If you've made it his far … you're either desperate, or stupid. Turn back now.

Kaya woke up screaming. She must have screamed for a while, unable to find the emotional fortitude to stop, because the lights flicked on as the door opened and Joker hobbled into the room. His eyes widened at the sight. Furniture was thrown about, the mirror behind the bar was smashed, and broken glass was everywhere. Kaya sat at the center of it in her pajamas, curled into a ball and staring up at him with unseeing eyes. The screaming had stopped, but tears were streaming down her face.

"What the hell?" Garrus stood in the doorway beside Joker, mouth agape.

"Go get Shepard," Joker said, moving slowly into the room. "Kaya, can you hear me?"

A banshee screamed in the distance.

There was a flash of blue light, and a chair flew across the room. It knocked Joker off his feet and into the far wall.

"Joker!" Garrus ran over and pulled the chair off of him.

"I'm okay," he groaned. "I mean, not really. Everything's broken. Shit."

Jack ran from the Mess to see what all the fuss was about. When she saw Kaya, she immediately put up a containment field.

"You assholes okay?" she called over, looking around.

Joker groaned, and Garrus called out to Shepard over the comm.

"No answer. I think she's asleep. I'll go get her."

"Kaya," Jack said cautiously, stepping inside the containment field. "Kaya, it's Jack. Can you hear me."

Turns out you can turn a scared little kid into an all-powerful bitch.

Kaya blinked, and she looked around as if seeing the room for the first time. It looked like a tornado had ripped through the place.

"What happened?" she said weakly, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Well, you almost killed Joker," Jack said, kneeling down.

"Oh my god!" Kaya gasped, looking over at him sprawled out on the ground.

She tried to get up, and Jack forced her back down. Kaya's biotics flared up, but there was nothing in the containment field for her to throw except Jack. And there wasn't a biotic alive who could move Jack against her will.

"Kaya. Calm down," Jack yelled. "You need to get your biotics under control. Now."

Kaya looked down at her hands, bathed in a strange blue light.

"How am I doing this?" she asked weakly.

"I don't know," Jack said. "Apparently you're a biotic after all. And you were given an amp. So you just need to calm down. When you're all tensed up like this, the random neural firings will make the biotics go haywire. Take a deep breath."

Kaya tried, but all that came out was a strangled sob. She started crying in earnest, and her biotic field came down. Jack thought about lowering the containment field and giving a Kaya a reassuring pat on the shoulder, but she worried that more physical contact would just set her off again. Somewhere, in the space between sobs, Kaya felt her concern. Her understanding. Jack had been here before.

Kaya had trained herself – forced herself – to remember that people's actions were important. People thought about all kinds of things they never did. A person's thoughts defined them far less than most would admit. But, still – even through the haze of pure panic and adrenaline – she appreciated Jack's brief moment of considering it.

There were a few minutes of shocked silence before Shepard came running into the room in an N7 tracksuit that matched Kaya's. She looked around for a moment before turning to Joker.

"Garrus, get Joker into the med bay and wake up Dr. Chakwas." She stepped to the edge of Jack's containment field.

I was wondering when this would happen. There was no way she was okay. Didn't think she'd take out my pilot, though.

"Kaya, can you hear me? We're going to get you some help, okay?"

Kaya had always looked younger than twenty five, and now it really showed. Curled up on the floor, choking on sobs as she pressed her forehead to her knees and refused to look at anyone, she appeared closer to fourteen.

"I'm sorry," Kaya choked out.

"Hah," Jack laughed. "For what? Hurting Joker? Little shit will be fine. He breaks a rib if he sneezes too hard."

"Jack, I don't think that's helping," Shepard warned.

"Sanctuary," Kaya said quietly, her whisper so low that Shepard was not sure she heard correctly. She and Garrus exchanged a look, just as Garrus was picking Joker up off the ground.

"Carried by a turian. On my own damn ship. If the people at flight school could see me now," Joker groaned.

"Jack, go help Garrus and Joker," Shepard ordered.

"But-"

"Go. I can put up another containment field if I need to." Jack visibly bristled at being ordered around, but she left all the same. Shepard turned to Kaya. She had stopped crying, but she would not lift her head from its place tucked under her curled arms. "Your abilities," Shepard started slowly, trying to carefully choose words that would not get her thrown across the room. "Do they let you relive people's memories?"

Kaya raised her head slightly and nodded. "I bet that's far from the worst thing you've ever seen," she said quietly.

Shepard sat down cross-legged on the floor and shook her head. "No, that was up there. What happened to those people … turning refugees into test subjects. It was unforgivable. Grotesque. I still have nightmares. Looks like I gave one to you. I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," Kaya whispered. "I just keep thinking about Drake's Point. I was supposed to stop them. I still don't know what really happened there. The files are all classified. Maybe I don't want to know. But if it was anything like that …"

She trailed off, leaving an uncomfortable silence between them. Kaya tried to take comfort in how worried Shepard was. This woman, who barely knew her, really cared. But then Kaya saw her own image in Shepard's mind: mascara running down her face, hair a tangled mess, blood dripping down her temple.

She raised a hand to her head, and it came away covered in warm dark liquid. Must have hit herself with some furniture. She couldn't even feel it.

Dr. Chakwas walked in then and immediately set to running a scan with her Omni-tool. "These neural readings are off the charts, Commander. Kaya, I can give you a sedative, if you want."

"That would be … nice," Kaya said, taking in a shaky breath. "I just want to go back to bed."