Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, Dragon Age and Mass Effect

The villains are my original creations.

Another update, for what may be another favourite series of mine. Three great Bioware game universes joined together.

Having begun to recently play another re-released Bioware published game on the Xbox network, I may possibly include just a couple of characters or references from that. But the focus is still very much the three franchises I'm currently including.


Gathering Darkness: Bio-Merge

Chapter 2: The Cult of Merged Sorrows

Red lyrium, Reaper tech and demonic possession had augmented once ordinary men into elite fighters. Monsters that were capable of decimating republic border outposts. Republic soldiers fended off wave after waves of the cultists. Mages led the charge, bound in their red robes, with Mandalorian vambrances and armour and Omni-tech glowing across their staves. On citadel council worlds, Krogan faced off in brutal combat with equally fierce races, Wookie's corrupted by the Blight, their eyes glowing red and bodies as big as bears. Then, Mandalorians landed on the field with their jetpacks, firing their blasters and missiles at the Krogan lines. There was no fear from the Krogan, if anything they revelled in the chance to fight a warrior race, through combat a respect between these races formed that was stronger than the Krogan and Wookie bond.

In space, Turian and Asari fleets were suddenly attacked by ships exciting light speed. A fleet of cult ships based on the Sith designs, though painted with lines of red. Alongside their turbo lasers, they launched into the Asari and Turian ships drill missiles. The missiles attached to the hull of the ship, and the boarding parties inside entered the ships. Warriors in red lyrium armour ignited red light sabres in the Asari ship. The Asari defenders fired their rifles and attacked with biotics. A singularity was suddenly shrunk by one red warrior's lightning. He then launched a blast of fire from the singularity, burning the soldiers in front of him. Other warriors rushed the Asari ranks, cutting them down with their light sabres, matching their biotics with the less flashy, but no less devastating force. In the Turian ships, Kath Hounds corrupted by the Blight and Reaper tech ran through the hallways, suddenly teleporting behind ranks of Turian defenders, sinking their teeth into their jugulars. Ships of the Citadel council forces fell, and the cult ships flew towards the Citadel colony worlds.


Val Royeaux

A single night was all it took for the defences of the fortress to collapse. How could Templars defend against the likes of blasters, biotics and artillery. Cult troopers had dominated the grand hall of the Divine. The Cathedral had partly collapsed from the assault, and a few Chantry priests had been taken hostage. Divine Victoria herself was bound in chains, chains of energy formed from technology the likes of which Thedas had never seen before. Leliana was confident in her abilities to pick locks, the best locksmiths in Orlais couldn't match her, but she knew she was helpless against what was binding her. It was just too advanced, magic she understood, not whatever the cult had brought to the lands of Thedas.

"After all these years, I finally see a Divine on her knees," a voice said at the end of the Cathedral.

He walked between the benches, towards the alter Leliana had been put in front of. His clothes were red, but the armour over those clothes was black and gold. A twisted fusion of a warden and Inquisitor helmet partly covered his face, save for his glowing red eyes and smirk. The red eyes did not remind Leliana of a man she used to know, rather they made her recall the eerie glow of red lyrium, which she saw when the spy master of the Inquisition.

"Though I was hoping the Divine would be more deserving of such treatment, lift her up," he commanded the troopers behind Leliana.

The man took hold of Leliana's chin, turning her face and looking at her.

"I had heard that the new Divine was beautiful and kind, that the world she was building was one of compassion and fairness, for your efforts you have my respect and gratitude," the man explained.

"You attacked Orlais, decimated our cities and now hold myself and my clerics hostage, and you express gratitude to us," Leliana said, her voice thick with objection and defiance.

For though Leliana prided her reign as the divine as one that abolished the circle towers and encouraged equality between the races, she was not unwilling to fight or even kill to protect it.

"You have my gratitude, for at least trying to change things," the stranger said. "But it is too little too late!" his voice turned into a snarl as he raised his hand.

A staff suddenly appeared in his hand, surrounded by red lightning. Looking at the altar with a glare, the mage threw a bolt of lightning that blew the holy relic apart.

"Drag them to a transport ship, and burn this wretched place to the ground," the stranger said.

"Who are you anyway?" Leliana demanded.

"We are those wronged by the Chantry, the council, the republic, and we will not rest until all of these organisations are destroyed," the stranger raised his hand, creating multiple bolts of lightning that sparked fires all around the cathedral, blowing portions of the rock and breaking apart some of the floors.


Deep Space

The Normandy was being chased by an unknown enemy. It was a situation many in the new universe were sharing. Joker easily avoided the Turbo lasers fired by the pursuing capital ship. But the fighters were a more difficult opponent. The Normandy swerved and dived, but it would need to build up speed, speed it couldn't build up with the fighters. They fired their blasters, hitting the surface of the Normandy and triggering fires on some of the decks. In Engineering, Tali coordinated a few rescue crews as Gabby and Ken saw to the damaged propulsion systems.

"Any identification so far EDI?" Shepard asked, running to the bridge.

"Are you kidding me? All we've had is cannon fire, maybe that's a greeting where they're from," Joker said.

"What do you mean?"

"What Jeff is referring to Commander is the fact that scans have revealed alloys on the ships not identified on any periodic table, as well as energy signatures that do not match any researched before. The enemy ship also appeared to have used a form of faster of light travel not aided by Mass Effect fields," EDI explained. "However, they do possess AI technology similar to our own, it matching the kind Cerberus researched when they created me!"

Her eyes flickered for a moment and she collapsed on the chair.

"EDI!" Joker turned to his co-pilot and girlfriend in concern.

At that moment, an object struck the ship. Joker turned to the monitor and saw that the top of the Normandy was highlighted red.

"We've got some kind of breach, something's infiltrating the internal circuits, its burnt through the weapon's cooling system," Joker explained.

"Commander, Jeff, I am engaged in electronic warfare with the pursuing ship's AI, it is brutal and powerful," EDI flinched, struggling to even speak.

"Damn it, whatever is inside the Normandy is working its way to Engineering," Jeff said.

"Tali, seal off the access corridor, Allers you'd better get out of there, calmly make your way to the elevator, Ashley meet me there with a gun," Shepard commanded over the radio.

He ran to the elevator, drawing from his back his N7 Valkyrie rifle, when the elevator door opened, battle space reporter Diana Allers stepped out, behind her, clad in her blue clothes and holding an M-15 Vindicator was Ashley. She nodded to Shepard as he pushed the button to take them to Engineering. By the time they got there, Shepard's additional squad mate was already there. Javik kept his particle rifle at the ready, his four eyes sneering as he scanned the ceiling.

"Try not to blow any holes in the wall Shepard," Tali said over the radio.

"No promises Tali," Shepard activated his Omni-tool and began scanning the ceiling. "Anything?" he looked to Javik who sneered.

"The Quarian didn't want us to blow up the walls, but that is exactly where the enemy is," Javik stated.

Green energy coursed around him, his biotics manifested, preparing to strike whatever would melt through the walls. Shepard switched his Omni-tool to blade mode and Ashley aimed her rifle at a glow of orange that appeared on the wall. Multiple glows began to form, two, six, ending at ten. Shepard braced himself, before the melted sections of the ceiling came down as molten slag. The enemies came down from the ceiling, some kind of spider like robots that were neither Geth designed or Reaper. Ashley and Shepard fired their rifles, breaking apart some of the droids. Red crystals of some kind had been imbedded in their armour, releasing pulses that disrupted shields. Javik slammed several of the droids into the walls and fired his particle beam in a wide arc, cutting three apart. Ashley slammed her foot down hard on one of the droids, breaking it. Then she fired her rifle at the others, ejecting the spent thermal clip. Shepard released a few bursts from his rifle before slashing one of the droids in half.

"Joker, you getting us out of here?" Shepard asked.

"Little difficult when I've got annoying little bugs to deal with," Joker said.

"You're welcome to come down here," Ashley retorted as more droids came down from the ceiling.

One imbedded itself in the wall, beginning to melt through it. Javik however delivered a biotic push, crushing the droid.

On the pursuing capital ship of the cult, the captain of the vessel stood watching the Normandy. His four eyes glared at the ship. He wore a red military styled uniform, some of his yellow skin was brown, a sign of burnt skin for his species. The Batarian man turned to his first officer, a Twi'lek woman, green skinned with her species signature head tails and signature beauty expected of females of her species.

"Captain Dalak, Our fighters have confirmed that the Normandy's propulsion systems are damaged to the point where it will not escape our pursuit, from this range we could destroy the ship," she explained.

"Well done Camaria, but we will be capturing the Normandy, not destroying it," Captain Dalak said.

"Sir, with respect, I have heard from the crew of your universe how tenacious Commander Shepard is, his reputation for escaping death, surely it would be more logical to simply destroy the ship."

Dalak turned to Camaria and huffed.

"Why did you join the cult Camaria?" he asked.

"That is a deeply personal question Captain," she said.

"I conducted my business in Citadel space, not slavery but mercenary work. I never agreed with my people's fascination with slavery, so I never particularly had any love for my home land. What I did love though was my family, and the man who killed my family is on that ship," Dalak narrowed his eyes at the Normandy and raised his hand. "If the next wave of droids fails to cripple the Normandy's systems, then you will have permission to destroy the ship!"

"Yes sir," Camaria said, then gave the order across CIC.

Joker felt the Normandy shake from another shot from the fighters. He was able to fire one of the javelins, destroying one of the pursuers. But they were nimble, what they lacked in their top speed and durability, they made up for with manoeuvrability. Inside the engineering division, Tali was done putting out another fire when she saw several spider droids in the vents. She summoned her combat drone, getting it to hit the droids with electronic pulses.

"If this keeps up, they'll either damage the drive core, or severe its connection to key systems," she said.

"We need a way out and quickly," Shepard said.

He shot a droid and then put his rifle on his back, switching to his M-11 Suppressor. After shooting a couple of droids, he contacted the bridge again.

"Bad time to chime in Commander, EDI looks like she's having some kind of seizure," Joker said.

"Garrus, report on the weapon's system, and if you say calibrating I'll..."

"Sorry commander, too busy calibrating the gun!"

Shepard cursed before he crushed a droid with his foot. The Normandy shook and an explosion blew open the area where the armoury previously was near CIC. Fires consumed the Captain's cabin, Shepard's models and personal affects were broken and spread across the floor. Liara ran out of her quarters, coughing due to the smoke inhalation from her consoles burning.

"Are you all right Liara?" Shepard asked.

"I'm fine John," Liara coughed.

She held her head, feeling an immense pain.

"There's something, Shepard, I feel, great hatred," she fainted, falling head first onto the floor.

"Liara," Shepard called out.

A droid suddenly jumped onto Shepard's back, releasing a pulse that made Shepard yell in agony. Cracks form on his left cheek, his Cerberus cybernetics glowing with his left eye. With great effort and a determined yell, Shepard yanked the droid off of his back, and threw it across the room. Ashley then shot the droid apart.

"Hold together, hold together," Joker chanted.

He widened his eyes, seeing something in the distance. Weighing his options, he determined the best course for the Normandy to survive and took his chance. Igniting what was left of the Normandy's thrusters, he pushed the Normandy towards what he saw.

"If anyone can hear me, this is the SSR Normandy, we need immediate support," Joker yelled into the radio.

One of the cult fighters, targeted the Normandy, preparing to release its missiles. Suddenly, a flurry of red bolts slammed into the fighter. Numerous red and silver, triangular fighters came out of the darkness of space, followed by a flurry of green turbo laser fire. The fighters began shooting at the fighters pursuing the Normandy, forming a defensive formation around it. In one of the fighters, a human man with dark hair flew alongside the Normandy. Though he couldn't see Joker, he knew that the Normandy's pilot must somehow be able to see him. The young man raised two fingers into a salute, smirking before he swerving and shooting down two fighters.

"All right Sol squadron, let's show these boys how to fly in our turf," the man said.

"Commander Biggs, that may be an inaccurate assessment, considering we may not even be in 'our turf'," said a Bothan with a wide girth.

"Whatever Porkins," Biggs said.

"It's Porko," the Bothan said.

"Like that's so much better," a blonde haired human woman said.

She shot down two fighters, then flew under the Normandy, intercepting a torpedo. Two fighters then came down either side of the Normandy, inside both two identical, blue skinned Twi'lek women targeted another group of fighters. Performing twists and crossing one another's flight paths, the twin fighters decimated their targets with a flurry of blaster fire. Joker caught sight of what he had seen in the distance. It was a fleet of ships, the likes of which he hadn't seen before. At the front was a red and silver hulled monster, the front of the ship had a hammerhead like shape and fired emerald beams from the cannons on its side. A weak signal came over the radio, the voice of a woman around Admiral Hackett's age.

"This is Admiral Dodonna with the republic fleet, we read you Normandy, follow our instructions and you just might make it through this, we have medical teams on standby, have your crew disarm themselves and fly to the Vigilance's hanger," she explained.

Left with little choice, Joker did as the admiral suggested. Chakwas and Garrus carried Liara into the medical bay, blue blood leaking from a cut on her head. In engineering, Ashley was supporting Shepard, who looked at his scarred visage through the window's reflection. His vision began to blur and he nearly collapsed.

"We made it Shepard, we made it," Ashley repeated to him, helping him walk to the elevator.

On the pursuing cult ship, Dalak turned away from the widow, putting his hands behind his back.

"Begin our retreat, get us out of this system," he commanded.


Coruscant

A shadow flew over the Republic, one that had decimated much of the fleet protecting the Republic's capital. Cult troopers marched through the streets, massive Eirochs from the Andromeda cluster and armoured Kath Hounds forced people into pens. Walls of energy trapped the prisoners, soldiers and civilians alike. Robed men and women, members of the Jedi order were dragged into circles, complex runes formed with blood. Cult mages then lit the runes up, drawing screams from the Jedi. Their bodies were ripped apart by the demons infesting them, turning them into abominations. Many buildings within the city had been set aflame, and gunships flew around the Chancellor's tower. Screams and the surge of electricity echoed through the Chancellor's quarters. A man in black and red armour walked through the corridors towards the Chancellor's room. A cloak was flapping over his right shoulder, an a smooth, silver light sabre was attached to his belt. When he walked into the room, the troopers turned to see the glowing red eyes of his helmet. They stepped aside, revealing a man in expensive robes kneeling on the floor, panting from the torture he was enduring. His tormentors stood over him, one a Twi'lek woman with red skin, a severed head tail and robotic arm being her most prominent features. She wore a red robe over a black body suit, lightning streaking from her finger tips. Beside her, a brown haired man with a black mask over his mouth stood with his arms crossed.

"Qira, Talos, that's enough," the new arrival said.

"Yes master," both said, stepping aside so that the masked man could look at their victim. "Supreme Chancellor Tol Cressa, at last we finally meet," he said.

"Whoever you are, my death changes nothing, the republic will still..." the masked man raised his hand, making the Chancellor gag and clutch at his throat.

No matter how hard the man struggled, the pressure on his throat didn't stop. The masked man lifted the Chancellor off of the floor, and two cult troopers grabbed him by his shoulders. The man gasped for air and coughed, panting and looking at the masked man in fear.

"My apprentices treated you unfairly, their hatred is often misguided, Qira grew up amongst Twi'lek migrants you see, but they were always driven away from any potential home. The republic preaches freedom and fairness, but it wasn't fair to her people, especially when the place they were able to settle on was one of the first places hit by the Mandalorians," the masked man explained.

"Is that what this is about? The Republic's actions when the Mandalorians began their war with us?" the chancellor asked.

"I understand you've based your career on the votes of the senate, on the 'will of the people', but the people were wrong to abandon those they could not see, those whom did not have a voice in that overpriced building you run your ridiculous hearings in. I understand you're just one cog in a machine that is the republic, a machine we of the Merged Sorrows intend to break down," again the masked man raised his hand and levitated the chancellor off of the floor.

Droids floated around the chancellor and the masked man, recording and displaying the event across the planet.

"We have already declared war on you, the Republic, the Citadel council, the Chantry, let this be a declaration of our intent," with a twist of his wrist, the masked man broke the helpless Chancellor's neck, much to the horror of the people watching.


Kirkwall

People had been gathered at the spot where the Chantry once was. It was nothing more than a ruin, the first casualty in the mage war triggered by the actions of a rebel mage. Now it had been turned into a staging ground for the declaration of intent. People had been gathered around a podium, to watch the Stranger. Cult troopers had surrounded much of the crowd, but it was the mechanical walkers really keeping anyone from doing anything. Even the captain of the Guard, Aveline Vallen was a prisoner. Amongst the crowd were two hooded men, a blonde haired dwarf with facial tattoos and a red haired dwarf with a thick bushy beard.

"The Intel said she would be here right?" the dwarf asked.

"Hush," said the elf.

They looked up at the Stranger as he whistled, signalling the crowd to stop whispering amongst themselves.

"This place was where much of the hardship that consumed this land began, or so some would lead you to believe. But the truth is, the hardships of Thedas began much earlier. It began when men tried to interpret the words and actions of another, Andraste, it began when she claimed to be bride of the Maker. It began when the very term god was made, because in truth, the Maker...IT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A SYMBOL TO ESTABLISH CONTROL OF THE WORLD!" he roared and the crowd began to yell in outrage.

A man with a poncho and hat on raised his blaster and fired a few bolts into the air. The crowd was silenced and the man span the pistol with his finger before putting it in his holster.

"The Chantry has claimed to represent the Maker, to embody the goodness of the world, yet it has orchestrated or even carried out genocide, it has trapped children, denying them the contact they would need to be human, to feel anything besides hatred or devotion to an organisation that abuses them and brainwashes them. An organisation that pretends it stands for equality, yet carries out acts of segregation and hatred, and continually fears and abuses that which it doesn't want to understand," the Stranger clicked his fingers and two troopers brought out their prisoner.

She was in a simple white robe, her religious symbols all taken from her. Roughly placed at the centre of the podium, mere feet from the Stranger, the red haired beauty looked through the crowd. Upon seeing the blonde elf reach for a knife at his belt, she subtly shook her head, an action he saw and understood.

"Leliana," the dwarf whispered.

"No," the elf grabbed him by his shoulder and shook his head.

"This one," the Stranger pointed his finger at Leliana. "She became Divine in the aftermath of the great breach in our world, and she strove to turn the Chantry into what it should be. She tore down the towers and established systems to empower mages to control their abilities, not imprison them. She encouraged equality, understanding the views of others, respecting their race and culture. She stands as perhaps the personification of all that could be good about the Chantry," he explained.

Slowly he raised his hand and electricity began to course through it. It gradually formed the silhouette of a blade protruding from his fist. The dwarf snarled, and the elf's grip on him tightened.

"Changing the Chantry though, is not our intent, the systems that created our sorrows will not survive the coming purge," the Stranger said.

"Maker, have mercy on their souls, guide them to your loving arms, guide all to your loving arms, lead us away from the darkness in this time of strife," Leliana put her hands together and prayed.

When the Stranger put the blade to her neck, she knelt, to better pray. But there was still no fear in her body language, or in her voice. And it wasn't out of fear, that she closed her eyes, but faith. The Stranger pulled his arm back.

"Goodbye my love!" she whispered.

The dwarf's yell was muffled by the elf's hand on his mouth, and the screams of the crowd. The Stranger grabbed the Divine's head and raised it up.

"The Republic, the Council, and ESPECIALLY THE CHANTRY! WILL ALL BE DESTROYED!" he roared.

Zevran looked up at the Stranger, holding the head of his friend in a declaration of intent. He grit his teeth together in pure fury. But now wasn't the time, he needed to deliver the news to his friend he and Oghren had to find the Warden.

Next Chapter 3: Meetings


Leliana's one of my favourite companions, so doing that was not easy. The Warden will find out later.

Next time, Shepard meets Admiral Dodonna and some members of the Jedi order. Plus the Warden and the Ebon Hawk crew land on a planet and meet some very lost Andromeda Iniative members.