Title: Phase Change
Author: May Chang
Warnings: action, crossover with Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Pairings: Adam Jensen x F!Shepard
Disclaimers: Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the property of Eidos and Mass Effect are the property of BioWare.
Author's Note: Sorry for taking a long break from "Ghosts" but I saw a prompt for Deus Ex/Mass Effect and it just went out of control from there. ^^;

Phase Change

"Jensen. Jensen, wake up!" Blearily he opened his eyes, the sound of the alarm sounding distant to him as the woman continued to speak. "Jensen, you have to move now!"

"Who—"

"There's a gun and armor in the locker," the woman said. "Move!" He rolled off the table, fumbling slightly before moving towards the locker. The door easily bent under his fingers and Adam frowned, confused before quickly donning on the armor – his body armor, how did it get here – and picked up the gun. Adam didn't recognize either the pistol or its clip but the explosions sounding outside told him to think about it later. Sliding the clip in Adam started to move, mentally cataloging his physical condition and augmentations.

Back to the basics? Pausing to look around a corner Adam glanced down at his arm, noting how different it looked. What's going on? This isn't Sarif Industries.

"Jensen!" the woman commed in. "I'm uploading a map to you now. You need to get to the shuttle bay as soon as you can."

"Wait, who are you?" Adam demanded. The only answer he received was the sound of static and Adam swore before moving on. The next room revealed mechs walking towards him and Adam dove for cover, firing the gun at them. Quickly dispatching them Adam quickly moved, grabbing the clips off the fallen mechs as he carried on. Soon he entered an opened area where two other people were firing on the mechs.

"Jensen?" the black man exclaimed. The other – a blonde woman who looked like she had an unfortunate meeting with the Typhoon to the face – just glanced at him before popping up and delivering a head shot to one of the bots.

"Talk later, shoot now," she gritted out. The three quickly took out the mechs and, when the shooting was done, got up from cover. "Alright, now we can talk. Where are we, what the hell is going on and who are you people?"

"Jacob Taylor," the man said, crossing his arms. "You're on Lazarus Station and I don't know what's going on except someone's set up all the mechs to shoot us." The woman flicked her eyes over at Adam and he tilted his head slightly.

"Adam Jensen," he answered. "Just woke up on a lab table so I haven't a clue what's going on."

"Huh. You and me both," she muttered. "Commander Megan Shepard." Adam stilled at her first name and watched as she reached up to scratch her cheek, winced and yanked her hand away from her face.

"Damn it. Look, we better move," Megan said. "I don't feel like facing that heavy mech I saw before." With that the three moved on.

He was young again.

That was a surprise. Adam stared at his reflection in the window, noting the lack of gray in his hair and creases between his brows as he half listened to the other three talk. He reached up and gingerly touched the implant near his right eye.

Blue-gray. They were his eyes again.

"Jensen. Your turn." He looked up the woman Miranda. "First thing's first: you may have noticed you augments have all been reset. They can be unlocked the same way as before so here." She handed him a Praxis kit and he raised an eyebrow in surprise – he hadn't been sure they'd even have these.

"These aren't made anymore but we have the data to create them. The resources are not as available as we would like though," Miranda continued as Adam opened the kit and injected himself. "Now then, like the commander, we need to make sure your memory is intact. What do you remember from your last mission?"

"...There was intel about Me—Dr. Reed working on something for an offshoot of the Illuminati. Sarif had sent me in to find out what she was doing," he replied after a moment. Adam sat back, crossing his arms as he frowned. "Things weren't adding up at the location and then everything went to hell. I—"

I was shot. He remembered the bullet hitting his shoulder, a second slamming into his armored stomach.

"I died," Adam concluded shortly. Megan raised an eyebrow at that which he ignored, looking back outside. He never thought to be in space and wondered when Detroit looked like now. Now that he thought about it… "What year is it?"

"2185. You've been dead for over 130 years." Miranda pulled out two datapads, handing them to him. "These are information you'll want to know. One is for your augmentations – we've given them some upgrades which you may find out later – and the second is what has happened through the years. Catch up fast, Jensen." The brunette sat back, crossing her legs as she gave him and Megan a hooded look.

"We should be arriving at the station soon," Miranda said. "The Illusive Man would like to both of you then."

Right after her meeting with the Illusive Man, Megan left with Jacob and Miranda to some place called Freedom's Progress. Judging by the way she shifted her eyes towards the two Cerberus agents Adam figured she didn't trust a word they said.

Honestly he was in the same boat, and the worse part was that Adam couldn't really trust her either.

Watching as the three left Adam turned and walked into the communication room, stepping onto the platform in the small dark room. Yellow light grids surrounded him and a minute later Adam was looking at a holographic projection of a seated man.

"Adam Jensen," the man said, blowing out smoke as he gave Adam a nod. "Welcome to the 22nd century. I hope you'll understand why I had you brought back from the dead."

"I'm not sure what a fossil like me can do for you," Adam replied drily. "You must be the Illusive Man. What do you want from me?"

"Straight to the point. I like that." Just that sentence made Adam dislike the man and he watched as The Illusive Man took another drag of his cigarette. "I want two things from you Jensen. The first is you join Shepard team."

"Join Shepard's team? Team for what?"

"We're in a war right now, Jensen." Another drag on the cigarette and The Illusive Man placed the cigarette to the side as he blew smoke out. "Shepard's going to need all the help she can get when she finds out who's been targeting the human colonies."

"You know who's been taking them," Adam accused, crossing his arms.

"I do, and I know who they're working for: the Reapers. The thing is Shepard needs to see this with her own eyes before she is willing to work with us." The Illusive Man took a drink from his glass. "You won't find any information on the Reapers – the Council and Alliance have written them off as a delusion of a mad rogue Spectre – but I assure you, the Reapers are real."

"Fine, sure, you need another soldier to fight the good fight," Adam summed up. "Not sure how, my specialty is single stealth missions."

"I assure you, you will be needed. The second thing I want you to do is to keep an eye on Shepard." Jensen frowned at that and the Illusive Man chuckled. "No, not as a bodyguard. She's going to have a little trouble with her own augmentations and she may need to talk to someone who's in the same position as her."

"So I'm really there for support." That was probably a good thing, Adam thought - figure out who to trust in this new world and decide who gets his loyalty. "Alright, I can do that."

"Good, good," the Illusive Man said, picking up his cigarette. "Better read up what you can, Jensen. A lot has changed since you've been around." The holographic project disappeared and Adam looked around as the yellow grids descended around him. Turning Adam went back upstairs, glancing to his left at the people in the other room working on something.

With nothing else better to do, Adam took a seat and began to read. He did have a lot to catch up.

Megan had returned with a grim look on her face, marching down to the communication room to debrief the Illusive Man. Miranda was at one of the consoles working on something while Jacob was standing at the window, staring out into space. Adam took the opportunity to go and talk to the woman.

"Ms. Lawson."

"Jenson," the brunette greeted curtly.

"You didn't stick a kill-switch in me, did you?" Adam asked bluntly. She arched an eyebrow and Adam crossed his arms. "I've been going through the specs of my augments and half of what I could do back in 2027 already made me hard to kill, you just made me even harder to kill. You have to had planted a kill-switch and a locater or three in me."

"I wanted to," Miranda replied easily, her attention turning back to the console. "Even a control chip would be useful but like the commander, the Illusive Man didn't want anything else that may compromise who you are."

"Right."

"You don't have to believe me, but it's the truth, Jensen." The door opened and Jensen turned to see a bearded man shuffle into the room, going towards the comms room. "That's our cue." Miranda logged off of the console and walked towards the door where the man had walked out from. Jensen, glancing back to see Jacob also coming along, followed after the Cerberus agent into another room. Curiously he looked out and stopped, eyes wide at the sight.

"No fucking way…," Adam breathed. He was staring a god damn space cruiser, the name Normandy SR-2 written on its side. Sarif had toyed with the idea of spaceships after Panchea had failed – he was even thinking about starting a space project before Jensen had left for his final mission. Before that, the only things that had been launched into space were satellites and ships to the station.

"She's a beauty," Jacob said, stepping up next to Adam. "Did you have these in your time?"

"No, we weren't thinking about space then," Adam said, eyes tracing the hull of the ship before pushing away from the window to follow Miranda. Jacob fell in step with him and Adam wished for the first time since he woke up for a cigarette. "We were more concentrated with augmentations at the time and how to limit limb rejections."

He stepped onto the ship and Adam looked around in wonder as he walked down the short hallway and into the CIC ahead. For a moment Adam wished he had his own organic limb once again as he traced the console that surrounded the holographic projection of the ship with a hand.

"Want me to show you around?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah, yeah that'd be great," Adam said. He followed the man into the Armory, the Science Lab and a quick look into the briefing room before going back into he CIC and down the elevator.

"Shepard's cabin's upstairs," Jacob explained. "For the rest of us this is our home away from home." He showed Adam the crew's quarters – "Your locker's in here and you have a bunk," Jacob said – before pointing out where the bathroom was, the Medical Facility and Miranda's office as well as a word of warning about food. Adam snorted at that in amusement as he and Jacob took the elevator to the lower floors where Engineering was located. Stepping out, Adam blinked curiously at the empty hanger then followed Jacob into Engineering.

And then Adam met Kenneth and had the irrational wish to hear Kenneth quoting Scotty from Star Trek.

"You do anything with AIs?" Jacob asked as they walked back to the elevator.

"No, Sarif didn't bother with that," Adam said as they waited for the lift, "but I have met an AI before. Think she may have had a crush on me." Jacob snorted at that and Adam shrugged.

"Can I smoke?" Adam asked, fingers twitching at the thought of a cigarette. A blue orb suddenly popped up next to him.

"Smoking is prohibited on the ship," it announced.

"Oh, for fuck's sakes…"

"Jensen." Adam looked up from the gun he was cleaning at the commander. "Picked up another whatsit kit for you." She waved the Praxis kit in her hand at him before take a seat across from him. He took the kit and set it aside before picking up the weapon again to clean.

"So. Tell me about yourself," Megan said, sitting back.

"What's there to say?" Adam said. "Just an old fossil drafted into your team to fight whatever it is you're fighting." Megan snorted at that, still watching Adam with her brown eyes. With a sigh Adam started to put together the gun, eyes glancing up at Megan who was still sitting there patiently.

"You been to Earth?" he asked.

"Yeah," Megan replied. "New York City. Beautiful city."

"Mm." Adam was slightly disturbed at the fact that he somehow managed to put the gun together without any problems. "I'm from Detroit – last time I checked the city was finally getting out of their economic depression. Sarif had just created his version of the LIMB Clinics so that was another a hundred jobs for the city.

"Pictures of Detroit look good," Adam added, absently reaching towards the area where he would have a cigarette and ashtray before realization set in and he stopped. "People were still having problems with their augmentations and Neuropozyne, but Sarif and the doctors were managing to get around that. Course then people were suddenly getting sick with something and Sarif got word that Me—Dr. Reed may have something to do with it."

"Sick? When was that?" Megan asked curiously.

"First few cases we heard about were mid-2046," Adam said. "It started to spread from New York City to the rest of the country, I think by next year people were getting it in Asia, Europe, Africa. Sarif got suspicious when he heard a vaccine was already in the works and the only geneticist we knew smart enough to create a vaccine had… well, she disappeared again."

"She?" Adam looked down for a moment before back up at Megan.

"You have a cigarette? I've been dying for a smoke and the AI keeps harping about no smoking."

"No," Megan said, eying Adam for a moment before giving a sigh. "Alright, so what's with this kits?"

"Praxis kits," Adam supplied. He opened the case and showed the commander the injector. "It's basically a syringe full of nano-probes that's used to activate certain abilities." He injected himself with it, wincing at the feel of it entering his blood stream.

"What kind of abilities? I was told you did single stealth missions."

"I was sort of ahead of my time," Adam replied drily, "and having all four limbs augmented meant I could do some serious damage to people, but most times I'd rather the enemy not see me at all." With that Adam activated his cloak and watched as Megan's eyes widened in surprise. He eased out of his seat, not moving it as he walked silently around the table over to her before letting the cloak turn off. Megan swore in surprise, jerking away from him and Adam chuckled.

"Son of a—I didn't even hear you!" Megan said.

"That's the point." He returned to his seat, picked up his gun and checked it over. "I could really use a cigarette." Megan snorted and got up from her seat, turning to leave when Adam called out.

"How are you doing?" he asked. "I heard you got a bunch of augs yourself."

"I'll… I'll be fine," Megan replied and left.

The place was a shit-hole. That was the only thing that came into Adam's head as he followed Megan, Jacob and Miranda into the place called Omega. Adam was glad for the implanted shades so no one could tell he was staring as he looked at the people in the area. Turians, salarians, batarians – he eyed the big gorilla thing and wondered what that one was before stepping into the bar known as Afterlife.

Meeting Aria had been interesting as he and Megan stood there while everybody else aimed guns at one another. Old movies ran through Adam's head and he merely crossed his arms as he scanned the area. He knew he could take one any of the aliens in close quarters, but Adam had to wonder about Megan who just calmly stood there with a gun to her head.

"You. Leather-boy," Aria called out. "Come up here." Adam uncrossed his arms and stepped up next to Megan, curiously watching as a batarian scanned them.

"If you're looking for weapons, you're not doing a good job," Megan said, taking out her pistol and waving it in front of Aria and their scanner.

"It's not weapons I'm looking at," Aria replied. "That could be anyone wearing your face. Just had to make sure you are who you say you are. And Leather-boy." Her attention switched towards him and she looked him over.

"Use your fucking CASIE augs on me and the airlocks the last thing you'll see."

"Yes ma'am," Adam replied. He hadn't activated the CASIE augs yet but he had the feeling Aria would go through with her threat. Aria, satisfied with his answer, went back to business with Megan, letting her know where the salarian Mordin and the enigmatic Archangel were.

"What is the CASIE aug?" Megan asked curiously as they led Mordin back to the Normandy.

"A social enhancer," Miranda replied in Adam's stead. "If he activates it, he can tell what personality type a person has, if a person is lying and–"

"If I'm kissing enough ass," Adam finished. A choked laugh came from Jacob and he turned away to cough. "I've only used it a few times, but I don't think it's particularly useful."

"No?"

"Well, only the one time when I had to talk a guy out of blowing his head off," Adam amended. "Most times it was just easier to sneak into the building and get what I need."

"For a cop you seem to enjoy breaking and entering," Megan said, sounding a bit amused.

"Believe me, at that time it was necessary to get the information with as few obstacles as possible." Barrett, Fedorova and Namir entered his mind, and Adam frowned then shook his head.

"Some missions, need for information in limited time requires avoidance of talk," Mordin noted. "Interested in augmentations. Used for combat, speed, strength enhancer?"

"We can talk more about that on the ship."

"Of course, looking forward to it." Adam caught Jacob's eyes and gave a faint smile when he saw the Cerberus agent rolled his eyes.

Apparently this Archangel was a friend of Megan's and Adam watched as Megan gave her first genuine smile. They quickly bunkered down for the next waves of attack, and Adam switched to his sniper rifle. As the first few enemies poured into the compound Adam fired, taking them down quickly.

"Where did you pick him up?" Garrus – Archangel? What the hell should Adam call the turian now? – asked, sounding impressed.

"Long story, Garrus," Megan shouted over the gunfire. "Shoot first, talk later!" An explosion rocked the compound and Garrus swore.

"Damn it, they're coming in from below! Shepard, there should be three shutters down there, go and get them closed!" Garrus ordered.

"I'm not leaving you alone here!" She turned to Jacob. "Taylor, stay and keep Garrus alive up here, me and Jensen will get those shutters closed."

"Aye, aye!" With that, Megan and Adam quickly made their way downstairs and Megan raced over to the first shutter, hitting the button to close the shutter. Swearing under her breath Megan led Adam to the left first and they managed to close the shutter there before making their way back and into the third room. This room was an open area with some cover and they were instantly pinned down by vorchas. As Megan returned fire, Adam activated his cloak and moved.

For sure kill Adam didn't bother using his gun, instead decloaking behind one vorcha and stabbed the alien through the chest with his armblade, yanking up before cloaking again. He moved, decloaking only to stab two more vorchas through the head then cloaked again as more aliens opened fire at him. Adam hit the button, waiting for the ten seconds to go by as he decloaked once more and fired back.

He breathed a sigh of relief when the shuttered slammed down then walked back to Megan who was staring at him now.

"We better get back up," Adam said. She was still staring at him and Adam looked down at himself. He was pretty sure none of the blood was showing up on his armor and Adam looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "Shepard?"

"Huh? Uh, right, yeah," Megan said, shaking herself out of whatever it was. "Let's go."

For taking a rocket to the face Garrus Vakarian seemed remarkably cheerful. Adam wasn't sure he'd be okay if he'd taken a rocket to the face – actually he probably did get a rocket to the face at one point but Adam couldn't be sure.

Currently he was sitting in the middle of the empty mess hall, cleaning tools out and his two guns on the table. He picked up his sniper rifle, popping out the thermal clip then paused as he looked up at the sound of footsteps. Megan appeared and Adam gave her a nod in greeting. The scars on her face had receded in a short amount of time though the one straight across her nose didn't seem like it was going to disappear any time soon.

That was fine though – Adam felt it gave her a bit more character.

"Jensen," Megan greeted, taking a seat across from him. "I have to admit, I never seen anyone fight like that before." Adam shrugged as he took apart his sniper rifle and eyed the barrel, wondering if there is such thing as a silencer in this new world.

"So tell me, who's Dr. Reed?" Megan asked. He paused, looking up at the blonde woman and she shrugged. "You seem to talk about her a lot."

"She's a scientist when I was working for Sarif," he replied. "What else is there to say?"

"You keep stopping yourself from saying her first name." Adam finished taking apart his sniper rifle and began to clean, thinking about the answer before heaving a sigh.

"Dr. Megan Reed," Adam answered. "We… we use to date."

"…oh," Megan said. There was silence between the two for a moment before Adam spoke.

"Stockholm Syndrome," Adam said. Megan frowned at that and Adam stopped cleaning the gun to look back at her. "I thought it was Stockholm Syndrome when I finally found her. She called out Namir's name and my CASIE augs picked up something so…" His fingers twitched towards where the ashtray would have been once again and Adam sighed when a white carton slid across the table and bumped his hand. He picked it up in surprise and Adam looked up to see Megan with a lighter.

"Thanks," Adam said, opening the cart and taking out a cigarette, leaning forward for Megan to light it up. Sweet nicotine filled his throat and lungs, and Adam blew smoke out with a happy sigh. "God, I needed that."

"So Dr. Reed decided to switch side," Megan said, sliding the lighter and an ashtray over then sat back. Adam took another drag on the cigarette before setting it onto the ashtray. "I think you mentioned her working for an offshoot of the… the Illuminati."

"No," he replied, picking up the gun pieces and starting to clean again. "She wasn't on anyone's side really. I think if you had to put her on a side it'd be science. Got to tell you, it kind of hurt to know she only dated me for science."

"Ouch," the commander replied, wincing at that.

"She disappeared later," Adam continued. "Came back from Panchea, had to get people to calm down from what Darrow caused, secure the building and when I had time to breathe, she was just… gone."

"Why?" Megan asked. "I thought she'd be happy to be back."

"I thought so too, but I guess she just enjoyed the forward thinking of her captors." He eyed the piece he was cleaning before setting it down and picking up his cigarette, taking a drag. "You know what pissed me off though? It was the fact that she didn't even let her mother know she was still alive."

"What?" Adam smoked a little more before grounding the cigarette in the ashtray. He picked up another piece and started cleaning. "I don't… I can't…"

"Yeah." He let a tone of finality slip into that word and Adam didn't bother to look up when Megan got out of her seat.

"I do have one question." Adam looked up at her, taking in her flustered expression and raised an eyebrow. "Are you… do you still, uh…" She fidgeted a bit then huffed.

"Fuck it. Do you still have a… have a…" She motioned downward and Adam started to laugh. He placed the gun piece down and got up from his seat, his hand against his belt.

"You want to check?"

"No! I just— I mean—Your skin isn't even real-ish so I wasn't sure if…" She was turning redder by the moment and Adam just chuckled as he sat back down.

"Yes, I still have a dick," Adam said as he picked up the gun part and resumed cleaning. "Works fine too."

"Okay," Megan squeaked. "Good talk." She turned and hurried away, leaving Adam alone in the mess.

"Uh, Mr. Jensen?" Adam shifted back, glancing to his right at the young redhead before facing the turian again. It was funny how well he got along with the vigilante, and the two would get together and have some hand-to-hand sparring. Strangely enough Adam also found he got along with the thief Kasumi but he suspected that everybody got along with her.

"Yeah, Chambers?" He ducked as Garrus attacked and then returned the punch with a kick.

"When you get a chance, would you please speak with the commander?" Adam backed off, dropping his attack position to look at the yeoman. He could sense Garrus's worry and Adam grabbed the towel the wipe the sweat off his forehead.

"Sure, is something wrong?" Her eyes flicked over to Garrus and the turian gave a huff.

"Kaidan, right?" Garrus asked. "Don't be surprise if you find her punching something in her room, Kaidan was being a bit hard on her when we met."

"She doesn't trust anyone yet on the ship except for Garrus and you," Kelly said, "and Garrus was there. She needs someone to talk to and I figured…"

"Yeah, okay." Adam grabbed his pistol and clipped it on before grabbing his t-shirt. "Let me grab a quick shower then I'll go see her."

"Thank you, Mr. Jensen." The look of relief on Kelly's face told Adam that Megan must be pretty upset.

A shower later Adam, in a black t-shirt and jeans, stood before Megan's door and feeling oddly nervous. He was shit when it came to empathy and the only times he managed to get through to people Adam had used the CASIE aug to make sure they didn't do anything stupid.

Maybe I should have it on stand-by? Adam wasn't sure it was necessary since Megan seemed like a strong woman. With a quiet sigh Adam pinged the commander and walked in. He'd never been in the loft and it took a moment for Adam to notice the blonde head behind the wall of space ships.

"Shepard," Adam greeted as he walked over. She was sitting on the couch, a bottle of beer in hand and her cheeks were already red. There was a picture on the table and Adam picked it up, looking at the man's portrait. "This must be Kaidan."

"Yeah."

"Heard he was hard on you."

"Yeah." She took a drink of beer then looked up at him. "We use to date."

"Ah." Adam replaced the picture onto the table and took a seat next to her. "You… want to talk about it?"

"Not really, but I'm probably going to," Megan said. She waved down and Adam looked, seeing the empty bottles. "You know, you are really hot."

"Thank you," Adam said, raising an eyebrow and giving her a faint smile.

"No, really." Megan took another drink of her beer then leaned forward, reaching her free hand out to pat Adam's arm. "You have that, that older-guy vibe going on."

"Well, I am suppose to be 54 years old," Adam said drily. Megan laughed and took another drink. Adam decided she had enough and managed to take the bottle from her. "I think you've had enough, ma'am."

"Nope, still remember today," Megan said, reaching for the bottle. Adam pushed her back, placing the bottle far away from her.

"You've had enough," he said firmly. "Lets get you some water and sleep it off." He got up, reached down to help Megan up and a minute later found himself on the floor with the commander curled up in his arms.

She was so warm against him.

"Stupid Kaidan," Megan mumbled against his shoulder. "Stupid, stupid Kaidan."

"Yeah," Adam agreed, one hand reaching up to gently pat her head. "Stupid Kaidan."

"Go get a drink, Jensen," Megan said as she walked towards Aria's place. "I have business with Aria, shouldn't take long and I don't think I'll get into a gunfight between here and there."

"Don't count on it," Garrus rumbled. Adam chuckled.

"Why don't you go keep an eye on her?" Adam said. "Make sure she doesn't cause any explosions."

"Ass." Megan and Garrus turned to make their way to where Aria was and Adam turned to the bar. He hadn't had a drink since he awakened on Lazarus Station and before that it was just limited to a glass or two of whiskey.

"What's your poison?" the turian bartender asked.

"What do you recommend?"

"How about an Omega Gut Punch?"

Adam had to admit by the fourth glass, the drink tasted great and the blue alien chicks were getting prettier with every sip. A voice in his head told Adam that he should have stopped at two, but damn he missed getting drunk. Besides all the nanoprobes were going to clear him up in…

A display popped up in the corner of his eye.

Oh. Thirty minutes. Maybe he should stop drinking. He was suddenly jostled from the back and Adam stared in dismay at his spilled drink.

"Watch it!" Adam turned to glare at the person who had pushed him and was met by a lot of people in yellow armor. "What's with the leather get-up? You into S&M?" Some of the Eclipse mercenaries sniggered at that.

"You made me spill my drink," Adam growled. The little voice in the back of his head screamed at him to shut up but right now Adam wanted them to pay for his spilled drink. "Buy me another and I won't kick your ass." He barely heard the turian bartender stammer in protest as the Eclipse mercenaries all laughed at him.

"Fuck you," the asshole exclaimed and moved to punch Adam in the face. Adam took that moment to slam the heel of his hand into his throat, hearing the man choke as he hit the ground, hands around his neck. The other Eclipse were instantly reaching for their guns, the bystanders all screaming in fear, but Adam didn't think as he moved.

Guns weren't necessary in close combat as Adam tackled one, ducking under him to pick him up and tossing him at two of the mercenaries. He spun low as another two went for him, his blades sliding out to stab them through their stomachs before sheathing again and letting their bodies hit the floor. One mercenary tried her luck with punching Adam in the face and found her hand yanked up and staring at the blade on Adam's wrist. He stabbed her then, dropping her body to the floor as the blade sheathed itself and ducked at another person swung at him.

He swept the man's legs from under him and, blade at his elbow, slammed it through his back then moved to dodge a kick. The asari's biotics flared and Adam ducked, stabbing her in the leg and she screamed which ended in a gurgle when Adam punched her, blade first into the neck. Adam cloaked and the last three Eclipse gave confused shouts, something Adam took advantage of as he moved behind the two in the back, decloaked and shoved the blades through their chests. The last spun and Adam kicked him between the legs.

Hard.

As the man doubled over, clutching his groin, Adam let the bodies slide off his blades walked over to the last Eclipse and moved to stab him when a hand grabbed his arm.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Megan said. "No stabby, he's not going to try anything else, Jensen." Adam blinked owlishly at the commander.

"You're done talking with Aria? That was fast," he said. Garrus chuckled as he sidled up to Adam, looking around at the bodies then looked at Adam's arms.

"Damn, you were really taking it easy on me, weren't you" Garrus muttered.

"You're going back onto the ship," Megan growled. Adam stumbled as she pushed him towards the exit and he blinked again when she ducked under his arm to help.

"Jensen." Megan and Garrus both froze at Aria's voice and Adam craned his neck to look at the asari. Aria had her arms crossed, but rather than looking angry she had an amused expression on her face. "When you're done working with Shepard, how about coming to work for me?"

"I'll think about it," Adam replied and Megan gave a relieved exhale as they left Afterlife.

"Zaeed," Megan commed. "Gear up and meet us at the door. Jacob, come over too, I need a little help with Jensen."

"I'll be fine," Adam grumbled. His display popped up again. "Give me 28 minutes and I'll be good to go."

"Yeah, no," Megan said. "Stabby drunken death isn't what I need right now."

"That last guy, I think you should have let Adam take him out," Garrus mused. "With Adam's legs, he probably kicked the guy so hard he is never going to be using either boys again."

"Nope," Adam agreed cheerfully. "It could have been worse, I could have used the blade."

"Your blades were kind of stuck in the other two's chest at time," Megan noted.

"No, not those," Adam said, stopping and raising a leg. A blade popped out from his foot. "That one." The look on Garrus face made Adam wonder if blood in a turian's face can drain out. In any case Garrus shifted uncomfortably and took a step away from Adam. Megan just started to laugh instead.

"Tell me about yourself." Adam stopped disassembling his rifle and looked at her as Megan took a seat across from him. Taking another drag on his cigarette, he put it aside on the ashtray and blew smoke into the air.

"Didn't you ask me this question before?" he asked. "Former cop, head of security for Sarif Industries, don't really like killing."

"Afterlife."

"Self-defense." Megan snorted at that and Adam continued to disassemble his rifle.

"Don't you have any regrets?" she asked. Adam placed all the pieces onto the table and picked up his cigarette again, eyeing the commander as he smoked.

"This is about the others, right?" Adam said. Megan had just left the Forward Battery after talking Garrus out of killing Sidonis and before that, she had save Thane's son from getting shot. In fact Megan had done some other missions for the others which all resulted in inspiring strong loyalty to her, and Adam had to admit, the one with Kasumi was probably the best.

The commander looked stunning in the black dress and heels.

"Well, I figure it's a good thing," Megan admitted. "Most people think it's going to be a one-way trip when we go through the Relay."

"Well, I've already died twice, maybe third time's a charm," Adam mused, setting aside his cigarette again and picking up the rag.

"Don't joke about that." He looked up at her, surprised at the tone of her voice. The look Megan was leveling at him was rather serious and Adam looked away, starting to clean.

"I don't have any regrets or unfinished business," Adam admitted as he cleaned. "If I did, I'm about 130 years too late to do anything." He eyed a piece, raising it up to squint at it, and notice Megan was just watching him. Placing the piece down Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Do you have any regrets?"

"I've got a few," she said slowly, her eyes going distant, "but unlike the others, I know we're going to get out of the Relay alive."

"Optimist."

"Someone's got to look at the silver lining," Megan agreed with a smile. A companionable silence fell between the two and then Adam spoke.

"I do regret one thing," Adam said, looking at Megan. "I regret not talking to my Megan."

"You didn't get a chance," the commander pointed out.

"Actually no, I did have the chance." Adam put the parts down, eyes sliding down to stare at his smoldering cigarette. "Hell I had plenty of chances to talk to her but I didn't. I guess I was avoiding it."

It hurt to have heard her call out her kidnapper's name so affectionately.

"Talk to Kaidan," Adam said, sitting up to pick up the rag and started cleaning again. "Make a clean break if you have to, but at least talk to him." He could sense her eyes on him, boring into him before hearing her sigh.

"Yeah, I should," Megan replied with a huff. She leaned back, running her hand through her short blonde hair. "I'm… I'm just not looking forward to that conversation."

"No one ever is," Adam said softly.

He found himself standing outside of Megan's cabin a couple hours later with a bottle of Jack in one hand and a couple of tumblers in the other. Doors sliding open Adam walked right in to see the commander sitting at her desk, staring blankly at her computer, the picture face down. She turned to look up at Adam and then down to the bottle.

"Looks like you need this," Adam said simply.

"Damn right," Megan answered, getting up from her seat as Adam walked over to the couch. Setting the tumblers down Adam opened up the bottle and poured them a drink, handing a glass to Megan. She took a drink and gave a sigh as she took a seat. "Yeah, I really needed this."

Adam sat down, taking his own glass and watching as Megan down the rest of her drink and poured herself another. She gulped it down and gave a sigh, staring at the bottle morosely before pouring another glass.

"Better take it easy with the alcohol," Adam cautioned.

"No mission tomorrow." Another glass of alcohol downed and Megan poured another. "Stupid Kaidan." Adam could see her eyes shining and he placed his tumbler down, shifting to sit next to Megan. He gingerly took the tumbler from her hand, feeling her curl up in his arms as she began to cry.

Adam was still shit at empathy, but for now he could at least do this.

"You are sweet on Shepard," Kasumi said smugly. Jensen ducked and skipped back away from Garrus, moving slowly around for another attack.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Ms. Goto," Adam murmured then jumped forward for a kick, following it with a punch. Garrus managed to avoid the kick but took the punch with a grunt.

"No, she's right," Garrus rumbled as he returned the punch with one of his own. "You keep staring at her waist."

"Ass, Garrus," Kasumi corrected. "Human guys like to stare at ass. Or boobs for those who have boobs."

"I don't get boobs." Garrus managed to hit Adam's side and danced away from Adam's kick. "They're like extra padding for when they get into fist fights." Adam snorted at that, ducking as Garrus took another swing at him then swept the turian's legs from under him.

"Extra padding? Then what about Jack?" Kasumi queried. "She doesn't have much for extra padding."

"She doesn't need it," Adam said, helping Garrus back up to his feet. "Going one on one with her without a gun is a death wish." Kasumi giggled at that, jumping down from her seat and sidling up to Adam.

"But you know, we can tell you're sweet on Shepard," Kasumi said with a smile. "And from what I can tell, she's pretty sweet on you too."

"You're seeing thing," Adam said flatly though his stomach fluttered a bit at the thought of Megan liking him as more than a friend. "I'm just being a friend."

"Just a friend?" Kasumi's smile seemed to get wider. For some reason Adam was reminded of the Cheshire Cat and he wiped his face with the towel, smothering his own smile.

"I'm not getting the friend vibe," Garrus said thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure Shepard likes you."

"I'd say more than like," Kasumi chirped, and then they both looked at Adam.

"We're just friends," Adam said firmly. Kasumi giggled and walked away from the two, and Adam looked at Garrus. The turian's mandible flapped and he gave a low chuckle.

"Don't be surprise if she asks you out for dinner," Garrus said and walked out after the thief.

"…but we're just friends," Adam repeated faintly.

There was something off about this ship as Adam followed Megan and Grunt through the corridors. He wanted to say it was too white, but that wasn't quite it and Adam suppressed the urge to shudder. The few video logs had shown the crewmen on the station were slowly losing their minds from something. Just knowing that made Adam want to get the IFF and get out of there as soon as possible.

"Well, I get to cross walking through a body of a giant corpse off my bucket list," Megan muttered under her breath. "I don't know about you two but it's a little too quiet for me."

"Where are the scientists?" Adam asked. There was a low moan from somewhere and Adam's grip on his submachine gun tightened. "Fuck, this is like a bad horror movie."

"At least with bad horror movies there would be bad make-up," Megan said. Another low moan echoed through the ship and from the corner of his eye Adam saw something blue crawling up.

"Shit!" he swore, swinging his gun around and firing. More blue things were crawling up to attack and Adam could hear both Megan and Grunt firing as well. One of them suddenly exploded and Adam saw only white for a moment before using his blade and decapitating the thing. Soon the things were down and Adam toed one of the bodies, noting that it looked rather humanoid.

"Alright, what are these?" Adam asked. "The zombies to our bad horror movie?"

"Husks and yeah, they're our zombies," Megan muttered. "Come on, let's get going. There's probably more of them in here."

More husks appeared with a few red in color, and Adam found out that those exploded when near then. He also managed to not gag at the sight of the big ones that looked like a deformed hunchback. Those packed some power that destroyed their shields in moments, but they weren't very fast and with some well placed shots with a sniper, went down fast.

And then a geth appeared.

Actually Adam had no idea what a geth was, except that they were robots and people didn't like them. Oddly enough the geth made Adam think it looked a bit like quarian and he blinked when the geth called out Megan's name then moved on.

"Friend of yours?" he asked.

"Apparently," Megan replied, blinking. "Let's move on."

They eventually get the IFF, but now they had to destroy the core to get out of the ship. As they entered the room with the core, they see the geth again doing something before it was disabled by the husks. Taking out the husks, Megan concentrated her particle beam at the core every time the shielding opened. As the core exploded, Adam and Grunt grabbed the geth, following quickly after the commander back to the ship.

The geth was thrown into the Normandy first, followed by Grunt. Adam jumped in next with Megan covering him and then she launched herself towards the ship.

She wasn't going to make it.

Adam moved, reaching out and grabbing her hand then yanked her into his arms, a relieved sigh crossing his lip as the doors shut behind them. Grunt pulled the disabled geth over his shoulders and stomped into the ship, and Adam moved to let go of the commander. He paused when he felt her squeeze her arms around him, her face against his collarbone as she murmured a thank you before letting him go and walked inside.

You're totally sweet on Shep, Kasumi's smug voice floated into his head.

No, she's just a friend, Adam mentally replied, walking into the ship and following after the two.

The problem unfortunately was the Kasumi was absolutely right.

"We're almost at the end," Adam mused as he lit up a cigarette, his guns laid onto the table with the thermal clips unloaded. Megan nodded, her eyes watching as smoke floated into the air. "Not sure about you, but it's a bit nerve-wracking."

"It always is before a fight," Megan said. He studied her face with hooded eyes before placing his cigarette onto the ashtray, hands moving to take apart his gun. "Could I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure."

"Were you able to move on?" Adam blinked at the question then looked up at her.

"Move on from what? My augmentation or Me—Dr. Reed?"

"The second, though you seem fine with the first." Adam snorted at that as he bent his had down to finish disassembling the gun.

"Actually I couldn't look at myself for awhile after I got my augs," Adam said as he started to clean. "I think I broke the bathroom mirror every other week for the first two months. After that I broke the mirror once a month until I got called back into work."

"Why break mirrors?" Megan asked curiously. Adam stopped his cleaning, staring at the objects in his hands for a moment before placing them down. Standing up he pulled off his shirt, exposing his cybernetic arms and the bolts that covered his upper chest and collarbone. He poked at one of the bolt holes before looking up at Megan.

"Looks crazy, huh?" he asked. "My skin isn't really my skin, my arms aren't really my arms, and if you look real carefully you can probably see where they carved part of my skull out to put a computer in my head." Adam yanked the shirt back on and sat back down, reaching over for his cigarette.

"I really want to be able to touch," Adam added, staring at the cigarette in his hand. "To be able to feel something and not worry about crushing it in my hand for once." A hand touched his shoulder, right where metal met flesh and Adam looked up to see Megan there, with a look on her face.

He couldn't tell if it was a sympathetic look or a look of pity.

"Ah, I shouldn't be saying shit like that," Adam said. "I got over it – the regenerative aug helped a lot when I had to fight against Namir and the others and I rather like using my cloaking aug.

"As for Dr. Reed…" Adam paused, thinking about it. "I think… I think I may have gotten over her a long time ago."

"Another girlfriend?" Megan asked. She hadn't taken her hand away from his shoulder and Adam unconsciously reached up with his free hand to thumb the back of her hand. Not for the first time did he wish he could feel her skin as he touched her hand.

"No, not really. Just a good friend, a lot of alcohol and a long night of drunken whining." Megan laughed at that then pulled her hand away from him, going around to take her seat across from him. Adam took one last drag of his cigarette before grounding it out in the ashtray then started to clean again. "Anyway, enough about me. What's going on with the IFF we took from the haunted ship?"

"EDI's making sure it doesn't break our systems," Megan replied. "While that's happening, I've got something to do with Legion so I'm going to take Garrus along for that. After that, if EDI's still not done with the IFF I have some stuff to give to Liara."

"Sounds like a plan."

"And after that maybe you'd like to have dinner with me." Adam stopped cleaning, not sure he just heard that right.

"Sorry?" he asked, looking up with wide eyes. Megan raised an eyebrow.

"Dinner. Just the two of us," she reiterated. "I'll wear that black dress Kasumi gave me."

"Okay," Adam answered, still a little stunned. Megan smiled, got out of her seat and sauntered away.

"It's a date, Jensen," she called out before entering the lift.

"But what am I going to wear?" Adam muttered.

"Shepard!" Adam called out, hands clinging to the handlebar by the door. "Has anyone told you that you suck at driving?"

"I don't suck at driving!" Megan retorted. She sounded awfully gleeful as she drove after the other Spectre. "I'm a great driver!"

"Watch the proximity mines!" Liara yelled. Megan swerved in time before the mine blew and Adam looked down to see his other hand had practically buried itself into the seat.

"No, you fucking suck at it!" Adam bellowed and nearly ripped the handlebar off the car as another mine exploded, rocking the car. "And watch the fucking mines!"

"I'm a fucking great driver, damn it," Megan growled out as she managed to catch up with Vasir's car and slammed into the side. Another slam and Adam watched as the car went down. "Whoo hoo, take that you crazy bitch!"

"Who's the crazy bitch?" Liara muttered under her breath. Adam snorted as Megan followed the car and parked.

"No wonder Garrus and Tali never looked thrill when she takes them onto the Hammerhead," Adam said as he stepped out, legs shaking slightly. Megan turned to scowl at him while Liara coughed, and Adam just looked back, thankful for the shades hiding his eyes. "So let's go after her."

"Company," Megan said, looking up. Adam turned to see men with guns flying towards them and sighed before moving for cover. "Damn, I was really looking forward to our date. I even got a reservation at Kinu."

"Really? How did you manage that?" Liara asked, ducking as some of the Shadow Broker's men landed and started to fire at them. Adam cloaked, raced over to two of the soldiers and stabbed them through their throats, decloaking at the same time.

"Kasumi. She even picked out the suit Jensen was going to wear." Megan sighed as she shot one of the soldier's in the head. "I was really looking forward to seeing him in a suit."

"What?" Adam voiced, ducking before taking the enemy out with a blade through the gut. "Son of a— I'm going back to shooting the bad guys!"

"That is not shooting," Liara said as he took out another soldier with his blade. "That's more like stabbing."

"Fine!" He shot a salarian in the head. "Better?"

"Much, thank you." Adam snorted as he continued to shoot and duck for cover.

"Now, now, kids," Megan said, popping her spent clip and reloading with another. "Stop arguing and shoot the bad guys in the head." Liara shot another soldier.

"Or in the groin," Adam muttered as he watch the soldier double over.

Adam stared at the computer, vaguely aware of Liara and Megan talking about something. All the information in the universe, collected into one big ship in the middle of a lightning storm.

Pritchard would be shitting himself with excitement if he'd been around.

He wondered about the information the Shadow Broker collected and then he wondered about her. Would Liara be able to get information on his Megan? Despite Cerberus's own information network, they hadn't been able to get anything about Megan since her disappearance from Sarif Industries.

"Adam." He blinked in surprise, turning to look at the commander. This was probably the first time she'd called him by his first name and to be honest it was kind of nice. "Come on, let's get back onto the Normandy. I'm sure the doc wants to make sure we're not going to die soon."

"Sure," Adam replied, walking over to her. He gave the asari a nod and followed Megan out the door. "So she's the new Shadow Broker."

"Yup." She looked a bit worried and Adam held back the urge to take her hand. "Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, to be honest."

"Depends on what she does with it," Adam replied. He looked down at his hand, flexing it before looking forward again. "You think…" Trailing off Adam suddenly wasn't sure if it would be proper to ask Megan the question. She looked over her shoulder at him curiously as he thought about.

Do I really want to know about Megan?

"Never mind," Adam said. His Megan was gone long before they broke up.

He still had this Megan.

Adam stood before the door to Shepard's room, completely unsure at what to do. The crew was gone – only Joker had been able to make it through. Megan had ordered the go ahead, to take the fight to the Collectors and to get the crew back in one piece.

It really was the moment before a final battle.

His fingers nervously twitched, wanting the feel of the cigarette there but Adam ignored it and walked forward, the doors opening to let him in. Megan was at her desk, typing up something but she looked up and blinked in surprise.

"Adam?"

"Shep—" He stopped, cleared his throat and started again. "Megan." She smiled at that and Adam nervously rubbed the back of his neck. It'd been a really long time since he dated, what is he suppose to do next?

"Sorry, it's been awhile since I, uh," Adam stammered. She got up from her seat, slipping a hand into his own and the other to caress his cheek. No other words were said, just the feel of her lips pressing against his lips and the way her body pressed against him.

It's been a long time since he felt this warm.

"I still owe you a date," Adam murmured as he gently pressed his forehead against Megan's.

"Looking forward to it," Megan replied with a smile.