A/N I am really happy with the feedback guys! I'm glad you like it. Be warned though, this chapter contains AN EXTREMELY VIOLENT DEATH SCENE.

You have been warned.

I have a memory from when I was a kid, one of those that you don't know to be real or not.

I was sitting in the back of a relic ground car. We were driving along one of the old roads. The ones that predated the Second Cold War. The sun was glaring down on me as I gazed up into the clear blue sky. I turned my head and saw my father driving the car. I remember his arms being smooth and tanned, and on the corner of his elbow was a tattoo.

I can't remember what it looked like, because I never saw it after that day, but I think it was a vine. I wonder why a vine? Was it even really there? Did I imagine it completely.

His face was unlined. His laugh rang around the interior of the car and a cigarette was in his hand, but the smoke and the laugh was ripped out of the convertible by the wind.

I think that's the only time I remember him smiling. Not a plotting, I won my mind game smile, but a real full blown, pearly white grin.

He was smiling at my mother.

I've never told you about Mum.

She was... So beautiful.

Her hair flowed behind her like a golden halo, she always wore it down. I've been told I have her eyes. But I could never see the ice in her blue depths that seems to permanently in mine.

She was a space hitch hiker. She had grown up on Shanxi believe it or not, but always dreamed of travelling the stars. She left home at fifteen, was took all her mothers jewellery and never looked back. It was when she came to earth for the first time that she met my father.

Apparently it was entirely coincidental. He was coming back from work, whatever the fuck that was before he wrote his manifesto, when he knocked her down with his bike.

And evidently, after offering her a place to stay, knocked her up with me.

My father adored Mum. She was wild and free and innocent. She loved her life, she loved him and she loved the stars. That's why he let her keep me. The second I was born, I just became competition for her affection. And that's why the memory I have is so strange. I can't remember any other time in my life, when my father allowed me to go on a holiday with Mum and him. When he was back from whatever he did for months at a time, he wanted to see her as much as possible and me as little. So I was often left in day-care. The best parts of those days was when Mum was waiting for me with my jacket and backpack ready to go. And for five minutes, we got to spend time alone with each other without his annoyed glance shooting my way.

So trust me when I say, I really have no idea if what I remember in the car that day is true, or just a hopeful dream.

My father, still laughing at whatever Mum said, turned to me with his smile.

He smiled at me.

And said quite simply still grinning.

'I think we did well with this one Claire.'

Did I ever tell you that my Mum named me after Alexander the Great? You might not even know who he is.

He was the Conqueror and king of Macedonia. During his leadership, he united the Greek city-states and led the Corinthian League. He also became the king of Persia, Babylon and Asia, and created Macedonian colonies in the region. While considering the conquests of Carthage and Rome, Alexander died of malaria in Babylon, Persia.

Alexander in Ancient Greek literally means; defender of mankind.

Yeah, apparently my parents had a thing for Greek names.

It is slightly ironic though don't you think, that your Commander Shepard.

And I'm called The Defender of Mankind.

I hid on the back of cargo ship, on my way of the rock that I had been for the duration of the Reaper War. I crouched between some dull metal panels. They shot a grim reflection back to me that day. My hair, the blond darkened by the rain, was long and straggly matching the beard. Yes, I had a full blown bead at the time. I always hated seeing my reflection. All I could see was my father's face staring back at me. And a version of my Mum's eyes, cold and dead, accusing me of everything I had done wrong .

Except there was something different in my eyes this time.

There was hope.

And although I should have been more worried about the fact that the Council was apparently hunting me down, I was driven only by one desire. The most foolish thing I could ever have wished for in my situation.

I, number one galactic terrorist's son, wanted to find you.

My demon's were in me from the moment I was born, but only really emerged the day my Mum was murdered.

We were on the Citadel, believe or not, one of the first families to be housed there. My father had been ordered to attend a mandatory debriefing over something he never really explained, but he wanted Mum there with him for reasons I never will know.

I was six years old at the time and despite my father's insistence that I could attend boarding school, my mother had refused to even let me attend regular school during the unrest. And as such, I was brought along.

How can I possible describe the wonder I felt when I first saw the Citadel.

It was frighteningly large to me. And all the aliens! I stuck close to my Mum's side as we tried to navigate our way to the market and back to the tiny apartment we had been assigned. They all gave us a wide berth and stared at us as we walked past. I didn't understand at the time, we weren't the aliens!

Mum always held my hand, but I could always feel that she was dying to rush ahead and explore the whole place. But due to direct orders from my Mum, she was forbidden.

But an adventurer at heart, the day I plucked up the courage to ask if we could go see the pretty lake I heard an Alliance soldier talk about, she didn't hesitate to say yes.

The last day of her life was spent trying to stop me from diving into the water, so I could check if there really were fish in there.

So on the way back home, tired and wet, we became lost. We were considered to lowly to be given omni-tools upon our arrival, but even the cheap translators we were given didn't assist us in asking for directions. Everyone refused to talk to us.

Inevitably, we ended up walking through a seedy warehouse unit. And past three turians.

'Well fuck me sideways. Isn't that one of those pinkies?'

'Yeah, and it looks like it's got its spawn with it.'

My Mum tightened her grip on my hand, but otherwise gave no outwards response to the three drunk gangbangers.

One of the turians stiffened at her lack of reaction.

'Hey bitch! What you think your kind is to good to talk to the defenders of the known galaxy!'

'Yeah!' One of them whined 'You pricks killed my brothers!'

They began to follow us and Mum lifted me into her arms and started to walk faster.

'You know what boys? I reckon we should take a little justice for our brothers!' The one who first spoke stated grimly.

'And I'd like to know if pinkies really bleed red.'

At this, my eyes widened with fear over her shoulder, as the turian men's mandibles twitched into grins and began running after us. Mum had broken into a sprint by then. She was pulling away from them too, dodging and weaving between the storage crates before diving into an open one.

She panted hard, covering my mouth to stop me from crying, while she strained her ears to hear the turians footsteps. At last she set me down, shushing my tears whispering quietly.

'We're ok now Alex; we're ok.'

I just leant into her, crying even more.

'I hate them' I whimpered . 'I hate all the aliens.'

At that she pulled me away from her shoulder and shook me firmly stopping my tears.

'Now you listen to me young man. If those men had been human, would you be crying to me right now telling me you hated the human race?'

I shook my head dumbly at her fierceness.

'Of course you wouldn't. Because that would be silly. Just because one, two or even a million turians had chased us, that doesn't mean that the rest of them are bad people.'

'But Dad said-'

'I don't care what your father said, you listen to me now. Never, ever, judge a someone by an opinion you have of someone else's actions. Most people are just trying to get along in life. Even aliens.'

She softened her tone before quietly finishing.

'One of these days it might be a turian who saves your life.'

'How touching.'

We turned suddenly, recoiling from the three we thought we had lost.

One of them was holding a chainsaw.

'Alex. Get behind me.'

The turian with the saw sniggered at that, patting the machine fondly.

'Anyone would think you were afraid pinkie.'

Mum just stared at them, a look filled only with pity.

'It is you that should be afraid. Killing us... Is a stain that will never come out of your soul.'

The other two turians shifted uncomfortably, but the lead one was too far gone to care.

'Fuck you bitch' He snarled. 'Don't talk to me about regrets. My brothers were murdered. MURDERED! By your filthy kind. And what did the Council do about it? NOTHING! They invited you, rewarded you, when we should have blasted you back to the stone age!'

'And that was my son's fault?'

'IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!' He screamed.

He growled softly in his throat, before ripping the chainsaw to life and yanking over his head.

'FUCKING DIE!'

What happened next was surreal. Mum pushed me to the side of the container and I hit it with a thud. I watched as she raised her arm and the saw came down on it, cutting it off at the elbow. She landed at the same time as her appendage, the blood spurted over my face and into my open mouth which had formed a silent scream.

But instead of crying herself, she looked at me with a gaze of fierce peace.

'Close your eyes Alex... Don't look... I love you so much.'

Her last words before the saw came down again, through her head. It was as if a melon had been ripped apart. Pieces of her brain and blood rained down on the three turians as the chainsaw kicked back and sputtered dead.

My mum was nothing more than piece of meat when her body finally slumped to the ground, the rest of her lifeblood emptied onto the floor around me as I crawled towards her.

I rested my hand shakily onto her back.

She had gone.

Gone.

Forever.

A talon grabbed me and ripped me up into the air. The turian who had ripped my mother apart glared down at me with a ferocity of a wild animal. The other two had fled.

'You're not worth the effort of me killing you. Maybe today taught you something about your species place.'

As I glared into his cold and dark eyes, my emotional numbness shattered.

I realised a primal scream so loud he dropped me.

I began to glow blue. It chaotically fluctuated around me both pulling and pushing his body away. His bones creaked and his mandibles bent and snapped. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as his brain seemed to bubble inside his head.

And suddenly, in suspended time, he exploded.

Shattering with him my sanity.

They finally found me.

After three days of me sitting in Mum's and the turian's blood and brains. I could see the way they looked at me as they cleaned me up and placed me in a small, white, clean room.

I was surrounded by silence, but inside I was screaming.

I've never stopped screaming.

My mind flitted through memories and moments. Reliving again and again.

And again.

Alexander. The defender of man.

Unable to defend at all.

The silent door opened and my father rushed into the room.

Wasting no words at my state, he merely picked me up and carried me through the door into the hall. Alarms began to go off as we were halfway through the building.

He just moved faster.

Like my mother had run.

We made it out a door, and a skycar was waiting for us. He unceremoniously threw me in.

The skycar took off with a lurk, a faceless driver behind the wheel, and my father finally looked at me.

With pure, unkempt, loathing.

'All your power, and you let her die.'

'You are not my son. You are not her son. You are nothing. You become a tool. You will become a weapon. You will be our Cerberus.'

'You will save us all. Because you couldn't save her.'

The mantra that he repeated to me every day for the rest of his life.

I am the son of the Illusive Man.

My name is Alexander Harper.

I am a weapon.

I am Cerberus.

A/N Well what do you think of chapter number two? I love reviews and feedback, so please feel free!