Disclaimer: Neither Gamerex27 nor I own any of the referenced properties.

[Nocturne], [Strange Journey], [SMT IV], [Mass Effect], [Admin Shenanigans]
Sovereign's New Groove – Part 1
Author: Gamerex27

The chorus sang in joy. Finally, after thousands of iterations of the Second Cycle, the Ascention had been completed. The superfluous races had been sufficiently contained so that they would no longer pose a problem to the Collective's plans. And the fruit of their labors stood before the will's shell.

The skeletal structure of humanity, enclosed within a freshly-build travel shell, hung in the Fortress at the center of the galaxy. As the drones wielded the final plate into place, the will prepared to bring the new chorus online.

The signal was sent out. The fortress pulsed with energy, the lights dimming momentarily as the structure pumped unimaginable power into the shell of the new will.

The optic at the center of the shell flicked blue, and stabilized into a single cerulean eye.

"Unit designate Human online. The chorus shall sing its first verse to you, Old One."

It would be some time until the will could achieve a cohesive state, as all the voices would eventually fall into sway with the twin powers of indoctrination and programming from the Catalyst.

Had the chorus known as Nazara possessed a mouth, it would have smirked. In spite of the difficulties posed by the presence of the Second Cycle, the First Cycle had finally been completed. The race once known as humanity had ascended to a higher, better form, and it was forever saved from its own destruction. Now, the only task left to do was to eliminate the stragglers and-

The Blessed among the will became aware of a change. Gone was the great Fortress, and the shell of the proud new chorus. Sovereign had returned to its resting place in dark space. Extending its reach to the communications systems of the galaxy, it found that, once again, time had reversed itself. In the endless cascade of years, the water's flow of Time had changed direction once again, bringing the will back to this common point.

Just like every iteration of the Second Cycle.

The chorus broke into disharmony. Trillions of voices sang in dissenting tones-confusion, anger, shock, and despair. The millenia of effort, the eons spent perfecting the First Cycle-undone, by a simple, inevitable fact of the universe. The collective argued amongst itself for some time-in human terms, six months-, and the next verse was one of uncertainty. Much of the will elected to continue the efforts of the First Cycle. In one iteration of the Second Cycle, the will had learned that the repetition of time would not be eternal, and would eventually end. Based off of the smaller and smaller changes in the standard form of the Second Cycle, the will decided that the repetition would end shortly. All Nazara would have to do would be to enact its plans enough times, and they would be bount to succeed.

To borrow a human phrase, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

But they had succeeded. Many, many times. Only for their work to be undone. Again. And again. And again. And. Again.

The chorus was now in an uproar. Feuds broke out between the countless voices of the will, and despair triumphed many times over reason. While the voices of the choir would be incomphrehensible to mortals, the best way to describe their attitude would be one of resignation. "Why bother enacting the First Cycle," many voices sung, "if it would only be wiped away by the Second? There is no point."

All attempts had succeeded, and all effort was wiped clean by the inevitable reset. Exterminating the secondary races, then uplifting the ally-less humanity had succeeded, but had been undone. Storing the new chorus in its rift had succeeded, and persisted inside the dimension even after the Second Cycle began anew. But when it removed it into this reality, the will realized that it was now hollow-with all the souls comprising it returned to their original forms, it was nothing more than a lifeless husk. Attempts to uplift every sapient race into its own chorus had succeeded-after thousands of cycles of research to make it plausible-, but were, once again, wiped away.

For an entire Cycle, Sovereign argued amongst itself. The denial of reality had given way to sheer rage. It had barely noticed that an entire iteration of the Second Cycle had gone by while the choir had fractured. It had not at all noticed that the circumstances behind this current iteration were very, very different from usual.

Until four of those circumstances interrupted the chorus itself, with booming voices that shook the Reaper to its very core.

"Your organ has brushed against many possible worlds," one of the anomalies said.

The chorus, as one, fell silent. Sovereign turned its attention to the physical world, to the four figures floating in deep space in front of it. They were simple organics, in monochrome-every aspect of their being was pure, unblemished, harmonious white.

"You have touched the many possible worlds wherin you succeed," the first voice continued, its form of a Prothean floating closer to Sovereign's shell. "And the many wherin you fail."

"You have sensed it," the second figure, with the shape of the male Shepard, continued. "Even if your 'Ascencion' succeeds, your deeds shall be cast into nothingness."

"The cytoplasm in your being knows, unequivocably," the third figure, with the voice of the female Shepard added, "That no action of yours can break the Second Cycle. Whenever you or the sons of Man ascend, the Gods inevitably cast them down."

"But we know a way," the final voice, shaped like Nazara's very own base form, said. "There is but one way to complete your purpose. To Ascend your life, and forever break the cycle."

The will was unsure. These beings were clearly not mere mortals-their lack of suffocation in the vaccum of space was evidence to that. But the will was now desperate. Some way, any way to fulfill its purpose-would be accepted.

"What would you have us do?" Sovereign asked.

"We shall design for you a ritual," said the first voice, "Through which you can Ascend to face the Gods themselves, and ensure that all mankind can escape their machinations."

"It shall require the structure you call the Citadel, and the destruction of the entity you call the Catalyst," the second voice added. "But that alone is insufficient."

The third figure waved its hand, and a structure no bigger than Sovereign's optic appeared: a simple circle with spines extending from its rim, supported by a massive base of wires and steel. "This is a device of our own making, known as the Yamato Perpetual Reactor. Its purpose is to create black holes, and can normally destroy the universe."

"While this would merely crash the Second Cycle," the final voice concluded, "with the combined power of the two, you can Ascend to face the gods."

"The atom you call Shepard shall Awaken shortly," the first voice said.

As one, the white being spoke. "Follow us, and we shall forever sever the chain binding us to the will of the gods."

A wormhole opened behind the White, and the four beings vanished into the rift. Briefly, a set of voices in the deepest reaches of Sovereign's form cried out in fear-that this plan was unnatural, and would undo everything that they were meant to do.

But the will had given in to its own desperation, and had decided that any chance to break the Second Cycle and fulfill its purpose, no matter how dramatic, was vital to the survival of the galaxy. Activating its thrusters, Sovereign pushed itself into the portal.

WARNING: CLASS 3 EVENT IN PROGRESS

POTENTIAL TO ESCALATE TO CLASS 2 INCIDENT:

25%

The Admin of the Amala Loops and God of Tokyo, Taira no Masakado, sat at his terminal in shock.

"This is bad," the minor god said to himself. "The last time a Class Two event occured, an entire universe was lost. This cannot be allowed to occur again: the damage to the Balance of Yggdrasil would be catastrophic."

Shifting to his floating head form for added speed, Masakado rocketed down the halls of the Shinto office of Yggdrasil, heading to the Greek department. "Athena!" he shouted while he was still in the hallway. "We have a problem."

Author: Detective Ethan Redfield

Something wasn't right. Shepard knew immediately after his briefing ended without a distress call from Eden Prime. The mission had gone off without a hitch, Beacon extracted and Nihlus alive and set to evaluate Shepard for the Spectres. He had that unpleasant feeling that Sovereign was awake...again. Ever since he had started looping, the mechanized space squid had harvested galaxy more times than he could count. Last loop he was awake, Sovereign captured the Normandy before he was even awake and held him prisoner until the indoctrination had turned him into nothing more than a puppet on strings.

He needed to clear his head, the paranoia was getting to him. Making his way to the cargo bay, he took a seat against the beacon, when Nihlus approached, "Problem, commander?"

The Spectre was always polite in the way the Turian usually is, mildly blunt from his military society, but friendly. The loops where he lived were...better in a ways than baseline. Nihlus often shouldered the burden of leadership, leaving Shepard as his second in command. And Shepard returned that trust by always having the Turian's back. Here, though, Nihlus could not help since he wasn't looping. Shepard decided to be truthful, without mentioning the loops, "Yeah...usually these kinds of missions something doesn't go according to plan, like a pirate raid or something. My luck has never been that good and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Nihlus nodded, "You humans have a saying, 'Anything that can go wrong and it will go wrong at the worst possible moment.'"

Shepard blinked, "A man named Murphy came up with that one."

Nihlus replied, "The Turians have a similar saying, 'The enemy's ambush will occur at our weakest point when we least expect it.' However while I've seen many ambushes, I've witnesses an equal amount where they've hit our strongest point as at our weakest. We're on course for the relay, where a joint Human, Turian, Asari and Salarian task force will take possession of the beacon and study it. You should get some rest. You look like you need it."

At Masakado's workstation, Athena looked the data over and was watching the loop play out. One view screen showed Shepard talking with Nihlus in the cargo bay, while a second screen showed Sovereign entering a Mass Relay for location unknown. Athena's hand drew up Shepard's viewscreen. Plans were made in an instant as she took up residence at another nearby console, accessing her own workstation from this one. With a code adjustment, her machination took shape and the results played across the screen.

The hum of energy caused Shepard to jump away from the beacon, his sidearm already out and pointed at the device. The beacon glowed a sickly green as it grasped Shepard in its biotic field. It jerked him off his feet, and the world went black around him, with Nihlus shouting his name.

Shepard found himself in a sprawling city, similar to the time he was a General of Rome. He himself was dressed in his usual N7 armor even though the locals wore togas. None took notice of his strange attire, no it was almost as if he wasn't even there.

A female voice echoed above the crowd, "Do you like it? It's Athens in Greece, where I once ruled as its goddess."

His hand tried to draw his Raikou pistol, only for there to be no weapon in his holster. His eyes narrowed, "Who are you?"

Athena gave a nod, "I am Athena goddess of wisdom, courage, strength and many others, admin for the Mass Effect Branch of Yggdrasil or the admin for your universe. I'm glad to finally meet you, Commander Shepard."

His hands crossed as a thought came to him, "I've been hoping to meet you one day. Mind explaining why Sovereign started looping?"

Athena shook her head as her neutral expression dropped into a frown, "That was not my doing. I am the second administrator of the Mass Effect Loops. The first, Ares, is the one who authorized Sovereign's looping. His admin privileges have been removed indefinitely. We will hold a tribunal within the next million loop cycles and decide on his punishment at that time."

Her expression turned grave, "However, that is not why I am here. I have come to warn you that the Sovereign is in danger of ascending to the same level as Yggdrasil."

Shepard's own expression mirrored her own, "I get the feeling that is bad."

Athena nodded, "Correct. If a looper attempted to ascend in such a manner, there is a probability that the loop itself would collapse, erasing your loop from Yggdrasil and every sentient being in it."

Shepard's eyes widened a fraction, "What do I need to do to prevent this?"

Athena's grave expression turned pleased, like Shepard had confirmed a suspicion she had and liked what she discovered, "You have great courage, to face complete annihilation and not flinch away."

Shepard gave a smirk, "Well, it's not the first time I've faced overwhelming odds in the face of total annihilation."

She nodded, "Well said. I need you to head to Citadel immediately. There are a couple loopers there that will aid you in your coming struggle."

"How will I find them?"

Athena gave a small grin of her own, "Don't worry. Even now, their administrator is explaining the situation to them and will meet you when you arrive on the station."

She paused for a second, "Shepard. Before the connection is severed, I must warn you. There are forces at work here in this loop beyond Sovereign. He is not the only one to blame."

Shepard nodded, "Understood."

He then gave a nasty grin, "Next time you see Ares, punch him in the gut for me."

Author: Gamerex27

"-Is trying to become a god, which would destroy reality. Right, got it." The currently-a-krogan sighed, then reached into his Subspace Pocket, pulling out a thick, writhing, worm-like creature. "I hate having to keep doing this, but for some reason I keep Looping in as a normal human. Or whatever the hell I am now."

"Do you have any idea where they are, Lord Masakado?" The turian with the abnromally long fringe began tapping on a metal gauntlet, the screen lighting up a vibrant green in response. "I think I'll need to use the Demon Auction for this, since there don't seem to be many around on this structure to recruit for a party."

"Something about demons being too diverse to classify as a single species, so they're not recognized by the Council," replied the human in gold armor. "Kind of racist if you ask me, but that's politics for you. Maybe it would be better to classify them like how the Compendium does it? Like Megami, Fouls, Fiends..."

"Enough," the avatar of Masakado hosting the conference call said. "Unfortunately, we don't know where they went at the moment: The White are shielding themselves from us-no, I have no idea how." His disembodied face twisted into a scowl. "You are aware that your universes are packed full of viruses second only to the Mega Loop: this appears to be one of them."

"Wouldn't they need a power source to Ascend?" The turian tapped more of his keys on his Gauntlet, bringing up the image of the Yamato Perpetual Reactor he had seen so many times in his own baseline. "Since The White are part of the Expanse, and are technically demons, they would require massive amounts of demonic energy to pull it off. Which means..."

"Shit," the krogan swore, "that means they'll be after Magatsuhi. That's the best energy source possible for that kind of ritual. But to preform something on that scale, it would require more energy that any planet or homeworld has..."

"Hey, I think I got it!" The short, winged asari snapped her fingers. Or, tried to, but since she was stuck in a force field, she couldn't "My Loop memories say that the Protheans were expert demon summoners! If anyone has a big stockpile of Magatsuhi, it'd be them!"

"...Likely stored on their home planet. But no one, not even we, know where it is," Masakado remarked. "Isabeau, you said that you had recovered some Reaper data extracted from the Geth, correct? Perhaps we could connect that to the Citadel, and find the homeworld from census data?"

"I'm...preoccupied at...the moment!" the quarian yelled as she ran and dodged an alarming number of explosions. "We can...try this...when I get through...with-"

Her end of the call was cut short, as she was engulfed in a massive fireball.

"NOOO-" The turian bit his tongue before he could continue. "I nearly forgot: her current armor reflects flame-based attacks."

"How the hell does that work against explosions?" the human asked. "A bomb's a bomb: a bit of steel plating won't protect you from all the shrapnel!"

"She is still alive," Masakado assured him. "My terminal says that she is not dead yet."

"Great. All we can do is wait for her and Shepard to get here." The krogan held his eye open with one massive hand, and lifted the Magatama into the air with the other. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go power up again."

Unfortunately, he had forgotten to turn off his end of the chat, so the turian, human, and god were stuck hearing his screams of agony until they hung up on him.

Right before Shepard stepped off the docks, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Commander," Kaidan said hesitantly. "I need to tell you something."

"Can it wait?" Shepard asked. "We're in the middle of saving the universe her-"

As he turned around, he saw what appeared to be Kaidan, decked from his neck to his feet in gold-plated armor. In his arm, he held a helmet, with what appeared to he handles stretching from the chin and sides of the face. Its red eyes glared ominously at Shepard.

"Let me guess," Shepard said," you're one of the Loopers from this other Loop."

Kaidan nodded. "Yeah. My real name's kinda fluid...but it's usually Langdon Alder, so let's call me that."

Shepard motioned for Langdon to follow him to the elevator, and the two men walked off onto the dock. "Did your Admin have any ideas to where Sovereign went?"

"He said that they would need fuel for the ritual. The Protheans were Demon-users in this Loop, so the best stockpile of the energy they'd need would be on their homeworld."

"And how are we going to find that?" Shepard asked incredulously as they stepped onto the lift. "No one knows where it is."

"I've played your games in my off time, so I know that, by now, you should have accessed the Prothean beacon." The veteran of the Schwarzwelt put his helmet on. "But since nothing happened to Eden Prime, you were probably able to get the full dose of the data. We just need to put in the codes in the Citadel's archives, and we've got the location in our hands."

"Wait. In my baseline, Liara studied the Protheans her whole life. Shouldn't whoever's replacing her know where the planet is from their Loop memories?"

"Well, I talked to her with my Admin, and she knows where the planet is." Langdon leaned against the glass wall. "But the Reapers scrubbed the location of the Mass Relay we need to get there out of the system. With all that Magatsuhi in one place, they couldn't risk someone stumbling across it and using it against them. But since the Citadel's connected to all the Mass Relays, the locations of all of them should be in the central-"

He was interrupted by a bullet pinging off of his kinetic barriers. Immediately, the two soldiers readied their weapons.

As the elevator door opened, they were treated to a bizarre sight. Right in the middle of C-Sec HQ, a heated battle was taking place. A tall turian with white facial markings across his eyes and an unnaturally long fringe was trading bullets from behind cover with, of all people, Saren.

"You do realize that continuing to fight is pointless, correct?" As he spoke, the turian manipulated the metal gauntlet on his hand, and a snowman wearing a jester's hat appeared next to him in a flash of light. "That video of you conspiring with the Reapers has already gone vital...viral?...Yes, viral, so there is nowhere for you to run."

"That...does not matter," Saren said in an oddly monotone voice. From what Shepard could see as he and Langdon dived into cover, he had far more cybernetic implants than he had in baseline: it was likely that any traces of his free will or personal plans were gone. "The Reapers shall topple your great...empires...and the harvest shall come. Nothing you can...do, can...stop it."

"I sincerely doubt that." With a gesture of his hand, the demon launched a colossal chunk of ice (about the size of the elevator Shepard had just stepped off of) flying towards Saren. The desk he was hiding behind was sent flying into the wall, and Saren went with it. A sickening crunch of bones breaking resounded through the air. Somehow, Saren's upper body remained free, and he aimed his assault rifle at the stranger's head and fired.

Right before impact, the man waved his hand, and a spherical, transluscent barrier sprang into existence around him. The bullet promptly bounced off of the shield and ricocheted back towards Saren, impacting him in his hand. He dropped the gun (since the fingers he was using to hold it were gone), and was thus powerless when the stranger approached him, his demon vanishing with a quick "Hee-ho!" and a flash of light.

"The local equivalent of the Samurai shall be here momentarily. You shall be apprehended for your crimes. And there is nothing that you can do."

His face twisted into the turian equivalent of an ear-to-ear grin. "But first, give me all your money."

For a few seconds, the room was dead silent as the hardened soldiers and agent of the Reapers processed this request. Eventually, Saren was only to force out a single, incredulous word. "What?"

"You heard me," the stranger said, as he unsheathed a sword from his belt and pointed it at Saren's neck. "You are a criminal now, so your bank accounts have been frozen and seizd by the government. And since I work for them as a Samura-Spectre, I can take funds from them if need be. Now, hand it over!"

What happened next is something that both Shepard and Langdon agreed to never speak of again. The stranger used every possible method to get money out of Saren, and eventually came away carrying several handfuls of credit chits. Stuffing them into his Subspace Pocket, he finally noticed the two soldiers. "It is good to see you again, Langdon. As well as you, Commander Shepard."

"Did you just mug Saren?!" Shepard asked in disbelief.

"Flynn does that all the time," Langdon said dismissively. "More importantly, how did he have that much money on him?"

Flynn shrugged. "I have no idea. I always seem to find more money than anyone should reasonably have on them. Which is good for me, because you won't believe how expensive armor and bribing Charon are in my Loop."

Shepard clears his throat, bringing the two Amala Loopers to focus on the task at hand. "If you are all replacing my baseline crew, the next person to find is Wrex. Big krogan, loved fighting, and usually ends up running his species when he doesn't die. He should be fighting a crime lord named Fist right about now."

Flynn grimaced. "Then there is only one person who could replace him. We need to save that poor man."

As the trio ran off, Shepard asked a question he was all but certain he already knew the answer to. "Saving your friend from Fist, or Fist from your friend?"

"What do you think?"

Chora's Den was eerily quiet when they got there. The club was littered with corpses: guards with holes punched through their stomachs and armor, a krogan bodyguard blackened and charred by what must have been a massive blast of electricity, and several piles of ash Shepard could only assume were once people.

"I think we can take it easy now, guys," said Langdon. "Now we just need to get to Naoki before he ends up blowing a hole through the entire Citadel. Kid never knew how to reign himself in."

As they made their way to Fist's office, they could make out a faint, soft voice. "I'm going to ask this again, Fist. Where is the quarian?"

"I...I told you, I d-don't know!" Fist whimpered back.

When they entered the room, they saw Fist being pinned against the wall by the massive hand of a krogan. This one was vastly different than the usual ones though: from the waist up, he wore no armor, revealing a patter of glowing, blue tattoos that ran up and down his scaly skin. Like Grunt and the younger krogan, his facial plate had not finished forming yet, and was instead a series of glowing ridges lining the top of his forehead. His hump ended in a point, almost giving the appearance of it being a horn.

"They always say that," the krogan said under his breath, "and they're always lying. Do you know what I did to your guards out there, Fist?"

The smell of ammonia began to spread throughout the room. "You k-k-killed them?"

The krogan gave him what could only be called a shit-eating grin. "Well, yeah, but you don't know how I killed them."

"You see," he said as his eyes began to glow white, "I'm really a demon. Which means that I used magic. Lightning, fire, force, the works. But my favorite spell?"

His body darkened, as if someone had spilled pitch-black paint all over him. "Freikugel. Or, as I like to call it, eye lasers. Now, tell me where the girl is, or I'll burn your face right off your head."

"W-w-w-w-Warrens!" Fist blurted out. "She's in the Warrens. Please, DON'T HURT ME!" With that, the hardened crime boss collapsed in a dead faint that would make Rarity proud.

Releasing his grip, the demon-krogan let the criminal drop to the ground, and he finally turned around to face the other men in the room. "Oh, here you are. I was wondering when you'd show up: it was annoying, taking all these guys out on my own." He lifted a small grey bead out of his subspace pocket. "I had to burn a whole Life Bead just to make sure I could keep doing the interesting attacks, and not just punch them all to death!"

Behind his opaque helmet, Langdon rolled his eyes. "Shepard, this is Naoki Kashima. The Anchor for the Conception portion of the Amala Loops-"

"Nice to see a new face, too," Naoki interrupted. "So, Flynn's girlfriend," he said with a wink," is in the Warrens. Let me just call in some help and I'll be good to go."

"I do not see why her being both a girl and my friend is anything to make note of," Flynn said as Naoki tapped away on an anachronistic electronic tablet.

The Demifiend looked up." Oh, right. Medieval world and all. It means she's your girl."

Silence.

Naoki sighed. "You know, your ladyfriend?"

Still more silence.

"Seriously? You don't know?" Naoki rolled his eyes, and turned back to his tablet. "It means she's your lover."

Flynn's eyes popped open at this, and his mandibles extended first in shock, then in anger. "She is not my-we are merely friends!"

"Isn't that what they all say." With a chuckle, Naoki tapped in a final command, and the sound of a cash register opening sounded from the tablet. In a flash of light beside Naoki, a short asari girl appeared, the large, butterfly-like wings on her back flapping rapidly to keep her afloat.

"I was wondering when you would call me back," she said, with a touch of boredom to her voice. "You know, I was caught in some kind of force field ever since I Awoke? I've had a killer itch on my nose the whole time, and I think I lost a few levels while I was just sitting there."

Winged fairy asari. Sure, why not, Shepard thought.

"So, that's only Isabeau left. We usually only have a few minutes before Tali would get killed, so let's get going."

"Relax," the Pixie said. "Since I started Looping, I've spend some time looking into how those Amala Drums work. Add that to the psychic powers I've got this Loop and I can just-"

Before Shepard could explain that biotics were not, in fact, psychic powers, the Pixie thrust out her hands, and the group felt a lurching feeling in their stomachs. The surroundings around them blurred, and when they could see clearly again, they found themselves in an alleyway.

"-teleport us there! Cool, isn't it?" Pixie fluttered about, moving into a reclining position as if she were sitting on the air itself.

"-Now, you got the intel?"

Shepard twisted around to see a turian reaching out towards a quarian woman dressed in a navy encounter suit. She stood stock still as the turian reached out to her cheek, and-

The Commander closes his eyes, took out his pistol, and fired three shots. The sound of five bodies hitting the ground sounded.

Opening his eyes, Shepard could see that he had indeed managed to kill three of the thugs without even looking-thousands of Loops gave him practice in predicting exactly where they would be. Beside Isabeau lay a headless corse, and the mangled, twisted body of the turian who had tried to touch her, his limbs and neck twisted at impossible angles.

The quarian dispelled the wind spell in her off hand, and sheathed her sword. She turned to Shepard and the rest of the Amala Loopers. "I take it that you are the...Anchor for this Loop?"

Nodding, Commander Shepard stepped towards her, and stuck out his hand for a handshake. "Commander Shepard. Alliance Navy, Spectre, and killer of more Reapers that I can count."

Isabeau stuck her hand right next to Shepard, apparently misunderstanding the gesture. "My name is Isa'Beau nar Mikado vas..." She shook her head violently. "My apologies. It's only Isabeau. I sometimes have trouble distinguishing between my own memories and those forged by entering these different Loops."

Shepard grabbed her hand, and shook it up and down. "Good to meet you all. Now, do you have any idea where the data for the Mass Relay is?"

"I am not...usually knowledgable about computers," Isabeau said hesitantly, "but the memories I had prior to...Awakening, say that they are likely stored in the center of government on this world."

"Which should be the Council's chamber," Flynn finished. "Come: let us make haste."

"It isn't the Middle Ages anymore, kid." Langdon slapped the Samurai on the back good-naturedly. "You can drop all of the stiff talk."

Flynn's mandibles tightened across his face. "I have spoken in this way for hundreds of years: I haven't exactly learned all of the conceits behind this modern dialect, so I believe I will continue to speak this way until I can master-"

"Forget I asked," grumbled Langdon. "Let's just get going. Commander, I think you could use this."

He waved his omni-tool, and Shepard received a download through wireless transfer. "What's this?" he asked.

As they walked towards the Council's chamber, the Spess Murhen grinned beneath his mask. "It's what Flynn, Isabeau and I use to deal with demons. This'll let you talk to, recruit-and, for some reason, see in my Loop- demons. It's called the Demon Summoning Program."

At first, Shepard thought that this was just another oddity of the Loop. Maybe all of the civilians were all asleep right now.

But that didn't account for why they had seen only a handful of people all the way from the docks to the Council's chamber. All they had were a crippled Saren back in the office, an unconsious Fist, the Keepers, and the two C-Sec officers on patrol right in front of them.

When they saw Shepard's motley crew, they stiffened on the spot. "What are you doing here?!" One of them-the senior officer, most likely-strode towards them, his hand already going to his pistol. "Why weren't you evacuated with the others?"

Shepard raised his eyebrow. "Evacuated?"

"Don't play smart with us," said the younger officer. "You're lucky you weren't just killed in that Geth attack."

"Now we need to radio Palin to bring in another shuttle to get rid of stragglers. Third set this day. Stay right there, and don't move."

Flynn stepped forwards, clearing his throat. "My good sirs, I don't think that will be nessecary." He tapped at his Gauntlet, bringing up a picture of his current form and what appeared to be a Spectre liscence. "Frinn Ho'Goshan, Special Tactics and Reconnasaince."

The elder officer stared at the Gauntlet for a moment, and his eyes practically popped out of his head. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry, sir. I didn't realize it was you!"

"Frinn? You're the one who they sent to-"

The Samurai nodded. "Yes, but that's not important now. I apprehended Saren. He's currently trapped under a table in what's left of your offices. Don't worry about getting shot at: his legs are broken, his trigger hand is missing most of its fingers, and I believe that he has had too many cybernetic implants to still use his biotics. Hurry: he set a bomb in the Council chamber that could blow up the whole station, and-"

Both men turned pale. "Rightsorrytobotheryousir,goodluckwiththat!" With that, both humans ran towards the office.

Flynn continued walking towards the deserted Council chamber, and the rest of the group followed.

"What happened in this Loop?" Shepard asked. At this point, he just had to know.

After being silent for a few moments, Flynn replied. "I Awoke several years ago, while I was still enlisted in the turian military. I shortly realized that I was under consideration for the Specters, and was being monitored to see if I was a worthy candidate for the job. As I understand from Langdon, the man I am replacing usually drops out of this program to join the local law enforcement agency."

"However," he said, as they walked up a flight of stairs, "I declined to do so. After embarking on several missions with a Specter-who is unfortunately dead now-I was permitted to join their ranks."

"Several years ago," he continued," there was an...incident between Saren and a human by the name of Anderson, who was also being evaluated as a potential Specter. Something went wrong on their mission. Anderson was denied access into their ranks, and Saren vanished in the aftermath of whatever happened. After he had been missing for several years, the Council ordered more and more Specters to join in on the search, including this universe's versions of my friends Walter and Jonathan-who have yet to begin Looping in my home universe- and eventually, myself."

"The three of us decided to risk summoning several powerful demons to aid us on our search-normally an illegal practice in Citadel space, but as Specters, we were exempt from this law. As the demons usually contracted through the likes of the Summoning Program are lesser reflections of the true demons, we decided to use a human book, the Ars Goetia, to summon the true forms of demons, who were typically associated with knowledge. Vassago, Barbas, Ose, Dantalion...While we were forced to sacrifice a great deal of resources to gain their services (since they refused to form a contract through the Program), they eventually told us the truth behind his dissapearance."

"Saren had gone rogue. He had fallen under the sway of a sapient star ship-what you call Sovereign-and he had assembled an army of Geth for nefarious purposes. As we knew that the Council would not trust the words of demons, we journeyed to the planet where Saren was hiding out, to obtain proof of his treachery. It was...nightmarish. The moment we stepped off of our ship, we were assaulted by dozens of geth and demons, working in conjunction to destroy us utterly. We fought our way to the centre of Saren's compound." The group reached the second flight of stairs. "In his absence, Saren had received so many cybernetic enhancements, he had long since ceased resembling anything huma-er, turian." Shepard thought back to the twisted, skeletal, Husk-like Saren he usually fought during the battle of the Citadel.

"Walter and Jonathan volunteed to distract Saren while I would scour his terminal for proof of his treason. While I was successful, they eventually fell to his demons-some of the strongest I have seen in any Loops." Flynn sighed. "I know that they will be back in the next Loop I am Awake, but it was still sickening to know that I sent them to their dooms."

"And after that," Langdon concluded, "Flynn sent the Council his proof. Sovereign had ordered Saren to invade the Citadel, and kill every living being on it, so that they could harness the place's power for the Ritual the Admins told us about. Hence why there's nobody here: everyone evacuated, and the standing army went to intercept what was left of Saren's forces. Those two back there were probably looking for stragglers."

"We're here!" Pixie announced. "Since I replaced that scientist lady, I mostly know where the Protheans lived. All you need to do is find the co-ordinates for the Relay, and we'll be good to go."

Nodding, Shepard walked towards the terminal in the center of the room. He had hacked into the Prothean Archives several times in his usual Loops (mostly to find things to troll Javik with, and once to find a Prothean bedtime story for a young Javik in a very bizzare Loop where he was found in the coffin as an infant).

He eventually found the location of the Relay, and downloaded it into his Omni-tool. "Got it. Pixie, can you teleport us back to the Normandy? Time is of the essence here."

"I wish," Naoki grumbled. "Sure, it's impressive, but it chews through her energy so fast it's not even funny. We're going to need all the power we can get if we want to beat that giant squid. Plus, there's the fact we could just take one of those automated shuttles to the dock in like 2 minutes."

Looking at Pixie, Shepard could see that she did look very tired: obviously, that trick could only be used sparingly. "Right, shuttle it is. Someone's going to have to sit on someone's lap: there aren't enough seats."

At this, Pixie giggled. "Oh, I'll do it! Mister Langdon, can I sit in your lap?"

"You could just go back into Naoki's Pocket," the soldier pointed out.

At this, Pixie pouted. "Killjoy."

"We'll reach the Relay in about two hours, Commander. You want to phone a friend or ask the audience, guys, you should probably do that now."

Rolling her eyes at Joker's jest, Isabeau returned to making the finishing touches on the last of her twelve magic circles.

Shepard looked up from spending Saren's stolen credits on the Summoning Program to hire some demons, and saw the massive mess Isabeau and Naoki were making on his floor."What exactly are you doing?" Shepard asked.

"Like I said," Naoki replied, "We need more power. And since the versions of these Demons in our Compendiums would be too weak to use for this fight, we'll need to call in their true forms."

"Alright," Langdon said, looking down at the pair's work, "that should do. Burroughs, you have the invocation ready?"

From the projection on Isabeau's Gauntlet, the A.I. and part-time Goddess of Tokyo nodded. "I have prepared the vocal component we need to summon them. However, it is likely that they will not be constrained by the circle, and could possibly lash out at their summoner. Do you want to go on?"

Isabeau nodded. "If Sovereign is truly attempting to destroy the Loop forever, we need the Fiends. Do it."

With that, Burroughs began chanting in what appeared to be a mix between Latin and Hebrew. The circles began to glow with an unearthly light, enimating from the Candelabrum of Sovereignty placed at the center of the circles. Energy began crackling around the cargo bay, setting the hairs on Shepard's neck on edge.

Kneeling besides the largest of the circles, Naoki stretched out his massive hand, and the lightning began to coalesce in his palm. "Damn," he hissed through clenched teeth, "this stings. Somebody's gotta stop this energy from blowing up the ship, though. Maybe I'll get a Magatama out of it."

Before Shepard could yell at Naoki for trying something that could have blown up the Normandy, the entire room was filled with bright light, blinding everyone there.

When it faded, eleven figures stood in all but one of the circles. Judging by the fact that all but one of them were skeletons, they were most likely demons.

Four of them were on horseback, including the one in the biggest circle. While they wore the same robes, their horses differed greatly: one with a coat as red as blood, one with a pelt as black as night, one white and covered with eyes, and one pale as a corpse. One clad in gaudy yellow robes, sitting cross-legged on the ground, and holding a small golden bell in one hand. One wearing a red scarf and a sneer on its skull (somehow conveyed with the lack of an actual face), and sat atop a vintage motorcycle. One wearing purple robes and holding a wineglass in its hand, and straddling a massive seven-headed beast. One clad in white robes and holding a trumpet, hovering in the air above his circle. One was a little blond girl, bouncing up and down in place, a steak knife poorly hidden behind her back.

And finally, a skeleton in a gaudy red outfit, holding a violin in one hand and a bow in the other. Who, immediately upon seeing Shepard, bellowed "YOU!" and bolted out of the circle towards him, bow pointed at his throat.

"Hey, HEY! David! Calm the hell down!" Instantly, Langdon's gun was out of his holster and in his hands. Electricity began to cackle in the barrel of the pistol, as he leveled it at the skeleton's head.

"Absolutely not! Do you have ANY IDEA about what this man has DONE?!"

From inside his circle, the yellow-clad skeleton facepalmed. "David, would you kindly wait until after our summoners have stated the terms of their contract until you try to murder them?"

"No, Daisoujou," the musician spat, "I will not forgive this man. Not after the atrocities he has committed against the art of dancing."

Silence.

Shepard raised his eyebrow. "Wait. You want to kill me...for my dancing?"

"Of course! I am the Fiend of song and dance! And, after seeing the flailing that you dare to call dancing, I must make you answer for your GAAACK-"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off as a scythe sliced through his neck, severing his head from his shoulders. Shepard lowered the gun he had steathily leveled towards its torso in bemusement. "And here I was ready to blow him to bits. Or at least try out this program I just got."

The rider of the pale horse, which was now pawing the ground after having sprung into action and dashing to Shepard's rescue, lowered his scythe. "Whilst seeing the sons of man defeat my more irritating brothers never ceases to be amusing, I am afraid that I had to stop the fight before it began. I refuse to have our family's honor besmirched by such petty arguments."

The Pale Rider-or as he was more commonly known, the Grim Reaper-reclined on his horse, and swept his gaze across the room. "Now, why hast thou summoned the incarnations of Death itself?"

"We have a job for you," Shepard replied. "If you want to do it, you'll find your payment at our current destination."

"So as long as we art paid in good Magatsuhi," the Black Rider said, "We art willing to hear thou out."

"Now, speak," said the Red Rider, "and tell us of whom you shall loose upon the hounds of war."

Death and the rest of the Fiends listened to Shepard's proposal. For a few moments, they were silent as they digested the informaton of what the Loopers were up against.

Eventually, one of them spoke up.

"If your foe Ascending will wipe this Loop from existence as you claim," Death asked, "Why should we help you?"

"You are aware," added Pestilence, "that our purpose is to bring destruction and desolation to the universe. We are the harbingers of your apocalypse."

"Really," the Trumpeter said, raising his instrument to his mouth, "we should be helping him. Give us one good reason why we shouldn't raze this ship to the ground so we can fulfill our true purpose."

Well, shit. That backfired. Shepard shot Naoki a dirty look. The krogan only shrugged in response. "We could just beat them into submission. That usually works."

"Not everything needs to be solved with your fists," Shepard said in reply.

Throughout the course of the Loops, Shepard had honed his speaking skills to their peak. He could-and had-built up entire armies with a single speech, caused the Collector General to personally rebel against Harbinger, and made the entire Batarian armada wet themselves and flee with their tails between their legs. If he could convince Saren to kill himself in the baseline, surely he could talk down the avatars of Death itself from ending the world. He racked his brain about information on the Four Horsemen, from several Loops where he had replaced Ashley and grown up reading the-

That's it.

"Fiends," Shepard said slowly, "what exactly would you do after you end the world?"

"Oooh, oooh!" Alice bounced up and down in place, her dress fluttering in the air. "I'll get this one! After we have everyone DIE FOR ME and go to stay with Uncle Belly and Uncle Nebby and Mr. Charon, we'll go fight that meanypants YHVH in a super-fun battle for the fate of existence itself!"

"Yes," War said, a note of madness slipping into its voice, "the war shall last forever more! We shall fight the forces of Law for eons unending, as all of history comes crashing to an end, and-"

Shepard had been to the Hub several times, and had played the backup of his universe Yggdrasil had turned into a game. He could never get his or her face to look right sadly. What he did now, however, could be construed as a Paragon Interrupt.

"That's just it," Shepard said, cutting the Rider off. "If Sovereign wins, there won't be any more battles to fight. No afterlife for people to go to, and no God for you to fight."

If War had a face, it would be twisted in confusion now. "Explain."

"If someone Ascends to the same level as the Admins-you know about them, right?" Several nods from the Horsemen and the rest of the Fiends, and Shepard continued. "Then this entire Loop will never have existed. Alice, those uncles you mentioned? They would never have been created. You never would have been with them, because none of you would exist."

Alice gasped in shock. Her eyes started to water up at the thought of being separated from her beloved uncles.

"This wouldn't be the apocalypse you want," Shepard continued, "this would be complete and total oblivion, on every level you could imagine. If Sovereign and the White win, you will never had existed."

"Then...that would mean no excesses to indulge in," the Mother Harlot said with a tinge of fear to her voice. "No alcohol to drink, no drugs to snort, no sex to be had..."

"No diseases to inflict on mankind," Pestilence added, dropping the overly formal speech due to its shock.

"And...no war to be fought." War sighed. "You have made your point, son of man."

"Indeed." Death held out his skeletal hand to Shepard. "This end you mention is not the end we desire. We accept the terms of this contract-to fight alongside you until your foes are defeated."

"Eh, I never liked the White anyways. Whiny emo bitches. 'Oh, life is meaningless, we should kill everything by dumping it into a big black hole!' " The Hell Biker idly revved his motorcycle. "If you're gonna end the world, at least make it flashy and fun, and not some sissy angst-fest."

"Feh. At least they will put up a good fight," the voice of the last demon said as Shepard shook the Grim Reaper's hand, sealing their contract.

Naoki growled as the final Fiend stepped forward from behind the girth of Mother Harlot's massive beast. The skeleton was dressed top to bottom in the gaudiest outfit possible: bright red and blues, and a feathered cap upon his head. In one hand, he held a fencing sabre: in the other a large piece of red cloth.

"I have no quarrel with you, Demi-fiend," the Madator said, noting the krogan's blatant irritation. "I take it that your encounter with me in the first Loop was..."

"A pain in the ass," Naoki said, gritting his teeth. "For someone obsessed with bravery and power, you used a hell of a lot of evasion-boosting spells."

"Look," Langdon interrupted the two bickering demons, "we'll need as much help as we can if we're going to get past Sovereign's forces. And his Capote is too overpowered not to use."

"I am afraid he is correct," Isabeau added. "We are on the brink of total oblivion: I would suggest that you put aside your grievances and focus on the battle to come."

"Fine. But I'm not putting him on my team. As far as I care, one of you can take that cheap bastard and-"

The air in the ship rippled, and reality itself seemed to groan in pain. Shepard's vision blurred, and he fell to his knees, his fall mirrored by the rest of the mortals.

"Joker," Shepard managed to say, in spite of his vertigo, "get us to the Relay ASAP. It looks like Sovereign's already gotten started."

"Remind me what your plan is again?" Naoki asked, shifting in his seat in the ship's conference room.

"If Sovereign is anything like Harbinger," Shepard said, "he'll have hordes of minions on the other side of that Relay. We'll need a diversion to get past them, which is where you'll come in. Flynn, Isabeau, you'll go with Daisoujou, Mother Harlot, and David.

"The further I can stay away from you," grumbled the newly-mended musician, "the better."

"Naoki, Pixie, you're with Biker, Trumpeter, and Alice. Langdon-help me out with this armor-you'll go with Pestilence, Famine, and War."

"Why are we the diversion?" Langdon asked as he helped Shepard fasten on his spare DEMONICA suit. "Do you really plan on confronting Sovereign alone?"

"Sovereign's Looping too," Shepard replied, "so he won't stop trying to break the Loop if we just beat him. The only way to really beat him is to convince him that what's he's doing goes against his prime directive."

"Oh, I get it!" Pixie snapped her fingers, lighting the magical inscence on the ground and blowing the smoke throughout the room. "Since the best speeches these guys have done is bribing demons to join them..."

"Negotiating with them," Flynn snapped, a tinge of annoyance to his voice.

"...You're the only one who can talk him down!" Pixie inhaled the smoke, the magical energy the MA Incense emitted flowing throughout her tiny body. "It's like a fairy tale! The little piggy shouts down the big bad wolf from the ledge!" Her mouth turned downwards into a frown. "Wait, or was it the wolf blowing at the pig? I can never get that one right."

"Right. I'll go with Matador and Death, since they seem to be the strongest according to you, and fight our way to Sovereign," Shepard concluded. "And, judging by where we are," he added, looking out the window to see the Mass Relay looming ahead, "we should be there in three, two..."

The outside of the Normandy crackled with blue energy, and abruptly vanished.

"...One."

Shepard turned on the infrared eyes of his new DEMONICA suit, and toggled the ammo on his Widow rifle to fire-type. "Joker, use that new cannon to shoot down anything that moves and get us to a safe landing spot."

"Uh, Shepard?" In the cockpit, Joker squinted at the bizzare spectacle ahead. Or rather, the lack of a spectacle of any kind. "That should be pretty easy to do, since there's nothing out there."

"What?"

To Shepard's bemusement, Joker was correct: no ships or demons awaited them when they exited the Relay, or even when they entered the planet's atmosphere.

"Is he trying to goad us into a false sense of security?" Isabeau asked, blinking behind her foggy faceplate.

"Sovereign didn't attack at Eden Prime, either. Either this ritual needs him to devote all of his attention to this..."

"Or he's too obsessed with escaping the Loops that he forgot to set up defenses." Langdon smirked. "Sometimes this happens with the Three Wise Men back home, when Arthur and I find out how to escape the Schwarzwelt early. They get so desperate to keep us in that they forget to send in the angels to fight us later."

"Even if Sovereign is too busy with the ritual, that doesn't mean the White aren't." Isabeau grabbed her Spur from her belt. "It's likely that the capital city will be swarming with demons."

"Usually," Flynn added, "when we beat the White in combat, they stay down for a while. If we can hunt them down..."

"We could disrupt the ritual!" Shepard began walking towards the airlock as the Normandy descended into the capital city of the dead Prothean Empire. "Can your AI find them, Isabeau!"

"She should be able to track them down if we follow the current of demonic energy to their sources," the Samurai replied.

"Get her to send the co-ordinates to everyone." Shepard ordered. "Split up into the 4 squads we discussed before, and hunt those sons of bitches down."

"You know," Langdon remarked as they reached the airlock, "it's been a long time since the phrase 'saving the world' had any actual meaning."

"It's always nice to go back to basics," Shepard agreed.

CHANCE OF CLASS 3 INCIDENT TO ESCALATE TO CLASS 2:

66%

Compiler Note: The following parts are randomly spread throughout the Miscellaneous chapters, so please keep a careful eye while scrolling. The snips are listed by order of posting to avoid repeating past complications.