...to worse

"What the-?"

Few of the Corpus troops in the area had any inclination to even look at the speaker as they cleaned up the mess. Tenno always made a mess. Aside from their Indoctrination to obey their masters and serve the Machine in the name of Profit, it was never really a good idea to gain Alad V's attention. The man was not stable at the best of times.

These were not the best of times.

Zanuka was damaged. The warframe it had been fighting was almost utterly wrecked. There would likely be no Profit in this and everyone knew that such always sent Alad V into a towering rage. Only the fact that the warframe hadn't revived had been any good at all in this situation, but now? The thing was in pieces, each limb severed from the torso by the machinery of the Executive's lab and Alad V was staring at his screens in what was to all appearances, dumbfounded shock. On the screen, the shattered head of the Gara warframe shone, its remains oozing. He wasn't looking at it, however, he was eyeing something that shone inside the wreck. A pulsing red mass.

"What is this?" His question was clearly rhetorical, so none of the troops who were still cleaning up debris bothered to answer. Zanuka was powered down and no one else was present, so he clearly wasn't expecting an answer. He got one anyway.

"Evil." The cold, hard voice heralded a flash of red-black energy and everything stopped as hulking Grineer stepped out of a portal in the middle of the lab. She wasn't a normal Grineer. She was at least twice the mass of a Grineer Heavy Gunner and the weapon she held was not a normal weapon. The Kuva Karak glowed with fell energy. That paled beside the red and black computer code that swirled around her hands. She seemed calm, but the code was flaring. "What you see on the screen is a manifestation of evil, human." She turned her head, slowly taking in the screen and as all of the crewmen and proxies, perhaps twenty of them, gawked at her. Alad V just stared as well, stunned. "An expression of the will of the Grineer Queens, evil. Even more evil than you are, Corpus Executive Alad V, if just barely."

One of the Crewmen, thinking fast, jumped for an alarm panel, only to have it explode in his face! The red and black code that flew from it back into the wall proclaimed the source as he fell to lie still without even a scream. No one else dared move as the code swept around, touching each and every proxy! Then it lit on Zanuka and paused.

"I have seen much evil from the Queens, but this…" Juil Estherai slowly shook her head a she looked from the frozen executive to Zanuka and back. "This is wrong."

"Begone, clone!" Alad Va snapped. "Your Queens have no dominion here."

"I no longer serve the Queens' evil." Juil said very quietly and everyone stilled again! "I am Juil Estherai. I was given the right to choose my own fate by a very brave soul who saved me from their slavery. I knew no other life and she showed me what I was missing. She helped me and in doing so? Doomed herself." The gaze she turned on Alad V was a cold, dead thing and every human in the room shuddered. "You cannot Profit from what you see on the screen. Surrender the warframe you just dismantled and I will leave you to your madness. She made her choice and I have to abide by that no matter my wishes. That said? My choice is to not leave her remains in your filthy clutches!"

"You think to take my Profit?" Alad V sneered. "You are a thing. A filthy clone empowered by Kuva! No more. You do not have the wit to challenge me."

"Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore, I am." Juil replied, offhand as the Crewman broke their paralysis and took up firing positions around the area, all aiming at her. But, they had no orders. They did not fire. "I could make comments about evil claiming to be good for its own benefit, but it would be wasted. Your men have almost as much free will as that poor soul does." She nodded to Zanuka who stirred. "No." She snarled as Alad V's collar snapped closed. He gasped as it snapped back open! "You do not get to hurt them in my presence."

Zanuka jerked as if in pain, but then it rose. Its metal head turned from Alad V to Juil and back and it made a soft noise of confusion.

"Zanuka! Kill this thing!" Alad Va commanded as he fought for control of his collar, but the red and black code that was flashing around it showed he was unlikely to win.

"They don't want to." Juil said softly as Zanuka just stood there. "Does it make you feel good, human? To hurt others? To dominate others in the name of greed?" She slowly shook her head. "Once, I thought causing pain made me feel good. Just to hurt people for the joy of doing it. It didn't. I simply did not know any better. But I learned."

She looked at the broken warframe and bowed her head.

"What does a Grineer know of learning?" Alad V sneered.

"What does a Corpus know of love?" Juil answered his question with one of her own. "It was put quite well many ages ago. 'No greater love hath a being than he will lay down his life for his fellows.'" Juil shook her head. "Grineer have no choice but to do that. They have almost as much free will as your proxies and soldiers do. I am not Grineer. I started that way, but I was saved." Alad V managed to get his collar closed again, but it snapped open again and he snarled. "I am not here to fight you, save you or even conquer you. I want the warframe. Nothing more. You will give it to me.

"Or?" Alad V snapped, still fighting his control as Zanuka eyed him.

"Or I will take it." Juil's tone was flat now. "I would prefer to do so in peace, since there is enough death and war in this system already. But if you force my hand, I will act and you will likely die." She shook her head again. "I find… I find that thought does not trouble me greatly. I am still so very flawed. Even an amoral, evil scum like you has the right to exist. Until or unless you do things like this. She didn't want me to kill and I wanted to please her. Now? I burn to kill and I know it is wrong. I need to meditate more."

"You lose!" Alad V gloated as an alarm finally sounded and shouts in the distance heralded the approach of troops. "You are just a clone! You were never going to steal my-" He broke off as Juil scoffed. "What?"

"Did you really think I came in here alone?" Juil inquired. Her tone was not mocking. She seemed honestly curious. Alad V stared at her and then blanched as a flashes of portals lit the area. Suddenly where one Kuva Lich had stood, ten now hefted weapons. Each was different. Their armor, their weapons, their faces, all different. Only the look of disgust they leveled on Alad V was the same!

"You tried your way, Juil." A male Lich who hefted a heavily modified Kuva Ogris rocket launcher said with a snort. Barely contained madness sang in his eyes and voice. "Let's try ours."

"Don't kill them all, Oklit. She wouldn't have wanted that." Juil bent down to one knee to eye Zanuka who eyed her back. "You don't want to fight, do you? Neither do I. There are times when it is needed. This is not one of those. Rest."

"Zanuka!" Alad V cried out as the metal monster curled up and lay down! He hit his collar with a closed fist, but it did nothing at all!" What have you done?"

"I did what you will not." Juil said as she moved to stand between the suddenly wary executive and the metal form on the floor. "I gave the minds trapped in that form a choice. I do not agree with what the Mistress did but she made her choice. I have now made mine. You will not keep the warframe. The one you call Zanuka may choose to stay with you or not, but if it chooses to leave, you will not stop it."

"That is my property!" Alad V started, but fell as one of the other liches backhanded him! He fell onto his rump, clearly astonished that any had dared hit him. "You filthy Grineer! You dare!"

"Copia…." Juil sighed as the other female Lich raised her fist again from her Kuva Bramma. "Don't."

"There can be no peace between humans and us! You know this!" The other female lich snapped.

"I know Esther wanted us to try." Juil snapped and every one of the other lichs stilled and then nodded. The female with the bow aimed it at Alad V who went still as the doors to his lab shot open and at least two dozen troops bustled in, only to freeze as they saw what awaited them. Even Corpus Indoctrination had its limits. The preponderance of firepower was significantly in the lich corner! "She wanted us to be better. At least to try to be better. She knew we were not perfect any more than she was, but this?"

"She would not want this." Copia said softly. "I do not understand all of why she did what she did. I did not always like her, but I did admire her for the strength of her convictions."

"It was hard not to even when she was being a pest." Juil agreed, her face splitting into a soft, sad smile that looked utterly out of place on a Grineer face. Several of the others smiled as well, but none shifted their aim. They were not Grineer. Not anymore. Juil's face blanked as she looked at the now shocked looking Executive. "One last chance, Corpus. Give us the warframe and we leave. You can go kill anyone else you want, anywhere you want. You can lie, cheat, steal, whatever. We have no stake in your messes. We have no quarrel with you."

"I beg to differ!" Copia snapped, drawing an arrow back. Considering that her Kuva Bramma fired arrows that were essentially small cluster bombs? It was small wonder Alad V looked like he was about to lose control of his bladder.

"She made her choice." Juil said firmly. "We have to abide by that, no matter how it galls us."

"You fools." Alad V vanished from where he sat! He appeared nearby, his form shrouded in a golden globe of energy. "You act as if machines have souls!"

"They have more of a soul than you ever will." Another lich spoke up. He was smaller then the others, but his Kuva Tonkor was glowing bright. "Juil?"

"Don't kill them all." Juil said quietly as the troops massed and a clanking heralded something larger approaching. Bursa, Hyena or Jackal? It would take little difference. If every lich here fell, there were others to take their places. Esther had been very busy.

"Die!" Alad V snapped and several Elite Crewman hit her with a concentrated burst of Flux Rifle fire. Even with Corpus tech, their aim was incredible. At least four of them hit the exact same spot. Lasers were pinpoint weapons, but the slightest wavering would throw the shot all over the place. These did not waver. The beams hit her shields, pierced them, plowed into her armor and did nothing! Esther had used a lot of armor piercing weapons against the liches she had fought, so many of her 'flock' had developed kuva based resistances and in some cases (like Juil) full immunity to such. That had been hard for Esther to counter, but she had managed eventually. Juil shook her head as the warframe bits nearby shimmered and vanished in a flash of gold. "You will not take my Profit, you filthy beasts!"

Far from offended, Juil just seemed resigned.

"Now we have a quarrel."

Whatever Alad V might have said in response was cut off as the liches all opened fire.

Half an hour later

The last Crewman had thrown away his Dera when he was hit and he was was begging in his native language as the lich who had shot him, but not cleanly raised her weapons again. She shook her head and fire from her Kuva Twin Stubbas erased his pleas. Taking fanatics prisoner who refused to surrender instantly was rarely a good idea and they had little time before someone realized that something very bad had happened here. It didn't sit well with her, such an act, but they had few choices now. That was what she had been, oncce. She had tried to be better. And now? Was she?

"Done." The SMG wielding former Grineer said sadly as silence finally fell across the Corpus facility. Nothing moved. Juil's mechanical wizardry in disabling any proxy combined with the others' sheer firepower and abilities had been utterly overwhelming. It hadn't been a fight, not really. It had been a slaughter. Without their proxies, the humans hadn't had a chance, especially after Alad V had bolted in the first few minutes. She slumped. "Juil…" She begged across her com.

"Don't whimper, Lisviah." Another lich barked. "It is unseemly."

"She has a right to her feelings, Fruik." Juil's words across the com were not a reprimand, not really. "We all do. We have trouble with them and will. None of us have any idea what to do with many of these weird things inside our heads that do not involve fighting, but she has a right to them. We are going to have problems, but we will face them together."

"Together." Came from all of the others.

"We need to find the warframe." Juil sighed deeply. "There are no records and that was not a long range transporter. Ordis reports nothing has left the facility, so it is here. Find it. If you encounter unarmed humans, call it out, do not kill them unless they attack you. The Mistress wouldn't like that."

A chorus of acknowledgments came as Lisviah stepped towards a door near the end of the hallway she had chased the human into. She paused as an odd sound came to her auditory sensors. Crying? She stepped to the door and paused when it did not open.

"Juil? I have found a locked door." The lich reported. "Sounds of human on the other side. Nothing on sensor." She said after checking "So, a shield room."

"That sounds promising." The lich did not react as Juil stepped out of nowhere to join her. They had seen weirder stuff since being reborn by the Queens' kuva. "But we need to be careful. While you chased that human, Oklit found a room that had weird half Sentient/half human things in it." The SMG toting lich stared at her and Juil shrugged. "I am glad I was there."

"Me too." Lisviah swallowed hard.

"We are all young, Lisviah." Juil reassured her. "We all cope in our own ways. I am just as bitter, frustrated and downright angry as everyone else, but she wanted me to try and be better. I didn't want to disappoint her."

"Neither did I." Lisviah was not crying. She would not. None of the liches had cried since they had been reborn into the horror that was their lives. "Why did no one help Esther, Juil? She was not like us! She was a good soul! She didn't deserve that!"

"The Queens would not let her seek help." Juil said softly. "The one time she tried, they hurt me very badly and promised to kill one of us every time she tried again. You know how she felt about us."

"I do." Lisviah shook her head. "I do not understand it. This feeling. This loss. This… 'grief'?" She asked Juil who nodded. "It hurts, Juil! I do not want to hurt! I want to hurt something else! Kill something! But…" Her rage faded.

"But she wanted us to be better than that. Better than mindless, slavering beasts." Juil agreed. "We are what we are. She said we could be more and then they took her. I didn't understand that I was a trap for her. Even if I had… I wouldn't have argued." The sort of cyberlancer was scrutinizing the door now, her code seeping into the mechanisms. "I was hurting, dying, although I did not know it at the time. She struck with her Parazon and I heard the Requiems in my head."

"Not something you ever forget." Lisviah agreed with a shudder.

"Then she screamed as they took her and my new world ended as swiftly as it had begun." Juil bowed her head. "Now, she is gone and we have to go on. I think the warframe is in there, but there I am sensing odd things. Get ready."

Lisviah took up station on one side of the door, her Kuva Twin Stubbas in hand and aimed a Juil raised her Kuva Karak. They were ready for just about anything when the door opened except what they saw.

"STAY BACK!" The young human boy wore only a Corpus patient gown and he was clearly ready to fight from the Spectra pistol in his hand. Fluid was dripping off him as he stood, aiming. Both of the liches knew what the fluid was and both had seen his face recently. One tank was open, recently from the look of it But… The cloning tanks that surrounded the room were not Corpus tech! They looked far older and far more advanced. Orokin? Not quite.

But his face… He had Alad V's face!

"What is your name, boy?" Juil asked as her code swept the area. She wasn't worried. Spectra pistols fired lasers that would do almost as much harm to her as the Flux Rifles had earlier. None. Lisviah was more vulnerable, hence why Juil was focusing the boy's attention (and aim) on her.

"Go away!" The boy snarled, moving to scant cover next to a table that held familiar fragments of a warframe.

Everything stopped again as Zanuka brushed past the two liches into the room to stand in front of the boy. The monstrous machine slowly reached out with one paw to bat the pistol aside. Then it looked at Juil who staggered as if struck.

"You are not serious!" The lich demanded but the machine moved to stand by the boy who stared from it to Juil and back.

"Juil?" The other lich asked carefully as the boy recovered his pistol, but did not aim it.

"They want us to get him, them, out of here." Juil was clearly upset and the other lich stared at her in confusion before eyeing the other tanks. Indeed, several of them had occupants! "There is no way we would be able to move all of these." Liches were strong, but there were limits.

"All this tech? Not without thralls." Lisviah agreed. "And you know the Mistress felt about that." That discussion had gotten very loud.

"Okay." Juil said as Zanuka made a soft noise. Not quite a snarl. More a 'get on with it' noise. "Lisviah… call everybody. See what assets we have. The sooner we get this done, the better."

"Go away!" The boy cried, raising his weapon again, only to pause as Zanuka bodily shoved him away from the table he was hiding behind. "Hey!"

"They are trying to save your life, human." Juil said mildly as Zanuka knocked the pistol out of his hand and a quick paw skittered it to Juil who bent to pick it up. Then she scoffed. "Idiot." Lisviah looked at her and the cyberlancer shook her head. "This weapon has no ammunition."

"This is going to be a long day, isn't it?" Lisviah inquired as the boy started hitting the metal machine with his fists. It did nothing to Zanuka.

"Probably."