Disclaimer: All Characters, lore, and locations of Mass Effect and BioWare belong to BioWare. The story is of my own thought.

Inspired by totallybursar's Stars Fade. Please for the love of all that is beautiful, read this story, Stars Fade is a work of art. The writing is superb!

Chapter Title: Courtesy of 30 Seconds to Mars for their awesome inspiration.

"Closer To The Edge: Part 1"

2184CE: Six months after Subject Icarus incident

Connecting to secure Cerberus OEC network...Connection established.

The imaged shimmer as the Illusive Man looked on towards the QEC platform. Within a few moments, the image finally settled, a man in lab coat handing off a data-pad to a figure in the back ground. The Illusive Man took a puff of his cigarette, tipping the ash into the tray as he began to speak;

"Dr. Finnegan, I hope that you have progress to report."

The Doctor looked disheveled, rubbing the back of his neck with the palm of his hand, "I wouldn't call what I have to deal with progress, sir…"

"Hmm, I would was hoping to hear something a little more informative, Doctor, especially with the incident your facility suffered those months ago." The Illusive stared at the good Doctor, with the Doctor staring right back into those artificial eyes that the Illusive Man mysteriously obtained. The Doctor was disturbed by the fact that the Illusive Man had known about the incident…two guards dead and an assault on the Doctor was definitely easier to cover up then missing C-Sec reports about a certain patient they had received.

"Sir, the reason I don't have anything to report because there is nothing to report…my initial findings were…misguided. The man we have taken is nothing but mentally disturbed…I've seen this many times in my previous work. The man is suffering from a sort of delusion and possibly is under the stress of some degenerative disease," the doctor said.

"Degenerative disease? Do you have any findings on that?" the Illusive man inquired.

"No sir…we have focused our 'resources' into Subject Icarus's interrogation…He is a resilient example of humanity… even under the influence of some of the strongest sedatives, he remains alert and aware. Biotic suppression…is increasingly becoming erratic and random. The extent to his abilities is rare, if not surprising."

"So he is genetically modified?" The Illusive Man asked again.

"Not to my knowledge…if he is part of an alliance program…I don't suppose you know of anything that refers to a group called the Wardens, sir?" the doctor stared at the Illusive Man, trying to scan his reaction on his boss's face.

"No I do not good Doctor, but I am unimpressed by this attempt to interest my curiosity. Months ago you promised me answers that could improve humanities knowledge of the galaxy, of the Reapers. Your failures are not impressive; all you have done is drug a prime example of humanity to a reduced brain-damaged man. Yes, good doctor, I have records to everything that happens in all of Cerberus's cells. Your actions are all documented."

"I can apparently see that, sir," the Doctor said between his teeth.

"But I'll be cooperative and throw you the proverbial bone. I'm only giving you one more shot Doctor, if the subject is unreliable for information, as you subtlety put it. I suggest you transfer the subject to Project Phoenix. But for now, you have a few more months to work with him."

The doctor moved back, stunned from Illusive Man's decision. . . "Sir, that is highly premature…we have not even gotten a chance to get an answer for his home planet!"

"You had six months Doctor to those kinds of answers; colonies are disappearing, sooner or later. Shepard is going to be awake soon and we need answers. And if you can't find me any to these blackouts or this man's relation to those keeper tunnels…I'm afraid Project Phoenix will be able to tell me why he can manipulate something so primal as fire," the Illusive Man said, the Doctor stilled stunned by the entire conversation, a conversation that was ridiculing him in front of his operatives in the room. No doctor should have to hear such orders as vagrant as "cleaning up shop." "Goodbye, Doctor Finnegan."

Connection terminated….

Finnegan looked down at the metallic floor, thinking about his apparent humiliation received by the Illusive Man. But despite this, his anger festered. He looked up, staring at the men and women in lab-coats around him. He looked around as the hologram display was moving into QEC platform.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I may have no future, but you young-ings still need to find a job after this is all over," he said softly, lifting his head to face the small crowd around him, "Well? Back to work! Now!" The crowd started scurrying about, the lights and images popping back and forth between the screens of the terminals. Finnegan stepped off the platform, walking towards a large window, angled away from him. He leaned on the rail before the window, his Omni-tool shining around his arm, a voice coming from holographic wonder.

"Sir…we're ready to begin the procedure."

"Affirmative, Dr. Eisley…Begin the ECT procedure," Finnegan announced.

Finnegan looked down into the room below from the observation room. The observation was designed to give the head of the project full view of any procedures occurring at once. All procedures were recorded and all information that was displayed for the operatives in the rooms below, were being translated and recorded into the Project's databases, databases that would be transmitted directly into the Cerberus network per the Illusive Man's design. The observation room was a room designed to peer into operating rooms. All the rooms were separating and designed to follow a hexagonal path of the observation room's layout. The observation room had a small path outlining the inner rows of terminals, where a railing was place to prevent leaning and falling onto the glass. Each window frame and walls of the rooms were outlined with kinetic barrier generators, to prevent escape of the patients.

Finnegan, as head of the Project and the sight on the Citadel, was however not the architect who designed the facility; that honest claim was the project's last head of operations. Finnegan stared at Dr. Eisley, who stared right back up into the observation room, with two Omni-tool ECT programs around her hands, both hovering over the head of a patient strapped intensely to the procedure table. Finnegan nodded, and Eisley nodded right back, quickly turning her attention to the patient at hand, sighing;

"Operation: 6.7, Dr. Eisley of Neurology-Wing head of procedure, Subject Icarus, Patient is due for Electric Compulsive Therapy…Voltage has been unspecified by project head. . . Patient is currently sedated. We estimate thirty minutes until subject is lucid enough to become hostile. Beginning Procedure…"

The Omni-tools made contact with Nihlus's head; his eyes shooting wide open as the electric current flows through his head, the energy of his "biotics" arcing out into the room, several pulses of energy pushing assistants to fall backwards. The doctors and assistants, still standing of course, immediately backed off, with one of the assistants cursing out;

"Shit, shut it down, shut it down!" Eisley immediately turned the voltage off, disconnected her Omni-tools from Nihlus's lobe. She immediately turned off the holographs, and stared towards Dr. Finnegan's direction in the observation room, shouting out;

"What the fuck was that, Finnegan! I'm trying not to get killed here by some human biotic freak of nature! He was supposed to be completely shut downed!"

"It appears our calculations were wrong Dr. Eisley…" the good doctor said through his Omni-tool's microphone, "It seems interrogation will be moved up. Close up shop, transfer him back to his room…and please do it calmly without killing our guest."

"….Yes Dr. Finnegan."

2185CE: Normandy SR-2, Citadel Docks

As the Normandy's airlock commenced its decontamination process, Shepard was leaning against the wall, facing her two teammates who were anxiously waiting for the whole process to be over. Both Garrus, a turian with a renegade attitude, and Kasumi, the enigmatic master thief, who has had every chance to take Shepard's offer in helping her with a certain "heist;" both of these two were both at the top of their game, their profession, and their lives. To Shepard, they were her "pet project," her most trusted of comrades, but to the point, could they trust her? She listened to Garrus's story of his team's demise, and the traitor, Sidonis. If Shepard ever had a traitor on her own team…it would not end well for anyone. But to her, deep inside herself, she just couldn't stop feeling disappointed in herself. She looked on to the two specialists, thinking to her;

"How could they trust me? When I can't be trusted by the whole galaxy…This blasted station…I saved it two years ago…And still now the Council can't even give me the benefit of the doubt about the Reapers. And Liara…two years and I couldn't even get close. Not even close enough to hold her hand…her…"

"Shepard?" Shepard woke from her slight distraction, the decontamination process had ended, and all that remained was the constant buzzing. EDI then spoke up; "Shepard, it would be best if you could exit the airlock, it would be a shame if Specialists Vakarian and Goto report to C-Sec without your presence."

"Duly noted, EDI." Shepard shifted her now-repaired recon hood in her hands, then pulling it over her head, shuffling her hair under the hood to attain some form of comfort. The hood soon connected with the rest of her body armor, her Heads-Up-Display, immediately powering up into the goggles of her hoods. She took her pistol off her side mag-holster, letting it unfold in her hands as she cocked the Phalanx's slide into place, checking it another time to make sure it had a Thermal clip. Ever since Torfan, for Shepard, it had become an obsession to be always prepared, even if she was going to somewhere as "safe" as the Citadel. Satisfied, she stepped out of the airlock, the Normandy's door shutting behind her. Her two squad-mates were awaiting her by the Skycar terminal, which seemed to be arguing with each other as well.

"I told you Vakarian, ladies always get first pick," Kasumi said, nudging her hand into Garrus's armor plate. His mandible's twitched, looking at the thief with a cold but over-confident state;

"I'm sorry, what was that? I can't hear you over how fast I'm picking the damn taxi."

"Really guys? I expect these things from children." Shepard yelped up, her voice echoing through her hood's, synthesized material, "Get a damn taxi and let's get this show on the road. Kasumi gets the pick."

"Yes!" the thief celebrated, muttering underneath her breath.

"Pfft, spoilsport," the turian said towards the commander and then looking back at Kasumi, "You win this round, Goto." Kasumi simply pushed Garrus out of the way and rapidly picked out a generic skycar, and the automated VI soon delivered the vehicle to the garage, stopping right in front of Shepard and company. The squad soon got into the car, and Shepard punched in their destination, the skycar immediately taking off to the C-Sec office in Zakera Ward.

As the skycar was passing the endless amount of traffic and the buildings of the Citadel ward, Garrus decided to break the silence;

"So are we actually going to have a reason to go to C-Sec or are we going to end up just walking around the Citadel for no reason looking at every shop in the wards?"

Shepard covered head just looked at Garrus; Garrus knew that even behind that covered face of hers, she still had the same scowl of hers, the same scowl that just yelled "I'll beat you with a chair leg and watch you bleed from the proverbial ear." Kasumi, intrigued lean over the front seats, asking;

"Yeah, come on Shep, might as well let us know, you know I'll find out eventually."

"Fine," Shepard sighed, summoning up her Omni-tool and relaying the Cerberus package to their tools. As they downloaded the data package, Shepard resumed saying, "Sorry for the lack of a brief, had some other things on my mind. The Illusive Man didn't give us much info, but one of their facilities went dark here on the Citadel, wants us to investigate."

"I'm sure you did Shepard…Wait. Cerberus had operatives and facilities on the Citadel? Surprised nothing like that ever showed up," Garrus said, his mandibles flinching as he looked through the package. Kasumi leaned back into her seat, scrolling through data;

"Not surprising really. What I've heard of Cerberus, it is things like what happened to Admiral Kahoku that makes them almost as mysterious as me. What's more interesting is this mysterious man they have held up."

"Unknown," Shepard said through her hood. "The Illusive Man only referred him as Subject Icarus. But he did give us some leads. Bailey might have some knowledge on him. Apparently, he arrested the man a year back, sent him to some psyche ward."

"Sarawak's Mental Sanatorium?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah. You've heard of it Garrus?" Shepard asked, still facing the front of the skycar, looking forward into traffic.

"Few of my arrests went sent there. Never actually set foot in the place. Always human arrests too…I didn't quite put two and two together. But if Bailey is our contact…then it might be safe to say our resident captain is a bit dirty," he said, his voice flanging up in a small display of disgust.

"If he keeps the peace, I don't care how he does it. He's not hurting innocents. Cerberus had operatives in the facility, Bailey could have possibly not have known. Our mission is to get to Bailey, find the sanatorium, and find the facility."

"There's more than one?" Kasumi inquired.

"The Illusive Man failed to mention the actual location. Apparently only getting the facility back online is the primary goal. No recovery," Shepard shrugged.

"So we're going to let Cerberus have their hands on a bunch of insane people and do it freely? And what? Let them more Jacks?" Garrus said, his own voice getting deeper and staring at Shepard, pointing his Talon at him. Shepard's head turned downwards, her goggles focused on the boots on her feet. She raised her head, saying;

"That's our mission Garrus. We get it done and we do it right. Circumstances can change anything Garrus." Shepard wasn't as bland as she was usually during a mission. Her own experiences always shaped her works as a soldier, as a SPECTRE. But working with Cerberus, or was it for; was getting more and more into the black and white. For Shepard, she was going to get this into the grey as much as possible. "Garrus trust me. Cerberus will get their own one day. But today, we just get that facility back up. If possible, we can find help for these people. I always have a plan." Under her mask, she grinned and she knew Garrus could still even see it under her hood.

"Yes, yes you do." Garrus looked back to the front of the car, his eyes shifting left and right across the data streaming on his Omni-tool. Garrus always knew what he knew was right. Cerberus may have wanted to save human colonies from the Collectors, but they always have had another agenda in mind. This business, with a mental clinic no less, bothered him. He knew that the sanatorium was now just being used as a front, a multi-racial sanatorium no less. How many victims did Cerberus have in their hands? But then Garrus would always come back to the fact that not all mental patients were innocent. The three sat silent as the car final shifted towards a large clearing. The transport landed smoothly, its doors opening and shifting. The three got out one by one, each lining up next to the other. Shepard proceeded to the C-Sec entrance, the customs agent at the front desk trying to get her attention. The Commander simply waved it off, the doors opening as she grew closer to them, with Garrus and Kasumi following close behind.

"Sorry for the inconvenience ma'am," the turian C-Sec agent said blatantly.

"You're just doing your job," Shepard sighed. The Citadel's new security obviously wasn't good enough. If the little bit of information the Illusive Man sent to her in the first place was correct, this "Subject Icarus" might as well of dropped from the Conduit. Of course that wasn't possible; it was deactivated after the Battle of the Citadel and even shielded. Shepard and her squad passed the door, with Shepard immediately locking on to Bailey's desk. But unusually he was up from his desk, barking orders at his men. Something was up it seemed. Every officer was going past her squad and out the door, possibly to get into a police skycar. But the fact that all of them were armored and getting assault rifles, it was an unusual sight to see. Bailey, taking a second from his slave driving, noticed Shepard at his desk and started to approach her and her team, saying;

"Shepard, welcome back."

"Captain Bailey, glad to be back," she replied.

"What? The Terminus Systems aren't exciting enough for humanity's first SPECTRE?" Celest crossed her arms, clearly not in the mood for jokes by a semi-respectable captain.

"Sorry, Captain. We need information." Bailey shrugged, and leaned on the wall next to his desk, continuing;

"Sure, but be quick about it, I got C-Sec moving out."

"What for?" Garrus asked.

"Damnedest thing," Bailey said, waving his hand off in the air. "A Bloodpack Krogan somehow got on the Citadel unnoticed, brought a whole damned gang with him, and shot up a mental sanatorium. My life is being reduced to paper work and piss breaks, more and more every second I can't find the huge bastard."

"Sounds like a…big problem," Kasumi remarked, giggling under her breath. Shepard didn't move, only replying; "Bailey, I know you have a lot on your plate, but did you happen to send a man, about a year ago to this Sanatorium?" Shepard opened the Icarus package, pulling out a photo that was taken by the Sanatorium after the man's admission, and then showed it to Bailey. Bailey squinted at the picture, but immediately realized who it was.

"Holy…shit. That's the guys that killed Sergeant Kalo…that bastard disappeared a year ago. Haven't seen him since."

"Well, I'm looking for him. And this Krogan you're talking about, and he's gunning for the group this man is being held by. I need any information you have on this guy," Celest uncrossed her arms, stretching out her shoulders from the wear of the armor she had on. Bailey's Omni-tool rang out; he immediately held his hand to his ear, seeming to take a call.

"Yea…ok…secure the area. I'll be right there. Shit, Shepard, it's been a year; I was just pissed when the guy couldn't be brought to trial for a cop's death. Look, we found your Krogan, he's on the inner part of the ward; the sanatorium is on the outermost edge of the arm so he's on a mission," Bailey paused for a moment, taking a pistol out of his desk drawer and holstering it to his side, "Look Shepard, my men aren't going to want to go against Bloodpack and an angry Krogan., I could use your help. We might even find your man."

Shepard rubbed her eye through her goggles; her squad mates were too quiet. Of course she had to do all the talking when it came to C-Sec, "Fine Bailey, I'll do this because I'm a SPECTRE. But if I don't find what I'm looking for. You owe me. Big time."

"Deal!" Bailey exclaimed, "Sergeant! Grab a skycar for me and the Commander's team. Everyone! Mount up! We got a full-on assault on Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals!"

Bailey and a Sergeant passed Celest and her team, Shepard immediately trying to follow them to the outer transport garage. But then Garrus poked one of his talons on her shoulder pads;

"Shepard? Wasn't Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals one of the companies the Illusive Man had sent in the data package?"

"So?" Shepard asked, all while turning her head around, facing the turian renegade.

"So? Why list a company head as a contact…when the company head is named Eidyia Wagner? The turian at this point was whispering, his mandibles barely moving as he spoke, as if a certain someone just had to be listening on their conversation. For all they knew, all their armor and weapons were probably bugged up to their thermal clips.

"Shit. . . Let's move! We have job to do! I'll break the Illusive Man in two later!" Shepard started to storm pass the door leading to the security check, Garrus and Kasumi quickly following.

"Well," Kasumi started to say, "She's pissed, Garrus."

"You have no idea."

(A/N: So here are the next chapter fellows and fellowettes. For the Author's Codex this chapter, it's going to be incredibly chopped up. Recently I have been thinking about the future of the story, (of course I have an outline) and one thing that has been bugging me is the difficultly of the crossing over the two stories, but not only that, but their mechanics. So like I said, I have been planning the story for some time, only writing it is a bigger hardship then anything, and this story is AU of course. So I'll be taking liberty of going into some deep theoretical shit right here during the course of this story. So when I started planning I took it up with one of fellow college-going friends, who call himself a meta-physicist for some reason. Now, both of us not knowing the true art of meta-physics to heart, and since we're still in our education, we did a lot of thinking. Now, I know a fair amount of both Dragon Age and Mass Effect lore, but I have a huge bunch of theories. Now my friend and I have compiled some hopefully reasonable things for the Codex. We won't be going too much this time, but we will be throwing something out that seems to be scrutinized in this certain field of fanfiction; comparing magic, with biotics. Oh boy. Be aware, the person introduced is an OC and he will be relevant in the coming story. Part 2 is on the way!)

Author's Codex

Dr. Isaac Hermann Ph.D.

Professor of the University of Harvard, Cambridge, MA, UNAS, Earth

2170 CE-2176CE

A Metaphysical Interpretation of the Biotic Abilities of Homo-Sapiens.

Article #1

Biotics, the universal symbol of a rare genetic mutation caused by the direct contact with refined Element Zero or along with a secondary contact. For Humans, it is a rarity that we find such amazing abilities, but that our home cultures have put such a stigma on the research and the existence of such prime examples of human evolution. Human biotics are not as refined as other Council Species, like the asari, who are all genetically given the ability at birth. It should be known that all cultures of the Citadel, including those that are no longer of the Citadel, have believed in superstitious beliefs hundreds if not thousands of years before they took their first flight into space. However, over the evidence that I have gathered from different species, it can be concluded that the age of Science has replaced their superstitious beliefs, if not entirely. But for humans, so new to the galactic community, still hold strong in our beliefs. This can be accounted for humanity's genetic diversity, our different cultures, our languages, and our different ways of thought.

But the point of this article is to explore, the past of human biotics, in its most primeval form; magic. Now before you cast aside the heresy, let me remind that Galileo was discredited by the Roman Catholic Church for his works in Astronomy. The CERN collider was discredited because it searched for the "god" particle. If Mass Effect technology was theorized in the 20th or 21st century, they would have been thrown out of the auditorium of scientists around the world until the discovery in 2148. But what I realized is that biotics are just a scientific form of the so called medieval sense of power. Today human biotics are genetically born with poor abilities, due to the small mental usage of the human mind, and are implanted in order to support their mental with stronger abilities. The idea of magic and biotics is but connected to the human mind.

The human mind is capable of many things; emotion, thought, subconscious reasoning and even our very personalities. It is my theory that the reason why we have myths, stories and legends about magical beings, is that at one point they existed, but no longer due to the survival of the fittest. Since biotic abilities only amount to telekinetic properties due to dark energy manipulation, the very effect that powers our Faster-than-Light technology. Human biotics experience some mental strain due to their own abilities, although that is easily reparable due to modern bio-amps. Asari do not suffer the same mental strain because their own anatomy allows them connect with the minds of organic species. The volus and turians do not experience it because of their rarity, and their own brain structure. Humans are an aspiring biotic race because of their strong minds, but because their anatomy limits their mental health, we do not see the extreme forms of biotic abilities. If we look at the history of all the species, we all have always believed in a form of an afterlife.

If a human biotic is to be as strong as an asari commando biotically, that human must have some sort of ethereal reinforcement, a plane of existence that shapes out to all organic life. An over-stretching arc of energy that stretches from world to world and balances out the world with this metaphysical plane of existence. The existence of dark energy proposes a higher form of existence. Magic, if possible, was a tool to the wisest, the strongest, and the most courageous. If so, these great mythic minds of human history were of the strongest and the earliest forms of biotic potential. While some forms of so called magic may seem impossible to attempt physical, a being with the ability to manipulate dark energy fields to manipulate the very atoms of existence, could perform massive acts of incredible magnitude. If so, these biotics would only live for so long, due to their mental strain would only be rebuffed by a meta-physical plane. Also, if a being was powerful but mentally poisoned, the factor of the survival of the fittest would eliminate these historical figures.

The myths of yesterday could improve our understanding of standing science today. We will not understand the full extent of our own abilities and our minds, if we do not attempt to understand the very planes of existences that form and fabricate the very mysterious existence of the universe. One man's science is another man's magic; One man's magic is another man's science.