A/N: Welcome new followers! And a special thank you from my tickled pink heart to everyone who reviewed!
The disappointed parent look Mercy gave the two as they rested their exhausted bodies and applied medigel to their wounds was enough to wither the most stubborn of defiant stances.
"He started it." Prue declared under her breath and Mercy sighed. She'd had to collect them after getting an alert that the two had started a punching match in C-Sec Academy's campus. She knew the two weren't exactly the most easy going of people in terms of company, but the fight had still come as a surprise.
"No. We have bigger things to be focusing on and we're not playing the blame game." She asserted, and Ryker took that as an invitation to walk away, his voice trailing behind him,
"Fine, I'm gonna go get drunk."
Mercy made zero move to stop him, it was better to just let him go do his own thing, preferably as far away from Prue as possible. Speaking of, the calculating sharpshooter was glaring in the direction he'd gone, but her bristles seemed to smooth over just a little when he was completely out of sight.
Prue was internally still seething, and would be completely down to punch Ryker some more since they'd been pulled off each other before she could make him cry mercy, so to speak. But noticing Mercy looking at her, she averted her gaze somewhere else in compromise. Mercy had a feeling that was the closest thing to cooperation she was going to get from the two.
Prue on the other hand was lacking any real regret for her actions, she established a firm and necessary boundary with Ryker today, and from this point on if he crosses it no one can say he was not warned.
Without any further delays, Mercy drifted away back to work welding, having a synthetic body and flame retardant hair meant she didn't need to wear protective gear, which made transitioning between repair jobs very smooth and productive. And the fact she could do this for hours on end without aching made her a much better candidate for the labour than organics.
Not that she could rightfully degrade the bioengineered state of existence the Keepers were elevated to. If she concentrated hard enough, she could start remembering what they'd looked like in their cycle… what were they called? She only knew what the Intelligence had archived, and plenty of context was missing. The Ivonai, but had that been what they called themselves? Or what another race had called them? Or was it a designation assigned by the Reapers? Questions of the etymology and cultural past of these organisms reduced to tools that Mercy wished she could dive into.
Had they been sapient…? No. That information was present. They were very clever animals however… susceptible to training. The thought that had the current cycle been in the right place at the right time, perhaps dogs may have been where Keepers stood now, or pyjacks, was an entertaining thought process.
But it startled her how easy it was to slip into feeling comfortable with the past of the Intelligence. Thankfully being the unofficial Queen of the QEC that transported the collective consciousness of the system meant that her morals and principles were broken down and implemented as the highest laws so she was not scared of the system reverting. She just did not naturally feel weighted or motivated by guilt like she was, a revelation she could not decide whether good or bad an outcome of this elevated state of existence she found herself in.
Was she herself anymore? Or a being who was her? Or a concept manifesting that thought it was her? What made someone who they are?
"So this is the Normandy, huh?" Prue announced herself having wandered over to survey the impressive ship.
"Yeah, she'll be good as new in no time." Mercy responded, watching Prue run a hand along the ship's scaffolding temporarily holding it together.
Mercy had a feeling she knew why Prue knew of the ship with such personal interest, the love of her life had served on it before he died. "How did you and Thane meet?"
Prue paused, and exhaled a long sigh. "The first time… someone paid me to bring someone in alive that someone else had paid him to kill. So I had to transport and protect this no good scumbag from a professional Drell assassin straight from Kahje." She trailed off momentarily, and smiled. "We fought tooth and claw over the target, I must've impressed him. So he politely withdrew. I hear he got the dirtbag later from the cell he was in after I dropped him off and got my money."
"How did going head to head with bullets end in love?" Mercy stopped welding to turn towards Prue in attention.
"Well after that we crossed wires so often that it was like fate wanted us to be stuck with each other. We got to talking a few times and… the rest is history." A secretive warm smile graced Prue's lips before she cleared her throat and was stern immediately again.
The idea was such a romantic one in Mercy's imagination, Thane was such a calm but passionate man, and the thought of that translating romantically, she could only imagine the intimacy forged between the two starting as fiery competition, becoming a loving flame that ignited a flash forged bond and created a power couple so deeply in love that anyone could see it from a glance.
"Your turn, where's Garrus?" The ideals of the romantic tragedy that was Prue's story was purged from Mercy's thoughts by the question. And she frowned in resistance.
"I don't know."
"Why not?" Prue may have gotten the hints that Mercy was closing off from the line of questioning, but it only made her want to peel the layers off harder. Was her friend still in there, struggling to get back in touch with herself? This distant behaviour was so unlike the woman she knew, who was so in touch with her emotional maturity.
It was as if becoming drenched in Reaper background buzz had watered her sense of self down. Turned Mercy into a colder version of herself more interested in data and her principles printed into laws rather than passionate need to leave the world a better place than it was.
And it frustrated Prue to no end to see the conflicted look in Mercy's eyes visibly rejecting the conversation without speaking. She sighed, "forget it."
Almost a week went by of stagnant waiting, but during this time while Mercy transported the ship to a reserved docking bay K09, Prue was free to polish her shooting skills at a gun range. And Ryker even joined her at some points, she was pleased that her implants made her beat him out in terms of sharpshooting.
But when the two engaged in sparring she found herself so keen to defeat the hitman in close quarters that she exerted all her anger on him often. He could certainly take the hits, and deal twice as much as he got. And it left her more frustrated every time he'd fold her on the floor with superior groundwork into submission that would be death if she had been a target of his. Leaving her livid, sweaty and frustrated at his smug look.
She betted he wouldn't be smiling if she shot him in the knees. But that was just a self indulgent fantasy since she promised Mercy she'd play nice.
Ryker on the other hand made do with entertaining himself on the Citadel, he found it a much more boring, straight-laced space city than Omega: the love of his life going by how Aria personified it. Everyone moved so complacently, not a ruffle or scuff in their clothes unless he travelled to less polished sectors of the station where the lower class citizens existed. The clubs there almost reminded him of the Afterlife, but none had quite the same primal energy and sense of equalised danger.
He was receiving a lapdance in one of these joints when he received the message from Mercy to come to docking bay K09. "Gotta go babe, thanks for the dance." He swiped his omni-tool to tip the asari maiden as she got off him without missing a beat to go back to table dancing with another.
He met Prue in the elevator right outside the bay. And she firmly refused to look at him. Their body language as different as night and day around each other, it seemed she had received the same summoning message.
When they stepped out into the private space, Ryker stumbled and nearly tripped over a Keeper, there were over a dozen filing through the small waiting area, and a fair few mauve ones with glowing blue implants stood out to them making their way towards the docking corridor.
Prue stepped out of the way of a green one coming through and the two were greeted by Mercy, looking freshly groomed and pleased with herself.
"She's ready."
