[X] Stop. Stop. Timeout. First of all, what is going on here? Tell me not like Nova the PTSD victim but Nova the millennia-old warrior monk.
-[X] Did you guys bring me here? Is that how the Stalker and Sentient came along? What happened to my ship? My Cephalon? My Gear? My Pets?
-[X] What about Caeli? Is she involved? She's a sister Tenno and must have a warframe nearby. Was she the one who organized this?
[X] Is stopping the Orokin Empire from appearing even possible? They must not form for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years. It was already ancient when I was just a kid, its origin a myth.
-[X] I mean if we even change the future that would mean I would never exist or at least never have a chance to go back in time to change the future. But if we never change the future then that would mean I would end right back oh no I've gone crosseyed. This would give the Lotus a headache...
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"I… am quite disappointed in you, Hakase," says Chao as she steps forward some more. "Still, I can't blame your intentions, at least. I suppose my own efforts didn't produce a satisfying result."
She sighs.
"Just hope that what you did didn't affect the Plan."
Hakase looks to the side, lips thin.
"Stop."
You can't stay silent anymore and walk between the two of them.
"Stop. Timeout." You stomp the ground and feel the machines around you vibrating. "What is going on there?!"
"Nova..." the two girls begin at the same time.
"You don't need to know." - "Chao is the one who knows the details." What they follow with, however, differ.
"What, are you still going to stay silent at this point?" Hakase shouts. "It's too late for your so called blissful ignorance plan now, and this concerns her as much as it does you. You aren't only changing your history, but hers too!"
"You don't know what you're talking about! You haven't the slightest idea what she went through or how it affected her. You don't know what getting involved might do to her!"
"Because your plan of telling her nothing worked so well?"
"It avoided the wo-"
"Enough!" you shout again, as a wave of energy makes the lights burst above you, plunging the room into darkness.
The only light is the pink glow coming from you and the intermittent blinking of one last lamp in the corner.
"I," you continue, putting as much authority in your voice as you can, "am a Prime, a master of the Naramon way and a general of the Steel Meridian. My actions... changed the very fabric of the origin system and put an end to an immortal empire. I will not be lied to like a scared children. If you would believe you can simply do whatever you want while keeping me in the dark, I will not let you do as you please, so talk. I. Can. Take it."
Silence reigns in the room for a moment, until Chao lets out a long breath.
"Fine. At this point, it is clear that it's unavoidable. What do you want?" Her voice is resigned and you can hear her falling down on a box on the side of the room.
"How did I even get here? Did you bring me along?"
"Pretty much. You were in the void and there was a big release of energy. That probably messed with what I was doing and grabbed you along. Given the scale of what I tried and your turbulences, I suppose we should count ourselves lucky you only arrived a few years after me rather than spread over this period."
"So that's how the Stalker and the Sentient came along?"
"I suppose. It's not like time travel is an exact science..."
You hear Hakase cough a little to the side.
"... well, or a science at all."
"And what about my ship? My Cephalon? My arsenal and my pets?"
"If they came along, they haven't been found yet."
"And what about Caeli? Is she involved? She's a sister Tenno and must have a Warframe nearby. Was she the one who organized this?"
"You know, sister, for a so called master of the Naramon way, you are kind of an idiot sometimes."
You swallow your retort as you guess you kind of deserved that one.
"Also, you really should learn to reign yourself in whenever you have a chance for answers. Imagine something happened right now, I would only have answered basic, useless questions. Now, what do you really want to know?"
You hesitate an instant.
"Is stopping the Orokin empire from appearing even possible?" you let out in a breath.
"It is. And I will make it happen," Chao - or maybe you should think of her as Ceali? - answers with steel in her voice.
"But they will not form for thousand, maybe tens of thousand of years. It was already ancient when I was just a kid, its origin a myth."
"For someone who has no idea of when and how it happened, you are awfully certain of your timeline. No. Believe me, the key point will be in two centuries at most, less than one at least."
This silences you. So soon?
"Do not believe that their ivory towers and galaxy spanning dominion came from the very beginning. No, at first, they were refugees… or maybe invaders, considering. The legends tell of Earth as being their cradle. In a way, that is correct, as this is where they began their conquest, but the actual origin of the first of them is Mars. Tell me, does the name Megalosembria sounds familiar to you?"
You slowly shake your head.
"I figured as much. If there is one thing the Orokin knew how to do, it was destroying, and history wasn't spared." You hear her rise to her feet and begin pacing. "It is the name of a country in the magical world. The only country whose inhabitants survived, and the country who decided that Earth would be theirs."
"In some time, a cataclysm will hit their world, and they will come here. The regular people will accept being simple refugees, but their ruling class, oh… no, they certainly won't. You've seen a bit of magic here, right? Now, if kindly teachers and children can do what you saw, what do you think are the possibilities in a war where there is nowhere to retreat? In a war where one side had no idea of the very existence of magic until it begun?"
"That, is how the Orokin empire begun. And that's without even beginning about the mage who developed Continuity."
"So… what. Your plan is to consolidate until that point then aid Earth when the war begins?" you finally ask.
"No, this plan is too risky. Putting all your chances on one Operator-" Caeli waves a hand in your direction. "- well, maybe two, would mean defeat if they can develop some way to kill or seal us. It will be part of the defense if we get to that, of course, but that is not the central point."
You can see in the feeble light of the open door Caeli spreading her arms.
"Earth fell because it didn't know about magic, because local mages weren't involved enough, and weren't included in strategic planning until it was too late. What I plan to do is reveal that same magic that the mages so wish to keep secret and force them to get involved." she finally concludes, a manic edge entering her voice.
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[] Write in
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Surprise! It actually isn't dead. IRL thingies mean I don't really know when I'll be able to update, though.
