This is the final finished chapter set before the tenno go into hiding/hibernation to wait for like three thousand years. This is the final part I'll be uploading tonight, then I'll start adding the rest in the next few days. Chapter written by me. Again not one of my best, but I'm pedantic about continuity (no pun intended) and I had to work out how to make this work with the opening three from the game time frame. Yay for not writing things in order *sigh*.

Anya stood with the other tenno as various Orokin commanders and politicians gave speeches, but she really wasn't concentrating on what was being said. Soon these pompous fools would find themselves on the receiving end of tenno justice. Not soon enough, Ira would have said. That was all well and good she supposed, but despite the fact that she wanted to see the empire burn, part of her wished that could wait just a little longer, at least until she knew what had happened to Stock.

She idly rolled a ball of energy between her hands while looking around the room, but so far she hadn't seen the marine, and then she noticed Ira watching her intently. Just what she didn't need. She had tolerated him for a long time, but that had quickly given way to extreme dislike when the tenno handlers had been disposed of. He hadn't left her side for more than ten minutes at a time after that if he could help it, and the jealous bastard had even been willing to fight other tenno if it meant he could keep her to himself. If Stock was unlucky enough to be here today, Anya would somehow have to keep him alive without Ira noticing.

She smiled bitterly as the thought struck her that only two years ago she had thought all tenno were kind and understanding like she and Boreas were. Meeting Ira had taught her that tenno were just as human as anyone else, and some of them were perfectly capable of being just as revolting. She now realized that what she felt for Ira was more than just dislike, that it had grown almost strong enough by now to be classified as hatred.

She shook herself and looked around again, her eyes landing on Boreas who was standing calmly with his arms crossed over his chest and leaning against a pillar. He looked so calm, emotionless even, and she wondered how he did it. She felt as though she was suffocating, the uncertainty of not knowing where Stock was or even if he was alive was almost more than she could take.

A round of applause jolted her out of her thoughts and she turned her gaze forward again to see the emperor standing up from his throne and raise his hands for quiet. As he started to speak, Elan and Reya looked at each other, then they and the other clan leaders gave a signal and the tenno scattered. Anya scrambled to the highest place she could find and shouldered her sniper, watching the chaos unfold as the Orokin slowly began to comprehend what was happening. The emperor shouted something, and Anya stilled. Deep breath. Let it out half way. Hold. Fire. Release. The emperor crumpled to the floor in front of his throne, blood rapidly pooling under his body from the wound.

Anya turned her attention back to the rest of the battle just in time to see a weapon fly across the room and lodge in an excalibur's shoulder and his partner, a nyx, went after the one who'd thrown it. Anya adjusted her scope so she could see the weapon and realized she knew exactly what it was. She swung her aim around looking for Stock and found him as he was attempting to fight off the nyx and losing horribly.

The nyx's blade flashed, his rifle split, and Anya fired, her shot catching him in the shoulder and driving him to the floor. The other tenno seemed surprised for a moment and started to bend over the injured marine, but a shot from another direction caught her attention and she bounded away. Anya slung her rifle on her back and leaped down from her perch. She scooped up the tomahawk as it came skittering across the floor after apparently having been kicked, locked it into place in the small of her back, then she scrambled over to Stock.

She could see immediately that he was in a bad way. A fair amount of blood had pooled under him from at least two wounds, and he was gasping for breath. She pressed a bandage to the one in his neck, then opened his flak jacket and pressed another to the wound in his shoulder to try and slow the bleeding. Once that was done she opened a wormhole and pulled him through it, the two of them landing in the hallway leading to the transport platform.

"Stock? Stock, can you hear me?" she asked softly.

"A…Anya..? Oh gods am I glad to see you. I thought I'd never see you again, I… I thought you would forget…" he gasped, "Anya, what's happening?"

"I could never forget you, Connor, never," she whispered, "I don't have time to explain, you're hurt really bad and I'm not a trinity. Just try to relax, I'm going to get you someplace safe and see if I can patch you up a little." A loud boom sounded from inside the conference room and she tensed. "I have to get you out of here," she said.

"I… I can move," he coughed, "Help me up."

At any other time Anya would have protested this suggestion, but she knew that they didn't have a choice. She looped his good arm over her shoulders and wrapped her arm around his waist, then she carefully helped him to his feet.

By the time they reached the landing platform Stock was terribly weak from loss of blood and she was almost afraid he wouldn't survive long enough to make it where she was trying to take him. His breathing was labored and despite the death grip he had on her, his hands kept slipping. She got him onto a transport and got him settled, then she started it and set it on autopilot so she could take care of him.

"The city is burning," he coughed as the craft banked and they were able to see some of the skyline through the windows.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered, "I wish it hadn't come to this…"

"Are you kidding?" he half laughed the question, "Anya, this place has had this coming for a long ass time, I just… I wish we could have known is all… We could have helped you, we would have helped you…"

"I wanted to warn someone," she said, "But the clan leaders didn't think it was a good idea, they thought the emperor would be ready for us. It made sense at the time… seems pretty silly now though."

"No, I think they were probably right," he replied, "How could you have known who would be willing to help you and who would betray you?"

"Maybe…" she sighed, "It just feels wrong, even after everything the empire put us through I can't help feeling wrong for killing people who can't fight back…"

"It's their fault you're in this mess, you don't owe those lazy bastards anything," he growled, "I know what the tenno went through, I know what happened to you after I had to leave you. Nothing that's happening now is your fault…"

"Then… you know, about the implants? Did Command read you in when you joined ORSOC or something?" she wanted to know.

"We all had to learn how to operate them," he said bitterly, "Every ORSOC recruit had to learn how to use the remotes, we had to know every button and every listed combination, and we were expected to be able to improvise if a tenno was…difficult. And every time a new tenno was assigned to our unit for training the same thing happened to them, over and over again…"

She closed her eyes and bowed her head, for some reason the thought that he might find out what had happened to her had never crossed her mind. She had hoped he would never have to know about it, had even begged whatever higher power might be listening that he would never have to find out, but apparently that had been too much to ask for. She felt a gentle nudge move her head and she opened her eyes to see him reaching up to touch her helm. She couldn't stop the tear that rolled down her cheek as she placed her hand over his.

He dropped his hand as he started to cough again, and she checked his wounds. Both had started bleeding again, but the one in his neck was the most concerning. She rummaged through her satchel for a few seconds before finding what she was looking for, then she pulled out a small vial of green liquid. She popped the cork and soaked a new bandage in the concoction before placing it on his neck.

"Ow," he gasped, "Whatever that shit is, it burns."

"Sorry," she said, "Hopefully it won't burn for long, it's meant to jumpstart your body's healing process."

"I probably shouldn't have thrown that tomahawk," he said with a wince, "It's just… you spend your whole life protecting people and then that's what you reflexively do even when it's someone you would like to see die. And now I've lost my weapon."

"Actually, no you haven't," she told him, reaching behind her and unlocking it from her warframe, then holding it up for him to see, "It somehow got launched when I went to get you and I picked it up." She handed it to him. "Anyway, it wasn't your fault," she continued, "I'm sure that Excalibur and his nyx will get over it eventually."

"Hope so," he sighed, "Anya..?"

"Yeah, Stock?"

"I missed you," he said, "I'm never leaving you like that again."

"I missed you too," she whispered, "I missed you so much…"

He didn't respond, and she realized he'd passed out. That was probably a good thing, he needed rest badly after the wounds he'd received. She still felt terrible for having shot him, but no matter how many times she went back over it in her head she couldn't see any way she could have kept him from being killed otherwise. If she had done nothing he would certainly have been killed, and if she'd opened a wormhole then Ira would have seen it and the result would have been the same. Now that she thought about it she was slightly amazed that Ira hadn't followed when she'd jumped Stock and herself into the hallway.

She made sure his shoulder wasn't broken, then she pulled another vial and a new bandage out of her satchel, soaked the bandage and pressed it to his shoulder under his shirt. She looked around and found a proper blanket and a pillow, then she placed the pillow under his head and wrapped the blanket around him. After that she took off her helm and climbed out of her warframe, then after checking to make sure she had the right coordinates she settled herself on the floor and began her meditation.

A few hours later a sound pulled her out of her trance and she opened her eyes to find Stock lying there whimpering in obvious pain and shivering, despite being drenched in sweat. She checked his wounds to see which one had brought this on. The one in his shoulder had started to mend, but the one in his neck was still open, oozing blood that was nearly black in color and which behaved more like a thick sludge than a liquid. She knew what had happened, the nyx's blade had been coated with something particularly nasty and it was attacking his immune system.

She quickly dug into her satchel again, this time pulling out a vial filled with a sparkling white powder. She popped the cork, then holding his wound open with one hand she upended the vial containing the antidote with the other, pouring it into the wound. Once that was done she dug out her last vial of the healing stimulant and opened it, carefully pouring about half of it into the wound before applying the rest to a clean bandage, then placing that over the wound. Now all she could do was wait, and hope her method would work.

It was close to an hour before there was any reaction at all, but eventually his breathing evened out and he stopped shaking. In a few minutes he was no longer sweating profusely and she felt comfortable enough to relax again. She didn't go back to meditating, preferring to keep an eye on him just to make sure nothing went wrong, but she did sit back and take down her rifle to clean it.

The navigation console bonged at her just as she was finishing reassembling her rifle, indicating that the craft was currently hovering over the coordinates she'd programmed into the computer. She got up, looked out the window, then decided she needed a closer look and carefully set the shuttle down on the small landing pad. She climbed back into her warframe and stood, stretching in several directions then retrieving her helm from the floor. She started to put it on, but stopped when Stock called her name.

"Hey," she smiled softly as she sat down beside him, "Are you feeling ok?"

"I think I'll live," he managed. His voice was faint, but he no longer sounded as if he was dying and he gave her a tired smile. "I… I just wanted to see your face is all," he confessed, "That probably sounds pretty ridiculous."

"No, it doesn't," she assured him, "I'll leave it off, no one is here so I don't actually need it. I have to check on something though, do you think you'll be alright by yourself for a few minutes while I go look around?"

"Y-yeah, I'll be ok," he said.

"Here," she said, producing a water bottle from her satchel and lifting it to his lips, "You've lost a lot of blood, you need to keep hydrated."

"Thanks," he said, taking hold of the bottle and taking a sip.

"Just take it easy, I'll be back in a few minutes," she said softly.

She gently squeezed his hand then got up and left the shuttle, inspecting the building and the control console before opening the doors and walking into the entryway. There was an incredibly large void portal in the far wall, and having been through countless portals like this one she knew better than to stare at the thing.

She went to the portal control console and began pressing buttons to activate it, then when the portal came online she stepped through. She opened her eyes to find herself in a large, domed room several hundred feet tall. The place hummed and whispered with memories long past as well as with the sounds of half heard and half touched alternate realities, things that might have been. In the middle of the room on a metal stand rested a lone cryopod, open, waiting. After a diagnostic scan confirmed that both the pod and the room were functioning properly she headed back to the shuttle.

Stock was dozing when she reentered the shuttle and she decided to just let him sleep, knowing that it couldn't hurt after what he'd just been through. She gently gathered him into her arms and picked him up, then left the shuttle, heading for the outer building, then on through the void portal into the cryochamber. He stirred slightly as she settled him into the pod, but he didn't wake up, even after she went and picked up his belongings from the shuttle. She managed to fit them all into the pod with him, recorded a holo-message for anyone who might open it, then she turned off the recorder and removed the disk. She inserted it into a security compartment on the outside of the pod and after pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead she closed the lid and engaged the cryogenic protocols.