Love and War

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"I swear to even the Asari goddess that when I get out of here, that lizard Kandros will wish I was an exile for what I'm gonna do to him!" Quinn Talos raged as she was unceremoniously shoved into a holding cell on the operations deck. The dark haired woman paced for time, thinking it was would all be straightened out once Tann got wind of what Kandros had done. She should have known better. As far as she believed, human's still weren't exactly favourites of the other alien species. On earth Quinn had an excellent service record within the Alliance, just as most members of her family did, but she had wanted more. She wanted to explore, to see things no human ever had, which was why she signed up for a place on the Andromeda Initiative. The only problem was, she wasn't the pathfinder, and her superiors didn't believe in security personal leaving the Nexus. As well as she performed her job, the call sign 'Cutie', thanks to her unfortunate initials, meant she wasn't exactly taken seriously. Quinn was slumped on the floor with her back against the wall now, glaring at the Turian guard outside the forcefield. She had fought her hardest for the safety of everyone on the Nexus, and this was her reward; being called a traitor and about to be dumped on some godforsaken planet with the rest of the exile scum. All because Kandros feared losing what little power he had to her. The asshole can keep it, she thought bitterly.

"Your sister was good at pushing people away, including you." Kandros corrected. "Maggie, you are no burden to me, I love you." He told her gently.

"You can try." Quinn told the kett bravely, knowing Kandros no doubt had Maggie locked like a princess in a tower any way.

Maggie had never had him say those words before. But she wouldn't get a chance to savor them or even ask him to repeat them. Kandros' omni tool sounded an urgent call from the Pathfinder. It couldn't wait.

"You are very brave for one about to die." The tall one hissed,  grabbing a handful of her hair and yanking her head back. "Scream for me. I do so love it when your kind does that."

Kandros cursed the pathfinder's timing rather openly. "I..." He glanced at Maggie with an apologetic look. "If I don't... they wont stop calling..."

The kett would get no scream from Quinn, her father had taught her better than that. Instead the alien would see nothing but hatred in the lavender eyes that glared up at him. "I'm not some weak little quarian." She hissed, finally fighting back and managing to snatch the gun from her attacker. Not that it mattered, she was still out numbered.

Maggie nodded, allowing the door to close between them. 
"Kandros, there's radio chatter going up from the kett. They're dropping the name Talos and they're heading toward the Nexus." It wasn't the Pathfinder calling it was Drak.

"Go ahead, girl. Kill me. See what the cost will be." The tall one snarled. He still had a hand full of Quinn's hair and was twisting until it began to pull away at her scalp.

"They're coming here?!" Kandros hissed, moving away from the bathroom door. "Get a ship out there and intercept them!"

Quinn clenched her teeth against the pain, then shot the kett leader in the only place she could angle the gun to; his foot.

"Kind of busy dealing with them on the turian ark at the moment. Aren't you supposed to be head of security over There? Your problem." Drak said, hanging up before the turian could say more.

The kett threw her to the ground and used his injured foot to stomp her chest with. He smiled when several of her ribs broke. "Guess I'll just use  you as bait then." He hissed.

Kandros cursed rather colourfully as the call ended. He didn't want to leave Maggie right now, but the entire Nexus needed him. "Maggie?" He was calling her name gently through the door.

Quinn blamed her kidnapper for the broken ribs, if he had given back her armour she wouldn't be in such pain right then. "Good luck, no one will come!" She snarled through clenched teeth.

It took Maggie a long time to answer. In that moment she was receiving a distress call from her sister. "You're okay, Tiran." She said hurriedly, already putting her clothes back on. "Just be careful. Ok?"

The kett knelt on her chest and pulled her arm behind her back, the bones creaking in protest with the impossible move. "Maggie says to stay calm, Quinn. She is on her way." The kett leader chuckled. "This is going to be fun. Set up a nav point for the other human. We'll give her a little welcome party. Isn't that what your kind calls it?"

Kandros was worried by the change in tone to Maggie's voice. "Maggie... I told you, I can't let you come into work today." He told her, knowing she would argue anyway.

Quinn spat at the kett leader, making it clear she was going to be a difficult prisoner. All she could hope was that Maggie was at least smart enough to bring help.

"I'm not." Maggie said, trying to sound casual now. She knew full well there was no way he'd let her off the station to go to Kadara either. Especially to save her sister. But she couldn't lie to him so she kept silent. 

The leader lifted Quinn up and gave her another violent shake. "All of this could end if you'd simply tell me where he is. Why are you hiding another kett? You humans hate our kind."

Kandros stared at Maggie in much the same manner a parent did a child when they knew the other was lying but couldn't prove it. "Then where are you going?" He asked finally.

"Because I'm having a shitty day and I want to ruin yours too." Quinn replied with a sarcastic sneer.

"Cupcakes." Maggie muttered, her voice barely audible. "There's nothing to eat in my apartment." That part wasn't a lie...

"Oh I don't think that's possible. I'm about to have two perfect human siblings. I will dissect you both, even of you don't tell me where my useless friend is hiding." The leader chuckled.

"Then i'll have someone bring you something. Cupcakes are not good for you." Kandros replied, ever the straight laced military man.

"Perfect? Boy are you in for a surprise." Quinn sneered, reaming arrogantly brave to the end.

"Okay." Maggie said with a miss, standing on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. "Be safe. I'll see you soon." She breathed, wishing she didn't feel so bad for lying to him.

"You could fix this. You could save your sister. It's not too late for her. " the leader hissed. "I need the nav point."

Even as Kandros was practically running back to ops, he couldn't shake the feeling that Maggie was keeping something from him.

"But too late for me, right?" Quinn snorted. "Does it LOOK like I have a nav point to anything?" She asked. "Not that it matters... I'll be dead within the day without my armour anyway."

Somehow Maggie had slipped past the kett that were lining up to board the Nexus. She didn't even hear them demanding for her by name. 
When she arrived on Kadara, she was quick to drop Kandros' name. It seemed that plenty of people knew that name and were afraid of it. It was enough to get her out to the area where her sister had called her from.

Quinn would be furious that Maggie had come out here alone, despite the fact the kett leader had done more than break a few of her ribs, as she was now rather beat up too.

"There is an incoming shuttle." One of the men said to their leader. "It's the female with the same genetic markers."
"Excellent." The tall one purred. "Call off the assault on their base."

It happened in seconds on the Nexus. All at once the kett stopped their advancement and simply returned to their ships. They went empty handed and without a single casualty on either side.

Quinn was tempted to believe this was all a dream. It all seemed too surreal to be anything but. Why would the kett go to all this trouble just to find one of their own?

Kandros was staring in disbelief at his console screen when he watched the kett signature simply turn tail and flee.

Maggie was shoved to her knees beside her sister and the door to their cell locked tight. The little blonde barely stayed where she was before she crawled to her sister and pulled her into a tight hug.  "I'm so glad you're okay." She whispered.

"What the hell was that about?" The human director Addison demanded.  "What happened? What were they looking for?"

"Are you touched in the head?!" Quinn hissed, holding her elder sibling out at arms length, giving her the once over for injury at the same time. "They're going to kill you, Maggie, you know that right?"

Kandros was barely paying any attention to what was being said as he checked the stations systems, looking for anomalies.

"You called me here. I didn't know it had anything to do with the kett." Maggie said softly. "I'd have brought help if I'd have known...how in the world did you get mixed up with them?!"

"There's nothing to indicate what they were..." Kesh said over the intercom. "Wait...they stole one of our single ships. But for what? Security footage shows they all left together."

"Thank your boyfriend... and the asshole, wannabe pirate he hired to keep me busy." Quinn growled, proving she had known more about Maggie's relationship than she had been letting on.

"Stole... or were given?" Kandros asked, every suspicious. "Did the sensors scan for life signs while they were within range?"

"Quinn..." Maggie didn't know what to say to all this. She wasn't sorry she'd fallen for Kandros. She was sorry for the decisions he'd made against her sister though. She loved him and it made it hard for her to trust him. "You don't understand." She said softly.

"The life signs belonged to a human...female...single....mid twenties..." Kesh went on. "So is this a separate thing and we need to hunt her for taking advantage of a crisis and stealing a ship?"

"Of course not, what do I know about anything?" Quinn replied rather bitterly. "I let him go through with it because I didn't want to hurt you! You were supposed to go on with your life!"

Kandros had known the answer before Kesh even told him. He lowered his head slightly, rubbing at his temple. "No... This is a security matter, I will look into it personally."

"Why am I feeling there was more to it than that?" Maggie asked though she would get time to answer as the Archon himself arrived. 
He looked them both over and shook his head. "The little blonde...take off her head. I can use it for research. At least that will be good for something. The other...we will see if she survives the process."

Quinn's lavender eyes looked up at the Archon with utter hatred. She had heard the stories of the pathfinder's run ins with him, and wished to kill him herself. "Your head will look lovely on the wall of the nexus." She told him with a flasely sweet smile.

"Your pathfinder said the same." The Archon said, waving a disinterested hand in their direction. "I have yet to see action from your pathetic kind."  That said he left, his kett followers flocking behind him. 
"Quinn..." his voice was little more than a whisper and right outside the door. "You really are all the trouble you claimed... give me a moment...i will see you free.."
"Who is... that?" Maggie wheezed. She was beginning to panic and with it came the first signs of her illness,  the shut down of her lungs.

"Now you're scared?" Quinn muttered. "Maggie, just take a deep breath, okay? Soon you will be back on the nexus with lizard boy and you can forget any of this happened." She assured her sister, not daring to glance in the direction of the voice until she was certain the kett were well out of sight.

"I'm going to...[size=38]get him...in trouble..." Maggie gasped, her lips turning blue. "He's not...mine..." [/size]
[size=38]The door slid open and the kett stepped through. This time Quinn would notice his color was different from the others. Where theirs was a dull green his was more of a brilliant emerald. Even his eyes had more life and color to them. "I warned you this would happen." He said gently, kneeling before them.[/size]