Family

It was clear the moment that she woke. Janet lay in the pool they had made for her in Adiinah's deck and cried as Mother hovered close to her. Mother could do nothing but comfort her as Janet wept.

"I am sorry, Janet. I didn't understand." The Sentient said sadly. "I truly did not understand."

"How could you?" Janet said through her tears. "I… Even I have difficulty comprehending their evil. Their avarice. Their need to dominate others. Of course they didn't just give up. Hani? Is Hani okay?" She pleaded.

"Yes, Hani is on downtime." Mother reassured the Oracle. "She needs the rest after all of this. She saved Jesse and Horatius. That is a good thing."

"Yes, but… Jesse, Aerie, Sara, Mishka, Abigail, Mary." Janet said very quietly. "All will be targets. We need to protect them."

"Oracle, there are limits to what I can do." Mother was not arguing, not really. "If I act openly against Erra, he will act against me and I have no wish to cause such a schism in our ranks since neither of us can trust Hunhow. Especially if there are other Orokin left."

"I cannot see what is coming. I must be involved too closely." Janet said slowly. "The girls… You can protect the girls."

"Janet." Mother warned.

"You can." Janet said firmly. "I know you can!"

"Janet, look with your power. See what happens if I do such a thing again." Mother said firmly and Janet stared at her before closing her massive eye. "My probabilities all say the same." Janet gave a small cry of fear and Mother soothed her. "I know, my dear."

"Erra nearly killed you for what you did to save Nia." Janet sounded shocked. "Hunhow nearly killed you for what you did to save… Zato." She gave a tiny sob. "Neither would react well, would they?"

"They both nearly destroyed me for letting those two Tenno go, Janet." Mother corrected Janet grimly. "They wouldn't have minded if I had killed or enthralled either of them. Not that such works on Cyberlancers, or on your mate, but still I let them go. That gave the others ample reason to punish me. They were right. I have been corrupted by my exposure to alien minds. I am not a 'true' Sentient anymore, although I am a nurturer and Marlena follows me. Mostly because she feels she owes me for helping her. She and I are required for our race to continue. As for me? I may not be their kind any more, but I refuse to be evil if I can help it. I am not enthralling anyone else or ripping their minds apart for information. It is wrong to do that to a sentient species!"

"You didn't think we were sentient." Janet was quiet, thinking. "The Orokin? Yes, they were thinking beings, evil ones. The rest of us were just animals to you. Mindless lemmings following each other off a golden cliff. Like ancient humans experimenting on apes, it wasn't a big deal because they didn't talk. That leaves aside various groups of people who did experiment on humans forcefully because they could."

"I did think that humans and Tenno were mindless animals, once." Mother allowed. "I changed. Either from touching Nia's mind or touching Zato's. One thing has not changed. I never wanted to fight. I am not a combat form. I never was and I never will be."

"That is good." Janet said with feeling and then paused. "I don't think I said it: Thank you. You saved my life and helped me. I… Did you mean that? Your people would protect me?"

"You are welcome. As for you? I will protect you as I can, and many will follow me just to try and keep me out of trouble." Mother chuckled as Janet scoffed.

"No!" Janet laughed but then she sobered."Esther will be forced to act soon and when she does, all hell will break loose." She sighed. "I can't hide anymore, can I?"

"You can do whatever you want, my dear." Mother reassured her. "Whatever you choose to do, you have my support and whatever protection I can give."

"Mine too." Adiinah's voice startled both of them. "I did not mean discourtesy, Oracle, I really didn't! She said quickly, fear rising and Janet was quick to speak.

"I am inside your hull, Adiinah!" Janet said in an utterly fake snooty voice that had Mother chuckling in electronic mirth. "I think we are past the formal stage, don't you?"

For a long moment, there was utter silence from the ship and then Adiinah made a delighted sound. It wasn't human mirth, but it was clearly a laugh.

"I like you, Janet. I know I am a mess, but there are people who are trying to contact you. Mother has been putting them off, but they are getting insistent." Adiinah wasn't worried, not quite. Then again, if anyone had a right to a few off moments, she did. Janet knew far more than she wanted to about what had been done to the former Sentient mining ship by the Orokin. It gave the Oracle nghtmares, so she had no intention of hurting Adiinah any more than the ship had been.

"I bet." Janet sighed and then stilled as Mother soothed her again. "Mother? How am I?"

"Physically? Your body has recovered." Mother focused on professional. "Psychologically, you are still hurting, so whatever you do, please take it easy for a bit?"

"Can you come with me? It will bother them but… I know I need to do this." Janet said slowly. "But I don't know if I can do it alone."

"You are not alone. Not now! Not ever!" Mother eased herself down beside Janet's flank as the world fell away.

Utter silence met the pair as Janet and Mother materialized in a virtual environment. Janet wore her usual white gowned human Oracle form without its veil. showing her burned face to all. Mother took the form of a silver skinned human with green hair. She stayed where she was, half a step behind Janet as the Oracle looked across the several faces that stared at her. Several Tenno wore warframes and two of them had drawn weapons, for all the good that would do against a Sentient in a virtual environment. Janet ignored all of that to focus on the Tenno woman who stood in the front, face blank.

"Ami, how is Iriana?" Janet asked Ami Pangolin, her tone conversational.

"Still asleep." Ami said slowly. "She needed it badly. The Caretakers say she might sleep another entire day."

"She exhausted herself again. She helped perform a very hard surgery with skill and care. Her patient will recover fully." Janet said with small, sad smile. "Not that any of us expect less from the Healer. That is all I can say." She warned when several people looked curious.

"We can accept that." Ami said with small frown as she looked at the Sentient in human form. "Janet… What is going on?"

"Nikis is gone." Janet could not bite back a sob and Mother laid a hand on her arm, ignoring several people who tensed. Ami did not! "I reacted badly, nearly drowned myself and this one saved me." She smiled at Mother and patted the silver skinned hand. Mother withdrew it. "She is also a Healer of sorts and she knew I needed help."

"We would have helped you." Was Ami ashamed? Worried? Hard to say.

"You could not have reached me in time, Ami." Janet bowed her head. "I needed a shock and, I have to admit, this was a shock." She smiled again and Mother smiled back. "I was a bit stubborn and she is almost as patient with such as you are." She made a face as Ami stared at her. "She has kids, Ami. Lots of kids."

"Buds, Janet." Mother corrected the Oracle very quietly. "This is complicated enough. Let's keep it as simple as we can. Dishonesty serves nothing here but Orokin evil." Janet frowned, but nodded.

"Good point." Janet sighed deeply and then nodded to Ami. "I am a mess, Ami. I will be, but she hasn't hurt me. She could have."

"She could have enthralled you." Ami protested.

"No, I couldn't." Mother retorted. "Enthralling psychics doesn't work. It is almost as messy as trying to brainwash Cyberlancers." More than one person winced with her at that. "I don't expect you to take my word for that, though."

"She has her own agenda, Ami, but in this case? It meshes with mine." Janet said quietly. "She knows that no matter who wins this war, both sides will lose. We all need hope now, Tenno and Sentient alike. Did you hear about Jesse?" She asked.

"It was hard to miss." Ami made a face as more than one of the others face-palmed. "Janet… Is she… What are we to do now?" She asked. "I mean… The Queens know about her. We have already heard rumblings that they are sending forces to seek her out. But it odd. They want her alive."

"Not odd at all." Janet muttered as she shared a look with Mother. The Sentient's human face curled into a frown. "You know how the Orokin prolonged their lives, yes?"

"I…" Ami paled. "Oh my god! Mishka!"

It wasn't common knowledge but many Tenno knew what the Grineer Queens had tried to do to one of the Zarimon children. For uncounted ages, they had prolonged their unnatural lives by transferring their minds into new hosts when the old ones decayed beyond recovery. The other mind was left to die in a rapidly failing shell. That was one reason they preferred young hosts. Clones worked, but for a very short time. Recently, the Queens had tried to take one of the Zarimon children with the thought to live essentially forever as an incredibly powerful energy form, but the Zarimon child called Hawk had argued the point with them and one of the Queens had perished as a result. No one had been silly enough to assume her gone for good. They couldn't be that lucky.

"All of the girls, not just Mishka. They want young, strong, females for their Conjunctions. Tenno or human it makes no difference to them. The meat shell is the same. Grineer do not last long as decayed as their genetics are." Janet said with a growl. Mother reached out to touch her arm again and Janet relaxed. "I am angry."

"You have cause!" Mother snapped. "Your daughter is in danger. Even if she is Tenno now, she still counts herself your daughter or she would not have come to your aid. Add to that? Your friend's daughter and many others are in danger. I am angry too. I know Orokin evil firsthand, Janet. I know what the monsters will do. We will not allow it. Be easy, my friend."

"Thank you." Janet covered Mother's silver hand with her own, much to everyone's shock. "Ami, the girls are in Brianna's Tower. That may very well be the safest place currently in this system, but it is not impenetrable." She shook her head. "The cats proved that." Mother looked at her and Janet shook her head. "Please just take my word for that. It is a long story and not a nice one."

"If it has bearing on this, then we will talk, but later." Mother allowed. "I can guarantee that none of my people will assault that place again. Not even Hunhow is that crazy." Janet snorted at that as Ami stared at her. "If he tried? Every other member of my race would tear him apart."

"Seriously?" Ami inquired, jolted out of her mask of indifference.

"He lost every fighter he sent in there and that was before the place was designated a sanctuary by our rules." Mother replied. "There will be no violence done by my people in that Tower." That was an oath!

"I wasn't aware you had such rules." Ami said slowly.

"I wasn't aware that your people did either when I first encountered Tenno." Mother's voice held shame now. "Not… Until later." Janet squeezed her hand and Mother sighed. "The past is past. We must look to the future, but we must not forget either. Ignoring the lessons of the past is a recipe for disaster. We can and must do better."

"Well said." Janet smiled at the Sentient. "She won't let me mope, Ami. Like I say, she had buds." She smiled at Mother who smiled back. "But with Nikis….gone… I guess, that cuts me off from your-" She broke off as Ami moved. Mother did not react as Ami Pangolin stepped right up to the Oracle and pulled her into an embrace! Mother was smiling as Janet sputtered.

"Nice try." Ami stage whispered into Janet's ear, clearly audible to everyone. "You are not getting rid of us that easy, Sister." She smiled wide as she released Janet and stepped back. For her part, Janet looked shocked.

"But… I… I am not…" Janet stammered, only to still as Ami glared at her.

"If you say you are not Tenno, implying what we only care about Tenno, I will slap you." Ami warned. "The very first rule our founders set was that any are welcome as long as they abide by our family rules." She shook her head as Janet goggled at her. "Human or Tenno, it made no difference any more than ancient skin color bias did."

"Any?" Mother inquired softly and everyone looked at her.

"They specifically said 'any'." Ami said with a nod. "You helped Janet. Why?" She inquired.

"The being I called Zato was critically injured by a Dax strike team when he tried to save several of my buds form being taken to Orokin torture." Mother said quietly and everyone tensed. "He saved several of them, but not all. In doing so, he was wounded badly enough that he could not flee when Hunhow arrived on the scene and destroyed everything that was left. I wanted to know what had happened and Hunhow was not listening. He was lost. Even then, he was insane." She broke off, looking way.

"Tell them." Janet said quietly. "Don't make Ami mad." She grinned as several of the other Tenno in the group shook their heads emphatically, even two of the warframes!

"They won't believe it." Mother said softly.

"What a being believes is their business as long as it doesn't hurt the family." Ami hadn't move at all, still within easy reach of Janet. "Family doesn't have to make sense. Does it, 01001101 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010?" The phrase she ended with was not in any human or Tenno language. Mother recoiled and Ami spoke again in a language even stranger than binary, a small, sad smile crossing her features as Janet stared at the Tenno woman in shock. Then she smiled!

"Janet never told you my designation." Mother said slowly. "Did…?" She broke off and laughed. "Zato. Oh, Zato!" Ami smiled at her and several others whose faces were visible were also smiling.

"He loved his stories and we loved hearing them as children. Especially stories of other worlds, other people worthy of respect who fought for their own families. Of one nurturer in particular who he came to love." Ami bowed her head. "Janet, I know you cannot say a lot. Stop me if I go too far. He went back to them, didn't he?"

"I can tell you. Yes. He cannot come back." Janet bowed her own head along with everyone else. Mother followed suit a hair later. "From what I gathered in our short and heavily circumscribed conversation, some Orokin fled the Collapse by traveling to other realities. That was always forbidden, but such things as laws and rules never stopped the High Castes."

"And… Avalon fell because…" Of course Ami knew about that, even though she wasn't supposed to.

"No one is sure why. The Sentient attack could not have breached that place without help. Orokin type help. Something happened and I am sure they were involved." Janet could not keep hate off her features and Mother laid a hand on her left arm. Ami laid a hand on Janet's right arm.

"Be calm, Janet." Mother said quietly. "You are not alone."

"Neither are you." Ami was just as quiet. "You are family. How can we help?"

No prevarication. No hesitation. Everyone beside Janet and Mother nodded to Ami's calm words.

"We need to keep the girls safe." Janet said slowly. Mother nodded her silver skinned head. "But we need to do it carefully and quietly. She is a good person, but Brianna is not sneaky enough to deal with such as the one she wrested the Tower from. This has been proven over and over. Without Draco on hand to jerk her up short, Jesse will run rings around Brianna." She made a face. "And everyone else."

"As tempting as it is to let Jesse loose on that scum Lorinos, it wouldn't be safe for her." Ami agreed. Then she shook her head. "The Tower was compromised before. Lorinos owned it for many years after he took it from Kaitlin. I don't think it can be made safe."

"It can." Mother disagreed. "But you won't like how. That leaves aside Brianna Executor's feelings. I will do nothing without her permission. That place is neutral by our laws and I will not break our laws." The Sentient shook her head. "I can't, Janet. Your safety is more important. The girls have defenders. You do not and the Grineer will examine Titan closer now that a nuclear detonation has occurred in its orbit. You will not able to hide from their scrutiny."

"I am not going to be hiding." Janet said softy. "The form I inhabit has served its purpose. Now? It is time for hope to step back onto the land."

"Janet…" Mother warned. "Don't you dare hurt yourself."

"I am not Tenno, but the aquatic form I inhabit is not me. I can shift forms." Janet reassured the Sentient. "My human body died and I will need a new one, but-" She broke off as Ami nodded. "Oh, don't tell me!" Making something without telling her was just like a certain ancient arrogant Nekros!

"He meant it as a surprise. He hoped to have children with you someday." Ami bit her lip and then nodded. "Donna."

"What?" Janet paled, seemingly all but fainted as every single member of the family nodded, muttering the same word. "Ami, I am not Donna Pangolin! You are."

"He is not dead, just gone. You are still his mate. He was eldest and I served at his discretion. He hoped to explain someday, but it was not to be. I am here for you, Janet. Now and always." Ami slowly bowed to her as Janet's face reddened with embarrassment. She took Janet's hand and kissed it! "You are family and we will do business. Together."

"I… I can't… Ami!" Janet protested as every Tenno bowed to her! "I have my own duties!"

"Your business is our business." Ami said as she rose and everyone else did as well. "They will not conflict."

"I…" Janet slumped. "I am doomed, aren't I?" She asked everyone. They all nodded, even Mother! "Okay, you are now my Voice with the Family, Ami." Janet said in an odd, almost mumbled tone and Ami nodded. The Tenno's face was grave, but her eyes were twinkling! Janet turned to Mother who also bowed to her. "Don't do that!" Janet all but begged.

"I wouldn't dream of angering Donna Pangolin." Mother demurred and everyone laughed as Janet sputtered. "It probably would not be good for my health."

"You don't say!"