The librarian, whose name was Melanie, had gone from bemusement to curiosity. Once she had accepted the child's strange eyes and genius level intellect, he was easy company. She wished there were more children like him in the colony, and if she was being totally honest she was also quite taken with the boy's father. A tall imposing, but soft spoken man who. When she finally got him to speak, proved to be very pleasant conversation.

"So has he always been like this?"

She asked as they both watched the boy pore himself over books and datapads. The father took a moment to think before answering.

"He's always been curious. And from the day he could first speak, he had a question for every little thing."

Melanie smiled looking on as Matthew had his fill of the notes on Asari biology, and moved on to a book about….

Batarian military tactics?

I thought my reasoning was pretty sound, if i wanted to prevent the Batarian attack i had to know my enemy. I intended to do something about the attack. In the two short years I had spent here on Mindoir. It had become my home, my life, my planet. And I would be damned before I saw anything happen to it. So I began to study them almost to the point of obsession. I learned just about everything there was to know about Batarians. (And I mean everything.)

I also started on learning better chakra control. It started out with the basic stuff, but it didn't really feel basic. I fell down, a lot. I started by trying to walk up my bedroom wall, and I honestly couldn't tell you what was harder. Actually accomplishing what I had set out to do, or not getting caught by my father. So i oftentimes had to do all my training while he slept. I was thankful for the Rinnegan, it could now see chakra almost as flawlessly as the Byakugan. So I could simply watch my earlier attempts, rather than having to simply 'feel out' the chakra I required. Though I suppose I had glossed over one very important detail.

I could walk on walls and trees in my bare-feet, not in my shoes. Which added a good half inch of chakra that i need to spread to the soles of my feet, that being said. When I attempted to walk up a tree in my shoes I ended up taking a rather embarrassing pratfall. It took me a while to get exactly what I was doing wrong, and slightly longer to compensate. But as soon as I got it completely down. (I could hang upside down! So damn cool!)

I decided I was ready for water walking. I was wrong. So, so wrong. Water is free-flowing, constantly shifting and moving. Meaning that there had to be an almost constant change in the shape, amount and even texture, of the chakra used. It took a hell of a lot of adjustment, and falling into the bathtub. A lot. But eventually, with much wobbling and shaking of legs. I did it, I stood on water.

For 10 seconds.

After I spluttered out of the bath-tub I concluded that it needed some work.

Howard Price was a simple man. That's what he liked to think, every weekday he would get up, wash up. Slip on his work clothes, take his four year old son to the colony's only daycare center. And then he left to work on the construction of the developing colony's new and growing infrastructure. His wife may have been gone. But Howard had learned long ago that time waited for no man. So he moved on keeping her in his heart and cherishing her memory. All the while doing his best to raise their son. Matthew was an odd child, with strange eyes. And a maturity far beyond his few short years. Quiet and introverted, Matthew was everything his mother wasn't.

Though his mothers side shined through most when he was passionate about something, he threw himself at it with an almost ferocious intensity. He often dragged Howard to the local library, to conduct what Howard privately called, research sprees. Exhausting all available material on a subject before he finally exhausted himself.

Howard was sometimes annoyed by the late hours his son studied into. But it also often gave him the opportunity to speak with the resident librarian. A personable shapely raven-haired woman who he found to be quite fetching, her name was Melanie and she was the first woman he had met on Mindoir (other than Jessica.) That he actually liked. She was intelligent, engaging and enjoyable to be around.

And he was also glad that Matthew seemed so enamored with studying. For soon the boy would have to brace himself, School was horizon. Howard had never liked school, it was 13 tedious boring years of learning (mostly) worthless information. But it was a necessary evil. And if Matthews current intelligence was any indication, school wasn't going to be too big of a challenge.

He reflected as he and Matthew approached the colony's one school, a tall imposing structure more akin to a fortress or a prison than a place of learning. He could see other parents lining up outside, and was pleasantly surprised to see Melanie. With a green-eyed red headed little girl following close behind. Clinging tightly onto Melanie's hand, Melanies smiled widely as Howard and Matthew approached. "Hey Howard! Are you getting Matthew signed up?"

Howard nodded as Matthew came out from behind his legs and gave a little wave. Melanie returned the wave, and gave Matthew a quick pat on the head.

"Hey Matty, did you like that book I gave you about explosives?"

Matthew nodded vigorously, grinning widely.

"Yeah it was really cool! Especially the part about biotic explosions!"

Howard rubbed his head uncomfortably, giving a rather awkward smile.

"He asked me for a demonstration. And well, I may have destroyed a few trees"

Matthew just grinned widely, uncaring of the arboreal carnage.

"There were splinters everywhere! It was awesome!"

Howard turned his attention down to the little girl, who was looking up at Howard, he smiled.

"Hey there little lady. Who might you be?"

She gave him a small smile. And came out from behind Melanie's legs.

"M'names Jane..."

Howard bent down, straining to hear. The girl's voice had been little more than a whisper.

"I'm sorry, could you say that again please?"

The girl flushed cherry red, and gave a little squeak. She scampered behind Melanie's legs, shaking like a sapling in high wind. Melanie chuckled and ruffled the little girls hair.

"I'm sorry she's just a little shy is all, so she isn't really good at meeting new people."

Howard just smiled, Matthew had been the same for a small while. And had remained that way until he met Melanie, who had broken the shell of isolation and silence. And had against all expectation, revealed the outspoken curious boy that Howard had formerly only truly seen glimpses of. So why hadn't Melanie been able to work her magic on this little girl?

Before he could bother to ask, a voice yelled over the loud-speaker.

"Attention, parents and children! Please form an orderly line by the double doors! Each parent and child will be called by name to be interviewed. Pray that your answers are...satisfactory."

The children and even a few of the adults shivered, the voice of the dreaded headmistress who made grown men shake in their boots like they were once again unruly toddlers.

Mrs Darcy.

She was called many things by many people. The mace, the axe, the warden. But her most popular, and perhaps most fitting nickname, was whiplash. To six year old children and grown adults alike, she was terrifying. The living personification of the three signs of a displeased woman, the folding of the arms, the pursing of the lips, and the narrowing of the eyes. Although she also had another name, rarely used though it may be.

The mother of Mindoir.

After the first contact war, humans began expanding into the attican traverse. Though it was only a small trickle compared to the veritable flood that preferred to stay in the comparative safety of citadel and alliance space.

The Batarians had a strong grip on the region at that time. And pirates and slavers ran amok in the system, with no one to check their advances on the sparsely populated colonies that dotted the traverse. Word of attacks came in almost daily, and those that by some miracle survived the attacks. Just accepted it as a part of living there. Though Batarian colonies in the region seemed to go unmolested.

Meanwhile anyone else who tried to colonize, be they Elcor, Volus ,or Hanar. Where attacked, pillaged and burned without warning or mercy. The council chose to stay out of the affair. Citing that the Attican traverse was out of their jurisdiction, and therefore not their concern. Though in all actuality, it was simply because they did not want to risk offending the hegemony. And so the Attican traverse became known for being nearly as lawless as the Terminus systems.

And then the humans came.

The humans bit into the traverse, and they held on with everything they had. The Batarians had expected easy prey. They had expected the weakness and helpless submission so common of other races. What they got was something else entirely, in the beginning attacks were constant. Even today the number of deaths was only estimation, countless colonies were attacked. Most left, some stayed, Mrs Darcy was one of those brave enough to stay.

Her husband had apparently died in an attack, it enraged her, made her angry and bitter. She had held that bitterness inside and turned it into her strength. When the batarians finally made their way to Mindoir expecting an easy raid on the then tiny colony. What they got was all the pent up rage and aggression of a young woman bereft of her husband. As soon as the colony picked up the Batarians on sensors Mrs Darcy had apparently stormed into the village center, and through a combination of fear and sheer force of will, managed to organize the willing men and women of the colony into a cohesive fighting force.

When the batarians finally came, the colonists fought with anything they could get their hands on. Whatever few firearms they might've had. With knives, with farming equipment. And even with their bare hands. They held out for five days against what should have been insurmountable odds. Until help from the alliance finally arrived, it was a hard won battle. But it made Mrs Darcy a living legend. Her story inspired others who lived in fear, and soon. Pirates and slavers were of the apparent opinion that the attican traverse was more trouble than it was worth.

The Batarians gave her a name of their own. 'ta skyeiveri' (roughly translated to mean "the she demon") And soon more people began to travel to the Attican traverse as word of Darcy's bravery reached citadel space. No one expected her to then become an educator, but that had apparently always been her dream. And a fine teacher she was, she was known all over the colony for the fierce tongue lashings she would administer on unruly children. But she was never cruel, only disapproving. She was eventually asked to take a seat on the village council. Responsible for the general welfare of the colony. And had taken the seat of headmistress of the school. (after they had finished building it of course.)

Mrs Darcy sat at her desk. Thin fingers steepled in front of her as Howard Price and his son filed in. The boy looked quite a bit like his father, the same general shape of the face and eyes. And the same aristocratic nose, but he had inherited the same long ebony locks of his mothers family. And his eyes….

Now that was interesting, they were all one color. A light almost metallic purple with concentric black circles surrounding a freakishly small pupil. Some sort of mutation? A consequence of being a spacer? It hardly mattered at the moment. But she could always ask the boy herself later.

Howard sat down and helped his son into the chair that sat beside.

She cleared her throat and began to speak, her voice affected by smoke and by age.

"Howard, a pleasure as always. And I see you have young Matthew with you, I hope this interview will be a short one."

Howard shifted uncomfortably in his chair., as memories of narrowed eyes and disapproving reprimands unburied themselves and played in an anthology of shame behind his eyes. "Er-um yes so do i. I-well, er this is Matthew."

Her eyes again flicked down to the boy, who could have sworn he felt a chill run down his spine as the old woman surveyed him like a bird of prey. She turned in her chair and addressed him directly. "Do you want to learn something here boy?"

Matthew simply sat and gave her his best serene smile. He was going to have a little fun with her."Oh most certainly! That is of course if you have anything to teach me."

She frowned, a cheeky one eh?

"You think you're smart?"

"No ma'am."

"Why ever not? Do you want to be stupid?"

Matthew smiled, it was an impressive bit of rapier wit. But he could riposte something like that, if she wanted a dance she would get one.

"Of course not! And anyway you didn't let me finish. I was going to say that I don't think I'm smart, I know I am."

Mrs Darcy was more than a little impressed. This boy seemed far more intelligent than she had first given him credit for. But how long could he keep up?

"When did humanity officially become a space-faring race?"

She gave a small inward smirk, there was no way in hell that he knew something like tha-

"April 12th 1961, When Yuri Gagarin rode the Vostok 1 probe into Earth's orbit."

Darcy couldn't believe what she was hearing. What child at four years of age knew something that archaic? Just what in the hell was she dealing with here? She continued with the questions seeing if she could find something that the boy didn't know. And yet for every question posed the boy seemed to have an answer. How could a mere child be this infuriatingly intelligent? After ten or so minutes of non-stop questions, she finally gave up.

"I do believe we are done. He is more than qualified to come to this school"

Howard nodded, helped the child out of his chair. And hurried out, leaving a curious and brooding Darcy behind. Her thousand yard glare fixed smartly on the boys retreating back.

I lay on my bed as Mindoirs red crescent moon shined down from above, the events of the day playing over and over in his mind. That woman had been sharp, oh yes indeed. Like some sort of unholy fusion between Albus Dumbledore and Granny Weatherwax. I would have to be especially careful around her.

She could probably draw blood with a tongue that sharp.