Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I.

Hatred and love. Death and life. Revenge and forgiveness. The spiral into which he had drowned until the rot reached his neck was beyond that the fallen Orokin duality, his former lords, preached so devoting, forcing him to face something that he never imagined. A dilemma which both sides controlled his actions since so long ago; a decision that put into play what was, what is and what would be.

‘All your dread-long life you have lived with despair. Anguish. Hatred. But none of these compare with your guilt.’

It’s easier when you only have one choice, a one simple decision in mind, so you stick to it with. When you have nothing to lose, what is further sinking in the mud but something so casual and insignificant in your nonsense existence?

But when some of it remains… it’s like you still have everything.

He didn't want to lose it. Not again.

‘Of all the Gods and kings and golden lords... why was it you she saved?’ That was a good question; one that was eating his mind night by night like a cruel and ruthless parasite which whispered a name that he doesn’t understand... not fully, at least. Perhaps a ghost's name that was floating around him for… months? Years? Centuries? He wasn’t sure about it. It had been so long since time lost sense for him.

So, while the feathers were falling, he picked up all of it, each by one, like if he was under something unknow which stole his will faster than the infestation itself. It was the only way to deal with his daily routine, still painful, in which he had to enter there and confirm she still been alive, and then sees her laying in the bed, sicker, weaker and exhausted. Like if she was... dying.

The pitiful sight of wings wilting miserably always managed to stir something in him that he thought it was dead. The despair to which he was used to, resigned since that fateful day that burned like burning iron in his mind, suffocated him. Helplessness consumed him in silence.

Among the turmoil of feelings that numbed his body, there was also fear: a fear that twisted his steel insides of infestation by just knowing what was the end that awaited her if he didn’t do something to avoid it. But he had done everything in his power to keep her safe... and still nothing worked.

The reason why was obviously painful and frustrating: he was not able to help her. He couldn’t repay her the favor.

“Her light is dying, her life almost spent. And you will never learn why this unknown slaughter chose to spare you."

The words of the Sentient Father had were always harsh, dragging within them the shared hatred towards the Tenno, but since he found out about her… since Shadow —or Stalker, or whatever the fuck they are calling him now, cared to share his most intimate secret with him, after his failed on Lua to finally end with the reason of all his misfortune —and his current twisted happiness, too… since he shared that secret jealously kept in his chest for… months? Years? Perhaps decades?, the tone in his voice was different. Almost as if Hunhow felt pity for his Shadow.

Maybe it was genuine worry from his part; after all, they were a team. Perhaps it was something more… something he refused t to accept.

Whatever it was, Stalker ignored his words again and walked through the room, taking a seat beside her. He leaned back to watch the weak breath of the Warframe under his care. His hand still hesitated to take hers, trying to show her that he was still there, that he had going to be there for and by her… forever.

The memory of her body in his arms was still fresh in his mind, making his stomach turn painfully every damn time, because back then she… she wasn’t this bad yet. He remembered it as if had been just yesterday —one of the few memories that was still fresh on his disturbed mind, and even with the harsh, cruel and shameful hint of irony in it, he… still missed it. Because when he lifted her in his arms for the first and the only time too, after seeing her collapse without reason and carrying her to what would be his long-lived bed, the feeling was not yet one of despair. It was confusion, of course, because since when he —the Tenno’s Hunter, the one who hated those devilish children with every fiber of his body, decided to take care of one of those weapons due of… gratitude? Concern… affection, perhaps?

How could something like him still feel the warmth of a loving heart, reflecting it in one of the weapons that sank him into the rot of his hatred?

He didn’t know her name —those which were always linked to the warrior's name they were before the transmutation. Damn it, he neither was sure about anything about that Warframe, but there he was, standing at the front line with her, wanting to ease her agony, or at least share it. Maybe this way he would feel more useful…

“You know whose help she needs.” Hunhow spoke again, breaking Stalker’s overthinking. “Will you let her drown in your despair? Or will you sheathe your hate and ask them?”

“Never.” Was the answer, dry and sharp, hoarse due the effort, that he gave before leaving the room.

He could never forgive what the Tenno did in the past —to him, to the Empire, to the entire Origin System. These cursed brats, these Void’s monsters whose he had foolishly let live due the confusion of seeing what they truly were, won’t deserve his forgiveness, they won’t deserve nothing but the hatred they earned by their own merits.

Besides, to save her he didn’t need of those murderers, brats, false heroes whose supposedly fight for a wicked honor, just as themselves. He could save her on his own.

He must do it on his own…

“You doom only the one you ever wished to save, through your own stubbornness!" Hunhow reproached him, but he ignored him again.

If to save her he had to massacre Corpus, or Grineer or any other faction that stood in front of him, that's what he would do without hesitation: but never, ever, would he ask them for help.

Plus… his Hate was still thirsty for blood, and he needed to vent a little of all that frustration accumulated over so many years… all that hate, that impotence, that... guilt. So why not take advantage of killing two birds at once?

However, as he had already assumed —despite not wanting to admit it openly, infiltrating the Corpus ship to steal more bioplasma didn't help him at all: he didn't feel better, if that was even possible, and listening to the captain through the ship's speakers only increased a more bestial fury within him.

“Intruder! This is Captain Xeto of The Ardent, in service to Mighty Parvos. Whoever you are,” because she realized that he wasn’t a Tenno, even if he almost looked like one “stand down. Your actions will not be tolerated!"

Of course, he ignored her.

Camera by camera, the Shadow stole the medical bioplasma without hesitation, even when he had to listening the Corpus’ chatter for the whole ship until her finally recognized him like the Tenno’s Hunter, without shutting her damn mouth even once. It wasn’t a good sign being recognized, but at this point he cared little if they dared to follow him. He would finish off all of those who tried to stop him.

He would force the silence: the one he was used to -the one that, as well as tormenting him since then, also comforted him in some way, and he would remain in the shadows not only for a twisted reason as an assassin, but... as a protector.

Chapter Text

II.

Once he finally reached his den again, oblivious to the latent risk of the Corpus troops whose orders were follow his ship, Stalker hurried himself to reach her. He clutched the stolen bioplasma bags tightly in his hands, breathing heavily as he returned to the bed of the dying weapon of war he wanted to save.

He didn’t announce that he has returned: even if he wanted to, he preferred letting his footsteps, which softly echoing in the dense silence, to do it instead.

His return had taken him longer than the other times due his attempt to fooling the Corpus —because he didn’t want to deal with them more than what he actually did now. Then he stopped on the edge of the door, trying not to let the pitiful image of the Warframe outweigh his conviction.

Finally, after hesitating for a little bit more and inhaling deeply as he fiddled with his feet involuntarily, he entered in the room. Then, step by step, he approaches to her, kneeling beside the bed.

He said nothing: he didn't want to try again. After all, compared to his former self, few were the words he could currently say without tearing his throat —out-not that he needed to talk, anyways, since he had no one to talk to beyond the Sentient Father.

The reason was that she couldn’t hear him anymore.

Sinking in her own pain, in her dying body, Stalker's voice was a distant murmur that the Warframe failed to understand: an empty stimulus that rarely roused her from her agony.

He had given up not long after discovering this, preferring to seek her salvation rather than a passing and useless solace, because even if he could normal speak —as if his transformation into what he was now had affected only his psyche—, he had lost so long ago the shred of conviction to fight his own nightmares, to pretend to be something he was not anymore... also, he couldn't force himself to try to comfort her by telling that “everything will be right”. I.e., how to make it sound real if he no longer believed in the illusion provided by hope?

It was better to prove it to her. Actions suited him better.

But when he opened one of the bags and poured it over her without warning, the result was futile as all his previous attempts.

Suddenly, with a spasm that made her take a seat, the Warframe cry out sharp, agonizingly in pain, clutching her belly with one hand, and the other in the edge of the bed, forcing Stalker to cover where his ears should still be —now fused to his black and red helmet.

Unable to help himself, Stalker also recoiled, as if deeper within himself there was the fear that she would attack him, that whatever had been the reason for her to sparing him would cease to exist in her mind, and it would be the agony of her body that would make her react as any wounded animal would do in that situation.

That didn’t happen, again. She simply collapsed onto the bed, her body becoming more languid: a few spasms taking hold of her muscles until she finally gave way, still covering her belly as if protecting it, and then loses consciousness again.

"You see? Futile.” Hunhow spoke, always so painfully realist. “Only one can help her now."

“... Tenno," he heard himself, not with a growl of frustration, but with a sort of… resigned snort. His shoulders tensed more than they already were, forcing him to take a moment to calm down. Then he sat on the edge of the bed, contemplating her, processing what he already knew was not only necessary, but urgent.

Still, he refused to admit that he was already out of options: instead, he went back to search through the dozens of his past thefts for something that might help her more than pure bioplasma.

Rudimentary injections of expired painkilling drugs —the needles of which broke before penetrating the Warframe's armored skin— water bags and wet rags to lower a fever that would not abate, lay under the dust of abandonment. Amongst all this were also putrid sacks of infested flesh that the Warframe threw away from her, growling at him when he brought them closer in his first attempts to help her, thinking they would be useful, only to end up doubting whether the infestation could actually be of help and, if so, what material was necessary for her specific and unknown situation…

Despite Hunhow's words sinking deep into his mind, combined with whispers that murmured that name that kept stirring something inside him, Stalker tried to inject the leftover bioplasma in the Warframe, with the stubborn longing to make it work for once and for all, but she no longer reacted to the futile attempt. To add to the pressure, her breathing became slower than the last few days... so Stalker knew he didn't have much time on his side.

He had already wasted too much time by refusing to give in to his own ego.

“You know where to find them.” The Sentient Father insisted, noticing how the tension in his shoulders finally ceased.

Then, with a frustrated sigh and clenched fist, the Shadow looked at the once more. He couldn’t be able to reach out to her, to touch her or speak to her to promise her hopes that he wanted to come true with all his being. Instead, he just walked away with heavy and resigned footsteps, determined to save her no matter what.

His ego could go to hell if it could do anything to keep her by his side…

‘Alive’, he corrected himself. To keep her alive, safe and sound... although at that point it was stupid of him to keep denying that he wanted her by his side.

He didn't know why; he couldn't remember the reason why he accepted the demanding task of taking care of her. He didn't even understand why seeing her broke his heart —and healed at the same time. The only thing he wanted to do, the only thing he was absolutely sure of, it was that he wanted to see her the next day, and the next, and the next... and so on for the rest of his cursed life, without the fear of losing her when he least expected it.

He would do everything to keep her alive —with him. He promised to himself.

Chapter Text

III.

Enter to the Tenno’s Orbiter was as simply as the first time —with Hunhow’s help, but the difference between that time and now was evident, not just by the extra decoration —and a sort of sound away… a shawzin, perhaps? Which combined with a woman’s voice in the radio— but the graffities and scrawls that seemed to highlight that childish side that seemed so out of place considering the history of blood, death and chaos that the Tenno dragged without even caring. What to say about the Drifter... that rude brat who had grown up to act more arrogant and brazen than the current child.

The scrawl “Ordis was here, Operator! Umbra too!” were ignored as soon as he saw them, feeling embarrassing frustration rising into his chest while his stomach sank unpleasantly. He really was going to ask help to that brat —no longer the Drifter— and her mad Cephalon?

"Operator? Did you disable the security grid? You know that you shouldn’t do that; it’s dangerous”.

Stalker’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted as soon as he hears the Cephalon voice since the backup’s ship, courtesy of their intrusion and what it meant for the safety of the ship. That voice sounded familiar to him. Too familiar, like more than ever before, but he left that thought for later —perhaps never.

Hurried, feeling the adrenaline running through his body —because despite his hatred he was aware of the danger he was getting into by entering the demon's lair, Stalker looked for a place where he could hide from that particular artificial intelligence, walking with light steps that seemed to turn into smoke.

Then Ordis, wandering in his new and cute form, peered out from the back of the orbiter, scanning as he spoke:

“Operator, are you who’s making that noise?” A pair of lasers peered to scanned amongst his periphery while he walks through the arsenal. Stalker avoided him easily, making his way to the Transfer Room, ignoring the kubrow peacefully sleeping in his bed, ignoring possible danger in favor of her afternoon nap. “Umbra? Helminth? Who’s there?”

When the cephalon climbed the ramp, Stalker was already in the Relics section, hidden in the shadows, ignoring those many objects stacked lazily.

He only had to take a few more steps and he would be at his objective.

The problem arose when, reacting quickly to camouflage himself before he was discovered, from that room that was always blocked —parallel to the infested door— came out something he wasn't expecting: a... Warframe...?

No... it was that Warframe. The conscious one. Lua's Dax.

Hadn’t he been destroyed in his own home? There were a few memories that were still partially fresh in his shattered memory, but something that Stalker couldn’t ignore, no matter how much he wanted to, were related to a certain comment Hunhow had once hinted at, as he lamented what they had been done to his children after the war were over:

‘There are not many like you. But there is a special one… tormented by Balla’s own hands. A punishment I can now understand. I wonder if he was tamed too, or if he just destroyed him…’

Oddly, that One Excalibur didn’t really look like a tormented soul. That’s because, wearing a perhaps too ostentatious outfit for his taste, full of unnecessary decorations, with half of his torso bare —wait, did he have a piercing in it... what the hell?— and the rest of his body covered by a shaggy and fluffy kimono, the conscious Warframe held a shawzin in his hand, while on his hip hung his Skiajati. His helmet had golden cracks at the height of his eye, and from the almost tense position it was easy to assume that he had heard Ordis’ comments.

He was also inspecting along with the cephalon, cautiously scanning the corridor for whatever had the sentinel nervous.

Stalker then cautiously moved a few steps, not intending to use his Hate yet, only his physical abilities to defend himself if it was necessary.

“Ugh, Ordis assuredly heard something, just now… it was you ---disgusting--- furball thing?" Ordis’ voice seemed to distract Umbra, who walked towards the Incubation Segment, but not before taking another quickly glace, allowing the Shadow to continue, more cautiously, to his destination. “Ah, Umbra! Ordis was not doing nothing to the Operator’s kubrow”.

As he was finally at the Transference Room’s door, his frame re-emerging like smoke once again triggering Ordis’ sensors. Umbra seemed to notice it as well, walking towards the rear of the ship, just to find… nothing. It confused them both.

For the infiltrator’s luck, their presence automatically opened the door. Stalker didn’t miss the opportunity to get inside before his cloaking time ran out, leaving the other pair to continue their inspection.

Once he was in front of the Somatic Link chair, his frame visible again, the disgust almost tangible, the Shadow grasped one of the dying Warframe’s feathers, as if encouraging himself, while he unsheathed his Hate.

His presence, the same tragedy he shared with the devils and his puppets, opened the device as he was just a few steps away: the brat then appeared, her eyes closed, her face calmed, like if nothing happened. Like if everything was okay. Of course, for her it probably was: she had her mother back again, her slave, her puppets… she had everything, as always, while he…

Stalker had to fight the strange feeling that crossed his mind when he saw her again as what she always has been: an impertinent and stupid teenager with childish features that would eventually transform into that sarcastic and arrogant face of the Drifter, if time allowed to leave its mark on her someday, of course.

Memories of that stubborn brat trying to save her dying eidolon felt like an odd and uncomfortable dream, making time seem even more confusing to him.

Sometimes, he still believed that none of that ever really happened.

Other times, between nightmares and sermons, he remembered the Drifter: her words, her conviction to save Natah... and that gave him a feeling of deja vu.

‘Have you ever thought about something more than revenge?’ She has asked him between hisses and grunts of pain after they had gotten the first archon crystal. She was limping, using the Nataruk as support, after Nira kicked the shit out of her. She looked down on him for not having helped her, except for the finishing blow to the archon snake.*

He didn’t answer her then.

But now... how ironic. Now he was there, with a pathetic plea for help to the enemy stuck in his throat, swallowing the humiliation as the roles were switched because of a desperate race against time.

Chapter Text

IV.

Aiming at her neck felt almost satisfying. Breaking her dream, interrupting whatever perverse fantasy that was running through her selfish, indifferent, arrogant brat's mind slightly lessened all the frustration, hatred and fear that was wracking his chest for a moment. Hearing her voice crack in surprise, suddenly alert, made him feel like he had control over something, even if it was just for a quickly instant.

“Waoh, waoh, waoh, waoh…” The Tenno swallows hard, leaning closer to the seat’s back. “Last guy who tried sticking me with a blade? Things didn't go so well for him.” She muttered, looking at him with a mix of surprise, confusion and defiance once she understood what was actually happening there.

“Ordis is here, Operator! Stay calm!” Neither Ordis sudden outburst nor the Skiajati’s blade being drawn behind him didn’t intimidate Stalker. “Starts PURGING…!” Seeing the cephalon shouting while his eyes turned red and he began a sort of countdown, pointing at him with its sentinel-like little body, didn't do it, either…

Perhaps the only challenge would’ve been facing the former Dax, Stalker admitted to himself, but Umbra remained motionless behind him, noticing the feather in his fist. Then, after a few seconds of silent tension—ignoring Ordis, he decided to lower his nikana. This gesture made the Tenno perceive the lack of hostility from Stalker, moving slightly away from the Somatic Link's back, and confirming it as soon as the Hate's blade did not graze her neck despite the proximity, but instead moved a one well-calculated inch away.

“Wait, Ordis…” she whispers, unsure of how to proceed. “I think… he isn’t here to fight us…”  She glanced at Umbra, who slightly nod his head. Then she looked back at the Shadow, who, despite his offensive position and the aggressive, hostile vibes, stayed out of it. “Are you…?”

Umbra took a few, slowly steps towards the Tenno and Ordis, while Stalker, noticing the slyly gesture he gave him —one he could only assume was a kind of silent permission to explain himself, assuring him that he would be heard without interruption—, lifted his protégé's feather, taking a deep breath to himself as he waited for a reaction. He ignored a tremor that apparently no one noticed.

As he expected, the nosy cephalon was the first to speak:

“The feather ---processing--- is from a Warframe!” Ordis confirmed what Umbra was already guessed on his own.

The Conscious Warframe stared the tense body of that one who always was seen as the enemy —thought Drifter’s memories pointed him like a ‘terrible ally’.  And even with all the Tenno and Ordis’ complains still present, despite his history as a stalker —ironically— like a dangerous stain that warned him not to trust him, Umbra couldn't help but feel a certain pang of empathy.

Something in Stalker seemed familiar to him. And Umbra knew exactly what it was.

“You're here... for help? For a Warframe?" The question sounded odd both in her mind as it slipped off her tongue. The Tenno couldn’t help but frown. “Why? You hate Warframes.

Stalker hesitated between snatching the feather from her or ripping her entire arm off at once, but he held back.

His ego hurt by the indirect rejection of his really desperate plea for help; the frustration, the desperation, the disappointment itself for knowing that he couldn't save her —that this brat didn't want to save her, was unbearable: it was too overwhelming for him.

A sudden hand came to rest on his shoulder, and the tension in them intensified until it hurt. Umbra was saw him, tried to console him, persuaded him not to give up. Stalker reacted by pushing him away, turning to leave, until the Tenno's voice interrupted him.

“Is this one... like you?"

"Uh, Ordis doubts anything is left of their sanity at this point…"

The Shadow seemed to mutter something to himself, unsheathing his Hate.

"All right. I'll help.” She continued quickly, being honest in her words. “For th…” Being interrupted by Umbra’s gesture, the Tenno could barely contain her surprise as she corrected herself. “A she? What? How…?”

“Ordis isn’t sure that the Warframe is actually a ‘she’…”

But Umbra seemed so convinced, and Stalker’s sidelong glance confirmed it.

‘Shit, is really a she. But what the…?’

“It’s also for him”. She heard a familiar voice that shook Umbra with surprise, more than anyone there. After all, the former Dax didn't know about Hunhow but a few comments from Ordis, rather than the Operator. “It's time to pay your debt, Tenno.”

“But I don’t owe him nothing.”

“Drifter does.”

“But… that… that’s not fair.” The Tenno snorted, then sighed, knowing better than anyone that it wasn't a good idea to get involved in that existentialism bullshit that the Orokin invented in their hungry digs to continue expanding their disgusting empire. For the Void, she had always hated that damn class. “Ugh, whatever… where is she?”

Stalker hesitated, unsure whether to thank Hunhow for his insistence and meddling in his affairs, or whether to leave but not before splitting the cephalon in two and destroying the Conscious Warframe's helmet. Finally, after a long wait that he knew only compromised him due his protégé’s delicate health, he turned to the navigator board, looking over his shoulder at his... ally.

Umbra was the first to follow him, almost too hastily. Ordis snorted and followed after him, and finally the Tenno reacted, linking with her favorite Warframe, unconsciously taking away his will to offer his help by his own.

The brat then ignored a strange pang she felt in her —his—chest, as a vague, fuzzy memory ran through their mind. Something about Isaah, no doubt… but also a woman she had never seen, or at least an almost feminine stain that sank her stomach even further.

Since when was Umbra able to remember…?

“Uranus?” Ordis’ question woke her up. “Oh, it makes sense. Uh… but ---there’s the old--- there's nothing. It's just…”

Stalker ignored him, pointing again to a new place with no node, no information… just a vast marine emptiness.

Hunhow added:

“There is his den.”

—… huh… —the Tenno muttered. So, from there the old Low guard had been stalking her for as long as she could remember after her awakening. Ironic that it was on the same planet where all the lies began to be revealed, ruining her perfect world as a space ninja—. So… go ahead, I guess?

The Shadow stared at them.

Umbra, in his discreet attempt to help everyone there, to contribute what the Operator feared was a jab of empathy for the sort-of-enemy, seemed to whisper to her what he assumed the Shadow was thinking.

"We have to see her, scan her... uh... try to understand her. We can't do it with just a feather, you know."

Stalker growled “Fine”. He replied in a raspy, almost choked voice.

Umbra pretended not to feel another jab, this time of pride, an almost brotherly feeling.*

Chapter Text

V.

Ordis named the den as ‘Brutus’. The Operator laughed, his mockery a witty one, Stalker growled annoyed, Umbra and Hunhow, on the other hand, decided to keep themselves at bay as two wise parents who knew when to interfere and when let their children fight among themselves for a while.

The place was… average, according to the Tenno. Perhaps too much red, so many shadows, too many shortcuts doors which led nowhere. But it suited the hunter, anyways.

“What a great decoration. Your personality shines through.” Ordis —maybe Ordan, tried to flatter, quite sarcastic.

Stalker didn’t hold back himself from hitting his little body with a loud slap* where his neck should be. No one said anything, but Umbra's muffled throat-clearing sound almost echoed through the silent walls.

The Terror was parked in plain sight for any sudden departure, but well hidden in what must once have been one of Tyl Regor's laboratories — if not planned for something else. The stairs stretched several floors, with leaks and windows that reminded them how submerged the place was, above the same sea in which Hunhow still lay, imprisoned.

As they approached their destination, Stalker grew more cautious. He looked at the Tenno, at Umbra, and shook his head. The brat didn’t know if she understood what he meant, but she still cut the Transference, body and mind on their own. So, there were four of them now, and the Shadow snorted in apparent understanding. Perhaps almost grateful.

“No Tenno”. He growled as they stopped outside one of the automatic doors.

The Operator frowned.

“You don’t want me to come in? Why? Then why did I come?”

“No cephalon”. Stalker added, ignoring her.

“What?!”

Umbra took the kid’s shoulders, giving her a softly pat. Then glanced at Ordis, who was snorting, and nodded. Stalker said no more and entered. The Warframe followed him closely, for the Tenno and cephalon’s surprise.

“Maybe he let him in because Umbra’s like his superior, somehow?” Ordis muttered, hinting at the ranks both men held before being the infested, steely flesh they were now.

“… I suppose so”.

Though she considered using the transfer again, the brat decided to wait for the pair of Warframes. Hunhow's casual comment about "making sure there’s no danger" almost made her feel guilty for having thought of it.

Luckily for her, it didn't take too long for Umbra to appear, his body visible tense, motioning for them to enter as well. Suddenly the Operator felt nervous, uncomfortable, walking hesitantly.

What she saw on the back of room, decorated by a large window overlooking the depths of Uranus, made her speechless, despite the obviousness. She cursed herself for not mentally prepared, and for a moment she wanted to disappear. Forget that she had to pay a debt that was not hers, join forces with an enemy who almost tried to kill her and never regretted it.

On an almost death bed lay the Warframe. Feathers all over her body, like an angel. But the feathers were withered. A green glow flickered as her body remained languid and inert. Her weak breathing could not be perceived from afar, but up close it was more… sad.

The Tenno also noticed a strange design below her waist. A wide, very wide feather-dress. Almost swollen. A fatness that seemed different from Grendel, but she didn't know exactly why.

And on the bed… him. Stalker.

The kid was neither fool nor indifferent. Seeing the way he held her hand made her feel a pang of sadness in her chest. Something deep, deep inside her mind remembered the image of the dying Natah after what Ballas and Erra had done to her. She had to look away so that tears wouldn't cloud her vision, and she barely stopped herself from reconnecting with Umbra to find in his mind a certain serenity inherited from his Dax training—something she never fully learned with Teshin, and now she regretted it. So much.

Ordis, for his part, was more reckless in his own unusual silence. He approached flying towards the dying Warframe and simply scanned her. Stalker didn’t react, knowing it was for a good cause. Umbra just stared at the angel-like Warframe, hesitating between comforting his Operator or his sudden ally. In the end, he decided don’t make a move. He knew he couldn’t invade a stranger’s feelings just because the intense empathy he felt, and he couldn’t give away the kid who didn’t want to break right now.

“This Warframe is from before the Orokin ---SLAUGHTER--- fall. Apparently, she disappeared during it.” The Cephalon finally said. “But documentation is scarce. Almost... redacted. Hmm… also… how strange. A Warframe's power is supposed to last forever, but some additional factor is draining hers. Ordis’s unable to determine exactly what it is.”

Stalker glared at the Tenno, and she sighed with a shaky huff.

“I... I’ll see what I can find out. Can I?” She asked, cautiously approaching the dying Warframe.

Although the Shadow didn’t move from his spot, he nodded. The Operator then knelt in front the angel, stroking her face’s feathers with a gentle, loving, protective touch. For her, it was inevitable not to see Natah in her. It was impossible not to want help the Warframe of her own will at that moment.

She swore to herself that she wouldn’t let her die. No matter what, she wouldn’t let her die if she could give her all to stop it.

“Hallo, I don’t know you, but… I want to help you. Would you allow me? Do you think I could try to make the Transference with you?”

She looked at Stalker again, and he nodded again, this time just a barely movement of his helmet. Then she glanced over his shoulders —at Umbra. Something about the tension he was hiding made her uneasy, and the blurry memory of him increased her uncertainty.

Everything felt so wrong.

“He-here I go…” she announced, suppressing the trembling of her lip still beneath her scarf.

It took torturous minutes of tension and discomfort to focus her nervous mind on the dying figure before her. The mist was thick and there was also an incandescent glow —too green, too hot, too blinding. She groaned, squeezed her eyes shut, and soon she began to see something.

There were… two figures. A soft voice, as a distant murmur, ran through her chest before reaching her ears.

‘Sorren…’

‘Jade…’

Jade.

Her name was Jade. Or was it Sorren?

No. Jade made more sense to her.

The Tenno suddenly felt as she was suffocating, so she pulled down her scarf and tried to catch her breath, clutching her chest so tight in the process.

Umbra was already kneeling beside her.

“Jade…” she gasped, her voice shaking. “She’s… her name is Jade. I think. I don’t know… I… also heard … another name… Sorren…”

When the brat looked in Stalker's direction, something had changed in him. She could feel it. She could see it, somehow. But she couldn't say exactly what.

Chapter Text

VI.

‘Sorren’, ‘Jade’. That… that couldn’t be truth. Stalker unsheathed his Hate, ready to launch himself straight at the throat of the Tenno, that demon who dared to tear a still-beating heart from the corpse of oblivion. His hands shook with fury. His chest was cracking beneath his armor. His throat burned with the muffled cry of helplessness, pain and anger.

Umbra reacted in time to block his strike with his Skiajati. The clash of metals shook with a screech that woke the little girl up from her catatonic state.

‘You will be able to see her again. I promise. But you will have to earn it.’

Day after day, year after year, decade after decade… he always was their damn devoted dog, and he never, ever, complained about it. He fought for him —for them. He cried for his longing, bled, he died.

He never got to see her again.

And all this time she was always there? With him? Bedridden, losing what strength she had left?

The slaughter that turned her victims to ashes, that creature of feathers and destruction, of muffled song and forgiveness, that one who saved his life and carried him away during the fall of his entire world, his only cursed dream… was she Jade? His Jade?

‘No. No! NO!’

Stalker roared, pushing his Hate with the pain and hatred of a man who once loved to the betrayal’s point. Stil, Umbra didn’t give in.

The confrontation was painful to see.

Hunhow intervened.

“Shadow, they aren’t your enemies…”

“Silence!”

Umbra hesitated, then, with a thrust of his nikana he snatched his scythe. He pushed Stalker to the wall using his elbow, and subdued him there, while the Tenno came to herself.

‘Sorren…’

His body shook until the last jolt was almost a sob. The Conscious Warframe took his shoulder, and then, in an empathy’s display that froze the Shadow as he grabbed the back of his neck, he allowed him to lean on his shoulder for a moment.

It almost felt like it was a friendly shoulder to cry on. If he just could still do that.

Silence hung like a thick fog after his outburst. Stalker backed away seconds later, walking towards his Hate. Ordis prepared himself to attack, if necessary, but the hunter simply stood still, staring at the ground from which he picked up his weapon, as if he was contemplating something beyond what anyone could imagine at that moment.

Except for one of the presents.

The Operator babbled as she found the right words.

“She is… dying… do you know it?” He gave her an almost-hatred glare. She gulped. “I’m sorry… stupid question. I mean… the-there’s something we could try to save her. Ordis.”

The cephalon reacted slowly.

“Uh… yes. To restore a depleted Warframe, Ordis suggests you turn to the base matter of which Warframes are made."

“The Infestation…” The Tenno muttered, still having a hard time swallowing.

 The grip on Hate tightened until Stalker’s own armored hand creaked. With a reluctant glance at… at Jade, Stalker headed out of the room.

The Operator quickly stood up; Umbra was on the move as well.

“Wait… I… I will go too. And Umbra.” She added as she saw her Warframe already ready for an unexpected mission.

Stalker glanced at her, then at Umbra. Although he hesitated with a refusal, in the end he simply returned his gaze back to the front. Both the Tenno and the Warframe took his answer as a reluctantly “yes”.

Before they left, letting Umbra walked ahead, the brat looked back at Jade. Her shaky hands took one of hers, and in front of a silent cephalon who seemed sunk in his own thoughts, she kissed one of her forehead’s feathers.

“We will return, Jade. We will save you. Hold on it a little longer. Ordis…”

“Ordis will take care of Jade, Operator. With his life.”

“Hunhow…”

“Go, Tenno. Pay your debt.”

“I owe him nothing.” She grunted, but her expression softened as she looked at the dying Warframe again. “I’m doing this for you, Jade. We… we are doing this”.

With a nervous sigh, the Tenno linked back up to Umbra, who had decided to give Stalker a soft pat, which he accepted, until he was no longer just Umbra. With a push Stalkers pushed the confused Tenno away from him.

‘I'll have to ask you about this later, Umbra.’

About the unusual closeness that Stalker was allowing him, about his empathy, about the feelings and memories that danced in his mind like diffuse, but melancholic, stains.

The silence was uncomfortable and suffocating as the travel to Eris continued.

The Tenno remained with the Transference, watching the ship whose interior was like a dense black hole. No Cephalon, no foundry, no Helminth, no rooms for a Tenno that did not exist... just a black and red shell like its owner, with an old arsenal where the few, but lethal Stalker weapons lay —except for the War that she had broken and practically stolen from him some time ago. The navigation panel was a rustic, old manual pilot, like Stalker. Like the man he one day was before becoming that hunter drowned in despair and infinite hatred.

Something in Umbra's consciousness seemed to be used to the environment, unlike the Tenno. Surely the old little technology —compared to all that existed now, more polished and improved— reminded him the days when he served the Orokin, when he was that brave Dax recognized as one of the most important Lua warriors of his time.

Two old Golden Lords’ servants brought together by a tragedy that the third whirl understood too well.

What strange paths the Void traced.

“Sooo… uhm… what an interesting decoration.” She mumbled. Stalker looked at them and shook his head. The Tenno went silent, but the blow the other Warframe gave her on the head confused her. “What?”

Stalker gave her another hit to Umbra’s helmet. A more urgent one.

“Dax.” He growled.

The girl remained silent and motionless for a few seconds more, until a well-placed blow at the face made her break the Transference. Both Umbra and the Tenno rubbed themself: he on the crack of his helmet, she on her nose.

“What's wrong with you?!”

Umbra patted her on the head, as if he was trying to calm her down. Stalker, on the other hand, ignored her —not before seeming to snort, as if the sight of herself disgusted him. She wouldn't doubt that was the reason.*

The silence was thick again, but Umbra's presence, on whom she leaned, calmed her enough that the rest of the journey felt more comfortable for her, even though the way both Warframes suddenly seemed to exchange glances did not go unnoticed by her.

So suspicious…

‘It’s my imagination.’ She convinced herself. At worst, though, they were both simply coming to terms with the fact that they weren’t the only Warframe/former person-turned-Warframe still retaining their consciousness.

“.. so…” she muttered again, breaking the silence after what she felt like an eternity.

“…”

“… how did you meet to… uh… Jade?”

Silence again. Long, dense, awkward… dangerous.

Stalker clenched his fists, and the sideways glare he gave her, even though his face was that helmet that had caused her so many headaches before, almost made her freeze in place.

Almost, but not anymore.

“Jade…” he whispered, and his voice sounded too… familiar, at that moment.

The Tenno had heard that voice. In Jade. Or not…?

Was she confused? Nervous? Well, yes, she definitely was.

She shook her head and tried not to think about it anymore.

“She… did you try to kill her and in the end, you decided to forgive her?” She said with an innocence that bordered on cruelty. The world had made her anything but prudent, to say the least. “Or did you just find her hurt and decided to help her?”

Stalker grunted.

“Silence.”

“I’m just curious…”

“Silence.”

“C’mon, I’m helping you…”

“Silence!”

Chapter Text

VII.

Stalker hadn’t hesitated when he grabs her by the neck and slam her body into the ground in front of Umbra, who was watching them surprised, his body visibly tense. His grip was too strong, too tight to cut off her air in a blink. The Tenno, in response, gasped in surprise, feeling her lungs suddenly empty; she then twisted with a frown, unable to hide the tantrum-like grimace once she fully reacted to the situation.

“It was just a question! Chill out!”

“Silence.”

Umbra shoved Stalker's shoulder until he moved away, not before slaming the Tenno back into the ground once more.

She only growled in response, clearing her throat before taking a breath as discreetly as possible. ‘I'm doing this for Jade, I'm doing this for Jade...’ She repeated to herself for the rest of the ride.

When they reached their destination, the brat didn’t leave the ship. Umbra stared at her, extending his hand to her in an innocent thought that perhaps she needed help, but seeing her blush and back away without giving any further reasons to why she did not accept his help, he hesitated before slowly pushing his hand away.  Stalker was already heading towards the interior of the infested ship.

“Go with him. You must shed a lot of Infested blood if you want to save her. She needs Cortichrome, and you will only get it if can attract a Juggernaut.”

Umbra nodded vehemently, gripping the Skiajati tightly. Though he couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder as he caught up with Stalker.

As they approached the derelict, Umbra kept his eyes on the Terror —on the Operator. Stalker let out a sort-of-snort which caught his attention. Then, he simply used his camouflage ability to launch himself into the mission, with no intention of messing around with insignificant beings like the infested. Umbra, to his surprise, followed him nonchalantly, almost walking casually, as if dealing with the mistakes that the same infestation which ran through his veins had caused was the most normal thing in the world.

Maybe because it was, some way.

A stealth attack with his nikana to one of the distracted creatures made him disappear for a few seconds. That definitely surprised Stalker for a moment, especially when the infested began to fall one by one, confused, not knowing what was killing them.

A sudden surge of… something, prompted Stalker to exterminate the Infested as well, as if the idea of ​​that specific Warframe doing more than him in getting the Cortichrome hurt his ego. After all, he was the one who wanted to save Jade, not Umbra.

The Conscious Warframe then almost felt proud. He had made Stalker do just what the Operator had asked him, and he didn’t even seem to notice it.

When they finally arrived the last abandoned ship’s chamber, the huge foul creature greeted them with a roar that could likely have been heard by the Tenno herself.

Unlike with the Infested, Umbra didn’t intervene this time. He took it upon himself to eliminate the Infested that appeared from the Infestation niches that grew from the spores, evading the Juggernaut so he wasn’t attacking him directly. He knew that this was Stalker's job and respected his work empathetically.

Plus, seeing the other Warframe —one like him? Alike, perhaps? He didn't know— vent that anger he knew all too well prevented him from even thinking about helping, about stealing the credit, because in his same situation, if it were Isaah hanging by a thread instead Jade, Umbra wouldn't allow anyone to try to play the hero.

But it's not like he thought the Tenno was one of them.

The chunk of infested flesh that collided with his helmet without warning threw him off balance, causing him to react with a delayed slash of his nikana. He looked down at his feet and, without knowing why, felt whatever-was currently-in-his-stomach sink.

It was just a slimy, putrid sack. And despite its simplicity, Umbra couldn't help but remember that damned crap Ballas had injected into him after falling in his trap. That damned serum that oozed its last infected drop into his veins.

He didn’t know why the memory had come after everything that had happened since then —the New War, the ravages of Narmer, even the direct aid to Drifter, which still felt like a slight deception towards the Tenno— but it did. It came suddenly, literally, and staked itself through his armored chest as Stalker finally ripped the Juggernaut apart and tore from its entrails that bloody, suppurating sac they had come to hunt. Soon, however, Umbra had to push the thought aside.

It didn’t matter what had happened anymore. Ballas was dead.

What did matter was saving Jade.

Although… he couldn't help but thought about the Jade Light, that memory that he didn't even know was still in his mind, but flash for a moment in his mind. As a Dax, he had heard about it. But he couldn't remember if he had ever seen it —seen her.

The Tenno huffed in boredom, lying on the Terror’s ground, annoyance still raw after Stalker's behavior. At the same time, her mind traveled to the brief glimpse she had had of Jade, and doubts grew.

Distant memories of her mother Margulis came to her.

The painful broadcast that played when her sentence was passed, and her punishment carried out.

That strange name that floated on her tongue without knowing why it kept repeating itself in her mind repeatedly.

But, above all, what afflicted her most was a strange feeling in her belly. She didn't like the way she felt. She didn't like the thoughts that suddenly made her think of herself, alone there, on the enemy ship, playing doctor.

‘The Void made us sterile.’ Was she sterile too? She suddenly wondered.

The brat had never thought about it before —nor anything to do with the awkward sex lessons the Cephalon of Zariman Ten Zero had given them for some reason— but now she couldn’t get the thought out of her mind. It was… awkward, embarrassing, and annoying. Shit, she’d be damned if she ever thought about that. She’d be eaten alive by the most disgusting bug in Deimos if she ever thought about having children.

Her karma would be horrible. She wished she was truly infertile, but not that she was accepting the possibility of… huh… procreate?* Anyways.

Ashamed and furious at the idleness growing within her, the Tenno shook her head fiercely. She reluctantly stood and wandered nervously through the Terror. She tried to ignore a much older feather on a… plaque? she found hidden in a corner and huffed, stomping her feet, wondering how long it would take them to return.

Then a transmission came through the ship, the signal terrible, and for a moment he felt something close to genuine concern not for Jade, but for… Stalker.

‘There's a Warframe at the bottom of all this, I'm sure of it. Alert the Sisterhood. No — alert Vala herself. I want to deliver this asset to her personally.’

“What the hell? A corpus?”

Oh shit… it wasn’t just a Corpus… it was a Sister of Parvos! The Tenno had never faced a Sister of Parvos before!

When Stalker and Umbra returned, the Tenno didn't even ask how things had gone. Instead, she looked at them, pale and said: “We must hurry. The Corpus is on their way to Jade!”

Chapter Text

VIII.

“So… Hunhow. It’s been a while”. Ordis mumbled, maintaining what he claimed was a vigil position around Jade.

From the vast underground sea, the Sentient Father just mumbled: “Ordan”.

“Ordis. The name is… Ordis”.

The silence was dense and uncomfortable, even for the cephalon. Even for the Sentient himself.

There was still a hint of… apathy, from them encounter during Octavia’s Hymn. Ordis still hadn’t forgiven how the Sentient had tried to infect the Cephalons’ precepts, starting with Suda. Much less for dredging up Ordan Karris’s despicable memory from the past —of his past self… of what Ballas had done.*

But none of that mattered anymore when the sound of the Terror and the rumble of its return caught their attention.

Old troubles are well in the past. And the Origin System had literally had a complete change since Narmer's ascension, so screw Ordan and what Hunhow had discovered about him.

“Operator, Umbra! Stalker…” Ordis greeted them anxiously. “Ordis has been taking care of Jade! Her vital signs are low, but steady! Did you bring the Cortichrome?”

Stalker pushed Umbra, who in that moment was linked to the Tenno, and pushed the sentry's small body away from Jade too. In his hand he carried that purulent sack.

He emptied part of its contents into her, and her light shone once more with its usual lively force. But then she shuddered, letting out a moan-like exhalation, a painful, pitiful whisper, that broke the hearts of those present.

“It’s useless…” The Tenno broke the Transference with her Warframe, her face grim expression. “I don’t think we can…”

Stalker threw the Cortichrome at her.

“Try.”

“What? I… what do you want me to…? I don’t even know what’s draining her energy…”

“Try it!” He roared louder.

Jade let out another moan, and the sight was so painful that the Tenno didn’t think twice about approaching her, kneeling beside her.

“Jade, we don’t know what’s happening to you. Please… can you let me Transfer into you once more? We… we have more Cortichrome. We can help you. Please… let me help you”. She didn't know why, but as she spoke to her, the brat unconsciously held her belly again.

She wanted to believe that it was a strange case of mischanneled energy, but the fear was becoming more and more... uncomfortable.

For the surprise of the presents, the dying Warframe nodded solemnly, slowly, as if everything in her hurt, then, weak, extended her hand to the kid. The Tenno accepted it without hesitate and rested her forehead on Jade’s feathers, trying to link to her again.

At first the images were a meaningless riot. Blood, Jade light, feathers and landscapes. Golden helmets… and Ballas. But also… Stalker.

Afterwards… everything was clearer, but strange.

Without knowing why, the Tenno opened her eyes, felt her feathered mask open, and thought: ‘mummy is here!” laughing playfully, although no one heard her. Then she closed her mask and, ‘mummy is gone!’ Which she thought was funny, because she did it so many times after that.

She saw the Dax murmur behind their hands, but she didn't care. Instead, she caressed her belly as she continued to play with no one, before the induced sleep caused her to fall into a pool of darkness that felt almost like the first time she did the Transference.

When the Naga drums struck, she saw him. She knew he had changed just as she had changed, that it was their penance for the simple, sweet sin of love, but she could recognize him by that medal, even though his body —Stalker?— was of a Warframe. After all, that medal was unique, there was no other like it. It had been given to him as a sign of his loyalty before he was punished by the blessing of breeding.

She then realized that they were going to attack him, to hurt him! Those Tenno! —one of her companions?—, so that's why she intervened, with her Harmony in hand, preventing that Excalibur from touching her Sorren.

It didn't matter if he didn't recognize her. She took him in her arms anyways, and flew, through the blood of the slaughter, the killing storm, the insanity that preceded the screams of the Dax, Sentient and Orokin, and the betrayal of a lover who never knew how to love.

She wasn't going to let them hurt the love of her life. Her Sorren. The father of that child that would be born, no matter what she had to do to achieve it.

“I will live, little one. We will live.” Were her words.

The Tenno could remember how he blamed himself since she told him the sweet news, how he sounded so heartbroken and yet so glad, how he feared the Legems, as if love were a crime! As if she had nothing to do with it! But he was wrong. Sorren was wrong to want to carry everything by himself.

Unfortunately, she couldn't tell him it wasn't his fault. She couldn't comfort him.

She could know about his remorse, and though

She could tell of his regret, and though she had not known which was this new skin in which he had returned to serve the Golden Lords, to Ballas, she was aware that he served them as "a devoted dog” —that was how the Executioner called him from the first time he visited her, with that arrogant smile and that formal voice, the same one he had used when he murdered her lover— until the fall of the Empire.

‘He lives in hope of seeing you again, one day. I have promised him this. You should be proud.’ Ballas said with every intention of making her hate him.

She wouldn’t. Even with her new body, she owned herself.

Because, though he could not have known it, in taunting her, Ballas gave her hope.

‘There is plentiful strength within you - but only to keep you preserved as you are now. Your child, alas, will never grow. Even if you fed it with all the strength in your body! Perhaps if you lay lifeless for a year, the child would twitch a little. A century and its heart might begin to beat. A thousand years, and who knows? Perhaps you might feel a kick.’

And then she felt it. Lying in that bed for so long, with Sorren watching over them both, the Tenno… no —, Jade, decided she was going to keep her promise no matter what.

‘With your father watching over us, I will give you the gift of myself. And one day, these metal fingers of mine will dip in slippery paint and draw a smiley sun and a house and a dog, and all of us together, and I will hear you laugh.'

The Tenno stared at her, tears spilling down her cheeks, and nodded.

“We will keep that promise, Jade.”

The woman who was once Jade before becoming a Warframe smiled at her, caressing the swollen belly that she cared for with all her might. She closed her eyes for a moment, and with a long sigh, one of relief and exhaustion, she whispered with a motherly touch:

“Thank you, little one”.

The green glow shone brightly again. The Tenno suddenly opened her eyes, with a choked sob, holding her belly. Tears streamed down her face as she began to recognize where she was.

What woke her from the Transference, the one whose inverted flow she had only felt with Umbra until that moment, was Ordis's voice.

“Jade is… pregnant?!”

Chapter Text

IX.

Stalker felt the weight of his own body looming like a guillotine. Jade's exposed belly, the crystal womb shining in a green glow while the creature inside remained protected, shook his entire world like a cruel mockery of fate.

Her last mission, the most important one for Jade, was to give life, not take it. The reason for saving him was to… reunite their family.

If he still had a real heart, he knew it would have broken right then.

Stumbling to her felt like the nightmare that had always haunted him, but the one he never fully realized it could hurt so much…

‘You're going to be a father, Sorren.’

‘But... the Legems! If the Lords found out—‘

‘You'll take care of us, always, won't you?’

No. He was lying. He knew it, he knew it so damn well, since so long ago. But he had wanted to forget it. He wanted to convince himself that it couldn’t be real.

And, yet he didn’t blame himself for that.

When he knew he was going to be a father —when Sorren was going to be it, Jade's belly wasn't as big, as round and as painfully obvious as it was at that moment. Besides, how could a Warframe gestate? How could the miracle of life go against the logic of their very nature imposed as a punishment?

If he could cry, he would be already doing it. But he was a Warframe, a monster of steel and infestation, a tool of war.

With a trembling, raspy voice, he looked at Umbra. “Help…”

The Dax didn’t need to hear him twice to approach him, his steps full of conviction. He lifted him up so that he could be on Jade's side and then he knelt in front of his Tenno, caressing her cheek, trying to get her to react.

Ordis made the situation easier for him with his voice.

“Jade… she might be going into labor. We must help her give birth.”

“Labor…?” The girl gasped, frightened.

“She’s been having… contractions,” Hunhow added suddenly, as if realizing something.

“How am I going to give birth? I-Is that even possible?” She shrieked, shocked, upset, clutching her belly.

Ordis understood her reaction, unlike the two Warframes.

“Operator, you are not Jade. Is the Transference that makes you think that. It was… the flow has been inverted. Like with Umbra”.

Stalker stared at the Cephalon, then at Umbra, then at the little girl. But he shook his head, and… finally, despite so long… he had the courage to take Jade's hand, to come closer, to gently rest his forehead on her womb, as if he wanted to let her know he was there.

Her Sorren.

“We have to hurry,” Ordis repeated, the urgency reminding the Operator of what she had heard about that Corpus ship.

They definitely had to hurry.

“But… huh… how…?”

The silence was so dense, even for Hunhow’s part, that the Tenno started to feel panicked, unease, breathless.

“… Operator, you…”

“Must help her,” Hunhow added. “You must induce her labor. Finish it”.

“W-What?! Are you telling me that I…?!”

Umbra cupped her cheeks, nodding slowly, as if he wanted to calm her down while practically implying that there was no other way.

Jade was so weak, dying. She couldn’t give birth on her own. She needed her help.

She had promised to her. To both —Jade and Stalker.

"Is it going to hurt?" she asked with the most natural reaction she could have had.

"Probably," Hunhow replied.

—If the Transference you formed with her is like Umbra’s, there's probably that will be a bit of… shared feelings. Maybe not physical pain, maybe… Operator, but…

—I'm going to end up fucked up.

—Ordis assumes so, Operator. Sorry.

The brat looked at Stalker —no, Sorren—and her panic was filled with empathy, with sadness… with conviction. She took a deep, trembling breath, clutching her belly, and then looked at Umbra. Something about him made her feel safe.

Perhaps it was the fact that he was a father too. Even though it was so long ago, maybe he remembered something about childbirth… if he has been present at Isaah’s birth…

So, giving herself courage, she stood up, nodding.

“I will do it. But… how…? Should I do the Transference first and then…?”

“Trust in Jade, Operator.”

Nervous, the little girl nodded again. She leaned back on the bed, sitting on the floor with her legs up to her chest, curled up, and reached out her hand to try to meet Jade's. It took Stalker a moment to finally give it to her, then he took the other hand in his, preparing himself as well.

Umbra, for his part, remained on his knees with his hands in the Tenno's free hand.

The situation would be almost ridiculous if there wasn't a Warframe with a womb ready to give birth lying on her bed.

Then came the hard part. The one that would define everything: the one that depended on both, the Tenno and Jade, if they wanted to keep their promise.

*

Luckily for her, since it was her third time connecting to Jade, the Transference was cleaner and more direct than ever. Jade was accepting her, allowing her to share her labor because she trusted the Tenno… but she was also doing it because it would probably be the last time they could see each other, and she wanted to say goodbye.

Wow, they had only known each other for a couple of days, and yet… it was like they had known each other since ever. The Tenno already really liked her, as genuinely as with Umbra —except for a little detail hidden there— and the others Warframes.

…but oh shit…

“What the hell…?”

The Tenno gasped in pain as the first contraction —for her— hit the guts of the mother-to-be’s shared body, and she felt like she would throw up right then, that she would faint, that she would split in two and be thrown into the abyss of a searing, red-hot pain that stabbed from her belly to her groin in a horrible way. She tried to breathe, tears running down her cheeks, her chest imitating a wild drum, her hips burning as if they were going to break.

Then, the pain soothed.

Okay, good… first wave was over. Yes: a wave, like the ones on defense missions —somehow, she had to make it familiar to her.

She mentally prepared herself for another contraction but couldn’t help but scream and dig her nails into Umbra’s hand, sobbing helplessly, when the second wave started.

‘What kind of punishment is this?!’

The pain rippled more and more steadily with the sensation of her belly being stabbed. Of course, she knew about pain and injuries. When she fought on the bodies of her Warframes the damage they took she felt it as well; from the burning of toxin or heat, the pricks of electricity and cold, the lacerations of slashing and the resounding blows of impact and puncture, she was used to be hurting.

But not like that. Never like that.

*

Breathing like Teshin had taught her wasn't working to clear her mind, but Jade was there, to her delight, and the Tenno knew that the Warframe was leaving the most painful part for herself, in a way.

It was because of the maternal feeling of wanting to give birth to her child despite the consequences? Compassion for the little girl who didn't know what she had gotten herself into by wanting to help her?

Perhaps both.

Chapter Text

X.

‘By the Void!’ The kid screamed, stretching her legs out, shaking with her eyes squeezed shut as the contractions became stronger, more constant and unbearable. The cramp was so intense that her body was physically suffering too. ‘I can’t… I ‘m not going… I can’t do this…’ she cried, apologizing to Jade. Then she slapped herself. ‘No, of course I can do it!’

“Shit, it hurts!” She cried loudly. “Holy fuck, this hurts so much!” She roared, feeling Umbra’s fingers wiping away the tears from her flushed face, which was now contorted in pain.

Thanks to Jade, she also felt Stalker’s intense grip, his fingers caressing her palm while his helmet rubbed her belly, not knowing if it was a good idea to do so.

She could hear Ordis too, and his scan during the birth, making sure Jade was still alive, that she didn't go crazy for the contractions, already in the middle of labor.

To her surprise and anger, she heard Hunhow as well.

“Relax your body, Tenno. You must let Jade finish dilating.”

The Tenno's voice echoed through Jade and her own body:

“What are you going to know if you don't have a uterus?!”

Yeah… the girl wasn't thinking straight, and no one could blame her.

A new screech was shared by both as they began to crown. The sight was horrible, as blood began to appear. Jade's, of course.

Stalker froze, seeing the trail staining the bed as something began to peek out. To his own confusion he found himself surprised that certain parts were still on Jade's body, not just her uterus or her breasts.

He didn't know whether to feel afraid or… it wasn't the time for that.

Umbra, forcing Ordis to be the girl's frustration cuddle toy as the birth reached its highest peak, approached the mother-to-be. He patted Stalker on the shoulder, breaking him out of his musings, and with a quick nod he positioned himself at the end of the bed, facing directly at the childbirth.

“You can proceed to ---eject--- push, Operator! Push with Jade! Help her!”

“I’m going to die!”

“Ordis doesn’t think that’s an appropriate phrase—ouch!” The sentinel shrieked as the Tenno dug her nails into him. The power of the Void glowed in her hands, as if firing her amp could dispel the pain.

Umbra snorted at Stalker to come closer, tugged at him, still attentive to the progress of the birth, and when the father-to-be finally came forward to receive his son, he stayed close, at his side, to support him.

Jade’s movements became more and more erratic, showing, through the Tenno, the pain her body was suffering. Umbra was aware, just as probably everyone there, that now it was Jade who was facing the true pain of the miracle. The physical pain that the girl was going through was being censored, and yet her screams and cries were a clear sign of the feat, of the miracle that they were carrying out, even against all logic known up to that moment.

Then… after what seemed like an eternity, Jade let out, for her own, one last wail and broke the Transference as soon as the placenta and the rest of the secretions were expelled. The Tenno gasped in a spasm, curling up and losing consciousness for a moment, while the sudden cry of a baby shook not only Stalker, who stood still with the tiny, green creature in his arms, but Umbra himself.

Jade gasped weakly, and the Shadow didn't hesitate to approach her, the new creature still slimy in his grasp, crying and shifting restlessly.

The first-time parents stared at their baby for what felt like an eternity —a beautiful, fleeting eternity, before Jade stroked her baby's face, their cry turning into a tender giggle, as if they recognized her just by touching her. Jade then raised her hand to Stalker's helmet, to where his cheek should be, and, opening her feathers like when she played "where's mommy," she let out a sort of muffled giggle.

If she could have spoken, she would have told him clearly what she always wanted to tell him again: "I love you, Sorren." But she couldn't do it, not with her voice, not with a face that was no longer hers. Not with a punished body that even in its dying lethargy kept its promise.

After the exhaustive work, almost rejoicing victoriously, her helmet closed, and her hand began to lose its strength.

Finally… it was time.

Stalker then held her, clinging to her, trying to make Jade see her little one again, but the Warframe no longer reacted.

In a green glow, her body slowly disintegrated, her crystal womb cracked, and what was once Jade disappeared to shreds and feathers, leaving her last gift in the arms of her beloved. A seemingly impossible gift that, however, she was able to make a reality with the help of that girl who reminded her of those old days, when she was still a weapon used in the Orokin’s favor.

When her punishment was still not overcome.

‘Thanks, Little one… goodbye…’

The den sank into a thick, mournful silence immediately after.

Umbra didn't take his eyes off the newborn, watching as Stalker wrapped them in blankets, as he held them carefully, covering the glow of their eyes, caressing their little body and his helmet, and if he could have done so, the old Dax would have sobbed right there.

The searing memory of Isaah, of his little body in his arms as he knelt so his mother could see him, invaded Umbra. He didn't remember the woman's face, but he would never forget his little creature, the one he fathered from his own blood, the fruit of his greatest feat, who grew up and followed in his footsteps from a young age... and the one who died in his clutches by the same bastard who had taken Jade from Sorren.

"Jade..." Ordis suddenly murmured, with what was closest to sadness.

Even the silent Hunhow sank into the sadness of that unjust death.

Even the Tenno, half-unconscious on the ground, trying to recover physically and mentally from the situation, let out a cry just as heartbreaking as childish, which soon made the newborn cry too.

Chapter Text

XI.

Sorren stared at his baby in stunned shock, processing their cries, processing the cries of the Tenno herself, curled up on the ground like what he had first seen in her: a helpless child. Out of sheer inertia he rocked his child, trying to soothe their anguish, but his own pain made him shrink into them, as if he were looking for comfort from the tiny creature born from the dead Jade's womb. If he could cry, he would. He didn't care if he was in front of the enemies, the one who had ruined his life because of their damn betrayal. The pain that squeezed his chest was too much to bear.

Trying not to be abrupt, he was barely able to sit on Jade's bed, snuggling his child between his neck with one hand, while the other took one of his beloved's feathers, bringing it close to his face, then to his baby. The creature stopped crying, taking their mother's feather in their little hands.

Umbra tried to approach but found himself unable to do so. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't even walk towards the Tenno.

The atmosphere was so charged with emotional tension that no one knew how to break through the pall of desolation and pain that hung over everyone.

It was the sound of ships that made Sorren react, hugging the baby carefully so as not to hurt them.

Ordis was already hovering over his Operator, ignoring what the stalker already knew: "Corpus ships are approaching… oh no, they're already here!"

Without a second thought, Sorren took his Hate in his left hand, while his right hand was kept only for his baby, for the fruit of a love he could never overcome. He would not let anyone dare ambush him. He would not let anyone sully the memory of Jade.

Once armed and ready to defend the only thing he had left now, with the green glow of his beloved illuminating his helmet and his weapon in a poetic, yet devastating way of expressing that she would always be with him, Sorren did not even deign to look at the Tenno, but he did look at Umbra. With a nod he added:

"Go away."

“But we cannot…” Ordis tried to intervene.

Sorren shook his head. That was his business, not theirs. Jade was gone now, so they had nothing else to do.

The Cephalon understood his gesture. Umbra was already carrying the Tenno in his arms, noticing—with his heart shrinking in his chest—how she responded with a moan of pain, still affected by what she had just experienced…

The empathy that came with the Transference could sometimes be too cruel. Sometimes the girl was too good for her own well-being.

As he checked his ayatan vitals, feeling her neck for a pulse and then touching her forehead to notice the cold sweat sticking some of her hair to her pale face, the Sentient Warframe didn't notice Sorren leaving. What gave away his departure was the sound of the automatic door closing.

He didn't follow him. At least not until Ordis moved first, before the sound of screams warned of the Corpus' presence well into the den.

“Help him,” Hunhow suddenly asked.

Ordis looked towards the window, trying not to look at the feather bed and green glows.

“Help him with what?”

Umbra patted him, quickening his pace. He knew what the Sentient Father meant, and he knew that even without his request he would have done it anyways.

As a father, he would not forgive himself for not doing it.

Sorren used Hate mostly to avoid the Corpus and MOA bullets, making sure nothing touched his little green creature who watched him with wide eyes, trying to free their little hands from the blanket that wrapped them with just the right amount of pressure to keep them still. He had no intention of fighting, of risking scaring his child, of giving them away to the intruders, whose orders had been to look for a Warframe that was no longer there.

For a fleeting moment he wondered if Umbra had managed to sneak away without being discovered, if he had used that ability to turn invisible and was only killing to stay hidden, or if the brat was forcing him to get rid of all those wretches who, most likely, by now had already discovered Jade's feathers and shreds.

He rode the elevator, preparing for what he would have to face as he noticed that the reinforcements were no longer anywhere, and he tightened his grip on his melee, but not before adjusting the blanket, covering his baby's head to leave only their eyes uncovered.

The creature stirred restlessly, but with a simple change of position they curled up between his side and his shoulder, closing their little eyes, unaware of their father's tension.

Sorren knew more than ever that he couldn't allow anything to happen to them. His life now belonged to the fruit of his love. To the new love of his life.

All his eternity was for him... or her?

He would have time to find out that, he thought.

So, as soon as he left his den, the Corpus line, commanded by a woman with an arrogant expression —probably the captain from the other day— received him in the hangar. His Terror, as he had already assumed, had been taken by them.

To leave the lair he had no choice but to make his way.

Now he understood a little better why the Tenno left a trail of blood wherever they went. They had no choice. And it infuriated him to sympathize with them in that regard… but he didn't give it much thought.

"Fire!"

The instant the hail of bullets came towards him, Sorren began to spin the Hate around, deflecting the bullets with the makeshift shield which, despite its efficiency, was eventually overwhelmed by the thousands of bullets raining down on him relentlessly.

The bullets soon tore through one of his thighs, making him falter. The finishing off with another bullet in his calf finally brought him to his knees, with more heavy caliber bullets grazing and piercing his steely flesh, splashing drops of his blood with an ease that made him feel pathetic.

Was he being so easily outmatched? Was he really going to let them walk all over him and do something to his child?

No. Of damn course not.

But even though he tried to get up, he couldn't.

He couldn't.

How the fuck could he not?

Why did it hurt so much?

Was it the physical pain or the loss of Jade? The fear of losing his child too? The despair of thinking he couldn't protect what he loved, and the last thing left of his beloved Jade?