Carter wasn't sure how long he was asleep. He just woke up and did his normal morning routine which he had to put off for sometime thanks to all the personal missions he had to help his friends with. Carter stretches out and crawls out of bed in his underwear. He walks into the bathroom and begins brushing his teeth then washes his face. He dries off his face with a towel and goes to his closet to put on some new clothes. He finds his N7 hoodie, Crewman's outfit, Alliance outfit, Battle outfit and his N7 Leather.
"Hm, which one should I wear?" He looks between N7 hoodie and the N7 Leather.
He looks between his two options back and forth before making a decision and choosing his N7 leather. He puts on his N7 Leather looking around the mirror and feels good about it.
"Maybe Zea'Nara will like this."
Carter head to the elevator and takes it down to the mess hall. When he got down he found Zea there drinking coffee through a straw.
"Hey there Zea." He greets himself.
"Hey Carter, just woke up." she greeted him while sipping some coffee through a straw.
"So did I. How are you feeling?" Carter asks.
"Tired but okay. Was up all night working the engines."
"For what?" He asks.
"Oh I honestly don't know." she shrugged.
"Well it must be something important."
"That or I just worked on it just to relax which I used to do most of time."
"Quite interesting really. I didn't think you like working on engines to relax."
She noded and went back to her coffee. Carter took the time to check his omni-tool for any messages. He sees he's got one from Sivus.
"Hm, I got a message from Sivus. Has to be about the fight."
He looked into it as it read.
Dear Commander Carter. I have recently found the time to proceed with Kerim's challenge and I will be on my way shortly. If everything goes as well I should be there within the hour. This is just a heads up. Thank you for your time.
Commander Sivus.
"Okay then. I'll send a message back."
"I guess we'll go tell Ladia and her sister." Zea finishes her coffee and gets up.
"Yep. Hey why don't you come with me?" Carter asks.
"That was the idea." she giggles and walks with him to the elevator to take it down to the practice room.
When they arrived they saw Kriat and Amuya were there with Florolia who was in her off time outfit. She was trying to hold a biotic sphere as long as she could. Ladia was also down there reloading some of her guns for some target practice.
"Hello ladies and Kriat." Carter greets to them.
Kriat gently motions his clawed hand to Carter to stay still.
"We are having her hold a biotic sphere for as long as she can. If you speak out loud all of a sudden you could break her focus." Kriat warns him in his head.
"Oh sorry."
Kriat circles around Florolia a little watching her trying to keep her biotic sphere up as much as she can. After a little observation, he nods to Amuya who looks over to Ladia.
"Alright Ladia, go ahead and start shooting, let's see how strong her sphere is and how long she can hold while under fire." Amuya calls out.
Ladia takes a rifle from a shelf and loaded it with fake bullets. She takes aim at Florolia and opens fire on her while Carter and Zea watched from the side.
Florolia tries to hold the biotic sphere as much as her can. After a few shots fired from Ladia she dropped to her knees but still kept the sphere up.
"Hold your fire Ladia." Amuya calls out as Ladia stops.
Florolia breaths hard but still tries to keep the sphere up as best as she can despite clearly being tired and on her knees.
"Are you okay Florolia?" Ladia asks.
"Do not break her concentration please." Kriat requests as he observes her.
"Okay."
Kriat watches her some more.
"Kriat I think she's held it long enough." Amuya requests.
"She can hold it a little longer. Ladia you may proceed continuing fire at her."
"Okay." Ladia takes aim again and continues open fire on her.
This caused Florolia to put more effort into holding her sphere as it was repeatedly shot by Ladia. The sphere slowly begins weakening but Florolia tries as hard as she could to try and hold it as long as she could.
Carter and Zea looked very surprised of how she is doing well. Ladia in the meantime was beginning to worry if they were pushing her a little hard and if she's ready to be pushed this hard or not.
"Do not hesitate Ladia. Continue firing at her until she can no longer hold the sphere." Kriat tells her in her head after sensing her thoughts.
"Alright."
Ladia continues firing at Florolia, until after two more minutes she drops to her hands and breathes hard while her biotic sphere disappears. Ladia notices, stops shooting and goes over to her to check on her.
"Are you okay, Florolia?" Ladia asks.
She softly nods her head as she sat down on the ground and continued to catch her breath.
"Five minutes, impressive but still much room for improvement." Kriat tells her.
"Kriat, do we really need to be pushing her this hard?" Amuya asked a little concerned.
"Yes Kriat. I know her enough not to be pushed that hard." Carter contributes.
"My friends, there will come a time will she'll be required to defend herself against the most powerful of foes. And when that times comes which could be at any moment, she will need to be ready for such a time." Kriat corrects them.
"We understand that Kriat. Just cool it okay." Zea'Nara requests.
Kriat just remains silent but nods a little.
Ladia helps Florolia to take a seat to a nearby bench so she can rest.
"So Carter how can we help you?" Ladia asked.
"Well I came to tell you girls that Sivus just sent me a message about the fight with Kerim. He said he's good to go with this."
"Great, I suspect he's on his way right?" she asked.
"Yep, he'll be here in a few minutes, is Kerim around?" Carter asked.
"He's in the CQC practice area over there. He's been at it for three hours straight non stop." Ladia tells him.
"Good. He'll need it when Sivus gets here." Carter walks over to the CQC area.
Carter sees Kerim performing a series of martial arts on a combat mech. Within a few minutes Kerim punches through one while doing a spin heel kick to knock the head off the other. When one grabs him, he grabs its hand, performs a painful wrist lock, breaks the arm in two and knees it in the stomach. When the last one attacks, Kerim blocks the attack, does an elbow strike to it stomach followed by a sweeping scissors kick to its head to knock it to the ground where Kerim finishes it by snapping its neck in two. When he finished he noticed Carter looking at him with a pained expression on his face as if he could feel the pain those robots did not feel.
"How was training Kerim?" Carter asks.
"Even on maximum difficulty they haven't been much challenge with helping with my training. I take that some of the techniques I performed seemed scary to you." Kerim asks as he saw the nervous look on his face.
"Well I came to tell you that Sivus is on his way. Giving you the heads up."
Kerim pops his neck.
"Thanks, if you like I can show you some stuff. You see I'm using two Turian Martial Arts here one is illegal to practice because its only ment for members of Blackwatch." Kerim smirked.
"Sure. Show me. Not on me." Carter requests.
"Yeah, not on him. I don't want you to hurt my commander." Zea'Nara also requests as she just walked up to Carter.
"Well the one that's not illegal to use is called Kolor. A style where every single part of the body is to be physically trained to be used as a weapon. Hands, feet, forearms, ankles, knees, elbows, teeth, claws, every single part is a weapon. Trained to withstand pain and dish out twice as much pain. You could say it's like Turian Kickboxing or Turian Karate to be more precise. I'm not sure what the human equivalent is." Kerim tells him.
Quite interesting." Zea'Nara compliments.
"Yeah, my father taught me and my brother that. He used to be a undefeated champion in the Turian CQC tournaments in the Turian military." Kerim states.
"What's the other one that's suppose be illegal to everyone except Blackwatch members." Carter asked.
"Ah yes, Tokrah, I told you about it once. The ancient Turian Martial Art of Body destruction. Teaches the user how to destroy the joints, bones, muscles, organs, pressure points, and nerves of any race to inflict as much agony as possible while destroying the target's body. Saren taught me this style back when I was being mentored by him in Blackwatch." Kerim answered.
"Yikes." Zea'Nara mentions.
"Wow, Saren taught all of that to you. Why show us if it's meant to kept secret?" Carter asks.
Kerim smirked and summoned another practice mech. When it attack Kerim dodge, and uses his claws to rapidly slash through each of the mech's knees. Targeting key tendons and muscles that hold the mech upright. He then strikes upward toward the mech's neck. Slicing through the mech's jugular vein. Next he knees the mech's chest to force the mech to drop his head in perfect position for Kerim to elbow the back of its head followed by grabbing it and doing a quick turns to snap its neck in two while throwing it to the ground and snapping its spine in two with a spinal lock. Kerim does this all with lightning fast speed that Carter and Zea could barely keep up.
"That escalated pretty quickly." Zea'Nara comments.
"I was able to keep up but, damn…" Carter says feeling a little scared of what he saw and just how savagely brutal Kerim is.
"Yeah, but I'm allowed to use it since I used to be a member of Blackwatch and I was personally trained by Saren to use it. And I've got a number of scars to prove it because in Blackwatch, we learn by having the techniques done on us." Kerim answered.
"We got the idea Kerim." Carter says.
"Commander Carter, Commander Sivus has arrived and coming aboard." Jade alerts Carter over the loudspeaker.
"Understood. Bring him down to the practice room."
Carter walks over to the elevator as Sivus arrives and steps out.
"Greetings Commander Carter it's good to see you again." Sivus shakes his hand.
"Likewise commander." Carter greets him.
Sivus walks over to where his two daughters were at. Florolia finally caught her breath and was drinking some water to rehydrate herself after such painful practice. Ladia was sitting next to her softly rubbing her back to help her calm herself down.
"Hello you two. How are my daughters doing?" Sivus asked with a smiled.
"Oh hey daddy welcome aboard." Ladia greeted him as he walked over and hugged them both.
"We were just doing some practice. Daddy these are my biotic teachers, Amuya and Kriat." Florolia introduced as he let's go of them.
"A collector? How is that possible? I thought they disappeared after the Reaper War?" Sivus asks curiously.
"Well somewhat, I used to be a Prothean from fifty thousand years ago. Until well, you see the results." Kriat spoke in Sivus' mind which took him by surprise.
"Um, was that him speaking in my head? How?" Sivus asks.
"It's long story daddy." Florolia tells him.
"We've been trying to help your youngest daughter control her new biotic powers lately. We just finished a session where she was able to hold a Biotic Sphere for five minutes long while being under fire by her older sister." Amuya says as she shook Sivus' hand.
"My daughter learning her ways of biotic powers. How are you doing on that so far?" Sivus asks.
"I'm doing good, I was able to resist Ladia's shots for about five minutes." Florolia answered.
"That's amazing. I'm glad your doing well on it. Your sister Ladia as you may know is one hell of a good shot, I mean one hell of a good shot." Sivus smiles.
Kerim finally came walking up seeing Sivus entered.
"Hello Commander Sivus, glad to see you made it." Kerim sighed.
"I was told that you were training and I see your training well. And you chose to hold off the surgery."
"Yeah. Amazing, the last time we were on a ship together my brother was serving under you. And you, my father's team, and Saren's Blackwatch team which had me in it, were discussing a mission plan." Kerim mentions.
"Yes I remember it well. Now shall we begin our duel?" Sivus asks as he motions to the battle ground.
"Be my guess." Kerim follows him.
"Carter as Commander of this Ship you are allowed to make the rules of this duel as you see fit." Sivus said as he and Kerim got on the boxing arena and started at one another up close.
"I understand. Okay here are the rules. You cannot attack the groin, No knees to the head on a grounded opponent, No strikes to the back of the head or the spine, No head butts, No eye gouging, No fish hooking, No fingers in an opponent's orifices, No biting, No hair pulling but you guys have no hair, No strikes or grabbing of the throat, No manipulation of the fingers or toes, No intentional grabbing of the ring or cage, No intentional throwing of your opponent outside of the ring or cage. That stuff belongs in professional wrestling. Got that Kerim?" Carter asks.
"Why are you asking me? It should count for both of us?" Kerim stated.
"It does but I know you would do this. So don't do it. Okay. Fight!" Carter begins the fight as he stands back.
Sivus and Kerim look back at each other and take a few steps back.
"You know Sivus, if you knew very well of my brutality and merciless killing. Why did you recomend me to Viper Squad?" Kerim asked as she started off with a series of boxing like punches to Svus who blocks his attacks.
"Because I know you have a good side and not really a bad person as I reported you. You even liked my long lost daughter. It's quite obvious." Sivus answers as he returned with a few punches and a kicked which Kerim blocked and dodged a little.
"If that's the case then why do you disapprove of me dating your long lost daughter now?" Kerim asked as he performed a high kicked followed by a back elbow strike.
"Because I was trying to protect my daughter like any other father would." He answered while blocking his attacks and follows up by grabbing Kerim's arm and throwing him to the ground.
"Really, if you think I've got a good side then why did you personally write on my file that I was a ruthless killer?" Kerim asked as he kicked towards Sivus while getting up.
"That was years ago when you were a merciless killer. I didn't know what to think until now." Sivus answers as he went for a uppercut that Kerim blocked.
"That's just like you Sivus, always with your bullshit. You know it's your bullshit that's made some of the Council want to put a price on my head. All because I was Saren's apprentice."
"You did that yourself!" Sivus shouts.
Kerim does a spin roundhouse kick that Sivus block but Kerim grabs Sivus by the throat with his robotic left hand and holds him down.
"Stop your bullshitting Sivus and admit it, you think I'm a monster and you wouldn't let me anywhere near your daughters if you had the final say. Especially Florolia?" Kerim tells him.
"If you kill me now. You'll just prove my point back when you're a criminal." Sivus hits a joint in his robotic arm. Causing Kerim to let go as he leg sweeps Kerim, forceing Kerim to fall on his back.
"I'm not gonna kill you I'm just going to kick your old historical ass." Kerim tries to low kick Sivus who jumps out of the way and stomps on Kerim's robotic leg, to make Kerim cringe.
"Your welcome to try."
Kerim moves his robotic leg away and slowly gets up.
"So Sivus tell me, why do you disapprove of me with Florolia the most? Is it because I'm a killer or is it the possibility that I could...do stuff to her. Stuff in bed maybe?" Kerim smirked.
"Well yes that. You taking my long lost daughter and then getting her pregnant and not taking care of my grandchild."
Kerim rolled his eyes and rushed over with another series of punches and tries to knee Sivus. Sivus. Sivus pushes him back and does a spin side kick at Kerim's stomach. Kerim cringed but popped himself back straight.
"Wow, grandchild, I never thought that idea would ever enter your head. Why don't you stop your bullshiting with thinking I've got some kind of a good side and tell me exactly how you feel. You smart ass old fart."
Kerim soon charges at Kerim and does a few lighting fast strikes followed by a front and round kick towards Sivus. Sivus was barely able to dodge them but when he did, he grabbed Kerim's good arm, knocks him off balance and holds him in a submission hold.
"Alright fine you sick crazy fuck. I think you're a monster no different if not worst then Saren. And the very thought of you, you that close to my daughter or any of them pisses me off the most. I would be damned before I let something like you ever come that close to them." Sivus yelled.
Kerim snaps his own arm away from Sivus to deliver a powerful punch to Sivus face. Kerim snaps his arm in place as Sivus looks at the blood from his mouth.
"Finally you quit your bullshitting. Now that we're being honest I'll confess I got a nice up close and personal look at Florolia's giant tits. Did she get those from her mother by chance?" Kerim smirked.
Sivus was not impressed until he gave a power uppercut to Kerim's stomach. Kerim actually felt it and fell to his knees, taking notice of Sivus' pissed off look at him.
"Did you really just say that Kerim?" Carter mumbles to himself while facepalming.
"It's kinda true." Florolia confessed quietly to Carter.
"Yeah but it's not really helping him in this case." Carter whispers back.
Just as Sivus walks up to Kerim. Kerim tackles Sivus to the ground and started punching him hard in the face. Sivus blocks a few punches and knees him in the crotch and kicked him. Knowing that Kerim wasn't thinking straight.
"Stop fighting like a child and fight like how you wanted it."
Kerim seemed unfazed with the kick to the grotch and surprise attack Sivus with a high kick to Sivus' ribs, which knocked the air out of Sivus. Kerim then does a low scissor kick to knock Sivus to the ground and does a painful leg lock on Sivus.
"It got me exactly where I wanted you." Kerim smirked as he slowly started trying to break Sivus' leg. Sivus cringed and but kneed Kerim in the chin, leaps on him and starts punching Kerim in the face.
"You think I'm just gonna stand here and let you talk about my daughter like that?" Sivus asks with an anger look.
Kerim spits blood out of his mouth.
"All that experience and you still hit like a bitch. Is that all you got?" Kerim asked seriously.
"I'm not going to stoop to your level. Amaetur and childish."
Kerim took the opportunity to hook punch Sivus hard in the jaw and kick him off him.
"Then what are you waiting for. If you want me away form your daughter then you got to beat me in this first. So stop holding back old man." Kerim requests as he got in a serious fighting stance, now through with holding back.
"Very well then."
Sivus got in a more serious fighting stance. They slowly moved closer to each other and stood motionless for a moment. Suddenly Kerim does a few lightning fast strikes which Sivus blocked. They waited for another moment and moved back closer. Kerim does a few fast flaw strikes followed with an rising elbow and knee. All of which Sivus blocked.
Sivus goes for a hook punch that Kerim dodges and tries to counter with a fast claw strike that Sivus dodges as well. Sivus soon does a low kick which Kerim moves out of the way and follow up with a spin heel kick that Sivus dodges. Kerim does two roundhouse kicks that Sivus blocks and tries following up with a roundhouse kick of his own. Kerim ducks out of the way and knocks Sivus to his feet and goes for an axe kick to Sivus' head.
Sivus moves out of the way, hops back to his feet and performs a few lighting fast punches that Kerim blocks. Kerim tries a counter elbow strike but Sivus moves out of the way and goes for a counter elbow strike. Kerim blocks the attack and the two repeatedly elbow strikes each other until Kerim grabs his arm and puts him in a reverse arm lock. Sivus back elbow strikes Kerim in the head and side kicks him to the ribs to push Kerim back a little.
Kerim had little time to recover as Sivus charges at him and begins another series of fast strikes that Kerim blocked and tried countered with his fast strikes that Sivus also countered and blocked. When Sivus kicked Kerim, Kerim took the blow but grabbed his leg and throws him hard to the ground. Sivus kicks Kerim away and got back up just as Kerim comes back at him with another powerful set of strikes. Kerim does a cartwheel kick that Sivus blocked and kicked Kerim away.
Sivus yanked Kerim back to his feet and Kerim claw strikes at him which Sivus barely dodged. The two once again go at it with lighting fast strikes and blocks at each other. In one of Kerim's attempts to spin high roundhouse kick Sivus, Sivus blocked his attack, suker punches him in the ribs and kicks Kerim hard in the chest and face. Kerim quickly recovered and strikes punching Sivus. Sivus grabbed his arm, broke it in two, knee Kerim in the chest, and then bash his face hard on the ground. Kerim cringed but immediately grabs Sivus and throws him off him across the area. From there, Kerim does a jump knee strike to Sivus followed by a back elbow strike and a sin claw strike. Sivus was able to block most his attacks and counters with a claw slash behind his non robotic ankle.
Kerim yelled by kneed Sivus in the nose and slashed his cheek with his claws. From there, kerim draws two combat knives and dashes at Sivus with them. Sivus quickly dodges kerim's lightning fast knife slashes and elbows Kerim's ribs to break them. Kerim simply ignored the broken ribs and continued trying to slash at Sivus with his knives until he was able to score a good small slash to Sivus' cheek. Sivus dodges the next set of knife slashes, kicks Kerim hard in the robotic shin, grab Kerim's head and smash it hard on the ground until his face was bleeding.
Kerim merely back kick Sivus hard and stared at him with an angry look. Sivus did the same and after a while of staring at each other they charged at one another. Kerim goes after Sivus with another series of lightning fast slashes with his knives which Sivus dodges and counters with a powerful strike. Yet despite how many bones Sivus breaks of Kerim, Kerim just kept going after him like it meant nothing. In one of Kerim's attempts to slash him, Sivus grabs his wrist in a wrist lock counter attack. He breaks Kerim's robotic wrist and disarms him of his knife.
From there the two started slashing at each other with a combat knife. Dodging each of their slashes. Sivus was able to slash Kerim's elbow on his good arm and kick Kerim hard in the throat. Kerim got up while choking and goes for another slash which Sivus stabbed his combat knife through Kerim's left shoulder. Kerim kicked Sivus off him, grabs his arm and throws him hard to the ground. From there, Kerim performs power knee and elbow strikes to Sivus' face before picking him back up on his feet.
When Kerim goes for another slash, Sivus blocks his attack, smash him hard to the ground with a takedown and repeatedly bash Kerim's head on the ground. Kerim kicked Sivus away and tries to slash at him again. Sivus dodged each of the slashes and counter slashes to strike Kerim's robotic thigh. The two locked serious blades with one another until Kerim spins around and slashes Sivus' side. When Sivus tries countering, kerim slashes his chest a little and arm. Kerim tries to slash again but Sivus block his attack, slashes Kerim three times in the chest followed by a stab in Kerim's good knee. Despite this, Kerim brutally punches Sivus in the face followed by elbow striking him in the neck. When Kerim when to knee strike him again Sivus slashes his torn up knee, kicks it hard and stabbed the combat knife in Kerim's side to force him up his feet.
Kerim shoved Sivus off him but Sivus spin kicks Kerim in the face and slash Kerim's back twice just as Kerim was forced to turn around from the kick. When Kerim tried to go for a back elbow Kerim stabbed his knife through his elbow, shoved Kerim to face him while holding his good arm in a bone breaking wrist lock where he slashed his arm at the broken area of Kerim's arm. Kerim attempts to slash Sivus one last time until Sivus disarmed him of his other combat knife, tosses them aside, kicks Kerim hard in the stomach and then knees Kerim hard in the face. Kerim continued to try standing but before he could strike Sivus elbows him in the back of the head, grabs his head, spins around and throws Kerim to the other side of the arena where he lands back first on a metal pole.
"Do you give?" Sivus asks demandingly.
The two breathed hard from all the pain and covered in all their Turian blood and gore from the brutal fight. The very sight horrified both Ladia and Florolia, even Carter and Zea were terrified at what they saw. Despite this, Kerim slowly got back up to his feet, and slowly made his way over to Sivus.
"Like hell." Kerim breathed out as he struggled to stand back up.
"Don't bother. You're too hurt to even get up. Maybe that surgery will be worth it." Sivus comments.
Kerim growled, stood back up and just painfully walked over to Sivus and tries to punch him. When Sivus dodges and breaks his robotic knee. Kerim just got back up and tried to attack Sivus again.
"Stop it. You know this is childish."
"Fuck that. If there's one thing even you may respect from what Saren taught me is I don't quit even if my entire body is broken and a bloody mess." Kerim tries to strike him again but only for Sivus to dodge his attack and break his elbow and robotic knee.
Still even with everything that's happening Kerim still kept getting up. It was like no matter how many times Sivus would break or brutalize out of Kerim, Kerim would stand back up like he could care less from the pain.
"Kerim, please stop. You're making your injuries worse." Florolia begs.
"Fuck my injuries. I could care less about the pain no matter how much I suffer. But I'm not giving in or stopping until I take you down Sivus." Kerim tries again only for Sivus grab him and toss him hard on his already almost broken and cut up back.
Florolia walked up and softly touches his chest slightly pushing him back. Kerim looked down to see Florolia looking at him with sad eyes. He sighed, gently pushed her hand away and got back up. However when he tried taking a step he just fell right back in pain. Nevertheless he still tried getting back up only to fall back down.
"Kerim, do you know why I'm telling you to stop?" Sivus asks.
Kerim tried getting back up but kept falling back on the ground each time. In one of his attempts he actually stood on his broken leg badly and accidently broke it even further into an open fracture with the bone tearing through. Yet despite that he was still determined to get back up and continue.
"You proved to me that you really do care for Florolia. I see that now. Even after the times the Council has tried to hunt you down. I give you my permission to date my daughter; Florolia." Sivus tells him.
Even after hearing this Kerim still forced himself back up despite being a serious broken and bloody mess.
"Do you know why I care for her so much, Sivus?" he asked.
Sivus did not respond.
"Because she has suffered like I have with Cerberus. And I don't want her to go through that ever again." Kerim answered before falling back on the ground coughing out his own blood.
Florolia and Ladia puts him on the stretcher and brings him to the elevator to take him to the med bay.
"Wow, I never knew Kerim would take it this far." Zea'Nara comments as she watches him go by.
"I didn't know either." Carter contributes.
Sivus stood there in the area watching Kerim be taken away. He hopped down and walked over to the elevator and took it to the med bay as Carter and Zea'Nara joined them.
While they were taking the elevator up, Kerim was still conscious despite almost most of his bones broken and bleeding out severally from all the knife cuts on him. Yet he didn't say anything.
"No comments, Sivus?" Carter asks.
Ladia looks at Sivus.
"Daddy?" she asked him.
"Are you okay?" Zea'Nara asks curiously and worryingly to Kerim.
Kerim nods his head but said nothing.
"I suppose you only said those things to try and make me lose my cool huh?" Sivus asked.
"Yes." Kerim answered.
"Hey but at least you get date to Florolia now." Carter states.
Sivus shot Carter with a glare before looking back at Kerim.
"Sivus I honestly don't know what draws me to her. I just know I just don't want her to ever go through that hell again. It was just, it reminded me so much of what me and my father and brother went through. Only she experienced it for most of her life. I cannot imagine what a horrible witnessing of hell that must've been…" Kerim states to Sivus.
"I know the feeling Kerim. I know that you will protect her all her life till the end of the galaxy and beyond. Don't let me down." Sivus states as he pats him on his good shoulder.
About that time the elevator stopped at the med bay with Dr. Kayla enjoying her coffee until choking a little from it after seeing the sight.
"What in the name of…what the I just, what happened and why do I have Kerim and Commander Sivus in a bloody broken mess with Kerim looking worst than Sivus?" Kayla demands.
"No time Kayla, Kerim needs immediate medical treatment and Sivus needs to get fixed up quick." Carter requests.
Kayla sighs.
"Alright. Ladia, take Sivus to the back room and see what you can do. Florolia, put Kerim on the bed and try to get his armor removed so I can fix his injuries later. Meanwhile, Carter, you and I are going to have a little talk." she says as she walks outside with Carter and Zea'Nara.
Ladia helps Sivus into the backroom while Florolia gently lays Kerim on the med bed.
"Kerim, I never knew you felt that about me." Florolia comments.
Kerim remained silent as he laid in medbed. She held his hand gently but tightly as her face buried into it.
"You're the same as me. But you've suffered worst then I did. I...I don't know it but I just want to keep you safe from Cerberus. I don't want you to go through what we've been through ever again." he says softly.
"I know. You just wanted to protect me. I understand." She gently kisses his hand.
Kerim looks at her for a moment and lays his head down in the pillow.
"I kept going after your father even when he broke a good portion of me because I didn't care how much he tore me apart. I won't let you ever go through what happened to you even if I had to tear myself apart in my attempt to beat Sivus."
"I understand but…"
"Yes?"
She looked back at him with teary eyes. "I'm the same way. I don't want you to go through what we suffered just as much as you don't want me to go through it." she answered.
Kerim was a little shocked but remained silent.
"Please. Don't put me through that. I already felt bad enough when you were still going."
"I...I'm sorry…"
"Shhh, the only thing you can do for me now is to rest and let us work."
"Okay, so, need help with getting my armor off?" he asked.
"If you can move enough to do it." Kayla answers back from outside.
Kerim chuckles and starts taking pieces of his armor off with Florolia's help. Meanwhile Sivus was in the back room of the med bay sitting down while Ladia was help bandaging up.
"So how doe this feel daddy?" Ladia asks.
Sivus sighed a little.
"Daddy, I know you're not comfortable about this."
Sivus looked at Ladia.
"Ladia, do you think I made a wise choice?" he asked sadly.
"You did dad. You did." She answers.
"Why do you think that?"
"I think that because he loves her too much to lose her. He has seen the way she was tortured all this time. Now, he doesn't want anything to happen to her plus I figured he would be a softy on the inside all this time. He's not gonna stop fighting for her." Ladia answers.
Sivus nods and just looks back on the ground.
"You should be grateful to have a man protecting her daddy."
"I am Ladia it's just. She's been gone from us for so long, and she's just getting her life back. I worry about her just as much as I worry about both of you."
Sivus turns around and softly hugs Ladia.
"You girls are all I have. I'm proud of the choices you both have made and come so far in. But I cannot help but worry, after all, you're both my two little girls, and all I've got." Sivus replies sadly.
"I know daddy but you have to let us grow up. You have to let us make decisions in our lives."
"I have, like letting you train in the Alliance Military, and letting her become a doctor onboard the Verminus. Just be very careful." Sivus got up and puts his armor back on.
Sivus walks back ino the main med bay as Florolia just finished helping Kerim out of his last piece of armor and get a few I.V's in him.
"Well, I guess I have to return. I'll leave you girls to continue what you were doing. Please stay in contact with me and be very careful. And Kerim, try to take it easy." Sivus ays as he motions for all those injuries.
Kerim just nodded a little as Sivus leaves. Meanwhile, Kayla was outside with Carter and Zea while Kayla lectures Carter.
"Carter I know the rules of Turian respect fights. But did you have to let it go as far as it did?" Kayla asked with her arms crossed and tapping her left foot.
"I know it was a bit much but I can't go up against their culture." Carter answers.
"You weren't. As part of Turian culture, when a fight for respect is taking place in a ship the captain of that ship can make the rules. You had the authority to stop it before it escalated as far as it did." She corrects him.
"Yeah and I like that too."
"So why didn't you at least calm the situation down before it got too far. Look at Kerim and Sivus. Sivus is the commander of a Turian Military and Kerim is the top CQC Specialist and Stealth Expert of Viper Squad. You do know because of this Kerim is going to be out of commision for another set of weeks, and there's no telling what Sivus is gonna have to go through because now he's a bit of out of commission." Kayla continues to lecture.
"I know but he just wanted to see what Kerim had in him before the surgery." Carter answers.
"I've talked with Kerim the other day, he said he's not going to do the Surgery just yet. He wants to hold off it until we complete the mission against Cerberus." Kayla answers.
"Okay then. I can agree to that." Carter comments.
Kayla sighs. "Carter...I, I'm not sure what to say. I got to go help Florolia with Kerim with all those injuries especially that opened fractured leg. I'll call you when it's done and I have my report on how it'll before he can go on another mission with you."
"Yes ma'am." Carter answers.
"Okay. On on your way now Commander." Kayla walks back into the med bay.
"Well I hope Kerim's going to be okay." Zea"Nara mentions.
"I hope so too." Carter replies back.
"So, what do you want to do now?"
"Well I guess we can go and check and see how everyone else is doing." Carter suggests.
"Sure we can do that."
The two head off into the elevator to go check out how everyone is doing. They head to the garden area to check on Anetti. When they got there, they saw Jolee there laying on the grass while Anetti sits at a table in a new outfit. Anetti was now wearing a black leather strapped one bikini suit with full arm strapped, sleeveless black leather long trench coat and long black strap leggings with high heels.
"Hey Commander." Jolee greeted.
"Hey Joelee. How are you?" Carter asks.
"Just chilling in the garden area." she answered.
"Wow, I never thought to see you up here." Zea comments.
"I never thought I would either." she shrugged.
"Well anyrate. We just thought we come up and check on everyone since the last check up." Carter mentions.
"We are doing fine just relaxing." Anetti answered.
"Alrighty then. So shall we commander?" Zea'Nara motions to the door.
"Where to now?"
"I was thinking maybe we can message everybody instead going to there room. Maybe we can have some R&R for ourselves." Zea'Nara mentions as she huddles to him and rubs his chest with one finger gently.
"Maybe, sure let's do that after we take a walk around the ship and check on everyone." Carter smiles.
"Alright then. I guess we can do a little check up with the team." Zea'Nara agreeing.
The two head back to the elevator and take it to the ship's bar. As Carter suspected, he sees Don and Darex in a arm wrestling contest while Axel and Astok were making bets. By the looks of it, Darex was winning as he wasn't breaking much of a sweat.
Carter and Zea'Nara walk over to Astok and Axel without interrupting Don's and Darex's arm wrestling.
"So what's going on?" Zea'Nara whispers.
"Axel losing a bet and me winning some credits." Astok whispered back with wide smirk on his face.
"Come on Don I know you can do better than that." Darex tells Don as he just smiles.
"Don't count me out yet ya hulk size smart ass." Don said as he tried pushing more of his might into the match.
"Hm, my credits is on my brother." Carter betted on.
"Hey Zea who are you going to bet on?" Axel asks.
"I have faith on Don." Zea'Nara also betting.
"Alright bets are in. Prepare to pay us up oh sexy Zea." Astok joked.
"We'll see Ass-tok. We'll see." Zea'Nara reply's jokingly.
Don tries using all his strength in one final attempt to win. Darex sighed and pushed with all his might to easily win. Astok and Carter jumped in excitement.
"Yes, hell yes. Pay up." Astok cheered as he pointed to Axel and Zea'Nara.
"Son of a bitch, why oh why did I bet agains the Krogan." Axel complained as he and Zea payed Carter and Astok the credits.
"I save your breath Axel. You're next on his victim list." Astok reminded as Don got up and Axel sat in his place and wrapped his hand on Darex's.
"I'm gonna regret this aren't I Darex?" Axel asked.
"Yes you are and Zea that's what you get on betting a Human going up against a Krogan." Carter answers and states jokingly.
"We'll see handsome. My bet is on Axel." Zea'Nara bets next.
"I want to see smartass get his ass whooped. Come on Axel kick his ass I'm betting on you." Don calls out.
"Well that's cheerful news Don." Axel groans.
"Alright bets are in. We have Darex, undefeated Krogan Warlord vs. Axel, Rouge Cerberus Infiltrator bad ass. And go!" Astok calls out.
"Oh shit…" Axel whispers to himself.
"This is going to be fun." Darex says with a grin.
Just as the challenge starts Axel already struggles to try and move Darex's arm. Darex just yawns as he watches Axel struggle to move his arm. Though he was able to move Darex's arm only by a few inches thanks to some of the implants he has in his body. Never the less it was all Axel could do with everything he had.
"You guys are all assholes you know that." Axel groans while trying to move Darex's arm.
"We know what you are Axel but are we?' Astok asks as he counts the credits he earn from the last arm wrestling match.
"And asshole with a smartass mouth." Axel groans.
"You're gonna eat your words Axel." Darex comments.
"I know." Axel groans.
Darex pushes his arm down like as if it was nothing. Axel sighs heavily and tried catching his breath.
"Lady and gentlemen you're still undefeated badass. Urdnot Darex!" Astok cheered as he grabbed Darex winning arm and held it up while Zea and Don paid him and Carter the credits.
"Alright I got a master bet for all you boys. I bet my Carter can't beat Darex. Double or nothing, and if you boys win I perform a pole dance at the bar later. Deal?" Zea offers.
"Yeah. Why not? I always did beat you little brother." Darex agreeing.
Axel got off as Carter took a seat and placed his hand up.
"Take in mind Darex I got an augmented hand this time." Carter smirks.
"Yeah like that's going to save you." Darex joked as the two grabbed hands.
"Lady and gentlemen. The bets are still the same. Our undefeated Krogan Warlord vs Commander Carter, hero of Elysium is on. And go!" Astok announced.
Darex and Carter begin pushing each other's arms down with all of their strength. The two push much harder that each time they were close to hitting the bottom at each push. They push each other back and forward Darex nearly winning and Carter nearly winning.
"Little brother, you can't beat your bigger brother. Just stop when you get the chance." Darex encourages.
"You're just spouting crap now because for the first time I'm actually got an edge over you." Carter bragged.
"Only because you're cheating with that augmented hand." Darex smirked.
"Oh don't give me that horse mess Darex. You're a Krogan it should be fair for me."
With all of Carter's might he pushes down further to the end of the table and was able to beat Darex by a split reaction of reflexes. Everyone jumped after seeing Carter beat Darex. Yet despite Darex losing, Astok laughed in excitement.
"I'm rich, I'm stinking rich. I knew it was a smart move to bet on Carter next." Astok cheered and started dancing in victory.
"Damn it." Don and Axel groan as the pay Astok and Zea credits.
"Yes! I knew I beat you one day and this is it." Carter cheered.
"I like to see you try with your unaugmented hand. You only won because you had a augmented hand and faster reflexes." Darex points out as he stretches his now sore arm a little.
"Yeah but at least none of you will get that pole dance and it looks like I'm getting it. Isn't that right, Zea?" Carter asks.
"You know it." she playfully slaps Carter rear a little which made him joke.
"Yeah but hey I'm rich now. This stuff going to smokes, drinks, and women, women!" Astok cheers.
"I used to be married and I still want to stay loyal to my deceased wife God rest her soul." Axel raises his hand.
"I'm taken by Amuya." Darex mentions.
"Next trip to the citadel I'm hooking up with some strippers." Don comments.
"Sure thing Don." Darex agreeing.
"Well we'll leave you guys alone. Me and Zea are gonna check up on the rest of the crew before we check up on Kerim." Carter tells them.
"Oh yeah, saw the fight broadcasted on the ship. Damn, Kerim, Sivus. I mean I never knew Ladia's dad was badass enough to take Kerim on. I mean Kerim's CQC scares the shit out of me." Don admits.
"Well what did you expect he's Viper Squad's Top CQC expert and stealth professional." Axel mentions.
"I thought Anetti was the top Stealth Professional." Darex asks.
"We'll let them duke it out to see whose stealthier when Kerim gets back on his feet again. Anyrate thanks for the visit Carter and thank you for helping me rob these two of their money." Astok says as he points to Don and Axel. Both Axel and Don flip their middle fingers at him.
"Sure and now that I thought about it. You should date Kasumi you two have a similar roll of stealing credits… if she's willing to do it." Carter says as he and Zea both walked out.
Carter and Zea walked back to the elevator and took it back down to the medbay to check up on Sivus and Kerim. When they got there, they see that Sivus was preparing to leave.
"Leaving already, Sivus?" Carter asks.
"Unfortunately yes I must take my leave. I have some annoying paperwork to get done before I can take that well deserve nap I really want. Also I got what I needed done here. I am curious though Carter. As Captain of the ship you had the authority to prevent the fight getting as brutal as it did with me and Kerim, why didn't you?" Sivus asked a little curious.
"Well besides it from getting interesting. I thought Kerim would want to give it all he's got. I know it got a little brutal but I knew Kerim had a lot of anger in him and a lot of love for Florolia in him. So that's why I let it happen." Carter answers.
"I see….well thank you for having me on your ship and allowing us to settle the dual onboard it. Hopefully when the Reaper War Anniversary at the Citadel is over I can finally take some off time to spend some well needed time with my daughters. Until then I wish you the best of luck on your mission. Take care commander." Sivus salutes Carter and leaves.
"You too Commander."
Just as Sivus left, Carter heads over to the med bay to see Ladia sitting outside.
"Hey Ladia what's going on everything okay?" Zea asked.
"Yeah, Kerim is getting his good leg fixed, so Forolia and Kayla are gonna be busy for a small while. As for me, I think I may go take a nap I feel beat for some reason even though all I've done is a few target practice rounds." she answered.
"Well, you have been working alot and hard with not that much rest. And from the looks of it you've been up target practicing for a while. So you should get some rest." Zea'Nara mentions.
Ladia nods in agreement.
"Alright, I'll see you guys later." Ladia gets up and heads back to her room.
After Ladia leaves, the two were about go check up and see how Kerim was doing. However after seeing through the observatory room they were still working on him, they figured they might as leave him alone and return to Carter's Cabin. So Carter and Zea take the elevator to Carter's cabin and lay down on the nice sofa closeby.
"Wow, it almost feels like yesterday I just started, time sure does fly." Carter sighs as he lays back.
"Yes it has. It went by so quickly I couldn't keep up." Zea agreeing as she cuddles up with him.
"Hey Zea, I've been thinking, what do you want to after we finish our mission. You know with destroying Cerberus for good?"
"I don't know really. How about we spend more time together and take a nice long vacation. Maybe even have a little fun while we're at it."
Carter smiled and wrapped an arm around her and allowed her to lay her head on his shoulder.
"I would like that…"
"Yes." She places her hand on his chest. She then takes off her helmet to look at him with her real eyes. They both gaze into each other's eyes as Carter turns on his T.V. and they both watch a T.V. show they enjoy for the rest of their evening.