Pre-notes: This plane ride is taking way too long! I have a two hour layover in Phoenix Arizona in about an hour. Kill me plz.

Welcome, junkipii!

Abinostar50, SurvivorHawke, Angsty Shenko- I love you all!

And I love you, Mistress of Kickassery!

In this chapter, I'm trying to show Shepard in a more vulnerable light. Put aside the fact that she's an amazing Commander; she still has breaking points.

One, Two, Leave your crew.

Three, Four, Worked to the core.

Five, Six, Running 'til you're sick.

Seven, Eight, Can't see straight.

Nine, Ten, Do it all again.

"Hold it!"

The Asari Spectre paces around Shepard. The Human shakes with fatigue, her face drips with sweat, her trembling lips whisper a few choice words as her burning lungs struggle to expand. The woman's feet bury into the sand, arched up; her toes and the front end of her feet support her as she exerts her biotics. A sizable rock floats in front of her shakily.

"Hold it!"

The biotic veil around the boulder fades slowly as Shepard's breath comes in shallow, wheezy breaths.

"Hold it, Shepard! Hold it!"

Her final breaking point is reached. Bile rushes past the girl's throat and lips. The boulder thuds to the sandy ground as the girl falls along with it, curling in pain as she vomits forth into the ocean's waters. Shepard grabs hold of her skull, grabbing hold of the centerpiece of her crushing migraine. Tela walks around the poor girl, kicking her onto her back. The girl looks up at her, tears of pain running freely down her temples.

"Five seconds", she says to the panting girl, "You're weak. Do you really think you're going to catch Saren with piss-weak biotics like that? He will crush you!"

"I... Have a good... Crew..." Shepard pants.

"And you think they'll carry you through thick and thin?" Tela scoffs. "You're a Spectre now, Shepard. Spectres work alone." The Asari turns to the glass window at the far end of the synthetic beach, "Mission done!" she shouts.

The world slowly dissolves around them; grid lines replace the Tropical zone. Each particle of sand dissipates, every ounce of water evaporates. Even the rock Shepard failed to hold dissolves into nothing but air.

It had been a week since her arrival to Pinnacle station. Right from the start, Tela had cracked the whip. Within the first hour, Shepard had been sent to the holo-room for a ten mile run in armor. In any other occasion, a ten mile run would be nothing. Tela apparently knew this; that's why she ordered Shepard to run in the Volcanic simulation. The woman would grudgingly oblige the Asari's sick method of training. Running she did, through fields of ash and brimstone, over warped and buckled metal catwalks that stand high above the bubbling river of molten lava and noxious gas.

Shepard holds on to the burning handrails as she jogs across the catwalk. Over the uneven plates she occasionally trips but always catching herself before she loses balance. She can feel Tela's derogatory gaze beating down on her as well as the gazes of the other Spectres who gathered behind the glass at the far-side of the holo-room to watch her, making bets on how long the new girl will last.

A loud metal crack draws her attention from her audience. She looks at the far-side of the span, a metal structure connected to the bridge, unsheathes slowly from the rocky ground. The forward end of the structure starts to lower and buckle. The blonde whips around, dashing back the way she came as the metal cracks again, lowering her even farther. She hears the Spectres laughing at her as she awkwardly runs across the searing metal. One final crack explodes through the room; the farther side of the span falls. The pressure snaps the weak bridge in half, the farther end- along with the girl, reels to the river below.

Shepard's hands instinctively grab at any debris or shard of metal that might drift closely to them. The woman screams as she crashes into the molten river with the metal bridge on top of her.

"Sim off."

"There a reason you're following me?" Wrex asks as he steps into the elevator, Ashley in tow.

"Just escorting the dignitaries", she says, leaning against the wall as the lift starts to move.

Wrex leans on the other side, glaring at the coy girl, "Mhmm. I'm not stupid, kid, I can see it in your eyes- you don't trust me."

"Maybe I don't."

"You gonna do something about it?"

"Shove an assault rifle up your ass and fire if you do anything wrong."

"Ha!" he laughs, "I like you." The girl just scowls at the laughing Krogan as the elevator hums to a stop. The Krogan motions for her to follow him to the CIC. "Come on, kid, make sure I don't go on a blood rage and murder everyone."

"That's not funny", she says, prepared to grab her rifle at any moment. "You try anything, Krogan, and you're dead."

"Do you think you could?" he asks with a dark chuckle.

"Unarmed? Turned? Closer than your shields? The great Krogan regeneration wouldn't be able to save you in time."

Wrex stops laughing, his voice takes an even darker tone, "There's one thing I noticed about you, kid. Wanna know what it is?"

"My name's Ashley."

The girl halts as the blood-stained barrel of his Savage shotgun presses against her nose. The Krogan had turned on his foot, pulled the gun free from seemingly nowhere and shoved it in her face in less time than it takes to blink. "You assume", he says. "You assumed that I was disarmed- you assumed that you would be ready to kill me if I attacked, but look at me." The onyx-haired girl swallows painfully as she stares down the barrel of the shotgun. "One twitch of a finger and your skull decorates the walls."

After a stiff second of silence, Wrex pulls back the Savage- locking it into place on his hip. "Don't assume things, don't trust anyone and don't overestimate yourself, kid. The naive die young in this galaxy- the only reason you're still alive is because you're strong, but that doesn't mean you're invincible."

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience, Wrex", Ashley says, taking a step back in case he was wanting to try shoving his shotgun in her face again.

The Krogan points to the deep scars running from his plate, down to his neck, "My father tried to kill me once. We were at the Hollows- a sacred meeting ground on Tuchanka where weapons and violence are forbidden. I assumed he'd uphold the traditions long enough to end an old family feud, three-hundred years in the making. After he pulled out a machete and started hacking away at me, I realized how stupid it was for me to assume that."

"What happened after he attacked you?" she asks, trying to wrap her head around how a parent could change into a murderer.

"He stabbed me", he says, knocking on his head plate and revealing a deep scar in it. "Deep too." He starts to laugh, "Bastard didn't know I had pulled it out myself- much less that I was alive. He was on his way out when I called his name. I waited until he turned around to stab him back- right between the eyes!"

"You killed your father?"

"Krakhor tried to kill me first."

Wrex turns and opens the door to the CIC. "Trust no one, kid."

Ashley follows the brute to the cockpit, ignoring Pressley's disapproving gaze. "Hey, Pyjack", the Krogan says, stopping behind the pilot's seat. "I need to get to Tuntau."

An intense feeling of cold wakes the woman up from her nightmare. She jolts up, sputtering out the icy water from her mouth as the Asari laughs at her.

"Awake yet?"

"Yes! I'm awake!" she growls, pulling at the grossly wet suit.

"Well, you failed your first session."

"Couldn't tell."

The Asari leans down and hands Shepard a thin, plastic card. Tela fakes a smile, turns and heads for the arena's exit, "You're off for the rest of the night. Go enjoy dinner and then go to your room. You'll be getting up early tomorrow"; and then as quickly as she had arrived, she had disappeared.

"Yeah. Okay..." She sorely pushes herself off of the blank, white, gridded floor. She limps across the training room.

She flips the card in her fingers, looking at the intricate patterns; weird vine-like appendages stretch from one side to the other. She flips back to the front- a Spectre symbol lays precisely in middle of the card. The symbol's piping spreads out and up into what seems like wings. Under the wings lies a nearly three-dimensional circle that seems to shine in the light. It's impressive but there's still something missing... "The room number..." she whispers to herself, flipping the card again to make sure she didn't miss it.

No choice but to try it on all of the doors.

She turns into the hallway and stops, mouth agape. The hall... the room stretches further than her eyes can see. She turns to the map on the wall, "VI", she says.

A buzzy voice echoes down the hall, "Yes, Spectre Shepard?"

"...How many rooms are there?"

"There are five-thousand rooms in this hall. Each door is given fourteen feet of space between each, respectively. Each room is equipped wi-"

"That's great but do you know where my room is?"

"Yes."

"Where is it?" she asks, ignoring a growing suspicion in the back of her mind.

"I cannot say. I apologize."

Suspicion confirmed. Shit. "Tela Vasir block it?" she asks.

"Yes."

"Wonderful."

By the time Shepard finds her room, most residents- mostly Spectres, council workers and staff, arise from their rooms, waking slowly as they head for the cafeteria for an expensive breakfast consisting of anything you could ever want.

The holo-pad blinks a bright green as the card passes through it. Shepard breathes a sigh of relief as the door hisses open and reveals a wide room. The plush carpet presses against her feet as she steps tiredly through the condo-like apartment. A king-sized bed lies snugly into a corner- against the wall that separates the marble bathroom designed with a Thessian lion bathtub and platinum-rimmed metal from the warm, contemporary bedroom aligned with unique and alien artistry along the walls. The main room- the room she's in now- runs the length of the apartment. Two leather recliners sit perfectly congruent to each other in the middle of the thin, long room- both face the sixty inch holo-screen. At the end of the long room lays an evenly angled, marble kitchen. Shepard slowly limps toward the bed, already falling asleep.

"Think fast."

Shepard winces and catches the claw as it tears through the air. The three-fingered talon breaks free from her hold as its twin crashes into the side of her head. Shepard quickly recovers, landing a kick into the Turian's stomach. The Turian howls; a bright yellow ball of light forms in his hand. It gives a pulse and detonates- Shepard yelps as the explosion makes impact, tossing her across the room and into the wall.

The Turian stalks to the moaning girl, a predatory glint in his eyes. Shepard looks up at him through filmy, dazed eyes. The man glows brightly in his aura of golden dark energy. "Who are you..?" she hisses.

"Penentuan!" an Asari gasps, coming around the corner, "Goddess! What are you doing?"

"Teaching", Penentuan mumbles, letting his biotics flare down.

The Asari fluidly brushes past him, offering a hand to the Human. "I'm so sorry about Penentuan- he's a bit rash... Sorry if he dinged you up a little bit. My name's Dalysha- we're both Spectres."

Shepard accepts her hand, "You don't say", she heaves, "What the hell was the point of that?" she asks, glaring at the Turian.

"You have much to learn."

"-What he means is that he wanted to test you. He's very hard to understand but he's not a bad guy. Honest."

"And he came into my apartment to do it?"

"...No. We were on our way to get you. We came in and-"

"Dalysha made a beeline for the wine."

The Asari blushes a bright purple, "Yeah I'm a sucker for booze. But that's beside the point; I was going to pour myself some when I heard a crash. I expected the worst."

Shepard shakes the ache out of her leg, "Well why were you coming to my room in the first place?"

Dalysha flashes a sympathetic smile, "Tela sent us to get you- your next lesson is about to start."

"You're kidding", she groans.

"I'm not. Sorry, sweetheart."

A Salarian clad in silvery armor and green baggings walks around the corner, "You have tech training today. Don't know how a Human will fair, your people barely know how to spell your own name, much less fight."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Wazo."

Penentuan scoffs through his mandibles.

"Just ignore him dear", Dalysha says, guiding them all out the door, "He's an asshole."

Her hand gropes for her pistol.

Vasir shakes her head. "It's still gone, Shepard." The "teacher" had taken her pistol and left her with only an omni-tool and a pack of medi-gel. The Tropical zone isn't known for having much cover, in fact it's pretty open despite the towering cliffs surrounding the platforms and catwalks.

"I don't know why we're putting a Human through tech training. There are some things that aliens don't understand."

"Shut up, Wazo."

Shepard holds an unsteady position in the middle of a walkway that stands above the oceanic stream. Both directions of the catwalk lead into two spawning points; both funnel in five holograms at a time. Shepard ducks and fires off an Overload at a coming form, and then another, and another again. The bright green omni-tool blinks and hisses under the stress. She looks in both directions; swarms of holograms shuffle out of the spawn points toward her. She figures her chances are bleak and jumps off of the walkway, grunting in pain as she hits the rock bottom of the foot-deep river.

"Twenty seconds left, Shepard."

The woman retreats under the bridge, letting her omni-tool cool as the holograms slowly make their way to the lower ground. Two icons flick on the device; a circle with tendrils of electricity framing out from the middle glows a dark blue as the icon next to it, a snowflake, glows a bright white.

A hologram splashes to the ground in the same area she landed, exploding as Shepard draws back her omni-tool. She doubles back, as another lands beside her, electrocuting the synthetic before it even had a chance to stand. The omni-tool blinks again, already stressed by the overuse.

"Ten."

Shepard screams in pain as a simulated bullet digs into her shoulder blade. A hologram had snuck behind her as she attempted to override the cooldown period. A blade extends from the base of the handheld; she swings her arm at the holo, it buzzes and sputters as her omni-dagger slices through its torso. The omni-tool returns to its original form.

"Done. Sim off."

A week. It has been a full week since Shepard had arrived. During that time, she had been completely booked. Shepard had spent Thursday- her first day- running through the Volcanic scenario. Friday was spent on intensive omni-tool training; Saturday and Sunday were both used as rest days, during which Shepard had laid in bed, completely spent of energy or motivation. The Asari Spectre, Dalysha had come over to visit for a while, still apologizing for her colleagues' behavior. They had a chance to crack open a bottle of Napa valley wine from Earth and talk about the responsibilities that come with the job and then each other- mostly about Dalysha. The alien had even snuck a few small hints of affection which were not touched. The next day, she was placed in the Subterranean scenario where she was left with only her pistol in the dark for five minutes, completely vulnerable to any type of attack. She had done flawlessly, going so far as to even wedge herself into a small, jagged opening in the wall of the cave. Tela had congratulated her with her usual back-handed compliment. Dalysha had been ecstatic while Penentuan remained silent and Wazo had commented that he could have done it better. On Wednesday, she had tried the Volcanic run again. She succeeded this time by taking the rougher, longer way around the bridge. On the final day of Wednesday, Tela had personally dragged her out of her bed with her biotics, shoving Shepard into the Tropical zone to practice the Commander's own prowess over dark energy.

Today is Thursday. It has been a whole week. Shepard hadn't been awakened by people attacking her, nor was she woken up by a hard-ass teacher. She was able to sleep in and after she woke up by herself, she was able to relax and lounge around the condo, finally taking in the glamorous view of the polished marble or gold-rimmed ceramics. It was when she made her way to the mess hall that she found Vasir huddled up around mounds of datapads at the table.

The Asari flicks her glared eyes up at the girl, "You passed", she growls.

Shepard glances down at the datapads and then back to her, "You don't approve?" she asks.

Tela Vasir slams the datapad she was reading onto the table, drawing the attention in the room towards the two of them, "It's not that, kid. You were doing great this week."

"Then why are you pissed off now?"

"I'm not pissed. You succeeded. Good for you. Now IIIIIIIII have a shit ton of paperwork to sign."

"...So what happens now?" she asks, painfully aware of all the eyes on her.

The Asari buries her face in her hands, "Now you leave. Your crap will be delivered to your ship. Go."

"...Thank you for teaching me..."

"Just leave."

Post-notes:

Let start by saying sorry for being late. Since I got home, things have been unbelievably chaotic :.(

My teachers thought it'd be cool to ruin my life with tons of work. Chemistry and Spanish are my worst classes; guess which classes both had tests in the same day! Chemistry and Spanish. Uugghhhh God help me. My Spanish teacher is such a frickin nazi. If you misspell something or place an accent incorrectly he'll mark you off for a full point! We just started! In addition to daily work, we often are assigned twenty packed pages of work, an online class in addition as well as weekly tests, quizzes, and oral proficiencies (conversation in Spanish.)

And Chemistry! I understand most of it but I've always sucked at math. Whoever the hell thought it'd be a good idea to mix science and math needs to die... Again!

Ugh FML :(

But anyway, sorry about not putting Garrus' dossier in the story. I couldn't work it in.

Powers:

Overload.

Concussive blast.

Proximity mine.

Disruptor ammo.

Weapon training:

Sniper rifles.

Preferred armor:

Medium

So there it is.

Thank you for reading. Please like my Facebook page (Mass Effect by CelestialLight) to see the small bits of information, quotes, teasers and amazing concept arts! You won't regret it, I promise!

p.s. My cover art, "We Fight or We Die", is beautifully created by SeeHangArt on deviantart. Look at the whole picture to see something extra ;)

-CelestialLight.