The Yuri Effect

Talitha is the girl you help on the Citadel who, if you play Shepard as a colonist in the first Mass Effect, will have been on Mindoir during the Batarian attack. She was taken and turned into a slave.

Thought I'd go non-Asari for this one. Some of these chapters will be all cute, nice and happy where as some will be renegade romances. Just haven't got to one yet.

Chapter 4: Talitha Part 1

She had thought it was all behind her; the terrible things that had happened to her and so many others all those years ago. But the past always had a way of coming back and biting you in the ass. Stupid past; stupid Batarians and stupid Mindoir!

A C-Sec officer called Lieutenant Girard had called her, Commander Jane Shepard, after briefly returning to the Citadel after a tough time on Feros. She had actually come back to get some more supplies as the Normandy was running quite low on food but during the middle of her transaction she had been called by the French officer in need of her help, or as he had put it 'someone with her experiences'.

Apparently, up in the docking bay, practically right next to the where the Normandy was docked, a woman who had been on Mindoir during the attack had escaped from Hospital, stealing a gun in the process. Furthermore she had been informed of how the girl wanted to die after the trauma she went through while a slave under the same Batarians that had destroyed her home. She couldn't allow another casualty to be caused by those Batarian bastards.

She briskly walked away from the lift that had brought her back up to the dock area once again and immediately spotted the C-Sec officer she had spoken to earlier. She could tell straight away that he was nervous as his salute to her was a bit shaky as was his voice.

"Commander, It's a pleasure to meet you".

"I wish this were under better circumstances. Where is she?"

Girard pointed to his left. "Behind those shipping containers; I have a sniper positioned but I don't think we'll need him; she is only a danger to herself. We've got a sedative to calm her down but we can't get close to her, every step we take gets her more wound up" he explained.

Shepard nodded and thought to herself for a moment. "Let me take the sedative, perhaps I can persuade her".

Girard reached into his pocket and pulled out a small syringe with a strange blue liquid within. "Call of your sniper as well Lieutenant, you won't need him".

"Aye, aye, Commander"

Shepard took a look at the boxes and then pulled out her pistol. Girard's eyes went wide for a moment before she gave the gun to him, which made them even wider. He looked up at Shepard, seeing the determination in her eyes.

"She is not going to die". He quickly got the message and wiped his face clean of the questioning gaze.

Jane stepped forward, the wind blowing through her red hair. She honestly didn't know what to expect: after all she hadn't met anyone else who had survived the attack on her home. She remembered being rescued by Alliance soldiers, walking through her home town and seeing all the dead; the burning buildings and feeling angry that she didn't, and couldn't, have done anything to stop it. She vowed from then to always be prepared and to not allow this sought of thing to happen again. Finally, as the N7 officer turned the corner around the crates and saw the woman for the first time, she felt a surge of emotions rushing to her.

The woman in question was young, perhaps barely out of her teens. She had a cute face that was, however, thin, pale and malnourished. She had very short hair and Jane had no doubt that it was the Batarians doing. They usually shaved their captive's hair using a strange chemical they pumped into the air which sometimes caused instant death for those who suffer from asthma. Her body also looked frail and it made Jane want to rush forward and comfort her, embrace her. But she stayed back when her eyes spotted the gun in the girl's hand.

The girl spotted her and pointed the gun at her. "Stop, stop! What do you... what are you?" she spoke quickly and nervously in a sweet and very child like voice.

"My name is Jane Shepard, I'm here to help you. What's your name?" she spoke slowly and quietly.

"Animals don't get names. The Masters put their symbols on her; put hot metal all over her back. She screams when they do it". Shepard had to fight the anger rising within her at the Batarians who had done this; killed her parents, destroyed her home.

"You are a person, not an animal" Shepard made clear. "Your parents; what did they call you? Do you remember them?"

"She... she remembers a lot of things". Slowly she put down her gun and lowered her gaze to the floor. "Talitha: they call her that. She... she doesn't remember the rest". Looking back up with pleading eyes she continued. "Please, leave her alone".

"Look, Talitha, I was on Mindoir too. My parents died in the attack".

"Lying! You get hit for lying; get the buzz or the burning... can't be there" Talitha exclaimed. She pointed the gun at Shepard accusatorially. "Why are you alive, why are you, why aren't you like her... broken, only fit to dig and carry?"

"I was broken Talitha. I lost everything that was important to me, and I had to pull myself up and keep going" Jane explained, trying to prove that she, too, could move on past this.

"You lose your mommy and daddy, but you don't dig and don't carry? You stand up"? Talitha looked down again. "She wishes she could stand up".

"You can stand up Talitha, if you want to and if you let people help you".

"You can't help her! No one can".

Shepard decided to take another tactic and slowly took a step closer. They were barely two feet apart when Talitha pulled her gun on the Commander again.

"Please! She can't be helped... she needs to forget".

"Let me help you forget Talitha. I didn't have anyone to get me through the years of hurt after Mindoir, so let me give you what I never had". Shepard stepped forward. "Someone to care for you"

Talitha just continued to stare at Jane for a few more moments before dropping her gun onto the floor. "She would, like that" Talitha responded quietly. All it took was for Shepard to open her arms and the former slave flew forward into the hug. Shepard had lost everything that day on Mindoir: perhaps she could, one day, recover something special from all that was lost.

00

Review.

There will be a part 2 to this, later on, after a few months. I also found it intriguing that when you searched the Normandy Crash Site in Mass Effect 2 one of the names of the dead crew was called Talitha.