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.

Victus took the cane, though he avoided Hackett's gaze as he did so. The proud Primarch hated this weakness he was now forced to live with. "She doesn't need a cripple holding her back anyway..." He whispered, thinking that was the reason Orinia wanted nothing more to do with him.

Ceres smirked slightly when she saw that look in a Brutal's eyes. She may still be rather naive but even she saw the lust. "I never out much thiught into dresses anyway... I just always assumed all women wore suits like mine, until I left for my pilgrimage." She was frowning as she said this, the more she tried to recall of her pilgrimage, the less she could remember.

"We have her brother's body." Hacket said once they were in his office. "I figured we'd give him a military funeral when you two are ready. His body is lying below under guard." He slid the decanter across to him and an empty glass. "Now... The reason I came to get you..." He waited until the Turian was seated before he continued.

Brutal yanked a dress off the first clothes line they passed and handed it to Ceres. "Dresses are for ancient Asari. The rest of us don't have long enough to live to have time to worry about wasting it on looking up skirts. Only the Volus are short to do it with being obvious anyway." He went on, motioning her to go around a set of crates and out it on.

"It's my fault. All of it." Victus breathed as he picked up the bottle. "The both of them would still be living happy lives if I hadn't insisted Orinia was the woman I wanted to marry!"

Ceres sighed quietly and walked away. She set the dress down on top of a crate and unzipped her suit, leaving it to collect around her small waist as she unhooked her belt.

"The children were never happy. Vivica resented the both of them. I have reports from Primarch Fedorian's crew that he was investigating her for abusing them. His shuttle going down had very little to do with Reapers, Victus."

"Hurry up." Brutal pressed softly. "The engines are heating up and we're running out of time. How hard is it to slide into something that doesn't even have a bottom?"

Victus shok his head and finally poured himself a drink. "It's was still my fault. Everything always somehow comes back to me. You wouldn't understand, no human can."

"I'd like to see you try this!" Ceres snapped, one of her boots flying from behind the crate,a timed at Brutal's head.

"Uh-huh. Turians are the only ones who know anything about pain." Hacket snorted, pouring himself his own drink. "You know every decision I made in the reaper war brought me one step closer to killing my son! Screw the galaxy." 

Brutal barely managed to miss the boot by ducking. "Speed it up!" He snarled. "And keep the boots, you need to wear something to hide tolhose weird toes!"

"So why did you do it?" Victus asked simply. "Didn't you ever want to just hand everything over and disappear somewhere?"

The other boot came flying out, this one catching Brutal in the forehead. "There is nothing weird about my toes!" Ceres hissed as she came stomping out. The dress Brutal had so randomly chosen happened to fit the young woman rather well.

Hacket shook his head. "That's not what I signed up for. My son would be ashamed of me if I even thought about giving up. I'm not about to let that happen. The Victus I fought against and later beside wouldn't either. If you don't fight for her you deserve to lose her. Hell, we still have time. I'll call that Batarian to board with us. I saw the way he was looking at your mate."

Brutal would later blame the boot to his head, but for the moment he was staring after Ceres. His tongue was definitely wagging. "You...ah...that dress is..." He stumbled after her, barely able to pick up the boots as he followed.

"That would probably make her happy, ancestors know it sure isn't me!" Victus snorted, downing a second glass of brandy. Pig vein the medication he had taken simply to help him walk a little, the brandy was working rather quickly.

"Don't say it. I don't need you reminding me what a freak show a Quarian is!" Ceres snapped.

Hacket shook his head and poured himself another drink. "I'm sorry I thought that you were stronger than Vivica. I guess I should make plans to be one of the first to congratulate her. It seems I would be wise to align myself with her. I'll give her Orinia as a gift of friendship. What will you care?"

Brutal knew it was going to get him hit but he had no choice. He grabbed the little quarian and kissed her deeply yet again. Once was not enough. Especially in that dress.

"I don't think even a human has that in him." Victus bluffed. "You are all weak, and reply too heavily on the help of others!"

Ceres again found the ground felt like her feet no longer touched it. She was returning Brutal's deep kiss when someone behind them cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, do you have business here?"

"I don't need your help!" Hacket growled. "I just wanted the girl. And Why not? She is useless to all who possess her." He threw back another drink, matching Victus on the amber liquid. It wasn't long before the two men were very drunk and shouting like fools. They were also close to coming to blows. 

Brutal was quick to pull away, shoving his fingers through his hair. He cleared his throat. "We're getting on a ship. Just a kiss before we go." He purred, his emerald eyes flaming as he looked down at Ceres. "We'll be too busy for that stuff for a while. Isn't that right, honey?"

"Orinia is ten times as string as any human female!" Victus insisted. "You have no idea what she has survived, and I'll kill any man who dares say differently!"

Ceres gave the woman a smile, then slid a slender arm around Brutal, resting her head against his chest in a show of affection. "You know how it is when you first get married, right?" She gushed.
The woman arched her brow slightly and looked the large man and the tiny woman over. "Fine, just get on your ship and off my dock."

Victus would wake several hours later and lying in a bed, a sheet wrapped around his waist. He and Hacket had drank more and shouted louder. It had come within mere inches of blows when the two men passed out on the floor. Orinia had tended to her lover, there for him when he'd gotten rid of the turian whiskey he'd decided to put into it. She'd put a cool rag to his head and helped him back into bed, making sure he was going to be okay before she'd fallen asleep beside him. 

"I hate pretending to be married." Brutal muttered, shouldering his weapons as a pair of guard's tried to stop them. 
He held up his clearance badge and tried to look put out. "Oh. So sorry, Commander Brutal. Come right this way. I'll make sure your old room is set up for you." The first of the guards said cheerfully.

Victus seemed to have no memory of Orinia coming to him last night, and actually jumped a little when he half opened his eyes that morning and saw her laying beside him. The Primarch didn't move, didn't even dare breathe for the longest few seconds. It was like he thought she would disappear if he made a sound.

"Yes, it must be so disgusting for you." Ceres muttered as she followed behind the human men. "Married to me you poor, poor man."

Orinia hadn't even undressed. She'd all but fallen face down beside Victus as if she'd simply passed out. She looked peaceful for all of ten minutes when all at once she sat up, batting the sheet away from herself. "Mother don't!" She cried. "Leave him alone!" It took her a moment to realize that they weren't anywhere near her mother and even longer to realize that she was safe. "Oh spirits." She whispered, not yet seeing that she was not the only one awake.

"You got married again, sir?" A young man at the back of the group smiled at Ceres, now looking at her in a completely different light. Brutal looked straight ahead, his profile betraying nothing. "After your wife...Boy...I heard you were never going to do something like that again..." 
"Mighty brave of you, my man." A solider nearer to him slapped Brutal on the back and still the Spectre didn't move. He was nothing but a statue, as if he'd simply shut down.

"This is the reason you want me out of your life?" Victus whispered, wanting to reach out and hold Orinia, but at the same time knowing she would push him away.

Ceres was unsettled by the way Brutal was acting. She was wringing her fingers nervously as they walked, moonlight coloured eyes always keeping an escape route in sight.

"Victus..." Orinia turned her head toward him, offering him a smile that faded all too fast. "You were very drunk last night. I  couldn't tell you that they only gave us one room. I was going to sleep in the mess hall but you got so sick...I couldn't leave you. Sorry."

"You'll be happy with the Beast." The man that slapped Brutal on the back said, turning his head to give Ceres a wink. "He likes the pretty girls." He added with a purr. 
"Shut up, David." Brutal growled, reaching back to pull the little Quarian up to his side. He still didn't look at her as they walked, his body stiff and his face emotionless.

"You should have left me where I was." Victus growled, his pain still obviously rather raw.

Ceres was still rather quiet as they walked. Outside if this ship she never would have let Brutal do what he just had, but some some reason she felt it best to just follow his lead here. Her lips were still tingling somewhat from the last kiss anyway.

"If you were not lying in your own vomit and singing a rather rousing rendition of Sally the naughty turian I might have." Orinia snapped, her cheeks flaming. "I have to say I've never heard it sung quite like that before. Did you learn that when you were young? You had reach but Sally had flexibility?" She asked, unable to keep her frown as she began to laugh. 

"I thought you were Spectre." David said, pausing a moment before they'd stepped onto the ship. 
Brutal nodded his head, not missing a beat. "I am but Admiral Hacket called me here for security detail on some turians. Once Alliance always Alliance. He told me I could bring the...fun too." He added, glancing down at Ceres.

"Well Sally never abandoned me when I needed her!" Victus snapped, not yet able to laugh about anything with his heart so badly broken.

The look in Ceres' eyes as she looked back up at Brutal made it quite clear he was walking a very thin line.

Orinia's laugh faded quickly and she was quick to leave the bed. "My mother tried to kill you, Victus. Don't think I didn't notice that." She turned her back on him, wrapping her arms around herself. "I'm not about to ask you to align yourself with that. It's not fair. Maybe if she figures out that I am stepping away she will leave you in peace. I love you enough to offer you that. It is all I have to give you." 

Brutal still didn't look down at her as the men opened the ship and allowed them to step on. He rested a hand on the small of her back, guiding her gently down dark halls until they reached a small door and blessedly they'd been left alone.

"If that's how you're justifying this for your conscience, fine." Victus snorted rather petulantly. "You could have said that a long time ago, instead you waited until I am less of a man!"

"You had better be thankful I haven't punched you, you brute!" Ceres hissed once they were alone. "What the hell were those men talking about anyway?"

"You mean because I bruised your ego in front of your friends?" Orinia snapped, glaring at him over her shoulder. Already she was heading for the door. He'd made it clear he did not want her near him. "I'm going to try and call my brother again and then get this room thing figured out. We have nothing else to say to one another, do we?" 

"They're just being assholes." Brutal muttered, cringing when the door slid open. The room was exactly how he'd left it. It was a pig sty to say the least. Worst of all, it was still littered with things he wished he could simply forget. "Here. Look through this box and see if there's anything you might want. One dress won't cover you for this trip and Rosie doesn't need these anymore..." He kicked a box toward the bed that looked like a bomb had exploded on it and went the opposite way.

"Your brother is dead!" Victus roared after Orinia. Instantly he regretted not so much the words, as the way he had said them.

Ceres looked down at the box, then crouched down in front of it. She was simply staring at its contents, seeing the sadness in one persons life apparently being reduced to just one box of belonging. "Who was Rosie? Was that... Your wife?" She whispered.

"What?" Orinia's hand hovered on the console that would open the door and release her from the room. She turned back to Victus, her talons curling in on themselves. She could barely find the breath to repeat her question. "What did you say?" She whispered. 

Brutal didn't answer. He set the guns down on the desk next to the bathroom and entered it, allowing the door to shut behind him all too quickly. 
The box was filled with dresses and a small teddy bear. A jewelry box in the bottom had been shattered as if someone had thrown the box more than once. Even a datapad sat cracked and broken at the bottom though not because of being thrown in the box. Someone had broken it by hand.

"Your mother had him shot when she stabbed me." Victus breathed, unable to look at Orinia in that moment. "The look in her eyes... She was a monster."

Ceres cleared a space on the bed and perched the box in her lap. She picked up the data pad first, already thinking she would find a way to fix it. Her silver eyes looked over at the bathroom door and she felt her stomach tie in knots. There was so much more to this man than she had first thought.

Orinia's knees buckled and she simply sat on the floor. It took her several moment to do anything more than let out gasping breaths. "Spirits..." She was trying so hard to maintain control and she was losing it quickly. "How can I ask you to claim me when this is what we must face? A future with me is nothing but..." She threw back her head and wailed, the enormity of her loses finally hitting home.

Brutal came out of the bathroom a while later, shaking his head at the messy room. "Did you find anything?" He asked, daring to cast a glance in her direction. "We're going to have to make a file for you and insert you in the Alliance system. But first I think you and I need to talk about a few things. If I'm going to protect you, I'm going to need answers."

"Our future was to be our own, not your mothers, and not anyone else's." Victus breathed, struggling to seat himself beside Orinia. "I am truly sorry for the loss of your brother, he was a good man who did everything he could to keel you safe. But, I'm afraid your mother is a problem that you cannot simply ignore."

"I didn't ask for your protection." Ceres replied, glancing up from where she had been tinkering with the data pad. "What answers is it you think I should be giving you?" As always, the young woman was extremely defensive.

"And I cannot ask you to continue to suffer for a problem that is not your own." Orinia sobbed, her face buried in her hands. "I love you, Victus. And it is because of that very reason that I cannot ask you to sacrifice yourself for me anymore. The cost is far too great." 

"No." The word was firm and bordering on angry. He crossed the room to her and grabbed the data pad, dropping it in a pile of trash. When he was satisfied he leaned against the wall. "I know quite a bit but not what happened on Mimic's ship and to Mimic himself. I alway don't know what happened when you were on the ship with Lolly. You can't tell me you didn't know that days had passed. There are holes in your story, Ceres."