Scavengers

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Clean up was slow in the weeks after the battle for Earth had concluded. The rubble that remained of the citadel was still being picked over by many. Not all of them were the good guys. Commander Shepard's people had already come through and collected the body, leaving everything else as it was. They wanted no part of it. Not even to make it a memorial. 
At that moment a group of Salarians were poking through the rubble, scowling deeply. "No." One them said to the other. "This is not the area. It wouldn't have been here." 
"Quiet, fool." The other hissed. He was looking in the other direction, frowning deeply. "The Quarians are here. We don't want to tip them off. We can't afford to lose this to them. It's too much. Do you hear me?!"

"We have a ship and a pilot fast enough to navigate without the relay, honey." Jared said gently. He stopped them outside a door that was marked with a floating food label and distant sounds of loud talking. "That means you can get where you need to go quickly."

The vorcha was already taking aim with another bottle, joined on the roof by a few more of his friends. "No like Turian either!" He shouted,  tossing to Molotov cocktail. It struck the wall beside Golias' head. 
"For heaven's sake." Lolly hissed, "they're drunk. The whispers aren't working..." She added, beginning to panic.

Ceres was staring at the door, though it was obvious she wasn't really seeing it. "Even if I told you needed to get to Ilos?" She breathed, waiting for him to laugh at her like everyone else had.

"Girl, they're just vermin." Golias snorted, firing a few well placed shots into their gathering group. That was all he managed before the pistol suddenly started sparking. Golias dropped it to the ground and a moment later it exploded in flames. "Guess 'mother' wanted me dead all along."

Jared didn't laugh. Instead he gave her a very serious look. "I'd want to know why but I would take you there if you thought it was where you needed to be." He told her seriously. "But I'm not all that sure you'd give me an answer on it."

Lolly was frowning at the gun, seeing now that it wasn't the one she had given to Golias when they'd left the research labs. For some reason that made her irrationally angry. Though it wasn't bothering the vorcha, people of all races were beginning to drop all around them. They were hold their heads and screaming in pain.

"I can't tell you that... Not yet." Ceres told Jared sadly. "I've had too many people laugh in my face and call me crazy."

"Lolly, girl..." Golias had reached out and was resting his hand lightly on Lolly's slender shoulder. "It's okay, it's just a gun, no harm done."

"And I suppose you wouldn't believe me if I promised not to do that?" Jared asked her, his hand hovering over the entrance to the mess hall. "I have a feeling I wouldn't find it funny as you might think." 

Lolly shook her head. "I wanted you to have that." She hissed. "She did nothing but take from me." She added with a snarl, more people beginning to scream.

"I think there's something out there... Something that we need right now." Ceres whispered. "You know how the Teapers claimed they have just always existed? What... If there was something else like that? The universe is all about balance, right? Doesn't it make sense that for all their destruction, there is something else that offers creation?" She paused there, as that was usually the point where the laughing began she she was shoved aside.

"Lolly, you need to control yourself." Golias insisted. "We don't want to draw attention, remember? And, well... That's kind of exactly what you're doing right now."

"It would make sense." Jared said thoughtfully. "I mean a new reaper would appear every time they would wipe out a civilization.  It had to come from somewhere. It's worth a look. All right. I'll take you there. We'll go first thing tomorrow."

Lolly was far too angry to stop simply because she was asked to. Her eyes glittered as she pulled away from Golias. The whispers were even beginning to reach his own mind.

"What?" Ceres clearly hadn't prepared herself for this reaction. "You're not going to tell me I'm insane? That I'm just some kid clinging to a false hope of salvation?"

Golias shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Lolly... We need to go!" He insisted, though he suddenly wasn't looking at her. It was like he had seen something move out the corner of his eye, then he heard that nightmarish screech. "Get down, it's a banshee!"

"Everyone hopes for something." Jared shrugged. "I say why not? What if you're right? There's no harm in looking no is there?"

Lolly was standing alone in the street, her hands held outward. Her lips were set in a thin line as she continued to control the thoughts of those around her. At that point the vorcha had even become afraid and had jumped down, daring to come closer to her to try and stop what was happening.

"You don't have to come with me, you know." Ceres reminded Jared. "I got you in a lot of trouble the last time you helped me."

Golias couldn't hide from the whispers. They were dragging him down into his nightmares, chasing away reality and leaving him with the very thing Lolly had unknowingly saved him from.

"You think a few whip marks is trouble?" Jared asked her, raising an eyebrow as the door slid open and he guided her inside. The room was noisy and was filled with boisterous men. Several of them were of different species, speaking in languages most translators didn't pick up.

It took the very same vorcha who threw the first bottle at her to end the whispers. He hit Lolly in the head with a metal bar, his chest heavy as she crumpled. "We no like crazy girl." He hissed, spitting on the ground beside her no lifeless body.

Ceres hesitated just inside the door of the mess hall. She noticed there were very few women here, and there seemed to be no Quarians aside from Ravier and herself. "Don't you have to find Golias? And I still think what they did to you was barbaric."

Golias was on his knees, still seeing something that wasn't there. It was onto when Lolly's world went black that he blinked a few times, like waking from a dream. "Girl?" He a called, rubbing at his head whiskt trying to fill in the blanks about what had just happened.

"I do and it was." Jared said, nodding his head at the cook who was already throwing plates in their direction. "Iilos is a refugee camp these days. I can say I know he went there first." He told her, catching the plates and guiding her to a line. "You here. I'm on the other side..."

"Crazy girl dead." The vorcha announced to Golias, tossing down the blood soaked pole a moment later. "No thanks. Just credit." He went on, holding out long fingers expectantly.

Ceres seemed uncertain, glancing to where she was to wait, and where Jared was. "And when you don't find him there, they'll beat you again, won't they?"

Goliass aid nothing for a moment, then without warning he picked up a broken piece of glass on the ground and pushing it through the Vorcha's hand. "That is all payment you deserve!"

Jared nodded, seeing no reason to lie to her. "It's the way of things here. We aren't alliance or even the good guys. Most of the people here are reformed bad guys themselves. They often need...reminders that they have jobs to do. I suppose they think that includes the original members too."

The vorcha drew his hand back and balled it into a fist, throwing it Golias' face. He only managed it because he caught the Turian off guard. "Did stupid alien favor! You no hit back!" He roared, yanking out his gun.
"Hey! Hey! That's enough!" A young man stepped forward, pushing the two aliens apart. "Leverhulme body calm down!"

"And what about you? Are you... a reformed bad guy?" Ceres asked curiously, her voice barely audible over the chatter in the mess hall.

"I don't need your help, boy!" Golias growled, wiping blood off his face before crawling to Lolly and lifting her into his arms. he felt for a pulse, relieved when she did seem to be breathing, just barely.

Jared raised an eyebrow and gave her a particularly wicked smile. "I'd hate to give away all my secrets so soon." He purred, turning with an animal's grace to the food line and hold out his try to tray to the woman standing there. 

"She needs a doctor. Let me help. There's a who around here selling stolen goods. We can find something to patch her up with. Good help will come on another planet unfortunately. Our own people are a bit strange these days." The young man explained gently.

Ceres was left watching Jared as he moved away. She still hand;t moved and a surly looking tyrian gave her a shove. "Move along, or get out of my way, suit rat" He growled. Ceres looked up at the much taller alien, tun shoved her tray hard enough into his gut the knock the breath out of him. 
The young woman didn't say anything to him, but simply turned around and moved along the queue for the food.

"Why?" Golias asked simply as he got to his feet. "You don't know me, or her. Why help either of us?" He added, not one to accept that help came without a price.

"That's a girl." Jared said as they sat down at a table. He gave her a wink as he concentrated on his tray and started to eat.

"All right, I confess. I might have wanted you to steal something for me." The young man said. "Isn't that how the barter system works?"

Ceres was staring down at her food, then glanced across to Jared's. His meal looked much more appetising, but then anything did when compared to the slop her people ate. It had to be this way, given that that had to ingest food through what was basically a straw. It was a rare occasion when she would get to remove her helmet and eat solid food.

"That all depends on what it is you want me to steal." Golias growled, making it quite obvious it wasn't the stealing part he had the problem with.

"Don't worry so much, Ceres," Jared said softly, knowing she would be hard pressed to hear him over the noise in the cafeteria. A krogan sat down at their table before either could say any more and slammed a fist down in between them. "You lost the biggest fixing Turian ever you bastard. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"We can't talk here." The young man said, removing his shirt and pressing it to the nasty wound on Lolly's forehead. "I have a room in town. We need to get her out of sight. You're getting onlookers."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ceres snapped when the krogan sat himself down. "Cant you see your interrupting!" She huffed, having lost what little patience she did possess the moment the tyrian had started on her.

"What? You think they'd never seen one of their own kind before!" Golias hissed, all too aware that that wasn't the reason they were staring. "Very well, but this doesn't mean i agree to your deal, yet."

"Excuse me?" The krogan snarled, glaring at her. "You want to say that to my face, quarian bitch?" He leaned in close to her and grabbed a handful of her suit and hauled her toward him.

It wasn't until they got to the room that the young man spoke again. He directed Golias to lay Lolly down on the bed and motioned him to follow him out into the hall. "I want you to steal a starship." He told the Turian, seeing no reason to beat around the bush.

"Oh, deaf as well as ugly? I'm sure all the females flock around you!" Ceres sneered, sick and tired of being considered weak and breakable by everyone who crossed her path.

"A ship?" Golias hissed, checking around to make sure no one else was listening in. "What makes you think I'm even able to do something like that?"

"Ceres, no." Jared all but warned. He was quick to get to his feet, catching the Krogan's fist before it hi her face plate. And then the entire mess hall erupted into fighting:.

"I know who you are, Golias. I know you are still being hunted by handlers. You can either do it or I'll turn you in." The man said smugly, now holding a gun Golias' stomach. "I'm thinking they'll be interested in her."

Ceres grabbed her food tray just in time to use it to smack into the face of another human who had tried to attack her. It was absolute chaos and the small woman unfortunately knew that she was to blame.

"I'm not the one you should be afraid of, boy." Golias replied with a smirk. "You have no idea what you're dealing with. However, I think we can come to some kind of arrangement, assuming she doesn't kill you the moment she wakes up."

Jared was used to fighting. He was used to being on the bottom of a dog pile. He just didn't have to like it. He'd always hated that krogan and he blamed him entirely for this. He couldn't see Ceres and that worried him. It was that worry that made him miss the first of the councilors entering the room. This was a bad thing.

The young man shrugged. "You will steal the ship if you ever want to see your pet again."

Ceres was holding her own for the moment, not knowing the difference between councillor and crewman. That was the reason everyone suddenly went quiet as she kicked the councillor in the guy, then smashed his face into her knee.

"You're working under the assumption that that girl is utterly defenceless." Golias clucked, trying not to simply burst out laughing. "But alright, let's go along with your little scheme."

The councillor seemed rather amused by this and then next few things happened as if they were in a dance. The long fingered drell took Ceres by the hands and spun her the moment he was able to stand bending her forward and yanking between his legs, then he pulled her forward and twirled her across the room and toward Jared.

The young man shook his head. "I am been here am very well aware of what your pet can do. Which is why I am taking precautions with her. She will sleep until you have done what I askedn."

Ceres wasn't sure what had just happened as she found herself slamming into Jared and the two of them crashing to the ground.

"You sound confident, I'll give you that much." Golias remarked with a snort. "This ship, why do you need it? You seem like you can buy passage from anyone."