Chapter 1: Afterschool Brawl

As she walked down the halls of her high school, Aleina Shepard could not help but notice the eyes of the other students fixated on her. Even if they tried to avoid her look, she knew they would be watching her. As she approached her locker, two other students who had been conversing suddenly fell hushed, taking notice of her presence.

Aleina pretended not to notice, stuffing her things into an already crammed locker. Don't you have anything better to look at? Or are your lives that uninteresting? In truth, she was used to this kind of treatment ever since she was little. Kids would be awed and curious when around her. She was in her final year of high school, though things had always been the same. But that's what you get when you are the Asari daughter of the legendary Commander Shepard and Dr. Liara T'Soni. She was the daughter of the man who save d the galaxy not once but three times, and all too often she would be reminded of this by onlookers and pedestrians. The fact that Commander Shepard was given a position on the Citadel Council didn't help matters either. Aleina could have cared less about politics, but that didn't stop all these dignitaries and lobbyists from being overly friendly to her family. There was always a fakeness about these people and their attempts to gain political favor. And that just made it all the more annoying.

Aleina's train of thought was interrupted by her friend Jenny spotting her across the hall. "Hey Aleina! Going to lunch?" Jenny shouted.

"Yeah yeah, sure, but I'm not looking forward to the swill of the day they're serving in the cafeteria". You'd think The Citadel Intersystems Studies High School could afford to serve some better food.

"Oh, don't be so gloomy all the time," Jenny responded. "I hear they're serving Presidium fish today!"

"I thought there wasn't any fish in the Presidium."

"Ha, probably not, but I don't care where they come from. They'll still taste better than that leathery Varren meat they tried to serve us yesterday," Jenny grinned. Aleina chuckled as well. Seeing Jenny always cheered her up. Jenny was the daughter of a human banker who worked in the Citadel financial district. Even though their family was very well off, Jenny was very humble and modest. You're one of the few genuine people here on the Citadel, Aleina thought. Even when they were little, Jenny was always more interested in her than her father. It made getting along with her very easy. While others saw Aleina for her name, Jenny was truly one of those that saw her as a person.

As the two headed towards the cafeteria, Aleina bumped into someone heading the other direction. "Hey, watch it" Aleina broke out, but before she could continue, she saw who had just bumped into her and felt her stomach turn. The student was Kerr, followed by his two friends, Torra and Ghorak. All three of them were batarian. The batarians were given many concessions after the Reaper War for the destruction of their home system as well as the Bahak, and many high ranking officials in the Hegemony took advantage of this to move to the Citadel, much to the dismay of the other races.

"Well well, what do we have here?" Kerr taunted as he picked Aleina up by her shirt. She quickly swatted his hand away, glaring at the batarian.

All three were in the same year as Aleina, and had been on her case all throughout school. The three were notoriously vicious throughout the school, especially Kerr. Aleina had even suspected that the other two were even afraid of Kerr, and deferred to him as an unofficial leader of their little "gang".

"If it isn't the murderous bitch and her human lapdog," mocked Torra.

"What the hell do you want?" Aleina angrily responded.

"You should be careful when you're walking," Kerr said, slightly grinning. "You might have an accident."

"Is that so?"

"Hey, cmon," Jenny tried to restrain her friend. "They're not worth it." A crowd of students now gathered around the confrontation, excitingly anticipating a fight.

"Of course you won't fight me," Kerr amusingly mocked. "I'm sure you'll just have your bastard father do it for you. His hands are already bloodstained, no need to get your pretty little hands dirty."

Aleina usually withstood their taunts; she had been their target of abuse for years. But something in her snapped today. Her biotics flared up, and a blue aura began to appear around her.

"Why don't you go home, Kerr? No one wants you around in this school anyways," Aleina was on the verge of lashing out at the Batarian. "Oh wait, you can't , because your home planet got blown up."

She saw Kerr's four eyes twitch ever so slightly at her remark. He had never been to Aratoht, but his parents were from there and were fortunate enough to have left the planet before Shepard rolled through. Ghorak screamed some obscenity she didn't hear and lunged out at her, but Kerr restrained his friend, his deadly calm returning to him.

"Careful, friend," Kerr calmly said as he held Ghorak back. "Too many eyes on us. We'll deal with this one later." With that, the three batarians walked away.

"Are you alright?" a concerned Jenny asked her friend, but Aleina was irate. She stormed off towards the exit to the school's front grounds. "Hey, where are you going?!" Aleina ignored her friend's call, however, and continued on. A deep anger drove her on, and she remained completely oblivious to her surroundings. Near the exit, a human boy spoke to her.

"Hey, I saw what happened," the boy said. "Are you alr-"

"Not your problem!" Aleina interrupted without so much as a glance, and exited the school building.

Aleina walked across the school grounds and eventually laid down beside a tall tree native to Sur'Kesh. I've had enough of this! None of this has anything to do with me, but rather my stupid family name. As she laid in the shade of the tree, she wondered how things would be better if she had never been born to her family. What it must be like, she wondered, to just be a normal girl living a boring, ordinary life? She closed her eyes, drifting into a daydream. No, that's not true. I love my father, my sister, even my mom, who I never even see. She wanted to punch herself for even considering such thoughts. Even then, living an anonymous life didn't' sound too bad.

Time passed as the fake Presidium clouds moved across the sky. Aleina was so caught up in her own thoughts she didn't even notice the school bell letting the students out. She was a bit surprised that none of the teachers came after her. Hell, even they are intimidated by my last name. Guess that's one perk of being a Shepard.

She continued fiddling in her thoughts when a boy approached her. "I thought I'd find you out here. You weren't in 4th period."

Aleina looked up and saw that it was the same human boy she had bumped into when she was exiting the school. She hadn't noticed him before, but now she knew who he was. His name is Marcus, the son of some Alliance Admiral, or something like that. He was in several of her classes, though they had never really talked all that much.

"Why'd you come look for me?"

"Just concerned about a classmante is all," Marcus responded.

"Oh, it's okay, I've dealt with those three clowns before."

"Still, I'm sure they're just as much a pain in the ass as the first time."

The two laughed. It was true though, Aleina had been on the verge of clashing with the three batarians multiple times. Common sense told her to hold back those other times, though she feared if it happened any more, that department would soon be gone. As she got up, however, she saw the three batarians approaching them. Speak of the devil.

Kerr stepped up to her, Torra and Ghorek behind him. He took out a knife from his pocket and pointed it at Aleina's head.

"You didn't think we'd let you get away with mocking the memories of Aratoht, did you?" Kerr's four eyes glared at her. "It's good that you always have a human pet with you, cause that just makes it easier to justify gutting you."

Marcus stood ready. "Maybe we should leave."

"Nah, it's fine," Aleina replied, standing ready and flaring her biotics. "I've been in a pissy mood all day, maybe bashing these three's skulls in is the medicine I need!" Her biotics were quite advanced for her age, and she had no doubt she could beat them in a straight up fight.

Kerr lunged at her with his knife, but Aleina threw him back with a powerful biotic force, knocking him on the ground. Ghorek and Torra charged forward, but Aleina gracefully danced around their punches. They move pretty slow, Aleina remarked to herself. All strength with no finesse. Marcus tackled Torra and wrestled him to the ground, while Aleina swept Ghorek up in a biotic field. She then threw him into the tree with such force that several branches fell to the ground. I didn't expect to throw him that hard! Aleina thought, both surprised and impressed. The brief moment of reprieve didn't last long, however.

"Look out!" Marcus screamed, but at that moment Torra reversed his hold and pinned Marcus to the ground. Aleina barely had time to realize what Marcus was talking about when she saw out the corner of her eye Kerr lunging at her once again with his knife. She jumped back, the knife grazing her shirt. She grabbed the hand that had the knife and knocked it away to the ground. Right at that instant, however, she realized her mistake. Shit, I let him get too close!

Before she could respond, Kerr threw a monstrous left hook that connected with her jaw. Aleina fell back and hit the ground hard. Dazed from the hit, she tried to get back up when suddenly she found Kerr right on top of her, pinning her to the ground. He then unsheathed a hidden blade under his right sleeve and held it against her neck.

"Damn, how many knives do you have?" Aleina sarcastically asked as she struggled to move, pinned under Kerr's massive weight.

"I was saving this one just for you," Kerr said, a lethal smile on his face. "One cut for each life your bastard father stole from my planet."

Aleina looked around for possibilities to escape his hold. He was much stronger than she was and much heavier, and in her present state she could not biotically throw him off. But she noticed one of the branches that fell from the tree when Ghorek smashed against it.

"Sorry, that's not a good look for me," Aleina taunted, then with her mind she lifted one of the fallen branches and hurled it straight into one of Kerr's eyes. The batarian pulled back, screaming in pain, and Aleina took the chance to get up. With all her biotic strength, she threw Kerr right into Torra, and the two batarians solidly impacted the ground.

Marcus got up, shocked at what he just saw. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

Aleina shrugged. "My dad might have taught me a few things."

"What is going on here?"

Aleina turned and saw that the school groundskeeper had arrived. He was a massive krogan, but he had always been pretty nice to her at school. But this time he had a huge scowl on his face. Kerr saw the krogan and quickly sheathed his hidden blade while Ghorek and Torra slowly staggered back up to their feet. Despite their threatening demeanor from before, a look of fear appeared on their face.

"The five of you, come with me. This sort of behavior will not be tolerated!"

Oh no, I'm not dealing with all the administrative bs again. Aleina gave a wave and started to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" The groundskeeper roared.

"Sorry, big guy, I need to get home. I'm late."

Aleina didn't look back, though she could feel the stunned expressions on everyone's faces. This was exactly the stress reliever I needed, she smiled inwardly. Besides, these teachers couldn't touch me. No one would dare do anything to her for fear of being reprimanded.

Guess that's another perk of being a Shepard.