Welcome to my newest story. I've decided I'm going to make it into some sort of trilogy, starting with Synthetics vs organics and followed by this one I named Hunter. It's Arcen Arterius' origin story. It does tie in with him meeting Serah, but starts off earlier. Other thing, it's completely Arcen's POV. Enough said for now, please enjoy!

Chapter One.
Contemplation.

During my entire childhood, my father was mostly absent. I was born around 2156, one year before our race found out about the human excistance. One year before the first contact war on Shanxi. My mother always said that my father died due to humans and a tower or something, but something didn't make sense to me. Why was he in that tower in the first place?

None could answer me that question. Not even my uncle who said he was there. It had frustrated me since he died, which happen when I was around 1 or 1,5 years old. Not that I realized it when I was that age. But around six, when I saw other boys with their dads, it started to eat away at me. Where was my father? Why wasn't he in our lives?

That's when my mom and uncle started spinning the story that my father was in the military. Which I found out was true, he was a general. They told me he died in a tower, while saving hundreds of turians. Of course that sort of stories work when you're a child. You regard your dad as a hero, especially if you hear those type of stories. So for a few years, I was satisfied with that story. Until I was around 15.

That's when turian's start their bootcamp. A year away from home to get military training. After that, you serve until your 30, then you start as part of the Reserves. From what I gathered it's just work behind the scenes.

My commander back in the day recognised my name. He gave me a stern look before giving me a pat on the shoulder and mentioning what a shame it was to lose someone like general Arterius due to indoctrination. That shocked me to my very core. My entire family had lied to me. My father didn't die in that tower. But I didn't know it was only part of the truth until five years later.

I was working at C-sec, which at the time seemed logical since most turians my age I knew did that. Also, I didn't want to dissapoint my mother. She had high expectations. Mostly because she wanted me to have a better life than her. She was a turian from a bit of a moderate standing. On my fathers side, the Arterius family was pretty high regarded. Probably because my father and uncle both served in military. Our species holds that moral very high.

Anyway, I was working at C-sec, alongside some of my friends. Man those were the times. But all my time there, which was around.. I guess 7 years, I never felt at my place. So much injustice. Lucky for me, I wasn't the only turian with issues within C-sec. My old friend Garrus Vakarian also felt like he couldn't do enough for the people. But awkwardly for me, he followed a human commander turned spectre named Ayden Shepard. You see, Garrus was assigned into investigating my uncle going rogue.

Of course the rumours were that he was indoctrinated by something called a beacon, sited at Eden Prime. It started to seem like indoctrination either ran in my family or was something that seemed easy to use on people. Like some sort of excuse.

So after Garrus leaving C-sec to go with commander Shepard, things got worse and worse around C-sec. But I understood why he left. The higher the rank, the more restrictions we got. There was no way of doing your job without getting told off by your superior. After I left C-sec, I didn't dare to return home. So, I decided to go to Omega.

People on Omega needed help. Omega mostly excisted out of poor people and merc gangs. Some merc gangs seemed to do the right thing, like protecting the weak and poor. From what I've heard when I arrived with my dufflebag and some credits, the Blue Suns were hiring. With my military and survival expertise I thought myself the perfect candidate.

First of all I needed a place to stay. I went over to the appartments, sure, they weren't big, but for one person there should be at least some space. When I got there, I was greeted by another turian. Bodyguard or something. He nodded at me when I went in. There was someone behind a desk, a human. She didn't seem interested in people at all. Or maybe not aliens.

I dropped my dufflebag next to me and leaned on the counter of the desk. After clearing my throat, the human looked up and showed a smile. That smile was fake, I thought to myself, she's clearly disgusted by the aliens living here.

"Can I help you?", she asked me. I showed a small smile. My mother did teach me to be polite to people at all cost. "I'm here to rent an appartment", I answered. The woman tapped something into her omni-tool. In the meantime I looked around. It seemed clean. And so far none came out screaming bloody murder or something. "Name?", I blinked. The woman looked at me irritated. "Your name, sir?", she asked again.

"Arcen. Arcen Arterius", I answered. The woman's.. I suppose humans called it eyebrows? Anyway, she raised them in surprise. Of course, my last name had exceeded me already. "You're family of that rogue spectre Saren?", she eyed me suspiciously. I sighed. What was I going to say? The way she looked at me, it looked like she'd refuse me if I told her the truth.

"No, not that I know", I said. I tried my best to sound confident, I really needed the place to stay. The woman kept looking at me while I was trying my best to keep my composure. "Alright", she told me and got up. She got away from behind the desk and walked ahead of me. I went to grab my duffle bag and followed her. While following her through the complex, I couldn't help but notice how diffrent humans were formed, especially the females. Since I never met to many human females in military I never noticed. Almost all of them I met back then wore armor.

I shook my head and scolded myself. Pleasures like that wasn't why I was here. I needed a job, somewhere to live. Anything but women. Sure, I've already had my fair share of women, but most of them wanted nothing more than a one night stand. At first it's fun, but after a few years it had gotten boring. But the turian females were either to submissive or to.. stern? I don't know what else to call them. Most only cared about hierarchy, a good name to marry into. My name wasn't what it used to be. Since Saren's gone rogue, the Arterius name had been tarnished.

I've slept with Asari before, turians, heck even Krogan. But never a human. Some were interested, but I don't know, guess I wasn't drunk enough to want them. I wasn't like my uncle, who immediately after my father died swore vengeance on all of humanity. I had no problem with humans.

The woman stopped walking and I halted as well. We stopped in front of a door. She gave me some sort of pass. "This is your key, first month's rent is free", she said with a coy smile. She stepped closer to me, causing me to swallow hard. What was she going to do? She brought her face closer to my ear.

"Only for those who are attractive", she whispered and took off. I looked over my shoulder while she walked away. She stopped in her tracks. I quickly turned my head towards the door, trying to use the pass to get it. "You know, I'm always up for something new if you like", she said with a smile. I sighed. A submissive woman wasn't exactly my type. I wanted to work for it. I needed a girl who knew what she wanted.

"Uhm, not right now, thanks for the offer though", I stammered and grabbed my duffle bag when the door opened. "Have a nice evening, miss!", I called out and closed the door behind me. I took a deep breath and breathed out. I looked up to see the apartment. Huge windows, nice view, decent space. This was it.

Welcome home, Arcen.