What?

"They want to do what?" Hayden demanded of Nyx as she met him just outside the cave mouth. "Join us? Are they out of their minds?"

"I don't know." Nyx admitted. ""I ...haven't pressed. They are all exhausted. From what they said, they hired a plane in Argentina. The plan was to parachute out past the edge of our 'no fly zone' and hike in. But their pilot either got cold feet or double crossed them. Either way, he left with most of their gear."

"Ouch." Hayden said with a grunt. "Families?"

"I didn't ask." Nyx said calmly. "Hayden...That girl is hurt worse than she thinks. She is also on the edge of hypothermia, maybe already there. The boys I am not sure of, but I think them too." Hayden shook his head and Nyx shrugged. "Hayden, you know what Lynn is going to want to do. If they die out here..." Hayden winced and Nyx nodded. "We have the quarters we set up for the plane crash survivors a year ago. We haven't repurposed them yet." She realized she was babbling and shut her mouth.

"Nyx?" Hayden asked gently. "You okay?"

"No." Nyx replied sadly. "I... I can't let Aunt Irina go, Hayden. She would probably have slapped me upside the head for being stupid, but... I can't Hayden."

"Yeah, she would have." Haydn said in fond, sad memory. "She wouldn't want you tearing yourself apart for something that wasn't your fault. She would tell you to find something else to do. So..." He nodded as Nyx stiffened. "These kids are your responsibility."

"Hayden!" Nyx protested. "I am no nanny."

"No." Hayden agreed. "But you are hurting and need something to distract yourself. So... What do we do?"

"Well, first thing to do is to get that girl -Katrina- to Lynn. I think her core temperature is dropping." Nyx said, thinking hard. "Then the boys. We will need to keep them sequestered and find out what is going on. It could be some kind of setup, so we will need to scan them all thoroughly. But first we have to get them to the Citadel. Quietly."

"Not a problem." Hayden said as he pulled a small device from his belt, flicked it and tossed it into the cave. It started to hiss as it flew. Nyx stared after the gas grenade. "We have transport coming. Yuri is driving."

"Hayden!" Nyx protested. "They are humans! That gas could kill them!" She snapped as she ran back into the cave. All three humans were unconscious. She ignored the sputtering gas grenade -it wouldn't affect her - as she ran to Katrina's side. The girl was breathing shallowly and her face was pale. Nyx snarled, scooped the girl up and ran. As she ran, she spoke onto the Tenno's encrypted short range com line. "Lynn, medical emergency! Head injury and possible hypothermia! Yuri! Get here fast and don't let Hayden hurt the other two!"

"How am I supposed to do that?" Yuri replied, his English a far cry from the first time she had heard it. Of course, he practiced every day now. Most of the Tenno learned other languages as a matter of course. "He can break me in half!" That was true, Nyx admitted to herself, but she was in no mood for quibbling.

"He made them my responsibility." Nyx snapped. "So I take responsibility! Hayden, I know you are listening. If you hurt them, I will make you dance the 'Safety Dance' again."

Hayden had...irritated Nyx when a plane filled with tourists seeing Antarctica had crashed near the 'no-fly zone'. He hadn't wanted to help. Lynn, Nyx, the nurses and Yuri had gone to assist and found several humans alive, if battered. They had returned to the Citadel with the dazed humans, treated their wounds and then evacuated them to the closest place with an airstrip which happened to be the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. They had dropped the survivors off and left without saying a word to the stunned scientists there. According to the internet, the survivors had 'walked' to South Pole Station. None of them would remember their time in the Citadel, thanks to Nyx and Lynn's chemical wizardry. When the rescue party had returned, Hayden had tried to berate them only to pause in mid-rant and start dancing. No one had dared say a word, but everyone knew that Nyx hadn't been happy. She wasn't an extroverted person, but her ethics were ironclad. Cross them at your peril. Hayden... hadn't punished her or the others.

"Make sure to scan her when you get her in." Hayden said without a trace of emotion. "I found a GPS tracker on one of these."

"Never mind. The Citadel jammers will fry any delicate electronics that are not ours when they get close." Lynn's voice was tart as she entered the conversation. "Nyx? What is the patient's condition?"

"Head wound, from a fall according to her. She is shivering, showing muscle contractions that are getting worse." Nyx replied as she loped, her running steps clear and sure. She knew these lands like she knew her warframe, intimately. "She has been bleeding for some time and is cold to the touch. Hayden used Mag's knockout gas on her."

"He what?" Lynn demanded. "On a person with a head wound? Get her here! Now!" Lynn started barking orders, obviously speaking aloud to her team. "Nikky, prep the gear. Kareena, get the table ready!"

Nyx ran to the ice archway that was the gate to the Citadel and did not even slow down. A door slammed open ahead of her and Lynn was there, her form encased in a specially built environmental suit that doubled as a hazmat suit for 'special' circumstances. Nyx ran in, laying the shivering girl down on the table that the surgical garbed nurses were clustered around, then stepped back as the nurses closed in, one with shears to cut the girl's partially soaked clothing away and the other with various medical gear in hand ready to go on as soon as the girl was clear. Nyx nodded to Lynn.

"Do you need me?" Nyx asked.

"No." Lynn replied absently, scrutinizing a readout. The table had built in short range medical scanners. "You were right. Her core temperature is 92 degrees Fahrenheit. But we are in time. Go. And tell Hayden I am going to 'talk' to him about his choices of sedative..." She said sourly. Nyx nodded and moved to leave as Lynn muttered. "Warned him about that gas lowering body temperature... Ignore me will he?"

Nyx walked out of the room and then leaned against the wall, drained. She wasn't physically tired. The warframe kept her in a state of equilibrium. Indeed, she didn't even age according to Lynn's tests. But emotional shocks still roiled her. She looked up as a throat cleared nearby.

"Nyx?" Nikky said, holding out a bundle of torn fabric. "These had several electronic devices attached. All fried by the gate security. But still..."

"Joy." Nyx said sadly. "A plant of some kind."

"They were all external." Nikky said, turning to go back in the room. "I doubt she even knew they were there."

"Well. now they know where the gate is..." Nyx said sourly as she hefted the pile of cut clothing.

"Nah." Mag's usual sarcastic voice preceded her into the corridor by the medical ward. "I turned one of Mary's low grade EMP projectors at you before you closed within a mile. Fried them good but wouldn't even singe your warframe. Figured you would do something stupidly heroic." Mag shrugged when Nyx shook her head. "I'll take those. Maybe I can figure out who sent them." Nyx handed the clothing to Mag with a nod.

"I don't think these kids were sent." Nyx said slowly, looking through a window at Lynn and the nurses working. With the parka off, it was clear that Katrina was a brunette."They seem...somewhat clueless. It's weird."

"Well..." Mag whistled softly as she looked through the window as well. "That girl is a looker. Kind of pale, and clammy right now. But I bet with the right juice, she would perk right up."

"Not now, Mag." Nyx said softly. "Please?" For her part, Mag just sighed and for once, her usual insolent banter deserted her.

"Nyx..." Mag said seriously. "You can't keep doing this to yourself. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault. Please, sis..." Mag pleaded. "Don't make me hurt you to make you listen."

"I... I do hear you, Mag." Nyx said slowly. "I do... It's just..." She trailed off as Mag sighed again.

"I know." Mag replied sadly. "I loved her too. She was...special to all of us." She shook herself. "Ah, look at me, all weepy!" She said with a growl.

"I didn't hear or see anything." Nyx said with fondness. She did love her sister, even if Mag drove her absolutely crazy at times.

"You never do, Little Miss Mind Control." Mag said with a laugh. "I'll go take care of these and get some quarters set up for our guests. Three, you said?"

"Two boys and her." Nyx said slowly. "Wait a sec..." She said slowly. "Mag? How many warframes have you built?"

"A bunch." Mag replied. "I don't have power sources for more than five ready though. Why?"

"Lynn won't take a warframe." Nyx said, suspicion rising. "She is too much of a pacifist even for the 'healer' frame you made for her."

"Yeah." Mag agreed sourly. "Made me want to spit in her soup. All that work wasted."

"Was it?" Nyx asked slowly. Mag looked at her and Nyx nodded. "Work with me here. Kareena, Mary, Nikky and now Katrina. Three people who are training to assume warframes and a newcomer who wants to join the Tenno." Mag froze and Nyx nodded.

"Conner, Yuri and two newcomers who say they want to join..." Mag replied in a soft, worried tone. "Nyx..." She breathed. "That is eight and I have eight total warframes finished, but only five powered. I have others in various stages of construction, but..." The two female Tenno stared at one another. Neither believed in coincidence any more than it's more commonly known relative, the tooth fairy.

"How?" Nyx asked softly. "Hayden might have been able to set something like this up. He defines sneaky sometimes, but..."

"He hasn't gone anywhere for a while." Mag agreed. "He has been busy with us. Training us." Nyx nodded slowly.

"Yeah." Nyx said softly. "Keep it quiet, Mag, but find out what you can from the devices." Mag nodded. "If this is a set up, we will need to find out who did it and why." Then she chortled. "If we find a target, I will ask Hayden to send you to...explain that what they did wasn't wise."

"Aw, you say the nicest things, Nyx." Mag said with undisguised glee. "I knew I liked you for a reason. I will let you know." She said as Lynn came out of the ward, smiling.

"We were in time, Nyx." Lynn said with a nod. "Good work."

"Any other oddities?" Nyx asked, looking back at the slumbering woman in the medical ward as Mag made a thankfully silent withdrawal.

"There is an odd inert mass in her intestine." Lynn said soberly. "No idea what it is. It's not chemical, biological or any form of technology." Nyx looked at her and Lynn shook her head. "We are going to warm her up completely before we try to remove whatever it is. She is not going to enjoy that but better if she is awake for it."

"I'll go see about setting up a bed for her." Nyx said with a nod. "The boys can use the dormitory."

"Nyx..." Lynn sad slowly. "Why were they here?"

"They want to join us." Nyx said simply and Lynn inhaled in shock. "Yeah." Lynn's eyes narrowed as she looked through the glass at the slumbering girl. "What?" Nyx asked.

"Hayden...mentioned something a while back." Lynn said slowly. "About expanding our numbers. But he wasn't serious. I don't think..." She mused. "We were drunk." She admitted a bit sheepishly.

"Your business, Lynn." Nyx said gently. "But I don't think this is Hayden's style."

"What is?" Hayden asked as he stepped into view from a cross corridor. Nyx looked at him and then discarded subterfuge. It likely wouldn't work anyway. "the boys are unhurt. Yuri and I put them in room 4-A."

"We have eight warframes, five of which are almost ready to be donned." Nyx said slowly. "And three not quite there yet. We have five people almost ready to assume their warframes and three who just arrived asking to join us." Hayden stared at Nyx, his shock apparent even through his closed helmet. "Coincidence?" She asked sourly.

"I didn't set this up." Hayden said after a moment. "But this is... sort of...the way I would do it. Find people who are interested, bring them in and see what they are made of."

"Hayden, those kids would have died." Nyx said quietly. "Night is falling." Lynn and Hayden both winced at that. Antarctica was cold enough during the day. At night?

"I didn't set this up, Nyx." Hayden said quietly. "Scan my mind if you wish. I didn't do this."

"Someone did." Nyx said slowly. "Someone who knew what was going on here. Someone who...liked... planning..." She froze in place. Hayden did as well. "No way..." She said, feeling faint.

"Nyx?" Lynn said, concerned. "You okay?"

"No." Nyx said slowly. "I don't know, Lynn. I... I need to look over Irina's records. I need to see if she..." She paused as Hayden laid a hand on her arm.

"Let me, Nyx." Hayden said in a kind voice. "You are enough of a mess now. These kids need you. The boys are clean, and Yuri is fabricating them some jumpsuits. They will need food. They will be hungry when they wake as well as very confused. We will need to do full background checks, but my gut says that they are that they seem. Kids."

"Well, they wouldn't want to eat my cooking." Nyx said with a faint chuckle. "Is Mary busy?" Mary was the unofficial chef of the Tenno although all took turns. Mary was just better than any of the others. Nyx in particular could burn water. And had.

"Go ahead and ask." Lynn said, giving Hayden a sidelong suspicious look. Hayden raised his hands in surrender and she sighed. "Getting her out of the lab would probably be a good thing. It was all I could do to get Kareena and Nikky out too."

"Have they chosen?" Nyx asked cautiously.

"That is their business and Hayden's, Nyx. They will say when they are ready." Lynn said in faint reproof and Nyx nodded, chastened. "Go on, find Mary before she gets caught up in her work again."

"Let me know when Katrina wakes up." Nyx said with a nod as she started off. "I'll make sure to be here."

"It will be a bit." Lynn cautioned her. "And then we need to get whatever is in her out."

"I'll be here." Nyx promised.