I would like to thank Caddy-shack and 4Ferelden for being my beta readers. Thank you very much! I would like to apologize for taking so long to finish this chapter. It took longer than I expected.

Chapter Three: I Know You Are but What Am I?

Ethan sighed while he sat in the lobby, rubbing his temples together. While it was a large room, it was also empty and quiet except for him, Feron, and Liara. A logo of an elongated hexagon and two lines traced to the bottom were plastered on the walls.

"We shouldn't have come here," Feron complained, standing in front of them. "The two of us, least of all."

As if being harassed by several engineers about his Transportalponder was bad enough, Ethan had to listen to Feron and Liara argue.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Cerberus is a pro-human hate group," Feron answered. "Never mind that Liara's people sit on the Citadel Council; they don't have any more for the asari than they do for the drell! I wouldn't listen to a word they say!"

Ethan scoffed. "It's so nice to know that we've fallen in with a bad crowd."

Liara sat next to Ethan with her legs crossed. "Hate group or not, we have similar goals as Cerberus does," she replied, her right hand glowing as she opened it, a bright orb flickering in her palm. "But I won't be held without reason, either."

"Shepard's human, Liara!" Feron snapped. "First, human Spectres, then a seat on the Council. It's all about them. I doubt they'd mourn her if she was a hanar or a krogan like the one they used for target practice back there."

Feron glanced at Ethan as he took his pistol apart. The internal parts of the pistol looked rather strange to him. It resembled a cross between a recharger pistol and a ballistic gun, like his auto .45, along with a block of metal embedded in it, used for making ammunition. He assembled it back together in a matter of seconds.

Feron raised an eye ridge at Ethan's repair skills. "Okay, that's impressive," the drell commented. "But that's beside the point."

The orb disappeared into Liara's palm as she closed her hand. She turned and looked at Ethan. "You've been helpful with us and fought with us against the Blue Suns, but ever since we met, you've been acting strangely, especially with your ignorance of, well… everything. That gave me a lot of questions."

Ethan glanced at the security cameras planted at each corner of the room "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked before looking at Liara and Feron.

"He has a point," Feron replied. "It's probably better if he doesn't answer, especially with Cerberus watching our every move."

"There's a popular saying among your kind: a little trust goes a long way," said Liara.

A tense silence filled the air, and the three exchanged looks. Finally, Ethan ended it with a sigh. "Alright," he replied. "Fire away."

"Who are you?" Liara asked.

"Better I tell you my name once we're out of Cerberus' earshot," Ethan answered. "But I think it's safe to say that I'm a courier. Or I was, until I got shot in the head. Twice, at point-blank range."

He pointed to a scar he bore next to his right eye. He was certain they would buy his story if he told them more about himself. Even if they did, it wouldn't help him much. No one believed him about his time at Big Mountain, except for No-bark Noonan. No-bark believed in the craziest things, whether they happened to be real or just a figment of his imagination.

"How did you survive?" Liara asked.

"I got better. A local doctor patched me up." Ethan let out a soft chuckle. "Benny should've used a bigger caliber."

"Mm-hmm." Feron nodded, unconvinced. "And that device that's strapped to your arm?"

Ethan looked at his Pip-Boy before raising it. "This? Glad someone finally noticed. This is a Pip-Boy 3000. It came with a Geiger counter, radio, health monitor, data storage, clock, and calendar, and I can use the screen as a flashlight." He shrugged. "It's like your omni-tools."

Liara tilted her head as Feron drew his head back. "Why do you need a Geiger counter?" the asari asked.

"There's a lot of radiation on Earth after the Great War."

Feron cocked a brow ridge. "Wait, what? I hear the slums of most of Earth's cities are bad, but I'm surprised the Alliance has to deal with enough radiation to install a Geiger counter into that Pip-Boy of yours."

"RobCo Industries made this thing," Ethan replied. "But that happened in another universe. RobCo, the Pip-Boy... Here, they never existed."

"That's what you said earlier. But why did you…?" Liara muttered. "So if you're from a parallel universe, then when did humanity first develop the nuclear bomb?"

"1945, near the end of World War II, when America developed and deployed two of them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Ethan replied.

"Okay… what about the transistor?"

"You can get that in any tech, like robots and energy weapons. Even my Pip-Boy here," he answered with a shrug. "Though we're big on vacuum tubes."

"Vacuum tubes?! What—?" The asari sputtered. "What do you mean by that?"

"You know. Electric circuits in tubes. Used on big, chunky computers," Ethan answered. He raised his index finger before continuing. "Here's a short history lesson for you. In 2077, there was a two-hour war between America and China."

Liara gasped, her mouth agape and eyes wide, and glanced at Feron before looking back at Ethan. "There was a war between the United States of America and China in your universe? Goddess, so many people…" She sighed, calming her nerves. "When… When did that happen?"

"That was over two centuries ago," Ethan told her. After a second of thought, he pulled his broken Transportalponder out of his backpack and showed it to Liara and Feron. He hoped it would help make them believe him. "Remember this thing, Liara? That thing brought me here." There was a wry, satisfied smirk on his face. "It's a Transportalponder, made in Big Mountain. It can transport me there to the Mojave and back. I tried to improve it, but anything can go wrong at that place."

Liara and Feron glanced at each other. "Goddess…" She turned to Ethan before looking back at Feron. "Feron, do you think what he says is true, let alone possible?"

"I… I don't know." Feron shook his head weakly. "He's making a large assumption about himself."

"Aside from him being mentally unstable, it's the only explanation I can come up with." The asari looked at Ethan. "Do you know about the Protheans?"

"No," Ethan answered.

Liara placed her fingers on her chin. "…Mass relays?"

Ethan shook his head after looking through the data on his Pip-Boy. "No references to the mass relays on my Pip-Boy, either."

"So the data in your Pip-Boy proves it." Liara raised a finger after looking at the Pip-Boy to be sure. "I don't know what happened, but you're not in your universe anymore."

"That's what I just said. Multiple times," Ethan muttered, watching as the pair ignored him.

Feron sighed as he placed his hands on his hip. "I don't know what to make of this…"

"I have an idea." The asari sat up. "I told you before that I was an archeologist. Specifically, I studied the Protheans' history and culture before I joined Shepard in her mission to stop Saren. Let me see if I could carbon date your outfit and this Pip-Boy of yours."

"Yeah, sure. Go ahead while I stand around like furniture." Ethan smirked wryly and rolled his eyes.

Liara scanned his clothes with her omni-tool. She lifted Ethan's arm and studied his Pip-Boy for a moment. She entered a command, calculating the estimated age of his Pip-Boy.

Ethan looked over her shoulders to see her enter a series of algorithms and equations over an orange holographic screen. For once, he would like to find out how old his Pip-Boy was.

A perplexed expression appeared on the former archeologist's face when the numbers appeared. "That can't be right… Was your Pip-Boy made in 1970? It's amazing that it still works today."

Feron's eyes narrowed as he frowned. "You still believe he comes from another universe? C'mon, you can't be serious, Liara!"

The light disappeared as Liara turned off her omni-tool. "It was either that, he has amnesia, or he is mentally unstable." The asari glared at the drell. "Think about it, Feron. He admitted ignorance about the relays and the Protheans. The Pip-Boy was made 213 years ago, which shouldn't be possible here. He even asked how biotics works when I met him. With enough proof, if the Reapers exist, so does the multiverse."

"The Reapers are one thing, Liara; we know they're a threat." Feron stepped forward and pointed accusingly at Liara. "You can't prove it. Many people have tried it before, and it didn't work. Besides, have you seen how humans make their movies? They sure love their 'experiment gone wrong' and transporter clichés if you ask me."

Ethan frowned as he stood up. "Why don't you—"

"Enough!" The asari had stepped in between the two men before they got too close, her body glowing for a moment. "This is unnecessary." She sighed as Ethan and Feron stared at her, then at each other. "The whole thing would have been solved already if I joined my consciousness with Ethan's. That way, I can look at his memories and prove that he came from an alternate universe."

Ethan furrowed an eyebrow curiously. "That sounds like telepathy…"

"It's a melding, a joining," Liara explained. "As I connect my nervous system to yours, we can exchange thoughts and memories. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Ethan paused. On the one hand, it would make it clear to Liara and Feron that he wasn't of this universe. He shivered when he realized Liara would look through his memories, including the traumatizing ones; they were memories, nothing more.

"I guess there's no harm in doing it. Will it hurt? Have you done this before?"

"Only a tingling sensation by Shepard's account." Liara rubbed her chin, glancing aside. "Though she was the only one I melded with to decipher her vision of the Protheans. That's all the experience I had."

Ethan gave Liara a strange look as he lowered his shoulders. "Yeah. That's good to know." He sighed and closed his eyes. "Let's get this over with."

"Relax." Liara approached him. "Embrace eternity!"

Her eyes turned black as Ethan jolted from the electrical impulses coursing through his body. Everything around him blurred and faded. Everything came fast to him before his senses. Images. Sounds. Nothing made sense.

His subconscious adapted, realizing the melding was harmless, and accepted it. His and Liara's minds became one, their identities crashing together, splintering, and reforming.

One moment, he saw himself, his rifle ready, facing off a giant of a man with an unsettling and lifelike helmet with horns. Lanius. Monster of the East, Legate of Caesar's Legion. In a span of several shots, the tin tyrant tumbled down a hill, dead.

He saw himself approaching Ulysses, a man of dark skin with dreads wearing a sleeveless long coat, at an ICBM facility.

He found himself on the ground, tied up near Goodsprings long ago. Jessup and McMurphy stood behind Benny, a man in the checkered jacket. With a cocky grin, Benny pointed his golden-plated pistol and fired two rounds at his head.

The last thing he saw before coming back to reality was a missile landing in the middle of a ruined city. It created a giant mushroom cloud, its blast wave annihilating everything in its way.

Ethan blinked, finding himself back in the lobby. He was all right, but his head throbbed with pain as everything came back together.

"Goddess, that was… disturbing, intense." Liara sat down on the bench. She looked tired, her eyelids slowly dropping.

"You okay?" Ethan asked. She was a stranger so far, but he had to be sure. He would blame his conscience for that.

"Yes, I'm fine. Sometimes a melding can be intense if the participant was strong-willed, like Shepard." Liara looked up at him. "It's a lot to explain."

Ethan looked at Feron, who stood at the corner nearby. "Satisfied?"

Feron looked down at the floor, considering what happened, then at her. "Liara?"

She nodded wearily.

"Okay, I get it," he grumbled. "Sorry, I've been antagonistic lately. It's not like you waltzed in out of nowhere."

"Regardless, we must get you used to the galaxy at large," Liara remarked.

Relieved, Ethan sat on the bench behind him. But he had so many questions. "Who is Shepard, exactly? What makes her so unique? All I know is that she stopped the galaxy from certain doom."

"Yes. That's the gist of it," said Liara. "She is—or was, I should say—a spacer, someone who lived their whole life in space. She was the only child in a military family and signed up to enlist in the Alliance when she was eighteen. She went on a mission on the planet Akuze where a thresher maw killed her entire squad. The Alliance reported her as the only survivor of the attack."

"Reported? There was someone else?"

"Yes," Liara nodded. It looked like she wasn't fond of what she was about to say next. "Corporal Toombs. Cerberus took him in and experimented on him. She found him when she searched for the dead scientists, but they were responsible for the thresher maw attack. Toombs wanted to kill one of the remaining scientists, Dr. Wayne, but Shepard talked him out of it."

Ethan's eyes narrowed, suspicious. He remembered reading about the thresher maws on the Extranet. They were giant worms, borrowing from underground to attack their victims above. "If Cerberus was behind this thresher maw attack, then why did you have us turn to them in the first place?"

The asari glared at Ethan. "Right now, I don't know who else I would turn to. The Alliance doesn't have the resources after Shepard sacrificed much of the fleet to save the Council during the attack on the Citadel."

"What happened at the Citadel?" Ethan asked, intrigued.

"A geth fleet, a race of synthetics built by the quarians, attacked the station with Sovereign, a Reaper, leading them. Before that, Shepard chased an elite soldier, a turian soldier named Saren, all over the galaxy. He led the invasion, but she put an end to his madness and saved the Citadel Council." Her eyes watered with tears. "I was part of her ground team. And I saw her die in the Normandy…"

"Were you… close to her?" Ethan wasn't quite sure if it was prudent of him to ask that.

Liara hesitated for a moment and shook her head. "No, we were friends. Just… friends."

Ethan sharply inhaled and looked at Liara. "I know it's hard for you to deal with losing a friend and all, but sooner or later, the only thing you can do is to accept her death, dust yourself off, and move on."

Liara let out a sigh and looked up at Ethan. "And I assume you want to know about the Reapers?"

Ethan nodded. Now they were getting somewhere. "What can you tell me about them?"

The former archaeologist shrugged. "Unfortunately, we don't know much about them. All we know is that they're a race of sentient machines that arrive every 50,000 years to wipe out galactic civilization. They destroyed the Protheans the last time and created the mass relays eons ago."

Their conversation ended abruptly when the two-part door to their right slid open as a green circle disappeared. Miranda walked through and looked at Liara. "Our leader wants to see you now." She turned to Ethan. "And you as well."

"Good to know," Ethan responded with a wry smile. "Any idea why I had your leader's attention?"

"He's interested in that… Transportalponder of yours." Miranda grimaced. "Such a ridiculous name…"

"Whaaaat?" Ethan had his mouth open in faux shock. "You have a problem with it? It's a cool name. You'll grow into it."

Miranda expressed her annoyance with a sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just come with me."

Feron looked at the Cerberus agent and shook his head. "No thanks. I think I'll stay."

"That's good because I'm not asking you." Miranda turned and left the room, with Liara and Ethan following her.

Reaching their destination didn't take long as they took a quick right down the hallway. Because the trip was short, Ethan didn't have the time to ask Miranda questions. Maybe her boss could give some answers instead.

As they entered the dark room, he turned and found the door slid shut behind them. The room was small and featureless, save for a circle in the center. Liara and Ethan walked at a slow pace to the center. When they stepped into the circle, an orange, grid-like light emerged from the ground. They found themselves in another room with a window, showing a red giant star. In front of them was a man sitting on a chair with a cigarette dangling between his fingers, his back turned against them.

Ethan stepped out of the orange light surrounding him and Liara, only to find the man had disappeared. Stepping back into the circle, he saw the cigarette-smoking man again.

"Huh, kinda cool." Ethan smacked his lips together and looked around. "Nice device they got here. Looks like quantum particles did the trick."

"Simply put, but yes. This is a quantum entanglement communicator or QEC for short. Difficult to produce, but well worth the price," the man said.

The man turned around, revealing to be pale and middle-aged, wearing a white-collared black suit. His combed hair was a light shade of gray, parting in the middle of his forehead. If he had been sixty, he would have looked forty. His glowing cybernetic eyes made Ethan's guts churn. "But let us get into the formalities, shall we? You may call me the Illusive Man." Smoke trailed into the air as he placed the cigarette between his lips.

"Elusive…?" Liara asked.

"Ill-lusive. Starts with an 'I' and two L's,'" Ethan pointed out.

"He's right, Dr. Liara T'Soni." The Illusive Man placed his cigarette in the ashtray. "I often need to be hard to find as well."

"What do you want?" Ethan demanded.

"Shepard is unique—one of the greatest examples of our species. A symbol of all humanity." The Illusive Man placed his hand on his chin. "Dead or alive, we want Shepard back in human hands."

"Yeah, sure. But isn't this Systems Alliance also interested in finding Shepard's body?"

The Illusive Man shook his head, frowning. "Cerberus and the Alliance are not on good terms. The Alliance condemned us as terrorists because they can't accept our methods. They might as well toss Shepard aside, forgotten in a well-decorated grave."

Liara folded her arms in front of her. "Why do you want Shepard if she's dead?"

The Illusive Man sat up. "As an asari, I can't expect you to understand our traditions. But our reasons are not important. What's important is that the Shadow Broker wants Shepard, too—and sent those mercenaries to stop you. In some ways, the Shadow Broker is my opposite in the information-gathering business, always working from afar. But now, the Broker made a deal with the devil. Or, more precisely, devils."

With a tap of a holographic interface floating beside him, three insectoid creatures with four golden eyes and flat, elongated heads appeared, with spider-like arms twitching at their sides. "The Collectors."

Ethan looked at these creatures, a mix of confusion and curiosity etched on his face. "What are they?"

"Few know what the Collectors are or what they want." The Illusive Man sat down and snapped his fingers together, like a god who controlled his world, and the images of the Collectors disappeared. "They make off with individual beings that have trivial distinctions. Volus middle siblings. Krogan with dyslexia. Elcor who sings well." His voice trailed off as he turned and sat back down in his chair. "Perverse but harmless in the grand scheme of things, or so we thought. Their interest in Shepard is alarming. We would want Shepard's remains in any event—but it's vital that the Collectors not have them. Whatever their reasons, it can't be any good. That's why we need you."

"Why should I trust you?" Ethan asked as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Feron said you don't care much for anyone who's not human."

"And why me?" Liara turned away from the Illusive Man. "You have all these resources, and Miranda, too."

"It's difficult for me to contend directly with the Shadow Broker in the Terminus system. And while Miranda played her role…" The Illusive Man leaned forward, a stoic expression on his face. "Nothing beats having someone with a personal connection. You were very close with Commander Shepard. When I heard you were here, I knew I wanted you on my team." He turned to Ethan. "As for you, Mr.…?"

"You can call him Courier," Liara answered.

Ethan looked at Liara, incredulous. "Seriously?"

The asari looked back at him. "It's what Feron said. They need something to refer to you, so a callsign would do."

Ethan curled his lips as he rolled his eyes. It was a job he had, not a grandiose title, no matter what Ulysses told him. "All right," he replied, turning his attention to the Illusive Man. "Just give me a cape and I'll be a superhero."

The Illusive Man grabbed another cigarette and smoked. One blow and a quarter of the cigarette turned to ash. With a tap, it fell into the ashtray. "It's hard not to understand why you're distrustful of us. You need to judge us not by our methods but by our goals. I've been informed about your encounter with our engineers. I heard it was quite a fuss."

"What about it?" Ethan asked hesitantly.

"I've learned about that device of yours, your ignorance of the current state of affairs…" The Illusive Man stood up and stepped forward and closer to them, his cigarette in his hand. "And how you came from a parallel Earth ravaged by nuclear warfare." He scoffed with a half-smile. "'Who is Commander Shepard?' How fortunate you are to have Dr. Liara T'Soni as your guide. The galaxy can be a harsh place for the ignorant."

Ethan frowned, his shoulders tightening. This was what he feared. He said too much. "If you're here to sell me on an idea, you're not doing a good job at it."

The Illusive Man smoked again. "Perhaps this would persuade you: Help us retrieve Shepard's body, and we'll compensate you. You'll carry out whatever experiments you deem necessary. Or you can refuse, and we can go our separate ways. I doubt the Alliance would believe your story."

It was a tempting offer, Ethan admitted, but could he trust this Illusive Man? Would he have a choice in the matter? Everything about the leader of Cerberus reminded him of Mr. House in the worst way possible. Maybe he should cut ties with Cerberus when the opportunity arises.

"Think about it. The offer stands." The Illusive Man turned and sat back down on his chair. He faced the sun once more. "The drell, Feron, seems to have a lead on Shepard. I suspect he may prove useful for an alien." He tilted his head to his right. "Can we count on you two?"

Ethan looked at the asari, who closed her eyes as she pondered, as if the weight of her options was too heavy for her. She sighed and opened her eyes. "No, but Shepard can."

He scoffed. He had every reason not to trust the Illusive Man but couldn't see any other option. "Fine. But I'm not doing this for you. Try not to die from cancer. I heard smoking is bad for you."

The Illusive Man chuckled. "Good. That's what I want to hear. Find Shepard and stop the Shadow Broker from selling her body to the Collectors. Miranda will tell you more on the way."

With a tap of an interface by his chair, the grid-like light descended, causing the cigarette-smoking man to disappear, leaving Ethan and Liara alone in the room.

"I hope this is worth it," Ethan remarked.

Liara let out a nervous sigh. "Me too."