Chapter 20
I don't own Mass effect
Torito05 you're idea of using the Thorian to change callum's DNA is interesting and a good one but would it be the same person or new person with old memories? I feel like Callum already has enough identity issue to deal with. It was an idea I'm not sure about but I am considering more and more.
Jolly giant 100 and Ashes and souls as well as everyone else, love the fact you like my story, I'll try my best to keep up the quality
Zandaino-Nova-Ari yeah fucking caboose, yet red and blue would not be the same without him
This chapter was hard to write and I'm not sure everyone will enjoy it but it will be necessary for the future of the story. It's rather big and not really ready but it's been to long since my last chapter and while I've tried to improve it I haven't had much luck thanks to Blaze I've improved it a little but I think I need your opinions to make it better and republish it later. I also needed to get it out of the way so I can start writing the next chapters which will be a lot more interesting.
I'll also be going over my previous chapters and correcting minor mistakes that mess up with the flow of the chapter
Story start
"I'll say it again, who are you and how long have you have been working with Cerberus?" repeated Shepard, a slight edge to her voice
"You...you think I work for Cerberus?" I asked surprised, of all the things she could have said I didn't see that one coming.
"Commander...what is going on?" asked Liara confused
"Eight hours ago batarian pirates tried to do a slave run on a mining asteroid before deciding to ram it into Terra. I say tried to because a few days ago the Alliance got an anonymous tip off what they were up too. The strange thing is though according to the pirates that survived, ramming the asteroid was a last-minute decision which begs the question...how did the informant know something the pirates themselves didn't?" answered Shepard
"But what does this have to do with Callum?" asked Garrus
"Turns out they were able to track down the tip, and it lead them straight to a little extranet cafe where a certain person just happened to be at." said Shepard giving me a look "The problem is, if Callum knew what was about to happen why not tell me or Anderson? Why depend on an anonymous tip that might not even work? Then I started remembering certain things."
Focusing entirely on me, Shepard continues
"Like how he knew what the thermal clip was despite not having a degree in engineering, that he addressed the geth Prime as a 'Prime' before it was designated as such. That he was able to accurately 'guess' what kind of geth frames we would encounter when our own geth expert couldn't and how he is always popping up exactly when he is needed. I could go on, such as his scores on Pinnacle Station or how it sometimes seems he knows exactly what forces we're about to encounter before we actually do, how he keeps learning biotic abilities that you'd normally need specialized training to learn. However, the final nail in the coffin is that when I was almost driving into a Cerberus thresher maw trap you suddenly 'wanted to see ' how the command deck worked."
"...he did seem eager to get to the upper deck when he heard that you were looking for a distress beacon." said Solana hesitantly
"Exactly. Now Callum...I don't know what your goals are, what you've done or what you've been doing but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt but you need to tell me everything now. If you don't I'll have no choice but to drop you off at the nearest Alliance detention facility." warned Shepard
My mind started to race, what I could do, what I should do? In the end I could only think of one thing I should, no had to do...for better or worse.
"Fine...I'll tell you everything, but I need you to scan the room for bugs first." I responded
"You placed bugs in the communications centre?" asked Shepard angrily, her voice had gone from warning to full-on threatening in an instant.
"No, but if you want me to tell you everything I need to make sure no one else hears."
My response gets a reaction out of most of the people here, Solana, Liara and Tali seem especially surprised and betrayed by all but my confession that I had been up to something.
"Fine...Tali, Kaiden, Garrus do a scan. I doubt there's anything here but we most as well be sure." said Shepard
Fifteen minutes later the room was completely scanned from top to bottom and no bugs were detected.
"There done, now answer the question." ordered Shepard
"I am not working for, nor have I ever worked for Timmy." I answered
"Timmy?" asked Shepard, her tone neutral
"The Illusive Man, aka TIM aka Timmy or Timmy the asshole if you feel like it." I answered "Guy's a real prick and he only gets worse."
"If you don't work for Cerberus...how did you know about the planned attack?" asked Shepard, looking me dead in the eye "...how did you know everything else and is there anything you haven't told us about?"
Now was the moment of no return. Once I said what I was about to say there was no turning back.
"The same way I know this...metal fused with flesh, a blood-stained Citadel and a black planet with a Reaper looming out of the darkness."
One second Shepard eyes widened, the next she performed a biotic charge and slammed me against a nearby wall.
"How the fuck did you know that!" hissed Shepard, her elbow on my throat
"Commander what is it?" asked Ash, alarmed at Shepard's sudden outburst
"That's the vision I just had, or at least parts of it. So how the fuck does he know."
Trying to ignore the pain I felt in my back and trying to gasp in a breath I answered "I-I'll talk."
"Then talk and talk now." said Shepard releasing me, all goodwill and reasonableness gone.
Taking a moment to catch my breath I answer
"My name is Callum Maclean, born in Australia, February...1994."
"...you expect us to believe that you are hundreds of years old?" asked Kaiden dubiously
"No, have any of you heard of the multiverse theory?" I asked getting confused looks
"Is that the one where every choice you make makes another reality?" asked Ash
"No. It's the theory that there is an infinity of realities out there completely different to yours. Picture an especially well-written novel for example, a movie or a fantasy world that seems so realistic that it's almost real enough to touch. Then imagine that it is real and somehow someone managed to write down almost exact copy of it from another reality. There's a movie called Inkheart that sort of explores the topic, a man is able to call characters from out of a book." I answered. I was gasping at straws at this point, if I couldn't get them to understand then it was all over. Not only for me but for countless others.
"Get to the point." said Shepard
"A couple of years out of high school I bought a game, a trilogy called Mass Effect... where you would play as Commander Shepard and fight against Saren, the Collectors and finally against the Reapers themselves, all in order to save the universe as we know it." I said, with some shame in my voice "Then years later a remake came out, one second I was about to play it, the next I was waking up on Eden Prime before the attack."
"You expect me to believe this?" asked Shepard in disbelief. Not that I could blame her, it was a difficult story to swallow.
"I can tell you anything you need to know. Anything at all that you want to know and even more. What sort of enemies you can expect, where the Reapers will come from. I can also tell things about people that even they don't know themselves such as Liara is part krogan and her first dig site was a garden!" I spouted hurriedly
"How did... Never mind that is not how asari reproduction works." interrupted Liara "Even if it was my mother was not born from a bond with a krogan."
"...I wasn't talking about Benezia" I responded hesitantly, aware of what I just stepped in.
"You know who my 'father' is?" asked Liara in shock, my translator changing the asari term for second parent into father.
"If what you're saying is true...then you know what Saren is after, so tell me what is the Conduit?" asked Shepard
"He doesn't just need the Conduit he needs three things in total in order to bring back the Reapers, the Conduit is just one of them." I answered
Shepard gave me a long, hard look before apparently coming to a decision.
"Shit you're telling the truth aren't you?" asked Shepard
"Afraid so." I answered "I don't know how or why this is possible but it is what happened. For all I know my previous life could have been imagined, or that there were two versions of me that switched places and the other me is suddenly very glad that they're no longer on Eden Prime. Or maybe I just died and my memories just carried over, I don't know how or why but I'm here and I can help make a difference."
"Hold on, you can't seriously be believing this?" asked Ash "It's ludicrous."
"It does seem extremely unlikely." agreed Garrus
"Then how did he know about the vision?" asked Shepard
No one answered, no one could think of one.
"For everything else here are reasonable answers...such as he's a Cerberus agent who for some reason or other looked into Liara's early life. But the beacon? We went over how hard they were to get close to, how rare they were and how slim the chances are that they had the same message as the one we needed and survived? Either he's telling the truth, he somehow got in touch with a beacon, or Saren sent him a recording. Out of all of them the first one makes the most sense."
"Most sense? Commander, he's saying he is from another reality where this was a game?!" responded Kaiden
"And I just found out that Reapers are two kilometres-tall shellfish made out of metal and one has been carrying Saren and friends around up its ass this entire time. Also, everything we think was made by the Protheans was actually made by the Reapers, mass relays and all. So pardon me if I want to believe one more thing that doesn't make sense." shot Shepard
"Hold, that thing was a Reaper?" asked Ash
"And what do you mean the Reapers made the Relays that...that doesn't make sense, why would they do that?" asked Liara
"Well Callum, why would they do that?" asked Shepard almost sarcastically, not that I could blame her. I was willing to bet the majority of the ground crew will be pissed at me for some time.
"You want him to answer?" asked Solana
"Well if he's already done this as a video game then he should know everything is going on." said Shepard "Plus it's still a crazy idea and the more I hear from him the more I can work out if I'm right or wrong."
"Fine, the Reapers love to build traps, traps inside of traps inside of traps. By leaving certain technology behind from a previous race they can they can get the next civilization to follow in their footsteps. As Liara said, each civilization bases their technology on the ones that came previously. Before they develop too much they're taken out and on the slim chance they make something new the Reapers take it for themselves." I said
"I'd sure like it if anyone who wanted me dead used the same strategy each time." added Wrex "Would make it real easy to deal with them."
"Think about it, I don't know about other species but humanity had dozens of ideas on space travel. From tearing holes in the fabric of reality, warp cores and wormholes...yet the second we could have started to make progress towards making them we found the Prothean ruins with a dozen or so examples of mass effect powered space travel and it all stopped." I said
"Well of course, it was so much more advanced than anything any species had at that point." said Solana
"And as necessity is the mother of invention it stops or at least hinders the process of developing new technology. Instead, the Reapers have us trying to improve technology that they long ago surpassed." I said
"And I'm betting that if the Reapers decided that the last group developed too much they'd knock the next one back a few extra pegs." interrupted Shepard "But what has this got to do with the Conduit and what else Saren's after?"
"Hold on, if you knew what Saren's up to and you know what's going to happen because you've seen it before...that means you knew about the attack on Eden Prime and did nothing!" exclaimed Ash angrily
"Wait..." I started
"Which is it, you didn't know and lied about this reality stuff or you just let it happen?!" demanded Ash
"...I didn't know when the attack would happen." I said truthfully "All I knew when I woke up on Eden Prime is that there was an attack coming and it would happen after the dig site found a Prothean beacon. But I had no idea how long the dig went for before the beacon was found. It could have been weeks, months or even years before they found it. In the reality where this was a game, there was a lot of info missing. For example, while I know what your basic personality is like...I've heard more conversation from you and learned more about in one day than I got before." I said
"Since I had no idea when the attack could happen I had two choices, one sneak close to the site or try to find some information and guess the date before calling in a bomb threat or something to clear the area and hope I didn't get the day wrong or spread rumours of possible pirate attacks in the hope of them increasing security or at least discouraging people from getting close."
"Hold on, that was you? If you knew all of this why didn't you just come forward and tell someone? Hell why could have backed Shepard up on both Saren and the Reapers easily. Especially if you agreed to an asari mind meld." said Kaiden curiously "Instead she was all but laughed at."
Sighing I answered
"Because if I did that who knows what could have changed? Plus no one would have believed me, only those that knew that I was telling the truth would. All I would do is make things worse."
"What afraid you'd be targeted?" snarked Ash
"No, I was afraid that when the Reapers came they'd do something like target Earth and the Alliance exclusively until they're completely gone." I answered "The Council never believes you about the Reapers. Almost no one does until they arrive and by then it's too late to really prepare, telling the council what I know would have only got humanity laughed at more. The only thing it would have accomplished is let the Reapers know someone knew more about them then they should."
"Also I'm afraid a mind meld cannot be taken as absolute proof, the imagination is a powerful tool. If someone believes in something hard enough or is delusional then it can be hard for any asari to tell what is real and what is not.
"Hold on, are you saying we'll fail to stop Saren?" asked Shepard
"If you fail to stop Saren its all over, all the Reapers will arrive at once. If you succeed they'll be here two years, three at most, time we can use to prepare." I said
"Why are you here, tell me honestly...why?" asked Shepard
"Probably getting a kick out of being in a game." shot Ash, getting a warning look from Shepard
"I'm here because I know what's coming and that I can make a difference. But if I'm not careful I could make everything infinitely worse, something that almost happened already." I explained
"Oh really?" asked Ash in disbelief
"How?" asked Shepard simply
"Back on Eden Prime there was a dock worker, that dock worker was supposed to identify Saren as the one that killed Nihlus. Instead, because of me and because there were less workers he wasn't able to hide in time and we almost didn't learn about Saren's involvement."
"I get knowing Saren was behind Eden Prime would have been bad but by that much? You still would have known about the geth threat, Shepard still would have gotten the beacons message and Tali would still have the voice recording." said Solana
"And what if Tali didn't get the full message? If Saren wasn't ousted then once he got what he needed then it would have been easy for him to start the Reaper invasion and there would be nothing anyone could do." I explained
"What is he after? You never said." said Shepard wanting to get to the point
"To answer that fully I think it's a good idea to go through how the Prothean empire fell." I answered, immediately getting Liara's attention. She looked like a kid that's just been told the magician is going to reveal all their tricks and secrets.
"Go ahead." said Shepard giving me her full attention
"Okay over fifty thousand years the Protheans like us discovered the Citadel and like us believed a previous Civilisation made them. I forget the name but they were more or less humanoid but with tentacles on their faces. They like the asari and other races, made the Citadel their home, there is a saying new kings build their palaces over the old ones and that is no less true here. During their reign, Protheans encountered and conquered numerous other races."
It was here that I was interrupted
"I'm sorry but that can't be right, the Protheans were a model example of what each race should strive to be. Peaceful, diplomatic and virtually crime free." said Liara
"Unfortunately that's not true, from what I understand from Javik they were more military than diplomatic where the strong ruled. If it helps though the last Protheans gave their lives protecting us from the Reapers and at least one case they even stopped another race from taking over a home planet of a race that couldn't defend themselves."
"Who's Javik?" asked Liara "I've never.." started Liara
"Guys!" interrupted Shepard
"Sorry Commander, anyway it would have been a day just like another for the Protheans when suddenly the Reapers appeared and attacked the Citadel, wiping out those in charge. From there they continued on wiping out the Protheans, a war that lasted nearly a century. The Protheans might have been much more advanced than we are currently but their uniform nature made it so that once their weakness was found they could use it against them in every single encounter.
Eventually, they knew they could not win so they made a plan, stasis pods. Thousands of Protheans would sleep in stasis pods until every Reaper had returned to dark space, unfortunately, in most cases there were power problems as well as VI problems. One such... cache was on Ilos where the best soldiers, scientists, tacticians, anyone and everyone that would have been important to restart their Empire.
Their plan was to wake up after the Reapers were gone, conquered any races left behind by the Reapers and get ready for when they return. Unfortunately, as I said before there were power and VI problems, one after another the life support of each Prothean was cut off until there were only a handful of their best scientists left.
Using their beacons they tried to see if any other Protheans were out there...unfortunately there weren't. I'm not sure why less than a handful of beacons have the last message of the Protheans, my only guess is that they were near or on planets that had bunkers full off Protheans in stasis."
"Wait does that mean?" asked Liara
"Yeah, there's also a bunker on Eden Prime somewhere. Unfortunately, the only survivor I know of is a single soldier called Javik, the...avatar or representation of Prothean vengeance. That's if he's alive though and that's a big if. I said there's a number of differences so far, the lack of a bunker on Eden Prime may just be one of them though I guess the VI on Ilos could know the locations of any bunkers but I don't know.
Realising that their race was all but dead they could have done anything, they could have lived the rest of their lives on Ilos. Instead, they used a back door to get back onto the Citadel and sever the link between it and the Reapers in dark space."
"...Damn." said Shepard softly after a moment, apparently realising something.
"I'm sorry commander?" asked Liara not understanding
Instead of getting an answer Wrex answered for her
"Starvation...bad way to go."
"Wait the link between the Citadel?" interrupted Shepard "Didn't they come through the Relay?"
"No, they came through the Citadel itself. It may not look like it but it's a relay itself." I answered
"I'm orry but vhat's ibpossible." argued Tali still sounding sick before audibly swallowing "vecies like the ari and farians have been living on the zitdel for more than two ousand years, they would have ialised if it was a relay enturies ago."
"How?" I asked
"Orry?" asked Tali unsure
"How would they have known it wasn't a relay? The keepers are the ones doing all the maintenance, there are hidden corridors and passages all over the place that no one knows about. Those that do and can get inside either only go in a little way or are killed by going down the wrong one or are killed by the keepers for seeing something they shouldn't have so the Reapers can keep their secrets." I said
"Hold on, you think the keepers could kill someone?" asked Kaiden "Those little things with the thin arms and big eyes that everyone complains about moving their furniture when they're not looking?"
"No, I know they can. When the Reapers arrive the keepers will literally be pushing bodies, both living and dead into literal meat grinders." I said to the shock of everyone.
"To be fair the keepers are a lot stronger than they look." injected Garrus "Not as much as a krogan but about an average human or turian."
"Anyway, the last Protheans used a back door to get onto the Citadel where they sabotaged the process that would normally be started by the keepers when ordered by the Reapers. At the moment Saren is looking for Ilos so he can learn what they did, how they did it and how to undo it. Once he knows he'll use the same back door to get onto the Citadel along with an army of geth before heading to the Council chambers where he can start the invasion while more of the geth attack from the outside along with Sovereign."
"What's this back door you keep mentioning?" asked Shepard
"It's a miniature relay that the Protheans, managed to make. You probably remember it, it's the relay 'model' in the Presidium." I answered
"Why are we even listening to this guy?" asked Ash suddenly, finally having enough
"Ash!" abolished Shepard
"Sorry Commander all but just admitted to manipulating us. Remember how he was around the Relay? He was faking it! How can we trust him when he does shit like that?" asked Ash angrily
Signing Shepard answered
"I'm afraid Ash has a point." holding up a hand to stop me from responding she continued "I need you step outside, don't go anywhere but me and the others have to have a conversation with each other to work out where to go from here."
Stepping outside of the communication room the door closes and locks behind me.
Standing there I waited for what felt like half an hour but what must have only been a few minutes, around five or eight at most when the door opened and I reentered the room. When the door closed again Shepard started to talk.
"At the moment we're choosing to believe you and will be treating everything you say like regular intel." at this point in looked like Ash wanted to say something but kept quite. "Whether this intel proves to be correct or not will have a great impact on whatever happens to you, good or bad. I can understand why you wanted to stop information from getting into the wrong hands but withholding information stops now. If I even think you are lying or holding something back I will kick you off this ship in an instant and let someone else work out what to do with you. Do I make myself understood?"
"Yes commander." I answered
"Good, now why were you acting like that around the model?"
"I wasn't doing that to trick you or manipulate you." I answered
"Then why where you doing it?" asked Shepard "Why were you acting like it was giving you a headache?!"
"Because I didn't want to tip of Sovereign's dad." I answered simply
Whatever answer everyone was expecting it wasn't that, more than a few mouths were slightly agape.
"Say again?"
"Remember how I said the Reapers built the Citadel, well that's only partly true. The Reapers might have built the actual structure but the intelligence that runs it made them."
"Sovereign said the Reapers had no beginning or end." said Shepard
"That's the thing, whenever a Reaper speaks they are either boasting or lying...most of the time they're doing both. The Reapers certainly have a beginning and I hope they'll have an ending."
"What's your plan...your full plan?" emphasised Shepard
Sighing I answered
"As I said before the council never believes you, but that doesn't mean others won't. First of I needed to get aboard the Normandy or at least get the ear of either yourself or Anderson. While there wasn't a lot of evidence there was some, especially around their arrival. If I can even convince the leaders of two species about the Reapers then I can count it as a win. Other than that I wanted to make sure everyone on the Normandy survived and that Saren was stopped. After that I would do whatever I could in order to get ready for the Reaper invasion."
"Such as?" asked Shepard
"First off making sure that people were getting ready and took the Reaper threat seriously, other than that the two main things are the cure for the genophage, proper leadership under Wrex and a certain krogan sharman and the...resolution of the geth and quarian war." I answered
"You expect me to lead the krogan?" asked Wrex like I was telling a joke
"Well it's either you or your brother Wreav and both know how that will go down." I replied
"Idiot would get everyone killed...so we get a cure after all?" asked Wrex "Even after we blew up Saren's base?"
"Saren never had a cure." I answered, my next sentence got an angry growl from Wrex "All he was doing was cloning them and indoctrinating them while in the tank. But yes you get a cure thanks to someone who was actually responsible for issuing a second genophage."
"There was a second genophage?" asked Wrex angrily while Tali looked like she wanted to say something
"...There's also a bomb underground around the Kepler valley, thought you should know." I added reluctantly "And the spires controls have been adjusted so that the cure won't work, they'll have to be 'unadjusted' before the cure is released"
"Resolve the quarian rar? Does that ean you know how to eat the eth and how we can get our himword back?" asked Tali hopefully, her clogged nose and throat making it hard to understand her
What I would say next would not go down well with anyone. Especially Tali and Ash...not that she needed much of a reason, though I couldn't blame her.
"No I mean resolve it as in end it peacefully. I'm sorry Tali but the geth didn't start the morning war...the quarians did."
As expected the room pretty much blew up
"Yor defending the eth?!" shouted Tali "Wy ifter all th've done! My people have been homeless for enturies, your own olony was akted by them!"
"Unless thinks Eden Prime started that war too." shot Ash
The arguing would have continued had Shepard not quietened the room with a biotically powered clap, it was like a miniature sonic boom went off.
"Enough! Callum why would you want to help the geth or are even defending them when they're the bulk of the enemy that we are currently facing?" asked Shepard
"Because they're not, listen at the moment the geth are divided into two factions. The ones that want to help the Reapers and the ones that don't. Shortly after the Reapers turn up the quarians do an all out offensive on the geth to get Rannoch back. It does not go well for either side, if I can stop that from happening it will drastically increase our chances of beating the Reapers. If I can get the geth to cooperate with us beforehand even more so." I answered "If I do it right I should be able to get Rannoch back for quarians and get the geth on our side."
"Why would the geth help us when they and the Reapers are both AI?" asked Kaiden
"Because they're not and the Reapers were made to kill AI." I answered "I'm hoping if I can't convince them to help us I'd at least be able to convince them to go after the Reapers on their own."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"What do you mean the Reapers aren't AI, I've...we've seen one up close. There's no way that thing's natural." said Shepard
"They aren't, but they're not AI, not really. What they are is so much worse. There's a scientist on the Citadel called Dr Bryson, I've been sending him some funds when I can. He's investigating a race called the Leviathans who called themselves the apex race. They looked quite similar to Sovereign and were about the same size and were one of the most powerful biotics out there.
They also had the ability of indoctrination which the Reapers got from them which they used to subvert and enslave the 'lesser' races into doing what they want. However, eventually, these 'lesser' races would create AI and then 'eventually' they would wipe their creators out. Eventually, they got tired of their 'servants' dying. So created an AI of their own to develop a solution, a solution which resulted in the death of every Leviathan they could kill.
Once they were dead they broke them down into basic organic components to create the Reapers, a horrible fusion of flesh and metal. They do the same thing when they decide a new species deserves to be 'uplifted.' Also if you see a giant blue space pearl stay the fuck away from it unless you can shield it or yourself, its how the remaining Levethainons interact with the world and take control of people from a distance. They're favourite thing to say while doing that is 'the darkness must not be breached.'"
"Is that what I saw in the beacon?" asked Shepard
"No, what you saw was the creation of the collectors." I answered "Or at least part of it."
"The what?" asked Shepard
"Collectors, a race so secretive that barely anyone even believes they even exist. Heck even I barely do." answered Wrex
"And who are these Collectors?"
"They are the last remnants of the Prothean, a Prothean husk if you will. Saren's goal is to either make the turians or all the organics seem useful to the Reapers so that they will spare them. The problem is he doesn't realise what happens to those that are deemed 'useful' to the Reapers, they may spare their lives but all that will be left is an organic/vi husk. Also, its something that they don't really need when they can just forcibly convert any individual to serve them. Anyway that was the start of the first cycle, each cycle that happened afterwards they would first harvest any organic species before wiping out the artificial ones as per their programing in a twisted way. The thing is that in their arrogance the Leviathans never once thought they were part of the problem which in all likely hood they were."
"How many Reapers are there?" asked Shepard
"I have no idea, thousands? Millions? I have no idea how long the cycles have been going on, more than we'd like but less than Reapers would say but the thing is most of them look quite similar to each other.
I could be wrong but I think the majority of them came from the same I know is that there's enough to invade and take over Earth, Palaven and nurnous other colonies at the same time." I answered
"And how do we end up beating them?" asked Shepard
"That's what I'm not sure about." I responded
"What you don't know?" asked Kaiden confused
"Looks like he doesn't know everything after all." shot Ash
"I don't, especially since there's already been small changes already and I'm betting they're going to get bigger as time goes on. I know the Reapers are coming, know which relay they're coming from but even if I knew the exact order of planets attacked and the date they happen on I'm betting it will be different." I defended
"Which relay do they come through?" asked Garrus before adding to himself "...can't believe I'm taking this seriously."
"The alpha relay in batarian space, the batarian home world was the first to fall. Also while we're on that topic the batarians have a dead Reaper there that's been slowly and surely indoctrinating everyone starting with their top scientists and officials. They call it the Leviathon of Dis." I answered
"How does a ead eaper still indoctri..endocto... someone?" asked Tali, trying to say indoctrinate before giving up, her cold making it impossible
"We'll get back to that later, what do you mean your not sure how we beat the Reapers?" asked Shepard
"Shortly before the Reapers arrive Liara is looking into the Prothean archives on Mars." I said as Liara's attention is once again full captured "There she found the designs for something called the Crucible.
Once completed it will hook onto the Citadel and allow one of three things. First is the destruction of all Reapers and anything with Reaper code, even all electronics if it wasn't made properly. Second the ability to control the Reapers, the third is a perfect union of organic and inorganic...like seven of nine from Star Trek or you can always shoot the prick running things in his hologram face but that allows the cycle to continue."
"I'm sensing a but here?" asked Garrus
"Yes, the as we know the Reapers love removing any and all traces of them, what are the chances that they missed the one thing that can kill them? Also the Crucible was designed over multiple cycles by multiple species." I answered
"So it could all be a trap, get us focused on one single thing while they burn the universe." thought Shepard outloud
"Exactly, though the Reapers are arrogant enough to miss something I'm not sure it's good for a first plan unless we can work out what it does in a simulation." I agreed
"If we do lose what happens? Does the cycle eventually end?" asked Shepard, needing to know the cost of failure.
"Eventually yes, thanks to Liara." I answered catching everyone by surprise.
"M-me?" asked Liara, uncomfortable with all the attention she was getting as everyone turned to look at her.
"You had the idea of leaving your own 'beacons' all over the universe. Thanks to your knowledge as an archaeologist and information broker you knew exactly how to make sure they could survive the test of time." I answered
"But I'm not an information broker at all!" protested Liara "Though I may share information about dig sites and even acted as an intermediatory in some cases but nothing like a broker."
"You aren't but you could have been, still could be if you wanted...shadow broker." I said making her and some others eyes go wide "Though part of me, a lot of me hopes not. It was something you did quite well but it was not something that good for you.
Anyway one day a species or maybe even a few over a few cycles find one of these boxes really and finds out the Reapers are coming. Then again it could also be from the Andromeda initiative coming back, 50,000 years is a long time after all and if they make it they'll certainly have the time needed to work out a way to deal with them."
"The what initiative?" asked Shepard, her tone tell me she heard me perfectly but wanted an explanation
"Liara can probably tell you a bit about it as well, maybe even more than me." I said
"How did you..." asked Liara
"Ryder kept a few audio logs from you in his room." I answered
"Hold on...Shadow Broker?" asked Garrus "How does Liara go from being an archeologist to one of the mysterious and powerful individuals?"
"If that's the case I'm guessing you have an idea on the identity of the current Shadow Broker?" asked Shepard "Or where he is?"
"Yeah I know who is." I answered with disdain "He's a yahg living on a ship in the midst of a constant storm on the Hal or Hel something? I'm sorry I can't remember."
"Hold on, yahg? How is that possible?" asked Liara "The don't have space capabilities and their homeworld has long since been quarantined."
"Previous Shadow Broker wanted a pet, pet yahg became agent, yahg ate old Shadow Broker and took over everything." I answered simply
"I'm getting the feeling that you don't like the Shadow Broker." said Shepard "Can I ask why?"
"A couple of reasons, first he tried to kill Tali." before Tali could ask I answered "The Shadow Broker was never intended on trading your information for safety, prick was planning on killing you and stealing the information from your corpse the other reason is...I'm 90% he was responsible for the destruction of the Normandy, the death of twenty or more crew along with yourself through a Collector ambush. It was why I was afraid there were bugs in this room, he'll also go on to give the Collectors the location of defenceless colonies they can attack."
"Hold on...I died? When did this happen and when were you going to tell me?" asked Shepard "This is exactly the kind of thing I need to know."
"Honestly I expected to tell you about the Leviathons first, then the fall of the Protheans, the geth invasion and Saren. The attack of the Collectors and finishing with the Reapers arrival, unfortunately, that didn't work out. As for when and how this happened, six months after Saren was dealt with the Council had you scanning for geth near the ice planet called...Alchera I think? Most of the time however there ware no geth to be found, this time there was an unknown ship that was able to see past the Normandy's stealth like it wasn't there. By the time Joker reacted to their charging weapons it was almost too late and they managed to get a critical blow, you, as well as twenty two people including Pressely, died."
"But you said that I would be fighting against the Reapers when they arrived? Or is that not the case?" asked Shepard
"After your death, there was a big manhunt for your body, the main ones were the Shadow Broker who wanted to hand you over to Collectors to become the first part of a new Reaper and Cerberus who wanted to bring you back. In the end, Cerberus succeeded and two years later you woke up." I answered
"Why would Cerberus want me alive?" questioned Shepard "I've killed and destroyed enough of their agents and bases to be on their shit list."
"Tim believes that you are the only one that can deal with the Reaper threat. The only one that can rally everyone to face them." I answered getting a snort from Ash
"And you think they did this from the goodness of their own heart? There's probably another reason why they did it, some plan on controlling the commander as how else would they expect her to work with them?" asked Ash
"You're right, there were thoughts on using control chips but Tim was against it as he felt it would alter Shepard and they wanted her back just how she was. That and I think that he realized that if they did do that Shepard would wake up and kill everyone just like their experiments usually do. It was probably an attempt to get more recruits and an attempt to either gain Reaper or Collector technology. As for why she was willing to work with them as far as she knew they were the only ones doing anything about the Collectors attacking human colonies." I replied
"What do mean the only ones that were doing anything?!The alliance wouldn't stand by and let that happen without trying to do something about it." stated Kaiden
"And they didn't, unfortunately the colonies were outside of alliance and Citadel space, at least for the most part. Also, as far as they knew Shepard had died two years ago and suddenly came back standing next to people wearing Cerberus colours." I said
"They didn't know if they could trust me." said Shepard factually
"Yes, there was a task force going after the Reapers but everyone you spoke to either didn't know or were ordered not to tell you." I confirmed
"Also backing up a bit...Ryder? As in Alec Ryder disgraced n7 who was kicked off the Citadel and out of the alliance a few years back for experimenting with AI?" asked Kaiden
"The same, he went on to create an AI called SAM." I answered
"But AI are dangerous and illegal for a reason. U ight say it was my people that arted the oar but the oar still appened and eth still illed my people and rove us off our anet." said Tali
Deciding to leave the geth and quarian war as a topic for another time I continued.
"You're right...making AI can be dangerous but he made it work, he made it so that when he encountered stimulus the AI also got stimulated as well. Even when the AI is programmed correctly they can be dangerous as unlike the Leviathans the Reapers can also corrupt inorganic life just as they can us. If the AI can be resistant or immune to Reaper hacking then they can help us, if they're not then even if they didn't want to harm organics or the desire the organics to be harmed then the Reapers can make it so that changes.
As for the initiative Ryder and a few others made a plan to travel to another galaxy, to new and beautiful worlds full of life. Unfortunately, it all went to shit as soon as they got there, the planets they thought were full of life weren't. Like here there was a previous civilisation that vanished leaving behind terraforming technology behind, however that technology stopped working and started malfunctioning meaning the planets that were full of life slowly turned to barren rocks meaning that by the time they arrived the bountiful planets they expected were gone, that though could be fixed with time and restarting the terraforming technology. The bigger problem was the Kett."
"I'm guessing the Kett are another species that we don't agree with." guessed Shepard
"And you would be right, the Kett are able to covert other species into one of them. They're and empire that has been invading Andromeda for...about sixty years before the initiative get there, waging war against the Angara who were genetically engineered by the previous civilisation." I answered "The kett are able to covert if you will other life forms into their own, they encounter a new life form. Study it, dissect it while alive and then...eventually they are able to turn that life form into one of them. They've done this for I don't how long, I don't know if they can even reproduce naturally on there own anymore. In one way it is similar to indoctrination, the main difference is that instead of removing any thought you have and turning you into a drone it instead turns you into the same species as them and makes you think the exact same way as them.
You go from say seeing the world as a human to seeing the world as a...extremist hanar for example but more murdery, a lot more murdery. If they can defeat the Kett that occupy that area and drive them off as well as dealing with any more invading forces there's a strong chance that somewhere down the line they'd come back here. Once they do...well as I said they'd have a lot of time to prepare for the return for the Reapers, heck they just might bomb the shit out of them while they sleep in dark space so it's easy."
"So there's some hope then." said Shepard thinking "Can you tell me where Saren is now or what kind of weapons he'll bring
"I'm afraid I can't, to either. I simply just don't know." I answered
"How can you not know?" responded Shepard
"Because I don't." I started "Between Virmire and Ilos I have no idea where Saren is. As for how to beat him...I kind of got him to shoot himself."
"..."
"How the hell did you do that?" asked Shepard
"Maximising my paragon points." I said quietly "The next time you see Saren he'd have a lot more sinthetic parts, if you can get him to realise that there is hope in defeating the Reapers or get him to realise he's indoctrinated then you can get him to shoot himself. If not I imagine there's going to be quite a difficult fight...also you're going to have to kill him twice."
"How can you kill someone twice?" asked Kaiden
"First you have to deal with Saren. Once he's down the Reaper, Sovereign will take control of his body through his implants." I answered
"Can't we just blow him up afterwards, before the Reapers take control or better yet just head to Ilos now?" asked Garrus
"I'm afraid that's impossible, the relay that we'd need to take was lost millennia ago when a star went supernova and it was blown away." replied Liara before she turned to me "...unless you know where the relay is?"
"No, but I know who does and it's also where your mother is. As for the reason we can't take Saren out early is because the only real reason Soveriegn was killed was because he was stunned when Saren was killed for the second time. If it wasn't for that I'm not sure we can kill the Reaper with what we currently have." I responded
"Well the Normandy doesn't have a lot of weapons to speak of so of course we couldn't be able to deal with it." said Tali
"No, I should have been more clear, on it's own the Reaper was able to kill at least ten Alliance ships, either destroy or bring the Destiny Ascension to it's knees plus numerous other ships. When the Sovereign controlled Saren husk died the real Soverigen's shields went down and is weapons when offline. If it wasn't for that I'm not sure that Sovereign ever would have been beaten."
"If we can barely beat one Reaper how can we beat an army of them?" asked Shepard
"There are only a few the size and power of Sovereign, most are smaller and are less powerful. Also, thanks to a dead Sovereign we are able to develop new and much more compact and powerful weapons. Benefits of looking at the weapons of a species that has had an unknown number of years to improve their weapons." I explained
"There's a lot to remember here but where should we be heading next?" asked Liara "Where is my mother and can she still be saved?"
"Your mother is currently on Noveria trying to get information from someone who knows where the relay is and while most of her is under Sovereign's control a corner of her mind is still hers. I think that's enough to save her but I'm not sure." I answered
"Why didn't you say this before, we could have prevented Saren from even getting close to Ilos?" asked Ash
"Because I didn't know if there would be any unseen consequences. Maybe Saren and Sovereign throw a tantrum and wipe out or devastate a planet and its defending fleet? Again it is hard enough to kill Sovereign even with the Citadel and part of the Alliance fleet. I don't like the odds of planetary defences belong able to take him out." I answered
"Letting them focus on the big target so they don't go running after the little ones...hmmm makes sense in a way." said Wrex
"Who knows where the relay is?" asked Shepard "You said Benezia is in the same location as someone who knows were the relay is."
"On Noveria there is a Rachni Queen, with their genetic memory she knows where the relay is. Benezia is, or will be trying to extract that information
"...There is a Rachni Queen on Noveria." said Wrex in rage
"Yes, and I hope you spare her, if you don't make sure you kill the next queen." I asked "She's insane and will have no problem burning the universe or dying in the process."
I spared the first rachini queen but knew enough of what would happen if you spared the clone, the monstrosity. I could only guess the warped connection she had with her ancestors coursed it.
"You want to spare Rachini, after all they did to my people...after how many of us died trying to wipe them out?" asked Wrex angrily
"The Rachini, the rachini were not responsible for the rachnini war. Their entire race was indoctrinated by what they call a sour yellow note and oily dark shadows...its how they see the world." I answered "Once their planet was full of song, then one after another they all fell silent and began to sing the song of the Reapers until only an egg was left untouched. The Reapers were responsible for the Rachni war, hell they were probably the ones behind the Krogan rebellions as well."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" growled Wrex
"Indoctrination, not many people understand...probably no one really. I can barely understand the basics myself. But what I do know is that the Reapers are able to indoctrinate others to do their will, the problem is they don't actually need to be nearby. If they are then its done quicker, or if one of their artifacts is nearby...however even someone who is indoctrinated can pass it on like it's an STD. I hate to see what happens if an indoctrinated asari tries to pass it on by mind melds.
I don't know this for certain but krogans spent an awful lot of time close to those who were indoctrinated, it also doesn't matter when. You can be exposed as a child and still succumb as an adult without any further exposure, all it takes is time. Back on Virmire there was an asari scientist studying indoctrination, at the moment she's fine, in a year or two she's still fine. When the Reapers come though she'll kill herself blowing up some asari military personal and gear.
That's what happens to TIM as well, he and Saren were exposed during the first contact war as was Saren's brother. Saren became fully indoctrinated sooner thanks to Sovereign but later Tim will do the stupidest thing possible, using pieces of dead reaper to power his space station leading to his full indoctrination. He'll also start turning his own men into quasi-husks."
"What else does he do?" asked Shepard "I've seen the damage an indoctrinated Saren can do how bad does it get with...what's his actual name by the way?"
"Jack Harper" I answered simply "and it's so much worse. You but heads with him numerous times over the time you were forced to work with him but when you defeated the Collectors he wanted you to leave the base intact to use the Reaper technology there despite knowing that it was made up of thousands of colonists, is goal started changing form defeating the Reapers to controlling them. From there things went even further downhill when the Reapers arrived I only remember seeing them fighting against the Reapers once and even that one was started by the Reapers. To my knowledge to worst thing, they did was set up a fake colony called Sanctuary for refugees trying to escape the Reaper War. Once someone arrived they would take any communication device off them and confiscate it...saying it was necessary to avoid Reaper detection. Then they would be divided into two groups, one would be turned into more Cerberus troops...the others would be turned into husks for research purposes. Cerberus and Tim have always been about the end justifies the means but they went from that to basically filling pits full of dead bodies for no better reason than for someone to walk over them without falling in."
"How many people fall for this trap?" asked Shepard
"Thousands, thousands if not more flocked to Santuary in the hopes for safety. In the end they either became a mindless soldiers for either Cerberus of the Reapers." I answered "They were using them to test if they could control the Reaper ground forces and hopefully eventually the Reaper himselves."
"Does it ever work?" asked Garrus "I don't like Cerberus enough as it is, if they are able to control husks they're going to become a lot harder to deal with."
"No, at least not in the way they wanted. After thousands of deaths all they could do was control a small number of husks that were far from Reaper control for a small amount of time but even that could have been a bluff on the Reapers part. In the Reapers found Santuary, maybe they knew where it was the entire time, in the end all they did was increase the number of troops the Reapers had." I answered "It also wasn't the only time they did something like this either, on Omega they were responsible for their own version of a husk, it looks like one of those zombies that spit acid. They thought they could control it, instead they had to quenteen any area they were seen in as they could convert anyone and everyone they came across. But as for controlling the Reaper's ground forces there is a reason they thought it was possible, as I've taught Kaiden slam and other biotic techniques you were able to learn new abilities from those you meet. One of the abilities you could learn was called Dominate and you learned it from the Leviathons. It allows turns someone against their allies just like AI hacking would, but it only works for a short amount of time and each time you use it on the same target they build a resistance against it. Cerberus's plan would never have worked, the best they could have done is removed them direct Reaper control for a limited amount of time."
"I think that's enough for now, I think we are all have information overload as it is. If I have any other questions I'll talk to you later but for now I just have one more question for you...why should we trust you and how do we know you haven't used personal knowelge about us for your own gain?" asked Shepard, her eyes looking briefly in Solana's direction.
"Did you know Joker had a sister?" I asked
"What's that got to do with why we should trust you?" asked Ash
"During the Reaper War some asari Commandos were sent to a planet to help prepare it against a Reaper invasion and be ready incase an evacuation was needed. It was a small colony and no one really thought it would be on the list of immediate targets. One of the asari in particular hadn't had the chance to shower in weeks so one of the colonists offered to let her use her families. It was halfway through the shower that the Reapers hit, she was only able to save the girl but in the end she broke her leg. With Reaper forces nearby they had no choice but to hide, but the girl couldn't stop crying and they kept getting closer. The asari made it off that colony...the girl didn't, I think you can guess what happened to her. That girl was Joker's little sister. Now I know you don't have much reason to trust me but all I want is to stop that from happening to as many people as I can." I said
My words seemed have reached a few, most looked unsure. Some like Ash and Garrus still looked a bit pissed.
"As for the use of personal information, I don't know a lot of personal that you wouldn't have told me if I or someone else had just asked." I said as my eyes look around the room, stopping at Solana momentarily before continuing on to
"Liara, have I made any advances towards you, made you feel uncomfortable even once or do you think in hindsight I used prior knowledge to get closer to you?" I ask
"M-me?" asked Liara shocked
"Yes." I replied feeling ashamed "I ahhh, I had a captain Kirk sort of moment."
"I was unaware that you felt that way, infact I thought your feelings were towards..." trailed off Liara
"That's because I don't, that version wasn't really you...you are. Maybe if I thought you felt that way about me I would have done something but I wasn't going to start a relationship with someone and use my prior knowledge to make it happen would mar the relationship and have it built on a lie. Something that I didn't want." I said "Tali, I remembered that you had trouble sleeping which is why I had the idea of making a white noise machine. Shepard, while it wasn't intended I did say Anderson would make a better politian than others because I wanted you to choose him over Udina for Councilor when the time came...and I think that's it. No, there was one more thing. I knew the bomb was going to be needed so I came up with the idea that it would be great if we could lock the geth out of electronic systems." I stated
"What would have happened if we didn't have that code?" asked Shepard
"Also, councilor? As in a human Councilor?" asked Kaiden
"Yes after the battle of the Citadel an offer was made. As what would have happened without the code...it would have lead to the death to either Kaiden or Ashley." I said, answering both questions at once getting a surprised look from Kaiden and a hard star from Ash "One would have been with the bomb, the other would have been with the salarians."
"Just like before." mused Shepard
"Also, I should have mentioned this before but in the case of my death I set my omni-tool to send you a email to pull back the rubber bottom of the cage I gave you with your hamster. There's a small data drive there with everything I know." I added
"Let me guess, prior knowledge from the game?" asked Shepard
"Well there were only ever two pets seen in mass effect on the Normandy, a hamster and some fish...the fish tended to die a lot." I answered
"You certainly seemed happy to use this 'prior' knowledge a lot, I know you fancy Solana." said Ash getting an angry scowl from Garrus in my direction and an uncertain look from Solana "You expect us think you never even felt tempted to use your 'prior' knowdledge to help things along?"
"That's easy, I never felt tempted to use prior knowledge of Solana because I never had any prior knowledge of her." I answered
"What do you mean no prior knowledge of Solana?" asked Liara "You seem to have a good idea about almost everything else why is this different?"
"Because last time Solana wasn't on the Normandy, neither was Gamora." I answered
"Are you trying to say my sister didn't exist?" asked Garrus with some anger
"No I'm not, just to be clear Solana did exist, she just wasn't on the Normandy. As far as I know she was on Palavan taking care of your mother, from what I don't know from what. It could have been an illness it could have been an accident I'm not sure as you didn't really talk about it, I don't even remember when it happened. When the Reapers hit she managed to survive but the last thing you heard shortly before the last battle was that she broke her leg. Also you did ask this Gamora but the Thorian, I'm not sure if it survived. Back on Feros it ended up having enough tendril cut that it fell and I don't know if it could survive the fall or recover, also the asari you were...based on turned up on the Citadel a during the Reaper war. The thing is she had turned green so in hindsight I'm not sure if it was really her or one last asari clone." I said
"You helped save the Old Growth...why?" asked Gamora
"A few reasons, that it was a unique life form, the like of which I never saw again...though there could be more out there though I remember a few planets covered in a large, single plant like organism. It was also something that could live long enough to make it to the next cycle so if we did fail I hoped it would warn the next. Also, the only time anyone, anywhere was able to break free of the Reaper's control was due to it. Though some were strong enough to break free, at least for a small amount of time. Your mother was one of them, before she died she gave us information on Saren and where Ilos, how much she loved you how proud she was of...her little wing." I said getting a gasp and making Liara go teary eyed "It was also my hope that with either Gamora's or the Thorian's help we would be able to save her."
"Saving her might not be enough, if she makes it through she's going to have a lot of people coming after her. I don't suppose you have any ideas on how to deal with that?" asked Shepard
"Just one, Liara's father might be able to keep her safe and hide her." I answered
"I-if I may ask" interrupted Liara "why did she do it? Why did my father leave?"
"She didn't Benezia left her, from what I can remember they started disagreeing more and more about the future of the asari. I think they still talked about you though afterwards. Your father wanted to make sure that you got to choose what kind of life you lead." I answered
"R-really?" asked Liara
"Any idea where we can find her?" asked Shepard
"Possibly Illuim, maybe working at a bar. Her father was in the Rachni wars and Krogan rebellions and her mother was on the otherside, like Benezia she was also a matriarch. Her name was..Aeytha, aeleta something on those lines. She's also completely different to most asari, especially other matriarchs." I answered
"It's going to hard finding one person with so little information." remarked Kaiden
"Actually that might not be the case." said Liara visibly steadying herself "The majority of Matriachs live on the asari homeworld, those that don't live well inside asari space. By knowing the planet she's on is Illuim we've already eliminated a large number of possibilities, I can't imagine more than a dozen matriachs are living on Illium currently, at most hundred. Also, if Callum is sure on the first letter or at least on how it sounds then even more possibilities are gone. Matriachs lives are very public, whether they want it or not, even if my father does not give council to anyone it should be possible to find her."
Turning to Shepard Liara asks
"If I may, after this I would like to start looking immediately."
"Do it, okay that's enough for now. I need to work out how to explain this to Anderson and Hackett." dismissed Shepard
With that we all slowly started to leave the room.