WIP

Oftentimes, I would get stuck waiting for my father to take me home as he finished the darn paperwork. I'd go to an abandoned alley and practice lifting things. At first, it was hard to lift a piece of discarded trash, but after a few years, I was able to lift fully loaded crates without breaking a sweat. I'd also got pretty good at doing what I later learned was a Shockwave, though that's what got me in trouble in the first place.

It was a week until my twelfth 'birthday,' as humans would call it. I was taking a walk, unsupervised. I'd never had any problems before. But, then again... I hadn't wandered into the slums area of the Citadel before, either. It mostly had Vorcha and Batarian seemingly sleeping on the sides, up against derelict homes. It saddened me, really, having to see other races live like this. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.
I don't know how much a Batarian has to drink to get the way this one was, but I suddenly found myself on the ground, against a building, and cornered. I couldn't even understand what he was saying, he sounded so out of it. I was about half his size, and pretty scrawny. My dad had taught me basics, but it was rare for a female to need to use self-defense. Besides, ducking isn't a thing we turians do. But, even so... My mind just locked up and I panicked. The batarian seemed to have had a rough night, and other batarian and vorcha around were avoiding him. I was all alone in that alley, and he... he seemed hellbent on making someone suffer.
Things just happened so fast. One moment, he's beating me with his bare hands, and somehow a knife comes out of nowhere, like a regular mugging. The next, I'm in pain in a lot of places, but alive, but the batarian... I wasn't sure. I was in the fetal position, up against that wall, staring at the face of my attacker as he lay across the way, his body twisted into a weird direction, and blood forming a puddle around him. I was the one who did that? That... that made me a killer. What would my dad say? What would the Alliance do if they found out? What would my race do when they found out? It made me sob even harder.

Many things raced through my mind, as I thought about what would happen to me when the turian military found out I was a biotic. We were far and few between... and as soon as one was found out, even if they could barely lift or move a paper clip, they were separated from the rest of turian society. Completely isolated, with all ties to family and friends severed. The only family that the biotics had were each other. The thought of being alone terrified me. I would't get to admire my dad's work, my brothers finish their military training. I wouldn't get to have offspring of my own. And... who knew what the biotics had to go through? What sort of training and torture, both mental and physical? And the ones that couldn't make the cut... they wouldn't be front-line material, but they'd still be cut off from the rest of society and somehow serve the military with the rest of the turian biotics. Little was known to outsiders about the turian biotic division, the Cabals. The bottom line was, if you were a turian biotic, you got shipped off to train for the Cabals, and you would no longer have a chance at a normal life. You would be mistreated, no one would trust you, and you'd spend most of your time away from the places you once called home.

After a time, I found myself light-headed and too exhausted to cry. I still hadn't taken my eyes off of the dead batarian before me. No one had come to the alleyway since I was cornered. I didn't know if there were any witnesses or not. I wasn't an adult yet, but... still. Mentally exhausted and in plenty of physical pain from not being equipped with armor yet, I just lay there, dazed. I don't know how long it was... hours, maybe... before anyone found me. It was another batarian, actually, casually strolling by. He looked like he wanted to go on, but knew he shouldn't. He approached the other batarian, checked for life signs, and then moved over to me. Judging from his reaction, he thought I was dead as well. When I moved a bit, he got startled and moved back a couple of steps. He said something, but it was inaudible to me. It was my turn to be out of it. He made frantic motions and attempted to carefully place his hands on me a couple of times. He ran back to the main alleyway and somehow got some friends. Not long afterwards, not only did my father show up, but a few other C-Sec officers. My father picked me up in his arms and carried me away."I'm sorry," I managed to say. My father merely shook his head; not in a disappointed way, but as if to say 'It doesn't matter; don't say anything.'

Lucky for me, I made a fairly swift recovery. Nothing vital had been hit. I'd just gone a while without attention that it seemed worse than it did. That, and my young age. Within a week, I was 'fit as a fiddle' as one might say. My father did his best to not let C-Sec question me, but the inevitable happened. I was brought in for questioning, since there was a dead body.

"What were you doing that evening in that area, alone?"
"I was taking a walk... There's a lot of the Citadel I haven't seen, and I wanted to see some of it for myself."
"Did you know the now-deceased batarian?"
"No."
"Why were you injured?"
"He came onto me..."
"Why do you think he did that?"
"Because I'm small and vulnerable, and he seemed like he wanted to take his frustration out on something... someone?"
"How did he end up dead?"I was quiet."I'll ask again; what happened to him?"
I clenched my jaw, not making eye contact. I'd never had to lie before, and I certainly hadn't thought things through.
"I... I don't know."
"You don't know?" That time, the question seemed to mock my answer.
"No," I replied calmly, though I was anything but calm.
"So, you're telling me, you have no idea how the batarian wound up dead? You're the only witness we have here. Just because it's the slums, doesn't mean crime there gets overlooked!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" I exclaimed desperately. In the process, in my agitated and uncalm state, my body glowed a purpleish color, and small things around me levitated briefly before falling back down to the ground. I closed my eyes and began to cry softly. The secret was out, now. There was silence, and then I heard a chair scrape the floor, and the door open and close. I could hear soft chatter outside the door. I picked out a few words, such as 'biotic,' 'unsafe,' and 'violent.' I cringed as I heard the door open again. I was going to be judged because of me being a biotic, I knew. I slowly looked up to see my father. His expression brought a fresh stream of tears to my face.
"They're going to send me away, aren't they?" I asked. Silent tears streamed down his face as well. He nodded slowly.
"I wish we could go back in time... someone prevent all this from happening. But... what's done is done. No matter what anyone else says, I will always love you. Your mother and brothers will always love you. We know you aren't a threat to anyone, but... once the military gets wind of this, they're going to take you away from us, forever. We probably won't see each other again for a very long time," he said. We just looked at each other for a while, and then I got up and flung myself into his arms.
"I don't want to go, though..." I said through sobs.
"Don't worry... we'll always be thinking of you. At least you won't have to hide who you are anymore," my father said, trying to show a positive side to this whole ordeal. It was meager, but I respected him for it. "Give 'em hell though, okay? Show them who's boss. Show them that a small female turian can be just as fierce as any male turians twice her size," he said as the door opened. Two C-Sec officers, one with precautionary handcuffs, entered.
"We're going to have to take her now," one said cautiously. My dad and I gave each other one last squeeze before we begrudgingly let go, and I went with the C-Sec officers.
"Be yourself, and don't hold back," my father said. Those were the last words I heard from him.

The facility was fairly hi-tech. However, there seemed to be a lack of guards around. However, despite this, I noticed a sort of force field surrounding the area, and as I looked up, I could see one of our moons, as well as... Palaven. So, we were on one of our moons. Other than that, I didn't really take the time to observe the surroundings. I was hurried through what seemed like a facility for prisoners, and shoved into a small room. I was thankful for one thing; it had a single, albeit small, window overlooking the moon we were on. The doors slid shut behind me, and I heard numerous security mechanisms lock into place. There was definitely not a chance I'd be escaping from this place anytime soon, if at all. Not that I wanted to -- I had nowhere to go. I didn't know how to fly a ship. I didn't know the first thing about military training or the weapons that were used here. I was content with just waiting to see what this place was all about. If it were to be the death of me, so be it.

It seemed like it was hours before anyone came to the room I'd been shoved into. I'd made myself comfortable on the bed provided and had proceeded to doze off. I didn't know much about military, but this turian certainly had a militaristic demeanor. He marched in and started barking orders right away. I didn't know half the jargon he was spewing, and did my best to follow what orders I did hear in the first ten seconds. He paused once he got a good look at me, and then sighed. I wasn't sure if it was a sigh of exasperation or a sigh of pity. He toned it down considerably and broke it down to me.
"You are going to be undergoing training to become a cabal. The cabals are an elite task force made up of turian biotics such as yourself. Normally, we'd just throw you into a group of other lesser biotics, but we've been told your biotic levels are above average, so we've already prepped the Kabalim to test your abilities personally, and depending on how that goes, there are numerous other training options. This base will be your home from now on. You will not have contact with the outside world. You will not leave this base except on designated missions by the Primarch. Now, if you will follow me," he said, and then pivoted quickly before walking swiftly down the corridor. I almost had to jog to keep up since I was so small. Although the place may have seemed small from the outside, it had numerous levels below ground that seemed to go beyond that of the single floor that was ground level. Eventually, we wound up face-to-face with another unarmored turian. He seemed young; younger than the one that was escorting me around, but the one that had been escorting me around seemed to tense up and almost tremble a bit. "This is the most recent acquisition, a four from the reports," he said before quickly exiting the area, leaving me alone with the turian... the 'Kabalim,' as I assumed he was. He walked around me slowly, inspecting every inch of me he could with his bare eyes. As he came around the second time, he seemed to have an intrigued look on his face.
"Defend yourself," he said. Before I could ask what he meant, I felt myself lifted up into the air and flung backwards, sliding across the floor. I grunted and clenched my jaw to keep from crying out in pain. "I said, defend yourself," he repeated. Once again, I was lifted into the air, a massive force pressing down on my body, as he used some sort of high-leveled biotics. For a moment, I had a flashback to when I felt threatened by the batarian back on the Citadel. I felt a force rise up inside me, and it shot out of me like a massive blast. The Kabalim seemed surprised, even moreso when he was knocked off of his feet. After I'd released that blast, I immediately felt terrible.
"S-sorry!" I said quietly. I felt like I'd done the wrong thing, but what the Kabalim did next surprised me. He stood back up, loosened up his body and he actually smiled at me.
"Sorry for what? I don't know what just happened, but that's exactly what we need for a cabal. Whatever made you react like that, keep that in your head, use that as a trigger. You'll need it for further training," he said. "Now, then. Let me escort you to our arms dealer, and he'll show you how to use weapons properly."

The weapons training was easier than I expected. Perhaps it was because I'd already accepted my fate of being in this facility for the rest of my life. Without the worry of going back, things came easier. I don't know why, but it was somewhat easy to let go of my old life. The Kabalim took a keen interest with me and would spend a lot of personal time with me. At first, it was just training. But it quickly grew into a sort of father-daughter relationship. I was somewhat grateful for that; I'd lived a somewhat sheltered life, and needed all the guidance I could get to break out of the zone I'd been restricted to. Thankfully, that didn't take long.
There were two groups of cabals when I first joined. One had thirteen members, the other had ten. I was assigned to be a part of the smaller group. Time and time again, on the few missions we did venture out on, I proved myself to be able-bodied, seize the initiative, and get things done. My strength only grew with each mission, and it became quite clear that my abilities were going to be on-par with the two Kabalim. There was another turian that had taken an interest to me. He was in the same group as I, but he'd never approached me. And, let me tell you something; turian courtship is not like human courtship. And I'm sure it was different in the cabals, as opposed to non-biotic turians. The way he did it, was by challenging me to one-on-one sessions. Although he tried his best, he would always give in and, as humans would put it, 'Go home with his tail between his legs.' After a while, I got the gist, and he realized that I got the gist. He said he wanted to try things out, and although I wasn't really up for what he wanted, I figured I'd try things out. Thank goodness I did; he ended up being the one thing that kept me sane. However, it wasn't enough to keep me from going cold, though.

As the years went on, I became so engrossed in the pointless missions that I was the one they looked to, to get things done. I was assigned a small squad of my own; unfortunately, the male turian that had taken a liking to me was not in it, so we didn't get to spend much time together. However, off mission, we'd spend as much time together as we could. We'd find excuses to intermingle. It was no secret that the two of us were together, and it didn't distract us from out missions. In fact, if anything, it made us stronger and more capable. We had something to live for, something worthwhile to live for. He wasn't exactly kabalim material, but his efforts and performance improved tremendously over time as we grew closer. Eventually, we found some good down time to just spend some time alone together. And, like any close couple who have time alone together and are very close, we did 'the deed.' It was awkward for both of us, and it wasn't really something we talked about afterwards. In fact, we went through a spurt of just awkwardly ignoring each other in embarrassment for a few weeks after that... happened. But, he got up the nerve to talk to me again, and I was fine with it. We both agreed to not attempt that particular act again. Not for a while, at least.

A few months passed, and an odd mission request came in. It requested the coordination of all three cabal teams. It wasn't a small 'check out as discreetly as possible what's going on in a certain building on some random planet' mission. It was more of a 'you are unfortunately our last resort and there are hostages that we need to rescue and our military has failed because it's too big and obvious, we need small elite teams and you fit the bill unfortunately' type mission. We'd dealt with hostage situations before, it wasn't something we were unfamiliar with. Our biotics gave us an edge, especially if we could get positioned properly before the gunfire started.
When we arrived, things were quiet. Almost a bit too quiet. But, we were ready to ambushes, set-ups, the whole nine yards. We had one team dedicated to moving forward and focusing ahead, one team dedicated to moving alone the sides and watching the sides and above, and one team watching the rear. Now, we don't use pets or anything, and our senses aren't the greatest, so if something was amiss, we'd have to rely on gut instinct. So far, we didn't sense anything out of the ordinary. My team was the one watching the flank; my mate's was the one in front.
Things were going well; as well as could be expected. We were able to get in, get the hostages, and get back out without being seen. However, things seemed a little too quiet. I was naturally suspicious of the entire thing. The kabalim that trained me was suspicious, but the third one wasn't fazed, nor was his group. Unfortunately, one of the groups not being cautious is what caused the problems in the first place. When we headed back the way we came, I knew something was up. I kept on thinking I'd see something out of the corner of my eye, but I'd look and nothing was there. And things were quiet; too quiet. The so-called 'radio chatter' had ceased from our contacts, though the others just assumed it was because we'd made progress and had already decided on a meeting point. I, however, had my strong suspicions, and told my own group to stay sharp. It wasn't exactly protocol, but our weapons were at the ready, and most of us had some sort of small biotic shield around us to protect us if something came flying our way. Unfortunately, it turns out my suspicions were correct.
All at once, we were all surrounded, being fired at from all directions by invisible enemies. The cabals I was leading immediately went for cover, our biotic shields shielding us from harm. The side group was split; they were confused and left themselves vulnerable. The front group was the least fortunate. Having been somewhat carefree, they reacted too late to the ambush. They were, as the saying goes, caught with their pants around their ankles, and got royally screwed over. The hostages were with that group, and at the expense of most of their lives, they were able to protect the hostages. We were picked off what seemed like one by one, until our numbers had diminished to about fifteen. We still hadn't been able to pinpoint our attackers, but one of our snipers was able to follow a muzzle flash and take out one of the enemies. The body was retrieved and studied, and it was noted that there were a few dozen of them around, but they were only able to be seen by the masks they were wearing. Some technology we were unaware of. However, now that we knew this, we were able to take out a few more, adjust the masks to befit us, and start making a comeback. We may have been outnumbered and outgunned, but I felt we had superior tactical know-how. They may have the higher ground, but they weren't biotics like we were.