Parallel Realities

Parallel Realities is a Mass Effect Fanfic by InHarmsWay. It is a speculative Alternate Universe Fic, in which Commander Shepard is not human at all.

Rather, Commander Shepard is an alien being from a parallel reality that exists concurrent to the proper Mass Effect galaxy. After an extremely rocky first-contact situation with Cerberus, Shepard’s entire race (the articians) was wiped out. Shepard’s galactic order then charges Shepard (as a very small boy) with going into the Mass Effect galaxy and wiping out Cerberus. However, on the way, Commander Shepard discovers the Reaper threat, and takes on that as well, all while accompanied by an Oracle who talks of tests that Shepard will have to undertake for a reason that’s never adequately explained.

And it only gets stranger from there.

The fic is posted to both DeviantArt and Fanfiction.net.

This fanfic contains examples of the following tropes:

 * All There in the Manual: There’s an entire chapter of the fanfiction.net version that has a stat sheet for all of the alien races from Shepard’s home reality. This provides a lot of information that is never even touched on throughout the entire rest of the fic, including what systems of government each individual race uses.
 * Applied Phlebotinum: The Order’s medical technology,
 * To a lesser extent, alpha energy.
 * Ascended Extra:
 * Author Tract:
 * The author’s views on multiple things in the Mass Effect universe are painfully obvious throughout.
 * Some of his non-fanfic posts on his Deviant ART page, while bringing up valid points, remove all doubt of this being the case.
 * Badass Abnormal:
 * Batman Gambit:
 * Berserk Button:
 * Shepard gets angry at people who suggest or outright state that he’s a Cerberus sympathizer during the Mass Effect 2 arc.
 * Similarly, being racist in front of Shepard (and especially to quarians) is a very bad idea—
 * Best Served Cold: To the point where he
 * Black and White Morality: Much of the games’ kitchen sink morality gets suddenly fitted into categories of ‘good’ and ‘evil’, depending almost entirely on where they stand when it comes to whether or not they agree/eventually agree with Shepard/the author. Much of the subtleties of each conflict are thus glossed over.
 * Card-Carrying Villain:
 * Childhood Friend Romance: Develops between Shepard and Tali, given that Tali was on Mindoir when Shepard was there.
 * Chosen One: Shepard.
 * Contrived Coincidence: A couple.
 * What is less easy to justify, however, is the fact that
 * Convenient Coma:
 * Deep-Cover Agent:
 * Shepard, to the point that he begins his mission when he is only a child.
 * Similarly, this is the role of in the Mass Effect 2 arc,
 * Expy: The articians are basically expies of humans. This is repeatedly lampshaded throughout.
 * False-Flag Operation: The Collectors attempt one on the Migrant Fleet by
 * Fantastic Racism:
 * Cerberus hates the articians because of the fact that they are expies of humanity.
 * In addition, all the instances of this in the Mass Effect canon are taken beyond their normal canon levels.
 * The Fatalist:
 * Fix Fic: The inevitable result of a fic which
 * For Want of a Nail: Some instances of this come up, such as . The entire Mass Effect 3 arc is also considerably different from what the game will undoubtedly be.
 * Genocide Backfire: Granted, the genocide was the result of Playing with Syringes, but it still counts.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom:
 * A common trait of exion eyes: while their eyes are always glowing, to anyone who looks at them not knowing what they are they seem to glow menacingly.
 * Shepard sometimes displays the more commonly used version of this trope whenever he uses his alpha energy.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Idiot Ball:
 * Cerberus and the Council both hold this ball with an iron grip throughout basically the whole story.
 * Also, for some reason
 * At one point, Shepard himself holds it, when he
 * Keep in mind, the events of the have yet to occur at that point, and the heroes do nothing about Cerberus between the time that  and.
 * Info Dump: Happens a lot.
 * This happens any time Shepard talks about his backstory. It wouldn’t be so bad if not for the fact that we get the same exact exposition ‘’every single time’’ Shepard talks about his backstory. It doesn’t help matters that the times this exposition is given again are very rarely skipped over, which means that we get the same exact infodump no less than ten times by the time the story ends.
 * The entire reveal is told in a long infodump.
 * In Spite of a Nail: On the other hand, though, there are points where the story adheres ‘’too’’ faithfully to the games. See The Stations of the Canon below.
 * It's Personal: Extremely so.
 * Laser Blade: Nemain.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: As you can guess,
 * Last of His Kind: Shepard.
 * Life Force: Alpha energy
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Especially in the Mass Effect 3 arc.
 * MacGuffin Location:
 * In the Mass Effect 3 arc, it is revealed that
 * Mecha-Mooks: The exions are a subversion of this: while they are basically the geth as recycled in a parallel reality, their intelligence is such that they are viewed as a separate, equal race by the Galactic Order, and thus are given the same rights that any organic would have.
 * Playing with Syringes: Cerberus’ willingness to do this causes genocide, and basically gets the Galactic Order of the other universe involved in the Mass Effect galaxy’s affairs.
 * Plot Armor: Worn by most of the major characters.
 * Plot Hole: A few are left after the big reveal. Of particular note is this one:
 * A non-related plothole refers to how Tali and her mother are on Mindoir, despite both of them being the family of an admiral in the Fleet.
 * Plot-Sensitive Snooping Skills: Pretty much everyone (with the sole exception of ) is unable to figure out the truth behind Shepard until Shepard himself tells them, especially the characters who are tasked with looking into his activities with Cerberus in the Mass Effect 2 arc.
 * Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The parallel universe features five distinct races (articians, rastians, ra’ken, tia’zu, and exions), all with superior technology to the Mass Effect galaxy and all who have thrived longer than the Protheans. And yet, the combined population of this parallel reality is smaller than the population of Earth in the Mass Effect canon. Granted, the artician population numbered in the trillions before their untimely extinction at the hands of Cerberus, but given that most of the other races only have populations of two and a half billion or less (which is less than the current human population of planet Earth) the scale is still off.
 * Secret Keeper: Tali, Garrus, and Dr. Chakwas are the only ones who know about the parallel reality by the end of the Mass Effect 1 arc.
 * Secret Test of Character: The Oracle manages to find ways to shoehorn these in, perhaps most egregiously
 * Shout-Out:
 * The Stations of the Canon: Followed more or less religiously, despite Shepard’s coming from a parallel reality: he still has the background and psych profile (Colonist and War Hero, respectively), the plots of the first two games are still adhered to (especially in the Mass Effect 2 arc), and some parts of the Mass Effect 3 arc correlate directly to the few missions that have been revealed to be in the game. Some of the stations are easier to justify than others.
 * Technicolor Death:
 * The Theme Park Version: A lot of the more subtle parts of the galaxy’s infighting are watered down, particularly in regards to the quarian/geth conflict.
 * Waif Prophet: The Oracle, who is the spirit of a dead artician.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The exions, an AI race, are basically treated as organic beings by everyone in Shepard’s home reality. Compare and contrast the geth, who.
 * The World Is Not Ready: The most frequently cited reason for the Order waiting for so long to reveal itself to the rest of the galaxy.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: What happens when Cerberus decides to mess with artician technology. Oddly, they never call them zombies.
 * Shout-Out:
 * The Stations of the Canon: Followed more or less religiously, despite Shepard’s coming from a parallel reality: he still has the background and psych profile (Colonist and War Hero, respectively), the plots of the first two games are still adhered to (especially in the Mass Effect 2 arc), and some parts of the Mass Effect 3 arc correlate directly to the few missions that have been revealed to be in the game. Some of the stations are easier to justify than others.
 * Technicolor Death:
 * The Theme Park Version: A lot of the more subtle parts of the galaxy’s infighting are watered down, particularly in regards to the quarian/geth conflict.
 * Waif Prophet: The Oracle, who is the spirit of a dead artician.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The exions, an AI race, are basically treated as organic beings by everyone in Shepard’s home reality. Compare and contrast the geth, who.
 * The World Is Not Ready: The most frequently cited reason for the Order waiting for so long to reveal itself to the rest of the galaxy.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: What happens when Cerberus decides to mess with artician technology. Oddly, they never call them zombies.