Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect.
Three franchises from one great studio, these RPGs have been some of my favourite games, from the moment I first played KOTOR many years ago. The variations in each playthrough, the characters and choices present in each one and the elements of not just gameplay, but relationship building that Bioware has developed with each game it has released.
This Mini-series, as well as being a Tie in to a story called The Redeemer I am working on, also stands on its own, serving as a potential beginning of a larger series featuring these three franchises. Characters that will be featured prominently in this fic are on the front cover, but more characters will appear. I based the Warden's design off of Goblin Slayer, Shepard is default look and under the mask Revan is the face model with the long brown hair (my look for him in most o my playthroughs and most videos I've seen too).
Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge
Chapter 1: Merged
'Six.'
SLASH!
'Seven.'
BOOM!
'Eight, no, nine now!"
SLAM!
'And that's ten.'
He opened the palm of his hand, releasing a blast of fire that burnt the nest. As the children burned and screamed, he looked out for more. But the brood mother was already dead, her guts and entrails had decorated the cave. When the last of its spawn stopped squirming, and succumbed to the flames, he turned away.
"Twenty two," he counted.
Once he was further enough from the darkspawn caves, he removed a bit of chalk stone from his pack and etched another line into the back of his shield. It was the eighteenth day in the deep roads. His rations had run dry, his water was draining and he was operating on roughly thirty hours without sleep. Poultices and mana potions were keeping him going, as well as the adrenaline of combat, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he crashed. Continuing to walk through the deep roads, he lit up a torch with his fire magic and analysed the caverns. A month ago, he had forestalled his journey to do a job for the Inquisition. Or whatever it was now that it wasn't the Inquisition. His old friend Leliana hadn't been big on the specifics, except that one of the Inquisitors companions had been an elf god all along and was trying to destroy the world (or that was at least a simplified version). Her contacts had caught wind of a suspicious mage entering the uncharted areas of the deep roads. As the closest expert on the deep roads, he offered to help, it meant killing some darkspawn after all.
'Water,' he noted, looking up at the ceiling, a small puddle had formed beneath it. 'I must be under a river, or maybe the ocean!'
Tracing his hand over the puddle, he scanned it with his magic. It wasn't really fit to drink, water wasn't really the issue. He could always put ice and fire together to conjure water. What the real problem was, was his eyes. He could feel them getting heavier, and his throat felt thin. His stomach too growled, and he could smell the sweat and dirt underneath his armour. At some point, if he didn't stop he would make himself ill.
'It would have been safer to go with a party, but it's been a long time since you travelled with a party,' he thought.
The corridor began to brighten up, and the warden saw a series of torches leading to a tunnel. It had recently been dug by the darkspawn, but the way down it had been lit with torches. Which meant the darkspawn weren't using it, they could see in the dark and had no real use for torches. Following the path, he snuffed out his torch and drew his sword. He couldn't sense any darkspawn in the distance, but that didn't mean everything was safe. Continuing to walk through the tunnel, he narrowed his eyes as he reached the end and saw what the darkspawn had built.
It was a circular chamber, twice the size of the Harrowing ritual room at the top of the circle tower. But the function seemed very much the same, etched into the stone floor were glyphs associated with the fade, matching the kind on the floor of the Harrowing ritual room. But there were heavy modifications, hiding behind a group of rocks, the warden looked at the gathered group. They were all in cloaked garbs, standing in circles drawn with blood. There were twenty people in total, all of them looking to the centre of the ritual circle. The man was using a bottle to spread lyrium dust over the circle he stood in. He had his sleeves exposed, revealing an assortment of tattoos, all of them symbols that the warden had seen in spell books at the circle. The man was an elf, as indicated by his lanky features and long ears.
'Guess that explains Leliana's reports on a suspicious elf mage,' the warden thought.
He narrowed his eyes at the elf. The mage dropped particles of a blue crystal on the floor. At first glance it seemed like lyrium, but it didn't have the same feel as it.
"My friends," the mage suddenly spoke.
All of their eyes turned to him. He raised his arms, basking in their praise and attention. Lifting up his head, he began his address.
"We are the lowest of the low, we have lost everything because of the actions of people in this world, the disasters they created. Loghain abandoning the army at Ostagar cost some of us family, Anders blowing up the Chantry robbed us of loved ones and plunged the world into chaos, the breach led to the world's near destruction, the choices of Orlais' empress robbed us of homes. You all stand here, because no one in the world cared about you, no one in the world cares about you. I am here to say enough, no more will those in power decide that our lives are worthless, no longer will they decide how the world should be. It is time for us to rob the choice from them, behold," he reached into his robe and pulled out an arm.
It had decayed, but the Warden recognised the symbol etched into the hand.
'The Inquisitor's severed hand, damn it,' he stood, ready to intervene.
Suddenly, an arm wrapped around him and threw him across the room. The warden used his ice magic to slow his fall, but he still smacked his back against a wall. He looked towards his opponent, a giant, though it had runes carved into its skin. It was a type of control spell with blood magic. Getting up off of the floor, the warden ran towards the giant. He sidestepped at the last minute, dodging the giant's hand. Then he jumped off of the appendage, stabbing his sword through the giant's eye. Surging thunder through the blade, he electrocuted the giant until both its eye balls exploded.
"Spill your blood my friends, spill it in ways those with power never would, let this be the evidence of our anger and our pride, our lives mean nothing to us, because they have left us with nothing," the elf mage spoke with conviction in his voice, though the warden recognised it more as fanaticism.
He yanked his blade out of the giant's head and broke off into a run towards the ritual circle. Suddenly, there was a surge of red energy, and it came from the Inquisitor's old hand. The warden kept his shield raised, the circle was generating a force that slipped him back. He looked towards the circle and saw the people scream. Energy ripped their bodies apart. Some kind of wires formed on this arms, their flesh took on a hue that reminded the warden of the skin of demons. He saw the people in the circle change, turning into some kind of darkspawn variant. Plates of armour covered their chests, nozzles on their arms and their feet shifted into clawed talons. The new creatures roared, drawn into even more of a frenzy. But the elf mage was left unchanged. He simply floated off of the circle, energy surging around him. The Inquisitor's hand began to melt, seeping into the elf's. He held his fist up high and laughed.
"You're too late Amell," the mage cackled.
The Warden looked up at the mage, his sword raised to fight. With a motion of his hand, the mage called forth a breach. Everything was a blur to the warden after that. His perception of the world was distorted by darkness and he heard a great bellow, a sound that echoed through his mind. He lost his balance, falling to his knees. It was as if there had been an earthquake, as if a tornado was right in front of him.
'Impossible in the deep roads,' the warden thought.
Uncertain of what was happening, he tried to focus on the mage in front of him. He saw the mage, he was floating in the air, the ground beneath him was gone. There was some kind of monster behind him, it was massive, bigger than anything the warden had seen before. Most of it was covered by darkness, but he could see that there it had a head of some kind, wings bigger than a mountain and tentacles that were around the creature. Four eyes glowed out of the creatures head, which looked like a dragon's maw, the back of its head curved, possessing no horns.
"This is the price you will all pay, across three worlds, the kingdoms of Thedas, the republic, and the Citadel Council, YOUR GALAXIES WILL BURN! AND FROM THE ASHES! I WILL BUILD A BETTER WORLD!"
The warden suddenly began to feel a lack of air. He let go of his sword and clawed at his throat, kicking his legs about.
"I am sorry truly, you seemed to be one of the only leaders who cared about the world, but you will not be here to see the new one," the mage said, before thrusting his hand forward.
The Warden was thrown out of the darkness, and into something else entirely. It seemed like endless darkness, save for stars in the distance. He had looked up at the stars enough times to recognise them.
'Is this what I've been looking at, is this what lies beyond our world?' the Warden wondered.
He thrashed around, trying to find something to grab. But there was nothing, just this...space. He gasped, but could find nothing, feeling his throat freeze. It felt difficult to move his fingers too, his whole body was in pain.
'I'm, I'm dying, I'm going to suffocate, if I don't flash freeze first,' he thought.
Images flashed before his eyes, the battle of Ostagar, meeting so many of his friends. Sten, Oghren, Zevran, Alistair and Leliana, his dog Alpha, Shale and Morrigan. He thought of his teacher Irving, his cousin Marian and her husband Fenris, the children he had only met a few days ago. As he stopped struggling, he saw those whom weren't with him anymore. Wynn, someone who may as well have been a mother to him, dead because of the damn mage rebellion. Loghain, whom sacrificed himself so that...
'No, I refuse,' his eyes glowed red as he squeezed his hands into fists. 'I refuse to waste, HIS SACRIFICE!" Daylen Amell screamed, his form becoming like that of a ghost, before darkness enveloped him.
Cora Harper smiled as she spoke with the Pathfinder, Sara Ryder's face appeared before her as if she was really on the ship. But truthfully, it was just a projection from the Quantum Entanglement Communicator. A few months had passed since the Andromeda project's successful colonisation of Meridian. Sara was currently on humanity's new home, assisting with awakening colonists from cryo sleep. The Tempest was in another system, testing upgrades, her crew reduced in their numbers. PeeBee was on another world, looking into a Remnant vault. And Vetra was visiting her sister on the Nexus. Which left Cora in charge of Liam Kosta, a former cop and member of the original human pathfinder team, Jaal, an Angaran native of Andromeda and Nakmor Drack, a Krogan veteran.
"There's definitely been an improvement in the Propulsion system, it took ten minutes off of our flight time," Cora stated.
"The research team at the Nexus projected a fifteen cut in flight time, guess they'll be disappointed," Sara said.
"How are things on Meridian?" Cora asked.
"We've got a few people up, more hands means we can get housing up faster, we've managed to get some of the Remnant drones to help out, but we could still use some more help so get back as soon as you can," Sara explained.
"No problem Pathfinder, no," Cora paused.
Sara's image flickered for a moment, the air grew heavier and Cora felt the Tempest shake. On the bridge, Salarian pilot Kallo Jath looked out into space, everything seemed to be distorted for a moment. Then the planets changed, one appearing right in front of the Tempest. Caught in the gravity well, Kallo jerked the controls and pulled the Tempest up.
"What's happening out there?" Jaal asked over the comm.
"Drive core just flickered and then lit up like a storm, felt that gravity shift, Kallo?" the Tempest's chief engineer Gil Brodie called out.
"Sara, have we got you back?" Cora asked.
"Something really weird just happened here guys, wait..." Sara paused, her image fading for a moment.
Then the sound of explosions began echoing over the channel. Liam ran to Cora's side, his face mirroring her shock.
"Guys, ships have hit Meridian's atmosphere, they're attacking us," Sara suddenly appeared, holding her rifle.
There was an explosion and Sara let out a cry, lunging forward and out of view. Cora and Liam heard her breathing and shooting her rifle. There was something else too, some kind of gunfire sound that neither Cora or Liam had heard before. It wasn't their weapons, Remnant or Kett.
"Guys, how long until you can get back? We need help here!"
When the line went dead, Cora and Liam ran to the bridge.
"Kallo, get us back to Meridian," Cora commanded.
"I would Cora, but we're not where we were before, these stars don't match anything in our records," Kallo said.
"What the hell's going on?" Drack demanded, stomping onto the bridge.
His words matched the thoughts of everyone in the galaxy.
They listened, listened to all manner of communication and alien languages through the communicator. Samantha Traynor was adjusting the settings, doing what she could to boost the signal, and Liara T'Soni was aiding her, using her Intel as Shadow Broker, and her extensive knowledge of alien cultures to identify languages and other reference points in the communication chatter.
"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! CALLING ALL STRIKE TEAMS! THE NEXUS IS UNDER ATTACK!"
"ANY REPUBLIC SHIPS IN THE AREA!"
"Coruscant has been breached, unknown enemy..."
Liara and Sam traded uneasy expressions. All of it sounded very new to them. Their commander however had a look of anger across his face, and he narrowed his eyes at the Quantum communicator.
"Try to get a hold of Admiral Hackett, find out what's happened and how far spread it is," said Commander John Shepard, First Human Spectre, captain of the Normandy and as confused as the rest of the galaxy was.
He walked out of the communications centre, making his way through CIC, taking data pads from crewmen. The man stopped as his first officer and best friend passed him.
"Garrus," Shepard said.
"Bit of a panic on the lower deck Shepard, quite a sight on the observation decks though, never seen star phenomenon quite like what I've just seen," Garrus said.
"I'll have to check it out sometime, how are our weapons?"
"Please Shepard, you know what my answer is going to be," Garrus shrugged his shoulders as he walked off.
"More calibrations," Shepard muttered.
He made his way to the bridge, joining his fellow alliance officer and friend Ashley Williams.
"What's the situation Joker?" he asked the helmsman.
"Still a whole lot of questions, my baby's a little sluggish, hit a debris field earlier and almost got eaten by some kind of worm," Joker explained.
"That was not a joke," said EDI, the android squad mate and AI of the Normandy sat in the co-pilot seat.
"Everything looks different, dirty, I've never heard of space being 'dirty' before," Ashley said.
"Yeah," Shepard muttered.
There was a yellow mixed in with the black of space, all of the stars were blue, so different from what Shepard remembered looking up at from Mindoir as a child.
"Our star charts no longer seem to be relevant Commander, our previous position was the Artemis Tau cluster, now we are in a completely different system," EDI explained.
"A sudden shift in time and space, new factions mentioned on broadcasts, and alien languages we've never encountered before. This is impossible, but then again I would have said the same thing about the Reapers a few years ago," Shepard explained.
"What are you thinking Shepard?" Ashley asked.
"I think that..."
Suddenly, there was a great boom and the Normandy shook.
"We've just been hit, some kind of plasma based discharge, from a ship of unknown design and origin," EDI stated.
"Slipping into evasive manoeuvres," Joker said.
"Ship speed has increased, several more heat sources are breaking off of the ship, fighters of some kind," EDI added.
"Find us a way out of here Joker!"
"Yes sir!"
"MRAAOR!"
"I know Big Z, I always thought you smelt, but that armour, phew!"
"Shows what you know little girl, this armour is built for hunting, the smell is for blocking out his own scent from whatever he's hunting."
"A little something you picked up on Kashyyk?"
"This man is definitely a warrior, I know scars like that."
"But that armour, how does someone from a back water world that still uses iron and shields manage to end up in space, and how did he survive for that matter?"
"I can sense massive amounts of energy inside of him, I think this man is the same as the beings attacking the republic, a being capable of manipulating energy and the elements."
"It's more than that, I felt it, this man in a act of total desperation drew a massive amount of power into his body, making it exist in two different dimensions at the same time. I'm going to wake him, be ready!"
"Oh I will be ready to shoot this meat bag master!"
"Awaken, awaken NOW!"
"LOGHAIN!" the Warden yelled.
He fell off of the table he was set on, stumbled forward and leant against the wall. The material felt like metal, but so much different from the alloys he had touched in Thedas. He let out a few deep breaths, wiping the sweat off of his brow. Feeling people's eyes on his back, he turned and faced those whom had awakened him. They were all prepared to fight him. Three held the same sort of swords, energy swords. One was a cat lady of some kind, using a blue energy blade. The second was an old, dark skinned human man, bald and with a rough beard. He held in his hand a green energy blade. The third was another human, young and beautiful, though her expression was firm. With both hands she gripped a staff that had two yellow energy blades attached to it.
Alongside them was a tall, human shaped but furry creature, holding a red and green sword. Next to him, trying to keep on his side, but always protected by him was a teenage girl. Oddly, she had blue skin and some kind of tentacle like tails on her head. She held in her hand some kind of device that she had pointed at him. It was the same kind of device a brown armoured man was pointing at him, though he certainly didn't stand like a man.
'Some kind of golem perhaps?' the warden wondered.
Two other humans held the same kind of devices. The brown haired one wore an orange uniform jacket and held two of the devices in his hands. The more rugged, grey haired one had a larger, cylinder shaped device in his hands. Next to him was an odd looking metal creature, its little head bopping as it beeped. Only one of the group didn't have a weapon drawn. He was a brown haired man, standing with his arms raised diplomatically.
"Who the hell are you people? What's going on?" the warden asked.
"We were hoping you could tell us the same thing, let's start over, my name is Revan and unless my instincts are wrong I believe we are from completely different universes!"
Next Chapter 2: The Cult of Merged sorrows
Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, wanted to keep it short and to the point, with future chapters being longer. Next time, the antagonists are fully introduced.