I realized I had no time for a fling and upon detangling myself from the two Warframes, I sought out Umbra to receive the upgrades for my trick hand. Guillermo. I checked the forge. Ember was in there, alone. She was affixing coolant cartridges to a loading system, around the size of my forearm. She beckoned me over. Hold out your arm. I obliged and she slid it into place. I felt a coolant cartridge push against the inside of my hand. I popped my knuckles and felt something burst onto the front of my hand. Shoot. I felt something click as I squeezed my fist. I threw my strongest punch. A massive wave of fire came from my hand. But rather than turning the metal red hot, it stayed a consistent deluge, rather than short spurts. Every couple seconds, I felt something pop inside of my arm. Stop. I swung my arm down, the flame fizzling out. I cracked my knuckles on impulse and 5 cartridges fell out of the Voidstream in my arm. I bent down and picked them up. I handed them to Ember, who melted them to usable metal and threw the lump into a nearby basin. Flick your fingers to open the rack. I chuckled, turned to face her and flicked my fingers. Her apron stayed on, but the rack in my arm slid out. 5 cartridges were missing from the belt. She produced 5 empty ones and clicked them into place. They'll reload with coolant if you shift into the Void. In theory, anyways. I put a foot into the Void, flickering in place. I felt the cartridges refill. I slid out of the Void and examined them. They were refilled. I snapped the belt back into place and popped my knuckles, priming another cartridge. You can also project the coolant itself, using the sparking mechanism to propel it. I threw a palm strike and my hand coated itself with frost. I swung my hand in an arc, slinging coolant in a wave in front of me. It froze all that it touched. I punched harder, weaving and pivoting. I covered a lot of things in the strange coolant, leaving frost on the walls. Ember caught me by the back of my jacket and pulled me towards her. She posed my limbs and uncurled my hand into an open palm. Kick. Hard. I spun and gave a roundhouse kick. Coolant flew from my foot, in a rapid jet. It nearly hit Umbra, who stepped into the room. He avoided the strike with fluid movements. I threw more kicks, throwing in some acrobatics here and there. Coolant came from the fingers on my right hand, the tips of my toes, the palm and elbow of my left, and my knees. Not in here. Sparring hall. Ember motioned for me to follow her. She leapt from wall to wall, much faster than me or Umbra could follow, even with my phasing and his dashes.

We rushed into the sparring hall. Ember stood on one of the dueling platforms and stretched. A strange fiery ephemera covered her body, winding around her middle like snakes lit aflame. Her hands were empty, but they glowed in anticipation. She beckoned with her hand. I dashed onto the platform. She bowed. I followed suit. We circled each other, our stances low and our hands flexing. She waited for me to attack. I am not going to hold back, and expect the same for you. I hope Abram gives you less credit than you deserve, or this will be very painful. I gave her a look. "Abram?" She jerked her head in Umbra's direction. I figured fire wouldn't do much, so I shot forth a wave of Void energy from my trick hand. She dodged it and responded with a fireball the size of my head. I shifted into the Void to avoid it. When I came out, she swung at my head, her fist a fiery blur. I deflected it and kicked her in the gut. Her fire shield held strong and I dealt no damage. My foot was warmed. She slammed her fist into the ground, sending out a massive ring of fire. It knocked me to the ground. I kip-upped and took a fighting stance. My Void shield appeared around me, a thin veil of energy that enveloped my entire body. I circled Ember, throwing jabs that she easily avoided. She punched me, sending me tumbling across the floor. Before I could stand up, she slammed the ground again. I flew out of the arena, rapidly spinning through the air. I just barely caught myself on the ground, panting for breath. She kicked me in the head and then knocked me to the ground, pummeling me senseless. Eventually, I managed to slip into the Void and get behind her. I concentrated as hard as I could on my left hand and hit her in the back full force. Her shield of fire went up in cinders and her body was coated in frost. I hit her again. The cartridges emptied and Ember was frozen solid. I poked her. A massive, flaming meteorite flew from the ceiling and crashed into me with a mighty explosion. Ember thawed herself and leapt into the air, slinging fireball after fireball, each one scorching the steel floor. I felt my coolant cartridges refill. I smashed my fist into the floor and created a dome around myself from ice and Void. Ember's fire couldn't penetrate it. Eventually, the barrage of fire stopped and I collapsed the dome. Ember was panting. Actually panting. She had her fists behind her and looked ready for a second round. I looked down and noticed that there was a hole burned into my thigh. A small one. It was shaped like a handprint. "I yield, not too keen on bein' burnt to death." Ember crossed her arms, satisfied. Good. Now, I'm gonna teach you to play with fire. I pointed to the burn on my leg. "I've had enough of playin' with fire." I said. She made a small flame between her index finger and her thumb. She pulled what looked like a pack of cigarettes from nowhere. She unhooked her jaw, put the cigarette between her surprisingly clean teeth, and lit it with the small flame. She took a long drag before replying using her voice. "You must learn, would you rather accidentally light your good hand on fire, or would you rather learn to do stuff like this? She waved her hand and moved her body, as if in rhythm to something. Her hands flared hot, and suddenly a small puppet of herself appeared on the ground, mimicking her dance moves. She stopped moving and it disappeared. "Nice parlor trick. Got anything more useful?" She clapped her hands and the lights in the room went off. It got very, very cold very, very quickly. Frigid as the vacuum of space. I shivered. Little glowing orbs appeared, slowly orbiting Ember's head and shoulders. The room was brighter, and warm. No longer cold. It slowly filled with fire, like an ocean of flame. The lights flicked on. I heard a loud roar, like a mountain exploding.

Everything turned to ice. Colder than ever before, colder than space. I shivered violently, my breath fogging in front of my face, obscuring my vision. Through the fog, I saw a tall, hulking Warframe clad in shades of blue and white, a cloak nearly reaching the floor wrapped around him. He moved his hands in a fluid pattern before gently patting the ground with his hand. An ice sculpture slowly rose from the ground. It was of me, sitting criss cross. He walked up to me and poked my chest curiously. "A Tenno without a Warframe? Intriguing." I slipped on some ice and fell on my ass. He held out a hand to help me up. He pulled me to my feet. I dusted myself off. "Thanks mate. You got a name?" He nodded. "Frost." His voice was smooth as ice with none of its chill. It was tinged with a pleasant accent, hard to place. I looked at the ice sculpture in awe. "Wait a bit, I have both me legs in that statue, and I look younger.." He nodded solemnly. "I'm surprised you don't remember me, but I suppose you were pretty small at the time. I've missed you a lot, Tessa. I was.. Your original Warframe. We were one for a very long time, until you were forced from me and captured. I looked for a long time, and now we meet again." He was clearly trying to hide the breaking of his voice, his hands shook, but not from cold. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my life before New Riddha. Ice, flying from my hands, globes of permafrost and shattering my enemies like broken pots with a massive hammer. I looked him where his face once was and smiled. "I remember you, M'lord Rime." He jumped for joy, the room getting colder. I reached into a pouch on my belt and produced a small music player. He looked at it. "I bought that for you when you were little. You were always so anxious about missions and needed something to do." I smirked. "I improved it a bit. First: it's powered by Void energy and nobody but me is capable of using it. Y'know, unless you're another Tenno. Secondly, the volume and area it plays in is affected by how I power it." He nodded. I took off my jacket and set the player on it. I focused on it with my fingers a moment, and soft ballroom music played. "Care for a dance?" Umbra slid in front of Frost and put a hand to his chest. Frost was taller and much beefier, towering over Umbra. What do you think you're doing? , I heard him snarl. Frost crossed his arms. "Dancing with an old friend, something we used to do a lot, a long time ago." Umbra leaned up towards Frost's face and murmured something I couldn't make. Frost broke down laughing, a strange groaning noise. "No! Nothing like that! If anything, you're more my type." I laughed too. "OH! You thought that- I-I don't even know how to tell you how sodding funny that is." I bent over, hands on my knees, laughing like a hyena. I ended up sitting on the floor, gasping for breath. Me and Frost shared a look. I chuckled some more. "Nah Umbra, Frost is ah.. I dinnae how else to say it, he's gay." Frost nodded. Just to see if I could, I concentrated a bit and suddenly flew into Frost. I looked down in shock, patting my chest. Scared the absolute shit out of me, totally didn't expect that. I made our hands into fists and threw some punches. They were shockingly powerful, the air swirling in front of them. Ember waved her hand, completely thawing the room and warming it once more. I crouched, catlike and leapt into the air with all the force I could muster. It was like we were flying, 20 meters in the air. Frost drew a massive hammer from nowhere. The Fragor. We dived into the ground with a thud, massively denting the floor and sending things flying from the shockwave. I transferred out of him and whooped. "YEAH BABY! RIME AND HOAR ARE RIGHT SODDING BACK!" I held out my fist. Frost punched it, hard. My arm took the shock well. Umbra and Ember left the room, but we hardly noticed them. We turned towards an obstacle course. 50 or so platforms, all of which had something to scale or slide through. Monkey bars spaced several feet apart, stretches of wall with nothing below them.

I threw the hammer into the floor, embedding it. We took off sprinting to the obstacle course. We shot an icicle at the start timer button, switching it on. The first obstacle was a wall to climb. We bounded over it in a single jump, springing off of the top of the wall and gliding past the next 3 obstacles. I grabbed a monkey bar and threw myself forwards, all 20 feet were done in less than 5 seconds. From there was a series of small walls to jump between. I let Frost take over. Standing completely upright, he bounced between each platform, leading to the end. The timer read 30 seconds. With a huff of effort we raced through the next few obstacles with nothing but bullet jumps and glides. The next stretch of open wall, we crept along like spiders. Our hands and feet clung to the smooth surface like magnets, we bounded with ease across the wall, dived into the air and glided to the end. One minute exactly was our final time, beating the 1:01 of second place by just a hair. The first place spot belonged to Gauss, with a time of 8.4 seconds. I whistled. "Holy shite, Gauss is FAST!" He chuckled lightly. "It's what he does."

I heard my heartbeat in my ears. I gasped for breath. It felt like I was being ripped to shreds. I tried to transfer into Frost, but he didn't seem to see me. He just stood frozen and inert. I tried to shift into the Void. I couldn't. I felt a searing pain in my head as I was forcibly pulled to a destination I couldn't escape. I landed on my feet. In Foe's office. In front of me stood an absolutely ecstatic F-Zero. To her right, was a colossus of a creature. A good bit over 7 feet tall, with shoulders like a galleon and a chest of stone. He was clad in gold and black with hanging bits of fabrics. His helmet was vaguely rounded and had inlays of gold. His knuckles were studded. He wore an odd looking gown of flowy silk. He looked very regal. "Uh.." I was at a loss for words. Foe was giddy. "It's him! It's Atlas!" The behemoth turned to look at Foe. He sadly shook his head. He jerked his head to indicate he wanted us to follow. He punched a wall, hard enough for the ground to shake. Rather than leaving a hole, it created a strange rippling golden liquid. It was soft looking. He pointed at it. Foe hastily stepped in. I shuffled into it apprehensively. He stepped through behind us and the gate sealed. We were in a strange hall. It was ivory and gold, strange silver plants grew from the ground. The floors were cracked and bits of debris were suspended in the air. "Allow me to be frank, if you don't mind." I heard him in my mind and ears at the same time. Foe and I shared a look before nodding. "I am not the Atlas you know. I am his predecessor. His superior. I have gleaned some clarity from his lifestone. I will help you return him to life and slay the Sentients who have been pulling strings." I scritched my chin, speechless. Foe looked at him. "Y-you're not Atlas?" He shook his head. "As we have established. I can return him to you. Or rather, direct you to someone who can. Follow me." He thumped the ground and two Rumblers (bigger than I had ever seen) popped out of the ground noiselessly. They held their hands down. I climbed up and Foe followed suit. They carried us a good 50 feet before dropping us next to Atlas Prime and crumbling to dust. He pointed at a blank piece of slate on the wall and some chalk. "Write the glyphs you found upon awakening for the first time, Starchild." I scowled and nabbed the chalk from him. I put my fingers up to the stone. It seemed to be no ordinary slate. The chalk was quartz. I hadn't noticed the red flaw in the center. I closed my eyes and felt my hands move of their own volition. Nearly an hour I stood there, scribbling tiny symbols onto the stone in a trance. It felt like only a moment. When I stepped away, Foe was laying on a nearby bench, staring up at the ceiling. Atlas Prime stood with his arms crossed impassively. "Break it now. Hit it as hard as you can." I glared at him. "Why don't you bloody break it? I just wrote all that shite, least you could do is participate a bit." He shook his head. "I have no Void within me to channel. You need to break it. It will not respond to my touch." He slid forward as if on ice and hit it so hard a pillar across the hall shattered to bits. The tablet was unharmed. My ears were ringing from the force of the punch. "See?" I walked up to it and squeezed my hand a few times. I gave my most powerful punch. Nothing happened. The glyphs didn't even smudge. I hit it again. Nothing happened. "What's the fuckin point of this shite?" I asked, irritably. "We are going to find Limbo Prime. He can take us back in time to bring back your loved ones and properly kill Samson. You don't have a choice in this. Since you can't open the lock to get to him, we are going to enlist outside help." "Of fucking course we are."