FSE

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The interior of the Facinus research base was cold and uninviting. Dark blue walls, crates piled up in corners, control panels coldly staring towards a variety of screens both above and in front of them. The original stone remnants of the base were hidden beneath the thicker sheets of metal, a facade encased within these walls. James, Lirem and Leiah immediately rushed forwards to some cover, hiding behind one of several desks where a variety of buttons laid for mathematical predictions. From the other side of the room, the Facinus troops came forth, war cries echoing across the base. "You ready?" said Lirem. "Yeah," said both raptor and quarian. "Do exactly as I say and we'll all be fine. Leiah, when I say go, move over to the console on the left in front of us. James, you move over to the one two panels right of us down there. That way we'll do a three-prong attack when they arrive. Leiah, if you use any grenades, I want you to shout 'go dark'." "Why?" asked Leiah. "You'll see. James, if you ever use any of your fire or such, I want you to shout 'sunlight'." "Okay?" asked FG. "Other than that, if I tell you to do something, you do it, no questions asked. Two last things, if I want you to focus your gunfire on the left, I'll say Fleet. If I want you focusing on the right, I'll say Flotilla." "What about the middle?" "Then I will say Flamberge. ...here they come, you ready?" They both nodded firmly as Lirem made his orders. "Alright...GO!" As the sounds of hurrying troops came closer towards their location, they rushed to their assigned positions with Leiah left and forwards and James further right forwards of Lirem, who stayed behind two consoles next to each other. The troops broke through and they immediately started shooting, the raptor and the quarian taking quick shots at anyone resembling Facinus in front of them. The faction was small, a skeleton guard of perhaps twenty soldiers who began ducking out and hiding behind consoles and crates, but in their haste to rush towards places, four of them were shot down. Lirem popped off two in the head with perfect burst firing, whilst James saw one he could kill even from his cover spot rushing over towards the right with a lucky shot in the throat. Leiah swallowed what panic she had in her system and brought forth a stubborn fury into her hands, tense and focused enough to take three shots and cripple one turian trooper, before two more shots killed him. Lirem directed them best as he could, his old military ways resurging as he made orders towards them to focus on specific groups, systematically cutting down small hordes that would approach. Sometimes they went entirely hard on their left, pummelling down a rain of fire as well as the odd grenade or fireblast towards any troops that covered themselves well. When either James or Leiah readied their special attacks, Lirem would join up with an Overload attack, a sparking long-distance shot of energy that electrically charged anything it came into contact with. This also included both Leiah's arc grenades as well as FG's fire, both of which would create huge transcendent explosions that literally rattled across the inside of the base.

There were no survivors from either explosion, a burning swathe of at least ten feet of charged violence within storms of fire, that soon cut down the first wave into around eight soldiers remaining. Once they were taken care of thanks to Lirem's professional rifle shooting, popping four in the head with FG and Leiah teaming up to take down the last four, they made their advance further into the enemy's base. Down they went through hallways and control rooms, some narrow enough to touch consoles on both ends and others wide enough to hold thirty people. At one point, they were ambushed in a small hallway at both ends causing Lirem to turn and fire hard at the three attackers coming up fast behind them, with two ahead of them ready to gun him down in the back. Leiah did not even stop to think as she hurled forth a grenade, violating their systems with a nervous shock that sent ripples of pain from their heads to their gun clips. In the brief spasm of distraction caused by this, they soon met their end at the end of a raptor's claws after he brutally shot forth with a gust of wind, crushing one hard into the wall whilst shooting the other in the head. Two more waves in two more rooms they would have to face, and as they took down an approximate sum of thirty-five other turian soldiers across the length of the entire base, they began to turn more cautious with their tactics. James started using his abilities less, conserving his power and relying much more on his handgun. Leiah managed to find grenades on the field for her to stock up and reuse, as well as ammo for all three of them. Lirem had no such need for reservations, his own abilities strong enough to withstand any regiment against them. But of course he was only one turian, and the assistance of his friends helped him greatly when he was shot down in the shoulder, falling as FG swiftly grabbed at his rifle and laid covering fire as per his instructions. Leiah was on hand with medi-gel, healing him up as James struggled to remember not to hold down the trigger fully. He still had bad memories of wielding an assault rifle wildly without control and almost killing everyone around him.

Once Lirem was back on his feet, James was knocked down with a wounded arm but his armour looked more the worse for it. His agility was not as reliable as it once was, his armour thick yet cumbersome to withstand shots better than his two friends would. Any fire directed towards Leiah he immediately focused on, killing any troops distracted by her position. At one point, one suicidal Facinus general went roaring fast with biotic powers surging, crushing hard against FG and knocking him straight out of cover. Lirem was instantly right on him pumping an entire clip into his stomach. The bullet riff went straight through with a pumping of blue blood similar to the gushing of hot lava, dripping onto the console behind the general before Lirem hurled his carcass over to one side. There was one thing admirable they could say about Facinus' forces, or perhaps because they were turian. Not a single one of them ever ran from battle. Soon they reached the heart of the base itself, as they entered an enormous empty hangar. At least for now it seemed it was empty, but certainly large enough to house a devastating weapon hitherto mentioned before their assault. They began to realise that this was the real reason this base was selected for research. "Must have been for something huge originally," said Lirem echoing. "I mean, why else would they pick this place?" "How big IS this weapon anyway?" asked FG. "I don't know, but there's no one here. Where are the rest of them?" "Out on the ships?" replied Leiah. "No no, the research crew have to be here somewhere. This hangar's huge, you could put two Centurion Eagles inside here and still have room for a few makos." "So that's what?" asked FG. "Like, ninety feet?" "Pfft no...more like two hundred feet." "Fuck...I'm terrible at measurements." "Little late to tell me that now James." "It's also too late to leave." A voice boomed out from above them echoing with resounding clarity. Lights suddenly blasted on in front of their faces blinding them briefly, before seeing that high above the hangar was a viewing station jutting out from the wall. James was reminded of how he fought the mech back on Illium, asking: "Who the fuck are you this time?" "My name is Kihilix Tanus. You may have heard of me, also known as the Peerless." "Leader of Facinus," said Lirem. "I should be honoured...but I won't take up your time." "What do you want with this place? Why do you continue to hound us?" "We're here to stop you and whatever terrorist crap you pull out of your asses. I don't care what you say to us, we are NOT gonna let you win." "I'm glad to hear that, because I'm done with talking. I'm sure my friend Squaron talked your quarian friend's ear off before he burned to death." "You MURDERER!" roared Leiah. "YOU'RE A COWARD, THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE, A FUCKING VON COWARD!" "Call me what you will, I refuse to waste my breath on your ignorance. You came here to destroy us, destroy what exactly?" "The secret weapon you got right here," said FG. "BOTH of them. Whatever's hanging down here and that fucking anomaly." "...am I right in believing that you are James Robert Campbell?" "The one and only." "Ahhhh...then allow me to give you a formal welcome."

A screaming alert began to echo across the base, as the floor opened up with a deep shake of the earth underneath forcing the three intruders to back away fast. Steam swept across the area, blinding them harshly as hydraulics came shrieking in like the sound of a great monster, a demon from beyond space. While it was certainly not a demon, it was most certainly a monstrous thing. A shadow at first appeared, rising from the deep to stare down upon them from a singular platform before the floor closed again beneath it. At first all they could see was a tank, the height of a turian vessel, compact at first the way it laid out end-to-end like a metallic lizard with a huge singular cannon on top large enough to mimic an earthcracking drill. But soon it began to rise, contorting its thick metallic limbs like giant blocks of impenetrable steel, the hydraulics resuming once more echoing with a screaming velocity as the beast rose up on two legs. The singular cannon split apart to become two long silver arms hanging from its sides, its feet the size of two mako tanks end-to-end at a stridant height of at least 100 feet tall. Its head resembled a hawk's beak, curling downwards with mimicking mouthflaps woven with a bizarre array of alien technology, wires sparkling with electrical saliva. The right arm possessed a gigantic railgun, its power core like a swollen blue shoulderguard inert upon the right of its rectangular prism head. It was not however a mass effect core, for they could see something blue and glowing even more encased within its central chest. The left arm was also like a railgun, but this one had a red shoulderguard for some reason which throbbed potently, as well as a more bulbous tip at the end of its arm. As terrified as they were of the hulking monstrous machine, James smirked up with a forced smile and said: "Jumping to the fight awful fast arentcha?!" "As I said before," said Kihilix, "I am done with talking, you clearly cannot be convinced of our righteousness so it stands that the only thing left to do is to terminate you, after all the trouble you've given us. If however you can survive against our glorious Palaven's Moon now before you, then I will gladly invite you to take your chance against the anomaly. I hope you don't mind only one of the arms is currently working, we've had little time to prepare it properly." "Why bother telling me then?!" "Because you'll die either way whether you win this or not...he's been waiting for you James...DON'T disappoint me." "I don't plan on disappointing anyone. Let's do this." "Are you serious?" asked Lirem. "What other choice we got, run away?" "...you're right, let's do this. SPLIT UP AND SAVE YOUR AMMO, DON'T FIRE UNLESS I TELL YOU TO!" The three split apart and began to run, the feet of the colossus soon coming down upon their heads with an earth-shattering quake that set all of them off their feet. The machine didn't even need to look down, sensing the enemies around it by some radar signal upon its body, one of many that came emitting out of it. Despite the size of the room itself, the Palaven's Moon was frighteningly overshadowing with each step it made, crushing the sheets of metal beneath that somehow did not bend underneath its will. And with each crushing of its foot came a deep tremor enough to upset the balance of the three intruders running around trying to find a weak point of the mech. Guns were going to be useless no matter what, the few shots they tried simply pinging off the ship-strength-hull of the machine. They needed to be precise, they needed to expose a weak spot through some form of infiltration. It did not help either that it had two railgun-shaped limbs that soon charged up with latent energy, pulsating from their red-and-blue shoulderguards.

When the left arm began charging up, it soon followed with a vicious tearing volley of gunfire from what was essentially a chaingun, spinning the bulbous tip with screeching velocity across the hangar area. Bullets went spinning across the room, piercing metal shards bigger than anything their weapons could ever use, and certainly large enough that it could cut any of them down to corpsemeat. In the viewing room high above, Kihilix Tanus had his hands upon the Anti-Pilot Algorithm Console, the portable HUD a perfect replica of a standard mech piloting console. Three monitors within it showed the viewpoints of the mech, a variety of buttons all integrating perfectly with the cockpit of the machine itself. If one had been inside Palaven's Moon, they would see the console operate itself remotely, beeping, humming, shuddering with an unknown power as its mass effect core pulsated from deep within. The turian leader smiled calmly as he readied his other weapon. From higher up on both arms was a large locking chamber that at first looked like the steel imitation of a large tricep, bulking solid non-existent muscle. But they soon revealed their true purpose and opened up to reveal four small holes on each of them. All three of them knew immediately to run and hide, dodging underneath the mech as half-a-dozen missiles went screaming across the hangar bay. A volley of explosions rained down upon their heads, cutting a huge circular swathe of burning fire from all around them as their ears turned deaf for a good minute or two. Vibrations of the earth continued forevermore, the monstrous mech stomping its way back and forth in its attempt to crush the miniscule threat. Despite the gigantic threat, they had speed on their side and kept themselves hiding either behind it, or within corners of wreckage until the right arm's rail cannon came down hard like a gigantic club, crushing the floor with a dent or even swinging into the wall. In the midst of debris now growing inside the hangar, Lirem huddled up towards FG to ask: "You still got schematics of that mech?!" "Yeah," said FG, "Thrassil gave me a few but they're sketchy!" "Show me!" They briefly transferred files as Lirem looked desperately over the mech schematics for a weak point. It was perfectly encased, not a single joint out of place as if it had been built as one single chassis. But he knew that could not be true, trying to decipher some means of dealing with the monstrous machine. "Shoulderguards have different powers," noted Lirem, "blue one is for mass effect drives connected to the core probably, the red's for holding heat clips, just one single ammo dump to stop overheating in the chaingun." "Fuck can't you do anything?!" "I DON'T KNOW, THIS MACHINE IS IMPOSSIBLE, IT'S TOO BIG FOR US TO KILL! Didn't Thrassil tell you anything about this!?" "Wait, YEAH! He did, he said its core couldn't take sudden changes in temperature!" "...wait a minute...you can make fire." "Yeah?" "What about ice?!" "I can do that too if there's moisture in the air!" "Perfect, alright I got a plan. You need to climb up that mech, get to the closest point of its mass effect core and fire it up, get Leiah to give you a grenade or two and jam it right in!" "Wh-what's that gonna do?!" "Something at least just do it!" "Alright."

The raptor ran towards Leiah, briefly grabbing a grenade off her which she gladly gave away as both turian and quarian ran to divert the Palaven's Moon away from FG. The monster stomped towards them but its pilot was not so fooled as he chuckled to himself. A gigantically raised stomp suddenly came towards FG, the mech stepping back to delay him as he panicked and stumbled back with a gust of wind to shoot him away from the enormous reach. The crushing foot came down within ten feet of him, but it was all he needed as he ran towards the heel. As Lirem kept running along with Leiah by taking occasional pot shots at the thing, James clambered up behind it knowing that there was no means of back-attack that the machine was fitted for. Reaching towards the central part of the back thanks to his claws and the rectangular build of the machine, he looked desperately around for a weak spot or exhaust port. Unfortunately there was none, the raptor trying to think of a means to get inside the machine. He climbed higher up to the cockpit, which had been hermetically sealed since there was no use for a manual pilot anymore. Being on top of a hundred-foot-tall mech was not the smartest move, its every shake and stomp sending deep vibrations through him as he lost balance, nearly falling over before grabbing at the cockpit's casing. Swinging on the side of the machine's head like a loathsome wasp, the raptor soon felt the head shake vigorously back and forth, screeching sounds of machinery with every grind of steel it made from its joints. Kihilix Tanus shook the controls left and right, the raptor clutching on tightly before the sudden spark of gunfire came straight at his viewing window. He stopped but did not flinch, knowing the window was bulletproof but the raptor soon made a connection. The right arm's rail cannon, with a blue power core, of which the cannon surely had a way into the mass effect core. He jumped hard from the head by a wallkick maneuver before latching on hard to the railcannon, feeling even more stupid at how dangerous this was becoming. The machine swung him hard both left and right, the presumably inactive cannon now difficult to latch onto, his legs curling up hard against it. Lirem however feigned injury and roared out as he shot fast towards the machine, trying to get Kihilix's attention who saw a wounded turian from afar. But Lirem was just waiting for him to stop shaking one arm and try aiming with the other. In that moment, James scrabbled up towards the front of the cannon and dumped two grenades into it. One of the arc grenades however he wrapped tightly within a freezing cold ice from his nanos, a shrapnel bomb of the most natural impalements.

The grenades clunked their way down the railcannon easily without escaping, reaching their way towards the mass effect core much more closely than any other way could. Kihilix did not notice this until he heard a sudden dual-explosion come deep within the machine, suddenly causing it to stumble back violently as if flinching from the blast. "Wh-what happened?!" "SIR!" cried a voice behind him, "the core! He's damaged the core!" "WHAT!? HOW?!" "I-i don't know, I-" "FIX IT THEN, I've lost control of this thing!" The Palaven's Moon began to short-circuit, not implode but rather suddenly suffer the effects of robotic tachycardia. The blast from within composed of hot electrical arcs and burning cold ice had blended beautifully into a small combustion that rendered the core weak, its stabilisers failing to recover as the mech stumbled and staggered awkwardly. Any attempts to shoot the Sole Calibrators' crew were in vain, but just as dangerous in its psychotic sprays of wildly unaimed fire, the raptor still on top of the mech as he struggled to hang on. At one point, Leiah ran towards the machine and made her attempt to climb scrabbling upwards. While she lacked the raptor's claws, she was nimble enough as a quarian to pull up against the mechanical edges despite Lirem crying out: "LEIAH, GET BACK HERE!" "I HAVE AN IDEA!" Soon enough, she climbed straight up towards the chest, shrieking as a sudden turn of the mech made her lose her footing near the cockpit. James dove towards her and reached out to grab her hand, clutching her before slamming against the machine's head. He tried to pull her up, but she swung her away over towards safer footing against the shoulderguard, throbbing red with a well-shielded heating sink. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" roared FG. "TAKE TWO GRENADES, THEY'RE MY LAST ONES!" "ALRIGHT!" He ran towards her along the cockpit and swiftly grabbed her two grenades, before the quarian said: "Don't use them until I tell you, I have an idea just stay on this thing alright?!" "Alright!" "LIREM!" The quarian stumbled her way back down to the floor, clambering her way back before taking a rather hard fall onto her side by about twenty feet, crying out as she rolled before the turian ran over to support her. "SHIT you alright?!" "Y-yeah I'm fine listen I got an idea, we need to make that thing move!" "What?!" "Get it to stand there, follow me!"

Staggering her way with a painful throbbing side, she stumbled into the shadow of the colossal Palaven's Moon as Kihilix Tanus tried to find them. He had not observed FG's obtaining of more grenades, having focused too much on trying to kill the quarian that dared sully his mech. Eventually he found them underneath, stomping his way around and slowly backing up the machine towards the viewer. He had little enough of a delay between console and mech to stop it from hitting his observation deck. But only if something did not make it stagger. That something would occur the moment Leiah shouted: "JAMES, NOOOOW!" The raptor grinned as he readied himself on the front end of the railcannon, slamming both grenades in as they clunked hotly together, one of which was again packed with ice. The perfect combination of hot and cold sparked furiously inside the drive core, sending the mech staggering back hard towards the observation deck the moment a violent internal explosion came forth from within. Kihilix Tanus saw immediately what he was up to and quickly backed off with a fright at the large looming shadow that came crashing forth through the window. Wild shards of glass came breaking through scattering all over the floor of the red-carpeted observation deck with seats and exit passage. James barely saw the interior from his view high above it, standing on top of the cockpit now inert once Kihilix saw a new problem. The two turian scientists behind him in tight-fitting white coats also stood watching with their own horror at the sparking drooling remains of the Quarian console they had stolen, now a completely worthless wreck crushed underneath the Palaven's Moon. Another turian was also hiding at the back of the room, wounded in shadows. James smiled down towards the leader of Facinus, his head obscured as his hand balled up into a cold fist, his body clad in a strong white armoured suit. The raptor asked him: "So, do I get to go through now?" "...you. You're not even a turian. Why do you even stand against us? We have nothing against you, you're not even of the Hierarchy, what good do you think will come of fighting against us? All you've done is upset us and cause trouble for you and your friends, all of whom will DIE because of your meddling!" "Not if we stop you first you fucking terrorist!" "Terrorist?! You put a label on anything these days and you immediately bow to their propagandic whim! They tell you if something is unhealthy for you so you don't eat, they tell you when someplace is not advised to travel so you never leave. They call us terrorists so you never listen to us...so you never comprehend how truly despicable their acts are. You're nothing but livestock being led around a field by imaginary fences." "Says you after murdering innocent people." "And how is the Hierarchy any different?!" "I DON'T CARE, what I care about is that anomaly you have! Now where is it?! You said I could go through, you wanna prove you're not a fucking hypocrite you can at LEAST let me go through and deal with it myself!" "...you know what? Quite frankly I agree. Be my guest. Enjoy your final confrontation...James Campbell."

A door opened down below as a passageway in the corner, unlocking at Tanus' whim as James slowly made his way down the slope of the disabled mech. It wasn't by any chance completely destroyed, but at the very least it was out of action without a brain to remotely control it. But the wounded turian from the back of the room suddenly got up and grabbed a rifle he had sitting beside him, pointing straight towards James' head. Lirem heard the rush of footsteps above, seeing a turian different from the white-armoured leader ready to shoot, as he dived towards James. "JAMES GET DOWN!" The shot echoed across the hangar as James fell forwards into the hallway, tumbling through as Lirem cried out from behind him. Blood scarred down his leg as he hobbled his way through, with Leiah grabbing at his arm and pulling him away to safety. "AAAAARGH!" "LIREM!" "FORGET ME, GO!" "NO, I'M NOT FUCKING LEAVING YOU!" Once they were inside the closed hallway, Lirem rested up against the wall as the door closed behind them. Leiah tried to staunch the wound with medi-gel, some bullet wounds crippling his left leg as he tried to lean up on it. James was uncertain, but he felt at least a sense of safety as he walked on ahead investigating. "Alright...I think we're okay in here, lemme just check up ahead...wait...you hear something?" "No?" replied Leiah. "...that sound is...WAIT NO!" Suddenly another door came down right behind him, trapping him separate from both Lirem and Leiah. Hearing his friends on the other side of the steel door, he pounded desperately calling out: "LIREM! LEIAH!" "JAMES YOU ALRIGHT?!" cried Leiah. "YEAH! But he's locked us in...somehow." "Probably don't want us interfering," said Lirem. "You need to deal with this anomaly, and shut it down now. That's what we came for. I'll be fine, I still got ammo for anything that comes up behind us." "Alright...Leiah, look after him." "O-o-okay," said the quarian, "James, please...be careful." "I will." The long dark hallway stretched out before him, with doors at first completely sealed off in front of him but as he stepped closer, they opened without resistance. He brought out his pistol and checked his ammo, two clips worth for now and he wasn't going to test his ability to make more for the first time in recent memory. He needed his mind to be as sharp as possible, drinking up a small flask of electrolyte water that Jax had given him before the assault. Whatever liquids the nanos needed for resurging their energy, it seemed to do enough for them.

The sound of a little bell began ringing against his heart, something small and innocent that he still remembered. He knew what was making it, but what disturbed him the most, was that he had not taken the bell with him on this mission. He was hearing it somehow still, all the way down here within the depths of the base. A creature spoke to him, something deep and resonating. The end of the hallway was a single glowing light of faintest purple, like fuchsia almost, drained of its pallour and almost dead like mist. Upon entering the chamber after a long five-minute walk, he saw something more disturbing. Corpses. Dozens of corpses all around him of every single species in the galaxy. Human, quarian, krogan, turian, salarian, asari, even the elcor, volus and hanar were not safe. All of them had spilt their blood, their own hands covered in their own life essence of a variety of colours. Some had painted small scenes almost too vividly for them to be coherent, whilst others had drawn shapes and letters both on walls and ceilings, all of which corresponded to one single name. Shepard. Every single one of them had wrote Shepard by their feet. The scenes James did not recognise, some more scarce than others on details but all still vivid enough to tell a story. Colony invasions stark with blood-red, orange fires burning across harsh desert landscapes, green pools of fields now rotting through as they dissolved through dead fingers, blue stars shining over a dead lake upon the moon. Sometimes he saw creatures in the images, blue winged creatures howling across the sea floor, red burning monsters from the deep abscess of a volcano. What disturbed him all the more was that some scenes were too vivid for just one person to bleed out their work on. Some had continued the work of others, but never was it sloppy. Meticulous. Precise. Right down to the very last drop on their fingers. In the very centre of the room, a faint purple light glowed within a large encased pod shaped oval and white, radiating some shielded energy unbeknownst to him. Tubes pulsated from above it, a tangling mesh array of some hidden power source in the darkness of the ceiling. While in this room, James Campbell was being watched from a shielded monitor up high above his vision. The other side of which was now being watched by the leader of Facinus and his two scientist comrades, nervously looking at each other. "Activate it," said Kihilix Tanus.

A sudden whirring came forth from the pod, screaming out as a thick wave of energy came flooding throughout the room. It felt as if a giant boiler had opened up on him, bursting with heat, burning deep into his very heart as he gasped and fell back against the unholy light. Now he could see even more purple, as well as shades of amber flickering within the light. A voice soon came to him, similar to that of Geth, resonating with a familiar set of numbers amidst screaming static. "One -KHHHHH- ree...seven. One. Three -KHRHRH- seven." "...I remember now. Those numbers." "One for...sorrow. Three...for -KRHH- joy. Empty...seven. James. James Campbell recogni -SKREEE!" _ "Who are you? Where do you know me from?" _ "Combat-Si-si-simulator -SKRHH-...registry complete." "Okay...so you were that glitch that...deleted my score, was that how you found me? You're not from this galaxy are you?" "Error, please...refer...tooooo h-h-heh-heh-HEX-hexi-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-decimal CiNnaBaR." _ "Wha-...what did you say?" _"Registeri -SKHRAAA- program reboot-warning, please correct field parameter of geth for -yOuR sOrRoW- beco-co-co-come mine to -coNsUmE." _ "W-wait wait...you...no...you said...did you say what I think you said?" _"Accessing protocols, platform c-c-corruption must -AAAAAAAA- administer pre-pre-precautions in -kAnTo rEgIsTrY." _ "That can't be...th-that's not...that's not even possible, you can't be...that thing I...I thought you were just some...something from that doll back in that metropolis zone but...how are you even here?! How the fuck did you even get here?!" _"Plutonian shores -oF SiLeNcE- unknown...anomaly detected...energy signature located on -jAmEs...cAmPbELL." _ "_WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!? Why do you keep saying those numbers I-...wait...w-wait. One...three seven......that man. That old man and...no...you've been following me since then, haven't you?" He walked closer towards the anomaly, a strange blur soon permeating his vision as he tried to stare at it. An unearthly resonance howling through his brain, yet somehow clearly hearing whatever the creature said as he darkly murmured: "...what the hell are you?" Its voice undulated between monstrous and mechanical before finally settling on one. A deep static-ridden voice that soon stabilised into something singular. _ "Missing...nu...no... number." _ "What?!" "Name...not...registered. A missing number." "Wh-what do you want with me? What the fuck do you want with me?! ...WHAT DID YOU DO WITH ISAAC YOU SON OF A BITCH!?" "Rescanning...disk error...disk...e-e-error...anomaly...d-d-detec-ted...quadro." "Huh?" "Quad-R.O...He tried to forget about where he was." "What the fuck is Quad-ar-oh?!"

"The cube-shaped room. The people trapped. The thuds of other cells and blocks falling on top of him. That emotionless face looking directly at him. He had to escape. He wanted to get out of there. It was cold. He felt the teleport about to warp him-" "STOP TALKING BULLSHIT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT!" "The portal openi-#@~+-violent explosion shook his room and made him lose balance, throwing him back and for-&*%-the entire row of blocks under him disappeared, and James could see the bottom of wherever he was supposed to be. There was a thin layer of powder on the bottom. He realized it was the ashes of those who died. He wasn't going to-;*&?-escape. Regardless of the rest of the people, he treasured his life and he knew how to escape." "...I...I don't...I don't know what you're talking about. Please...just stop this. Stop all of this...we don't need to hurt anyone else." "You...escaped. Me." "What?!" "The world of sorrow...inside me. You...escaped. A mathematical error...that you must correct." "I escaped WHEN!? Where, who the fuck are you?!" "Nothing can escape sorrow. Sorrow is absolute. Sorrow...is eternal. You...fascinate me." From the monitor's viewing, Kihilix watched with fascination at the scene unfolding, the raptor furious with gun gripped thickly in one hand as he stared towards the anomaly. The two scientists alongside gave him a full report. "He's resisting already better than the previous." "Good," said Tanus. "Let the anomaly roam free with this...I want to see what this thing's fascination is with our new current guest. Anything on his neural activity?" "Nothing so far...normally he'd be going mad by now unless...unless the anomaly doesn't want to." "Oh it will. It will." "Shoulda let me shot him," said Vamire Squaron wielding his rifle. "Stop wasting our time with this lab experiment." "When I want your opinion Squaron I will." "What the fuck does this even do anyway?!" "It subjugates one's memory," replied a scientist, "by altering the limbic system, it can corrupt and eradicate one's memories before being implanted with a rogue memory spectrum." "So, brainwashing." "In simplest terms yes." "What kinda memory does he get?!" "One the anomaly found...once we find a way to harness it through more manual means, this process can be perfected for our own means." "It's fucking stupid, shit takes too long, why can't we just steal a ship and crash that bitch right into something like we were gonna-AARGH!" Kihilix backhanded him across the face, bruising the two purple markings on the turian driver's cheek, pointing a finger towards him threateningly close to his eye. "You may be useful for obliteration but right now you are useless. All you did was antagonise them and make ME look like a hypocrite. Now watch and learn something for once in your life, or else."

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" roared FG. "STOP TALKING BULLSHIT AND JUST TELL ME!" "You have been chosen," said the anomaly, "an avatar of my subject. A conduit of sorrow." "A...what?! The fuck you mean a conduit of sorrow?!" "Your mind...and body...harbour an emptiness I seek. A meaningless glitch with hidden fears, one I can fill with eternal sorrow. There is another heart inside of you...I chose that heart." "Well I don't care what you want, I suffered enough shit and that's not even NEAR the amount I've seen other people suffer in all the places I've travelled! So I'm gonna ask you two things and you better fucking answer them! One, why the fuck did you choose me?! Two, what the FUCK did you do to Isaac?!" "He is...a voice. A voice of the many thousand, screaming, convalescing...you have met them once. Long ago in your journeys...you cannot even remember it. The dead are all but forgotten, even by you who walked amongst them...your own other side included." "But...b-but I...I don't remember anything you're talking about! I-" "Regardless of the rest of the people, he treasured his life and he knew how to escape-" "STOP TALKING BULLSHIT!" He fired off his pistol which of course did nothing to provoke it, pinging harmlessly off against whatever was inside the unbending light. "WHY did you choose me?! Why are you so focused on me and WHY the fuck did you try to kill me last time?!" "I follow your bell. The bell of...my new song." "The...bell!? ...wait...I-Isaac's bell?" "Can you hear my gift, to you?" Indeed James could, the sound of ringing eternal from within despite being nowhere near him until he felt something in his hand. He slowly opened one hand up towards him to see the bell neatly clasped in his palm. He was certain he had left it back on the ship, but he saw it glinting right before him with a tingling little tease before static suddenly took it, covering it in screaming black and white flecks before disappearing out of existence. "...you...that bell is...wait...a gift? ...oh god...oh god, Isaac didn't leave me this bell did he? It was you. It was all you, you set me up, this was some kind of trick wasn't it?!" "The bell is a signal, a waypoint...a guide to where I must leave, following your trace, your energy...your great path of darkness. I am...not always able to for to travel through existence is...exhausting when overwhelmed with sorrow...but in time...I will find you...in one world for long enough." "That was all you wanted? To be free?! That's IT?! You just wanted to break out of another world and conquer somewhere else with your freaky shit?! Well not anymore, I'm gonna fucking end you right here!" "You...shall sing...my sorrow-" "SHUT UP! I'll make you pay, I'll make you wish you'd never fucked with me!" ** "I cannot wish. My wish is upon an undying star, bleak and howling upon the edge of the abyss, a bleak coda both new and fascinating to me-"** "YOU MURDERED MY FRIEND! MY FRIEND ISAAC, THAT LITTLE KID YOU TOOK FROM ME! YOU MURDERED HIM! _" "Inside...sorrow. Inside...this game's engine." "SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" "So far more complex in generations than the world I was born in-" "_SHUT UP! I AM FUCKING DONE WITH YOU!"

He began to fire an entire clip as he readied for battle, hearing something hit inside the anomaly's light as it chittered in its warped undulating noise, constantly permeating the room. Yet nothing was happening, the raptor reloading as his clip popped out of the pistol, sinking the next one in as he pointed once more. "I don't care how many times I have to shoot but I will stop you! RIGHT HERE!" "General protection fault, address 0x10bb5c66." "Huh?!" "Filename found. Loading...continue. Load game. New game." "What game, the fuck are you talking about?!" "Registered to BioWare inc. 2007. Press start." "Wh-what the hell are you-AAAAAUUUUUUGH!" A blaring sound cried out from inside his head, deafening him as he went falling to the floor. It sounded as if a foghorn had just sent signals through his head, breaking through his mind as his nose began to bleed profusely down his lips. As he managed to stand up once again, he struggled to point his gun with a blinding headache as his mind became cloudy. He found himself struggling to think on what he was able to do, focusing only on his gun and where it was pointing. "Wha...what the...no. I can't...this is just tricks, nothing else, I have to stop, I have to stop you. I'm HERE to stop you-" _ "Shepard."_ "Wha-WHO'S THERE?!" "Shepard...need something?" Silence reigned in a stark moment as he turned hard towards his left. Standing before him was a turian now risen, his fingers dry with blood and wearing a red suit of armour. His voice was gravelly, almost dead-like as his eyes stared blankly towards James. "Shepard...need something?" "Wh...what the fuck?" "I SHHHould go." Another voice from his right, this time from a tanned human male wearing blue also dead with dried hands. His mouth moved against its own will, stiff and uneven repeating: "Iiiiiii shhhHHHHhhouuuuuld...gooooo." "What the hell, are they dead or-GAH, JESUS!" Everytime he looked to his right or left amidst the screaming aura, a new body had risen suddenly without warning. He never saw them move, and everytime he looked away, they were in a different spot. Staring towards each other, at him, or even looking up with a limb out of place. Broken. Twisted. Like someone was moving mannequins around him without him seeing, twisting heads and limbs in various places. They all spoke different words, different voices all dead and flat, turian, asari, salarian, human, even the krogan bodies spoke as if ash had come running out their mouths. Quarians with cracked skulls and faded eyes from their helmets stared directly at him. Occasionally when he turned to look, some bodies were suddenly on the wall, twisting up with limbs like spiders grappling with impossible anatomy, double-jointed and always staring down at him. The faintest visions of faded memories began flickering back and forth, mixing inbetween the reanimated corpses. "You bastard, you're selling us out!" "-clawing and screaming as they're loaded into cargo pods-" "I WAS TORTURED FOR YEARS, SHEPARD! YOU CAN'T JUDGE ME!" "It hurts when she... when I remember, me. But she wants to remember." "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU PEOPLE?!"

James screamed out against the voices as the world soon changed more around him. The bodies around him sometimes found themselves in walls, the ceiling, the floor suddenly overflowing with cracked limbs turning like broken branches, growing, sprouting, flickering out of existence along with the entire body. The voices turned muted, as the anomaly burst out a violent crescent-shaped shimmer of razor-sharp wind that sliced through one body, severing it almost completely in half. The raptor fired at the anomaly once again, having no other tactic available to him as he ignored the spastic bodies. Despite their sudden twitching and unknown voices, they made no motion to attack him as he tried to get a shot, trying to see what was inside of the anomaly's source. The pulsating faded purple glow sent a dark unease throughout his very being. The anomaly struck out again, a white blazing light that James knew almost immediately. The violent screaming beam of ice came hurtling to where he once stood, the raptor dodging desperately out of the way. A crackling blast of thick frozen matter permeated the back wall, crushing two more bodies completely beneath its might as the room shook with its force, the ice beam continuing for a half-minute before stopping. Shooting halfway through his last ammo clip broke through part of the shield, a sudden scream igniting forth from the anomaly. Shockwaves echoed across the landscape, a thunderous wave that paralysed him completely on the spot as his muscles seized up briefly. Trapped in his own body, he struggled to force his muscles to move, screaming and roaring as the anomaly pulsated once more. Shuddering beacons of light began to ripple across the surface of its light, as it began forming something above the light itself. Tiny square dots of a semi-transparent white began to fill in a picture, a face even. James tried not to look at it, the data compiling with a constant screech of data as he cried out: "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" "Thank the Goddess!" said another voice. "WHAT?!" "I did not think anyone would come looking for me-" "STOP TALKING ALL OF YOU, I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" "Your ship's AMAZING Shepard! I've never seen a drive core like this befo-" "There's no escape this time doctor. I'd harvest your organs first, but we don't have the time." "GARRUS SHUT UP, I-...what the...what-WHO ARE YOU!?" "Who are you?" said the anomaly. "HUH!?" "What is your name? Everyone only speaks of your surname, but what is your first name? Are you a boy or girl?" "YOU KNOW MY NAME NOW SHUT UP!" "Are you a boy or girl?" "STOP TALKING TO ME!" "Then you will know soon enough...this world...is much more complex than I've ever experienced." "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE, YOU DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE!" "Scanning...registering...downloading...please import Shepard." "H-huh?! Import?!" "Commander Shepard. Uploading code...accessing data file. Specifying. 241.D98.1WF.ASA-" "NO! NO DON'T, DON'T USE THAT CODE, DON'T-_AAAAGH! AAAAAAAAGH! GYAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH! _"

The violent sensations coursed through him once again, just like they had back on the ship beneath the ocean floor. He felt a burning scar across his mind, ripping along the back of his skull as he screamed and fell to the floor. To the ones viewing on the monitor, it looked as if James had suddenly suffered a heart attack and was convulsing upon the floor in seizures. They could not hear what the anomaly was saying, for their own safety at least as they stared at the raptor, screaming to no one, clasping his head in a room filled with lying corpses. "It's working!" said one of the scientists. "What do you think he's seeing?" asked Kihilix Tanus. "I don't know but he's finally reacting like all the other subjects did, his limbic system is turning erratic!" "Perfect...anything different?" "Not that I...can see, wait-what the hell is tha-AAAAGH!" The monitor suddenly screamed out at the scientist, a shrieking face briefly appearing of a skull-like animal as their view became contorted. The screen started to flicker, and soon they saw something even more unnerving. The bodies had risen all around James Campbell, who now was struggling to fight back and shoot the anomaly itself. Even more strangely, the walls had begun to contort, twisting and grinding much to the onlookers' horror, yet silently at uneven speeds. Sometimes they twisted slow, other times they crushed with violent force but always without a sound. "WH-WHAT'S HAPPENING!?" cried out Squaron. "WHAT IS THIS!?" "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" roared Tanus. "I DON'T KNOW," cried the scientist, "THIS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, THOSE PEOPLE WERE DEAD, THOSE PEOPLE WERE DEAD I SWEAR!" "SHUT UP, this is his problem now!" "BUT THE WALLS, THEY'RE...THEY'RE GLITCHING!" "That's not possible, it must be an error on the monitor from exposure to the anomaly." "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE, WE SHIELDED THE MONITOR FROM IT!" "...fuck this," said Vamire, "I'm out of here-" "YOU are going nowhere!" cried Tanus. "You are about to witness the birth of a new weapon, and once we've perfected its madness we will take down the Hierarchy piece by piece!" "Sir, seriously, hearing all these dumb bastards squawking and all thinking they were Shepard was weird enough but THIS just got fucking real!" "I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY THINK, if I can use this thing to drive an entire army into madness then I will, now WATCH. AND. LEARN!"

The pain resonated inside James once again, his heart now burning as it suddenly convulsed and twitched from inside his body, beating violent enough against his ribs that it almost wanted to explode. The anomaly was unmerciful, calmly summarising its fatal code all to the raptor's horrified expression. The voices around him continued, ghosts flowing back and forth from around FG's vision, various species of this galaxy in synthetic white outlines of pure binary data. The world beyond him turned into bizarre computerised data, walls torn revealing a darker space filled with constant numbers. "Re-enter. 241.D98.1WF.ASA.FDV.WA8.WWE.SAF.G56.116.E43.5." "STOP IT! STOP IT PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP-AAAAAAAA AAAAAAAARGH! _" _ "I knew you'd rat us out, Shepard! Now, it's payback time!" "WHO THE FUCK IS SHEPARD, SHUT UP!" _ "It's done commander! Go get Williams and get the hell out of here!"_ "I'M NOT YOUR COMMANDER DAMMIT!" "Screw that! We can handle ourselves, go back and get Alenko!" "I DECIDE WHO LIVES OR DIES LIEUTENANT, NOW GET MOVING! I-...d-decide? Wh-who...I don't...who are you?" "Who are you?" "Huh?!" "Who did you choose to survive?" "Wha...I don't...radio...who did I radio..." _ "It's the right choice and you know it, Ash." "You know it's the right choice, LT."_ "WHAT CHOICE, WHO DID I PICK!?" "Shepard!" "SHEPARD!" "COMMANDER!" "STOP IT! STOP TALKING TO MEEEEE!" Firing his last few shots at the anomaly as the first thing in sight, he struggled to ignore the ghosts flickering through his eyes as the data turned more solid around him. He could see the outline of a male and female human, dressed in combat armour as both screamed at him to make a choice, his head now burning even greater with a whole new pain throbbing from inside his head. The scenes began to change into the form of a familiar-looking insect, a monstrous-looking thing encased within the anomaly's light in a single cage. Four voices began to blend one after another in the same room, three more ghosts soon arrived, two humanoid females and one much larger than the other two. _ "You have to stop...me, I can't, his teeth are at my ear! Fingers on my spine, AAAAH!" "MOTHER! Don't leave! Fight him!"_ "LIARA GET BACK, SHE'S NOT-...who...WHO WAS-...I...remember...it was so cold...corrupt...rachni..." _ "They sought to turn our children into beasts of war. Claws with no songs of their own-" "Millions of my ancestors died to put these things down. Don't let them come back."_ "Wha...s-stop...confusing me, why are you asking me, w-what do you want?!" "Your people didn't fight these bastards, so maybe you don't get it!" "I KNOW WREX! I CAN'T DECIDE, I DON'T KNOW ANY OF THIS! I...I can't...LEIAH! LIRRUS! I...wh-what-no, no it wasn't Lirrus...Garrus? No...who was I with? Areh was...no...who was with me I can't...no." "Have you forgotten something?" said the anomaly. "Where are your friends, Shepard?" "Huh?!" "Where is your team? Have you forgotten them, or have they all already died from your foolish ways?" "I'm not...the fuck are you talking about I'm not Shepard! STOP TRYING TO TRICK ME, JESUS FUCK MY HEAAAD MAKE IT STOOOP!"

His mind began to overheat, struggling to remember as his brain turned sluggish, uneven, incomprehensive as the visions came further, blurring his sight completely with ghosts he half-remembered. Another memory, feeding into him, trickling like acid into a sieve. The anomaly however kept taunting him, the raptor dropping his gun as he became lost in thought, suddenly paralysed once more by a thunderous wave that swept across the battlefield, trapping him once more within his muscles as he shrieked with fury. His body was already wracked with enough pain. ** "What is your name?"** "YOU KNOW MY NAME, STOP DOING THIS!" ** "Please input your name."** "STOP IT, STOP DOING THIS TO ME YOU FUCKING FREAK! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" "Name." "JOHN CAMPBELL, THAT'S MY NAME!" "Is it?" "...w-wait, wait no it's...it's John, no...it's...name...name...name it's...I can't think, my head hurts I can't fucking think STOP MAKING MY HEAD IT'S BURNING MEEEEE!" "I will cease when you tell me your name. What is your name?" "Ca...Juh...Sh...I can't..." ** "Have you forgotten? How can you forget your name?** "I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN, I KNOW WHAT IT IS!" ** "Then tell me your friends' names."** "WHY!?" "This is your test. If after all this, you can remember something of your journey in this galaxy...then I shall free you. If not...then I shall silence you in this galaxy forever, and a whole new identity shall emerge from you...you only have so much memory inside you before you cease to function." "M-memory...what?" ** "Who was the first friend you made in this galaxy?"** "Leiah! L-Leiah...Dahlael nar Rayya!" "Where did you first meet?" "She was being ambushed! In an alleyway, by Fist's men, cuz she found something about Saren!" ** "...is that true?"** James suddenly felt a grievous error had taken place, his eyes widening with horror as he struggled to recollect when two names came boiling up from another source of his burning head. "N-no...no it was...s-some thugs, I...f-FUCK AAAARGH! MY HEAD, I CAN'T THINK, I CAN'T FUCKING THINK!" "Who did you first meet at C-Sec?" "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME, MY HEAD, MAKE IT STOP!" "I will stop when you start remembering, if you can retain your memory against all else, then you deserve to keep it. Who did you meet at C-Sec?" "DAHNUS! HIS NAME WAS DAHNUS VAKARIAN!" "Was it?" "STOP SAYING THAT, I KNOW THAT WAS HIS NAME, HIS NAME WAS-" "Garrus Vakarian." "WHAT!? NO! No it was Dahnus! IT WAS DAHNUS I SWEAR!" "His surname was Vakarian...these voices are your memory...why do you lie to yourself?" "I'm not lying, PLEASE! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP IT HURTS! IT HURTS, please s-sto-op..."

He was soon breaking down with tears on his cheeks, his sobs heavy and confused agony, burst forth from his throat as questions came further from the anomaly. ** "Who is Saren?"** "I DON'T KNOW ANY SAREN, THESE AREN'T MY MEMORIES I DON'T REMEMBER THIS! WHOSE MEMORIES ARE THESE?!" "Who is Shepard?" "STOP ASKING MEEEE!" "Who is Sovereign?" "WAIT! I KNOW THAT NAME! THAT-" "The implants," murmured a voice, "Sovereign is too strong...I'm sorry. It's too late for me-" "NO! THERE'S STILL A WAY OUT OF THIS SAREN! IF YOU-wait...NO! I DON'T KNOW WHO HE IS, I DON'T KNOW HIM I SWEAR!" "SHEPARD!" "SHEPARD!" "Shepard." "Shepard!" "STOP IT! STOP IT I'M NOT SHEPARD! I'M NOT SHEPARD!" "Where were you born?" "I WAS BORN ON EARTH! I had no family, I had to grow up on the streets and I won't be tricked by you! You think you can make me another corpse in this fucking place well you're WRONG! I've been through worse, I saw my whole unit die on Akuze, I WILL NOT BOW DOWN TO YOU!" "You are wrong." "WHAT?!" "Your unit was killed on-" "-Torfan." "Wha-NO! NO IT WAS AKUZE, I KNOW IT WAS AKUZE!" "-whole unit killed on Torfan." "Tha-tha...that's impossible, that...that-" "Where were you born?" "I...I-i-" "-a spacer. Lived aboard starships most of-" "N-no...not a...was I? No! I wasn't!" "Why do you have no parents?" "They...they were killed. When-" "-slavers attacked Mindoir-" "NO! NO THAT'S NOT IT, THAT'S NOT HOW THEY DIED, YOU BASTARD YOU'RE LYING TO ME!" "What. Is. Your name?" "I...I'm-" "Shepard." "I'm...am I-" "Shepard!" "I'm-" _ "Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you." _

The moment he heard a single gunshot it was the loudest thing in existence. One blinding light opened within one of his own eyes as if he had suddenly lost vision, the burning sensation now throughout his whole body. He started to fall backwards, and as he felt the back of his head slowly hit the ground, the world finally shattered all around him. Torn apart at the very seams underneath, as it began to turn more strange, more corrupted, more terrifying with every new turn. Never had there been a more painful existence to him than the very fabric of reality tearing within his own mind. A mental and physical experience beyond comprehension, the very rendering of existence now torn asunder as everything began decaying around him. The world twisted and corrupted, glitched and atrophied, walls breaking through with other walls he could not understand. Huge lancing spear-like proportions, stretched and twisting out from a single person's head, fingers, torsos growing proportions beyond one's reckoning. Limbs twisted up from underneath, walls suddenly began to lose texture and become blurry in appearance, the ceiling now missing parts of it to show only a blank pale-blue existence beyond it. An unholy sound began burning through his ears, making his eyes vibrate as a grinding noise began faltering, like the eternal gears of the universe now suddenly gone stuck. The centre of his head started turning unbearably hot. Hot enough to scald his fingers as he shrieked and fell, steam starting to flow from his ears and eyes as he screamed louder, trying to drown out the noise inside his head. _ ** BioInput.ini, error** _ Memories began to fade, faint dwindling images as his mind slowly began to sink, flickering back into a deep darkness that came only after the absence of pain. A deep cooling abyss that soothed him slowly, the world crumbling all around him as his feet started to feel like dead weights, falling onto his knees. An endless screaming overwhelmed every thought, every vision he could now see being replaced by strong alien memories. A coding now surging through his entire body as he saw human hands. His own hands rather. _ MCB chain corrupted, memory "John_31_Soldier_112007" unknown, "Jane_23_Engineer_112007" unknown _ Wrapped in black gauntlets, five fingers on each, a new armour of red and grey now upon him as he slowly stood up. He felt an odd weight upon him, but he wasn't able to tell what it was. His eyes were blank, staring diluted upon the anomaly that remained a hot light. As his memories slowly faded away from him, he tried grasping at them. Now he could remember nothing. Not even the memories the anomaly had fed him from an unknown source as his hands suddenly faded, flickering out of existence. He was now a blank slate, his mind purging itself to restart once again. _ "John_11_Adept_112007" unknown, "Jane_32_Sentinel_112007" unkno wake up, "John_13_Infiltrator_112007" unknown, "Jane_22_Vanguard_112007" unkno wake up_ Yet somehow he knew this feeling. _ unknown memory rejected, rebooting backup...installing sub-dri$%@ wake +~~ UP_ He had felt like this before as an inkling of memory still dropped within his mind. _ sub-drive not found, loading alt=A/# wake up /alternate memory located _ A feeling of another life, another side, another story within him. Two words came to his senses. Wake. Up.

He knew it from somewhere. Some other hidden memory he could not recognise. When his mind had lost all he consciously had known, it began delving deep to replace something else. Something else he had never known as memories came back to him slowly. He could not even remember how to speak when the anomaly spoke to him, the voice still flickering within his mind as a new set of memories came anew. Ones that the anomaly had seen hidden deep within his heart. Wake up. "What is your name?" I will father your children. "Your name. Speak your name, so that we may begin your registration." You are beneath even the eggs of this pack. "Please enter your name, Shepard. All I need is your name...and your sorrow can end at last." They are certainly not the visions I hunt. "Name." I TOOK YOU IN ODDSCAR, I MADE YOU PART OF MY PACK, YOU SWORE YOUR LOYALTY TO ME! ** "Your. nAmE."** _ ...I...I remember now._ At that moment, his eyes suddenly twitched open with pupils thin and primal. James Campbell was no more, and something deeper had now awakened from inside him. A creature in a strange far-off realm beyond his reckoning, one that both terrified and infuriated him. He started to scream but not like a normal creature would, one shrieking and screeching with ancient fear and sorrow, his gait bent downwards and more feral leaving him now completely naked. No weapons, no armour, nothing but his claws and teeth to defend himself with. _ My name is...Oddscar._ The anomaly spoke once more, a flickering sentiment soon revealing itself as the raptor struggled with his own thoughts, his throat unable to speak beyond basic snarls as the entity understood him, prodding into his brain. _ "yEsSsSs. yOu...i HaVe wAiTeD foR yOu, eVeR SiNcE yOu pAsSeD tHrOugH mY MemOriEs of qUaD-R.O. mY aVaTaR...oF SoRrOw." Wh-...where am I? Who are you!? M-my...family...where is my family?! "yOu hAvE LoSt sO mAnY tHinGs, wOrtHLeSS cReAtUrE. yOu weRE nOt mEaNt tO eXiST, a MiStaKe LiKe mE...aN eMpTy vEsSeL fRoM wHiCh tHeRe LiEs nOt aN eXiStEnCe." W-what have you done to me?! Where am I?! WHERE'S MY FAMILY WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THEM!? My mate...m-my children...wh-where are my children... "wHaT iS tHe LaSt tHaT yOu rEmeMbeR? aN AnOmaLY sUcH aS yOu sHouLD nOt rEmeMbeR aNytHiNg." I...I remember we...we were captured...by hairless...I was asleep...they hurt me so much, with their fire from their hands. I've...I've been asleep for so long...s-so...so long, I...I was so cold...so frightened...s-so...alone. "wHo aRe yOu wAiTiNg fOr? My...my children...I...I was waiting to see them born...my children...Barren...B-barren where are you? Where are you my mate, where did you go?_ He softly broke down into tears gasping them back as he looked down upon himself. Fear ran through him of a long isolation, as if seeing sunlight for the first time in more than eight years. He struggled with his old memories, a long gap of absence now clearly felt in his older body. Older, heavier, more bleak in surroundings. The anomaly spoke to him, inciting fury borne forth from his heartache. ** ** _ "i...WiLL sHoW yOu...yOuR SoRrOw, oDdScAR." Wh-what?! How do you...HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?! WHAT ARE YOU!? WHAT IS THIS PLACE, WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT ME HERE?!?! "cOmE. cOmE tO mE...aNd rEcLaiM yOuR mEmoRy, iF yOu cAn WiTHsTaNd yOuR pAiN." You...you know who I am...then...you must have taken my family, my tribe, my home away from me! ** "cOmE...tO mE...mY sOrRoWfUL aVaTaR."** YOU TOOK MY FAMILY FROM MEEEEEEEEEE!_ The moment he heard his name being echoed by the entity, the raptor turned blind with rage, screeching as he charged towards it. Running swiftly in a half-circle around the central light, he striked from behind and viciously lashed out with tooth and nail, biting and shrieking as he jumped onto the solid object within the light. Yet even touching it sent white-hot burns throughout him, shrieking as he fell back and felt his entire body pulsate with an unknown sorrow.

Suddenly a whole new pain awoke from inside of him, one he had never felt before as a voice strangely familiar to him began screaming from the abyss. He felt as if he had been violated, his body torn inside of him as a vision came forth, a memory unknown. The wings of a demon soared above the anomaly, a cruel long face glaring down upon him from the light as a voice of evil now came through, the sounds of a glitchy undertone emanating from its shadow. "The greatest moment of your life...which will sh#++no= end now." What is that thing?! Wh-what winged beast is that?! "Here lies dear sweet James, under me in body, mind...and dea-a-A-Aaa AaAaaAaaA+'?> death." Who is that?! What...wh-why do I feel such pain!? My body...WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY BODY, WHY DOES IT HURT, BARREN HELP ME! "Do yOu sEe yOuR pAst?" I don't remember this! I DON'T REMEMBER THIS PAIN! EYECLAW! BARREN HELP ME, PLEASE H-HELP MEEEEEE! "yOu deSiRe yOuR mEmOrY bAcK?" I JUST WANT MY FAMILY BACK! GIVE ME BACK MY FAMILY! MY MATE, MY CHILDREN, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CHILDREN YOU MONSTER?! "i...wAs nOt tHe oNe...tO tAkE tHeM fRoM yOu." What?! "GET THE FUCK OFF MEEEE!" Another memory came bursting forth into his mind, this one strangely familiar to him yet also completely alien. A raptor like himself tied down to a table, hairless mammals standing around in resplendent white before a firey explosion overwhelmed the raptor's hands. "Wh-what the!?!" "It TALKS!" "I CAN DO A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN THAT!" That...the hairless! Was I there?! Who was-...my...my claws...my claws are burning! What's happening to me?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MEEEE?! Suddenly his own claws went out of control, fire raging from his fists against his own will as something hijacked his senses. Something deep inside of him as he shrieked with panic, but was too overwhelmed with fury as he charged towards the light. The anomaly however began fighting back, shooting a burning-cold ice beam from its cruel long face as the strange cry of an animal came roaring through, howling like the night sea. Managing to avoid by superior reflexes, the raptor striked upon the anomaly once again as another memory burned through more clearly. A violent storm, a raging sea all around him, a raptor like himself staring towards a white multi-armed beast, clutching something small and green within its folds. The memory however was starting to corrupt, a voice breaking out from between two others screaming from inside his head. "TRUST IN ME ALO #~% NE, OKAY!? I HAVE TO DO THIS, THIS IS SOMETHING stophim'VE KNOWN ALL MY LIFE!" "...but...but I- whoareyou" "JUST STAY CLOSE TO MY MOM AND DA- Aa@#~AAa- I'LL COME BACK TO YOU SOON!" "KOOPIN! KOOPI +*+< DON'T GO! DON'T LEAVE ME helpme KOOPIIIIIN HELPMEEEEE~@##/+=" WHO ARE YOU!? WHO ARE THESE CREATURES I SEE IN MY HEAD?! My...my body hurts me, why does it...why does my heart hurt me so?! "yOuR hEaRt...rEmeMbErS." STOP TORTURING ME AND GIVE ME BACK MY FAMILY!

Water burst from his claws furiously as it trailed from behind him, pouring waterfalls stronger than his own tears as he tried to attack once more. He did not care what trickery this monster was trying to pull on him, despite the cold deep pain that went pulsating through his veins. All he knew now, was that this thing had his family. He was not going to let anyone hurt them no matter what, no matter where in existence. The entity's wings and head now faded, as it soon began sprouting vicious white tentacles, formed from pure light and memory before crashing down onto him, with vicious electric sparks. The tentacles almost hit him, causing his body to convulse with shrieking agony but he pulled through it, the primal raptor rushing forth and lashing both water-filled fists upon the creature like violent waves. He now saw something new as light pulsated weaker from the anomaly's resistance. A glitched purpling-amber shell from within the fading light, another screaming cry of memory coursing through his veins. A hellish landscape of twisted rock and burning red skies, a monstrous humanoid in full black armour. The raptor in his mind stood defiant against it, a strange weapon in hand as a green reptilian creature looked fearfully from behind him. Frightened. Hopeful. Maiden. "I don't care what you want, I WON'T abandon ijustwantedmymommyback" Who is this other I keep seeing?! Why does he look like me?! "AS LONG AS I'M ALIVE, YOU WILL NEVER PLEASESTOPHIM HAVE HER!" "That can be arranged, vagrant!" Once more his claws took a life of their own, rushing forth with a mighty wind that made him twice as fast. He was terrified at such power, but he used it nonetheless as he let instincts take over. Something was coming back to him, somehow, something was. A sense of urgency, a need to destroy this creature. He didn't even let the entity get an attack off before striking violently upon it, claws like a hurricane as he scarred deep through the anomaly. Somehow, the pieces began to chip off, as the entity itself began to scream a new form of agony. _ "yEs! pAiN! sOrRoW! BuRNiNg wiTHiN mE! cAn yOu fEeL yOuR mEmORiEs rEtUrNinG tO yOu nOw, aNoMaLY?! EnD iT! EnD mE! EnD mY eXiSTeNcE, EnD mY SUFFERING! KiLL mE. KiLL...mY cHiLdReN! KILL MEEEEEE!" "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"_ roared the voice within Oddscar's head. "HE'S JUST A KID, LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE!"

He saw someone just like him, standing before a towering pillar upon a dark beach shore. Strange creatures stood all around him, a firey lizard with wings and a strange purple spectre. A small creature with a skull for a head stood between him and the pillar, the raptor from memory crying: "I WON'T LET YOU TAKE HIM, I PROMISED!" In that moment, a voice came crawling through from the machine. A voice that crept into his ear, whispering sorrows anew as Oddscar struggled to comprehend this new memory. _ I...I won't...I won't do this. I'm sorry I won't...let you. I won't let you. I never meant for this to happen I won't let you take him...I...I-i- I made a promise Promised...I promised him. please don't let him take me I...won't...let you TAKE HIIIIIIIIM!_

His voice came forth in his own primal shrieks, mimicking the memory as a whole new feeling surged within him. A rage borne with the urge to protect, one he knew was not of his own reckoning. One more strike was all that was needed, as the anomaly stopped trying to resist. Fire and ice came forth in both claws, howling shrieks as his body transferred his energy through the pain inside him. His body went on overdrive, eyes burning, claws searing, feet like lightning as he ripped and tore through the outer shell of the purple totem that stood. As his claws dug deep inside of it, he felt his claws tear through young flesh as the creature spoke once again, the white flickering light soon forming a complete creature's skull crowned above itself. Reptilian of some sort, but Oddscar could not recognise it as his claws sunk deeper within, feeling the fresh young blood come trickling out of the strange hard stone pillar. _ ** "i...cHoSe yOu...to be mY sOrRoW."** I will not stop until I have beaten you, whatever you are I will stop you from ever existing! I...somehow I...I must stop you, I know it from the deepest of my heart I must destroy you...I must stop you, creature. "yOu cAn nEveR StOp mE...yOu...nEeD mE...i...nEeD yOu." What?! Wh-what are you talking about?! WHY DO YOU NEED ME!? Why have you brought me here to this place, making me suffer with these visions inside my head and this burning pain in my heart!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! "tHe cHiLd...iNsiDe mE...hE hAs mAdE a pRoMiSe iN eXcHaNgE foR mY eScApE...tO eTerNiTy." What child?! What promise did he make you!? "...yOu." What?! "yOu...aRe mY pRoMiSe. tHe wAtChEr...tHe sPiRiT...tHe mOtHeR hErSeLf...ThEy WeRe tHe oNeS...wHo mAdE yOu mY pRoMiSe." I...I don't...I don't understand. What promise? Who are you talking about? "a fRiEnD...oF yOuR oThEr SeLf...a sPiRiT eTeRnAL...sHe...wAs tHe oNe wHo bRoUgHt HiM...tO tHiS." Who? Who are you talking about? I don't- ** "MOOOOMMYYYYYYYYYYYY!"** _ He knew that last scream. None of the voices matched it, but it was the scream of a child he once knew. Suddenly, there was silence and light. His eyes became blinded as he felt himself _ recompiling data _ He knew that last scream. None of the voices matched it, but it was the scream of_-@#~+[-silence and light. His eyes became blinded as he felt himself _formatting data at 85% WARNING: remaining data not found, please consult sub-drive directory He knew that last screa_ -??#v~- His eyes became blinded as he felt himself he felt himself he felt himself he felt _ HimSeLf wake up. His eyes blinked open, the world suddenly back to normal, or at the very least without chaos all around him. The raptor still found himself on his knees, gasping as the pain started to go away. His head felt warm, his hands vibrating with a new weakness inside him, struggling to hold himself upright. The anomaly was no longer there, but a single sealing pod now broke free in ruins, the back wall of the building completely torn apart to reveal the outside desert. The bodies of those around him remained still untouched, their blood left cold within written madness. His head turned heavy with ache, slowly bearing a new unconscious weight as he struggled to stand up. But he knew he couldn't, he had no idea why he was here, or why this had happened. Why he couldn't remember. He was able to remember everything before this, everything that happened up to this point. But for the last one hour or so, he could see nothing but darkness. Darkness of the unknown. Slowly he began to fall asleep, his eyes turning heavy as he fell forwards softly onto the floor. Just before his eyes closed fully, the voice of a woman came from behind him calling desperately. "JAMES! JAMES!" "Whuh..." "JAMES HOLD ON, I GOT YOU!" "James...who..." He turned over onto his back to see a strange-masked creature stare down upon him, black and cyan suit covering her lithe form. He somehow managed to smile weakly, wincing at the burning aftershock that still throbbed through his body. "L-......L-Leiah?" "I'm here James...it's okay just...are you alright?" "I...I'm James." "Huh?!" "I'm...I'm James Campbell. I'm James...James Campbell." "...oh keelah, what happened to you, LIREM HURRY! CALL THE SHIP AND TELL THEM TO MEET US OUT HERE!"

The raptor slowly began to drift off as sleep overtook him. He was too exhausted to continue, wanting to rest as both Leiah and Lirem carried him up between them, the turian's leg still hurting but not enough to stop him hobbling away. As the Centurion Eagle soon landed outside the tear, the crew hurried themselves off towards take-off leaving the base far behind. All this was being witnessed by the Kihilix Tanus and Vamire Squaron from the viewer of the anomaly's room, as well as the two scientists. The monitor was now empty except for the previous victims of its madness and a great tear in the back wall, a ship fleeing from the base in a thick cloud of dust. None of the turians could speak, their faces locked on with both fear and shock, as well as amazement and at least a small growing part of fury for the outcome that was. Kihilix spoke softly to his scientists, a tremoring snarl barely contained. "...what...happened?" "I...I don't know sir." "...you don't." "No. I mean, wh-what did we even see?! Just, something running around wildly trying to attack the pod and somehow it DID! I don't even know what happened but then it...everything turned...insane." "Insane...must have been...errors caused by the monitor. That's what we saw. Simply errors." "But...but that wa-" "YOU SAW NOTHING BUT ERRORS, IS THAT CLEAR?!" "Y-yes...yes sir." "Good. I thought you couldn't break the pod." "YOU CAN'T, that thing just-...somehow broke out all on its own, it has to be! Then it...caused an explosion and-" "Where is it now?!" "...it's...um..." "WHERE?!" roared Kihilix. "...it's not even in this system sir. None of the readings show it being anywhere near us." Kihilix leaned on the monitor's desk for a few moments, sighing deeply with incredible patience as well as a great amount of indignation. It was only two minutes later after a long dead silence that he stood up with his back turned towards them, and said: "Give me the data readings of the battle." "Yes sir," said the scientist, "at first the effects of his limbic system seemed to work and...he started going mad like the others did but...then he...it...something shut down and it...he countered it, sir." "He what?" "He...c-countered...the anomaly's effects. My as-s-s-ssumption is that he maybe possibly, c-concerning his posture and primal shrieks concerning his after-effects, possibly he...regressed?" "...regressed?" "Yes sir." "Primal...regression? Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds? Is that even a THING?" "I know sir, I know but...th-there's no other explanation ,he-...s-somehow made a new way of fighting the anomaly by countering it with ANOTHER persona! As if he were a different person, somehow by substituting his own personality by having another with its own memories and personality structure, it's like the whole system just diverted itself in his head and went to that one instead, like a backup even!" "A split personality?" "I...I think it's something more than just that sir." "What about his own attacks? He managed to fight back with some technical tactics." "Yes. Well he um, his nanos are...exceptionally flexible, they have a readout of most elements allowing us to pinpoint on his-" "Good. Use that data for our Plan B. Whatever happens next, I'm going to make damn well sure that someone is made punishable by this...I was hoping this wouldn't happen. Squaron." "Yeah sir?" replied Vamire. "Contact Ugrak, tell him we found his target." "Wha-SIR! What about me, I get to finish them off, I took down that spastic fuck!" "You had your chance and you failed! Frankly I find the fact that you had to resort to using a tank just to kill one single quarian pathetic! I want them to die in front of me so they accept our truth long before the end of their pathetic lives, NOT obliterate them into a thousand pieces in space like you would. Return to your training for our new plan, it won't be long until you get a chance to show your true skills and you can finally redeem yourself. You have one chance to redeem yourself. DON'T...screw this up." "Y-yes...sir. I'll...I'll call Ugrak now." "Good. Even if that...thing managed to destroy our project, we will always have new ways of making the Hierarchy pay. And I know that our next plan on Vallum...will NOT fail."