A/N: It's the last actual chapter! There is an epilogue that I will be uploading shortly after to top it off but then that is it! As I've mentioned before, if you have any ideas or things you'd like to read about in the form of oneshots, please let me know! I'm practicing writing and think that is a great way to learn.
As like before, thank you for reading! Questions, comments, suggestions, and corrections are still encouraged! I hope you enjoy!
The squad made their way back to the dojo but barely had any time to rest before they were already called to learn about their next mission. The Lotus had been busy finding Alad V's actual location with the help of other squads and almost had a reading to the exact ship. Despite of the fact that Alad V's lab had been destroyed, it was still extremely important to take out the man himself so there was no time to lose.
The Lotus had quickly called them to their room and now the group was waiting for their guide to arrive after she had secured Helios's scans of the warframe they fought at the lab. After a short wait they could hear the click of her heels, which had become well known to the squad recently, and soon after walked through the door. She looked at them carefully before talking.
"Alad V is sick," she started slowly. "The Infestation has infiltrated his mind, it has him doing its bidding. You're going to stop him, but in doing so you will also be showing him mercy. The mercy of freeing him from the Infestation."
They all watched the Lotus intently, not completely sure if she was being sympathetic towards Alad V or not. After a few seconds, Lonewolf spoke.
"Why should we give Alad V of all people mercy?" he asked more than a little upset.
"It is appropriate to d-" the Lotus started before Lonewolf interrupted her.
"Appropriate?" he exclaimed slowly getting more angry. "He kidnapped and killed Tenno for experiments! He tortured Valkyr almost to death and she still hasn't recovered! If anything, he deserves to be tormented by the infestion."
The Lotus waited patiently for Lonewolf to settle down while the other three watched closely, not wanting to say anything to increase the tension. After a little while the Lotus spoke again.
"That is true," the Lotus said, "but nobody deserves the infestion. If anybody did, it would be running rampant throughout the system because so many could be considered deserving. We can't play god in situations like this. Besides, an infested Alad V could still be a threat to the system."
"But we destroyed his lab!" Lonewolf yelled as his temper flared again. "What is he going to do without a lab to create his infested? I won't kill Alad V and let him free of his suffering, I can't after what he did to Valkyr."
"What if I wanted you to, though?" a voice asked from behind the Lotus causing everybody to turn and look. Valkyr stood in the doorway in her jumpsuit, her long, black hair not being held by her helmet at the moment. Lonewolf looked at her in disbelief before talking.
"But he tortured you," Lonewolf said slowly, "you still have nightmares. Wouldn't you want him to at least suffer some?" he asked.
"Believe me," Valkyr said with a small laugh as she walked into the room, "I do want him to. But I've had a lot of time to think in my time alone in my bed and this is the right thing to do. He did what he did for profit, which is what every Corpus executive does. Sure, we were a little more directly affected by Alad V but it was still just for profit." At this point, she had made it to Lonewolf and stood in front of him. "Killing him will free him from the infested and get rid of him once and for all. It might not seem fair but it is right. So, will you do the mission?" Valkyr asked as she slowly placed her hand on the Ash's cheek, "For me?"
After a few seconds, Lonewolf gave her a quick hug and looked at the Lotus. "Where are we going?" he asked.
Not too long later, the four Tenno were in their lisets flying through what could easily be a Corpus ship graveyard near Eris. The Lotus had finally gotten an exact location of Alad V but the path there was dangerous as it was in the middle of all the destroyed ships. It was a clever place to hide but didn't keep him safe as long he had probably hoped it would. The only issue was that the Lotus said he would easily know they were coming so surprise was not something on their side.
As they approached the ship and quickly boarded it, they instantly had to fight off a small horde of infested. It was clear that the path to Alad V would be tough but fighting infested was basically second nature for the squad now and the infested were quickly cut down. As the first small attack was defeated, Alad V appeared on their HUDs.
"Tenno, Tenno…" he said with a voice of disappointment. "Why must you always work against- progress? I'm trying to bring us all together. Things could have been different if you tried to work wi- with me."
The group of Tenno ignored his message but noticed that he looked even worse than before and was clearly still in a lot of pain. It was clear that he was getting completely taken over by the infested and they all felt a small pang of sympathy for a second before he started talking again.
"Do you see this collar?" he asked indicating the collar that looked similar to the one on the warframe they fought at his lab. "This collar will- let you see like I see. It will let you want what I- want." After a while, he sighed and continued. "There I go again, giving you too much- credit. Must I always show you the way forward?" and he ended the transmission.
The squad continued moving toward the location of the now infested Corpus executive, running into groups of infested along the way. They fought through the standard infested and some of Alad V's created mutalist infested but still they fell easily. The squad of Tenno left a trail of cut, electrocuted, stabbed, and irradiated infested in their wake, making their way slowly but surely towards their target. When there were only a few rooms away, Alad V appeared on the HUDs one last time.
"You have one more chance," he said. "Come to me and I will show you the magic of this gift."
They once again ignored his message and were soon walking through the door of the room in which Alad V was located. As they entered the room, they got their first full view of Alad V since he was infected by the infestion. His face and shoulders matched exactly what they had seen in the transmissions but they quickly noticed the infested had completely taken over his left arm and leg. It had also stretched to cover about half of his torso. His other half still wore his standard Corpus gear and he held a type of rifle which seemed to be infested as well. Within seconds of entering the room, the fight had already began.
The four Tenno instantly spread out and started to fire at their enemy, not doing any damage at all. In an attempt to try another type of attack, Spud slid in and performed a spinning melee attack which also did no damage. As he slid past, he caught a little damage due to some nanites swarming around Alad V similar to the ones that swarmed the new infested they had faced recently. He quickly mentioned it and the squad went back to trying to damage the Corpus executive.
After taking the attacks for a little while, Alad V took advantage of a short time when the Tenno were reloading and took off his collar, placing it on the ground which created a small shield in front of him. Once it was down, he started shooting at the Tenno with his rifle while they shot back. The bullets shot by the Tenno bounced off the shield until Falken took a shot with his Vectis which penetrated the shield and hit Alad V in the chest.
"This flesh makes me strong!" Alad V yelled after a short yelp of pain. "You've forced my hand!" he added as he grabbed the collar from the ground and put it back on.
Once again, the Tenno couldn't damage their target. It made no sense to them and they continued to attack. Trying the melee approach himself, Lonewolf teleported next to Alad V and started swinging his Dakra Prime. He backed off as he noticed that no damage was still being done to his target and the nanites were doing a significant amount of damage.
As the Ash backed away, Alad V took off his collar once again but this time it shot an electrical beam at Lonewolf, doing a significant amount of damage. Hayden quickly healed her squadmate as the other two continued to shoot, but actually noticed that damage to Alad V was actually being done this time. Lonewolf rolled behind cover to break line of sight and Alad V once again put the collar on, essentially making him invincible. At that moment, both Spud and Falken realized what was happening: Alad V was immune to damage when he was wearing his collar but not when he wasn't wearing it.
They quickly communicated their findings to the rest of their squad and their attack plan changed completely. They started shooting less and tried to bait Alad V into taking off his collar in order to save their bullet for when they needed them. After a while, Alad V took off his collar to make another shield and the group attacked swiftly. Hayden slid in with her Bo staff but was launched backwards as the shield expelled a burst of fire outward. Falken took shots through the shield while Lonewolf and Spud flanked from behind to shoot around the shield. After taking considerable damage, Alad V put his collar back on and ran away from the group.
Lonewolf instantly ran after him and caught up easily, following the Corpus executive around a corner.
"Try this!" Alad V yelled as he gained sight on the Ash.
Before it could even register, Lonewolf was struck with Alad V's collar and it attached to his neck. He instantly felt control of his body leave him, but was still moving meaning he was being control by the collar and probably Alad V himself.
"I'm not in control of my body," Lonewolf yelled at his squad as his body started running back towards his squad. "Be careful, I'm guessing I'm going to attack you when I get back there. Find him while he doesn't have his collar on."
Once Lonewolf saw his squad again, his body aimed his Soma and fired. The others quickly dodged out of the way of the multiple shots and started to search for Alad V.
"I'm going back to Alad V," Lonewolf said, "I think you need to distract me so I don't defend him as much."
With that in mind, Hayden ran out in the open leaving Spud and Falken to find the Corpus executive. Not trying to hurt her friend, Hayden stuck to trying to block Lonewolf's bullets and trying to disarm him. After blocking for a while, Hayden lost her balance and took a few bullets, taking a large bit of damage. She instantly locked him in a Well of Life to give her some healing and to stall a little more.
Nearby, Spud and Falken had finally found Alad V. Spud was already taking shots with his Latron Wraith and Falken switched to his dual Magnus pistols to deal with the short distance. They found that Alad V was still able to shoot his weapon through the rain of bullets and his less than perfect aim, almost no bullet hit the pair. As he tried to run away, Spud delivered a shock to their target locking him in place.
"Could you hurry please?" Hayden asked suddenly. "I don't know how much longer I can hol-" she cut off as she screamed in pain.
Knowing that their time was short, Spud and Falken started firing faster. Once he was out of bullets, Spud switched over to his Lex pistols and continued to fire. Alad V finally got away and ran back towards Lonewolf and Hayden, who were now stuck in a melee fight. As the approached, Falken let off a Renewal to heal Hayden back up a little bit before returning to firing at Alad V.
The bullets were flying towards Alad V as Hayden blocked a strong swing from Lonewolf and they got locked in place trying to push each other back. At that moment, Alad V's life counter was low and Spud switched back to him Latron Wraith and started firing shots with that. In the corner of his eye, Falken saw that Hayden was losing the fight with Lonewolf and decided to pull out his Vectis. Falken aimed and shot a bullet right as Lonewolf pulled a quick move causing Hayden to lose her balance and end up with her towards Lonewolf who had continued the strike and was going right for her now completely undefended back.
Through Falken's scope, he saw the sniper's bullet hit Alad V directly in the shoulder causing the executive to fall to the ground in severe pain as his body couldn't take any more damage. To his side, Falken heard Lonewolf yell and quickly turned to see what the cause was. He instantly saw Hayden facing Lonewolf in a defensive stance while Lonewolf sat on his knees. Nearby the Ash's Dakra Prime was sticking in a large mass of infested flesh. The collar had lost its power and soon fell off of Lonewolf's neck to the relief of the Tenno.
After they had all recovered, the Tenno walked over to where Alad V was now unconscious and moved to finish the job. As he had done with the infested warframe, Spud gave a Lex to Lonewolf.
"You can get your last moment of revenge," the Volt said as he stepped backwards.
Lonewolf looked at the pistol then at the Corpus executive he hated so much. He took a few steps closers and pointed the barrel at Alad V's head. He noticed the pained look on the executive's face and paused for a moment. He suddenly thought about Valkyr and what she and the Lotus had said. Alad V was just doing what every Corpus executive did, he was making profit. And in that quest he had gone too far and was now controlled by the thing he tried to control himself. After a bit, the Ash took a breath, moved the barrel away from Alad V's head, and walked back to the Volt.
"I don't need revenge," Lonewolf said as he gave the Lex back to the Volt. "You should finish the mission."
With that, Spud walked up to Alad V's body, let Helios take a few scans, then aimed and pulled the trigger. Just like all the other times, the shot rang throughout the room. The room was silent as Spud saw the pained face of Alad V relax. Alad V was now free from the infestion.
"Target down," the Lotus said quietly, "he won't bother us anymore. Leave him there, the infested will take care of him. Return to your dojo, you all have earned a break."
As the Lotus ended her transmission, the squad slowly started to walk to extraction. They approached the door and Lonewolf looked back at the man that had just recently revealed himself to be a threat. He took a deep breath and walked out the door, leaving Alad V's body behind.