AN: Chapter 2 coming right up! Not much to say really, so... "Let's go, let's just-go."-Alistair

Months passed, years. My mind not quite grasping the fact that I had died and reborn someplace I still couldn't recognize. My new parents seemed to love me, always caring for me. It was such a strange thing to think that somewhere else I had friends mourning me. My mom, my friends, Alex. Alex. He had become... More than a friend to me;now I'm dead. Talk about bad luck.

At age five, I started noticing things around me. They looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I was sure that this was some kind of future universe and that this was Earth. I was a bright kid, to say the least. Probably because I retained all my knowledge from my previous life. Fate decided to a not-really-big-asshole and my parents named me with my past life name, the only difference being the last name: Selena Davidson. I kinda liked my new name. Rolled off the tounge with ease.

Of course, Fate had to give me the finger again because why the hell not, right? At twelve, my parents were killed in an explosion where they worked. They were scientists, not renowned or anything, but they worked in a small laboratory. Some idiot decided that spilling some chemical onto a fire would be a fun way to pass the time. So, off I was sent to the nearest foster home. I hated it there. Too many kids going on about how they never had parents to care for them, or too many whining about their own parents doing them here. Its not that I hated them for not having something they could only dream of, it was the fact that they decided to vent their frustration on other kids by bullying them. It was a stupid thing to do, but they could have had a worst life. There was one kid though who was the odd ball of the hundred kids there, John. He never spoke to anyone and the other kids didn't seem to pay attention to him. It was as if he was a ghost. There was something about him that intrigued me about him. But, years passed and I never talked to him. Until last year when he approached me.

"Hey."

The word was so simple yet it had something hidden behind it-determination?

"Uh, hi. Do you...need something?"

"No."

There was a silence that seemed to last for eternity until he broke it

"What you in for?"

"You make it sound like we're in a prison. Though looking at it, it kinda is."

"Yeah. Been here a long time. Since I was five, I think. Parents dumped me here. Don't remember, don't care. You?"

"Parents died. No other family." I said, looking at him. He was standing with his hand in his pockets looking down at me. I was sitting in a bench, curled up reading a book my parents had bought me. It was a rarity, a hard cover book. His expression remained blank, though his body was hunched in a tired manner.

"Hmm. At least you knew 'em. Can I?" he asked, motioning to the empty spot next to me.

"Yeah." I said, sitting up and closing my book. "I had never seen you talk with anyone else and the other kids don't seem to pay much attention to you."

"Yeah, I beat up a couple of them a while back. They finally left me alone when they realized they couldn't beat me up. Still, I hate this place. I wish I could just leave already." he said, punching slightly his thigh in frustration. I didn't know him at all but in the past few months I could tell he was quite rebellious, even more convinced by his revelation.

"The feeling is mutual. Even though I don't have anywhere to go, any place is a helluva lot better than here." I confessed.

"Hm. I never thought I'd meet someone who thought that. Most of the idiots here spend their time moping or bothering others that it doesn't matter to them. But to somebody that accepts their fate gets pretty bored in here."

"Accepting fate..." I repeated, "Huh. Fate can be a bitch at the best of times." I realized what I had said and quickly apologized. "Sorry. Didn't mean to say that out loud. Just..." While he seemed like a good guy, there was no way in hell I was going to tell him I was some freak reincarnation from another universe.

"Don't worry. We got our something's. This place being mine."

A caretaker announced that it was bed time, making everyone in the small courtyard head back inside the small white building. John told me a "good bye" and headed for the boys dormitories and I to the girls'. It was a strange experience, talking to him.

Months passed and I eventually got over the death of my parents. Despite the fact that these parents loved me, the feeling wasn't as mutual. Sure, they cared for me, took care of me, but I know that somewhere else in the planes of existence, my mom-my real mom-is crying that her only daughter passed away. But John made me forget. We talked about the foster home, the kids that lived there, what we would ever do if we left this forsaken place. However, as I time passed by, I noticed that I knew this universe and that I knew John very well, not just because of our talks. I had been reincarnated into the inverse of Mass Effect.

Such a thing...was incomprehensible. Impossible even. Mass Effect was nothing more than a game, a way to pass the time. John. John was Commander Shepard. He's never told me his last name; I never asked him. But as I began to grasp things and remember the few things I knew about the game- the technology, the wars- I came to realize that the Reapers were knocking right at the door. Nobody knows yet, not even John. But if I tell him, he'll either laugh or think I'm crazy. I have to let everything that happened to John as an Earthborn in the game happen to him here as well. But that leaves me in a tight spot; I want to help, but I can't intervene John's destiny, lest I change his character. I have no idea what to do, and frankly...i think Purgatory would've been a better place to suffer than here.

AN: Kinda boring chapter, bu it was necessary for the rest of the story. Stay tuned for more!

P.S my last name isn't Davidson, I just used the first name that came to my head XD