"I won't let him die."

"Unimportant. Heartbeat has dropped below fifty beats per minute. Large lacerations on abdomen. Punctured left lung. Fourth spinal lumbar damaged beyond repair. Severe blood sepsis. Internal bleeding and haemorrhaging. Irr-"

"Stop. I know what has happened, but we cannot give up on him that easily."

"Query. We have been operating on Subject 23-b for over four hours. How has this been "easy", Eir?"

"Never mind that. We have to make sure that doesn't come out of the Medicanum in a bodybag, understood?"

"Disagreement. I do not see why we cannot let him die. His mental state is beyond repair, and so is his body. Do not assume that I do not care about his injuries. He is beyond saving. It will be the most… merciful option."

"Don't do this, Thanatos. There must be something we can do."

"Declined. I shall prepare the void burial capsule."

"Don't let this bastard take me, Trinity." Ash rasped, grabbing her wrist with cold hands. The Nekros warframe by his right, with a single piercing amber eye shining from the pure blackness of his hood, lifted a finger and placed it lightly on Ash's forehead, sending him cascading back into the black claws of unconsciousness.

"Accepted. We will try. Resume operation. Opening laceration wound at fourth spinal lumbar. Eir, expose bone fractures."

"There we go. Hold on, this part is quite delicate."

"Affirmative. Eir, use hyper regeneration accelerator systems to repair this muscle tissue and bone structure."

"Okay, I've got the muscle tissue to repair, but something is stopping the bone from regrowing."

"STOP."

"What is it?"

"Anomaly detected. Metallic spherical object detected above third lumbar. Warframe sensors incapable of detecting this, jamming signals in operation."

"Should I extract it?"

"Negative. Anomaly identified. Grineer tracker identified. Eir, do not remove that object."

"What?! A tracker?!"

"Affirmative. Further inspection indicates that this tracker has been implanted into Ash's bone structure and has been wired with C2 explosive."

"So, if we remove it..."

"Affirmative. Ash will die. This tracker will most likely lead Grineer ships to our location. Either we remove it, or we remove him."

"And by removing him, you mean th-"

"Affirmative. Cast him to the Void. Unfortunately, he cannot be euthanized, as this will also cause the tracker to explode."

"Oh no..."

A pause.

"I'm so sorry, Ash. It's for the best. Please understand."

"Query. Why do you apologize? He is asleep, he cannot hear you."

"Yes, he can. And I know that he will never forgive us."

"Acceptable."

"What do you mean?"

"Disregard."