Been awhile so potential One Shot but may build on this ...

*BACKGROUND MUSIC: Tupac - Dear Mama Instrumental*

"I don't know if you will read this …At times I don't know if you will even care if these words reach you."

Antiquated as it was, the words poured onto the parchment as easy as the blood that had been spilled throughout his life. Flickering as the artificial light bounced over each written curve, his eyes traced the lettering even as his drifted to another time, a simpler time …

"I know I've been your Hell. That the path I took that lead me here isn't what you wanted for me … "

Interrupting his thoughts, the periodic clanging of lost souls searching for a physical exit from the purgatory of their own creation, he trained his focus on the single reprieve before him.

"I blamed you for many things … For many things that I couldn't control or understand that still tear at me. My faults, my shortcomings, I blamed you for many things … And now, only now do I understand that it isn't easy for a woman to try and raise a man …" He scratched as best he could as the gnawing pain rose in his appendages.

"I hoped that I could take the pain away … To show you that there is a something more out there for you than you would allow yourself to see. But all I did was add to it, and in the end maybe this will give you the peace that my existence never could."

Visions of a past from long ago filled his mind … if only the momentary tranquility they provided would have been sufficient to calm the burning anger that was ever-present during his existence. Fleeting emotions that left as soon as they came, but their remnants lingered as they pulled at soul he had left.

"And even as the Hallex took so much of you away from me, you gave what you could even if I refused to see it. My anger that has always gotten the best of me was never meant for you …" Pressing harder than what was necessary; he crushed the tip of the instrument he procured.

Dejected as he looked on at what he had done, he began the painful process of grinding a new point with his now bloodied fingers. Each turn took its share of flesh but he remained undeterred.

"Sticks and stones …" He quietly crowed repeatedly, the words etched into the shadows of a past he had tried to suppress with the passage of time.

Finally with his labor completed, he turned his attention to the entrance of his abode. Stained with more than just decorative colorings, it beckoned to him as the hour drew near. Slightly shaking his head as a soft chuckle left his gullet, he turned back to the crude table he had pressed into service. Drawing in a deep breath, he focused his attention and continued.

"My anger, my pain … it has always been for him and no matter what is said, I can't and never will feel for the stranger that he has always been to me. But even through all of this, through everything that you will hear about me and what I have done, never forget that what you tried to give me has always been appreciated. "

"It's time …" A lone figure spoke as he peered though the bars, blocking the bit of light that had managed to sneak into the forlorn pace.

Nodding in silent recognition that the hour had finally come, he quickly turned his attention back to what had seemed to take a lifetime to complete. With a final breath of emotion he scribbled a short verse.

"I wish I could take your pain away, but I can't…"

The door opened with a strong creaking sound as if it had never been open since the last cycle that had cursed the living to death by the Reapers. A threat ended by the one who has become known as The Shepard, but to him, a hated memory of a ghost known only as Father.

Turning quickly as he took up the words that he could never find the strength to utter, he approached the lone figure whom he had come to an understanding of sorts with the situation they both found themselves in.

"Please, get this to the Quarians. They'll know what to do."

Relinquishing it slowing, the carrier nodded in silence as the author proceeded past into a world that had always been alien to him. For a brief moment in his life, clarity entered his mind as his destination was revealed…The Gallows.

Looking down at the single page in his hand, the sentry studied the leading words as the intended recipient was revealed to him …

" Dear Mama …"