A/N: Only one character submission per person please. I don't want to be drowned in submissions of 20 characters lol

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He was one of the first to breach the hall, tracked down the elevator through the smoke and gore as soldiers swarmed the rooms below, securing Anderson's body.

"Mercy!?" His calls echoed in the empty room, and the shards of the previous war were visible in the glass ceiling. The turian desperately surveyed the room. "Come on, come on." He uttered desperately, running up the ramps to search the area thoroughly.

"You wouldn't do this to me. Not now." He still stung from the burns he suffered. And could still clearly remember her voice wobbling when she last spoke to him, telling him she'd always love him.

"You're Commander fucking Venari, you always come back." But his own voice had very little hope left as he was greeted with only silence.

"...Garrus…"

Mercy shifted to a state of focus at the sound of Prue speaking. Had she been sleeping? Shifted into a low power state of consciousness? Or perhaps she was just lost in her memories, like Drell Solipsism, it was definitely a first, whatever it was.

"Speaking of Garrus, I would have thought he'd be the first person you went and got. You two were joined at the hip before." She pointed out as Mercy stared at the ceiling window absently.

"We aren't anymore."

"What happened?"

Mercy frowned and glanced at Prue. "I let him down…"

Before more could be said, Mercy's omni-tool alerted her to a call she was receiving and she excused herself to answer while Prue saw herself out of the situation to walk among the Normandy under construction.

"Remember, if you see anything useful around her, take notes. I don't like having an unshackled Reaper loose." Aria's quiet voice had been distinctly passed to him secretly before he'd left with them.

That being said, here Ryker was, in the infamous Catalyst Halls. Watching hundreds of little Keepers crawling over the casing of the equally famous Normandy, putting it together with technology he'd never seen before.

Outside of his encounters in the Reaper War that is. No one had reacted when he'd started scanning the chunks of ship being welded into it to send back to her, at least. Not that he'd have cared if he was told to stop.

Prue had an air of suspicion about her as she strutted through the not quite complete hull to come to a stop next to him.

"I'm watching you, Sturm." She let him know with a calculating glower.

"You enjoy the view then, baby." He didn't miss a single beat and cast her a nefarious smile. "Hey, ever wanted to whip it out and piss on a Keeper?"

Her expression quickly shifted to being both judgmental and disgusted. And he shrugged, "just me then?"

Meanwhile on the other side of the hall in an omni-tool call Mercy communicated with a merchant in possession of ship scrap from Korlus. "When can you have my purchases transported?"

"A few days if the carriers I do business with are on schedule." A female, Krogan voice communicated from the other end. Mercy's eyes lifted to a discombobulated piece of the Normandy being transported by a Keeper, like an ant with a massive piece of leaf.

The glyphs in her glowing blue eyes shifted before she refocused on her call. "Perfect, thanks Thax."

Mercy being hard at work over the next few days transporting and repairing the Normandy gave Prue and Ryker plenty of free time to begrudgingly be in each other's company.

Prue learned very quickly that she didn't like him, he seemed slimy and conniving, beneath an exterior of sass and recklessness. She watched him wave Mercy's spectre status around for free drinks, get very drunk and pass out on the dancefloor in various clubs on the Citadel, before she veered off his trail to do her own thing.

A smile cracked at her lips shattering her normally intimidating resting bitch face when she spotted who she was looking for while walking the corridors of C-Sec Academy. When he spotted her, the teal hued Drell lifted a hand to wave briefly after he was finished speaking with another human officer-in-training.

"I heard you were in town." Kolyat greeted as Prue ignored his hand extended to pull him into a hug,

"Hey kiddo,"

"Hey, Prue, it's fine, I don't need my ribs or anything, go right ahead and crush me."

"I will." She didn't miss a beat, chuckling as she finally released him and he shook his head,

"It's only been three weeks, Prue. What's with the greeting?"

"I'm not allowed to hug you in front of your peers?" Prue mocked him lightly and he groaned.

"Fine, forget it. I do want to know what you were doing in detainment earlier, you damn hypocrite. They're saying you kicked the senses out of a doctor."

"They were selling a phoney cure." Was all the explanation she offered, crossing her arms, and Kolyat's eased expression became harder briefly.

"Ah." Was his only curt response, and Prue knew he understood immediately what she was saying. Kolyat may also be in the dark just like everyone else, but a cure for Kepral's was something important to both of them.

"Barnett, you know that the research association for Kepral's is only a few years off a cure. Why are you pushing so hard for this? I… understand that dad meant a lot to you—"

"It doesn't get to keep destroying lives and families." Prue cut him off.

Kolyat could see that she didn't wish to discuss the matter further, and frowned, "still, you should get some help, a new hobby or something, you're looking a little… obsessive."

"What are you, my shrink?" She snorted and he scratched his brow exasperatedly.

"No, I'm saying you should get one, geez Prue. Amonkira help me."

"The Lord of Hunters ain't got no help for you dealing with me," Prue reached out to rub his arm roughly in an affectionate gesture though, "but I appreciate the headaches that oh so plague you on my behalf."

"You're mocking me."

"Only cuz I love you." Prue's smile was small but genuine, and she drew away to breathe a long exhale. "Listen, I've been recruited for a really insane mission. I can't give you details because it's Spectre business. But I wanted to see you to let you know."

"Spectres? It's that serious, huh?" His brow furrowed and Prue knew this was hard on him, especially having had her come into his life like a parent for the last four years. And he has already lost two of those… "be careful."

"You should be telling that to the other guys we're hunting, they'll need it." Prue tried to reassure him, but the pause between them was a mutual confirmation that this was indeed, a very dangerous mission. "But, I will. I promise."

"I'm holding you to that."

"Don't worry, sport." A third voice drew both their attention rapidly as Ryker, reeking of ryncol, put his arm over Prue's shoulders. "Your mama's gonna be just fine, isn't that right, mama?"

Prue's gaze was downright murderous, and Kolyat raised a brow, "uh, whatever you say. I'm gonna go." He shot Prue a look that said 'good luck' and took his leave down the corridors at a walking pace that was not slow.

Prue threw Ryker's arm off her and hissed at him in a cold tone, "you were following me?"

"Oh so when you were doing it, it was fine but when I do it, it's bad? Make it make sense, hunty." He burped into his arm and wiggled his nose with a brief sniff, clearly not bothered by the ordeal.

"Listen, Penny,"

"Prue."

"Bless you," he snorted, "if you're gonna be sticking your nose in my shit, I'm gonna do the same, so maybe, for the sake of our budding friendship. We're gonna not do that." He winked his only visible eye and leaned on a wall, whether for effect or to keep from falling over, it wasn't clear. "That way we can put all our energy into whateverthefuck the Leviathans are. How's that?"

Prue shifted her weight with crossed arms, she didn't take kindly to being threatened and her glower only hardened as he went on. "Or, counteroffer—"

She decked him in the jaw like a viper.