Disclaimer: I do not own anything! well, except for my own characters...
A/N: This is my first SI (that I'm sharing) so please relatively patient as i move along, eh? I've got plenty up my sleeve, but for now, let's enjoy the opening of the story...
Shrouded Past, Uncertain Future
"Ankou, hurry up with those parts!" I called, facing The Project. I was leaning over the machine, trying to prevent an overload. The alarms were ringing loudly and the entire area was on lock down. Ankou hurried in, carrying a toolbox and sprinting over to me.
"Quiet, Crusnik!" he yelled over the blaring alarms, setting down the box and opening it. I gritted my teeth as the large machine went critical. Rumbling shook the ground at our feet and caused the chairs to fall over. He opened the box and withdrew an energy suppressor, holding it to the core. I attempted to open the core's control panel but failed.
"Give me a wrench!" I screamed to Ankou as he latched on the suppressor. He nodded quickly and turned back to the box. He withdrew the wrench a second later, then tossed it to me on the other side of the machine. Prying open the panel finally, I reached the wires inside. He ran over and noticed what I was planning already.
"You can't! We're too close, we can save Project 66!" he gripped my shoulders tightly, staring at me intensely. I took his wrists and pried them of with difficulty.
"Either I set the shut down sequence or we all die!" I reasoned, staring him down."I know it's taken us years to get this far, but if we die, will it ever happen?" I inquired, already turning back to the panel. He cursed silently but moved to my side, in front of the panel.
"Fine, just hurry up!" without another word, I fixed the wires into a tight grip and pulled.
Suddenly, the alarm ceased. The red lights faded back to white and the rumbling stopped. We both breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the machine.
"At least it didn't blow up…" Ankou muttered. Instantly, the rumbling returned, ten-fold. The lights blinked, again flickering an angry red. We looked to each other, my gaze filled with anger, his with surprise.
"Idiot! Never jinx something that will most certainly bite you in the ass!" I screamed, waving my hands around for emphasis. He turned back to the panel, ignoring my outburst. As he checked the wires quickly, I watched the status screen. The only message appearing on it was; "Imminent breach- evacuate facility."
"For the love of…" I sighed, punching the evacuation sequence in to the console. Ankou called me over then. He looked utterly confused as he held up one of the wires I'd pulled from the machine earlier. I jogged up to him, looking at the wire.
"What is that?" I asked, unfamiliar with the coding imprinted along it. He looked at me almost incredulously, then examined the wire again.
"I thought you'd know…" he said, handing it to me. I took it and looked closer.
Shaking my head slowly, I dropped the piece onto a table. Rushing back to the core, I tried to see the interior. All I could see was a glowing orb that rotated slowly, almost deliberately. I wasn't familiar with it, whatever it was. Ankou joined me and tried to pull me away toward the exit. But, with no such luck, I felt him let go.
I stuck my hand in to the narrow space of the generator, reaching for the orb. If this was what was causing the breach, I needed to remove it quickly. I finally got to the orb with my hand, but as I touched it, it glowed brightly, blinding me. After a second or two, I felt it envelope my hand, the mercury-like substance cool to the touch. I stared at it in wonder as it slowly seeped into my skin seamlessly.
Seconds later, it had been completely absorbed and I pulled back. I felt as if my mind had shut down somehow, almost as if on standby mode. I looked at Ankou as he watched the scene play out and frowned.
"What was that?" he asked, pointing at my hand. I shook my head and turned to the door. But, before I could take one step, another, brighter light engulfed the both of us as we grabbed each other for balance.
Then, there was nothing.
...
Slowly, conscious thought returned, along with pain. I felt as if my body had just been burned, torn, bludgeoned, then impaled. Everywhere. My head throbbed in such unbelievable pain, I was worried half of my skull had been crushed. I groaned loudly, slowly opening my eyes to assess the situation.
Am I dead…? I thought, struggling to get up. I looked down at myself and gaped in surprise. I was seeing myself, but the outfit was all wrong. When I'd been engulfed by the light, I was wearing my regular BDUs, not… not armor! What was this stuff…? It felt really comfortable and light, but it still looked to be heavy armor of some kind. It was futuristic and everything, but this kind of stuff didn't exist…
Slowly, I stood and looked around me. I was in a well-lit hallway with two doors on either side, and as I turned around, I saw another. Somehow, this all looked extremely familiar, yet I couldn't place where I'd seen this before.
"Where am I…?" I muttered to myself absently. Wherever I was, I might as well have had a look around anyway, so I headed to the far door at the end of the hallway.
As I neared the door, I saw it had a green panel on it, like the ones from Mass Effect. I looked around again hoping to see if my brother, Ankou, had made it here as well. Wherever here was…
"Goddammit..!" I heard the gravelly tone emanate from behind a couple of crates a few feet away. I walked over to peer over the crates, catching sight of Ankou. At least I wasn't alone…
"You okay bro?" he jumped at the sound of my smug voice. He turned around and as he saw me, he relaxed. I noticed his face was contorted in pain a little as he stood. He was wearing the same armor I was too, I noticed, as I gave him a once over. Neither of us were injured, so at least there was a silver lining of some kind. Of course, if we somehow ended up dying from Project 66's massive detonation, it probably didn't matter anyway. I didn't see how we could've survived the explosion, but that left a simple question; where were we?
And that orb thing. Whatever it was, it had somehow reacted to my presence and integrated itself to my body. I hadn't felt any pain as it had happened, but I experienced an odd feeling when it finished. It was as if an empty piece of… me, I guess, had been filled. I only hoped there wouldn't be any side effects.
"-ik… Crusnik! Hello, anyone in there?" Ankou waved his hand in front of me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah?" he sighed heavily, running a hand through his long white hair. It reached between his shoulder blades, having no split ends, but he regularly kept it pulled back. His hair always made me wonder too. It was completely natural, but he was only twenty-five. I was twenty-six with naturally auburn hair, cut short. I know, it was switched oddly, me being the sister.
"I asked what the plan was!" his crimson eyes flashed in annoyance at my absent-mindedness.
"Well, I think we should check this place out." I said. He nodded, as expressionless as usual.
Usually, people would assume we were glaring at them or just plain scowling, but they were natural expressions. It ran in the family anyway, so that being the case, my brother and I were naturally deep. Well, I was anyway. My brother on the other hand just loved killing things, talking about killing things, thinking of ways to kill things…you get the idea. Of course, we both had extremely dark humors.
I don't mean dark as in shadowy dark either. I mean dark as in so pitch black light doesn't exist dark. But we weren't evil or psychotic…well, maybe a tad psychotic, but not evil. I wasn't anyway. It was always hard to tell with Ankou. We just didn't feel. Emotion didn't truly exist in our minds or hearts. We didn't really understand what love was or even just happiness. But both of us did understand right from wrong. I held that understanding highly.
"Alright, but… what is this place exactly?" he seemed even more lost than I was, but didn't seem to mind the whole situation. Truthfully, I thought it was slightly exciting. Better than working on trans-dimensional algorithms in a constantly life-threatening top secret radioactive lab all day, anyway.
"I'm not sure, but…" I looked around in the hallway once more. There was a nagging feeling in the back of my head as if I'd forgotten something. Odd.
"I feel like it's familiar somehow…"
He only shrugged in response, indicating he was at a loss. I was the only one who had higher than average memory too, so the fact I was forgetting something bothered me. We walked towards the door I had approached earlier.
I touched it and, as it slid open, I went to go through. But the next thing I knew, I was on the floor again. Apparently, someone was in a rush and slammed into me as they ran through the entrance.
I groaned again and looked down to see what hit me. But what I saw must've been a hallucination of some sort…right? There had to be a mistake. But, even as I said that to myself, my eyes weren't lying.
There, on my chest, laid a young blue woman with, instead of hair, little tentacles. They were kind of cute in a way. But that had to mean that this woman was…
An asari…? the fleeting thought dissipated as she moaned in pain, sitting up to straddle my hips. One of her hands rubbed her forehead, most likely hurt from hitting the armor, while the other held her up as it rested on my chest. Ankou just stood there like a statue, shocked apparently, beyond words.
"Ow…" she mumbled, eyes closed. Apparently, she hadn't registered our presence yet.
"Um…You okay?" I asked, immediately getting her attention. Her eyes snapped open and gazed down at me in shock. She stumbled over her sentence, not really making sense, when I held up a hand to stop her.
"Look, as much as I love being pinned down and sat on by a complete stranger, I…" I intentionally trailed off, knowing she'd catch my drift. When she just stared at me blankly, as if waiting for me to complete my sentence, I actually chuckled a little. "Could I get up please?" I asked, smirking. Her eyes suddenly widened as she scrambled to get off of me. This day was already ridiculous…
"Oh Goddess! I'm so sorry!" She finally managed to stand up once more. She held out her hand and I took it. As she pulled me up, I felt several cracks in my spine and shoulders. She seemed concerned at the loud noises, but I just stretched. "Once again, I must apologize for hurtling myself at you like that…" she trailed off looking away with an ashamed face. I glanced at Ankou but he wouldn't be of any help quite yet.
"Really, it's fine. You okay?" I asked, gently holding her face as I inspected her forehead. It didn't seem too bad, but it could still hurt. I saw her blush when I did this, but she stayed still. I let go after a second and took a small step back. She just smiled and shook her head.
"I'm uninjured. After all, I did have someone to break my fall…" she chuckled. Then, she held out her hand so I took it and shook.
"I am Vira. Vira Shaena." she said, smiling.
"Nice to meet you. Call me Crusnik." was my response. I gestured to my brother beside me. "This is Ankou." he finally shook off the initial surprise and shook her hand. He didn't say anything, only nodded.
Vira seemed a little confused at our names but didn't comment. She was about as tall as I was, making her five-foot-eleven. Ankou was the same as me too.
"It is wonderful meeting you two, but it seems you are lost?" she quirked an eyebrow at me with a small smile. I hadn't realized, but if she was an asari, then we were in the universe of Mass Effect. That meant we would need to somehow get to Shepard and join his or her crew. Yet that rose another question; the date.
"I suppose we may be…I don't remember how we got here." I scratched my head, trying to soothe the headache. Ankou nodded and crossed his arms.
"I don't remember either. Where is here, anyway?" he asked. Vira seemed slightly taken aback by our memory loss, but perhaps even more so at our lack of present knowledge.
"This is the Citadel. How is it you have not recognized it?" her curiosity was unexpected, but it seemed genuine. So much for being in a rush, I thought, frowning.
"Honestly, we only just woke up." Ankou scoffed at my polite answer, catching mine and Vira's attention.
"Yeah, literally five minutes ago. In this hallway. We were about to leave when you ran over my sister here." his attitude was a cover for whatever he may have been feeling, but plenty could've contributed to his sour mood. Some of it being Project 66's overload, our waking up in Mass Effect, the damn pain and a random asari tackling me to the ground. Oddly enough, I felt little conflict to the recent events.
"Please excuse my brother, he's not really feeling well." I said, before she could respond to his comment. Really, she just seemed embarrassed that that had happened. She nodded, looking thoughtful.
"Well, where do you come from? I can help you get back, I'm a Spectre." she said, after thinking on it for a bit. I hadn't known she was a Spectre, not to mention the offer threw me slightly. What was I to say? That my brother and I somehow came from an alternate universe, set in the past, after exploding and magically changing clothes? Horrible idea.
"We don't come from anywhere anymore…" I muttered, telling a 98% truth.
We were from that time and such, but our organization was so secret, we didn't exist. Even our birth certificates had been eradicated. That was the reason for our names, too. They weren't what we were originally called, but Ankou and I had lost all memory from before the time we ended up working on Project 66. We only knew we were related from being told our DNA had matched for the most part, making us siblings.
"What do you mean?" at her question, I had an idea.
"We lived in the colony of Mindoir before it was attacked by slavers. We were the only ones left…" I saw Vira's hands clench in to fists as I spoke, but she stayed silent.
"Let's go. I'll take you two to the human embassy." at that, she headed to a door at the other end of the hallway.
...
As soon as we had gotten to the embassy, Udina magically appeared, irritable as usual. He sure looked a lot more like an asshole than he did in the game. Soon, he proved it to be true by insulting my brother and I with veiled threats as he checked our backgrounds. It was the year 2177. Plenty of time to plan out what would happen in the next few years, along with setting up relative identities, seeing as how we didn't exist.
Udina set us up with Ids, apparently not caring of our situation. It worked for me, so who was I to complain? After all of that, Vira took us to our new home, which also happened to be hers. It was in the presidium too, so you could imagine how lavish it was. Luckily, it had four bedrooms meaning we'd sleep in non-shared beds.
As Vira bid us goodnight and practically tucked me in after stripping me of my mysterious armor (she didn't even recognize it), I fell into a comfortable sleep.
A/N: So, you like? I'll update at least once a week, I hate waiting. Please review!
