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."

"To your left, my dear." Ardwin said motioning toward a set of doors that led to the kitchen. No sooner had she run through them then someone had started shouting that the General was dead.

Lori nodded slowly, her eyes locked on his. Shed never trusted anyone the way she trusted him. She had no way of knowing that trust was soon to be ripped out of her chest like a beating heart.

Quinn was truly not having the best of days. The general's body was lying directly in her path, as though waiting there just for her. The young woman tripped right over it, now with his blood on her hands, and her DNA on the corpse.

Brutus was on constant look out as he walked Lori to his tiny apartment, if it could even be called that. He had to be very careful no one saw them, else word got back to Tann, or her father.

"The payment needs to be left on my desk." Ardwin said. It would seem to anyone not looking close that he was speaking to himself. But the kett hiding in the dark heard and nodded, slinking away without being seen. 

The night was not nearly long enough for Lori. But it was the fairytale she'd always dreamed of. Brutus treated her like a queen, like he truly cared for her. She returned the favor, whispering her adoration for him. 
She spent the night going over the scars on his body, asking him how he got them and apologizing for those who had hurt him. She kissed each one and wished that she could do the same each night for the rest of their lives.

Quinn was quickly discovered with the body of her step father and dragged away to a security cell. It seemed there was no getting out of this one, she was an exile who was also a known kett conspirator. She had been literally caught red handed.

"You don't have to go through with it." Brutus remarked after some time of simply laying there with his talons running through Lori's azure hair. "Forget Tann and stand up to your father." He added, unaware that it would now be impossible for Lori to do such a thing.

"You tricked me!" Tyros stomped back into Betty's liar, furious. "You told me that killing the General would be enough! It would be enough to protect her! What have you done?!"

"I cant...Brutus. You don't understand." Lori whispered. She closed her eyes,  trying to once again block out that terrible day. "Not after what I did to him."

Betty's full lips curled into a cruel smile and she crossed one long leg over the other. "No, I said if you killed the general I would make you kett again."

"What could be so awful you must give you life in servitude to him?" Brutus challenged, his talons sliding along Lori's spine to her pert behind as he stared off in thought.

"You knew why I was doing it!" Tyros roared, jabbing a shaking in Betty's face. "You used Me! You unbelievable bitch...you...used me!"

"I don't want to talk about it." Lori turned on her back, heaving a sigh that eluded to the fact that the burden she carried was heavy indeed. "Just leave it alone. Let's talk about you...tell me about your piercings. I've never seen a turian with those. I thought that was frowned on in your culture."

"Oh hush now... no need to try and embarrass me." Betty purred as her yellow eyes looked Tyros over. "You can't really blame me for your poor negotiation skills. However... you could always turn yourself in, take her place rotting in a jail cell?"

Brutus was almost scowling as he watched Lori evade both his question and his touch. "What isn't frowned on my culture?" He asked with a bitter snort. "Join the military, make your family proud... anything else and you're a disappointment."

"Like they would do that. Believe me. I could watch around saying I killed the General, his daughter, and half the lower class and do it naked and they'd ignore me! They have it in for her. Fix this. Now. You owe me!" Tyros snarled. 

Lori turned her head and snorted at this. "No kidding. See? Our cultures aren't so different." She reached over and patted his leg. "My dad wanted me to fly one of those starships. The day they told him I was as blind as a bat without my glasses...he raged to my mother for hours...said I was useless. Wanted to try for another kid."

"Do I?" Betty asked sweetly, though there was nothing sweet in her expression. She had lost her sweetness when she was still a child. "All this trouble... and she was only too happy to fuck the man who once bought her like a slave."

"Then how come Maggie was never a pilot?" Brutus asked curiously. "She has normal vision, right?"

"Shut up." Tyros hissed. "And yes. You do owe me. We had a deal and I carried out my end of it. You on the other hand, did not. Get her out of there." Tyros leaned down, getting right in her face. "If you don't the next person I take out will be your daughter. The first born."

Again her lover seemed to lose her. Lori turned away from him, pulling her knees to her chest. "Can we sleep now? There's only a few hours left until work. My father's going to yell at me over Tann and I and I just want to make this last as long as I can. Please?"

Betty's fingers shot out, grabbing Tyros's chin in a bruising grip. "My deal was to make you kett again. To make you the ugly creature that had to kidnap lost little girls and fool them into loving."

Brutus sighed heavily. He wondered how people endured relationships when it seemed every question was a potential trip mine. "Sleep, ill wake you when it's time for your shift."

Tyros actually smiled. He'd gotten under her skin. He knew how. There was something to this. "You screwed me over. Maybe I should return the favor." He growled.

"I told you from the start to leave me alone. Why didn't you listen?" Lori whispered as sleep found her.

"You had nothing to offer, what makes you believe you gave anything to take?" Betty asked with a sneer.

"Because I'm an asshole." Brutus muttered as he watched his lover sleep.

"Perhaps it's not what I can offer but what you can prevent me from doing." Tyros said. He slapped her hand away and got to his feet. "I've discovered the General's daughter will be marrying Tann within a week. I'm willing to bet they will be moving up this wedding to offer her protection. Wouldn't it be terrible if she were to die at her own wedding. Perhaps in the very same manner her mother did? A broken neck?" The drell purred. 

Lori woke up bathed in sweat and shaking. The nightmare had come again. She'd gotten away from it for so long only to have it come back over a conversation about Maggie...
"Tann is stepping up the wedding, Brutus. Details are sketchy here but we're hearing reports of the General's death..." she laid where she was a moment, her head buried in the covers and listened to what sounded like Maggie's voice. "We've heard he's offering her protection since she no longer has family...damn it. This screws up everything!"

"How unfortunate." Betty replied coolly. "Assuming you get close enough when every man on the nexus will be looking for the former lover of the woman who killed the general." She purred.

Brutus got to his feet, scowling as he headed into the bathroom. "Are you insane?!" He hissed once the door was closed. "Do not contact me without warning!" He added. "What if someone were listening? Damn stupid girl!"

"You forget who trained me." Tyros snarled. "They may find me when she is dead but that will be because I want them to." 

"Like who?" Maggie muttered, not knowing where he was or that there was an ear now pressed to the door. "Brutus, I gave you a starship and half a million credits to ruin this. What have you been doing?" Maggie sounded panicked. "We have a deal. The General and Tann. And you have run out of..." she stopped speaking when a loud crash sounded in the other room. "What was that?"

"Then we appear to be at a stalemate." Betty commented. "Because the moment something happens to Lori, I will personally kill Quinn myself." She told him simply.

"You think I care?" Brutus snorted. "You were an idiot. You gave a merc money and a ship without any way of stopping me." He sneered, not liking the way she spoke to him. "But don't worry that little bubble head of yours, Tann will pay."

"Let her go." Tyros stood where he was, his arms crossed over his chest. "If you don't I'll do more than just hurt what's precious to you. I'll make a nuscience of myself." He gave her a wicked smile. 

"I only paid you half. You get the rest when it's done." Maggie said firmly. "Why would you care whether Tann pays or not? You're just a merc." 

Lori remembered the last time she'd run like this. She could close her eyes and see her mother and her body. For some reason this hurt just as much.

"Or I could have you killed right now. Would anyone even care?" Betty replied, her long hair slipping over a smooth amethyst shoulder as she leaned forward slightly.

"Do you even know your sister?" Brutus asked bluntly, not yet aware of how much trouble he was now in with Lori.

Tyros made no reaction. He knew no one would care. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had. "Let me turn that question on you. What about your daughter? Does she care? About you?"

"Of course I care about Quinn." Maggie snapped. "Finish this. I'm done with it."

"I don't expect her to." Betty replied with an indignant snort. "But what you expect of me, is a full pardon for Quinn and to return you to my hive?" She asked, the queen bee tag she was.

"Not the traitor, the one you want me to break." Brutus growled. "Or is it that you are so consumed by revenge, you don't care what happens to her?"

"No. Just get them to let her go."  Tyros said. "I won't ask for a transformation. I will throw myself into your service. Just...set her free."

Maggie didn't answer. She simply cut the line.

Betty rose gracefully to her feet and began circling Tyros like a starving lioness. "You would go through all this... to not have her?" She asked, the concept truly alien to her.

"Bitch." Brutus growled before opening the bathroom door. "Hey, Lori, it's time for..." his voice died off when he saw the empty bed.

"I love her.  I would do anything for her, even if it meant never seeing her again." Tyros said, staring at the floor. "If she asked you to murder me and let her watch, I would hold my head up and let you cut my throat." 

Lori stood in the c-sec office with Tann beside her, staring down at her father's body. For the second time in less than two hours she'd been punched in the gut. 
She found herself again unable to breathe. She didn't even hear Tann's promises to protect her and become her family. "I...i have to go..." she didn't wait to be told and again she was running.

Betty simply couldn't fathom such devotion. "She was worthless before I upgraded her, and just as pathetic after. Has she ever told you of the voices she hears?" She added, proving Ardwin's taunt about Quinn and her mother being the same kind of creature. "Why do you think she prefers to be alone?"

Luckily for Brutus, Lori was plough right into him, as there was no chance she would willingly be anywhere near him after what she had heard. Although the large Turian was oblivious to that fact. "Hey, there you are." He breathed, hand son her shoulders to help her regain her balance.

"She didn't tell me but I've wondered. Some nights I've heard her talking to someone. She sits and listens...it doesn't bother me if that's what you're getting at." Tyros said gently. "Is that why you were angry with the General? He didn't understand that...you hear them too?"

Lori howled in anguish. She yanked herself away from him and then threw a punch. She missed by a mile and ended up and her knees in front of him, her shoulders shaking violently. "Get away from me!" She screamed. 
Not far behind was Tann and he look like the cat who'd gotten the cream.

Betty narrowed her yellow eyes at Tyros, not liking him gleaning so much about her. "You would share her with the dead?" She asked, the voices having long ago corrupted her. 

"Lor... What happened?" Brutus breathed as he knelt before her. "You left without a word, it isn't safe out here." He insisted, not liking that look that Tann wore one little bit.

Tyros rested his hand on hers. "Your husband wasnt willing to share you either. Was he?" He asked, the realization hitting him. "He had you brought back...Kalahira...why did he being you back? For Lori?"

"Did she pay you to give a shit?" Lori spat, barely able to breathe. "You stay away from me! I hate you!"

Betty stared into Tyros's eyes for perhaps a moment too long as he held her hands. "He was afraid. He could not raise a child." She breathed before she could stop herself.

"She paid me to hurt Tann, that was all!" Brutus insisted quickly as the man in question approached. He knew it didn't matter though. He would react no differently to Lori if their positions were reversed.