#kitaya

Suda was silent for a moment, her light wavering with the constant ebb and flow of the datascape. Like the star of her own private universe, it hurt Saif's eyes to look directly at her.

“Some might argue, Tenno, that your kind already lost your humanity to the Void, long ago,” she said, her gentle and emotionless voice doing little to ease the sting of her words.

Saif's nose wrinkled in the slightest wince, but he couldn't argue. “And some might be right.”

“Forgive my candor,” Suda added.

“Forgiven,” Saif assured with a wave of his hand. “Even if I haven't lost it yet, I will eventually. Whether my illness takes it or something else.”

“Is that why you asked, Devavani?”

Saif didn't answer immediately, but bowed his head, a bittersweet smile gracing his lips. “I'm sure you know, Suda.”

“Yes. I will not lie. I have devoted a small portion of my resources to finding a cure, in fact.” Saif's head shot up, and she added, with a hint of uncharacteristic lament, “Results have been... inconclusive thus far.”

Saif closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. “I appreciate the thought.”

Another pause in the conversation, and Saif slid to the floor with his legs neatly folded beneath him. Suda's geometric projection lowered to remain eye level with him.

“What are your other options?” she asked, breaking the silence once more.

“Returning to cryosleep,” Saif offered at length. “I wouldn't have to give up my connection to my warframes that way, but that would be all I'd have. In the end, would that really be so different than the other options? Wouldn't there still be no more 'me'?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

Suda drew closer. “What are you?”

Saif inclined his head, his jaw working, but no answer would come. He turned his gaze down to his hands instead as the words echoed in his thoughts. The eternal question. Part of him still looked at his own fingers expecting to see gold-tipped claws, not the small, delicate human hands he possessed. Part of him felt wrong in this body--another part of him knew the body he expected wasn't his at all, and never was. So what was he? His fragile human form? His decaying mind? His warframes? Who he and his warframes became, greater than their sum, when in perfect harmony?

Was he defined more by his actions? Or by his thoughts? By his friendships, his enemies? His impact on the world?

Or did he define himself? By his insecurities and his self-hatred, by his failings and successes? One day a monster, a demon of the void; the next, a hero, a knight in shining armor. A hypocrite, a freedom fighter, an orphan. A child, an ancient, ageless being. A human. A tenno.

He closed his hand, and Suda backed away again, the movement drawing his attention back to the present.