Becoming
This...wasn't quite like the visions Janet had seen before. It was more, for one thing. Everything was more vibrant, more...real if that made any sense at all. She was running through corridors. They looked old. Dingy. Not -quite- Orokin in design. She wasn't sure what was happening behind her, but the rumblings were not a good omen. Nor was the piercing female scream that cut off with dreadful finality. Janet paused in her flight. Nyx, The First Nyx, was fighting Rasputin. She had to...
"Nyx!"A scream propelled Janet out of the corridors into an open area. Trinity lay on the ground, odd colored blood seeping from a gaping hole on her warframe's chest. Janet had seen that fluid before. She had seen wounded Tenno before. She wanted to help, to aid the First, but she suddenly couldn't move.
You may watch only. The voice was Nyx, but... not. You may not interfere.
What is he doing? Janet demanded silently as a young form crept out of the shadows to press his hands against the Trinity's wound. The boy couldn't have been more than six or seven. His head was shaved and his face scared, but his eyes were bright with intelligence and sadness as he tried to help the stricken Tenno. Janet went still in horror. He was bleeding from a shallow scalp wound. If the virus entered him... Oh, my god he will get infected!
What must be, must be. Nyx replied softly. Watch only. This was a command. Janet struggled but she couldn't move. She relaxed in whatever held her and watched the scene unfold.
"Boy... don't touch..." Trinity begged him, trying to shove him away. She couldn't.
"You are bleeding." The boy said firmly as he pressed hard on her chest, slowing the bleeding the only way he could. Janet went totally still. She knew that voice. Younger, terrified, softer, sad. Nikis? "You stopped him. I... He took me. I couldn't stop him. You did."
"No, we didn't." Trinity said sadly. "He took Nyx..." A rumble sounded in the distance and both looked up to see a fiery plume arc into the sky from not too far away. A rocket of some kind. "Oh god, he took Nyx..."
"He won't kill her." The boy -the very young Nikis- said softly. "But she will beg for it. They all were begging for it."
"Then it is as she feared..." Trinity said softly, a slow hand coming up to touch the boy's cheek. "They were not dead. Just... deeply sleeping after what he did."
"I..." The boy who would become Nikis swallowed hard, tears starting to fall. "I can hear them all screaming. They are begging me for help! What? What is happening to me?" Janet gasped silently as his arms became skeletally thin. "Tenno, help me!"
"I will." Trinity said firmly. Both trembling hands came up and touched the boy on the brow. The change slowed and stopped. But his arms were so thin... Metal. "Oh..." She made a sad noise. "Hayden is going to be so mad at me. I lost Nyx and I got you infected."
"I chose to help you." The boy said firmly. "And the ones I can hear? I choose to help them to."
"You will need help yourself." Trinity said sadly. "What is your name?"
"My Da calls me Nikky. I don't like that." The boy said with a frown. "Girly name. Do I gotta be called that?"
"You can call yourself anything you want." Trinity said as a hum sounded in the near distance. "And here comes Hayden. Madder than hell." The boy quailed but Trinity snorted. "He will be mad at me and Nyx, not you. What do you want me to call you? Nik isn't a bad name."
"I want something different. I know four guys named Nik." The boy said slowly. "Nik is..." He paused and then smiled. "That is...different. Niki-is. Nikis. I like that."
"Well met, Nikis." Trinity lay back, her horrible would no longer seeping. "Hayden, this is Nikis." Trinity said as several other warframes came running up. "He touched me while bleeding. I tried to stop him."
"Where is Nyx?" Hayden said as two of the other warframes drew weapons and entered the building behind them. All looked wary, ready to fight or flee.
"The monster took her. Her and the others. I could only save this one, but a security bot tagged me good." Trinity said weakly as another warframe knelt at her side. Janet shook her head. This... Rasputin was doing something that all of the First Tenno feared? "We couldn't leave kids in his clutches, Hayden. We couldn't."
"No. I can see that." Hayden said sourly. "So instead of kids, now he has Nyx to play with." Hayden said softly. He started to say something and then looked at Nikis and visibly corrected himself. "Crap..."
"Then we go get her back." Nikis said firmly. Hayden looked at him and Nikis snarled, a faint echo of who and what he would become. "Or do you kill me now?" The First Tenno looked at him and to his credit, the boy did not flinch.
"Where did you come from?" Hayden asked quietly. "You have family?"
"My sis and da." Nikis replied. "I lived in Austin. Texas. I don't know where we are."
"Not that far from Austin." Hayden said with a sigh. He looked the boy over, nodding at the metal arms. "You will need to talk to your father."
"Do I gotta?" Nikis asked softly. Janet wasn't the only one who stiffened at the boys suddenly fearful expression. "I lost Caroline. I was supposed to stay with her, keep her out of trouble. He took her. I tried to fight. But I got beat. Da will be mad at me. I tried." The boy pleaded.
"I am sure you did." Hayden said sadly. "Trinity? Status?"
"I am alive, Hayden." Trinity said as Nova helped her sit up. "I am sorry, Hayden. He was going to move them soon. Nyx said there wasn't time." A soft snarl pulled all eyes to the side where another warframe was examining bits of tech that lay around the yard.
"Nyx never was flighty, Hayden." The Mag Prime sounded upset and Janet could relate. "If she did this, she had cause."
"Talia is going to flip." Hayden said softly. "Bad enough the guy's experiments. Now he has a captive Tenno? We better get her back. Fast."
"And we make it hurt." Mag replied. Nikis looked at her and his small face broke out in a huge grin. "What?" She demanded.
"I like you." Nikis said with a snarl that matched Mag's. "If... Can I come with you? I want to get my sister back." Mag looked at him for a moment, then stepped up to him, her hand coming down to caress his cheek.
"You got balls, kid." Mag said softly. "I bet you hurt that son of a bitch, didn't you?"
"I did." The boy said savagely. "Didn't expect a kid to have a knife. But... Not nearly enough." Nikis replied. "He made so many people cry. I can... hear them..." He was shivering and everything went still as Mag swung him up into her arms.
"It's okay, Nikis." Mag said quietly, but with dreadful force. "Let's get you taken care of and get our sister and yours back." All of the other Tenno were staring at her and she snarled at them. "What?"
"Nothing." Hayden said as the group started off. "Nothing at all." He was obviously trying not to smile as Nikis held onto Mag for dear life.
Janet tried to follow, but she was moving again. Flying again. She was reeling in shock however. Nikis... one of the First Tenno? That was... She had known he was old, but that old? If he had been...around since the dawn of Orokin...and had been hunting Rasputin since then... Her mind boggled at that. She knew, intellectually, that Tenno were immortal in warframes. But that was just a bit too much.
Suddenly, Janet was standing in a large room, against one wall. The room was bare. No furniture. No nothing. A pair of Tenno in warframes stood by a door. An Excalibur Prime and a Banshee Prime. Hayden sat in seiza near the center of the room. and a human man clad in black stood in between the door and the First Tenno. There was something... off about the human. Then it clicked. He was drunk!
"I have come for my son." The man said in what was probably supposed to be an intimidating voice. Pity it ended with a hiccup. Janet tried hard not to giggle. This wasn't really a laughing matter. But this was ridiculous.
"As we told you before, Mr. Johnson." Hayden said reasonably. "Your son doesn't exist anymore. He was exposed to the Technocyte Virus. He will need time and care to recover at all. Time and care he will not get from you." Hayden's voice was cold now.
"He is my son." The man named Johnson -Nikis' father?- said sharply. "He is a good for nothing lazy brat. But he is my son."
"Good for nothing and lazy?" Janet went still as a door opened on one wall and Mag walked in, her posture angry. "Is that what you tell yourself when you beat him? When you sold his sister to that scum? We found lots of records in that lab of horrors. Lots of bruises too old to be from that monster."
"Give me my son!" Mr. Johnson snapped. Janet noted that Hayden... did not react. But his right hand hung free. Was it Janet's imagination that something small gleamed in it? Something... circular? Like the middle of a Glaive?
"No." Mag replied sternly. "You have proven yourself incapable of taking care of kids. When we do find Caroline, we will find a real home for her. Not with a womanizing drunk who sells his kids to monsters."
"You have no right to keep him!" The human demanded. "I know my rights. You Tenno cannot keep him!"
"Is that so?" Another voice spoke from the door and all eyes went to where a golden gowned woman stood with the boy holding her hand. She wore a golden crown. Mr. Johnson apparently didn't recognize her. Or care. "You might want to leave, Mr. Johnson, while you are capable of unassisted movement anyway."
"Nikky, come here!" Mr. Johnson said sharply. Nikis shook his head silently and the woman in gold frowned. "Nikky, I am your father. Come here!"
"You may have been my da." Nikis said softly. "But you ain't anymore. You... sold Caroline? You told me to take care of her. I tried."
"She didn't bring much. She was a useless clutz." Mr. Johnson said savagely, hands balling into fists at his side. He...didn't seem to notice both warframes at the door take a step towards him, only to pause as Hayden shook his head slightly 'No'. "Starry eyed dreamers have no use in the real world."
"Starry eyed dreamers, is it?" Mag asked softly. Her tone was silky, dangerous. Mr. Johnson ignored her to take a step towards where Nikis stood. "Oh no." Mag said quietly as she placed herself between the man and his former son. "Get your stupid human ass out of here. Now. While I am in a reasonably good mood. Or I will throw you out the a main gate and let you freeze. Your son is more of a man at seven years old than you will ever be!" She didn't shout. She didn't even raise her voice and that was somehow worse. Something finally got through to the drunk and he stared at her. "Get. Out." Mag grated out through what were obviously clenched teeth. "Now."
"He is my son..." Mr. Johnson recoiled from furious Mag and she let him retreat.
"Not anymore." Hayden said firmly. "With the evidence we recovered and the assistance of the Empress here..." At the word 'Empress', Johnson went white as a sheet and Talia, the First Empress of Orokin, smiled. It was not a nice smile. "The Orokin authorities have remanded the young man who was your son to our care. They also want to talk to you. Selling your own kids into slavery has been illegal for a decade, Mr. Johnson. You might want to crawl out of the bottle and try to keep up with the times."
"He is my son..." Johnson protested weakly. Mag snarled, a sound more enraged wolverine than human or Tenno.
"Get him out of here before I throw him out in pieces!" Mag snapped as she turned her back on the man to stride to where Nikis stood, ashen faced. Her voice moderated. "You have a new family now. You won't always like us. Sometimes you will hate our guts. But we will not let you down. Not now, not ever."
A brief commotion heralded Mr. Johnson being removed from the room and the tension level dropped dramatically.
"I don't know what to do." Nikis said sadly, manfully trying to stem tears that hadn't fallen where his birth father could see.
"For now..." Talia said gently as she let him go and Mag gathered him up. "You need to heal and learn how to use the abilities you have. The Tenno will help you and protect you, Nikis. Just as you will help and protect them." Nikis stared at her and gulped audibly as her crown glowed, just a little. "I need to get back. But it is good to see all of you again. Even under the circumstances. Just... Find Nyx, Hayden." This was not the Empress begging, but a scared young woman. "And when you do find that monster? Make it hurt." She growled.
"We will." Nikis promised her.
Janet did not resist as she was pulled away. This was finally starting to make sense. She was being guided on this journey. She relaxed and spoke in her mind.
Nyx? She wasn't quite sure of what she was asking. You are guiding my visions? In my time?
Well reasoned, Janet. The First Nyx said kindly. There is much I cannot tell you. The voice of one the first followers of Hayden Tenno said quietly. But you needed to see this.
Yes I did. Janet said softly. I understand him now. A bit. Not entirely and I doubt I ever will. I don't love him. Do I?
I don't think so. Or... not just him. Nyx said quietly. Janet went still. What did she mean by that? Oh Janet, I have waited so long to talk to you and now, there is no time. I can go no further, Janet. What you will see from here on is for your eyes and ears alone. You will know why. And... when you do, you will know what must be done and how to do it.
I am glad they got you back in one piece, Nyx. Janet said fervently.
They didn't. Janet went still at that. But I got better. What the-? But the other presence was gone.
Janet was shaking her nonexistent head when a scene appeared around her. Virtual again. She could barely see the edges of golden code in places.
The room was... odd. Colorful pictures dotted the walls, but... they were done in crayon? There was a bed, a chair, a dresser and not much else. It was kind of hard to see the furniture. Stuffed animals were everywhere. Janet stared around, confused. This was a child's room. That was clear. Dirty clothes hung in places, trash had been pushed up against one wall in a pile that was reasonably tidy and showed a trashcan buried under it all. The bed was gaily colored, it's covers soft and inviting. A rank of pillows... Wait a sec... the covers moved and a dark space appeared with two eyes staring out at her.
"Hello?" The voice was familiar. It was Mira from before. But... the small form that crawled out from under the colorful covers of the bed was not human. Or...she wasn't anymore. "You shouldn't be here. Who are you?"
"My name is Janet and I am a friend." Janet said slowly, trying not to retch. Not to bolt. The top of the girl's skull was gone. Golden machinery showed through a transparent cover. The little girl wore a gown that was barely enough for modesty purposes and... Janet bit back a scream as she saw tubes coming out of places on the girl's body that tubes had no right to come out of. Only when she was sure of her voice did Janet speak again. "What is yours?"
"I don't know." The girl replied softly. Scared. "I can't remember. It hurts..." She was crying now and Janet sat on the bed and waited until girl slid a hand out before touching it gently.
"It's okay, honey." Janet said quietly. "I am here to help. A bad man hurt you and I want to help."
"He hurt me..." The girl cried. "He hurt Nikky and he hurt Caroline and he hurt me..." Janet went still. This wasn't Caroline? "It hurt so bad..."
"Come here." Janet said softly and pulled the girl up into an embrace, ignoring the whirring from the sobbing girl's head. "It's okay. It's okay..." She soothed the crying girl carefully. "He put you in a machine and it hurt." The girl nodded, obviously unable to speak. "And you do not remember who you were." The girl shook her head.
"It's all fuzzy." The girl said, hugging Janet tight. "Everything is fuzzy. I can't... I don't..."
"Easy." Janet soothed the girl. "I don't know if I can help, but I will try." She focused herself and then went still as she felt something odd. Something a lot like... Janet inhaled sharply as the feeling became clear to her. The feeling she had encountered just before arriving here. The same mental 'feel' of another being's mind. And not just any being. "Oh my god..." Janet breathed, utter horror suffusing every fiber of her being.
"Nyx."