A/N: Hay everybody! I left a lot of you wanting more after the cliffhanger last time. So I pulled out everything I could to make sure I had the update ready to go. This chapter is a very long dialogue, Alex is essentially telling a whole back story so it will take up the whole thing. There will also be some clips from Crysis 2 so there will be spoilers.
And here...we...GO! (I own nothing)
Alexander 'Maverick' Drake
SSV Normandy - Briefing/Comm Room
August 1, 2183 - 15:20 hours
Alex stood at the head of the briefing room, helmet held in his right hand at his side as his eyes looked over the rest of the team and their reactions.
Tali and Wrex looked at him oddly. Either not expecting him to actually be Human or it was the scars that marred his face.
Ashley and Kaidan were in slight awe, finally seeing the face of the man everyone on the Citadel and the Alliance had talked about was a bit shocking.
Garrus and Jane however, had the biggest reactions. The Commander's jade eyes locked on his grey ones, it was obvious she was taking the opportunity to really see the man she was partners with. And his sharp vision didn't fail to see the very small blush across her cheeks.
"Alex..." the Post-Human looked at Garrus and had to fight back from wincing.
The amount of confusion and betrayal in his Turian friend's eyes was palpable. He was expecting such a reaction from him. After all, he had lied to Garrus for almost three years. A close friend that he considered a brother.
"Yeah, Garrus. It's me." Alex replied setting the helmet down on a nearby terminal.
"All this time...all this time it's been you?" asked Garrus with a growl in his voice. "From the very beginning...it's been YOU!" he roared getting to his feet.
The Post-Human gave a nod. "Yes." he turned and looked at his friend. "And after everything that has happened can you blame me for all the secrecy?" he asked bluntly. "After everything I've gone through to make sure people could live another day?"
Garrus leered at Alex, breath coming out in hisses. "Does Chellick know? Does Reena?"
The nano soldier nodded. "Reena was the first to put the pieces together. I had to tell Chellick so that he would except the data I had on the Blue Suns before the attack. I didn't tell anyone else because I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to them." he said leaving out that Bailey figured it out too.
The two stared at one another for a minute or two before Garrus sat back down. The anger in his eyes never fading as he watched Alex. The team remained silent knowing that this was something between the two of them.
Turning back to the group, Alex spoke again. "You'll understand that a lot of the things I'm going to tell you will sound crazy. But I have evidence to prove its the truth. You'll also understand that I won't be telling you every detail. We are entitled to our secrets, so I hope you will respect that."
"We understand, Alex." said Jane seriously.
Running a hand over his face, Alex began to pace slowly. "My full name is Alexander Drake. I was part of the United States Marine Corps, Sargeant. 'Maverick' was my codename because I had a habit of making things up as I went along whether I was ordered to or not. A lot of my superiors considered me a saint when I put the lives of soldiers and civilians ahead of the mission will coming up with ways to complete my objectives without jeopardizing either."
"The date back then was 2023. I was on a mission in the Middle East when almost every troop was called back to the States. Something was happening in New York City. A virus that spread through the place like wildfire, infecting and killing anything in its path. Then we were informed of a hostile force that had moved into the area...Alien."
All of the non-Humans in the room tensed. Alex regarded them, "Not any of the Council races, something else, something very dangerous. They were called the Ceph, short for Cephalopod. They'd attacked my version of Earth a couple of years earlier, though many believed that they were on our planet far longer than we thought. They were advanced, lethal, and merciless."
He brought up his omni-tool and a holo-screen appeared in the front of the room as he went back to his story, "My squad was assigned to enter the city and extract a former Crynet employee by the name of Nathan Gould. Crynet Systems was a powerful organization responsible for the creation of advanced equipment used in combat. Weapons, communications, anything a military would possibly need to win wars. They were so successful that they had their own military organization called CELL, short for Crynet Enforcement & Local Logistics."
"CELL had almost all of NYC quarantined and had taken the reigns for anything that happened within the city limits. So we had to enter via submarine. That's when we came under attack by the Ceph. Our sub was destroyed and most of my squad was wiped out. Liara's seen this first hand." he said looking at the Asari who nodded, cringing when she remembered the memory she had seen.
Alex tapped a few buttons on his omni-tool and the screen flared to life. "Accessing Memory Profiles." said Prophet.
"Who was that?" asked Tali curious.
"SECOND, short for Semiautonomous Enhanced Combat Ops: Neuro-integration Delivery. It's a VI that runs inside my suit that helps me in any combat situation. It is able to hack, store data, and transfer all information to the user's brain snap-quick." He looked over his shoulder at them, "I had renamed it Prophet after the original user of the suit. And your about to find out why." with that a familiar video started playing on the screen.
The video was through someone's HUD and showed someone scooping up a large stationary gun and shoot down a strange gunship that was hovering in the air overhead as it tried to take down the one holding the large weapon.
Tossing the weapon aside, the person walked along what looked like a beach before stopping next to the body of somebody in uniform. They knelt and checked over the soldier on the ground.
The team was on the edge of their seats when they saw it was Alex. Bloody and dying on the ground. "Is that...?" asked Jane.
Alex nodded grimly. "I was dying. Prophet was the one that found me."
After Prophet was finished looking him over he took Alex by the arms and started dragging him across the ground and into a warehouse. "Vitals...dropping. Have to work...fast." said Prophet as he looked the wounded soldier over again. "Your codename's Maverick huh? Destiny's a real bitch. It'll be on you now, son." said the nano soldier as he started to remove the nano suit from himself. "You're my last shot here. Gould's last chance. Last chance for all of us."
"I'm used up, I'm a dead man walking. I'm...contaminated. But you...you can finish this thing...you have to!" Prophet removed his helmet revealing a bald head with a severely scarred and burned face. "Welcome to the future son. Welcome to the war."
Several moments passed before Alex was revealed in the nano suit laying on the floor. Prophet faced the window wearing a undersuit as he continued to speak. "Oh yeah...one last wish...It won't let me go that easily. Symbiosis. Gotta break the link..." he picked up a nearby pistol. "I gave you the suit. Gave you my life. Promise me...Find Gould...It's all I can do now. You are all I can do."
Prophet pressed the gun to his head, "They used to call me Prophet...Remember me." The gun went off and everything went black.
Silence. "Just what the hell did we see." said Wrex looking at Alex.
The Post-Human sighed, "It's the curse of the nano suit." he said looking at his hands. "The suit was created with organic and synthetic components. It's purpose was to enhance the user's abilities to superhuman levels. But there's a trade-off. Since the suit is made up of organic materials it begins merging with the wearer on a biological and neurological level. A side effect, like Prophet mentioned, is called Symbiosis."
"What happens to the user?" asked Liara.
"They become one with the suit. They lose the ability to eat, to sleep, everything that made them Human is taken from them and become part machine. Basically they become a living, breathing weapon capable of untold destruction." explained Alex.
Ashley swallowed hard, "So, are you...trapped inside that thing?" she asked motioned to the nano suit.
"No. Oddly enough I'm immune to it, something no one was able to figure out." said the Post-Human. "Prophet was infected with the virus running through NYC, I was the only chance to stop the Ceph from taking out the city."
"What happened after Prophet gave you the suit?" asked Shepard.
Alex brought up the screen again, "You may want to get comfortable." he said as clips from his fight through New York began playing. Starting from when he first woke up with the nano suit, fighting CELL forces at every turn as they tried to stop him.
The team couldn't take their eyes from the holo-screen as they watched the Post-Human pavé a path of destruction through the city streets to find Nathan Gould. But it was when he first encountered the Ceph is when they really focused.
"By the Goddess..." said Liara as they watched Alex taking down the Ceph as they fought against him and CELL forces at every turn.
For the next two hours they watched as the Spectre faced everything thrown at him. The meeting with Gould put them on edge, especially when he put a gun in his face before he saw the footage of Prophet passing the torch.
They saw what happened when Alex and Gould stormed the CELL facility to get a look at the suit's underlayer to find out what had changed about it. And what the Ceph spires had done to any Human within range of the nanites they unleashed, and how his suit had the ability to shut them down.
From there they saw the interactions with Jacob Hargreave, the creator of the suits and one of the heads of Crynet. Fighting along side what remained of the Marine units within the city. Ashley actually leapt out of her seat cheering when they watched Alex take down a Ceph Pinger with a squad that was trapped in a diner.
Jane couldn't even fully fathom what she was witnessing. It made what she went through during the Blitz look like a class field trip in comparison. She had quickly developed a new respect for the nano soldier. But it paled when they saw what happened next.
Alex and the Marines had been evacuating the remaining civilians from the city while trying to keep the Ceph from attacking them. The Post-Human had taken down two Pingers to ensure that people where out of harms way. But the subway station was quickly being overrun, and the building next to it was beginning to crumble from a weakened foundation.
The convoy pulled out of the station with as many civilians as they could carry. Alex sat in the gunner seat of the last hummer when a man ran out infront of it. "STOP! Please, my wife's trapped she needs help!" he shouted over the distant gunfire and explosions.
"We have to go, there's no time!" shouted the driver as the building above the station shook.
Alex zoomed in on the woman as two other men tried to pry the slab of concrete off of her leg but couldn't seem to gather the strength. He leapt from the vehicle, ignoring the shouts from the soldiers behind him as he ran over to the pinned woman. "Hang on ma'am." he said grabbing the slab.
"Maximum Power." The chunk of concrete was lifted off of the woman allowing the people helping her to pull her out. "Com'mon we're out of time!" he shouted as they ran back to the hummer and piling inside.
Alex leapt on to the gunner seat as they peeled out. Looking back, the nano soldier watched the building crumble on top of Penn Station sending an avalanch of rubble and debris following after them.
"Damn that was a close one." said Kaidan shaking his head.
"You risked being crushed to death to save the lives of a few civilians?" asked Garrus impressed.
"I couldn't leave them behind. No one deserved to die like that." said Alex as the footage continued with the second evac site being cleared out before another spire burst from the ground and Hargreave telling Alex what he had to do.
"Wait...what did he mean?" asked Tali looking at Alex. He pointed to the screen as Alex stepped into the spire like before. The nanite's ripping into the nano suit before expelling him back outside. A Ceph trooper stood over him as the suit tried to reboot, weapon aimed at his head when the spire shook and expelled a cloud of white that stretched through the area.
Every Ceph that came in contact with the cloud disintegrated leaving the empty armor to collapse on to the ground. "That's what changed with the suit." said Alex. "It became a means to put an end to the Ceph using their own technology."
"And since the Ceph accidentally injected you with nanites..." started Liara.
"My physiology changed." said the nano soldier. "Because of that I can heal from any injury faster than usual, I can process data much quicker. I'm still Human, I'm just something...more, now."
Back on screen, it showed Alex being air dropped in the Hudson River close to the Prism. The location of CELL's headquarters in New York. Stealthfully taking out all the soldiers as he made his way to the central building in the middle of the island.
Throughout the constant firefights, Wrex, Garrus and Kaidan seemed to be passing bets to see how high the body count would be before Alex reached Hargreave.
When the Post-Human ran into CELL Commander Dominic Lockhart, nearly everyone in the room wanted to watch the man die in the worst possible ways.
"That the best you got tin man? You think your even Human anymore? Your just a fucking freak!" spat the Commander in Alex's face while struggling with his neck in the nano soldier's grasp.
Alex tilted his head, "Maybe your right...but that doesn't change my mission." he said before hurling the man through the reinforced glass, his body hitting the ground hard and sending blood splattering across the pavement.
With the Commander dead, the remaining CELL forces were easily picked off as he entered the central structure.
Pulling the door open, Alex heard a loud whining noise before electrical volts shot out of the walls and striking him from every angle making him cry out in agony.
"EMP Assault. Systems Impaired." warned Prophet as Alex fell to his knees.
"H-Hargreave! You sonovabitch!" he shouted into the comm as the suit continued to fail.
'I'm sorry Maverick. It is nothing personal.' said Hargreave as Alex collapsed to the floor. The other door in the room opened and a squad of CELL soldiers stormed the room guns drawn. 'Thank you, Ms. Strickland. Exemplary.' praised Hargreave as the men gathered the weakened nano soldier up and dragged him out of the room. "Check his vitals and have him moved to the skinning lab.'
Everyone in the room looked at Alex who had paled a little at the memory. "Alex? What did he mean by 'Skinning lab'?" asked Jane wondering if she would even like the answer.
"Suit removal." said Alex grimly.
"But, didn't you say the suit bonded with past users? How did the suit...get...removed..." Tali trailed off as it started to click. "Oh Keelah..." she said in horror.
"They tried to pry the nano suit from my body...I was awake during the process before I was rescued by Tara Stickland who turned out to be a double agent." said Alex making them cringe.
"Why?" asked Jane aghast. "You were trying to save everyone, why the hell would they do that to you?"
Alex shrugged, "Hargreave had a god-complex. He believed that he was the only one capable of stopping the Ceph, and he needed the suit to do it. He was focused on being the 'hero' so much that he let it get to him."
He tapped a few keys on his omni-tool to skip the apart where he had been tortured and to the point of making his escape with the help of Tara. His talk with Hargreave and the revelation that he himself was trapped in his own Symiosis. The team gasped when Alex willingly injected himself with the serum to help take down the Ceph once and for all after everything that happened.
Everything else flowed quickly after that. The escape from Prism during a heavy Ceph attack. The mad dash to Central Park where the source of the Ceph's power was coming from. And the threat of a nuclear strike the government was going to use to put the aliens down if they failed.
He charged forward, the Ceph Juggernaut firing it's Reaper gun arm at him as he moved quickly. "Maximum Armor." the rounds bounced off of his suit as he got right into the alien's face. "Maximum Power." a powerful double kick to the chest sent the large Ceph tumbling over the edge of the skyscraper and plummeting to the street below.
Alex kept moving, running along a collapsed billboard and leaping across the large gap between buildings. Landing with a roll on the next rooftop that overlooked Central Park. "Gould, it's Maverick. I made it to the park. Where should we-" he was cut off as a massive earthquake shook everything around them.
The ground split open and started to rise in the air, large cables and spires of Ceph design being the cause as the park now hung several hundred meters in the air above. "Holy shit..." Alex said looking up at the Ceph structure.
The footage continued with Gould explaining to Alex that the nuke was only ten minutes out and he had to work fast as he was airlifted into the levitated park. "They dropped you in alone?" asked Ashley no believing it.
"The ground was too unstable. And to be honest I needed them to keep the Ceph air units off my back while I shut the Ceph down." explained Alex as they watched him fight through wave after wave of Ceph to reach the central spire in the center of it all.
Minutes felt like hours as he finally reached his destination. But the rocky area he found himself in. Gripping the two K-Volts in each hand, he slowly moved into the small maze of rocks and small cliffs ahead of him.
"Proximity Alert." he was struck in the chest hard as a Ceph Guardian appeared out of thin air and hissed at him. Alex swung a fist out but the creature vanished again before it could hit. "Prophet, track that thing." he said searching for his target.
"Scanning..." he kept both weapons up as he waited for either the AI to find it, or for it to pop out again. "Enemy Located." the air several feet to his left suddenly started sending out glowing teal fragments that moved around slowly. Alex knew that it was the program he had helped the AI put together to track cloaked enemies.
"Gotcha." he said firing both K-Volts full blast. The Guardian shreaked as the electro rounds struck it, disabling it's cloaking and burning it's flesh until it collapsed dead on the ground.
"Multiple Proximity Alert." said Prophet as two more Guardians dropped down and came at him from both sides.
He emptied both clips into the one on his right before it got too close before pulling out his knife to engage the other. "Maximum Armor." the creature's claws racked across the hardened weave on his chest before he tackled it to the ground, forcing it's head up as he drove the blade up under the armor of its helmet into its head.
'Maverick you've gotta move now! That nuke is only two minutes out before it can't be called back!' shouted Gould over the comm as several dropships appeared around the central spire and began unloading more Ceph into the area.
Alex leapt up the small cliff faces and made a made dash toward the spire. Kicking a Ceph Trooper out of the way as he entered the structure.
The glowing red insides and the nanites flying around him made visibility nearly impossible. But Alex pushed forward as he felt the small machines begin to rip into the nano suit. "Warning: Suit Integrity Compromised." he ignored the AI as he kept going.
Small tears began to form along the suit the more he moved. "Maximum Armor." the energy meter dropped like a lead weight giving him only a few moments of relief. "Energy Depleated."
The team couldn't look away. Alex's suit was now literally burning from the exposer to the spire's payload as he kept pushing forward. "My god..." Jane said covering her mouth as the nano soldier activated armor mode again and again until the suit started to malfunction.
Alex fell to his hands and knees and began to crawl. His whole body burned as though someone was dumping acid on him. But he kept going, people were counting on him. "Multiple Suit Malfunctions Detected. Life Support Systems Failing."
He grunted, getting back to his feet and stumbling on. "Suit Integrity Critical. Life Signs Critical." the Post-Human stood at the edge looking down into the spire's central chamber. He gave a weak chuckle as the suit continued to burn. "Game...Over..." he leaned forward and fell from the ledge. The current of nanites caught him as he hovered in place.
A loud cry or agony ripped from his throat as the nanites around him began to glow white. There was a large flash and the screen went black.
Alex stared at the black screen and let out a deep breath. The nightmares at times were bad enough. But seeing everything that happened to him like that made it all come crashing back full force.
"Alex?" he looked up at Shepard who was looking at him with a mixture of feelings. Awe, shock, pride, and concern. All around the room he was getting similar looks. Hell, even Wrex was looking at him with a little unease after seeing all that.
"That's my story." he said rolling his shoulders. "As for how I got here I really couldn't say. After all that I just woke up on Omega three years ago. To this day everything I did in New York haunts me. Prophet gave me this suit to fit the Ceph. I did that. Now I have a new purpose in this universe. To make sure something similar doesn't happen."
"Why tell us?" asked the Commander. "You had every right to deny us the truth...why show us all of this?"
Alex gave a sad smile, "I don't know really. Maybe because I'm sick of carrying everything inside all the time. Maybe because I've grown to trust each of you in different ways. You don't know what it's like to have that kind of weight on your shoulders. It stays with you like a shadow waiting to swallow you whole."
He ran a hand over his head, "I had to watch countless people die while I had to keep fighting on. They say in war you cherish that you've won...but no one really wants to talk about what was lost." he looked down at his hands. "I'm not even really a full Human anymore. I gave that up for the sake of doing what was right."
Picking up his helmet, he turned to the squad. "So there it is. I hope the answers you were looking for are to your liking." No one could meet his gaze as he headed to the door. "Let me know when we reach Feros." and with that he was gone.
Jane watched him go with a heavy heart. Saddened that he had gone through so much before coming to this universe and fighting a whole nother war. After what he had been through, he had every right to lay down his guns and live in peace.
Yet he fights on, like any soldier bound by duty and honor. And that alone made the woman feel lucky just knowing someone like that.
X
Alexander 'Maverick' Drake
SSV Normandy - Personal Quarters
August 2, 2183 - 05:10 hours
Alex sat on his bed, back to the wall wearing a pair of jeans and a black t-shit. His nano suit on the floor by the bed as he was able to relax without it now.
They had reached Arcturus Station hours earlier and acquired a new Mako. While at the same time depositing the Cerberus spy to the Alliance Intelligence Division. He had taken that time to quickly create false documents and had them installed into the Normandy's systems.
As far as the crew on the ship was concerned, he was a new Serviceman sent to replace the one that had been removed. Which allowed him to move about the ship without his suit on and having to hide all the time.
Speaking of crew, a few members of the ground team had come knocking at his door a couple of times. Ashley had been first. Then Liara. Then Garrus and finally Wrex which had been a shock. He knew he had to face them eventually, but he had to get his own head straight before jumping into all of that.
And he knew he owed Garrus an apology. His Turian friend didn't deserve to have all of that dropped on to him like that.
He showed them a lot in the briefing room. But he purposely left a lot of key elements out, including the fact that he had taken Alcatraz's identity so they didn't know the real truth about him. He hated lying to them, but they couldn't know his true past or how he really got here in the first place. They were his secrets to keep, and he would take them to the grave.
A knock at his door caught his attention. "Prophet?" he asked looking at the helmet on his nightstand.
"Commander Shepard." informed the AI.
Alex sighed as he fired up his omni-tool and unlocked the door. Jane stood at the threshold and looked his way. "Hay." she said stepping in slowly.
"Hay." said the nano soldier not moving from his spot. "Something you needed Shepard?" he asked.
"Do you have time to talk?" she asked taking a seat at his desk. Alex shrugged as she got comfortable. "How you holding up?" asked the Commander.
The Post-Human chuckled, "After everything I dropped on you guys that's the first thing you ask?" he shook his head. "I'm still breathing, sometimes that's all that matters."
"No it doesn't" said Jane shaking her head. "All of that, everything you've endured, it's nightmare stuff. What I went through in the Blitz didn't even come close to that, and I had people on my side to help me. You pretty much did it all solo." she explained.
"I'm a soldier Shepard. It comes with the territory. I just got the lucky draw with a suit to give me a huge boost." replied Alex.
Jane looked him over, drinking the man's form in for the first time. The suit really didn't hid anything. "The suit doesn't make the man." she said mentally berating herself for staring.
Alex grinned, "The man makes the suit. I know that by heart by now. But the suit and I are one. I can work fine without it, but I'm the only one that can use it. Symbiosis can't take me, but the nano suit has my DNA locked into it. So I call it a partnership for lack of a better term."
"Sounds fitting." said Jane. "For what it's worth, I think your a damn good soldier. And a Hero for what you've done. And you can bet that I'll have your back whenever and wherever you need it."
He smiled at her, something that had the Commander blushing a bit. "Thanks Jane. That really means something." he said with his voice somber. "And I'll back you up too. We're a team, you, me, and the others. And with people like us fighting together, nothing can stop us." he finished with a grin.
The Commander smiled widely, both feeling like they were connecting on a good level. "How do you feel about walking around the Normandy without your suit on?"
"Better actually. I can survive either way, but I miss the freedom of real clothes after a while you know." he said honestly.
"I can understand that." she said with a small laugh. "You know the others want to talk to you about what happened. A few are concerned about you." she said getting to the root of another situation.
Alex nodded, "I know, and I will talk to them soon. I just needed time to reflect on everything. It was a lot for you guys, but it was a lot for me too. A lot of the shit that happened I wish I could forget. But life sucks like that sometimes."
"You become a better person because of it." said Jane speaking from past experience.
The nano soldier nodded, "Your right. And it's from all that, that I continue to fight. And I'll rest once there are no more threats to the innocent out there. Prophet gave me this opportunity, now it's my turn to make it something more."
"Just don't forget that we're here too. Especially me, if you need anything." said Shepard standing and holding out her hand. Alex stood as well, clasping his hand with hers and shook.
Neither one of them failing to notice the spark that went up their arms, or the fact that their skin tingled a little from the contact. Jane looked up in Alex's grey eyes and swore she felt her heart skip a beat.
A/N: Annnnnnndddddd DONE! Alex's past is finally out of the way and we can continue on with the mission. Next up is Feros, and Alex will be smoothing things over with a few people on the squad after what happened here.
And it also seems like someones starting to fall and hard. And no I'm not rushing it for them, you can't rush a good romance that would be boring. Till next time guys!