Legacies

Hani was even more confused now. Sentient and Tenno were enemies. They had been since the Old War. Every single thing she could recall about Tenno said that Sentient and Tenno were enemies, so why was this Tenno ghost or whatever she was, working with a Sentient? That made no sense. And now, they were going to call more Cyberlancers? That wouldn't end well.

Then Hani's focus narrowed as familiar power flared. Not Sentient, not Cyberlancer. Orokin! She hissed as a blue point of light erupted into a sphere of glassy energy over Jesse and Horatius and both staggered as if struck. Or immobilized! Riana's form wavered and vanished in clap of energy. Some kind of transit. She was likely safe. No one else was.

"Jesse!" Hani screamed as glass shards flew from the energy sphere at both of them! They were being attacked by an Orokin Cephalon! She interposed her own physical form and the glass shards melted as they hit her energy. They couldn't hurt her. "Oh, no you don't!"

She could feel the other's rage. It wasn't just trying to hurt both of them. It wanted them to suffer! She slammed the power away from the two humanoids through sheer force of will. She heard shouts, cries of alarm, but she was focused. The blue power, whatever it was, was a Cephalon, but the rage… The rage in that power matched what she had felt from the Omega railjack. No… it was exactly the same! Exactly. That wasn't possible. The Omega had been corrupted by a Sentient, but this… This wasn't a Sentient. This was an Orokin Cephalon. So, it couldn't be the same. But the rage and power was! It didn't talk. It struck at Jesse with glass shards again and Hani stopped them again. She could feel the other mind's scrutiny, its contempt of her. Then it hit her with raw power and agony became Hani's world.

"HANI! Get away from that!" Mother screamed as power flared between Hani and the interloper.

"Everyone back! Get… Jesse… Clear…" Hani grated out to Horatius who jerked as her power slammed the enemy rage's away from her. Whoever or whatever this was, the attacker had far more power reserves than she did, so this could only end one way. But she had her duty.

Protect Jesse.

It disregarded Hani as irrelevant and focused on Jesse again. Hani fought past her pain and threw her energy form between the girl and her attacker again. She fought the power that was sweeping towards the defenseless Cyberlancer and threw it away even as her own synapses burned. Part of her saw Horatius grab Jesse, toss her over his shoulder and run. Smart man. The rest of her was busy. The pain was indescribable.

She…

Could…

Not…

She sobbed as dark power swept through her and she fell from the air, only to be caught by tendrils of the same power. It wasn't Cyberlancer power. Part of her saw Jesse down, surrounded by the Sentient, the human soldier and the shade, but the rest of Hani focused on the black Banshee warframe that stood between Hani and the blue energy that had been hurting her. The warframe glowed with dark green energy that was oddly wrong, but right.

"You know the rules." The voice from the Banshee as calm, almost cool, but the dark metal Glaive she had in hand seethed with power. The Tenno… wait. Was this a Tenno? The energy motivating the warframe didn't feel like a Tenno to Hani's reeling senses. "Leave them alone or pay the price."

"Begone, warden. You have no call to interfere." The voice from the blue energy was the same was the voice of the Omega!

"You are wrong." The Banshee might have been discussing the weather. "This warning we give but once. Leave. These. Alone." That was pure threat. "If you continue this, I will invoke Rule 2 and you will die."

"Back off, Serene." A new voice. Male. Older, Harder. Angrier! "Not your job. Mine."

Hani was hardly the only one to go still as an old human in ancient looking dark golden human style combat armor stepped out of nowhere to stand beside the warframe. The rifle he carried was nothing that had been since in the solar system in millenia. Not until recently, anyway. He was glowing the same color as the warframe!

"Our job, Miguel. Rule 2." The Banshee replied, almost offhand. "If we let any of these idiots break that rule, they think they can do it any time they want and it always makes more of a mess to clean up. Not happening."

"Gunny?" Jesse said weakly from where she lay. Her face was even paler than it had been. Was that fear? Shame? Rage?

"Not now, Princess." The man was cold as he spun to glare at the blue energy. "You got balls. I will give you that, you scum. But you just made a serious mistake. You are not getting him back. The Empress made sure of that."

"You will not hold the Master!" The other snapped. "You will not hurt him any more!"

What the hell was going on? There were more balls of blue light! More minds pressing in on Hani who groaned as furious Cephelon power swept through her. Orokin power hit her that was far beyond her ability to counter and she would do nothing but moan. Mother moaned as well. Were they hurting her too?

"We aren't. Bad idea." Miguel said with a sigh. "Guess you are right, Serene. They are gonna be stupid. Mother, shield the others." He turned to the hurting Cephalon. "Hani… It is okay. Shield yourself."

"I… I can't…" Hani pleaded as the power assailing her hit her harder and faster. She could barely think. Her mind was unraveling, she was dying. But she had to do her duty! "Save Jesse, please!"

"Jesse is not the one in danger right now. Neither are you." Miguel said as his rifle glowed with green energy and the power that had been assailing Hani vanished as if it had never been, leaving her to sob in relief. "You threaten our families, Cephalons. That is a bad idea."

"You have no call to interfere!" The voice from the Cephalon was almost shrill now as the blue power was pushed away from Hani. Then the blue spheres started winking out in flashes of green. "NO!"

"Touch them again and if you are very lucky, we will come for you." Miguel said with a growl. The Banshee nodded, a silent, black specter. "Hurt them again and we will destroy every last one of you, repercussions be damned. No one touches our families. No one!"

"You do not command us!" The Cephalon snarled as blue energy fought the green, but was clearly losing.

"We are trying to save your lives, you idiots." The Banshee snapped, patience fleeing. "You Cephalons are supposed to be smart. This wasn't smart." Then she gasped as a dark blur appeared nearby. "NO!"

She and Miguel jerked back as the blur resolved into a warframe that held a Nikana two handed sword. Said sword was oddly misshapen. Black metal? Mother gasped as the warframe slashed once and then spun, his blade going into a sheathe at his side that looked almost like wood! Even as he spun, the blue energy winked out with a tiny scream of pain. That wasn't an Excalibur warframe, but it was close. It had an animal fur around its legs and Mother gasped again, but he held up a hand for silence and she did not continue.

"Tell me you didn't destroy him!" The Banshee begged as the odd not-quite-an-Excalibur warframe spun to glare at her. "I do not want to spend six months of our time putting him back together! He is needed or everything goes off the rails!" The warframe gave a sniff and ignored her to eye Miguel. Neither the warframe nor the human (if he was one!) spoke as her glaive vanished and Miguel slung his rifle. "You… I hate you." She said very softly. She took a step and vanished in mid-stride. Her voice continued from nowhere. "I hate you both!"

Everyone was staring at the warframe and at the soldier who shared a shrug. Then the warframe turned to the group, bowed to them in an archaic Tenno style and vanished in a puff of green energy.

"I never believed him." Mother said into the utter silence that fell as Miguel bent to examine Hani who was still crying. "His tales… They were just stories for children. Fiction."

"Truth is always stranger than fiction, Sentient Mother." Miguel said as he rose to look at her. He nodded to her once and looked at the stricken Cyberlancer. Jesse was even more pale and he shook his head. "Princess? Be good."

Then he was gone!

"Uh…" Horatius swallowed. "Um... This never happened and we were never here?" He didn't seem to be sure whether that was a question or statement.

"Probably wisest." Nia said from where she stood over Jesse protectively. For her part, Jesse seemed about to cry. "Jesse?"

"He was free." Jesse pleaded as Horatius knelt down beside her, examining her carefully for any glass residue. "He was free of the Orokin, of their curses! Of their horror! He suffered enough!" She screamed at the ceiling on the room as Horatius shook his head. "HE WAS FREE!"

"Easy, Jesse." Mother hovered down to settle beside the crying Cyberlancer. "If he was anything like the other… Then he was free to choose and no one with any brains told him he couldn't. It would probably have hurt."

"We didn't want him to go! We begged him to stay, but he refused. We let him go when he asked. He was free. Free to pass on." Jesse begged, all but spent as Horatius finished up and nodded to her. "Check yourself?"

"I will, Jesse." Horatius started to check, but Mother swept him with energy and he stilled. "What?"

"You will not be able to be certain. I can be." Her beams swept Jesse too who was too tired to even flinch. "That attack was pure Orokin evil. I saw such far too many times. The attacker was an Orokin Cephalon." Mother said flatly. "One that sounded a lot like my bud who died when Hani blew him up. He is dead. What just happened is not possible. And there were more… Oh dear. More of them." Was that fear in her tone?

"I…" Jesse was crying softly as Horatius sat down beside her. "I can't…" He sighed and took her in his arms, holding her as she cried.

"Is she okay?" Hani asked. Her pain was gone. Indeed, she seemed none the worst for wear. Odd. Such power should have left scars deep in her energy, but there was nothing. She felt calm. Almost comforted?

"No." Mother said sadly as Horatius soothed Jesse as best he could. "She is in shock and my own blundering didn't help. If I hadn't disabled her code, she wouldn't have been vulnerable."

"Not your fault." Jesse said through her tears. "I… I need to…"

"You need to sit down and relax." Horatius held her tight as she struggled feebly. He was far stronger physically than she was. She as going nowhere without her code. "You may be powerful beyond belief, Jesse, but you are still a girl who was just traumatized. The immobilization hurt me and I know it hurt you too. You don't have my augmentation or training. You don't even have your own code to buffer you right now. So sit and recover. That is an order." He smiled to take the sting out of his words and Jesse smiled back, a little forlornly.

"Yes, sir." Jesse quipped weakly as she laid her head in his shoulder armor. "I… Someone made that."

"An Orokin made that." Mother agreed, her own voice modulating to soothe the girl, but fear sounded deep inside. "But most of them are gone. The few that are left… Fewer now and none of the ones I know of would or could attack you. This makes no sense. Why target you with such an attack?" She sounded stunned. "None of the ones I know of who are left would target a young woman. Let alone a Tenno Cyberlancer!"

"Ballas might, if he thought it would get him free of Erra. Brianna wouldn't." Jesse agreed. "Kaitlin can't, she likely won't wake. There may be one other, but if so, she is cloistered. Locked away beyond anyone's ability to discover." Mother made a noise of inquiry and Jesse frowned. "Various groups revere a name form before the Old War. The Unum. No one has been able to see if she is still there or not. That Tower is a deathtrap for any. Even Tenno or your kind do not survive."

"Oh. That one." Nia spoke up and everyone stared the shade. "Do not ask and do not try. She was a paranoid, delusional old…" She paused and eyed Jesse. "...person way back when and likely isn't better now if she did survive." She shook her head. "That said, she too wasn't one to attack people who didn't attack her. Approach her without authorization and you got hurt, trespass and you died. Period. But she didn't go out of her way to be cruel. Glassing people is cruel."

"Bad way to die, yeah." Horatius said as he held Jesse and her sobs slowed. "Thanks, Hani." He nodded to the Cephalon.

"I would say 'anytime', but that would be a lie. I really do not want to go through that again." Hani said weakly as she hovered close to Mother. "Are you well, Mother?"

"No." The large green Sentient said quietly. "I… I didn't believe him. He told me, flat out the last time I talked to him that death was not the end for him and his kind, but this? This is wrong."

"I will say." A familiar, cold voice heralded several forms appearing out of a portal nearby. Olim led several warframes into view, all with weapons in had that they aimed at Mother. She knew many fo them, some from Karl's Shadow clan others from elsewhere, but all froze as Jesse threw herself to her feet and stepped between them. She did not raise her hands. She made no motion, but she did not move from where she stood between the Sentient and the Tenno. "Jesse." The elder Cyberlancer warned.

"I wondered where Riana had gotten to." Jesse said quietly. "You should lower your weapons now." That was not a command, but it was to be obeyed. Everyone was staring at her.

"Jesse, move." Mother said very slowly, "They cannot trust me any more than you can."

"I can trust that if we hurt you and violate rule 2, we will get in a hell of lot of trouble." Jesse replied, still not moving as Olim's code swept around her. At the words 'Rule 2' said code stilled in mid-air. She nodded to the Grandmaster. "Yeah."

"Jesse, she was talking about you." Mother said softly.

"No, she wasn't." Jesse retorted and the tension in the area seemed to skyrocket. "Grandmaster, there has been enough death today. Please?" She begged. "She is trying to protect Oracle and from her words, me too."

"Stress 'trying'." Mother snapped. "Silly girl!"

"Who is Zato?" Olim inquired, eyeing the shade that had frozen at Mother's side upon his arrival. "Reports say the Omega was hunting a being named Zato."

"You knew him as Nikis." Mother said softly. No one seemed surprised. "I knew him as Zato. Whatever you may have thought of him, he was a good Tenno."

"I see." Olim did not look way from the shade who slowly lowered her head. "And… I bet the new Grandmaster of the Guardians of the Dead is looking for you, aren't they?" Nia did not move, did not speak and Olim shook his head. "This is going to be a mess."

"More than you know, Olim." Horatius rose to stand by Jesse. "Jesse was just attacked by what looked very much like an Orokin Cephalon." Nia slowly moved to join the pair, standing between Mother and the Tenno. Hani didn't dare move from where she hovered by Mother even when Horatius nodded to her. "This Cephalon saved her and me from being glassed."

"Ouch." One of the Tenno in the back of the group muttered. Olim was a statue.

"I do not know what to think. Sentients are enemies, but this one really seems to be trying to help Jesse's mother." Horatius said when Olim did not move. "And Jesse. This Cephalon fought the others for us, Olim." Olim thought about that and shook his head as he turned to Jesse.

"You showed yourself to the Grineer, Jesse." Olim said heavily. "You know what that means."

"They will hunt me, I know." Jesse said with a shrug. "I… Hani needed help and… Elizabeth wanted me away." Her voice was steady, but her eyes held pain.

"Draco sent a message, Jesse." Olim said softly and Jesse's face lit up. She paled again at his next words. "Lorinos attempted to escape and got fried. That would not have destroyed him completely any more than it would one of us. His remains disappeared before the Royal Guard could recover them. The theft set a lot of alarms off. They had to go into extreme damage control mode and won't be able to come back until and unless they discover who took his remnants. Likely his energy too."

"How?" Jesse demanded. "Even I couldn't have…" She pasued. "The- Mom?" She asked weakly.

"Eliza..." Olim shook his head. "No one knows if she survived or not. Avalon is gone. Its security was breached and they did what was planned. That said? Only one kind of being could grab remains of that sort from the surface of the Sun."

"A High Orokin." Mother into the silence that fell. "One of the bad ones. I know of this evil one Lorinos. He was not the worst, but he was bad. I knew we didn't get them all and nether did Natah. Even one more would be bad."

"Probably more than one." Olim agreed. "Which means they are coming back and wanting to take up where they left off. As in, everyone serves them."

"Not a chance!" Jesse snarled. "Elizabeth may not be able to come back, but my duty is to humanity and… Others." She slumped a bit, looking at Mother. "Rule 2, Olim. I am a combatant, Horatius is a combatant. She isn't!" She warned.

"That doesn't make me safe to be around, Jesse!" Mother protested. She sighed so heavily when Jesse sniffed loudly enough that several people in the group chuckled. "Jesse, listen to reason for once, you silly girl. We will need you. Alive. Intact. Not hunted and torn apart by a bunch of filthy clones! Yes…" She actually interrupted Jesse when the girl opened her mouth. "I know you have skills and power, but you are not invincible any more than I am. No argument. Say 'Yes, Mother'." She snapped, the bite of command in her tone.

"Yes, Mother." Jesse's tone more than bit sullen, but she jerked when Mother crackled static at her. "I…" She broke off as Mother crackled again. "Hey!"

"Jesse, you need to reassure your fellows that I and mine have not harmed you. I won't but they cannot trust that any more than I can trust them." Mother said reasonably. Olim looked at her and Mother scoffed. "I know who you are. You are good, Grandmaster Olim but you are in the middle of a Wormship and I know how to stop your kind without killing you."

"Really?" Olim inquired, looking at Nia who would not meet his gaze. "I bet that is a long story."

"It is." Mother agreed.

"A good one?" The Tenno asked as Jesse stared at him in shock.

"Parts of it." The Sentient replied. "Parts are icky and rude." That was to Nia who flushed.

"I bet." Olim sighed and relaxed, his Boltor rifle muzzle drooping. "Jesse will be difficult." He said to Mother who scoffed. Jesse snarled at both of them and her hands were starting to glow dimly.

"The best ones always are." The nurturer agreed. "Want some help?"

"I shouldn't." Olim said slowly as Jesse drew herself up. "But… We should get her out of here. And if we wait until her code recovers from whatever happened, she will be very hard to move."

Jesse growled at him but she was not sure who to watch. So, she was utterly unprepared when Horatius reached out and slapped a drug patch onto her hand. Whatever was on it passed right through her bodysuit and she was instantly woozy.

"You…" Jesse's eyed held betrayal as they shut. He caught her easily and hefted her just as easily.

"Deftly done. I could have used you with so many of my buds." Mother said in fond exasperated memory. "Get her out of here. I will set up some kind of communication through the Tower where Brianna Executor lives. That is neutral to my kind. Not even Hunhow dares violate that place again." Olim nodded and his hands started flashing with code. In moments a portal gleamed behind the Cyberlancer. He paused as Mother spoke again. "I will be in touch as soon as Janet wakes. Please don't let Jesse do anything else dumb!"

"I am a Cyberlancer, not a god." Olim retorted. "And from what I understand? Some of them have had a hard time with her."

"Why does that not surprise me?"