Monsters
It was hard to say who was more surprised by Nikis' entry with Kori and an unclothed human female who was covered in blood. The boys had obviously been expecting something and the Tenno had been readying themselves to fight. For a moment, Pieter's face was almost smug. But only for a moment. Just long enough for the woman who had been Cindy S-79 to charge.
She did not charge the Tenno.
Jacques did not even have time to scream as she bowled into him at inhuman speed, her teeth biting deep into his throat. Humans were omnivorous. They had evolved as beings who could eat many kinds of foods. They had teeth that could grind. Teeth that could tear and teeth that could bite. But they had not evolved as meat eaters. They did not do it well. Or cleanly. Everyone went still as the woman held onto the writhing form, her teeth clenched in his throat, sucking, slurping. She was just as strong and fast as he was. He jerked and then lay still as she drank.
Into the sudden silence that descended, Nikis spoke. It sounded like a quote.
"'Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.'" He shook his head. "Mary Shelly. Frankenstein. I think it's apt." That broke the stillness.
"Cindy! Stop!" Pieter shouted, starting to rise. An arrow hit the floor by his leg and he froze. Serene drew another arrow and had it half drawn before any of the others could move.
"Just sit there, brat." Nikis said savagely, an oddly shaped pistol in his hand. Was that a stake in the end of it? It gleamed metal. "You reap what you sow. You sowed horror. You get to choke on it."
"She will kill him!" Pieter cried. He tried to reach her mind to calm her, but he couldn't.
"And your point is?" Nikis and Serene both chorused.
"He is my brother!" Pieter snapped. "Henry! Georges!" The other two vanished from sight, a bloody arrow flying free as Georges pulled it from his leg. He warped his own image into a series of whirling shadows and ran.
"Block the door." Nikis said calmly as he took a step to the side. Something whistled through where he had been and he lashed out with the hand that was not holding the odd pistol, clipping something that could not be seen. "Serene?"
"On it." The Banshee gestured and the room was suddenly filled with sound. It wasn't audible to humans. But all the Tenno could see five humanoid forms. The one dying on the floor. One feeding on it. And the three who had been grouping to rush the door. Those three paused as the Tenno spun to aim at them. The Tenno did not.
Nikis' pistol belched and a metal thing flew to impale one of them, hurling it into the wall where it hung, grasping at the stake that had pinned it to the wall. The other two split up, their speed inhuman enough to avoid the arrow and storm of bullets that were sent their way. The woman on the floor made a noise through her drinking, but Nikis shook his head.
"It's okay. Feed, Honey. Karl? Olim? Block the door." He said coldly. "If they get out, we have the area locked down. But she deserves the chance to do this. For her husband and her son." The Rhino and Frost Prime warframes moved to the door. Kori moved aside to let them bar it with sheer bulk.
"We do not want to be enemies!" Pieter screamed as he reappeared from his cloak of shadows. It wasn't working anyway. "You hate the Corpus too!" Henry appeared as well. Georges hung on the wall, feebly grasping the stake that impaled him and jerking his hand back as it flared red hot.
"We do." Nikis agreed. "And if you could limit your predations to the Corpus, we might have let you for a while. But you can't." He shook his head. "You hit four Corpus facilities, true. But... Three other tiny outposts. Twenty nine humans. None Corpus." Pieter went still and Nikis snarled, a sound more akin to an enraged badger than a Tenno. "Did you think that just because you destroyed all evidence we would not know? That we would not care? We protect humanity, asshole! We always have! We always will. It is our job!"
"Nikis." Serene said softly. He nodded and a pair of objects spun from his hands. She caught them in midair. Long metal stakes. "You boys have been bad. Very bad. You hunted and killed people who had done nothing to you. We couldn't care less about Corpus, except that they too are human." The bite in her voice was palpable. "We fight them when we must. But we do not slaughter the non-combatants. We do not kill and eat children." She snarled. "Not because we can."
"We need the blood!" Pieter screamed. "We need the protein."
"And it is never enough." Nikis' voice...was odd. Almost gentle? All eyes turned to him and he had a new stake in his pistol and another in his other hand. "Because it is not protein you need and we cannot let you loose. Not now."
"What are you talking about?" Pieter snapped. But.. Henry slumped. "Henry? What?"
"It is not the protein." Henry's voice held measureless sorrow now. "I was... trying to figure out why it never sated us. I did."
"And you never said?" Pieter snapped.
"I can't fix it." Henry said softly as he fell to his knees. Pieter went still and even Georges stopped grabbing at the spike that impaled him. The only sound was the sucking as the woman who had been Cindy S-79 fed. "I do not know what we need. I can't define it. The blood... sates us. For a time. But it is never -will never- be enough."
"No." Nikis agreed. "It won't. You lot are not Nosferatu. Not vampires from human legend. You need more. And nothing will ever satisfy you. If you managed somehow to suck the energy from the Sun... It wouldn't satisfy you."
"How do you know this?" Pieter snapped, his posture coiled and tense.
"I have seen this before." Nikis said softly. Pieter and Henry went still and Nikis shook his head a little. "Contrary to many people's belief, most Orokin scientists had a firm grasp of ethics. Often because of people like me waiting in the shadows for them to screw up, but still... Most knew better. But there were always a few for whom the pursuit of knowledge and power were all. Corpus are no different. You lot were made from flesh that wasn't human. You were grown forcibly far faster than any human was meant to."
"It... hurt..." Georges managed to grate out, still feebly clutching at the spike.
"Yeah." Nikis agreed. "If they had been careful. If they had tried... You could have had normal lives. Maybe you would have manifested powers. Maybe not." He shrugged a little. "But our primary tenet has always been to protect humanity. You feed on it and you have made a new one of yourselves." He nodded to where Cindy S-79 was finishing. "If you get loose, you will keep doing it. You can't help what you are." Was the ancient gunfighter...sad? "It is not your fault, boys. But we cannot let you loose."
"Speak for yourself, Nikis." Serene snapped. "I think it is their fault."
"Calm down, Serene." Nikis retorted evenly. "Do not hate them, girl. It is not their fault they were made by wackos to try and break you. Deserving of pity, not hate. Now... What they have done since? Yes. That is their fault. Fine to be angry about that."
"What else could we do?" Pieter demanded, still crouched.
"You could have come to us. You were smart enough to make contact. It isn't that hard, if you want to." Nikis said softly. "The docs would have tried to help. They would have failed, but they would have tried. We would have been gentle. Let you choose the means of your passing. For the only release from your hunger is death." He shrugged. "Now though? We do not have a choice. You reproduced. That is forbidden. You cast your lot. We cast ours."
"What if we take your energy instead?" Georges managed to pry himself from the wall. He fell and landed on his feet.
"Two problems with that." Nikis said offhand and the feral boy paused. "First and foremost... it won't work. Different types of energy. Even if you could feed on us, -hard through the warframes but maybe possible- it wouldn't work for you. You can't digest it. Tenno are not human. You are despite your parentage."
"We are more than human!" Georges screamed. Then he gave a cry as the gun in Nikis' hand belched again. This time, the bolt took him in the throat. He was obviously cursing and screaming silently as he tried to pull free of the red hot metal. But Nikis stepped forward and the stake in his other hand pinned the boy's right hand to the wall.
"No." Nikis said softly. "Less. So much less." He shook his head as he stepped back, reloading his pistol again. "Just hang there for a bit, ya brat." The feral woman who had been Cindy S-79 was done. She rose from the still form at her feet and looked at Nikis who nodded. "You see what you are... in her. She hungers. But she cannot sate it. No matter how hard she tries, how hard she fights, how many she kills and feeds on, she cannot sate her hunger. She cannot. Ever." He nodded to the other boys and spoke kindly. "Go for it, Honey."
"Me." Henry said softly. The woman looked at him and he lay down and bared his neck for her. "I am tired. So tired."
"I know." Nikis said as the feral woman stepped to where Henry lay. He did not resist as she clamped her mouth on his neck and bit down. "Rest now, boy."
"Why are you doing this?" Pieter begged, backing away from Nikis. "What do you gain?"
"Do I have to gain anything?" Nikis asked quietly. "You were dead when you killed and ate your first victim. The punishments for cannibalism are clear." He shook his head. "You are all incurably insane and far too dangerous to imprison. Some mealy mouthed politico or doc may protest, but I remember. I saw what happens when people like you are allowed to go too far." He shook his head. "I won't allow it. Not again. That brings us to the second problem. If we let you breed? You will exterminate humanity without even trying. Nope. Not going to happen."
"I do not understand!" Pieter said as he backed to the wall near where Georges hung, still twitching. "We heal faster. We can hide ourselves from sight and move faster than humans. We need the blood to survive. Vampires! Why do you say we are not?"
"Because vampires were myth." Serene said savagely. "They never existed except in the minds of writers and crazy people like you."
"Serene." Nikis chided her and she subsided. "But she is right. Bram Stoker had a lot to answer for. Anne Bishop too. Not even going to go into the 'Twilight' crap..." Pieter looked confused and Nikis shrugged. "Never mind. Ancient history. Suffice it to say... No, you are not vampires. You are not immortal, vulnerable to sunlight, or repelled by holy objects. You are genetically engineered beings with an incurable disease. That disease makes you strong and fast and crazy. But it is killing you."
"There has to be a cure!" Pieter protested. "There has to be."
"I am sorry, boy." Nikis said quietly. "There isn't. The Orokin tried to find one. It cost them over a thousand lives and souls to determine that there was no cure." He shook his head. "I was commanded to let them try. I had to watch while they tried. They failed." Pieter slumped and Nikis nodded. "I am a Guardian of the Dead, young one. That is my charge. Your existence and the fact that you reproduced threatens the Balance between the living and the dead. That will not stand."
"I didn't mean to..." Pieter said with a gulp, then he screamed as Georges grabbed him and pulled him close, the pinned boy's teeth flashing. Blood flew in sprays as Georges pulled himself from the spikes and threw Pieter's still from away. He landed and lay still, his neck twisted oddly.
"Weak!" Georges snarled as he crouched. "I am strong!"
"No, you are nuts." Nikis said offhand. "Serene... if you would... I'll handle this."
"Right Nikis." Serene sounded a bit sick as she walked to where Jacques' form lay still. With a swift motion, she buried the stake she held in her left hand through his body and into the floor. It twitched and dark energy was pouring over the stake. She moved to where Pieter lay, skirting the feeding woman and her prey.
"Our food!" Georges screamed. "Our prey! Our hunts! You will not take what is ours!"
"Yadda, yadda, yadda..." Nikis retorted. "Come on already!" He taunted. The feral boy charged and Nikis met him halfway. For all his bluster, Georges was not a complete idiot. He knew fighting a Tenno on the Tenno's terms was stupid and his form blurred into invisibility again as he moved. Nikis... sighed. "You might have been good, boys. But we will never know."
Then the Nekros' hand flashed out, the stake in it burning hot as it connected with something. A shrill scream sounded and Georges appeared, his hand to his side as he backed hurriedly away.
"Serene!" Nikis snapped as the Banshee paused. She jerked back as Pieter swarmed up from the floor, unhurt. A trick. Henry... did not move from where he lay. His eyes were slowly lidding. "Sonar and watch the one she is feeding on. Might be an act too. They are intelligent, but inexperienced." Serene nodded, the stake in her hand ready.
"So smug..." Pieter snarled as he stalked around Nikis, his hands poised. "You are so holier than thou. What do you know of pain?" He went still as Serene froze.
"Ah shit, boy..." Serene said in a sick voice. "You did not just ask him that... You did not." The Banshee was backing away from the Nekros now, her trajectory put her near the feeding woman and the still form on the floor.
"Big scary man!" Pieter snapped, his anger fanned. "You have all the power! What do you know of pain?"
"What do I know of pain?" Nikis asked softly. His voice...was wrong. All of the other Tenno in the room flinched from it. "Karl, Olim... Shield Kori. Serene... Shield the girl."
"Nikis..." Karl warned. "Don't..."
Olim did not bother to protest, a shimmering field of blue surrounded him and Kori. Karl sighed and a field of blue surrounded him as well, Serene knelt beside the feeding woman and a shield covered both of them.
"You think you know what being a monster is, boy?" Nikis asked, his tone soft and dangerous. Pieter paled as he realized just how badly he had screwed up. Georges darted away, but Nikis' pistol belched again and the boy screamed as the stake took him to the floor this time, right through the broad bone of his pelvis. Then.. Nikis holstered it. "Let me show a bit of what you don't know."
"I didn't..." Pieter stammered. "I didn't mean..."
"I don't care." Nikis snarled as he stepped forward. Somehow, in just a step, he was all the way across the room, his hand on the now terrified boy's arm. The other hand slammed forward, burying the stake it held deep in Pieter's belly. "That won't kill you." Nikis said as Pieter screamed. "I am not that nice."
Dark orange power flared from Nikis' hands. One on the boy's arm, the other reaching up to touch Pieter's head. Then it flared... darker.
"No!" Pieter managed to scream but it was far, far too late.
Power surged from the Nekros. And... around. Images. Feelings. Scenes of devastation. Scenes of war, or death, of destruction. People killed in so many awful ways. And the feelings... Pieter was screaming, Georges was screaming as the power washed over both of them, scalding them, showing them a mere fraction of the awful memories that dwelt inside the Nekros' Shroud helmet. It couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds at most, but by the time it was done, Georges was curled up around the stake through his pelvis and the only thing holding Pieter up was the Nekros' iron grip.
"You tell me, brat." Nikis cold, clear voice was mocking. "What don't I know of pain?" Pieter was obviously incapable of responding.
Someone else did.
Serene jerked as the woman who had been Cindy S-79 rose from her meal and strode to where the Nekros stood, her steps sure for the first time.
"No." She said firmly, pushing the boy from the Nekros' grip. Pieter fell in a heap. She reached out to take hold of the Nekros' hands. "You... good."
"No, I am not, Honey." Nikis said with a sad sigh. But he reached up and caressed her cheek. "I fake it sometimes. But I am not."
"Me see..." The woman said as she embraced the Nekros. "...good man. Done bad. But good."
"Honey..." Nikis said sadly. "We cannot save you."
"Me know." She replied. "How end? They... Me... heal..." Nikis stared at her and she snarled. "How end? Must end! How?" She demanded.
"You..." Nikis swallowed hard and shook his head. "You don't have to do this."
"Yes." The woman replied. "Yes me do. How?" She pleaded.
"I..." Nikis paused as Serene stepped to their side. "Serene..."
"Nikis..." Serene said softly. "Let her do it. I will help her if she needs."
"I no be monster." The woman who had been Cindy S-79 said firmly. "I no want be monster."
Well, well, well... The voice was...wrong. All eyes turned to where one wall coruscated with energy. The female form that stepped out of it was...wrong as well. It's face though... It was half biotech looking metal, but the other half was recognizable to anyone who knew Gunnery Sergeant Miguel Smith.
Marlena Smith...smiled. It was not a human expression.
It would seem we are right on time.