Niko lived his childhood yearning for the love of his mother, Andrea. He did not know who his father was and none of his family knew, or if they did, none would tell him. However, his mother knew. She kept him isolated from others who might be able to influence him. She would demean him then express her love for him. It was a childhood of constant turmoil. She was molding him into her personal weapon which would, when the time was ripe, put fear into all who threatened her. She would use everything and everyone in her quest for criminal dominance. Niko was a natural independent thinker and through sheer force of will was able to question her actions. He would swing from pride to doubt and remorse when carrying out his mother's orders. He was being molded and shaped, his mother hoped, to become a cold blooded killer. His Aunt Lydia and Grandmother Justina were his only role models and his only hope to lead a normal life. Andrea deliberately set up crisis's, of human failures, which would help prove her case in keeping Niko as a weapon to be used whenever she deemed it necessary. He wanted a normal teenage life but did not feel it was attainable as time passed by. He wondered if he would forever be an instrument of mayhem and death.