-side note: I'm at a crossroads as to whether this fic should have been purely story driven with smut being the side dish, but I'll see how it goes in the next chapter. So far some of you seem to actually like this direction, I might as well keep it going right?

Chapter 17: Vanity

Ren shuddered within his thoughts, a darkness engulfing his state of mind. There was a static whirring from all directions, though it soundly vaguely like shouting. Everything around him shook violently as the thunderous pounding from the outside did not relent. Just as the pounding in his head threatened to split his skull open, a deafening ring silenced the world. Now he is left in the darkness without a sound to keep him company or even his own voice to penetrate this pitch-black abyss. It is maddening, beyond frustrating to stare into nothingness and be self-aware that there is nothing. The endless infinity before him, he wonders if this is what death is like. To be trapped inside your conscious and live out the rest of eternity while clinging to the memories of what was and the thoughts of what will never be.

He has no sense of time or direction. Neither does he feel the sensation of floating or a body below his neck. Did he have a body? Was he flesh and bone? Is he still himself? Who was he actually? Was he ever alive, or are these recollections false events that never took place to begin with? A name, whatever his name was he cannot remember. Was he even a male, was he even a human? What is a human? Why do these letters strung together form words that do not make sense? Maybe this darkness was all that there was in the beginning, and all that there will be at the end. But when did it start, and how can it be sure there will be an end.

'I am an it? I am nothing? Was I something, or maybe someone?'

The reality shattered and it was pulled into the light by the release of oxygen pumping tubes snapping from the cryogenic stasis unit. The puppet plopped to the hard, metal floor crawling with ghostly white roots. Rubble and decay littered the ground as a quick glance to the ceiling revealed the missing pieces of infrastructure. It took several seconds for this thing to realize it had hands, arms even, and legs which it used to prop itself up. Some wobbling knees brought it back to down, to investigate the physical properties of its form. Soft hands, yet the flesh was durable and the body was rigid in muscle. But before it could study itself any further, a voice not its own, broke the droning hum of the other sealed pods. It raised its head to see another entity squatting and observing, some sort of instrument held against the ground for balance was in the other's hands.

"I asked you once already, now answer my question."

"Wha-?" The thing spoke, in a masculine tone. Surely, it is a male of sorts.

"Do not take my kindness lightly, oh wretched monstrosity that has lost its way." The figure was a humanoid with a pale white form and ornamented by scarcely placed bits of golden luster. His face, presumably also a male from the deep tone, had no features aside from the prominent gilded ring upon his visage. The horn a top his head was stubby and outlined by gold, it resembles the one he feels on his own dome.

"What... what am I?" The weaker one asks.

"You do not even know what you are? Then allow me to tell you." The other white and sparkling gilt one offers. He rises and walks over while twirling the long, oddly familiar item in his hand until gripping the instrument at one end. The confused and lost one gazes up at the stranger looking down on him. "You are just some aberrant anomaly that got lucky, well I should say unlucky since I caught you."

"I thought I was human? Wait, what's my name? I can't remember. Why can't I remember? How did I get here?"

"And you return to my original question without giving me an answer, how vexing of you. Now, I do not understand how an abomination such as yourself managed to complete transference with a vessel so far from its physical body, but that does not matter anymore. That fact is, you are here by chance, the means of your arrival at this specific point and time are merely coincidental and nothing more."

"I don't understand..."

"As you are now, you are worthless to me. If we do happen to meet by some misfortune again and you have regained that which you have lost, we may speak. Until then, pitiful creature. I cast you out from the Void, back from whence you came!"

The shine of sharp metal flashes from what the weak one recalls is something dangerous and tries to drag himself away. His body ceases all movement as he notices his head can no longer turn. The blade, a tool of war, protrudes from his forehead and into the ground beneath him. Skewered and the weapon slicing through his skull, the life force of the weak one fades as the puppet returns to being just a surrogate body.

A new voice, not of the white and gold one, but the sound of that buzzing from earlier now serenades him. It beckons his mind closer to the edge, away from the darkness that tried to consume him. He opens his eyes, activating the visual Hud of his exosuit, his Warframe. The memories, it all comes slowly creeping back into his conscious. Who he is and what he has done, returns to the boy named Ren. His body stirs from the drowsy and numb tingling in his limbs as the Warframe responds as well.

"Operator? You live! Oh, thank goodness!"

"Huh? Sudo? What the?" The Excalibur rubs the spot on his head where that blade impaled him to find nothing there. "Where are we? Did we lose those Steel Meridian fighters?"

"Well, yes and no." The strangely nervous cephalon says from within his Warframe. "They shot the Liset down just as we entered Earth's stratosphere and from there you lost conscious."

"Oh man, are th-they still on our tail, what's going Sudo. C'mon tell me!"

"Operator, I do not think you understand."

"Whaddya mean?"

The cephalon begins to explain, that they ditched the Steel Meridian troops days ago. That Ren had simply stood up from the wreckage with his injuries and walked. He traveled aimlessly for five days and four nights as Sudo tried her best to bring him back from wherever his mind had gone off to.

"Five days! What, that can't be right! I was only gone for a few hours and then I... never mind. Did we at least land near Cetus, can we still make it to the Plains of Eidolon from this position?"

"There is no longer a need, operator." Sudo says.

"What are you talking about, of course there is! We gotta find-"

The Warframe gets to his feet, from a Grineer cot no less. Heavy footsteps draw his attention to a doorway from where two large, hulking brutes step through. Their master follows not far behind and cuts between them with Ack and Brunt in arms. That sizable, ornate helmet and large fists are a dead giveaway. Ren had doubts upon first glance, but then he hears that haughty voice and sees that conceited strut.

"-Tyl Regor."

"In the flesh, Tenno."

"You look a little, different?"

The aqua-blue, armored Grineer head-honcho walks up to Ren. "I've had some enhancements since the last time we met. Don't tell me you've forgotten about me already, because I haven't forgotten you. Ren."

Regor jams his axe into the bed as his tossed shield clanks against the floor. He narrows the yellow glow of his faceplate onto the fearless Excalibur that has not budged an inch from his seat. The Grineer seems almost disappointed that his outburst did not startle him.

"Yeah, I remember. But If I had to take a guess, I'd say you finished your work." Ren motions to the two huge guards standing at attention.

"Oh you couldn't be more wrong Tenno! But I digress, there's no point in fighting over it now. These are not the original Tubemen I had in mind, they are just as genetically crippled as me and the rest of my accursed race. All thanks to you!"

"Sudo, did you tell him everything he needs to know?" Ren questions her as she confirms and Tyl Regor continues. He backs away, leaving his axe imbedded and his shied lying down.

"Yes, yes, your cephalon has been more than talkative. She has been very persuasive actually, I'm a little shocked at how well of a negotiator she is."

Ren asks what he is implying and Sudo states that Regor has agreed to aid him in his quest to rescue the former Queen of the Grineer. The boy is no fool however, nothing is free and he demands to know what terms have they agreed on. Regor puts his hand to his chest as if hurt, telling him that his desires are not inherently evil by any means. At least initially, what happens afterwards is entirely up for speculation. He strolls past Ren to check on an empty containment tube reminiscent of the ones back in his sea labs of Uranus. It is at this point that Ren spies the endless amount of blue ocean flowing outside a nearby window. Another sea lab, how original he thinks. Back to the business of their agreement, Regor peeks at the Excalibur from his brooding stare.

"I'm not asking for much, really Tenno. I just want you, to give me a baby."

"Da fuk! Whatchu talkin bout? Are you, a w-woman now? Oh no, not this again!"

Regor pinches the invisible nose on his faceplate and shakes his head. "No you incompetent imbecile! What I'm getting at is, you will give me a child for my research."

"So you can torture the poor thing? I don't think so!"

"Then I suppose you can have fun getting Sela back from Steel Meridian yourself! Seeing as the entire system wants you either dead or locked away. Oh, and you can certainly forget about that favor you came looking for in the first place. And I must say, the bio-scans on your Warframe are looking pretty bad there Tenno. That's quite the monster you contracted, must be hard to suppress the urges huh? At this rate, it will swallow everything that are you. You'll become just another Infested husk without purpose. Is that really what you want? Have you come all this way just to give up?"

"N-no..."

"Then we have a deal? Yes?"

Ren nods, thinking deeply about what he has just agreed to do. The eager scientist promises to lend him all that he has at his disposal to rescue the former matriarch herself. But before Ren can ask any obviously stupid questions, Regor shuts him up to clarify on his end of the deal. A newborn infant is not what the Grineer geneticist wants, rather it is the combination of Ren and some other Tenno female's DNA that he needs.

In short, the mad Grineer intellectual just wants a zygote for which to alter the genetic coding through some splicing of DNA templates he has saved from his Tubemen. He tells Ren that with his Orokin blood and the already perfected gene sequences from his old research, a Grineer free from the decaying clone disorder can be born. The cause sounds noble, but the little Tenno knows that Regor probably has something else in mind as well. With no other options left however, Ren complies without question.

"Uh, question?" Ren hesitantly raises his Excalibur's hand.

"I told you not to ask any, but you're going to anyway so go ahead." Regor sighs, while leading the Warframe into a long hallway. Ren looks in awe at the arching glass overhead that permits the beauty of the ocean to grace them from all sides. Though visibly reinforced, the thought of a crack appearing and the whole ocean pouring in does keep him slightly on edge.

"Y-you said my DNA and another female's? Who exactly were you talking about?"

"Well of course she needs to be of Orokin blood, or else there would be no point in asking now is there?"

"You mean?"

Regor nods as they reach a lift that ascends to the ground level portion of the facility. "Another Tenno, obviously! I've made enough rejects for one lifetime, I don't need anymore."

"But I heard that these enforcers of yours were already free from any genetic cloning defects? What gives?"

"So I stretched the truth a little to get in good with the Grineer council's favor, big deal! Didn't get me very far since the old coots were jealous of my tuuuuuuuuuuuubemen because they despise my tuuuuuuubes! Either way it seems you need me just as much I need you."

"I guess we'll sort out the details after this is all over, huh?" Ren timidly remarks.

The blue armored, large-domed Grineer looks at him for a silent minute. Only now does Ren notice how one of Regor's eyes on his mask is somewhat bigger than the other, like that of the deranged manics. "No Ren, we won't."

"Whaddya mean?"

Arriving above sea level to the aquatic facility's main entry deck, Regor's burly guards make space for the Tenno to proceed. When Ren looks cluelessly around, the Grineer scientist tells him to follow. The pair walk through a small segment that is heavily monitored by four of Tyl's enforcers before promptly exiting beyond a massive horizontal door. The young Tenno breathes in the passing gust of the cool night as the stars twinkle overhead. Behind him, the big torso of his hobbling Grineer ally comes near on those nimble legs.

"Me and my men alone can get this job done without incident. You know, violence isn't always the answer Tenno? Though if it comes down to it, I won't argue."

The brown-haired, young Ren, looks wearily at him. "But it's my fault she's in this mess, I should come too."

"No." Regor says coldly, turning his back on the Tenno. "You have your own assignment to fulfill and I suggest you do so quickly before I return. There's a Dargyn prepped and waiting on a hill just a few meters south of here. Take it and go."

"What about my Excalibur?"

"Believe me, in your current condition I would avoid using all Warframes. At least until I can figure out the root of your ailment."

The boy agrees, his mind still disturbed by those dark thoughts from before. No way does he ever want to revisit that black abyss, or meet up with whoever in the world that other guy was. Not wanting to waste any more time, Ren zips up his blue and white transference suit all the way to the hood, and begins his trek. The Plains of Eidolon are quite different from the usual dense jungles he has encountered, the vast prairie is rockier and the landscape more barren. It is home to the neutral trading hub of Cetus, whose lights can be seen from miles away.

Ren must be cautious however, for the night brings unforeseen dangers. Tyl Regor was kind enough to spare him a bright orange Buzlok rapid firing assault rifle. He has never actually met any Grineer that have wielded this strange weapon, but he knows just how deadly it can be from seeing other Tenno utilizing it. The unique feature of said gun is the ability to fire a homing round from which all successive shots will target regardless of what direction the barrel is aiming at.

He fights against gravity, running up a steep hill and reaching the top. The moonlight cascades his figure in a soft glow till Ren spies the parked Dargyn already revving to go. Sliding down the grassy hillside and stumbling through some bush, Ren places a hand on the hull of the small vessel. The Buzlok is slung around his back as he enters the one-man ride and flips the switch. The thrusters are engaged and the Grineer ship is propelled to the heavens. Ren fiddles around with some unfamiliar controls above the cockpit, eventually leaning back to plot a course for his destination.

...The Little Lotus.


Cressa Tal sat in her chair with a skeptical glare, her chin resting on her palm as she eyed Tyl Regor himself from across a long, oval table. She has four guards in the room and three more standing ready right behind the former Grineer head of research, yet she still does not feel comfortable. One of the brightest individuals of their race just casually waltzed into her domain expecting to strike some sort of bargain? Ridiculous she thinks, there is clearly some ploy at work or ulterior agenda that she is not picking up on. Alone and unarmed, even letting his huge mechanical fists be seized, the once lead scientist for the fallen Grineer empire sits astute in his posture.

There is no hesitation in his words, nor even the slightest hint of regret. Regor speaks freely and true.

"Please Cressa, you wound me. I come bearing no ill tidings you see? You of all people should know where my truly loyalties lie. I never cared for the greater good of the Grineer empire, only the prosperity of our race has driven me all these years."

The Steel Meridian leader's lips twitch with her forming disgust. "That almost sounds pretty admirable when you put it like that. But I guess you're not taking into account all the horrible experimentations and violations against everyone you've ever tortured and dissected!"

"Ah, so you're well acquainted with my work? Then I suppose this should go easier than expected."

"Enough games Regor!" She growls while shooting up from her seat and planting her mitts on the table. "What do you really want, huh? For the good of our people? Don't make me laugh!"

"Honesty is a virtue, is it not? I have no reason to hide anything. I've already told you what I want."

Cressa drops back in her seat and stares pensively at the floor. This lunatic's offer is far more appealing than any aid the Tenno has provided her since the Grineer empire dissolved. The Tenno council naturally, is neutral to the affairs of the other syndicates, but it is they who must regulate any emerging hostilities between each of them. Her enemies, New Loka and Perrin Sequence have taken advantage of the growing stigma towards the Grineer loyalists still running amuck in the system. A recent assault on her headquarters, the Iron Wake enclave back on Earth, has severely wounded her people's morale. And the ever-prevalent cloning decay syndrome that afflicts them all, has proved more dire as the mass industrial production of Grineer has come to a grinding halt.

Tyl Regor has brought to the table the unthinkable, the unprecedent boon that her dwindling forces so desperately need to regain their foothold as the supreme military presence on Earth.

"I have a Balor Fomorian."

"W-what! You're lying! There's no way- the Tenno already scrapped the last one months ago! How in the Void did you get your hands on one?"

"Let's just say, Vay Hek is a rather sensible man. So, do we have a deal?"

"And just how do I know this isn't some sort of bluff? What I've spent years trying to accomplish, the Tenno have done in less than a month. I finally have that land whale right where I want her, ready to face judgement for her crimes against this entire system, and you want me to hand her over? Just like that?" Cressa questions with her single, left eye narrowing its gaze on him.

"You kill her and it will only bring the remaining loyalists to arms. You and I both know how stubborn our people can be. Her death will only result in more unnecessary bloodshed. But that's what you really want most isn't it? Another major war for your supporters to rally behind." Tyl makes note of, while waving for a Steel Meridian elite lancer to bring Cressa his gift.

"Get to the point already."

"Such patience you have Cressa, I'm jealous." The SM soldier pops open a grey container housing an Omega Isotope, the byproduct of a Balor Fomorian power core. "There's your proof, along with a navigation module imbued with the ship's whereabouts. I think this meeting's verdict has just been concluded."

"Sorry Tyl, I'm not sure what meeting you're talking about. The fact is, what we have here is another war criminal turning himself in to Steel Meridian. Doesn't hurt that we found some goodies as well. Take him away boys!"

Before Cressa's men can apprehend the Grineer scientist, his posture becomes unusually stiff. A deep, maniacal laugh resonates off the walls of the interrogation room as the SM troops aim their weapons. Some mechanical grinding and interlocking gears can be heard coming from within Regor himself. One by one, his body comes undone.

His right arm unhinges and falls to the table as his left limb shortly follows. His head detaches from his wide, cephalopod-shaped helmet to come rolling onto the table. The rest of his lifeless torso comes crashing to pieces while his severed head comes to a stop on its side, facing the jaw gaping Cressa Tal. The head speaks.

"How unfortunate that we could not come to a peaceful agreement, Cressa."

"Regor, what is this?" She demands to know.

"This? This is my contingency plan of course! So arrogant, you should have gunned me down on sight! Now you'll suffer for your arrogance! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

She jams a serrated combat knife into the animatronic head to cease its sputter static when one of her men comes bolting into the room. Panting and out of breath, the lowly coms officer tells her that a massive, unidentified vessel has just appeared on the radar. The ship is traveling at full throttle towards their current location, on a trading barge floating some miles away from where the Earth relay Strata once resided. When Cressa orders the officer to classify the incoming vessel, the Grineer seems at a loss for words.

She already knows what the stuttering coms officer will say, and curses Tyl Regor's name. The soldiers in the room are ordered to search this doppelganger, a mere robotic no different than Perrin Sequence's loathsome proxies. It seems Regor has had too much time to himself, but this convoluted scheme is right up his alley.

The trading barge soon goes on high alert as customers panic and Steel Meridian troops jump into action. A mass exodus of all non-military and non-essential personnel ensues as Cressa races to the 3rd floor navigation bridge in the north end. She arrives to a disorganized mess of shouting officers attempting to reestablish order among the ranks and drive the barge out of harm's way. Through the blaring siren and flashing yellow lights, she sees the dreaded Capital ship destroyer looming in the distance.

"What's the ETA on the Fomorian!" She asks one of her men igniting the barge's thrusters.

"10 minutes! But the speed of that monster compared to ours, we won't be able to avoid a collision! What sh-should we do ma'am?"

"Pack your bags and get ready to move, this barge is fucked."

With that announcement, the officer radios evacuation procedures to all three levels of the mobile trading center. Cressa has just seven minutes left by the time she gathers a small escort unit down to the third level's separate section. The holding cells. A quick elevator ride later and the doors slide apart to let one of her elite lancer's get lobotomized by a trio of screeching bullets. The skull-exploded soldier collapses between the elevator doors as Cressa yells for her men to return fire.

On the far side of the long corridor are two large, bizarre looking Grineer crouched behind portable barricades blocking the hall. Their Burston rifles unload several more volleys of concentrated shots to keep the Steel Meridian commander and her forces pinned. At their backs, the two Grineer defend a four-man squad transporting a massive stasis pod. The Unknown enemy caps a few more of her advancing lancers until a duo of heavy Gunners arrive to force the intruders back.

"Ma'am! That Balor Fomorian will be here in less than four minutes, we need to leave!" A Grineer captain tells his superior.

"Argh! Let those cowards run! We need everyone off this barge now. Tell the remaining troops to abandon the rest of the cargo and evac. I've lost too many good men and women as it is."

The Captain agrees as the mysterious boarding party leaves as quickly as they came. Cressa rounds up the last of her soldiers at the docking bay and they take flight off the doomed trading barge. The Steel Meridian commander and a few other high-ranking members escape on a military-class Kestrel. The medium sized, dark colored vessel rockets away from the deserted barge as the Grineer's most powerful space-faring war machine closes the distance. The Kestrel pilot is about to give the bird a little more juice to avoid the Balor Fomorian's gaze, when his commander puts a steady grip on his shoulder.

"Ma'am?"

"Hold on. Something's not right." Cressa frowns, eyeing the massive behemoth as it gets into profile view. "What the fuck? Pilot, get us in closer!"

"But ma'am, if she sees us-"

"That's an order soldier!"

Against his better judgement, the Kestrel pilot cruises within proximity to the Balor Fomorian's side. It takes him some careful seconds of inspection, but he witnesses from the cockpit just what has his commander all riled up. The rest of the crew soon gawks as well from the windows, an uproar of confusion is followed by cussing. None are as upset as Cressa herself. She furrows her brow and averts her eyes from her hysterical platoon.

The Kestrel holds position at a safe distance, while the enemy ship makes contact with the trading Barge. The much smaller station is obliterated on impact, not by a Balor Fomorian, but by what is left of a Balor Fomorian. While the front of the immense vessel is all in one piece, the rest of it is nothing but a pile of scrap heap. Held together by large cables, the floating junkyard is mobilized by several rocket boosters used to push giant asteroids during mining operations. Cressa nearly cracks a smile as the barge's destruction slows the flying wreck to a gentle speed.

"Well played Tyl, well played..."


Ren's Dargyn comes into range of the Tenno destroyer's transmission frequency and he is met with the ship's cephalon, Marx. The monotone droning of the cephalon has the little Tenno in a fright as Marx tells Ren the ship's status is currently on high alert. This means that there is either serious damage to the vessel's integrity or, they hostiles aboard. Fearing for the lives of his team and his family, Ren ignores docking procedures and crash-lands into one of the hangar bays.

He pries his way out of the ruined Dargyn and unfastens the Buzlok from its straps. Myrrha's cephalon confirms his worries and says that the ship's occupants are fending off attackers in the atrium.

"Marx, how many of them are there? Is it the Corpus? Grineer rebels? Pirates? Who is it?"

"I am afraid it is more complicated than that, Ren." The cephalon sounds baffled by his own words, as if the sentence did not seem rational. "It is other Tenno that are the culprits behind all this."

Ren checks his weapon while taking an elevator to the Atrium's level. "Are they rogues?"

"No, they came under orders from the Lotus herself."

"What orders?"

"They have come for your child."

Ren says nothing more, waiting patiently for the doors to open moments later. The little Tenno's heart is racing, his gut twisting into a knot as he rushes to the U-shaped room. Turning around a corner, he can hear the rippling flurry of bullets and Warframe abilities swirling into a storm of chaos. A flashing red siren cries above the hallway leading to the second floor of the atrium as smoke and fire can be seen already. He comes to the ledge overlooking the massive open area from one side, and rests his Buzlok on the railing.

Down below, amidst the overturned tables, scorch marks and frozen patches of ice cover the battlefield. Ren arrives just in time to see Zed's Warframe smash off a nearby wall and fall silent. Looking around, he spies the Ember user struggling to stay on her feet as she directs her frustration at her opponent. With one heavy foot crushing Cal's Frost beneath her, his large, jet-black and auburn armored Grineer spouse stands proudly on the defeated Warframe. The fiery Warframe tries to lob a ball of flame in her wobbling state, but Nisha effortlessly picks up the limp Frost and chucks him right at the Ember.

Ren slides along the staircase ramp to help his Grineer woman in some way when her hand shoots up to stop him.

"You." The anger in her voice is more than clear. "Go to our daughter. Now!"

"Nisha?"

She does not respond. Her other hand raises the weapon in her grip, a Tonkor grenade launcher which fires a ricocheting explosive at the Harrow attempting to stand. Ren lets the Buzlok fall from his fingers and steps backwards in confusion before breaking into a sprint. Finding and making sure his daughter is safe should be his main concern above all else.

Ren practically trips in front of his tiny tot's room due to his hurried rush. The manual lock-down Marx placed is lifted and he runs inside without thinking. He sees his daughter huddled in the corner, cowering in terror with a stuffed bear in arms. The young Tenno father reaches out to comfort his child and receives a stomach wrenching pain for his actions. His knees hit the floor as he looks up at the pink Nyx Warframe and her clenched fist.

"B-Banou, it's m-me." Ren says while reeling over on his side.

"Yeah. I know."