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?!"

Mimic met her back at her cell, holding a data pad for her to look at. "I have a present for you." He said, his voice no more than a low whisper. He knew better than to simply hand it to her and so he held it up, giving her a good view of Jared being "interviewed" by a turian and a batarian. They were pretending that they were looking for the turian named Golias. The human had no idea that this was not the reason he was here at all. It was certainly not the reason his own blood was being spilled when he refused to answer their questions. 

"I used to dream about that captain who kicked me off the ship." Orinia told Victus when he sat down in the chair beside her. "I would imagine that he was simply sending me away until the perfect time when everything was...perfect. Then he would sweep me off my feet and carry me far away. My mother found my diary entry about it and told me I was...being human. She called it disgusting."

Ceres' wrists had been bound while she had been sat waiting for Mimic, no one wished the new let to loss their master off by attacking him. Again. Her silver eyes betrayed her lain at seeing Jared treated this way. "Why are you doing this?" She whispered.

Victus smiled sadly, and turned his gaze out to the thunder storm. "So what if it was human? Say what you will about them, they have passion, and it was that passion that saved us all." He breathed. "It isn't something the Primarch should say, but... I like them. They're fresh, and young, and not jaded by the galaxy yet."

"I've told you why. I promised to give you a present and so I have." He took the data pad away, turning it off. "Now. I can give the poor man a reprieve and you can join me for dinner on Iilum or, I can let his punishment continue. What do you say, my dear?" Mimic asked, his fingers tapping on the glass impatiently. 

"We are no longer in the age of turians alone in the galaxy, Victus. If you sat back and acted like the old turians, then you will doom our race." Orinia said softly, looking at the sky that seemed to be impossibly darkening. "We need change and I think that you are exactly what we need. I heard Shepard was more than a little excited when he heard you were up for the job. You are not like the rest of them." She turned her head to him and smiled. "That makes you special, Adrian."

Ceres looked up at Mimic with a heartbroken look. "You already know my answer... You haven't really given me a choice."

Victus turned his head too, more at the shock of hearing his given name after such a long time. "I think people out too much faith in me." He confessed sadly. "I am not my father."

"And yet you still say his name. If I were to tell you that you could go to him right now or join me for dinner, what would your choice be?" Mimic asked her, cocking his head to the side as if he was genuinely curious as to what her answer was going to be. 

"It's probably a good thing that we are not our parents." Orinia said quietly, turning her attention back to the thunderstorm. "It is you who helped save the galaxy, Adrian. Not him. It is your name they are writing in the history books. Not his. You are going to have to get used to being important sooner or later." She gave a shaky sigh. "Just...don't let it go to your head. Okay? I'm starting to see what it does to people. The Reapers...at least they just wanted people dead." She whispered, closing her eyes.

Ceres narrowed her eyes slightly, obviously seeking out the trap in that question. "If I went to him now, you would punish him for it later." She finally concluded.

Victus chuckled quietly and nodded his head. "What if I told you I'd gladly let someone else have the fame and importance?" He asked, though he was again watching the storm.

"What makes him so special?" Mimic asked, smiling when she caught his trap. Most people never even saw him coming. "Why would you call his name at a time when he is not even near you? What does he offer you that I cannot?" 

"I would believe it." Orinia laughed softly. "But you have large shoulders..." She got up out of her chair and settled herself into his lap, resting her head on one of them. "I think you will be all right. As long as you find what it is that keeps you singing over breakfast every morning, you'll be just fine."

"For one thing, he doesn't hit me." Ceres replied darkly. "He doesn't tie me up, and he doesn't treat me like a pet." The young woman was well aware that she spoke like there was something between herself and Jared, despite it not being true, not on his part at least.

"That's what scares me." Victus confessed quietly, as he so rarely used that word. "I thought I had... But she keeps running away."

"Then you have not been around him long enough." Mimic muttered, shaking his head. "Do not give me that. You are an object and you deserve to be treated as such. You are alive for pleasure of another and nothing more. The sooner you figure that out, the easier your life will be. And perhaps, so will his." The drell's mood was darkening fast. "You are stuck in a fantasy. You don't know him enough to love him." 

"Can we...get back to the getting to know each other part?" Orinia asked softly, all but pleading with him to forgive her. "I wasn't running from you, Victus. Not this time and...if I had been allowed to meet you before all this and not listened to..." She paused, taking in a shaking breath. "Nevermind. It's said a done now. You either accept my apology or you don't."

Ceres rose up to her feet, despite her hands still being bound behind her. "Why does this bother you so much?" She asked, her chin held high as she met Mimic's gaze. "If I am simply an object for your pleasure, my feelings do not come into it, correct? What do you care if I picture him when you inevitably claim me for yourself?" She added, seeming like she was trying to lies Mimic off now.

"I don't." Victus replied simply, tilting Orinia's chin up with a gentle touch. "Not until you tell me who it was pouring poison in your eat. Who caused your o run in the first instance?"

"You will think about only me when you are with me." Mimic told her, standing his ground though his teeth were bared in anger. "There will be no one else. I will destroy the both of you to prove this." He hissed at her. "You will learn this. When and if I decide to be through with you, you may return to him and you may play romance or whatever it is you think he can give you. But you will learn that when you are with me you are mine." 


"Then we are at an impasse." Orinia said softly, her cinnamon colored eyes meeting his golden ones. "It is my demon and I will not burden you with it. I've nearly ruined things for us as it is. I'm willing to let go of it right now before I finish the job. We are already two days down, Adrian." She breathed.

"You seem to be confused; Jared doesn't love me, he doesn't even think about me that way. You assumed because I have feelings for him... That he was idiot enough to have them, too." Ceres breathed. "So there is no need to destroy him, when you can have what it is you desire." She swallowed hard, ashamed to speak her next words out loud. "If you leave him alone, I... Shall give myself willingly to you, and only you. Is my virtue a high enough price?"

"Demons are not something we simply 'let go' of." Victus breathed. "They have teeth and claws, and will cling to us Sputnik their dying breath. No, you do not let a demon go... You slay it."

"Not anymore." Mimic said, shaking his head. He'd come to realize that there was more to this woman than just the fact that no man had ever truly touched her. She was untamed and unbroken. No man had claimed her in any sense of the word. He wanted to be that man. He wanted to be the name she called out and the man she imagined in her head. If he could not have it all then everyone would suffer. Mimic always got what he wanted, one way or another. 

"Years of military training has taught me to face the enemy when the time is right and it's not right." Orinia said, shaking her head. "I've had time to think it over and I know that now. It will come but for now..." She reached up, gently tracing the lines of his face. "I believe we were working on getting to know one another and deciding whether we wanted to marry. Oh and that kiss this morning...so pitiful." She poked out her tongue at him, hoping he would take the bait and smile again. "I bet my captain kisses better than that."

Ceres hadn't planned for this. She had been working in the assumption that sins of the flesh were all Mimic cared for. "What do you want from me?! I have nothing else to give!" She roared, unknowingly proving her wild and untamed nature to the very man who wished to break her.

Victus smiled though it was laced with sadness. He turned his face away, one more focusing on the violent storm outside. "It is hardly fair to compare me to a man you have spend your whole life dreaming about." He wanted to be the one to slay that demon, yet he did not even know it's name.

"You are a little fool." Mimic breathed. Though he knew there was a chance he could be bitten again he couldn't help himself. He grabbed her and pulled her hard against him, pressing his lips to hers. His fingers splayed into her hair and he pushed her back against the wall, his tongue sliding past her lips. 

Orinia hesitated, pulling her fingers away from his face. She could sense that her teasing hadn't worked and that it was time to remove herself from his lap. "I'm going to bed." She whispered, getting up and heading inside.

Ceres didn't bite Mimic this time. She allowed him to kiss her, and rather tentatively returned it. If this was what would keep Jared safe for now, let this Drell have her lips. Her only protest had been when she moaned against Mimic's hungry lips as her slender frame was shoved against the wall, somewhat painful with her wrists tied behind her.

Victus picked up the glass of brandy he had brought for Orinia, and let out a long sigh as he stared down into it. It had been foolish of him to get so jealous over something so trivial. But he could help it. He wanted to be her protector, not just her Primarch or her husband. Didn't Orinia trust him?

Mimic growled and shoved away from her. Something hadn't felt right about that kiss. "You weren't trying hard enough." He snapped, stepping away from her. "I'm keeping the human. He'll be my guest until you give yourself to me in the way that pleases me most. Once I am satisfied. I will let him go." 

Orinia woke up the next morning to the sound of gentle rain on the window in her room. She had once again fallen asleep easily, not even bothering with the sheets on the bed. Once again she found herself buried beneath them and warm. 
Hoping to find things the same as they had been the day before she got dressed and headed to the kitchen.

"No, please... I... " Ceres could feel not tears pricking at her lashes and she didn't like it. "I've never kissed anyone before."

There was no singing, no dancing, just breakfast that had been ordered from one of the cafés. Victus wasn't even in the apartment. The Primarch was heading to see the shadow broker again. He was going behind Orinia's back, but he needed to know who it was he should be slaying.

"I have made up my mind!" Mimic roared. Something was clearly bothering him. He was stomping out of her cell, his shoulders tight with his rage. "Do not speak to me again and certainly do not beg me to take pity on a human I have paid for a like a piece of varen meat!"

The drell behind the broker's desk was more than a little surprised to see Victus again. Never the less, he was helping him look for information. "Let's see...The girl herself is clean. Good military career. Very short and guarded by her father. You know him, of course. You know both her parents. She has been paying her own bills. She has a bank account on a separate planet under a false name. I'm assuming to keep it from her family..." He paused, now frowning at the computer. "Her family finances are in order...strange...there was recent payment to the brothel trader Mimic. But the date is...odd...It couldn't have been from the councilor. He was in meetings with you that day...."

Ceres hurled a string of obscenities at Mimic's back in her native tongue. The young woman was throwing herself around her cell, wanting to destroy something, someone... Herself.

Victus had listened patiently until Momic's name came up again. "That payment, you say it came from her families account?" He asked the Drell to confirm. "And if her father was not the one, then..." His golden eyes darkened and he rose wearily to his feet. "Thank you, once again you have been most enlightening. Please, sent the bill to the apartment where I am staying."

Mimic stopped by the red headed human's cell and scowled at her. "Come with me. I'm in a bad mood and you're going to fix it." He hissed, not really giving her a choice. 

When Victus arrived he would find a sky cab waiting in front of the apartment. Orinia was just about to step into it, a single bag slung over her shoulder. She assumed when she'd found the apartment empty that morning that she'd been dismissed. And she felt that she rightly deserved it. It had just taken her a little while to decide what clothing she simply couldn't live without and pen a note with a promise to pay him back for them.

The red head smiled, practically licking her full lips when she saw Mimic. "I should have known the little rat was never going to be enough for you,sir." She purred.

"That's it? You were just going to run again?" Victus asked, surprised by the tone of hurt that had crept into his voice. "Thisnis what happens when I try to help you? Keep you safe?!"

Mimic scowled. "Nevermind. You ruined it!" All at once he was screaming and shouting, tossing things about in the cell. Things were not going his way at all and that never happened. When he was done he simply walked away and left the red head to clean up the mess. He didn't even offer an apology. 

"I am not running." Orinia said firmly, her hand on the sky car door. "You dismissed me. You did it last night. And you were gone this morning. Not even a note. I can take a hint. I'm a big girl, despite what people seem to think of me!" She added rather loudly. "What are you talking about trying to help me? Keep me safe? You dumped me!"

The red head sighed and simply began to pick the mess up, clearly this was something she was all to used to. What she wasn't used to, however, was being second choice.

"I left you resting while I took care of some business!" Victus insisted. "Are you so used to running, that you can't even entertain the thought I was trying to help? I know how you ended up with Mimic. I know who sold you to him. I know... Why you tried to scratch away your family markings."

Jared was finally left alone, still believing that he was being tortured because he refused to give up where Golias was. He was breathing through the pain, blood still spraying past his lips as he did so. He smiled. He could last for days like this. This kind of torture was easy. He had no idea what was in store for him.

Orinia stood where she was for what seemed like a lifetime, her chest heaving. She stared at him, trying her best to hold her emotions in check. But all at once her face fell, contorted by hurt and shame and she hung her head. She began to cry, the bitter betrayal still so very raw for her.

The red headed woman had more belongings than most in her position, gifts to what was once Mimic's favourite pet. She had picked up a crystal figurine he had once gifted her than now lay in pieces. It was her favourite and she blamed that damn Quarian. She was now stood before Jared's cell, deciding that maybe she should break something that belonged to Ceres. "I'm sorry this had to happen to you." She breathed, pretending that she cared.

Victus was there to lay the skycap driver to go away, then pulled Orinia into his arms. "I'm strong enough to bear all our demons, I assure you." He reached, kissing the too of her head gently. "You shouldn't be ashamed of what your mother did to you... She is a vile woman who should be kuni shed for her actions."

Jared lifted his head ever so slightly, trying to see the source of the soft voice through the matted blood soaked hair that fell into his eyes. "It's a new look for me. I'm going for the beaten but not defeated look. I hear it worked wonders for some guy named Shepard." He said through his teeth. He'd lost his focal point and now his thoughts were turning to pain. 

Orinia shook her head as she continued to cry, glad that it was still raining. They were getting soaked. At least it would be hard to tell what was her tears on him. "Why didn't you listen to me? I said I was okay." She finally gasped out, her chest on fire. "I said I would deal with it later. It's getting ruined. I ruin everything. She is right about me."

"You pull it off better." The young woman commented. "Shepard was over rated." She added, unlocking the cell to slip inside. "What did you do to piss Mimic off, anyway?"

"No mother should speak that way about their child." Victus breathed. "She isn't fit to breathe, and I will expose her for what she did to you." He swore. "And I will have her stripped of any title her marriage to your father may have afforded her."

"Mimic?" Jared echoed, frowning as he watched the woman entering his cell. "What the hell does he have anything to do with this? Those boys are looking for a bounty. Nothing more." His focal point was really gone now but he was presented with a puzzle. This would hold him for a minute or two.

"She is my mother, Victus. I can't do that. Please...just leave it be. Besides the family needs her. My brother is a captain on the Reverse. If you expose her, it will ruin the family. They will call him a bad seed and force him out of the military. Not to mention what they will do to my father. You can't." Orinia pleaded.

"I heard he had his men attack you when you were disembarking the ship of an Asari trader." The red head mused as she wade around Jared, taking him in. "Was that a lie?"

"You would let her just get away with selling her only daughter to a brothel?" Victus breathed. "Orinia, she needs to pay!"