Void Child

1. Gara. Though Volt was her first, out of all her Warframes, she bonded the most to Gara.

2. Honestly, her Void abilities. As much as she hates them at times, and the circumstances as to why she has them, she knows no other way to be and overtime has learned to accept them as part of her.

”It’s not like I’LL GET FRIED TO A CCCRISP – oh, absolutely, Operator! You will soon find it more to your liking, I hope.” He - albeit somewhat reluctantly - adjusted the temperature. It wouldn’t be long until the Orbiter warmed up; there was plenty of heat being stored as the engines ran. “It is about to reach a cozy +23 degrees Celsius. I hope this pleases the Operator.”

The cephalon completed another scan in order to update his logs. He wasn’t satisfied with the statistics. He had to do something.

“There isn’t anything like the vast, cold and unforgiving emptiness of space, is there, Operator?” Ordis, you idiot cephalon. She doesn’t need to hear about the abyss that could engulf us at any time right now. “…N-not that it was a concern.”

“Uh, Lux…? If there is anything you would like to talk about - truly, anything at all - Ordis is here for you! Hm… Earlier you mentioned falling. In the dream. What was it like?”

She can feel the space around her getting warmer, and it helps soothe her troubled mind; allowing herself to relax into the blanket she had around herself. She mutters a quiet “thank you.”

Hearing her name spoken and the assurances pulled at Lux’s heart, and yet set her at ease. Lotus may be gone, she may have betrayed them, but Ordis was still here. He had always been there. The pure simplicity of that fact made her want to cry, knowing she would always have him. His words were true.

“I-I know.” Her voice shook as she spoke. “I know. You always have been.” And to think, she almost broke him- she could have seriously hurt him- when she used the Vitruvian to- No, thinking about that won’t help ether.

“I suppose so… No, you’re right, Operator. Best not to wallow in the past!”

Although Lux seemed to be wide awake, Ordis decided to keep an eye on her. Just in case. Her body temperature seemed to drop by a few decimals. She was out of bed. The cephalon’s sensors followed her as she left the room.

“Don’t stay up too long, Lux, there are missions waiting for you tomorrow!”

Ordis turned on the smaller lights ahead of her and opened doors as fast as he could manage. At the same time he was also managing the incubator segment and the foundry that buzzed quietly at all times; truly, what would become of the Operator’s ship if he had to sleep?

“Are you cold, Operator? Should Ordis increase the room temperature? Currently it’s +19 degrees Celsius. It’s better for the foundry when it’s cool – and you, Operator! I’ve calculated in what temperatures you achieve the best quality of sleep and settled for 19 degrees. No need to thank me.”

More missions upon missions; it was like that a lot of the time. She knew Ordis meant well by what he said, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. She only made a small noise of acknowledgement to that in response.

“A little. Yes please, if it’s okay with you.” Lux muttered. 

Eventually, she got to the front of the ship and settled down near the nav console. She stretched her stiff leg out before she pulled her blanket tighter around herself and decided to stare out onto the landscape of stars. There were truly some beautiful sights out here; out in that vast infinite. A beautiful, dark, cold expanse.

Like her dream.

“The Zariman?“ The cephalon’s voice was full of wonder. He didn’t possess much knowledge on the matter, only bits here and there. He knew of the horrors, though; things that had no plausible explanation, death, corruption…

“Operator, do you think your memories are returning in the form of… dreams?”

Ordis couldn’t say whether it was inherently a bad or a good thing the old, forgotten memories surfaced again; the pain caused by those events could do more harm than good (something he knew himself all too well). On the other hand, perhaps the memories could serve as an adequate distraction in Lotus’ absence. If the dreams meant anything at all.

“If it is so, do you wish to recover the lost memories? Maybe… Maybe there are answers in those events. Answers to the more, uh, recent things that have happened. Though I do admit it SCARES THE – worries me. What you may uncover.“

Lux considered the question, running her fingers over the void markings on her forehead. She supposed it could be possible. She’d experienced a similar thing before when she was still technically “asleep”; before she realized what her true self was. Those ones were more recognizable though, where as these ones were fragmented. The earliest memory she can recall was after the accident.

“Maybe? It was years ago, and the furthest I can recall is when I woke up after.” But they were still nightmares, and they were not going to provide insight into anything more recent. “Maybe it’s best they’re left alone. I don’t see how they would give me answers.”

Calmer now, she takes her blanket and wraps it around her shoulders before leaving her bed. She felt a bit chilled, but it was probably just in her head. Her left leg felt a bit stiff as well, but it wasn’t anything to worry about.

“You did not, Operator. Ordis was watching you sleep the whole time. I have recorded your sleeping patterns each time you’ve rested and I must say, never has your diagram reached this point, not even when the Lotu–” he paused abruptly, knowing all too well mentioning the recent events would do more harm than good. “Er, don’t worry about Ordis, Operator.”

He let the Tenno gather herself before continuing. She had been through so much already, and Ordis would never forgive himself if he one day pushed her an inch too far.

“Would you like to talk about it? The dream? I’ve heard it often helps to talk about your problems – not that I’d know, Ordis is just a ship cephalon – but I would love to hear all about your terrible, gory nightmares!“

Not surprising. She didn’t mean to make him worry, but of course he would notice if se had a nightmare. He was always there; he always had been. It wasn’t like how she had-

Lux stops that line of thought; it wasn’t good for her. Just focus on her friend’s voice.

She leaned her head back at the offer, and it almost made her laugh. “I know, I know.” Maybe it would help; she needed a distraction anyway. It wasn’t like she was going back to sleep anytime soon. Not that she wanted to.

The numbers change rapidly, lines dance and ripple like a restless ocean. A constant stream of data. Peculiar how everything the Operator is - or anything, really - can be translated into a string of numbers, yet at the same time it makes perfect sense.

A sudden rise. The stats climb up, higher and higher. The ocean stirs. A pause. The Operator is awake, but the numbers won’t go down.

”Operator! Your delta-waves, they’ve spiked through the roof,” the cephalon exclaims. “Are you all right? Operator?”

“Is there anything I can do? Perhaps Ordis needs to revise your diet. More carbohydrates. Or perhaps — is… something troubling you, Lux?”

His voice startles her at first, causing her grip on her blanket to tighten. No- it’s just Ordis. Ordis. There was no reason to be afraid.

A shaky sigh escapes her as she moves to sit up in bed, a hand to her head. “I-I think, maybe... I don’t know. Bad dream. I...” She pauses, this time pushing her hair back. “It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before. Give me a minute...”

Was she okay? No, probably not. She knew exactly how she was when things got like this. Scattered, torn pieces of memory she only vaguely knew liked to haunt her dreams it seemed. And poor Ordis; worrying about her.

Her memories only go back so far, anything beyond that lost to the shadows of her past. Still sometimes they found their way to the surface, and when they did, it was while she dreamed.

The echo of footsteps down the darkened corridor. The world being pulled out from under her feet. The walls split and crack and she looks around in fear. Someone is reaching for her but their fingers slip through her hands as a shadow rips them from her. Everything is falling, and she's falling, and the Void waits for her; to kill her and change her-

Lux doesn't scream this time, but she wakes in such a panic that she fails around for a moment before pushing herself up against the wall her bed sat against and tugged her blanket near. With wide eyes she trembled, her mind still stuck in panic mode from the visions she saw.

Also Lux is just staring at them like "so shiny...."