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.

Tears dripped down Ceres' cheeks as she slowly lifted her fun up again. "You once told me I was an anomaly. No one will ever love an anomaly." She whispered, the gun slowly turning towards her own temple.

"Lolly, stop this, please." Victus pleaded. "It doesn't have to br this way if you choose to take control."

"Why do you think that big bastard was so ready to leave you?" Jared nodded, seeming to agree with her choice of action. "You disgusted him. He got what he wanted and he was done with you. End it!"

"I am in control!" Lolly shouted. "I am punishing them all for what they've done!" She cried out, holding onto the head like a child with a teddy bear. 
"Keep her talking." Hacket said through his teeth fron somewhere in the dark nearby. "I'm almost there."

Ceres was nodding her head as she jammed the gun roughly against her temple. The whispers were convincing her that that was the reason Brutal had growled at her that morning.

"You're not in control, you're lashing out." Victus insisted. "Hurting everyone because of something a few people did." He was holding tightly to Orinia, but a few feet away he could see Ceres about to blow her head off.

Jared was nodding as well, his eyes glittering. "Get it over with. No one needs you. You are worthless. You are never going to get to the place you wanted to go. You are a freak. Everyone hates you. You are weak and useless. End it!" 
Brutal was fighting to move. Lolly had him frozen in place. It was a position he had been in before. He was fighting as hard as he could to move his fingers, his gun twitching as he fought to aim it at the skeletal girl. 

"What would you do?" Lolly asked him, glancing down at the head under her arm. "If they killed they only thing you ever loved. Would you let them get away with it? Or would you make them suffer?"

Ceres was openly sobbing now. She was remembering things. "Lolly... You were my only friend... You promised me..." Before she could remember any more the gun had fired, though it was in the direction of the open doorway.

"It is right that they should suffer, but why those who had nothing to do ith it?" Victus breathed, flinching slightly when he heard a gunshot.

The gunshot hit Lolly in the lower chest. The skeletal girl didn't know how to react to the sudden sharp physical pain that shot through her body. She dropped the turian skull and it simply crumbled. Blood poured past her lips but she didn't seem to notice as she stared down at the broken remains of the man she'd loved so dearly. 
All around them people had stopped screaming and attempting to hurt themselves. The room had gone silent, most everyone was simply staring at Lolly. At least they were until Brutal fired two more rounds into her chest and she fell to the floor. 
"You could have stopped this before it got this far!" He screamed at Victus. "You weren't being controlled and you felt sorry for the little monster." He raised a gun to Orinia's head, his teeth bared. "Give me one reason I shouldn't make you suffer too, you son of a bitch!"

Victus was looking past brutal to where Ceres he crawled to Lolly and was cradling the other woman close to her. The Quarian seemed to be sobbing and telling Lolly how sorry she was.
"Ask yourself why your girl mourns that very monster." Victus told Brutal coolly. "Killing Orinia or myself will not change that that Quarian is keeping secrets from you."

"And you wonder why I never trusted you with the galaxy." Hacket snapped, shoving Brutal aside as he made his way to Lolly and Ceres. He began barking orders at a medical team, telling them to place a call to someone he called the Doctor. 
"You're lucky I hate Vivica." Brutal muttered to Victus as he shoved his gun back into its holder and turned to stand behind Ceres. 
Orinia was confused, more than she wanted to admit. She wasn't at all sure what had happened or why there were a skeletal human lying on the floor. "What did she do?" She whispered. "Where did father go?"

Ceres was screaming and thrashing out at anyone who tried to pull her away from Lolly. She was still dazed, confused by the memories the other woman had finally forced her to recall. They had grown up together... In that lab under the citadel.
"I can explain everything, but not here." Victus breathed. "You need to get some rest, I..." He sighed heavily, no longer certain how his weak spine hadn't collapsed already.

"Ceres." Brutal rested a hand on her shoulder, trying to get her to calm down where the others had failed. "Let them help her. The Admiral has called in a Salarian doctor. He's less than an hour away. They can stabalize her until he gets here but only if you let them." He said softly, wondering why he was bothering to be kind when all he wanted was for the skinny little monster to be dead. 

One of Hacket's men brought Victus a chair and forced him to sit, shaking his head when the turian started to protest. 
Orinia simply sat down beside him, watching the humans. Nothing about what just happened made sense.

Ceres jumped when Brutal touched her, though she did look ul at him with red rimmed eyes. "I forgot her... And she forgot me. How could I let this happen? I was supposed to come back for her!"

"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" Victus breathed, gain or caring for his own welfare, only Orinia's.

Brutal shook his head. "Not here. Don't tell these people anything they can use to hurt you. The cost is really high, honey. You can see that." He whispered. "Now let them help her." He said, not for a moment thinking Lolly was going to live long enough for the doctor to even step onto the ship. "We'll talk when we get back to the room. All right?" 

"How could she have hurt me? Until...Ceres..." Orinia blinked more than once only now realizing that the other woman was the friend she'd left behind on Mimic's ship. "Oh god...Ceres..."

Ceres hesitated slightly, then modded her head, though she still seemed uncertain. "You don't send me away, will you?"

"Ceres? The quarian girl?" Victus asked with a frown. "What about her?"

"Why would I?" Brutal asked. "You seem to think I've been mad at you or something. That's never been the case. I don't know why you're upset with me. I was angry because they've had Lolly on here and no one told me." 

"She was the friend I wanted you to save on Mimic's ship." Orinia said, the memory of that place leaving her feeling even more broken and worthless than she had before all this had begun. "She must be here for that girl..."

"The way you growled at me this morning... You couldn't wait to get away from me! Just like everyone else!" Ceres insisted.

"The girl? But..." Victus was frowning as he watched Ceres and Brutal. "Lolly has never left that lab until now, has she?"

"I was pissed off because I found out about Lolly." Brutal said with a shake of his head. "It had nothing to do with you. I want her dead. It's not about you, Ceres. I was worried...Nevermind. I don't want to talk about it here." He finished, glaring at Hacket as he helped the tiny woman to her feet. "Come on. We need to get out of here." 

"Where do you think she met the turian head...I mean the turian...." A soldier said, poking at the remains of the skull with his boots. 
Orinia was quick to grab him by the ankle and toss him off his feet. "We do not disrespect your dead that way." She hissed. "Do not do that for ours."

Ceres allowed Brutal to pull her along this time. She was feeling list again, unsure how everything seemed to have come full circle.

Victus have Orinia's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I don't think they meant to disrespect anyone."

When they got back to the room, Brutal handed her a dress that he'd placed in the closet. "You can shower if you want but...you're covered in her blood. You'd probably feel better if you changed." He sat down on the edge of the bed and rested his head in his hands, too many emotions running through his body at one time to control. 

Orinia shook her head. "I don't believe them. They're humans and I'm beginning to hate them." She whispered, pulling away from Victus to got and gather the remains of the skull and place them on top of her brother's casket. She was so busy with this task she didn't even see the Salarian until she'd bumped right into him. "Get out of the way!" She snapped. Not even bothering to look up.

Ceres felt somewhat numb as she stared down at where he did indeed have blood on her. "Why didn't you tell me that's why we really came here?" She whispered finally.

Victus barely had the strength to stand any longer, but he tried any way. "Orinia, please... We have suffered a great tragedy here, but don't take it out on those that don't deserve it."

"I didn't even know she was here." Brutal snapped. "I'll admit I would have come here anyway but I would have left you behind had I known. I can't believe I stood and let them save that bitch!" He roared, shoving to his feet and grabbing for a picture on the wall and throwing it across the room. 

Orinia didn't know why but she was suddenly blaming everyone else for those she had lost. In respecting the remains of this lost turian it was a way to honor the father she'd never even gotten to say goodbye to. "Leave me be." She whispered. "And you, step aside and stop staring at me!" She hissed at the man in front of her who still had not moved to let her pass.

Ceres tensed up when Brutal suddenly exploded, even backing away from him slightly. "It is not up to where I go or what i do!" She shot back. "You cannot just decide where I go... I don't belong to you!"

The Salarian glanced up at Orinia, then seemed to dismiss her as he returned to reading a data pad that he,d information about Lolly.

"Why didn't you have a choice?" Brutal asked as he began to pace. He should t have stepped away from Lolly. He should have killed her. He should have kept firing until his thermal clip over heated and he was staring down at the shredded remains of a worthless skeletal body. 

"Where did you come from?" Orinia asked, having not heard Hacket about calling for a Salarian doctor. It was her turn to stare. She'd never seen such a strange looking alien with scars, tattoos, and peircings of all things.

Ceres waved a dismissive hand at Brutal in signal that she was done talking. The young woman stalked into the bathroom, wishing she had the ability to slam the door, rather than let it slide quietly behind her.

"I expect that question if a human, not some Turian princess." The Salarian snorted.

Brutal groaned loudly and threw a pillow at the bathroom door, his mood officially soured. Not like it hadn't been already. "I'm going to kill her." He said, heading toward the other door. "I'll be back shortly."

"Who are you?" Orinia asked, frowning deeply.
"Doc." Hacket rested a hand on the Turian female's arm and held the other out to the salarian. "I appreciate you coming on such short notice. Seems I will owe you a drink for this."

Ceres didn't say anything. She was torn in two; on the one hand she wanted to save Lolly, her friend, on the other... She had indeed grown rather fond of Brutal.

"You owe me more than a drink." The other man replied curtly. "Why you want to save this abomination is beyond me."

Brutal grabbed the shotgun he'd stolen from the other Spectre and stepped through the opening door. He wasn't going to take the chance that Any part of Lolly was salvageable. She'd done enough damage to last a thousand lifetimes. 

"She's valuable." Hacket said, knowing that Doc had seen the vid of what had happened on the deck a short time ago. "Something like that could control a battle. Or end it if anything like the Reapers were to show up again. I'd be an idiot to let it die."

Ceres was making it a point to be out of that room before Brutal returned. She didn't belong here, least of all with him. He just didn't understand.

"Thinking you can control destruction is what got Saren nice and dead." Doc replied bluntly.

"Chris..." A small blonde appeared on the screen in the corner of the room. She was wearing Alliance armor and gun was resting on her shoulder. "I don't know what is going to happen to us...with the Citadel wrecked and people going crazy...the whole galaxy is falling apart. I know how you feel about your brother but...you're a hero too. You're my hero. And I'll love forever no matter what. No reaper can take that from us..." The vid blurred and went blank, leaving the room in silence again.

"Who's to say this is purely destruction? There has to be a way to control it." Hacket argued. "The Primarch withstood the entire thing without a scratch. His chip worked. The chip you made for him worked. We could use him to control her."

Ceres sat on the edge of the bed when she heard that vid start playing. It was what she had been trying to access on the data pad each time Brutal had snatched it away from her. Now, as she finally saw a tiny piece of his past, she wished she hadn't. This woman, whoever she was, had been brave and strong, fighting for the galaxy. Ceres remembered now that she was just like Lolly; a lab experiment. A failed one, as it had taken time for the human DNA inside her to exert enough will to boost her quarian immune system. She played the message several times before finally cleaning herself up and getting changed. 

"And you can say with one hundred percent certainty that your dearest Primarch here has the same agenda you do?" Doc snorted. "That he won't try and save the girl again? He won't be able to see her as anything but a woman he thinks is in need of rescue."

"Damn thermal clip..." Brutal stepped back into the room, not knowing what his new lover had just seen. "What are you still doing here?" He asked when he saw her still sitting on the bed. He spoke softly, knowing she probably hated him more than she hated anyone else in that moment. "I thought you'd be heading toward a shuttle or something by now. Anything to get away from me." 

"All right. Then give me another option. An anti-hero or whatever you want to call it. I need whatever that thing is if I want to make sure this galaxy stays safe. Those chips were stricly for Reaper control but what if she's got something else going on. You're the man to figure that out." 
"Wait a minute." Orinia had heard everything and she didn't like it. This was little better than something her mother would do. "That human is not a toy. You can't just send someone to dig around in her. That's monstrous!"