Insanity versus worse
Cathi Gata could do nothing but watch as the horde of garishly painted warframes charged her defenders. Gemina Horati stood over her, feet braced to hold off any foe that got past the line.
Not that anyone was!
The garishly painted warframes charged the line of protectors like a horde of Infested. They hit said line and the results were pretty much the same as a horde of Infested hitting a line of ready Tenno. Fury and her brothers were in motion, each carving holes in the oncoming force. Fury had her whip, War his sword, Death had a pair of evil looking scythes and Strife had drawn a pair of pistols. The sheer carnage that resulted when they met the enemy charge with their own was awe inspiring even for a veteran Tenno. Pieces of hideously colored warframes flew every which way. Nothing on that side got past them or would intact.
On the other end of the hall, the odd sort-of-human woman stood with the Lotus and Hayden Tenno. She had set her feet and became a rock on which the tide of enemies dashed themselves. Was her weapon a spear or a staff? It seemed to shift from one to the other as she spun it in expert arcs. Then she lashed out and it was a spear that impaled a gaudily painted Ash warframe and threw the broken, bleeding mess into three of its fellows, knocking them all to the ground. Then it was a staff again as she blocked ranged fire from three more, sending the shots back at the attackers. The Lotus and Hayden ranged here and there, weapons flashing as they sought foes who wisely gave the woman with the staff-spear a wide berth. No one was getting by them. Let alone the dozen Tenno in regular colored warframes who had followed them here and formed a rank just behind the spear wielding woman.
The middle had a host of winged golden armored forms who fought with speed and skill. Their weapons were varied, but as beautiful as their armor. It was there that the pink Rhino slammed into the line and pushed it back, a dozen of his fellows charging at his heels. Then more and more. The golden light was still flashing and more of the wrong warframes were appearing. Many more.
Cathi Gata could not move as the line in between the incredibly powerful anchors on either end buckled under sheer weight of numbers. Gemina Horati shook her head slowly as the line of what had to be angels was pushed back.
"Why me?" Cathi Gata managed through whatever was holding her. "Why am I the target?"
"You are linked to Eliza and vulnerable right now. They think to break Eliza." Gemina replied and then lashed out at nothing visible. A shimmer and a gaudy orange Loki warframe was slammed away from her and right into a two handed slash from War which bisected the hapless sneak. "We won't allow it. We have got to get you out of here."
"You! You are going nowhere except back into your cage, traitor!" The voice from the mad version of Eliza was a cackle of maniacal glee as the number of garishly painted warframes doubled and then doubled again! The room was filled to bursting and even the incredible forces arrayed to protect Cathi Gata were being pushed back. Then Fury screamed a full-throated bellow of pure rage as Death took a hard hit from a Fragor hammer and went down for a moment.
"Not this time!" The whip wielder flashed incandescent and then she was shimmering in odd white light as a sword, no, two swords appeared in her hands and she was suddenly moving through the horde as if they were standing still. Every time her blades struck, badly painted warframes fell, sometimes in pieces. She cut a ruler straight line towards the mad Eliza girl who smiled wide as Fury charged her. "You will not take her!"
"Fury! No!" Death called as he rose, but she was on the girl who smiled even wider as the blades bit deep into her and did nothing! Or did they? Energy flared around the girl as she smiled but Fury matched it! The girl's smile faltered as Fury's power matched her own for a moment, but then the Horseman (Horsewoman?) was pushed back and the girl grinned wide as Fury screamed in agony.
"Get Cathi Gata out of here!" Fury shouted as the girl started shimmering with bright dingy light. She was glowing brighter and brighter, but the brightness was growing very slowly as Fury held onto the swords and silvery white power flared form them. Some of the garish warframes started to burst! Failing explosively?
"What? What is happening?" Cathi Gata begged as the light grew brighter and everyone retreated from the now madly cackling girl. Only Fury stood still, her blades still buried in the clearly not human form in front of her as it glowed like the heart of a star. A dirty star. The angels were moving to shield Cathi Gata from whatever was happening even as the garish warframes pressed their assault despite more of their number detonating. The other Nephilim were still fighting, bu they too were retreating.
"She is going to explode, but Fury is slowing her somehow!" Gemina scooped Cathi Gata's form up and slid towards the spear wielder. "Lady Raviine! We need to go!"
"Right." The spear wielder did a kata and her staff was suddenly three times as long as it had been. A dozen garish warframes flew away from her as the Lotus moved to stand by her. Hayden Tenno nodded to the pair and vanished. The other warframes vanished with him, all but one who moved to stand with the Lotus. The Nova Prime warframe nodded to the spear wielder and held out her hand. A flash and the world shifted around them all. A brighter flash heralded a scream of rage from the mad girl and then an even brighter flash of golden power mixed with green. Whatever was happening was eclipsed by dingy white power. Then black overshadowed both and they fell into darkness.
When Cathi Gata could see again, the spear wielder and Lotus were gone. Gemina held her and the Nova Prime warframe stood nearby, wary. The hall they stood in was large, almost airy, but it felt oppressive. It felt wrong to Cathi Gata. Familiar? No. But almost. The walls were a black stone lined with red. Thorny architecture spiked up from every corner and she was-
She stilled as Gemina snarled a foul expletive in an ancient language. When she spoke again, Gemina Horati was coldly furious but tightly controlled. "Cathi Gata, rest, recover. Do nothing but that. Nothing at all."
"You are both welcome here, Gemina Horati." A melodious voice sounded. Cathi Gata looked to where the voice came from and went totally still as a form straight out of human nightmare stepped out of shadow to nod to them. The female from was taller than any human. She wore some kind of bony armor that left little to the imagination. That paled beside the two bat type wings that hung from her back, only… upside down? The horns that curved up form her forehead and the tail that curved up around her body were almost afterthoughts. A classical human image of a demon. The demon frowned, looking at Cathi Gata. "Oh, my dear. What have you done to yourself now?"
"Touch her again and you will pray for death, Lilith. Even your kind can die." Gemina Horati snapped as the Nova Prime warframe beside them started to glow."I won't just tear your wing off this time!"
"Say what you will about me, Tenno..." The demon did not move as tiny motes of light started swirling around the Nova. "...I do learn from my mistakes. I have no interest in pitting myself against the Creator and she made her wishes quite clear. As unrefined as your methods were and are? Hers are far more refined and far less pleasant." The demon actually shuddered. "If I never see another puppy again, it will far too soon." She eyed the Nova who had raised a hand that glowed with fell power. "I am not your enemy today, Tenno."
"Funny." Gemina was not laughing. "You just snatched us out of our escape."
"An escape the mad one was tracking and actively blocking." The demon replied, to all appearances serious now. "You would not have come out the other side. Not intact anyway. This way? No one knows where you are for the moment and for now? You are as safe as you can be in these realms. She cannot remain here." She warned. "My minions have been ordered away, but sooner or later, someone will spy on me. It is what we do."
"And as soon as they do, they will try and garner favor by telling secrets." Gemina might have been carved from ice now.
"And much sooner than any of us would like, the mad one will hear." Lilith shook her head. "For the moment, we are secure. This is the last place she would expect you to take shelter."
"That is the kind of twisty plot you would come up with." Gemina retorted. "There is just one problem. Your kind do not do things for altruistic reasons. What is in it for you?"
"My life. The Apocalypse has come but the Horsemen have been running rampant. The Third Kingdom is gone, but so is much of our Legion. The Council is in chaos. The White City is barred. The Destroyer is gone." Lilith said flatly. "Samael is free and wandering, plotting. My master is not pleased with the situation." She sighed deeply and seemed to relax. "He ordered me to aid you."
"Really?" Gemina was just as capable of scorn as she had ever been. She put about three dictionaries worth of derision into that one word.
"With a new Creator on the field, everything changed." Lilith replied with a growl. She actually looked away. Was that shame or sickness on her face? "It was explained to me in great detail just exactly how badly I erred."
"You very nearly destroyed everything in these Realms." Gemina retorted. "Of course, if you had managed to control Eliza, then it would have all been good. Right?"
"That was the plan, yes." Lilith sighed deeply. "It didn't work."
"You don't say!" Gemina snapped. "All you did was break her! If not for Cathi Gata, you would have destroyed everything! If the other fully escapes her prison, we haven't seen bad yet. Not even you can imagine what she can do to you."
"No, but I have more of an inkling than you likely do." Lilith replied, a small, sick smile curving her inhuman features. "What the Creator did to me was extremely unpleasant. I can only imagine what her twin will do, but I can guess and frankly? I would rather not find out if it is all the same to you. There. Is that selfish enough?" She demanded snidely.
"What did she do to you?" Cathi Gata managed. Gemina hissed, but Lilith just looked sick. The demon spoke under her breath and Gemina stilled, but Cathi couldn't hear her clearly. Had she just said 'Puppies'? "What?"
"She made me a particularly unpleasant solitary reality. She made me spend thirty five centuries helping in a veterinary clinic." The demon said with a wince. "For thirty five human centuries, I got barfed on. Bitten. Slobbered on, shed on, and..." She shuddered and covered her face with her hands. "The puppies... Oh my darkness, the puppies!" Was she about to cry?
"'Puppies'? What?" Cathi Gata inquired as Gemina snickered.
"Can you imagine anything worse to someone who delights in evil than having to spend so long around pure, unthinking, unadulterated love?" Gemina asked with glee in her voice. "And it is not as if the Creator would allow her to corrupt any of them. Did she?"
"NO!" Lilith all but screamed that. "I couldn't get them to stop loving me! And they call me evil!"
"You are evil. But so is Eliza sometimes." Gemina snickered as the demon waved an exasperated hand at her. "Eliza is a nice person when she can be, but she has a vicious streak a kilometer wide when crossed. All kinds of people have underestimated her. It always hurts. You made her very angry with what you did." Gemina relaxed, but just a little. "I would have just killed you. She did show a certain level of mercy."
"Some mercy. She gave my master pause with her vengeance." Lilith allowed and then sighed, nodding to Cathi Gata. "This one needs time to recover. Time to rest and recuperate. The fortress is cleared. I am alone here."
"And we should just trust that." Again, Gemina's scorn probably could have cut right through the stone walls. The Nova shook her head, still silent.
"No," A new voice sounded and Lilith went totally still as a piece of the wall shifted and two forms right out of a Tenno's nightmare stepped out into view. Stalker was bad enough, but he held held his massive two handed sword to menace Lilith who wisely froze. It was the other though...
No one dared to move as the Revenant warframe stepped to Cathi Gata's side and knelt down beside her. That was not Tenno energy that pulsed from it in sickly green/gold waves. But why was Gemina relaxing?
"Falcon! Oh, thank the Creator!" Gemina started to move to stand between him and Lilith, but paused as the Revenant shook its head.
"Do not trust me. I have broken this copy of Stalker free from my father for the moment, but that may not last. Hunhow cannot pass the thresholds of reality, but if he discovers that I can? Tanah was bad enough." The voice that came from the Revenant was calm, assured. Not quite female but close. It was also clearly not from a human or Tenno, "We need her." Her voice turned very gentle now. "You need to rest now, Cathi Gata."
"What is-?" Cathi Gata tried to beg, but the hand of the Revenant flashed with power and she was falling. But… The mind within the Revenant was singing to her!
It was beautiful but…
So…
Sad…
Later
Cathi Gata woke up on a bed that looked awful, but was very comfortable. She felt her internal stores of energy being replenished and she looked up to see the Nova from before sitting on the bed beside her, hand on her arm. The other nodded as the antimatter stream that the other was slowly and carefully feeding power into from Cathi Gata ebbed and vanished. Cathi Gata felt better than she had for some time.
"Thank you." Cathi Gata sad to the Nova who bowed her head. "Do I know you?" She asked and the Nova shook her head. "You don't talk do you?" The Nova shook her head again. "I see." She reached up with a slow hand to lay it on the other warframe's forearm. "Thank you." She repeated.
"We cannot stay here much longer." Gemina's words heralded the Equinox appearing nearby. "I am astonished that we haven't been discovered yet, but Stalker and Falcon have been keeping the place clear of spies. That cannot last though."
"I need information." Cathi Gata said softly and Gemina nodded. "Let me say what I know, then what I have discerned. Then you can tell me the rest?"
"Most of it." Gemina bowed her head. "Some I cannot speak of, but most of it I can. You will need to practice with that warframe. You have never used it that you remember."
"That I remember. I do not remember either of you, but you both know me. I came here with Eliza." Cathi Gata said softly as the Nova rose to stand by Gemina Horati. Odd. They looked very similar, but not physically or color wise. Something about them was similar, but whatever it was, it defied Cathi Gata's befuddled mind. "I warded her."
"As only true guardswoman would." Gemina Horati agreed. "Whatever evils you may have committed in your world? In this Realm, you are a hero."
"Something very bad happened to Eliza here." Cathi Gata said softly. "She did things. Created..." She paused as she stared at the Nova who bowed her head. "She didn't just create you, did she, Gemina Horati?"
"No." Gemina replied evenly. "The moment she made me, used the powers of the Creator, the forces of Hell marched against her. To slay her or take and use her, the result would have been the same. She had incredible power, but no skill in using said power and very little stamina. She was hurt, if not as badly as you were. She needed all the help she could get until the backup you had set up arrived." The Equinox shook her head. "Say what you will about demons or angels being sneaky, no one expected the Four Horsemen to show up!" She chuckled a bit wryly. "They are something to see."
"From a safe distance." Cathi Gata corrected and both other female warframe nodded fervently. "Not that I think distance means much to those."
"Not much at all." Gemina sighed deeply and held out a hand that Cathi Gata took with only minor misgivings now. She pulled Cathi Gata off the bed and… She held Cathi as she realized that her feet were gone! That she was hovering off the ground. "Easy!" Gemina said sharply as Cathi Gata started to panic. "It is all right! You are all right! Your warframe is intact!"
"I do not have feet, Gemina!" Cathi Gata felt an old familiar fear as Gemina held her despite her sudden struggles. The Nova laid a hand on Cathi Gata's other arm and the frightened Tenno subsided a little. This wasn't her past. She stared at the rest of herself that she could see and the warframe was very different from how her Valkyr had been. "This… This is not my warframe!"
"It is." Gemina just held Cathi Gata's hand, not moving at all as Cathi Gata fought with her emotions. "Eliza was always very smart, but she was only six years old when you were so badly hurt and she tried to help. She didn't know anything about Tenno physiology or warframe construction. She didn't know what she was doing any more than she did when she created me and Sera here. You didn't berate her. You loved her and she loved you. You nearly died for her, several times. It was the job, but so much more for you."
"No greater love hath a being than she will lay down her life for her fellows." The voice that came from the Revenant warframe was still just as wrong as it had been as it stepped into the room. It nodded to Cathi Gata. "For the discourtesy of subduing you, I apologize, Cathi Gata. I am Falcon. You were stressed. I hope you feel better." Such a kind voice from such a horrible looking warframe was jarring.
"I feel better if very confused and frightened." Cathi Gata was still staring at where her legs ended just above where feet would be. "What is going on?"
Everyone looked at Gemina who nodded.
"A prison is breaking and far worse things than Hell are coming out of it."