Hey guys! Nexy here.

This is my first time writing a story in 2nd person POV.

Any criticism, good or bad is welcome.

Enjoy~!

She was always unlike other girls.

Always a little...

Different.

When she was young she had dabbled in lots of things, but mostly she just drew a lot. She drew space, different planets, the beautiful and mysterious Asari that she would see on rare occasion, wandering around her home world. From the young age of five, her life dream was to make it into space.

This scared her parents, who wanted her to live the stereotypical American life.

Well, the old one anyways.

Find a nice job that paid well. Give them some grandbabies with a husband that she settled down with for life.

A nice human husband.

They wanted for her, what they couldn't convince their other two children to have.

Arianna was the baby in her family, even at 22 years old. She was born on the 16th of November, 2161. Her older sister Sarah was twenty seven, married, and about to have her first kid. A boy, they thought. She had gone into the medical career, working on one of the military hospitals on Mars. Her husband, Grant, had met her there, after she patched up a few of his bullet wounds. Mark had charmed his way into a date with her, which turned into quite a few. After a while they had eventually ended up getting married, and settling down on the colony on mars.

She was living the space life, even if it wasn't the kind Arianna had wanted.

Arianna's older brother, Steven, had followed in her fathers footsteps. He was an alliance military grunt, flying around space and doing whatever it was that he did. He wasn't necessarily one of the best out there, but he had made his way up the ranks. Steven was 29 now, and he had joined up with the Alliance as soon as he turned 18. Steven was still single, but he was seeing the action Arianna craved.

Her father, Andrew, was a marine. Born and raised. The man never made it very far up the ranks, but he was one of the toughest soldiers there was.

He had fought firsthand in the First Contact war. They recruited anyone who could shoot a gun.

And because of the war, her father hated all of the Aliens, namely Turians, with a burning passion. This, he shared with her mother. Both the fear of aliens and the hatred of space is what drove the Tasat's to try and keep their children on Earth, 'where they belonged.'

Arianna though... She was fascinated with both space and aliens. Awestruck, even.

Arianna was around the age of twelve when her father's old friend Jove Delius had asked him to help him repair a broken down shuttle.

Jove was a mechanic, through and through. He owned a big mechanics shop in the town they lived in, which was about thirty minutes away from the Alliance HQ. He got a lot of work because of that, and after quite a few Alliance ships needed simultaneous repairs from being in battle, he was low on hands to help.

Andrew had dabbled in mechanics after he retired, for lack of money and something better to do then sit around and watch TV all day.

The engine had needed a full work-up done, and Andrew offered to do it for very low pay. Arianna decided she would help him that day, and stuck around, learning the different tools names, and the parts. She learned why they went where they did, and what they each did. It was something that, apparently, interested her. She asked so many questions that day. "Daddy where does this go? What does it do? How? Why?"

And her flustered father had finally chuckled and told her if she was so interested in mechanics, maybe she should go learn herself, shooing her out of the garage.

That simple, innocent thing changed her life. Forever.

She delved into books. She learned shuttles, cars, spacecraft, and weapons, everything she could get her grubby little hands on.

She would take everything apart and put it back together again. Sometimes, it would even work better than before.

Others times however, she would get a scolding for ruining something.

As she got older, she ruined less and less. Her parents weren't rich, by any measure. But they would buy her everything they could to push her along her mechanic path. Her parents thought that they could keep her on Earth with them if she became a mechanic.

At 16 years old, she was already an outstanding mechanic. Quite possibly one of the best in the field. Her father's old friend Jove saw this, and gave her a job in his large mechanics warehouse that specialized in shuttles, and large space craft. Fighting spacecraft.

Alien Spacecraft.

She saw more aliens then she ever had. Not a lot, not by a long shot. But she saw them more frequently.

Not long after her 22nd birthday, when she had to repair an Alliance Military spacecraft's engine, her life changed direction. Exactly the way she had wanted it too.

She was just leaving, and patted her boss on the back as she began walking towards the door.

"See'ya Jove." She said heavily, exhausted from the heat in the engine room from earlier. A man in uniform strode past her quickly to where Jove was sitting at the front desk.

"Excuse me sir, the Alliance vessel you worked on earlier, can you tell me the name of the mechanic who did the repairs?"

She turned around and said, a little indignantly, "I did." And looked the man in the eye, daring him to tell her she did something wrong.

He ran up to her, excitedly "I'm Raphael Vega, the chief engineer aboard the SV Helios. You've increased our power output tenfold just from whatever you did in the engine!"

She scratched the back of her head nervously, "Sir, all I did was replace a few parts and pieces with a couple I made myself. They're designed to maximize the efficiency of the power output."

He gaped for a minute. "You made those parts?"

"Yes I did." She proudly said, putting her chin up, "You won't find any other like it in the entire galaxy."

He nodded. "What's your name girl? The Alliance could use a good mechanic like you."

"Arianna Tasat." She said proudly, allowing a large smirk to overtake her face.

"You're not in the recruiting list are you? I can put in a good word for you..."

Her face fell. "N-no sir... I'm uh. Just a regular mechanic."

The man laughed, "With talent like yours, that's not going to matter. I'd like to see if I could get you a job on one of the ships in the fleet. Wanna go to space kid?"

She nodded vigorously, bringing her hands together in an almost pleading manner, a large hopeful smile spread across her face. "It's been my dream since I was a little girl!"

He was smiling widely, "I'll talk to a few of my friends in the higher ups and see if I can pull some strings for you..." He winked at her and strode towards his ship, only looking back at her to say "We'll be in touch Arianna."

And then he was gone.

She whipped around and looked at Jove, who was staring at her like a fish out of water.

"Holy shit Jove what just happened?" She simply asked.

He brought his mouth back up and shook his head a few times, "I dunno Ari, but you better go home an' tell your daddy. He ain't gunna be none too happy you made nice with some Alliance man who offered you a job in space."

She scrunched her brows together. Shouldn't he have been happy for her? Everyone knew it was her aspiration to get into space.

"Alright. See you tomorrow Jove."

When she got home her father was sitting in the living room watching the galactic news. Her father was a very gruff man, built like a tank. He was still strong and muscular, even in his mid 50's. He had brown hair, which was slowly trying to go grey and shockingly green eyes. His eyes fell upon her and his slightly wrinkled face fell into a smile.

She always had been daddy's little girl.

"Hey sweet-pea. How was work?" He said, muting the television with his Omni-tool.

She scratched the back of her head, like she always did when she was nervous, or embarrassed. "Uhm... I fixed an Alliance space-cruiser today. That's all."

He narrowed his eyes and sighed. "Air, you know I know you better than that. What else happened?"

She closed her eyes and decided to just go for it. "Uhm... The lead engineer kind of offered to get me a job in the Alliance fleet, aboard one of the ships." She peeked an eye open to gauge his reaction.

He sighed heavily and leaned back against the couch, rubbing his hand across his face. "Arianna, you know how your mother and I feel about you going into space. Much less on an Alliance ship. Chances are you'd get stuck on a fighter-ship."

She sighed impatiently. She knew this was how it would go. Why didn't anyone care what she wanted? She wasn't selfish. Was it really so wrong to want something? To have earned something, and gotten offered a place because of it? She had worked hard all of her life. She had gotten good grades. She had excelled in subjects like math, mechanics, science, and astronomy.

She would have joined the Alliance, but she wasn't really the athletic type.

All she had wanted her whole life was to work on a space craft. She wanted to see the stars flashing by her at speeds she could only imagine. She wanted to meet some aliens Damnit!

She stamped her foot childishly, "Daddy, that's not fair! You know I can take care of myself. You made sure I knew how to shoot a gun. I know self defense. You two let Sarah and Steven go off into space, I deserve the same chance!"

He leaned forward suddenly and thumped his fist against his thigh angrily, fire in his eyes. "Damn it Ari! We're not going to argue about this for the eighteenth time! You aren't going to space! And that's that!"

Ari's mother walked in then, drawn in by the yelling. "What's going on in here?"

She looked at her mother and willed the tears in her eyes back. "An alliance officer offered me a job on an Alliance ship."

Her mother placed a hand on her heart and made a face as though Arianna had physically struck her. "Arianna! I thought we talked about this before! Your father and I don't want you going to space! You'll get hurt!"

She straightened her back, looking them straight in the eyes when she said, "I'm twenty-two years old. No-one in this house seems to realize that. I've earned the right to make my own decisions. I'm not your little girl anymore. And one day, I will get off this rock."

She stormed into her room, tears flowing freely down her face, and ran to her bed and dug out the stack of sketchbooks she had drawn in as a child. She opened one up and gently pawed through it, heavy tears plopping down on a few of the thick pages, smearing the pencil marks and causing the colors to run.

The first was full of planets, her childish scribbles barely recognizable.

She put the first sketch book aside, and grabbed the next, opening it up and running her fingers over the brightly colored markings. This one and the next were of the different aliens she wanted to see. The beautiful blue Asari, the Salarians, the fierce reptilian Krogan, the Quarians in their beautifully patterned enviro-suits, and the Hanar, who looked an awful lot like Earth jellyfish.

She picked up the third sketchbook and delved deep into her memories, to happier times.

The fourth and fifth were full of nothing but Turians. She was fascinated by them, how something that looked so graceful was so strong. Their arms looked so thin, yet she knew behind that thick skin of theirs was pure muscle. Their heads looked like reptilian birds. They had sharp, fierce teeth. The males had long, beautiful fringes, which the females lacked, making them far less interesting in her eyes.

Their face paint was one of her favorite things. They ranged from white, red and purple and to beautiful dark blues. It was a very well known fact that the Turians were a very strict, race. With the largest military in the entire galaxy.

The entire galaxy.

And yet she still had never seen one with her own eyes.

It was no wonder she was fascinated with them. They were beautiful in her eyes. Taboo to everyone on earth. Just like space.

Her tears had slowed as she began to get lost in her thoughts, stroking over her pages over her pages and their markings, their colors.

Her Omni-tool beeped. She wiped her face free of tears as she noticed she had 7 new messages. Good LORD.

She went from the oldest to the newest. Spam, spam, spam, a college offer for mechanics, pass, an ad for... Male genital enhancement. She cringed. She'd definitely have to pass on that one. One more spam and...

From: Raphael Vega

Arianna, this is the engineer you talked to earlier today, from the SV Hart? I went through your file, and we did a background check on you. I see you specialize in prototyping and modding on ships. You're a regular Quarian, know that? Turns out one of the newer prototype ships in the fleet is looking for some mechanics to keep her in top shape.

Key here is, it's a prototype. Tech on this thing is probably going to be out of a lot peoples comfort zone. After the pieces I saw you put on, I don't think that'll be a problem for you. It sounds like its right up your alley. I've spoken to the people in charge of it, and they're willing to give you an interview, so if you go down to the Alliance HQ in DC, you're almost guaranteed to get it.

Your appointment is at 1:30 in the main building. When you go in, tell them your name, and that you're there for the Normandy engineering interview. They'll take it from there.

Yours truly, Raphael Vega

Good luck Arianna.

This was it. She was finally leaving.

Her parent's didn't know but she'd been saving up her money. She had about 20,000 credits in her bank account.

Working for 7 years with almost no expenses really pays off. She spent a lot of it on the newest Omni-tool update...

She decided then, in that split second moment.

She was going to leave.

She was going to catch the next shuttle to Alliance HQ.

She grabbed a duffel bag and threw her stuff in there. Some pajamas and a few clothes for her to just wear around. And the only dress she owned.

Just in case.

Because normally, she would never ever wear a dress.

Never. Grease-monkey's like her have no need for dresses.

She threw in her make-up, some of her toiletries, and all of the prototyped and modded pieces and parts she could fit. And her sketchbooks. Those were too sentimental to leave behind. She glanced around her room and decided that was all she needed.

Hopefully, she wouldn't be back. Not for a very long time.

She waited until the sun was almost set, and then she sent a quick note to her boss, Jove, from her terminal, and she wrote a note to her mother, father, and her brother and sister.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm sorry for this. I'm just doing what I have to do to make my way in life. Steve and Sarah have already moved out and found their place in the world. I'm going to find my place off of it. I know you don't approve, and I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for how this is going to hurt you. I know these words aren't much solace. I have an interview to go to. I'll be back if it doesn't go well. If it does, well, I'll be in touch in a few days. I hope the best for you, and I'm sorry again. But I'll be back one day. I promise.

Love your daughter, Arianna.

And with that, she was done. She arranged her bed to make it look like she was sleeping there, and put the note underneath the blanket where her head would be. She threw her bag out the window and climbed out after it. She slung the heavy bag over her shoulder and made her way silently down the darkening street.

She had a shuttle to catch.