Prologue
Tuesday, April 11, 2166
Mindoir Colony (Alliance)
Nicole Shepard sat in the waiting room, her head down and her shoulders slumped. She knew what the testing would come back with, she knew that it would be positive. Had known for years, known what it would mean if anyone found out. They would pack her up and send her off to BAaT, and she would probably never see her mother or brother again. Her father, she could do without, but Shepard knew that she could never live without mommy, could never have survived without Matt. It had all started innocently enough: Shepard had decided she wanted to be a Quarian when she grew up, and started taking things apart in that way that kids are wont to do. She was only eight at the time, of course, and figured that smashing the old miniature mass effect core she had 'borrowed' from the reclamation center would be a good way to see what was inside. There was only one problem: being only an eight year-old girl, and a scrawny one at that, there was no way she could even lift the sledgehammer she had found. So she called on her twelve year-old brother to help and managed to convince him to hit the thing, wrapping him around her little finger as always.
As it turned out, Matt did manage to smash the thing open: he had started playing in the middle school football league on Mindoir and had bulked up considerably. And it also turned out that the impact forced a plume of element zero dust to waft out, coating both Shepard and Matt. Though Shepard didn't really know what the pretty dust meant, Matt immediately threw her into a nearby pond and then jumped in himself, telling Shepard to scrub herself clean. When they had both been thoroughly cleansed, Matt sat down and explained to his little sister that the dust was Eezo, that it made people sick and gave others biotics. Shepard thought the whole thing was very cool, and hoped she could learn to lift things with her mind like an asari. That was before Matt explained the fate most biotics could face. When both she and her brother began to display biotic powers, they agreed to hide it, telling no-one, and practice in secret so they could keep their powers under control.
But when Shepard saw the poor little stray being kicked and beaten by a group of boys, she couldn't hold herself back. She charged them, and when they pushed her down it felt like something just tore out of her, and they were staggered back. They ran home to their parents, and Shepard did the same. The next day, her parents dragged the three Shepard children to the clinic for testing, despite the fact that little Serrie was only four years old. Matt's results had already come back: positive for biotic abilities, and positive for inoperable brain cancer. Her parents had cried, but Shepard just felt numb. 'This can't be happening' she thought 'Matt can't be sick, he just can't be. How can my life fall apart in just a few short hours?' When the doctor walked into the waiting room with a grim expression on his face, Matt put his arm around Shepard's shoulders, lending her his strength even though he was the one who should be needing the help.
The day that should have been one of the happiest days of the year, the day that Shepard was supposed to get a new omnitool, or a model ship, or a new book... Shepard found it almost surreal that she was instead getting her greatest secret broken to her parents, that they would know she was a biotic. Her birthday gift was the destruction of the life she had once known. The doctor sighed, and said "I'm sorry, but-" he was cut off as large explosions sounded even through the thick windows. The entire Shepard family rushed to the window along with the doctor just in time to see the last of the debris that had once been the comm station floating down. They all stood in stunned silence for minutes, simply staring at the destruction before them. Shepard's parents didn't know what to do: they were just techs, after all. What could they do against the horde of batarian ships they saw swarming the sky? Nothing. Nothing, except take their children and try to hide.
But they were too late, had spent too much time gawking at the destruction. Shepard's parents were cut down trying to fight the batarians, and Serrie was killed for being too young. When Matt tried to fight back, actually managing to knock one of the batarians into a ragged piece of metal with his biotics, the leader of the group in that area decided to 'teach him a lesson'. Though they couldn't damage him too much, as a biotic was too valuable a slave to kill, Matt's screams echoed throughout the ruined city as they each took turns with him.
There were two things Shepard would always remember from that day. One was how Matt held her and promised her everything would be okay.
The other was the hollow look in his eyes as he was hauled away from her forever, and forced up the ramp of that batarian ship.