There will be MAJOR spoilers of Marvel's Avengers video game in the next few chapters-
Falls
She only fell a little, but her scream echoed oddly. She felt motion, but only a few inches. When she landed, it was on something soft. And she wasn't alone!
"Whoa! Easy girl!" A worried female voice sounded from nearby and a hand landed on Kate's as she started to flail. Something happened and her muscles suddenly felt like jelly. She tried to struggle, but the voice crooned to her. "Easy! It is okay! You are okay! You are safe!"
Everything hurt! Kate had been in so many fights as an Avenger that pain had become part and parcel of who she was. Even with high tech wizardry added to actual magic on occasion, being an Avenger was no fun at all sometimes. She had been hit, shot, choked, stunned, kicked, slammed… The list went on and on. One reason she had 'borrowed' and repurposed a set of Advanced Idea Mechanics teleportation tech was to be able to stay out of the reach of enemies. She was skilled with a sword but even she had to admit that her strength wasn't as good as her mentor's. Clint had started out with the sword as a child, trained by a one time villain turned hero turned sort of con-man. Add to that, her smaller physique meant she had to work out twice as hard to match even the feeblest of swings from the first Hawk-eye. It wasn't sexism. She simply wasn't as big as he was and therefore couldn't have as much muscle. Maybe in time, she would develop it, but for now? She focused on speed and precision, rather than brute strength. Her other skills mostly more than made up for any lack in melee combat ability, but when an enemy got close, she was in trouble. Especially if said enemy was a melee oriented fighter. No matter how many trick arrows she had, one good hit could and had put her down at the start of her career. If not for help from friends, she probably would not have survived all of that. To this day, if bad guys got close enough to hit her, she got hurt. So she knew pain.
But not like this.
Every single iota of Kate's being hurt. She could swear she felt her hair follicles crying out in pain. It was all she could do to keep from screaming again as the pain doubled and redoubled. Then the hand on hers turned warm and the pain vanished like a waft of bad dream.
"Easy." The voice crooned again and Kate sobbed in relief. "It is okay. You are okay. I cannot make your pain go away completely, but I can mask it from you for a time. Better?" The woman inquired gently.
"Yes." Kate gasped through lips that felt far too large. "Much. Thank you!"
"I am glad I was in time." The other said heavily. "I don't where you fell from, but you landed hard. Luckily, I was nearby and could pluck you out of the water before you drowned, but you have a lot of healing to do."
"What?" Kate asked, confused beyond words. "Water? How? I was inside!" She had been in Doctor Doom's throne room! How had she gotten outside? Matter of fact, where was she? She tried to open her eyes, but they wouldn't. "I can't see!" She tried to move, but she couldn't. Nothing moved! She fought back a whimper and growled instead. 'Let me go!"
"You are hurt." Now the other's voice was steely. "Add to that, you are a mystery. I do not like mysteries when I have people counting on me. I don't think you are a spy, but I wouldn't put such past any of those Orokin assholes. That is for later. For now? You need to heal. Back to sleep with you, young lady."
Kate was struggling to voice a protect when soft, gentle music soared through her brain and carried her off to dreamless slumber. It wasn't human music.
A hidden sanctuary in an ocean of madness
"Well, that is that." The woman in the long blue cloak stood up from the bedside and shook her head at the wreck of the girl that lay on it. If a single centimeter of this young woman was un-bruised, it was unapparent. "She will sleep for now. I have set the bed to monitor her. The tech within should heal her on its own. If not? I have a few tricks. But, just in case? You know what to do."
Number Three nodded to her and took her place by the bed. The human had once possessed a name but one of the high caste had taken an interest in him and for whatever reason, had designated the dark skinned being 'Number Three'. That was the only thing he would, could, respond to now. Damn the Orokin and their meddling! So many hurt and killed, and in the end? For what? Greed. They had gotten what was coming to them and such much more so. She liked Number Three. He knew what not to ask.
Like where they were at the moment. Why the tech in this place worked when nothing else built by Orokin would ever be controlled again. Who she was or where she came from. How she had managed to hide throughout the chaos that had broken out everywhere when the Orokin Empire's death throes had consumed the entire Origin system. She smiled and nodded to Number Three as he focused on his task. She ignored the Lex pistol in his hand. It wouldn't be the first time someone had tried to sneak into this sanctuary. It probably wouldn't be the last. Orokin was gone and good riddance. The Executors were all dead, or so she devoutly hoped. The Royal Family hadn't been heard from since that asinine ceremony where the idiots had tried to enslave her children. Enough had been enough and the being had acted. She had no regrets about what had happened to the bigoted, selfish assholes who had ignited this whole mess. Well, except that she likely would never see her real children in the flesh again. The future was dark, but she would not go quietly into oblivion like so many of her children had. The Orokin were destroyed. The Tenno were gone, hidden away or asleep in cryo. The being once known as Natah and then as Lotus was supposed to be alone again.
Maybe she had time to sit and check the probabilities? This newcomer was odd in so many ways. She felt oddly familiar and at the same time, oddly dissonant. As if, the girl was supposed to be here and not supposed to be here at the same time. That bothered the former Sentient. Not that anyone could know what she had been or would believe.
Alas...
A child's irate cry of rage sounded and she hurried her steps towards the common area. This hideaway wasn't very large and right now? It seemed filled to bursting with humans after so long silent and still with only the datastreams for company. Sixteen humans were a crowd sometimes at the best of times. When three of them were children and one of them hurt very badly? She fought back a human sigh as she entered the small common area that served many purposes and saw the scene laid out in front of her. As expected, Kara was standing firm in front of everyone, her face flaming with rage. Girl had no quit in her and less sense sometimes. Even the loss of one arm had not dimmed her fiery spirit. Once, it would have been trivial to regrow such, but not here. Not now. The Lotus had never been a dedicated medical professional. She had learned quite a bit, over time, but she was no Healer. Add to that? This sanctuary was designed for stealth. As a hiding place, not a hospital. The bed the new girl lay in was the sole one of its kind in the facility and whatever power it used to heal the poor girl would be dear to replace clandestinely. It could and would be done, but it was dangerous even now to tap Orokin designed machines. They had never brooked trespass. Ever. Their traps were devious, dangerous and would last as long as the tech would.
"He touched me!" Kara snapped as the Lotus stepped into her view.
"Kara, we have talked about this." The Lotus said quietly as everyone else quailed. "Calm thoughts, girl. Calm."
Kara was a problem. She had been orphaned early on in the Collapse and had fallen into the 'care' of a band of scavengers. The Lotus wasn't sure how old Kara was, but she wasn't the sixteen she claimed to be. Just some of the nightmares that Kara hopefully didn't remember bothered the Lotus on any number of levels. The scavengers had not abused her in as many ways as they could have, but they hadn't been kind to her or anyone. Said band of scavengers had fallen prey to one of the Orokin deathtraps and Kara was the only survivor. If you could call her that. She hadn't been even remotely sane when the lotus had pulled her out of that hole. Thinking back? Kara should have been left there, but the Lotus had always had a soft spot for hurting children. Now, though? Kara was a problem. She couldn't fit in with the others. Her gaze swept the room and she saw worry on every face but one. That one held fear and she fought again not to sigh. A human expression, but apt for so many things.
The little boy who had apparently ignited Kara's most recent fit of temper refused to talk. No one knew his name, they all just called him 'Boy'. He was the youngest, maybe seven or eight. It had been a miracle that the Lotus had found him crying in a smashed hover vehicle, the bodies of two adults nearby who resembled him. Their attire had proclaimed them Enginus, not high or low caste. So many dead in this Apocalypse and so many hurt.
Part of Lotus screamed at herself for allowing humans into her sanctuary. The rest of her just tried to go from day to day. Helping others made her feel good and that was rare in this horrid world she lived in.
"Kara. Calm." The Lotus kept her voice modulated, not moving. Her assured tone swept he room and everyone released just a little. "What happened? Boy knows better than to touch you." Lotus looked at the boy who nodded so fast it was astonishing his head did not fall off.
"I…" Kara stammered and then it was like a dam burst within her. "I am sorry! I am sorry! I am sorry!"
"Kara. Calm." The Lotus was still soothing as she took a slow step towards the girl. Kara bounded from rage to fear to anger to sadness so fast it was hard for even the Lotus to keep up sometimes. But she had been practice in such Oh, had she ever practiced such! Tending the Zarimon child known as Hawk had been monumentally worse that Kara ever could be. "Calm. Whatever happened, you are safe here. I won't hurt you. You know that."
"We… No! We are not safe!" Kara managed through tears even as the Lotus took another step and now was close enough to touch. She did not move. Did nothing else at all. Kara stared at her through streaming eyes. "Please?"
"You didn't hit him, did you?" The Lotus asked, still calm but everyone went utterly still. She had one rule in this place. No physical violence was allowed. Some had flouted that rule. They were gone, banished back out to the wastelands without remorse to die horribly. They could not allow such actions in a tiny hideaway. She looked from Kara to the boy who shook his head, but a bruise on his cheek said otherwise. A bruise in the shape of a hand. "You did. Oh, Kara."
The Lotus slumped and everyone else stood silent as Kara cried. The Lotus slowly shook her head and reached out to take Kara's still hand. Yes, from the residue on it, she had struck another human recently. To the girl's credit, she did not resist. She knew it was pointless. Just after Kara had arrived, one male had tried to force his attentions on the girl and had gotten physical when she had refused. The Lotus had dropped him in his tracks without even touching him. Then, just like that, he had been gone.
"I didn't mean to!" Kara begged. "I thought… He touched me and for just a moment, I thought he was with them!" She nodded to a screen nearby and the Lotus felt every ounce of her being cry out as she saw an utter impossibility on the screen. Warframes were shown searching through an area that the Lotus knew was near the sanctuary! Prime warframes at that, not the debased mass produced copies the Orokin had made in their desperation, but Primes, fully equipped with prime weapons! She found her mind cataloging each frame even as Kara sobbed. Rhino, Nova, Ash, Trinity, all Primes. But no Tenno feel. Odd. "I saw them and I freaked." Kara shook herself and focused. "You will send me out."
"Kara, it is the only rule I have that I cannot bend or break." The Lotus said sadly. "I cannot make exceptions to that rule."
"I know." Kara said very softly and for a moment, lucidity showed through her eyes. "But if you send me out, I die. Even if they don't kill me, I will die out there."
That was nothing but truth. Nothing grew in the wastelands that unmodified humans could eat. Part of the madness had been a realization of the fact that there was a renewable food source for the billions of humans left in the solar system when Orokin tech suddenly stopped responding. When all of the beings genetically compatible with said tech were killed by warframes and no one else could use it. Farming for sustenance was hard work and had been utterly forgotten aside from a few historical sorts. Even Orokin slave farms were more for the Orokin enjoyment in cruelty than for food. It was much easier to get meat when it was on the hoof, so to speak. Nasty, to be sure, but humans had done such many times in their history. And far worse than cannibalism.
"Kara. I know. Time to go." The Lotus gave the girl's hand a twitch, but then, something was blocking her path. She stared at the boy who set himself in her way and shook his head firmly. "Boy…" The Lotus said sadly. "She hit you. That cannot stand."
The boy shook his head again, and then to her shock, opened his mouth and a word came out. 'No'. His face contorted, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't seem to speak anything else. So he said it again. "No."
"I am too broken." Kara said softly into the utter silence that followed the boy's sudden break of his own silence. "She tried, but I am too far gone. I can't help myself and she can't help me. You are better off without me."
"NO!" The boy shouted that. Then he hauled back his pudgy little fist as if to strike Lotus! The former sentient froze solid. If he hit her, she would have to banish him too!
"Boy, stop!" Kara all but begged. "Don't make this any harder than it is! I am a mess. I don't know why I am so clear headed for the moment, but it won't last. It never does. Let me go."
"No!" The boy declared again. He did lower his fist to the Lotus' considerable relief. Then her relief faded as he crossed his arms and set himself firmly in her path. When he spoke again, it was firm. "No."
"Boy, I have to get her out of here and you are standing in the way." The Lotus said reasonably, but he boy didn't budge. "You know I can touch you without hurting you and I will if I must."
"Boy, please." Kara begged, her tone shifting from lucid to her normal again. Normal for her anyway. "I…. I gotta get out! I gotta run!" She was pulling at the Lotus' grip, but she might as well have been trying to move a mountain with a dining utensil. "They are gonna find me and kill me!" She nodded to the screen. "Won't even take them long, I bet. Wait..." She took a deep breath and when she spoke again, it was calmer. "I know what he means. If you send me out, they will track me. You know what you have to do and I accept it."
The Lotus stared from the boy to the maimed girl and back. They both nodded in unison.
"Kara… I… I can't." The Lotus said softly. "I… You don't know what I did. Before. What I was."
"Does it matter?" Kara asked quietly. "Now? You are trying to help. You cannot help me. Maybe you can help him, them, but not if I lead them back to you. You can clearly use the tech." That wasn't the whole truth, but no one with any brains wanted the whole truth. "You cannot take the chance. The Tenno will kill you if they find you. Just like they did everyone else who could use the tech. I am already dead. I have been dead for a long time. Just… not in front of everyone? Please?"
No one moved. No one spoke.
"Kara…" The Lotus was almost in tears now and the boy finally moved. Not to strike, not to fight, no. He moved up to Kara, wrapped his tiny arms around her legs and gave her a hug the best he could. Kara looked at the Lotus with pleading in her eyes and the Lotus released her hand. Kara reached down to pat the now crying little boy on the head.
"It is okay." Kara said gently to the boy as he hugged her tighter. "It is okay. You mind her, listen? She is a good one. Better than me for sure." The boy shook his head, but then hugged her one final time and released her to step back, eyes still streaming. One of the older girls in the group reached out to him and they joined hands. "All of you, mind her. She is good."
"I try." The Lotus said as she took Kara's hand again and this time no one blocked the way. She led Kara to the sleeping area and paused. Something was different from the lest time she had been in here. Kara nodded to her small space against one wall. A space that had two pillows and blankets!
"He crawled in with me last night. It helped us both, I think." Kara said sadly. "Will it hurt?"
"No." The Lotus came to a sudden decision. "I am not going to kill you, Kara. I am going to help you, him and the others. To hell with those warframes! I am not letting you go without a fight!"
"You have to, anything else will get everyone here killed. Send me out or use energy that they can track, same thing. Not just me. And… You can use the energy, can you not?" Kara asked as she tried to pull the Lotus towards her sleeping area. It worked almost as well this time as the last. Not at all! "My energy?"
"Kara…" The Lotus groaned as pain swelled within her that was not physical. "I cannot do that! Not… not again!"
"You are not human, are you?" Kara said in sudden realization. "A human would have just done it or shoved me out or something. No, don't say. Just do it!"
"I… I don't want to." Lotus said quietly. "I was evil, once. I did evil. Now? I try to do good."
"This is good." Kara said with a smile as energy built within Lotus that she hadn't used since she had been Natah. "Some people just cannot be saved. I am one. Thank you."
Then she was gone and Natah wept. She did save Kara's energy. It would help the new girl heal.