Growing up on a farming colony left her without the knowledge many would know on Earth. She had barely heard whispers of a group named Cerberus, but nothing she could remember clearly. They were kind enough to raid the slaver grounds to free the slaves stuck within, so perhaps they have good intentions. They wished her health would get better. They would be transporting her to the Citadel where she would be given more expansive reconstructive surgeries so she would on the path to heal and grow from the traumatic two years under batarian slavers and the deplorable conditions.
Cerberus. The name alone was malicious with its history in mythology.
She continued to question the truth behind the smiles of Dr. Harrison and Miranda Lawson, even as she dressed up for her departure to the Citadel for her surgeries. Her shirt dipped low in the back, showing her slave tattoo in all its black ink glory, and Cerberus didn't do much to help her hide her shame and horror story. They gave her a jacket, but it still didn't feel covered enough to hide.
She would going to be before the world of the Citadel, a freed seventeen year old slave girl with the marks to show she had gone through hell under the batarian slavers. The scars on her wrists from the cuffs, chains, wrought irons, and burning hot irons. The scars that littered her legs and back, the long scar down her face that went over her left eye.
She paused as she finished putting on her new black boots, pushing around her cropped hair. It still was short, and choppy, and had a long way to go before it was grown out properly. She still couldn't completely comprehend just how this had happened, how she was free of her masters, how she had escaped through miraculous means. She rubbed her scarred wrists, poked at the wounded skin and muscles. To think, not long ago, they were bound in bloodied wrought iron cuffs. Now they were bare for the world to see, but the question remained: would anyone recognize such scars and assume she were once a slave?
"Ready, Shepard?"
Miranda had poked her head in, a gentle, almost warm expression on her face. She smiled gently, nodding as she stood. She had her omni tool back, and the familiar weight of her father's dog tags on her chest.
Miranda had told her that story, of how they were retrieved. She had to splatter the brains of several batarians, ripping through their necks to find the dog tags that were embedded in a pile of flesh from slaughtered, unsold humans they had kept hidden in one of the deep pits. It was nearly taken by the fires that would incinerate the slaughtered bodies, but biotics were useful when human reach couldn't be useful.
She was quiet as she followed Miranda, unintentionally looking to her feet, fighting herself and her lessons as a slave girl. Normal people looked others in the eyes, not the ground. Others spoke when spoken, not when given strict orders to speak. She took a shaky breath, calming her hammering heart. She wasn't going to be in any more danger, inside any more cages. She was a free girl, a free human. Even though she would bare her slave mark for her entire life, she would never be a slave again. Worrying eyes scanned the shuttle as she was allowed inside, taking a seat next to Dr. Harrison, a nervous smile on her lips as the doors closed.
"S-so, where in the Citadel are we-"
She hadn't even seen him move, or even suspected that the two humans in the shuttle were going to hurt her. She gave a strangled gasp one second too late as a needle was pushing into her neck, the contents taking over her almost instantly. She was trapped under her own mind, her eyes losing their shine and luster, emptying like a tub of water. She swayed just the slightest as the drug took her hostage, ripping her free will away and trapping her in a maze she couldn't fight through. Gentle hands moved her so her head was rested on Dr. Harrison's shoulder, his chuckle dark and filled with malice.
"I almost feel bad, but really, this is just stupidly fortunate." the doctor said, smiling at the empty girl, "Don't worry, miss. It'll wear off by the time we're done with our business."
"It's cruel, but we won't have another opportunity like this," Miranda stated, looking to the blank girl, "Her biotics are absolutely impossible for a human, and if can figure out how, or what exactly her amp is doing, we could help our own troops."
"Imagine though, once we have her completely, Miranda... this girl could be the key to getting everything the Illusive Man wishes. She's the strongest human biotic we've ever seen, save for the Subject Zero girl, but even this girl blows her out of the water! She would be the greatest weapon for us."
Miranda nodded with a touch of a smile. This girl, Katherine, could be the key to keep Cerberus afloat if they could get her under their control. The wounds of her slavery years were still very fresh, so trying to do it now was astonishingly risky, but there wouldn't be another time after this. It was now or never if they wished to utilize the strongest biotic in human history and make her theirs. Dig into her brain, her body's composition, find out just how many element zero nodes she had embedded inside her. They wanted to know what made her tick, what made her work, and they would go the lengths to make sure this biotic would be theirs by the end, no matter what they must do to her.
The shuttle boucned slightly as they made their way through the Citadel, landing discreetly within one of the deeper Zakera Wards, the hatch popping open to a sparse crowd. Miranda did a quick sweep with her eyes, frowning slightly.
"This is the best you could do?"
Dr. Harrison gave her a pointed look. "If you want to walk her around the Citadel all day like this, please do. This is the closest we could get."
Shepard stumbled as she exited the shuttle, landing into Dr. Harrison's arms. He gently calmed the shocked, drugged teen. She looked around for a moment before finding her center again, standing beside him until he took her hand, and led her forward. Miranda led them, casually talking with Dr. Harrison as a cover to the fact that they were smuggling a drugged, and abused teenage human girl. Shepard's eyes wandered as she was moved, blurry, unfocused, empty eyes gazing at the watery world around her. Fog covered everything, rendering her blank as a slate, unable to hold onto many of the memories being made now. She kept walking, one step, two steps, led like a young child.
Shoked blue eyes locked on hers, and for once drew the attention of the girl's shady mind from the blurry world to those shockingly beautiful eyes.
The lines of his face, the plating across his next entire body, the flicker and fall of mandibles. It was a turian. A little on the young side, perhaps. Fresh, crisp blue uniform of the C-Sec uniform covered his body. Her eyes came back to his shocked eyes, watching anger and rage roll into them next before gentle warmth came to them. Could he see she wasn't herself? Did he think doing such would help her?
Perhaps it would.
Dr. Harrison kept her moving, Miranda kept it looking like they were moving Shepard to a clinic to help with her sudden withdrawal from real interaction. Hiding the true ugly face they had and their intention to mindfuck the girl they dragged along, drugged and forced into absolute submission. She would be their toy, their puppet. A lie wrapped in biotic power.
She was led into a small hidden doorway, told to lay on the operating table just around the corner. Dr. Harrison was calm, his smile wicked as she lay on her back. He grabbed tools, bags, anything he could search, pulling out scalpels, scissors, knives of all sizes. Needles, hypodermic injectors, tubes... the list of items he had around him and around her was terrifying, especially in the context in which he wished to use them. Shepard lay there motionless, emotionless. She, under the haze of his drugs, didn't care. Miranda walked off a ways, her smile still visible as she turned in profile.
"Don't damage anything, Harrison." she warned.
He chuckled darkly, grabbing for a scalpel. The blade gently shimmered in the low lights, reflecting the empty grey eyes of his subject. So willing, so drugged out of her mind. The poor slaver girl, she was, but he didn't care about her well being.
She was a test subject. A toy for Cerberus to play and abuse for the sake of humanity's rise to power.
"Even if I do, it won't be an issue to fix her up," he murmured, spinning the scalpel in his fingers before poking it into her arm.
"Let's find where your nodules are, storing all that element zero in your body. For someone so strong... well it's a miracle this slaver girl is alive at all. So powerful... she should be dead, if she has that much element zero."
A gentle line of crimson followed his blade as he began to slice into the skin and muscles on her arm, being cautious not to damage the soft and delicate pink tissues underneath her skin. Farther and farther he cut, sighing at the sight of her body as if it was exhilarating for the scientist. The drugs hadn't affected her bloodstream too much, the lines of blood spilling were nothing but a tiny obstacle that could be cleaned up. He wasn't interested in the blood, but the muscles. Nodules were normally embedded into the tissues and muscles lining the shoulders, upper arms, and sometimes in patterns in a person's wrists and fingers. Humans didn't, and most likely couldn't, have as many as Asari, who had nodules covering most of their musculature, but it wasn't beyond theory that humans over time could develop the ability to house such power in their muscles.
"Her nodulars are so bright. It's like sapphires embedded in red and pink rock!" he exclaimed, "God, this girl is a marvel. She could be the start of a biotic evolution in humanity. She has one perfect piece of her that you don't have, Miranda."
The operative scoffed, keeping her eyes from the scientist's work as she sat herself down in the small lounge around the corner, divided from the operating section by frosted glass.
"It's not easy bio-engineering a child to be the world's strongest biotic without risk of terminal cancer."
He widened his cuts, gently pulled back the skin with gloved fingers to look closer at the glittering nodules within her muscles and tissues. Gently twitching pink muscles glittered with the hidden gems of her eezo nodules, lining near every single spot he could get his eyes on. He pulled away for a moment, taking up a clipboard, making notes.
"Subject has not just singular nodules but what looks like a wired network of them in her deltoid, tricep brachii, bicep brachii, and brachialis muscles in her right arm. Each node is smaller compared to other subjects, notably Subject 0, along with Subjects 3 and 5, while the pathways between each one resemble somewhat of a network of neurons. Let it be noted that the pathways seem to train onward up farther up her shoulder."
He set his clipboard down, gently wiping the small amount of blood falling down her arms with a small cloth, his smile unnervingly satisfied. Shepard's eyes shifted around, light coming back to them at a snail's pace. The fogs and storms were beginning to clear and subside, and Dr. Harrison was nowhere close to being done with his precious biotic. He lay the peeled back flaps of skin back into place, applying a light coating of medigel along the cuts before moving to her chest, making an incision as immediately adding smaller cuts to the side so he could pull them back to gaze at the muscles and nodules within, whistling in amazement.
Grabbing his clipboard again, he made more notes.
"Exquisite network of nodules on her pectoralis major! The pathways that connect to the nodes are thinner here, however the nodes themselves are slightly larger. They almost appear to form a pattern, like a constellation. These nodules are also noticeably brighter then the ones along her arm, perhaps to the proximity to her heart, or her central nervous system."
He peeled it back farther, marveling at the beauty of her inner workings, carefully poking the muscles, watching the nodes light up as she squirmed and whimpered. He looked to her eyes, spying that she was awakening from her drugged wonderland, causing him to frown. He would have a while until she truly woke but it meant he had less time to experiment and explore. He repeated his steps of cleaning and applying medigel before wiping her brow of sweat, his evil, ecstatic smirk still upon his lips.
"If I had the time to map every single node you have in your body, I would have so much fun in peeling your skin back to watch them light up inside your muscles and tissues."
She twitched and whimpered once again, her eyes growing brighter, her body burning the drug out of her body at a rate he couldn't control. He frowned more and stabbed the scalpel beside her head, making her squirm and whimper more. Her smile turned malicious as he picked up one of his knives, running the flat face across his palm.
"Little slaver girl... you should have died back there with your masters... but you will enjoy now your life with us."
More life returned to her body. Her fingers twitched in fear, her eyes blinking tears down her cheeks. She was awakening to what the doctor had planned for her as he let the knife slide over her right cheek, flinching at the dangerous cold. She blinked away the remaining pain and drug fog, her flight or fight instinct firing like a chain gun. Miranda was slow to move as she seemed to sense Shepard manipulating mass effect fields, pushing the Doctor away from her as she surged upward and moved, pushing a barrier up as Miranda drew a pistol, anger and fear and rage filling her glowing blue eyes.
Everything moved slowly and quickly. Shepard was scrambling off the operation table as the door they entered in exploded out in smoke, men and woman in C-Sec uniforms rushing in, about four of them. She cleared the fog as the officers went for the groaning Dr. Harrison and the wildly glowing Miranda, her eyes catching instead the blue eyes that had helped her poke through the horrid fog.
Gentle, warm, comforting blue eyes. Sharp but welcoming turian eyes.
"Over here!"
She didn't hesitate, rushing to the turian as she held onto his chest, the fledgling officer aiming his M-6 Carnifex at the thrashing, struggling operative, curling the shaking human girl to him, protecting her by shielding her with his body. The other officers got hold of Miranda at last, knocking her out for their safety and hauling Dr. Harrison off the floor, though they were immediately calling for medics. Shepard didn't dare move from the turian's side, just barely spotting the splatter of blood on the ground and the dented wall that the doctor was slammed into with her attack. She shook and hid herself in his protection.
"Good job, Vakarian. A good tip off." one of the other turian officers congratulated the turian, looking to the human that clung to him.
"Get her to the office. I think Bailey can help you with her. We're going to haul these Cerberus freaks in."
Shepard kept close to the turian who saved her as the C-Sec officers dragged the doctor and the operative out and away. A small crowd had gathered around the small lab, and immediately she kept even closer to him. He was cautious, just barely touching her shoulder as he put the safety back on his gun and led her out gently. She kept close to him as he moved them, trying not to let her breaking psyche shatter as eyes looked at her.
"It's alright. You're bleeding, some people are worried." his voice was a calming, rumbling murmur. She shivered and nodded gently, trust immediately attaching to his image.
"...am I safe?" her voice was horribly timid and quiet, but he seemed to hear her. His gloved talons grabbed his shoulder, and she didn't shake in fear.
"You're safe. They can't touch you anymore."
"Thank you." her words were softly sobbed, leaning into the turian officer that had pulled her out of the maws of a thresher maw and saved her life from the terrors that had taken her, threatening her with knives.
His hand tightened somewhat, his expression easy to read, even though turian's didn't exactly express emotions through their faces. His mandibles fluttered, making sure she was close to him, protecting her from the unknown crowds, the world around them.
C-Sec was quiet when she arrived with her savior turian, led to his small office, allowed to sit in safety. She sighed heavily, taking a moment as he rummaged through some papers before she sat in one of his spare chairs, starting to take off her boots. She looked up briefly as she rubbed her sore feet, seeing the first aid kit in his talons. She nodded and set her foot down, moving so he could see her wounds. They were expect cuts into her skin and upper muscles, and the medigel applied to it earlier was healing the nearly invisible lines away. He reapplied a thin layer so the lines would disappear, careful in touching her. Sensing her fear, the fearful twitches in her muscles, a motion she couldn't stop after the years of abuse and manipulation.
"Thank you."
He looked up at her, seeing exhaustion behind gentle grey eyes. Eyes that he could tell had seen horrors despite her age, despite her ripped apart youth.
"It's my job." he said gently. She shook her head.
She smiled softly, absolutely happy and warm and surprising. His mandibles almost dropped down as he did.
"You saved me from another life of enslavement." she admitted, and his mandibles finally dropped in absolute fear.
She saw that expression, and closed her eyes, reaching to take one of his hands. Tears streaked down her cheeks, shaking her head once again. He looked up at this young human in curious wonder, wondering how she could be smiling after everything.
"You saved me," she repeated, wiping her tears with her other hand, "and I don't have to worry about being taken again. For the first time in years... I'm safe."
He gave what he could call the equivalent of a human smile, his mandibles fluttering for her as she looked at him, that estatic, freeing smile on her lips. Her held her hand tightly, glad to know that he had made such a difference for her.
"I'm glad I got bored with my patrols then to look at you."
She chuckled a little, reveling in the comforting, friendly bubble already surrounding them. She never did stop smiling.
"What's your name?" she asked, running that free hand through her short, choppy hair.
"Garrus Vakarian. And yours?"
She seemed to hesitate, almost scared as her expression clouded before she shook her head. Her smile came back as she let her other hand hold his.
"Katherine Shepard. Thanks for being a bad cop."
"Just don't tell my bosses that this whole thing happened is because I slacked off."
She raised a bruised finger to her lips, a gesture that initially confused Garrus until she spoke, her voice like ringing bells, the magical crashing of a waterfall on the rocks below.
"Your secret is safe with me, Garrus."