Nothin' much to say about this. Just enjoy and any feedback is well appreciated!
"Hey, Harry!"
Harry Potter, the now thirty year old Boy-Who-Lived/Man-Who-Conquered, turns in order to greet the owner of the voice he recognises so well, Hermione Granger. The ministry is quite crowded at this time, being around two in the afternoon, but Harry is nonetheless able to spot her crown of bushy hair even from a mile away.
"Hiya, Mione," Harry says with a smile when she is in front of him, drawing her into a hug that she reciprocates with a chuckle.
"When are you going to stop calling me that, Harry?" Hermione asks, her smile showing she isn't at all offended by the shortening of her name.
"When I'm six feet under, and even then, my last will and testament will probably also call you that as well," Harry laughs as he joins her in one of the lifts that goes up to the Atrium.
Hermione giggles at his choice of words, followed by asking, "How are things going with Ginny?"
Harry sighs in resignation at the question. "Not well. Ginny still insists we go to all of these balls and receptions that she gets invited to so that she can drag me there, but I just don't want to be in the spotlight any more than I already am. She doesn't seem to understand that, unfortunately."
"It'll work out, Harry. Don't worry," Hermione assures him, putting a hand against his cheek, which made his stomach do a small, familiar flip that he still can't understand in the twenty-seven years he has known her. Harry turns the question around by asking, "How are things with you and Ron?"
"Just about the same. Ronald still refuses to get off his lazy butt and apply himself regularly, and honestly… I'm thinking of… breaking things off with him if this keeps up," Hermione admits with a frown.
Harry turns to her with a shocked look. "But, Mione…"
"Harry, I just can't deal with him anymore," Hermione says with a sigh. "Our relationship isn't working out, and unfortunately it won't get better anytime soon."
Harry thinks of arguing, but eventually nods and looks down. "You know best, Mione. If nothing else, I've learned that rather well since first year."
Hermione cheekily smiles at him. "And don't you forget it, Potter."
They share a laugh over that, but Hermione quickly gets down to business. "Actually, Harry, I wanted to ask if you would help me with someething."
"Sure, anything you need, Mione," Harry says immediately.
Hermione smiles and says, "Careful with that phrase. What if I asked you to pretend to be my husband for a few weeks?"
Harry splutters slightly at the question, making Hermione break out into giggles. The lift had reached the Atrium by now and opens up, letting a giggling Hermione and a red-faced Harry off.
"Regardless," Harry pushes on, "What do you need help with?"
"Well, come with me to my flat. I'll explain more there," Hermione says, taking some Floo powder from nearby and getting into a fireplace, disappearing in green flames. Harry follows seconds later.
Unfortunately, if there is one thing Harry hasn't gotten better at in the thirteen years since the defeat of Voldemort, it is Floo travel. Therefore, he ends up falling out of the fireplace at high speed, tripping over a stray book, impressively doing a front flip, then landing on his back on Hermione's wooden floor.
"Ouch…" Harry moans, eyes shut tight in discomfort. A giggle from above him makes him open his eyes, which gives him the image of Hermione standing over him and smirking knowingly at him, her feet inches away from his head.
"I give you a three out of ten for the entrance, but an eight out of ten for the front flip," Hermione chortles, making Harry grumble slightly before he too chuckles at the situation. Picking himself up, he wandlessly cleans himself off and then cleans the floor before turning to Hermione.
"You were oddly forgiving with the point awarding," Harry says with a raised eyebrow.
"Feeling nice today, mister. Don't push it," Hermione shrugs. Harry shrugs as well and takes off his jacket, putting it on a nearby chair that is stacked with books. Hermione's place is a comfortable one-floor house that has a large basement the witch had made herself for any magical projects. The kitchen and dining are a single room, and it has a small bedroom and bathroom, which is more than enough for one person and just enough for two.
"Now, what did you need help with, Mione?" Harry asks once again. Hermione motions for him to follow her into the basement. Once downstairs, she enters a side room he hadn't noticed before, which leads into a medium-sized room with meetal floors and walls. As Harry looks around in interest, he notices that there are many notes attached to or written on all kinds of boards around the room, from blackboards to cork boards, where Hermione had attached papers using thumbtacks. The most interesting object in the room, however, is a large seat in the middle which is connected to several cables that lead all around the room. It has a head cover hanging from the top of the back of the chair, similar in size and shape to the head covers which dry hair in women's salons. Harry can barely sense a bit of magical energy coming out of the chair, but he notes that it doesn't feel anything like normal magical energy. In fact, it feels almost… electrified is the best word he can use in this instance.
"What is that, Mione?" Harry asks curiously, walking around the chair to get a good look at it.
"It's the project I've been working on lately," Hermione explains, pushing a few buttons next to the door which dim the lights a little and turn on a bright bulb above the chair. With the way the chair looks under the light, Harry would have called it the electric chair used for executions if he didn't know better. "Remember the breakthrough the Unspeakables and I had regarding muggle technology not working alongside magic?"
"Yeah, I remember. You all got Honor of Merlin, Second Class awards for figuring out a way to combine them without the computers and phones going haywire."
"Yes, well, after seeing several 3-D movies that have come out lately, I began to wonder if it isn't possible to actually send the human mind into the events of a film or even a video game. Almost like you're there, but not really there, in case of the films, at least. When I began to research video games as well, I think literally being in the game would enhance depth and enjoyment in it. So, after a few months of gruelling work, I made this!" She waves dramatically at the chair, making Harry chuckle.
"So, how does it work?" Harry asked.
"Well, when you sit on the chair, the head piece covers your head and synchronises with your brainwaves and thought patterns. A charm on it makes you to fall asleep, which allows the machine to fully activate your synapses and show you everything in a closer three-dimensional plane, where you are literally inside the film or game. The thing is… I still haven't tested it out."
"And that's what I'm here for, I assume," Harry states with a smirk.
Hermione looks a little embarrassed but nods. "I needed someone to try it out while I take notes and make sure everything is running correctly. I'm sorry for asking so suddenly-,"
"It's fine, Mione. I'll be glad to try it out," Harry says, waving her apology away.
"Thank you, Harry," Hermione says with a smile. They remain smiling at each other for a few more seconds before the situation hits them and they look away with red faces and stammering mouths.
"I'll just… start it up then," Hermione says, walking to the chair and pushing a few buttons on its arm.
"Y-yeah," Harry stutters.
Some moments later, the chair is fully online and functional. Harry sits on the chair, where Hermione ties some belts around his legs and wrists. "To keep you down in case of any sudden jerks or movements you might make in your sleep," Hermione says when he asked. "I don't fully know what would happen if the head piece are to just fall off your head, but I know it shouldn't happen."
Harry nods and prepares himself for what is to come. Before lowering the head piece on his head, Hermione explains, "Now, I'm going to be watching from this screen here *she waves to a large plasma screen that takes up an entire wall, which Harry hadn't noticed before because the wall had just turned around in order to show it* so if you want to exit at any time, just say it aloud and I'll shut down the machine in about a minute. I can't do it immediately or it could have damaging results on your brain."
Finally, Harry asks a question that has been at the forefront of his mind in the last few minutes. "Mione, what games do you have installed on the machine?"
"Oh, I forgot to explain that," Hermione says, slapping her forehead. "Thanks for reminding me. I programmed it to download the latest game available from an online store which puts PC games online. I set up a bank account which pays for each game it downloads."
"Isn't that a little expensive?" Harry asks.
"Somewhat, yes, but I can approve or decline the final sale whenever a game comes out, so I still manage it well."
Harry nods and asked, "So, what's the latest game that it has?"
"I believe the last game it downloaded is a survival horror game called Dead Space 2 that came out about a week ago," Hermione says, biting her lip in thought.
"Neat!" Harry exclaims. Ever since he discovered video games, he had always been fascinated by survival horror games, or maybe just horror games in general. Probably due to the adventurer side of him, but hey, they are fun as hell to play.
Hermione smiles at his enthusiasm and grabs the head piece, saying, "Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. Let's do it!"
Hermione nods and lowers the piece over his head. Almost immediately, Harry becomes sleepy and nods off, his sight becoming black for some time. Moments later, however, he 'wakes' to find himself in what appears to be a fully white room, similar to the Limbo he had visited when Voldemort had hit him with the Killing Curse years back.
Unfortunately, he finds that, just like in Limbo, he is naked as the day he was born.
"Oh, bloody hell," Harry mutters as he notices this. He attempts to think of clothes, but they don't appear, so he gives it up after the fifth try. He shakes his head and focuses, now noticing what appears to be a large, floating computer screen in front of him. Harry realises it is a touch screen and selects the option Video games from the two options given. A list immediately opens up, with the stored games organised by date released. Harry quickly selects Dead Space 2 and watches as his surroundings disappear into inky darkness.
Hermione nearly faints when the first image the large plasma screen shows her is a naked Harry standing in a vast, white space. Her first thought is that Ginny must be quite the lucky woman before she forces herself to focus on Harry's face and watches, red-faced, as he immediately selects Dead Space 2.
"He's going straight for it?" Hermione asks out loud. She sighs a moment later. "Oh, right. He's always been in love with those kinds of games."
She continues watching as Harry's surroundings become black. Suddenly, however, the screen is filled by what appears to be outer space. She spots what seems to be a nebula behind a floating hologram of the makers of the game, E.A. and Visceral Studios. The hologram fades after a moment, only to be followed by the game's title. A "PRESS START TO BEGIN" sign fades in just under it, and Harry presses it, which transports him into what seems to be the inside of the human brain, filled with synapses and electrical currents. A holographic menu appears in front of Harry, and Hermione watches as he selects the "SINGLE PLAYER" option. The menu disappears and is replaced by another menu which shows the single player options. She notices that instead of selecting "NEW GAME", Harry instead goes for the option at the very bottom, labelled, "PREVIOUSLY ON DEAD SPACE".
Curious, she pulls a foldable chair from nearby and sits to watch what would happen.
An image appears in front of Harry, showing him what looks to be a damaged Earth. A voice began to speak all around Harry, sounding almost like a teacher.
By the twenty-fifth century, Earth's resources were ravaged… consumed… exhausted. Desperate and on the verge of extinction, we cast out into the void of space, and discovered rich, new worlds waiting to be cracked open… and stripped bare. All of Earth became devoted to this effort. The Planetcrackers are built; the USG Ishimura the first and most famous. Planetcracking became routine; its spoils kept us alive.
Eventually, greedy eyes fell upon Aegis 7. Restricted for centuries for reasons unknown, greed and corruption saw to the demise of caution.
There, buried beneath the surface, an artefact… the Red Horcrux.
Wait, what?
Long lost, and long forgotten. The religion I once called my own had found its holy grail. The key to human immortality… or so we thought. It did not bring salvation…. It brought doom. The Horcrux bred insanity, murder, and chaos…
It bred Necromorphs.
The images Harry sees flashing past are all rather calm at first, and the image of the Red Horcrux surprises and interests him. It is a somewhat high tower with two twisting spires, which nearly meet a point. Harry didn't know why, but he feels some sort of connection to the thing, and can't help but wonder why in the world the thing is named a horcrux. But when he sees the necromorphs and their rampage, he is quite startled. This game is not to be trifled with, that he now knows. The twisted and bloody faces of the reanimated corpses would most likely be something he wouldn't forget anytime soon, none the least because they are directly in front of him, and he has the sneaky suspicion he'd see many more soon.
Outside, Hermione is pale at the description of the planet, and most importantly, at the sight of the necromorphs. She had just come to a startling realisation.
This is a survival horror game, which would no doubt be about an individual surviving some kind of horrible experience. But in games like these, death is always around the corner for the player. So… what would happen if Harry dies in the game?
Those who escaped the planet fled to the safety of the orbiting Ishimura. The scourge released upon Aegis 7 came with them.
Within hours, the Ishimura went dark.
The corporation dispatched a small repair crew to check on its investment. Among that crew was an engineer…
Harry Potter.
"What?!"
"What?!" Hermione unwittingly repeats Harry's exclamation at what the narrator says. How in the world did Harry's name end up inside the game?! That can't be possible! But the game had also mentioned the word horcrux earlier…
And so it is. On the screen, an image of none other than Harry is being shown. He seemed to be sitting inside a cockpit of some sort. He is wearing an armoured suit made of black material with some meetal coverings on his shoulders, arms, and, Hermione is sure, torso as well. This Harry has some cuts and bruises on his face, and his hair is matted. Worse of all are his eyes, which looks haggard and sunken, proof that he has seen and lived through a lot, possibly in a short time. Oddly, he isn't wearing glasses, but all that does is accentuate this Harry's physical problems.
The image scares Hermione. She has never seen Harry so… haggard. So defeated. This Harry had survived whatever had happened in the Ishimura… but at what cost?
Had her machine done more than just send Harry's consciousness into the game?
He had something special aboard the Ishimura.
After coming down from the shock of a game he never heard of using his name and image, when by all means it isn't about him in the slightest, Harry then notices that the screen has shifted to show a holographic video.
Even with the hologram being only coloured blue, he could never mistake the sight of the round, freckled face that appears in front of him.
"Ginny?"
In the darkness, Harry found death…
Images flash past of an armoured Harry fighting off several different corpses, all attempting to kill him. Tall ones with blades for hands… a large tentacle with a big, yellow spot… a bull-like necromorph that seems like it is about to flatten him… an even taller and more grotesque version of the first necromorph….
And the Red Horcrux. It was not holy; it was not alien… it was man-made. And it could be used to stop the outbreak.
Harry also found Ginevra…
The scene shows Harry inside what seems like a gondola. He is looking to the side, where a woman who is unmistakably Ginny is standing and looking at Harry with happiness.
The following words shock him.
Dead by her own hand, she was an apparition of the Horcrux…
The image changes and shows the first video of Ginny he had seen. But, in this one, Ginny injects herself with something, and her eyes close as she slumps forward… distinctly dead.
"Ginny… no…"
Harry engineered his escape… But everything else was destroyed.
The image becomes black, then shows the words, THE NEXT CHAPTER FOR HARRY POTTER BEGINS.
Three years later, he wakes in a hospital on Titan Station, an EarthGov metropolis on Saturn's largest moon. Harry has survived, but his mind is no longer safe…
For the Horcrux… changes all…
Harry stands in silence as the screen goes back to the single player menu.
"This… is really damn creepy… Mione, I don't know what your machine did, but if you are looking to increase depth in gaming… you freakin' found it!"
Without another word, Harry selects the "NEW GAME" option, and his surroundings go dim.
Outside, Hermione is doing a rather good impression of a fish, her mouth opening and closing at intervals.
"This… this is insane…" Hermione mutters after some time. After hearing Harry's outspoken words, she has to agree with him. This is definitely depth.
Maybe the machine used Harry's memories and feelings and implanted them into the storyline? But then, how could it change the image of everyone so easily? That, she could safely say, is most likely magic.
"I… I need to jot this down!" Hermione exclaims. She quickly summons a pen and notebook to her, then writes down everything that had happened.
To her shock, when she turns around to study Harry's body for any noteworthy effects, she sees something.
Or, rather, doesn't see something.
Harry's body is gone! There's nothing in the chair!
"Oh, no..." Hermione whispers as the realisation hits her. "He was literally transported into the game..."
She writes this down as well, finishing up just as the game begins.
Harry watches as the screen suddenly flashes and shows several lines of computer code over a static screen.
/loading USG Ishimura Transnet module
/welcome back Ginevra Weasley
/Senior Medical Officer
{/EARTH-EURASI-034-XC-350-036/call initiated…}
Several more lines follow before the screen goes fully into static, along with the sound of actual static, and some titles appear in front of Harry.
Electronic Arts Presents…
A Visceral Games production…
DEAD SPACE 2
The screen once again goes to static before focusing into a shaky image of none other than Ginny Weasley, gotten down to perfection.
"Well, that's Ginny, alright…" Harry mutters as he watches what's happening with fascination.
"Harry, are you there?" Ginny asks.
"Damn, even Ginny's voice is spot on," Harry comments out loud.
"Come ~iiiiin, Harry," she follows up in a sing-song voice before a smaller video screen appears that focuses into none other than Harry, seemingly waking up due to Ginny's call.
"Oh, God," Ginny says with an embarrassed laugh. "I'm so sorry, Harry! Look at- The time difference… I'll call you back later!"
"No, no, it's ok!" Harry assures her quickly, if with a sleepy voice.
"It's gotten my voice down to pat as well," the real Harry says.
Game-Harry stretches for a second before asking, "How you doin'?
"Good," Ginny responds with a smile. "You were right, Harry! The Ishimura is a great ship! I am so lucky to be serving aboard her."
"Well, enjoy it while it lasts. You know they're going to decommission her next year," game-Harry says.
"Oh, come on, me," Harry says with an exasperated tone, "That totally killed the moment!"
"Harry… thank you." Ginny says with a smile.
"For what?" game-Harry asked after a pause.
"For… just pushing me to do this! I mean, if it weren't for you, I never would have made it this far, because you made me stick with it…"
"Well, just remember, I'm giving you up for six months so you can do this…"
The transmission suddenly begins to experience static, and Ginny frantically talks into the screen.
"You know what, we must be getting out of range of the relay. Isaac? I… Isaac, can you hear me? Look, I'm going to call you back as soon as I can, alright?"
The video finally cuts off, and the camera begins to pan out to show Harry, in what appears to be a straightjacket, sitting at a table across from another man with ginger hair, slightly lighter than the Weasley red Harry knows.
The oddest thing is… the room around them is pitch black. The only light seems to come from a bulb above them that Harry can't see.
Abruptly, Harry's sight begins to zoom in toward game-Harry's head, and everything goes black for a moment before the image refocuses into just the sight of the table and the man across him.
Innately, Harry knows that he is now in first-person view, and in control of his character's mind.
"Harry… Harry!" The doctor yells, bringing Harry's focus to him. The doctor sits back a little with a satisfied smile. "You were drifting away for a moment there, Mr. Potter. I believe you were telling me about your… nightmares you've been having – about your dead girlfriend. What was her name?"
Harry doesn't answer, but he apparently doesn't need to, as his mouth answers on its own a moment later.
"Ginny…"
As if summoned by the name, an image of Ginny sitting on what appears to be a bench fades into view some feet away. The Ginny apparition is hunched over, her eyes looking at Isaac, and a syringe in her right hand aimed towards her left arm.
"I didn't want it to end like this," Ginny says softly and sadly. "I really wanted to see you again… just once. I loved you… I always loved you…"
The image of Ginny fades into the darkness just as the doctor starts talking again. "Yes, Ginevra Weasley. She was a senior medical officer stationed aboard a Planetcracker class vessel…"
"The Ishimura," Harry finishes.
"The USG Ishimura, yes…"
Images begin appearing to Harry's left, of a room Harry instinctively knows is the Mining Deck of the Ishimura. Shadows of necromorphs amble across the red-coloured wall, and the image shifts a little before disappearing.
"Part of a mining operation of Aegis 7," the doctor continues. "I understand communications went down shortly after their arrival. You were part of the repair mission – a mission for which you volunteered, am I right?"
Harry didn't know that piece of information, and his character says nothing. The doctor leans forward slightly and asks, "What did you find aboard that ship, Harry?"
Harry doesn't answer right away, but he does notice an image of the Red Horcrux flash in the same side of the room where all the other images had appeared before. In front of it, with her head bowed down, is none other than Ginny.
It fades away then flashes into sight again, this time closer. It does so five more times, each time closer and closer to the table.
"They found someething…" Harry mutters.
"What did they find aboard that ship, Harry?" the doctor asks in an almost conspiratory whisper.
"The Horcrux…" Harry answers, almost brusquely.
There is a pause, then the doctor continues. "Did you have contact with this… Horcrux?"
The flashing image of the Horcrux had now appeared rather close to the table, and does not fade away this time. On the contrary, the image of Ginny begins moving, walking towards the table, head still bowed.
"It made you see things, didn't it?" the doctor asks. "Things you didn't want to see?"
Ginny begins to step onto the desk as Harry answers grudgingly, "It spoke to me…"
"What did it say to you, Harry?" the doctor asks. When Harry doesn't respond, he repeats the question more forcefully. "What did it say to you, Harry?!"
But Harry isn't paying attention to the man anymore. Ginny had squatted down on the table, and is now staring at him. From the light of the bulb above them, Harry easily notices that her face is darkened and pale, like a dead body, and some blood trails are falling down her face.
"Make… us… whole…" the Ginny apparition whispers before fully opening her eyes and mouth, which begin to glow a sickly white that Harry can't look away from.
"Isaac?" the doctor yells. "Isaac?!"
"MAKE US WHOLE!"
Suddenly, Harry's vision is filled with a bright light.
Hermione is currently watching the video from an over-the-shoulder view, but what she had seen was horrifying. She had seen Harry disappear into his virtual self's head, and could only deduce that he was now in a first person view.
She was sure that those images had been in Harry's mind, as the doctor gave no sign that he sees them as well. She had read about some mental illnesses in muggle psychology books, and could only guess that in the game, Harry had some form of dementia or schizophrenia… possibly both.
"Oh, Harry," Hermione said breathlessly, "Be strong. You can do this."
Harry's vision comes back as he opens his eyes and groggily notices that someone is flashing a light into his eyes. His muscles feel slightly weak, as though he hadn't used them in a long time, and his arms hurt from apparently sleeping in a straightjacket.
"Harry?" a voice asks. "Harry, can you hear me?"
Harry groans as he begins to come around and looks into the face of his waker… only to notice another familiar face.
'Dean' Harry thinks.
Dean Thomas looks behind him when the banging of pipes is heard, then turns back to Harry, clips his flashlight to a magnetic strip on his shoulder, and makes a call via his RIG, which Harry somehow notices and understands, despite the fact that he knows nothing about RIGs or the Dead Space universe.
"Narcissa, I found Harry Potter. Repeat, I have him!"
Narcissa? As in, Narcissa Malfoy? How in the world is Dean somehow in contact, and apparently friends, with that woman? Harry didn't even think they had interacted at all in the real world.
But the voice that responds to Dean's call is definitely hers.
"Great work, Dean. Be careful, he's been out for a long time."
Dean cuts off the call and helps pull Harry into a standing position. Harry's legs protest, but he ignores them and wobbly stands up. He is barely aware of the fact that his RIG is yellow, signifying that he isn't exactly in good health.
"Okay… good, good. Steady…" Dean says encouragingly as he helps sustain Harry. "We have to get you out of this straightjacket."
"Where… Where am I?" Harry's character says as Dean struggles with the straightjacket. "Where the hell am I?"
A roar from the hallway outside Harry's room makes Dean turn his head for a second before turning back to Harry with a worried expression. "Alright, I know you're confused right now. I can explain everything, but you have to trust me, okay?" Dean places his arms on Harry's shoulders to emphasise his point. "Listen! You're in terrible, terrible dan-,"
BAM!
Hermione screams as she watches her Gryffindor friend suddenly get impaled through his chest with a sharp tentacle. The scream increases in intensity as a manta-ray like creature climbs up to Dean's shoulders and stabs the proboscis directly into Dean's forehead, pushing it deeper inside and moving Dean's head side to side as it injects someething into him. The creature hops off after a second and moves away, leaving Dean's corpse standing over Harry and gripping his shoulders. Steam rises from Dean's form as he stares at Harry with unseeing eyes, groaning in a definitely non-human way, before his muscles tense, and, to Hermione's horror, a bladed arm sprouts from Dean's back in a spray of blood, quickly followed by another. Dean stretched his neck up, the skin of his neck breaking and falling away, leaving hanging veins and arteries and exposing the muscle underneath. The jaw suddenly splits apart, followed by the remaining skin left of Dean's face ripping away. The newly-formed necromorph suddenly pulls Harry close and screams in his face, and Hermione's only reaction is to scream for her best friend's sake.
Harry, it seems, has a better reaction, as he immediately headbutts the creature, causing it to stumble back, and quickly walks out of his room/cell. A blue hologram appears as Narcissa's voice calls out, attempting to reach Dean.
"Dean? Dean, what happened?!"
"He's dead," Harry says shortly.
"Oh God…" Narcissa whispers before yelling out, "Harry? Harry Potter?! If you can hear me, run! RUN!"
"Run, Harry!" Hermione yelled.
Harry needs no more encouraging and runs, passing other cells and several dead bodies. He just misses a few slashers as they pop out of cells and vents in order to seek fresh meat. Harry runs as best as he can in a straightjacket, making several turns before finally finding an open door that is nearly closed.
"Oh, hell no!" Harry yells, putting on a burst of speed.
Unfortunately, just as he crosses the door's threshold, a necromorph that was playing dead on a wheelchair jumps on him, knocking him to the floor. Hermione screams in fear as the necromorph stabs Harry in the shoulder with its only arm, but the Man-Who-Conquered bears the pain with gritted teeth and kicks the necromorph back out of the room. Luckily for him, the doors close on the necromorph's upper torso, forcefully popping off its head and only arm, thus killing it.
Hermione remains still in shock, watching as Harry picks himself up and winces at the pain on his shoulder. Squaring his body, Harry begins to walk ahead, and Hermione only watches in fear and anxiety, wondering just what her best friend got himself into.
What she got him into...
Harry finds a Save Station next to a door in the next hallway, and quickly uses it, not sure of what would happen next. He notes that he can select the needed information with just a thought, meaning that he is indeed still in the game. As the Save Station closes, Harry opens the next door with his RIG and walks through the door and into another hallway.
As he turns the corner, he spots two EarthGov security guards standing under a hallway coloured with red light.
"Hello?" Harry calls out, making the two men turn to him with guns raised.
"Potter! Take him out!" one of them yells, and they both open fire.
"Whoa, whoa!" Harry yells out as he ducks behind a nearby bed. The gunfire abruptly stops, so Harry chances it and peers over the edge of the bed.
Some kind of tentacle had apparently reached down and stabbed one of the security guards through the chest before pulling him into the ventilation shaft, the man screaming the whole way. The sickening sound of ripping flesh comes from the opening as the other guard moves underneath the vent and aims his weapon up into the shaft.
"Not a smart move, bud," Harry mutters.
At rapid speed, the same tentacle reached down again and grabs the second security guard, pulling him into the vent as well. The man screams as he is pulled apart by the creature, and blood falls to the ground from the ventilation duct.
"Told you," Harry says as he stands and walks ahead. He carefully passes underneath the duct, but just as he is about to pass under the other duct opening of the shaft, someething falls out of it, directly in front of him.
That someething turns out to be the bloody and ripped apart torso of one of the security guards. Most of the flesh seems to have been eaten off, thus showing off the ribs in clear, bloody quality.
"Jeez… that's sick…" Harry says with a frown. Ignoring it for now, he continues and walks up a lifted path as a voice rings out, a voice also familiar to Harry.
"This is Director Scrimgeour to all project personnel. I want the key subjects terminated and the facility scrubbed. This is not a drill. Scrimgeour out."
"Scrimgeour? Key subjects?" Harry asks himself. "What the fuck is going on here?"
Shrugging, Harry continues, entering a room labelled 'Observation Room'.
"Wonder what or who they were observing…" Harry wonders. "Considering the situation, I'd say me."
He carefully enters the observation room, finding it empty, save for a looping video log nearby. The voice of the doctor from the intro sequence says, "Subject is Seamus Finnigan, session one-five-eight."
"Seamus?" Harry asks aloud. "This I have to see."
Lo and behold, the familiar face of Seamus is what Harry sees in the video log. Harry stands in front of the video to watch.
"Now…" the doctor says as he walks around Seamus and pulls his head back to look at the man's eye. "The eye is looking much better… yes, don't you think?"
"I… It hurts… still hurts…" Seamus said in a shaky and broken voice.
"Yes, I'll schedule you for another session tomorrow."
"No… no, no… I… I don't think I'm ready… I don't think I can take another session… I-,"
"There, first thing tomorrow."
"This guy doesn't waste time, that's for sure," Harry mutters.
"Now, let's talk about what you saw today," the doctor says.
Seamus remains silent for a moment, only mumbling slightly.
"Come on, Finnigan," the doctor says. "I'm here to help you."
Harry snorts derisively.
"It was black…" Seamus says shakily. "Deep black, and glowing red, with symbols… symbols that whispered to me…"
"And what did the symbols whisper to you?" the doctor whispers into Seamus's ear. When Seamus doesn't immediately respond and simply looks around nervously, he becomes more forceful. "Come on, Finnigan, what?"
"It was just a shard! Just a shard, but it put so much stuff in my head! So much… SHITE in my head! There's no more room for anything! I can't remember what she looks like! Why can't I remember what she looks like?!"
"The symbols, Finnigan!" the doctor insisted. "What did the symbols tell you?!"
"They told me it wasn't my fault!" Seamus yelled. "I didn't kill him! They didn't deserve this and I didn't deserve this! Fucker…"
"Put Mr. Finnigan back in stasis. Adjust his medication up thirty milligrams, and we'll try another session first thing in the morning."
The video ends and then replays. Harry shakes his head and walks out of the room, wondering just what happened to his Gryffindor companion.
Scrimgeour's message plays again overhead, but Harry ignores it and continues walking. The next room he enters seems to be some kind of overhead observation room. A man is standing by the glass that looks down into a dark room, quietly laughing to himself and scraping the window with someething in his hand.
'Isn't that…'
Indeed, as Harry tries to slowly walk around the crazily giggling guy, he turns suddenly and grabs Harry by the back of the neck, turning him around and bringing a scalpel up to his neck, all the time laughing maniacally.
Hermione watches with wide eyes as Harry gets grabbed by the insane doctor and a scalpel is held up to his neck.
"Shite! Come on, man…"
"Patient Four…" the doctor giggles. "I remember you… Scrimgeour said we… all the key subjects… need to be eliminated… terminated…"
Hermione didn't like where this was going.
"Listen," Harry pleads.
"Terminated…" the doc repeats "What's one more?"
"Listen to me, man."
"Will it matter?"
"Listen to me!"
"Will it matter?!"
"We can both get out of here," Harry insists, his eyes pleading. "Just… just cut me out of this straightjacket."
The doctor shakes his head and chuckles maniacally. "No one's getting out of here alive…"
To Hermione's horror, the doctor begins to lower the scalpel down to Harry's abdomen.
"Don't do it, man!" Harry pleads.
But it falls on deaf ears.
Hermione screams as the scalpel appears to be thrust into Harry's stomach. She waits, terrified, for Harry to bleed out, to drop to the floor…
To die…
But when she notices Harry's confused expression, she knows someething's up.
To her immense relief, the doctor pulls the scalpel up, which rips through the straightjacket's restraints with a rip and frees Harry's arms.
Harry stumbles back in shock, staring at the doctor in disbelief and surprise. The doctor stares back with a crazed smile, holding the scalpel to the side.
"There's no escaping from what I've done," the doc says with a chuckle.
"Take it easy, man," Harry says, lifting his hands reassuringly. "Just take it easy."
The doctor's face suddenly pulls into a frown, and he says, "Your RIG is red… it's red…" He points to a nearby locker and says, "There's a health pack and a flashlight in that wall locker… you should grab them…"
Harry stares warily at the doctor, his eyes flickering to the wall locker.
"Go ahead, take it," the doctor says. "I won't be needing it anymore."
Hermione is now at an impasse. Harry needs health, yes, but she isn't sure if the doctor would stab him in the back when he went to get the items. She hopes that Harry makes the right choice.
Harry finally nods and carefully walks over to the locker. He opens it with the push of a button, and takes the health pack, using it immediately. His RIG's AutoDoc distributes the small amount of healing liquid to his body, calming the small shakes in his arms and legs and curing him of a few aches in his muscles, but by no means all. He is aware that his RIG has only gone up to yellow, but it's something.
He then grabs the flashlight and tests it, making sure it works properly. When he is sure it does, he turns back to the doctor, who is now standing just in front of the glass.
"Harry…" The doctor says in a low voice, lifting his scalpel. "We're all going to burn for what we did to you…"
"No, don't do it!" Harry exclaims, reaching out to stop him, but he isn't fast enough.
The doctor thrusts the scalpel into his neck and pulls, slitting his own throat. A bright red smile appears on the doc's neck, gushing blood profusely. The doctor himself yells out as he does this, and after the deed, falls to the floor, his back leaning against the glass. He coughs and hacks a twice… before finally staying still forever.
Harry watches the scene with wide eyes. His mouth stammers out, "W-why, man?"
Finally, after a minute of staring at the corpse, Harry shakes his head and continues, opening the next door, which opens up into a hallway that leads to an elevator labelled 'To Patient Rec Room'.
As soon as he steps in, a video call appears in front of him, showing him the unmistakeable face of the woman who had been in contact with Dean earlier.
Narcissa Malfoy.
"Potter! Harry Potter, is that you?!"
"Who are you?" Harry's character asks, despite the fact that Harry knows quite well who she is.
"My name is Narcissa. I'm the one trying to rescue you…"
"Why?! What's going on?!"
"You're suffering from a unique form of dementia, Harry. Someething you contracted on Aegis 7."
Harry is understandably suspicious about this. "How do you know that? How do you know all this about me?!"
Narcissa merely shakes her head and ignores the question, instead saying, "Your dementia will kill you! But if you can get to me, I can treat you and get you to safety."
"Why should I trust you?" Harry asks icily.
"Because I'm not the one shooting at you!" Narcissa exclaims, seemingly losing patience with his bullheadedness.
"Fuck…" Harry mutters.
"Just follow the route I'm sending you," Narcissa says before the video goes to static and blinks out.
"Just great…" Harry mutters as the elevator doors open again. Harry walks out, and instinctively lifts his hand to waist level, palm down, activating his locator. A blue light comes out of his palm, forming a similarly blue line which leads to the room to the right. Harry deactivates the locator, walks forward and enters the room, which is absolutely pitch black. Lifting his flashlight, Harry walks ahead, moving around two long tables whose chairs are filled with murdered people.
Suddenly, just as Harry is moving around the second long table, a large screen to his left blasts on and startles him badly. His natural reaction, at least when not having a wand, is to punch the living daylights out of the screen. This has two consequences: it breaks the glass of the screen, shutting it off suddenly; and due to the broken glass, Harry's knuckles get cut open.
"Son of a bitch…" Harry mutters as he inspects his bleeding knuckles. He wipes the blood on his pants and keeps walking.
After crossing what seems to be a shower instalment, he stops at the entrance to the next room when a headache hits him hard. As he grunts and holds his head, his sight becomes tinted with orange, and he is barely aware of the shadow of a slasher in front of him.
But as soon as it comes, it leaves, leaving nothing but the whisper of his name…
"What the hell?" Harry articulately asks himself before continuing down the room and into an access hatch.
Welcome, CEC Engineer Harry Potter. Access granted.
"Well, at least he's doing alright," Hermione assures herself as she watches Harry crawl inside an access hatch and begin scuttling through it. As he turns left at a corner, she sees an unmoving arm just slightly ahead of him. Oddly, when he crawls closer, its owner growls and scuttles away. She sees Harry stop, waiting to see if someething will happen, but when nothing does, he continues to crawl.
She yelps in surprise when he falls through a loose vent and into a room. He lands in the same position he was crawling, so he looks around quickly before standing. Next to him, Hermione sees a man, possibly dead, floating slightly due to a few light-purple beams holding him up.
She sees Harry move to a red box next to the floating man just as Narcissa contacts him.
"Harry, what happened? Are you alright?"
Harry doesn't answer immediately, instead feeling around for a bit before ripping out a module from the box. The purple rays immediately turn off and the man's undeniably dead body falls to the ground. When Harry begins to fit the module onto his palm, he finally responds.
"Why are you helping me?"
"If Scrimgeour finds you, more people will die."
"Including me."
"Not if you follow my route!"
"I don't like this…"
"You don't have to like it! Just hurry, before you get locked in."
By this point, Harry had finished setting up the module on his left wrist, which is surrounded by a small amount of energy that also surrounds Harry's hand a moment later. Hermione, ever curious, sits up in order to properly see what it is.
She watches as a green hologram pops up explaining how to use the Kinesis Module he had just acquired. Harry, not one to miss a beat, points his hand at one of the sticks around the room and activates it. To her utter surprise, some kind of energy suddenly flies out of his palm and grabs the stick, holding it up like it was being held by a hand.
"What the?! That shouldn't be possible!" Hermione says, then backtracks and face-palms. "I live in a world where a muggle's 'impossible' is a magical's 'walk in the park'. I need to rethink these things."
She turns back to the screen just as Harry fires a stick into a necromorph that had appears on the outside of the room he was in. Another necromorph appears from the other side, so Harry quickly picks another stick up and fired it directly at the where the shoulder blade should be. The baton stabs right through it and drags the necromorph through the air, impaling it on a nearby wall, where it hangs uselessly.
She watches as Harry walks up to the body, curious about what he will do. To her surprise, he outright punches the body, somehow making the lower part of the body detach from the upper part in a spray of blood. Hermione wasn't sure what she wanted to yell about: the fact that Harry punched the dead necromorph for no reason, or the fact that no human body part could possibly be detached through a simple punch, strong as it may be. She decides on the latter when she sees Harry pick up a couple of credits that popped out of the body.
About two minutes later, after traversing a room where he had to impale several necromorphs using Kinesis, Harry finds himself near what seems like a surgical room. Through the glass window, he sees a man lying on the bed, chest cut and held open, and three blue lasers pointed inside his chest cavity. The man is also screaming for help, so that alerts him that this guy is currently having a bad day.
"Help! Help! For the love of God, somebody help me!"
As soon as Harry walks to the doorway of the room and steps inside, the man spots him and cries out, "You! You, please! Get me out of this!"
Harry walks up to the computer that controls the surgical tool while saying, "Hang on, I'll cut you out of there. Is that a tissue laser? A plasma cutter?"
The man is about to answer, but the growl of a necromorph as it drops in front of the doorway to the room draws their attention.
"Oh shit!"
"Fuck!"
The surgical tool spins around and moves toward Harry as the necromorph steps inside the room menacingly, aiming for the man lying down.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" the man yells to Harry, desperately trying to kick the necromorph away.
"Damnit!"
"HELP HIM, HARRY!" Hermione screams to the TV as she watches him try to put together a makeshift plasma cutter.
"Help me!" was the man's scream just before the necromorph cuts off his leg, stabs him in the chest, and then cuts off his head.
"Ah, dang it!" Harry yells out, bringing his makeshift weapon up. The necromorph rounds on Harry just as the man lets loose two shots to its legs, cutting them off and sending the necromorph to the ground, then a shot to one of its arms, cutting it off and killing the reanimated beast. Another necromorph drops from the same spot the first appeared , and ambles into the room. Without missing a beat, Harry takes off both of its arms, killing it.
He steps up to both corpses and stomps them, revealing some plasma cutter ammo and a small health pack. He stores both and walks out to the other side of the room, where a necromorph tied down on a bed is struggling to get free. Harry fires a shot at its shoulder, which passes through and takes off its neck as well. Once the thing is fully dead, and he is sure of it, he walks past it and into the next room, where he finds green boxes that he can stomp on. He makes off with more plasma energy and a few more credits.
Moments later, as he is going through a cleaning room, Narcissa contacts him again.
"Harry, it's Narcissa. You have to dismember the creatures to stop them!"
"I know," Harry says, "I've had a lot of practice."
'Well, technically I haven't. But my body has,' Harry thinks.
"Just try to stay in one piece," Narcissa pleads.
"Thanks," Harry responds before cutting the connection. He continues on through several other hospital rooms before entering what appears to be some kind of lobby which, judging by the flashing red lights and blaring alarm, is currently on lockdown.
"Harry! Harry, come on, they're after us!"
Slightly startled, Harry zones in on the voice and notices it's the same guy he saw on the video earlier.
Seamus Finnigan.
Seamus begins running down a a ramp as Harry yells out, "Hey! Hey, wait! Who is?! Who's after us?!"
Harry could tell that his game character was confused, and decides to immediately run after the man. After going down some ramps, Harry reaches the lower floor of the lobby and turns just in time to witness a heavy security door closing vertically over the exit.
"Damnit!" Harry yells out as he runs up to the door, hoping to slide under it. It's all for naught, as the door slams down fully just as he reaches it.
"Oh no!" Seamus groans from the other side. He stands up and looks through the gap as a door behind the first one begins closing horizontally, saying quickly, "Harry, it's me! Patient four! Patient four, remember? Do you remember? Oh no..."
SLAM!
Thus, the doors close between them.
With an angry growl, Harry gets back in contact with Narcissa and yells, "Narcissa, your fucking route didn't work! There's a security lockdown!"
"I told you to hurry! How'd you miss it?!" Narcissa calls back in an equally short tone.
"Look, I don't need your help," Harry says in an exasperated tone.
"Fine!" Narcissa exclaims icily. "Let's see how long you last without it."
Almost as if timed, Harry hears the familiar sound of an air vent busting open as soon as Narcissa cuts the connection.
"Ah, shite!"
"For Merlin's sake, Harry, language!" Hermione exclaims at the t.v., feeling her old habit return as she watches Harry dismember several necromorphs that jump into the room and try to attack him. By this point, she isn't too afraid for his life, as he's proven that he knows how to fight the reanimated corpses well and can find ammo in enough quantities to never run out if managed properly.
As soon as Harry kills the seventh necromorph that had attacked him after he had gotten stuck in this room, the alarm begins to dwindle slowly, until the lobby finally becomes silent. Realising that no more necromorphs are coming for now, Harry decides to get in touch with Narcissa again.
"Narcissa?" Harry calls through the RIGlink. "Narcissa?! Okay, you're right. I do need your help... Talk to me..."
"Look, Harry," Narcissa responds shortly, "we don't have to be friends... but like it or not, we're stuck together. Scrimgeour's your enemy, not me." After a momentary pause, she says, "Alright, I've found you a new route."
"Fine," Harry says as he walks behind the receptionist desk and picks up a power node and some credits. "So where the hell am I? How did another necromorph outbreak get started?"
"You're on Titan Station orbiting Saturn. As for the outbreak-," Suddenly, the connection begins experiencing static, over which Narcissa momentarily says, "Shite! Scrimgeour's jamming my signal!" before it completely cuts off.
"Well... guess I'm going on my own then..." Harry mutters before continuing, back into the insane hospital...