((Worth the wait? ^_^ ))<br/><br/>"Jeez, relax, would ya?" Kaiden muttered, taking a seat opposite from them and casually crossing his legs. "If you really want to understand, this is going to take a minute. I'll have to cover some background." He glanced at Uriel. "How much does he know already?"<br/><br/>Uriel, still somewhat suspicious of this man, was caught off guard by the question. Pondering it, she gave a small sigh.<span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"Not much,"</span></span>she confessed.<span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"Almost nothing beyond the fact that there was, in fact, a war, and that his planet got caught in the middle. He's learned a bit about Vortians, but..."</span></span><br/><br/>"Right," Kaiden said. "I got it." He rested his head on his hand for a moment and let his tail swish back and forth. "For about a 150 years," he started, focusing his violet eyes on Ryan, "the Arondian Empire has been in a sort of alliance with the Vortians. But it isn't so much an alliance as it is a 'do what we want and we won't make your lives miserable' situation. The idea is that the Emperor's got something on the Vortian Royals, and once the treaty was signed, they were stuck. My people aren't fond of the Arondites. We have a bad history with them. So, we decided we would try and help the people of Ig'zaalta escape the treaty. But they were afraid that would make the Arondites angry, so they were forced to fight us. We'd been stuck in some stupid, triple-sided war ever since--until a few years ago."<br/><br/>"As the battle migrated and Earth came into the picture, well, that was basically the turning point. One of the Vortian Generals, Ilsam Surigat, fired a 160 rounds directly at Earth's surface, killing everything that wasn't underground. The story is... muddled, as far as his reasons go, but it ended the war. The Arondites saw what he did and were appalled. Popular demand all but forced the Emperor to absolve the treaty, and then neither side had a reason to fight. But Arondites and Vortians are still walking on thin ice. The Arondites want to get us Elisions charged with war crimes because they hate us. They're using what Ilsam did as leverage against the Vortians; either they find cause to try us, or the Arondites will charge them."<br/><br/>Uriel was hurting. After hearing the whole truth, would Ryan think differently of her? Perhaps it was impossible for him. But... she hadn't gone to earth to defend her brother--far from it. Though it would be a stain on their race for eons if he were tried, all she wanted to do was right the wrong by assuring humans peace during the next interstellar war. But.. in the process, she would have to dig up a lot of dust, and neither side would come out unscathed.<br/><br/><span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"So what are you planning to do?"</span></span>she asked the Elision.<span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"You're clearly interfering with a post-war investigation."</span></span><br/><br/>"Like I care," he muttered, blowing a lock of purple hair out of his eyes. He shifted until he was lying comfortably on the row of seats. "Look, if humans turn out to be "useful," we'll both go to trial. The Arondites will push what Ilsam did onto us and they'll put it into the "those cat bastards blew up our planet" file. If humans don't turn out to be useful, our races will do just fine, but the Arondites will be peeved. They'll probably finish what Ilsam started just to relieve that tension. Whatever the truth is about humanity, that's how it is. We're not trying to screw you there. But we don't want to let the Arondites get involved either, or else they'll screw us. I guess... we're probably just gonna take you home."<br/><br/><span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"Home?"</span></span>Uriel asked, raising an eyebrow.<br/><br/>"You're home," he clarified. "Ig'zaalta. We're not going to press charges." Uriel suddenly looked shocked speechless. Kaiden flicked his tail, with an irritated one-eye-open look that was... very cat-like. "What?" he asked. "If we don't press charges, you people can deal with Ilsam on your own. If you don't press charges, we won't have to deal with more Arondian shit than we already are. And if you can't deliver the human into the Arondite's lap, they don't have any grounds to press charges themselves."<br/><br/><span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"But,"</span></span>Uriel started,<span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"there was a lot of talk that we wouldn't have a choice but to file charges--that the Empire would force us somehow."</span></span><br/><br/>"Yeah, that ain't happening," Kaiden smirked. "Me, Gwendel, and a couple of Graecians with<span style="font-style: italic">way</span>too much time on their hands have been working on a little project. I was under cover in their fleet for a month, and I dug up quite a bit of dirt. That, and this friendly paw we're giving by rescuing you should be enough to convince the Royals. Naturally, we'll wanna come down with you and chat with them for a bit, lay all this out."<br/><br/><span style="color: #BF80FF"><span style="font-style: italic">"If things go as well as you say, we can all come out of this unscathed,"</span></span>she mused, ecstatic.<br/><br/>Kaiden grinned, and their little escape pod docked onto a small Elision ship.<br/><br/>"Comms are up and running," came the cheerful voice they'd heard over the monitor earlier. "Enter your access codes so you can call your friends to join us... before they do something stupid."<br/><br/>*Meanwhile, Anak had his hands full trying to keep Rhofel and Velneir from doing something stupid.*