Location: Batarian State Merchant Frigate—location, unknown.
"Hands, I want to see them," Elena ordered, hyperventilating from exertion. Her arm twitched against her will, the caloric expense of using biotics on an empty stomach strained the muscles of her fingers. This is just great, freaking great.
"El, please just listen to me," Mark pleaded as he gently swept his jacket to reveal a holster. "I'm not here to hurt you."
She wanted to laugh at the stupidity of his words, but there was a good chance that the effort alone would put her in a coma. Inhaling deeply so as to regulate her breathing, Elena felt her body attempt to work in tandem with her brain. She was no stranger to shitty situations where a good meal wasn't available for days, but fighting that madman took the best of her reserves.
The muzzle of her Harpy followed Mark's head as he set his holstered gun down and slid it her way. "Let's talk. I know what all of this looks like to you right now, but I promise you I can explain everything, babe."
"Shut up!" Elena kicked his gun aside only to hear the soft metallic clank as it hit the bulkhead. "I don't care about what you have to say. Make one move and I promise I'll blow your brains out." Even as she said this, Elena realized her dilemma. There was nothing to restrain him with and she sure as hell couldn't keep him at gunpoint the entire flight, not without passing out herself.
Spots crowded her vision, but she shook it off and adjusted her grip on the gun. It was about the only thing she could trust right now and even that was slowly slipping from her numbing grasp.
"I told you before, this fight is meaningless. The Alliance is no better than Cerberus," Mark explained as he kept his hands up while crossing his legs to sit on the floor.
"And I told you to shut up," Elena replied, slowly moving towards the stacks of cargo. The tie-downs keeping the cargo in place would make good restraints, but that would mean traveling with an unsecured pallet.
"I didn't give in when he approached me the first time. But—"
Elena used one hand to yank on the poly-synthetic rope. It seemed sturdy enough. "Tell me, did you have the guts to shoot yourself or did Cerberus do that for you?" she taunted.
Mark shook his head with a huff before those blue eyes found hers. "I didn't want to go through with it. But then the Illusive Man himself offered me a guarantee. He promised safe passage for both of us to Earth, promised a stash of credits, untraceable ID's, a new life."
She felt like kicking herself at the mention of ID's. There was no guarantee that the ones from Gus weren't monitored by Cerberus agents. "You were stupid to trust him," Elena said despite herself as she yanked harder on the rope. "I've made similar deals with escaped assets."
His eyes grew round with curiosity. "Back on Elysium?"
She nodded absently and tugged the ropes harder. They weren't going to break off until she ran them past the corners. A quicker solution would have been to burn through them with biotics, but that came with the risk of passing out.
"I was careful, El. It was only him and I, there were no intermediary agents. The Illusive Man contacted me directly," he relayed, bashing his head back against a crate. "I left the Hammerhead plans and took the passports and physical credits that were left for me. I still have them in—"
"I don't care," Elena repeated, stopping her work to look back at him over the barrel of her gun. "You sold us out for credits without even giving humanity a second thought. Why?"
"You're right," he said with a defeated sigh that made her stare at him, "but that's because all I could think about was you."
She was stunned. Here they were at a crossroad talking at gunpoint and he wouldn't let up with the pathetic love act. It was stupid, so unoriginal and worst of all cruel. So why was every word making her heart flutter? "You still haven't answered my question," Elena said as she resumed pulling on the ropes.
"Why I did it? Because I want a life with you." A wistful smile appeared briefly on his face but she ignored it and put all her remaining energy into getting the rope. "I took the loot and headed over to where I assumed you would be. It must have driven them nuts to be searching for you for so long only to have me literally walk right in." He shook his head, not once moving from her line of sight, despite having ample opportunity to do so while she worked the ropes. "Anyways, it was at Anhur terminal that I noticed they were tailing me. I was prepared for two agents and had no trouble taking them out...it was the other six that made me draw my gun. There was no way in hell I was going to lead them straight to you, so a firefight broke out. Afterwards I stumbled to your hotel and the rest is history."
Elena stopped tugging at the rope and looked back at him with disbelief. Even through her cloudy vision and labored breaths something akin to admiration rose to the surface. She had seen his sparring sessions at the Cerberus gym, there was a reason Mark Kassel was their undisputed kick-boxing champion. But the brief infatuation was overshadowed by more than a few loose ends. "And Gus? I can't even begin to understand what happened back there."
"Everything I told you is true, Elena," Mark explained softly. "He saved Jeremy and me that day and revealed his Cerberus connection. What Jeremy and I didn't know at the time was that he was post-Alliance Cerberus and was already under this Illusive Man's control. Whereas we were still under the impression that we were an Alliance sanctioned Black-ops unit. He was a decent guy, El."
"Well you can tell him that when he chases us down thanks to you," she ground out and watched as a thread on the heavy rope started to unwind.
"He won't be doing that. After you left, I got the real truth from him and took him out of the picture. He was double crossing us the whole time ... you were right," Mark said with slumped shoulders and downcast eyes. "I hate this life just as much as you do."
Elena dropped the rope and covered the distance between them in record time, jamming the gun's muzzle right into his heart. "Why the fuck should I believe you?"
"Because I love you," he said it with such conviction that it was all Elena could do but gape at him.
Before she knew it he closed the distance between them and her lips welcomed his own. The gun tumbled from her grip as her hands grabbed fistfuls of his shirt. Anger was her only weapon, it lay in wait as they kissed, just yearning for the moment her brain would kick in and give the go-ahead. But that moment never came. Only the dimming of her vision slowed her movements as she slid away. His panicked whispers echoed in the distance as the cold metal touched her cheek.
o~O~o
Location: Cerberus frigate 'Albatross'—Orbiting the Newton System in stealth mode.
Miranda tapped the holo-keys with more force than necessary, scrolling through the pages with gusto. The classified dossier didn't tell her anything she didn't already know. At age 19 Alexei Barens was one of the few teenaged children being tested for biotic potential in Elysium under the direct supervision of Jeremy Roberts. The experiment was scraped after the teenagers planned and executed a successful escape.
The teenage test subjects later succumbed to mysterious illnesses, possibly as a result of rigorous testing, and died. The deaths and rumors of successful subjects still at large prompted a re-opening of the experiment under the Illusive Man's orders.
One of the subjects, Alexei Barens, now Armistan Banes, joined the Alliance as a bio-engineer. His borderline psychopathic experiments and reckless conduct in battle raised flags within the Alliance. He was due to be discharged but it was Cerberus who saw potential in his groundbreaking research on human engineering. By a stroke of luck instead of seeking vengeance for what Cerberus had done to him, he agreed to work closely with the Illusive Man.
At the age of 27, his first Cerberus sanctioned experiment was commissioned on Akuze where he studied the thresher maws' susceptibility to the same alien technology that enslaved the rachni. Due to an unforeseen incident with a human colony, the experiment was shut down. Banes was considered missing in action and presumed dead.
Cerberus wouldn't recover him until 2180 where he resumed regular duties at the Barn, this time with the new found benefit of biotic abilities at his arsenal. But while the doctors wrote him off as a rare undetected biotic, Miranda saw evidence to the contrary. He had no record of biotic implants and during his most recent recovery she couldn't detect any eezo nodules in his body tissue. In a medical sense there was no explanation for his biotics. He just simply was.
Miranda powered off the terminal and leaned back in her chair. Either Cerberus doctors were incompetent or someone was going to great lengths to hide the truth behind Armistan Banes.
Her gaze wandered up the steel confines of her modest office. The space was devoid of everything but the barest essentials, a desk, chair and terminal. No identifying features, just the way she liked it. Nothing on the stainless steel ceiling would take her mind off the conflicting emotions at play. Full disclosure was a luxury in this business, she knew that long before signing on the dotted line. Information was a matter of life and death, everyone in Cerberus knew that and went to great lengths to ensure everyone was on the same page. So why were they trying so hard to keep her in the dark?
Her hand twitched towards the pistol on her desk when the door swished open despite the lock. Banes, of all people, invited himself in, sporting a somewhat charming grin. The matrix of veins at his neck were darker, but didn't seem to cause him any discomfort as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against her door frame.
The fusion of vivid blue hue in his corneas was almost hypnotic.
"I can see it in your eyes. You're asking yourself what else don't you know? What other secrets is he hiding," Banes taunted, before moving to let the door swoosh shut behind him. "Do you want to know the answers?"
"Are you a mind reader now?" Miranda asked confidently, without a hint of the growing frustration she actually felt.
"You put too much faith in your Illusive Man, Miranda. It'll get you killed," Banes warned, as he strolled with his hands behind his back. The action caused the muscle definition of his broad chest to pulse through his Cerberus tank. At least he was a team player and had grown accustomed to the uniform. But as nice as the view was, she kept her gaze on those fascinating eyes.
He took languid steps, admiring every corner of her office as if it were a renaissance painting, clearly stalling.
Miranda remained seated, following his every step, as her mind worked to explain his presence. Either he didn't like her poking around in his service record or this was some strange coincidence. Too bad she didn't believe in the latter. "What can I help you with, Banes?"
He stopped admiring the blank walls and looked down to her with a smirk. "You held back."
Her eyes narrowed as she waited for an explanation that never came. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh but I think you do, Lawson," he said, moving to sit on the edge of her desk. "You could have crushed them with a flick of the wrist. But you held back."
He was greatly overestimating her powers, but Miranda didn't clue him in on the fact. The truth was, she hadn't levitated anyone since their sparring session. Unlocking that level of power was something Henry Lawson couldn't even accomplish, let alone a mad scientist during a training exercise. The raw force of throw was incredible, but draining, unstable and still too new for her to fully utilize during a combat situation. "Lieutenant-General Petrovsky wanted his operatives unharmed. I was following orders."
"No harm to his operatives," Banes stressed, "he didn't say anything about the Alliance."
"I'm sure Shepard is a part of that order," Miranda replied as she stood and gathered her tablet, "we were lucky the vehicle didn't explode and kill them all." When she felt his gaze sweep over her Miranda smiled inwardly. "Is that concern I see in your eyes, Banes?"
"On the contrary, it's not concern but pity that I have for you." Banes raised a hand to her cheek. The touch was as delicate as it was unexpected. And while every cell in her body screamed at her to blast that hand clean off, the strong surge of power pulsing just beneath those fingers captivated her. "Look at you, Lawson. You're a goddess. Let your gift run loose, let me help make you stronger."
Miranda slapped his hand away and leaned into his ear. "Whatever this is, will kill you. You know that. Elena Flores seems to know that."
"Ye of little faith." He smiled but didn't move his ear from her mouth's proximity. "Flores simply doesn't understand the complexity of true power. Her biotics are an excellent conduit as well, but she, like you, refuses to elevate them to the next level."
"She said you're indoctrinated," Miranda remarked, drawing back to find those unnatural blue eyes surrounded by tendrils of black veins. "Something tells me you understand the gravity of what that means."
Banes produced a ball of the darkest energy from his palm she had seen to date, but crushed it in his palm when it got her attention. "It is a precious gift, Miranda. One I was gracious enough to share tonight. Perhaps when you see the upcoming results you will be more amiable towards my proposal." With that Banes leapt off her desk and retreated towards her door.
"Her sister?" Miranda questioned before he could get too far away.
Banes stopped and smiled to her over his shoulder. "Seeing is believing, Lawson."