Warframe You Can NOT Absolve
ESKK: This is chapter 9 enjoy the read and leave a review at the end when you are done reading.
(Start Geonfront Central Dogma Misato)
Misato was sitting in the Command Center of NERV as she messed around with a pen. They got the place furnished and the lights back on, so they were clear there. More so they now had Tenno security guards roaming the halls on regular patrols of the area. Things have been boring as of late and with the reclamation of Unit-02 they now had Three EVAs just like in the good old days... well before it all went to shit.
Reiko had returned ahead of the others with Shura leaving Asuna to escort Asuka and the EVA to base. No doubt the two girls were edging towards tearing out each other's throats. Then again maybe meeting someone who is equally as prideful as herself but has been humbled may do some aid in humbling Asuka as well.
Magi was just a bubbly sort of Cephalon as she jumped around through NERV interacting with people while also running the place. Right now, Misato had a pen resting on her nose as she balanced it as a poor attempt to entertain herself and distract herself from what she learned. "SEELE what's with them and their Instrumentality crap." Misato said as her face adopted a scowl.
"I'm more concerned with how these old men survived for so long." Ritsuko said as she was finishing up the last bit of preparations for the return of Unit-02. "If I remember correctly Lorenz Keel was attached with a lot of Cybernetics to keep him alive but even that has a limit." Ritsuko said adding in that they needed to figure out how to take down SEELE and make sure that they stay down.
"I'm more worried about those kids." Misato admitted as Ritsuko smirked to this.
"Which ones our kids or Lotus' kids?" Ritsuko asked with a small smirk on her face.
"Yes." Misato responded while she leaned back on her chair a bit. "I mean those kids have been fighting war after war and because their powers make them unique while our kids have to fight the Angel War again after everything." Misato said as Ritsuko then moved on to her next order of business.
"There's no one else who can do it, Misato." Ritsuko said but then stopped for a moment not even caring that Misato was glaring at her. Ritsuko had said those words before to justify everything that had happened even her Interrogation from SEELE. "Misato... what I mean is that the Tenno chose to fight the Lotus from my understanding gave may have reawakened them to fight she made it clear it was their choice even after they awoke from the Second Dream." Ritsuko said and those words calmed Misato down a bit. "Besides the Tenno have agreed to help us with the Angels and that means we're obligated to help them with the Origins Systems problems." Ritsuko said and in turn Misato sighed to this.
"Yeah, your right I guess." Misato said but upon looking around the room she noted a distinct lack of their crew and for good reasons. "Kind of strange not having Maya, Hyuuga, and Shigeru here." Misato said as the Command room was oddly quiet since they all reactivated it.
"Nostalgic Misato?" Ritsuko asked and thus Misato smiled playfully.
"Nah because then... he'd be up there." Misato said gesturing to the Commanders old spot making Ritsuko glare at it.
Just then alarms went off and in turn Magi began to speak. "Hey not to butt in on your lady talk here but we gotta move to level 1 battle stations." Magi said and thus Misato knew what this mean.
"The Angel where is it Earth Uranus?" Misato asked and in turn Magi smiled a bit with a nervous laugh.
"Good news it's on Earth approaching Cetus... but the bad news... its data does not match up to what we have on file." Magi said and thus the two women looked towards each other.
It took a few moments for her words to register but when they did Misato was the first to voice it. "WHAT?!" Misato cried out as from her tone she was not happy here.
(Plains of Eidolon Earth)
The Angel had opted to attack from the sea but something to note was the fact that the Angel was not swimming it was walking on water. Its lanky form was something of note as its bird like head seemed to be moving like a clock somehow. As it took steps on the water it froze the water allowing for the Angel to stand on it while it made its way towards the shore.
Grineer forces were already on the attack but despite this they were not faring well against the Angel. Their weapons did nothing to the Angel as it continued its approach towards the shore. The Angel having about enough of the Grineer decided to deal with them and thus its head began to spin much like a clock before shifting into a sort of flower form. The result was the Grineer ships being destroyed one after the other clearing the path for the Angel to proceed.
The Grineer were getting their asses handed to them and many were seen going full retreat against the Angel. The Angel now had no obstacles in its path for the intended target... the Unum Tower where it sensed its parent might be located. As the angel approached it failed to notice the Steel Miridian Ship approaching from above. The cargo hold was open and from it a familiar red giant was seen inside. The Evangelion Unit-02 was soon released from its hold and from there began to fly down to fight the Angel.
The Angel detected the threat and quickly began its counterattack against the EVA sensing a great and terrible power within. Under the control of both Asuka and Asuna the EVA reached out with its prosthetic arm and converted it into its blaster form before taking aim at the Angel. Firing a short burst at the head the shots flew strong and true taking out the Angels head and seemingly the core as well judging by how the Angel began to fall apart.
But no one could rest on their laurels yet as the Angel put itself back together almost instantly before it shifted. The head was in fact a decoy as it began to swing its true core upward till it pointed straight up. The core was larger than the EVA but Asuka and Asuna no doubt suspected that the actual core was hidden inside all that red. Thus, Asuna and Asuka fired a direct shot towards said core only to be halted by the AT-Field stopping the shots. The shots the EVA took simply began to stand on end of each other until it seemingly formed a spear from an outsider's perspective.
Reconverting the arm back into a hand Unit-02 began to perform several spins and summersaults midair before it eventually took the form of a drop kick, and the target was the Angels core. Both pilots roared out in fury as they came to their target intent on taking their first kill of the new Angel Wars. The foot managed to hit the ammo that the EVA used and in turn began to use the last shot to slice through the previous ones. Each shot got the EVA ever closer to its target until eventually it collided with the AT-Field. The AT-Field struggled to keep the EVA Unit at bay but in the end it failed. Asuka and Asuna managed to break through and with their attack hit the Angels core entering the big red orb one way and coming out the other end. Attached to the EVA's foot and broken was the Angels actual core and with the cracks came the Angels defeat before the EVA.
Once they were out the Angel proceeded to self-destruct with what last bits of connection it had to its core left. The result was a blast that had taken the shape of a cross an unusual thing for most but not for those who fight these creatures. Unit-02 summersaulted down before uncurling and using the boosters to slow its descent. The EVA landed safely in the Plains of Eidolon yet still managed to mess up the ground where its feet landed. Once it was there Asuka had that haughty look on her face over the victory.
(Entry Plug)
Asuka was smiling over her victory as despite her EVA being in the state it's in, she still had it. "By the Void you're such a hot head." Asuna's voice resonated through the plug causing Asuka to glare at the Plug.
"Would you shut up already!" Asuka yelled getting tired of Asuna's antics and near endless stream of insults towards the German girl.
"Why?" Asuna asked before she went on to explaining things here. "I did most of the work while you just wanted to look cool." Asuna responded as Asuka glared at the Plug.
"You did most of the work, oh no I did the work all you did was sit around and act as a battery!" Asuka countered as it seemed they were about to have another back and forth was about to begin.
"Oh, don't flatter yourself you wouldn't have done half of that shit without my Tenno skills." Asuna responded as they were clearly still at odds.
Just then the communication link turned on to the site of them arguing. "Hey Asuka Asuna if you two girls are quiet done, we need you back at base now." Misato said making it clear they either get along or stay off the EVA. "Think you two can make the trip without tearing each other's throats out?" Misato asked and in response the two girls huffed and turned away from each other. "Good." Misato said and thus began to long trip back to the Geofront.
(Scene Break Geofront NERV EVA Cages)
Unit-02 was being moved into the cage as crew from the Tenno were making sure the transition was smooth. Now that the base was updates with the latest technology the task was made somewhat simpler. With this Shura, Reiko, Rei, Umbra, and Asuna saw the EVA being moved as Ritsuko was guiding the process with Cephalon Magi and Misato was overseeing it.
"So, this is Evangelion Unit-02." Shura said as he had a bottle of water in hand. "Its... red no wonder you like it, Asuna." Shura said as he looked over to Asuna.
"What can I say babe, red is just my color." Asuna said which Shura shrugged to this.
"I can agree but not for the reasons you're thinking." Shura said and thus Asuna made something of an innocent giggle that hid a sadistic smile as well.
"The red color doesn't make it perfect," Asuka said as she came in as she no doubt overheard the two talking as Asuna, "Oh and what make this so perfect as you put it?"
"Well sense you don't know, Eva unit 2 is pretty much the final product of the Evangelions, while back In the day when the Evangelions were being made, unit-00 and 01 were the proto and test type, while my unit 2 is the Production Model making it the strongest, it is the successor of all Evangelions," Asuka said as she brag of how great her Eva is as Shura soon said, "I don't know what to say but… it's not the strongest."
"Say WHAAAAT!?" Asuka yelled out when she heard what Shura just said, with the two cover their ears hearing her scream, as she stomp right up to him and said, "And what make you say that? My Evangelions is the perfect Evangelion of them all!"
"Perfect… maybe, but the strongest is very questionable," Shura as Asuka soon question him, "Oh and what make you say that?!"
"Well to say with incomplete products, it's pretty much mix and match to see what work or how it works which give different results, and sometimes people don't understand the power that a prototypes even with its flaws," Shinji explain the best he could about it, as he soon went on saying, "With unique ability that could mean great power but only one thing could use it… which people can overlook as they were looking for something the said produce can do the same thing as every other one and try to produce a result that the same over and over again until they get it right as they could make the same thing and make them as strong as the prototypes, thus Mass Productions."
Asuka was confused on this as Asuka said, "So what does this have to do with my Evangelion?"
"I'm getting there, now what make the said product perfect because it can be made over and over again, thus its unique becomes common, as they created the perfect weapon, they let out one simple thing… versatility," Shura said as he pointed to the claw arm and said, "Example, that claw arm of your EVA is powerful, but its only good for so many things, while the Eva with normal hands, can do many great things to say, like which can carry, hold, and if so build things."
Asuka scoffed at this as she thought that is nothing special, but Shura wasn't done as he said, "While your Eva can do great things such as fly and have strong fire power, there no doubt about that, but that would be its limits while the others can adopt around things, get in low, use many different weapon as needed, and the ability to grow itself as you already know its incomplete itself, there no telling what ability it could do."
"And simply put it?" Asuna asked her boyfriend as he turn to her and said, "Well the simple fact is test types could be stronger than they originally were when they were first built, while Mass Production types are only as strong as they were built."
"So that strength became its biggest weakness, making it the weakest of all Eva really, but I don't mind, I do sometime like to get dominated by a strong… powerful… thing," Asuna said in an almost sexy moaning tone to Asuka, with a eat shit grin on her face that the German girl can see clearly.
"But… that not how its… aHHHH!" Asuka went as she just yelled and storm off, as she couldn't believe to hear something that sound stupid yet make perfect sense as prototypes had room to grow while the final product is just that, as Asuna laughs a bit while she wrap her hands around shura and said, "Have I ever told you how sexy you were when you sound smarter than everyone else?"
"A few times, but I don't think it would come close to yours," Shura said as he turn around to look at Asuna as she giggles again and said, "Good boy, here's a treat."
She gave him a kiss as he accepts it as he held Asuna closer and gotten more into the kiss with Asuka was looking back at them, still pissed off at this as she keep walking off, just getting pissed off more as she sees how close those two were… something that she wish she has as well.
Nearby as Misato saw and heard the whole thing, she came up to the two as she figure out these two were a "Thing" as she puts it before with shura and said to them, "You know, you guys should act nicer to her sense you're going to be working with her for now on, would it be better if you took it easy on Asuka or something Asuna?"
Asuna let off the kiss as she turn around to face Misato and said, "And where's the fun in that? And besides it's not my fault she can get so riled up over the littlest things, it's just too easy I mean look at this."
She show a hologram image of the locker room where Asuka is at as she is seen kicking at a locker with a lot of anger and saying a lot of things in German that no one can understand which they can say they are glad they don't speak German as Shura asked, "How did you set that up and why did you decide to set it up inside the lockers?"
"I didn't, as I thought that SEELE would try and spy on their own people, including the pilots back then, so I looked around the locker room and found some old surveillance cameras around that still work, including small ones as well but they were busted up, so I took the working one while pretty much reconfigured them to only work within the base only, and pretty much show a live feed," Asuna said as she close down the video as Shura said, "I can't believe they will do that."
"Same here… but Still I want you to be nice, if we want unit 2 to work well, we need everyone to focus and not be distract by… this," Misato said as she wave her arms at the site she is seeing as Asuna said, "Well anyone can be jealous because of what we have, and they don't."
"Asuna I'm going to say this out loud for you to hear but… she is right, we can't have people getting angry and upset before, during, and maybe during a missing," Shura said as Asuna turn to him and said, "Hu? What that supposed to mean?"
"What I mean is Asuna, if things don't go as they should because of this… you could get hurt, or worst, and I don't want that to happen to you regardless if you think it is fun," Shura said as Asuna soften to that as its clear that she means a lot to him as he does to her as she said, "Fine… but no promises as I not always the one to start things up."
"That's all I can ask right now," Shura said as Asuna give him a quick kiss before she turn to Misato and said, "Well then major, I'll do what you ask and try to play nice with Asuka."
(Meanwhile with SEELE)
"The Tenno have become aware of our existence." SEELE spoke showing that the Tenno were about to become a problem for them.
"They know we exist yet not where to find us or who our operatives are." The second spoke revealing himself to be calm about this.
"But knowing we exist and are active makes them a threat." A Third spoke as the Tenno were once more the topic of discussion.
"They do not understand what we hope to achieve, nor will they allow the system to achieve our destined divinity." Another member spoke up meaning that the Tenno will undoubtedly fight them tooth and nail.
"The Mass Production Evangelion Units are not ready for a full-scale assault nor is our Dummy Frames." A fifth member spoke as clearly whatever these Dummy Frames are were designed to fight the Tenno.
"We cannot risk a direct assault on the Geofront, not until we are certain that our prize is hidden there." The first member spoke with a calm tone. "It would be a waste of resources to take the facility only to find it does not have what we seek." He added as they all agreed.
"Yes, Adam and Lilith are scattered to the winds to acquire them is to acquire all of their fragments wherever they may be hidden." The sixth spoke with a huff of his voice. "But we cannot simply allow the Tenno to interfere with us either, a minor nuisance for now but with their power a grave threat to the Human Instrumentality." He added making it clear they must not underestimate the Tenno's power.
"The loss of Unit-02 is of little consequence but at the very least it allows us to keep a close eye on all three EVAs in the same place." Ther fourth said looking on the bright side of this situation.
"It's only a matter of time before they eventually triangulate our location despite our best efforts to mask and conceal our locations for the Tenno it's only a matter of time." The eighth said making his fellows aware of the problem they face. "It's to keep the Tenno unaware of us why we hide ourselves and meet in these locations." He added and thus SEELE grew silent for a moment.
"We can't offer them peace, we cannot go crawling back to Ikari, and we can't make any sudden movements, or we risk the Tenno's wrath." The first spoke and thus he chuckled a bit finding this amusing. "I'm afraid this is check for us... but not Checkmate." The Monolith marked as 01 spoke suggesting he has a means to get them out of this spot.
(Scene Break Earth Orbiter)
Shura was in his orbiter as it hovered around Earth in his full gear for Excalibur Umbra. At the moment Shura was being contacted by Maroo the criminal/smuggler seemed to be bothered by something at least from what Shura could see. "Hey Tenno thanks for answering my call look I got a bit of a problem it might be nothing, but I was hoping you can look into it." Maroo spoke as Shura let the woman speak. "Its Varzia she's gone missing haven't seen her for months already and it's getting me worried." Maroo said as Shura raised a brow to this.
"You sure she's not just doing a deep Void exploration for new Relics?" Shura asked as he knew how Varzia tended to be. "She might be looking for a new Prime Warframe and gear for all we know?" Shura offered but Maroo knew Varzia better than that.
"I know she's done this before but normally she lets me know about it well in advance." Maroo said having a lot of faith in Varzia and with it a great deal of concern.
Shura then sighed to this realizing he might as well check it out just to make sure she was ok. "Alright I'll go look in on this." Shura before the call came to an end.
Once that call ended the Lotus, who was probably listening in, called him up. "Shura she's right Teshin Dax also acted out of sorts and that lead you to facing the Grineer Queens." The Lotus said not wanting to take the chance that another allied Dax was compromised like that. The Lotus knew the feeling well and did not wish it upon even her worst of enemies.
"The problem is trying to find her." Shura said and in turn the Lotus had an idea.
"Tenno my sensors picked up activity on Earth particularly the place where you originally had awoken." Lotus said causing Shura to go wide eyed to this.
"A missing Dax and an old Tenno location being investigated... ok suspicious is written all over it." Shura said and in turn he charted the course. "Charting a course now I'll go look into it, be sure to tell the others what I'm doing." Shura said and in turn the call ended, and Shura began the journey to the old Tenno Location. Still if Varzia was there what the hell was she even doing there to begin with.
(Meanwhile at the Geofront)
"Sorry Asu-Chan no dice." Magi was heard as Asuka was sitting at a console using Magi's connection to the Cephalon Weave to find information of worth. More specifically she was trying to find information on Shinji if he appeared or not using the pictures of him the MAGI had. So far, he had not been seen as of yet and it was making Asuka worried for him.
"Try again widen the parameters if you have to." Asuka said hoping they would find something soon. She rubbed her eyes showing she had been at this since they brought her to this old base. Asuka was never one for late nights, but she was almost on her way to passing out from exhaustion.
"Asuka, I've tried every variable available and ones I thought of chances are Shinji hasn't appeared yet or may never appear." Magi said trying to tell Asuka that it might be time. "Asuka perhaps you need to consider... moving on." Magi said and thus Asuka slammed her hand on the table.
"Shut up and search again!" Asuka yelled out her snap as clearly, she was not happy at the implications. "He'll show up and when he does, we need to be there before the Corpus or Grineer get him." Asuka said and then Magi sighed to this.
"Alright." Magi said and thus she returned to the Weave to broaden her search.
Asuka got back to waiting for Magi to locate Shinji or at least his last known location. The door then opened and from it, Rei walked in and saw Asuka there. "Pilot Soryu why are you still here?" Rei asked as she approached the girl.
Asuka looked and glared at Rei with a look of contempt. Yes, Asuka knew Rei was a pawn in the Commanders madness but didn't mean old feelings were replaced. "What's it to you, Wonder Girl?" Asuka asked as she then went back to doing what she was doing.
"Because I have reason to be concerned for you." Rei said and thus Asuka then glared at Rei again.
"Then don't." Asuka responded and thus Rei sighed to this.
"Magi please pull up Asuka's access history." Rei ordered making Asuka go wide eyed.
"Of course." Magi said and thus the screens showed what Asuka had been searching and needless to say there was a long list starting from when she arrived to now with the recent one added in.
"Pilot Soryu while I do know that you and I have hardly seen eye to eye I know that Pilot Ikari would not want you to expire yourself from exhaustion in your search for his whereabouts." Rei said as she knew what Asuka was going through.
"Shut up." Asuka snapped and thus Rei eased off knowing how volatile Asuka was.
"Very well I won't speak of this... but you need to rest... I would not be able to face Pilot Ikari-kun if I allowed you to expire." Rei said and thus Asuka had enough.
"Would you shut it I'm fine dammit!" Asuka yelled as she glared at Rei. "You weren't the one whose mind was fucking raped by an angel, you weren't the one who tried to commit suicide, you weren't the one who got torn limb from limb by the mass production Evangelions, and you certainly weren't the one who..." Asuka trailed off as she saw Rei show an emotion one Asuka knew well enough, Shame.
Asuka then was reminded of the fact that Rei had died several times before and each time was like a factory reset for her. More so the Commanders Scenario had been planned to a fine detail and as much as Asuka hated to admit it her mind rape played a role to isolate Shinji further. She couldn't exactly call Rei a doll anymore when Asuka was played with by the commander just like a doll.
"I'm sorry." Asuka said as the word left her lips like a foreign tongue for her. "I was... I was out of line." Asuka said waiting for Rei to react in some form.
"I understand... my role in Commander Ikari's plans... I'm not entirely proud of it nor my willingness to comply with it." Rei said but Asuka nodded to this.
"At least you were able to give Shinji control of it... despite what happened afterwards." Asuka admitted and thus the two girls knew they both had issues to deal with.
"Pilot Soryu, you should rest when Cephalon Magi or Commander Lotus finds any leads you'll be appraised of it." Rei said and thus Asuka yawned in response.
Asuka began to make her way to the door while she yawned. "Sure, and Wonder Girl..." Asuka began stopping at the door. "Call me Asuka we've been through way too much to be all stiff around each other." Asuka said and thus Rei nodded in response.
"Very well... Asuka." Rei said and thus Asuka left the room so she can head back to Misato's apartment and sleep.
(At the same time with Misato and Ritsuko)
"So, the data we have on the Angels may not be a viable source of information anymore." Misato said as Ritsuko compared the new Angel with the data of the Angel that was supposed to show up.
"Yes, and this may prove to be a problem in the battles to come." Ritsuko said as she, Lotus, and Misato were in a meeting discussing the recent Angel.
"And with no ideal way of learning where they came from or how they form we can't anticipate their movements." Lotus said as she was contacting them from Lua.
"Exactly which puts us at a disadvantage and with SEELE active chances are they have access to the Dead Sea Scrolls." Ritsuko said which Misato moaned in annoyance.
"Yeah, those things that basically told SEELE, hey kill everyone on Earth and become gods." Misato said in a mocking tone of voice.
"If we can acquire a copy of those scrolls, we might be able to decipher them and use the data they hold to our advantage." Lotus added but Ritsuko scoffed to this.
"Easier said than done, with no way of knowing where their base is we can't even begin to acquire them and being as the Scrolls are SEELE's most prized possession they will be religiously guarded to the end of days." Ritsuko said knowing that they didn't have much to go on for the Angels and SEELE.
"So basically, we're moving blind with an outdated map." Misato said as the analogy seemed to work for this situation.
"Exactly." Ritsuko said as this put them in a tough spot. "But back to the subject of the EVAs Lotus I'll be pleased to inform you that I've installed safety measures to prevent Unit-01 from ascending with an emergency shutdown override." Ritsuko said as the Lotus made that request clear incase Unit-01 enters its state to trigger Instrumentality. "While not ideal it should allow us an opportunity to eject the plug and forcibly shut down the Transference between EVA and Tenno." Ritsuko said and thus the Lotus nodded to this.
"Thank you." Lotus said as she wanted those kids to be as safe as possible in the EVAs. "And what of the Corpus modifications to Unit-02?" Lotus asked looking to Ritsuko.
"Working on it, Alad V really tried to have all his eggs in a basket for this one." Ritsuko said as she had been hard at work removing the bits that the Corpus added but was screwing with the EVA. "Unfortunately, I can't exactly clone a replacement arm for the EVA or eyes either." Ritsuko said meaning that the EVA was now stuck with those prosthetics for the foreseeable future.
"Very well try to work around those and increased the durability of those addon's, if we can't remove it then we'll just have to use it." Lotus said and in turn she got the order. "Anyway, I may have narrowed down more allies for us to maintain this facility, but I'll need to do a background to make sure that they are not secretly with SEELE first." Lotus added and thus Misato sighed to this.
"Finally, this empty base was giving me the creeps." Misato said as she leaned back on her chair.
"When they are ready, I'll have them sent over but until then you will have to make do." Lotus said and with a nod she ended the call.
"With all of that taken care of... let's get back to other matters such as a vessel to get us around the Origin System." Ritsuko said and thus she pulled up another set of blueprints as this vessel was a tough one to build.
"Yeah great." Misato said and thus she leaned back to relax a bit waiting for her shift to finally be over.
(Scene Break Shura)
Shura using Excalibur Umbra departed from his Landing Craft with Nataruk armed and ready for battle. Looking around he saw that he was in the clear and began to make his way through the old fortress feeling a wave of nostalgia hit him. "Well, this place certainly brings back some fond memories." Shura said as he made his way through the old ruins to where he was awoken from.
"Yes, for the Origin System... this marked the return of the Tenno." Lotus said acting her role as mission control. Still even she could not help but feel this sense of nostalgia from being in the place where it all began. All the while Shura made his way through the ruins noting the distinct lack of Grineer here, no doubt they left when their desired prize managed to escape them.
"I'm detecting movement ahead; it may be the intruder." Lotus reported and thus Shura moved on.
"Moving in to investigate." Shura said and the Skiajiti ready to draw should it be needed. But he did not need to move far as Shura then saw a familiar glimmer of Dax Armor moving by. "Wait I see something moving fast, I think its Varzia." Shura reported and thus Lotus was worried.
"What is Varzia doing here? This is out of character for her." Lotus said as she tried to figure out a possible theory to deduce exactly what Varzia was doing. "Follow her she might be able to shed some light on this." Lotus ordered and with a nod Shura went on hoping to get to Varzia and see what the Dax was doing here.
Shura duck down and step lightly towards Varzia location, as he saw her looking around for something, as Shura saw she was in the area where Shura first awaken within the Excalibur Warframe, with Volt and Mag that were once there are gone, no doubt the other Tenno had awaken with him had run off in another direction before the Grineer could put a Ascaris on them as well. Shura had counted them as the lucky ones as he had to go through all the trouble to get the blueprint and the necessary martials to make a device to remove the Ascaris. HE won't lie when he says that he had a certain satisfaction when he sliced Vor in two during their second assassination attempt on him.
Varzia somehow took notice of his presence, no doubt being aware of her surroundings. After all that was how she survived the Old War after the Tenno saved her life on Lua. She then points her weapons a Katana similar to Teshin's sun and moon weapons, in his direction and said, "Who's there? Show yourself."
Shura stood up and step into view of the Dax Soldier. Varzia seeing Shura there, seemed a bit upset by this as she whispered, "Damn it why is he here?"
Shura walked up until he was close enough to be heard as he said, "Good see you again Varzia, a little outside of your usual place to look for relics, isn't it?"
"Go hit the road Tenno, I'm busy at the moment," Varzia said as Shura said, "I would, but Maroo was getting worried about you. Wanna tell me what you are doing here?"
Before Varzia could answer a red glow came over her as she gritted her teeth in response. The Dax tried her hardest to fight it but to no avail, as a hidden male voice spoken up, one that Shura didn't recognize, and said to her, "Bring him to me."
"Who was that?" Shura asked as Varzia tried to speak but was unable to use her voice for some reason. She seemed to be having trouble breathing, no doubt whoever is controlling Varzia made sure she didn't speak of who before Shura soon said to her, "Varzia, whoever is controlling you, I promise I'll-
"You can't promise anything Tenno!" Varzia said as she snapped at him before he could finish while point a weapon at his neck. In response to this moment Shura smacked away the weapon while he came up close and said, "We'll get you out, whatever it takes."
Placing a tracker on without her realizing it, or maybe she did but didn't say it out loud as she just pushed him away and said, "Don't follow me or else."
Soon enough Varzia rushed off somewhere else quickly as Shura gave chase after her. But it seemed that the Dax was prepared for that as she left behind some Spector's to slow him down as well throw off the tracking signal. In response to this The Lotus said to him, "Be careful Tenno, whoever is controlling Varzia seem to have gone to great lengths to keep themselves hidden from us, even going as far as preventing Varzia from telling us or anyone else who it is."
"We need to keep track of her, I'll take out her Specters while you try to triangulate her signal." Shura said while he fought the specters off, destroy them one at a time as they keep themselves spread out well enough so his abilities with his Excalibur wouldn't be affected against all of them.
Soon enough he drew on his Nataruk, as he pulled back on the bow and let it fly at the clones with an explosion following it, as that took out many of the specter clones of Varzia, as not before long all the specters are gone as Lotus said to him, "I got a lock on her route, exfiltrate and follow her as fast as you can."
"Roger that," Shura said as he went on his way to follow Varzia, as fast as she is, so was he, following her trail wherever it was taking him to.
(Scene break Orbiter)
Shura stood in his Orbiter as the Lotus had some news for him. "Lotus did you find out anything?" Shura asked with concern for the Dax soldier seeing as she like Teshin were the only Dax willing to side with the Tenno.
"Tenno, I was able to track her signal, but she's deployed several Spector's to throw us off her scent." Lotus said making it clear it would be like finding a needle in a haystack. "Whatever is going on she's not letting us follow her." Lotus said and thus Shura knew this was just getting confusing now. "I'll need time to narrow down the best target that will lead us to her for now return to base and be ready for when an Angel shows up." Lotus said and thus Shura knew she needed time, more so he'd rather not end up in another situation like with the Grineer Queens.
(Hidden Lair Location Unknown)
The man stood observing a large metal womb of sorts with his hands in his pockets and a visor over his eyes. Behind him stood a young woman who was hidden by the shadows. This was certainly not Varzia but whoever it was clearly had power. "I'm certain you can handle the tasks assigned to you?" He asked as the girl smiled in a serene way to him.
"Of course, after all that is why I exist." She said not at all bothered by this. "Locating the Lost Founder was not at all difficult if you knew where to look hence why he is here now." She said looking to the Crucified form of Excalibur Prime.
"Good, the next Angel is due to attack soon, with the variation of the recent Angel we must assume that the next one will have a variation as well." The man said and thus the girl smiled never faded.
"Do you want me to deal with it?" She asked and thus the man grunted a bit.
"No... let the Tenno and the Children deal with it we have other tasks to attend to." He said and thus the girl nodded to him.
"As you wish." She said before stepping into the light revealing short dark red hair, and blue eyes similar to that of Shinji Ikari. "I suppose I can hold off on my reunion with mother for a bit longer... Grandfather." She said and thus the man grunted again.
"Very well leave me, Mana." The man said and thus with a bow the girl now known as Mana left the room leaving the man alone. "Soon I will have you in my arms again... Yui." The man said as an ominous red glow radiated from under his visor hiding something truly sinister.
(TBC)
ESKK: Another Chapter another day I hope you guys all enjoyed it. I'll be back with the next chapter once its finished so until then I will again say, ja-ne.