"Dream. Not of what you are, but of what you want to be."
Kiki wakes with a sudden start as the sensation of falling overwhelms her body, sending her limbs flailing in panic. It's only when she lands face first onto the dirt that she realizes she really was falling. The metal of her warframe's helmet leaves behind deep grooves in the dirt as she slowly pushes herself up to her knees, struggling to shake off the numbness of her body.
A single voice cuts through the haze of her mind, almost immediately grabbing her attention. The owner of the voice stands before her, standing tall and proud in shades of gold and gray. Kiki recalls the being; a prime warframe. The voice speaks again, and this time, she's able to focus on it.
"Are you alright?" The male asks, staring down at the still rather confused Kiki. She finally drags herself up to her feet, watching as the hud of her helmet slowly flickers back to life.
"I feel funny." Kiki replies, her voice uneven and cracking. She coughs and clears her throat as the other warframe speaks again. "Don't worry, it's going to take some time to adjust. Thankfully we are in a rather secluded area, so we should be able to get off the planet without any incidents."
Kiki quickly shakes her head as her warframes shields power on, flooding her vision with a blue light. She tries to protect her eyes from the sudden brightness, even going as far as to raise an arm in an attempt to block the light. "Hold on, off the planet? What is happening? Who are you? What is going on? Where is the Lotus?"
The rapid fire of questions doesn't seem to bother him, as he quickly responds to them. "We are on Earth, and I was sent here to retrieve you from your cryo-pod. My name is Sash, and I am Ash Prime. The location of the Lotus is unknown as has always been unknown, but she is able to communicate with us."
As if she was listening to the entire conversation, the Lotus appears on Kiki's hud. "You are awake, good." A range of emotions floods Kiki's mind, sending her thoughts racing. "Mother!" She exclaims in surprise. Without replying to the outburst, the Lotus continues. "You are lucky that Sash was able to locate you. The area where you were asleep in your cryo-pod is starting to show signs of the infestation. Do you know anything about that?"
Kiki hesitates at this question. She lowers her head in thought, trying desperately to recall anything before she was ordered into cryo-sleep. She finally looks up, surprised to see her pod stuck high within the canopy of a large tree. She stares in silence for a few seconds, then sighs.
"I am sorry, mother. I do not remember anything before I went into my pod. My thoughts are fuzzy." Kiki says somberly, wandering closer to the tree. She places a clawed hand on the wood, noticing the similar gold and gray colors of her own metal palm.
"Very well. Sash, take Kiki back to your clan. Raise her and teach her the ways of the Tenno. Perhaps her memories will come back to her." The Lotus says, quickly vanishing from their huds. Kiki is left feeling almost empty, like there's a void in her chest. She finally turns to face Sash, surprised to see that he's already making his way into the thick forest.
She bolts after him, stumbling past gnarly roots of old trees and overgrown bushes, occasionally spotting orange spores fluttering about in the air. Kiki finds herself slowing down a bit, staring harder into the foliage around her. She finally notices that not everything is as green as it seems.
There is squirming flesh everywhere. The dirt she walks on, the bark of the trees, the underbrush of all the leaves, and even the particles in the air. Disgust churns within her stomach, quickly followed by fear as something dawns on her.
She can no longer see Sash. She shouts for him, her heart feeling like it's pounding in her throat as she frantically paces around in a circle. Her body freezes in place when she hears a tiny voice in the distance. "Why do you defile us, Kiki? We are the same flesh."
She quickly whips around, wondering if this is some sick joke played by the Lotus or Sash. The voice seems to have moved, as it repeats the same thing from Kiki's original direction. By the time she turns yet again, it's moved once more.
This happens a few times, perhaps more times than she realizes. With the panic settling heavily within her gut, she honestly has no way of being able to tell. A wet gurgle emits from one of the nearby low hanging branches, a writhing creature shifting from its position to reveal itself to the tenno.
A small squirming and oozy mass drops from the branch, squealing as it hits the dirt. It drags itself towards her with a single sickeningly twisted limb, leaving behind a trail of wet dirt and a sort of slime. The face of the creature is morphed beyond recognition, and when it calls out for Kiki, she snaps.
She lets out a roar of fear, rearing backwards as her body enters fight mode. A small fiery meteorite forms above her head in a blaze of green light, quickly crashing down onto the creature. The flames erupt across its body and the grass around it, creating a blast of searing heat that doesn't harm Kiki.
The sounds the creature makes burns itself into her mind and it's stuck on a loop. Everything comes to a halt when something latches onto the back of her right arm. She flinches at the touch and yanks herself away, turning quickly on her heel to attack whatever is there.
"Kiki?" Comes the concerned voice of Sash, withdrawing his hand as the Ember Prime user heaves for breath. He looks past her, glancing in the direction of the scorched earth. "Did you attack something?" He presses further, not moving from his spot.
"Yes, I do not know what it was. It was small and had twisted flesh, it was-." She comes to a complete stop as she turns around to point at the creature. Aside from her fiery destruction, there's nothing there. No creature, no trail of goop, absolutely nothing.
"This is my fault, I need to keep you close to me. You only just woke up." Sash says, reaching over to grab Kiki's hand. He leads her away from the area, staring ahead while she lets him drag her along in silence.
After a moment, they arrive at a strange looking ship. Sash says it's called a Landing Craft, and that it connects to an Orbiter in the atmosphere. Every Tenno has their own. At some point, Kiki will get her own too.
They board, and her mind is still far away. She's aware that Sash's Cephalon is speaking to her, but she just can't bring herself to converse. She feels like she's not inside of her body, but watching from the outside. She settles down next to the left of the navigation console, remaining silent as they finally leave the surface of the planet.
She falls asleep before they dock, only waking up when Sash shakes her awake. She jolts out of sleep, jumping up to her feet in panic. "Hey now, relax. We've made it to the dojo." He says gently, stepping away and helping her out of the ship.
To be honest, the rest of the day is a blur. Sash showed her around the dojo, introduced Kiki to some of the other clan mates, had her officially registered as part of the clan, and given her own room.
When she finally has time to herself, the exhaustion fully hits her. She walks over to the provided bed, plopping down on top of it. Before she knows it, she's slipping into a dreamless sleep.