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?!"

"I have no real idea what happened." Jared said, keeping an eye on the woman as she came closer. "I'm not sure that part of it matters. What are you getting at?"

"I can't hurt my family, Victus." Orinia breathed, shaking her head. "My father would lose his council spot and it's the only thing he's ever loved."

"Nothing." The woman replied sweetly. "I was just curious." She added. "Do you have a name? Or do I just call you blondie?"

"Then we should go to your father." Victus insisted. "If he voids his marriage to your mother, cuts her out... There is no reason for him to take the blame for anything."

"Blondie is good." Jared said, not sure he wanted this woman to know anything about him. This was probably another form of torture. He'd better keep as much to himself as possible. "Why are you here? Are you mad at Mimic for something? Are you trying to make him jealous, honey?" 

"You don't know my mother very well do you?" Orinia asked, suddenly filled with the desire to get out of the rain. She pulled away from Victus and headed back toward the apartment, her shoulders slumped. She wished he'd just left things alone. Whatever had been growing between them was probably over now.

The young woman smiled and crouched down in front of Jared. "I heard another interesting rumour... That you had a Quarian lover. How ridiculous is that?"

Victus remained stood in the rain, watching Orinia once again flee from him. He wasn't sorry for the digging he had done, and he meant what he said about making the either woman pay.

"Seeing as you don't even know my name that's really interesting, Red." Jared said, his blue eyes flashing a warning he didn't have to speak aloud. "What are you playing at?" He leaned closer to her as best he could, well aware his bloody lip was dripping onto the hand she had resting on his knee. 

Orinia dropped the bag she'd packed onto the sofa and went to the kitchen, deciding the reheat the things left over from breakfast. She set out a plate for Victus, sure he wasn't going to eat it. How had things gone so badly so quickly? 
She supposed her mother was right. She'd always been overly emotion and far too human for her own good. It was hurting her right now. She'd begun to fall in love with the primarch and now it was all gone. There was nothing left but for him to kindly tell her to go.

'Red' smiled sweetly, seeming accustomed to dripping blood. "Like I said, just a rumour." She shrugged. "But you seem awful uptight about it, blondie."

Victus was rather quiet as he returned indoors. He said at the table, seeming like he was simply staring off into space. He had a lot on his mind, but making Orinia understand his motives seemed most important of all.

"You'd be awfully uptight if you were tied to a chair being beaten to death by a group of aliens too, honey." Jared said, though he gave her a grin. "Listen, you just do your thing so I can go back to my nap. Are you going get me naked or do I get to keep my clothes on? I'm hoping for the latter. I'm a bit cold in here." 

Orinia sat the warm plate in front of him and then a cup of turian coffee, then seated herself across from him. "One more day left of that thunderstorm." She said, dipping her talon idly in her own cup. "The weather report says tonight will be the worst of it because they're trying to wash the grime off the side of the tallest buildings. The woman called it a Lover's Storm. I thought that was an odd name for it."

Red arched her brow, far too used to men treating her this way to be bothered by it. "That I the only reason you can think of why I might be here?"

This gave Victus cause to smile. "A lovers storm?" He echoed. "I'll bet it would be something to view it from a sky car... Dangerous too..."

Jared narrowed his eyes into slits, giving her a dark and hateful look. "It's the only reason I can think of, honey. Women don't come to men like me because they want to play house." He said, his voice low and deadly. "Now. Either spit out what you came here for, hit me with whatever you've got hidden in your dress or leave." 

Orinia's eyes shot up to Victus' face and that rare wolfish smile returned. "That would be something...wouldn't it?" She purred, leaning forward in her seat.

Red smiling sweetly, the bouncing curls of her hair bobbing about as she did so. "I can see why she likes you..." She purred before turning and walking to the door.

"The very best kind of something." Victus agreed, also leaning forward. "Does that mean you'll join me?"

"She?" Jared's chest hurt. Forget the pain of everything else. Red's words tore at him insides. "Where is she? Let me see her!" He shouted. "Tell that bastard I want to see Ceres! She owes me an answer! Do you hear me, Red!" 

Orinia was already nodding. "Of course!" Her grin widened impossibly and she was sure she was going to nod until her head came off. "I'm going to find something...dangerous to wear!" She announced, leaping out of the chair and nearly taking the entire table down with her in her excitement.

"An answer for what?" Red asked innocently as she paused in the doorway.

Victus was still grinning, watching her in that moment was how he imagined a human child at the celebration they called Christmas. It was a pleasure to simply be caught in the wake of that joy.

"Where is she?!" Jared roared, jerking so hard in his chair he sent it tumbling to the floor. The pain and shock of this had him doing nothing but lying there for several long moment, groaning softly. "Let me see her..." He ground out. "I just need to..." He was more than a little grateful when the welcoming blackness swept up to meet him. 

Moments of joy had been very rare for Orinia. Her mother had made sure of that. It was because of this that she was having trouble containing herself as she looked over the sky car Victus was renting. The asari working there was frowning at her but she didn't seem to notice. "Adrian, you have to see this!" She cried. "It's got element zero components! That makes the rate of sped as fast as a military grade starship!" 
"Is your wife all right?" The asari asked, her frown deepening as she took Victus' credit chip.

Red smiled and leaned over Jared where he had tumbled to the floor. "That little rat belongs to mimic now. She will do anything he asks of her, like a good little whore." She breathed, the poison dripping into his ear before she left him to his darkness.

Victus smiled and shook his head. "She will be if you hurry up and finish the transaction." He replied, though he said it softly and with a chuckle, not meaning it to be rude at all.

Mimic was waiting for the red headed woman when she returned to her cell. He was seated on her bed, smoking a cigarette. "Where have you been, lovely?" He asked. He had a package in his lap, something he often did when he was trying to make up for breaking her things. "I've been waiting here for quite a while now." 

The asari barely had time to give him his chip back before Orinia was grabbing Victus and pulling him over to the car. "Look at that engine." She demanded, practically bending him forward. "Have you ever seen anything so beautiful in all your life?!"

Red folded her arms across her ample chest and narrowed her green eyes slightly. "I thought you would be playing with your new toy by now." She pouted.

Victus laughed and allowed Orinia to manipulate him any way she chose. "I didn't think it was the engine you had an interest in."

"Does this mean you don't want my gift?" Mimic pretended to pout, taking a long drag off his cigarette. "That's a shame. I believe that it would be something to make you smile again. It's been so long since I've seen you smile. Why is that?" 

"It's the whole car..." Orinia breathed, touching the engine block reverently as it were a living breathing thing. "I love to work on things. To make them come alive with my hands...I wish that I could do that with everything." She whispered, though she was no longer looking at the engine.

"Because it has been made quite clear you have a new favourite, despite her attacking you and causing you nothing but trouble!" Red huffed. "I don't know why you that human are so fixated with her!" She added, giving away where she had been.

"You do, believe me." Victus breathed, taking hold of Orinia's hands and kissing her gently. At least, that had been his intent. Passions had been growing for sometime and he was finding it harder to remain passive about how he felt.

Mimic sat up a little straighter, his face contorting into rage. It was then that he noticed the blood on her hand. "You little whore." He hissed. He leaped to his feet and grabbed a handful of her hair, slamming her head into the wall nearby. When he was done with that he threw her onto the bed and shoved up her skirts, unzipping his pants rather roughly. "I will punish you for that." 

Orinia returned the kiss, tentatively at first. Her fingers rested on his shoulders and she moaned softly against his lips, her body alive with nerve endings that were on fire as his hands slid over her hips and pulled her impossibly close to him.

Red's vision was swimming with the force Mimic had used to slam her head into the wall. For a moment she wasn't even aware her skirts had been touched at all until she felt the pain of Mimic roughly pushing himself inside her. Unable to help herself the young woman whimpered, having almost forgotten what this kind of pain was like it had been that long since she had been taken against her will.

Victus' talons were sinking had against Orinia's shapely hips, clearly battling with the desire to begin undressing her right there. His kiss was becoming rather insistent as he turned Orinia, walking her towards the doorway of the skycar.

When he was done with her, Mimic simply jerked up his pants as if nothing had happened. "I am done with you." He snarled at her, meaning more than just the hell he'd just put her through. "From now on you will be treated like all the others. You will stay in your cell until I have rented you out. You are worthless. Just like the rest of them." He added, stomping out of the cell. It wasn't long before a Batarian came to clean out everything but the bare necessities. 

"Victus..." All at once Orinia was pulling away trying to catch her breath. "We...I...not yet..." She said softly, not wanting to tell him that she was worried even her kiss was not good enough for him.
The asari clerk cleared her throat loudly. "Who's taking the keys?" She asked in a curt tone. "If you want to continue that mating dance, can you please...get a room? We have other clients." She added motioning to a group of human men that stood snickering across the way. 
"Oh spirits!" Orinia cried, her cheeks now a charming shade of pink.

Red could barely move, Mimic had been that rough with her. She was screaming at the Batarian, telling him that he had no right to be there. The young woman was clearly not prepared for being tossed aside like this. Unfortunately, all it did was fuel her hatred of Ceres even more.

Victus smirked and took the keys from the Asari. "You're awful prudish for a woman I once saw shaking her breasts for credits." He snorted before ushering his companion into the skycar.

Mimic upgraded Ceres' cell, giving her more of a private room. He sent a tailor in to begin fashioning dresses that complimented her figure without cutting off her airways as the others had. Her seduction was beginning. 

Orinia was dying to drive but she said nothing. She was watching the storm as it began to build around them. The lightning was getting closer by the minute. It truly was beautiful. "I wish it did this on Palaven." She said softly.

Ceres was not being cooperative in the least. The young woman huffed and fidgeted the whole time the tailor was measuring her. As for the extra comforts... She wasn't going to believe they came without a price.

Victus was stopped the skycar with the perfect view of the storm. Though he didn't really show it, he too was rather excited by the thunder. "We can come here whenever you like." He assured Orinia as he reached an arm out, offering her the chance to slide a little closer.

"Why are you having so much trouble allowing this woman to fit you for clothing?" Mimic asked, leaning lazily in the doorway. He'd been watching from the hallway for awhile. "I am offering you a gift. Why must you throw it back in my face?"

"A birthday perhaps?" Orinia asked, taking the opportunity to move closer to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, sliding her talons through his own. "Our anniversary?"

"Because it is not a gift! It is something you will payment for sooner or later!" Ceres hissed, picking up something to throw at Mimic.

Victus grinned, letting his arm rest around Orinia's shoulders. "Anniversary of what?" He teased playfully.

"I am feeling guilty for something that happened to your human." Mimic said, shaking his head. "I owe you something for it." He tried to look as contrite as possible. "This gift is free. And besides, you cannot go to dinner with me looking anything but your best." 

"Of meeting me, of course!" Orinia laughed, swatting him on the chest. "It's such a memorable event and all. Even if we go our separate ways, you will want to continue celebrating the day you met me."

"Human?" This caused Ceres to suddenly stop her pouting and she attempted to move across the room. "What did you do to Jared?!" She demanded, skimming right over the mention of dinner.

Victus smirked, ashamed he had thought something else. "How can you be drain of June day I first met you?" He chuckled.

Mimic directed the tailor to hold her back. It was easier than the quarian realized. "He has a head injury. If you promise to be a good girl I'll take you to see him before he wakes. What do you say?"

"We could instead celebrate our wedding..." Orinia whispered, her eyes meeting his. "I am promised to you after all." She didn't know what came over her but she found herself pressing her lips to his. The kiss outside the car was no longer enough.

Ves was clearly torn by her worry for Jared, and her hatred of Mimic. "What you mean to say it, if I don't agree to dinner with you, you will harm him more!"

Victus pulled Orinia all the way into his lap, his hands holding her tightly. "If that you agreeing that I am not a complete bore?" He breathed against her lips with a grin.