Love and War

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"I swear to even the Asari goddess that when I get out of here, that lizard Kandros will wish I was an exile for what I'm gonna do to him!" Quinn Talos raged as she was unceremoniously shoved into a holding cell on the operations deck. The dark haired woman paced for time, thinking it was would all be straightened out once Tann got wind of what Kandros had done. She should have known better. As far as she believed, human's still weren't exactly favourites of the other alien species. On earth Quinn had an excellent service record within the Alliance, just as most members of her family did, but she had wanted more. She wanted to explore, to see things no human ever had, which was why she signed up for a place on the Andromeda Initiative. The only problem was, she wasn't the pathfinder, and her superiors didn't believe in security personal leaving the Nexus. As well as she performed her job, the call sign 'Cutie', thanks to her unfortunate initials, meant she wasn't exactly taken seriously. Quinn was slumped on the floor with her back against the wall now, glaring at the Turian guard outside the forcefield. She had fought her hardest for the safety of everyone on the Nexus, and this was her reward; being called a traitor and about to be dumped on some godforsaken planet with the rest of the exile scum. All because Kandros feared losing what little power he had to her. The asshole can keep it, she thought bitterly.

"Around... Seven?" Kandros asked. "Is that okay? I mean... We can go later, if you want? Or earlier!" He was stumbling over his words, clearly quite nervous.

Quinn knew any physical reaction on her part would only get Tyros hurt, no matter how much Ardwin touched her. "My father was an alliance officer, no quarian." She told her blackmailer firmly. "I don't know where you come up with these wild stories." She added, though oddly her gaze would no longer meet his.

Maggie gave him a strange look. She wasn't used to the nervous Kandros. Her secret lover had been overly confident and sure of himself. "Sure...that sounds fine..."

"It's like I told you before, I know more than you think. " Ardwin told her. "Now, go get some rest. It's going to be a long night for you and I."

Kanros saw the way Maggie looked at him, and it only made things worse. He couldn't be confident around her any more, as the night he believed he had spent with the asari had left him feeling rather worthless. What kind of man had so little self control he couldn't say no to just one woman? He quickly nodded and made a hasty exit.

"Longer for me." Quinn muttered sullenly as Ardwin walked away. As the tailor returned to pinning her dress the young woman was left alone with her own thoughts, which centred around how she had gotten herself into this absurd situation.

Maggie didn't believe Kandros would show up. She got dressed up and sat on her couch to wait. After eight thirty she decided to give up and  began to turn off the lights.  She had to work the next day after all. 

Tyros finally gave up fighting his captors. He lay down in his cell and stared at the outside wall. He hat faith that Quinn was faring better than he was.  He had to.

Kandros had been pacing outside Maggie's apartment for thirty minutes now, rehearsing what he was going to say to her, how he was going to present the flowers he had somehow managed to locate for her. The poor man was a pathetic mess in comparison to the one who had so often whisked Maggie away for secret rendezvous.

Quinn would hardly say she was faring better. The young woman was sat in the locked room where Ardwin had left her earlier. She wore the ornate gown he had had his tailor make for her, and while Maggie may have been at home in such finery, her younger sibling was not. She was already sick of pulling the bodice up, feeling she would spill out at any moment, even if that was far from the truth. In all honesty, this was the first dress Quinn had ever worn.

Maggie was more than a little broken hearted, thinking Kandros had forgotten completely. She had changed out of the new dress shed bought and into her sweat pants when she noticed an odd shadow moving back and forth through the crack in her door. 

"It's going to be a lovely wedding." The tailor said as he got to his feet. He was done with the train of the dress and ready to be released from her cell as well. "You'll do fine, dear. You look amazing."

Kandros was in front of the door now, his hand poised as though the press the comm there and let Maggie know he had arrived. "What am I doing..." He finally muttered to him, looking down at the flowers he had tried so hard to find. She deserved better.

"And then what?" Quinn whispered, more scared by what would come after the wedding, than the act itself. "He'll never let Tyros go... I don't know why I thought this would help..."

When the shadow stopped moving Maggie's heart sank. "Lights." She whispered, the apartment going as dark as she felt in that moment. Why had she believed him when he'd said he had wanted to try again?

"You're kidding right?" The tailor asked pausing at the comm that would allow him to leave. "Ardwin was never going to let that kett go. He's going to auction him off as soon as the wedding begins."

Maggie's computer would beep with an arriving message a few minutes later.

      I'm sorry. You deserve better than some turian who can't keep it in his pants. You looked so happy when you were with Kesh, then I came along... I saw the light die in your eyes. I'm not asking you to forgive me, but maybe I'm not giving you the time you need to accept the mistake I made.

Tann had done more damage than he seemed to realise. Or perhaps that was the plan all along.


Quinn felt that deep down, she had known this was the plan all along. But what else could she do? Ardwin had her trussed up like some doll and she had no way out. As she was letting these thoughts sink in, an asari was unlocking the door, apparently here to do Quinn's make up, as a soldier in a dress wasn't the look any one would appreciate.

The next day there was a letter of resignation on Kandros' desk from Maggie. She'd received an offer from Tann to work on his investigation team and she had decided for both their sakes it would be better for her to take it. Her first assignment would take her to Meridian with the pathfinder. She hoped that would create enough distance for him.

"Good luck to you." The tailor said, passing both woman with a knowing smile. "You're going to need it."

The moment Kandros read the letter he was banging on Maggie's door. He didn't know how long the letter had been there, or if she was even still on the station, never mind her apartment.

Quinn barely said two words to the asari the entire time she was there. Her mother had been an avid reader of historical romance novels, and Quinn couldn't help but feel this was all right out of the pages of one.

"The shuttle left an hour ago, Kandros." Kesh said. She had seen him rushing past her office. She knew he'd end up here. "She's gone."

The party was full of mercs and the low life's of society. Ardwin seemed like he was right at home amongst them. This was only made more evident with the lovely woman on his arm that no one knew.

"Just like that?" Kandros breathed, though he knew damn well it wasn't 'just like that'. He slumped against the wall, then slid down to the floor. "How is one little human making me so crazy?"

Mercs and pirates Quinn could handle, hell, even drunk assholes. But this... She felt more exposed and out of place than she ever had. All the while Ardwin was working the room, showing her off like some prize her mind was elsewhere, frantic lavender eyes searching the room for any sign of Tyros.

"I wish I knew." Kesh said softly as she sat down beside him. "It's scaring me the way you two are acting, like you have some sort of death wish. Now she's out there on Tann's orders fighting kett and all because she doesn't think you love her." 

There was an enormous cage housed in the center of the room. So far no one had bothered to look at it. But the shadow inside was watching them all, his vivid green. Eyes filled with hate and anger.

"Tann?" Kandros hissed. "He was the one who put her up to leaving?!" It was as he lost his temper yet again Kandros realised how deep his feelings for Maggie ran. "She spent her whole life trying to prove she was better than the disease that was killing her. That slimy varren played on that, I just didn't see it when he offered me a quick fix."

Every time Quinn tried to break away from Ardwin his arm tightened around her slender waist until she was now pulled against his side, like she was a part of him. The young woman saw the cage, though she was too scared to look too closely.

"Tann is in love with Maggie. I don't know when it started but it's become so obvious. And now with you out of the way he can really go after her. He doesn't strike me as the type who minds being a rebound." Kesh said darkly.

Ardwin finally paused near the cage but only long enough for for Quinn to hear he agonized growls inside. Then he was sweeping her toward the dance floor, practically singing that his dreams were about to come true.

"Tann?" Kandros echoed, unable to believe this. "No... That slimy bastard doesn't have it in him to love someone." He insisted, though things were already clicking into place in his head. "I'm such an idiot..."

Quinn, obviously, couldn't dance, not that it mattered. Ardwin was holding her so close that she was simply swept around as people looked on and whispered about the mystery woman who had appeared out of nowhere. "I know what you're going to do." She breathed against Ardwin's ear as they danced.

"You think he had something to so with that woman at the bar a few weeks ago? Neither of you has gotten over that." Kesh asked with a frown. 

"Oh?" Ardwin turned his head so that his lips bushed hers. "And what is that my dear?" He chuckled.

Kandros looked at Kesh with a horrified expression, clearly having not given Tann that much credit. "You think he would stoop to that level?"

"All in good time." Quinn breathed before she stole a hungry kiss from Ardwin, a distraction to stop further questions.

"I have evidence that Tann had six of the seven leaders above him killed. So yes, i believe he would. If he wants it he will do amything to get it." Kesh confirmed. "Maggie is now completely under his thumb. Shes stopped answering messages from me."

Tyros saw the kiss and the disgusting way Ardwin responded to it. It broke his heart. But he knew Quinn didn't belong to him. She had the right to choose whatever and whoever she wanted to.

Kandros simply couldn't stand for it. His misery was pushed aside as he rose to his feet, determined he would rescue Maggie, even if she would never be his again. "I'll take a shuttle, you find out the exact coordinates of where her assignment put her."

Quinn was discretely turning them around slightly, as he eyes remained open and fixed on the cage, as well as how many of Ardwin's men surrounded it. If she was going to give Tyros his freedom, then she would have to give Ardwin something extremely valuable, something no one else would ever be able to have. The young woman's fingers slid into her humans captors hair as she kissed him, doing everything she could to make him believe she was his.

"Kandros, you are security commander. You can't just run off every time you feel like it. Tann was banking on that." Kesh said gently. "I'll send word to Drak. He'll keep her safe."

Tyros grabbed the bars and shook It, howling in his grief. This was not freedom for Quinn. She was selling herself for something else. He didn't understand it.

"He was banking on it, that's why he wont expect it." Kandros countered. "Kesh, I already let her slip away once, I can't do it again, especially not now, knowing I never even did anything wrong!"

Quinn needed answers to the things she had seen when Tyros kissed her. She knew it was no coincidence that she saw those dead quarians, the two of them were supposed to to find that ark. The price she paid mattered little in the grand scheme of thousands of lives. Quinn smiled sadly at the irony; she was only in existence to save Maggie's life, and here she was sacrificing herself to save thousands of other people she had never even met. Thousands... and one strange kett.

"Just be careful..." Kesh said as she got to her feet. "I'll keep Tann off your back as long as I can." 

Tyros felt betrayed. He turned his back on the scene and sat down. There was nothing he could do to change Quinn's mind. She was going sell her self like an asari whore and not even fight it.

"Thank you... I hope I wasn't too slow, but, I'll let Maggie know this wouldn't be possible if you hadn't connected the dots for me." Kandros breathed.

Quinn saw Tyros turn his back on her, and she would be lying if she said it didn't hurt. He would never understand this was all she had of value. The young woman had no possessions, and even her credit chit had been destroyed. Without weapons and armour she couldn't even hire herself out as a merc. He could hate her all he liked, but it was all for Tyros's sake. "Does there really need to be a wedding?" She breathed at last. "You can have me without to need for such a pointless ceremony, you know."

"You don't have to tell her anything." Kesh said softly. "Just go." 

"If that's the case then let's go." Ardwin purred, pulling her toward his room and away from the crowd.

Kandros barely even remembered the sprint to the shuttle bay, of even any conversation he may have had with ops about why he was commandeering a valuable shuttle. Kesh had been true to her word and he was following the coordinates to Maggie's location. He was going to rip Tann's head off for this.

Quinn cast one last glance back at the cage where Tyros was being held as Ardwin took her hand, pulling her through to crowd. She couldn't imagine that bedding her was this exciting for him, it was simply the thought he was winning at something. She found herself smiling slightly, imagining getting her out of her dress would slow him down some anyway.

Maggie's group had taken a beating. Meridian was not what any of them hd envisioned. Especially not when the kett showed up. 
Now there was only herself and a young asari left. The two of them were laying in the infirmary just glad to be alive.

"This isn't going to stop me from selling the kett, you know." Ardwin said as he pulled her along.

"You think we're lucky, or unlucky?" The Asari asked Maggie softly as they lay there hooked up to pain medication. "Lucky we survived, unlucky that we had to watch our team taken apart like that..."

"You know the future?" Quinn asked, stumbling slightly when she accidentally bumped shoulders with a turian as she was pulled along.

Maggie lay on her side, staring at the wall. "I wish I could answer that." She said softly. "I'm glad you made it out but...honestly...im disappointed with myself. The turian who trained me would never forgive me if he saw how badly I let my team down." 

"Of course I do." Ardwin said cheerfully. "I'm the one orchestrating It, aren't I?" He purred, pausing to pull her against him for another kiss.