I spent a couple of hours with my rachni "daughter", mostly doing... very little really. She seemed quite content to just chill and listen to music, but didn't have a lot of questions. I had more than she did, namely how all that had come to be. Apparently, for what I could understand, rachni don't necessarily require mating and can modify their own genetic code, but they also get imprinted with memories. In this case, some of mine.

Mother believes my song will be the one to rise against the darksingers.

"She made you to fight the reapers?" I said, more than a bit shocked at the revelation. "What the h-... heck."

We all have a place in the melody, it is our way.

"Yeah but that doesn't mean it's who you are, kiddo. What would you like to do?"

Should I not raise my voice against the darksingers?

I paused for a moment and looked at her. "Smartass," I said, and her song became waves of green, laughing. "It's coming one way or another, yeah, but that doesn't mean it's your purpose in life. What else do you want to do?"

There was no hesitation in her answer. Either a rachni thing, or she had been thinking about it.

Mother wished for more voices to sustain the melody of the hive, but the Warrior-Princess already found more. I will be leaving this place before my song becomes part of the hive. To start my own.

"Aren't you a bit young for that?" I said, and she nearly dissolved in laughter at my response.

I guess the answer is no, then, I thought with a chuckle.

Still, being born to fight a war of extinction? That seemed a little screwed up if you ask me. She seemed happy with it, but I wondered how that'd work in a few years. We were still a ways away from that, and if things worked out, we would have a chance to end it forever.

"So new home, what are you planning on doing there?"

Do?

She seemed genuinely confused by my question.

"I'm just worried your human half might get bored just sitting there," I said, and she laughed again.

There was a chime at the door, so I looked at Future, she looked at me, and with a shrug, I went to open the door. Just wanted to give her a chance to get out in case she wasn't supposed to be there.

"Yes?"

"Roy?" Wahea's voice replied. I hit the release and opened the door. "Are you busy?"

"No, come in," I replied.

I stepped aside and let her walk in, and as soon as she did, her eyes fell on Future. She stopped, eyes fixed on her, and started making some noises like she wanted to say something.

"Surprise?" I said. "That's Sings-to-the-Future. Kiddo, this is Wahea, she's been helping us."

Future stood a bit taller on the sofa and her song rose in intensity, becoming blue and warm.

We greet you, Sings-of-Confusion.

I looked at Future, who sounded as serious as when Singer-of-Dawn did her thing, then at Wahea, who was looking even more confused than before, and started laughing almost at the same time Sings-to-the-Future did. Her song became once again a bright green as she laughed.

"Oh you are a cheeky one, aren't you," I said.

"What?" Wahea said, still completely lost.

Mother believes the song of my brood warrior gives my song this color. Her song subdued a little, and she climbed down the sofa. I will leave you to weave melodies together.

"Oi, don't make me send you to your room," I said. She laughed all the way to the tunnel and soon we were alone. I looked at Wahea, and she was still as shocked as before. "They didn't tell you about the rachni?"

"They,... a moment ago, I didn't... what..."

I shook my head and went to sit down, and she joined me soon afterwards.

"Don't think too much about it, they're perfectly good neighbors this time around."

"I'm not so... I've seen old vids, but I didn't expect this. It's like the galaxy doesn't make sense anymore!"

"It never did," I replied. "So what's on your mind?"

"Oh, right," she said, and seemed to find her composure again. "I've been asked to bring you along for a meeting."

"Okay?"

"Away from the planet."

My eyes narrowed as I looked at her. She looked a little put off and apologetic as she said that, but then again, she probably was just following orders.

"You know why I'm here, right?" I said.

"I know. I got the orders, then spoke with the envoy to the queen, and she said it will be several days at least. So..."

"Aethyta, huh?" I said. Wahea nodded, and I sighed deeply. "I guess I've had enough of a holiday with the geth. Back into the breach we go."

Wahea gave me this weird look at that. "What is going on," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"the Geth are now your friends, the rachni are apparently good neighbors, I've helped smuggle loads into Tuchanka to help the krogan rebuild. Nothing makes sense anymore!"

"Told you, don't think about it too much," I said. "I guess we should go then, where the hell are we going?"

Wahea made a point of looking around before answering, probably deciding the place was safe enough. "Ilos. If the trend continues, we're probably going to meet the protheans who've been secretly hiding there since they disappeared fifty thousand years ago. I might just go insane if that happens."

Jellyfish. He was supposed to rise after the reapers had passed, together with one million of his people. To start them in the path towards final victory thousands of years before the war returned. Instead, he had awoken barely a decade before the return of the reapers, and all he had at his disposal were a handful of secretive asari and a planet full of jellyfish.

Not even that, not yet at least. He had a few dozen jellyfish.

Sure, they revered him as nothing short of a god. he mentally scoffed at the notion. It wasn't the first primitive species his people had modified at the genetic level. Somebody gave them the ability to manifest surface coloration, and it evolved into speech. It must have been a joke of some sort. Another sign of the decay of the prothean empire before the arrival of the reapers. Who would spend their time and intellect doing something as asinine as that.

But now, he had to work with jellyfish.

"Analysis complete," Vigil announced. "Indoctrination detected. Parameters have been adjusted for bidirectional nervous systems."

He looked at the jellyfish... hanar, caught inside the water tank. He was pretty sure the rest of the hanar in the workshop were quite shocked about the turn of events, but none of them had dared speak out. The indoctrinated hanar had been throwing itself against the glass for a while, and the coloration on its surface was a kaleidoscope of chaotic and erratic flashes. To think the asari had found a derelict reaper. Tens of millions of years old. Be it its age or general major malfunction, it indoctrinated organics at a rapid pace. That's where the hanar had gone, and voluntarily, too. Speaks-of-the-Enkindlers.

No, it hadn't been the asari. It had been that human, Morgan.

"Any others?" Javik said.

"No other signs of indoctrination detected."

"Then get it over with," Javik said, looking at the hanar working the computer terminals. "Dispose of him."

There was no hesitation in any of the hanar. One of them reached for its console, and a moment later electricity flashed and ran through the water tank. The hanar inside shook violently, its colors becoming even more confusing, until they went dull and it stopped moving. The electric shock stopped, and it slowly sank to the bottom of the tank.

"That is what we have to deal with," Javik said. "Find the means to deploy indoctrination detection at large scale. There is no higher priority for you."

"The will of the enkindlers be done," all the hanar replied at once.

Primitives.

Underdeveloped, primitive species was what he had to work with. Javik looked around. One of the hanar had started to flash again, but stopped immediately once he fixed his eyes on it. "Speak," he prompted. They always had to be prompted.

"This one would not dare contradict the will of the enkindlers," he started. As they always did. "But this one believes there might be use in bringing others, even if they did not seek to devte themselves to the works of the enkindlers."

"You want to bring someone else?" Liara prompted.

"This one believes there might be benefits from it," the hanar replied.

"Bring whoever you need, but get it done," Javik said.

"I'm not sure bringing too many people is a good idea," Liara said. "The less people come here, the better we can keep the means of access a secret."

"This one can reassure the speaker of the enkindlers that none shall threaten the holy place, these ones will humbly ensure that."

As if to make the hanar's point, there was a scraping sound as the water tank was lifted off the ground by a mass effect field, and two hanar pushed it away towards the disposal unit.

"Do it," Javik said.

"The will of the enkindlers be done," the hanar replied.

There were about thirty hanar on Ilos now. None of them had left the planet since their arrival, they had only brought others. At first it had been because they couldn't be sure whether they were indoctrinated or not, but now Javik was sure they'd rather never leave the place. Their zealotry was unmatched. If nothing else, a few billion hanar could, at least, provide some labor.

"They're ready," Liara said, gesturing towards the door.

"Your little surprise," Javik said.

Liara smiled at that, and to Javik's surprise, bowed reverently. "I merely wish to serv-"

"Stand up!" Javik snapped. Liara almost jumped up in surprise, complying immediately. Her smile was gone. "Do not prostrate yourself before others, asari. You are leading against the threat the rest of the galaxy was too blind to see. You humble yourself before nobody."

Liara looked at him for a moment, then nodded wordlessly and led the way. Javik followed, silently wondering why he had done that. It wasn't that he thought he was wrong. But that had not been his usual self. Why Liara's gesture had annoyed him, he couldn't be sure.

And he wished he had called her Liara, and not asari.

He had to admit, Liara's surprise had actually been one, and a pleasant one at that. He only had a handful of those lizards, and for what Liara had told him, there were no more than a few thousand living in Kahje. He'd have rather had ten billion of them and no hanar, but he'd have to make do. Dense, wiry musculature, eidetic memory, and most of them trained as servants of the hanar. To do all the things the hanar themselves couldn't do.

Namely agents. Infiltration experts due to their biological adaptations. Yes, this was something he could use.

"Place your weapons on the table and step back," Javik ordered. "No more than one each."

If they were confused by the order, they never showed it. Eight weapons were placed on the table, from knives to guns, and the drell stepped back as ordered. Javik took a moment to wash his hands in the basin, and approached the table. One by one, he touched the weapons. Learning. Those who had placed their preferred weapon on the table, and those who had kept it with them. Guns. Killing from a distance, or up close. Knives. Someone who wanted to be close and personal, not because he enjoyed killing, but because he made sure the job was done. They all had something in common: Competent, well trained, and devoted to their missions. For those who had placed their preferred weapon on the table, there were long memories of devoted service in them.

Then he found it. That one was completely out of place. That was a non-lethal weapon. Gun, variable loads. Could be electric, could be liquids. Poisons? None he could remember.

"Why this weapon?" he said, looking up directly at the owner of that gun.

"I prefer to resolve situations without bloodshed when possible," the drell said.

Javik looked around. The other drell were looking at him. He couldn't see any overt hostility towards those words. Some looked like they disagreed. Their body language was open, almost like an open invitation for him to read them. But the disagreement hardy seemed to matter.

"If your orders are to kill?"

"Then I do so," the drell replied. "Rarely are my orders so direct." As he spoke, his eyes seemed to focus away, as if looking at something, or someone, far away. "On his knees. Begging. Believes he is doing the right thing. I could convince him otherwise. Ordered to kill him. Two bullets to the head. Falls dead, blood touches my shoes." He blinked again, and seemed to recover his wits.

Javik gestured for him to get close, and put his finger on the drell's forehead. Memories flew in, clear and loud. The target. The orders. The drell had executed him as ordered. He knew why, he had hoped he wouldn't have to. Orders. He was not a simple weapon to be used. Interesting.

"What is your name?"

"I am called Sokel," the drell said.

Javik looked at him, then at the others. These were the ones Liara's father had chosen for him. If they were a good representative sample, he had something to work with.

"How many of you are there?"

"Twenty three million drell live under the Compact," the drell replied.

Javik didn't miss the surprised expression on Liara's face. So that wasn't public knowledge, it seemed. Twenty three million. Small number.

"All of you similarly trained?"

"No. All of us took our place in the Compact, serving to the best of our abilities. Less than half of us are trained as we are."

Ten million drell in a very vast galaxy. Not an army. A knife to be wielded in the dark.

"It will have to do. You will stay with us, Sokel. The rest of you, you will receive orders when appropriate. You will not speak of this to anyone, under any excuse. Am I clear?"

For once, there was no chorus calling about the will of the enkindlers. At least these primitives, he might be able to work with.

"Where the hell are we?" I said, looking out the front of the shuttle.

"You don't recognize it?" Wahea said.

"I mean, you told me we were going to Ilos, but we've had three stops so far. Is that it?" I replied.

We had bounced off relays and changed shuttle, so I didn't have a fucking clue where we were. The planet looked rusty-red, with large lightning storms flashing on the dark side of it. We flew close to a couple of large ships, a configuration I didn't really recognize, and I had a feeling they were looking at us as we passed. Huh. It didn't take long before we made our descent, which was quite shaky in fact. Very active atmosphere, it was windy and turbulent the entire time. So it wasn't until we were basically touching down that I could see something I could barely recognize.

"Ilos. As I mentioned, it is a secure location. We had to be careful."

"I know, I know. Why are we here anyway?"

"Because the boss told me to bring you here. What I'm surprised about is that you didn't recognize it."

"Never been here myself," I said, and leaned forward to have a better look. "Only knew of it."

The shuttle finally powered down, and we headed for the door. It was hot outside, and dry too. A couple of asari commandos armed to the teeth were waiting on the other side, looking at us disembark, and without much of a word led us down the ramp and towards the ruins. They didn't look like the image I had in my head, for sure. I mean, the ruins were old as hell, there was sickly, overgrown vegetation all over, and they were definitely ruins. But there were people around, there was equipment that looked shiny and new, and to my surprise, it wasn't just asari there. There were several hanar floating about, working with their equipment as if they had been doing it all their lives. I was really tempted to call out loud for Vigil but decided not to overplay it.

We were led up one of the side ramps to a room, it was hard to tell what its original purpose would have been. There was furniture and equipment, all looking new and very out of place, and some partitions that split the huge room into smaller spaces. Past one of them there was a small office, and sitting at the desk were two people. One I recognized immediately. Liara. And the other, well, it was a surprise to be sure, but it wasn't hard to recognize Javik.

Freaking hell, I hadn't heard a freaking word about that. They had gone through Eden Prime already and nobody had noticed? Way to go Benezia.

"Who is that?" Wahea whispered next to me.

"Remember what you were saying we would find when we got here?"

"What? I me- Oh. Oooooh," Wahea said. She put one hand to her forehead and took a step back. "Goddess help us," she muttered.

"Roy!" Liara called, coming to greet us.

"Liara, it's good to see you," I said, offering my hand. "It's been a while."

"You could say that," she said, and she gave me a look that had a whole conversation in it. We shook hands, and we both had exactly the same throught to share with each other. That little conversation at the University. She let go of my hand and laughed.

"I told you I'd rock your mother's world," I said.

"That you did," Liara replied. "Do I need to introduce you two?" she added, gesturing at Javik.

"For her benefit," I said, pointing at the still reeling Wahea.

"I am Javik," he said.

"A-Are you... a...?" Wahea was saying.

"Yes. I am prothean," Javik replied. "The last of my people."

Wahea gulped and didn't say anything. I just shook my head.

"So what can I do for you?" I said.

"Javik wanted to meet you," Liara said. "Come on in, have a seat."

While Liara was saying this, Javik hadn't taken his eyes off me. It was a little unsettling, that, but I guess he had heard something about me. Or maybe that's just how he looked at everyone. Instead of doing as Liara suggested, he took a step towards me, raising his hand, so I immediately took a step back out of his reach.

"Ah, ah, I don't think so," I said.

"What?" Wahea said.

"So you know," Javik said.

"Yeah. Protheans have this ability to read people's minds and memories, from them or from things they own. What are you trying to pull here?"

"How do you know about it?" Javik said

"May I suggest we have a seat and calm down?" Liara called, apparently completely unfazed by the proceedings.

I took another step back and gave Javik a wide berth. To be honest, I was surprised he didn't just give me a biotic kick in the ass and proceed to drag everything out of my head, but maybe he was more civilized than I thought.

"Primitives," Javik muttered.

Nonetheless, he joined us, while Wahea excused herself and basically fled the room. How lovely. It was a little weird, to be honest, but it looked like Liara was taking it all in stride. She poured some tea, passed it around, and sat back, as if nothing was strange about the situation.

"Soooo..." I said.

"Human," Javik said. "Fifty thousand years ago, my people fell to the reapers. We left warnings through the galaxy, close to primitive civilizations. Beacons, to warn you of the upcoming doom, and to help you prepare for the war. Nobody heeded our warnings. Nobody but you."

"You're welcome?" I said with a shrug.

"Enough!" Javik said. "You managed to convince the asari to mobilize against the reapers. You had information we could have never uncovered. How. What else do you know."

"That's the question," I replied. "I don't remember how I got it."

For an answer, Javik's four eyes narrowed as he leaned forward, looking at me.

"You don't remember?" Liara said.

"You didn't know? No, I don't. I had my brain turned to tapioca by the rachni queen when she hatched, and while she later managed to piece most of it together, there's a few things that are still scrambled up there."

"Then let me see," Javik said.

"No. I'm tired of people going for a romp in my head. I remember pretty much everything that matters," I replied.

"We don't have time for whatever you're tired of or not," Javik said. "What are you hiding?"

The fact that I come from some sort of parallel universe or something? Yeah, that'll go down a treat.

"The origin of my information is irrelevant. What I know is what matters. I saw a simulation where the reapers caught the galaxy by surprise, and billions died fighting them. Everything I shared? Things that could help fight them off according to that simulation."

"And what else haven't you told us?" Javik insisted.

"I told Benezia everything I could think of," I replied, which was completely true. "What else do you want?"

"I want to avenge my people," Javik said.

"And I'm trying to help you, but I'm just one guy. I've told everything I know already, I don't have a miracle cure."

Cool, so basically Javik wanted to go through my head and pick everything apart, which I hadn't let even Benezia do, and was getting annoyed that he wasn't getting his way. And I was being truthful, I had really told them everything I knew.

"So why don't you give us a summary?" Liara said.

"Of?"

"What you told my mother."

"That's a lot," I said.

I had to think for a few minutes. And it was indeed a lot. According to the simulation, there was a live reaper out there that'd gather an indoctrinated army and come for the Citadel at some point. Simulation said it'd be the Geth, but I was working on stopping that, and moreover, there was zero reason to mention that to anyone for now. And so far, the reaper hadn't shown its oversized tentacles anywhere we could find. If that gambit failed, the reapers would instead resort to the collectors. But that didn't quite make sense, the reaper - Nazara - wouldn't just leave aside a resource like that. If they wanted to gather an army, then the collectors would surely come in handy. Hell, use the collectors when attacking the Citadel and resistance would pretty much be futile, at least if nobody knew about the seeker swarms. Which of course rose the question of whether we'd be able to deal with the collectors without the reaper intervening.

The other question was whether this was all or whether we were missing something. The reapers would return from darkspace, 2186. That was a big one, and was shown in quite detail in the simulation. How did they get activated? The simulation didn't say anything about it, they just... came in through batarian space. And unless destroyed, they'd hit the Alpha relay in the Bahak system and get everywhere at once. Did that mean Nazara had more ways to reach the reapers? Or were we missing something else? A form of automatic activation we knew nothing about? That was the one thought that kept me awake at night. If the simulation had all these clues, why didn't have anything on the eventual return of the reapers? How did that make sense? It made all the detail from the earlier parts of the simulation almost irrelevant, or even contradictory. Nazara wouldn't be in such a hurry if all it needed to do was sit tight and wait a few years for their eventual arrival. Or would it?

Goddammit, what am I missing?

Javik took it all in stride, and to my surprise, didn't even blink at the issue of the collectors. Those weren't his people, not anymore. The protheans died the day the war ended and the reapers won. Those enslaved things the reapers used at their leisure weren't prothean.

The big one was indoctrination. That was why the protheans had failed time and time again to counterattack against the reapers.

"We are working on it," Liara said. "We do not have the technology to reproduce the prothean's work, so we have to develop our own tech. We have data, however, which helps."

"Data?"

"We have found indoctrinated people," Liara said, speaking in a very vague way.

"Okay... And speaking of that, would it be possible to bring some geth here?"

"Geth?" Liara said.

"You primitives have allied yourself with AI," Javik said. "And you wish to bring them here? No."

"I'm trying to convince them that the reapers are real," I said, "so that they'll be willing to pitch in, in a major way at that."

"All you will do is fuel your own demise," Javik said. "I will not be part of your foolishness."

Oh man, this was going great. Javik was so easy to get along with.

"What about the Crucible?" I said.

"Progress is slow, unfortunately," Liara said. "Much of the information is encrypted. And after the last incident, we have been slow to retake the work."

"Yeah, I heard."

We spent some more time talking. The topic of Cerberus did come up, for obvious reasons, and I promised Liara I'd keep her updated if I heard anything else from Maka, the Spectre looking into it. And for all that, Javik didn't seem to interested anymore. It was a little odd, but I guessed he had decided I wasn't worth his efforts, which I suppose was a step up from wanting to pick my brain apart. All in all, it was a strange dynamic between Liara and Javik. So after a while, and with Javik seemingly satisfied that he had gotten everything out of me, we called it a day.

Javik watched the human leave, wondering. He had not had much contact with these humans, but this one seemed particularly odd. He had shared knowledge, and didn't hold back anything other than the origin of that information. He had kept pressuring him, keeping his mind on it during their whole discussion. Whether he wanted it or not, he would tell him what he wanted to know.

He stood, went to the basin in the corner, and washed his hands. Afterwards, he came to the chair where the human had been sitting, and touched it. The traces were faint, but they were there. He got flashes of what had to be that rachni queen jumping at him. A recurring memory.

Rachni. These primitives exterminated, then revived the rachni.

He knew they had been guided in their evolution by his people, trying to make a useful instrument out of those lazy insectoids. It looks like they succeeded a little too well, but much too late.

The memories of the rachni queen were mixed with what felt like a black hole. A lack of memory. A block so strong not even a trace could be found. He concentrated, going deeper. There was no bottom to that darkness. Until a single flash crossed his mind. It appeared to be a primitive device of some sort, with a flat surface projecting an image. It must be the simulation the human kept talking about. In it, a ship was destroyed, and a human in dark armor plunged to his death towards the surface of a planet. It was just a blink, but it was enough. It all looked a lot more primitive than even his current environment was.

He couldn't find anything else.

"Strange," he muttered.

"Was he indoctrinated?" Liara said. "Vigil?"

"No sings of indoctrination detected," the VI replied dutifully.

"There it is. Satisfied?" Liara said.

"No," Javik replied.

No he wasn't.

Author's Notes: Okay, I hope the chapter wasn't too terrible, but the thing is... Once Javik and I met, well, what would they talk about? The obvious thing would be rehashing everything Benezia already knew, but that'd be pretty dull reading. So, instead, Javik being suspicious and wanting to know everything, that could work. And that's what happened. And he got a glimpse of something nobody else had seen so far.

So far.

Hehehe.

That aside, the hanar are fun. And I hope you didn't expect to see Thane. Got plenty planned for both hanar and drell. Specially the hanar.]

Also, cheeky rachni kid is cheeky. Am I having too much fun?

EDIT: As Uemei pointed out in his review, at first I referenced the games by name in this chapter. It's in the part where I go over the explanation of all the details from Roy's point of view without having to spell out every line of dialog. I've changed it to how I had it originally written, which is a little bit meandering and hard to follow - which sounds a bit like me ranting about plot holes or inconsistencies. Thing is, I thought that simply using the names of the games wouldn't make it sound like Roy suddenly remembered that this was all a bunch of games, just a simulation in three parts (heh), but perhaps having a bit of confusion, in-universe and otherwise - is not out of place when this topic comes up. No, there is still that hole in Roy's mind, and it plays a part later, and a big one at that (and not simply as a convenient plot "black hole" to justify forgetting something, I'll explain in more detail when the time comes). Anyway, after Uemei's review, I've gone ahead and reverted that one. It's more "ranty" but hopefully not plot-immersion-breaking.

So! 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

(FFnet and hyperlinks don't mix).

Reviews! There were a couple of questions, so let's address those:

Finshadow212th: It is a tempting idea, and Roy going off with a misfit crew to chase what the big dogs were missing has crossed my mind more than once. So it might still happen :D

The Invisible Pretender, and Guest: Expanded a bit here, but yeah, it was the rachni queen doing the memory stealing when she hatched, and passing some of those along to her daughter. It's not that they got their freak on, is the whole bit about "sharing memories of their ancestors" thing.

Uemei, Mandalore Requiem: Yup! Sabotage was a reference to the third Star Trek movie from the reboot. It's possibly the one movie from the reboots that I've enjoyed the most. It was competent, had good moments for much of the crew, and I didn't get too hang up on the canon-disparities because rule of cool, so eh. Also, tragically heroic Roy falling apart might still happen, who knows.

Victorules:I'm not so sure about teenage rebellion for the rachni LOL

And thanks for all the reviews, really appreciate them!

Next time, on My Effect: Divergence: Someone gets to finally chill, and back to the 9th fleet! Until then, thanks a lot for all the support!