Hello Everyone,

I used to write here under a different account called Kinvarus but since then I have lost access to it and had to create a new account, but I am back.

I'm really only mentioning this because I wrote another Mass Effect SI called Mass Affected, and although this is not a reboot of that story, I have transferred a few aspects of it into this one and figured it was better to explain that here and get it out the way, plus it's a good way of grabbing the attention of any former readers of mine who will hopefully give this one a chance too.

So with my little rant over, I'll with the standard disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect, it's copyrighted to Bioware and EA, but original characters are mine yada yada. Now that's enough from me, let's get on with it shall we?

Enjoy.

BEGIN RECORDING…

Life is a funny thing. You never know what it's going to throw at you or where you'll end up when it's all said and done. I've always believed that you choose your own path in life and you walk it, making your own way. That there is no such thing as fate…destiny whatever you want to call it, that free will is something we all possess.

The ability to make our own decisions and that the choices we make are what ultimately define our lives, and not that life is pre-determined, that someone or something, somewhere hasn't already decided it for us, like a pawn on a chessboard, our every moves having already been made.

However as I sit here recording this and think about my life up until this point I can't help but question that belief.

My name is Robert Kincaid, and at the time this story begins I was 20 years old, my eyes are hazel and my hair is dirty blonde in colour, which I keep in a faux-hawk most of the time and I have an eidetic memory.

I was born in New York City and when I'm not working, I've really only got three hobbies: video games, playing the guitar and Ice Hockey. As far as video games go there is one specific game series in particular that I loved. It was called Mass Effect and was made by a company called Bioware.

The second is the guitar, although mostly I stick to playing cover versions since my song writing sucks.

As for the Ice Hockey, some of you sports fans may have seen it in the history vids but for those of you who don't all you really need to know is that it's an old human game played on Earth with sticks, a puck and a whole lot of ice…although not many people play it nowadays…but I'm getting off track.

My father was part of the United States Marine Corps before he died. I idolised my Dad growing up, he was a stand-up guy, a hero. He taught me the basics when I was little, how to fight, how to disarm an opponent and when I was older how to shoot, much to my mother's annoyance. My mother was a surgeon, a pretty good one too and worked in a local New York hospital. My parents were killed in a car accident when I was 10, after which I went into foster care.

Like my father I followed in his footsteps and enlisted in the Marines when I was old enough, I had been serving on the front lines for 3 years when my world got turned around.

My story begins on January 17th 2176…well actually that's a lie…sort of, it actually started a good 167 years before that, when fate would intervene and change my life forever.

The year is 2009, that was when I found myself in a place that in my universe only existed in a series of Video Games called Mass Effect…

END RECORDING…

Location: Midtown Manhattan; New York City, NY

Date: October 15th 2009

The day started like every other day since I'd gotten back from my last tour of duty, I woke up, had some breakfast, went for a run around Central Park and then back home for a little gaming. I'd decided to start another play through of Mass Effect since Mass Effect 2 was due to come out in January.

I'd just finished battling Matriarch Benezia on Noveria when there was a knock at my door, pausing the game I crossed my apartment and opened it. However, instead of seeing a person like I had expected there to be was instead a parcel addressed to me.

I glanced both ways down the hall to see if anyone was watching me before taking the package inside, surprised at how heavy it was and wondered what it could be, considering I hadn't ordered anything. Placing it on the table in my kitchen, I retrieved a knife to open it and carefully cut along the sides and the top of the box.

Within the packaging was a large metallic box with what appeared to be blue crystals embedded into the box's smooth surface. I carefully lifted it out of the packaging and placed it on the table.

The box itself was smooth to the touch and each side was decorated with a blue crystal, each one differed slightly in shape. Something about the metal and the crystals was familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. As I continued my examination I discovered an indentation along one of the sides, giving the impression that the box could be opened. As I rotated the box to study the final side I saw a little slot about 2 inches in length, most likely for a key.

With a frown I picked up the cardboard box and looked inside for the key but the box was empty and wondered who would send me a box but not include the key to open it? I spent the next few minutes staring at the box, confused as to why somebody would send this to me in the first place and what was contained within it.

Shaking my head I picked up the knife I had used to open the packaging and tried to open the box with it…needless to say it didn't work. Sighing I stood up and put the knife back in the draw, choosing to leave the box on the table for now, since it would appear as though I wouldn't be able to open it. Thinking that maybe whoever delivered the box would realise there wasn't a key and deliver that too.

I left the kitchen, making my way back into the living room and over to the couch to resume my Mass Effect game, passing several family pictures as I went. Most of them were of my parents and me when I was a kid although there was one or two of my Dad in his uniform either just before he was deployed or when he came back, one of my Mom in her scrubs before she went to work and a couple from shortly before they died.

Usually I only give them a quick glance and not pay much attention to them, however today something in one of the pictures caused me to stop and take a closer look at it. It was a picture taken when I was 6 or 7 years old shortly before Dad was sent on another deployment, I can't remember what happened on the day the photo was taken, but what caught my eye was the pendant my mother was wearing.

It was a silver, lightning bolt shaped necklace with a series of blue crystals going down it. I picked up the picture and went back into the kitchen to look at the box and compared the crystals on it with the ones on my mother's necklace and was shocked to see that they were identical.

"What the hell…" I muttered as my gaze darted from the box to the photo and back again. At least that would explain the familiarity I had with the box but it must be a coincidence, it had to be right? But that little voice in the back of my head told me that it wasn't a coincidence and soon found myself heading towards the attic in search of my mother's pendant.

Several hours and many; many boxes later I had finally found the pendant and headed back downstairs and into the kitchen. I stared at the pendant in my hand, then over to the box and back to the pendant again, mentally debating with myself over whether to try the pendant in that slot or not.

With a shrug I slowly inserted the pendant into the slot and heard it click into place, it seemed to fit as if the two were designed that way. After a moment's hesitation I gently tried turning the pendant as if it were a key and watched intently as it did indeed turn until coming to a stop, yet the box didn't open, even after I tried pulling at where I thought the indentations were.

"Well that was uneventful." I muttered as I reached forward to remove the pendant. It was then that the box started to vibrate. The blue crystals on the sides of box started to glow a few seconds later. I grabbed the pendant and tried to remove it but it wouldn't budge, even when I tried to turn it back the opposite way.

I took a few steps back wondering what the hell this thing was. My immediate thought was that it was a bomb, so turning on my heel I started running towards the exit, if I could pull the fire alarm in the hall maybe there would be enough time for the other residents to evacuate, I glanced back towards the box to see that it too had started glowing, an almost blinding, white hot light emanating from it and seemed to expand outwards filling the room. Then the light engulfed me and everything went dark…

When I regained consciousness I found myself in an area filled with nothing but while light for as far as the eye could see.

Am I dead? I thought as I took in my surroundings. Now I'm not a religious person but I'd heard about the afterlife from various sources and beliefs and in none of them was it described as…well a large, empty white room.

"Hello!" I called out as I took a few steps forward, and yet seemingly going nowhere. "Is anybody here?"

Trying not to panic I started thinking of explanations, either I was dead, or dying and this white 'room' for lack of a better word was just a mental image produced by the last electrical neurons and impulses firing in my brain, I'm just unconscious and this is a very strange dream. Or I'm in a coma.

After a few moments though I felt a presence behind me and turned to see what looked to be my parents standing a few feet away, watching me. OK so maybe I am dead. I thought.

"No you are not dead child." My 'Mother' said.

"Are you sure? Because I think I am. I mean I'm standing here talking to my dead parents."

The man smiled "We are not your parents; we are only using their image to communicate with you."

I blinked, this was getting weirder and weirder "Oookaaay, so if you're not my parents then who are you?"

"My name is Azeriea and this is Reyoln." The women looking like my mother answered "And we are two of the last surviving Protheans."

I blinked a few times before laughing "OK so I am dead then…well either that or dying, dreaming or lost my mind because the Protheans aren't real, they're a fictional species from a video game." I answered.

"This is true in this reality." Reyoln said "However in our reality the events and history of the video game you call Mass Effect are very real."

I stared at the two before folding my arms across my chest "OK I'll play along, if you are the last of the Protheans why are you here?"

Azeriea was the one who answered "As I am sure you know the Reapers were almost successful in wiping our species from existence 50,000 years ago."

I nodded, still not buying any of this "Yeah, everyone except the scientists on Ilos."

"That is correct." Azeriea nodded "However, Ilos was not the only Prothean planet the Reapers were not aware of; there was another, an unnamed world hidden on the edge of the known Galaxy, accessible through only one Relay."

"Why did nobody know about this world? Especially the Reapers?" I asked.

"We discovered the Relay by accident while exploring a previously unexplored region of space and travelled through it. On the other side was a single planet. We decided to use this planet as a place to conduct more hazardous research." Reyoln continued.

I raised an eyebrow "Hazardous research?"

"Yes. As a result we used several ships to move the Relay away from known space lanes and hid it inside a nebula. Only those of us who worked on the planet knew of its location. When the Reapers attacked we received the message through a beacon and remained hidden. It was clear that we would not win the war and with no way of knowing about Ilos we stayed away, venturing out with the few ships we had every few years. By the time the Reapers had returned to Dark Space only one ship and five of our race remained." Azeriea added before Reyoln took over again.

"We spent the next several years continuing our research until we completed it."

I had to admit I was starting to believe their story but I was curious about this mystery research of theirs.

"It started as research into designing portable Mass Relay's for use on ships but after the Reaper invasion we started looking into rebuilding our technology as well as theory's on space and time, hoping to find a way to go back and save our race from extinction, but we failed." Azeriea spoke, the sadness still in her voice.

"However during one test we inadvertently opened a rift to this reality and after some research discovered that the Reapers did not exist here and never had."

I nodded finally catching up "And I'm guessing you discovered the Mass Effect games too."

"Yes." Reyoln replied.

"OK but that still doesn't explain what you're doing here now." I replied "Wherever here is."

Azeriea smiled "We are in your subconscious mind; it is the only way we could speak to you."

I blinked "Okay, why do you want to speak to me?" I asked.

Azeriea paused and glanced over at Reyoln who nodded.

"We need your help."

I chuckled "You need my help?"

"Yes. We looked at many people but chose you as the best candidate to help prevent the Reapers from destroying all life in the galaxy again." Azeriea continued.

"Me? But I'm just a soldier, surely you had better people."

"It is true that there are many people who have played the games and know what is to come but we did not know them as well as you and the type of person you are."

"What does that mean?" I asked, watching as the two exchanged another look.

"We spent a long time observing you as you grew up." Reyoln answered before smiling. "One of the advantages of reality shifting."

I blinked "Okay second question: How you are here?"

"Our research lasted many years after the Reapers attack and involved several other projects, one of which was the box you opened. It contains many things, including our consciousness, which is how we are communicating with you now."

It was then that I remembered something "Wait if you created the box, then you also created my mother's pendant I'm guessing." And saw the two of them smile.

"Yes we did."

"But my Mom's had it since I was a baby." I replied, confused.

"We know, as we said our project lasted a long time and opening the rift to this reality was one of the first things we accomplished after the Reaper war and after discovering the Mass Effect games we studied your reality and after choosing you we returned to our reality and researched…."

"Time travel." I interrupted "It had to have been the only way for you to have sent the pendant back."

Azeriea smiled "Yes, we could not reverse time in our universe however we could here and as such returned and…'possessed' for lack of a better term your parents to make sure that you would eventually receive the pendant. However after we saw your parents die it was unclear if you would leave…"

"Wait." I said interrupting them "You saw my parent's death? Yet you didn't prevent it?"

"We could not, to do so would change the person you would become." Reyoln answered.

"The person I would…what the hell are you talking about?" I yelled.

"Your parent's death has changed you. You are a stronger person now as a result; if they had not died you would not be you. Please understand when we first saw you, you were a few years older than you are now after which we went back and observed you, if we had prevented your parents death the Robert Kincaid that we observed then, the person you are now would not be the same had we intervened."

I supposed I couldn't argue with them on their logic and my parent's death was history for me, it was the life I had, no point complaining about something that had already happened right?

"OK so what do you need my help with?" I asked.

"While some things in these Mass Effect games are similar, real life may not turn out the same way. What happened to our race 50,000 years ago has already happened, there is no way to undo it, and this Commander Shepard may not be able to stop them, not without your help, that is assume that he or she even exists."

OK now I'll admit as cool as that sounded hearing that shifted my belief firmly back to the 'This is not happening' stage. "So what I'm some kind of…chosen one?" I laughed.

"No, you are simply someone who will have more knowledge of what may happen and how to counteract those events should they occur." Reyoln replied.

As I thought about it I had to admit that what they were saying made sense, and it did reflect what I knew to be true from the game. Not to mention the fact that the box, my Mom's pendant and even this conversation all happening at the same time…it had to be true; otherwise this is one hell of a big coincidence. I could feel the two of them watching me as I thought about it.

"I'll do it." I said, with a nod of my head. "If what you say is true and that my presence could help stop the Reapers from continuing their cycle of galactic extinction then I can't sit back and do nothing about it."

The two Protheans smiled "We knew we had made the right choice when we chose you." Reyoln said.

"So what happens now?" I asked.

"Once you leave here you will wake up in your home." Reyoln began "Turn the pendant and remove it, then press the crystals in the following order." An image flashed through my mind of the different crystals.

"Then insert the pendant and turn it, it will open a portal to our reality. Pick up the box and step through it. Anything you are carrying on your person will be brought with you but nothing else, in case there is anything you would like to bring with you." Reyoln finished.

"Got it." I replied just before everything went dark again.

I woke up on the living room floor and saw that everything was the way it should have been and the box was on the kitchen table. I walked over to it and removed the pendant. I only really wanted to take a few things with me, my dog tags, a few pictures of my family, and my guitar, since it was the last thing my parents had brought me before they died.

With everything collected I headed back into the kitchen and pushed the crystals in the order I had seen in my head and inserted the pendant. I paused and took one last look around my apartment before turning it, gasping when what looked to be a large ball of Element Zero opened up in front of me. I picked up the box and stepped through into my new life…