Imposter System

{What is it? Is there something wrong with my suit?} Alexis was worried seeing Matt's reaction.

{I don't know yet. I've been tasked with studying this living metal and discovered that it reacts aggressively to blood. However, the suits seem to be self-contained. They underwent some sort of process that made them docile. The ritual of giving them blood is most likely some sort of pact. That is why each person gets their own suit and they can't be swapped.}

{Is it dangerous…?} She was worried but Matt wasn't completely sure. The living metal reacted well with him and even integrated itself in his body instead of infecting him. That would suggest that Alexis would also be safe. However, he wouldn't take that risk for now.

{Since you are off-duty anyway, avoid wearing the suit. I'll try to research the process and once I'm certain it is safe, you might be able to get even stronger with the suit.} Alexis sat up and leaned against Matt's shoulder.

{So, what were you doing in your lab for there to be that weird drug floating around—}

"Shit! I have to go." Matt realized he forgot about Alexandria and grabbed his uniform from the foot of the bed, quickly putting it on. Fortunately, Martha had stayed behind to watch over Alexandria, but she would be confused and scared if she woke up like that in the lab.

{Shepherd sent me a subject against their will. I need to make sure she doesn't freak out. Could you look into it for me? Her name is Alexandria Mikos.}

Matt sent the message to Alexis on his way back to the lab before taking out his tablet. He searched for all of the information about stabilizing and slowing down the living metal infection. Alexis responded to him with a short confirmation and went to work looking her up using her level of access. Just like Matt, she immediately recognized the conspiracy and put in a lot of effort in her search.

Alexis's work was quick and Matt received an organized set of information about Alexandria. She was originally assigned to the upper decks, but a few months ago she made a major mistake in a repair which caused an injury to a bridge officer. However, this wasn't the first time she made a mistake. Her track record was quite poor. Every repair job she was a part of needed to be fixed again after a while.

At first, no one noticed a connection, but the all-knowing AI was very aware of what was happening. Once the major mistake came out, the AI submitted a report about Alexandria's black record, and she was sent to the lower decks to participate in a "retraining" program. This was laced with intrigue and suspicion. Alexis did more research and even sent him a list of people who attended the program. The very first was Cindy's ex-lover who died from the electric shock to his chest.

'Damn, Shepherd is efficient. This must be why no one has noticed it's movements so far. Everything is under the guise of the mission. Instead of stopping the offenders early and giving them real guidance, it waits until they make a mistake to take them away.'

There were many on the list, including some of the researchers he saw that were assigned to help him. Matt assumed that everyone that was sent to rehabilitation ended up receiving a gift. This "gift" would encourage them to perform well and do Shepherd's bidding when it was necessary. When Matt saw Bradshaw's name on an incident report, he started connecting some dots.

Matt entered his lab and saw Martha sitting in front of the unconscious Alexandria. Due to recent events, Martha had stayed invisible almost all the time in order to evade Shepherd's eyes. Although they likely knew of Martha's existence, it was better to keep her out of sight. Matt went over to the unconscious girl and checked her vitals. She seemed to be fine after a good rest so Matt tried to wake her up with a few light shakes.

"Huh… ah… what happened? Where am I?" Alexandria woke up in a daze, the bright light of the lab made it difficult for her to adjust her vision. When she saw the shelf next to her contain several different glassware, she began to panic. This was not the first time she woke up in a lab on a hard surface. Matt noticed her expression darkening and got her attention with his hypnosis.

[Hypnotism Activated]

"Calm down. My name is Matthew O'Connely. You collapsed outside of my lab. How are you feeling?"

"I'm a bit dizzy… Ow, my abdomen really hurts." She went to reach for it, but Matt grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"You were hurt. Do you know why you went to the lower decks to do a repair?" Matt asked that without using hypnotism. He was afraid the device in her chest would activate if he forced her to talk. His assumption seemed correct because she clamped up and didn't say anything.

"It's okay. I already understand. I'm afraid you are going to be spending a lot of time with me in the future." Matt said pointing at his chest.

"Ah… What… What do I have to do?" She remembered some fragments of their first meeting and her heart rate increased slightly. Alexandria was very shy and her introverted partner never took the initiative so they ended up never going all the way. Matt was aware of her personality from her file and tried his best to keep her mentally stable.

[Hypnotism Activated]

"The truth is, you were put into an experiment. My team and I will be treating you. Other than that, I don't know what other plans there are for you."

"What are you treating?" Matt pointed to her side and she bent her back slightly to look. "Why is there a big grease stain… Must be from my last job…" She clearly saw the truth but she was in denial. Matt only shook his head and forced her to sleep again. Matt sat in a corner and began Dream Walking into her mind. Before leaving, he checked his hypnosis and noticed it had stagnated. It was only at fifty-four since he hadn't used it very much for a while.

When Matt entered her dream world, he instantly realized something was wrong. The feeling of dread washed over him as he finished materializing. He looked down at himself and saw that he had turned into some sort of monster. He walked around the dark misty forest and saw Alexandria sitting up against a tree holding her knees and whimpering. Before he could approach her, another creature that looked like him came forward.

It had a blank face with a round head. Its skin color was an off-white leaning towards grey and its arms and legs were long. There were long tentacles coming from its back. It walked toward Alexandria and she kept crying, too scared to look up. Matt stepped forward and was noticed by this alien apparition. It turned toward him and went straight to him. Matt was shocked at first, but then completely dumbfounded when it went to the floor in front of him.

The creature began to make noises which sounded like some sort of language, but Matt didn't understand what it was saying. Matt tried to erase this nightmare and the aliens, but it didn't work. The creature seemed to be real. This was a revelation for Matt since now he was able to put together a few puzzle pieces. The living metal has lost its form, but still retains some level of consciousness. It seems to feed off of its host but also drive it to madness in these dreams.

After speaking for a while, it seemed to realize that it wasn't being understood. It began switching it's sounds until finally a language Matt understood came out of its mouth. At first, it didn't sound like real words because of the way it spoke, but eventually he could understand what was being said.

"We have finally found you, master. We have gathered a plentiful harvest. May you return to your glory."

Seeing that Matt understood its words, he screamed in a shrill voice and disappeared from the dream. Matt used his powers to change this nightmare into a good dream and he changed from an alien to someone Alexandria trusted the most. He walked over to comfort her and calm her down. He needed her to be in a good condition before interrogating her.

"It's okay, you're safe now." Alexandria huddled her body even tighter, afraid to look up. It turned out she was tricked before by the monster in her dreams. Matt sat next to her and rubbed her back, coaxing her into relaxing. After a while, she peaked over and saw her savior.

"M…Matthew, y-you saved me again?" What she saw was an idealized version of himself. He hadn't even noticed his change in looks since the dream didn't have any mirrors, but he realized this would be annoying in reality. He tried to get up, but she grabbed his sleeve gently with a sad expression.

"Please don't leave… I'm scared."