Aurelia opened her eyes to a familiar scene. The body of her husband was not beside her, yet again. She could hear him in the self-made office of their apartment only a room over, the hollow sound of shuffling files and fingers gliding over the keys of his holo-pad. It was then she felt a sudden pain in her abdomen, a feeling she was all too familiar with.
"No…"she whispered as she made her way to the bathroom quickly.
Her marriage with Syro was young, barely into its second season, but the distance had not eased; it seemed only to have gotten worse, obvious as he made no call out to her to see if she was alright or even acknowledge her presence. Once in the bathroom she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, her thighs slick with deep ultramarine blood. It had happened again.
There would be no child this time. She had hoped, but it felt as it had been much to ask of the spirits to bless them with a child and ease the distance between husband and wife. There were no sighs of discontentment; she knew better. So she decided to wash such thoughts away and cleanse her conscious through the blessings of a hot shower.
It was business as usual. A shower, donning her c-sec uniform, unflattering in flush against her golden toned plates and hide and just as unattractive to her figure. C-sec was not her first choice as a career, ruling out justice was not her dream, no, and that was her brothers. However, she was a turian from a modest but respectable family. She knew her place, and this was it.
She ignored the nagging idea of letting slip a sigh, ignoring the fact she wished for something better. No self respecting turian would never ask for more than they ever had.
'This is how arranged marriages are; mother said so,' she reminded herself as she drunk deeply the warm creamy liquid that assisted in helping her wake up. She could not experience a morning without it.
Her family had arranged the marriage. It was how things were done. Young turians did not take the time to seek, find and secure love. That was left to the asari. Turian young had better things to do, like serve the turian hierarchy and the galactic community.
Syro was not a terrible looking male, or cruel. He simply treated her more like an occupier of his apartment rather than his wife. It made completing his natural duty to give her children near impossible. She had half-begged him to go to the doctor with her, to test their fertility. He had refused, saying it undermined him as a husband and a male. So she went without him.
The asari doctor had been kind, comforting. She eased worries that she was barren as failure always fell down to the fault of the wife. The doctor confirmed what she had always known; she was fertile as any other.
A sigh did escape her then. Children – there was nothing she wanted more. To mother a petite heart made partly from her flesh, shape and mould them to continue on her seemingly insignificant legacy. C-sec was just time filler until the daily cries filled their small apartment. It would happen, one day, eventually.
She raised herself to her feet, just one more day to get through; she had Leiada to carry her partway at least. That spread her mandibles into a small smile as she thought of her asari friend and her passionate sense of dealing with things.
***OBAH***
"Here you are, two tickets."
Aurelia was handed two thin-strip tickets by her asari companion. She eyed the Omni-tool orange pieces carefully.
"Remind me why we are going again?" she enquired to Leiada.
"Because c-sec officers are required to, by contract, once a rotation, to dress up in bells and ribbons and suck up to the rich. So put on your best frock."
Leiada has such a state of wording things. She was military through and through, a maiden on the edge of her matron years, and instead of stripping in bars or joining some mercenary gang, she was here. It made Aurelia smile a little as she lay down the two strips on the dash.
She did not know why she asked for two; Syro had refused even humouring the idea originally. She had sworn she would never ask him again after that. Yet here she was with two tickets staring at her from the dash.
Perhaps it was the way she was staring at the two tickets intensely that caught the huntress' attention. "Are you alright, Aurelia?" she asked cautiously. "Is Syro still refusing to come?"
"Something like that. He won't even humour the idea of coming along. He says he has more important things to do than rub elbows with high society." A sigh escaped her, then, "It would be nice, you know? A distraction from everything, to see how the other half lives."
"Exactly!" Leiada announced loudly. "And if he does not want to go, then you should go as my date, get dressed up and have some fun." Leiada frowned as she noticed that Aurelia didn't perk up. "But something else is wrong isn't it?" she whispered softly.
Holding her breath, Aurelia couldn't bring herself to say it. Not until her companion put a hand on her arm. Despite being under several layers of armour and under shell, she could feel the warmth. It broke her.
"It happened again…" she whispered back and she could see the pity in the asari's blue eyes.
"Oh, love. Don't worry. It just takes some couples longer than others,"she said reassuringly.
Aurelia forced a small smile; it was Leiada who came with her to the fertility clinic in the end, since she had not able to withstand the questions alone. She was about to pass on her gratitude when the radio perked up.
"One alpha one, what's your twenty? One alpha, what's your twenty, over?"
Aurelia felt suddenly irritated with headquarters calling on her location as if she didn't have enough to do today with her tour of duty. She raised her monitor to her face to respond to which the asari gave a chuckle. "When are you are going to upgrade to a translator-com?" she questioned.
"Oh you know me and technology. If it isn't broke why fix it? The chase of technology- as soon as you get the best thing the upgraded version is available."
Leiada shook her head and simply gave in. There was no use arguing with the stubborn turian.
"Ten-two Base, this is alpha one. My twenty is over the Presidium, ten-forty-one." That should keep them quiet, knowing she was about to start her tour. She manoeuvred the patrol car from where she parked it.
"Negative alpha one. We have a ten-ninety-four in your vicinity," Base answered.
"Ooo, a joy ride, what a way to start a morning," Leiada said with a smirk, before extending her sniper. The move surprised Aurelia; it was just an ordinary joy-ride, surely a sniper was a bit of overkill, for something this simple?
"Affirmative base, ten-eighty," Aurelia replied, her heart pounding. There was nothing better than a little action to get the blood pumping. Before she could even contemplate, a red, rather expensive sports car whizzed passed them, rocking the squad car.
Aurelia fixed, her eyes on the car making an extremely fast passing by them. This was their target.
"Can we get a ten-forty-three on that car?" Aurelia called into her car got a few lengths ahead of them and so far they pursued with no siren.
"Affirmative, Alpha one. It is a maroon sports vehicle, model Korime-x5, licence plate P.L.A.T.O.O.N.4.E.V.A" Platoon forever. One mandible flared in a smirk. That vanity plate could only belong to a turian, an arrogant turian at that or maybe a military nut. It didn't matter in that moment. Whoever was driving was going down hard, a slight rebalance in the universe for all the injustices against her.
The siren wailed loudly overhead as Aurelia urged the car faster. "Come on, old girl. You can do it," she whispered as she swung between gaps in the traffic as their drivers were too stupid to get out of her way.
In a way, she had to admire the driver ahead of her. Whoever was navigating the skycar manoeuvred the car with ease; ducking, diving and dodging obstacles as well as any fighter pilot. However, she was better; she didn't leave boot camp with a first in piloting for nothing. Their vehicle outranked hers easily; police shuttles were only fixed to reach a certain speed and were not built for speed but durability and movement.
"Spirits!" she cursed as she saw that while her shuttle was already using its second wind, the Korime had maybe four more gears in her. The red sports car pulled away from them at a desperate rate.
"Screw this!" Leiada announced and unbuckled her safety belt, throwing open the side door. The reduction in aerodynamics rocked the shuttle almost to the point where Aurelia lost control.
"What are you doing, you little fool?" Aurelia cursed as her fingers recalibrated the loss of speed and stability.
"Ending this…" Leiada shot back as she lined up her sights on her sniper.
"You can't! Not at this speed! You'll risk civilian casualties!" Aurelia shouldn't have been surprised actually. Leiada was well known for such impulsive conduct. She should have known as soon as she saw the sniper out that someone or something was going to be shot.
She watched the asari in her peripheral vision, how her stance was strong, despite the Kodiak rocking back and forth. Leiada held her breath as the shot was taken.
'Perfect' was the only word Aurelia could find to describe the cascade of sparks that hit the back tail of the car, rocking it off its course before it made a remarkably fast descent into the lakes. Luckily, it missed a chance to hit civilians who were watching from the pristine bridges crossing the Presidium.
"Spirits…" Aurelia called out, a little lost for words as she followed and hit the auto pilot to maintain an optimal hover over the crash.
"Base, this is alpha-one. We have the ten-forty-three crashed partly in the water and partly on the sidewalk near the financial district. We need a 51 and a 52," Aurelia recorded over before fixing a winch to her belt and grabbing her assault rifle from her back.
"I don't think a wrecker, will be enough to scrape that off the sidewalk," Leiada snickered as she lowered Aurelia down, slowly, gun ready in case the accused tried to flee the scene. The turian female didn't just let Leiada take a shot at a car not to get her man.
It was as she set foot on solid ground that the side doors opened, and three people scrambled out. The first was a much panicked stricken asari whom Aurelia noticed immediately.
Hearing the hard landing of Leiada behind her, she raised her gun sights to her eyes knowing backup was only just behind. "Freeze, don't move or I will be forced to shoot." The lines flowed from Aurelia, like water, well rehearsed and well seasoned.
"Thalia, is that you?" Leiada questioned rather relaxed behind her, procedure no longer her responsibility since she left the ranks. "What's a two bit, lower ward prostitute like you running around high town?"
It was true, Thalia was well known to the force, perhaps the most booked streetwalker in C-sec history.
There was no time to continue as two young turian males stumbled out of the driver and passenger side. The first, who exited the passenger side, was a fairly ordinary looking male with silver plates and red markings along his nose and eyes, markings she didn't recognise. He immediately saw the gun and the officer pointing it in his direction. Despite being on his knees, he quickly raised his hands. That was before he saw the wreckage of a car he had crawled out of. "The car! My dad's gonna kill me!" he shouted, forgetting the gun at his back and crawling over to the twisted mess that was formerly a rather nice Kirome-x5.
The second took Aurelia aback, although she fought to keep the surprise hidden. His plates were as black as space, the only way to described them. From face to neck, he was completely dark, devoid of shine and lustre, his features hard to make out as his skin seemed to suck all light away. He was scowling. That was easy to see as his eyes were silver and bright as two stars in a sea of space. She had never seen colouring like it. The asymmetrical gold markings across his face were just as curious. He didn't raise his arms like the others. Standing well over six foot, he towered over her, his body language threatening. Aurelia quickly assessed the threat and aimed solely at him.
"I said freeze," she shouted at him, hearing her father's drill sergeant tones echo in memory in her sub vocals.
A foot edged forward, taunting her, and she raised her gun higher for a kill shot. This was her driver; she would prefer not to kill him.
"Make me," he challenged back, deathly calm, making Aurelia's heart race. Although if she were prepared to be honest with herself in the moment, it was the scope of his voice that made her heart flutter. "What's some two bit, spinster cop going to do? Do you know who I am?"
Spinster, she was no spinster; she wasn't even old enough to be considered so.
"Ooo, bad move," she heard Leiada call from behind her. She was right. Extremely bad move.
"My fath-" before he could even finish, Aurelia moved. She swung the butt of her gun up in a perfect crescent, smacking him in the nose. She didn't give two shits whom his father was; he broke the law, and he was going down.
As he stumbled back, his hand held to his nose, Aurelia strapped her gun to her back and grabbed his free, flailing arm. She spun him around and pushed her foot in the back of his knee forcing him down, quick and painless, but the thrust onto the ground made a crack as his carapace hit the floor. She may have been small for a turian, but she was able. Even if this male was faster than her, she had the advantage and the know how.
He struggled against the floor, trying to overpower her, but with her knee in his back, and both his hands behind his back all he could muster was in vain. She quickly summoned up Omni-tool cuffs and to relinquish his struggling tried to pick him up from his arms before she slammed him into the ground again.
"You bitch!" he spluttered as ultramarine blood poured from his nose.
She slammed him down again; this time it silenced him.
"I'm arresting you for driving dangerously, failing to stop and assaulting an office," she said proudly, her breath slightly lost as she tried to hold down several hundred pounds of prime turian male.
"What are you talking about? I didn't touch you!" the black faced male retorted.
"Hmm, not what I saw," Leiada announced behind Aurelia as she stepped closer. "You shouldn't have said all those nasty things and perhaps we would have played nice." It made Aurelia smile at the feeling she had such a loyal friend at her back.
"Your word against ours!" he said, struggling again.
Leiada folded her arms and laughed. "Let's see, a two piece hooker, a coward and you a raging criminal against the word of a cop and a spectre. Yup, I can see that holding up in court."
"A spectre?" the turian on his hands and knees mourning the end of his car inquired turning around. "Tiberius, calm down, you can't mess with spectres here..." he cautioned.
So, his name was Tiberius. A prestigious name. She gave him another slam for just being a silver-spooned ass.
"Please, ma'am," the silver one pleaded, taking a step towards Aurelia. He was halted as Leiada raised her gun and he raised his hands in protest. "Please, let's just talk. Let me first apologise for my friend here. He's new to the Citadel. He didn't know any better."
"Ignorance isn't an excuse for breaking the law," sneered Aurelia, as she lifted Tiberius on his feet and slammed him against what used to be the hood of the Korime. She kicked apart his legs and started to pat him down, looking for concealed weapons or banned drugs.
"I understand that, ma'am, but we are in a world of trouble as it is. My father is going to kill us for wrecking his car… and a crowd is starting to gather. So please, I beg you."
"Hmm, I should add grand theft auto to the list of crimes you've committed today," she was in no mood to play nice. Her scowl announced it.
"Please, by all that is good and generous…" he begged.
But Aurelia's stubbornness was at full swing. "I'll give you this deal- you get the hell out of my sight and Thalia, if I catch you in the Presidium, I'll have you booked and jailed quicker than you can drop your panties. This punk is being booked. Now run, before I change my mind."
It didn't take the unnamed male two milliseconds to take his chance; he backed away from the crime scene quicker than a defeated varren with his tail between his legs.
"As for you," Aurelia said, turning her gaze back to the male bent over before her. "I hope you can put up a better fight than this in jail." She leaned in close to him. "They eat pretty boys like you for breakfast," she hissed in his ear.
Sirens filled the air of the Presidium as back up finally arrived. Regaining her composure, Aurelia read him his rights. "You have the right to remain silent, anything you do or say will be held against you in a court of law…"
***OBAH***
It was business as usual back in the office. Aurelia had finished her paperwork in record time, so she started arranging her desk neatly, everything in its place. She seemed to have forgotten the morning at home and her previous grief; her thoughts didn't even wander to the black faced turian. Instead, she was completely fixated on the mind numbing task of everything being in its place. That was until a senior female turian swept past her desk, the scent of spring flowers strong upon her. Aurelia raised her head to see a stunning white plated female dressed in black and gold robes storm pass all the desks and into the lift, looking like if anyone got in her way, she would kill the unlucky soul with her violet gaze.
Violet. That was another unique colouring for a turian. What was with all these freaks she was seeing today? Shaking her mind off it, she began looking through data pads. An hour passed before she was interrupted again by someone standing in front of her screen. She turned up her head to see her older twin-brother Venari.
"Brother," she said with a nod of her head in greeting.
"Aurelia, the turian you captured this morning is being released," came a nonchalant reply.
"What!" she shouted raising out of her seat so quickly that it knocked her chair over.
Her brother hated such public displays of emotion. He grimaced and Aurelia shied away, realising she had embarrassed him and people were watching, especially since it was rumoured that he was being groomed to take the executor position.
"How?" she asked softly, thinking it was something she had done wrong. Her brother was well known for impeccable paperwork, but on more than two occasions Aurelia had messed up quite a few arrests because she was not as diligent.
"Turns out he's from a very influential family," Venari stated matter of factly, arms folded and in a tone that was still as damaging as if Aurelia had messed up personally. "His mother is here to collect him," her brother continued.
Aurelia's mind flashed back to the glamorous turian she had seen earlier. Her markings were black and gold, but the same asymmetric pattern as the male she met earlier. As if they had heard their cue to come on stage, the lift opened to the scene of the mother holding her son by the curve of his mandible in a grip that would break rocks and baying for blood in her eyes. She swept out, son in hand as he mouthed 'ow' over and over again without actually letting out the cries of pain.
The white turian walked directly towards the Pallin twins and Aurelia found herself shrinking behind her brother's shoulder. "Are you Aurelia Pallin?" she queried, her accent not of the usual Palaven dialect. It was exotic and exuberant. They were clearly colony turians, something Aurelia hadn't noticed immediately with her son.
"Yes," Aurelia said, and her brother stepped aside to let the female take her in full view.
The mother of Tiberius looked her up and down, critical and not forgiving. "My son has something he wants to say to you."
"That won't be necessary, ma'am," Aurelia said quickly, finding this rather embarrassing, a fully grown male being chastised and handled like a child.
It was as if the white female read her mind. "If Tiberius wants to act like a child, then he will be treated like one," she hissed. This female was as friendly as a thresher maw. In fact,
Aurelia was pretty sure thresher maws could be patted and tamed in comparison to this woman. She turned to her son and released his mandible, which he rubbed, before she slapped him in his arm and pushed him forward.
Unable to look at her with his starlight eyes, he turned away and looked back at the lift. Aurelia had a feeling he wished to be back in his cell rather than here. She didn't blame him.
"I am sorry officer Pallin," he mumbled, his eyes scowling as he was anything but sympathetic. But this did not go unnoticed by the dragon matron.
"And..." she hissed, stepping closer behind him as if she was ready to strike, mandibles fluttering in warning.
"And, I am deeply ashamed of my actions against you today."
She pinched him then, encouraging him on. Obviously she had given him an earful of what he should say when they left the elevator.
His head snapped from the right and looked straight at her. His eyes sunken as the void they floated in. "I have embarrassed my mother, my blood, my ancestors, not forgetting myself and my good Cato name. I am from this day a law abiding turian citizen and I have you to thank for it."
Aurelia let out a small laugh, which she smothered with her hand. Her little giggle got a disapproving look from both her brother and the matron Cato. But when she looked back at that black face, it was smiling a little. His mandibles were spread slightly and there was a pleasant light to his eyes.
She cleared her throat and smiled back, forgetting why she was so mad at him in the first place. This was better revenge than any jail time. She had this feeling in her gizzard that he knew it, too, so she played along.
"I am glad to hear it. Let this be a lesson to you," she said forcing the laughter from her words, even if she couldn't keep a straight face.
Tiberius bent from waist down, never breaking his silver eyes from her golden ones.
"Good-bye officer," he said, before his mother pointed to the docking bay.
"You father is waiting in the car," she said as her son stalked off and Aurelia's eyes followed after him.
"Thank you officers," the matron Cato said, and Aurelia snapped her attention to the turian female in front of her, "For doing an outstanding job and keeping our streets safe." With a curt nod, she swept out the room in the same direction as her son.
"Aren't you glad our mother isn't like that?" Aurealia teased, The joke brought a small smile to her rigid brother's face.
***OBAH***
The atmosphere in the study couldn't be more lethargic. Some would simply say that the events of the day would be the cause, but within this household it was accepted as the spring rain. Marax stood behind his father's chair. The fireplace burned, giving the dark room a sinister appeal. That's how he would describe his father, sinister. All that could be seen of the aging turian was a wrinkled claw cupping a square glass of fine malt.
Keeping his pale eyes on the rug, he could see his mother standing by the drinks cabinet pouring what she swore was her fourth drink, but in all honesty it was her seventh.
"I always knew that Cato boy would end up in a brig of some kind or worse, hung," his father said first to break the silence. Marax was somewhat relieved that his father's first thoughts weren't entirely fixed on the fact his son took the car without permission and ultimately left it totalled on a Presidium bridge.
"Can you imagine the scandal. I have no idea how Priscia is ever going to live this down at the club," his mother said, her words thickly slurred.
His father snorted, sounding somewhat insulted that his mother spoke at all.
"Silence, dear," the Capius patriarch said full of malice and no love in his sub vocals at all. "If you don't hurry, your street corner will be invaded," he snorted again, and Marax's mother said nothing in return, just downed her drink before pouring herself another.
In a way Marax pitied his mother, the twisted existence she found herself in, attached to a cruel male who cared for nothing but maintaining his dominance among the hierarchy. But to say Marax hated his father was far from the truth. He knew his father thought him a fruitless waste of oxygen, but he had to admire the man's drive, mind and knowhow. His father's motto was 'anything worth having is worth going for all the way- and if you can't go through the front door, then go through the back.' Everything they were today was because of his father. They didn't come from a long distinguished line of generals and heroes. No, his father was a self made man. And it made Marax hunger to show his father that he was made of the same stuff.
"The car was totalled, you say?" Marax's thoughts were quickly distracted as his father spoke, a growling tone that made Marax grimace about what would happen next. "You're lucky, son, that you got away with it, because I swear to the spirits that your nose would be five inches to the right." There was an air of peace in his father voice, which made him relax a little. He was speared a beating, this time.
"That Cato boy is a terrible influence on you. Whenever you two are in the same system, you end up in some form of trouble," his mother said firmly, ignoring Marax's father's earlier lesson to be seen and not heard. It didn't go uncorrected.
"Shut-up," Firon hissed. "Don't try to educate the boy. You're not a wife, nor a mother and certainly not a Capius. This is a discussion for them alone."
Once again, it was followed by silence from his mother, but he could hear the shifting of her skirts as she exited the room with no complaint. Marax was now left alone with his father, much to the disquiet within his heart. Not like his mother did anything to defend her offspring.
"The thing about the Cato's, is that they generally think they are better than us all. All because they can trace their lineage back to when nobles ran Palaven. It doesn't help much that when the feudal system was overthrown, their noble ancestors became glory—hogging generals," Firon continued contempt thick in his voice.
Marax found it fascinating that his father despised the Cato's so strongly and yet decided to invest heavily in their latest venture. He felt his tongue moving before he could even stop the words from forming at his frontal plates. "So why venture in business with them?" Had he been a younger man, that sentence would have been followed by his hands cupping his mouth, but instead he stood still, bracing himself for what happened next.
Thankfully to the spirits, his father was in good spirits and did nothing but laugh bitterly. "Because I am no fool my son, if you have any hope in not running my legacy into the ground, take this one lesson - Your friends and enemies are all the same. They have one advantage- to raise you up. If they do not, they are useless to you. So bare your teeth and smile at them."
The young Capius did not know what to say to that, and so he stood in astonished silence.
"The traitors cannot remain on top forever. They nearly fell during the colony wars, but I'll tell you this, I will step on them or over them before my last breaths."
So that was it. They were not his friends, just a step on a ladder to better the family name. Marax bowed his head and excused himself out of the room quietly, but before he left he overheard his father muttering to himself.
"By the spirits, I will ruin them."
