A/N: Like a good 60% of writers on this site I've been infected with the SI bug, you can inevitably thank iNf3ctioNZ, Herr Wozzeck and Sarge1995 for that considering the brilliant (and extensive) work that they've done. Like their stories this one is a bit of a slow burner (not gonna be helped by my slow writing), so have patience and know that I have a plan for all this (not saying it's a good plan, just saying it's a plan). Now that's enough subtle self-deprecation for the time being, on with the poorly thought out show! Oh yeah, Not too surprisingly I don't own mass effect or any of the characters contained therein, Bioware does. Well done Bioware. If I did I promise you I wouldn't be here, I'd be using bags of cash to cause all kinds of trouble at the zoo. Hope you enjoy (the story, not the zoo).

Chapter 1

"I really can't be fucked with this", I say as I stare at myself in the mirror. Black hair, hazel eyes and a nine o'clock shadow stare back at me with a pleading expression, almost as if my face is asking me not to go out on this afternoon jog. I'm around 5 foot 9 tall and with a slightly above average build, I'm not some kind of He-Man or fitness freak but I want to join the police eventually so I have to maintain some level of fitness. Without that goal driving me I guarantee you I would be playing my Xbox instead of gearing up for a run down the country roads surrounding my house.

"Let's get this bullshit out the way then", I mutter as I plug my iPod in and set it to random.

As per usual the exercise isn't as bad, as I inevitably expect it to be, once I get going. In fact I quite enjoy listening to my music and getting my heart beating. I'm very easily influenced by my music and as soon as Mr Brightside pops up I smile and increase the speed of my run to match the rhythm of the song. I know this isn't the best song in the world but who doesn't get at least a little pumped up when it plays? I can feel my legs start to burn and my lungs ache as I push myself harder than I should down the winding country roads. I can see a crossroads ahead and I usually slow down for it but there's never any traffic on these roads and with the song being almost over I want to keep my pace up for as long as the song can motivate me. I decide to push ahead and I barrel straight over the cross roads. I immediately regret this decision as I see the van hurtling towards me.

"Shi-" I begin to say, but am cut off before I can finish my panicked curse. There are a lot of things I should do in this moment. Getting out the way of the oncoming vehicle would be good. Hell, I would settle for some clever last words. All I manage however is to begin my swear word and make a silly, cringing face as time seems to slow around me. I tumble over the bonnet as the van's breaks squeal in protest. I can feel the bones in my hip shatter and my ribs crack as I continue to roll and bounce to the ground. It's all over in a matter of seconds but the pain makes it feel like hours. As I slip into unconsciousness I can't help but appreciate the irony as Muse appears as the next artist on my iPod and begins to play the song thoughts of a dying atheist.

I've fallen unconscious before and it's not like this. This is something else entirely. I'm not sure where I am or what's happening, only that everything seems to be more ethereal, as if I'm floating in darkness. Despite all of this I can still feel the overwhelming pain of my twisted body and my broken bones. Oddly enough this gives me comfort.

"If you can feel pain then you're not dead" I think to myself.

Without warning I'm subjected to visions of death and destruction that rip across my mind, I can feel thoughts and demands clawing at my brain and demanding my obedience. With so many of these visions and voices assaulting my consciousness I begin to lose track of everything, I can't focus on what I'm doing here and I even start to lose my sense of identity. All I can think about is the unceasing insistence of my servitude. I begin to panic as my mind seems to be drifting apart and begins to fracture, my thoughts and memories becoming scattered and ill-formed. Suddenly I feel the pain of my body and it jolts my awareness enough that I can focus myself again. Before my mind becomes scattered for a second time I force myself to focus on the pain, on every shattered bone piercing my body and every screaming nerve. I begin to reform my mind, clinging to memories of my life and the ones I love.

"My name is Chris Clements!" I scream in my own mind, "I love my family, I love my friends, I live in England AND I WILL NOT DIE HERE!" I cling to these flashes of thought s and feelings as if they're a life jacket at sea, and slowly they become my shield against the psychic onslaught. As I repeat these thoughts the visions fade from my peripheral awareness. As I regain my composure and relax slightly after the onslaught, I notice that I have no idea how much time has passed. The visions could have been assaulting me for minutes or even hours, for as far as I know. Gradually I begin to notice slight differences to my awareness, faint sounds penetrate into my awareness and I immediately focus my attention on the outside stimuli. It takes a great deal of effort but slowly I can feel myself rousing from this dreamlike state.

I begin to open my eyes excruciatingly slowly, at first it's an effort to force myself into wakefulness but soon enough I become aware of my surroundings. I'm lying in what appears to be a hospital bed in a small, white walled room. Not too surprising considering my run in with the van previously. I suddenly remember what I've been through and realise that after what happened I should either be in a body bag or a full body cast. Instead there's barely a scratch on me! While searching myself for signs of injury I feel a tug on my arm as I accidentally pull out the IV that was in my arm. I give my arm a cursory inspection but then I notice what seems to be a metal circle grafted onto my palm. Despite a growing sense of panic my curiosity wins over and I touch it, this immediately rewards me with light shooting up around my arm and a holographic interface appearing.

"If I didn't know any better I would say this is an omni tool". I think to myself

"Bingo" says a voice, almost as if in response to my thoughts.

I sharply turn in the direction of the voice and am greeted with the sight of what appears to be...well...me.

"The fuck?" I whisper in confusion.

"Chris, I'm gonna have to ask you to bear with me on a couple of points here." My duplicate abruptly begins "We don't have a lot of time and pretty much everything I have to tell you is well within the territory of bat shit insanity". I simply stare dumbly at him for a few seconds "I'm just gonna take that as a cue to carry on" he continues "firstly I want to let you know that you've not gone crazy...much. Secondly I promise I will explain everything and answer all your questions later. Lastly, we need to get out of here NOW and to do this I need to ask you to trust me and do as I say. Can you do that?" the other me asks.

I continue to stare at him blankly until I finally conjure an answer for him

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" I shout as I glare at my second self. I shift so that I'm sitting on the edge of the bed and I place my head in my hands. "Oh God, I've gone balls out crazy" I whimper. The duplicate sighs and responds with.

"So you've decided to ignore everything I said? Great, well not to sound like a broken record but I will explain everything later ok? I'm not sure if you've noticed but this isn't the best place to be having this conversation!"

"Oh I don't know" I respond harshly "If I'm gonna go mental and quite literally have a conversation with myself, I think a hospital is as good a place as any! Christ, I suppose I should probably be thankful that you're not an eight foot tall rabbit named Harvey!" The extra me looks somewhat impatient as he replies

"Well as much as I love that movie, we need to rush this mental breakdown of yours along. What I really want you to focus on is that this isn't a hospital Chris" he asserts, "look at your shirt, how many hospitals label their patients with tags like that?"

In response I look down at the white pyjamas that I've been dressed in. The tag Subject 117 is sewn onto the right breast of the shirt. I also see on the left breast what appears to be an elongated orange hexagon.

"That looks familiar, what is it? Is that, the Cerberus insignia?" I ask in confusion.

"Yep" my double responds "and the other tag should be evidence enough that you're a test subject here, not a guest!"

I can feel fear slowly begin to build and a tightness in my chest begins to take hold. "Omni tools, Holograms and Cerberus. Am I in Mass effect? The mass effect universe?" I think to myself "How the hell did this happen? What the fuck am I going to do?"

At this point the other me confidently states. "Well I've already said I'll explain everything later and as for what you're going to do, just follow my instructions and we'll get out of this in one piece. Trust me." After a moment of hesitation I respond with

"Did you just read my thoughts?"

"LATER! I will answer your questions later! Seriously, what part of that are you not getting?" He sighs exasperatedly "they're going to notice that we're awake VERY soon so we need to get going already! C'mon man I've been planning this for months and this is the ONLY chance we're going to get! EVER!"

I look at the holographic me and my fear and confusion are making me want to tell him to blow it out his ass, but then I notice the door has Subject 117 printed on the door. I've never been one for mad scientists, and Cerberus was never really an organisation that treats its test subjects very well, so I reluctantly decide to trust him, for now. I look him in the eyes and sharply nod my head.

"Brilliant! Now I should probably mention one last thing before we get started" at this point my double looks somewhat hesitant as he seems to be choosing his words carefully at this point. "This may go slightly against what I said earlier, about your lack of insanity, when I tell you that I'm not...actually..."the other Chris' comment tapers off as he seems less and less likely to finish his sentence.

"Well spit it out already, I thought you said we had limited time here!" I demand.

After another few seconds of reluctant silence he looks me in the eye and quickly states

"I'm not physically real" a statement he promptly proves by waving his hand through my knees at the edge of the bed. His hand meets no resistance as it touches me and I feel nothing as his arm passes through my legs. Before I have a chance to respond he quickly asserts "as I said before, I'll explain later, just know that I can't touch anything physically. However, I can interact with electronic systems, and trust me here, that's gonna be useful pretty soon!"

For a few moments I blankly stare at him before I sigh and respond with

"Y'know what? I'veknown you all of five minutes and I've already had enough of getting confused by your explanations, so until this is over and you explain everything, I'm just gonna let this wave of insanity wash over me." This receives a relieved look from the not-real me and I continue "before we go ahead with your plan though, I want my things"

"Hmmn" he responds, "I hadn't considered that. Not to worry though as they should be where we need to go first" he smiles reassuringly at me, "thanks for bearing with me in this, I know it's a lot to take in." His demeanour suddenly shifts to a more serious one "but we've already wasted enough time, to begin with I need you to follow the blue line" at this point a glowing blue line appears on floor, almost simultaneously to him giving the instruction. In fact the line seems to be fairly reminiscent of the objective marker from dead space 2. Filing away the question of how he managed to make that happen for later, I weakly stand up and start following the line to the door of the room. Standing at the doorway I compose myself and with my heart thundering in my chest I reach forward and press the holographic interface.