Again, things such as the situation of the Crimson Hammer will be explained. Patience, fellow Tenno/squids/kids.

"Oh my, that is quite the nasty injury you have there."

Raaz nodded, the bandages wound around his jaw shifting as he did so. The white fabric had long since been stained blue by the blood seeping from his gums.

"How did this happen?"

"He was hit in the face with a large blunt object." Marie stated. "Here are the broken bits, if, uh, they are of any use."

Raaz opened his hand, small fragments of white resting there. The nurse behind the desk swallowed.

"We can't just reattach broken parts of a beak to the remnants still in his jaw. This requires a full surgery."

Raaz quickly scribbled something down on a piece of paper.

"How long would I have to wait?" It read.

"Probably not long." The nurse said. "The current issue isn't available surgeons, but beds. We still have twenty-five people bedridden from the whole radiation thing."

The door leading to the ward opened, and Mira stepped out accompanied by a nurse.

"Twenty-four."

The Octoling looked up, sighting Marie and running forward, giving the smaller Inkling very little time to react before she was pulled into an embrace.

"Urk! Hi Mira."

The Octoling released Marie and turned to Raaz, who backed away. Mira breathed in sharply, seeing the blue bandages and white shards in his hand.

"Raaz, what happened to your face?"

Marie pulled her aside, whispering.

"The alien attacked him."

"It what? Did Raaz provoke it?"

"Not enough to warrant this."

The pair looked at the nurse behind the desk.

"How soon can he have surgery?"

She tapped away at her computer.

"About... ten minutes."

Marie looked at Raaz, who nodded.

"We'll wait."

Zantzi stood in front of Vulture and Aegis. The two Octolings had decidedly stern looks on their faces. Vulture was apparently able to mask his rage much more effectively than Aegis, who looked one wrong word away from exploding.

"So. Adding to the list of crimes that you've committed, which is breaking and entering, theft, manslaughter, trespassing, aiding a convict's escape, there's now assault, battery and actual bodily harm. You do realise that the Inklings have all the grounds they need to imprison you, and us, for assisting you?"

Zantzi nodded, feeling very exposed and vulnerable without his Warframe.

"Say it."

"Y-yes."

"Yes what?"

Zantzi stopped himself from shooting him a rancid glare.

"Yes sir."

"Whether you claim something manipulated your armour or didn't, it won't help you. As far as they know you did it on purpose. Understand?"

"Yes sir."

"One last thing. We've done a pretty good job of keeping you hidden away. If you do something else of this calibre, and I mean anything, we will cut ties with you and reveal your location to the Inklings. This new colony will not be seen collaborating with a dangerous alien who appears to think he operates above the law and its consequences. You are on strike two. Understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Good."

Vulture turned and walked out of the room, slipping between the scavengers who were preventing any curious citizens from listening in. Zantzi went to sit his pod, but Aegis stepped forward, jamming a hand between the skin of his neck and the Zariman suit.

"Don't think for a second that you're getting away scot-free. We may have got you walking, but now we're going to make those limp, weak arms strong. We are going climbing."

Zantzi didn't even protest. He simply stood up and followed Aegis out of the base. He knew that if he tried to run, she would easily catch him and make his already-gruelling punishment much worse. They stepped into fresh air, but instead of going downslope, they went up, the grass curving up and away from them, growing sparser the higher they went. There came a point where the grass was replaced by rock, and various holes and outcrops in the rock were covered in a white powder. Aegis stared at the wall for a few seconds before turning around.

"Wait here and watch."

Zantzi did as instructed, watching as the Octoling placed her hands inside a wide crack, bracing herself against an outcrop. She scaled the wall in seconds, pulling herself up and over the lip of the wall with little effort. She hung her legs over the edge.

"Your turn."

Zantzi stepped forward, placing his hands where she had placed hers, copying her stance of leaning back, allowing his arms to straighten out. When he tried to move a foot off the ground, his grip failed and he fell on his back.

"Pathetic. Get up and try again."

Zantzi pushed himself to his feet, growling under his breath.

"Oh, and don't think for a second that broken bones are going to stop me. This will be extremely painful. For you." She smiled sweetly, clapping her hands. "All you have to do for today is get up here the same way I did."

Zantzi stepped forward again, placing his hands back into the crack and leaning more of his weight into his arms. This time, his was much grip more stable, but still fell when his arms gave out upon lifting his feet off the ground.

"The quicker you get up this wall, the sooner you get to go inside."

The next few times he tried, Zantzi barely made it past the first move- he kept falling as his arms gave you due to their underuse. However, on his ninth try, he managed to move his feet off the ground- a fall was going to hurt a lot more now. And fall he did; while he was looking for the next hand hold, his grip failed and he fell, landing flat on his back and having the air in his lungs forced out. He wheezed, looking down the slope as he rolled onto his front and spotting Isla standing a short distance away. She tilted her head and giggled, the soft sound somehow carrying itself to Zantzi's ears. He coughed, making to stand up.

"Looks like you've got yourself an audience, Zantzi. You going to make less of an arse of yourself now?"

With renewed determination, Zantzi set himself against the wall again. He was not going to let the wall defeat him.

The wall had defeated him. After watching him struggle for hours, she had eventually shown mercy and called it a day. Zantzi had stumbled back to his pod on legs that barely carried him, pushing himself into the arms of his Loki and lifted himself through contact Transference, heading up to the residential rooms. He had his Loki kneel in the corner of the central living space before removing the Zariman suit and showering. Following that, he sat down, wrapped in a towel, with the kit he used to clean the inside and outside of the suit and got to work, the water in the basin he was using discolouring as he did so. Rock dust ended up suspended in the water, as did other flecks of dirt and grime. He hummed to himself as he worked, becoming so detached that he didn't notice someone had opened the door behind him until they spoke.

"Want some help there?"

Zantzi jumped, going wide-eyed and feeling his power surging before he shuddered, doubling over as he struggled to contain it.

"Oh, are you okay? I didn't think I'd surprise you so much." Isla's voice was dripping with worry, but also something else.

"Just give me... A second..." Zantzi choked, containing his power and letting out a deep breath. He sat up, an uncomfortable burning feeling spreading under his skin as his power settled. "How did you get in?"

Isla shrugged. She was wearing a simple shirt and skirt, as well as some trainers. Her hair-tentacles hung free down her back

"The door was ajar."

Zantzi sighed, returning to scrubbing the gloves of his suit.

"Wow, she really wore you out... I can see your hands shaking from here."

She wasn't wrong- the Tenno could barely clench his fingers together once Aegis was done with him. He had actually used the butt of his palm to operate the shower and was having difficulty scrubbing. Isla sat down across from Zantzi, looking into the basin.

"Is that water?"

"Yes."

"I don't suppose you have any rubber gloves?"

"I think there's a box of them in the bathroom."

Isla stood up, crossing the room and stepping onto the tiled surface, quickly locating the box of gloves and sliding one onto each hand. She walked back into the living area and sat back down again, picking up the other Zariman glove, following the Tenno's example and scooping water onto it rather than immersing it. As she did not have any tools with which to clean, she simply began making circular motions with her fingers, dislodging the dirt more efficiently than Zantzi due to his weakened state. The pair sat in silence, the quiet splashing the only sound in the room. Low hums occasionally passed through the room, and voices carried down the corridors. The water soon became completely dirty, and Zantzi carefully laid the now-clean gloves on a mat before standing with the intent to refill the basin.

"Wait." Isla said, reaching out and grabbing his hands when he went to pick up the basin. She frowned when she felt something tingling across her hands, and she let go. "Let me take it."

The Tenno hardly protested, merely sitting down and shrugging. Isla picked up the bowl and carefully- very carefully- poured it down the sink. She ran more hot water, not bothering to check the temperature, instead waiting until steam appeared before shutting off the hot water and filling the rest of the basin with cold. She carried back into the other room and set it down. She sat down closer to Zantzi, and picked up the Zariman Hood, inspecting it in her hands. It was clean already.

"What is this?"

"It's a hood."

The pair lapsed into silence again.

What a successful conversation. Isla thought dryly.

"What does this suit do anyway?"

"It..." Zantzi started, thinking of how best to explain it. "It stabilises me somewhat. You saw what happened earlier, you surprised me and I almost exploded. Me and the rest of my kind are very unstable, there's a lot of power looping around inside of us. Any unexpected stimulus could set us off, as you almost found out. The suit keeps the power in check so we don't inadvertently hurt anyone."

"I'm sure it can't be that bad." Isla attempted to explain.

"Isla, the last person that surprised one of us lost most of their face and an eye to burns."

"O-oh."

The pair were silent again, focussing on washing the remaining pieces of the Zariman suit. Isla changed the water twice more before they were done. She picked up the basin and went to empty it, tipping down the sink before turning around to head back into the other room. It was fortunate that she had already emptied the basin, otherwise she would have seriously injured herself when she dropped it in horror. All across Zantzi's back were burns, grotesque grey marring spread across his flesh like the web of some infernal infernal spider.

"I thought it was just your face..."

Zantzi turned around to face her, panic on his face.

"Oh, I, uh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for you to see this. One moment." He finished putting on the main piece of the Zariman suit, the garment fastening itself in place. "Better? I am so sorry."

"How?"

Sod it, it's not like its sensitive information.

"There was a war, a long time ago, a war that put us, the Orokin, against the Sentients. They almost won the war, because they could subvert technology, adapting to it almost instantly to nullify it. The Orokin got desperate and fired out ship, the Zariman ten-zero into the Void. Now, the Void is full of energy, but its incredibly dangerous. While we were there and exposed to it, it changed us. After that, I don't really know what happened. What I do know is that after the Zariman made it back, they put us in pods to control the Warframes, the latest and final weapon against the Sentient horde. Our guide called it "the Second Dream", and I only recently woke up from it. Turns out some of my friends had already awoken, apart from Ruben, but he soon found himself."

Zantzi stopped for a few moments. Isla sat, enraptured by his story of a war amongst the stars.

"Speaking of my friends, I need to talk to them."

"Can I... Listen?"

The question caught Zantzi off-guard, and he looked away, nervously picking at the fingers of his gloves.

"I don't know. I don't want to overwhelm our communicator. I don't /think/ that there'll be a problem..."

It's one more mind against the entire psychic might of Ozara in her Nyx. It'll be fine. he reasoned with himself.

"Alright." He said, sitting down and removing his gloves. "Sit down right here, right in front of me."

He waited for Isla to comply, and she sat cross-legged in front of him, her knees almost touching his. She held her skirt down with both hands, conserving her dignity. Zantzi swallowed uncomfortably.

"I... I need to hold both of your hands."

Isla blinked before shrugging, moving her hands into his with little hesitation. She immediately felt something shifting beneath his skin, a strange energy that made her nerves tingle. She wished she's worn something more conservative. Zantzi on the other hand already had his eyes closed, so Isla followed suit, soon matching her breathing with his. She could hear whispers of voices, and it didn't take her long to realise that it was Zantzi's mind she was listening in on. She subtly pulled away, far enough so that she didn't hear any of Zantzi's thoughts, but close enough that the connection was stable.

"Ozara?" Zantzi's voice called out into the darkness. Isla felt the response before she heard it.

"There's a second mind."

"She's a friend."

"You know I can't take that chance." The voice was then directed at her. "This won't hurt if you won't resist."

Isla felt a presence inside her head, and it was not entirely painless. It was quite the contrary; when Isla resisted the initial probe, Ozara offered a mental rolling of her eyes and shattered her mental defences and sifted through her memories while she writhed in wordless agony. She could faintly hear Zantzi protesting- he had let go of her hands, but Ozara had not let her escape so easily. The stranger continued to scour her mind, searching for any sort of malicious intent or ulterior motive. Finding none, Ozara withdrew, and Isla could practically feel the guilt radiating from the Tenno's psyche.

"I'm sorry, I had to be sure. I did warn you, though."

Zantzi was back in front of her, staring at Isla, equally as guilty as Ozara.

"Do you want to carry on?"

"May as well." Isla managed.

The pair closed their eyes again, talking to Ozara.

"So how have you managed it? How did you bring a second person into the link?"

"Skin contact."

"Come again?"

"Direct skin contact."

Laughter erupted all around the pair, Ozara barely containing herself.

"Wow, Zantzi? I didn't have you down as a ladykiller. So!" The outburst hurt Isla's head, and Ozara's attention was on her. "What did you do, Isla? He's normally so stoic. And don't forget I read your mind, so I know much more than your name."

"I, uh, surprised him? He left his door unlocked and I just walked in."

"And you danced. I saw that in your memories too. You think he's cute."

Isla grinned.

"Yeah. But why is holding hands such a big deal?"

Ozara reigned the last of her laughter in.

"You know how we Tenno spend most of our time in pods on our own ship?"

"Yeah?"

"Given that a select few of us can actually walk, we very rarely come into direct contact with each other. Add into the equation the risks of a Tenno removing their suit, and you have what looks like a very benign gesture become far more... Intimate."

Isla felt Zantzi squirm slightly. She grinned.

"So, what was it you wanted, Zantzi?"

"A-another drop pod of drives."

"Huh? What the hell for? Was the first one not good enough?"

"It was destroyed on impact."

It was a blatant lie, and both Zantzi and Ozara knew that it hadn't worked.

"One of the indigenous destroyed it- by accident- and you smashed his teeth in. But hey, you don't actually know what happened, I see. So how about this. You give the resource cost back to the Hammer and you'll get your drives."

"That's fine."

"Alright. Tohn!" Ozara shouted. Whether it was an actual shout or purely mental, Isla didn't know. "Aim and fire another pod at the last set of coordinates. Fuse a key to it to give it the power to exit the Rift."

There were a few moments of silence.

"Oh, and Ruben figured it out. We are in the Rift, just not any recognisable part of it. We're working on a way to pool all of our Void Keys together in order to leave. Sure, we'll irradiate a huge area of space, but that's just life, I guess. I mean, we and the Dojo will be fine."

"That sounds... risky."

"It'll be fine. I hope you're outside because Tohn just- what the hell?!"

Ozara screeched, the echoes of her thoughts that Isla could perceive rapidly becoming less casual and more infuriated. Her outburst had given Zantzi, and by extension, Isla, an awful headache.

"Ozara! What happened?"

"No clue! The entire-"

A voice joined Ozara's- male, soft-spoken and rapid.

"We've fallen out of the Rift. There's a planet on the scanners, and I'm getting resonance from a Tenno landing craft."

Ozara gasped, her pain lancing through both Zantzi and Isla. In that instant, the two of them could see the inside of a structure. They could see an enormous window, banners hanging from the top of it. Flames rose from the bottom of the glass panes. It took Zantzi a second to realise that it was the world through Ozara's eyes. She turned, and she quickly barked an order to a Volt whom Zantzi recognised as Ruben. He shot out of the observatory, Ozara gaining a boost of speed as she yelled into a microphone.

"All Cephalon! Dock all landing craft with the Dojo, maximum thrust! Pull us out of the gravity well!"

Isla's sight returned to normal when Zantzi let go of her hands and stumbled into his armour, the Loki shuddering with a blue flash before hoisting him into its arms and setting off at a run.

"Wait!"

Isla couldn't hope to keep pace, but she followed him the best she could, soon emerging into the open air. Zantzi was stood in front of her, looking up, a mortified expression on his face. Isla followed his gaze and gasped- high in the sky, at the edge of the atmosphere, was a grey structure, wreathed in flame. Specks of different coloured light surrounded it at regular intervals- the engine flares of the landing craft struggling to keep the Dojo in orbit- Isla was no scientist, but she could see that they were failing. Zantzi grabbed her hands, pulling her into communication with Ozara. Sirens rang through her skull, making her wince.

"Isla, where can we direct the Dojo? Is there anywhere far away from a population centre in range of a course correction?"

A smaller fireball- the second pod- hit the ground a short distance away.

"Up to the north! No-one lives up there, it's too cold."

"Ozara, direct the Dojo up north. You don't have much time before the craft engines burn up."

"All Cephalon, direct the Dojo north! All hands evacuate! Zantzi, I hope for your sake that the girl is right."

Moments later, the communication link was dropped. Zantzi and Isla looked up to the Dojo, watching as it listed, pointing north and accelerating towards the ground. The four sets of light detached from the structure, peeling away as the flames grew. One craft flew directly towards the pair, the ground shaking slightly as it approached. Several more Octolings had emerged from the mountain, whispering between themselves and pointing. A Scimitar flew straight overhead, a figure dropping from it and straightening up in front of Zantzi. It was much more feminine than the Loki, and looked very organic. A flat horn looped back over its head. It was primarily black, a few flecks of white spreading across the armour.

"Ozara!"

"Zantzi, take everyone here back inside. We don't know how much energy the blast could release, but they could be in danger, even at this range." When Zantzi stalled, she growled and turned to them herself. "All of you! Inside! You only have a few seconds before-"

A blinding flash turned night to day. Ozara looked at it for a moment before taking matters into her own hands and shoving Zantzi and Isla towards the mountain.

"Inside! All of you!"

The screaming began after the flash, as if a switch had been flipped in the spectator's heads. They suddenly rushed to the entrance, moving inside as fast as the aperture would allow. Seconds later, the shockwave hit, a wall of dust blasting past the entrance, shaking the mountain itself. Once the initial wave had passed, Zantzi stepped back outside, slowly setting himself down and walking out without the aid of his armour. He paled at the sight he saw. Others followed him out. Someone laughed, unsure of what else they were to do. Others cried, unable to comprehend the situation at hand. Most were silent, Zantzi and Ozara included. The Nyx shook her head, placing a hand on Zantzi's shoulder.

"Looks like the gang's all here. But what to do now? Well. Looks like we have one hell of a mess to clean up."

In the distance, a cloud rolled higher into the sky, a column of dust and flame rising to meet it.

This just got so much more complicated.

The whole skin contact things is a headcanon I have- what else would you expect if your entire race kept themselves to themselves all the time?