UPDATE 10th, March, 2012: Thanks to the stupid endings to a great game, this chapter has been updated with accurate reactions.

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state. For example, the presence or absence of a butterfly flapping its wings could lead to creation or absence of a hurricane.

You see examples of the butterfly effect all around you. In the Back to the Future trilogy, the second film vividly illustrates the cascading and broad effects of what seemed a minor change in the course of events: because the loathsome Biff Tannen accidentally gets his hands on a sports almanac from 2015, he is able to grow rich and corrupt Marty McFly's home town.

It's a nice thing to think of. To know that, no matter how small of a contribution you make to the universe, it will always make an impact. But then there's the other side of the spectrum. Even if you try to make things better, there will always be unforseen effects. And some of them will be worse than what you just stopped.

There's a similar theory known as Causality. Causality is the relationship between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first. If one can create a cause and predict the effect at the same time, then they would get the illusion that they could see into the future.

An excellent example is when Neo, Morpheus and Trinity visit the Merovingian in the movie, Matrix Reloaded. As the Merovingian explains what Causality is, he sends a special slice of dessert written in a special code to a beautiful blonde woman. As she takes her first bite, the code gets to work in creating a cause, to which the effect is an explosive orgasm in her vagina. This causes the woman to go to the bathroom, to which the Merovingian excuses himself from Neo and the others to take full advantage of what he did to the woman, which became yet another cause. The effect was the Frenchman getting a very nice blowjob from the very hot and very high class blonde.

Then there's the Ripple Effect. The ripple effect is a term used to describe a situation where, like the ever expanding ripples across water when an object is dropped into it, an effect from an initial state can be followed outwards incrementally.

For example you drop a small pebble into a pond of still water, and watch as the ripples spread out from the impact point. And the ripple effects everything. Then there are other ripples, clashing with your own, or melding to create a larger ripple. The larger the ripple, the larger the effects. This is closely tied to the Butterfly Effect theory.

I realise this sets the stage of a much darker story than what you think you are going to read. If this is what you're thinking...

...then April Fool dumbass! I'm too upbeat to write a story like that. I prefer happy fiction over realistic dark stories. It's just me.

If you are disappointed, then turn away, leave and don't look back. But for those who want to know how much two extra people armed with knowledge of the future can make a difference, while having as much fun as possible, then continue.

Chapter 1: The Pebble Drops

I stared in shock at the large LCD screen in front of me, watching the credits float up the screen. I was speechless.

Next to me sat a very attractive red head. She wore baggy pale blue pj pants and a loose light green t-shirt. She too, was wide eyed, watching the white words roll up with the dramatic and inspiring music in the background. Her eyes were coloured just as crimson red as her hair.

"...wow," I murmured.

"Yeah... wow," agreed the woman beside me.

I was silent for a few moments before the dam broke.

"That... was... the WORST ENDING POSSIBLE for Mass Effect 3!" I roared in anger.

"Damn straight!" she agreed, now glaring hard at the TV. If it was self aware, it would probably start pissing itself in fear.

"What a shitty ending to close the Mass Effect Trilogy!" I growled.

"I'll say," the red head agreed, not glaring anymore, but now looking quite dissatisfied.

There was a loud noise that suddenly shattered the mood. I grinned sheepishly. "We were too eager to start off from where I saved the game last night, we skipped breakfast. What's the time now Dawn?" I asked the woman.

She dug out her iPhone 4 and checked the time. "It's lunch time-," she began, only for a second, equally loud noise, interrupted her.

I grinned. "That one wasn't me."

"Oh shut up Josh," Dawn glared at me, but without any feeling in the glare. To which I was thankful. Her glares could get downright scary sometimes.

"Well, I'll see if I can find us some breakfast," I suggested as I got up and walked toward the kitchen. But I paused for a moment before turning around and made my way to the bathroom. "But first, gotta drain the main vein."

"Excuse me! There's a lady present!" replied a shocked sounding voice from Dawn. I turned around and grinned. "Where? I don't see one." I laughed as I narrowly dodged a deadly cushion before resuming my very short journey to the toilet.

I quickly did my business before flushing and stepping over to the basin to wash my hands. While I did so I looked at myself in the basin mirror.

I was tall and lanky, with a bit of muscle under my light tanned skin. Black spiky hair that was pulled into a long ponytail that reached my lower back, while the top was short. Purple eyes stared back at me.

The reason Dawn's eyes were crimson red and mine were amethyst purple was that both of us had poor eyesight. So we wore contacts. It was as simple as that.

Dawn and I had been friends for a very long time. We met in collage, 8 years ago. We were both 17 years old and looking for some friends. We just clicked. We had the same interests as each other; we loved to watch anime and play video games. For playing games, we only had one rule. 'If it had a decent story, we play it.' We were first hooked on Final Fantasy titles, but then a company that simply oozed awesomeness, BioWare, created Mass Effect, then Dragon Age and their sequels. And we were blown away at how good they were.

I finished up and walked back out, past a texting Dawn, probably twittering her recent disappointing experience of Mass Effect 3 to her friends and mine. She was very popular and had heaps of friends. And I was lucky to be her best and closest friend. I looked in the fridge and smiled. "There's enough of last night's birthday pizza in the fridge. I'll warm it up in the microwave," I called to Dawn.

"Don't do that! Did you know that if you warm up something in the microwave, it destroys all the nutrients in the food?" she called back.

"Really? I never would of thought," I replied sarcastically. "Well then, in the oven?"

"Yep!"

"Right..." I mumbled as I set the oven to the correct temperature, pulled out the pizza, placed it on a tray and shoved it into the oven. I set the timer, took out a chilled bottle of water from the fridge and walked back into the lounge room.

"It'll be another half an hour till the food is done. After lunch we can go over to EB Games so we can sell our old PSPs. You have yours?" I asked.

She smiled and pulled hers out of her pocket. "Right here. I also got my new PlayStation Vita as well in a different pocket. You?"

I patted two pockets that held my old PSP and my new Vita. "Yep. Wonder how much game credit we'll get for them?" I sighed. "I can't believe BioWare actually thought that ending would be a good way to end the series. I seriously hope they don't pull that move for Dragon Age 3."

"I know. You wanna trade it in?" Dawn asked.

"I dunno. The game itself was awesome. It was a blast from start to just before the 'big' choice. And I'm sure we're not the only ones feeling ripped off by this development. Maybe BioWare will decide to release some alternate ending DLCs in the future. And you bought me the Collector's Edition. I don't want to just throw all that away. So… I think I'll just hang onto the game. For now. Some sort of response will happen in the next few months. If not, then I'll trade it in," I said.

"Sounds like a plan," she smiled. I was never one to be down in the dumps about something for too long. Usually I recovered within a few hours of the event, depending on how big the even was.

"But what do we do now?" I asked.

Dawn pouted slightly as she began to think. An action I always thought was cute. "We could always play Mass Effect One?"

"Go through the entire story from start to finish, huh? If we ignore the fatalistic ending then it sounds like a good idea," I agreed. I pressed the Xbox button on the wireless controller, exited the game and ejected it. I clambered over to the 360, almost stepping on my laptop in the process, and cursing silently, I manoeuvred myself to the TV and console. I took out the disk, placed it in the shiny new case, took out a battered case housing the original Mass Effect and opened the case. The disk was still in almost perfect working order, having been taken good care of. I placed it on the tray and pushed it in. I jumped back onto the couch next to Dawn and waited.

Nothing happened. Just a black screen.

"What!" I exclaimed. "What's going on with the disk?" I asked to no-one in particular. I continued waiting but... nothing.

"Man!" I cried out in despair. "Now I'll need to get a replacement! And who knows if there'll be a copy at the game store!"

"Wait! Something's happening!" Dawn said, pointing to the screen. I sat up and looked too. Sure enough there was a small spark in the middle of the screen. We both leaned forward, trying to see what it was, when the weirdest thing happened. The spark jumped out of the screen, zipped over to stop in front of us, and then expanded! A bright white light enveloped myself, Dawn, the whole room!

"AhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHH!" I yelled out from the pain in my eyes as I clenched them shut before I felt myself shift, as if I was propelled forward at high speeds. Then I slammed into what felt like water, but there was no feeling of cool liquid on my face. I felt myself turning round and round before I felt myself slowing down, as if I was sitting in a rollercoaster and after done with all the loop-the-loops and whatnot, the brakes were put on. I then felt something hard slam into my whole body and it took several moments of being still to realize that I was laying on a floor of some kind.

A feminine groan to my left announced that Dawn was still with me.

"uuuuuuuhhhhhhhh... what the hell... just happened?" I moaned as I opened my eyes. They were still unfocused from the light before so my vision was a little fuzzy. I struggled to get my bearings and sit up, only to bang my wrist against something hard.

"Ow!" I yelped and the sudden pain brought everything into sharp focus. One quick glance told me I was no longer in my house.

The room we were in looked quite rich and expensive in all aspects. The walls; smooth and white, the furniture; comfortable and expensive looking. In fact, the only things that were out of place in this room was us and my laptop.

"Dawn... you ok?" I asked as I looked over at her. She was on the ground next to me, her eyes also surveying her surroundings.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"No idea," I replied. I then spotted a window. Gingerly I stood up, walked over to it, and gasped at what I saw.

I saw a sprawling futuristic city that stretched out in front of me for miles. Looking slightly to the side I saw an arm of sorts stretch out just as far as what we were on. There were five in total. I instantly recognised where we were.

"Impossible! It just can't be!" I whispered.

"What was that?" asked Dawn as she walked to stand next to me. "Oh my... Is that...?"

"I think so...," I replied, my eyes wide in shock. "It's... the Citadel."

"The Citadel? From Mass Effect?" asked Dawn.

"What other Citadel do we know of that looks like this?" I replied.

"But that's-"

"Impossible. I know."

We stared at the view for a few minutes longer before I tore my eyes away from the outside and looked around the room. I didn't realise how big it was. The floor was covered in cream coloured carpet. Several black couches and recliners were placed around a large marble top table, the object I whacked my wrist against from before. The kitchen was part of the room we were in. In fact, as I walked away from the window, there were almost no walls to speak of. One thick black wall housed a burning fire that stretched along the entire length, both sides. Past the fireplace wall, there were two large beds, identical, with white sheets and a black doona on top.

I walked into the kitchen and made my way over to what looked like a fridge. I opened it and saw it almost jam packed with food.

"So, who do you think owns this place?" asked Dawn as she walked away from the window, which I just noticed was unbroken and seemed to stretch all around the area. It also stretched from floor to roof, giving a 360 degree panoramic view of the whole Citadel.

"Hell if I know. Maybe we should look around," I suggested.

The next few minutes we walked around the place. Apart from the occasional trinket, the place was quite Spartan. Just the essentials. There was a small spherical object that looked like the music player inside Commander Shepard's quarters on the Normandy SR-2.

"Josh! Josh!" Dawn called franticly. I was off in an instant, tearing around the corner to see her staring at something on the wall in horror, but it looked more like a confused horror look.

"What!" I called as I skidded to a halt.

"Look!" she whispered as she pointed a trembling finger at what she was staring at. I looked, and my heart stopped for a second.

There on the wall, in a beautiful ornate frame, was a very realistic portrait.

Of us.

AN: Review me to tell me what you think so far, and if you have any questions, then let me know through PMing me.