Difficulty: Khepri Mode+10. Powers, Lesser: Apprentice-10 (Aura – Tinker; Bending; Biotics – Tinker; Chakra; Force Adept – Tinker; Wand Magic).

Powers, Lesser: Twins-6 (PanaceaX: Shaker/Thinker – 'initial' range of one meter including self; Thinker sub-power for perfectly memorizing biology of targets, and as a side effect, minor increase in viability of more synergistic aspects of power usage, such as Bloodline combination; DoormakerX: Mover/Thinker – Doormaker has access to 'Apprentice' Alternate Multiverses; portals can be used as 'one-way viewing windows' and target non-'home' Universes through intent/setting of conditions).

Powers, Tier One-2: Fear The Reaper-1; Rejecting Reality-1. Perks-2: Charles Atlas Superpowers-1; Man Of Mystery-1.

Disadvantages+10: Case 53 (Asari); Enemy+5; Wanted+3 (EnmityX – Slaughterhouse Nine); Without A Map+2 (Birdcage).

Enemy+10: Apprentice-2 (Blood Magic); Twins-9 (KingX: Blaster – can transfer injuries to-and-from other 'iterations' ala Makima; ContessaX: Trump – has no Worm-specific 'Blind Spots'; Jack SlashX: Mover – can cut 'portals' into the air ala Subtle Knife, can sense previously-made portal locations and destinations, specifically intended to chase someone with access to DoormakerX); Tier One-2 (Ever-Traveller; Arbiter Of Fate); Perks-2 (Man Of Mystery; Special Snowflake); Drawbacks+5 (Reincarnation: Scapegoat+2; InterestX – Cauldron+3).

-Chapter One: Day 1, Earth-Bet-

Having a good nine hours minimum before anything kicked off (and about sixty more before the Lung fight), I used that time to focus on my Parahuman powers rather than my Disciplines. I didn't have nearly enough time to master any of them, but all I needed was enough practice with Pandora, Portalmaker and Reality Rejection to get to work on the biggest issues right away, while time was on my side. And, y'know, fleeing Ellisburg before any of the monsters within saw me, but fortunately, the 'city' was quite large and there were more than a few empty buildings, one of which I was lucky enough to land in and quickly flee from into the Hidden Rain Village, followed by a similarly-speedy detour into the Grimm-infested deserts of Vacuo, and finally, back to Earth-Bet, in an abandoned Brockton Bay apartment. Let's see someone follow me all the way through that shitshow.

By the time I opened a Door to Taylor, I was a little late: she'd already thrown her bag against the wall of the bathroom, and set about drawing out the entirety of her swarm. I chose to stand back, and let her gradually calm down until she sighed and dispersed all of the insects back out the window and into the cracks in the wall-tiles. Yes, she is more than worthy.

I repeated that out loud as the last of her bugs disappeared, picking up her bag and placing it back on the sink next to me as she froze in terror. "Sorry for intruding, but I am insanely busy all of a sudden, so I need to keep this question brief: if you could, hypothetically, suddenly have more superpowers with no strings attached, would you be interested?"

She seemed rather unable to form a coherent answer, but she still forced herself to mumble out an obvious answer. "…um… yyeeaahh…?"

"Excellent!" And then she froze as I took control of her muscles, moving her upright so I could wrap my arms under hers- "Awaken."

-and while I didn't pass out, I did need a few moments to regain my bearings and lean the gradually-recovering Taylor against the one-way bathroom door.

"Ah, good, looks like everything worked. I'm not going to lie, I knew this wouldn't hurt you, but I was a bit worried something wouldn't transfer over, and that would be a pain in the ass to double-check and fix afterwards."

"!-what, just…?!" She blinked in befuddlement as her senses came back, only to find more senses waiting to be tapped.

"Don't worry, I shoved a list with everything you need to know into your backpack. And I put your art project back together, if you can still be bothered to hand it in." I added, because why not. "By the time you've made in-roads on all that information, you'll be ready for the Sunday night shitshow that is your first patrol, and I'll jump in and help you if you need it, and we can talk more afterwards. I've got quite a bit of dirt on Sophia, for instance, the kind of stuff that could get her locked away, but if you know about that now, it might change things and mess up the future. So, go and hand in your project (or not), then take the rest of the day off, and don't worry: you have an on-and-off guardian angel who'll do what he-slash-she can to help, okay?"

"…okay…?"

"Great. See you again soon!" I waved as I walked into a snowy forest, faintly hearing her last words as the Door shut behind me and gave her an eyeful of Remnant.

"…what the fuck just happened."

-Earth-Remnant-

In minutes, I was being similarly awed.

…fun fact: for all I know about RWBY, I hadn't actually ever watched large portions of the show. I knew the plot points, and a little bit about the first-hand characterisation of most of the characters, but I'd always wanted to leave watching the entire series for when it all came out in one (or a few) sittings. I'm not a big fan of being burned by shows that don't get a proper ending, not after Sonic Underground's literally-never-published fate.

But seeing Ruby going in on the Beowolves… even if I knew the original designs were a lot more primitive, and these 'proper' Grimm were technically not from the trailer… god damn. If I were still fifteen, I'd probably have fallen in love by now. Alas, while I was a teen when the trailer came out, I'm now a decade past my teenage years and cynical as all get-out. Perhaps that's for the best, I officially have way too much shit to seriously consider romance right now. "…huh. Nice." I added out loud.

"Uh? Oh, hey there!" She heard my voice and gave me a cheery wave. "I didn't expect to see anyone else out here."

"Fair enough, I think I'm a bit early myself." Oh, I wanted to give her more powers right here and now. But if that kept her out of From Dust 'Til Dawn, out of Beacon, out of Team RWBY…

"Early? What for?" She looked around briefly. "Not much out here but snow and Grimm…"

"And you, Miss Rose." I noted, chuckling at her head-tilt. "You know, the worst part about seeing the future, is that if I keep talking to you about anything important, that's going to stuff up something else. So I'm sorry to say," I opened a portal behind myself in full view of her wide eyes, "that it won't be until our third meeting, after you get assigned a team at Beacon Academy, that I can pass on what you probably want to know right now."

"Whoa… cool." She waved her hand through the gap in the air. "Is this your Semblance?"

"Patience, youngling: all will be revealed in due time." She went as far as giving me puppy-dog eyes, but my responding headpat made her whine in obvious displeasure.

"Oh come on, that's like two years away." She pleaded, holding back her grumpiness, then paused. "Wait, third time? When's the second?

"When your sister smashes up a bar. Yang's gotta Yang, after all." I smirked, getting a knowing sigh in response.

"Gosh darn it, Dad's gonna fume when he finds out." She buried her face in her hands. I took my chance to silently retreat into the Door, turning it back into a Window.

"Now, now, our meetings won't be nearly as far apart as you fear. But staying out in this cold won't do you any good." She perked up to see me opening a few more Windows through the one that now separated us. "And I have to keep abreast of current events, so run along back home, Miss Rose. And try not to mention me to the rest of your family just yet, please, that'll make everything a lot more confusing."

"Alright, see you later, weird spirit-lady!" She called out as she raced off. I suppose she's not wrong… whatever, I have places to be.

-Earth-Spirit-

And this one was a doozy. Knocking out the guards wasn't a problem, but trying to speak to a pair of overbearing parents about their blind daughter… that was gonna be painful.

But the Avatar needed an Earthbending teacher, and I wasn't going to try cheating him with my Disciplines. I don't know the rules of this world, the Spirit world, or how important Raava was and how they might react or be impacted by my involvement, but that seemed like a very unnecessary risk. And let's be honest, the Avatar does not need more power in this world, and I doubt he'd be leaving it for any lengthy period of time. A vacation, maybe. But definitely not to Earth-Bet with all their undodgeable, durability-bypassing Parahumans.

So I floated over with the Force, picked out the grumpy girl in the garden who was looking around from the guards suddenly 'standing' still and not patrolling, and made a conscious effort to plant my feet on the ground and walk over, making her double-take and 'stare' in my general direction. "Greetings, Toph Beifong."

"What the heck?" She cocked her head to the side. "What are you? And how did you do that?

"I'm a Spirit of great power and ability, and I can float above the ground. I am here to, in a roundabout way, make your dreams come true. Are you interested in hearing me out?"

"Sure, this sounds interesting." She shrugged nonchalantly, remaining tense but open to my suggestion. "Whaddaya want?"

"For starters, while I know your relationship with your parents is strained, to say the least," The way her expression dropped 'said' it all. "I do believe that I can help fix that as a side effect of the blessing I wish to bestow upon you, and I do not require their permission to make this deal, but I would rather discuss my offer with all three of you present."

"Good luck with that." She snorted, walking over to their front door, leading me through to their 'living room', and calling out for them. "Dad! Mom! Visitor!"

"Oh? We aren't expecting-" And then Poppy actually laid eyes on me. "-wh-what the-?"

"Peace, mortals. I am not here to harm you or your daughter. Quite the opposite."

"Where the hell are the guards?!" Her husband burst out, eyes flickering everywhere else.

"Those who were in my way were Bloodbent into unconsciousness. Those who were not have no idea anything is wrong, and are following their patrols as appropriate. And before you waste time calling for them, that 'fuzzy' effect you can see on the walls and ceiling is blocking all sound in and out of this room. We are here to talk, and we will not be interrupted until our conversation is finished."

"…you… what do you want?"

"To help your daughter. It just so happens that this includes a chance to mend the rifts you have formed with her, and I would rather avoid you sending bounty hunters after her again."

"What? We have never done such a thing!"

"Not yet, you haven't: in the flow of time where I was not present, your daughter encountered the new Avatar in a few months and ran away with him to teach him Earthbending and escape from her 'prison'. You responded by paying Master Yu and another expert from the Earth Rumble, an underground Earthbending fight club, an exorbitant amount of money to track her down and drag her back, and when they finally succeeded in luring her in with a forged letter from Poppy, they trapped her in a metal cage and were almost immediately-after arrested by a passing Fire Nation patrol for illegal border crossing, leaving Toph to die of thirst in the middle of a forest. Fortunately, your daughter is the greatest Earthbender to have ever lived, and through her Tremorsense, was able to detect and bend earthly impurities in the cage to escape, and in seventy years, she retired from a city's Chief of Police having mastered her newly-created Metalbending art, and hand-trained an entire generation of Earth Kingdom soldiers and officers in its use."

"…hey, that actually sounds pretty plausible. Did they use a poorly-forged cage?" Toph blinked thoughtfully in the silence that followed.

"That was part of it, but as long as it isn't one-hundred percent pure metal, or a weird one like Platinum, it can be Metalbent. You just have to find the impurities: the less-well-forged, the more you have to work with and the more fragile the metal is to strike anyway-"

"That-this is absurd! Our daughter is the pinnacle of refinement and fragility-"

I promptly burst out laughing for a good few seconds. "Oh, of course, the five-time reigning Champion of the aforementioned Earth Rumble, is the idealisation of 'feminine grace'."

"…oh god dammit," She buried her face in her hands as they blinked in confusion, "they didn't know about that yet, you asshole."

I ignored her father snapping "Language!" at her. "But they would have found out soon enough, and you know as well as I do that they can't hold you anywhere you do not wish to be held. Perhaps you should start with who you actually learned Earthbending from."

"Yeah, that's gonna help…" She grumbled, before she started opening up to her parents. "When I ran away when I was five, around when I started running away a lot more, I found a cave with a pair of Badger-Moles in it. I couldn't magically communicate with them, but we were both blind and we both sorta-connected over it, and they let me follow after them and mimic their movements. Just like the original Earthbenders, I learned from the original masters. Everything Master Yu showed me was stuff I'd known for years."

"You…" Lao seemed lost for words. "You went into a cave or otherwise got lost in one, you survived by sheer blind luck that the giant animals that lived within chose not to eat or otherwise kill you, and then you went back for more? Repeatedly?"

"The Seismic Sense I learned lets me 'see' everything that's touching the ground whenever I take a step." She frustratedly tried to explain to them. "Learning that skill made me way safer than if I'd spent all my time playing dress-up and praying to rocks!"

"Especially because your parents have been actively concealing your existence from the rest of the town." I drove the wedge deeper, already seeing this wouldn't work out. "Other than the few individuals you've met at places like the Rumble, no-one else knows you exist."

"!-wait, what?"

"We are wealthy, and she is vulnerable to being kidnapped, no matter how supposedly skilled she is at Earthbending."

"But if I twisted my ankle or something dumb happened to me, no-one would believe me if I told them I was your daughter!"

"We would have guards escorting you, or searching for you when you inevitably ran off again." Lao tried to stay calm, while Poppy looked a mix of shocked and… conservative.

"Because I don't want to be cooped up in here for the rest of my life! I want to go to theaters, and meet new people, and try out sports, and all you want is for me to brew tea, and wear fancy clothes, and pray to big rocks covered in floral wreaths!" She laid out all her objections in an unsurprisingly-childish pitch and tone.

"Young lady," he barked at her, only for her to copy his next five words beat-for-beat, "that's just how it-s done?" She finished, glaring at him. "You can't even be bothered to come up with a reason, it's always the same old excuse of 'tradition'. But it's not 'traditional' to be blind, Dad. Nothing about me is 'traditional', and nothing about me wants to be 'traditional', and whenever I tell you that I don't want to spend the rest of my life 'being a lady', you start ranting and raving about how I'm tiny and helpless and fragile. And I'm not. And you know I'm not, because you saw me Earthbend, you saw that Earthbending makes me happy, and you still pulled me away from being happy because you don't trust me. Because you'd rather make me miserable than let me-"

"Enough!" He finally hit his breaking point and rocketed out of his chair, scaring both of the females in the room into silence. "The entire reason I keep you away from these dangerous situations, is because I can't trust you: you run away from the house and the guards with infuriating frequency, you flaunt every order I give that you think you can get away with, and in case you haven't noticed, you are twelve years old. You are young, you are blind, and even if you are some secret Earthbending master, you are my disobedient daughter and I will raise you however I see fit. I will not have you run out into the rest of the Earth Kingdom and be ransomed by bandits or eaten by wild animals! I will not let that happen!"

"…and how long," Toph spat, just as angry, "are you going to trap me in here?"

"Until you reach adulthood, physically and mentally." He coldly countered. "If that means I have to double the guard and have you tied to your bed every night to protect you from yourself, then so be it." Even his wife seemed distinctly uncomfortable hearing that, but was clearly unwilling to speak up about it.

"…fuck me, this was a waste of time…" I very inconspicuously grumbled to myself, drawing all of their attentions to me.

"!-excuse me?"

"You heard me: you are a deadbeat father, so focused on heaping lavish gifts on your daughter that you can't see how badly you have neglected her; and you are a doormat mother, who is so busy asking him what your daughter wants that you have never asked her what she wants." I glared at both of them. "Toph does not need your 'permission'. Your daughter could, at any moment, walk right out of your mansion and over the guards with her mastery of the Earth. And yet, she hesitates. Because as angry and unhappy as you make her, you are still her parents and she still loves you. Thus, even though it is not necessary that you come to terms, I still wish to ensure she does not have to choose between a life she doesn't want and abandoning her family."

"And how, pray tell, do you plan to do that?!"

"By healing her eyes." The silence I left in my wake carried on for over ten seconds as Lao slowly sank back down.

"…what?" Toph finally broke it, uncharacteristic uncertainty written all over her face.

"While it actually is possible for a Master Waterbender to Bloodbend someone under the light of a full moon, I'm still months away from doing so in the middle of the day. Instead, I used a powerful flesh-crafting ability to introduce sleeping chemicals into their bloodstreams at a distance." I took the chance to shift around my weight as I changed my right arm into several limb analogues, from a wing to a tentacle to a draconic talon to a bear claw, and back again while giving Toph a similar level of awareness. "Whether it be an issue with the eye itself, the optic nerve that connects it to your brain, or a genetic flaw that requires a pair of completely-new eyes using a donation of blood from your parents, the eyes will take… probably a week for you to fully adapt to having sight, and a few hours for them to adjust to normal levels of sunlight. But actually fixing the damage will only take a few minutes." I turned slightly to give Toph a level look that I hoped translated. "This is not to imply that you 'need' the gift of sight, or that you are crippled without it, but there are situations where your Seismic Sense will be disrupted, and your parents will be much happier knowing you will be as safe as is realistically practical."

"So… what's the catch?"

"For your vision, and a spiritual force-field that will strengthen your body and shield you from harm: I will take you to join the Avatar on his journey, where you will remain either until you both agree he has mastered Earthbending, or until a year has passed." I laid out my terms. "Realistically, he will take three-to-four months to master a new element, but since Earth is his 'opposite' element, he will likely take six. The 'full year' is just to ensure there are no disruptions, such as him needing to learn the other three Elements. I will also give you the first week to stay at home and adapt to being able to see, as I suggested earlier. Is that agreeable?"

"Fuck yes! I get to literally see the world, and all I hafta do is train a prodigy? That's easy!" She seemed a little shocked by her own enthusiasm, but thankfully, this didn't seem to be nearly as hard a sell as I'd prepared for.

I shot a Look at her still-stunned parents. "And I'm not going to be interrupted by anyone in the middle of this?"

"Wh-no, of course not!" Lao jumped back to his feet in shock and outrage. "You think I would deny my daughter the gift of sight?!"

"…I thought you'd say something." Toph quietly defended me. "You're not going to try telling me this is 'untraditional' or anything?"

Despite almost fuming at that accusation, he forced his temper down and slumped back into his chair with his head in his hands. "My daughter, you are a handful at the best of times, and you scare the hell out of your mother and I whenever you run off, or start talking about getting involved in underground Earthbending fights. If I seriously thought trying to interfere in this would stop you from being so brash, I'd stand back up in an instant." He raised his eyes to meet hers, despite the hurt in them and the lack of cognition. "But there's not a doubt in my mind that not being able to see will not slow you down in the slightest, that you being able to see will help protect you, and… I know you haven't been happy with a lot of the ceremonies and noble lifestyles we've taught you, but we want you to be safe, and we are trying to make you happy as best we can. I would never insist that you be kept from the same god-given sense that almost every other person on this planet benefits from, solely to hurt you. You want this, I want this, and we all know this will change your life for the better… even if it doesn't magically solve our arguments."

His wife abruptly took over as he paused and struggled to find the words. "Please don't ever think that we are trying to hurt you, Toph: we love you, and we only want what's best for you, even if that often conflicts with what you want in life." Then she paused too, and got her husband's attention with a pleading look. "And… maybe we will have to discuss these revelations at length, especially your disappearance to goodness-knows-where, but we would never deprive you of a once-in-a-lifetime chance like this." Her tone hardened a little. "Even if there was a chance that it might convince you not to be so reckless."

Trouble in paradise, I predict… and yet, it actually caused the two of them to take notice of her, so maybe it needed to be said. "...okay." Toph quietly nodded, and turned back to me. "Okay. How do you do this?"

"I light a few candles and cover the windows to reduce the glare without blocking out all the light, put a blindfold over your eyes to ensure you have control over how quickly you adapt when I'm done, and start looking at the problem to see what kind of solution is needed." I listed off. "It won't take more than ten-to-fifteen minutes at most, and you won't feel any pain since I'll have control over your nerves, but you might be able to feel your eyeballs moving slightly as I convert damaged flesh into healthy iris', and move around the material I have to work with. Are you ready?"

She nodded fiercely. "Yeah. Do it."

In all the time I'd had in proximity to her, I'd quickly confirmed exactly what was wrong with her eyes: a complicated surface-level problem, but fortunately fairly easy to fix by modern standards. It still took time, and I had to sort out the room first and cheat with my powers a lot to get everything right, but as promised fifteen minutes later, I left behind a shockingly-quiet Toph who'd still taken almost thirty seconds to deal with the relatively-mild candle light, 'woah' and tap her feet on the ground to connect the outlines and shapes she was used to seeing with colour, then turn around, slowly open her eyes to see her parents for the first time, and despite an attempted-deadpan joke about how their platform sandals had always made them 'feel' taller, the wobble in her voice as she slowly walked over and they both dashed in to hug her told me she'd be just fine… for now, anyway. I honestly didn't think they'd be able to work out all their grievances and come to an accord in a single week, but this was a time I hoped to be proven wrong.

I left them a note, assuring them that I didn't want to ruin the mood, gently reminding them of my terms, and adding that she should be careful of the brightness of sunlight for the rest of the day (better repeated than forgotten), and left them in peace. I'd rather spend the next few hours working out than try and help them 'work out' their problems, especially with what was coming up next. After all, if I was leaving Harry until a week later, and only interfering in Star Wars to save Qui-Gonn later on, the next big thing was gonna be big.

-Verse-Eezo, Eden Prime-

Judging from the lack of gunfire, it was time. Nazara was a big bastard, but well inside the edge of my range even at a considerable distance, and I'd taken the chance to study their entire structure over the course of only a few minutes, identifying critical infrastructure and internal vulnerabilities. I've only had a few hours to get used to RR… but this is my best and-only-real chance to put a stop to this before it really starts, and I'd already stood back while the initial attack was performed and innocent people died. Time to make their unwilling sacrifices count.

Despite being late afternoon, the skies were clogged with blood-red clouds from all the explosions and fires caused by Nazara's engines, and almost everyone was dead, hiding, fleeing, or in small isolated gunfights with the Indoctrinated Geth, who were actively clearing out a perimeter. Dumb bastards are throwing away their only real chance at stopping the Reapers, and preventing their sensible comrades from integrating into galactic society, because what, the Reapers are big biomechanical ships in the shape of a squid? "Well," I said to myself out loud as I lined up on a nearby hill, using RR to block out all the screaming, occasional gunfire, and the faint insidious noise it was still putting out, "let's make some fucking calamari."

If they'd been outside my range, I very much doubt I'd have been able to catch up without flash-fabricating some kind of Eezo-shell around myself and firing myself vaguely in their direction. Even then, I couldn't 'aim' myself, or react without highly-advanced computing power or significant alterations to my brain, and I doubt I could 'anchor' a Door to them like I did to a planet's orbital rotation if he broke light speed. I sure as hell wouldn't want to bet on it, anyway. But hovering where they were, giving me the time to identify all their heavily-protected 'weak points', was all I needed. With a thought, I raised my Aura to full, opened a Door on the ground in front of me that led straight to their mid-section, and cut loose.

In seconds, they were mission-killed, their Eezo 'Core' having been separated from their insides and dropped into another Door some distance away, their engines failing due to the fuel lines explosively-transmuting into much-less-dense tin, and their backup power sources and 'brains' all shutting down as RR, though far slower at the edges of my range, unmade tiny 'slices' out of various important systems. They weren't idle during this time, recognising my attack as soon as I launched it and immediately reacting to search for the cause, but they didn't have time to actually do anything except strengthening the Indoctrination effect all around themselves, and I was keeping a close eye on my Door to block anything like that coming through. In minutes, they were truly deceased, their corpse falling towards Eden Prime, and I exerted myself to toss it in the direction of a now-barren field about half a mile away, tearing apart the earth with a titanic slam even as I followed with multiple new Doors and dug 'deep' into every nook and cranny, air-gapping anything that looked even remotely dangerous, and being surprised by the lack of 'integrated' organic matter. I recall the organic 'slurry' taken from the Colonists in ME2 being used to 'build' the Human-Reaper, but all the Tinkertech designs my Biotic Discipline was passing me explained that they were simply their consciousness' being uploaded into the Reaper-Ships' purely-synthetic AI-controlled Cores. Makes some sense, Reaper ships are completely and obviously different from their cybernetic-zombie shock troops, and I doubt organic matter could be maintained and also 'used' over multiple fifty-thousand-year timespans… but it also means the Reapers could create their own AI from the ground-up like the Quarians and the Geth, and instead they were following old orders and torturing organics to death out of 'duty'. Assholes…

I did find the soon-to-be-ex Matriarch Benezia a little banged up within the 'ship', and promptly Door'd her out of there unconscious. That is an individual I wouldn't mind saving, though I suspect the necessary work might be a pain in the ass. And speaking of which, I promptly turned my attention to the frozen and shocked Geth below me. I still hesitated despite their immoral act, but accepted that they were ideologically unswayable and a small traitorous faction anyway, and 'grabbed' them. With a thought, intense localised EMP's tore apart their important circuitry and the drives holding their programs, and their smoking bodies and drones flopped to the ground deceased. There were undoubtedly spacecraft of theirs I'd missed, but I couldn't waste time searching for them out-of-atmosphere, I had three more things to do. The first, was to find Saren at the spaceport, still gaping in shock just like the Geth at what I'd done in mere minutes and with no visible sign of sabotage, and render him unconscious as well. If there was any Grade-A asshole I was willing to accidentally scramble the brains of in my efforts to understand and reverse Indoctrination, it was him.

A few minutes later, I at least had a start on whatever the fuck was going on with both their neurochemistry's, but this was clearly going to take time. And frankly, I had more important shit to do, so this was going to have to go on the backburner for a while. The second, was to get in contact with Shepard and Nihlus when they show up, give them all the information they'd need (and the metaknowledge required to prevent a few tragedies), and third was to get Javik freed from his cryosleep so he could identify the Prothean beacon on Thessia, and possibly the Crucible blueprints on Mars. Realistically, with a year or three to develop, I had plenty of time to puzzle out the Crucible from scratch, whatever the Lazarus Project would have done to Shepard, and toss a cloned/copied body into the Symbiosis beam… but getting everything else ready for that, especially the fact that the Reapers had to be inside the galaxy when it happened, meant a whole shitload of politics and complications…-unless I also put together a copy of the Citadel. It'd take a long time, maybe weeks of wandering around to perfectly copy its structure, but it could speed up and would safeguard things a lot… hmm, something to think on another time.

In any case, I did the sensible thing, fashioned a white flag out of the nearest rock, and planted it over both of my captives while I went and laid on one of the longer crates, hands behind my head and legs draped off the end, not even bothering to address the smuggler/engineer behind them while I replicated the translator on his clothes and attached it to myself, Tinker powers informing me of how to adjust it and set it up properly. I didn't need sleep, but my body did need rest from time to time, and I was flagging a little from the psychosomatic effort of killing Nazara, letting the corpse down without letting the shockwaves tear apart everything around it, and all the extra stuff since then. And now I had to talk for probably half-an-hour with a black-ops tough-guy, and the protagonist. Joy.

Well, first I had to tell the Spectre not to fuck with the coming-online artefact. "You'd best keep your distance from the Beacon." I used RR to project my voice over to Shepard's squad and Nihlus, getting a jolt in the process. "It's still in the dig site and partially booted up, and once it's ready, it'll sear a whole bunch of useful information into the brain of the next person who gets in range of it. I'd rather talk to both of you in one go, not have to wait for one of you to regain consciousness."

I had to wait another minute or so for him to pass that on to Shepard, and get back confirmation that she also heard it, and was then further slowed by meeting Ashley and also double-checking the Beacon, but Nihlus seemed to recognise the gravity of the situation as soon as he saw my prisoners. "Freeze, and identify yourself." He still pointed his gun at me, of course.

"Jason Townsend, and do I look like I'm going anywhere?" I snorted from my prone position.

"Do you expect me to trust anything right now, with whatever the hell is happening on this planet?" He shot back, moving closer and checking the vitals of the unconscious. "I wouldn't be surprised to see this Turian here, but I can't imagine why Matriarch Benezia is in a Human colony well inside their territory."

"Well given that I found her in that Reaper over there, I should think there is a fairly-obvious undertone as to what her plans were, but the specifics are troubling enough that I'd rather give the story out once and once only." After I finished saying that, Shepard and her team of four clomped up the ramp.

"Sir, it seems the Geth have all been shut down, one way or another." Shepard quickly acknowledged Nihlus. "Any light to shed on the situation?"

"I expect to find out right now." He gave me a Look. "You seem to know how that Protean artefact works, and you claim to know what that ship is. Mind sharing with the rest of us?"

"Quick ancient history lesson: at least a million years ago, the reigning species known as the Leviathans looked at their 'lessers', saw that they all kept building AI that inevitably stabbed them in the back, and created one of their own with poorly-worded orders to 'preserve the lives of our slaves'. Deciding that their mind-controlling masters were part of the problem, it slaughtered most of them and uploaded their liquefied consciousnesses into the first Reaper, Harbinger. After making a bunch more out of all the other space-faring species in the galaxy, they took a fifty-thousand year nap in Dark Space and popped out to repeat the process many, many times. The Protheans had some warning thanks to their predecessors, the Inusannon, but they only managed to do so much with the little time they had left. One result was leaving trinkets and messages for their successors, though they aren't really intended for the brains of other species. Another was a sabotaging of the Citadel, implanting an AI known as the Catalyst to prevent the Reapers from using it as a shortcut back into the centre of the galaxy. And the last," I waved my arm off in the direction of the dig site, and casually carved a deep trench several meters wide with a gradual decline into the crust, to the shock and weapon-drawing of my audience, "is the mostly-failed attempt to preserve some of their species in cryosleep. By now, I believe only one of them remains and he lacks any useful scientific knowledge, but he is a capable fighter and would serve as an excellent socio-political kick-in-the-pants for your superiors."

"…once we've handled the immediate situation, I'll call the Council in on this and investigate your claim." He kept a careful eye on me after that ludicrous display of non-Biotic power. "Anything relevant to the current situation?"

"First and foremost, the Reaper you see here is a Capital-class scout by the name of Nazara, and these Geth are a splinter faction that it basically converted into religious fanatics. The remainder are on Rannoch and have no interest in breaking their isolation… unless the Quarian Fleet Admirals admit their war crimes, but that's not going to happen without one hell of a push." I listed off. After all, I'd like to have a word with the Geth first, and show them how the Star Wars universe does faster-than-light travel. "Also, the Reapers all share an insidious trick: Indoctrination. It's a weird mix of infrasound, ultrasound and electro-magnetism that slowly and weakly, but subtly and permanently, damages an organic target's brain until they are rendered a mindless, animalistic 'husk' that is merely an extension of a Reaper's will. It can be tailored in the case of 'useful' individuals like these two, leaving their higher thought processes intact but slowly twisting them over time with extreme and unchangeable beliefs. There is also supposedly a small colony of Leviathan survivors on the planet designated 2181 Despoina, the first planet in the Psi-Tophet system within the Sigurd's Cradle cluster. Their 'indoctrination' is called Enthrallment, and is much quicker and more stable, but less variable in its effects, which is where their rogue creations developed theirs from. They're also the 'all other races are our slaves by evolutionary right' kind, so I wouldn't waste your people on contacting them just yet. You've probably got another two-to-three years to prepare for the Reapers' arrival, and plenty of other assets to consider. Oh, and the Batarians have access to a defunct Reaper corpse they ironically titled the 'Leviathan of Dis', so maybe put a pin in that post-haste, or they'll lose their whole home system to spontaneous betrayal by Indoctrinated personnel when the Reapers inevitably make their move. The Batarian Hegemony are also secretly aware that the Alpha Relay in the Bahak System can send things much farther than most, enough to reach the Citadel, without knowing that it's a backup plan to allow the Reapers to work around the Citadel should it become damaged in any given cycle. An asteroid floating near it, 157-Golgotha, contains both enough mass to destroy it with the right propulsion and a Reaper artefact that can be used to 'activate' them earlier, as Nazara has already attempted to do with the Citadel. Destroying the Relay would create a Supernova large enough to wipe out the entire Bahak System, but not doing so will give the Reaper's, or any other party who can fiddle with the controls, easy access to the nearest sixteen other Relays. If it helps, I will be able to provide plans to build a new one at some indeterminate time in the future, but this is only my first day on the job, and I need time to work up to a project of that magnitude."

"…right." Nihlus obviously didn't believe me on most of that, but he was undoubtedly recording all this anyway, so it's not like it mattered. He'd have more than enough time to follow up on everything I claimed. "Anything useful against this hypothetical threat, any resources we might not know about?"

"The temple of Athame on Thessia, and an office Saren has put together on Virmire, both contain Prothean Beacons that are undamaged unlike the one down there and the former comes with full VI support. This is how he first became aware of Eden Prime's importance in 'fixing' the Citadel, and why the Asari have advanced so quickly in such a short period of time. You can also find a Prothean VI on Ilos, though in order to do so, you will have to find the Mu Relay to get there, which is no easy task. Your first act should be to return to the Citadel and find Tali'Zorah, a Quarian who has acquired a significant amount of evidence from a Geth core mostly by chance, and should be currently recovering in a clinic from an attempted assassination, where she will be directed to a bar called Chora's Den and the owner, Fist, who can supposedly get her a meeting with the Council but has been recently brought out by Saren. I suggest getting ahold of Urdnot Wrex, a Krogan Battlemaster who has been hired recently by the Shadow Broker to 'have words' with Fist over his 'betrayal', and Garrus Vakarian, a C-Sec Officer unsatisfied with his job and possessing a serious talent with Sniper Rifles. You will also want to visit Therum for Benezia's daughter, Liara T'Soni, an archaeologist who can aid you in deciphering Prothean artefacts… possibly even better than the Prothean down there." I vaguely gestured at the trench I'd formed, idly going over an Omni-Tool I'd formed out of dirt and grass after copying a few nearby models, and trying to get the hang of it. "When it comes to the vision acquired from this beacon, you may need assistance deciphering it, due to the damage it has suffered. A recent colony on Feros has been beset by an ancient plant-like being known as the Thorian, similar to the Leviathans in how it has escaped the Reaper's notice, and its unpleasant attitude to those it has forced into its hive mind using its spores. If you are absolutely desperate to free someone from Indoctrination, allowing it to take control of them before you kill it will cancel their current symptoms, but not the underlying cause or how 'built up' the effect has become, simply leaving them with a partially-functional connection to the others from the now-defunct hive mind. Noveria can technically be left to last due to the weather on the planet, but Benezia's a big investor in Binary Helix, and a while ago, they found a Rachni Ship with cryogenically frozen eggs, and inadvertently hatched a Queen for 'testing'."

That provoked an interruption, an outburst from Ashley amusingly enough. "!-what? They're breeding Rachni?!"

"On the one planet it'd be a serious pain-in-the-ass for them to spread across or escape from. Turns out, Rachni have genetic memory in the form of 'songs', and the current one has no recollection of what started the Rachni Wars, nor does she have animosity towards the rest of the galaxy. She does, however, know where the Mu Relay is, which is your path to Ilos. Also, Rachni go permanently berserk out of terror when they get cut off from their hive mind 'song', and are as self-aware and sapient as any other race, so you'll have to euthanize any of her children that have been separated from her for 'experimentation', but she is willing to assist you in fighting the Reapers that 'sour' their songs."

"And you think we should ally with them." Shepard deadpanned, trading Looks with Nihlus.

"Oh, it gets even better: on Virmire, you'll find out that Saren's whipped up a temporary 'cure' for the Genophage using specialised cloning tanks to breed Krogan foot soldiers. If you do bring Wrex along, I suggest first taking a detour to a pirate base on planet Tuntau in the Phoenix system: they stole a set of ceremonial armor from him, and if you secure it and his loyalty with it, he'll not only help you on that mission if you need it, he'll also end up taking command of Clan Urdnot along with most of Tuchanka over the next two years. He's a real 'honor before reason' kinda guy, pretty much the best kind for keeping his people on the straight and narrow, and building up your forces for the upcoming war. And don't worry too much about what happens to the stuff on Virmire: even if the nuke underneath the base goes off, the Krogan are gradually adapting to the Genophage anyway and a cure will be produced shortly before the Reaper War begins, unless some drastic difference occurs as a result of my presence and all the knowledge I've now shared with you."

"You do realise that we can't just accept all of your outlandish claims, right?" Shepard had her gun down, but Kaiden had his Biotics primed. I suppose if they were going to prepare anything in case of sudden hostility, his space magic was more likely to have an impact than Thermal Clip fragments. "And even if we did, the last time the Krogan were uplifted specifically to help fight the Rachni, they were a serious threat to the galaxy on their own in the aftermath."

"Well, you'll have plenty of time to double-check everything I've told you, and if it's an army of eldritch horrors looking to wipe out the entire universe, I feel like the Krogan and the Rachni, even simultaneously, are still a much smaller threat than a fleet that puts all of the Council Races' militaries to shame." I shrugged. "Stay strong, be a Big Damn Hero, and put your best foot forward, and everything will work out. It won't be easy, but nothing worth achieving ever is."

"And you're as sure of this hypothetical timeline as you can be." Nihlus definitely wasn't buying my whole story… so I promptly formed a few Windows in mid-air, leading to the various individuals and locations I'd pointed out. He didn't say anything else, but he definitely seemed appropriately stunned by my casual display of power.

"I haven't checked every single detail, there are a lot more individuals that could help or hinder you in the right circumstances, but I don't want to interfere where I don't need to and disrupt the chain of events I'm expecting too much. Trust me, the Butterfly Effect is a pain in the ass if you let the wrong tornadoes form." I casually paraphrased.

"!-and what does that look like to you?!" Kaidan abruptly spoke up and wildly gestured at one of my floating Windo-

"!-wait, what?" I double-took at the scene on the citadel, Tali and an unknown Quarian stunned from severe gunshot wounds to their bodies that I sure as hell didn't remember being a thing in the games! "Oh for fuck's sake," I hollered as I shoved myself off the crate, through the suddenly-solid Door, and located a sniper perched on an overpass with RR, who I promptly formed another Door behind, grabbed by the extended kneeling ankle, dragged back through with a squawk, and whiplashed into the ground several times with various contributions to my enhanced strength, and an emphatic rant of "cut, that, shit, out", then swapped to identifying the injuries on the two of them.

"A-ah… who-?" Tali clutched her side as she tried to hold up her friend, Nihlus cautiously waving his hand through my Door, then stepping through and putting a bullet in each of the unconscious assassin's shoulders for good measure, before flash-fabricating cuffs from his Omni-Tool and restraining him.

"Your inadvertent saviour." I reached over to the holes in their suits, paralysed them as I touched them, and pulled their wounds closed as I disconnected a few of my 'unnecessary' internal organs and converted the biomass to replace their lost tissue. Not hard for me to replace. "Nihlus, Tali has the evidence you need and I don't have time for this shitshow."

"!-wh-what on Rannoch…?" The other Quarian jerked back into awareness with a cough, as he rubbed his hand over his no-longer-shredded abdomen.

"Long story." I cut him off. "The Spectre over there is investigating an attack on Eden Prime. He can keep you safe from the other one and get you an audience with the council. You!" I pointed at a Turian C-Sec officer, standing there in gormless shock and loosely holding a pistol. "Quit standing there like a Neanderthal and call this in, and guard these two with your life." Then I formed a Door back to Ba Sing Se and stomped through with a parting "honestly, I'm not doing everything for your civilisations!"

Fuck me, that was unexpected. Clearly I'm going to have to go over every single important individual in the Mass Effect universe and check on them now, just to ensure I don't get blindsided by any more nonsense out of nowhere-wait. Mass Effect had prequel comics, didn't it. Was this a thing I just didn't know about?!

Alright, fuck this, time for some more 'in-depth research' on literally everyone I can reach with Portalmaker. I don't care anymore if it's an invasion of privacy, this is not happening again! Not if it's some random canon event I just happened to not know about beforehand!

AN: And now for something completely different, courtesy of my computer dying a slow and painful death just as I regain my interest in writing, and all of the important/troublesome shit in my life has sorted itself out (including my mother going through another major surgery, which fortunately went off without complication and which she is currently recovering from). So instead of not uploading anything for seven months, here's a slightly-incomplete chapter that I'll clean up when I have the time. I have another four-to-six almost completed and at least two more in various states of completion, we'll see how it goes.

I was just really inspired suddenly by the idea of an SI with an opposite 'plot problem' to the Jumper: rather than having nothing to do, this one suffers from a 'hurry up and wait' military mentality, where they're suddenly responsible for 'fixing' multiple worlds just because they wanted Door access to Naruto Bloodlines, and now they can't shake the knowledge that helping makes things politically-complicated, and not helping things means good people dying and knowing he could have done something.

For anyone wondering, most of this was written listening to Siivagunner's 'Relic Maze 1 – Freedom Planet', because Cities In Dust makes for a maudlin, semi-poignant backdrop.

Date of Chapter 1 Upload/Final Edit: 2024, January 28th.