in med school back in my day, so it's not like I was going to be a full fledged doctor any time soon, but the Systems Alliance believed in putting their investments to good use as soon as possible. Which suit me just fine, thank you very much.

But after several months, it was time to pack up and go back home. I wasn't sure if there were plans to keep some people there, at least rotating them, but I guessed it was likely. We were a bit out of touch with the rest of the galaxy at the moment, but I had heard through the grapevine that the Council wasn't pleased with us doing these joint exercises with the geth. Hilariously, all that did was make everyone enjoy the situation even more. I wasn't sure where it was coming from, but I had noticed a clear shift in people's attitudes towards the Council. It wasn't overtly hostile or anything like that, it was more of a 'well, screw them' kind of thing. Could also be confirmation bias due to the company I was keeping.

"Morgan-Chief."

I stopped packing and turned to see Legion had stepped in the barracks. He was carrying a box with him that looked suspiciously like a weapon case of some sort.

"Legion? What can I do for you, came to say goodbye?"

"Yes," he said, and lifted the case, offering it to me. "Our data indicates exchanges of gifts before separation are common between organics."

"A parting gift? Thanks!" I said, and nearly had my arm yanked off my socket when I grabbed the case and Legion let it go. "Freaking hell!"

"We advise caution against unexpected weight," Legion said.

"Did... did you just make a joke?" I said, chuckling.

"No data available."

I just started laughing and put the case on the bench, opening it. The sudden increase of weight was suddenly explained when I saw the contents.

"A freaking Widow?!" I nearly yelled.

There it was. Unfolded inside the case, which explained the size, together with a data disk, extra parts, and two rows of heatsinks. We had already had the discussion about ejectable heatsinks and they advantages/disadvantages of the system, so it wasn't a complete surprise. But that thing...

"Yes. Morgan-Chief primary function during combat is long range engagement. This is an efficient design for such purpose."

I picked up the very heavy rifle, checked that it was safe, and put it to my shoulder, pointing away from everyone up towards the window.

"It's not going to rip my arm off when I fire it, is it? I'm just a squishy organic," I said.

"It has been built to compensate for organic limitations," Legion replied with aplomb. "Instructions for ejectable heatsink fabrication are included in the data disk."

"Awesome. Thanks a lot, I love it," I said.

I put the rifle back in the case, and realized there was something else in there. There was a piece of cloth placed against the lid of the case, yellow and violet with zig-zag patterns. I picked it up carefully and inspected it. It looked a lot like a shawl of some sort.

"And this?"

"It is a gift for the creators," Legion said. That was a surprise. "Creators exchanged such items when engaging in conflict resolution."

"That..." That was more than two hundred years ago. I didn't quite say it out loud, but it was what came to mind. The cloth was smooth, but felt thick in my hands. Very light though. "You want me to deliver this to someone?"

"We wish to assist Morgan-Chief in his dealings with the creators."

"You never know, but thanks. I'll see what I can do" I wasn't sure how likely it was that it'd help, but eh, at least they were trying. I reached into my bag and pulled my hologuitar out. "Here you go, I didn't have a gift planned but I think this is a good one."

Legion looked at the gizmo, at me, then reached out and grabbed it. "We are grateful," he said, and I had no idea if he meant it.

With that, and a hell of a headache coming my way, I got into my transport and took off. A freaking Widow. I couldn't wait to give it a good test run, but I very pointedly refrained from making any comment out loud. Not tempting fate, thank you very much. I was going to be aboard the Waterloo for the time being, and while it had a small holographic range, it wasn't quite the same as the real thing. I needed to test that thing ground side.

Other than that, the crew were all in very good spirits. It had been a pretty easy going assignment, all things said, and while we all worked our damn hardest during training exercises, just as much as if they were the real thing, the rest had been fun. The Geth were endlessly curious about us, and so were we about the Geth, so we all got along pretty damn well. The uncertainty and tension of the initial days was long gone.

The Geth were very much not what anyone else had been expecting. I knew it could be very different if things got serious and they fell in with the Reapers, but for now they were just chilling and getting to know their neighbors.

It took us only a couple of days in orbit before it was our turn to leave. Over the months we had been staying, more and more personnel and materiel had made their way into the system, so moving in and out as one, just the same as when we had arrived, was going to be impossible. So our flotilla, with the SSV Berlin at the head, made hay towards Arcturus. Most of the personnel thre would be going back to their usual duties, the majority of them being either from the Second or the Fifth fleets, but as for me, I had a completely unavoidable appointment.

Admiral Drescher wanted to talk.

"Chief Morgan," Lieutenant Torres greeted me as I entered the office. "You're early."

"Sir," I replied, saluting her. "I was told to report as soon as I arrived. I think the Captain was in a hurry, some of the Fifth Fleet personnel had to be back ASAP."

"Oh, right," she said, but didn't elaborate. "I'll check if the Admiral is available."

That was something curious I had noticed about the Admiral. the Lieutenant seemed to always check with her in person when something came up instead of using the comms. I thought it was odd, but I guess everyone has their quirks. Not a minute later the Lieutenant showed me in. Drescher was actually sitting at her desk with a cup of coffee, and reading a book. An honest to goodness paper book at that.

"Chief," she greeted me, putting the book away.

"Sir," I squared off and saluted.

"Welcome back. Please, have a seat." She gestured at the chairs on the opposite side of her desk and took a sip of her coffee. She looked... relaxed, if that's possible. Definitely had an easy smile on her face. "How did it go with the Geth?"

"It went very smooth, sir. Both during the exercises and during downtime. I think the personnel were feeling quite at ease with them by the time we left."

"Yes, I read the reports," Drescher said. "I'm quite pleased with how you all conducted yourselves." She paused for a moment, taking another sip of her coffee, and her smile got a bit wider. "Any surprises?"

"There..." I trailed off as I picked up exactly what she meant by that, and given her smile, she either had something to do with it or thought it was a good idea. "It was a surprise to one of us, I guess." Yeah, she laughed. "I have no idea what possessed them to think I should be the one to broker some sort of treaty between them and the quarians. It's not like I'm in charge here. Sir."

"Damn straight, I am," she replied, still amused. "But they like you, Chief. I have no objections to have you be involved with this."

"Well that's a relief," I said, and meant every word. "I had no idea what I was going to do otherwise, grab a shuttle and fly to Rannoch?" Drescher laughed again, yeah. "So what's the Alliance's stance with the idea of a Geth-quarian treaty?"

"As of right now we're playing the waiting game," Drescher said. "Between the fleet expansion and our getting a lot more involved in Council and Galactic affairs, we're quite content with being a buffer between the Geth and the quarians, and leaving it at that. If you ask me, I'd rather do nothing. Give it a few years so that the quarians can feel more at ease, and maybe we can approach it again. It might very well be up to the next ass on this seat to solve it."

That wasn't going to work for me. I could see where she was coming from, and in other circumstances it might have been the best plan. Once the quarians were happy about their planet and were all re-settled, some of them might start to get curious about the Geth. As the saying goes, new ideas don't replace old ideas, people with new ideas replace people with old ideas. But we couldn't wait. The Geth wouldn't be doing any sort of fleet expansion unless they felt threatened, like in the simulation, or, according to Legion, unless I could show them the Reapers to be real and have them threaten peace between Geth and creators.

"You're not a patient man, are you Chief?"

"That obvious, isn't it sir?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Well... I think there's a case to be made about moving fast. What I was thinking is maybe we could try to get a few of them to try. Perhaps all we need is one or two quarians willing to work with the Geth to get the whole thing started. Like that saying about how all you need to start an avalanche is a well placed pebble."

"And work on what, exactly? Join us during our exercises?" Drescher said, skepticism in her voice.

"No, I was thinking... Okay, I'm not sure what I was thinking exactly. If we can get something started in neutral territory, where both Geth and quarians work together on something, then it's a good start. Tech research, or maybe medical research for their immune system, biotech for their food supply now that they're back on Rannoch, I'm sure there's possibilities out there. But that's what I'm not too sure about."

"Going through the private sector," Drescher said with a nod. "It might be possible for a small scale operation, yes. But who are you going to convince to invest in something like that? If you think the Systems Alliance is risk averse, venture capital is either more so, or downright predatory when willing to accept risks."

"I can probably secure some capital," I said. When she gave me a look I just shrugged. "I think."

"Friends in high places?" Drescher said, the hint of a tease in her voice.

"More like odd places," I replied.

"All right, so assuming that's true. Neutral territory would likely have to be within the SA. I'm not sure how most colonies would feel about having both quarians and Geth land in there."

"It might work better with a space station."

"A space station?"

"Yes. How are they going with the recolonization? Have all the quarians even made it to the planet yet?"

"A good number of them are still ship-bound. They're not trusting any of the infrastructure left behind by the Geth, or so the reports say."

"Yeah, so that's what I was thinking. Not go to a planet, but instead stay in a space station. With good facilities, clean rooms for private quarters, the works. It can be a comparatively luxurious setup, and with a good pay so they can send credits home, I think we can get some bites. If we wait until they've settled down on Rannoch, it might look to them like a step back. Or they might be less willing to take a risk."

"I see," Drescher said. She leaned back on her chair, finished her coffee, and put the mug to the side. "You're going to need a good business case, but in principle I'm not opposed to it."

"Sir?"

"As long as it doesn't interfere with current plans, it shouldn't have much of an impact. If the worst case scenario is that some quarians spend a few months aboard a space station getting paid to relax and nothing else, it shouldn't matter."

"Thank you sir," I said. I took a deep breath and relaxed back on my seat, too. "The biggest problem is that I have no idea how to set all this in motion."

"That's the easy part. Setting up the business is just a matter of hiring someone who does it for a living. Trust me, we have plenty of those kicking around. Talk to whoever you think is willing to fund your rather ambitious idea, and under what conditions, and we'll go from there."

Well, I guess I was about to have a good chat with myself about that, then. And my Volus banker, too. I bet he was not going to be happy, he loved the fact that I let him do whatever he wanted with my money - and truth to be told, so far he had proven himself to be quite good with it.

I left the Admiral's office feeling a lot better about the whole thing. She had suggested I didn't jump in with the first idea that crossed my mind, and instead use other people's ideas. After all, there was a galaxy full of people with business ideas, and some of them were bound to be good. Really, it was a matter of finding the right person to helm the whole thing and relying on them to gather all the necessary information. We were going to need a lot of data from the quarians, namely what kind of questions or needs were at the forefront that they'd be willing to leave the fleet to pursue, so we'd need surveys and Social Scientists. Plus the space station, building one was out of the question for my budget, but there were plenty of them out there that could be leased and upgraded if needs be, even within the SA. I had a vague idea in my mind, and it had escalated rather quickly once Drescher started to give it shape.

Damn but was I glad I wasn't in charge of this whole thing.

I stopped at the shops to get some groceries and headed for the apartment. I had about two weeks of downtime, then back to the Ninth. For what I had heard, they had been pushing the envelope securing trading routes with systems at the edge between the Outer Council Space and the Attican Traverse, which was not only busy in the least pleasant way of the word, but also quite a stretch away from home. Add to it the fact that the border of Council Space was where the Turians had their strongest presence, and it didn't take much imagination to realize it must have been less than pleasant.

To my surprise, I arrived to my apartment to find Alenko waiting for me.

"Chief," he said.

"Alenko? Were you waiting for Shepard? She moved out last month," I said.

"I know, I wanted to talk with you. Have you seen her yet?"

"No, I just got back," I swiped my omni-tool over the lock and the door opened. "Come on in. What's on your mind?"

I pointed at the lone sofa bed while I dropped the groceries on the small counter of the kitchenette. I pulled two Astro-fizz bottles and offered one to Alenko, sitting on the opposite side of the sofa.

"It's Shepard. Have you been keeping in touch with her?"

"Kind of, but I've been rather out of touch. Is something wrong?" Now I was starting to be worried.

"I'm not sure. You probably know about... You know, her change, right?"

"Yeah," I replied. Forget started, now I was quite on edge.

"I think she's having trouble with it. I remember when I was there, and she sounded a lot like them," he said, and tapped the side of his head. "Or what I heard here. It was weird, but after a while, she seemed fine. But lately she's been sounding a lot more like that. I'm a little worried."

What the hell...

"So you spoken with her? I mean, she told me you were there and all that, but I don't think I ever got all the details."

"I've tried, but she's... I think she's just staying away from everyone as much as possible for some reason. And she talks about songs and colors and whatnot. So maybe you can try, I don't know. I'm just worried and I have no idea what to do."

I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. It sounded a lot like the queen had gotten into her head a little too deep, which I knew for a fact was much less than pleasant. And if that was the case... Yet another thing I had no idea how to fix. Shit.

"Okay, let me go talk to her."

Shepard had gotten herself her own apartment just a month ago. She had put the request before I went off for the Geth assignment, but with the mess that was the Arcturus rotations in recent times, it had taken a while for it to come through. There were construction crews everywhere, and while the station had always been constantly in a state of flux, so to speak, with the interior being largely modular and continuously rearranged in some way, it had taken an entirely new meaning in recent times. Too many new faces, too many new fleets, and too many new ships. The Alliance had even repurposed a couple of older stations and were refurbishing them to take on the extra personnel. Crazy times, I didn't envy the guys working logistics.

Shepard's apartment was a little shoebox not unlike the first one I had gotten back in the post-Mindoir days. In comparison, my current apartment was quite luxurious. I was probably going to get a letter from the station's management to vacate the apartment sometime soon, so I better enjoy it while I could. And truth to be told, I no longer needed the space.

I rang the bell and a moment later the lock in the middle switched to green.

"Lana?" I said, stepping in. The room was completely dark.

""Close the door please," she said. "It's too loud."

"Too... loud?"

"Please."

I closed the door and walked in the darkness, stopping short of where she was sitting. She was sitting on the ground in the corner of the room. I tried very hard to keep myself calm, but I wasn't sure I was going to be able.

"Lana what the hell," I said, coming to sit on the ground in front of her. "Are you all right? What's happening?"

"It's the song, it's everywhere. It won't stop," she said, and put her hands on her head. "I can hear everything at the same time, and see all the colors. Your song is orange, and I can see you, and it's relentless. I don't know how to stop it anymore."

Holy freaking hell on a pogo stick, what the hell? Okay, okay, calm down, calm down or you're going to make it worse.

"Ali, how long has this been going on? Alenko is worried as hell, and you won't talk to him?"

"He shouldn't worry, he shouldn't sing orange about the-" she stopped and grunted in annoyance, pressing her hands on her head. "I keep singing... thinking about him like our brood warrior, that he should look after the hive and not me. I'm going to slip up and make it worse."

"Okay, okay. I think we're due a visit to our royal friend, and she better have a hell of an explanation for us because this wasn't part of any-"

"You're singing reds, it's not her fault. She helped me find my song, don't..."

"Okay, fine. Just wait here, I'll go put a call through, okay? I'll be back soon." I stood up and hesitated. "Unless you prefer I don't?"

"I'm... You don't mind? It's just... It's quiet here, and..."

I did mind a little, but right now it sounded like I was doing more harm than good right now. I reached out, found her arm, and followed to give her a squeeze on the shoulder. "It's fine, I'll get us there soon, I promise."

And with that, I took off while already working my omni-tool. I just hoped the message would be picked up soon. I needed to get Shepard to the Rachni Queen. Yesterday.

It was a very long two days before Wahea showed up, of all people. As per usual, she didn't have a clue what was going on. All she had gotten were orders from Aethyta to show up and take us somewhere she had no clue about. I thought she'd be clued in about the Rachni, but apparently not. Worst part was that the flight plan had taken us through several stops along the way, and I was not happy about that.

I tried not to take it out on her, because I knew she had diddly squat to do about it.

"We're about to land," Wahea called. "And I've been practicing, so it should be smooth this time!"

There was a smile in her voice, but right now I had bigger worries than that. Shepard was sitting down on the seat in front of me, her eyes closed, and trying very hard to look relaxed. And failing miserably. The shuttle eased up on the way down, shaking slightly in the wind, and finally entering smoothly to land on the hidden hangar from the base I had come to know so well. Even before the door opened, I could hear... not hear, exactly, but notice the remote song of the queen in the distance. Singer-of-Dawn, recognized it right away.

Shepard opened her eyes, and at once, her whole posture seemed to relax.

That's not worrying at all.

"All right, let's go Lana," I said.

I undid the seat restrains and stood up, heading for the door. Shepard followed without a word. When it opened, I was surprised to find an asari I didn't know at all waiting for us.

"Mister Morgan?" she said.

"Yes?"

"My name is Lilan, envoy to the queen Singer-of-Dawn," the asari said, bowing slightly. "I was made aware of your situation. Is..."

"Lilan," Shepard said, walking out of the shuttle behind me. "I am glad to hear your song."

"Warrior-Princess," she replied.

I bit my tongue at the exchange, because I really had wanted to snap at her and tell her that her name is Lana, or Shepard, or what the fuck is going on, but with Shepard looking so suddenly relaxed, I was absolutely confused. I had no idea what to do.

"The queen awaits you at your earliest convenience," Lilan said.

"Does she know what's going on? Do you?" I said.

"The queen believes her melody is not in harmony with those of the Warrior-Princes. Only one song can exist within each melody." I made a what the hell are you talking about face, but the asari... Lilan, just shrugged. "It's hard to explain with words. But the queen believes she can help."

"Well she fucking better!" I said.

Before I could say anything else, Shepard put her hand on my arm and pulled slightly. "Stop, your song is dissonance. I trust Singer-of-Dawn."

"Fine," I replied, taking a deep breath. "Fine. Let's go."

"Ah, that's... It's a matter for the queens to solve, Mister Morgan. You are free to wait in the meantime," Lilan said, and gestured towards the entrance of the base. The actual entrance, not the tunnel the Rachni had carved. "Make yourself comfortable. It could be a while."

With that, Lilan turned and headed for the Rachni tunnel. Shepard looked at me, smiled, and took off after her, leaving me to stand there in the middle of the hangar and feeling completely useless. She seemed to have calmed down completely, which was quite worrying. Did it mean she had to stay with the Rachni? Fuck. That...

My thoughts came to a screeching halt. It wasn't great, but if she was feeling good being here, that could be just fucking perfect. I mean...

The image from that N7 plunging to his death towards a planet came to my mind immediately. That one scene from the simulation that always did when thinking about Shepard's future. Well, that could work. Reapers or not, it was unlikely the queen herself would go anywhere when the rubber hit the road. Wouldn't be a bad place for Shepard to stay safe.

Still, it didn't take away from the shitty situation we were in.

I huffed in annoyance and went back in the shuttle, taking the baggage with me. We had both packed for a few days, but I didn't have that much leave. I couldn't imagine this was going to be fixed in just a few days.

"Are you all right?" Wahea said, coming out of the pilot's cabin.

"Yeah, no," I replied. I looked up at her and sighed. "Sorry, didn't mean to take it on you."

"I know, don't worry. I wish I could help, but I have no idea what's going on."

"Yeah. Do you know who lives here?"

"A queen? I have no idea," she said, making a helpless gesture with her hands.

"I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," I said, and smirked at her. "Just remember everyone is quite friendly here."

I said that, but right now it only felt like a half-truth. Friendly or not, they might have saved Shepard's life back then, but right now they had left her quite messed up. I took the bags and made for the rooms, picking an empty one and starting to unpack. There were very few asari milling about, which made sense. It's not like they had a need to keep a lot of people there anymore. With so many empty rooms, I was spoiled for choice. I found a nice big one, dropped the bags inside, and made for the sofa in there. I hadn't brought much in terms of entertainment, and regardless, it's not like I didn't have enough in my mind already.

Should've bought a new guitar when I got to Arcturus.

Well, music-wise there was enough in my head. It wasn't loud, but the hum of Rachni song seemed to be omnipresent in there. I brought up my omni-tool and went through the playlist, looking for something loud and distracting.

Beastie Boys - Sabotage

Now there was a loud and distracting song if I ever heard one. I closed my eyes and listened, the sound easily drowning the low key Rachni song in my head. I let the VI pick the next songs, and soon I was just going through a playlist of the loudest stuff in my repertoire. I imagined that if any of the asari opened the door right about now they'd be very freaking confused. Asari music is downright weird if you ask me. It's hard to even translate into human scales.

After a while, the noise of something falling to the ground and breaking caught my ear. I opened my eyes and saw that there was a new hole in the back wall of the room, and some debris had fallen into the ground. I watched in surprise as several rachni workers came out of the hole, started picking the fallen bits, and scurried away with them.

What the hell?

What was left behind was a hole about a couple of feet across. I turned off the music and waited to see what would come out of it, and to my surprise, what came out was a rachni queen.

"What the..."

She was small, small enough that she fit comfortably through the hole. She stopped as soon as she stepped in, and looked at me. I could catch a bit of her song, louder than the background one but not by much.

"Hello," I said. "Who are you?"

Greetings, fa... favoured brood-warrior. I am called Sings-to-the-Future.

I was surprised by the young queen's song. It was clear, easy to understand. There wasn't a lot of strange colours to it, and she didn't seem to be struggling to make herself understood by me. Singer-of-Dawn always had trouble with that, like she couldn't quite work how words were supposed to work for us squishy non-Rachni.

Daughter of Singer-of-Dawn, she then added.

"Nice to meet you," I said. "What brings you here?"

Her song became very... Rachni. It felt kind of orange in that weird way their songs felt, which was hard to wrap one's head around. That meant... scared? Worried? Something like that? sue me, it's not like I was an expert in Rachni song colors.

I wished to hear your song. If you would share it with me.

"You mean this?" I said, and raised my omni-tool, kicking in some music.

She... nodded? Okay, she was definitely an odd Rachni queen. Or maybe she wasn't, and the odd one was Singer-of-Dawn, I didn't exactly have a lot of examples to compare to. I shrugged and gestured for her to come closer, and she happily complied, climbing on top of he sofa next to me.

"Not the same as live music I guess, do you like it?"

The mechanical voice is not too bright, but yes. It has memories inside.

"Memories?" I said.

Yes. The memories from... She hesitated, and looked at me.

"From?" I prompted, but she didn't speak up. "You know, you're actually a lot easier to understand than your mother. She spent a long time sorting my drawers up here," I tapped the side of my head, "and after all that I think I understand her less than I understand you after five minutes."

Her melody rose again. Green. Pulsing in intensity. She was...

"Are you laughing?" I said, myself chuckling at that. "You know, you almost sound..."

...

Human.

Her laughter stopped and she kept her eyes fixed on me. Oranges, oranges everywhere. Shit, Shepard had told me about this. I mean, I wished she hadn't dropped the bomb on me the way that she did, but she did warn me. As my thoughts veered in that direction, her oranges intensified.

"You could have said something," I said, and despite everything, smiled. "It's nice to meet you kiddo."

Her song rose in crescendo as the oranges turned to an emerald green.

It is nice to meet you. Father.

Author's Notes: So, let's get back on track shall we? Last we heard from the Geth, they wanted Roy to make a deal with the quarians. Why? Well, if one goes by what the SA crew was saying at the time during first contact between the Geth and Humanity, Roy was about the only person in the galaxy who not only believed it was possible, but easy, to get the Geth to sign a peace treaty. From ME1 to ME3 there was a transition from relentless killing machines to adorable woobies, destroyers of worlds. Could have been planned from the beginning or could have been playing on the popularity of Legion. Regardless, that's what was up.

Of course, while I've been happy enough to slowly up the power level of Roy in the fic as time passes and experience piles up, there's a limit to how much that can stretch, and single handedly doing something like that is far too much IMO. So plan B it is, and hope it work.

I'm sure it'll work with no hiccups, right? It's also a good setup for more things down the line of course. Wheels within wheels.

One thing to note is that I hope it's coming through that Drescher knows more than she's letting on and is having some fun at Roy's expense. The extent of her knowledge will be revealed in time, but it's the main reason why Roy can actually do things like suggest he can round up a substantial amount of capital and not elicit a lot of questions. Drescher is just taking notes for when it finally comes in handy haha. Honestly she's fun to write.

As for the Rachni, for once I wanted this particular encounter to be a lot less dramatic than expected. Why the heck not? Baby rachni are adorable. There, I said it.

And the Beastie Boys song is totally a reference. If you don't get it, I'll explain in the Author's Notes for the next chapter :)

There was quite a bit of support for my return, so thank you everyone who's still following this story and those who've just started it up! As mentioned before, if you want to support me, I've set up a word-which-FFnet-will-eat at:

tinyurl (period) com (slash) y2q9cop6

(And FFnet sucks at adding hyperlinks).

I appreciate the support, but regardless, the fics will continue to update so reading and following is already great, I'm grateful for all of it!

Going to reviews! Not a lot of questions, quite a lot of welcome backs (thanks!), and some good criticism too, which I always appreciate. There is method to my madness, and reasons for the MC's jerkiness at times (because being a jerk happens when you've been raised by jerks, ask me how I know!), and, well, things going too well makes it more amusing when they finally do not and they fall apart. Not to say I don't make mistakes or perfectly execute my ideas, but that's pretty much where I'm aiming at.

Next time? Well, next time, an even more fated encounter than the one between Roy and Sings-to-the-Future, some ominus signs of things to come, and a confusing moment for the least expected character to have it (which I hope won't ruin my characterization of him, I see it as possible after playing ME3: Citadel). I also owe a scene I promised a few chapters back but never delivered, which is mostly touching on the poor, confused asari Aethyta keeps sending everywhere. We'll see when it's added, because it's more amusing and relaxing filler than anything else.

Until then, ta-ta, and thanks for reading!