Faults

"Elizabeth?" Cathi Gata did not lower her blade and none of the other Tenno moved. "How long?"

"Not very." The younger version of Empress Eliza said quietly. "Tenno, this does not concern you. This Tenno is not a renegade. She is obeying her oldest duty. She was always my most devoted protector." She smiled a bit wetly at Cathi Gata. "I hurt her, so badly. It was my fault. I know it. The energy went for me and you pushed me out of the way. It hit you instead. You went there instead of me." She was crying now. "If only I had-" She broke off as Cathi Gata coughed.

"Let's not start the blame game, Elizabeth." Cathi Gata said quietly, not taking looking away from her opponents. "What happened was horrible. It was no one's fault but your ancestors who came up with that horrific plan and place. I can only hope that whoever did paid for it."

"She did." The small Eliza said with a growl. "She was the first governor."

"Good." Cathi Gata shook her head. "We need to focus on the 'now'. Tenno, this is an Orokin matter. Not a Tenno matter. The Empress needs help. I am going to give it. If I have to do it over your dismembered, smoking warframes, I will." No anger. No fear. No mercy.

"Rachel, Grandmaster Nikis, stand down!" Lilly pleaded as she finally released Brianna Executor. The Orokin growled annoyance and moved away from the Royal Guard to stand next to Iriana and Mishka who stood as if petrified. "This is not what you think!"

"What I think is that she is holding something that she cannot be." Nikis snapped right back. "That is forbidden!"

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet." Lilly actually chuckled and everyone but the saber wielding Tenno and Eliza stared at her. "I was there. Twenty Royal Guard in the middle of the Royal Summer Palace versus one Masterblade of the Bladeborn. We had no chance."

"I was told that I didn't kill anyone then either." Cathi Gata said with a shrug. "I don't remember that."

"No, you just humiliated all of us." Lilly actually laughed, but there was little mirth in it. "Admittedly, I was rather insulting when you asked me what was going on. I learned my lesson. Being stuck to the ceiling was no fun. Trying to put all of our weapons back together afterwards was less fun."

"Better a weapon destroyed than a life." Cathi Gata said very quietly and Lilly nodded. "Is she all right?" She inclined her head to the unconscious Trinity Prime.

"Holly is alive. She will heal." Lilly reassured the woman with the silver blade. "Elizabeth?" She asked the smaller version of the Empress. "Are you…?" She broke off as if unsure what to ask.

"I am lucid for the moment. It won't last." The girl said sadly. "I barely remember that." Then she smiled and it was pure little girl. "Catherine is something to see, isn't she?"

"She is. From a safe distance." Lilly had a matching grin in her voice. It faded. "I didn't remember until she gave the code. Now I do. Elizabeth, Catherine, I… I am sorry."

"Not your fault, Lilly." Cathi Gata reassured the other. "I can save the Empress and I must. I am the only one who can."

"Why were you singing that song?" Mishka asked from where she stood. Cathi Gata did not react but everyone else stared at the Bard. "I queried our datafiles. That song is about a desperate last stand. You… You were not singing about the Guard who blocked you, were you?"

"You do not want to know the answer to that." The small Eliza said very softly. "You truly do not, Mishka, daughter of Iriana."

"Who are you?" Mishka asked, fear rising.

"My name is Elizabeth, young Tenno. Have no fear. I mean you and yours no harm." The small version of the Empress nodded at the bard. "I am… I was six years old when this all happened. When Catherine saved me. When she paid the price for my family's arrogance. I had no idea what had happened to her or why. When I found out, when I… When I saw you in the Prison, Catherine, I… I lost it completely."

"It is all right, Elizabeth." Cathi Gata said with a sigh. "I can do this. I can stop it. But I have to do it now."

"You are going nowhere!" Nikis snapped. "You have violated the barriers! The wardens are going to be pissed!"

"Even you have no idea how angry they are right now." Eliza said very quietly. "Grandmaster Nikis, please don't interfere. This is an Orokin matter. It does not involve any Tenno but Catherine. You do not-" She sighed as orange power flared from Nikis. "Don't do that!" She warned. "You won't like what happens!"

"Deactivate the weapon, drop it and back away from it!" Nikis snapped. Cathi Gata ignored him and everyone went still. "Did you not hear me?" He asked in a dangerous voice.

"I do not take orders from you right now, Grandmaster Nikis." Cathi Gata said in a matching voice! "I honor your sacrifices as a Grandmaster Tenno, but you do not command me right now."

"Either you drop it, or I will drop you." Nikis warned.

"You will try." Cathi Gata corrected him and everyone stared at her in shock. Everyone but Eliza and Lilly, both of whom sighed. No one talked like that to Nikis!

"Nikis! No!" Lilly begged. "She is obeying the Emperor's express commands! She cannot disobey his commands any more than these could disregard the Empress'!" She waved at the fallen Guards. "You don't understand!"

"I understand what I need to." Nikis snapped. "She has violated the barrier! That cannot be borne."

"Have I?" The brown armored Tenno wielding the lightsaber asked. She wasn't asking anyone present!

"Yes but you had cause and more than cause." Will said as he stepped out of nowhere to stand beside her. Nikis actually backpedaled a step as the Lord of the Darkstorms eyed him. "You don't want to do that, Nikis. You don't. Yes, she violated the rules, but we did first." He turned to the small Eliza who was watching him with hooded eyes. "It won't change anything, but I am sorry, Liza."

"You had good reason for what you did, but it caused all kinds of problems." The small Eliza said in a tone that was far too old for such a small girl. "What it did to me, I can almost accept, but what it did to her… What my family did to her to try and get me back?" Somehow, she was beside Cathi Gata and laid a hand on the still warframe's arm. "That I cannot accept."

"My duty was and is to protect you." Cathi Gata said very quietly as she shifted her blade a bit to avoid Eliza. "It always was and it always will be. Changing realities does not change that."

"No." The small Eliza turned to Nikis who was staring at her. "This is an Orokin matter, but now that I think about it? It does touch on Tenno matters. My Guard is Tenno but she is obeying orders." She growled that. "Mine and my father's. You have no call to interfere, Grandmaster Nikis. I am to blame for her violating the reality barrier. She followed me into hell, literally. She protected me in places that I doubt even you can imagine. She does not remember because I took the memories of what my family did to her and utterly destroyed them. For good reason. She is the current Empress' only chance."

"And you… are..." Nikis asked slowly.

"I am less and more than I was when the wardens tried to save me from my sister Naomi's fate." Eliza said quietly. "When a very brave Tenno named Catherine stepped between me and them. The Empress here has suffered and I am sorry for that, but this was needed. She is needed here, just as I am needed elsewhere. There is only one being in existence anywhere who might be able to stop Empress Eliza from being subsumed by the Prison of Duty. She stands in front of you. Let Catherine do her duty."

At those words, Nikis stiffened. He stared from Eliza to Cathi Gata and back. Then he looked at Will who shrugged.

"I tried to save Naomi. I failed." Will said sadly. "I cannot save Eliza. I bet she can." He nodded to Cathi Gata who still didn't move. "If not? She can lead us to it so we can tear it apart." The sheer hate in his voice would have scared a Grineer army into flight. "For Naomi, for Elizabeth, for Catherine! It will be destroyed today!" He shook his head as Nikis set himself. "Nikis, don't!" The dragon begged! "She is doing what she must!"

"As am I." Nikis snarled. "She cannot hold that weapon here or this entire reality may destabilize."

"Who are you talking to, Nikis?" The dragon in human seeming asked quietly. "You think we have just sat on our hands since we realized it was happening again? She has our permission, hell, our blessing! All of us liked Naomi! We will not let it happen again."

"Grandmaster, if you fight her, you will lose." Eliza said softly. "She has faced and defeated foes the likes of which even you cannot imagine." She smiled a bit sadly. "Hell, she faced me down more than once when I was being a stupid or silly child."

"You were a child, but you were my princess." Cathi Gata said firmly as she took a slow step forward only to pause as Nikis blocked her way. No one else seemed to dare to move. "My orders are clear. This is an Orokin matter and right now? I am Royal Guard again. Time and dishonor do not abrogate my oaths to the Royal Family. Empress Eliza is in grave danger and no one else can save her. I will. Move, Grandmaster. Now."

"No." Lilly screamed as Nikis threw orange energy, not at Cathi Gata, but at Eliza! The energy stopped halfway to the girl who slowly shook her head. Everyone stared at the brown armored warframe who had one hand up in a grasping motion. "Catherine! No! He didn't mean that!"

"Yes, he did." Cathi Gata might have been carved from ice as Nikis jerked, clearly fighting something that could not be seen. "He sees the world through the blinkers of his own duty. That is both good and bad. I am not so blinkered." Her grasping hand clenched and the energy faded. "I gave him the chance. You all will want to move." She warned.

"Catherine..." Eliza said weakly. "Don't. Please?"

"No one threatens you in my presence." Cathi Gata's tone was calm. A calm before a sudden storm. She looked at the warden who bowed his head and moved to stand by Lilly who was shaking her own head. Eliza bowed her head and suddenly everyone but Nikis was on that side of the room with her! The Nekros stood alone and was still jerking between the door and Cathi Gata.

"Catherine… You do not have time for this." Eliza said sadly. "Nor do I." Orange energy flared. Nikis snarled as he finally broke loose from whatever held him. He aimed his pistols at the girl. "Grandmaster, don't!" She begged. "Please, for once in your life, have faith that others want to make things right!"

"Whatever you done to her, you lying witch, I will stop- Urk!" Nikis jerked as his pistols went flying and then he was scrabbling at his throat as Cathi Gata's hand shifted to almost a pinching motion?

"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Totally deadpan! A perfect mimicry of one of the most famous fictional villains of all time!

Everybody was suddenly laughing as Nikis fell to his knees and then he was laughing. Choked laughter, but still laughter! Cathi Gata lowered her hand.

"You... did not... just say that!" The black Nekros gasped out as he rose to his feet. "You… This… I..." He stammered and then he stilled as Cathi Gata deactivated her lightsaber.

"If we fight, I will fail my duty." Cathi Gata said sadly. "Please, Grandmaster. I know the costs of what I am doing. I will pay them. You have my word on that. Cathi Gata's. Not the slave Cathi. Not the Royal Guard Catherine, the Tenno Cathi Gata. This reality will be preserved. I swear it by Blood and by Steel,..." She reached down to a cut in her armor and spread a bit of blood that was seeping out with her fingers. "...I will pay the cost once my duty is done."

"Not if I can help it." Eliza muttered in a quiet voice. The brown armored Tenno looked at her and Eliza bowed her head. "You have suffered enough for me. I will save you if I can."

"You can't." Cathi Gata stepped up to Nikis and offered her hand that did not hold the saber. "Grandmaster, I know what I am doing. I can save the Empress. Please? Let me?" She pleaded.

"I am blinkered." Nikis mused. "After so long, so angry, so filled with rage, I am blinkered. I..." he slumped. "I can't. I gotta stop you. I am sorry."

"I know. So am I." Cathi Gata's extended hand became a fist and a pulse of energy threw the Nekros into the wall where he hung, struggling fruitlessly against whatever held him there. "I have to do this."

"Why?" That came from the white Nidus as he strode to stand not quite in front of the brown armored form. "Why do you have to suffer again?"

"You may not remember, but you do understand honor, Karl." Cathi Gata said softly as she started for the door again, the Nidus pacing her. "If I do nothing, if I let Empress Eliza and her family suffer the fate I did, then what am I? I can stop this. I have to."

"I do not remember you, but the feelings are clear. I loved you." Karl said sadly. "I… Cathi Gata, please? Let me help?"

"You can't." The Force using Tenno made it to the door and paused as Karl physiclaly blocked it. "I mean no offense to you or any Tenno, but you can't! None of you can face this! Not even Nikis! It is Orokin, not Tenno! It will ignore you! All of you! You cannot hurt it. The warden cannot hurt it! I cannot hurt it. What I can do is stop it."

"How?" That came from Mishka whose face was ashen. "That song... A last-" She broke off. "NO!" She screamed as Cathi Gata bowed her head. "Not you! Not you!"

"It has to be me, Mishka." Cathi Gata said sadly. "This will hurt everyone, but I have to do it. It has to be me. I am the only one left besides Eliza who it will recognize. I cannot hurt it but I can stop it. Karl, please? If you ever loved me, let me end on my terms?"

"'End'?" Karl asked weakly.

"I violated the reality barrier when I summoned my lightsaber to me. There is only one penalty for doing that and committing violence with such." Cathi Gata held up the deactivated weapon and shook her head. "I needed it. I might have been able to win against so many Guard without it, but it would have taken far too long." She held up her other hand and her Glaive sprouted, not a Tenno weapon. Her Bladeborn sword. It vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "Some of my memories were stored in this. Not many. Enough. I prefer steel to energy, I always have, I always will. That didn't change when I found myself in another reality, fighting beside a group of very strange people who accepted me for what I was, even not knowing who I was. Like knows like and I think you would like the Bladeborn, Karl." She shook her head. "I hope you never meet them, but I know you would like them. Honorable, but not stupid about it."

"Catherine..." The small Eliza was crying softly as Will knelt to fold her in his arms. "I am sorry!"

"I am not." Cathi Gata reached out to hug Karl and then stepped past him. He did not move, just bowed his head as she opened the door and stepped in. Golden energy sang all around her as she stepped past the door and into horror.

"No." The Empress was awake. She sat up on the bed, surrounded by frozen warframes, some of whom had weapons in hand, but all of them were frozen in place by golden energy. Energy that shimmered from every crack and cranny of the Orokin room. "Cathi? NO! Oh God, no!" She begged as golden energy swirled around her, stymied by her own power, but only for the moment. It would not last.

"It is all right, Eliza. As always? I do my duty." Cathi Gata said as she strode to where the Empress sat, tears starting to fall. "But this duty, I do gladly." She shook her head. "Naomi, you will hurt her if you keep pressing. Is that a part of the program?"

"Who are you, Tenno?" A voice came form nowhere as a dark skinned woman in a beautiful golden dress appeared nearby. She was energy, not flesh. Naomi wore a perplexed look. "You are familiar, but not."

"Leave her alone, Naomi!" Eliza croaked as her energy was pushed back. "You have hurt her enough!" She gasped as Cathi Gata reached out to take her hand. "No! Don't!"

"I know what I am doing, Empress." Cathi Gata reassured the stricken Empress, giving her hand a squeeze. "I won't let her do it to anyone else. Not you, not your sister or your daughters. No one."

"Tenno. Always with the melodramatics." Naomi said with a deep sigh. "I will not hurt her! She is needed. I am losing my faculties and she will take my place."

"Over my dead body." Cathi Gata said with a growl.

"That can be arranged." A beam of golden energy lashed out from Naomi, but Cathi Gata was in motion. She blocked the path to Eliza, drew her saber and ignited it in one fluid move. The silver blade deflected the beam harmlessly. "What is that?" Naomi demanded.

"Something unreal." Cathi Gata shook her head as the golden form stared at the silver blade. "Eliza, do you trust me?"

"With my life, Cathi Gata." Eliza smiled a bit wanly as Naomi's energy crushed in on her again.

"Gata?" Naomi inhaled in shock. "Catherine Gata? Oh no. I apologize. I thought you were..." She broke off as Cathi Gata's saber moved and then stopped just under Eliza's chin! A twitch of her wrist and she would take the Empress' head off. "What? NO!"

"Your evil ends today! If I have to slay her to save her from your horror, I will!" Cathi Gata snapped as she held golden power way from her with sheer force of will. The golden tendrils besetting Eliza swept closer to the Tenno, trying to push her saber away, but they couldn't seem to touch it. "You will do what you did to me to no one else!"

"What I did was wrong." Naomi said slowly. "I thought… I expected Eliza to be pulled, not a female of child bearing age. The machinery took over and I… It is my fault and my responsibility. I couldn't stop it until the cycle was done!"

"I know." Cathi Gata was calm again. "But it ends today. You will do that to no more women. The Royal Family does not need the Prison now. Your sister knows her duty."

"And the future?" Naomi asked, to all appearances sad. "What of that?"

"Orokin has no future! It is gone!" Eliza snapped. "The crown has no hold on me any more! Talia's line is gone! Good riddance!" The hate in her tone could have etched steel.

"Eliza, no." Cathi Gata said softly as Naomi flared brighter and brighter. "Let me handle this. Prison governor? If you try to take her, I will kill her and then you. With this, I can kill energy forms."

"Fine." Naomi shook her head as the energy faded from around Eliza but neither of the woman relaxed. "I hurt you. You need rest."

That was the only warning before golden power slammed into her from nowhere with so much force that even with all of her skill and experience, Cathi Gata could only take it for a moment before passing out.

A moment was all she needed. Her silver blade bit deep into Eliza's chest before falling out of the Tenno's hand as she collapsed to the floor. She saw Eliza fall back to the bed, but the Empress was still breathing as Naomi screamed in rage. And... Eliza was smiling! Cathi Gata saw the blade shut down just as she blacked out.

So far, so good...