Note: This story was inspired by the Dragon Dance CYOA by u/dragon_jak. Though I will be changing some things to fit the story better.
I looked around, taking in my surroundings. I had just been in my room, doing a CYOA to pass them time, when I found myself elsewhere. Now, I was sitting at a booth in what looked like a classic diner. However, there was no one else around. Did I fall asleep or something? That would be somewhat embarrassing.
"No, young mortal, you didn't fall asleep."
The voice came from directly across from me. Where once was an empty seat, a person now sat there. They were holding up a menu to their face, preventing me from seeing them. After a bit, they lowered it down, like they had come to a decision. I took the time to take in their appearance.
They had black hair that fell to their shoulders, eyes as blue as the sky, what would be called a ruggedly handsome face with a scar going over their left eye. They were also well-built, someone who clearly spent a lot of time exercising, with a light tan that said they also traveled in the wilderness often. He then gestured downward, towards a menu that was now laying in front of me.
"Take a look through it and order whatever you like. I always found that conversations went better when they are done over a meal."
"If I can, I'll just take a burger and fries." I replied to him. That's something I always ordered when I went to places like this, and I had a feeling that I wasn't going to be able to do so for sometime after this.
He nodded his head with a smile, before turning to the left and shouted, "Two orders of burgers and fries!" The sound of a door opening reached my ears, and I turned to see a young woman coming out of what I assume was the kitchen carrying two plates. After she placed them down and left, the man in front of me started to eat, and I then joined in as well.
"So, I am assuming that you are wondering how and why you are here." The man began. "Oh, apologies, you may call me Maximus, or Max for short."
"Well, seeing how I was just sitting in front of my computer before this, I can guess that I didn't die, and you said that I didn't fall asleep either, so I'm guessing that the how is something along the lines of you snapping your fingers to bring me here." I said.
"You're correct that I just grabbed you up. A bit rude, now that I think of that." Max replied.
"As for why, assuming my guess about you is correct, you want me to do something. What that is, I can't really guess."
"And what is your guess about me?" Max asked.
"That you are some sort of god." came my answer.
"Yes, correct." Max nodded. "As for what type, I guess you can call me the God of Chaos and Adventure."
"Chaos and Adventure?" I asked, perplexed.
"When has adventure been anything but chaotic?" Max asked. "Even at its best, adventures are a controlled chaos, but they are still chaotic."
"Okay, I'll accept that." I replied to his answer. "So, what now? With a title like the God of Chaos and Adventure, I am assuming you want me to either go on an adventure or go shake things up and cause chaos."
"A bit of both, actually." Max responded. "You see, I subtly encourage many people in your world to create those CYOAs that you did to pass time. When I see an interesting set, I take the mortal who did it, and set them into the world that matches their choice. Which is simultaneously easy and hard to do, what with the giant multiverse out there."
"So?" I asked. "I was just doing a Dragon CYOA."
"Yes." He nodded. "But remember, one of the sections was to pick a world to enter. And which world did you pick?" Max was smiling now.
"Mass Effect" I quickly replied, before pausing to really take that in.
"You have to admit, having a dragon appear in one of the Mass Effect worlds would be wonderfully hilarious and chaotic." Max said with a big smile. "Especially with the choices you've made."
"So, you want to place me into the dragon that I made, and then place me into the Mass Effect verse, and then just sit back and watch what happens?" I asked for confirmation.
"Well, there are a few things I want to change to integrate you just a bit better." Max replied. "Some of the choices are not really made for Mass Effect, but a little tweaking would fix that just fine." Max then sat his food down, and adjusted himself to sit more upright. "Mainly, I want to create some sort of backstory or reason that you are there in the first place."
"I would suggest that I was in some form of stasis. How long would be the tricky part, as I could not have been around during the Prothean's rule, nor the time of the Inusannon, so at least 100,000 years, if not further."
"So, something like what the Protheans did at the end of their war with the Reapers."
"Yes," I nodded. "Or, it could be like the Leviathans. Remnants of some apex species that were hiding away but were found. Or both."
"Well," Max began, "What world would you like to start on. Remember, you are appearing / waking up during the events of the first game."
"The Virmire Mission", came my answer. "I am sure a giant, angry, fuck off dragon would throw a wrench into Saren and Soverign's plan. Doubly so with me picking the Cosmic ability so I could fly through the void of space."
Max snorted at my answer. "A giant, angry, fuck off dragon would throw a wrench in anyone's plan." He then shook his head. "Alright. So your backstory is going to be that the 'Dragon' species was an apex species like the Leviathans, that were hunted down for roughly a thousand years by the Reapers, given how tough they were to kill. So, many went into stasis, generated by their own mass effect fields, seeing how you choose to have your dragon be a natural Biotics, we will have all of them be that, and were hoping to not be discovered. However, all of them, bar you, were found, though they put up a heavy fight each time, causing the Reapers to suffer some serious casualties taking them out. And this all happened many, many, many harvesting cycles ago. This will make you chronologically ancient, but biologically a young adult, by dragon standards."
I nod my head, as that would explain why I am the only dragon, like it stated in the CYOA.
"I will have it that several explosions went off during the attack on the Virmire base that caused just enough shaking to reach you and wake you up. Maybe some sort of generator would do." Max said.
"A geothermal one, maybe?" I asked. "After all, Saren is trying to keep that place a secret, so any outside energy source would be a no-go, as that would leave a trail and probably resulted in him being found earlier."
"I can go with that." Max replied. "Yeah, the geothermal energy plant for the place erupted during the attack and the shaking it caused woke you up. Which is a rather good reason for why you would be destroying the place." A smirk appeared on Max's face. "Also, I will enable you to tell when someone is indoctrinated by the Reapers."
I blinked at that. "How would that even work?"
"Well, the indoctrination is clearly affecting the target's brain. So, it has to be causing some sort of alteration to it. Any change would cause the chemicals in the body to start acting differently, which would cause a, normally undetectable, scent to emit from them. One that a dragon's nose would be able to detect."
"Okay…" I said, "That sounded somewhat believable, so I'll roll with it."
"I figured as much." Max responded. "I will also give you a set of memories that will explain what 'you' have done before your awakening."
"Don't want people knowing I am from an alternate universe?" I asked.
"Dude, that always results in so much paperwork for people like me," Max groaned. I flinched in response to that. Yeah, let's not give the god who was doing this any reason to be upset with me, and paperwork was a pretty big reason for being upset.
"Alright, I think that just about covers everything." Max spoke after the uncomfortable pause, "So, to recap, you are going to the Mass Effect verse as a big, angry, fuck off dragon, with the choices you picked in the CYOA, a set of memories the cover what happen to said body before your arrival, and the ability to tell who has been indoctrinated."
"Yeah, sounds correct." I replied.
"Good." He nodded. "Then when you are done eating, just get up and walk through the door." I nodded in response and quickly finished up my meal. I then got up and headed towards the exit. Just as I grabbed the door handle, I heard Max behind me. "Hey!"
I turned around to look at him. He had a smirk on his face and a look in his eyes that said he was looking forward to seeing what happened. "Just remember to have fun, and cause a little bit of chaos."
Nodding, I turned and opened the door. Everything went white.
Jane let out a growl of suppressed anger at the ongoing mission. When she had stopped by the citadel after solving the situation on both Therum and Feros, the Council had called her up to speak with them. They had then informed her that a STG team that had been investigating a potential hideout of Saren had sent a message to them. However, said message was too filled with static to make out what it said. So, they had tasked her with finding out what had happened. While she had accepted the mission, it didn't mean she was going to be going alone. She had gone to the Spectre Office to find anyone that would be willing to join her. She was somewhat surprised to see quite a few Spectres that had been between missions there. She, however, had been less surprised when three stepped forward to help her when she explained the situation.
The three that had stepped forward were Salarian Spectre Jondum Bau, Asari Spectre Tela Vasir, and Turian Spectre Avitus Rix. As Saren was once one of them, they felt like they had a duty to at least help find him. Avitus also had been considering leaving the Spectres as Saren had been the one to recruit him, so he felt like he needed to be a part of this. After telling them where her ship was docked, she went to find ex-Captain Anderson. She had then asked for a small squad of marines to have as well for the upcoming mission. With that, she had headed back to the Normandy.
For the mission, the other three Spectres had insisted that she remain in charge, as this was her assignment, they were just here to lend a hand, and so they could see what Nihlus saw in her. Once they arrived at Virmire, they found that this was most definitely one of his hideouts, if not his main base of operations. Joker had dropped her, Tela, Garrus, and Tali onto the Mako so they could take out the AA gun towers.
After that, they found the STG team and met with Captain Kirrahe. Finding out that this was a Krogan cloning facility on top of everything else was just the icing on the cake. From there, they had split into three groups. The STG, with Kaiden and Jondum, would sabotage everything they could in the facility. The bomb squad, with Ashley, Tali, Avitus and the squad of marines, would look after the ship's mass effect core turned nuke. Her squad, composed of everyone else, would go straight through the facility to secure the landing platform for the bomb.
Everything had been going really well. Too well, if you had asked her. So, when they got the landing platform secure and the bomb planted, she wasn't too surprised when the STG team radioed that they needed reinforcement. She got there in time to help them start to pull back to the ship when Saren appeared. The ongoing firefight had increased in severity with the rogue spectre's appearance. She then got radio that bomb squad had a large group of Geth inbound for their location. She was about to give the order to fall back when it happened.
An explosion went off somewhere further back, causing the ground to start shaking.
"What was that?!" Jane barked out.
"I would have to say that was the geothermal plant going down." Kirrahe said. "Our sabotages must have caused more structural damage than we realized."
"It must have caused a chain reaction, a rather bad one, for the ground to be shaking like this." Jondum said.
"Bomb squad, this is Shepard." Jane radioed to the other group. "Arm the bomb then have the Normandy pick you…" She didn't get to finish her sentence.
The roar that echoed across the facility sent a shiver down everyone's spine. Something had woken up, and it had woken up pissed. The nearby building then collapsed in on itself as something began to emerge from the ground beneath it.
Massive, stormy gray in color, and easily over 100ft in length. Two pairs of massive wings, almost the same width. A pair of massive horns came out the side of its head and curved to point forward, while another pair emerged from the top and curved backwards and upwards. Reptilian eyes were narrowed in anger as it looked in their direction. But what was most striking about it was the jet black armor that covered its body.
Why the fuck did a creature that massive need armor, and how that fuck did it get put on?
"By the Goddess," Liara whispered, her face filled with awe at the sight of the creature.
"Commander, am I seeing things, or is that real?" Jane heard Joker over the radio.
"Holy shit." Kaiden breathed out, awe and shock in his voice. "Is that a dragon?"
"Impressive specimen." Kirrahe said, awe also in his voice. Everyone else just stood there in silence, even Saren, just taking in what was in front of them.
That was when the Geth flying drones came around and started to fire at it. They appeared to be doing no damage whatsoever to it though. However, the dragon clearly didn't like being shot at and its response was to rear back and breathe deeply in, its chest beginning to glow a bright blue.
"Oh Shit!" Jane's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen. "Cover!"
Everyone ran and jumped for cover and just in time to, as the great beast exhaled and released bolts of lightning that arced not only between the flying Geth but also across the entire area in front of it, just about frying all electronics, including the Geth that had been heading towards the bomb squad. Jane considered the fact that she and her team was just barely out of range to be a blessing. That was when it actually zeroed in on them, and began to move towards their group.
"Oh crap." Garrus said, watching the creature come closer.
"Oh, this should be fun!" Wrex, however, looked excited to potentially fight the massive monster.
"You and I have very different ideas of fun." Tela spoke in response to Wrex's proclamation.
"You…" A deep booming voice then echoed across the area. Jane's eyes widened again when she realized who the voice came from.
"Oh God, it can speak." She whispered. Everyone else then realized what she was talking about and paled in response.
"You bear the stench of the accused machines." Jane was confused about who it was talking about, before figuring it out by following its eyes. The dragon was talking about Saren. "You are one of their agents. One of the indoctrinated." Saren's eyes widened as well went he realized that he was the target of the dragon's ire.
Then several Geth ships came down and opened fire on the dragon, destrating it long enough for Saren to run to his own. A couple even fire at Jane and her team to keep them from running after him. There was the sound of ships crashing and being destroyed as the creature turned its wrath upon them. While that was going on, Jane had her team retreat and leave the building, not wanting to be on it if the angry dragon made contact with it.
They were out of the building and heading toward the Normandy when the last Geth ship crashed right in front of them, forcing them to stop. They then felt the ground shake behind them. Turning around, Jane found herself face to, well, snout with the dragon. The sound of it sniffing her and her team was the only thing in the silence.
"You do not bear the stench of the machines." The dragon rumbled, its aggression leaving it. Jane relaxed just a bit at hearing that.
"The machines… Do you mean the Reapers?" She asked, feeling somewhat in awe at speaking to a genuine dragon.
"Is that what you call them?" It asked in return. Jane then pulled up the video of her conversation with Sovereign that her suit camera recorded. It snorted when it heard the vanguard of their destruction line. "Then yes, I do mean the Reapers, and it seems that prick is still full of itself."
"You faced Sovereign before?" Jane asked, the information that the great beast could give them was priceless right now.
"Last time, the arrogant one lost several of its tendrils and was forced to retreat." Jane could hear the smirk in its, no, his voice.
"What happened to your people?" Liara asked, having built up the courage to do so. "Why are there no more of you?"
"The machines, why else," came the reply. "Even though a young dragon could match one Reaper blow for blow, and the most powerful of us could fight several at the same time, there were just too many." He shook his head. "Quantity is a quality all on its own."
"Wait, are you telling me that this is more of those things out there?" Tela asked.
"You did hear that it said it was the vanguard, right?" Jane asked.
"Yeah, but I just thought it was being metaphorical, because it was causing so much destruction and had the Geth working for it." Tela replied. "Not that it was being literal and that it was setting up to bring more."
Jane nodded her head before turning back to the dragon. "Is there anything more you can tell us?"
"Potential, but I get the feeling that you don't want to remain here for much longer, given the inactive bomb you have sitting on this platform."
Jane nodded. "How will we continue after this?"
That was when, before her and her team's very eyes, the dragon began to shrink. Over the course of a couple of seconds, the massive creature before her turned into some human-dragon hybrid. One of the wings had turned into a pair of arms, while the other were connected to the shoulder blades, and the tail remained, just much smaller now. The armor that covered it had also shrunk and changed shape, fitting itself to the new, massive body.
Even humanoid, though, he still easily towered a handful of feet above her own abnormal six foot five lithe frame. Removing his helmet revealed a handsome and remarkably human-like face, just with the two pairs of horns and the gray skin. Bloody hell, now a second race that looked like hers, right with the Asari.
"Even if I can travel through the vacuum of space, I think I will accompany you on your ship." He said, a smirk now clearly present on his face.
"How?" Kaiden, Ashley and Liara asked, shock in their voices.
"Impossible," the two salarians spoke as one.
"That's impressive." Wrex said, for once having to look up to a bipedal race.
"And here I thought I've seen everything." Garrus snarked.
The rest of her team just remained quiet from the shock of seeing what just happened in front of them. Jane just ran a hand down her face. For once, she wasn't even going to try to think about how that worked. "Ashley, arm the bomb and set the timer. Everyone else, back to the ship."
Author Note
For the appearance of our MC, the Dragon Dance CYOA described the Wyvern type dragon as "the enormous, devastating monster of the sky." It has two limbs and two wings. It could grow to be anywhere between 100ft to 150ft as a Full-blood Dragon or 8.5ft to 10ft as a humanoid. Examples of coloring included the likes of jet black, mottled brown, stone gray, and destatured red. This type of dragon is skilled at lifting incredible weights even while airborne, mopping the floor with anything stupid enough to get close, and taking bullets and the like as if they were nothing. However, it sucks at precise or delicate actions, seeing in low light, and shedding their skin without needing to scrape themselves red raw.
However, one of the tabs covered additions you could add to the dragon form. Here, I got Flight of Fancy, which added another pair of wings; Triscareatops, twice, which added two pairs of horns (the bottom pair coming from the side of the head and facing forward, the top pair coming from the top of the head and facing backwards and upwards as stated in the story); Backup, thrice, which added a second heart, brain and nervous system; and Dexterity, which added an opposable claw to all of your limbs, which to me, also means the wings.
So, our MC is a massive, 125ft long, stormy gray color, dragon, with two pairs of wings, and two pairs of horns, and an opposable claw on all limbs. They have a deep, dark red color on the underside of the wings, and bright blue "cracks" across their back. These are to symbolize the fact that he has both fire and lightning breath.