Chilling
Olim was dancing. The Frost warframe that he had bonded to was far slower and clumsier than his old Ash, but it was still responsive to his desires. Strike, block, dodge, kick, each movement in the unarmed kata was focused and precise. But it wasn't enough. He spun to his feet at the end of the series of movements and sighed.
"Why so great a sigh, Olim?" He looked to see his current 'minder', a Tenno named Lilly who wore a Nova warframe. "That looked good." She was a good Tenno, but…a bit odd. He wasn't sure how or why so he ignored it.
He was still a resident in Karl's dojo. Or 'guest', depending on who you talked to. He wondered if 'prisoner' was anywhere in that list, but was too polite to ask. He had an escort every time he left his quarters. The clan had accepted his presence, all except Alicia who stayed away from him. The few times they had encountered one another in the halls, the Tenno minding Olim had glared until Alicia had moved on. It bothered Olim that she was still so hostile. He had no idea why she was. It had been three days since Olim had bonded to the Frost and he was…better. Some anyway.
Aeron had let him on the range and he had actually surprised the sniper with his skill at two pistol shooting. But then again, two pistols made a lot more sense at close range where missing was far harder and reaction times could be measured in milliseconds. Reloading was a pain, but then again, it wasn't as bad as it could be. He was okay with long guns, but preferred close quarters, both pistol and melee. One thing Karl's people did not stint on was the training time. They let him train all he wanted, even if he had to leave the weapons in the training areas after each session, it still felt good.
"It doesn't feel right." Olim said softly as he sank back to seiza. "The movements are right, but… It doesn't feel right." He shook himself. "I'll try not to grump too much." He said with a snort.
"You don't complain much at all." Lilly said with a tilt of her head. "The others say you never did."
"When you have been down as far as I have, anything up is an improvement." Olim said with a shrug. "And what good does complaining do?"
"Sometimes it makes people see a problem they didn't see before." Lilly said equably. "Can you define what feels wrong?"
"I am not sure." Olim said after a moment. "I am used to the Frost now. It was an adjustment from the Ash. Slower, but better protected. Not as stealthy, but much more survivable. I used one…before." He thought for a moment and then shook his head. "I could tell the kata was good. Not perfect, but then again, what is?" He said with a snort.
"Nothing that I have ever seen." Lilly agreed with a chuckle. "So… what?"
"I don't know. I guess I need to talk to Brianna and Amelia." Olim said with a groan. "I have put it off."
"No one will push you." Lilly promised.
"Maybe that is the problem." Olim said in a half joking, half serious tone. Lilly looked at him and Olim shrugged. "Most of my life I have been pushed. To be better, to be faster. To be stronger. You all have been far more understanding than I would have been."
"You want to go to Medical?" Lilly asked.
"Yeah." Olim agreed. "I just…" He broke off and shook his head.
"Alicia won't bother you." Lilly promised.
"I can't figure it out, sister." Olim said plaintively as he rose from seiza. "She hates Raven, I get that. Anyone with eyes and ears gets that. Why hate me when the rest of you have said you don't? I…" He shook his head. "It took everything I had to forgive myself for what I couldn't change, what I couldn't endure. I know it wasn't my fault, but… All that time hating myself, pushing myself and falling short because I was meant to. It still feels raw."
"It is going to." Lilly said sadly. "And Alicia's hate is not helping. Come on. I think they will let you see Raven today."
"I hope so." Olim said, his tone sad. Raven was a mess. They had her in an induced coma currently to try and let her body heal the horrific damage that she had taken from Alicia's Sicarus. Her damaged warframe was overtaxed trying to keep her alive with all of the damage it had taken from the Corpus butchers. "Even if she can't hear, maybe she can feel our support."
"Stranger things have happened, brother." Lilly said with a nod.
"Oh yeah." Olim agreed. "Like me. Ah…" He paused halfway to the door. "Lilly, can I ask a question?"
"You can ask." Lilly said calmly as she waited for him. "I might not have an answer."
"Should I swear to Karl?" Olim asked his posture solemn and his tone serious. Lilly stared at him and he shrugged. "I don't… He and the others are working so hard to make me welcome. I feel… Like I am freeloading."
"Like what?" Lilly asked, her tone confused.
"Like I am doing nothing but using resources. Not contributing." Olim said with a wince. "It feels…wrong. I want to help. But… I don't know…" He fingered the collar around the neck of his warframe and sighed. They hadn't wanted to put one on, but Olim had flatly refused to move from the storage room until they had disabled his warframe systems. "I don't know if I can trust myself."
"There is only one way to know, Olim." Lilly said gently. Olim nodded soberly and then shook his head.
"You have all been so good to me." Olim said with feeling. "I will pay my debt to your clan."
"Olim." Lilly stiffened and her voice turned hard. "We are paying the debt we owe you." Olim bit back what he was going to say and then shook his head again. Lilly relaxed a little. "I know this is hard for you to believe, but you are important. You represent the people that we have failed. So many that we have failed." Olim paused. Was that shame in Lilly's voice? "The greatest of journeys begins with a single step and this is ours. Perhaps the first step on the road to the Tenno's redemption."
"Redemption?" Olim asked, confused. "What?" Lilly froze and then shook her head. "Lilly?"
"I spoke out of turn." Lilly said in a very small voice. "I am sorry, I can say no more." Olim stared at her for a moment and then nodded slowly.
"I will not ask." Olim said, his quiet words an oath. Then he bowed to her. "If there is anything I can do to help, my sword and service are yours."
"Don't say that." There was honest to god fear in Lilly's voice now. "Please don't say that!"
"Lilly." Olim said sharply. "I cannot be other than I am. If I may be of some service, any brother or sister may call me. That was… My father's oath. I take it as mine." Lilly was shaking her head, but Olim just shrugged. "I did not wish to distress you, sister. We will speak no more of this." He declared.
"I…" Lilly was shivering a bit then went still as the door opened and a Saryn warframe walked in. "Mori." Was her greeting a plea?
"You stand relieved, Lilly." Mori said quietly. Lilly all but bolted from the room. She nodded to the stunned Frost. "Olim."
"What did I say?" Olim asked, worried. "Have I given offense?"
"No." Mori reassured him and Olim relaxed. The Saryn could be cold on occasion, but she had no use for beating around the bush. If she said something, it was true. "We are all stressed. Lilly is… Well, she is far older than she acts at times. She remembers more than the rest of us. She spent a great deal of time out of cryo, meditating, thinking, trying to find enlightenment."
"…and I have confused her." Olim said with a sigh. Mori nodded. "I will apologize when I see her again."
"It's not your fault, Olim." Mori said sharply. "I know it is hard to believe, but it isn't."
"I have waited long enough, Sister Mori." Olim said with a sigh. "I need to speak to Brianna and Amelia. I need to face this. I need… some kind of closure."
"I understand." Mori said with a nod. "For what it is worth, you are doing very well." She motioned for Olim to precede her and he did.
"It doesn't feel right, sister." Olim said as they left the room. "I got most of the moves done correctly, but… It doesn't feel right."
"Olim, you just found out how badly you were really hurt all those years ago." Mori said reasonably. "All this time you have been wandering around, doing what you do, half healed. Is it going to feel the same?" Her tone was wicked and Olim snickered.
"No, I guess not." Olim replied. "And I have put this off long enough. Any word on Raven?" He asked, trying to keep a pleading note from his voice. Mori looked at him and he knew he had failed. "I feel responsible."
"As do we all." Mori said sadly. "None of us expected what happened. Alicia has always had a hair trigger temper, but… not like that."
"One thing is clear, Mori." Olim said as they moved through the dojo corridors that he was finally beginning to make sense of. "She was going to kill me, not Raven."
"I know." Mori agreed.
"Why?" Olim asked, confused. "I wasn't in a warframe. I wasn't a threat. Raven was. Why shoot me? Raven saved me, but… Why?"
"I don't know, Olim." Mori said quietly. "We have all been wracking our brains, going over sensor logs. There was nothing abnormal until she shot you in that cavern. Nothing."
"And she refuses to speak of it." Olim said with a gulp. His talks with Karl and Jasmina, neither of whom pressured him to do anything, had been informative, but also frustrating. So much information had been lost in the Collapse.
"If you want a trial…" Mori started only to break off as Olim made a sharp gesture of negation. "Olim… She shot you without cause."
"We don't know if she had cause." Olim said with a shrug. "What I do know is that she would have killed me if I hadn't turned. The burst from her Braton would have taken me center mass. I gave her clan lots of reasons to dislike and distrust me. Did she swear my death?" He asked.
"Not that anyone can determine." Mori said with a wince. "If she had, then, well…"
"If she did, then we can find a way." Olim replied uneasily. "I would prefer to remain alive, but if my death would heal the rift…" He stopped talking abruptly as Mori grabbed him and pulled him until his faceplate was bare centimeters form hers.
"Don't you ever say that!" Mori hissed angrily. "You are just as important as she is!" She gave him a hard shake and then released him. "Just… don't." She snapped.
"Mori, we cannot have her and me in close proximity." Olim said quietly. "Even without weapons and both of us with powers disabled, we will run each other. Sooner or later this will come to a head."
"Karl sends her out regularly." Mori said with an obviously reluctant nod. "But I agree this is going to end badly."
"Maybe." Olim said, thinking hard.
"Olim?" Mori asked, suspicious. "What?"
"Is Will available?" Olim asked quietly. Mori stared at him. "I have a question about matter of honor and I am… reluctant to put it to the clan leader as I doubt his impartiality in this dispute." Mori started to protest and Olim raised a hand. "Nothing against Karl, but he sees me as his brother's final legacy. He cannot be impartial, Mori."
"I…see." Mori said with a grunt of worry. "I will ask, but I will have to be there too."
"Right." Olim said sadly. "I did not mean to divide the clan, Mori." He jumped as she smacked his arm.
"You didn't." Mori said with a snarl. "Come on, let's get to Medical."
The rest of the walk was in silence. Most of the clan was out on missions, so they did not encounter anyone until they arrived in Medical. Amelia was working at a desk as they entered.
"Mori? Olim?" Amelia asked, looking up from her terminal. "Anything wrong?"
"Yes, and it is time I started putting it right." Olim said with a sigh. "I need to talk to you and Brianna, try to make sense of what happened. I… I didn't want to…" The admission shamed him.
"Olim." Amelia said kindly, rising from her desk to approach them. "Taking injuries and having scars from said injuries is not shameful."
"No, but ignoring people who want to help is." Olim said with a shrug. "I have been lax in my courtesy to both you and Brianna and you have both been most patient with me. My apologies, doctor."
"Accepted." The human doctor said, coming to stand in front of him. "Are you sure, Olim?" Amelia asked with a look. "Mental problems are not easy to fix, even with our technology. We can help you, but it will take some time."
"It's not like I have anything better to do." Olim said with a small chuckle. "But yes."
"Okay." Amelia said with a nod. "I will start, Brianna is in with Raven." Olim perked up but subsided as Amelia shook her head. "No change. Her injuries are not healing."
"That doesn't make sense!" Mori said, her voice worried. "How can her warframe not be healing her?"
"Her warframe is only partially active, Mori." Amelia said with a sad sigh. "We cannot get any more of it to activate with the damage. The good news is that we have finished the scans, the bad news…" She paused as both Mori and Olim tensed. "We don't know if she will wake at all, Mori. Olim…" She said as he bit back a sob. "I am sorry."
"Better to know, be able to prepare." Olim said, bowing his head. "We have lost so much. To lose a sister like this though. It hurts."
"It does." Amelia said with a wince. "I am not Tenno and I don't want to lose her. No doctor likes losing patients, but…" She paused and looked off into space.
"But?" Olim pressed when she did not respond.
"There has to be more to it than Alicia being angry, Olim." Amelia said with a wince. "She was going to shoot you! Not Raven, which makes no sense considering her choice of ammunition."
"What if…" Olim mused. "What if, after shooting me, she had turned the gun on herself?" Both females stared at him and he shrugged. "Armor piercing explosive rounds. Anti Tenno weaponry." Those words made the air in the room suddenly feel cold. Or was it just Olim? He shivered and he saw the others do the same.
"She is not suicidal." Amelia said with a wince. "We scanned her thoroughly after Karl and Will brought her in. She was raging but not suicidal."
"I wonder…" Olim said softly. "Could she have been programmed?" Amelia and Mori both winced, the doctor's jaw agape.
"It is…possible." Amelia said with a shiver. "But to find out, we would have to do a deep scan like we did on you and I know she has anti-interrogation protocols buried in her mind. She would die."
"Then no." Olim said flatly. "I will not be responsible for a sister's death."
"Olim, you are not." Mori said just as flatly. "We cannot have Tenno fighting Tenno outside of the Conclaves." Olim jerked and Mori hissed. "Don't even think about challenging her. I would knock you silly."
"Wouldn't work anyway." Olim said slowly. "Even if she was programmed… She would know it wasn't real." But he was thinking hard.
"Do you want to see Raven before we start our session?" Amelia asked to break the tension that had grown.
"I would appreciate it, doctor." Olim said politely. Mori glanced sharply at him but he paid her no mind. Amelia nodded and walked to a door, vanishing through it as the security field flashed green. There were taking no chances with Raven, either escaping or being attacked, either one was bad. But he was distracted. There had to be a way to get Alicia to…
"Don't even think about it!" Mori hissed again. "I will hurt you." Olim sighed and relaxed.
"There is a schism within your clan, sister Mori." Olim said in a formal voice. "What good Tenno can help but try to find a way to ameliorate such a divide?"
"I am not letting you out of my sight." Mori snapped.
"You are going to be bored out of your mind listening to me whine." Olim said with a shrug.
The door that Amelia had gone through chimed and he stepped forward, followed by Mori. The passage through the security field was quick and painless. If they had not been authorized it would have been neither, if possible at all. A short corridor, flanked on both sides by security machinery, provided further protection. The next door opened and Amelia beckoned them in. The sight inside the isolation room always brought tears to Olim's eyes.
Raven lay on a bed, surrounded by medical machinery. Her chest was mass of wounds old and new, her warframe plates removed to provide access to her damaged body. The doctors could not remove them all without causing worse harm, due to the damage done by careless Corpus surgeons. She lay silent and still. Brianna sat by the bed, her face sad as she looked up for a moment, shook her head and returned to her readouts.
"Ah Raven…" Olim said sadly. He bowed his head. "You saved my life, sister. I have no idea if I will be able to repay you or not, but I will find out why you were hurt. I swear it." Mori hissed at him again and he shook his head. He smiled as he kept his eyes on Raven's still form. "But I also swear I won't be stupid about it. Get well, sister. We need you. We need to figure this out. I get the feeling… We really need to figure this out." Mori relaxed slowly and nodded to him.
Brianna was smiling as she indicated for them to precede her. She followed them into the security corridor. Olim blew out a breath and nodded to the doctor.
"And now… the rough part…"
