*****The Broken Reaper*****

Prologue: An Ancient War, a Small Victory, and an Impossibly Long Sleep

AN: First let me say, thanks for reading! I started this out of curiosity, and figured I may as well share the idea. Seeing as you didn't come here for the author's notes, I won't keep you waiting, so I hope you enjoy the ride!

Uncharted system, 999,948,973 years ago.

"Sir, a Reaper capital ship just arrived in-system!" Yelled out the man on sensors, sounding panicked.

"Gods damn it, I thought we lost them with that last jump! Is it the same one as before?" He asked, trying to project authority and calm, more for the surrounding crew than himself.

"IFF is an exact match! Your orders?" Only sensors looked at him directly, but he noticed how the other technicians on the bridge glanced his direction, silently asking the same question. Not even a decade since the fall of the Citadel, and the bastards have already conquered two thirds of the empire's territory. Still, I'm not going down without taking one of them with me.

"What were the results of the experiments? Were you able to activate the relic?" He asked the resident science officer over the comms, every department head on the ship tuned in to the command frequency.

"We weren't able to replicate the orb itself, and we couldn't open it up due to it's fragile construction, but we've managed to turn it on, so to speak. It ignores any normal technology, but as soon as Reaper tech was brought near it, it reacted explosively: either destroying the tech outright, or in the case of the husk we exposed to it, taking control of the body. We still don't know how any of this is possible, but if the results of what it did to the corpse tripod were anything, it could in theory take down an entire Reaper in one hit."

"How large an area can the relic affect?"

"I couldn't tell you to be honest. It's possible the range can extend hundreds of kilometers away, but there's no way to be sure."

"That's all I needed to know. Have it loaded onto an escape pod, and launch it when I order."

"But Sir, this is the only orb we have!"

"Just do it! I have a plan in mind, and if it works, we'll live to fight another day." a quiet 'yessir' was the only response he got, and he gave an order to the woman in charge of communications "Hail the Reaper vessel."

"Sir?" She asked, confusion and shock obvious, even without the look on her face.

"Hail the Reaper vessel, I have a message for it." she continued to stare at him, as if her brain refused to process the command given, making him sigh in annoyance "It's not often I find someone who claims to be able to hear, but doesn't acknowledge words when they're said. Now either hail the blasted thing, or I'll do it myself!"

That managed to get a reaction out of her, and she practically shot back into motion, finally going through the process of doing as she was told. "Sorry, Sir! It won't happen again, Sir!"

"Good." was his only reply, waiting until she told him they were live "If it isn't our old friend from the next system over! I'm afraid I never got your name, of course that's assuming you machines even have one…Not going to say anything? I suppose I can start off then. I am the Sovereign Ruler of the Nazarran Empire, my former name given up when I received this title, and yours is?…Still won't say anything? And here I thought you were supposed to be intimidating. Of course you might just be another arrogant, mass produced Reaper, all brawn and no brain."

He was mildly surprised when it finally responded, the deep, emotionless voice echoing in the confines of the bridge; unless it was meant to sound like that of course. "Reaper? A label created by countless civilizations to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what you choose to call us is irrelevant. We simply are."

"So it does talk! How kind of you to grace us puny organics with your attention." He said, trying his best to goad a reaction from it, getting rewarded for his efforts.

"You are nothing but a rudimentary creature of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding."

He received an alert that the relic had been loaded into the pod, and sent a short reply telling them to aim it at the Reaper as best they could, but to shut down every system on the pod to avoid detection, giving them only a single chance to get it right. "Then please, enlighten this 'rudimentary creature' with your wisdom."

"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Monarch!" So Reapers do have names. Good to know I guess, but talk about an ego!

He sent the order to launch, a countdown until it came within range showing on a nearby screen, letting him know he had to occupy it for less than thirty seconds. "Well it's nice to put a name to a soon-to-be chunk of space debris. I'll be sure to remember it when I'm toasting our victory against your kind."

"Confidence born of ignorance. We are eternal. The pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything. You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it. The cycle cannot be broken."

"That's cute and all, but I've fought against tougher opponents than a large, obnoxious, squid. I mean really? What's even the point of being so powerful if you look like you belong in an aquarium? Not that I care anyway, you won't be around long enough for it to matter." Only ten more seconds, keep talking you gullible machine.

"Your words are as empty as your future. I am the vanguard of your, and every cycle's, destruction. This exchange is oveeeEERRRRRSSHHHHHHHH-" It screeched to a stop as the pod finally came close to it, the entire Reaper vessel being shown on the cameras as it shook and twisted in what he could only describe as pain, before it stopped moving; the last burst of power to it's engines sending it on a collision course with the first planet in the system. When the shock wore off of everyone on the bridge, they let out a collective cheer, finally having killed one of the monstrous vessels, and even he couldn't stop the genuine smile that formed on his face. All these years of running, and we at last have a chance to fight back. Goodbye Monarch, vanguard of our destruction. May your cursed body break into millions of tiny pieces when it reaches it's final destination.

ALERT! Collision imminent. System defense subroutine activated. Attempting course adjustment. ERROR, severe damage registered, unable to comply. ERROR, faults detected in all primary systems. ERROR, unable to access Prime Conductor. ALERT! Self-destructive Creator virus detected in software. Possibility of virus being cause of current status 99.48%. Accessing protocol INTERNAL_CYBERSPACE_PURGE. ERROR, unable to access necessary protocol. Creator virus commencing electrical burnout in primary systems. Conclusion: damage to Universal Form unavoidable. Recalculating.

Decision reached: all unaffected subroutines and protocols to be stored separately of primary systems. Secondary systems will enter partial shutdown to counteract virus' self-destructive nature. Estimated period of shutdown: unknown. ALERT! Virus has reached memory banks. Activating last resort subroutine. Last resort successful. Conclusion: partial deletion of long-term memory. Result acceptable. Entering standby mode.

I know this is rather short all things considered, and here's the reason why; this is not the original prologue. The original was, in hindsight, a seriously out of place way to begin the fic. Considering the story really begins in the next chapter, but the original would've shown a POV from a particularly young Shepard, I replaced it with this to correct the issues of the previous one.

As I am technically removing the original's content for the time being, here's a short summary so you don't get left out: Rachel Shepard just turned 18, visits a friend out in the Traverse, and on the trip home, the transport ship she's taking is attacked by batarian slavers, and she is taken by them along with the crew. Anderson, a Spectre candidate at the time, comes across the slaver ship soon after and attacks it, eventually boarding it and killing the slaver crew, and finding her in one of the various prisoner cells. It ends with her in his ships medbay, having been given a sleep aid by Doctor Chakwas, who was assigned to Anderson at the time due to being one of the best in the Alliance, with the final scene being her drifting off to sleep.

As I explain in a later chapter, the material formerly here will still be used, but only once it finally becomes relevant; meaning once we actually get to the Shepard era. Whenever you come across an AN in a future chapter (up to chapter 13, but not past it) mentioning the 'prologue', remember it's referencing the previous one and not this.

Also, no, the title and species name given by the first POV to 'Monarch' was anything but accidental. All will be explained the further you read.

Now that I've hopefully fixed the problems the old prologue used to have, I'd be thrilled if you went on to read the rest of the fic! If you want to review, please do so, because I will always respond, even if it's a single word, so don't be afraid to ask me questions.