Dark Choice
"You don't want children."
Juil was almost punch drunk by all of this sudden change. Tenno talking, stepping out of warframes and surrendering? Corpus cloning? This made no sense at all!
"You heard the Reverend Mother say my 'shift' starts next week." Violet didn't move at all and the Tenno who knelt beside her was just as much of a statue. She made her words a question and Juil nodded. "I am supposed to report to a reproduction center. I don't want to."
"Reproduction center." Juil mused. "Human reproduce by-" She broke off and gaped at the kneeling woman. "You cannot be serious!" Violet looked away and the Tenno by her side looked sad. "And this is better than cloning?"
"I don't think so." Violet replied, still not meeting Juil's eyes. "They want me. I don't want to go." She shook her head. "I have been looking for alternatives. Then… Esther's message. I um…" She shrugged slightly. "They want me to come back and I don't want to. Esther was a friend. She knew my feelings on that subject."
"You don't want a legacy?" Juil inquired very carefully.
"What legacy?" Violet replied, sad. "What right have I to bring children into this horrid world we inhabit? A place where they will be hunted and killed, either for who they are or for sport?" Her eyes bored into the lich's now and Juil stilled as Violet's rage found voice. "Grineer would kill them as lesser beings. Corpus would use them, abuse them and then throw them away when they are unprofitable. Sentients just kill young and old alike. Infested…" She swallowed hard. "I can't. I just… I can't!"
"What happened?" Juil heard herself ask as the Tenno laid a hand on Violet's arm. Violet jerked, but did not retreat. Did not move at all otherwise..
"Corpus are about Profit." Violet replied. "First. Last. Only. Profit for the masters and no one else. They use anything and everything to increase their Profits. Whether those things be adult or child, they will use them, abuse them and then throw them away when they are no longer of use. Grineer are hard and often cruel, but that is the world they are born into. Corpus choose to be that way." Hate that matched any Grineer sounded in her voice.
"Not all of them, Violet." The unarmored Tenno said quietly. "You know that."
"I know I am not bringing children into the world we live in." Violet snapped, jerking her arm away from the Tenno's grip. Jac let her go. When the human looked up at Juil, her eyes were bleak. "You can hurt me, kill me, whatever. But you cannot hurt me as badly as seeing the wonderful future that lies ahead for our kind hurt me. The sheer horror of Profit above all! I helped pull seventy three immature bodies out of a mine shaft that they were ordered to dig. Children had no place in there and they were thrown in there anyway because they were cheap and available! I had to stop. I couldn't finish. I was too weak to finish." Shame sounded in her tone now. "Maybe if I had…"
"Violet." Jac said sternly and Violet paused, her mouth closing. "What happened was horrible. That you survived even as sane as you are is a miracle. What did Esther say?" She said firmly and Violet stared at her as Juil did the same.
"'Let the past, remain where it is.'" Violet said very quietly and Juil staggered as if struck. Those were Esther's words!
"'Learn from it, don't run from it.'" Came from all the liches and both of the kneeling women stared up at the hulking forms as Juil slowly nodded.
"Yeah." Violet swallowed hard and her emotion faded under her iron control. "I tried. I am still broken inside. Still so angry. Empty of everything but rage. I so wanted to tear that scum apart. But he had allies, support." She shook her head. "He was punished, but it isn't enough."
"Vengeance?" Juil inquired.
"Maybe." Violet shrugged again. "I would like to think it justice, but I don't know. What I do know is that I go back, they will use me to make children. The Reverend Mother will make it as gentle and soothing as she can, but I don't want to. I am sure they will change my mind, either through persuasion or other means but I am not ready. Allah tests me sorely in these dark days, but I am not ready for such. I do not know if I ever will be."
"And if you do not go back?" Juil was fairly sure where this was going now, but she wanted confirmation.
"Then I will be in delinquency and they will try to repossess me. My body belongs to the Company and they will try to take it back." Violet replied and Juil nodded slowly. "But if I am with you… They will fail." Her smile was cold and hard as the other liches looked at Juil who frowned.
"You ask us to protect you from the Corpus?" Juil was not sure about this at all.
"The Corpus will come after you for what you did today." Violet reasoned and Juil frowned harder. "Alad V is a nut and everyone knows it but unfortunately, he is not a complete idiot. You hashed the electronic records on site very well, but he has off-site backups. He always has, he always will. When the Company hears about a Cyberlancer Grineer…" She broke off as all three liches growled. "No offense, but that is that they will think. They will think that the Queens have a new weapon that must be destroyed. Tenno Cyberlancers are bad enough to make any Company soldier or executive wet themselves. But the mere thought of one serving the Queens will terrify everyone. They won't know or care that you don't serve the Queens." She bowed her head a little. "I do. I can help you and you can help me. An alliance of sorts. I owe Esther for not being there when she needed me."
"She didn't tell us what she had planned." Jac was trying to soothe Violet now, but the human had eyes only for Juil who did not react. "She didn't tell anybody!"
"She couldn't." Juil said softly and both mismatched female on the floor looked at her. "The Queens forbade that. Time release messages skirted the pain inducing commands that were placed in her, but she could not ignore them. I assume she left the same message she left me? That she was going to attack that place with unmodded weapons to get him to destroy her?"
"Yes." Jac said sadly as Violet nodded. "As soon as I got the message, I tried to com her, but Esther had already dropped. I came as quickly as I could, but then, like I said… I was ambushed." Juil looked at the unarmored Tenno and Jac shrugged. "They didn't want to kill me and I didn't want to kill them. So, I ran. By the time I lost them, Esther was down and her energy destroyed. I… I wanted things to be different." She all but begged.
"Me too." Juil said simply and Jac stared at her for a long moment before bowing her head. "Ordis didn't tell me where she dropped in the city. We came in the wrong side." All of the liches bowed their heads in unison for a moment.
"I…" Jac swallowed and then nodded. "I failed my friend. I do not want to fail her children. Do with me what you will, Juil Estherai. I will not fight you." That was an Oath!
"That is...understandable." Juil said and then she stilled as something impinged her senses. Code that wasn't hers! It was ice blue! She knew that code and feared it! "Shit! Do nothing!"
The code swept around the compartment of the spacecraft to alight on Jac who hissed and then snarled even as the code swept around all the liches who dared not do anything. It solidified around them and started to constrict. It likely wouldn't tickle when it touched them.
"Back off, Olim!" Jac all but screamed. "I made my choice and you lot can all go fuck yourselves!" Juil was hardly the only one to gasp as Jac swept right through the code that surrounded her to grab Violet's fallen pistol. How had she done that? Why was she suddenly glowing with dark energy? She brought it up and aimed it… At her own head! "I! SAID! BACK! OFF!"
Jac… No… Don't! The voice from the code that had frozen in place was familiar to Juil, but only in passing. She had never really met the Tenno, but she had felt his rage.
"I warned you all." Jac was a little calmer now. Just a little. "I am done dancing on anyone's strings. Not yours. Not your oh so special clan's. Not hers." She snapped. "Leave. Me. Alone." Her finger was tightening on the trigger!
You can stop her. The voice from the code said to Juil who paused in what she was going to say.
"Why would I?" Juil asked, her emotions calming as Jac jerked and stared at her. "I too know betrayal by those I trusted. Jac, if you wish to come with us, I do not know what the future will hold, but I will do my best to protect you, Friend of Esther."
Her own red and black code slashed out. She was no match for the Tenno Grandmaster power wise, but she didn't need to be. Computer code was computer code and even the most potent of it was vulnerable to those who knew how to manipulate such. The blue code surrounding her vanished as her own code unraveled it. The other liches relaxed as her code did the same to them, but then the blue code swirled around Violet who groaned in pain as it touched her.
"Leave her alone, Olim!" Jac demanded. "She has done nothing to you!"
You are sick, Jac! Was the Tenno Grandmaster begging? You need help!
"Not yours." Jac retorted. "And if you hurt Violet, kill her or take her, I will count you and yours mine enemies. You do not want that. I will not talk to you. As I said before, I will talk to Lynn and no one else."
She won't talk to you. She can't. The other was begging now. Jac! Please!
"I have nothing to say to you, you lying Mezner!" Jac snapped. What was clearly an insult meant nothing to Juil, but the gasp from the blue code was heartfelt. "Now go away, brat. Adults are talking."
Where had the dark and terrible power that surrounded Jac now come from? She was radiating on wavelengths that Juil could not define, but the lich Cyberlancer could tell that whatever Jac was doing, it was protecting the liches and trying to free Violet from whatever held her!
Jac, don't do this. The other begged, heartsick. Don't make me do this! Come home, please?
Whatever Jac said in response was not in a language that Juil knew. It wasn't an insult. Indeed, the woman seemed resigned now. A short, sharp scream came from the code as the blue that surrounded Violet winked out in a flash of pure blackness.
"I have no home anymore." Jac said into the sudden, frightened hush that fell around the room. Juil stared at her as the power that had surrounded the Tenno faded. "I um… I meant what I said, Juil Estherai. I am not your enemy and I wish to help. I am more than I seem, but please believe me when I say you do not want to know more." She slumped bit as Violet stared at her, clearly unable to speak. "Violet, please. Don't."
"What have you done, Jac?" Violet seemed almost in tears now. "You… They…"
"They were always going to hunt me." Jac said sadly. "They do not understand and they cannot. They see me as I was, not as I am. I am unbalanced and I must seek balance. Soon. This power... I must not wield it until I am balanced. It is far too much and far too dangerous for any to wield. That is why he gave it to me. Because I know I must not use it."
"You just did." Juil said softly. All of the other liches were aiming at Jac, but Juil waved and they lowered their weapons. If she was hostile with that kind of power, even they had no chance.
"I did." Jac said sadly. "And it hurt me very badly outside of a warframe. I need to rest, recuperate. Not sleep, but rest."
"That power is unlike anything I have ever encountered." Juil said slowly. Jac did not move or even seem to blink as Juil scrutinized her. "Anything I have ever…" She paused and then froze. She had seen such dark and terrible power once before! Only once and it had scared her spitless! A pitch black Nekros warframe had wielded such power in Esther's memories that she had shared with the lich to try and help Juil control her powers! That power predated Orokin! If she had that? "Oh… dear..."
"Don't say it." Jac said very softly and Juil nodded. "The fewer records the better. I am sure there are all kinds of people trying to find us right now. I need time to balance myself."
"Is here anything I can do, Jac Friend of Esther?" Juil asked. The other liches stared at her, but a wave had them remain silent. They didn't need or want to know what Juil did.
"Protect yourselves. Protect Violet if you can." Jac said sadly. "I will balance out, eventually. It will take time. Time they won't give me. I guess… I guess I should leave when you drop the humans off. They will follow me. Now that he knows… He will share it with the others and then… The word will get out and everyone will be looking for me." She shook her head. "I never meant this to happen. I just wanted to help. Help Iriana. Help Esther. Help him… I had no idea."
"No." Juil retorted and everyone looked at her as Jac stopped halfway to rising. "If you leave, they will hunt you. Trap you or just make you fight. If you… Fall? What happens?"
"Bad things." Jac replied. "Not as bad as it might have been, once upon a time, but if I fall to my own inner demons, bad things will happen. Like any sentient being, I have places in my own mind that are unwise to press too deeply. If that power lashes out from those places, it will be very bad. I must not allow that." Her face hardened along with her tone. "I will not allow that."
"Then you will not fall, Jac Friend of Esther." Juil said with a growl. All of the other liches stared at her in shock and she shook her head. "Brother and sister, you do not need or want to know what that was. Believe me when I say it. You do not. Esther wanted us to try and be better. The Queens and many others wish our destruction. But you…" She nodded to Jac. "You will the Queens will kill without a thought and doom far more than us."
For her part, Jac paled.
"No." Jac pleaded. "This is my path! My fate! No one else's! I cannot speak of it!"
"I know." Juil reassured her and everyone went still as her tone turned kind. "Esther shared some of her memories with me to help me cope with my own sudden powers. I know what you are and I will not speak of it. You may stay with us, Jac Friend of Esther." She turned to Violet as Jac sputtered. "You? I am not sure about. I wish no further conflict with the Corpus, but as you say, they will be upset by this."
"Putting it very mildly." Violet replied, staring at Jac. Then she jerked. "Wait, that… Oh no. Jac! NO!"
"Say nothing!" Jac snapped, a hint of the dark horror she had shown before in her tone that she squelched. "We need another ship. One that hasn't been tainted by Granum. One that hasn't been found by the Cyberlancers or other Tenno. Hiding won't stop them finding me, but it will slow them down."
"Then we will get one." Juil promised. Then she looked at the other liches who all looked confused. "My kin? We knew we would have no purpose after Esther perished. We hoped to find a better way. To find some way to help her. To free her from the Queen's slavery as she freed us, but it was not to be. This Friend of Esther needs our help. She needs time to balance herself or horrors will engulf this system. The Tenno will not give her than time. We must."
"Will the Tenno hunt us?" Bopp Vikk asked Jac who frowned, but then nodded.
"Technically, they will be hunting me." Jac sighed deeply. "My predecessor made sure no one knew what happened or why. That bothered a lot of people. It is not something that anyone can help with. I just need time."
"Then we will give you that time, Jac Friend of Esther." Bopp Vikk relied, iron in his tone. He clearly didn't understand why this was important, but just as clearly, he didn't care.
"You are going to insist, aren't you?" Jac asked Juil who nodded. "I… I don't know what to say."
"You need say nothing, Jac Friend of Esther." Jul reassured her. "Rest. Meditate. We will protect you. As for this one." She eyed Violet who was just as confused as the other liches but covered it well. "Come with me. You two? Protect Jac Friend of Esther." Both liches nodded to her as Juil started of the door, but Violet did not move. Juil growled at her. "Must I carry you?"
"No." Violet said softly as she jerked to her feet. Jac knelt, the pistol in her hand deposited on a convenient surface nearby as she sank into sieza. The human followed the huge Grineer, but her eyes flicked back to Jac. "We… I… She is my friend. Why didn't she tell me?" Then she snarled, but not at the lich. "Duh, she can't talk about it, can she?"
"Not without putting a lot of people in lot of places in jeopardy." Juil replied as she led the human towards the main bay. "Neither can we."
"Right." Violet agreed and straightened to follow Juil.
Neither of them would betray the new Grandmistress of the Dead.