Aftershocks

Disclaimer: inFamous is the property of Sucker Punch. Mass Effect is the property of BioWare.

Author's Notes: One last thing, before we get the show on the road. This takes place after the end of inFamous 2, specifically it goes down the route of the game's "Good!Cole" ending. It also takes place somewhere before the Virmire mission in the first Mass Effect.

Prologue

It wasn't supposed to end up this way.

In the back of his mind, Cole MacGrath, the Electric Man, had that one spark of hope this would end with John White a fiery corpse. Kuo had defected, it was true, but he was certain she could be dealt with. With Zeke and Nix at his side, Cole – for the first time in ages – indulged in a little optimism. He had anticipated he would die. The RFI ensured it. That plan did not include John White – the Beast – on top.

Kuo had been smarter, she was aware the Beast's very presence amplified Conduit capabilities. Cole wasn't the only one, and she'd be damned if she wouldn't take advantage of it.

She didn't announce her fury. A set of two-foot blades of ice plunged into his body. Surprise attack. As Cole hunched over, his former ally smashed her knee into his face. The next few seconds comprised of little more than a montage of a vicious beating. Disoriented, he pushed her off with a shock blast. He stumbled back onto his feet, and staggered awkwardly, dizzy and unfocused. He pulled a few of the icicles with a grunt of pain, and watched – almost fascinated – as the blood gushed freely.

Cole had to give it to her. When she was fighting for survival, no trick was too low.

Speak of the devil; Cole raised his shield just in time to ward off incoming projectiles. He held his ground, panting. The two opponents stared each other down, as New Marais went to hell around them and the Beast continued his path of destruction.

In another timeline, Cole won. Nix died to give him time to activate the RFI, and he died knowing humanity – and most of all, Zeke – would survive another day.

This is not that timeline.

This injury is the point of deviation, for a new timeline, for a new chain of causality.

It'd never wash off his hands. Kuo gave it her all and then some. Cole could only return the favour, with gusto. When he reached the substation atop the cathedral, he fell to his knees. Vision dimming, his other senses on fire or dulled, Cole's spark was nowhere to be found.

Nix… Kuo… He was the only one left.

The RFI was alight and charged. It's blue radiance, amidst this sea of red, yellow and orange, was something Cole found soothing. Coughing blood, the Electric Man – against searing agony – stood his ground and faced the Beast, who looked none the worse for wear.

Staring into the eyes of John White was like staring the Devil in the face. Idly, Cole remembered a scene from a movie he watched as a child. In his state of mind, he couldn't care to fathom the necessary energy to recall the title, but he recalled a giant demon thing who arose from a mountain and reigned hell on this little town. It wasn't much of a story; just music and a feeling this thing could take your soul, and there was little you could do to stop it.

For a second, Cole was that little boy again. Until that little boy remembered he became the man that beat Kessler and the First Sons, Bertrand and his abominations.

Weakened, losing blood, and dying on top it all, Cole looked from the sky to the Beast, and smirked. Nothing was said but a silent promise, that if he died, he'd die taking White with him. Cole closed his eyes and extended his will; he called for the lightning, he called for the thunder. He called for the ions. He called for one last hope.

The Beast watched, perhaps amused by Cole's defiance. But enough was enough. This had to end now. As Cole, it was gathering energy in its hand, energy for an attack that would make the crater of Empire City look like a pothole in comparison. Clashing energies gathered in the wind, and at the center of it all was the RFI.

Cole's heart pounded in his chest. He held the device above his head, and his mind raced. The damn thing had to be gone. They had to be gone. It didn't matter where, just so where no one could get hurt again. With the cry of a desperate man, Cole unleashed everything he had left, just as the Beast did.

For anyone who was still alive and insane enough to stay behind to witness this duel, it would have been a spectacular display, one hell of a lightshow. It was a pure singularity of energy. Briefly, it seemed it was the center of existence, pulling everything in sight, melding all matter together into a wondrous bright symphony.

The new chain of causality is set in motion.

And then, there was nothing.

Smoking craters were the only evidence anything had happened at all. As the people, as the survivors, of the destruction of New Marais, crawled from their rocks they stood to witness the ruins of their homes. It was a depressingly sobering sight, and for one Zeke Dunbar – who, standing in the middle of the crater, knelt down and hung his head in a prayer.

The Beast was gone, and Cole MacGrath the Electric Man was dust in the wind. There was not even some scrap metal skeleton of the RFI. All traces of their existence, save for the devastation, vanished.

The story of the Electric Man and his quest to stop the Beast and save the world ended on a note bittersweet. The world would heal from the destruction wrought by the likes of Kessler, the First Sons, Joseph Bertrand and John White. It would take time, and certainly the pain could never be forgotten. The story of the Electric Man's sacrifice would become the stuff of legends.

Zeke vowed to ensure no one would ever forget his brother.

Humanity never would.

But now, a new story begins from here on in, one story in a multiverse of unfathomably infinite possibilities…

In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The basis for this incredible technology was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time.They called it the greatest discovery in human history.The civilizations of the galaxy call it... Mass Effect.

Humanity has now taken center stage in galactic society. Alien life exists, and not everyone is positively receptive to the newcomers. Some fear them, others hate them. Some treat the humans as time bombs, others as pests. But there is one woman fighting to validate humanity on the galactic stage.

Her name is Commander Shepherd. In the original timeline, her adventure to bring down a rogue Spectre will take her across the known galaxy and unveil more than a few shocking truths about the nature of life in the universe…

This is her story, as it should be, in this timeline. But, for want of an icicle, three unknown variables will change the course of this narrative, two timelines will intersect, and causality will take an interesting new turn…

The singularity dances across time and space, aimless.

It reaches the end of its dance.

The Citadel. The seat of intergalactic society. The center – as some would be lenient to tell you – of civilization. Home to the Council. It's where Spectres are chosen for duty. It is a beacon of hope in this universe.

And it was utterly unprepared for the storm of quantum discharge.

First, it was just a spark in the air, in the was small and nearly invisible, no one took notice. If anyone did, it could have been written off as poor maintenance. But it was then as if God poked through the fabric of reality; a vortex of chaotic energy split into wild tendrils. From its "mouth" came the debris of New Marais. Wreckage, concrete, obsolete cars obsolete for over a century rained down on this scenic and seamless masterpiece of architectural beauty. The ruins of an old American city fell out of the sky that day.

To call it a madhouse would have been too charitable. No one had any idea what was going on. C-Sec desperately scrambled to organize themselves. Was this some kind of attack? Nothing could have gotten this far in without the Citadel's sensors picking anything up.

This was a freak of nature, a glitch in the design. The Wards were bombarded, homes were destroyed in an ongoing onslaught and the Commons suddenly found it was in dire need of a clean up.

As discord and disorder incensed the many peoples of the Citadel into a panic, no one noticed a human with an oversized cattle prod crash headfirst into the floor of the Commons, surrounded by junk.

For Cole MacGrath, 2011 was five seconds ago, another time and space away. Before he lost consciousness, he crawled over a smile pile of home rubble and saw the pristine Commons packed with panicking creatures of various shapes and sizes.

As blackness settled in, Cole made a little guess; this was either Heaven or Hell.

Next to the Electric Man, the RFI sputtered whatever juice it had left, in technological death throes. It quietly followed its wielder into unconsciousness.

Chora's Den was destroyed upon his arrival. The same portal that had coughed up Cole MacGrath had dropped the limp figure of a man in tattered rags. Waking up to existence, the man stood tall and dumbstruck, paying little heed to the screaming menagerie of races rushing for safety outside the Den. He gazed at his hands. John White, The Beast, puzzled in childish delight. Where was he? Who were these things? What was happening? He didn't know.

But he smiled.