AN: First Self Insert fanfic. Will be major AU. Experimenting with new perspectives and storylines. Apologize in advance.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or its canon content, characters, events, names, locations, etc. OCs and non canon event varies.
Note: Update time will vary. (Using phone to write...very thumb tiring)
Most people, when given or thrown a chance, to change or somehow affect the events of Mass Effect universe for a variety of reasons. Chose to either help the galaxy in an indirect or direct way, either as an active participant or choose to just observe it. Some may even try to bring about the galaxy's downfall all the more quicker. Me? I just want to cause chaos!
~ Danen the Mad
Whereas others operate in the shadows or the light to bring about the galaxy's greatest enemies to their knees. The so called Reapers, I and my brother seek to cause imbalance. To cause havoc on a scale that even the fabled Leviathan and its creations will find incomprehensible. Our fate to be reborn in this universe is not of our choosing but our actions is what will bring about chaos...oh sweet and utter chaos!
~ Damian the Insane
When I woke up I never thought I would be more happier. I realised then that things were drastically different. Very different. The last thing I remembered was me getting on a flight to visit family in the islands. The Pacific region to be exact, there was so much that I had missed there...my family relatives were eager to see me as I was to see them. But then something horrible happened... Something horrible and (to me) quite hysterical as I thought I would never see it in my time.
It was so unexpected and weird that it took me by surprise and nothing had ever taken me by surprise before. Whatever happened on that plane did take me by surprise though and through that ordeal I was given a second chance. This took the form of rebirth...literally but with my old mind intact and my knowledge similarly intact though not without some form of memory loss.
I had forgotten my name...what was my name? Who was I? Where am I now? There is nothing here but darkness. The darkness feels cramped however, I feel something pressing against my back. It feels soft and fragile yet I feel an aura that emanates strength and determination along with utter stubbornness. Then the light!
Whatever or whoever that was I felt in the darkness went first toward the light and later I followed. I felt my eyes shut as the bright light bathed me in its embrace chasing away the darkness. When I opened my eyes I saw a pair of hazel eyes staring down at me the lower part of that face was covered in a white mask, the kind one uses in a hospital.
Then a sound escaped from my lips as I opened my mouth. It hit me then when I saw the gross tube like cord that was promptly cut off and I was wrapped in a warm blanket of some sort. I was then handed to someone, I looked up and saw a woman whose dark brown hair and deep emerald eyes worryingly gazed down at me and then shifted to the other bundle in her other arm.
I realized then that I was...AM a newborn! What the hell?! Okay calm down and think...if I am a newborn then it stands to reason that I may have been reborn. But why? And why am I aware of it? I remember when I had been born the other time I had only seen fleeting glimpses and was aware of my surrounding in a very limited capacity so why am I fully aware now?
"Frederick..." The woman, my new mother, called out weakly. Her eyes having that worrying motherly expression I saw my other mother have whenever I get hurt. "They're not crying."
Oh crap! I finally notice the lack of wailing noises that should have accompanied a child's birth and to make sure I kept in character I began crying. Now I've done the wailing and crying bit before but that was when I was a child of 5 or 9 and it was for pretend. This time however, when opened my mouth and let out a wail it was actually genuine. My fellow birth friend who had up until that point remained silent also decided to cry and between the two of us the room was very noisy indeed.
"Well it took them long enough!" Exclaimed a man's voice, he sounded young but I detected an underlying tone of discipline in his voice. "It seems my two boys take after me...but of course they both take after your good looks darling."
Mother giggled and moved me and my now revealed brother closer to her chest. She snuggled us and cooed which I took as my cue to stop crying and let out an amused baby sized laugh. My brother followed my lead and did the same.
From there I fell unconscious and I welcomed the sleep. My eyes and body was exhausted, probably a side effect of being a newborn. The thing that threw me off however, were the words that were plastered on the wall next to mother's bed. It read: SSV Rapier Ray-Med Bay.
You would think that may worry me and it did, but the only thing that was going through my head at the time was; "Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! I knew there was only one way that the prefix SSV could come up...but that was impossible...then again being reborn was something I thought was just a myth.
Yep that was pretty much what was going through my head during those first few minutes of my life here in this world. Yes that's right, I said world. Now you may be wondering why I'm saying that? Its actually pretty simple, you see, I was never one to believe in the supernatural or anything that resembled anything related, remotely related, to beliefs of the world's established religions. Whether they be Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and so forth.
However, I do lean towards the more paganistic religions where gods and goddesses are more like glorified superheroes than actual deities. Not that it helped me when I died. Oh that's right...well in order to explain that part of my current existence, I need to rewind the clock some time ago and one dimension hop away (don't ask...yet).
April, 2017
I had boarded the plan bound for Fiji on my way to visit my uncle who had called for the annual family gathering. This is a tradition that has been a part of our culture for over millennia. I always wondered how our island tribal society had managed to keep some of the old ways in this day and age. Not that I've asked the elders, mind you. Its a typical Tuesday with a moderate weather forecast suggesting mild storms along the way, nothing too bothersome, on our projected flight path.
"This your Captain speaking. Please turn all electronic devices off as we prepare for take off. Thank you, and we hope you enjoy your flight with us." there was a chime and the fasten seat belt sign turned on. The captain was a woman, if I had to guess from the sound of her voice alone, I'd say she's an experienced pilot meaning she had years to pilot a Boeing 747, this puts her age at an estimated 30-40 range. That's just me guessing.
The plane moved onto the runway as I can clearly see from my window seat. I am seated where the wings connect to the main body of the plane, I see the flaps working in tandem against the wind that had started to pick up. I see small plumes of jet stream at the tip of the wing and beyond that were the clouds that had begun to darken a black greyish colour.
"Man. Those look like big whompers." The man seated next to me whistled when he glimpsed the forming cloud in the distance. "We're heading in that direction aren't we?"
I looked at him with one brow raised and shook my head. "Don't jinx us. You never know when things might get rough." I tools him.
"I hear you mate." He nodded apologetically. "Names Harry McLaughlin." He extended his hand and I shook it.
"Ruteba Ruteru." I responded in kind but from the look he gave me, I knew my name caught him off guard and he was trying to figure out which or what it meant. I know my English is very good, despite the foreign sounding name, I was born and raised in the islands but the first language I learned was English. And damned proud of it. Although this puts me at a disadvantage when it comes to my own native tongue which I have trouble writing than speaking, to be honest.
"Er..." He trailed off and I got the point.
"I'm an islander." I clarified but he looked at me and then with a disbelieving look on his face he blurted out.
"But you're accent is Aussie, Sydney if I had to guess, mate." His heavy southern Australian accent was not lost on me. I have friends from Australia whose accents are more pronounced and thicker than this guy's.
"Well I've lived most of my life in Australia, Sydney, and I've just returned from Iraq." I told him, then pulled the green camp beret with the coat of arms and badge of the Australian SAS. His eyes widened and then proceeded to rummage through his own hand luggage, a big outdoor desert camp bag. He pulled out an identical beret and had a huge grin plastered on his face.
"Looks like we're kindred spirits, mate." He sounded giddy and admittedly I was happy to find a fellow SAS operative, especially since we don't usually travel together outside of work, or meet up outside of work for any sort of recreational activity.
The plane had begun its ascent and we leaned back against our chairs with a slight grin across our lips. I know we were both having nolstalgic feelings of when a C5 Super galaxy transport plane is dashing along a runway while we're strapping down our parachutes, ah...good times. I've only been in the service for a year now but I've already got three missions under my belt. All of which involved search and rescue deep behind enemy lines, my unit is like my family but with guns!
As the plane reached cruising altitude, it leveled off and the fasten seat belt turned off with a chime. The air stewardess on our aisle was a beautiful looking Raven black haired, blue eyed woman, whose full lips and very tight fitting uniform walked past by us and I saw Harry stare at her go. I couldn't help myself either. She was just too stunning but way out of my league. Harry looked like he might have a chance though.
"I know what you're thinking mate. I'm afraid I'm already taken." He showed me the ring on his finger. He chuckled when I looked disappointed, not because of his situation but because even if that were the case I wouldn't even have a chance with a woman like that. "She's not your type either way."
"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked, I was slightly confused by that statement.
"She's more of a one and done kind of gal." He explained and I think he saw that I was still confused so he continued, "It means she's a one night stand girl...arrghh...she's not interested in long term or any relationships for that matter, mate."
"Oh..." I did sound disappointed when I hears that, ever as nice becoming a soldier like I've always wanted to be one. I had begun thinking that I should settle down and have a family but have never had the chance to actually socialize with people, I've been called 'socially awkward' by many former high school friends and even work colleagues. And to be frank I am inclined to agree with them.
"Don't worry, mate." He said trying to cheer me up. "You'll find her one day. Your Mrs. Right."
"I certainly hope so." I muttered then something or rather someone caught my eye. I turned to look at the person more clearly and saw it was tall guy, I know I'm tall at six feet five but this guy he was really tall like seven feet. He had to lower his head just so it doesn't hit the ceiling. Then his hands quickly swept away his jacket revealing a vest. Not just any vest but one that was strapped with over forty kilo of what looked pure military grade C4 explosives. Everyone around him screamed and the guy's right hand held a dead man switch.
Harry turned to see what the commotion was about and I saw him go pale. His eyes narrowed but from this distance and the guy being two aisles over and with people between us, we both knew we couldn't reach him.
"Damn it! I knew I should have smuggled my gun in!" He hissed angrily and I had to agree but with all that security checkpoints it'd be a one way ticket to jail. I then looked over to our would be bomber and one thing popped into my head.
"How the hell did he manage to sneak that past security?!"
All of the passengers were screaming their heads off and the noise is fucking annoying. The terrorist for that seemed to be the appropriate title to label the tall bastard, just kept threatening to blow us up if anyone tried to subdue him.
In what I could only describe as a comedic last words, the terrorist yells out, "Listen you fucking infidels! I am going to quote one of my greatest inspirations for being a terrorist! I kiiiilll you!"
The joke was not lost on me as I dropped into my chair laughiing out loud enough that everyone was looking at me like I'm crazy. Harry gave me a weird look then started laughing as well. We laughed because we both knew it was futile to attempt to attack the mad bastard. The terrorist saw us and grinned yelling, "You see! You see! Those two infidels get it!"
I can't remember anything after that other than the total darkness. It was complete and utter darkness with nothing but silence as my companion. The last thing I saw was a great burst of flame and the screams of total horror then followed by the gut wrenching screetch as the plane's support frames buckled and broke. The burning sensation as my skin was flayed and torn by the flames and then my body was impaled by broken metal as the plane descended in chaos.
Then the darkness claimed me. Harry must have gone through the same thing if only slightly different. Everyone else must have also gone through the same ordeal as we did. The pain was gone now, replaced by sheer silence and a foreboding sense of doom...or was it hope?
Hours...
That's how long I've been floating in this darkness. No...was I floating? I honestly can't tell anymore. The feeling was surreal and strange but oddly warming and comfortable. I felt like I was floating yet I wasn't so my mind went back to the events that led to this...my abrupt and very demeaning end. I was a Fucking SAS operative for gods sake! Look at me now...blown to bits by a terrorist.
I've seen movies depicting daring attempts in subduing terrorists who took over a plane. However, it seemed that that same terrorist saw those same movies since he came prepared for that eventuality. Though one thing has been nagging me. Why on earth would he bomb Qantas Airlines? Its not like they dropped bombs on his country and they're not responsible for nightly UAV raids on their villages so why?
Heh. Who cares.
"Hello Ruteba." A voice boomed out from the dark. "It seems you've hit quite the snag there."
"You don't say." I responded with the usual sarcasm but I really am wary of this new unknown. Its weird and I can't explain just how creepy it is. Oh and I don't have a body anymore so that's another headache to deal with. "Who the hell are you anyway?"
"You may call me, Conductor." the voice replied in an amused tone as if my situation was a funny comedy show to him or it.
"Huh. So you conduct what...music?" I asked with an emphasis on music just so I could annoy whatever the hell this thing was. Hey I'm already dead so what's the point! What does it mater if-oh crap I just realize that this may be the guy who is going to take me, either to hell or heaven. I best be on my best behavior.
"Actually I do. But I also conduct the fates of my universe and recently I have been authorised by my superior to conduct the universe under my charge as I see fit." Conductor spoke with a high Londoner accent and to an adoptive Aussie like me I would have immediately called him Posh, but bit my tongue. "Regulations and rules prevent me from interfering, however, with my newfound liberties I have decided to cause changes in a certain part of my universe that I believe will be major fun!"
"So what's this major fun, you talking about?" I must admit I was indeed curious about his supposed claim of being in charge of an entire universe. Although from his accent and the way he spoke of his superior, I find it intriguing that he sounded afraid of whoever was his boss.
"Simple really. I offer you a chance to cause whatever change you see fit in this part of my universe. There are no rules except one: Do not leave the confines of my universe." His voice took on a dangerous tone and I felt chills run down my spine. IIf I had any that is. But the overwhelming presence was unbearable...barely. "I have said my peace. I should warn you that I have made some very interesting changes to this bit. I hope you find it interesting, remember what you do in my universe is nothing of my concern so have fun. This also your last reincarnation so make it count."
"Okay..." I trailed off as I felt the voice's presence retreat into the darkness and then I felt warm and comfortable. My skin was tingly and I opened my eyes. I had felt myself with a body once more and so when I did open my eyes I was greeted with a smiling face of a woman and a man. But that last warning was especially disturbing, to know that I won't ever be born again...maybe I'm being paranoid but then again that's just me.
Of course all of that passed by me and within a few days I was able reorient myself with my surrounding and managed to establish a form of communication with my brother who I realize later on as my twin. Well not 'my' twin in the sense of my other self but now in the current time. In my new body. His name is Damian and he is older than me by two minutes. How do I know this? Well our parents named us of course.
My name is Danen. Strange because I've used that name as an alias in many things. Even stranger still when I learned of my father's full name. Frederick Takoto, which if my fading memory serves me correct, was another name I used as an alias for a game character in a game called Stellaris, the man even had that character's facial features, square jaw, slick black hair and deep blue eyes with a fair complexion and a grizzly scar that ran across his left cheek to his jaw. I distinctly remembering him to be a General, really didn't expect to see him here.
What really caused me to nearly hyperventilate was when two days after I was born here in this world, when I was carried from the infant ward by my now fully recovered mother, we passed by a large window and I was gaping at what was outside. There was a great expanse of space...SPACE! I was in space and it seemed that I was on a ship! A SPACESHIP! Man oh man!
My little baby body shivered and writhed in excitement and I was happily giggling and laughing and cooing at the sight of space...the final frontier these are the voyages of the astronaut Rut-eh I'm getting off track man have I always wanted to say that...okay I'm a nerd...with a gun!
Haha! Take that star trek!
Ahem. Never mind.
My brother was equally excited as well but I ignored him. We were carried all the way to the elevator, I think, and from there most of everything that went on was a blur. I couldn't remember everything. My memories of my other life became more distant, more and more it became dense until it could only focus on one specific subject, a subject that I still haven't come to terms with just yet.
For now I'll sleep on it and wait until I can gather my infantile thoughts enough for me to fully comprehend what just happened. After all you don't hear hear booming British voices in your head and expect to remember what it told you. The only thing I could garner from that surreal and odd experience was, something to do with having fun and changing things as I saw fit.
The weirdest part of that was the feeling I got when the voice said it tweaked the universe just a tiny bit to make changes possible but what he meant by that I wouldn't know. My baby mind is still developing but eits not like anything could go wrong right?
3 years later...
Both my brother and I have made quite a lot of progress. By eight months we had learned to walk and form basic sentences but without our teeth we totally butchered the English language. Haha. Good times...the look on our parents faces when Damian and I spoke for the first time. It was a simple "Dada" and "Mama" routine but boy...the kicker was when we both said it in unison. It was like we practices and rehearsed just for that moment.
I remember mom screaming for dad to get his ass to the living room. He ran like there was no tomorrow, when he got there mom pointed at Damian and me and squealed with delight, "Listen...Dany, Damy...(our baby names that mom gave us-i hated it when she called me that) come on say it again."
I looked at Damian who looked back at me with a baby expression equivalent to 'Seriously?' But we did as we were told and in perfect unison we both said, "Mama! Dada!"
Dad dropped to his knees and in a dramatic wave of his arms he picked us up, oh yeah did I mention dad is like a seven foot ten inches giant?! He's taller than...than...who was that guy again?Nah, never mind. He stood up and had both Damian and I in each of his big muscular arms which are thicker than Arnold Schwarzenegger's. He made grunting noises as he hoisted us in the air causing me to laugh...I don't know why I did that.
Then it blurred again and it was our first birthday. That was a fun time but I'd rather save that story for later.
So two years after that and Damian and I found ourselves in preschool. It was mostly finger paintings and bloc building from then on. However, it also became apparent that the two of us weren't quite normal, for example Damian and I both solved mathematic equations that were supposed to be for eighth graders, then we surprised our parents by reading books that are so old and thick no one reads them anymore.
Of course it didn't escape my notice that my dad looked awfully suspicious, my suspicions about him were proven correct when we were left alone with him as mother was busy. I still don't know what they did for jobs but there were a lot of military people visiting our home (on a space station). Dad had this wise and thoughtful expression on his face as he watched both me and my brother. For what seemed like hours I finally spoke to him.
"Dad...what you dthinking bout?" I asked him, I still haven't gotten my full set of teeth yet so some words sounded off.
Damian perked up and turned to face our dad who smiled at us. He then looked around him as if to make sure no one was listening in. Hr leaned forward and from his pocket he pulled out a necklace made from the blackest of ebony material. He palmed it and then with our eyes glued onto his open palm we saw a skull shaped medallion with small emerald gems as its eyes. The ebony skull sported intricate markings that covered it from the cranium to the jaw.
"This," our father began in a low whisper. "is the true face of our people. This is a secret that our kind have kept hidden from the rest of humanity for as long as I can remember. When I was your age my father showed me this as I am showing to you now. My sons, you may not yet fully understand but I know enough that your minds are different, as is mine."
Damian listened and hung onto every word. I too was engrossed in his tale. Then a memory came to me of a voice that spoke of changes it made. I wondered if this was the change he mentioned, one of them anyways.
"You must never speak of this to anyone." Our father warned, his voice grim. "Our kind were worshiped by primitive humans and sadly that led to constant wars between them and our kind. In Ancient Egypt the former god pharaohs were dethroned and killed by their former human slaves. However, elsewhere we thrived and helped humanity until the time came when our guidance no longer mattered. It was no longer needed, and like my brethren we scattered across the earth and sought out new lives to live.
"Our heritage is that of a long gone civilization that was destroyed so many years ago. Ours is an ancient race that had been destroyed countless times in the past. For you see, my sons, we are humans. Not the humans of this cycle, but the humans of the cycle before the cycle."
The way he worded that bit about the cycle caused me to shudder. There was only one cycle that I know meant something horrible is on the way. Damian looked like he was in deep thought mirroring dad's own expression. I chuckled, the toddler version, but then dad continued with his history lesson.
"You should know my sons that our people and the human race are one and the same yet very different." Dad straightened up in his chair shifting to find a more comfortable pose. "Take for example the Olympian gods of Greece. Or the Norse gods, of Asgard. Heck, if you go back and carefully examine the mythology of the world...even the bible then you'll see the pattern. Our kind were gods to the ancient humans but now we are part of them. As such we must always protect them, do you hear?"
We nodded and he laughed.
"Good!" He said. Standing from his chair he left us to contemplate on this new information. I for one don't believe it but with whats been going on I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. Then again my memory of that talk with...Conductor...cause me pause. If what he says is true, then my dad and me being in this world, this universe, is what he meant by changes.
I'm not one to believe in superstition but with that info and finding out I'm part of some super race of humans then I'm sure my scepticism can be invalidated for the moment. Oh right I almost forgot, the station we live on is called Arcturus station, named after the star in the system.
Yeah...and welcome to Mass Effect.
Geez I hope those changes help me against the Reapers.
Dear readers, I hope this is enough but hey this is going to be an AU ME universe with various changes made. There will still be some canon events but Eden Prime in ME1 will change everything for better or worse. In case you're wondering, no this won't be a HFY or whatever but it will focus mostly on my SI character as well as his OCI brother. Yes his twin brother is an OCI. I'll leave it to you to guess who Damian really is.
Also reviews and constructive criticism is appreciated and welcomed. Your feedback will help with determining if this story's writer gets writer's block or not.
Good luck and have a good day.
