"You're a monster."

Samara paused, wiping the trace of blood from her hands. She turned her attention to a child, a small human boy with tears streaming down his face. He was standing near a Mako. "Are you hurt child?" Samara asked, stepping over a body and walking toward the boy.

"Stay back!" the boy cried out. He balanced his stance as biotic power formed around his hands. Samara stopped in her tracks, staying as still as possible. The child was far from a threat; her own biotics were some of the most powerful in the galaxy. What concerned her was the battle of calming the boy so she could find a safe haven for him.

"I mean no harm," Samara said, standing perfectly still.

"Sure," the boy snapped sarcastically, his stance turning from defensive to aggressive. "It's not as if you just murdered a whole squad!"

"They were slavers," Samara responded. "That squad was capturing numerous aliens and selling them into slavery. Do you know what slavery is, child?"

"I'm not stupid," the boy muttered. "I'm nine, I know what slavery is. You could've sent them to jail. This planet does have one, somewhere!"

"I do not follow mere law. I live by the code."

"What?"

"I am a justicar, child," Samara said, daring to take a step toward the boy. "Justicars do not follow the law of the galaxies. We live and breathe what the code tells us. If we follow the code, we are just. If we do not, we are not just. We aim to set the wrongs of the galaxy."

The biotic powers surrounding the boy's hands faltered as confusion slowly formed on his face. "So murdering those slavers…is justice?"

"In our eyes, yes," Samara answered, finally reaching the boy and kneeling down in front of him. "Justicars see the world differently than other aliens."

The boy finally relinquished his aggressiveness and brought his hands down to his side, biotics fading. "So you're actually the good guy?"

A twitch of a smile dashed across Samara's face. "In your words, I suppose so. What is your name, child?"

"David."

"The code deems I find you a safe place, David," Samara said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Will you come with me?"

"….I guess so," David said meekly, looking at the dead bodies surrounding them. "Even if you are the good guy, I wish you didn't have to murder my parents."

Samara felt a pang of regret as she heard the pain in the boy's voice. "Parents?"

David turned his attention back to Samara, trying to hold back tears. "Yeah. They're over there." He pointed to two human bodies strewn among the dead aliens.

"Did you know they were slavers?"

"Yeah. I helped out sometimes."

Samara froze. "What do you mean by that, child?"

David shuffled his feet, head bowed. "I would…..trick aliens into thinking I needed help and….lead them to wherever my parents told me to go." He looked into Samara's eyes, tears flowing down his face again. "I didn't like doing it, but my parents told me it was the only way they wouldn't leave me!"

Samara was still in a state of shock when the boy grabbed her in a hug. She slowly brought her hands behind his head. "It is…alright, child…David. It is alright." She tried to comfort the boy as best she could while conflict was raging within her. The code wouldn't allow anybody who helped in such treachery live, yet this boy was so young…

Samara took a deep breath as she brought her lips to his ear. "May the Goddess be with you," she whispered.

She closed her eyes as she snapped the boy's neck.