Act I : I

Eden Prime

Slade's ears were still ringing and his head was still spinning from the pain when he regained consciousness. He tried to stand up but immediately winced and regretted that decision. Slade laid down for a few moments to recuperate and his mind slowly regained its function.

What the fuck was that?! What the fuck was that noise?! I swear to God if this is some kinda prank I might… shit nevermind. What would I do anyway? If I really wanted to do something, I would have already done it.

Slade finally rose to his feet, but every fibre of his body screamed in protest. He wondered if he had just suffered from a seizure or some other medical condition he was not aware of. The noise was gone but so was Slade's sense of time. He had no clue how long he had been unconscious. He turned around and walked over to the VI mainframe and tried to boot up the console, but was greeted with absolutely nothing except blank screens. Slade inspected the mainframe to find that it had no power supplied to it. He started to feel more tense and anxious. Whatever was going on outside definitely wasn't normal or good. Slade grabbed his backpack from its hiding spot and pulled out the flashlight. He turned it on and ran over to the large steel doors.

I don't know how extensive the power outage is, but if the power to the doors are also cut then the emergency override should open them. I really hope Powell didn't fuck the doors up so badly that even the fail-safe commands won't work for me.

Slade reached up and activated the emergency override, sighing a huge breath of relief as he heard the magnetic locks hiss and disengage. The huge doors slowly screeched open and he stepped outside only to stop dead in his tracks. The once beautiful landscape in front of the warehouse now lay in burning ruins. The devastation had spared nothing, everything was either destroyed or engulfed in flames. Slade just stood there for a while, trying to believe what he was seeing.

Maybe I DID have a seizure. Is this real? Or am I hallucinating? I think I was only in there for a couple of hours. Is all this really possible?

Slade finally decided to move and took a few steps closer towards the shuttle tram area. He climbed some steps then froze as he heard voices. One he recognized as Powell.

I can't believe I'm actually GLAD to hear that voice. At least someone other than me is still around.

It had just occurred to Slade that he hadn't seen anyone around, not even a body or burned corpse. He decided to head over towards Powell's voice. Even if it wasn't a welcome conclusion, being around other people might be better than being alone; especially if the trouble wasn't over. Slade ran towards the voices but as soon as Powell saw him he immediately stopped mid sentence and pointed over at Slade.

"IT WAS HIM" Powell shrieked. "HE DID ALL OF THIS! KILL THE MOTHERFUCKER!" Slade now REALLY wished he had stayed in the warehouse.

/

Commander Zoey Shepard looked over at the person Powell was pointing at. He was accusing a slim, dark skinned human male who stood a few inches taller than her. His short, messy black hair was thicker in the front near his forehead and stood up at several angles. He had piercing, fierce green eyes that radiated a look of fear. His clothes were very worn out - almost as if they were the only set of clothes he owned - and were one laundry day away from disintegrating. Shepard suspected he was around her age - perhaps a little bit younger - but looked as if his life was exhausting and drained ten years away from his otherwise flawless face. She couldn't help but feel pity and remorse for the man. Shepard already did not trust Powell, but after his accusation she trusted him even less and suspected mild lunacy from him.

"You're telling me this man destroyed the entire colony?" Shepard questioned. "The ENTIRE colony? By himself? Without a weapon? That's what you're telling me?"

"WHO ELSE COULD IT BE?!" Powell roared. "I locked him in the fucking warehouse and he somehow got out! He must have destroyed the place to get out! Don't let the son of a bitch fool you! He's dangerous! He's a fucking biotic! A BIOTIC! The whole colony had been waiting for him to do something like this! He was just a fucking disaster waiting to happen! I told everyone we should've just put him down! NOW LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! They should've listened to me!"

Shepard just stood there half listening to Powell's outburst and did not take her eyes off the other man. He was trembling and his eyes darted from her, to Ashley and Kaidan, over to Powell then back to her. She stared into his eyes. They were full of pain and pleading to her for help. That was the moment Shepard realized not only did she not believe Powell, but she also despised him. She turned around and was about to raise her voice over Powell's rambling, but Kaidan beat her to it.

"So, you hate biotics huh?" Kaidan asked with a hint of snark in his voice. Shepard could not help but smile mischievously under her helmet.

"Not just me!" Powell answered. "The whole God damned colony does too! They'd be right here pointing fingers at that freak too if they weren't all dead! Like I said, we were all waiting for him to do something like this. Maybe now you soldiers will actually listen to us!"

Shepard raised an eyebrow and looked over at Ashley.

"Williams?" Shepard inquired. "Is he referring to you?"

"I think so ma'am", Ashley answered. "We had a couple of colonists stop by the barracks every now and then demanding we arrest a biotic. We didn't take it seriously because they had no proof the biotic did anything wrong. Hell, half the shit they claimed the biotic would do were stuff you would't even see in Blasto movies. We just started ignoring them after a while."

"SEE?!" Powell interrupted. "IF YOU STUPID SOLDIERS HAD LISTENED TO US, YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS! THIS IS YOUR FAULT AS MUCH AS HIS!" Ashley was about to retort but Shepard raised a hand to stop her. Shepard then used her biotics to lift a crate over Powell's head and placed it gently in front of him. Powell's eyes widened with horror and he took a few steps back, away from Shepard and the crate. Kaidan then used his biotics to move the crate closer to Powell. Shepard could easily tell he enjoyed the look on Powell's face as urine trickled down and pooled at Powell's feet. Powell soon fainted and collapsed into his own urine puddle. Shepard heard Ashley mutter something under her breath, but was not listening and removed her helmet as she walked over to the frightened man.

/

Slade now had absolutely no doubt in his mind that this was either a dream or hallucination. Not only had Powell collapsed in a puddle of his own urine, but TWO other biotics had appeared in front of him. The biotic in grey and red armour walked towards him. Slade did not see any insignia on her armour to distinguish her as Alliance and had no idea who's side she was on. The only distinguishing feature he DID notice was an N7 engraved into her chest plate. She removed her helmet and fiery red hair flowed out to drape over her beautiful face. She also had bold, piercing green eyes that immediately found his. Slade kept her gaze for a brief moment, then immediately tore his eyes away from her and stared down at his feet. He then saw her boots stop in front of his feet and immediately felt the urge to look back up. She had beautiful fair skin that was freckled with dark red spots. Slade was utterly stunned at how beautiful she was, but her green eyes found his again and he had no choice but to look back into them. Her silky, smooth, confident voice broke his involuntary trance.

"Please don't be afraid", she said. "My name is Zoey and I PROMISE I will not hurt you. This is Kaidan and Ashley. I PROMISE they will not hurt you either. May I please know your name?" Slade flinched again. He knew none of what he was experiencing was real, but the woman had talked to him in such a soft, soothing voice that he was too shocked to answer. Being addressed in such a polite manner by another human being was incredibly foreign to him. He just kept her gaze and did not say anything. Slade expected her to lose her patience and begin yelling at him, demanding that he answer her question; but instead she patiently kept his gaze and waited for him to answer. After a few moments he finally had the courage to talk.

"Slade". He had answered in such a hushed voice that he did not expect her to have heard him, but he was now far too frightened to repeat himself. Slade would much rather stand in silence until the woman lost her temper and shouted at him for answers. He could deal with hostility - after all, he dealt with hostility for the majority of his life - it was familiar to him and he understood how to handle it; but the woman actually seemed genuine. She actually sounded like she cared and respected him as a person, which was something Slade had absolutely no idea how to handle. The woman paused for a minute then opened her mouth and Slade expected to be hit with a brick wall of screaming.

"I'm very sorry", she began with the same silky smooth voice. "But I couldn't hear you. Would you please repeat that? I promise I'll listen extra close this time." The excessive kindness she was showing caught Slade off guard once again.

You know what? To hell with it. If I'm going to hallucinate, I may as well enjoy this while I can. When's the next time someone is gonna be this nice to me?

Slade threw all his caution to the wind and gathered up his courage to answer the woman. He did not know if this was real, but he no longer cared.

"Slade ma'am", he answered with so much confidence, he almost did not recognize his own voice. "Slade Jordan. I'm the stock and inventory manager at the dock warehouse." He paused for a minute before continuing, thinking hard before opening his mouth again. "Are you really a biotic?"

"Yup", she chirped. "So is Kaidan over there. What about you Slade? Are you actually a biotic, or was Powell just as crazy as he looked?" Slade thought long and hard about the question he was asked. He was not sure how he wanted to answer the woman. He did not owe her the truth and he was perfectly okay with denying the accusation Powell made against him.

Remember, this isn't real. I don't have to be a biotic if I don't want to. Is it really lying if none of this is actually happening?

"No ma'am" Slade answered with a hint of happiness. He was glad to finally be able to deny his reality, even for a moment. "I'm not a biotic. We've never had a biotic on Eden Prime before, let alone two of them at the same time. Powell was always a little too far off the deep end. I would't take him too seriously if I were you."

The woman silently held his gaze for a moment, causing Slade to feel a sudden nudge of regret and fear. Her eyes were green brick walls that did not betray any of her thoughts. Slade wondered if she figured out he was lying and she was contemplating how best to punish him. He braced for the worst when she finally spoke.

"I already had trouble trusting Powell", she started with a slight tone of seriousness Slade had not heard before. "And that was BEFORE he started harassing you and Ashley. Now I can conclude I definitely do not trust him, nor do I like the man. Is he like that to everyone? Or just you?" Slade was about to answer when the other woman spoke.

"Sorry to interrupt ma'am", Ashley blurted out with a hint of urgency in her voice. "But if the Geth are here for the beacon, we really need to get moving. For all we know, they might already have it!" The red haired woman finally broke her gaze with Slade and seemed to remember something she forgot.

"That's…actually a really good point!" she childishly exclaimed. "Alright we better get moving!" she then looked back at Slade. "Slade we need to get to the spaceport. We're looking for the beacon that was found here. Do you know anything about it? We don't actually know where it is but the spaceport is our next best bet. Anything you could tell us would be much appreciated."

"I'm sorry", Slade replied. "I actually don't know anything about that. Nobody tells me anything. This is the first time I've even heard about a beacon." Slade paused for a minute and gathered all the courage he had left. "But I do know how to get to the spaceport", he continued. "I've only been there a couple of times, but I think I can take you there. There's a tram that'll take us straight there but I don't know if it still has power. We may need to resupply power to the trams first, but I would say it's your best option right now. I kinda figured out you're in a rush, so I would say walking to the spaceport is out of the question." Slade took a deep breath. He was absolutely shocked. All three people in front of him were all looking at him with intent. They had actually hinged on his every word without interrupting him to insult him, laugh at him or otherwise abuse him just for opening his mouth. Slade also realized he was out of breath, he had NEVER talked for this long before. The red haired woman answered him.

"That would be very helpful Slade", she said. "Are you sure you want to come with us and help? It might be dangerous and I want this to be your choice. I don't want to bring you against your will." Slade nodded, obviously still under the impression this was a hallucination.

"Alright, thank you Slade. We'll lead the way, please stay behind us and give is directions. We can protect you and I'm not sure how many Geth are actually here." Slade immediately realized he did not know what she was talking about.

"Geth?" Slade inquired worryingly. "What are Geth?" The red haired woman raised her eyebrows and the other two soldiers just looked at each other with bewildered expressions.

"Slade…..do you know why the colony is in ruins?" she asked.

Oh hell no. Please don't do this to me.

Slade was trembling by the time he gathered the courage to answer.

"You mean… this is REAL? Like…..this is really happening? This isn't a dream and I'm not hallucinating?"

The red haired woman just blinked and stared blankly at Slade, soon to be joined by the other two. They all stared at him with an expression of mixed disbelief and pity.

No. No, no, no, no, no. Do NOT do this to me.

"This is real isn't it?" Slade asked, already dreading the answer he knew he was about to receive. The other man behind the woman gave him a reassuring smile and a sympathetic chuckle.

"So… are you still coming with us?" he teased. "It's not too late to change your mind. It really does appear like you have no idea what you're about to get yourself into."

He's right. I really DON'T have any idea what I'm getting myself into. This isn't a hallucination anymore. This is REAL. I could seriously get hurt, or die.

Slade stood in silence for a moment, weighing his options but came to a satisfying conclusion before long.

Let's be honest. What exactly do I have to lose? Do I really care if I live or die? If I don't go with them, what am I gonna do? Sit in a pile of rubble and wait for someone to help me? Nobody helped me before, why would that change?

It did not take long for Slade to decide. These were the first people in years who actually treated him with even a shred of respect. If he died, he would rather die helping someone who genuinely smiled at him.

"Follow me", Slade ordered as he confidently stepped towards the trams, beckoning the group to come with him. "I'll lead the way."