Time passed as I prepared to deal with the Sentients. According to what I had learned from Warframe's lore, the Sentients were originally used to colonize the Tau system (I assumed and later confirmed said system to be Tau Ceti), so if I wanted to remove them as a threat to the Origin System, I needed to advance to that system and beat the shit out of everything sentient I found until they were all dead. then, hopefully, I could find analyze them and figure out how to incorporate their power into my own forces.

Of course, to even understand how to beat them, I'd need to learn the powers of the void, which would also help me learn to control the warframes.

And since figuring out how to harness the void was proving a hassle, I decided to look into trying again to see if I could control one of the frames.

Specifically, Excalibur Umbra.

You'd be surprised by how that turned out.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Cautiously, I stared at the greyish-black humanoid. In particular, my attention was focused on the blue spot beneath the 'horn' on its head - the closest thing to an eye this suit had.

All of the warframes I had seen so far had been, well, puppets for the Tenno, which went limp whenever the Operators went out into battle. Not so for Umbra - one of my scouts had observed a Tenno (Etran, to be precise) use transference to leave Umbra, and the frame had fought on its own. That had truly captured my interest - a suit that could fight side by side with its operator was, well, unheard of. Maybe the suit had a mind of its own? If so, then perhaps it could tell me the secret of how to control the frames of war?

Still, I had taken precautions - I'd put a glass barrier between myself and Umbra, made of the same type of glass that the observation windows of Grineer starships were made out of. I'd had yet to destroy those with small arms (the only handheld weapons I'd seen that could destroy the glass were arch-guns and arch-melee weapons), so it was incredibly unlikely that Umbra would be able to get to me if it turned out to be less than friendly.

I'd also armed plenty of security devices, in case said frame did turn out to be dangerous, so that I could restrain it before things got out of hand.

Still, this had the potential to backfire spectacularly.

Of course, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Steeling myself, I reached out to the frame using my psychic powers, trying to gain access to its mind.

I soon met resistance, while the frame, which had previously been standing upright, started to curl in on itself and...was it shaking?

Then the frame screamed, and my world turned into pain.

As the frame howled, for what reason I could not tell, white bolts of what I assumed were electricity, or maybe void energy, show out from its body, striking all over my ship's interior.

WARNING: SYSTEM OVERLORD. AFFECTED SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN.

Well, crap.

Then the frame looked up at me. A moment later, it leapt, smashing through the glass like it was tissue paper, and clenched its right hand around my throat, hoisting me into the air.

Shit.

As it stared at me, I noticed that the left side of its faceplate had cracked, revealing twisted flesh...and a seemingly unseeing, yet undeniably human, eye.

What the..?

Umbra threw me to the side, which I'm pretty sure dented the inner walls of the ship, before pinning my neck between two of the strange inverted arches on his right arm. He proceeded to stare right at me, with his helmet slowly repairing itself.

Well, fuck. This was terrible.

Somehow, I got the feeling it was about to get worse. But how?

"HEY DAD! I WANTED TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING!"

I turned to the entrance to the room, where Rory had just barged in, holding what looked like an Ayatan sculpture.

….oh no...….

XXXXXXX

Umbra stared at the being before him. What was he? Not an Orokin, by the looks of it. Not a Tenno either, given his lack of void energy. Just some strange being, trying to use him as a weapon of war.

In the end, whatever this young man was, it did not matter - in a few moments, he would be nothing. Umbra refused to be subservient to another being, not after what Ballas had done to him. Already, his left hand was around the grip of the Skiajati, readying to strike. It would only take one good cut to end this.

"HEY DAD! I WANTED TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING!"

Instantly, Umbra turned around. His eyes soon focused on a child standing in the doorway, carrying what appeared to be an Ayatan sculpture. On his head was a large pile of fuzz, which appeared to be alive, given how it twitched and shook without any action from the boy.

Blissfully unware of what was going on, the boy opened his mouth to speak. Then his eyes finally focused on what was in front of him, and his expression turned to one of puzzlement, followed by fear.

"...Um...dad...?"

"It's okay, Rory, everything is under control. I'm fine."

Umbra knew that everything was not fine for the young man, yet he was puzzled by the lie. Why tell it?

Then he remembered what the young boy had just said. He turned his attention to the man, then to the boy, then back to the man. Yes, the features matched up. It did seem that this boy was the son of the one he had pinned to the wall.

Suddenly, Umbra felt an intrusion into his mind, coming from the man. Anger briefly took hold of his mind, but he managed to bury it, and decided, just this once, to let the intruder in.

'Leave him alone. Please, leave my son out of this.'

The mental voice sounded like the one of the man he was holding, and sounded surprisingly...sincere. Fear was evident in this voice, unsurprisingly, but not fear for himself.

This man did not want harm to be brought unto his son. An admirable trait.

Umbra felt, if only for a moment, a sense of understanding pass between him and the man. The understanding between fathers protecting their sons.

Their sons...

His son...

XXXXXXXXXXX

For a moment, I felt a feeling of immense sorrow coming form Umbra. Then everything went black.

When I came to, I found myself on a hospital bed, in ornate, white room. To my left was an orokin with an unnaturally large right arm - Ballas, I realized. To my right, a Dax soldier, if Teshin was anything to go by.

I listened as Ballas spoke, only half paying attention, wondering what was going, noticing idly that Ballas appeared to be offering to play a game of Go...err, Komi, with me. My attention soon refocused on the Executor, though, when I heard him talking without opening his mouth. Apparently, it had something to do with a 'transference bolt', whatever that was.

Then he implored me to look at the other person in the room. My son.

But that wasn't my son.

Yet, all the same, I felt worried about him.

Slowly, I turned to face the Dax. The minute he noticed I was staring at him, he began to speak, his faceplate retracting so that he could see eye to eye with me. He began speaking, referring to himself as Isaah, asking me if I remembered him.

Then, once more, Ballas began to speak.

"Of course he remembers you, young Dax..."

Then his physical voice went silent, replaced by his transference one.

"Which will make this reunion all the more tragic...when you watch him die."

Then, the vision faded, yet when I came to, I wasn't in my body. Yet I could still see it, pinned against the wall by Umbra's...by...my...arm.

I looked down, confused, as I realized that I wasn't in my body anymore.

I was in Umbra's.

Which meant I was...controlling...Umbra.

And...if my train of thought was going right...the vision I had seen was...a memory...from Umbra...

And that meant Isaah….was Umbra's son.

I only had a moment to process this before a feeling of unbearable sorrow consumed me, followed by nothingness.

XXXXXX

When I came to, the first thing I noticed was that something warm was wrapped around me. It also seemed to be trying to crush me, albeit lightly. As my vision regained focus, I realized that it was Rory, holding me in a hug. The minute I regained the motor skills in my arm, I returned the embrace, pulling my son close. My hearing returned a moment later, and with it came an almost inaudible whimpering. It took me a moment to realize it was coming from Rory, who had been crying. If the amount of dried up tears on his face were any indication, he had been doing so for some time.

"There, there," I said, "it's okay, I'm still here. Please, don't cry."

Rory turned to look at me, eyes red from constant crying. "But...but...but that suit had you pinned to the wall...and then you fell over and didn't wake up and-"

"I know, but I'm okay now. As long as I have you and your siblings, I'll be okay."

"...You promise?"

"I Promise."

As Rory calmed down, a flicker of movement drew my attention to something behind him. There, collapsed on the ground, holding his head in pain, was Umbra.

Noticing where I was looking, Rory turned to gaze at the shadowy warframe, his expression turning to one of concern and pain. "He's been like that ever since he let you go. I...don't know how to help him."

"...You saw him threatening me, and yet you still show concern for him?" I asked, slightly surprised.

"He's in pain!" my son shouted, looking somewhat hurt. "He needs help! Is it wrong of me to care for him?!"

I merely smiled at his outburst. "No, not at all. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you, merely that you are a good person."

"...Oh. Thanks, dad."

"You're welcome."

Satisfied that my son was emotionally stabilized, at least for the moment, I crawled over to Umbra, then placed a hand on his shoulder. My hand began to glow purple as I channeled the solace psionic ability, trying, desperately, to reach Umbra's mind.

"I know you are hurting," I thought, "but please, let me help you."

It was almost unnoticeable, but Umbra's struggles had grown just slightly weaker.

"I don't want to bring you further harm, but can I see the rest of your memories? I only know a little of why you hurt, and I cannot help you unless I know what causes you pain."

Slowly, Umbra's struggles came to a stop. Thinking I had succeeded, I tried, gently, to press into his mind again, only for the frame to gently grab my arm, before looking me in the yes and moving his head left and right.

The meaning of the movement was obvious - he didn't want me to go there. Not now.

I merely nodded in understanding, then backed off. A moment later, Umbra tried to stand, only to fall. Before he could hit the ground, though, someone caught him. To my surprise, it was Rory, who was, with some difficult, trying to support the exhausted and mentally shattered frame.

Smiling, I moved to help my son, and together, we helped the frame back to his feet.

XXXXXX

I had my fabbers create a room to place Umbra within - one built to the aesthetics of the Orokin. Part of me was unsure if he would be happy with it, but hat was quashed by the part that felt familiar surroundings would help to calm him. I added in a few lunar pitchers for ambience, since they made the room seem less static and more, for lack of a better word, alive.

Once we reached the room, I let Umbra make himself at home. Briefly, I considered asking him more about what I had seen, but that thought was soon discarded - clearly, he didn't want to discuss that, not now. Before we left him, though, I gave him a map of the ship, and told him where my quarters were. If he wanted to talk/show me his problems, he would know where I was.

Granted, maybe this wasn't the best way to deal with an emotionally unstable frame, but I had a feeling attempting to control him would just be worse. Right now, he needed to be left alone.

XXXXX

About ten minutes later, Rory was busy showing me the sculpture he had made, acting as if nothing had gone wrong. At least outwardly - I could tell he just wanted to pretend that the incident hadn't happened so that he could focus on showing me the labor of his efforts.

I had to admit, it was a cool looking sculpture. Part of it floated in orbit around the main body, with pulse of light shooting between the floating segments, making it look exceptionally beautiful.

My admiration was cut short, though, when I received a notification that someone had sent me a message. examining it, I found that it had been a communication from Cressa Tal of Steel Meridian.

The subject? Rebuilding the Strata Relay.

XXXXXX

AN: Not sure how well I handled the scene with Umbra, but I didn't want the interactions with him to be a total rehash of The Sacrifice, so this is what you get. I hope you like it.

More Umbra stuff will happen over the next few chapters.

So, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!