Touch and Go
Li woke suddenly, aware of a difference. Her body felt… off. She was… floating in something. She felt… calm, but…
"Li?" The voice was familiar. Alicia. "Li, talk to me."
"They took my legs." Li said slowly. "Why did they take my legs, sister?" She said plaintively.
"Oh Li. They were damaged beyond repair." Alicia's voice sounded as if it were going to break. Something gripped her hand and gave a squeeze. "The radiation treatment is almost done, Li." Alicia said quietly. "The radiation has been swept from your body. The organ damage has been dealt with."
"What's the use?" Li asked, her own voice taut. "If I can't fly?"
"Li." Alicia's voice turned harder. "You can't fly right now, no." She said sternly. "But the future is anyone's guess. You heard what Iriana told you."
"She is a healer." Li said softly, trying to open her eyes. They wouldn't. "She would tell me anything to keep me from hurting myself. Why can't I see?"
"Two reasons." Alicia said as the hand holding Li's gave another squeeze. "First, you are floating in a tank filled with several fairly reactive chemicals. Eyes and reactive chemicals don't usually mix, sister." Despite everything, Li had to chuckle at Alicia's wry tone. Which was probably the point. "Two? You are not ready."
"Yes, I am." Li said with a half-hearted snarl. She felt… drained. Empty. "I need to see it. Them."
"Li." Alicia said with a sigh. "Iriana didn't lie to you. She wouldn't. She lost her arm and a regen treatment grew it back. We are going to try something similar for your legs."
"I have never heard of anything like that." Li said after a moment of trying to comprehend that. Her fuddled mind was slow. "But I need to…" She tried to jerk her hand free of whatever was holding it, but the grip tightened and she was too weak to extricate herself. "Alicia… I need to see."
"Li." Alicia said in a soft, but commanding voice. "You can't right now. Your time in the tank is almost done. After that? It's Iriana's call." Li jerked her other arm but something else grabbed that. "Li, dangit! Don't! You will hurt yourself! Amelia!"
"I need to see!" Li begged as something stung her and she started falling. "Please…? I need to…"
A dream?
Li fell into… pain.
Pain. She was pain. Everywhere and everything was pain. All she could do was curl up and ride the waves of pain that swept through her. She could barely understand voices that came from nearby. And not all of what was said. She floated in and out of waves of pain.
"…and you promised results, doctor." A harsh male voice said sharply. "This piece of meat… not results."
"With all due respect, Your Eminence..." An oily female voice replied. "…things are proceeding as planned. The physical damage is... The mind… pliable and she is. It took some time to break her, but we succeeded. …ready." Something changed and the pain receded.
"The senseless puppets of that golden enchantress are pushing hard, doctor." The first voice snapped. "We need results. Now." Li couldn't move. Things held her down. She couldn't see. She felt wetness on her face and absences in her eye sockets. She had been blinded.
"We are ready for step two, Your Eminence." The doctor said calmly. "If you wish to do it yourself…?"
"Are you crazy?" The first voice snapped. "That is the single most dangerous bioagent in the Solar System and you are twirling it around like a cheerleader's baton? Put it down!"
"We are perfectly safe as long as we do not ingest it, Your Eminence." The doctor said, humor in her oily voice. "But this dose will make her what you wanted. A weapon against the Orokin."
"Just do it!" The other snapped. "We spent a great deal of time and effort acquiring this subject. Then breaking her. We need the weapon now. The Orokin are on the verge of finding this redoubt!"
Li felt something happen. Something had been pulled from on top of her. She felt cool air blowing across her abdomen, then wetness touched it. Wiped it. An antiseptic wipe? Then something jabbed her in the belly and she screamed. No sound came out of her mouth. She tried to writhe, but things held her down. She… Fire swept from what had to be an injection site and she was screaming, crying, pleading, trying to do anything as the fire accelerated across her body. Snatches of words came to her through the new agony.
"…what is happening?" The first voice demanded. "…need a weapon, damn it! …she would turn into a weapon!"
"…sure." The voice of the door was not assured now. It was nearly panicked. "…cannot be happening. …should see cellular change by now."
"…the price of failure, doctor?" the voice of the one in charge asked in a menacing tone.
"Not a failure!" The doctor squealed. "…not changing!" The fire within Li ebbed and died, leaving her to sob in whatever held her.
"What are you saying, Doctor?" The commanding voice sounded shaken. "How can she change and not?"
"She is like the Tenno!" The doctor said in glee. "You wanted a weapon, your Eminence? There is your weapon!"
"I…see…" The other said slowly. "Very well, doctor. Lucky you. Phase three. Wipe her so we can rebuild her into the perfect tool. The perfect weapon against the Orokin."
"Yes sir." Li felt something else change. She felt warmth play over her skull and… something jabbed her on the back of the skull, but in comparison to the other pains, it was minuscule. "Once the wipe is done, we can program her and put the augmenta- What? No!" The doctor suddenly screamed.
"You were warned about playing with the Technocyte Virus."
The voice was awful. Masculine, hard and cold and… Li was incapable of moving but she could shiver from the sheer malevolence. The hate. The rage that… She sighed as something made her relax even as the recognizable sounds of gunfire came from all around. Then…she didn't remember what gunfire was. What her name was. She couldn't… remember… The warmth that had been bathing her skull faded as something went crash nearby. She barely felt the thing at the back of her skull being pulled out.
"… My god…" A female voice sounded nearby, shaken. "Simon! She's alive!"
"No time, Jules!" The cold voice responded. "We have five minutes until this place is… Oh god… She didn't change?" The cold voice gasped.
"We can't just leave her here!" The female begged quickly. "Can she survive the transit?"
"I… don't know." The male voice said slowly. "Ma'am? Ma'am, can you hear me?" He snarled. "Damn! Everyone! Grab whatever files you can find. We have minutes before this place is a smoking crater. I have got her." Li felt herself flying, floating. "We got you, sister. Better she sleeps through this. Jules?"
"I think this will work to sedate her." The female voice was taut with tension. Something hissed and Li was falling. "Easy, sister. Sleep. It will be better when you wake. That's it, sister." The voice sang softly.
Sister…? Li asked herself as she faded. What does that mean? She couldn't remember what the word meant. Something roused her.
"Tenno…" A soft, pain filled voice sounded from nearby. The doctor. "You can't just leave me…"
"Watch us, monster. Enjoy the minute and half you have left of your life." The female said with a snarl. Then Li was flying again.
Li woke in a bed. She glanced around wildly, sure she was in pain. But nothing hurt. Or… nothing hurt now. Another dream. It faded as she tried to recall it. She slumped a bit. Her dreams had been…odd of late. Small wonder. She stared down at herself and paused. She wasn't restrained. There wasn't anyone else in the room. She swallowed hard and stared down at herself. She was covered by a heavy blanket. She moved to flip it off. But… She stared at the odd thing that was on her arm. The odd material seemed to be a bodysuit of some kind, but it was… alive? She gasped as she touched it, it was. It pulsed under her fingers.
"It's a protective garment." Li heard Iriana's voice and looked up to see the healer standing at the door. "Yes, it is alive. No, it is not infectious."
"Feels like… Infested flesh…" Li said weakly.
"It's not." Iriana reassured her, coming to sit by the bed. "But they made it." Li went still and Iriana smiled a bit sadly. "It won't hurt you, sister. It's a symbiote. It will help protect your body while you heal." She showed her arm to Li and Li stared as she realized the healer was wearing a similar garment. "At least you didn't have to go into one of their pods. That was…fairly icky even by my standards." She said with a smile. Li smiled back, but it was hesitant.
"Can I see now, Healer?" Li asked in a small voice. Iriana took Li's hands and guided them to the hem of the sheet that covered the reclining Tenno.
"We were very worried." Iriana said quietly. "Radiation damage kept us from being about to regenerate Serene's legs. Your dosage was similar to hers." Li swallowed again and nodded. "But…" The healer smiled. "…we have found some friends with some off the wall medical techniques since then. Are you ready?" She asked gently. Li nodded and gripped the sheet with both hands. Iriana pulled Li's hands and the sheet to the side.
The sight took Li's breath away. The garment went down all the way to… her hips. The sockets looked… empty except for small bulges underneath the odd garment. The tubes and wires she had expected. But the… lack. Nothing physically hurt, but the emotional pain was devastating. She bit back a cry of grief and Iriana gave her hands a squeeze.
"Oh, sister." Iriana said as Li started to cry. She bent down and hugged the sobbing Tenno. "It's okay…" She soothed her patient. "It's okay, dear. Go ahead and cry. It's okay."
"What will I do?" Li bawled into Iriana's shoulder. "What can I do? Flying is all I was… I…"
"We don't know if you will be able to fly again or not, Li. The regen has barely started." Iriana said gently. "Right now, you are still very weak. We are very worried about you."
"Worried that I will give up." Li said with a gulp. Iriana nodded. "Part of me wants to. To curl into a ball and die." Iriana looked at her and Li chuckled wetly. "A small part."
"I am here, sister." Iriana said quietly. "I went through this exact same thing, but for an arm, not both legs. We don't know if it will work." Li swallowed yet again and nodded. Iriana grimaced. "If it doesn't? We have… other options. But for right now, your focus has to be healing. The damage to your legs was the worst, but there was other damage."
"How bad?" Li asked, her tone soft and scared.
"Very." Iriana replied. She hugged Li again. "It's okay to be scared Li. But I am going to see you fly again if it is the last thing I do."
"I believe you." Li said after a moment, hugging the healer back. "It's… odd though. I never thought about anything but flying and fighting. It… wasn't… me."
"You are more than your warframe, Li." Iriana said with a snarl. "You are more than your ability to fly." She gave Li a small shake. "Are you going to be stubborn?"
"Probably." Li said with a chuckle. "But not right now. I…" She stared down at her hips again and then slowly, carefully slid the sheet over them again. "Help me?" She begged and Iriana gathered her up.
"That is why I am here, sister dear." Iriana said as the young looking Tenno in her arms broke down and sobbed again. "That is why I am here." All she could do was soothe the distraught woman, but it was enough. It had to be.
"Li is awake." Mitchell D29 didn't even flinch -this time anyway- as Olim appeared nearby. One moment he was alone in this odd virtual world, the next the Tenno was standing beside him.
"How is she?" Mitchell D29 asked slowly. He didn't know how long he had been in this odd place. It was very relaxing. Part of being an interrogation center, he assumed. It put the one being interrogated at ease.
"She is in shock." Olim said with a sigh. "We are not going to push her for a while. Find anything else?"
"Don't tell me you were not watching." Mitchell D29 said with a snort.
"My sister was watching you." Olim said with a sigh. "And I irritated her, so she is being pouty." Just the thought of a pouty Tenno had Mitchell D29 start to snort and then to laugh. "Go on, laugh." Olim said sourly. "You will meet her eventually, and when you do? You won't be laughing."
"Don't start, Olim." A wicked sultry female voice came from nowhere and Mitchell D29's eyes bulged as a human female wearing something that bordered on nothing appeared nearby. "If you start telling tales, I can start on some of yours."
"Riana." Olim said sharply. "Don't scandalize our guest."
"Poo." The woman said as a robe similar to his appeared over her. "You are no fun, Olim."
"Big brothers are supposed to be protective." Olim retorted as Mitchell D29 bit back a laugh. "Of course, I am protecting everyone else from you…" He looked at Mitchell D29 and shook his head. "Don't encourage her." He begged.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Mitchell D29 said with a gulp. This was just… wrong. Tenno brother and sister? "Ah, Miss Riana, you were watching?"
"Yes." Riana said, her tone gentling as she looked at the ex-Corpus pilot. "I ran some search routines of my own." Olim looked at her and she shook her head. "No new information. Lilly was going to check some… other databases. But she will be a while." Olim nodded.
"I had a question…" Mitchell D29 asked slowly. Olim and Riana looked at him and the pilot slumped a bit. "How long have I been here? You said Li's injuries were bad."
"You sleep a lot here." Olim said quietly. "You don't notice it. One moment you are up and doing something, the next you are out. When you wake, you go right back to whatever you were doing before. You needed it too."
"I see." Mitchell D29 said with a sigh. He shouldn't have expected anything less. He was –technically anyway- a prisoner.
"We haven't hurt you or done anything to your mind." Riana said quickly. "You needed the downtime. Those bloody Corpus butchers' ideas of proper neural connections…" She growled, a scary sound.
"What?" Mitchell D29 asked weakly.
"The methods were flawed. Every time you linked to your ship, it hurt you." Olim said softly. "The med systems in your suit managed to keep you going, but… eventually, they would have been overwhelmed."
"And I would have died." Mitchell D29 said with a nod. "Maybe that is why they decided to… downsize us?"
"Maybe." Olim said with a wince. "Don't know. Don't really care. Someone else wants to talk to you, but she can't come in here. Or… she can, but it would hurt her and we won't allow it."
"Which means we better do it before she finds a way around the docs." Riana said with a sigh. "Cecelia is darned persistent."
"Ready to wake up?" Olim asked gently.
"I don't know." Mitchell D29 admitted. "It's… very calm in here. Part is intended, I am sure. Keep people calm and they make better prisoners." Olim and Riana nodded and the pilot sighed. "I am not one to hide. And I don't like being bored. What do I do?"
"You don't have to do anything." Riana said gently, holding out her hand. Mitchell D29 took her hand and…
He coughed. His throat was dry and scratchy. His muscles felt as if he had been lying down for a long time. But it was his throat that really hurt.
"Here." A young sounding female voice came to his ears and something small and round met his lips. "Suck through the tube. It's water." Indeed, it was only water, but it suddenly tasted like the best alcoholic beverage Mitchell D29 had ever had in his life. He drank carefully, but did not stop until he was sure his stomach was sloshing. "Good boy."
"Who?" He shook himself a bit and opened his eyes. He found himself lying on a bed in a small room that screamed 'hospital' to him. The room was spartan, the only furniture the bed he was lying in and a chair that the dark haired girl who was sitting beside him had to be in. She smiled at him.
"My name is Cecelia." The girl said with a nod. She wore some kind of full body covering. Not a flight suit, but something similar.
"Mitchell D29." The pilot said more or less automatically. "Um… No guard?"
"He is just outside." Cecelia said with a sigh. "But no, I don't expect you would be dumb enough to try and take me hostage. Not in the middle of a base filled with Tenno." Mitchell D29 gulped and nodded. "See? And they said pilots can't be taught." She said with a wicked smile.
"They said you wanted to talk to me." Mitchell D29 said after a moment.
"I did." The girl said with a sigh. "I do. You see… I know what it is to find out my world, my entire life, was a lie."
"So? What?" Mitchell said sourly. "Everything I know is a lie?"
"No." Cecelia said with a snort. "Just everything you think you know about the Corpus. Welcome to a world changing moment. An intervention if you will. Tenno style."
