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Life is greedy. It wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t.
This remained in his head throughout their mission. The black and white nezha empyrean strode casually in front of him, gazing around the Grineer-esque interior and basalt arches that held windows into the blue abyss. The cloning sludge to their right was stained a rusty orange. By the Golden Masters’ orders, they had just squashed a rebellion. His own bullets were more merciful than theirs would have been, but he wasn’t sure he could say the same for his friend’s. The lavender and white mesa prime (with a normal helm) strode behind the nezha a little slower, processing the carnage they had just enacted. Neither he or his frame liked where this was headed- the succession of violence for violence, for months on end. Now years.
It was weird to believe that their class visit to the archives was only three years ago. Two years ago they boarded the Zariman Ten Zero, and just a mere three days into their journey, everything would change. Now, here they were, miles beneath the Uranus seas. Were they just another tier of Dax to the Orokin?
“Think of it like this-” the nezha paused, half turning to look at them as the mesa stopped in their tracks, knocking him out of thought.
“When the sentients are defeated, we’ll have the Orokin’s trust… then we can strike them from the inside. The Lotus thinks we can overtake them, especially if they take their Dax along with us for the sentients. They’ll be defenseless!”
The mesa watched him warily, tilting his head as the nezha strode up to him, playing their situation lightly- lighter than he would’ve liked.
“Once the Orokin fall, everything will be okay.”
He found this amusing in a sarcastic sense, transference shifted within them, Surah allowing him more control, and the mesa let out a snort, slowly crossing their arms and shifting their weight onto one leg. “So, what’s her plan for after the war?”
“We’ll figure it out then-”
“ No , you need to figure it out now .”
“Uh… we’ll lead whoever’s still alive. She keeps talking about a future of peace…”
The mesa narrowed their energy point-like eyes further as they tilted their head and retorted quietly, “ Whenever I hear your buddies say ‘lead’, I hear rule . I just… can’t help but feel we’ll just repeat what the Orokin did to get here.”
The nezha chuckled, slightly uncomfortably, he could tell, shaking his head. “Nah, it won’t be like that. Aleothune just likes kidding around.”
His mind flashed back to what he had seen just a month prior. Aleothune was standing in front of his girlfriend, Ellodie, who was desperately trying not to cry, covered in fresh bruises. What’s… going on? They turned to him, and the forced smile on `Leo’s face told him everything he needed to know. Leo’s had it out for him ever since. He just wished he could convince Jacob of it.
“... Right.”
He didn’t believe that Aleo was kidding around one bit. And it seems the nezha caught on to this, shrugging, “Either way. It’s this, or get slaughtered by sentients.”
“Don’t act like you don’t have a choice in this, Jacob,” The mesa stood fully facing the nezha now, “because you do .”
The nezha stared at them for a long moment, a tenseness was shared between them. The nezha finally feigned relaxation, shrugging again to try to ease the tension. “ I’m choosing this, Billie.”
The nezha then turned away, stretching with his crossed over his head as he continued, “I’m sure many of the warframes did too.”
The mesa scoffed loudly, mocking words he had heard from the project’s announcement, a snide, “‘ Volunteers or not. ’ Yeah. Those Dax and kidnapped citizens chose to die a slow painful death for the sake of protecting the Golden Gods that kidnap and mutilate them for costumes for a holiday! ”
The nezha hesitated further, as if debating the same thought himself, before shaking his head again, “ They’re serving a greater good. Like we are.”
“So you're proclaiming yourself their tool ?”
“No, we’re not doing it for the Orokin- you know this!”
“They don’t see it that way.”
“ Good. ”
The mesa groaned, rubbing their face with their hands, before dragging them downwards, “They’re probably going to figure you out at this rate.”
The nezha snorted in amusement, “Yeah. That’s why we have them .” He vaguely gestured to Surah, the mesa, before gently slapping his hand to his own chest.
They couldn’t help but stare in awe at him for a moment.
“... Jacob?”
“Yeah?”
“Is… Scourge just a tool to you?”
The nezha stared in a defensive confusion, tilting his head in almost insult, “ What? ”
“Would you be okay if Scourge died or something?” He gestured to the nezha himself, who just stared in awe back, “Would you just move on? Get another warframe? Or would you try to get him back?”
The nezha thought for a moment.
“Depends.”
“ Depends??? ”
The mutual defensiveness between the two only skyrocketed. Ohh shit… he could hear Surah whisper in the back of their mind.
“ Why are you so concerned about whether warframes are just tools or not when we’re faced with a sentient invasion ! ”
“Because you make it sound like you care more about the Orokin than your own partner in crime! Your OTHER FUCKING HALF! If we are the mind, and they are the body, we have to take care of the body just as much as we take care of ourselves… or else one day they’ll decide they hate us too.”
The nezha held back a laugh, letting out a snicker instead. The mesa shook their head slightly, glaring at him still, “ What.”
“And that’s why.”
“And that’s why what ?”
“And that’s why Scourge isn’t awoken.”
The mesa had to hold back their own laugh, releasing it in a passive aggressive chuckle, “You’re scared of what he’d do to you with that sort of mindset.”
“No, I’m not.”
“ Then why isn’t he? ”
“He doesn’t want to be!”
“ Have you even OFFERED? ”
The nezha stared blankly once more, so stunned he couldn’t react properly.
“Have you?”
The nezha suddenly shook his head, brushing it off, “It doesn’t matter, we have sentients to kill. I’m sure there’s Oculysts around here somewhere.”
The nezha stepped off, before sprinting towards the brazen metal door they had been nearby, sliding his pennant sword from over his shoulder, readying for a foe that would eventually come in force. He only stopped once he realized the mesa wasn’t following him.
… “ Come on . ”
The mesa stood in their place, glaring even as the nezha ran, and slid to a stop.
“ You have sentients to fight. I want nothing to do with this.” they shook their head, throwing their hands up into the air at shoulder’s height, vaguely implying their holstered weapons will remain there. “I’m not supporting slave owners in a war we don’t need to fight.”
“So, you’re a coward ?” the nezha tilted his head, spatting the word.
“ You know. ” The mesa crossed their arms again, “Do you remember when we visited the archives on Lua in high school? Before they transitioned all of our teachers to cephalons? Archimedean Cassium and his assistant were there. Her name was Bluemyst. While Cassium went on and on about Tau, I caught her off to the side by herself, and I asked her one thing. Why did we want to go to Tau? What was so special about this star system thousands of lightyears away?”
They paused for a second to take a breath.
“She glanced around, then whispered something. Something that made everything make sense.”
“She said that Tau would be a better home for us.”
“ She said that with the entire chamber staring at her, including her superiors. ”
The mesa shook their head once more, “No, she said that life was greedy. It wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t. ”
They glared at each other.
So, the mesa continued, “True altruism doesn’t exist. Not in the Void, not here, not in Tau. Things aren’t going to change, the location just will. Tau was a leap of faith into space with hopes of stealing the land the sentients had terraformed for us… and decided they didn’t want us to have, because they realized the same thing would happen.”
The nezha rolled his eyes, “What would happen.”
“ THIS! ” the mesa gestured outwardly, their surroundings, everything they’ve come to know. Themselves. The ruins of pre-Orokin Earth colonies that had long ago died out. The blood in the cloning fluid. The corpses. Everything.
“ This would happen! Again and again! That is why they want the Orokin dead! I don’t think they want us dead, other than by association.” He was growing tired, not only of the argument but sheer exhaustion, internal betrayal. It’s not everyday you find out your best friend has been brainwashed.
“And how do you know that’s why they want us dead?”
The mesa finally sighed, though it was more like a groan. “I don’t, but…”
He gathered his thoughts, “You could consider them siblings to our warframes. We might be able to talk to them.”
The nezha lifted his blade, nudging a body over the ledge into the sludge below with it, “The only talking we need to do is with a bullet or a blade.”
They groaned, “You’re letting your training from that damn Dax get to you.”
“Better than being a coward .”
“I could say the same, Jacob Dax . You just need the stupid helmet now.”
“At least I’m serving someone some good instead of focusing on killing one woman!”
“You’re volunteering to be a slave ! Even if you do win the war for them, they’ll restrain you just like they restrain the Dax, if not before then! It's not your battle to fight , so if you die a worthless death, that’s on you. ”
“So, what’s this one executioner’s death going to do, huh? What’s their singular death going to prove?”
“I don’t think you realize how big that would be.”
“We wouldn’t be able to surprise them anymore.”
“They would be shown they’re not immortal! Why couldn’t we just kill them first?! Executioner Quasis only keeps kubrows, she doesn’t even have a Dax!”
The nezha blinked in recognition, “Wait, isn’t she the one that decided to put Bluemyst to death after a voting tie?”
They ignored the question, “Surah and I fight hand and hand, not head above hand. She sees things I don’t, and I see things she doesn’t. I don’t overpower her. Not like the executioners tried to-”
“ That’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Revenge?”
“She’s killed so many people… so many people who could, who would , have done so much good for everyone . ”
“ Just say yes or no, damn it! ”
“... If that’s what you want to call it. I don’t want her killing anyone else, and if you won’t help me…”
“ I’ll do it myself. ”