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.

"It doesn't have to be this way." Victus assured Lolly, trying not to seem too desperate to leave when he heard Hackett bring up Orinia's name. "If you let me come and see you again, I can help you."

"You can come as much as you like, Turian. But eventually, you will die." Lolly told him softly. She'd seated herself in the darkness, still holding onto the corpse's head. "Go away. The humans need you." 

The door opened the moment Victus got close to it. The young soldier who had brought him there was quick to yank him out and slam the door shut again. It took two more men to slam the locks into place.

"Where is Orinia?" Victus demanded the moment the door was bolted. "You practically drag me out of ere because you said there was some sort of trouble!"

Hacket looked up from a data pad he was studying, frowning deeply. "Excuse me?" He asked. "I didn't contact you. And your mate is over there with her brother's body. She's been asleep for hours." 
"Hacket!" Brutal's angry roar shook the walls. "We need to talk!"

Victus turned to the sound if the angry roar and narrowed his gaze at the large human that had just come stomping in. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"That's exactly what I want to know." Brutal snarled. He was making it no secret that he had a weapon and was completely prepared to use it. The lights in the hanger bay where they stood flickered for a moment or two, almost as if the ship was going to lose power. "Have you lost your fucking mind, old man?!" He shouted, stomping past Victus and shoving Hacket before his bodyguards could do anything about it. "Why the hell is she still alive? Never mind on this damned ship?!" He demanded, his voice a dull roar. "Need I remind you what happened the last time? Now not only do you have a piece of a ghost ship, but you have the monster too! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"What is the meaning of this?!" Victus demanded once more as he tried to make his way to Hackett. "Ghost ship? Monster? Just now much do you know?" He demanded if thr younger human. And who are you, for another matter!"

Brutal had a handful of Hacket's uniformed shirt. He turned quickly, his gun held at Victus' chest with his free hand. "You better back off, Primarch. I don't have an issue with you. Yet." 
"Adrian, you've met Chris Brutal before." Hacket said, motioning a group of nearby soldiers to stand down. "He fought beside your crew in the Reaper war because he didn't want anything to do with his father."
"And you wonder why." Brutal snarled, giving the elder human a nasty shake.

Victus was watching both men, not fully trusting either human right then. "I have no desire to be caught up in a family fued. I just want Orinia to remain safe, and for that girl you have locked away to find some kind of peace."

"Oh I plan to give her peace all right." Brutal snarled. "I am enacting my right as council Spectre and going over your head Admiral Hacket. I'm taking control of that box." He let go of the elder man and turned his gun and him, the look in his eyes leaving no doubt that he was deadly serious.

"What right do you have to okay judge jury and executioner to one little girl?!" Victus demanded. "How did you even board this ship?!"

"I'm a Spectre. It's what I do." Brutal hissed. "And don't ever use the word little girl when you're talking about Lolly. She's nothing but a mindless monster. You were in there just now. You saw her for yourself. You probably got your own reports before you went in. This is not a negotiation, Primarch. Besides, you're not exactly safe either." 
"Victus?" Orinia had woken at the sound of all the shouting and had crossed the hanger bay to the men, not yet realizing the largest of the humans had a gun trained on her future husband.

"What I saw was a girl locked away and frightened out of her mind!" Victus roared. "She is one of to our own, u would think even humans had a little more soul in them than to do that to a child!"

"Glad the chip worked for you, you bastard." Brutal snarled, standing in front of Victus with his gun pressed beneath the elder man's chin. "You don't know what it was like. The things she made...she....did....You weren't there. Don't you dare say she is some poor frightened little girl! She's a goddamn monster! You just can't see it! That chip won't let you see it!" 
"That's enough!" Orinia had taken a gun from a nearby soldier and placed it against Brutal's temple. "Remove that gun from him or I swear they will be cleaning your brains off the walls for weeks to come."

"It doesn't have to be this way." Victus insisted, his gaze still on Brutal. "What is it you think she took from you?"
Before Brutal would get the chance to answer a computerised voice was warning the room that the first lock on Lolly's door had been released without authorisation.

"Get that door closed!" Hacket shouted, motioning his men to get to work and not begin to panic. If Lolly got out it would mean the deaths of many. "Override that damn system! Do it now!" He roared. 
Brutal shook his head, yanking his gun away from Victus and turning it toward the door. "I won't let her get away. Not this time." He hissed. 
"Adrian..." Orinia grabbed for her lover's arm, not sure what was going on. She didn't understand why all these humans were suddenly panicking.

In the commotion nobody seemed to notice the little Quarian crouched in the corner tapping things into her omni tool. She didn't know what was behind that door, but she knew that was the true reason Brutal had dragged them both onto this ship, and why he had growled at her earlier that morning.

Another lock slid open despite their best efforts and Hacket began ordering his men off the hanger bay. He turned to Victus, shaking his head. "We're going to have vent the place. She's going to come out of the room and try to kill us. We have no other choice." He said firmly. "Even Orinia will die. You must see that." 
"No one is going to die!" Brutal roared. "Not again!" He stood facing the door, his emerald eyes never leaving it.

Victims was shaking his head, though he had pulled Orinia into his arms. "You are making this problem into something it needn't be!"
Ceres had crawled out of her hiding place and was now pointing her gun at Brutal. "You lied to me!" She hissed. "This was never about helping Orinia, this was always about you!"

"Ceres! What are you doing here?" Brutal's eyes were suddenly filled with panic. "I didn't know...I don't know...this was..." There was no more time to answer. The heavy metal door flew open and the room went dark.

Ceres didn't move. She and Brutal were closest to the door when it opened, and within moments she could see Jared standing there in the barely there light of the doorway. "Jared..." She whispered his name before she could help herself.

"Ceres..." Jared held out his arms to her, smiling warmly. "I thought you'd never come. I've been sending distress signals. Is that the bastard that's been keeping them from you?" He asked, glancing hatefully at Brutal.

Ceres continued to stare, though her gun had now lowered to her side. "This can't be... No! You abandoned me! There were no distress signals!"

"That was not my fault. He wouldn't let them go through. He's trying to keep you to himself. You know this, Ceres. You know he's lying to you." Jared pressed.

Orinia could see her father standing in the doorway and her heart dropped into her stomach. "Daddy..." She whispered, letting go of Victus. "I'm so sorry. I let you down and ruined everything. I'm so sorry..."

Ceres couldn't be sure of anything anymore. "Hw did you get here? Where were you when Mimic took me?!"

"Orinia,.. Stop." Vuctus breathed. "Whatever you are seeing, it isn't him. This is all Lolly's strange power."

"Mimic took me too. Remember?" Jared said, taking a step closer to her. "He was trying to kill me too. He was trying to find out everything he could about you so he was torturing me. You remember that. Right? Come here, Ceres. Get away from that monster." 

"It's him, Victus. It's my dad. He's not gone. He didn't really leave. He's going to help us with Vivica." Orinia said, glancing over her shoulder at her lover. "It's going to be all right now. Don't you see?"

Ceres shook her head and backed away, memories if her time on Mimic's ship filling her with the fear she had told Brutal she was tired of. "You didn't believe in me, Jared! You told me I couldn't be trusted alone on that ship!"

"No, honey, I don't." Victus reached out to place his hands on Orinia's hips, trying to keep her from moving forward.

"And I was right, wasn't I? Look at what you've done. You've become a whore." Jared snorted. "You've become a whore to that man because you didn't want Mimic to get his hands on you. Couldn't you wait for me? Did you really have to drop your skirt for the first guy that came along?" 

Orinia turned her head to look at him again, a thin line of blood blood sliding down her nose. "How do you not see him, Victus? My dad is right there! He's going to make this all better! He's promising he will. He won't let her hurt us again. Not like the other times. He's sorry for that. He's finally sorry..." She rested her talons on his, her chest heaving.

"Why would I wait for you? I repulsed you, and you offered your help out of guilt, nothing more!" Ceres practically screamed. "I deluded myself into thinking you would ever call me your own!"

"Finally sorry? That doesn't sound odd to you?" Victus breathed into Orinia's ear. "He's your father, and he didn't see your mothers evil, I would think if it truly was him you saw now... He would have been sorry from the start."

"Then kill me." Jared's voice hit a monsterous tone. It echoed off the walls and inside Ceres' head. It would suddenly be the most rational decision she'd ever thought of. 

Lolly appeared in the doorway where everyone else was screaming at their own personal demon. She had the turian's head beneath her arm. "Is she the one you love?" She whispered at Victus. "She's very lovely and... I'm sorry..."