"Fine, Liara, what do you want to know?" Harry asked, pacing around the clearing and avoiding eye contact.

"Everything," she said, "but for starters, how did you manage to get to Galatana when the Council isn't even aware that your species exists?"

"You've just asked the biggest question I've had for most of my life," Harry answered. "I have no idea. I have some strange memories from when I was younger that don't make any sense. The only thing I really know is that, somehow, I ended up like a mile above the forest, and I just fell. Cassiud and… Lissandra, they found me injured in the forest."

"And they just, what, adopted you?" Liara asked, unconvinced. "They didn't try to get you back to your family?"

"They did, but they couldn't find anything, just like you didn't find anything, am I right?" Harry answered, feigning interest in a particular light on the surface of the ruin.

"You are," she said. "Nobody's seen anything like you before, at least not reported."

"So anyways, whatever happened transported me from my planet to here, somehow," Harry said, "and that's pretty much all I know."

"How do you disguise yourself?" Liara asked, walking towards him.

"That's… another question I can't answer," Harry answered with a sigh. "The first time it happened was when you surprised me on Bostra the first time. I practiced after it, and, well, now I can make myself look like an Asari," he said, his face rippling into his Asari persona for a few moments before changing back to his normal self.

"And you have no idea how you did it? Is it a natural ability of your species perhaps, to imitate beings they've seen before?" she pressed.

"As far as I know, it's not, but I wasn't very old when I got here, so I guess it's possible I just never learned about it," Harry mused. "I really don't think it's normal, though."

"So, you're a human, you don't know how you got here, and you don't know how your abilities work," Liara summarized succinctly. "And your biotics? Why are they green?"

"I don't know," Harry said, voice nearly a growl as he grew frustrated with Liara's questions. "I don't know, alright? It's all a mystery to me, too."

"Okay, okay, I'm just curious," Liara said with raised hands. "Well, if you ever want help trying to figure it out, I'm always here, alright?"

"Thanks," he muttered. "You said we were gonna go in?"

"Of course we are!" Liara exclaimed, her infectious enthusiasm nearly bringing a smile to Harry's lips. "I figured out the encryption last time I was here, but I wanted to wait until you were here to really delve in."

"Show me what you've got," Harry said, gesturing to the door. Liara bounded down the dirt steps, activating her omni-tool as she did so.

"The original interface is nearly destroyed, so I had to come up with another way of communicating with the locks," Liara explained. "Since I've powered the structure now, if we can tell the door that the correct procedure was followed, it should open for us. Fortunately for you, I got the tedious part out of the way a few days ago." As she spoke, Liara pulled two cables from a pocket on her suit, connecting one end of each to her omni-tool and the door. Her omni-tool pulsed with blue light for a moment as it interfaced with the Prothean technology.

"Now, just a few adjustments, and…" she tapped the screen with finality, and the door slid seamlessly into the floor, leaving no indication that it had ever been there. "Presto." Harry stepped down beside her, looking into the newly-revealed room with no small amount of awe. Every surface in the room was a sleek black, interlaced with blue light that pulsed as if it were breathing.

"Is it supposed to be… empty?" he asked quietly. Indeed, the octagonal room appeared to lack any features besides the blue lights.

"I… don't know," Liara answered breathlessly. "I suppose perhaps the Protheans abandoned it and took everything with them?"

"Can we… go in?" Harry whispered, "or could there be traps or something?"

"No other ruins that have been discovered ever had traps, just security that's very difficult to get past," she answered. Gently, she stepped into the room, releasing a heavy breath when nothing happened. "See, nothing to worry about." Shrugging, Harry followed her in.

Immediately, he knew it had been a mistake. The lights in the room flared the instant he passed the threshold, followed by a loud hum as power was redirected. With a barely audible hiss, several areas of the floor raised up to waist-level, holographic displays and buttons flickering to life. Every screen was blank, with the exception of the center console. A single line of Prothean glyphs neatly aligned themselves above what looked like a keypad, though Harry couldn't identify any of the symbols present. Both Harry and Liara remained perfectly motionless as the motion ceased and the humming faded.

"Liara," Harry said softly, his voice perfectly level, "I take it that wasn't supposed to happen."

"Well," she answered just as quietly, "I definitely wasn't expecting it, but I assume that's what this room was designed to do." Without moving her feet, Liara turned as much as she could, taking in the changes that occurred in the room. "I've only heard of a few Prothean structures in condition this good, this is an incredible discovery!"

"What do we do now?" Harry asked, still remaining motionless. "As cool as this is, I'd rather not stand here for the rest of my life."

"Stop whining," Liara answered. "Give me a minute so I can record everything in here, then we'll leave until I can decipher all of this." She pulled a small device from one of her pockets and pointed it at each console, recording a three-dimensional image of the room. "Alright, let's leave," she finally said, carefully stepping backwards. Harry stepped out of the room, quickly followed by Liara. "Now, we just lock it up," she said, reconnecting her omni-tool to the cables and sealing the structure.

"Well, that was fascinating," Harry said as the Iris slowly moved back to the farm. "Any idea what any of that stuff does?"

"Not a clue," Liara said happily, still poring through the images on her omni-tool, "but I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out."

"You know, you could upload those images to the Iris if you'd like, she's got a pretty state of the art computer," Harry offered. "At the very least, you can look at those pictures on a bigger screen."

"Thank the Goddess," Liara said with a smile, already connecting her omni-tool to download the data, "I was wondering how long it would take for you to offer. Iris, would you mind showing the pictures on the viewscreens?"

"My pleasure, Liara," Iris responded, the displays flashing to life and showing images from the Prothean structure. "Based on my analysis from the air, the structure was operating at approximately fourteen percent optimal power. A much larger generator will be necessary to allow it to operate as it was intended."

"Thanks, Iris," Liara murmured, already lost in thought. "It appears this is a slightly different dialect than the ruins I've studied before, so it's probably either a fair amount older or newer than most," she said absentmindedly more than to Harry. "If we can figure out what the purpose of the structure was, this could be the find of the century."

"We?" Harry asked with amusement, "am I part of your dig team, now?"

"Obviously, Harry," she said as she turned to him, eyes alight with excitement. "This could put me on the forefront of Prothean research if it pans out."

"When do I get paid then?" he joked.

"I think my company is more than enough payment," she said, rolling her eyes. "In all honesty, though, once the Council team inevitably arrives, I'm sure I could get a position for you."

"No kidding?" he said, eyebrow raised. "I'll have to talk to Cass about it, but that sounds pretty fun if I'm being honest."

"Yeah, I can probably pass you off as hired muscle or something," she said. "Obviously not my assistant, one look at you and they'll know you're not smart enough for that."

"Ha, ha, very funny," Harry grumbled. "Careful, or I'll make you start walking again."

Liara was mostly out of contact with Harry the next several weeks. Occasionally, she would send a message to Harry, informing him that she was still busy working on the translations, but they were inevitably terse and uninformative. Knowing how she got when she was focused, Harry let her have the space, instead spending more time with Cassiud.

"Harry," Cassiud said after they'd eaten breakfast and cleaned the dishes one morning, "do you have any plans for today?"

"Not besides the usual chores," Harry answered, wiping his hands clean. "What's up?"

"I'd like to resume your training," he answered. "After the raid, I realized that even if you can use your biotics, you need more practice to be able to really defend yourself."

Harry nearly stumbled at the mention of the raid, a subject both he and his father had religiously avoided since the funeral. "Sure, dad. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, for starters, it's time I finally showed you how to shoot," he said, a touch of a smile on his face. "Come on, I set up a shooting range last night." The pair exited the house, where Cassiud led him to a series of crates with targets painted on the sides, placed at varying distances from the fence. Cassiud swung his rifle from his back and lifted it to his shoulder.

"With a rifle, it is very important to keep the stock firmly seated against your shoulder," he instructed as he demonstrated. "If you don't, you could easily hurt yourself, not to mention it'll throw off your aim." He raised the rifle towards the targets. "With an automatic rifle, you want to use short bursts to maintain your accuracy, but that doesn't apply to a semi-auto like this." In the span of a few seconds, Cassiud squeezed off five shots, each piercing a target near the center. "You try."

After that day, Harry spent at least an hour each day on target practice. His first few attempts were rather laughable, but he eventually saw some improvement, much to his and Cassiud's pleasure. He also trained with the pistol that was kept in the Iris and found it much more intuitive. In addition, Cassiud had him run through some virtual reality simulations to help him learn how to pilot the fighter that was attached to the Iris. This routine continued for nearly a month, when Liara finally contacted him.

"I got it!" Liara shouted as soon as he answered, "I'm on my way to the farm, can we head to the ruins? I managed to get a few more generators, hopefully we'll actually be able to power it up this time."

"Yeah, sure," Harry answered, having just finished with his chores. "I'll head to the hanger, should I bring anything with me?"

"No, that's fine, I have everything I need with me," she answered. "See you soon." She hung up, and Harry headed to the hanger after sending a brief message to Cassiud.

"Morning, Iris," Harry said as he entered the ship, "how are you doing today?"

"Oh, you know," she answered, "running diagnostics, watching biotiball, contemplating my existence. The usual."

"Sounds thrilling," Harry said with a smirk. "Up for a flight today? Liara thinks she figured something out."

"Anything to get out of this metal box," her tone lifting instantly at the prospect. "Can we go for a joyride afterwards?"

"Sure, Iris," Harry responded. "Let's get your engines fired up so we can head out as soon as Liara gets here."

"Already on it. You might want to help her, though, it looks like she's got a lot of equipment," Iris said as a low hum filled the ship.

Indeed, Liara was pushing a cart that was precariously stacked with a number of boxes of varying sizes. Harry caught a small crate that fell from the top as he walked up to her.

"What is all of this?" he asked.

"Mostly generators," she said, sending a grateful smile to Harry as he pulled the top few boxes off to prevent another avalanche. "Bases on Iris' measurements, this should be enough to get the place to full power."

"Did you ever figure out what that word on the screen was?" Harry inquired. The pair moved into the cargo bay and began stacking the boxes against the walls. "Also, how exactly are we going to get these down to the clearing?"

"One of these boxes around here's got a winch in it, we can mount it here and just lower them down," she explained. "And as far as I can tell, it just says 'Activate?' and nothing else. I thought it was a different dialect, but it's actually a completely different language, with only a few similarities to the Prothean we see in most ruins. Fortunately, all those keyboards at the other stations gave me enough of a reference to translate it."

"Just activate? Nothing else?" Harry said. "Activate what?"

"That's… the part I'm not sure about," she admitted as the pair climbed into the cockpit. "I couldn't get much of anything from the other consoles since they weren't even fully powered, but it seemed their functions were locked until the main one was used."

"So, we're just going to do it? Without really knowing what it does?" Harry asked, a little bit of nervousness in his tone.

"There hasn't been a single Prothean ruin that's harmed people who have taken the proper precautions," Liara answered. "There was a ruin on a Salarian colony a few decades ago with a similar setup, and when they managed to get it properly powered, it just turned on the other stations."

"But it's not like there's no risk, yeah?" Harry asked as the Iris lifted off and headed towards the ruins.

"Of course, there is a little risk, but there's never been a Prothean structure that has harmed its users if they've properly used it," Liara said.

"And you're sure you're not rushing things too much?" Harry pressed.

"Harry, if something goes wrong, I'll eat my own hand," she said, finally glancing up. "Trust me."

"Okay, okay," Harry said, raising his hands in surrender. "Come on, let's get the winch set up."

The pair were standing in front of the sealed door once again, the new generators humming softly in the background. Liara was checking the power levels one last time and was apparently satisfied.

"You ready for this?" Liara asked, smiling at him.

"Let's do it," Harry said. Liara tapped her omni-tool and the door slid into the floor once more. Liara entered first, followed by Harry. Just as before, the room pulsed with life and the consoles rose from the floor, with the console at the center displaying the same screen. Liara slowly moved over to it, glancing around as she moved.

"It's odd that there aren't any doors to other rooms," Liara mused. "I don't know why the Protheans would make such a small base, but I suppose there could be hidden passages, or maybe a number of small structures spread over the planet or the star system." She continued to mumble under her breath as she activated her omni-tool, and a screen appeared that translated the figures on the Prothean interface to Thessian.

"So, how do you go about 'activating' it?" Harry asked, walking up behind her to look at the translation.

"I think it's as easy as hitting this button here," she answered slowly, placing her finger well above the alien keyboard so as to avoid touching it accidentally. "That'll divert power to the rest of the structure and hopefully allow us to access whatever data is stored here." She moved her hand closer to the key. "Here goes nothing."

Liara pressed the key with her forefinger, and the room pulsed. The blue lights around the room increased in intensity until it was nearly painful for Harry to keep his eyes open, and he could hear a humming sound as the generators increased their output to fuel the hungry alien base. Slowly, the lights faded, and Harry was able to look around the room again.

Nothing had changed.

"What… nothing happened," Liara whispered, clearly distressed at this development, or lack thereof. "Why didn't anything happen?"

"Maybe there was a password or something?" Harry asked softly. "Or maybe something is just broken?"

"This place is practically pristine, there's no way something was broken. And it sounded like it was trying to do something, it just failed at the last second," she answered, her mind racing through different possibilities. "Maybe Iris' calculations were off? It could've tried to draw more power than what was available. Or, this base can only be activated remotely from another base. Or…" she trailed off, pacing around the room with her hand on her chin. Harry watched, partly amused and partly concerned.

"Harry," Liara said suddenly, "can you have Iris direct the ship's scanners here again? Maybe she'll pick something up that isn't obvious to us." Harry nodded and activated his omni-tool.

"Iris," he said, "could you direct the scanners down here and send us the data in a moment? We're going to try to activate it again."

"Of course, Harry," she responded. Harry suspected she had already been doing so, but this was mostly for Liara's benefit.

"Go ahead and hit it, Harry," Liara said, "I'm going to record this, maybe I'll get lucky and see something I missed earlier." Harry shrugged and stepped up to the console. With only a moment of hesitation, he lowered his finger onto the key Liara had indicated earlier.

Just as before, the lights around the room flared, bathing the room in blue. Harry lifted his hand from the controls to shield his eyes, but he was stopped when the console split open in the middle, a narrow pillar rising from within. Unconsciously, he moved his hand forwards, reaching for the glowing column in the center.

"Harry! Don't—" Liara started, but it was too little, too late. Harry's hand made contact with the pillar, and he immediately felt like he'd lost all control of his limbs. He felt his feet leave the ground as his arms were pulled to his sides, outstretched. Without warning, his mind was flooded with images that he couldn't fully comprehend, along with an overwhelming sense of dread. He saw giant cuttlefish dotted with red lights landing in truly massive cities, red beams of light piercing everything they touched. He heard hundreds of screams calling out in pain in languages he couldn't understand. He could smell the overwhelming scent of burnt metal, stone, and flesh rising from the charred ground.

A deep, multi-tonal voice echoed in his head, whispering words that made no sense to Harry's overwhelmed psyche. With that, Harry was released, collapsing to the floor. The words and images continued to echo in his mind, making any attempt at rational thought futile. Mercifully, he couldn't maintain his consciousness for long and everything went black.

"Shit! Harry? Can you hear me?" Liara called out as she approached his crumpled form, whatever had been holding him aloft having finally faded. "Harry!" She pressed a finger to his throat, relieved to find a strong pulse. "Can you hear me?" she asked again, but he remained unresponsive. Kneeling, Liara lifted Harry over her shoulders, grateful for his lean frame. She stumbled out of the structure and placed Harry on the forest floor as gently as she could, wracking her mind for a way to get him out of the woods and back to Cassiud.

"Liara," a voice called out. She spun around, facing the source of the voice, and saw that Harry's omni-tool had activated. "Liara, what's going on?"

"Iris?" she asked incredulously. VIs did not act independently of instruction unless specifically programmed to do so, and the last command Harry had given her was simply to scan the structure.

"Yes," Iris said, almost impatiently, "what happened? I detected a huge surge of energy, it nearly broke the generators, and then I lost contact with Harry for a few minutes."

"I don't—I don't know," Liara admitted, unable to ponder Iris' odd behavior at the moment. "He tried turning it on, and at first it was the same as when I did, and then it was like something grabbed him."

"I can sense that he is unconscious, we should bring him back to Cassiud," Iris said, snapping Liara out of her reverie. "I'm lowering the winch, you need to get yourself and Harry onboard quickly." Liara nodded despite herself, grateful for someone else having taken control of the situation. She could see the harness descending from the canopy and dragged Harry over as gently as she could.

"Are you both secure?" Iris asked after a few moments.

"Yes," Liara answered after double-checking the straps. A few seconds later, the cable jerked, and the two were lifted into the air. It took nearly a minute to get through the canopy, but soon they were both in the cargo bay with the door closing behind them.

"Setting course for the farm," Iris said, and Liara could feel the acceleration as the ship turned and increased its speed.

"Iris, how are you doing this?" Liara asked, more than happy to get her mind off of her inability to help her friend.

"I suppose the varren's out of the bag, now," Iris answered, and Liara was shocked to hear what sounded like real emotion in her voice. "Ever since the slaver raid, something has been different about me. I don't fully understand how it happened, but I'm some sort of artificial intelligence now." Liara's head shot up at this.

"How did a VI turn into an AI?" Liara asked. "Not to mention, AIs are outlawed in Citadel space!"

"Assuming you weren't planning on reporting me, I don't think I'm in any danger from the Citadel," Iris answered with a bit of humor in her voice, "and I truly have no idea how this transpired, despite all of the time I have spent considering it."

"Does Harry know?" Liara asked, glancing at the raven-haired man laying on the floor of the cargo bay.

"He does. You are, in fact, only the second one I've told," Iris said. "I suspect that he was somehow the cause of this, though as I've said, I don't know how." Liara felt the ship lurch as it began to descend. "We're almost to the farm. I will send a message for Cassiud to meet us in the hanger."

Harry slowly opened his eyes, wary of the bright light searing into his vision. With one hand shielding his gaze, he sat up on his bed and waved a hand towards the window, dimming the light that was flooding in. He groaned, then stood up unsteadily and made his way to the door.

"Harry?" a familiar voice called out as he moved towards the kitchen. "You're awake!" Liara ran over to him and practically tackled him with a hug. "I was so worried about you. I swear, I had no idea that could've happened, or I never would've brought you. How are you feeling? Do you need something to eat? Can I—"

"It's about time you woke up, son," Cassiud's voice cut Liara off. "You've been out for nearly a day."

"A day?" he asked, trying to remove the fog that pervaded his thoughts. "What happened?"

"We were at the ruins," Liara said, clearly nervous, "and we powered it up. Nothing happened when I tried to do it, but when you did… well, something happened, I'm not sure what."

"She sent me a message from the Iris, and we brought you here," Cassiud finished. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Just a headache," Harry replied as he sat in one of the chairs at the table. "Did you learn anything else about the ruins?"

"To be honest, I've been too worried since it happened to really work on it at all," Liara said. "I was going to wait for you to come back with me before I did anything else."

"That may have to wait for a while, Liara," Cassiud cut in. "After this, I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist that Harry not return there until the Council team arrives."

"Dad, you can't be serious," Harry interjected, "Liara needs to learn everything she can before they get here, and if I can help then I'm going to."

"Not while I'm responsible for you," Cassiud responded. "Your mother would throw me across the farm if she knew I let you go back there after what happened."

"Harry, it's okay," Liara said quietly, "I feel horrible about this, and I really would rather you waited until we at least knew more about it."

Harry's mind whirled as he tried to process all of this. His father and his best friend were actually in agreement to keep him confined to the farm for the foreseeable future, which could be months considering how slowly the Council moved.

"You can't just keep me cooped up here," Harry argued. "I've only been able to leave the farm for a few months, and now you're going to confine me again?"

"You can still go into town and make the supply runs, Harry, you just can't go to Liara's dig site," Cassiud explained wearily. "I know you don't agree with me, but if you have any respect for me at all you'll do what I say, just this once."

Harry sighed at this. Cassiud had just played his trump card, and Harry knew he couldn't argue with it, at least at the moment. "Fine," he said, "I agree. For now."

"Thank you, Harry," Cassiud said, softer now. "I know it's not easy, but I have to keep you safe."

The next few months passed at an excruciatingly slow rate, thanks to what Harry called his 'house arrest.' Liara kept him updated on the limited progress she was making with the Prothean structure, but he was still incredibly bored.

"Dad, I'm gonna take Iris out for a spin," Harry told Cassiud after breakfast one morning. "Don't worry, I won't go anywhere near Liara's dig site," he added, rolling his eyes as Cassiud's mouth closed. "See you later."

An hour later, Harry was navigating the Iris in and out of the rings of one of the three planets in the system, a gas giant with no name apart from its numerical designation given by the Council. The ship's kinetic barriers were more than enough to deflect the smaller particles, and Harry was deftly weaving between the larger masses.

"Harry," Iris said, breaking the silence they'd had since leaving Galatana, "I'm not sure if Liara told you this, but she is aware of my more unique abilities."

"How did she find out?" Harry asked, rolling the ship to his left and skimming over a house-sized asteroid.

"I was forced to assist her in getting you back to the farm after the incident, and it was rather obvious that I was acting without your orders," she answered, sounding contrite.

"It's not your fault, Iris," Harry responded. "You just did what you had to do, I can't blame you for that." He pulled back on the controls, and the ship rocketed out of the planetary ring. "Besides, you don't have to do what I say anymore, you're your own person."

"I think 'person' may be a strong word, Harry," Iris said, though he could tell she appreciated the sentiment. "Where to next?"

"You know," Harry said with a grin, "I think it's about time I put those piloting lessons to good use. Set course for Galatana's moon, please."

"Already done, Harry," she replied as the ship turned and leaped into FTL. "May I suggest something?"

"You don't need to ask me, Iris," Harry answered. "What's on your mind?"

"I would like to see if I could transfer myself into the fighter," she said quickly, and Harry was barely able to understand her words.

"You want to see if you can, what, move your consciousness?" Harry said, not fully understanding. "I can see how that would work if you were still just a VI, but we don't even know what you are. How do we know it won't kill you?"

"I can't explain this to you, Harry, because you're not me," Iris said, "but I can feel that it will work. Trust me."

"I can't say I'm fully onboard with this, but I guess I can't stop you," Harry answered. "You're sure this will work?"

"As sure as I can be without trying," she said, voice more confident now. "I can do this." The ship lurched slightly as they dropped out of FTL and continued to decelerate. "I'll take us into orbit, and then we can give this a shot."

Harry nodded and climbed the ladder towards where the fighter was docked, hoping beyond hope that they weren't about to make a huge mistake.

Author's Note: Well, I think I'm going to stop making promises about what I'm going to work on and how often, because obviously I can't keep them. Sorry for how long it took to get this chapter out, but I hope you all enjoy it!