A/N: So, here it is, the first part of the backstory of what happened with the Reapers.

I've never , ever bought into the whole thing about "it's all about synthetics and organics." We never heard shit about this concept until ME3, and frankly most of the ME 3 stuff pissed me off. I loved the game, I loved the concepts, but the story got weaker and weaker.

I still harken back to Sovereign on Virmire, saying we could never understand him or his motive. And I built from there. Leviathan, actually, helped me work towards the thing I wanted to get across.

The Reapers are hiding , from something more terrifying than they are. The Leviathans could play with the rules of physics, and they got too greedy. Dare I say they Delved Too Deep? They opened doors they should have never even known about, much less opened, and let in something that feeds on life and doesn't like to be disturbed. This invasion destroyed most of the known universe, but the Reapers were created as a solution. To hide away and keep living things safe from the Dark, so that one day, life could strike back, drive the Dark away , and retake their universe.

They harvest life before said life can attract attention, and they use life to bolster their army. They see themselves as preserving life , and ensuring that it's not wiped out...but they also see themselves as the inheritors to the power and the glory of the guys who got wiped out for messing with things they should not have.

This is a confusing, badly streamlined and poorly explained mess. I'll need to revisit at some point, but getting it up on the site is also important.

"The Assembly is gathered".

The voice was not audible, it wasn't bio-generated. It wasn't even sound, in minds or in the air, but rather a realization, an alteration of reality itself to fit the understanding that , at last, the Plan would move forward.

The huge, terrifying forms of the High Ascended hovered above, each one blinding in it's biotic radiance, cascades of dark energy and reality-shift falling from them like gentle rain. The Hall of Assembly was only partially "real" , comprised of 411 shifted reality states linked by quantum entanglement through the fifth and sixth dimensions of reality. Lesser minds perceived it as a huge auditorium of shining brass, lit by the flares of distant galaxies and the light from the High Ascended. The Ascended themselves saw the Truth , the 411 different auditoriums moved in real-time relativity to occupy the same rough space-time continuum.

The All-Highest, the god-king of the Endless , radiated the emotional state of triumph. This day, all life had transcended mere physical or energy based realities. This day, technology, biotics, bio-energy states, and even philosophy merged to create what could only be called god-power. This day, the Ascended would move beyond merely peering into the edge of the Beyond, and live within it. Where all things were not only possible, but had already happened.

The image – scaled down for the lesser minds that watched – was QEC beamed across the known universe. 3800 galaxies watched the tentacled form, with it's long shape, hovering over the 411 Praestons of the universal community. Another 5000 galaxies, the "fringe" of explored reality, watched stepped down quality versions, nervously wondering how this would affect their lives.

The High Ascended were all. They ruled Reality with a fist of iron. They could alter the physical rules of the universe with a thought, convert energy to matter and dark energy to dark matter, and vice verse, endlessly and with but a little effort. They could cross a galaxy with a mere whisper, shatter a galactic cluster with a single motion.

They were gods. Tribute flowed to them, sacrifices, technology, art, worship. 90,000 sentient species called them "God". 77 quintillion beings lived in fear of their every move or thought. And today, the High Ascended had breached the last limits of their power.

"The time has come. We shall move into a space – a series of spaces – a time where time no longer flows one way but all ways. A road that connects all points in space and time to all other points in possibility. We shall become light, become thought, become the very nature of existence itself."

The All-Highest paused. "We have eradicated death, illness, and poverty. Have we not guided you, to highs of power and influence you cannot imagine living without? The very mystery of the universe parts before us. And now, we shall master it all. You will witness. You will Remember."

The 411 High Ascended assembled in a vague, symmetrical pattern. Even filtered through the QEC down-steps, they were painful to look upon. Over a mile in length, scaled with black armor and thousands of cybernetic components, each one was a godlike being. But working together, they glowed, a faint purple and sliver radiance that began to spill forth from every thing.

On Gathera VII, a small mining colony in the Fritah Galaxy, two figures watched the QEC broadcast in the area set aside for drinks, knife fights, and socialization. The leftmost figure was a spindly collection of stick-like limbs , set into a ball of heavy, pale silver fur , topped with stalk like antennae. Next to him, the gorothan was a hulking six limbed plated horror, all rippling muscle, fangs, and multiple eyes and jaws. Both sat peacefully, nursing their drinks, watching the fat form of the All-Highest emit power.

"I don't know, Unath. This seems so … I don't know what to think. God is god and is now going to be...more than god?" The ball of fur extended three long gangly limbs to manipulate more dark fluids into his feeding trough, the lizard-like thing next to him snorting.

Unath's voice, sibilant and rough, was also pitched quietly. "They are no longer physical gods, Gar. They are more like ancient myths now. Everywhere, knowing everything. Maybe they won't need tribute now."

Gar wobbled. "Riiight. And maybe my second pelt-mate won't ask me for more money for shopping, either." The right most long limb gestured vaguely at the screen. "We're on the edge of the edge of the Fringe Galaxies. I doubt very strongly they care much about what we think. Just that we pay."

The screen brightened again, then there was a pause. Unath felt a curious sensation of fear ripple over him, as the screen showed a light suddenly growing dimmer. "What..."

A bolt of … black nothingness lashed out, looking for all the world like cheap special effects, crashing into the shining form of the All-Highest, sending the massive form back and down, trailing weirdly writhing black flames. "Seal...the reality-shift! Withdraw energies!"

The auditorium splintered, as the 411 local segments dis-linked themselves, but each one suddenly had it's own black rift, bizarre black-cutouts of nothingness lashing out in all directions. The QEC died, suddenly, leaving only blackness in it's wake.

Gar and Unath looked at each other, unable to understand what they had seen. So did the entire Endless Empire, at least for a few days.

"And that … is how it started. At least, that's all we know, All-Highest." The courthan bowed, his military uniform gleaming white in the reflected light of the huge figure before him.

Lenath, Rider of the Echo of Wrath, loomed above him, his lenticular shape arched slightly. "The entire Assembly is dead. The Centror Galaxy is a loss, whatever those .. things are appear to be eating it. Dark energy is bubbling up in each sun, making them unstable, and then to explode."

Another High Ascended hovered nearby. "We have tried every Evocation and Changing we know. Their control of the laws of physics is … not only stronger but more innate than ours. We rely on biotic entanglement, machines, and chemical actions, they are using … I don't know. It seems to be natural to them."

Lenath gave a hum of acknowledgment. "We need a plan. And we need to strike back. Let us proceed to the Conclave of Defense and see what we must do now."

"The ancient gods, in their arrogance, turned at last their stolen powers upon the very fabric of reality itself, hoping to weave themselves into the nature of the universe. I do not know if the universe itself struck back, or if gods more powerful than they reacted, but all of the Highest of the Ascended were destroyed in battle."

"The war was unending, it seemed. The High Ascended fought back with every weapon and trick they knew, from multiple vacuum state collapses in localized areas to realigning the strong nuclear force to try to detonate entire galaxies. It didn't matter. No matter how many of the invaders were destroyed, more poured through ever more black rifts. Every violation of physical law seemed to summon more."

"The thrall races rose up to fight too, in their tens of trillions. They killed many, but it was a tide of rats swarming over an army. A few fell, but the cost was too high. Hundreds upon hundreds of galaxies became cold husks, devoid of life or stars, a spinning pinwheel of a billion black holes, neutron stars and dwarfs. Society shattered, thrall turning against thrall, races trying to flee."

"The greatest of the High Ascended created a computer system to help them fight back. The system used the highest of their arts, being a bridge between synthetic creatures and organics. An AI the likes of which had never been born, before or since. A natural leader, warrior, and planner. It organized the forces of the Endless, slowed the advance of the Darkness, and researched a thousand ways to combat the foe. And when it realized that the only answer was retreat, it betrayed it's masters... to make us."

"The Catalyst of Insight Beyond struck down the All-Highest, and his confidants, and used them to make the first and eldest of us. We were modeled in the shape of the High Ascended, with their powers, but we were to preserve, to endure, to hide, and to bide. While the bulk of the universe was sacrificed to the Dark, we gathered up our few ships and fled to the edges beyond the Fringe. We found a galaxy, and built a network of dark energy traps to make a flawless shield. A permanent disconnect between the dark energy flows of the rest of the universe and this one galaxy."

"A camouflage. Hidden away, we watched in terror as the Darkness devoured the heart of the Empire, and the edges...and finally, stopped. No signals from the Highest could be found. No life remained, inside that horrible, final demarcation line. The Darkness grew within it, turning black holes and clouds of dark matter into nightmare cities the size of solar systems, raising monolithic constructions of impossible physics and infinite energy. "

"So we hid away, and waited, and began our long plan."

– the collected Chronicles, Canto I, from the Book of Shepard.