A/N: Hey everyone,

So I was recently introduced to a fairly well-known anti-hero, who goes by the name of Spawn. He's a hero that is powerful enough to take on every single other superbeing known to man - in both the Marvel and DC universes and come out on top, with the possible exception of Ghost Rider.

Yes, he is even strong enough to defeat superman with relative ease.

Now while to many people, he's sort of a Mary Sue, but his hindrance is his inner demons, not any external obstacles which limits his power that way, and I'll try to keep that in mind when writing this slightly AUVersion of the Mass Effect Verse. There will be angels and demons and it will be fairly brutal, but I want to keep it true to the source material that has inspired me to write this story.

I'm not really sure how much of this I'm going to write, but I will keep it going as far as I can, and if anyone out there who comes across this story has any ideas to make things interesting or sees anything that could have/should have been done differently, I'll take your voice into consideration as well (But be warned, it is still my story, if you're not happy with it, then you can write your own :) )

Without Further Delay, I present to you:

Mass Effect: Spawn.

Detroit, Earth, 2171

Fire. It licks at my heels as I run from, try to get away from the inferno that is consuming everything around me. I can see the exit ahead of me, it's not far - I can make it if I'm quick. As I reach the warehouse door a figure appears in front of me, a gunshot echoes, its brief existence overcoming the crackle of the flames behind me.

My mind struggles to process what happens as I fall to the ground, the silhouette of someone barely recogniseable fades as the door is shut, leaving me trapped inside, left to die until the embers turn cold…

In other news, a Sirta Foundation warehouse was burnt to the ground last night, the remains of a single body were found. No records of who the person was have been released, although police believe it to be a young male. Local law enforcement believe the arson to have been conducted by the local gang, the 10th street Reds, although there is no evidence linking them to the crime as of yet…

"This has been five hundred years in the making." An old man with a beard that stretched to his belt buckle commented, seemingly to no one on the busy street as he listened to the news on one of the many broadcast podiums scattered throughout Detroit. "A new warrior, will emerge from the darkness… Throughout time, the battlefield has changed, but the price to pay has always been the same… The soul." He pulled out an old looking book from within his coat and flicked through until he found the page he was looking for, before slamming it shut again. "It's going to be a while before anything happens, but I've got preparations to make." He started to shuffle down the pristine sidewalk like an oxymoron. His decaying coat and splitting shoes allowed him a wide berth from the other pedestrians, but he paid them no mind as he disappeared into the shadows of a nearby alley, and into the slums of the megalopolis.

Lower Wards, Citadel, 2181.

Night cycle.

Two Investigative journalists strode down one of the many walkways in the lower wards of the Citadel, their confidant gait warding off any would-be muggers that weren't prepared for a fight. The cause of their confidence was understandable. One, was a male Turian, who'd undergone his mandatory military service and had a respectable number of deployments against pirates and rebellions on the outer colonies, while the other, was an Asari, a biotic, and therefore someone not to be trifled with lest you were prepared to get your insides turned out by the force of dark energy.

Their target? A Salarian who was stood in the shadows, hoping to stay out of sight while nervously fidgeting, it's tongue zipping in and out of it's mouth in a gesture of Salarian agitation.

"Have you got your pass? I want him to know that we're legit." The Turian voiced as the approached the lead.

"Relax, I've got it. If he's right about this, it could be the biggest news story of the year, perhaps even of the decade!" The Asari replied, an excited tone in her voice and a sparkle in her eyes.

As they neared their lead, a single gunshot rang out, reverberating off of the metal walls. A look of horror appeared on the group's faces as they saw the Asari's body crumple to the floor, the wall behind her decorated in her blood while the rest of her body fluids began to pool around her in a gruesome fashion.

"Looks like your meeting's been… cut short." A voice said from behind the journalists. They spun on their heels to find a couple of Blue Suns mercenaries, one holding his carnifex raised, and aiming at where the Asari had just been stood.

Before anyone could react, the second Blue Sun, a shotgun wielding Batarian, shoved his weapon against the Turian's head. "Don't worry… We'll get the message." He fired a single shot. The Salarian turned tail and began to run, but before he could get anywhere, another gunshot rang out and his body fell, leaving a trail of green blood as he fell to the ground. He cried out in pain, clutching his leg where the mass effect propelled bullet had pierced it.

"Does it look like we want to waste our time running all over the citadel after you?" The Lieutenant said, amusement in his voice as he kicked over the Salarian making him cry out in pain and shoved the barrel of his pistol into his mouth. "Now, I'm only gonna ask this once, you understand me?" The salarian vigorously nodded his head in agreement. "Good. Now who else did you tell?"

The slight clicking of the trigger as the pressure on it started to build sent the Salarian into a panic. "Nobody! I swear I didn't tell anyone else!" He managed to get out the garbled sentence through the gun in his mouth.

"Don't lie to me smartass. Don't you piss me off - or you're gonna be getting spaced in a tin can. Don't you give me that shit." Before the trigger of the gun could be pulled, a shuttle touched down and a sun's lieutenant walked out, his seemingly casual movements belying the tension in his body.

"So?" He asked. That singular word able to ask what a hundred words could not.

"He's not talked. What's the human phrase? Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil?" The Batarian replied, an annoyed look on his face.

"Well then. Let's do this and then get outta here. Don't wanna be here when C-sec shows up." One of the mercs raised his weapon but was stopped by the lieutenant. "Nah, not like that. This one, the boss wants us to make an example of."

A feral grin spread upon the Batarian's face as he activated his omnitool and a watery liquid began to spray out a fabricated nozzle, coating the Salarian and the ground around him.

"Please! Don't do this! I won't talk, I… I have a family - I have kids!" The Salarian pleaded, his hands raised in surrender, his shot leg all but forgotten under the effects of the adrenalin now coursing through his body.

The lieutenant pulled out a cigarette and an old fashioned zippo lighter from a compartment of his armour, and caught a flame, lighting his cigarette before dangling the lighter over the would-be rat. "For their sakes, I hope you've got decent life insurance." He chuckled, his fingers gently releasing the lighter from his clasp, prolonging the moment.

"Let him go." A low growl emitted from within the shadows, causing the three suns to whip around, drawing their weapons and aiming into the near pitch-blackness. For a moment, nothing happened. And then a scream emitted from the sun nearest the growl as a hand reached out and took him into the pitch darkness, the only sound the sickening twisting and popping of joints followed by the howling of pain, the screams cutting off with one final snap.

A strong breeze moved through the alley and before they knew it, the body of their former squad-mate had been flung back at them, colliding with the lieutenant and causing him to drop the lighter. It fell to the ground, it's cap closing mid-flight as if by some miracle, sparing the Salarian from a gruesome death.

The Batarian had changed to an assault rifle, and had started to spray rounds into the darkness, hoping to get that kill shot, the snarl on his face visible every time the muzzle flash lit up the alien contours of his face. He paused for a second to let the weapon cool down and an enormous shape emerged from the darkness, a billowing red material that seemed to morph and move of its own volition appeared before him, rising above him like something out of the pits below the pillars of his religion. A slithering chain appeared, as out of the blue as whatever it was he was fighting, and it struck, faster than he could see, wrapping itself around him before flinging him through the air, only to fly through the cockpit of the shuttle and land on his neck, the snapping of bones overshadowed by the sound of breaking glass and metal bending out of shape. The lieutenant, who'd been thrown against the wall near the skycar pushed the body of his dead comrade off of himself and drew his own pistol, aiming right at the thing before him.

In the low lighting, he could see the deep blood red colour of what was now discernable as a cloak, and the terrifying acid green eyes of the killer in front of him, emerald flames billowing from them as the white edges of his mask emphasised their ferocity. The creature grabbed ahold of his forearm and bent his arm so hard and so fast that his elbow dislocated, tearing the flesh beneath the armour and bending the microfabrics out of shape. The pistol wielding hand that had been aimed at the creature before the lieutenant, was now pointing at it's owner, a pained and shocked look on his face. "Wh..What are you?" He asked, his voice trembling. The creature merely narrowed his eyes, the already sharp angles turning into hooks as he stared at the mercenary, before the gun fired.

Dispassionately, the creature let go of the sun's arm and it fell lifelessly to the floor, his body slumped against the wall he'd been propped up against. As he turned to leave the scene the Salarian picked up one of the sun's weapons. It was only a pistol, but it was pointed towards the monster in the red cloak. "S..S..S..Stay back!" His hands quivered as he issued the warning.

The creature turned to face him fully, though he didn't move any closer. "You don't want to do that." His voice emitted in a low, growling rumble. A second passed before the Salarian turned his head and fired, the heat generated from the pistol being fired lighting the fluid that was covering him and setting him alight. He screamed in agony, screamed for someone to come to his aid, but noone came. Not even the being facing him moved to help, he merely stared, a burning rage within him wishing that the fires that were consuming the Salarian faster than they already were.

The Salarian's screams against the visage of the flames broke through the mind of the creature, and a vision flashed across it's mind. Flames, an echoing scream, and the high-pitched laughter of a blue faced clown rang in his ears, his reality becoming indistinguishable as his visions and the noises they contained grew louder until they were as consuming as the flames. Behind the laughter, a new image appeared, a woman, her deep brown hair flowing around her face. "I… I think I love you… G…" Her voice faded towards the end, sounding as though someone was talking underwater, the words unintelligible against the background noise. Another vision of fire appeared before him, a figure with mottled and blistered skin struggled to stand, his limbs caught on fire and his hand outstretched as he wailed in agony.

And then, all was silent. The screams of the Salarian had stopped, and the creature had one of its clawed hands outstretched as though reaching for the man in its vision. The creature clenched it's fist and lashed out against the metal wall, the material buckling under the force. "No, no! NO! I wanted to save you! Where are you! I came back for you!" He cried out, the dangerous, low rumbling of his voice turned into the cry of a broken man. A dead man.

Out of the shadows, a new figure appeared. This one quietly cackling as he moved ever closer to the broken creature, it's laugh growing ever so slightly louder. "Oh man I love it, don't you? Look at that one." He said, pointing to the merc who'd been launched through the shuttle. "You managed to put his head on backwards! That. is. SWEET! I hope he was wearing his brown pants under that suit. Hehehe. Bet they're brimming over! Hehehehahaha." He breathed in deeply, walking over to the hunched form of the creature in red. "Oh I so enjoy the sinful little details." He kept walking past him until he came upon the charred remains of what was once a Salarian. "Oh man, now would you look at that." He said, laughter bubbling at the top of his throat. "Now isn't that tasty?" He turned to look back at the creature. "You're a match made in heaven! Hmmm. Whaddya think, Spawn?"

The thing turned it's head to look at the figure and what it saw was a squat, rotund looking pig of a man, whose red eyes darted around the place as though they were searching for something that wasn't there. "Spawn?" He asked, curious at last as to who or what his… companion was.

"Yeah." The figure said back, edging into the darkness again. "As in. Hell. Spawn. Mmmhehehehe. Hey, it's whatcha are baby, so you better get used to it."

The creature stood, and held his head, shaking it slightly as though he'd just woken up from a bad dream. He looked around, unmoved by the death surrounding him. "Oh. Did I do this?" His voice was distant and it was easy to tell that not all of him was there on the surface.

"It's your instincts baby! My god were you the right pick for the job or what?" He chuckled menacingly before gesturing to the corpses around them. "You're a killer baby, born and bred. Its a gift." He turned and started to walk away. "That's why he picked you."

"...Who? Who picked me? Why can't I remember anything? Whats WRONG WITH ME!" The creature yelled, jabbing a finger towards the fat maniac. Who merely started to laugh.

"Too much spray tan? Hehehehe… No, I got it, How long did you spend in the sun bed? Hehehahahaha." The fat man's taunting made the creature move his hands to his face, before tearing at the material to remove it so he could see what was underneath. In the reflection of the shuttle window. Each time he moved to tear another piece off, he would get a flash of… something. The flames, the rubble of an old building, a snapshot of a person he thought he recognised, but couldn't place. And then, it was off.

Beneath the fabric mask was a horrific sight of burnt and decaying flesh, though the features of the face were still recogniseable. Burning green eyes were framed by twisted skin stretched too far over cheekbones, that left the his nose and mouth mottled and patched with hard and oozing skin. There was a patch of normality to his face, surrounding one of his eyes, where the burning hadn't reached. It was still scarred, but it wasn't as far gone as the rest of his appearance. He breathed a wheezing breath in before letting out a howl that would could have boiled blood, his vision snapping from reality to images of fire and rage as he was imprisoned. He found himself looking at his reflection in the shuttle and gave a roar as he launched his fist through the shuttle window, snarling all the while.

"What's this mean? Who am I?" He muttered to himself angrily, clutching his head as he contorted in pain, his world fading into blackness.

"C'mon slim, don't give me that." A Turian in full C-sec armour said as they approached a crime scene.

"Yes sir." A wiry human replied, also in C-sec blues.

"What have you got for me slim?"

"Well sir, we've got a few dead bodies. These two were reporters for the CNN, not sure what a couple of successful investigative journalists were doing down in these parts, but there you have it." The human was about to go on, when the Turian shoved a dextro-amino burrito in his mouth and started talking over him.

"What about these dead sun scumbags?" He said, waving his talons at the dead Blue Suns. "Garag's gonna be pissed when he finds out these asshats were taken out." The Turian's sharp eye spotted the burnt flesh of a Salarian. "So… one of these things is not like the others, as you humans say."

"Yes sir, we've got two dead reporters, three dead suns, and one unknown."

"Unknown?"

"He's homeless, a vagrant. No ID yet for him, but we'll get it soon enough." 'Slim' informed his Turian counterpart.

"Probably just got caught in the crossfire, turned up at the wrong time… Slim, find me something that links all these bodies together, and see if you can't get me some Tupari while you're at it."

"Aren't you on a diet, sir?"

"Not anymore Slim. Not anymore." The two turned and moved off, the human asking the forensics department for any and all information they could get from the crime scene before opening his omni tool and accessing the C-sec databases and compiling a list of information about the bodies at the scene of the crime, while the Turian continued to look around the scene of the crime, his sharp eyes taking everything in, not missing a beat.

"Hey, I think he's waking up!" I heard a voice say from somewhere before me, though through the wringing in my ears and the pounding in my head I found myself unable to identify who the voice was coming from. It sounded young though. And filtered.

"Excuse me sir, are you ok? You were screaming and moaning for a long time last night and we thought it best if we moved you here." Another voice, this one slightly feminine, and much, much older than the first appeared at the same time as I felt a hand appear on my shoulder. I recoiled at the touch, raising my hand to push the offending appendage away from me as I rose to my feet, my senses finally clearing and allowing me to see those around me.

"Are you crazy?" The first voice spoke again, and I figured it had a tinny quality to it, resulting from the fact that it was a quarian who was speaking. "You know what he did to those people last night!"

I was no longer in the alley where I had had those terrible visions. I was surrounded by people of all backgrounds, each of them looking worn and tired, their features distorted by misfortune, as was the area that we were inhabiting. Despite its cleanliness, as I would later discover was down to the keepers of the Citadel, it gave off an air of depravity and detritus which couldn't be removed by the absence of rubbish. A name came to me out of the blank slate that was my mind. "Shepard… Shepard. She'll know who I am."

"Maybe you should lie down and sleep it off…" The Asari commented warily, thinking that the reason of my plight was too much drinking. I towered over the elderly Asari who'd approached me, my form arching in an unnatural way. I growled, and immediately she took a step back.

"She's… She's my light… Shepard..." An image of a stunning woman flashes across my mind, her deep brown hair and emerald green eyes shining back at me.

"Perhaps you need some food?" She said, pulling out a tube of god-knows-what from god-knows-where. As she held it out to me a roughly swiped her hand away from me, causing her to drop whatever it was inside the tube.

"Leave. Me. Alone." I threatened, grabbing fistfuls of the Asari's clothing and lifting her off the floor so that we were face to face.

"I..I..I''m just trying to help ok? Please don't hurt me!" She whimpered, trying but failing to keep her composure.

"I don't want your help." I said, shoving her roughly away from me before turning and heading away to what felt like a nice dark spot, a short distance away from the annoying crowds. As I neared a corner in the small settlement, a crooked old man with a beard that fell to his midriff stepped out in front of me.

"What you want, and what you need, are two very different things, you know. They're just trying to help you. This place is a refuge from the tempest outside." His voice was slightly crackled and it held an air of experience and wisdom with it, but didn't care for it now. How could I, when all I could think about was two things. A burning, agonising fire, and a single woman. Who she was or how I knew her, I couldn't remember clearly, but I knew that she was important to me. I knew that I loved her.

"Get out of my way, old man." I threatened, though my menacing appearance did nothing to dissuade him.

"You don't remember." His voice seemed to be mocking me. "It doesn't matter, what matters now is what you learn now."

"I don't know what you're talking about old man. I just want to go home. Now move, or be moved." I threatened, getting dangerously close to the eldar in front of me.

"Listen to me." He said, though he took a single step backwards. "We all want to go home my friend, but it's war getting there." With that, he took another step backwards and moved out of the way, allowing me to pass.

I ignored his words and carried on, looking for somewhere dark, somewhere comfortable that I could be. I rounded the corner of the dark alley and saw the flashing lights and holo-tape of a police crime scene investigation, some officers milling about while others were analysing different areas of the scene. I scowled. They were on my turf. I decided to return to the vantage point that I had been at last night, the spire of a comparatively small building, a 5 story high office block that looked as disused as the rest of this part of the lower wards. From the top of the spire I could see across a large part of the city, and I could see the four other arms of the citadel, the slow rotation of the space station barely noticeable against the light of the nebula.

Several days passed me by, I don't know how long, all I knew was that there was nothing for me here, and yet, here I was, drawn to this place for some god-damned unknown reason. I didn't know how long I held my vigil, and I didn't care. It meant that I was left alone with my thoughts, allowed some peace to try and repair my broken memory, to try and figure out what I was doing.

The argument raged in my head. This woman, this… Shepard. There was no doubt in my mind that whatever had happened to bring me back, it was because of her, because even in my death, I wanted nothing more than to hold her again, than to see her happy, and to know that she was safe. The opposition was the argument that I couldn't approach her in any way - least of all because I didn't know where in the damn galaxy I should start looking… no, it was because I was now a hideous, mutated abomination. Was I even a human anymore? I couldn't answer that question because most of the time I wondered if I was even alive, let alone whether or not I was a man.

I made a deal. The bargaining chip was my soul, of that I was sure, but my purpose, I couldn't tell. I had no way of knowing, but I knew that whoever it was that I'd made it with screwed me big time. I could tell that I had drawn the short straw, but I wasn't going to give a damn if it meant that I would be able to see her again. She was everything, she was all that anchored me to whatever morsel of my humanity was left.

I just had to find out where to start looking.