Disclaimer: Mass Effect, its characters, places and everything else in the Mass Effect universe is not owned by me. It belongs to the great people at Bioware. I also do not own any bands, movies, companies ect. that I mention.

Prologue

'Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.' – Dorothy Gale, The Wizard of Oz

"So, that will be one ID for Mr. Alistair Banning and one for Miss Rea Callaghan." Cole smirked as he handed the two newcomers their new forged and highly illegal ID chips. Powell had done a great job getting them and if the dockworker could keep his newly formed contacts; this could be a whole new business!

Alistair sighed as he exchanged a knowing look with his female companion. Eden Prime's smuggling ring was not what he had expected at all. He knew about the stolen weaponry, but even forged ID's? He resisted the urge to shake his head. They had been lucky to arrive at the small colony with most of their belongings and even luckier both he and Rea still had their money. The sad part was that by the end of the day most of it would be gone, gone to smugglers and other shit they needed. No, at the moment Alistair was not a happy man. Once Shepard arrives all of them…heheh all of them.

Rea on the other hand had a blank look on her face as she handed Cole her last fifty Euro bill. Who would have thought that in nearly 171 years in the future paper bills were worth almost three times their value? She hadn't and the idea to use the smuggling ring also came on a whim, but it seemed like the most logical solution to at least one of their problems. The next would be finding a place to stay permanently, clothes, weapons, Omni tools (though she was certain Cole could get them one of those as well) and most importantly translation implants. She nearly shuddered while taking the ID chips from the farmer.

Once Cole had confirmed the money's authenticity, they shook hands to seal the deal and the farmer went back to his daily duties.

Finally both male and female let out the shared breath they had been holding. The exchange was done. The first part of their plan was complete. Now the difficult part started.

"Man, I still can't believe we're really here…" sighing Rea, looked up at the cloudless azure sky. Eden Prime was hot and it baffled her how people were still capable of walking around in those hellish clothes. Then again, 23⁰C had been a rare temperature in their sweet little country the Netherlands.

Alistair looked at his friend knowingly, he felt the same. Here they were in the Mass Effect universe and of all places on Eden Prime, Eden 'future warzone' Prime. "Well, look at it this way: we were lucky enough to arrive a few months before all hell breaks loose. Plus," he looked around and continued in a sarcastic tone. "we can own the future before it owns us."

Five days ago…

"Ahhh, I love days like these." Tess mumbled to herself as she stretched and continued to bask in the sun. Warm days rare and even though Tess wasn't a girl of the sun, she could and sometimes would enjoy it. So if certain friends asked her to accompany them to the beach, who was she to refuse?

"Yo Tess, your turn, get in here!" Manny yelled from across the beach. It had been his idea to travel to the coast and have a great time. After all, he and his friend hadn't seen each other for a while now due to work and university.

Hearing her name the lazy girl let out a soft groan. She did not like the murky seas her country had to offer. Were normal seas were bright and clear and blue as the sky, the North Sea was dull, grey and cold and she was complaining again. "Yeah…Sure!" best was to swallow her uneasiness and just go in…

Fifteen minutes later both left the sea laughing at old memories, jokes and gossip. The sun hung low, signing them it was almost time to leave and head for a place to eat dinner.

"I admit, this was one of your better ideas." Grinning, Tess shook out her towel and rolled it up neatly to put it in her bag. She was already dressed in her jeans and shirt.

"Hah, all my ideas are brilliant! Ready?" But like always the male was quicker, for he already was fully dressed and packed. It had been a good day, but now he longed for something to eat. Some fries or perhaps something from that nice Greek restaurant. He didn't care as long as it was eatable and tasty and not too expensive and… "Ow, what the hell?" raising his foot, Manny cringed as he saw the sharp piece of metal sticking out. For once he had hoped his luck would give him a break! With a deep intake of breath he braced himself and pulled the scrap piece out before throwing it angrily on the ground. Blood gushed out of the wound as the male sat down while pressing his towel against it. "Just my luck."

"That looks pretty bad, might be a good idea to see the medical centre and warn the coast guards. Tch, that stuff is all over the place!" and it was. Various pieces of sharp glass and metal were scattered all over the beach, buried deep in the sand waiting to hurt people while other parts lay more superficial. They hadn't been there when the two had arrived of that they were certain.

"Here, let's get you somewhere where they can patch you up." Offering her hand to help her friend get up, Tess also snatched up the piece of metal to show the coast guards.

At that moment the sky burst open in a column of bright light, drifting the clouds apart and splitting the sea in two equal halves. Yet no one, but the two seemed to notice the strange phenomenon taking place on the formerly peaceful beach. Before the two could yell, before they could call out for people to run, the light intensified in radiance and became so bright, so blinding all seemed to be swallowed and then…

Then there was only darkness.

...

Manny awoke feeling like he was suffering from his biggest hangover yet. His head pounded like crazy, his arms and legs felt heavy – actually everything either hurt or felt heavy. Staring up at the leaf covered sky; he blinked once, then twice and slowly turned his head to the side. Tess was lying on her stomach. Unmoving, silent. Blue eyes widened as a wave of panic washed over the young adult. Is she…no!

Ignoring the pain that surged through his body as he turned to face his friend, Manny could only feel scared. Please, please be alive! He dragged his body over the sharps rocks until he reached her. From up close he could finally see her breathing, a part of him cursing his bad eye sight as he sighed in relief. She was alive, out cold, but alive. A nervous grin spread over his face as he hung his head and slowly shook it. He knew Tess was one of the laziest people he had ever met, but to sleep through – what if she has brain damage? Overcome by a new explosion of panic and adrenalin, Manny roughly turned the girl over and started shaking her wildly.

"Hey, hey wake up!" his voice sounded hoarse to his own ears, but that didn't matter as long as she just opened her eyes.

"…stop…"

"Stop…."

Manny was frantic by now. How could a normal day end like this? He wasn't prepared to deal with the death of a friend.

"STOP IT!"

The shaking stopped abruptly and Tess looked up annoyed, straight into her friend's tear stained face. Her throat felt raw when she tried to comfort him -memories of the burst of light and the beach still fresh on her mind- but due to her little outburst her voice seemed to be gone for the moment. Instead she sighed and slowly fell back to the ground to look up at the leaf covered sky…leaves? Tess frowned. The beach had no trees, not in her country and was she lying on rock?

Carefully and most importantly slowly, Tess sat up, patted Manny on the shoulder in an attempt to soothe him and looked around them. There were rocks, a lot of them and trees high and low surrounded by dry bushes. Further along the area became more open with less and less plant life to obstruct her view. It was funny, but for some reason it looked somewhat familiar.

"Where are we?" she finally managed to whisper, hopefully loud enough for Manny to hear.

At hearing his friend's voice, Manny finally snapped out of his panicked haze and looked around. They definitely weren't on the beach anymore that was for sure. Honestly though, it looked and felt like they weren't even in their own country. Eventually the blonde turned back to his friend, eyes wide and head shaking. He had no idea.

There wasn't any sign of human life safe for the two of them. Tess felt fear bottling up from her stomach, but knew now was not the time. Whatever had happened, their priority was finding out where they were and then look for a place to spend the night. Either way, now was the time to survive.

Slowly Tess stood legs unstable and vision threatening to darken with any sudden movement. "Get up. We have to figure something out before nightfall; look the sun is already setting." She said calmly as she pointed at the orange sky showing through the clearing.

"And where do we exactly go, huh? We have no idea whe- please tell me I'm not going insane?" standing up faster than his body would have liked, Manny pointed at something behind Tess. With an annoyed sigh, the girl turned around and her breath caught in her throat.

"It can't be…" she whispered in a mixture of horror and amazement. " I-is that a g-gasbag…" two pairs of wide eyes met each other before looking back at the floating brown alien once again and then back at each other. Either they were both finally having a mental breakdown or somehow – as unlikely as it seemed – had ended up years into the future and into a completely other universe.

The universe of a game called Mass Effect.

A/N: Hello, wow it's been awhile since I last wrote something, a lot has changed. This fanfic was an idea my friend and I had for a long time and finally managed to get up. We hope you will enjoy it and constructive criticism and feedback are highly appreciated. While neither of us have English as their main language, we will do our utmost best to try and keep the errors to a minimum.

Edit: removed some typos and errors and added more to the chapter! :)