He had never felt so cold. Not ever in his rare, dreamless nights or when unconsciousness dragged him under had he felt a feeling so great, one that gripped his very heart with an unrelenting chill. He seemed to have regained some sort of sense back to his body after waking up, but waking up from what? His eyes saw nothing, his ears picked up naught but the slow, shallow pulse of his heart and he didn't seem to be able to touch, let alone feel. His dead mind ran in circles as it tried to make seems of where he was, or if he was even alive. He didn't seem to quite belong to anything, rather just floating in a pitch-black sea of nothingness that was neither death nor life; a horrible, eternal limbo from which nothing returned.
But, as he lay in this other realm, he started to notice something. Tiny, barely perceptible distortions, ones that didn't quite fit with the eerie perfect silence of the blackness, poked and stabbed at the invisible walls in which he was imprisoned, creating small ripples in an otherwise still pool. These glitches grew more common, slowly adding in flashes of grey or white, and then fading into subtle then more defined shades of red, orange and yellow. Deep rumbles began to thresh upon his detached frame, rising through the dead air and shaking the walls. His world began to tremble violently, flashes of colour beginning to flit across his vision in a vibrant yet chaotic display. The blackness containing him started to crack, fissures appeared all over, widening and splitting before completely breaking open, shattering this realm into showers of black glass and giving way to a faded white. Blurred shapes, seemingly human-shaped, swam hurriedly around his vision, making him sick from dizziness.
He felt. His mind reeled as it came to this realization, but he felt a strange relief come over him as it did, a relief to be alive. The shapes, although still restless and blurry behind his frosted vision, seemed to settle at last, save for two ominous objects that slowly moved for the sides of his head and rested there with a small tingling sensation. They stayed there for several tense moments, before they jolted and Ash felt the most intense pain he had ever felt in the hundreds of damned years of his life.
Although lasting only a few seconds, it was enough to make him thrash and spasm violently, screaming and crying out as the agony drove through his body. It flowed through him slowly and painfully, as if his very blood had been replaced by white-hot metal and his skin had been set alight. His screams, now hoarse and broken from his torture, were choked from his throat as he struggled to breathe; so great and so horrible was his torment.
Harsh, bright light streamed through as he slowly opened his eyes. The bleak, whitewashed walls mixed with bloodied warframes in front of him, painting a bleak display of dark crimson, bleached white and sullen grey. His head swam and lolled to one side, smacking into the wall with a thud. He heard voices, indiscernible in their worried tone, as well as what he now saw as fingers propping his head back up straight. Two more hazy figures came in from the backdrop, one with slashes of fiery red and orange up and down its frame, with the other, relatively weak-looking in comparison, following behind drowsily.
The taller of the pair came forth and kneeled by his side, muttering unintelligible words to itself and shaking its head. It raised a clawed hand and struck him on the side of the face, leaving a sharp sting that faded after a few moments, but after looking up, he noticed that his eyes saw clearly once more.
Three females in their own distinguished warframes kneeled next to him, carefully tending to the grievous damage done to his frame and the even worse damage to his body. The one with the arch on its helmet curved backward picked apart bone fractures with strong but cautious determination, the younger looking warframe-bearer with soft chestnut hair tied into a neat plait singed together the adamite scales and the starkly, almost impossibly beautiful Tenno with cascading golden hair and deep, amaranthine eyes hastily searched round his torso and head for injuries.
"It's good to have you back, Ash." The one with the clawed hands smirked, somehow sounding like she was joking. He stared at her, detached, trying to figure out some sort of sense as to where he was. He felt a distinct familiarity towards the Tenno around him, but he couldn't quite touch on it.
"Who... are you?" Ash slurred as he began to wake up.
"I know you know who I am, Ash, I'm certainly not that stupid. Now, how are you feeling?" She smiled with genuine warmth. The Tenno working on his leg, however, began to grow an expression of concern.
"I don't know... who you are. Where am I? What did you do to me?" Ash's voice lost its slurred tone. He stood up.
"Hold on..." The Nyx stopped suddenly, dropping her bloodied hands into her lap and looking up worriedly at him.
"Come on, Ash, this isn't funny."
"What?! I'm not trying to-"
"Wait." The hall fell silent. All eyes turned on the rising Nyx, even Ash's.
"Are you Tenno?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where you are?"
"No."
"Do you know who I am?"
"I thought I made that clear, but once again, no."
"Where is your home?"
Home.
The word flashed across his mind, but left a small cut in his blackened memory, exposing something terrible underneath. He could see a city set ablaze, lighting up a night sky and sending plumes of acrid black smoke into the air. All around him people fled in fear, some stopping to collect pictures, items of value, memories. Some simply stopped in their hurried tracks and watched in utter horror, eyes red from crying, the black smoke, or both. No one seemed to make any effort to put the actual fires out, but to run away from something much greater in threat. He could hear terrified screams, the rattles of gunfire and the sick crackling of fire eating through flesh. The metallic smell of blood filled his nostrils, making him double over and lean against the masonry for support. The last thing he saw was a figure at the end of the street on which he stood, one who, under the light of the roaring and raging flames, wore a blood-curdling smile. The world disintegrated almost immediately afterward, interrupted by the feeling of a hand holding onto his shoulder. He looked to his right, in a daze, seeing the Saryn look with nothing but worry on her face.
The sick parasite of terror that burrowed inside him before disappeared as he set his wide-eyed gaze upon her, being replaced by the feral savage beast that was fury. It tore at his walls of common sense with claws of fiery anger, making his blood seethe and his mind go blank. His soul seemed to take flight from his body, being replaced by something indescribable as he grabbed her by the throat. A twisted sense of satisfaction found him as he felt the twitches of her fragile neck, the desperate attempts for air. He smiled viciously on the outside, yet inside he knew himself no longer.
Pain shot through his right side, throwing him to the floor and releasing the Saryn from his grip. He stared, eyes wide, at the vicious orange flame that was eating into his armour and had already started to singe his skin. He gritted his teeth and batted at the flame until it finally died, but it had left its mark. Red, blistered skin covered his entire right side, making even the slightest touch excruciating. Ash looked up with nothing but the deepest, most hateful fury he had ever felt, straight into the eyes of the Ember.
He then looked round to the Nyx, the Saryn, and the two strange ones next to them. The destructive malevolence that possessed him seemed to be quenched for the moment, blocked out only by the blinding pain in the side of his gut. He glared at the Saryn in particular, who wore nothing but hurt on her face. Ash felt nothing in return. He drew a ragged breath, and spoke, his voice quivering and trembling:
"I don't know who any of you are, nor do I wish to meet you again. I don't know how I ended up here, but I'm going to find answers. And if one of you follows me, I will not hesitate to slice you open and let your blood paint the walls red."
He stumbled through revolving door and out onto the other side, wincing with every step.
"Ash, how can you just leave us? Don't we mean anything to you now?"
"No, you don't, and my name is not Ash." He spat the name with particular revulsion.
"It's Orion."
The door shut.