"Are you sure about this?"
Lihruh didn't turn to face Laestrihg. More accurately, Excalibur did not turn to face Chroma, for those were the Warframes each was using at the moment. Truthfully, Lihruh rarely changed from her Excalibur frame, preferring its versatility and power to any of the more specialized frames her clanmates tended towards.
"You trained her," she Sent back, not even pausing as she sorted through Steel Meridian files, looking for likely opponents in the coming Rathuum. Reassurance laced itself into the thoughts that came from her mind. "You should have more faith than any that she can pull it off."
"I know she can do it," Laestrihg Sent back a mix of exasperation and amusement. "I'm just worried about sending her in alone. We're allowed to bring a full cell of Tenno, I don't see why we wouldn't."
Lihruh paused in her sorting, a medic named Dok Thul at the top of the files, labelled as a primary tactical target. Not that his medical expertise or Lihruh's marking would matter in the end. She finally looked at Laestrihg, taking in the large green frame standing in the Dojo's great hall with her.
"It appears I've been unclear," Lihruh Sent, apologetic as well as reprimanding. Over their link, she Sent images of each Executioner the Rathuum could draw upon into Laestrihg's mind, flashing many at once and more in a cascade. Then, strategic overviews of potential arenas. As she thought of them, aspects of each were highlighted: the Executioners' infamous squad tactics, their specialized technology capable of resisting most Tenno powers and, in some cases, even causing quick and devastating damage to a Warframe. Finally, the layouts of the arenas, and the most damning condition of the Tenno's entry.
"We're to be drained of energy," Laestrihg asked incredulously.
Lihruh sent an affirmative. "It was the only way to get Kela de Thaym to agree to the switch. Steel Meridian had to be sure we would win, even while Kela was just as certain of our defeat."
"That's nothing a resourceful Tenno can't –"
"Their weapons," the Excalibur Sent, the undercurrent, "I am the leader, I have thought about this."
It was uncharacteristic of Laestrihg to protest his clan leader's commands. Similarly, it was uncharacteristic of Lihruh to interrupt him. Tensions were running high concerning the Rathuum, even through Tenno discipline.
"They're too powerful for most Warframes to stand long enough to take advantage of either Energy Siphon modifications or blue bursts. Even the Rage modification… even if you were willing to use something like that, there's no guarantee you would survive. No guarantee you would WIN, Laestrihg."
Her friend paused to consider, to weigh all the options, trying to find the proverbial "third option". Lihruh cut him off when she realized he'd found one, literally seeing it forming in his via their Sending link.
"If you even dare, you know what will happen," she said simply.
His consciousness shrunk, the mental equivalent of being unable to meet somebody's gaze.
Every Tenno could switch Warframes. In any situation, every Tenno was, theoretically, equally prepared for everything. Among the bravest, there were those who had tried inhabiting a Warframe reverse-engineered from their comrade's. Few among those used the frame again, and only the rarest used it often. It was worse among Lihruh's clan. Not just their more personal experience with the horror of Alad V's experiments, but… when SHE saw another one like her, it drove her mad in a way they'd only seen when they'd discovered the Corpus monster was still alive.
Even Laestrihg, brave as he was, wouldn't risk a Rage-modded Valkyr frame around her.
"So she's going in alone." Sorrow, regret, and fear filled his mind. "With nothing to hold her back – with nothing to help balance her…"
"She will destroy everything, tearing down the foundations of Rathuum and Kela de Thaym's entire power base, opening an opportunity for a cell to kill her with minimal power vacuum," Lihruh finished grimly.
"I'm going to go talk to her," Laestrihg said suddenly, turning from the room and heading for the main training room.
"Good," Lihruh replied, following. "I can tell her about the mission."
A fraction of her uncertainty must have leaked through the Sending, because incredulity radiated from Laestrihg.
"You haven't asked her yet," he realized.
"She won't refuse," was Lihruh's firm reply. "She will understand the need. She understands much more than most give her credit for."
They travelled in silence the short trip to the elevator, then down a hall into the training room. Inside, they saw several Tenno training, sparring in arenas and practicing patterns, sharing notes on Warframe use and, in the far room, practicing parkour on the obstacle course. Off to the side, waiting for a new simulacrum to spawn as her sparring partner, stood a tall, lithe frame, completely humanoid except for a tail and two horns extending up and back from her head.
They'd managed to repair her frame over the years, at least cosmetically. On the surface, she appeared the perfect Warframe, lean and strong, fearsome and beautiful, but underneath, she was still the same flayed, tortured wreck she'd been when they found her.
The simulacrum spawned a new foe, and in a flash of blue energy, she was on it, grabbing and throwing it to the ground, then pulling it apart with her bare hands, claws only helping in the destruction.
Tentatively, Lihruh Sent to her. With Valkyr, it was always like having a nightmare.
"I have a request for you," she sent through the radiated pain and anger.
Valkyr stopped what she was doing and walked towards them, claws flickering out as she reached the edge of the arena.
Lihruh held out her hand, projecting the request for help from Steel Meridian, "handing" it to Valkyr. The picture seemed to float from her hand to Valkyr's, and the tormented Tenno held it gingerly. It was a sign of progress. Valkyr had, at first, had great difficulty interacting with things in any way that wasn't destructive.
She watched the video without motion, the pleas of the Steel Meridian leader that, to any outsider, would seem to be falling on deaf ears. Lihruh and Laestrihg know differently. Determination radiates from Valkyr as the recording ends, winking out in her hand.
She nods. Acceptance.
"You will be alone," Lihruh warned, "you will be in danger, with no backup, no extraction."
"Even so," Laestrihg assured her, "we will come for you if things go wrong."
Lihruh agrees, passing quick Sendings of extraction plans to Laestrihg in the same instant.
Images of destruction leak from Valkyr's mind.
She will not need extraction.
The Excalibur and Chroma leave then, to finalize the arrangements.
The next day, the Rathuum begins. Kela de Thaym laughs at her imminent victory, and Lihruh's entire clan gathers to observe, standing amidst crowds of Grineer to view the massive screens of the Rathuum arenas.
"As if any more proof of their guilt were needed, the deserters send TENNO to do their dirty work!"
Kela de Thaym's voice roared through the speakers, mixing with the laughter and jeering of the Grineer spectators. The Tenno only looked on, silent to all observers.
"The clone should just get on with it," Saeruh Sent, derisive.
Lihruh Sent urgings of calm and patience to her kin.
"Alright, you bloodthirsty savages," Kela cried, and her audience roared in appreciation, "who wants to see blood?"
Cheers.
"Who wants to see justice served?!"
More cheers.
"Who wants to see what a Tenno looks like on the inside!?"
As if to prove the stupidity of their kind, the cheering intensified, even among those Grineer standing in rooms filled with Tenno.
"Let the Rathuum BEGIN!"
"Jehnadaye-eeaem," chorused the Tenno, a united wish for luck to their champion.
Doors opened on either side of the arena, a wet, cavelike area, meant to resemble the underwater Grineer bases on Uranus. Valkyr burst from one side as two executioners, Dok Thul and Garesh, sprinted into the arena from their door.
Then Valkyr leapt into the air and seemed to disappear into the stalactites.
"I taught her that," Sent Vihtuhs, pride and joy.
The Executioners moved quickly and methodically, watching each other as they advanced across a middle level of the arena.
Then a shape fell from the sky, and Dok Thul gave a short and abruptly silenced cry of pain. Garesh appeared, teleported, on top of Valkyr, ready to punish her for her audacity.
Valkyr lifted Dok Thul's body like a shield, and a flash of blue momentarily blinded the remaining Executioner, who tried to escape.
"Blue burst," came the joyous realization from the gathered Tenno.
"It's over," Lihruh sent to Laestrihg, satisfaction, relief, and pride.
So it was.
Bright claws erupted from Valkyr's hands and her unearthly scream echoed from every speaker. For but a moment, every Grineer watching went absolutely silent.
Then those claws burst through the back of Executioner Garesh, and the roar of the crowd redoubled.
"Nok! Harkonar! Get your filthy hides out there!" Kela de Thaym's screams could barely be heard over the crowd.
She might as well have stayed silent. Nok and Harkonar faired poorer than Thul and Garesh, and Gorth and Zura after that not much better. Still, Kela fed Executioner after Executioner into the charnel pits, and each fell to Valkyr as quickly as the last. They exceeded the twenty-five kill limit, they exceeded the two-on-one tradition, they exceeded everything except Valkyr's endurance. She continued on, a dreadnaught of destruction, eliminating every Grineer who stood before her until, finally…
"ENOUGH!" The feed ended, and Kela de Thaym's visage appeared on the screens. "The Tenno cheated! This Rathuum is forfeit! The deserters will be executed!"
Now the great show-woman of the Grineer had run out of toys to play with. Now she had no choice but to lie in an obvious attempt to save her skin. Now her reputation among the Grineer was ruined. Now…
"Now," Lihruh commanded.
Saeruh reached out, concentrated, and suddenly every Grineer around the Tenno knew what it felt like to hear absolutely nothing. Silent cries of alarm could be seen on every unarmoured face. Vihtuhs dropped her hands and a burst of smoke obscured their vision, and every Tenno in the audience disappeared, moving as one with a singular purpose.
Now was the end of Kela de Thaym's last performance.