A cry for help
Avalon
No one saw her arrive.
No one would see her unless she wished it. It was part and parcel to what she was, what she had always been. External things had changed significantly over the years, but in her heart, she was still almost exactly the same being she had always been. If there was one thing that the being once known as Natah and more recently as the Lotus knew, it was stealth.
None of the human guards or crowds of civilians on Avalon had any inkling that she was there as she passed through what had once been a hideaway for the elite of an Empire and then had turned into a refuge for anyone who could be reached in time.
Then she came to the Royal quarters and paused. The Royal Guard were on full alert. That was good and bad. Good in that Jesse, Michelle, Ess and Aerie were well protected. Bad in that even Natah would likely trip alarms as soon as she approached. Any reaction to said alarms would likely not be on the restrained side. Not here of all places. Not with the Empress indisposed.
Which was why she was here. Now.
Natah gave herself a firm shake and turned to a set of doors that few knew existed. She activated the doors and smiled inwardly as a sensor telltale made up of blue computer code shimmered and vanished. Jesse was so smart as to be scary even to a being who was not human. Natah's smile turned melancholy as she stepped to one wall, well away from the chair that had been her home for so long. Similar chairs existed across the system and one had been on Luna when Ballas had- She shut that thought away firmly. Later. She had a mission. The datastreams that flowed across each wall sang to her, begged her to touch them again, but she dared not. Not without permission. She resolved to wait. She did not think she would have to wait long and was not surprised.
"Lotus." A hologram of Jesse appeared against the far wall, the Cyberlancer's shields glowing with power even here. Natah smiled in approval. The girl was smart, but still lacked experience. Even as a hologram, there were things out there that could hurt or kill her, so Natah was pleased the girl was taking precautions. Jesse held a special place in Natah's heart. Not quite one of her adopted children, but close. She loved all the Tenno, faults and all, but Jesse? More so for so many reasons. "This is unexpected."
"Cyberlancer." Natah inclined her head in human greeting. "It is good to see you again."
"You disappeared." Jesse said softly. "You said you were going home."
"I did." Natah did not react as a cloaked form appeared beside Jesse, dark energy swords in his hands. Draco was ready to fight even here, even now. "I am not human, Jesse." The being once known as the Lotus said quietly. "I never was."
"I know." Jesse was so still as to look almost painful. "Do we fight now?"
She fought to hide it, to conceal it, but to Natah? The pain in Jesse's voice was clear as day. It was also heartbreaking. The pain of a daughter who knew all too well the price of betrayal. Who knew far more about far more than was safe for her to know. Someone so powerful that even Natah's father Hunhow would walk carefully around her. Someone who had counted the Lotus a friend and a mentor. Who had never shied away even knowing what the Lotus was. The girl's control had improved though. Her code didn't waver despite her emotions and Natah smiled a little forlornly.
"No." Natah bowed her head. "Today? I come in peace, Cyberlancer. Princess Jesse." The inhuman form shook her head. "I come with a warning and with a plea, Princess."
"A warning?" Jesse's hologram had relaxed a little. That faded. Now? She was a grim statue.
"A warning and a plea." Natah repeated. "I know what happened to Sara and to Eliza. I know what he did and I know why." Jesse stared at Natah who remained impassive.
"The witnesses say he told everyone that Eliza was dying." Jesse said slowly. Natah nodded. "You knew?" Barely controlled rage sang in the Cyberlancer's tone, but she did control it. Again, Natah felt approval. Jesse may not have started out a Princess, but she was learning fast.
"I knew." Natah said sadly. "It was her secret, Jesse. A secret of the Royal Family. Their curse. That was part of the promise she took from me to allow me to come here in the first place. That I not speak of the pain she was enduring. She was the last, Jesse. The last of the Royal Family. Just like I thought I was the last of my kind. Despite my past and hers? She let me live. She helped me, hid me from my enemies and hers. I was not about to betray Eliza!" The biometal walls might have bent away from her grim resolve. "She was and is my friend."
"That must be a hell of a story." Jesse said and the Lotus nodded. "And you are here… now… why?"
"Her father, if that was her father, may have meant well." Natah fought a human sigh. It was hard after so long around such frail, fallible forms. They were infinitely adaptable, almost as much as her kind. "But even if so? He did not have all of the information. No one does. Not me. Not you. Not even Eliza."
"No one being that I know of can know it all." Jesse said very softly and Natah nodded.
"No." Natah replied. "My kind have limits just as yours do. The problem is that a few of those limits have been passed. If Eliza wakes and is whole, then that is a good thing. But if her access to the crown is curtailed at all, that is not." Jesse stilled and Natah nodded. "I know what the crown is and what it is not. During one of our long talks, she allowed me to study it. What I found horrified me and she made me swear binding oaths never to speak of except in grievous extremity, which this may be and only to another member of the Royal Family of which we thought there were no more. I break those oaths today. To you, Princess."
"Why?" Jesse asked slowly.
"I need to talk to Ess." Natah said softly. Jesse stiffened in instant rebellion and Natah nodded. "I know she is better. I know that Eliza and Aerie were working hard to keep her occupied with her music, but I also know that she is the only one authorized to talk to the people that I have to talk to. Not even Nikis is supposed to talk to them." She made a face. "Not that I would try and talk to him. He still hates me, with cause. I like my health."
"Why?" Jesse demanded. "Ess has suffered enough!"
"I agree, but Ess is physically the eldest of you." Natah warned. "If Eliza… is proven incapable..." She was very careful with her words. "...then the Crown will do what it was built to do. It will focus on the next eldest. Ess." She nodded as Jesse paled. "She won't be able to handle it. I know how broken she was. I know how careful you and the others have been with her." Jesse stilled yet again and Natah shook her head. "I have talked with Eliza a few times since I left. I miss her." She fought to keep the pain out of her voice, but from how Jesse did not react? The human form alien did not succeed. "I may not be human, Jesse, but I do understand pain, fear, regret, all of that. After so long guiding the Tenno and guarding my children, I know those all too well. My children have moved on and good for them. Their lives may improve or not. I have no control over that. I can hope they find happiness or least a measure of safety in this insane world we occupy, but I have no power over that now. I hope to see them again someday, but that is the future and even an Oracle cannot tell what will be."
"They can only see what might be." Jesse swallowed hard. Such a burden as her birth mother bore was not for the timid or weak of mind. It had crushed many souls throughout Orokin history. It had nearly crushed her birth mother.
"I talked with your mother before I came back here, Jesse." Natah would not have missed the sudden tension in Jesse's code if she had been blind. "She feels for all of you. Eliza, Michelle, you, Ess, Aerie. She is blind to those she feels the most for and she feels for all of you. Call her. She is listening I bet."
Jesse stared at the Sentient in mostly human form for a moment and then her eyes went distant. A moment later, a white transparent form appeared next to Jesse. Janet wore her full attire as an Oracle, White full body robe, white head covering with her face half concealed.
"I can't see any of this." Janet said quietly. "I am too close. It blurs. I see so many potential futures unfolding from here. Some good, some bad, far too many to even see the cusp points. I cannot be sure of what to think."
"Do not try." Natah warned as Jesse opened her mouth, likely to say the same thing as red as her face got. The Princess recovered swiftly. "What will be, will be, Oracle." She bowed to Janet, one female with a horrific burden to another. Janet bowed back. "I give you my word that I will not let harm come to Ess due to my actions. She has suffered enough." Again, metal would have bent. "You and she are needed but you need to take care of yourselves as well. Humans are as humans always have been. My kind are as my kind have always been. My existence is an anomaly. One that has caused far too much strife. Too much death, for my kind and yours. I wish harm to none." She slumped. "I never did."
"It is not your fault, Rebekah." Janet said firmly and Natah felt every fiber of her biometal body still as Janet smiled. "Eliza called you that and so will I." She promised.
"Eliza is just so bloody stubborn!" Natah snapped and then she went still as both Jesse and Janet laughed. Then Natah felt her jaw crease in a smile. "Yes. Yes, she is, isn't she?"
"Yes." Jesse, Janet and Draco chorused.
"I am not Rebekah any more than I am Margulis." Natah said sadly. "I have bits of them in me, memory among other things, but I am not them. They died."
"But their memory lives on." A new voice had everyone spinning to the door where Ess stood. Her face was pensive.
"Sister! No!" Jesse warned, stepping to stand between Ess and Natah who did not move.
"You have all been so kind to me." Ess said sadly as Aerie appeared behind her, Michelle holding the girl back as Royal Guard with drawn weapons crowded the area behind them. "But I do know my duty."
"You will come to no hurt by my will, Princess Ess." Natah said firmly enough that everyone took a step back but Ess. "Eliza needs help. I cannot give it. You cannot give it. They can."
"Will they?" Ess asked. "I cannot see that. I care for her too dearly."
"And she knew that." Natah replied, not daring to move as three Royal Guard warframes entered the room to aim at her. They knew how to kill her and she was vulnerable here. Others moved to stand between her and the princesses. "You are her sister. A sister of pain, of blood, of loss! I know those far too well. She and I shared little but that. It was enough for the both of us at the beginning. Now? We are friends and so much more. You are hurting so badly even now and..." The non human's voice broke. "And you will step up anyway, won't you?"
She all but pleaded that. Was she begging Ess to do it? Not to do it? Hard to say.
"She says Eliza needs help, Jesse." Ess seemed on firmer ground now. "We do not understand the problem, do we, Rebekah?" Her face split into a small smile as Natah groaned.
"You are a bad as the Empress is!" Natah complained, but did not dare move. Ess made a 'Who me?' gesture and Natah groaned louder. The Sentient in human seeming shook her head very slowly. "Have you taken your meds today?" Ess stared at her and Natah shook her head yet again. "I am not saying another word until you take your meds." She crossed her arms.
"And you call Eliza stubborn?" Ess said with an utterly fake sigh as Aerie tried to move forward, but Michelle held her back. The girl gave a small cry, but Michelle pulled something from the girl's hand and handed it to a Royal Guard in an Ash Prime warframe. The Tenno stepped to Ess, holding out the small injector in his hand. She took it, pressed it to her arm and smiled in relief as it hissed. "There." She snapped with equally utterly fake ire as the guardsman took the injector back with a bow. "Now talk."
"I do call her stubborn." Natah replied, relaxing just a little. "Anyone else who went through what she did without the almost inhuman level of stubbornness she possesses would have perished. Both after she took the crown and before." At that, everyone in the room stilled and Natah nodded. "No one knows the entire truth but me and I swore never to speak of it. Not to her." She said when Jesse started to demand an explanation. "Ess… I cannot speak of it. She needs help and you can talk to them. No one else can. Not even Kat can!"
"Kat?" More than one person in the room inquired as Ess stared at Natah, her eyes hooded. From her words, she did not mean Iriana's mate. She meant the woman who shared the Tower with Brianna Executor. With all of the baggage that woman held.
"What does Kat have to do with this?" Michelle asked when no one else broke the silence.
"Nothing." Natah replied. "And I want to keep it that way." She said that so fervently that all the present members of the Royal Family smiled at her vehemence. Not that any blamed her.
"I cannot argue with that." Ess said slowly. "I haven't talked to any since I came here." She frowned. "I haven't had the courage to reach that far."
"You are sick!" Aerie protested, still trying to get loose form Michelle, but the elder Princess was having none of it. "Mom! You are still sick! Don't!"
"Physically, I am fine, Aerie." Ess said slowly. "Mentally? The calm and care that Eliza and others have given me has let my music out gently. Far more gently that I ever imagined. I expected to hear from them by now and I haven't." Natah smiled and Ess stared at her.
"They knew you and Aerie needed time, Ess. They were not going to press unless it was an emergency." Natah said gently. "But this?" She shook her head. "It is not an emergency. Not yet. Soon. Eliza couldn't plan for everything, but she sure tried."
"I think I am going to have to hear the story about how you and she met and didn't kill one another." Ess said as she took a step forward. Jesse hissed and blocked her way. Ess shook her head, her posture somewhere between resignation and amusement. "Jesse, if she wanted me dead, there are far better ways. Far easier ways." Jesse stilled at the implied rebuke and the solid core of metal that sounded underneath Ess' tone. The warning. Ess would walk right through Jesse if she had to.
"I will not tell that story without Eliza's permission." Natah replied. "It might make her grumpy." Everyone winced at that, grumpy Empress was not a good thing.
"That bad, huh?" Ess smiled as she took another step and somehow slid between Jesse and the Royal Guard who tried to stop her. Her move was graceful, sinuous even as only a well trained dancer could be and in moments, she stood right beside Natah.
"No comment." Natah replied and Ess smiled wider. For the first time since she had arrived, her face was unguarded and emotions shone through. Fear. Sadness. Pity. Rage. All of those shone in her eyes. Her smile was heartfelt though.
"You know that just makes me more curious, right?" Ess asked but then nodded. "That said? Eliza has a hell of a temper, so I won't press until I can ask her."
"Yes, she does." Natah said so fervently that everyone in the room gawked at her. She shook her head savagely. "Do! Not! Ask!"
"Where to?" Ess asked as golden power built around her despite Jesse's sudden tension, despite Aerie's sudden wailing cry of fear. "My sister needs aid."
"There is only one who can speak of what she and I swore of." Natah said sadly. Ess stilled and Natah nodded. "Yes. Him."
"I hope you know what you are doing." Ess said in a very small voice as her golden power surrounded Natah and herself.
"Me too." Natah replied as the golden power snapped and they were suddenly elsewhere. Ess wilted for a moment and Natah reached out to steady her. She sent soothing energy to the faltering Oracle who smiled her thanks. Only then did she look around.
The natural looking cave they appeared in was as Natah remembered. The map on one wall. The racks of weapons on another. The small house with only three walls that now was unoccupied. The pile of gold and the huge silver scaled form that lay on the pile of gold. The Lord of the Darkstorms in his full spleandor.
Four legs, two wings, long tail, long serpentine neck. Claws as long as Lephantis was tall scraped as he slowly eased back from a combat crouch. An eye as big as a Terralyst Sentient blinked once, then stayed open to scrutinize the two females. Then a mouth that would have easily swallowed a Grineer Ogma whole opened.
"I would hope that you have a reasonably good excuse for this trespass." The incredibly deep voice from the dragon was calm and assured, but as always, fury sang just underneath it. He had so many reasons for anger. "You know what we said we would do if you ever came back, Rebekah."
Oh, he was way more than angry. Ess shied away from the Sentient as green energy suddenly coruscated around the human looking form. The Lotus just nodded.
"I do."