It had been a few months since the start of their training and Caius and Kanus were playing a round of Galactic Zero when the General walked in. All of the young turians stood up and gave him their full attention.

"We've noticed how all of you have progressed in your training and so we have decided to have a tournament. You will be in teams of two and because we are so generous we will let you pick your teammate. Be warned, you have to take into consideration of each other's strength and weaknesses. There needs to be a balance, if not, I won't be surprised if you're one of the first one's out. You will have a month to train together since you will be competing against other boot camps. As the date gets closer we will inform you more about the objective of the tournament. Before you pick your teams I will show you where you will be training with your teammate." Helrius turned not waiting for a response as the young turians hurried to follow him. Caius and Kanus glanced at each other, an unspoken communication passing between them that they were going to be on the same team. They knew they would balance each other. While Caius was strong in combat he was weak in engineering and tech. Kanus was so strong in engineering and tech that it was almost scary but he was weak in combat. They had a perfect balance.

The young turians followed the General to a huge single level building, it's architecture rather simple since this was boot camp and not the Citadel. Upon entering, the building had two different sections. What he would name as the combat section and the tech section. Helrius turned to look at the young turians before gesturing to the room.

"I can tell by the different twinkles in your eyes that you already know what these are. It saves me from having to explain so I'll have you pick your teams and start training. Good luck."

Just as Kanus was about to head off to the tech section Caius grabbed his arm and began to drag him to the shooting range. Kanus groaned.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, you need to at least be able to shoot straight."

"And you need to learn how to calibrate your guns" Caius glanced at him.

"I'll make you a deal. You learn how to shoot willingly and I will learn the boring process of calibrating." Kanus sighed.

"Fine, and it's not boring" Caius rolled his eyes.

"Keep telling yourself that;" he said then grabbed a pistol and handed it to Kanus. Kanus moved into a stance and Caius shook his head at how awful it was.

"No wonder you can't shoot straight, your legs are in the wrong places." Caius showed him where his legs should be and after ten minutes of Kanus moving in the wrong directions. To the point where he thought he was doing this on purpose just to piss him off. Caius threw his arms up in the air in aggravation.

"For spirits sake!" Caius grabbed one of Kanus's legs and moved it to where he wanted it to be before moving it to the other leg. Kanus grumbled.

"I can do it myself you know." Caius snorted.

"Apparently not, I think you're doing this on purpose"

"Oh? What makes you think that?" Kanus said innocently and Caius narrowed his eyes at his best friend of ten years that was being a pain in the ass at the moment. Shaking his head he rubbed his face.

"Take a deep breath and shoot" Caius sighed when Kanus took in a huge breath.

"Not that deep. I don't want you passing out and me having to carry you to the infirmary." Kanus glared at him and fixed his breathing before he began to practice with the pistol. Caius helped him with tips on handling a gun while he bickered with Kanus. He truly was like a brother to him, loved him to death to the point he would die for him but there were times he wanted to strangle him. The feeling was mutual for Kanus. After an hour Caius stopped him.

"We can move on to your calibrations now" Kanus smiled excitedly and put down the pistol.

"Finally! Now come on" Kanus went over to the tech section and Caius followed leisurely. Not looking forward to it but a deal was a deal. Once thing that was sacred was their promises to each other, they made sure to follow through it every time. Kanus handed him a gun and Caius frowned.

"Can't I just learn to calibrate a sniper?" Kanus chuckled and shook his head.

"Nope we have to start with the basics first, now pay attention." Caius sighed and sat down on the ground with Kanus. Listening or at least trying to since his mind kept wondering off. He felt like he was back in school listening to the boring teachers but his still had amazing grades despite not listening to them half the time. He could feel someone gazing at his back and he turned to see Tibetus glaring at him from the combat section with his partner practicing at the shooting range.

"Caius!" Caius blinked and looked at his glaring friend.

"Hmm?"

"Are you listening?!"

"Yeah…"

"Then what did I just say?"
"Calibrations" Kanus crossed his arms.

"Sarcastic much?" Caius held his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry I was checking out the competition" Caius gestured at Tibetus with his eyes and Kanus looked over at their archenemy.

"Oh, now I see why you looked back."

"He still glaring at me?"

"Yep"

"I think I'm his first target in the tournament" Kanus laughed.

"Yeah I think so too. Gives me a reason to make a drone" Caius arched a brow plate.

"You can do that?" Kanus mandibles opened in a smirk.

"Oh yeah;" Caius shook his head in disbelief.

"You're officially going to haunt my nightmares" Kanus snorted and put his hands together, wiggling his three fingers together.

"Mwahaha!" They both cracked up laughing and after a couple of minutes, they finally managed to calm down. Caius picked up the pistol with a smile.

"I made a deal with you so I'm going to follow through with. Let's do the boring calibrations." Kanus rolled his eyes in amusement before they went back to the calibrations.

After their training, they chatted as the walked back to their bunks with the other turians. Entering Caius grabbed his stack of cards and sat at the small table with Kanus. This has become a regular nightly thing for them regardless of how tired they were. In the middle of their game, Tibetus slammed his hands on the table. Caius didn't even flinch and after a few moments he looked up from his cards to the glaring turian.

"Can I help you? I'm kind of in the middle of a game here." Tibetus growled.

"If you think for one second you're going to win in the tournament you're definitely mistaken." Caius put his cards face down on the table and stood up to meet Tibetus's glare head on.

"Really? And you think you'll win?" Tibetus smirked

"I know I'll win because I don't have a baby turian hiding behind me." Caius growled.

"I highly suggest you watch your tongue, Kanus is so smart it's scary, unlike your unusually small brain that can't comprehend to let go of the past." Tibetus chuckled darkly.

"Or what? You're going to have daddy snipe me?" Caius narrowed his eyes at him.

"Watch it" Caius felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Kanus.

"He's not worth your time Caius, let's just go for a walk" Caius sighed and turned to gather up the cards. Kanus was right, he wasn't worth it and he would listen to his best friend that was the voice of reason to him.

"Walking away like your mother did to her species when she mated with a turian, no wonder they call her a whore." Caius snarled.

"That's it!" He turned to lunge at the bastard that dared to disrespect his mother in front of him. He felt strong arms holding him back but barely and it was accompanied by a couple other arms from two other turians.

"Caius stop! He's trying to get you riled up so you can throw the first punch! Trying to have you taken off the tournament!'' Caius snarled, still seeing red.

"Not if I kill him first!" Kanus growled in his ear.

"Your parents would not have wanted you to do this! What would your mother think?!" Caius's mind cleared and he slowly began to calm down. He thought about his mother's red hair and green eyes. The last thing he wanted was to disappoint her, he always had a soft spot for her and that would never change. While she showed the world Commander Shepard, she showed him different sides of her that not even his father had seen. Like how nurturing she could be, and the sweetest smile he had ever seen on her face every time he came home from school. How she would stay in his bed all night when he had a nightmare. Caius sighed as he felt the hands remove from him, knowing the fight in him was gone. Caius immediately went outside, wanting to be alone. He eventually came across a boulder and sat down against it. Caius opened up his omni tool since he wanted to hear her voice. Seeing her smiling face he felt instantly calm.

"Hey Caius! Sorry your father is not here, he went to get some takeout for us and-" Jane frowned.

"What's wrong?" Caius blinked and shook his head.

"Nothing"

"Really Caius? You're going to pull that crap on me?" Caius sighed and shook his head.

"I don't want to talk about it right now" Caius looked back at her.

"I miss you" Jane gave him a sympathetic smile.

"I miss you too my little miracle, and when you get the chance to come back we'll go to your favorite restaurant. Whatever you're feeling right now know that you can make it through it. You can do anything you put your mind to and I love you." Caius smiled.

"I love you too mom. I'll let you get back to whatever you're doing. I just wanted to hear your voice." Jane smiled and gave him a little wave.

"Okay, stay strong little miracle" Caius chuckled and gave her a wave before turning off his omni tool. Sighing he looked at the dog tags she gave him. He was determined to win for her and his father. First, he had to thank his best friend from preventing him from getting eliminated before the real game starts.