Prisoner

The Tenno known as Olim woke suddenly and completely. He knew immediately that something was wrong. He hurt in a number of places. That shouldn't have happened, no matter how far he had fallen, his warframe should have repaired the damage he took. But it was what didn't hurt that was far more frightening. He couldn't feel anything below his hips. He tried to key for a diagnostic, but his warframe did not respond. He opened his eyes and went very still.

"Good morning, Tenno." The human on the other side of the bars said with a smirk. He was dirty, but the Sobek shotgun in his hands was immaculate. Just looking at it, Olim count tell it was loaded and the safety was off. "Did you sleep well?" The man asked with fake concern.

Olim looked at the human and then around the area without moving his head. He was in a small room with rock walls. His warframe was… He exhaled sharply as he saw tattered fragments of bio-mechanical armor on his limbs. Below the waist, it was mostly intact, but above it, it was in tatters. Someone had cut most of his warframe off! That was possible, but... Olim looked around again. The bars had a large mechanical lock on them and separated the room in half. The half that Olim was in had a cot and nothing else. The other half had a door but it looked solid and had to be locked as well.

"Nothing to say, Tenno?" The guard asked with a snarl. "No lies?" Olim looked at the man and then sank back on the bed, closing his eyes. "Don't ignore me, Betrayer!" The human snapped.

Olim did not respond. He was a prisoner. He was injured. From the feelings -and lack of feeling- his spine was damaged. Escape was not possible. He took a deep breath and focused his mind as he had been taught in training. They might have his body, but he would be free.

"Jalso!" Another male voice snapped. "Get out of there!" Olim paused in his meditation. What was going on?

"You don't order me, Kimbel!" The guard –if he was one- snapped back, but the outer door opened and another human entered the room. This one had a Vyper machine pistol aimed at the guard. "You wouldn't!" The man with the shotgun declared. But he did lower it.

"You were told to stay out!" The man with the pistol said firmly. "You got a problem with that, take it up with the Council. Now git!"

"You can't trust these Tenno!" The man with the shotgun said stoutly. He did move to leave. The machine pistol tracked him. "You know what they did!"

"I know what I think they did. I don't know exactly what happened." The man with the pistol said with a scowl. "Now git!" He snapped and the door clanged shut behind the other man. He sighed and then turned back to Olim. "Sorry about that. Jalso lost his family when the Grineer came through." He set the pistol down by the door! "I need to check your injuries. Will you let me?" The man asked. Olim just looked at him. "Even if you cannot talk, you can nod or something. My name is Kimbel."

This was…very odd. Olim wasn't sure what was going on. He sighed inaudibly and nodded, laying back. The human stepped to the door, opened the lock and entered quickly. Olim watched through slitted eyes as the human worked quickly and efficiently to check all of his injuries. It was done quickly and then the man stepped back.

"Do you know what happened?" The human asked. Olim shook his head and the man sighed. "We found you on a sweep. We have been looking for survivors, checking all the towns for people who avoided the Grineer slavers." Olim stiffened and the man paused. "What?"

Olim thought for a moment and then discarded subterfuge. "Did you find me near a hill with a stream halfway up it?" He asked. The human was staring at him, wide eyed. "Yes, we can talk. No, we don't in the field unless there is no choice. Did you find me near a hill with a stream halfway up it?"

"The hill had a stream. You were at the base of a cliff, your body broken on a rock." The man said slowly. "We didn't think you were alive until you started to move."

"It is very important." Olim said slowly. "There was a mountain three days walk to the east." The man stared at him and Olim shook his head. "The village on the other side is gone. Infested." The man's eyes seemed to bug out of his head and Olim sighed. "Yeah."

"You fought them?" Kimbel asked softly, incredulous.

"I was ordered not to." Olim said sadly. "I wanted to. But orders are orders. All I could do was watch." He slumped a bit. "I don't blame you for hating me. No matter how much you hate me, you cannot hate me as much as I hate myself."

"Why didn't you stop the Grineer?" Kimbel demanded. "None of this would have happened if you had stopped them."

"I tried to." Olim said softly. "I failed." His hands were checking over his body now and paused on something. Something that didn't fit. Something that was stuck to his lower back just over his spine. "Nice." He said as he ripped it off. Kimbel flinched at the sound and then paled as Olim sat up. "Did you use this?" He asked, waving the small patch at the human.

"I didn't." The human asked, swallowing hard.

"Where is the rest of my warframe?" Olim asked coldly. "And my weapons?"

"We didn't find any weapons." Kimbel said with a gulp. "And we had to cut you out of that armor."

"So you destroyed my warframe." Olim said slowly. "Or did you sell the bits to the Corpus?" The man's eyes flickered and Olim had his answer. "I see." Olim said softly. "I am leaving." He said flatly. "You and your people cannot stop me."

"You are worth a lot alive, Tenno." Kimbel said with a grimace. "Don't be stupid."

"I should say the same to you." Olim said quietly. "Do you know what they do to Tenno they capture?"

"Should we care?" Kimbel asked quietly.

"No." Olim said sadly. "I guess not. Being dissected and the pieces of living flesh being used to make monsters is a proper fate for one such as me? Right?" He asked.

"You are worth a lot as you are, Tenno." Kimbel said as the stepped out of the barred enclosure and shut it. "Don't be stupid."

"Good advice." Olim said quietly. "Here is more. Take your friends and run. Now. The Corpus won't let you live. If you are lucky…" He said with a heavy sarcasm on the word 'lucky'. "…all they will do is kill you. If not?" Olim shrugged. "Well… I hear their brainwashing hurts like hell."

"Better them than the Grineer." Kimbel said with a snap.

"Odd thing that." Olim said slowly. "You know… I worked for the Corpus to try and stop the Grineer invasions. Other Tenno tried to get me to work with the Grineer. They said 'The Grineer take slaves. The Corpus take lives. Slaves can be freed, the dead cannot be'. For the Corpus, profit is everything. If you are not profitable, you are dead. Did you tell them where to find you?"

"Do I look that stupid?" Kimbel snapped. "I took them the bits, got a quote and left."

"I hope you checked your vehicle for trackers." Olim said, laying back on the cot. "Not that it really matters. They won't pay you."

"Why not?" Kimbel asked cautiously.

"This world is falling to the Infested." Olim said quietly. "They have more important uses for their funding. Why waste funds when they can use lives? Lives are cheap to the Corpus." Olim glanced at Kimbel who had paled again. "Good luck. You are gonna need it." The human scooped up his pistol and darted out the door without a backward glance.

Olim sighed and lay back for a moment. His wounds were mostly superficial and healing. But without his weapons, and without his warframe, he did not give himself much chance if…

He went still as something changed nearby. A piece of wall had moved. Just a little, but it had. He stared at the wall and then jumped a little as a rock suddenly fell in. A hand appeared from the darkness. A hand with familiar metal on it's wrist. The Tenno who had thrown him off the cliff? Here? It beckoned again, firmly and Olim sighed silently. What choice did he have? He rose from the cot and moved to the wall. The hole was dark and he could see nothing. The hand appeared, beckoning stronger and he eased into the hole. It was a very tight fit. If he had been in his warframe, he likely wouldn't have been able to get past the first turn. A hand grasped his and pulled him on. The hand was armored, but he could feel the nubs of claws. Whatever fate this unknown Tenno was leading him to, it had to be better than waiting to be sold to the Corpus. Behind him, he heard a shout and then cursing, but he kept moving.

There was no light at all. He lost track of time. He crawled. Sometimes he could move on his hands and knees, sometimes, he had to squirm around and through natural obstacles. All through it though, the hand was there. Sometimes pulling him, sometimes just guiding him. He hoped his guide had some idea where they were going, because without light or any high tech…

LIGHT!

Olim threw both hands over his face as pain seared into his eyes. The hand was on his shoulder now, guiding, easing him to a sitting position and squeezing gently as he sat and tried to recover. When he could see again, Olim looked around. He was sitting in a small grotto. The light was dim, but after a lengthy stay underground, his eyes were sensitive. He looked to his guide and yes, it was the female Tenno he had fought before. She sat nearby, her posture wary. She wore a Valcyr warframe. He hadn't had the chance to recognize it before. He nodded to her.

"Thank you." He said quietly. She went still, tilting her head as if confused. "Do you understand me?" He asked, worried. The damage to her warframe's structure was extreme and not limited to the torso. She did not react and he slumped. "What did they do to you, sister?" He asked sadly.

The female Tenno reached for him and he let her touch his forehead over his eyes. Her tilted head was a question. Olim frowned. He covered his eyes with his hands and she nodded. Her hand rested on his shoulder and gave a squeeze. He covered it with his own and squeezed back. She indicated another dark opening and Olim nodded, squelching a sigh.

Good thing I am not claustrophobic.

It was long trip. Every so often, the female Tenno would stop them somewhere. Occasionally, there would be water in the cave and she would indicate for him to drink. He did, then stepped away while she did. Once, he tried to see her face when her faceplate opened, but she hissed at him and he backed off. She didn't want him to see her face. Finally, on the third stop, Olim heard something. He froze and the female Tenno did as well.

"I am tell you, sir… I don't know how he got out of the cell!" The voice was Kimbel. The human was terrified. "He was there when I left!"

"You wouldn't lie to me, would you, Mr. Kimbel?" The voice was familiar. Olim started and then stared as the female Tenno seemed to wilt. Alad V. The real one or a decoy? "You dragged me out here to show me an empty cell and now you spin a wild tale of underground tunnels. Our sensors can find no trace of Tenno or indeed of anything alive for thirty kilometers. Above ground or below."

"They have got to be under this hill!" the other human –Jalso- said with a snap. "The tunnels might be large enough for a humanoid form, but how the hell would he find his way? This is the only path that nay of our remotes found. He has to be between here and the cell."

"I think you two are lying to me." Alad V said calmly. "I don't like people lying to me. Where is the Tenno?" He demanded.

"I don't know!" Kimbel said with fear in his voice. "Look, it has to be here! You can dig…"

"And now you want me to dig?" The Corpus executive said with a sigh. "Ah well, and our partnership had so much promise." Olim stared as the female Tneno sudden collapsed. He was on his feet in the small cave, moving to kneel beside where she lay, shivering. "You have cost me time. In my business, Mr. Kimbell, Mr. Jalso, time is money. You brought me out here for nothing. Ah well."

"No!" Jalso begged. "No! Please…"

"Oh, don't worry, Mr. Jalso." Alad V said calmly. "I will turn a profit from selling your bits." Both men screamed. The screams cut off abruptly at the sound of Corpus weapon's fire. "Idiots. Tech, any signs?"

"No sir." The voice of a Corpus tech said with conviction. "These hills are rife with ore deposits that confound our sensors but we should pick up something. If a Tenno was here, it is long gone."

"They got the parts of that one warframe somewhere." Alad V said with a snarl. "I want proxies sweeping those tunnels." Olim froze, but the female Tenno didn't move. He laid a slow hand on her shoulder and she was quivering. "Pack up everything but the search proxies. And yes, take the bodies. I am sure we can sell them… somewhere." The sound of Corpus forces faded.

Olim leaned close to shivering female Tenno and spoke in a low tone. "We have to go. We have to go now."

She stared up at him, not comprehending. Olim sighed and then made a motion of walking. She nodded slowly and rose, indicating another small tunnel nearby. He followed her into the tunnel and was immediately in blackness again.

What followed was a timeless crawl through darkness. He had no idea how long they were moving. Once she stopped and let him rest for a bit, then she woke him from his doze and they started off again. Olim had always prided himself on being strong, but this… There was something almost alive about the darkness around him. Alive and hungry. It seemed that the universe was compressing down into a pitch black tunnel with a guiding hand as his only connection to the outside. Was he going mad? He wondered. He didn't know.

After who knew how long, Olim followed his guide into a dimly lit area that was larger. She paused by an oddly shaped shadow and beckoned him close. He stared and then smiled as his eyes adjusted and he saw his weapons piled.

"You picked up my weapons." He said softly. He ran a hand along his Latron, his Bronco and his Ether sword. The female Tenno was watching him carefully but stiffened as he picked up the sword and held it out to her handle first. "You can probably use this better than me." He said quietly. Instead of taking it, she backed away. He stared at her, dumbfounded. "Without a warframe, I can't carry all of this at once and expect to use it." Olim said calmly as he laid the weapon back down. "You can use this." He said as he waved towards the blade before stepping away himself.

"My name is Olim." The male Tenno said softly. "What is yours?" The other just stared at him and Olim sighed. He pointed at himself. "Olim." He pointed at the other and she did not react. He shook his head. 'What happened to you, sister?" He went still as the other made a noise. It was not anything he recognized. "What?" He asked.

Olim froze as her hand came up and…pulled mass of metal from her throat! His eyes had to be as wide as dinner plates as she set the piece down and turned her head to show him… the ruin of her throat. Her entire voicebox was gone, replaced by some kind of breathing apparatus. He slumped in place and then to his knees, his eyes burning. She couldn't talk!

"Do you understand me?" Olim asked slowly and carefully. The female Tenno stared at him and Olim sighed. "You don't or cannot make yourself understood. You need help, sister. Help I cannot give. We need help. We need to call for help." He shook his head. "Sooner or later, no matter how well we hide, the Corpus will find us."

Somehow, that got through to her and she slumped to the floor as well, bowing her head. Olim sighed and then shook himself.

"I don't know how we are going to get out of this, sister." Olim said softly. "But we will. I swear to you, we will get out of this. But first, we both need rest and I need to figure out how to communicate with you. I bet trying to call for help without explaining to you how and why I do will not go over well with you."

He lay down on the floor, making sure his Latron was within reach. The other did the same, slowly and carefully, never taking her eyes from him as she replaced the metal on her throat.

Alad V cannot suffer nearly enough for what he has done. Olim thought bitterly as sleep took him.