This chapter was already here once, but under a different name. I felt this name fit this chapter better.
"Alright, go ahead and try that again," Dr. Slater instructed.
Anya gritted her teeth in frustration but complied, even if she would much rather have just not moved for the next week she knew that the war, and by extension the military, wouldn't wait for her to feel like doing things. She wanted her place back, she might not know half of the marines who would be in her unit by the time she got there but she was hoping that Stock at least would still be there.
Her knees buckled and she fell, landing on them hard. She was disappointed for what seemed like the hundredth time when she didn't feel anything more than a jolt and a tiny pinprick of pain that barely registered. She growled and forced her legs to respond, finally managing to get to a standing position again with a massive effort. She looked at the scientist and noted that he looked incredibly frustrated himself. It was clear that he was as much at a loss for what was wrong with her as she was, and Anya felt a thrill of panic. If he couldn't figure out what was going on and she remained mostly crippled, she would never leave the lab again. She would lose her place and she would lose her friend.
"That's enough for today," Dr. Slater said finally, "We'll run some tests and resume therapy tomorrow."
"But we can't give up now," she protested, "I felt it that time, just a little bit but I felt it…"
"You're exhausted," he countered, and she thought his expression softened somewhat, "We'll try again tomorrow, I have a few more ideas."
Ok, so maybe he wasn't a completely horrible person. Then again, that could have just been her own wishful thinking. In her memory she couldn't recall a single time when he had actually given her a reason to think he cared about anything other than her ability to perform for him. She sighed and allowed the lab technicians to help her to her to her feet and support her as she made her way back to the room she had been put in.
The conditions had somewhat improved since she was last here, at least she was no longer forced to live in a containment cell. She supposed that was because she hadn't accidentally blown anything up in a very long time, since she passed the containment cells on her way to her room and three of the cells contained lonely, scared looking little girls. Anya imagined that she herself had looked something like that when they'd first brought her out of cryosleep and put her in one of these. They had needed to put her into one though, during the first couple of hours out of cryo she'd managed to destabilize an entire section of the lab. It had been pure luck that it hadn't crumbled to radioactive dust and disintegrated on them.
The lab technicians finally got her to her room and left her, and Anya finally relaxed a little. She was still worried, and still nervous, the thoughts of what could happen if she didn't regain full control of her limbs chasing each other around in her mind. First and foremost among those thoughts were her marines, she couldn't stop thinking about them and what might happen if she wasn't able to return to their unit.
Stock was the first person in over ten years to treat her like person, and she didn't know if she would be able to control herself if she lost him. He grounded her, gave her a reason to be better, and she worried that she would lose more than just her friend if anything happened to him even if the worry was a little bit irrational. She reflected that she probably shouldn't have let him become that important to her in so short a length of time but she couldn't help it, and her thoughts were rarely off him by now. She missed talking with him, she wasn't sure why but no matter what was going on he always seemed to be able to calm her down and even if he didn't have anything to say he was still willing to sit with her. She knew she wouldn't see him again unless they sent her back to the unit, and eventually the stress of the last few days caught up with her and she dropped off into a fitful sleep.
When Anya awoke the next day Dr. Slater personally came to get her from her room, and after helping her to the lab he had her lay face down on an operating table. She then felt a needle inserted into her upper arm, then what seemed like only a few seconds later he told her to sit up. She moved, testing her limbs, then on looking at the clock she found that more than an hour had passed. Well, hopefully it was worth it.
She struggled to a sitting position, but somehow her legs didn't feel any different, and neither did her back. Anya chose not to inform Dr. Slater of this fact, instead she sat on the operating table for a few moments, then at his instruction, she carefully worked herself down to place her feet on the floor. She took a step, then two, then a few more, and had almost made it across the room before her knees gave out again and she collapsed to the floor.
"Well, that is progress over yesterday," he mused, then he grumbled, "I don't understand this, if you had been human all of the tests I ran and operations I performed would have had you perfectly capable of movement or even fighting a minor skirmish. What could I possibly have done wrong?!" Anya didn't have an answer for him, so she just stayed silent, afraid that if she did speak she would make a mistake and say too much. "I accounted for everything, every biological peculiarity, every physical difference, every chemical anomaly, the operations should have worked," he continued, throwing his hands on the air. Anya still said nothing and he continued to pace. "Unless it was the operations themselves," he said suddenly as he stood still to stare at her, "Yes... That is possible. I must perform a final test. Please return to the operating table." She did as he instructed and minutes later she heard him speaking to someone about the test results, apparently this had been a very simple one to perform. After that he left for a long time, and then just as Anya was ready to panic he returned leading a nervous looking young woman.
She had light blonde hair and blue irises ringed with gold, while her skin seemed to glow with a soothing blue and golden light. It made Anya think of a stream glowing over gold colored stones. Anya found herself thinking something she almost never thought about women: this girl was beautiful. She didn't have time to ponder that thought farther though because Dr. Slater was all business, and the short spell was broken as he began to speak to the new tenno, telling her everything he knew of what had happened to Anya and finishing by saying, "Human medical treatments do not seem to work. Luckily, you are tenno, my hope is that you can reverse the damage. I don't need to remind you of what will happen if this fails."
The young tenno rolled her eyes and said, "Really, Doctor, have you ever seen me fail at what I was meant to do?"
"Sarcasm does not become you, my dear," Dr. Slater growled, "Get this one walking again or I will make you her replacement."
"That's hardly motivational," the girl snorted, "It would get me out of this damn lab. The only problem I can see is that I'd have to waste my talents on a bunch of human marines rather than spend my time on other tenno."
"Here's another down side," the doctor snapped, "There would still be tenno here in need of your efforts. I suspect that leaving them would upset you far more than you will admit." With that Dr. Slater turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.
"Well, beautiful, let's see if we can repair the damage, although Void knows I'll probably be seeing you again if unruly marines are anything to go by," the other tenno said.
"They didn't do it you know," Anya forced her voice to remain calm. That was difficult to do, since the thought sitting foremost in her mind at the moment was that if this girl were to take her place then she really would lose Stock. That thought made her feel upset, and more than a little bit angry, this girl did not have the right to judge him.
"Of course," the tenno replied softly, "Just do me a favor and watch yourself, yes? You don't belong here."
"I'm not alone there," Anya said simply. She didn't know what this girl thought had happened, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"You're sweet," the girl murmured as Anya felt a soft warmth spreading through her body, starting at the point of injury and spreading outward, "I almost wish you didn't have to go back. I usually see those like you come back to me in body bags."
"It's a war," Anya shrugged. She was still somewhat annoyed with this girl, but no longer wholly angry. She wouldn't have liked getting other tenno back in body bags herself. "If I came back in a body bag though there would be more than one body," Anya said, and as she said it she was suddenly certain that if she died she wouldn't be the only one to do so.
"Don't say that," the girl whispered, "It's bad enough when I get one at a time, two would kill me."
"He isn't a tenno," Anya said, "Just my friend."
"I don't know if I hope you're right or I want you to be wrong," the girl chuckled softly, "Still, for what it's worth, I don't really hate the marines. I just want to keep as many tenno alive as I can."
"Well, I don't think you have much to worry about with me," Anya smiled, "This nonsense was mostly because I pushed my warframe beyond what it was capable of and it kind of blew up. Apparently the main control module was sitting on top of my ass."
"A prototype nova then," the girl said, "I will have to make note of this and inform the doctor that this could become a recurring problem. I hear a lot about what goes on here, and it seems Dr. Slater has built about fifty or so replacement frames, although I've only seen one so far. It was beautiful, it almost made me wish I was like you."
"I don't know how you'd like that, all I can do is make things explode," Anya teased, "I can't put people back together again like you can."
"Thank you," the tenno said, and Anya heard the smile in her voice as she continued, "Alright, try getting up, I think you should be safe to move around now." Anya rolled to her side and accepted the girl's assistance in pulling herself upright, then after a few moment of sitting there the girl helped Anya to stand and they made a trip around the room. After that she instructed Anya to try on her own, and once she was completely satisfied that Anya was fine the nova said, "Thank you. Can I ask your name?"
"No names, not unless we somehow by some miracle and up being free of the empire. Until that happens, I'm just trinity, and you are nova," the girl said.
"I understand," Anya replied, "Still, Thank you, for everything."
"You are welcome," this time the trinity gave a full smile and her blue and golden glow shown just a little bit brighter. Then she turned away and called Dr. Slater. The scientist looked oddly pleased to see Anya sitting there on the operating table, legs swinging, and after congratulating the trinity on her skill he motioned for Anya to follow him out of the room.
At first they walked through areas that Anya had been through at least once before, but soon after that he led her through a section that she was sure was new. He led her down so many hallways that she eventually lost track of how many turns had been made and how many doors had been passed, until they finally came to a set of wide double doors leading into a very spacious room.
There, open and ready on a stand, hung a warframe. The body was a sleek sheath of pearlescent slate colored metal which Anya couldn't identify, while the legs and arms were matte finished and began the same color as the body but faded to a soft blue at the hands and feet. The helm was the same dark slate and the faceplate was mirrored in the slate and soft blue of the rest of the frame. The whole thing was held together by hundreds of golden filaments that gleamed and sparkled as the light hit them. "Wow..." Anya breathed. The trinity hadn't been lying, the frame seemed more like a work of art to Anya than a weapon.
"It is calibrated specifically to your measurements and molecular structure," Dr. Slater said proudly, "We just finished the process this morning. Go ahead and climb in, tell me how it feels. Also, I figured you would like to have a piece of the work just for yourself." He handed her a golden pendant that reminded her of a flower. It was made up of one larger circle with six smaller ones attached on filaments radiating out from it.
Anya smiled as she hung the pendant around her neck and nodded her thanks although she didn't say anything. She climbed the staircase to a small platform, then sat down and carefully slid into the frame. It felt like a second skin on top of the bodysuit she wore, and as she put on the helm, the interface locked into place and the sensory circuits kicked in. Anya found that every sense she had was heightened, and when she brushed her fingers against her hip she felt the sensation in both her hip and the tips of her fingers, as if she were wearing nothing at all. She looked toward Dr. Slater and nodded once, and he seemed satisfied.
In another two days she was cleared to resume active duty and they sent her back out, and as her ship hovered in over the military camp they had chosen for her she had to blink several time to hold back the tears. The banners all bore the insignia of the Third Combat Marine Regiment. She was home.