((Hey all, glazen here. I'm new to fanfiction dot com and I haven't written a fanfic before so I honestly don't know what I'm doing right now. Though I'm sure that will change due time. So yeah, about dem Mass effect 3 endings. I don't like them one bit, but I used my point of view to shape it into something more desirable. So I decided to write a prologue to my series of stories, chapters that I will come out with every so often. It is a shepard/tali story, so it will revolve a bit more around them than other characters. Though I will try to add in other characters eventually, as soon as I figure out exactly how they would act in certain situations.
So without anything further to say other than the "I hope you enjoy it" shpiel, I give you the prologue to Mass effect: Perspective.
P.S- I wrote this thing at midnight, so don't judge me to hard. =p))
"There are no facts, only interpretations."
His vision was zoning in and out. Everything looked fuzzy and the ambient noise was to incoherent. To Neil's despair, he learned that he couldn't move as well. His body was in a tight grip of something powerful wrapped around his chest. It felt like it was crushing him yet it seemed so peaceful, so very soothing. Neil didn't know whether to resist the object that paralyzed him or to embrace it. His state of consciousness was a discombobulated mess, so many things running all at once. It felt like life was being drained out of him, but yet not to a level in which he would perish. The slow and agonizing pain was beginning to creep up on him the same way his nightmares did. Then, after a few moments of despair he grasped at one memory that seemed to drown out all of the others. It was chaos and utter devastation everywhere, and the reapers were casting their dark shadow throughout earth and the rest of the galaxy. Yet in that darkness, he stood hand and hand with his quarian known as Tali'zorah vas Rannoch, the light of his universe. No, perhaps not just the light, but perhaps she was indeed his universe. The amount of immediate emotions was enough to make him gasp.
She told him on the verge of tears "I need…more time." Those four words would change him forever. It was the most precious thing, the most precious sight he has ever laid witness to. Neil softly cradled her faceplate affectionately. He wanted to tell her just how precious she is to him, and how that he will give her more time than she could ever imagine after he pulls off what seemed impossible. Though to his dismay, time was running out, and all he could ever utter was "I know, Tali." After that, he remembers the harbringer, the citadel, the illusive man, and how the catalyst influenced his guilt to pick the options that it desired. Then there was a large ball of flame that consumed his entire body. The reapers and supposedly all other synthetics were either destroyed or disabled, he saw it with his own eyes as he was being rescued.
Though what happened afterwards puzzled him. There were memories that were missing. Was it minor amnesia? Was everything that transpired on the citadel real? His vision began to piece itself together. He was in a hospital and it seemed like it was recently attacked. There was fire and debris in front of him, possibly an explosion. Scanning his surroundings, he sees groups of soldiers running throughout the floor, yelling orders that he couldn't make out. They were going room by room, rescuing other fellow soldiers and civilians that may or may not have been injured. He also saw bodies as well, all apparently shot to death. It seemed confusing at first; he thought he stopped the reaper threat. However, as he turned his attention directly across the fire and debris in front of him, he was able to piece his memories together. Neil witnessed a figure wearing doctor clothes walking backwards, looking directly at him. Closer examination then showed that the doctor had a devilish grin painted on his face. Neil remembers him now. His name, what he said, what he's done. Pure unfiltered rage consumed him, and if it wasn't for this object that was holding him back, he would have chased the figure through the fires to inflict brutal punishment and pain across that smug face. But his inner fires were put out, when a realization hit him. Neil happened to be one of the hospital's patients, he was bleeding and burned rather badly, and his body was being cradled and rocked back and forth. There was a soft, muzzled voice that was very close to him, and it was speaking to him. Its voice….her voice had hints of distress and despair in them. Neil immediately recognized this voice, and as soon as he did he softly grasped one of her three digit palms and softly stroked them. A response came quickly; as Neil felt something cold nuzzle into his neck as he slowly laid his head onto her chest.
Before he let himself go to sleep he uttered the words that he wished he said at the final push. Now seemed like the perfect time to say them.
"Tali, you are my universe…"