After years of struggling to control her emotions in-between her father's death and her mother trying to bury herself in work, Alya was sent to Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training at Jump Zero.

There she was a young teenager with a synthetic eye, attached to a prototype implant stuck in some god forsaken outpost with so called experts forcing each and every child there to use their biotic abilities every chance they got, which caused quite severe headaches every once in a while, if not you were guaranteed a headache afterwards. What few breaks they managed to gain their helped each other learn to cook and feed each other. Alya was never asked to cook as she would regularly burn the food causing everyone to go hungry those nights, she was thankful that a boy named Kaidan Alenko regularly came to her rescue and shared what he had cooked.

''So you gonna ask her out?'' teased Alya one night

''Who Radna? No, she's not interested'' he sighed

''You don't know until you try'' she smiled as she dunked a piece of bread into her soup

''With everything going on here the last thing we should worry about are our personal feelings for each other'' he hissed

''Oh well, it was worth a try'' Alya smiled

''I swear the longer your here the worst you get'' he laughed

Alya was about to make a come back comment when a group of turians entered the room.

''My name is Commander Vyrnnus and you should all know me as I was at the helm of the dreadnought that killed your father''

''My father hadn't been in the war'' said Kaidan

''And my father died in a shuttle accident when I was ten, which again was well after the war had finished'' said Alya as she crossed her arms and leaned back a little

After both Alya and Kaidan made those comments they were pushed far harder than anyone else at the station, they weren't allowed to take as long of a break as the others, they were forced to push themselves harder causing severe headaches and nosebleeds on a daily basis for both of them.

''I don't think I can take much more for tonight'' said Alya as she leaned on her knees

''Same'' said Kaidan as he lay down with his shirt pulled up to cover his eyes

''You got a headache?'' asked Alya

''Red dots and everything?'' she asked

''Yeah'' he replied

''Come on I'll give you a hand'' said Alya as she helped Kaidan to his feet before he could attempt to argue with her

''Are you two alright?'' asked Rahna

''If that bastard isn't careful you two aren't walking out of here'' hissed one boy as he soaked two cloths and handed one each to Kaidan and Alya

''I know that but if we roll over we're dead either way''

''We need to tell someone what's going on outside'' spoke Shelby

''Yeah because that's going to end well'' muttered a few students

''How long will it take to set up?'' asked Alya

''Give me an hour'' Shelby smiled

Once Shelby had done it, the students snuck out of their room and sent messages to their families. Alya however choose to send it to Anderson who had suggested that it would be wise for her to attend BAat.

''Hey David it's me Als, Baat sucks arse, I needed to tell you that if I somehow don't make it please don't worry it just meant I couldn't keep up with the insane biotic exercises we are meant to do on an hourly basis. Well anyway I love you, mum and Karin and I can't wait to see you guys soon.''

Everyone took turns to send a similar message, well everyone except Rahna.

''Come on you should?'' pleaded Kaidan

''There's no point'' replied a nervous Rahna

''My parents would report it, plus I have no idea where my brother is'' she sighed

''Well you still have us'' Kaidan smiled then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they all snuck back to their room, dreaming of what their families were doing

The next day it was as brutal as ever as they were forced to use biotic barriers to break each other. Alya was really concentrating causing a nosebleed and the boy she was facing to become unconcious. Afterwards Alya struggled to stand on her own, Rahna rushed over to her, while Kaidan checked on the other boy as the turians had left as they were satified with the outcome of the matches.

''Shit'' hissed Alya

''Are you alright?'' asked Kaidan

''I will be once I knock one of them'' she hissed

''Yeah because that won't make things worse for us, ten of us have already died due to not being able to push ourselves'' pleaded another girl

''Then we might as well die here'' hissed Alya

''We have to hold on, after all you sent a message asking for help from a family friend'' suggested Rahna

''Fine, come on it should be time to get some grub'' said Alya as she stood up and wiped the blood from her nose

They knew each day there were at BAat, their numbers dwindled as there were fewer students around to talk to about home. While they were all lining up to get something to eat their instructor Commander Vyrnnus appeared in the mess hall and bellowed that the cadets were to be in the training hall ASAP or else. They all knew that the all else meant they would spent two days using nothing but their biotics to do everything with no food or water. Causing them all to make it there in a panicked rush, once inside they all noticed that Shelby was clearly battered and bruised and tied to a post

''Oh no Shelby'' cried Rahna

''Do you think this training facility is a joke?'' shouted Commander Vyrnnus

There was silence amongst the students

''Do any of you know what she was doing?'' asked Vyrnnus as he pointed at Shelby

Again silence from everyone in the room

''Then all of you can assemble these blocks, using your biotics only. If you make a mistake, then you have to start again''

Alya wanted to mutter something under her breathe, but everyone gave her a look that if she did then they would be in for a far worse exercise.

The exercise went on for hours, slowly the group were wittled down from sheer exhaustion, leaving just Alya, Rahna and Kaidan standing. Rahna was beginning to lose her biotic grip and Kaidan managed to catch a block from her stack from falling just as she collapsed, a gesture that wasn't missed by the so called instructor at all.

He picked up a glass of water and begun to taunt Rahna with it trying to force her to use her biotics to take it from him. Instead her reached out for it with her hand, allowing Vyrnnus the opportunity to cause her to scream in agony as he used his own biotics to break her arm.

Alya caught her and pulled her to one side as Kaidan flew into a rage fighting Vyrnnus with his biotics. Kaidan managed to knock him down, once he was on his feet he tried to get a few soldiers in the room to stop him, so Alya got up and caused her own biotics to flare up to protect her friends.

''Touch any of them and you will regret it'' she barked

Vyrnnus was angry as he slashed Kaidan's arm, Kaidan didn't even flinch as he summoned every ounce of his biotics ad create a fullly powered biotic kick, knocking Vyrnnus back and breaking his neck. A few soldiers tried to grab Kaidan, so Alya knocked a few of them out with some less powered biotic punches.

Once everything had settled down and other soldiers came into the room with their weapons trained on Alya and Kaidan did it hit the pair of them what happened. Kaidan tried to make sure Rahna was alright but she was clearly afraid of what had happened.

Both of them were sent to an isolated room to reflect on what happened until someone Alya knew well was summoned to the facility

''Alya Shepard what happened?'' barked Anderson

''David'' she smiled then ran into his arms

''Als, what happened?'' asked Anderson once more

''Commander Vyrnnus told us to build something with our biotics and one by one everyone collapsed from exhaustion. Kaidan tried to help one of the girls so Vyrnnus broke her arm''

''Sir, I lost control of my temper and I killed him with my biotics, Alya knocked out some of the soldiers who tried to stop us from defending ourselves'' finished Kaidan

''That's just what the alliance needs'' muttered Anderson

''We're sorry Sir'' replied both Kaidan and Alya

''Come on I'm taking you both back to Earth'' said Anderson

''Can we say goodbye to the others before we leave?'' asked Alya

''I need to talk to Rahna'' pleaded Kaidan

''Alright'' nodded Anderson

Everyone gathered just outside the dock to say goodbye to both Alya and Kaidan, Rahna had been there as well but when both Alya and Kaidan tried to approach her she took a few steps back clutching her broken arm.

''There's nothing left for us here'' sighed Alya as she placed her arm on his shoulder.

Anderson escorted both of the teenagers back to Earth, he agreed to take them both there as Alya wanted to see her mother once her assignment was over as she wanted to speak to her about a few things. Kaidan was dropped off at his family home in Vancouver, where he hugged Alya who could see that he felt lost so they exchanged details and swore to each other they would remain in touch.

A few weeks later staying at Anderson's home in Vancouver, Helen and Karin finally finished their assignment and showed up to greet Alya with open arms where she explained everything to them.

''Oh hunny'' smiled Helen as she embraced her daughter

''So what's your plan now?'' asked Anderson

''I want to join up'' she smiled

''You want to join the alliance?'' asked Anderson

''Yeah I want to join the Alliance'' Alya smiled

The three adults couldn't help but celebrate as they all jumped up and wrapped their arms around Alya, Helen ran towards the kitchen and instantly raided very cupboard she could get her hands on

''It's in the fridge'' shouted Anderson with a huge smile on his face

Helen walked out of the kitchen with four empty glasses and a bottle of champagne

''We love you and we've been waiting for this moment'' smiled Anderson

''You do know that we'll have to sort out some kind of implant for you'' smiled Karin

''I know there's a lot I need to do before I can sign up in a few years time'' smiled Alya

''Well if there's anything we can do to help just let us know'' smiled Anderson

''I want to do this on my own, no hand outs and no free pass. Being at BAaT showed me that I'm tougher than I look, plus they kept referring to me as that pain in the arse Vanguard'' she laughed, then raised her glass to her lips

''You'll need an implant'' said Karin

''I know'' sighed Alya, ''buts all the help I should get, I need to do this on my own.

They spent the entire night celebrating and warning Alya about what would happen during training in order to mentally prepare herself for the worst.