AN: Okay, after a long period of inactivity, I bring this to the table. Inspired by the ceaseless efforts of exr, my beta, to push through a long period of writer's block, I finally found the emotion and passion which has been missing of late.
Disclaimer: Seriously? Is my name Valve? No, it is not!
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Soft grey did little to disguise the piercing intelligence which lay behind the mute's eyes, her milk-pale skin was untouched by the sun but also unyielding in the display of masked emotion, a face which could have been carved from stone had there not been a pink stain colouring Chell's cheekbones. Her chest swelled and shrank with every deep breath passing through her flared nostrils. The rounded toes of her white boots were level with the edge of the precipice she stood upon, a yawning cavern stretching darkly beyond, no walls, ceiling or floor visible in any direction past that point.
It was as though she stood on the verge of eternity, where nothing existed. Not even a breath of air stirred. Beads of sweat glistened on her exposed skin, neither cool nor warm, and strands of hair which had escaped the haphazard ponytail clung to her damp form, giving her a mangy, unkempt appearance.
Behind her lay a miserable sight, a rusted, creaking door bent in the middle due to some unknown force, the upper hinges shattered, the lower ones twisted under the door's weight. A single yellow blub glowed weakly beyond, hanging sadly from its wire. The dim glow it struggled to maintain afforded a view of painted walls stained by seepage, cracked tiles and a threadbare carpet runner which had probably been scarlet when it was new and luxuriantly thick underfoot, a symbol of opulent days long since forgotten.
The only sound in the vicinity was artificial, a hissing of coarse static which mimicked fearful whimpers. In direct contrast to the one which bore its' presence, this sobbing individual would have been curled in a trembling heap if she'd had a body with which to do so. Her pleas had fallen on deaf ears for long enough and words had finally failed her as she tried not to stare at the sight of unending nothing which had captivated the one her very life depended on. In her weakened state, she didn't even have the energy left to express herself properly -the virtual tears had run out, exhaustion set in, her mind emptied of every last spark she was able to sum up. Her despair and terror were very real, her life depended on the silent woman gazing into the abyss and she was powerless in every sense of the word to affect her situation.
Movement brought a fresh stream of babble, her companion leaning as though succumbing to the chasm which beckoned. The noise she produced was a garbled rush of begging for second thoughts and wailing at her own helplessness. Not for the first time, she focused solely on the grey eyes above her, which had turned steely. Then they slid shut and the unusual pair were pitching forwards, tilting into the enveloping dark.
They fell headfirst, wind whipping at the younger woman's graceful form, the speed of it creating a howling vortex of sound which eventually swallowed up the shrieking voice emenating from the tiny yellow eye impaled on the tip of their spear. They were beauty and devastation as the fell, machine and flesh, mind and force, smeared together until they could no longer be told apart.
When those grey eyes opened again, they were focused, the device wielded by the younger woman as much a weapon as any blade or word. She aimed, fired, and it let loose its' payload with a misleadingly quiet thup instantly lost in the eye of their storm.
A pinprick of blue was their target, lonely in the shadows enveloping their new world. It stayed that way as though that single moment had been captured, never to advance, and in that moment grey eyes met yellow optic and the smallest of smiles appeared.
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R&R! Please?