Reverse effect

In a parallel universe what if the bad guys where the good guys and the good guys were the bad guys? Not only have the roles of heroes and villains been switched, but the entire mass effect universe. This fanfic is inspired by Crisis on two earths and College Fools Renegade reinterpretations.

Prologue

The cull had ended, and the great angels were returning to their home in deep space. They traveled by the hundreds of thousands clad in white armor. The soft blue light that emanated from them gave them a graceful appearance as they glided through space. Two of these massive sentient ships began to converse.

"I do not understand why we have to wait 50,000 years before passing judgment. The Protheans committed many acts of terror across the galaxy; they destroyed cultures and civilizations just to add the best parts to their own. Then they went into a massive war of genocide against all AI. We should have intervened, less lives would have been lost."

"Sovereign I tell you this many times but you do not understand. The cull must be done every 50,000 years because we must see how species behave on their own, not when they know they are being monitored. Remember, we gave the Protheans an ultimatum before the cull. We told them that if they stopped their practices immediately and realize the error of their ways then we would not end their civilization."

"We did end their civilization Harbinger. We extinguished the Prothean Empire and all its allies in its entirety. Even the original race that called themselves Protheans went extinct trying to defy us. We were forced to relocate those who surrendered, and devolve those who did not. It was messy and cruel. We are the stewards of the galaxy, the solution to the era of chaos, the salvation of all life we should have forced the Protheans to behave themselves when they started this madness."

"Silence! You know nothing of the era of chaos! You think the war between the Protheans and the machines were bad. They would be a mere skirmish in the era of chaos. Single battles would consume star clusters, and rage for decades. There were weapons that obliterated planets at a time and could even create black holes that ripped through fleets on a scale you can't even imagine. Races that just crawled from the mud would be enslaved and used as cannon fodder. It took our creators, the leviathans eons to bring order to the stars. Our purpose remains the same as it was when I was first created. We observe new civilizations in the galaxy for 50,000 years, and then we pass judgment. If the races believe in reason, peace, and are willing to tolerate one another we welcome them to the greater galactic community. To those who believe in race superiority, war, and intolerance we give them the ultimatum to change their ways quickly or have their civilization reduced to a more primitive state."

When it comes down to it Sovereign species must make the choice themselves, we are the stewards of the galaxy not its gods. You should know this network of relay stations holds a surprisingly high number of new life forms that will reach spacefaring technology in 50,000 years. We can only hope we do not have a repeat of what has had this cull."

Sovereign sighed in defeat and left Harbinger to his own devices. He remembered how many lives had to be wasted in the cull. He thought to himself, "I will watch these new civilizations rise, and If these civilizations are like the Protheans I will save as many as I can."