Disclaimer: I don't own Crysis or Mass Effect.

Thanks as always to DN7 for his help.

"I'll send Serpent and Raptor. Serpent will go in initially with the STG team while Raptor deploys covertly on the planet surface to await confirmation of Saren's base."

Derek raised an eyebrow, "Yet you said that the second team would be on standby."

"And they are. Standby until confirmation of the base. Don't worry I'll deal with it. Anything else?"

This time all the directors shook their heads. "Well then. I'd better get on this."

CryNet Phantom Operative designation Wraith.

Current assignment: SSV Normandy SR1. Aide to Lt. Com. Shepard, Spectre

Current Location: SSV Normandy SR1, Operative Wraith's Office

Current Time: January 20th 07:55

I started in surprise from where I was staring blankly at the wall when I heard a loud knock on my door. "Come in!" I called out shaking my head to clear it of any cobwebs as the door slid open, revealing Shepard. "Ah, hey Vanyali. What can I help you with?"

She walked into my office, letting the door close behind her. "Martin. I see you're done with whatever you were busy with last night?"

I nodded "Oh yeah. There were a couple of things that needed dealing with." I answered vaguely.

She immediately leveled her piercing gaze at me "I hope that those 'things' didn't prevent you from resting and getting some sleep?"

I chuckled "Yes, I slept. I can take care of my self sometimes you know."

Vanyali raised an eyebrow, a small smile dancing around her lips "Is that so?"

I gave her a grin "Of course! I've survived this long haven't I?"

"Hmmm. I think that its probably more so the suit that's kept you alive."

I gave her a wounded look "Ouch Shepard. I do have some skill you know. Even if it wasn't enough." I muttered darkly.

Shepard gave me a surprised look "What do you mean 'It wasn't enough'?"

I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "Exactly what I said. I fucked up. Got myself captured, which resulted in you having to fight with that." I pointed off to the side where the Thorian's nanosuit was lying.

"That wasn't your fault you know."

"Bullshit!" I shouted smashing my fist on my desk "I made a mistake, I let my guard down, again! Don't trust anyone! I should know that by now! But noooo. I had to go and let myself get fucking captured!"

"Do you trust me?" The unexpected question caused me to gape at Shepard for a moment.

"Wha- What?"

"You heard me. Martin. Do you trust me?"

"I- Yeah of course I do!"

"Do you trust Niel Teems? Do you trust Derek Antonov? Axel Petersen? What about Raven? Or the other phantoms? Do you trust them?"

I nodded extremely confused "Yes- of course! What-"

Shepard's next word brought my thoughts to a screeching halt "Why?"

"I don't-"

"Why do you trust me Martin? Why do you trust them?" Shepard asked me, her gaze fixing me in place.

"What? That- that- thats different! Wh- why shouldn't I trust you? I mean-"

Vanyali sighed "The thing I'm trying to make you see Martin, is that you can't go around not trusting anyone and being paranoid."

"I'm not paranoid." I muttered.

"Really because it seems like you want to be paranoid. Feros was not your fault Martin." She said softly. "There was no reason to believe that the Colonist's would prove to be hostile. No! Don't." She said sharply as I tried to argue. "It was not your fault. Everyone makes mistakes. After all, we are only human."

I gave a short chuckle as I looked at her. "You know who you remind me of?"

Vanyali smiled softly "No."

"You remind me of Lynna. You remind me of her so damn much." I said, my own smile turning sad at the thought.

A strange emotion seemed to flit over her face before disappearing before it settled on confusion. "Whose Lynna?"

A pained expression appeared on my face. I swallowed "Lynna was my fiance."

"Fiance?" Shepard's confusion quickly turned into surprise and... jealousy?

I gave a dry chuckle. "Yeah, forgot that you didn't know."

"No, I didn't know that you have a fiance."

I shook my head, sighing. "Not have. Had."

"Oh, did it not end well?"

"Well, that's one way of putting it. She died. On Mindoir." I elaborated at her look.

"Oh... Fucking batarians."

I nodded slowly in agreement. "Fucking batarians."

Shepard seemed to shake her head free of the bad mood we had found ourselves in and changed the subject. "So, one of the reasons why I came in here was to tell you that most of the ground team is extremely anxious to talk to you. They want to know all about CryNet and hear whatever explanation's you have."

I gave a chuckle, grateful for the change in subject "I suppose I should have expected that."

"Also." Here she gave me a stern look "Did you really have to talk down to Ash yesterday like that? While you were right, you could have handled that a bit better."

"Yeah..." I rubbed the back of my neck uncomfortably "I didn't really handle that well. In my defense, I had just been tortured by a plant so I might not have been thinking properly."

"I know. Next time, try and be a bit nicer alright?"

I chortled"You got it commander."

Vanyali gave me a grin. "Now then, I took the liberty of telling the crew that they could question you in the comm room. It's a secure room so no one other than the ground team will know your secret."

I raised a hand, "Hold on now. Don't I get a say in this interrogation?"

Shepard laughed, "Hell no! Otherwise it wouldn't be an interrogation now would it?"

Grumbling quietly about the injustice of the entire situation I got up and placed my helmet over my head and sealed it up. "Well then, let's get it over with."

"Hey hey! Look what the commander dragged in!"

"Heh, it looks like you were waiting for us." I said, glancing at Kaidan who had spoken.

"Like we were going to pass up the opportunity to learn more about CryNet." Garrus told me.

I nodded. "Of course. Just so long as you know that I may not be able to tell you everything." I warned them, taking off my helmet. "After all, some stuff is classified. Now then, hit me."

Garrus spoke up first "Well, I've always been curious. Is the reason that you gave publicly, the true reason why there are no nonhuman Nanosuits?"

I nodded "Yup. Pretty much. What you probably don't really realize, is that we can't just go and make a nanosuit that would fit, say a turian or salarian and expect it to work. We pretty much have to create a nanosuit from scratch. Similar to how we created the nanosuit 1 and 2. First we start out with the nanoweave itself. How does the CryFibril react when in contact with the subject. In order to figure that out we have to recreate the original CryFibril that we made. The CryFibril that was first made into a skintight suit and worn by a human, without any refinement. That was of course the easy part. We could easily do that.

"Then we have to do various tests to see what happens when introduced to a new host. And that's where we ran into our first problems. The CryFibril rejected all turian hosts. Dextro DNA was to blame there. So we had to find out a way to create a version of CryFibril that didn't reject the turian hosts based on their DNA. We're doing that, but we also have more problems. We need to find a way for the asari to wear a Nanosuit because we learned that the nanosuit interacts with biotics in a.. less than ideal way. The salarians are probably the easiest to get nanosuits for as we only have to adapt it to the new physiology and the heightened metabolism of the salarians."

"So, yes. The reason why there are no nonhuman nanosuits is because we have not adapted the nanosuit to a new species yet."

"So, doesn't the asari problem tie into why there are no biotic phantoms?" Kaidan asked me.

I nodded "Yes. Almost two years ago we began looking into biotic subjects for the nanosuit program. After intensive study and simulations we deemed the nanosuit to be relatively safe for a biotic subject and we let a volunteer, a previous Alliance N3 marine, Lieutenant Lavernious to put on the Nanosuit 2 in order to see what would happen." Here I hesitated for a moment. "It did not end well."

Shepard furrowed her eyebrows "Why? What happened."

I closed my eyes as I remembered that fateful day just over a year ago. Wordlessly I turned and accessed the comm rooms holographic array. "I think that it would be better if I show you."

Everyone in the room except for Shepard showed visible surprise when SECOND spoke up. "Unzipping embedded memory."

I gave the squad a look "I want to tell you guys though. CryNet is far from perfect. We have made more than a few mistakes. And the nanosuit is not that wonderful a thing, as you will see here."

Log: November 23rd 2181

The Prism

Nanosuit 2.0 Biotic Subject Experiment

Subject: 1st Lieutenant Hector A. Lavernious

I half listened as my voice filled the comm room from the log that started playing.

"Lieutenant Lavernious has long since expressed interest in joining the Phantoms. Normally the Lieutenant would be a great candidate to become a Phantom. Unfortunately there is one mark that stands out against him enrolling as a Phantom. Lieutenant Lavernious is a biotic. We have not been allowing Biotic subjects to put on the Nanosuit 1.0 or 2.0 due to unknown variables. We do not have enough data on how the Nanosuit will react when introduced to a biotic subject. We only know that the Nanosuit rejects any attempts to introduce Element Zero. Simulations on a biotic subject range between enhanced biotic abilities while wearing the suit, to the possibility of a massive suit failure as soon as biotic abilities are attempted. The possible suit failure results in the suit tearing itself apart in an attempt to compensate for the dark energy originating from the wearer. This usually leaves the subject unharmed but results in the complete and unrecoverable destruction of the Nanosuit. Because of this, we have never authorized a biotic subject in the Nanosuit program until now.

Lieutenant Lavernious has, however, been extremely persistent and has volunteered to put on the Nanosuit 2.0 as a test subject. After much discussion, the Board of Directors has authorized the experiment. Lieutenant Lavernious will put on the Nanosuit 2.0 and attempt to use his biotic abilities while inside the suit. Best case scenario, the Nanosuit will acclimatize to the biotic subject and increase the potency of the subjects biotics. Worst case scenario, the Nanosuit will tear itself apart, resulting in the loss of a billion credits. Most likely, the Nanosuit will simply not do anything, and we will be able to recruit biotic phantoms for the Nanosuit 2.0 program."

A slight pause before the holographic projectors fired up, revealing a large room. The holographic figures of various people. I paused the log for a moment. "Here you can see the various staff that participated in the experiment, along with Lieutenant Lavernious himself. Manning the various control panels you can see Nathan Gould, one of our lead scientists and the various suit technicians and researchers also involved in the experiment. And of course as I'm sure you've noticed I'm there as well."

Everyone introduced I resumed the log. And immediately my past voice filled the room once again, starting from obviously mid conversation. "Right then. Lieutenant if you would please step inside the Nanosuit so that we may begin."

The lieutenant nodded as he walked toward the empty nanosuit that was lying on a table near the middle of the room. "Very well." Two other suit technicians joined him and helped him put his legs into the nanosuit.

I nodded "Excellent. Now then, put your arms inside the gloves so that we may seal the suit."

A few moments later and Lavernious was fully wearing the suit. Something that one of the suit technicians confirmed "Suit seals are engaged."

"Perfect. Now take a seat in the cradle so that we may strap you in and prepare the startup." I said gesturing towards the cradle that was standing in the middle of the room.

The Lieutenant grumbled slightly as he sat down in the cradle and the two suit technicians strapped him in. "I wish that I didn't have to get strapped in."

I chuckled slightly in response "Merely a precaution Lieutenant. The cradle sensors must be aligned properly."

Lavernious nodded "I know, I know."

I looked on satisfied. "Right then. Lets get started. Nathan?"

Gould nodded turning to the monitors infront of him "Alright. CRYSTAL, please prepare the suit boot up procedures."

The female voice of CRYSTAL responded to him "Boot up processes commencing."

A moment later and the suit's SECOND spoke up for the first time. "Booting up Nanosuit 2.0. Core functions. . . Online. Initializing new DNA profile."

"Perfect. The suit is binding itself to your DNA." I explained to Lavernious. "It will map your DNA and then scan your body and fix any abnormalities. Over time, the suit will start correct any mutations within your genes."

The lieutenant gave a slightly nervous laugh. "Well, the voice is kind of disconcerting."

I gave him a smile "I'm sure that you will get used to it soon enough."

SECOND's voice sounded once more. "New DNA profile initialized. Beginning subject scan. . . Warning. Anomaly detected."

This statement brought visible confusion to everyone in the hologram. Most of all the lieutenant. "Uh, anomaly?"

"What's happening here Nathan?" I asked Gould sharply.

Gould took a few seconds to respond, during which he was hastily looking through many of the screens in front of him. "I think that it's just noticing the eezo nodes for the first time."

Any relaxation brought by Gould's answer quickly evaporated at SECOND's next response. "Warning. Harmful levels of dangerous element detected. Preparing for extraction. Releasing symbiosis safeguards."

"Oh no-" Gould whispered softly before I interrupted him.

"GOULD! Shut it down NOW!" I shouted at Gould causing him to frantically input a series of commands into his computer.

Our fear was not lost on Lavernious who shakily asked us "Uh, what's happening guys? What's going on-" Lavernious was unable to finish his question when he burst out screaming in pain.

"It's pulling the eezo nodes out of his body!" A suit technician cried out in alarm. This statement caused a large gasp to come from the squad as they watched the hologram in fear.

"I know that you fool! Stop it!" I snarled at him.

"We can't! Neural link is engaged! We're not supposed to be able to stop it!" Gould shouted in panic.

"Well then get him out of there!" I roared at gould.

"It's impossible! You heard the suit! It released the symbiosis safeguards! The suit is fusing to his skin!" Gould yelled back.

"He hasn't been in there long enough for the symbiosis to kick in!" I denied. "Get him out of there now!"

"We can't! For some reason the suit fused within seconds! We literally can't get it off of him without tearing his skin off now!"

I was unable to respond for a moment due to Lavernious's anguished screams "OH GOD! PLEASE HELP! AHHHHHH!"

"Damnit. SEDATE HIM NOW!" I yelled at one of the suit technicians over the screams of the tortured subject.

The technician in question punched a few buttons into his console before turning to look at me in helplessness "It's not working! It's rejecting the sedative!"

Everyone except from the lieutenant fell silent as the watched the man screaming in pain and struggling against the restraints. After watching Lavernious for a while, I finally came up with a reluctant order. "Prepare to skin him." I ordered softly, barely heard over Lavernious's screams.

Gould stared at me in disbelief "What?"

I growled in anger "You heard me Gould. Skin him! It's either that or we shoot him in the head and take him out of his misery." I shouted.

"Sir! You can't just skin him while he's awake! We'll be torturing him! He might even die from the shock!" Gould argued.

"He will die if we don't! The suit is pulling out all of his biotic nodes! Its causing untold damage to his nerves and brain! If we let it run its course then the suit is going to replace his nerves and brain. SECOND will take control, and I don't know about you but I'd rather be dead than be something like that! CRYSTAL, prepare the skinning lab." The last sentence was directed at the AI which reluctantly responded.

"Very well director. Preparing skinning procedures."

I turned to look at the suit technicians "Get him to the skinning lab."

"Yes sir."

Everyone was silent as the carted out a screaming Lavernious out of the room. The log changed to show a new room overlooking another room just as I walked in followed by Gould.

"CRYSTAL, is the lab ready?" I asked looking through the window into the skinning lab, where we could see that Lavernious was being brought in, still screaming, yet the sounds were slightly muffled by the wall separating us.

"Yes director. The lab is prepared and ready for the procedure."

"I still don't think that we're doing the right thing." Gould muttered staring at the tortured biotic.

I sighed "I don't like it either Nathan, but it's the only way he has a chance of surviving. Proceed."

Immediately we could see a series of six robotic arms position themselves around the screaming man before suddenly a laser burst forth from each of the arms striking the nanosuit in precise locations.

"Come on Lavernious! Just stay with us! Focus through the pain man, come on!" Gould gave whatever support he could through the intercom.

This proceeded for some time as the skinners continued to cut away at the nanosuit, eventually revealing raw red flesh underneath the removed nanosuit. After a while, Lavernious's screams begin to fade, and his struggles slow before finally he stops moving completely.

Gould looks at the monitors infront of him before looking at me "He's dead sir. His heart gave out."

I gave a deep sigh. "Very well. Finish the skinning procedure and then arrange for a proper burial. Maybe his death will have given us some valuable data on the matter."

"End Log"

Silence followed the end of the log and the deactivation of the holo-projectors. Everyone looked extremely shaken by what they had seen. Even Wrex was shocked by what had happened. After a couple of minutes, Shepard broke the silence "Well. I understand why there aren't any biotic phantoms now."

Kaidan nodded in agreement "Yeah... I- yeah."

I sighed "That's something that I really wished I could have changed. Never let that experiment happen or something." I laughed mirthlessly "That's one of those times that what what happens in the real world is just completely different than what happens in the simulations."

"So in none of your simulations did something like that happen?" Ashley asked me.

I shook my head "No. In the simulation, the absolute worst thing that could have happened was that the nanosuit tears itself apart when the wearer would use biotics. There might have been some minor injuries due to this, but nothing. Nothing like that."

"But what happened?" Tali asked me. "I mean why did the nanosuit try and rip the element zero nodes out of his body?"

I gave her a grim smile. "The nanosuit did its job too well. It's supposed to keep the wearer as fit as possible in order to make them both together as lethal as possible. And when it detected nodes of Element Zero within the body, it tried to 'help' the wearer by removing them. After all Element Zero is a dangerous substance to the human body that has no genetic predisposition to make use of it." I said bitterly.

"And you can't make the nanosuit realize that element zero is harmless?" Liara inquired.

I shook my head "No. You see the nanosuit isn't like your standard technology, you cant just go and add something to it, program in how to use whatever you added and expect it to work. This is where the semi-organic nature of the suit comes in, along with the overriding directive of the nanosuit itself. The suit is supposed to keep the subject inside alive and make them stronger. Therefore, in order for something specific to be added, the suit needs to accept the change in the first place. In order for that to happen, we have to first figure out a way to put the desired trait into a 'format', for lack of a better word, that the suit will recognize. This is done by putting the trait, this can be the DNA of specific genes of a specific, or multiple specific species into the nanocatalysts that we use. Now I think that you can guess what the nanocatalysts are just from their name. They allow for, or provoke a reaction from the nanosuit with the goal being a new trait or ability for the nanosuit. But not only do we just have to make the nanocatalysts, but we also have to make the suit be able to see that the change is useful to it and won't harm it or the subject wearing it. That's the real hard part. Its why we couldn't just make a nanocatalyst that would contain element zero, or have the data that would facilitate the change and expect it to work. The suit immediately rejected any such change, out of the basis that we were trying to make it introduce a substance, that is hazardous to humans.

"But why didn't you make the suit so that you could just make changes to it at will?" Kaidan inquired.

"Because we don't want it to be possible for someone to make a change to the suit that would be to the detriment of either it or the person wearing it. Therefore we made sure that the suit had the final say on what would be introduced to it. Hell, even the symbiosis inhibition systems can be deactivated by the nanosuit. And it usually does so in extreme cases."

"But what if the suit consciously decided to make a change that would harm the user?" Tali asked.

"That would be a problem, if the suit itself were sentient. But it really isn't. Its extremely complicated to explain, but the suit itself has no sentience at all. The suit becomes more like an organ of the wearer. All those decisions are in reality made by the suit and the subjects mind combined, only you couldn't influence it consciously." I grimaced, shaking my head "No that's not right. Its using your own brain, your nervous system for most of its actions. Without a person inside, it is no more than an extremely expensive suit made out of extremely expensive nanoweave. Nothing more. You see, the wearer, does not make the phantom, just as the suit does not make the phantom. The phantom, is the wearer and the suit together, working as a single entity. That, is what makes phantoms so strong. But as with every good thing, there come the bad, things that everyone has to accept before they put on the nanosuit. You know how I said it's main directive is to keep the wearer alive and make them stronger? Well, it makes the phantom, so the wearer and the nanosuit together, a weapon. A weapon to be wielded, by the phantom itself of course, but still a weapon. It makes changes to you, it cares not about what you feel about these changes it just makes them. This, is what makes the nanosuit as much a curse, as it is a blessing." I sighed.

There was silence for a few moments as everyone mulled over what I had said until Kaidan spoke up with another question. "So you said that you were unsuccessful in making the nanosuit accept the element zero nodes in the past, what makes the Thorian's suit so different?"

"An excellent question!" I said brightening. "Now If I'm not mistaken, which I usually am not, then the Thorian, created a fully organic replica of the nanosuit with the eezo nodes written into its DNA. That means, that if we were to find the sequences that determine those nodes in the Thorian's suit, that we can use those as hard DNA proof, for the nanosuit that that change would be beneficial. We've never had a creature that has had the element zero nodes transcribed into its DNA before. Even asari do not have their nodes transcribed in their DNA, as rather the nodes in asari are formed due to the reproductive physiology of the asari. That is why I was so against spacing it Ashley. Sorry for being so... harsh, yesterday. But combine the fact that I had just been captured by a goddamned plant that thought it would be a good idea to torture me for the duration of my captivity and that I believe that we could finally crack the barrier that prevents biotics from wearing the nanosuit... well I was not willing to let such a possibility slip through my fingers."

Ashley nodded "I understand. I suppose that if I had been in your position I would have done the same. I just didn't want to run the risk of it waking up again."

"Completely understandable. So... What were you doing while I was an esteemed guest of the Thorian?" I asked Shepard changing the subject.

Shepard shrugged "Oh you know. Not much. Just cleared the exo-geni headquarters, took down a krogan battlemaster, an armature and what else?"

"The geth ship?" Garrus filled in for her.

"Oh yeah, the geth ship that was latched on to the tower."

I gave her a smirk "Oh yeah. So standard stuff for a phantom."

This caused Shepard to narrow her eyes at me "Uh huh. Except we didn't need a tin suit to do so."

I gave her an exaggerated nod "Oh, no. You just needed some high tech, power armor with the strongest shields and so much heavy armor plating that might as well be an exo-suit."

"And yet who is the one who is director of a company that produces and regularly fields operatives using said armor?"

I acknowledged her point with a nod resulting in her giving me a triumphant smirk. "So, what's our next move?" I asked.

"There are a few things that we've been tasked to clear up. And that reminds me, there are some other stuff that if you could have CryNet deal with that would be wonderful." Shepard told me.

I nodded. "Just send the briefings to me, I'll set everything up."

Shepard looked pleased. "Excellent. You were right by the way about that. It's just too much for us to be dealing with right now when we're supposed to be hunting Saren. Anyway-" She continued, opening up her omni-tool "We don't have any further leads on Saren right now. So while we are waiting, we've been asked to investigate asteroid X57 on its way to Terra Nova. It looks like its been hijacked by terrorists."

I interrupted here here "Yeah, I have Raven team investigating that. I don't think that we will need to do so as well."

Shepard mulled it over for a bit before responding "Well, I still want to check it out. Council and Alliance intel estimates that there were quite a few unidentified ships landing on the asteroid. If it is a terrorist attack, they have come in force. I've also been asked personally to investigate this so I still want to do so."

"Very well. I can inform Raven to hold off on their assault until we've arrived."

"Excellent. The Alliance has also asked us to take out a rogue VI on Luna. I feel like they want this done internally so they didn't ask CryNet to do so." She said looking straight at me.

Means, don't have Phantoms deal with it. "Fair enough."

"And finally," She continued still looking at me "Admiral Hackett wants me to go and meet with a warlord named Darius under the pretense of a negotiation. But instead we are to kill him when we meet him. Apparently the Alliance already had contracted CryNet to eliminate him but they failed."

I grimaced at the reminder. "Wait, what? CryNet failed?" Apparently Ashley was not going let that slide.

I sighed "Yeah. We had sent in an Inquisitor team to kill him. Unfortunately, the team that I had sent has a few members who sometimes decide to go 'lone wolf' when they aren't supposed to. This happened during the mission resulting in them not being able to kill Darius when they were supposed to. It was a whole goddamned mess. Needless to say that particular team will not be partaking in any operations any time soon."

"Regardless. We will be arriving at asteroid X57 within two hours so I want everyone ready for the briefing in one. We will coordinate with Raven team when we arrive."

"Understood commander. I will inform Raven of our arrival."

"Good. Anything else?" When no one responded to Shepards question she finished up. "Well then. Everyone, dismissed."

A/N: Sorry for being so late again.

Anyway, yeah... This chapter was mainly to show some of the capabilities of the Nanosuit... and to show the bad side of the nanosuit as well. I feel like that is something the suit would actually do, as Element zero is a harmful element to humans and that it would try to remove the harmful element from the host. As you guys saw, that is a painful experience. It also had Duncan order the skinning of someone. I think that that was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't situations.

Anyway, next time. Asteroid X57. As always if you have feedback or questions don't hesitate to ask.

~LEGION