Chapter Twelve: The Calm Before the Storm

Yui cleaned his weapon in silence. He had just gotten back from the hospital Deras was staying in. They had done more work on her, physically she was healthy again and well on the way to mending. Mentally though… she had greeted him with a squeal of Daddy and asked him if he had brought her a present. She hadn't asked him that since she turned sixteen. He spoke with the doctor and had been told she had reverted back to a childhood mentality. He talked to Merix about it after as well, she agreed with the doctor that Deras was just as she was as a kid and it looked like she didn't even remember the basics of her life after the age of eleven. It could have been much worse, at least she could re-learn what she's forgotten. Yui thought back to the boarding action, if he had grabbed the shotgun, if he had hit her harder, if he had managed to cross the distance between him and Natalya… He wanted to blame Scarlet for it too, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He had seen her turn peoples organs to mush with her power before, but she had held back and only knocked their heads together. He studied the sword in his hands, now shining like a mirror, and wondered what he was going to do with her. Where was it safe for her?

He set his sword aside and stood up, there was no reason to stay in the ship. Only Gogzurah was still there, and he was asleep. Scooge and Scarlet were off talking to the council proposing their insane plan, both Sheldon and the Vorcha were off who knows where doing whatever it was they were doing. He shifted out of the ship and shifted off thinking it was about time to get really and truly drunk. The last time he had tried he had been interrupted by the fight. Normally that wouldn't bother him but he hadn't gotten to keep drinking thanks to it. The bar he found was in a back ally, dark, dingy, and full of the type of person no one wanted to meet. Perfect. He even recognized a few of the people there; they were the criminal element of the Citadel and kept out of the line light, but then so was he. Or at least he had been. He settled in at the bar, ordered Ryncol, and drowned in booze and memories. He had done so many things in just 400 years of life, killed a Thresher Maw, slaughtered his way through Geth, done business with Aria the Queen of Omega, and over the years had collected a number of bounties. He had been wanted for everything from drunk and dis-orderly, to kid napping, to terrorism. He had stolen ships, murdered civilians, and saved them as well. He had gone where the money was, and even followed his heart for a while, long enough to get married and have two beautiful daughters.

Now he was working for a Specter, sitting in a bar drinking to his memories, and getting eyed by some Asari sitting a ways down the bar from him. There was a Turian with her that supported the tats and colors of some local gang. He had taken note of about half a dozen of them sitting around the room when he had entered, but only three were there. It looked like the Turian was trying very hard to talk the Asari into going back to his place. She suddenly stood up and moved over to Yui, "Hey there big guy. Wanna buy a girl a drink?" He glanced at the now fuming Turian and back to her before smiling a toothy smile, "Sure why not. I would rather be drinking with a lovely woman than with an empty stool anyway." He thought the Turian was going to blow a gasket if he was reading the man's body language right. He suddenly stood up and motioned to his friends to follow him before heading in Yui and the Asaris direction with a determined look. He motioned for the bar tender to bring the woman a drink as he stood up, "Why don't you drink that while I take care of your friend." He looked at the Turians and gestured to the door of the bar, "I don't wanna be bothered with the macho bullshit, so you, me, and your friends there are all going to go outside and settle this right now. That is if you got the Quad to fight me and don't go crying to the Salarians to do it for you." He was a little surprised when the Turian actually went outside without a word, his body language screamed rage and Yui was expecting him to take a swing on the way.

As soon as Yui stepped out the door the Turian who's woman he stole punched him straight in the face, but he had expected that and came back with a returning blow that took the alien straight off his feet. He accepted another blow to the guts from human of the other two gang members before his own punch scattered the man's jaw like so much glass and left him sprawled on the ground. The last one looked between Yui and his friends before bolting down the ally. Yui just let him go and watched as the Turian rose back to his feet unsteadily before hurling himself forward at the Krogan. Yui slammed his prosthetic leg into the Turians groin as soon as it came into reach and left the Turian to collapse into his own private world of pain in peace. The two of them just weren't worth his time anymore. He returned to the seat next to the Asari and ordered himself another drink before turning back to her, "So do you start fights like that often or just when you want to get rid of an asshole?"

Yui and the Asari, whose name he didn't care about, stumbled into the ships dock laughing a few hours later drunk and carrying what was left of a bottle of Ryncol they had watered down with some human drink called Vodka. As he directed her to "his private ship" Scarlet was just getting back as well. She was alone and swaying side to side as she blinked at the two approaching her, "Well well look we got here. Who's dat, n why are you tryin to bring her to the 'hip?" Yui squinted at her, "This is my new friend. I wanted to show her around my ship! And I thought you were meetin with dos council people, why are you here and drunk?" Scarlet's eyes narrowed, "You are NOT bringin some strange pros- proste- whore onto my ship." Yui snorted, "She aint a whore and whossaid this was your shit? Er ship?" Scarlet just leaned forward, "I don want her on the ship. If your lookin to get laid so bad get rid of her and I'll take care of you." Yui just blinked at her, drunk as he was he could tell she was even worse than him. He could smell it from there. She raised an eye brow at him, "Fine then go have fun with your slut." As Scarlet started towards the ship Yui pushed the Asari from the bar away from him and looked at her solemnly, "This isn't my ship, and you can go home. I gotta better offer." He hurried after Scarlet ignoring angry sputtering coming from behind him, "Hey Red wait up! I got more booze!"

The next morning Yui groaned at his stiff joints as he attempted to get off the floor of the armory he had re-claimed as his own. What had he done last night? Why did he feel like he had been tumbled down stairs? Why was he sleeping on the floor? And why was he naked? Was it at least for a good reason? After the first failed attempt he realized two things. One he was still a bit drunk and two if he wanted to get up he should probably open his eyes first. He blinked into the over head lights letting his eyes adjust before trying to get up again. This time he succeeded and cast about for a better understanding of what had happened while memories of the bar started to trickle into his head. At the sight of the naked Specter on the bed in front of him it all came back in a rush. Coming back the ship, drinking even more with Scarlet, and some of the roughest sex he had had in a while. Then storming out of the armory naked when Sheldon started playing some terrible music through the intercom system and disturbed his fun. After Yui terrified the Salarian by threatening to throw him out the airlock, Sheldon made things worse after a panicked attempt to turn the music off before finally the intercom fell silent once more and Yui returned the Scarlet for another few rounds. He had ended up on the floor when a sleepy Scarlet had decided to get rid of the annoying shape that was tossing and turning beside her, and Yui had simply passed out again.

There was a groan from Scarlet as she sat up and glanced around. The sight of both her and Yui's naked bodies made her moan as she fell back on to the bed, "Great. Just great." Yui cast about for his pants, "Hey you didn't seem that unhappy about me bein here last night." She finally sighed and shifted out of the bed, "Ya but we've gotta work together now. I try not to sleep with my subordinates, it's bad for the whole 'I'm in charge' thing if they've seen me naked like this." Yui just laughed as he finally found his pants, "Like I really listened to you in the first place. More importantly how did it go with the Council?" Scarlet was pulling on her own clothes as she answered, "They agreed to the plan. Said it would come out of our pay checks if anything happens the Destiny Ascension after the trap is sprung." Yui laughed again, "Like we could do worse than they already did. If wasn't for that human and his fleet the Ascension would be nothin but scrap and dust. What ever, let's go get things ready then. We got us a pirate to catch."