Meeting with Javik had been weird, but quietly reassuring in certain ways. The fact that Benezia had pulled it off with nary a peep from anyone - not the Systems Alliance, not the Asari Republics, literally nobody I could think of - was quite astonishing. Moreover, it hadn't attracted the attention of Nazara/Sovereign/Saren, but that might have been a side effect of jumping the gun early and not having the Geth hell bent on the destruction of all organic life.

Okay, maybe that was a little overdramatic.

The real puzzle came when I found out they hadn't found a prothean beacon on Eden Prime. They had found the structure where Javik had been buried, but no beacon. Huh. And for now, they didn't seem at all worried about it. Liara was going back and forth with the Mars beacon, although she hadn't been granted access to the one in the Temple of Athame, and with Javik and Vigil handy, she wasn't particularly concerned about finding yet another beacon.

Weird. I could have sworn that beacon was how they were planning to pass the mass relay plans to the Geth. Maybe they've found another way.

The thing that seemed to make Javik the most unhappy was the fact that he had to work with the hanar. Or, as he said, the jellyfish. We wasn't happy about a lot of things. He had expected a galaxy ready to go to war against the reapers, and found a bunch of primitives that spent all their time navel gazing instead. He still wanted to go on the warpath, but everyone he could find was working behind the curtain. But he was really unhappy about the hanar. I guess even being treated like a literal god can wear a person's patience.

He hadn't budged on my idea of bringing some Geth to Ilos. I got the idea that he didn't like the idea of having any sort of contact with an AI, and he didn't like me very much either, so it wasn't exactly a winning position. And there wasn't much in terms of evidence Vigil could offer in terms of reaper-proof. I mean, they probably thought that a prothean VI telling them that the reapers were coming was enough, but I couldn't take Vigil with me. I know, I asked. That still left me with the option of bringing Legion all the way to Mnemosyne when I had a chance, but that was a dead ship. Not exactly proof that there were thousands of the freaking things planning to come in and annihilate us in just a few years.

All in all, it had been a useful trip, despite my reluctance to leave Shepard alone during it. And it had been nice to hang out with Liara a bit, we had barely had any exchanges. She was a little... different, than I remembered and than I expected. I suppose having a close brush with death does that to you. She wasn't very interested in discussing Cerberus at all, but otherwise she was endlessly curious about whatever I could tell her about pretty much everything. She ended up a little disappointed because, while I had all that information from the simulation crammed in my head, detailed and relevant information that could be useful for a researcher was not included.

Yet for all that, what I wanted was to get back and check on Shepard.

The shuttle shook as we re-entered the atmosphere, and continued to shake on the way down. Visibility was pretty bad as we plunged through a duststorm, and while Wakea was fighting the controls to keep it steady, I gripped the seat restraint as our ship started to decelerate. Luckily, we hit smooth air right as we were about to enter the hangar, and while the bump when we landed was noticeable, it wasn't as bad as I had expected. Not that at this point I was worried, I had seen enough rough landings that I knew how sturdy the ffreaking things were.

"You're getting better at this," I said, unbuckling from the seat. "I see those years with the shuttle on Illum paid off."

Wahea laughed and followed me as we filed out. "I kind of miss that now, you know."

"Was it fun?"

"No, but it was easy. I just carted a human between the hideout of a hive of rachni and their queen and a lost prothean world where the last surviving prothean lives with a bunch of hanar serving him. Honestly, it almost feels like a comet has landed on my head!"

I chuckled in amusement, but instantly stopped. Wahea bumped into me and nearly fell to the ground, but caught herself on the nearest seat.

"What- Why did you stop?"

"The..." Hanar. Comet. Something had nearly come up in my head, then had beaten a hasty retreat. "Shit."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm trying to remember something."

"About?"

"I don't know. The hanar and a comet? I..." I sat down on the nearest seat and leaned forward, head in my hands and thinking. While I did, Wahea just sat down and didn't say a word. "Shit."

"Anything?" she said.

"Nope. Damn."

"Is it important?"

"It might be." I looked at her and rubbed my forehead. "Could you do me a favour?"

"Depends on the favour," she said, smiling.

"Could you check with Benezia to see if she is available to meet? She might be able to jog my memory."

"As in Matriarch Benezia?" Wahea said. "I didn't know you were in such familiar terms with her."

"Err... Actually I usually call her Matriarch."

Wahea just looked at me and chuckled. I guessed she had just thrown that into the pile of many things she didn't quite understand about the galaxy anymore. So we headed out, her to send a message, and me to see if I could find what was going on with Shepard. The place was as sparsely populated as usual, and I couldn't find Shepard, or the queen's envoy, or anyone. So I just headed to my room. With nothing better to do I decided to go for a workout, but I hadn't even started changing when there was a chime at the door.

"Yes?" I said, opening it.

Wahea was on the other side, and looking a bit... sheepish, I suppose. Hard to read her expression. Which was a little odd.

"I got a message back from Matriarch Aethyta right away," she said.

"And?"

"And she kind of told me to do it myself because Matriarch Benezia is quite busy..."

Wahea winced slighly at that, shifting uncomfortably on the spot. I looked at her for a moment and shrugged.

"All right," I said. I stepped aside and invited her to come in. "So how do you usually do this? I've only done it a couple of times with Matriarch Benezia."

"I... actually haven't done it before," Wahea said.

She said that just as I was sitting down on the sofa in my room, which led to me losing my grip on the armrest, trying to get my balance, trying to look at her, and failing to do all of that at the same time as my brain was catching up with what she had just said. After I managed to straighten myself up and looked at her, she kind of smiled awkwardly. And then I laughed.

"All right then, what's one more skill for you to master after all?" I said.

She sighed, as if she agreed with me but didn't want to, and came to sit by my side on the sofa.

"All right. The way this works is that you'll have to open up your mind to me and start thinking about the... clues that are driving your memory. Once we share, your memories will become clearer."

"Yeah, I remember how Benezia did it."

"Yes, but... I'm not Matriarch Benezia. The meld will be deep and I might accidentally pull something out you'd rather I didn't."

"Hmm, right," I muttered.

She sounded a bit like she wasn't sure she wanted to do it, almost like she was looking for an excuse not to. But then again, as she had told me before, she hated disappointing Aethyta, so she'd go through with it. The question is whether she'd pull something she shouldn't out of it. But after thinking about it for a bit, it seemed rather unlikely. I mean, everything I knew about the hanar came from my time here and the simulation.

Oh god, don't get into the whole 'don't think about elephants' mental loop.

"Ready?" she said.

"Yeah, let's go," I replied. "Be careful."

With a nod, she put her hand on my cheek, and a whispered "embrace eternity" later, we started the meld. At first, there was nothing, that kind of meld limbo I had come to identify as what happened when the asari took a metaphorical step back and let me sort through my thoughts.

So maybe think about the hanar first...

I tried to think about it, immediately bringing up the fact that I was looking at a simulation. Wahea seemed surprised at first, but she quickly turned away from that and started following my thoughts about the hanar. That was good, she definitely was keeping to task. And for what I was getting from her, she was a bit relieved that I had thought so, because she was on pins and needles trying not to go too far with the meld.

"This one believes it has the right to move freely through this area," the hanar said.

No, that wasn't it. A hanar aboard the Citadel trying to preach all the goodness of the enkindlers in the middle of the presidium. I felt Wahea bubble up with questions and quickly shut them down, but I saw no harm in them this time around.

What's this about? A hanar, the Citadel... Seems pretty innocuous.

I don't know, the simulation has a ridiculous amount of useless details in it. Almost like it's filler.

Weird.

Yeah, that's me.

There was a mental laugh, but the thought that followed was that it was indeed weird. A strange chain of recollections that led me to, in the blink of an eye, think about how I had gotten the information and to-

*SLAM*

"Ouch!" Wahea yelled, pulling her hand back as the meld broke. "What in the abyss!"

I blinked a couple of times to get my bearings back. I was pretty sure I had slammed the mental door on her face. "Sorry, that was instinct," I said. "Did that hurt you?"

"Not... physically," she muttered, rubbing her forehead. "Wow. I guess I was worrying about nothing if you can kick me out like that."

"I guess," I replied, chuckling. "Ready for round two?"

She nodded, put her hand on my face again, and we were off to the races. Hanar. Hanar smuggler in Noveria? No, that wasn't it. Dammit. Hanar. Hanar vendor aboard the Citadel.

What's that? It's...

Sidetracked thoughts, doors slamming. This time Wahea took a big step back in the meld and didn't get slammed on her metaphorical face, but it completely broke the flow.

Sorry...

I guess I shouldn't ask anything!

We both shared a mental chuckle, and went on again. Hanar. There was a hanar diplomat, wasn't there? The memories came forward and soon we were following that particular train of information from the reaper war.

The what? Reaper war?

What? You- shit!

My thoughts veered away almost immediately. Reapers. Almost went straight to Thessia. For a moment all I could think was that, then managed to drag out the memory of "Shepard" talking with Sovereign.I could feel the shock coming from Wahea, she wasn't even trying to do anything anymore, she was just... there. Watching.

Can we stop?

W- Oh!

"Oh sorry!" Wahea said. "So sorry! I'm... I can't..."

"You don't know about the reapers?!" I said, completely in shock. "Didn't you pay attention when I talked with Javik?"

"No! What's all that? What war?"

"Oh friggin' hell," I said. "What the hell was Aethyta thinking?!"

Wahea didn't answer, she looked more confused than anything now. I took a deep breath and tried to sort what had just happened. Either Aethyta didn't care, or she expected Wahea to already know.

"Are you sure you didn't know?" I said.

"I'm pretty sure, yeah!" Wahea retorted. "What's going on?"

"Well, what's going on is that you're now in on the big secret that's driving all this," I replied. "You're going to have to keep it secret, don't tell anyone. Specially Shepard."

"Okay, so what-"

"I'll show you," I said, gesturing at her to come closer.

She did so and, with some reluctance, started the meld again. Reapers? A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. The whole kit and kaboodle. I showed the entire spiel, then Vigil's explanation of the conduit and why the reapers hadn't come back.

Ironically, if the Protheans hadn't done that, the reapers would have wiped the galaxy already, so humans would have come out to a completely empty galaxy.

That's... not reassuring. I felt Wahea was about to ask something then thought better of it

Yes?

Just confused. Why do you keep thinking of that man as Shepard?

I'm not sure. I got my brain put through a spin cycle when we found the rachni and some of my memories are still a bit jumbled.

Elephants, elephants, don't think about elephants.

Elephants?

Yeah, so I was thinking about elephants in the literal sense, so I explained to her the reference and why I was doing it. She found it amusing, but she was still so shocked by the whole reaper thing she couldn't think of anything else.

So that's why you wanted Matriarch Benezia to help you with the hanar?

Yeah, given all this, it could be important.

Right...

Are you up for it?

With a mental show of fortitude she agreed, and we continued to chase threads. We brushed with the idea of using a comet to destroy a relay, but that wasn't a comet, it was an asteroid. Wahea was confused by all this, but didn't ask any questions. I guessed she was properly spooked now, and she mentally agreed. I just couldn't find what it was that I was trying to remember. Then we started going through random things about the hanar. Famous hanar? Treaties they'd signed? Wahea started to drag every bit of trivia she could think of but nothing was hitting.

Until we hit paydirt.

Belan.

Belan is going to be hit by a comet?!

Not hit directly.

The memory was finally fresh in my head, and I had all these extracts of news bits, which was very weird, but nothing Wahea seemed to be interested in. CR1331 Kingu.

Over a million dead.

Yeah, but it's easy to avoid. If a dreadnought nudges its trajectory now, it shouldn't be even close.

I'll send it to the Matriarchs, I'm sure they will do something about it.

She finally broke the meld, and both of us had to take a moment to get our bearings back. My head was spinning, and I was starving. Wahea, in the meantime, had her eyes closed and looked like she was going to fall down if she wasn't careful. Even though she was sitting down.

"Whew," I said, and brought my omni-tool up. "We've been at it for... six hours?!"

"Feels like it," Wahea said, her eyes still closed.

"I'm going to get some food, wanna come?"

"I think..." she muttered. "I think I need a break."

"All right, want me to bring you something?"

"Sure."

I left for the caf and began foraging for food. There wasn't a lot of variety around, but they had a huge cryo unit well stocked with pre-made meals. Sadly, it was all asari food, which meant everyting was salty as hell. I did recognize some of the food, too much hanging out with the asari, clearly. I ended up going for some desserts, which weren't as salty as the rest of their food, took a random meal for Wahea, and after getting them warmed up, brought them to the room.

When I entered, I saw that Wahea was laying on my bed.

"Oh," I muttered.

"I'm not asleep," Wahea said, "just relaxing."

"Ah. I brought you some..." I looked at the meal, and wasn't sure what it was, "...thing." I finished.

She laughed and sat up, taking the meal from my hands with a smile. "Oh it's a Karan stew, that's nice."

"No idea what that is," I said, sitting down on the sofa and digging into my own food. It was something akin to a fruit crumble, a bit salty but not too bad.

"It's a stew made with sea snails," Wahea said. "It's pretty popular back home, the kind of thing your mom has her own recipe for."

"I see. Good choice then?"

"Yeah," she said, "wanna try?"

"I think I'll pass, it's probably too salty for me."

We both finished pretty quickly, and it got a little awkward when Wahea just laid down on my bed again and closed her eyes. Wasn't sure if she was sleeping or what, so with a mental shrug I went back to my omni-tool.

"Do you need an aspirin or something?" I said after a while.

"No, just a mental break," she replied. "Would you like to join me?"

"Join you? As in melding?" I said, and she nodded. "I'd have thought melding was the last thing on your mind now."

"It's not the same, it's like... I don't know how to explain it to a human. Like having a mental break by doing nothing while melding. It's more relaxing with more people."

I didn't answer at first, so she opened her eyes and looked at me.

"You don't have to," she said.

"No, no, I'm just... confused. I don't think I get it."

"Let me show you. If it bothers you we can stop."

"Eh, sure," I said.

With literally nothing better to do, I figured why not. I stood up, took my shoes off, and laid down on the bed next to Wahea. She reached over, put her hand on my face, and with barely a whisper, she began the meld. A moment later I felt as if I was laying on a folding recliner beach chair aboard a ship, basking under the sun. Wahea was on a similar piece of furniture next to me, a smile on her face and looking at the sky. I got a few details of the meld, but very few. A boat, a calm bay in Thessia, just nothing to do but relax. The meld itself felt almost real, yet not very meld-y, so to speak.

It felt quite nice, in fact.

"I told you," Wahea said, looking very comfortable and incredibly relaxed.

"Yeah, you come here often?"

"Used to come here with my parents. After my father passed, it was just me and mom," she said.

I thought about it, then realized what that meant. "So this is... a memory of you and your mom?" I said. It suddenly felt a lot less comfortable.

"Yeah. why? What's the problem?"

"I mean... isn't it a bit... dunno, private?"

"Oh yes, I went on a boat with my mom and we had a nice time together. Surely a state secret," she said, laughing. "You humans are a bit strange sometimes."

"Riiiight," I said. "So, what now?"

"Hm?"

"You just sit there and relax?"

"Yeah," she said. "Don't you feel relaxed?"

"I guess..."

It was nice, yes, but just laying down and relaxing under the warm sun, I don't think I've ever done that for long. I looked at the sky. The color was unfamiliar, and there wasn't a hint of any clouds up there. The sea, too, was flat, calm, not even a hint of waves. It was all a bit... off.

"You're trying to go deeper," Wahea said. "Just relax."

"What do you mean too deep?"

"Trying to make out the details," she said. "It's just a sensory meld, it's not supposed to be detailed." To my surprise, she came in closer, and instead of just laying there, she laid down against me with her head against my chest. "There."

"What... are you doing?" I said.

"Helping you relax. Just focus on the physical, see if it helps."

On the physical? All she was doing is laying there. It was pretty simple, a warm body, the weight of her head on my chest, there really wasn't much to think about.

"Better," Wahea said. "Just let your mind relax."

I took a deep breath and kept at it. Not thinking. Not thinking about elephants. Wahea giggled lighty at that, but no elephants showed up, thankfully. I tried to let my mind relax, just not thinking about anything. It worked, for a while. Then I started thinking again.

"You're not very good at relaxing, are you?" Wahea said, but I could feel she was just amused. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm just worried."

"About a lot of things, I can tell," she said. "You're on a mental break, you're here waiting for Shepard, there's no reason to keep tings spinning in your brain."

I chuckled at that, and remembered that time we spent in Maka's ship after the assault on the main Cerberus base. She was tense as hell back then, which was quite a contrast with how she was coming across now.

"Yeah, remember that?" I said.

"I sure do. I told Matriarch Aethyta about it like you said," she replied.

For a moment the meld changed as she offered a memory. Coming into Aethyta's office, coming around to saying she wanted a little break, then Aethyta's reaction when she found out she hadn't been sharing with anyone about all she had been doing. I thought it was a little weird, given how everything was pretty much top secret, but she reminded me of what she told me at the time, that asari deal with things by sharing them. Turns out many of the commandos working for her did meet every so often to share things, unwind, and all that. The completely natural thought that came to mind was how exactly did they unwind, and there was a flash of memory of Wahea going with another one of the commandos for a more private setting. I spluttered in surprise, but Wahea didn't go any further.

Now that is definitely a bit private.

Yeah...

There was a bit of a tease in the thought, but she didn't push it any further. I felt the meld relax, and we were back on the boat, just chilling. I took a deep breath and settled down, for a moment almost breaking the meld as I settled down better on the bed. Relaxing seemed quite a tall order. I had too much in my mind. Shepard, I still wasn't sure what was going on with her, I hadn't heard a peep since we arrived. Then the whole issue with the geth, which I tentatively had a plan for but was still very much in the air. Now I had found out that Benezia had actually dug out Javik, and they were already working on something. There was the matter of the relays, which I had assumed would be taken care of by the geth, but didn't look like that was the plan, or was it? Was Liara handling that as well? That was wild, if true. She had a lot on her plate already. And were they actually make a move on the Collectors?

"Goddess help us," Wahea said. "You really can't relax, can you?"

"Yeah, sorry. Maybe we should stop."

"It's fine," Wahea said, and to my surprise she cuddled closer, arms around me with her head on my chest. "I like it like this. Just relax your own way."

So yeah, I wasn't exactly relaxing, but at least I wasn't stressing. Like it or not, it was a relaxing setting, and Wahea was chill enough for both of us. It was almost like having a cat on you while letting your mind wander. I didn't get anywhere important, just spun my wheels with everything that was more or less in place. I didn't even had any input in much of what was happening anyway, way above my paygrade, so it's not like I had to worry about it.

"Now you're thinking," Wahea muttered. "Stop worrying."

"Did you get all of that?" I said.

"Some."

"You're going to have to speak with Aethyta, you know a lot more now than you did before. And if she complains, tell her I said it was her idea."

"Yeah," she said.

For a moment I could feel through the meld that she, too, had started to spin her mental wheels. However, unlike me, she easily put that all aside and went back to... nothing. It really was remarkable. There wasn't much else after that. We both fell asleep soon after, and this time, I didn't even remember if I dreamed.

Music?

My addled brain woke up to the sound of a melody. It took a moment to realize I wasn't exactly hearing it, and a bit more of that melody and I realized it was a rachni song. I opened my eyes and realized two things. One, Wahea left at some point and I didn't even notice. Two, a little rachni queen had made her way onto the bed.

"Good morning," I muttered, rubbing my face. Her son didn't have any words, but was bright and full of color. "Did you need something or just wanted to wake me up?"

The Warrior-Princess wanted to come, but she worried her song would be unwelcome if other melodies were being woven.

...

"Wait, what?"

She sang about a... sock on the door?

It took about a fraction of a second for me to realize what she was talking about, and I cracked up laughing, first at the comment, then at the obvious confusion in Sings-to-the-Future's song.

"Well, you can tell Lana I'll be right out," I said, still chuckling.

What is the meaning of the Warrior-Princess' song?

"I'll tell you when you're older," I replied. "Off you go kiddo."

She was a bit confused, but given my amusement, she followed suit with nary a protest. I got out of bed and hit the shower, doing a mental recap. I had been pretty fucking worried at first, but once we got here Shepard had been so... calm, it was hard to keep worrying. I wondered whether she'd want to stay longer. It could be a way to get her somewhere safe before shit hit the fan, so to speak. Although the Rachni, too, were in line to get a dose of reaperification.

Then again, it hadn't been Singer-of-Dawn in the simulation. It had been that weird, indoctrinated clone queen that showed up. The Breeder, or whatever her name was. I had been way too optimistic when it came to the rachni being friendly. Thankfully it had worked out.

When I came out, I found Shepard waiting for me at the caf, a big steaming cup of tea in front of her and an easy smile on her face.

"Hey Lana," I called.

"Roy! Good-mor-ning!" she said in a singsong voice. I froze in place looking at her, and she just laughed.

"That's very funny, Lana," I deadpanned.

"I couldn't resist!" she replied. "How are you?"

"How- How are you! " I replied, coming to sit at the table. "Are you all right? What's going on with you?"

"I'm good," she said. "Better. I think I have a good handle on the song now."

"So what happened?"

"Just my memories. When Singer-of-Dawn sang to me while they treated me, her song got intermingled with mine. With my memories. Her and Lilan helped me separate them. I have better control now."

"Control. So you have to, like, actively keep a lid on it?"

"Basically," she said. She took a deep breath, sipped her tea, and shrugged. "It will be harder once I'm away from here, or when I'm stressed. But I think I can handle it."

"Want to stay?" I said. "For a while," I added when she gave me a look.

"I think this is the first time you have asked me to quit," she said.

I blinked in surprise at that, because it was far closer to the truth than I thought I had given away. I mean, she was pretty good at seeing through me, probably because I'm not the best liar in the world, but that was quite the leap.

"Can't help it," I finally replied. "You're damn good at this, like I told you, but... Well, I hate to see you hurt yourself."

"I'm not, I feel great. Besides, I'll be back soon enough. The queens have found some clues to two possible ship locations beyond the Mu Relay, so I'll be exploring those soon."

"Oh. Rrrrright... I had forgotten about that."

Before I could say anything else, there was a splatas something suddenly fell from the ceiling. My implants kicked in as I jumped back, knocking down the chair and looking around, but I let it go when I saw a couple of rachni workers on the ceiling, and a bag of something on the table. What they had dropped.

"Freaking hell and back," I muttered, taking a deep breath.

Shepart looked at me and started laughing. She grabbed the small bag, opened it, and poured the contents out on the table. Asari dried fruits.

"Perfect, thanks guys!" she said. I heard the faint song of the workers as they chittered and walked away. "Want some?"

"How can you eat those?" I said, sitting at the table again. "They're going to shoot your blood pressure through the roof."

"They're tasty! But yeah, they make my mouth feel like sand if I eat too many," Shepard said. She put a piece in her mouth, and chewed slowly as she looked at me. "How did it go with Wahea?"

"There were no socks involved, I'll have you know," I replied, and she chuckled. "We kind of just... chilled for a while."

"You? Chilled? That's a new one," she said with a grin.

"Yeah. She did this... meld where it felt very real, but not very deep at the same time. It was pretty good actually. Just a memory of chilling on a boat with nothing to do."

"Maybe you need a holiday, take her with you and rent a boat."

"Maybe I do," I said, "but that won't be soon." I raised my omni-tool and she nodded even before I got to the messages.

"I know, I got the same. Early recall."

"Are you up for it?"

"Yeah. If they're recalling us then there's something going on. Can't let my hive get in trouble without me."

The way she was smiling, I couldn't tell whether she had said that on purpose or not.

Hello Roy,

I hope you found your way back home without incident. I wish I could have flown you back myself, but I had received errands to run, as you humans like to say. My boss was quite amused when I informed her of the new things I had learned during our boat trip together, none of it was new to her and yes, she did expect I would learn all those things and more. She told me to request an evaluation from you about my performance. Please be kind!

I enjoyed our boat trip very much. I would like to do it again some other time, if you're amenable.

Best,

Wahea P.

Author's Notes: So this is a very chill chapter. This and Convergence have both been very character focused, this one because I wanted to drive attention a little bit away from Shepard and her singing issues. I wrote a couple of paragraphs about it, but reading back they were quite confusing because it was supposed to be confusing. So while fit for purpose, they weren't quite what one would want to read a lot of. So we ended up as you see, with Wahea having a dig, Roy potentially cementing his reputation as far-seeing futurologist, and Wahea moving up the ladder due to the fact that she knows more than she did before.

And Roy actually got to relax for once. The man needs a holiday! One would think that spending six months on training maneuvers with the Geth would have let him chill, but after receiving the geth-bomb of being asked to broker a peace deal, not so much.

A bit of a tease but not of a cliffhanger at the end. Recall order, but not a particularly urgent one it sounds like. So what will happen? Stay tuned! But if you've done the maths, that means Shepard AND Roy going into an op together again. Been a while since we've seen that!

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! Thanks for the reviews! Looks like Javik is indeed quite popular these days. Gotta say, I might be leaning on the snark (and the salt, kek!) a bit too hard, but it's just so much fun. One thing I did think about his dialogs during ME3 is that his entire attitude towards the galaxy seems a bit too... dependent on how you run Shepard during the conversations. That's true for all characters to an extent, but with JAvik I felt it was a little heavy handed. That said, still my favourite companion of ME3, easy.

Now if only they had let us recruit Kasumi properly. Ah well.

Uemei: As I mentioned, yeah, I went back and edited out the directreferences to ME1,2, and 3. It was more of a neutral point of view that'd make it easier for the reader to follow, and my idea was that having the name wouldn't necessarily mean Roy remembers it's a game, but I saw your point. I went back to the previous draft, which was a bit confusing but in an in-character way so to speak :D

Guest: Honestly, feel free to be signed in when submitting criticism, I welcome it (I mean, if all someone posts is "you fucking suck!" or something then I'll probably ignore it, but that's not what you did). Yes, failure IS part of the plan - so we have challenges to overcome. Just bear with me for a while :)

(BTW, that's not a spoiler. I mean, if you don't expect things to fail spectacularly at the dramatically appropriate moment, you haven't been paying attention to my writings LOL).

Anyway! Next time, on My Effect: Divergence: The 9th is once again put to the test, and the canon-compliant introduction of a complete ass. Until then, thanks for reading!