Disclaimer: I own nothing that has already been published. This makes me no money, and as such, outside of disclaimer of non-ownership, there is nothing to say.

AU

Fixed on 11/14/2015

In the vast deep darkness that is space, stars shined. Their number and beauty in the infinite numbers belayed their terrible power and strength. Stars were not just beautiful twinkling jewels of the sky but power plants of the universe.

Nuclear fusion erupts from within its core, melting and burning all things that stand in their way. Even their massive size eventually dominates and twists time and space. With each second of their existence, even the weakest star spews out enough power to destroy worlds twice over.

Yet, such powerful things give birth to life. They radiate warmth and shape life in their embrace.

Rear Admiral Sventaros Nor'uru of the Turian Hierarchy thought so regarding the celestial bodies of the heavens. They were beautiful but oh so terrifying. He loved them, and served to protect those who would come to love the stars as he would.

It was his mission in life, just like any other turian.

He turned away from the obstacleless window to the one in front of the bridge of his command ship, Renovatica a dreadnought in charge of patrolling the border of Batarian Hegemony and Citadel Council space.

And at the center of the window was a holoscreen that covered most of the viewport. Within it, the screen held a single image of a structure that made him contemplate once more about his life and mission.

A Mass Relay.

A structure of the bygone era before the time of the Citadel Council, it allowed spaceships to travel hundreds even thousands of lightyears in jaw-dropping short amount of time.

It was also the source of many conflicts.

Rachni War had been caused by the opening of one such Mass Relay. Death and destruction spewed forth from one such relay until the galaxy itself had been faltering and suffering.

He was not going to let anything like that happen again.

Exactly three hours ago, he had fired upon a small group of unknown ships seeking to activate the Mass Relay. Under normal circumstances, he would have liked to capture the ships and interrogate them before handing them over to the Citadel Council or the STG; after all, they were breaking one of the core laws of the Citadel Council by seeking to open up a Mass Relay without permission.

However, it was no ordinary circumstance. The ship design was different from any of the races known to Citadel Council. It was an enigma.

And enigmas always brought bad things with them.

Without hesitation, he had fired upon the unknowns, destroying them. However, he could not stop their last ship from activating and escaping through the relay.

He had called reinforcement, and they were all ready to jump through to the other side of the relay to subjugate any species or civilization that could prove harmful to Citadel Council.

He knew that his action would be denounced one way or another. Some among his own command were very uncomfortable with this.

But they understood. They stood by him as he made the calls.

They were willing to bare it with him if it meant that another Rachni War would not break out.

"Jump through now."

When they reached the other side, they were ... underwhelmed by the lack of any technological defense. The experience was like an army of elite soldiers marching up to the enemy's capital expecting a mighty fortress made of mighty stoneworks, traps, and glory... but faced with nothing but a shabby town.

They felt slightly cheated.

The unsatisfied silence of the turian fleet reigned for less than a minute before orders were sent out. One half of the fleet moved into position to secure the system's mass relays while the other half moved towards what seemed to be a habitable planet with their troop transports.

"This is going to suck, isn't it?" rear admiral asked himself as he stared at the screen.

One of the analysts onboard stood next to him and cocked his head to the side. "It's strange. The ship design implied that this new species was fairly comfortable with intrastellar and are capable of building large orbital dockyards."

"What made you think that?" he asked of the analyst.

"Well sir, we have to consider their "wings." Our cruisers, for example, have little aerodynamics to them. This is because our cruisers are made in orbital docks and do not go down to the atmosphere for the planet. The new species' frigate-sized hull had similar build to our own cruisers."

Sventaros narrowed his eyes at the remark.

During the battle of Relay 314, the new species' "frigates" were able to dish out same amount of firepower as two of the Turian cruisers combined. Not only that, their main seemed to be omnidirectional from the four turrets attached to the ship. It was a mercy that their patrol fleet outnumbered the lawbreakers by a factor of 7, or otherwise defeat would have been a reality, not a probability.

"Third planet of the system had confirmed presence of civilization. Tier 4 and 5 technology is use."

Civilization Tiers were what patrol fleets used to determine if a newfound species could be contacted. Tier 1 was ... primitive. Hunters and gatherers primitive. Tier 2 was a farming civilization, just starting out. Tier 3 was given to those who had started their industrialization. Tier 4 was those who had gotten to use electricity, and tier 5 was given to civilizations that had any form of intra or interstellar travel technology. There were tiers beyond that with tier 10 being the hypothetical tier given to civilizations capable of intergalactic travel.

Space station that suddenly popped up on the screen was one such evidence of higher tiers.

"Dear spirits above," the analyst muttered as he saw the space station come into view. It was a massive structure. Shaped like bent armor plating, the station was estimated by the ship's computer to be at least 10 kilometers long. Painted in red and black, it was ominous thing standing between them and the planet. The thing was quarter of the Citadel!

"We're getting numerous contact!" the radar operator to the far left shouted as angry red dots began to swarm out of the station.

"Defensive formation! Launch the fighters! Fire all loaded torpedoes, take out as many of them before they get to us!"

"Enemy fighters are moving at 0.7 times speed of light. Melee estimated to break within 2 minutes!" the ship's VI commented.

Sventaros gawked.

That was ridiculous! They were still at least several aurals away from the planet!

"Enemy station is changing form!"

Everyone's attention on the bridge fell to the space station, which was still in the overhead.

"Confirmed," the VI said. "Structural changes marked at 0.001% overall structure. Estimated usage of changed structure: offensive weaponry... New change... Ssace station is moving. Calculating.

"Changing conclusion: enemy station is a ship."

That's when the screen lit up with two dozen white lights originating from the changed structures of the station/ship.

"Enemy ship has fired upon us!"

One of the frigate escorts to the right of Renovaticus broke in half as something giant beamed by.

Correction, Sventaros thought as he stared in horror at the frigate in question. The left half of the frigate didn't exist. Finally, as if the ship had waited for eyes to witness its final breathe, it exploded.

"THN Quelled Pirates, THN Recorda, and THN Yuporoso are all KIA with all of their hands!" an officer shouted even as their launched torpedoes met the enemy fighters and blew up, taking hundreds of the red fighters for each torpedo.

"PORT CONTACT!" one of the officer suddenly shouted.

On screen, it showed a ship coming out of what looked like a flat portal to deep darkness.

It was the same goddamn ship as the one far ahead of them ... except this was one was now so close them that they could almost touch it. "All ships focus fire on the enemy dreadnought to our port!" Sventaros roared even as his own dreadnought began to turn to aim its spinal cannon.

As soon as it left the portal, it began to more of those red fighters... except now that they were close enough to see the details, they did not seem anything like a fighter. They were too small and too-.

His ship shook.

"What just happened?"

"Those fighters are suicide bombers!" "They just tore through the entire section C! We're leaking atmosphere!"

"Fighters are using shaped shields and their own speed to tear through us," the analyst muttered even as his mandibles slacked. "They have shaped shields. This is ridiculous."

The Turian Fleet pounded on the closer dreadnought. It attempted to escape after an hour of fighting, but one good dreadnought shot reduced its thrusters to molten slags, and it was beaten until it exploded.

That was when the second dreadnought had come.

Still tired and wary from their first fight with these monsters, the Turian Fleet retreated, but not before delivering their own special surprise.

They had the Mass Relay Fleet, which obviously did not need to be guarded if their travel methods said anything, and invaded Shanxi.

When the super dreadnought turned its back to the first fleet to help the Shanxi colony, that was when the turians struck.

Caught with its back turned, but not unguarded, the super dreadnought had been forced to retreat through the portal.

With the dreadnoughts gone, the Turian Fleets quickly merged and proceeded to invade Shanxi.

Turian dropships entered the atmosphere by the dozens, assured of their success. However, Rear Admiral Sventaros had warned them to be careful, but the fact that the planet had a clear lack of Anti-Air turrets to shoot them down eased their pumping hearts.

At least, it calmed Private Brucarius's heart.

"This is Alpha Troop Transport Group's leader WhiteClaw. Planet's only city is in sight. General orders are for our group to land east of this city. Find a clearing for us, boys, and let's get down to business."

The private felt the troop transport lurch as it moved to its starboard, accelerating to MACH 1. He held his rifle and placed his forehead on its long vertical shaft. As a green sniper, he had little to no experience in the battlefield until some of his superiors and fellows in the troop transport. He just hoped that whatever ordeal he faced, he'll be able to move through it without any trouble.

The transport shifted again.

"We're 2 minutes from landing, boys," the pilot of the transport spoke over the comm. "You got exactly thirty seconds to get out before I have to get back into the air. I wish you luck."

2 minutes...

The private prayed.

Let no harm come to him, or his fellows. They were only doing their job.

Let no innocents come to harm; they had not part in this conflict.

Let-

"ENEMY CONTACT IN OUR REAR!" the pilot suddenly shouted before the transport lurched. "Something's grabbing me! I can't shake it off-!"

PTTZZZZZZ

Then he and the rest of the troops fell in a spiral.

The transport struck the ground and trees with thundering boom, and broke in half. Brucarius was in the back half of the transport, and he and his fellows in the back lurched forward as their portion of the transport continued to ram through the forest of this planet.

The other half blew up.

They were heading for a great tree.

"Alright boys!" the sergeant spoke over the comm. "Xeno's just got a hit on our transports everywhere! This only makes our job harder as more than half of the heavy artillery are gone! Once we hit that tree, we're gonna get the hell out of this scrap of metal and head to the rendezvous point!"

As soon as he finished the sentence, the private felt the entire transport (well half of it), strike the great tree. Instead of felling it, the troop transport bounced off of it like a ball and rolled in the forest floor for a bit before coming to a stop.

He summarily got out and threw up.

"I did not sign up for that..." he muttered slowly as he wiped his mandibles.

He slowly stood up, and looked around as others got out of the wreck. The forest itself was odd. As a turian who had much interest in biology, he knew that green was the best color for photosynthesis for both levo and dextro planets orbiting a yellow star, which was the color of this system's star.

But ... this forest? The leaves were whiter than the whites of their uniform and the bark was blacker than the night sky.

Biology here made no sense just by looking.

"Something's out there," someone muttered as he hefted his rifle up.

Everyone's attention fell towards the direction the marine was pointing his rifle towards. They too raised their own.

The bushes shivered around them.

The air grew colder.

"What the hell is going on?!" the sergeant shouted just as he popped out of the shuttle. "Why aren't you seven mo-"

There was a squawk.

Everyone snapped towards the sergeant, only to see a nightmare.

It was a long serpent with many legs. But each leg had one of the asari hands on it.

And the face-!

It looked just like an asari. Was this place some kind of mad asari's experiment asylum? Was this where all of their advance technologies came out of?

The face smiled.

"WAGGGHHHHAAAAAAA~!" it screamed as it bit down on the sergeant's neck. Then with the twtiching dead body still in his mouth, it charged towards the rest of the marines with surprising speed.

"Fire!" he shouted.

All over the forest surrounding the city, the scene was duplicated. Felled transport, halved invasion force, and attack of the nightmarish odd monster.

Instead of a war, it had been a struggle for survival.

Endless waves of monsters, ground and air, struck at the turians.

Private Brucarius was now alone. He hid like a coward, but his instinct had brought him here to safety. He would not abandon it. He trembled as he heard the monsters pass by his position.

'What the fuck is this place?!' he mentally screamed and ranted. This place was a living nightmare. Turian blood painted everywhere he had ran to, and the corpses-.

Oh god, the dead.

It was a displace of macabre at its extreme. Broken armor and body parts were stacked like some kind of a puzzle with the severed heads serving as some kind of a fruit for the demented corpse tree.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. Nothing made sense here. Just surviving was hard enough.

"Psst."

He slowly looked down.

There was another turian hiding in the bushes.

Brucarious almost smiled. Someone else was alive! There was someone else alive!

"What division are you from?" he asked quietly. "I'm from the 7th Artillery."

"13th i-infantry," the private stuttered, but he stuttered quietly at least.

"How many?"

The question was obvious. How many survived.

"None."

The turian nodded. "Let's get out of here. The end of the forest is only two kilometers to your right."

Private nodded and he jumped down.

"Let's go-"

Something caught him in a vice grip.

He turned around, and he screamed.

"What?!" Turian Councilor Sparatus gawked in shock as the turian on the other side of the comm line reported what had happened to the Turian fleet that had been sent to quell a new race.

"The fleet never got to blockading the planet for long," the officer on the other side of the call replied. "We lost four dreadnoughts, sixty cruisers, and a hundred frigates to mere two of their super dreadnoughts."

"Are you kidding me..." Sparatus muttered as he facepalmed.

"...No, we're not. The order from High Command is for you to gather the support of the Citadel Council to help the Hierarchy in this upcoming war, should it come down to that."

Sparatus turned off the call, and sighed.

What was he supposed to say?

Tevos was pissed. She had just returned from the latest Council meeting, and she had heard the stupidest thing.

She let a roar and unleashed a burst of powerful biotic that tore through all furnitures in her private room.

Alarms blared softly after that as the room darkened softly.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" the secretary outside the door asked hesitantly.

"I'm fine! Just turn this alarm off!" she shrieked in reply, then felt a little bad at screaming at the innocent girl.

The alarm stopped after a few minute.

She just plopped down on her silk sofa. "That idiot," she grumbled.

Turians in general were stupid as far as she was concerned. No, if she was honest with herself, they were more fanatic and that made them stupid. So zealous in their desire to do their "mission," -whatever each individual turian may see theirs- turians often tend to forget that there were consequences. If they ignored it, it was on their head.

Now though?

Normally, she would have left the Hierarchy to deal with the fall out. After all, nowhere on the Citadel Convention does it say that other members of the Citadel Council has to help an aggressive member. In fact, there are mentions within the Convention that states that aggressive action against another race without just cause can have severe repercussion ranging from revoking colonization rights in certain sectors to loss of council seat.

Normally, she would have watched Turian Hierarchy suffer a little. It was about time they felt some sting of their action.

But this was not normal. A good tenth of the entire Turian Navy had been wiped out by two super dreadnoughts. She shuddered as she remembered the video she watched along with the other councilors. The sheer size of those monsters were enough to give her nightmares. On top of that, turians' own reports stated that such monsters did not need the Mass Relays. Instead, they opened up a "portal" in space to travel. She saw the video regarding that, and it scared her.

She was hesitant to think what kind of response the turian actions would wrought.

War would be somewhere on the top of the scale. Diplomatic repercussion would be close second, though much more preferred.

She let out a frustrated grunt.

Damn those turians.

She was scared. The sheer power of the super dreadnoughts were something to be wary of. Who was to say that they would not turn to the other races of the Citadel Council or even attack others to take over the Citadel itself? It was usually the case with the strong and the weak, civilized or not.

'All are born. There is no evil or holy. There is only choice. Choice does not forge one's civility,' she thought to herself from the scriptures of the Holy Book.

The speakers blared.

"Alert to all Council members! We have a spatial distortion 500 kilometers port of the Citadel! I repeat we have a spatial distortion-. Dear lords, what the hell is that?"

Tevos quickly opened her omnitool and contacted the Citadel Defense Fleet. "This is Councilor Tevos to Destiny Ascension. What do you see out there?" she asked. "I'm making my way to the command center in the Presidium. Until I get there, you'll have to tell me what's going on."

"It's a fleet, ma'am!" a frantic voice replied on the other side. "There's a dozen dreadnoughts-. What? They can't be that big! Do the calculations again!"

"What's going on?!"

"The dreadnoughts are all 10 kilometers long, ma'am," the captain of the Destiny Ascension, a Asari elder, replied calmly. "They are accompanied by a fleet of seven hundred thousand crusiers, from what our computers can tell. This looks more and more like an invasion fleet, ma'am. I suggest you and the other councilors flee the Citadel while you still can."

"If the Citadel falls, then -"

Tevos was cut off when a static broke out from every single speaker in the Citadel. It cut off within a second, but soon followed by an unfamiliar voice.

"T-This is Private Brucarius of the Turian Hierarchy. Can anyone hear me?" a voice spoke hesitantly. There were other voices, languages that could not be understood, in the background. The lieutenant grunted before speaking. "M-My captors wish to talk with the highest ranking officials of both Turian Hierarchy and the Citadel Council. Please stand by."

Then an unfamiliar voice broke through, speaking in broken Crusova dialect of the Turian Crusova colony.

"This is Admiral F'thugan Queldora-Dolguran of the Terran League. I is coming to get reparation for the unjustified attack on your 'Relay 314' and invasion to our system Shanxi. Prepare diplomats."

Tevos groaned even as she urged her driver to speed up. This was going to be hell.

How right she was.

She and her colleagues sat in their seats in the public meeting room waiting for the Terran diplomat to arrive. They were each watching the said diplomat move through the Citadel through the security camera, and Tevos for one was very surprised by how much similarity the three diplomats shared with her race.

The one on the right was what she assumed to be a female, just like her race. Aside form skin tone and hair, they were practically identical.

The one on the right seemed less but nonetheless like an Asari. With him as base, she could imagine what a male Asari would look like...

But the two diplomats exuded what she could only think of as confidence. Especially the woman. She stood tall despite her short stature. She walked like the dignified kings and queens of old. This figure was more king than queen, despite her gender.

The man, on the other hand, stood tall because he was tall. He seemed to be offended by just about everything that was in the Citadel. Nevertheless, he too walked like a king. He walked slowly yet with distance. He looked down upon the crowd gathered to see them. Dressed in golden armor that shined much like his own hair,

Another fact that surprised the councilors was that of their hair. It was gold like the gold of jewelry. Were all of their races adorned with such beautiful hair or was it just them?

The last person in the terran diplomat team seemed to carry himself less, but he too was exquisite. His black hair, dark as the deepest void of space itself, swayed lightly about the side of his face with each step he took. He wore a flowing red and black robe over a white button-up shirt and silky dress pants. He was a contrast to the two king-like individuals in that he was humble. He greeted those who greeted him, unfamiliar or not. He did not scowl at them nor did he sneer. He smiled and thanked any individual who would talk to him.

No, he did not act like a batarian slave. Those slaves were broken. This man was anything but. It was subtle but Asari of her age knew power and status when she saw one. Just like the two royalties, this man carried himself not unlike a king going to greet another king or their subject.

A lord. Yes, that was the word to describe this man.

And they were now right in front of the entire council.

The black haired man stepped forward. "I would like to introduce ourselves to the Citadel Council," he began. "I am Otto Tohsaka-Bahk. I am the diplomat sent by the Terran League to hear what the Citadel Council has to say about the attack and invasion upon our worlds and systems. These two here are my ... guardians. They are here to ensure that my existence is not harmed in any way, unless it should come verbally."

Tevos was tempted to raise an eyebrow. That was a odd statement to add at the end.

She stood up, as it was traditional for the Asari to introduce the Citadel Councilors those they speak to. "I am Tevos, Councilor for the Asari Republics. The gentleman on my right is Valern, councilor for the Salarian Union, and the gentleman to my left is Sparatus, councilor for the Turian Hierarchy. May we ask how you have come to speak the turian language so fluently? Their sub-harmonics would make such thing hard for many race."

Almost immediately, the three terran diplomat looked to Sparatus, which was different from their curious but ultimately indifferent gazes that they gave to both her and Valern.

"Yes, we are familiar with the Turian Hierarchy. We had to interrogate and gather data regarding the language from very few prisoners we were able to retrieve. Our technology so far helps us with the speaking," Otto remarked as he turned to fully looked at Sparatus. "I do hope that the invasion fleet's action is something not of the norm?"

Sparatus narrowed his eyes. "Understand that one of our admiral became too zealous in his ... approach. I apologize for nothing more."

Otto scoffed, and it was clear to everyone who his disdain was being laid to. "Your arrogance speaks otherwise, councilor. We do not accept apology that is not meant."

"You would doubt my word as a councilor?"

Otto narrowed his eyes.

"As far as the Terran League is concerned, you and the Turian Hierarchy have been marked as hostile, non-negotiable xeno race."

Sparatus frowned. "There was no record of your kind attempting to make contact with mine."

Otto frowned as well. "Indeed? I was assure by my dear admiral that such was the case. The video showing our side of your ... invasion only supported it."

Valern decided to stick his head in now to prevent further escalation. "Perhaps that is why both events had occurred? A clear lack of communications?"

Otto seemed to ponder. "Our scientists, linguists, and military advisers have considered that, yes. It is also one of the few reasons why our fleet, which stands at your door, is not opening fire right now, and instead sent me for talks."

"Impudence!" Sparatus growled as he stood up. "You think you're better than us? You think you will leave unscathed after you fire upon this station?"

It was the male of the two terran bodyguard that scoffed. The sound had been unexpected, so to say, and everyone attention fell upon him.

He looked at the female counterpart, who was facepalming, and Otto, who was scowling. He didn't even look at the Citadel Councilors.

"What? I just thought it was funny," he spoke in fluent turian.

Sparatus growled. "A mere bodyguard has no place here to speak."

The golden haired man froze.

"'A mere bodyguard,' did you just call me?" he growled in return.

"Is that not what you are?"

The man's expression immediately twisted from annoyance into anger. "You dare call me a dog?!" he roared.

He merely roared with words, but to everyone else in the council room, the experience was quite different. They felt their bodies growing stiff, their pores opening up to sweat, and their heartbeats rising rapidly.

Sparatus remembered what facing this ... terran was like.

It was like fighting a Thresher Maw with nothing but a old model shotgun and a hand knife.

Fear.

It coiled around his body like a serpent yet it tightened around with power.

The terran's mere words had power in them.

Valern frowned as he too experienced fear.

To him, as a Salarian, he felt as if he was faced with a problem that had little to no solution to. If there was a solution, it was unknown and out of reach from him.

But fear soon evaporated, replaced by a hungering desire to know how mere words were able to cast veteran councilor like himself to recoil.

Most intriguing.

Caution was necessary when dealing with this man.

Perhaps it was Tevos who was struck the harshest by the roar.

She felt her insides coil in fear, wanting to run away far from the room as soon as possible and as far as possible.

Helpless.

What was this man?

Otto frowned. "We are in a delicate situation. Do not shout."

The golden haired man turned to Otto and glared. "You also do not have the right to speak down to me. Know your place!"

To the surprise of the councilors, it was Otto who apologized. "I did not mean to, sir. However, you lack the words and patience to see this through."

The golden haired man grunted and fell silent.

It was Sparatus, however, who would escalate things.

"And why would he find what I have stated to be ... funny?"

Tevos wanted to groan.

Otto sighed. "Truth to told, councilors... your fleets -really your civilization in general- ... are lacking."

Tevos flinched. Valern looked calm. Sparatus ... looked calm?

"Tell me, Diplomat Otto," Sparatus began. "I am curious as to you and your ... guardians," he used the word used by Otto to describe his bodyguards. "Qualifications that allowed yourselves to be here."

Otto Tohsaka-Bahk smiled. "Well, that is simple then. I have served the Terran League as a diplomat and liaison to two races who have joined us as allies. Before that, I served as a governor of Mars. Governor of Mars is one of the most prosperous positions one can be elected to office for, and I was happy to serve my people for fifty years. However who I am compares little to those behind me.

"The woman to your left is Her Highness King Arturia Pendragon, the High Protector of the British Isles.

"The man to your right is His Majesty King Gilgamesh of Uruk, the first king of all kings and the king of all heroes.

"Both of their Highness are what we call Counter Guardians."

But he did not provide any more information than that, Valern noted. Interesting.

"Your kings are your guardians, or are they here to make decisions?" Tevos asked. "In no history has a king come to a diplomatic meeting as a secondary diplomat. It is just unthinkable."

Otto smiled. "No. While their Highness are indeed Kings, they are Counter Guardians. They are those who had been resurrected by Alaya, the subconscious will of all Humanity, the first race of the Terran League, to protect us. I must warn you. You should not mistake them for weak kings who sat upon their throne and commanded from a capital far away from battlefield. Their highnesses were chosen for this mission because due to their exceptional combat prowess. Should it come to blows, High King Gilgamesh alone can destroy this station as he sees fit."

Valern frowned. "What you suggest is impossible. Resurrection is impossible. Cloning is possible, but not resurrection. Are you sure you have the turian word for resurrection right?"

Gilgamesh frowned. "It's not like I wanted to be resurrected."

Otto quickly continued before the councilors could question the High King. "It is not true resurrection but rather avatars of the original, which resides somewhere only the Alaya -or those with preparations- can access. Both King Arturia and High King Gilgamesh are those who were taken from such place in their life. When humanity feels the need for protection as a whole, individuals such as their Highness are sent by Alaya to do its bidding."

"...What exactly is this Alaya?" Sparatus asked. "It sounds like a hive mind."

Otto shook his head. "It is exactly as I said, Councilor. Alaya is the subconscious will of all humanity. No one man or woman can truly understand what Alaya is beyond that."

"...So where is this Alaya?" Tevos asked, prying for more information.

Otto considered it before he smiled. "In a magically powered dimension."

The councilors blinked.

The negotiations had quickly fallen out of control after that as the councilors mocked the Terran League for their belief in "magic" of all things. Otto had taken it in strides, just smiling, and stating that they were not the first to laugh, as their own race had laughed at magi, practitioner of magecraft, when such things were revealed to the public.

No one laughed after a war had broken out.

Calmly stating some of the facts that's quite widely known in Terran League, such as Heaven's Feel, repossessed by the Einzbern-Emiya Family, and Time Acceleration, claimed by Emiya Clan.

Valern was very surprised that "magecraft" allowed for local time acceleration, and asked for a demonstration of this "magecraft" or "magic."

Gilgamesh was happy to oblige when Otto asked him in return.

Tevos didn't think she would see "magic" in all of her life.

They hung there in the air. Golden ripples that seemed to defy reality. Then tips of bladed weaponry poked out, almost as if to threaten them. Then they quickly pulled back as Otto asked, and the diplomat himself demonstrated.

His body lit up as lines of greenish blue structures underneath his skin powered up. At first, Valern and she both thought they were just fancy bio-augmentations. They were quickly proved wrong when Otto materialized a golden staff in his airs in thin air.

A solid gold staff that was not transparent nor illusion. Then he dispelled it, as if it never existed.

She had never seen Sparatus gawk as he did that moment.

Valern had gone into mental shock.

He called his magecraft "Tracing," which was a variation of Gradation Air. Tracing allowed one to reproduce the concept of creation, hypothesize the basic structure, duplicte material via magecraft, od, and prana, imitate skills of its making, synthesis its experience, reproduce accumulated years, and the finally excel all manufacturing process. Otto admitted, however, that he was not a warlock, a magus who excelled in combat, and that the only thing he had been able to Trace was the Staff of Fthugan Bahk, which allowed one to heal. He even offered to demonstrate, but only after the reparations to the invasion of Shanxi and unjustified attack on Relay 314 had been made.

The Citadel Council as a whole decided that reparations will be made in Citadel Credits as well as colonization rights.

Otto immediately refuted both forms of reparations by stating that Citadel Credit may be useful those within Citadel Space, but Terran League as a whole was not interested in joining.

Which brought all those involved in the negotation here...

"Why would you not join the Citadel Council, Otto Tohsaka-Bahk? We are the power of this galaxy," Tevos asked.

Otto smiled politely. "It may be so within your established space, but there are still many empty space for us to expand. We do not see a need for our Terran League to oblige to Citadel Council, its conventions, and its treaties when one of its member had just attacked us."

Sparatus admitted that it would indeed be off for the Terran League to join them after what had just occurred mere days ago.

"I also do not expect trade to occur between our two governments. From what we have gathered, studied, and recognized, our technologies are incompatible at best, explosive at the worst. This reduces your Citadel Credit values within our space to what your entire council is worth only in raw resources, which as an economist, I must point out raw resources do not amount to much compared to high-end manufactured goods."

"I'm sure that there is something you will want from us," Tevos argued. "After all, our larger possession over larger portion of the galaxy as well as our larger population, which I am here assuming that we are larger, allows us to produce more resource. For that alone, would you not trade with us? Your dreadnoughts alone must cost you a fortune."

"Such things will be up to the government to decide. I have only been told to not accept monetary sum as reparation. On that note, I must also argue against colonization rights. After all, you do not hold space over space where there is no Mass Relay, yes?" he asked.

Valern mentally frowned. Legally, that was the truth of the matter. Systems without Mass Relay were for the most part inaccessible. As such, the true sovereignty of Citadel Space laid only with systems with Mass Relays. Still, there were more than ten thousand relays spread through the galaxy.

"Of course, we will not be handing over systems with mass relays to you simply because of the mass relays, but we are willing to acknowledge your hold as one sovereign nation to another. However, I do not believe that my government will recognize your authority over non-settled, non-patrolled, and mass relay-less systems. As such colonization rights to such systems do not exist within your legal power as we won't recognize them."

"Then you must also realize from our standpoint, you will be illegally colonizing in what is rightfully our space," Tevos replied. "Not only that, systems you settle within what we consider our Citadel Space will allow you to launch raids and invasions that we cannot afford. For safety and security reasons, I cannot in good conscious let such things come to pass. It will only spark war."

Otto seemed to think on this for a while. "Very well. Our colonies shall avoid mid and inner rims of Citadel Space or anywhere within 100 lightyears of your homeworlds and strongholds. Is that satisfactory?"

The three councilors looked to each other before they nodded. "Yes," Valern spoke up.

"Good, then let's move on to reparations once more. From what our leaders have suggested, I am willing to propose these conditions of reparations.

"First, you will allow our magi investigators to visit your homeworlds 777 days each, our calendar.

"Second, the Turian Hierarchy will release the Volus from their protectorate status."

"WHAT?!" Sparatus shouted as he shot up from his seat. "That is unreasonable and unconnected to this!"

Otto glared at Sparatus. "Such will be what you will do unless you decide that this First Contact will become a full out war, dear Councilor. We demand this because this will limit your economy, and in return, limit your navy, which has cost this debacle to break out. Consider your Hierarchy at fault.

"And the third demand will be a signing of Treaty of Sentient Rights."

"And what does the treaty entail, Diplomat Otto?" Valern asked.

Otto pulled out a datapad from within the sleeves of his oriental robe. "The outline of the detail is on the first page, and the details are followed by it."

Valern was the one to walk down from the Councilors' seats to Otto and took the datapad. He read through it. "This is acceptable, but before we go on further ... I have question."

Otto looked at Valern, and nodded.

"Why did you show us about your 'magecraft?' If you had kept it a secret, then it would have been a huge advantage."

Otto smiled, but this was not polite but rather like ... a teacher?

"Magecraft and magic are both things that are widely known in our world. If you had even stepped once into our territory, then you would know. We use magecraft everyday in our lives ...ever since we were invaded four centuries ago."

"Invaded? By who?"

"They called themselves the People of the Stars. Highly intelligent and sturdy race of people. In fact, if there was a hybrid of you salarians and the turians, the sterians would fit the bill."

"Fit the bill?" Tevos asked.

"It's an expression. It means to fit a quality of something. Then, we were still confined to the inner portion of our solar system. The war they brought on forced our own technology and magecraft to excel in order to defend ourselves. But technology alone could not fight them off just as magecraft could not. So magi, the followers of the magus philosophy, broke their own code of conduct and contacted the rest of the world. It was there that arcanotechnology was born. Magecraft and technology united... Even then, there are feats that arcanotechnology or regular technology cannot replicate, especailly when it comes to True Magic," Otto explained. "The Terran League does not wish to put a restriction upon tourists and travelers. Perhaps you will join us seven months from now when I give a speech regarding magic and magecraft back on Gaia?" he smiled.

"We shall think about this invitation."

Otto nodded. "Now," he said, returning back to what Tevos recognized as the man's diplomat-self. "There are still reparations to be made."

In the end, Terran League had given up on forcing the Turian Hierarchy to release the Volus Protectorate. Instead, the Turian Hierarchy had been limited from patrolling non-settled, border systems close to Terran League territory. The Citadel Council did, however, sign the Treaty of Sentient Rights. When Citadel Convention was mentioned, Otto signed the ban on inter planetary biological and heavy yield nuclear weapon. Neither were necessary with arcanotechnology, and as such, it was no loss for the Terran League. After all, the same effects could be replicated.

Another treaty to be signed that day was the Mutual Non-Interference Pact as well as the Treaty of Member Interference. The first was just as its name suggested. Terran League and Citadel Council would not bother each other, but it also supported the sovereignty of Terran League as a separate political and military entity outside of Citadel Council. The latter was more tricky in that it allowed both sides to retaliate against one specific member on other side of the line who harmed them.

Otto explained the need for this treaty for the Terran League because they did not trust the Batarian Hegemony from what they have learned so far. Signing this treaty allowed Terran League to retaliate against the Batarian Hegemony should profound evidence of harmful actions are found.

But it would not be the Batarian Hegemony but the Terminus Alliance that would trigger the need of the treaty.