Chapter Text
“Gratifying to know that the measures I developed in approximately thirty-seven seconds actually worked,” Regor huffed, stalking through his lab toward Adara and Coriola. “Your efforts are appreciated child, I’ll have you returned to your mother before the end of the cycle.” He sighed loudly as he sat on the floor, sprawling out, the sound of his armor grinding against the metal floor sending shivers down the roots of Adara’s teeth.
“Not goin’ anywhere,” Coriola muttered, crossing her arms, “I promised to stick with Adara.”
“You, or the Murmur rattling around your skull, child?” he asked gently, almost unable to see the little Warframe over his pectoral muscles.
“Both of us, Tyl,” she snapped, “And the Murmur has a name, she would ask you, kindly, to use it.”
“With pleasure, Andy-Pandy-Pandora,” he sighed, sounding genuinely exhausted. “Oh, hello,” he sighed as Adara scooted over to him on her knees, face completely flat. “Am I to receive a beating?”
Adara’s trembling fist rested gently against the center of his mask. Her head fell forward, eyes staring blankly at the floor. He’d dropped her, he’d left her, after being so kind. Her head ticked slightly. “Sometimes kindness doesn't work,” she mouthed, unwilling to use her voice.
“Unfortunately,” he grumbled, “As much as I wish I could coddle you, child, the directive of fate demands a harder path.” He winced as she brought her fist down on his mask, making him curl up around his head. “Mercy!” he cried as she set about him, none of her slaps as strong as the first, that was the only one meant truly with malice. “I cannot set you upon the proper path if I’ve been reduced to sludge by your furious toddler slaps! ACK!” He rolled onto his stomach, trying to crawl away as Coriola joined the fray.
The mirth came to a sharp and sudden stop as Regor bumped into a set of legs, their owner having made their way into his sanctum without being seen, or heard. He looked up, Adara and Coriola following suit to see a particularly rattled Leona’vaya flanked by Cressa and a particularly sheepish looking Gurt.
“Yo, boss, bad news,” the former Drifter growled.
“Do I pay you to bring me good news?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
...
“Gods, I can taste her…” Qin growled, teeth gritting as she stumbled to a stop, something in her leg poping loudly. “Rose, drag her by the neck if you have to, just get her out of here…”
Seija let out a strangled wheeze as she slumped to the ground, dropped almost carelessly from Qin’s shoulder. Her cries, faded quickly as Rose dragged her by the wrist, a thick mist beginning to claw its way from the floor. Qin flinched as Seija let out a near incomprehensible scream, the torrent of gibberish capped off with a very familiar pair of words.
“Mara Lohk?”
“Right, kiddo,” Qin muttered, sneer tugging at her lips as the mist began to shudder, thrumming to the beat of heavy footsteps. “Pride over everything, prove her right,” she whispered, tugging the mask from thin air, quickly pressing it over her face. The relief it brought was rather dulled by the furious roar that blew up the hallway toward her, carried upon a hot and humid wind. “Pride,” she whispered, “Pride…” She crossed her arms, throwing her hips out as the shape of Margulis rounded a corner, standing framed in the spiked archway that crowned the vaulted hall.
“What did you do to my daughter!?” she screamed, voice breaking. A pale glow emanating from her, its source hidden by the thick layer of mist that had risen up to Qin’s waist.
“She got in the way!” Qin yelled back, “Shoulda known to leave well enough away, eh?”
“Don’t you dare place the blame for this upon her!” The woman’s body was encapsulated in that bitter teal light, the light of the Void, of the Sentient. So Natah had come out to play then… “Don’t you dare blame my daughter for any of this!”
A wall of boiling hot air slammed into Qin, throwing her hair back, ripping at her airy dress. “Sorry won’t cut it, Natah,” she growled, talking a step forward, “Not with you, not for this. You want blood, Kiddo, and I’ll give you blood!”
...
“Pooh,” Qin pouted slightly as she sat back down on the side of the bed, staring glumly at the floor. “Never gonna get to talk to her,” she sighed, laying back.
“She’s a busy woman,” Valkyr sighed, cracking her eyes open as Qin rolled fully onto the bed. “Can’t always expect to corner her.”
“Yeah, I know, I know…” she sighed quietly, staring up at the ceiling. “Wanna go for a walk?” she asked, “I’m goin’ a bit stir-crazy just taking naps up here.”
Valkyr let out a little groan as she rolled over, arm wriggling its way down between the mattress and wall. “I thought you’d never ask. I even bummed some good shoes off Nile before she left.”
“Nile left!?” Qin blurted.
“You were asleep, and she was worried you’d try and eat her trachea if she tried to wake you,” Valkyr said sheepishly.
Qin licked her lips, looking conflicted for a moment. “But I like her, I wouldn't do that to a friend,” she let out a little squeak as Valkyr gave her a small push. “Wegh!” she rolled off the bed, letting out a little squeak as she landed. She pouted dramatically as Valkyr threw her legs over the bedside, “Meany.”
“Always and forever,” Valkyr grinned, dropping a pair of well-worn boots on the ground, their rough and stained leather already standing at odds with the ivory and grey granite that tiled the floor, dust notwithstanding. She slipped her feet in, lacing the footwear tightly, “C’mon, no dawdling, I got energy I need to spend.” She glanced at the Warframe, her Warframe, sat limply upon a chair in the corner. “Hey,” she murmured, smile falling.
“What?” Qin asked, brushing herself down as she stood, staring at the Warframe as well.
She shook her head quickly, “I’ll tell you about it on the way, I just need to get outta this dust.” As if for emphasis she let out a loud sneeze, garnering a squawk from down the hall. “It’d also be nice to let them have some time alone.” She gave Qin a sympathetic smile as she rocket to her feet, looking a touch ridiculous with her mishmash of clothing and footwear. “Gods, shoes are wonderful,” she muttered, “never worn ‘em before.”
Qin giggled quietly. “There’s a lotta things you’ve never experienced before,” she hopped to her feet, cracking her neck loudly, “so much fun yet to be had.” She made a questionable motion with her hands, garnering a gentle swat from Valkyr.
“C’mon, you menace,” she laughed, almost dragging Qin out into the hall, “no dawdling now!”
“Hush’m!” Yonta called as they passed by her room.
Qin and Valkyr walked in silence for a short while, steps bouncing down the spiral staircase as each chewed upon a multitude of questions.
“Earlier, before you came back to us,” Valkyr started hesitantly, “I… had a rather odd experience, it kinda opened my eyes to something… something I’ve never really thought about.”
“Like what?” Qin asked, pausing, watching Valkyr descend a few steps more before resuming, “and what kinda experience did you have?” She held her arms out for balance as she jumped down those few steps, landing next to Valkyr as she herself paused.
“I don’t have a name,” she whispered, looking over as Qin flinched slightly. “So many others have names… but, those of us from the Paradox, we… We never gave ourselves one.”
“Yeah…It seems like,” Qin frowned slightly, eyes wandering down the curved staircase. “I lost my name in the Paradox… who I was, as if we were all meant to be cutouts or facsimiles,” she took a breath, “got any name ideas?”
“Jeff,” Valkyr said bluntly, letting out a cackling laugh as she began bounding down the staircase, Qin scrambling after her.
“I am not calling my wife Jeff!” Qin howled, “Get back here and lemme make you rethink your life choices young lady!”
...
Shattered screams, sickening blows, the groan of warping stone and melting metal all echoed deafeningly through the laboratory. Glass shattered, furniture was upturned and turned to powder, tile was shredded into sand as Natah blew through the lab in pursuit of Qinoha. She had fled, of course that coward had fled! All that talk of proudly accepting punishment took to its heels as soon as the pain became too great!
Smoke curled from the Sentient’s fingers as small shreds of gelatinous flesh stuck beneath her fingernails. Splashes of silver blood carved small rivers up and down Natah’s legs, spots burned through her clothing, gashes burned into her cheeks and about her lips after she had ill-advisedly tried to rip Qinoha’s spiteful throat out. A rasping scream tore from Natah’s throat as her nose twitched.
She’d passed this way, the stink of her fear and the rank malodor of her cowardice were strong enough to make the Sentient’s nose run! “Qinoha!” she howled, feet lifting from the floor as she sped through the lab, following the slug trail of dread cast by her opponent. “You’ve not yet atoned for what you’ve done to my daught-!” Her words were cut off sharply, an unfathomably massive hand slammed through the wall beside the raging Sentient, fingers larger than her entire body clamping around her.
A ragged cry was all she could muster as she was torn from the laboratory and thrown bodily into an apocalyptic landscape of sharp angular stone. Pale dust swirled around her as she stared up at the Vessel, its normally placid face twisted with pain, normally still chest heaving. She bared her teeth, sending more of the choking dust flying into the air as she vented a scrap of her energy, throwing herself forward.
“You will not hide from me, you bitch!” she screeched, a sickly glow building behind her teeth as the Vessel lifted a hand, pointing a finger at her.
It was her stubbornness that doomed her, in the end. The sickly blue glow coalescing around the gargantuan fingertip went ignored as Natah let fly, cutting a thick smoking scar across the Vessel’s chest. Her hiss of satisfaction was lost as the Vessel, unworried by the wound, dropped its thumb, sending a pillar of energy larger than the fuselage of a Grineer Galleon howling through the laboratory, punching through the side of Deimos, blowing through the void of space and impacting upon the face of Mars. A crater, large enough for the Infested moon to rest in, was gouged into the surface of the russet planet, setting its surface awash with sandstorms that would not settle for decades.
“And so it goes,” Qin whispered hollowly, standing upon the Vessel’s narrow shoulder, slowly dropping to her knees as she stared at the vast chunk of the moon she had erased from existence. “I’m so sorry, ma, I’m so sorry,” silver tears streaked down her face as she watched a massive chunk of the lab collapse in the distance, the roar of it washing over her several seconds later. “I’m so sorry…” She curled up, trying to make herself as small as possible as corrosive steam began to leak from her skin, fraying and melting her clothing.
“You missed, child.”
...
“Ack!” Qin tripped and tumbled down the remaining few stairs to the Necralisk as the ground beneath her and Valkyr’s feet trembled and shook violently. “What in the world!?” she yelled, throwing herself to the side as a chunk of the ceiling crumbled and fell, shattered right where her foot would have been. “The f*ck’s goin’ on!?” she yowled as Valkyr hauled her up, dragging her across the floor toward the entrance to the Sanctum.
“I dunno! Let’s run toward it anyway!” she roared as they stormed down the hallway.
More dust and detritus sprinkled from the shadowed ceiling as the entire building let out a second shudder, not quite as strong as the first. Valkyr let out a small yelp as her foot caught on a crack in the ground, sending her tumbling. Qin’s heels skimmed painfully against the ground as she tried to stop, momentum and a fine layer of dust carrying her forward. She managed to scramble to her feet, dragging Valkyr up.
“Gonna carry ya,” Qin huffed, already panting as she hauled Valkyr over her shoulder. “You promised me I got to be the strong one, right?”
“I appreciate it,” Valkyr seethed, “I think I broke my toe.”
“Nile gave you bad boots,” Qin muttered, chewing on her words carefully. “Want me to go back for the Frame?” she asked, hesitating on the lip of the massive spiral staircase.
“We’re already almost there,” Valkyr huffed, “I can deal with it.” She kicked the railing for emphasis, crying out. “I’ve never had a broken bone before,” she admitted, fingers wrapping tightly into Qin’s dress.
“It shows,” she whispered, sitting awkwardly to let Valkyr rest on the top stair, “I’ll be right back,” her eyes lost their focus for a moment, “I promise.”
“I’m holding you to that,” Valkyr whispered, recognizing that look in her eyes, “Bad foot or not…”
Qin smiled widely, throwing herself backward down the stairs, falling into a well of shadow before she could impact.
It was like diving into a rapids, the Void was enraged, screaming its mindless fury, sending the many threads that floated across its normally still surface into disarray and tumult. Qin was battered and buffeted as she tried desperately to cling onto the weak void signature of Valkyr’s Warframe. Every time she had her proverbial fingers wrapped about that threadbare strand of energy, it was ripped from her grasp as another wave crashed over her. It was unconscionable, the amount of agony the Void was in… It was bewildering that Qin was not feeling it.
“What has that fool done?” she whispered, something in her gut sinking as she heard the drone of the Voidtongue rising about her, the Void illuminated a ghastly blue. “What monster did he make?” She tore herself from the Void, landing not far from Valkyr, her skin smoking, hair smoldering. “I’m walking,” she growled, storming back into the Necralisk, leaven ashen footsteps in her wake.
“Qin?” Valkyr whispered as a large chunk of her fleeing wife’s skin fell away, clearly visible by the graces of her disintegrating clothing, leaving a sooty gash across her back, thin lines of venting energy swirling into the air. “What in the…” she tried to claw back to her feet as she caught the faintest glimpse of grey stone through the gash…
...
Natah slammed into the stone wall, smashing through it easily. She sped madly through the laboratory, smashing through equipment, walls, windows, everything, the force of the Vessel’s throw far surpassing anything that was physically possible. Physics had no say when the Void decided to involve itself.
A ragged scream tore from the Sentient as she vented massive amounts of energy from her shattering body, slowing herself. Her heels dug into the floor of a massive manufacturing hall, an unfinished Vessel, identical to the one Qinoha was inhabiting, leering down at her. How Natah wished she could pilot one, dish out the same agony Qin was so deftly imparting. Falling debris, stone, twisted metal, shattered glass, all buffeted her as she thundered through the ragged tunnel her body had created, such a blow would not invalidate her, she had so much more anger left to vent!
Clouds of vicious exhaust poured from her body as she tore back into the impromptu arena Qinoha had created, eyes dancing across the battered stone landscape, seeing no trace of the Vessel. A crack sounded from above her, heralding the approach of a gargantuan chunk of stone, the sound of it shattering echoing across the impossible vista carved by the Murmur’s encroachment into reality. Natah’s eyes turned skyward, watching the immense pale body of the Vessel climbing easily up the face of the great stone wall that seemed to stretch upward into infinity.
There was only one thing the woman could possibly be making for.
“Do not dare,” Natah whispered, “Don’t you dare!”
...
Loid let out a tired sigh, watching Kaelli fiddle slowly with the innards of Pom-2, quietly whispering reassurances to the unfeeling technology. “Are you sure?” he asked, already knowing the answer he was to receive.
“Eh, probably,” Kaelli replied, “We’re offloading a lot onto the main processing unit, stuff it ain’t designed to handle, bu-u-u-ut… we should at least be able to monitor and check, even if we can’t say anything back,” they paused as they carefully placed an adhesive strip over the copper edge connectors of a salvaged board from the secondary tower. It went in with a sharp clunk, Kaelli seething quietly. “I hate when stuff does that. Alrighty,” they carefully withdrew their hands from the body of the computer, roughly setting the dull beige case back overtop. “Lesse if anything pops, eh?” They reached around the side of the computer, flipping a large orange power switch.
“I only hope you know what you’re doing, child?” Loid groaned, “I have no desire to send those mad Tenno back to salvage an entire unit.” He rubbed at his eyes, leaving his spectacles lopsided, too tired to straighten them. “Success or not, I need a rest.”
Kaelli giggled, smiling widely, clearly not hearing the beleaguered old Archimedean as the monitor lit up. “Wouldja look at that,” they whispered as some sort of interface bloomed across the curved glass display, a small cursor buzzing almost anxiously in its center.
“But can it connect with the Vessels?” Loid murmured, carefully pushing Kaelli to the side, grabbing the creaking plastic mouse as he guided the cursor toward a flashing icon. “Clearly it has a read on something, but what?” He clicked the mouse several times, Pom-2’s fans kicking into life as the poor harvested processor was pushed to the breaking point. “We have,” the floor seemed to conveniently shake as he made the realization, “A Vessel is active in the lower levels.”
“We’ll deal with that later,” Kaelli said hurriedly, “What about the one up here? What did Qin do to it?”
He froze for a moment, tired mind fully processing what was said. “Y-yes, a moment.” He clicked on several more nondescript buttons on the cluttered interface, typing something quickly as a text field appeared. “It’s…” His eyes unfocused as a warning notification grew across the center of the screen, “It’s active,” he whispered. The stool he’d been sat on squeaked loudly as he pushed it back, eyes glued to the massive Vessel as it leered down at the pair. “It’s been active this whole time. There’s somebody in there...”
His breath caught in his throat as the door to the laboratory transport module hissed open, a single set of limping footsteps bouncing up the hall. Rose let out a loud squeak as she dropped to her knees, trying to drag Seija along, both Warframes jerking and twitching worryingly. Kaelli had already began sprinting toward the struggling pair as Loid finally returned to himself.
There was no way the two should have been back so soon… Not unless something happened.
“Mmmh!” Rose let out a shapeless grunt as she separated from her Warframe, sprawling out on the floor, rolling away from Seija as thin lines of steam began rising from both Frames.
Kaelli diverted their sprint, hauling Rose to her feet and dragging her away. Their attention was snatched by Seija as she let out a low groan, spitting herself from the twitching Garuda. “Gods damn it,” they grunted, depositing Rose someplace comfortable, the floor, and turned back around. “C’mon, Councilor,” they growled, nose wrinkling as they ran through a cloud of concentrated stench.
“Don’t touch me,” Seija whined as Kaelli wrapped a wiry hand around her wrist, dragging her away from her Warframe, her boots leaving thin streaks of dark rubber as they dragged against the ground. “You’ll become tainted.”
“I’ll add it to the list of my other problems, eh?” Kaelli huffed, resting Seija next to Rose, nearly straddling the delirious Tenno, trying to look her in the eye. “What the hell happened?”
“I’ve seen it,” Seija gasped, “the Indifference,” her back arched slightly. “I’ve seen the fury that hides behind that placid face…” Her eyes darted across the ceiling seeing things that weren’t there. “He’s incensed that we’ve neglected our promise to him… we forgot, Orokin… We forgot our promise.” Seija’s words were lost as the ground shook again. The Vessel, deep within the bowels of Albrecht’s laboratory had awoken, and had imparted its lasting sting.
Kaelli looked back at the Vessel as the great body finally began to move, settling in its cradle as the entirety of Deimos shuddered. Brass fittings and chunks of plaster fell from the ceiling, floors cracked, walls collapsed. A far window broke, sending a bitter rotten wind blowing into the Sanctum, pale sand beginning to leak through the fissures in the floors and walls.
The headache inducing drone of the Voidtongue began to rise from the dark corners of the Sanctum. Seija rocking from side to side, eyes rolling as she stared into those dark spaces, shuddering voice whispering back, as if responding. Broken Voidtongue spilled from her mouth, gaining volume as the ground continued to shudder.
Loid’s cry was lost in the cacophonous din. The Vessel… its smile had vanished, its neck had braced, its body was moving of its own volition. It was inhabited… but by whom!?
