Different viewpoints
Juil did not move as the warframe finished up whatever it was doing and moved to stand by the human woman. She knew without looking that her compatriots had moved to flank her, spreading out so as not to be easy targets. Not that such meant much when dealing with Tenno in general and Nova warframes in particular. Functionally immortal the Kuva enhanced Grineer might be, but such ancient bio metal creations played with antimatter! It would hurt.
Almost as much as trusting the woman in the hologram might.
Juil did not move, did not react at all and the corporeal woman frowned, just a little.
"The gas won't keep him out for long, Reverend Mother." Violet said slowly, the human's odd pistol slowly inclining down to aim at the deck. "We won't be able to stop him if he gets going. I took him by surprise, but that won't happen again." She shook her head just a little. "Whatever was done to him was strong. He was going to shoot me." Hurt sang deep in her tone but her face was calm as she looked at Juil.
"You are like him." Juil said slowly and Violet nodded. "Why not fight?"
"Because if we fight, no one wins." Violet said with a shrug. "Add to that? I liked Esther." Juil went utterly still at that and Violet nodded. "What she did bothered a lot of people, but she and I talked a lot. Her own kind all but cast her out. Her methods alienated a lot of people, not just Tenno. She didn't think like they did and I understand about being different. I know all about being alone in a crowd." Hate and sadness warred deep in her tone. It did not touch her face.
"Violet…" The Reverend Mother warned.
"Juil won't trust us. She certainly won't trust you." Violet replied, not taking her eyes off the liches. "But we have to confine Edmund before he wakes up. Will you let us do that?" She asked Juil who stared at her. "He is your prisoner, not ours. He is incredibly dangerous and I do not know what was done to him. He needs help and I cannot give it. This Tenno can hold him safely and securely until we find out how to help him."
She nodded to the Nova warframe who nodded back. The Tenno had not drawn a weapon. Odd.
"And then what?" Juil demanded.
"Then we talk." Violet said with a shrug. "If you wish to hold me, then I will surrender my weapons to you. Esther said you had more sense than she did." Juil jerked at that and then snarled, but not at Violet.
"That is not true! I wanted to find a way to help her!" Juil said softly. Rage, pain and grief all warred in her tone, but her aim did not waver. "I should have been able to find a way to help her!"
"What will be, will be." Violet said quietly as Juil fought with herself. Then the human's pistol fell from her fingers to clang on the floor. "In'shallah." All of the liches stared at her as she knelt. Not to them, but oddly reverent. The warframe just shook her head as the Reverend Mother looked even more worried.
"I know that phrase. Esther had me reading a lot of things while I tried to figure out what to do. You are a believer in something other than Profit." Juil said very slowly and Violet nodded. "I have read about them, but have never met anyone religious outside the Corpus." She shook her head. "Most of what I read were warnings."
"We can be a bit much." Violet smiled just a little grimly. "There is a very thin line between faith and fanaticism. When believers are called to fight, said line blurs quite a bit. Much of the horror in recorded history was done in the name of faiths of various kinds. The Corpus are a good example of fanaticism. Imposed on them in many cases unwillingly, but still. The only thing that matters to them is the masters' Profit, nothing else. Lives, souls, nothing else matters to them. That said? Allah is merciful. All that Allah asks of me is to do my best."
"That is different." Juil mused and then shook her head. "Why should I trust any of you?"
"You should not." Violet replied. "Reverend Mother? Go. I will be in touch." The holographic woman shook her head face severely but Violet was having none of it. "Reverend Mother, we have to handle this ourselves and you must be ready for when he comes for you. Go!"
"You better come back." The hologram woman snapped. "Your shift starts in a week and there is already a line." Violet did not react and the woman sighed. "I know how you feel, but we need you, Violet. Don't get yourself killed now, please?" She said something in a language that Juil did not know, but Violet jerked as if something hot had been applied to a tender spot. Then the Reverend Mother turned to Juil. "For what it is worth? You have my well wishes. I do not like or trust Grineer, but you are not Grineer."
"We are Estherai." Juil said flatly. "Children of Esther and we will not surrender to any."
"Well, good luck." The hologram said and then snorted. "And good luck keeping Violet from doing dumb stuff. You are going to need it." Then she winked out!
"Um…" Juil stared at where the hologram had been and then at the woman on the floor and then at the warframe. "And the Tenno position on this?"
"They do not talk in the field in any way that you can or want to hear." Violet cautioned. "Are we clear, Tenno Jac?" The Nova warframe nodded again, still not moving. "Then… Is this the field?" She inquired. The Tenno tilted her head in thought, but both females paused when Juil shook her head.
"No, do not break your traditions. This is a Corpus ship and it has been compromised already." Juil said with a growl. "I want no conflict with Tenno. I have fought your kind before and it hurt. Now? I have no wish to be your enemy. I have enough problems. Can you confine this one?" She nodded to the unconscious male human. "Clearly he has tricks I could not detect."
"It is the job." Violet said quietly. "She can."
"Please do so." Juil did not move as the Tenno stepped up and held a hand over the fallen male human. A flash of energy and he was digitized. The Tenno stepped back to stand beside Violet. "Will that hold him?" She asked and both other females nodded. "Good." She gave herself a shake. "So… What now?"
"Esther sent me a message saying she was put in a position that she had no way out of. I assume she sent one to you and others as well." Violet was still quiet. "In the message she said that she had been ordered to take Jesse to the Queens. She refused and they hurt her. Then they hurt you. Today, they demanded Esther take Jesse again and Esther had enough. She committed suicide rather than do so."
"We could handle pain. Pain was and is our lives." Juil replied, still eyeing the mismatched pair. "We could have found a way. I… I was trying to find a way."
"What the Queens did to her was horrible, but… She thought it her penance for what happened." Violet still hadn't moved. "What she did. She did not have all the facts, but she caused the death of an innocent. One who had been changed by Orokin evil but not entirely corrupted by it."
"She explained. She did what she thought was right and the girl Aerie died." Juil agreed. "Freeing us was what she thought was right, even with all of the problems that resulted. We are not accepted. We will not be. But we are free thanks to her bravery and self sacrifice. We will not forget her." All of the liches shook their heads in unison.
"Indeed she did." Violet agreed. "And now? I must do the same. I may not be able to help her, but maybe I can help you."
"Us." Juil did not try very hard to keep the derision out of her voice.
"You will not trust. You cannot after all of what happened." Violet shrugged just a little. "I am not asking that. All I ask is that you listen to what I say. Nothing more. Edmund wanted vengeance. So do I, but I know where that road leads and I will not walk it. I want to find my own way in this crazy world we live in. Preferably a way that allows me to keep to my faith."
"What is it you believe?" Juil asked. "And are we moving?"
"We are in the traffic lanes." Violet said after a glance at the Tenno who nodded again. "I switched the transponder for another ship when I got here, so you should be free and clear. As for what I believe? That is a very long story."
"We have some time." Juil finally lowered her rifle. If this was a trick, she was doomed, but this odd human did not come across as lying to her. "That said? We have other passengers who wanted out of Alad V's tender care as well as several…" She made a face. "I am not sure what they are. Clearly clones of some kind but as to why someone would clone Alad V, I have no idea."
"Clone?" Violet was not faking her shock. Not a chance. "That is…" She paused and shook her head, "I want to say that is impossible, but I know odd things have been happening. Bad things. Things that no one sane would have countenanced half a year ago."
"I thought cloning was against your Corporate guidelines." Juil said with a frown.
"It is." Violet said slowly. "Very much so. Anyone who violates that is executed." The Tenno shook her head and Violet snarled at the bio armored warrior. "Yes, Tenno. I know that money and power rules the Corpus just as it did in the era of Orokin, but there are supposed to be limits."
"The Orokin had few if any limits." Juil snarled, but far from offended, Violet looked as if she agreed. "You are not like any Corpus I have ever dealt with." The hulking former Grineer was still wary but was the Tenno laughing? All of the liches were eyeing the Tenno who was moving as if laughing at Violet who scowled at the warframe.
"Tenno Jac!" Violet snapped, not happy with her. "If you mess this up, it won't end well for anyone!" She warned and the Tenno stopped moving. The kneeling woman slowly turned to face Juil again who was all but gawking at her. "Truth time, Juil Estherai. I do not want to return to the Corpus." She said very quietly and Juil felt her own world start to turn in circles. "I do not trust Grineer, but Esther was quite persuasive when she explained that you are not Grineer now, no matter what you look like. She said I could trust you. I could not help her, but she begged me to try and help you. Maybe if I do? You can help me."
"Trusting Grineer is foolish." Juil said, more to fill the sudden silence after Violet stopped talking than to reply meaningfully. "What do you want?"
"I want to continue being a soldier." Violet was still quiet. "But in the Corpus, that is not allowed."
"What?" Juil asked, confusion rising. "You are clearly a soldier." Violet nodded and Juil frowned. "I do not understand."
"There is no way you could." Violet was a bit pensive now. "Humans and Grineer do not reproduce the same way. Your kind cannot reproduce."
"No." Juil agreed as the Tenno and other liches stared form her to the kneeling human and back, all clearly confused by this exchange. "But that is a good thing. The queens have no idea what they are playing with. Do you?"
"A little." Violet allowed. "That said? I know enough to be very afraid." The human woman said very softly. Against her will, Juil nodded just a little. "Not of your weapons, your Void abilities or your capacity for violence which dwarfs my own." She bowed her head. "Like Esther, I am afraid for you."
"For us?" Juil was stunned by that. Of all the things she might have expected, this was not on the list. All of the liches were staring at Violet now, clearly as confused as Juil felt.
"You know what Esther was. What she did." Violet was still quiet. "You know why she freed you. Why she fought so hard, fell so many times, lost so many warframes trying to release you all from the bindings that held you to the Queens. I barely knew her, but I counted her a friend." When her head came up, her eyes were alight with passion that would have been clear to any Grineer. "My friend may be gone, but her legacy lives on and I will not stand by and let you fall. Not to the Queens. Not to anyone!"
"You cannot help us." Juil said softly. "As soon as we can drop these humans off somewhere that they have a chance to survive…" She nodded to the Tenno who was eyeing Violet warily. "...we will. Then we will go our own way." She paused, waiting for Violet to speak and the human did.
"I wish to come with you." Violet did not react as two of the liches with Juil scoffed. "On your own, you will fall. Every one of you is powerful, but none of you are invincible. Even in a group, you can be stopped with enough force. If the Queens take you again, they will not be able to enslave you, so they will unmake you. Esther begged me to help you if I could. I didn't believe her, not entirely. Not until I saw the records of you recovering her warframe. Then I knew I had to act."
"You… saw…?" Juil inquired carefully. She had only thought herself still. Her posture was painful as another voice sounded.
"Esther wasn't entirely alone." The Tenno spoke and everyone jerked as the warframe shuddered in place and then split in the back! A lithe female form stepped out of it and then around it to stand by Esther. "I tried to get there in time! I swear I did!" She was crying! She wore a Tenno bodysuit, but bore no weapons! "I was too late. Zanuka had torn her apart and then… Well, I made some mistakes and some people I once counted 'friend' came after me. I had to flee again! I got away and was on my way to try and recover her warframe when you did. I just… I wanted to help her and I couldn't."
"Jac!" Violet breathed, horrified as all of the Liches aimed at the Tenno. "No."
"They can all go fuck themselves!" Jac snapped, meeting Juil's gaze over the sights to the liches' Karak rifle. "I want nothing to do with them anymore. I don't know if I am even Tenno now, but I know right from wrong still. Esther was right. They were wrong. They can all kiss my butt."
"Jac, I know you are upset, but don't do this!" Violet pleaded.
"'Upset'?" Jac all but threw the word at the human. She wasn't quite ignoring the liches who all stared at her and then at Juil who shrugged, content to listen for the moment. "I bore kids, Violet. I will likely never see them again! I know they will be well cared for if they survived, but I will never see them again in all likelihood. I cannot find Karen. I will never see my little ones again and Aeron…" Her face held rage that would not have been out of place on any Grineer's now. "He had no right. It was my choice. Not his."
"Do not involve us in a domestic quarrel." Juil warned when Jac's rant wound down. "You will not like what happens."
"I will try very hard not to." Jac said with a nod. Juil stared at her, nonplussed as her warframe vanished in a haze of golden light. "Your prisoner was taken from you, I will take his place."
"Jac!" Violet seemed at a loss for words now.
"What did you just do?" Juil asked as the Tenno knelt beside Violet.
"I knew they would try to grab the warframe eventually. They were always going to try and take me back." Jac said with a shrug. "Help me." The sarcasm on the word 'help' might have cut steel. "According to the clan I once called family; I am unbalanced. Sick. Insane." She sighed. "I am, a bit. Unbalanced that is." She qualified when Juil tensed further. "My anger is strong. My rage, my fear, my loss. All of these have unbalanced me. I need to do something good to balance myself back. Helping you or the humans you are trying to rescue will help, I think. As former Grineer, you likely have no idea how to deal with them. The adults or the immature." Her face held compassion, not fear or anger now.
"That is true." Juil admitted. "I do not understand. You offer yourself to take the place of the one who you were holding?" She inquired, still confused.
"I hope you don't collar me, but I will not resist if you insist on such." Jac said as Violet looked even more horrified. "Hush, Violet. You made your choice, I made mine. We both want to help Esther's children. You know they will not trust us. They cannot."
"I... Jac…" Violet swallowed hard. "Did you just burn all of your bridges?"
"No." Jac reassured her. "What they wanted to do bordered on violating the Tenno Code. I knew what they planned, so I took steps. I know what is wrong with me and I can fix it, but it will take time and they will not give me the time I need. They insist on trying to help and I cannot do it with them hovering around me. I knew they would try to take me back by force." She admitted. "Love makes us do weird things, does it not?" She inquire of Juil who finally relaxed.
"I do not understand love." Juil admitted very quietly. "It makes no sense to me, but yes. I know Esther loved us. All of us."
"If not, she never would have done what she did." Jac nodded as Violet finally relaxed a bit when it was clear that Juil took no offense. "Juil Estherai, you need help. I am offering, Myself as I am. Not a Warrior. A Mother whose children are lost. I cannot be Esther but I am offering what I can."
"And you?" Juil looked at Violet who was still pale at this insane revelation. Violet sighed deeply and when she spoke, it was calmer.
"Unlike Jac, I don't want to have kids."