Chapter 2: Medium

'Rogue of Life, Welcome to Prospit.'

Flip the fuck out.

The rogue springs out of the bed and makes for the window. The White Queen stands calmly at the side of the room while Jane almost falls out the window. 'What? Who are you? Whats going on?' she gasps as she looks around at the room, a replica of her room as a child in the slums of London her old omni-tool or a replica sat on the bedside table, the old boyband posters covered the walls hiding her secret stash, her small shrine to the Void was located behind a hidden panel only visible to those who knew what to look for. An explosion lit up the cloud outside the window as WQ began to speak. 'Rogue you are in your room on Prospit this is the Medium. I am the White Queen and it appears that you are dead.'

The sentence hung in the air heavily. 'We have been expecting you for some time. A visitor has requested an audience with you in your drawing room.' with that the queen Gathers herself and leaves the room. 'If you would follow me.'

Follow the crazy carapace.

Jane still bewildered beyond reason quickly palms her omnitool, the target rifle she kept under her bed at that age while muttering a quick prayer to the void before following the crazy carapacian. Down a flight of stairs and onto a golden transportalyser Jane felt a familiar jolt as she was suddenly somewhere else. The queen lead her down a corridor unclad feet silent against the heavy crimson carpet. The queen was unlike any carapacian Jane had seen before. Like all Prospitans she had an alabaster carapace and eyes as dark as a black hole but unlike the many carapacians that Jane had met in her lifetime she carried herself with a regal grace, her shell segmented in places unusual for carapacians, providing the queen with a nearly human figure, extra flexibility, a graceful gait and an air of power and nobility. The Queen came to a stop outside an unassuming door. She turned to Jane, 'Your guest is in here should you need anything just call and an attendant should be along shortly. It is an honour to meet you.'

As the Queen began to leave the Rogue caught herself 'Thank you your majesty.' she said bowing a little.

The Queen gave a polite nod and left. Jane standing in front of the door slowly opened it and stepped in. Before her was a golden room like everything else in the tower with two high backed red chairs facing the window, feet in blue slippers dangled from below the one on the right as the clack of knittng needles could be heard in the still silence. In the clouds obsolete starships were consumed in flashes of green light as the cloud moved past the field of view. 'Jane, thank you for meeting me so quickly after your death. It is not an easy experience I know.' the speaker places her jagged knitting needles aside and stands turning to face the rogue. The woman was of medium height and slim build, intelligent eyes of light purple appraised the Rogue while her shoulder length blond hair reflected the colors shown in the clouds above. She was wearing a hooded golden orange dress with the emblem of light emblazoned on the front, a thin smile touched her lips and a faint feeling of death and danger surrounded her as it did other great destroyers. 'I should introduce myself, my name is Rose Lalonde, The Seer of Light.'

flip your shit.

I'm afraid Jane cannot flip her shit at the moment, she needs to remove her jaw off the floor.

'You and I are here because of a mistake my friends and I made when we relocated the Earth. The universe it was in, Old Earth was slated for Armageddon, then destruction. Sometime in the 25th century a villain of our own creation destroyed the very universe it was in, And while Trolls are capable of replenishing their numbers reasonably quickly given the necessary materials, Humans are not. So we hatched a plan so save our species and planet. Move it to a safe place. We had the power and the will so we created The Shift. As the humans in our own world died from the Armageddon created by the reckoning created in turn by the game, they awoke on the new world in the new universe. In the process we also brought Newternia from its original home, Prospit, Derse and our own planets.' silence reigned for a moment.

Collect your jaw off the floor, then flip your shit.

'Bullshit' Jane exclaimed, 'Reckoning? Game? Villain? Armageddon? What are you talking about!?.'

'The game, Sburb the one which disappeared during The Shift. Isn't. Calling it a game is just a way to for it to be distributed and used. It is actually a way for universes to perpetuate their existence. Each time a session is initialed it creates this'. She gestured out the window to the image of a buglike creature being destroyed by a damaged Geth platform in the clouds. The blue orb of Skaia stretched out above them while the golden moon city of Prospit spread out below them from their vantage in the tower, in the far distance a small purple speck glowed against the darkness. 'And writes itself into history such that this has always existed, waiting for the dreamers. Waiting for you. Once it has its players it forces them through a series of hoops in order to create a new universe for them to rule as gods, assuming they make it of course'

You need a drink

Jane collapses into the chair on the left flabbergasted by the expositional infodump. 'I need a drink.' she declares with certainty. A small door opens in the wall and a server comes forward with a large pitcher of mushroom wine, pouring her a large goblet and placing the jug on the table beside her before making a quiet departure. The rogue downed the contents of the goblet so fast that sleight of hand was almost involved. For a long moment there was silence. 'You said you made a mistake?'

'The Reapers. We moved the Earth into the best place to ensure the perpetuation of our species but the Reapers evaded our notice until it was too late.'

'Ah, Reapers.' Jane mimicked in a spot on impression of Councilor Valern.

'Both Humanity and the Trolls will survive the reaper invasion regardless of what happens but cloning tanks and suspended animation are an unacceptable outcome. We have taken steps to ensure it will not come to that.' the goddess stopped, sipping tea from golden porcelain with a small smile.

Steps?

'What steps?'

'Bringing you here, now. You have always been the greatest chance for the galaxy, Terezi has seen the possible futures, all of them. In every one The Shepard leads the fight against extinction at every turn. Sometimes The Shepard is a man, a woman, a soldier, engineer, vanguard, adept. Details change but every time it is you that fight them and because of You and your choices their cycle may end. Sometimes you loose and so does the galaxy. We... I, am not prepared to let that happen... and so you are here now. You see those clouds.' she gestured to the sky, displaying a young Quarian stripping the datacore out of a stunned Geth platform. 'From this vantage the clouds of skaia act as windows in time.' a ship cruised past another cloud, Normandy class with a tall orange hexagon emblazoned on its flank. 'Each scene you see has already happened or or will already happen, the future though not set in stone has some events may not be changed but if you can see well enough and pay attention the course to the action you desire will be illuminated. These alone would win you victory if you choose to use them.'

For a moment they watched the clouds as a display of Shepard, Wrex, Joker and the Geth from earlier sat around a golden table playing cards, the Geth collecting an immense pile of purple and gold boondollars. 'The intel is nice and it's nice to have someone believe me for once but there's something else you're not telling me.'

A smile touches the goddess' lips. 'Each sburb player has a role and an aspect, for many their assignment is a challenge, it is counter to their nature, their nurture, both or neither. The game as a dark sense of humor, and likes to torment its players. If they accept the role the game gives them, if they act with their class to use their aspect they become closer and closer to what their title describes them to be, gaining the power which comes with it. If they don't their aspect may rebel and act regardless of their intent, or as it did in my case reinterpret both itself and its wielder. This happens wherever you are inside the game or out. You already know most of the players in your session. If you think on it you'll find their titles already beginning to influence them and the world around them.'

'Tali?'

'The Smith of Heart. Though the creation of souls is deeply against her mind.'

'Her machines have always had personality.' Shepard chuckled, amused at the absurdity of it all.

'Sburb offers many other resources to its players just as useful as the clouds but it will be best you and your fellow players to discover them independently of our influence.' Rose got up, walked up the steps to the window, her knitting disappearing into her sylladex. The window in front of her opened and she stepped onto the air outside, 'Before I leave I would like to give you a tour of your home for the time being.'

Apply reason

Jane collected herself,feeling the back of her neck, no bio-amp. Walking over to the window reaching out and she wove her arm under the woman in gold's slipper clad feet before looking up at the goddess. 'I can't fly.'

'Can't you?'

The question hung in the air for a moment as Jane stood on the ledge a slight breeze wafting by them.

Time passed, Jane's instincts warring against the word of god. She stepped, her foot found no purchase against the air. Instinctively she found herself trying and failing to get back on the ledge, flailing wildly , weak directionless biotics flaring in an effort to regain her balance. She gave up as her other foot left the grog getting reading for her inevitable fall to the ground below only to find herself floating a foot from the ceiling. Hearing a giggle from outside she turned scowling at the young woman floating outside the window.

'Come, let me show you around.' The woman took off heading for the upper levels of the towers.

Follow the talky, floaty, knowitall goddess.

Jane spirits through the window and quickly catches up with the Seer, flying across the prospitan sky towards the great chain. Pulling up to the chain rose comes to a halt. 'You've been here before Jane, back in Sol?'

'Yeah, after the Skyillian blitz I was given shore leave on Prospit with some of the other Elysium survivors.' She snorted as an old memory surfaced ' threw up from the third link. I could see the towers of the gods in the distance and ….' her voice trailed off as she looked outwards, five towers located equidistant around the horizon, the clouds of Skaia telling tales to all who would watch. 'It was different then, there were only four towers... The Carapacians wouldn't let anyone near them, they said they were the properties of the gods.' Jane was silent for a moment. 'Rose, what was in the towers?'

'I cant speak for Prospit. I was a Derse dreamer myself, but in my tower and that of my brother was a replica of our bedrooms on earth, down to the mess on the floor and the cinder-block desk. I believe you will find the equivalents in those towers and their Dersite brethren. You are here awake because the game gives its players a second chance, should a dead or dying player be kissed on the lips their dream self will awaken permanently. It allows mistakes while playing the game and provides sacrifice without sacrifice as it were. However in your case I suspect it will only be temporary.' Rose gestured to a cloud showing Jane fighting Loki mechs alongside a black human. 'You are the Rogue of Life after all.'

With that the Seer turned and made towards Prospit itself, clearing the chain and flying down the central towards the Royal Palace.

Follow the floaty one

The royal palace is a majestic building surrounded by extensive courtyards, walks and hangers, enormous Skaiatech battleships were under construction on the ground. These features however paled into the ten immense towers surrounding the palace each stretching tens of kilometers into the sky.

The women floated to a halt above the center of the palace, Prospitans watching them from the ground.

'These towers, they don't exist in Sol, why?'

'An artifact of our session, the Prospit which now inhabits the Sol System, Derse as well, were never host to kernels, something which you will discover in the future. However know that these towers show that yours will be a valid session and its purpose of the game will be served.' the goddess turned to Jane and looked her in the eyes. ' Jane Shepard, when you play the game and win, as you most likely will, I and the rest of my companions would ask you to return to your home instead of claiming your victory, preserve the people you have sworn to serve.'

Save the Galaxy (again).

Silence surrounded the two women as the wind curled around the palace. 'I will.'

Rose smiled as Shepard made the decision. 'Thank you, we moved Newternia and our worlds to get them out of the reach of a monster whom even the Guardians pale against, now I must return to confront him with the others. It is good to know that our people are in good hands.'

With that the Goddess hugged the Rogue and rose up into the air equal to the tops of the towers.

'You may want to step back.' She warned as a small marble of element zero appeared from her sylladex and her knitting needles appeared in her hand. With a wave of the needles energy crackled around the eezo, Shepard felt a field similar to a mass relay form around Rose the air felt strained, temperature fell and rose as the mass effect compressed and released the atmosphere and a column of blue light formed in the atmosphere, reaching upwards through the shy and through the medium. Cherenkov radiation formed by the reality defying field as a bright green light flooded the palace and towers from the other end of the immense null-mass field. In a crack of lightening she was gone, the energy field slowly collapsing in a rainbow of colors, energy enough to scour life from a planet's surface dissipating harmlessly. The marble, the energy powering it gone,spun for a moment, crackling in the remnants of divine power before falling towards the palace, Jane swept in to catch it only to find it cold to the touch, the Sigil of Light glowing from deep inside its surface.

Codex:

Rose Lalonde, Seer of Light

Supreme tactician of the Gods. The Seer of Light while regarded primarily as a mythological figure by the citadel races is an accomplished author and philosopher and has written he bestselling series, the Complacency of the Learned and has written papers which ave contributed significantly to scholarship on human and Troll therapy as well as prediction theory and advanced optics. As a deity she is credited with the ability to scry the most appropriate path to maximze the chances of accomplishing her chosen outcome. Other abilities are vision of all known electromagnetic wavelengths*, manipulation of 'majjik ennerjies' and extreme powers of exposition, perhaps the most potent of all of the light gods. She is considered the patron deity of the Alliance intelligence services along with the Seer of Mind and patron of the skaian education system predominantly the Seer of Light Institute of Psychiatry.

The Council considers her threat level on par with that of a supported dreadnought group. The Alliance, insulted, registered a protest demanding it be raised.

*denotes science pun