Battle Behind the Mind
"Are you sure about this?" Amelia asked for the tenth time as she finalized the connections to the electrodes attached to Olim's skull. "We can find another way."
"Amelia." Olim said softly as he lay in the restraints he had insisted on. "You can't detect it. Going in blind will hurt her, badly. I have to do it."
"But…" Amelia swallowed whatever she was going to say and sighed. "I don't like this." She checked the IV drip again, more out of nerves than any real need.
"Neither do I." Olim agreed. "If it were a standard mental problem, you and Brianna could handle it with ease. Even uncommon problems, you two are great at finding and solving. But this is not a mental problem. It is a powerful and likely self-aware computer virus. I can protect myself from it. You can't."
Karl had been…less than enthused, but Olim had eventually persuaded him. The Saryn who had assumed the role of bodyguard was very unhappy with Olim's plan, but any Tenno going in without a Cyberlancer's protections would be vulnerable to being controlled. The archival records on Cyberlancers that had been found had been a font of information. Some of what Olim had relearned still felt like magic to him, but it worked in the simulations he had run. He hoped it would be enough. Raven had suffered enough.
"Okay." Amelia said as she laid an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. He lay quiet in his bindings. They probably wouldn't be needed, especially since he still hadn't bonded to a new warframe yet. The bed was fairly comfortable, laid out next to Raven's, and the mass of medical gear in the room had provided everything that the medical personnel needed to get him ready. "Last chance to back out." Amelia half pleaded. Olim just looked at her and she sighed. "We will be monitoring. If anything goes wrong, send the signal and we pull you out."
Olim gave the doctor a thumbs up as he focused his mind. He focused on the feelings that he had encountered when Alicia had shot him and he had fought the virus in her. Now with the help of the records, he remembered that the plane he was going to traverse had been called 'The Behind Mind' by those who could access it. It was a realm between the physical and the spiritual world, one normally populated only with computers and artificial intelligences. But it was real, not imagined. Amelia nodded to him and left the room. Almost immediately, he felt a bit woozy, the mild sedative that they had given him would allow him to access parts of his mind that normally remained hidden. Parts that he would need for the coming conflict.
As the records had said, and Olim remembered from when he had faced Alicia, he was suddenly elsewhere. The walls of the room were gold. The lines of numbers –computer code- ran down the walls in endless golden streams. He focused on Raven and the slim connections that connected his head to Raven's warframe. As the records had promised, as soon as he visualized himself moving, he was. He wasn't walking, he was… It was odd. He wasn't flying. But it sure seemed like it. Mere moments after he had started, he was suddenly in darkness. He bit back a cry of fear as he pushed forward, visualizing his goal and…
Olim slammed to the floor with a gasp. He rolled immediately to his feet, surveying his surroundings. A small room, it had no obvious entrances or exits. The computer code that made up these walls was less golden, more bronze. A different mind. He was in a representation of Raven's mind. He bowed his head, focusing on his goal and then an incredulous voice sounded.
"Olim?" Olim looked up to see a female Tenno staring at him. She wore robes and looked a lot like Alicia.
"Raven." Olim said calmly. "Good to finally hear your voice, so to speak."
"How?" The female Tenno asked, staring wildly around her. "Where are we?"
"We are inside your mind, Raven." Olim said gently. "It's okay." He said quickly as she gave a shrill cry of fear. "I am here to help."
"You can't." Raven said as she curled up on the bronze lines that made up the floor. "I can't stop it. It's… it's too strong…"
"No, it's not." Olim said gently. "How long have you known that you had a passenger?" Raven stared at him and he shrugged. "Your passenger jumped to Alicia; that is why she shot me. It sensed me as a threat. But it couldn't compel your halves to hurt me, so it picked a new host to try."
"I didn't know what it was! I thought it was part of me! It came back! She is fighting." Raven said, her voice tiny. "She is losing. When she does… I will be lost too."
"Raven, it's okay." Olim promised her and her eyes went wide as a Frost warframe appeared around him. "I can help." He knew without seeing that it was composed of golden code.
"How did you…?" Raven asked and then went still. "You…? You are a Cyberlancer?"
"I was." Olim said sadly. "Nicholas hurt me, I forgot a lot. Then I forgot a lot in cryo. But this I do remember. I stand between my kin and the electronic enemy." He straightened, feeling the comforting mass of weapons suddenly attached to his warframe. "That enemy used you, hurt you and made you betray our kind." Raven gave a small cry but Olim shook his head. "I could not leave you to face your fate alone before and I will not now. Where are they?"
"I barely got away." Raven said with a wince.
"You don't have to fight, Raven." Olim promised. "Just tell me where."
Raven opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a mass of red-blackness swept into the room and surrounded her. A shriek was heard, but then it –and Raven- were gone.
"Well, that works too." Olim said with a sigh as he held up his hand. A mote of swirling golden energy appeared in it and he spoke in a commanding tone. "Seek the enemy."
The mote flashed from his hand and circled the room. It moved so quickly that it seemed like a ribbon of golden energy. Then it paused and flashed once, twice and vanished. Olim moved to where it had been and was not surprised at all to find himself moving. He drew his rifle and made himself ready as he travelled. But what was waiting for him at the other end had him wincing.
The large cube shaped room was half bronze code and half red-black. The red-black was eating away at the bronze. In the middle of the room, two constructions sat on the dividing line between bronze and red-black. One was a large angular structure on which a Valcyr warframe had been impaled. She was still alive, her head swiveled to see him and then shook in negation, but there was no way she could talk. Not with a spike from the structure driven through her abdomen and others through her arms and legs. The other structure was a cage. The metal was all red-black angles with razor sharp points aimed inward and sharp edges on the outside. In it, the Raven he had just seen sat crying. She was hugging her knees tightly as the cage seemed to constrict. Somehow, Olim knew that when the cage constricted totally around the unarmored Raven, she would be impaled just like the other. If that happened… She was lost. He would not allow it.
"Enough." Olim's word was soft, but it echoed around the room. Both Ravens stared at him but he wasn't talking to them. "You have lost, Sentient."
Have I? The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. You are alone. Half taught, broken. You will serve as this one will.
"Will I?" Olim taunted right back as darkness flew at him.
He ignored it, allowing the mass of dark code to slide around him harmlessly. It couldn't touch him. He was busy focusing on the cage that held the now crying Raven. There! He reached out with his mind and pulled free a section of the code that made up the structure. Raven stared as the cage surrounding her suddenly vanished, falling into red-black dust. She gave sharp cry that turned to more tears as she was pulled back to the side of the room that had bronze coding. She stood and stared at him, tears falling like rain, but he was focused on the other structure.
No! The Sentient virus snapped. You will not take what is mine! This mind is mine!
"I think not." Olim snapped as he found a similar spot on the other construct. The other Raven made an odd noise as the things she had been impaled on suddenly vanished. Probably trying to scream with no voice box, since she had the same injuries and modification that the real life Raven did. Then she was also flying through the air, buoyed up by his code to land beside her sister self. Her injuries were bound by ribbons of golden code and she slumped in place.
"Show yourself!" Olim commanded as he held up a hand. "By mind and by will, I command you to show yourself!" Code swirled form his hand to travel around the room and the malignant presence recoiled from it, the bronze coding on the floor moving towards the far wall. "You do not belong here!"
The red-black wall of the room suddenly came alive. A humanoid form striding from the wall to face Olim as he moved between it and the cringing Ravens. A bolt of red-black energy sped from the mass, but Olim batted it aside with a contemptuous swat from his rifle.
"You are going to have to do better than that." Olim said with a smirk.
"Fine." The mass of red-black suddenly coalesced into a… Still composed of red-black code, it was a warframe and not just any warframe! A Frost Prime warframe! The voice, the stance, Olim recognized it. "Hello meat." The virus said in Nicholas' voice.
"Hello energy." Olim retorted calmly despite the red hot rage that surged within him. Anger wouldn't help here. "Haven't you heard? That one is very dead."
"Death is such a primitive concept." The mass of code replied. "You biologicals are so limited. You will learn and accept your places in the Sentience. Eventually. And I will enjoy teaching you."
"I can't imagine you would." Olim said with a shrug. The mass of code stared at him and he shook his head. "I mean, think about it. Millions of illogical biological minds all thinking different things at the same time? Ouch?" His bantering tone seemed to stymie the red-black mass for a moment.
"We will bring order to your disorder." The mass of code said as it drew a huge scythe. It was an Ether Reaper scythe composed of the dark code. Olim put his rifle away and drew the Magister mace he had used to help Alicia. Like before, it was composed of golden code. "We will bring logic to your illogic."
"Sorry." Olim replied absently. "We kind of like the way we are. Return to oblivion, you are not welcome here!"
"Then you will learn to obey!" The mass declared as it charged. Olim met it halfway.
On the line in the very middle of the room, where bronze met with red-black to show the hold on Raven's mind, Olim met the scythe mid swing with a strike from his mace. A massive explosion of multicolored energy tore from impact point of the two weapons, but Olim had braced and he wasn't fazed. The red-black form staggered from the explosion, the scythe vanishing and Olim pressed his advantage. He struck, once, twice, three times, each hit erupting in golden energy as the Magistar slammed into the red-black mass. The human shaped mass of malignant code screamed as bits of it fell off, destroyed by the energy of his mace and Olim pressed his attack.
"Olim!" Raven screamed and he threw himself to the side as a tendril of code swept up from the floor to fling razor sharp bits of code through where he had just been. Then she screamed again as the tendril turned on her. She fell as more bits of black code swept through her.
"No!" Olim shouted and turned on the black mass. The tendril vanished as the virus realized it's peril. It retreated again as golden power suddenly suffused his form. Every step he took on the dark code floor made bits of it shrivel up and vanish like dust. "You will harm no more of my kin, monster!" Olim declared as he raised his mace over his head. "End of Line!"
"No!" The Sentient code managed to say before Olim brought the mace down, slamming through the mass into the floor of the room. Golden energy exploded from the impact and an unearthly shriek of pain and fear was heard and quickly silenced. Olim slammed the ground again and again. Each time, golden energy poured forth to scour the black code which had stilled in mid line. Each time, the shriek of pain and loss was lesser. Finally, Olim stood on a bronze floor, staring at a tiny patch of black code that was feebly trying to move away from him. "We could teach you so much, Tenno!" The tinny voice of the virus pleaded. "We could make it all better."
"I am making it better. End of line!" Olim declared as he slammed his mace down again and this time the shriek was tiny and gone in a moment. "Good riddance!" He snapped as he turned back to where…
"No." He pleaded as he saw the silent armored Raven holding the still form of the other. Then he shook himself. "No." The sorrow in his voice turned to certainty.
Something in his voice made the armored form look up. She stared at him, entreaty clear even through her ruined faceplate. This was the embodiment of the current time Raven, with no voice. But she understood him. Probably because he wasn't really speaking. This was all in the mind.
"Lay her down, sister." Olim commanded. "She is not gone. Not yet." The other Raven did as instructed, hope warring with fear in her posture as Olim stepped up to where the injured Raven lay. He knelt down beside her and paused. When he looked up the other Raven was staring at him. "The Sentients hurt you. Long, long ago. Probably when you were a teenager." Olim said calmly. "They used you as an unknowing, unwilling agent." The armored Raven recoiled and shook her head. Olim made his voice turn gentle. "Alicia said you had blackouts as a teenager? Yes?" The armored form nodded. "I need your help."
The armored form knelt beside the still unarmored one and bowed her head. She jerked as Olim laid a hand on her arm.
"I can heal the damage she took here, but it won't be enough." Olim said sadly. "Collation is required. You and she were both one, before this enemy broke you in half." The armored Raven stared at him, obviously confused. "You can be again. Compassion…" He touched the unarmored form. "And duty…" He touched the armored one on the arm. "Empathy." He nodded to the still form. "And violence." He nodded to the armored one. Then he bowed his head. "Two halves, one whole. But I cannot make this choice for you, sister. I do not have the right. You can live as you have. I don't know if she can recover fully without you, but what we can do, we will." Steel would have bent under his voice.
The armored form paused and then tapped the floor. A line appeared on it and she wrote. 'Can you merge us?'
"I can collate the data, put it together. What happens after is up to you." Olim replied calmly. Then he paused. "That is, I know the theory. I cannot guarantee it will work."
'I tire of this half-life, brother.' The armored form wrote and then nodded. 'What do I do?'
"Lie down beside her." Olim said gently. "I need to touch both of your heads."
'Will I remember you?' The armored form asked in writing as she lay down.
"I don't know." Olim said sadly. "But we will remember you no matter what, Sister Raven." She raised a hand and gave him a thumbs up. Then she lay down beside her still sister. Olim lay one hand on the unarmored Raven's head and the other on the armored one's head. Then he focused as never before. Power came to his call and soared through him, code flying in arcs that he could barely follow, let alone understand. Then, it ended and he sagged back, exhausted.
"Olim?" A soft, scared voice sounded and he stared down at both of his hands on the forehead of a female Tenno. Raven was staring up at him, scared. This Raven wore her warframe, but no helmet. There were no Corpus modifications visible. "What just happened?"
"You are free, Raven." Olim said quietly. "We are in your mind. You… Both of your halves, your gentle half and your angry half… merged." Suddenly, Olim was weary, beyond weary.
"Olim?" Raven said sharply. Suddenly, she was holding him up as he sagged. "Olim, stay awake!"
"I have to go, Raven." Olim said with a wince. "And you need to wake up."
"Wake up?" She asked, confused.
"You will figure it out." Olim said as he keyed for a recall and felt his mind extricate form hers. But he had won. The code that he saw was now all bronze with just a hint of gold.
Olim slammed awake with a grunt. Amelia was there instantly.
"Olim?" She asked, concerned. "What happened? Did it not work?"
"What do you mean?" Olim asked softly. "I think it did. How long was…" He paused as Raven moved on her bed. Amelia didn't see, she was focused on him.
"I read odd fluctuations of energy, but it has only been thirty nine seconds." Amelia said, worried. "What happened?"
"Ah, doc?" Olim said, a smile creasing his face. "Turn around." Amelia turned her head and froze.
The Valcyr warframe that had been immobile for so long had her thumb up.