Crimson dashed off to his vault, a hair's breadth behind Umbra. Titanium sighed, running along, much slower. She would have to figure out how to go that fast. But in the meantime, she just went slowly. Cautiously. Make sure anyone who had seen them were eliminated. She still hated it, but saw the necessity of it. She wasn't fast enough to outrun them, especially with the Ascaris threatening her with a fall any second.
As she jogged, knives in hand, she peered down the halls, following the green light. A vent with a broken grate caught her eye, and she smirked. These people sure made this easy.
She stalked through the vents, a sick feeling beginning to churn in her gut. She reached the end of the vent, where the narrow corridor angled upwards dramatically. She hopped and brought her eyes past the ledge, legs dangling, and looked through the grate, counting the pairs of boots.
The alarms blared, and she flinched, Ascaris flaring. The comm opened.
"Who set off the alarms?" Crimson's voice crackled through the speaker. She pressed her lips together as one of the pairs of boots stopped right in front of the vent.
"Must be Umbra," she whispered, hoping the soldier didn't hear her.
"Why are you whispering?" he asked.
"Because there's a soldier right in front of me," Titanium hissed. The sense of impending doom and gloom hanging in her gut deepened.
"Hit him!" Crimson shouted over the line. Titanium started to squeak in surprise at his sudden yell, and turned it into a war cry at the last second, bursting out of the vent and smashing into the soldier's back.
The other Grineer turned at the sound and opened fire. Titanium released the knives in between her fingers at thinly armored ankles, and pulled her Bo from her back, bashing it into the knees and wrist of the soldier closest to her. He fell, and she knocked him out soundly on the way down.
She pivoted and swung, hitting another man in the kidney. He howled something in a different language, raising his wicked-looking knife. Titanium palmed a knife and, blocking his downswing with her bo-hand, instinctually stabbed him in the gut. The man fell, and her twisting stomach writhed.
She panted, looking away from the dying man. She hesitantly stepped up to him and rolled him over from where he had fallen face-first. His pale face was livid with rage.
"Every shot counts," someone long ago had drilled into her head. "Don't waste them, and don't let anyone know we're there."
She pulled the knife smoothly from the man, and, looking around, put a cloth over the wound. She grabbed his hands and pressed them silently over the wound, and put a finger to her faceplate.
She turned back to the vault and walked toward the entrance.
"Thanks, Gee!" She said.
There was a moment of silence on the other end.
"What did you say?" He asked. Titanium panicked. What had she said? She searched for something to stall as she walked over the threshold.
"Hold on, I'm in the vault."
The next thing Crimson said was cut off, and Titanium's head jerked up as the door closed. The pit of her gut heaved emptily. She shook her head and went on to the console.
Suddenly, the sound of a gun cocking behind her made her freeze, and pain and pain rippled through her still body.
She turned around to see Vor, smiling cruelly from his rotten face.
"I could have saved the Grineer," he said, walking up to the window of her new prison.
"They cast me out, but it's not too late to harvest your divine blood."
Titanium swallowed, a shiver working its way down her spine. She backed to the opposite window, trying to reach out to the metal, to try and crush it.
She felt it, grabbed for it, yellow energy rippling over the surface to the vault. But she slipped, and couldn't grip it again.
Vor chuckled, holding something up in the hand not on his weapon.
"You're not the only one with the power of the Void. Behold, the Janus Key!" He held up it, the light catching on the shapes of a strange-looking device. The wolfish smile on Vor's face grew.
He waved a hand, and the doors to the main room sealed, leaving Vor, his key, and his prey.
He walked over the control console for the vault, and she turned to track him as he moved. She would not fall today. Something in her mind spoke. A laugh.
This is just the beginning of the story, little one! Don't be afraid!
Titanium swallowed, realizing what the feeling in her stomach all mission was. Fear. She consciously removed her arm from around her midsection and raised it warily to her Paris. She notched an arrow and pulled the string back taut. The door raised, and she sighted along the string. She forced a slow breath, and then everything moved.
She loosed her arrow, dodging an energized globe she didn't want to know what that did, and pulled her bo from her back. She leapt through the door, but her calf spasmed and she fell, glaring up at Vor. He smiled again, leisurely.
"It is such a shame, my prize," he said, and, moving to the side and backing up, he fired the Janus Key at her, a harsh laser cutting the air to where she laid, propped up on an arm, snarling.
She rolled away and to her feet, pushing off the other leg this time. She raised her bo above her head as she flew, but Vor slid to the side, his smile still on his face. Titanium recovered from her downward swing, changing it to a devastating arc to the side.
Vor jumped away again, but she reached out, pulling him back. He raged at the force yanking him rudely, ducking under another swing at the last second. He overshot by several feet, raising his gun this time. Titanium ducked, a hand raised instinctively, and raised her head at the orb catching the bullets.
She looked at Vor, whose grin had dropped.
Good, she thought.
She released the bullets, and Vor yelled as they pinged around the room, creating a metallic cacophony.
As the orchestra of destruction raged, the Tenno girl realized the look in Vor's eyes. Fear.
Frightened, cornered animals were dangerous. Irrational.
Another energy ball flew at her, snagging itself onto her, sending sparks of electricity flying across her body. It was nothing compared to the torture of walking, but it slowed her down anyway.
So she walked carefully, storing her bo and unsheathing her knives. Vor stood, and for a moment, both stared each other down. Vor's smile returned, but it didn't reach his cruel eyes.
"Tenno, you are weakened by the Ascaris. I will have you!"
Titanium fell to her knees with a roar as the device drilled deeper into her calf. She felt the world begin to fuzz out, sprawled out on the ground. Vor walked over to her, speaking, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.
Under the haze of pain, she saw his feet. He was too close. Too arrogant. She slammed a knife deep into Vor's leg, twisting it in. He fell next to her, and she rolled away, another knife in hand.
As she rolled to her knees and back onto her feet, he snagged her ankle, bringing the Janus Key to bear again. He had holstered or lost his gun somewhere.
Titanium swayed to the side and allowed the bright energy beam to pass her by, then punched the hand holding it. Usually, if you shocked the person enough you could remove their weapon, but Vor's fingers kept their grip tight around the Key. Titanium didn't let go either, and the two rolled around on the floor, exchanging blows. Every now and then, Titanium would manage to get a knife in somewhere, but Vor's heavy blows caused as much damage as she dealt.
Vor finally rolled free of her grip and onto his feet, the Janus Key still in hand. He leveled it at the top of her helmet, point-blank. Titanium raised her eyes to his, staring at the bruises livid against his face, her whole field of vision lined in angry, warning red.
"Tenno," he panted, rage purpling his face, blood flowing from the multiple cuts she'd given him. "Killing you will bring me back into the hearts of my people. It will be a fine pleasure to hang your head on my wall and bring your divine blood to my Queens."
She rose to her knees.
"Not today," she snarled under her breath, throat aching. Vor had landed a good few blows there, and to talk hurt. To move hurt. The Ascaris dug itself deeper into her calf every moment. Her nerves were electrified by getting hit with the energy balls fired from the Key. To get hit point-blank would spell disaster.
She surged up once more, grabbing his wrist and raising her other hand. She could feel all of the metal implants within, the armor without. And then she grasped it. And then she crushed it. Vor screamed, loud and long. She closed her eyes as her spring yellow energy raced around Vor's form, as it turned him into a bloody ball, and then into nothing.
She stood alone in the room, surrounded by bodies. She'd tried to spare those men and women. But her fight with Vor had left them as dead, many roasted by the Janus Key, punctured by flying bullets, or accidentally stabbed as Titanium grew more and more desperate.
All of the sudden, she felt like her head might float away. The sight of the blood on the floor, even though she couldn't smell it, the harsh faces of dead men. The pain in her calf had faded, and with it, most of the pain that was grounding her.
Her red-lined vision began to fade, exhaustion settling deep within her. Black edged her sight, and she walked, slowly, stiffly, to the vault. The door had closed when she had left it, leaving it mostly clear. She sat down heavily on one of the bulkheads and tried to regain some energy. But she couldn't stop it.
She couldn't just pass out in enemy territory. It was dangerous, impermissible, and it would get her killed. She struggled, fighting her tiredness as hard as she had fought Vor. Vor who was dead on the floor. She nodded her head, incapable of giggling at her new freedom. She slid off the bulkhead and settled sloppily onto her back.
She rested her head on the bulkhead. It really was an awkward angle, her faceplate digging into her chest. There felt like there was a void in her calf. She chuckled silently at the sight of awkwardly bent legs in her closing eyes.
Unconsciousness claimed her to the sounds of the door opening.