Pov- Max

So this is something that I could of never expected, standing there and looking at the reflection in the dirty broken mirror, knowing that that was apparently now me. I mean, I could've take solace in the fact that I wam alive, or that I at least that I felt alive. That definitely was a pro. But then, on the other hand, I was in a body that is foreign to me in more ways than one, I had no idea what was going on and I didn't really know what to do.

Fucking stellar.

I already did my freakout though, I guess, so I felt like I should try doing something constructive with my time. Like finding out when and exactly where the fuck I was. I thought should talk to Layla about it, working together seemed like the best plan. Or at least, I thought that was Layla, she looked the same as before, except for the change in wardrobe.

Turning into the alleyway I saw the girl walk down, I found her evidently finishing off her own little freak out, seeing that the shorter girl wrapped her arms around her torso, then released a dragging sigh. Different clothes. The same voice. Same face. But is it the same person?

One way to check I guess.

"Layla?" I asked, my own voice sounding strange to my ears, which then reminded me that I didn't really have ears anymore.

Her eyes shot up to stare in my direction. She gulped and stiffened slightly, but gave the smallest of nods. "Yeah?"

That's a start.

"I need to make sure that you are, well, you. So if I said that I liked your hoodie…" I trailed off, hoping for a positive answer.

Her eyes widened a fraction. Her next words were dripping with uncertainty, gaze flashing. Her voice grew soft and she took one cautious step toward me. "It can't be ...Max?"

"Yes! Now… don't suppose this makes any more sense to you?" I said wishing that she knew what was going on.

At this confirmation, she looked like she was struggling to keep her balance, swaying on her feet. She put a hand to her head, clenching her eyes shut. "This is just a dream. This isn't… this isn't real- you're not standing there. I'm talking to a figment of my fucked up imagination." She paused, her next words were muttered. "Or I'm high. Mark, if you did something to my drink I swear to God…"

Great, she's gone delusional.

"I assure you, I'm no figment of your imagination. Or someone called Mark. I understand that this is fucking weird, but you're not exactly going to be much help like that, so if you could snap out of it, that would be great." I told her as I waved my now talon in her face to get her on track.

"Please, don't- don't do that." Her skin blanched when my talon moved inches from her face. She flinched and closed her eyes again. "Don't move. Just… keep still. I'm fine. Everything is fine."

Her breathing seemed to increase. She then began chanting quietly to herself, like a crazy person. "You're not real. You're not real. This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't fucking real."

"Excuse you, I am super real. If you want, I can pinch you to prove it, but I guess that could actually really hurt now." I felt mildly insulted, as I eyed my now sharp talon.

"This isn't reaaal." She shakily sung to herself, putting her hands to either side of her head to muffle her ears. Layla moved away, ducking her head. "Go away. Go. Awaaaay."

"Alright, this is getting annoying now. I mean, at least you're still… you." Then I eyed her tracksuit. "More or less. Point is, at least you're still human, you don't have to deal with all this extra weird shit." I exclaimed, getting slightly angry and her inability to accept what was going on.

She still shook her head, moving away from me, she turned around to start walking, dodging around some bystander who shot her a harsh glare but moved on. "Nope. No. Nada. Not here!"

Fucking hell, she's stubborn.

I followed after her, not willing to lose the only other person I knew here, "Look, you can't just run away from your problems, you're going to need to confront this."

"Don't think I do!" Was her response. She kept walking, not looking behind her to glance at me. She swatted her hand over her shoulder dismissively. "Blissful ignorance. Yup. I'm good with that."

"Well, I'm not just going to let you leave. I will follow you until you realize this isn't something you can just ignore!" I was gesturing wildly at this point, trying to get her attention.

She stopped walking then, halting in her place before spinning around to face me. There were unshed tears clouding her blue eyes. Her features sharpened, gaze flaring with anger and twisting with sadness. She quickly collected herself, attempting to hide any emotions that were overwhelming her. The words cracked, betraying her feelings. "Just- stop!"

"Look. I know this is hard, but if you think about this clearly, you will realize I'm right. We need to work together if we are going to get through this." I was desperately trying to get her to calm down, fearing for her safety if she ran off in that state.

"And then what?" Her bottom lip wobbled, voice shaky. Demanding, yet pleading eyes shot up to me. "We join Shepard? We fight the collectors and the reapers? Become heroes?" She let out a bitter laugh. "I'm the type of person to trip up stairs- what the hell are we supposed to do here?" Her arm arched out, gesturing to our surroundings. "Not to mention- we're on Omega!"

"I know, things look bad now, but you're overthinking it. We need to do this one step at a time, or else we're just going to freak out." I told her, trying not to make any sudden movements.

She sniffled and a droplet slid down her cheek, but she inhaled deeply and gave a firm nod. "A-alright. Baby steps." She viciously wiped her eyes, her shoulders untensing. Good, she's calming down. "What…. What the hell do we do first?"

"Well, the basics, I guess." I shrugged. "Finding out the date, sorting out somewhere to stay and some way to get paid." I wasn't to clear on ideas myself, but I was ready to roll with whatever happened.

Layla paused and gnawed on her cheek, then her eyes trailed me with an almost inquisitive expression. I could see the obvious question in her gaze, but even I had no idea what happened- or even how. Going through the weird fog obviously had some strong effect on me,I was a different species.

She looked away again, this time patting herself down and looking through her pockets. She pulled out a strange looking orange band. "What the hell…?"

Without hesitation she put it on her wrist- and suddenly it lit up. A familiar shape of a hologram formed, engulfing her forearm. Words formed on the screen. The words; Welcome Layla.

A slow smile grew on her mouth, exuberance glowing in her blue gaze, practically glistening. Looks like someone has cheered up slightly. "Oh my god. This is…" She tapped a button on the side, it instantly unfolded, making weird noises before opening onto what I assumed was the main menu. Layla tilted her head, quirking an eyebrow. A grin twitched on her lips. "Okay, okay… I admit that's pretty cool."

After seeing Layla whip out an omnitool, I wondered aloud "Do you think I have one?" as I patted myself down trying to find pockets on my strange turian clothing. After I located where the pockets where, I felt for objects, pulling out a slightly similar looking band, which I immediately slapped on my wrist.

I received a similar surprise of sudden lights along my arm, however my high-tech tool greeted me with a different message, with holographic letters spelling out Welcome Maxius

"Huh. I guess Max isn't a very turian name, is it?" I pondered aloud.

"Maxius." Layla read aloud, leaning over to see. "Hmm. Sounds fancy. I'll probably still call you Max. Might confuse the locals a little though."

"I'm sure it will be fine, it's not like nicknames don't exist in the future, right?" I said as I was thinking over this new name, memorizing it. "Anyway, I would imagine these would have to have the date on here somewhere." I guessed as I started up the omnitool proper and looking through it's functions, until a stylized picture of a calendar appeared in front of me.

8th January, 2182.

"Well, there you go. If you needed any more convinc- Layla?"

Layla's skin was paler than before. Her breathing had hitched. I was almost annoyed and concerned that she went back to her freak out stage and was about to reassure her again, when she cut me off. "Max."

"I know, I know- I thought we were pas-"

"No." She sternly met my gaze, having to tilt her head due to our height differences. "You don't understand." She sighed. "We're here a year early."

"I don't see how that's so bad. It gives us time to get ready, and to acquaint ourselves with all this." I paused to let her think that through. "And again, one step at a time. We don't need to worry about that just yet."

"So what now?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow. "We have omni-tools. That's good, what about credits? For a place to live? If we stay out here, we'll no doubt get murdered- or worse. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to stay alive."

"Well, we need money, obviously, and we are going to need a job." I stopped to think for a moment. "It's worth checking to see if you have any credits on you."

Layla pursed her lips, emptying her pockets. "Let's see… hair band… uh, gum... and a card?" She took out the card, holding it up and flipping it from side to side. "I think it's a… credit chit?"

"That sounds about right, is there any way to check how much money you have on it?" I asked her, eyeing the card for visible indicators.

"I think I have to use my omni-tool to scan it." She bit her lip. "Because it doesn't say on the card. Do you have one?"

"Dunno, let me check." I went back to my pockets, this time taking out anything inside. First I pulled out some sort of snack bar, still wrapped up. I then dug into a larger pocket on my leg, feeling some kind of bulky object weighing it down slightly. When I pulled it out, the shape was unmistakable, a muzzle and trigger clearly visible, advertising the objects deadly purpose. I had a pistol on me. "Well, this is surprising."

"Holy shit." Layla breathed, staring at it with wide eyes.

"I guess it could be useful. I mean, I hope it never comes to that, but…" I felt the weight of the gun in my hand, and how surprisingly natural it was to me. I had never held a gun in my life, but right now it was as if I had been using them since childhood. "Let's… put that away for now." I said as I placed the gun back into what I then realized was a hidden holster, not a pocket.

She eagerly nodded. "Good idea."

I went back to feeling through pockets, until I pulled out what appeared to be another credit chit, looking just like the one Layla held. "I think this is it." I told her, shaking the chit in my talons. "Time to see how much we have. Heres hoping a lot, right?" As I said that, I tried to give her a smile, but it felt weird on my face, so I gave up on it.

"Are you… trying to smile?"

"Yeah… did it look weird?" I sheepishly replied.

"Uhhh…." She averted her eyes. "Nah." She grinned. "You looked cute- like a confused puppy."

"Oh. Well that wasn't exactly what I was going for… but I guess it will have to do." I became a bit desperate to change the subject, feeling a bit silly about the whole thing. "So, credits. Let's do that." I punctuated this with activating my omni-tool and searching for the correct program.

After a bit of searching, I found what I needed, some sort of cover-all scanning device, that I imagine is mostly used for trading in credit chits. Holding the omni-tool over my credit chit, the program told me that it held two hundred and fifty credits. Unsure exactly how much that was, I tilted the tool to allow Layla to give me a second opinion.

"I think it's enough to help us for the moment." She said, sounding dubious of her own words. "Maybe our next step is to see how much it is at a hotel or something, also-" she glanced around. "Maybe we should find a cheap one fast, because I'm uncomfortable just innocently standing out here. We're easy targets- I don't care if you have a gun or not."

"Can't argue there, getting somewhere private and safe is a good idea." I also gave a quick look around, seeing quite a few aliens about, but none of them currently seemed to be paying us any attention. "Seems like we are going hunting for housing, then."

After getting the courage to ask around, Layla and I approached the nicer looking ones to ask if they knew where one could rent out a room. Well, it was more that I asked, while Layla kind of stood back, clearly not as ready to face this situation as I hoped. But we still eventually got the answers we were looking for, if reluctantly, as if getting any kind of information off people here was some sort of crime.

The directions we were given lead us to this towering building of concrete and seemingly random patches of corrugated sheets of metal. It reminded me of a block of high rise flats, yet somehow this tower made a high-rise seem downright welcoming. The whole building was tinged a sort of dirty orange, from dust, dirt and rust, while pockmarked with what appeared to be bulletholes. I supposed that beggars cannot be choosers, and I turned to Layla to get her opinion on the whole thing.

"So this is the place. Not exactly a mansion is it?" I said, trying to cheer her up with good humor, seeing how she had been at her wits end earlier.

"As much as it lacks aesthetic," she cracked a small smile, throwing me a sideways glance as she put her hands in her pockets. "Can't complain."

"Well I suppose there is no use just hanging around outside." I said as I made my way towards the surprisingly intact door, with it's strange holographic interface. While the door was new to me, the method of activating it was clear and obvious, the circle in the middle just had to be touched, making the door slide to the side, revealing the inside of the housing block.

The quality inside was a step up from its outward appearance, which wasn't saying much, as litter was still strewn about the floor, exposed wiring ran across the floors, walls and ceilings, and piping of an unknown purpose sent out steam from cracks and ruptures on their aged forms. To one side of the room, was what could be described as a reception rested there, with a damaged desk, a strange looking computer with what appeared to be some kind slap dash repair job done to it.

Sitting behind the desk, at the time not paying us any attention, was a turian. He appeared to be sitting down, distracted gaze engrossed with something on his omni-tool. The faint orange glow from the gadget illuminated his white plates, revealing the light amber markings that embellished his fringe and jawline, gradually creeping along his mandibles.

Layla made a move this time, shuffling forward. We both glanced at each other and she loudly cleared her throat. Piercing grey eyes darted up in surprise, clearly not having heard us come in. The steel coloured marbles flickered between us, taking a moment to narrow slightly. An unfathomable look flashed across his features and his mandibles twitched but he sat up, closing his omni-tool.

The turian placed a talon on the counter. He spoke, flanged voice crisp and polite. His icy grey eyes were unwavering. "Welcome to Canso Motel, I'm Matis Canso. How may I help you?"

The brunette beside me rubbed the back of her neck, gnawing on her bottom lip before responding. Though, her answer sounded more like a question. "Uh- we'd like a room?"

"Absolutely." He stood, ducking for something underneath the counter, his head vanished, his voice slightly muffled. "How many nights?"

Layla looked up at me for help this time, uncertainty written all over her face. Her voice lowered to a soft tone. "Uh… Max?"

Deciding to help her out, I responded "I don't suppose you have a scheme for people paying on a week by week basis? It's currently unclear exactly how long we will need the room for."

He poked his head back up, then paused for a second before continuing. "You can pay in installments depending on the length of your stay, yes. Weekly is fine. About one hundred credits per week."

I blanched a little at that, knowing that the money I had on me wouldn't last as long as I hoped. I turned to Layla, trying to judge if she was alright with this cost. She clenched and unclenched her jaw before turning to the turian.

Her flesh seemed to heat under the sharp stare of the turian. She stammered a little. "Uh- is it possible we may… lower the price slightly? We don't have a lot."

The turian tapped a talon along the metal counter. His eyes seemed to just keep staring, analyzing us. I could almost see the gears turning in his head, then, "tell you what, seeing as how you're my first customers in a few weeks, how about I give you a ten percent discount?"

I piped up at that, excited at the prospect of saving what little of the money I had. "Really? That would be great!"

"Thank you so much." Layla quietly added in. The turian nodded.

"What sort of room would you like?" He asked, tapping something on his omni-tool.

I answered his question. "Two beds and general appliances, something to store food, that kind of thing?" I was hoping that I wouldn't have to share a bed, the prospect being too awkward to me.

He nodded. "Alright, if you give me your details, I'll send the key to your omni-tools."

"Which details?" My companion questioned slowly, pressing her lips together nervously.

"Just your names, ID and omni-tool ID code." He told her.

Having already flipped through the omni-tool's functions twice before, I vaguely knew what I was looking for, having seen a data transfer application which was likely what I needed. Getting to it and activating it was easy, and it told me what information I had to send, ID and the omni-tool code being at the top of a list of files, probably for ease of use. Directing the tool at the turians omni-tool, and selecting the correct info, I sent over what he wanted from me, after which I checked to see if Layla was having any issues.

She was stumbling over it, fumbling with the holographic device. She looked up at me for help, looking a little sheepish as she clumsily fiddled with it. "Uh, Max… sorry could you help?"

"Sure, let me do it for you." I told her as I reached over to do the same thing I did with my own tool. Realizing that was likely an odd scene for the turian watching all of this, I turned to him to save face somewhat. "She really doesn't get how to use tech." I have a false chuckle, and added on, "Humans, right?" while I completed the transaction of information to Matis.

"Hey!" Layla nudged me lightly, but her face broke into a grin. Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

"What? You did need help."

"Shut your mouth Maxine." She huffed, dramatically flipping her hair. But by the twitch on her lips, it was playful, no harm intended.

"Can't say I'm a fan of that nickname. At least use Max."

"Tough shit princess." She giggled to herself.

I sniffed at that. "Fine." I turned back to the head of this motel. "So, you got everything you need?"

"Yes." The omni-tool faded from sight, he put his arm down. "Enjoy your stay."

"Thanks. What room are we in?"

"Second floor, room 18. Third door on the right."

"Got it, thanks again." I told him as went towards the stairs, making sure Layla was following. She skipped after me, a bounce appearing in her step. Someone is happier.

As we made it the second floor, I couldn't help but start snickering at the earlier scene we made. Spotting the door with a 18 crudely painted on it, I activated the same data transfer program that I used to give Matis the ID's, and sent the key to the door, which it recognized and allowed me entry.

Layla and I funneled into the room that we now had as a home, judging the room's quality. Quality that the room somewhat lacked. It had everything we needed, two beds adjacent to each other, what I believed was a fridge, along with a microwave oven and a small pantry. There was a small room to the side that I correctly guessed was a bathroom. However the room was unclean, and in slight disrepair, telling me that this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.

I turned to Layla, able to talk with her properly now that we were finally off the streets. "So… is this crazy or what?"

"Nah," she smiled. "Just an ordinary Tuesday."

Author's Notes

As I said in the previous chapter, expect a POV swap more or less every chapter, this time being Max's POV. Glad to see that people are already throwing out positive remarks towards this, it's very nice to hear people enjoy it. Updates for this fic will try to be at least relatively consistent, as I would rather not have people wait ages for updates again. Expect a lot of character interaction next chapter, as well as them trying to find work, which surprisingly is a lot harder than what they would be used to.

Anyway, as for some review replies,

ShadowAngel32- Happy to see you find it interesting, and hopefully you enjoy where this fic will end up going.

OnkelJo- I have found it's a whole lot easier to catch mistakes when it's co-written, as we usually pick up after the other.

FOODNinja-321 - Can't say I know the webcomic, don't know if LeShyWolf knows it either, but I don't think so. As for the 'crackfic style humor', that's honestly how I like to write that kind of thing, because honestly, that's how a lot of people amuse themselves in a conversation, it's more 'realistic' than everyone just being a stand-up comedian whenever the writer wants to make a joke. When it comes to the cliché, I can't really disagree, but in the long run, that scene doesn't really matter too much. It's there to set it up, but not really have much of a hold on the story, because if you want a more 'out there' beginning, you usually have to use an intro that will hold much more weight on the story, and that's not really what we wanted the story to be about. And yeah, from what I discussed with LeShyWolf, we shouldn't end up with characters that are too OP, or too weak, due to a dislike of certain things.

Blaze1992- Well, two answers for you there. The in story answer, is that you will just have to wait and see. The out of story answer, is just because that's how we wanted to write it.

Spiritstrike- Thanks! Hopefully this next chapter pleases you as well.

Toothless is best- I can respect that, I never really trust a fic by one chapter (Unless of course, it's a one-off)

Flick262- Well, it's still not too clear where it's going just yet, don't want to rush it too hard, after all.

Final note, just reminding you again, that this is a co-written fic with LeShyWolf, and if you like it enough to favourite, then give her stuff a try too!