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.

Kandros nodded, managing a small smile even. He was indeed grateful to Lexi for her kindness. "I can't just let the bastard get away with it though."

The female narrowed her eyes, wondering how they had screwed up so much that this kett didn't even remember how he had come into being. "We are better than asari. We take a host, extract the parts we have interest in, then mutate their DNA to continue the kett race. It removes the messy need for copulation, and the lengthy process of waiting for an embryo to come to term and then the years that follow for it to fully mature. In other words... our armies will never be beaten back."

"There will be time for revenge later. But right now you need to concentrate on her. Tann will get what is coming to him I believe in that." Lexi said firmly. "Goodnight, Kandros. I wish you well."

"That's why it's already happened more than once." Tyros hissed, pulling back the switch on the release. "You are foolish. Much like the Archon. Speaking of which...where is he?"

"Thanks, and... goodnight." Kandros breathed as he pushed himself to his feet, looking very much like he had been beaten to the ground.
"Maggie?" He knocked gently on her door, all too aware that things were piled against it on the other side.

"You think the Archon will trouble himself with a pathetic failure?" The female scoffed. "The Archon is as he always will be; one step ahead."

The door slid open, showering Kandros with a chair, bed roll, and nearly every article of clothing Maggie owned. After the initial clatter he would be able to hear the shower going and see the steam rising from the bathroom door. The little blonde was trying hard to scrub away her broken feelings of powerlessness and shame.

"Take us to him." Something was taking over inside Tyros and he was powerless to stop it. Seeing the blood in his lover's lips had turned off a warm and familiar part of him. He wanted more of that blood and though his mind still told him he didn't want to take it from the human. He wanted it from somewhere. "Do it now!" He barked, lapsing completely into kett.

Kandros didn't dare approach the shower. He didn't want to hurt Maggie any further, and didn't want her castrating him anyway. He sat on the floor where the bed roll had once been, stumbling over what he wanted to say to Maggie when she came out of the shower.

"Ty... don't..." Quinn wheezed, looking all too pale as she tried to force herself to sit up.
The famel looked at Quinn and shook her head in disgust. "Like vermin... they don't know when to die."

Maggie wore an oversized sweater and leggings when she came out of the shower. Her hair hung in a tangled soapy mess. 
It took her a moment to notice him but when she did all she could do was stand where she was, shaking her head. "I'm sorry about the mess." She whispered. "I couldn't find my favorite shirt..."

"Quiet!" Tyros roared, turning his head only slightly toward Quinn. "Lead me to the Archon. We are done talking. You hear me?"

"What mess?" Kandroa asked, offering Maggie a gentle smile. "I... missed you."

"Ty... it's what he wants." Quinn insisted, stumbling as she attempted to get to her feet. "They want... you dead..."
The female kett was smiling, surprised at the stubbornness of the species.

Maggie didn't smile back. But after a long moment she did sit on the far edge of the bed. "No one misses me. I'm a pig pen. Quinn used to hate coming into my room. She called it a death trap. You complained about my desk at work all the time. Remember?"

Tyros was deep in the throws of the kett blood rage. He wasn't even hearing Quinn as he made a full turn toward her, his talons twitching on the trigger.

"It doesn't mean we don't love you." Kandros breathed. "Military people, well... we have a hard time with disorder." He chuckled.

"Do it." The female kett urged. "She isn't like us... She will only turn on you, as pets often do."

"Quinn used to challenge me to find things. She'd get furious when I knew right where everything was. She told me I was going to be buried in my own junk one day." Maggie wrapped her arms around herself, her smile sad. 

"I don't have pets. They are far too much work." Tyros hissed, his voice sounding different and hatefilled.

Kandros reached his arms out for Maggie, then thought she would hate him for it, so allowed them to drop back to his sides. "Do you miss her?"

"Then what were you doing with this one?" The female challenged, gesturing in Quinn's direction with her weapon. "An offering to buy your way back into our ranks?"

Maggie gingerly reached out and touched Kandros' talons though didn't pull herself closer to him. "Very much." She admitted. "Even though I know she wishes I were dead." 

"You disgust me." Tyros hissed. "I am above you. I don't want to be one of your kind."

"That's not true, and you know it." Kandros breathed. "I'm the reason there's a wedge between you... I'm sorry."

"Oh? Then she truly is meaningless to you." The female sneered, shooting Quinn again just as she had managed to drag herself to her feet.

"Quinn never wanted to have anything to do with me. Don't be sorry." Maggie told him. 

Tyros barely flinched. He stalked toward the kett woman, his eyes flaming. "I want to see the Archon. The human means nothing."

"Maybe that's her loss then?" Kandros breathed. "She never deserved you, none of us do."

The last thing Quinn saw as she lay with her head turned to the side, her own blood pooling out of her, was the female kett leading her lover away to meet the archon. This was only after she had been shot for a third time, and she heard Tyros confess that she was indeed worthless.

"Tiran..." Maggie didn't know why he was speaking so sweetly to her. "Don't you think we should get some sleep? It's been a long day and...tomorrow Drak wants you to go fishing with him..."

Tyros followed the female kett, never once looking back. He couldn't afford to. He had to allow his monstrous nature to take over. There was nothing left for him. They had fought hard for nothing.

Kandros shook his head firmly. "I am not going fishing. I am not leaving you alone here!" He insisted firmly.

Even if Tyros did falter and come back to look for his lover, he wouldn't find her. The moment he was out of sight more kett had spirited Quinn's seemingly lifeless form away to one of the labs.
"You really think he will do anything but choke the life out of you?" The female asked as she and Tyros approached the Archon's chamber.

"I'll be fine." Maggie said quietly. She knew full well this wasn't true. She'd already hidden a pistol under the mattress and one under the cushion of the reading chair in the corner of the room. Not to mention the omni tool on her wrist. Shed never worn one before. "You came here to take a breather, Tiran. I'm not going to stop you from that."

"You really think I'm afraid of him." Tyros snorted. Stepping into the desolate chamber brought a dark laugh from the broken kett. He saw the mess the pathfinder had made of the room and knew that one again fate was not on his side. When he saw the rotting corpse of the Archon he was sure of it. "Well? Shall I give the old creature a hand at that choking bit?" He asked the female kett with a snort.

"I also promised I would keep you safe... I failed before we even left the nexus." Kandros breathed. "I'm not leaving you alone, Maggie. That's the simple truth of it."

The female kett looked genuinely shocked by the sight she saw. He was their Archon, unstoppable. She ignored Tyros to run to what remained of her leader, nearly gagging at the smell. This hadn't just happened, so why hadn't she been notified?

"I'm the one the failed you, Tiran." Maggie admitted. "You trained me to be brave and defend myself...and I promised myself to you. To never let..." She couldn't say it aloud. She couldn't tell him what she'd been too weak to stop Tann from doing to her. 
Instead she gagged and ran for the bathroom, releasing the contents of her stomach between gasping sobs.

Tyros laughed darkly as he watched the female kett. "What was that speech about humans? I think I was far too stupid to catch on. I think perhaps your Archon was too." He didn't wait for her to answer. He simply shot her in the forehead. He was done with being on the losing end. He'd kill them all if it meant getting answers. He was tired of being kind.

Kandros was right there behind her, holding her hair back as she retched. "That wasn't weakness. No training could prepare any one for what that bastard did to you."

It seemed like the moment the female's body hit the floor, the entire ship suddenly fell apart. It's life support had begun to shut down and it's orbit was deteriorating. Time was short of Tyros wanted everything he came here for... and to live with everything he arrived with.

"I had all these plans...our life was going to be perfect..." Maggie gasped out. "Now...all I want to do is hide under the bed." She was shivering now, clinging to the metal bowl as if it were the only thing keeping her alive. "How can I take care of us like that? You need something else..." 

Tyros didn't remember much of anything. It was several hours later that he was seated at the driver's seat of a tiny starship. There were kett doctors working to save the life of a human. Not a one of them was remotely happy about this either.
All he knew was that he was headed to Eos. Quinn had received a transmission from her sister from there. He was hoping that meant the elder girl would be willing to help them.

"Everything I need is right here." Kandros insisted gently. "I never needed all of that Maggie. I was happy if you were happy, and... Thanks to my lack of foresight, I ruined everything."

Quinn only had brief moments of consciousness, and all she saw were kett faces. Kett faces that didn't belong to her lover. From these brief moments she mistakenly came to the conclusion that Tyros had indeed left her behind.

Lexi had returned to the balcony not long after Kandros had left. She was glad to see Drak had now joined her. She lowered herself into his lap and sighed softly closing her eyes. "I thought this move was going to be a good thing. How can people be so cruel?" She asked softly. 

The night was calm but it wouldn't last. A kett ship was on its way to them with a dissillusioned, desperate pilot that was about to shake up their worlds.

Drak laughed, as he always did in any situation. "You get as old as I am, and ain't nothing left to surprise you, least of all the cruelty people are capable of." He replied. The ageing krogan settled his large hands lightly around the seemingly tiny asari in his lap, though before he could say much else he caught the sound of raised voices on the wind. All of them shouting that the kett had found them.

Lexi heard it as well though she was reluctant to get up. She and Drak never had time to themselves. "You only say that because you spend so much time in Kadara. Maybe if you spent more time with me." She breathed, pressing a kiss to his lips before she got to her feet. "Come on let's go get this situated before they wake the pathfinder up."

Drak laughed again, the sound deep and rumbling. "Yeah, I'd rather fight a whole hoard of kett than wake Ryder from her beauty sleep." He chuckled, checking his gun before pushing heavily to his feet.

"Oh please. You know she and Jaal are doing anything but sleeping." Lexi snorted, looking over her own pistol though she doubted Drak would let her fire it. 
An odd looking kett was already standing off against the security team when the two of them arrived. He was barking orders over his shoulder and didn't seem to care that there were many weapons trained on him.

"Too bad... she would have just loved this." Drak snorted as they approached the gathered security team. "You got a death wish, or somethin'?" He asked the kett who seemed to care little about the commotion in front of him, only what was happening behind him.

The kett turned toward them, a shot gun in his hands. "A doctor. I want a doctor. And Maggie. Where is Maggie?" He turned his eyes and his gun on Lexi. "You. Get me what I ask for or die."