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The next few days were as uneventful as he expected it to be. Dahnus was on the beat around his usual precinct, a sector known as Presidium Point down in the Zakera ward of the Citadel. On the one hand, the area was rather light in its activities being so close to the more benevolent Presidum area. On the other hand, drug running would occur often due to the place being a drop-off point for some criminals. It was a much lighter area of the wards than usual, the light of the cluster glinting down on the blue steel streets and resplendent buildings all around him. Dahnus walked the beat, checking with various local stores as he hit his favourite promenade known locally as Sushi Street, due to the many food joints that served fish in the area. All along the street on either side he could see the many shops, the street only split by the odd wedging billboard or bridge that arched over the expansive anti-gravity traffic hovering beneath them. Sushi joints, butcher's markets, fast food stalls and the odd restaurant or two for a much fancier dinner. There were also one or two pharmacies, a toy store, three bars and a tourist travel agency that had recently opened up as a branch of a larger company. Dahnus checked with all the locals, keeping a police presence well aware in the streets as well as making sure he kept informed of everyone's troubles. Mr. Shen of the pharmacy simply greeted him, whilst Mrs. Garain of the toy store reported a few suspicious loiterers in the area around their mid-20s. The sushi joints simply argued about the other's apparent offences made, which always gave Dahnus a headache in trying to appease an American, a Korean, and a Japanese owner, all of whom regularly accused the other. He considered it to be his puzzle of the day in trying to figure out who started the fight and how best to resolve it, which he almost always was able to once the threat of legal action calmed down the three of them. The butcher's markets were quiet, and never received any problems due to fine meats and the fact that nobody wanted to fuck with Mr. Dreen, the krogan wielding a stone-sharpened cleaver that could cut the deepest husk. Krogans were unusual to find in the Citadel, and even more unusual it was to find one with an actual business, but it suited him well. Dahnus was a regular customer for obtaining some particular turian-friendly meats, if ever he had to bring home the bacon. Or in his case the shansa.

One krogan, six humans, three asari, the volus who owned the travel agency branch and a salarian bartender. He admired the street for its candid ethnicity, and more often than not due to its proximity with the Presidium did it paint a much better idealistic picture of the Citadel wards than anywhere else. He knew of course that the wards were never truly this peaceful, but so long as people believed it, then that effect would transfer unto other visitors of the place. This also included criminals who thought this place was easy pickings. But he would prove them wrong. Currently Drumarien was walking up towards Dreen the butcher, the hulking dark-green krogan of 7 feet almost dwarfing the very carcasses he had hanging up in storage. The front was pure white and spotless like bones picked clean, from the counter to the ceiling, the krogan himself in an enormous apron that more resembled a caftan than anything else. "Ey Dahn," said the krogan, "gettin' yer usual today?" "Nah just on duty," said the turian, "anything new?" "Nahhhh not today...though-...hold on." The sound of something clattering in the kitchen behind the doors made Dreen turn towards them, opening halfway to roar: "THAT BETTER BE FUCKIN' CLEAN SAMUEL, OR I'M USIN' YER FUCKIN' SPINE FER A MEAT ROLLER!" "S-S-SORRY SIR!" Closing the doors he turned back towards Dahnus who struggled not to smirk. "Sorry, new kid on duty, fuckin' fingers are too damn small sometimes." "I'll just pretend I didn't hear your threat." "Heh, come on Dahn you know me, I'm a big ol' softie." "Says the guy I saw punch a shansa carcass in two." "I lost my tenderiser, so sue me, I washed my hands." "I know...I'll order my usual after my shift's over alright?" "Alright, oh, forgot to say, you uh talked to Miss Garain?" "Yeah?" "She musta told ya 'bout some punks lurkin' around here scopin' the place out. Human they were, three of 'em in brown cloaks, real smart cuz black is a lot more noticeable. No one notices brown." "You saw them?" asked Dahnus. "Ehhh just a bunch of kids, probably duct rats or sumthin', but they got shifty eyes on 'em. Like they were lookin' to steal." "Don't go making assumptions Dreen." "I'm not," said Dreen, "I know they were, cuz they took Park's sushi when he wuzn't lookin'." "Really?" "Well, not sushi, more like what wuz it...hweh?" "Hoe, yes, but does he know? He never told me that." "He don't know it, thought I should tell you first, otherwise he'd just go accusin' Nakamura like a big baby. The fuck's up with those two anyway?" "Apparently it's old human rivalries, they got different groups among them or whatever, like clans with krogans." "Ohhh yeah...huh, really? Never thought that, thought they only had like five of 'em, like white, black...sandy, real white an'...guys like Park an' Nakamura with the weird eyes." "Oh much more than that, trust me, I had to study a whole file on humans alone when I started up on C-Sec. You got your clans, they got their nations, not as bad now what with being out in space and all but...yeah." "Well, you keep an eye out fer those kids, cuz if they try to steal anythin' from me...heh."

He said nothing but he simply patted the large stone knife on the counter, a ruthless vicious-looking thing from barbaric times. Yet Dahnus could tell that there was a metallic coating that ensured the stone would never chip, leaving no trace of anything to come off into meat thankfully. With this new information he headed out back on the street, looking around to find the three possible pilfering thieves in brown cloaks. Eventually he saw that three of them were indeed lurking around the Korean sushi bar, simply sitting by the benches near trying to look inconspicuous. To the casual eye they just looked like three young humans talking away to each other, rough with the street life but nothing more. To the officer however he saw three pairs of cautious eyes watching like hawks, constantly on the move for anything out of the ordinary, whether it was danger or a nice potential grab. He kept himself out of sight behind a plant and sat down on a bench, checking his omnitool for the daily news to try and blend in. For the next ten minutes nothing seemed to happen, his casual glances masked by occasionally walking off to Dreen's as if waiting for an order of his. But then he noticed something much more unusual. Namely in the form of someone running out of Mrs. Garain's toy store with a datapad clutched tightly in one hand. The asari owner cried out as she just noticed him leave, which caught Dahnus' attention. The three suddenly left all at once, walking away in separate directions as if casually just leaving. Dahnus knew different as he focused on the single pale human boy who looked very clearly guilty, his focus on fast-walking so determined that he almost bumped into Drumarien walking by. "Woah, hey slow down kid." "UH-...y-y-yeah?!" "The lady at the toy store called out for you, did you forget something?" "U-UM...no, I don't think she was calling for me." "Iiii think she was, she might have a receipt for you." "Wha?" "Did you get your receipt before leaving?" "...OH, o-oh nah nah I'm good, I don't need a receipt." "Are you sure?" asked Dahnus. "In case your purchase might not work and you might wanna refund, you know without proof of purchase it's impossible to get your money back." "N-nah, she's a good lady, I know all her stuff works." "Regular are you?" "Y-yeah!" "You seem nervous, are you alright?" "S-s-sorry, thought I'd...done something wrong, officer." "Naaah you're fine. It's just your friend I'm after." "Huh?" "The one right over there stealing drugs from that pharmacy." "Wha-HUH?!"

He pointed towards the pharmacy where indeed there was a brown-cloaked human youth hastily stuffing medicine into his pockets and making a run as soon as he saw Dahnus. Dahnus immediately gave chase knowing he had his true target, but not before saying to the young honest decoy: "Stay out of trouble kid, you're better than this!" The pharmacy owner saw the steal too late and screamed out for the thief to stop, but clearly he wasn't planning to. Dahnus immediately ran past chasing down the street as he kept his eyes focused on the brown-cloaked human. The street would start to turn at some point away from the commercial district, the roads non-existent below them as cars zoomed back and forth without a care for the chase. People quickly dodged out of the way, panicked by the police officer charging through the crowd in the wake of confusion that the thief had left, quickly calling on his comm unit: "Control this is twelve-forty-seven, we have a runner down at sector two-four-nine, requesting backup ahead to stop him, repeat, suspect is wearing a brown cloak, pale human." "Acknowledged," said Control, "available units please assist with a runner in sector two-four-nine, brown cloak, human, pale skin, over." "STOP, C-SEC!" The turian officer kept up the chase with a warning, but the human did not stop as he leapt over barricades, railings and dived through plantboxes that tried to give a little green to the place. Immediately Dahnus began to dislike this. He hated the parkour runners the most, always trying to make things not easy for him for stealing so small compared to the usual fare. He nevertheless kept up the chase, planting a hand on the barricade and swinging over without ever losing his speed, diving through plants and using his biotics to correct himself in mid-roll. As the thief kept running without ever looking back, his cloak sweeped out behind him which marked him easily out from the crowd ahead. Soon however, two police officers were waiting at a corridor exit standing guard and eager to rush the young thief. But the boy simply corrected his path and swiftly hopped up towards a wall near the doorway, kicked off of the corner wall twice back and forth like a gecko before creeping onto the upper balcony. The turian had a much faster way of catching up with him, aiming swiftly for the railing before shimmering with biotic power. A sudden radiant blue aura covered his entire body before he shot up like a bullet. He slammed into the nearby wall on the upper balcony, no worse for wear thanks to the kinetic barrier that his biotics gave, the charge attack recoiling him off the wall before he was on foot again. The human kept running, young and spirited with enough stamina to give an old cop a run for his money. But Dahnus simply kept hot on his heels, running along the upper corridor and dodging inbetween the public who tried to dodge out the way, either knocked down or shoved aside by the thief. "STOP! IN THE NAME OF THE LAW, I ORDER YOU TO STOP!"

He had no intention of shooting, unless the thief decided to try it first, and neither could he use his biotic charge directly on the thief himself without running the risk of breaking necks or otherwise assaulting the youth. Only when there was an actual physical danger would he consider using it, but he hoped he would never have to in such a crowded place like this. The thief quickly leapt from the balcony once he turned a corner and jumped towards another wall, running alongside it with incredible speed before he lost his traction, kicking off across a wide gap. The huge infinite abyss of traffic down below him spelled certain death, even if he was lucky enough to not get hit by anything on the way down to nothingness. But he managed to kick off the wall hard enough to land straight over the highway and down on the other side of the street, running off towards the lower wards. Dahnus did not waste any time in doing the same, leaping onto the wall for his own momentum and slightly struggling to catch his wind, but still able to kick off with a strong biotic rush that slammed him down onto the streets. People spread out from around him in fright at the officer suddenly landing in a biotic blast, a brief shield half-domed around him to protect his fall before running down towards the thief. Another doorway laid ahead, in a much lower-ceilinged area where two guards stood waiting to capture him. This time there would be no escape and no fancy parkour able to save him. If he wasn't so skilled enough as to get past both guards. But the human thief simply sweeped off his brown cloak in mid-run and flung it straight ahead of him, forcing the two guards to grab onto it thinking they could catch him. In the brief sleight of hand, the youth went down sliding across the floor and straight underneath their legs, grabbing the cloak hard in mid-passing with such strength that both guards went down hard on the floor. Both their noses slammed into cold steel, as the boy hopped up with cloak back on whilst laughing all the way. Dahnus leapt over his two fallen comrades seeing they were not badly hurt, and continued to chase after down a flight of stairs. The boy leapt onto a rail and grinded all the way down with just a pair light boots, streaking seamlessly with a cool pose of one arm out behind him and the other against his front. Dahnus simply biotic-charged his way down, making sure there was no one coming up the way to hit by accident before doing so as he almost managed to grab the boy upon dismounting the rail. But he hopped a little too high out of reach and managed to swing his cloak out against him, smacking teasingly across the officer's face in defiance before he got up. "THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!" roared Dahnus. "CEASE THIS NOW OR ELSE IT'LL BE WORSE FOR YOU!" "ONLY IF YOU CAN CATCH ME COP!" cried out the youth. "COME ON, WHAT ARE THEY TRAINING YOU FOR HUH?!" Seeing the challenge thrown down upon him, the turian swiftly leapt up and came roaring ahead with pure speed, slamming his armoured feet upon the steel floor as they reached a larger hallway connecting between two districts. At one point, the human cheekily leapt onto a volus' head and handspringed off of him like a vaulting horse, making the volus panic and stumble back as the thief grabbed onto a set of pipes just above them within the ceiling. The police officer came rushing past the volus, shaking his fist and wheezing insults.

The human had swung through the pipes overhead and was quickly making his way towards an open vent, but Dahnus wasn't planning on letting him get away as he now got close enough to use another power. He swung a hand out towards the human's legs and summoned a biotic force to latch onto the boots, tugging at them hard with the biotic pull he had used back in the club. He was trying not to pull too hard in case he ripped the human's leg off, but it was enough to stop the thief from swinging further ahead. Trapped and struggling to kick back against the near-invisible psychic force, or at least what felt like one, the thief made a daring tactic to swing one hand down whilst grabbing on with the other. He quickly undid one of his boots and hurled it at the turian cop, who was momentarily distracted by not getting a boot in the face to suddenly lose his focus, the biotic pull no longer affecting the young human. With only one boot he kicked open the weak vent above and swung his way in, running through the ventilation network. Dahnus was afraid of losing him after that for the network of vents were immeasurable upon the Citadel. But he had an idea, swiftly calling through his comms: "Control, this is twelve-forty-seven I need a brief schematic of ventilation A-four-nine, my runner just went in them." "Control here, authorisation?" "Edmonton-oh-seven." "Acknowledged, sending schematic now." The turian swiftly got a schematic of the ventilations above him within seconds of download, seeing that at that moment in time there was only one way for the thief to most likely go. Heading north towards the residential blocks. He ran towards the northern end of the hallway which branched off towards two paths, taking the residential area and waiting to make his move. The young thief thought he finally managed to escape his pursuer, clambering through the crouch-height vents like a harrowed ape before sliding his way downwards. He knew he had to time this sloped jump perfect, or else suffer a broken leg at the price of a long drop downwards then he expected. The coat swung out behind him, keeping it closely tight against his body as he waited for the jump, seeing a vent upwards that was a few seconds away from the drop. He jumped up, almost scraping his head against the vent ceiling behind him as he slammed his hands on the ledge above him. Scrambling his way up he quickly hurried through towards the exit, sliding out with feet first after kicking open the vent slats before rolling out onto the cold steel blue of the residential districts. He thought he was safe. Then someone landed on him, the tight long claws of a turian swiftly grabbing around his wrists and pulling them back hard against his back, cuffing him tight with hard-light holocuffs. "Not today kid." "WH-WHAT THE HELL!?" "You're not the only one who can figure out how to use a vent." "B-BUT HOW DID YOU-...FUCK!" "I got my eyes all over the street, like the fact that that kid you used for a decoy simply bought a cheap game and tried to look shifty for the sake of looking like he stole something, that way he got the blame and you run off free." "U-UNGH! Y-you don't understand, I had to do it, I had to!" "You're under arrest for theft and resisting arrest. You are entitled to a lawyer that the Citadel will grant you, and you do not have to say anything but be warned that anything you say from here on now may be used as evidence against you. Do you understand?" "...fuck man...I just had to do this...just one thing." "Do you understand?" "YEAH FINE WHATEVER I GOT IT! I just...I had to do it, you don't understand dude, I had to-" "Alright. Let's go, we can hear your story back at the station and you can explain it all there, and about your friends too." "I ain't got no friends!" "Let's hope they say the same after your little brown-cloak meeting back up at Shen's pharmacy. We'll just be taking those back too by the way."

In the end it turned out that the thief wasn't a "duct rat" after all, the name for the homeless youths that crawled through the Citadel, but rather a young teenager from a poor area of the Wards who just fell into the wrong crowd, trying to appease his peers with petty theft. They had been stealing from various stores all over the wards for quite a while, as simply nothing more than mules and drugrunners for semi-harmless uses. The young thief he caught was eventually processed and given a reduced sentence of a month in prison, due to the fact there was no assault charges, and that the medicine he stole was not that valuable. The boy did however agree to assist C-Sec with relevant information concerning the gang he was a part of, a group of duct rats that took advantage of his misbegotten friends for their own ends. They were people whose lives went upside-down, kids who fell through the cracks, an unfortunate but inevitable side effect when in a station-sized city whose population factored into millions. But that of course was no excuse in bullying not-so-homeless youths and eventually a unit was to be relegated to the area in order to catch the small gang. Most people who became officers, or rather those who dreamt of it, never seemed to remember the paperwork that was involved. But not Dahnus Drumarien. Turians were regarded as creatures of bureaucracy, with red tape in their veins and filing cabinets as their homes. Dahnus was no such exception, but only by the necessity of his job having learnt greatly from past experience on the proper demonstration of how to do processing. He was used to this by now, in fact compared to the past he was having a much easier time than with past bureaucracies.

Several people were part of his processing duty over the next two days along with the young thief, including one vagrant, one drunkard, two sisters that were constantly arguing to the point of fighting in a shopping centre, and an extremely paranoid salarian. The words simply flowed from one person to the next, with Dahnus taking down notes, recordings, clarifications, compiling evidence of past misdemeanours if any, and so on. But for those two days alone, his office was full of other voices. "I just lost my job and-" "Ah got a playsh to shtay sho don' werry abou' meh." "You should be worryin' about HER!" "Wha-BITCH, don't you fucking sass me!" "She's out there, I swear, waiting to hunt me down, because of THEM, they-" "-just threw me out without any severance pay at all, and I-" "FUCKED HER RIGH' IN THUH PUSSEH, HAAAH!" "I'm gonna fuck her up in a minute!" "You just try me huh, I'm not afraid to get my nails dirty, unlike YOU!" "WHY WOULD SHE SAY SUCH A THING TO ME!? PLEASE help me!" "I mean if that's alright with you, I don't wanna be a bother officer, I'm sure something'll pick up-" "Mah forty-kay an' just pour it aaaaaalllll over uuuuuuuuuuush...an' maybe-" "Just legally sign me as being not of the same family as her, would that be too much to ask?" "When is it ever NOT too much to ask with you, jesus christ-" "Spirits, whatever, please I'm BEGGING you to keep me safe from them!" "Alright, enough." Dahnus said this only after hearing their stories in each separate interview, calmly and precisely, dealing with each one in order of vagrant, drunkard, sisters and paranoid over the course of two days. "We will investigate this company's policies and see if you have a legal leg to stand on, until then we'll find some lodging for you." "Thanks man, I really appreciate it." "You need to sleep off for a night here with that mouth of yours because you are in no way capable of leaving this station." "BUMFLUFFIN'-HUH!?" "The two of you need to calm down and settle your differences rationally, otherwise I am putting both of you in separate cells for causing public disturbance." "SHE STARTED IT!" "We'll see what we can do to try and put you under protection, but you have to explain to us more about who's trying to find you first before we can act properly." "A-a-alright, th-thank you officer."

The rest of those two days was nothing but paperwork, or rather litigious processing of digital files from omni-tool to terminal to email and back, electronic signatures on every file as he went fully automatic. The Fin Torvan case he had already written up his report on, and there was nothing more he could add on the James Kanellos murder until he heard back from Davis who, being his superior, had the case on his hands due to being in Investigation. Dahnus was simply Enforcement, and he preferred it that way due to his abilities being more suited to walking on the beat. The only thing that truly concerned Dahnus now was the appointment coming this week, a concern that had been plaguing him for the past few weeks that he was unable to take his mind off of. That is until Davis came in while on their lunch break, looking rather troubled about something more than usual. "Here ya go Dahn," said Dave greeting. "Thanks...you alright?" "Yeah um...shit, never mind." "Trouble back home?" "Wha-no, Ashley's fine, why would you think that?" "Just I remember that fight you had a while back, everything okay now?" "Oh...right, yeah, it has been okay for about two weeks now. But thanks for asking." "So what's up then?" "...alright, uh...listen I can trust you with something right? Something that should not leave this room." Dahnus put up his soundproof barrier to make sure no one would listen in, keeping all their conversations private if ever needed. "What's wrong?" "Remember that Kanellos thing a few days back?" "Yeah?" "...I think we might be dealing with a serial killer." "...what?" "Look at this." "No, Davis, this is not-" "Just look at it for me, come on-" "No dammit, this is not professional-" "Look I trust your opinion on this, you're the only one I trust good enough to help me on this." "...you know sharing me this kind of stuff when I'm not on the case is unconstitutional." "I know, but I just want you to be careful man...I care about you." "Heh...Greg?" "I know I know, I'm a softie, whatever, just...you were there on the first incident, I thought it'd be best to keep you in the loop. In case something might happen since it's all more or less happening around your area." "Wait really?" "Yeah." "...I'll consider this as just an alert but nothing more if you think this is relevant to my area." "Alright, here."

Davis pulled out a datapad after checking to see no one was around, showing a few more cases that had occurred the past few days. All of them were murders, four people killed in the exact same way as James Kanellos was. The wounds were sometimes defensive, occasionally there had been signs of fighting back but the final blow was always the same. A single plunging thrust deep into their bodies, which made Dahnus gasp with surprise by his mouth flaps twitching softly away from the mouth itself. "Spirits...same weapon?" "Yeah," said Davis, "same kind of wound, sometimes from behind, sometimes from the front." "Any connections?" "One was a clothing store assistant, one was a bankteller, one was unemployed, and the other was a bartender." "Seems all middle-class types." "All over the place, there's no pattern between them so far but we're trying to look up leads. We're also trying to figure out some kind of path area the killer might have gone." "Alright. If I see anything I'll let you know." "Thanks, and uh...you know nothing of this." "I don't even know what you're talking about other than James Kanellos, I don't even know who these people are and I'd rather keep it that way until it becomes relevant." "Right right." The human put the datapad away as Dahnus put down the barrier, letting people see them as just nothing more but two friends having lunch together. Greg tried to change the subject asking: "How's your family?" "Good, but Jarren's got an appointment coming up this week." "That still happening?" "Mmhmm." "What is it for?" "I can't say until we get the results, I don't want to cause any premature panicking. Shara's doing all she can to not say anything to her friends, for all they know this is just a checkup." "Well isn't it? You're the one making it all suspicious." "Hmph...that's true. Guess I'm the one who worries too much." "I know you're a real family man, it's fine. Me I...don't think I could ever raise a kid, that's why I admire you." "Hmhm...you'd be surprised what ordinary people can do." "And I'm ordinary?" "Well...I think you are, I mean I dunno what ordinary humans are like." "Mmm true enough." The two kept on eating until they were done, finishing off their meat sandwiches before getting back to work, with Dahnus burying himself fully into processing. For the rest of the day he dealt with the salarian exclusively, trying to calm him down and file away his reports on what appeared to be just basic company paranoia and being overstressed. He hated those sorts of people, always stressed out over the tiniest things that to him seemed infinitely miniscule to the grand scale of things. Nevertheless, he found protection for him after an entire day's worth of paperwork, waiting to head home.

At the end of the week, the Drumariens arrived at the clinic. It was as clean and white as anywhere else on the presidium, to the point that it did not look any different than say a clothing store would on this area of the Citadel. It was a Turian-based clinic specifically, the walls covered in posters of their language, infomercials of medical aids being filtered through a monitor, and a variety of digital magazines that catered to no one. The seats were at least comfortable, plush on both sides of the room which was why Shara preferred this place. They sat waiting with two other patients, one with a raspy cough and the other with a wounded eye that staunched some form of blue blood around it. The reception desk at one end of the hallway-style room simply had one male turian guarding, occasionally taking calls for appointments. Jarren sat between both Dahnus and Shara, the three of them silent out of boredom. It was only 20 minutes later that they were called, even if it felt like 40. "Jarren Drumarien?" "That's you son." The boy hopped off his seat and nervously waddled in to the doctor's office. The office had a chair resembling that of a dentist's but without as many implements, as well as a medical chart of turian anatomy and some storage cabinets around a sink. The doctor was an old sort, somewhere in his late-60s with a croaky voice and dark orange lines running down his face, his labcoat neatly pinned to his body. "Hello there Jarren." "Hiii doctorrrr." "How are you today?" "Um...okays." "Alright then let's get this done quick shall we? Then you can get home sooner." "Kay." Jarren was understandably nervous, not being one who liked doctors even if he knew this one was nice. But the various poking and prodding he would have to endure was exasperating to him. He placed himself up on the chair with his mother's help, given a few mitigating scans of his body and a few blood samples taken from various points of his body. This was a little distressing but Shara encouraged him to look away and smile at her like a brave boy, the dark blue blood filling a small vial from a hypovalve that acted like a syringe, piercing the metallic turian skin with very little pain. The last part came from the mental scan, which for Jarren was the most unnerving to the point of being quite frightened. A large machine resembling a helmet would be placed over his head, trapping him in total darkness as a strange devious whirring began to resonate all around him. It made his head hurt, and the vibrations only intensified further despite knowing his parents were still there waiting. He simply lied like a dead fish, stiff and unmoving, enduring the whole thing with a pallid face.

Finally the tests were done after only 15 minutes, and he was allowed to leave after being given two dextro-pops as a reward/bribe for his coming here. Shara took him outside to head back to the waiting room, whilst Dahnus stayed behind to ask: "Anything on the tests yet?" The doctor began to look uncertain and slowly shook his head. "We can't say for sure, so far there's no activity that we can tell but there are some trace elements that could become active." "Nnngh...I wish they didn't take so long." "I know, this is a very slow process concerning Jarren, he might simply have elements from you that might never become latent. I know you want to be prepared for any changes in him." "I more hope he DOESN'T have it. I just don't want to have to send him to another school, to another life as a different person. Away from his friends and a life he could have with them. He's young yes, he's only five but I can't do that to him, he would never forgive us." "I'm sure he would," said the doctor. "I'd rather not take that chance, kids can build some bad grudges, especially at his age when they can now remember things." "You don't know that." "Yes I do. Both of us do." "...you're right. I'm sorry." "No don't apologise, I'm the one that should be, I'm the biotic." "That doesn't mean you can be blamed for what you give him, he could have easily become allergic to other things or have a heart condition or-" "I know, I know...I just don't want his life to change because of what I gave him." "If the father is biotic then that gives a thirty-percent-chance, which is a lot lower than the mother being biotic. Hopefully, he might dodge this bullet and if not, perhaps we might invest in some biotic-blockers." "Is there really such a thing?" "Very experimental, it's possible that they won't be developed for the next three years unfortunately. But that doesn't mean it's a choice, it's just a chance that, if successful, could give him the life you want him to have." "That'll be too late then," said Dahnus. "By the time those suppressants'll come out, he'll already have a life as a biotic, he'll be going through all the same problems that turian biotics have." "This isn't Palaven, mister Drumarien, the Citadel is much more obliging about those with such abilities." "...you're right. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get defensive like that, that was uncalled for." "It's okay, I understand you want the best for your son. But for now we'll have to see what happens over the next few months. I recommend making another appointment within the next five months, I'll send the appointment details out to your wife's email." "Alright, thank you doctor."

He shook his hand before leaving, seeing Jarren had never been more eager to leave as they walked back to their shuttlecar. The ride home was uneventful, other than Jarren being relieved and proud by his parents for being so civil and brave. Upon arriving at their home, which was a lush-looking residence amongst the many-sloped districts of the presidium, Jarren rushed immediately to his room in order to relax with his toys. The house was rather block-shaped in its outline, resembling a very short ziggurat reaching only three floors tall. The bottom floor was the widest opening up to their living room, a spacious affair with smooth brown couches and a wide TV above a holographic fireplace amongst faux-wood floorboards. A kitchen laid around the side of the TV without a door in a white hallway, with stairs up the opposite side of the TV that led to the second floor and onwards, where the bedrooms and bathrooms would be. Jarren wasted no time running up them eagerly as Shara cried out: "Now Jarren, dinner's at seven okay?!" "OKAY MOM!" "You need anything, just say!" Once the two parents were alone in their living room, Dahnus sat down on the sofa sighing as Shara kept herself standing. She asked her husband: "Did he say anything?" "Nothing new," said Dahnus, "just another appointment in five months and to just wait and see." "...I see." "I'm sorry." "No, please...don't apologise okay, you know it's not your fault." "He said that they're working on biotic suppressants in the next few years, but I worry it might be too late by then." "You never know. He might not become biotic and things'll still be alright, things are different on the Citadel here, it's not like Palaven." "I know but...I don't want him to become some vagrant biotic mess in the future all because of me, all because of the fact he inherited it from me." "He won't be Dahnus." She bent down and kissed him on the lips to reassure his tired face, stroking both cheeks with her hands. "I know he won't. You're a good father, he has someone to look up to, someone who's a symbol of justice to him. You might not realise how proud he is of you, what kid wouldn't want a parent beating up the bad guys every day? And if he ever goes down the wrong path...trust me, I know precisely how to steer him off from it." "Hmhmhm...I'd love to be around that day when you give him the talk about you." "Hmmm...it's going to be very strange for him to find he came from a cop and a criminal." "EX-criminal." "You hope." "Hahahaha...you're always such a tease." "Teasing cops always was my specialty." "And look where it got you...ten months prison and bound to being a housewife." "Ehh, I can think of worse. Least this prison is nice and you get more than one channel, I even get to be near the kitchen." "Haha." They kissed once again before she went to make dinner, with Dahnus fixing an ill-sliding door before he could simply relax and watch TV on his off-day. He was thankful that like many others he could simply shut off his brain by turning a channel on, hoping that he kept his brain busy enough from contemplating about Jarren's future.