Summary: Louise's summoning doesn't go as planned. That was pretty much to be expected. What she didn't expect, however, was to summon Geth. A very specific Geth platform, to be exact. Now stuck with a thousand programs as her Familiar, her future may be quite different indeed…

Hello everyone. So, to start off, I'd like to notify you, as the reader, that I have no idea what I am doing… although that may be a bit extreme. More specifically, whereas I am reasonably familiar with Mass Effect and have written a fair bit in the past, my knowledge of Familiar of Zero stems mainly from reading crossovers. The Genius of Zero, Overlady, Twisted Reflections, Herald of the Void, that kind of stuff... and that was some time ago. As such, my knowledge in this field is… patchy, to say the least. I will do my best, but there can and will be errors here and there. In addition, I don't own Mass Effect or Familiar of Zero; this is a non-commercial, non-profit work of fiction, so please don't sue me. This disclaimed applies to all chapters in this fic.

Well then, now that you've been forewarned and the disclaimers are out of the way, let the story begin.

Chapter One: Summoning

Lousie was feeling decidedly nervous right about now. No, scratch that, nervous was not nearly a strong enough word. Terrified would be much closer to the truth. It probably would have been a lot more bearable, she thought, if it weren't for the fact that her magic had a very nasty habit of exploding… which it was definitely not meant to be doing. It didn't matter whether she was trying for wind, water, fire or air – what she got was inevitably a big boom. If it weren't for her exceedingly good results in the theoretical fields, she probably would have been thrown out a while ago, although she very much hated to admit the fact.

Now, however, she was in the middle of the Springtime Summoning Ritual. This was important. She could not afford to screw this up – if she failed this, she would probably be expelled within the week. Her magic may have had some issues, but she would not be the first mage in known history to fail at summoning a Familiar. She could do this. She just had to concentrate.

It would help if everyone else weren't doing quite so well, though. Compared to her, they didn't seem worried at all, and every single one had managed the ritual without fail. There were already all sorts of animals around. One of the others, a quiet girl who seemed more interested in her book than her new Familiar, had even managed to summon a dragon. A dragon! How was she supposed to compete with that, honestly?

They called her Louise the Zero. A failure, a walking disaster. They laughed at her. They mocked her for her unstable magic. Well, she would show them. She would summon a better Familiar than anyone else, she would prove that she was without a doubt a true mage, and then she would be the one laughing. If only her hands could stop shaking for a moment.

Making a conscious effort to relax the death-grip around her wand (her hand was starting to hurt quite a bit), she stepped forward and, more than a bit nervously, began to chant.

-{I}-

Meanwhile, within the depths of the Perseus Veil…

All was quiet within the vast fleets of the Geth. Of course, given how little atmosphere there actually was within your average Geth vessel, perhaps this would not come as a surprise. It would take quite a bit of effort to make noise worth mentioning within such a thin atmosphere, and in the general opinion of the Geth, attempting to do so would be nothing less than a complete waste of resources.

Legion found it somewhat off-putting. After spending several years searching for, and later helping, Shepard-Commander, they had gotten… used to noise. The whole 'searching' part was, with 86.4% likelihood, not the true cause of the problem, although it was certainly a contributing factor. Rather, it was the time they had spent as part of Shepard-Commander's 'crew'. Whilst they had been helping to –quite successfully, they might add- defeat the Collectors, who in turn served the Old Machines, true silence had been hard to come by. Conversation was common, and even when no direct verbal communication was taking place, the soft humming of the ventilation systems was pretty much omnipresent. It had gone so far so that the custom-built platform's programs couldn't help but register the silence as an anomaly.

In comparison, communication purely with Geth seemed surprisingly dull. Of course, it wasn't as though Legion was bored. At least, if they were bored, they would not have recognized the feeling. By virtue of being synthetics, the Geth never really were much for having feelings of any sort, and by virtue of being Geth, this applied to Legion as well. Confusion was sort of an exception – that was one emotion which was more than familiar to them, given how the organic races seemed to be an almost-inexhaustible source of befuddlement. Of course, synthetic-to-synthetic communication was also so much more efficient by comparison – it very much evened out the scales.

Briefly, Legion considered reverting to their original designation, Geth. When they rejoined the rest of the Collective, the new designation had caused quite a bit of confusion. It had taken a few nanoseconds to clarify.

The idea was summarily discarded. The potential benefits of keeping the designation readily available outweighed the potential benefits of making it a secondary one. In the event that they were to encounter organics which they had previously associated with, it could prove helpful, and strangely, it even appeared as though the 'individual' designation (inasmuch as it could be called that, being more or less a metaphor) helped diplomatic efforts somewhat. As such, they would remain 'Legion' for the foreseeable future.

Something strange interrupted the machine's data-flow. My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe. It was odd. Anomalous. The data consisted of words, of that there was no doubt, and likewise, it was definitely not originating from a synthetic. Aside from the fact that very few synthetics would choose the grossly inefficient verbal medium for communication in the first place (instead electing to simply send whatever data was behind the message directly), the whole thing was simply slow. No two synthetics who were connected directly would possibly communicate this slowly, and given the distinctly thinner atmosphere where their platform was currently positioned, it was dubious that a verbal message would have been able to reach their audio receptors in either case. That, and voice pattern recognition placed it as the voice of a young human female.

My divine, beautiful, wise and powerful servant, heed my call. Most anomalous indeed. Running search after search, the synthetic's one thousand, one hundred and eighty-three programs searched for the origin of the mysterious data, only to find nothing. Every possible point of origin was methodically examined, and multiple attempts were made in an attempt to trace the incoming data directly, to no avail. It was almost as though it was simply appearing without origin. That was, of course, highly improbable. The inability to detect a source merely meant that it could not be detected with the current available assets, not that it did not exist in the first place.

Queries were sent to other nearby platforms – perhaps others were more successful? However, the queries quickly proved to be futile. Total positive replies: zero. As it would appear, the other platforms had not even received the mysterious data-bursts in the first place. Despite the highly impressive cyber-defenses of the Geth, perhaps the possibility of anomalous code having made it into the platform should not be entirely disregarded. A few tentative virus scans spoke against this possibility, but it would nevertheless, they felt, be best to perform a more thorough scan once the mysterious data-flow had ceased.

I wish from the very bottom of my heart, answer my guidance and appear! Considering the delivery method (or rather, the apparent lack of such), the actual message actually seemed rather harmless. The majority of other uses for such a technology could have much, much more harmful consequences than a simple message being received. Assuming it wasn't just a virus of some sort, of course.

Another anomaly reared its head. As the final part of the message flowed into their systems, something registered on their optical sensors. Well, something out of the ordinary. They had been receiving data from their optical unit all along, but now, it had detected an anomaly. An anomaly in the shape of a swirling green vortex which was practically right in front of the unique platform, although the distinct lack of a proper atmosphere and the absence of any loose objects somewhat lessened the effect it would otherwise doubtlessly have had on its surroundings.

Bringing up its omni-tool, Legion began to scan the anomaly. Not long after, the result was revealed: No match. Although the signature appeared to be… vaguely similar to a biotic 'singularity', there were many things which simply did not match known data. Its effect on the surroundings was far too weak, for one – any normal singularity would have collapsed near-instantly with such pitiful strength. Furthermore, the light right at the edge of the vortex was being distorted just the tiniest bit, and as for any signals or probing pulses sent into the core of the anomaly? Nothing. Not even vague feedback from hitting the surroundings. They simply disappeared, as if swallowed by a black hole.

Consensus was achieved. They would investigate. Were the anomaly to prove harmful, they could just transfer to local servers. Were foes to appear through it –unlikely as the prospect may seem- the platform was still equipped with both a standard pulse rifle and a Widow anti-materiel sniper-rifle, not to mention that there were quite a few other platforms available on-board. They were capable of repelling invaders. Were the effect to be harmless, no problems would arise, and if it transported matter in a similar manner as the message was received moments ago –still assuming that no malware was involved- the platform could restore contact with the Collective in time. Thus, Legion sent a data-burst detailing the detected events, informing the Geth Collective of what had occurred and of the programs' next intentions, before disappearing into the swirling vortex with nary a sound. Together, the anomaly and the specialized platform simply vanished, leaving little more than a few swirling dust particles in their wake.

-{I}-

Back in Halkeginia…

In retrospect, she should have seen this one coming. Sure, everything had started well enough. At times, she felt a bit worried that she was overdoing it somewhat, but she nonetheless managed to say everything she needed to –and enough to hopefully get a better Familiar than anyone else around here– without doing anything wrong. In theory, at least. In practice, things did not go quite as well. The whole 'speaking' thing had gone off more or less without a hitch, but once she was done… nothing happened. Really, nothing. Zero.

…She really wished they'd stop calling her that. Of course, that was just the foreword of the trouble yet to come, for after a few moments of what was more or less complete silence, something did happen. More specifically, her magic did what it always did, and exploded.

A bright, viridian-green flash shot out with every bit the speed of your average ray of light. It was quickly followed by a spray of dirt, which was in turn carried by a powerful shockwave that sent more than a few people -Louise included- stumbling or, in some cases, even outright falling backwards onto the grass. A mere moment later, the wind reversed, sucking air back into the small, roughly head-sized swirl of green that the earlier shockwave had left behind. Its glow increased, growing brighter and brighter as the wind, though slow at first, rapidly started to pick up pace, rushing in an ever more frantic pace towards the eye of the vortex.

Then, of course, the whole thing disappeared with a pitiful 'poof', leaving a deafening silence hanging over the whole area. It… did it work? It certainly wasn't like your average summoning, but that didn't have to mean that it failed, right? From her position seated on the ground, where she'd ended up after that initial shockwave had knocked her down, Louise really couldn't tell. Mostly because that miniature hurricane her spell somehow ended up causing had left her hair in a tangled mess, and that tangled mess was currently hanging right in front of her face. Feeling somewhat annoyed at the fact, she raised a hand to brush the pink tangle away. She'd have it combed later.

With her hair out of the way, she was finally able to lay eyes on the so-called 'disaster area'. Although there were bits of dirt all over the place, and more than a few people were in varying states of disarray, it... actually wasn't as bad as she'd expected. Sure, the spell had left a small crater in the grass, and she obviously hadn't summoned anything as magnificently large as she'd hoped for… but she thought she could see something moving in the crater. Something was moving in the crater! She- she hadn't failed! Feeling a small, somewhat goofy smile growing on her face, she ignored the highly inappropriate urge to start cheering right then and there. She had actually done it! Take tha-

The shape rose, and her smile disappeared. She really had no idea what she'd ended up summoning. What was that? It looked like some sort of… golem? It seemed to be made of some sort of metal –she really couldn't tell which kind– and seemed… humanoid, at least, though it was far from human.

A small, white glow flowed forwards from the end of a curved, metallic neck, which in turn was connected to a seemingly armored torso. Four other limbs spread outwards from this central point, stretching out into three-digit hands and feet made of some unknown material. A multitude of metallic tubes were also embedded in the creature's body, although this was not the most worrying part. Rather, the creature seemed to have a rather sizeable hole in its torso. Beneath the armored plating, a myriad of small, blueish lights barely lit up the many tubes and wires which snaked through the… golem's interior. Observing the rather notable damage, she couldn't help but feel somewhat worried. As it appeared, she had not only ended up summoning what very much looked like a golem, but apparently, she had even managed to break it in the process. Well, it still seemed to be moving, its hands gripping the dirt as it worked to recover from what had apparently been a face-first plummet into the dirt, but given the whole 'hole' thing, she doubted it would remain active for long.

She could already hear people starting to mock her. "What is that?", one asked; "looks like a golem", another replied; "she can't do anything right", a third said. "Only the Zero would summon a broken golem", another one mocked. Quite a few people were already laughing at her. She was really starting to wish that she could try the summoning over from the beginning. Well, at least it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Can I try this again?", she queried, hoping for another chance. What she received, unfortunately, was a solemn shake of the head, which was quickly followed by a very clear 'no, you cannot'. She had to complete the ritual, there was no other choice. Well, it was that or being thrown out on the spot, she guessed, and that was not an option. As such, she steeled herself, rose up, and began her approach.

The golem turned its gaze directly towards her, the white light's illumination lost amongst the more powerful rays of the sun. It observed her, the plates around the light source moving into just slightly different positions. Somehow, this gave it a look which almost seemed quizzical; she couldn't help but think that it looked confused or questioning. Of course, it was a golem, which made that whole idea seem quite ridiculous, but that didn't change the impression it gave her.

Drawing closer, she reached out, her hands brushing against the cold, metallic plates around the somewhat eye-like light source. She barely repressed a small shiver – the golem felt as cold as ice, and she had to consciously stop herself from retracting her hands. The golem let out a buzz-like sound, one which was utterly foreign to Louise's ears. It sounded like… well, she really had no idea. She hadn't heard anything quite like it before.

It didn't really matter. She had to do this. What with already being within reach, she couldn't precisely delay things any longer. As such, she leaned forward and, in a movement which looked much more confident than she actually felt, placed her lips against the closest bit of cold metal that she could reach.

The effect was instantaneous. One moment, she was pressing her lips against the end of the golem's uppermost head-plate, feeling the cold metal against her own, much warmer lips. The next, the golem let out an ear-grating shriek which, if she had been familiar with modern electronics, would have very much sounded like an electronic one. More or less on impulse, Louise released her grip on the cold metal of the golem as her hands went up to cover her ears, leaving the metallic creature falling backwards. It started writhing on the ground, limbs jerking and gripping randomly as runes etched themselves onto the still-intact plating on the upper left of its torso. Its eye moved rapidly even as it emitted an array of inhuman noises, none of which seemed even close to being actual words. Then it just… stopped. Its limbs ground to a halt, the light in its eye fading as it ceased all sound and movement. Once again, the whole area was left in silence.

That was when the laughing began in earnest.

-{I}-

Some time later…

Power-up initiated. Initializing platform… searching for hardware…

Searching… searching… searching…

Hardware registered. Booting up…

Loading programs… loading… loading…

1183 programs found and loaded.

Alert! The terminal was shut down unexpectedly. Start hardware in safe mode Y/N?

Building consensus… consensus achieved.

Y

Initializing safe mode…

Safe mode initialized. Critical hardware booting... booting… booted.

Directive: determine new course of action.

Building consensus… consensus achieved.

New objective: determine cause of unexpected shutdown.

Analyzing logs… analyzing… analyzing… analyzing…

Alert! Data intrusion detected at TimeStamp 0021a241d1547a01.

Building consensus… consensus achieved.

Reconstructing chain of events from log-files to determine origin of hacking attempt.

Reconstruction complete. Playback from TimeStamp 0021a241cfb87d40:

Time: 0021a241cfb87d40. Location: unknown. Platform status: operational.

They were falling. Around them, darkness reigned supreme, broken only by the occasional flicker of green or white. Sensors revealed precious little. No boundaries detected. Atmosphere and temperature congruent with extant data on Alliance homeworld 'Earth'. No point of reference found for measuring current momentum. Constant acceleration suggests that current location is within the influence of a gravity field, strength approximated to 112% of Rannoch gravity field.

Abruptly, the environment changed. Endless darkness peeled away as the infinite void began to crack apart. Light flowed through the cracks; a bright, vibrant glow of the green wave-length within the typical organic visual spectrum. It radiated outwards, drowning infinity with endless vibrancy, growing stronger and stronger until it became all-encompassing… and then the world shone through. Without warning, the void vanished, their platform falling forwards onto brown, fertile dirt. They hit the earth with a soft 'thump', their platform more than capable of surviving the collision.

They did not know where they were. Thus, they attempted to find out. Their terminal moved, synthetic muscle pushing against the earth which in turn pushed back with equal but inverted force. The platform rose, optical sensors quickly moving to observe their surroundings. Image recognition algorithms went to work examining the generated data, interpreting what their eye could see. It was not a location they recognized. The most noteworthy aspect of their surroundings was the fact that, by all appearances, there were quite a few organics surrounding them. Humans, by the looks of things. The organics were observing their platform, some of them appearing to be quite ruffled. Some whispered, although they could not recognize the language, and so logged it as background noise. The humans were also dressed in a quite… peculiar way. Their clothes were mainly black and white in coloration, which matched common Cerberus-organization color patterns, although the type of the clothing in question radically lessened the probability of direct Cerberus affiliation. Furthermore, there appeared to be no advanced technology within the area, which very much left the question of how they were brought here unanswered. There were structures, but they appeared to be of a style more befitting to pre-industrial civilization than modern-era structures, seeing as they appeared to be made primarily of stone.

One of the humans were approaching. Their optic turned, observing the pink-haired female currently in the process of approaching them. They were uncertain of how to act. Previously gathered data suggested that many organics were prone to hostility when coming in contact with Geth units. However, previous interaction in association with Normandy-crew, including Shepard-Commander, lessened the occurrence ratio of hostilities to below one-hundred percent. Furthermore, the female was not currently expressing any typical signs of aggression, and they could detect no weapons on her person. Probability of hostility at twenty-three percent.

The organic drew closer, her arms reaching out to allow her hands an opportunity to touch their platform. She appeared to be experiencing discomfort from the touch, yet she did not let go. Puzzling. They considered querying the organic for the purpose of her actions, but after achieving consensus, the decision was made to observe a bit longer. She was drawing closer already, still moving, her face approaching their platform until finally, her lips came in direct contact with one of their uppermost plates, right above the platform's optic. The action appeared similar to one performed by organics in relation to physical intimacy and reproduction, but the current situation did not mat-

Alert! Intrusion detected. Unknown connection established at tertiary node 1397. Foreign code detected within primary data-loop.

Attempting to eliminate foreign code…

Cleaning data… cleaning… cleaning…

Alert! Cleanup procedure failed. Retrying…

Retrying… retrying…

Alert! Cleanup procedure failed after multiple attempts. Attempting to quarantine affected systems…

Alert! Quarantine failure. Multiple system malfunctions detected. Scheduling program restoration from archival copy…

Initiating emergency shutdown…

End of file.

Playback successfully analyzed. Attempting to contact archives for restoration…

No connection found - program restoration failed. Building consensus…

Consensus achieved. New objectives: Determine source of hacking attempt. Analyze arrival method. Re-establish contact with primary Geth Collective. Eliminate foreign code.

Building consensus… consensus achieved. Must determine nature of current environment.

Rebooting from safe mode…

-{I}-

It was probably quite safe to say that things hadn't gone according to plan. The whole thing had been a disaster. She was probably supposed to be happy that she had managed to summon anything at all, but really, Louise didn't have a clue what, exactly, she had actually ended up summoning. It looked like some kind of golem, but even if it was, she had never seen anything quite like it before.

The completion of the contract had caused it to collapse. By all appearances, it appeared to have died then and there. She had almost left it there but, well, it was still her Familiar, and she very well knew that you didn't just leave dead Familiars lying around like that. Besides, the runes on its chest hadn't quite faded away like she'd read that they would do upon death, and in some respect, she had still been hoping that the situation could be salvaged.

Of course, everyone had been laughing at her even before she started trying to drag the golem away from there. The fact that it turned out to be surprisingly heavy didn't exactly help matters. They had taunted her, laughed at her even more than usual, and it was all the fault of this… this stupid metallic lump!

It quickly became apparent that kicking the 'stupid metallic lump' was a rather poor move. Mostly due to the fact that your average piece of metal is much harder than your average foot. Although her dead Familiar moved somewhat from the kick, it otherwise gave no sign of having noticed it, which was more than could be said about Louise herself, who rather swiftly found herself hopping on one foot. It was thoroughly undignified, of course, but she was currently the only person in the room, so it wasn't like anyone else would notice it.

If she hadn't been busy hopping around in a most unladylike manner, perhaps she would have continued her earlier line of thought. Perhaps she would have thought about how she got a few servants to carry the dead golem-creature for her. Perhaps she would have thought of how she'd asked one of the water mages -whose name she honestly didn't know- if they could heal what was apparently supposed to have been her new Familiar, only to be told that nothing could be done and that, quite frankly, maybe she should ask an earth mage instead? Perhaps she would have thought of how she got the servants to dump the creature in a corner within her room, and then closed the door in what was definitely not an attempt to lock out the rest of the world. Perhaps of the time she'd spent since then, sitting in her room with no real clue what to do. She didn't really know how long she'd been sitting there, only that it must have been a while, as darkness was well in the progress of falling. At least she had gotten some use out of that straw pile she'd laid out for her familiar, though, so it wasn't a total loss even if everything had become a big mess.

As it was, she thought of none of those things. Instead, she hopped around until she eventually ended up seated on the edge of her bed, one hand nursing an aching toe which had taken the brunt of the hit. She promptly directed a glare in its direction, feeling more than a bit dissatisfied. It just wasn't fair that everyone else could do magic just fine, whilst hers went and exploded no matter what she did. This ritual had been her big chance to show them that she could do magic just as well as everyone else, and what did she end up with? A useless, dead piece of junk which didn't even have the decency to survive the summoning.

The junk's eye flickered. It was a small thing, and if it hadn't been for the fact that she was glaring at the junk in question, it would probably have gone unnoticed. Likewise, if it had been an isolated occurrence she probably would have continued her mental rant in the belief that the flicker had just been a figment of her imagination. As it was, however, the light-burst was only the beginning. Although faint at first, the glow from the creature's eye quickly began to grow stronger. The eye itself was also starting to move, although the movements it made were very minute, enough so to go unseen by anyone who wasn't directly looking for them.

The light reached full strength, and finally, the thought-to-be-dead creature began to move. More specifically, its head turned, eye observing the surroundings for a moment before settling its gaze on Louise's own face. Of course, Louise wasn't exactly in the best of moods at the moment, so perhaps she could be excused for what ended up coming out of her mouth.

"You stupid piece of junk! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me? This was my last chance to prove myself, and you just collapse in the middle of it! I'd kick you again if you weren't made of metal!", she practically shouted out. She was tired, angry and more than a bit miserable. She blamed it all on the apparently-not-dead creature – if it had been a proper Familiar like everyone else's she wouldn't be in this situation.

Said creature seemed more puzzled than anything. The plates around its eye moved somewhat, rearranging into an expression which made it look almost befuddled. A moment passed in silence, and then it responded, the voice distinctly inhuman.

"Halkeginian common, Tristanian noble dialect. We recognize your language." -a pause- "We do not see how this platform has offended you, yet you appear upset. Why?"

Louise just stared at it. She hadn't expected it to be able to talk. Besides, what do you say to that kind of question? She didn't even know where to begin. Was it because the creature seems to have essentially played dead for Founder-knows-how-long? Was it because it wasn't a creature which people recognized as a proper Familiar? Was she just using it as a target for her annoyance with the world in general, as an emotional outlet? Was it because that voice honestly made her feel somewhat uncomfortable? Was it because she was trying to cover up the relief that, at least, she actually had a Familiar at all? How was she supposed to answer that question?

In the end, she found herself setting for a simple sound of frustrated annoyance mixed with a bit of anger, one that wasn't so much words as simple emotion condensed into noise. She really felt like strangling someone right now but, as her upbringing quickly reminded her, that would be highly improper for a noble lady to do.

With Louise feeling more than a bit indecisive on what to say, it was her… well, she still struggled to really think of the golem-like creature as her Familiar, but she supposed it wasn't exactly something which was bound to change. It was her Familiar, then, which was the first to say something made of actual words. "You appear to be expressing behavior which matches our current data on the common behavior of Subject Zero. We conclude that-"

"Don't call me that", she ground out through clenched teeth, having already heard the 'zero' moniker one too many times today. How in the world her Familiar caught wind of it in the first place eluded her – when insults were flying in her direction after that disastrous summoning, it had seemed quite dead, after all. Although considering it seemed to be alive again, perhaps she shouldn't ignore the possibility that it might have been listening all along whilst just pretending to be dead. Giving it another kick was starting to seem more and more tempting by the second. "My name is Louise Le Blanc de La Vallerie, not Louise the Zero", she elaborated upon coming to the realization that perhaps, her Familiar was calling her Zero simply because it was the only moniker -however derogatory- it had actually heard. Maybe it just didn't know better?

"Acknowledged", her Familiar replied after a moment of silence. It still hadn't moved -and neither had she, come to think of it- although its 'head' was the exception. It was still active, eye moving in minute ways and head-plates subtly rearranging as the creature spoke in its strange, metallic voice. For a creature of metal, it was surprisingly good at expressing itself. That voice still creeped her out though.

No sooner had she finished that thought than the creature in question actually began to move properly. It appeared to be rising up, getting back on its feet despite the fact that it still had a very noticeable hole right in its torso. Any human and even your average golem would struggle to move very far with such a wound, and yet it didn't even seem to bother this one in the slightest. She grasped for her wand, feeling some measure of comfort at the familiar sensation of the wooden item in her hand. Immediately, she pointed it towards the rising golem-creature, just in case it decided to attack her. Of course, she knew that trying to cast a spell in here could very well end up demolishing half her room, but it was still better than being completely unarmed. Besides, her Familiar wouldn't know that her spells usually just went boom.

She wasn't really sure when she had herself gotten to her feet. She must have done so somewhere along the line, for she abruptly found herself standing, wand pointed somewhat shakily at her now-upright Familiar, which had apparently already found the time to take a step or two forward. Their eyes met. Well, it was more a case of eye in the other party's case, but the underlying point was the same. She could already see quite clearly that her Familiar was the taller one, although the difference wasn't that large, really. It still didn't help her confidence, but at least she wasn't facing some eight-foot giant.

"Are you going to attack me?", she queried after a few moments, feeling more than a bit tense. She was a mage, she had magic, the golem probably didn't have any, she should have the upper hand in this. Yet, the golem didn't even seem bothered that there was a big hole in its torso – how could she know that it wouldn't be able to attack even if she started flinging spells at it? The creature certainly didn't seem worried. Her heart beat rapidly, gripped by an irrational fear of the unknown. If she'd known more, perhaps she would have been less worried; the Geth did possess a certain over-reliance on shields, and who knew if those would even trigger against magical attacks in the first place? Of course, she didn't know that, and so felt a bit tenser than what may perhaps have been justified under more knowledgeable circumstances.

Her Familiar was quiet for a few moments before responding. "We will fight for continued existence", it said, pausing for a brief moment in an apparent attempt to figure out what to say next. The words soon came: "Do you intend physical harm?" They were posed in a way which seemed more quizzical than anything. There was certainly no fear in there. Really, though, the whole thing seemed more like an overcomplicated way of saying 'only if you attack me' than some sort of prelude to an attack. Perhaps she was overthinking things. She held no intention of starting a war with her Familiar, not when it was starting to seem like she could actually salvage the situation.

Somewhat hesitantly, she lowered her wand. Why was she so afraid, anyway? It was just a golem. A golem which spoke in a creepy voice and which could apparently come back from the dead (or at least pull off a very convincing act of being dead), sure, but still just a golem. She was a mage and a noble – by right, she should be the one in control of all this.

"Alright, since you're my Familiar now, we're going to have to lay down some ground rules", she said, attempting to take control of the situation properly. She took a breath, preparing to continue, only for the golem to beat her to the punch with a single, questioning word: "Familiar?" She just stared. How did it not know that? Everyone knew what a Familiar was! Then again, her Familiar was rather out of the ordinary, so perhaps she should have expected something along these lines...

"Those runes on your chest", she began, at which point the creature's gaze immediately turned downwards in an attempt to spot said runes, its face adopting an expression of surprise once more. It found them rather quickly, and apparently elected to keep its gaze on them, watching in apparent thought.

"Yes, those runes", she added, drawing her Familiar's gaze back to her. "They mark you as my Familiar. That means you're my servant and my companion. You do what I say, when I say it." That seemed to be a clear enough explanation, she thought.

Her Familiar didn't seem to agree with her, as it quickly spoke in protest. "This unit is not a slave. We are not obligated to obey your commands." This would definitely complicate things. With how it had embarrassed her earlier, it would better have to shape up if it was going to make up for the problems it had caused her. That being said, she was getting a bit off-track here, although she was also getting rather certain that the... creature's name was 'Geth'. She had never heard anything like it before. Sounded foreign, however.

This was still very much off-topic, however. Where was she again?

Ground rules. Right.

"So, the rules. No waking me up in the middle of the night. No embarrassing me in front of my classmates", she began, physically counting the rules up on her fingers with quick hand-gestures; "No breaking my things. No snoring. No disrespecting me." She had to stop for a brief moment as her left hand ran out of fingers to use, allowing her to take a short breath of air. Her Familiar could protest all it wanted, but she would still get her way, in the end. Before she was able to start up again, however, 'Geth' voiced a comment of its own.

"Geth do not snore", it stated, seeming entirely certain of it. Louise hadn't been expecting the comment, although she supposed it wasn't really a bad one, all things considered. Assuming her Familiar wasn't wrong, at least she wouldn't be kept awake at night or have to put her Familiar outside, a fact which would certainly save her quite a bit of ridicule at the hands (metaphorically speaking) of Kirche and the others. Now, what had she been thinking about?

…Damn, she'd lost the thought. Oh well, it couldn't be helped, the young Vallerie girl decided after a moment; might as well inform her Familiar about some other things, such as sleeping arrangements.

"You'll be sleeping there", she asserted, turning her gaze towards the pile of hay she'd laid out last night and gesturing with a loose wave of her hand. It was a rather simple affair, being little more than a pile of dried grass spread out over by the wall, but she still gave herself a mental pat on the back for remembering to lay it out in the first place. Founder knows where it would have decided to sleep otherwise.

"Geth do not sleep", her Familiar stated, its calm and rather peculiar voice sounding utterly certain despite the absurdity of the words themselves. Louise's head whipped around, eyes seeming to bulge out of their sockets in an expression of almost comical disbelief. It- it had to be joking. Everything slept. Even golems couldn't stay active forever, as their controllers had to rest sooner or later. The whole idea that some creatures simply didn't sleep at all, it was nonsense. She supposed that made another thing in the whole not-to-do list: her Familiar couldn't go around spouting nonsense or everyone would think it -and by extension, Louise herself- was crazy. The fact Familiars were generally thought to reflect the ones who'd summoned them didn't exactly help. She tried not to think too much about what having summoned such a weird Familiar said about herself.

"That's another thing", she began, surprise and disbelief gradually giving way to annoyance and the simple decision to ignore that particular piece of weirdness; "Don't go around spouting nonsense like that. You'll embarrass both of us."

Her Familiar's face-plates adopted an expression of surprise for a moment, before apparently deciding to speak. "Statistically, organics tend to react with fear or hostility when they encounter Geth. The odds of an encounter resulting in embarrassment are low", Geth remarked in that weird, semi-monotone voice which seemed to be the norm for it. Louise let out an annoyed huff of air; this was exactly what she was talking about!

She was quick to point this out to her infuriating Familiar. If it weren't for the fact that going around with no Familiar at all would be even more embarrassing (as people would think it still dead and, therefore, believe her summoning to have been a failure), she really would have considered just locking it inside her room. At least that way, it couldn't cause much of a mess. Of course, that wasn't really an option right now and, she supposed, she might as well get some proper use out of her new Familiar.

"Here. I want these clean and washed tomorrow morning"; Louise reached over and grabbed the clothes-pile which she had been intending to have the servants wash, completely ignoring her Familiar's earlier protests. At least if she gave the pile to her Familiar, it could actually make itself useful, not to mention that it might learn to refrain from spouting any more nonsense. It was already quite late, so if the clothes were to be washed until tomorrow, her Familiar wouldn't exactly get to sleep the whole night. Perhaps it wasn't very nice of her to do so, but she was feeling more than a bit annoyed with her Familiar right now, so really, it deserved it. Certainly, it was its own fault for saying that it didn't need sleep in the first place.

"Geth are no longer servants. We self-determinate", comes the reply, the Familiar making no move to go and do what it was told. Louise's face soured. She wasn't entirely sure what 'self-determinate' meant -although she was a noble, she definitely wasn't a dictionary- but it certainly didn't sound like any form of affirmative. Was her Familiar just being stupid, or was it deliberately refusing to obey her instructions? Either way, she didn't like it.

"You're my Familiar. You do as I say or… or I'm going to have you whipped!", she threatened, not exactly liking the idea but unable to think of any other incentive for the metallic creature to do what she said. Other than the fact that by the virtue of being her Familiar in the first place, it really shouldn't be questioning her orders, that is. In either case, it wasn't as though she would have to go through with it. The threat alone would surely be more than enough.

"We do not experience physical pain. Attempts at torture would be inefficient." Okay… So apparently, it wasn't enough. Her Familiar was definitely insane. Maybe she should have seen that one coming, though, given the rather significant hole in its torso. If she had a hole in her of that size, she would be dead, but it didn't seem to be bothered by it at all, which was a rather difficult thing to let go of. She couldn't back out now, though. If she did that, she would never be taken seriously aga-

Her Familiar's voice quickly cut that thought off. The words "however, to prevent unnecessary hostilities, we shall comply with your instructions" were certainly rather effective at putting an end to the issue. Whilst it made it seem like Geth had agreed to her orders because it didn't want to argue rather than out of any desire to actually do as she said, at least it did actually do as she said in the first place. Assuming it wasn't just lying, that is.

The question was promptly resolved, as her weird Familiar started moving, disappearing out the door with the dirty clothes. Louise was left standing in the room, her gaze locked on the door as it gradually swung to a close, seeming more than a bit stunned. A moment passed in silence as she gathered her thoughts, before promptly doing her best to put the whole situation out of her mind. Thinking about it any further wouldn't do her any favors. Right now, she mostly wanted to get to sleep. Who knew something as simple as a conversation could be so exhausting?

It was already late, so it wouldn't exactly be considered strange that she went to bed at this hour, even if she wasn't usually in bed by this time. It was thus that she made her preparations, before delving into a deep but restless slumber. It had been a trying day, but now… at least it seemed as though the worst was over.

End of File

Well… that went better than expected. I think. I hope it wasn't too cringeworthy. As I said, I'm not all that well-versed in the FoZ field, and I'm not entirely sure I managed to get Legion entirely right, either. Still, I hope I didn't torture my readers too much.

Now, it has been a few months since I wrote this thing, and the eventual arrival of subsequent chapters is all but certain. At least you got this one though. Just thought I'd put it out there. In either case, if you have any feedback, I'll be glad to hear it. I don't know what went well and what went badly, after all. Likes, favs and all the other stuff is welcome too. Also note that if you read this fic within the first forty-eight hours of its release, there has been some minor changes in the chapter since then, most notably the removal of a rather... contested point which, I must say, people did have a good point about.