...is so hard to understand?
Behind him, Jack could hear sounds of struggle, but he didn't move even as the golden fire roiled around him. It couldn't touch him.
"And you call me rude." Jack said mildly as he stepped out of the fire. It tried to follow him, but dark power flared from his hands and the golden fire faded. "Haven't you heard, Orokin? You are yesterday's news. Barely of consequence at all." He shook his head. Eliza hadn't moved. At all. "You can dispense with the puppetry, asshole. You are not her. If she had gone nuts, we would all be dead, including you."
"Jac!" Aeron's voice came from behind but Jack ignored it to keep his focus on Eliza who still hadn't moved at all. But was that a smile that curved her lips for a moment? Then a grimace of pain flared only to fade as her face blanked again.
"If you keep pushing this, it won't end well." Jack warned the being who had possessed Eliza. "You do not get to do such things. Not even the highest caste was allowed to do such things." He shook his head slowly. "For very good reason. It is unhealthy."
"Stand down." A commanding voice sounded and Jack paused as an outlandish figure stepped into his view. The human was large and well built. But what he wore was odd to say the least. It was clearly armor of some kind, but it didn't look very functional. Add to that, part of his face was uncovered. Then again, the round shield he had in his hand was clearly functional. But the decoration was just as outlandish as his costume! Who wore red, white and blue in such shades anyway? Were those wings painted on his helmet? Weird. "We don't want to hurt you. Stand down."
"Of course not." Jack replied, disinterest in his tone that made the human stiffen. "What good are dead or maimed slaves to an Orokin asshole?"
A quick glance showed several others between Jack and the other Tenno. One was in armor, but it was red and gold, just as outlandish as the red, white and blue lunatic. Two humans. One was a female with red hair who held a pair of pistols, the other, a male who hefted a bow. But the one that drew all the eyes was the huge green vaguely man shaped thing in their midst. That one was clearly unhappy. Jack eyed each of them and then turned his gaze back to the one with the shield.
"Do you have any idea what is happening here?" Jack asked the shield bearer. "Or did he bother to explain anything?"
"All we were told was that that an evil usurper had taken over a peaceful kingdom." The man with the shield said slowly.
"Really?" Jack asked. Then he snorted. "No crown. No throne. No kingdom. But… usurped?" He shook his head. "He lied to you."
"So we have gathered." The other replied. He wasn't happy about that. "And…?" He pressed.
"He wants his Empire back so he can maim, torture and kill people any time he wants because it what he does." Jack shrugged. "I intend to argue the point because he steps on my duty." He eyed the shield guy. "Are you going to argue with me? I don't recommend it. You shouldn't be here at all."
"Again, we have gathered that." The shield bearing guy agreed. "He was persuasive, but none of his claims held water when we saw what the situation actually is here. And what he did to her…" He nodded at Eliza. "...was just plain wrong." He made a face. "I didn't know she was the focus until we got here. I should have listened to Wanda and Thor."
"Hindsight." Jack agreed. "Wrong is what he does. Better get lost. You don't want to be here when the wardens get here."
"Wardens?" The other asked.
"Wardens of reality. The wardens can and will fix things, but you won't enjoy it." Jack replied. "You are not from our reality. He wasn't supposed to run away from his fate to your reality, but it figures he found help there. He is a consummate liar."
"Yeah. I finally figured that out. I have dealt with a lot of those." The man slung his shield and shook his head. "You gonna be okay?"
"Probably." Jack allowed. "It comes down to skill, training and control. He is a liar, a manipulator and a torturer. I am a warrior. We will see who wins."
"I know who I am betting on." The red, white and blue garbed man moved to the others who all looked confused, but in a flash of rainbow colored energy, they were gone. The clan formed ranks round Tiana and Janna, but all of them seemed just as confused as the oddly garbed people had been. Jack turned back to Eliza.
"I am assuming you have more patsies." Jack was calm and quiet. "More people you fooled into following you." Eliza hadn't moved at all, but again, just the tiniest hint of a smile. Instantly squelched, but definitely there. She was fighting the controls. Jack shook his head when Eliza did not speak. "Bring them on! I haven't got all day."
Eliza didn't speak. Instead, golden energy slammed into him again. It didn't touch him again. His own power held it off, if not easily. He just stood, waiting. Then Violet moved. She hadn't moved this whole time and now, she drew a Supra machine gun that glowed with fell energy and aimed it at Jack.
Jack did not draw his pistol or a rifle. Instead, a long thin black sword simply appeared in his hands. It had two triangular shaped blades extending from a central handle, one shorter than the other and it glowed with the same awful blackness that was holding the golden power away from Jack.
"You are boring me." Jack said flatly. "I have better things to do than deal with your moronic attempts to control things that cannot be. I am halfway tempted to let you through my shields. To let you see exactly why you are so inadequate. But then, everything in this system would probably die, so… No."
Jack shook his head as he spun his hands and the weapon in them shifted. One moment, it was singular piece and then next, he held two smaller, angular blades. Both of them glowed with dark, sinister power and he held them ready as Violet aimed at him.
"You don't want to do that." Jack warned Violet who made no reply. Instead, her Supra spat coherent energy at him.
No! Now there were two streams of energy hitting his shields now in addition to the golden power. Three! Four! Several other hulking forms stepped out into the light, all hitting Jack's barrier with coherent energy. All Corpus, All enhanced with Kuva. Behind him, Jack could hear the sounds of battle as the clan finally acted, but he only had eyes for Eliza who was a statue. His shield wavered and the beam of an enhanced Flux rifle bit into his arm before his shield stabilized. He heard Aeron scream in rage but the battle behind him was continuing. If Jack knew anything about his opponent? There was likely a barrier of some kind between him and the clan. Lorinos didn't like to be disturbed when he was 'working'.
"Hmmm." Jack kept his tone disinterested even as the four Kuva enhanced humans continued to shoot at him. "You guys should really stop." He warned as a shadow fell over him. He looked to see a Kuva enhanced human in Corpus armor bearing some kind of super Prova step close to strike. "Bad idea."
"You will not die." Came from Eliza, but that wasn't her voice! "You will serve. The Empire will rise."
"Yadda, yadda, yadda." Jack retorted as the Prova swung. The strike was very strong but the human wielding the Prova was in the end, only human. Even enhanced, he was no match for a Tenno. Strength in and of itself was meaningless if one did not have control over said strength and this one did not. Jack deflected the blow easily and his instinctive counter attack buried his shorter blade in the gut of the Kuva enhanced being who screamed once and vanished in a puff of red kuva energy.
The fire continued to flail at his shields and he was only a little surprised to see the Kuva enhanced human appear again beside Eliza. But... The super soldier fell over and lay still. All of the others firing at Jack paused as Eliza finally moved. She looked at the fallen one and then at Jack. Her mouth twisted in a question, but Jack beat her to speech.
"He seems to have misplaced his soul." Jack said quietly. "Mistake number one. I am not who you think I am. Jac of the clan Karl's Shadow is dead. My name is Jack and I am Grandmaster of the Dead." At his quiet words, everyone in his vision took a step back. Even Eliza! The battle behind him simply stopped. "Mistake number two. Did you really think I came in here unprepared?" That was snide.
"You are not him." The voice that came from her was not Eliza's! It was male, old and powerful. "You are not Nikis."
"No, I am not." Jack retorted. "But did you think Nikis of all people did not have contingency plans for this kind of thing? Of course he did. I was one of those plans."
"Were you?" The golden mist around Eliza solidified into a form straight out of nightmare. The high caste Orokin was unmistakable, but also, incomplete. Parts of his body were patchy, as if not entirely there. Then again, he was pure energy form. Manifesting was hard for even such a power as him. Eliza collapsed to her knees, retching.
"You are more than welcome to keep attacking me." Jack replied. "I was already going to wipe your blot from existence. Now? I am going to enjoy it." He spun his swords easily.
"Are you?" Lorinos Orokin asked as he laid a hand on Eliza's head and the former Empress gave a tiny cry.
A sick shock ran through Jack as something pierced his warframe from behind and to the side. He looked down at the blade that extended out the side of his warframe and then back at the form that held the Stropha. This Kuva enhanced being wasn't a human and another sick shock went through Jack as he recognized the face of the one who had struck him, but said face was as blank as Violet's. Empty.
"Finish him, Juan. We have work to do." Lorinos Orokin said with a scowl as golden energy pulse around Eliza. "Idiot girl! You only prolong the inevitable. You are my toy now."
"Not content to enslave and torture humans, I see." Jack said as the being who had once been the twin brother of the Tenno named Jac raised his Stropha for a killing blow. "Enslaving Tenno was forbidden throughout the history of Orokin and there were nasty consequences when any tried. That said? I know you something you don't."
The Stropha came in, but Jack parried it with the longer of his blades and the two Tenno fought back and forth. Zombie Juan was incredibly strong, but had no will behind the blade. Jack was not as strong, but far better with his weapon. He did not want to strike down this revenant of kin.
"You only delay the inevitable." Lorinos said with a growl. "You and this one will serve." Golden power flared around Eliza again and she screamed, but when she looked up, she winked at Jack! Golden power slammed out from Lorinos and cries of alarm came from the clan that were suddenly squelched. Golden form appeared around the area. Corrupted. All of them bore the devices that would enslave-
Jack laughed! A bitter, heartfelt laugh of pure ironic humor.
"What?" Lorinos demanded as the Corrupted fanned out. They had been Corpus troops once upon a time. Now? They were mindless drones.
"You really are an idiot." Jack said as he deflected another clumsy blow from the mindless being that had been his brother. "I am not delaying you. I am distracting you."
"What?" Lorinos actually stammered that as green power flared around Eliza and then, she was gone! Standing in her place was a very unhappy gray armored being in a green cloak!
"Make way for the glory that is Doom!" Jack snapped as Victor Von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom, undisputed monarch of Latveria, cut loose on Lorinos Orokin with a hefty chunk of his impressive arsenal.
There were a lot of Corrupted, of many kinds. And now, Cephalons swooped in to fire bolts of energy at Jack and others. The energy beams were deflected away from Doom as the furious monarch blasted, burnt and cut his way through the suddenly desperate Orokin's shields. The Kuva enhanced humans were firing at Jack again and the Stropha bearer charged in, cutting deep into the warfame again.
"I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea what." Jack said sadly as he struck out with his blade, hoping. But there was nothing for him to grasp. Nothing left of a once loved brother's mind and soul. "Nikis was there. I know he was. But I don't remember any more. Cryo and whatever the Corpus did to me. I am sorry, Juan." This time, when Jack struck, it was deep into the head of the zombie. The power that resided in his blades flashed and the zombie was instantly incinerated. "Enough."
The calm, cold word echoed with power and hate.
Doom instantly stopped his relentless assault. The gray armored being nodded to Jack and stepped back from where he had beaten Lorinos Orokin down to golden knees as Jack flared with power of pure darkness. As his blade morphed back into the double bladed sword it had started as, but the glow was intensifying.
"There are things that even highest caste Orokin did not get to do." Jack said slowly, his hate etching each and very syllable as his blade pulsed with power that flared again and again as his temper was fanned. "Thank you, Your Majesty but this is my fight."
"It feels good to cut loose sometimes." Doom was not even breathing hard! For his part, Lorinos Orokin stared at the monarch of Latveria as a cobra might a mongoose. For pretty much the same reason the snake would. Death was often mesmerizing.
"That it does." Jack agreed. "He will have made a mess in your reality."
"Probably." Doom shrugged. "That is what those overdressed fools are for. Fixing whatever the hell they decide needs to be fixed with no thought as to consequences."
"Yeah." Jack sighed. "Nobility, honor, duty… All of these are good things, but that can be taken way too far." Doom nodded. "Those of us with great power need to think beyond the 'now'."
Doom nodded again, approving? Was that a tendril of golden power creeping across the floor towards Doom? It was! Doom stepped on it and Lorinos jerked as the power flared and vanished to nothing!
"It is easy to live in the now, with no thought to the future." Doom agreed. "When everything becomes chaos and you can only fight to survive, that provides a certain amount of clarity. But when you have time to think, you see far more. It is not easy. To wonder about whether or not to build a dam that will provide power to an entire city, but kill off dozens of forms of wildlife and displace people who have lived in their homes for generations. Such decisions are far less easy to make. The benefits must always be weighed with the costs. Replace a dicator who rules by fear with an inept or useless president and all hell will usually break loose. Sentiment has its place, but it must not rule."
"Emotion makes a bad ruler." Jack concurred. "Eliza?"
"Hurt sorely." Doom all but spat that, his disgust clear. "We may be able to help her. If not? We can ease her passing. Make it peaceful."
"I do not agree with a lot of what she did." Jack said slowly. "That said? I am not an Emperor. I know I do not have all of the information, nor do I want it." Doom nodded approval again. Jack was close enough to touch Lorinos Orokin now and the sharp tip of his blade went under the Orokin's chin, the flat lifting the battered energy form's face to eye him with undisguised hatred. "Thank you, Victor."
"Um… Jac…" Aeron's voice had both of the odd pair turning to see a battered Loki warframe standing nearby. Some kind of shield shimmered between Doom, Jack, Lorinos and the battle was still going on. The clan of Tenno had it hand though. Corrupted fell in droves and Cephalons winked out of existence. The Kuva enhanced Corpus were vanishing too, Violet being harried by Ric, Rica and Ming. Janna was behind Diana as the assassin fought one of the Kuva enhanced humans. The young Tenno was healing the Saryn as she fought and doing good job of it, Jack noted with approval.
"The Tenno that was your wife no longer exists, Tenno Aeron." Doom actually sounded kind! "She chose her path and it diverges from yours. You may rant all you wish, but life does not care about emotions. Life only cares whether it continues."
"I…" Aeron slumped. "I still love her."
"I am sure she still cared for you, but duty does not." Doom replied. Calm, clear, concise. Devastating. "I must go before I tax the wardens' patience too much." The glare he turned on Lorinos Orokin actually had the Orokin recoiling. His words however, were to Jack. "Make sure this time, or I will." Steel might have bent under his tone.
"Right." Jack didn't hesitate. He plunged the dark sword's tip into the heart of the evil Orokin's energy. The sheer power that dwelt inside that form was daunting to say the least, but Jack was up to the task. He was Grandmaster of the Dead. "Mortis? You know what to do."
NO! Lorinos scream was a tiny thing compared to the hatred, the hunger, the sheer all encompassing rage that dwelt within the blade. Small wonder. Nikis had made the blade and in doing so? Made it alive. It knew what Lorinos had done and why and just like Jack, it knew hate.
Then, like a waft of nightmare, this copy of the evil Orokin was gone. Victor Von Doom gave Jack a nod and vanished.