An hour later
Excalibur blurred into being on the challenge course into the middle of a heated discussion. Alicia was standing, talking to another Tenno who wore a Rhino warframe. All around, other Tenno were standing, talking. Some loud, some quietly, but all became silent as he appeared. Challenges were taken in the same virtual reality training simulations that all Tenno used. The one major difference, was that if Tenno failed challenges in the normal settings, all that happened was the Lotus made snarky comments. Here? He could and would die if he failed. He didn't care.
"Excalibur." The Rhino said as he turned to scrutinize Excalibur.
"Percival." Excalibur said formally. He wore his Prime warframe. He bore no weapons but the glaive attached to his forearm. Percival was one of the eldest living Tenno who still fought, a legend in his own right. The Scindo at his back had cleaved untold thousands of enemies.
"Have you lost your mind?" Percival demanded. "Do you have any idea what this is going to do? Win or lose?" Excalibur nodded silently and Percival sighed. When he spoke again, it was sad. "I was glad to see Kori again, even under the circumstances. But Excalibur..." The elder Tenno said slowly. "We are Tenno. We follow orders."
"I couldn't do it, Percival." Excalibur said softly. "The Lotus told me to kill Kori and... She is guilty." Excalibur shook his head. "She doesn't deny that. None of us deny that. But..." He paused, marshalling his thoughts. "Tenno are not forces of justice, I know that. We are weapons. Point us at targets and pull the trigger. But we are more than that."
"Why this quibbling?" The other Tenno demanded. That was one thing Excalibur had always liked about Percival. He didn't beat around the bush. "She broke with the Code. She taught humans -infested humans at that- about Orokin technology." A mutter went around the area as other Tenno turned to look at the pair. Alicia stood nearby, one of the few Tenno not in warframes. It made her anxious look easy to see.
"She didn't have a choice." Excalibur said mildly.
"It was still an order. Was it affection?" Percival asked, shaking his head. "She was your trainer and all..." The Rhino warframe stiffened in place as Excalibur raised a hand.
"I don't remember her, Percival." Excalibur said with a shake of his head. Percival went still at that and most of the other Tenno stiffened as well. He raised his voice to include all the now silent Tenno around them. "I am doing this because it is the right thing to do. We are Tenno, yes. Living weapons, yes. We serve, it is what we do, what we are." He bowed his head and every Tenno in the area did likewise. "We have differing styles, differing opinions, but in the end, we are Tenno."
"You were given an order, Tenno." Percival said simply. "Kori accepted her death. Why can't you?"
"Pragmatism, brother." Excalibur said simply. "Do we have enough kin left to execute any who stray? She was not in control of her actions. She fought, as hard as any of us would have, but no one can resist that kind of thing forever and suicide was denied her. Any of us could have been her." A pin dropping would have sounded like a grenade in the silence that fell. "I have been meditating and I believe I know where my sometime lack of focus comes from. Why I have been censured on occasion for deviating from my assigned missions. " Percival nodded and Excalibur continued. "She says she ordered me to flee, to leave her. I don't remember that. I wonder..." Excalibur paused, thinking hard. "Is that why I refuse to leave kin behind when I can possibly help them?" He asked nobody. "We all know the mission comes first. But we are still thinking, sentient beings." Excalibur said softly. "We think, we feel..." He shook himself. "I know this is going to cause problems Percival, but I could not kill her, and I could not stand aside."
"No." Percival said sadly. "No, you couldn't, could you? Oh, Excalibur..." The Rhino laid a huge hand on Excalibur's armored shoulder. "Don't lose." The elder Tenno said sharply. His hand fell and he moved away. Alicia stepped up, her face intent.
"Don't say it, Alicia." Excalibur said quietly.
"Undo your helm." Alicia said just as quietly. "I want to see your face."
"Alicia..." Excalibur sighed as she crossed her arms and stood, a rock of quiet stubbornness. He opened his gold chased visor. "Silly female... I..." He broke off as she jumped forward, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, hard. He stood, petrified as she hugged him tight enough to be felt even through the warframe. Finally, she stepped back, tears starting to fall.
"Not silly at all." Alicia said sadly. "I love you, Excalibur. Come back to me."
She stepped back into the crowd of silent Tenno who made way for her. She made her way to the back of the group and stood alone, but only for an instant. An Ember stepped to her side and held Alicia as she shuddered. But they were both looking at Excalibur and he... He didn't know what to do. Finally, he bowed, a full kowtow, to Alicia. He closed his helmet before he said anything stupid. Then he turned and made his way towards a white sphere that hovered nearby.
"Excalibur ready." Excalibur said formally.
"You choose that weapon?" The voice of the Lotus came from nowhere and everywhere.
"I do." Excalibur said simply. The glaive wasn't his personal favorite, but it did have a number of advantages. Not the least of which was that he could throw it.
"This will be a run through a Parkour obstacle course." The Lotus said calmly. "Your mission is to get to the end." Excalibur's eyes narrowed under his helmet. That was too easy. As if reading his thoughts, which she probably had, the Lotus continued. "There will be other Tenno on the course. Their mission is to stop you."
"They will be using lethal force?" Excalibur asked. This was going to be more difficult. Much more difficult.
"Yes." The Lotus' voice was cool.
"I do not wish to slay kin." Excalibur said uneasily. "That is why I am doing this."
"The settings for your weapon have been modified for this simulation." The Lotus replied. "Your weapon can stagger the others, but not injure or kill. Their settings are such that no matter what you do, you cannot kill them. Your kinetic threshold has been significantly lowered. Their weapons can kill you, and a fall can kill you. Either sufficient injury or too much time elapsed will forfeit the simulation and your life."
"Understood." Excalibur said quietly.
"One final time, Tenno." The Lotus sounded...unsure. A first in his experience. "Retract your challenge and do your duty."
"I will not kill my sister for something that was not her fault. Your order is wrong." Excalibur said sharply. "But... One thing." The Lotus did not speak, but did not order him to begun so Excalibur took a chance. "Even if I fall, I ask that you reexamine the case. There are always other choices. Even for Tenno, Lotus."
Begin. The voice in his head spoke and he threw the glaive to hit the sphere. A dazzling wall of energy appeared in front of him and he ran at it, willing himself to greater speed. The glaive did as designed, it came back to his hand even as he ran.
He hit the wall and ran up it, his boot soles finding purchase even on the slick surface and his speed climbing as he pushed his warframe to it's limits. Something warned him as he neared the top and he threw himself up and over, just in time to avoid an arrow that would have transfixed him. He didn't bother to look for the shooter, likely that Tenno was a long ways away, well out of glaive range. Instead, he ran on. The path between the virtual columns was narrow, and he scowled under his helmet, alternating running on one side of it, then the other. He was rewarded by another arrow sparking off the path nearby instead of impaling him. He saw where it had come from though and moved to limit his exposure to the sniper with the bow. He darted from cover to cover and then he saw another wall ahead. Open area. No cover.
Nothing for it, he had to get through. He hit his dash and was running at full tilt even before the power let him go. Movement to his side made him dodge without even thinking before he had even seen what was happening. A Mag with a Strun shotgun had stepped out of a hidden alcove and leveled her weapon at him. He was sliding to the side as the glaive left his hand, aimed not at her head but at her legs. A deafening roar heralded the shotgun firing, but nothing hit him and a muffled curse told him that the opposing Tenno was incapacitated for a moment. Just long enough. He ran up the wall lightly and sped on, aware that the other Tenno was in pursuit, but falling behind. Shotguns didn't have a great deal of range -well except the Hek and she wasn't carrying one- so he was relatively safe from that. But the archer was still out there. He had modified this warframe to be lighter and faster, to give more stamina reserves at the expense of damage capability and protection. Something grabbed him and he snarled as he found himself flying backwards. The Mag had pulled him!
Excalibur twisted in midair, landing on his feet instead of his backside and slamming bodily into the Mag as she tried to go for a kill shot with her sword. He parried her attacks for a moment. She was good, but nowhere near his class. His weapon was shorter, but he was far faster than she was. Then he blanched as a long metal rod suddenly appeared sticking out of the Mag's chest. An arrow! She froze and looked down at it.
"This... This isn't right..." The Mag said slowly, then fell to crumple in a heap. Excalibur caught her and eased her to the ground.
"No!" An anguished scream sounded from nearby as a Frost frame appeared, a Paris in hand. "I didn't... No!"
"She is alive!" Excalibur snapped. "Kill me or help her! I took all my first aid mods out to lighten my frame! Choose, Tenno!" Excalibur commanded.
"It... It shouldn't have hurt her..." The Frost said as he stepped up, a green mist coming from his outstretched hand to surround the fallen Mag. Excalibur shook his head as he took hold of the arrow.
"This is going to hurt, sister." Excalibur said quietly. "I have to get it out." The Mag nodded a little and Excalibur took a deep breath, then with a yank, pulled the long metal rod completely from the fallen Tenno's body. She screamed and then went limp.
"Sina, no... This is a virtual simulation." The Frost was babbling as he continued to pour green healing mist onto his fallen sister. "It shouldn't have hurt her! Why hasn't she exited?"
"Someone is cheating." Excalibur snapped. "Stay with her?" The Frost looked at him and Excalibur sighed. "Look, I have no quarrel with you or any of my kin. I saw a clear miscarriage of justice. Was I right, was I wrong? I don't know. But this I do know. Kori was not in her right mind, she was being controlled. Judging her actions as if she was in complete control of herself is wrong."
"I am Tenno." The Frost said sadly, kneeling beside the still form of the Mag. "I follow orders."
"Something is very wrong here, Tenno. For your arrow to hurt her, the safeties must be really messed up. " Excalibur said slowly. "I need to finish. Are you going to put an arrow in my back the moment I turn around?" In answer the Frost threw the Paris away and Excalibur sighed. "If any of your trainers saw you mistreating your weapon like that, you would be on punishment details for a year!." He laughed sourly as the Frost jerked guiltily. "What happens in the simulation, stays in the simulation. Stay with her." He said, patting the unconscious Mag on the arm. "We may all be stuck in here until I finish or die."
"Be quick." The Frost said sadly. "I will stay with her. Excalibur..."
"Don't." Excalibur said sharply. "I know there are other Tenno in here. Can you warn them that the safeties may be offline for everyone, not just me?"
"I will." The Frost said quietly. "And... for what it is worth... I am sorry."
"Don't be."Excalibur said with a shrug as he rose to continue. "We all have to choose how we interpret our duty. We are not machines, we are Tenno."
"We are Tenno." The Frost replied quietly as Excalibur started off.
What is going on? Lotus? Are you there? Excalibur asked in his mind. There was no response.