Title: Chapter Two – First Glimpses
Author: Dinkymew
Game: Mass Effect (Pre Mass Effect One)
Disclaimer: Bioware owns all characters and content of this work – the author has taken some liberties in filling in the blanks of Kaidan's back story as suggested in the game lore and for this i ask your forgiveness. Any original characters featured are my own and are not necessarily affiliated with Bioware
Characters Featured: Kaidan Alenko and Original Characters

"The potential is unimaginable." Dr Howe breathed, pressing ink stained fingers against her lips as beyond the reinforced glass she watched the little boy rage. He spun, the blue swirling energy of his power pooling around him like rings of smoke, but sharper – like electricity. It was beautiful.

"How long do we have him?" She whispered and her colleague beside her cleared his throat loudly.
"The waiver allows for one week for assessment." He said thickly and she scoffed, turning from him as she began to pace in the small office. She was a striking woman, small in stature but she had ferocity about her that most found intimidating. Her red hair was pinned on top of her head and it always looked like she had been sleeping on it, loose strands here and there framing her parched, dry face. Her green eyes met his as she threw her hands up.

"A week?" She gasped "A week is nothing Daniel. To truly discover what this is we need him longer. We can't just give him back."
"We can't just steal children Catherine." He reasoned, daring to address her by her real name. She paused, and for a moment he thought he could reach her – this shadow she had become fell away briefly and inside he could see the woman he had married. She swallowed, watching him and shook her head firmly.

"No." she said, her voice excited "But if we can find more Conatix will be forced to back the project."

"It won't bring him back." Daniel warned but she either didn't hear him or chose to ignore the comment completely, rushing behind her desk in the corner to start scribbling down notes.

It was almost a year today that they had lost their son, and since his death Catherine had been hell-bent on discovering what it was his doctor's had been unable to diagnose. What had killed him. In less than six months she had cleared her lab at Alliance headquarters setting up in the basement of their home instead, conducting her own research, her own tests. She traced hundreds of children exposed to element zero – the same mineral their son was exposed to in utero. Most, tragically like their son Robert, had died – either riddled with cancerous tumours or in strange, unexplained accidents; some had simply disappeared, but he didn't like to think about what happened to those children.

The children who had survived however showed remarkable talents – they could manipulate the area around them, move things, do things and she was determined to be the pioneer in the field. He paused, watching her as she scribbled frantically, surrounded by her binders and textbooks and charts and data – he barely recognised his wife amongst it all.

He turned back to the glass, watching the little boy as he kicked at the padded wall and screamed to the heaven's – his little face was twisted with anger, with pain, and Daniel felt every stab of it like a needle to his skin. He wanted to help him, this poor lost child whose parents couldn't understand him, couldn't fathom his potential or ability, who kept him hidden – shuttered away in his room or in the garden wherever was least likely to cause… what was it she had called them?

An incident.

"We can't keep him." He repeated and from behind him he heard Dr Howe sigh heavily.

"Anders is away getting him some food." She said, avoiding the subject he noticed "They've been practically starving the poor child. I've come to the conclusion that whatever power it is these children possess, it means they burn through a calorie intake much faster than normal children – it's almost as if their bodies take twice the amount normally required to run – it's amazing Daniel." She rambled on and he half listened to her, sometimes when she was on the verge of a discovery – however small – she would sound like the same girl he had met when he was younger. Determined, driven and unrivalled in intelligence – certainly in their university she had been. It was no wonder the Alliance had snatched her up as a researcher, but that was never good enough for her. Unless she was heading her own projects she was always unhappy.

"So what happens to him now?" Daniel asked, scratching his swath of beard "We know he's been exposed, that's obvious by looking at him. So what now?"

Catherine paused, steepling her fingers under her chin as she considered his question "I want footage of him, I want to run blood tests – I want to run neuro-scans, ability test-"
"No." Daniel said turning to face her abruptly "No more ability tests dammit, they are too dangerous, not while we know so little about them. The last one we did the girl nearly killed herself Cathy."

She scowled at him, the look of a child who had her favourite toy removed, and slid her eyes from his to the window.
"Fine." She growled "But I want every other test before he goes back; and you can prepare the follow-up forms, if we get approval from the Alliance and Conatix to go ahead with the project I want access to him at a later date."

She spoke like he was an animal, and that was what worried him the most – that this quest had changed its view, that the subjects had become mere pawns in the way of achieving a greater goal. They were children; they had to remember that at the end of the day.

"We can get started as soon as Asher is back." Daniel said "It would be safer to gas him first, I don't want him to hurt himself if he tries to harm us with his powers."

"Do whatever you need to." Dr Howe muttered, already not listening to him as she scrolled down a datapad, skim reading the text there and before he knew it she was swallowed up once more in her research.

Kaidan was scared. No, Kaidan was terrified.

Huddled in the corner of a white room he buried his head between his knees and fought back tears that pricked painfully close to the edges of his eyes. He wouldn't let them see him cry. He was exhausted, his energy drained from his fear and their constant demands for him to use his abilities. He didn't understand it – these people wanted him to make incidents happen, they wanted him to move things.

They had poked him with needles, taking blood and depositing other liquids into him, clear fluid that made him sleepy – that made everything seem less troublesome, everything seem ok. He missed his mom and dad; even the lectures, even school – had he known he would end up here he would have tried harder.

He would have done anything.

The door to his room opened, casting a slice of light across the white tiled floor and he tensed his arms around his head in anticipation. He held his breath waiting for heavy arms to lift him from his spot, but they never came. Curious he peered out the corner of his eye but he could only see the open door, the threshold empty, and a desk beyond in the next room. Carefully he raised his head, chewing on his lip as tears began to slide down his cheeks at the thought of freedom.

"Kaidan." The voice was booming in the silence, and he was so intent on the open door he hadn't even noticed the man that was sitting on the edge of the spring bed in the corner. He flinched, his dark eyes twitching from the door to the man defensively. It was the man with the beard, the one he had seen that first day at his home; how long ago had that been now? He had no idea, time had no presence in this place, it was always dark – the corridors lit by strip lighting, the rooms filled with lamps and artificial lighting, no sun, no windows to even tell if he was still on earth.

The man had his hands folded between his knees, he wasn't in a white coat and that made Kaidan curious. He didn't look like he had needles with him, or those horrible electric sticks they poked him with when he got angry, he didn't look like he had anything on him. Cautiously he leaned back against the wall, allowing his arms to rest where they sat.

"How are you feeling today Kaidan?" He asked, scratching his beard and avoiding his eyes. Kaidan didn't answer, it was too much strain on his voice which was raw from screaming.

"We're taking you home today." The man continued "I just wanted to… to tell you thank you." He nodded as though overcoming a great obstacle "What we have learned from you will give us enough to do this properly, to open a proper clinic for children like you – where we can help. It's a long way off yet, but I hope one day we will see you again, I hope one day we can offer more help to you."

Kaidan took a careful breath, he didn't know whether to believe this man's words – most of the time adults told the truth, but the ones in this place liked to lie to him. They liked to tell him he was good for moving things; which was bad. They liked to confuse him, tell him things that were wrong were right. It was exhausting.

"My son…" The man said quietly "Was a lot like you Kaidan." He swallowed, looking off into somewhere Kaidan could not follow "He didn't understand either what was happening to him, and by the time we realised it was something that needed expertise, well… it was too late." He sighed "I hope we won't be too late to help you."

"I'm going home?" He asked, his voice paper thin and wavering as he fought to keep the emotion behind it buried deep. The man nodded, rubbing his face with his hands, and when he looked back Kaidan thought he looked tired.

"We're taking you home." The man said, a small smile touching the corners of his mouth "I know you've not enjoyed your time here, I wish it could have been more pleasant. But you should know that we have achieved great things here, and it has been with your help Kaidan."

He got to his feet wearily, raking his hand through his greasy hair and offered the boy his hand. Unsure, and nervous, Kaidan took it.

Andrea Alenko paced the kitchen tiles. She watched her feet, dressed in smart brown flats, wondering how she had not left a groove in the kitchen floor yet. Her baby was coming home. After a week in a clinic she had given him to in blind hope – he was coming home.

The thought filled her with a sea of emotions: joy, happiness, fear, trepidation.

Since he had been born Kaidan had been a difficult baby. His father had been busy in the Alliance, away from home sometimes weeks at a time, and she had been left with the sleepless nights; the writhing, screaming infant she felt helpless to comfort. Nothing she seemed to do for him was right.

It only got worse as he got older; he became distant, a silent, angry mystery behind those black eyes. He would fall into rages, uncontrollable violent rages, and when he screamed the whole house would move. Literally. Blue smoke would rise from him, like steam from his hot angry skin, snaking round him in tendrils that moved and danced as though they had life of their own. Things would move; things would break. Sometimes it was his own little bones.

For years they had tried to hide these incidents, but the couple had come under hard scrutiny from the authorities every time they took him in for treatment and explained away the injuries with the usual accidents. The worst of it was he was a very careful child, rarely ever hurt himself while he was playing. The latest warning had come from the Child Protection Service, warning them that an investigation would be launched if Kaidan received any more injuries. They were going to take him away from her, and despite everything – all his troubles and problems – she couldn't lose him. She loved him too much for that.

In desperation she had started to dig into extranet reports, surprised to find that Kaidan's behaviour, while uncommon, was not unique. There were other children out there; reports of strange things happening that sounded all too familiar, but no real leads as to what was the cause, or diagnosis. That was where she had happened along Dr Howe's work.

She was ex-Alliance, not afraid to stand up for things she believed in, and when Andrea had seen her picture she knew she was the woman to help her. Her own son had been liked Kaidan, or sounded like he had, and he had died in some freak accident. Of course she had contacted them; she would do anything just for a diagnosis – just to understand.

The sound of car outside made her clutch the apron at her waist. Wiping her hands on the white front she looped her dark curls behind her ears and rushed to the front door. She yanked it inward, squinting against the sunlight as she held her breath.

Daniel Howe was at the top of the garden path; he had introduced himself the day they had come to collect Kaidan. He looked no different, dressed in a pressed brown suit and gold tie he gave her a curt wave and a small smile as he turned back into the van for a moment. When he turned around Kaidan stepped onto the path beside him. He looked incredibly small against this bulk of a man stuffed into a suit and she felt her throat tighten with a sob. She had missed him so much.

He looked good, a little pale, but he looked like he had meat on his bones for once. He was dressed in his blue dungarees and green striped shirt, his dark hair a little longer, coming down past his ears now, the ends bending into curls like they did when it got too long. He lifted his eyes to her as they began a slow walk toward the house; they were accusatory, hard, angry and she swallowed, twisting her fingers in her hand, round and round.

"Mrs Alenko." Daniel Howe started as he got closer "He's a little tired. Might we have a word inside?"