Mass Effect

Massive Shock 2: Infinite Mass

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.


"The Process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination."

~H.P. Lovecraft~


Ch. 8: Therum

Part 3: The River, the Machine, the Darkness

2:33 PM January 4, 2183


"Shepard!" I scream. "Shepard!"

He isn't able to hear me over all this gun fire. The Mako is gone, long gone, as are our hopes of fighting off these geth. Our only option would be to double back the way we came and try to find a way around the river of lava that blocks our path. Buuuut, that's not a good option seeing as how there's absolutely no cover between here and the outpost we barely got out of. All in all, this trip is a little crappy. It's definitely not uneventful, but I'd say that the crap that's happened so far isn't what I'd call entirely pleasant. Not… unexciting, for sure but… Who am I convincing? This freaking sucks!

I nearly died like… I don't even know how many times! I look at Kaiden next to me. "Kaiden!"

He looks at me, his head turning sharply, waiting for me to continue, and holding his rifle tight to his chest like a cross.

"Kaiden, we're sitting ducks out here! We can't even fight back!" I shout at him.

Kaiden blinks and looks up at the sky. "And we're completely vulnerable to another aerial bombardment! We need to get to Shepard! Do you have a plan?!"

I look at the river of lava, at Ashley and Wrex pinned down behind a rock near it. I look back at Kaiden. "Yeah… Not a good one though!"

He shrugs. "Better than what I've got right now! Go! Get to Shepard, I'll cover you!"

I nod. And turn around; ready to sprint over to Shepard. Kaiden lays a hand on my shoulder.

He pats my shoulder once. Once again… Once again… then he bats on my shoulder repeatedly. I guess that's my cue. I sprint out, swerving and stumbling as rounds start hitting the ground all around me. I slide into cover next to Shepard as he rises to fire at the geth.

"Shepard!" I shout at him.

He looks over his shoulder at me and ducks down behind cover again. "Splicer! We need to get out of here!"

I nod. "I know! I've got a plan but I need everyone over near the river! Near Wrex and Ashley!"

Shepard looks over at them, frowning. Then he nods. "Alright. I'll get Garrus and Tali. Get Kaiden over there!"

I nod. "Got it!"

I pivot quickly on my hand and slide out of cover, sprinting back to Kaiden. And though I'm under fire and I nearly die simply getting back to him… I can't help but think that was cool. The pivot thing. That was cool.

Feeling like a boss.

I get down behind cover with Kaiden again. "Kaiden! We need to move! Get closer to the river!"

Kaiden nods. "Alright! How're we doing this?!"

I look over at the river of lava, then at Shepard who just slides into cover with Garrus and Tali.

I raise a hand to the side of my helmet and press the comm button next to the ear. "Shepard! Kaiden and I will give you suppressing fire! Give me a signal when you're ready!"

"Roger." Shepard responds.

I draw my assault rifle and nod at Kaiden who readies his.

"Go, go, go!" Shepard shouts into his comm.

Kaiden and I rise out of cover and start firing at the geth on the cliff together. I spray and pray, I'm not really aiming for anything… Ok. Suppressing fire doesn't really work on geth. They don't seem to care.

Kaiden seems to get the idea and glows bright blue next to me. He thrusts his arm forward with a roar and three blue balls of energy fly out and hit three different geth. One simply stumbles because his shield held. The other two fly off in different directions. One straight into the pit of lava. And one straight towards us… nice Kaiden.

Suddenly just as it's about to hit us Kaiden roars and swings his arm at the flying geth, glowing bright blue. The geth collides with his fist and there's a biotic explosion. The geth flies back like a bullet and explodes against the cliff.

Holy shit! Kaiden is a freaking boss. That's some biotic power he's got. I spot Shepard, Garrus and Tali reaching Wrex and Ashley. Looks like it's our turn.

"Kaiden!" I shout, grabbing him. "Let's go!"

We start sprinting towards them. Kaiden vaults over a few large boulders while I, knowing that I probably couldn't do that, juke around them.

"Kaiden, Splicer!" Shepard shouts over the comm. "Watch it, drop ship incoming!"

I spot a drop ship flying towards us. I mean straight towards us. Not over the cliff or overhead but straight at us. Freaking kamikaze? Really?

"It's going to crash into us!" Kaiden shouts in alarm.

Suddenly the drop ship flips a bitch and pulls up and around, pointing its bottom straight at us. A new group of geth flies out the bottom straight at us, landing mere feet away. Interesting tactic. Though I can't say I can appreciate the intelligence of this tactic at the moment.

I leap over a rock and tackle Kaiden behind cover just as the geth start to open fire on us.

"Shepard!" I shout into my comm. "We need some cover fire if we're going to get to you!"

"I'm on it!" I hear Garrus shout into the comm as a response.

Suddenly a geth rounds the corner of the cover to finish us but its head explodes. I look up at Garrus with his sniper rifle raised. Aw yeah. Show em Archangel.

"Splicer! Let's move!" Kaiden shouts at me dragging me up onto my feet. We start sprinting towards Shepard again. Finally we get to him, ducking back behind cover. Ashley works to cover our flank and Garrus turns his attention on the cliff face as I catch my breath behind the big rock we hide behind.

"What's the plan Splicer?!" Shepard shouts. "This better be good because now they can all just fire at one spot!"

I look at the river. "I can get us across, I think."

"You think?" Tali asks suspiciously.

I nod. "Yeah. I think I'll be able to get us across. I mean… It's a little far but I think I'll be able to do it."

"How?" Shepard asks, staring me down.

I shrug. "You've already seen how. If you're asking how I do this stuff now's not the time."

Shepard blinks and if it were quieter I'm pretty sure he'd sigh angrily. He nods, reluctantly, but he nods.

I nod back. "Alright let me just try a something first."

I stand up and walk over to the edge of the river. Alright let's try a few things. Winter Blast first.

I activate it and icicles shoot out of my body. Fog starts to waft off of my body like dry ice. I try to shoot the lava with a Winter Blast but nothing happens. Oh right. I need water in the air for Winter Blast to work. And I think there is as little water in there air as there can be right now. Speaking of which I'm parched. Ok so that's a no go.

What to try next? Shall I part the red sea? Oh shit that's funny. Because it's lava… and it's red? I wish someone heard that. Not that last part because explaining jokes is lame… and so is explaining that explaining jokes is lame.

Anyway.

I activate Telekinesis and force the lava apart in front of me. I drop it quickly. Okay that's way too hard.

Alright, looks like I have only one option. This is going to be tough.

I run back to Shepard. "Shepard! I know what I'm doing. I can take one person across at a time. Who's first?"

Splicer looks around. "Wrex is first. Take him."

Ugh. I nod. "Alright." I run up to Wrex. "Wrex! Follow me!"

"Why?!" He shouts back.

"I'm getting you across the lava first. Come on!" I grab him to drag him but he doesn't budge.

"No way am I going across that!" He protests.

"Wrex!" Shepard shouts angrily. "Go! That's an order!"

Wrex frowns but nods. I lead him over to the edge of the lava. Crap that's hot! "Alright hold on tight. I've never done this before so let's see if this'll work."

I wrap my arm around his waist and put his arm over my shoulders. I activate Aero Dash and focus some power. The air around us starts to distort and my body starts to vibrate so fast it looks like it's almost vanishing in thin air.

"Hey what's going on?" Wrex asks alarmed. "What're you… AH-!"

I Aero Dash across the 20 yard river. My feet catch the opposite bank and I fall flat on my face with Wrex. Wrex rolls a little ahead of me, rolling up onto his stomach. He gets up onto all fours and pukes.

"Yeah." I mumble panting. "That'll do that to you. I'll be back."

I Aero Dash back across, stumbling a little. Even though it felt considerably easier going alone. That was tiring. "Shepard! Next!"

"Tali, go!" Shepard shouts.

Tali runs up to me. "What're you going to do?"

I wrap my arm around her waist and her arm over my shoulders like I did with Wrex. "It's best if you don't know."

I Aero Dash across the lava again, making it clear past the edge this time. I let go of Tali who bends over onto all fours.

"Oh… Keelah." Tali mumbles.

I cough with exhaustion. Alright… 2 down 4 to go. "Stay here you guys."

I Aero Dash back across and Kaiden backs up to me. He puts his arm over my shoulders and I wrap my arm around his waist. I Aero Dash across and Go back immediately after releasing Kaiden.

"Ash, go!" Shepard shouts.

Ashley backs up to me and we assume the same position. I take her across the river of lava, again tripping a little on the bank of the river. Not because she's heavy like Wrex but because I'm getting tired.

How much EVE do I have left? "SNAKE: How much EVE do I have left?"

"SNAKE: 2 hypos remaining." SNAKE responds.

Only 2?! Holy shit I went through those like freaking Red Vines! "SNAKE: How much do I have in my system?" I ask sounding worried even to myself.

"SNAKE: .112 milligrams." GAH! That's not good!

"What's EVE?" Ashley asks frowning at me.

"Not now!" I shout at her, Aero Dashing back over the river to Shepard's side. "Garrus, let's go!"

Garrus runs up to me and we assume the stock Aero Dashing pose I guess. "Alright, give me a second to get rea-!"

I interrupt him by Aero Dashing across the river, putting a little more oomph behind it just to make it across. Garrus stumbles and shakes his head to stave off the dizziness.

I collapse to my hands and knees and open my helmet just in time to puke. I cough and stumble back to my feet. Got to get Shepard. I Aero Dash back across.

"L-let's… Let's go Shepard!" I shout at him weakly.

Shepard rushes over to me. "Let's go!"

I grab his waist and prepare to Aero Dash across but a geth round pierces my side. I grunt with pain and fall to a knee.

"Splicer!" Shepard shouts in alarm. "Back on your feet! We're sitting ducks here!"

I cough violently and reactivate Aero Dash. God I can barely breath… I'm going to black out. Got to do this now, otherwise the last of my EVE will be drained out from healing. I muster the last of my strength and Dash across the river. We hit the other side and I let go of Shepard as my feet drag across the ground and I collapse, my vision growing black.


?

I open my eyes and again find only blackness. But it feels different, less cold and infinite. I sit up, crossing my legs. It's quiet, dead silent, for once. Does that mean I'm alone here? I don't understand. I sniff, loudly enough that I should be heard, but no sound comes out. I shout, but again nothing comes out.

I sniff again and get to my feet. It's so dark in here. But I can still see myself. I can hold my hands up and see them easily. I suppose it's more like I'm in a black room with lights. I just can't see anything else. Just myself.

I take a step.

"The steps you take won't get you anywhere." I hear someone with a raspy, deep voice say from somewhere. Sort of like Ron Pearlman's voice but deeper, and more… Dark. His voice echoes loudly around the room, making it impossible to pinpoint the source.

"What do you mean?" I try to say, but no sound comes out.

"Just what I said. You won't get anywhere doing what you're doing." The voice says. "Try something else."

"What do you mean?" I ask again but no response comes.

Try something else, huh?

I jump.

I hear laughing. "Nice try. Why am I surprised you tried that? No, that's not what I meant. Clearly you're not the most intelligent thing. Try again."

I roll my eyes, thinking. I sit down and lie down on my back.

"What're you doing?" The voice asks confused.

"Lying down." I respond silently. "I can't do anything else, can I? Especially if it won't take me anywhere."

"That's a little lazy, to put it lightly." I hear footsteps. "Do you need a little…" A man appears out of the dark above me. I don't know who he is. But he seems familiar. "…push?"

The man places his foot on my chest and pushes me through the ground and I start to fall.

"Bye." He says smiling. "I'll see you next soon, maybe, if they don't find us I mean."

"Who are you?!" I silently call to him.

He smiles. "Call me… On second thought, how about next time? Just that. Also, know that I will be here if you need me. Bye."


3:19 PM January 5, 2183

My eyes blink open. I'm slung over someone's shoulders, bouncing up and down as we advance. I look down and find that it's Kaiden, who fireman carries me across a flat surface of ash and volcanic rock. Up on a ridge nearby a geth watchtower fires rockets and sniper bolts around at us and the rest of the team scattered around the field.

I spot a flash of light and a rocket come flying straight at us. I raise my hand and use Telekinesis, with a lot of effort, to stop the missile dead in the air. I launch it straight back at them. The missile hits the tower and it blows to pieces.

Kaiden stops behind a rock and puts me down. "Splicer, you're awake."

I nod. "Yeah. Feeling better now. Thanks for carrying me. What's the situation?"

Kaiden sits down and points over his shoulder with his thumb. "After you got us over the river, we fought our way north to a small canyon. We used the tight quarters to our advantage and placed booby traps along the canyon floor. The geth hit them all and the canyon collapsed, with us still inside. We barely got out. We wound up here and now we're pinned by geth rocket troopers and snipers, but that stunt you just pulled helped. We're not too far from the ruins now, it's just over the ridge."

I nod. "Alright. I'm going to get over to Shepard, watch my back."

Kaiden nods. "Alright. On your go."

"Go!" I sprint out and snake my way in between the rocks to Shepard. At least there's a lot of cover.

What was that dream?

I reach Shepard and press my back against cover next to him.

"Splicer!" He shouts with a nod. "Good to see you're back on your feet. I was worried you burned yourself out back there. At least you're not dead weight anymore."

I shrug. "We'll see about that I guess. What do you need me to do, Shepard?"

He looks up the ridge. "I need you to get closer. Sorry to say this, but link up with Wrex and draw their fire for Garrus and Ashley to pick them off."

I nod. "Alright, Commander."

I sprint out of cover again, making my way to Wrex who waits at the bottom of the ridge.

"Splicer." He grunts, holding his shotgun tight. "You here to help me show the geth who's got the quad on this team?"

I grin and nod. "Yeah. On your go."

Wrex roars and rises from cover, blasting his shotgun. I guess that's his way of saying go. I rise up to firing accurate bursts from my assault rifle at geth. One by one I see them dropping, either from our fire, or from Garrus or Ashley's sniper shots. Wrex roars and raises his arm and suddenly 5 geth are launched up 5 meters in the air only to hang there suspended in the air. Suddenly they glow brighter and Wrex roars again yanking his arm down like he's pulling a rip cord. The geth slam into the ground, going from 5 meters in the air to no meters in the air in a blink of an eye, and the force of the Slam makes them almost fall apart. After a short time, all the geth in the immediate area are dead, but if I remember correctly, there's a geth armature coming up here soon.

Great.

Shepard jogs past us nodding as he does. "Good job. Let's keep moving."

He leads us up the hill and toward the ruins, just around a bend along the cliff. Phew… man I need to exercise more I'm out of breath already. Sure the air's thin and it's hot but I still shouldn't be huffing and puffing after a small climb up a hill.

We enter the ruins cautiously.

"Stay sharp." Shepard whispers. "This is the perfect place for an ambush."

And just as he says that a red laser catches Ashley in the shoulder and she goes spinning to the ground. And as we are just about to return fire at the geth Hopper who was the shooter, there's an explosion, like if a meteor hit the ground only a few yards away. Out of the crater, the Armature comes.

It stomps out, swiveling its head back and forth at us, as if choosing which target to fire at first. The geth settles on Ashley who still lies prone on the ground.

I quickly grab her collar and start to drag her back to some crates.

"Get into cover!" Shepard shouts pushing Kaiden towards cover across from me. "Move it!"

The Armature fires its cannon, sending a bluish ball of light flying at us. I yank Ashley back the last few feet and duck and roll back behind the box just as the energy pulse ball hits the ground creating a small explosion followed by a bluish haze that hangs in the air. I look over at Ashley, Garrus and Tali at my side. Is Ashley dead?

Ashley suddenly lurches and coughs, shaking her head. She picks her assault rifle back up and looks around a little. "Was I knocked out?"

I nod. "Yeah. You got hit by a Hopper laser. Now we got an Armature to deal with."

Ashley gets to her feet and peeks around the corner. "Great… Well let's see what Shepard wants to do." She raises a hand to her comm. "Commander. Plan of attack?"

"It's got heavy armor in the front to deal with, not to mention the shields that are knocking everything we shoot at it aside. The only weak spot that I can see in its armor is the under belly or maybe the eye. Once the shields are down, Wrex, Kaiden and I can tear the armor apart with our biotics." Shepard pauses. "So I guess it's up to you guys on that side to take out the shields. We'll try to draw their fire so you've got room to work in. Good luck and keep comms closed so they don't hack our channels."

I look at my teammates while the guys on the other side start to draw the fire from the geth. "What's the plan guys?"

"Take out the shields." Garrus responds, opening his omni-tool. "That should be pretty easy between Tali and me."

Tali shakes her head, also starting to work on her omni-tool. "Sorry Garrus, but our typical tricks aren't going to work here. As much as it hurts me to say it, we aren't on the level of the Armature."

Garrus frowns and lowers his arm. "What do we do then?"

Tali shakes her head again. "I'm getting to that. The Armature has an adaptive self-replicating kinetic barrier that strengthens in areas where it's most needed and that restores itself in others as it takes damage. Overloading its shields would work, but only for a split second. If we want to give Shepard and the others time to break through the armor, we're going to need to remove its shields entirely. And to do that, I need more time than is possible to set up a proper hack if I hit it with an Overload too."

I raise my hand a little. "Uh… I might be able to cut a hole in its shields. Maybe."

"Good." Tali says with a nod. "Do what you got to do. Garrus, after Splicer weakens the armature's shields as much as he can, finish them with an Overload. Then I'll hack the armature's power system and screw up its shielding."

"What do I do?" Ashley asks sounding peeved a little bit.

"When Shepard and the others start tearing its armor apart, light it up." I respond, shrugging.

Ashley shrugs. "Sounds good to me."

"Ready guys?" Tali asks.

I nod and activate Electro Bolt. Hell, I don't know if I can do this, I have barely any EVE left. How did I go through all of it so quickly?

"Go!" Garrus shouts.

I spin out of cover and hit the Armature with an Electro Bolt. Its shields flash brightly and its head snaps to look at me. Crap. I raise both my hands and start hitting it with bolts of electricity as fast as I can. The Armature's shields grow brighter and brighter with every bolt.

Suddenly Garrus rolls out of cover and throws up his arm, his omni-tool lit and ready. A bolt of electricity arcs out of it and busts right through its shields. Tali comes out next and points her omni-tool at it, typing rapidly. Suddenly the Armature's armor sparks and arcs with electricity.

"Get it Shepard!" Ashley shouts, coming out of cover too, firing her assault rifle.

Shepard rolls out of cover with his arms raised, his body glowing bright with a dark energy aura. He roars and thrusts his arms forward sending two balls of biotic energy to the Armature. The biotic Warps hit the Armature on its head and the armor literally starts to disintegrate off of its head. Wrex roars and holds up his arm, his body also glowing bright. He closes his fist and the Armature's head crushes itself turning into a crumpled mess of twisted metal, white lubricant fluid squirting out. The Armature starts to stomp around in circles.

Kaiden comes out next he raises both his arms high above his head and sends two I-Beam girders flying through the Armature, impaling it and pinning it to the ground. The Armature's head still looks around side to side.

Suddenly the Armature's head starts to glow with blue light.

"Oh Keelah!" Tali curses. "It's trying to fire! It's going to explode!"

Everyone dives for cover. Except for Ashley. She walks forward slowly firing her assault rifle at its head. The entire Armature starts glow bright with light. She's going to die!

Suddenly her assault rifle overheats and she draws her shotgun in a blink of an eye. She snaps it up to her shoulder and blasts the Armature's head off. A beam of blue light shoots out of the Armature's neck and finally it stops moving.

I get up from the ground slowly, brushing ash off of my front with my hand. Shit, that was intense.

Shepard takes a deep breath. "Nice one Ashley. Alright, here's where the mission really starts. Tali and Splicer, you're with me in the ruins. Everyone else is out here. Watch our backs; don't let any geth into the ruins."

"Aye, aye Commander." Kaiden says nodding.

Shepard starts leading Tali and me towards the ramp.

"So, Shepard." I say as we walk up the ramp toward the door. "Do we have any intel on what we should expect inside the ruins?"

Shepard shakes his head. "No. Unfortunately we're going in blind. The only thing we know right now is that there are some strange energy spikes coming from this area."

"What sort of energy spikes?" Tali asks, rolling her shoulders to stretch them.

Shepard shakes his head. "Unknown. But they're making the Normandy's computers go haywire."

We reach the door and Shepard walks up to the door controls. "Get ready."

I nod and raise my assault rifle at the closed door, and Tali does the same with her shotgun. Shepard types into the door controls and it opens with a mechanical whirring.

The second the door opens a cold chill wafts out and runs over me. Along with the cold a strange sound comes from deep below in the dark, but it just sounds like the wind running through the caverns deep down. I stare into the long metal tube, I can't see anything at the end.

Shepard frowns. "Looks like the power's out. Lights on."

I turn on the light on my helmet and walk in after Shepard and Tali. The door closes behind us soon after we enter, bathing us in darkness.

"Dark in here." I mumble, my voice echoing loudly.

"Yeah." Shepard responds quietly.

I sniff and frown. "Do you guys hear that?"

Shepard looks back at me. "Hear what?"

I frown again. "It's like a high pitched ringing noise."

Shepard and Tali stop and we're silent for a second. I can hear the noise clearly.

"Can you hear it?" I ask.

"No." Tali mumbles. "Are you sure it's not just comm interference?"

I shrug. "Maybe, let's keep going."

"I think I'm getting a little of that too." Shepard mumbles, tapping the side of his helmet.

Tali holds a hand to the side of her helmet. "Mine's fine."

We continue down the metal tube towards the ruin entrance, and all the while the chill and the ringing grow more persistent. I shiver.

"Sure is cold in here." I mumble.

Shepard nods. "Yeah…"

Tali looks in between us. "Are you guys kidding? It's an oven in here."

I frown and rub my hands. "Uh… No Tali. It's really cold in here."

Shepard looks back at her. "Yeah. It's freaking freezing."

Tali looks in between us again, confused. "Are you two joking? Seriously, are you kidding?"

I shake my head. "No. It's super cold in here."

"Really?" Tali snaps back, opening her omni-tool. "Because my omni-tool is picking up about 50 degrees Celsius in here."

I furrow my brows. 50 Celsius? That's like 120 Fahrenheit. That can't be right.

"Tali I think your omni-tool is busted." Shepard says frowning at her.

Tali shakes her head. "Never mind, we can sort this out later."

We reach the end of the tunnel and Shepard opens it. We walk into the ruins themselves, finding a wall of bright blue barriers staring back at us. Oh yeah. I forgot about those.

"Looks like the power's not entirely out." Tali mumbles.

Shepard nods. "The ruins must be drawing all the power from around here to power those barriers. They look solid as hell."

Shepard starts leading us down the walkway toward the elevators. Suddenly a trio of geth recon drones flies up at us from below.

"Geth!" Shepard shouts, snapping his assault rifle to his shoulder. "Take 'em out!"

Tali throws her arm up, her omni-tool fired up and ready. One of the geth suddenly starts to list and jerk in the air. It then quickly turns its gun on the other two, tearing them apart with its powerful gun, before crashing itself into a rock wall.

"Hacking…" Tali mumbles. "Got to love it."

"You're going to have to teach me how to do that." Shepard says with a smirk.

"Maybe later." Tali responds, pleasantly.

Was that flirting? If it was it wasn't very good. Shepard leads us to the elevators and presses the button. The elevator takes us down only one floor however.

"Obstruction ahead." A VI announces on a garbled intercom. "Please exit the elevator for you own safety and call the maintenance technician for assistance."

Shepard sighs out his nose. "Great. Looks like we're doing this the hard way. Let's move."

He leads us out of the elevator and down the walkway toward the rock wall, where a natural ramp is carved into the stone. As we cross the walkways to get to the rock wall, another couple of geth drones pop up to greet us, twice as many as before.

I blast one with my shotgun once, sending one spinning off into the wall only to bounce back. Then once more, twice, to blast it in half and send sparks and white lubricant spraying into the air.

Shepard downs another by hitting it with a biotic Throw from above, sending it hurtling out of sight into the dark abyss below, followed by a dull boom. Tali hits a third geth with an overload, making it spin wildly out of control into another two, destroying them in the process. Nice. I wish I knew how to do that.

The last one starts to try and circle us, but I shoot it with my shotgun, blasting one side of it clean off. Shepard finishes it with a short accurate burst of assault rifle fire, enough to tear a hole through it.

It falls from view into the dark abyss below, and a dull pop soon follows.

"Come on." Shepard mumbles nodding at the broken elevator in the shaft. "Splicer you go first, check if it's clear."

I nod and hop down into the elevator shaft, landing on top of the broken elevator. There's only a small gap between the elevator and the top of the doorway, so I drop down to my stomach to peek in between. Looks clear.

"Hey guys I think it's cle-" I'm interrupted by a loud screeching from the elevator. Oh hell.

The broken elevator lurches and drops a few feet.

"Splicer!" Tali shouts in alarm dropping to the edge of the shaft. "Grab my hand!"

I run towards her, and leap to grab her hand just as the elevator collapses underneath me. I reach out to catch her outstretched hand, but I miss her by a hair's breadth. I hit the wall hard, spin a bit from the impact, and I plummet into the darkness.

"Splicer!" Shepard and Tali scream at me as I fall.

I curse in alarm and panic as I fall. I try to rotate myself so that I fall feet first. I manage it and feel a little better about this. But I hit a protrusion in the elevator shaft, sending me spinning out of control. My kinetic distributors fire, blasting the supports of elevator shaft apart, collapsing the walls around me.

I start hitting more warped metal protrusions jutting out of the sides of the collapsing elevator shaft, making me spin around out of control like crazy. Finally I hit the ground, hard enough to crack my helmet.

I black out for a split second. I cough violently and blink my eyes blearily. My helmet's HUD flickers and there's a thin crack through my right eye's visor.

"Warning: Critical armor failure! Primary power systems failing! Secondary and emergency power systems failing! Detecting Class 12 armor ruptures in three locations: Left thigh center, center abdomen right, upper chest right. Vitals critical and dropping. Medical suites failing. Survival estimates: 0.03% survival probability."

I cough violently and see blood splatter the inside of my helmet. I struggle and lift my head to see three jagged pieces of metal jutting out of my leg, stomach and chest. I cough again, spraying more blood on the inside of my helmet.

I look back up. As if my day couldn't get any worse. A bunch of rocks and girders fall toward me.


?

I open my eyes slowly. Darkness greets me. I sit up and look around.

"Hello again." The man sits across from me. It's not a man, or at least not in any literal sense. But calling it a man, is as close as I can get to describing it. What would I say? That it's a featureless distortion in this darkness? That it's a drop of black in an ocean of black. That it's a black pattern on black fabric? That it's an indent in an endless darkness?

"Who are you?" I ask.

"I don't have a name." The man pauses and thinks. "Or at least I can't remember it. But I think it's the former. I don't have one. I don't need one."

"Who are you?" I ask again. "'I don't need a name?' That's nothing. I need an explanation."

"Nothing?" The man laughs. "A name is far from nothing. It can do so much! Think of it this way: How does the name Shepard, make you feel? It makes you feel something, whatever that may be. A name can make a man feel something. That's a powerful thing."

"You're avoiding the question." I growl angrily.

The man nods. "Yes. I am."

"Who are you?! Where am I? What do you want with me? Am I dead? What?! Who is the Grim Reaper?! What does he want with me?! Why am I having these dreams?! What's happening to me?!" I scream at the man.

It laughs again. "So full of questions. I'm so full of answers. There's an answer to all those questions, but I can't reveal them to you in detail. But I will answer them now, one by one. So:

Who am I? I am no one you know.

Where are you? You're in the Darkness.

What do I want with you? Nothing yet.

Are you dead? Not yet but you will be if your friends don't find you soon.

I'll skip 'what.' You should be more specific.

Who is the Grim Reaper? Nothing important. He's insignificant. Young, cocky and stupid. A real fool. Don't bother with him, there are worse things to fear than him.

What does he want with you? Quite simple. He thinks you're his pawn.

Why are you having these dreams? Because he thinks he allows it.

What's happening to you? Something… truly beautiful."

The thing smiles and reveals its only feature, a set of perfect, white teeth, hanging in the air.

Teeth.

A/N: The Darkness gains a new entity: Teeth. Who is it? What is it? What does it want with Splicer?

Find out… Not in the next chapter because that's too easy. Yeah that's right, I want to keep you guys in the Dark. Heh he, Massive Shock references. Anyways, tune in next time, for a better look at who Teeth is, and a wonderful perspective from the Mass Effect team, as well as some awesome combat featuring biotics, bullets and badass-ery.

Thanks for Reading! I'll see you next week!

MB79