The Lotus stood in front of all of her Tenno, excluding Ivara and Wukong, since they were already in pursuit of Excalibur. All of the Tenno, old and new, were there. She cleared her throat, and began to speak.
"My Tenno, I am sorry to tell you that Excalibur, our oldest and most loyal Tenno, has betrayed us." This drew murmurs and whispers from the Tenno down below. Nova was whispering to Rhino, who had his arms crossed. He didn't believe for a second that Excalibur would do such a thing without good reason. In fact, many of the older Tenno believed the same. They knew Excalibur, and knew that he wouldn't do something so rash for no reason. Ember and Trinity were near the side of the dojo, talking to each other.
"I know Excalibur, and even while we were chasing him down that day with Oberon, I didn't want to catch him, even though it was against the Lotus's word," Trinity said. Ember nodded.
"I feel the same way. Something about this is not right. There must be some kind of misunderstanding. Excalibur would never betray his fellow Tenno." The Lotus waited for the noise to die down, and continued.
"I am sure that the Tenno close to Excalibur will feel differently about this, and I understand that it is hard to realize we have had a traitor in our midst, but we must stand together and stop him before he becomes even more dangerous. If we work together, we can make sure he does not endanger us, and stop him once and for all." More talking. Louder this time. Loki and Mirage stood at the very back of the room, away from the other Tenno.
"I think she's right, Loki. He has our secrets, and who knows what happens if they get out?" Loki dismissed the thought that Excalibur was a traitor. A traitor to the Lotus maybe, but not a traitor to his fellow Tenno.
"Listen, Mirage. I have known Excalibur for longer than any other Tenno in this room. He is not an enemy. You haven't been by his side and fought with him, suffered with him, and nearly died with him enough to tell me that he is a traitor to us Tenno."
"Those seem to be traitorous words, Loki. Be careful of whom you utter them to," Mirage said, and walked into the throng of Tenno. Ash walked up alongside Loki, leaning back on the wall next to him.
"And I thought that you were reasonable than that, Loki." Ash said.
"You can't possibly believe that Excalibur is a traitor," Loki said. Ash shrugged.
"Whether he is or is not, I cannot tell. I certainly haven't known him for as long as you have, however, I do know that he has fled without stating why, with Tenno secrets, and that now he is on another planet in a different system hiding from the Lotus." He turned to walk away, but stopped.
"I will not risk my life and my honor to the Lotus by aiding Excalibur, but… If you are so convinced that Excalibur is innocent, the Lotus has given everyone the location of the planet, in case we need to bring Excalibur back by force. If you want to instead use the coordinates to help Excalibur, I will let you. However, if you stand in the Tenno's way, we will destroy you, Loki." Ash stalked away, disappearing into the group of Tenno.
What "Honor" do you possess, Ash, if you will not stand up for your brothers in arms? Loki thought to himself as he approached his ship.
Wukong and Ivara both approached the planet in their Lisets.
"Do you have a lock on his ship?" Wukong asked over his communicator.
"Yes, it is landed next to a city, in the middle of a forest," Ivara said.
"Good. If he is still in there, we can drag him out easily enough." They both pulled their Lisets down into orbit, passing the cracked moon, and down through the atmosphere and into the forest. They hovered over Excalibur's crashed ship, and dropped down next to it.
"It seems heavily damaged. He must have fled into the city," Ivara said.
"Yes, but where in the city?" Wukong asked.
"You stay here and guard our Lisets, Wukong. I see his footprints in the grass. Wukong looked around the flowing grass, not seeing anything particularly significant.
"I don't see anything," he said. Ivara chuckled.
"Of course you don't. Tracking is an art, only some Tenno can truly master it. Of course, some of us just have the natural ability." Wukong nodded.
"You're boasting right now, Ivara. I get it." She stalked off in the direction of the prints, being careful not to disturb them.
"If Excalibur resists, you come and help. Understand?"
"Of course," Wukong said. He gave his staff a twirl. Ivara nodded, and she was off, following the footprints through the woods.
It seems that Excalibur was captured, but where was he taken? She continued to follow the prints until she reached a clearing full of dead bodies, some Human, some robot. She drew her bow and looked around at the dead soldiers.
The cuts are fairly clean. No doubt the handiwork of Excalibur. She continued to investigate, trying to find any sign of the rogue Tenno.
Not all of them were Human. Corpus, maybe? She saw a track of bloody footprints leading out of the clearing and into the city. She made herself invisible, and silently ran through the streets, dodging cars and people along the way. The prints were faint by now, but Ivara knew where he went, she could smell him in the air. She gazed up at the massive tower in front of her, the students passing in and out of the building.
This is it. She walked towards the huge building, taking in as much of the surroundings she could.
This place is beautiful, really. Much, much more beautiful than Earth. Definitely not Corpus. She almost ran right into two girls, one dressed in a yellow and brown jacket with yellow bracelets and the other, younger one dressed in a wide black and red dress.
"You excited for the tournament, Ruby? I sure am!" The blond one exclaimed. The Red one shrugged.
"I don't know, Yang, we're only in our first year! How about the other two and three year students? How're we going to beat them?" She asked.
"Stop worrying so much, we'll do fine! Didn't we just fight off an army of Grimm?" The two continued to walk away, and Ivara couldn't hear the rest. No matter. Her mission wasn't to eavesdrop on students. She looked back towards Excalibur's footsteps. They seemed to lead inside the tower. She spotted rows of windows along the side of the building. If Excalibur were to hide somewhere, this place would be it.
But which room? She stood very still, blocking out all sound except the sound of the Tenno. Soon, all of the Human sounds were blocked out, and she heard only one sound: The sound of a Tenno. Near the base of the tower, the 280th room. She walked towards the window. She wouldn't try to fight him, that wasn't her order. Her order was to bring him back, no matter the method. She drew her bow.
Excalibur was meditating, mumbling out random Orokin words. Suddenly, he stopped. He sensed someone. Another Tenno. He turned to the window, and detected a slight shimmer in the frame. Unnoticable by anyone other than a Tenno. He quickly grabbed his Nikana, ready to strike at the intruder.
"I see you, Tenno. Show yourself." The figure de-cloaked, and revealed the low, floral form of Ivara. Her bow wasn't drawn, the arrows were pointed at the ground.
"The Lotus orders you to come back to the Dojo, Excalibur." He shook his head.
"I will not, no matter what you or the Lotus say."
"Excalibur, do you dare denounce the Lotus?" She asked, an audible edge in her voice. He already knew the answer, but after years serving her, it was still a difficult thing to do. He gripped his Nikana even tighter.
"Yes," Excalibur said. Ivara visibly recoiled from this announcement. She recovered after a few seconds, however. She drew back her bow and pointed it at Excalibur's chest.
"Then I consider you an enemy of the Tenno, and I will deal with you like one." She activated a device on her arm.
"Wukong, it's time."