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.

"I nearly died, Orinia." Victus breathed quietly. "That vile woman gave it her best shot to end my life, and you really think I'm just going to leave her be now?" He asked. "It is no longer just your problem, it is our problem, whether you want me or not."

"Days?" Ceres echoed with a frown. "No, it's just not possible!" She insisted firmly, though was still seated. "I can't possibly have been on there for days. I was only looking for parts, and I know Jared came after me not long after I boarded the ship." It seemed the young woman wasn't quite willing tot almost about Mimic without a little more coercion.

"I never said I didn't want you." Orinia said, turning her head to look at him. "But Victus...what if I am just like her? What one day I do the things that she has done? I couldn't bear to think that I had hurt any children we might have, let alone you. I...I don't want to be a monster." 

Brutal shook his head. "Your Jared never came onto that ship. His vessel was overtaken by another and he was captured. I believe, based on what you told me earlier, that Mimic's people did it. The vessel you were on was a rouge Alliance vessel. The scientists on it had been doing all kinds of hellish experiments. They were using Mercs as test subjects for one they called Lolly. We already talked a little about her. But I want to know how you survived that. No one survives Lolly. We had to all but kill her and vise versa just to shut that ship down. It was something true nightmares are made of and yet here you sit and aside from killing normal looking humans, you are fine. It's not adding up, honey."

"Live your life with 'what ifs' and you'll never have any kind of life at all." Victus breathed. "You are not your mother, and I don't know how much plainer I can say it."

Ceres stared up at Brutal for some seconds, processing what he had just said to her. "I can't believe any of that. Jared was there! I saw him, we argued. It was no more than an hour, not days! There is no possible way I was on that ship for days without even realising it! And as for Lolly..." Suddenly she stopped, there actually were gals in her memory, and not just from her time on the ship. Ceres had told Jared about being adopted and not allowed to pro create for genetic reasons... Suddenly she wasn't sure of anything anymore.

Orinia turned and almost knocked over climbing into his arms. She sobbed into his chest for what seemed like forever, unable to compose herself. Vivica had taken so much from the young woman and it was finally hitting home to her. 

"You didn't say anything to Jared when you were on the ship, did you?" Brutal asked her, crossing his arms over his chest. His lips were set in a frown, the lines in his forehead telling of his deep worry. "Did he ask you questions? Personal things?"

Victus held Orinia, almost afraid that once this moment passed, he would never do so again. "You are ten times the woman your mother could ever hope to be, and many more times beautiful."

"Well..." Ceres frowned, chewing on her lower lip as she thought about it. "He asked why I didn't want to go back to my adopted family..."

Orinia was shaking her head, unable to catch her breath. She clung to him, also afraid that letting go would mean the two of them separating again. Victus bitterness had hurt her so badly. But then again, she'd deserved it.
A knock on the door finally allowed her to stop her tears. "Primarch, the Admiral needs to see you." Came a voice from the other side. 

"Damn it." Brutal rubbed his forehead in frustration. "I need to know everything you told Lolly. Everything."

"Tell the admiral I'm busy right now!" Victus shouted, though didn't let go of Orinia. He had acted like a spoiled little prince, and he knew it.

"Enough with the third degree!" Creed finally snapped as she pushed up to her feet. "What gives you the right to interrogate me like this anyway?!"

"Victus, you have to go." Orinia whispered. "These humans are keeping us safe. It's the right thing to do." She added, gently pulling away from him and getting to her feet. "I showered you last night. All you need to do is get dressed." 

"Ceres, I'm tying to save your life." Brutal said softly, trying to lower his tone. "I need to know these things and you are just going to have to trust that I won't use them to hurt you later. It's all I've got right now. I'm not a bad guy. Not really."

Victims sighed heavily, though he nodded his head. "I was right though, everyone always wants something. I knew the humans wouldn't help is without a price."

"I trusted Jared, look what at got me." Ceres whispered, her voice wavering slightly with a vulnerable note to it,

"Need I remind you of the cost of the Turian fleet to help earth?" Orinia asked with a smile, she leaned down and pressed a kiss to his nose. "Besides, they brought our things and pressed your suit. As long as that's not part of my wifely duties I'm all for helping them."
""Primarch? Please?" The human on the other side of the door pressed. 

"Okay." Brutal nodded. "Don't trust me. Just...go with it." He knelt in front of her, holding out her gun to her. "And the moment I try anything you don't like, you are within your rights to shoot me. Do we have a deal?" He asked her, his eyes locked on hers.

"Then you agree that there is no escape from me?" Victus mused, though his smile was still somewhat strained. He knew he wasn't the man who had first decided to sweep Orinia off her feet, and it bothered him more than she would know.

Ceres held his gaze for some time, as though trying to look down into him and decide of this man was any different to the others who had betrayed her. "You want answers... But I don't know truth from fiction any longer. You say I was on that ship for days, but that's not what my memory tells me." She whispered at last.

"We shall see." Orinia said softly. Like him, her eyes were filled with a sadness that hadn't been there a year ago. She held out the suit to him, her talons shaking somewhat. "My brother...is his body here...I'd like to visit him while you are away." She asked, terrified to hear his answer. 

"That's a Lolly trademark. She fucks with your head until it feels like soup. I told her things that I wouldn't tell my own mother. I didn't even know I was doing it. Worst part was, when she began to realize I was a threat she used that information and it...well, let's just say I'd rather have my guts pulled out and be forced to eat my own heart. I don't think it would hurt as bad." Brutal said softly.

Victus nodded his head and leaned forward to kiss Orinia lightly. "The humans knew what it would mean to you, at least one thing I am thankful for."

Ceres' silver eyes grew a little wider when Brutal confessed this to her. "What did she do to you?" She whispered, her fingers reaching out to touch Brutal's hand, only to see to think better of it and pull it back at the last moment.

Hacket hadn't fared as well as Victus. He didn't have anyone that cared whether he had cleaned up or his suit was pressed as the Turian did. As the primarch came to a stop in front of the human admiral it really showed. At that moment they were in front of what looked to be an ancient large metal door. It was out do place on such a high tech ship. They were also not far from Derius' casket which meant this was the very last deck of the ship. 

This fact was not lost on Brutal and he was quick to put distance between them because of it. "It was a little brain soup. Like I said. It was nothing a few dozen Batarian shard wines and several weeks of pretending I was sleeping beauty didn't fix. Sad thing was I never got a kiss from..." His emerald eyes sought out the box he'd given Ceres and then darted away. "From anyone."

Victims didn't say anything for a while. he too stood there! wondering about many things, not just what was beyond a door like this. It seemed like the universe resisted calm. They had barely gotten rid of one evil, and here Vivica was, plotting her rise to power.

"Your wife?" Ceres dared to finish, looking so small and insignificant even in an already small room. She felt even more lost since Brutal had told her her reality was basically a lie.

"Back when Shepard revealed the truth about Saren to the council, all of the galaxy leaders agreed to allowing the salarian STG to inject us with a chip that was supposed to protect us from indoctrination." Hacket began, staring at the door as if it were something to worry about. "Primarch Fedorian refused to comply and offered up his next in line to do it for him. You were not told what was being done, only that you were being given an imuno booster. Needless to say you now carry the one thing that might very well save us from the last of the Reapers. It has been discovered that the chip failed in human, asari, and salarian..." The human Admiral never looked over at Victus as he spoke, knowing that even though this was just a tip of the iceberg, it was a lot to take in. 

Brutal didn't answer her, his stiff posture making it clear that she'd hit a tender spot. "I'm going to sit at my desk and...oh hell...I forgot you don't eat human food. I'm going to have go steal stuff from the turians..." He grumbled, rubbing his forehead.

Like Ceres had done, Victus could barely understand what had just been said to him. He was quiet, deep in thought. His first thiught however, was how this affected Orinia. "All our people were injected?" He asked at last.

"I'm not hungry." Ceres breathed, following brutal across the tiny room. "You said you wanted answers from me, but I can't be certain of the truth any longer. Can you not give me your answers instead?"

Hacket shook his head. "No. I said leaders only and since you were next in line to become Primarch, that means that crotchety old bastard did it to you, Victus. No one else. You are the only turian with a chip like that. But the bad thing is...we don't even know if it works. We're desperate now. We have to get her under control and you're the last hope for that." 

"What answers do you want from me?" Brutal asked, looking up from his computer. "I would think everything about me is pretty cut and dry. I was an Alliance Commander after the Reaper war I became a Spectre. It's nothing special."

"Orinia's father was in the citadel council, surely she would merit inclusion?" Victus replied thinly. He looked at the door again, afraid he knew what Hackett was about to say. "Whatever it is, it's human, isn't it?"

"When we arrived on board... Those men said you had a wife. Were they right?" Ceres asked, not sure why she was even pressing this issue.

"It was." Hacket nodded. "Once you see her...you will probably agree that she is nothing but a nightmare anymore. Lolly was part of an experiment that a group of rouge scientists were doing under the radar. They'd created a lab right inside the Citadel where they implanted humans with Reaper tech. More than the husks, it was like trying to create a human Reaper on a Human scale. Sad part was, all those hellish things were going on and no one had any idea. At least not until Shepard started blowing everything up. 
"The other experiments were not mentally stable enough to handle it all and went insane, killing the scientists and themselves. Lolly...just kills others. The insanity part...I'm not so sure about. We've been watching her on monitors for months. We can't get any closer without losing a man or five a day. As it stands only one human has survived her and he is withdrawn and goes for days without sleeping. Commander Chris Brutal. He fought in the Battle for Earth alongside the Turians. You remember him?" The Admiral didn't wait for Victus to so much as nod before he went on. "My hope is that your chip will keep you from hearing the whispers and seeing the things that aren't there. However, should it begin to happen you need to give me the signal. If the chip doesn't work you'll probably see your son and former wife. Even Orinia. Lolly might be able to bring them out of your mind. Don't tell her anything. She'll use it against you. I've seen it happen.
"Right now we just want to talk to her. To see what we can do to settle her down. She's been irrational since we brought her here and... Victus...there's one more thing. There's a body in there. It looks to have been turian but she won't let us get close enough to it without creating more bodies. Whoever it was, he's been dead a while."

Brutal's jaw worked and for what seemed like a lifetime he didn't answer her. "Yes." He breathed, his tone sharp and angry. "I had is the right word."

Victims did nod his head slightly, though didn't remove his gaze from the door. "How long have you had her here?" He asked, moving forward to press a hand to the ancient design before him. "And when will humans learn that you cannot play god if and when it suits your purpose!" There was an obvious note of anger to his voice for that last part.

Ceres shrank back slightly, no matter how brave she wished to appear to Brutal. "Getting angry with me won't change whatever happened in the past." She told him curtly.

The metal beneath is talons would grow warm. Lolly knew he was coming. She was making the connection whether he realized it or not. 
"We've had her there for about eight months. And to be fair, Victus, we were not the ones playing god. Those scientists had no business doing what they did to those people. I'm trying to fix it. Why do you think I've brought you here? I'm doing everything I can."

"You wanted an answer and I gave it. You didn't say what tone of voice I had to use." Brutal said darkly. "Anything else you want to know?" He asked, trying his hardest to get his temper under control. This wasn't her fault. She had no idea...

"What is that human expression, too little too late?" Victus breathed, pulling his hand away when the heat sudden intensified. That was all that had happened for the moment, at least his mind was still his own. "If this chip doesn't work, if something happens to me in there... Orinia needs to be taken care of, I want your word she will want for nothing."

Ceres shook her head and turned away. It shouldn't have bothered her hat Brutal was speaking to her this way, not after everything she had done and said to him. The small woman sat back down on the other side of the room and began toying with the broken datapad again.

Hacket nodded but said nothing outloud. He hated himself for it but he was jealous of Victus. No one had come to help him up off the floor when he was drunk and sick. Both men had lost their sons to the war. What made Victus so damned special that he could get another chance to be happy? 
He motioned for his crew to open the door and it was shut behind the Turian. Lights were turned on in the room and for the moment it seemed he was alone with nothing but a devestated space and a badly decomposed body. 

"No." As before Brutal took the data pad from her fingers and tossed it somewhere else. This time under the bed. "You know, we really need to start talking about Mimic. I can't close out your files until I know about him."

"Lolly?" Victus called the young woman's name gently. "You don't need to hide from me, take a look, I can barely walk. I won't be chasing you, child." He added.

Ceres didn't look up at Brutal this time. The dynamic had shifted, suddenly this man seemed foreboding and cold. Out there, running around Omega, things had seemed to different, here... It conjured up feelings of being trapped, caged almost. It bothered her that this feeling was so familiar and she couldn't understand why. "Then go ask someone he sold. Mimic never sold me, I was 'unsellable'." She whispered, still not looking up. Ceres didn't think Brutal needed to know about Mimic's feelings for her.

A dark shadow moved somewhere in the back of the room but Lolly did not show herself. The silence in the hellish space was all but deafening. If the madness of the whispers didn't get to the prisoner, the silence that came between certainly would. 

"You weren't unsellable. He wanted to keep you all to himself. Is that it?" Brutal asked, he shoved away from the computer and got to his feet. Though he didn't know it, he was feeling the same way Ceres was. He was trapped in a very small space.

Victus began to move around, or at least he tried to. He had left his cane outside, wanting Lolly to see he was of no threat to her. "I know you must be lonely in here, that's why they sent me. Thought you might want someone to talk to... Or play with." He added with a somewhat nervous chuckle.

"Why would he want that?" Ceres asked, now taking great interest in the dress Brutal had found for her to wear, plucking at small bits of fluff that had managed to cling to it in a few places. "I'm Quarian, remember? Of course I was unsellable, no one wants a suit rat."

"Do you think me a child?" Lolly's voice was cold, all but filling the room with a chill. "Besides, you are a Turian. Your kind does not know how to play." The shadow moved again, flickering in and out as if it were some kind play on the light. 

"Who did that to you?" Brutal asked her, his tone extremely soft. "It wasn't Mimic. You weren't with him long enough. Not even the human could have made you feel this way. Who told you you weren't worth anything?"

"That's an unfair stereotype." Victus mused quietly. "I could also say that humans don't know what responsibility is."

Ceres glanced up at Brutal when his voice suddenly became gentle. "I don't remember. Since you started asking me questions about the past... Nothing seems to be in order any more. All I remember is that I wasn't good enough... No for anyone."

"I have heard them screaming that I'm not human. Even he used to say I was nothing like them." Lolly answered, the shadow didn't move this time. The sadness in the room was more than just a tangible emotion. "Go away, turian. Tell them to turn off the lights." 

"Ceres, you can't listen to what anyone else tells you." Brutal said, once again kneeling in front of her. "The only person who knows how much you're worth is you. Don't let unimportant people steal that from you. Think about it. Where are those men now and where are you?" He breathed, a rough finger sliding under her chin and tipping her head up. Before she could protest, his lips brushed her own in the most chaste and tender of kisses.