Hey guys, I must say I'm pretty proud of my self for righting all this. it was 9 pages on my computer. 3,756 words. And I just wana say thanks to roseflorintine and Raven R for helping me with this. THANKS GUYS!

Note! This will be the only disclaimer for the entire story, cuse I am lazy!

I DO NOT OWN MASS EFFECT! IF I DID YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO ROMANCE GARRUS IN THE FIRST GAME!


"Ugh!" I yawned, taking a look at my clock. The bright lights stunned me for a moment, but my eyes soon adjusted. 3 o'clock in the morning. I knew I shouldn't have stayed up so late to finish my picture of Garrus. But I knew I wouldn't regret it.

I had just finished playing the Mass Effect series for the sixth time that night, finishing Varity, my neutral engineer. I only had three characters: Amanda, a paragontal female soldier that had romanced Liara, Ace, a male renegade sentinel that romanced Ashley twice and Miranda once, and Varity, female, staying single. She preferred to keep to herself. And I was already planning a fourth one.

Susan. I was going to name her after myself. With my mostly paragon infiltrator, and Garrus, only Garrus, by my side, I would prevail. And with this final thought, I was gently lulled to sleep.

"Commander, we have arrived at Eden Prime."
"Yes, alright, I'm coming." I mumbled back sleepily. I never was much of a morning person.
"Captain Anderson would also like to talk to you before we go down ma'am." That caused me to shoot out of bed, wide awake.
"J-J-Joker?" I stuttered out. I thought the voice had been familiar! "Tell Captain Anderson I'll be up shortly." I was going to need a few minutes to gather my thoughts.
I got up briskly, and looked in the mirror. I looked mostly the same, with shoulder length blond hair that curled ever so slightly at the bottom and my stormy blue eyes. However, I looked a great deal older, late twenties maybe, a scar here and there, and didn't have my glasses on. Huh, I had forgotten how good it felt to have 20/20 vision.
After that, I suppose I needed a shower. It helps me relax enough to mull things over. Plus, I felt a bit nasty, but it was mostly the need to sort things out. I especially needed to know the vital things, like where on Earth I was and what the heck was going on. The clues I had were almost useless; Joker on the intercom, calling me Commander, and mentioning Captain Anderson. But if that's all true…No, it can't be, I must be dreaming.
I gave myself a healthy smack on the shoulder, convinced that I would jolt up in bed and all would be right again. WACK! Ow, alright, not dreaming, that's for sure. I rubbed my shoulder, wincing a bit. No, no, no…I sink down to the edge of the porcelain and broke down then and there. I was trembling like a leaf, and sweat slicked my forehead and hands. I can't be in Mass Effect, it just can't be. It's impossible. But some evidence was proving me wrong.
[Um, yes, you can, and you're not me.]
~Or me!~

(Ace?)

[Here, silly. Are you stupid?]

(Amanda?)

~Here!~

(Varity?)

{Yup.}
(Great, I'm Commander Shepard and all my past Shepards are in my head! And what am I supposed to do anyways?)
[Well, you might wanna try doing this thing civilized people call showering, and scrub yourself good. And then, you can put on these things called clothes.]
I sighed heavily, stepping into the shower and collecting myself, that's Ace for you; unfailingly blunt and straight-forward. Unless, of course, he was around Ashley or that Cerberus cheerleader, Miranda. Thankfully, she didn't come along for two or three years.
He was right though. The longer I spent in here, more questions would be asked.

My hair was still slightly wet from my shower when I went down to intercept Joker at his station, finding him chatting it up with Kaidan, "I hate that guy" he commented as Nihlus walked away, after saying that he was pleased about our drift speed.
"He gave you a compliment… so you hate him?"
"Remember to zip up your jumpsuit on your way out the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us half way across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible! Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having them on board. Call me paranoid."
"You're paranoid. The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to have someone keep an eye on their investment."
"Yeah, that is the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story."
"Er, sorry to interrupt the party, but where's Captain Anderson?" I butted in. Normally I would know where he was, but it had been a while since I had played the first Mass Effect.
"Comm room. Your sister passed by a while ago, and headed that way."
The words took a second to process. My big sister, Lorrel, here. Stuck with me in this unforgiving role of saviour? I ran to the comm room, as fast as I could. I opened the door to the comm room, and the sight of my sister, with her red hair and piercing green eyes, standing there talking to Nihlus… It took all of my will power not to run over, embrace her and then start sobbing into her shoulder.
"Sis," I managed to say, struggling to keep my voice in check. Trying to keep it that way I nodded and decided to try to keep my answers short, just giving Lorrel a confused look for half a second as I walked down to join them. She replied back with the quick look that anyone else would mistake for a glare, meaning we'll talk later.
"Ah, Susan, finally decided to show up?" What the heck? You are never called by your first name in the games. What's Nihlus doing…,"Ah no matter, we are still waiting on- Ah, here he is. Captain Anderson."
Anderson walked briskly down the walkway. He was most definitely hiding something, "It's time we told the Commanders what's really going on."
"What's going on here…" I growled, backing up so my shoulder blades were touching Lorrel's.
"This mission is far more than a simple shakedown run."
"Ha, half the crew already knew that." Lorrel snapped back at Nihlus.
"We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime. That's why we needed the stealth systems operational."
"What are we picking up? I have a line for everything." Lorrel gave me the most hideous scowl you will ever see, for that one. Anderson and Nihlus just looked unamused, "What?"
Captain Anderson shook his head and sighed, "You'll be picking up a Prothean beacon. A research team unearthed it during an excavation. This is big. Last time we made a discovery like this it jumped our technology forward two hundred years. But the facilities on Eden Prime don't have the resources to handle this. We need to bring it back to the Citadel for proper study."
"Obviously this goes beyond human interests. This discovery could affect every species in Council space."
"Let me guess… Does the next sentence start with, 'but wait there's more!'?" Another death stare. This is goanna kill me some day.
Anderson groaned again, "Sadly, yes. Nihlus is here to evaluate you. The Alliance has been pushing for a larger part in shaping intergalactic policy. We want more say with the Citadel council. The Spectres represent the council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, it shows how far the Alliance has come."
"You two held off an assault during the Blitz single handed. It showed not only your courage, but also incredible skill. That's why I put your names forward as candidates for the Spectres. I need to see your skills for myself. Eden Prime will be the first of many missions together."
"You two will be in charge of the ground team. Get to the beacon and get it back to the ship ASAP."
"Ready and able sir." Lorrel and I both snapped to attention.
"We should be getting close to Eden-"
"Captain! We got a problem."
"What's wrong, Joker?"
"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You better see this!"
"Bring it up on screen."
There was a moment of silence as Joker brought up the vid.

The vid, it-it was horrible. Marines where fighting, dying, losing to…Something. The cameraman was letting his camera fly around, out of just plain fear or he was trying to capture the whole thing, I couldn't tell. Ashley, thank god I could at least recognize her, rushed over, tackled the camera man and told him to stay down.
[ASH! I'll save you!]

(…*sigh*…)

"We are under attack!" Another marine, not Ash this time, but a male marine. Probably one in Ashley's unit, the 212, "Taking heavy casualties. I repeat: heavy casualties! We can't…argh!…-eed evac! They came out of nowhere. We need-" the man was suddenly jerked back, again by what I couldn't tell. Then they stopped. All the marines just stopped fighting, a couple had their mouths open in awe. The cameraman, supposedly noticing it also, turned to show us what the troops were looking at.
It was most likely a ship, but it was horrid looking, like a giant squid coming down latching on to something. The vid suddenly became static, signifying that it had been cut off.
"Everything cuts out after that," Joker came over the intercom again, "No comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing."
"Reverse and hold at 38.5" Anderson barks the order. I wonder how long he's been doing this…
The picture in the vid of the crazy ship pops up again. Nihlus' mandibles twitch for a moment, signifying he's worried. Anderson barks another order out, asking for a status report. "Seventeen minutes out, sir. No other Alliance ships in the area." Joker complies.
There's a short pause, "Take us in, Joker. Fast and quiet."
After gathering up our biotic friend, Lt Kaidan Alenko, and our rooky Jenkins, we all land safely at our drop point. But things… were just heating up.

After a short walk up the trail to the dig site, I thought I saw some movement up ahead, "My spider senses are tingling…" I said under my breath. For once Lorrel actually laughed, but it was quickly replaced by her usual scowl as she instructed Alenko and Jenkins to scout ahead. The two moved forward as if dancing. Alenko, Jenkins, Alenko… Jenkins' corpse.
Two geth recon drones appeared out of nowhere and shot at Jenkins as he moved forward, ripping straight through his shields, instantly killing him, "Jenkins!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, half hoping it would reach him in time. I- I never could get used to watching this scene.
Quick as lightning I tore out a pistol and shot at the nearest drone, hitting my mark, causing it to explode. Lorrel shot her arm up, glowing with biotics, and threw the other into the wall of rock beside us, crushing it.
With a quick check on our HUD's, we secured the area and walked over to Jenkins' dead body. "Ripped right through his shields, he never had a chance." Kaidan acknowledged.
"Do you think I care Lt! Come on we need to be at the dig site today!" Lorrel screamed at him. Alenko seemed shocked that she had snapped at him, you could tell from his glances back at her. Once Kaidan had walked away, she slithered to a rock, sunk to her knees and cried. Even though she can be a jerk, I could've told you she was about to cry.
Being the good sister, I walked over and sat down next to her, "It wasn't your fault he died, you know."
"Pfft, now you're starting to sound like Kaidan," she half-heartedly laughed.
"Call me Kaidan all you want, I'm not the biotic," I joked playfully, "But then… What am I?" My tone dropped to a sad whisper.
"Well if you're not a biotic that takes Adept, Vanguard, and Sentinel out of it and from the way you hit that thing right on mark, I'd say that you are an Infiltrator, big sis!" Now would be a good time to say that she and I are technically twins, but even though we look nothing alike and I was a couple seconds older than her, Lorrel was always faster, taller and stronger, so I always considered her older.
"Now the problem if figuring out which you are, Adept, Vanguard, or Sentinel. Hum… I have an idea but we'll have to wait till we're back on the ship, OK?" Now seemingly fine, Lorrel stood up and gave me a slight nod.
As we slowly walked up to the top of the rise, chatting all the way up, "You better brace yourself sis,"
I stopped and gave her the most confused look I could muster, "Wha?"
"This morning...Well, you remember how I had one of my characters drool over Joker? That...kinda backfired."
"They're in your head too?"
"Yeah, and Vanille…I think she took control of me."
"What?" I choked on the air around me, of shock.
"Ash is coming up and from the way you sighed of frustration earlier, Ace is going to go berserk. And next thing you know you'll be kissing Ash and that would be REALLY awkward. So I suggest that if you want to avoid that, you talk to Ace."
I acknowledged her with a nod and sunk into that state where nothing in the world mattered, but what I was focusing on.

(ACE!)

[What do you want?]

(AMANDA!)

~Yes?~
(Promise me that neither of you will take over my body nor start flirting with anyone!)
[Aw… Fine]
~Got it!~
(Good, I'm glad we got that-)
[What do we get in return?]
(What? I don't know? Look, Varity's over there, go see if you can coax her out of her shell)

[Fine.]

Coming back to the real world, I took a huge gulp of air and stood up, "I'm ready."
"Good, I was getting tired of waiting here. Move Out!"
Weapons drawn, we walked a short up the trail and could see Ashley take out two drones with as much precision as I had the one earlier. A ways up the trail there were two geth troopers that stuck a man, still alive at the time on a fast rising spike. Horrified by the spike Ashley hid behind cover and drew her assault rifle. As the troopers stepped closer, we quickly decided it was time to step in.
A quick shot at one left it to rust, Lorrel crushing the other just as fast with her biotics. Ash was shocked for a moment, trying to figure out who helped her. Seeing us, she jogged over, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You guys the ones in charge here?"
"Are you okay Williams?" I knew she was but I had to ask.
"Scrapes and burns, nothing bad, but the others weren't so lucky," her look of relief rapidly turned to one of sadness as she remembered her entire unit being wiped out by the geth.
I paused for a moment out of respect, "I don't know if it'll make you feel better, but how'd you like to be part of a team again?"
Her eyes lit up and regained their twinkle at that I love about her, "Payback time."
After out futile walk to the dig site we went up a path to our right and into the camp. I knew the spikes here had enough time to turn their victims into husks. They slid down letting them free, head shot, crush, fire. I hit the first one, still startled by my accuracy, Lorrel crushed the second bioticly and Ash and Kaidan got the last.
"Look!" Ash exclaimed as she saw the shed the scientist were hiding in, "That door, its closed. Security lock engaged."
We walked over to the door, "Do the honors?" Lorrel smiled. Sigh, good thing I'm the techy one.

After our chat with the scientists (which included Lorrel 'putting Manuel to sleep'), we headed down to the space port, cleared the area there and headed to the farmers shed. After hacking the door the farmers came out, "Everybody stay calm out there. We're coming out, and we're not armed."
"Is it safe, are they gone?" Said a panicked female farmer.
"You're safe," I confirmed.
"Thank goodness."
"Here take this as thanks." Said the one named Cole as he handed us a pistol.
"This was all you have! Give me one reason not to shoot you right now!" Lorrel fumed, taking the pistol out of my hand and pointing it at him.
"Alright! I have one more thing! Here, you can take it!"
"Thank you," she gloated as he handed it to her, "Here," she said throwing the pistol to me, walking over to the port.

Better follow suit. I sighed and jogging after her.
Reaching the spaceport we were met with an unwelcome sight, there was a dead turian on the ground. Stepping closer, our fears were confirmed, "Commander? It's Nihlus."
"I saw what happened to your friend. The other one shot him," A man popped up from behind the crates. It seemed to startle Ash and Kaidan, but Lorrel and I were fine, "The other one, Saren he called him, got here first. I think they were friends. Your friend seamed to relax, let his guard down. Then Saren shot him, right in the back. He jumped on the cargo train to the other platform, probably going after the beacon."
"Thanks for the info," Lorrel nodded, then barked out a command, "Move out!"

Arriving at the other platform, we were met with a nasty surprise, "Demolition charges! The geth must have planted them," I sighed as Kaidan stated the obvious. I kneeled down to deactivate the charge in front of us while I gave orders to the others.
"We'll cover more ground if we split up to disable the charges. Williams, you'll protect me while I disable the charges. Alenko, sis, same goes for you two. Kaidan can disable the charges while you protect him" I stood up, done with the charge, "Move out!"
Ash and I made a mad dash for our charge, taking a few geth down on the way. Grabbing some cover, I knelt down for the next charge, taking a quick glance to see how my sister was doing with Kaidan.
I must say I was impressed. She was dodging their attacks, left and right, as well as throwing some of her own. Throwing both her arms out in front of her she lunched one massive biotic throw taking out, one, two, three, all the remaining geth troopers between us.
My jaw hit the ground and I almost didn't hear the beep of my Omni-tool telling me the final bomb was disarmed. Ash and Kaidan seemed shocked as well from this action, "In all my years as a biotic, I've never seen anyone who could do something like that," Kaidan said, still in awe.
"Come on," Lorrel grumbled, a little embarrassed, "We need to get to the beacon." She turned and walked down the ramp shotgun raised ready for the geth onslaught that was waiting for us. Or rather should have been waiting for us.
The quartet yard was empty. Not a single geth or husk to take us down.
Ah, no matter, the beacon is what's important here, "Normandy, the beacon is secure. Requesting immediate evac," finishing the request we turned around as Ash came over, saying she secured the area. Just behind her Kaidan was off getting sucked into the Prothean beacon. Lorrel and I both made a mad dash over to him and tackled Kaidan out of the way, trapping us both in the field.
I would have loved to push my sister out of the way at that moment, knowing the pain that would come with this knowledge.
We were pulled into the air as the horrid vision of the Reapers butchering the Protheans filled our minds… An entire race, killed by the Reapers, and who knows how many more. As the vision left my mind as the beacon exploded, throwing us back onto the hard, steel surface knocking us both out.


Well that's just the beginning I'll post the next chapter next week (or sooner depending on how nice I feel.)I will try to address all the reviews you guys give me.

Regularhalopeps is out! PEACE!