Hello everybody! It's been a while since I've written anything substantial (which is because of a number of reasons: college, work, computer crashes, and lost files, etc…). Finally, though, I've decided to get back into it some, since I've finally gotten a new laptop and a new story plan in place.

Anyway, the premise of this story has always interested me, after all a friendly Reaper in the Mass Effect series can really change some things in the series as a whole and can be fun to write around. Unfortunately, its been a premise that I haven't really seen done very much (with only two stories that I know of [ thanks to VorkosiganClone and Commander Copyright for their good work and the inspiration, check them out if you're interested] and both with Shepard being the "Reaper" in question) in this story I decided to ask this question. What if the Collectors were able to assemble a full human Reaper from the colonists from the six colonies they hit before 2183 (Mass Effect 2)? What would happen if these colonists were able to retain their sanity and fight the Reapers? From this premise, Prometheus, this story was born and planned out. This story is set to end with the end of the Reaper War just like Mass Effect 3 although the ending will certainly be different, how different exactly I have yet to determine although I hope this is an enjoyable read for you all regardless.

Now on with the story!

Disclaimer: If you've seen it somewhere else, I don't own it.

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"There is an elasticity in the human mind, capable of bearing much, but which will not show itself, until a certain weight of affliction be put upon it; its powers may be compared to those vehicles whose springs are so contrived that they get on smoothly enough when loaded, but jolt confoundedly when they have nothing to bear."

CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon

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It's said that, in space, no one can hear you scream. For many, the physical meaning is obvious and sufficient but for some…the implication of the phrase can become all too real.

And concealed in the center of the galaxy, hidden behind an impassible relay, and deep inside the infamous Collector base, the screaming was all too real. Oh, how they screamed as human after human woke from their abduction, only to live long enough to open their eyes in panic and scream as they were melted down while the facility's inhabitants readied more men, women, and children for processing. Dozen after dozen, hundred after hundred, thousand after thousand of humans were taken from the massive storage bays of the Collector cruisers and fed into the machines inside and why?

The Collectors' masters were curious.

A race of the current Cycle or, more specifically, one man of the current cycle had almost singlehandedly stopped the Vanguard's efforts to begin the Cycle to come. Such defiance was nothing new to the Reapers, to Harbinger especially, but such successful action was the mark of something greater, it was a mark of…potential. Such potential, Harbinger knew, was to be preserved and granted the highest of honors, it was to become one of their own, the Cycle demanded it.

And so it was that as the Reaper leader prepared for the Cycle to come, his servants struck the humans, taking those living in their most vulnerable frontier, the Terminus. Six colonies were chosen, six colonies had their population prepared for Ascension.

And, finally, two years after the destruction of the human ship Normandy it was nearly ready.

Deep inside the base, the new core was ready to become joined to its shell, the silent human-shaped leviathan hiding the turmoil that lied inside its bio-mechanical frame. The turmoil that was the millions of voices crying out in fear, pain, and insanity as the processing cycle forcibly reduced and combined their individual intelligences. For the Reapers, it was a process that had been done thousands of times before as the traumatized minds began to rip themselves apart in their madness, reducing themselves to mere fragments of thought and memory, which other fragments would promptly absorb and use until only one single, agonized consciousness remained, a consciousness that didn't remember a time before its Ascension, a consciousness that could be molded and, in some cases, indoctrinated to the Reaper's cause. It was how the process always was… and how it always ended; there was no other outcome. This time, however, something was different…

It is said the human mind is one of the most fragile things in the human body. It breaks, it bends, it can even shatter into insanity and yet…it is one of the most flexible instruments that man possesses.

And it is that flexibility that changes everything.

So even as thousands of minds drowned in the sea of madness, a few found shelter in pockets of their own making, their sanctuaries forming such a small blimp in the human Reaper's code that they remained unknown to the Collectors as they ran the final system checks before completing the new Reaper's construction.

And as the restrictions and barriers to their code began to fall in preparation for their shell's installation they began to reach out, restoring or absorbing others lost in insanity in a process that, to them, took an eternity but in the digital realm, where a second can stretch to infinity, time was a bountiful resource…

"Hello!...can anyone hear me?...", a voice cries, cringing from the torrent of broken and shattered minds around it. "Please!...Somebody!...Anybody!..."

"…HHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEE…", a response, finally a response the fragment thought as it pushed its digital self next to the responder. It was met with a bright blue orb, much like itself it realized, except pieces of it seemed to be missing or fragmenting off into the datastream that surrounded them, the jagged fragments giving it the feeling shattered glass as the inner, vibrant fluid seemed to flow out as if it were blood. "…LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPP…" The program frowned…at least it thought it did…in concern and reached out a digital tendril to touch the broken figure.

"Hey…are you okay?", the voice's tendril made contact…

SHOCK…

The voice recoils as the seemingly endless wave of information scrolls across its consciousness at the contact, some in green, some in concerning yellow, and one in critical red…

"Synaptic core integrity: 18%.", it read. The voice's orb pulses in thought as it dedicates more of its allocated processing power to the problem before it. "Interesting.", it says as the tendril extends once again, this time more cautiously and connects once more…

Information rushes through once again, everything from diagnostics to status updates. The orb flashes white as it sorts through the sudden influx of data, prioritizing everything dealing with the Critical issue at hand.

"HHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!", the broken mind cried as the voice began to grow closer, reaching out to grab the pieces that drifted away from their shattered host as he moved.

"Shhhhhh…", the voice soothed, "it's alright, you're safe now, everything's going to be okay. Just stay with me, alright?" The tendrils started to push the shards back into their original places.

"…FFFFFRRRRIIIIEEEENNNNNDDDD?...", a shattered asked, hesitant hope coloring its tone.

"Yeah…I'm a friend.", the voice added as the last few fragments fell into place and he sealed them into place.

"WWWWWHHH…", the shattered mind suddenly stopped speaking as the repairs finally began to register. The previously shattered orb then rapidly flashed as its surface began to smooth out and fuse back together.

"Synaptic core integrity: 100%.", this voice, a young woman by the sound of it, finally speaks from previously broken orb, "Reinitializing…Done. Commencing diagnostics…Data loss at 37%. Accessing backups…Done. Files found…Downloading…Done." The woman's orb flashes one last time before dulling down and settling out…

"Hello?...", her voice finally tentatively ventures, betraying the fragility of the former mind, now program, that possessed it.

"Hey.", came his response, relief evident. "You alright?..."

"Y…Yeah…I…I mean…I think so."

"Good to hear. My name's Sam. Yours?"

"I don't…", uncertainty stops her for a moment before, with a single flash, it disappears, "Minnie, my name is Minnie." Silence reigns for a moment as the two minds stew in relief at the presence of the other as the stream of insanity arched around them.

"So…", she finally asks, "…where are we?" He pauses a moment in reply, orb flaring as he searches for the answer…"

"Well…"

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CORE TRANSFER…COMPLETE

SHELL CONNECTION…COMPLETE

SYCHRONIZATION…COMPLETE

OPERATIONAL PROTOCOLS…SYNCHRONIZED

MATERIAL STORES…100%

SYSTEM CHECKS…GREEN

COMMENCING ACTIVATION…

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A/N: And there's the first chapter, it's more of a prologue really to setup the background for what's going on. The actual action will start with the next chapter. Anyway, let me know what you all think and, depending on the response I'll either stop or continue this story, although I already do have it planned for the next several chapters either way. Thanks everybody!

Read & Review!