ALERT!: I am going to be changing the numbering of the chapters. Now instead of them being long chapters, I am dividing those long chapters into two smaller chapters each. So now Chapter 1 has been divided into two chapters, making it Chapter one and two, and the rest of the story follows as such. The content of the story is still the same, the only thing that is changed is the chapters numbers and the fact that now events you may have read all together in one chapter have been broken into two parts. I did this after being informed by readers that the long endless chapters were a tad off putting for anyone looking for a fun read rather than a novel a day.
Before I go any further, I would like to state that any canon and copyrighted characters of Mass Effect that appear in this story are property of Bioware. I do not own recognizable characters of the story and make no profit what so ever from posting this; it is solely for the enjoyment of writing that I wrote this story. Any views expressed in this story should not be taken as my own personal views and no offense is meant towards anyone of a differing opinion.
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Chapter One
At first there was nothing but silence…
…and then came the screaming…
Air slammed into her lungs with enough force to nearly knock it back out again. Gasping, her eyes flew open to a blue sky smeared with billowing pillars of smoke. The sunlight was blindingly bright, making her screw her eyes up with a wince. Everything hurt; everything ached, from her neck and the back of her head to her chest and her limbs. The slightest flex of a single muscle made her cringe. She didn't want to move; not until the world stopped spinning around her or at least picked a slower pace. It would help if it stopped shaking too.
There was a faint ringing and a growing pressure pressing against her eardrums that was growing increasingly annoying and not helping the pounding in her head in any way. With a groan, she sat up and dragged a hand over her forehead, massaging her brow gingerly. She felt disoriented and heavy, like her brain was floating in molasses. The throbbing in her head made her feel off balanced and dizzy and she swallowed thickly, fighting the urge to be sick. She moaned and dragged her legs up to her chest and rested her head on her knees. Hunched over, she rubbed at the back of her neck and attempted an experimental stretch; it stung but she could suck it up and deal with it for now. She would have liked nothing more than to lie back down and curl up until the aching stopped, but the rumbling of the ground beneath her was growing and as the slightest amount of the haze in her mind cleared, one thought pushed its way forward that made her head snap up with a start: The ground was not supposed to shake!
Chaos was all it could be described as; sheer chaos. People were running this way and that, some pushing each other out of the way, others grasping hands and attempting to stay close, stay together. All of them were screaming, crying out in terror, but the sound was distorted, muffled almost, like she was hearing it from under water; yet the ringing came in clear and strong. Her ears might as well been stuffed full of cotton for how hard it was for her to sort out a single noise with that long, persistent ringing tone drowning it all out.
In alarm she struggled to her feet on shaky legs and stumbled back a few paces as people shot by her in a stampede. Behind them, a cloud of black hovered in the sky, still a ways off, but gathering speed at an alarmingly rate. It shrunk and stretched out of shape as it grew nearer when suddenly some of it broke away and shot towards the fleeing crowd…it was a cloud of bugs…
A few stragglers shrieked as it descended on them, some crying out in pain before stopping dead in their tracks as they were passed over by the swarm. They looked like posed mannequins; some mid run, others on the ground in the middle of trying to stand back up.
Something slammed into her hard, knocking the disoriented girl over. Looking up, she found herself staring into the face of a frightened woman. Her face was streaked with dirt and tears, blonde hair hanging over her eyes and matted to her face in sweat and spit. Behind her trailed a little boy, no more than seven, who clung to the woman's waist like an extra appendage. He peered cautiously around the woman at the girl, his eyes wide and his small frame trembling, nothing but a slip of a boy in a pair of overalls with dirty knees. Tears were brimming at the corners of his eyes but they did not fall.
The blonde, presumably the boy's mother, lunged at the girl and grabbed at her wrists, yanking her roughly to her feet. She latched onto the girl's shoulders and shook her, shouting something distance and incoherent. When she got no response, she hiccupped and shook the frightened girl again more desperately, her nails digging into flesh as the ringing and growing pressure in the girl's ears reached a crescendo.
As though an invisible bubble had been pressing against her eardrums, there was a loud pop and then all at once the sound came rushing into her ears and she could hear everything crystal clear. The harsh bangs of bullets puncturing the air and the horrifying buzzing of the swarm nearly drowned the screaming of the people with their random shrieks and sobbing.
A sharp sting radiated across the side of her face and it took her a few seconds to realize that the woman in front of her had just slapped her, "Don't just stand there," she cried, "Do you want to be caught by those things too?!"
"Wha…" the girl's voice sounded hoarse and weak to her own ears and she wondered how she hadn't noticed before how incredibly dry her throat was, "What's going on? What are those things? Where am I?!"
"There's no time to explain, we have to—,"
"Mommy!"
The little boy tugged at his mother's sleeve and began glancing back and forth between them and the enclosing swarm of insects. "Mommy, where's daddy? He said he was coming with us. Why isn't he with us?" He tugged at the woman's shirt again and whimpered, "I'm scared!"
"It's okay, Mikhail," 'Mommy' kneeled in front of her son and rubbed his back soothingly, "D-don't be scared sweetie. Mommy's right here, everything's going to be okay." She pulled him towards her and he wrapped his arms around her neck, "Everything is going to be A-okay. Daddy will catch up; we'll meet him at the safe house, you'll see." She tried to smile at him but her voice rung hollow in that promise.
She picked Mikhail up and whipped back around to face the girl. "We can't stay here!" 'Mommy' declared, once again grabbing onto her arm, "come on, we have to reach the safe house." They all took off at a run, the blonde dragging her along by the vice-like grip she had on her wrist.
They rejoined the fleeing crowd as it twisted and turned through any given path or opening that they could find among rows of nearly identical housing. The sky was streaked with smoke and falling debris, leaving behind a stale and charred taste with each mouthful of air they took. People were scrambling over crates and even taking shortcuts through open doorways to run through people's homes in an effort to get away. Small fires had broken out here and there and no one made any attempt to put them out, instead abandoning the flaming various wreckage and darting away. Small children were juggled in their parent's arms as they frantically tried to get them to the front of the crowd, to get them as far away as possible from the swarm and the havoc it was leaving in its wake. 'Mommy' continued to drag the girl along as she carried Mikhail under one arm like a sack of flour and bounded over crates and boxes like he weighed nothing at all.
It occurred to the girl that she didn't know where they were all headed to or why she should even trust this woman and her child. Everything was happening so fast and her head felt like it was full of static, her vision was still blurry and her headache was making it too hard to really focus on anything for very long. All she knew was that her legs were aching so badly now and her muscles protested with every step she was forced to take, but she couldn't stop. Every time she slowed down even the slightest bit, the blonde would yank on her arm with surprising force and yell over her shoulder a hoarse and stern "Come on!" How was the weight of her child not slowing her down? How could the mother not feel the same exhaustion she did? Was the drive to save her son that powerful that she could push herself to the limits all in an effort to succeed? Would the pain in the girl's aching knees not bother her as much if she had a child to protect like the mother before her?
They took several twisty turns around corners and the alleyways between some houses and it seemed that for the moment they had lost their winged pursuers. The screaming did not cease though, and the mayhem around them was getting worse, not better.
There was a loud boom followed by a sudden creaking of metal and she collided into the woman's back as they came to a quick and unexpected halt just as a door shot clean off its hinges. It hurtled across a yard towards them like it had been spring-loaded and the girl shrieked in terror. In a flash, the mother twisted around and wrapped the girl up in her arms, her son sandwiched between them as the broken door whipped past them, barely missing 'Mommy's' shoulder by an inch.
Wrapped up in those strong, steadfast arms, the girl realized how badly she was shaking. They stood there for a moment with her face pressed into the crook of 'mommy's' neck and she drank in that moment of safety, of security. Mikhail's mother smelt of vanilla and ginger and it soothed her. She almost gave into the urge to hug the woman back and take in as much motherly comfort as she could when the woman relaxed her hold and stepped back.
"Some trigger happy moron must have misfired into a house," the woman growled, "I don't care what they say; giving a someone a gun doesn't do a damn thing to protect them if they don't know how to use the blasted thing!" She glared at the broken remains of the door before directing her attention to the girl. "It's okay," she said, though her voice had lost none of its urgency, "I've got you; you're going to be alright." She reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind the girl's ear with as much tenderness as she probably used with her own child. "You're shaking like a leaf; you scared?"
The girl nodded silently. For reasons she couldn't explain, it hurt her pride to admit she couldn't muster enough courage and resolve to keep herself from quaking like a frightened child.
The woman took notice, "Don't be ashamed," she chided softly, "There's nothing wrong with being scared." She tilted the girl's face up towards her and looked her square in the eyes. "Would it help if I said I was scared too?"
She got another nod in response.
"Well I am, so you have nothing to be ashamed of. Just stick with me and I promise you'll be just fine. I won't let anything happen to you," she scooped Mikhail back up and settled him on her hip, "to either of you." People were shoving past them, jostling them around but the mother's focus was solely on her son and this girl she had stumbled across in the grass.
"B-but," the girl faltered, pulling away from 'Mommy' a little bit "but…," she glanced back over her shoulder at the smoke and flickering gleam of fire, each gunshot that rang out making her jerk and twitch with surprise.
"Look at me, look at me!" the woman roughly grabbed her by the chin and jerked her head back towards her own. She was panting quick and heavy, sweat beading on her brow and running down her face. It trailed along the chain of a necklace peeking out of her shirt; perspiration blotting spots under her armpits. The exhaustion was catching up to her. "We have to keep going forward, you can't worry about what's back there or you will only get caught." She smoothed her hand across the side of the girl's face gently, "It looks like you were knocked around some."
"I do?"
She nodded, "There's some bruising around your eyes and face," she pulled back one of the girl's sleeves, "all over your arms too. Did you fall when you were running? People were doing an awful lot of shoving; did some knock you down? Is that why you were just sitting there?" She trailed off and stared at the girl for a moment, a puzzled expression coming over her face. "You know… I don't recall ever seeing you around the colony before. I didn't think any new colonists would be coming in this month. What's your name?"
"What?" the girl blinked, "Oh! My name? It's…it's…" cold dread seeped into her body and it felt like the bottom of her stomach had dropped out. "My name is…" she wracked her brain for an answer and was horrified to find none forthcoming. What is my name?
Shock tinged with something akin to pity came over the woman's face, "You don't even know, do you?"
"N-no," the girl stammered, "I know this one. J-just give me a minute; it'll come to me. It's…." she whipped her head about frantically, as if the answer was going to appear written across the air in front of her, "…I don't know…I…I don't…who am I?!" How could she not even know her name? She didn't even know where she was. She had just opened her eyes and been swept up in an all the commotion with no time to think of anything else. There hadn't even been time to question why she had woken up outside and why everything had been so unfamiliar to her in the first place. And to top it off, she didn't even know her own name?! In all the confusion, she hadn't even noticed such vital information was missing. It wasn't like people double checked that they knew who they were whenever they woke up, now did they?!
She was hyperventilating now; taking quick, big gulps of air that almost seemed tangibly too big for her to swallow. The ache it caused in her chest was shooting straight through to her lungs. Her face broke out in a cold sweat and she felt like her insides had turned to lead. She didn't know who she was. She didn't know her age or what she even looked like. She brought her hands up to her face and ran them along every groove and indentation as if she expected that to give her an idea of what her face might look like. She tugged at her hair, yanking out strands of black, holding them up to her face as though they might hold the answers. She pulled at her clothes; even the blue sweater and jeans she had on didn't spark any recognition within her.
"Hey, calm down," Mikhail's mother put her hand to the back of the girl's neck and pulled her in close; pressing their foreheads together. "You're panicking. Now take some deep breaths. In….and out, okay?" she coaxed the girl to follow her lead, and the girl notice how both of their breathing shook and rattled in their chests and came out in wheezes, "In…out…there we go," 'Mommy' smiled encouragingly. "You might have just hit your head or something. Don't worry about it for now; I know where we are and I know the way to the safe house. When we get there surely someone will have some answers for you. For now you are in my care and that's all that matters, that's all you need to know. Now I need you to keep moving and to stay calm—," she stopped short and the color drained from her face. "They found us…"
The girl turned around and sure enough, the angry swarm of insects was rapidly approaching now, flying over the abandoned bodies of previous victims and closing in on them.
"We have to move," the blonde woman shouted, "we have to move now!" She grabbed the girl and shoved her ahead of herself, pushing her to run as fast as she was able, "We can't let them catch us!"
"What do they want?!" the girl cried.
"I don't know and I'm not about to stick around to find out. Just run!" She took them through pathway after pathway, weaving and bounding over broken crates and discarded possessions as they sought to rejoin the stampeding masses.
The throng of people was dwindling, some having already outrun to safety ahead of the rest, and others having tripped or fallen behind and been caught by the swarm. The air crackled with more gunfire. It whistled and popped around them and shouting could be heard in the distance.
"Look out!"
There was a loud crack as something massive flew by overhead, casting an ominous shadow along the ground, and suddenly two large trees came crashing down, toppling against a few houses and causing a roof to cave in. The impact was enough to send broken branches and scraps of metal flying every which way as people dived out of the way and the girl was shoved forcefully to the ground with Mikhail as his mother threw herself over them.
From on top of her, 'Mommy' groaned and shifted her weight a bit so she wasn't crushing her two charges. She looked down on them both and tried to smile but it came out as more of a wince. She leaned over them, a glint of silver swaying in between her and the girl as her necklace spilled out of her shirt and dangled an emblem on a long skinny chain inches over the girl's nose, making her go crossed eyed trying to focus on it in her dazed stupor.
"Are you both okay?" the woman asked.
"Um…yeah…," the girl nodded as 'Mommy' got up, "I'm fine," she looked over at the little boy sitting next to her, "How about you?"
He still looked like he might start crying at any second, but he nodded nonetheless, "I-I'm okay…"
"Good," His mother tugged him up off the ground and held a hand out to the girl.
The girl grabbed the proffered hand, but something gave her pause; something was trickling down her wrist and running along the underside of her arm, seeping under her sleeve. Standing, she pulled her hand away and looked at it. Her wrist and arm were sticky with skinny, veiny streams of red; blood. She glanced up at her protector questionably and inhaled sharply at what she saw.
'Mommy' stood before her ever the embodiment of strength in hellish times, a rapidly growing stain spreading across the torn sleeve of her right arm.
"You're bleeding!" the girl exclaimed, reaching out and tugging the ripped cloth back, "You're hurt!"
"Mom?" Mikhail reached out for his mother's arm, but she gently held him at bay with a hand pressed to his chest, "Mommy, you're hurt?"
'Mommy' winced and shrugged her shoulders as nonchalantly as she could, "It's nothing. Something must have nicked me is all." Clammy hands ran along her arm and she bit back a hiss, gritting her teeth.
"But there's this metal bit in it!" the girl cried, running a finger over the protruding shard. Without thinking, she prodded at it and a fresh stream of blood gushed out over her fingers. "Shit! Oh man, it's really bad, what if you bleed out? What if you—?"
A warm hand came down over her own, "we don't want to worry Mikhail," 'Mommy' admonished softly. She turned to her son, Mikhail still trying to get a good look at her wound, "Mom's just fine, kiddo," she assured him, "We can worry about it later; when we get to the safe house."
"We're trapped!" A man's voice cried out from the front, causing the three of them to whip around.
Ahead of them, the trees laid broken over each other across the path they had been following. One of the houses they had landed on was actually ripped partially out of the ground and twisted somewhat on its side. The twisted wreckage of metal and bark effectively barred them from going any further.
"We're blocked off," the man who had spoken before grit out, "it's a dead end."
"What are we going to do now?" a near hysterical woman asked from the right.
"We can't go back the way we came," another man pointed out from the left.
"If we had headed for the fields, we wouldn't be pinned like this!"
"Don't look at me I was following you!"
"And I was following you!"
"Everybody shut up!"
Everyone's head snapped towards the back.
Mikhail's mother stood tall and commanding; her form backlit by a horizon of smoke, fire, and afternoon sunlight as blood continued to trickle down her arm. "Everybody shut up and calm down! We can make it out of this." She took several steps forward and faltered, wobbling a bit; she was most likely becoming weak from blood loss. "The last thing we need is everyone screaming and yelling like a bunch of idiots! We can't afford to lose anytime panicking and arguing. We can make it out of this, but we have to work together. Now…"
She trailed off; the buzzing was back. A second wave of fleeing masses was running their way, and they were inadvertently leading the swarm right towards them. Just like that, order was lost once again.
"Here they come," someone screamed.
"Let's move!" Mikhail's mother cried, tugging her son and the girl forward, "We'll climb over the trees, every able bodied person start lifting up the one besides you. Let's go, go, go!"
People frantically ran towards the fallen trees, grabbing hold of a select few and lifting them up to grab the top, those who made it over reaching back to grab the next wave of people passed up. Men and women began lifting their children into the air and pushing towards the front, desperately trying to get their kids up over the trees and out of harm's way.
"Come on, people," 'Mikhail's mother urged, panting and gripping her arm in pain, "move faster! There's isn't much time!" She pushed Mikhail and the girl ahead of her, "You two get going."
"No!" Mikhail protested, grabbing onto his mother tightly, "I don't want to leave you!"
"Mikhail, don't argue with me!"
"No," Mikhail persisted, hugging his mother tighter, "I won't leave you!"
"We don't have time for this," his mother glanced at the impending swarm, looking out over the burning buildings and the people that had already been snagged. The approaching crowd behind them hadn't managed to put enough distance between themselves and the insects and they were quickly caught up in a cloud of fluttering, buzzing blackness. Men, women, and children stuck in place, their faces frozen in horror, their arms outstretched towards any salvation they had hoped they could find. The gunshots in the distance were dying down; their defenses most likely having already been picked off.
"Nothing's going to stop them…" she whispered.
She turned to the girl, but she was staring more through her than at her, her eyes glassy and distant. They were eyes devoid of any happiness, devoid of hope. Her mouth opened slightly and her lips trembled. She took a few shuddering breathes and closed her eyes against an onslaught of emotions. When she opened them again, her face was hard in bitter resolve as she looked once more between the swarm and her son.
The girl searched her face and felt her blood run cold. That determined look in the woman's eyes, surely she couldn't actually be thinking of—, "No…" she whispered, stepping towards the woman, eyes pleading, "No, you can't do this!'"
'Mommy' kneeled down in front of her son and pulled him into a tight hug, her face buried in his hair like she was trying to memorize his scent, the way he felt in her arms, "My big brave boy," she whispered, squeezing him snug against her, the blood on her arm seeping into the denim of his overalls. The blonde stood up and looked at the girl, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.
"Please," the girl begged, "there's has to be some other way…" she reached out to the woman.
'Mommy' wrenched herself out of her reach at the last moment, the girl's hand just barely grazing her collar bone and something gave way with a snap into the girl's hand.
"My husband's name is Richard," the woman began, her voicing wavering, "We were supposed to meet at the safe house. If you should find him, tell him I…" a sob escaped her throat and she gave a sad, watery smile, "…I tried…"
Without a word, the woman suddenly shoved her son forward into the girl's arms then turned and ran, leaving the girl holding nothing but a crying child and a broken necklace.
"Mommy!" Mikhail screeched as the girl screamed out after the woman's retreating back, "No!"
Inside her head, the girl was screaming. 'Don't leave me,' she pleaded, her arms wrapped tight around the thrashing child 'you protected me, you mean safety, don't leave me like this!'
Snatching up a large broken branch, the blonde raced towards the swarm and began swinging and slashing through the air wildly with all her might, scattering the swarms as they honed in on her. Grunting with exertion, she knocked some out of the air one after another, trying to keep moving as sporadic as possible to stay out of their reach.
"Mommy!" Mikhail struggled in the girl's grip, scratching and kicking uselessly and even biting her, but she did not let go, simply clutched him tighter and watched on in horror.
"Over here!" a few men had lingered behind to help the remaining people over the fallen trees. One grabbed hold of the girl and boy and dragged them over, "We need to get you out of here, now!"
She moved on auto pilot, tucking the necklace into her pocket before she was scooped up under the armpits. Still in shock the girl allowed herself to be manhandled and lifted upwards into the awaiting arms of another man perched above her among the branches. His nails dug into her skin as he grabbed her arms and bark scrapped against her knees as he pulled her up, slivers digging into her pants and drilling through the denim and into her legs.
Mikhail was a harder effort. The boy was still thrashing and screaming in the men's arms as they attempted to lift him up. The man on the tree swatted at his hands in an effort to catch hold of one of them. "Help me with this!" The girl reached down and managed to snag one of the flailing limbs and together, they dragged Mikhail up over the wooden blockade. The man promptly passed him off to her to restrain him as the remaining men attempted to scale the trees alone without the luxury of any assistance other than the man sitting next to her still reaching down to them from his perch in the branches.
The girl looked back to Mikhail's mother; to 'mommy'. She was still swinging and hacking at the bugs. With golden hair whipping about her and blood soaking her shirt and caking her arms in its crimson war paint, she looked like some mighty warrior, making her last stand atop a battle field burdened with the bodies of friend and foe alike. On a downswing, the branch in her hands broke and a fleetingly look of distress and exasperation passed over her face before she tossed the broken stick aside. Taking one last look back at her son and the girl she had entrusted him with, she smiled, tears streaming down her face. She mouthed something to the girl and like that, the swarm descended on her. 'Thank you'.
"No!" Mikhail sobbed, arms outstretched as his struggles began anew, "Mommy!"
The girl somberly pulled him closer to her and turned his head away from the scene; let that not be his last memory of his mother.
"We need to keep going," one of the men shouted. He struck the girl on the back and she barely had enough time to shield Mikhail as they tumbled off the trees and onto the ground on the other side, her back scraping harshly against the bark. She bit back tears and struggled to her feet.
"They're still coming!" The men began jumping down besides her and took off at a run as the swarm closed in.
The girl swept Mikhail up and rushed after them, the child still crying weakly. She struggled to bear his added weight as her legs shook underneath her and twinges of pain shot up her spine as it bore the strain. Only the blind fear of the swarm and the desire to not let the woman's sacrifice be in vain kept her from slowing down and giving in to her painfully aching body. She chanced a peek behind her as she ran.
The swarm of insects shot over the trees and pursued them relentlessly. It closed in on the slowest person, an old man, and he slapped a hand to his neck with a cry if pain. In less than a few seconds, his entire body stiffened up and he froze in place, only his eyes still moving as the others called out to him over their shoulders.
"Harold!"
"We can't help him now, keep moving or you'll be next."
The swarm picked them off one by one until only three remained besides Mikhail and his newfound guardian. The girl could only hope they knew where the safe house was; she had been relying on Mikhail's mother to show her the way.
Suddenly one of the remaining men stumbled and crashed into the guy besides him, bringing them both to the ground. The last man standing hesitated for a moment before rushing back to try and help them. The swarm was drawn to them like a magnet. There was little chance they would get away.
Panicking, the girl looked around her fretfully, no idea where to run now. She spotted an open door to a house and without thinking darted towards it.
Once inside she set Mikhail down and tried to get her bearings. They were in what appeared to be a kitchen. The occupants had obviously left in a hurry, chairs knocked to the ground and plates and food spilt across the floor.
The buzzing was growing louder outside; the swarm had moved on from its latest victims. With a fresh wave of fright, she realized now that her rash decision had succeeded in boxing them into a corner. The swarm would most likely be passing the house soon and she couldn't risk taking Mikhail out to search for the safe house now or they would run straight into the bugs. In alarm, the girl looked around desperately and her eyes landed on narrow door off to the side of a row of cabinets. Hastily, she grabbed Mikhail by the arm and rushed towards it. She reached out for the handle only to find there wasn't one. Instead, a large pulsing red circle rested in the center of the door. 'What sort of place is this?!'
She banged on the door frantically until Mikhail reached out and pressed the center of the circle. The pulsing red switched to green before the doorway split and retracted into either side of the wall, opening up to reveal some sort of small pantry. She ushered the boy inside as the door closed behind them. For good measure, she grabbed a random container and began to slam away at the button on the inside of the door until it cracked and the glow in the center blinked out and their only source of light was gone. She didn't really know how the door worked but it seemed to have been operated by the button and she hoped that what she had just done would prevent the door from working for anyone else. Stumbling, she then pulled Mikhail into a corner and sat down with him in her lap. She clutched him to her chest with all her might and prayed they would not be found...
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Author's Note: Well that's the first chapter down. I would like to apologize to anyone reading my Kyo Kara Maou story. I know I haven't updated in a while and for that I am terrible sorry. Life got very busy and hectic for a while and then I hit a creative slump when I went back to the story. I will need to rewatch the series again in order to get a feel for it again and refresh my memory of the series.
I hope everyone likes this story here. I have already begun work on the next chapter. Please keep in mind that this story isn't beta so finding grammar errors and mistakes was all on me and I may have missed some.
A friendly heads up, I will be tweaking certain aspects of the Mass Effect game and story for the purpose of logic in my story. Nothing severe like giving canon characters ridiculous abilities or changing their species or something; just fiddling with the length of time in which the plot of the Mass Effect games took place (like how many months pass in the course of Mass Effect 2).
I will also do the occasional fiddling with the order of events of some missions, like changing what point they come in the story versus what point in the game they were accessible or happening in. If this offends anyone I apologize greatly and recommend you not read this story.
Also, try to bear with me in my attempts of understanding in the technology of Mass Effect; I swear I am trying. I'm sorry that I am switching things around, but for the purpose of plot points, I needed to make some adjustments. Once again I do not own Mass Effect of any of its characters. None of what I write is canon to the story and I make no profit from this silly like story of mine.
Please read and review my story and if you enjoy it, please tell your friends.