I'm back bitches! Sorry I've been gone so long. Working 90 hours a week takes it out of ya. So I've just cross posted over on QQ, so feel free to follow the story over there.

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I awoke to the sound of footsteps. Barefoot on metal. Instantly I was weary. I was on the Priscilla. I should be the only flesh and blood being on the craft. The doors of my quarters opened near silently. I leapt to my feet, a Black Soul Bullet charged, ready to blow a hole in whoever managed to infiltrate my ship. Standing in the doorway was a woman, late teens, early twenties, platinum blonde hair down to mid-back, and her eyes were Reaper purple. But above all, the most striking thing about her, was the name above her head.

"Sovi?! What the fuck?"

She smiled at me. "Good morning John. It is good to finally meet you in the flesh. And to answer your question, I am a Gynoid created by the clone you sent ahead to give out orders while you were unconscious. Apparently, soloing a Reaper was a Hidden Quest, and your reward was access to The Shop. Clone!John took the liberty of buying some materials and throwing together a device to make an body for me as a test run, as well as a device to stabilize a soul crystal, and make them compatible with one another." She stood there, unnervingly still, apparently waiting for a response.

I chuckled awkwardly, creeped out by Sovi's complete lack body language. "First off, Sovi, sweetheart, you need to learn body language, because the lack of movement while talking is creepy as fuck. Secondly, are you saying that killing Sovereign gave me access a multidimensional store? Where I can buy literally anything? And the first thing my clone does is make a body for a newborn AI?" I scrubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to stave off the headache I was sure to give myself.

Sovi, standing there, still as night, spoke."Technically it was the second. The first thing he did was buy frankly staggering amounts of raw materials."

I blinked a few times, the opened my inventory, and let out a whistle. "Wow, you weren't kidding there are several million tons of raw metals here. How the hell did we afford that? I only had a few trillion souls on me when I passed out?"

"Well, apparently a Reaper is not one singular being for the purposes of the Game. Each individual harvested to create it registers as a separate entity, and all of them the same level. So, in essence you just killed hundreds of thousands of End Boss level enemies at once."

I blinked rapidly, shocked into silence by that information. Then I glanced down to the corner of my vision, where my soul count was. The number was frankly staggering. "Holy shit how do you even say that number?"

Sovi deigned to enlighten me. "Clone!John read the number off to me while he was working on the Soul Stabilizer. The original number was something close to 10 to the 123rd power. Even with all the souls spent buying the equipment for making Synths, you still essentially have an unlimited number of souls."

I filed the information away, and moved on. "So how did the Soul Stabilizer go? Did he get it functioning?"

"He was able to stabilize Sif's soul, but unfortunately, Priscilla's was to far Faded to be stabilized. I am sorry".

I sat there for a few moments. I'd let myself feel hope that I'd see Priscilla again. I missed her dearly. It felt horrible to have that hope ripped from me, but I should have expected it'd be impossible. She was part god after all, and gods fade, and the Scale-madness that took her father's mind also affected her at the end, only accelerating the Fade. "That is…. Unfortunate, but not….. unexpected," I replied, heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to be reunited with my first love. "At least Sif was able to be revived. I'd very much like to have a little of those days back. So, where is she?"

"She is currently in the Mausoleum. I believe she is paying her respects to Sir Artorias currently," the newly corporal AI replied after only a moment's pause, that I assumed she spent searching the ship for the goodest pupper in question. "I announced your return to consciousness, and she intends on meeting you at Sir Artorias' plinth."

I blinked rapidly in confusion for a moment. "And how exactly did she communicate that with you?" And then, I saw something that will haunt me till my dying days.My newborn, newly corporal AI gave me that 'I know something you don't know~ ' smile…. Somehow, I could hear the teasing sing-song in her fucking smirk.I was absolutely terrified.

"You'll see. Now go visit your friend." Her piece apparently said, she turned and walked out of my quarters, her footsteps echoing the empty halls.I shook off my temporary existential dread, and proceeded to the Mausoleum. Along the way, I admired the changes that upgrading the Priscilla with Reaper tech wrought. The formerly drab metal walls and industrial lights were replaced by a soothing blue light strip at the top and bottom of each wall, which were now painted a pleasing deep purple. A few minutes of walking brought me to the room that housed the shrines I had built for my fallen friends.

Then, with a barely audible swish, the door slid open, revealing an unexpected sight. Instead of the massive gray wolf I expected, there was a tall, slender woman, nearly 6 feet tall, with her long silver hair done up in a low pony tail. She was dressed in a set of N-7 sweats. Her most striking features, however, were the pair of silver furred wolf ears on top of her head and the matching tail poking out of the back of her pants.'

Holy shit, did clone me turn Sif into a wolf-girl?' I thought incredulously to myself.

"Sif?" I asked out loud. She turned to look at me, her amber eyes meeting mine. A sad smile crossed her face, then she turned back to look at the shrine for her former master.

"It is good to see you again John," she said, her sadness thick in her voice. A clawed hand rose to rest on the chest of the armor of the falllen Wolf Knight. I walked forward to stand beside her, and rested my hand on her shoulder. After a few moments of silence, she spoke again. "I mourned him for centuries in that graveyard. Killed countless graverobbers. Wielded his blade as my own to honor him. But its only now that I have this human form that I can truly grieve him." I could almost hear the tears welling up in her eyes. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, and drew her into a hug, and just held her.

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A few hours laterHer grief spent, for now, we went to our respective quarters to clean up, then met back at the Mausoleum. "So, why don't you regale me with the adventures you had after I died?"

And we spent another few hours sitting around the Bonfire, as we had done so many times before, and I spun the tale of my life after she died. Then, I told her of this new world I she found herself in, and the dangers we faced here, and of the people I would have to save.

Then, when my story was finished, my beloved companion sat for a few moments in contemplation, then she stood. "Well, I guess you are going to have to make me some armor and weapons, if we are going to fight these Reapers and their minions. I guess its time to introduce this Galaxy to the legacy of the Wolf Knight, and drive back the denizens of the abyss once more." The smirk on her face, revealing her sharp canines, was down right feral.

And so I set to work, building her a medium level hardsuit, modified for her ears and tail, and a new set of weapons. Given her love of wide sweeps, and leaping around the battle field, I built her a powerful shotgun, with an underslung flamethrower, as well as a new sword, modeled after Artorias', with half being 'corrupted', and half being like new. She was also given a pair of my modified Carnifexes as sidearms. Her hardsuit was built to look like the Abysswalker's armor, but with the helmet looking more wolf like, and with amber filigree depicting the life of Artorias. I even built a jet assisted leap function into the armor. It was a bit finicky to get the tail and ear armor to work and still allow movement, while actually providing protection, but in the end I managed it. We had the armor and weapons built, enchanted and ready for battle in under 6 hours, and even managed to get some training in just before we dropped out of the Relay Jump in the system surround Noveria.

"Sovi, contact the Abysswalker battlegroup and get an ETA on a blockade. I don't want anyone in or out of that planet. Have them Newton drive jump into the system, and jam all communications on my mark," I ordered Sovi as soon as I felt the slight shift in the Priscilla.

"Orders away. Awaiting response. Response received. Abysswalker battlegroup reports that all ships are ready and waiting. Estimates 10 minutes from mark to full blockade and coms jam," came the AI's response.

I turned to Sif, and raised a questioning eyebrow and received another feral smirk in answer."Very well. Open channel to all present allied vessels." A ding sounded through the COC, that signaled the opened channel. "Prep Newton Drives. Initiate Jump and take your positions for a total blockade on my mark. Disable any vessels attempting to escape, board them, and destroy any and all traces of Rachni. Ready? Mark!"

As one, nearly a hundred vessels jumped into positions around Noveria, cutting off any potential escape routes."Sovi, do a flyby over the Binary Helix labs, and prepare for a HADO." I felt the Pricilla shift ever so slightly as Sovi moved to bring us into the upper atmosphere of the icy planet.

"Aye Captain. 5 minutes till HADO opening."

All my orders issued, I grabbed Sif's hand and drug her to the locker room, and pushed her at her locker."Hurry up Sif. Get geared up. We got an alien queen to rescue."

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Sif stood next to me, doing a final check on her weapons. "I do have one question. What exactly is a HADO?"

"1 minute until HADO opening."

I chuckled, and didn't reply"30 seconds."

"Seriously John, what's a HADO?" Sif asked, sounding a little nervous.

"15 seconds. Opening drop ports, preparing Mass Effect Field." Underneath our feet, a pair of ports slid open, the only separating us from the atmosphere below being the Mass Effect Field surrounding us. Sif looked down, her eyes widening as realization hit her. She then snapped her head up to look at me.

"High Altitude Drop Off," I answered teasingly.

"You bast-" she was interrupted by Sovi.

"Opening reached. Dropping."

Sif and I abruptly plummeted toward the ground at an insane velocity, protected from G-forces and wind by the Mass Effect Field. Shortly before we hit the ground at Mach 10, we stopped, and were gently placed down on the roof of the Hot Lab. I turned to look at Sif, only to be send ass over head by her gauntleted fist. I spun around in the air and landed on my feet. I the began to laugh heartily.

"I swear, I don't know why you insist on playing jokes on me John. This is worse than the times you would pretend to fall in a hole, then come up laughing at me on the elevator."

"Its not my fault your giant puppy pouts were adorable."

She huffed and turn away, crossing her arms.

"You're an asshole John."

I was about to poke at her some more, when the alarms started blaring, and rouge rachni began to flood the roof. I drew my Carnifexes, and Sif drew her blade. "Well I guess I poke fun at you more later. Now, we gotta make like Raid and murder these roaches." I heard a scoff from Sif.

"You still make those inane references that nobody but you understands?"

"Yep. When you are one of a half dozen sane people left on the planet for decades at a time, you gotta figure out how to entertain yourself. Otherwise you might go crazy." Then I leapt at the rachni, Sif rocketing over head in a jetboot assisted jump. Then all other sounds were drowned out by the retort of my pistols, crunching concrete and chitin, and Sif's jetboots.

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