Fear

Jesselle had thought she knew what fear was. She hadn't really had a clue. Even Trinity's support was barely enough to keep her going as her body did things without her in control.

You knew what they would do, Jesselle. Trinity chided the girl gently. It was more too distract her from what was happening that to actually complain, Jesselle knew. The fact that they managed to undo what the doctor did is... impressive.

Her legs had been reattached. The mechanical eye that had been implanted had also been replaced with a flesh and blood one. Every scan Jesselle had done showed she was fully human again, if not quite recovered from the repairs.

Yes. Jesselle replied uneasily. She could only watch as her body worked on a slumbering human boy. Trinity... is there any chance... for these? She begged.

For several moments, the Tenno spirit did not reply and Jesselle slumped a bit. Mentally of course. Her body was doing as its mistresses had commanded.

I don't know, Jesselle. Trinity said after a moment. They haven't been altered physically... but...

I know.

When Jesselle's body had woken, she and Trinity had been shocked to find human children in the middle of a secure Grineer facility. Neither of them had any way of knowing where said facility was. The plan was for Tenno to hunt Jesselle, force the Grineer to accelerate their plans. But apparently, the Grineer had been working in secret for quite some time. This... hadn't been part of the plan Jesselle had helped craft. There were four children, two males and two females. All very young. Jesselle could not be sure, but she figured none were over the age of five. They were not the kids she had met in the doctor's lab. There were no records of where they had come from, and Jesselle feared the worst. Especially when the kids were awake.

"J-345987?" The boy who lay in a bed nearby asked calmly, his eyes on a screen that showed swirling colors. "Are we within parameters?"

"Yes." Jesselle did not try to keep herself from talking. It wouldn't work and would arouse suspicion. She was delegated to tending the children. "Everything is green. You are on downtime, K-432. You should be asleep."

"I cannot." The boy replied softly.

"Why not?" Jesselle asked as she finished up with the boy she had been tending and turned to the other. A quick check showed the girls still slumbered. "Is something wrong?"

"Unknown." K-432 said quietly. "The images are unclear. They are unsettling."

"Images?" Jesselle asked as she moved to the boy's bedside. "Of what?"

"I..." The boy slumped a bit on his bed. "I do not know." His words rang false to Jesselle's ears and she forced herself to remain calm as her body sat on the bed beside him and took his hand in hers.

"What do you see in your dreams?" The controlled part of Jesselle's mind asked him quietly, her tone touching the subconscious commands that had been implanted in his mind. He could not disobey. It simply wasn't possible for him.

"I see a man and a woman." K-432 said quietly. "They are reaching for me and screaming. They... The Masters are there and... There are loud noises. The man and woman fall down and are still." Jesselle felt Trinity go still inside her mind and Jesselle shared the Tenno's shock and fear.

"I see." Jesselle felt her body react and forced herself to stay calm as it reached for a hypo. "You will sleep now. There will be no dreams."

Jesselle was crying inside as her other self put the boy to sleep and then adjusted a device that hung over his bed. Energy played from it over his face and he relaxed as it soothed him. Admittedly, it did so by destroying certain parts of his memory. Trinity embraced her again.

"Done." Jesselle's other self reported. "K-432 is still relapsing. I have initiated a further wipe."

"Very good, J-345987." The modulated voice was not any Grineer that Jesselle knew. It was female, but no one she had met. "Your downtime."

"As commanded." Jesselle's body moved to an adult sized bed against one wall and laid down. Her eyes closed and Jesselle could feel her rhythms slow.

I don't know how much more of this I can take, Trinity. Jesselle said weakly as her body fell into slumber. Just... watching.. I... I knew... but...

But this is worse than we imagined. Trinity agreed. We figured they would have to use you. But... they had contingency plans.

None of these kids are strong enough to survive it. Jesselle said sadly.

No. Trinity agreed. We can only hope that whoever gets to us is quick. But... Jesselle made a noise of worry and Trinity sighed. Jesselle, we cannot save them. You know it.

The damage is permanent. Jesselle agreed. And the drugs... I...

Jesselle. Trinity said softly. It is not your fault. I will do it.

No. Jesselle said just as quietly. Without the drugs the Grineer have addicted them to, they will die quickly, in great pain. It was done before I got here, but... I feel... I mean... She groaned. I am protected. They are not. And... having to continue dosing them... Trinity... I... I feel wrong doing it. And then the memory wiping...

I know. Trinity said sadly. Jesselle, this is my calling. I was a Healer as well as a Cyberlancer. This is what I do. Heal when I can. Repair when I can. Ease when I must.

I... I couldn't... Jesselle gagged a bit at that and Trinity made noise of agreement. Again, the gentle embrace surrounded Jesselle's mind and she relaxed into it.

We may not have to. Trinity said softly. You saw the other apparatus. Jesselle stiffened but then made a soft mental noise of dismay. The Grineer do not want the kids taken from them.

They have the whole room set up to self destruct. Jesselle had very carefully scouted the area with very surreptitious packets of code. What she had found had been horrifying in the extreme. The room was a secure lab, with no access to outside networks. Each of the children's beds was also set up with a high plasma projection system. Short range, but very powerful. Nothing would be left to save or study. But not my bed...

They are expendable to the Grineer. Trinity's voice might have been clinical, if not for the sorrow that underlay her tone. You are not.

Okay... Jesselle sighed and focused. Back to training? I still don't know if I can do this, Trinity.

You are taking counsel of your fears, Jesselle. Trinity said gently. Either you pass or you do not. If you do not, you will not die. Very few of the Trials were mortal and those were when people tried them unprepared or against advice.

Okay... Jesselle focused her mind as she had been taught. A hallway appeared in her mind's eye and she lit the lamps in it. Ready.

Good. Trinity said as She and Jesselle appeared in the hallway. The Trinity Prime warframe knelt into seiza and Jesselle did as well. "Next lesson, photonic energy. Light is both particle and wave. It depends on which way you measure it..."

Jesselle nodded as she listened. She had always loved to learn and now? She had nothing else to do but wait. Well... Wait and hope that whichever Tenno found her did enough damage to force the Grineer to advance their plans and not enough to kill her. A little fear was understandable.

Not so far away

It was uncomfortable. It defined the word 'unpleasant'. It also was not something he was going to delegate. Other members of his clan were better at sneaking than he was. Serene and Aeron were downright scary at how they could simply vanish from plain sight even without using Invisibility. Both had the patience of rocks and the knowledge honed by decades of practice at getting into -and out of - places unseen. Warframes gave them options that ordinary humans, Infested or Grineer could not match.

Karl ordinarily preferred a much more direct approach. Oh, he could sneak. He had gotten good at it over time. One either got good at something like that or one died. Even Tenno. He had gotten good. The circumstances that had forced him to hunt and kill his brother and the clan who had followed his brother had forced him to get far, far better at a number of things than he had ever imagined possible.

Many Tenno who used Rhino warframes seemed to be utterly incapable of being subtle, but Karl knew that was not true. They had certain advantages, so it simply made sense for them to use said advantages. Iron Skin in particular was a great equalizer for situations in which mobs of enemies attacked as one. Stomp was another. But both had their downsides. Iron Skin hindered his mobility a little. Not a lot, but some. And Stomp was anything but subtle.

So here he was, creeping through the ductwork of a massive Grineer base on Luna, Iron Skin deactivated and his preferred shotgun back in his ship. Instead of his Hek, he carried a Latron Prime rifle. Single shot. Heavy damage. Suppressed. His backup Kunai hung ready in their thigh holsters. But it was the other weapon that really, really bothered him. He did not like Grineer weapons. They were like the Grineer. Ugly, smelly, nasty. Brutally effective, to be sure, but not elegant. It was a foible, he knew. A weapon was a weapon. The Atterax whip was an effective weapon. Even with the saw blades deactivated, it made a very effective garrote, as several isolated Grineer had found out to their cost.

None of the isolated patrols had even been able to scream an alarm as they had been choked from behind. The wire whip was thin enough that in the hands of the Rhino, it made short work of Grineer neck armor. He was...

Karl paused as an icon appeared on his HUD. He was close. He could detect his target now. She was close. He hated this, but he hadn't been abut to order any other members of his clan to do it either. Sneaking into a Grineer facility was nothing new. But what he had to do here...

The hidden Tenno made his way to a vent in the floor and peered down. Nothing showed, but he was no mollified. This part of the facility had incredibly tight security. Even the ducts were patrolled by hovering versions of the Grineer propaganda drones called 'Regulators'. His onboard systems had warned him of approaching enemies though and he had either killed them silently or kept hidden and let them pass. He preferred to kill them, but too many vanishing at once was a big red 'Hey! Tenno here!' sign even to stupid clones. So on entry, he had ghosted past the security. They had no idea he was here.

That was about to change.

He slid a tiny wire through the vent grill and twisted it around. The minuscule camera on the end gave his warframe a view of the surrounding area with an incredibly low chance of being discovered, since it had no external power signature and was tiny. No cameras. Grineer generally did not go for technological solutions to problems. Not when they had far, far more clones than tech. Occasionally, they did. And they had other means of keeping things secure.

Karl noted the two Grineer Heavy Gunners who stood guard at the door behind which the icon of his target shone. The door was locked of course. He shook his head minutely. Ordinarily, two Heavy Gunners were no problem at all. Iron Skin, charge them, get close and beat the crap out of them. But this... He had to get past them. Preferably without them sounding an alarm. Then he saw it. Another vent grill. On the floor level. And sort of out of their line of sight.

Karl smiled under his helmet as he laid a small device on the grill in front of him and retracted the camera. He moved off again, seeking the other access point.

He found the other access point in seconds and extruded the camera again. The Grineer had not moved. He was not -quite- out of their line of sight, but he was in the shadows of the duct and his warframe's built in ECM would render him impervious to anything but a direct visual identification. Once that was done however, he would be visible to everyone and everything in the facility. He slowly and carefully undid the bolts holding the vent cover in front of him in place and made himself ready.

His smile turned grim as he keyed a command and the tiny device he had left on the other grill activated to a creaking noise of metal. Both Grineer guards jerked. But there was nothing there. He could feel their confusion. This was not something that had been covered by the Grineer training. Female Grineer were far better trained than males. They were rarer and generally higher rank as a result. But this was nothing that they could have been trained for. If an enemy had burst out of the duct, they would have known what to do. But odd noises coming from the duct? And the vent grill now sagging as a tiny magnetic field from the device pulled one edge of it away from the wall?

He watched as the two guards trained weapons on the duct. Both nothing else happened. He had to admire their training. Neither spoke. One nodded to the duct and the other stepped forward, her Gorgon trained on the duct. Karl was in motion as she stepped forward. A grip on the vent in front of him slid it aside with no noise. If there was any sound, it was masked by the loud clangs of the female Grineer's prosthetic feet as she stepped to the sagging grill, examining it. But Karl's eyes were on the other guard. Her rifle was up and aimed, but at the grill. He angled to the side as he crept towards her, his Atterax out and the wire held in both hands. She never saw a thing as he stepped behind her and with a swift motion, ended her life. Then his hands fell to his sides as the other guard turned back only to pause as she saw her fellow guard fall and the white armored form behind it. She opened her mouth to scream and Karl's Kunai tore through it. No armor there. She gagged both on steel and on blood and he was on her.

There was no honor in such a fight. But the Grineer had proven over and over again that they had no honor. She struggled, but she had no chance.

In moments, Karl laid the silent form at his feet and turned towards the door. He had a minute at best before the guard's life readings vanishing were noted. Any other Grineer facility, they would just be ignored. Not here. This facility was under the direct orders of the queens. He touched the control pad and was not surprised when it beeped at him and refused to accept his commands.

Be that way... He thought grimly as he pulled a tiny device from a hidden pouch. Ciphers to break security encryptions were godsends when speed was of the essence. But this was no ordinary cipher. This one had been built specifically for this task by Olim himself. As soon as it touched the security panel beside the door, the locks clicked open. Then the door. His rifle was in hand and he was through it and...

Karl came to a halt as he saw what lay inside the door. Jesselle was lying on a bed near one wall. But... she wasn't alone. Four other -smaller- beds were occupied. Each had a child in it and each child's face was blank. He shook himself and took careful aim. Jesselle's body jerked and her eyes opened. She stared at him and... smiled. He fired.

Run! The mental voice was female and Karl needed no urging as the room erupted in fire. None of the children even screamed as their bodies -the shells the Grineer had left of them anyway- were destroyed. Jesselle crumpled off the bed, her body falling, but she was still breathing as Karl ran back to the duct.

Alarms were starting to blare and Karl knew that getting out would be far, far harder than getting in had been. And getting in hadn't been easy at all. But he had backup standing by in case he went down.

Now if only he had backup for the ache that was resounding deep inside himself. Deep where the conscience he had once had was sobbing. He focused and his focus was anger.

They would pay for this. All of them. The Rhino's anger was a cold hard thing as he ran through the ducts. They would find him, sooner rather than later. He knew that. He accept it. He wanted it. He would make a mess.

It... wouldn't help. Not much. But it would some and he would take anything he could get now.

Back in the cell

Jesselle... hurt. It hurt. She was lying on her side. She could feel warm wetness pooling around herself. But the pain...wasn't physical. The pain was all mental. She made no sound as Grineer Marines pounded through the room pursing the Tenno who had shot her. She made no sound as a Reclaimer bent down and started to tend her roughly.

She was sobbing and Trinity cried with her.

It isn't fair! Jesselle screamed into the hallway in her mind. They hadn't done anything! He didn't even touch them! They... They just killed them all... I...

Go on and cry, Jesselle. Trinity said as something held her mind in a gentle grip.

"How bad?" The voices of the Grineer queens were beyond angry now. "Guards, find that Tenno and kill it or suffer!"

"J-345987 is badly wounded, but alive. My queens." The Reclaimer said after a moment. "The damage is repairable."

"Do so." The queens commanded. "We have to move up the timetable. If a Tenno can get in here, the others can. Commander De Thaym, find who is responsible for the security breach and have them flayed."

"Yes, my queens." The response came instantly.

"Get her healed and moved to the access portal." The queens commanded. "Full guard. Let nothing enter the portal except her. J-345987. Your time has come."

"Yes, my queens..." Jesselle managed to croak out. But inside, she was set. Trinity too.

It was time.