AN: This fic is one possible take on the Colonist/Ruthless backgrounds. Shepard will be telling Samara about Torfan in order for her to feel comfortable swearing her oath to him. It's going to be short compared to most chapters I write, but it's what fits. To make sure that it's clear, I don't condone anything done to slaves by batarians, but I see it as a part of Shepard's character.

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"Before I enter your service, there is something I need to know the reasons behind," the asari Justicar Samara said in her melodic tones.

"Torfan," Shepard said while crossing his arms over his chest.

"The report is curiously blank, I need to know if your actions were honorable."

Shepard sighed as he ran a hand over his face before asking, "Do you mind if we were to take this to the Normandy? It isn't a tale that I care to tell the world."

"If I may offer an alternative, the Temple of Athame has private rooms for meditation."

"That'll work; I don't know the directions to the temple so if you wouldn't mind?"

A few minutes later, Shepard, Samara, Tali and Garrus were in a meditation room at one of the many temples to the asari goddess. Tali and Garrus were both fidgeting in their seats, unsure if they should be in the room, they both could tell by looking at Shepard that the memories he was pulling up were painful ones.

"Tali, Garrus, were it any of the other crew members I would ask you to leave, but I trust you enough not to speak of this to anyone," Shepard said while looking at them, eyes silently pleading for them to stay.

"If you want us to stay Shepard, then not even the Reapers can make us leave," Tali said from her spot next to Shepard, voicing both her own and Garrus' thoughts.

Shepard closed his eyes and took a deep shuddering breath before beginning to speak.

"In order understand Torfan, you first need to know about my early life. I was born and raised on the Human colony of Mindoir, it was a small farming community. The family consisted of my mother and father, me, and two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister.

"My parents wanted us to take over the family farm when we grew up, my brother and sister would have been happy to do so. I however had set my mind on becoming an actor. Dad use to say that acting was all well and good, but was harder to succeed at than out drinking a krogan.

"One night when I was sixteen, I had been slacking off in school and my parents had received a call from the school principle. I don't remember the exact words, but there was a lot of shouting and eventually I stormed out of the house. I went to the forests where we would sometimes go camping and fell asleep there.

"By the time I woke up, batarians were attacking. The only thing I remember clearly is running to our farm, exiting the forest to see our crops destroyed and our house burning to the ground. A group of batarians were leading my family into a tank and going to town. I ran after them, desperate to stop them from taking my family. Someone grabbed the back of my shirt, the Alliance had arrived, but the batarians were dug in too well.

"By the time the Alliance drove off the batarians, almost three quarters of the colony were captured, and most of the rest were dead. I saw my parents and siblings being herded onto a batarian ship, and I never saw any of them alive again."

Shepard paused to wipe away the tears that were threatening to fall before forcing himself to continue.

"I joined the alliance as soon as I could, and after a few years was chosen to lead a unit against a batarian stronghold of the moon of Torfan. At first things were going well, until we found the cellblocks where slaves were kept. Almost all were dead, but there was one woman who was still alive. She told us about the now dead girl in the cell next to here. At some point or another every batarian on the base had raped her. I was the first one to enter that girl's cell. It had been eight years, but I could tell."

At this point Shepard couldn't stop the tears as his chest became wracked with sobs, "It was my sister, she was only twelve. She hadn't ever entered puberty and they were raping her."

Tali, Garrus, and Samara were horrified. Both Tali and Garrus knew that his life before they had met him was bad, but they hadn't realized…

Tali reached over and pulled Shepard into a hug, which he desperately returned, sobs wracking his body as long bottled emotions were finally released. Shepard cried for thirty minutes onto Tali's shoulder, before he finally ran out of tears.

Pulling himself away from Tali, Shepard took a deep breath before finishing, "I made sure that none of those that hurt my baby sister walked away. If that is dishonorable, then I'll live with it."

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Samara had sworn an oath immediately afterwards, and now with the Normandy on route to the Citadel, both Tali and Garrus were in heavy thought. Garrus was attempting to do some calibrations for the new Tannix Cannons, but his mind kept shifting to the revelation about Shepard's past.

When Garrus had first met the Commander, he had seemed…broken was the best word for it, and now it made sense. The thought of it being his own sister…

Giving up the calibrations as pointless for now, Garrus walked out to the mess hall and sat at the table. With a sigh, Garrus headed over to the elevator and pressed the button for Deck 2. He had a call to make.

Tali leaned against one of the rails overlooking the Normandy's drive core. Her omni-tool was up as she wrote a letter to her father. Shepard's story had struck close to home, as the human phrase went. She and her father's last meeting had ended on shouting just before the mission to Hastrom and the detour to Freedom's Progress. The thought of the last thing that they say to each other being hateful words.

Shepard had said something to her on the shuttle back to the Normandy, "I know that things are strained between you and you father Tali, but don't ever miss a chance to let him know that you love him. I would trade anything in the galaxy just to spend one more second with them. It's too late for me. Don't let it be too late for you."