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."

"Then you knew it was Tann's?" Kandros asked, knowing he didn't have time to be keeping secrets if he was to stop Tann from getting to Maggie and Connor.

"Kandros...she was too far along for it to belong to that bastard." Lexi said softly. "She was pregnant when he raped her. The baby is yours..." 
The ship shuddered as the salarian's docked. He was coming to claim two things that in no way belonged to him.

Kandros looked like someone had just punched him in the gut. "Mine?" He breathed the word so softly it see,ed he hadn't said anything at all. "But..." He was a wreck of emotion as he felt the ship shudder. He would kill him. There was no doubt in his mind now. Tann had tried to destroy their tiny family, that could not be allowed to slide. "You may want to lock the door when I leave... I'm going to kill the director."

"Don't be stupid, Kandros. Do you want to lose them? If you even try you will be leaving them both completely defenseless. Is that what you really want?" Lexi snapped. "Some father you are."

"He raped her, Lexi! The bastard raped her and got away with it!" Kandros hissed. "You think I'm just supposed to let that go? He thinks he's untouchable!"

Lexi didn't have time to answer. Tann and his guards burst in the door, ignoring the two of them. He moved over to Maggie and the sleeping infant and scooped Connor up. He cradled the now angry baby reverently, ignoring his wails. "His name is Fearon Tann." He purred. "Isn't he beautiful?"

"He has a name, and it isn't that." Kandrosmgrowled, stomping over. "He's beautiful alright, because he doesn't have even a single cell of your evil DNA inside of Him!" He added, reached to try and take his son back.

Hunter tapped his gun on Quinn's forehead. "Wake up, human." He growled at her. "You are far too lazy. Much more than your mother." 

Kandros would find a gun shoved in his face and two snarling salarians shoving him away from Tann and the now red faced baby. "Nonsense," chuckled Tann. "Look at those eyes. They are the same color as mine. Nothing like yours. And his skin...i see nothing turian about that!" He added with a laugh.

Quinn groaned, having been unconscious rather than asleep. She had dragged herself as far from the airlock as she could before blood loss had left her slumped on the ground. Unfortunately... Tyros' name was the first thing past her lips.

"No, that's all human." Kandros replied with a mocking smile. "Nothing remotely Salarian. Because that would have made for one ugly brat." He added with a sneer.

"Did I hear you muttering the name of a certain kett that has decided to avoid me?" Hunter asked, yanking on a handful of her hair. "Now that you're awake I'm dying to find out how you two managed to get rid of that tracking chip I put in him. I think perhaps it's time you started talking."

A pair of cold pistols were shoved in his face. Lexi groaned. 
"You aren't exactly on the right end to be mocking me, turian. " Tann hissed. "I no longer need Maggie. I don't care if she ends up dead any more than I do you. I came for my son. Everyone else is expendable."

"The fairies took it." Quinn sneered, spitting blood in Hunter's face. 

"You sure are." Kandros growled, one of the guards disarmed in a heartbeat, leaving Kandros and the other guard in a standoff with pistols aimed at each other. "You aren't leaving here with MY son."

Hunter headbutted her, yanking her off the metal table shed been laying on. "Don't think anyone is coming to save you. Your father's head is mounted in my cabin and your mother...i think you know how she feels about you." 

Tann opened his mouth to speak only to find himself with another pistol pointed in his face. He was so shocked by it's source he could do nothing but set the baby in Lexi's arms. "Get out of here you slimy bastard." Maggie hissed at him, her arm never wavering.

Quinn dared to laugh as she spat more of her own blood on the floor. Hunter had quite easily broken her delicate nose, and the gunshot in her shoulder wasn't exactly a pleasure. "What makes you think I need rescuing?" She slurred.

Kandros could barely keep himself from grinning like a fool. That was his Maggie. "You heard the lady, or do you need a little help?" He didn't give Tann chance to answer before shooting him in the leg.

"You're human, aren't you? Your kind is breakable and useless. I'm surprised Tyros was able to tolerate you so long."  He turned his head, looking toward the figure that hovered in the doorway. "Stop hesitating. Get in here and take your child apart." Hunter hissed.

Tann's squeal was the same one he'd had while watching the wedding. He was not only in pain but furious. "She is still fertile! She will give me another! Watch your back!" He screamed. "Get me out of here!" He shouted at his guards.

"You don't know humans. Otherwise you would now how far we bend before we break." Quinn sneered.
Betty didn't move for a moment, instead she simply watched her daughter. Quinn was exactly what her husband would have wanted, and that was exactly why she hated her.

Kandros didn't ease up until he saw the door slide shut again. It was then he pulled Maggie into his arms and held her as tight as he dared. "You were so brave, princess." He breathed into her hair.

"You've said that before. It didn't work out well for your mother or your step father." Hunter purred. "Someday I'll show you what became of him."

Maggie returned his hug, silent and tight. Unlike him she didn't do it so gently. "What a nightmare..." She breathed. "Is it over? Are we safe? Where's Quinn?"

"You assume I care." Quinn hissed, casting a glance to Hunter's partner. "You can't be any worse than that asshole was."

"You and Connor are safe." Kane rose assured his wife softly. "But you've been through a lot, you need to rest now. Right, Lexi?"

"You have no idea." Hunter breathed in her ear. "The things she did to make your drell a kett." He closed his eyes and purred. "Oh how he screamed. Even the Archon was appalled. Betty is a thing of true beauty." 

"Yes." Lexi whispered,  trying so hard not to let her heart break get the best of her. Shed lost her children. Shed never even seen them. "Your son...he...needs to eat." She added softly.

Quinn continued to watch the kett 'Betty'. It filling her with rage just to hear that name, never mind be in the same room as that woman. Quinn had spent so much time these past few months working with her father to surprise Tyros with a way to restore him to his true form, and in a heartbeat it had all been snatched away.

"See... doctors orders." Kandros breathed. "Forget anything outside of this room. We will be home before you know it."

"I believe this makes this check mate, my dear." Hunter told her with a laugh. He pushed away from the table and paused in front of Betty. "You were right, it does feel good to win. Now lure the broken kett back here and fix your mistake.  Once that is done we can return to our work on cleansing our galaxy and making me it's ruler. Are we clear, Better darling?" 

Connor's looked much better after he'd been fed and given a bath. Maggie too looked more relaxed once she was clean and Lexi gave her something for pain. 
She sat on the captain's couch with the baby in her lap when Kandros was allowed to enter the room, her head turned toward the stars. "Home...When you said it earlier I  never thought much about it. We've been living on that ship for so long...where is home, Tiran?"

"You know the only way to get him back here is to show him the girl." Betty pointed out thinly. "She will need more than a broken nose to have him rushing here."

Kandros crossed the room and stood beside his wife, his hands clasped behind his back as he joined her in staring out at the stars. "Somewhere there are no people." He remarked. "It seems lately that all they bring is pain."

Hunter gave a theatrical bow and stepped back. "Then by all means create a work of art." He said, turning to Betty and pulling her against him. "It's been a while since I've seen you do something lovely. Treat me to a show." He breathed,  kissing her roughly.

"Yes." Maggie agreed, now watching his reflection. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. I came here for Quinn. Because our father wouldn't let her go. I was going to stay in that world of hospitals and pain forever. But she wanted to come so badly. 
"I pretended it was all my idea. That I wanted to go so these people would have something to study. A way to fix future illnesses. I was so scared. Quinn never knew. She wanted freedom. I'm planning to give it to her. All I did was give pain."

Quinn didn't even know how much time had passed. All she knew was pain, and hunger. Betty would spend each day trying some new way to break her. There had been temperature extremes, starvation, oxygen deprivation. None of it had worked. Whatever Betty and Qim had done to their daughter before she matured, it had left her with an unbreakable will. When all this was happening, Quinn thought of Tyros, hoping he could forgive the sacrifice she had made.

"You worry about her too much." Kandros breathed, feeling even more guilty. "She was a soldier, was she not? I imagine she would have found a way to come here without your fathers permission. The initiative made it quite clear they needed soldiers as well as scientists. Why else am I here?" He added with a little smirk. "You were right though, you are special, Maggie. You really could save so many lives. That's why..." He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath. "That's why Quinn sacrificed herself back on that ship. That's why she made certain our family remained intact."

A year passed painfully slowly for Tyros. The kett delivered body parts to Maggie that were confirmed to belong to Quinn. He'd been unable to tell them or mourn the loss of his wife. He'd simply returned to Qims fortress like home to plot how he was going to kill Hunter. As the months passed he lost himself in the darkness of his hate. He forgot what it was like to love and be loved. 

A year passed quickly for Maggie and her family. After  the funeral of her sister things had gone by in a blur. They hadn't made it to a quiet world like they'd wanted. Instead they'd been stationed on Havaral with the pathfinder and her crew. 
Connor grew quickly which they later learned was a quarian trait. Within a year he was almost fully grown. At the moment he was in a teenager state and he was giving his father a deep frown. "The asari doc said I have to wear a mask. I won't. I can breathe fine." He muttered, kicking at boots that had long ago worn a hole in the toe.

"This isn't fun anymore!" Betty huffed when she found Hunter in the kett equivalent of a chart room. "It has been months, and I don't even get a squeak out of her!" She added with a pout. "And that useless pet of yours hasn't even responded to the parts I sent him!"

Kandros closed his eyes and exhaled loudly. "Connor, when you have several medical degrees of your own, then you can make those decisions. Until then, Lexi has at least a lifetime of experience on you, she knows what is best!"

"We are going to pay a visit to your grandson. Perhaps he will give us answers we desire." Hunter hissed. Quinn's refusal to give them the show he had been longing for had left him longing for something more exciting. He'd located a large settlement of aliens with the help of Connor's tracking chip a d he planned to take advantage of it.

Connor shook his honey colored hair until it fell in one eye, the ice blue one. "I only have trouble at night. I'm not wearing it." He said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Drak won't make me." The ancient krogan had been teaching the boy to fight and spoiling him rotten. It was showing.

"Will we be bringing my Maggie back too?" Betty asked, in the same sweet way that usually got Hunter to give her anything she asked for.

"Yes, well, Drak isn't responsible for your well being." Kandros replied thinly. He hadn't had much experience with children that weren't turian, and turian children were mostly well behaved.

Hunter was scowling deeply. "Are you going to make it worth my while?" He purred.

"Drak is teaching me how to fight and how to use a weapon. That's well being enough for me." Connor muttered, again scuffing his boot. "He says i need hair on my chest. You and mother wont let me do things like that."

Betty grinned, that same way when she was about to do something bad. "Oh, I don't know... what is your while worth these days?" She added with another smile that was almost playful.

"There is more to this life than killing!" Kandros finally roared. "Your mother and I don't want that life for you, we would never want it for anyone!" For the past year no one had dared mention Quinn at all, so Connor would have no idea he had an aunt. Just as he would have no idea she was the real reason his father was so against his son picking up a weapon.

"You can't afford it." Hunter purred, turning to face her. "My dear you are covered in blood. You look ravishing today."

"It's called protection! Apparently it's not something you would understand! You are so worthless, dad! I wish Drak was my father!" Connor shouted back.