My name is Damian Shadow-claw. It always has been. I am not Tenno, I am above them now. And I have only one mission remaining: to destroy the traitor known as 'the Lotus' and save those who were once my brothers from the inevitable betrayal, the betrayal she will bring about!

Chapter 1: Vor's Prize

"Wake up, Tenno"

I hear the voice in my head again.

Why is it in my head? How is someone else inside my head?

I have no time to wonder as a bright light comes on. I look out and see a wall, on it there is one solitary decoration. A cocoon of gold and glass. The cocoon opens, and a large object falls. Suddenly my vision blurs. I sense the object. It is a figure, human perhaps? No. It appears to be constructed of some form of metal...

Then I realise, the floor is moving up. The floor is moving towards me! I am the object. I see through its eyes, through my eyes, as I instinctively land in a crouch. But the thing, me, I have no eyes... I see from a bit behind my head, watching as though separate.

I am not alone. Four hulking figures stand over me, and then they move aside to allow another figure through. My vision is still a little blurry, but I can make out this one is different from the rest. This one is taller, and it has tubing draped haphazardly across its body.

It speaks: "I see the Lotus has tried to wake you... pity she's too late!"

The figure, a brown monstrosity, walks around out of my field of view. Then I see him attaching a device to my ankle.

"You're my prize now, Tenno"

There's that name again, Tenno. What is a Tenno?

You are.

I freeze. Another voice in my head? This one is male, the first was female. But while the first sounded nervous but comforting, this one is anything but. It sounds like a deep hiss, echoing through my mind. It sounds angry, but calculating, perhaps you could even call it noble...

I am?

Yes, you are Tenno. We are Tenno. We, or rather I exist only to serve and protect. The Lotus is our guide.

The Lotus?

The first voice, the one that awakened you in time to save you.

To save me?

Yes. These soldiers, if I can call them such, they are Grineer. They are evil. And they are doing something to our warframe.

To our warframe? So this is what this body is, one of these warframes? And there are two of us in it?

Yes, the shroud that protects is the warframe. We are the Tenno contained within. And no, there are not two of us. There is only me. But me is also you. We are one and the same, yet different.

What? You are me? What are you talking about?

No time, I will explain later. The Lotus is surging our energy, we must use it to kill these soldiers.

You want me to kill them? I'm good at killing, but why? Uncalled for bloodshed is evil...

No, you want you to kill them. Now do it, I will guide you. Watch and learn.

The body, my body, leaps up and emits a pulse violently throwing the grineer across the room. Only one gets up. My body approaches it, and then it raises my hand. A blade of glowing blue materialises in my hand, and I slash downwards as I am propelled forwards. The soldier falls to the ground, in two pieces. My blade cut straight through him? Now this I could get used to... unfortunately the tall brown one is gone. Perhaps I can try it out on him later...

I quickly latch onto the thoughts that prompted the blade to appear. I will it to come into being, and I fly forwards accidentally slashing a crate in two.

Good, good. You've learned the first step. Now destroy all the crates you see, many of them contain useful things. Ammunition, health, energy and sometimes even mods.

The voice sounds happy now, a sort of sarcastic, maniacal happy. Clearly, I am not the only one in this body who derives slightly too much pleasure in destroying things. Or maybe, I am the only one in this body, after all the other voice said it was me.

More soldiers rush in, and die within seconds helpless against my glowing energy blade and the speed that comes with it. They appear to be coming through some sort of portal...

Then the portal collapses, revealing a much more rugged corridor. While the corridor is of the same architectural style, gilded gold and white or pale grey everywhere, it has clearly seen better days. Unlike the pristine 'inside' the outside of the portal is covered in overgrown plant life, debris and the walkway has even been sheared in two by some great force long ago...

I rush out, my warframe leaping across the gap with ease. I stop and look back, realising just how far I jumped...

This warframe is incredible...

Yes, and that is the least of what it can do. But your energy is no longer surging, you must use it carefully. It's time to find some weapons!

Now this I like the sound of! I sprint out, slicing through a few more hapless grineer and arrive at a few crates. On top of the crates there is a strange sword – it looks familiar, almost Asian in design, but unlike a katana or tanto – and a sophisticated looking bo staff. I instinctively grab the sword, more blood that way. I was never a fan of blunt weapons in my last life either, if I wanted to bludgeon my victims I could use my fists.

Your last life?

Yes, I was human. I even remember some of it... although it is very foggy.

You were human?! That is impossible. Only the Tenno can operate the warframes. And besides, if you are human and I am you, why do I have no memory of being human?

I remember it! I remember I did something, broke a commandment or something... I was punished.

What are you talking about? Whatever, I want to question me on this more later, but for now we have a salvage team to kill. And an Admiral.

An Admiral?

Yes, Admiral Vor, one of the Queens' favourites. The one that attached the thing to our ankle. We must kill him.

It sounds eager now, like it is enjoying just thinking about killing this 'Admiral Vor'... But it is me, and I do feel excited. I can just imagine slicing him open with my energy sword, and watching as his scorched intestines fall to the ground. The thought does seem very appealing, although I'm still uncertain as to what exactly this 'Admiral Vor' has done wrong...

After killing an enemy discretely from behind, I come to a chamber with another pair of weapons. There are throwing knives, Kunai – these I recognise – and some form of machine pistol, designed with a curious, but not unpleasant aesthetic. I choose the kunai, and look for straps to attach them. There are none. I am confused, these are clearly holsters, yet they have no mechanism to attach them?

Just put them on, they are magnetic. The correct way to put them on is to have them on one's hips, although you may wish to put them on a different way if you prefer...

How do you know all of this?

I am you, and you know all of this...

I don't, if I did I'd have been able to attach them myself.

Once I get them on, I venture outside again. I look straight into the barrel of a gun!

Crap!

The flash blinds me as it fires. After a few seconds, I regain my vision.

I am not dead, in fact I'm completely unharmed. How is this possible?

Your shields, you idiot. They stopped the bullet. Now don't just stand there, your shields can only take so many hits. Kill him!

I blur through the surprised looking soldier, slicing him clean in half with my energy sword, and continue on my way.

"Good" You are almost at the extraction point. That is the first voice, the one I called the Lotus. She sounds much more relaxed. "I'm sending in the extraction ship"

This sounds good, while both I and the other current inhabitant in my psyche thoroughly enjoy slaughtering the helpless soldiers, I also crave information. And so far I have received almost none. I have a lot of questions for this 'Lotus' woman. I can't wait to see her in person...

I look up as a large vaguely triangular ship flies overhead. I see the landing pad it is going for and run through the overgrown ravine to get to it. I halt in my tracks as a blinding beam of light punctures the ships flank. And as I watch in horror the ship tilts and then descends rapidly, on its side. The subsequent explosion reduces the area to absolute silence. Almost. There is only one audible sound. A maniacal cackling emanating from no other than Admiral Vor!

"You can't fight him now, He is too strong." The Lotus' voice echoes around the inside of my skull. "You'll have to go past him, and get to your old ship."

"Lock down the area, The Tenno is mine!" I hear Vor yell.

Great. So, current situation: I've awoken as some sort of being that has built in shields. I have another equally psychopathic consciousness in my head that is also me, I may be developing multiple personality disorder or something. I'm trapped with a lunatic admiral who wants to kill me himself, and only a sword and throwing knives. Against an army, and army of over armoured degenerating clones, but an army nonetheless...

MOVE!

I leap to one side as a beam from the golden device in the admiral's hand incinerates a large chunk of dirt, right where I had been standing.

Block with your sword dumbass, you're going to get us killed.

Seriously? Since when can swords block lasers?

Its not a laser, now block!

I rush towards Vor, deflecting the beam with my sword almost by instinct. It seems natural... I leap towards him, activating my energy sword in mid air...

There's a flash and he is gone! Then I reflexively twist and deflect a beam from behind me with my sword. He teleported?!

Yes, he teleported. If we survive I'll tell you how to do it too. For now, lets focus on getting out. See the closing blast door? Your 2 o'clock. Move, before is shuts!

I hurtle across the ramshackle structures towards the blast door, and slide through with only moments to spare. I hear Vor shouting at someone to open the door. Perhaps I should go...

The troops on the other side of the blast door hadn't heard the commotion, and so somehow remained oblivious till I scooped up an assault rifle, and open fire. Seconds later the last body hits the floor and I continue merrily onwards, having just cheered my self up quite significantly.

The ship, a 'Liset' is hovering over a landing pad, very lightly guarded. Moments later, the last grineer guard dies and I approach the ship.

How do I get in?

You ask the cephalon to let you in. His name is Ordis, he was our ship cephalon during the Great War. I remember that much at least.

Ordis? I query. Then I recoil as I realise, I didn't speak. I can communicate telepathically?

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME YOU FILTHY... I.. Are my sensors deceiving me? Operator? You're alive!"

Oh great, another unstable entity that can talk into my head...

Oh, shut up me. I thought we were going to have to hack him to get in, so quit being ungrateful and lets go. Also, he's actually speaking through your comms.

Ordis, can we leave now?

"Certainly Operator, just give me a few moments to... SORT MY LIFE OUT... cycle the engines."

The pleasant voice of Ordis, cracked into a quite irate sounding one for a moment there... I wonder if it is possible for one of these 'cephalons' to become mentally unstable, because I'm rapidly beginning to suspect that sane people are all extinct...

The ship made some unhealthy mechanical sounds, then after a small puff of black smoke, stabilised into a steady whining engine sound. A few grineer soldiers took note, but as soon as they came into sight I mowed them down with my 'MK1-Braton' Assault rifle. I had decided that I quite liked it by the time the cephalon told us we were ready to leave. It was fairly good at shredding flesh through the heavy armour the grineer wore, and had a good fire rate – without sacrificing accuracy. The only thing I disliked was how loud it was, I preferred stealth in my old life. I don't remember if I ever got to use it, but I certainly remember being equipped to use it...

What was I in my past life? And what did I do to deserve the punishment I received?

Dunno, but we seem like a fun guy. So it was probably something entertainingly violent. And what was your punishment? If you don't mind me asking... I do sort of have a right to know, if this is indeed our past...

I don't remember, but I do remember it was severe, and it caused public outrage...

So, it was a public punishment... we were a criminal, perhaps?

I do not remember much of my past, but as the ship accelerates out of the atmosphere at insane speeds... I wonder if my past even matters any more. After all, it was in a past life, was it not?

End of Part 1

Author's Note:

I can see from the traffic graphs that most people are only reading the first few chapters and then leaving the story completely. I apologise if the first few chapters seem a bit boring, but I need to set down some context and background. In later chapters there will be more... interesting things, but in the first few chapters I will be following the quests in the actual game.

Also, I would recommend reading all the chapters because there are hints and clues that help to explain what happens at the end in almost every chapter.

*Spoilers below*

Finally, for those of you who think the voice in the new Tenno's head is the operator; you're not wrong, but you're not quite right either; there is a lot more to it than that. Stay tuned.

(And a warning at the end: Some of this stuff is based on headcannon, and some of it is an expanded version of some of the theories that were around before the second dream quest. That is all I am saying - no more hints.)