A/N: Hey… How's it going?... Not much to say really. I'm pretty excited about this story, I had this idea for it and just got really amped up about it. I tried to do something that nobody else has really done with their characters. I'd like to thank iNf3ctioNZ, Herr Wozzeck, DelVarO, TheRev28, and claihm solais for their novels: Masses to Masses series, Mass Vexations series, Massed Up series, Welcome to The Family, and Cause and Mass Effect (respectively). If you haven't read any of those and you have a thirst for great SI's, go read them! Like right now! (Insert Arnold Schwarzenegger impression) DOO IT! DOO IT NAOW! And if I have missed any other SI's that are out there that I haven't mentioned let me know in the comments or PM me because I'm almost done the first Welcome to The Family and am about to start the second so I need more reading material. Wow, do you guys remember when I said not much to say? Oh well. On with the show!

Chapter 1
-You're A Fucking Asshole-

Uhhhh, my head. Never ever do shots kids, they are nothing but pain and misery. Not at the time mind you but hey, you're old enough to make your own decisions right? I start my morning ritual by promptly rolling of my bed and gracefully slamming onto my bedroom floor.

"Shit." I mutter at the pain that jolts me awake. Of course I forgot about all of the stuff next to my bed, which has proceeded to jab me in the stomach. With a labored sigh I push myself off the ground and stand up in my groggy hung over state and start my zombie like shuffle towards the stairs…

The stairs.

Shit.

I peel open my eyes all the way to look down the flight of stairs. The long... Steep… Hardwood… Stairs of death… I should stop drinking…

Nah.

Well I'm sure as shit not going to walk down these so I'm forced to sit on my ass and slide down the stairs like a fucking five year old. Once I reach the bottom I look over to see my dog staring at me, a look of wonder and shame on his face.

"What?" I ask him. "If I died on those stairs no one would be able to feed you Brody. I technically just saved your life." I swear that dog narrows his eyes at me, giving me the Yeah? Gee I'm SOO grateful look. "Don't give me that look." This little shit actually sighs! He sighed! At me! The hand that feeds! "Corey made me drink! I didn't want to do shots! I was perfectly happy to drink my scotch and shoot some pool but this asshole I call a friend came over and…and… why am I explaining myself to you?" Brody cocks his head at me with a look of confusion. Probably because I'm having a legitimate conversation with a dog. I give the Short-Haired Shepard a pat on the head and stumble my way into the kitchen.

Coffee would be great right now. I look over at my coffee maker and pray that my drunk self is a cool dude and prepped coffee for my hung over self. I wearily point my finger at the power button and inch forwards, I close my eyes and tilt my head as I push the button.

…

It's on.

…

It's making noises.

…

YES! The sweet sweet sound of coffee hitting glass fills my ears! Oh man drunk me is so nice. I open my eyes as I feel a paw hit my knee. Oh yeah. You probably want food right Brody?

"Come on Brody." I say as I pat my hand on my lap and walk over to his food bowl. He happily follows me to and from the laundry room as I fill his bowl.

I sit on my deck overlooking the lush forest behind my house. The orange rays of sunshine bursting through the overcast sky and catching in the lurking fog. The green leaves of the trees dancing in the breeze while the birds sing their songs as they soar among the branches. The shadow of a deer smears along the fog and disappears for a moment until the stag brandishes itself on a small hill overlooking his domain.

"Wow." I whisper as I take a sip of my coffee.

"This is good coffee." I murmur as I stare into my diminishing stock of the sweet black nectar. I hear Brody groan as he lies by my feet. I crack a smile at his reaction. "I'm just messing with you. Hey." I say, getting the dogs attention. "You want to go see if we can't find that deer?" There we go, the little mutt finally picks up his head with some enthusiasm. "Hunt!?" I whisper-shout as I stamp my feet. I can't help but smile as he jumps up and places his paws on my chest, no easy feat mind you. I've been told being 6'5" is pretty tall, but then again Brody is an above average sized dog. "Come on, let's suit up."

I make my way back into the house and back up to my room, Brody prancing his way behind me. I throw on my old dark brown bomber jacket and not those shitty new fancy ones. Like an old military style, almostblack-brown, more inner-pockets then outer-pockets, and lots of wrinkles. Reeeal vintage shit. I quickly toss on my black combat pants that I use more for paintball then hunting. I slip on my black floppy hipster hat and spend a few minutes making sure just enough of my blond messy bedhead hair is poking out. Yes I know nobody is going to see me but I'm 20 years old and single so the desperate part of my brain tells me there will be a beautiful girl in the woods that needs saving, so I try not to look like a slob at all times.

I look over and see my trusty original Xbox 360 sitting in front of my lovely 39" flat screen TV. Yeah, I know. 39" is a weird size but hey it was only $300. Not bad for 1080p eh? Gotta love black Friday, or whatever it's called up here in Canada. I think it's still black Friday, which seems kinda lazy, but who am I to call someone lazy? Aww man Mass Effect 3 is already loaded up in that bad boy, I should probably stop using my N7 Demolisher class and level up something else but I can't get over that sweet damage buff from the Pylon. That with the Particle Rifle, overcharge mode of course, or the N7 Crusader? Heh, get shit on Cerberus! Nah that can wait, as much as I love that series it is a beautiful day out.

Anyway, after I get dressed and lace my boots I head out to the barn to grab my gear, Brody in tow. On my way I pass the fire pit and casually reach in and scrape my hand on a soot covered log, then used said hand to smear soot from the top left of my face to the right of my neck. Boom! Instant camo face! And I didn't have to spend five bucks of face paint either. Take notes people, you might just learn something. God the door to the barn sure is loud; I should really do something about that.

After I make my way through the tangle of Jeep and ATV parts and open up one of the cabinets. Ah there she is. My trust compound bow. This baby has racked me up quite the kill count, 42 hay targets, 17 trees, and a rabbit. To people who don't hunt, that is really impressive and you should be in awe of my talent. To people who do hunt…

Keep quiet.

I also grab my kukri knife. Not your typical hunting knife but fuck if it's not the coolest piece of metal I've ever seen. So I strap that bad boy to my hip and look to Brody, who is patiently waiting for me to get ready. All I have to do is flick my head and he is up and by my side. After the screeching metal door closing on the barn I look out at the woods again.

I let out a sigh. "Not a chance in hell I'm finding that deer."

You know its surprisingly peaceful creeping through the woods trying to kill something. No seriously. Just you, alone in nature. The sun poking through the trees, the fog rising from frog filled puddles. The subtle sounds of the animals running around just outside of my field of vision. Mocking me.

Little pricks.

I've heard every noise known to critter but haven't seen a damn one. Brody keeps looking around at the noises too but I've trained him better then to just run after anything that moves, and that took a while believe me. Still, just sitting here isn't doing much and I haven't seen any tracks yet. I reach over and give Brody a quick pet and begin to skulk forward once again, keeping one eye on the ground searching for tracks and the other glassing the field for movement.

Well well well. Guess who found some deer tracks.

"Look at that Brody." I whisper to the dog. "Today might be our lucky day." I point to the tracks and Brody takes a big whiff of the scent. He goes into badass dog mode and begins to do that hunched over prowl thing. You know what I mean? When an animal stalks something ya'know? Anyway I start to follow him, nocking an arrow in my bow. This is the closest I've ever come to successfully tracking something bigger than a rabbit. It pretty exciting actually, my heart beat starts to quicken, my palms start to sweat, and my eyes start to dart around nervously.

*snap*

Damn it, fucking twigs. Now Brody is looking at me like I'm a fucking idiot. I shoot the dog the finger and start to move again. That deer is close, I can tell because Brody gets lower and lower as he closes the gap on his prey. That dog is great; I've had him for about two years now. I actually got him right before my Dad passed away. It was uhh… a difficult time in my life and I'm not really sure if I would have gotten over it as easily. But this dog was here and helped me get back on my feet, helped me get motivated to get off my ass and get my job as a machinist, and helped me generally be less of a sarcastic asshole. We are still working on that last part. My job is actually pretty cool. You know those giant excavators? I get to…

…Holy shit…

The deer! There it is! No fucking way! Oh shit what do I do? Bow! That's right, draw the bow! I take in a breath as I draw back the string fully and line up my shot. This is it, my first deer! This is so exciting; I better take my time to line everything up. Ok he is about 50 yards away, not too bad. Not the best but I've made further shots. Whoooh ok. Here we go. Line it up aaaaaaand…

*CRACK*

I jumped as the rifle shot rips its way through the deer's chest in a perfect shot. I see Brody jump up and let out a yelp. Shit! I look at the dog and am filled with relief as he nervously walks around. He's fine. Thank god. Jesus my heart jumped out of my god damn chest. It actually kinda hurt I… shit… that really fucking hurts I… Uhhhhh fuck… I slowly stumble back on my ass and put my hand on my chest. Am I having a heart attack? No my hearts on the left. I take my hand off my chest and it's…its covered in blood. What? I look down at the dark blossom of blood growing, I pull back my jacket and pull at the hole in my shirt to reveal a quarter sized hole in my chest.

I've been shot.

I fall onto my back and let out a pained gasp. This is a dream, it has to be. I move my finger to poke at the wound and…

"Hngggg… Fuck!"

Real. This is real. Uhhh really real. I can hardly breathe now. I sound like a broken harmonica. I feel a wet sensation on the side of my face and I look over to see Brody lying down next to my head whining.

"It's ok boy." I groan at him. "I'll be fine, I just gotta, do something." Brody whines and paws at my face. "Yeah your right, it's a shitty plan." I laugh.

Ahh shit. Don't laugh. It hurts to laugh. God it is so hard to breathe. Am I going to die? Like this? Aww fuck that. I try to lift myself to my feet but every time I move it stretches the wound and I can't do it. It's okay, I just have to wait for the other hunter to get his kill and he will help me. That's it, I just have to keep pressure on it and I'll be fine.

Right?

I lay there seemingly for hours but in reality it is probably just a few minutes. It actually helps that Brody is here, he's pushed himself against my bloodied right side keeps looking up to make sure I'm ok. Shit my blood is all over him but he doesn't give a fuck, he stays regardless.

"Wow look at that." What? Who was that? I painfully turn to see a guy laying his rifle next to the deer. I let out a groan but he doesn't look up. Fuck I gotta get his attention. My bow. I lift my left hand and toss my bow near the guy and he jumps as it impacts the ground. When his eyes fall on me they grow as wide as saucers as I shoot him a bloody wave and a nod.

"Oh my god! Are you ok?" he shouts as he runs over to me.

"It's a bit cold out, but I can't complain." I weakly chuckle. I cough at the end of my laugh and feel something wet hit my face. I reach up my hand and touch the liquid. Yup. That's blood. Not good. "Wanna give me a hand?"

"Oh god oh god oh god." He stutters as he looks at me on the ground. "I am so sorry! Oh god, what am I going to do?"

"Well you can… uhh… you can help me up for starters." I moan. "My house is only ten minutes away, and then we can call 911. Unless you've got a phone on you."

I watch the guy start going into a hysterical mutter-fest as he paces back and forth. I don't think this guy's all there, he should probably not be allowed to use a firearm. He better hurry up and help because it is getting harder and harder to see. You know how in videogames your screen goes black and white? Yeah that doesn't happen, it's more like when you are really tired. Everything gets blurry and your eyelids get heavy.

I over hear one of this man's crazy whispers, did he say he can't go back? That's not good.

"I…I cant." He says to himself.

"You can man." I say as I try to sit up through the pain. "I don't want to die here, please you have to help me."

"No, I can't. I won't."

"What?" Is he serious? I need help! "You have to help me!" I shouted in pained anger.

"No! I won't go back!" he screams at me. He starts to take a few steps back.

"No don't leave! Please you have to help I don't want to die like this!" I plead. He can't do this to me!

"I'm not leaving." He quietly says as he approaches the deer. "Don't worry though I can fix this." He slowly reaches down and grabs his rifle and turns to look at me. The look on his face is devoid of emotion, it's just a blank stare.

"What are you doing?" I try to push myself away from him with my feet but am stopped by a tree root jutting from the ground. Then he smiles at me with a twisted grin as he walks towards me, ejecting the spent shell and chambering a fresh one. "No no no. Hey man we can talk about this!" I stammer as I desperately look around. Brody is staring at this guy with his ears perked up, his body lifted from the ground ever so slightly.

"It's ok, I'm not going back!" he said with a cheery smile. "You can't make me." That he said in a low dark tone.

"Don't you fucking dare!" I yell before flinching at the pain. "You can't do this!"

"It's ok!" He smiles at me. "I know you're angry but your next life will be better!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I ask. "Listen, I need help now. I don't think a can last too much longer."

"I know." He says as he points the rifle at my head causing me to flinch. "You won't last long at all.

"No." I whisper. "Don't." I can barely keep my eyes open now, my breathing is labored and hoarse.

"It's not going to hurt anymore. Is there anything you want before you die? Anything I can do to make you more comfortable?" he asks. What the fuck is wrong with this guy?

"Yeah." I breathe.

"What is it?"

"Take that rifle."

"Yeah?"

"And put it in your mouth." I sneer as I shoot him a glare.

"Haha." He chuckles. "You have more fire then the others."

"Lucky me." Others? Great. I find the one psychopath in Canada.

"Ok let's get to it shall we?" he says as I see his finger hover towards the trigger of his gun. "Any last words?"

"Just two."

I let out a sigh. I hope this works.

"Brody." I see his head perk up out of the corner of my eye.

"Fass."

In the blink of an eye Brody hurls his body over mine causing me to clamp my eyes shut. I hear him let out a throaty growl and then the crack of a rifle echoes through the woods. Once the noise of the gun dissipates I hear a low growl and the sounds of a struggle. A small smile forms on my lips as I enjoy this moment before I bleed out. You gotta enjoy the little things right?

But then my smile fades and my heart sinks as I hear the worst sound I have ever heard in my life.

I hear the sound of a shell being ejected from a rifle.

No.

I open my eyes and look over to see something that I never wanted to. I see Brody in a lump on the ground, a neat hole in his side. I feel the tears start to well in my eyes. I look at my best friend, covered in blood as he looks back at me. I open my mouth to say something, anything, but nothing comes out. He blinks as he lets out a heavy sigh, a slight whimper escaping with it. This is my fault. I shouldn't have told him to do anything, if I didn't he might not have hurt him. This is all my fault. I watch as he blinks one more time but his eyes don't open.

He is gone.

My best friend.

Because of me.

"Sorry about that." The man says as he chambers another round. "A poor choice in words. Do you want to try again?"

He walks up to me and pushes the barrel right against my forehead, but I don't pay it any mind. I just stare at Brody, I can't take my eyes off of him.

"Nothing? Where is that fire we talked about?" he says with a coy smile. I turn my head and look at him, a psychopathic grin plastered on his face. I let my head fall to the ground without taking my eyes off of his.

"You're a fucking asshole." I mutter as I let my eyes close.

"Ahh there it is."

Then he pulls the trigger.

Hmm, so apparently there is a white light. There is some sort of low humming too. I guess this is heaven. To be honest it's not all it's cracked up to be. The light is too bright so I can't see, and that droning noise is pretty annoying. As an atheist, I'm not that impressed with heaven so far. Well I did just get here so I can judge too harshly, besides you never know what is waiting.

{That's right! There is a world of possibilities out there!}

…

Jesus?

[He isn't Jesus you stupid asshole.]

Well I know you're not Jesus.

{Not with his current attitude he isn't, but I believe with a little bit of effort and a helping hand he can get close!}

[Fuck off shit head.]

Is this a joke?

{It is not.}

[No.]

Oh… so I'm just crazy. Unless these voices in my head are supposed to be here then… well I guess I'd still be crazy either way right?

{Oh you're not crazy!}

[Not yet anyway.]

Oh, that good I guess. So who are you magical voices in my head?

[We're you subconscious dumbass.]

{We are here to help you on your journey!}

[You might be. I had no choice.]

I'm not so sure that you two are my subconscious. I mean first of all there are two of you, second is you are a fucking asshole and you seem way too nice and constructive.

[Good job Dr. Obvious, did you figure that out all by yourself?]

{Why thank you! I think you're nice too!}

Thank you for proving my point.

{Good job!}

[No, it wasn't. Once again this asshole just points out the obvious and you needlessly praise him.]

What the fuck is going on! Who are you really? Am I even fucking dead? Where am I? If this is some sort of joke I will find you and I will beat the living shit out of you!

{We are a split of your subconscious, the polar opposites to be precise. No you're not dead, not anymore anyway which is really super! You will find out where you are soon, I would tell you but I would hate to spoil it! No it's not a joke. That would be a mean joke. And you can do whatever you set your mind to!}

[You piece of shit! You couldn't have let him figure that out himself? He would have bumbled around like the shit head he is, with that goofy shit eating grin on his mug. It would have been hilarious!]

Hey fuck you asshole! I can figure this out on my own. Are we done now? I'm assuming this bright ass light will go away once I am done talking to the voices in my head LIKE A GODDAMN CRAZY PERSON!

{Ok you may go now! Have fun and stay safe!}

[Piss off already.]

Suddenly the droning noise and blinding light disappears to reveal a small room with benches littering the outer walls. There are only four people sitting among the benches, they look kinda beat up actually. They're all dirty, some of them have fresh scars and they all look generally sad. Oh shit scars! I quickly look down at my chest and to my surprise there is no hole in my jacket, not even any blood. That's good right? I look around hoping to see Brody but am not surprised when he isn't here. That's what I get for putting him in harm's way.

I move to stand up but I feel something on my left wrist and ankles. What the fuck? Is that rope? Seriously? Nobody ties me up! Well, not like this anyway. My right hand is still free though which is weird. Ok how do I get out of this? I don't see my bow anywhere but that wouldn't help anyway so scratch that. Oh cool, I still have my kukri! I reach for my lower back and carefully unsheathe the blade. The other people in the room take notice and now I can see that they are tied up too.

What the hell is going on here?

I can figure that out later. My kukri makes short work of the rope and I am free in a matter of seconds. The other people who are tied up suddenly look up in awe as I am standing up. I have to help these people. I slowly make my way around the room cutting loose the other captives. I stop at the last one, a woman about my age. I can tell she has been crying because her makeup is smeared down her face. She looks absolutely miserable.

"Hey there, it's going to be ok." I say as I gently tilt her chin up. "I'm going to get us out of here somehow."

She just looks right into my eyes and whispers back at me. "You can't do anything, once these bastards get you, that's it. They've got you."

"We'll see about that." I say as I stand up straight. Who the hell are these assholes? You know what? I don't care who they are, this isn't right. I look to my right and see a door, but it looks…odd, it's nothing like I've seen before. I tighten my grip on my kukri before I walk over. I almost jump as the door slides open on its own and reveals a whole new hell. Hundreds of people, all lined up and bound together. The low lighting makes it hard to see but I can see them. I… I don't know what to do with this. I was happy to help those first four but this is too much. It's not that I don't want to but I have to be quick to get out of here.

Shit.

Then I notice something. One of these slave driving bastards is standing right beside me, just standing there looking over the sea of slaves with some sort of assault rifle in hand. I raise my kukri up to try to get at his throat but I can't do it. I can't kill a man, even if he is a slaver. I can't bring myself to take another human beings life…

But I can knock his ass out!

I quickly twist my wrist and slam the handle of my kukri into the side of his skull. He lets out half a grunt before going limp, and as he starts to fall back I manage to catch him before he hits the ground. I gently lower him down and then pick up his rifle. Shit I can't even see what it is. I curse as I slide my hand along the side of the weapon but I can't feel a bolt or slide or anything. I mean I have never felt anything like this before, I've found the trigger but if it has a safety I can't seem to fucking find it. This effectively makes this gun useless to me. A gun you don't know how to use isn't a gun. It's basically a fancy club. So I figure I should at least move it away from this asshole and keep my knife.

I look across what I am assuming is a barge or other big boat, and see another guard walking through a door at the opposite side of the room. I might as well start there. As I make my way through the slaves I can see them noticing me but none of them dare to make noise lest they alert the guards. Actually there are almost no guards, just the guy I'm following and the one I knocked out. These guys are sloppy.

I finally reach the door and try not to get close so it doesn't swing open like the last one. I can hear a lot of panicked voices on the other side though, some of them are English and the others are in some language I don't understand. Doesn't matter though, I've got to get in there. But before I can even open the door it swooshes open and three men charge out. I raise my knife but they just push past me, yelling and screaming.

What the hell?

I look at the open door and my jaw hits the floor. There is some sort of glowing metal orb in this room, just buzzing and going crazy and stuff. I've seen that orb before. I know I have. I notice there are a bunch of panels in front of it and I decide to go check them out. I start to read them and come to a realization.

Eezo…

Drive core…

FTL…

It can't be, there's no way. I have seen this before, in one place in particular…

Mass Effect!

{I knew you would figure it out!}

[Yeah we're all shocked.]

Just then all of the panels light up red and the drive core starts to shudder. Oh that's why they were running away. Before I can even make a single move the side of the core erupts in a bright white light, just before everything goes dark.

My eyes shoot open and I suck in a quick breath. I look around to see the burnt out drive core and a giant hole blown through the roof letting me see a blue sky with stars peppering it with light. I slowly get to my feet and notice I am covered in some shitty blue dust. It's fucking everywhere. I brush most of it off and… Jesus it smells like blue mountain dew as gasoline. Whatever this is it can't be good for me so I make my way out of the engine room and am stunned to find a shitload of soldiers helping the slaves out of the barge. I'm about to worry until I see they all have the alliance logo on their pauldrons. Thank god. I start to wave one of the troopers down.

"Hey!" I shout as I walk towards the first one to turn around. "About time you guys showed up."

The soldiers all stop what they are doing and stare at me. None of them are moving, just… starting at me. I look down and see I'm still holding onto my knife. Is that it?

"Hey sorry." I say as I lift up my hands in a defensive manor. "I'll put this away." I slowly sheath the knife and cock my head and smile. I start to feel a little light headed actually, I might have gotten a concussion from the blast.

"How is he alive?" I hear one of the soldiers mutter. What is he talking about? The blast? It looked like most of it was directed out the roof. Fuck I still have some of that dust on me. I start to brush it off but I stop when I hear more of the soldiers talking.

"We need a quarantine team down hear ASAP." One of them quietly barks into his Omni-tool. Aww cool an Omni-tool! Wow I am getting really light headed. Did he say quarantine?

"Med-evac too, this guy needs to get to a hospital now!" one of the soldiers yells.

"Guys I'm fine." I try to reason to them. I give a quick sniff. I think that dust got in my nose, I can feel it running. I nonchalantly wipe my nose with my hand but I do a double take when I see my hand is now smeared with blood. That's weird. I can't help but start to blink heavily, some dust must have gotten in my eye too. Wow… I am really dizzy I just… I just need to lie down. Next thing I know I feel a slight pain in my back and I'm looking at the ceiling. That was quick. What is that ringing noise? It's kind of annoying. Why are there all these people crowded around me? I just want to sleep, leave me alone. As I drift of I hear bits and pieces of the peoples conversation as I pass out.

"…emergency…prep the… treatment… severe element zero exposure… don't think he will make it…"

A/N: So what did you guys think? I appreciate any feedback at all, even the bad ones. So yeah, chapter one is done! Leave your feedback and I will see you next time.