Scavengers

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"This is the idea of you two explaining to me why a Primarch and a grease monkey are so closey with each other." A voice remarked from the other side if the room, apparently having been there the entire time.

Ceres murmured something that sounded like a protest, until the vibration of the metal being cut sent pain rocketing through her and she passed out cold.
"I'll get a message to her, but she may already be too far to get back in time." The doctor breathed, giving Ceres something that would keep her unconscious, and free from pain for now.

Victims tried to take strong confident strides to Orinia's bedside, thigh all his body would allow was a slow shuffle. "I was so worried about you, princess." He breathed, smiling sheepishly as he he,t out the sorry looking flowers to her and lowered himself awkwardly into the seat beside her bed.

Despite everything that now seemed to be happening in slow motion, Ceres felt her skin tingle as Brutal's lips brushed her ear. For the moment she allowed him to pull her along small fingers holding tightly to his as Bray fired blind shots in their general direction.

"They're beautiful." Orinia breathed, meaning every word of it. She took the flowers and smelled them, seeing neither their wilt or the weakness in her lover. Then she lifted her head, continuing to smile at him. "I've been so worried about you and I haven't been able to get you to answer my calls. Are you all right?" 

"Want to tell me where you got that grenade?" Brutal asked as he shoved Ceres down into a better cover spot. He seriously doubted she was going to answer him but it was worth a try. He went back to trying to unjaming the gun, muttering at the jumble of wires he was looking at. "I hate technology." He growled.

Victims gave Orinia his best smile and nodded. "Of course, didn't anyone tell you? Primarch's are indestructible." He laughed. "Even to vile witches."

"And that is why it took your people so long to master space travel!" Ceres huffed, taking the gun from brutal and teasing the wires gently until the soft hum indicated the weapon was again working. She had purposefully avoided the issue of the flash bangs.

"My mother." Orinia said, losing her smile. "What did she do to you?" The Batarian sensed he was already forgotten and excused himself, shoving past a group of human soldiers. 
"Primarch Victus," Admiral Hacket said stepping cleanly aside from the alien. "We need to talk." 

Brutal grabbed the gun and fired several shots over the barrier. "It's a wonder you are so advanced. You don't use your head any more than I do." He muttered, shaking his head. "There's a say humans have. A pot calling the kettle black. Give me another grenade."

Victus instantly lost his smile. "This is a private room, admiral." He told the other man as politely as possible.

"If you knew how to make them, you wouldn't have to steal mine!" Ceres hissed, though she pushed another grenade into Brutal's large fingers,

"I know and I apologize, Victus, but time is an issue here. It is an emergency and as you well know...nothing in Omega in private..." Admiral Hacket seemed almost hesitant and boyish. "This cannot wait for people to heal. I...ah...am sorry, ma'am." He added, shaking his head at Orinia.

"I don't build them, honey. I use them." Brutal said cheerfully. He took the grenade and rolled it in mud. This time when it exploded, Bray was blinded by more than just a flash of light. Dirt slammed into his head moments after the light took his sight. "See ya, four eyes! Or not!" He called to the Batarian, pulling Ceres out of the cover and leading her away from the man who was no longer a threat.

"It's easy to say that when you stand there without Injury!" Victus told Hackett thinly. "In don't care that this is omega, you will wait!"

Ceres could barely keel up with Brutal's long legs as he pulled her along with him. She childishly wanted to kick him in the shin and tell Brutal she didn't need his help.

"We will move her onto the Alliance ship if that's what has you concerned. You and I both know that she will be safer there given the overall human aversion to turians." Hacket said firmly. "It will at least keep you safe from this issue with Vivica for the moment. One of our own brought me the order that appeared on the Spectre orders sight. All of a sudden the council has you and your mate labeled as criminals. And Victus....there are three Spectres on this station as we speak." The Admiral went on. "So either we move the both of you or you stay here and die." 

Brutal headed toward the clinic until he saw the dozen or so Alliance soldiers standing guard outside. "Damn it all." He muttered. "What the hell is going on now?" He considered busting his way in anyway, just because he was set on having a word with the Doc. That was, of course, until he saw the sniper positioned to the north. "Is this really all because you killed a few gold boys?" He grumbled under his breath. "Well, if I'm about to get shot...." He knew better and he knew Ceres was most likely going to make him suffer far worse than any sniper would but he couldn't help himself. He hauled the little quarian against him and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her passionately.

Victus took a moment to take all this information in, then struggled back to his feet with as much dignity as he could muster. "First, you will tell me why you are so willing to help me. As you said, there is a human aversion to Turian's."

Ceres was more than a little surprised to find herself suddenly crushed against this large man who seemed hellbent on saving her life. Though his kiss was heated and filled hunger, she found herself allowing it. The small woman returned the kiss, small hands pressing to Brutal's chest for the briefest of moments. It couldn't happen, not again. Ceres shoved at Brutal now, her silver eyes blazing a warning that she was not some toy for him to treat like this. It didn't matter that he had left her full lips tingling and her pulse racing.

"Because I need you to help me in return." Hacket said, glancing toward the tiny turian female. She'd scooted to the edge of her bed, her talons digging into the edge. It didn't take a doctor to see that she was terrified. "We have an issue but...I can't discuss it here. Not with so many listening ears." 

"Sorry..." Brutal held up his hands and shook his head. "That was stupid of me and I wouldn't blame you if you shot me but...just give me a minute..." Once again he took her gun, taking a shot at the sniper that was several yards away. 
The ground exploded near the Salarian and he cursed loudly. "This is my kill, Brutal! I got the report first!" He shouted at the human.

Victims glanced last Havkett to the guards he could see outside. Vivica was a problem for every tone, not just him now she was on the council. "I have your word that Orinia will be well taken care of?" He asked at last, an unspoken agreement that he would go with Hackett.

Ceres glared up at brutal hatefully when she heard those words. "So that it, you kissed me just because you think you're about to kill me?!" She hissed, like Brutal assuming all these men were here for her.

"You will be with her until you are needed. But you have my word that your mate will be treated as if she were my own wife." Hacket promised. 
"We are not yet joined." Orinia said softly, worried that this too would change things. 
"We can take care of that if Victus agrees." Hacket answered with a smile.

"Actually I kissed you because I think they're about to kill me." Brutal murmured. "Get down here, Raimes. I'm not yelling at you from there! It blows cover!" He shouted at the Salarian.

Victus was smiling too as he gently took gold of Orinia's hand. "If the princess doesn't mind not having the perfect day." He breathed.

Ceres' small figs suddenly smashed up into Brutal's jaw with surprising power. "You, human, are an asshole!"

Orinia shook her head. "I'm sorry, Victus. I can't." She couldn't meet his eyes anymore. Her mother had dragged them all to hell and her brother certainly hadn't helped. She couldn't bring Victus even deeper into her family. "I...I'm not going with you either." 

"What the hell?!" Brutal almost let go of her, his jaw aching so badly it brought tears to his eyes. "What was that for?!" He ground out, yanking her hard against him as the Salarian made his way toward them.

Though he should have been the strong and stoic Primarch, Victus couldn't help but let the emotion show in his face as dropped Orninia's hand as though it were made of lead. "Why not? Do you have somewhere else to be?"

Ceres couldn't struggle free of Brutal's arms before the Salarian approached, her all too human looking silver eyes narrowing up ay a Brutal instead. "I am not some thing for you to grope in your last moments before death!"

Orinia shook her head. "I can't keep asking you to sacrifice yourself for me. The cost is too high." She whispered. "I'm sorry, Victus." 
"You'll have to come with us no matter what." Admiral Hacket said firmly. "It's a diplomatic matter. You two can hash this out later."

"Why are you going to die, Brutal?" The Salarian asked with a smile. "Is this little waif going to kill you?"

Victims wasn't in such a good mood now, and glared at Hackett. All this would have been fine, had the human not demanded they leave Omega. "I hope whatever you need is of galactic importance!"

"You, bug boy, shut up!" Ceres hissed, turning her anger on the Salarian now. "This is Omega, who cares if I shoot a few humans in their strange looking knees?!"

"You'll see." Hacket nodded slowly. 
"My brother." Orinia asked, worried about the sibling she had no idea no longer lived and breathed as she and Victus did. "Can he come with us? I'm not sure when he is getting here but if I'm not safe then neither is he." 
Hacket glanced toward Victus, knowing it was not his place to tell the young woman of her brother's fate. "We'll see what we can do. For now we will get you and the Primarch aboard my ship and go from there." 

"So you're the one who shot the humans?" The Salarian asked, his long fingers now resting on his gun. 
Brutal was quick to place himself in between Ceres and the one he'd called Raimes. He was making it clear that he could take a shot long before the other man. "You didn't know that? Then what is your target? Show me your file."

Victims awkwardly moved closer to the doorway, pausing in it though not actually looking back. "I'll send a nurse in to help you move to the human ship." He breathed, clearly hurting from Orinia's rejection of marriage.

Ceres was peeking around Brutal, curious herself who the other man was there for. Small fingers were holding the back of Brutal's shirt, silken hair brushing his arm as the small woman leaned around him.

"I don't want help." Orinia whispered. This was for the best. She'd seen the stiff way he was carrying himself. He'd been hurt. Again. And she'd bet her soul that her mother did it. She was going to have to keep pushing him away to keep him safe. He wouldn't fight so hard if he didn't have a reason to. "I can take care of myself." She added darkly. 

Brutal hated the strange sensations that slid over his body as Ceres' hair touched his skin. His nerves were alive with heat and desire. It was a sensation he neither wanted, nor needed in that moment. 
The Salarian opened his omni tool and showed him the shoot to kill order on Victus and the small turian woman. Brutal breathed a sigh of relief though he tried to keep it to himself. "How the hell could the Primarch be a criminal, Raimes? We fought beside him. Remember that?"

"Evidently." He replied, the implication to the opposite dripping from that one single word.

"Did that say Orinia?" Ceres interrupted, reaching out to try and pull Raimes' arm closer to her so she could see the order.

Orinia knew she deserved every single word of it. And it was because of this that she didn't argue with him. She didn't say anything at all in fact as she got up and slowly got dressed, swatting away the nurse who tried to come and help her. 

"Excuse me!" Raimes stuttered, shocked that a young woman dared to touch him this way. 
"Orinia. Yeah. The former councillor's daughter." Brutal said thoughtfully. "Councillor's daughter again. Vivica...they let that crazy bitch in office. How the hell did...Wait....you know Orinia? How?" He asked, looking down at Ceres.

Virus had slowly made his way to Hackett's ship and was sitting in the small mess hall, simply staring at the wall a few feet away. Even when he had been dying, he hadn't felt this way. Orinia may well have ripped open his stitches and pulled out whatever she found inside.

Ceres avoided both his gaze, and the question. "Who sent the order to kill Orinia? And why?" She asked, as though either man who actually answer her.

Orinia was given a room and there she stayed, refusing to face Victus. It was hard enough having to break his heart but to look him in the eye while she was doing it...she might as well rip out her own...
"She'll come around. It will take longer once you tell her about her brother, Primarch, but she will come around." Hacket said as he sat down across from the turian he'd come to think of as a friend. 

"The turian councilor." Raimes explained. "She claims that Orinia is a galactic nuscience and selling secrets to the wrong crowds. Not to mention helping to kill people. I don't know if that's true or not. I' just following orders." 
"Isn't Vivica her mother?" Brutal asked, scratching his chin in thought.

"I fail to share in your optimism." Victus snorted. He didn't understand how Orinia could do this, after everything they had been through. The Primarch was staring down at the ring he had on the table in front of him. "I even followed the huma tradition of buying her jewelry for the day we were finally bonded. Perhaps I should have known better..."

"Orinia would never do that! Never!" Ceres insisted. "You would have to be a complete idiot to believe these lies! But then... I imagine thinking isn't a spectres strong suit." She added with a snort.

"It's not like you to give up." Hacket said softly, watching the ring as the turian's talons picked it up and then dropped it on the table again. "You and I were enemies once, chasing each other across the galaxy and you never quit searching for me then. You remember that? I swear my men and I were hunkered down for a month in deep space trying to avoid you. You never gave up then. Why does it seem so easy now?" 

Brutal watched as the Primarch and the turian female were taken under guard onto an Alliance ship. He saw Hacket matching stride with Adrien Victus and his frown deepened. "Send me your file, Raimes." He muttered, once again grabbing Ceres by the hand. "We're hitching a ride on the Admiral's ship and taking over the case." 
The Salarian Spectre stood where he was, spluttering loudly. "That...That's mine!" He howled. "I saw it first!" 
"You're also not human!" Brutal called over his shoulder. "You couldn't hope to get on that ship. I am. They are as good as dead if I'm there." 
"What about...her?!" Raimes shouted after them. 
"She'll pass." The large man said, waving the Salarian off. The other man wouldn't notice until well after they'd gotten onto the ship that Brutal had stolen his rifle and his heavy handgun.

"Was it all worth it?" Victus asked softly. "I mean... What do we actually fight for? We risk everything, and does anyone even care?"

"I'll pass?" Ceres hissed as they hid behind some crates at the docking bay. "Are you insane? No one in their right mind would think for a second that I am human!"

"The entire galaxy is still alive, isn't it?" Hacket asked, though his eyes were sad. "For the most part." Both of them had made terrible sacrifices just so this very fact could come to be. "Come on. I have some Turian whiskey in my office with your name on it. While we're there we can discuss why I brought you here." 

"I never said they would. I said you would pass. But that's going to mean you wearing a dress." Brutal said. He wasn't putting much thought into that statement and whether she would even agree to it as he looked over his newly aquired weapons. "You do want to make sure Orinia is okay, right?"

Victus looked up at Hackett with an expression that held a mixture of weariness of the world, and thanks for the other man trying. "I can't promise I won't drink enough of it to kill me." The Primarch replied with a snort, though he was slowly ousting himself to his feet.

Ceres was obviously not a fan if the idea. "Surely you realise the last time I was forced to wear a dress, it was because I was another man's property." She sighed, the young woman had already realised she needed to do it, as saving Orinia was her only concern right then.

"That's why the bottle is only half full." Hacket chuckled, holding out the primarch's cane. He didn't say so but he'd seen the scans Cortez had sent over. Vivica's blade had pierced Victus' spine. He would never walk properly again. No surgery would fix that. 

"If it makes you feel better I hate women in dresses. I think it demeans you. I like bad ass honey in a black suit with lots of weapons strapped to her waist." Brutal said with a purr, imagining Ceres this way. The moment he realized he was doing in it he slapped himself on the forehead. "Come on. We'll have to come up with a dress on board."