Users in a World of Fiction

by TREBOR117

The Biotic without his past fought his inner demon and won. The User repaired the code and helped take down a Spectre. But when they meet, it's a new challenge, a new galaxy, and a whole new Shepard. Crossover/Sequel between Trebor117's "Stuck In a World of Fiction" And Starspike7's "Users" .

21. It Would be Better if she were my Sister

Tali:

Tali couldn't help but grin as she walked towards the elevator. Thanks to the bet she'd placed on Ty, she was now several thousand credits richer. And she remembered seeing a state of the art omni-tool on display when she and Wrex were on the Citadel last.

She got to the elevator to call it, but saw that it was already on its way down. She leaned against the wall to wait for it.

I wonder what he's been up to. I haven't seen him since he carried Hannah off- I haven't seen her or Bourne either for that matter. Or really anyone from the ground crew. She happened to glance at the floor, and saw a red stain on it. After a moment, she realized it was blood, and wondered what happened.

She shrugged as she heard the elevator slide to a stop, and stood in front of it, waiting for the doors to open.

When they did, her hand immediately flew to her pistol.

The creature that was in there sighed. "Why is that always the reaction to this thing?"

"Bourne?" She asked in surprise, recognizing the voice. She took in the knives on the arms, and the omega on the chest, but it looked nothing like his normal armor. "What is that?"

"Let's just say Ty's nanites had a little...bug in the system." He shrugged. "So both our armors morphed into...this."
Tali's eyes fell down to his chest and noticed that all of his features were easily definable. Tali felt herself blush and she changed the subject, "So, what's it feel like?"

He looked at her for a moment in surprise- or at least she thought it was. His normal pokerface was still more expressive than the reflective grey visor covering his face. "Well...Ty compared to some old commercial from Earth's 21st century. Not really sure how to describe it." He looked down at his arms. "We guess it's like a second skin made of metal, or something."

"Um, don't you mean 'I guess?'"

"Uh, yeah, right, what...was the word that was used?"

She gave him a look of confusion.

He sighed. "Look, don't spread it around, but the short version is that this armor is a symbiotic organism. So "I" becomes "we" when referring to... ourself."

Tali cocked her head to the isde. "That's okay, not like it hampers your productivity."

"No, it's just a mild irritation. Along with a few other minor side effects."

"So, where are you headed?"

"Down to the shooting range. Hannah's supposed to meet us there." He gestured to himself. "And we're less likely to run into people down there. We've had 3 people point a gun at us on sight already…not including you reaching for yours."

Tali rubbed the back of her head and forced herself to ask him a question. "Can I come with you? I could really use some help sighting in my new shotgun?"

He was silent for a moment, and without being able to so much as see his eyes, she had no idea what he was thinking. "Yeah, we can help you with that." He finally said, walking past her towards the range.

She tried to keep her eyes on his back, but they kept dropping lower, to where the armor was especially form fitting. She felt her cheeks redden every time she had to yank her eyes back up.

"Bourne?" Tali heard Hannah call from the inside of the shooting range.

She looked past him to see that the door was open, and apparently she could see his armor from that angle.

"Yeah, that's kinda the reaction we've been getting today.'

Tali reached back and grabbed out her shotgun and checked it for the range. "Well, what do you suggest I start with for an enemy?"

Bourne walked into the room, and over to the controls. "Probably going to have to deal with Geth more than anything. Good a place to start as any."

"Start with something a little lighter though." Hannah suggested, walking over to stand next to him. "Aim is more important that-"

"Nobody likes a side seat driver Hero, even in this day and age."

Tali hit the Geth button on the setting but turned it down to trooper. "There, all ready."

Bourne glanced at her, then back at Hannah. "Yeah yeah, you can stop giving us that look."

"We'll watch from here." She said to Tali.

The program activated and Geth began moving in attack patterns. Tali placed the closest Geth in her crosshairs and fired. The geth directly to its left dropped from the spray.

"Is that the one you were aiming for?" Bourne asked. "Maybe it's just an optical illusion, but-"

Her eyes felt the ground and all that she felt was embarrassment. "No."

"Where were you aiming?"

"The closest one to me."

There was a short pause. "Try adjusting the sights a little to the right."

Tali activated her omni-tool and began working on the sights when her audio receptors picked up a quiet conversation between Hannah and Bourne.

"Is there a reason you used my real name a moment ago?"

"The stupid conversion thing for the suit. Arnold's working on it, but it's also blocking you out."

"I noticed. That's why I had to say it aloud."

"Sorry, what do you want us to say? At least it was because of that and not just us not paying attention."

"Right, so when do we go over the real topic for this meeting?"

There was a pause, and Tali felt eyes on her back.

"Would you be able to hear us from here?"

"Doubtful." Bourne replied. "Basically, what Arnold and Drew ended up figuring out is Ty's doubting himself more due to something with his pituitary gland- whenever an unknown person is nearby."

"And you really think that that's Cecelia?"

Tali had to work to not turn around in surprise.

"Hero, not five minutes after she pointed a gun at his head, he 'called dibs.' Not to mention calling her "probably the hottest alliance official this side of the galaxy." And saying that 'the dominatrix look' wasn't sexy. We could go on with examples."

"Would you not? It's really disturbing to hear her talked about that way...did you really find a video of her-"

"Yes, but it wasn't on purpose."

"Uh huh. Sure."

Tali felt her face going to a burning red and she fired her shotgun to help tune them out. Sadly, it wasn't enough as she heard them continue talking.

"So the reason he threw you into the wall hard enough to leave a dent was...because he has a crush?"

"No, that was the excess testosterone this thing generated. The crush is what's making him doubt himself...that, and us."

"You?"

"Back in his own universe...Arnold said he never doubted that he could control his universe. But with us here, and things shifting from code to reality on the flip of a coin…"

They both went silent, leaving Tali confused beyond any words she knew.

"Yeah, it's not a good thing."

"You seem to have picked up his talent for understatement."

"It's bad enough we have to deal with Saren and Iron-" Tali felt a twinge of pain in her gut as she heard the name, but it passed a moment later. "-but if he's going all Emo the whole time…"

"I get the picture."

That was more than Tali could say.

"And on top of that, this thing's apparently on a time limit."

"What do you mean?"

"It appeared at the exact same time- the exact same split second- that it did when Ty did this the first time. So if you follow that logic-"

"It'll disappear on Virmire?"

Tali could swear she'd heard that name before, though she couldn't place it.

"Apparently...and without Ty's abilities, there's no guarantee we'll survive it's 'death'."

"...how are you holding up? That's a lot to take in."

"Well, when we opened the faceplate earlier, Liara took one look, screamed, and passed out."

"..."

"Yeah, as of 2 hours ago, Wrex is no longer the ugliest person on the Normandy." He joked, though it sounded slightly forced.

Tali let out a curse as her gun suddenly overheated, and one of the Geth "killed" her with a well placed shot to the gut. Apparently, it was loud enough for the two biotics to hear.

"Any improvement?" Bourne asked.

"Yes and no. the new aiming system is throwing me off when it comes to seeing other enemies that I am not aiming at."

She heard faint footsteps and a moment later Hannah was standing next to her. "Mind if I take a look?"

"Sure", Tali said as she handed the gun up to her.

"Bourne, start this thing up again."

After a moment, Geth appeared, and she took aim. After firing a couple of shots, she lowered the gun and let them tag her to end it. "Yeah, I see what you mean. You get plenty of accuracy, but the flipside is that it completely takes away your peripheral vision."

She turned around to her friend. "Bourne, what do you think?"

Tali turned as well, and saw a blue tear at the wall. Ty stepped out of it, smoking. "Bourne, you will never believe the bull shit conclusion that Drew says he has come to. Oh, Hero and Tali are here… Nevermind."

"After what's happened to us today, we'd believe just about anything…unless he said you're turning into a batarian, or that gravity is about to stop working. Anything less extreme than that."

Tali noticed that the red zero that was usually on his chest had migrated up to where his left eye was. "Nevermind, I don't want to talk about it."

Bourne crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side, apparently glaring at him. "For the record, bringing a subject up only to not talk about is kinda a pet peeve of ours."

Ty remained quiet and stood up straighter to try and show no fear of Bourne. Bourne seemed almost amused by the act.

"Anyway-" Hannah turned back to looking at the shotgun. "It looks like the problem here is that it takes too much focus to be that accurate, but I don't think the shotgun itself can be modified to improve it without destroying it."

Tali half listened to Hannah drone on about how to improve her skills with new shotgun but she was more interested in the way Ty was making his way over to Bourne.

"Dude, I have a serious problem." Ty said under his breath.

Bourne glanced back at them, and she instantly turned towards Hannah, hoping to appear to not be listening.

"If you're talking about the mind link being down, she and us are having the same problem- Arnold's working on something else, so it's affecting the rest of our brain too."

Ty smacked him in the shoulder, "This is my problem. Having you two stopped from being able to whisper in my ear at anytime isn't it. I actually am enjoying having my thoughts to myself. Anyway, Drew says that two women on the ship are causing my pituitary gland to act up and I don't think you are going to like who it is."

"He says two of them...that's odd. Arnold was apparently talking to him not long ago, but they thought it was a singular female."

Ty nodded, "Yes, Drew said he thought it was one also. But apparently after what happened with Cecelia. He thinks it's two now."

"And if displeasure at the thought is a part of it, Ashley must be one of the two."

"Worse."

"That seems doubtful...god, please say you're not talking about Hero."

"... uh, how about that space weather, huh?"

"Your skills are lying are pitiful." From the corner of her eye, Tali saw him cover his faceplate with his hands. "Christ, words cannot describe how insanely creepy that is. Seriously, that's just...We don't even...honestly, there is a strong temptation right now to put a bullet in your head, and then turn it on ourself."

Ty looked down dejectedly and shrugged. "I don't know. Not like I have the emotional control you do. On top of what my brain does, this armor apparently amplifies it and we end up feeling super emotions."

"Emotional control we do? You're kidding, right? A poker face doesn't mean that the one with it doesn't still experience emotions, often strong ones. It just means that training and habit have made it possible to hide it with very little effort."

Ty cracked his neck and made his way for the door. "I am heading to the mess hall. I seriously need to eat."

"Yeah, guess it would be a good idea to head there too before long. At least with two of us, it might seem less abnormal. Though the chances of that are admittedly slim."

Shaking his head Ty said., "Okay, but look away from me when you eat. I don't want to throw up what I already ate."

"You are slightly less ugly, but still not easy to look at, so your worry is unnecessary." He turned to look at Tali, and she almost jumped as she turned back to Hannah, hoping he wouldn't realize she'd been eavesdropping. "Hero, can you handle this?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Alright, Ty and us are heading to the mess."

"After I'm done with this, I'll head that way myself."

"Might not be a good idea...well, not sitting at the same table anyway. Unless you like having your half eaten meal periodically covered with the partially digested other half."

"Yeah. Maybe we can just look away from each other while we talk."

"Maybe." He said with a shrug, heading out the door a few feet behind Ty.

Hannah must have given Tali a hundred pieces of advice, but she didn't hear a single one of them. Her attention was focused on what the three had been discussing- though she understood almost none of it.

"Tali? Is something wrong?" Hannah asked when they stopped to adjust the gun again. "You seem a little out of it."

"I… I think I just heard Ty say he has… affection for you."

"...what?"

Shepard:

Cecelia led out of Chakwas out her room, fuming that Ty literally played dead to escape her wrath. Or should I say, put it off until next I see him. She just had to work out how to get past his armor.

"You gonna eat that?"

"Being a biotic, it would be a safe assumption for you to make that the answer is yes."

Cecelia looked to her left and saw Ty and Bourne eating at the table. "You son-of-a-bitch."

Ty immediately grabbed his hamburger off the table and snatched Bourne's as well, Sprinting as fast as he could away.

He got about 3 feet before slamming into a green wall of energy that appeared in front of him. "If you wish to get away from her, you will put the burger back. Unless you want her to have help with the violence she's no doubt about to inflict on you."

Cecelia took two steps toward Ty but he threw Bourne's burger like a frisbee at her and she got distracted as the biotic snatched it out of the air.

She looked up from the act and Ty was nowhere to be found. "Oh, he's good."

"Being able to teleport tends to help if you're trying to get away." Bourne said, faceplate closed.

Cecelia sighed and took a seat across from him. "Man, has he been worse than usual or is it just me?"

He nodded. "It's something to do with this... tecnocyte armor we're both encased in. Apparently it amplifies emotions- a lot."

"So what? He is more annoying than usual? And why was there puke in my room?"

"Didn't you find him in there earlier? He probably looked in the mirror."

"No, it was when it was locked. Someone told me they heard both you in their and Ty sounded like he was in pain… it was Kaidan that told me."

He was silent for a moment. "Okay, truth is Ty accidentally teleported us in there when he was trying to get somewhere else, and...he accidently took a knee to the groin."

"Accidentally?"

"Very little warning was given. He should have...made two separate trips instead of sending us both at once."

Shepard cocked her head to the side. "You know how to do his teleport thing?"

"Not remotely. He should have opened a portal...but not had us go through at the same time. He would have been the second trip, and given time to move so he wouldn't land in the same spot...assuming that was actually possible, but either way it wasn't his smartest move."

Raising an eyebrow she said, "So, you get how it works?"

"As was said before, not remotely. It's just a guess." He brought his hands together in front of him, setting them on the table. "If you wish to continue this conversation, moving to a place where you aren't looking directly at this spot would be a good idea."

She looked at him in confusion a moment, before remembering what he'd said Liara had done when she'd seen his face. She got up and moved to the spot two seats next to him, keeping her attention on the back wall as his faceplate opened back up.

"Apparently, this thing would be able to heal the facial scars, but not change the eyes back to normal or get rid of the black veins crawling all over the face." He commented. "Hardly an improvement in and of itself."

Shepard nodded, "Yeah, so you think Ty is going to get himself under control or should I just lock you two in a room and give you a steel baseball bat?"

"Hopefully, that won't be necessary. But quite honestly, restrainment might be the only way to keep him from a repeat of our earlier encounter. Personally, with the...since there's no other accurate word, infection will have to suffice. With the infection complete, brain patterns should be normal. And while he doesn't have the training or skill to hide his emotions, the risk for...having to have that happen to a certain biotic is extremely unlikely."

"Huh?"

He sighed. "With the whole 'singular converts to plural' thing, efforts are being made to avoid such pronouns. But if further clarification is necessary for you to understand...we can deal with it for one conversation, though we won't really like it. Basically, we're better at controlling ourselves than Ty is."
Ty suddenly fell out of the ceiling and landed in the seat across from Bourne. "I'm back...argh, dude, close that thing up, will you?"

"Or you can just move. Already had to stop eating when she sat down, not doing it again for you."

Ty began speaking without noticing Shepard. "I don't know why but I was getting a weird look from Hannah. Do you think she heard us earlier?"

"Not at that distance. Even with enhanced hearing- which she does not have- we'd have been barely more than a faint buzzing."

Ty looked to Shepard and then back to Bourne. "Well it was weird. Now, I am going to stop talking about this since she is here."

He grunted assent as he continued eating.

The adept sat down next to Cecelia. "Hey Ty...I'm really not sure how to say this…"

"Generally, using your mouth is advised." Bourne commented, earning himself a glare.

"I have to leave", Ty said as he got up and began walking away- instead walking face first into a green wall for the second time. "God damn you Jason. Fuck, I think that messed with my head. Ah, damn it."

"You are aware that you already have symbiotic alien nanotechnology doing that? And to be fair, Hero's way of dealing with you seems like it'll be more interesting than Cecelia's." He sounded distinctly amused.

"Fine Hannah, ask away. After all, if you ask Bourne, I am the man with all the answers."

"...I have no idea what that means, but I'll have him fill me in later. Okay, no easy way to say this, so...there's a rumor on the lower deck that you have a thing for me."

Bourne's faceplate closed, and he turned to look at her with what could have only been suprise. "Where'd you hear that?"

Cecelia felt a pang of jealousy run through her gut and she looked at Ty's faceplate. "Do tell Ty."

Ty waved them off. "Ha, no way. Why the hell would I fight you if I had a thing for you? That is like going in the opposite direction, don't you think?"

"Well, you did carry her off in your arms bridal style." Bourne said with a chuckle, obviously enjoying this. Though there was a hint of something else that Shepard couldn't place.

Ty shook his head, "Out of respect. She gave a good fight, therefore, I should be the one that makes sure she is okay."

"So if you'd fought...damn it, that's taking way more effort than we thought it would. If you'd fought us, would you have carried us bridal style? And can we get an opinion here on whether this sounds better than us going out of our way to avoid pronouns and sounding like something from shakespeare?"

"Honestly, with you Bourne, I would have dragged you like I would a deer out of the forest. In other words, tie you to a four wheeler and drag you out."

"Where would you have gotten a four wheeler on the Normandy?...What about Garrus or...we don't know, Cecelia maybe? If they'd given you a fight like that, would you have carried them out like her, or like a deer?"

Ty cocked his head at Bourne, confused. "Bridal, that's how I was always taught to carry a woman. Guys, you just toss over your shoulder or drag on the ground."

Bourne shrugged and turned back to his food, face plate sliding open again. "So why does the turian get tossed over the shoulder instead being tied to a vehicle you have no chance of actually getting on this ship? What, would you have used the Mako?"
"Because the Turian isn't part metal."

"And if you hadn't given us both this stuff, you would have?...also, he would have been wearing armor, so how is that different? Either way the weight would have been the same." He pointed a thumb at Hannah. "Hell, with the cybernetics she has, she's probably the heaviest of the three of us."

"And why exactly do you think calling a woman heavy is a good thing?" She asked in response, shooting him a death glare.

"Blame gravity, not me."

Ty leaned back and crossed his arms. "What's next? Are you going to tell her she looks fat in a dress?"

"We said she weighed more, not that she was fat- hell, thanks to the biotics she couldn't be much thinner. Stating scientific fact is far different than deliberately trying to get a bullet between the eyes. "

Cecelia leaned in and gave Ty her death glare. "So, yes you do like Hannah or No, you don't?"

"No." Ty answered flatly so she couldn't get a read on whether it was a lie or not.

Bourne chuckled. "So, have any ladies around here caught your eye? Because according the suit, a couple of them have."

"No, and what does a suit of armor really know?"

"A suit of armor, not much. A highly advanced artificial intelligence on the other hand, who's able to see brain patterns, heart rate, breathing, the chemical changes in your body, that's a totally different thing...and it just occurred to us that with the whole 'AI are illegal to make' thing, probably should be careful where we talk about this stuff."

"It knows nothing. Now, shut up."

Cecelia grinned as she leaned forward. "Really? Sounds to me like you're just unwilling to admit it."

"You know, I have to agree with her on this one." Hannah said, leaning back in her seat and putting her hands behind her head. "And it sounds pretty qualified to judge you."

"It learned how to recognize sarcasm and metaphors from speech patterns." Bourne put in. "So odds are it can figure out something like a crush too."

"I highly doubt that. You can't code something to read emotions that have no chemical existence. A crush, is developed by a sexual attraction to someone that you believe you are compatible with. Now, for the record, no one here is compatable with me. They would just slow me down and nerf my powers."

Cecelia heard his faceplate close, and glanced over to see him looking at both women. "Totally in denial, are we right or are we right?"

"Jason, I totally agree with you, but honestly I think I prefered the shakespeare method." Hannah answered.

"They are in the center of the table. I can't look at you all without looking at them." Ty pointed out, obviously annoyed.

"...huh?" Both biotics asked at once.

"God, does it matter right now? I mean seriously, not like Hannah, Cecelia, Ashley, Tali, or Liara are going to find my face attractive in this state." Ty said running his hand down the helmet.

Bourne chuckled. "Don't be such a pessimist...maybe one of them will go blind. And deaf."

Ty stopped talking after that and laid his head down on the table. At first, Cecelia thought it was just out of annoyance but after several seconds she heard something. He's snoring?

"Well, I guess he finally ran out of juice." She commented.

Chakwas overheard her and walked over to Ty. "What do you expect? He has been up since his fight with Hannah. Never saw him rest his eyes a wink while he waited for her to wake up."
Bourne put his hand on his chin thoughtfully. "Not to mention how much energy he must have used in that fight. Or the one in the cargo hold with Garrus. Or taking out his frustrations on the shooting range and me...also, he accidently got kneed in the crotch at one point."

Ty rolled his head over and muttered. "Yeah, I can be the hero. You can be the maiden in distress."

Bourne swore under his breath."Why doesn't this suit have a built in camera or audio recording device or...wait, seriously, it does?...was it on just now?...hehe, nice. So using that later."

"Layla, stop it. No, I can't let them go… No, even my rage needs to stay." Ty began to roll is his sleep until he fell to the ground. "No, stop it. Don't take them. My emotions, my soul. It hurts."

Bourne almost seemed to flow over to where he was, he moved so quickly and quietly. "Arnold, any idea what he's talking about? And did you fix that one issue so we can stop talking out loud now, or are we going to continue to sound insane?"

"Stop it." Ty's hand dug into the floor and nanites poured out from his fingers.

Cecelia looked over at Hannah, who had gone wide eyed. "What's going on?"

"We'll tell you as soon as we know." Bourne answered grimly. "In the meantime-" green biotics surrounded him and Ty, and the latter lifted into the air. "We better get him away from anything important so he doesn't screw up anything else...come on Arnold, you know we don't mean it like that...no,we don't…okay, maybe there's a little bit of resentment, but that's more directed at him, since it's his fault while you...Oh come on, can you think of a better word than infection?"

Both women exchanged a look.

"Just figure out what's wrong with him- And hurry up with the mental link thing!"

Bourne:

I tried to tune out the looks the others were given me. "Look, last time he had a nightmare like this, it ended up almost killing him. And that was before his emotions were being jacked up a thousand fold. So see if Drew can do something to wake him up."

Jason, Drew is requesting that I let you know that he finds that you are the central cause for Ty's nightmare.

I considered that for a moment. "It sounded more like his ex was the cause...ask him if it could be-" I stopped myself short as I caught Hannah looking at me. "Our doppelganger from the place that gave us amnesia."

This dream is not related to him. It seems that the more time you spend away from him, the more Ty can push it out of his mind. This dream has Layla trying to get him to let go of his emotions to kill you.

"...Well, that wasn't what we expected." I shook my head. "Clarify one thing for us though. The worry about the person in question lessens the more time he's away from us, or from the doppelganger?"

The one with the designation Iron.

I glanced over at the others and lowered my voice to a barely audible level. "So he's more afraid of us than of him?"

Drew says that Ty believes that if you were given a choice of killing him or staying here...You wouldn't hesitate to take him out.

"You mean, he thinks we'd kill him to go back." It wasn't a question. "The place we came from before this, or the place we came from originally?"

The universe with a Raptor.

"...you know that she's a person, not a dinosaur, right?"

Really, I thought that you modded your world to have dinosaurs.

I decided to ignore that- partially because it was really hard to detect sarcasm in a voice that sounded so filtered and reptilian. And because I couldn't really blame Ty for thinking so. Danny had told us we had to 'win' to go back. And if that meant taking him out...I might hesitate, but if it was the only way to get back...If it was the only way to see Ashley and Raptor again, I would kill him. Even if I hesitated first, I'd still kill him- or maybe die trying, with what he can do.

"Hannah, get out of my way." Ty's words were cold and held an unspoken note of "Or else." It was a tone I was very familiar with.

"What's going on in there now?" I asked, slightly louder than I'd been speaking.

Ty's drive to win and belief that you would trade his life for your last led him to let go of his emotions. He has become pure consciousness in a body and is tearing you apart bit by bit. He does not want to die and more than that, he does not want to lose.

I felt a chill go down my spine. "Did...did it happen to his real mind?"

No, Ty's dreams are more indepth than ones that you might have. Because he is part code and User, his dreams consist of possible events and what would be the most likely outcome to them.

"Like what...happened when we were in a coma after being stabbed?"

Not quite. You were only shown future events, apart from facing…Iron, in combat. He is living such future events.

I lowered my voice again. "How likely are such events to happen? He's not actually predicting the future, right?"

One cannot say without some idea of the story plan. Ty is just feeding off a worst case scenario. You both could end up leaving without having to battle each other.

I certainly hoped that would be the case. Unless things were completely on my side, he'd tear me apart- Literally. He could beat Hero without armor morphing or anything but the biotic catching. He couldn't stop my charges, or maybe my knives, but it'd be an even match at best. I noticed that the red matrix code still surround his hands, though my biotics were for the most part holding it in place. "What's he trying to do with the code?"

"Hero, please move." He muttered.

"And what's happening in the dream now?"

Hero is between you and him. She is forcing the emotions he discarded to come back.

"And the code? What would that be doing if it was touching something?"

You don't want to know. Oh, and to keep himself alive, he just killed Hero.

I grimaced beneath the visor. "Let us guess- that code would be destroying anything it touched. And it might even be seeking us out specifically...that, or it would be turning us into a chick or something."

"What was that?" Hannah asked.

I shot her a look that would have said to be quiet if she'd seen it. "Nothing. It's just a really weird dream." I turned back to the floating User, voice barely audible. "Like we said before, what we want is rarely what we need. What'd it be doing?"

It would tear you apart and make sure you felt all the pain.

"Just us?...yeah, that's actually not as bad as we feared."

Anyone who touches it. We were using a collective you.

"Ah...That is as bad. Any idea how much longer before he wakes up, or stops with the code? And somewhat relevant, is it doing anything to our biotics, and how long can we keep this up before we run out of energy?"

No, you can get him in a pod. But we suggest you do it fast. You are going very slow and wearing out your body.

I turned to the pods, and he turned with me, as if connected by an invisible pole. "How will putting him in something he'll destroy help? And what do you mean I'm going slow?"

You are slowing in your actions. The sway could be in Ty's favor currently.

"We feel fine….other than having you in our head."

It can still be slightly in his favor. Not all the way but it is leaning toward him. Now, do not worry about the format strike. It only affects things with active code, not inanimate code.

I started walking towards the pods, and held a hand up to forestall the questions the others were starting to ask. "So, then, do the biotics count as active code? Because we'd hate to lose any important powers...other than biotic sphere. That one, we don't get the point of, since we already can make shields and tend to go in alone instead of hanging back."

Ty gave you that with the intention that you would use it as a warp bubble. All enemies that step in it would automatically be warped.

"So how the heck do we stop it from warping our allies too? Game and reality aren't the same thing...not always, anyway."
The biotic bubble is part biotics and part tech. That's why the Asari justicars in the multiplayer have octogonal plates that make up the shield.

"...You know, we always wondered about that." I carefully moved Ty out of the way as I opened a pod, then moved myself out of the way as I lowered him in,without letting him actually make contact with anything. "You sure this is a good idea?"

Doubt is not the most healthy start to a relationship.

"Half the voices we've had in our head tried to kill us, and every synthetic we've met other you than have been shooting at us or trying to blow us up. Cut us a little slack."

I have no rope to lengthen.

Again, I ignored the possible sarcasm. "Also, we still get absolutely nothing about this code stuff, other than it usually seems to help him and simultaneously screw us over."

Ty has been mulling over teaching you some simple methods of controlling it. So that next time he doesn't get his knowledge erased.

"Knowledge erased?"

Picking his nose.

"...we thought he said we were trying to do that. You mean to tell us he now lacks the hand eye coordination to...that doesn't seem physically possible."

It's true, he just didn't want to let you know because you were trying to save him. He thought it would hurt your feelings to know you deleted some of his basic instinctive motor skills.

"...with nose picking, I'm more likely to crack up. What else got erased?"

His fourth grade year.

That stopped me cold. "Why didn't he...I'm probably the one person who would understand that."

He repieced it together easily. Just because something is deleted, doesn't mean it's gone with code. Formatting is a different story though.

I looked at Ty again. Here goes nothing. I deactivated the biotics, and he fell the half centimeter or so into the pod. After a moment, I let out the breath I'd been holding.

While I understand your doubt under the circumstances, it's hard not to take it personally.

"Noted. What's the difference between deletion and reformating though?

I looked at Ty and noticed the glow around his fist was gone. Deletion is the act of enabling your computer to overwrite save storage space. Formatting is to clear that space of everything. It appears Ty has switched dreams.

"So you're saying, if something gets formatted, it's gone for good?...just to be clear, which one happened to the nose picking thing?"

Deletion. Would you like updates on Ty's dream?

"Only if it's relevant to us, Hannah, or the Normandy crew."

Hannah.

"Will hearing about his dream give me nightmares or creep me out?"

He is seeing the most likely scenario if he were to tell her how he feels.

"...unless she's flat out saying no way, then it's probably better you don't tell us...and is there a way to stop overriding the singulars?"
She says no and he is somewhat crushed but okay. As for the singulars, I like people knowing that there's two people in here.

"If we have to talk to civilians on Feros, we'll sound insane. And how come Drew seems to have stopped doing that for Ty?"

Ty scares us.

"...Well, that's just fantastic."

"Bourne, if you're done talking to yourself, you mind telling us what the hell just happened?" From the tone of Cecelia's voice, it was not a request.

I turned to face them, arms crossed. "His AI talked to ours. He's fine now. Anything more than that-" I hit the button to open a pod. "Can wait until tomorrow. We've been up even longer than he has, genetic enhancements or not."
I heard her yelling as I shut the pod. "We'll pay for that later, but right now we're too tired to care. Arnold, you don't need sleep, right?"

Correct.

"Keep an eye on Ty. And if he wakes up, wake us up." Something else occurred to me. "And up the speed and strength increases a little. If things go south, we want any advantages we can get."

Do you still want it done gradually?

"If you kept it on overnight, would we reach our maximum limits?"

Negative.

"About what would our maximum be?"

With our armor, similar to a Spartan-2. Without, you'd just barely break human records.

"Then boost us up once we're asleep...just remind us when we wake up so we don't break the pod opening it, or crush someone's shoulder by accident or something…though if Wrex pisses us off-" I smiled grimly. "Then this might be fun."

^Can't I just rage quit now? I am not enjoying this game.^

(It gets better later on. Which means worse for Bourne. *Spoiler alert- he explodes.)

^Wait, aren't you like the spoiler cops usually?^

(...Bourne's always getting blown up or stabbed or something though. It's like saying "There's kryptonite in *insert anything with superman here*" and calling that a spoiler. Or saying "Batman will angst over his dead parents.")

)Or saying a Michael Bay film will have giant explosions.(

*Or saying Bourne is going to kick Iron's ass.*

(Yeah, exact- hey!)

^Go away Hero.^

(Yeah, I wish. But since somebody blew up my I-pad and made me bleed all over my keyboard and ruin it, I have to use her spare. Which she won't let me do unless she's also here.)

^Damn it, now this is just awkward. Can she at least just not speak?^

*Or you could just not be a dick.*

^I'm not being a dick, I am having a bad day.^

(Oh no, a girl is talking to you...yeah, guess that would be pretty uncommon for you, huh?)

*How about instead of arguing, T117 and S7 post that original fight like they said they would, and then we don't have to deal with each other.*

S7: I don't know. Forcing you two to talk this out with Iron as the middle man could be funnier.

*Do you really think that, or do you just not want to have to go back and find the original fight in all those PMs?*

(Also, if you try to make me do it, I think it's perfectly in character to break this computer with Hero's computer.)

)You realize that'd be pretty much best case scenario for both of us, right?(

^That is best case scenario for everyone.^

T117: Yeah, gotta veto that. Iron's the most fun to write for, since Bourne's basically me but exaggerated in certain areas, and Hero's basically a snarky goody-two-shoes. Iron's...well...

S7: Damn, okay, I'll go sifting through the PMs.

^Jesus Christ that is a ton of PMs.^

T117: Yeah, no kidding...Alright, I just copied and pasted the original stuff, and put our names on which sections we did. And Also deleted stuff not related to the fight, like when we were talking about getting together to play ME3 or random stuff…And also fixed some grammar errors and stuff.

(What are you trying to do, build up suspense? Let's go!)

S7: Hero is dead, Iron is dead, you stated that Raptor would most likely be tagging along. Ahh, we need rules for this pissing

T117: One on one, Jason Vs Ty.

S7: Maybe I should just ask my readers what they would think. Lol, jk. they probably would be on your side anyway

T117: Bourne's no mary sue (anymore) but he's definitely one tough mofo to try to kill.

S7: And Ty get's his Technocyte armor. The battle takes place on Noveria. on the cliff highway because it is a badass place for a battle.

T117: Bourne is how he is at the end of Siawof, no Iron or Hero, but he can still charge and has singularities, plus his own skills.

S7: Ty has the glaive, Drew, Tsunami assault rifle, katana Shotgun, Stiletto Pistol, and Naginata sniper (sure he can't use it but it looks cool on his back) and no friends

T117: Alright , Bourne has his Assault rifle, Shotgun, and pistol with explosive rounds. And the knives. obviously.

S7: Just the technocyte one (Glaive) can be controlled by Drew. that means it's Ty's equivalent to the biotic knives. Jason get's first move because Ty doesn't strike first

T117:Alright.

Bourne biotically throws a couple of knives from his belt at Ty, just to test the waters.

He's also got a barrier up for extra protection.

S7: Ty would just spawn his drone and let it take the knives in the face. Leaving him okay.

T117: Or wide open to a warp field, which'd be the next thing Bourne hurled his way.

S7: Ty would just use Shield boost that way his shields could take the warp. Then, he would rip out his stiletto pistol in his right hand and his glaive in his left. He would then being making his way toward Bourne and lay suppression with his pistol.

T117: Bourne whips out his own pistol and opens fire, letting his barrier absorb Ty's.

He also flicks a knife into his left hand, for if he gets close.

S7: Ty would let Drew take over at this point because he is a fast paced fighter. Drew would dodge the shots and toss the glaive as Borne's left hand to keep him from having the knife.

T117: Bourne drops the knife to biotically deflect the glaive, then follows it up by launching the dropped knife at Ty/Drew.

S7: Ty brings up his right arm and straight takes the blow. Then uses the metal in the knife along with the iron in his bloodstream to make a second glaive. With that he gets in close and takes a swing at Bourne

T117: He biotically charges into him, then charges backwards to give himself room. He then throws out a singularity.

S7: Ty recovers and throws his drone out as a decoy for the singularity. After, he fires off a overload and sabotage at Borne to disable his weapons and biotics while he get's in close

T117:...You mean disable his barrier, right? Because Sabotage only affects weapons.

S7: Yes, that, I have no idea why I wrote power

T117:Bourne throws a warp field at the glaive and a throw orb at him to knock him back.

S7: Ty throws off his second glaive and calls the other glaive between him and the throw blocking it. Now, he pulls his Katana out and shoots a blast right at Borne's center

T117: His shields are half depleted. With nothing between them, he hits Ty with a biotic charge, focused in a punch right to the gut, then rips the shotgun from his hands and crushes it.

S7: Ty bends over in pain from the punch but moves quick as Jason crushes his gun. Ty throws his hand right into the main core of Jason's operating system and begins shutting down his powers.

T117: The data rewriting causes Bourne to lose some of his training with guns and his basic throw. His own powers kick in, trying to get things back to normal, and both are thrown back several feet.

He takes advantage and hits Ty with another charge.

S7: Ty hits a wall and a red zero lights up on his chest. the red zero duplicates and flows out of him causing their most hated enemy to rise between them. Saren spawns out of the red matrix code and stands between the two of them.

T117: Seeing the more urgent threat, Bourne hurls a half dozen knives at his head.

S7: Ty begins to stand up and watches as Saren transforms his robotic arm into the arm of the werehog and snatches all Bourne's knives out of the air and then hurls them at Ty. Ty quickly rolls to the side and dodges the knives.

T117:Bourne's weapons are finally cooled enough to use, so he whips out his shotgun and opens fire.

S7: Saren uses Kai Leng's arm shield to stop it, and throws a biotic blast Bourne charges to the side to avoid. Saren uses his biotics to make an ice spear from the snow and hurls it at Ty but Ty already moved. Ty ran over to one of his glaives that had an active warp field on it and kicked it in the air. Drew took over from there and directed it at Saren. Saren saw it coming and brought up a brute arm to defend himself but the glaive embedded into it and caused the warp field to form onto him.

T117: Seeing this, Bourne throws in a biotic orb, causing the primed combo to detonate, blowing his arm off.

S7: Saren drops to one knee clutching his arm and looked down at the ground. He saw and picked up Ty's glaive and pressed it to his stump of an arm. Using the glaive he regrew his arm and morphed it into a buster cannon aimed at Jason. Ty seeing that Saren was distracted plunged his arm down into the snow and began constructing a new glaive from the metals in the mountain.

T117: Bourne charges to the side, narrowly avoiding the blast, and sends a tightly packed group of knives at Saren's head.

S7: Ty pulls his hand out of the snow with another glaive and calls the one he used to block Jason's throw back to his hand. He quickly took in the action and saw his chance. Ty began sprinting toward Saren and threw both his Glaives at Borne. While Bourne was distracted Ty slammed his arm into Saren and quickly began reabsorbing his data.

T117: Bourne charges out of the way of the Glaives, and slams into Ty with a second one. He puts his shotgun at the base of Ty's skull, but Saren takes the opportunity to throw a grenade at both of them, knocking them both back several feet.

S7: Ty jumps up out of the snow and has Drew call the glances back to him. Once they are in his hands Ty converts them into pure data and readies his ultimate power.

T117:Bourne grabs biotically and floats him in front of him for a shield. He starts throwing knives at Ty, using the biotics to curve them around Saren.

S7: Formatting input has started. Jason's knives burst into ones and zeroes as they hit Ty. Ty immediately sprints forward and punches Saren blasting him back into red binary code. "One chance dude!"

T117:The timing for Saren's death is wrong, causing Bourne's reality warping to kick in. As it attempts to push things back to normal, it weakens Ty's ability to manipulate code.

One of the knives manages to get through, stabbing him in the side.

S7:The knife causes Ty to release all of his pent up energy and total format occurs. Everything and everyone is deleted. Total reset in progress.

Okay, I ended it. It's a draw

T117:That, or Bourne's powers would have thanks to Saren. He's supposed to have died, but not died at that time or place. So he needs to be brought back, but he needs to stay dead. Paradox causes a rift in reality, completely wipes out everything.

(...Draw? Man, what a f**king copout.)

^BULLSHIT!^

~It's like you didn't even try.~

S7: To be fair, I had to limit Ty for this. Without Drew, Ty would have owned.

T117: If you want to bitch about that, how about we just say Bourne's reality warping did something to give him the best possible chance...plus, Bourne got a couple new abilities last chapter, which'd give him a better chance.

(Do not have this same damn pissing match literally twice in a row!)

*Instead of whining about who got screwed over in the fight, how about you focus on the positives, like how it expanded into such a great story...or at least decent story.*

(Decent?)

*It has you in it. I say that makes decent a generous description.*

(...There's no need to be hurtful.)

S7: True, this pissing watch comes up a lot when we talk though.

T117: That's because we're both major nerds.

S7: I think everyone got that when they read our fan fiction.

T117: Anyway, I think that wraps up this chapter.

S7: Yep, please leave any comments, questions and concerns in the box below unless they are about how we should stop writing this. Seriously, you are about two months late on that.

T117: Yeah, and we're finishing this damn thing if it kills us...though I hope it doesn't, since I want to also complete Surviving a World of Fiction. Anyway, Sayonara.

S7:1473I2