7/1/2184

Mads' mutilated body lied on the operating table. Cerberus had spent the last 1 and a half year rebuilding the Red Eagle, who was now a legend. They had focused efforts on the organs and brain, seeing it as the top priority currently.

Miranda Lawson and Wilson were doing routine check on Mads' vital organs and scanning his brain. Wilson was checking and scanning the brain when he began to spot something weird happening. In the beginning he thought he was seeing things, he blinked his eyes to make sure he was seeing it right, after all he hadn't slept in maybe 17 hours.

It was still there, but it was supposed to be impossible, at least at the age they had deterimed him to be. It would have made more sense if he was an infant.

"Miranda, you better come see this." Wilson requested while his eyes were still planted to the monitor showed a scanned image of Mads' brain.

Miranda let out an annoyed sigh. She didn't trust Wilson and sure as hell didn't like him, but he was a valuable asset in bringing the red eagle back to life.

"Can it wait?" Miranda asked.

"No it can't. You REALLY need to come see this." Wilson replied.

Miranda walked over to his work station. "What did I need to see?" She asked as she crossed her arms.

"This" Wilson answered as he zoomed in the image to reveal something remarkable.

"Impossible." Miranda dismissed.

Mads, the already valuable hero, was beginning develop biotic abilities. It was impossible, in order to do as much, one had to be exposed to element zero while one was still in the womb.

"I'm telling you, it's real!" Wilson proclaimed.

"It can't be, something is wrong with your hardware." Miranda replied, still sure it was a error or something like that.

Suddently they heard the device that recorded brain activity begin to rise at a rapid pace. They stormed over to the body of Mads and began to look for the cause for the sudden rise in brain activity.

"What the hell is going on?" Miranda asked, she immediately blamed Wilson. He must have fucked something up.

"I don't know! His body is not ready to support him yet!" Wilson replied as he began typing away at the console sitting right by the operating table.

Mads saw the light. Like before it suddenly engulfed him, almost blinding him. He slowly opened his eyes to see the operating light above him. He slowly looked over his body and was horrifed to see what had been done to it.

It was mutilated beyond belief and then the pain set in. Every corner of his body screamed at him in pain, trying to tell him something was wrong.

Did God just fucking prank me? Mads thought to himself through the pain.

"We're going to lose him!" a man yelled to a woman.

Mads looked at the man. He was right beside the table of which Mads was currently lying on. Mads decided he needed answers, and he needed them quick. There was no telling how much time had passed since his departure, perhaps the reapers were already invading. He couldn't wait to be finished, if he had to face the Reapers in a wheel chair while his skin burned, so be it. Mads took notice that his limbs seemed to be working just fine and so he grabbed the man by the throat and pulled him down to his face.

The man was grasping for air and was trying to wiggle himself free.

"WHERE AM I?" Mads asked in a very deep voice that he didn't even know he had.

"Please- Let – Go" The man pleaded. Mads was annoyed he didn't answered the question he had just been asked, so Mads tried again.

"WHERE AM I?"

"Miranda- Give- Him- The- Sedative" The man said while still trying to get some air.

The woman named Miranda began typing away at her console and soon Mads could feel the effects of the sedative. Mads kept to his theory that he couldn't sleep now, so he let go of Wilson and began filling his body with adrenaline, by yelling slurs and knocking his hand down on the table, to combat the sedative that was in his vains.

"GIVE HIM MORE!" The man demanded as he still tried to take in as much air as possible.

Miranda continued to type away at her console and soon Mads could feel himself relax more, the pain slowly began to fade away and finally he shut his eyes.

Darkness welcomed him as always.

"Jesus, that was close!" Wilson remarked while he was still out of breath.

"I just gave our only subject enough sedative to take down an elephant." Miranda stated as she eyed Wilson with an evil look.

"Don't look at me like that! I didn't have anything to do with it!" Wilson defended himself.

"We'll see about that." Miranda replied as she left the room.

Wilson watched her leave as he sat down in his office chair. He had been shaken by the experience he just had. He wasn't sure how to feel about his subject trying to kill him. He also felt a little bad about not answering his question.

Miranda was semi running to the room where she could contact her boss, the illusive man. He had demanded updates about everything that was happening, and this one he was about to get in person.

She stepped into the room, and soon everything changed into the surroundings of the illusive man's office, over looking that burning star.

She was also surpising that he pretty much never left that room, always ready to take the call whenever it came.

"Miranda, how may I help you?" The illusive man asked as he took a drag of his cigarette.

"There was a problem with the subject. He woke up." Miranda replied.

"I thought he wasn't ready to wake up." The illusive man stated.

"He wasn't" Miranda answered.

"Then how did he wake up?" The illusive man asked.

"I'm not sure, but I believe Mr. Wilson might have had something to do with it." Miranda replied.

"That's somewhat of an accusation mrs. Lawson." The illusive man commented.

"I know, but I'm almost sure of it." Miranda said.

"There is another matter we need to discuss." The illusive man said to change the subject.

"And what is that?" Miranda asked.

"We have tried to follow up on captain Romanov's backstory. His files is surprisingly classified, even more so than councillor Anderson's file. His offical file states that he was born in 2150, but-"

"But what?" Miranda interupted .

"That file was created in 2174, a full 24 years later. His file also keeps referencing something called 'project vossozdany' . A retired colonel Richard was head of it, perhaps someone with your set of skills could get some information." The illusive man suggested.

"I'll get it done." Miranda accpted.

"Good. We'll talk later." The illusive man said as a final note before closing the link down.

22/6 2185

A loud bang was the first thing Mads heard as he awoke. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light after spending so long being shut. He heard a voice yell over the comms in the room, it was a woman's voice, that much he could tell.

"Romanov! Wake up!" The voice commanded. Mads noted she had a hint of an australian accent.

Mads could feel his ribs hurting as he tried to sit up on the table, another bang was heard, this one was closer than the other.

"You need to grab armor and a gun from the weapons locker!" The woman screamed at him.

Mads rolled off the operating table and fell on the cold hard ground. It felt like his legs were sleeping, but that was probably to be expected. God knows how long he has been out of action. Mads slowly crawled to the weapons locker and opened it.

He managed to support himself against the wall as he equipped the armor. It looked like a copy of the standard N7 armor, not his usual set of armor, but it would have to do. Mads took out the only weapon inside the locker. It was a pistol, he immediately noticed it was rather different. It had a loading chamber for thermal clips.

It would appear that the alliance had taken him up on his advise. The Geth's idea to override overheating with a better firing rate. There was no clips in sight though.

"Mechs are headed your way! Find cover!" The woman demanded.

Like I don't know how to handle myself Mads thought bitterly to himself as he took cover behind the table he had been on. He noticed a clip on the ground a few feet from him, however it was out of cover.

Mads rolled over to it and grabbed it before heading back to cover.

Mechs, the alliance sometimes used them for combat simulation. They were as dumb as rocks, but that didn't make them any less annoying to deal with.

A few mechs entered the room, most likely looking for him. Mads waited for them to get close. He could hear their metal feet walk on the floor. He used it to get a picture of where they were where and how to take on the task ahead of him.

Mads leaped from cover and took the mechs by surpise. They bearly had time to react to him before getting shot.

Mads' ribs still hurt, but the pain was slowly fading away. Mads procedded to the next room while the woman kept giving him instructions on what to do. Mads had to admit that he was slowly but surely getting more annoyed at her constant barking of orders.

Mads saw several personal lying dead on the ground. Their uniform wasn't alliance issue, but the emblem on their shoulders seemed awfully familiar to something he had seen before. Mads kept moving, he didn't have time to waste.

Mads kept fighting his way through the different rooms and up several flights of stairs. Mads came to a room where their was a whole squad of the mechs waiting for him, he took cover as soon as he spotted them.

"Don't waste any time! I can't distract them for long!" The woman told him, a reminder to move his ass.

Mads jogged through a corridor before seeing a greande launcher on the ground. Mads quickly took it. It seemly oddly convenient that it would be so close to a situation where it was needed. No time to dwell on such issues.

Another large squad of mechs appeared coming out of a door. The greande launcher made short work of them however.

The woman began to break up. The line between them was full of interference. Mads noticed that he was in some sort of office complex.

Might as well dig around a little. Mads thought as he went into one of the offices. He went through the logs left on the terminals. They spoke about him, or rather him as a subject. The other one said that the cost had already surpassed 4 billion credits.

4 fucking billions? Mads had to admit, he was flattered that he was worth 4 billion credits.

Mads pressed on, he went up another set of stairs, only to watch a man get slaughtered by a YMIR mech.

There was another log. It mentioned someone named Miranda. She was the one in head of the project. It must have been her on the comms with him.

Mads went through a set of doors and was greeted by a battle between an african american male and maybe a dozen mechs. The man flexed his biotic powers and took out a couple of them by throwing them down the hole in the room.

"Hey!" The man yelled from his cover as he was still under fire.

"Romanov? I thought you were still on the operating table?" The man asked as he Mads joined him behind cover.

"You probably know more than I do." Mads replied as he broke cover and shot a mech.

"Fair point. Nice beard by the way." The man commented.

"Beard?" Mads asked. He had been too busy to notice, but they had not taking their time to shave him while he was on the operating table. He had grown a big bushy beard, he had to trim it when he had time.

"If you don't mind me asking, who the hell are you? Are you with that Miranda woman?" Mads asked.

"I'm Jacob Taylor, head of security on this station." Jacob replied.

"You ain't too good at your job." Mads commented as another bullet hit the cover. Jacob chuckled.

"I thought you were still work in progess." Jacob said.

"I believe I still am, but unforseen events changed that." Mads replied as he popped out of cover and shot another mech before ducking back down.

"You're right." Jacob replied.

"Can you fill me in quick?" Mads asked.

"Can it wait til we pop these mechs?" Jacob asked back.

"I suppose." Mads said.

"I'm a biotic, you give the order and I'll slam them away." Jacob suggested.

"A biotic? I could use some biotic abilities right about now." Mads replied.

"Didn't Miranda say you were a biotic?" Jacob asked confused.

"Me? A biotic? No way." Mads answered even more confused.

"The reports stated that you had developed biotic abilities while in comatose." Jacob said.

"The gift, so that was what it was." Mads said to himself.

"Huh?" Jacob asked.

"I'll tell you later. How do I use it?" Mads asked back.

"You just gotta focus your power and it should come naturally." Jacob replied.

"Alright, on 3 we kill these pricks." Mads ordered.

Jacob nodded.

"1"

"2"

"3"

They both popped from cover. Jacob took out the ones on the right with his biotic abilities. Mads focused on the targets and pulled off the same thing. He was surpised by how easy it was. Soon they were all gone.

"Nice work, captain." Jacob said as they took in some air.

"Yeah, I haven't completely lost it yet." Mads replied.

"Now, you mind filling me in?" Mads asked.

"2 years ago you were killed in action. The alliance declared you dead and with good reason. Your corpse was in a bad shape when we recovered it. You should be happy that you crash landed on a winter planet, it kept your corpse from decomposing too fast." Jacob explained

"If you ain't the alliance, then who are you?" Mads asked.

"Sorry, can't tell you right now." Jacob replied. Mads looked at him confused, but decided not ro push it right now.

"Did the others survive the attack?" Mads asked.

"Most of them did, a few crewmen and navigator pressly didn't make it." Jacob replied.

"Any idea what's up with this attack?" Mads asked.

"I'm not sure, I was about to get some shut eye when every mech in this place turned hostile. My best guess is that it is an inside job."

"Damn, let's find a way out of here." Mads suggested.

"It should be this way." Jacob answered as he went towards the door.

"Is anyone out there?" The comms suddently jumped to life again, this time it was a man's voice. A voice Mads remembered.

"Wilson, is that you? I'm with Romanov in the D-wing. Where are you?" Jacob asked.

"Is he alive? How the hell- Never mind, get your ass over to the network control room!" Wilson ordered.

"Roger that." Jacob replied.

"Is that the same Wilson I heard when I woke up at some point?" Mads asked.

"Sure is. Chief medical chief on the project. Let's go." Jacob said as he began walking, Mads followed him.

They fought their way through several rooms. Everywhere they went, mechs were fighting them. Mads tried out his new biotic powers several times and found them quite amusing to use. Seeing the mechs fly around in the air did give a certain morale booster for him. He was already getting tried of the gun he had been given. Mads hoped to get his 44. Magnum back as soon as possible.

Wilson cried out over the comms that he had been attacked by the mechs. He was in server room b. Jacob and Mads rushed over to his location as fast as they could. They found him on the ground with a bullet wound in his leg. Mads ran over to the wall where there was some medi-gel.

Mads quickly ran over to Wilson and applied the medi-gel to his wound.

"Suppose we're even steven now?" Mads asked as he applied the medi-gel.

"Yeah, suppose so." Wilson replied as he slowly stood up, careful not to put too much weight on his wounded leg.

"I tried to fix the problem, but whoever did it, did it well."

"How do you even have security clearance? You were in bio-wing." Jacob questioned.

"I was trying to fix this mess! I even got shot doing it! How do you dare question me?" Wilson asked with a very angry tone.

"Shut it, both of you. We better get out of here." Mads broke in.

"You're right, we need to get Miranda!" Jacob said.

"Miranda? It's probably her who started this mess!" Wilson suggested.

"Miranda? No way, this is her life's work!" Jacob replied.

"Miranda helped me up and warned me, I doubt she would kill me off this way." Mads joined in.

"Alright, then maybe it's not her." Wilson said.

"Let's point fingers later. Now I suggest we get the hell out of here!" Mads suggested.

Mechs flooded the room, Mads ordered Wilson to use overlaod in the canisters in the room, pretty much killing off all the mechs. Just as they were about to leave, Jacob stopped him.

"Romanov, if I tell you who we are working for, will you trust me?" Jacob asked.

"You really want do this, Jacob?" Wilson asked.

"It real be real hard to escape together if he is expecting a bullet in the back." Jacob replied.

"It's your funeral." Wilson commented.

"That depends on who you work for." Mads said.

"The Lazarus project, the one that rebuild you, it's funded and controlled by Cerberus." Jacob said.

Mads pulled his gun and pointed it at Jacob's head.

"SWEAR on your life, you aren't fucking with me right now." Mads asked as he held the gun to Jacob's forehead.

"It's true!" Jacob answered nervously.

"I saw first hand what Cerberus is capable of doing. If you expect me to trust you, then your are delusional beyond belief." Mads said, still holding the gun to Jacob's forehead.

"Told you." Wilson said in the background.

"You, shut the fuck up." Mads replied to his comment.

Jacob didn't know what to say. He simply remained silent.

"However, you are also the reason I'm alive and the only way out of this shithole of a station." Mads said as he took the gun off Jacob's forehead. Jacob relaxed a bit.

"The illusive man will explain everything once we get off the station." Jacob said.

"The illusive man? What the hell kind of nickname is that?" Mads asked.

"Don't ask me, no one knows who he is." Jacob replied.

"Let's go." Mads said angrily. Still pretty pissed about being stuck with Cerberus personal for now. They fought their way through the base until they came to the shuttle port. After a small battle between the three and dozens of mechs, they went up to the door that would lead them to the shuttle.

Wilson ran up to the door and began to unlock it. As the door opened, it revealed a familiar face. To say Wilson was surpised was almost an understatement.

Miranda simply said "Hello Wilson" before blowing his brain out. Mads pointed his gun at Miranda, not really sure what to think.

"I see justice is served shiftly in the organization of Cerberus." Mads said while keeping his aim on Miranda.

"Jacob, what have you told him?" Miranda asked.

"I just told him we worked for Cerberus. He was less than pleased." Jacob replied.

"You mind taking that gun off me?" Miranda asked as she look Mads in the eyes without fear.

"Depends if I end up as mr. Wilson over there." Mads answered.

"We have spent 2 years rebuilding you. We won't lose you now." Miranda said.

Mads thought about it for a moment or two, not really sure what to do.

"Let's get out of here." Mads said as he lowered his gun.

They all went to the shuttle. It flew out of the station that was now a graveyard for all those workers.

As they flew on the shuttle, Miranda took out a data pad. Mads looked at her confused.

"We need to make sure your mental stability is in order. We have a little test." Miranda said.

"Really Miranda? He fought well on the station, that has to count for something." Jacob broke in.

"The illusive man wishes us to ensure that Romanov's memories and personality are still intact." Miranda replied.

Mads leaned back in his seat on the shuttle, eager to see what these tests were.

"According to your offical file, you were born in 2150 in St. Petersburg.-" Miranda started.

Mads formed a grin on his face. They had fallen for the trap, excellent. He thought.

"However, that file was a decoy. Your real birthday is 31/8 1992." Miranda continued.

The grin dropped from his face faster than he could say shit. How the fuck? Was the only thing going through his head at that point.

"How the hell did you know that?" Mads asked with a more confusing tone than an angry one.

"You buried your past well, captain. But Cerberus is good at uncovering secrets. We know about project vossozdany. I had to meet colonel Richard in person to get the details, since no files about the project exists. It's an interesting back story, a tragic one at that. Mother, Father, sister and brother all dead." Miranda explained. She had a dumb smile on her face. A smile Mads wanted to knock out of her.

"That was classifed information, Miranda. Don't know if I should be impressed or angry at you figuring it out." Mads told her while looking her in the eyes.

"Your biggest achievement besides taking down Saren was defending the human colony of Elysium. You held off an entire army of pirates before reinforcements arrived." Jacob broke in and said.

"Didn't have much of a choice. Either death or victory, I choose the latter." Mads replied.

"It was damn impressive." Jacob complimented.

"On Virmire, you had to leave a squadmate behind. Gunnery chief Ashley Williams died, why did you make that choice?" Miranda broke in and asked.

"I only had time to save one. In the haste of the moment, I decided to save Kaiden Alenko, because I believed he was more valuable. I have the upmost respect for Gunnery chief Ashley Williams. I did after all sign her death warrant." Mads explained.

"No one is blaming you, Captain. The facility had to be destroyed by any means necessary." Jacob said.

"Yeah, doesn't make it any easier." Mads replied.

Miranda was about to do more tests, but Jacob talked her out of it. Soon they arrived at the new station where they could contact the Illusive man.

Mads went down the set of stairs to the comms room, where he could contact the so called illusive man.

It seemed like the room uploaded him into some sort of database, and soon he found himself in what appeared to be the Illusive man's office.

"Captain Romanov." The illusive man greeted.

"Illusive man, how naive of me to think we would be seeing each other in person." Mads replied as he crossed his arms.

"Call it a precaution. Not unusual for people like us." The illusive man explained.

"You don't know me." Mads fired back.

"You need to see the bigger picture. Humanity is up against the greatest threat it has ever faced."

"The Reapers, I know"

"Glad to see your memories are still intact. How are you feeling?"

"I could use a smoke. But what are the reapers doing that's so menacing?"

"We're at war, no one wants to admit it, colonies have been disappearing, human colonies. There is a high chance that it's someone working for the reapers, just as Saren did for Sovereign. You were the one to put them down, that's oen of the many reasons we choose you."

"If this is true, then I have to help you."

"I figured you would need evidence. We just received reports of the lastest abduction, the colony of freedom's progess. There is a shuttle waiting for you."

"I'll guess I'll have a look, but only because you rebuild me."

"Remember that this is your operation, what you says go. You always have a choice."

"Yeah right."

The illusive man disconnected the call. Leaving Mads in the otherwise empty room. Mads walked back up the stairs to where Miranda and Jacob was waiting. Jacob had a crate in his hands.

"This is the gear we salvaged from your body. Old body armor, boots and a 44. Magnum." Jacob said as he handed Mads the crate.

"Thanks. Is the rest is still on the Normandy?" Mads asked.

"Yeah, we wasn't able to get it." Jacob replied.

Mads opened the crate and took out the contains inside. Mads equipped his armor and put on his jackboots. He could tell that they had repaired it to the best of their abilites. He put on his belt with the thigh holster. He checked the chamber to see it was fully loaded, there was two speed loaders and 18 loose rounds. It would have to do for now.

Now it was time to head for freedom's progess. To see what the fuss was all about.