Cross connections

She fell off.

It was hardly surprising that Lissandra fell off the board after misjudging a slide and slamming it into a protruding rock. She wasn't the same person. Her body didn't move as it had. She was amazed she had managed the trick jump to show off at first. It had been a long time since she had ridden a K-Drive and the last time she had? She had been blown off it and captured by the Corpus scum who had altered her to suit his whims. She didn't remember much of that and what she did? She wished she didn't. Her life with the Clergy hadn't always been fun, but her friends had tried to help her and she had found a home of sorts to replace the one she had lost.

Now? She had returned to where that had happened.

She rose to her feet atop the hill and glared at the rock that had tripped her up. Then her eyes were pulled further away. A large pyramidal building shone in the distance. It was as she remembered it. The three trailing boards slid into place beside her. The Loki on his board was silent, but both Vent Kids were giggling as Lissandra brushed herself off.

"Two kinds of grinders." Lissandra said before either Roky or Boon could insult her. "Those who done fall off their boards and those who will." She shrugged as she eyed the silent Corpus building. "Didn't do too bad for not having grinded in ten years."

"You ride like Twister. You talk like Twister. You ride her board. Twister was crazy." Roky said very quietly. Lissandra nodded. "And…?" The younger girl pressed.

"And Twister is dead." Lissandra focused her speech on the more proper grammar and she did not miss both Vent Kids relaxing just a little. "I am not her. She died." She shrugged. "Besides. I am too old. No Vent Kid would follow me. All the ones I knew were gone by the time I came here. The Golden Bolts were all gone, dead or too badly hurt to ride. By the time I was taken, none of the others were left."

"The board was found here." Roky said very softly. "No one dared try it out. They just put it in the slot she used and it closed up." Lissandra nodded.

"That was smart." Lissandra sighed. "There are traps on traps built into this. As you say, Twister was crazy. Suicidal, paranoid and more than a bit sociopathic. For a while, she had hope and then she found her hope slaughtered on the floor of the Vallis." She nodded to the building in the distance. "She came here for vengeance."

"Even rusty, ya gots skill. You don't want to lead?" Boon asked carefully. Lissandra scoffed at him and he bristled. "Hey!"

"None of you would follow me." Lissandra said with a snort. "That is a good thing. You have lives. You are free to soar. To ride, to live on the edge until the ground takes you." Roky and Boon both stiffened, but Lissandra wasn't done. "I am not free. If I have my way, I will not survive this." She slumped a bit. "I have lived too long as it is as a monster."

"You are not a monster." Came from the Loki. "You go on. It is all you can do."

"You do not know what Twister did." Lissandra said very softly. "They do." She nodded to the Vent Kids who nodded back. She frowned a little under her helmet. "You lot still run 'Bransen's Snake'?"

"The Snake is a killer." Boon smiled wide. "You gonna try it?"

"I know it is a killer." Lissandra shrugged. "Who do you think mapped it? Who set traps all along it? Who used the terrain there to kill her enemies? Either letting the ground have them or knocking them off their boards when they were way up." Both of the board riding kids jerked back at her words and she sighed. "What is your best time?"

"2, 37." Boon replied, face set. Roky looked at him and then looked away. "What?"

"Back off, Kubradon." Lissandra jumped off her board to step towards Roky who hovered back out of reach. "I am not your enemy, Pobber. How fast?"

"2, 12." Roky said with a grunt. Boon inhaled in disbelief that increased as Lissandra nodded. Roky stared form one to the other. "You know?"

"My best time was 2, 07." Lissandra nodded to the other girl. "You hit the straightaway right and the cave to your left cuts off three whole seconds." Roky relaxed just a little as Boon goggled at both of them. "Gotta watch the dip though. The pond at the bottom hurts. Gotta hit the angle just right and then jump just right or you are in a world of hurt." She shuddered a bit. "Or worse? It doesn't hurt for long."

"Done it slow. Don't dare do it fast. I have seen a girl try that jump fast." Roky said soberly. "Her board is still there, stuck in the middle of a plant on the cliff side. No one found her."

"Probably dissolved at the bottom of the coolant pond." Lissandra agreed. She slowly shook her head. "I am putting Twister to rest today. You two have nothing to fear from her. She will never rise again. Even if I do survive this, ride a K-Drive again, I am not her. She died in a Corpus lab, screaming her heart and soul out." Both of the Vent Kids recoiled and Lissandra slumped. "She died in chains."

"Ya is wrong." Roky jumped off her board and stepped up to Lissandra. Lissandra would not meet her eyes.

"She so wanted to stop hurting." Lissandra felt her eyes burn as she turned to the distance. To a tree that she knew and no one else ever would. The place where she had found her mother's body after the final battle between Anyo's goons and the last organized Solaris United forces. "Cassandra and Galens both tried, gave her a home, a place to hang her board. Just a safe place to sleep. Then Galens was killed and Cassandra..." She slumped. "She couldn't control the girl she called 'Gee'. To her credit, she didn't try. All Cassandra could give was her love and it was enough." Lissandra sighed. "Until it wasn't. Until that kind woman was gone and then Gee was too."

"She done good by you." Roky reached up to pat Lissandra's hand. "Ya ain't bad, Lissandra."

"I try real hard not to be these days, Roky." Lissandra smiled at Roky and then she shook her head. "But right now? I gotta go back to what I was. You two better get lost." She warned. "What I have to do… It isn't pretty or nice or polite. It isn't something that anyone should have to do." She paused as the Tenno dismounted for his down board and stepped to her side. "I need to go in alone."

"It does not sit well." The Loki replied. "Whatever you might have been, before? Now, you are not a warrior."

"And if you go in there, you won't come out." Lissandra replied. "Not sane anyway."

"Some say I was never sane to begin with, but I do know the facts." The Tenno replied. "I cannot stand beside you, but that doesn't mean I cannot stay here and wait to see if I can help you in any way." She stared at him as he unslung his sniper rifle and moved to the rock that had so rudely dismounted her. He crouched down beside it and suddenly, he was gone! His voice came from nowhere."I will keep eyes on the facility from here."

"Sneaky Tenno." Lissandra sighed and then nodded to the two Vent Kids. "You two? Do what you gotta do. I am not who I was. She is gone and I am all that is left of her. A hurting, broken mess."

"If you had your way… What would you do?" Roky asked. Lissandra looked at her and the Vent Kid was totally serious. A first in Lissandra's experience. Boon was goggling at her.

"I don't know." Lissandra admitted as she jumped back up on her board. "For so long, my problems defined me. Now? Maybe I can make a difference." She smiled at Roky. "Don't make a song about me, please?"

"Considering what Twister said a lot about Skeg..." Boon actually gulped. "Not gonna!"

"Smart Kubradon." Lissandra laid her hand on her hip where the pistol lay and readied her K-Drive. "Stay here. I bet the defenses have been upgraded since my last visit."

She had gotten in that time, but had been hurt badly enough that she had been captured fairly easily after slaughtering the human responsible for her adopted mother's death. She had made his death memorable but the aftermath… She would be dealing with what had happened after for the rest of her long existence.

"They have." Roky said very quietly. Lissandra looked at her and the girl shook her head. "Play the right music, Lissandra." That was odd. What did she know? Boon didn't seem to notice the byplay, but Lissandra bet the Tenno did.

"I have just the tune." Lissandra said with a smile as she started to overcharge her K-Drive and it hummed in readiness. Then her tone hardened. "Do not follow me."

"I want to." Roky's tone was sad and Lissandra felt her eyes burn as the pure longing in the Vent Kid's tone registered. She truly lived to fly. To soar free. "Even knowing it gonna be a death ride, it gonna be glorious."

"Yeah. There are few things that compare to this kind of dance." Lissandra keyed her music player and the ancient strains of Twister's battle song rang out.

'One man one goal one mission,
One heart one soul just one solution,
One flash of light yeah one god one vision

One flesh one bone,
One true religion,
One voice one hope,
One real decision,
Wowowowo gimme one vision'

Few would ever know who had first played the tune. Maybe a few of the Tenno would remember 'Queen' and their lead guitar Freddie Mercury. No one else likely would, which was sad. It was still incredible music to this very day. Both Vent Kids were humming the lyrics as Lissandra set herself.

Then she was gone in a puff of dust and three energy contrails.

Not very nearby

"Holy shit."

Nikis was hardly the only one to exclaim as the assemblage watched Lissandra tear down from the mountainside. Fortuna hadn't seen such an assemblage of power in recent memory. Dozens of Tenno were present, most of the warframes hanging back away form the group that stood with Eudico, watching on the main screen as Lissandra's K-Drive charged the Corpus facility. Others stood as well. Several Corpus Special Forces had come. They were barely tolerated so two of Amelia's Voices stood between the Corpus troops and everyone else. Rachel stood with the Reverend Mother who was slumped, watching Lissandra soar as she hadn't in over a decade.

"That music..." Ali stood with Nyx who had her hand on Iriana's shoulder. He looked at Nikis. "I… 'Iron Eagle'? What are the odds that such a bad movie is remembered?"

Funny how he didn't correct Nikis' language for once. He must have been shocked.

"There were…seven of them, I think. Bad movies, good music. Queen." Nikis replied absently. "The movie used it, but the band put out the song a while before."

Several people hissed as fire started coming form the facility's defenses. Several turrets could bear on the charging K-Drive, but Lissandra had apparently been practicing her evasion on the way there and none of the fire came anywhere even close. She would take more fire when she got closer though. It would get both heavier and more accurate as she closed the-

Everyone gasped as Lissandra took a hit and spun away from three more shots that slammed into the area around her. She was clearly hurt, but now? She was firing back! The pistol in her hand rock steady despite the insane speeds. Shot after shot flew form her careening form, hit and exploded, taking out every turret she could aim at. Sniper fire came from Aeron's hidden perch as well, picking off turret after turret. But for every turret that was downed, another replaced it. Whoever had designed the place had designed it for such attacks, replacing damaged or destroyed turrets as soon as they were taken off line. Everyone groaned as Lissandra took another hit and went spinning, clearly out of control. She was in trouble and no matter how many of the guns Aeron could take out, there were more coming up from hidden positions all around the perimeter of the facility and energy fire was seeking her. It could only end one way now, but-

"Wait a sec!" Nikis snapped as another K-Drive appeared on the screens. The rider was indistinct but it looked like an Excalibur warframe. "Who is that?"

Everyone stared as the other K-Drive flew into the field of fire and the defenses started shooting at it as well. He didn't try to shoot, instead, he just flew. And his flying… Nothing could touch him! Now there was different music playing over the com bands!

'Well, my temperature is rising, got my feet on the floor
Crazy people rocking 'cause they want to some more
Let me in baby, I don't know what you got
But you better take it easy 'cause this place is hot!

And I'm so glad you made it, so glad you made it
You got to gimme some lovin', gimme, gimme some lovin'
Gimme some lovin', gimme, gimme some lovin'
Gimme some lovin' everyday'

Ali stared at Nikis who stared back.

"You don't think…?" They chorused. Both of them turned to Nyx who shrugged.

"No one has seen Hayden, so maybe." She allowed, still trying to comfort Iriana.

"What is going on?" Iriana demanded for everyone. "That music? I don't know it. Tell me someone is recording this! Mishka will demand to hear it." Several people nodded.

"That music is from the same movie as the music Lissandra is playing." Ali said very slowly, Nikis nodded. "There are very few people around now who would remember that." He shook his head. "It wasn't a good movie."

"Not the worst of the time." Nikis allowed and Ali made a small gesture of agreement. "At least it isn't 'Top Gun'."

"No, but still... Blech!" No one needed to see his face to see his disgusted look. It was abundantly clear in his voice now. "Not even close to Academy Award material."

"Escapist trash had its place." Nikis replied as the unknown flew around and around, clearly drawing fire away from Lissandra who had recovered and was darting for the facility. More than one person gasped as the unknown took a hit but whoever was flying the board was no rookie. Whoever it was, they used the impact to alter their trajectory in away that the automated defenses clearly could not follow. They didn't seem hurt. Then again, it was clearly a warframe or something like it.

"Damn." Ali said softly as Lissandra made it into the facility just ahead of at least three pulses of fire that would have torn her right out of the air. "And..."

Everyone stared as the unknown rider darted away from the facility, but he was in trouble now. All of the defenses were focused on him and he was rapidly running out of cover. Then the screen fuzzed and when it cleared, more of the turrets were being destroyed!

"Aeron..." Nikis said softly.

"Multiple long range shooters. At least two snipers." Aeron said with a growl. "No traces."

"There won't be!" The Reverend Mother snapped and the Special Forces all nodded. "Do not try to trace them!" Everyone stared at her and she shook her head. "You won't be able to. I don't know why they are here, but I am glad they are." Rachel nodded.

"Lynn's people! Ah dammit, Rachel!" Nikis groaned. "You know we cannot stand for this."

"They want no conflict with Tenno, Nikis." Rachel said sourly. "You know this. Yes, they have been in touch with us. They are cagey as hell, but they don't want to be working at cross purposes. Nor do they want to fight us. You try to track them, hunt them or whatever and they will vanish. You know how well they hide."

"I do." Nikis sighed and then nodded. "When this is done, I gotta talk to ya." Rachel nodded. "We all need to sit down and talk. As in talk, not throw accusations or silliness about. We gotta figure this out."

"Communication is all instigated from their end, Nikis." Rachel replied. "But I will do what I can. I know this has to be resolved somehow. As to now? Lissandra is in and he, whoever he is, is clear."

No one was actually surprised when the K-Drive and rider simply vanished from sensor.

"So now, we wait?" Nikis said sourly. Everyone nodded. "I hate waiting."

"Never would have guessed." Came from several people.

"Is there anything we can do?" Eudico asked when the energy faded. The automated defenses were still seeking targets, but not finding any so they retracted.

"Pray." The Reverend Mother slowly knelt and both of the Voices did as well. She clasped her hands. "Lissandra is good kid, but she doesn't remember all of what happened to her in there. We worked hard to keep her from remembering what actually happened to her mother." Eudico's posture held horror now and the Reverend Mother nodded. "It is in her hands now and I know she will make the right choice. Not the easy one. She doesn't do easy."

"Nurse Cassandra died." Eudico said slowly. "We found a body."

"You did." The Reverend Mother bowed her head. "You didn't find her brain." Eudico hissed, horror now oozing from every pore. "And yes. He did."

"He... He did that...? To her?" Eudico gulped. "And no one ever said?"

"Would you have believed any of us?" The Reverend Mother asked and then began her prayers.

"Good point." Eudico slumped a bit. "None of us can help."

"So... What she will face in there..." Nikis actually gulped and it was one of the Special Forces who answered him.

"Yes. If nothing has changed? She will face what is left of her mother. Again." The soldier sounded sad and sick. Who could blame him?

"Oh shit."

"Well put."

Songs are Queen 'One Vision' and Spencer Davis Group 'Gimmie Some Loving'.