Reckonings

Excalibur slammed into yet another pair of MOAs. They had no chance at all against him. Both went flying as his dash stopped just within sword's reach of one and the ending empowered slash cut out at the speed of thought. One collapsed in a shower of sparks, the other twitched feebly as it tried to rise. But he was in motion again. His sword cut down cleanly and removed the machine's boxy head apparatus. As he put his sword away and started pulling energy from the down machines to fill his depleted power reservoirs, he shook his head a little. He hadn't seen any living beings since his eavesdropping in the medical bay had been discovered, but everywhere he turned, he found more MOAs. It made sense actually. This was a Corpus facility. Or at least , it had been. Every Corpus facility had MOA fabrication units scattered everywhere throughout it. It made life hell for people trying to get in or out of a Corpus facility, which was kind of the point. That he could understand.

What Excalibur could not understand was what else was going on. He was very confused. Having a Corpus and Grinneer -mortal enemies- not only working together, but talking together and seemingly concerned for a human? Ready to die for a human? That was very strange. Until now, he would have said it was flatly impossible. Add to that, the human doctor had recognized him. Had called him 'Excalibur', like the first voice. He was sure he knew both voices, but not from where. What was it she had said? That she had experimented on him? When? During the period of time his memory didn't work? If that was the case, why did he remember her at all? If he did. What had the doc meant about reprogramming? About injecting a virus? The Technocyte virus?

His musing cut off as a door hissed open ahead of him. It hadn't opened because of his proximity, he was well away from it. No one else was visible. He could see a standard Corpus detention bay through it, but... There were no guards. He shook his head. An obvious trap. All it would take was for a hidden camera to scan him entering and the automated turrets that every detention facility he had ever been in had aplenty would shred him in seconds. But then he heard clanking behind him. More MOAs. He was being herded. He checked his power readouts and smiled grimly. Time to change the rules of this game. He turned to the side and jumped to a vent that he had seen nearby. One slice from his sword and the pieces of the cover fell away.

"Wait!" The male voice from before called, and then sighed as he ran. "Dang it! How can we explain if you won't stand still?" The voice complained.

"Do you really expect him to trust anything we say?" A new female voice said and Excalibur froze in place as he recognized it. It the Tenno who had found him! She had rescued him and had taken him to the Elders when he had expressed a desire to learn the ways of the Tenno. He hadn't ever seen her again, had he? "I know I didn't." He turned and slowly stepped back to the vent opening, still in shadow. He looked down at the pair of forms that stood looking up at him. The male human in a lab coat looked dejected, but it was the female in the warframe that had Excalibur freezing in his place. The Tenno wearing the Nyx frame looked up, froze and spoke very carefully. "Don't move." The male human froze as well. "Excalibur. This isn't what you think. We don't want to hurt any kin." The Nyx shook her head. "I mean, that is why they kept me, persuaded me to stay, so they didn't have to. Hurt anyone that is."

"Is he listening?" The male human asked, incredulous. The Nyx nodded slowly and carefully, her hands still and in plain view. The human paused and then spoke slowly and carefully. "You have no reason to trust us, Excalibur. We disabled your team but... We didn't have a choice. If you had seen what was going on here before we could explain... You would threaten everything we have accomplished." Excalibur shook his head minutely and he slunk back into the shadows, his rifle at the ready, as a pair of armored Grinneer appeared to flank the odd pair. "No, get back! He will attack!"

"He hasn't yet." The female Tenno said slowly. "This may be the best we get. But... if he decides we are dead..." She took a deep breath. "We are."

"Boss." The larger of the Grinneer said slowly. "I don't like this. You are vulnerable. Without you... We go back to being what we were. Why can't you just mind zap him again?" He asked the Nyx carefully.

"It only works on Tenno when it takes them completely by surprise." The Nyx said with a shake of her head. "He knows I am here now, he is likely prepared." Excalibur did not move, but was reciting mantras in his head to keep from being controlled. The Nyx shook her head. "Excalibur, none of the others are hurt. We don't want to hurt you, or anyone else." She raised her hands in supplication. "Brother, please." She made a soft noise of dismay as Excalibur faded back into the shadows. "It's not mind control, brother! We are trying to make a difference! Excalibur!" She called as he pulled back further. But he paused as the male doc spoke.

"I know you are confused, Excalibur." The doc said in a strained voice. "Kori here was too. We didn't know what we were doing. We hurt you. We didn't plan on you two showing up when we tried to control the Plague ridden soldiers that attacked our facility. We didn't plan on you getting mauled, or her being so badly hurt. You were both so badly hurt..." The man sounded abject. "We didn't know what to do! We didn't understand. We didn't even know what you were!"

"He is still there." The Nyx -Kori- said slowly. "Explain?"

"Might as well." The doc said sadly. "You and Kori came to our habitat. She says it was your first mission." The Nyx nodded slowly. "We were trying to find a way to control the plague. We found a series of code commands that seemed to work. The plague went into recession in our test subjects. We managed to 'wake up' a few of the soldiers and they were lucid. But then more came and you showed up."

"You don't remember, Excalibur." Kori said sadly. "We were sent to exterminate the facility. We thought it completely overrun. We failed and it was my fault..." She said quietly as Excalibur listened, part of his mind aware of other movement in the ducts around him. Quiet, furtive movement. "I went down and you came to my aid. You got me up, but you were blindsided and you were hit bad." The Nyx frame slumped. "I thought you were dead when I managed to get to my feet and..." She sighed. "I lost control."

Excalibur went still. Tenno were trained to control themselves at all times. The level of power each wielded was an awesome and terrible responsibility. A berserk Tenno... A berserk Nyx? The mind boggled at that. He had heard stories of what happened when Tenno went berserk. Kori started to cry. The doctor looked at her, his face sympathetic. Excalibur went still as one of the Grinneer laid a hand on her shoulder, offering comfort! And she leaned into it!

"I..." Kori said slowly. "I didn't know you were still alive. I didn't know the virus they had put in the atmosphere was entering your bloodstream!" She said sharply. "I didn't know!" Kori said, beseeching the hidden Tenno. "I was so ashamed when I woke, when I found myself surrounded by the bodies of the enemy and the humans we had come to protect... I knew what I had to do."

"Kori..." The doc said quietly. "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was." Kori said sharply. "I lost control. The Code is clear on cases like that. You should have let me die."

"I was trained to heal, Kori." The doctor said sadly. "I couldn't. You were scary, but you had just saved me. And then you stuck a blade in yourself? I didn't understand, but I couldn't let you die. And then the virus entered your bloodstream and..." He sighed. "I am sorry, Kori."

"You have only said that about three hundred times, Daniel." Kori said with a snap. "Enough. Excalibur." She called. "Are you going to kill us?"

Excalibur pondered for a moment and then shook his head slightly. He did not lower his rifle that had risen when the two Grinneer had appeared. He inclined his head to the Nyx. An invitation to continue.

"He won't speak, will he?" The doc asked slowly.

"If he does in the field..." Kori said calmly. "It means he will kill anyone and everyone who might hear his voice." She laughed a little sourly. "I am actually glad he hasn't replied. I don't want to die."

Excalibur's eyes narrowed under his helmet. What was this? Tenno understood better than many how finite life's span could be. Odd that people who had lived for centuries, most of that time spent in cryo sleep, understood death better than others whose lives came and went like sparks. Tenno fought. It was what they did. This was...wrong. Kori was...wrong. It was subtle, but it was there. It wasn't what she was saying. It was how she was saying it. Was she being controlled? If so, how? The virus? He made a 'get on with it' gesture to the Nyx who nodded.

"Long story short, Excalibur..." The Nyx said softly. "I woke up with Daniel and his team tending me. They hadn't been able to remove me from my warframe. They were...quite stubborn." She said with fondness to the human who shrugged. "When I stabbed myself, the virus that Daniel and his team had created entered my bloodstream. They thought I was another form of plague ridden at first. After... After I recovered a bit... They told me you were alive, but that you had fallen on your sword. Dang it, I shouldn't have given you that evil thing!" She recriminated. "I didn't think it was going to be a hard mission and the Mire worked better than your Skana did!"

Excalibur shook his head. This was... It was both right and wrong. It made sense, the story. But... Something was off. Kori wasn't acting like a Tenno. Or... she was acting almost like a Tenno. A Tenno in her position would have asked the Lotus for guidance and obeyed instructions.

"You had been badly wounded, Excalibur." The human -Daniel- said in a calm tone. "Your warframe armor kept the shot that hit your skull from killing you instantly, but the trauma was still bad. Then the virus entered your body through the wound." Excalibur shook his head and then, in a supple movement, jumped from the vent to land in front of all of them, his pistol in one hand, his sword in the other. Everything stopped as Excalibur spoke.

"You lie."

The human doctor, the Nyx and the two Grinneer all froze as the male Tenno spoke. Kori was shaking her head silently as Excalibur spoke again.

"I don't remember much of when I woke the first time, but I do remember this." He said calmly. "The healers said there was no sign of cranial trauma. No physical reason for my memory loss at all. Toxins and injuries from many types of weapons, but no cranial trauma. Nice try." He said, his pistol coming up, but then Kori moved and a shining blur flew from her hand at him. A circular thing with three blades!

Crap! A glaive!

He blocked the attack with his sword and rolled for cover as both Grinneer pushed the doc behind them and raised their weapons. The glaive flew back to Kori's hands and the Nyx too darted for cover. The doc hustled from the room, both Grineer staying between where Excalibur was and the doc. Then the door hissed shut behind them and locked.

Excalibur paused and then ran. Power flew from Kori's fingers, the psychic bolts seeking Excalibur as he fled. But the vent he had been in was suddenly full of leaping, howling shapes. Excalibur focused himself and then let his will leave him in a rush, along with most of his power reserves. His most powerful ability slammed everything in the area to the ground, all of the Infested falling and dissolving as the javelins' energy dissolved their very being. Kori was flung into a wall and she lost her grip on the glaive. It skittered away and before she could rise, a white armored boot was on her stomach, holding her down. The point of Excalibur's sword was at her throat.

"I am sorry, Excalibur..." Koria said softly. "It... You went down like I said, but I got you back up and we fought together. Then they stunned us. I woke strapped down on a table. They.. They put things in us... I couldn't disobey... I could hear you screaming and there was nothing I could do. I am sorry."

"You are the reason they know how to tap Orokin technology." Excalibur said with a sigh. Kori nodded, not moving. "You showed them how to use the cryo pods." Kori nodded again. "Oh Kori..." Excalibur said sadly.

"I resisted." Kori said softly. "I don't know for how long. But... It got in my head. Sometimes it hurt, sometimes it felt so good... I couldn't keep it out. I... Stop them. Please. They are insane." She didn't bother to beg for her own life. There was only one penalty for Tenno who broke the Code, willingly or non.

"I will." Excalibur said sadly. "Farewell, sister." He moved his boot off her stomach and stepped back as she rolled into a kneeling position.

"I..." Kori took a deep breath and spoke. "They are trying to make me fight, Excalibur. I don't have long... I can't hold them out for long. I have heard some of what happened to you after you escaped their clutches." Excalibur inhaled and Kori laughed mirthlessly. "Oh yes, you escaped. Without any help at all. You tried to free me and I told you -ordered you-to run. Half dead and out of your mind from the experiments and drugs, you still managed to get back to our ship and flee before they could access it. They made me bring them here, to another Orokin facility and put them in cryo to wait until the dust settled to start their experiments again." She bowed her head. "I am sorry I got you into this."

"Kori." Excalibur said kindly. "I chose my path. This isn't exactly what I wanted, but I did choose my path." He paused. "I do have one question..."

"Anything I can answer." Kori said, bowing her head, exposing the vulnerable neck of her warframe.

"What was my name?" Excalibur asked softly as he raised his sword. Kori spoke a word and his blade fell.