Alright folks, time for a bit of a time jump!

You've gotten to know 'us' and some of our foibles so it's time to move on to what 'we' will be doing during the events of Mass Effect itself!

The meat of this story will start up after this erm...'arc'? I'm trying to keep all the intro and set-up and building of characters down to below 20 chapters, or 20 chapters even depending on how things work out with my muse, excluding the prologue of course, and then Mass Effect 2 will start up.

I do appreciate your patience and another big shout out to Erttheking for all your help and time!

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Chapter 11: Demons.
Lucian's POV.
Year 2183, two months before the start of Mass Effect.

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I was surprised, in all honesty, at how quickly time flew by once Chief was back on his feet and the N7 training was able to continue. I was also surprised with the camaraderie that developed in full between myself and the others. I have to say that making friends hadn't been on the top of my list, nor was becoming our teams leader. After several missions our TI felt that I was the best leader during training and had me heading the missions since. The others didn't seem to mind all that much either, not merely because of my height but in how I could get them to listen to me or get them in line without having to physically knock heads together. (Our TI, Rodgers, had to stop a fight between Ripley and Dundee that way once when an argument got out of hand. Not even sure what they'd been arguing about as I'd arrived when things had degenerated to fists and cursing.)

What didn't surprise me was that the Dimensional Hopper continued to screw with our 'test' missions over the years. Each attack was less, in your face, then that first one, only small clues were left for me to find that signalled that he'd been a part of causing our missions to almost go FUBAR instead of the blatant visions and twisting of reality that he used during the first mission. He was playing with us and I hated it. He wasn't just playing with my life, he was playing with 'Raine's life and with the lives of my team, my friends. And I'll be the first to admit to being selfish, anything, anyone, that's 'mine' I'll fight to protect, even if I have to get a little, alright, A LOT, underhanded about it.

There was one mission that my team was sent out on that reaffirmed my belief that we were pawns on a very large scale chess game between the Lore Keeper and the Dimensional Hopper.

The attack was at a N3 training facility, everyone had been killed easily and there were only minimal signs of resistance which spoke to either a stealth attack or an overwhelming attack force. My team and I had been sent to investigate, back-up just moments away if things went south. At first it seemed like just dumb luck for the small facility, disguised as a normal little outpost, to have been found and wiped out by a superior mercenary force raiding for supplies (guns, food anything that wasn't literally bolted down had been carted off) but then I found two charred bodies with untouched smiley face pins on their chests. None of the other bodies had the pins on them or near them and that had set off alarm bells for me. It wasn't just some new band of mercenaries calling card, if it had then the pins would have lain on every body.

I'd searched the records in the system for the two who had pins on them and found that they were a brother/sister pair that had joined the military at age eighteen, around three years before 'Raine and I had been drawn into this world. The sister was known for a cold calculating 'get things done' attitude while her brother was a 'leave no one behind' kind of person, again the similarities rang loudly in comparison to 'Raine and I. They had no friends before joining the military. They also had no other family save for each other, like myself and 'Raine they were 'alone in the universe'. A bit more digging and I found that they had both sold old earth items that had been in mint condition, an ipad(still functional with an almost full charge sold days before they joined the military) and a iphone 5(same condition).

All of that information combined pointed to this pair having been chosen by the Lore Keeper. What surprised me though was that they were still 'on the board' when 'Raine and I were brought here. I sent a message to LK to try to confirm my suspicions and was not surprised with the response.

'Yes, the two you found were as you believe. They were my first attempt at bringing a pair in well before the events of Mass Effect in order to allow them to gain the needed training for their survival at a natural pace. As you can see it was obviously a failed attempt. I hope for better results from yourself and 'Raine.'

'Why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you tell me? I might have been able to save them.'

'Because then I would need to find yet another pairing. You must not interfere with the deaths of the failed pairings, even if your time here overlaps with their own. He will kill you if you interfere with his 'game'. Do not act.'

I wasn't surprised with the order. From the response it might very well have been that someone had tried to interfere with the deaths of other 'chosen' and ended up killing themselves and their partner because of it. The Lore Keeper could be a cold bitch and I could understand it. If you had to keep bringing in people to try to stop a particular enemy and everyone kept dying you stopped thinking of them as people. The cold calculus of war where the leader of an army reached the point where they could no longer view the people under then as anything other then numbers or they risked their sanity. It was a harsh viewpoint, but really Samara said(will say) it best; 'If I must kill a man because he has done wrong, do I really wish to know he is a devoted father?' Sometimes that kind of cold logic is the only thing keeping some people from going insane if they find themselves in a leadership position. Oh it's good to try to keep in mind that these are people you are ordering/leading to their potential death but sometimes you had to let go of what it meant if they died. I'd sent her another message later on, asking her why she didn't get rid of him directly.

'I would if I could but his power dwarfs mine. He gets his abilities naturally while I have to rely on limited technology. We are lucky that his mentality allows for him to 'play' by certain 'rules' while he travels from dimension to dimension. He attempts to collapse the timeline while I and my 'chosen' try to keep the timeline on track enough to keep things intact. And I always make sure to choose those who know the 'primary end' to the timeline he has chosen to 'play' in.'

It was sobering to realize that as strong as her technology was that nature itself had produced a creature of such power. But one question came to mind.

'Can he bleed? Can he die?'

'In other dimensions I have tried to arrange for his death, I have even called upon those of his own kind to stop him. He bleeds, so he can die...but the results of the battles lead to the collapse of the timeline he was in and several neighboring timelines as well, his madness allows him an edge over his brethren that they cannot counter without the loss of so many lives. The whole point of this endeavor is to keep the timelines intact, not to destroy them in the process. If you think of a way to defeat him without collapsing this time line and it's neighbors, then I will support you as I can. Anything that would risk this timeline and the others and I will not allow you to continue. Please, keep this in mind and do not act rashly.'

I would keep those words in mind and wondered if something as simple as a surprise bullet to the skull might work. If I managed to get the SoB to show his face without realizing what I planned.

Out of everything though, I will say one thing for the Lore Keeper, her 'trial by fire' methods worked. It took some time and quite a few migraines but I was finally able to control my body instead of falling into the instinct that she'd 'gifted' to us when on a mission. I still developed headaches but I had found an acceptable amount of control. In the middle of a full on fire-fight I'd let instinct take control(learned the hard way on one mission when a bullet tore through my shield and into my arm that sometimes the soldiers instinct really was needed and that I would have to trust that instinct, for a person who prides themselves on controlling the situation around them it was a hard pill to swallow), but when infiltrating or directing an attack I maintained control and moved under my own will.

One highlight, one good memory throughout the years of struggling to survive the training and the battles I was put through, was around two years after 'Raine and I arrived in this dimension, around the Earth month of October 2180. The Migrant Fleet was near the Citadel and she was able to arrange for myself and my team to board the Rayya. Why? Well 'Raine and I had been engaged by that point for two years and several months, since we had the chance we wanted to get married, make it official. It wasn't often that the Fleet was near the Citadel when I was on leave so it was good timing.

We had to get the licence to marry from the Citadel itself and then we asked Admiral 'Raan to oversee the proceedings as she had the ability as an admiral to wed any member of the fleet and 'Raine was considered an honorary member. Tali acted as her 'bridesmaid' or 'maternal witness' ( for Quarians that meant a female family member who approved of the wedding, normally the mother but could also be the aunt or sister of the 'bride'. 'Raine and Tali both saw each other as sisters in a way, so Tali was allowed to stand in for the maternal witness since 'Raine had no living family members in this dimension.) while Dundee stood in as my best man or 'paternal witness' (opposite of the maternal witness, but I was in the same boat as 'Raine.), Chief and Ripley came along as well. The quarians were fascinated with human wedding procedures, but in the end the wedding was a smooth mesh of human and Quarian cultures.

'Raine refused to try to find a white dress for the wedding, one she hated dresses and two she felt it was a bit hypocritical to wear white. What she settled on was getting a silvery body suit (not an actual suit like the quarians gave her, but a body suit like what a professional ice skater would wear) on which she had sewn on several sheer layers of cloth of pale green and sapphire to act as a double-layer short 'skirt' and then a strip of sheer silvery cloth to run from shoulder to wrist. A silvery-blue shawl wrapped around her shoulders and a silver veil to cover her face. All in all it was a very simplistic yet elegant look that was wonderous and turned out to be something very similar to what quarian brides did. Cloth was to carefully be attached to ones suit at the waist, normally good to high quality that was passed down from mother to daughter(in-law) for their 'wedding dresses'.

The only suit I had was my military dress blues and 'Raine confessed that she liked the outfit better then the tux I'd rented for our prom. I gave in to her request to wear my dress blues easily enough, saved me the money I would have spent on getting a tailored suit (even now it wasn't common to run across a human male standing at 6'5" so finding a big and tall shop wasn't easy). I'd also bought a Tungsten wedding ring set with a celtic dragon design which she absolutely loved.

The wedding itself went smoothly, though 'Raine had to load up on antibiotics due to her immune system having weakened over the previous two years while on the Fleet. Even though I'd gone through the decontamination process there was still a chance she could get ill. My leave lasted for a month and we spent most of that time just enjoying time together, playing games, reading books to each other and...well the obvious after-wedding activities, I'll spare you the details.

After that we were able to settle into a routine. As the 'mate' to one of the Fleet I was allowed on board whenever able (though going through the decon process was lengthy as hell, it was worth it) and whenever I had leave I made my way to the Fleet, if it was in the area, to spend some time with 'Raine. Her sniper training had come a long way and she was on the tail end of the medical training she'd wanted to get. Not quite a nurse and not quite a doctor she could definitely qualify as a field medic at the least.

I could tell that she'd had to work harder then most due to the subtle flack she was getting. While Rhys'til had apologized, mending his friendship with Tali and had developed a rough friendship with 'Raine, his aunt was still making subtle problems for 'Raine, nothing that she could call the woman out on, elevator delays causing her to be late, parts missing when she was trying to repair something, supplies misplaced that she would need that would only be found hours later, things that couldn't be traced back to Rhys' aunt but that I was certain was being caused by her because there were too many instances of the above examples for it to have been an accident each time.

'Raine was willing to let things go for the most part, she didn't mind working hard or the small delays and it was never anything life threatening so she didn't want to rock the boat. She kept a close eye on her things and was always careful to stay with Tali, Kal or Rhys in order to not be alone at any point. As much as she wanted to believe that the worst of it would be the equivalent of school yard bullying she was wise enough to keep her guard up while trying to do what she could to help the fleet.

In fact she was thinking about undergoing a pilgrimage herself to help out the Fleet, never mind that her mere presence and willingness to work with and live with the 'gypsies' of the universe was already helping the Quarians out. In fact I'd noticed that the media was quite excited about the prospect for the first few months she was on the Fleet, questioning her motives, questioning her logic, the usual 'left wing, right wing' point of views(I had nothing much else to do when my team, I could only play games for so long without wanting to find something else to do, and it was good to keep up on 'current events' while we waited for Chief to recover). Like all news events, things died down after a while but I worried for the time when 'Raine was going to get cornered by the press, she'd been on the Fleet all this time and I knew once she set foot on a main hub like the Citadel she'd be swarmed by reporters hoping to make a story.

We'd talked about that among other things, how she would handle the press, what she would try to find for her pilgrimage, etc. She didn't much like the idea but knew she'd have to do some 'face time'. As for ideas for her pilgrimage we looked over the fleet to see what ships were lacking with me and we found that at least two ships were low on fighters. A good bit of searching around and we were able to locate a few salvage shops on the Citadel that she'd be able to visit that offered decent pricing for used ships. After that she would start to implement her plans for getting onto the Normandy for the events of Mass Effect 2. I wasn't exactly pleased with her idea, but it was better then her being with Tali on her mission to Haelstrom in which only Tali and Regar will survive, which I vetoed on the survivability factor.

As for my own plans I had to be careful not to act in any way which would alert The Illusive Man that I knew where he was and that there might be an incoming threat or I would loose my window of opportunity. His base wasn't all that hard to infiltrate for Shepard and her gang in Mass Effect Three, the biggest problem for them was locating the place. My own problem was the opposite really, I was going to be infiltrating his mobile station without alerting him to the fact that I was there, at least for him to not realise that I was right on top of him and could disable him. To that end I had saved up to now in order to purchase top of the line military cloaking gear. The other problem though was going to be how to get all his information.

Even after all this time I still hadn't worked out a good way to get his information other then trying to enlist the help of an asari to read his mind. That prospect led to other difficulties such as a trust factor. Put simply, the only asari that I came to know over the years was Alani and her mother. Kid kept in touch with me surprisingly, letting me know how her and her brother were doing. It was sweet but I wasn't sure I wanted to risk them by approaching their mother, Kilra, for her help in...mining The Illusive Man's mind for Cerberus information and control codes. It was an option, truly it was, but the problem was; could I trust Kilra not to betray me later on? For that matter could I trust her after she melded with me to give me TIM's information? I could always play the 'tyrant in control' or 'danger to your children' card to get her to help me, but again, what could be done to keep her loyal after I had control? Either way I would need to get in contact with her after this mission to ask if she would be able to help, I didn't have much time left.

I still had some time to figure out what I wanted to do about the situation, though not much, it was only two months before Shepard would be made the first human Spectre and I would have to move swiftly after that to be in place when Miranda moved to meet TIM about Shepards importance at the start of Mass Effect 2. I was able to confirm with the Lore Keeper that that moment was the first time she'd met TIM face to face so my plans wouldn't be FUBAR from the start.

Right now I was ordering said stealth gear while my team and I waited for new orders. I had waited this long because the scuttlebutt when I went to order last time said a newer model would be coming out in three months. Once we had the new orders I was going to need to find a way to get listed MIA (Missing in Action.) I wasn't going to be able to stay a member of the Aliance military and the honorable discharge process would take some time. My idea was to disappear in the middle of a firefight and if I needed to show up somewhere as myself later on I could claim amnesia.

I shook my head, putting away those thoughts for later and finalized the order and saw that it would be a few days to arrive. I turned and looked at the others. It had been a long five years but some things hadn't changed from my first few months here. Dundee was busy playing games on his omni-tool, as was his usual MO, Ripley was working out, push-up reps at the moment and Chief was cleaning his gear. All in all it was starting off as a normal day.

Right now we were stationed at a small moon base in the Parnithia System of the Athena Nebula, close to Thessia, the Asari home world. Our mission was to protect a small group of scientists tied to the B.S.A.A while they were working on an anti-virus to some miscellaneous virus that affected Asari pigmentation. It wasn't anything lethal for Asari, in fact it didn't affect them at all beyond a temporary change in skin tone to a purplish color, but it did give humans severe flu like symptoms if they came in contact with the afflicted asari and those symptoms could persist for months and on occasion the fevers got lethally high. There was my own human team and then a group of Asari commandos, but we hardly saw each other as the Asari took opposite shifts from us.

They were finalizing the anti-virus now and then would begin shipment within the next few hours at which point we'd be getting our next mission parameters and most likely be heading back to Earth for a bit. I frowned, even though my primary plan involved going MIA and I didn't much like the idea of abandoning the others, they'd become good friends, a good team to have at my back.

"You alright boss?" Chief's quiet voice interrupted my thoughts and I blinked, looking over to him. He was keeping his voice soft enough not to attack the attention of the other two.

"Yeah. Just fine." I answered.

"You've got a distant look in your eyes boss." Chief set down the shin guard he'd been working on. "Seen that look before. You've got a Plan."

He said the word plan with a level of intensity that made me realize he was capitalizing the p. I raised a brow at him and then smiled lazily with a shake of my head.

"You make it sound like I have something ominous planned man."

Chief shrugged. Out of the four of us he was the quietest and was almost monkish in his attitude and ways. He hardly ever talked, but when he did he showed that he had a very brilliant and philosophical mind unlike his cousin Ripley who was a bit wild. That and he a rapier wit and a good sense of humor. I often found the two of us trading friendly barbs and coming up with clever insults. He could also read people's intentions by watching them for only a few moments, by their body language and facial expressions. More often then not he acted as our spotter if we had a training mission where we knew an attack was imminent on a location but didn't have any information on the individual attacking said location. He picked up the wrist guard of his armor and started buffing it.

"Ominous? Maybe...maybe not. You got the look of a big cat on the hunt. Only question is; what, or perhaps Whom, are you hunting?"

I sat back in my seat, shifting a little bit to get more comfortable as I considered what he said. I decided to open up a little to alleviate his worries but not enough to risk my plans.

"Just have to take care of...something."

"Mmm...vengence?"

"No. Let us say...power in the wrong hands."

"Mmmm... a coupe then? But are you certain that power does lie in the wrong hands or are you seeing what you wish to see as you desire that power for yourself?"

I blinked a bit at that, once again finding myself a bit surprised at his ability to read people. He would have made a good diplomat but by his own words he preferred the life of a solider. I found myself wondering again if it would be too risky to involve the others with my plan. I threaded my fingers together and then shrugged.

"It's in the wrong hands, I know that."

"Can you not simply talk with the...leader?"

"No." I said simply and with a small touch of regret.

admittedly I would have prefered to work along side Harper(TIM) since he was an effective leader and had brilliant ideas, but considering he was even now being affected by indoctrination and his own hubris that might not be possible. The easy solution would be to just use a loyal asari to take control of all the codes, plans, back-ups and sleeper agents by using his own knowledge and then kill him. However the Lore Keeper herself had said that a 'trojan horse' for the Reapers needed to exist and leaving Harper alive allowed for a situation of 'the devil you know over the devil you don't'. If I kept an eye on him I might be able to minimize the damage he would do.

"Think you'll need help?" Chief's voice brought me out of my musing.

"Rather not involve you guys. You've got good things going on for you."

"Maybe. You really think going alone will do the job though?"

"Sometimes the most effective missions are the solo ones."

"Also the ones that can go FUBAR the fastest." Chief countered as he looked up at me.

I let out a soft grunt in response and shrugged. He was right. Solo missions could go south pretty fast especially if any support was far enough away as to be non-existant.

"If you end up needing help, ask us." Chief set down the wrist guard and looked at me calmly. "Don't shut us out because you don't think you can trust us."

My brow rose in shock. I'd been expecting him to say 'because you're afraid for our safety' not that I didn't think I could trust them. I sat up slowly at that and frowned at him.

"What makes you think I don't trust you?"

"Oh you trust us in a fight, you trust us to follow orders, you trust us in part as friends." Chief leaned back. "But that's just it, you only trust us 'in part' as friends. You've always held something back from us and I think the only one who truly has any idea of what that is, is your girl. And from the way you act from time to time, it's something pretty damn dark."

"Sometimes the way you can read people can be scary Chief." I said with a lazy grin. "I'd like to trust you with this but..." I frowned at him now, and I knew my eyes had gone cold. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you what was at risk and I can't afford that disbelief affecting what I need to do."

Chief snorted slightly. "You talk like what's at risk is the end of the universe as we know it."

I raised a brow slightly at him and remained silent at his comment. His eyes narrowed as he looked me over slowly, taking in my expression and my stiff posture. He slowly picked up his other wrist guard and started working on it, breaking our gaze for several minutes before looking back up.

"Well...I'd say you're pulling a Chicken Little but I know you well enough, you're serious." Chief said, voice still soft. "If you need help, just ask."

"You're a good man Chief. If I do need help I'll ask."

There was a beeping from my 'tool and I popped it open and read the message. I nodded and stood up, catching the attention of the others.

"Suit up you slackers! Time to move out! Eggheads are about to be on the move!"

Everyone started to suit up, ready to move and eager for action.

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"There are fewer things in the universe more valuable then people you can truly trust." The woman's voice is soft.

"Earning that trust is the challenge." The man's voice responds. "How many could we tell about our situation and truly be believed? Only an Asari has the ability to 'know' a persons mind in such a manner, and even then could they believe?"

"It was a risk you had to take."

"I would have preferred not to have ended up in such a situation to begin with."

"There are benefits to it though."

"Hmph...mother-hen."

Soft laughter from both fills the air.

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