Hello Everyone, sorry for taking a while to upload this next chapter, real life and the fact I re-wrote this chapter a dozen times over didn't help much.

Thank you to all the people who put this on their watch list, I will endeavour to get updates out quicker in the future.

My buddy S4pphi has a story up called Side Effect which has a different take on the whole SI thing which I can recommend, you can find it here: .net/s/7195327/1/ if you're interested.

Oh and sorry about the multiple messages about a new chapter, despite the fact it looked good in the Doc Manager it kept showing up unformatted or in complete bold everytime, technology eh?

Finally as usual I don't own Bioware or Mass Effect, just the OC's I use.

With all that out of the way on with the story…

Chapter 2: New Beginnings.

Location: Unnamed Prothean Planet

In what seemed to be the blink of an eye we were no longer at home but inside an advanced looking lab. Glancing around I could see various computer terminals, a VI interface and not one but two Prothean beacons and they were definitely bigger than I expected them to be, the tops almost reaching the celling, and it got me wondering how they got them inside.

"Wow." Ellie muttered from beside me "This is amazing."

I could only nod in agreement as I walked over to what appeared to be a VI terminal, similar to Vigil's one on Ilos. As I got nearer to it the VI activated and Reyoln's digital image appeared.

"Welcome to our reality Robert and Eleanor, I'm sure you have many questions, all the information you need to know is stored in the computers here. I am sure you have noticed the two beacons. We have uploaded all the information you will require to survive here into them. The beacon on the left is for you Eleanor, inside it contains all the medical knowledge we could acquire on the species of this galaxy."

Ellie looked over at it then to me with a sceptical look on her face.

"If he says it does then it probably does." I answered with a shrug.

"How does it work?" Ellie asked me.

"Assuming it works the same as in the game just walk up to it; it'll pull you into the air and download the knowledge into your brain." I answered, watching as she looked over at the device and then back to me again, before slowly walking towards it.

As she got close to it the beacon started glowing green before pulling Ellie into the air, before either of us could react it lowered her to the ground, where she dropped to her knees, clutching her head.

"Ellie?" I asked as I rushed to her side "You okay?"

She remained silent for a few minutes, with her eyes tightly shut before finally opening them and glancing over at me, her eyes full of amazement.

"Oh my god Rob that was…unbelievable. I saw…it's hard to describe what I saw but I know things now, things about all these races I didn't even know existed, even things about our own species I didn't know before I…I need some time to process this."

I nodded "But you're sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine." She smiled.

I turned back to look at Reyoln's VI "So I take it the one on the right is for me?"

"Yes, your beacon contains the vision of our destruction that was transmitted through the beacons as well as the cypher to understand them, basic weapons training as well as psychological profiles on the major species inhabiting the galaxy." The VI answered.

"Well okay then." I muttered, figuring that that was all I would need in terms of helping Shepard.

With a nod I walked over to the beacon and felt it pulling me towards it once it lit up before I was lifted into the air. At first nothing happened but then I felt a small tingle inside my head before images and words flashed across my vision.

I winced as imaged of Humans, Turians, Volus, Hanar and many other species appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye. And then finally the vision I had seen countless times during my Mass Effect runs, images of the Reapers annihilating the Protheans and extinguishing all life in the galaxy. It seemed to last an eternity and I was starting to think that the beacon would never release me, but finally the beacon shut down and I was dropped to the floor.

I clutched my head as it throbbed and I could feel my mind adjusting to all the new information in there.

"Rob?" I heard a voice say to me, although it seemed to be very quiet and muffled, although it got louder a few minutes later.

"Hey? Are you okay?" Ellie asked me.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good." I answered as I slowly got to my feet "That was…interesting."

Ellie shook her head "I still can't believe that we're here, or that we gave up so much, our lives, our family, our jobs, everything."

I watched as she started pacing the room and looked around, suddenly feeling guilty about dragging her all the way out here.

"You know I could probably figure out how to open that portal again and send you back if you want."

Ellie stopped and turned to face me, a small smile on her face "I know you would Rob, but I said I'd come here and here I am; besides some of these species are fascinating, at least from a medical perspective. But what are we going to do now?"

I walked over to one of the computers and started typing on the holographic keyboard "Well according to this it's January 17th 2182, the attack on Eden Prime won't occur until next year. So first we should go through these computers and brush up on our history and get back to civilisation, find a place to live and jobs." I answered.

"I'm getting my own place though. It was bad enough having to stay with you back in our time." Ellie replied.

"Jeez I let you crash with me when your pipes burst and that's the thanks I get? Charming, I'll remember that for next time." I smiled.

We spent the next several hours studying up on the history of the galaxy, although for me most of it was covered in the game and the books, so I left Ellie reading and after finding a map of the facility and a datapad, downloaded it and decided to explore a little.

The map showed that the majority of the facility was underground and consisted of one large central hub containing the base entrance, living area, control room and hanger bay. With five more buildings to the North, South, East and West, all interconnected with long passageways.

The walls were shiny metallic silver with bluish/white lights illuminating the hallways. To the North of the Central Hub as I called it were the research labs, the Western building held the power distribution section, the South housed the computer mainframes and the Eastern building was labelled as the Production Facility.

I remained in the Central Hub and headed for the living areas. They were mostly what you would expect. Numerous rooms filled with individual rooms, some with single beds and others with larger double beds for couples and what I guessed was a mess hall where everyone gathered to eat meals and talk when not working before heading towards the laboratories to the north.

The doors opened to reveal a large reception area, with doors to the north, east and west, each of them labelled. The western door was labelled Weapons Lab, the north Bio Lab and the east Technical lab.

My first destination was of course the Tech lab and although there was a lot of cool stuff there, I had no idea what any of it did so playing it safe I left it alone, although I would definitely be studying it all eventually.

I went to the bio lab next although unlike the Tech lab, which had been full of toys, the bio lab was pretty much empty apart from what looked to be a large gas chamber in the far corner of the room, with a small window to see through, or look out of when inside.

I walked over to it and looked through the glass. The inside was large enough for someone to fit into with a little moving space with what looked like a futuristic looking alien dentist's chair in the centre of the room. Finally there were several holes in the floor and ceiling, which I could tell by following the pipes I could see led to more piping outside the chamber.

I spotted another VI terminal and activated it, wanting to know what the chamber was for, although I was surprised when it was Azeriea's form that appeared and not Reyoln's as I had expected.

"Hello Robert." The VI said as it came online "I see you have made it to the Biological Lab."

"Yeah." I replied "I'm just curious, what's this chamber for?"

"The chamber is designed to expose people to what you call Element Zero."

I glanced over at the chamber, a small grin forming on my face as my mind started filling in the blacks "To create Biotics I would assume."

"Yes, what you call Biotics our race mastered centuries ago and knowing the benefits of such abilities perfected ways of accessing the element zero without the need for technology, however not all members of our race had the nodules in our bodies, so our scientists began studying ways of creating those nodules safely in those who did not have them."

I turned my gaze back to the VI "We're you successful?" I asked.

"After several long years of research yes, this chamber however is configured to be used by humans." The VI answered.

"Humans?" I repeated.

"Yes, once we discovered your reality and decided to bring someone from there here we began reconfiguring the chamber to work on human physiology on the assumption that having the abilities provided by Element Zero exposure would assist in the battle with the Reapers, if the individual of course chose to go through with the procedure." Azeriea's VI answered.

Now I will admit that I was pretty much ready to jump straight into the thing and do it, because hey who doesn't want to have Biotics right? Luckily I refrained from that since I got the impression that there was probably a catch, I mean there always is right?

"It can't be that simple though, there must be risks."

"There are. Although creating the nodules of Element Zero in the body is a simple thing to do, allowing someone to tap into them and use them naturally without the use of technology requires several alterations to the nervous system. If you are considering it I can say that it is highly unlikely that anything will go wrong, but the risk is always there."

I nodded as I glanced back at the chamber, mentally weighing up the options, although I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard a voice behind me.

"I thought I'd find you here." Ellie said as she entered the lab. "I see you found the biotic chamber too."

I spun around to face her "You knew about it?"

Ellie nodded "It was included in that beacon download and once I knew about it and what you're like I wanted to get down here."

"What I'm like?" I repeated with a grin.

"Yes, you and I both know your considering going in that thing to get the cool powers and don't even think about denying it."

I just grinned in reply "So I'm guessing you know about the whole nervous system modification thing."

Ellie nodded "If we were back on Earth…our Earth I would never have thought it was possible but they've managed to pull it off. From what knowledge I have it should work in theory and they have Nano machines to repair the damage if anything does happen to go wrong."

"That's good enough for me." I grinned as I practically ran into the chamber, watching as the door hissed shut behind me.

"OK Rob." Ellie said through an intercom "Sit in the chair, the restraints will lock around you to prevent you from moving and you'll be injected with something to put you out. Then Element Zero will be released into the chamber and injected into you as well to ensure they are formed properly. In the next stage the machines will begin adjusting your nervous system. The whole process should take twelve hours or more." She paused and looked at me with concern "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Hell yes I am." I chuckled as I hopped into the chair.

With a shake of her head I watched Ellie push a few buttons on a console and heard a hum as the chamber came to life. True to her word the restraints snapped around me and held me in place before a syringe popped up out of nowhere and injected me in the arm.

I then heard another hiss, like air being vented into or out of the room and saw small flecks of blue filling into the room and assumed it was the Element Zero. Then again I was feeling light headed so it could have been the drugs kicking in and before I knew it I was out cold.