Jeodan was swaying slightly when he suddenly started to fall to the side. Garrus lunged forward and caught him, only a second before he would have hit the ground.

"We'd better get you a seat." Garrus said as he and Carl helped Jeodan back to his feet. They helped Jeodan to a chair and Garrus was handed a glass of water by one of his Enders. He gave Jeodan the water, who laughed. "What?"

"Water won't help me with this, time and some open air will." Jeodan replied and set the glass down on a nearby table.

"Where

Conference Room 47 in Blacken Starport was small and out of the way; it also had a nice view, being on the outer loop. For Carl and the others, there was much to be discussed; they sat down around the small table. Present along with Carl were Garrus, Jeodan, and Matt; additionally, Doctor James Bridgetown would be arriving soon.

"We have much to discuss," Garrus noted.

"Agreed, but first, current events," Carl began. "A Scion artifact appeared in the plaza just after we left. Judging by preliminary reports, it's a dynamic record of Logan's life, death, and effects on society and the galaxy." Carl paused. "It seems the Scion, too, respect him as a hero. Perhaps their intentions are not as threatening as they have seemed."

"Tell that to Talus Command," Garrus remarked, a trace of bitterness in his voice. Carl shrugged.

"Very true, we don't really _know_ their intentions. But I'm in favor of giving them a chance." He sighed and shook his head. "Alliance Command, though... what is up with them, anyhow?" He scratched his chin for a moment, then continued, "Well, then, to other matters. I'd love to tell you the story of why the Kyrozch have retreated for the time being, but that'll have to wait for when James shows up. So... whatever's on your mind."

"Well, if we're on the subject of the Scion, we might as well begin with Richard. He's human, I know, but there are more reasons then that as to why we appointed him Director of Foreign Affairs. He too favors giving the Scion a second chance to show us their intentions, against the blunt opposition of the Military. He plans to, quite simply, go to the nearest Scion-controlled system, that has a defensive ring, and request an audience with a Dreamweaver, or even one of the Scion themselves. While it may be straight forward, its the only option he could give to the President that seemed more favorable then an assault." Garrus explained with a slight grin.

"I won't lie, I was surprised that a non-Talus was put in the cabinet, but I won't say I'm not happy he's human. In fact I hope he can do some good work on the Alliance Command front, the vote is still stalled." Carl added, as James entered the room. "James, there you are!"

The room was monotonous in a weird colour of beige, with a few carts filled with equipment and a large table in which one could lay in. Jeodan lay himself on the table and immediately a semi circle passed over him spraying him with something to kill bacteria and make initial scans of his body and then portraying that as a blue entity a meter in the sky.

"Do you really need that thing? It's creeping me out." Jeodan said as he tilted his head to look at James who had grabbed a couple of handles and was moving about two robotic arms.
"You are going to be sedated anyway." James replied with a grin.
"Can't, I need to use my own will to prevent the cuts from healing."
"I can't imagine it is so fast."
"Aren't you going to make a few micro cuts just to get better access to my brain?" Jeodan asked.
"Yep, this is going to hurt though, a lot."
"I didn't budge when my arm got blown off, I kept fighting, this is nothing."

The robotic hands under James' guidance went to work cutting the skull with a red laser. With all the others watching carefully as the whole scene unfolded.
"There goes the skull." James said with a sigh and the robotic arm carefully removed it."
A blue laser then started making precise micro cuts lasting no longer then a tenth of e millisecond each time. The procedure lasted half an hour when finally James moved from behind the controls to behind Jeodan.

"Ready?" James queried and the patient replied with a low humming sound.
"I'll take that as a yes then." James said as he put his hands just inches away from the exposed brain. And then closed his eyes.

In another part of the universe a being of power had just met his own master.
"Why are you here? I have everything under control." one dreamweaver said to the other as he got up with all possible poise.
"I'm here because..." the man stopped and then looked behind him.
"What?"
"Hold on." And he dissolved into thin air.

Back with the two psychics one was digging deep in the others brain.
"I'm having trouble locating the precise location of the memories. Could you think how you felt when you went berserk against the wardancer?"
Jeodan again replied with a slight humming.
"Here it is, hold on."
The room seemed to darken and James hands started to vibrate slightly.
"I'm not getting a lot, I see your planet, it is beautiful, never saw something like this before. Hold on, I can go back even more... A portion, maybe hundred years is missing burried deep, I'll come back to it in a bit. Going back more, you are fighting something... in space, with ships around you....what is this...what are you... you, you are a ship..."

The men in the room all got up and neared to room listining intenstly to each word.

"Okay, you are, made by the wardancers, as the ultimate weapon, ships that work in perfect unison, you wrecked chaos, destruction. But, you wanted more, they made you too smart and realized too late what you wanted. You went rogue with many of your kind. But you had no means to reproduce at least nothing in a direct line. But you had unfathomable mental power, far beyond anything ever recorded I'm sure."
James knees bent slightly and fought to regain his composure.
"James, maybe you should stop for now." Garrus said over the intercom.
"No I'm making good headway, almost reached the blind stop." James said as he stood his full height. "To overcome this you need bodies, don't have followers, no-one wants to follow ships since you dont have the men to stage an occupation. You kill... millions, Kallum, Wardancer, Human,... everything, you experiment..."The next part is unclear but what I can tell is that you can give back life or, yes not give it back, but transfer your power to living being at the cost of your own abilities, degenerating the actual race. Some ships shared their own knowledge over thousands of soldiers giving limited intelligence. While some only shared their power over to only a few persons. Getting blurrier, I'm digging deeper hold on."

The room darkened even more and some lights went out. "James?" Garrus said with obvious worry in his voice.

Then suddenly out of nowhere a white light filled the room, it manifested itself into human like size but it was pure white. It grabbed James by the through and pushed him to the wall slightly cracking the concrete before letting him drop to the floor obviously in pain, spitting blood. He grab hold of Jeodan and immediately the skull grew back.

Far away aboard the Unification, Amanda felt it.

A flash of bright light, white clashing against red. James was in danger. Something was very wrong.

Something unknown and hidden abruptly awakened in her soul. It was expanding, pulling her in. She felt radiance surround her, washing out everything else.

She was cognizant of being in a room with two other people - her beloved James, and someone or something else that was attacking him. A flash of light, and she felt James's strength fail, his body flying through the air and smashing against a nearby bulkhead like a thrown ragdoll.

The world materialized in front of her, and the light faded. She looked around; the Cy'tan they called Jeodan was on an operating table, paralyzed, immobilized by the psychic consequences of an abruptly severed mental link. The alien presence that had been there just moments earlier was gone. Someone was cutting through the door, which had been fused closed. Slumped in a heap near the opposite wall was James, his cleric's robes, normally light green, turned midnight-blue with the fury of the Aeon.

Amanda rushed to James, tears streaming down her face to see him so broken and helpless. Kneeling down beside him, she checked his pulse; it was very faint. She checked his breathing, but could barely hear it.

She laid her hands gently on his broken form, which began to glow faintly as she restitched his wounds, then flashed brightly for a moment as she attempted to reignite James's spark of life.

James's eyes flew open, and he got up slowly, dazed, but alive. "Am I dead?" he said weakly; then, he saw her. "Amanda," he greeted her.

"James," was all Amanda could say, hugging him tightly. After a few moments, she asked, "Are you all right?"

"I think so," James responded slowly, as they separated, "but I am very tired. I need rest."

The door to the room, previously fused closed, suddenly slid open. Julius Bridgetown was first into the room, followed by Carl, Garrus, and Matt.

"Dad," James greeted the older Bridgetown, a little surprised.

"Administrator Bridgetown," Amanda greeted the older man likewise.

The elder Bridgetown looked at Amanda and shook his head, smiling. "It's okay. You can call me Julius." He turned back to his son with a worried expression. "What happened?"

"I don't really know," James explained, looking at Jeodan, who had regained motor functions and was sitting up. "I was attempting to unlock Jeodan's mind, and then something intervened. I don't know what it was, except that it was quite powerful. I tried to hold it off, but it was too powerful. If Amanda hadn't gotten here when she did, I'd probably be Gone."

Julius nodded slowly. "I see." He regarded Jeodan, then James, deliberately and carefully. When he had finished, he said, "Be more careful next time. If we need to conduct further probes, call me. It seems that whatever we're dealing with requires more than one person - it could require a trained team."

He regarded James for a moment more, then said, "You need rest. Now. Head back to the Unification and stay there until I decide you can leave."

James nodded, then turned and left the room.

Julius spoke to Amanda next. "Go ahead and follow him. Take good care of him. Make sure he doesn't do anything crazy."

Amanda smiled. "I'll keep an eye on him, all right." She turned and left as well.

She had never met James's father before, but she had heard stories of him - a heroic figure and a close friend of General Carl Reddington. Right now, though, she wasn't too worried about Julius - her thoughts lay with James and his well-being. She hurried down the corridor and caught up to him. They would have a lot to talk about on the ride back...

Once both of them calmed down Garrus spoke with a serious tone. "So now what do we do?"
Realizing this Jeodan regained his composure aswell: "I guess we fight the weakened Kallum into submission and find answers."
"I'm sorry that I can't help you with the second one." Garrus answered.
"I'm not sure on how to find them either, I guess I could go to one of the Scion controlled planets but I don't really want to."
Grarrus' mandibles started to click with anger. Jeodan continued: "I know you hate them and I was surprised you remained calm back there."
"There isn't much I can do, the Talus has become weak in this war. I hope I can be re-entered formally by the Cy'Tan fast so we can continue using your space stations for units."
"Defensive fleets have already moved into position around a couple of your planets and I never ordered the production of fleets to be stopped, although they carry UEF and Cy'Tan weaponry only, none of that radiation stuff or Acid rain. The ships should be delivered soon." Jaodan said with a smile.
"I'm relieved to hear that. Looks like we are uniforming the fleets after all."
"Indeed we are, but me delivering ships is not going to do you any good if you can't man them.."

"We can man them, don't worry." Garrus said, and in the distance they finnally saw the transportation vehicles.

"Sometimes it still haunts me," Argus said, regarding Carl thoughtfully. The two were back in Blacken's main city, eating lunch at one of the city's many food courts.

"What does?"

"Lots of things. Did I ever tell you why I landed myself in prison?"

Carl shook his head. "I don't think so."

Argus nodded in a satisfied sort of way. "Since it's long gone and in the past now, I suppose I can tell you."

"Go on."

"We were a separatist movement on the planet of Procyon. One night, I received a vision. Now, this ain't your ordinary vision, believe me. This was different. A beautiful, beautiful something, can't tell what it was, an angel, a god? It's not too clear now. Anyhoo... it told me in the most delicate of voices that I was special. That I could change the world. That I had forbidden knowledge, knowledge that could change the course of history forever."

Carl saw where this was going and could not hold back a small smile. "Go on."

"Well, being the drunken fellow I was, I immediately took this to mean that I was God and that our separatism was the One True Way. Somehow we got it into our heads that we could take on the UEF's best." Argus shrugged. "I'm sure you know everything that followed. We attacked a UEF arms depot, trying to seize an army for ourselves, and then Civil Defense came along. Boy, were we all wrong..."

Carl regarded Argus thoughtfully for a moment. "But you do have special knowledge. It evidently didn't help you in your little rebellion, but that's only because it was the wrong kind of special knowledge."

"Really?"

"You have the knowledge, not about how to make a separatist movement a success, but about many other mysteries that even our best scientists don't comprehend. Mysteries of the universe that, when unlocked, could make the UEF the most powerful entity in the known universe." Carl regarded Argus carefully. "The secrets of technology so advanced, yet so simple, that even the science-loving UEF would call it magic."

Argus seemed surprised. "Oh?"

"You'll understand one day. Let's pray that that moment is not too late."

The next morning Jeodan was busy in piles of paperwork instated by the alliance and was relaying wishes and orders to the fleet and Cy'Tan council al day long. Garrus had contacted him during the day and they agreed to meet up in the south eastern district for dinner which he found odd because it was pretty out of the way for both of them.

Nevertheless Jeodan showed up right on time and was pretty shocked when he entered the building. He wouldn't have pictured Garrus to be open to new foods, especially Cy'Tan. Either way Jeodan looked around for just a brief second and then found Garrus sitting in a corner being watched by several people. Jeodan took a seat next to him and all the looks turned back to their meals.

"I'm quite shocked to find you here." Jeodan said as he took his seat, and gave Garrus a 'hand-shake' the way Cy'Tan do, by sharing a small bit of felt pain. Although this time it was much less severe then previously and did not phase Garrus one bit as he smiled back.
"Can't hurt to try new things can it?" He said, keeping his faint grin.
"I guess not, but I can't tell you if you will like it tho. Let me order something for you and me."
"Figured as much, I keep looking at this menu but somehow I can't make sense of the layout. I tried pointing something out but they just laughed at me and said I should wait for my friend."
Jeodan couldn't help but let out a laugh and then ordered the same dish twice. While they waited they conversed.

"Well, I've finally succeeded in disbanding all fighter and bomber squadrons." Jeodan said.
"Why would you do that?"
"They performed poorly against both humans and Talus alike, we aren't meant for it and if I remember correctly the principle was only adopted by copy-catting most of the other races."
"I see."
"Yes, so from now on we will either only support Talus or UEF battleships or take some of your Carriers with us into battle. That being said, we are working on some bigger designs to accommodate for the extra manpower."
"How big?"
"I think Morningstar big and your battleship big."

The two men talked for little while longer about specifications when the first course came. It look much like soup, vegetable soup. But it only had a few pieces in it. Next to it was a lone pepper. Garrus looked at Jeodan confused while he was chugging down the meal.
"So what do you do with the pepper?" Garrus asked.
"You eat it after you've finished the drink."
"Drink?"
"Yes."

Garrus complied and happily drank the 'drink' as Jeodan put it. It felt slightly sweet and colder then he had first anticipated.

After Jeodan had finished he swallowed the peper whole. Garrus finished but had not seen Jeodan do this and had consequently put it in his mouth. "No dont!" Jeodan tried to warn him with his hand reached out to him but Garrus had already taken a bite.
Jeodan sat back down and sighed while looking at the clock.
"What happened?" Garrus asked once again puzzled.
"The drink was to cool the affects of the pepper, you should not have bit in it, it dissolves in your digestive organs and the air it produces is slightly bitter and sour at the same time while being spicy."
"Sounds nice."
"It is if you swallow it whole." Jeodan replied while looking at the clock. "5...4...3"
"What happens in three seconds?"
'2...1..."
And then Garrus felt it, his jawbones clenched, his eyelids twitched controllably and his left hand started twitching. His mandables were moving iratticly as Garrus tried to fight it. In the meanwhile Jeodan errupted in heavy laughter leaning back into his chair laughing his ass off watching the spectacle that ensued.

Garrus jumped up his left arm now numb and started screaming as loud as he could as he ran into the kitchen demanding something to releave the taste. After about five minutes of screaming he came back giving Jeodan the most harsh look he could as he sat down.

"You know you could've warned me." Garrus said with what Jeodan had identified as a frown.
"I could warn you about a lot of things, but that would make them less entertaining." Jeodan said as he once more started laughing, this time much more controlled. Three more courses came and Garrus with a few warnings from Jeodan had eaten with joy.

"You guys cook with a lot of 'colour'."
"Only since about four hundred years, it was pretty bland before that."

"Matt."

Matthias knew this voice to be a dream. Katherine was dead, after all. But all the same, he could not shake the feeling that Katherine was still looking out for him, watching over him.

"Katherine," he whispered.

He felt a gentle pressure on his shoulder. He looked up. She was smiling.

"I wish you could really be here," Matt remarked sadly. "I miss you all the time."

"Really?" Katherine's voice was soft, but there was a slight undercurrent of *something* in it that Matt could not quite place his finger on.

"I've done many things, worked with many people..." Matt shrugged. "But I've never found a place to settle down. I don't have a place to call home anymore. We had so much ahead of us... and then it was ruined. I'm looking for stability, Katherine - that's all."

"You can't find stability with anyone else?" Katherine asked gently.

Matt shook his head. "It's not the same."

Katherine nodded. "You'll have to find me, then."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Find you? Are you saying-"

"No," Katherine quickly corrected him, "that's not what I mean. You know as well as I do that I didn't survive the Aeon attack. What I mean is..." She paused, looking for the right way to phrase her next words. "There are other ways to find a dead person."

"Oh?"

"I would talk to James if I were you," Katherine suggested.

Matt nodded. "I will. So does this mean we'll see each other again?"

Katherine's smile seemed to light up the rapidly diminishing world. "Yes, dear Matt. Very soon."

A twinkling of the stars... and then a voice, unwelcome yet present. "Colonel Bloodmoon, please report to sickbay. Your immediate counsel is requested."

Nigthengael was the first to see the terminal. Nai had come out of his shock, and was beginnign to issue directives through the interface. Scion units and fleets were appearing on screen moving to intercept. Video feeds of swarms of thousands and thousands of the dark ones bugs just passing by planets. The stream was like Locusts swarms through a field of stars. The attacks by the Scion fleets that found their mark, lit up even more of the dark ones. Hundreds were destroyed, and even then it seemed hardly a dent in their numbers. As the Scion destroyed a hundred, a thousand more replaced the ones felled. It was a great horde.

And though the Scion engaged the dark ones. They did not fight back. They just moved, unphased, or just slightly altering their courses to avoid the Scion. It was a blitz. They were moving rapidly, as to set up a massive "check mate" on each system. This was a new tactic. One the Scion had not seen before. Nai, in all his power, sat and felt helpless. A great storm was upon the universe, and so many would not wake to see the dawn.

As it was feared, video of Scion worlds became streaming in. The Dreamweavers taking position and fighting easily. Then, in unison, as if in one command, the swarm of dark ones would stop, assemble for attack, and with utter determination make their attack. First upon the Dreamweavers, and their support vessels. Then upon the outter ring defenses, then upon the ring itself. When the ring fell. the blast would utterly destroy the planet. Despite the success of the attack, few dark ones would survive. But they had accomplished what had not been done in more than a billion years, and that was destroy a Scion ring world. It was glorious.

Soon, through the other interfaces, the Scion Houses began coming online. House Weatherlight, StarStrike, Unimob and others. All coordinating defenses against the Darkones. Despite the unified defense, still Scions worlds fell. Soon, systems, soon entire Scion nations, and soon even entire galaxies. Over and over, the Scion worlds fell throughout the multi-verse. It was then, that the first of the Scion came under attack.

The House of Unimob was one of the oldest and first. It's warriors and dreamweavers proud and diverse. They had largely played a sybolic role for many billions of years, to the power and glory of the Scion's climb to power. It was over for Unimob before it begun. A huge spear of several million Darkones drove in, surrounding his homeworld. Thousands of dreamweavers came up from the planet. And the battle then engaged. It was glorious. Darkones by the thousand were killed, rrupting into massive blasts. These Dakrones were differnt, they were of their warrior cast. Had it not been so, they would not have stood up to the defense of so many Dreamweavers. But as that thousdand darkones fell, soon, a Dreamweaver would succumb, then another, soon, the cascade of dreamweavers dying would come more and more rapidily. Few survived, though many tried to flee.. When the ring was destroyed, so too went the planet.

In the control interface Nai say in, the portion of the room that was managed by unimob simply winked from existance. The display showed a shockwave radiating out from Unimobs homeworld. As it expanded in the great reality altering shockwave, the galaxy he resided in was detroyed. Taken from existances. Nai felt it, as did all the scion. Billions upon Billions of souls..

It was glorious.