AN: This is rewritten version of Ch 3! I also did some minor changes to previous chapters! Not much but It's because I WANTED them to be CONFUSING and SHORT.
As I catch up to Shepard and others I can't help but to think where my body is. Is it brain dead back at home? Did it come to this dimension too? Was this all only freakish accident? Did someone plot this all? Am I some kind of Chosen? Can I change Canon? If I really am an AI why I got so used to it already? Did I actually beat the original programming? No wait that couldn't be it. They said and the videos confirmed that they didn't have time to put in a program.
All these questions and dozens of more whirled through my mind as I ran to them. As I caught up to Shepard she asked me "what should we call you?"
The question made me stop in my tracks to think about it.
Should I use my own name? Or should I use alias? I sure as hell want to be called Partsu...it's my nickname after all. But if she is about to fabricate me an ID with her Spectre connections then perhaps I should just make it believable. But if this is some kind of daydream and I'm writing this down to fanfiction...okay I'm not going down that thought. This is as real as real can be and I'm not going to even think how bizarre self-insert story this would make...but name? Name? I need a name that I would feel familiar yet keep it, just in case, not my real name. Funny name would be best. Lets see...
Before I can venture very far to the road of sweet lies Shepard interrupts me by waving her hand in front of me.
"hello? I asked what should we call you? According to video logs you said you have memories of human male in his 20's...What is the name of that male?"Shepard asks me. And boy is she getting frustrated at how long it takes me to answer her question.
But thanks to her clarification I know what I should say. The truth.
"oh...right...the male who's memories I've is **** ******* ****** ******** born ******-***# ,22 earth standard years old. Adept martial artist and pretty accurate shot. Exceptionally weak physically due lack of exercise and leg injury caused by overexerting oneself. *th oldest out of ** child family ,oldest male. By the time memories cut of ,only his one elder sister had died when she was two years old. He, or should I say I, was born ,raised and lived in Finland his whole life. Need any more info?" I answer to her.
"Woah! Wait a moment. I'm sending query to Earth...wait few minutes okay?" She says back. Apparently I was tid too fast.
So we wait. While waiting I look carefully at the squad.
Garrus still looks at me warily and has his weapon at ready. Wrex just paces around and fiddles with his new gun.
Shepard looks at the schematics of the place from her omnitool. I notice that she is looking intently at certain point.
"umm may I ask what is so interesting in that spot?" I ask her
"it's just that...we passed it when we came here and it had door...but this says there is only wall between the station and asteroid. I was thinking about checking it out once we get the info-ah there it is!" she says as her omnitool beeps.
She then looks through the info. I watch as she pales more and more every passing second until she looks at me as if she had seen a ghost. or is seeing a ghost.
"According to this...there is only one person who fits the criteria you gave me and...he disappeared after huge lighting storm. No trace of him was ever found and he was declared dead a year later..."she starts and after taking deep breath she continues
"and it happened 2012.." she ends.
…
"WHAT?!" I yell from top of my lungs (I've now only one lung so I should say lung...)
then I start to hyperventilate. I actually disappeared? and appeared in the FUTURE? Not in another DIMENSION but FUTURE? Oh shit oh shit oh shit!
That means that every human should...no wait I have to know something...but how to ask it without making myself suspicious? If this is future then there should not be any problems...but if this is not future but another dimension...then I'm in big trouble...
"well obviously I can't be that person now can I? Since I know so much of this era?"
"No...I think not...but it's closest we have got...next closest..."she starts but before continuing to say it she stops and shakes her head "no that can't be possible...well why don't you cook up alternate story then?"
I scratch my head until I start
"If you really want me to...there was this one story that just appeared in my head when I was thinking about good story that could actually fool someone but..." I leave it hanging.
"you didn't believe it yourself?" she finishes for me
I jump at that "yeah...how did you? Ugh never mind...well...It's odd because more I think about it the more I remember...like I had just forgotten it all and am remembering it all just now..."
"Get to it already, we don't have all day..."Garrus says.
I take a deep breath and start...the story felt natural but still...odd...
"born 2161 on earth to unknown father and mother. In my mothers last words I was named Juha. Gene tests showed that I was related to one redheaded girl that had lost her memory in an accident that killed her father and injured my mother. She never responded to any usual names so she was named Jane, though I somehow know her name but she asked me to never tell anyone? Odd...Anyway We grew close and when I was few years old I got into accident that nearly killed me. We were adopted by the couple that caused that accident. We moved to Mindoir...when I was 9 years old , Batarians raided the place...I was kidnapped and sold to become slave. I was trained to become assassin for them and if my memory serves me correct I broke free just days ago. But I was almost dead due to injuries I got fighting them." I end and look at Shepard. She is shaking all over for reasons I had no clue.
"umm..Shepard? Commander? What's wrong?" I ask her. She stops shaking and mutters something I can't quite hear
"What did you say? Hey you are creeping me out commander!" I ask her.
She draws few deep breaths before taking her helmet of ,wiping her tears and then glaring at me.
"I asked...What was the name of that girl?" She asks me with her voice so cold that I get chills all over me.
I gulp "I am not sure if I cooked that up or are those memories of someone else but if my memory serves me correct, I, or the one whose memories those things are, promised to NEVER tell her name to ANYONE. And I feel I should not say. I'm sorry commander"
"THEN LOOK AT MY FACE AND GUESS MY NAME!" she yells at me. And this time she is both furious and on verge of crying again.
Damn! I bet all the fanboys of Hale and femshep would kill me if they knew that I had made Shepard cry! Shit shit shit! What could her name be? Jane?Julia?Alex? or...? No... I start thinking as more memories resurface as I look at her
That can't be her...that can't be her name...Shit! There must have been some kind of misunderstanding! Someone must be screwing with me!
I try to think but it makes less and less sense as I dwell deeper so I decide to gambit it.
"I...it's Mu-" and before I can continue the world stops. Even me. But I see some kind of ghostly figure appear behind Shepard...
"Heh heh so you finally figured it out? yes it's me...the one who scews with anyone to get some entertainment...you should go to the nonexistent room She was wondering about...and don't you DARE speak a word of me...or something worse than DEATH might happen to you" it says to me until bursting out to maniacal laughter and disappearing.
That is when the time comes back in full force.
And that means my mouth will continue speaking...
"-lan Athena Katsumi Shepard" I say and immediately put hands to my mouth. Damn What the hell was that? Shit I'm in trouble now...
But the name hits the mark if her face is any indication.
Wide eyes , raised eyebrows, mouth hanging open...and dropping her assault rifle...very much of deer caught in headlights face,that means I hit bullseye.
"how...You...How did you? NO ONE KNOWS THAT! No one! Except one person! And you...you can't be him! Your face is all wrong! Your hair color is all wrong! Your...your...oh forget it..." she yells at me , and after that she punches me to stomach...hard. I double over in pain and barely manage to hear What she says next.
"And you two. Never EVER tell What you heard here to ANYONE. That is an ORDER. Is that clear?" she yells at them with that icy voice that promises instant death to anyone who disobeys.
Both Wrex and Garrus definitely sound scared as they reply "Android knew something only one person knows about you and you cried, that never happened. Got it Shepard. "
"Shut up." she says and starts moving towards the ship.
"I think the room you was curious about might have some answers." I say. Shepard stops but doesn't turn around.
"Shepard...I think the thing has point." Wrex says.
"I don't know...He is machine so he might be plotting something...I vote we go check that room while Wrex watches over it." Garrus says...and he still has his weapon almost trained at me.
Shepard apparently is taking heavy breaths again. After half a minute she finally speaks.
"We check that room...I'm a bit curious about that nonexistent room..."she says and starts walking at very fast pace.
Dumbfounded I can't help but follow. I didn't think she would agree...
After few minutes we arrive to the room. Shepard opens it and we are treated to very smelly and gory sight.
"holy shit! This room stinks!" I say while pinching my nose.
The room has one...or should I say two occupants.
One that is almost whole but in very bad shape. Its head is open and brain missing.
The other occupant is nothing BUT head...without its brain.
"Well...this is certainly place of mad scientist...I wonder where the brains are?" Garrus says.
Shepard on the other hand is frozen still. I look at her and then at What she is looking at.
She is looking at the head and the body.
"no...NO! THIS CAN*T BE! No fucking way!" she screams and then comes to me.
"You...you...what is the meaning of this? Where are the brains and how there are TWO heads of my brother?"
Garrus then quips from somewhere " I think I found them...or What is left of them..."
Shepard turns and runs to where Garrus is and I follow. What the hell? that guy is her brother? but he looks just like me...except he is better built and has black/purple hair instead of my brown. I think as I follow them.
Sure enough there are two machines with remains of something and inscription that tells that brains should be put there.
"damn! Check the logs! Maybe there is hint of What happened here!" Shepard orders. Wrex lazily goes somewhere and Garrus and I go check the logs.
Few minutes later Wrex comes back with flamethrower. Just as I finally find logs indicating What the hell happened here.
I glance around to look for Shepard as I see her I yell "Shepard! I found something!"
As they gather I play the video diary of the Asari.
"Test 801. Today while on their way to buy some slaves from slavers for my experiments they found something remarkable! The ship of the slavers was destroyed and only one survivor was found barely alive. That is the first. Second thing was that when they had taken him in and put to life support...A head almost identical to him appeared from thin air! And it was ALIVE! They managed to keep it that way but both of them are in coma. This is marvelous! I wonder if they are twins? This could be breakthrough ! Maybe twins could work where 800 previous have not! Odd that the body of the head was separated...we found that it had appeared too but was too close to a star and was vaporized...When they get here I'm going to rip both of their brains at the same time..." she says and giggles like ...well...mad. female, scientist .
that is where the first entry ends.
We are all silent for minute and then Shepard of all people selects the next log to watch.
It's the same asari speaking but this time it shows video dated to earlier today.
"This time I hope this works. It's lucky that DNA of them is so close to our newest Android. I found that there exist only one person with that DNA...Juha John Peruna. He was apparently kidnapped from Mindoir when he was 9 years old. The slavers must have used him as Assassin, otherwise he wouldn't have all those things he had with him. I hope it helps since all the other subjects were in bad shape." the asari says.
Then it shows how they cut the heads and take out the brains. What follows is them putting them to the machines.
Next sight is gruesome sight of lasers burning the brains to nothingness. As the brains get vaporized the hologram of them above the machine gets more complex. Then they are merged and apparently sent away in blink of an eye. Then the asari speaks again "Now lets see What happens in the room of the android..."It shows us the feed that I knew already, this time hosted by the asari.
"It works! It works! But he is still himself! This is marvelous! But damn him! the minute he got to know Who we work for and What he has done he went rogue! Damn him! But this shows that it works! My lifelong dream is at hand! But first I got to kill it and Shepard...before I can try it on asari...then If it works I can do it to myself! I can't wait for eternal life! Heahhahahahahaaaaa!" she cackles and then the video stops.
Shepard looks like she is waiting for someone say something but doesn't speak. After few minutes of silence I speak.
"Well...I think that explains a lot...so...what are we going to do?"
"Okay okay I concede...you are apparently mix of my brother and you are also something of his twin that appeared out of nowhere...I say we blow this place hell and gone..."
"as you wish but What about..the remains of your...brother and his twin?" Garrus says. He still looks uneasy.
"we leave them here. Then we make this place either blow the hell up or send it to the nearby star." then she turns and looks at each of us.
"And What happened here STAYS HERE. From now on he is regarded as my missing brother. NOT ONE WORD about him being an android is to leak out.
I know my brother is somewhere inside this guy and I'm not going to lose him now. Again. He is going to join us in our fight against Saren and that is final. So Garrus. If you have any problem with it, you can leave any time."
Garrus stumbles back a little and apparently is trying to find an excuse "I...I was just thinking about Tali...She is not going to like that we bring AI on board..."
Shepard looks at him with twinkle on her eye "oh? Well if she doesn't know then What is the problem?" she says as if that is final solution.
Garrus doesn't seem to give up though "but lying to her..."
That is when Shepard finally grins. She then waves her hand "I'll handle it. So any other objections?" Shepard asks just in case
That is when I see Garrus looking as if he is giving up "council and their laws about AI's aside? Well if...and I must highlight the IF...he doesn't turn on us...then I have no problem with it." Garrus says.
Shepard looks surprised at that "So THAT is why you are hesitant..you are fearing it betrays us? Well be on your guard then. It's legitimate concern. Now lets get back to ship."
"Okay that felt weird...to listen people talk about me like I'm not here..." I say as we start moving towards the door.
"oh and Wrex? You have my permission to burn the remains of me...and me..."
Shepard looks at me for second and then she sighs "If John says so then I'm fine with it..."
"John? I thought his name was Juha?" Garrus says.
"Well What I remember him remembering or What he remembers and I know...his first name was Juha but he preferred his another name John...and I have always been called either Juha, as is my name, or Partsu, nickname derived from my other surname." I say.
"I was about to say that tidbit about John but this makes it easier...He is John and you are Juha...so when we get back to civilization we are going to register you as my brother Juha John Shepard. 22."Shepard says
I shrug my shoulders "add Etién there somewhere and I'm fine."
"what? But that would make your name almost like the guy you deciphered info of! His first and third names were similar but his second name and surname..." her eyes start to widen
"your nickname! From your surname! You ARE that person then! The missing brother of our great-whatever- grandmother!"
"..." both Wrex and Garrus are speechless at that.
"damn...well lets keep that out of the public...no need to know that I'm both your brother AND great-whatever- grand uncle..." I say to her. though I'm puzzled . I'm related to Shepard more ways than one?
She nods and we make our way out of the room (except Wrex) and to Normandy. Wrex catches us as we step to the airlock.
"Stand by shore party. Decontamination in progress...Decontamination in progress...Decontamination in progress..." the VI chants
It makes me very irritated "can't we shut this thing off?" I say . Garrus flanges his mandibles and Shepard snickers and wipes her eyes again to look more professional.
"And no word What happened there...especially about What I did there or you are dead" she says to all of us just before the airlock opens to the Normandy
Somewhere...DEATH had just come visiting certain human turned Android..and even though he managed to fool him into thinking he is responsible for his situation, he is not. He is having headache of his unlifetime.
"WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THIS HAPPENING? SAME HUMAN FROM TWO DIFFERENT UNIVERSES MANAGE TO GET SUCKED INTO NATURAL WORMHOLE AT THE SAME TIME AND THEY SOMEHOW MERGED TOGETHER FORMING SINGLE HUMAN/SOUL.
AND THEN THEY GET SENT TO FUTURE TO YEAR 2183. AND TO MAKE IT EVEN MORE UNLIKELY HE WAS RESCUED BY PROJECT PBA OF SAREN WITH PERSON THAT COULD BE THEIR TWIN. AND AGAIN THEY GET MERGED , THIS TIME INTO ONLY SUCCESFUL ANDROID OF THAT PROJECT. PROJECT THAT HAS NEVER IN ANY TIMELINE SUCCEEDED.
AND TO MAKE IT EVEN CRAZIER YET... HE MANAGES TO GET RECRUITED BY SHEPARD?
OH MY HEAD HURTS...THIS SHEPARD SHOULD BE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF HANDLING HERSELF BUT NOW THAT HE IS THERE...I THINK HE IS GOING TO CAUSE...
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT...GREAT...I NEED VACATION...I HOPE HE DIES SOON...BEFORE HE CAUSES BIGGER PROBLEMS"Death says to himself and goes on to continue his job...
Elsewhere I happily step into Normady's airlock completely oblivious of what huge mess I've caused/ stepped into.
AN:Halleluja I'm in the Normandy!