Chapter 15: That Explains Everything

The game cuts to a mission brief loading screen.

Reznov: Mason, my friend….

"I wonder if Reznov was real in the first," Weiss said, "He could be a representation of our lust for revenge for capturing us and torturing us."

Reznov: Tell me… What is left to believe in, when you are betrayed by your own? When all that you are, all that you have done, is buried beneath the lies and the deceit of corrupt men. I will die in this wretched place… The only thing that keeps me alive is the thirst for Vengeance.

"For a game about a covert military group, this game centers a lot on the theme of revenge," Blake said.

"And not actually being stealthy for about half the time," Ruby added in.

"Who cares? This is starting to get interesting for a mindless shooter," Weiss said.

Reznov: They must be stopped, Mason. Dragovich… Steiner… KRavchenko… All MUST die…

The game cuts to the interrogation room.

Revelations

The game cuts to Mason strapped to the chairs of the interrogation room.

Interrogator: It is no use… we are out of time!

Another Interrogator: We can't give up now. He was at Vorkuta. He knows how to translate the codes.

"All they did was probably surgically tampering with our minds to assassinate that president earlier, which failed!" Yang exclaimed.

Another Interrogator: He's heard the broadcasts which we know contain the location. It's all in his head somewhere. He does know where it is!

Interrogator: We have to get to the bunker! We're at DEFCON 2… You've tried everything…

"You guys barely tried anything. All you did was shock us in the beginning and yelled at us," Ruby said.

Another Interrogator: Not yet… I have one more card to play.

The door to the interrogation room opened and Hudson walks in.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he was the interrogator," Weiss scoffed, "They made it obvious when they said he was with Hudson during the mission."

Hudson: Get out of here, Weaver. Tell them I failed.

Weaver: You want to die with him?... Your choice.

Weaver gets up behind a glass window and Hudson approached Mason. He grabbed a TV and threw it on the ground.

Hudson: Dammit! Why can't you remember?! (Hudson grabbed Mason and shakes him.) Do you hear me?! He's dead! Weaver's right… we are out of time. The Russians fucked you up… I know you… you're not a traitor.

"Well, and Reznov too," Ruby added.

"He's still dead, but we don't know when he died," Yang said.

"Probably when we separated back in Vorkuta," Blake pointed out. Hudson strapped Mason out of the seat and he cracked his knuckle and punched Hudson across the face. He knocked him back and he bumped into a set of TV's, knocking down a few.

"Damn dude, all he did was helping you out of your restraints!" Yang exclaimed.

"And keeping us in here for God knows how long," Weiss said. MAson gets up, he walked towards the door, a bit shaken as the interrogation questions echo his head. Mason gets out of the interrogation room.

"FINALLY!" all the girls said at once, finally seeing outside the interrogation room in real time.

Mason: The numbers… what…. are they saying?...

Blake slowly walked the shaken Mason throughout the facility, and walked a long hallway. flashbacks plagued Mason's vision of when he met Reznov in Vietnam. He fell on a cart and shoved it out of his way.

Mason: Reznov… Where are you?... Reznov…

"Damn, both the Russians and his own colleagues fucked him up," Yang commented. The numbers echoed in Mason's head. Mason approached a door and Mason had visions from the mission in the Russian summit.

"Why would Mason have flashbacks of a mission he didn't even participate in?" Ruby asked. Mason violently opened the door.

Mason (in the head): Steiner was there… We had to kill Steiner! I keep hearing the fucking numbers!

Kravchenko (in the head): You… Again… I should have killed you in Vorkuta!

Blake followed the waypoint direction. They noticed that there's no one in the facility.

"Is it just Weaver; Hudson, and Mason?" Yang asked.

"Most likely, I mean poisonous gas is about to spread through America. So of course they would abandon it," Weiss said.

Dragovich (in the head): Wait a few moments… Let him rest.

Numbers started to flash on the window's of a door.

Dragovich (in the head): When he regains consciousness - Double the voltage.

Mason opened the door to a empty room.

Mason: I remember. Ahhhh! Vorkuta….

Mason started getting flashbacks in Vorkuta. The game transition to a surgical operation on Mason. But weirdly they're in a view outside of Mason's perspective. They see Steiner, Kravchenko, and Dragovich over his body.

Steiner: The subject has been successfully implanted with the knowledge to translate the number sequences.

"I thought Steiner was a chemical person, and not a surgical type," Yang wondered.

"I guess it's the first time in villain history that have a evil doctor who's both a doctor in medical fields and evil-scheming," Weiss joked.

Dragovich: So - what is the problem?

The game cuts back to Mason's perspective.

Steiner: His responses have been - sporadic. Unpredictable. He shows a remarkable resilience.

Dragovich: Why?

Steiner: He is unusual… atypical. Few men possess such will… Our other test subjects have been far more successful.

"Then I guess Mason wouldn't be useful at all. Why don't you just discard him and dump his body in the ditch if he's not as successful as the others?" Ruby asked.

"Because plot," Blake explained.

Dragovich: If he will not follow the orders embedded in the numbers, then he is of no use to me… He can rot… Take him back to his cell.

The game cuts back to present day and Mason is still walking all wobbly.

Mason: the pain… oh my God…

Mason had hallucinations of random numbers as he walked into another hallway.

Mason (in the head): Proceed… to…. target… Oswald compromised.

"Damn, I didn't know the CIA gave us a heavy dose of drugs," Yang joked. Mason walked into the conference room where Reznov is on screen.

Reznov: In Vorkuta, we are ALL brothers.

Russian prisoner: Reznov, are you sure you can trust this American?

Reznov: With my life… He and us, are not so different… we are all soldiers without an army.

"I wonder if Reznov meant to say all that and this is not some plan to get us revenge for him," Weiss said. Different flashbacks of Reznov popped out throughout the walls.

Reznov: Betrayed. Forgotten. Abandoned. You will survive… You have to…

All the flashbacks transitioned into a single image of Reznov.

Reznov: We are brothers Mason… We are the same.

"Yeah, we were when Steiner experimented on us to think you were there," Blake said. Blake exited the conferences room and entered another hallway.

Mason: Kennedy… John… Fitzgerald. I'm told you are the best we have. Anywhere.

The ceiling tore open revealing a rocket ship and it cuts to the meeting with the president a long time ago.

President Kennedy: We are in grave danger from the communists. Our freedom and our very way of life is at risk. Dragovich.

The game cuts back to the present.

"This is getting confusing…" Ruby muttered.

Mason: When do I kill him?

A speaker in Russian counts down the launch.

Mason: Okay. Time we got the hell out of here.

Woods (in the head): Not yet…

Mason: We're going after Dragovich.

Woods (in the head): No one's getting out. (shows a brief flashback of Dragovich's destroyed limo) Satisfied, Mason?'

Mason: no!, not yet… Not until I see the body.

The countdown was finished as the rocket is launched into the air.

Mason (in the head): How many times?! Steiner was at REbirth Island. We had to kill Steiner.

Interrogator (in the head): We? Viktor Reznov?

Mason (in the head): We wanted the same thing. The same.

Weaver (in the head): What is he doing?

Hudson (in the head): Killing everyone between him and Steiner.

"This is basically a recap, but all we know that's new is that Hudson and Weaver interrogated us, and Vorkuta fucked us up, badly," Weiss said. Mason approached a small room and turned around. Hudson punched him, knocking him out. Mason finds himself back to Vorkuta. Reznov approached Mason, who's recovering from the surgery.

Reznov: The pain is difficult isn't it? We are all brothers MAson. We are the same. Dragovich. Kravchenko. Steiner. All must die…

"It made sense to have them kill all them at first, but when one literally had the SOLUTION to our problems, you done fucked up," Yang said. Mason snapped back to reality.

Hudson: Dragovich brainwashed you, but Reznov had plans of his own.

A flashback skipped to their reunion in Vietnam.

Reznov: Mason.

Mason: Reznov. How'd you get out of Vorkuta? Never thought I'd see you alive…

"Then he probably was dead," Blake muttered.

Hudson: He was never in Vietnam. The real defector with the Nova 6 dossier died during the attack on the MAC-V. He was never in the rat tunnels.

Swift: What the fucks wrong with you?

Flashbacks cut the breakout in Vietnam.

Reznov: Kravchenko is here! This way! We cannot let him slip through our grasp!

Flashback cuts to Rebirth Island.

Hudson: He was never at Rebirth Island.

Flashback cuts to Reznov before killing Steiner.

Reznov: My name is Viktor Reznov.

Steiner: No…

Hudson (behind the glass): MASON!

The flashback blurs and Reznov is replaced with Mason.

Mason: My name is Viktor Reznov. And I will have my revenge!

The flashback cuts to Hudson's perspective before knocking out Mason. The team is sorta get what's going on. Reznov was never there, and he was a hallucination. This disturbed Weiss a bit though, as the character was reaching her favorite fictional characters list. The flashback cuts to Mason and Reznov escaping back in Vorkuta.

Mason: Tep eight, Reznov - Freedom!

Reznov: For you Mason… Not for me…

The flashback ends and Hudson is pointing a gun at Mason. "Has your mother ever told you to never point a gun at an unarmed man?" Ruby asked.

Hudson: Viktor Reznov's been dead for five years. He died at Vorkuta during the escape. All the years you thought he was with you - that was just in your mind.

"If you had the intel that he died, why didn't you just say so!?" Blake exclaimed. Hudson holstered his weapon to assist Mason getting up.

Mason: I trusted him.

"So did I!" Weiss exclaimed.

Hudson: That's why it worked… It was attempt at MK-Ultra. Dragovich programmed you to kill Kennedy, but Reznov sabotaged you. He wanted revenge for all that Dragovich done to him. Dragovich. Kravchenko. Steiner. Three new victims.

"So Reznov used us as a puppet? That bastard…" Yang muttered,

Hudson: There are gaps in your memory. Periods where you went MIA and we couldn't account for you. But now that the brainwashing's been broken, all the lost time will come back. We need to leave… The Nova 6 strike is imminent. Hundreds of sleeper agents, in every state capitol, are about to unleash this poison on your own countrymen.

"Have you tried to prevent this? If it's within the capitol, you could just block all entrances and give the politicians gas masks. Sure civilian deaths would happen, but at least the heads of state would survive!" Ruby exclaimed.

Hudson: When Steiner died, we lost our key to unlocking the location of number broadcasts. You were programmed at Vorkuta to translate the number codes.

"Wait, I thought our objective was to assassinate Kennedy, not gassing America," Yang said.

Hudson: Only you can tell us what the codes mean. Nova 6 was just one of the sleeper operations. But I'm sure there were others.. one's we didn't even know about. We have the broadcasts, we played them to you over and over again for hours, but we haven't been able to break through your programming yet.

"I don't think constantly playing the broadcast would help but annoy him," Weiss said.

Hudson: Mason, this is our last shot. Listen, for God's sake listen again.

The screen goes black as the numbers plague the screen. There was another flashback in black and white before Mason was sent to Vorkuta. Mason was on the docks where Dragovich and Kravchenko are meeting with him.

Castro: Do with him what you wish, General…. He's my gift to you, in honor of our new relationship.

Flashes to a first-person perspective in front of Steiner.

Steiner: I know you… Vorkuta! You don't know… what we did to you… (flashes back to the surgery on Vorkuta) The subject has been successfully implanted with the knowledge to translate the number sequences.

The game flashes with numbers again, and the team wonders when this whole flashback rewind is going to stop.

Dragovich (through radio): … all agents. Our new allies in Cuba graciously permitted the construction of a new… and permanent…. broadcast station within their borders. From now until Project Nova's initiation will broadcast from the Rusalka.

"First of all, why would they let the sleeper agents, agents who aren't meant to know that they're agents, about their broadcasting station. Second, where did Mason hear this if he was in Vorkuta?" Blake asked.

Dragovich: Our plan to strike at the very heart of the West is now in motion. Await further instructions.

The flashback is back in the docks of Cuba and Mason looks to his left to see the Rusalka, which is a boat. Mason snaps back to reality.

Mason: I know where the numbers station is… It's a ship… I saw it a long time ago… The Rusalka.

Hudson: where?

Mason: Cuba.

Hudson puts on his glasses as the music fades.

"Mr. Fucking Shades," Yang joked.

Author's Note:

ONE MORE CHAPTER TO THE FINALE! (Blows party favor)