The Loki who cried Wolf

Prologue

Ever since they woke up from centuries of undisturbed slumber, many Tenno desperately tried to recover the memories that faded over the years. Lotus, the Tenno's guide to all-out war against the savage Grineer and the cunning Corpus constantly kept Tenno in the field: whether it was assassinating high level targets, sabotaging enemy equipment, rescuing enemy deserters or captured Tenno, capturing intelligence, or extracting Orokin technology. Because of this, some simply ignored their misfortunes and started anew. Close to all Tenno had forgotten their former names and instead were issued one to four digit numbers as means of identification.

While the Tenno obeyed Lotus with spiritual fervor and absolute obedience, it slowly occurred to many that they no longer had adequate amount of time to meditate and reflect on what their past lives could have been and why things were the way they are now. But they were Tenno. A race whose foundations of their very culture were founded on loyalty, chivalry, spirituality and war. But for one Nyx, the flames of war and her restless mind began to tear at her very soul and her relationships with those dearest to her.

Chapter One

"Infested incoming", Lotus quietly warned her Tenno. The message was relayed to 126-Loki and 247-Nyx on the Grineer mining ship that had become a breeding ground for infested. Her warning was followed quickly by the all too familiar deafening roar that echoes around the narrow hallway. Nyx looked behind her and sighed.

"They just keep coming huh?" Loki replied as he dropped the empty clip from his Braton automatic rifle onto the ground. It fell to the floor with a soft clang as he pushed in another clip and looked over to his partner. "I should have been teamed with an Ember" he teased.

The Nyx turned around to glare at her partner, even though she knew that he couldn't see her facial expression. It wasn't always like this. Nyx used to be partnered with her good friend, agent 313-Saryn. One day, her superiors ordered that she be partnered with this Loki, and her partner was assigned to agent 494-Frost. She didn't know why she was forced to separate with her partner -once paired, Tenno rarely ever were assigned to others unless of injuries or lack of cooperation and/or trust between the two agents, qualities that Nyx and Saryn did not share- and when she asked her commanding officers, they simply told her that it was 'for the better', whatever that meant. She didn't believe that she could work better with anyone else, but accepted the sudden change. It had been a little over a year since they were paired up.

All Tenno fought in Orokin-created WarFrames that not only fit their fighting style, but it closely matched their personality and character as well. Nyx and her other fellow Tenno who chose the way of the Nyx were calm, rational, logical. They had a sharp mind and were mostly reserved. However, the same couldn't be said for those who chose Loki. The Nyx looked at her partner. He was in the middle of checking his Ether sword, making sure that the modifications he attached to it earlier were still functioning. Those who chose Loki tended to be manipulative, arrogant and deceptive.

Her partner was a bit different. In addition to those three qualities, this particular Loki was an extreme jokester. He frequently taunted her in numerous ways. Whenever she found a stash of credits or ammunition, and Loki was behind her, if he had the energy, he would use his switch teleport skill. Switch teleport was one of Loki's skills that swapped the users' location with the designated target. So in these situations, Loki would be in the room with all the plunder as Nyx would be sent back. When she got there, Loki would have gotten all the good items, leaving her the less desirable items. He would also do the same, if she were just about to reach the extraction point. He would switch teleport with her and boast childishly that he was first and Nyx was second or third and sometimes even fourth. He even had the nerve to brag to her face when their WarFrames told them the statistical scores of their performance in the mission. They worked well together, tactically and strategically, it's just that she found her partner to be annoyingly talkative and rude.

"Nyx. Nyx. I hope you didn't use Mind Control on yourself!"

Nyx blinked. Loki was right in front of her, waving his hands in front of her helmet. She sighed. It bothered her because she never knew why she paid him so much attention. If anything that the centuries worth of cryosleep took away from her besides her memories, it was her discipline. She smacked his hand away.

"I did not" she replied sternly. "Honestly, can't we just do missions in peace?"

"Hey, not my fault a certain someone is spacing out" Loki said with a shrug. He looked past Nyx. "They're closing in". As soon as he finished his sentence, the doors at the end of the hallway swung open and a Ancient Disruptor stumbled through, its distorted and rotten body throbbed wildly. It roared a second time, and moments later the more agile Chargers and Runners appeared from behind it. Loki looked at Nyx and nodded. With that, Nyx ran towards the elevator, her Latron semi-automatic rifle clenched tightly in her hands.

The sound of Loki's Braton firing in controlled bursts illuminated the eerie corridor. "Changing mags" Loki said calmly despite the alarming rate in which he finished his magazine. With that, he turned around and sprinted towards the elevator that Nyx had already called for. Nyx held her breath and looked down the iron sights. Loki was incredibly fast. His particular WarFrame was the fastest of them all. Despite this, the Chargers were gaining on him. Loki ran past a row of metal containers on both sides of the hallways. The infested soon formed a single line as they pursued Loki.

At around 300 feet, Loki gave the thumbs up. Nyx unleashed a steady volley of her Latron downrange at the line Loki had made. He slid on his knees, avoiding the hail of lead. The lead charger was shot through the head, and instantly fell to the floor, the helmet of its Grineer Lancer host hit the floor with a loud crash. The other behind it tripped over the corpse and fell into a squirming mess. Loki reached about 100 feet of the elevator and activated a Decoy, which was a hologram of Loki himself, pistol in hand and everything. The Decoy started "shooting" downrange at the infested, which had already gotten back up and were back to their assault.

Loki slid next to Nyx and put a hand on her shoulder. "Miss me?" he chortled. Nyx swore that she could see that stupid grin of his through his damn helmet. She ignored his remark and continued shooting. The elevator's hum grew louder which meant that it was getting close.

"Looks like me needs my help." Loki quickly aimed and opened fire at the horde. The new lead was a Runner, an infested Corpus Crewman. It tackled the hologram and thrashed at the fake Loki violently. Others soon circled around it and the Hologram's shields depleted to zero in no time. The Hologram soon faded, and once again, there was nothing between the charging infested and the two Tenno.

"Damn Grineer, you would think they would have faster elevators" Nyx muttered as she reloaded her rifle.

"That would be the Corpus" Loki replied as he transitioned from bursts to full automatic fire.

The Corpus were known for their advanced technology, while the Grineer were known for sheer force in numbers. Beep! The elevator hit the bottom floor and the doors opened loudly. Loki and Nyx slowly retreated backwards into the elevator while keeping up a steady rate of fire. The smoke cleared and Nyx held up her hand. Loki obeyed and held his fire. The corridor in front of them was clear. The infested on the floor were either dead or were dissolving into a sickening green pulp. Nyx sighed and dropped her Latron's magazine and fed a fresh one. She then let the rifle fall to her side and let her head dip.

The minute her and Loki set foot on the ship that would extract them, they would be briefed about their performance and would possibly be assigned to another mission the very next moment. In this moment of silence, she wished to have a few moments to herself to meditate. She used to be able to reach her calm state without the WarFrames help but lack of proper time to meditate by herself left her rusty and dull. Although it hurt her pride as a Tenno, she allowed it to slightly assist her.

This time, she used a form of Mind Control on herself. Mind Control's actual effects were that it penetrated the consciousness of a single enemy and made it fight other enemies, thinking itself as Tenno. However, Nyx aimed this technique inwards and instead of persuading herself she was Tenno, simply told her mind to relax.

Right before she closed her eyes, she saw the energy counter in the top right corner of her helmet's visor to decrease from 25 to 0. Nyx felt free. It felt as if she were back in the temple and she was wearing silk clothes instead of her WarFrame. She smiled. She valued spirituality more than any other Tenno. She opened her eyes again, and this time she was in the middle of a brook. She decided to sit down on a small patch of grass. The sound of the water gently passing by and the feeling of the sun's rays gently beaming down on her shoulders brought a single tear to her eyes.

Beep! The sound of the elevator came out of nowhere. No not now. Nyx pleaded. It was too late, she was being shaken by somebody. The brook soon disappeared from beneath her feet and soon she was brought violently back into reality.

"Nyx!" Loki shouted. "Snap out of it! We have infested!"

Nyx looked in front of her and saw that an Ancient Disruptor was trying to claw its way into the elevator. The elevator doors had already been ordered shut, but the Ancient's putrid flesh was keeping it from being shut. Loki jammed his Braton into the Ancient's torso and fired.

The Ancient gave a roar and knocked Loki away with its gigantic arm. He hit the elevator wall as Nyx watched in horror as the blue shield that protected Loki's fragile WarFrame shattered. His shields were at 0 and his health had dropped from a safe 300 to 150. The Ancient opened up its torso and absorbed the Braton rifle. Where the helmet on the infested Corpus Crewman used to be, were beady red and green eyes instead. They wandered from Loki to Nyx, who was leaned against the other side of the elevator, trembling. The Ancient leaned forwards, a pair of tentacles popped out of its head and reached towards Nyx. Blood and slime dripped from the infested. It inched closer and closer to Nyx, yet she was unable to do anything. Her fully loaded Latron rifle seemed to weigh more than anything. Am I going to die here?

"RRRAAHHH!" SLASH. The tentacles were severed inches away from her helmet. Nyx looked to her left to see Loki back on his feet with his Flame Ether drawn. He swung again, severing the second pair of tentacles that emerged from the Ancient's body. The Ancient let out a scream as it struggled to regenerate its lost limbs as well as keeping the elevator doors open. Loki roared and impaled the Ether deep into the Ancient's eyes. Nyx dropped her Latron and covered her eyes as Loki cut away at the Ancient. He used both hands as he pushed the blade up and down, effectively blinding the Ancient. It stumbled backwards, shrieking in pain, allowing the elevator doors to close slowly. Loki quickly pulled out his Lex magnum and fired a single shot through the Ancient's head, effectively destroying the brain. Soon it too, began to dissolve into a mushy green pulp. The elevator began to ascend to the loading bay. Loki dropped his sword and turned to Nyx.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded. Nyx had never heard him raise his voice like that. "Of all places possible, you wanted to meditate during a mission, and on top of that, an INFESTED SHIP?" Loki practically spat the last few words out. Nyx opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out but wild sobs. She curled up into a ball and put her hands over her face. A Tenno, crying. Loki let out a long sigh before kneeling next to Nyx. "Nyx" he began. His head drooped. "I'm-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you."

Nyx shook her head. "No, you're right" she whimpered. "Because of me we almost died". Loki wrapped his arms around her.

"It's okay" he said as he held her tightly. "We're both alive."

The elevator reached the top and it let out a soft Beep. The doors opened and in front of them were two Tenno. A Rhino and a Frost raised their Strun shotguns towards the elevator.

"Tenno?" the Frost asked cautiously. Behind him were a several other Tenno, waiting at the edge of the bay, waiting for extraction.

"Tenno" Loki replied. He took a step forward with Nyx in his arms.

"What about the Nyx?" the Rhino questioned, shotgun still pointed at the two. "What is the status of her WarFrame?"

"She's just unconscious", Loki replied with impatience. The Frost lowered his gun, but the Rhino remained firm.

"Let me examine the girl" he insisted. Loki rolled his eyes, not that anyone could see.

"NYX is fine, I checked her myself" Loki shot back, voice raised.

The Frost sighed. "Maybe you should just let him check" he said as he approached Loki.

Loki swore and drew his Ether. "If any of you lay a hand on her, you'll lose it" he snapped back.

The Rhino let out a sneer and approached Loki. The Ether's blade touched Rhino's chest with a tik and continued to scrape up against it until it reached his chin. "Got a lot of nerve coming from a Loki" he replied maliciously.

"Hey, drop it you two!" the Frost interrupted as he pushed himself between the sword and the Rhino. He turned to Loki. "I believe you-is she hurt?"

"No, she's fine" Loki murmured. "She just needs to rest" he concluded as he sheathed his Ether.

As he walked past the two Tenno, he could hear the Frost and Rhino arguing about Nyx.

He reached the platform with the other Tenno. There were four of them, which brought the total number of Tenno assigned to this ship to eight in total. The group of four stopped what they were doing and walked over. A Saryn and an Ember stood behind Loki while a Mag and an Excalibur stood behind Nyx.

"What's the matter with-? the Ember asked curiously before being silenced by the Excalibur.

Saryn put a hand on Loki's shoulder and gently squeezed before she escorted her chatty partner to a safe distance out of earshot range. The Excalibur kneeled down beside the unconscious Nyx and bowed.

"This is your partner?" he asked quietly.

"Yes." Loki replied.

"Do not be ashamed-" Excalibur stated slowly. He held up a hand when Loki twitched. "-but be proud of her."

"He is right, Loki. Nyx's are very emotional" Mag spoke up, her helmet's visor swirled with colors as she studied Nyx. "Their very power come directly from the mind. We Tenno fight with our guns and blades with our mind to guide us. Nyx must do all of that while using her mind as a weapon itself. "Those who choose Nyx have the heaviest burden of us all" Mag concluded. She gave a slight bow to Nyx, and then walked over to a very curious Ember.

"Extraction is ready. Good job Tenno" Lotus assured her agents. The Extraction ship entered through the plasma barrier separating the docking bay from space and opened its magnetic ports. One by one, the rest of the agents stepped into the mold, and the ship magnetized them in, securing them safely. Loki helped Nyx up and made sure she was secure before boarding last.

"Let's go home Tenno."


Author's Note

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