Reverberation

Cathi Gata smiled at the slumbering Empress. Even in sleep, Eliza seemed almost as tense as she did when she was awake. They had talked long and hard and despite Jesse' s less than subtle attempts at coercion, nothing else had happened or would for some time. They both needed time.

She felt it and laid her hand on Eliza's as the Empress woke up and instantly started looking for threats. She had felt the pulse too. But then Eliza smiled.

"It is all right, Cathi." Eliza said with a smile at the befuddled Tenno. "It is a summons, not a threat." "Did you get any sleep?" Eliza asked. The Tenno shook her head and the Empress sighed. "I didn't mean to nod off. Its been a hell of a day, or however long it has actually been."

"That it has." Cathi Gata agreed. She felt the pulse again. "A summons? From who?"

"Another me." Eliza sighed and sat up, her eyes lit on Cathi Gata who did not try to cover herself this time. They had talked about a lot of things. "It is not an emergency. She just wants to talk."

"Is there any way I can get real clothes before I talk to another you?" Cathi Gata fought to keep a whining tone out of her voice and succeeded. Mostly.

"This is all in the mind, Cathi." Eliza hugged the Tenno gently. "When we go, you will appear as you wish to. Which warframe?"

"I am used to the Valkyr." Cathi Gata did not shy away form Eliza's grasp this time.. Eliza was still so fragile that it hurt to look at her. "But the other one feels right. I should wear it. You made that one, did you not?"

"Not me." Eliza corrected. "I don't have those memories. Part of me wishes I did, but most of me is very glad I do not."

"It must get really confusing to have three of you." Cathi Gata frowned as Eliza chuckled. "What?"

"There are a lot more than three." Eliza smiled and took Cathi Gata's hands in her own. "You will be in your Wisp warframe when we arrive. No one will offer you the slightest disrespect. No one will threaten me."

"Where are we going?" Cathi Gata all but begged as odd many colored power flared around Eliza. It wasn't Void energy. It was something else, but it felt good to the battered Tenno's senses.

"Home."

It was very strange. On one level, Cathi Gata knew that she and Eliza were sitting on a bed. On another? She was in space? No, she was riding a white horse as the horse ran down a rainbow! Eliza rode a palomino horse beside her, still holding her hand. Then the white horse turned to look at her and spoke!

"Just go with it, my dear." The horse's voice was perfectly understandable and kind. It sounded like Eliza! "This is going to rock you, but we are here for you. We are all here for you, Dear Catherine."

She knew Cathi Gata! The horse knew the Tenno! She was talking and she sounded like Eliza! Catherine felt her sanity start to fray but something came from the horse and from Eliza's hand and she felt better.

"Easy." Eliza crooned as the horse she rode came closer and let Eliza take both of Cathi Gata's hands. "It is all right. It is all right. You have been here, but you do not remember. It will be a hell of a shock but we are here for you. And the others. Is everyone here?"

"Everyone you asked for. They were a bit surprised by our summons." The white horse was chiding Eliza as they continued to run down the rainbow through open space! "You didn't warn them."

"How could I possibly explain in any way that didn't get me sent for immediate psychiatric review?" Eliza asked and the palomino under her laughed. That was male, but he was also kind when he spoke.

"True." The palomino snickered as Cathi Gata stared at him. "Your Empress has secrets."

"I knew that." Cathi Gata said and then made a face as both horse laughed with Eliza. "Or, I thought I did."

"This is going to be jarring, Tenno." The white horse warned. "If you feel bad in any way, let us know. We are here for you."

"Me?" Cathi Gata stared at Eliza who hung her head. "Eliza?"

"My family made any number of messes." Eliza said very quietly as the horses rode down the rainbow. "What we did to our reality was bad enough, but what my father tried to do with me when he realized I had copies in other realities would have been unforgivable. I..." She looked away and Cathi Gata squeezed her hands.

"He knew?" The Tenno felt faint and the horse under her made a worried noise.

"She is fading! We need to get her there now!" The horse started running faster and the other kept up. "What warframe?" She did not quite demand that of Eliza as an odd dot grew in the distance. Was it light? Dark? Hard to say. The rainbow was heading straight for it.

"Wisp." Eliza said and both horses looked at her. "She said it felt right." They looked at Cathi Gata who nodded.

"It would." The female horse was so gentle now. "This is going to be scary, Tenno, but we are here. You are not alone."

Before the reeling Tenno could realize what was happening, the dot in the distance grew into something far larger and far more terrifying. The black hole was swallowing everything in the area. The rainbow arrow-ed straight across the accretion disk and into the maw. Cathi Gata screamed as the horses ran right into the heart of the black hole and then…

Cathi Gata was lying on something warm and soft as someone wiped her face. She looked up into the eyes of a woman who wore an odd garment that seemed like feathers. Was that a bird head that crowned hers? When she spoke, she too sounded like Eliza!

"Back with us?" The feathered woman asked and Cathi Gata managed a nod. "I know this is jarring, Tenno Catherine. They got you here in time. Your energy has stabilized. Your warframe awaits."

"What is happening?" Cathi Gata all but begged.

"Justice." The feathered woman retreated a step and suddenly a hawk swirled away from where she had been standing. She vanished before Cathi Gata could find her tongue.

"Justice?" Catherine sat up. She was wearing a Tenno bodysuit and she felt good. Better than she had for some time. The bed she lay on had four huge posts from which hung canopies. She wasn't bound, wasn't hurt. But… Why was she suddenly afraid? She stared around the room. It was odd. The walls were stone that looked to have been hand carved. There was one window, but it was shuttered. There was one door and a wardrobe against one wall. She couldn't tell where the dim light that illuminated the room was coming from. "Whose justice?"

"Elizabeth's." A calm voice heralded the door opening and two forms entering the room. Both were very odd in very different ways. The lioness was huge. The cat took up station beside the door as the huge metal form folded in on itself to pass the door. Its colors were familiar! The same as her Royal Guard Mirage warframe! It spoke again. "You have no need to fear."

That too was Eliza's voice!

"How many Elizas are there?" Cathi Gata grabbed her legs and hugged them tight as the robot thing took a step towards the bed and stopped.

"We stopped counting after a million." The lioness replied and her voice was sad, so sad. "There just didn't seem a point. You are in no danger, my dear. None."

"What happened?" Cathi Gata begged as the robot thing folded again and suddenly a humanoid form stood next to the bed. It reached out with slow hand to take hold of hers. Its face was not human in the slightest, but somehow, Cathi Gata knew it was sad and worried for her.

"When you were pulled out of the Prison, Elizabeth appeared nearby and her father realized that she had the power to travel between realities." The huge cat shook her head. "He did not cover himself with glory."

"I will say." The robot just held Cathi Gata's hand. It did nothing more, but the comfort was clear and the distraught Tenno relaxed a little. That faded. She remembered the Emperor. He hadn't been a bad man, but he had been ambitious.

"Oh no." The Tenno stammered. "He didn't!"

"He did." The lioness corrected her with a sigh. "He ordered Elizabeth to obey him. To take him to the wardens. That was fairly dumb. The girl seeming being who appeared bawling beside you wasn't his daughter no matter what she looked like!"

"She didn't hurt him, did she?" Cathi Gata begged.

"No." The robot reassured her. "Although I would have." Cathi Gata stared at her and the robot shrugged. "I am not human or Orokin any more than that Elizabeth was. Someone starts telling me to do things like that, and I can tell them what to do with themselves. Megatron was a good role model for that." She muttered 'if little else'. Clearly not an Autobot!

"What did she do?" Cathi Gata relaxed as best she could. It was clear that neither of these odd beings were threats to her currently although both exuded 'danger'. "Even if it wasn't the mad Eliza I have met, none of the Elizas I met would react well to such."

"None of us would, no. She didn't." The lioness said grimly. "It was the mad one, but she wasn't totally feral. She didn't lash out at her father when he commanded her to obey She didn't do anything but protect you and herself from the Royal Guard he commanded to restrain you both. She touched you and healed you. Then she started crying. The tiny children that came out with you woke and were upset." The lioness was crying now. "She begged you to forgive her and you did. You soothed the poor kids, gave them names and then you tried to soothe Eliza. She reacted badly to your touch."

"Why?" Cathi Gata stammered. "She knew I wasn't going to hurt her, didn't she?"

"She saw what happened to you." The robot Eliza said quietly. "She saw it all. She suspected what had been done before that. You acted far more subservient than any regular Guard and she suspected her mother had done something, but she had no idea until you touched her. When she touched you, she warded her mind, but when you touched her, she was unprepared. She saw it all! All of what was done to you. She lost her mind."

"All of it?" Cathi Gata asked weakly. What little she remembered of her brainwashing was bad. Both the lioness and the robot nodded. "I… I see."

"She lashed out, thinking she was attacking her mother, but instead, she threw you across the boundary." The robot was still just holding Cathi Gata's hand. "She realized, just a little bit too late that she hurt you instead of the one who tormented you so badly. She tried to pull you back, but you were gone. She did not take that well."

"I see." Cathi Gata repeated. "And this place?"

"This is an extra-reality fortress that Elizabeth built while she tried to find you." The lioness replied. "The Creator in the realm you woke in first helped. So did most of us when we realized what was happening." The lioness grimaced. "It took a while for many of us to realize what was happening. Why we were different. Why we were always driven to search for something we could not define." She glanced at the robot who sighed.

"Yes, I was less than enthused. I was happy where I was." The robot said with a growl of annoyance as the lioness gave her a disdainful look. "Yes, what I did was evil by most accounting, but my research among others let the Empress resist the brainwashing. If Elizabeth had showed up as a human on Cybertron, it wouldn't have ended any better than if she had ended up in your world!"

"Aslan wouldn't have let her be brainwashed in the first place!" When the lioness growled, the very room seemed to shake. "Narnia can be rough, but there are limits!"

"Yes, there are. I know that now." The robot was sad now. "Tenno Cathi Gata, the past is past. None of us can change the past, no matter how much we may wish it. Such never ends well. Good, bad or indifferent, what has happened is set. We have to go forward. You are needed."

"Let her recover!" The lioness snapped.

"I have." Cathi Gata said slowly as she sat up. She gave the robot's hand a squeeze and the robot nodded to her. "Why am I needed?"

"The wardens of reality are rather annoyed with the young Elizabeth." The lioness said heavily. "Then again, she is rather annoyed with them. As is the Creator and all the rest of us."

"I think I know where this is going, but I am not sure." Cathi Gata said slowly. "Elizabeth, the young one, she cast me through the realities. She tried to find me." Both female beings nodded. "But she couldn't be everywhere."

"No power that we know of is infinite. Even the Creator cannot be everywhere." The robot said softly. "She has mind boggling power, even more than the wardens in her own reality, but she cannot touch anything outside it without a great deal of help. And frankly? A little girl is a not a good searcher. Too many would have seen her as a target. Or lunch." She glared at the lioness who shrugged her massive shoulders.

"I have never eaten a Daughter of Eve." The lioness said primly enough that Cathi Gata knew there was a story there.

"So why me? Why now?" Cathi Gata asked. "I mean, she found me, eventually. In a multiverse of infinite variation? Ouch. I don't want to know how long it took, do I?" Both mismatched females shook their heads. "Why now?"

"The young Elizabeth is losing her mind again. She has set it up so that when she does, she expires." The robot said quietly. "Nothing we do helps. She does not have long and she is demanding punishment for what she did to you. She couldn't care less about the messes she and we left in many realities, but she does care for you. She wants to end on her terms."

"I forgave her." Cathi Gata said weakly and both of the others nodded. "She won't accept that?"

"No." The lioness was grim now. "She won't. She wants punishment and it has to come from you. She is holding herself together through sheer force of will until you punish her."

"I can't do that! And even if I could? Will it hurt others?" Cathi Gata asked and both of the beings in the room with her shook their heads.

"She and many of us have worked hard to keep her end from affecting anything else. We try very hard to avoid the wardens. They don't like us. And we don't like them. That said? They know what is happening and they have offered aid." The lioness shook her head. "The silly kit refuses to work with the wardens at all. It is very hard to blame her after what they did, but she takes it to extremes."

"I can't punish her." Cathi Gata said slowly. "Yes, what she did was wrong, but she had cause!"

"None of us are arguing with that." The robot said with heartfelt groan. "She is."

"If no one can save her and she is demanding punishment, then..." Cathi Gata groaned. "I would make the wardens take her, keep her alive and work for them as punishment. She would hate it."

"The Creator tried that." The robot actually shuddered and the lioness covered her head with both paws! "It didn't work out so well. There is a reason that the Horsemen hate her."

"Are they here?" Cathi Gata asked and the robot nodded. "I need to talk to Fury."

"You need to put your warframe on first." The robot pulled her gently but firmly. Cathi Gata did not resist. She eased herself off the bed and was led towards the wardrobe. "This place is warded, but getting here hurt you. You were supposed to be in your warframe. Jesse is going to get an earful from a lot of people!"

"She meant well." Cathi Gata opened the wardrobe and indeed, her warframe hung there. It spun and she gulped as she saw the seams open in back. "The Empress does need help. So do I."

"There are limits to what we can do." The lioness said as Cathi Gata stepped into her warframe and it felt like coming home. "Even if the wardens wouldn't take offense and get stupid, many of us would stand out like sore thumbs in your reality. We would likely cause more harm than good by our mere presence."

The warframe came alive and Cathi Gata felt whole. Which made no sense since she didn't have feet now! She turned to the robot who nodded to her and indicated the door. The lioness rose and smiled as Cathi Gata flew towards her. Said smile was terrifying, but also comforting in an odd way.

"She wants to be punished, but she won't accept it from anyone else." Cathi Gata mused as the door opened and Fury stood just outside. The Horseman's face was blank, but she hissed as Cathi Gata flew to her and hugged her!

"Hey!" Fury protested.

"Thank you! I know you have an image to maintain and I know you will probably hurt me for that." Cathi Gata released the apocalyptic warrior. "But you destroyed the Prison, didn't you?"

"We did." Fury said with a glower. "It will never be able to repair itself after what we did to it."

"Then formally; I thank you and your brothers for avenging me and so many others who fell to that horrible place." Cathi Gata bowed deeply to Fury who stared at her. "Now? I need to ask something and I am not sure if you can do it."

"Oh?" Fury inquired.

"You hate the girl Elizabeth and from everything I have heard, you have every right to." Cathi Gata sighed. "But she is immortal just as you are. She is demanding punishment from me, and I can't do it. I see her and I see the little girl I hurt so many times. The little girl I took back to her mother when she tried to run away. The little girl I held for her mother to torment..." Cathi Gata choked off as Fury laid a hand on her arm.

"What do you wish?" Fury asked. "I too know regret."

"If I defer or delegate the punishment, she won't accept that if she is anything like the Empress I know." Cathi Gata said softly. "So I need someone else to punish her at my direction. Someone that both of us know will do the job efficiently and mercilessly."

"She won't let me do it." Fury said with a frown. "I would."

"There is too much baggage between you and her. You have every right to do it, but she cannot accept it from you." Cathi Gata nodded as Fury frowned wider. "I know someone she will accept it from. Someone who scared her as a little girl. Someone who did the wrong things for the wrong reasons, thinking they were right. Someone who did horrible things to many, many people. Someone who would be utterly impartial here."

"Who?" Fury inquired, openly curious. Cathi Gata leaned close and Fury hissed as the Tenno whispered in her ear. "NO! Not him! He turned out a weenie! How can she be scared of him?"

"She didn't see all of the movies until she was older. When she had just turned five, she was caught in the Royal Guard quarters, watching my holos. Holos she had no business watching at that age. She saw Episodes IV and V. She didn't see the rest until she was nine. Long after the mad one split off." Cathi Gata chuckled. "She was punished, but I was not involved. I knew of her, of course and I liked what I knew, but I never met her until I was ordered to ward her. She was honestly terrified of him. Can you ask him to come? Do not get violent! It won't end well."

"No, it wouldn't." Fury thought hard and then she smiled. "You get to explain it to him."

"Fine." Cathi Gata stilled along with everyone else as as portal opened and a huge form in black armor strode out of it. The breathing, the helmet, the cape, the lightsaber at his belt! It was him.

"I admit to curiosity. This is very odd. I would hope that you have a good reason for interrupting my meditation." The Dark Lord of the Sith said calmly through the rasp of his respirator. Cathi Gata bowed formally to him, one warrior to another, and he eyed her.

"I do, Lord Vader."