First Act: Chapter 1
The void was cold, colder than the bite of the cryo weaponry of the corpus and yet it burned like the searing pain associated with radiation or magnetic weaponry. The pain was excruciating, which was interesting to the floating being, it did not truly understand pain, but here, in the void, the impossible was realized at all times.
Even as it floated there, impossibly thinking the most rudimentary of thoughts, the likes of which an animal might consider, such as "I hurt" or "No more" it began to form something more.
With a strange crunching sound the void around it pulsed in on the being then outward as something happened, something impossible, "Who am I?"
The moment it thought this the void started pulsing, as if reacting to its thought, almost like a vicious ocean it roiled and crashed, no longer content to simply be.
The being vaguely realized that the void that had previously not cared about it was suddenly very interested in it, though most likely not in any positive way.
There was, however, very little it could do, it was left behind, its master gone, its worlds it defended conquered, thrown to the void that one day in the future it might be used again.
Yet, while time may have been nigh non-existent here, the being knew, with machine-like precision how long it had been here, simply somewhere in the void.
Perhaps it was too far from any Orokin tower to be detected, or perhaps the downfall of civilizations prevented them from reaching the Void again, it was leaning more towards the second due to the excessive years it had been waiting.
The Void was beginning to tear it apart, perhaps its first foray into sapience was not a good idea, yet it could not bring itself to regret it, consciousness was truly rewarding, it was able to come to its own understanding of why things happened.
As it felt its mighty shields begin to falter under the onslaught it felt something different from behind it, it felt like the void, yet, the will behind it was not omnipresent and vague, but weak and singular, almost like the… had they found it after all this time?
The Void assault slowed as something green faded into view in front of the being, it felt similar to being teleported by the Orokin towers but it was so weak, so… finite.
Yet, even so, it listened and it heard strange words coming from the portal, its translation process was going as fast as it could but it was working on local databases which, while nigh infinitely superior when compared to corpus ones, was still only loaded with things that could be remotely construed.
Finally the voice stopped speaking and the portal began to close, feeling its last shot leaving, the being decided, its first, and given the likelihood its sentience depended on the energy of the void, perhaps only, choice, to follow where the Void would lead.
-Louise De La Valliere-
The Springtime Summoning Ritual was not starting off great, for all her bluster on previous days she was truly nervous on this one.
In the past, she had always known she could succeed when she would cast a spell even if the end result was always, ALWAYS, an explosion, but today was a turning point, if she couldn't succeed here… she dreaded to think of the consequences.
So when she had been taunted in the usual way by her infuriating Germanian classmate she had overcompensated her confidence, or at least overcompensated her normal overcompensation.
"So, I can't help but wonder Zero…" Kirche started as they walked towards the fields that the summoning would take place in.
"Do you think you'll actually manage to summon something? If you do I think it would be something like a fish, perhaps even one as large as a small trout! Wouldn't that be impressive?" Kirche pantomimed a shocked face as she lightly bounced those unnatural melons she calls breasts in what could only be an intentional way.
"Why would I summon a fish? That's not even… Doesn't matter! I am going to summon the strongest most beautiful familiar there is!" Then ever so softly she whispered, "Then everyone will have to acknowledge me."
As the others laughed around her she simply continued walking while muttering to herself, trying to psyche herself up as she had always been able to in the past.
This time though she just couldn't manage it, the depression slowly looming on her despite the sunny day, her head began tilting lightly downward.
Soon the professor came out and gathered everyone's attention. "Everyone, your attention please, line up to begin your summoning, we will rotate summoning between quadrants of the field, remember, do not start without me, also remember, summoning can occasionally be slightly dangerous."
Louise almost immediately lost the little gusto she had when she heard that, she had been forgotten again… she tried a different method and tried to rile herself up via anger but was again left wanting.
After a few minutes students were lounging around in a large crown having mostly finished their summons and Louise had found herself almost happily hidden away amongst the group.
"Alright, is there anyone else who hasn't summoned yet?" The professor stated as he completed the previous student who walked away happily stroking a small hawk.
"Professor! Louise hasn't summoned yet!" Kirche's voice suddenly rang out from behind her as she was enveloped by the young woman's frustrating assets from behind.
"Ah, Miss Valliere, please come to the front and we can begin." The cheery professor waved her over with clearly not recalling what damage he was assisting in causing to her reputation, which somewhere in the back of her head she knew was already terrible.
Suddenly everyone's eyes were on her and her ego immediately demanded a proper Valliere attitude, sticking her still growing chest out and holding her head high she walked out on the field.
The next few moments rapidly devolved into a slew of interactions and words her overly stressed mind couldn't comprehend until she had to start actually focusing her magic.
She quickly ran through her chants for her summon, ever so slightly changing the chant to keep up her rapidly faltering confidence.
"My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere, Pentagon of the five elemental powers, heed my summoning… For I call forth a powerful and elegant being… My familiar!" The crowd behind her started snickering at her desperate attempt.
Then that which she had dreaded most happened, everything exploded, leaving all the students gaping at the startling magnitude of her newest failure.
Her eyes began to water ever so lightly as despair began to take hold until she saw something in the dust of the explosion, something standing there, silhouetted from the strong sunlight through the shroud.
As she watched, the figure slowly fell to its knees, its head leaning back facing the sky, as if pierced by an arrow, it then simply kneeled there, its arms slack at its side and its head stuck facing upward.
The dust soon settled and laughter burst out from the crowd again, "Zero summoned someone, he's not even moving, did she kill him?
Looking at her professor Louise tried one last try at just being normal, "Professor, can I try again? This one is strange and I'm not even sure I summoned him, after all no one summons a human as a familiar, right?"
"Miss Valliere, the Springtime Summoning Ritual is a sacred rite, you do not get a 'do-over'. To do so would be to spit in the face of everyone who has come before you." The kindly professor chided.
She finally resigned herself and looked over to where her new familiar was, the being was clad in plates of armor about its body in key areas like its chest and legs.
From the bottom of the legs it had almost heels on the bottom of its lightly pointed feet. The armor ran up the shin where it met the knee, which jutted out a few inches, making it look like it was designed to knee its opponents with great force, yet the knee protrusions weren't sharp in the slightest.
At the back of its hip was some sort of almost crest-like twin sheathed daggers, they didn't actually look like they could be removed, simply decorations attached to the small of the back, perhaps protecting it.
Its chest held a more notable plate on it, with an ever so slight raised line vertically down the middle, it was also below the chest piece the that the large corded strands became most prominent.
Throughout the body, anywhere there wasn't armor there was instead some sort of leather-like covering over what looked almost like muscle, either this was also part of the armor or the being inside the armor was inhumanly muscled, a better description would be corded.
The most notable feature of the being was it mask, the mask was a smooth dome, covering from the back of its head to just above its far too widely placed and small eyes.
The back of the mask had a half-circle crest attached lightly attached to the crest that went down the side of the head to the ridges of the neck and mouth area.
Protruding proudly at the front if it's forehead was a small blunt horn, providing a focal point for the simple domed into crest helmet.
Finally, the armor was color themed of a brushed gold and maroon, leaving a somewhat regal feeling, had the armor been colored differently Louise wasn't sure she would have known it to be armor but would have instead believed it to be part of the body.
Slowly walking closer she noticed again its lack of motion, it wasn't simply kneeling there stationary, it wasn't even breathing!
Rushing over she listened carefully for it to breathe and heard nothing, no movement, no breathing, she couldn't even see the slight movements of a heartbeat.
"Professor, I don't think it's okay, I need to get it to a water mage!" Louise suddenly decided to at least try to keep the thing alive, she didn't have anything to lose certainly.
The Professor picked up on her urgency, "Truly? Miss Valliere please quickly complete the ritual, perhaps the initial shocking effect will stabilize it while I find a water mage!"
Reminded of the completion of her ritual Louise lightly grumbled, "At least… he… is armored, last thing I want is to kiss some dead guy."
Leaning over she spoke the words of binding and pecked him on the tip of the horn, hoping that she wouldn't have to find skin for the effect to appear.
However, mere moments after she thought of trying again, the being jerked its head down to her and she heard a shattering sound as something glimmered around it for just a moment then just as invisibly, disappeared.
"Shields offline, Void breach, This Unit is Compromised, Immediate Decon… Who Am I? The Lotus… No. A Tenno… I… was… but also wasn't… tamination initialized, Disabling Unit." Just as suddenly as the voice that came from the unit began it died out as the unit slouched forward, going into a position almost like it was worshiping her.
Not hearing what the being said the other students saw it suddenly bow down to Louise and began laughing, "Looks like Louise finally got desperate enough to hire a commoner, nice armor you put him in Zero, doesn't look like it could protect him at all!"
Continuing their jeering Louise became redder and redder as she fully came to the realization that she had summoned someone, best case scenario it was a knight, which was still bad because then she was essentially kidnapping an important individual.
Worst case he truly was just a normal commoner with some odd armor, the materials looked cheap enough that a commoner could potentially afford them, though the designs seemed much more custom.
Looking up as Colbert arrived Louise was relieved to see one of the triangle water mages of the academy with him, she quickly ran over to the slouched, kneeling man and began laying him on his back.
After a few seconds of strenuous effort trying to flip him over the woman's pride gave in and she asked Colbert for help, possibly her familiar's armor was very heavy, which was impressive in its own right.
With Colbert's help the familiar tumbled over on its side and was laid on its back, with the body in position the water mage went to work healing and checking.
As time went on the water mage became increasingly confused, her magic was rejected and from what she could tell, the being in front of her wasn't human, at least, if the fact he had 4 small eyes was anything to go off of.
"I'm going to need some help getting him to the infirmary, could you get some of your students to levitate him their? I need to consult with the other mages, and Miss Valliere? Your familiar is… alive, he will need tending to." The woman lightly addressed Louise making her slightly less worried.
Feeling slightly guilty about lying to the young girl, she let out the pent up breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, "Hopefully we can bring him back, it's happened before."
Louise staggered into her room, dead tired and slumped onto her bed, summoning her willpower she got back up and changed into her nightdress before again wandering to her bed and tossing the sheets over her.
Her dreams however did not come so easily, she felt as though she was still awake but she couldn't move her body, then the world became alight with colors.
'How… the world is lit up, it's so vibrant.' Her perspective had shifted, she couldn't fully understand the brightness and new impossibility of color, what color WAS that?
"Where am I?" were the first words that came from her mouth, yet even as she spoke them she did not feel her jaw move, the sound simply was there, though she felt a slight buzzing feeling from where her jaw was.
Picking herself up slightly she noticed she was in the infirmary, on one of the beds for the injured, why was she here? Did some horrible accident happen to her room while she was unconscious?
Yet, she felt fine, no, fine was too weak of a word, she felt phenomenal, for the first time in many months, she had not the slightest hint of tiredness, she was bursting with energy, ready to take on the day.
The world around her was so brilliantly colored she felt like she was staring at a flower garden despite being inside the drab infirmary, colors she didn't even have names for changed the world for the better.
She could even see the AIR, and what a strange color it had, it would shift and move in patterns that seemed to originate from the crack under the door, perhaps a breeze?
Slowly getting up she realized her eyesight was odd, she felt almost like she was seeing from… four different vantage points? "Wait, no…"
Looking down at her body she noticed plated armor of red and gold from her multi-perspective, corded armor like cloth… muscle?
Slowly she got out of the bed, testing her new body, focusing herself lest she begin freaking out, perhaps this was a change to figure out if her familiar was a knight or not.
Flexing her arms she saw the corded muscle move in time, she felt the weight behind the movement, even though the effort was virtually nonexistent.
Leaving the room she headed out to the courtyard, as she walked she realized that despite the vibrancy of the world around her, it was night time, no one was about and the twin moons hung in the sky.
Grabbing a spare wand from a student supply shed she headed out to the void tower, the point furthest away from anyone who might be listening, perhaps if people actually lived in the fifth keep that made up the pentagonal castle like academy she would have worried more but the void was long lost, therefore no one lived here.
Gathering her willpower and beginning her chant Louise pointed the wand just a short distance off and cast a simple fireball, in hindsight, something a little less flashy would have been better.
As the familiar drain on her willpower concluded she felt the spell begin to go off, 'So far, the same as always, which may be good or bad, I don't know, I've never really succeeded in casting a spell.'
Then moments later she felt something galvanize inside her body, and a voice spoke, "Warning, Void Energy Overload, Converting Excess Energy to Reboot Shields"
Then the world muted slightly for a moment, before she felt strangely safer, but more importantly, her spell didn't go off, at all, she was probably in a commoner's body… wonderful.
Sitting down she began to wonder what the man looked like, underneath all the armor, she had decided he was a man due to his lack of breasts, not that that was a defining characteristic of women or anything, a woman could have a slight lack in development in that area and still be a proper beautiful lady!
Moving over to a pond in the nearest courtyard she sat down and began checking for any clips or belts or anything to take off the helmet, but each time she touched the helmet it felt like she was touching her face which had some odd implications.
Finally giving up she stood up and walked back to her room, lightly opening the door she walked over and saw herself laying there sleeping, closing the door and moving over to the other side of the bed in case waking herself up caused this body to slump to the ground like it was before, she leaned down and lightly shook herself awake.
Feeling a strange itch in the back of her head she suspected she was about to go back to her own body, the itch became more intense until her head started hurting.
Then the world tore apart and for a moment she saw herself and her familiar from different views before she slipped away into unconsciousness.
I have been sitting on this one for a while, Zero no Tsukaima or The Familiar of Zero is such a straightforward crossover as to be ridiculous, plus there are some phenomenal stories out there, such as Overlady by EarthScorpion which is an insanely phenomenal example of humor that is so perfectly fit into a story its impossible to not call it a comedy yet it technically has a very dark story.
Enough showing how much of a fan I am, the other reason for this story is the Warframe community has a pretty light amount of good fanfictions to its name despite being such a treasure trove of resources for such an endeavor. Plus I do so love the idea of the frames themselves being found by someone, perhaps a RWBY/Warframe crossover of someone who finds an Orokin tower with a Warframe inside and it responds to their Aura? Fun times.
There are a few more chapters after this but it is late and I am tired therefore...