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 2"

2185CE: Sight Eidyia; Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Research and Development Zakera Ward Office.

There were sixty-eight. Sixty-eight door that he passed before we went to that Maker-forsaken room. Nihlus was led by several men, several armed men. Even in a facility such as this, while dealing with subjects like Nihlus, it was a given that all the Cerberus operatives and researchers were to be armed. Even in medical labs. Eisley was just a doctor. Unlike Finnegan, she had no dreams of getting in bed with the bosses pocket. She was just here for research. And this subject was great for research. A man with biotic abilities such as him could give Cerberus and humanity such insight into their current level. Even with more advanced implants being designed within the last two years, human biotics were still majorly behind when compared to the asari, the turians, hell, even the batarians.

Nihlus was being led to the procedure room, with Eisley pushing Nihlus along in his wheelchair, along with five armed guards and an assistant. Eisley's decision to take the subject in for a different sort of interrogation today was, let's say, unusual. Usually the subject would be completely knocked out, drugged and inflicted with biotic suppressions, but the effects were increasingly becoming short term. It was like the subjects body was fighting off the suppression like an infection. Blood tests confirmed that the subject was suffering from a degenerative disease, nothing mental, but physical. The subject was altered in some way, but his biotic systems were natural, no alteration of his genetics or anatomy was recorded or even found during his procedures. His procedures included the bi-weekly ECT sessions, weekly interrogations, and medical examinations. The purpose of the unconscious ECT sessions was designed to lessen the subject's mental strain, and to turn the subject more complacent to questions. But it wasn't helping any longer. The subject was becoming numb to their interrogations; all questions were answered with incoherent and useless answers. Dr. Finnegan, with his time running up with the Illusive Man, decided just to question the man about himself. Anything about the Citadel was useless, the man wasn't going to be a great help in the wrong run. Eisley could see that Finnegan was feeling the pressure; the Illusive Man's foot was getting heavier on his throat, heavy enough for Finnegan to snap.

Nihlus wasn't drugged. He was just exhausted. The therapy and the interrogations were driving on him. He could barely walk now, his mana was constantly drained by the liquids and solvents the men and women put in his body. When asked to display "biotics" by the men, Nihlus just assumed they were talking about his magic. And so he did during these times. But it was never anything extraordinary; his mana was gone to him most of the time. He either needed time to recover, or his lyrium and he had no access to either. Any display was just a simple bending of a spoon or small, marble sized energy wisp. But today was different, he could feel it.

Usually when the men and the woman, Eisley, she called herself during their first introduction, came to awaken Nihlus. It was with armed guards and tube with a point on it. To think a society would resort to such barbaric practice, torture by acupuncture. But Nihlus would always fall back asleep after they did this routine, waking back up when the tray of cold food was laying on the floor of the cell. But like he thought, today was different, he was awake and being pushed around in some wheeled cart-like contraption. Nihlus had always fought, against Templars, Darkspawn, and even his fellow mages. But fighting and resisting this group was becoming useless, he was tired, he thought that maybe he could finally get some rest today. Maybe he would answer their questions. His ability to distract and twist his interrogator's words around onto them was wearing thin, and it was becoming increasingly useless to him. His captors would not rest, unlike the Templars who at most times would just give up after the thousandth no. But these people were intrigued with him. Today, to feed his own ego, he might answer them. But, they clearly did not know who he was or what he could do. They had no idea what they were dealing with, but they knew how to be prepared. But today he counted the doors, the second time in a year that he was able to. The last time he did so, that day ended with a man having a tool sticking into his shoulder blade. He thought he could escape at that moment but alas, the weakness of his body subdued him. But today was different, he could sense it. Sixty-eight doors they passed, and then moved into a moving room.

Another hallway they entered as they left the moving room. Whatever deep road he thought he was in was drastically different than any he thought he was in before. The walls were shiny with metal plating, but they weren't like the roads during his first minutes here. These halls were more akin to a building, stacked upon each other. That judgment was made as soon as he felt how the moving room moved up and down during every one of his travels. The guards in front turned right and approached a much larger door, with another transparent green rune on the center of it. One of the guards approached it, pressing one of his fingers on the ghost-like rune. The large door split in two, separating and moving into the walls. Nihlus looked up, looking into the room and around him and the group, a confused look on his face.

Dr. Eisley motioned the guards to stand in guard, two outside of the procedure room and two to remain beside her. She was in her mid-thirties, most of her life she was an earthborn; even her own mind was stuck on Earth, to protect it and its people. Cerberus meant that, even if it meant she had to work under someone like Dr. Finnegan. To Eisley, Finnegan had an amazing and curious mind, but was obsessive. She was focusing on many projects at this time, even if Subject Icarus intrigued her. She pushed the man on the wheelchair into the room. She never had said a single word to the man, but she never had to. It wasn't her job to. She dared to.

"I hope your stay is better than it seems," the doctor said. The man sat there, soundless and motionless, as if dead himself. The door behind them, her assistant passed her an approached several men and women, some of them were just specialists, in case something was to stress the subject. Two of them were interrogators, codenamed Black and White. They weren't part of this certain cell, but they were of Cerberus, even though anyone in a single cell wouldn't have information of the other cells except for their existence and project goal. She spoke again, "Come sir, we have work to do."

Nihlus looked up towards the chair in front of him and the people around it. They all stared at him, some filled with anger, some with fright, and some with a passive imagination. Nihlus, familiar with the cart under him after all this time, gripped the arms of the chair, struggling to lift himself up. The doctor tried to assist him, Nihlus quickly got up, showing no need or request of help. He stood straight, observing the room and looked up, seeing the glassed frame of the observation room. There he saw the good doctor. On several occasions, Nihlus asked his name and the only reply he always got was;

"I am the doctor."

Doctor. Nihlus wondered and hated that word at the same time. A lot of the people here either doctors…or Mr. or Mrs., or Sirs or ma'ams. Well, he didn't hate them, just found them highly annoying. So smug and proud of themselves like the Templars. If they were Templars, all the more reason to escape. But Templars would know what a mage was. In fact, anyone should know of their abilities.

Nihlus approached the chair, turning and resting himself on it. When two of the specialists came towards him to apply the restraints, he noticed a table next to his chair; a simple rugged bag, and two vials …containing his freedom. He grinned to himself, trying to disguise his glee. Only Eisley noticed it, but she shrugged it off. Nihlus looked at her, speaking with confidence, "Oh today is going to be a good day, Milady."

"Excuse me?" the doctor asked, turning her head in confusion. But Nihlus sat silent, even as the restrain cuffs and the nodes of medical devices attached to his person. The chair started to move backwards, the doctor moved to the subject side, and noticed a patch on his left shoulder; she took the cloth in her hand and examined it.

"What does this represent?" the doctor asked one of the assistants. The assistant was confused and only looked at the patch.

"Not anything of regulation ma'am," the assistant said, "Subject Crazy over here must have made it."

"I highly doubt he had the neither time nor patience to make something without our notification." Eisley tapped a few figures on her data pad, the subject's biometrics loading up for her personal view. But her face turned her attention to the subject, when it began to speak again;

"Vigilance. And your observations are horrible by the way." The subject was now staring at her; she felt as if he was peering into herself.

"Vigilance? What are you being vigilant about?"

"Anything at this point," the young mage spoke, turning his head back to center the door in front of him. A voice then rang throughout the room, everyone's attention turning towards observation room, even Nihlus, who bent his head backward, trying to see the bastard.

"Dr. Eisley, I don't have all day, today is our final chance to get some answers. Project Asclepius has no more time for your 'safety of the subject.'" Dr. Finnegan said through the observation room's speakers.

"Yes Doctor…" Dr. Eisley said somberly, staring at the subject again. She caught him staring again; his hair was clearly growing back, despite the process they had to go through shaving him for the ECT sessions. "Begin the interrogation," she said as two men walked up, one grabbing the bag on the table. The subject spoke directly to Eisley, with a calm voice;

"It'd probably be best if you left the room."

"Shut it!" one of the interrogators yelled out with a British accent, throwing out a punch towards the subject's face. It was the one who referred himself as "White." Nihlus grunted in pain, the bruise from the impact of the padded glove the man wore would surely leave a mark. The two interrogators were armored, which would be considered weird to any normal person, but to Nihlus, it wasn't unusual for a Templar to be fairly equipped for the interrogation of any mage. The mage looked back at his assaulter, calmly speaking, "you can stay, it be a shame of you miss the show. Can't wait to break your neck."

"I break yours before you do mine, you bloody twig!" White said, aiming another fist at the man's face. Nihlus didn't flinch, even as the man called Black grabbed White's arm and pulled it back away from the young mage.

"Enough!" the man said. White soon calmed down, turning towards the door and leaning against it. Black panted from the exhaustion just trying to hold that tank of a man back. Black was not heavy set, but in his line of work, he didn't need to be. He looked back at the subject, saying, "Ok, enough excitement for today," he breathed in another puff of air before resuming, "so Nihlus…glad to see you awake? Feeling better I hope?"

"Stuff your skirt under that armor up your ass and tie a knot," the subject barked back, "I've seen Mabari with more balls than you. At least your friend is willing to get his hands dirty." The subject remained motionless, it would be expected that any restrained subject would be moving. To Black it was a little disturbing but he continued, approaching the table and taking a vial in his hand.

"So Nihlus is it. I hear you're quite the biotic. Any enthusiasm to give us a clue how you were able to acquire such talent."

"Sure, I was locked up in a tower for twenty years of my life," the subject answered.

"I'm sure someone of your abilities would let a simple tower stand in front of you? And how does a tower uphold your abilities?" the man asked.

"It doesn't but it explains why I was there."

"I know not what you mean."

"Speak not of what you do not know and speak of what you do."

Black rested one of hands on his side, taking the vial and looking at it in the air through his visor.

"Such an interesting concoction. Any enthusiasm to say what it is? Our research is coming up with element zero, but something completely different."

"Again you speak of what you do not know," the mage said. "That is my personal supply…or what was left of it. And no, I do not know of its creation. Only the dwarves handle that."

"Dwarves?" Eisley spoke up, as her data pad was recording the entire conversation, by text and voice.

"Yes? You have no knowledge of the deep children? What rock in these deep roads have you been living under for so long?" Eisley kind of felt insulted, but she shrugged it off, turning back to the subject's bio-metrics, only noticing a small increase of a mass effect field, but only a small increase. Nihlus turned back to see the other man, White, approaching him in haste. White grabbed the collar of Nihlus's garb, yelling at the man's face.

"Oh shut up, you blasted putrid speck of cosmic dust! You will tell us what we want to know," the man quickly grabbed the vial out of Black's hand, taking the cork out, grabbing the man's cheeks and shoving the vial into the man's mouth. The blue liquid quickly exited the vial, and entered the man's throat. The familiar sting of the blue liquid burned through his throat, but he knew that this man's just made his last mistake…but something else happened. A violent shudder flowed throughout the room, and a large explosion was heard, muffled by the thick walls of the room. Everyone was looking about, Black and White stepped away from the subject, Nihlus still coughing on the liquid he was served.

"What the hell was that?!" Black yelled out. Meanwhile in the observation room, Finnegan and the observers around him scuttling around. The reports from the terminal controllers and the security guard were alarming…and Finnegan finally made a decision. He punched in his clearance code into his Omni-tool, which signaled into all the communication of the building.

"…All staff, prepare to evacuate. We have a security breach. All research is to be terminated…Sight Eidyia is officially shut down," the good doctor said. As the several assistants looked around the room, the two interrogators stayed near the subject and the guards stepped towards Dr. Eisley, taking away from the chair.

"Doctor, protocol has been authorized…we have to euthanize the patient!" the guard whispered.

"I will not! He may be a freak but he's not worth killing." She remembered all the times she had said the word freak during her sessions with the man. She was a doctor and it made her feel guilty, she wasn't about to kill a man just because Finnegan was a failure himself. And now security breaches to top it all off. "Cerberus can still use him alive!" A sound was heard. Eisley could see electricity sparking off the subject's restraints in the background. Her eyes widened as she looked past the guard's shoulder.

A flash was seen.

En Route to Phi-Tech Pharmaceuticals Research and Development Zakera Ward Office.

"Shit!" A missile passed by the sky car, impacting into the one behind it. Shepard and her team were shook by the shockwave, as Bailey tried to remain control of the vehicle.

"When did the Citadel become a battle zone?" Garrus said sarcastically.

"Since Saren decided to attack the Citadel," Bailey replied, still struggling with the sky car's controls. "My sergeant just informed me that the Bloodpack strolled in the basement floors of the building. I hope you're ready Shepard."

"Just land the damn car! My team can handle their own!" Shepard shouted as more shots ricocheted and missiles shot around the car. On the building, the sky car pavilion was heavily being hit, Bloodpack vorcha and C-Sec constantly shooting each other back and forth. As Shepard and company's sky car landed on the pavilion, without trying to distract Bailey, she asked. "What the hell was your sergeant thinking when he decided to run off halfcocked against Bloodpack?"

Bailey didn't answer until they got out of the sky car. C-Sec had already constructed makeshift barricades; most of them were completely under-armed for a situation like this.

"I'll ask him… Sergeant!" Bailey yelled out. A turian who was shouting out orders to the agents turned around walked toward the group. The turian saluted the group, saying with confidence, "Sir!"

Bailey grabbed the collar of the turians cowl, pulling him face to face. "What the hell is going on Sergeant!?"

"Sir…we saw the Krogan and his gang pulling into the under-structure…We thought it necessary to investigate the situate"

"Don't sir me, son. You'll be lucky to be working a desk after making this tower a warzone." The turian looked down, after Bailey let his collar go, solemnly saying;

"Sorry…Sir. I got news though." Shepard walked up to the turian agent, Garrus and Kasumi following along.

"I need a sit-rep, sergeant," she said with that commanding attitude in her voice.

"Spirits…Commander Shepard..."

"Sit-rep…now!" the commander shouted, gaining the attention of several officers, who quickly turned their attention back to the Bloodpack who were shooting at them. They remembered that they had to actually not get their heads blown clean off.

"Yes Ma'am!" The turian said, straightening up his stance. "We got a truckload of vorcha in the high levels, and another truckload in the lobby… They got the main doors barricaded. You'd need explosives to get it. Other than that, we have a pissed off Krogan, scans show he's in the center of the building…but we can't tell where; the sensors are all construed." Celest and her squad immediately all thought it was definitely Cerberus, who else wouldn't want C-Sec poking into their business?

"Shepard, I know we're on a suicide mission, but adding another one to the list wasn't one the agenda," Garrus said. Shepard looked back at him through her goggles.

"What's the matter Garrus? Can't take another missile to the face? Sorry but I'm afraid your face can't get any uglier," she said, upholstering her pistol, watching it unfold in her hands. Kasumi followed, pulling out Shuriken SMG, smirking at the remark;

"Damn Garrus. I believed they call that a burn. Do want some ice?"

"All I'm saying is that we need some sort of plan here," Garrus replied. "And no I don't," his mandibles flanging as he finished, lifting off his Mattock from the back of his armor.

"I always have a plan Garrus," Shepard shrugged, starting off towards the makeshift cover of sky cars and the barricade lobby door. Her Omni-tool lit up, and her Tech-Armor powering up, covering up her arms, her chest and upper torso, and overlaying her recon hood as well. A little extra armor never hurt anyone. Garrus and Kasumi started to follow her, but as soon as Shepard started to put herself into a sprint, Garrus started running after her, as if he could catch up. Kasumi merely cloaked herself. The Bloodpack, just noticing the two "visible" specialists, started to aim for them, slugs bouncing off their shields and Celest's armor. Kasumi was already passed the figurative no man's land, taking cover at the corner leading to the main floor door. Shepard and Garrus joined her.

"Kasumi, open the door!" Shepard yelled out. The master thief plucked from covering sending an overload to automated door's systems. The doors slowly opened but a mess of explosives and objects stood in the way of the hallway behind the door. Shepard took a quick glance at the barricade, spying an explosive canister in the corner bottom of the barricade. She shot at the canister, barely hitting the top of it, but it was leaking fuel quickly. She charged up her Omni-tool, sending a plasma charge at it. The next thing Celest and her team knew was that fiery explosion bursting out of the doorway going in each direction; into the lobby and onto the pavilion.

As the explosion cleared, the team went in, quickly disabling any Vorcha standing in their way. They cleared the room, Shepard had already signaled Bailey that they were in the building, and Kasumi had already found a computer console.

"Kasumi, status."

"This terminal doesn't have access to anything, its scrap."

"Great, Cerberus likes to keep secrets even from their front-man lobby," Garrus said, his eyes scanning the doors inside the lobby.

"Yeah…wait something's off." Shepard said, seeing a large black door next to an elevator. "Kasumi, I want that room opened and I need you going through it like a blood hound."

"Aye-aye." Kasumi signed off quickly taking off to the room. She quickly entered the room, but after a few minutes of waiting, Kasumi called out to them. They both entered the room, Garrus staying on look out.

"This is an access terminal to the inner facility." Kasumi stated, her fingers nimbly moving on the terminal screen.

'Inner facility?" Shepard asked. "How big is this place?"

"A lot bigger than the outside…a lot bigger than the Citadel Property management would want," Kasumi grinned, "This place is boring, Shepard. I thought Cerberus would have better security."

"Don't jinx it, Goto."

"Lighten up, Garrus."

"Ok, Ok. Garrus still needs to work that stick out of his ass." Shepard said, grinning under her hood. "But tell me this, anything on Subject Icarus?

"Hmm." Kasumi wondered, her hooded eyes scanning the screen. "Hey, I got something!" She dashed a couple keystrokes, scaling up the data file on the terminal. Few words were actually shown, but a large photo was shown. Shepard looked at the photo of the man. The man was young, clearly twenty years old or older. An odd tattoo on his face, and a burn patch on his ear. The man looked tough but he looked like he didn't belong. To Shepard, something was off. It was bad enough that the Illusive Man didn't give any information on the subject, but the fact that the facility was experimenting on him. The words under the dossier photo were plain and simple;

EXTREMELY DANGEROUS: CAUTION DURING INTERROGATION AND EXPERIMENTATION.

Another explosion was heard, an explosion that even alarmed Shepard.

"Kasumi get me a layout of this place, we need to follow the explosions."

"Right, give me a moment." Garrus and Shepard exited the room, leaving Kasumi to her work. Kasumi quickly exited right behind them. Shepard and Garrus gave each other a glance. Kasumi spoke up;

"I got it, that explosion came from the upper levels, something called Procedure Local. One of its security doors was just rocked off his hinges." She approached the elevator, quickly signaling for its return to the floor.

"Damn, she's good. I've seen techs here at C-Sec take days doing what she did in a moment," Garrus said, as the two quickly followed Kasumi to the elevator door. The elevator soon arrived and Kasumi got on first, turning around and saying mockingly with a grin to her face;

"And don't you forget that Varian." Celest followed, and Garrus shook the stun off his face and followed as well. With the close of the elevator doors and the input of the floor, the three-man squad was off, into a hell hole.

Procedure Room

A flash is all it took before the two men were stunned. A bright wisp flowed in the man's hand, blinding the two interrogators, even though they had their visor's tint at maximum. Nihlus was enjoying this too much. "Finally some lyrium in my blasted veins!" he thought to himself. As the two men were blinded, Nihlus quickly summoned some lightning into his palm, striking the metal restraint. Even though he received some of the shock, the electronic wrist restraint overloaded, immediately unlocking. He then broke the wisp, doing the same in his other hand and to the other restraint. He knocked back the man named White, with telekinetic blast to his helmet. The man crashed violent into the forward wall, breaking his neck, Nihlus shouting out, "I was right! That was enjoyable!"

From Eisley's view, she saw the subject demonstrate his powers while conscious, but she also saw the death of White. He did deserve it though. But soon Black followed him, the subject quickly pushed Black before he could recover from the blinding light, but it was a light push. The subject reached for his leg restraints, quickly overloading them as well. But White had recovered faster than the subject had projected and the guards were already on the subject's tail. Her assistants and colleagues were by the door, trying to get it open and escape the subject's display of power.

The guards opened fire, and even though the sound was unholy to Nihlus, he still reacted. Like any bolt from a crossbow, he summoned up an arcane shield, and the impacting objects impacted but didn't ricochet, merely falling to the cold metal floor. Nihlus needed to end this fight, even though he had another vial of lyrium, he would be left with none if had to consume another.

The guard's weapons hadn't put the subject down. Eisley was staring at a major threat. She backed away as two guards looked there dumbfounded. Although the shield was strong, it was still cracked. But something dangerously incredible happened. The subject flung his hand toward the guard, and the shield separated into shards, flying into the guards; the shards shredded their armor, piercing and ripped through their bodies. Each guard now laid dead, and the subject merely turned to his attention to Black, who had a large knife.

Nihlus simply chuckled at the man; he approached the table next to the chair, grabbing his bag and the last vial of lyrium, placing in the bag and buckling it onto his waist. Black lunged at Nihlus, but the young mage simply caught the interrogator's arm, twisting and turning the man's blade into his jaw; all while the blade remained in his hand. Again that phylactery was paying off. Spirits should be trusted more often. In Black's helmet, he coughed up blood as he stood in his dying moments, looking into the man's light blue eyes, the eyes of the killer.

The body dropped, White was dead, Black was dead, and the guards were dead. Eisley was alone…she thought she was next. But the subject…Nihlus, just turned towards her. Amazingly she wasn't hit by the shards of shields the subject sent out to maim and kill the guards. They were not anything like kinetic barriers; it was a lot more solid. Something more complex. By that time, her colleagues had escaped outside the room, the outside guards had probably left already; she was all alone. And now, he was staring again. But he merely winked; turning his attention to the door, his body engulf by a corona of energy. He stretch out his hand, glowing with violent energy. The energy shot from his hand impacting the door with tremendous force, tearing it off the frame into the the hallway, slamming into the opposite wall of the hallway with a loud clamor of noise. The frame was torn and ripped, the doors were smashed and pummeled by that simple wave of the hand.

With his way clear, Nihlus again looked again to Eisley. He felt that killing her was simply out of place. She was not a threat. Merely an instrument. The Qunari would say she was merely performing her role. But so were the others he had killed; but they stood in his way. She did not.

With another nod, he said;

"I'm sure we will meet again doctor," as he stepped out, the magical energy searing off his own body. He stared at the fleeing humans down to his right in the hallway and shouted;

"I will show why Mages are feared!" A red hot ball of flame formed in his hands and quickly launched towards the fleeing group. The fire soon engulfed them, and Nihlus simply stood there, looking down, whispering to himself as they screamed in agony;

"Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him.

Foul and corrupt are they

Who have taken His gift

And turned it against His children.

They shall be named Maleficar, accursed ones.

They shall find no rest in this world

Or beyond."

Nihlus turned to his attention to the ping of the doors to the moving room; down to his left, the same moving room he exited out off. Whatever came next was to fall, as the last.

(A/N: And there is the next chapter, folks, edited for clarity from previous chapters! Now it won't be till after the holidays until Part 3, but nonetheless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Don't forget to leave a present and review please.)