AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just started up a youtube channel and one of my first LPs is of Mass Effect. Just search for The Tired Dad Plays.

You can also follow me on twitter here: /ShawnHerndon1

It was dark inside the girl's room. The girl did not know what was going on, but she could hear enough to know it was a fight. It was the gunfire and screams that gave it away. They were not the ones she usually heard. These were off schedule. And they sounded different. For once she heard the screams of adults. Some were silenced quickly. Some were not. The girl did not know what was happening, but the girl enjoyed it.

The girl had always been here. This cage was the only home she ever knew. Her and the other one; the one with no hair. The other wanted to keep her hair, but the adults, the ones with needles and guns, had taken it and laughed. The girl killed those she could, and when she did, in her heart she did it for the other one. She would never call her Zero, just as Zero would never call her Prime. The girl sat against her wall, in the only home she had ever known, and she knew the other was sitting on the opposite side, waiting to see what would happen. They had talked about it often, what they would do if they ever got out. The other didn't believe her but the girl knew there was more to life than this. The girl figured it out after all the videos they made her watch, of aliens killing humans. The girl knew they wanted her to hate them, and out of spite she loved them all the more. Especially the Krogan. They were like her. That was drilled into her head, in more ways than one. The adults wanted her to kill with blade and bullets, with her hands and biotics. But the girl vowed she would die before she killed anyone for anything other than her own reasons.

The girl heard the door unlock and she crouched behind her makeshift barrier. She had ripped her bed, table, sink and toilet out of the walls once she saw the cameras turn off. It happened after the first explosion. The girl knocked twice on her wall and a second later she heard two more from the other side. Whatever happened, she was ready to fight to the end to make sure the other got out. Then the door opened and she saw a krogan. The girl's eyes looked on in confusion until she picked up a scent that seemed to speak to something inside of her. She felt something she had never felt before. She had to search her memory to even put a word to it: relief.

Wrex pounded in the command and the door in front of him opened with a hiss. Prime's room was bathed in dark, with a blinking light trying in vain to stay lit. He had no trouble seeing however, used to hunting in the dark. He stepped through the threshold and saw who he was looking for. He had been trying to determine if he was going to kill this little one a second earlier but then he smelt something that should not have been. Something he had not smelt in many years. A krogan tak.

He looked around frantically all of a sudden until it dawned on him. What the logs said, what these humans had done to one of their own. He saw her in the corner. No older than 8 years old. A lanky girl with red curly hair, piercing green eyes, and scars covering her entire body. A few were scars of battle, bullet wounds, burn marks, knife wounds. Others were clean and surgical. He had seen enough people after a surgery to know that you did not get scars that deep from a doctor unless they wanted you to. It was too much.

In a swift motion he turned and pointed his shotgun at the corpse of the doctor in the other room and fired several times. He grunted out a few curses to boot. "Monstrous bastard, may you wander the abyss forever." When Wrex turned around the girl was standing in front of him. He had not heard her move. She came up to his waist and was staring into his eyes. He had seen many things, fought and killed many times, but for some reason, not much had ever stirred his emotions the way this tak had.

Then the girl spoke. It was quiet but strong, not what he would have expected from someone who had endured what she had. "Tuva?" She said with a barely constrained strength. Wrex did not know how she knew that ancient term for fathers and Clan battlemasters. 'Could the humans have educated her?' he wondered. Or did the krogan inside her speak to her spirit? For she was krogan. And she was not.

Wrex kneeled down and put his shotgun to the side. His hand went to the tak's shoulders and he simply nodded. It was all she needed for the gates to collapse. She threw her arms around him with a strength he did not think possible and clung for everything. She did not cry but it was not for lack of trying. She shivered against him and he wondered if she lost the ability long ago. They stayed there for a while, together, and inside he knew what he was going to do. No tak, no matter how they were born deserved to be mistreated with such dishonor. She would return to Tuchanka with him, and he would deal with the consequences – for better or worse.

After several minutes the other krogans came to the room to ask for orders. They did not understand at first why their battlemaster was holding this human child. But then, they each understood, just as Wrex had. How could this be? They never smelt this outside of the tak camp. Some of them had never even smelt it before period, but by instinct they knew what it meant. But it was impossible.

The largest of the bunch, a male with silver armor and a crest that had been sliced diagonally, came forward. "Battlemaster, what is this? Why does this child smell of tak?" Straight to the point, it had always been Koto's style.

Wrex rose and turned to address his brothers of the Clan. The girl did not back down and she did not hide. Instead she stood next to her Tuva's side. The word had popped into her head as if called out by her blood. It was not any kind of choice to her. She didn't like the idea of being propelled by her biology, especially when she knew it wasn't completely her own but it felt right. And she would take anything over the normal feelings she dealt with in her home. The large red one explained what he had found out to the others.

Some became so angry they left to hurt something. She did not know why they were so angry. Didn't they understand this was how things were? How they have always been? Others came up to her and put hands on her head and shoulder. Some muttered soft words. Prayers she thought. She's heard about them but does not understand the context. The one in silver bows slightly, and she mimicked it back. This brought a laugh out of those who were left, and she stiffened slightly. She had heard that sound before. When she was broken open or cut up. She took a step back and they stopped. The large red one came forward and offered his large hand to the girl. She didn't even realize her hand was resting on his until he gripped her softly and pulled her out of the room. For once, the girl was glad to leave.

"Do not worry tak. We are leaving. And going home," Wrex stated.

Wrex brought the girl into the room with the dead doctor just as his warriors got the door to Zero's room open. He was about to leave the other girl to her fate when the tak pushed him away. He had not expected it the power behind the push and stumbled slightly. The girl ran past the krogans who had opened the door. She moved so quickly he lost her in the dark but he heard her talking. Another voice could be heard then. It was small, but loud. And crass.

"You fucking bitch, you're here," the second voice screamed, "what's happening, are we getting the fuck out of here, did these assholes hurt you, I'll fucking kill these dipshits if they did. Hey you, yeah you giant turtle cunt, if you hurt her-" Zero was only stopped when the tak pulled her into a hug.

"I'm fine. They killed the doctors and the guards. We are leaving. I am taking you with me." The other girl clung to her and began to cry. She only came to the tak's chin in height but she still looked more than a child of her age. Wrex could see the she was covered in as many scars as the first girl.

"We came here on a mission from the Shadow Broker," Wrex stated as he entered the room. "He wants this entire base destroyed and every member of the facility killed." He paused for a moment looking at the tak. "But he also said we were to kill Subjects Prime and Zero. We had thought them to be some sort of Cerberus soldiers, but we found out when we got here that they are you two." He loomed over them both now. "I've decided to take you, little one, back to my home. You are krogan. I can smell it, as can you. But this other one," he gave a glance over to the other girl as she bared her teeth and clenched her fists, "she I do not know what to do with."

A grunt came from behind Wrex and as he turned he saw one of his warriors take out his shotgun. "I know what to do old-crest." Before Wrex could stop him, he placed the barrel of the gun right in Zero's face.

It was like a switch was flipped. The moment the krogan had grunted, the girl could tell his intent. The other next to her saw the gun aimed at her head and looked up into his eyes. But his fingers did not even brush the trigger before they were both on him. Both had wreathed themselves in blue flame as their biotic power sparked to life. Wrex took a step back to get a safe distance from the coming chaos. His clanmates followed suit.

The tak had wrenched the gun out of the whelp's hand. Wrex could not believe what the boy was about to do. No order had been given, and anyone with experience could see this mission had changed the moment he had not killed Prime. He would not intervene. The tak turned the gun upside down just as Zero lifted the krogan into the air with a pulse from her biotics. With a savage swing Prime slammed the gun into the krogan's quad. He screamed in horror and pain. Zero slammed him into the wall with enough force to dent the metal. Blood had started to ooze out of his armor when they both raced at him with blinding speed. They pummeled his skull, one biotically charged, the other fueled by whatever science the humans had forced into her body. By the time they were done, there wasn't a head left to speak of on the male.

"Any more of you fuckers want some, we got enough to put you all in the ground with time to spare to piss inside your goddamn eye sockets," Zero screamed. The tak stepped in front of her.

"She is like me, and I will never leave her behind. If you want me to come with you to Tuchanka, you will either bring her with us or you will get out of our goddamn way." Prime started to growl in anticipation of a fight that never came. Instead the room was filled with the roar of laughter and several of the krogan started to speak over each other.

"They are like two miniature Thresher Maws."

"Did you see his head pop like a fucking melon? The fool."

"Ha, these two know of our ways more than most."

Wrex stepped forward, his own laughter only now dying down. "Oh, you have nothing to fear. If nothing else, that display simply made my decision easier." The girls looked at each other in confusion and relaxed to hear his next words. They were nearly knocked over when he cuffed them both on the shoulders.

"You I know are krogan, it's in your blood. And you, small one, are krogan in spirit. Oh, you'll both fit into the clan easily. So let's stop dancing around the issue. Do the two of you wish to join us on Tuchanka? It's no paradise, but I can promise glory, food and good company."

The smaller one spoke first, "Eh, why the fuck not. Got nothing better to do." A large grin crossed her face and her friend simply smiled and put her arm around her shoulder.

Wrex smiled and stood back up, "Excellent. But before we go, we will need your names. Do you wish to be called Prime and Zero?" The girls both made a disgusted sound.

"Hah, I figured not. From what I could tell around this shithole, these bastards never bothered to give you the honor of names. Well, I guess it's up to me. I'm always the one who has to clean up after others."

Koto grunted from behind Wrex. "Really boss? You seem to forget all the messes you leave behind yourself."

"Oh quit your crying. I'm trying to be all noble here." Wrex turned towards the smaller girl first. His eyes met hers for a moment before he spoke in a bellow, as if declaring it to the galaxy.

"Jaq." She seemed to chew it over and nodded in approval, putting a fist out in a display of might. Wrex chuckled at this bravado before turning towards the tak.

"And you, who carry my people inside of you, like a deadly blade waiting for a throat to thrust it into." The girl stood straighter. She had never been given a name besides Prime and she was ready to throw it into the dust where it belonged. He smiled back at her and shouted "Shard." She felt a jolt of something. Unused to many emotions that did not deal directly with survival she had to wait longer than she'd ever admit to identify it. Pride. She almost glowed in pride.

"Shard," she said as she reached out and grabbed Wrex's hand. "Thank you Tuva. I will carry it with me for all of my days, and earn what you have given us today."

Wrex turned around and started towards the exit as he laughed, "I'm sure you will. Jaq, Shard fall into formation. We're leaving this place a crater in a few minutes. So unless you want to get turned into particle dust, let's get you two home."