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.

"Why that one?" Kandros asked rather darkly. "She was supposed to disappear once she was off the nexus, so tell me... How did she end up the pet of a broken kett?"

"Where's Maggie?" Quinn asked her asari doctor. "She was so upset..."

"I kidnapped her. I wanted her to help me. I was convinced that she would be the one to help me learn to read." Tyros admitted. "I had been watching her for a while. She was so brave and amazing. I wanted her. I know now that all I did was hurt her..."

"Maggie is resting. I did an exam on her and took blood to give to you. Your sister has been through alot." Lexi told her as she began the transfusion. "You'll need more than one transfer if blood but we need to be careful. She is...pregnant."

Kandros was shocked to hear this from a kett. It almost sounded like... "You actually love her." He breathed, seeming to be having difficulty with this concept.

"Pregnant?!" Quinn spluttered. "But... I thought... I thought no one could get pregnant without help from a doctor and approval from the director?" She breathed. "Does Maggie know?"

"I do." Tyros admitted. There was no hesitation in his voice. In fact, he even smiled wistfully. "She is my world. I would die for her if Kalihira so desired it. I'm sure you understand what that's like." 

"No, she doesn't know. And apparently the director himself had Maggie primed for pregnancy. He had a doctor inject her with hormones to get things going so that...he could take advantage of her himself." The asari doctor finished softly.

Drak and Kandros both looked at each other when Kalihira cropped up. Drak remembered Lexi mentioning the Tyros sounded like a drell name too. "We understand." Kandros replied carefully. "But I find it hard that a kett does. Now a drell on the other hand... they forget nothing."

"WHAT?!" Quinn sat up suddenly, ripping her stitches slightly. "I KNEW I never like that son of a bitch!" She seemed ready to march to the nexus right then a rip the salarian's head off.

"I'm not a drell. I'm kett. I wish I were something better for her but the fact is... the Archon was right. I am broken. I'm going to let her go once I've found her father. Her life depends on it." Tyros breathed. His chest ached at the words but he knew they were right. Quinn deserved better than the galaxy's worst monster. 

"You settle down." Lexi said firmly. "Tann isn't coming here soon. We'll need to deal with Kandros and your sister. I'm afraid this will destroy them. They are such a sweet couple..."

"What does her father have to do with this?" Kandros asked, as Maggie had spoken little of the family he believed she had left behind in the Milky Way. 

"I hate that bastard too, the only reason he is still breathing is because I know how much he means to maggie." Quinn huffed. "How could he let this happen to her!?"

"Her mother hid the truth about their true father." Tyros said, sliding to the floor if the cage. "He was Quarian. They created the girls to prove their love. Maggie was the first. Quinn was created next and made with no mistakes."

"They were tricked. It was an elaborate scheme to get what he wanted." Lexi sighed softly. "Now lie back and relax. I shouldn't have said anything."

Kandros was finding this hard to believe. "Maggie's mother was married to an alliance Admiral, what need would she have for a quarian?" He breathed. "Furthermore, how would she even meet one?" He was thinking out loud rather than asking for an answer. "I can accept that she may have been curious, as humans always are, but... Two children?"

"No, she needs me!" Quinn insisted, feeling all too useless. Oh if her father could see her now, so weak and helpless.

"She loved him. This was her way of proving it I think. Allowing him to show her that their races could join." Tyros told them.

"She'll be all right. You aren't in fighting shape yet, my dear." Lexi said gently. "Give it a day or two..."

"And yet she stuck with the Admiral." Kandros pointed out. "Besides, even if what you say is true, do you have any idea how unlikely it is that this quarian was on the missing ark?"

"I have to be... Maggie needs me, and I... I have to see Tyros!" She insisted, not believing he was speaking of ending their short lived relationship.

"We have to try. Not everyone has given up on them." Tyros countered. "And I don't see why their father wouldn't have gone to try and keep an eye on them knowing that the Admiral had no plans of it."

"Just don't tell her. Not until I'm sure she is stable." Lexi said. 
"Tell her what?" Maggie asked from the doorway.

"I think you are far too naive." Kandros pointed out. "If he knew of their existence, why did he never say anything while they were in the milky way? It didn't even have to be the truth... Just making himself known."

Quinn's lavender eyes grew a little wider when she saw her big sister standing there. "How do you feel?" She asked after a moment.

"How do you know he didn't? Did you ever ask your mate? Is that a question that comes up a lot? One about meeting random Quarians?" Tyros snorted. 

"Tired and a little sick to my stomach. Lexi says that's from giving blood and not eating afterwards. I'll be fine." Maggie smiled at her sister. "How are you?"

"Maggie enjoys talking to aliens, and yet she never speak of any quarians who may have visited her often." Kandros countered, though anything else he may have said was drowned out by the snoring coming from Drak where he sat in the corner.

"Better than ever." Quinn lied, as always not wanting to worry her sister.

Tyros couldn't help but laugh. For a moment a forgot that he was a monster. He was like everyone else and for a short moment he was accepted. "Well I thought our conversation was an extremely interesting one any way." He chuckled.

Maggie smiled. "I'm so glad." She hugged Quinn as hard as she dared. "Your eyes are looking a lot more...alive." She laughed.

"Indeed." Kandros agreed, tossing a piece of debris at Drak, who murmured Lexi's name then continued to slumber on. 

"You know me, no time to be dead." She mused, though there was a new sadness in her eyes that was all for her sister's pain.

Tyros joined in, tossing and rock at the krogan. "Do the ancient ones really sleep so soundly?" He asked. 

"You don't have time to rest?" Maggie asked. "You and I have so much to catch up on. I'm so glad your kett turned out to be a good guy."

"He rarely sleeps, always looking after his asari doctor." Kandros confirmed. "I imagine you would be the same, with your mate."

"Then why is he locked up?" Quinn asked, casting a purposeful glance to Lexi.

"I didn't know krogans claimed mates outside their kind." Tyros said thoughtfully. "The Archon was very wrong about that it seems."

"For his own safety for now." Maggie explained. "The rule of the outpost is to kill kett on sight."

"I think it's more that asari are hard to say no to." Kandros mused. "But from what I've seen, kett don't take mates outside their own kind either."

"That's not Tyros' fault!" Quinn insisted. "Why wont you at least let me see him?" She pleased again.

"Kett don't take mates at all. They take DNA and make more in a machine. They do not touch or love. They barely live." Tyros said. "Which is another reason I don't fit in. I do touch and love."

"At least wait until the transfusion is done." Lexi said gently. "Maggie eat something please. Your stomach will settle down when you do, sweetie."

"Only with her though?" Kandros asked curiously. "It must be such a lonely existence... never to touch or love."

With sister's seemed reluctant to follow doctors orders. "If I do... You'll let me see Tyros?" She asked, rather suspiciously.

"Why do you think they were always so angry?" Tyros laughed. He found himself offering Kandros a warm smile. "Love is a wonderful thing. Even through the strange way mine began, I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"Of course." Lexi promised. "Besides, I need to go down there and make sure Drak gets to bed anyway. I can hear him snoring from here."

"Yes, you say you kidnapped her? Don't you worry that she doesn't truly love you, she was only looking for freedom?" Kandros asked curiously. He often wondered if Maggie only wanted him through lack of better options.

This seemed to relax Quinn somewhat. "I know you think me a traitor for loving him, but Tyros is the sweetest most kind hearted person you will ever meet." She breathed. Though she remembered the gentle way he held her when they escaped their last confinement, it also meant she was forced to remember the price she had to get them that chance.

"If she were looking for freedom she wouldn't still be with me." Tyros pointed out. "Freedom isnt something a creature like me seems to offer. I come with an endless supply of blood and death though."

"You'll forgive me but he didn't seem so kind when he was killing his own kind." Lexi pointed out.

"Which brings us back to the question of why you gave all that up to be with a human?" Kandros replied. "What breaks a kett so perfectly that he turns his back on his own programming?"

"You don't know what we've been through just to get here." Quinn replied quietly, unable to look at either of the two women now. "He was probably scared, and you backed him into a corner."

Kandros' question would go unanswered at least for the time being. Lexi had brought the young women to the dark room. Maggie practically knocked them both to ground as she ran into his arms. Unfortunately that was all the energy she had left. 

Tyros was trying to see over the turian and his mate, only to be greeted by the sight of the asari checking over the grumbling ancient krogan. He could only hoped that Quinn was alive and well.

"Silly girl..." Kdanros breathed as he caught Maggie in his arms. "You should have told them no." He breathed into her soft hair as he moves to the other side of the room to sit down with her in his lap. 

"I always seem to be finding you in cages." Quinn's velvety voice remarked as she stepped up to the holding cell that Tryis was inside of, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Quinn needed me for once. I owed her that much." Maggie told him softly. "Plus Lexi did an exam to make sure everything was okay from...you know..."

"Quinn..." Tyros breathed, reaching through the bars to try and touch her. "Kalihira give me strength...i thought I'd lost you."