UPDATE 10th, March, 2012: As stated in the past chapter, conversations in this chapter will be edited for the knowledge of the fatalistic ending of Mass Effect 3.


Chapter 2: Alternate Realities?

"What does this mean?" I asked.

"I dunno. Alternate reality maybe?" Dawn answered.

"I guess so. Can't think of any other explanation. Other than we're dreaming," I replied. I then yelped as Dawn pinched me. "You're supposed to pinch yourself, dumbass!" I growled at her as she did that anime girl thing where you wink and poke your tongue out at the same time.

The picture showed us, but we looked slightly different. I couldn't tell exactly what. I then looked at Dawn and saw that she looked exactly like she did in the picture.

"Hang on a sec. You look older. And your hair's longer," I pointed at her. She looked at me and her eyes widened as well. "So do you! And you have a beard! I didn't notice before as I was distracted."

"Really?" I ran my hand over my chin and, sure enough, there was a stubble. In Dawn's case, her hair used to reach down to her waist. Now it reached to her thighs. She also had eye shadow make up on and her lips had glossy transparent lipstick on.

I also noticed something else; something that should of registered as soon as we appeared in this world. We were wearing different clothes. I wore white cargo pants, a black muscle shirt that showed muscles that I certainly didn't have before and a white unbuttoned shirt over the top. Dawn wore a pair of black leather pants and a black leather zip-up long sleeved jacket with the zip pulled down to show a generous amount of cleavage. I blushed and looked away, not wanting to be caught staring at her well-endowed D-cup rack.

I was in love with Dawn. Had been for a while. Her S-class looks didn't help. However I was afraid of moving forward as I didn't want to lose the friendship I had with her if things got awkward between us. That and I was afraid of rejection as I was only an ordinary guy who wasn't really handsome or talented like some guys that Dawn was friends with. And I valued my friendship with Dawn more than anything else in the world. Her being older did nothing to soften my love for her. If anything she looked even more beautiful than before, if that was even possible.

"So the 'us' we're in are older? Wonder by how much. We're 24," I wondered as I looked back at the painting. Surprisingly I was wearing Medium Onyx armor while Dawn wore the Light Onyx armor. And both had the N7 logo emblazoned on the right chest area.

"Hey Dawn. You think that the 'us' of this reality are Alliance Special Forces?" I asked.

"How the hell would I know?" Dawn answered back. "They could have stolen someone's N7 Onyx Armor and worn it themselves."

"I dunno. They don't look like those sort of people. I know we're in an alternate reality, or at least we think we are, but I don't think they're much different from us. You know, personality wise. I would never steal someone's N7 armor. Would you?"

"Of course not."

There was silence. I then spoke up again. "So, if we're in them, then that means, for the moment, that this place is ours." As I said this, a weight lifted off me. Throughout this whole experience I was worried that the owners would walk in and think we were robbers. Now that I knew the truth, I felt more relaxed. "Well then, I guess we should look around a little more personally, try to find out as much as we can about... well... us."

"Sounds like a good idea," agreed Dawn.

For the next hour, we searched the apartment from top to bottom. We found the armor from the portrait in a shared wardrobe. We also saw that there was a large elevator in the middle of the apartment that was part of the kitchen and wardrobe. It seemed this was the only entrance and exit to this floor.

In a drawer under the armor, there were several weapons embedded into foam indents. There was a Harpoon Sniper Rifle, an Armageddon Shotgun, a Breaker Assault Rifle and four handguns. These were interesting. The handguns all looked the same in shape; the handle, hammer and trigger was styled after a Desert Eagle Mark XIX with the barrels designed after Dante's Ebony and Ivory from the Devil May Cry series. There were also detached blue laser sights next to the guns.

Also like Ebony and Ivory, two were black with the grip a dark grey and two were white with the grip a light grey. They also had names that looked to be laser engraved on the side. One set was named Ebony and Ivory, while the second set had Oblivion (black) and Oathkeeper (white).

"Sweet guns!" I grinned as I picked up Oblivion and Oathkeeper. Curiously I felt the knowledge to use these guns at a master level. I twirled them both in my hand like a veteran cowboy.

"Wow!" Dawn smiled. "When did you learn how to do that?"

"Apparently, my MEU version knew how to use these. And now, I do to. Maybe you can as well," I suggested.

She picked up Ebony and Ivory and almost instantly began twirling them just as well as I did. "This is so cool!" she squealed out.

"But it's strange. These guns are very low tech for this day and age. I was expecting a pair of Brawler pistols, or maybe Razers. But not these," I thought out loud.

"Maybe they're custom built on the inside as well as on the outside. They are a sweet design," replied Dawn.

"Could be. So who gets the Harpoon, Breaker and Armageddon?" I wondered as I placed the handguns back in their indents on the shelves.

"Hmm. Maybe we should pick them up and see which one feels more right in our hands?" suggested Dawn.

"Ok," I replied before picking up the Harpoon. Playing Mass Effect 1, the Harpoon was always my ideal sniper rifle. And it seemed that this was still the case here. I then placed the Harpoon back and picked up the Breaker. That too, felt quite comfortable in my hands. But when I picked up the Armageddon, there was less of a connection with the shotgun. As though I knew how to use it, but not as well as the other two.

"I think the Armageddon is yours," I said as I handed the gun to her. She took it and nodded. "I think so. I feel very familiar with the gun. Plus it was my favourite shotgun in the game."

"I think it's safe to say that our tastes and theirs are similar. But we should learn as much as we can about our new selves. We could act completely different and be caught out," I suggested.

"Maybe we can tell Anderson. He's always fair with Shepard. Maybe he'll be willing to listen to us?" offered the red head.

"Maybe. But we still need to know more about ourselves. I wonder if..." I broke off as I began to analyse my hands and arms. Then I blinked as the knowledge of what I was looking for popped into my head.

"What are you looking for?" Dawn asked.

"My Omni-tool. Those things are always connected to the extranet. I was just wondering how to turn them on when suddenly, I knew. Like the knowledge of the 'me' in this world was triggered when I thought about it and then transferred into my own mind, like with the weapons," I replied. I then twisted my wrist to the side slightly, and an orange 3D holographic interface appeared around my right arm.

"Cool..." I grinned.

"So I just think about it, huh?" murmured Dawn. Only a few seconds passed before she copied my wrist movements, and her Omni-tool appeared around her right arm.

With the knowledge on how to operate our new toys fired up in our brains, we sat down on one of the couches and began to search the extranet, personal files, past audio/video recordings and mission files of ourselves. After a few hours of searching, we had a good handle on who exactly our duplicates from this reality were.

Personality and behaviour wise, we were almost completely the same. So no chance of accidentally tripping up on that side.

We were N7 soldiers who were spacers on the same ship. Our parents were all in the navy and were very good friends and in turn, so were we. We all travelled together as our parents were in the same squad, so we always stayed together when our parents were out. Dawn and I enlisted into the Alliance military at age 18.

We continued to stay together as we were a perfect team. The Alliance, not wanting such excellent teamwork to go to waste, allowed us to continue working together throughout training, missions, Special Forces training and then N7 missions. We served through the Skyllian Blitz while on shore leave. Thanks to our brilliant teamwork, we single-handedly held our own and sealed up the breach, saving the inhabitants of Elysium and becoming true heroes in the eyes of the Alliance. I was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, the same rank as Shepard, while Dawn attained the rank of Lieutenant.

In terms of class, I was an Infiltrator. I preferred to use a sniper rifle and my personal firearms for attacking and I was crazy accurate with using them. I had access to a few Infiltrator talents; Overload and Sabotage. I also had enhanced reflexes, speed and endurance.

"Like a ninja," I chuckled to Dawn before continuing.

Dawn was a Vanguard; strong in biotics and with weapons, enhanced reflexes, speed and acrobatics, preferring to dance all over the battlefield, delivering accurate gunfire and biotic blasts to slow enemies down before finishing them off.

While going through our history, I noticed that we had a long list of receipts from the small Raman stand in the Neon Markets on the Zakera Ward. Thinking about raman made me realise that I never did get a chance to eat my left over birthday pizza back at my place.

Yesterday was my birthday, and Dawn's present was a copy of Mass Effect 3. I was bummed out because I didn't have the money to buy it at the time of its release, but Dawn came through for me. We spent the whole day indoors, experiencing the final act in the Mass Effect story. In the end we had to go to sleep, so we finished the game in the morning.

At that point, my stomach growled at me loudly.

"Someone's hungry," smirked Dawn before she blushed as her stomach complained as well.

"Feel up to some Ramen?" I asked.

"Would I ever!" she grinned. "The stand in Neon Markets?"

"Yep. Apparently we're regulars there," I explained.

"Awesome! Let's go get some food!" Dawn cheered.

"Ok! But, how do we get there?" I asked. I thought about it and it came to me. "Oh, I guess we drive there ourselves. Apparently I have a car downstairs that we can use as transportation."

"Super! Let's go!"


I was thankful there was an auto pilot built into the aircar I was driving, because I was completely unfocused on the airlane we were in. My eyes were looking everywhere, taking in the sights, as was Dawn.

It was amazing at how similar the Mass Effect world was between the game and the real. The same textures, objects and such, just real looking and not graphic. That, and there was a whole lot more to see.

It took us 15 minutes to reach level 26 of the Neon Markets on the Zakera Ward. From there it was easy to get to the Raman Stand in question.

"Hey! It's my two favourite customers! Looking good you two!" the chef called out from behind the counter. He looked much older than his profile in the game. He had dark grey hair and wore white robes.

I focused on his face and the name 'Teuchi Ichiraku' popped into my head. I looked to Dawn and saw she was just as surprised at this development as I was.

"Hey Ayame! Look who it is!" Teuchi called behind him. In response an attractive brunette popped up from behind a stove and immediately smiled. "Hey you two! Nice to see you two back again!" She wore a white robe identical to Teuchi's and a bright white bandana worn in her hair.

"Nice to be back!" I greeted before we slid into two seats at the counter.

"So what will it be?" Teuchi asked.

"I'll have a large chicken ramen please!" I replied.

"I'll have the same," added Dawn.

"Coming right up!" the old man said before he turned and got to work.

We waited for a few seconds before turning to each other.

"The Ichirakus?" I asked.

"From Naruto?" asked Dawn.

"Sweet!" we both grinned.

"So how ya been old man Ichiraku!" I asked.

"Same old, same old," he replied.

"How bout you two?" Ayame asked.

"Well we just got back from a mission not too long ago," Dawn replied.

"And you came straight here? Now that's dedication!" Teuchi grinned.

"What can we say? We love your ramen. Best damn ramen in the whole galaxy!" I praised.

"Aww shucks Josh," Teuchi replied, grinning.

We didn't have to wait long before two hot, steaming, large bowls of chicken ramen were placed in front of us.

"Itadakimasu!" Dawn and I cried out before we dug in.

"Moir! So good!" I moaned before continuing.

"I can die happy now!" Dawn said.

"Nice to see we still haven't lost our touch," Ayame smiled.

"You? Lose your touch? Ha! As if!" I scoffed before returning to the ramen. Teuchi laughed loudly and would've replied but a new order came in and the two began to cook once again.

"So when do you think we are?" Dawn spoke to me softly. The surrounding area was busy and it was hard to hear a normal toned conversation unless you were really close by, but in a new universe, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

"I'm not sure," I replied before activating my Omnitool. In the home screen where most accessed info was displayed, was the date and time. I looked at it, and my eyes widened slightly.

"It's 2183. Shepard begins his mission to catch Saren in this year. I wonder exactly when. I wonder if we were with him in the Skyllian Blitz?" I said.

In response Dawn activated her Omnitool and typed away on it. After a few moments she looked up at me, horrified.

"I just did a search for Commander Shepard. The search came up with nothing."

"What?" I gasped. "B-but, if there's no Shepard... then who's going to find out about the Reapers and save the galaxy?" I was shocked. To think that Commander Shepard didn't exist here was almost beyond belief.

"I don't know..." Dawn murmured. We were silent for a few minutes, the last few dregs of our ramen forgotten.

Beep beep! Beep beep!

"The hell?" I said as I looked down at my activated Omnitool. It said that a secure call from a person named Anderson was coming through.

"You don't think that could be the Capitan Anderson, do you?" Dawn asked.

"Dunno. Let's find out," I replied before accepting the call.

"Lieutenant Commander Kitsuné, Staff Lieutenant Kissane. How are you two doing?" Anderson's voice filtered through the internal speakers.

"We're doing well sir," I replied respectfully, not sure on our relations to the first member who graduated from the N7 program.

"Good to hear. Your new assignment, Kitsuné, is as my XO on the SSV Normandy for a shakedown run to Eden Prime. You are to report to Hanger 09 on Arcturus Station for launch tomorrow at 20:00 EST (Earth Standard Time). And I wouldn't dream of splitting up the most famous team in the N7 Special Forces. So Dawn is directed to work under you," Anderson said. By the sounds of it, he was well acquainted with us.

"Yes, sir! We'll report at Hanger 09 on Arcturus Station at 20:00 EST tomorrow for a shakedown voyage on the SSV Normandy," I repeated back.

"Very good. We await your arrival." And with that, the call was cut off.

There was silence between my best friend and I.

"So..." I finally said, breaking the ice. "It seems that we're to take Commander Shepard's place on the Normandy." I sighed. "Do you think we can pull it off?"

"I don't know. We have knowledge of the events that will happen, but this universe is different. It's quite possible that the events that will play out in the next few months will be different. We'll just have to see," Dawn replied, looking worried, but determined.

"But what about the ending? I don't want to go through all that effort knowing that I'm just gonna die in the end! I want to live," I said, still talking softly. Dawn's determined face gave way to an even more worried tone than before.

"Me too. We felt so cheated at the ending, but, as far as I can tell, this is our reality now. If we can find a way home before we die, great. But let's not worry about it right now. We can think about this more later," she said.


(AN: Hi-o! Review up guys and girls. There might be a gap between this chapter and the next one coming out as I'll be saving up to buy an Xbox 360 Slim and a copy of Mass Effect as well as some game recording equipment and software, specifically the Kaiser baas: Series 8 Game Recorder. I could use the videos on Youtube, but they don't take the same choices as I'll do in the game and this story. So be patient. I'll continue to write more on my other stories while this all happens. The new chapter for 'The Sacred Thirteen' will come out in four days. Continue to review my work please. It's always nice to hear what others think of my work, even constructive criticism is welcome. But no flamers. No one likes little bitchy flamers. Kitsuné signing out.)