Finishings
Excalibur ran on. Every so often he saw Tenno nearby, but all were kneeling, waiting. He nodded to each and they nodded back. Orders might be orders, but with someone playing some kind of game with the settings of the virtual environment, he really didn't want to fight. Too much chance to kill one of his kin. He didn't want that and apparently none of them wanted to kill him badly enough to try with the settings messed up. Tenno knew the dangers in virtual worlds. They trained in this kind of setting for as long as they lived.
Virtual simulations were used by Tenno of all ranks. Indeed, it simply made sense for tests that might involve weapons fire to be held virtual. It saved repair bills for one thing. For another, virtual environments could be set up however the user wished. Ordinarily, the settings of said simulations guaranteed that the user would been no danger no matter what they did. Excalibur had taken a wrong step himself in more than one simulation and wound up falling into space. That had been...unpleasant, but not lethal. Now, though the setting had been tampered with even beyond the Lotus altering the safety parameters for his challenge. He should have been the only one in danger, but apparently, something else had happened. He kept trying to contact the Lotus but there was no reply. He knew he was in grave danger but had no idea why. Why wasn't the Lotus responding? That wasn't right. The Lotus had always been there. From the moment he had woken, she had been there, always with an answer, if not always the answer he wanted. So... What?
He passed another sitting Tenno, this one wearing a Volt warframe, and ran up another wall, nodding to the sitting Tenno as he did. The Volt nodded back silently. He made the top of the run and skidded over the lip. But then... He paused as he saw something that did not fit the simulation ahead of him. A low table, made of what looked like wood! Wood? Wood was incredibly rare and priceless. The few antiques like the table he saw in front of him were literally worth more than planetoids since most of the trees on Earth had perished in the many cataclysms that had befallen the world. But it was what was sitting ON the table that had Excalibur stop in mid stride.
It was a sword. And not just ANY sword. HIS sword. His Skana Prime. Which was flatly impossible. That sword was locked in the arsenal on his ship.
"What the hell?" Excalibur said slowly as he stepped closer to the table, the glaive ready in hand. "This... No..." He shook his head and stepped back. He spun in place as a voice sounded from nearby.
"It's your sword, Excalibur." A white armored form appeared out of nowhere. Jean's Ash warframe was white immaculate as always. "Pick it up." The other Tenno drew his Skana.
"Jean?" Excalibur asked slowly. Then he sighed. "You were in my systems. You got the sword's specs." Jean nodded silently. Excalibur stiffened. Jean had few peers when it came to hacking computer systems. Even a virtual simulation was, at heart, a computer program. "Did you do this?" Excalibur asked with a touch of heat, waving to indicate the simulation. Jean nodded again and Excalibur nearly exploded. "WHY?" He demanded.
"You deserve a fair fight, Brother." Jean said, not moving.
"WHAT?" Excalibur snapped. "Jean, this isn't a fight! This is a challenge! I couldn't kill Kori. Not like that."
"I know." Jean said sadly. "I talked with her a bit while we waited for evac. You were tending Alicia."
"I was distracted." Excalibur said slowly. "Kori was alive. You and Li were coming around, Alicia was a mess. She needed my help more than you did."
"I know." Jean said, shaking his head. "I am not arguing that. Kori begged me to kill her and I couldn't. She begged Li and Li couldn't." Excalibur nodded soberly.
"It wasn't her fault." Excalibur said softly. "Any one of us could have fallen into that madman's trap. And you know the limits of our training as well as I do. If we can't suicide, we can't escape and it is only a matter of time until we break." Jean nodded. "She is not in her right mind and won't be for a long, long time. Judging her by her actions as if she was in complete control of herself is heartless and wrong." Excalibur said sourly. "I expected better of the Elders."
"You can't really blame them." Jean said easily, still not moving. "This kind of thing hasn't happened to Tenno since the Great War. At that time, yes, the penalty for it was death."
"There was rarely time for anything else." Excalibur agreed with a sigh. "But to just condemn her like that..." He shook his head. "Don't tell me you think it was right." He said sourly.
"You were given an order." Jean said simply. "You refused to obey it."
"It's not that simple." Excalibur snapped. "Yes, I was told to do my duty. My duty..." He said, looking away from the other Tenno. He shook his head. "My duty was always to kin first, mission second. You know this." Jean nodded. "Stand aside." Excalibur declared.
"I can't do that, Excalibur." Jean said sadly, moving to block the path. "My orders are to stop you. I was supposed to ambush you here. Put an arrow in you before you knew I was here."
"Why didn't you?" Excalibur asked softly. He knew Jean's abilities. Excalibur wouldn't have had a chance. Even blade to blade, Excalibur gave himself even odds. Jean was good. Not flashy or showy, but good.
"Because you deserve a fair fight." Jean said gently. "Because you are a better man than I am. A better Tenno."
"No I am not. I won't fight you, Jean." Excalibur declared, striding to pass the other Tenno, only to pause as Jean raised his sword into a ready position and blocked his way. "Will you cut me down if I do not resist?" Excalibur asked softly. "Brother?"
"You..." Jean swore softly. "Don't make me do this." The other Tenno begged. "Fight me."
"I won't fight you." Excalibur said simply. "Just like I won't kill Kori. It wouldn't be honorable. I swore to do my challenge. Not fight. I will not kill my kin." He said quietly, but with force.
"I can't let you go, Excalibur." Jean said sadly. "I am sorry, brother." He raised his sword, but paused as Excalibur nodded.
"Before you strike..." Excalibur said with quiet certitude. "One of our sisters was injured by an arrow fired at me by a brother." Jean froze and Excalibur continued. "She lived when I left her. Can you get help for her?"
"Until the challenge is done, Excalibur..." Jean said heavily. "We are in com blackout. I..." Jean jerked and then lowered his sword. "I want to help... But... I can't let you pass."
"Jean, please..." Excalibur said slowly. "Save our sister. I don't know how long Cina can hold on."
"Maricina?" Jean said slowly. "I... No." He jerked and then raised his sword again. "I can't let you pass."
"I see." Excalibur said slowly. "I know what Kori would tell me to do." Excalibur sighed and then slowly bent and laid the glaive he still held on the ground. The Ash warframe seemed to stare at him, frozen. "Do me a favor?" Excalibur asked conversationally.
"Depends on what it is." Jean said softly.
"Tell Alicia, I am sorry and I will wait for her." Excalibur said with a sigh as he turned towards the sheer drop off. The path he had followed up the cliff was nearby, but he ignored it, staring out into the blankness of cyberspace.
"Excalibur!" Jean protested. "No! Stop! This isn't right!"
"Right and wrong doesn't come into it, Brother." Excalibur said sadly. "My duty is to my kin. I cannot save Kori. Maybe I can save Cina." He felt rather than saw the Ash start forward, but then he was in motion, running towards the drop and the endless abyss.
"No!" Jean screamed as Excalibur ran lightly over the edge of the cliff and fell like a rock.
"That... was dumb..."
The male voice was unfamiliar. Excalibur paused. What the? He had jumped. The safety interlocks had been disengaged. It had to have killed him. So who the hell was talking to him? He was lying on something hard, but giving. It didn't feel like anything Excalibur had ever laid on before. Not metal, not a mattress. It felt...
"Might as well open your eyes, boy." The male voice said sourly. "I know you are awake."
Excalibur opened his eyes and froze. He was lying on...? WHAT was he lying on? It was green! But... it was alive? He looked around. This was nothing like any simulation he had ever been in. The surface he was lying on seemed to be composed of millions of small green things. Was this grass? He had read about it sure, but he never seen it or thought he ever would. He stared at the carpet of green and then his attention was drawn to where a figure stood nearby. The...human wore Tenno style armor, but it..wasn't. It was a warframe, but... It wasn't. It held a glaive but no other weapons. What looked like a holster was on one hip, but the pistol in it was unclear. Excalibur stiffened and then froze as the man laughed.
"Gonna lie there all day, boy?" The man asked with a snort.
"Where am I?" Excalibur asked softly.
"You are exactly nowhere." The man replied evenly.
"Nowhere?" Excalibur asked incredulously. Was this man making fun of him? "And who are you?"
"Nobody." The man said equably.
"I am having a conversation with nobody at nowhere." Excalibur said and then sighed. "Great. My mind is playing tricks on me. Well, how long until I hit bottom?"
"You did." The man said, his voice turning kind.
"So I am dead?" Excalibur asked incredulously. "This is not what I expected for an afterlife."
"No, you are not dead." The man replied with a laugh. "Virtual world, virtual rules, remember? Some can be broken, other bent?" He looked a question at Excalibur who nodded, manifestly against his will. That was one of the first lessons that Tenno learned about virtual worlds. For some weird reason they called it the Matrix Codex. "Time is one of those rules, Excalibur." The recumbent Tenno froze.
"How do you know my name?" Excalibur asked slowly.
"I like to keep tabs on things." The man said with a nod. "The more things change, the more they stay the same. Always someone needs fighting done and always the Tenno answer." He sounded lost and sad for a moment.
"Am I your prisoner?" Excalibur asked slowly, trying to figure this out. It was weird. But now he could see the edges of the virtual world. He had never seen a simulation so detailed before however. This one actually felt as if he was lying on grass. He could smell it! But that was impossible, he had never smelled grass before, had he?
"No." The man said with a shake of his head. "Just wanted to make sure you were intact. As soon as you can, you are free to go."
"You are not making any sense." Excalibur snapped. "I am in a virtual simulation I have never seen before, at your mercy and I am not your prisoner?" He glared at other but then stiffened as the weapon in the man's hand vanished.
"You are not my prisoner, boy." The man said gently. "And for what it is worth, well done."
"What?" Excalibur asked, confused.
"Even before you started your challenge, the Elders started rethinking their stupid judgment of poor Kori." The man said with a grimace. "Bunch of hidebound fossils." He snapped.
"You insult the leaders of my people." Excalibur said in a quiet tone.
"What?" The man actually snarled. "I can't say someone is being stupid when they are? Sheesh..." The man said with a snort. "I am a lot of things, boy. Politically correct is not one of them. I see someone doing something stupid and I am going to say it's stupid. I have seen too many friends and kin lost because people were too busy looking for ways to keep from looking stupid to look where they were going."
Kin? Excalibur froze. "Who are you?" He asked slowly.
"That would be telling." The man said with a shrug. "And you have to go now."
"I... Wait..." Excalibur said slowly. Did he know this man? Did he know... Everything was fading. Or he was.
"It's all right, Excalibur." The man in almost Tenno armor said gently. "You are doing fine. Be well, my descendant." Then he vanished,
"Descen-?" Excalibur stiffened. Who? No! it can't be! He tried to speak, to plead, but the man was gone and darkness rose up to grab him. "Wait! I have...so... many..." He lost consciousness before he could speak any of his questions.
Alicia was crying. He hated hearing her cry. A soft murmur of sound around him spoke of medical machinery. Excalibur opened his eyes and regretted it.
"Ow..." He groaned and a gasp sounded nearby. Alicia's voice came, hesitant.
"X... Excalibur...?" She asked, her tone cautious.
"Who else would it be?" Excalibur asked sourly. Then he stiffened. "Dang it. I failed... Oh Kori, I am sorry."
"So am I." An impossible voice sounded from nearby. Kori! Excalibur's eye snapped open and there she was. She was sitting, holding Alicia who had obviously been crying for some time to judge by the tears that streaked her face. Kori smiled gently at him. "Good morning."
"Kori... I..." Excalibur tried to shake his head, but it wouldn't move. "What the-?" Alicia rose quickl and came to his bedside. He looked around and saw a lot of medical machinery. He was no doc, no med tech, but it looked extensive. "What happened?"
"We lost you." Alicia said, her eyes fearful. "We lost you. Your body was empty. No one could find you in the virtual world when the Lotus finally managed to break down the walls that Jean had built. He said... He said you jumped... he was just sitting there staring at the edge of the cliff. He said you jumped." She was crying again.
"I had to help Cina..." Excalibur said fearfully. Alicia took his hand and gave it a squeeze. He froze. He had barely felt it.
"Maricina is hurt." Alicia said sadly. "The neural backlash from her injury was intense, but they say she will make a full recovery in time."
"I..." Excalibur swallowed and spoke evenly. "Kori? What about you?"
"My case is in review." Kori said, eyes downcast. "I want to die. But no one seems to want to kill me. And they watch me too closely for me to suicide." She shuffled a bit.
"You are a mess, Kori." Excalibur said gently. "Treating you as if you were in your right mind is wrong. Alicia?" He asked as Alicia bent down to kiss his cheek.
"I lost you and somehow I got you back." Alicia said in a diamond hard tone. "I am not leaving you again." He looked at her and she shook her head. "You are not going to ask, are you? Always others, you silly, silly Tenno." The woman who loved him scowled. "I love you, but you are so infuriating sometimes!" Excalibur took a deep breath and spoke softly.
"What happened to me, Alicia?" Excalibur asked slowly and carefully. "I jumped, I remember that. Then... I was..." He paused. What had he been about to say? He didn't remember. Just an odd smell. Not bad, just... different. Grass? He had never smelled grass, had he? He tried to shake his head and it moved a little. "How bad?"
"Bad." Alicia said sadly. "Excalibur...The neural damage was...extreme." She swallowed heavily. "They couldn't find you. It should have tossed you into a limbo. The Lotus didn't want to kill you, just make you fail. Jean messed everything up."
"He thought he was obeying orders." Excalibur said mildly. "He didn't understand. I don't really understand. But I know now I was played."
"What?" Kori and Alicia asked in unison.
"Look." Excalibur said slowly. "We don't have enough Tenno to go around executing them for things out of their control. The Elders were scared. I don't blame them." The man said as both females exclaimed. "The threat of Okorin technology in the hands of madmen is not to be taken lightly. But punishing the pawns of said mad men is wrong. And that was what it was, they wanted to punish you, Kori, for scaring them. For reminding them all of the horrors of the Great Plague."
"I don't get it." Kori said softly. "I want to die. Why stop them?"
"You don't want to die, Kori." Excalibur said sharply. "You want the pain to stop. You want the dreams to stop." She stared at him, her face ashen. "I know. I went through the exact same thing, Kori. I recovered. So can you." She looked at him and then crumpled. Alicia caught her, holding her as Kori sobbed. "Oh Kori... It's okay..." Excalibur said gently. "It will be okay..."
A female nurse entered the room, saw Kori and immediately took charge. She pulled ablanket from a cupboard and laid it around the sobbing woman before extricating her from Alicia.
"There now, Kori dear..." The elder female said with a gentle smile. "It's all right. Let's get you back to your room. Your next treatment is in twenty minutes." Alicia let Kori go and the nurse steered the still sobbing Tenno from the room. Alicia looked at the door as it closed and then at Excalibur.
"How long...?" She said and then broke off.
"I still get dark thoughts even today, Alicia." Excalibur said sadly. "It hasn't gone way. I don't think it will. But I can handle it."
"So what you did in the virtual world was not suicide?" Alicia was clearly having difficulty with that. "You threw yourself off a cliff!"
"I couldn't fight Jean, Alicia." Excalibur said slowly. "Cina was dying. He wouldn't let me pass. I..." He sighed. "I didn't want to, Alicia. I knew it would hurt you. I wasn't being selfish. I couldn't save Kori without killing Jean."
"So you did your duty to your kin..." Alicia said in a painfully neutral voice. Excalibur nodded a little. "You are crazy, Tenno." She leaned down and kissed him. "But I love you anyway."
"Alicia..." Excalibur said softly. "I don't know how i feel about you. I don't know... I never..." He broke off as she laid a finger across his mouth.
"You have a lot of recovering to do." Alicia said as she lay down beside him on the bed, her arms going around him careful to avoid the tubes and wires. "But I am here. And we will learn together. Maybe this will fade in time. Maybe not. I have never felt like this with anyone else, Excalibur."
"Well." Excalibur smiled a bit as he managed to move one arm to lie across her. "I look forward to the training you have to give me."
"You are one of a kind, X." Alicia said as she laid her arm over his. "And thank goodness. You are all mine!"
Neither of them noticed a small circular device that was lying on a shelf nearby start to glow. The glaive wavered and then vanished. A shadow in the corner resolved into a form in armor that looked almost like a warframe.
Good luck, kids. Haydon Tenno wore a smile as he too vanished.