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."

"What?" Anika's fingers dropped away and there was clear anger in her dark eyes. "She can't be your wife. I am your wife." She told him bluntly.

"I didn't think arranged marriages were still a thing for humans." Brutus remarked, rather curious about the whole thing.

"To be fair you were dead i thought and I...she...i fell in love." He turned away, again looking for Quinn.

"Mine isn't arranged." Lori said, quietly. "Tann asked for me.  What's wrong with that?"

Unfortunately for Tyros, Quinn hadn't lingered long enough to hear that. She had seen him and Ana embrace, and couldn't handle any further hurt. 
"Why would you think I were dead?" Ana asked thinly, not quite as emotional as Quinn had been.

"Did you ask for him?" Brutus countered. "Seems like an arranged marriage if you hadn't no say in it."

"Did they not tell you what became of the flagship?" Tyros asked in disbelief, staring at his first wife. "The kett made me watch...while the dragged out bodies and set fire to the remains...shot those that still lived...then they blew up the ship. Your cryo pod..." his voice caught in his throat, the drell gift of remembrance was not such a gift in that moment. He saw everything, smelled it, felt it. 

Lori shrugged. "It's not like I have a lot of options with the General as a father anyway." She admitted. "And...that's not what I meant." She was quick to cover up her soft words. "I meant that Tann asked if he could and the General gave him the nod. You know. He only did it because he read it in one of my books. He thought I would like it." She was lying. Tann had never asked her anything. She was simply told what she was going to do.
Maggie had told Brutus as much. The General was using his daughter to keep tabs on Tann. It seemed there was very little that was sacred to the old man.

Ana was looking at his like he truly had let it. "No, the pods were ejected, one of the pathfinders found us a few months ago. I never gave up you would return to me, even when they told me what had happened." She really did believe that was how things had gone down.

"You're marrying some guy... because you read it in a book?" Brutus repeated, clearly not buying that story at all.

"They put me through hell. Made me wish to die a thousand times over. They took away everything from me. My identity. My race. They made me one of them. If not for Quinn...i would have remained a monster." Tyros explained.

Lori couldn't help but laugh at this. Her lie was getting out of hand, confusing them both. "Tann, read about romantic proposals. You know... will you marry me...and all that. He saw that he should ask my father...so He did. And here we are. So romantic and so not like a turian...you know boring and stick up your butt." She added, putting her glasses back on. "You can go. He's here now."

"And... you love her?" Ana asked, not quite so afraid of the answer as Quinn had been, given she hadn't been through nearly as much.

"We know a lot about sticking things in other places too." Brutus breathed against Lori's ear before he turned and headed for the door.

"I do." Tyros said with no hesitation. She saved my life and so much more. I can't just walk away from that."

Lori returned to her apartment without a so much as a kiss. Tann stood outside her and cursed.

"But do you only love her because she saved your life?" Ana challenged.
Unfortunately, Quinn wasn't around to hear Tyros' heartfelt words, she was sitting in Vortex, lamenting how things had. Fought her right back to where she started.

Brutus had remained close to Lori's apartment, and was quite easily able to hear Tann from where he silently sat in the shadows. He didn't like the worm, didn't know why either. Sometimes people just rubbed him the wrong way.

Vortex was home to many monsters that night. One of the worst being Ardwin himself. Sadness was an ugly mistress it seemed. It would lead Quinn to drink too much and then help her find her way into the bed of that very man.

Tann sat outside the apartment as he said, staring at the window, his long fingers deep inside his pants. He pleasure himself,  while he watched Loris shadow,  sure he was alone.

Quinn would remember little of that night. In fact, she would swear she had only bought one drink before Ardwin had approached her. As it stood, she had no idea how she had ended up naked in the bed of a man who had once tried to marry her by force.

Brutus saw what was happening and had an even more intense dislike for the other alien. So much so, he found Lori's contact details on his Omni tool. He sent one brief message suggesting she use a better filter on her window next time. He didn't care if she thought it was him watching, but it would be highly entertaining to have her catch Tann in the act.

Ardwin had been looking for a little bit of something dark to do. Quinn's arrival had changed everything. Especially since reports had come in that the generals real daughter stayed away from bars and the like. 

Lori read the message and opened her window, the plan playing out as Brutus hoped it would. "Oh for the love of..." an ancient book hit Tann square in the forehead. The salarian fell off the seat where he was, roaring in pain. His pleasure was forgotten as another book hit him, this one lower. "Go home, perv!" Lori roared, closing the window so that a setting sun reflected back on them.

Quinn groaned as she woke up, her head pounding and her one human eye feeling like any source of light burned it. So much of her was artificial now that it never entered her head that anyone would have even noticed her in that bar.

Brutus barely contained his laughter when he saw Tann fall to the ground, his pants expressing him to anyone who may, in turn, have been watching him. He had to give it to her, she had a good aim.

"Well now...i never thought you and I would be back here." Ardwin purred from where he stood, holding out a cup of coffee to her. "You've improved your skills since we last met. Someone taught you well."

The General stood glaring at Tann the next morning, shaking his head. He'd called Brutus in as well. 
"I'd like to know what you were thinking last night!" He roared, glaring at the director. "And you, where were you?" He turned on the turian, shaking his head.

Though her head pounded, Quinn was quick to cover herself over with the sheets. Not that Ardwin hadn't seen enough of her already. "This is your bed?" She asked feebly, trying to understand how she had gotten into this situation to begin with.

"Following orders." Brutus replied with a lazy yawn. He just didn't tell the general Tann had expressly told the bodyguard no one was to watch Lori's apartment at night, as the director himself was doing that job. It had seemed strange at the time, but Brutus finally understood the reason why.

"For now." Ardwin confirmed. "I must admit I was surprised at how willing you were to fall into it. After last time." He pushed back his wild honey colored hair. 

The General nodded. "It's good to see even a merc can obey a simple request." He snorted. He waved the large turian off and turned back to Tann. "As for you, my daughter saw a random salarian not you. No upstanding citizen...let alone our beloved director... would be caught dead with his pants down. She is blind as a bat without her glasses on.  I reminded her of that. 
"Get going, turian she is blind and defenseless after all. She'll probably run into a wall trying to shop for artisan goods today." The old man muttered motioning the grinning Tann to follow him.

Quinn was extremely on edge, her eyes even trying to judge the distance to the door. After the way she had left last time, she couldn't help but assume Arden would want revenge. "Willing? That's how I seemed?" She asked uncertainly.

Brutus was most certainly not smiling now. In fact, he was quietly fuming that Tann was getting away with it. Even as he tracked Lori down his mood hadn't gotten any better.

"You approached me. Everyone saw it. Even the drell that was trying to get you to go home with him. Oddly enough you called him by the kett's name. But you crawled into my lap and stuck your tongue down my throat. Called me by name and everything." Ardwin chuckled. "Your friend looked devastated. The female drell...not so much."

Lori was where her father said she'd be, buying artisan goods from an open market place there on the Nexus. She got in well with the Angaran that were selling, making trades and deals with the best of them. She looked nothing like her father nor did she act like him. Like her step sister, Maggie, she thrived amongst the people and they loved her for it.

Quinn was shaking her head, unable to accept this turn of events. "No! Why you?! Of all people why would I do that to him... with you!" She insisted, not on her feet and pulling the sheet with her. Certainly Ardwin was attractive, and she knew he knew it, but he was nothing but a villain. 

"Shopping? Really?" Brutus commented with a playful snort as he came to a halt behind Lori. He had observed her for some time as she interacted with the local aliens, and even he couldn't deny she fitted in well.

"The answer won't change the more you ask." Ardwin said with a smile. "You were wasted. The same way you were the night I forced myself on you. But this my darling...this was...delicious..." 

"You again?" Lori stopped where she was, holding out a bar of ornate soap to an asari woman. The woman gave her turian chocolate in return. "You didn't get the hint yesterday, bull?" She asked, turning fully to him.

Quinn's eyes narrowed at Ardwin with the insinuation he had forced her to do something. "Don't flatter yourself. That first time was a business transaction." Suddenly her lips pulled into a dark smile. "One you got nothing out of."

"Hint? What's one of those? Can I eat it?" Brutus asked, though he was clearly making fun of Lori

"Are you so sure?" Ardwin asked, raising an eyebrow. He held out a coffee cup to Quinn, his smile nothing short of wicked. 

"No but you can eat this. I got it for you." She held out the chocolate for him, a warm smile on her lips. "I figured you'd be back. I'm never that lucky." She waited until he gingerly took it and turned back to the woman, patting her hands, "See you next week, Olfia. I'll have more soap for you." 
The asari smiled, winking at Brutus. "She likes you." She purred, turning back to her other customers. 
"She lies to make sales." Lori muttered.

"I'd hardly call fucking me much of anything." Quinn shot back, though she did, for some reason, take the coffee. It was something to focus on while she discretely tried to locate her clothing.

"You like me." Brutus told the azure haired woman with a grin before sliding the chocolate into his mouth, still grinning at her.

"I wasnt talking about that either." Ardwin said, sipping at his coffee. "What do you plan to do now that you are a free spirit?" 

"I'd like for you to leave." Lori said wrinkling her nose until her glasses slid down the bridge. "That's not that same thing."

"There's no such creature." Quinn whispered as she stared down at her coffee. Maggie had Kandros, Tyros had Ana, even the pathfinder had found time for love. All she had been given was pain and false hope. 

"I see, and you convince people to leave by giving them chocolate?" Brutus asked with another devil may care grin.

"Again, not so sure about that. For the right price you can be anything you want." Adrwin purred. "Your mother is learning that. She's quite the charmer, your mother."

"Maybe I should try another tactic and use poison...or...oh my I think it may be too late." Lori teased. A moment later a group of Angaran women surrounded her, showing her their fabrics and wares. When they separated, she was gone.

The coffee cup in Quinn's cybernetic hand suddenly shattered with the force she had exerted on it. Of course it was her mother. Why did she think her misery would end just because she had fled the ship? "My mother is dead." She managed to tell Ardwin sternly.

"Women..." Brutus muttered as he looked around the market. The massive turian stood out considerably, but for a moment he simply looked around before deciding to check if the Nexus had a bookshop. "That's her thing... right?" He asked himself in a muttered voice.

"If that were so, the General would not be doubling patrols and hiring mercs to protect his beloved daughter." Ardwin chuckled. "Tann as well is scrambling to keep his future wife safe. He hired Brutus Vakarian. Coming from C-sec you should know what that means." He began cleaning the mess she'd made. "Maybe we can sacrifice a drell it two and she'll leave us alone."

At the end off the market, there was a tiny shop in a cul-de-sac. It was filled to the brim with ancient books. 
Brutus would find Lori here, an ancient turian lifting her up to reach the top shelf. The old man was grinning like a fool, not knowing he was being watched.

That was a lot of information for Quinn to take in, and for a lingering few seconds she simply stood there hugging the bed sheet around herself. "I thought the general owed you?" She asked finally. "Wasn't that your whole reason for wanting anything from me at all?" Brutus made things complicated, his reputation as a loose cannon preceded him.

Brutus watched the older man for a moment, then cleared his throat. "She's young enough to be your granddaughter." He remarked gruffly.

"The debt has gone on too long. I'm interested only in galaxy takeovers." Ardwin told her darkly. "Your mommy dearest is making things no fun.[size=34]"[/size]


[size=34]The turian didn't stop cupping Lori's bottom, but he did stop grinning. [/size]
[size=34]"You just don't quit, do you?" The young woman sighed. "What is it going to take to prove to you I am perfectly safe. No one looks twice at me. And besides, I'm marrying Tann and every one knows. I'm good, bull. Thanks for your time."[/size]