Authors notes: Mass effect is the property of BioWare.

This chapter is a little bit long than the first two, got carried away with it :P

Chapter 3: Stirrings in the night

Three weeks had passed since they all first arrived on Umbra and still Kat was having trouble settling in. She missed her mum and dad, she missed her house, and she missed her own bed with the little indent where she would lie down each night. Kat stared into the mirror and came to the conclusion that the thoughts flying through her brain wouldn't allow her to sleep and it would be another restful night. She pulled down her lower eyelids to get a good look at her bloodshot eyes before recoiling with a look of horror on her face and rubbing her eye.

"This isn't good for you Kat." She spoke to herself softly as not to awaken her roommate who was sleeping peacefully just outside the door. She looked back to the mirror and ran a hand through her hair, spiking some of it up at an awkward angle and smiled to herself. She blew the mirror a kiss before returning to her bed to stare at the ceiling. Before she got in though she heard a faint thump come from down the corridor. She chalked it up to her mind playing tricks again and dismissed it but once again she heard it. Still unsure as to where it was even coming from she carefully opened the dorm door and poked her head out. The academy was pretty lax when it came to curfews. Their view was as long as you could function properly the next morning it didn't matter when you slept but Kat though a female student walking around at two in the morning alone might raise a bit of a commotion.

Still she was intrigued by the noise, louder now she had edged out of the room and shut the door silently behind her. Now she stood in the corridor outside her room she could tell the sound was coming from the practice room. The practice room was a large, circular room directly under the living area, which was under the dorm rooms. This was the same in every building as far as she knew and it gave the academy a nice symmetrical feeling. The noise was by no means loud, it was barely audible to her so no one would be woken up by it but still, and to carry any noise at all up to the dorm rooms took a lot of effort. She was intrigued further.

Being so small she barely made a sound when she tip-toed past the other rooms, a few of her fellow students could be heard snoring faintly through their doors and she felt sorry for their room mates. She followed the noise down to the living area, which held the buildings kitchen, eating area and a large space to relax and chill out. Normally this room was bustling with people but at this hour the room was dead quiet. The only noise that could be heard was that god damn thumping from the floor bellow. In the living area the sound was clear. A strong thump sound sticking mostly to a slow beat. It sounds too heavy to be someone walking around, and too deliberate, too well timed to be someone taking out their rage.

She prowled her way towards the stairs leading down to the practice room; astounded no one had caught her yet. That was before she glanced at the clock on the wall and remembered just how early it really was. She considered going back up to bed, giving up on the noise and trying to get some sleep but then a succession of quick thumps grabbed her attention again.

"It appears curiosity might just kill the Kat after all." Smirked Kat for a second feeling clever before remembering that it was just her in the room alone talking to herself, not the coolest thing to do really.

She shook off her embarrassment and continued on her journey down the staircase to the bottom floor of the building: the practice room. From the outside it looked like an interrogation room, a large double-sided mirror occupied most of the wall with the only other feature present being the door. Cat edged along the wall till she met the door and prepared herself for what she would see on the inside. All the while she had been approaching the door, the thumping sound had gotten more frequent almost as if it was her own heart beating with a mixture of fear and excitement. She didn't get much excitement back home but she had always dreamed of it, and this was as close as she had ever gotten. Fear burned her head but she wasn't going to turn back now, how could she when she was so close to solving the mystery?

She slowly and carefully peered through the glass slit in the door to peek a look at how was inside. To her slight disappointment there was only one guy, not the small army she had imagined. The boy in there must have been her age she thought and was practising his biotic powers on dummies. She saw him fling a shockwave at a dummy in an attempt to knock it over but the dummy merely wobbled and teetered before lurching upright again with a thump. It suddenly hit her that the noise she had been following had been that of the dummy returning to its original position, she laughed slightly at what her imagination had come up with instead of something so simple.

As she continued to watch the boy practice she could see that after every unsuccessful attempt he would grit his teeth and furrow his brow, clearly angry with himself. His black hair was wet from sweat and his chest visibly rose up and fell down from panting, it was clear the guy was exhausted. As Kat continued to watch the student practice she started to notice some of the finer points about him. She stared at his subtle arm muscles; just peaking out of the tight black top he wore rolled up to above his elbows. His jet black hair, although sweaty, was the length se liked on guys, not so long you cant tell the gender from behind and not so short that she could see scalp. His eyes were brown, almost as dark as his hair and gorgeous. Although not her usual type, Kat couldn't deny that this guy wasn't too bad on the eyes. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

"Don't go doing that Kat, Do be ruining things again"

Suddenly she remembered his face; he was Commander Shepard's son from her class. Kat racked her brain before the light bulb above her head shone bright and she remembered he was called Thane. Most people thought it was a stupid name but Kat actually found it oddly beautiful, it sounded deep and spiritual. Kat got to thinking about how she probably wasn't the kindest person on Umbra towards him. Her group of friends were the "cool" ones so a few members poked fun at their classmates but Kat had never done that. But she hadn't stopped them either. She stared at the floor slightly out of shame before a noise from inside the room drew her attention.

Thane was transfixed with the dummy he was attacking and Kat saw her chance. She eased open the door with the lightest of touches and quietly stepped into the room, almost blowing the door shut the amount of pressure she applied. As she slowly turned around she was relived to see the biotic still facing away from her and throwing shockwaves at a dummy. She could hear the noise the power made as it flew through the air now, a rippling sound that seemed to pulsate inside your head for a second or two after the initial move had ended. Kat took a step forward towards the lonely student and raised a hand preparing to speak a greeting of some kind when suddenly out of no-where she was greeted herself with the full force of a biotic shockwave.

It had been a long day for Thane and it was starting to get late. He could see the dazzling purple sunset out of his dorm room window and started to get lost in his own thoughts and the quiet call of his bed. A sudden bleep form his private terminal woke him with a start. The flashing light irritated his heavy eyes as he slumped down into his seat to see the message. But he didn't receive a message; it was a live video call.

Shit Thane thought to himself. He rubbed his eyes furiously and tried to make his hair look presentable before answering the call.

"Hello?" He asked, trying to sound awake. I did not work.

"Wake ya did I?" Came a snide reply. He instantly knew it was his mum Jack and a smile appeared on his face for the first time in three weeks.

"Listen here, you aint going to that school… academy thing to sleep like some lazy fucking Batarian. Get out there and blow some shit up!"

"Mum its like midnight, everyone is in bed already. I think if I "blew shit up" as you put it I might get a few complaints."

"You can't be sarcastic with me, I invented that shit."

There was a brief period of silence between the two as the stared at each other before Jack spoke with a smile.

"So how's it going down there? Just thought I call because quite frankly without you here your father has been acting like a horny fucking schoolboy. Twat wont leave me alone for 3 seconds."

"I still don't want too know that sorta stuff about you two, how many times? You two are forty seven for gods sake!"

"Calm ya tits! Fuck sake anyone would think I'd told you how he-"

"I implore you, for the sake of my sanity not too finish that sentence" Thane interrupted.

Jack smiled again, that wicked mischievous smile she used when she could tell she was pulling the right threads.

"Ha ha ha just messin' with ya. See your dad doesn't get that, he always thinks I'm being serious. I've got no one to tease when you aint here." She pouted after finishing what she was saying, hoping to get a response out of her son.

"Oh that makes me feel so warm inside" Thane held his hands over his chest and sarcastically wiped a tear from his eye. His mother laughed again loudly which apparently alerted Shepard to the call as he came bustling into the hologram.

"Thane?" he peered inquisitively at the projection.

"Hey dad" Thane waved back

"Ahh goo to see you again, well see a holo of you at least. This is much better than sending messages to one and other. So come on then, tell me what biotic camp is like." The commander seemed genuinely interested so Thane chose to ignore the use of "biotic camp" this time. His mother didn't however and Jack playfully batted Shepard round the back of the head, releasing a small curse word from his lips.

"Yeah its going ok, the people are nice. Well most of the students are kinda dickish but the teachers are nice. There's this bald teacher called Patrick and he's really good and always friendly-" Jack burst in then.

"Some of the kids are dickish? Then teach the scrawny tit heads who's the boss. Break a few bones, curb stomp a few heads. Don't let them push you around; you're stronger than they are Thane and if any one of them lays a hand on you I will fly over there myself and crush the little prick in my palm." Jack's hole body glowed blue and Thane could tell she was being serious, he was a little scared of her when she acted like this, he couldn't imagine what it must be like to get on her bad side.

"Mum its fine chill out, they aren't going to jump me when I'm going to eat or something, I can handle it." The storm around Jack ebbed and phased out of existence as Shepard put an arm around her and pulled her in close. She relaxed into him and kiss him quickly on the lips before staring dead straight at the holo.

"Seriously. Anyone fucks with you, tell me first and ill make them wish they had never been born."

Thane got the message and nodded in agreement, mostly to shut her up rather than anything else.

"Right I better be getting to bed, this training thing is hard work"

"Oh speaking of hard work," His father said abruptly "guess who has just been award a bravery medal? Garrus." Shepard beamed at the hologram but Thane could only manage to reply with a half heated grin.

"Ok you're tired I see, I'll let you get some rest. Good work out there son" John Shepard nodded at Thane and walked out.

"Yeah, keep it up and all that shit. Hell I dunno, stay safe out there. I love you kid"

"Will do, I love you too mum"

With that Thane ended the call and shut down the terminal. He breathed out a long sigh. Couldn't he have a single conversation with his dad without mentioning Garrus? He shook his head to try and move the jealousy around but only made it come back stronger, this time bringing anger with it. He couldn't get any sleep like this; he was past the point of rest now. Even the dark nights sky with its alluring stars didn't give him the respite he needed. He finally decided to stop lying on his bed, wallowing in self-pity and hate, and to instead do something practical with his time. Although it was getting on one o'clock in the morning now he knew that the practice room would be open, they always are as biotics sometimes have a had time sleeping and need to let off some steam, which was exactly what he was heading down there to do. He put on his work out clothes and paced down the corridor to the staircase.

Once inside the practice room he limbered up. The first thing his mother had taught him was that you had to prepare for a fight if you could. Always be ready, always be alert and above all else, know a way out but the last lesson was rendered mute in the situation. He sized up the practice dummies as he stepped into the middle of their protective circle. He closed his eyes and focused his mind, blocking out any outside noises or distractions. He could feel the mass effect field slowly build up around him; he could feel the small streaks of blue energy radiating from his skin. Curling round his arms and running down his fingers, curling around the tips and heading back up towards his head. He opened his eyes and could see the blue tint touching the corners of his vision, running away whenever he tried to focus on it.

Thane let loose a biotic shockwave at the dummy directly in front of him witch collided with the dead centre of its chest. The dummy rocked on its base leaning backwards before coming back down flat on its base with a thud. Then threw another shockwave and another but still the dummy refused to fall over. He gritted his teeth, willingly himself to try harder and go further than he had ever done before, anger and jealously fuelling the fires of his power. He tried using pull on the dummy but could only lift it one of two feet before it fell out of his grasp and crashed back onto the floor. The frustration in his mind clouded his vision as brought his right arm around his body and flung it back again, releasing a poisonous curse along with the biotic wall that he sent flying towards a dummy. It staggered and slid back but still refused to fall to his power.

"Why. Wont. You. Fall. Over!" Thane screamed inside his head. He was starting to loose control. Hurling random biotic attacks one after the other at the same dummy, trying to batter it into submission. He was tired, sweaty, anger, frustrated. So many different emotions and feelings clogged his mid he couldn't even think straight.

"I bet Garrus doesn't loose control like this."

That did it. Just comparing himself to his older brother put a fresh set of anger into the fires like rubbing salt into a wound. His teeth clenched harder than before and he panted as he threw stronger and stronger attacks that the dummy but still its remained adamantly in place.

Suddenly he felt the presence of another person in the room and thought back to what his mum had said. He had completely forgotten to stay alert and because of this someone had gotten the slip on him. His brain was still on fire so he reacted without thinking, twisting round and releasing a biotic shockwave at the person before he had even glanced at who it was.

The smoke that lingered between the two of them slowly cleared so that Thane could just about make out a silhouette. The first thing he saw were two ice blue eyes behind a biotic shield staring straight into his deep browns. His heart dropped as he hoped against hope it wasn't who he though it was but it proved useless. Kat stood before him; she was projecting a barrier to defend herself and staring at him with an expression of shock and severity, one brow lifted.

They both stayed silent, staring into each other's eyes for what seemed like weeks. Eventually Thane broke the silence.

"I'm…" He began. "I'm sorry for that, I wasn't expecting any company and you caught me of guard. I wasn't really thinking, sorry."

It seemed all Kat had waited for was an apology as she quickly dropped her barrier after that and returned to a more relaxed posture, leaning her hips slightly to one side and resting her hand on them.

"Thought you would never apologise." She joked. Thane looked bemused by her lid back attitude. He had almost smashed her into a wall after all.

"You're Thane right? Shepards son?" She apparently chose to ignore his confused appearance and paced sideways, not taking her eyes of Thane as she approached a waist high bench.

"So I've been told" Quipped Thane, his eyes following her as she moved. A small giggle slipped out of her light lips as she finally took her eyes away from Thane to gracefully leap up to the bench. Her legs dangled off the edge and the tips of her toes just grazed the floor as she swung them absentmindedly back and forth.

Thane took the opportunity to take in the gorgeous eighteen year old sitting in front of him She was wearing a large men's t-shirt; easily three sized too big that hung off her chest and ended just bellow her hip. Peeking out from bellow the shirt was a pair of very short pyjama shorts that closely hugged her stunning thighs. This was the first time he had seen a real woman bare legged and it was not a sight he would quickly forget. Her legs were long and smooth. He looked her up and down noticing that her toes, like her fingers, had a deep shade of crimson nail polish on that stood out brilliantly against her pale skin. He marvelled at how even in just a big t-shirt with no make up Kat still looked stunning beyond belief. The only thing that looked out of place was her hair that was oddly spiked up on one side as if she had just gotten out of bed. Kat must have seen him staring at it because she went a pale shade of red and quickly looked at the ground, flattening her hair and putting her fringe behind her ear.

"Yeah you woke me up, hence the hair" She lied, trying to justify the clothes and hair as her fringe fell in front of her face again. "Normally I don't look a complete state." She joked while laughing slightly.

"I think you look great." Thane whispered quietly under his breath as quietly as a mouse.

"What did you say?" Kat asked. She sounded equal parts surprised and confused.

"Huh?"

Fuck. Thane panicked, his mind was still a mess and he swore he only though that. The cogs and machines in his brain whirred for an answer as time dripped by agonisingly slowly. He could see her expression change from surprise too annoyance as he fumbled with his answer, tripping over his words.

"I- I said I'm sorry I woke you. I didn't realise how loud I was being and well… yeah sorry for that. I'll just be leaving now"

"Smooth" Thane thought to himself, his insides turning from embarrassment. Turning to leave he walked straight into a training dummy with a loud crack and stumbled backwards, blindsided by the impact. He gathered himself, cringed, took a deep breath and continued his walk. "Smoother still dumbass, what are you going to do for an encore, snag your training pants on a nail and have a nightmare?" He clasped onto the waist of his trousers subconsciously.

Kat wasn't stupid and she definitely wasn't deaf. She was flattered by Thane's words but could practically see the embarrassment radiating from him so decided she would let this slip of the tongue go for now. Kat gazed down at her lap to save him from any further embarrassment and heard Thane turn to leave, she couldn't help raising a small, innocent smile as she did so. A smiled that she hadn't used in a very long time.

"Bless him." She thought, "He's so awkward around girls, it's kinda cute"

She lifted her head back to where he had been just in time to see him walk into the dummy. Her hands flew to her mouth just in time to contain a laugh, although her shoulders bobbed up and down and her face wrinkled in silent giggles. Her small smile had transformed into a full on grin when she called after Thane.

"Hold on there. You can't make all that noise and get me out of bed just to not tell me what you were doing down here. Have you never watched any films? Plus you did kinda just try to throw me against a wall so you do owe me" She smiled warmly at him as he turned around, one hand resting on the door handle still and glanced at her before staring at the ground. Kat felt bad making him stay, he was obviously uncomfortable with the situation but after all the sneaking around she had done she felt she deserved to know.

Something about Thane had Kat interested. Maybe it was his biotic abilities, maybe it was his awkwardness or maybe it was just plainly his looks but whatever it was, Kat wanted to get to know him better and now seemed like as good 'a time as any.

"So?" Kat asked Thane inquisitively.

With a muffled sigh Thane walked back into the centre of the room and stood next to a dummy, fiddling with his hands. He didn't want to stay here and talk to her. The longer he spent with her the more chance he had of saying something stupid and convincing her, more than he already had, that he was an idiot. When he spoke it was more towards the dummy itself than Kat.

"I dunno. I just wanted to practice." He said nonchalantly with a shrug. He knew she wouldn't but it, they had only spoken for five minutes and Thane could already tell Kat was smart. He bleakly awaited the smart arse comment on his clumsiness, or awkward manner but to his surprise non-came.

"Practice huh? With the sorta force you threw at me I'd say practice was the last thing you need. You've gotta be a combat with that amount of power am I right?" The pink haired girl asked, bringing her legs up on to the table and shifting around to sit crossed legged, resting her hands on her knees.

Thane was puzzled at the sudden shift in conversation topic. He could see in her icy eyes that she knew he was lying and yet didn't pursue it. Why?

"Umm, yeah I am a combat, from the shield I guess you're a support then?"

Combat was the term the students at UBA had given to a biotic that focused on offensive powers and skills. Combats were trained to get close and disrupt enemy lines with their powerful attacks before falling back behind cover. A support on the other hand was someone who focused on just that; support. They use their biotics to project powerful shields to deflect bullets and use disabling or hindering powers to slow down the enemies advance.

"Yup, got it in one." Kat smiled at Thane. There was that smile again. That smile he had seen three weeks ago that still lingered in his most pleasant dreams. It was warm and comforting, when Thane saw her smile at him he felt that for the first time since he got to Umbra that someone actually wanted to talk to him. He relaxing with that thought, his body became looser and he too smiled back at her. There was a silence between them for a while as Thane's eyes glanced from Kat's smile to the floor, enjoying the moment.

"I guess if you really want know" Thane began; "I was down here because I was annoyed and wanted to get out some stress." He was a little shocked at what he said. It might not have been the whole truth but it was more emotion than he would readily give to anyone else, let alone someone he'd been talking to for fifteen minutes.

"Stress? Why would you be stressed? We've only just gotten here." Kat asked, tilting her head to the left slightly and raising an eyebrow as she spoke.

"I uh… I just can't get all my homework done." Thane joked, sarcasm heavy within his words. He held his breath to see if his attempt at humour was accepted by the young vixen or if he would have to quickly make up and excuse and leg it for the door again but this wasn't the case. Thane breathed a sigh of release as Kat giggled appreciatively and smiled up at him again from atop her bench. Her bright blue eyes glinting at him. Her nose ring caught the practice room lights just right and glistened in the silent room, Holding Thane's focus on the girls face as they smiled to each other in silence.

"Christ is that the time?" Kat exclaimed, glancing down at her omni-tool. Thane followed suit and was just as shocked. It was coming up to half three, apparently all those smiling silences had added up. "We really should get back, we've got class tomorrow, well today, and I promised id meet up with Mark."

Mark Orson, How could Thane not remember? Kat and Mark had gotten together after only a few days of being on Umbra together and they didn't seem to care who knew. She was always sneaking out of class to go see him and he would regularly stop by the Five hundred building's living area and he and Kat would sit together. Laughing, joking. Kissing.

Thane suddenly felt like a steak knife had been shoved through his gut as he cursed himself for being so stupid.

"She has a boyfriend you fucking moron, she's not interested in you"

"Yeah, we should." Thane replied, thankfully saying the correct thing out loud this time. Although he didn't look directly at her Thane could see Kat look at him questioningly when out of the corner of his eye when he replied so plainly. He saw her mouth begin to open but was not about to have this conversation with her, not now and not ever.

"Hey are yo-"

Thane had closed the door and ran up the stairs before Kat could even finish her question. She was left in the practice room alone and confused as the sound of Thane's footsteps slowly faded away as he ran back t his room.

"You're a twat" was all Thane thought as he collapsed into bed. The single mattress cot was not as welcoming as his bed back home but he was so physically and emotional drained that he rolled over and fell straight asleep, hopelessly trying to erase the black ink of the evening from his mind.