Bria jumped at the sound of gunfire and blinked once before looking around to see who had been shot.

It all happened in slow motion for her; she slowly turned to look at Terran, he seemed just as surprised but wasn't hit, and she panned back to her father and little brother her father jolted backwards and stumbled back.

"No!" She screamed again, releasing Terrans hand and falling to her fathers side. Her brother was already crying on the other side of their father.

"Dad!" She screamed holding onto her fathers hand as he stared blankly between his two children.

"I love you…" He rasped blood spilling from his lips. "I'll tell your mother you said hi…" he chuckled a little and let out a breath, but did not take another.

"No! Daad!" her brother screamed clutching to his fathers red stained chest with desperation. "Dad come back!"

"Bria… Daniel… we have to go." Terran said nervously eying up the Batarian Slavers that for ever reason hadn't already killed them too. "Now!" He said grabbing her as she grabbed her 6 year old brother.

Bullets whizzed by their heads as she stopped for a moment to pick up her brother rather than making him try to run with them.

They ran through the town, with the Slavers right behind them, all around the trio screams, bullets, fire, and death happened around them.

Several girls and children were being slung over shoulders or stuffed into large bags, every house in the colony seemed to be on fire, and everyone was running and screaming.

"This way!" Terran ordered as he led them into a alley way of sorts.

The three of them ran as fast as they could down the way, Shepard looking behind her every so often to see if they were being followed.

She started to slow down her pace until she was at a stand still looking down both ways of the alley way. "I think we lost 'em…" She breathed, she was breathing heavily; trying to get air into her lungs.

Terran looked around doing the same as her. "I think you're right…" He bent over and put his hands on his knees.

Daniel buried his face in the crook of her neck and started to weep.

"We're going to be okay Danny… I promise." She cooed, rubbing one of her hands up and down his back while the other kept him held up around her.

"We have to get moving, they'll find us eventually…." Terran stood up and looked at her calmly, but his eyes gave him away. She could see his fear, stess, and anxiety.

She nodded and started to walk with him her small and terrified brother wrapping his arms around her neck tighter. They rounded the corner and they froze, a scream emanating from her own lips, she actually scared herself.

The Batarian Slaver stared at her and seemed to grin and scowl at the same time. He aimed his pistol at her head another coming up behind Terran and suppressing him as he screamed and kicked to get them off of him.

She tightened her grip around her brother who refused to open his eyes and kept his face hidden, terrified.

Batarians were still completely foreign to her, still alien… still scary. She shivered as they group of five started talking to each other in their native language, either they had turned off their translators or they didn't have any.

She watched them as the Batarian who had his pistol trained on her nodded his head in her direction, two of the three walked up to her and grabbed at both her and he brother. He started crying and screaming for her, his nails dug into her shoulder as he tried to hang on to her; she was no doubt doing the same to his back.

"NO! Don't you DARE touch him!" She screamed and tried to hold onto her only brother. Terran's own yells and screams grew at seeing the two Slavers rip them apart.

"Bria! Help!" Her brother screamed his arms still reaching for her as he was slung over ones shoulder and was being taken away. The other Batarian held her still, keeping her arms behind her back the whole while.

The last remaining Batarian trained his pistol on Terran, ready to kill him execution style.

There were four left at this point, each of them had one Batarian holding them while another pointed a gun at their head.

Shepard bowed her head and started to cry as her brothers screams died away with the distance that was coming between them. She could still hear Terran fighting to get free, making her feel even more hopeless.

It was over.

Her entire family; her father, her brothers, no doubt her little twin nieces and her several cousins were all gone. Dead. Murdered.

A sob escaped her throat as she heard the gun cock, she pinched her eyes closed and waited for the sound of their deaths.

When it came she still jumped out of her skin and screamed from heartache, she wasn't dead meaning they had shot her love.

But instead of hearing the sound of his killed body hit the soft ground she heard the sound of yelling and confusion. Her eyes shot open and her head snapped up and looked around.

More gun fire sounded as they tried to shoot and kill the man who had somehow dodged a bullet, the same bullet hitting and killing the Batarian behind him.

She kicked at the Batarian's shin behind her and ducked to prevent getting shot of hurt by the other. As she predicted the shooter Batarian tried to take a shot at her but instead killed his collegue, at the same time as Terran she reached down as snatched the dead Batarian's weapon, she fell to the ground on her back and shot at the Slaver from the ground. Terran taking the shot from a standing position.

Both Slavers dropped to the ground with a thud.

She lowered the gun and stared at the body and couldn't help but kick his leg. She sighed and lowered her gaze.

Terran came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, she heard hiim take a breath to say something but he stopped when her head snapped up. "Daniel!" She cried and took off in the direction she had last seen her brother.

Terran caught up and ran right beside her as the two of them searched for the small 6 year old boy.

"We'll find him…" Terran assured between breaths.

She nodded and kept up the pace. Explosions and screams were making her ears ring, it was chaos everywhere and she didn't see the batarian or her brother anywhere.

Shepard grunted when she felt Terrans body slam into hers and push her into a ditch.

"Terran…" She looked at him confused before she was shooed into a drainage pipe that was buried under there.

"Stay here." He ordered.

Shepard was confused by the sudden change, one moment he was assuring her that THEY would find them, and now he was making her hide.

"Terran what…"

"I can't lose you… there's too much out there… too many Slavers and they aren't going to kill you… they're going to TAKE you. I can't let that happen. I want you to hide here."

"What if something happens to you?" She asked, her voice cracking. She reached out a hand and grabbed onto his arm to make him stay for awhile. "If we're going to hide I want you to hide with me."

"I have to find Daniel… and I have to make sure they don't try to come look here." He looked behind himself to the opening of the large pipe, the pipe itself could hold a full elephant comfotably. "I'll bring Daniel back here when I find him. And you'd better be here." He looked back at her and gave her a hard stare, she stuffed all arguments and nodded numbly at her boyfriend.

He nodded once as well before leaning over and placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'll be back soon."

"Wait!" She yelled as he was about to leave. "Forever…. Remember?" She cocked her head to the side and looked at him sending him a small smile.

He smiled back and nodded, "forever."

Shepard looked down and away from him, and jumped when she felt his hand cup her face and lift it to his . He placed a hard kiss on her lips, "I WILL come back for you… I promise." He studied her face.

At that moment she felt as if she was really safe. The screams and gunfire seemed to fade and it was just them; but it only lasted for a moment as he took off without another word and bolted from the pipe.

Shepard sighed and allowed tears to fall as she slammed her back into the side of the pipe and slid down it to the wet ground. She brought her knees up to her chest and rested her arms over top her knees. Shepard looked out the entrance one last time before laying her forehead on her arms, her stolen gun laying by her side.

After what seemed like eternity the screams and gunfire started to fade, but there was no Terran and there was no Daniel… it was just her in the dark pipe with a pistol.

She stared at the entrance and waited for her lover and her brother to pop up but reality started to sink in when everything died down and the only sounds were quiet whispers from the Slavers themselves, still talking in a foreign language.

She scooted back further into the pipe as not to be seen at all if they came down into the pipe and huddled her gun gripped tightly in her hand with her finger on the trigger ready to shoot.

But nobody ever came into the drainage pipe, and before long the sounds of Batarian Slavers faded as well, followed by the sound of their ship leaving.

She was alone.

After Shepard was sure they had to be gone she shot up and bolted for the exit, climbed up the ditch and back onto the main land.

What she saw horrified her.

Buildings and trees were on fire, PEOPLE were on fire laying perfectly still in the middle of charred and blood stained grass.

Bodies littered the area around her, the smell of burning wood and flesh filled her nostril and her stomache couldn't help but empty its contents.

Shepard wiped her mouth and looked around the field again before remembering that her love had not come back for her like he'd said.

She gasped and broke into a run screaming his name and looking around all the while. She ran by a two brunette girls held closely by their mother, her nieces. She cried out in horror but never stopped running.

She saw the farm house she and Terran had been sitting and making promises on only moments ago, really, where the whole thing started.

Shepard ran into the barn, she opened the large door and walked in, "Terran? Terran are you in here?"

She stopped in the middle of the room and scanned the area for him, "Terran!" She called again, but no response.

"Terr-" She stopped and froze, in the far corner of the barn was a body. "No…" She breathed, she broke into a run to the end of the other side of the barn where the body laid; when she got up to it she dropped to her knees and examined the body.

It was Terran.

"No… oh god no…" She muttered as she put her face over his, listening for his breathing, there was none.

"NO!" She screamed and started pressing on his chest, hoping to get his heart back up and breathing. She covered his mouth with hers and breathed into him. "Come back…" She whispered as she repeated the process again.

After doing CPR processes a for a good 20 minutes, she was out of breath and tired; and Terran wasn't breathing.

"Oh god…" she kept one hand placed over his chest as she stared at his still paling face. "Terran…" she whimpered.

MASSEFFECT

It was another 12 hours before Alliance patrols came in, Lieutenant Zabaleta looked around the carnage and sighed. "Get these fires out and look for survivors." He ordered his men.

He saw a rather large barn and pointed to two marines. "You two… with me." The nodded and fell in on him following their CO into the barn.

"Hello? Is anyone in here?" He didn't see anyone but he was planning on seraching the whole barn for ANYONE still alive.

"Sir. Over here." One of the two marines called.

Zabaleta went over to the marine and took in the sight.

A small teenaged girl was laying on top of a young man. From the looks of it the bnoy had been dead for sometime now, but the girl was rising up and down with her breaths.

Zabaleta crouched down next to her. "Hey…" he touched her shoulder.

Her head was buried in the dead man's neck and shoulder, one arm clutching the back of his neck, the other had his shirt balled up in her fist.

Before he could respond she shot up and had a pistol barrel pressed up against his cheek, but when she saw he was human and not batarian she sighed and lowered it, tears rising to the surface.

He cringed at the sight of her, she had blood covering her chest from the boys own wound. She was covered in water and dust, she looked terrible.

"You're safe now…" He whispered studying her face.

She let out a sob and fell into his arms and simply cried, not long after her breathing evened out and she fell completely limp.

He drew his lips into a thin line and nodded to the marines who had stayed and watched. "Let's get her out of here…" He said as he stood up slowly bringing the girl up in his arms. "Bring him too…" he ordered as he walked out of the barn and back to the shuttle that would take him back up to SSV Einstein.

MASSEFFECT

"Name?"

"Shepard."

"Age?"

"17"

"Sign here."

Shepard obliged signing her name on the white sheet. The woman pulled the sheet away and nodded after checking the paper over. "Very good, down the hall, last door on your left." She said and looked past her to the next person in line.

Shepard moved away and started her slow walk down the hall.

It had been one year since she had lost everyone close to her back on her home. After Zabaleta had brought her back to the Citadel she had learned she was the ONLY survivor in the colony, nobody else had made it. She had attended the large funeral for her friends and family but after that did not look back.

She just couldn't.

She had also learned that her brother had never been found. She went through counciling and turned out okay, but one thing was for sure.

She was joining the Alliance military.

She opened the door on her left and walked up to the desk there.

A black man stood and held out his hand which she took and shook firmly. "You must be Shepard, I'm Captain Anderson."

Anderson motioned to the seat in front of his desk and they both sat down. "Why don't you tell me a little about your past…."