New Start Plus: in spaaaaace! - Chapter 15 - Omaster44 (2024)

Chapter Text

Ch 15

The living dead

-/-

Shepard POV

Here we go again.

I stood at the bottom of the hanger bay doors waiting for Admiral Hackett to give my report. Usually, I don't need to do this, I'm a spectre and technically outside of Alliance command, but this wasn't something you just write in a report. It didn't take long for ships to arrive, due to most of them already waiting around the star system for us to get the job done.

I watched the Puma X-8 land a short distance away. Steve seemed to be a pro at her wheel. The hanger door opened, revealing a rather nervous-looking James. He had his gun at the ready giving the area a quick scan.

"Clear!" he called out.

"Took you long enough!" A voice I knew all too well called out. "If I was your N-shadow I would have docked you and had you give me a thousand push-ups!"

"YES MA'AM, SORRY MA'AM!"

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE I WANT YOUR DAMN SORRYS!? 100 PUSH-UPS! NOW!" Hannah Shepard ordered, walking out of the Puma's hanger door. Vega immediately dropped and started doing push-ups, "DID YOUR GUN JUST TOUCH THE FLOOR!? 1,000 PUSH-UPS! DO YOU HEAR ME RECRUIT!?"

"MA'AM, YES MA'AM!"

"DO I LOOK LIKE A DAMN TICKET COUNTER!? SOUND OFF!"

"1, 2, 3, 4-!"

"I don't like the cadence of your voice, sing the numbers! I want to be serenaded, like the time my husband took me on our tenth date!"

"1~, 2~,"

"WRONG! MY HUSBAND MADE SWEET-SWEET LOVE TO ME THAT NIGHT, THE MUSIC WAS BETTER!"

"1~, 2~, 3~,"

"LOUDER, I WANNA HEAR IT FROM ACROSS THE PLANET!"

"1~! 2~!"

"SLOWER! MY HUSBAND WAS A GENTLEMAN! HE LOVED SLOW ROMANCE!"

"1~... 2~... 3~... 4~..."

"WILLIAMS!"

"Ma'am," Ashly ran out of the Puma. Her hair was down, she looked beautiful.

"Keep an eye on recruit Vega, if he drops, you'll be responsible for what's left."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"...Captain Shepard," I saluted.

She pinched my cheek, "Don't salute me, I'm your mother, give me a hug." she opened her arms wide to embrace me, but I didn't move. I knew better than that, that smile was forced and her eyes screamed murder.

"I'm good," I drawled. "Ma, what are you doing here? I was expecting Admiral Hackett and the Fifth Fleet."

"Hackett was busy, something about his grandbaby being born, I wasn't paying attention. So I took command."

I didn't know Hackett had a family. "Took command? I don't think you can just take command like that," I muttered.

"I said I was in charge, he said nothing, therefore, I am in charge, keep up son. Now care to explain... this~." she gestured to the floating mountain of debris sparking with unknown dimensional energy.

"... I put everything in the report."

She rolled her eyes, "Do I look like an idiot? We both know the report is a load of hogwash, what really happened?"

"... Come on." I nodded to the Normandy. "You've eaten?"

"Does it look like I'm here for lunch~," she huffed.

I looked over to Vega who was singing to a thousand, "Yeah, kinda," I shrugged.

"... No, I haven't eaten today," she huffed.

"What's wrong, you usually have a fun time running the new N-recruits," I asked, leading her up to the mess hall.

"Brass is promoting me to Rear-admiral, giving me Kahoku's old position in the Fifth Fleet."

"They're giving you the 51st? Isn't that special tactics training?"

"Hackett wants me to train your little super soldiers," she hissed, flopped into a booth, and was given a menu. She looked at the menu, then up at Leah, a survivor from Cerberus's sick experiments, Nick told us she was part Eladrin, whatever that was. Leah was the textbook definition of a teenage punk, she had an N7 letterman jacket with a bunch of sown-on patches, a T-shirt one size too small with the word 'whatever' on the front, skinny jeans, and combat boots, she was even chewing gum.

"Whatcha want?" Leah huffed, popping her gum. Kids these days are so brave.

"Stand up straight," Ma glared. Leah froze at her glare and straightened her back. "If you ever come to me with a spine not at 180 degrees again, I'll have you running laps until you barf, do I make myself clear?"

"I, yes, um." Ma glared harder, "YES, MA'AM!"

"Good," she passed her the menu, "Hamburger, medium-well, I want it with everything, that includes fries."

"Yes, ma'am!" she looked over to me.

"Now you know what my childhood was like~," I teased, "I'm okay Leah, thank you." Leah nodded and ran away. "Really Ma~? She's 17, and not even part of the Alliance."

"Bah! It's called respect, she's on a warship, she should know the pecking order."

"She really shouldn't," I countered.

"What's with the cabin brats anyway?" she looked at the other kids running around helping Nick and Rupert with the lunch rush.

"Did you read my report in any way?" I sighed.

"I skimmed it." (Translate: I had someone else read them and give me the summary.)

I sighed and started explaining.

-/-

"So, you taught a mountain how to fly~," Ma huffed through a burger the size of her head, putting her new metabolism to work.

"I wouldn't put it like that."

"Is Gavin still alive?"

"At the moment, Nick locked him up in our makeshift brig. I think he saved him for David's sake." If David wasn't here, I was certain Nick would have let him die.

"And the AI?"

I nodded to David eating some ice cream, a tiny Mech fighting with Sir Reginald.

"EDI, Legion, and Tali were able to kinda remove Rob from David's body, but Gavin's mutilation of David's body and wild magic caused some form of link that Nick didn't know how to break, so David and Rob were kinda stuck together, but at the very least David is in full control of his body."

"Mmm, what about the rest, I hope you're not planning on having them live here, my Ulysses was right about raising you outside a warship," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but Pa was there to look after me, these kids have no one, not only that, we don't know enough about their powers to be let go into the Galaxy, they could hurt themselves, and I doubt Cerberus is just going to let them go. Nick believes the kids should leave the dimension and return when they have better control of their powers."

"I'm not sure how the Alliance might take that."

"I doubt Nick would care," I shrugged.

She finished her fries, "There's something else."

"...what?" I asked.

"You have that look in your eye."

"What look?"

"The'I-know-something-I-shouldn't-and-I-need-to-talk-to-someone' look," she crossed her arms.

"... I have no idea what you're talking about." I narrowed my eyes at her, "Hackett had a grandchild?" I asked.

"Yep, his son got his wife knocked up," she gave me a blank face.

I leaned forward, "First child?"

"Second."

"what's his son's name?"

"... Steven... Jr."

"And his wife?"

"... Susan."

"... and her first child?"

"... Shirley."

"MA! Where is Hackett?"

"What are you talking about? You doubt me, your poor innocent mother!?"

I rolled my eyes, "You're terrible with names, you always fall back to the first letter when you're lying. You almost named me Ulrich~. Now... Where's Hackett?"

"...He's, in a bit of trouble," she answered.

"Trouble?"

"The Traverse Coalition wasn't exactly above board with the Council."

I leaned back, "I can imagine, how bad is it?"

She shrugged, "Hard to tell, the fact that the Geth didn't kill all Quarians is rocking the galaxy, and now that the Migrant Fleet and the Geth Consensus joined forces has the council on edge, they aren't the biggest boys on the block anymore, maps are being remade. The Terminus shrank a lot as the Geth retook control of most of Quarian space."

"I've been a little out of the loop, how much space are we talking about?"

"The Coalition practically borders Omega and takes up a good chunck of the Attican Traverse."

"Pirates probably don't like that," I hummed.

"Don't get me started, since its creation the Coalition has had over 10 confirmed battles."

"10! Holy crap."

"Mmm, most of them are known pirate bases, most ships were captured and moved back into Quarian space, no doubt adding to their fleet's ridiculous number."

"I'm not sure about that, I've been to the old Migrant Fleet, and it wasn't great. It would make more sense that they would mothball some of their ships and recycle them into something useful, probably an orbital dry dock, they really need it," I theorized.

"So, they're just keeping their numbers the same?"

"For now. They do have a planet to live on, they'll probably be making factories to make their own ships, or at least process their own materials. How are people taking our alliance with the Geth?"

"Smoother than you would think, the first contact war told us that our enemies could become our friends, it also helped that the Geth turned out not to be world-ending genocidal robots, I doubt they will be allowed on Earth anytime soon, but most people are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt."

"Really?"

"WhentheeCommander Shepard says they aren't evil, people listen," she teased.

"You're joking~," I sighed.

"You're an icon, you are known for defeating the Geth, if you say these Geth are different, who's to say you're wrong? The Krogan on the other hand~."

"Are there really that many Krogan in space to cause fear?"

"The Krogan rebellions are well documented. Some Asari who fought in that war are still alive, and the Salarians are throwing a hissy fit, surprisingly the Turians are fine with this, almost happy, securing the DMZ took a lot of resources, if the Krogans can get their sh*t together the Citadel could reinforce their fleets."

"And the Quarians?"

"HA! It's night and day. Before picking on a Quarian was no big deal, as nobodies for an aging fleet that could barely stay afloat they didn't have a lot of power, suddenly they had a planet, they have allies, they have political, economic, and military power. The Volus are losing their damn minds, years of treating the Quarians as beggars is come around to bite them."

"How are we taking it?"

She shrugged.

"We haven't known the Quarians that long, so our relationship is neutral, but that neutrality was helpful when it came to making trade deals, humanity has kind of become the middleman between the coalition and the council."

"Is it even possible for us to be in alliance with the Coalition and the council at the same time?"

"Nowhere in the Citadel bylaws says we can't. The Council only ever thought that they would be the only real power in the galaxy. We've been using Arcturus Station as a meeting post for both organizations to talk, it's been annoying. The First, Third, and Fifth Fleet has been stationed there as protection while the talks continue."

I frowned, "I thought the Fleets were there to get retrofitted with Thanix Cannons. The Alliance has been buying them like we were going out of business."

"Most of us thought you 'were'going out of business. Thanix cannons aren't easy to make, and you were selling them super cheap, when we learned they worked properly, we tried to buy the whole stock," she huffed.

"Is it really that expensive to make a thanix cannon? Didn't the Turians make the design?" I asked.

"Yeah, but the moment they made it work they stopped innovating, have you seen their design? They were made with the idea that a dreadnought was going to be built around it, your design is much smaller and built outside a ship and could be added later, it might not have as much power but it's still better than most of the cannons we have today."

"Still, the amount the Alliance bought was more than enough to outfit most of the navy," I pointed out.

"I don't know what Anderson or Hackett said to the Defense Committee, but they have been placing Thanix cannons in every major city on every colony they can."

"Reapers?" I asked, hope bleeding into my voice.

"Worry, in the 40 years of us being in space we've fought 2 foes that have outclassed us, there won't be a third. Officially they're blaming pirate attacks, but everyone knows it is the coalition. Now, will you tell me what you're hiding?"

Tsk~, I thought she would forget about that~. "Let's... talk in my room."

After a short ride up we reached my room, pressing a few runes on the door, I grabbed the frame and shrank the door to about an inch big.

"Really? How does that work?"

"Magic," I teased.

She rolled her eyes. "Your room is still ridiculous, who has a fish tank in a spaceship? At least you're feeding them this time."

"I'm a responsible adult man," I huffed.

"Say that to the genocide of fish you left in your wake," she muttered.

"That was forever ago."

"It was a month ago."

"I've done a lot of living in that month," I countered.

"Your fish haven't," she teased.

"Can we please~!?" I gestured to the couch. She laughed and sat down, "... alright, so we just escaped the mountain exploding-"

-/-

4 days ago

"So~," Nick sighed, sitting on a balcony overlooking his library, or at least part of it. This place was huge, and Kasumi already warned us about portals within the bookcases.

"So," I copied him. The ground crew and Nick's group were sitting in what seemed like an outdoor reading nook meant to seat over 30 people.

"Who the hell are you!?" Jenny demanded.

"I'm your older brother~," Nick teased.

"You know what I mean! What's with all this!?" She threw her hands in front of her face.

"I can't see your screens silly," he laughed.

"Whydo we have a screen?" Miranda calmly asked.

"It's my power, My first power.Gamer. The world around me changes to that as a game. It comes with two skills,Gamer's Bodywhich grants a body that allows the user to live the real world like a game, andGamer's Mind whichallows the user to calmly and logically think things through, grants a peaceful state of mind, and immunity to mental disorder."

"That's what you meant," Edi whispered.

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, "Gamer's Mindmakes it so I can never drown in fear, or hate, or grief," he sighed, "or love, or happiness. Always calm, always ready. Have you ever seen a game character lose their marbles outside a cutscene? Or lose a body part? Or stay down even after a major ass whooping? I'm, not human, you can check,Observeme, what do you see?"

I focused on Nick as my new ability toObservecame to life. "Gamer... human," I answered. Everything other than his level was a blur.

He nodded, "And everyone else?"

I looked at Garrus.

Turian Vigilante

Garrus Vakarian

Lvl: 44

Age: 27

HP: 700/700

CP: 500/500

Garrus Vakarian is a Turian, formerly part of C-Sec's Investigation Division. Like most Turians, Garrus had his military training at fifteen but later followed in his father's footsteps to become a C-Sec officer. His Career took a sudden turn after meeting you and going after Saren. Hero, Merc, Cop, Vigilante, he is the terror that flaps in the night.

Garrus sees you as a mentor and a confidant, you are his hero and best friend.

I looked over to Jenny.

Human biotic

Jennifer Walters Nee Nought

Lvl: 51

Age: 23

HP: 980/980

MP: 770/770

CP: 680/680

BP: 3,000/3,000

Jennifer, also known as Subject Zero, is a notorious criminal whose crimes include piracy, kidnapping, vandalism, and murder. She is also a biotic, possibly one of the most powerful human biotics alive, and is considered so dangerous that she was kept in cryogenic stasis after she was caught. Of course that didn't last long, somedo-goodercame along and freed her.

She thinks you're king of the boy scouts but still pretty cool, she also thinks you have a nice butt.

I looked over to Jacob.

Human Agent

Jacob Taylor

Lvl: 40

HP: 720/720

CP: 800/800

BP: 1,000/1,000

Jacob Taylor is a human biotic and a former Alliance Marine under the command of Major Derek Izunami. He resigned after surviving the Geth attack on Eden Prime. Jacob is a highly experienced fighter and is skilled in the use of weapons and biotics. He works professionally alongside Miranda Lawson, who functions as his informant and later as his superior officer.

He respects you as a person and a warrior, he considers you a friend.

"Why is yours different?" I asked.

Nick shrugged, "Because my power doesn't see me as human, I just look like one."

"Why the hell are you 20 levels higher than me!?" Jenny huffed.

"Human limitations. You can only push the body so far before it breaks, most humans get cut off at around 30, you can increase levels if you train in Magic, Chi, Biotics, and I guess Nova Force. Cybernetics can also work, John was at level 41 when we first met. In truth you shouldn't put too much stock on levels, a bullet to the head can kill a level 100 fighter as easily as a level 10 farmer. Levels are just there to give you a rough estimation of a target's strength. Skills and Perks are what you wanna look for."

"Is that why I can't read you?" Samara asked. "You are only 10 levels higher than me."

Nick nodded, "Gamer's Body...is cheating. When I exercise, I gain a plus 1 to STR, when I stretch, I gain a plus 1 to DEX, when I read a book, I gain 1 to Int, when I use critical thinking, I gain 1 to WIS. I've been doing this for 5 years now, and they stack up. I might be level 73 but my Stats are far higher than that, and the system is generous, I usually gain at least one once a day, shoot I gained one Wis when I created the secret vaults for Kasumi because I knew she would lose her mind if I didn't have cool secret stuff for her to steal."

Kasumi just nodded.

"John, you asked me what Quests were, the simplest answer is the universe giving me optional tasks to complete. Samara needs help with her daughter, Grunt needs help with his Rite," he leaned forward, looking me right in the eye, "Commander Shepard needs your help defeating the Reapers~."

A quest appeared in front of me.

Quest: Harvest

The Reapers plan on killing all advanced species in the Milky Way! Help Commander Shepard save the galaxy and put an end to the cycle.

Sub quests:

-Increase Humanity's readiness level by 50%: Current level 30%

-Increase the Council's readiness level by 70%: Current level 20%

-Increase Krogan's readiness level by 50%: Current level 45%

-Create peace between the Geth and Quarians (complete)

-Create an Alliance with the new Geth-Quarian coalition (Complete)

-Increase the Traverse Coalition Readiness Level by 70%: 80% (Complete)

-Increase the Terminus system's readiness level by 50%: Current level 10%

-Enhance 1,000 Alliance Soldiers: 10/1,000

.

.

.

.

Optional: keep the death to a minimum: 0/300 billion

Reward: Title: Galactic hero, 5,000,000 XP, 250,000,000 Credits, ?,?,?,?

Optional reward: ?, ?,?,?

It just kept going.

"How long have you had this, Quest?" I asked.

"I got it the moment our eyes met," He huffed. "Not all at once of course, the first one was to get on your ship, and more kept coming after I completed one. Technically every quest I complete is a sub-quest to this Quest, and every sub-quest I complete adds to the Readiness bar."

"If this helps with the Reapers, why aren't we doing them?" Garrus asked.

"Who says we're not?"

Quest: Collector's edition

The Collectors have been kidnapping innocent people in the Terminus, put a stop to them.

Sub Quest:

Upgrade the Normandy (Complete)

- Enhance the Normandy's firepower (Complete)

- Enhance the Normandy's FTL options (Complete)

- Enhance the Normandy's Armor (Complete)

- Enhance the Normandy's engine (Complete)

- Enhance the Normandy's Shields (Complete)

- Improve the Crew's living conditions (Complete)

- Improve the Med Bay (Complete)

Help the ground crew focus on the mission

- Help the Ground Crew with their problems (12/13)

- enhance the ground crew (13/13) (Complete)

-?

Reward: 100,000 EXP, 30,000,000 Credits, Prothean genome, 2 gold loot boxes, 5 gacha tokens, plus 20% readiness to all sections

"That's a lot~," Garrus muttered looking at the long list.

"Getting the galaxy ready for war isn't an easy task," Nick teased.

"Hold," Legion called out, "It says you have to free a Prothean from stasis."

"Javik, yeah. I've been sending Hackett some messages on the down low, trying to find his location. Dude would add a 15% increase to all Sections," Nick huffed.

"A living Prothean?" Samara asked.

"Yep, he's the Commander Shepard of the Prothean era. He's kinda trapped at the moment, he's being dug out by a Prothean research team on Eden Prime, he's in one of those pods you saw on Ilos, the problem is he's going to need another Prothean to unlock the pod." He looked right at me.

"How do you know all this?" I whispered.

He jumped to his feet and pointed right at me, catching me off guard. "RIGHT THERE! That question. Are you sure you want to know the answer? Once you know, you can never not know." he was dead serious.

"... yes," I answered.

He looked over to Miranda, "Learning this might have you start hating Cerberus~."

"They're not exactly at the top of my friend list at the moment," she huffed.

He smirked back me, "...Do you remember our conversation about the multiverse? Back when I gave Zura her upgrade?" he asked.

"Vaguely. Infinite dimensions or whatever, then you turned me into a woman."

Nick nodded. "My original dimension, before Thedas, was nothing special, no magic, no advanced alien tech, no superheroes, at least none that I knew of. But we did have...video games. Fun forms of... distractions, that whisk away our mind to worlds beyond ours."

A large illusionary screen appeared behind him.

Shepard came into view, taking deep calming breaths. Before giving the screen a furious look.

"Commander Shepard?"Miranda's voice came from the illusion.

"He has no idea what he's getting into," a man's voice answered.

"Illusive man," I hissed.

An aged man in a fancy suit appeared on screen moving around hard light displays, Miranda appeared behind him, before showing off a rather impressive office with a star out the window. "To his credit, he's recruiting an impressive team. Assassins, scientists, biotics." A mugshot of Thane appeared on one of the dozens of monitors. "He's scouring the galaxy for the best. Illium."

A clip played of Thane systematically and methodically destroying a room of ellipse mercs before they even had a chance to react.

"Purgatory."

A clip of Jack coming out of cryo, her hand flaring biotic blue, unlocking her restraints causing all hell to break loose.

"Even sunny Tuchanka~."

The screen changed to a smirking Grunt taking cover on the scorched Tuchanka surface, before a Thresher Maw exploded out of the ground, attempting to eat him, only to get its head blown off for its trouble. Grunt gave us his trademark chuckle and grin, covered in gore.

"An unlikely band of brothers. Tough, but are they loyal? If Shepard can't gain their trust, they're all as good as dead," the Illusive Man warned.

The screen changed back to Shepard as Grunt and Thane joined his side. Shepard gave them a nod and broke cover, running and gunning into a warzone as Collectors unleashed hell. They started rocky, taking shots and working alone before they got their sh*t together. Thane used his biotics to give the tank that was Grunt easy targets, and Shepard provided covering fire by using heavy weapons, it didn't take long for them to mow anything down in their way.

It got worse as a massive Collector ship appeared overhead, lowering over the colony, and in true Shepard fashion, it didn't even slow him down as he walked towards the danger.

It all faded away to some kind of title screen.

Mass Effect 2

"You are very popular Commander," Nick teased.

"HA!" Grunt laughed, "I'm awesome in all dimensions."

"What is this?" Miranda asked.

"It's what it looks like, a video game, of your quest to defeat the Collectors," Nick answered.

"Our lives are a video game?" Jacob asked.

"No, don't be silly~," Nick huffed. "I'm telling you that I came from a dimension where your story is in Video Game form, you are still you, flesh and bone and very much alive."

I sighed, "What does this mean?"

Nick shrugged, "Nothing. You asked me how I know what I know, I've seen it. I've also seen you win."

That caught my attention. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't think it would do much good, what is the point of knowing something when you couldn't stop it, you would lose your mind trying to change a future that doesn't exist," Nick explained.

"I could have done something!" I argued.

Nick gave me a confused look, "You 'are'doing something, you're stopping the collectors, you're building an army, you're locking down areas outside council space, you're doing what you can, and doing it well."

"What about you? Your quest looks a mile long," Garrus asked.

"Haven't I? What was the first thing I did when I got to this dimension?"

"You threw me into the presidium's lake," Jenny growled.

Nick busted out with a laugh, "After that~."

"...You exposed the Asari's hidden Prothean Beacon," Mordin answered.

"And by doing so, forced the ever-stagnant council to move, to change. The Asari lied, they were playing with a beacon, so why can't others play with their beacons?" Nick teased.

"Like the one on Mars," I whispered. "You... know something in the Mars archives that beat the Reapers."

Nick nodded, "But I couldn't say anything, a random space wizard telling you where to look, isn't that a bit too suspicious, I didn't have the credibility, so you needed to find it yourselves, I just pointed you to right way and gave you the opportunity."

"Making and selling Thanix Cannons," Garrus pointed out.

"Things... are going to get ugly," Nick warned.

The world changed, as an illusion covered us.

We were on a rooftop overlooking a city before a blaring ear-rupturing screech came overhead, looking up, we spotted a two-kilometer-long Reaper coming down, slamming into a skyscraper, crushing it like it was made out of dry sand, before it unleashed a death beam causing untold destruction. it was raining fire, we heard the screams of people down below, more and more Reapers kept landing, a horrible metallic scream caught our attention and some disgusting four-eyed monster with a gun for an arm ran at us, with another Turian husk pointing at us, as a hoard of human Husks swarmed from all angles, only for it to all fade away before they reached us.

Returning us to the library.

"There are no safe places, everyone who can hold a gun was now at war," Nick warned.

"f*ck!" Jenny screamed, "What the hell was that!?"

"It was the beginning of the Reaper war," Nick answered.

"Where?" Shepard whispered.

"Vancouver, Canada, Earth," Nick answered. "I'm trying to soften the blow, more magically enhanced AA guns, enhanced soldiers, early warning systems, more ships with Thanix cannons, peace between the Geth and Quarians, allied with the Krogan, forcing the council to weapon up, but I fear that's just plugging a sh*tty dam with my finger. So, I've been leading you toward the weapon in the Prothean beacon on Mars."

"What weapon?" Samara asked.

Nick gave a hum, "It's called the Crucible, the best way I could explain it is a giant EMP that stretches throughout the Galaxy, with the power to destroy the Reapers, but it also destroys anything electric, like the Mass Relays, the Geth, ships, the galaxy will be crippled until we get it all fixed."

"Is this why you wanted part of the Geth Consensus to move to your dimension? To avoid the destruction of this superweapon?" Legion asked.

Nick nodded. "It was part of it, my true goal was to stop the stupidity of the Migrant Fleet from going to war with the Geth by shoving peace down their throats."

"If you know the future, then you can tell us how to defeat the Collectors," Kasumi pointed out.

Nick shook his head, "I know nothing, I played a video game. This is real-life Kasy, while some things match up, nothing is one-to-one. I had a vague knowledge of Grunt's Rite, but Clan Gatatog messing with us, Grunt becoming an ancestral guardian, having to find the beacons,Kalros~?" he shook his head, "That was all new."

"And yet you came?" Grunt asked.

"Of course, you asked for my help, and as Krantt it was my duty and honor to join you," he smirked at the krogan, getting Grunt to chuckle, happy at the answer.

"Kasy, I had no idea where Hock got a giant mech walker. Tali, I have no idea what the hell Rob was. Jacob, I didn't know you had more family. Miranda, the THOR mech never existed. Garrus, Sidonis was never ripped apart. Legion, I had no idea why you were in the Collector ship."

"How is you knowing a possible future, make me hate Cerberus here in this dimension," Miranda asked.

Jenny tsked, "f*cking cheerleader."

"Jak Harper is dead," he answered. I had no idea who that was but Miranda clearly did.

"Who the hell is Jack Harper?" Jenny huffed.

"The Illusive Man," Nick answered.

"Nick, I talked to the Illusive man a week ago, he's not dead," Miranda answered.

Nick shook his head, "Cerberus has been indoctrinated, it's been indoctrinated since the beginning. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, but most things add up. Have you seen Anderson's cartoon documentary that I created?"

Miranda shrugged, "I gave it a cursory viewing."

"The truth is, all the cartoons were just a way for me to get a feel of the situation, to understand the timeline. To find a bit of truth in the bravado. Jack Harper was a merc employed by the Alliance during the first contact war, he and Anderson had a couple of run-ins with each other before he completely went dark. In the comic, all about his rise to power, he captured Desolas Arterius."

"Arterius? As in Saren Arterius?" Garrus asked.

Nick nodded. "Desolas was looking for something on Shanxi at the time and Harper got the drop on him."

"What was a General even doing patrolling Shanxi?" Garrus growled. "He should have been in the command tent ordering troops, not leading patrols."

"He was looking for a Reaper artifact." that got our attention. "One thing led to another, and Harper was exposed to the Artifact, and was counter-captured when Desolas's back up arrived. He and the artifact were moved off planet." Nick pointed to his eyes, "That's when Harper got his glowing eyes, they aren't cybernetics."

"You expect us to believe this?" Miranda asked. I admit this sounds a bit farfetched.

"I agree," Nick nodded, "So I looked it up. I followed the comic; I traced Harper's journey. From meeting Saren, Arcturus Station, Illium, to Palaven." Behind him, an illusionary newspaper of two men, both with glowing blue eyes, and a woman, being escorted by a troop of Turians, with a large box floating behind them. A headline talking about the first humans to step foot in Palaven.

"Valluvian Priests," Garrus muttered.

"Who?" Shepard asked.

"Valluvian Priests," he pointed to the Turians dressed in red hoods, "they were a crazy cult who built a bioweapon in the heart of Cipritine, they had to bombard the area, to this day no religious sect is allowed within the city limits," Garrus explained, as another newspaper article appeared, with a picture of a large crater, with the headline,Mad Cultists Try and Poison Capital. "This is crazy."

"This doesn't prove he's indoctrinated," Miranda pointed out. "If he was indoctrinated why waste money to bring Shepard back?"

Nick shrugged. "Why was Saren allowed to study indoctrination?"

"Saren said Sovereign gave him free will. That if Sovereign was too heavy-handed, his usefulness would diminish," I answered.

"There are many theories on why Harper brought Shepard back. Personally, I believe Jack Harper is still fighting the indoctrination. He could have spent the billions of credits he used on Shepard and the Normandy and trained an indoctrinated army, but he didn't. He wanted Shepard exactly the way he was, even you thought that was insane. John Shepard, Alien sympathizer, Cerberus hater, Alliance through and through? That guy? No way. When the Reapers invade, Cerberus goes into a complete meltdown, all the stealth and subterfuge they're known for is thrown out the window. He made Cerberus as public as physically possible, attacking people in the streets, bombing areas, showing off labs, it was crazy, he lost his damn mind, but it wasn't until later and some thinking, that I realized-"

"He was calling me out," I finished.

Nick tapped his nose. "In his last moments, where Jack Harper, not the illusive man, gave Shepard the chance to destroy Cerberus. That's why I think you're here," he pointed to Miranda, "You're his right-hand woman, you know way too much about Cerberus, to put you on a suicide mission would be stupid, but he knew Shepard would sway you, he's way too charismatic not to, giving Shepard and probably the Alliance a sh*t ton of information on Cerberus operations. Harper is rolling the dice here, he is betting Shepard will beat the Collectors, run back to the Alliance, and nail Cerberus to the floor before they cause too much damage."

"This is... a lot to take in," Miranda muttered.

Nick shrugged, "Try not to think about it. This isn't a game; this is real life, a game can only show so much. Anything can happen."

"Can you at least give us a hint of whatmighthappen?" Jacob asked, "Give us a rough understanding of what might happen in the derelict Reaper."

"... everyone in the Derelict Reaper is dead, and Reaperized, the second the crew enters the Reaper it will go into lockdown. I have no idea how big the Reaper will be on the inside, I won't know the layout, I have no idea how many Reaper ground forces there will be, but I can tell you that the IFF should be ready for pickup, we just have to fight a small army of husks to get to it."

"Nothing new there," Thane nodded.

"You know where the Shadow Broker is?" Legion called out, still looking through the dozens of quests Nick had.

Nick nodded, "Yeah, Liara should be narrowing down his location, a massive ship that travels through the volatile atmosphere of Hagalaz, something you are going to have to do without me." he just dropped that huge nugget of information like he was discussing the weather.

"Why? This will increase the Readiness of all sections by 10%," Legion asked.

"Because I'll be on Earth enhancing every AA gun I can touch, you can't stop the Shadow Broker until Shepard breaks away from Cerberus, if the Illusive man knew the Broker's location it will cause problems later on," Nick warned.

"So... what does all this mean?" Zaeed asked.

"... Nothing," Nick shrugged.

"This is not nothing," Jenny huffed.

He rolled his eyes, "Of course it is, so I see the world as a video game, who cares? The Gamer's system just makes our goals a little clearer, but that's it."

"Yeah, but we have goals now, we know what to do," I countered.

Nick nodded, "Okay, pick something on the list of things we should do first."

We looked through the long list of Quest that would increase the Readiness of the Galaxy.

"Woah!" Kasumi gasped, "Whatever the crucible is, adds 50% readiness to all sections."

"It's the superweapon," Nick added.

We kept looking, "Taking control of Omega will add 50% readiness in the Terminus system." Jacob pointed out.

"And an all-out war," Miranda added.

"Weapons," Zaeed answered, "3% per 50 Thanix cannons built."

"Already doing that, how do you think the Alliance is so high?" Nick answered.

"Super soldiers," Jenny countered, "1%... per thousand people, but it increases to 5% after they are trained."

"That will take time," Thane countered. "New ships can increase the readiness, but you're already doing that."

"What about golems?" Tali asked, "1% for every 30,000."

"I thought about that, but the only place I could think that would work on is Tuchanka, cuz apparently everyone loves their hills and mountains~," Nick mocked. "Everyone likes a good pit; you can make it into a lake if you want. Wrex would be all for it."

"Yeah, cuz Tuchanka doesn't have lakes~," I muttered. "None of these are quick actions."

"You're telling me~," Nick sighed. "I've been trying to find quick ways to help, but I've already done most of those. I've reached the point where everything is just slow meticulous work that would take months to get rolling."

"Not if we include Hackett and Anderson, if they know what to work on, we could make progress on this list," I pointed out.

Nick shrugged, "If you think that would help."

"Just like that? I thought this was some kind of secret?" Jacob asked.

Nick shook his head, "Nah, sure I don't advertise it, but I'm at a point where I don't have to worry about people knowing."

"Is this how you got the Centurion helmet?" Kasumi asked.

"Kinda~, I got that from theGacha Lottery, something that came with the Gamer's System. Hold on, I still have a good 8 hours from my luck potion." he summoned what looked like a chest made of solid gold.

"Woah~," Kasumi awed, "A gift for me~, you shouldn't have." she reached for it only for her fingers to phase through it. "Aw, what~?"

"Nice try, the box isn't real, it's more of a representation of Schrodinger's box. I can only earn these bad boys from serious quests," Nick explained.

"What's in it?" Zaeed asked.

"Anything, everything," Nick shrugged. "This thing holds everything in the multiverse until I open it and see what's inside. It could be a Death Star, it could be a basketball signed by Michael Jordan, maybe even the perfect sandwich, anything can happen, watch."

The box opened giving off a golden radiant light. Before it was replaced with a bag.

"Alright, let's see what we got here~. 100 gold-" he passed the bag of rare metal to Sky, who started molding the metal into jewelry, "- 2 gacha tokens, nice, 1 rare skill scroll, complete Lego Death Star signed by George Lucas," he passed it to me. It was perfect... this is mine now. "and~,El Tigre belt?"

"What the hell is that?" Jenny asked.

Nick eyed the belt like it owed him money, "It's a... mystical belt imbued with the powers of an Ancient Tiger Spirit, increasing the wielder's STR and DEX by a multiple of 5. It also gives them... mystical tiger powers? It's a family heirloom of the Rivera family, along with the Golden Sombrero of Chaos and Bronze Boots of Truth. Huh~, neat." he was about to put it on, only for Jak to take it away.

"I swear to the Great Evils of Justice!" she cursed, "You have the memory of a goldfish! Who knows what this thing might do to you," she tossed it to Jacob, "Here you go Jacob, test it for us."

"AW, WHAT~!?" Jacob huffed.

"This is what Nick pays you for," Jak huffed.

"I need a raise~," he grumbled. At first, the belt looked too small to fit but as Jacob wrapped it around his waist the leather magically stretched to perfectly fit him. "Now what?"

"Give the buckle a spin." Nick pointed to the T-belt buckle.

"The things we do for family~." he spun the buckle, encasing himself in a green translucent tiger's head, which disappeared with a fierce tiger roar, leaving Jacob looking like some kind of Tiger theme space cowboy, he even had a functioning tail and ears. "Woah~. A bit too Power Ranger for my taste, but-" he jumped in the air, doing a triple front flip landing on the balcony rail with the grace of a cat, "-this is pretty cool~." he flexed his fingers extending metal claws before retracting them. "Yeah, this is awesome, now how do I take this off?" he got off the railing and gave the buckle another spin returning him to normal. "Oof," he gasped. "It's a rush, but the return is a bit hard." he returned the belt to Jak.

"Your body probably wasn't ready for the increase in power," Nick muttered. "The more you use it the better your body gets used to the shift in power."

"Does it work for anyone?" Kasumi asked taking it from Jak.

"It's not a toy," Jak warned.

"Relax~, you're here, I'm in safe hands~," she teased, putting on the belt and giving it a spin. Just like Jacob, she was covered in green before appearing like a tiger-themed crime fighter, or maybe a criminal, the costume was a bit nondescript. "How come you get the best toys?" Kasumi teased. Unlike Jacob, Kasumi was born for the suit, doing impossible acrobatic displays, before launching her hand across the library attached by a chain. "Holy!?" she panicked before retracting her appendage. She looked at her hand, moving each finger. "AWESOME!" she jumped over the ledge.

"KASUMI!?" Jak yelled. We raced to the railing finding Kasumi lowering to the ground floor, her chained hand gripping the balcony.

"THE PROTECTION RUNES DIDN'T ACTIVATE!" She cheered, before retracting her hand, dismounting off the railing, and landing in a superhero pose. "I'm keeping this!"

"Nope," Natia stole the belt right from her waist.

"Hey!?" she tried taking it back only to nearly face plant. "Ugh, you undersold it Jacob~," she groaned.

"Don't blame me, you were the one jumping around like a spooked cat," Jacob teased.

"Shut it~," she huffed.

Nick gave a light cough, "Anyway, that is a loot box, these are gacha tokens." he summoned a platinum coin. Flipping it into the air, it vanished.

GACHA SPIN!

A loud cheerful voice called out before the noise of a pachinko machine went off.

You've won:

lie-detecting bell

Fully charged W/AV M6 G/GNR MK. V

"a W/AV M6 G/GNR?" Nick muttered. He summoned a huge gun with the initials UNSC on the side, "SPARTAN LASER!" Nick cheered. "Jacob! Garrus! We got to pull this thing apart!"

"What is it?" Garrus asked, taking the weapon from Nick, "Oof~, this thing is easily 40 pounds."

"It's a hand-portable and vehicle-mounted solid-state directed-energy anti-vehicle weapon," Nick explained.

"So... a laser?" Jacob simplified.

"Not just a laser~, it's a big f*ck off laser, this is a GARDIAN Laser meant to be carried. This makes the Collector heavy beam weapon look like a laser pointer," Nick teased, popping open the top and pulling out a container, "EDI," he passed her the cylinder.

Edi gave it a quick scan. "Battery cell, nowhere as powerful as an Arc reactor but outclasses anything in the open market."

"You got something else," Tali pointed out, "What's a skill scroll?"

"It is what it is, it's a skill, plucked from somewhere in the multiverse," Nick explained. "It could be anything, from dishwashing to Blackhole creation." he summoned a key, like from the 21st century, before it flew around him. "That's how I got the skill ofKey Manipulation, I can control any key I see, I've been trying to control nonphysical keys like for electronic doors but it hasn't worked. I got to work on it." he summoned a scroll with golden accents, "this is a rare skill scroll, I don't know what skill it might be but it would be difficult to learn and master, but it is powerful." he summoned another Scroll, completely blacked out, "this is a random Skill scroll, this takes your luck into account and generates a random skill, could be good could be bad."

He held up the rare skill scroll before it gave a slight glow and turned to dust.

"What happened?" Thane asked.

"Nothing, I learned the skill. It was a good one too." he created an illusion of the spell description.

Remove Curse – That's an interesting-looking scar. At your touch, all curses affecting one creature or object end. If the object is a cursed magic item, its curse remains, but the spell breaks its owner's attunement to the object so it can be removed or discarded.

Rank – This skill has been added to Healing Hands

He did the same with the Random Skill Scroll.

Haoshoku Haki – Kneel before the king. A rare form of Haki that allows the user to exert their willpower over others, it is said that whoever possesses this type of Haki has the qualities of a king, and thus are known as Supreme Rulers.

This Skill is greater than your previous Skill: intimidate

Intimidate has been combined with Haoshoku Haki

Rank – due to your previous experience with Intimidate, your Vit, and Str stats you start at Journeymen.

200 CP per thousand feet, cost doubles every 1,000 feet after that. Anyone with a VIT Stat of under 100 will freeze in place, anyone under 50 will immediately lose consciousness for 2 minutes. You can control who to knock unconscious.

"OH, COME ON!?" Nick hissed. "Intimidateis one of my best non-combat skills." he sighed, "it's one of the downsides of this power, if two skills are similar the stronger one absorbs the weaker one, and whatever rank it used to be is usually added to the new skill at a rate of 1 to 3."

"Wait... so you just know it now? You didn't have to read it, or practice? Like the scrolls you make?" Garrus asked.

Nick shook his head back and forth, "Kinda. I learned to make scrolls from myTeachingskill. I would place my knowledge of a skill and place it in a scroll, when you read the scroll my knowledge is transferred, but it's a slow process via dreams. I don't need to do that. I can read a skill scroll and immediately know how to do the spell. Even better, I have the perk 'Jack of all Trade' allowing me to learn anything 25% faster, and the skillLearning, which allows me to stack another 100% learning speed as long as someone is teaching me."

"Don't you knowSpell Shaping?" Grunt asked. "Can't you just make any spell?"

"Not every spell, but yeah. With enough practice I can create a spell that theGamer's Systemrecognizes, adding it to my repertoire. You have any ideas?"

"I wanted a fireball that can pierce into armor before exploding!" he cheered like a little kid.

"Mmm," Nick created a tiny fire bolt on the palm of his hand, before shaping it into an arrow. He frowned. "No~, that would just explode on impact." the center of the arrow grew another fireball as the tip turned blue. "Better, but the bomb would still be outside." he started spinning the arrow only for it to dissipate "Right direction, but the spin is destabilizing the spell." he stretched the blue super-heated tip over the spell until it looked more like a drill, "There it is~."

Through study and experimentation, you have created a new skill!

Piercing Firebolt – SHOT THROUGH THE HEART! A firebolt shaped like a drill with a super-heated plasma tip meant to pierce thick armor before exploding.

Rank - initiate

120 MP per shot

He let the spell fade. "Now I practice the spell, with each rank up the spell will cost less and less and the damage will increase."

"Man... that is some cheating, ass, nonsense," Jacob huffed.

Nick laughed, "Yeah. It's awesome."

"How did you acquire this power?" Mordin asked.

"I died." that brought the mood to a halt.

"What?" Kasumi asked.

"I died. Hit by a semi-truck on my way home one night. Died instantly, didn't even feel it, one second, I was driving, the next I was in a white room being judged." he summoned an illusion of an elderly black man in a pristine two-piece suit perfectly white standing next to Nick.

The elderly man smiled at me and sat next to Nick. "I wouldn't recommend dying again John, next time, you're not going to the bar." I felt a shiver shoot right up my spine and lodge itself right in my brain.

"You okay John? You look like you've seen a ghost?" Nick asked.

"I... he." the illusion didn't move; it was still standing there. "No, I'm okay."

Nick still dispelled his illusion, "I was judged, found to be a decent person, got these powers, and dumped in the Multiverse. Quite literally."

"And that's when he met me," Jak smirked. "He couldn't even talk like a civilized man."

"I talked perfect English~," Nick teased.

"I know what I said," Jak huffed.

Today's going to be... a day~

-/-

Present

"... things kinda devolved to shop talk," I ended.

"Mmm, so your magician knows the future," Ma hummed.

"Kinda, he knows 'a'future. Have the Alliance found anything in the Mar's archives?" this could be it, if the Crucible exists, this war could end before it begins.

"... there have been some... rumors," Ma nodded. "Money is being spent, and some ships have been reassigned. Ever since the Asari debacle, the Mar's archives had been launched into all-out chaos. before, due to Council interference, we had to share every little thing we found, slowing everything to a crawl, but thanks to the Asari, all bets are off, if the founding member of the Council doesn't want to follow their own rules, neither will we. We're still sharing but we aren't waiting for the rest of the council to agree."

"That's gonna ruffle some feathers," I muttered.

"The Turians have been sending us warnings, two wrongs don't make a right or whatever, but at this point, we are beyond caring, we know the other council races have been doing this kinda sh*t for centuries, sh*t, the Turians stole one of Sovereign's main guns and secretly reverse engineered it to make their Thanix Cannons, and we've learned that the STG has been playing with Mass relays in the Terminus thanks to the Geth. Everyone's just been a massive hypocrite."

"I'm guessing things are getting strained," I added.

"It's just a bunch of hot air," she huffed. "Just a bunch of politicians pretending to be good people. You should have seen when Hackett agreed to honor your deal with the Krogan ambassador without a fight, everyone, even the krogan, looked at Hackett like he just sh*t a golden egg. When the Krogan ambassador agreed with Hackett's request to allow N7 training on Tuchanka, the Salarian ambassador got really quiet."

"Really? Me and Wrex already agreed, why would that be so shocking?"

Ma shook her head, "Because everyone isn't you and Wrex, just because you agreed doesn't mean the Alliance was going to agree, it's all political bullsh*t. Hackett just didn't care; he honored your deal at face value and moved on. What's your next move?"

I nodded, "We'll be hitting the Derelict soon, but we need to explain things to Hackett and Anderson and get them on board."

Ma nodded. "Anderson is on the Citadel and Hackett is on Arcturus Station, you can use the portal on the Puma, the Everest is parked in Arcturus right now, it will save you the trip."

"Thanks, can you head to the Citadel? I don't want to waste any more time with the Collectors, the second we get the IFF we will be hitting the Omega 4 relay."

She gently cupped my face, "Come home safe, I lost you once and I almost didn't make it. I can only take so much."

I sighed, how do parents make you feel 10 years old? "I'll be okay."

"... I know, you have your father's brains and my muscles, but a mother worries. Don't do anything stupid."

I smirked, "It's me~."

"That's why I'm telling you not to do anything stupid. You also have your father's bravery and my hot-headedness," she smirked back. "... I also need you to do one little thing~."

oh... I didn't like that tone.

-/-

Nick POV

"Alright Sarah, one more time, in... out," I instructed.

Human Slime

Sarah Rogers

Age: 16

Lvl: 27

HP: 600/600

MP: 433/800

CP: 84/150

Sarah Rogers was born on Earth but moved to a new colony in the Attican Traverse after her parents were stationed as security after the Shepard defeated the Heretics. Her new colony life was thrown for a loop after her home was attacked by pirates, losing both her parents, kidnapped, and later sold to Cerberus. Being part of the Alliance Academy thanks to her parents she took it upon herself to help the younger children in her test group.

You are her hero

I was teaching the kids we rescued how to control their new bodies. The wild magic messed with their mana cores. Their bodies adapted to the foreign mana flooding their cores, changing them into something that could handle the power. Not many people can survive something like that, many didn't.

First thing I did was enhance them. Their mana cores were way too small to handle the power their bodies had. Unfortunately, that didn't return them back to normal, at least not entirely. Their bodies did return to their original shape after their new mana cores cycled out the wild magic left in their body, but they would transform as a defense mechanism, to be fair the body of a slime is far better than one of a human.

Slimes are immune to slashing and blunt damage, and depending on the slime she could be immune to acid, cold, lightning, fire, exhaustion, or being blinded. She also has extreme regeneration, able to grow back her body as long as she had water and food.

At the moment Sarah was having problems changing back into a human, unlike the others, who had similar human organs, slimes didn't.

Slimes still baffle researchers, they are best described as a super single cellular organism, consisting of a powerful hardened mana core that works as its inner organs like the brain, lungs, stomach, and so on, a thick outer membrane that acts as its skin, and a viscous inner liquid usually made up of healing juices the Slime may have extracted from plants it ate, for emergency healing, warrior Slimes tended to use strong acids as their inner liquid. A Slime could change its inner liquid but it takes time.

The Cerberus scientist had Sarah on a nutrient-paste diet, so her inner liquid had a PH level of 7, so... it was pretty much slimy water.

"Why is this so hard~?" Sarah hissed. A rib cage morphing around her mana core.

"It's because you think you have to do it one step at a time~," I answered. "In your mind, you think you need a skeleton for your body to form."

"Duh, skeletons are kind of important~," Sally teased from her place in the shuttle bay, with the rest of the kids. All of them wearing an N7 on their clothes, I didn't know how popular the symbol was until Shepard gave me the permission to use the symbol for clothes. The kids guarded them religiously.

Human changeling

Sally Barr

Age: 13

Lvl: 22

HP: 300/300

MP: 352/500

CP: 134/280

Sally was born in Omega to two runaway teens, she was orphaned at the age of 11 after her parents were killed in a drug deal gone wrong. She lived in the street for 2 years as a pickpocket, before being caught and sold to Cerberus, where she was made a test subject for Wild Magic. Surviving the horrible tests Cerberus put her through, her body adapted to the wild mana gaining the ability to change her appearance.

She's grateful to you for saving her, but she'll never admit it.

"Sure... if you were using'science'~" I teased. "This is all magic~, you and Carlos can change your bodies at will, how does science do that?"

"I don't know, it just does," she huffed.

"It's all imagination," I explained, "your mana will do the heavy lifting."

"But won't that cost more mana?" Brad asked.

I nodded, "At first, but like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets. Give it time, it'll become second nature. Now Sarah, imagine yourself as a human, and allow your magic to do the rest."

The Slime girl let out a long breath, her body molding and shaping as a young woman no older than 18 materialized. She took a deep breath, "Lungs~, I will never take you for granted again~. Even my clothes are dry." Not wanting her to change back in the nude, I had Dagna and Julee make her some clothes. It looked like a one-piece workout outfit that was, water, dust, and fireproof.

"Well, yeah, the slime is your body, the last thing you want is for something to be missing," I explained. "Alright ya punks go take a break."

"But I just learned how to use my wings~," Bethany whined, popping out her Draconic wings.

Human Great Dragon

Bethany Black

Age: 13

Lvl: 37

HP: 1050/1050

MP: 1439/ 2100

CP: 637/ 1020

Bethany, like many of her fellow subjects was kidnapped by Batarians and sold to Cerberus. Due to her exposure to Wild Magic she became part Dragon, later becoming a great Dragon thanks to Nick Walters enhancing her body to handle the chi.

You're her hero.

"At least you can put them away~," Tracey huffed.

Human Aasimar

Tracey Roy

Age: 17

Lvl: 25

HP: 950/950

MP: 624/900

CP: 564/700

Tracey Roy is a 17-year-old kid from a small colony in the Terminus, and like many of the kids in Project Mana, she was kidnapped by Batarian slavers and sold off to Cerberus. She got dosed with a heavy amount of Wild Magic which her body converted into holy energy turning her part Aasimar.

You're her hero.

She extended her vestigial wings. "How do angels use these things?" she fluttered her tiny wings. She couldn't retract the smaller wings on her lower back.

"Aasimar~," I corrected. "Most Aasimar get their first pair of wings when they're four, given them plenty of time to practice, so when their larger wings come in, they know how to use them. You're going to have to do it the hard way."

"Wanna trade~," Victor asked, flexing his Dragonfly wings.

Human Fey

Victor Clayton

Age: 15

Lvl: 25

HP: 180

MP: 802/1,200

CP: 71/150

Born to two bastards who sold him at Omega, he worked as a drug runner since he could walk, he was sold to Cerberus when he got hurt in a deal gone wrong, losing his right arm, gangsters didn't want to pay for a prosthetic. The Wild magic turned Victor part Fairy, a species closely attuned to the realm of Magic.

He looks up to you.

It cost me 3,000 MP but I was able to grow him a new arm, he cried big fat child tears as my reward, of course, we agreed to tell everyone that he only shook my hand in thanks to keep his 'manly' pride intact.

Victor got a lot of juice, the poor kid was half Fairy, and his mana core was enormous, reaching 1,200 MP after I enhanced him. The kid was a powerhouse, but his Mana pathways were underdeveloped, his Chi helped but he would still need to practice if he wanted to use his power to the max.

"Sucks to be you guys~," June teased, floating above them, only to jerk to a stop, like a car stuttering, and flop to the floor. "DAMN IT! I had it~."

Human wraith

June Sutton

Age: 17

Lvl: 28

HP: 400/400

MP: 402/900

CP: 32/50

Young June Sutton, she was just 15

When Cerberus tested wild magic on the teen

designed to view a world unseen

There was a great big flash, everything just changed

her molecules got all rearranged

When she first woke up, she realized she had snow-white hair

And glowing green eyes

she could walk through walls, disappear, and fly

she was much more unique than the other guys

She looks up to you.

June was a 'halfa', half-ghost, half-mortal. Technically that should be impossible, because... duh, but magic, the best answer. Just like Danny Fenton, she had a hard time changing into her ghost form. She was one of the reasons why we were planet-side, The last thing we wanted was for her to phase right through the Normandy's floor, I was just happy her phasing ability worked just like Arcane Shroud, so she had a decent grasp of the ability, at least she wasn't phasing through the floor. She had been trying to learn to fly but it took her active concentration to stay afloat. I've had her watch the cartoon for ideas.

"Are you okay?" Franky asked, lifting June like I would a pillow.

Human cloud giant

Frank 'Franky' Goodman

Age: 9

Lvl: 21

HP: 1,200/1,200

MP: 201/800

CP: 754/1,200

Franky Goodman, a good kid with a bad family. Franky comes from wealth, his father works as the CEO of a tech company, but in truth is a dummy company for Cerberus. Franky's father gave him away to Cerberus in the hopes his son would gain superpowers. Franky's father... is an idiot.

Dogmeat is his hero, but you're okay.

Franky is... terrifying. Lots of power but very young. He was Sweet P from Adventure Time, he had the power but none of the control, Jak and Neria took him under their wings in order to teach him how to control his lightning.

"I'm okay Franky, thank you." June patted his arm, getting him to put her on the floor.

"Such foolishness! You would trust this man!? Destroy him! Destroy him immediately!" ordered a tiny robot from David's shoulder.

"Roboto, please calm down~," David pleaded.

Human technopath

David Archer

Age: 7

Lvl: 15

HP: 450/450

MP: 303/500

CP: 321/500

David is the son of Cerberus chief scientist Dr. Gavin Archer. David was born an autistic mathematical savant with unusually strong abilities including rapid calculation and eidetic memory. It was discovered that David was able to communicate with the Geth on a fundamental level by reproducing their patterns of speech. Gavin started replacing David's body with cybernetics trying to remove his autism, but when that failed, Gavin placed him on Project Mana, in hopes that it would 'cure' him.

You're his hero

Ahh~, Rob and David. Where do I even start with these two? David was the youngest subject, at least the youngest one who lived, and Rob was barely 2 weeks old. They were both children, one not knowing what was wrong, the other scared of the monsters in the dark, respectfully. I tried separating them, but whether it was Cerberus turning David into a cyborg, or the wild magic, or just being so close to the portal for too long, but David and Rob were tied at the hip. It was like a Robo-possession, so instead I created a tiny Mech golem and connected it to David's mental network with the help of EDI, Legion, and Tali.

In the end, they were able to connect Rob to the tiny Mech, it wasn't perfect of course, David was like a roaming Wi-Fi signal, Rob had to be at a certain range if he wanted to use the Mech. At this point, I was worried about what might happen to David if Rob was pulled from his mind.

"Hey, give it a rest you plastic action figure~," Vanessa hissed, poking the robot.

Human Alpha Goblin

Vanessa Winters

Age: 18

Lvl: 31

HP: 710/710

MP: 232/ 350

CP: 432/ 750

Vanessa ran away from home at the age of 16, escaping her abusive parents. Stealing a Kodiak from an alliance dockyard, she ran a small smuggling ring acting as an alliance shuttle, it worked rather well until she delivered to Cerberus. She was kidnapped and used as a test subject.

She's grateful you rescued her.

"How dare you!? This body is made of stainless steel!" Rob hissed.

"Pray, silence yourself, you wretched fiend! You wield no authority in this domain," Sir Reginald, Shepard's space hamster, barked. He was the first creature I usedAwakenon, turning him into Shepard's loyal knight, I even gave him a little sword made out of a needle. Shepard's first order was to keep an eye on the kids.

"You have something to say you rodent," Rob hissed.

"Your actions have resulted in considerable harm to my charges; your imprudence almost cost them their lives," he hissed.

"I'm the one who saved them, if not for me then Shepard would have never known about Aite," Rob countered.

"And what actions did you take upon discovering their presence? Did you summon assistance? Did you liberate them? Absolutely not! You exploited poor squire David to carry out your nefarious machinations. Were it not for Lord Shepard and his knights, you would have slain everyone! Your egocentrism nearly resulted in widespread tragedy! You had the opportunity to be a hero but preferred to prioritize your own interests over those of others," Reggy huffed.

"Enough," I ordered. "What happened, happened. While I wish I knew what was happening here sooner, there is nothing we can do about it now." I led them to the elevator. "Come on, let's get you fed, you have afternoon training and you can't do it on an empty stomach."

"Mr. Walters?" Wayne called out. "What's going to happen to us?"

Human Fishman

Wayne Lyons

Age: 17

Lvl: 27

HP: 510/510

MP: 139/ 200

CP: 467/ 900

Wayne, like many of his fellow subjects was kidnapped by Batarians and sold to Cerberus. Due to his exposure to Wild Magic, Wayne became part fishman, gaining the ability to water bend, breathe underwater, and give Michael Phelps a swim for his money.

You're his hero

"What do you mean?" I asked pressing the elevator button for the mess hall. I knew this question was coming, having a bunch of kids on the Normandy was a no-go, duh, but none of them had a home to return to, at least one I was willing to send them to.

"I... Don't have a home. Not anymore," he answered.

"If you want, I can put a good word for you with Admiral Hackett, he can find you guys a new home," I offered, as the door opened to the Mess Hall.

"Won't... won't they just run more tests on us?" Andrew asked.

I nodded, "they might, and probably for good reason. Your bodies were soaked in foreign mana."

"But we have it under control!" June countered, only for the plate she was holding phasing through her fingers and shattering on the floor, where a Fairy Golem cleaned the mess. "Alright, that was a bad example."

"You guys need to learn how to control your powers~," I added, passing June another plate.

"Can't you teach us?" Brad asked.

"I'm busy, the Collectors are running roughshot through the galaxy, and their masters aren't too far behind," I explained, but I doubted they even knew who the Collectors were.

"I doubt the Alliance could help us, have you seen them? They couldn't make heads or tails of all the junk out there," Vanessa huffed.

Harsh but accurate.

The other reason we were still on Aite was that we were helping the coalition try and gain control of the absolute cluster f*ck the portal caused. There was a ridiculous number of energies out there. This entire planet is a nexus event, planes of existence are clashing and mixing here, give it a year and this whole planet is going to get weird. I doubt it would spread past that; with any luck everything here will settle down after a decade.

I nodded. "I understand, I talked with Shepard and we agreed that if you didn't want to stay here, I can provide you home and shelter in Sky City as you learn to control your powers."

"Sky City? like in your dimension?" Carlos asked, taking a healthy amount of shrimp fried rice.

Human polymorph

Carlos Witt

Age: 11

Lvl: 15

HP: 230/230

MP: 373/600

CP: 103/ 230

Born to space merchants Carlos never had a normal life, never having roots, Carlos traveled the stars since he could walk. Unfortunately, the life of a merchant is a dangerous one, attacked by pirates, his family was killed, and he was sold to Cerberus. Placed in Project Mana, he was dosed with Wild Magic giving him the ability to wild shape on command.

You're his hero

The kid's been watching nature documentaries religiously.

I nodded, "Yep. I have a school that should help you with your powers, but it's not perfect. Your abilities are unique, meaning you will have to do the heavy lifting."

"Do we have to go?" Brad asked.

Human Tiefling

Brad Becker

Age: 12

Lvl: 19

HP: 320/320

MP: 232/400

CP: 293/400

Brad was born in the colony of Asteria, he had a normal life, if you call living in a desert hellscape normal. While Asteria may be in the Attican traverse, it is not beyond being raided by pirates and slavers, Brad was one of the unhappy souls that was kidnapped in one of these raids. He was sold to Cerberus, and placed on Project Mana, where he was dosed with Wild magic, turning him into a first-generation tiefling.

You're his hero.

"Absolutely not," I shook my head, "I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want, but you need to understand that you're still in danger, just because we kicked Cerberus in the nuts doesn't mean they won't try again, and I fear this isn't their only lab, they're the type of idiots to try again."

"What's the school like?" Cindy asked.

Human fire elemental

Cindy Owens

Age: 15

Lvl: 21

HP: 520/520

MP: 314/ 600

CP: 530/720

Born in Omega, Cindy never knew her birth father, born to one of the hundreds of prostitutes on the Station, she ran away from home at 6 and joined a street gang to survive. But after a gang war broke out in her district she was kidnapped and sold to Cerberus, where she was placed in Project Mana, getting dosed with Wild Magic gaining the powers of a fire elemental.

You're her hero

"Hogwarts?" I hummed. "I guess you can call it a university where magic is taught. It started as a place where mages could go to train their magic and where normal people could learn to read and write. It kinda escalated to a university, where anyone can go to learn... just about anything, and if we don't teach it, we'll find someone." I created an illusion of the school's campus, Hogwarts was rather huge, we even had to separate the adult classes from the younger classes.

"Woah~, we'll live here?" Andrew asked.

Human magical polyglot

Andrew 'Andy' Duke

Age: 12

Lvl: 15

HP: 220/220

MP: 130/220

CP: 140/220

Andrew was born in the colony of Asteria. He had a normal life, if you call living in a desert hellscape normal. While Asteria may be in the Attican traverse, it is not beyond being raided by pirates and slavers. Andrew was one of the unhappy souls kidnapped in one of these raids. He was sold to Cerberus and placed on Project Mana, where he was dosed with Wild magic, giving him the ability to speak with any species, even non-sentient ones.

You're his hero

"No, students that live on campus live in the dorms," the change the illusion of the campus to the Dorms.

"Nice~," Leah whistled. "Do we get our own room?"

Human Eladrin

Leah Pickett

Age: 17

Lvl: 25

HP: 450/450

MP: 530/800

CP: 340/450

Leah Pickett is a 17-year-old teen from a small colony in the Terminus, and like many of the kids in Project Mana, she was kidnapped by Batarian slavers and sold off to Cerberus. She got dosed with a heavy amount of Wild Magic which her body converted into Nature energy turning her part Eladrin.

You're her hero.

I nodded, "At 15 you are moved from group bunking to having your own room, I understand that teenagers need their own space. 18 and older are given their own two-bedroom apartment on campus they need to keep organized, as well as pay rent, it's not expensive, most students can pay off the room with the part-time jobs we have around the school. You'd be surprised how many teachers, teaching assistants, staff, and supervisors a university needs. We tend to hire the people we just taught if someone else doesn't, and it still isn't enough." I felt someone tug at my apron, looking down I found Bethany looking up at me.

"Are you okay Mr. Walters?" good lord, her eyes were huge.

I patted her on the head, "I'm okay, its just that Hogwarts is one of the few Universities in Ferelden and I just want it to work out."

"I didn't know you cared so much about schooling," Rupert teased, helping me with the food.

"I don't, one of the first things I learned about taking care of others is if they're smart, they tend to solve their problems and only come to you if it's important. I remember when Sky City was Sky Village, 95% of people were illiterate. I couldn't write a note and pass it down, everything had to be in person, it slowed everything down to a crawl."

"So, you helped people learn how to read and write... so youdidn'thave to help them?" Leah asked.

"Now you're getting it~," I smirked. "I can't be everywhere at once and I need to trust that you can handle yourself. The best way I know you can do that is if you have the knowledge and power to survive without me."

"How long do we have to be there?" June asked, trying to use telekinesis to bring a spoonful of rice to her mouth, only for it to try going up her nose, "Come on!"

I laughed, "As long as you want, but preferably after you have better control of your powers."

"And if we don't want to come back?" Cindy asked.

I shrugged, "Then don't. I'm not forcing you to do anything, I'm just giving you options, one of which is going to a magic school, another for you to remain here and get help from the Alliance, another is to go at it on your own, but we all know that one is probably going to have you right back in a Cerberus cell. You don't have to decide right now, all this is still new and I can help you with the basics, but you will have to choose in the future, sooner rather than later. The Normandy is still a warship."

"Nick," Shepard called out to me.

"Looks like I'm being called to action, I'll try and make it to afternoon training but if not Neria will be in charge," I called out, hanging my apron.

"I see the kids are having fun," Shepard nodded, leading me to the elevator.

"Ever since they knew they could change back; they've been having a field day with their powers. It's one thing to have superpowers, it's another to have a completely new body. So, do we have a game plan?"

Shepard nodded, detailing the plan of us heading to Arcturus Station, while the Normandy and the Puma headed to the Citadel. He passed me a data pad, filled with names.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Hackett's soldiers, Edi's already ran their names through Cerberus data banks, they're clean, well, as clean as we could get."

I looked through the list, stopping on a name. "Ashley Williams?" I smirked at him. "Giving your girlfriend superpowers?"

He rolled his eyes, "Ash is a good soldier, she's smart, fast on the draw, and loyal. I trust her."

"... Okay," I shrugged. "I trust you and if you trust her that's good enough for me."

"And the kids? You think they might go to Sky City?"

I shrugged. "More than likely, there isn't much for them here, and Ferelden sounds like a new fresh start."

Shepard nodded. "That's good, will they be taken care of?"

"Duh, they'll be my wards, everything they need will be taken care of until they are ready to live on their own," I huffed. I'm an asshole but them kids already went through the ringer, I'm not going to make it worse.

"You're a good man."

"I'm a decent man, I've killed too many people to be a good man." we walked out of the hangar bay doors and onto Aite's surface.

"832~... 833~..." James hissed, sweat pouring off his face.

"You're wobbling," Hannah hissed.

"834~... 835~..."

"Pick up the pace!"

"836~, 837~... 837~."

"DID YOU JUST REPEAT A NUMBER!? START FROM THE BEGINNING!" she drilled.

Vega couldn't hold it and just flopped to the floor.

"Did you just dirty your alliance-issued armor!? You dare sully something my precious husband's System Alliance issued you!?" Hannah hissed.

"We're here~," Shepard sighed.

"Well, would you look at that~, thank the Commander, Vega, he just saved you."

"Th-thank you, Commander~," Vega huffed from the floor.

"WILLIAMS! I expect those thousand push-ups by the end of the day," Hannah ordered, walking into the Puma.

Ashley grimaced but saluted. "Thanks, Skipper," she hissed at John.

"You know me, always happy to serve," John teased.

"Yo, tomboy!" I called out getting her attention.

"What did-"

I palmed her face.

Do you wish to bestow power on Ashley Williams?

Warning: you can only do this once per person!

Cost: 300 MP, 1,000 CP

Gain: 800 CP, +15 points to all stats, +5 levels

Do you wish to continue?

Yes.

"Son of a! COME ON!?" Shepard hissed, covering his eyes. "I knew you were going to do it too. Maker damn it!"

"I'm guessing he does that a lot~," James hissed from the floor, rubbing his eyes.

"Not really but it always catches me off guard. I'm going to go blind one of these days," Shepard hissed at me.

"Suck it up ya mama's boy~," I laughed walking into the Puma. I did a quick Accio spell to drag any unwanted listening devices into my hand, there were four, much to my annoyance. "Steve! Robert!" I greeted the pilots with a smile, I doubted they were the ones that put the bugs in the ship.

"Nick~!" Robert greeted.

"Walters," Steve waved.

"I hope the Puma has been treating you well."

"She's great!" Robert nodded, "Probably the only lady I've been happy to be in."

"Ugh~," Steve rolled his eyes at his husband's crude humor.

"That's good, I wanted her to be somewhere you can live in for long periods of time. Anything I need to look at while I'm visiting?"

"I don't think so, she's already an impossible ship built for comfort," Steve answered.

"Actually, can you maybe put in a dedicated weight room? Vega kept complaining that he doesn't have a place for all his weights," Robert asked.

I nodded, "I can do that. I'll add it at the Citadel, park her in the Normandy."

"Thank god~," Steve huffed.

"Don't... touch... my... weights" James groaned, limping to the couch. "I can't feel my arms."

"Have fun with that~," I laughed, dodging Ashley's clumsy swing.

"Hold still!" she hissed.

"You're not going to catch him," Shepard sighed. "You need to get used to your new strength."

"How did you do it?" Ashley asked.

John pointed at me. "I had a crazy space wizard run me into the ground."

"It's not easy," Robert added. "I'm just happy everything here is reinforced or we would have bent this place out of shape."

"Use grip masters," Steve added. "I have a few you can have."

"And Eggs!" James added, "You're going to have to test your control."

"What's taking you slackers so long!" Hannah barked for the portal.

"Coming!" Shepard barked back, taking Ashley's hand and leading her to the portal.

"Your hands are clammy," Ashley teased.

"He gets it from his father, Shepard men can't touch pretty girls without panicking," Hannah laughed.

"MA!" her son's distress call only made Hannah laugh harder. "Sorry about her. I hope she hasn't been too hard on you."

"She's... tough to please, but I don't think she does it out of maliciousness."

"Oh no, she does, she has impossible standards, but it's only because she thinks you can go the distance, if she thought you couldn't she wouldn't even bother. Has she shoved you into N7 training yet?"

"Yeah," she smirked at him, "N6, right here."

"Nice, I'm guessing Horizon was a dry run?" Ashley puckered up at the memory, before nodding in shame. "It's okay."

"...No, it's not. I yelled at you; I accused you of working for Cerberus. Clearly it was the Collectors and Reapers, I was just... shocked to see you again. I was wrong... I'm sorry."

"I forgive you," Shepard immediately accepted her apology.

"How can you do that? I was a bitch."

Shepard shook his head, "And I was a cyborg zombie wizard. Life works in weird ways, if I get hung up on stupid things like people freaking out that I came back to life I would never get anything done. You know you did something wrong and apologized. Besides... I also snapped at you for no reason. I was dead for 2 years and tried going back to the way things were, it was unfair to you and your struggles, you grieved and moved on, and I ignored that. I'm sorry."

She looked up at him, gently cupping his face,"... I forgive you."

"... thank you."

.

.

.

"... You guys need a room?" I asked. They looked over at me. "If you wanted a private conversation maybe you shouldn't be talking in a hallway."

"Why are you like this?" John sighed.

"Why do you make love in hallways?" I countered.

"We weren't making love in a hallway," Ashley hissed.

"Please~, you have the same look Julee had when she was a week into No Nut Kingsway. If I wasn't here, you would have John up against that wall. Any other time I wouldn't care, but we kinda have to get going." I gestured to the portal.

Shepard just sighed, "after you."

Just bone already.

-/-

Shepard POV

Arcturus station was the pinnacle of Alliance engineering, the station stretched out for over 5 kilometers acting as a space dock. It was a lot like the presidium on the Citadel, being a circular Stanford Torus design.

it was good to be home.

New Quest: Home Sweet Home

Arcturus station is the command center of the System Alliance Navy and is conveniently located at the nexus of several mass relays.

And easy prey for the Reapers

Enhance the Station to survive the upcoming war:

-Enhance 100 GARDIAN lasers around the station: 0/100

-Added 30 Magically enhanced Thanix cannons to the station: 0/30

-give the Station FTL capabilities

Reward: plus 20% readiness to Alliance Space, 50,000 XP, 30,000 Credits, 2 dreadnoughts, repair station.

"Johnny," Ma called out, "are you okay? Is it the... you know," she waved her hands over her face.

I ignored her and looked over to Nick, who was looking back at me. "Can you?"

He smirked, "How much time do we have?"

"I'll make time."

"Then get me into whatever this place uses as an engine, I have a Jumbo Reactor and Hyperdrive ready~. I can also use this place as a dry run for Earth."

sh*t, if the Death Star can go FTL this station can too... probably. "Ma, Nick needs clearance to the engine room, can you get that for him?"

She quirked an eyebrow at me, before shrugging, "I can, but there are going to be questions."

"Just tell them that it's spectre business, and if they have any problems with that tell them to call me. Nick, get to the Engine room and start working on the engine, recruit every engineer if you need to." without a word, Nick blasted into the station, "Ma, get me to Hackett."

"You're going cause me some headaches, aren't you?"

"Only a tiny one, I promise."

"He's lying," Ash hissed, "he said the same thing every time we went on a mission."

"Of course he's lying, he gets it from me. Why do you think he was never placed undercover? Come on, Steven should be in the parliament building, peace talks are still going on."

Arcturus hasn't changed since I was a boy, everything was still the same, well, mostly, I spotted a small group of cleaning golems racing across the hall, polishing the floors, and picking up litter. Nick must be recruiting the cleaning staff.

I've gotten way too used to magical upgrades cuz this elevator was taking forever! After what felt like 3 days, we reached the parliament building at the center of the station. I knew this place like the back of my hand with Pa working here most of my life. It didn't take long for us to get to Hackett's office. He looked like he aged 5 years since the last time I saw him.

"Shepard, Williams," Hackett greeted. "I got word that Walters is causing havoc in engineering. I'm guessing that's thanks to you?"

"Yes, also he's not happy with the Bugs he found on the Puma, he told me to tell you that he's going to turn something in the Everest into a golem and not tell you." I placed a stone covered in runes on his desk. Activating the rune the room was covered in a blue glow before tiny devices ripped themselves from the walls, carpets, and flower pots, landing on the desk, which I crushed in a single slam.

Hackett gave the room a look, "Well, that's annoying, thanks."

Suddenly the lights dimmed before coming back at full force and then some. My omni tool going off, Nick's caller ID coming up. "Talk to me," I opened the call.

"I got the Reactor plugged in; the eggheads are telling me that the station is at a billion percent energy increase."

"I said 400%!" A voice I recognized came from Nick's right.

"Adams?" I asked, getting Nick to expand his camera.

"Commander? I should have known it was you~," he teased.

"I told you Shepard sent me here," Nick huffed.

"There are two Shepards out there, and they're both equally crazy," Adams shrugged.

"Adams, report," Hackett ordered.

"Magic space wizard showed up and 'plugged in' a massive Reactor R&D have been studying for the last month into the station's engine, had to power down the fusion plant, before anything exploded, and redirected most of the excess energy into the station's shields but that's only going to last so long before they are overwhelmed," Adams warned.

"That's fine, I need the power," Nick countered.

"Nick, before you go," I gestured to Hackett.

"Right," he gained a faraway look before nodding, Hackett flinching at nothing. "Have fun with that~." Nick dropped the call.

"Shepard?" Hackett asked.

"Accept the invite, we have a long talk ahead of us."

-/-

As I thought, the talk was long but easier than I thought, Hackett was quick on the uptake, working his stat sheet like a pro. It took me a second to realize that he probably had a skill or perk that helped him process information faster than normal people.

"This... is a lot to take in."

"How many Thanix Cannons does the Station use?" I asked.

"10. Any more and we would have to add another fusion plant, and we didn't have the room," he answered. "But I'm guessing that's not much of a problem anymore."

"Do we have any in storage?" I'm kinda hoping we can knock this quest out now that we're here.

"A few dozen, we're retrofitting the 5th fleet. The next shipment of cannons should be here next week."

"We need 20 of them, Nick can add them to the station, he just needs locations."

Hackett hummed, "We had the idea to double up the cannons, just in case the first shot didn't take down the target."

"I'll tell Nick," I looked over the Quest. Nick was taking this seriously, he already upgraded 25 GARDIAN lasers.

Hackett's desk comms came to life, "Admiral, the peace talks are calling an emergency meeting."

Hackett sighed "Understood." he looked over at me, "Keep Walters from destroying the station."

I smirked at him, "I'll do my best, but there might be a farm somewhere in the station by the end of the day."

"I can live with that." He picked up the stone on the table. "I'm keeping this."

I shrugged. "On and off button is the red rune on top."

We exited Hackett's office and headed towards the Engineering section of the station. It took me a second but I realized that the station was... bigger, maybe by 10 feet?

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked.

"It's bigger on the inside," Ma answered.

I gave the room a thorough look over, "There." I pointed to the ceiling were a glowing rune sentence that traveled down the hall.

"What do they mean?" Ash asked.

"No idea, Dagna tried teaching me once but it was like advanced trigonometry with no numbers, in a language I didn't understand, and symbols that made my head hurt," I answered. "But I do know that one." I pointed to a rune of a circle, encased in a square, encased in a triangle, and encased in another circle, "That's a durability rune, it's meant to reinforce whatever it's attached to. Every single panel on the Normandy's outer plate armor has one, and that one there," I pointed to a rune that looked like a half-finished Infinity symbol, "That's a bridge rune, they are meant to connect two or more runes without having to make them touch."

"So... like a wireless connector?" Ash asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, they are used when the surface you're using isn't connected, like the panels on the ceiling, but more importantly they can be removed from the rune scheme without causing a rune malfunction."

"What does that mean?" Ma asked.

"If the station is ever attacked and a panel is destroyed the rune sentence won't fail, the magic running through it will just jump to the next bridge rune. The power source is probably coming straight from the Arc reactor."

"I thought the reactor was a battery," Ash pointed out.

"It is, Nick created a rune that converts electricity to mana and uses that mana to charge his runes for the next thousand years," I explained.

"I didn't know you could do that," Ma muttered.

I cast a smallSparkspell to dance across my fingers. "I can convert mana into lightning, Nick's rune just reverses the process."

"So, it's a source of infinite mana?" Ash asked.

"No, the rune doesn't produce mana it just converts it, it needs power to run. It's also a complicated rune to make, and it's not a great rune at first, Nick told me the first time he made it the exchange rate was abysmal, a normal minor Mana Regen rune worked nearly 100 times better at collecting mana than the transfer rune."

"Why use it at all if he had something better?" she asked.

"Elves," I answered.

"Elves? Like the ones on the Normandy?"

I nodded. "They used to be a superpower in Nick's world, they could mold the world around them as easily as you could clay, they even had dimensional portals, until one day, they f*cked with the wrong person, and their kingdom was cut off from the realm of magic. In less than a hundred years, the once mighty elves were brought down, without magic, they were nothing. Nick learned from their fall, if someone can cut the connection to the Magic realm once, they can do it again."

"So, he worked around it," Ma nodded. "a backup, just in case."

"He learned what we didn't. The second we learned about Eezo we stopped making new forms of FTL, and it's come back to bite us. The Reapers are millions of years old, maybe billions, they have mastered Eezo in a way we haven't and probably can't."

"What about the Hyperspace-"

"-drive," I corrected Ash. "It's not like we watched the Star Wars like 7 times~."

She rolled her eyes, "Hyperdrive, engine," she hissed.

"Nick is the only one who can get the Coaxium, doesn't matter how many engines we make, without it we aren't going anywhere."

"...You have that look again," Ma hissed.

"... I have no idea what you are talking about." she yanked on my ear. "OWOWOWOWOOWOWOWO! You're going to tear it off!"

"What are you hiding?" she ordered. "I'll ground you, I have that power."

I managed to free myself. "I'm a grown-ass man, you can't ground me," I hissed, rubbing my poor ear.

"I'm your mother, I might not be able to stop you but you can't stop me from postingthison the Extranet." she pulled out a picture of 7-year-old me in my Darth Vader onesie, pretending to use the force.

I tried to snatch it but she saw it coming from a mile away. "You still have that?"

"You look adorable~," Ash snickered.

"I have thousands of these, your father sent them to me when I was deployed."

I groaned, "Pa, why~?"

"Tell me or I release 10 more just like this one."

I groaned, I hoped she was bluffing but my gut told me otherwise, "Nick recently came into the possession of two other forms of FTL, BUT!" I cut off whatever she was going to say, "Nick has no idea how they work. According to Kasumi one of them could find Wormholes in the universe and use them as FTL gateways, the other one is Warp Travel."

"Warp travel... why does that sound familiar?" Ash muttered.

"Star Trek," I answered.

"Right~, you're a nerd~," she teased.

"Yeah, and you slept with a nerd. I'm clearly swinging way out of my league and scoring homeruns," I smirked back.

Ma snapped her fingers, "Focus, FTL now, grandchild later."

I sighed, "Nick came into the schematics of a 34th-century Pathway drive," they gave me a blank look. "Listen, there is no way in hell I can explain it to you, I had Edi, Legion, and Tali look at it and they started talking in tongues, thought they were possessed for a second, this thing is so advanced that if you have anything less than a doctorate in Aeronautical engineering and a minor in science fiction you would have a better chance at learning it watching paint dry. All I understood was that Eezo was technically faster, until you reach warp 10, at that point, you can travel the universe in a blink of an eye."

"And he hasn't given this to Hacket, because~?" Ma drawled.

"A bunch of reasons, for starters, Cerberus is deep in the Alliance, we don't know who's working for them, they've already tried copying his Portal tech, and almost destroyed the galaxy. Maker knows what those idiots will do with a new form of FTL. Nick doesn't care that we know about the Hyperspace engine, without the Coaxium it's just a paperweight."

"What about the other form of FTL?"

"The wormholes? Only the crazy and desperate would use one."

"More like the brave and the hopeful," A voice called out. Turning we found Alec and Ellen Ryder standing next to Adams, behind them a massive reactor and equally massive Hyperdrive engine, Engineers and scientists going crazy with scanning and writing notes.

"Well, well, well, look who came out of his cave," Ma teased. "Thought you were hibernated?"

"If the salmon fly into my mouth, it's not my fault if I eat them." They shook hands.

"Ellen, you look good for dead." Ma hugged and kissed both her cheeks.

"So, I've been told."

"What bring you eggheads to my neck of the woods? Isn't your little galaxy cruise going to take off soon?" Ma asked.

"Final checks just finished; we have the green light for January 21st," Alec answered. "We're here because Walters called us, he wanted my research on my SAM implant for every FTL design he had even his portal and rune tech. I still don't know the reason." he looked over at me.

"Cerberus," I hissed, "They experimenting on a young man, trying to duplicate your implant, it wasn't pretty, it's more robot than human, he's now stuck with an AI in his head and you can't get it out, we wanted to see if your research could make his life a little easier."

"That's terrible," Ellen gasped.

I nodded. "It's not pretty but we were able to transfer the AI to a separate mech but it can't go farther than 30 feet," I explained, "Dr. Solus thinks he could help if he knew more about what Cerberus was trying to do. Any notes on David's transformation have been either destroyed or lost."

"I'll send you my data, and send me anything you can, I know I'm only here for a short time but I want to see if I can help," Alec answered working on his omni tool, it didn't take long before my omni tool dinged with a new message which I sent to Mordin.

"Thank you for your help."

"Think nothing of it, You and Walters have helped me more than I ever dreamed. With any luck, my and Ellen's research can help."

"Still, you have my thanks, but before I go, I need to ask... Did Nick give you the Coaxium and Lyrium for the Hyperdrive and runes?"

"... What's Coaxium or Lyrium?"

Maker damn it Nick.

-/-

Nick POV

"I just wanted the first bar they made to be called Quad Ryder~," I joked.

"Really~," Ashley huffed.

I shrugged, "I thought it would be funny~."

"What will happen if they don't deliver?" Hannah asked.

I shrugged again, "Nothing. What, did you think I was going to travel to another Galaxy to complain? I don't care, the Andromeda initiative is going to be up sh*ts creek without a paddle, they're probably going to need the hyperdrive."

"And the Badassium?" Shepard asked.

"It's better than Palladium, sure they are going to have to use palladium after the Badassium runs out but that's in a few thousand years, I'm sure they'll find something else to power their stuff by then, in not it's their fault for not having something new."

"Fair enough, how's Arcturus coming along?" Shepard asked.

"Easy, Jacob and Garrus already helped me create the rune scheme, it is the same ones I used on the Normandy's GARDIAN lasers. I doubt they would destroy a capital-class Reaper, but that's what the Thanix Cannons are for." it was rather straightforward, each GARDIAN laser took up about 400 MP to make, with Master Rank runes to enhance the power output and cooling mechanism. With my fully armored MP being at 5,125 I was able to enhance 12 Lasers before I had to rest for 10 minutes as my MP regen and meditation topped me off, taking me about an hour and a half to finish the hundred lasers.

The Thanix cannons on the other hand were a different beast. Arcturus only had 10 activated at the moment, with more being added in the future, I, of course, expedited the process by using myConstructionskill to add the cannons onto the station, each new cannon cost me over 4000 MP to install and over 3000 to enhance, it was a very slow process taking me over 3 hours to install them and 5 hours to enhance them, followed by helping place new Cannons on some of the frigates coming in for retrofits.

Now I was just waiting for the Station's engineers to create an exhaust port and flight controls for the Hyperdrive, and I would have completed the Quest.

So, after 9 hours of nonstop work, I was doing something to relax.

"Get out of the way! Can't you see I have a ladder!" I roared at a bunch of shocked Alliance workers.

"Why do you have a ladder?" Shepard asked.

"Nobody stops a dude with a ladder," I huffed.

"That is blatantly untrue," Ashley pointed out.

"And yet here I am~, not a single person has tried stopping me. In fact, people jump out of the way."

"Why are you building this anyway?" John asked.

I shrugged, "I'm bored, we are still waiting for the Normandy to call."

"No, I get that, why a farm... in a closet?" John asked.

"It's a manor house with a large farmstead," I corrected.

"What's the difference?"

"No idea, it just sounds fancier," I answered.

"Who is it even for?" Ashley asked.

I shrugged, "I don't know, I just build things lady, you wanna live here, be my guess."

"Did you ask Hackett for permission to build this place?" she asked.

"I have diplomatic immunity."

She shook her head, "That's not how that works... I think."

"Why, what are they going to do? Stop me? I have a ladder."

"You might need to put that ladder down," Shepard called out, answering a call. "Joker."

"Yo commander~, we made it to the Citadel, Anderson said he was going to meet you in Arcturus."

"Perfect!" I cheered, "I get to finish the interior~." I was really getting into this project, I don't know what it is about farms but they always gave me this sense of peace.

"Great, tell him I'm in supply closet 97," Shepard told Joker.

"...Do I even want to know?" Joker smirked.

"Probably not, we'll be back by tomorrow, make sure everyone is ready for the Derelict."

"Copy that~." the call dropped.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"15:35," Ashley answered. I just gave her a long look. "3:35, why?"

I pressed my hand up against the wall. "I just wanna get the time right~."

Do you wish to add your Sky Runic scheme to expanded room?

Cost: 4,000 MP, Rune Crafting Rank Master, 2 mini arc reactors, bridge connection to Arcturus station.

Reward: 500 EXP

Yes

Runes exploded out of my fingertips wrapping around the room as my mana drained out of me. The runes lit up for a second before the daytime sky came to life. I walked over to one of the dozen benches I placed around the property and flopped down.

"Sir~," One of my 50 Maid Golems I created to keep the farm clean, walked over and gave me a glass of water.

"Thank you, Iris-23." I took the glass and through it on my face, "Refreshing~." she took the glass back. Large rune schemes like that take a lot of power, I could usually counter that by creating the Scheme one step at a time like I did in Omega, but unlike Omega, no one wanted me dead here, so I just took the easy way. I allowed the fake sun's light and warmth to wash over me. My armor and natural MP regen were already working on my depleted mana core. A soft breeze brushed across my face. Just for a moment, I was back in Skyhold's garden.

The moment was broken as Shepard sat next to me. "This is a nice place~."

"Nice? NICE!? This is impossible!" Ashley yelled, gesturing to the daytime sky. "Where is this breeze coming from!? And the sun's warmth!? HOW!?"

A smirk grew across my face.

"Magic~," Shepard and I explained at the same time, before we broke out in laughter.

Ashley just sighed, "That's just going to be an answer, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I teased.

I got back to work on the manor. I may have ripped it straight from the pages of a history book, but I was going to equip it with modern magical fittings.

I just finished the kitchen as Shepard, Ashley, Anderson, and Hackett walked into the room.

"You don't do things in half measures do you?" Anderson asked.

"Not when it comes to things I like," I smiled.

"Who's the manor for anyway, are you finally building an embassy?" he asked.

"Nah, I was just bored, you can make it into a break room for the staff if you want, you're going to have to keep the fridge filled."

"This is the fanciest Break Room I have ever seen," he muttered, "So why did you call me?"

I sent him a party invite.

Anderson gained a thousand-yard stare before focusing back on me, "This is going to be a story isn't it."

I smirked at him, "Nothing you haven't heard before."

-/-

Tali POV

"Mmm~," I looked at the holographic eezo core I could be able to fabricate. The cost was 400MP, it was costly but I could do it. I just know if I could make it cheaper. My dreams teach me that I could, but it is so slow~, I think I need theMendingspell, but Shepard is keeping it under lock and key. I don't even know why, I'm plenty nice! I'm going to punch my niceness into his face until he hands it over!

I felt a pair of hands dance up my hips, "Having trouble~," Julee whispered in my ear, sending shivers up my spine.

"N-no." I was in Julee's workshop, simply because she had everything.

And no other reason.

She nibbled at my neck, "Don't lie to me, you and Lyna have the same thinking face. All scrunched up and cute." she giggled as her calloused finger slipped under my shirt, mapping my tender skin. I should stop her. "maybe~," she breathed in my ear, "you need a break." her fingers reached my bra as my body burned.

"The derelict," I gasped.

"Nick and Shepard aren't back yet~, we have plenty of time." her tail slowly crawled up my leg. "You don't want to go into a Reaper tired, do you?" her tail played with the edge of my pants.

"I..."

"I'll be worried sick~." my pant button came undone as her fingers slid underneath my bra. "Let me... bring you a little peace." I gasped as her fingers found my nipples, taking that moment she shoved her tongue down my throat. She tasted like chocolate, it was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted, I need just a little more. I felt her tail brush between my legs.

I... I was falling, everything was a blur, one minute I was in the work lab, the next, I was naked, my back on a bed, as Julee licked her way down my body, her sulfur eyes never breaking contact. She paused at my belly button and started tracing my Bio-enhancers, I felt my anger rise as she teased me.

I didn't wait 25 years of my life to be teased! I grabbed her horns, causing her to gasp.

"Tali~." her moans made me ignite. I shoved her head between my legs. My world went white, every single one of my muscles constricted, I couldn't breathe. I think I was dying, but I wanted more, I needed more. This was nothing like masturbating, through my euphoria a spark of anger emerged. How dare every other race complain! They get to do this whenever they want and they still killed each other!?

I was then hit with another blinding blow, looking down I found her tongue playing with both of my cl*tor*ses.

"How?" I whimpered.

"The good doctor is very skilled in teaching biology~." MORDIN! That damn Salarian, I could kiss him. "Like how this would drive you mad~." her tongue pressed something that made me tighten into a black hole, and then explode into a supernova.

Julee was saying something but I couldn't catch any of it.

I just needed to catch my breath.

.

.

.

I awoke with a gasp, everything was still kind of a blur, it was...night time? I could feel a pair of strong arms draped around me and a tail wrapped around my leg.

No~.

.

.

.

Oh no, Ancestors~, no!

I fainted! One org*sm and I FAINTED!? I wanted to throw myself out of the airlock so no one could see my shame. Julee tightened her grip on me.

"No~, warm, you stay." She muttered in her sleep.

Keelah~, I don't think I can be more embarrassed. Julee then shoved me into her breasts. They were warm, and soft, and safe. Who would blame me if I snuggled in a little more, her breathing was soothing.

It was then that I heard the door open.

"... dreamed thee too long, never seen thee or touched thee but known thee with all of my heart," Nick hummed walking into the room.

I froze, what if he saw me? Will he be angry? I'm in his room and just had sex with his girlfriend, well sex is a bit of a strong word. I heard another door open as the sound of a shower turned on.

"... I see heaven when I see thee, Dulcinea~," he sang in the shower. I never knew Nick could sing, it must be one of his skills, he was good.

I tried getting up but Julee had a vice grip.

She gave a low growl that sent a shiver up my spine, out of fear or arousal I didn't know. "Mine~," she hissed, squeezing me to her body, as she nuzzled into my neck, giving me soft kisses before giving me a bite that did things to me that I didn't think I liked.

I'm learning a lot about myself today.

I tried breaking free but the more I fought the tighter Julee became. Julee may not show it but she was way stronger than she looked, which made some sense, she's been in Nick's party way longer them me, she probably had dozens of perks and has probably added points to her STR.

I don't know how long I tried to shimmy out of her grip, but it was long enough for Nick to finish his shower. Panicking I buried myself into Julee and pulled up the covers.

Nick was still humming as he walked out of the shower. I felt the bed creak as he got in.

His hand brushed against my back. "oh~?" This is it; I'm caught, I can't run. "Sorry honey, I didn't know you were here~," he muttered.

"mmm!" I squeaked; my heart was ready to explode.

"Julee~?" he teased.

"Mmm!" I nodded hiding my face deeper in Julee's neck.

"Sorry if I'm intruding. I didn't want to wake anyone in the main bedroom, you know how Sky gets when her beauty sleep is interrupted~." he joked, embracing me for the back, giving me a soft kiss on the neck.

Oh, Keelah~, he was very naked, and very warm.

Well... this is how I die~, naked between two very beautiful people~. As things go, there could be worse ways to go.

Worth it.

-/-

You have slept in a bed!

HP, CP, and MP are at max

All ailments cured

Bonus: lovers embrace: +5% to all experience earned for the next hour.

I slowly opened my eyes to the morning light. Keelah~, someone turn off the sun! I turned and buried myself into my pillow. It was just the right amount of warmth; I don't want to get up~. A clicking noise caught my attention, peaking from my pillow, I spotted a smirking Julee taking pictures.

All of last night hit me like a truck going FTL.

My pillow was... very fleshy... and breathing. Slowing panning up I found the sleeping face of Nick, his arm around my waist and my leg around his hips, something hard pressed against my thigh, and his hand firmly cupping my butt.

Oh... I think I moved around a little last night.

I turned back to a smirking Julee, naked as the day she was born.

I practically teleported to the door. "I-I-I! Thank you!" Keelah! I was spazzing out, why am I bowing!? Someone stop me! I was fumbling with the door knob.

"Tali~," Julee's soft voice froze me to my spot. I slowly turned to her. "Tonight~?"

"I-"

She licked her lips, "You tasted... Magnificent~."

I'm pretty sure I was gaping like a fish at this point. I wanted to say something, anything, but I heard Nick groan, so I just nodded.

"Good~," she got up, showing off her naked body, why was it so different from all the times we'd bathed together? "Take your time, I'll keep Nickybusy~." she crawled into bed and straddled the man in reverse so I could see everything. Nick worked on reflex and took hold of Julee's hips, causing her to moan as she grinded on his hips. I couldn't look away as she inserted his member into herself giving a beastly groan, her muscles twitching. Nick growled and slammed into her, "YES~!" causing Julee to give a hard moan.

I was finally able to get the door open and slip out, closing the door behind me.

I just stood there with my back against the door, my breathing was ragged, it was nothing like the videos on the Extranet!

"Tali?"

I turned to find an equally naked Kasumi. "Kasumi?"

We looked at each other for a second, before she pointed to the door across from us, "Bath?"

I nodded. "Bath."

-/-

"It's not funny!" I hissed at the laughing thief, shoving a pancake into my mouth.

"It's a little funny~," she teased.

"I knew I shouldn't have told you," I groaned. I don't do good with silence, I cracked like an egg in the bath.

"Relax, so you spooned, who cares?" she huffed.

"That's not the part I'm embarrassed about," I hissed. She gave me a confused look. "You know, the fainting."

She rolled her eyes, "Tali, that happens all the time~."

"Really?" I whispered.

She nodded, "It happened my first time. Ahh, Edward~, we were both 17 and dumb virgins, he was so nervous, but God damn was he thorough," she sighed, "He was like a surgeon, he did his research, he went down there to get the job done right the first time. Exploded like a firework, woke up spooning. It was a bit embarrassing, but I got him back~," she smirked. "All you need to know is that it's a...Skill."

We froze at the word. "No~," I whispered.

"Morning Ladies~!" Julee walked into the cafeteria, with a big fat smile on her face, practically dancing over to us. Nick gave us a wave and walked over to the kitchen with Rupert, I couldn't even look him in the eyes.

"To me! My X-Men!" Nick called out to the kids; Kasumi looked downright giddy. What a nerd~.

Julee flopped next to Kasumi, "I'm starving, NICKY! I need sustenance! On the double mister!" gee, I wonder why~.

"Julee!" I hissed.

"Yes, my Quarian Princess~?" she teased.

"First, never call me that again. Second, is sex magic real!?" I demanded

"Oh my~," she leaned over, "Tali, I know you had a good time last night, but aren't you going a little fast?" she whispered.

"So, it is real?" Kasumi muttered.

"Okay," Julee sighed, "Let's calm down. Yes, Magia Sexualis is a thing-"

"I knew it~, is that what you did to me last night?" I whispered.

She rolled her eyes, "No~, I didn't need to, you were on a hair's trigger. The whole Collector and Reaper thing has you wound up tight, you practically attacked me~, besides, I only know two skills and one comes with my Race, it lowers your inhibitions but it only works if you feel attracted to me." She gained the biggest smirk I have ever seen, sticking out her tongue "you know the other~. You sounded like a jungle cat~."

I pointed my finger at her, "I'll get you back," I hissed.

"I can't wait~."

"What about Nick?" Kasumi asked.

Julee paused before nodding, "Gamer's bodyis an honest-to-evil miracle, he did it once and the bastard was on it, he plays me like a finely tuned instrument he trained to play for years." she gave a dreamy sigh.

"Sounds nice~," Kasumi teased.

Julee gave us a confused look, "You should know~," she teased, tapping her lips. "Nick has aKissingskill." I immediately had flashbacks to each time we kissed, I felt my toes curl. "Relax, he doesn't do it on purpose, it is one of those skills that work on their own."

"How... how does it work?" I whispered.

"mmm, the simplest way I could explain it is like Nick slips a bit of his magic in every kiss, adding it to your Mana core making you feel... stronger." she smiled at us. "It's nice, right?"

"... I'm not going to deny that," Kasumi smirked.

"Whatcha ladies whispering about?"

I turned to find... "Ash?" I jumped to my feet and started playing with her face. "Is that really you!?"

"Ow! Sweet baby Jesus!" she slapped my hands away and massaged her face, "You Quarians have stronger fingers than I thought."

"I wanna put them to good use~," Julee teased.

"Julee!" I hissed at her and Kasumi's giggling. "Ash what are you doing here!?" I gasped, "You've gone AWOL and are here to help us take down the collectors! You're just as crazy as the rest of us."

"Alright, slow your roll there. I'm only here because Captain Shepard wanted someone linked to the Alliance to report your upcoming mission," Ash huffed.

"The derelict? I mean, yeah that would make some sense, it would be visible evidence that the Geth did not create the Reapers, it's millions of years old! I would love to see the Council try and lie about that."

Ash nodded, "Hackett wants to use it to make it very clear to everyone that the Reapers are real and are coming back."

"Order up!" June called out holding enough food to make a krogan nervous.

"You're a lifesaver June honey~," Julee cheered taking the food from the girl and started eating like a wild animal. I shoved that hungry beast between my legs last night, I dare someone to tell me I'm not brave. "You want some?" she asked, her cheeks looking like Shepard's hamster.

"Don't mind if I do, Walters did his weird magic and I've had to eat nearly 3 times my usual intake or I would feel like I'm running through molasses." Ashley huffed.

"It should pass," I huffed, eating my food. "It took me three days, but I got back to normal... mostly. I can do magic. So, normal for the Normandy," I shrugged.

We spent the rest of the morning talking, Ash and I have been in communication since Shepard died until a few months ago when she started N7 training. I was so happy to see her. A little piece of the Normandy back where it belonged.

"Are you armored up?" I finally asked.

She looked down at her armor, "I guess?"

"No, I mean, magically armored, I doubt Shepard would let you come along without being armored up. NICK! GET THIS WOMAN SOME ARMOR! AND A CANNON! Bitches love cannons~," I ordered.

Ash gave a little cough, "I'm sorry... who are you calling a bitch?"

"Make it snappy!"

Sex can really change a person.

-/-

Nick POV

New Quest: Undead Nightmare

Within the Derelict Reaper is the key to pass through the Omega 4 relay, and defeat the Collectors.

Retrieve the Reaper IFF

Reward: 30,000 Credits, 50,000XP, 1 gold loot box, 1 gacha token

Bonus: capture proof of Reaper's existence

Bonus reward: +10% to Galactic Readiness

"Holy molasses Batman, that thing is huge~," I whispered, looking at the dead reaper floating in the clouds of the brown giant.

"Didn't you see it before?" Joker asked.

"Not like this, I haven't. Look at that shot, nearly ripped that thing in half~. Damn Reapers are built to last," I muttered.

"Not for long, Joker, dock us, and then get to a safe distance, if needed, you're going to have to finish it off, EDI keep the Kodiak close if we have to make a quick escape."

"Understood Shepard," Edi nodded.

"Awesome, I wanna see if the thanix cannon can punch through that armor," Joker smirked.

"Nick, helmet."

I smirked and put on the Centurion Helmet.

Centurion Helmet has Increased all stats by threefold!

NP increased to ∞

You can now 'breathe' in the vacuum of space

"One last thing," I smirked, summoning a box, and opened it, revealing over two dozen Luck Potions.

-/-

Holy sh*t I was wrong! It's the Deep Roads in space! Screw this place.

The Reaper was way bigger in real life. I wasn't sure if it was because the bullet that tore this thing in half opened it up, or if this was a purposeful design so they could send in indoctrinated soldiers to make repairs, or if Cerberus just tore the thing open like a crab, but it gave us plenty of space for the whole team to move through even Legion in his new Leviathan armor.

I did leave Dogmeat and Pancake behind to watch over the kid in The Library.

Like in canon, we were immediately locked in, the second we stepped into the Reaper proper, its Barriers keeping the Normandy from getting far enough away for a clear shot.

The first thing we saw walking in was a horrifying alter made of human skin stretched over a model of a Reaper. As we moved deeper into the Reaper,Gamer's Mindhit me with a notification that it was able to block the Reaper's signal. We picked up the pace after that.

It didn't take long for the hordes of husks to appear.

"How many people did TIM send here!?" I yelled, blasting the head off a husk with aphoton beam. Part of me just wanted to blitz the Reaper, but it wasn't made of earth or cheap steel, it was some kind of bio-metal that gave Badassium a run for its money, and while in game the IFF is by the engine core, it might not be in real life, so we had to check every terminal. All we found was recordings of scientists losing their damn minds.

At first, it was ignorable, with a bit of memory loss here and there, forgetting keys and shoes, but it escalated quickly, by the first week people's memories were being traded like playing cards. I knew the Reapers were advanced, but this? This is nothing short of magic. It's possible that they just copied the abilities of their creators, the leviathans, but I can't imagine a species evolving to do this. What kind of environment would require mind control to survive? If not magic it had to be some sort of tech

"It's a Reaper, the Illusive man probably sent everyone he could spare," Miranda hissed, shooting a Husk between the eyes.

"Rough estimate?" Shepard asked, stomping on the head of a husk that tried coming out of the floor.

"For an operation this big and important? 400, maybe 500 tops," she answered

"Great~," Shepard sighed, "Come on people, we have to get the IFF."

We had to clear four more sections before everything just went quiet as the husks stopped coming.

"What's going on?" Grunt hissed.

"No idea, this never happened, we're flying blind," I warned.

The lack of noise made everything that much worse, we were tense, snapping at every little noise, but still, nothing happened, it wasn't until we reached the Eezo core entrance were we finally found the damn IFF.

All that was left was to destroy the Eezo Engine and get the hell out of here. Walking into the engine room we were greeted with a massive Eezo core, the game did not do it justice, completely locked up tight, which made some sense, Legion was the one who unlocked it in Game. The room was very similar to canon, except for the bottomless pit and... that.

"Shepard," I whispered, pointing above the core, to a head with hundreds of wires connected to its frame. It wasn't human but it was clearly looking at us, half its face blown to smithereens, its single remaining glowing eye looking down at us from its position.

"Maker, take it~," Shepard hissed.

"Dear Lord, in my weakness, I pray for Your strength to guide me. Help me to be strong in spirit and in faith. Grant me the determination to pursue Your will, even when the path is difficult and the obstacles are great. Amen," Ashley muttered.

I could feel the power of Ash's faith, but this wasn't a holy place, it's the furthest place from blessed soil, "Ash, this would be a very bad time for me to get distracted by a god," I hissed.

"GO-Go-god-d-d!" a screech exploded from the room. We moved to defensive positions. "I-i-i-in the B-b-body of a G-God! Her-her-heresy! HERESY!"

My danger sense started going crazy. "Guys," I warned.

"VERMIN TO THE HARVEST!" it screeched, as a humongous monstrosity easily standing at 100 feet tall made of hundreds of Husks slammed, crushed, and molded together to make a sick image of the figure over the Core.

"Holy sh*t~." I pointed my finger at it and castTrue Strike, showing the monster's weaknesses.

Husk Monstrosity

Lvl: 75

HP: 8,000/8,000

Weakness:

Electricity

A monstrosity made of human flesh and Reaper cybernetics created by the broken remains of the Reaper Gintic.

"RRRAAAAAAARRR!" it gave out a screech raising its disgusting hand trying to crush us.

I created an energy shield giving everyone enough time to scatter. "SUNBURST!" I followed up by shoving a miniature sun right into the large glowing weak spot in its 'mouth'.

"RAAAAARRR!" it backed away with the speed its large body would contradict, slithering and merging through the core's wires. I of course spammedPhoton Beamsinto the mess of wires hoping to hit something, but whatever the Reaper was made up of tanked my shots, and the monster disappeared into the darkness.

"Tali! Legion! Kasumi! Get that core open! Nick, cover them!" Shepard ordered. "Everyone else, Diamond pattern!" we jumped into action. Diamond Pattern was simple, breaking into a group of 4 to 5, keeping far enough away where we wouldn't get in each other's way but close enough where we could help each other if sh*t gets hairy.

My Danger Sense was on high alert as flashes of the monster's weak spot flashed behind the wires circling the Core room.

"F-f-filth! T-t-touching the S-S-S-sanctity of my-my-my G-g-greatness-s-s-s!HELP HELP HELP! KILL US! KILL US! KILL US!Silence!" it yelled at itself. Holy crap, they're still in there, the souls that make up the reaper. "We are o-o-order!"

"RAAAAR!" the monster lunged out of the dense wires, rushing straight at my team. I quickly summoned another energy shield.

Nova Shield has taken 1,845 points of blunt Damage! Durability 155/2,000!

Bend me over and make me sing! I didn't like that. I get why heroes grunt when their shields are broken, it felt like I was lovingly backhanded by a battering ram. It wound up for another blow but was thankfully interrupted by a pair of bolts ofPrimal Lightningslamming against its head courtesy of Jak and Neria, causing it to twitch long enough for Sky and Astral to follow up withDragon Frost, freezing it in place, allowing the rest of the team to unload everything they had.

"RRAAAAARRR!" the monster roared, tearing itself free and dashing away into the shadows.

"C-C-Chaos must not b-b-be allow-w-wed to r-rule! W-we will B-B-bring peace!MAMA, I'M SCARED! W-we will sa-save y-y-you from yourselves!"

"Progress!?" Shepard demanded. The core opening was his answer, "Stand clear!" he pulled out his M-920 Cain, the tell-tell sound of the weapon charging up rang out.

"RAAAR!" the monster burst from the side of the room and rushed Shepard.

"NOPE!" I shot forward, creating another shield, luckily, I made it in time and was able to redirect it, unfortunately, unlike before the monster was using its entire body this time.

Nova Shield Shattered!

Outer shield shattered!

Mid-shield shattered!

Inner shield Shattered!

Kinetic shield Shattered!

Magical shield Shattered!

You have taken 198 points of Blunt Damage!

Ow~.

It dragged me over the edge of the engine's scaffolding. The last thing I saw was Jak's panicked look before I was engulfed by the darkness of the pit.

A small pin dot of light appeared overhead as the Cain unloaded its payload. I took a deep breath, forcing my powers together.

Conquerors Haki + Nova force + Mind Blast = 534 points of shattering damage! Everything within 250 feet is pushed away!

If I didn't know better, I could have sworn my brain was leaking out of my ears, but I was free, I started flying up only for the wall to greet me. The Reaper was tilting, it was going down!

Reaper destroyed!

Congratulations, you have helped kill a legendary enemy!

Reward-

I wiped away the message and flew straight back to the team, only to find my exit block by thousands of tons of debris cutting off my exit and the team gone. Pulling out my Sling Ring, I started creating a portal back to the Normandy's airlock, the Team flying through open space towards the ship.

DANGER! BEHIND!

I dropped the portal and dodged as the monster returned.

Husk Monstrosity

Lvl: 75

HP: 3,445/8,000

Weakness:

Electricity

Damn, this thing is tenacious.

"NICK!?" Jak called over the comms.

"Busy!"

Haki + Nova Force + Fisticuffs + Enhanced Power Strike = 1,604 points of blunt Damage! Husk monstrosity mitigated blow by 75%! 401 points of blunt Damage dealt!

Damn it! This stupid thing kept breaking apart and reforming.

DANGER!

I quickly usedDashedadding myNova forceto escape its swing. The Reaper started shaking like crazy the gravity of the brown giant finally taking its prey. I unleashed anotherPhoton Beambut it only caused 40 points of force damage.

I needed a bigger gun.

"JOKER!?" I yelled over the comms.

"BUSY! The damn planet is trying to tear us apart!"

"I NEED YOU TO SHOOT ME!"

"WHAT!?" everyone on the comms screamed.

"I can't get out of here, the damn husked isn't givi-"

DANGER!

I quickly dashed away. "CORE! SHOOT THE CORE!"

"YOU'RE IN THE CORE!" Joker pointed out.

"I know you can do it Joker, you're my only hope."

DANGER!

I unleashed anotherPhoton Beamas IDashedaway. Damn, this thing is single-minded.

Suddenly my brain went white with danger. I created another shield, this was going to hurt~.

A solid beam of death ripped itself through the Reaper corpses, causing a massive explosion.

Nova Shield Shattered!

You have taken 1,034 points of plasma Damage!

You have taken 402 pints of blunt damage!

...f*ck me... everything hurt.

The blast launched me into the wall, where I immediately started healing myself. I felt a bone pop back into place and my burnt skin repairing itself, it wasn't pleasant.

DANGER!

f*ck YOU!

I became incorporeal allowing the huge hand to phase through me. My MP plummeted from the action, as cool as phasing was, moving through all this matter took a lot of mana, but at this point, I didn't care, I blasted forward and up through Joker's newly made emergency exit.

"RRAAAAR!" the monster followed, not caring about the molten metal the Thanix Cannon left behind, I had no idea what its final orders were but it be damned if it didn't try and complete it.

I didn't care though; it could kiss my shiny nova clad ass, increasing the Nova force in my body.

I exploded out of the 'exit' into Mnemosyne's exosphere, I didn't look back, just kept flying until I escaped the planet's gravity well, where I finally allowed myself to breathe and float in the emptiness of space.

That was way too close.

It took a minute but the Normandy found me, I didn't fight her artificial gravity and flopped to the floor.

"NICK!?" Jak's lovely voice, brought me back to reality as she grabbed my face. "TALK TO ME!"

"...We did it~," I wheezed.

Quest completed!

Undead Nightmare

Within the Derelict Reaper is the key to pass through the Omega 4 relay, and defeat the Collectors.

Retrieve the IFF

Reward: 30,000 Credits, 50,000XP, 1 gold loot box, 1 gacha token

Bonus: capture proof of Reaper's existence

Bonus reward: + 10% to Galactic Readiness

-/-

A/N: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

One last chapter~.

Should I make a new book for ME3? I feel like I should, otherwise, this story will get a little too bloated. I doubt my ME3 will be as big as these two, mostly because I already laid so much groundwork in this fic.

Saw the new trailer for Veilguard, I'm feeling the hype people, I'm already getting ideas for Inquisition~. I know I shouldn't feel too optimistic but I'm not gonna live my life doubting everything, that just sucked, so feel the hype!

Review if you're feeling it.

Sorry for any grammar, I'm my own editor.

I also have a DeviantArt page where I make art of this fic and the characters, Link in bio.