Deaths Worse Then Fate
Interval 4: Melt Down
(Authors Note: This chapter will be different then the others, since it concentrates only on Point Man and Kona. It also follows as much of the last levels of F.E.A.R as I can remember, playing it fairly close to cannon. The story has a bit to go yet, and I need to move it along. We'll get to everyone else once Bad Things start happening. Well, Worse Things might be a better term.)
The descent ended at last, the lift grinding to a halt and dumping the pair into something resembling a lobby. A large glass window gave a view of a very large chasm, with a bridge over it and a very impressive door guarding what must be the heart of this facility. And on that bridge, stood two figures. One was old and thin, while the other was quite squat and very large. There was obvious tension here; the older man held a gun pointed at the fat guy. The pair could only watch the scene unfold before them…
"Look, I'm just doing my job!"
"And I'm doing what has to be done." With that, the older man lifted his gun and fired one shot. The large one sat down heavily, blood pouring from his brand new chest wound. The old human walked through the large open doors and disappeared behind thick metal as they closed. A quick charge down the hall and the two soldiers found themselves on the metal grate bridge over the chasm. The fat man was still seated where they last saw him, still alive beyond all reason.
"That… fuckhead… He locked you out." The Point Man knelt before the dying human, any expression hidden behind the baklava and goggles once more.
"The only way to get in… is to divert power to the doors." It took Kona a moment to realize what the explosive sigh meant. Apparently, this large human had been giving orders to the Point Man for quite some time. And it seemed to be getting on his nerves.
Despite this, the Point Man shouldered his weapon and proceeded the opposite way from the doors. Kona had no choice but to follow. What followed could only be described as hellish; a running gun battle between these Replicas and the two weary soldiers. Only it was not just any sort of Replicas that guarded this place, but what turned out to be the elite forces; more heavily armed and armored then their other counterparts. Kona started to wonder if any one of them would have been a fairly even match for one of his own race, a very disturbing thought all told. The only good side to all of this was that their numbers were few, and the two soldiers managed to fight their way towards the massive power shunts, crawling forward room by bloody room. For all their weaponry and skill, they were still mortal like anyone else in this conflict.
This damnable conflict… Kona thought darkly to himself as the pair activated the last shunt.
If only we had left this infested world alone. If only we had first arrived as planned. If only we had not fallen into that trap in Auburn. If, if, if! All these 'ifs' are driving me crazy! Kona actually growled to himself at these thoughts, and the Point Man turned to look back. The Elite raised a hand to block the unable-to-be-spoken question.
"Musings to myself, brother. Think nothing of it." The Point Man considered this for a moment, then shrugged and carried on. Kona, however, now had new thoughts to dwell on. He had called this human 'brother,' as one comrade does to another in his own species. Would the human recognize the significance of such a slip? Would it hold up to any other Sangheili should they come across them? Kona snorted to himself. Not very likely, seemed to be the answer in both cases. Yet 'brother' he had called this human, and 'brother' he would remain.
At last the pair returned to the human-made chasm, only to have Kona walk into the stopped human. The Elite soon found out why, as another human, a teenaged female, proceeded ahead of one human male that Kona had seen before; Fettle, the commander of the Replica forces.
The Point Man rushed after them, only to have both slip into dust before their eyes, and to see several robotic contraptions the Elite knew as Guardians. These flying horrors mounted smaller versions of their own lasers, and while the bolts themselves were not particularly harmful, they fired in rapid succession and generally came in good sized numbers.
Once more, the Point Man displayed speed unlike Kona had ever seen before, destroying one of the machines and beginning to fire on a second by the time Kona had brought his weapon to bear on the last. Between the two, they managed to bring down all of the Guardians before they inflicted too much damage. As it was, Kona simply waited for his shields to recharge, and the human sprayed a little biofoam onto a rather nasty looking burn before slapping a bandage over it. They approached the controls for the door to find the fat human still lying on the bridge, alive still despite his wound.
"Once you're inside, there are four pylons that power the coolant for the reactor. Destroy all of them, and you'll set off a chain reaction. Blow the whole place to hell… where it belongs. If he lets… Alma out…" The Point Man stiffened at these last words. It was readily apparent that whatever or whoever Alma was, it was Not Good.
The bottom of the elevator shaft into the Vault held a rather large surprise for the two. Suspended in the air before them was a large sphere of some unknown liquid. The cold air inside the room led Kona to assume it was some super cooled fluid of one sort or another. But what was it cooling? Neither knew, although Kona had a good guess it was holding Alma. They once more proceeded around, entering a hallway with glass windows looking into a parallel one. Three Elite Replicas ran down it, armed with those blasted effective grenade launchers. Kona watched as the three disappeared out of sight, only to find his companion gone. He looked about, only to see a trail of blood leading down a corridor. Panicking, Kona followed it to find his newly discovered brother standing before a kneeling Fettle.
"Soon I will find her, and I shall set her free." The Point Man looked at him for a moment, then down at the pistol in his hand, then back once more to Fettle. He seemed to say something, just in the way he stood; "No… You won't."
With that, the human raised his pistol and fired a single shot. This shot took Fettles' life right out from between his eyes. Despite this victory, the Point Man seemed confused, as if he didn't actually expect Fettle to be dead. He recovered when Kona stepped behind him and placed one hand on his shoulder.
"For my dead brothers, I thank you. Vengeance has been served, even if not by our own hands." The Point Man nodded, and now looked towards the human female that lay not far from the now dead Replica commander. The Point Man stepped over and knelt, bowing his head a moment before closing her dead, sightless eyes. She too had become victim of Fettles' dark appetite. Kona silently wished her own spirit well; none deserved the fate Fettle had wrought.
The three Replica Elite that had been running towards the pair before now stood, deactivated, silent sentinels for a terror that had once stalked the world. In a bit of deserved prejudice, the Point Man killed all three and stole their weapons. Kona simply checked over his own weapons, and followed after. There, seated on a table as they walked down a new hallway, was a lap-top. The Point Man activated the last program, a recording, and watched. Both of them watched, with mounting horror, as Harlan Wade spoke to them.
"She was a very disturbed child. Terrible, debilitating nightmares. Hallucinations. Hysteria. She never had a chance at a normal life. It was Disler who realized that she was telepathic. He speculated that she was extremely sensitive to the negative emotions of people around her. We removed her from that chamber only twice. She was fifteen when the first prototype was born. She was supposed to be comatose. But she started
screaming when we induced labor and didn't stop until the liquid filled her
lungs. There are plausible scientific explanations for everything that
followed, but I think was really just a question of hatred. It is the way of men to make monsters. And it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers."
For a moment, they just stared in silence. Then, with a little noise of fear, the Point Man turned and –ran- down the hall to the elevator. Kona almost didn't catch up with the rushing human. As the lift ascended this time, a mechanical arm moved in the large chamber, towards the sphere of cryo-fluids.
"System analysis commencing." A computer voice spoke as the lift ground to a halt. Past the door, they could see Harlan at the controls of the chamber, typing in commands.
"They want to destroy her, but I think she's suffered enough." A pause, he typed away more commands. The fluids broke around one part of the sphere, vaporizing into white clouds of ice-crystal fog, the arm reaching into the mechanical ice-cube.
"We put her in there two days before her eighth birthday." Harlan continued, the arm now bringing the pod out of it's home and towards the group. The Point Man was growing increasingly distressed, searching the door franticly for a way to open it.
"Error. No life signs detected." The computer announced in that inappropriately cheery voice.
"She died six days after we pulled the plug." More commands, the pod hissed into place in the control room. The Point Man was beating on the door in, as if his fear would fuel him enough to break it down. Were he a Lekgolo or Jiralhanae, Kona figured he might very well have been able to do so.
"Release sequence complete." Again, that entirely too cheery computer voice spoke up, and the door slowly slid open to the pod. The Point Man froze, staring at the room through the window. Kona as well, both transfixed by the scene before them.
"This is how it ends." Harlan said, the pod yawning wider. A black cloud began to form around him, the man stepping away.
"Alma… Aaaarrrrgh!" They watched him disappear, melt into that blood splatter, only bones remaining, as a naked human female stepped from the pod. A splatter of blood obscured the window, and there was a flash. Where once only the Point Man had been able to see such things, now Kona saw it too. Alma shifted from her previous form to her "new" one, slowly walking towards them as they lay on the ground.
"Kill them." She whispered, advancing on the helpless mortals.
"Kill them all." She repeated again, then teleported back, and Elder Alma crawled at them in that sideways, crablike, far too fast manner. An ethereal scream echoed, and just before she got them, there was another flash, and the door slowly slid open before them in the real world.
Neither moved, only staring, frozen in place. With a little gurgle, the Point Man was the first to move, rushing after the only direction the ghost could have taken. A set of bloody footprints lead the way, and Kona was quick to follow his companion, not wanting to be left alone in this place.
If the land before had been hell, this must have been the tunnels of Satan's own dark heart. Nightmares, turned real, exploded from rents in reality that even Slipspace could not explain. The dead walked, and conjured forth these terrors. The reactor was reached, both brothers, forged together now in a crucible far more potent then any other war could offer, jittered as they worked the controls, and extended the rods. They fell, the energy arching between the lines. The Point Man paused, Kona looking to him as he did. The human took a breath, and turned to the Sangheili, lifting the goggles up off his eyes. He looked at the Elite, the Elite looked back. No words were needed now; both shared a moment of complete and utter synchronicity.
#Lets send this bitch to hell#
Twin bursts of fire, two grenades from the humans launcher, and a stream of plasma from the Elite's rifle, and the cores detonated. It fell silent. Utterly silent. Then…
With a huge rumbling shake and burst of power, the entire underground complex rocked as if on hydraulics. Both had to flee, and did so with gusto. Emergency lights lit the way, but so did more Nightmares.
They ran, they fired, hoped they wouldn't be followed… More Nightmares, more shakes, Alma was ahead… They didn't see themselves overtake her, but they didn't see her at the elevator either. The Point Man smacked the button, and the lift began to ascend. Going up. Up, out of the ground, away from that… Tomb. Towards the day and the fresh air. Not out yet, even as the lift stopped and the doors parted. More Nightmares blocked their path, but now Kona and the Point Man ran past, destroying or banishing the flimsy creatures back to the nether world. More of the acurst building. The interior of these endless complexes. Kona was about to go mad. He wanted out! He had to get out! He had to escape! One look at his human brother, however, and he calmed; the Human needed the same thing…
Nightmares without end, nerve wracking assaults, never ceasing corridors and shadows… Both were twitching, exhausted, pushed past limits both never knew they had… One last corridor… One last shadow…
Flash.
"I've tried to forget."
Shadows. Nightmares. Fire. No! Not again! Please, not this place again! I can't take anymore!
"I've tried so hard to forget."
Can't go back… Must go forward… Must! Must escape! Must get away! Must stop her…
Oh god… She's here! Of course she's here… This is her mind. Her nightmare. Her prison.
Forward… Her! Shoot! Kill! Stop! Not working? Why!?
Gone? Gone… Where? Where!? Not here… Only fire… Forward…
Again! Shoot! Shoot shoot shoot! Not working! Please stop! Go away!
. . . She listens? No… She toys… Forward…
"You were born here, in this place…"
What's that? Up ahead?
"I was there…"
You… With something… Her! You scream, you die, blood everywhere…
She's there again! Coming towards me! No! Get away! Shoot!
Gone… Back! Die! Just die! Why won't you die!?
Gone again… Closer! Die! Die die die die die die! Please! NO! I DON'T WANT TO GO WITH YOU! GO! DIIIIIIIEEEEEE!
. . . Gone… She reached for me… Why? It looked like…
"My baby…"
What? Child? Fettel? I killed him…
"Give him –back- to me…"
I can't! He's with you in hell!
"Give me back my baby!"
What? Who's this? Where am I? Harlan? Why am I small…
"You will be a god among men."
Me? Why me? What… What's going on.
"Take her back to the vault."
"Nooooooooooooo!"
That scream, I know… It's her… Alma… Alma Wade… Origins…
Mother…
I'm so sorry…
Flash.
The lights brightened, the atmosphere disappeared, only a dusty hallway. Kona blinked, looking around as the oppressive evil disappeared…
"I know who you are..." A voice whispered. But Kona knew, somehow knew, it wasn't for him… A look, and there was the Point Man, sitting on the ground on his knees… Tears rolled down his baklava-clad cheeks. Kona didn't know why… He gulped a breath down, the Point Man, and wiped his eyes, settling the goggles down over them again. He pressed on, more firmly then before. Kona followed, he didn't know what had just happened.
"Human… Brother…" The human paused, and turned to look.
"What happened?" Kona asked, and the human hesitated. He looked down, then back up to the elite. That look was all that was needed.
#I've found the truth. And it hurts. But it frees as well.#
And they pressed on. The human would tell Kona in time… In time…
Out, through the window, deserted streets. Clear sky, open air. Freedom. Kona almost jumped, until… There was a boom. From down the road, came another flash. A fireball rose into the sky, expanding, consuming, growing… The pressure built, and both were thrown against a fence. It built more, and the shockwave hit. Kona knew naught but blackness…
"There he is!"
A rotor-craft, human design. The FEAR agents use them, as the regular craft are the Pelicans. Kona thought this, watching it. He felt a hand in his, a human hand. It squeezed, and he squeezed back.
Darkness…
Light again, the cloud, devastation… Kona was strapped to a seat in the helicopter, Jin was beside him, Holliday was on the floor, and the Point Man rested against the opposite door to the open one.
"I don't know how you lived through that." He said with a note of impressed respect for both.
"Neither do we." Kona responded. The Point Man gave a nod in response. Holliday just grinned, then turned back to the mushroom cloud.
"We still don't know the extent of the damage." Holliday said in answer to their unspoken questions.
"We haven't been able to get through to anyone since the explosion." Jin answered the second set. Silent for a bit. Then…
"What about Alma? What happened to her?" The Point Man frowned; he heard something. There was a jolt, the light went out, and both Kona and the Point Man suddenly knew…
"What was that sound?" Jin asked, both other humans looking to the Point Man. But the Point Man and Kona were looking out at the door, to the naked arm that hauled itself up, then the face…
Elder Alma…
Both shared another moment.
#No…#
Darkness.
