He is originally an ally to Task Force 141, but due to them coming closer to finding out the truth about the American ballistic missiles that Graves and Shepherd lost, Graves betrays the team on Shepherd's orders. After he escaped from the JTF-Ghost Team, Graves went hiding.

He betrayed the 141 because they were the only people that became suspicious of him after Allen was executed, their suspicions were confirmed when Shepard executed Ghost and Roach. Price, Soap and Nikolai were branded traitors because they went against Shepherd's army and used Makarov's intel to find and kill Shepard.