Chapter 7- Rivalry Within
"I think I'll start looking for my own apartment soon," Tori said cautiously , as she slid a bit of steak into her mouth, testing the water on a touchy subject. As expected, her mother threw up her head and gave her a stone-cold, panicked look.
"What? You can't!" exclaimed Bethany hastily, before she realised what she was saying. Tori's mother bit her bottom lip realising her err.
Tori reached out and covered the back of her mother's hand, with her own. "Surely you don't want me living under your roof forever?" She teased, trying to soften the blow.
Her mother wrinkled her nose.
"It's bad enough you went to work surrounded by those things," Bethany Gestured to a nearby turian patrol agent, but it wasn't like Tori needed to know what she meant. "But I understand that you need your own space. At least maybe now you'll attempt to date or have a little social life. Have you found a place yet?" Bethany enquired, trying to sound chipper. Tori shook her head
"Not yet, but I'll draw up a list soon. I was hoping you would come and visit a few places with me?" Tori's mother nodded her head and speared at her salad.
Tori took a deep breath; well that didn't go as badly as she thought. It has been a long time since they had just hung out like this. Her work had taken up most of her time. And Titus didn't leave her alone for more than five minutes. Whenever she managed to steal a few moments for herself, there he would be. Occasionally with Leiada in tow. Not that she didn't mind it, she in fact enjoyed their company, but it was starting to board on obsessive. Tori fully understood the meaning of C-Sec being more than a job, but a way of living. Yet there surely had to be a time where you were allowed to have a moment for yourself.
As ever, Tori's mother mind reading skills must have kicked in, because she instantly asked: "So how are you finding it?"
Tori managed a smile that she knew wouldn't fool her mother, but it was worth a try.
"Fine" she said blandly, as she scoffed down the rest of her meal.
"Really, being surrounded by all those turians?" Bethany was digging. Tori slid her hazel eyes to her mothers silver ones.
Her mother wasn't a xenophobe, not at all. She got along great with Tori's asari teacher, and Tori had even seen her mother casually chatting and laughing with a hanar diplomat. But there no was no shadow of a doubt. Her mother did not like the strange raptor-looking turian species; it was practically bordering on hate.
In some way Tori felt obliged to feel the same. But she was learning that to hold such feelings towards a people that were almost the same as her own, if not more noble, more dutiful, more classy and elegant - was beyond being a little silly. Titus had shown her that, he had opened her eyes to a world bigger than herself; bigger than just her and her mother and it needed her to welcome them all with open arms. It was the only way to serve the galactic community. A small smile crept up on her lips as she looked down at her food, feeling slightly fond of her new turian friend and mentor.
"What?" Damn, nothing escaped that predatory gaze of Bethany's, in fact she was much like Pallin. Tori could bet that if the two of them could work past their seething hate for each other, they would get along like a house on fire. That made her smile a little more.
"Nothing, just thinking about friends at work. It's not like the Alliance; it's a little sleepy. But I really feel like I belong here."
Her mother smiled. Tori always had a few problems, feeling like she fitted anywhere but where she was. Horizon was a nightmare for her - she always felt she in the should be in the sky and space. But her mother's life choices had cut her wings. At eighteen she joined the military, expecting to find other like-minded people like herself. Instead, she found one of two things; She was not accepted as she was and instead had to play a role to find any connection with anyone.
Then eventually she had enough of dancing someone else's dance to her tune. It backfired on her greatly during the test that at the time had meant so much to her. And now she was here, at the Citadel, here at C-sec. Her tune forgotten, unsure of the steps of her dance… but there were two very different alien hands eager to lead the way. Such contentment was hard to find, despite the Galaxy being so sparse.
"I'm glad you are finally finding your place, settling down. I knew you would get there eventually, I just didn't know when or how." Tori smiled at her mother's words and the two women finished their lunch in a comfortable silence.
Tori still had time before she would need to be back at the precinct, so she suggested they should take a calm walk around the lakes. They were chatting about frivolous things, mainly being her mother's extreme hate for Udina's manipulative methods. Things were kept light and fun, but in the corner of her eye Tori spotted a red krogan. He wasn't hard to miss. Krogan were pretty rare on the Citadel, but on the top of that this one was dressed in burgundy armour and had a very distinctive facial scar.
He walked across the grass, which had a sign which clearly stated, 'do not walk' on it. But he ignored it. It wasn't a serious offence, to go tangling with a krogan nearly twice her size in height and girth. He walked to the lake and seemingly watched the water. Tori looked away back to her mother, smiling and nodding at the appropriate parts in the conversation. But the red krogan was clearly distracting her.
She relaxed a little when he turned his gaze from the waters to the krogan statue, standing with a grace and might that a lot of people didn't think the krogan deserved.
Tori rejoined the conversation just as her mother was sharing a little gossip about the fallen Spectre, Saren, and how it should have been expected from one of his kind, when the air suddenly became tense and electric.
Tori always had a natural affinity with sensing danger; she dodged bullets when they rained down and she was never in the wrong place at the wrong time. She just put it down to luck, but this she could feel, as goosebumps appeared on her skin and the hairs on her arms raised.
There was a scream of a woman and a sudden plea for someone to help. Instinctively, she looked back to where they krogan was, only to see him holding a civilian by the neck of his shirt. The man'slegs were dangling aimlessly several feet off the ground.
"Shit!" Tori cried and without much thinking, without a plan, she sprinted off towards the scene, reaching for her faithful pistol at her hip.
Just as she hopped over a bench, she drew her gun up to her eyesight, circling around the krogan, till she had a potion of his back facing her. "Don't move and put the civilian down!" It was firmly spoken, with more confidence than Tori actually felt. It was as if the krogan had sensed her hidden fear; he reached for the gun at his back. It unfolded and he pointed it at the man's head. They really needed to ban guns on the Citadel a thought flashed across Tori's mind; they caused more problems than drugs. And at least drugs were hidden and stowed away.
The women screamed again, which was just drawing a bigger crowed. There were many small children in this area. It would be better if none of them were traumatised with seeing a man's brains being scattered to the wind.
"Drop your weapon and step back from the civilian, or I will be forced to shoot." The krogan still ignored her. It was like he was toying with her, daring her to mess with him, shoot him, get herself in a world of trouble and hurt. He loaded his gun with a loud click and pressed it back against his victim's skull.
The air that was pleasantly cool and sweet before, was now filled with strong stench of ammonia as the man literally pissed himself.
The krogan did not seem too impressed, snarling and muttering inaudible that Tori could not hear. Gods, how she was out of her depth here. She needed to think fast.
Too late to call for back up, one bullet was not going to be enough to stop the krogan. He needed attention off that man and on her, stat.
Her right hand, free from her pistol, glowed blue as she curled it into a fist and snapped it back like she was casting away rubbish. It was quick and the krogan was most likely not expecting a biotic as his grip was loose. His shotgun flew from his hand and landed at Tori's feet.
He turned his head abruptly to look at her, a menacing look in his red eyes. Perhaps his focus being on her wasn't such a good idea after all; now she was going to be a red smear on the floor. But she did not back down, despite all her instincts in that moment were telling her to run. This was the first time she had ever stared down a krogan in her life.
"A biotic. How interesting." The krogan said with a sort of quiet, calm dignity about him. He his victim fall to the floor and the man scampered off as fast as his legs could carry him.
"I am starting to think that the males of your species are not worth the gore they make when you pummel their skulls in, but human women…" He edged closer to her, his shadow casting over Tori, like a bird of pray when it swoops down for the kill. "Well I've met one that made me reconsider your species as weak and now it seems I have met another. Am I wrong?"
The air grew stagnant as he closed the gap between them; what was with krogan and invading personal space anyway? He stared right back into her hazel eyes down the length of her gun. She would only need to pull the trigger and she could get him right between the eyes.
Krogan were known to be dangerous and unpredictable, but this red force of nature before her was so calm. Dangerously calm. This was worse. Tori found her voice and held the grip on her gun tighter, finding new resolve.
"You need to come down to the station. We can do this the hard way or the easy way, which do you prefer?"
He snorted and she could feel his hot breath hitting across her face. "I want you to try" he said in easy, deep tones. More intimidation to put her off, but she had not gotten this far to back down. Red smear on the floor being her immediate future or not.
Tori shifted her foot forward so that the barrel of her gun kissed his leathery skin between the krogan's eyes, and she continued to stare down at him.
"Try me, I dare you." She replied back, stressing on her own dare. Gods, she hopped he wouldn't call her bluff. To equal her threat her biotic energy flickered over her skin, like in some primal battle display, making a show that she was powering up. But the krogan laughed and took a step back, seemingly delighted by something she said.
"Very well, officer, I will go with you, but only because you asked so nicely…"
Tori stood down and pointed her gun to the sky, gesturing down the promenade with her free hand.
"After you." It was in the moment when he decided to walk that Tori stole a second to look over at where her mother had been left. Her expression was concern, but her eyes beamed pride. Tori managed a smile and nodded before walking off.
The walk back to the precinct was a little awkward, the krogan leading, her trailing behind; her gun reholstered but her hand lingering near her faithful carnifex just in case.
She had a moment to hit up the C-Sec database on her omni-tool and find out whom it was she was now dragging back.
Urdnot Wrex - Extremely dangerous, proceed with caution.
It read. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach about how badly her confrontation with the krogan named Wrex could have gone. Before she entered, she had a quick moment to read him his rights.
Once inside, she pointed to the desk before walking by his side. "We need to book this krogan in, Urdnot Wrex" she said calmly. The clerk who sat behind it looked at her with disbelief and then slid her gaze to the krogan, fear lingering in her eyes.
The krogan smirked and bent down so he met clerk's gaze.
"You better be quick, I doubt I'll be here long." Then he turned his large head to Tori and in a demand, "I'm going to make a call."
Tori shrugged casually, feeling a little pleased with herself for brining down such a mighty name in on her own.
"Go ahead. I'm sure your lawyer wants to know you are here."
The krogan laughed and pressed a finger to the side of his face. "Shepard, come down to the presidium, C-Sec precinct. I need bailing out."
Tori suddenly paled, her pride depleted as quickly as the blood from her face rushed away. Shepard? It couldn't have been Commander Jane Shepard, could it? She felt the rage grow and boil inside her. Tori tried to turn to leave, but found her feet weighted, unwilling to move. She stumbled, till she felt very familiar hands grab her by her shoulders and she lent against a pointed chest.
She knew she only had to look upwards to see Titus violet eyes stare down at her from above his cowl. "Are you all right?" He asked. Tori shook her head, the only confession she could make.
"Are you insane?" Titus chastised Tori from the sidelines, far from where the krogan was delaying his booking. Tori seemed distracted, her golden eyes fixed on the door where a moment ago she proudly walked her prize in. Titus was still holding her by the shoulders and he gave her a light shake to bring her back into the room and with him. She turned her head slowly; her eyes loosing that glazed look, like she was waking up from a dream.
"I-umm… He was attacking a civilian, what else was I supposed to do?" She said crossly. Titus let go of her and sighed.
"Call for back-up" he reaffirmed; Tori shook her head, starting to knock her bun loose.
"And we would be filling out a dead civilian report and I would have Pallin riding my ass about how I didn't react quickly enough to save that guy."
She was right, of course, but Titus wasn't going to back down. He folded his arms defensively. "You cannot predict the future; that krogan could have killed you- "
"That krogan has a name. Urdnot Wrex, the last of the Battlemasters" Interrupted Wrex He was now done with his call and had turned his attention to the women, who has impressed him earlier, therefore overhearing their conversation.
Oh, Titus was very familiar with Urdnot Wrex. He lent forward and chortled, his mandibles fluttering in threat. "Back off, krogan, this doesn't concern you." He said in a low hiss, his head bent down. It was a Typical turian dominance body language.
Titus had confronted many krogan, especially this krogan - one of his cracks demanded that Titus didn't back down and he wasn't going too. He knew a lot of his hatred was inbred, but this krogan he had tangoed with before - he had one nice crack on his brow, where Wrex had head-butted him many years ago. Granted, Titus was out of line; he was young, angry and somewhat reckless, but his pride would never allow him to announce it publicly.
"Okay, okay, boys! Calm down. You can stop beating your chests and howling from the rooftops that you are the manliest male on the Citadel."
Quick teasing tones came from behind Titus, as Leiada slipped in front of him, putting distance between himself and most likely another krogan headbutt.
Wrex laughed and opened his arms wide in a greeting. "Well, if it isn't my favourite Citadel cop! Still kicking around here I see." Titus wondered sometimes, if there wasn't anyone on the Citadel Leiada didn't know.
The two chatted like a pair of old friends meeting at a bar for a while. It ended up with Leiada had giving the red krogan male a friendly head-butt, to which the krogan looked pleased with. It was a rare thing for a non-krogan to be familiar with a krogan enough to display such a sign of affection, but again – it was Lei he was looking at. Suddenly the precincts doors slid open and a presence that couldn't be ignored entered, interrupting the scene.
She walked with determination, eyes as fiery as the red mass on her head. Titus knew the face, everyone knew the face. Commander Shepard, most likely the most recognisable and famous Spectre next to Saren. It wasn't a kind face, he decided. It held conviction, duty and an unrelenting edge to get the job done. Admirable traits. Suddenly, Titus' mind flicked to Tori. He turned his head to see her standing behind him; eyes fixed on Shepard, like she was sizing her up for a kill. The air around her felt electric and he found himself backing away from her for just a moment, unsure if he should just discreetly remove her from the room. But if he was ever going to get to the bottom of what was the story of Shaw and Shepard – well, now was the time. Despite how ugly could possibly get.
"Ok, which idiot arrested my krogan?" Shepard announced, her fists on her hips as she quickly scanned the room.
"Your krogan?" Wrex replied unimpressed. Shepard gestured him off dismissively.
But what was unexpected, was Tori's form sliding from behind Titus and stepping up to Shepard Titus held his breath.
"This idiot" She scowled, her thumb pointed at herself. Shepard's green eyes snapped on the owner of the voice, looking less than impressed for a second, but they quickly brightened in awareness of who was she speaking to.
"Victoria Shaw!" the Spectre announced, closing the space between the two Alliance women, her hand sliding out in that weird human greeting.
For a moment, it looked like Tori was about to take Shepard's hand, as her arm moved from her side, palm extended. But it quickly missed the Spectre's hand and performed a perfect salute instead. "Commander…" It was ever such a small slight, but Titus couldn't help but smile a little at how clever it was. The other human stared down at her empty hand for a moment, before she let it fall to her side. She continued to smile warmly.
"What are you doing here? God, don't tell me you left the Alliance and joined C-sec?"
Titus felt a rumbled growl developing in his chest. As if being with C-sec was a lower-class job that being with the Alliance! He didn't like that; he decided in that moment he didn't like Shepard either.
Tori folded her arms defensively; good, she agreed with his thoughts. "Yup. Right after N7 training"
Shepard looked surprised at that statement. "Really? A pity, you showed a lot of promise, bet it's going unnoticed here. You know, I could use another biotic on my team, I bet you miss space-."
"No, thanks." Tori replied curtly, cutting off Shepard's sentence. The other women frowned; Titus could bet she wasn't used to being told 'no' often. He suddenly felt very proud of his ward.
"Ah, I see. Guess good food and good beds have made you a little soft, huh?" The Commander laughed, trying to keep the mood light, despite Tori giving as much frost as her Ice Princess persona could muster. "I won't keep you from your duty, I'll take Wrex under Spectre jurisdiction and be out of your hair."
"Typical Jane Shepard. Swooping in, saving the day, fixing everyone's problems and messes for them."
Titus felt himself and the rest of the room freezing, as they all heard what Tori had just said; did she just deny Shepard her Spectre right?
Titus began to worry.
"You're still sore about that, huh?"
"Seriously, Jane, get off your high horse and stop playing martyr. The whole 'Poor me, I have the weight of the Universe weighing me down' thing is starting to get a little dull."
Ok, it was time for him to step in, she was being overly rude. Despite how justified it might have been, she was wearing the C-sec uniform and standing in a room full of people, all watching. He stepped behind Tori and cleared his throat, seemingly trying to catch her attention. She ignored it, blatantly.
"I didn't ask to be put in this position, I just ended up here" Shepard said cautiously, looking up at him before moving her gaze back to Tori.
"Jane, you claiming it's just destiny, is like me claiming I'm the queen of the fucking vorcha!"
He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Shaw… That's enough-" She rose her palm to him, the universal sign for him to stop, before she continued with words she had clearly been holding onto for a while.
"You make yourself available to everyone's problems and everyone's qualms, letting them make a martyr out of you! Of course they're gonna call on you when shit goes down. 'Galaxy going to hell? Sure, send the girl who likes making a show of how much she is wiling to sacrifice herself!"
"Shaw, you're making a scene" Titus interrupted again, looking around the room, taking in all the shocked voices. In spite of this heated argument, her earlier achievement of brining in a krogan was entirely forgotten.
"That isn't fair, Shaw, and you know it." Shepard's voice became stressed, she was getting angry.
"What isn't fair, is that you butted your nose where it wasn't wanted and took the whole honour of earning my right as a N7!"
"You would have failed!" The red-haired human seethed back.
"Good! It was my call, my mistake! Not yours!" The room fell silent, as they watched the two women; Tori's voice was now stressed too and on the brink of screaming at her former superior.
"I would have learnt my lesson, brushed myself off and tried again next year." She said a little quieter, trying to remain calm, but beneath Titus' hand that was on her shoulder, he could feel her shaking as she tried to contain the rage. It was almost as if she sensed he could feel her trembling and she peeled his hand off her.
"But you haven't learned from your mistake, have you, Shaw? You're still standing here, not knowing what it is to be a part of a team and share the burden. Trying to play a martyr yourself. And you still don't know how to say thank you. Come on, Wrex, I think I'm done here." A cocky little grin crept up on Shepard's lips. That was a low blow.
"And for the record, Shaw; I knew you would kill yourself with work if you didn't pass, so I helped you. I did it for your own good."
Commander Shepard strode out taking her charisma and the krogan with her. The room hadn't resumed moving yet; all eyes were on Tori. She was still standing, staring at the door where Shepard had left, fist clenched tight at her side, shoulders holding tension and rigid; she was trembling…
Titus edged a little closer and moved his hand to touch her on her shoulder again, bring her back to the room, back to her sane, reasonable, albeit reserved self.
But no sooner than he made contact, Tori flinched, bursting into biotic flame before screaming as she swung the fist she was clenching so tightly. Titus backed off instantly, unsure what she was swinging for. The fist became a hand as she pushed him backwards a few steps; had he not been fully prepared she could have easily sent him across the room.
The ripples of her biotic fields washed over him with their static, tingling feeling and awkward silence fell again upon the group of onlookers. The only sound in the room seemed to be her harsh and ragged breathing. "Tori…" he said softly, reaching out to touch her again.
"Don't!" Voiced cracking, stressed and broken. "Don't touch me…" she turned on the balls of her feet swiftly, her fists clenched back", before she moved out of the room, pressing hard to the fire escape doors. They swung open with a bang, the sound of metal twisting and warping before light footsteps raced up the stairs quickly. Titus took a moment to survey to room; people were resuming work, but not without talking about the "unstable biotic" a few looking at him, waiting to see what his move was now Leiada was still where She had been left left with Wrex, standing by the reception; she nodded to where Tori took an exit stage left. As if he needed any hint that he had to go after her. Titus just hoped it wasn't too far up…
