Belief
Lis felt strange.
Was she dreaming? Nikis had promised her that she would not dream in the database and for all of his quirks, the Grandmaster of the Dead was rarely wrong about such things.
So...
She felt…
She was floating in something, but it didn't feel like anything she had ever felt before. Whatever she was in was warm and moved around her like thick soup. She felt heavy, but light. She was…
The Tenno named Lis coughed as she fell out of whatever fluid held her into a place she did not know. Was she falling up? Then she was falling down into a hard surface. Rock. She gasped and stared around at wonder mixed with horror. The room was huge and seemed more like a cavern than a built structure. She had a bare moment to stare at three huge heads before something knocked her to the side just as bolt of energy would have taken her head off! None of the heads were even remotely human looking. A shadow fell over her.
"That is forbidden for a reason!" Lis stared up at a human? No. That wasn't a human. The sheer power that radiated from the form was well beyond anything human or Tenno could produce. Whatever he was, he held a sword that was almost a Nikana but not. Its pure steel blade glowed with fell green energy that frankly scared the Tenno. And the voice… "Let her, them, go! Now!"
Wait a minute! Lis knew that voice! She had heard it once while working with Sara! Many of Amelia's Voices had gone to the Tower when Abigail and Kieko had been so violated, many of them trying to help their peers past their grief and fear. Lis had heard the voice from a stage magician who had come to entertain the kids. His voice was far too deep to be anything human, but he had been kind and gentle to the hurting children. He had worked hard to keep them entertained and the kids had all cried when he had left. Lis could not move as the man who was not one stood over her, his blade parrying bolts of energy that flew from the heads. Were they aimed at him or her?
"Stop this!" Eliza? No! That wasn't the Empress who stood nearby, her form haloed in golden white light. This woman was far older, but showed no fear as she faced something truly alien to Lis' understanding. Lis felt fear rise as the woman held up a hand and the same golden white light shimmered into a shield that encompassed her and Lis. "You will not hold them! You threaten everything!"
You do not command! The voice had to be be from one of the heads. It shook the very walls. You who stand with traitors and thieves! You do not command.
"You go against the Plan!" The woman said with a growl. "You threaten far more than our own reality! Such will not be tolerated!" That was pure Eliza. Totally the woman that Lis knew. So, how was she here and doing…?
Lis screamed as energy hit her from behind and it seemed as if her entire being was being torn in two. The pain faded and then she wasn't alone.
"What?" A very young voice asked as Lis stared up from the ground at a very young female Tenno. The girl was clearly infected, but just as clearly. she was not subsumed by the Technocyte Virus. She was maybe five years old and she was just as confused as Lis was. Then horror dawned with understanding that Lis wished she shared. "This isn't right." She said softly. "Is it?"
"No." Lis said weakly as the girl knelt down beside her. Then she screamed as a bolt of energy hit the girl from behind. She grabbed the girl as the girl fell and then the girl… Was not a girl! It was a little girl and it was Tenno in a Valkyr warframe, but no, a Mirage warframe, but no, a warframe that Lis did not recognize. All at the same time. Lis's stomach started doing flip-slops. But the girl gripped her hand, became a little girl again and Lis' stomach subsided.
"I do not know how they got you here, but this is forbidden." The girl/Tenno/whatever-she-was said savagely. "You clearly did not ask to come here and they did something awful to you." She shook her head. "Whatever they plan is not good." She looked at the battle and Lis swallowed as she saw forms straight our of dream and nightmare both swarming around and being batted from the sky by bolts of power. "Oh crap! How are they…?" The girl shook her head as energy flared nearby and the sword wielder was suddenly a huge silver form who charged the energy, roaring. Four human shaped blurs also charged beside him and energy flashed back and forth. "We need help."
"What is going on?" Lis tried to demand that, but her voice was weak. Was she hurt? Sick?
"The Charred Council lost their enforcers a while back." The girl said softly. "They have been struggling to find others who can take that role. They seem to think you will. And me."
"Do I know you?" Lis asked as the other eased her a bit.
"Me? No." The girl admitted. "But from what others have said, you knew the Tenno I was copied from." Lis' eyes went huge and the girl nodded with a grimace. "Yes. I know. That is forbidden too. Nikis is going to have a cow. But no one dared stop her. She was crazy and powerful. Not a good combination."
"No." Lis agreed. "Not a good combination at all. Who are you?"
"I am a copy of the energy of a Tenno you knew as Cathi Gata." The girl said sadly. "She is dead. I am all that left of her. I went by the name Catherine when I was alive, so… That will work. I am not her."
"Cathi Gata is dead?" Lis asked, grief coming and the girl nodded. "That is… I want to say that is impossible, but I know it is not."
"The Council won't kill us, they are not that nice. They will likely try to kill and destroy kill anyone else they can." The girl Catherine crouched down beside Lis as energy flared against Eliza's shields that were glowing bright white now. "They created the Horsemen, they likely have ways to destroy them. I can't allow this." A golden blur flew into view to stand by Eliza, the Equinox warframe's Ninkondi flashing here and there. The girl shook her head. "Creator! I cannot allow this! You and they are needed!"
"If you fall, your Empress will too!" The woman was straining, it was clear to see, but her face was calm.
"She is stronger than you think." Catherine said with a small, sad smile. "But, you know that. You know what has to happen." The one she called Creator looked at her and Catherine shook her head. "No, no suicidal charges, no final duties. Just faith."
"Faith." The Eliza slowly said as her shields wavered under the onslaught and the Equinox by her side tensed to do something. "No! Wait! Gemina! Stop!"
"Creator! They will kill you!" The Tenno in the warframe protested. Lis stilled. Was that Gemina Horati? Wasn't she an enemy? Lis was so confused.
"Have a little faith." Catherine said very softly. She took both of Lis' hands in her own as the battle nearby reached a fever pitch. "The Council are not omnipotent."
"Nor are they omniscient." The Eliza said slowly and then she smiled. "I am such a fool sometimes."
"Everyone is." Catherine reassured her. "Fall back. All of you. This is our fight." The Creator made a motion and the horde both fair and foul who had been besetting the heads without success retreated.
"I can't fight like this." Lis protested. She could barely move in whatever encased her. Some kind of armor?
"You don't have to, Mother." That wasn't Catherine! Lis' eyes went huge as Sara appeared beside her. Her adopted daughter was no older than she had been, bu so different now. Calmer, wiser, sadder. She was clad in Corpus attire and hefting a Tetra rifle. Lis' daughter looked up at the monstrosities before her and gave a sniff. "I do not want to do this, I want to end your asses. But I am held to a higher standard now. You have one chance, you monsters. Surrender my mother."
You do not give us commands! One of the heads thundered.
"Well, far be it from me to try and save you from a world of hurt." Sara said with a shrug. "You stole my mother. We do not take kindly to that. But we are the lesser of your problems. Because the Empress is awake and she is pissed."
"Liza is awake?" The silver dragon was hurt but he was still fighting. "Oh shit!"
"DO NOT MOVE!" Sara screamed as the dragon poised to flee. "This place is about to get really crowded!"
Lis jerked as dozens of forms suddenly surrounded her. Some she knew, some she didn't. Some were from Cathi Gata's clan, others were Royal Guard. All of the closest were Tenno in warframes, but that paled beside the woman who stood in their midst, glowing black. And then, a pitch black Nekros stepped forward to stand beside her. Nikis had his pistols in hand as Empress Eliza hefted her Vectis Prime rifle. A Nova warframe moved to stand beside the tiny version of Catherine while a Nova Prime moved to ward Sara. Then other things started appearing. Strange things. Some looked sort of human, others were nowhere remotely close. All stood between Lis. Catherine and the three stone heads. Indeed, as Sara had said, the huge cavern was quickly full!
"This was an 'Oops'." Empress Eliza's calm voice seemed to echo into a massive void. "I would let them go. You will not get what you want here, Council."
"You will serve!" One of the heads thundered.
"No." Eliza replied, seemed calm, but Lis noted her finger was in the trigger guard of her rifle and it was aimed, if not at her shoulder. "I have previous commitments." A minute shrug did not disturb her hands. "And even if I did not? You break the barriers at your peril. I am not from this place."
"You were made in this reality! You will serve!" The head retorted.
"No." The Empress said softly. "I will not. You have failed." She smiled at the Creator Elizabeth who nodded to her. There was little happiness in her smile, more resignation. "Creator. Thank you, but I can take it from here."
"Don't kill them, please!" The Creator begged. "They are needed! They are not evil, just thwarted!"
"I rarely react well when I am thwarted. I swear I will try not to." The two focal point Elizas shared a nod and then the Empress turned to the heads who seemed to be gawking at her. "Did you really think this was not going be planned for?" She asked, to all appearances, curious. "Lilith is what she is, but she is not stupid! She had little desire to harm the almost six year old me. She had less desire to see her realm torn asunder by my allies or Catherine's, both of which we made sure she knew about. Her Master likewise. Not that he is now her Master, is he?"
"What do you mean?" No one moved as the monstrous form of Lilith's master appeared nearby, but not entirely. Some kind of image projection. Prince of Hell he might be, he wasn't stupid. This congregation of power was daunting to say the least.
"She failed you too many times." The Empress replied, not looking away from the heads who remained still and quiet. "Your methods are not mine, mine are not yours, but one thing remains the same. Rulers cannot allow subordinates who continue to fail to remain in the posts that they are in. We need subordinates who can do their jobs. Whatever those jobs may be. We differ in how we punish such failures, but the fact remains. Subordinates will be replaced if they fail too often." Again, that tiny little shrug that did not touch her hands. "She knew that. She knew that she had failed to stop Fury the same as she had failed to stop Death. She knew you would be very angry and there were many who wanted to usurp her power."
The Horsemen moved to stand in front of the Creator. All seemed a bit the worse for wear, but none were hindered.
"And?" The demon lord of all demon lords said slowly.
"And what is the absolute best kind of spy?" Eliza answered his question with a question as a white Loki Prime warframe stepped out of nowhere to stand beside her. Was he glowing yellow? If so, it faded.
"One who cannot be a spy." The Prince of Demons said even more slowly. He shook his beautiful head. "Lilith a spy? I find that difficult to believe."
"Of course." Eliza gave him a nod and he looked at her. "You will make up your own mind. Proof will be given here, but as always, it will be open to interpretation. Your views are not mine, mine are not yours. I ask that you let me and mine handle this."
The projected demon looked around the room, at the myriad strange and fantastical forms that crowded it and then shook his head.
"You do make a good case." He shrugged his massive shoulders. "I did need to remodel my palace any-" He broke off staring at the Creator who met his gaze impassive. "You knew."
"Knew what?" Butter might not have melted in the glowing woman's mouth.
"You knew I was going to remodel my palace." The Prince of Hell was very quiet. Awed? "Didn't you? That is why you destroyed it, wasn't it? The lost lives will be reformed as always, but the rebuilding of such an edifice was going to be both long and expensive to tear it down and rebuild." His mouth fell open. "You blew down my palace to make it easier for me to remodel, didn't you?"
"No comment." Came from the Empress and the Creator!
"Oh..." The demon's opened his mouth, closed it and then he smiled wide! "The Council have no idea, do they?" That was to the warden who was back in his human form. Will smirked.
"No. They do not." The dragon moved to one wall where a space was clear form him to lean again it. The demon hologram moved to stand with him.
"I want to watch this!" The demon leaned against the wall and so did the dragon. After a moment, Nikis moved to join them! All three of the incredibly powerful beings were standing there, watching! "Warden. Tenno." The demon allowed and Nikis nodded. When he spoke it was odd. Not worried, more curious and maybe a hint of anticipation. "This is going to be impressive, isn't it?" Both nodded.
"Probably. She is good." Nikis was using the same 'intrigued, not worried' voice. "Maybe the best I have seen."
"Why do you think we wanted her?" The Warden asked, more than a bit snide. "Yes, we liked her, but it was more self preservation! Always plans within plans and plots within plots. You are not going to out-think or out-devious that human." A cough from the Empress drew the attention.
"If the comments from the peanut gallery are done, some of us have work to do." The tone was cold, but the Empress was smiling instead of hostile. All three of the incredibly powerful males nodded to her and she turned back to the three stone heads. "Lilith knew some of the backups that I had in place. She knew some of what Catherine had in place. She had no idea what would happen. She probably didn't want to find out, but you goaded her into it. Into driving the young me insane. Into trying to warp Catherine into a servant of darkness."
"Empress… I..." Catherine said weakly, but Eliza just shook her head.
"It is not your fault or mine, Catherine." Eliza said quietly. "What happened is all on Lilith's head. She imprisoned us both, threw unspeakable amounts of power into me while she warped your body and tried to warp your soul. She could not get a good grasp on your energy however. You were Royal Guard. You never stopped fighting. She could not stop you, so she tried to warp you into a demonic mockery of yourself. The same way she is trying to warp Lis."
Lis felt fear rise, but Catherine took hold of her hand and Lis felt comforted.
"She does not have that kind of power." That came from Fury who stared from Eliza to Catherine and then hissed as she glared at the Charred Council.
"She didn't. No." Empress Eliza agreed. "Not until the Council offered her a way out of her Master's ire."She shook her head. "I didn't understand when it was explained to me." She bowed her head. "I didn't understand at all. It seemed to make no sense what she did."
"It didn't!" Catherine declared.
"It did." Eliza corrected her. "If you realize that the Council's whole plan was to breach the barrier, find agents that could counter the Horsemen that they had alienated, and then find away to control said agents. Lis is supposed to be the means of control."
"They wanted me." Sara said savagely and Eliza nodded. "Bastards!"
"They won't get either of you." Eliza reassured the girl. "You see..." She smiled at the Council and her smile sent shivers down the spines of every thing that had spines. "They wanted me. Because of my ability to walk between realities. They didn't know about my other abilities. Those didn't come in until later." She shivered and the white Loki Prime laid a hand on her arm. She nodded to him and he retracted it. "I could likely be the ultimate weapon. I doubt even the Horsemen could resist my powers if I were to let them loose. But this is not my reality and I will never serve them."
"Never is a very long time, my dear." Lilith appeared nearby and she was not alone. She had not be en the one to speak. Instead, Helena, Eliza's mother, smiled wide at the Empress. "It is time to wake up, you silly little girl. Time to break yourself free of the chains that bind you and fulfill your destiny."
"You are so right." Eliza replied and everyone went still as she smiled. It matched her mother's for sheer evil! "But not the one you think." She looked at the Creator Eliza who had bowed her head, face pale. "It is not her." The Empress reassured the other. "Our mother is dead and gone."
"Is that so?" Helena asked as she turned to Catherine. "Ah, Cathi. Do your duty. Restrained this errant offspring of mine." Power flared from her to strike Catherine who screamed as she was suddenly wreathed in agony. Familiar agony.
Everyone stared as Catherine jerked, but when the power faded, she smiled wide and her form solidified into a Gersemi Valkyr warframe.
"I think not." Catherine lashed out with both hands and the metal form Lis was encased in shattered.
"What?" Helena asked as Lis rose, her energy form freed from the shell it had been imprisoned in.
"Thank you for empowering my guardian and helping us free her from her prison of amnesia." Eliza said with a wide, grim smile as the Creator's hands flashed and Catherine jerked again, but then recovered. "Catherine Gata? Your memories have all been unlocked now. Good and bad. My mother hurt you far worse than she hurt me. This fake is yours, Bladeborn." The Empress made a motion of dusting her hands off. Sealing Helena's fate.
"Thank you." Catherine said mildly. Then she drew her Glaive and charged.