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Slaves of Cerberus	By : NakedOwlMan Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 138070 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Mass Effect and all the characters in it are owned by people that are not me. I have not made a cent off this work of fiction

Chapter List
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"He's waking up," Rooker said, watching as the man tied to the chair in front of them opened his eyes.

"Hey," said Jacob, moving to stand in front of the beaten man. "Can you talk?"

The man blinked his eyes, staring around the room at the scattered debris and dead bodies. All that remained of the firefight that had occurred in this small warehouse just minutes ago.

"Commander Taylor asked you a question," said Riggs, his palm against the butt of the pistol at his hip. "You can't talk, you aren't much good to us."

Finally, the man nodded. "Yes. You're... Alliance? Why are you..."

"We're asking the questions," Jacob said. "What's your name?"

"M...Matthis," the captive said. "Matthis Lavon."

Jacob crouched down, putting himself at eye-level with Matthis. "Alright, Matthis, here's the situation. We're looking for answers, and you're going to give them to us. If you cooperate and tell us what you know, we'll turn you over to Alliance custody and you'll walk out of this room in one piece. But if I don't get answers... I'll let my XO ask the questions instead. I'm afraid she's not as patient as I am."

"I say just kill him, sir," Rooker said dismissively, playing her part in the "good cop bad cop" routine to the hilt. "Cerberus scum like this aren't worth showing mercy to."

"Cerberus?" Matthis exclaimed. "What are you talking about? I'm not with Cerberus! This is all just a big..."

Stepping forward, Rooker backhanded him. "Don't bullshit us! You and your dead buddies were a Cerberus recruitment operation. Or maybe you forgot the part where you all pulled guns on us as soon as we walked in the door."

"No, I swear! We're just a small-time drug running operation, that's it. We thought you were the local cops come to bust us," Matthis protested. "I swear, if we'd known you were Alliance, we would have never..."

Reaching into his back pocket, Jacob retrieved a crumpled flier. He unrolled it and held it in Matthis's face. "STAND UP FOR HUMANITY!" the paper read at the top. The bottom listed an anonymous Extranet account. "This isn't yours?" Jacob asked.

Matthis shook his head. "I've seen those around the colony, but it ain't ours. You've got the wrong guys, I'm telling you."

"The name 'Javier Nunez' ring any bells?" Jacob asked. "I believe he contacted you through the account on this flier, telling you how eager he was to fight for the cause. We traced the messages, Matthis. We know they came from this location."

"I don't know any Javier Nones or whoever," Matthis protested. "Never met the man before in my life."

Rooker let out a laugh. "Funny. Because I'm pretty sure he knows you." She turned away from Matthis and called out. "Don't you, 'Javier'?"

Matthis turned in time to see one of the "dead" bodies on the floor stand up and dust himself off. "Name is actually Cortez," he said, as he walked over to stand with the rest of the group. "And while you made a great pitch, I think I'm going to have to decline the offer to join your organization, Mr. Lavon."

Rooker stared back at Matthis with a triumphant expression. "Guess dead men do tell tales after all. Any urges to change your story now?"

"Look, okay," Matthis said, his voice resigned. "I'll admit, we were actually running a human rights group here."

This made Rooker scoff. "Right, 'human rights group.' An anti-alien hate group, in other words."

"Call it what you want, the point is that we're not tied to Cerberus at all," Matthis said. "We just saw Commander Shepard's speech and wanted to do our part for our race. It was all on our own, we haven't been in contact with Cerberus or anyone else."

"Well, if that's the case," Riggs chimed in. "Guess we might as well just dispose of you right now," He took a step forward, his hand reaching for his pistol again.

Jacob held up a hand to Riggs, and the soldier stepped back. "Look, we're going to get the information we want anyway. Your people started wiping your files when we came in, but I have one of the smartest tech analysts in the galaxy back on my ship. She'll find what you were trying to hide eventually. But if you could save us some time and just tell us what we need to know instead, maybe we can cut some sort of deal."
Matthis stared down at the floor, taking deep breaths. "Fine, I do know something," he finally admitted. "Something about... where the Normandy is heading."

"Where is it?" Rooker said, suddenly stepping forward. "Where are they going?"

Jacob held up a hand to calm her. He fixed Matthis with a stern expression. "You better be straight with us. You send us on a wild goose chase, I'll personally ensure that you regret it."

"No, I swear," Matthis said. "I'll tell everything I know."

"Alright," Jacob said. "Tell me where the Normandy is heading."

The captive shook his head. "Don't want to tell you," he said. He looked over at Cortez. "Bring him over here. I want to say this to him."

Jacob looked confused by this, but moved aside to let Cortez walk over. "Where are they going?" Cortez asked him.

"If I tell you..." Matthis said, "you promise I'll be treated well?"

Cortez crouched down in front of Matthis. "I've known Jacob for quite a while now. He's a man of his word. He'll make sure you get turned over to the Alliance and given a fair trial."

"Guess that's the best I can hope for," Matthis said. "Alright. The... the Normandy is... is..." his voice dropped in volume suddenly, and his next words were barely under a mutter.

"What?" Cortez said, moving in closer. "What did you say?"

"It's going to..." Matthis said again, but still muttering softly.

Cortez started to lean in further. "I can't hear y..."

"Riggs!" Jacob suddenly called out, as the marine charged forward and shoved Cortez aside. And before anybody could react, he had pulled out his pistol and pointed it between Matthis's eyes. "Wait, don't..."

Riggs pulled the trigger, and Matthis's head jerked back from the impact of the bullet. Jacob rushed forward and tackled Riggs to the floor, but too late to prevent the fatal shot.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Jacob barked, laying on top of Riggs and pinning him to the floor. "Have you gone insane?"

"Sir, I just saved Lieutenant Cortez's life," Riggs calmly stated.

As Jacob pulled himself off Riggs and onto his feet, Riggs sat up and pointed at the corpse of Matthis. "You check him out, you'll find ocular nerve flashbangs installed," he glanced at Jacob and said, "Guess that was after your time, sir, but back when I was with Cerberus, they were standard issue. Betting the guy was trying to take the 'rat' out with him."

"Still, you could have just said something," Jacob said. "Didn't have to just shoot him without warning. We might have still been able to get him to talk."

"Man was about to blow his own head off just to take out Lieutenant Cortez, sir. All due respect, I doubt you were going to get anything out of him. And besides... there were only seconds to spare. Didn't have time to ask permission," Riggs said.

Jacob scowled, but couldn't find any fault in Riggs's reasoning. "Alright, people. Gather up any evidence you can find and let's get moving."

Rising to his feet, Riggs walked over to Cortez and helped him up. "You hurt?"

Cortez shook his head. "No, I'm fine. Umm... thanks."

"Thank me by not being so stupid next time," Riggs coldly stated. "Won't always be around to bail you out, you know."

And before Cortez could respond to that, Riggs was already walking away.
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Slaves of Cerberus