This is rather short chapter, a little backstory on Kiefer's life. It is told from the point of view of a narrator, but it is actually a conversation between Kiefer and Sher.

Hope you enjoy.

His mother died shortly after childbirth, only ever giving him a name. He never felt the warmth of a mother or even saw her face. His father blamed the young baby for her death, and in an attempt to forget her and also to punish him, he burnt all pictures of her.

Growing up, he rarely saw his father. He was raised by a plethora of babysitters, nannies and his father’s ever changing paramours. He never wanted to see his father anyway. Seeing his father would only mean pain and suffering, watching the man’s face contort into disgust every time he was present.

At the age of 5, after his father’s latest girlfriend broke up with him to avoid the responsibility of taking care of a child, he finally learnt the reason. In a drunken rage, the man yelled at him, calling his mother unfaithful and cursing at the gods why another man’s child was ruining his life.

The next day, he had lost the only relative he had. The man had passed away in his sleep due to alcohol poisoning and a heart attack. He did not know what those words meant, but he finally smiled for the first time, watching the body of his dead step-father. His heart and mind had been broken.

Growing up in an orphanage, all the other kids shunned him – the weird creepy one. He never smiled, or interacted with anyone else, just kept to himself. Even the caretakers were afraid of him. Things only got worse when the orphanage’s pet guinea pig died.

All the kids were heartbroken, wailing and sobbing their hearts out at the dead animal. He couldn’t understand why, so curiosity took over him. Right in front of the children, he took a box cutter from a nearby desk and cut open the animal carefully, displaying its internals neatly inside the cage. Finally, he found the cause of death – a piece of plastic wrapping stuck down its windpipe.

He displayed the cage to the caretakers, almost proud of his own handiwork, but he only garnered disgusted faces from each one of them. “What a creepy kid” they all thought. Even though no one said it, he knew that he was not welcome there.

A week later, a local psychologist adopted him as her own son, hoping that her skills would help her understand him. Her husband was a scientist, a theoretical physicist. The couple showered him with affection, trying to get him to open up.

He who received it, was grateful for the first time in his life, even if he knew the love might very well be superficial. They were the first to not shun him, not be disgusted by him, and almost maybe, understand him.

His foster father taught him everything to do with academics while his foster mother taught him how to interact with people, understand others as well as understand himself. Having never gone to school before, Kiefer never knew that he had a knack for studying. Learning new things came easily to him, but social interactions did not.

The couple were the first in a long time to call his name without any malice behind it, so he started to trust what they told him and taught him. At the age of 10, he aced his highschool examinations, following in his father’s (foster) footsteps.

Kiefer breezed through university, getting his masters by 13, and PhD by a shocking age of 15, Kiefer joined his father in research. He never did have any interactions people other than his parents up till this point. No friends, no lovers, he had just buried himself in the joy he felt from studying and learning.

His mother had always tried to get him to open up emotionally. She always said it wasn’t his fault, it was just the way he was raised and it is normal for him to be the way he was. “Normal”, not a word anyone has ever used to describe him. She diagnosed him with psychopathic tendencies and taught him how to manage them.

As he was told, his brain was wired to make decisions purely based on outcome and results, with almost little to no influence from his emotions. He never did show any emotions much. He felt happiness being with his family, but he never smiled to show it. He felt anger at his past but kept it bottled up inside. To him, it was illogical to express these emotions since there was nothing to gain from it.

He loved nothing other than his parents and studying, while nothing loved him other than his parents. Studying and learning had never let him down in his search for answers either. Eventually, everyone in his research team got used to his ‘ability’ to keep his emotions in check and make sharp precise decisions during work that helped accelerate their research.

When asked, “Would you kill a thousand people with your own hands to save a single stranger if you knew they were infected with a deadly infectious disease, but no one else believed you?”, his answer would be swift and concise. “Yes.” He replied. “It’s only logical”. He could feel no remorse whatsoever.

Through his father’s constant pleading, Kiefer’s teammates and colleagues tried to constantly include him in social events, talk to him and even just ask him questions they already know the answer to, just to increase the social exposure he had. Kiefer would smile in front of friends, a fake gentle smile his loving mother taught him. They gradually became comfortable around him.

6 years in research blew by in an instant, making 2 major break-throughs in his study of particle physics, dark matter and anti-matter. His knowledge in the field would not lose to his father’s and they would often work as equals to tackle problems that arise.

He had a grand idea he was working on inside his head that would revolutionise propulsion technology using anti-matter nuclear fusion. It would solve the weight problems that chemical rockets often faced, as well as the raise fuel-propulsion efficiency. This would allow space craft to accelerate to velocities a fraction of the speed of light and shorten space travel by up to 80%.

He was going to discuss his theories with his father, maybe get an engineering team and experimental physicists to prove his theories, but alas, he passed away due to an unfortunate accident on his 21st birthday.

“Master, thank you for sharing with me your story and your memories.” Shearwood said to him calmly. She had wanted to know where her master came from, how he became so unique and interesting.

“Now tell me everything about you, and this world. Do not leave out any details. I need as much information to accurately determine our plans for the future.” (Kiefer)