Chapter One

It's once his ship set off through the relay that Wrex heard a rather peculiar noise coming from the cargo hold. He'd finished a job delivering some kind of cargo between gangs, and apart from some action from the Blue Suns, it was quiet. Wrex hated quiet; like all krogan, he craved action and the thrill of demolishing his opponents in a fight, even if he'd tempered that urge with some common sense.

The ship was a small one with a cockpit, bathroom, and two bedrooms (one for himself, and one for guests he either was handing over to someone powerful or being paid to watch over). There it was again, the faint scratching noise that his sensitive hearing detected. Grabbing a pistol, he darted into the cargo hold and came face to face with a scrawny human with red hair, who couldn't have been more than twelve years old. She screamed, and Wrex barely managed to dodge a flair of blue biotics.

He dropped the pistol. "Hey kid, it's ok. I'm not going to hurt you."

"You're not?" the girl sounded tired, as if the whole universe was against her.

"Of course not. Is there any family?" He doubted that there was, but he needed to check anyways.

The girl shook her head vehemently. She might be underweight, but there was something of a survivor to her stance.

"What's your name?" he asked, since it's seemed rude to continue to refer to her "girl" or "kid".

"Cassia Shepard," she replied.

"Interesting, that sounds kind of like a turian name. My name's Wrex. Urdnot Wrex." It's ironic, and while there's a small portion of him that protested that he would make a lousy parent, but another part of him wanted to take a shot at what the genophage denied him. "I've got a bunk for you and I guess we'd better head back to the Citadel and fill out some paperwork."

"You mean you'll let me stay?" There's a hint of hope in Cassia's eyes.

"Of course I'll let you stay." That prompted what humans referred to as a smile. It's slow to form, but it's there.

…

Initially, Cassia struggled to fall asleep. She tossed and turned, even though the bed and blankets were soft and comfortable. She knew most people would think that falling asleep in krogan's place was suicide, but then again Wrex isn't what she expected of a krogan. Sure, he is a fierce fighter, shown by the confident way he held his pistol, and the scars that lace his body. However, he is kind to her, and helped put fresh sheets on the bed, she now lay on.

"If you need anything I'll be right down the hall," he said.

While a small part of her is tempted to wake Wrex, the habit of fending for herself and not trusting adults, is difficult to shake. She doesn't remember her mother, and her father was a mean person who hit her a lot until Social Services put him in jail for smuggling red sand, and placed her in foster care. Foster care wasn't much better with her either being ignored at best, or abused at worst. When she'd finally run away she thought she was home safe. But no, she had to get caught up in a bloody gang war. Maybe things would be different this time. As long she behaved and the authorities decided to let her stay with Wrex.

"No one's ever wanted you why should Wrex be any different?"

"Shut up!"

In spite of her pessimistic conscious, Cassia hoped that things truly would be different this time.

…

It took Wrex two days to direct his rickety ship to Citadel, two days in which he alternated between trying to scrap together something nutritionally beneficial for a human and awkwardly comforting said human. Plus, he'd caught Cassia poking around his ryncol stash.

"That stuff will cause permanent damage to your liver, and that's if you're lucky."

"But you drink it," she pointed out impertinently.

"Well, I have multiple organs in case my primary ones fail, you don't."

After that, the kid finally back down. When they arrived at the Citadel, Cassia gasped. "Wow! What is that ship over there?"

"That's the Destiny Ascension," Wrex explained. "It's an asari built ship and the Council flagship."

"Do krogan have big ships like that?" Cassia asked.

He knew the kid didn't mean anything, but the question brings back dark memories he'd rather not think about. "No, we don't."

Maybe there's something in his vocal inflections, but Cassia doesn't ask any further questions. It takes half an hour to get clearance to land, and another half hour to go through customs. The customs agent, a turian, seemed to enjoy giving Wrex a hard time. Finally, they are cleared to enter the Citadel. The Promenade with its wide avenues and open space had Cassia smiling.

"It's all so big!" Her expression is one of childish wonder that is universal to all species' young, even little krogans.

…

"Absolutely not!" the sour faced woman said. "We are not letting some krogan brute adopt a human.

"Battlemaster, I'm a battlemaster," Wrex countered. "Besides, Cassia is a biotic and she needs training."

"Are you implying that we are incapable of training biotics sir?"

"If you mean based in the failure of your biotic training facility than yes, I am."

Just then another human, a man, approached. "Why don't we ask the kid what she wants."

Then all three of them looked at her, which was rather disconcerting. "I want to stay with Wrex," she said. "And my name's Cassia Shepard, not 'kid'."

The woman gasped at her audacity, but the man simply said, "Anita," and pulled her aside. After a whispered conversation they both came back.

"Fine you can adopt her," she said. "For all the good it will do the kid."

So Wrex spent the afternoon filling out paperwork, while Cassia sat and stared out the window. She did answer one or two questions, but her new father did most of the work. When it was finally done, Wrex treated her out to dinner at a diner restaurant, and if anyone found it odd to see a krogan and a human child together, they kept their opinions to themselves. Although, Cassia liked her turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich, she found her mind wandering to what her life would be like now.

"So, the first thing we need to do is get you tested and fitted for a biotic implant," Wrex explained. "Getting it installed, isn't fun, but then we can start working on getting your abilities in control."

"You'll be there when they do the procedure, right?" she asked warily.

"Of course." After that, Wrex spent most of the time explaining that he planned to have her enroll in an online school, since "our home's a ship." Cassia just smiled and nodded. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too far behind her peers.

…

The first thing Wrex did was submit Cassia's application to an online school for spacer kids. The acceptance letter came several days later. Cassia would start in two months, which would be plenty of time for her to undergo the surgery to put in her implant. True to his word, Wrex was present for the surgery, once the medical personnel realized that he wouldn't get in the way. Although, Cassia was clearly apprehensive, she only winced a couple of times, and never screamed.

Then a week after the surgery, came the challenge of tutoring her abilities. After the first few tries, she slumped. "I've never going to be able to do this."

Wrex resisted the urge to yell. It hadn't worked for him when he was a youngling trying to become a battlemaster, and it wouldn't work for the kid either. "Just take a deep breath and focus."

Cassia closed her eyes and reached out. Blue energy coursed from her fingertips, and the tiny red bouncy ball she attempted to lift was thrown to the other side of the cargo hold and caused a small dent from its impact. "Oops. Sorry, Dad."

Wrex laughed. "It's ok, Cassia. I caused far worse when I was training to be a battlemaster."

"Really?" Cassia inquired eagerly.

So Wrex regaled her with one of his old stories about his early days, and Cassia laughed. They also consequently ate dinner at a later time, but Wrex didn't mind.

…

When Cassia heard another mention about the Genophage in class, it took her several weeks to work up the courage to ask her adoptive father about it. He'd just completed a job that took them into the Terminus systems, and he seemed happy.

Dad almost looked sad when she mentioned it. When he was finished explaining it, she asked, "how are you going to fix it?"

"That's not something you can fix. Krogan, in general, are too focused on fighting to change anything. Plus, we have no scientists."

"If anyone can fix this, you can," Cassia insisted. She can tell from the stance of his body, that he doesn't believe her.

…

It took all his self-control not to hit the first boyfriend Cassia brought home: a scrawny tan human with black hair and brown eyes.

"Just play nice," she pleaded with him. "He's already nervous enough when I told him that you're a krogan."

So the trio had an awkward dinner where both Wrex and the boy only talked through Cassia. He was almost relieved when she broke up with the guy two months later. However, he was able to support his kid through her ice cream buying surge, and sat through several stupid movies.

…

When Cassia printed out and read an Alliance recruitment add, she was torn. On one hand, she wanted to help defend people. Plus, they provided incentives for biotics like her, especially those with prior training. On the other hand, she knew her dad wasn't too enthusiastic about the Alliance and she didn't want to disappoint him. So Cassia put it off, and tried to focus on their upcoming vacation to Elysium, and her high school graduation. She managed to put it out of her mind for most of their vacation, until Dad got a call, and said he needed to take care of something, leaving her to hang around in an area with cute shops.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" A young asari maiden stood nervously next to the bench.

"No, go ahead and sit," Cassia invited.

She sat, but she eyed her warily until she noted the flyer. "Is that a recruitment poster? Are you planning on joining your species' military?"

Cassia shrugged. "I don't know. A part of me wants to, but I don't want to disappoint my father and he isn't a big fan of the Alliance."

"Maybe you should think about what might happen if you don't enlist," the asari suggested. "You might spend the rest of your life wondering 'what if'. My mother and I aren't on talking terms, but I wouldn't trade my archeology expeditions for the whole galaxy."

Just then, Wrex arrived with some Japanese takeout, and the asari quickly left. Cassia wanted to confide in her father. However, she still worried that she would only end up disappointing him.

…

Wrex didn't know what to say when Cassia finally confided her plans to join the Alliance military. On one hand, he worried about the danger his precious daughter faced. On the other hand, it was a better job than becoming a mercenary like him, who straddled the line between lawful and illegal. So he smiled and congratulated her.

When she shipped out for boot camp, he gave her one last piece of advice. "Don't forget your biotics are part of you, whatever those lily-livered pyjaks say."

"Thanks, Dad!" Cassia smiled then and hugged him, something she rarely did, since she knew that krogan were not the hugging type.

"Now go make your father proud!" he yelled loud enough that several of the other passengers eyed him warily. He watched her walked onto the ship and stayed there until the ship glided away into the distance.