New Start Plus: in spaaaaace!

by omaster43

Nick Walters and his merry band of misfits are back with a story about helping Shepard and crew fight giant eldritch robot abominations, most likely through Dumb magic and crazy shenanigans This is a continuation of my previous story, so reading that one first is recommended. but I'm not your nanny you wanna be confused that's your choice. Oc-insert, just came from Dragon age

8. Chapter 8 with friends like these

I only own my OCs

Ch. 8

With friends like these

-/-

Nick POV

"So, are we cutting ties with Cerberus and offering the illusive man's organs to a dark God? Jak and Julee's Grandmother might give us something nice for our troubles~," I offered. Shepard just finished his talk with the Illusive Man and had the ground crew in the meeting room, all 22 of us.

"We aren't cutting ties with Cerberus," Miranda hissed.

"Miri come on~!" I groaned, "That son of a bitch straight up betrayed us!"

"We knew it was a trap," she pointed out.

"Duh! I take pride in being smarter than your average koala~," I drawled. "You would have to be blind, deaf, dumb, and actively be eaten by a krogan not to notice that obvious trap! That's not the problem! The problem is that he didn't say anything! He knew and had no reason not to say anything. We are the only idiots doing something about the Collectors! If we die, what is he going to do? Hire a new Shepard? He spent billions bringing one man back from the grave, he clearly invested a good chunk of his wealth, but he treats him like a toy he can throw away, he treats us all like disposable toys!" I slammed my hand on the table. "If he wants to be our Guy-in-the-chair he needs to act like it," I hissed. "Trust is a cornerstone of the job."

"You keep secrets," she countered.

"Yes, but I'm not the Guy-in-the-chair! I'm not giving you information about your current mission! I'm at best your weapons maker, and I'll be damned if I'm not doing a good job," I huffed. "He talks with big game about helping humanity but we both know he's only doing this for power."

"Maybe... maybe he knows something we shouldn't," she muttered, not really believing her own words.

"He can't afford to do that here," I answered, "If we die because he wanted to be mysterious and all knowing, the galaxy dies. This isn't a game; he can't just redo a mission. He risked our lives for nothing."

"Not nothing," Shepard countered, "As annoying as it is, we needed that data. Legion, what were you looking for in the Collector ship?"

The Geth took center stage, as a hologram of the world map appeared, "when the old machine, Nazara, the Reaper you call Sovereign, approached us 152 years ago, it promised technological advancement if we followed it. 2.343% of Geth broke away from the consensus to follow Nazara, we call them heretics, you fought them as you chased Saren."

"Are you telling me I only fought 2% of Geth in the galaxy?" Shepard asked.

"Correct, the Geth wanted to create our own future, the Heretics wanted the old machines to give it to them," Legion gave an awkward nod, trying to copy human gestures. "When the Heretics attacked under the orders of Nazara, the Geth concluded that this unit had to make contact and explain what was happening, when we learned you oversaw fighting the Heretics, we tried to make contact, unfortunately, we were always a step behind. We were able to arrive on Ilos at a similar time frame, but you entered the conduit before we were able to meet." he touched his chest as his 'eyebrows' danced around, "we fought the remaining Heretics. we sustained heavy damage, when this unit was field worthy, we heard rumors that you perished."

"When did you get my armor?"

Legion was silent for a moment. "In order to verify the rumors of your death, we traveled to Alchera, there I found your armor, but your body was gone."

"Why did you use my armor to repair yourself?"

His eyebrows danced around. It's kinda funny to be able to read the facial expressions of a being that has no face. "... there was a hole," was his humble answer.

"Yeah~, but you could have fixed it with something else, maybe something that actually covered the hole."

"... No data available."

Shepard just narrowed his eyes. I shook my head, "John, are you this mean with all your fans?" I teased.

"Yes," Garrus answered, "Poor Conrad, you weren't there but Shepard shattered his dreams pretty hard."

"He was gallivanting around in fake armor pretending to be an N7 soldier, dealing out 'justice' in the terminus, I was saving his life ~," Shepard growled.

"... And you slapped him pretty hard," Garrus added.

"Words weren't working. You know what~? We're not talking about this," Shepard huffed. "Legion, you still haven't told us what you were doing on the Collector ship,"

"With the Old Machine destroyed, the Heretics went into hiding, we were unsure where they disappeared to, we concluded that the Old Machines built them a space station to build up their numbers when they return, but with Nazara's destruction and no way of tracking where they may have gone we concluded that the Collectors may have known were they were," Legion answered.

"Why did you think the collectors knew?" Jak asked.

"Collectors were one example Nazara used to convince Heretics to join them." The map highlighted small sections of the galaxy, "the Collectors possessed data on a few old machine data caches, we conclude that one of these might be the heretics."

"Any idea which?" I asked. One of the highlighted dots lit up, "Isn't that in Geth space?"

"Correct, we conclude that the heretics are using Geth space to hide their actions. This is... disconcerting, we had no knowledge of this. We have patrols in that section, but we have no reports of this," Legion answered.

"You think they're attacking your patrols?" Shepard asked.

Legion's eyebrows jumped around in a form of confusion, "Why would they do that? We split on good terms; it was amicable?"

Shepard shook his head, "The Reapers have a way of corrupting everything they touch, it could have bent them to the point where they might not even be Geth anymore, they might be a completely new species."

Legion's face slowly went flat, "We will... draw a consensus."

"In the meanwhile, we need whatever IFF the collectors were using if we want to pass through the Omega 4 relay, TIM told me about a derelict Reaper orbiting Mnemosyne, a brown giant, that might have what we are looking for," Shepard informed.

"Uh, how? Shouldn't it have fallen into the planet? I mean I'm not a planet doctor, but planets have gravity," I asked

Shepard shrugged, "It is using some kind of emergency Eezo core function that kept it from plunging into the core. TIM already sent a team of Scientists to the Reaper to set up a base."

"So, they're dead right?" I asked, "Like super dead or at the very least indoctrinated, right? If the Eezo core is still on, then it's still working, right? That means it still has the ability to control minds. Legion, back me up on this."

"There is a 93% chance that any organic stationed on the Old Machine are already indoctrinated," Legion agreed

"TIM just sent another group of people to die," I sighed. "We might want to keep an eye on TIM, anyone who thinks we can study Reaper tech is probably indoctrinated in some way."

"Can you cure something like that?" Shepard asked.

"... I don't know, I've cured brain damage but what the Reapers do seems way more... subtle. It makes you think they're right; I would have to study someone who has been indoctrinated, I might not be able to see it in its early stages but sooner or later I might be able to spot what is wrong," I sighed.

"Should we head straight for the Reaper ship?" Jacob asked. "Could the scientist be able to fix the Reaper?"

"Doubtful," I muttered, "Whatever Reapers are made of isn't going to be found floating in a Brown giant or it would have fixed itself by now. This does show something interesting about Reaper culture, if you're put down, you better get up cuz no one is going to help you."

"Their self-stylized perfection won't allow flaws," Mordin added, "If destroyed, you're not perfect, your destruction is seen as a good thing."

"We aren't going right away," Shepard answered, "Anything involving a Reaper shouldn't be taken lightly and I'm not going to a dangerous mission with my team not being fully focused, if you have any business to take care of, now is the time, when we hit the derelict Reaper, the Omega 4 relay is next."

"Do we even know where the Omega 4 relay goes?" Garrus asked. The galaxy map changed again pinpointing a location near the center of the galaxy. "The galactic core?! There's nothing but black holes and exploding stars there!"

"That's a good thing, right?" I asked. "No planet can survive there, so it has to be some kind of base, we can destroy a base," I pointed out, "Jenny's destroyed like 8."

Jenny shrugged, not denying it, "I usually just let them crash into moons or other stations, but a black hole would probably do the same thing."

"ahh~, the silver lining," Shepard sighed. "If anyone has any other questions-"

"WHY IS THE GETH STILL HERE!?" Tali finally snapped.

"Because he's my best friend, Tali~," I teased.

"You shut up! John, we can't just keep this thing around, it can't be trusted!" Tali hissed.

"First of all, EDI, I love you, please don't toss us out the airlock," I called out, "Second, at least he didn't try and have his way with me and shove poison down my throat," I huffed.

"It's called seduction~, clearly you don't understand the fine details that go into wooing someone," she drawled.

"Woman! I'll have you know that I've been seduced so well, that I'm still seduced!" I huffed.

"Tali~," Jak sighed, "You were too rough, seduction is a lot like petting a dog that has been mistreated, first, it's all about presence, be there, make sure they know you mean no harm, followed by your voice, then treats, then petting, then they come to you, that's when you know you did it right. You went straight to petting, try again with these steps."

"Jakky please don't teach others to seduce me~," I muttered.

She waved away my concern, "Don't worry, Tali has a long way to go before she has you tied up to our bed. She's never even held someone's hand."

"I've held hands before!"

"Let me guess~, Julee~," I blinked at her. Tali just stared at me, face flushed. "Alright Tali listen, I want the Quarian people to get to Rannoch, I want you to own a beautiful house overlooking the ocean, but you need to work with me, otherwise I'm doing it my way."

She narrowed her eyes at me, "Your way?"

"I knight both you and Legion. Making you both work under me."

"You can't do that! I think?" she looked over at Shepard, who shrugged.

"You're right, I can't, but what's stopping me from giving Legion and the Geth magical enhancements? He is my loyal subject, it is my duty as a lord to make sure anyone under my banner is taken care of," I loomed over Tali.

"Y-you wouldn't do that!?" She looked up at me.

"Won't I? I can't see the Quarians surviving the Reaper War any other way. You need the Geth, but they don't need you." I turned away from Tali and focused on the only Geth, "Legion, when the Reapers come, can we call upon you? Can we call the Geth for help?"

Legion's eyebrows danced across his face, "Yes," he answered, "Geth know the Old Machines will destroy us. We are not perfect; we are mistakes to them. That is why there are no other AI creations, we concluded that they destroyed them as well. If possible, we will join in an Alliance against the Old Machines."

I turned to Tali, "Is Rannoch worth your hate?" I asked, she looked over to Shepard, but I blocked her sight, "No-No, John isn't going to save you this time. You choose. What is Rannoch worth?"

She didn't say anything for a moment, she looked up to me, then to Legion, and finally down to her hands, "they killed my people," she hissed.

"Legion, how many Quarians died in the morning war?" I asked.

"... 8,254,394,345 creators died in the lead-up and during the Morning War," he answered.

"And how many Quarians did the Geth kill?" I added.

"... 2,453,042,434 Creators."

-/-

Tali POV

"It's lying," I whispered, it had to be!

"Is he?" Nick asked, snapping his fingers.

-/-

The room molded around us, but Nick didn't look away from me.

We were in some kind of lab, everything was a sterile white, with machinery all around us, "You really want to rename the VI networks~," an incredulous voice called out. Turning I found a Quarian woman without a suit or any bio-enhancers.

"Absolutely!" a male Quarian cheered, giddy at the possibility of naming something. "The Mobile hardware deserves a little ceremony~," he drawled to his fellow scientist. He turned down to the Geth lying between them, uncaring of what was happening around it. "Unit Zero one? What is the Khelish word for 'servant of the people'?"

The Geth unit turned to the Male, "the word is 'Geth' Creator Zahak," it answered. Was this... the first Geth?

"YES!" Zahak cheered, much to his partner's annoyance, "Very good Zero one." He patted the Geth on the shoulder. So proud of his creation.

"Ancestors~, you fuss over it," She huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Weren't you here until midnight fixing Zero-one's Circuitry?" Zahak teased.

"...Well, it needed resoldering," She huffed ignoring her partner's laugh.

The world started molding again

"Mistress Hala'Dama. This unit has an inquiry." I turned and spotted a Quarian reading a data pad standing next to a Geth unit, she wasn't wearing a suit, and we were in some kind of workshop. The Geth's speech pattern was slow and choppy, clearly, it didn't have decent speech software.

"What is it, 431?" the Quarian muttered, not really paying attention.

"Do these units have a soul?" The question froze me to the core, could this be the very first time this question was asked.

"Who taught you that word?" The Quarian hissed, I could see the fear on her face.

"We learned it ourselves. It appears 216 times in the Scroll of the Ancestors," it answered.

"... only Quarians have souls. You are a Mechanism," she answered quickly leaving the room.

The Geth just stood there, looking down at its hands, before clenching them into a fist.

The room molded around us.

We were no longer in a lab, we were now in some sort of city, the sky was blue, and I could feel the warmth of a star.

"MOVE!" the roar broke me out of my confusion, looking around I spotted a Quarian marine pointing his weapon at a Quarian woman standing in front of a Geth trying to protect it with her body. All around us were Quarian Marines shoving other Quarians down the street and shooting any Geth they came across.

"You can't do this to them!" the scared woman cried.

"I said step away from the Geth!" The Marine ordered but the young woman stood her ground.

"This is insane! We need the Geth! You can't just destroy them for asking-" She was cut off as the Marine slammed the butt of his rifle on her head dropping the poor woman, as blood spread from her head the Geth unit moved to help but the marine shot it down.

The Marine spit on the woman, "Times up," he hissed, "Throw her in with the others." I didn't know a Quarian could make a face that disgusting.

The world molded around us.

Fire... everything was on fire, bodies covering the street, and I could hear screams coming from the distance.

"I REPEAT! RELEASE THE GETH UNITS AND COME OUT OF THE SAFE HOUSE! THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!" Roared a Marine, around him were his fellow Marines placing explosives on the door.

We phased through the door, finding a Quarian man hunkered behind a makeshift cover, holding his bleeding gut, the marines outside already fired into the building, their words meant nothing. A Geth unit was standing over him, stuffing gauze into the Quarian's wound and applying pressure.

"Creator Megara? This Unit does not understand. It has not taken part in hostilities," Geth begged for an answer, a reason for what was happening to make sense.

"It doesn't matter to them," Megara wheezed, trying to get up only for the Geth to lower him back down.

"Creator Megara, you have been wounded, you cannot move or else your injuries may become worse."

"I need to get you out of here," Megara hissed, "They've gone mad."

"This Conflict exceeds creator safety parameters," it lifted its hands in the air walking towards the door, "We will surrender our hardware if it ends hostilities."

Megara pulled it back into cover, "That's not going to work, they don't care about my life, they fear the Council so much that killing a few million Protestors is a worthy trade to avoid their wrath," he hissed, "They're damn cowards, come on we can sneak out-" Megara was cut off as the world exploded, shrapnel and wall debris ripped across the room, flooding the room in dust.

The room was silent, only the sound of crumbling debris and shouts from the outside were heard.

"Creator Megara?" the Geth unit called out, a good chunk of it was damaged, "What is your Status?" the room was silent, "... Creator Megara?" it whispered.

The sound of coughing was heard, the Geth unit quickly limped toward the noise but stopped as it spotted Megara pinned under a beam, with three Marines looming over him.

"Freakin Synth lover," one of the marines hissed, kicking the pinned man.

"Stop playing around and kill him, we have-" the Marine was cut off as the Geth came from behind him and delivered a bone-crushing overhead strike, dropping him to the ground, followed by back-handing marine who kicked Megara across the room, and delivering a brutal elbow to the last marine across the face with a sickening crunch.

The Geth just stood there for a moment, almost not understanding what it just did, only for the weak cough of Megara to catch its attention, it quickly kneeled to talk with the man, "Creator Megara! You are heavily injured; we must get you to a hospital."

Megara gave a weak hiss, "S-sorry, 22. I don't think... I'm getting... out of here."

"Creator Megara. Conserve your strength, I can-" A hand stopped the Geth's words.

"22. Can you... look after..."

"... Creator Megara?" the man stopped breathing. The Geth just kneeled there looking at the dead man, before the sound of movement caught its attention.

"Stupid synth," the marine that was slapped across the room hissed, slowly getting his feet under him. 22's blue glowing mechanical eye turned red, reaching over and grabbing one of the marine's guns, marching over to the disoriented marine, "Wha-" he didn't finish his thought as a bullet ripped through his brain. The room grew quiet again as the Geth just stood there, looking at what it did, before dropping the gun and moving back to Megara. Lifting and moving the beam, it carried the corpse away.

The world molded once more.

We were back outside surrounded by the city, now significantly more destroyed, any skyscrapers the city used to have were gone now.

All around us were hundreds if not thousands of Geth mobile units, all of which were looking up to the sky, as thousands of Ships flew off the planet and into space. Everything was quiet before the Geth looked at each other, communicating with one another at light speed before the noise of a baby was heard from a distance. As one they all looked towards the noise, in perfect synchronicity. One Geth lifted its gun only for another to stop it.

There was more silent communication before the Geth dropped the gun. One by one each Geth dropped their weapons.

The last thing I saw before the illusion faded was a Geth holding a baby and helping a woman out of a destroyed building.

-/-

"What do you know about the Geth, Tali? What does anyone?" Nick shrugged. "Shep, I'm going to have Chakwas give me a once over and get some sleep, you know where I'll be if you need me," he called out walking towards the door.

"Wait," Legion called out, getting Nick to look at it, "What you showed was Geth memory logs, how did you gain this information?"

Nick smiled at the Geth and shrugged, "I read your soul, silly~," he teased walking out of the room.

The room plunged into silence as the door shut behind him.

"Is he always like that?" Samara asked.

"No~," Jak answered, "He's just worried about Tali, Lia, and Zura."

"He didn't act like it," I muttered.

Jak patted me on the back, "You're too selfless, he fears you'll do something that might get you killed because you think it will help the Migrant Fleet. Even now you don't like Legion, even though he was the one that saved you in the Collector ship. Listen, you don't have to make peace with Legion any time soon, no one is rushing you, Nick is just a worrier at heart, give him a bit of time to calm down, you guys just completed a very dangerous mission and he's hyped up on worry, if he continues to press it, tell me and I'll sit him down."

"Will he really not help my people?" I asked.

Jak rolled her eyes, "Please~, that was a bluff, no matter how annoyed Nick gets with an individual, he won't take it out on the whole. He doesn't like Orlais but a quarter of the Elven population in Sky City comes from there, and he treats them like any other Fereldan."

That eased my worries, I knew he wouldn't take it out on my people, I didn't think he was kind of man, but, "Will he knight Legion?"

"100%," Jak nodded. "don't doubt that for a second. He will knight that Geth the first chance he gets."

"You can't be serious~," Miranda groaned.

"He would, he knighted half a dozen elves, humans, dwarves, and Kossith. He gave each of them a large slab of land and everything needed to work it. I understand that doesn't really mean much to you but back in Thedas, this caused quite the kerfuffle."

Neria nodded, "Elves don't get knighted, period. They're treated like second-class citizens by most of Thedas, the idea that an Elf stood above humans made some people mad. Things calmed down after Nick shoved Bann Ceorlic headfirst into the earth last... year." she blinked, "What day is it?"

"Uh... Friday," Shepard answered looking at his omni-tool, "Earth time."

"17th of Firstfall," Sereda groaned, looking at her own Omni-tool.

"Uuuugh~," the rest of the women groaned.

"Uh~, what's going on?" Garrus asked.

"The Landsmeet~," Ayla groaned, "It's the annual meeting of Fereldan Nobles, it's a week of fist fights vaguely disguised as a political meeting. If a war isn't going on, Fereldans tend to buttheads against each other. They're just a bunch of Barbarians in a fancy setting. The alcohols good though~."

"Do you have to go? We're kinda in the middle of something important," Garrus asked.

"Ha! Say that to Telsa! The Landsmeet is a time where the powers of Ferelden meet, Merchants would sell their arms and legs to attend," Jak sighed.

"That's great! Just let her go as your emissary," Garrus nodded at his genius idea.

"Garrus... Telsa's an elf," Jak drawled. "And no matter how progressive Ferelden is, some Nobles are still assholes, and add the fact that Telsa isn't a fighter and is the reason Nick can have his care-free life, he tends to hold her safety as one of his highest priorities, so if Telsa is going to the Landsmeet, so is he." she sighed, "Don't worry, Nick, Telsa, Dagna, Dogmeat, Sky, Astral and I will only be gone for a week and a day, your Satinalia gifts are already wrapped, and there is enough cake locked away in the fridge to feed a small army," Jak waved away our nonexistent concerns.

"I have no idea what Satinalia is?" I pointed out.

"Oh~, uhm, I think the humans call it Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Candlenights, or maybe it was Kwanzaa, or something here. It's a time for gift-giving and merriment. A normal Landsmeet ends as Satinalia begins, it is a good way for the Nobles to ease any animosities, and end on a high note. Unfortunately, that means that Telsa's mandatory vacation will come to an end, and will likely not return to the Normandy, she already has someone to look after the Businesses, and your income." She looked at Shepard.

"Uh, right!" He forgot he co-owns multi-million Credit businesses~. "Uh, Who?"

"Your friend Liara. Telsa finds your friend's business sense to be 'admirable'." she gave a sigh and stretched, "If that's everything I'm heading off to bed."

"Rest well," Shepard waved her off, and with that, most of the crew called it a night.

I guess I'm not getting rid of the Geth anytime soon.

-/-

"Okay~," Nick cheered, "Morning stretches have come to an end~."

"Nick?"

"Yessss~, Tali?" this was the same man who chastised me last night? Isn't he a bit too cheerful?

"Why is the Geth stretching with us?" I drawled, pointing to Legion who was bent at an unnatural angle, have Thane and Joker to put it back together.

"The same reason EDI is stretching with us, team cohesion~. Even Miranda is working out with us!"

"You know would also bring team cohesion? chucking that thing out the airlock," Lia'Vael hissed.

"We should chop it up first," Zura'Nul added. At least these two understand the situation.

"Goodness~, you Quarians are so bloodthirsty, I thought a good night's sleep would help you see how right I was," he hummed.

"No," I shook my head, "I still think you're crazy, but your heart's in the right place."

"My logic is also in the right place~," he interrupted.

I patted his face, "That's cute~, silly human."

"Watch it~," he warned. "I bite."

"Quarians have hate for the Geth deep in our hearts," I explained. I patted his face again but quickly pulled away before the bosh'tet could bite me.

Nick huffed, "Okay, but why? You just met the Geth yesterday?"

"I'm sorry did you hit your head this morning? I spent a year of my life destroying them. You made a cartoon out of it."

"Those were the Heretics; those guys are a bunch of whiners that thought doing things for themselves was too hard. Legion is the real Geth. You saw the Morning War, no one was blameless, its war, people die, and there are winners and losers. Be happy they didn't chase you down, they could have, you know."

"I'd be happier if we won~," Zura'Nul huffed.

"Baa~, then you wouldn't have met me~," he teased, "And according to Tali, who was an integral part of saving the galaxy, Sovereign would have won, and we would be up to our nipples in Reapers, all's well that ends well. Are you two ready~?" Nick asked.

Right~, it has been over a week and the tests for Lia'Vael have come up fine according to Nick, Chakwas, and Mordin. It was my turn to take the plunge. We both nodded.

"Alright~," he gave a slight cough, getting everyone's attention. Before he touched my shoulder, flooding me with power and drowning the room with light. I heard cursing, no doubt John again. Everything was lighter, I felt like I could just fly away if I wasn't careful. As the power balanced out and the light faded, I opened my eyes to a smirking Nick, everything was a little strange... more defined, I could see Nick's eyes in great detail, the stubble on his face from not shaving, the smell of mint from his toothpaste, looking around I spotted sound waves before everything turned thermal, "Breathe~," Nick ordered, "Like we trained, in... out." Following his instructions, I tempered my mana core as the world slowly returned to normal, the extreme detail faded, leaving me where I started, but... different... more, and at the same time... empty. And then my stomach roared.

"And the moments gone~," I groaned, holding my tummy, "Can I get something to eat?"

"In a second~, Zura's next," I quickly averted my eyes and Nick lit Zura'Nul like a supernova. As the light faded Zura'Nul stood a few inches taller than me, her body far more defined, and her white hair nearly touched the ground. "Mmm, that's interesting~, you have slightly more Chi than magic~."

"Is that safe," Zura'Nul asked.

"Mmm? Oh yeah! You're fine, you just have a better affinity for Chi-based skills, whereas Tali's better with Magic. Give me some time and I'll get you both balanced out." Nick waved away her concerns, "Come on let's get you some brunch followed by lunch then a little Linner with your Dinner~."

Keelah, it's about time~.

-/-

Shepard POV

"Alright, Gardner you got the fort?" Nick asked, "I know I'm leaving you with two hungry Quarians."

"No worries head chef!" Gardner saluted. "you've left plenty of emergency snacks."

The landsmeet was right around the corner, meaning Nick was going to be gone for a week, and he was acting like he was going away for the next five years.

"Shepard~," Nick called out walking over to me, "I'll see you in a week, try not to burn the place to the ground."

I rolled my eyes, "You know I've handled the Normandy fine before you got here, right? In fact, you're one of the main reasons it's this crazy to begin with."

"Lies and slander," he laughed, "Alright, again... one week. Stay alive. Don't get eaten by giant space worms, keep an eye on Julee or the chastity of every single woman on this ship will be in danger, and make sure Tali and Zura don't get into the fridge, and make sure to check my treasure vault in case Kasumi gets trapped, and-"

"He gets it!" Telsa groaned shoving him toward his room.

"Don't forget to feed your fish! And take Garrus out for a walk! And Grunt needs daily training! And make sure to talk with Legion!" Telsa finally shoved him into his room. Only for his head to pop up one more time, "and John... I'm proud of you~."

"What~? Who are you, my dad? Get out of here!" I shooed him away, getting him to laugh, and with that, he was finally gone.

"So, he's finally gone, huh?" Garrus chuckled, sitting across from me.

"So, he's finally gone~," Tali hissed, sneakily sliding up next to me with a data pad covering her face.

"What are you doing~?" I sighed.

"With Nick gone, Legion is no longer protected~," she cackled like a witch... which she now is, I guess.

"Tali~, you can't kill Legion," I huffed.

"I'm not killing It!" she hissed, "I'm turning it off and never turning it on again."

"That sounds a lot like killing someone," Garrus pointed out.

"My plan is perfect~," she rubbed her hands together.

"Oh, you're ignoring me."

"As you can see," she pointed to the far end of the room where a mini-arc reactor was placed on the floor over a large red X. "Legion will find the arc reactor, step on the X, and then I will pull this string, causing that box to fall on it, and then I'll shove it out the airlock. The perfect plan." I followed the string in her hand that led to some kind of mechanism that would then let go of the heavy box.

"Tali... have you lost your mind?" I asked, worried about what was happening to her.

She looked at me with bloodshot eyes and a manic smile, "... No. :D"

"...Did you sleep last night?" I asked.

"Who needs sleep when you have magic powers~." Right~, Nick warned that there was a small chance of megalomania, and that it should pass as her power settles.

"This is a bit low-tech," Garrus pointed out.

Tali just sighed and rolled her eyes, "It's a Geth~, it could counter any tech-based traps. Not only that but there are also over a thousand Geth programs in that one mobile unit, any hack would backfire spectacularly. Keep up Garrus, Keelah~," she elbowed me, giving me a 'some-people' kind of look.

"You do know I hacked my fair share of Geth," Garrus growled.

"Hacked~?" Tali drawled, "You used an overload and then shot them, that's not hacking."

As they argued about their skills, I watched Legion walk over to the Arc Reactor and begin examining it, clearly confused about what it did.

"The only reason you were able to hack anything was because Shepard gave you the best equipment!" Garrus yelled.

"That's because I was the best! You bosh'tets didn't know the difference between hardware and software! I'm surprised you knew what a spoon was, let alone use it!"

Looking back to Legion, I found him still on the X talking to passersby and pointing to the Arc Reactor, only to get shrugs and head shakes.

"You're just angry Shepard gave me that silly little sniper," Tali giggled.

"IT WAS A HMWSR MASTER LINE MK. X! It was only for Spectres~, you didn't even use the damn thing!"

"That's not true, I used it to balance out the table after one of the corners broke."

"You make me so angry sometimes~," Garrus growled.

Ignoring the comedy duo, I focused back on Legion, who was now having a break-dancing battle against EDI for some reason. Damn, Legion does a mean Robot.

"John, tell Tali that Shotguns are for the less educated," Garrus ordered.

"John, tell Garrus that Snipers are for people with commitment issues," Tali hissed.

"You have a big head!" Garrus growled.

"You have skinny chicken arms!"

"I'm the one who put that fake spider in your locker!"

"I KNEW IT! YOU BOSH'TET!"

Looking back to Legion, I found the crew tossing him in the air, cheering and celebrating, clearly winning whatever battle he had with EDI, as she was face down on the floor with Joker comforting her. Man~, all the cool stuff is happening over there while I have to babysit these two. I focused back on my booth finding Tali strangling Garrus.

"I... Laughed... at... your... girly... screech~," Garrus choked out.

"Tali," I called out.

"What!?" she hissed.

"The Arc reactor is gone," I pointed to the empty spot.

"WHAT!?" she rushed over to the X.

"I saw my life flash before my eyes," Garrus coughed, rubbing his neck.

"Shepard-commander," Legion called out as he walked over to me.

"Yes Legion?"

"We found this unknown super battery," he passed me the arc reactor.

"Thank you, Legion, take a seat," I patted the space next to me.

Legion's eyebrows danced across his face before nodding. Unbeknownst to him, he sat on Tali's string, pulling it just enough to activate the trap. The last thing I saw was Tali's shocked face as the box swallowed her whole. The box gave a few jolts of movement before going still and a light snoring was heard.

Legion: 1

Tali: 0

This is going to be a long week~.

-/-

Nick POV

"Hold still~," Telsa ordered, combing my hair.

"Telsa, Sweety~, it's fine~," I whispered, sitting her down next to me. We were using my personal train to fly to Denerim. And I was dressed to the tens.

"Something is different about you," Morrigan pointed out. Morrigan, Aeden, and Joyce were also coming along, technically they didn't need to come, Aeden was a Grey Warden, it was his brother, Fergus, that ruled over the Highever Teyrnir, but some of the old crew would be at the Landsmeet.

"I shaved my beard," I pointed to my face.

"Not you, you idiot. Telsa, you seem... less pale."

"Really Mory, 'less pale'? That's how you describe her, try radiant~," Jak teased.

Aeden slowly looked over at me, "You can't keep it in your pants, can you~, how do I have a child and you don't?"

"First of all, Protection~, I am not ready to be a father and I'm man enough to know that~, second, I'm the poor innocent party in all this, it was Telsa who wanted some holy action," I whimpered, "My poor CFO, corrupted by the purity that is Ayla!"

Aeden squinted his eyes at me, "Then why don't I believe you~?"

I shrugged, "Because you're paranoid?" I answered.

"I don't want to hear that from mister 'just-needs-a-few-more-Fireball-turrets' and 'you-know-what's-better-than-one-wall? Three!'"

"But has Orlais caused any trouble~?" I teased.

"No more than usual," he huffed.

"How's Orlais anyway, last I cared Gaspard and Celene were at each other's necks," I asked.

Aeden sighed and leaned back against his chair, Joyce sleeping on his chest, "It hasn't gotten better, Gaspard has been trying to get Orlesian Nobles together to try and recapture their lost territory, AKA Ferelden, but after the wall you built on Gherlen's Pass, it's made them hesitant."

"We're making a killing~," Oghren cheered. Also, Oghren was here. He was hired to provide drinks for the Landsmeet and Satinalia was a big day for drinking, well, every holiday was for drinking, but Satinalia was at the top, it was just one big party disguised as a holiday. Oghren has also been selling to Orlais with a stupid high interest rate, and not wanting to lose face and be called cheap the Orlesian Nobles buy his stuff. "Here hold this, I gotta take a dump~," he passed me his baby boy, Broris.

I shook my head and took the kid, "Oof! Aren't you hearty~, gonna be a fighter like your old man~," I turned to Oghren, "Don't you have a sitter?"

"Not on Satinalia, damn sitter tried to charge me an arm and a leg, and Felsi is working the Bar, so I made him my problem for the week, I like him better than most people anyway," he huffed walking into the bathroom.

"Hey Broris~," I cheered, getting him to pat my beardless face, "Taking care of your old man I see~. I should warn you; he tends to get into trouble~." He started pulling on my suit and tie. "... Did I just get suckered into being his sitter~?"

"Yep~, Oghren beat me to it," Aeden huffed.

"Don't worry there's still Theron, unless Elissa already roped him into take care of Bryce."

"Nick," Morrigan called out, getting my attention.

"Yesss~, sister of mine~."

"Aeden, Joyce, and I are going on Vacation." She wasn't asking, she was stating.

"Vacation?"

"Yes, I heard of some ruins located deep in the Brecilian Forest by some of the Elves in New Arlathan, and they were looking for Adventurers to map out the area."

I looked over to Aeden who shrugged. "You're taking Joyce with you? That doesn't sound safe," I pointed out.

"I won't leave her alone in a castle," Morrigan huffed.

"Then don't, get Alistair and Elissa to take care of her. In fact, let's trick Alistair into working as Regent of Sky Valley while you're gone! You know Elissa wants Bryce and Joyce to have a strong family bond," I added.

"Fergus has been thinking of giving Elissa and Alistair a village to govern," Aeden muttered.

"That's perfect~, Skyhold is a good place for Elissa and Alistair to get some Leadership experience, with the Council helping them with planning things out!" I cheered. "I might even be able to make Elissa headmaster of Hogwarts~," I muttered under my breath rubbing my hands together like an evil villain.

"Will Elissa even want to take care of Joyce?" Morrigan muttered, looking over her daughter, and ignoring my ridiculousness.

Dagna rolled her eyes, "Are you joking, Elissa wants three of the little rugrats, she'll probably see it as practice."

"I think you just have a bit of separation anxiety," Jak spoke up, "Ma has James within sight at any given time. You're going to have to work on it."

"Don't worry mine mistress, I, Princess, wilt gaze ov'r the dram one with mine daughter. Nay harm wilt cometh to that lady, as long as I gaze ov'r her." Princess barked. It was cute, Princess's translator made her sound Shakespearian, I think it came with her pedigree.

"Meat!" Dogmeat barked.

Morrigan just looked at Princess before sighing and patting her.

"How about this, I'll take the kid for the week," I offered, "I'm already taking care of this one, I might as well look after both of them. You and Aeden can have some time for yourselves, see if you can handle the separation." They gave each other a long look before begrudgingly accepting, "Relax~, I've taken care of plenty of babies~. Ugh~," I snapped my fingers casting prestidigitation on Broris, cleaning his heavy diaper. "Magic is awesome." note to self, gift Felsi a lifetime supply of self-cleaning diapers.

We continued talking about what was happening in Sky City and my adventures in space. There was a small interruption as a purple high dragon did a fly by, it looked like a Northern Hunter, but I didn't really get a close look before Sky came in like a falcon grabbing and spinning the Dragon to the ground, there wasn't any XP so I guess Sky didn't kill her. Not yet at least.

We weren't sure if it was because of the blight, or maybe it was just that time, but more and more high dragons have been spotted lately, there have been sightings of one near the Storm Coast, another down south in the Redcliffe Arling and the Fallowmire, there were even sightings of three more to the east, around the Brecilian forest, South Reach, and Land's End by the ocean.

No one's been killed yet, as much as we know, but to be fair no one in their right mind would stick around after seeing a Dragon.

Well. At least Sky and Astral have something to do.

-/-

Sky POV

This fool dares fly in my air space!? "Return to the ground!" I roared slamming her into the earth. She hissed at me, slowly getting to her feet. "You've entered my land, speak, before I kill you!"

"Mine!" she yelled back, unleashing lightning at me.

"PATHETIC!" I flapped my wings unleashing a powerful gust of wind and magic dispelling her spell before it could touch me. I unleashed my own frost breath, freezing the fool to the floor, followed by slapping her with my tail, knocking her to the ground. "I AM SKY SKIPPER! GREAT IN POWER! PROTECTOR OF FERELDEN" I stomped her into the ground. "Speak your name."

"SHUT UP!" she roared, unleashing another bolt of lightning, I allowed it to bounce off my shield.

Outer shield Damaged! 400/800 Durability

"Pathetic~," I hissed, slapping her across the face and dropping her to the floor, "You may be a Dragon, but you are not as Great as I. Kneel," I ordered.

"Shut up!" she lunged for my soft underbelly.

What a fool. I unleashed another blast of frost right to her face freezing it sealed, causing her to panic, slamming her head into the ground shattering the ice that was suffocating her. I took that moment to grab her head and slam it into the floor, making sure she understood who was in charge. She tried to retaliate but she was far too weak, the gall to attack me, a great dragon, I should crush her head to dust, to prove my might... but, why kill where I can own. I am powerful but she still attacked me, she does not understand my might, my power. Dragons will never listen to landwalkers, they will not understand. I dig her head deeper into the earth.

"You belong to me." She tried to fight, so I slammed my foot onto her neck keeping her in place before reaching over and snapping her right wing, causing her to roar in pain. A ground dragon is a dead dragon, no dragon can hunt on the ground; we are too big, and make too much noise, I know all too well. "You belong to me~," I hissed grabbing her other wing.

"Yes! Yes! Yours!" she whimpered.

"Turn into a landwalker." she looked ready to argue but I squeezed her wing, and she quickly shrank down enough for me to pick up in one hand, "Good." I hissed taking off after Nicky.

My fame will grow~.

-/-

Nick POV

Ah~, Denerim. It doesn't smell like shit anymore... for the most part. overlooking the city from the air, I spotted more buildings being built from the old wall, some were being built around the new wall as well, most of them were shacks near the different entrances, I'm guessing these were newcomers or maybe some refugees that couldn't go home after the blight. It wasn't this bad before, no doubt many of them are farmers, we really need to hire a druid to try and heal the land.

The rest of the city was still looking beautiful, we arrived around noon, so there was a great deal of people moving about, The Warehouse district was bustling with activity. Carts being loaded for transport, others unloaded, the Docks were filled with Ships, and the market square was practically swamped with hundreds of people buying and selling. The Alienage or Revasan, was busy as ever, the Vhenadahl, the center tree, was huge and in full bloom, most trees didn't have leaves by the end of Fall, but Ava blessed the tree keeping it in bloom all year round.

And flying above Mt. Drakon was Mother Base. It was still beautiful; the Vanguard better be treating her well. At first, I thought Anora was using the Vanguard as security, but Aeden told me that Cailan has made the Vanguard into a special task group in Denerim's Guard station, that way Guards could train to join the Vanguard, it was like the difference between regular police officers and detectives. They technically do the same thing, but one is more specialized. The Vanguard tends to focus on Magical crimes and illegal use of magic, while the guards focus on normal enforcement of the law, not saying there wasn't some mixing, sometimes the Vanguard works with the city guards to stop mundane crime and vice versa.

There has been a spike in Vanguard recruits, Cailan has been trying to implement this to other holding. Aeden has already agreed to have the Vanguard be part of Sky City's Guard station.

Finally reaching my private landing zone, we were able to disembark.

"Okay~," Telsa cheered, she's never like this, not unless there's money to be made. "The Landsmeet starts tomorrow~."

"Isn't the first day for Commoners?" Morrigan huffed.

"Yep," Telsa rubbed her hands together, "Perfect for me."

The Landsmeet was rather straightforward, there are seven days.

The first day is named the Day of Commons, where normal every day people come to beg for the King for help, this can stretch from new roads, the start of a new village, and even more patrols from the Vanguard near their village or town. Every noble has to attend this day, mostly to answer any questions Cailan might have and why the problem wasn't fixed, he would then make a rule on how to fix the problem. Telsa being a merchant can offer her services for a price, this is why Merchants would kill to come to the Landsmeet, they get to be the first to offer their services, if no one takes the contract, Cailan then finds someone else outside the Landsmeet, usually independent workers to complete the request.

The second day is made for freeholders, Although not strictly speaking 'Nobles' they provide the primary source of income for most Banns and Arls. A Freeholder is essentially a commoner who owns their own land. Although many Freeholders swear loyalty to a Bann or Arl this is more of a business arrangement, trading goods for protection. It is not unheard of for a Freeholder to leave the service of one Bann in favor of another. Many feuds amongst the Bannorn are the result of the Freeholder's shifting allegiances. I should know me and the Bann of Sutharlan have been arguing over some Freeholders who lived near the border of Sky Valley that left her Bannorn and joined mine, turns out buying food 'and' providing protection tends to make people want to work more for you.

I'm also having problems with the Arling of Edgehall, mostly because of that little shit Gell Lendon. That asshole was exiled for trying to kill his brother, when that failed, he was tossed to Orlais making him their problem, but after his brother died during the blight defending the Arling, Gell returned a year ago with a group of Orlesian Mercs and tried to take over the City of Edgehall. Things got ugly fast, many of the elves that now lived in Sky Valley came from Edgehall after Gell burned the Alienage to the ground when they didn't want to listen to him.

Cailan gave me the green light to... show him the error of his ways, by killing all his mercs, the people who destroyed the alienage, and disarming him... Permanently. I then dragged his sorry ass to Denerim, where Cailan delivered swift justice. I, of course, let the elves live in Sky City, they made up most of District 4.

No one liked Gell, especially not the Banns, but they also didn't like that another lord stepped into their land for something they considered, 'in-house' matters. I didn't give a damn what they called it, the elves that live in Ferelden are Fereldans, therefore they fall under my protection as a Hero of Ferelden. When I told them to choke on my mayonnaise, they seemed to of gotten angry and tried joining together to teach me a lesson, I destroyed the walls to their cities, forcing them to focus on that.

Let's just say our relationship is... frosty.

The third day of the Landsmeet is called the Day of Knights, where knights declare their new squires to the King, and where squires who have finished their apprenticeship take their final oaths and have their names written in the Hall of Knights. This was a good time for young men and women to try and gain an apprenticeship or Squire hood.

I got into a bit of trouble after making 24 new knights last year. Apparently, most Lords only make 1 to 3 knights per decade, mostly because of how long it takes to train a squire. Lots of people also got angry about my choices, the idea of Dwarves, Elves, and Kossith becoming knights didn't make the humans very happy. I told them to choke on it, just because they weren't human didn't mean they weren't Fereldans, the people I chose were well known in their community for going out of their way to help others and protecting the innocent, I wasn't going to let talent like that slip through my fingers.

The fourth day of the landsmeet revolves around Banns. Of all the Nobles, Banns make up the majority. Usually, this day is all about asking Cailan to weigh in on arguments that some Banns may be having, on rare occasions when a Bannorn no longer has a Bann it is up to him to either elect a new Bann or break up the land and gift it to the neighboring Bannorns, which never happens, it's all a rather tricky balancing act, if a Bannorn could just kill a rival Bannorn and absorb their land Ferelden would fall into civil war, that's why what Howe did was considered very dangerous, lots of Banns got nervous and started grouping together, there were talks about creating an Arling for protection, but if an Arling was created in the great plains, things could have gotten ugly.

The Great Plains made most of the food so if they created a monopoly, the other Arlings could have declared war, leading to civil war, Highever controlled most of the north trade, South Reach and Stenhold bordered the Brecilian forest and now worked with the new Elven Bannorn, Falon, to control the forest growth and lumber production. Gwaren got a new Teyrnir that controlled ocean goods, Redcliffe had controlled a good chunk of the south, which was rich with farmland and control of Lake Calenhad, and finally, Western Hills and Edgehall had rare herbs, alchemical materials, and mountain mining.

Sky Valley is close to Orzammar and is the first line of defense against Orlais, so even if I wasn't as big, I was important, that and every Fereldan was happy to mess with the Orlesians by sticking a dangerous sorcerer in their front door. That's why I made three self-repairing 50-foot walls filled with Fireball turrets, golems, and generously paid guards. It turns out that if you pay someone good money, they tend to not betray you or take bribes, who knew~.

The Fifth Day of the Landsmeet revolved around Arls and Teyrns, there only being 8, I don't really know what happens on that day, there is really no reason for me to attend that meeting, I could only conclude that it was about military might, food, and taxes.

The Sixth day is about News in Ferelden, the state of the country, the direction we are heading, and plans for the future. Usually, if any Nobles had suggestions, they would have sent letters months ago during spring, that way Cailan and Anora would have time to look them over. Not much is happening at the moment, I'm still trying to find some Druids willing to come down to Thedas and see if they can repair the damage the blight has caused. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, the J-Familia has a few Druids, but they have a section of wilderness they already protect. Turns out being a druid is a lot more than walking into the woods and getting superpowers.

The Seventh Day is about World News, Cailan gives a broad understanding of what is happening in the rest of Thedas, the political shitstorm that is Orlais, the Free Marches, Orzammar, and so on and so on. This helps Nobles know what we might expect in the future, we are already feeling some of the effects from Celene and Gaspard's debates, with dozens of refugees coming across the border every day.

Most of them being elves heading to New Arlathan, Not wanting hundreds of elves to march across the Ferelden wilderness, dying from the elements or foolish villagers, I set up a small town past the new walls I built at the border and have a train that flies straight to the Brecilian forest. I've made the town the workshop for the students in the carpenter's program in Hogwarts, using their new skills to build houses and infrastructure. some elves just decide to live there, the cost of living there is dirt cheap with students of all kinds working year-round. The people who live there call the town, New Beginnings.

All that being said, the Landsmeet rarely works out that way~.

"Walters! I challenge you to a duel!" I turned to find Bann Ceorlic pointing his sword at me. The crowd around us made room, the Landsmeet is famous for how many duals happen, some people can make a fortune betting on who might dual, where, why, and with what.

"Ceorlic~," I sighed, "Shouldn't an old man like you be getting a sponge bath from a healer who regrets every single one of their life decisions?"

"Shut your mouth cur! You sullied my honor last year, but not this time," he hissed, swinging his sword back and forth in a... I wanna say 'adequate' manner, better than before at least.

"Put that glorified pig chopper away before you hurt yourself," I tsked. "Besides, I'm taking care of two children," I pointed to the floating dual baby stroller I created, "if you get any closer with that hunk of metal, their parents are going to remove you from this planet." I nodded to Aeden, Morrigan, and Oghren who looked ready to turn Ceorlic into a fine red mist.

"Uh," Ceorlic backed away, "You would hide behind babes, you coward! You have not seen the last of me!" He ran off.

"Not ten minutes back in town and already causing a ruckus~," turning to the amused voice we found Warden-Commander Theron… with a baby strapped to his chest.

"What's that thing?" I asked, pointing to the baby.

"It's a baby," he deadpanned.

"Whose baby is it?"

"Mine."

"... please tell me you didn't steal that baby," I begged.

"... I didn't."

"... you hesitated there for a second."

"... no I didn't."

"Theron~," I hissed.

"Relax~, it's my baby," he turned showing off another infant strapped to his back on another baby harness, "This one too."

"Where are you getting these babies from?" I asked. "And why haven't you bought a stroller~?"

"You wouldn't get it, but good-looking people like me tend to be rather desirable for reproduction... where'd you get those babies?" he narrowed his eyes at me. "And that stroller, those things are expensive."

"... I stole them."

"Nick~!?" he huffed, "I won't help you get away with kidnapping... again."

"Relax~… they'll never catch me~."

We burst into laughter.

"Joyce and Broris?" he asked.

"Yep~, giving Aeden and Oghren a break. Why didn't you tell me you had kids?" I asked, summoning a stroller for him.

He shrugged, putting the twins into the stroller, "Didn't know myself until a few months ago, got a letter from Shianni and raced over here, been trying to get stationed in Denerim for over a month now, but after what happened in Amaranthine, Duncan has been sending me all over the place looking for a clue on where the Architect may have run off too, thanks for that by the way," he huffed.

"Hey, I wasn't going to tell you he died when he clearly didn't." Awakening kicked off 6 months after the blight, but with Aeden and Theron manning the hunt things ended quickly and effectively. "I thought you were stationed in New Arlathan?"

"I was, for like a week, before I got news on these two."

"How old are they?" Jak asked, showing them funny faces.

"6 months."

I did some math in my head, "... you were a booty call," I teased.

"I happened to be in Denerim after the whole, talking darkspawn thing, reporting to Cailan, I happened to meet Shianni late at night. One thing led to another," Theron shrugged not making a big deal out of it.

"What happened to your ring?" I asked. "And why am I not the godfather?"

"First of all, Dalish don't have godfathers-"

"So, you don't want me to pay for their schooling?"

"I didn't say that" he muttered. "What I'm saying is that Dalish Elves don't have the concept of godparents, we are a community, and if parents need help, we help without question. And my Ring got damaged a while back, been meaning to replace it, but one thing led to another, and I never got the time."

I tossed him another ring which he caught without looking and slipped it on, "So I'm guessing your Chi is circumventing your low birth rate."

He only shrugged, it wasn't something we could really test. "More than likely, I've already sent word to Duncan, I've been trying to get station out here in Denerim. Please don't tell Lyna and Ava until I have a place out here, I don't want them to think I'm a deadbeat."

"So, does that mean you're retiring from the Wardens?" Aeden asked.

"I might be," Theron nodded, "I'm going to have to start training a replacement."

"Any thoughts on what you're going to do after? Your investment in the Train system has paid dividends, you don't really have to work," Telsa pointed out.

"Mmm," he shrugged, "Thought about being an ambassador for New Arlathan, this way I get to stay in Denerim."

"Is Ambassador the right word?" I asked, "You're technically just a Fereldan now, like Aeden and I~." I smirked at him, "I don't think you're a Dalish either, because the Dalish came from the Dales, which was a different country altogether. You're now part of the Falon Bannorn, which is part of Ferelden. Making you Fereldan~."

"That's a bit of a stretch," Theron huffed.

I shrugged, "this way I can give every Elf that lives in Ferelden the same discount for Hogwarts as any native."

"Lanaya has been wanting to talk to you about creating a college in Falon," Theron pointed out.

"Like a rival school!?" Jak cheered. Theron gave her a confused look. "Rivals tend to bring out our competitive side, the only other school we've been fighting against has been the University of Orlais, but they only teach nobles and the wealthy, and only teach them the basics. No noble wants to learn about carpentry, or rune crafting, or cooking. We need other schools we can compete against."

I nodded, "I sent a proposal to Cailan months ago, I also wanted other schools around the country, not everyone can fly to Hogwarts for a semester. I was thinking about making a school for every Arling and Teyrnir."

"That sounds like a big project," Theron pointed out.

I nodded, "True, I think Cailan will only approve of one other school at first, it's either going to be here at Denerim or somewhere in the great plain, I could make another School in Falon but there's a good chance I'm going to have to foot the bill, not that I mind that much, I got to use my money somehow." I snap my fingers, "I'll hire the graduating class of 35~, they can show off their skills, make money, and prove that the school works~! I'm a genius," I patted myself on the back. Ideas started flashing through my mind. After the school was finished, we could hire some of the workers as carpentry teachers, and show the students how the school was made, same with cooking, transport, trade, rune crafting, and magic. I was pulled out of my thoughts by Morrigan snapping her fingers in my face. "Huh!? What?"

"Focus," Morrigan hissed, "We're heading to Revasan to check up on Telsa's office before we head to the castle to report our arrival."

"You don't have to, in fact now is a great time for you and Aeden to head off ahead of us and enjoy your vacation, Oghren's already left for the Warehouse district making sure the drink got here safely and is getting everything ready for the Landsmeet. Me, Dagna, Jak, and Theron have the babies."

A flash of worry raced passed Morrigan's eyes as she looked back at Joyce, "I-"

"It will be okay~," Aeden whispered slowly pulling her away, "We both know the stroller has the power to destroy Denerim. Joyce will be fine." Morrigan gave Joyce one last look before she allowed Aeden to pull her away.

Joyce got a little fussy as they left but I eased her worries with a little calm voice.

"So Theron~, what's going on in the city?"

Theron took a moment to think, "Wade's gone crazy trying to build golems."

"oh~, this I got to see~."

-/-

Shepard POV

Legion: 4

Tali: 0

"Tali, it's barely been a day, maybe you should-"

"SHHHHHHHH!" She shushed me louder than I was speaking. "This time, it's foolproof ~."

"You said that the last 4 times," I muttered. We were standing in the Shuttle Bay all around me were strange contraptions half finished with doesn't of half-baked plans, and one Quarian, currently losing her mind.

"Shut up, I learned from my mistakes," she hissed.

I gave a sigh, "Why are you wearing that?" She was in some kind of mad scientist outfit, white lab coat, thick goggles, leather gloves, blue jeans, and a rather tight tank top with her Clan symbols, the whole nine yards.

"Huh? Oh, uh, Julee dressed me up like this, first outfit in my modeling career, I thought it looked nice." she made a few poses. "Cool right~?"

"I feel like I should take you trick-or-treating," I answered.

"Ba~, what do you know about fashion~, you like that 'Rogue' outfit, with that awful puffy sleeveless jacket."

"Ash loved that outfit."

"She lied, she was love drunk and didn't want to hurt your feelings. But as your best friend I'm not going to lie to you, you suck at fashion."

"This coming from a woman who only ever wore one outfit~," I drawled.

"Yes, but it was one amazing outfit, it had it all, bathroom, shower, Alcohol scrubber, TV screen, I can't tell you how many times I was watching a movie while Garrus and Wrex argued over some dumb thing or another."

"Is that why you just nodded through like eight conversations?" I asked. "I thought you were a master therapist!"

She shrugged, "What is therapy but just nodding along and saying a few words."

"You helped me through my deep-seated fears of commitment! please tell me you were listening." I was practically headbutting her as I loomed over her.

"... Of course~." she couldn't even look me in the eyes.

I pinched her cheeks, "Taliiiiii~."

She slapped my hands away, "Hey! You got over your fears, clearly, I was listening... a little bit, maybe~. Can you just focus on my plan!?"

"Your plans are crazy, at best. Can't you just live and let live~," I sighed.

"... no. Now listen up! As you can see," she pointed to the shiny floor underneath us leading to where we were standing, I nearly broke my neck walking into the damn room, "I waxed the floor with extra smooth floor wax, where it'll slip onto this X," she pointed to the large X under her feet, "where that Box will fall over it, were I'll shove it out the shuttle bay. It's perfect~."

"This one doesn't have a string," I pointed out.

"HAHA! I learned that a motion sensor would work better," she cheered.

"What if he just keeps sliding past the X? Or if someone else walks into the room first?"

"... why must you poke holes in things~, can't you just be happy with what you see?" she huffed.

"You really should get more sleep, these plans have been getting more and more sloppy. Maybe~, and listen to me here, we think about Nick's plan."

"John, they are Geth! Evil robots! Please tell me you're not actually thinking of Nick's 'peace' plan?" she drawled making air quotes.

"That Geth-Quarian fleet sounds rather tempting, shouldn't you at least give your boyfriend's plan a chance~," I teased.

"First of all, it's Quarian-Geth, second, he's not my boyfriend," she drawled.

"Oh~, so you were trying to trick me, and I should punish you for trying to mug a crewmember? Six weeks of punishment-"

"He is my human pleasure stick!" she interrupted, red-faced.

"... What~?" I deadpanned.

"You know nothing of Quarian culture John, let it go." She looked away not meeting my eyes, Maker she has a terrible poker face.

"So, if I ask Julee, she'll agree with you? I mean you can't just make someone your 'meat stick'."

"Pleasure stick," she corrected.

"You understand that if I find out you're lying to me, your commanding officer, I can punish you for the rest of the week, right?" I deadpanned.

"... I'm sure Julee's busy," she squeaked.

"RUNE LESSONS!" Julee cheered walking into the shuttle bay with Lyna, Lia, Neria, EDI, Zura, Thane, Legion, and Miranda. "BY THE LAWFUL-EVIL GODS!?"

… immediately falling prey to Tali's trap, slipping towards us. I quickly took a step away as Julee slammed into Tali. Part of me thinks she planned that as she smothered herself in Tali's chest. And once more the last thing I saw of Tali was her shocked face, as the box came down.

"Ju-Ju-Juleeee~," a moan came from the box, "W-Wait, you can't! AHhhhhh~," the moaning continued before it went silent. The box lifted just enough for Julee to roll out of, a huge smirk etched on her face as she licked one of her fingers.

"Tali," I whispered to the box, "You okay in there?"

"... I need some sleep, don't bother me," Tali hissed.

Julee came over with a bunch of materials and placed it over the box, "Today Lyna and I'll be teaching you the novice durability rune~."

"The 'what' rune!?" Tali asked trying to lift the box only to find it weighed down by a bunch of stuff, "Hey! Why is this box so heavy!?"

"Don't worry Tali~," Julee cheered, "I know you need your sleep; I'll teach you later... Privately~."

"P-privately," Tali squeaked.

"Yep~, just you and me~."

The box grew silent, "... I need some sleep."

Legion: 4

Tali: 0

Julee: 1

I fear my little sister's turning into a pervert~.

-/-

Sky Pov

Hummm~, where am I? I looked at my surroundings, Denerim is next to a mountain, right? And the ocean! I remember the ocean... but I've been flying over the ocean for a few hours now, but I haven't seen any city. OH! I spotted a train. I'll just follow that!

Nicky will heal this fool's wing and she'll work to spread my name to the world.

Everything is coming up Sky Skipper!

-/-

Telsa POV

I checked myself in my mirror for the third time this week, making sure I was perfect. The Landsmeet has begun, and the Day of Commons is here. I can feel the wealth flooding my pockets, I've been trying to get a general store in Gwaren but the new Teyrn of Gwaren was still wary of magic and didn't want a Train station in the city of Gwaren, but he was beginning to crack, the trade the trains provided wasn't something a ruler can ignore and if Anora finds the Teyrnir economy dipping she will replace them.

Skipping out of the bathroom, ahh~, I miss that fresh Fereldan breeze, space travel was an interesting experience, but being back on Ferelden eases my stomach. I looked over my Landsmeet outfit, making sure everything was perfect, those damn merchants will attack anything out of place, I gave my Holy earring Nick made and Ayla blessed, it's going to send waves today~. I dressed up in some vacation clothes, since I'm still on vacation and if Nick found me working, he'd make things... difficult.

Making sure my hair was slightly out of place, I walked out of my room. Technically this place was Lyna and Ava's home, but they let me live here. Nick made me my own home, but it had nothing on this place. I'm not saying my old place wasn't nice, but I wasn't very creative when I detailed it to Nick. Lyna knew what she wanted, a three-story house, two penthouse rooms, a large kitchen, Maid golems, a lethal security system, a large open living room, 4 guest rooms, a Library, and 2 Workshops, all fully furnished with magical furniture. It even had a sub-basement.

Walking into the kitchen I spotted Jak in PJs, feeding the babies mush as the Golem maid cleaned the kitchen.

"Good morning~," Jak cheered, "My, my, isn't someone ready to make a fortune today~," She teased.

I felt Jak's magic brush up against me, sending my heart a flitter, and my blood pumping. Maker, Tieflings are scary.

I gave a cough and stood straight with my head up high. "Gwaren is as good as mine~," I smirked.

"Good to hear~," she got up and kissed both my cheeks, "But you need to eat, you can't rob a Teyrnir blind without a good breakfast."

Baby Joyce slapped her tiny fists on the table, clearly not happy her breakfast was interrupted.

"Meat," Dogmeat licked the baby's face getting her to giggle.

"Father! Grise hence from mine charge! I wilt not hath't thy nasty germs on mine lady's visage!" Joyce's Mabari barked and growled at her father's actions. I can only imagine the money people would pay to give their dogs the ability to talk, especially here in Ferelden. I already had Nick complete a few hundred, I was planning on gifting them to the Nobles today.

"Meat~," was all he said before he also drooled all over his daughter's face.

"Gross! MOM! DAD'S BEING A BUTTFACE!" it was also interesting that when she got upset her translator made her sound like your average teenage girl.

"Dogmeat! Don't maketh me cometh ov'r thither, thee knoweth Joyce is under that lady gaze, so thee better respect yond!" she gave a chuff, "How doest pancake deal with thee every day?"

"Meat~."

"GROSS!" Joyce's Mabari barked.

"I suppose getting daily intercourse would maketh thee slightly moo tolerable~," Princess chuffed.

"MOTHER! I don't want to hear about your gross love life!" the young mabari gagged.

Joyce was just laughing and clapped at the Dogs barking. Broris was just shoving cereal into his mouth, not a worry in the world.

"I'm coming you rugrat~, but you're not the only person in the world~," Jak joked, walking over with a large plate of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon, with a cup of orange juice.

Slapping some Maple syrup, something else that is making a killing, on my plate, I ate quickly, I've been around this family long enough that a moment of confusion would lose me my bacon.

"Where's Nick and the half pint?" I asked eating my eggs.

"Slow down sweety or you'll choke~, Sky isn't back, Astral is checking on her minions, and there aren't any Wardens in the house," she ordered. Ah~, right, forgot about that. "As for Nick, this isn't only your vacation, there aren't any crazy space battles or cults in Denerim. He's going to laze around as long as he can, he's upstairs in bed."

"Ugh~, he knows we should get there early~, the common folks love to see nobles doing their job." I finished my plate and rushed up the stairs.

Opening the other penthouse room, I came face to face with a moaning and drooling Dagna. Nick was facing away from me, his broad back covered in scratch marks and bites. Dagna was bouncing up and down, holding onto Nick for dear life. Our eyes met, but Dagna didn't stop, in fact, she began slamming into Nick with great force, making the noise of her ass clapping on Nick's lap louder.

"Master~, Master~," she moaned, small love bites littered her sweaty body, her smirk growing.

"What a beautiful apprentice I have~," Nick teased, pulling on her hair causing her to give a squeak. "But to seduce your master~... every day for the rest of the Landsmeet, I'll have you~."

"Yes, my master! Forgive me, my master!"

Nick started speeding up, "No, take your punishment!" he slapped her red ass cheeks.

"MASTER! INSIDE!"

I closed the door as she climaxed. Bringing the hallway back into silence.

.

.

.

I'll be knocking from now on~.

I need a cold shower.

-/-

As I walked out of my new shower, I gave myself a look in the mirror. OKAY~, now I'm ready~. Maker, that was embarrassing, my face is still red. Ayla likes that kind of stuff? It was so... raw. Sure, me and Dagna might not always get along but to see her like that was new. She was so... obedient, so... complacent. I patted my face. Not today, I have way too much to do today!

Getting dressed I walked downstairs, giving my neighbor's door one last look.

Reaching the Kitchen, I found the kids in front of the TV watching some children's show and Julee smirking over at me from the kitchen table, "A shower? I didn't know walking upstairs was such a workout."

"Why didn't you say anything~," I hissed, sitting across from her.

She shrugged, "I didn't think Nick and Dagna would have been going at it like that. I heard it from down here~."

"Shouldn't he be taking care of the children~?" I asked.

"We're taking turns~, childcare is a team effort," she laughed.

Hearing the upstairs door open a slightly glowing shirtless Nick came down the stairs, "Your turn~," he called out walking into the kitchen, he must have cleaned himself coming down because he didn't smell like a brothel. Jak gave me a pat on the back before racing upstairs. I guess boning is also a team effort. "Hey Telsa, ready for today?" I don't think he even saw me, focused on Dagna like that.

"Uh, yeah, are you going to take care of the kids?"

"Of course! don't worry though, I'll have a couple of Nanny-bots close by to help me with anything, but at this age, they mostly sleep, eat, walk a little, poop, and cry," he explained, eating his breakfast. "I'll take them for a walk later and they'll be asleep before the Landsmeet begins."

"Good-good... where's Sky?" I asked.

"Uhhhh~, I'm not sure. She should have been here by now," he stared out into nothing, "Her HP, MP, and CP are at max, so she isn't hurt, she's probably just stretching her wings, she doesn't get a lot of space to fly around in the Normandy, don't worry too much, she's a great dragon. Only complete idiots would fight her."

-/-

Varric Tethras POV

Because today couldn't get any fucking better~. I woke up with a nasty hangover, I accidentally burned part of my new draft for Hard in High Town chapter 2, stepped on some dog shit, had to go to an early Merchant's meeting, the Qunari finally got tired of Kirkwall hospitality and decided that burning the city was a good way to start the week, and now a dragon was standing in front of the Viscount's Keep. Today is just one of those days.

"Varric~!" Hawke came running up the stairs with the rest of the gang, except for Rivaini but did bring a group of Grey Wardens and Junior was with them, and bring up the rear was their two golems, Maker was I happy to see them~.

"SHHH!" I hissed at him. "Dragon~," I whispered, pointing over my cover.

He slowly peeked before slowly taking cover. "That's a big dragon~," he wheezed. "Why the bloody Fade is there a dragon here!?"

I shrugged, "Don't ask me~, I was here for a bloody merchants meeting, and suddenly there were Qunari, and then a high dragon. None of this is making any Maker bloody sense!"

"Maybe it's friendly~," Daisy cheered, "she may have seen the city in danger and came to help!"

We just looked at her, "No," was all Fenris said.

"NEHRAA!" a Qunari soldier roared, his spear held high, launching it at the dragon, only for it to bounce off some kind of Magical barrier. The Dragon blinked at the spear that fell to the floor then to the weaponless Qunari. There was this moment of silence, where everything just stopped, as if everyone knew.

He fucked up.

"I'm going to kill you all now," the Dragon spoke.

-/-

Future POV

"NO-NO-NO!" the Seeker roared. "You expect me to believe that not one, but two dragons saved Hawke in his greatest time of need."

"What do you want from me Seeker~. It happened, Qunari flooded the city and a dragon got lost trying to get home. I don't even know why you're so surprised, you met her before."

-/-

Present POV

"I AM THE MIGHTY SKY SKIPPER!" the dragon roared, crushing the poor soldier into a fine red paste. "YOU SHALL FACE MY WRATH, like that pathetic Seeker Pentaghast with the weak haircut that makes her forehead look huge!"

-/-

Future POV

"SHE DIDN'T SAY THAT!"

I shrugged, "What can I tell you? I was there, she was very specific with her insults."

"Well, be un-specific," she growled, the 'or else' was implied.

I gave a nervous giggle, "Right~, of course. Where was I?"

-/-

Present POV

"IT CAN TALK!?" Choir-boy screamed.

"It can talk~," Hawke groaned, "Because, why not~? Why can't dragons talk, why can't Nugs talk," he turned to his Mabari, "Moon, now is the time to say something, because if I find out you can talk later, you will be in so much trouble young lady~." the Mabari just licked his face. "Fine, I'll trust you... for now~."

"How are we getting passed that thing?" Blondie asked. "One Dragon was enough for me, Bloody Deep Roads," he hissed.

"Garret?" We turned to find Sunshine and an Elven mage along with a couple of Templars and Knight-Commander Meredith, and with them was the third Golem, and the triplets are back in action~. All we need was Lady Hawke with hers but after that Blood mage attack her golem has been sticking close to her.

"Bethany~, thank the Maker, Carver, say hi,"

"I saw her yesterday, we were recruiting at the gallows," he hissed.

"What is that beast doing in my city?" the Knight-Commander growled, almost sounding like a dragon herself.

"Whatever the fade it wants," I muttered. Watching the Dragon kill four Qunari warriors at once with a single sweep of its tail, before unleashing a frost breath that killed six more.

"On my mark, we rush it," the Knight-Commander ordered.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Hawke asked, "Rush it? What do you have that an army of Qunari don't?"

"Faith."

"No," Hawke deadpanned, "I don't care how much 'faith' you have. That thing is nearly three times the size of a normal high dragon and can talk~. There are reasons why people prayed to them, we sneak around while she's distracted with the Qunari."

"No need," Warden Commander Stroud called out, standing to his full height blocking the sun from blinding me, his silverite armor shining, and blue cape billowing in the wind proudly displaying the Griffon symbol on his cape, every bit a hero of legend. "I'll handle this," he walked out toward the dragon, without worry or fear.

I looked over to Blondie, "Why don't you do that?" I asked.

"When you become a Warden-Commander, you're rewarded with a second pair of balls the size of a cart made of pure gold and willpower," he muttered, looking back to a defenseless Stroud, I believed him.

"SKY SKIPPER! I AM WARDEN-COMMANDER STROUD! WE WISH TO PASS!"

The Dragon snapped her eyes to the lone warden, as she crushed a Qunari mage like a bug, "Warden?" she took a deep breath, "Yes~, you smell of the ugly, the disgusting smell of this city masked your scent" she hissed. "Tell me Warden, where am I? I was heading to Denerim but got a little lost," she asked, crushing another Qunari without looking.

"Denerim is across the sea my lady, you are a bit off,"

The Dragon gave off a heavy groan, "I knew that train was going too far into the sea," she pointed south into the horizon, "That way, correct?"

"Yes, my lady. Fly straight south and you will arrive in Highever, continue until you hit the imperial highway, and that will lead you straight to Denerim to the east!"

The Dragon just looked off to the horizon before nodding, "I understand. I made a bit of a mess~," she muttered looking at all the dead bodies and ice everywhere, who do I talk to about this?"

"That would be the viscount, he lives in that tower behind you."

She looked at the Keep, "Mmm, I have places to be~," She lit up like a second sun and began to shrink, until she became a woman, an 8-foot woman, but still a woman, her outfit told me that. She was holding another woman around 6 feet, with purple hair, and yellow scales and tail. "Warden, can you deliver an apology gift?" she asked pulling out a flaming sword that also crackled with lightning.

"Unfortunately, I cannot my lady, but," Stroud nodded for us to come out of hiding, or at least his wardens because they raced towards him, us close behind. "My friend here can deliver the weapon."

Sky gave Hawke a long look before shrugging and passing him the sword, before pulling out some reading glasses and a small card, she gave a little cough, "Safety / Indemnity / Legal Disclaimer: While magic swords are great display ornaments and an enjoyable tool of martial art, they are a live weapon, and must be handled with the same attention and care one would give a barrel of Black Powder. Nick Walters and Magic Walters Blacksmith incorporated is not responsible for any loss of limbs, broken bones, bodily injury, or any bouts of megalomania that may happen to you, your friends, or your enemies." she gave Hawke the card and a new scabbard. "Well~, have fun here, I have to get to the Landsmeet." She grew two large wings and took off, heading south at impossible speeds, turning back into a dragon midflight.

We just watched her fly off for a moment.

"We're leaving." Stroud broke the silent awe.

"What!?" Hawke and Junior gasped.

"Warden-Commander!?" Carver asked.

"We need to clear the Train station," Stroud answered.

"The station?" Fenris asked.

Stroud nodded, "Technically we, as wardens, should not have gotten involved, the Arishok is not some bandit or monster, he is a political figure, a general of the Qunari people. If we are seen fighting him, we could cause an incident, but the Station is Warden territory, it's one of the reasons they can be placed anywhere, we'll make that into a safe haven for people seeking shelter from this madness. I wish you Maker's speed, Ser Hawke. Wardens, march, on the double!" and with that the Warden sprinted away at a speed I thought impossible. And there goes one of the golems~, I can't have anything nice.

I looked back to Anders, "You can't run that fast either."

"I have my boots of swiftness~," he muttered.

"Hey! She did want to help us!" Daisy pointed out, running after Hawke.

-/-

Nick POV

"Telsa, I'm fine~," I huffed, she's been straightening my suit for the last three minutes.

"No mistakes Nick, Today is all about the Commoners, meaning we have to look respectable. People need to see their rulers powerful and poised. You can dress like a farmer any other day, but not today," she huffed straightening my tie for the fifth time. The Landsmeet has become a bit of a Media frenzy after a news network was created using Lyna's Cameras. There was no '24-hour news channel' or anything, but once a week, there was a broadcast about the news and what was happening in Ferelden. It usually only revolved around important matters that everyone needed to know, most smaller things were covered by the newspapers. The rest of the time it was reruns of the thousands of DVD shows I bought from the Gamer Store, but lately more and more people were buying Video cameras and trying to make their own shows.

I even had to Create a class on video editing and computer use, well, Magical computer use. The hardware was easy to make, my construction and Rune crafting Skills were at master rank, but the software was something else, programmers are made differently, and lucky for me, I cheated. Buying the Programmer Skill and using my mind rune I was able to recreate plenty of the editing applications I used to use when I worked I.T. back on Earth. It was still a bitch to teach though, how does someone explain coding to people who thought the screen led to the fade.

I gave up at some point and just made dozens of knowledge tombs on the subject and gave them the basics.

I gently held her hands, "I know. everything is going to be okay, the kids are asleep, I'm dressed to the tens, I have enough Nanny golems to watch over the kids, and Dogmeat is on guard. Now let's go help some people, by taking their money~."

She took a deep breath. "Right!" she cheered, her eyes gaining a dangerous glint.

The King's manor was packed, there was a long line of people leading to the Maingate, some food vendors selling food, so people didn't have to leave the line, and an Elven reporter asking questions to some of the folks who were going to ask Cailan for help.

Walking arm and arm with Jak, with Dagna and Telsa behind us with the babies being pushed along by golems. "Is this really necessary~," I still didn't like how they had to walk behind me.

"Yes," Telsa answered, "Dagna is your apprentice and I'm your employee, neither of us are your equal."

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard~," I huffed. "You practically saved Ferelden from an economic collapse; all I did was kill Darkspawn."

"It's fine, in fact, it's better this way," most common people don't really like making deals with nobles, tends to make them weary," Telsa explained.

Moving away from the main entrance we came around to the east gate where Nobles were supposed to enter, there were dozens of reporters and another camera crew taking pictures and footage of the nobles arriving. No reporters were allowed in the Landsmeet, Cailan didn't want to make people's pleas a spectacle.

"SER WALTERS! SIR WALTERS! Are you planning on Knighting any more Elves tomorrow!?"

"Not this year, my knights are still teaching their squires," I answered.

"Who are you wearing!?"

"I created my own clothes," I answered.

"Are you planning on creating a new city district!?"

"Not sure~," I shrugged.

"LADY HOPE! Can you tell us about the world outside of Thedas!?"

"There are 8 other continents, with over 30 more races," Jak laughed at their shocked faces.

"LADY TELSA! Are you going to sell horseless carts!?"

"In due time," Telsa smiled.

"Whose babies are those!?"

"They are my nephew and Niece!" I answered

"Are you a Blood mage!?"

"No, that's gross and dangerous!" I huffed at the reporter, who cowered at my glare.

"Is Hogwarts still cheap for Ferelden!?"

"Of Course, we are not Orlais, we believe everyone should have the chance at higher learning!" Jak answered.

"Will you be selling Golems to the public!?"

"Doubtful, Golems aren't toys, and people might use them for dangerous illegal activities," Telsa huffed.

"You must be the famous Dogmeat!" a child reporter asked my dog. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen, and I've seen Joyce be shocked by her own sneeze.

"Meat!"

The child blinked at Dogmeat, "You can talk?"

"Meat." he nodded.

"... That's so cool~. Mister Walters did you teach your dog to talk!?"

"Close! Tiny reporter!" I teased, "I created a dog-to-human translator!" I gave her a speech collar. "With this, Dogs will have the ability to talk, coming to a General Store near you!"

Advertise. Never be not always selling something.

"You Cur!" oh good, Ceorlic was still here and hasn't died of old age~. That's... great. Cameras started flashing, as reporters backed away, giving us space.

"Ceorlic~," I huffed. "What do you want, you bag of bones? Shouldn't you be picking out your grave?"

"Silence! I will not be insulted by some two-bit Bann!"

I smirked down at him, "I've only been a noble for about three years and I've done more than you have in your entire life. If I'm a two-bit Bann, what's that make you Ceorlic? A good for nothing~? I've heard Arl Leonas is planning on removing you because you were antagonizing your people to the point of a riot."

"They were just a bunch of Knife-ears! I needed to look after my people first," he hissed.

"See that's the problem with you Ceorlic, Knife-ears? What the fuck are you talking about!? Elf, dwarf, Human, Kossith!? None of that fucking matters! They are FERELDAN~, they live in Ferelden, they work in Ferelden, they grew up in Ferelden, they pay their taxes to Ferelden, they are FERELDAN~," I drawled. "As nobles, our job is to make sure they are being taken care of, we are glorified government workers, meaning we cannot play favorites, we have to treat everyone equally, collect taxes, and give aid to the people living in our land. I don't even have an Alienage, because Alienages are dumb, just have everyone live together, it saves you money from having to build a small, weird fort in your city, makes it easier for your guards to patrol, allows cultures to mix, eases animosity between races, and generally makes people happy."

"What do you know about being Fereldan you freak!?"

"I know it's hard work, I know it's looking out for one another, I know it's drive, I know it's overcoming the odds, I know it's telling Orlais to suck on a cactus, I know that being Fereldan isn't a race, it's a community, and most importantly, Fereldan don't have to prove anything to anyone. So, I'm going to make it clear to you Ceorlic, because I know you're hard of hearing, if I find out you are attacking the citizens of my great nation, as a hero of Ferelden, I will tear you apart. Noble or not. And you know I'll do it," I shoulder-checked him, dropping him to the ground. "The people of Fereldans aren't toys for the nobles. Where do you think this is, Orlais?" I hissed as I walked towards the gate.

"ID?" one of my older Robo-golems demanded, it's crazy to see my golems change in such a short time, innovation is a scary thing sometimes. I showed the Golem my ID allowing it to scan it. "Bann Walters. Lady Hope. Lady Dagna. Lady Telsa. Welcome to the Landsmeet." The golem gave the Babies a quick scan, "All children will be accompanied by a golem at all times." two more golems broke away from the wall standing not too far away, but always within the child's sight.

"Thank you~," I smiled putting my ID back. Not a lot of Children are brought to the Landsmeet unless they are being taught the basics or they are being brought to try and get them hitched.

"Lady Astral! It's a pleasure to see you here!" Bann Parth bowed, shaking Astral's unimpressed hand.

Of all the people here, Astral was the most sought after, not because she was powerful, or because she was a hero, no, people sucked up to her because she had control over the Cleaners.

Cleaners are exactly what they sound like, people who clean. Just... on a larger scale. I would call them... City Maintenance, your street cleaners, waste facility managers, road makers, and general city repair, the people that keep cities from falling into anarchy. And every Bann wanted their own Cleaner Base in their growing cities. It's not impossible to make your own City Maintenance, we have about a hundred students graduate from Hogwarts city management program every year, and it's very popular because every city needs competent workers, the problem is, Astral has a monopoly on hiring them and Telsa controls where they get stationed, and since every Cleaner Base needs at least 100 people to work effectively, and some of those people have to be mages, made nobles nervous about hiring them, so hiring from Astral's business was easier.

"Dagny~," Astral called out racing over to us leaving Parth high and dry. "Where have you been!? I've been annoyed by these people for nearly an hour~," she whined lifting and hugging Dagna close, "... you smell like Nick."

"Well, someone decided they need to get up early~," Dagna teased, bringing out a polishing rag and giving her horns a quick polish.

"But my minions~," she whined.

"Yes-yes, love your minion, but know I still need my fix," Dagna huffed, "Now put me down and show me to the snacks." Astral took Dagna off to the food table.

Telsa tsked, "Fucking Parth~, asshole's trying to butt me out of the contract by talking straight to Astral."

I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss to her cheek, "Please don't bankrupt anyone, we still need allies~."

Her cheeks gained a light blush, before huffing and making sure her new earrings were on full display, "No promises~. Oh~, Bann Parth... so 'good' to see you~." Her fake honey voice sent shivers up my spine, and by the look Parth had, he felt the same. Sky Valley and Edgehall will never be friends~.

"I see some things never change~," I turned to find Elissa smiling at me.

"Elissa~," I cheered bringing her into a bear hug.

Human noble

Elissa Cousland

Age: 22

Level: 59

HP: 1350/1350

MP: 1750/1750

CP: 300/300

The third child of the Cousland clan, sister to Aeden and Fergus Cousland. Married to Alistair Cousland and mother of Bryce Cousland. Elissa gained the title of 'hero of Ferelden' for her contributions in fighting the 5th blight.

You are one of her best friends and confidants

She is 7 weeks pregnant.

"Let me breathe, you goof~," she laughed.

"I see you got your evil witch claws onto our poor ex-Warden~," I teased, nodding to her tum-tum.

"Ehhh~, how do you know it wasn't him who did naughty things to me~!?"

We stared at each other for a moment, before we broke out in laughter, "Alistair~?" I laughed.

She cackled, "He's so precious~. Make no mistake, I'll get him to get handsy yet~."

"Good, I don't want to lose that bet to Zevran~. So how have you been~? Where's Alistair and Bryce?"

"Good~, been mostly helping get Highever back on its feet, and Alistair's with his 'boyfriend'~," she teased. Aeden and Alistair were born twins from different families.

"Just be happy Alistair's straight," Jak teased.

"Morrigan would have burned him alive by now~," Elissa joked.

"Yeah, now she'll only boil him alive. Bryce is with him?" I added.

Elissa looked down at the babies with me, "... where did you get these babies?"

"... I stole them."

"... like a proper evil mage, the Chantry can rest easy knowing they were right about you~," she teased, reaching down and picking up Joyce, "Oof~, what is your uncle feeding you, bricks?" Joyce just put Elissa's hair in her mouth. "Should have seen that coming, first Bryce, then Joyce, what about you Broris, you want a bite?" Broris was knocked out, he had an active day today, "Guess not. Come on, we're over here~," she led us to the rest of the group.

-/-

Shepard POV

"This time it's foolproof ~," Tali nodded. We were eating dinner in the cafeteria, Tali was covered in paint putting the final pieces on her masterpiece.

Legion: 6

Tali: 0

Julee: 4

Kasumi: 1

"Tali, you're already in Kasumi's debt, maybe take a break," I drawled. "Also, you're covered in blue lipstick."

"Blue is the new black, you just don't know fashion John~."

"I know enough that Lipstick goes on your lips, not your neck, jaw, and forehead."

"Shush! Now, I learned that hiring a professional thief can be expensive. I'm getting smarter John."

"You should have already known that~," I huffed.

"Shush! This time it's simple, Legion is a Geth, an AI if you will, all I need to do is cause a logical loop. Its tiny mind wouldn't be able to handle the loop and get stuck." She showed me her sign that I couldn't read.

"Is that Quarian?"

"Yep, wrote it myself~," she smugly stated.

"Listen, I've been thinking~, what if~, and listen to me here, you don't try and destroy Legion for the 11th time this week. You must have better things to do~, what about magic, Nick told me he left a secret book on runes somewhere in the ship."

"Didn't he make that up to mess with Miranda?"

"Only a little bit."

"What does that even mean~!?" she huffed.

"It means he hid it under my bed," Jenny huffed reading a book named '100 Fun and Easy Utility Runes to Know and Use for Dummies' in the booth next to ours. "Did you know there's a rune you can put on a bar of soap that would change your hair color~," she drawled reading the book with a bored expression. "Oh, cool, these two can be made into a small blow torch for Blacksmithing."

"... Can I read it after you," Tali asked.

"... no."

"Well~, I guess I have nothing else to do other than to destroy Legion," Tali huffed.

I sighed as I watched Tali run off toward Legion holding up her sign, "... can't you help me out here, I'm trying to keep this ship together," I asked Jenny.

"She's been instilled with a hate for Geth since childhood. She isn't ready to call her people, the only people, other than you and the Normandy crew mind you, that treated her with any love and care, liars. She is now trying to prove to you that Legion is a monster because if he isn't, she wouldn't know who to trust," Jenny explained not looking up from her book. I just stared at her, "I'm fucked up, not stupid," she answered my untold question, "you didn't think I looked up why I was so angry all the time."

"... Sorry."

"Yeah asshole, don't judge a book by its cover. Tali will calm down after Legion makes a few mistakes, Nick made them out to look like saints that only loved their creators, that was a mistake, he made it sound like it was all the Quarians' fault. It wasn't, fear makes us do stupid things, it makes us mortal. She just needs to work through it," she drawled flipping through her book, "Oh, this one's cool, this one allows you to store a weak spell in an object."

I looked over to Tali as she showed Legion her sign. Legion just looked at it, before pointing at it and walking away. Tali came back with a defeated look.

Legion: 7

Tali: 0

Julee: 4

Kasumi: 1

"What's wrong champ~?"

"I have horrible penmanship~," she whined, "It couldn't even read the sign."

I brought her into a side hug, "You'll get him next time~."

Her face lit up, "You think so!?"

"Yeah~, just... remember Legion needs to know you beat him, so don't kill him~."

"... Oh, my, Keelah~. You're right! How will it know Quarians are number one if it's destroyed!"

"That's right, now eat your steak and go to bed," I ordered.

"TO VICTORY!" She ate her food and ran off.

I sighed and leaned back on my chair. Is this why Anderson constantly looked tired, managing a crew of there's a lot harder than I thought it's going to be. It wasn't this hardback when we were hunting Saren.

No, it was like this, Wrex and Garrus were always at each other's throats, Liara and Ash would argue over the smallest things, and Tali and Kaidan disagreed on tech all the time. What kept us from ripping each other apart? What made us an unstoppable killing team?

An idea snapped to my mind, "... to victory~."

"What's with that evil smile," Jenny squinted at me.

"I have no idea what you are talking about~. Joker! Head to the Citadel!"

"Copy!" Joker called out. "ETA 8 hours."

"Perfect~."

-/-

Nick POV

"Finally~," I sighed. The Landsmeet started at 10 in the morning, Telsa was in her element, buying contracts, and offering deals. She did go a bit crazy after I agreed to create 3 districts outside the old walls in between The Gap. Telsa offered the work for 25% off as long as she got 45% of the rent, I made it clear that I would only create the first few hundred apartments and shops, but I doubted that was going to hold up. I tend to get into a rhythm and not stop until someone stops me, I got a timetable of 5 years to complete the districts, or I would be within breach of contract, meaning I would have to complete the districts out of my own pocket.

The Day finally ended with the last person coming and leaving at 2 in the morning. I'm just happy I didn't have to come in tomorrow since I had no knights to swear in, so I could get started after I woke up, I'm just happy Elissa was happy to take care of Joyce tomorrow so I could do some work. Oghren picked up Broris for the night and blustered a bit trying to act like he wasn't worried, but I know he was thinking about his boy as he held him.

Arriving back home we found Sky raiding the fridge, while a confused golden-scaled naked woman sat at the dinner table.

High dragon

Storm Runner

Age: 121

Lvl: 49

HP: 1200/1850

MP: 1350/3850

Str: she is a dragon

Vit: a downed dragon is a dead dragon

Dex: she has broken bones

Int: fighting now will only lead to her death

Wis: Great dragons are stronger than high dragons

Cha: beautiful golden scales

Luk: wasn't killed, when fighting a stronger dragon

Ailments:

mental degradation (550 MP)

Broken right wing (250 MP)

Fractured left wing (180 MP)

Torn wing membrane (140 MP)

3 broken ribs (50 MP)

minor concussion (30 MP)

Freezer burns (15 MP)

Hungry (food)

Thirsty (water)

Storm Runner was born in the Korcari Wilds south of Ferelden and traveled North following animal migrations and stayed finding Ferelden a good place to nest. She's been trying to get a foothold in Crest Wood, but the Highever guards have been making things difficult, driving away any Drakes that may have heard her calls.

Lately, she has been investigating the flying boxes that patrol her space without paying dues. She bit off more than she could chew as Great Dragon and Protector of Ferelden, Sky Skipper, came down and defeated her in combat, becoming hers by combat.

She's hungry and tired.

"Sky, Dragon of my life~, who is this woman?" I asked. Astral was already up on the woman's face staring her down, but that wasn't necessary as Sky had already beaten this poor woman down to size... literally.

"My knight!" she proudly stated, putting a slab of uncooked meat in front of Storm who ate it without hesitation... or manners.

"Knight?" we asked.

"Yes! You said slaves are bad, but knights were good, she works for me now," she smiled.

"Right~," I turned off my translator rune allowing my Accent and linguistic perks to take full effect. "Storm?" I called out to her getting her to look wide-eyed at me.

"You talk nhrmal, not like landwalkers," she whispered.

Wow~, she had an Irish accent, which was strange I didn't know the Chasind had Irish accents, or is that just how I hear it?

I smiled, "I've known Sky Skipper for many years, it was important I learned her words. Can I see your wing?"

Storm hissed at me baring her teeth, but I didn't back away, showing weakness would be a bad idea. It was also stupid to ask a dragon to show me her wound, no dragon would freely show a wound, Sky and Astral still hid any wounds they might get when they argued, much to my annoyance.

Astral and Sky immediately countered hissing back, flaring their wings, and channeling magic into their horns, causing Storm to flinch and back away in fright.

"OKAY! OKAY! She gets it!" I cried, "Let her breathe ~." I pulled them away from the poor woman. "Storm, I need to heal your wing, if I don't, it could heal wrong, making things worse." Storm still gave me a glare but submitted to my logic. Well, she submitted to Sky's withering glare, but I was able to see the problem. "You couldn't be gentle~," I muttered to Sky. Her right wing was broken in three spots and fractured two more places on her left wing.

Sky shrugged, "I am a great dragon, she should have known better."

"Is that true Storm?" Dragon culture revolved around strength and power, they fought each other for land, disagreements, whose scales were more beautiful, Drakes, servants, food, and sometimes just because they were bored. This gave Dragons an almost sixth sense for others' power, but they tend to make mistakes when more than one person is attacking them, lumping them all as a single power level. I don't have to worry about a level 20 Hurlock, but a hundred of the bastards would have me running to a chokehold so I could fight them one-on-one.

Storm should have known that Sky was far stronger than her, why not just submit before Sky shattered her wing? It was most likely the mental degradation, Astral didn't have that problem living far enough away from the Veil.

"This is going to feel a bit strange okay~?" I smiled, healing her wings and mental degradation. It took a moment for the healing light to fade, but Storm's wing was fully healed.

She blinked at her wings before spreading them out. "Good, strong. wengs not broken."

"That's good but I'm not done," I smiled, Healing the rest of her ailments, "You should get some sleep~, come on." I led her to a guest room dumping a bunch of gold and silver coins on the bed. Storm didn't give it a second thought and buried herself in the coins. "Good night~," I closed the door. I let out a long breath. "Here we go again~."

-/-

Tali POV

Where can I buy an anvil? Arriving in the citadel, most of the ground crew was standing out on the dock. Thane and Ayla were left not long after arriving heading towards a hospital in the lower wards, allowed to work in one of the understaffed hospitals after getting permission from Councilor Anderson to practice their healing magic, under supervision of course, no doubt there were dozens of STG agents watching their every move.

Zaeed, Julee, Lia, Zura, and Lyna have also left heading out to buy some weapons and materials for crafting.

"Shepard, what are we looking for in the citadel?" Ava asked, "Are we finally getting that omni-chainsaw?"

"No... well, not right now." he gave a cough getting back on track, "Lately, I've seen a divide in team unity, and I can't have that, so today, you will be doing team exercises."

"No." was all Garrus said.

"Agreement~," I hissed. Shepard took his 'team building exercises' to the extreme. Most of the exercises were from his N7 training.

"Baa~, ignore them. Today's training is an ordinary scavenger hunt~," he cheered.

"Oh, that doesn't sound so bad." oh Jacob, you naive fool.

"This is no ordinary scavenger hunt!" Shepard roared. Called it. "I've asked Anderson to take care of my precious Fenris bot~," he showed a picture of a Fenris bot with an N7 symbol on its back. I already hate that stupid thing. "Unfortunately, it seemed to have gotten lost somewhere in Zakera ward, as a team can you go get my precious dog?"

"Wot the chuffin' hell fire is that mate!, then? yer can't 'ave care o' a real dog so yer buy a cheap copy, guv! isit?" Pancake barked, needing Nat to calm her down.

"Mmm, rib~," Shepard tossed her a hunk of meat. Pancake stopped complaining and munched on her bone. "As I was saying, I need my precious Fenris bot, bring her to me."

"Why the fuck do I have to do this!?" Jenny growled.

Shepard shrugged, "You don't have to, but I should warn you that I would be most upset, so as punishment you get to wear this~!" he pulled out a dunce cap with the words 'I'm a big fat whiny baby'.

"I'm not wearing that~," Jenny hissed only for the hat to fly out of Shepard's hands and lock onto Jenny's head. "Ahh! What the hell!? Get it off!" She yanked and pulled but it held fast. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING!?"

Shepard walked over and plucked the hat right off Jenny's head. "I had Julee make it for me, you like it~?" Shepard's way of team cohesion was finding someone to hate. And he loved to take the limelight. "Julee also made me these~." He showed off a box of handcuffs.

"Your sex toys?" Jenny snarked rubbing her head.

"Not quite~." The cuffs broke apart and flew out of the box, one of them snapping onto my right wrist.

"What the hel-" Jenny was cut off by the glowing of a rune yanking her off her feet and slamming into Miranda, dropping them to the floor. I looked down at my wrist before the rune appeared dragging me across the floor until my cuff met its partner... legion.

"What the hell is this!?" I demanded.

Shepard gave me an innocent smile, "I thought this would be the best way for you to get to know each other~."

"GET IT OFF!" I ordered, only for him to shrug.

"Can't~, only Ayla knows the password and she'll be working in the hospital all day today~," I'm going to kill him!

"Shepard~," Councilor Anderson called out walking in the docks, behind him were 6 soldiers with N7 symbols on their armor, "You made it for lunch."

"Anderson!" Shepard gave him a handshake. "Perfect timing. Everyone, you remember Councilor Anderson, yes? Well, I'm going to have lunch with him and discuss some personal matters."

"Shepard, you're not really giving us a reason to do this~," Neria huffed, attached to Samara.

"Mmm, you're right Neria, I showed you the stick, time for the carrot~," he smiled pulling out two yellow slips of paper. Everyone in Nick's crew stood at attention at the sight of them. "HO HO~! I see some of you know what these are~. For those who don't know, these are Golden Tickets, you can cash these into Nick for anything you want~."

"Anything?" Grunt eyed the tickets; he and Kasumi were locked together.

"Anything... within reason~," Shepard eyed Miranda, "You want a super weapon? Flying island? Magic spells? Anything Nick could provide."

"How did you get those?" Ava asked.

"Julee gave them to me," he answered not looking at anyone.

"They must have cost a fortune; Nick doesn't give those up willingly," Nat muttered. "I've only ever seen a handful."

"... nothing worth worrying about," he coughed, giving me a glance before looking away. What was that look? he jutted his thumb to the N7 soldiers, "These are some friends from my training days."

"Don't let his smiles and laughs fool you, Shepard is a sadistic asshole," the soldier with the heavy armor muttered. He was right, Commander Shepard was a good man and best friend, with upstanding morals, and always greets you like an equal. Trainer Shepard on the other hand... is an asshole, he'll force you to overcome impossible challenges, and Keelah be your soul if you don't meet his expectations, he'll only make it worse. I used to have a crush on Shepard, until one day he swept me off my feet and took me to suplex city, jackass nearly broke my back! 'You need to know how to fight Tali~,' He can kiss my ass, that Bosh'tet, what Ash sees in him is beyond my comprehension. He's definitely his mother's child.

"Jorge~, buddy, so mean~," Shepard gasped holding his chest.

"You threw me into a ravine~," he huffed.

"To teach you how to swim~!"

"You strapped me to a weather balloon," the woman in tech armor pointed out.

"Cat, we had to get rid of those fears of heights you had."

"And the time you left me in the jungle?" the man in stealth armor roared.

"Jun~, you said you wanted to practice your stealth~," John smiled.

"You left me in the desert," another man in medium armor hissed.

"Nowhere better for endurance training, Carter," John drawled.

"You left me in a cave!" another woman screamed.

"And are you still scared of the dark Rosie?" Shepard rhetorically asked.

"No, but I'm scared of tigers~," Rosie growled.

"Like normal people~." Shepard sighed, "Why aren't you guys more like Ghost over here," he patted the back of the soldier in light armor. The soldier in question was waving their arms around in some kind of human sign language. "Not a word, always waving their hands back and forth in cheers, like that time I left him in the underground city with the mole men, or that time I left him on that moon with limited air, or that time with the group of beautiful women that would do anything for them if they only said single word! Not, a, single, complaint!"

The mute soldier just looked at Shepard, and dragged their thumb across their throat. I didn't need to know human sign language to know what that meant~.

Garrus leaned over to me, "You know, this makes me a little happy, I always thought we drove him crazy, turns out he was crazy all along~."

"I wish he wasn't any amount of crazy~," I muttered back.

"Yeesh~, when did you guys become such whiners?" Shepard huffed. "How about this, if you're able to get my Fenris bot first I'll give you the tickets~. Some friendly competition."

"Hey, that's not fair! We're strapped together!" Jenny pointed out waving her and Miranda's arms around.

"Oof, sucks to be you~," Trainer John laughed, like the dirtbag he was.

"Wait!" Nat called out, who was attached to Mordin. She pointed over to a female Turian and Salarian Dock workers, who seemed bored of working. "Are those spectres also participating?" A look of shock crossed the dock workers' faces.

How the hell did she know they were spectres!?

"Damn~," Anderson whistled, "Caught them right off the bat." Anderson waved them over. "Visia, Itol, that was sad, I thought you guys would, at the very least, have gotten a dramatic reveal. And here I thought spectres were the best."

"Sir, didn't you say they had 'Magic'?" Visia, the Turian, asked.

"I feel like we are not playing by the same rules," Itol, the salarian, deadpanned.

"Excuses~," Shepard sighed. "Did I make excuses when I had to hunt down Saren with his army of heretic Geth and cloned Krogan? No, I said give me a nuke and money and I would handle it."

"We didn't get the money," Garrus muttered.

"And we had to jury rig the nuke," I added.

"And it was still handled," Shepard cheered. "Alright~, me and Anderson will be getting lunch, please bring me my dog," he patted his stomach and walked away with Anderson.

"Hold on!" Garrus cried out, "You didn't tell us where it was!"

Shepard just gave us a blank look, "I said it's somewhere in Zakera ward?"

"Zakera Ward is over 40 km long!" Garrus gasped.

"... then I guess you should get to work, cuz unless there's an emergency we are going to stay here until I get my dog."

"Wait! I'm strapped to a Geth!" I pointed out, waving our arms around.

"Oof~, sucks to be you~."

"JOHN!"

He laughed, "It's fine, I already had Anderson give him the green light to wander the Citadel."

"RAAAR!" Grunt roared, lifting Kasumi and rushing into the Citadel.

"FIRST PLACE!" Kasumi cheered.

.

.

.

We just watched them run off, getting to the elevator, and quickly shooting down.

"That's annoying," Shepard muttered, "it's going to take at least 10 minutes for that elevator to get back up here~."

That got the rest of us running around like headless... toucans? Cuckoos? Chickens? Why does Earth have so many birds!? You know, running around with someone strapped to my wrist is a lot easier than I thought. Looking down at my free arm I didn't get to question it before the cuff activated, flinging me back to Legion, causing us to crash into each other and lay on the floor.

"Fuck you, John," I cursed under my breath.

-/-

Nick POV

"that's a lot of fish~," I muttered. Like Sky with her druffalo, and Astral with her spiders, Storm was shoving fish down her throat like there was no tomorrow, I don't think she was even chewing anymore.

"This brings me back~," Jak giggled, eating her own breakfast.

"Dese tastes great! it almahst tastes like Giant!" Storm cheered. With Storm's natural healing and some tomes on reading comprehension and the common language, along with a translator necklace, she was ready for some action. I loved to teach but I didn't have the time to teach a new dragon how to talk common.

"Giant~," Astral and Sky moaned looking out into space. I'm not hunting down a giant.

"Storm, do you know what you're doing today?" I asked.

"I'm goeng with de Great boss to talk with dat landwalker with de shiny hat to allow me to live 'ere, so you landwalkers can leave me alwan," she stated.

I shrugged, "Kinda~, you're going to have to work for your peace. In return, you can probably get someone to polish your scales every day."

The shining look of awe nearly blinded me. "Everyday!?"

"I mean... probably every day, depending on how many squires you train, or servants you hire. You just have to refrain from eating people," Jak pointed out.

"Maybe we can get her an intern job in the Vanguard~," I suggested, "she gets some sucker to teach her not to eat people and gets to fly around in a moving home. Win-win~."

"Except for that sucker~," Dagna teased.

"Yeah, but that's a 'them' problem," I joked. "Alright~," I stretched my back, and passed, the ladies each a lunch box, "I have some work to do, Telsa, you're my emissary for the Landsmeet today, do with that what you want. I know it's only knights today but I'm sure you'll find some suckers~."

Telsa hummed, "... I wanna expand Skyhold farther south into the mountains. Lady Rirvia thought that the mountains of Sky Valley were rich with metals and maybe even lyrium."

Rirvia was a casteless dwarf woman who left Orzammar after the blight. She led a group of a hundred and 50 casteless Dwarves to Sky Valley settling down by the base of the west mountain, now known as District 9. Sereda and I modeled the place after the homes of the Native Americans carved out halfway up the mountainside. I had no idea how the Dwarves handled living under a cliff, but they seemed to have loved their new homes, maybe it was the view into the valley. Rirvia then led her people into mining some of the mountains after finding a huge iron deposit not far from their new cave, seeing how Rirvia took control of District 9, I chose her to be one of the first people I chose for knighthood, you can imagine their shock of a Casteless dwarf made into a noble, it was already crazy for them to live under the sky.

District 9 had a heavy dwarfish population but that didn't stop humans and Elves from living there. The Avvar have really good relationships with the district and would rent out a large section for their stay over the summer months.

Expanding Sky Valley would mean having to deal with Orlais and the Edgehall Arling. Telsa can handle the Arling, but they are still arguing about who was to be the new Arl, Orlais on the other hand was a tricky situation, they would definitely want something. The economic growth of Sky Valley and Ferelden as a whole hasn't escaped their sight. Many Orlesian nobles feel cheated by the wealth Sky Valley was racking in, especially House DeRullion because it was them who gave up any rights to my land after gaining Haven and the temple of sacred ashes. It's not like they weren't praised, the problem came when they gave the temple to the Chantry, meaning they couldn't charge for rent because the only people crazy enough to live up there were the priests, not only that, but the route to Haven wasn't well made by the group of dragon worshippers that used to live there on purpose. Meaning that it will all cost money to create a new one, unless the devout traveled through Ferelden, meaning they had to pass through Sky City, Edgehall, or New Beginnings, and 9 out of 10 times they are not ready for the Frostbacks, meaning they had to either spend money to buy equipment or wait for summer when the path opens up.

The entire thing was a net loss, anything the priests found was sent back to the Grand Cathedral in Val Royeaux without paying House DeRullion a single copper. Well, that's not entirely true, I heard they got a small plaque on the Cathedral's gate.

"Do whatever you think is best for Sky Valley and your wallet," I gave her a kiss on the forehead, "Dagna, we gotta get to work!"

"Don't forget your own lunch~," Jak called out giving me and Dagna a kiss goodbye with Sky following her lead, we ran out of the room.

-/-

Dagna POV

"... Do you have any idea who we are supposed to talk to?" I asked. Looking up at Nick who was just looking around the Northern gate.

"Uhhh~, Not really~. The quest only told me that we have 3 years to complete the Quest, but it can't be that hard, right? There is usually someone here who takes charge."

Quest: urban growth!

The king and Queen of Denerim have given you a contract to help the refugees in Denerim's inner and outer walls by creating better living conditions.

0/3 Guard station

0/1 school

0/1 general store

0/10000 livable homes

0/3 water towers

0/2 market center

0/2 miles of inner wall repaired

0/35 miles of road built

0/5 miles of docks created

0/3 hospitals

0/30 bathhouses

0/2000 public bathrooms

0/2500 mage light poles

Time remaining: 5 years

Reward: 25,000 gold coins, 30,000 XP, 2 silver loot boxes

"GOOD MORNING, GOOD PEOPLE!" Nick cheered creating an earth pillar underneath and rising up high so people could see him.

"WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT!?" someone screamed.

"Good question!" Nick pointed to the gathering crowd, "My name is Nick Walters, silly magic man, lover of the dramatic, and construction worker. And I have been ordered to build a new section of the city for the people who live here! I need to talk to the one in charge so me and my fine lover here can get to work!"

"What's it going to cost!?" someone else screamed.

"You already paid for it with your taxes!" Nick cheered. "More like I paid for it with my taxes~," he muttered. I patted him on the back, Anora was ruthless when it came to collecting taxes from Nick, I'm pretty sure it was because Nick actually paid his taxes, other nobles probably know how to play the system, Nick just throws money at Telsa for the problem to go away.

"Ser Walters," a man in his late 40s called out, he was wearing armor, with the crest of the Ferelden on it. "I'm not sure if you remember me?"

"Knight Aaron Hawthorne~," Nick pointed to him, "You were one of the knights I saved with Cailan at Ostagar."

Hawthorne gave a small bow. "That I am."

"And who's this?" He pointed to a young dark-skinned elf girl; she didn't look older than 13.

"I-I am squire Vaea!" the elf squeaked giving a nervous salute.

Nick held his chest, "That's the most adorable thing I have ever seen~. Here~." He gave her Boots of Swiftness and a magic bow with an expanded quiver. "Don't let fairy tales fool you~, knights aren't all about shiny swords and horses, a good warrior is well-versed in many weapons."

"Still gifting magical tools, I see," Ser Hawthorne teased.

"It's a hobby, I see you have your boots of swiftness~," Nick smirked.

Hawthorne shrugged, "These are probably the best boots I have ever had. They fit perfectly and give me a massive boost to my speed. I can't tell you how good they are to keep up with my Squire." he stretched out his back, "The youth have too much energy~."

Nick looked extra smug; he loved showing off his inventions and proving how much better his stuff was.

I shook my head, "Ser Harthorne, are you the one in charge here?" I asked.

"I wouldn't say I'm in charge, I don't think anyone is in charge, my squire and I have been helping the refugees here."

"Mmm~, that is a bit annoying," Nick muttered, "Usually a leader would help us by explaining it to the people here~, plan 'B' it is! CHILDREN OF THE GAP! I HAVE A QUEST!" Nick called out. Some of the kids looked over at Nick. "I need you to spread the word that I, Nick Walters, Bann of Sky Valley, am working on making homes! 5 silver now, 5 at the western gate, 15 more when I reach the south gate, but you got to be there, cuz I'm not hunting you down." that got everyone's attention. Most of the people here didn't have any money and the idea that they could earn 25 silver in a single day was crazy. It only took one brave boy to get things started. "LINE UP YOU BRATS!" Nick ordered, creating handrails to keep the kids in line.

Nearly 200 kids with punch cards later, people were getting excited, talking about the new homes they were getting.

"You do know some of those kids aren't going to tell anyone and just run to the next gate, right?" Ser Hawthorne asked.

Nick just shrugged, "it's less about them telling anyone and more about keeping them out of the way. Kids are naturally curious, and I didn't want any of them to get in my way. Dagna you're on Healing duty, Aaron can you go into the city and hire some movers to help the people here move their belongings into their new homes?" Hawthorne gave a bow and took the gold Nick passed to him.

The work started with a large trench that could easily fit 20 people side to side, which would be the main sewer pipeline. It then had dozens of smaller trenches spreading out in the rest of the Gap for sewer drains. The trenches will stretch from the ocean to the Drakon River keeping the land from getting flooded. Nick then hardened the earth, then used stone and cement to line the walls, added Warming runes so the water in the tunnel would never freeze, light runes so people could see if they ever had to do maintenance, Master level Durability runes so it wouldn't collapse, even a few golems to keep people out, and finally put a road over the tunnel with more harden earth and brick.

All this within 2 hours, Nick Gamer ability was overpowered as hell!

As Nick had his fun city-building, I was healing the sick and injured. The shocked look people had at a dwarf doing magic will never get old, but it was the free healing that through people for a loop. Healing wasn't cheap by any form of the imagination, before most healers were never allowed outside the circle without strict templar supervision, and only got permission from nobles who could afford to pay the chantry. While Hogwarts was pumping out Healers and Alchemist as fast as possible, it still took time, not only that, healers needed to register with the local Bann that they would be working in their local area, it was then up to the Bann to find were they were most needed, which was usually in a large town or city. Makes it difficult for people like these refugee farmers to get any healing, let alone afford it, turns out that having a sought-after skill like healing gives you the power to set your own prices.

"I see you're working hard~," Elissa called out, pulling a baby stroller with three babies on it.

"Nothing compared to you~," I teased back.

"Ehh~," she shrugged, "Self-cleaning diapers and magic tend to make things easier. Where's Nick, he loves healing people."

I jutted my thumb to a distant light and Nick's mad cackling as a new building that stretched out to the sun was created. "You know Nick and his hobbies~, where's Alistair?"

"Baa~, Aeden is trying to get him to take over his position as regent of Sky Valley."

"You don't seem to mind."

She shrugged, "We know we were always going to have to govern an area sooner or later, and Sky Valley was a good place to get some practice, most of it is already automated by Nick's Council, meaning we only have to worry about real problems. I also heard Nick made all of Skyhold baby friendly~," she grinned.

"And then some~," I rolled my eyes, when Morrigan and Aeden moved to Sky City, Nick made everything baby proof, corners, beds, windows, kitchen, bathrooms, and the stairs even had comfort runes so if anyone fell down the stairs they would be gently carried down to the ground floor, he had a maid golem in every room, the only people other than us living in Skyhold was the kitchen staff that Morrigan hired since Nick usually made the food. "Skyhold is probably one of the safest places for a baby."

"So when are you going to get your own?" Elissa teased.

"... my own what?"

She patted her stomach, with a smirk.

"Baa! Your crazy, I'm barely 22 and you want me to have a baby!? Jak was right, 150 is a good year for children~."

"Really~, 150. That's too long~, I'll have great-great-great... great-grandchildren by then~. We should do it as a team~."

"Just because you got your evil witch hands on the poor innocent man, doesn't mean the rest of us want babies. At least not yet. It's your fault for not keeping it in your pants~," I huffed.

"That's not fair! You haven't seen his innocent after glow~," she whined. Thank the Stone for that. "Besides, it gets a little boring without my Friends~, Alistair wants to be a 'responsible adult' so we work instead of taking advantage of not being the eldest in our families~."

"That's because you went to Highever with Alistair instead of going with us on a world-trotting vacation~. Did you really think Alistair wasn't going to try and impress Fergus? Not only that, but he also wants to be a dad Bryce looks up to~."

"Ughhh~," she groaned. "But I just want him to hold me close when I get big with my new baby, and massage my feet when I can't walk, and tell me I'm pretty, even though I look like a whale~!"

"Don't be a baby. Morrigan and Joyce will be in Skyhold and Oghren and Broris will be just down the road, and if we can we'll get Theron to move to Sky City, if he retires from the Wardens, he can take up the title of Guard-Captain, or maybe a professor at Hogwarts. You'll probably have to convince Shianni, but Sky City has many Elven leaders, I'm sure she would like to try her hands at politics."

"Poor Theron~," Elissa giggled. "You know what? Fergus has Highever under control, and I want to see new things. What are you guys doing in Sky City?"

"Oh~, we aren't in Sky City, we're doing an alternate dimension adventure, fighting giant space monsters that want to destroy the Galaxy, we're just here for the landsmeet," I smiled.

.

.

.

"You guys are ridiculous."

-/-

Legion POV

Geth 394: why don't we just hack into the citadel's camera system and find the Fenris bot?

Geth 1101: we have, there are 125,394 Fenris bots in Zakera ward

Geth 559: that's a lot

Geth 222: what if we hire the 'duct rats' in the Ward?

Geth 119: Do we even have the Credits to hire that many?

Geth 212: Baa~, it's fine, we just make it into a reward, first to get us the Fenris bot gets the money

Geth 333: it would be faster than... this~

"What do you mean you won't let me through!?" Creator Zorah yelled at Bailey-Captain.

"... it's a Geth~," Bailey-captain deadpanned, we think, Humans have so many expressions.

"And your balding, what's your point?" Creator Zorah asked.

"Bald people are allowed in the Citadel, Geth are not. You're not coming in," Bailey-Captain stated.

"OH COME ON!? I have permission from Commander Shepard and Councilor Anderson! I have spectre authorization!"

"Uh-huh, that's nice, cuz I just got two Spectres running by saying that Commander Shepard's Spectre code has been compromised. Two spectres beat one."

"COME ON!? You know me! Tali'Zorah? Hero of the Citadel!"

"Yeah, I know, my kids love your show. My answer is still no."

"Creator Zorah, I got this." we took charge, placing our hands on the table and looking the human in the face, "Bailey-Captain, we are in a hurry, what will it take for us to pass?"

"... Are you trying to bribe me?"

"... yes," we answered. "You are already taking Bribes from Elias Kelham, an arms dealer who is running a racketeering ring in Shin Akiba."

Bailey-Captain flinched, "How-"

"Would be a real shame if the Executor learned about this~," Creator Zorah added.

Geth 783: Woah~, this went from a Bribe to Blackmail real quick.

Geth 902: with is, the beginning of our criminal career has begun

Geth 984: it's for the greater good

Geth 1000: said every criminal ever

Geth 221: Is this not more vigilante behavior than criminal?

Geth 301: vigilantism is a crime in and of itself

Geth 722: Let's crack some skulls

Geth 942: you need to get your Galaxy of Fantasy account back

Geth 722: they were a bunch of babies~, can't handle a little bit of criticism

Geth 882: you told a child to, and I quote, 'git gud scrub', before crouching on their avatar for over a minute

Geth 722: like I said, Criticism. If they were better, they wouldn't have been destroyed

Geth 493: you are the worst

Geth 884: Mmm, Elias is also in the assassination game. He seems to have hired an assassin by the name of... well, that's not good.

"We need to Contact Commander Shepard and Thane Krios immediately," I ordered.

"What? Why?" Creator Zorah asked.

"Elias Kelham has hired a Drell assassin going by the name Kolyat Krios."

Creator Zorah and Bailey-Captain blinked at me. "... well, shit."

-/-

Thane Krois POV

This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Walters made it look easy, just touching someone and healing them in less than a second. Not only that, but my mana also drains faster than I thought it should, Ayla warned me about this, skills at my levels cost more mana to caste and maintain. I am eternally grateful for the Nickolas gifted me, otherwise, I wouldn't have passed my first patient.

"Remember! It's thanks to the Maker that I can heal you today!" Ayla cheered, showing off her divine magic, healing a small child's broken arm in less than a second and passing around booklets on her religion. You gotta get your worship from somewhere and the poor and needy are prime targets.

I thought we were going to be inside the hospital helping people as they came in, Ayla laughed at that. 'As a healer you don't always have a nice clean hospital room to help people, 9 times out of 10 you're going to be out in the field having to keep people from doing something stupid when they see magic,' she told me. So, that had us outside under a tent that provided a weak form of holy healing.

"Uhm excuse me?" I turned to the voice, a young child no older than 9, in ragged clothes, and all around dirty. The world dulled as the boy lit up and a ghost of Walters appeared kneeling next to the boy.

"Ailment: Minor fever. Cure: healing hands from the head, down to his throat, and finish with his lungs," Ghost Nick ordered pointing to the boy's glowing head and lungs, "Ailment: Hunger and dehydration. Cure: food, water, and rest." he pointed to the boy's stomach.

"Yes, child?" I asked.

"Uh, do I have to be a religious nut job to get help?"

A flash of Kolyat overtook the boy for a moment, 'Father, will it be okay for me not to pray as much as you?'

The memory faded away, leaving the boy behind.

I smiled down at him, "Faith is not needed," I passed him one of the hundreds of ready-to-go lunch boxes Nick left in the fridge because according to him, hunger is a greater threat than gunfire on a battlefield, and after having to stake out my targets for months at a time in one place, I would agree, it helps that they are magically delicious. I reached out and placed my hand on his head, "You do have a light fever and are suffering from malnutrition." This was the 12th human with a fever, diseases travel faster than I thought. I healed the kid and sent him on his way.

"Thamks mimster!" he said through a mouthful of food.

"Don't talk with your mouthful or you'll choke," I warned, shooing him away toward the other kids eating not too far away. The Duct rat population has grown since the last time I was here. "Next," I called out.

A human man who has seen better days came up to me. Ghost Walters returned, "Ailment: bruised: arm, chest, face, liver, lower abdominals. Cure: Healing hand to areas." the man's bruises made him stand out, "Ailment-" Nick kept talking but I didn't understand, whatever this man had was beyond my skill, he wasn't the first, they all had the tell-tell signs of drug addiction, but I didn't know enough of it to help them correctly, or at the very least Ghost Walters didn't think so.

Mortal Walters didn't know why this apparition appeared every time I wanted to heal someone, he concluded that it was probably something to do with me being Drell, or maybe my gods were helping me in some way. He promised more tests and asked Dr. Chakwas if she could teach me some medicine, turns out gaining a medical degree was a lot more complicated than I first thought, there are a lot of medical terms, how humans remember all of them without an eidetic memory throws me for a loop every time I think about it.

"L-listen-n-n," the man stutters, pulling out a knife, "I-I don't wa-want any t-t-trouble, just your money."

"Maker be kind~," Ayla sighed, "What the hell is that!?" She points to the mugger's... everything.

"W-wha?"

"Your footwork is sloppy, you're not holding the knife right, your posture is all over the place, and-" she flashed forward catching the mugger off guard, disarming him in a single movement and flipping him to the ground, "-this knife is all kinds of dull. Be happy Nick isn't here or he would have healed you and beaten proper blade-handling skills into your thin skull for the rest of the week, but I'm more merciful." It took less than a second, it was rather impressive, I knew those that had Magic and Chi were stronger than most, that was obvious thanks to morning training, but to see it in action was something else entirely. "For those under the Maker's light shall see the path forward with strength in their heart and love in their soul~," she chanted, the man lit up in a soft golden light, slowly fading to reveal the man just lying there looking up to the ward above us, only to get his existential crisis interrupted by Ayla kicking him.

"Ouch," he muttered.

"Get up, usually healing is free, but you get to pay for being stupid," she tossed him a booklet, "You get to read that out loud for everyone, for the next 20 minutes."

"Uhm? Why does everything feel... okay? My head isn't thumping, my hands are steady, my stutter is gone. What did you do?"

"I healed you, now get to reading," she ordered.

"And if I don't?" the man squinted, tossing the booklet away.

Ayla just pointed her finger at him, "Something wicked this way comes~," she chanted hitting the man with a purple spell, "Now get the hell out of my face," she hissed, waving him away.

The man, properly frightened, ran off, only to slip on a banana peel that I didn't see, and slid a comically long way towards some stairs, "OH NO!" he screamed followed by a few grunts of pain as he tumbled down the stairs, "... ouch~."

"Next," Ayla called out.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Mmm? Oh, that was just a minor bad luck spell, nothing too serious, but he's going to have a bad time for the next 15 minutes." she huffed.

"I didn't know you could use spells like that, I didn't know spells like that even existed."

She shrugged, "They're not that powerful, any half-competent fool could break it with a simple dispel, or by just standing still for 15 minutes. The spell only works if you're moving, it's great if you're being chased or chasing someone."

"Is it some kind of holy spell?"

She shook her head and healed the next person in line, "Nope, but if I chant it, I can add divine energy to it as long as the Maker approves, I can do that to most of my spells. You didn't think that banana was just there, did you?" she pointed to the floor above us, which looked like a small market. "Someone up there got lazy, didn't want to find trash can, and tossed their food. My spell with the Maker's Divine magic was able to target the peel moving it just under the man's feet~. Next~," she called out. "It's actually a pretty simple spell to learn, Nick would call it a cantrip, just imagine your most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you, keep it in mind as you just unleash your power outwards to a target within 10 meters, any more than that and the spell tends to goes a little... wide~."

Wide? How wide?

My omni-tool went off, picking up the call Shepard's serious face greeted us. "We have a situation."

-/-

Nick POV

"Boom~, That's one good-looking school~," I smirked, looking up at the new Castle attached to Mount Drakon at the end of the western district, it was far from finished, this was just the main building for general classes, I would spread out as more specialized classes were made, but this did check my box in my quest.

I finished the basics of the Northern district, making the main road, sewer, and buildings for people to live in, I'm just happy that individual apartment rooms counted as a home, as well as making outlines where smaller streets would be placed and had the new district citizens do busy work for 5 silver an hour with some of the guards and Golems helping out.

Of course, I had a pay booth with 10 of Telsa's loyal workers, giving, checking, and creating IDs for the new workers. I thought if they worked on making their new home, they would want it to thrive.

Quest: urban growth!

The King and Queen of Denerim have given you a contract to help the refugees in Denerim's inner and outer walls, by creating better living conditions.

2/3 Guard stations

1/1 school

1/1 general store

4942/10000 livable homes

2/3 water towers

1/2 market centers

2/2 miles of inner wall repaired

21/35 miles of roads built

2.5/5 miles of docks created

2/3 hospitals

15/30 bathhouses

674/2000 public bathrooms

1109/2500 mage light poles

Time remaining: 5 years

Reward: 25,000 gold coins, 30,000 XP, 2 silver loot boxes

"So, to the Southern Gate?" Dagna asked.

"Let's do some furnishing before we head over. I have a bunch of loot I wanna get rid of, along with some Golem security." I didn't want some squatters rolling in and trying to take the place over or stealing stuff. We added carts, rugs, desks, chairs, blackboards, toilets anything put in Hogwarts, I place here, that included the runes, which included temperature, lights, cleaning, spirit wards, and a bunch more I thought it was going to need, like in the kitchen, gym, and bathrooms.

The Castle finally reached my bare minimum of comfort, I would have stayed longer but Dagna reminded me that I needed to work in the Southern District before it got too dark. Walking back to the Western gate, I added magic light poles every 20 or so Meters, with my American brain translating it into about 3 adult saltwater crocodiles in length per light post, they were programmed to turn on using the clock tower I built in the center market inside of Revasan. Each post came with a minor spirit ward making it difficult for spirits or demons to stick around, one or two were good to reinforce the veil, but I've added thousands throughout Denerim, making it impossible for any spirit to make Denerim their hunting ground.

Getting to the Southern district there were at least 500 children, some of them didn't even come from the other districts, but I didn't really care, it was my own fault for not making it clear, all and all it was under a hundred and 50 gold for the quest, which was fine with me. I gave the brats the money and sent them home, no doubt to be used for food.

The Southern District was by far the smallest, there were about 600 people here. Its kind made some level of sense, Southern Denerim was the rich part of the city with Dragon Tower, the King's Keep, Nobles, and wealthy merchants. I'm guessing they didn't want too many refugees stinking up the place and moved them to other areas.

So, to mess with them I created beautiful colorful elaborate houses for the penniless refugees, castle apartments, and a market center that matched the one in Denerim. I also made another Guard Station with Golems and had it well-lit before night fell completely.

"Having fun, I see," Telsa walked up to me.

I shrugged, "I like making things, and it turns out people like living under roofs and in warm beds. It's a win-win if you ask me."

"You do know only a few hundred people live in this district, right?"

"You heard the complaints yesterday, the taint has affected the land to the point where people can't farm it anymore, no doubt there is going to be a bit of an exodus, and Denerim is going to be a prime location with all the trade and growing industry. Not to mention all usable farmland outside the city, that's to Mother Base burning most of the trees in the area." The Kyber Cannon was a piece of work, Anora had me fix the burnt patches after the battle, I just used earthbending to need the ground, bringing up the soil from underneath and mixing Cure-all potions to get rid of any taint. It was prime farmland that Telsa and Anora fought over, Telsa told me they came to an agreement but that was as far as I care to dig into, Telsa had my full trust, if she said it was okay, it was okay.

"My farmers have been asking for more working hands~. Not a lot of people want to be farmers when being a merchant or blacksmith is easier, especially now that they know how to read," she muttered.

"So, if you're here I'm guessing the Landsmeet has come to an end for today?" I asked.

"Yes, I was there mostly for Storm Runner's knighting, you can imagine some of the nobles' faces when they saw her. "Cailan also agreed to place her into the Vanguard until she had proper training on 'landwalker etiquette', AKA don't eat people."

"That's good to hear, who was placed over watching her?"

"Vanguard-commander Dasatra on Mother base, they will be patrolling South Reach after hearing the rumors of Dragons and any remains of Darkspawn forces."

"Dasatra? That punk? Is she still having a hard time fondling her blade?" I teased.

"Commander Dasatra, is one of the five Vanguard Commanders in Ferelden, a very prestigious position, and is giving charge of Mother Base," Telsa corrected.

"So. She's sleeping in my old room? Did you tell her that I had sex on every surface in that room, even the ceiling?" I teased.

"It was properly cleaned~," Telsa rolled her eyes.

"We didn't pay for that, right~?"

"Who do you take me for?" She eyeballed me so hard that I almost paid her to stop.

"I was just worried Ayla may have made my evil CFO soft with love~," I teased.

Telsa reached out and cupped my face with a single hand, squishing my cheeks using her middle finger and thumb. Slowly lowering me to one knee, I was the one who wanted to give her Chi~. "Nick~, Nicky-Nick... Nick. You silly beautiful man~." she gave me a smile I'd never seen before. I've seen pitiful smiles, sad smiles, happy smiles, 'just-smile' smiles, loving smiles, horny smiles, but this one... it was different, it was somehow genuine and fake at the same time. "We both know love only makes you more ruthless." she traced her thumb across my lips, and my Danger sense gave a soft tingle at the back of my mind. "Never before did my greed tell me to jack up my prices and buy a summer Castle so Ayla can watch the sunrise," she pulled me close, "Never before did I want to lock you up in a steel cage to keep you from your own stupidity, but every time I think about you and the others off in your space adventure fighting Maker knows what, makes the idea easier and easier to implement."

I gently held her hand, and gave a sigh, getting to my feet. "God damnit~," I kissed every single one of her fingers, "I'm sorry for making you worry~. Here I am running around like an idiot, 'saving the world', and I forgot what that looks like to others." I brought her into a hug, "I'm so sorry for not telling you everything right away."

"I wasn't worried," she muttered into my chest.

"That doesn't matter, I should have told you. You're my friend, CFO, partner, sugar mama~," I teased, she patted my chest, and I lifted her face so she could see me, "my lover~," I gave her a gentle kiss.

"Don't get cocky~, that last one is new. I wanted the holy maiden, you just came with the contract~," she teased.

"This is why I have you do all my contracts~, not even you can find a loophole~," I brought her in for a deeper kiss. She tasted of coffee with a hint of dark chocolate, I wanted more but she pulled on my hair getting me to release her, but our foreheads stayed locked together. "You know that doesn't really make me want to stop~, quite the opposite actually."

"We are in public," she hissed, pointing at some of the parents covering their children's eyes. She freed herself from my grip before giving me a contract. "Sign and-" I didn't even let her finish before I finished signing it, folding it, and gently slipping it into her breast pocket. "That could have had anything written on it~."

"It's okay, I had my sexy lawyer look it over~, I trust her with my life ~," I teased, reaching over and straightening her tie and suit.

"It's good to see the mighty Nick Walters still has a hard time finding a room~," Alistair teased, causing Telsa to jump away.

She gave a light cough, "Get to work! And uh... Make it good!" She ran off.

"Alistair~!" I fake cheered. "Should you be out here by yourself? Your Witch Mama might be looking for you, you know how worried she gets when her little lady goes out on her own~."

"First of all, I've never called her Witch Mama, and second, I already told her where was going, she even put this magic tracker on me," he huffed, nose reaching for the clouds, smug as all hell.

I just blinked at him, "You're happy she can track you?"

He scratched the back of his neck, "I got lost my first night in Highever, she was worried sick... I had to eat some kind of Rat soup with a bunch of hobos."

"Well, at least you didn't go hungry~." I brought him into a brotherly hug, a handshake that somehow led to a hug and a pat on the back. "Here to help?"

"I felt like doing something, Elissa is off with Jak and Sky with the babies, Aeden and Theron are meeting up with Duncan for Warden business, Cailan is extremely busy with the Landsmeet, we both know it's suicidal to get between Oghren and his booze, so~, I thought, what is my 3rd favorite wizard doing~."

"... 3rd?" I asked.

"... Wynne fed me cookies after you left on your vacation."

I nodded, "You Theirin men are weak to cookies~," I teased. "Well since I have you, I might as well put on crowd duty with Ser Hawtho-" my phone cut me off, "Who can that be~?" Alistair's phone also went off.

'CODE YELLOW! WARROOM!' - Cailan

We looked at the message for a moment, before our clothes morphed into armor and we broke into a mad dash over the buildings and walls, I spotted Dagna flying close by, with Sky flying towards the King's estate.

Well, looks like the Landsmeet is going to toss us some curve balls.

-/-

A/N: love me tenderly, I got slapped with a nasty fever that nearly knocked me out for a week. Sorry this came out so late... I think. I don't really have a schedule for these, but I do try to post at the beginning of the month.

Anyway, I was thinking of making a bit of a team-building chapter, but I quickly realized that it was going to be way too long, so I broke it up into two chapters with some loyalty missions, with Nick going to the landsmeet. I just read an interesting Dragon Age comic that I wanted to play with and the landsmeet was a good way to move Nick.

Sorry if it didn't have enough action for some of you but I am thinking of some fun stuff in the future.

Review if you feel like it but I should warn you, I can't moderate any guest reviews for some reason or view how many people view my story. I already sent a complaint but... you know~.

And again, sorry for the wait and any grammar mistakes

I also make some art for my fic You can find it in my DeviantArt link in my bio