Futile?

Juil hadn't been sure about this at all. The lich understood most of what was going on in her world, including many things that she wasn't supposed to know about. But this wasn't anything form her world. Whoever or whatever Victor was, he wasn't Tenno, human, Infested or Grineer. He wasn't Sentient or Orokin. He was something else. Something disturbing. His armor was functional and the power he radiated was almost palpable, but right now? He seemed almost bemused.

"This is odd." Victor finally said when the energy he had been scanning the unconscious boy with cut off. He hadn't spoken at all since he had started and not even Juil had dared question him. "The boy is human. Fully so. A clone, as you say, but there are no indications of who made him." Juil just looked at him and Victor shook his head. "I am not questioning your observations, Juil Estherai. I am simply concerned that whoever made him covered their tracks in far too many ways. Whoever made him did not wish to be found. Where I am from, clones always have some means of detection. Otherwise, how would we be able to tell who is the clone and who is the real party? There are far too many who use such things for far too many reasons. Some are even what many would consider 'good'."

"How can that be good?" Violet demanded from where she stood. She had, indeed, not been happy with Juil knocking her out, but the two warframes that stood beside her kept her in line.

"I don't know." Victor allowed. "I have seen clones used as everything from disposable weapons to organ donors. I have seen them made to replace lost family members and to assassinate rivals. Those and everything in between." He shook his head again. "In the past, I have done such things myself, but even 'I' would have hesitated to do such as this." He laid a hand on the MOA and the boy was encased in energy. "Making a small child as a blank slate would have angered far too many. Of course, I would have emerged victorious,…" Victor was not humble, that was for sure! "...but it would have taken up far too much of my time and the people who count on me for protection would have suffered."

"What is one life, measured against an entire nation?" Juil inquired, her tone mild. Her rifle had not lowered however. Odd. Victor was not alarmed by that. If anything? He approved!

"Rulers often have to make decisions that cost lives, Juil Estherai." Victor replied as the MOA stepped back to its position by the wall. There it would stay, close to the other pods that held clones. "'The end justifies the means' has been an argument used by rulers since the dawn of recorded history to justify actions that many find reprehensible. I never tried to justify my actions."

"That is because…" An exhausted voice heralded Jac appearing at a hatchway nearby and everyone stared as she all but staggered in. The two liches who had been guarding her followed, both looking helpless. "...you are honest. Victor. Not 'good' in most people's definitions, but honest."

"You should not be awake, Tenno Jac." Victor chided her as she staggered towards him. "Or at the very least, you need a warframe!"

Violet started forward and paused, staring at the man in the green cloak, but Victor waved her to Jac's side. The human darted forward to catch the falling Tenno as she collapsed.

"Idiot!" Violet snapped as Jac all but folded. "Why are you not meditating?"

"Was. He is trying the accesses." Jac said weakly as Violet laid her on the floor. "The Guardians are holding him off for now, but that won't last. There are only a few Guardians left and they are sealing what they can. I can't seal mine."

"What?" Violet demanded and hissed as Victor held up a hand over Jac that glowed with otherworldly light. "What are you doing?"

"Don't move." Victor commanded as a circle of power surrounded the two females. Another circle encompassed that one and between the two lettering appeared, odd, wrong looking lettering. "I can ward you for a time, Tenno Jac, but you will need more buffering. A warframe at the very least." Jac let out a deep breath but her face was hard as she shook her head at the man in the cloak. For his part, Victor was firm. "Don't be a fool, Tenno Jac, you know you need the support."

"I cannot trust the Tenno." Jac all but spat those words and then stilled as Elenia stepped forward from where she had been. "Elenia…" She wilted.

"Not all Tenno are shortsighted fools, Jac. Not all of them, us, think you need to be 'cured'." Elenia said sadly, going to one knee. Somehow she had moved in the space of kneeling to just outside the circles of power. "Not all of us would ignore your wishes in the need to make you 'better'. I didn't." She offered and Jac's face fell.

"I..." Jac stared at the ugly Mag warframe for a moment and then her face fell. "No, you didn't. You and Jasmina were kind, but I wasn't about to let them hunt you for my own sins."

"We could have warded you. We still would!" For her part, Elenia was iron now. "Sister to Sister, yours in life and death!" Juil had no idea what that phrase meant, but from how Rachel, Victor and Violet all stilled? It was significant.

"Elenia! I can't do that to you!" Jac begged as Violet stared from the unarmored Tenno to the one in the warframe and back. "I… I can't!"

"You needed help, we gave it." Elenia snapped, looking at Rachel who nodded, but remained silent. "There were no strings attached. We all like you and we all trust you. We could not help Mishka, we can help you! Let us!"

"Elenia, I can't do that to you and yours." Jac found strength somewhere and straightened. Violet was still clearly helping her, but Jac was a bit stronger. "You were kind to me, but I attract danger. There are many who saw Nikis' passing as an opportunity. They will continue to press. I will not do that to you or your charges."

"We accepted the risks!" Elenia was getting angry now. "We accepted you for everything you were and are. We are never going to share a bed and none of us cared! Not me, not Jasmina, not Janas! None of us! We love you! Let us help!"

"Stop." Victor said in a quiet voice that somehow resounded like thunder as Jac seemed to swell. "Relationships are not the problem right now, Tenno Elenia." Jac would not meet the gaze from the slits of this mask and he shook his head. "Trust is hard. Caring for others is harder, hence why so many try not to. Why I always refused such. Be they human or other, the psychological hurts are great when things go wrong in relationships. That said, right now, the single most important thing is making sure than you are secure, Tenno Jac. You know this. Take a warframe. I know the First and the Caretakers have offered, You know how they feel. It would not incur obligation."

Jac opened her mouth to argue, but Juil stiffened as high speed blip of data came to her from an unexpected source. She parsed the data in milliseconds and before Jac could verbalize her argument, Juil spoke. She was careful to keep her tone moderate.

"Is it not wanting to be beholden to others or not being able to rely on them?" Juil inquired and everyone looked at her. "I know those feelings, Jac Friend of Esther. I can never pay the debt I owe Esther and no one will trust me because of how I was made."

"A bit of both." Jac allowed as Violet gave her a stern shake. "I was reliant on others before my children were born and after. They were kind, but I know how much it cost them to give me and mine space. Then the ones I trusted the most abused my adopted child." She met Juil's gaze with a grimace. "I cannot trust other Tenno. The Caretakers have not played me false and I doubt the First would, but I cannot trust. I must not. Nikis knew I might fail. He set up contingencies in such a case, but I do not want to be responsible for the database vanishing."

"That would be for the best." Victor said into sudden silence and everyone glared at him. He seemed unconcerned. "Such a weapon, even if not designed as such, is an irresistible lure for those with fell intent. Even for such as I, if I were not bound my my oaths and a healthy fear of Elizabeth."

"There are trillions of souls in that database." Rachel stated. The Saryn was utterly still and no one else dared move.

"Not souls." Victor dismissed her claim. "Fragments. Ghosts. Copies. Shadows. They are not the people they were in life. You know this, Tenno Rachel."

"They exist." Rachel said flatly. "They have the right to keep existing."

"At what cost?" Victor asked, his tone mild. Juil noticed his gauntlets were starting to glow softly. Probably not a good sign. "Love him or hate him, Nikis was a known quantity. A fearful foe and a staunch ally to those who earned his trust. I did."

"That must be a hell of a story." Juil tried to put just the right edge of humor in her tone and from how Violet's and Jac's lips twitched, she succeeded.

"Indeed it was." Victor relaxed and the glow from his gauntlets faded. "Say what you will about Nikis, he was very young when I met him, and even then, he did not suffer fools. People learned quickly not to be foolish with him. I was wiser than most, I never insulted him. That was almost accidental on my part, but fortuitous." He chuckled and his laugh held true humor. "Fate has a very odd sense of humor."

"Indeed it does." Juil agreed. "Jac Friend of Esther, there are options. Esther had a ship of her own. A Scimitar landing craft. It was hers, not owed to anyone else. She had no clan, no one will come looking to repossess it. The Ordis Cephalon was not wanted by any others, so she took it." Juil looked away for a moment. "She had the habit of trying to help those less fortunate than her and she considered him one such. He is left just as adrift as we are and he just offered you a place to hide as well as all of what Esther gathered. All of her weapons and warframes."

"I…" Jac broke off, staring at the lich. "That ship is Esther's."

"Was." Juil corrected the Tenno grimly. "She will not return. She chose her fate and she chose to let Ordis choose his. He wishes to aid you. I know Esther had spare warframes. She does not need them now. You do. He is hurting just as we are. Broken, just as we are if not worse. He suffered for a very long time before Tenno found him. They tried to help him, but could not. The damage was too extreme and from what I understand? Self inflicted." Jac would not meet the liches gaze and Juil shook her head. "We need to get off this ship and you need support. He is offering."

"I…" Jac slumped a bit. "I know I cannot do it alone. I am not Nikis. But I will fight my own battles."

"No one is suggesting that you let others fight for you." Victor said with a shrug. "That said, alliances can be a problem. Just like relationships, they can be fraught with unseen pitfalls. You need help, Tenno Jac and not mine." At that, everyone stared at the green cloaked being and he shook his head. "I am tempted to meddle. To use what I know to draw the enemy into the open. To use you as bait."

"Do it." Jac snapped and again, everything stopped. "We cannot find the scum to fight him. I bet you can. If he is doing what I think he is, working hard to elude the warden's notice, then finding him will be incredibly difficult. Holding him to kill will be even more so. I bet you can kill him, Victor."

"Killing someone like that is a hard thing to pull off." Victor and Jac might have been the only one in the room. "High Orokin are energy just as Tenno are. You cannot destroy energy, you can only change it from one form to another. Confining him was the best choice amongst a host of bad choices. Knowing Elizabeth like I did? It was very unpleasant confinement and he earned such many times over."

"That he did." Violet's voice might have cleaved a diamond in two.

"I go now." Victor said and started for the door. Both of the liches there bristled, but Juil waved and they moved out of his way. "I will be watching."

At the door, there was a flash of green and he vanished in between one step and another. Only when he was gone did Rachel relax at all.

"He is not from around here." Juil made sure to keep her voice light as everyone looked at one another and then at Jac. "We do not need to know."

"He is not a 'nice' or 'good' being by anyone's definition." Jac admitted. "But only a fool looks at Victor and thinks he is weak."

"True." Juil moved to stand by Elenia who stared up at the lich. "Jac Friend of Esther, Ordis has offered. You do need transport and a new warframe that your former clan cannot access. We will find alternate transport. The humans on this ship asked to find a different employer and the clones…" She trailed off and then sighed. "I dislike mysteries. I especially dislike mysteries that involve cloning. Hypocritical of me, I know, but I do."

"Rachel can move the humans." Elenia said quietly. "I stay with Jac."

"I am not leaving you alone." Rachel snapped and just like that, the tension was back. "Heaven knows what you will get up to if I am not here to protect everyone from your silliness." Elenia made a 'who me?' gesture and Jac actually chuckled. The tension faded.

"You do have a habit of making 'questionable' decisions when dealing with matters of the heart, Elenia." Jac smiled to take the sting out of her words. "I honor you for your offer but I cannot accept. I would place you and yours in far more peril than you are in now. You have enough problems." She slumped a little. "Mishka's loss was a tragedy in many ways but I cannot replace her."

"I know that." Far from offended, Elenia was resigned now. "I did not want you to replace her. You are hurting just as we are. I wanted something good to come of this mess. The offer stands. We are with you." She clasped a hand to her chest and Rachel did the same.

"Get the humans out of here." Jac took a deep breath and rose to her feet, a bit unsteady,. Violet rose with her and Elenia a beat later. "The clones… We will try to figure out what is going on with them. For now?" She met Juil's eyes and nodded. "I find Ordis' offer to be incredibly generous but I am wary. I need to speak with him."

"Word of warning, he will annoy you." Juil said as Rachel waved to Elenia and both started for the door. "He means well, but he is broken in far too many ways to fix."

"I was told about him." Jac agreed. "Cathi Gata had him for a time and she found him hard to handle. She was far stronger and more accepting than I am. That said? She said it wasn't his fault and I do need help." She reached up and took Violet's hands in her own. "You need to stay here, Violet."

"I stay with you!" Violet snapped, but Jac was having none of it.

"A Tenno landing craft is not a safe place, Violet." Jac said flatly. Her tone moderated and she smiled a bit forlornly. "Violet, I need to do this alone. I need you to keep the cloned kids secure. They are safe in their pods and that MOA for now. That said? We have to assume they are some kind of threat. Alad V did not make them, did he?" She asked Juil who shook her head. "So someone else did but that someone covered their tracks well."

"There are no records, none of the staff had any idea they were there." Juil agreed.

"Okay, Juil Estherai." Jac said after a moment's thought. "We need to procure alternate transport. Something that will not be missed or commented on."

"I know just the thing." Juil's smile was downright evil, but no one minded. "We can handle such and it won't take long."

"Do you need anything from me?" Jac asked.

"Take two of mine with you." Juil said flatly and Jac stiffened. "Esther would want us to protect you. I know not what games are being played, and we are used to being kept in the dark. We are tools, weapons. Use us as you need. Immortal we may be, but we do know pain. You will not waste our pain as the Queens did and do, Jac Friend of Esther."

"I want you to come with me." Jac said after a moment and Juil nodded.

"As you wish." Jac started for the door and Violet opened her mouth, but then closed it and bowed her head. Jac smiled at her. "I will be right back, Violet, then you can yell at me."

"No hitting." One of the liches said as Jac passed and the Tenno's mouth fell open as he grinned at her! "What? We can't have a sense of humor?"

"I think we all need a sense of humor." Jac was smiling a bit at him as he formed up beside Juil. "Especially now."

"Very true." Juil replied.

The ship was not large. It took only a few moments to walk from the room they had been in to an airlock that now held an open shape in the form of a human body. Too small for any of the liches and Jac looked at them.

"I have coordinates to jump to. We will be right there." Juil promised.

Jac nodded and stepped into the human shaped hole. As she placed her hands on the handles provided, it spun, sweeping her into the familiar inside of a Tenno landing craft. A voice sounded and Jac nodded to a console nearby.

"Welcome aboard, Operator." Ordis was subdued and Jac nodded as both liches appeared nearby. "We are shielded. No one is watching."

"Good." Jac slumped a bit and Juil was there, offering a hand that Jac took. "Are you sure, Juil Estherai? You haven't seen anything yet that precludes you going back."

"We have nowhere else to go and Esther would want us to help you. To stop him. I am with you. We are with you." Juil said firmly. The male lich stared at her and then stiffened as a golden light shone nearby. Both liches went still as a woman in golden gown stepped out of the light. She was not wearing a crown.

"Then welcome to the Resistance, Juil Estherai." Elizabeth, formerly the last Empress of Orokin, said firmly. "We are going to kick that lousy Lorinos Orokin so hard the universe itself will rattle!"

"We can get behind that. Hitting stuff is what we are best at." Juil smiled wide with her brother and her new allies.