Strange

Mitchell felt very odd.

It was not his surroundings. He had been in trouble with his superiors many, many times in his life. He had been called in front of Orokin fleet officers, Corpus executives and most recently Tenno and Caretakers to account for actions he had taken. It never got any easier though. Now was a case in point.

Inaros and Raven had been thorough. Mitchell didn't know all of what they had done, but once Raven had finished her talk with him, Mitchell had slept and when he had woken, he had been wearing the blue bodysuit he wore now. He felt clean for the first time in days. Sleeping in a flightsuit, even the special one the Caretakers had made for him, was not conducive to good hygiene. The suit was sealed around his body and even covered his face. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was the two warframes that were aiming weapons at him.

Neither of the two warframes was anyone he knew. He did not know the types of warframes or the weapons they carried. His few attempts at communication had been met with silence, so he had stopped trying. Now, all he could so was sit and wait for whatever happened. While he did, he scrutinized the room he sat in. It was bare. Not quite a cell but close. A small couch that had had woken on was the sole furniture in the room. The walls, ceiling and floor were not Orokin in design. Nor were they Tenno. He had seen the Citadel and a Tenno dojo, so he knew what original Tenno architecture looked like. The door was built in the Orokin style, a clamshell design that would fold into the flood when opened, and it had a bright red panel in the middle. It was locked.

He had known going into this that his life was probably forfeit, but he had hoped to do some good. He wasn't dead yet. That was a plus.

The pilot went totally still in his seat as the door opened and two more warframe strode in. One he did not know. One he did!

"...and I am watching you, Ara." Grandmaster Nikis was not quite snarling, but it was very clear he was unhappy. "You step one millimeter out of line and I will tear you into very small pieces."

"Such was explained to me." The female Tenno's words were calm, but odd. Mitchell couldn't understand why he felt worry suddenly. The words were calm. The warframe wasn't a type he knew, but he was no expert on Tenno. The colors were bright, almost cheerful in bright reds, blues and white. Something about her was raising his hackles, but he could not define what.

"Guards. Out." Nikis commanded.

Both warframes that had been aiming at Mitchell holstered their weapons and left without any word.

"You okay, Mitchell?" Nikis asked. Mitchell nodded. Nikis scoffed. "You can talk now. You know I don't hold with the whole 'we are silent' deal. I get better results when I talk to people."

"When you scare them shitless, you mean." The other -Ara?- said sourly. Nikis glared at her and she jerked. "Apologies, Grandmaster." She actually bowed!

"The only reason you still breathe, Ara, is that Hayden and Nyx overruled me. What I wanted was too much and I agree that now. You earned my wrath and many other peoples'." Nikis snapped. Ara nodded. "They hoped your long stint in cryo would remove your lusts."

"It did, Grandmaster." Ara said weakly.

"It better have." Nikis snarled again and then visibly forced himself to relax. "Mitchell, you are in deep shit."

"Yes, sir." Mitchell said with a nod. "But I had to shock people or it would get bad."

"It is already bad." Nikis heaved a sigh. "But yeah. Nothing else would have shocked them enough to slam them out of their mindless hate. Infested have to die, period. It was what Tenno do. What Tenno have always done."

"Yes, sir." Mitchell swallowed slowly. "Is… Am I to die for this then?"

"Politicos are debating." Nikis shrugged. "I dunno what they will say. That is out of my hands, Mitchell. I assume she told you the bare bones of the procedure?"

"Yes." Mitchell nodded. "She said that… um.. you would be the one in charge."

"Lead cat herder, yeah." Nikis hawked and spat. "I am the eldest, so yeah. One more fun job for someone like me. Gonna have to pay her back for this in some special way."

"They are coming after us, Nikis." Mitchell said weakly. "They attacked Anne."

"No." Nikis shook his head. "They subverted her. There is a difference. Iriana has gone to Cetus, she is checking Anne out now." Mitchell paled but Nikis just shook his head. "Karl's Shadow is clearing the area around Cetus. The Healer is safe."

"What about the ones who hurt Anne?" Mitchell pleaded.

"They are locked up next door." Nikis' tone might have frighted an earthquake. Ara retreated a step, but then stiffened. Mitchell just nodded. "They will get a chance to hear your complaint. That is the law. I am not neutral in this, not by a long shot, but I do abide by the Code." He shook his head. "Much as I hate doing it sometimes."

"Will they make you do it… if..." Mitchell broke off and bowed his head.

"No. You will go to sleep and not wake up." Nikis laid a hand on Mitchell's shoulder. "Mitchell, we Tenno can be hard, but there is a difference between being hard because that is what life demands and being cruel simply because we can." Why was he looking at Ara when he said that? Why did she flinch? Nikis retracted his hand and Mitchell nodded to the Nekros.

"So what will happen now?" Mitchell asked.

"Now we have medical personnel..." He glared at Ara again who wilted a little. "...vet you. We need multiple different scans done and Ara is very well versed in such."

"Is she a Healer?" Mitchell asked, only to have Ara recoil. Nikis spun and his hands were on his pistols. "Ah, Nikis?" Mitchell asked into the sudden silence.

"You gonna answer him or shall I?" Nikis demanded of the suddenly frozen female Tenno. "I can get Trinity in here if you want." Ara shook her head savagely and Nikis nodded. "Then talk."

"I was a Healer, human Mitchell." Ara said softly. "I abused my powers. I was caught and punished."

"Tell him the rest." There was no request in Nikis' words.

"Grandmaster, please!" Ara begged. "I was wrong! I was so wrong! I know it!" Mitchell stiffened as Nikis drew his right hand pistol!

"I told you what I would do if you tried the 'woe is me' routine on me again." Nikis tone was now silky smooth. "This time, I won't blow you arm off. Tell him."

Ara's whole body shifted. Suddenly, she seemed calm. No, not calm, her warframe was vibrating with tension, but she was… This was very weird.

"My name is Ara." The female Tenno said softly. "The Orokin called me 'Arachne'."

Why did that name bother Mitchell so much? There was a lot he did not remember, from the cryo and then Corpus brainwashing. He looked from the female Tenno to Nikis and back.

"You will know her as 'Spider White'." Nikis grunted and Mitchell jerked back on the couch as far as he could from the female Tenno. He knew that name. Every Orokin had.

Spider White had been an Orokin boogeyman. A serial killer that rivaled any horror throughout human history. The numbers had never been added up as far as Mitchell knew, but for centuries, humans had been found cocooned in white webbing in their homes, drained of all their bodily fluids. Arachnophobia had been a human fear for as long as humans had written down their history, some the press had dubbed the killer 'Arachne', since most of the early victims had been male. Then the killer had shifted to females and 'Spider White' had been born. The killer had been renowned for getting into and out of places with top notch security, the only evidence of their passing a dead body encased in white webbing. Then the deaths had stopped. Just stopped one day and never resumed as far as Mitchell knew. Had Nikis…?

"You stopped her." Mitchell's words were half statement, half question.

"Our focus in those days was always the outbreaks." Nikis holstered his pistol. "The Tenno, that is. We had enough on our plates that it took centuries for police reports to accumulate. I ain't making excuses When we discovered her proclivities, we acted."

"And you didn't kill her… why?" Mitchell asked. "Because she is Tenno?"

"One reason." Nikis allowed. "Trinity wanted to see if we could help her. She is a sociopath, you see."

"I follow the Code, Nikis!" Ara snapped.

"And that is the only reason Hayden didn't kill you where you stood when you were brought before him." Nikis retorted evenly. "You killed humans, Ara."

"I killed humans who were killing others and no one else could or would stop them." Ara snapped, angry now. "I killed when they could not be touched by the Law. Human society says what I did was wrong, but I was protecting humans, Nikis! You know it!"

"So the people you went after..." Mitchell mused.

"Murderers, rapists, child molesters, slavers. All the worst examples of humanity." Ara said flatly. "Yes, I acted outside the Law. Yes, I dishonored the Tenno. But I would do it again."

"Don't act the wronged noble to me." Nikis snorted. "The only reason you picked the ones you did was because few would miss them." Mitchell stared at him and Nikis shrugged again. "When people came to us in the first few decades, we didn't ask a lot about their pasts. We gave people a fresh start. We needed all the help we could get, we were up to our eyeballs in outbreaks and it took centuries to curb them all. Ara came to us in the middle of that, a runaway like so many others. We didn't realize until after she was caught and interrogated that she came to us as a means to an end."

"I wanted a better way!" Ara exclaimed. Mitchell gasped as Nikis backhanded her! She rolled with it and stayed on her feet.

"Don't lie to me. You wanted a safe place to hide and plan your conquests." Nikis retorted. "You wouldn't know noble if it bit you on the butt. You are still the best forensic scientist we have available, so yeah, they let you out of cryo for this. There is enough horror in this broken world as it is. You step one foot out of line and I won't put you into cryo, I will put you in the ground. In pieces."

Not a threat. A promise.

For several minutes, no one spoke. Finally, Mitchell opened his mouth.

"So what happens now?" The pilot asked.

"Now, Ara examines you." Nikis shook his head. "I can't stay. I got a lot of crap I gotta handle before the Elders get off their duffs." Mitchell tensed but Nikis just chuckled. "Don't worry, boy. She ain't gonna be alone. Ever."

"You act as if you don't trust me, Nikis." Ara said quietly.

"Why would he?" Another voice asked and Mitchell's eyes went huge as a golden hologram appeared in one corner. The Nyx Prime warframe was shaking her head. "Why would any of us?"

"I never lied to you, Nyx." Ara was still quiet. "I never acted against the Tenno."

"You betrayed everything we believed in." Nyx replied, her tone calm. Underneath that calm though, fury lurked. "You killed because you could. Because it made you feel good to show your power. I am astonished you never targeted children."

Was it Mitchell's imagination that Ara stiffened a little at that? Maybe. She was hard to read.

"She won't get the chance ever again." Nikis promised. "By the Code, for such a complaint, we need corporeal Tenno to vet him and the others or I would have pulled shades to do it and left her to rot."

"The more I learn about you Code, the less I like it." Mitchell said quietly. He was astonished when Nyx and Nikis both laughed. Ara did not.

"Welcome to our world." The shade and Nikis chorused.

The Nekros glowered at the other corporeal Tenno for a moment and then left the room. Mitchell stared at the door as it locked again. Then he looked from the shade to the other and back.

"Will this hurt?" Mitchell asked slowly.

"Some of it will hurt." Ara did not move. She was eyeing Nyx who had her arms folded now. "I will do as commanded, Nyx."

"And none of us will ever trust you again." Nyx snapped. "Get on with it. Mitchell, lie down and relax as you can. I am here. I am watching. You are safe."

"Begging your pardon, Nyx, but relaxing is not going to happen." Mitchell sank down until he was stretched out.

"Oh ye of little faith." Ara sounded just a little amused as she stepped forward and then sank gracefully to her knees beside him. He eyed her out of the corner of his eyes as she reached for his head. Something touched him and everything went a little fuzzy. "This is pervasive but not like a virus. Oh. A worm? Fascinating creature."

Mitchell was tying to dredge up fear or any other emotion as something wrapped up his mind in coils of warm and pulled it close.

I will try my best not to hurt you. Ara's voice was sad in his mind. I see nothing wrong with what I did. Who I was. Everyone says I was. That I did wrong, but I don't see it that way.

You… killed… Mitchell managed to put those words out and another coil of whatever soothed him back down.

Yes. The other was gentle now. I did. But this? I will not kill you. We need you, the Tenno as a whole. I think… Yes. I can do this without hurting you. Ara's voice was still calm in his mind and then he was elsewhere.

Mitchell stared up at a white ceiling. Everything around him was shaded in white and grey. He felt relaxed for the first time in a long, long time. Everything seemed hazy and far away, but a touch had his mind focusing. He stared as a black skinned hand retreated form him and he followed it to see a woman… No. This wasn't a human. Her skin was the same color as Nikis' warframe, not a human skin tone at all. Her hair was pure white and her eyes were a lavender that also wasn't human. The long pointed ears that stuck up from each side of her head were almost inconsequential. She wore brown Tenno robes that looked oddly archaic. Mitchell tried to speak and could not. The other nodded.

"I am Ara." She said quietly. "This is a mental plane where I can soothe your hurts. I will not harm you. Even if Nikis and Nyx would not slay me for harming you, I see no advantage in doing so, for myself or the Tenno."

Mitchell was pleading as Ara reached for his skull. The pain he expected did not come. Instead, something was pulled away from his jaw and he could speak.

"What have you done to me?" Mitchell tried to demand that, but his voice was very weak.

"You are afraid and angry." Ara was still gentle. "You have cause for both. I am not a threat to you, human Mitchell. I always picked my targets with care and you would never have been one of them. You have nothing to fear from me."

"Did you tell any of your other victims that?" Mitchell demanded, trying for anger. It would not come.

"None of them were gentle souls, human Mitchell." Ara was quiet. "I do not remember everything I did. It is possible I said such things to them. But this situation is very different. My life is in jeopardy now so I will be very careful with yours." Something touched Mitchell below his jaw and soothing warmth swept through him. "I will not harm you." She repeated.

"I cannot believe you." Mitchell said weakly. He could feel his resistance crumbling under whatever Ara was doing to him. It didn't hurt. Far from it.

"I know." Ara stroked his cheek. "This will frighten you no matter how I do it. This is all mental and losing control is never good for anyone, least of all someone like you who has to be in control at all times as a pilot. Nikis and Nyx have guaranteed my actions, and the Elders have ordered me to scan you, both physically and mentally. You will resist. It is what your kind do. You are a soldier and I understand you have to try and hold out. You cannot, but you must try. I hold no animosity for you or whoever you serve. I must do as I am told but I will do as little harm as I can."

"I… won't..." Mitchell sought to keep his mind and tongue still as pressure mounted on his skull. It too didn't hurt. Why didn't it hurt?

"No one can hold out against such forever, human Mitchell." Ara sounded sad now. "Not humans, not Tenno. But I mean you no harm-"

LIAR!

Mitchell stared as a new form appeared over top of him. He had never seen a Trinity Prime warframe from this angle before, but he was in no condition to admire the view. She crouched down beside him, her hand coming down to do something he couldn't see. Ara had recoiled almost all the way out of his view, but now she drew herself up and faced the other as Trinity -The First!- drew a Tigris Prime shotgun.

"Hello Trinity."