Ante Up Chapter 23: Fight

The hangar was abnormally quiet when Shepard and Cami abandoned the elevator. Victus' men were lazily cleaning their guns and buffing their armor and snapped at attention when they spotted the commander. The soldier Shepard had punched the day before scowled and ducked behind the Hammerhead in avoidance. The Normandy crew, at least the ones who were awake, seemed more chipper. They saluted loosely and returned to their work, tinkering on the shuttles and consoles.

Shepard nodded at Cortez-Steve, he'd asked that she call him Steve when he first came aboard-and he greeted her with a smile. He thumbed backwards toward at the terminal he'd been standing at. "I ordered some weapons upgrades and better pieces for the shuttle engines. Want to sign off on it?"

"Nah," Shepard hummed. "You know more about engines. I trust you'll keep us in the air, Steve."

"Better than that," Steve said, grinning. "With these parts, I'll be able to optimize our fuel use and..." He stopped himself. "And, yeah, I'll keep us in the air, for sure."

Shepard had to laugh. He'd kept himself from going into engine-talk, much like Garrus had to stop himself from slipping into calibration-talk. Boys and their toys... "Keep up the good work, Steve."

Cami had already moved to the center of the floor and was working the kinks out of her shoulders and legs. Shepard moved to join her, snickering as she passed Vega's station and found him sprawled out on his cot. "Lieutenant!"

He shot awake, nearly clocking himself on his pull-up bar as he tumbled out of bed and straightened into a salute, blanket tangled around him like a toga. "Yes, ma'am, I was just... waking up."

"Uh huh," Shepard teased. She tapped the side of her mouth. "You got a drool trail, soldier."

He quickly wiped his face, frowning when he realized it was clean. "Oh, very funny, Lola."

"Worth it," Shepard laughed. She raised her arms in a stretch and popped her shoulders. "You're gonna want to be awake for this."

"What?" Vega wondered as the elevator hissed back open and admitted Garrus and Sol.

"Quick match," Cami chirped. She stood, hands on her hips, and twisted at her waist to stretch her back. Looking at Shepard over her shoulder, she asked, "You play by any rules?"

"I'm pretty accommodating," Shepard muttered back. "You can name the terms."

Garrus circled around them and leaned on a crate nearby. Sol hopped up on an adjacent crate, folding her legs into a comfortable seated position. Shepard gave them a quick glance, but didn't let her eyes linger.

Cami quirked a browplate at her previous words. "My terms?" She hummed in thought for a moment. "All right. We'll keep it simple. Hand-to-hand only. No weapons, no biotics. A round is won by pinning your opponent for... we'll say a five-count."

"Best two out of three rounds?" Shepard offered.

"We'll see how you feel after one round," Cami scoffed. "I'm not going to make this easy." She dropped into a stance, claws splayed.

Shepard took a moment to size her up, trying to piece together a strategy. Cami was shorter and thinner than Sol, meaning she'd probably be able to slip away pretty easily if Shepard tried to grab her. She'd also displayed some pretty impressive speed against the Reaper forces on Menae. This could present a challenge.

Shepard feinted to the left, then shot over to the right, arms up in preparation. Cami followed her easily, lashing out and slicing into her forearm as Shepard blocked. The simple blow was enough to lay open a decent gash and Shepard cursed as she backed out of striking range. She vaguely wondered if Garrus had a worried look on his face, but didn't turn to check.

Cami barked out a laugh. "Spirits, you're soft, even for a human." Her eyes glimmered wildly and she taunted, "Need me to tape my claws? I'd hate to cut you into ribbons in a friendly match."

Shepard ignored the warmth dripping down to her elbow and growled, "You do have a weakness I can exploit, you know." She gestured to Cami's midsection.

"Like to see you try," Cami clipped. "I'm not stupid. I'm wearing a guard."

Shepard grumbled, "Of course."

"Told you I wouldn't make this easy."

Keep talking, Shepard thought, dropping her injured arm to hide the cut. She could already feel the flow of blood slowing as her cybernetics flooded the injuring with clotting proteins. It probably wouldn't seal the wound for a few hours, but it would stop the bleeding.

"Good," Shepard boasted. "I like a challenge." She lunged forward, dropping and sweeping at Cami's feet. The turian leaped clear over her and landed gracefully in front of Garrus and Sol.

"Should I let her use biotics?" Cami chirped at Garrus. "Doesn't look like she's going to fare so well otherwise."

"You shouldn't talk so much," Garrus growled.

Cami huffed and just as she spun back around, Shepard delivered an swift uppercut to her jaw. Cami stumbled back against Sol's crate, rubbing her chin with the back of her hand. Shepard gave a sound that was more a whoop than a laugh and fell back to the center of the floor.

Cami snarled and closed the distance between them, slashing angrily. Shepard managed to duck and ram her shoulder into Cami's stomach, grunting when contacted against the rigid armor shield. She hadn't been bluffing. The blow to her gut did nothing but shove her back, but it did buy Shepard a couple of seconds as Cami regrouped.

Shepard took the time to roll out of arm's length and search for weaknesses. That pathetic purple-marked soldier the day before had found a way to pin her. Certainly it wasn't that difficult a task. Of course, he'd probably only managed to overpower her by catching her off guard. After all, Cami had, at one time, been skilled enough to hold Garrus at a stalemate for nine rounds.

Yeah, conventional tactics weren't going to work here.

Shepard tensed as Cami was suddenly on her again, all claws and animal instinct. Without thinking, Shepard thrust her palm out to shove her in the face, wincing when Cami redirected enough to catch her hand awkwardly against her mandible. As Cami froze, Shepard realized that her thumb had caught on one of the silver rings looped through her mandible.

"You rip that out, I kill you," Cami hissed, clutching Shepard's wrist threateningly. Shepard slowly freed her digits from the ring and backed away as Cami gave her mandible a test swirl. Satisfied, the turian took a stance again and quickly resumed fighting.

The next few blows left Cami clutching at a bludgeoned mandible and Shepard nursing a laid-open bicep. Shepard spat out profanities as blood soaked into the tattered sleeve of her shirt. When Cami came at her again, Shepard caught her by the wrist and spun until she had Cami's arm pinned behind her back.

A hiss ripped from Cami's throat and her shoulders contorted as she struggled in Shepard's grip. The commander quickly captured the other flailing arm, tugging it back with the first. Cami yanked forward, trying to use her admittedly superior strength to tear free, but Shepard knocked her feet out from under her with one well-placed kick. Cami squeaked as her knees hit the ground and Shepard shoved her down further.

Shepard smirked, realizing that fighting Cami really wasn't much different from fighting Garrus. The woman was quicker, yes, but coming at her from behind seemed to work well enough.

It took every ounce of strength Shepard had, and then some, to force Cami to the floor, and she only managed to keep her down for a two-count before the snarling woman gained enough leverage to shove herself up. Shepard gave an indignant shout and bent Cami's arms painfully, pressing her back down.

Flexible or not, Cami wasn't going to break free. Shepard was going to make damn sure of it. She pivoted on Cami's back and braced a knee against the back of her head. Cami yelped as her nose smacked the floor, and stilled momentarily as her vision went white. When she returned to her senses, Sol was finishing up the five count. "...and five. You're down one, Cami."

"Ugh," she grumbled as Shepard released her. She sat back on her knees and lightly pinched the bridge of her nose. Muffled, she griped, "You trying to bregg my dose?"

"What was that?" Shepard jeered.

"Ah," Cami sighed, dropping her hand. "My nose. You trying to break it?"

"I didn't think it would be that easy."

Cami stood and hissed toward the other turians at the back of the hangar. Shepard noticed that Victus' men were quietly snickering among themselves. "Round two. You won't pin me again."

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Victus was so deep in a daze that he barely noticed his Omni-tool chime with a message alert. He'd barely slept since arriving on the Normandy and had been awarded even less sleep on Menae, so his energy was quickly waning. He loaded the message on his display, half expecting an update from his son.

Since becoming primarch only a day ago, Victus had gained access to several resources, including the illustrious Blackwatch and the branch under them, the Ninth Platoon. The Blackwatch squads were due to rendezvous with the Normandy shortly before arriving at the Citadel, and the Ninth Platoon... well, Victus had sent his son to lead them on an assignment that would be crucial for the turian-krogan alliance.

Not that he was about to mention the assignment to anyone, especially not until he'd met with the krogan clan leader.

The message was not from his son. Instead, it was from one of his soldiers in the hangar. Victus scanned the message quickly, almost in disbelief. The words "Shepard might just kill her" and "bashing her head against a crate" were more than enough to drag him from the War Room.

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Camilla was smearing blood away from her nose when Victus made it to the hangar. She gave an excited bark and lunged at the commander, grappling with her briefly before being thrown off. Shepard looked much more worn, oozing cuts scattered over her exposed skin, but she seemed calm and confident. Victus trudged curiously to the crates and joined in spectating with Garrus and Solana.

Garrus chirped out a greeting as the primarch moved to stand beside him. "What happened to I won't be leaving this room until war summit planning is finalized?"

"I was told someone might be dying down here," Victus replied tersely. "Had I known you were supervising, I wouldn't have come."

"Dying?" Garrus echoed. "Who said that?"

Victus glanced pointedly at a young turian who was standing apart from the other soldiers. He was so focused on the fight he didn't even notice he was being singled out. "He's a rookie we picked up along the way. I didn't think he knew what he was talking about when he said Shepard was going to kill someone. Of course, I know how skilled that scout is at grating on people's nerves. Figured she may have pushed Shepard too far."

"Well," Garrus laughed, "she did, I think, but Shepard is more controlled than that."

"Bashing heads into crates?" Victus mused lightly.

"By controlled," Garrus corrected, "I meant she won't be killing anyone."

Sol snorted. "The crate was just a love-tap. I was more worried when Cami smacked her clear to the other side of the Kodiak."

"Yeah," Steve called from the shuttle, "so was I." He was buffing a scratch from the pristine blue metal of the hood. "I just had finished repairing the damage James caused on Mars." He raised his voice so Vega could hear him, "Because some people don't know how to fly." He turned to Shepard next and continued, "And then, some other people had to go and wrestle on top of the new paint job."

"Deal... with it... Cortez!" Shepard snapped, her words emphasized by punches.

"This scuff won't come out," Steve groaned loudly, wiping a towel over the scrape in the hood. "I think you should pay for the shuttle to be detailed when we hit the Citadel, Shepard. Out of your own pocket!"

Growling as Cami leaped at her, Shepard used the turian's momentum against her, flipping her and slamming her down. It was the same technique she'd used against Vega the one time they'd sparred. With Cami grounded, the wind temporarily knocked out of her, Shepard turned to Steve. "Quit complaining about the damn shuttle. If it can live through Vega's shenanigans, it'll survive my skid-marks."

"Shenanigans?" Vega roared from his station. "You tryin' to make me sound dumb, Lola? I knew exactly what I was doing when I crashed that shuttle!"

"Oh, I know what you were doing," Shepard called back. "Being a goddamn show-off."

Cami jolted up at that moment and tackled Shepard's legs. The commander's rear hit the floor with an indignant thump and instantly Cami was grappling her, trying to pin her. Plating and all, Cami outweighed Shepard by quite a bit, despite their similar sizes. Knowing she couldn't really compensate for the weight difference from a downed position, Shepard struggled and curled until she successfully drew a leg up between herself and Cami.

The turian sputtered out a surprised twitter as Shepard extended her leg, drawing the second up to evenly distribute mass, and lifted her form the ground. Before Cami could fumble for footing, she somersaulting over, bracing for impact as the floor came up to meet her back.

She stayed down for a moment, contemplating her next move as Shepard hovered over her, dripping dirty red blood. Shepard chuckled. "Give up yet?"

"Not a chance," Cami hissed.

Smugly, Shepard turned to Garrus. "Should I let her use her weapons?"

"Very funny," Cami grumbled, knowing she was being mocked. Of course, it seemed she had grossly underestimated Shepard. However, she figured blood loss alone would've quickly downed the commander. She was covered in weeping cuts. How was she not...?

Cami blinked, noticing that the gashes weren't nearly as deep as she thought. She scanned Shepard's body quietly, zeroing in on the deepest slice she'd made. Sometime during their match, Cami had landed a good one on Shepard's side, tore clear through her uniform and a solid inch into flesh.

The wound looked like a papercut compared to what it had been.

"You... oh, you bitch," Cami snarled. She rolled onto her side and glared up at Shepard. "You regenerate!"

"Yes, and?" Shepard said flippantly. "I hope you don't think that's why I'm winning." She smirked. "Because it isn't."

Cami stumbled onto her feet, hissing out angry undertones. "Maybe I should use weapons, even the playing field."

"Cami..." Sol warned from atop her crate. Both women ignored her.

"Oh, please," Shepard muttered. "I don't have turian stamina. My regenerative abilities are all that's allowing me to keep up. They are evening the field." Shepard laughed half-heartedly. "But, if you want a weapon so bad, go for it." As Cami reached for the blade she kept tucked in her boot, Shepard added, "Just don't expect me to keep my biotics on a leash if you come at me with a knife."

Breathing heavily, partially from exertion and partially from anger, Cami considered the terms. She allowed a feral grin to twitch across her mandibles before deftly whipping her blade into her hand. When she took a stance, Garrus intervened, grabbing her wrist and bending it back until she dropped the blade.

"Go take a depressant before you do something stupid," he growled.

Cami hissed, tugging her hand free. "Keep out of our fight."

"Be reasonable," Garrus said, taking a tone that was usually reserved for children. "If you somehow made it through her barrier, how do you think you'd fare against a shockwave or a charge? You. Can't. Win."

Cami backed off, looking somewhat hurt. "You... fine. I concede." She whirled with a shaky subvocal whine. "I fucking hate men who try to act like my father."

Garrus quirked a browplate in surprise but didn't make an attempt to stop her as she limped across the hangar and into the elevator. Shepard dropped her stance, letting the traces of biotics scatter away from her fingertips.

"Well, that was fun," she grumbled. "I think she lost it there at the end."

"Stress response," Garrus said simply. "If she loosened up during the fight, you would have taken her down. She was tense before, but now it's much worse, I'm sure."

"Shit," Shepard said. "Will she be..."

"We have adrenaline depressant serums to combat these things," Garrus said. In response to Shepard's questioning look, he explained, "Can't use them often. The serum's toxic in high dosages and it metabolizes slowly."

"But it'll work?" Shepard said.

Solana piped up. "How did you think Dad and I were so calm when you rescued us from Palaven?" she asked. "It works, but, like Garrus said, you can't take the stuff often. It causes hallucinations and shuts down organs if you get stupid with it."

"Gotta love modern medicine," Shepard muttered. "Speaking of medicine, I should go lay low before Dr. Chakwas finds out how beat up I am." She grinned at Victus. "Primarch, hope you enjoyed the demonstration."

"You certainly live up to your reputation," he replied pleasantly.

She took a few shaky steps. "So... I, ah, lost more blood than I thought. Little lightheaded."

Garrus laughed, "I'll take you upstairs." He slid an arm behind her back, easily taking most of her weight.

"Vega," Shepard ordered, "go grab a mop. Looks like someone got murdered down here."

"What do I look like, a janitor?" he shouted.

"You will when you get that mop," Shepard called back as Garrus helped her into the elevator.

They were the only ones who had made a move to go upstairs, so they found themselves alone in the small, quiet space. Garrus laughed softly and nuzzled Shepard's head. "You didn't have to fight her, you know."

"It made me feel better," Shepard said. "At least now I know she can't beat me."

"I don't know, Shepard," Garrus purred, breathing in the scent of hair, sweat, and blood. It was so raw and so purely Shepard that Garrus could happily remain engulfed in it all day. "She pulled a knife on you."

"And, I would have handed it back to her, along with her ass, had she come at me with it," Shepard said, shivering as Garrus' twitching nose tickled against her ear.

"I'm sure she has no idea why you challenged her," Garrus laughed.

"But you know, right?" Shepard sighed, leaning into the warmth of his chest.

"You were feeling territorial?"

"Damn right."