//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 Lost In The Echo // Story: Warframe: Relic Hunters // by UnknownEntity743 //------------------------------// Warframe: Relic Hunters Chapter 20 Lost In The Echo *Location: Earth, Everfree Forest~~ ### Error, connection lost* “Lost, but know the trail, one must first walk,” Ash said calmly as he, Valkyr, Vauban followed Nekros through the Everfree “I’m with Quote boy, where are you taking us?” Vauban asked as Nekros just kept walking “The Grove,” He said simply as Vauban groaned “And~? What is ‘The Grove’?” Vauban air quoted in annoyance as Nekros just kept walking “I don’t know, but it’s close,” He said as Vauban stopped “You mean you don’t even know where we’re going!?” Vauban exclaimed as he shuffled next to Valkyr “Are you sure he’s right in the head?” “Sometimes I don’t know why he does certain things, but normally when he’s like this, it ends with him finding something beneficial,” Valkyr explained as they saw him looking over a cliff “Here we are,” Nekros said before punching the ground “But ‘They’ beat us to it,” They all joined him as they saw men in bio-hazard suits prepping gear for entering a small crack in the side of the valley. All of them had the letter ‘O’ imprinted on their gear and clothing. “Orokin.” Ash spat as they all nodded “What’s you next move in this game?” “Kill them before they enter The Grove,” Nekros explained as Vauban clapped happily but Valkyr interjected “First of all, what is this ‘Grove’? why is it so important?” Valkyr asked with a stern tone “Now not the time to explain, if you haven’t noticed,” Nekros responded, trying to avoid the question but a vice grip on his arm made him turn “Nekros, what is it?” She asked as Nekros could feel her glare on him as he sighed “The Silver Grove, the place where it all began, or at least where part of the Tenno ended,” He said calmly as they all froze “What?” Ash asked in surprise “Does Excalibur know?” “Probably as he was close to EP at the time, who knew Margulis,” Nekros began as he recalled his dream ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Please…help me….” Came the voice of a girl from the void “Who is this?” Nekros asked “I…I don’t know, my memoires are all… scattered,” She responded, as if lost “What do you remember?” Nekros asked again as he waited for a response “I can see… flowers and… trees, the sound of water calmly flowing amidst the sounds of the world around it, The Silver Grove,” She explained and sound weaker “Please. I’m afraid,” “I’ll find this ‘Grove’ just tell me where I can start,” Nekros asked as he waited “Within a cave, amongst the forest, the… Everfree…” She finished before her voice faded away ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “-So, that’s why I’m here, but you all came at your own free will,” Nekros finished as they all turned to hear someone speak up “Alright! We have direct orders from the Commander to take all data from the Grove and burn all that remains, once we connect a GPS to this location the Commander can then send a Sweeper team to destroy this place, Got it!” he said as they all nodded “Good, then move in!” “Follow me,” Ash said as he moved around the cliff and the rest followed ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They made their way through a river leading into the cave, it was amazing, the light from the sky shined into the beautiful cave as the sound of life echoed through-out the walls. There were two natural pathways leading up to the waterfall’s end with rocks in the water, they then lead up to a pile of rocks stacked up. What was strange was it all looked un-touched by the world around it. And small blue butterflies flew around the top near the pedestal as one flew up to Valkyr as it landed on her finger. “This is beautiful,” She spoke softly as the butterfly flew away "How can such a place exist?" “I must admit it’s pretty cool,” Vauban admitted with a nod as Ash looked around at the plants “The wind is blowing, the leaves rustle in rhythm, to nature’s heartbeat,” Ash spoke as he brushed his hand on a leaf Valkyr then saw Nekros looking at the flowers that dotted the ground, all of them were different in colour and shape, but one he kept his gaze on. It was a light-blue flower with white in the center of the petals. “Neky?” Valkyr asked as he just looked at it his hand shaking ever so slightly “She liked these ones the most, they reminded her of home before the Void jump, before all this bloody chaos, such blood I can never wipe away,” Nekros said as he felt something grab his hand “We all face that truth, but the ones who can see the beauty in such chaos are the ones who can walk free of the horrors and never look back,” Valkyr said as she held his hand as he looked down then back up as he began to speak only for the sound of footsteps to catch their attention “Let’s go.” Nekros said as he along with the rest jumped down to the edge of the small plunge pool As they readied their weapons a dozen more pointed back as one of them (Most likely the leader) spoke up. “Ahh, so the Commander was right about you Tenno interfering, look we don’t want to cause a fuss, just leave and we’ll be on our way,” He said calmly as Valkyr roared as her claws glowed orange “Just to go and destroy such a beautiful place!? Fat chance!” She snapped as the others kept their ground “*Sigh* I knew this would be difficult, kill them,” He said as he clicked his fingers and they opened fire on the Tenno *CLICK-CLICK-CLICK* “Wait! Why aren’t our guns firing!?” One yelled “They’re busted!” Another shouted as 3 screamed as they lifted into the air and soon found themselves smashing into a nearby wall What stood before all of them was a (Female) Warframe, she hovered just above the ground, she held two (Lato Primes) as she stared at the leader. “You dare to harm my mother's home!? You will leave or die by my hand!” She spoke with anger as she floated in front of the Tenno “Leave.” “I’m sorry miss, but I have a job to do, Kill them!” He ordered as they switched to melee combat and ran towards the group As they ran towards Titania, she quickly rolled away as she sent a swarm of razor butterflies at one of the soldiers as some stopped and turned towards him, once they got close all 4 exploded as they flew into the dirt. Another 2 ran behind her as Valkyr quickly swooped in and diced their weapons to pieces before doing the same to their armour and kicking them both into each other. As one soldier with a firearm tried to aim his sights on one he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see a flaming hammer uppercut him as he did a backflip and fell unconscious. Vauban then threw a ball towards a group as they instantly flew backwards and where crushed down into paste. Ash quickly swooped in a kicked one against the wall as she slid down, just then one solider came from behind and stabbed Ash, only for the blade to break as he turned and punched the man in the face as he quickly dropped to his hands and swiped the feet out from under another and landed on top of them as Ash knocked him out. "Fools who dare to dance," Ash mocked as he stood up and taunted more to attack. The leader then looked at his men, who were dropping fast as he quickly turned and ran. When he did get outside he already saw 20 men aiming at the entrance as they heard the gunfire stop. They waited as they listened to the footsteps approaching as they saw what looked like black smoke emanating from the cave as they waited impatiently for the attacker. Then they saw Nekros slowly walk out, his scythe in hand. What followed was an army of black soldiers as they walked out of the walls of the valley. They stood, weapons ready as some soldiers lowered their guards at the sight. “Leave. Now, and if you dare come back, you deal with the Reaper,” Nekros warned as 4 took his advice instantly and ran the others however open fired The Leader smiled as he watched the shadows slowly fall, one by one as Nekros walked through the ranks and moved ever so closer to the leader. Then the scream of a solider caught both Nekros and the leader’s attention as they saw blood fly and a body drop as another followed after him. “What!? What’s happening!?” He yelled as one of them turned “We don’t know! We can’t see it!” He yelled as he soon dropped also Then all that remained was Nekros and the commander as he called the shadows off. The Leader quickly pulled out a gun, similar to a Bolto as he smiled wickedly as Nekros. “This gun can bust through that tin suit of yours, so don’t even think about moving!” He ordered as Nekros stood still “I’m not the one you should be pointing that at,” he said as he pointed to the small object flying towards the Leader as he tried to run but it was too late as the figure enlarged and a twisteing (Sword) impaled him as he gasped from the impact “I told you to leave,” Titania spoke, sounding more afraid as she slowly pulled the blade out, the air falling silent as the man's dying breath echoed, then quiet sobbing filled the air “N-not again…” Titania then dropped the sword as she fell to her knees, the others slowly appearing from the cave. They all saw as her armour slowly deactivated. Then they all stared in surprise. I was just a little girl. No more than 8 years old sat on the floor sobbing. “I-I don’t- I- “She couldn’t speak as she heard footsteps behind her and quickly fell forward as she backed away “Please, stay back! Don’t hurt me,” Nekros slowly approached her as she backed up against a vehicle. Her long brown hair covered one of her eyes as she closed them in fear. What she didn’t expect was for him to kneel in front of her. “Who are you?” He asked as she looked up at him “Ti-Titania,” She responded before her eyes looked around in fear “Wait, where's my mommy? She said she’d be back soon, I-I don’t really like being alone when she leaves,” This made everyone look at each other in sadness as they all looked back at the girl. "Shit..." Vauban whispered as Ash looked at Valkyr for help as she gulped “She… she’s not-“Even Valkyr couldn’t tell her as she looked away “What? What's wrong with mommy!?” She pleaded but then felt Nekros embrace her as she tensed up before relaxing “Your mother, isn’t coming back, ever,” He said calmly as Titania gasped sharply as she then slowly began to cry into Nekros’s shoulder as Nekros tightened his grip on her slightly "No! no-no-no-no, you're lying! please... please tell me your lying!?" She pleaded as Nekros just sat still as she continued to cry They sat there for about 15 minutes as Titania cried the whole 1000 years out, after everything the Orokin did, why a child? Of all the things to ruin in this world, why did they drag her into this? Nekros then looked down at Titania as she sniveled in his chest, he then spoke as silently as he could. “I’ll protect you, if you want?” He said, this made Titania look put at him with brown eyes as she continued to cry “I know what it’s like to have everything taken from you, your life, your family, yourself,” “But an old friend of mine said once, that even if shadows is all you see and not a soul in sight can reach out, if you hold on to even the smallest glimmer of hope, then that hand will show, no matter how long, no matter how painful,” Titania then embraced Nekros even harder than he did as she cried out again. “Yes, please, I don’t want to be alone again, don’t leave me alone!” She begged as he patted her head “As long as you stop crushing my lower spine,” Nekros said as she shook her head “No… please, just a little longer,” That made Nekros sigh as he lifted her up into his arms as he turned to face the others “Right, where done here, let’s go,” He ordered as he began to walk, then slowly the others followed, all of them with questions on their minds "I don't know why, but i really wish i left an Orokin alive, just so i could slowly murder them for this," Vauban said as he swung his hammer lazily "Is such pain that gives way to violence, something irrelevant," Ash added "What?" Vauban asked in confusion as Ash sighed "This pain will only lead to more violence, something i think we can avoid for now," Ash said more normally as he shook his head in disappointment “Nekros?” Valkyr asked, her armour now deactivated as she walked beside him “Hmm?” He answered “Why did you say that to her?” She asked as he glanced and saw Titania asleep as he looked back to face Valkyr “Because my Master, my friend lost something dear to her in the past, she said to never take something so happy for granted, ever,” Nekros vaguely explained as Valkyr smiled warmly “I guess that makes you her dad now huh?” She quickly added as he raised a brow in confusion, in his head however “Dammit! Why didn’t we realize that!” “I don’t know! But I guess there’s no turning back now!” “*Sigh* fine, we’ll roll with it, but I swear if Valkyr brings up-“ “I wonder who the mom might be?” She said teasingly “Fucking bitch, she pulled the pin and threw it in our face!” “I really hate it when she does that, I guess being apathetic has it’s uses,” Then Nekros thought for a moment before answering. “I guess that wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” He answered as glanced to see Titania smiling as he sighed and focused on the long road ahead To Be Continued… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tears are how our heart speaks When your lips can’t describe How much we’ve been hurt Titania