Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe and all of its characters are the intellectual property of Bioware and Electronic Arts, and are used in a non-profit manner for the purpose of entertainment. I own no rights to their creations.

The Half-Life universe and all of its characters are the intellectual property of Valve, and are used in a non-profit manner for the purpose of entertainment. I own no rights to their creations.

Author's note:

'Thoughts'

"Dialogue"

"Dialogue & warnings"

Several hours had passed since Gordon was told the unfortunate truth.

He was sitting at a table inside the mess hall staring at a bowl of cereal and milk lost in his thoughts. He didn't quite register when another person pulled out a chair and sat next to him.

"When I told Gardner to give you something consistent to eat, cereal was not on my mind."

The cool female voice startled him from his musings and when he looked up he met a pair of brown eyes that always seemed to gaze at him with slight curiosity.

Turning his eyes back to the food he began to slowly move the spoon in a circular pattern observing how the vertigo caused the cereal flakes to sink to the bottom, all but one. It was ironic really how much this was similar to his life, the government man moving the spoon while everything and everyone sank to the bottom, all but Freeman.

"Doctor Freeman!"

Abruptly, he let go of the spoon as if burned and turned his attention back to the commander, who appeared to be scowling.

"I don't know how they did it back in the past, but it's rude to ignore someone who's talking to you." She said in an annoyed tone while crossing her arms.

Gordon was struck speechless for a moment before he made a fumbling recovery "My apologies, I seem to have a lot on my mind lately, err…commander."

Katherine eyes softened a little "No, you shouldn't apologize. I realize that I probably dumped a lot of things on you recently," she moved a strand of hair behind her ear, unsure on how to approach the man.

"I merely wanted to know how you're holding up," she immediately smacked herself mentally after saying that 'How does someone that woke up over a century in the future, supposed to 'hold up''.

"I'm okay, I've been a little shaken up by what you've told me but I've got it under control," the bags under his eyes told Shepard a different story.

"I see…"

Her tone was genuine but Gordon fully expected the next question "I've been wondering though, how did you manage to stay alive for so many years?"

He detected a slight curious edge in her voice and knew that he had to hide the truth, just as he did when Alyx and all of his closest friends eventually surrendered to their curiosity. Still, he knew it was unfair to hold back information but being labeled as a lunatic was definitely not on his list to be.

"I can't remember, as far as I recall just a day ago I was on board the Borealis trying to stop the combine once and for all." It was a half-truth and by the look in her eyes he knew that she had her suspicions, but to his relief she didn't press the matter.

Katherine knew that the man was trying to be evasive but she believed that he had his reasons and she still had quite a lot of things to ask. Crossing her arms and leaning back she quietly studied the man before her. Here was the guy that single handedly took on a supposedly advanced civilization, with little to no help. She had a little problem believing that.

In fact she wasn't even sure that the Combine had even existed, there was practically nothing left of their supposedly reign of earth in the past. Honestly, it was almost like a story that one would find while watching a cheap sci-fi movie. Extra-universal aliens that invaded and conquered Earth in less than seven hours, because of a resonance cascade caused by scientists from the 21st century, in a top secret research facility deep under the Nevada desert.

It sounded insane even to her ears and that was saying something, because ever since she found out that the reapers were most definitely real, she was willing to pay closer attention to rumors and legends.

There was only one way to know if the man standing before her was the real deal.

"Doctor Freeman, does this mean anything to you?" she suddenly pulled out a necklace from her shirt and held it up in the air.

Gordon's reaction was instantaneous, if she were to have judged by his wide eyes and stiff posture.

"Where did you find this?" he asked in a small voice and tried to reach for it, but Katherine was faster "Not so fast doctor, you haven't answered my question. Does this mean anything to you?" She asked in a cold voice.

IF she was trying to intimidate the man that stared the Nihilanth in the face, then she was gravely mistaking. Gordon rose from his chair to his towering height and replied in a glacial tone "That necklace doesn't belong to you It belongs to Alyx."

From the corner of her eyes she saw that some of the crew members including a certain Turian were ready to intervene but she quickly dismissed their help with a gesture of her hand. Turning her attention back to Gordon she explained herself.

"Sorry about that, just had to make sure."

Gordon slowly sat back down with a confused look on his face.

"You see, ever since you liberated humanity from the combine most evidence supporting their existence simply vanished."

Gordon's eyes widened "That's impossible what about…"

"The Vortigaunts?" Interrupted the commander with a knowing look "They simply grabbed their things and left, no one knows their whereabouts even to this day." She leaned back and relaxed satisfied with the fact that he was no longer a threat. "The citadels scattered around earth self-destructed, the wild life from Xen went extinct and a couple of old and malfunctioning weapons won't convince the citadel council that the combine existed. Add this with the fact that there are no video or photographic records from that time and you got yourself quite a fairy tale.

Gordon massaged his forehead "Humanity was enslaved for over two decades and you're telling me that everyone went up and forgot about it?"

Shepard replied in a comforting tone "It's in the nature of all sentient beings I suppose, most people need cold hard evidence and even then they might choose to ignore everything and seal themselves in their own happy bubble.

Gordon searched her expression "Speaking from experience?"

The commander sighed "A goddamn reaper attacked the citadel a couple of years back and almost ended the entire galaxy. That thing took fire from hundreds of ships and was barely scratched." Her fists were clenched in anger and Gordon realized that the issue had been bothering her for a while "And what do those idiots in the council do? They ignore everything and blame the attack on fucking Geth."

Freeman knew what the Geth were since he had time to study the codex for a while "But weren't the Geth helping that Turian…erm?"

Shepard sighed yet again, something that she seemed to be doing a lot recently, "Saren Arterius and yes they were helping him but only because they worship the reapers as their gods." She leaned closer to Gordon "Listen, I've fought the Geth more so than anyone in the galaxy, even the quarians and I can tell you for certain that some robots that were created a couple of centuries ago don't have the technology or the materials to create a Reaper.

Gordon scratched his beard "It looks like I have a lot of things to read about." He gave a small smile "It's funny you know, I don't think I've done that since Black Mesa."

Things got silent between them and Katherine knew that she had to stir his mind away from depressing thoughts "About the necklace…"

That immediately captured his attention "Yes about that, how do you have it anyway? Last I remember Alyx always wore it."

"My grandmother gave it to me," she simply replied "It turns out that Alyx Vance gave it to my great great grandmother who was amongst the first children born after the suppression field collapsed." She explained with a smile.

"So does that mean…?"

The commander waved her hand and laughed "Oh no, no I'm definitely not her descendant. As far as everyone knows she never got married." She hadn't missed the slight pained expression on his face 'So it is true that there was something between them'. Thinking of that immediately brought her thoughts about Kaidan which she effectively squished down.

"The fact that you've recognized that necklace means that you really are Gordon Freeman and that you knew Alyx Vance personally." She got off her chair and smiled down at him "Thank you for clearing some of my doubts away." She started walking away from the table but stopped when she heard his sad words.

"The necklace belonged to her mother you know, it was the only thing she had left from her after Black Mesa."

Turning back she saw that haunted look upon his face again "I see, thank you for telling me that, enjoy your meal." She replied with sympathy and headed to her cabin to meditate at what she had learned.

Following his little talk with the commander Gordon decided that he had wasted enough time and decided to explore the place. It wasn't every day that one found himself on a space ship.

The first area he visited was the medical bay where Chakwas gave him a complete and detailed resume of his health. Aside from some scars there weren't any major issues, something that Gordon found weird due to the amount of medpacks he had injected himself with in the past. The doctor even offered to give him an eye surgery that would have corrected his terrible eyesight. However Gordon refused to expose his body to any more modifications.

Following that he decided to head down to the engine rooms, his scientific curiosity getting the better of him. There he met Gabby and Kenneth who immediately started hyperventilating at his appearance and after calming down started asking him dozens of questions per minute. Eventually he politely excused himself and walked towards the drive core.

As a theoretical physicist he couldn't help but be impressed by the structure which pulsated with mass concentrations of energy. He had read about the famous 'eezo' or element zero which made faster than light travel possible but to see it first hand was truly a great experience. With a smile he couldn't help but wonder what Doctor Kleiner, Eli and even Dr. Magnusson would have had to say about the engineering marvel in front of him.

A part of him wanted to immediately grab a scientific calculator and figure out the amount of energy generated by the core but he managed to subdue that instinct for the time.

It was inevitable but his curiosity led him into the 'dragon's lair' where he met the infamous Jack.

Gordon winced when his back was forcefully slammed to a wall and opening his eyes he met the glare of a young woman who looked like she had a fetish for tattoos and piercings. He had met a lot of different characters in his adventures but nothing quite like her.

"What the flying fuck are you staring at, huh?"

He sighed cursing his ability to get himself into this kind of situations "Sorry, we seem to have gotten off to a bad start." He flinched at the pathetic way he had said that and judging by the look on her face she thought the same.

She abruptly let go of his shirt and started laughing like hell "You are the famous Gordon Freeman?!" She said while gasping for breath.

Despite his usual calmness he couldn't help his eyebrow from ticking, something was very wrong with this one.

"Are you usually this charming to everyone, or is it just towards me," in all insight he probably should have kept his mouth shut since the 'psycho bitch from hell' immediately stopped laughing and started glowing blue, with a murderous look on her face. A second later he knew that he had to put his escape plan in motion.

The blow to her midsection barely moved her but it gave him enough time to duck, while her biotic augmented fist impacted the portion of the wall where his head had been. Judging by the jet of steam that blew in her face, she hit a water heating pipe, just as he predicted.

The codex informed him that mass effect fields, were completely impenetrable to a projectile moving at fast speeds, but it was theoretically possible to tackle a biotic if you wore full body armor, equipped with a shield generator. The two force fields would luckily combat each other.

Gordon did not possess such armor and his HEV suit was probably a pile of rusted metal in the Arctic, but his trip through various portals in Xen had given him a sort of natural resistance to dark energy, similar to the Vortigaunts.

Deciding to put that into practice Gordon slammed into Jack and tackled her to the floor. Of course she immediately threw his larger form off but did not register when he grabbed the M-22 Eviscerator shotgun from her waist.

Jumping on top of him with a bestial scream, she raised her fist fully intent on driving it through his skull. A second later her expression went from savage to terrified when the barrel of a heavy gun touched her cheek and there was no mass effect field surrounding her.

His plan went better than he expected, his body seemed to disrupt a biotic's ability to summon dark energy at least for a short while.

"Let me rephrase that. I'm sorry we've gotten off to a bad start, now who the hell are you?" he said but this time his green eyes pierced her wide brown ones.

A couple of minutes earlier Katherine was laying on top of her large bed trying to relax the strained muscles in her back. Her voice of conscience who at that moment decided to take the form of Doctor Chakwas, kept on admonishing her lack of attention to her personal health.

Karin had warned her that she needed to rest after injuring her back during the battle with the praetorian, but instead of listening she decided to waltz around the ship and listen to everyone's complains and bitching as usual, especially Miranda's.

Just as her pain was beginning to calm down the annoying voice of EDI resonated through the speakers with an urgent tone.

"Commander!"

Katherine clenched her teeth "EDI I don't care even if a Reaper armada is surrounding us, go away."

"I believe you might want to know that Doctor Freeman just entered Jack's quarters."

The commander probably ruptured her spine with the speed she got out of bed and ran out the door.

There were few things that could leave Commander Shepard, the hero of Elysium with her mouth hanging open and the sight of Jack sitting on top of Gordon, their faces flushed and their breathing labored was one of them. Katherine's shocked mind didn't quite register the fact that Gordon was holding Jack at gunpoint.

The look on their faces when they saw her, were like two kids with their hands in the cookie jar.

Shepard palmed her face "They were getting it on and you decided to call me for this!" she shouted at the ceiling.

"My apologies Shepard, I wasn't aware that humans engaged in such…mating habits. Does screaming and tackling one another constitute this act?"

The commander decided not to dignify that question with a response and only gave a low pain filled groan "I'll be in my cabin and I want no distractions for the next twelve hours, understand?"

"Yes commander."

She gracefully turned around and tried to leave the scene with as much dignity as possible, while limping up the stairs and holding her back.

After Shepard left Jack slowly got off and backed away while glaring at Gordon, who imitated her but wisely kept the gun aimed. Suddenly she gave off a smirk that ringed alarm bells inside Gordon's head.

"Well now, looks like someone has a pair of balls after all," she sat down on an improvised chair never taking her eyes off him "Name's Jack, also known as the last bitch you ever want to fuck around with."

Gordon wasn't impressed but he hid that pretty well "Nice to meet you Jack my name is Gor…"

"I know who you are dickface!" Interrupted Jack with a snarl "Some hot shot hero that apparently saved the world yadda, yadda yadda!"

She scoffed "Never gave two shits about you, nor do I believe that the combine even existed."

A frown appeared on his face but he knew better then to confront her at that point.

"But you've got some skills I'll give you that," she continued with her grin back on "Now get the fuck out of my face four-eyes and you can keep the gun as a souvenir."

Freeman slowly retreated up the stairs and once he was back to safety he slowly let go of a breath of air that he didn't realize he had been holding.

Staring at the shotgun in his hands he thought that at least he got some spoils from that whole ordeal. Adjusting his glasses he took the gun to his quarters and then continued his exploration of the Normandy-SR2.

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