A/N: Finally, the time has come everyone. Alex has a big situation on his hands and it will take a lot for him to overcome it. So this is one chapter no one wants to miss!
I own nothing
"Suit Integrity: 52%"
"Bone and Tissue Damage: 19% Repaired."
"Nanite Replication Increased by 20%."
"Life Support Systems Operating at Maximum."
"Heart Rate Stable."
"Estimated Time of Full Recovery: Four Hours."
X
Commander Jane Shepard
SSV Normandy - Medbay
August 1, 2183 - 13:30 hours
The team stood around the medbay as Liara prepared herself.
The young Asari Maiden had never melded with someone unconscious before, and was a little unnerved by the idea of what she might encounter during the joining.
Despite his easy understanding and intellectual nature. Maverick was still very much an unknown. The team trusted him fully on the battlefield, but there was so much they didn't know about him. Hell they had never even seen his face.
Jane stood at the foot of the cot where the vigilante Spectre laid motionless. The heartrate monitor that was attached to his chest let out a steady beat meaning he was very much alive. But after what happened against the Thresher Maw they encountered on Edolus they needed to make sure they he was okay.
Unfortunately, his unique suit somehow caused interference with the medical equipment on the ship when Chakwas tried to scan him.
"This doesn't make sense." said Garrus. "The EMTs that looked over him after the fight against the Blue Suns could get an exact reading. Why cant the machines here in the medbay?" he wondered.
"He was injured during the fight against the mercs two years ago?" asked Ashley surprised. "With the way he fights, it's hard to imagine him hurt in any way..." she looked down at the unmoving form. "...well...not so much now anyway."
The Turian shook his head, "The crazy bastard was on an enemy shuttle taking out the leader when it was shot down. The thing hit the ground like dead weight from almost 1500 feet in the air at full speed...with him still inside."
Everyone looked at the detective before looking back at Maverick. "Keelah...what is he? No body could have survived a crash like that." said Tali wrapping her arms around herself.
"After what we've seen, I'm not surprised." said Wrex from the corner. "The way he fights is like watching another Krogan only in Human form in terms of brute strength. Smarter than any Salarian in a firefight. And moves faster than a Turian in close quarters." finished the old Krogan.
"Christ, is he an experiment? A weapon maybe?" wondered Kaidan.
"It doesn't matter who or what he is." said Shepard making all conversation stop. Her eyes never leaving the form of her fellow Spectre. "He's helped us and stood by us all this time. And now we need to make sure that he's alright." she looked at Liara. "Do what you can, but don't hurt yourself if it becomes too much."
Liara nodded as she stood at the head of the cot, resting her pale-blue hands on their side of Maverick's helmeted head and closed her eyes. A small wisp of biotics covered her form a moment before her now black eyes reopened. "Embrace Eternity."
X
"Suit Integrity: 61%"
"Bone and Tissue Damage: 27% Repaired."
"Nanite Replication Increased by 30%..."
"..."
"...Neurological Intrusion Detected."
"Suit Reconfiguration in Progress..."
"Reconfiguration Complete."
"System Rebooting."
"Counter Measure Initiated."
X
Liara focused her ability to try and delve into the suited man's mind. When she started to get somewhere she felt something suddenly change.
Almost as if his mind realized what she was doing and erected a wall to keep her out.
"Something is wrong...his mind is fighting to keep me out. Even while unconscious." she said putting everyone on edge.
"That's not possible." said Garrus. "Nothing can deflect an Asari mind meld...right?" asked the Turian not feeling very sure of himself at the moment.
"In the last couple centuries I've been around I've never heard anything like this." said Wrex.
The young Asari focused harder. The wisps of dark energy around her gaining a little strength as she attempted to push through the wall. The mental barrier was stronger than she though. Almost like trying to squeeze through a small gap that was too small for her to go through.
She kept at it, putting more strength in to it without harming herself mentally. After what felt like hours she felt her mind finally connect with that of the nano soldier.
X
"Counter Measure...Failed."
"Neurological Intrusion Successful."
"Formulating Counter-Offensive."
X
Everything was dark. It wasn't a surprised considering that the mind of the one she was now in was not awake. But that didn't hinder her or her mission to help the Spectre as best she could.
Liara moved herself through what felt like a darkened corridor looking for something, anything that could help her search for Maverick's conscious mind and pull him out.
Every person's mindscape was different depending on their personality. It could reflect something from their childhood, their career, anything that brought the person peace mentally and at times spiritually.
But the mindscape could also be affected by outside sources. Stress, trauma, and even their state of consciousness could affect it greatly and alter it in a number of ways. Which was why the young Asari was having so much trouble navigating.
"Maverick?" she called through their link. "Maverick can you hear me? Give me a sign." she said into the darkness as she continued to move about.
Then she saw it, what looked to be a small blue light in the distance.
Heading in that direction, Liara prepared herself for what she might encounter. Drawing slowly closer with each small 'step' she made. The light grew bigger and bigger until she was standing right before it.
The light was coming from a glowing blue orb suspended above the ground. Inside was a young man in his mid 20s with buzzcut hair and scars covering his form. Liara approached the orb, her blue eyes looking over the man inside. A huge part of her knowing that she was looking at the 'real Maverick'.
"Maverick?" she called out only to get no response. She reached out and touched the orb-
She was immediately pulled through what she believed to be a tunnel before she found herself standing on a beach in a war torn city. Fires raged in various places while tall buildings stood in multiple levels of disarray. The sounds of gunfire and explosions echoed in the distance signifying a great battle was taking place.
It wasn't hard to figure that she had accidentally stumbled upon a memory when she touched the strange orb.
The young Asari perked up when she heard the loud hum of engines powering up. In the sky, a ship bigger than a kodiac hovered with the aid of two large rings on either side, glowing a bright red as it seemed to be scanning for something along the ground.
Following its flight path. Liara gasped seeing multiple Humans laying dead all around. One of them moved and attempted to crawl from as the ocean behind him tried to drag him back in.
The ship turned toward the wounded Human before the guns under its front end roared to life. Tearing the poor man to shreds in a hail of gunfire.
Liara covered her mouth in horror at what she was witnessing.
It was then she heard heavy footfalls. On the ridge leading to the beach stood a familiar suit of black and silver armor. "Maverick." she said watching him pick up a large gun turret from the ground before firing on the ship above.
The vessel attempted to fire back, but was taken down before it could deal the Human any real damage. One of its engines blew and it fell to the Earth, crashing into the dark waters of the ocean.
Tossing the heavy gun aside. The large Human walked down the beach past Liara toward the group of dead people. He looked around a moment before stopping over someone.
Getting a closer look, Liara gasped seeing the same man she'd seen in the blue orb moments before. He laid on the ground with blood dripping out of several wounds with a patch that read 'Maverick' on his camo jacket.
The Asari blinked. Looking from the wounded soldier to the black and silver suit in confusion. If 'Maverick' wasn't in the suit right now...then who was?
A moment passed before the man in the suit grabbed Maverick's arms and began to drag him across the ground toward a cluster of buildings nearby. Liara followed after now wondering what was going on.
Inside the building the suited man looked Maverick over closely before standing. He reached up and pulled the helmet off revealing a dark skinned man with a bald head. His skin marred with deep cuts, burns and odd lesions that looked like an infection.
"Well kid, looks like it's all going to be up to you." said the man in a deep voice as he began removing the suit and putting it on the wounded soldier, all the while recording something on the suit for when Maverick woke up.
Liara listened to the memory with rapt attention, the place they were in, the enemy they were fighting, the responsibility now passed on to the new wielder of the suit.
She watched horrified as the man put a gun to his head, but the memory began to distort and she found herself flung back down the same 'tunnel' as before. A moment later she found herself back in the room with the orb and Maverick's subconscious inside.
"You shouldn't be here."
The Asari whirled around and saw the same man she had seen in the memory standing behind her. Only his eyes were pure white with no pupil.
"I...I am sorry for intruding. But I was sent to help Maverick recover. The suit is making it hard for the doctor to heal him." she explained.
The man walked past her and stood before the orb that held the Spectre. "He will recover. No one should have to worry about him."
Liara's eyes widened, "Not worry about him? He is our friend, our comrade. We'd do whatever it took to help him in whatever way we can." she pressed trying to make the man understand.
He turned and gazed at her, "He is unique. Given a special purpose that many would not understand. Something that only he can bare." His eyes glowed and the Asari found herself hovering above the ground. "Now leave this place."
"Who...Who are you?" she asked afraid.
The man gave a ghost of a smile. "They call me Prophet, remember me." with that she was literally thrown out of the mindscape.
X
"...Counter-Offensive Successful."
"Suit Integrity: 67%"
"Bone and Tissue Damage: 41% repaired"
X
Liara was thrown back from the cot and landed in a heap on the ground. Shaking with sweat pouring off of her forehead. "Liara!" Jane shouted helping her up slowly. "What the hell happened? Are you alright?" she asked helping the Asari sit down in a chair.
"B-By the Goddess...it...I can't even describe it." she said holding her head in her hands. "The things I saw...there is so much more to this man than what others may think. Much, much more." she said wiping the sweat from her brow.
"What did you see?" asked Kaidan as they others paid close attention.
She spent the next hour going over everything she experienced. Including what she saw when she stumbled into one of Maverick's memories. Everyone was dumbstruck by the end of it all.
"Wait...your telling me this guy's from another world?" said Ashley not believing it.
"Yes, I know it is hard to believe but it is the truth." said Liara. "And the fact that his suit was given to him by someone else for a purpose makes me wonder what he was forced to endure in his world."
Jane sighed, this wasn't how she wanted that to go. If he found out what had happened there was no telling how pissed off he would be. And with what he was capable of, the Commander was sure that no one would be able to stop him.
"What about the guy you saw before you were thrown out? The one that called himself Prophet?" asked Garrus.
Liara shook her head, "I'm not sure, but it looked like the same man that had worn the suit originally.
"I'm concerned with what he said to you about symbiosis." said Tali. "What do you think he meant about that? From the sounds of it, it's not a very pleasant."
"Look, this is all a moot point." said Shepard. "We're still back where we started with being unable to help him. And questions we wanna ask will have to wait until after he wakes up."
"And what makes you think I'll answer any of them?"
Everyone jumped as Maverick sat up slowly. Ripping the pads for the heartrate monitor off of his chest. "Your awake. How are you feeling?" asked Jane a little surprised.
The nano soldier shot her a dirty look through his visor and the Commander felt her blood run cold. "Why don't you ask Liara? She seems to have fun routing through people's thoughts." he said shooting his look at the Asari who looked down in shame.
"Just who the hell are you?" asked Kaidan pointedly.
Maverick got up and headed for the door. "Someone who's very pissed off at the fact someone was running through his head without their permission." he said Ignoring the ache that still went through his frame.
"Hay!" the Lieutenant shouted grabbing his arm. The biotic found himself against the wall with an arm across his throat.
"You had no right to go through my head." he hissed darkly. "Any of you!" he shouted over his shoulder at the others. "I can barely handle half the shit I've been through. Liara only saw the beginning...things got a lot fucking worse."
He released Kaidan before bringing up his omni-tool. The medbay doors closed and locked. "What are you-" Garrus tried to say.
"Shut it." the vigilante said cutting him off as he fired a program to find any and all listening devices in the room. When it came back with nothing he let out a breath. "Look, I know you want answers. I'm not too fucking happy about it considering the circumstances. Regardless, I'll tell you everything, but not before we deal with another problem we have right now."
"What problem exactly?" asked Jane.
The vigilante clicked a few buttons on his omni-tool. "I secured the room so no one could overhear us, and what I'm about to tell you. What do any of you know about an organization called Cerberus?"
"Cerberus? The name does sound familiar." said Ashley.
"It's a Human-Survivalist paramilitary group created back in 2156 after the First Contact war. They specialized mostly in sabotage, assassination, media manipulation and espionage. Essentially a Black Ops organization branch of the Alliance that only a select few could join." said Maverick.
"Sounds like a powerful group. What's so wrong about it though?" asked Garrus.
"They went rogue. Cerberus' core belief is that Humanity deserves a greater role in the galactic community and that the Alliance is too stonewalled by law and public opinion to stand up to the other Citadel races. They support the principle that any and all methods of advancing Humanity's ascension are entirely justified. Including terrorism, torture, and illegal/dangerous experimentation on both Humans and Aliens." replied the vigilante.
Everyone in the room looked at each other worried. "Why haven't we heard about this organization before?" asked Shepard crossing her arms under her chest.
The nano soldier looked up from his omni-tool. "Not a lot of it is common knowledge. And Cerberus does everything they can to stay hidden from the public. But they are dangerous, and very influential to some."
"And one of their agents are on the Normandy?" asked Tali. "How do you know?"
"I had my doubts at first, but after collecting evidence and a few outgoing messages I narrowed down the suspects to three...then one of my hacking programs picked this up." said Maverick sending a message to all their omni-tools.
Edolus Experiment Compromised. Normandy Ground Team Survived. Thresher Maw Dead. Maverick sustained injuries and is being held in medbay for treatment. Will report back with any new information.
"Edolus was a Cerberus Experiment!" Ashley shouted, enraged after reading the message.
"That means they set up the distress beacon to draw people in." said Jane in shock. "We have to contact Rear Admiral Kahoku and warn him about what happened to his people and about Cerberus."
"Already done." said Maverick shutting down his omni-tool. "Kahoku's already been warned about what happened and that Cerberus may be targeting him as a result. I intercepted the message and made sure it didn't get back to the Cerberus intel network so he should be safe."
"Then what do we do about the mole? Do you know who it is?" asked Liara.
The nano soldier gave a slow nod, "I do...And if you want answers to who I really am, then they need to be captured so they can't report anything back to their bosses."
The team all looked to Shepard who sighed, "Alright Maverick. Tell us everything you know so far."
X
Alexander 'Maverick' Drake
SSV Normandy - CIC
August 1, 2183 - 15:00 hours
How the hell did things go south so quickly?
Alex couldn't help but ask himself that same question every hour on the hour since he woke up in the medbay. Thanks to the organic components of the nano suit that linked with his brain cavity when he wore it he was fully aware of Liara's mind meld when she dipped into his head.
Granted he didn't expect Prophet to come up with such an effective counter-measure so quickly. But then again the suit was as advanced and adaptable as it was for a reason.
But now he had nowhere left to hide. Liara still managed to get enough information from the meld to get everyone one curious. And he had no choice but to come clean with everything with the others.
And now they were implementing a plan to capture the Cerberus mole before he exposed any vital information they might come across...his identity being one.
The mole's name was Steven Trevors, a Serviceman that worked in the CIC among a dozen other crewmen. To others he was an funny, easy going kind of guy who liked classic rock. But he was a damn good actor as well.
Alex had Prophet hack his personnel file and discovered that the whole thing had been fabricated. Very thorough, and it must have cost a good amount of credits to make sure it was believable enough to get him on to the Normandy without suspicion.
After talking with the others for half an hour, they set out to capture Trevors and take him down fast.
It was simple. And effective.
Alex walked through the CIC and approached Shepard as she stood at the galaxy map. "Shepard, I need a word with you. It's vital to the mission." he said calmly. The Commander nodded as they walked off.
From one of the terminals, Trevors looked their way briefly before informing his co-worker that he was taking a break in the mess hall before quietly following after them at a safe distance. Completely unaware that Alenko had been watching from across the room and was now following him.
The two Spectres went down to the empty mess hall and started talking. "How are you feeling? You took a pretty big hit back on Edolus." said Jane. They may had been acting, but the concern in her voice was very real.
Alex squared his shoulders, "Made a full recovery. Guess I got lucky back there. Anyway, the reason I brought you here is about some intel I picked up back at Therum. Evidentially one of the Geth I hacked had the coördinates to a central data hub out in the Hourglass Nebula. The amount of data stored there would be vital to the Alliance's intel division in understanding the Geth. Their strengths, weaknesses, and their weapons systems."
"A gold mine of data that could benefit our mission. I think we should set a course ASAP before something happens to the intel." said Jane.
"Not before we hit up Feros. Help them out then get the data. It's a good thing no one else is aware of it, who knows what that data could do in the wrong hands." said Alex already having tagged Trevors on his HUD and seeing the marker through the wall on the other end of the room.
The Cerberus agent finished recording the conversation and went to sneak back to the CIC when he felt his whole body prickle. Dark energy covered him as he was lifted from the ground. "Going somewhere Serviceman?" growled Kaidan with his biotics flaring up his outstretched arm.
While in stasis, Trevors couldn't speak or move as he was moved out from behind the wall and toward the two Spectres who watched with their arms crossed. "Good work Kaidan." said Jane glaring at the traitor.
"Guess we weren't needed after all." said Garrus standing from behind the kitchen counter with his side arm out. Ashley came out from behind one of the sleeper pods with a shotgun and Tali from another across from her with her omni-tool ready to attack.
Wrex stomped out from the back of the room flipping a large knife in his hand. "Can we torture this pyjak for information? I could use a little entertainment."
Alex stepped forward and grabbed the man's arm activating his omni-tool before turning on his own and running a hacking program. Prophet ripped any and all useful information from the device before shorting it out completely. "Got what we need."
Ashley stepped forward and slammed the butt of her rifle against the man's head knocking him out cold. "Bastard." she hissed spitting on the agent's downed form.
"Take him to the brig, we'll drop him off at Arcturus Station when we pick up a new Mako." said Shepard as two Marines entered the mess hall and carried the traitor off.
Alex sorted the data collected before shutting down his omni-tool, "I'll go through the data and see if I can find anything useful to go on. I'll let you all know what I find." he said heading for the stairs.
"Maverick." said Jane making him pause. "Don't forget our deal. I know your a man of your word." She hated putting him on the spot like this, after what happened in the medbay they had no right doing this to him. But the team was on edge, they wanted answers. And a selfish part of her wanted to know the full story as well.
The vigilante was motionless a few moments before he took a deep breath. "Briefing room. 15 minutes." without another word he left. Leaving everyone wondering if they'd like the outcome.
X
Exactly 15 minutes later the team sat in their usual spots in the briefing room. Alex stood with his back to them staring out the viewport at the stars that passed by the ship. The door was locked and sealed tight so that no one could hear their discussion.
"Liara was right." he said after a while. "I'm not from this world. Where I come from Humanity barely made it past the moon. The date was 2023."
"How is that possible...it can't be." said Kaidan as the room fell into shock.
Alex shrugged, "I'm not sure myself. After everything that happened to me back then nothing surprised me anymore." he looked down at his hands and clenched them a few times. "And now that I'm here, I thought I could keep doing my duty as a soldier. But you can't keep a past like mine buried forever it seems."
He turned and faced the room, "I kept my identity a secret mostly to protect those close to me. There are a small number of people who know who I am and I couldn't let anything happen to them. I've made a lot of enemies in the last few years."
Jane's green eyes locked on his crimson visor. "Who are you?"
The vigilante took a deep breath. His hands reached up to the sides of his helmet, the sound of air depressurizing was heard as the helmet came off.
The team's eyes widened seeing Maverick's true face. Garrus and Jane's mouths fell open in utter shock recognizing him immediately. "Spirits...it's...it can't be..." said Garrus unable to form words.
Alex's grey eyes looked to each of them seriously. "My name is Alex Drake...And I'm going to tell you everything."
A/N: CLIFFHANGER! You all gotta be hatin me at this point, but having Alex explain everything will take up a whole chapter on it's own. After that things will be thrown right back into some damn good action and firefights.
I'll crank out the next update fast, so keep your eyes close to a screen guys!