The pain was what awoke Shepard once again. Every single day since her summoning, her sleep was interrupted by the same pain she felt during her awakening on the Cerberus Base from Project Lazarus.

She opened her eyes, letting the implants recalibrate themselves. She has been warned that technology meshed poorly with magic. So far, her OmniTool worked fine. Only some of her implants seemed to be affected but they just needed some morning automatic recalibration to deal with it. The pain wasn't much compared to everything Shepard had endured during her career but she would gladly avoid the burning sensation in her joints and eyes every mornings.

As the pain receded, Shepard heard a knock at her door.

"Enter."

Dumbledore opened the door and smiled at the soldier, his eyes twinkling.

"Good morning, Miss. Can I assume you had a restorative night of sleep ?"

"Better than the first ones, at least. No nightmare thanks to your potion."

Shepard had woken the old man several times because of her screams. Dumbledore wanted to propose her a dreamless sleep potion to help her acclimatation but he couldn't because Shepard was technically a Muggle as he explained to her. Fortunately, being a biotic was apparently close enough of a witch to allow her to take potions.

"Breakfast is ready. Would you like to join me ?"

"I would never refuse a cup of coffee" Shepard joked. Even if she couldn't enjoy the stimulating effect of caffeine because of her enhanced liver, she was still very fond of the taste.

"I am effrayed coffee isn't the favorite beverage around these parts," The old wizard replied before adding for the sake of a frustrated commander. "but I happened to have an extensible collection of blends, courtesy of friends from Italy."

They went to the kitchen where what seemed like a little morning feast was waiting on the round table. With the invitation of the old wizard, Shepard sat and started digging through the various choices of toasts and jams. Her biotic metabolism, while partly cybernetic, still made her needing copious meals. With a wave of wand, Dumbledore set a plunger coffee pot to brew while he collected his cup of tea.

"This morning, a meeting of the Order will take place. I would like you to come and meet the members." He declared on a informal tone.

The eyes of the Spectre narrowed.

"I have already told you. I will not take part in your war."

"I know and I intend to respect your wish. However, I am responsible for your current situation and I want to offer you every option possible. You could live as a Muggle even if it would required a bit of disguise. You could also decide to live in the wizarding world. I merely want to introduce you to it before you do your choice."

Shepard put down her toast and raised an eyebrow.

"Dumbledore. Don't think I'm an idiot. I have delt with politicians before. None would be as selfless as you try to be. While you may indeed want to help me, I have no doubt that you also hope to guilt trip me into helping you."

To the surprise of the soldier, Dumbledore didn't even try to deny.

"Will it work ?"

If he had simply tried to manipulated her to achieve his goals, Shepard would have no qualm to rebuke him. However, the honesty of the wizard about his second thoughts was oddly effective against the hardened veteran.

"Maybe."

Internally, Shepard couldn't help to notice the irony of the current situation. Facing a powerful ennemy with at best reluctant allies, you need to do what it takes to gather forces.

*Here, I'm just the one who has to be convinced to take part in the war instead of the one doing the convincing.*

Shepard resumed eating her toast. She was already full but the savor was so much better than ordinary rations.

"Here comes the coffee for the lady." Dumbledore said while a full cup landed itself next to Shepard.

"Thank you."

A sip of it granted an appreciative nod to the wizard.

"Miss Shepard, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to ask you a few questions about the biotic powers you mentionned yesterday."

"Sure, go on."

The expression on Dumbledore's face was the same as a kid on Christmas.

"I was wondering if you know where this power came from. From what you told me, you are able to manipulate matter to a certain degree, especially regarding its mass. It seems to be quite an interesting field, one who could maybe open new possibilities in the study of magic."

"Considering what I have seen you do, biotics are child plays for you. You couldn't possibly teleport something with it, for example." Shepard explained, a bit disapointed. Biotics always were a strong appeal for her and she worked very hard to only get what was considered at best average for a human user. "To sum up, in my universe, there is the element zero, a material that releases dark energy when subjected to electric current. This dark energy can then be harnessed to create mass effect fields which allow you to increase or decrease the mass of an object. You can do this with machines but a living organism can also do it if it has element zero nodules in their body. If that's the case, the electric signals for the nervous system can make the nodules release dark energy and there you go. Of course, it requires a lot of training and implants to be able to actually control the outcome. And with a wave of your stick, you can achieve the same result." Shepard concluded bitterly.

Contrary to what she expected, the old wizard didn't seem disappointed. Thoughtful, yes.

"You do understand, that since element zero doesn't exist in your universe, no one could have ezo nodules. Even with it, you don't have the technology to make the implants. So, biotics users are out of question for your war."

His smile didn't shrank at all despite Shepard's insistance.

"I do understand your point, Miss. I definetely would have appreciated a whole new magic field to explore but do not think your biotics powers aren't any less interesting. Your civilization have reached new heights only by influencing the mass of objects. A fairly easy thing to do with magic."

The soldier grew suddenly very weary. Dumbledore has indeed shown how easy it was to levitate things. What if magic allowed its users to achieve the exact same effect than ezo but without its drawbacks like extraction and refinement of the ore, energy consumption or heating ? Could wizards do the same thing as a complex mechanism that was a mass effect field generator, just with a wave of his wand ? What was their limit ? Could a wizard replicate the effect of the generator from a weapon ? From a ship ?

Shepard wasn't relectant to talk about biotic powers because she thought Dumbledore couldn't use them. However, he has proved her wrong. He couldn't use biotics but the fondation behind them was an entire new paradigm.

"This discussion would have to be continued later. We do have a meeting to attend to."

Dumbledore seemed to catch the uneasyness of the commander.

"Don't worry, miss. You have my words that the knowledge you just gave me will not be used in a military fashion. I think humanity, wizards and Muggles alike, have already far too much way of killing each others. I won't make you or myself become a new Oppenheimer."

Shepard wasn't even a bit reassured. Dumbledore was a politician. Magical or not, a politician would always be a potential backstabber according to how the wind blew.

And she just gave him a new toy. Something he has already identified as world changing.

-MExHP-

Hello everyone.

If you reach this point, I do hope you are enjoying my story.

I just wanted to address the review I got about grammar. Be advised that english isn't my primary langage and even if a friend beta my chapters, there may still be some faults because english isn't her native laguage either. If any of you is interested to beta my chapters, let me know in private.

I also wanted to tell you that I don't have a rigid storyline, more like ideas along the way. Therefore, if you wish to see a scene or an interraction between specifics characters, let me know. I would gladly try to fulfill your wishes.

Have a nice day.