"Wake up!" A man's angry voice shouted, just before Mathias' face was drenched in cold water. He shot his vicious red eyes open and began to register his surroundings - a bright, white room with nothing in it besides himself and the man standing above him. His head ached. Mathias tried to get up but the man forced him back to the ground again. He soon realized that he was shackled to the floor tightly, with electronic cuffs around both ankles and wrists. He was confused and unsure of what was going on, then he remembered - this man was the man he had chased through the trading floor where the Normandy was docked. Of course, he was now unaware of his current location and was stripped of his armour, guns and other tools given to him on the Normandy.

The man in front of him crouched down to his level and forced Mathias' chin up to face him. He was a rather handsome man, with long, black hair, a black beard, slightly tanned skin and piercing blue eyes. A long scar across his right eye distinguished his face. He looked weathered as if he had been a war veteran. He wore a black fedora and a black trenchcoat. The face, though - Mathias recognized him, but couldn't quite place his finger on where, though he certainly recognized Mathias.

"Mathias von Delacroix." The man spoke with a slight British accent in a heavy, dark voice. He looked Mathias over. "After all these years, I've finally got you, you slimy bastard." He gloated with a devilish smile. "Oh, it's been difficult tracing you, but I can finally cash in. You won't get away this time."

Mathias growled. "I have priorities. Let me go." He said viciously. He expected the man to react at least somewhat intimidated by him, but he was shocked when the man remained unfazed. "What do you want with me?"

Laughing loudly, the man stood up for a second to mock him, then crouched back down to Mathias' level on the floor. "You clearly don't understand how this works. I'm Indaryn Odin." He expected a shocked and fearful response from Mathias, but his response only remained that of confusion and anger. "I'm perhaps the best vampire hunter there is. I have hundreds of kills to my name and have amassed millions of credits for their deaths. You have proven to be quite the challenge, but I was promised the biggest reward I've ever gotten for capturing and killing a vampire - you're my most valuable prize yet."

Sneering, Mathias felt his body start to shake with anger. He was infuriated by the audacity of Indaryn and couldn't believe what he was trying to do. "And how much is my life worth to you, Indaryn?" Mathias sarcastically mocked his name. In response, Indaryn jabbed his cheek, leaving it bleeding then stood back up.

Indaryn turned his back to Mathias and pulled up a contract on his omni-tool. "Human Command offered me one billion credits to capture and kill you, and it's finally within my grasp. I searched for twenty-three years. Twenty-three years!" Indaryn turned back around to face Mathias after putting away his omni-tool. "But I never gave up. And it's finally paid off."

"Human Command offered you a billion credits to kill me? Wait… They deal in military technology, why would they put a hit on my head… And why me specifically?" Mathias started struggling and Indaryn pressed a button on his omni-tool to shock Mathias back into submission. He sneered and growled. "When I get out I'm going to kill you in a way you never thought possible."

The vampire hunter chuckled. "I very seriously doubt that, and don't act like you don't know why we're after you specifically - you know damn well why, you blood-sucking fiend. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to prove to Human Command that I've finally captured you. Then, I'm going to plan out your death. Vampires like you are a waste of life and after all, I've still got to 'entertain' myself." Indaryn exited the small room with a maniacal laugh, leaving Mathias all alone in the quiet, empty white room. The lights then shut off, rendering the room pitch-black, though Mathias was still able to see the door thanks to his powerful night vision.

Hopelessness, fear and sadness filled Mathias' mind. "Shepard! Father!" He screamed as he broke down and began to sob. "Where are you?" He shivered underneath his black, sleeveless clothing, wondering what Indaryn had done with his armour. He felt like everything was lost and that he had betrayed Shepard by being captured. Mathias was possibly Shepard's most powerful crewmember and would likely have played a big role in defeating the Collectors, but now that he had reached the end of his line, Mathias nevermore felt like he had betrayed anyone.

The dark room was completely silent. There were no external noises besides the sounds of Mathias' gentle sobbing and troubled breathing. The sensation of mild vertigo filled his head and his chest - immediately, Mathias realized that he was now on a ship somewhere in the vast expanse of space. He immediately began to miss Shepard, Miranda, Tali and Garrus. He began to miss the Normandy and fighting in the field and he missed the irritating banter of the crewmembers at the mess hall table, but most of all, he began to miss his father. He imagined his father's reaction to receiving the news that he was either dead or missing without a trace. The thought of his father breaking down in response to the news made him cry even harder, especially with their reunion that had only lasted several days. He had no idea what to do besides sit and weep.

With nothing left to do, Mathias allowed his mind to wander to his childhood. He was having a small party to celebrate his tenth birthday with his father, his uncle, two aunts and four cousins. Out of the nine of them there, eight of them were pureblooded vampires and he was the only halfbreed there, the only one human. He felt shy, especially since everyone was there for him but the gifts he received made him feel welcome and a part of the family.

His Auntie Nazhira and her at-the-time eighteen year old daughter Romanitsa seemed very excited for Mathias to open their gift, a rather large box. They wanted him to open theirs first and when he did, a spring-loaded mask of a monster popped out at him, startling him, eliciting a chuckle from the party attendees. He almost threw it away before Romanitsa told him to keep searching it. When he did finish searching it, he found another box - a set of one thousand, interlocking building blocks. The box appeared to be brand new, not something that had been found elsewhere, secondhand or otherwise. As pureblooded vampires, they couldn't go out to normal stores and shop around like humans or even halfbreed vampires could. The fact that Nazhira and Romanitsa had given him something that was brand new meant a lot to him because it showed him what his family thought about him.

Next, Nazhira's fifteen year old son Dolamere handed him his gift. The other pureblooded vampires watched as Mathias unwrapped the shiny blue wrapping to discover that inside it was a lot of chocolate candy. "We can't really eat this stuff, but you can, and I know most humans really like that stuff. Do you like it?" Dolamere asked, his happy, bright-green eyes glowing warmly.

Mathias looked it all over. "Yeah, this is great! Thanks! I wish I could share it though." He said excitedly, as his Aunt Aliyah gave him a small present. The box was small but it had a fair amount of heft to it. Unwrapping it, Mathias found that it was a jewellery box and inside was a small, silver Italy pendant. Mathias put it on.

"I speculated that due to your mother's Italian legacy, I deduced that you may appreciate it." Aliyah said, smiling. Mathias examined the smooth, silver pendant in his fingers. He never got to meet his mother as she died giving birth to him but he remembered the pictures his father showed to him. 'A delicate, angelic Italian woman with golden locks and ember eyes', his father would describe her. Mathias imagined the reactions of his mother's parents when (or if) they discovered the fact that she had been dating such a large and terrifying beast with all those gouging teeth, or furthermore when she had become pregnant. He imagined that she would likely have kept it all a secret, which to her parents would have been a secret she took to the grave.

Mathias heard his father sigh and looked up to see him shaking his horned head, then gulping the last of an alcoholic beverage his brother Oniron had brought to Mathias' party. "Ten years to this day. I do not feel 2145 was an admirable year for any individual." Rodon sadly sat quietly for a minute before picking up the young Mathias and placing him on his lap. "Regardless, there had been one favourable occurrence that year." Rodon handed Mathias the gift that came from his Uncle Oniron and his own two sons, twenty-six year old Bromir and twenty-four year old Irvire.

The box was wrapped in black gift wrap and had considerable heft to it. Mathias eagerly unwrapped it and opened the box, seeing a video game console. It wasn't in the best shape he had ever seen and it certainly wasn't bleeding-edge technology, but he was automatically thrilled - he had gone to Calgary's shopping malls with human friends to play with the TV video games and virtual reality devices and had fallen in love with them, but he had never owned anything that could play games before.

Bromir took the console out of the box and showed it to Mathias. "We salvaged parts from an electronic waste centre late at night, cleaned them up, tested them and put them together to make one working console. I know it's nothing amazing, but we thought you'd have fun with it. I even brought some games for you. Later, we can even play them together!" Bromir handed Mathias a few small game cartridges. "Don't lose them, we don't have the digital downloads for those games." A shuttle racing game, a medieval-fantasy game, a city building game and a space war game that explored the possibilities of finding intelligent extraterrestrial life.

The final gift was handed to Mathias - Rodon's gift. Unwrapping the red giftwrap, Mathias saw a framed picture of himself when he was a mere few days old, wrapped in a handcrafted blanket. It made him smile and giggle quietly - he looked almost comically small in the hands of his father, Rodon. The massive, winged creature looked a little awkward holding his newborn son that looked almost nothing like him. As a baby, Mathias was no more than a literal handful for Rodon, much like a small puppy is with a human. He hugged Rodon.

It almost made Mathias feel better to remember that he still had that picture in his condo, thirty years later. His cheeks were wet from the tears, still waterfalling from his eyes. He wished that Indaryn would simply come back into the room to finish the job, or that he could muster up the courage to endure the electrical shocks and break his bonds even though he wouldn't be able to break down the heavy metal door in front of him. Instead, Mathias sat helplessly and hoped that by a stroke of luck, somebody would come back for him.

Thoughts of his first game console he had received on his tenth made him feel better again. The day that he got it, Bromir helped him set it up on his TV at home. The young Mathias could hardly sit still as Bromir paired the console with the TV, then configured the controllers. Once everything had been set up, Bromir booted the system and launched the shuttle racing game then scooped up Mathias and sat him on his lap and taught him how to play the game. Mathias loved being physically close to his family as it made him feel safe and comfortable.

It was soon time for his uncle, aunts and cousins to leave. After having cried and been inconsolable, Bromir made the decision to stay the night with Mathias. It immediately settled the young vampire child and right away, the two went back to playing video games on the console that Bromir had given him. Despite Mathias' physical differences in comparison to the rest of his known family, they made him feel welcome and like one of their own regardless. Even at a young age, he knew about how halfbreed vampires born of a pureblood were sometimes shunned from the rest of the family and his father's family did no such thing.

Even though Mathias was always encouraged and accepted by his family, he always had a lingering fear of sudden rejection. He imagined what might happen if his extended family or even his own father decided that he was no longer welcome or felt that he was a failure. A strong fear of being abandoned by his family developed without reason. Later that night, Mathias had a nightmare spawned of this newly developed fear, where his father kicked him out of his home and left him to fend for himself. The newly ten year old vampire woke up crying, causing Bromir, who had been sleeping on the mattress on the floor next to his bed, to wake up as well.

"How come you're upset?" The concerned Bromir asked, sitting up in his bed, stretching out his wings and arms. Bromir's wings were almost as expansive as his father's, a wingspan stretching almost the entire length of the five metre wall in Mathias' room. To reassure himself, Mathias crawled out of his bed and onto Bromir's mattress and curled up next to him and pulled the pureblooded vampire's powerful arm around himself. "What's wrong?"

"I keep getting nervous that you guys will hate me. These stupid little thoughts keep crawling into my head like bugs and I can't get rid of them." Mathias sniffled, snuggling up closer to his older cousin. "I don't want you guys to ever hate me."

Bromir shook his head and chuckled lightly. "We're never going to hate you, Mathias. We're your friends and we love you. If he had to, your dad would destroy the whole world to save you. I know because my dad would do it for me too. For both of us, even. You know, all vampires value close family ties because the world has been somewhat 'unfriendly' to us in the past."

Wiping the tears from his eyes, Mathias looked up to his cousin's brightly glowing green eyes. "But don't other halfbreed vampires sometimes get kicked out of their families because they aren't pureblooded like the rest?" He gripped onto Bromir's arm as if he were holding on for dear life, making Mathias feel somewhat strange because he wasn't normally so grabby, even when he was a small toddler, but it comforted him nonetheless. This fear would mark the first time Mathias experienced depression and anxiety, which would plague him for a large chunk of his life.

Thinking to himself, Bromir looked at the ceiling for a second or two before returning his gaze to Mathias. "It's happened sometimes, but not all the time, you know. Trust me, we're not like that and we're not going to leave you. You're still my little baby cousin." Bromir said as he playfully roughed up Mathias' hair. "You know, I still remember holding you when you were just a week old."

Mathias hugged Bromir and laid back down on his mattress with him. "You think we can play more video games tomorrow?" Mathias asked.

"Sure thing, little one. You can choose."

The sensation of a slight vertigo filled Mathias' body as the ship he was in either changed trajectory or speed. It may have even been stopping, but without any sort of ship monitor it was impossible to tell, especially with Mathias' prison cell having no windows at all. He perked up when he heard some noises outside the room he was in and braced himself when there were fast footsteps headed in his direction. The door flew open and Indaryn burst in. Angrily, he knelt down and gripped Mathias by the throat as the door slid shut behind him.

"You did something to my bloody ship. What did you do?" He shouted, staring into Mathias' eyes. Mathias did nothing but grimace at Indaryn who backhanded him in retaliation. "What did you do!?"

Mathias attempted to sniffle back up the blood that began dripping from his nose, though to no avail and he continued to sneer into Indaryn's eyes. "I did nothing to your precious ship, you black-bearded fop. Don't get your underwear in a knot."

Indaryn pressed his hand on Mathias' throat more firmly, choking him. "My ship's been forced to stop. Care to explain?" Indaryn growled and pulled a knife from his boot. "You know what? Fuck it. This ends here and I'm not going to sugar-coat it."

The vampire hunter went to press his knife against Mathias' throat and presumably cut it, but before he was able to do so, Mathias built up strength and biotic energy in his body to resist the electric shock for when he broke the cuffs off his wrists and ankles. He turned the tables on Indaryn when he had him pressed to the ground. Indaryn struggled to get Mathias off and to get up.

"The fuck?! Those cuffs were made of the highest quality ibnubium! How'd you break them?" Indaryn spat in Mathias' face, who then picked him up off the floor and threw him against the wall. Indaryn landed on his face and Mathias flipped him onto his back so he could taunt him further. Using his biotics, Mathias kept Indaryn pinned to the floor without having to crouch down or keep his foot on his throat.

A devilish smile stretched across Mathias' face. "Have you ever encountered a Son of the Cold Depths before?" Mathias derided, watching Indaryn's expression turn to one of disconcert. "A halfbreed, sired by a pureblood?"

Metal screeched and clashed. "I would take that as a no." A monstrous voice boomed through the room and when Mathias looked up, he saw his father, having ripped the door out. Rodon picked up Indaryn by the throat and his incandescent orange eyes burned Indaryn's, forcing into him intense fear. He pained to ease Rodon's firm grip, but to no triumph. "It would appear you've reached the conclusion of your natural life, Indaryn - the 'famed vampire hunter'. I will not allow you to seize a further vampire life, most especially that of my son."

Looking into the piercing blue eyes of the vampire hunter, Rodon began to clamp down on his neck, causing him to suffocate. Backed off, Mathias watched as Indaryn struggled to release Rodon's iron-clad grip, then as his face turned blue and finally as the struggling came to a halt. Rodon maintained his grip long enough to ensure the flow of oxygenated blood to Indaryn's brain had truly been cut off in order to cause brain death, then he dropped the lifeless body to the floor.

Mathias turned around and noticed that Shepard, Miranda and Garrus had been standing behind him with their guns pointed at Indaryn. Once everything had calmed down, they put their guns down to allow for an explanation. Mathias leaped into Rodon's arms and held on with his own wrapped tightly around his neck, Rodon returning the embrace. Mathias forcefully inhibited himself from crying in front of everyone.

With his face buried into Rodon's neck, Mathias focused on Rodon's relaxing heartbeat while listening to his surroundings. It was very storybook - a completely hopeless situation, then being saved almost miraculously - but to Mathias it was exceedingly real.

"We spent a good few hours looking for you, Mathias. Perhaps more time than I would have liked. What did you do to get kidnapped? We can't afford to delay this mission." Shepard lectured with the sounds of electronic beeping and mechanical clanking in the background of his voice. "We were lucky he hadn't engaged his FTL drivers. We're still in Illium space."

Coming from his father's throat, close and powerful vibrations accompanied by a low gnarr, rumbled in Mathias' ears and sinuses. He could feel his father's claws pressing slightly into his back. "Not anyone principally wishes to be abducted. I do not presuppose you to sympathize but do know this machiavellian hunter has executed hundreds of innocent vampires on the pretense and presumption of their evil nature." Anger was very clear in Rodon's voice. "He was acutely devious in a way most unlike other vampire hunters and the life of Mathias had been in peril. Do not indict my son."

"Very well." Shepard backed down and Mathias felt the movement of footsteps as his father carried him out of the ship and back onto the Normandy. "The captured ship may provide us with useful information and will likely be useful to Cerberus in some way. If not, it'll end up in the used ships market on Omega or the Citadel. It's a Krogan design, so I'm sure it will prove useful."

Rodon let Mathias down to stand on his own. "I can't believe you found me. That guy… Indaryn, he said he knew who I was, but-" Rodon stopped Mathias.

"Indaryn explicitly is the justification for having you keep near when you had been especially youthful." They walked past the galaxy map and headed towards the observation deck one level down, where they continued their conversation alone. "The hunter of vampires may have perished; however, as well I am yet distrustful. Indaryn pursued and hunted you over the course of two decades."

Mathias sighed and rolled his eyes under his closed eyelids. "That won't happen again. If you hadn't ripped the door to my cell out, I would still have been able to save myself. I'm not a child, father. You know what I'm capable of and you know I'm not scared." Clenching his fists at the image of Indaryn still burnt into his mind, Mathias gazed out the large window at the passing stars against the black tapestry of space, as the Normandy drew nearer to the asari-controlled world of Illium.

"As well you know of my perceptiveness. I understand eminently you do maintain an emotional veneer. You only let on so much." The sectional creaked under Rodon's weight. The observation deck remained silent for a few minutes, Mathias not turning his vision from the observation window. Rodon continued: "A transformation had taken place in your mind and body from the time we previously spoke twenty-three years ago; however, it was not as extensive as your façade suggests. Deep-rooted within you, your psychological quarrel persists. Subdued, but persists nonetheless. I may remain shaken, yet I am still able to read you in the manner of an open book."

Knowing what Rodon said was true, Mathias remained silent. He continued to hide his true emotions and stare out into the endless void, though now drawn into his own mind, pondering himself. Mathias loved the way he turned out. He was dark and mysterious, and his appearance suggested a strange, enigmatic physical appeal. His skull-tattooed face, naturally luminous red eyes, white-streaked black hair, snow-white skin, beautifully protruding fangs and well-defined and developed muscles were all to his taste and in his mind he had achieved physical perfection and loved the way he turned out; however, he knew his current appearance and psychological shift were intended to erase the past. He thought that if he had not changed himself, he would be constantly reminded of the painful events in his past life - his academic struggles, his struggles with friendship, the loss of his father, but most of all, his debilitating depression. He wanted it all gone and had eliminated it shortly after he turned eighteen.

"It pains me to say, I truly am astonished to observe you alive." Rodon breathed quietly, his voice being picked up by Mathias' acute hearing, who remained faced towards the observation window. "After you and I were separated years ago, I wholly ruminated on the conclusion I would never see you again - that you would have forcibly brought about your life's end, like twice attempted before."

Mathias turned his ear back towards Rodon. "No. When Moray separated us, a part of my mind woke up. I sought to change myself when I thought you were dead. I wanted to hunt down the man I thought had slain you. I wanted to make him bleed, I wanted to make him writhe on the floor in absolute terror and agony." Mathias growled, turning to face his father completely. "No matter how long it took me, I knew in my heart that I wanted to make Moray beg for death. I could not have let Moray win by foolishly taking my own life. My desire for revenge compelled me to act, to enact justice, and to find you. I knew I would thank myself later for not killing myself, because I was able to rescue you. You had always protected me, and I wanted to protect you."

A further silence filled the observation deck once more, Mathias returning his gaze back out the large window to watch the Normandy's descent into Illium's atmosphere. He sighed as the sound of the door opening brought his attention to the back of the room. Miranda stood in the door's opening, holding Mathias' armour. "We recovered your armour and omni-tool from that ship. Shepard wants to know if you'll be accompanying him and I to recruit the Assassin and the Justicar."

Mathias took his set of armour from Miranda and began to dress himself in it, first equipping his omni-tool. "I'll see you on Illium, back where we started." He said.