Recap: "Well John say hello to your new home." Hannah Shepard said to her son. "ABAA!" John cooed out as he saw the fields of Mindoir.

Now

Year 2165, Mindoir

11 years. 11 great years since Hannah Shepard practically saved her son from a living hell before he could even begin living. Since moving to Mindoir, she raised her son alone. Well not alone, all the other colonists helped her watch over John as the years went by. To her, as well as the other colonists, John Shepard was a very unique child to say the least. At 5 months old he started crawling, at 7 months he started to talk, at 8 months he took his first steps. Shortly thereafter he started walking. He became a real handful then. At age 8, everyone noticed that little John's way of thinking was very different from other kids his age. For example, when other children got their toy stuck on top of one of the houses they would either get an adult or find a ladder to use. John Shepard did neither; instead he would find the nearest pile of crates or trees, climb on them, get on to the roof, walk over to where the toy was and hang off the roof and drop down depending on how high it was. Gave both the local colonists and his mother a good scare when they saw him do it for the first time. The one thing though that seemed to get him noticed most of all was how kind-hearted he was. It wasn't as if he was taught to be very nice to everyone, but it was more of an innate thing with him. You couldn't really dislike him after knowing him for awhile, and eventually you would start to follow him. At age 10 his mother decided to start teaching him what she knew about having to defend yourself. She knew that while living on Mindoir would keep her out of Cerberus' line of sight, they weren't the only danger. News of batarian slavers being in the Attican Traverse worried her greatly, with how little presence the Alliance had on Mindoir. So she decided to buy her son an omni-tool, made some serious modifications including: different forms, much larger data space and top of the line hacking and decryption programs. She also put 15,000 credits in an account for John just in case.

Afterwords, she taught John everything about the omni-tool: How he can hack or decrypt with it or turn it into a weapon, shield or even a bow. She also taught how to use tech abilities including: incinerate, cryo blast, overload, tech armor, tactical cloak and how to deploy a drone. She also realized that his omni-tool won't be enough to keep him safe so she taught him how to use a pistol as well. John took to it like a fish to water. Absorbing every detail, ability, and practice he could get. It took him a whole year to get everything down to reflex for him. To him his omni-tool was an extension of himself. With his pistol he became a very excellent shot. At first he could only a tree 20 feet away, now though he could hit a target from 120 feet away.

Now he was 11 years old and regarded as a child prodigy by some of the colonists. He never let it go to his head though. He knew he could always improve in other ways. While he was practicing like he did every day, he noticed smoke rising up from where the main colony was. He always practiced in the woods away from the colony for two reasons: 1) so he wouldn't disturb anyone and 2) so no one would get hurt. Looking at the smoke though he was filled with a sense dread like something was horribly wrong. As he stayed silent, he could hear something. After a few seconds of listening intensely he realized it was the faint sounds of screaming. 'What's going on?! Why are they screaming?! Is someone trapped in a house fire?' He thought frantically . He took off running in smokes direction only to find himself face to face with something that could only come from his nightmares: Mindoir, his home was burning and its' people being killed or enslaved. He frantically ran to where his house was. 'I have to find mom, she'll know what to do!' He thought.

As he ran up to his house, he saw three figures. One was on the ground while the other two were beating on the first. As he got closer, John realized who was being beaten on. It was his mom! These two bastards were beating on his mom! John felt his blood boil in rage. For John things started to slow down as he took is stiletto pistol, aimed at one the guys heads and fired. With a load crack, the guy on the left died from having his head explode. The one on the right was shocked and looked behind to see who would dare attack a warrior of the Hegemony from behind. That was when John finally saw who was invading his home. At first he thought it was pirates from how human they looked from the back, but now he knew it was something far worse than human pirates. The beast he looked at had sharp teeth, multiple nostrils and four eye's. John knew now what was attacking his home: batarian slavers! The batarian was shocked.

'This puny little brat actually killed one of my comrades? This child could be more trouble alive later on!' The batarian thought. He made a move to shoot John, but just before he could he was shot in the chest by the young terror. John went up to his mom.

"Mom! Are you alright?!" For a moment she didn't move, but she opened her eyes and saw her beloved son alive and well. He had saved her for all it did. Unfortunately, before he got here they shot her before they decided to beat her to death. She knew she was dying if the amount of blood pouring out of her was any indication.

"My little Johnny, coming to protect his mommy even after all these years." She said.

"Of course. No one hurts my mom and gets away with it!" John said happy that she was talking again.

"Johnny," she said looking into his eyes, "listen you need to go to the forest and hide there. These batarian slavers are going to come looking for those two any minute now and you need to be far away and safe from here."

"Okay get up so we can somewhere safe." John said. That was he noticed she was crying and was wearing a sad smile on her face.

"Mom?" John asked.

"I'm not going to be able to go with you." She whispered, but he still heard it.

"WHAT?!" he shouted. "What's wrong mom?!" John demanded.

"I'm dying sweetie." She admitted. That hit John pretty badly.

"What?" he asked in almost choked voice. At this point he was in tears as Hannah started to cough up blood.

"John, I'm not going make it. Please get yourself to safety before it is too late." Hot tears flowed down John's face as he watched his mother beg him to leave her behind.

"Not without you mom." He sobbed. Hannah's breathing started to become more and more shallow and ragged.

"John Shepard remember to have strength, eat well, take care of yourself, find someone to spend your life with, have a family and live a fulfilling life okay?" Hannah said as her eyes tried desperately to stay open.

"Y-Yes m-m-mom. I-I-I will." John sobbed and hiccupped.

"Thats my boy. And….never…forget….I'm…..always….with….you….here." As she pointed to his heart.

"Yes ma'am." John sniffled. Hannah looked at her son who was still looking at her. She then smiled at him, knowing he would be fine, knowing he would make his mark on the galaxy. With those thoughts in her mind, Hannah Shepard passed away in peace.

John looked at his mother who looked so peaceful he would have thought she was asleep. He laid her on her back and put her hands on her chest. With that he ran to the forest near his house, knowing that his life will never be the same again.

Several Hours later

It had been several hours since the batarians attacked, several hours since his mother died. The sun was going down now and the smoke still wasn't going out. He knew the batarians were looking for the one who killed the two batarians, looking for him. He guessed he ran around a 25 mile distance by now. John was tired, real tired. He was barely staying conscious right now, with the shock of losing his home and mother along with the fatigue of running so long it was a miracle that he was still awake.

"There's the one!" He suddenly heard.

'Dammit they found me!' he thought. The batarians had finally caught up with him! The batarians now had all their guns pointed on him.

"Kill the little bastard!" Shouted the slaver leader. Thinking quickly, John raised his omni-tool and brought out the shield form. It blocked all the incoming bullets coming at him saving his life. All he could do was block because of the continuous fire coming at him.

'I need a miracle or something to get out of this.' All of the sudden a stream of bullets came from the side.

"Die you Guddamn bastards!" shouted an unknown voice. It was thick burly british accent.

"Who is- gahhh!" One by one the batarians each fell to the hellstorm of bullets firing at them until there were none left.

"Oi kid you still alive?" asked the unknown man. Once John got a good look at the man, he knew immediately to be respectful. The man wore yellow armor, had an eye patch over his right eye. The weapon he was holding was an M-7 Lancer (just guessing) with the name Jessie engraved on it. The aura the man held told John not to get into a fight with this man unless it would be absolutely necessary.

"Yea I'm alive. Thanks for saving me." John thanked him gratefully.

"Don't mention it kid." The man said.

"What's your name?" John asked thinking it was rude to not know his savior's name.

"Zaeed Massani. You got a name or what kid?" John had felt himself twitch in anger at being called kid, but kept his composure. He then took a deep breath and said

"The names Shepard. Its nice to meet you, Zaeed Massani."