cum saevit et imperatrix
(When an Empress rages)
"NO!"
The scream from the bed silenced everything as the Tenno known as Cathi Gata fell off it. No one had dared touch her while golden energy had bound her to Eliza, but then the energy had vanished and the Tenno had fallen to lie still. Nothing alive was so utterly still. Her saber rolled to one wall and everyone shied away from the weapon. Will moved to stand over it, but did not touch it.
"Empress! Remain still!" Brianna Executor commanded as her drones worked feverishly to heal the horrific wound that traced the Empress body from her left shoulder halfway down her front. It was barely visible, the energy blade had cut cleanly and in a very small area, but it had bit deep. "Don't make me restrain you!"
"Not her!" Eliza screamed again as two Royal Guard warframes took careful hold of her arms and she was going nowhere. "Not Cathi! Not her! Me! Take me, Naomi! NOT HER!"
"She cannot hear you." The Lotus said as she reappeared nearby, a small orange sentient hovered beside her. The Lotus was crying and Falcon was making noises of grief. "She made her choice, Eliza."
"WHAT CHOICE?" Eliza screamed as she fought vainly to free herself. "What choice do any of the Guard have but to serve? To die! For me!"
"If you do not calm down, I will sedate you!" Brianna Executor snapped, her own fury fanned almost to the breaking point. "A centimeter to the right and this would have killed you!"
"My guard hit what she aimed at." Eliza's voice turned cold and commanding. "Lilly. Front and center!"
"Empress… I..." A path was made from the door and Lilly's Nova warframe was all but shaking in grief as she stepped to the Empress' bedside. "I… I didn't remember… He blocked my memories! I didn't remember!"
"Remember what?" Eliza snapped, all pretense of calm fading in her need to lash out at something. Lilly looked away, but Eliza was having none of it. "Guardswoman, if you do not answer me, I am going to get out of this bed and kick your ass!" Brianna groaned softly but focused on her work.
"That is your right. If you wish, I will not resist." Lilly said quietly. "But if I do tell you, you will be even more upset than you are." Eliza stared at her and Lilly bowed her head. "Your father placed a block on several of my memories. Memories that pertained to her." She slowly knelt down beside the still form on the floor. "She was the best of us, before she was so twisted. And even then, she was better than most. I had no choice but to cast her out, but she was always one of us. Please, do not ask this of me. Not now. Please?" She begged the Empress.
"Wait..." Eliza paled. "Naomi knew Cathi... She… OH MY GOD!" She screamed in both rage and pain as realization dawned.
"Empress, please! Let the healer work!" Lilly knelt by the bedside and took the Empress' slack hand in her own. "What is done is done. We cannot change the past."
"You can't." Eliza was not looking at Lilly. She was eyeing the dragon in human form who stared at her, nonplussed.
"Liza, I am truly sorry for what has happened, but don't even think about it!" The dragon was calm, but wary. "You have no idea the repercussions!"
"I don't?" Eliza asked very softly and everyone in the room stiffened as the iron core of her will shone through her words. Angry Empress was never a good thing. Now? Worse. "You forget who you speak to, warden."
"Liza, she made her choice a long time ago." The dragon tried again. "I know you are angry. Heaven knows, you have a right to it. Angry with me, with your ancestors who created that mess, with everyone. But you cannot act out. Not now." He shook his head. "Will you dishonor her sacrifice?"
"Do not speak to me of dishonor, warden." Eliza's tone was hard and everyone stared from her to the dragon and back. "You knew. I know you have many ways of telling future events. You knew what would happen here and you did nothing. I know why. You could have saved her, but it did not serve your ends, so you let my knight die. So be it. I will never work with you again and I will deny my retainers the right to be enslaved by you!."
"Liza!" The warden was shaking his head as every stared at him. "I get that you are angry, but don't do anything rash!"
"Whatever you may think, warden..." Eliza said with a growl that was pure angry predator. "I am not your property. I am not a piece of your hoard. That little girl who you met so long ago is dead. Killed by her mother's lusts and greed. Killed by her father's apathy. Killed by your need for a replacement for the one you lost! That little girl was looking for safety or sanity in a world gone mad and she found nothing but pain with you and yours."
"Empress..." Lilly begged as Eliza sat up. Brianna stared as the wound she had been tending opened again, wider but when she tried to restrain the Empress, her power did nothing! The warframes tried to hold her and could not get a grip on her as Eliza slid to her feet beside the bed. Lilly reached for her, but golden energy rebuffed her. "No."
"You pulled me and Catherine out of our reality." Eliza said very quietly as she took a faltering step towards the dragon. Many people tried to get between them, but they couldn't. Somehow, she was keeping them away. "You are responsible. If the Prison had taken me, I wouldn't have suffered what my mother did. I am sure it would have taken me from the Tenno who I took refuge with… Except that someone taught me how to walk in places I shouldn't. 'Because I had lost my protector', you said. Another lie. I never lost her. She was always my protector. Just like Naomi was yours."
"Naomi was my friend." The dragon did not move as Eliza advanced on him.
"Liar." Eliza's word was very quiet but everyone jerked as if she had screamed. "I know what the Link is. You cannot lie to me. You also cannot hold me with that, so get the hell out of my reality before I kick you out."
"Liza, I get that you are grieving-" Whatever else the dragon was going to say was cut off when Eliza hit him. What she did was odd. It wasn't a teleport. It wasn't a phase jump. It wasn't a wormhole. One moment, she was halfway to where he stood, her fists clenching in rage, the next, she had hit him. She hit him in the throat with a full strength strike. She had not crossed the intervening distance, she had simply been there! Anything human would have been killed by such a strike. He was just shocked. He stared at her, hands up to ward just a hair too late.
"Stop talking and get the hell out of our reality! You are not welcome here." Eliza snapped. "I will not buy anything that you sell now. If I see your mate, I will hurt her. Neither of you had any right to use Cathi Gata this way. Me, yes. I asked for your help when I realized the Prison was activating and you promised it so my soul would have been be your slave for eternity. Except… You lied of course." She shook her head. "Par for the course when dealing with lesser beings, right?"
"It is not like that, Liza." The dragon backed away, his hands up to ward.
"Oh?" Eliza asked as she knelt down by Cathi Gata's lightsaber, looking at it instead of the dragon. Everyone was backing away as she scrutinized it. "I wondered, you know. I wondered how the other me's realized Cathi was dying."
"'Other'?" Lilly asked weakly.
"I have access to all the records my father left, Lilly. I didn't remember what Naomi did to Cathi Gata until you jogged my memory." Eliza said quietly. "I saw what she did at the palace." She smiled grimly as Lilly choked. "You were very insulting."
"I… Yes, I was." Lilly bowed her head. "She um... She made an impression."
"That she did. When you hit even Orokin walls with enough warframes, they do tend to leave marks. We all wondered where that dent in the ceiling had come from." Eliza smiled wider as Lilly shook her head. The expression was more 'shark' than 'friendly'. "I know what you are trying to protect me from, Lilly, but that is the wrong threat."
"What?" Lilly demanded along with the other Guards.
"I have talked with my counterparts a time or two." Eliza said very quietly. "They were worried about me. Especially after my powers manifested. They helped." She glared at the warden who had frozen in place. "Go. Away."
"Liza..." The dragon tried again.
"Liza is dead." The Empress said flatly as she turned back to stare at the lightsaber. "You killed her. Go away."
"Nikis! Stop her!" The warden tried again, but the Nekros who stood near one wall slowly shook his head.
"I ain't got the right." Nikis said very softly as he took a step towards Eliza, but he wasn't hostile. If anything? He was bemused. "She ain't stepping on my duty. It wasn't my job to stop Cathi Gata from doing what she did. I saw that weapon and I freaked. I apologize, Empress." He bowed to Eliza!
"I am about to step on your duty, Grandmaster of the Dead. There is balance between life and death for a reason." Eliza was still so very quiet. "Stop me if you must, but I will not let anyone enslave Cathi again!" She ignored the blood that fell down her front. It wasn't a lot.
"You are bleeding." Nikis said as he moved to her side, but he stood between her and the dragon.
"I will live." Eliza did not quite snarl that. "No matter what I may wish, my duty comes first. But this..." She nodded to where Cathi Gata lay. "This is wrong!"
"Yeah." Nikis allowed. "Yeah, it is. What do you need?"
"I need to talk to Nyx and Atlas." Eliza said in a tiny voice as she reached for Cathi Gata's saber.
"Liza! No!" Will started forward, but every single warframe in the room moved to stand between him and her. "I was trying to help!"
"Like Raviine did." Eliza's words were mild, but the dragon recoiled anyway. "She was so nice, but so insistent that I stay. A cage made of velvet is still a cage. A prison just like the one Cathi just saved me from! I remember."
"That is not possible!" Will said and then blanched.
"Yeah." Eliza smiled wider and even a shark might have gotten goosebumps! "You wiped the memories. Too bad my other selves backed them up before you did that. 'Trust not in the word of dragons' and all of that." The dragon stared at her, horror rising and she nodded. "I remember. And you are leaving."
That was not a suggestion. Every member of the Royal Guard had weapons in hand now. For all the good they might do against a warden of reality!
"Eliza..." Raviine appeared standing near one wall and everything stopped as Eliza grasped the saber and it ignited! But where Cathi Gata's blade had been silver to denote her walking a neutral path between good and evil, this one was the color of blood! Of rage. Of hate.
Everyone moved aside as Eliza rose, the blade in her hand aimed at the female dragon who froze.
"My name is Elizabeth and you are my enemy." Eliza's hate roiled off her in waves. "I remember. I went to that sleazy Vulgrim despite Cathi's misgivings. He tried to warn me that the information I bought from him was suspect, but I had no idea why. Then she boasted as she tormented me, Lilith did." She took a step towards the female dragon who backed up only to hit the wall. "She boasted of who told her I was coming! That I would become her slave, that Cathi would join you!"
"Demons lie." Raviine tried but Eliza was having none of it.
"Yes, they do." The Empress agreed and her smile now? Oh god, there were no words! "Except when crippled and being held over a pit filled with ravenous imps by a furious warframe commanded by a furious Creator. Then, they don't lie." She shook her head. "Grandmaster Nikis? I need to talk to them."
"You need to put that down." Nikis said slowly.
"If I do, they will take Cathi's soul." Eliza replied and everything stopped. "I won't allow that."
"She is dishonored here." Raviine said slowly. "She is lost here."
"She has family here." Eliza retorted. "Family you worked hard to keep her from remembering. After all, Rule Two doesn't apply if no one knows they are kin, does it?"
"We would have protected her and them!" Raviine was getting angry now, but the Empress might have been carved from ice.
"Bullshit." Eliza scoffed. "Make me forget. Make Cathi forget, make them silent. It all good. Except for one little tiny thing. One being remembered. One being took steps." She slowly shook her head. "It is always the little things. There will be no violence here unless she starts it." That was a command.
"Empress..." Nikis warned as both of the dragons shifted a bit. "This isn't making a lot of sense."
"You don't have all of the information." Eliza replied, not looking away from the female dragon who was flexing her fingers as if a staff was in them. "You are smart enough not to want it all."
"And?" Nikis asked.
"Four new Tenno appeared out of nowhere and were added to the fold, before the Sentients." Eliza said very quietly. "Before the War. You paid little attention. You had your own duty, as horrific as it was. But some did. Their names were Franklin, Kano, Helen and Sera. At least my Father and the advisor he trusted let Cathi name them." She shook her head. "No one asked when the one who took them from the palace to the Tenno Citadel said they were his family. That they had lost their parents to the Virus and needed a new home. The Tenno took them in, were kind to them. No one inquired. No one was that stupid until I was." She made a face of pure self loathing.
"Liza, no." Will breathed. "It wasn't like that."
"She was a slave, but she was their mother." Eliza snapped. "I had no idea why they were always so nice to me!" She was crying softly now. "Why they deferred to me! Why they called me 'Aunt Eliza'! I didn't know them! I was twelve when I met them! Broken and hurting in so many ways! They were so kind to me when they didn't need to be after what my father did to them, to their mother! At another's behest. You tore that kind and gentle family apart! You!" She leveled the red energy blade at Raviine who froze. "Tell them." The dragon was shaking her head but Eliza's rage would not be denied. "Tell these present why you silenced them! All four of them! Two took oaths, two would not and vanished from our reality!"
"What?" That came from many, including the male dragon who was shaking his head. "Liza… I..."
"This has been a long time coming." Eliza said with a growl as she stalked towards the female dragon who had her staff in hand now. "Cathi's kids were blameless. They were just children! You had no right."
"You cannot beat me." Raviine said as Eliza shifted to a ready stance.
"Beat you? No. I can't match you power for power. Then again..." Eliza agreed, but again, her smile was an evil thing. "I don't have to." She bowed her head and she she spoke it as in a language that none present understood but the dragons, both of whom recoiled. [Loyalty. Duty. Honor. Respect. Vigilance. Prowess. Humility. Courtesy. Valor. Service. Sacrifice.] She raised her hear and her eyes were glowing the same red as her weapon! "Heard and witnessed."
"Heard and witnessed." The black haired form of Nia Korr stepped out of nowhere to stand by Eliza. Her own sword was in hand as she moved to flank the furious Empress. Both of the dragons recoiled again as the Bladeborn drew a lightsaber in her off hand and it ignited a spray of green energy. "Hello, Elizabeth." The Grandmaster of the Bladeborn seemed calm, but her green eyes were flashing. The calm was a facade. She was just as angry as Eliza was. "You have found me a good fight this time."
"Nia." Eliza replied the same way. "They think to hold Cathi. Over my dead body."
"Mine too." Nia agreed as she faced both of the wardens who seemed shell shocked. "What it is it going be, wyrms? Do you surrender my battlesister or do we fight? Please say fight. Please?" She all but begged. "I haven't had a decent fight since Malgus tried Si'to'lon space last." She stretched just a little to settle her silver armor. It left no holes in her guard.
"Liza? What have you done?" Will stared at Nia whose face was grim.
"Trust not in the promises of man." Eliza quoted very quietly. "Be he royal or common, human or other, mortals are fallible. We make mistakes. Taking Cathi the way she did was a mistake." Raviine slowly shook her head.
"What?" Will stared from Eliza to his mate and back. "I don't understand."
"It might help if you knew who created the prison in the first place." Nia said evenly. "Not to safeguard the Orokin Royal Family line, although that was what it eventually became. But for another purpose entirely."
"I do not understand." Will said softly. He did not draw a weapon.
"Lotus?" Eliza asked the frozen blue armored form. "What was the name of the being who created the Prison of Duty for Talia's great grandson to test aspirants for a certain role within the Royal Family?" The Lotus stared at her and then hissed. "Yes, the file is sealed. Here is the code: 'Dragon'."
Everyone stare as the Lotus recoiled and then she too became angry.
"You lying bitch!" The Lotus had her Dex Dakra swords in hand as she move to stand beside the Bladeborn and the Empress. "You stood there and lied to me! You lied to Hayden! You lied to everyone!"
"Liza?" Will asked when no one else dared to move. "What is going on?"
"The woman who prodded my ancestor into creating the Prison of Duty to make a specific kind of super soldier, a 'warden'?" At Eliza's cold words, more than one of the surrounding beings hissed. "Her name was Raviine."
"Damn." The female dragon sighed and then the world shifted. Eliza stood on front of the dragon alone on a featureless red plain. Raviine hefted her staff and shook her head. "It wasn't like that. I won't hurt her. She will be loved."
"Like a pet." Eliza spat those words at the dragon who was unmoved.
"No." The dragon shook her head. "The Link is not slavery, Elizabeth. Our enemies are slavers. We will give her the choice!"
"Some choice." Eliza snarled. "Live or die. She would rather die that be a puppet to anyone again."
"Every one of us is a puppet in some way, Elizabeth." The dragon held out an empty hand. "Give me the saber."
"Come and get it." The saber ignited in Eliza's hand again. "For the first time, I can repay some of the monumental debt I owe her."
"You cannot beat me." The dragon said quietly. "Not alone."
"Then it is a good thing she is not alone, isn't it?" The dragon had a moment to gawk as a horde of demons appeared and charged her. The speaker landed lightly beside Eliza and shook her horned head. "Not that I want anything to do with 'good'. This really rankles."
"Would you prefer to lose another wing?" Eliza smirked at Lilith who shuddered. "Or puppies?"
"NO!" Lilith all but ran at the embattled dragon. "Anything but that!"
"Figured."