Family

Lissandra flew into the entry corridor at full speed and managed to stop before she careened into a wall, but it was hard. Every single muscle hurt. She had lost count of how many hits she had taken after the third. She wasn't sure why she hadn't been hit more, but she was thankful for it. While she would regenerate any conceivable injury, such would take time that she likely did not have. What little she remembered of this place said that the internal defenses had been just as extensive and powerful as the external ones, so she stayed on her K-Drive, easing it into smooth motion, her pistol up and ready. It was odd though. There was no one present. No proxies, no personnel, nothing. If the game program was loose as so many feared, then it was likely that any organic minds had succumbed to it and Lissandra had to be wary-

"That was one heck of an entrance, young lady." A melodious female voice came from nowhere and Lissandra slid her K-Drive from side to side, but nothing happened. It was familiar, that voice. But from where? The strangely familiar being wasn't hostile. If anything? She was amused. Lissandra kept her movements random, evasive and refrained from comment. The other chuckled, but it held little mirth. "There is no need for rudeness. I cannot control the external defenses, but the internal ones are all set for non-lethal and as non-harmful as I can manage." The voice turned wary. "Why are you here? Wait… That board… I remember that board."

Lissandra ignored the voice. She started forward, but stopped short as an armored bulkhead slammed down in front of her. She spun, but another slammed down before she could flee! She was trapped!

"Whoever you are, you are going to talk to me. You will much prefer if we keep this civil." The other sounded resigned now. "I know that board, but I do not know you. How did you get that horrible thing?" She demanded. "I… He hurt her and took her! That evil scum took her! How did you get that board? What did you do to Gee?"

Now, she was angry. Lissandra leveled her pistol at the far bulkhead and fired. She was only mildly surprised when the insanely powerful bolt hit a shimmering field of blue and dissipated before hitting the metal. Zuud would not be pleased, but Lissandra had other problems.

"You are going to answer me!" The other snapped. "Stop being stupid and talk to me, girl! You remind me so much of another idiot girl I dealt with, but she is gone." A choked sob came from the hidden speaker. "The enemy hurt and probably killed the one who used that board before. I couldn't help her. Don't make me hurt you! I can. I don't want to."

Lissandra ignored the voice, aiming at potential weak spots in the force field. Every shot hit where she aimed and did nothing at all besides warming her hand as the power cell overloaded and shut down to cool off. She was wary, but memory was coming back, fragmented and disturbing memory. A bolt of energy came from nowhere to slam her right off the board. That was... Was that what had happened last time? Lissandra landed, rolled with pure muscle memory and slid to her feet, aiming here and there, but nothing shone. The other gasped and when she spoke again, it was hesitant.

"Wait..." The unknown said very carefully. "You move like her. You fly like her. You shoot like her. But the scans… You are not her. You are not Gee." The other sighed deeply and when she spoke again, it was slow and careful. "Um… We got off on the wrong foot here, I think. My name is Cassandra. What is yours?"

Lissandra went totally still at that. Yes, it did sound like her mother. But that was utterly impossible! She had found her mother's body! She had come here and obliterated the scum responsible for killing her mother. Cassandra was dead. So… What was going on?

"My name is Lissandra." The human said slowly, not relaxing or lowering her weapon. "I am a medic working with the Clergy." She said slowly. "The Clergy received a report of an outbreak of a very bad technological disease here. I was sent to investigate."

"That is… More than a bit implausible." The other said slowly.

"What is implausible is that you sound very much like someone who I know is dead." Lissandra did not move at all. "Gee is no more, but I did know her. The one who took her broken body from here did things to her, made her a monster. She perished." Sort of true. Gee had died and Lissandra had taken her place. A sob came from the other.

"You are a medic? You tended her?" The other was all but begging. "Did she suffer? Please tell me she didn't suffer!"

"I wish I could." Lissandra slumped a bit. "She was in a great deal of pain most of the time I knew her. She was not very lucid at times, but she was a good friend for almost as long as I knew her. Not that I liked her all the time." Not entirely untrue. She did not like herself sometimes. "She was hard, tough, capable. All of that."

"Gee was utterly insane! Anyone who liked her was just as insane. I loved her, but I didn't like her all the time." The other replied with a snort that was barely humorous at all. "But I always knew it wasn't her fault. None of what happened to her was her fault."

"She disagreed." Lissandra said quietly, still sweeping for targets. "I know what she did and I know why."

"That lying sack of crap, Business!" Impossible or no, that had to be Cassandra, no matter how insane it was that the girl was talking to her mother who had been dead ten years! "He had no right to use her like that! As an assassin! She was trying not to be that way! She was trying to get better. For me." She gave a small sob.

"Yeah, she was." Lissandra agreed. "I um… I apologize. I am sorry for being rude." She said softly and holstered her pistol. It was abundantly clear that firepower would not work here. Maybe persuasion would? "I know that resistance is useless, but it is training and I was shot at on the way in."

"I apologize as well." Cassandra said with a sigh. "I am not in full control of the facility. The external defenses are on a separate network and I cannot access them. The only one who can is Nef Anyo and he refuses to. He says 'She will come'. I doubt he was talking about you." She said dryly.

"He might have been." Lissandra fought hard not to quail at that. "He is not sane..." She paused and then grimaced under her helmet. "...Or, he acts insane."

"Could be either." Cassandra replied. "There is a technological plague loose in this facility, Clergywoman. You are not safe here." She warned.

"'Safe' has never been part of my job description." Lissandra replied. "I do what is needed. Are you in danger?"

"I am not alive." Cassandra replied and Lissandra felt her guts tun to ice. "I died a long time ago and the scum who did it was told to use my remnants." She made a soft, sad noise. "He did."

"Well, I cannot very well leave now, can I?" Lissandra asked. Not that she would leave her mother in such straits! "If you do not control the defenses, then as soon as I pop back out, the guns go live again. Getting in, I had the element of surprise. Out?" She shook her head as Cassandra made a noise of consternation. "Besides, I heard there were kids here."

"There are." Cassandra sounded both sickened and sad now. "Anyo had them made, skirting so very close to violating the Company Procreation guidelines. He had me rebuilt to serve as a caregiver while he 'educated' them." She snorted. "Then Gee made a hell of a mess here. That girl made messes like no one else I have ever met." She sounded both amused and wary.

"Yes, she did." Lissandra agreed fervently and Cassandra laughed a little. "She told me how to find the board and use it. I am not anywhere close to her skill on it though." She admitted.

"You did well." The other complimented. "The one time I got on a K-Drive did not end well."

"Gee said something about that." Lissandra said slowly and Cassandra made a disgusted noise. "Something about 'a K-Drive stuck in a chimney'?"

It had taken Gee two years to get Cassandra to try one and after that spectacular wipe-out the woman had flatly refused to ever ride one again.

"They are not as easy to operate as she made it look." Cassandra replied primly.

"I fell off on the way here a few times." Lissandra agreed. "So… I want to help. I was sent to help."

"I have some leeway in how to interpret orders." Cassandra replied, a bit uneasy. "But my primary function is to protect the facility and my charges here. Intruders must be contained."

"I think I am." Lissandra chuckled at the startled noise that came from the other. "I can't leave, now, can I? So, I am contained."

"Drop your weapon." Cassandra commanded and Lissandra paused before slowly bending down to place it on the floor. "Um… what?"

"I do not know how stable the energy core of the pistol is." Lissandra said as she deactivated it and stepped away from it. "I bet it would be a fairly substantial blast if it went boom and the room is not that big."

"I bet I know who made that." Lissandra stilled as one of the armored doors slid up and a large eight legged form stepped in. Her mother's voice came from the spider! "Zuud always did like things that went 'Bang' a bit too much."

"No argument." Lissandra did not move as the spider stepped up, but to her surprise, it did not pick up the weapon. Instead, a spray of something shot out form its head and a white mesh like thing covered the pistol. Lissandra shook her head. "I didn't trap it." She tried to keep the hurt out of her voice, but she knew she did not succeed.

"Not on purpose, probably." The spider turned to scrutinize her. "But you clearly know how dangerous those scavenged junk turned into guns can be."

"I do." Lissandra replied, not moving as scan beams swept her. "That was my only weapon."

"I highly doubt that." The spider replied dryly. "You seem the type to consider firearms to be tools, not weapons."

"Okay." Lissandra raised her arms until they were standing out form her sides at shoulder height. "I have no explosives, no projectile or energy projection systems on my person." She stilled as the beams that were scanning her changed color from blue to gold!

"You… You are who I have been waiting for," Cassandra's voice held fear now. "The one he said would come."

"What do you mean?" Lissandra backed up a step as the spider took one closer to her. "No! Don't!"

"I… I won't hurt you. You are human in every way." Cassandra said weakly. "But the scans… Oh my god, girl! What did they do to you?"

"I don't remember." Lissandra backed up another step and hit the wall. She sidled along it away from the spider that was following her slowly. "I am just a medic!"

"You are very good at not telling the truth." Cassandra said softly. "If I wasn't scanning your bio-metrics so thoroughly, I wouldn't realize that was not true." Lissandra stilled and the spider took another slow step forward. "I don't know what all this odd augmentation is, but it is clearly the same basic design as what was done to me, if far more extensive. Oh my god, girl!" She was crying as Lissandra backed away again, only to find herself in a corner. "My protocols are activating!" Her voice turned more robotic. "I… You will be… his daughter again."

"What do you mean 'again'?" Lissandra set herself to run, but the same white spray that had covered the pistol flashed out from the spider. She dodged, but a bit of it caught her arm and held it tight. She screamed and wretched her arm but a jerk pulled her off balance. The spray came again and covered her entirely.

"I am sorry." Cassandra was crying as Lissandra's helmet gave a groan and then was broken right off by inhuman strength. Lissandra had a moment to stare up at the robotic face of the spider before a green mist flashed into her face and she was falling.

So slowly.

Later

Lissandra woke to find herself in hell.

She lay on a couch, surrounded by similar couches. Each one held an immobile form. All of the forms were wrapped in white material. All had tubes going into what had to be some kind of high tech cocoons. When Lissandra stared down at herself she too was covered in white. She felt things attached to her, some she had words for, others, she did not.

"You are awake." Cassandra's voice was subdued as the spider came into Lissandra's view. "I am sorry, but I cannot fight my programming. You are here now and you will take your place again. I prayed you would never come back here, Gee!"

"I am not his daughter." Lissandra said as firmly as she could. "Or yours."

"Not now, no." Cassandra's voice held old shame now. "Gee was a handful and no mistake, but she was not a bad sort unless pushed. I didn't understand until after she came here. I spent time after I woke up here trying to fix what I could. I can't. All I can do is try to make it a bit less horrible. What do you want me to call you?" She all but begged.

"My name is Lissandra." The medic didn't bother fighting the restraints as glowing metal settled down around her head.

"For the moment, yes." Cassandra said sadly. "In a few minutes, you will remember it all. When you are connected to the system again, you will be force fed it all. Again." She made a gagging noise. "I want to help and I can't!"

"What do you mean 'Again'?" Lissandra demanded. "I do not know this place!"

"No." Cassandra said sadly. "You do not remember it because you were stolen from it when you were hours old and you blew the hell out of it after I perished." Lissandra bit back whatever she was going to say and the spider stepped close again. "I didn't know. Galens didn't know. We saw a hurting little girl. Nothing more." Heartbreak sang in her tone. "We didn't know!"

"What do you mean?" Lissandra snapped as the metal closed around her head. Nothing hurt. Indeed, it felt warm and comfortable. She was warm now, soothed despite her bone deep fear. She felt odd pinches in places, likely tubes going in as the others had.

"Your identity was changed, your DNA altered, and that had to hurt!" Cassandra sounded sick now. "But the basic biological framework is still there. I know it, Gee!" She said sternly. "I did so many repairs on you that I know your body as well as I knew my own! You cannot hide such from a medic."

That was true. Cassandra had gotten tired of patching Gee up on so many occasions, since the girl had no fear whatsoever. Not of bullies. Not gangs. Not of wild animals and certainly not of riding her K-Drive in places that she really shouldn't have even before the Business had recruited her to 'remove' certain people who needed to be.

"What are you doing?" Lissandra demanded as a dark mass appeared over her head. It slowly settled down to cover her face despite her struggles. In moments, she couldn't move at all but her mother's soothing voice came from the darkness.

"Waking you from your Dream."

That was the only warning Lissandra had before she was falling. She landed on her feet.

No.

She wasn't on her feet.

Lissandra stared down at herself. At the bio-armor covered arms that hung out form her torso. At the bio-tech armored legs that she stood on. At the metal clawed fingers that curled when she clenched her fists.

"Hello, Jermaine." An unfamiliar voice sounded and Lissandra quailed as a Tenno approached. No. That wasn't a Tenno! It was a warframe, but it was in Corpus colors! The mostly decorative armor that hung on its shoulders, chest and ankles was all blocky, square. "We were not sure if you were ever going to wake up."

Lissandra did not move, she did not speak. She stared around slowly and the room had ten warframes in it. Most were kneeling in place, with energy playing around them. All to them were in Corpus colors with the same armor. She didn't need to look closely at herself to know she wore the same.

"Transference." Lissandra said very softly and the Excalibur warframe nodded to her. "I am in a warframe."

"Yes." The other had a smile in his voice. "You will be our healer and we will lead the Company to greater Profits in the name of the Void."

"By force." Lissandra said very slowly.

"Only if needed." The other shrugged. "The Company is many things, they are not stupid. They will realize they are over-matched. They will make deals and we will lead them."

"Will we?" Lissandra asked. "And the game?"

"You will take your turns in the simulation." The Excalibur waved at her and she felt her body kneel without her commands. "You will need training, but you will do well."

"This is not possible!" Lissandra snapped. "I am not a Tenno!"

"No." The other said grimly as he knelt in front of her. "You are not a Betrayer. You were betrayed and stolen from us, but now you are back. Welcome home, sister."

Energy started playing around Lissandra. Familiar and horrible energy that seeped deep into her mind, prying into every cranny. Scouring every facet of her being out and scrutinizing it. Information was pouring into her mind. Plans, strategies, designs, histories. So much and so horrible! She was losing herself as the energy-

Mistress! No! Leave her alone!

Lissandra screamed as something furry slammed into her, pushing her out of the beam of energy that she hadn't realized was coming down from the ceiling. Somehow, Lilly stood in between the stunned Lissandra and the now rising Excalibur. She was still a puppy, but she was furious.

"Stupid dog!" The Excalibur warframe snapped as a Braton rifle appeared in his hands. Before Lissandra could speak, he fired.

Lilly's scream of agony cut off when he fired again and then everything stopped as Lissandra's world went white.