A/N
Hi everyone. You all get a cookie just for even reading my work. This is my first time writing so…yeah…
This is Non canon, a SI and AU, so if you don't like that, again, stop reading. It will still have the main points of Mass Effect, but things will change as I see fit.
The BS disclaimers that I should put in: The Mass Effect series is the sole property of Bioware Corp. Any non OC character and major plot missions contained herein are also the property of Bioware. Blahblahblah...shutting up now.
Beta'd by Lazurman.
Beta'd by mivpus
Ω Chapter I Not a Dream Ω
Love & Loss – TSFH (LitE main theme)
Yawning, I look down at the clock. Damn, it's already 11:30, what the hell? I start moving my thumbs even faster. I've got to kill this damn dragon fast. I hit the bumper to use my dragon voice to try to stun the big dragon that I'm fighting . Once I see that it worked, I go in for the attack with my sword, and I'm rewarded with a cool kill scene. My character jumps on top of the dragon's head and drives her katana blade through the skull of the annoying lizard.
Smiling at my accomplishment, I jumped on my horse and opened the menu to save my game. I was about to turn off my Xbox when I heard something…buzzing? I looked around, trying to find the source of the noise, but it quickly faded. Eh, must have been some damn asshole going around blaring their fucking music at full blast again. Shrugging, I let the thought slip from my mind. Shutting down my Xbox, I push myself off the couch and make my way to the bathroom.
I look at myself in the mirror after I finish brushing my teeth, and I smiled. I ran my hand through my freshly cut hair; I'm glad that I bleached it again, I can't even picture what I would look like without it. I let out a chuckle as I thought how long I have bleached the top of my head. God, I think it's been going on for about ten years now. Guess I just like being different, and being tall helped, but with spiky blonde hair, I really stand out.
Finishing in the bathroom, I walk to the kitchen. Time to make my wife's lunch. Yes, I make her lunch for her. Heck, I do all the cooking in the house. Sometimes I hate doing it, but mostly I love it. I love food and I love to eat, so I guess it works out. Not that you could ever tell with the way I look.
After packing her lunch, I start cutting the carrot that I grabbed for the dog's bed time treat. That's when I hear the buzzing again, but this time it is louder and a slightly different pitch than before. I walk out to the living room and once again, the buzzing fades. Odd, but it seemed like it was in my head. Walking to the window, I take a look outside to see if there was anything out there.
Nope, nothing. Damn, guess I really am going insane. Shaking my head and laughing to myself, I walk back into the kitchen to finish cutting the carrot.
As I open the door to my bedroom, I notice that my wife is already fast asleep. Smiling as I make my way to her side of the bed, leaning down, I kiss her gently on her forehead, getting a little mumble about zombies from her. I just have to laugh quietly as I tuck the covers around her.
I turn around to see my dog looking back at me, waiting oh so patiently for her nightly treats. I kneel to give her a big hug around the neck. "I'm glad you're just a dog, Jaz, cuz if you were my daughter, you'd have me wrapped around your finger." As if she knows what I was saying, she licked me on my chin. Yeah, I'm such a big softy.
Smiling I drop her treats on the floor beside her, I take off my day's clothes and get into bed. Whispering 'Good night baby' to my sleeping wife, I grabbed the remote to turn off the TV, plunging the room into darkness. Laying my head down on my pillow, I start thinking about the days of work ahead of me and frowned. God, I hate my job, and tomorrow is only Wednesday.
Fuck.
Yawning, I close my eyes and begins to slowly drift off to sleep when the buzzing returns, starting low but it continues to climb in volume to the point that I think my ears are going to bleed. Sitting up, I grab my ears to try to stop the pain from entering them, but to no avail. I look over at my wife, and to my surprise, I see that she hasn't moved.
This can't be right
Reaching for my glasses, snagging them off the clock. Once I placed them on I twist myself out of bed struggling to stay upright, I made my way over to the window to look outside once more. Again, there was nothing out there but darkness.
Just when I thought that all of this could not get worse, the pitch changed to an ear-piercing frequency. I clench my teeth in pain as the sound drills its way into my brain. I fell to my knees with tears seeping out of the corners of my eyes. "FUCK…MAKE IT STOP! "I scream.
Suddenly, it stops.
Still holding my head in my hands, I fall backward and flop on my back. I squeeze my eyes close tightly as I start to feel the pain that had worked its way into my brain begin to fade. I open my eyes and lift my head to start getting up off the floor when I notice there was nothing around me. I see nothing; I mean absolutely nothing, just blackness. I don't see my walls, the ceiling, the floor, or my bed. Hell, I don't even think I'm in my house anymore, let alone my bedroom. What is going on? And where...?
"Sorry about the rude intrusion, Mr. Ziesel," a voice calls out from behind me.
I back up against…something, as I strained to see who the voice belonged to. Man, I did not realize how completely exhausted I am until now. It must have been from being bombarded by the sound waves that I have just endured. I just sit there as the figure of a man in a suit comes into view. Wait, he looks like…the G-man? What the hell?
"I realize that this is not the most convenient time for introductions. I would have preferred a more…subtle way to engage this meeting, but the situation has forced us to move up our plans," the figure says, looking down at me.
"What the hell is going on, and why do you look like the G-Man from Half Life?" I reply as I get off my ass and struggle to stand.
"I have found out that using a figure that our associates recognize will make this transition easier to handle," He says as he looks himself over.
"So you pick the one character that is infamous for being linked to interplanetary, inter-dimensional, and parallel universe rips in time and space?" I state as calmly as I can as I try to gather some measure of composure. I know that I'm still in my boxers, but I think that is the least of my worries right now.
"Exactly." He points to me. "And yes, you can call me G-Man. It is easier than 'The Coordinator.' My…if you will...employer, has need of your abilities. That is why I am here," he finishes as he looks around at the darkness around us. Wait, did he just use finger quotes?
"What are you talking about...what abilities do I have that your employer could want me for? And where the fuck are we?!" I demand as I wave my hands to show the darkness that we're surrounded by.
"In due time, Mr. Ziesel...all in due time. Let's just say your hour has come. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world...or galaxy as it may seem," he says as a slight curl comes to his lips.
"You know that you're not making any damn sense right? I-." My voice gets caught in my throat as a thought hits me. "I don't have any say in this...do I?"
"Correct...in the meantime, this is where I get off." I fall to my knees as my legs gave way from the shock and I watch the G-man disappear from view. "Time to embrace the future, Mr. Ziesel...and the uncertainty..."
Uncertainty? What the hell is he talking about? I put my hands on my head as I suddenly feel very light-headed. I fall over on my back once more as my head started to spin. I look up and I see the darkness fall around me as I slowly lose consciousness.
"Oh man," I grumble. "What a fucked up dream." I run my hands over my face as I start to wake up. I start to get the tight feeling in my shoulder that I get when I sleep too long. I stretch my arms over my head, only to have them hit a wall behind me. Not paying any mind to it, I looked over to my right to see what the time was, only to be greeted by even more darkness. I frown; What the...great, a power outage.
Shrugging, I reach out to grab my glasses that were sitting on my clock. But instead of making contact with my clock, my hand hits a solid wall where my clock would've been. Ok, that's not right. Sitting up quickly, I slam my forehead into something cold and hard. Gripping my now pounding head, I fell back, only to hit the back of my head on the wall that was behind me, the wall which I completely forgot about. Great…
Wrapping my head in my arms and cursing, I roll to my left and fall off of the small bed, hitting the floor with a thud and a pained grunt;
"Ah, so the sleeping princess is now awake," I hear a gruff voice from above me say in what sounds like a thick accent of… something. Definitely not American… and not English either. I pull my head out of my arms and fight against the pain throbbing through my poor head. That's it… the next time I consider drinking before going to bed, I'm toning down on that… funny, I don't remember drinking though. I look up to see the fuzzy image of a very haggard looking man. "The guards said to leave you be, but you woke me up...so screw 'em," he says, pointing a very large hand at me. Standing up quickly from the shock of this bear of a man threatening me, I place my hand against the wall as I feel the blood leave my head from standing up way too fast.
Let's hope he's just in the mood for a chat… not anything violent…
Shaking my head free from the floating feeling, I realize that my vision has become clearer, and I can start to make out this monster of a man as he starts to move. Towards me.
"Ehm… sorry about that… I should just let you go back to sleep now…" I say, trying to sound casual. Where's that fur-bag of a dog when you need her?
"Oh, I do not think that… is what we will be doing. I like to have fun… let's have fun." He says, reaching out towards me. Russian… definitely Russian…
So, I do the one thing I can think of in my panicked state. I quickly grab his head and slam it as hard as I can into the edge of the bed. Not letting go, I pull him off his bunk with all my strength and let him hit the floor.
I slowly back away from the man that's now lying face down on the ground in front of me. My head is still throbbing, but it has diminished slightly from the adrenaline now flowing in my veins. Where am I? Who the hell is this? What's going-wait, the G-man...it wasn't a dream then…
My thoughts are cut short by a new voice. "What the hell is going on in there?" Looking to where I think the voice is coming from, I'm met by a blinding white light. Squinting my eyes to block out the light, I can make out a fairly well-built man in the door. Ok, memo to self, don't mess with him. However… I did just mess with that other guy, and he was even bigger… no, better not tempt fate, or whatever it is they say…
He stands there looking at me and then to the man on the floor, then back to me. Well, I think he's looking at me, can't tell with the helmet on. Following his gaze the best I can, I look back down and see a small pool of blood on the floor by the man's face. Ha, I must have broken his nose! Wait a minute I can see, but I don't have my glasses on...Cool, but ho...Focus! Looking back to the now aggravated guard, I shrug. "He slipped?"
I can hear him chuckle as he continued looking down. "Well, now that you're up, Dr. Sauiole wants to see you," he says as he looks back at me. Backing out of the door way, he waves his baton at me, motioning to me to follow. Not that I have much of a choice at this point, so I follow.
Walking out in to the hallway, I can see that all around me are dull-gray metal walls. There is a door about every eight feet, and security cameras every ten feet. What the hell, am I in a fucking prison or something? Frowning, I watch as the other guard that was waiting out in the hall step in front of me to place my wrists in handcuffs of some sort.
Just great. Well, I don't think that this can get any worse than it is now...Well, at least I have pants on… do I have pants on? I quickly look down to make sure, breathing a sigh, when I see that I am actually wearing an orange jumpsuit. Not my color, but whatever.
As we walk down a few different hallways, we come to one that I see has a few large windows lined in it. When we get closer to them, I can see that they are overlooking a large room filled with people. From what I can tell, most are wearing the same thing as me: orange jumpsuits. But there are a few different colors; a few white, some blue, and some black. I wonder what the colors mean, genders perhaps? No… gangs… maybe? There are a few inmates walking around, but most are sitting in one of the many stationary chairs that are sitting around the tables.
The lead guard stops as he notices a fight start down below, between two of the smaller occupants of the room, both in blue jumpsuits. I peer down at the fight below and discover the other inmates are cheering on the two fighters, and are forming a ring around them to fight in. As I watch, I suddenly notice that the fighters are both girls. Strange that they would have both sexes in the same place.
"Dammit! This is Sergeant Ray, we have a fight in Common Room 4. It's 100 and 87 again. Will you guys get down there and split them up? And I thought I told you guys not to have them in the same room at the same time," I hear him say from behind me. Hmm… great, so even the girls here are violent… great
I turn to look at him as he continues talking. "Those two are going to kill each other and take half of the inmates with them," he said, shaking his head as he looks up from the conflict down below.
Turning back to the window I see one of the females in the fight put the other in a headlock. This must happen a lot. Hope I don't get stuck in with them. Wait…'Take half the inmates with them'? Ok, I don't think I want to know
"Come on, let's go. We don't want to keep the good doctor waiting," I hear the other guard say, as I stood watching the fight intensify before me. From the left, I see a group of guards enter and start to fight their way to the two girls that are still at each others throats.
God, I really hope that I don't get thrown in there. I mean, look at me, you can easily tell I shouldn't be here. Well, they do say that you can't tell a serial killer from anyone else, but I know that I'm not that. Ok, I might have a few thoughts like that when I really get pissed off, but I don't know if I could...My train of thought are derailed when Sgt. Ray pushes me away from the window and the fight below.
At the end of the hall was a big door; I wonder what lay on the other side. When we get closer to the doors, it opens to reveal a large elevator. 'Um…that's a big elevator,' I think, rather absentmindedly. I watch as the door closes once we were all on. Man, I still have no clue what the bloody hell is going on here.
God, this is a really slow elevator. Wait…Why does that seem familiar? Somewhere in the back of my mind, I can hear a voice telling me that I've seen all this before, but it doesn't tell me where. Mentally cursing at the voice to shut up, I try focusing my mind on the answer but it continues to elude me. Oh well, it will come to me when it does, and apparently thinking about it ain't helping.
Once the doors opened to the next floor, the guards stepped off and continued to prod me in front of them as they walked down the hallway. I noticed that the hallways here don't look like the ones on the lower levels. Here, the walls are all white, with a thin black and gold stripe running down its length. Ok, for some reason that really looks familiar.
While we were walking down the hallway, I noticed they started to have windows in them again. When I take a look in one of the windows, I see that they are looking down into different labs and medical rooms. We pass one of the room, something catches my eye making me turn to look inside. What I saw caused me to freeze in stock.
The image being burned into my eyes was something that I never believed in my darkest dreams could happen. Lying on the table is a girl, or what was a girl, her body so twisted and mangled it made my skin ripple with Goosebumps. Her muscles exposed from when the skin split open, and others look like over-coiled rope. I stand with my eyes wide in shock and horror as an attending doctor cuts open what was left of her leg, giving me a detailed view of the broken and crushed bone underneath. In the name of all that is holy? What kind of sick bastards work here!?
"Come on, get moving," Sergeant Ray orders as he starts to pushing me forward. I watch the window till I can see the other side of the body, and I quickly turn my head when I see her face. Her expression contorted and twisted beyond reason. But the look of pain and terror was frozen on what is left of her face. My god, she was awake for all that! The thought sends an icy chill running down my spine.
I continue to walk, lost in thought from what I have just seen. What the fuck are they doing to her? And who the hell runs tests on humans? This is all so wrong, so… unsettling, and doesn't bode well for me in any way, shape, or form. I fail to realize that we have arrived at our destination until I almost run into one of the guards.
Looking around I see that we have stopped in front of oddly looking door. I turn to face the door and see that it's a perfect mirror. If I hadn't just seen what I just did, I would have smiled in relief at my relative sameness. Still have spiky blonde hair, still have a dark brown goatee, still have my same brown eyes. I can see that there are some numbering on my orange jumpsuit. As I look at the reflection, I can see that over my left chest is the number 701…no, that's not right. It's a reflection, reflections are going to be reversed. Looking down at the I see 107 stenciled on my jumpsuit
Only one hundred and seven. Is that how many people are in here or-?
My thoughts are cut off by the sound of the door opening. I snap my head up just in time for the guards to push me in, and then they also enter, taking positions on either side of me. At the other side of the room is an older man; if I have to guess, I would say about late forties, wearing an oddly familiar outfit. He begins to speak as the door closes behind us.
"Subject one-zero-seven, how nice to see you." I can feel my blood begin to boil; I've got a sneaking suspicion that I am not going to like him, and I'm usually right in my judgments of people. "I see that you already met Mr. Hues this morning," he continued.
Taking his attention off of the datapad in his hand momentarily, he looks to my right. "Sergeant, please have him moved to a different room." He smiles as he looks back down and continues; "Now then, one-zero-seven, I saw that you were transferred from facility Cocytus," He states as he paces in front of me, but his eyes never leaves the datapad in his hand. "In which you were a part of project Montauk. They saw that you have several remarkable traits and I had you transferred here once they told me who they had, but...ah, here it is, before the transfer was completed, however, you were in a tragic...accident and you are now suffering from acute memory loss."
He smirks; "How…convenient. They did do us a favor this time and had your eyesight fixed. Most of the time I'm not impressed, but this time they just might have given us something useful," he says as he stops at a desk at the far end of the room.
He places the datapad on the table in front of him and turns around to face me. Ok…I know I've seen that outfit before, but where? The thought is somewhere in my mind but I can't think straight with all that's going on.
I should be at home. Hell, I should be at work. Where's my wife, my family... man I have to stop thinking. This is starting to hurt my head. I shake my head to fight the tears burning in my eyes. I have to think about this all later...
Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything ...42. Wait...what... why did I just think that?
He must have seen me shake my head, because now he has a smile on his face. "It might be hard to deal with at first but keep this in mind. You will be the subject of momentous experiment that will better humanity. Your sacrifice will ensure a better life for others." Huh...wait...experiments? I see him look over my shoulder as he continues. "We will start him with the preliminary phase," he finishes, before looking at me. I watch as a cruel, predatory grin starts to curl his lips. "I have high hopes for you, one-zero-seven."
I feel my anger rise exponentially. I hate the idea of people using me against my will, and this fucker wants to use me for sick, twisted experiments, if what I saw of the girl earlier was any indication. My head is pounding with all these different emotions that have been building steadily throughout this nightmare. Fear, frustration, confusion, but mostly anger; it's too much for my mind to process. I want to kill that man…
"Then…. do…. it"
The words I heard causes something in my mind to snap and I lose all semblance of control. I lunge at the doctor, but I'm caught instantly as two sets of strong hands grab my arms. Not even pausing to think, I stop pulling and push back with all the strength that I can muster out of my legs, sending me and the two guards flying back into the wall behind us.
I feel the hand on my right arm go slack as the guard that it belongs to hits the wall. I pull my arm free from its grasp. With my now freed arm, I grab the man on my left by his armor and I pull him as I turn; using my body as leverage, I slam him into the wall helmet-first. I pull my left arm free from the now unconscious guards.
Backing away from the two guards that were on the ground, I see that the one that was formerly holding my right arm is starting to move again. Not wanting to have to fight a trained guard, I stormed up to him and kicked him in the side of the helmet with my thinly-shod heel. Damn that hurt! But I push the pain out of my mind; the kick must have worked because the guard slumps back down against the wall.
Hearing a low laugh, I turned to see the doctor or whatever he is, just standing there, watching the struggle unfold in front of him. "Yes, you will do nicely, one-zero-seven, you will do quite nicely indeed," he says with a supremely pleased and creepy look on his face, like the mad scientists kind of creepy.
"kill…him.."
Who ther…
My question is cut short when I catch sight of him smiling at me causes a shudder to go through my body, but I ignore the feeling. Listening to the words ringing my ears, I stalk towards him.
"I have a name, asshole!" I retort as I start for him. I begin to get that crashing feeling as the adrenaline rush starts wearing off. It's then that I notice that I'm breathing pretty hard. Damn, I didn't think that would drain me so fast. As I get closer to him, I see him pull a small device from his pocket.
What the…?
"You think you do, but here you don't have a name...one-zero-seven." He smiled as he lifts the remote and presses the big red button on the center.
My eyes snap open as pain overcomes my senses. The pain is instantly all over my body, so fast that I don't even have time or sense to scream. I fall to the floor as my legs give out underneath me, landing hard on my back. Not that I can distinguish it from all the pain that I'm already feeling. Every fiber of my being feels like it's on fire. Fuck, I have never felt this much pain before. Again, I try to scream but nothing comes out but a pathetic gasping, not dissimilar to a beached fish.
I watch as the doctor kneels over me with that creepy smile again. Among all the pain, the memory that's been haunting me ends up staring back at me. Mass Effect. That's where I've seen that outfit before; it's from Mass Effect. That's what all the scientists wore…in Mass Effect. Oh, shiiit.
"Welcome to Cerberus, one-zero-seven," says my new tormentor as he continues to smile down at me. No… this can't… no…this…this can't be real!
No… No, this is must be a dream! Yeah, just a freaky dream… was my last thought before I slipped back into darkness.
A/N
Updated 8-7-1 Did a little rework on it. Just trying to make it read better. it being the first Chapter its is what is going to make or break people from reading the rest.
Updated 5-3-13 (changed some of the details. To make them flow better. A few things where added that are missing. Guess that is what happens when a story takes a long to to write)
Well, everyone that made it this far gets another cookie.
Like I said, this is my first fic. I tried my best to get all the wording correct and shit. But I know that there is a lot wrong. The main thing that I get wrong is punctuation and the correct tense for words...I suck at writing. I'm just not any good at it. Yet for some reason I decide that's it's a good Idea to write a story. WTF?!
I blame theRev28 for all this pain and he knows that I do blame him. After reading Welcome to the Family, I could not get this story out of my head. So here I am. I hope that this is not a waste of time. And yes, iNf3ctioNZ had a big part in this too.
I'm throwing in songs that I think go with the feel of the chapter, and/or it is just what I was listening to when I wrote the chapter.
More disclaimers and shit. Valve owns all rights to the G-man and his lines. I use them out of respect and love for the game and the company. (They just happen to work very well with what I'm doing)
So there you go, I just hope I get a few things right on this. And I got a few people that like where I'm going. I'm going in a slightly different direction. So I hope people will like it.
This will be a slow start; there will be a bit that I need to get through before I get to the parts that everyone loves. So, if I win anyone over, I just hope I can keep you.
Reviews are wanted. I want to get better at this. I'm not the sharpest when it comes to learning English class stuff.
Till next chapter.