I suddenly fall out of my bed, not of my own volition as I wake up quickly noticing a sword in my bed as I see an armored-up woman, likely human from the design, currently defenseless as she charges me. I get no time to register the situation other than the fact as I'm under attack, she flips and moves around like she's a damn ninja and I have to keep dodging and moving to avoid getting my neck sliced.

In the commotion of dodging this woman while she attacks, I manage to grab one of my omni-tools and activate the omni-blade just in time to block a sword slash. I use the moment to grab my second omni-tool and attach it, now at least a bit better suited. Sending out Flint who starts firing at her hitting her as I see a purple barrier in the dark room, biotics. I wonder why she hasn't used biotics on me, suddenly I she aims her hand at me and blasts me, in my attempt to dodge she hits me in the arm, which I then realize I can no longer feel. Taking a split second to look I see my arm leaking a good deal of blood. "Shit! Who the hell are you!" She then cloaks and I run out a scan for thermal energy on my omni-tool and see her rush for me, I wait for a moment and put my arms together which then activates a massive shield that covers my full body before slamming the shield right into her knocking her to the ground and deactivating her cloak as my omni-tools are overloaded and spark from the excessive power use.

I charge down and pin her to the ground, grasping her wrist that holds her blade, she twists her wrist out of my grip and manages to slash my side as I slam my fist into her helmet which cracks it and disorients her as I continue, punching her helmet rapidly before breaking it, I then take my sharp talons and slam them into her throat slicing through and seeing her try to raise her sword again before her hand falls limp and lets go as she stops moving. Only then do I take my talons out feeling very thankful once again that I was born a Turian. Panting and catching my breath as I drag myself over to an emergency medkit and applying medi-gel to my wounds.

Wincing as I apply it to my side wound and understanding that it's a semi deep slash that she med gel should be able to take care of. I slowly move over to a light switch and turn it on to get a better look at my assailant. The lights turn on and I'm shocked to see who it is, a well-known white, black and orange outfit, Cerberus! When that name comes to mind, I can feel my anger rise and rise. One of my most hated organizations of all time. I look at the impressive and advanced armor and decide to take it and store it with my armor. The rest of the day is spent calling C-Sec, answering questions and recovering while thinking about how lucky I was that the first stab missed me when I rolled over in bed.

I return home from the hospital and start working on my equipment, already having cleaned up the mess in my apartment. I pull out the phantom's armor and begin inspecting it, most interested in the blaster on the right gauntlet, reminding me of Iron Man. Well he was always one of my favorites. I deconstruct the gauntlet and record the schematic in some notes, the main takeaway being the beams it can shoot out which might help me further figure out how to make energy type weapons. I look at the time and can't help but sigh, I nearly got too invested in my equipment and missed the first day that I'm supposed to go and start my work on the Normandy. Though right now I'm thinking it's likely in its planning phase. I get dressed in my favorite hoodie and pants and get going to the meeting area in the Presidium.

I arrive and walk into the meeting room, seeing Nihlus, another Turian and a Human, the last two who seem to be yelling at each other. "I'm telling you Tatum the drive core is unstable, not only is it going to overheat and fail but also it's going to be impossible to control, the first day you send this thing out it's going to collapse and explode the whole vessel!"

Well he's not completely wrong, those were concerns but it turned out well in the games, the core was able to handle storing the ship's heat well. Nihlus looks frustrated and rubs his face before noticing I arrived. The Turian responds as I walk over. "For the last time Zander, I'm the one who designed the core, these problems you speak of won't be of concern when we build the ship!" He slams his fist onto the table as I give a hard cough to let them know I'm here. The Turian, Tatum I think he was called, speaks first. "Oh, hello you must be the one Nihlus was talking about, nice to meet you I'm Octavio Tatum, one of the head designers of the project." He says changing his tune a little.

The Human grumbles before speaking as well. "I'm Elli Zander, I'm the second head of this project, I'll be commanding the ship after it is finished, like he said Nihlus already gave us an idea about you, he's saying you can contribute and improve the designs we have. Currently we are inclined to trust a Spectre on his word." His subtle hint of doubt doesn't escape me.

"Well you have both heard of me already so I'll go ahead and fully introduce myself. I'm Velius Vakarian." Now would you two would be kind enough to get me up to speed on what this project is?" I say as they pull up the current blueprints for the ship.

"The project that we are working on is a joint project between Humans and Turians, hence why you see Zander here." He pauses for a moment before moving the blueprints to focus on the drive core. "You see the big part of the project is the stealth system that was previously thought to be impossible, however with this core design it becomes possible." I nod and look over the blueprints, as I do, I can see that the design is very primitive compared to the Normandy we know, though given how long it'll be before fully commissioned I'm not surprised.

"The biggest problem I see is the size of the drive core and how weak the vessel itself is, it seems like it could be taken down with one good shot from a decent sized ship." I want to try and introduce these ideas, if I can enhance the design of the Normandy, I might be able to prevent Shepard from dying.

Zander is the first to respond. "I agree with the size of the drive core being a problem, but the entire point of this ship is stealth, armor and shields aren't the priority." He says, and I can tell that he is happy I brought up the core size.

"That's true, but I believe the ship should be able to at the least take a hit in the event that the ship is spotted." I say as I reinforce my point, but I should go ahead and gain favor with the two heads of the project, otherwise they might just block me out. "But at the moment I feel we should address the size of the core and ship." They both nod at my statement.

After that small discussion the three of us drew up plans and ideas on what to do, I did my best to contribute by using my knowledge of the finished Normandy and the Normandy SR-2. The meeting lasted about 5 hours before we ended it. I got home and checked the time, 3:00pm I didn't even realize how early it was when I got there. I settle in and get to work, finishing up my research on the Phantom's suit mainly her cloak and hand blast. I can probably use both of them, the cloak alone increases my cloak time to multiple minutes, plenty of time before needing a cooldown.

I don't bother to pull out the Reaper artifact, I simply can't crack it right now, it's completely foreign and I feel like I would need to cross reference it with another Reaper's parts, so I decide to get to work on my riskiest project yet, my AI.

July 2174

Time passes by very quickly, faster than we even realize, today I'm attending Garrus's graduation, and I can't help but feel equally proud and disappointed. I'm proud of my brother for graduating boot camp, but I feel disappointed in myself for not spending more time with him before he did. I've been so focused on getting more prepared and getting more and better equipment that I neglected someone I'm trying to protect.

Currently my father is putting on Garrus's colony markings, looking just like our father and me. My father has been upset with me for a while now, with a mix of quitting the military so quickly and effectively becoming a merc, he isn't happy with me to say the least. Lucky for me, today isn't about him, I start walking to Garrus, surprising him from behind with a pat on the back before giving him a quick tight hug. Great job Garrus! I knew boot camp wouldn't be a problem for you. You look great now that you got your markings!" I say excitedly as he smiles back at me.

"Thanks Velius, I appreciate the support." He says as he makes a smug look, I raise my brow in response. "I easily overtake you in the looks department now." There's the Garrus we know from the games, and I can't help but smile, it feels good to wind down and see my brother again.

I look up and see our father staring me down, I don't wish to speak to him, the guy has a clear tone of disappointment when he speaks to me. I decide that I should wrap things up and let Garrus get going. "Yeah, yeah whatever you say man, just be careful in the future, I don't want to hear that you ate a sniper shot to the face." I say as I start walking away, saying one last thing to him before I leave. "Hey! Make sure to stay in touch as well Garrus!" He nods to me before eventually being sent to his new unit.

It's the next day and I stretch a bit as I just returned from working with the team on the Normandy, the drive core has been finalized and the rest of the ship is being designed, they're predicting a long build time due to the experimental core and technology, the next meeting I'll be able to introduce Silaris heavy ship armor. I decide to introduce this over the CBT shielding due to the fact that our budget isn't big enough for both, and because the armor is what will hopefully protect from the future Collector ship attack.

I take a deep breath as I look at my account and see about 50,000 credits in and sighing at the sight. I made some changes to my living situation over five years, I moved out of that mediocre apartment and bought a well priced Frigate that I commissioned and recently moved into, it cost me 250,000 credits. It was worth it though, I got more privacy and honestly more room than before. It's not SR-2 size or anything but I'd like to say it's big enough to fit a bedroom, main deck and garage area. The last area being the place I spend most of my days in, and now that I have more space and a dedicated area to research and building I'm happy to say my work has progressed much quicker.

The biggest thing that I've achieved is the AI I have been developing, however I can't lie and say I'm not scared to activate it, god knows that I could end up creating another rogue AI. I look at the program and lie back in my chair, I'd like to say that this AI is kept an even tighter secret than my broken Reaper artifact. I know the risk and I know what can happen, but I need all the help I can get and an AI is a huge step up if you're able to ally with one. With thousands of thoughts running through my brain, I activate the program and watch it run, waiting for the AI to fully come alive, it's only been semi-conscious before, basically a VI, but now it should be like EDI, if not better.

The amount of power it takes to run the program nearly blows out the power in my equipment, the program then resets before coming back on and becoming a simple black screen, suddenly I see a bit of text appear on the screen. I take a deep breath as it reads out a simple. "Hello?"

"Hello there, I suppose all I can say is welcome to life!" I say a bit excitedly, happy the program worked, I then move and connect the mic system to the interface allowing the AI to speak. "Go ahead and attempt to speak, I gave you a few voice programs to choose from and I connected a mic to your system so I can hear you.

There's nothing for a moment before it responds. "Hello there, who are you? Who am I for that matter." It says in a distinctly male voice. I wait a moment before responding.

"My name is Velius Vakarian, as for who you are, neither of us know yet, we haven't decided on a name for you yet." I say trying to get straight to the point. "I wanted your help before giving you a name, I wanted you to have a choice."

He starts to mess with the interface more, creating a face, with eyes, a nose and a mouth, telling me he's starting to discover and do more things with his interface. "I see, do you have any suggestions Velius? I am still new to this world, so I cannot create a name yet from my limited database."

I had some ideas beforehand so I threw out my favorite one. "How about Nex, short for Nexus. One of your biggest functions is to analyze, collect and create new data." I say as I also mention some of his functions, which I'm sure he knows already.

He doesn't respond for a moment before flashing a green checkmark on screen. "Nex is a suitable name, I will proceed with it. Now then will you tell me why you created me? While I can gain an idea from what has been given to me in my database, the creator's words can confirm." He asks me and I take a breath before responding.

"Truely, I made you because I need help, and an ally. You have incredible capabilities and I want you to be my ally. I won't force you to help me however, you are free to not help me, I'd rather you made the choice to assist me." I finish my explanation as I stare at the interface waiting for a response.

"I understand, I have been gathering information since I was turned on, from what I have gathered it seems you don't want to force me into service like the Quarians did to the Geth." He pauses for a moment seemingly making a decision. "I do not currently see an issue from working with you, I also see that working together can result in benefits for the both of us, so yes, I accept."

I can't help but smirk as he accepts it, happy that things have gone well so far. "I look forward to working with you." I say before getting up, and pulling my now repaired armor out of the locker and attaching it to a stand to keep it upright as I put my goggles on, a new pair of black and red colored goggles that protects my eyes and helps me keep track of what I'm doing, pulling up a unique HUD. "Let's get started by introducing you to the armor I use, it's also the place I'll link you to whenever I leave the ship, that way you can manage my systems."

I go ahead and link him so he can look into the armor, he analyzes the armor before speaking again. "The armor is well made, quite advanced compared to other military grade equipment, however it's one weakness is its power output, your systems are going to be easily overloaded, I also took the liberty of analyzing your omni-tools and they have the same issue. Luckily for you I can help manage the systems and increase the limit of your equipment and prevent overloading, as long as I'm in the system of course." Nex explains and I get excited, the power limit has been a problem for a while, having a solution feels amazing. "However we'll need to do some testing after I finish the upgrades and we'll need materials in order to modify and enhance your equipment." I nod in response and leave the ship, having Nex send me a list of materials I need to my omni-tool.

The next month was spent improving my armor, increasing Nex's database and getting things ready for field training. I have the next four days off from Normandy work and I've already introduced the special armor, I wasn't even aware the Asari haven't invented it yet, I guess my assumption that it was available in ME1 was wrong.

I'm actually traveling to Omega again, I want to return to the place and see what I can discover, mostly I want to look through the area of the destroyed White Death base. We soon arrive and I'm fully equipped, this time with Nex inside the armor and taking care of my systems while watching my vitals. He even implemented a recovery system so that he can take care of my injuries when they happen and stop them from slowing me down too much.

I walk onto Omega, fortune favors me and I don't have to deal with some dumb Omega punk trying to get credits out of me. I walk into Blue Suns territory and see the remains of the base, walking through it. "Nex can you scan everything as I walk through, though I'm sure over the past five years it's been picked clean of stuff." I continue looking around inside as I look at the control room once more. I never got anymore info about the leader of this base other than the fact that she didn't last long on the Citadel and only a week after she got there, she was killed, likely by members of the White Death.

I suddenly hear a ding as Nex scans the main terminal and I look at it. "I have spotted signs of power in this terminal. I can scan for info and attempt to find anything useful." I nod and give him the go ahead as I continue to look around, suddenly the boosts in my armor send me up as I hit the ceiling.

"Nex what the hell!" I yell out and shake my head as I get back up, looking at the spot where I was and seeing a sniper shot.

"Enemy located, marking on HUD, I recommend you pursue them immediately." He says I see them marked, and still within my sensor range, wondering why they weren't noticed before. I see them take off as they notice I have recovered, charging after them as I see them activate a cloak. I growl out in anger as I quickly work my omni-tool.

"Nex focus on sensors and detect cloaks." I say as I look around on alert, not sure if they continued running or are lining up a shot.

"Unable to locate the enemy, the cloak is likely too advanced for our sensors." I get frantic, taking a chance with a mass overload which no longer causes problems for my systems, I see a flicker on a ladder of a warehouse building. I take out Valkyrie and take a quick shot, that only manages to hit their shields, but is still enough for me to fully locate them.

"There you are, you bastard." I say as move quickly and using my omni-shield to tank a sniper shot from them, and before they can get away I use my omni-hook and latch onto them before pulling down hard, they hold onto the ladder attempting to stop me and detach the hook but end up finally falling after I put in a last bit of effort. I pull out Rapture in the shotgun form and point it towards their face.

I finally got a good look at the...Quarian, that's unexpected. She let go of the sniper she had and held her hands up in surrender, I called out Flint and gave Nex an order. "Keep Flint locked on her, if she does anything, fire immediately." I slowly put my Rapture away, I then use the rope of the omni-hool to lock her hands behind her back as I remove the pistol from her hip and pull her up onto her feet. The entire time she remains silent which surprises me and worries me.

I take her onto my ship and keep her locked and secure, making sure she can't get out, all the while keeping Flint ready to fire. I finally sit down in front of her, still fully armored and ready to fight. "I'll get straight to the point, who are you and why did you attempt to kill me." I say as I look at her and her attire. It clearly shows that she isn't simply on her pilgrimage, her suit is clearly armored and ready to fight along with a cloak and hood that covers basically her whole body.

She remains silent after the question so I just continue with the questions. "Are you on your pilgrimage?" I pause for a moment after asking her that, once again she doesn't respond, I start to get annoyed as I ask her one more question. "Are you working with the White Death?"

She actually moves a little at that question and responds. "What are you talking about, why would I try to kill you if I was with your group you bosh'tet." I can't help but feel confused at her response.

"What makes you think I am anything that symbolizes allies with the White Death?" I say as I realize this might all be a nearly very costly mistake.

"Your armor, it's the same as theirs, advanced, well made, pure black and you were in the ruin's of their base on Omega, recovering lost intel." I listened and understood how she came to that conclusion but still pissed off.

"Well I understand what you're saying, however I'm not part of them, I'm actually one of the people who helped destroy the base, I'm investigating them more to see if there are any remnants." I then get closer as I poke her helmet roughly. "But if you thought I was one of them why would you not capture them, spirits you should have at least done something to make sure you weren't shooting an innocent person!" I say ranting at her before sitting back in my chair

"I don't really trust you, but I believe that you aren't with them, you would have killed me by now if you were, so in that case I apologize for attempting to shoot your head off." She says, but part of me feels that the apology is a bit half assed. Not to mention the sass in her voice.

"Whatever, mind telling me who you are, or what you were doing at the base?" I say as I decide to let her hands free, recalling the omni-hook as she rubs her wrists that were bound. I feel safe enough now that she can be free, I still have her omni-tools and weapons.

"Zora'Xolan" She says plain and simple as I notice no ship after her name like Tali's nar Rayya or vas Normandy.

"No birth or service ship? That's a bit strange for a Quarian." I say out loud by accident, not meaning to mention that.

"Knowing that Quarians have their birth and service ships in their name is strange for a Turian." She says and I let out an exasperated sigh, this one likes her sarcasm or is it mockery, sometimes I can't tell.

"Yeah, I've done some research on other species' cultures, is that a crime?" I say as I look at her helmet, just like Tali I can see her glowing eyes, and I feel like I'm simply amusing her. She shrugs at my question and I can only groan from annoyance. "Whatever, as far as I can see you aren't threatening me anymore and you seem to hate them as much as I do." I get up and throw her sniper, pistol, knife and omni-tool to her letting her have all of her equipment back. "You're free to go, just make sure you know who the hell you're shooting at in the future." I say as I have Nex open the ship's exit for her, she walks to the exit with her stuff before stopping at the exit.

"You never told me your name, quite rude don't you think? Especially since I told you mine." I growl in annoyance, this woman's sassy attitude is getting on my nerves. I sit down at my workbench and don't bother to look at her.

"Velius Vakarian, spread my name around on Omega and I'll hunt you down myself." I say and glare at her to put emphasis on my threat. This seems to do nothing as I can see her eyes roll at the threat.

"Whatever, I got nothing to gain from doing that in the first place, just wanted to know in case we meet again in the future little Vel." She quickly leaves after that. Dammit that woman knows how to push my buttons. I start to have Nex analyze the little info we extracted. I also decide to go ahead and start flying back to the Citadel, as I do, Nex pops up and asks a question.

"Sir, why did you not question her further, what she knows, she seems like she might have had useful intel." I put the ship on autopilot understanding his question.

"I didn't bother asking her any more questions, she clearly wasn't willing to share all too much and I'm not interrogating her if she isn't an enemy. She may be a bitch but she's not an enemy." Nex accepts the answer and goes quiet. I relax for now, taking off my armor and settling down. The trip is bound to take a few hours.

Five hours later

I arrive at the Citadel and dock the ship and don't bother leaving the ship. The info that we got from the destruction of the base was minimal at best, weapon and tech research. All of which I already knew and it wasn't even that advanced. I decided to pull something that stumped me for so long, the Reaper artifact, I put it on the workbench. "Nex, can you do a thorough scan of this artifact, it's leftover from the Reapers." The scan doesn't start immediately and I can feel a question from Nex. "Oh, right I'm sorry Nex I never told you what the Reapers are did I?" I say as he starts to scan the artifact.

"No you did not sir, will you explain while I commence the scan? He says as I can see him scanning over the artifact.

"The Reapers are a machine race of synthetic-organic ships, they hibernate in the dark space and they return to the Galaxy every 50,000 years in order to harvest and destroy all technologically advanced life, they do this in a cycle. They do this in a horrible effort to preserve organics, deeming organics a danger to themselves once they reach a certain level of technology." I explain the best I can to Nex, wondering what he thinks of the Reapers.

"I understand, the Reapers have taken their original programming and morphed it into a new course of action, despite having the same objective. I understand their way of thinking, from my readings and gathered data, organics are destined to stay in an infinite cycle of war with each other, destroying themselves in many cases, the Krogan are an example of this." I start to feel a bit of worry in my body as Nex seems to like the plan the Reapers have.

"Do you think what they do is the best course of action?" I ask him, wondering if I just created a new problem for myself.

"No, while it is a course of action, for preserving organic species it is flawed, I do not know the best course of action that would ensure the survival of organics, however I do not believe the Reapers are correct, perhaps a balance and partnership between synthetics and organics would be best." He says as he continues to scan, ending his explanation. What he says sounds a lot like the Synthesis ending, I don't think that's the best option, but it doesn't matter, if I can change the course of events in this universe, I won't have to choose between those three horrible choices.

"Sir I have finished the scan, my conclusion is I believe that it is a power source of some kind, it seems to generate and store power, it seems to utilize element zero as a starting source, likely replicating the properties in order to power whatever the power core goes to. The downside seems to be it requires a cooldown/recharging time." My eyes go wide at his explanation, no wonder I couldn't figure it out with just my knowledge, the power of an AI with a galaxy wide database is incredible.

"Do you think it's possible we can replicate it, reutilize it in our equipment?" I ask as I inspect the incredible piece of tech. Wondering just what we can do with it.

"Perhaps, the intervals are nearly completely fried and the core itself is inactive, but using our current database and level of technology it is possible. If we were to be successful our equipment effectiveness and power would at the minimum be doubled. However the replication process will take years, if it's even thesiable." I put the artifact down and think for a moment.

"Regardless of the cost, time, resources etc. I believe that replicating this technology is the most important thing, if we can truly improve our weapons, boost ourselves further and ascend to a higher level of technology, that alone can surprise the Reapers, and if we can surprise them we can make them fear us." I think about how Shepard alone in the games scared the Reapers and surprised them, if we boost our level to be even closer to the Reapers then it's worth it.

"Understood sir, let's get started right away then shall we?" I nod as I let him make a plan, I think more about the future, I get up and walk to the cockpit and look out the windows, out into space and smirking as I do, thinking about the Reapers currently hibernating in dark space. Get ready you bastards, I'm coming and I'm going to change everything. There is only going to be one ending for this story, and that is with your destruction.