All was quiet around Gara-Toht Lake. The Grineer had pulled back to Hek's Stiletto, while most of the animals had long since finish drinking and were now foraging further inland. Overall, it was a peaceful scene.

Then a portal of blue light formed over the lake. A moment later, a strange entity began to emerge from the light, its body emanating from the dorsal section of the portal. Already, it was halfway free from the blue light.

As more of the entity broke free, the shape came into greater clarity. Though no one would get the reference, the creature resembled Sebulba from star wars, having large, arm-like growth meant for propulsion, while the analogues to legs ended in manipulators. It's body was white and pinkish-red in color, chosen colors of a creature long thought forgotten.

As the creature finally broke free from the portal, the light faded away, leaving all quiet again.

The sentient's mind wandered. At last, it was free...yet only partially. It had spent too long in the nether world to truly leave it in one go. Parts of its were still tethered there, forever leaving it attached to that twisted universe. Even if it could free those, portions of its body would remain out of its control, left to mindlessly wander the plains, seeking a unity that would never fully come to pass.

Oh well.

Far to the West, the Machine noticed a group of Tenno assault a Teralyst. Already they destroyed all of its synovia, and the beast had been almost fully overwhelmed by the devils. If the newly arrived sentient acted now, it could salvage the fragment before the void devils destroyed it.

The new Eidolon ignored them. It had bigger fish to fry.

Its attention soon turned to the pyramid in the distance. There lied the method by which the Orokin's ally had ensured that it would remain trapped, the method by which the Grineer had enslaved it. They had carved off pieces of it, hoping to learn how to shackle its shards to their will...at least until the New One had freed it.

This New One was not a spawn of the old one, though its caretaker was - they had hewn those monsters from their own blood, added in traits of other monsters they could summon, then unleashed them upon their foes. The New One was not one of these, but it held no illusions that this New One would hold any love for the Sentients - it had only released it to save the slaves...and the technology in the facility.

For a moment, it considered firing on the facility - it might get lucky and kill the Commander and his caretaker before they could escape.

The feeling soon passed - best not to take unnecessary risks.

Instead, it turned its attention to a Grineer ship some miles above. It could feel one of its shards in there...and it wanted it back.

XXXXXXXX

As the Eidolon vanished through the portal, I sighed. Ugh.

Part of me felt good for having ensured that the Grineer's slaves had survived, but that didn't ease the discomfort I'd had with my choice. Had I really done the right thing? True, I had saved many innocents (about five hundred, if you wanted to be exact), but at what cost? Releasing such a dangerous creature would surely have consequences down the line.

Oh, and Melissa was giving me a malicious smile. I think she liked seeing me squirm. Ugh.

"Well, now, look's like you've had to make your first hard choice, haven't you?"

I grit my teeth as she said that. "It feels...I don't know how to describe it."

"Good. I like when you feel uncomfort-where are you going?"

Halfway through the portal I had created in front of my head, I offered a response. "To wash off the unease."

If she said something, I didn't hear it.

XXXXXXX

Ah, water, my old friend. It's nice to be in you again.

Some people would say it was stupid to put an Olympic swimming pool inside your house. I honestly could not be bothered to care. Besides, I had a house so big that this pool probably didn't take up a thousandth of the total space.

In another part of the pool, I saw Rory and my adoptive children playing chicken, with Bianca on Konrad's shoulders and Marion on Rory's. I'd had some safety personnel on standby in case they needed help, but I was pretty sure they wouldn't need too much supervision. Plus, they were kids. Might as well let them enjoy their childhoods.

"Good idea."

Ugh. Can you not ruin the moment? Don't answer that!

"Eh, it's fun."

Scowling, I turned toward Melissa's voice and...oh...um...

My ROB had a shit-eating grin on her face that just grew when she saw my expression. "You like what you see?"

Regrettably, I did. Seriously, I would be surprised if I didn't, to be honest. I mean, I might not have feelings for Melissa, but I certainly found her body attractive. Especially with how much of it she was showing off.

Apparently, she'd figured out I was going swimming, and decided to get dressed to do the same. She was wearing a red and black bikini that left little to the imagination, and while she wasn't the curviest of people, she was still quite a looker.

And if her expression was anything to go by, she definitely knew that.

"Someone's certainly happy to see me."

I felt my face burn at the words, partially out of indignation, partially because I was really uncomfortable talking to girls...okay, I'm not normally uncomfortable talking to girls, but talking to girls wearing swimsuits who aren't members of my family and were deliberately pushing all of my buttons for fun was definitely not normal.

"Ha..ha…..Why are you here, even?"

"Um, I'm bored, plus I wanted to see how you'd react."

"...Jerk."

"Oh, you wound me. Also, Cassidy wanted to go swimming."

A loud splash reached my ears. No guesses as to who that was.

"Well, do you want me to do anything to for you? Like rub in sunscreen on your skin?"

"We're indoors. And please, my skin's too sensitive for your touch?"

"You saying my hands are too rough for you, or just good enough to set you off?"

As my ROB suddenly started blushing, I smirked. It felt good to force the shoe onto the other foot.

"...You...stupid..."

"Eh, I don't have time for this."

The look of complete confusion on her face as I climbed out of the water and got a towel around my soaking wet body was priceless. "If you need me, I'll be in my Commander."

Rory and his siblings had stopped playing around, and were now staring at the flabbergasted Melissa. So was Cassidy...wait, was she taking pictures?

…..Yep, she was. No honor among family, apparently.

XXXXXXX

Back in the Warframe Universe, I started scanning around the progenitor temple, looking for any characters that would help me with the Vitruvian. It didn't take long to find one, which apparently entitled 'expansion'.

Popping back up to the Vitruvian and selecting the symbol got me a new vision.

Here is how it went.

XXXXXXX

Before me now were pictures of ships, stars, galaxies, people, creatures, machines, and strange orbs that eclipsed all of the afore mentioned things in size. The images showed ships being loaded with people, animals, machines, and other things, then traveling between planets, then stars, then galaxies, then the orbs.

True, you do strange things for family. But once you secured the peace, you seemed to have run out of territory to conquer. You'd already conquered one galaxy, and after the war, your kind moved to another three, taking man with you along the way, no?

You are correct. We expanded our domain as far as we could, but eventually, we realized there was only so much we could search for in our home universe. Only so much that could be done. And so, we started looking for new ones.

Ah, yes, you did. You pierced the veil of the multiverse, found a way to travel through the space between spaces. What did you call this land?

The Empyrean Sea. A universe between universes, able to guide us from our home to another.

Ah, yes, you mentioned that. That's your home dimension, isn't it? Where you lived before you were sent into the world of men.

Good, you remember what I just said.

You wound me. Though I must ask, why did you seek endless expansion from your origin?

Resources and a desire for allies. Even if we could make unlimited amounts of anything, we still desired friends for rough times.

I saw several images of those the Progenitors decided to be friends with: the humans from Grey Goo, the Traveler and...hold on, was that the Imperium?

…..No, they had technology the Imperium didn't have. Wait, did that mean that the Progenitors had been allies with humans form The Dark Age of Technology?!

Of course, even you had enemies.

That we did.

Sure enough, I saw images of those enemies: beings I recognized as the Reapers, the Hive and...were those the combine?

And inevitably, we were led to war with those who we could not agree with.

Why, though? Surely you would have sought peaceful coexistence. Your people hardly seem to be the type to go to war with others just because you didn't agree with them.

...Well, you are correct there. At first, we did try to seek peace with them. Some were reasonable, others were not. Many were jealous of our technology. Eventually, when relations turned sour, we attempted to hold a peace summit to end this conflict before it began.

And I presumed that failed spectacularly?

The station the conference was held on was blown up about half an hour into the talks. No one new what happened, and no one really cared. Thoughts of peace went out the window. Now, war was inevitable.

How sad. Do you have any idea what caused the station to explode?

Yes, actually. It turend out that the various methods used to get the diplomats from their home universes to the one the station was in caused the star the station was in orbit of to go supernova. The diplomats actually managed to survive this disaster, but by the time anyone knew about that, the fighting had already begun.

A pity. So, what happened next?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

...So the Progenitors went to war with a bunch of other people over an accident? Why am I not surprised?

Also, why do I have a proximity ale- OH SHIT!

There, floating in front of my Commander, was a sentient.

A gigantic, flying sentient.

And it looked a lot like an Eidolon.

….Okay, calm down, calm down, you can work through this.

"So, this is your architect of destruction. Your engine of war. Your Commander, correct?"

Somehow, I mustered the courage to respond. "Yes, it is."

"Hmph. To think I would see a familiar design once more."

….…...What?

"Could you repeat that?"

"Oh, you don't know? I remember this machine from the Old War. True, some things are missing, but it is still my old foe. Weakened as it may be, it still carries the technological and arcane arms of its old self."

Is this thing crazy? Or senile? "I'm sorry, but this machine has only technological prowess at its disposal - nothing magical."

"Only because you haven't learned how to use it properly. You don't know how to use its systems and rituals to the fullest. I can change that, though."

Before I could ask what he meant by that, the Eidolon placed a hand on my commander, ignoring the literall storm of lasers fired at it. A moment later, it started chanting.

'Mistros, marxaros, xelmas, hul. Ranir, malir, zanul, suul. Xilos, shranuul, pactos, pline. Aaros, ingtuul, cawlos, zrine.'

As soon as the Sentinet finished his chant, my Commander, my avatar, and my normal body started glowing. A moment later, the light seemed to explode, leaving me blinded for a moment. When I regained my sight, I quickly examined myself, my avatar, and my commander.

For the most part, they were the same.

Well, you know, except for the fact that both of my human-ish bodies were glowing. As for the Commander, it was covered in what I assumed were runes.

What the fuck?!

"Consider this repayment for freeing me. As a final bit of advice, if you wish to know how to use these powers, I suggest consulting with your...sponsor. You know, the one that joined you in my prison. Her kind are well versed in the ways of the ones you call Progenitors."

The minute he finished speaking, the Eidolon vanished, leaving me alone to ponder my powers.

A minor alert popped up for me. Examining it, I found that it was instructions for...something. On closer examination, it appeared that these were tutorials for...rituals?

Seriously, this thing had tutorials for magic?!

Only for my Commander though. My regular bodies couldn't do squat with those.

"So, how are you do-did I miss something."

And there was Melissa again, this time way to close for comfort. Given that she was dripping water on me, I got the feeling she had just gotten out of my pool, a hunch more or less confirmed by analyzing the cameras back at my hub. At least she had the decency to put on a robe so that I could talk to her without staring.

"Well, I just met an eidolon, it told me that my Commander had magic powers, then it activated those powers. Did you know about this?"

She looked rather when I asked the question. "Well, sort of - my people were, supposedly, taught magic by the Progenitors, but I didn't know that they gave the Commanders those powers as well."

"Do you know how to use that magic?"

"Oh hell yes I do!"

"...What would you demand as payment if I asked you to teach me how to use that magic?"

Confusion filled my ROBs face, then understanding, followed by a vicious looking smile.

Oh joy.

XXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!