Kaidan (怪談) (sometimes transliterated kwaidan) is a Japanese word consisting of two kanji: 怪 (kai) meaning "strange, mysterious, rare or bewitching apparition" and 談 (dan) meaning "talk" or "recited narrative."

She heard the news the day she found out she was having a boy. Natsuki Alenko was only 18 weeks along when the extranet was filled with vids of the accident. A transport ship crashed spilling eezo into the environment. Some of it went into the waterways nearby, and some of it seeped into the ground. She thought that she had nothing to worry about living nearly 20 kilometers away. Then she received the letter.

It was addressed from a company called Conatix. She had never heard of them before. They explained in jargon she couldn't entirely understand that the powdered eezo had actually gotten mostly into the air and the winds had blown it in her direction. It hadn't dissipated like they thought it would. "Cancer, tumors, brain damage." Those words she understood as they explained the dangers to a fetus. She told her husband Andrew that day that their baby should be named Kaidan. He solemnly agreed.

She wasn't sure how, but the months passed and Kaidan grew like a normal pregnancy. Every day she wept at the inevitable loss she was going to face. Maybe he would be born, but he could never live like a normal child. He would probably be incapacitated and need constant care and even then for only a few years. Or maybe his poor little infant body would be riddled with tumors and barely live a few hours outside the womb. Or maybe he wouldn't even be healthy enough to take his first breath. Whatever his fate, she blamed herself. If she would have gone to visit her mother like she had promised she would do soon…Her husband just silently watched his wife grieve.

When she felt the first labor pains, her initial reaction was happy excitement. Her husband drove her to the hospital and they reminded her of the possibilities stemming from her eezo exposure. Every wave of pain brought tears. She didn't want to lose him, her little Kaidan. She would have gladly carried him for the rest of her life, never seeing his face, if it meant he would live. But with a great push, a baby boy with a head full of black hair entered the world. He was pale and lifeless. Natsuki saw and let out a great sob.

The nurse scooped up the boy and began her assessment. When the boy began giving off an ethereal blue glow, she put him down on the bed with his mother and backed away. He suddenly gasped and life came to him. He screamed. Natsuki held him close. She didn't care what was causing it or what it meant. Right now he was alive, that blue glow made him alive and she was going to cherish the moment. Andrew stood at a distance, his face blank.

The doctors said the glow was from his eezo exposure attaching itself to his nervous system and to be prepared for the day when Kaidan would be diagnosed with cancer. His parents left the hospital and prepared to move to Vancouver. Maybe getting out of the area would give Kaidan a better, albeit still short, life.

Age 3

Kaidan sat quietly playing with his blocks. He had been a little feverish all day, but still in good spirits. His mother sat for a moment to watch him. He looked up at her, smiling. "Mama, look." Natsuki heart leapt to her throat as her son began to glow blue like he did the day he was born. Before she could say or do anything, Kaidan threw one of his blocks without using his hands. She made an appointment with the pediatrician right away. The doctor didn't know what to say, but he was still free of any devastating eezo side effects.

Andrew returned later that week from his short deployment to the moon. When she told him about Kaidan's abilities, his face went hard. He looked at the boy and said sternly, "Don't ever do anything like that again. You scare your mother." Kaidan cried and hugged his mother's leg apologetically.

Age 5

Natsuki and Andrew listened to the teacher intently. "Kaidan is a very bright boy," she said kindly. "But his…special abilities have been…distracting the other children. I hate to say this, but this school may not be the right place for him." She handed them a pamphlet from Conatix. "There is a special school for children like him. They've been popping up all over the world."

When they arrived at home, Kaidan hopped off the babysitter's lap and ran to his parents happily. Andrew stopped him before he could give them a hug. "I told you not to do whatever it is that you can do. Now you've made it so you have to leave your school," his voice rose. "Now we have to pay some outrageous amount of money for you to go to a special school! The Alliance doesn't pay me enough to do this, Kaidan! Why do you have to make it difficult?" Kaidan's eyes welled up, but no tears fell and he walked away quietly.

Age 16

Kaidan faded into the background of his father's life. He was there when he was summoned, but actual communication was small. His mother was always close, but her love seemed motivated by guilt. He hated both of them and wished he could just be the dead child they seemed to want. The school he went to was no school at all. He got an education, sure. The same as any other child would at any other school, but this one had the added feature of being a scientist's wet dream. Freaks abounded. All eezo-exposed, some showing biotic potential, others just plain crazy.

Kaidan watched the other kids in disgust. He didn't want to be there, so he isolated himself even in a place where there were others like him. One day, a couple of suited adults walked into his class, stopping in front of him. "Hello, Mr. Alenko," said a strikingly beautiful woman. "We are with the Biotics Acclimation and Training facility. We host young people just like you to help you learn your true potential as a biotic. We've been monitoring your progress through this school and we've been impressed. We are extending this invitation to you to become a part of what we believe is humanity's next evolutionary step."

"I don't know…" Kaidan said slowly. "My parents…"

"Have already given their approval," the woman finished. "They want you to be everything you're meant to be. We have state-of-the-art facilities at the Jump Zero station, and we've hired a turian who understands biotic power and how to use it most effectively."

Kaidan finally saw a light at the end of his tunnel. "When would I leave?"

"Tonight," the man said firmly.

"I should leave and pack," Kaidan said as he stood.

"Meet us at the Vancouver International Spaceport at 8. Do not be late." Kaidan felt like he had shimmered back into existence.

Age 17

The pain in Kaidan's head was relentless. Light was like knives in his brain, and sound was even worse. He stumbled to the infirmary at Brain Camp. He needed help. A kind woman saw him and instantly had a dose of something injected in the back of his neck. Cool fingers of relief reached around his head, easing the ache.

"You got a migraine," she said. "Many L2s have them. We'll be here whenever you need it." He nodded his thanks and walked out. Rahna stood there waiting. She gave him a concerned smile. He wasn't sure if it was just the light or perhaps the drugs, but her beauty seemed to actually radiate a haunting glow.

Age 18

Rahna was crying, her arm hanging limply at her side. Kaidan couldn't be invisible anymore. He burst into a luminous biotic blaze. "Leave her alone," he said, finding a severe tone he didn't know he had. Vyrnnus just sneered and suddenly drew a blade on Kaidan, holding it to his neck. "Care to see the human afterlife?" he growled. Without thinking, Kaidan threw his leg back toward the turian with all the dark energy he could muster. He heard the sickening crack as Vyrnnus hit the wall. As the biotics wore off, Kaidan could feel his heart pounding. He felt alive.

Kaidan turned to Rahna, her eyes filled with horror. "Get away from me. Don't ever talk to me again. Ever!" she screamed as she ran from the room. Other kids and adults began streaming into the room. Kaidan drifted away in the confusion, and a darkness cloaked his heart.

Age 22

Natsuki begged Kaidan not to leave the house tonight. She knew what he would do, what he had been doing for years: finding his next fix of red sand to dull the pounding in his head. He had grown too thin, too pale, too broken since BAaT was closed down. She knew he needed an outlet, a place where he could feel accepted, even celebrated for what he was. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked down at the Alliance Navy information. Andrew had strictly forbidden Kaidan from joining. He felt the military life would be another dead end for the young man who couldn't find his place anywhere among normal humans.

"Kaidan, please, just tonight, for me, don't go out," she said softly, and handed him the booklet. "I don't care what your father says, this may be the right choice for you." Kaidan looked at her through sunken eyes, his body already starting to shake from withdrawal. His face broke into a painful grin. "You know what, Mom? I'm going to enlist, just to tell that bastard what I think of him and his fucking rules." Kaidan went to the enlistment office the next day.

The officer looked at his emaciated figure and was about to turn him away when Kaidan showed off his biotic power. "I think we can find a position for you," he said. "The military is branching out with biotic training."

Kaidan came home with his BDUs on, smiling smugly. When Andrew arrived home, he exploded in anger. With a look of satisfaction, the younger Alenko just sat back on the couch and watched his father rage.