Fanfic / The Half-Life of Element Zero

A crossover fanfic of Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect.

After being discharged from the Alliance, Commander Helen Trevelyan joined the Andromeda Initiative, thinking to leave her personal tragedies and a psycho ex-boyfriend behind her. She expected to sleep for 600 years, and wake up in a med bay. Instead, she crash-landed on the side of a snow-covered mountain, ten-thousand years later. She is alone, confused, and dying from eezo radiation. And the only sign of civilization is an old church in the distance.

The story has been on hiatus since September 2020.

You can find find it here on Archive of Our Own.

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This work provides examples of:

• Aborted Declaration of Love: To Solas' horror, he realizes all too late why Helen took it so badly when he chose to abandon her at a critical moment due to his revulsion at the idea that elves were partly descended from the Andromeda Initiative. The instant the idea finishes forming in his mind, he hurried to reach out to her, only to be curtly informed she does not wish to be addressed as "Helen" - but as "Herald".
• Action Girl: It's to be expected since most major female characters are highly competent, particularly Helen.
• Addictive Magic: Through the fic, Cullen is desperately battling his addiction to lyrium, and whenever his viewpoint comes up, he constantly thinks of it and wishes he could have just a bit. However, he remains resolutely on the wagon, even when the effects noticeably worsen and he forgets his preferred exercise of writing - at one point he checks his notes and realizes he's stopped writing for several weeks, when he was convinced it had been only a few days.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Helen's origins in the Milky Way Galaxy were not initially taken seriously by the Inquisition. Cullen strongly doubted her claims until he was stumped to hear of Helen's ignorance of all things related to Thedas, especially her confusion about abominations, which are very widely understood. Vivienne remained skeptical of Helen, whom she believed to be a foreign agent from an unknown nation, but kept her opinion to herself until she finally accepts the truth and confesses to Solas that she is afraid of knowing more about Helen and the knowledge that came with her.
  • Leliana is revealed to be very skeptical of Helen and believed that she was responsible for destroying the Conclave. This led Leliana to secretly conceal Helen's omnitool. She is convinced otherwise when her scouts discovered Helen's escape pod and later berates herself for letting her skepticism keep her from knowing about Corypheus much earlier.
  • Helen is skeptical of the concept of Time Travel because it is physically impossible, stating that: “If you travel through time, how do you guarantee that you don’t appear in the middle of a mountain? Or out in open space? Not to mention the massive amount of energy it would take.” After being sent forward into the future by Alexius' time magic, Helen accept this fact given that she is living in a fantasy setting.
• Attempted Rape: Helen is nearly raped by a Templar named Ivans (who is also a serial rapist) after she was just recovered from the Fade. Fortunately, her rapist did not expect Helen is a biotic and he is messily killed.
• Awful Truth: Helen discovered that dwarfs and elves are human offshoots, whom in turn are the descendants of the Andromeda Initiative, and that all life on Thedas was presumably seeded by the Initiative. When she discusses this discovery with Varric, it is pointed out by the latter that if this becomes public this will cause people to become extremely angry and throw Thedas into social upheaval. When Helen brings this up to her inner circle, Solas is very upset by it.
  • Cassandra is very put off to find out that her Seeker abilities (and Seekers in general) are no different from mages according to Helen's omni-tool scans.
• Caught on Tape: Helen's omnitool recorded the entire events at the Conclave prior to its destruction and becomes integral in identifying the cause and its perpetrator, Corypheus.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After it was learned that Leliana had been keeping Helen's omnitool hidden from her owner, Helen straight up told Leliana that, if she had given it to her when she had woken up in Haven after stabilizing the Breach, Helen would have shown everyone the omnitool's recording of Corypheus and the corrupted Grey Wardens.
  • The other advisers also point out to Helen that she should have immediately sent a message of this discovery to them after she had seen the recordings while out in the Hinterlands. But Helen counters that sending a message would be too risky of being intercepted, and that she cannot write about this in the presence of Iron Bull, whom she doesn't completely trust yet.
• Culture Clash: Coming from an interstellar civilization, Helen is alienated and appalled by Thedas' primitive Dark Fantasy setting ranging from religious wars, corrupt religious institutions, racism, the Tranquil, poor sanitation, and using quill and ink.
  • Helen is mistaken for a noble by the natives due to her habits such as keeping herself clean and her unfamiliarity with basic tasks such as lighting a torch and riding horses. Telina, the elven servant girl, is quick to realize Helen is not of nobility given that she makes her own bed, changes and hangs her clothes, and always thanks the servants.
  • Dalish takes offense to Helen's doubts on the elves' (previous) immortality. Helen apologizes to her for challenging her information.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Helen's biotics makes her an utter powerhouse on Thedas, especially after her exposure to eezo during hibernation (making her more powerful than she was). She is capable of wiping out an entire band of slavers by herself, crushing armored warriors and Templars like tin cans, trapping mages and archers in Singularities, and catapulting hapless mooks over the horizon.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Helen lost her parents to Sovereign's attack on Eden Prime and developed a fear towards Geth, falling into a abusive relationship with a psychopathic ex-boyfriend-turned-stalker who ruined her career and is responsible for stranding her on Thedas.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Whenever someone is unaware of Solas' true identity.
    • Varric lectures Solas on sympathizing with Helen by imagining being in her shoes and finding himself waking up thousands of years later where "everything and everyone you've ever loved is gone. How are you gonna feel?" Cue "Not So Different" Remark.
    • Vivienne confessed to Solas that despite being a skilled and experienced mage there is still so much that she doesn't know and she is afraid of knowing it.
  • After the Inquisition's Inner Circle learned about the Grey Wardens being involved with Corypheus, they strongly suspected Blackwall for being culpable. He is innocent because he was never a Warden and wasn't involve in the Conclave's destruction, but he is guilty for another great crime that caused him to impersonate a Warden.
• The Dung Ages: Helen's first reaction to using an outhouse and finding no washing stations in which she quickly decree to have proper sanitation policies in the Inquisition. Josephine is all too happy to share Helen's sentiment.
  • It is pointed out that the average (Fereldan) commoner doesn't care about cleaning their hands and dismissed it as "Orlesian nonsense" while said Orlesians are already familiar with proper hygiene. Helen hopes to change that by establishing the Inquisition's first Medical Corps and teaching it to the people.
• Dye or Die: Helen dyed her hair jet-black in order to get away from her psychotic ex-boyfriend, Clinton. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
• "Eureka!" Moment: The instant Helen scans Cole, she notices he looks like a normal human... but certain markers are very close to Solas'. This leads her to realize how truly little she factually knows about Solas, getting one step closer to unraveling the identity he's constructed for himself.
• Fantastic Racism: Solas can't accept the idea that the elves were partly made by humans, and rebuffs Helen at a key battle - only for him to have a brutal change of heart when he fights side by side with humans against Corypheus and touching a connection he'd never thought possible.
• Fastball Special: Helen happily proposed doing this with Iron Bull after Sera declined the latter's offer (much to Solas's consternation). After some practice, they try it out in the Fallow Mire against the undead guarding the keep.
• Fire-Forged Friends:
  • Helen and Cullen do not immediately like each other - the former survived an attempted rape by a Templar, who was under Cullen's watch. Cullen doesn't trust Helen and is afraid of her, especially given that she is a powerful biotic who no one can stop. The two slowly mend relations, culminating in true friendship once they get to know each other. Most especially when Cullen recovered Helen's omnitool from Leliana and returning it to its owner.
  • Helen and Dorian initially don't get along, especially over their views of slavery.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Helen is prone to cuss a lot in English in which she can get away with blasphemy and no one on Thedas understand what she is saying. Solas also does this as well in elvhen.
• For Want Of A Nail: After the Inquisition learns about Corypheus's existence much earlier due to Helen's omni-tool, Varric summons Hawke to Haven.
• Future Me Scares Me: When Helen shows Leliana her recordings of her journey in the Bad Future, Leliana reacted in shock and horror of seeing her future self.
• Heroic BSoD: Helen is already incredibly lonely for being stranded in an alien world. The first time she breaks is during an encounter with despair demons, in which they (speaking in English) reveal her fear of being alone.
• History Repeats: Helen lamented over how the history of the Andrastian religion is not so different from Earth's religions.
  Helen: Thousands of years and a whole new galaxy and all we did was make the same damn mistakes.
• Human Subspecies: With her omnitool Helen discovers that elves and dwarves are genetically enhanced humans, which explains why human-elf and half-dwarf parents had human children due to having recessive alleles. The Qunari on the other hand are "enhanced" elves added with LEGO Genetics of reptilian DNA (which seems to correspond to Iron Bull's belief that the Qunari are part dragon).
• It's All My Fault: Helen believed herself for destroying the Conclave and the cause for Justinia's death after viewing her recording of herself touching the Orb of Destruction and causing the explosion. But Solas tells her she is not and it was Corypheus's.
• Language Barrier: Helen is able to understand everyone thanks to her artificial translator (and that Orlesian and Antivan are not so different from French and Spanish, respectively), but she is unable to speak and write the trade language, and has to go through learning it under Solas. Until she regains her omnitool she is naturally fluent.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Dorian sums this up about how Helen got to Thedas.
  Dorian: So, the Herald of Andraste traveled through the stars for ten thousand years, landed on a world she'd never heard of, and accidentally triggered the explosion at the Conclave, all because of her horrible taste in men.
  Helen: I know it sounds far-fetched.
  Dorian: 'Far-fetched?' Helen, it sounds ludicrous. It's an absolutely outrageous story that cannot possibly be true. And yet, I believe you.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Noted by Helen that humans, some animals and plants on Thedas are not too different from Earth and the Milky Way Galaxy which puzzled her greatly. After gaining her omnitool, she discovered humans, the fauna and flora are originally from her home galaxy.
• Motive Rant: Corypheus gives his usual motive speech during the attack on Haven. But Helen doesn't give two shits about his speech and outright ignores him, which pisses off Corypheus.
• Mundane Fantastic: Solas was upset over how Helen's people, aliens and humans, act so banal in flying through space and floating above a planet, which to him is breathtakingly incredible. But he eventually admits that such a society that have mastered space travel so long ago would seen it as ordinary or boring to them.
• Mundane Utility: Helen playfully suggest to Solas of becoming a lawyer and using his ability to see into the Fade to blackmail judges and win all of his cases.
  Solas: Ah, yes. Blackmail. The foundation of a thriving legal career.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Helen has no intention on staying in the Inquisition in the long term and nor is she interested in being the Herald. She is staying only to fix the Breach and cure the mark. This changes slightly after she is named Inquisitor, but she still doesn't care about the Inquisition itself.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Solas gets his moment when he realized how Helen's situation isn't so different from his after Varric (unintentionally) tells him about it.
  Varric: Try putting yourself in her shoes for just a minute. Imagine being asleep for thousands of years and waking up in a place where everybody either thinks you're guilty of mass murder, or you're a religious icon. Meanwhile, everything and everyone you've ever loved is gone. How are you gonna feel?
• Oh, Crap!: Solas all but runs screaming when he realizes the depths of his mistake in trusting Corypheus.
• Older Than They Look: Helen is described as looking to be in her late teens-early twenties by other characters after Solas magically grows her hair back.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Helen punished a group of disgruntled, young Inquisition recruits (humans, dwarves, and elves) who can't stand each other by assigning them as the newly created "Company Half-Wit" and making them to work together on digging latrines. Over time Company Half-Wit got over their prejudices and becoming a popular unit.
• Related in the Adaptation: The crossover establishes that Cassandra is a descendant of Cora Harper after Helen used her omni-tool to scanned Cassandra's future self's genetics.
• Rip Van Winkle: Helen wakes up ten-thousands years later on Thedas.
• Secret-Keeper: Helen soon learns about Solas's immortality (but not of his Dread Wolf identity) by her own investigation and confronting him about it, and keeps his identity secret.
  • Helen also learned about Fiona being the mother of Alistair and decided not to reveal this to her as it was not one of her business to pry into their relationship and that the Inquisition needed Fiona's help without spooking her about this discovery.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Helen is strongly opposed to slavery after having served in the Alliance in busting Batarian slaving operations. Her stance comes into direct conflict with Dorian's views, and she even warns him to leave the Inquisition if he continues to spout his support of slavery.
• Small Role, Big Impact: One of the maids in Haven, Cecelia, is brought to Solas's attention for being diagnosed with a unknown illness and is pregnant. Upon examining her with his magic, Solas discovers that she is suffering from eezo poisoning. Cecelia confesses that she is the lover of Ivans, the Templar who attempted to rape Helen, and she got exposed from the poisoning from wearing Helen's clothes which were stolen by Ivans. Furthermore, she reveals that Leliana had confiscated Helen's omnitool and kept it for months.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat:
  • When Solas and Iron Bull meet for the first time.
  Iron Bull: So, you're the creepy fade mage.
  Solas: And you are the hulking Qunari spy.
  Helen: (thinking) A dick measuring contest? Already? Yay me.
• The Soulless: Solas initially thinks that Helen doesn't have a soul/life force because she is not connected to the Fade. Solas finds this very saddening, describing her as a golem who has "intelligence and purpose, but [lacks] a real soul." He realizes otherwise when she connects to the Fade as time goes on.
• Stalker without a Crush: Helen's abusive ex-boyfriend Clinton, who was hellbent on ruining her life and to the point of being solely responsible for stranding Helen on Thedas.
• Surrender Backfire: Future!Cecelia surrendered to the Venatori after revealing to them about her pregnant baby possessing biotic powers and allowing her to live...until she gave birth. The Venatori only cared about the baby and they saw no further use for Cecelia other than using her in their experiments.
• Switching P.O.V.: The story mostly switches between the perspectives of Helen, Solas, and Cullen. Dorian's POV joins the mix in Chapter 36, and Cole's in Chapter 55.
• Take Up My Sword: Helen plans on passing her omnitool, which contains untold files of information from her home, to someone who can responsibly use its full potential to better Thedas after she dies. She conclude on giving it to Solas. But after her spat with Solas over the revelation of Thedas's offworld origins, and during Corypheus's attack on Haven, Helen plans on giving the omnitool to Cullen.
• Threat Backfire: "Count Pisspot," the brother of Ivans (who attempted to rape Helen), demands justice for his dead brother. When his demands are refused by Cullen, Pisspot threatens to harm Cullen's family. Cullen's reaction? He has his sword pressed against the Count's neck and threatens to have his ashes sent back to his home in the same urn as his brother's.
• Trust Password: The password for Helen's omnitool, which contains vast and priceless amounts of knowledge. She initially entrusts it to Solas with the instruction to arrange for the spread of the information within, only for their relationship to sink due to Solas' extreme reaction to the revelation that the Elves are a Human Subspecies. She then gives the password to Cullen, but lost in the haze of Lyrium withdrawal and the evacuation of Haven, he forgets it - until Solas reminds him. Helen changes it to something unique to Cullen's past when he tells her about forgetting it.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Helen and Solas. The latter is trying not to fall in love with Helen due to his godly nature, as in the canon romance.
• Unwanted False Faith: Helen makes it clear that she doesn't want to be the Herald of Andraste as she: 1) is an atheist who is unfamiliar with the Andrastian religion, and 2) doesn't want a part in the Chantry, which she sees as corrupt, much to Cassandra's displeasure.
  Helen: People saw that they wanted to see. Look, Cassandra, I can say I am an agent of the Inquisition. I can use my real name. I can even use a military rank if you want to give me one. But I will not pretend I am a prophet of a god I do not believe in.
• Warrior Therapist: Cassandra attempts to put Helen at ease from her first encounter with despair demons in a blunt way.
  Varric: Pep talks really aren't your thing.
  Cassandra: Shut up, Varric. At least I said something.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Helen is pissed at Solas for entering her dreams without her knowledge, and calling him out on his not so subtle veiled racism.
  • Leliana is discovered to have been keeping Helen's omnitool for almost the entire story as she was uncertain of Helen's motives and had even considered using it as leverage against her. This revelation strained Leliana's relationship with the other advisers.
    • Once Helen confronted her, she points out that they could have uncover the identity of Corypheus as the omnitool had recorded the Conclave weeks earlier if Leliana hadn't stolen away the omnitool.
  • Hawke unleashes everything on Cassandra for imprisoning and interrogating Varric, and warns her to stay away from his friends.
  • Varric calls out on Helen for sending out a distress signal into space without considering the possibility that it could bring the attention of less benevolent aliens to Thedas. For her part, Helen admits that she didn't think this through, combined with her selfish desire to leave Thedas.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Helen completely tossed out her etiquette in front of King Alistair as she is in no mood to explain everything to him about the Conclave after surviving her return from the future, and that Alistair isn’t her king ("I didn't vote for him."), and needing to use the bathroom. Alistair isn't completely offended ("Yes, Leliana, exactly! She didn’t vote for me.") and is understanding of Helen's sentiment and haggard look.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Helen is completely grossed out to encounter giant spiders for the first time and proceeds to turn them into paste. Iron Bull, Sera, and Solas were all amused by her reactions. Helen start to complain afterwards on why giant spiders exist.
• The World Is Just Awesome: While exploring Helen's memories, Solas is awestruck from looking at a planet from a spaceship. He even admits to Wisdom that he never have any idea of how huge a world could be, and the concept of Helen's worlds as separate planets.
• Wrong Context Magic: Helen's biotics are commonly mistaken for magic. Characters such as Solas, Cullen, and Dorian felt her biotics being "quiet." Solas aptly describe it "like walking into a crowded room, only to realize that you had suddenly gone deaf."
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Solas gives a very heartfelt one to Helen and telling her she is not carelessly responsible for the destruction of the Conclave.
  Solas: Do you really think that a man who would sacrifice Divine Justinia would be using the mark to repair the world? To free slaves and help common people wherever he could? Whatever he intended to do with this mark, I doubt it was to make the world a better place.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Helen joined the Andromeda Initiative to leave the Milky Way and start a new life, only to become stranded on Thedas thousands of years into the future, and everyone she knew is long gone and dead.

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