Age: 15

It had been almost a year since Jack had escaped her sentence as a slave. The first few days had been the hardest, trying to find her way in a city she didn't know, on a planet she had no clue about. But cities, no matter the planet, are all the same underneath the veneer. All it takes to find yourself in neighbourhoods where gangs rule the streets, where crime runs rampant and where no-one asks the hard questions is to walk down the wrong street, turn the wrong corners.

Or in Jack's case, the right ones.

She wasn't sure about her name, she'd never been called anything but Subject Zero her entire life. A life filled with torture, abuse and violence, which ironic given it's exactly how she'd escaped it. So she'd listened and found herself liking the name Jack. With her raggedly and loose-fitting clothes, the name Jack meant that it was hard for anyone to tell if she was male or female, and she liked that thought.

She'd stolen a few valuables and some credit chits from the man who thought he'd bought her. She was smart enough to realise that the chits themselves would be useless after a few days, once they discovered what was left of his body. But they lasted her long enough to get a feel for the streets, about how this city worked. She started walking down the streets, not knowing which ones were right or wrong, but somehow knew when she'd be where she was going.

She eventually found herself in a building complex only one broken window away from becoming a slum. A woman was sitting on something approaching a throne, if garbage sifters and bums decided on making their own kingdom. She asked Jack questions about who she was, what she'd done, where she was from, but Jack didn't have answers. She demanded to know what made Jack think she was worthy of joining her gang, and Jack reached into her pocket and drew out a piece of fine jewellery she had stolen from the dead man's apartment. This got a few appraising looks, but the queen didn't look impressed.

"How did you get this?" she asked, disbelieving.
"I killed the man who owned it. He thought he was buying a slave. Turned out, he was buying his own death." Jack flared her biotics, her body outlined in bright blue fire. The queen said nothing, merely nodding with a shrewd and calculating look at Jack.

"Well then, welcome to our little company Jack. Milosh, Manara, see that she gets a room and some food." A boy and a girl, who looked in their late teens approached the biotic teenager, the boy reaching out to take her arm and lead her. Jack turned on him with a look of venom.
"Don't touch me!" she shouted, turning to the girl and letter her lead her. Milosh looked back at the queen and shook his head, but she waved away his concern.

SIX MONTHS LATER

Jack had fitted in well with the gang. For the first time there were people who, while not exactly friendly, she wasn't being forced to fight and were not attacking her. There were a few of them she even liked, like the girl who'd lead her to a room originally. Her name was Manara, she was 18 and she'd been in the gang for a few years now. The two of them had developed a friendship, with Manara looking out for her against some of the boys, and girls, who tried to take advantage of her age and inexperience.

Mostly, the gang was about theft and a little bit of hacking and black market information. However, whenever they suspected a fight was going to happen, or were going out looking for one, Jack always tagged along. The gang had a few pistols between them, but Jack never needed them. With her biotics, there was never any need for her to carry weapons, she was one.

Manara had even gotten Jack to open up a little bit about why she hated boys so much.

"About a year ago, I escaped from a research facility," Jack confided in her friend one night. "They tortured me, made me fight, turned me into what I am." She held up a glowing hand in explanation. "After I escaped I was picked up by a passing freighter. I was starving, barely clothed and I had been shot. They took me in, patched me up, fed me and gave me some new clothes, though they were too big. There were about 6 of them, all men. I trusted them, and that was my mistake."

Her eyes turned cold and she choked a little on the words as she continued.
"The first night, it was just the captain. He gave me something to drink, not sure if it was just booze or drugged as well, but everything went fuzzy. Next thing I know, he's got me under him, taking my virginity. He managed to say the right things to make me believe it was right. But the next night, it wasn't just him. After a few nights, all of the men had taken me, drugging me each time so I couldn't resist. By the time we'd reached this planet, they'd all had their fun, so they sold me to someone else. But I killed him, and found you guys, so here I am."

Manara listened to Jack's story and then hugged her close.
"I won't ever do that to you Jack, I promise."

ONE MONTH LATER

The raid came close to dawn. The police had been getting word for months now that this gang was the top of the heap in this section of town, and finally had enough evidence to arrest them. Jack was already awake when the first boots were kicking down the door. She ran back to the room she had been sharing with Manara, shaking her awake and then throwing some clothes at the girl. Manara jerked awake quickly when she heard the shouts, pulling on her clothes quickly as Jack stuffed what few valuable possessions she had into a backpack. Once Manara had her boots on, Jack grabbed her by the arm and jumped out the window which backed onto the alley, using her biotics to slow the two of them down enough that the landing on the building across the narrow space was merely jarring.

The two of them ran away from the old gang hideout, until they had come to the edge of the spaceport. Jack handed Manara the omni-tool she had managed to grab, since she was one of the better hacker's the gang had.
"Get us some plausible identities and a ticket out of here Manara."
"I'm not sure I can Jack. I've never done anything so complex."
"Then learn fast, because we need to be out of this system in an hour, or we land in jail right next to the rest of them. I won't go back to a cell Manara, I'd rather die."
"Alright Jack, I'll try."

Manara spent 30 minutes booking passage on a small shuttle, and another 20 trying to make convincing identities. The spaceport agent waved them through with barely a glance, since the asari had been on shift for ten hours already, and was just about to clock off. The shuttle attendant looked a little more wary, but there was nothing obviously wrong with the identity passes or the tickets she was handed, so she showed them to their small room.

An hour later the shuttle hit the relay, sending them towards their destination. Jack and Manara sat down on the single bed the room had, both of them trying to form words to express how they felt. There was no doubt in either one's mind that there was something between them, but it was hard to put a finger on. Jack was the first to find her voice.

"Manara, you did a good job today. You're the reason I'm still free." She slowly put her smaller hand on top of the older girl's. Manara turned her hand around and laced their fingers together. Jack didn't look her in the face, feeling her cheeks warming at the touch of another's hand held in hers.
"No Jack, thank you. You could have gotten out by yourself, but you came back for me. You made sure I was alright. I owe you everything, so I want to show you how thankful I am." With this, she tilted Jack's chin up with her free hand until they were looking into each other's eyes.

Both of them just looked, barely aware that their faces were edging ever closer together. It wasn't until their noses were almost touching that they both closed their eyes and felt the first soft, gentle contact of the other's lips. They broke the kiss, and both of them saw something welcoming, wanting in the other's eyes. They fell back onto the bed, kissing passionately, hands roaming and exploring their newfound partner's body.

As their passion eventually subsided, Manara held Jack's body to her own, enjoying the feeling of her breasts against the younger girl's back. Jack just smiled and a single tear escaped onto the pillow at the discovery that sex and making love were two very different things.