Love and War

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"Maggie, you were attacked." Kandros replied firmly, though he still didn't open his eyes. "I never hated you, only what that bastard did to you."

"Brave? That woman?" Quinn snorted. "I hardly think so. She was a brainless idiot who only cared what would make her dear husband happy."

Quinn had always known Tyros wouldn't understand. She was literally built to save her sister, her only real use in any galaxy. There was a distance between them now that would have eneyually grown even if her body hadn't been butchered by her mother. "Well you should be, because when something happens to her, our father's bloodline dies with her!" 

Kandros seemed to be struggling to keep his breathing calm the more he heard. "In what world was Maggie a fair trade for that traitor?!" It didn't matter that he owed Quinn his life, all he knew was she was the cause of so much pain for Maggie.

"Is that what you care about? Qim's blood line?" Tyros asked her. "Why? The Reegar family is alive and well. Qim is simply a branch off their tree. What are you thinking?!"

"I truly have no idea. My beloved and I have been trying to figure it out but..." Jaal paused and looked toward the windows. "Another strange ship. Not kett...do you know this one, Drak?" 
The ship outside was massive. Drak would recognize it in am instant. It was quarian built. Not their Ark but a starship that had been stored inside for when they arrived. 
For whatever reason, the Quarians had decided to show up.

"That I will never have a branch!" Quinn shouted before she could help herself. "Maggie and I are the only human/quarian hybrids, and now... now she is the only one who can continue the line!'

Kandros was watching the sky too, more than a little apprehensive about this sudden arrival. Why now? "There isn't time for this!" He finally growled impatiently.

"Quinn..." Tyros didn't really know what to say. It was eating him alive to see the heart break in her eyes. He reached out, this time daring to touch her. He ran his thumb along her cheek, smiling at her. "I like your eyes. No matter what their color you can hide nothing from me." He whispered. "A child isn't important, my love. We have each other. We don't need anything else."

"Time or not. It's happening." Lexi muttered, looking up from her stitching. "Drak, put on Connor's mask. He's struggling too hard to breathe without it."
"Did you ever use a Reegar carbine shotgun?" Vetra asked from where she was standing in the doorway. "They were one of my dad's favorites. When I was little he would take me with him to buy the guns straight from their maker. That ship. I forget the name but it belongs to the Reegar family of Quarians. You re not going to like them." She finished, giving Kandros a stern look.

Though they were under close surveillance, Quinn didn't seem to care as she held onto Turks and kissed him again and again. She would no doubt ever get over what her mother had done to her, but at least she knew her husband would never care what had been done to change her.

"Why?" How bad can a few quatrains be?" Kandros asked with a rather bitter snort. He still didn't like the timing of this, and then there was deciding whether or not they would accept that Maggie and Connor were essentially quatrain too.

Tyros returned her kisses, trying hard to remain calm. He didn't want Quinn to think him weak but he was so afraid she was still going to reject him. She had no idea how much he needed her. "Come on. We have to go..."

Connor opened his eyes as Drak placed the apparatus over his mouth. Like his quarian relative, his eyes were now completely white. There wouldn't be much to dispute. 
"Quarians on pilgrimage are much different than their militant elders. Eli'Reegar is the worst of them." Vetra muttered.

Quinn nodded, her cold fingers closing around her husband's. "we have to find Maggie." She breathed, already trying to figure a way to get off this ship alive. It was a strange feeling, as she had given up hope so long ago.

"You know him personally?" Kandros asked, having only heard of Reegar by reputation. "It's not like quarians to have ships like that." He added. "Seems like this guy thinks himself king."

"No." Tyros said firmly. "I made a trade. She stays. We are leaving." He turned toward the door the female had shoved him into. "I'm sorry. We have no other choice." 

"He's pretty full of himself. Which is why my father traded with him." Vetra said with a nod. "Both if them were assholes."

"There's always another choice!" Quinn insisted. Even though with her new cybernetic limbs she was actually strong enough to stop Tyros from pulling her, she oddly didn't. It was like Quinn knew Betty would treat Maggie differently than she had her youngest.

"Sounds right." Drak commented. "Still can't really answer the question of why now though. They have a ship like that, and have ignored the initiative. It's not like the nexus moved, always been right where it was supposed to be. So why did they never go there?"

"Maggie will be fine. Even if she is not..." Tyros was not so kind. Maggie had brushed him aside. Had kept him from him beloved. She deserved to die. He no longer cared. "She has no one to return to. The salarian killed her son."

"Because I cannot stand that little worm called Tann." A tall well built quarian stood in the doorway, an equally enormous turian behind him. "He has nothing I want."

"What?" This time Quinn did pull her husband to a stop by force. "No... but I..." Quinn felt the child's failure was her fault. "I should have gotten them out of there sooner! Dammit!"

All eyes turned to the two new arrivals, though Kandros didn't seem all that pleased they were there at all. "And we do?" He asked bluntly.

"What could you have done? He tricked Connor into thinking he was going to win a trip to the Nexus. When he arrived Tann beat him and left him to die." Tyros told her, continuing to drag her.

"I'm sure there isn't a soul alive who does. Bastard deserves death." Reegar said. "Nevermind that. We are here for the boy."

"Beat him? He's just a baby!" Quinn insisted. "Gyros, what is going on?!"

"What boy?" Kandros asked thinly, his arms folded across his chest as he stood between Reegar and Connor.

"As i understood it he was jealous because the boy was never his. Of course he could have also been burying loose ends. He is marrying your step sister soon. I believe General Talos named her Lori..." Tyros told his wife. Lori had the Talos name by blood. The eldest of his children. When her mother died, the General married Betty so that his daughter and hers would have someone. Not to mention the promise of a son that Betty never produced. 
Lori was quiet and reserved, sticking to her father always. She'd made it clear she did not trust Quinn or her family.

"My grandson. Look at the mess you are making of things." He gestured to Connor's breathing mask. "That is a joke. Move aside we are taking him home."

Quinn's mismatched eyes filled with a strange emotion as Tyros gave her this information. "Lori... is here, in Andromeda?" She asked, seeming more disturbed by this news than the thought of leaving her actual sister behind.

"Connor is home, and has the best doctor in two galaxies looking after him." Kandros growled, refusing to move. "I don't know you, you have no right calling my son your family!"

"So is the General." He added, knowing Betty was listening. "He took over Kandros job when he left with Maggie. The Nexus has gone to hell and Tann couldn't be happier."

Eli's gun met with the end of Kandros' nose. Behind him the other turian was shifting his enormous shot gun. "You, sir, are trying my patience. I'll be taking my grandson and if you want to live you will back away. You cannot provide for him. I would think that his current state would make that terribly obvious!" He roared.

Quinn was visibly shaking now. All the time they had known each other, Tyros wouldn't really have seen his wife be afraid of anything. Until now.

Kandros wasn't giving up so easily. With blood spilling down his face he rose back to his feet, refusing to just let his son be taken. "My wife is gone, I won't let you lay even one finger on my son." He swore, though was soon stomped to the ground again by the silent turian.

"We will go home. Let them fight it out. We need none of this." Tyros said. "This time we ignore them all. They deserve their fate."

"Your wife is genetic trash. I hope wherever she is, she is finally dead." Eli hissed. "Qim and what he created nearly ruined my family. Good riddance to them all. You as well. Gather the boy, Brutus. We are leaving."

Quinn had fled a galaxy to get away from her father, and was clearly quite shaken by the idea of him having followed her here. This was the only reason Tyros was able to get her off the kett ship and onto the one Betty had given him.

Kandros lunged at Eli again, this time taking a shotgun blast to the shoulder from Brutus. Vetra hadn't been kidding when she had said the Reegar was a powerful weapon. Androstenedione was left lying in his own blood as Brutus stepped over him like trash.

"I think the idea of the General terrified your mother." Tyros said. A few days had passed and the so called broken kett had given his wife her space. He'd watched her sleep, trying to understand just what shed been going through. 

Kandros was out for nearly a week. When he finally woke, Lexi was leaning over him checking the stitching. "It's a good thing you woke up." She said softly. "Jaal is treating to kill that big turian should you die. His boss ended up double crossing him. Served him right..."

Sleep hadn't come easily to Quinn this past year. Falling asleep had meant she never knew if she was going to wake up in her holding cell, or strapped to the operating table as her mother stole another body part or internal organ from her. Several times she had woken screaming, only calming once Tyros was there to hold her and tell her she was safe. The once grave soldier was now a broken mess, despite her best efforts to prove other wise. "That was what he loved best." Quinn told her husband softly. "He loved power, and being feared was the best kind of power. Unless you were Lori... then you were his princess."

Kandros attempted to sit up, though it didn't go too well. "The quarian, tell me you shot the bastard." He wheezed as the room span.

"What made her so special? I thought he wanted a son." Tyros asked, holding his wife close to him as she once again woke from a terrible nightmare. "Was she cruel to You? I will kill her if you'd like."

"No...but Maggie is pretty pissed." Vetra said. "A kett ship dropped her off the day after all this." The female turian added. "Shes been running herself ragged sitting here with you and talking with that big guy. It seems Tann tipped off Reegar where Connor was. So his showing up here wasn't an accident anymore than that lizard's was."

Quinn laughed, though it sounded more sad than anything. "Thank you." She breathed, burying her face into his shoulder. "Lori was the eldest, but looking back I guess it was because he always knew that Maggie and I weren't his own children, that's why he treated her better."

"Maggie is here?!" Kandros again tried to stand up and tripped over his own feet in the process. "Why did the kett free her? Where's that bastard Tyros?!"

"Did he train her to fight as he did you?" Tyros asked, his fingers beginning to wander beneath her shirt. "I'll bet she is not a warrior like you. And not nearly as lovely."

Vetra helped get Kandros back into the bed and opened her omni tool. He would see Maggie seated next to the enormous turian, her hands folded in her lap.

"So Tann told Eli where to find us? Why? What does he get out of It?" Maggie asked. She was looking over the chained Brutus, not at all afraid.

Quinn smiled, both at he lovely words and the feel of his fingers. It was a sensation she had thought she would never know again. "Maggie was still treated well, but I think it was the fact that I was what he initially believed to be his third failure of producing a son."

"Why must he get anything?" Brutus asked, his voice deep and rumbling like distant thunder.

"Why did he not train Lori to be a soldier?" Tyros asked, trying to keep himself slow and steady. He didn't want to push her. Not after the things she'd been through. "Or what it something he saw in you?"

"Another words you don't know." Maggie said simply. "Look...i know you're a guy for hire. I remember your file from when my husband ran security on the Nexus. 
"And since your current boss left you to us. I'm willing to make a deal with you." The little blonde lifted her head, not knowing she was being watched. Her eyes were fixed on Brutus with a determined glare. "I don't see how you can say no seeing as you're facing down a daylight firing squad for murder, sir."

"He didn't think the military was any place for a woman." Quinn replied, finding it hard to pin down words as Tyros teased her. "That was why he longed for a son, and instead he settled for forcing me to enlist. I wasn't a woman to him, I was his wife's freak project."

Brutus started to laugh, the sound deep and mocking. "Child, you think I fear death?" He asked. "That is something only you humans fear."

"You are amazing." Tyros kissed the scars on her belly, his hands sliding down her pants. "You are lovely and...so very soft. I see nothing freakish about you." He laughed against her skin. 

Maggie sighed. She rubbed at the bridge of her nose, a sign that she was trying to be calm. "All right. How about money? I have recently come into a great deal of it. I'm willing to give it to you. All of it if you allow me to hire you. Please?"

Quinn could barely breathe as those lips touched her scars. Fat tears dropped out her temples as she thought that the reason she was now part machine was precisely because she was soft. "It doesn't both you... this?" She breathed as her cool fingers traced over his own unyielding skin, her fingertips not warm and gentle like this of her other hand.

Brutus smiled and finally looked at the slender blonde, even leaning forward slightly. "Now we're talking." He mused. "I want all of it. And a ship, then you have me."

"Not at all. You are my beloved. My bond mate. You carry my soul with you. How could anything about you bother me?" He no longer asked permission. He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her deeply. 

"How can I trust you? How do I know that you won't run off with the ship?" Maggie asked, crossing her arms over her chest.