To the Dark Side

Even Tenno could die.

Cathi Gata fought to remain conscious as yet another flash filled with flammable liquid slammed into her warframe and covered the bio armor with flame. That was the third? Fourth? It was hard to tell. She was a bit focused on the huge hammer that stuck her to the wall and the Glaive that she was commanding to arc around, trying to keep the horde of lunatics at bay. At least the head nutcase had finally fallen to her attacks, but his parting 'gift' was anything but benevolent.

She had known as soon as she had taken it that this solo mission was a bad idea. She had hoped to have a member of her clan along for this, but none of them were available. With Will and Alicia sidelined for the foreseeable future, the clan was shorthanded and while many aspirants had flocked to try out for the clan, the entry requirements were as stringent now as they had been under Karl. That stood to reason, despite so many disappointed kin. The clan still held many secrets that were far too dangerous to be let out into public view. Just the ones that Cathi Gata knew about were bad enough. She knew there were others, but had no idea what they might be and had no intention of asking. If there was one thing that any Royal Guard knew, even a shamed one like her, it was that secrets were secret for a reason.

This mission had been straightforward enough. Descend into the depths of Saturn's gaseous mass that had not been altered into odd geoscapes for Orokin amusement in time immemorial. Find a specific target, capture him for interrogation, then get out. Simple. Or not.

It had become far less straightforward when Cathi Gata had arrived and found an entire army of Corpus soldiers and proxies attacking the Grineer forces stationed in their outpost. She had planned the mission assumed conflict with Grineer. The clones had heavy armor, and carried firepower enough to preclude any frontal engagements. Despite their crude appearance and the less than intelligent rank and file, the Grineer had the strength of numbers. Theirs was a crude strength, but it was a hammer of sheer brute force that rivaled anything in recorded history. Only a fool faced such head on if given any alternatives and Cathi Gata tried hard not be a fool. She was not a stealth specialist like Aeron or Jill, but she knew when to pick her fights and when to ghost away from overwhelming forces. Valkyr warframe or no, she was not invulnerable. She was no berserker.

Funny...

That might have helped.

She had done the mission and was extracting when a howl had split the air and a huge form out of nightmare had simply appeared beside her, swinging a hammer that had to wight almost as much as she did. She had herd tales of the Wolf of Saturn Six, every Tenno had, but this was no tale. He should have been ponderous, slow like Lech Kril. He wasn't! He spun his hammer almost as fast as she spun her Glaive which was flatly impossible, but he did it. Then he threw it and despite her frantic dodging, his hammer had arced in mid-air just like her Glaive! It had hit her, sinking the pointy bits on the back of the hammer head right through her leg armor and into the wall behind her, pinning her in place. He had howled in triumph that had turned to terror as Cathi Gata's Glaive had morphed in mid flight from a Glaive to a Cerata. She was good enough with it that it had literally shifted every aspect of itself from a noble and pure instrument of Tenno vengeance to a sickly looking Infested version in the space of half a heartbeat. Where a regular Glaive sliced enemies, the Cerata did damage on a cellular level. The Technocyte toxins on even a regular Cerata were no joke at all, hence why only a Tenno in a warframe or someone with a death wish touched one. Cathi Gata's version was anything but regular. The massive armor plates that protected the insane fugitive Grineer had offered almost as much protection from that as ancient cheese might have. He had gone down in seconds, his armor and vast health eaten up by a weapon designed to defeat such horrors.

The problem? His hammer hadn't vanished when he had. Then his pack had taken offense at their leader's defeat.

Whoever these Grineer were, they were not very durable. Not even close to as durable as the Wolf had been. They didn't need to be. Cathi couldn't dodge, stuck as she was. For every howling lunatic her Cerata took down, another took its place, hiding in shadows and tossing firebombs at her still form. Every time she saw one, she killed the misshapen form, but she was being worn down and it was only a matter of time. This time, there would be no coming back. This place was cut off from the Orokin network. Long, long ago, a cataclysm of some kind had torn the energy network of this section of Saturn to shreds and it had never been repaired. That was one reason the Grineer had flourished on Saturn. They could hide from Orokin surveillance. Many Grineer had sought some kind of release from their pitiful lives, and the few who managed to escape their slavemasters had quickly realized that Saturn was a kind of safe haven from Orokin retribution. That said? It hadn't been until the advent of the Twin Queens that they had realized any of that. With organization, their numbers had swelled and they had become the force that they were today.

No one had realized that the Grineer had dissidents in their ranks until the advent of Steel Meridian. No one had dared ask. Cressia Tal's creation of a resistance force of ex-slaves the Queens had met ambivalence on the part of many, but Cathi Gata admired the plucky former Grineer. She was not an easy person to like, but Cressia Tal's heart was in the right place. She knew that she had done evil and wanted to do what she could to make amends. Of all people, Cathi Gata understood that. She had talked with the leader of Steel Meridian many times. Worked with the former save and their human compatriots many times. The Tenno had been both humbled and honored when the clone had offered her the rank of General within the syndicate. It hadn't been for altruistic reason, of course. Cathi Gata was an ally. A powerful and capable ally who had proven over and over that she could get the job done. Cathi Gata would miss Cressia Tal and she knew the clone would miss her as well.

It wasn't what she wanted, but the Tenno blessed her foresight. This mission had gone seriously off the rails. She might survive this despite being disconnected. No one else would. They hadn't been happy, but had obeyed when Cathi Gata had sent the Steel Meridian Operatives home before infiltrating this place. Just the Corpus presence was bad enough The Wolf would have eaten them for breakfast and gone away hungry.

As the flames ate into her warframe and the pain became even worse, Cathi Gata tried once more.

Lotus? She called in her mind, her mental voice weakening. Not even one of the Zarimon children could reach her here. For all their power, they were not gods. They had incredible strength, both Void based and mental, but they also had limits. I am sorry. I failed. I failed… I failed Eliza.

She was barely aware of several forms in shoddy Grineer armor approaching her still warframe, weapons ready to cut and slice out of it. She was ready now. The pain had faded despite the flames that still burned on her. She was done. She could fight no more.

Then the impossible happened. The horde stopped. The feral clones stared from the burning warframe to the side and...

"Leave her alone."

The voice… Cathi Gata knew the voice! But that was impossible! Her eyes went huge under her warframe as a bright golden Equinox warframe strode out of the shadows to stand in between Cathi Gata and the oncoming horde. Her golden Ninkondi were held in a grip that only looked negligent. Only an idiot assumed she was not ready to strike with the insanely fast weapons. Gemina Horati's stance was just as perfect as ever as she stood between what had once been her sister and the now quailing horde of lunatics. That wasn't a shade! She was physical! That wasn't possible! She was dead! Sun had killed her and he did not make mistakes about such! But this wasn't the slave mistress that Cathi Gata had trusted, who had drugged Cathi and seen her broken at the feet of a horror in human form. The voice was the same. But the waframe? No. It wasn't. The heraldry was subtly different. The Equinox was not wearing the sigils that Eliza's mother had given her. Marks on both shoulders that none of the band could or would have taken off! The marks of her bondage! As impossible as it was, this Tenno that stood before the trapped Valkyr wasn't the woman who had so hurt Cathi Gata. This looked like Gemina Horati at her prime. A full commander of the Royal Guard! If so? Oh dear. The entire horde- maybe everyone on the outpost!- had no chance against her. Cathi Gata might or might not have had a chance, if she had been whole. Maybe. Not now at the point of final death.

"Run or die. It makes no difference to me." The one time leader of Cathi Gata's small band said with a growl that echoed the fallen Wolf and the pack retreated another step. "You will not harm her further. Fury?"

Someone was touching Cathi Gata and the flames that had surrounded her faded. A human shaped hand that glowed red-orange appeared in the stricken Tenno's vision. Armored? Or… Was that skin that looked like armor? It touched the bio armor on Cathi Gata's neck and power flared. Cathi Gata's pain that had been rising faded just as the fire had. Gentle fingers turned Cathi Gata's armored face to the side and she stared up at oddness.

The woman who stood before her wasn't one. That was abundantly clear from the odd armor she wore. From the red glowing hair and the eyes that were pure pits of the same color of red power. She was on fire, literally! But it didn't touch Cathi Gata? That wasn't Tenno energy. That wasn't Void Energy from a Zarimon child. It certainly wasn't anything physical. So… what? She was not tall, not broad, but only an idiot would take her lightly.

"We were in time, Gemina Horati. Her energy is intact." The voice from the odd woman spoke of raw power. Of anger that dwarfed anything that Cathi Gata had ever seen or heard of. "We need to get her out of here. What is it going to be, fools?" The odd woman asked as she let Cathi Gata's head go, rose to her feet and drew a hilt from her hip. What had to be a weapon snapped into a whip shape of long, red barbs of some kind. "I know what I want to do." Her laugh was anything but calm and the lunatics took another step back.

Hard to blame them!

Loud noises heralded the battle from the outpost approaching the odd group and the lunatics eyed one another. Caught between a Tenno, an odd female form and a pitched battle between two powerful forces, they were wisely afraid, but they could see their prey bleeding. There were a lot of them, at least twenty and some held firearms as if they knew how to use them, but they wavered. Numbers meant little against an Equinox warframe and if this odd human shaped being was as powerful as she seemed? They were dead. The only real question was how much it would hurt.

"Don't be hasty, Fury. Slaughter is not our mission." Gemina Horati's calm was just like Cathi Gata remembered as her Ninkondi arced almost absently, her fingers flaring with power as she did a standing kata. Again! That was the old Gemina Horati! The commander, not the slave and enslaver! "We need her. She may be Eliza's only chance."

"Party pooper." The flame haired woman all but wilted in resignation, but then she perked up as a roiling mass of clone and robots swarmed into view. The battle had reached them. "Ooo! Party time!"

"Fury!" Gemina Horati tried, but the other was off in a flash of red. The horde of lunatics melted out of her way. Literally in two cases. One moment the quailing nuts were standing there wavering, the next? They were smoldering corpses and the rest wisely took to their heels as the flamer haired woman shifted in between two steps. Her hair was now purple and a hammer of pure energy appeared in her hands as she crunched into the ranks of clone and proxies, taking them completely by surprise. Three clones went flying and would not get up, but there were so many more enemies. The Equinox heaved a sigh and turned back to Cathi Gata who tried to stiffen, but failed miserably. The other did not approach. Instead, she spoke to someone else! "Cathi Gata won't trust me." Wait a minute? How did Gemina Horati know that name? She had been dead before Cathi Gata had changed her name! "Fury is powerful, but she cannot win alone."

"Fury is not alone." A cold, deep voice sounded from the side and Cathi Gata tried to look, but her head would not obey her as a shadow fell over her. "We need to get this one out of here and to healing. From what you have said, she will not trust you but I bet Strife can win her trust."

"I had better stay back." Gemina Horati sounded sick now. "Try not to hurt her? She is needed, now more than ever. If Eliza reverts… We haven't seen bad yet."

'Reverts?' Cathi Gata asked herself as she shadow resolved into a form that was just as odd as the female form had been. But this one wore no armor. He, yes, definitely a he, wore a shoulder piece and robes of some kind that looked oddly arcane. But it was the face that drew the eye. Or, the lack of one! A bone white mask covered all but a pair of red eyes. Was that a skull? Not a human one, that was for sure.

"It is all right." The voice from behind the mask was kind. "You need help and we need yours." He took hold of the hammer that still pinned the warframe to the wall. "This will hurt." He warned and then he paused. The sounds of battle were coming closer. When he spoke again, it was resigned. "Aw well, we tried to keep it subtle."

"Let's get her out of here!" Gemina Horati snapped as a Hyekka dashed towards her, only to be slammed to the wall by a deft strike from the commander's Ninkondi. "Subtlety be damned, we need her!"

"Right." The skull mask was back in Cathi Gata's vision and then pain the likes of which she could barely fathom flared through her and she knew no more.

The battle

Everything stopped for a moment as Cathi Gata jerked, but did not cry out before falling to lie still in the strong arms of her rescuer. The dark form who held her still form hefted her easily as the golden Equinox warframe moved to flank him. The Grineer and Corpus forces all stared from the raging woman in their midst to the odd trio and back. Then a new form stepped out of nowhere to stand in between the two groups. His armor was dark and the robes that hung over it were the red of blood. His face was shadowed by a hood that showed only two blazing red eyes and an odd sign, a half moon with a line through it. That paled beside the sword with the hook in its point that he held in one hand as if the massive weight of metal was nothing at all. Whoever he was, he looked human, but he was much bigger than a human and-

"Die!" A Grineer fired his Karak at the newly arrived form who raised his hand that did not have the sword in it. The bullets bounced off an unseen barrier and whined away uselessly. One hit the wall next to Gemina Horati who did not flinch.

"Oh, come on, Death!" Fury snapped as she slammed a hapless clone with her hammer and there was nothing left of that Grineer, not even ash when she recovered it. "I have this under control!"

"Your idea of control is not the same as mine, Fury." The skull faced being said with a shrug as he hefted Cathi Gata's unconscious form. "The mission comes first, right War?" Was he being snide?

"It does." Now, the red garbed newcomer was striding towards the battle, the massive two handed sword easy in his hand. Death looked at his brother who shrugged but did not slow. "I am what I am, brother, but I have learned some."

"Yes." The one time leader of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse who had once followed the Charred Council replied as he stepped towards a portal only he and Gemina Horati could see. "We all have."

With that, the horseman and Gemina Horati vanished leaving the suddenly terrified ranks of Grineer to face two forms straight out of nightmare. The proxies regrouped and charged again, but their human controllers also felt fear as they gazed into the eyes of madness and it gazed back!

"What are you?" A Corpus managed to say as War reached the line of Grineer and the only word that did it justice was 'mayhem'. Clones and pieces of clones went flying as the blade and fearful energy alike sang.

"Oh, us? We are the stuff of nightmare." Fury replied absently as she slashed out with her whip and tore three Ospreys right out of the sky. A Tech fired at her with his Supra only to scream as she dodged, her power flared and four Corpus died with him as said energy flashed back along the line of attack. "A specific nightmare actually."

"Why are you here?" A Grineer screamed as War cut him in half. Was the huge sword wielder sad when he replied?

"To save everyone from an Empress' wrath."