Chapter Text
It was supposed to be your typical rescue mission.
Get in, get the hostage, get out. Maybe slaughter a battalion or two on the way.
There was nothing unusual about it when she got there. No alarms, no unexpected threats. Just the dark and the unforgiving, endless Neptune rain.
There were no sirens set off as she went through the base. No alerted crew, no traps, no lasers or force fields.
The fact that it was so easy should have been a warning in itself.
When the hostage refused to move from the back of the cell, she should have known. When the door closed behind her, she figured out. And when the “hostage” turned out to be a specter, the tenno’s mind jumped to the worst.
They had a mole. Ordis and the Lotus were in danger. The liset wasn’t made for combat. If they were ambushed by a ship while waiting for her, things would get ugly fast.
There were no ways out, her abilities wouldn’t work. Damn bastards must have built it special for her. Just as she opened her mouth to swear, the Lotus flooded her comms, her voice barely steady from the panic she was fighting.
“Tenno, Tenno can you hear me!?” It was warbled, and struggling to stay connected, but the signal managed to stay. Lotus must have boosted it dangerously high. “A Fomorian is on the way, you need to get to extraction now! It’ll tear your warframe apart-”
The Tenno cut her off. Speaking was a rarity, let alone an interruption.
“You need to leave without me.”
“What?”
“The Fomorian isn’t for me, it’s for you. I won’t be able to get out in time. Leave.”
Silence.
A breath.
“I can’t lose you Tenno.” Gentler now. Scared. If she didn’t know better She’d swear the Lotus was her mother.
Despite the danger she was in, she smiled. Sometimes she forgot about that humanity.
“Our cause is lost without you. There are more like me.” The Tenno slowly drew her bow back when she heard the door hiss, getting ready to open. No doubt there would be a horde of Grineer waiting on the other side. “Ordis, get the Lotus out of here.”
“Operator!” Ordis almost wailed, his distress plain as day. “ARE YOU STU- Have you gone mad!?”
“That is an order, cephalon.”
Silence again. She knew he was trying to think of an argument. He always wanted to save her. It was one of the things she found endearing in him. One of many things.
“..Yes, operator.”
The heartbreak in his voice was almost enough to change her mind. Almost. It certainly made her heart twist.
“Fly swiftly, Ordis.”
“Operator, if you die I’ll ᵇᶻᶻᵗ make them pay.”
And then it was silent.
She was alone.