Love and War

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"Maggie, you were attacked." Kandros replied firmly, though he still didn't open his eyes. "I never hated you, only what that bastard did to you."

"Brave? That woman?" Quinn snorted. "I hardly think so. She was a brainless idiot who only cared what would make her dear husband happy."

Kandros was quick to recover himself and he pushed away from Tyros to pull his son away from the other alien, and sat with him in his lap. What he believed had been their last words to each other were said in anger. He couldn't let it end like that. Typos and the body of Hunter were less than nothing to him now as he stumbled through the mud with his son's body.

"Not just humans." Betty replied with another thin smile. "But yes, humans are especially easy to toy with. You are so soft, but howl so loudly when I take things from you."

"What did you sound like when things were taken from you?" Maggie asked.  "When you were told you weren't good enough to do anything but give a general children? When he took you to his bed and treated you like you were nothing but his dog. What did you sound like Betty?"

Betty was clearly not amused by this. "You assume much, girl." She replied icily. "I never gave the general a single child."

"You never gave anyone anything." Maggie laughed. "You fail every one, kett. You're worthless. Isn't that what you always said to me?" Betty wouldn't have time to answer. Tyros had found her. He pressed his gun to the back of her head, his chest heaving. 
"Your lover is dead. This is where it ends, witch. Is there anything you would like to say before I be the myself in your brains?"

"She isn't dead." Betty replied simply, showing no real emotion at the news that Hunter was gone.

"What?" Tyros' gun went down in an instant. He could barely catch his breath. "Where? Take me to her now. Or I will kill you!"

"I don't think you know what you want, boy." Betty replied calmly. "You received the parts we sent you, didn't you?" She added with a cruel smile."

"Her sister...had them. She refused to let me near. Said I had caused enough damage." Tyros whispered. "Take me to her. I will do anything. Please...i need her..."

Lexi saw Kandros carrying Connor and shouted for Drak. She'd been instructed by her lover to remain inside but surely with his beloved charge in such a state he would change his mind...

Betty was still watching Maggie as Tryos spoke. "Oh my, and you say I'm the cruel one?" She asked her youngest daughter with a wicked grin.

"Doc, what did I tell..." Drak had been about to drag Lexi over the coals for once again not listening to him, but all those words died when he arrived at her side and saw the turban carrying Connor's battered body.

Maggie's chin quivered as she heard the kett's plea. It broke her heart. She wanted to apologize to let him see what she had cried over. To mourn with her. It was too late. Only now did she see that he loved Quinn as Kandros did her. 
Tyros grabbed her in her hazy thoughts and shoved her forward. "I offer a trade then. This one and myself for Quinn. You cannot pass this one up and you know it!"

Lexi breathed a sigh of relief when Drak all but dragged her outside with him. She was set down neatly in front of Kandros. The turian didn't even notice them.
"He's still breathing," Lexi told Drak, ashamed that she wished the poor boy wasn't. Her children were gone why was he still here?

Betty was damn near grinning like a child now. It was not a fair deal at all. For him. Two intact bodies in exchange for the damaged and broken mess she had made of Quinn. "Very well." She replied simply, like it was no big deal. 

"You gotta keep it that way." Drak breathed, as close to begging as anyone would ever hear. "Not him, we've all lost too much already."

"No! You moron! Quinn is dead!" Maggie shouted, struggling with all she was worth. "I'm not going anywhere! Let go...Kandros!" She screamed her husband's name, tearing her throat raw. Why was this always happening?  

Lexi couldn't even look at Drak as he took the boy from Kandros and carried him inside. She was slow to follow, watching as the all clear signs were being set.

"Broken, yes. But far from dead." Betty corrected before striking Maggie roughly across the face. "Enough. That screeching is giving me a headache. Come. Now." She demanded, motioning Tyros follow her. "We will take are my ship while the rest of them deal with your little mess." She added. 
The three of them met with no resistance and were soon back on board Hunter's ship, though with his death Betty would seem take control of it, by force if she had to. Maggie was dumped inside what would be considered a kett bedroom, the door locked of course. She was not taken to a holding cell or the lab as her sister had been, it was the first clue that Maggie's fate was different than that of her younger sister. 
Tyros was not taken directly to his wife, his night was about to get a whole lot worse. He was left in a locked cell with a giant vid screen. On the screen was footage of one of Betty's moments with her youngest daughter.


“I thought I told you no interruptions?” Betty hadn't even looked up from what she was doing when another kett had entered her lab.
“I know.” The other female replied bluntly. “But Hunter wanted eyes on you, even he is aware you have a habit of getting carried away with this particular specimen.”
Betty sighed like a sullen teenager before finally looking away from what she was studying. “Oh yes, anything to get into his good books, and his bed.” She sneered. “By all means, watch. You will be sorely disappointed, as this one hasn't made a peep so far.” Betty rose from her desk and approached the rather pale looking human on the table. “Ever the soldier, oh how he would laugh to see how well he trained you.” She commented as she looked the dark haired female over. “You were worthless to me, nothing more than a means to correcting my initial mistake with Maggie. Who would have thought, over half a millennium and a entirely new galaxy and finally you have meaning to me. You have a use.” Kett fingers reached out, almost pushing Quinn’s dark hair from her eyes in a motherly fashion before Betty caught herself and picked up a wicked looking instrument from the tray beside her instead. “Maggie must be missing you, let's not completely disappoint her.” With no warning Betty used the laser tool in her hand and severed Quinn’s left arm from just below the elbow. This was done without sedating the young woman first, and Betty would finally get what she had wanted all this time; her youngest child’s screams. 
The second kett couldn't help but watch with wide eyes. She had heard the rumours of Betty’s thirst for blood from this one human, but even by kett standards this seemed cruel. “They weren't lying when they said humans are the cruelest of all the species we have assimilated so far.”


Drak paused in the doorway, aware that Lexi seemed reluctant to follow. "Ain't the boys fault." He breathed simply.

Tyros howls of agony could be heard throughout the ship. Even Maggie caught wind of them and it made her insides churn. She wasn't sure why they were happening but she didn't like the sound of them. 

Lexi wrapped her arms around herself, refusing to look at Drak. "There are other doctors here. I can't help him." She whispered. "It may sound selfish but...dont ask me to..."

It it probably wouldn't be hard for Maggie to imagine why Tyros was howling, as she had indeed been the recipient of several packages from Betty, each with varying parts of Quinn's body in.
Betty was stood outside Tyros' cell as he bowled, her desire for the misery of others seeming quelled. For now. She opened the door once he went quiet and all but dragged him out. "What's the matter? Don't you want to see your dear little QT?"

"Doc..." Drak felt his voice crack slightly. "I know there are others, but Connor needs the best. He needs you." He breathed, moving forward to gently rest his large hands on her seemingly fragile shoulders. "Please..."

"Does her real name bother you? Remind you of the quarian who is better than you?" Tyros hissed hatefully. "I'm going to ruin you. Just you wait." 

Lexi couldn't meet his eyes. Normally all Drak had to do was ask and she was putty in his hands. But not this time. All she could do was remember the tiny bodies the kett woman ripped out of her and the way she laughed when Lexi begged for them. 
Maggie had been treated like a golden cow and so was her strange son. She couldn't over look that.

"You mean the creature whose spine was torn from his body as he still drew breath?" Betty snorted. "Hardly. And what do you really think you can do? You are just as worthless as she it now." She sneered, not giving Tyros chance to retort as she pushed him into the observation room where Quinn was being kept. For now the lights were off, and though Quinn would clearly have heard the door open and close, she made no sound or movement.

Lexi's silence was hell for Drak as he let his large hands drop away from her. He understood. Connor would die, and they would again have to pick their lives up and carry on. "I'm not letting him die alone." He breathed, turning away to go and sit with the boy he thought of as a son.

Tyros wasted no time in crossing the room, resting cool fingers on Quinn's forehead. "Hello, lovely." He breathed. "I've been so worried about you." He pressed a kiss to the end of her nose, trying to remain brave. "Here I find you lazily sleeping like those kittens you told me about." He laughed softly. 

Lexi watched him go, her lower lip trembling. Drak had no idea. He'd been rescued. He hadn't had to live through her hell.  She'd wanted those children so badly. His children. 
For him they had been so easy to replace. How was that even possible?

Cold fingers curled around Tyros' wrist, pulling his hand away from Quinn's forehead. "Don't touch me... please." She breathed, ashamed of the emotional tremble to her voice. 

Drake was sat next to Connor's bed, though he didn't truly see the boy. His gaze was distant, as is often was of late. Losing his own children had been far more crushing than he had let on, being with Connor had always eased the pain of having fatherhood snatched from him. Slightly.

"How can you ask that of me? I've gone a year thinking I had lost you. There's been no other..." Tyros confessed. "They couldn't compare even if there were." He again slid his fingers through her hair, lovingly pausing to pull apart the tangles and blood mats. "I love you so much."

Connor reached for Drak when the Krogan entered the room. "He said...he knew where mom was and this was...part of...the test. I failed. I won't get on the security squad...will I?" 
Lexi didn't speak, as she crossed the room, her head down. Drak wanted the boy to live. She'd see to it. She never turned him down. "I'll need blood." She said to Kandros. "Where is Maggie?"

"Stop saying that!" Quinn roared, her open palm slamming against Tyros' chest and sending him flying across the room with strength someone of her size should not have had, even with all her combat training.

"Who said?" Drak asked, almost gently. "Boy, who did this to you?"
Kandros seemed almost dazed, staring at Lexi for a few moments before he answered. "Maggie... Maggie!" The second time he breathed her name it was with urgency. "I left her in the classroom with the children until whoever was out there was caught."

The kett beyond the door were laughing. Tyros could hear them. "Quinn...They're going to let you go. I made your mother a trade. It's over now. She won't hurt you anymore." 

"Director Tann...i don't even know why he was so mad at me." Connor gasped out. "He kept yelling at me to die...."
"She is not there," Jaal said as he entered the room. "I went back for her once the children were secure. However, the security vid showed us a ghost..."

Quinn's laughter was that of someone who truly had lost all hope. "Won't hurt me? What is there left of me to hurt?" She asked, a faint blue glow emitting from around eye level with her current location. Betty was clearly watching all this, as a light turned on in the centre of the room at that exact moment. Quinn moved closer to it, and Tyros would finally get a good look at his wife. The arm that Betty had taken in the vid had been replaced with a cybernetic one, as had her right leg, the gleaming metal visible from beneath the medical gown that she wore. Most troubling of all, Quinn's beautiful lavender eyes no longer matched, as one of those had also been taken and sent to her sister in a box, then replaced with yet more tech, which was where the faint cerulean glow had been coming from. Her dark hair was no longer jaw length, it had grown considerably this past year and now hung past her shoulders and down her back.
"Tell me now how much you love me." She challenged Tyros. 

"A ghost?" Kandros echoed, before his attention was quickly pulled by the faint sound of his sons voice. So much had happened in such a short time. "Connor..." he was again by his son's side. "Where did Tann go?"

Betty would not get the response she was looking for. Tyros simply stepped forward. "What are you expecting me to say?" He said gently, not yet touching her. "Do you want me to tell you I think you are a monster? Ugly? We have been through this before." He stepped closer to her, reaching out. "You are still my Quinn. Perfectly lovely to me." 

"I don't know. He said something about mother. About...a brother..." Connor wouldn't get to say more as the pain medicine kicked in. He met with blessed darkness and he was glad for it.

Quinn's lower lip trembled before a fat tear spilled out of her human eye. Betty would be screaming bloody murder as the young woman leaned forward and simply slid her arms around Tyros. "I'm sorry." She breathed, thinking she was the one who should be apologising. "I never meant to leave you like that."

Kane rose was filled with a little relief, though he had just come to the wrong conclusion. "Tan has my wife." He told Jaal and the others firmly. "I let him live last time by your pleas, I won't make that mistake again."

"I'm the one who left you...you should be forgiving me." Tyros breathed. "Quinn..." He lost his voice to broken sobs. "I thought I lost you." 

"No. She is not with Tann. She was taken by a kett. Her sister's bond mate. He told another that he would trade her for Quinn. Apparently the girl still lives." Jaal told Kandros softly.

"She won't let us leave, you know that, right?" Quinn whispered, no longer able to even hope for the best after everything her mother had done to her.

"Quinn? No, that's not possible. You and the pathfinder both saw those body parts that kept showing up in boxes. A Krogan would barely survive, never mind a human!" He was insisting this to be the truth, as he didn't want to think of his wife in the hands of a creature who seem to gain enjoyment from severe mutilation.

"Oh she will. Or I will tear your sister into tiny pieces and feed them to her. Hunter is dead and she will meet the same fate if she continues on this path." Tyros snarled. 

"We will ban together to get her back, Kandros but..im afraid it is very true." Jaal said sadly.

Quinn pulled herself out of Tyros' arms, her brow creased into a frown as she looked up at him. "Then everything she took from me... will have been for nothing! It was all to keep Maggie safe!" She hissed.

Kandros seemed to be having trouble containing his anger, his hands balled tightly at his sides. "I will rips that girls limbs from her body if he dares make that trade!" He warned, unaware of the irony of his threat.

"That was...Quinn..." Tyros struggled to keep the hurt out of his voice. Again he held betrayed by his wife. "We are leaving. I traded your sister for you and I am not sorry." 

"It's been done already." Jaal said sadly. "The kett took her. "We didn't realize it was happening until it was too late. The female kett accepted the trade and took them both to her ship. Your wife didn't go quietly. I can assure you of that."