All was quite in the Avengers halls.
Not a sound, no groan of metal, no laughter, no sounds of the humans and aliens running their daily lives, nothing. The ship was landed, and the wind pounded off the hull, yet made no ruckus.
On the deepest, lowest part of the ship, the shadow chamber was awake, the portal into the unknown was ready to embrace the seven fighters, the last assault in the name of XCOM.
Human, Angelko, Muton, and one Avatar body were inside the chamber. No formation, most of them were spread around the chamber, giving off no words, no signs of even recognising the situation they were in.
Luc had hunkered down next to the doorway, the Commanders Avatar and Thalia were stood nearby, but not conversing. Ana stood, gazing over the gate from its behind, Kurt and Phoebe were checking their ammo and plasma weapons for the tenth time. And Dan sat motionless on the other side of the door.
Luc clutched his weapon to his side, barrel facing to the roof. Every now and then he would rub his eyes and shake his head, he looked like someone you'd see in a mental asylum. He didn't feel up to it today, something was pulling his focus away from him. It was like two ends of a rope, one end being his sanity, and an unknown force was gripping the other end, tempting him over the edge.
His heart was pounding, and his head thumped against his skull.
This feeling of nervousness, was not just in his own self. Everyone, even the Commander, was nervous.
But Luc's state, was far from normal.
But he wouldn't, couldn't, mention it.
He knew in this state, the whole mission was compromised, he had been nervous on his first few missions, but today was far beyond anything.
He wanted to warn the Commander, say the words right into her facemask. Don't let me go today.
But his lips were sealed with invisible stitches.
So he sat, only the silence to company him, him and his team. They all wore their warden sets, and had at least one grenade and flashbang strapped to their belts. Top of the line equipment, they were more prepared now than they ever would be.
The team to assault the network tower were out for a while now, he didn't know how long exactly, but it felt like days. Perhaps they had failed, killed off by overwhelming odds, then he could unpack, put down his gun and sleep, sleep and never wake.
He couldn't believe what he was thinking, he wanted XCOM to fail.
Such thoughts could get a man in deep trouble.
For the second time, he pulled off his psi-amp from his back, and stared at the purple void between the teeth. It was smooth, even behind his armoured gloves, and it radiate with as much power as he himself did.
Perhaps he should just get another one, this one brought back painful memories, one that, if he thought about too much, would tear his insides apart.
He wanted to be done with all this already.
"Are they done yet?" he blurted out.
"No contact." The Avatar replied, and went back to staring down at her gun.
She bared an alien rifle, much like the one the other Avatar had, the thing could chew through buildings with the upgrades it had.
After that, he stayed quiet, but inside, he wanted something, anything, to break the silence, it was weighing him down like a ton of bricks.
So they sat, and stood, in relative silence for a good ten minutes.
"Hey, Thalia?"
Kurt.
She gruffed, and moved her head to face him.
"Remember that time, that Turkish lady dropped you like a bag of sand?"
"Only after I dropped you." She quickly replied. "Besides, I won didn't I?"
"Yeah, with some…help."
Kurt's eyes drifted to the crouched form of Luc. No words were needed, she went wide eyed, and huffed, like an angry wolf.
"You…"
Luc felt eyes upon him, he moved his hung head up to her direction, and smiled.
"I thought we weren't going to bring this up." the Commander commented.
"You…you all in on this?"
They all nodded in sync.
She felt sick on the inside, she thought she could prove her strength, thought the Commander saw her as strong, loyal, and able to take down even the strongest human she had seen. And when she was in that battle, she had a human helping her win. She felt ashamed.
To no one's knowledge, the Commander gained some similar powers as Luc had, one of them being able to read thoughts, and the Muton was no exception.
Truthfully, she didn't know how to react to the poor Muton, she knew her intent, but not how to approach back to her, it was a giant after all.
Dan leant his head into view, giant sniper over one shoulder.
"I'd pay to see that again."
Thalia grunted, and adjusted her respirator.
"I'll fight again, without you." She jabbed a finger in Luc's direction.
"Thalia, we all know you would've collapsed had he not." said Kurt.
She gave that death stare she always liked to do. Kurt said no more, and checked his gun again.
Throughout this ordeal, Phoebe had not said anything, nor had Ana or Luc. She would glance at the Viper and human in turn, and eventually started to pry away from Kurt, and towards Ana, who never left her eyes from the gate.
She joined her side, and they exchanged small smiles.
After a few moments of silence, Phoebe coughed once, and stared at the portal with her.
"You and Luc, huh?"
She nods.
"Why aren't you over there?"
A pause. "Can't let emotions get through to us, not now."
"I don't know about you, but look at him, he doesn't look very…you know..."
Ana turned her head, and stared down at the hunched human. If he hadn't been clutching his eyes every few moments, he would have looked normal. She felt terrible, she hadn't noticed him doing this for the time they awaited in the chamber.
She thought for a minute, thanked her, and went over to him. He didn't even move his eyes when she coiled down to meet his level.
"What's wrong?" she whispered.
"Its…"
"Eyes up people! The tower is ours, now it's our turn to strike."
The Avatar readied its rifle, and walked towards the front of the gate. The rest of them stood, and got into formation.
Said formation was one line behind the masked Avatar. It was ordered with Luc at the front, and Dan at the back, the rest of them in between, waiting with batted breath.
Ana was directly behind Luc, she sent him thoughts of comfort, he turned and gave a small smile, but strangely, didn't return them. She brushed this off.
"Were going in thirty! Every fifth second after, one of you joins me, understood?"
"Yes Commander!" they all chanted in unison.
Directly above and behind the gateway was a small screen, the number thirty came up in red, and slowly ticked down towards zero. The gate itself began to glow brighter, covering their eyes a shade of purple.
Ana looked over Luc's shoulder, the Commander had one hand to her ear, the other had a palm outstretched, seeming to give the gateway its new found energy.
Twenty.
Thalia grunted behind her, one massive beam canon across her chest, she was adjusting small dial on the side, and nodded when Ana looked at her.
The other three humans were in a combat stance, the GREMLIN hovered slightly to the right of Pheebs, the Mark-3 drone was smooth looking, almost alien in design, it still held two bright yellow eyes, constantly hovering, with medkit's strapped to its sides.
Thirteen.
She remembered shaking hands with Central, Tygan and Shen as they armoured up, she had come so far, she used to be treated poorly by humans, now she saw them as equals, and these fighters, these XCOM, saw her as a friend.
Six.
She hoped they all made it back, this whole thing, the whole point of XCOM, was hinged on hope.
Hope that they could stop the Elders.
One.
The Commander, without so much as a hint of hesitation, jumped off her feet, and through the gate, one moment she was there, the next, she wasn't.
The timer slowly started to ascend its count.
Two.
Luc looked back at her, he gave a nod, and a smile before fixing his eyes forward.
Five.
Luc sprinted, and was gone. A wave of worry passed, but didn't linger, he would be OK.
Ten.
She lunged through.
-XXX-
A feeling of nothingness, a feeling of falling, of flying, of weightlessness. This is what they felt when they stepped through the gate. They all were on the Avenger, and then they were also somewhere else, some part of the world deep beneath the surface. Far into the terrors of the deep.
He saw the sides of the gate on the edges of his vision, it looked as if he was going down a long highway, and all of everything he saw was stretched like rubber bands. His rifle in front of him looked ten times bigger, and the end of the gate was an unimaginable distance.
Yet he was closing in on the end at the speed of light.
One foot in front of him, one behind. He was in mid jump, mid step, and he moved slowly, almost stuck in time.
The journey felt like a minute long, when it was only one thousandth of a second before he was stood next to the Commander in an alien world.
Raising his rifle, he checked everywhere for anything. They stood on a flying platform that went on for a mile in front of them. All around the platform was glass, with ass sorts of swimming wildlife panning across the glass.
In front of them were large structures, alien in design, with bland grey exteriors, and parts of the edges had curling metals that wrapped the walls like vines.
They reminded him of something, something familiar. They were identical to the ones where they found the Viper king, but it didn't just remind him of that. It reminded him…
Of home. Whatever that was. He didn't know anymore.
Five whoosh sounds came from behind him, every five seconds, his team appeared, and scanned the room with curious eyes just like he did.
A massive beast of a shark swan by overhead.
"What the…" Kurt started.
"Eyes up, move in a line, don't fall behind." the Commander interrupted.
But as they moved in a line, Luc on the right side, the Commander on the left, and all the others in between, a sort of alien TV stood before then, and lit up a series of videos.
Footage of dozens of bodies, alien and human, revolting against one another and slaughtering themselves in the streets of cities. People fought and died within seconds, there bodies twisted, broken, and mouths agape with silent pleas.
Fires, the burning of civilization, the start of a revolution.
A feminine voice went through them all as they watched, they all, even the Commander, stopped when they heard it ring through their heads.
"Such loss, such needless waste. You force our hand. Yet still we offer peace. Rejoin us and your world will be spared."
The voice was familiar as well.
They ignored it, and pushed forward to the first alien structure. On their sides, more gates identical to the one they passed through could be seen, lined up like a set of experiments, Luc wondered where they lead to.
Perhaps to alien worlds, or other parts of the earth, didn't matter.
They spread out, keeping a constant forward pace, they passed through the structure without incident, and found nothing of interest inside the alien building. There were what looked like garden beds lining the hollow interior, about waist high holding weird purple plants, but that was all that was of interest.
The Elders sure loved there purples.
They passed the structure, the platform opened up to a wide area, gateways dotted around the place with no indication of order, and machinery hummed away below and in front of them. Two gateways were on either side of them, and Luc slowly walked past the first, and felt one of them start to pulse.
It was activating.
"Comman…"
Before he finished, six MECS with red armour appeared from the edge of the open area in front of them, they were accompanied with three codex's and two archons. They pointed, shouted, and displaced into cover behind the alien machines, which looked similar to cylindrical power generators.
"Take them down!" the Commander said loudly, charging and firing her rifle while running behind a gateway. Luc did the same, and pounded an Archon with two beams, killing it immediately, its mechanical body didn't even get to raise its staff as it plunged into the ground.
The portal he hid behind began to hum.
Phoebe's GREMLIN hovered over the cluster of MEC's, and emitted a devastating EMP charge from its sides, the shockwave knocked out half of the MEC's before flying back to its master.
All of the codex's appeared behind the middle of the XCOM line, and Thalia had the worst of it as they fired at their flanks. She did not take this lightly, she roared, turned on her heel, and mowed down the codex's that hid inside the building they had passed. The arced doors and windows gave no protection against the Muton's might.
Her canon screamed, and so did she.
They duplicated, her canon ripped through most of the cover the building provided, leaving the clones exposed, but after half a minute of non stop firing, she had weakened the three codex's…
Into six.
Six weak codex's were still a pain, and Thalia roared again in triumph, and anger. Her shoulder was hit twice, but her armour held.
She ran back, lobbing grenades as she did.
The fight in front was going well, the other archon was accompanied by one weakened MEC, which buzzed every few seconds, sending blue sparks down to the metal ground. They fired blindly as they ran away from the fight. Dan lined up a shot, his crosshairs matched those of the MEC's torso. But just as he fired, it ducked into another similar structure like the one behind them, some fifty meters ahead.
They had all turned, and picked off the remaining clones, much to Thalia's disproval. Once the fight had settled, the Commander ordered that they push forward, to eliminate the two survivors. They trekked across the open area, leaving the humming gates behind them.
They were just seen exiting the other side of the next alien building.
"Fire!" the Commander barked.
"You harbour such blind hatred for us, we cannot understand it. Our intentions for your world were never hostile. They are still not. You are a part of us."
At that, several dozen ADVENT troopers backed up the two survivors, troopers, captains, lancers and shield bearers. There had to be at least thirty of them, all clustered around cover, guns trained on the XCOM team.
A volley of fire erupted between the two forces, XCOM received some grazes as they dodged for cover.
The Commander extended her arms like she was praying, and a huge dome of a purple cloud appeared in the midst of ADVENT's ranks. All the ten or so in the cloud had jammed weapons, but before they could attempt to fix them, the cloud scrunched inwards, and exploded in a wave of fury, killing them all from there insides out.
Luc made a few of their grenades blow off their waists, sending chunks of flesh flying, he didn't need his amplifier, but used it anyway.
A lucky shot nicked Luc's shoulder, if it were not for his dark blue armour, a red cloud would have sprayed behind him, but the thick alloy held, and it only felt like a punch to him. He fired off a single shot, wielding his gun blindly above a small barrier that he hid himself behind. His aim was true, and he felt a troopers mind vanish.
At that, he hooked his rifle to his belt, and pulled off his amplifier off his back once more, true he could not replicate exactly what the Commander had just done, but he could do something similar.
It looked like a whirlpool, like the bottom of a pool of water had just had its plug pulled, it consumed three of his foes, who all cluttered behind the next structures wall. It fired out of his amplifier like a beam, then grew into the purple void he had cast. One of the troopers died, one panicked, and backed off, and one had its mind controlled by Luc, and fired at its two would-be comrades.
To Luc's left, his team crouched and stood behind similar cover, but Dan and Phoebe, along with her drone, had ascended to small platforms that jutted out of the ground, gaining a small height advantage of about ten meters.
Dan picked off the MEC with one last bullet, and leant his rifle on the platforms edge before raining a hand to his head, to the commlink.
"Commander, I see more squads on approach up ahead." he said calmly, ignoring the fight in front of him.
"We push them back, retreat isn't an option." she replied.
Then the Elder spoke.
"Stop this pointless fight, and we will not harm you"
"Like we are gonna believe that." commented Kurt as he fired off his rifle, killing a captain and wounding a lancer, who had kamikaze rushed across the open with a blade in hand.
"More distrust. Perhaps you would find reassurance on our words if…"
The voice trailed off, and left their heads, but it didn't leave entirely. One of the XCOM soldiers heard its voice come back to his ears, and he presumed they all heard it.
"..If one of your own sees the light in our truth."
"Commander.." Luc started.
She continued killing off the poor helpless ADVENT soldiers, only for one kill was to be replaced with two identical clones.
"Commander…"
"What?"
"We will be…killed, we must surr….fall back."
"No, keep firing!"
She took a green beam of energy to her chest as she popped out of cover to fire, she grunted, and hunkered lower to avoid any more fire.
More and more ADVENT and aliens continued to pour in from up ahead, eventually, all Luc could do was stay behind the thin barrier that was saving his life at this point, as great beams shot overhead.
Beams screamed, and Luc hunkered, almost curling into a ball to shrink himself as much as he could.
Ana was beside him, he hadn't noticed her the whole while, she was much more cocky than he was, she would twirl her body in and out of cover every few seconds and peppered anything that moved. Surprisingly, she didn't take a single hit, even after several attempts at stopping the tide of the enemy.
But she knew one thing, every time she saw the waves of ADVENT in front of them.
It didn't look good.
They must fall back.
Suddenly, over the wailing beams and bullets, came more whoosh sounds, several of them, maybe dozens. The same sound that was heard when they travelled here.
Sounds of gates activating.
She spun around, the four gates on their flanks had lit up like stars.
Aliens came through, after a few seconds, the number of aliens reached fifty.
All armed to the teeth.
All Angelko.
This was it, either they fall to the ones on the flank, or the ones that had them pinned, her eyes widened, her heart stopped. Not because of this realisation, but because of one of the last to pass through the gate..
Was her mother, was her Queen.
Aiming two pistols at her head.
And fired both of them.
The beams soared passed Ana, she ducked to be sure, but it wouldn't have hit her, a lancer, who had crossed the gauntlet and had eyes on Ana, fell to the ground. The rest of the Queens guards, all wearing heavy versions of armour, similar to what Ana had donned before this morning, ran passed the XCOM line, and fought against the tide.
Spitting poison, choking troopers with powerful tails, killing without hesitance. And with the combination of XCOM, the ADVENT forces began to grow thin, and started to fall back.
And the Angelko perused, leaving behind XCOM, the Queen, and a few of her guards.
Ana and the Queen closed the distance between each other, and the humans (plus the Avatar/Commander) watched on, slightly on edge.
They were a foot apart from each other, and were silent for a minute before Ana broke the silence.
"Mother."
"…Daughter."
There she was, the one to shy her away from the big bad world, the one to twist lies into her thinking that she was merely 'A2' rather than the next of kin to the hierarchy of the species.
Ana felt that she should be opposed to ever seeing her after what she had learned, yet she knew the Queen cared so much for her, that she didn't want her taken away by the Elder that came before.
She didn't truly know what to do at the moment. A confliction had paralysed her at that moment, should she be angry? Grateful? Neither? She didn't want to linger any longer, so she sought out a reason so as to not tread.
She turns her back on her mother, and slithers forwards towards where her kind had gone, towards the somewhat distant firing of beams ahead of her. She passed by Luc without a thought nor word.
"Ana?" he called out when she passed, but she didn't even react, only the sound of her tail crossing over the metal ground beneath them.
Luc watches her, turns his head to the Queen, then back to Ana, and decides to follow her. This left the Queen, and her guards, around the XCOM team.
And the Commander had questions.
-XXX-
Just finish the fight.
Then she could worry about her mother.
Or not, she could just forget her, forget all of this ever happening, and spend her life away from it all, just her and her human.
Before her were broken bodies, some of them were of her own kind, but the majority were ADVENT, along with aliens of most races, all ripped apart and slaughtered like cattle.
It was naïve of her to even consider that she lusted for combat during her early days, she just wanted things to go back to the way they were.
Maybe, maybe it would.
Up ahead the metal below her rose into the air slightly, mimicking that of a hill. And a rectangular building presented itself, it walls were glass, and what she saw inside came as a shock as she sped up her pace.
Signs of human furniture, in a place like this, was quite weird.
She came up to the glass and pressed her head close. The best comparison she could make would be that of an enclosure of those old 'Zoo's' the old earth had. It was as if they plucked a piece of a city, no more than ten meters wide, and slapped it to wherever this fortress resided.
She went through a broken section of glass, avoiding the shrapnel on the floor nearby, and she gazed upon the mysterious rooms with awe. White rubble crunching beneath her weight as she did so, making small cracks below her.
The stench of this place was awful.
One room, as she wondered through the structure with no caution, held a bed, and some desks. Another was that of a living room, couch and a TV. And the last she saw was something of a playground, with dull green grass, withered away from lack of natural sunlight, a set of swings on one side, a circular spinning contraption next to it.
But all of this was nothing compared to what lay about on the wooden and grassy floors.
Bodies, skeletons at that.
No more than the size of grown children.
It wasn't just bones, linking them together were remnants of decaying flesh, chunks of skin were missing, like huge bites had been bitten out of the bodies arms and legs. Most of the bionics looked like rotten fruit, and gave off a belching smell that irritated her senses.
Reluctantly, she hunkered down beside the closest corpse/skeleton, its face was still somewhat whole, except the fact its lower left chin was open, allowing her a glimpse at the bottom of his jaw.
Black hair, glistening eyes even though he lay dead for who knows how long.
The boy from the blood islands.
She quickly straightened up, now clutching her gun in shock, and backed up. Her back bumped into a hard metal surface, and she spun around to meet whatever she had hit. Fangs bared, gun raised.
It was Luc, she hadn't heard him approach.
"Ana…" He had only just stepped into the enclosure she resided in, and had to fight the urge to release his lunch at the horrible sight before him. "You OK?"
"No… No I am not…" she replied truthfully, glancing behind her at the rotten corpses.
"Let's leave this place." He said as he placed one hand on her shoulder, he sounded more like trying to leave for his sake rather than her own. They exited out of the other side of the building, and Luc had a look back to the human zoo, and before he could utter a word to his alien friend, the voice in his head returned.
"So many lives lost to get you here, Luc. And for what? More violence, more death. Truly you are meant for something more than this."
Here he was, stuck in the middle of some alien fortress at the bottom of an ocean. What did he do to deserve this fate? It was pointless, whether they had alien allies or not, the Elders would win, and there was no point fighting.
Yet they did not come all this way just to lay down and die, they had to keep going. They had to.
"There is still another way."
Get out of my head.
"Time and again, we offer you wisdom, offer our guidance to help you. Yet you still harbour rejection for our compassion."
"Ana, do you hear that voice?" he asked as they walk beside each other, up ahead, the Queens forces were picking off the final remnants of ADVENT and Elder forces, though at heavy cost, they got the job done quickly.
"Not for a while now."
She does not carry greatness within her, you do Luc, you do.
Unbeknownst to Luc, Ana's mind was cloudy with the sights of those small corpses, that selfish part of himself thought that she didn't care about him, that she was just out for her own good, and that he was just a tool that her species used to kill the Elders himself.
"You fight with two alien species beside you. You gave them a chance. Why not give this to the ones you continue to slaughter?"
Neither of them spoke for the long walk.
They passed a gatekeeper's shell, and hulking wrecks of Andromedon's. Until they came up to a choke point on the platform, a narrow walkway was the only way forward, no more than two humans wide, it went under an alloy archway and into the unknown. The bottom of a statue could just be seen at the end of the walkway. Either side of the arch were the remaining Queens forces, about thirty, maybe more. None of them gave Luc and Ana a second glance, merely a bow, and then checking their weapons while they wait.
The next four or so minutes were silent, the voices had stopped for now, and Ana didn't utter a word to anyone, she just casted her eyes down to the ground, with Luc next to her.
Soon the Queen, the Commander, and there teams came into view. XCOM all gathered to Ana and Luc, while the Queen led her own to a nearby area, like two teams about to face off in a football game. They gathered into a huddle, Phoebe's drone tending to their wounds as they spoke.
"A temporary truce is between us and them is present, we do our thing, they do there's, Ana, is you want to…"
"No, my place is with you all." Ana replied to the Commander.
"Alright, let's keep going, I got a feeling this will be over soon. Form up behind me, get ready to move."
They did so, lining up behind the Avatar like the dots on the side of a dice. Beside Luc was Kurt, who nudged his shoulder after a moment of waiting.
"You see those kids back there?" he whispered.
"Yeah."
"To think that that is what they have been doing down here, possibly for years. Why would they do that?"
"They must have had reason to do so."
"Reason? No, no there's no reason to do something like that."
Luc didn't even realise he was trying to defend the Elders, so he nodded, and spoke no more.
The Queen went through the archway first (the Commander insisted) and led her small army behind her. Some of them glanced at them, but they moved swiftly into the walkway, two by two.
Once they disappeared, the Commander ordered them to move out, and they followed the aliens through. Luc wanted to talk to Ana, ask her more about why she reacted so strongly to the children's corpses, or at least comfort her, but this was a warzone, there was no time for her.
The Queen gathered her forces to the left side of the opening on the other side of the walkway, and XCOM went to the right side. Between them, the biggest statue of an Elder could be seen, it towered over them, almost reaching the roof. It radiated with intimidation, with power, made out of what looked to be solid gold.
"If putting a statue of yourself in your own fortress doesn't tell you you're a power hungry murdering race, then you need to take a good look at yourself." Kurt commented as he examined the large statue.
In front of the statue was a small square podium, a few seconds later a black hole appeared above it, and another Avatar appeared on top of it, it held a purple ball of energy in its left hand, and a rifle in the other. It looked menacingly at the groups before disappearing, but not without a threatening message, this is what Luc heard:
"Your efforts deny the sacrifice of those who came before. If you do not listen, do not return to us, then you leave us no choice."
The message was different for everyone, but the meaning was all the same.
The Queen held up her two pistols, and her small army followed her around the left of the statue, XCOM went to the right.
The area ahead had stretched on for a hundred meters, on the left and right sides were eight gateways, four on each side, all of them had sets of stairs leading up small ramps into them. The central area had small towers that extended out randomly. Between the five or so towers were terminals and trenches, flooded with small amounts of water. Every single surface had the magenta alien look to it, and they spread out to cover as much of the area as they could, passing by the first gateway on their right.
Luc took cover in a trench, his feet kicking up small splashed of water as he went into a crouch and peered ahead of him. He couldn't see his team, as his eyes were fixed on the tower in the most centre of the area.
Two archons, and three Avatars were on the roof of the tower. The three of them were identical, weightless white hair, purple masks, all holding purple guns of death. They gazed over XCOM and its allies like kings would to peasants.
"Take them down!" the Commander said angrily.
The agile bodies of the humanoid Avatars dropped into crouches, one even leapt off the tower and into a trench on the left side, firing at the queen and her forces. The archons flew up high in the sky, and sent four missiles each into the forces below. They spread out, and only one missile caused harm to XCOM, the Commander hadn't bothered moving, she was to focused on killing the Avatars. It crashed near her, but she didn't even flinch.
Luc couldn't speak for the Queen or her army, he swear he heard some distressed hissing on his far left, but didn't think about it for long, as an archon swooped over him like a bird, almost knocking his head off with its green staff.
He fired up at the god-like machine, surprisingly, its left arm was snapped off completely, spewing out blackish yellow goop out of its side. It made a mechanical cry as its engines seemed to turn off and on randomly. It fell to the ground with a clunk, and dropped its staff to clutch effortlessly at its limbless body.
With splashing water, Luc dashed forward, keeping his head low in the trench.
Thalia and Phoebe were on the right most side of the team, they had fired and landed a few shots on one of the Avatars, making it teleport away from them. However there relief was short lived, as the portal directly behind and beside them lit up with a purple glow.
"Thalia?" Phoebe said, holding in her panicky voice.
"What?" Her screaming canon made her yell over it.
"THALIA!"
A few shots.
Thalia turned, Phoebe jumped passed her from leaping. Thalia looked to what the reason for her jumping was, and spied three K'yul, one had just been retracting its long deadly arm, and they all stumbled towards her.
"Faceless!" cried Phoebe, spraying the rest of her gun at the closest slob, making it hunch over in response.
Without enough time to raise her great canon, Thalia got swiped over her chest with three deadly talons from one of the lumbering beasts. She roared, and returned the favour by jumping up slightly, and uppercutting the first faceless. If its goopy exterior was blood, then a bucket load of it fell to the floor, and coated Thalia's hand.
The faceless fell to one knee, not out, but down. Phoebe (and her GREMLIN'S taser) fired at the second sloppy beast with all the ammo they currently had. Tearing holes and splattering chunks of goo behind it. After a second of staring stupidly at them, as if to say 'How the hell did that happen?' it fell back, its pink residue spreading out around it.
The final ones beady black eyes went wide, acknowledging that its friends had no chance, even with the element of surprise against the rather angry Muton. It turned and tried to run back to the gate it came through, despite the Elders orders. It didn't live long, and never got a single attack off as the Muton's canon tore through its chest, and it crumpled to the floor face first, the floor being the last thing its eyes could see before darkness.
Then, with one last effort, she stomped on the back of the kneeling Faceless. Killing it instantly.
"Well…" Phoebe said with a sigh. "Guess that's over..."
The next gateway activated, and speeding down the stairs, were a group of Chryssalids.
Thalia roared, and charged into them, leaving a wide eyed human and her GREMLIN to support her from a safe distance.
Ana heard a roar on her right flank, but didn't react. Instead she fired at the group of troopers and Surn-tal ahead of her, which were led by two Avatars. She noticed the third Elder body had turned its attention to the Queen (or mother, she didn't know which to call her) and her guardians.
Nox, holding a plasma shotgun in one hand, a blue sword in the other, swiped and fired at anything ahead of him as he pushed forward as fast as he could. The Commander cast more voids into the enemy forces, killing off five and wounding three.
She fired at a Surn-tal, killing it quickly. She then slithered forward and scaled the tower the Avatars were first seen, firing down range as she did so. After a minute of trading fire, Nox pulled back to the front of her tower, and Papa came up beside her, levelling his sniper rifle, nodding to her, and firing along with her.
On her left flank, Luc was sprinting forward.
He had put his back to an alien terminal, he was somewhat closer to the Queens side now, and he examined who was left of them. About half of their ranks had been wiped out, they dotted the ground nearby the side portals, along with Chyssalid corpses and Sectoid bodies. The Queen, firing her pistols like some western cowboy, slithered to him and took cover with him, reloading her guns at the same time.
"Where is the Avatar?" he asked.
"It's down, but at a heavy price." she said with a glance behind her.
"You will be overrun in this place, we can pull our armies back at any time, but that's up to you, Luc. Rejoin us, get the Commander to rejoin us."
He shook his head to clear the harsh words in his head.
"Let's move."
She nodded, and they pushed forward.
"Failure here is the end for all."
He was now beside the central tower with Ana and Dan on its roof, he fired a null lance towards an Avatar, hitting it and killing the trooper which was behind it.
The Elders voice was no longer peaceful, its sounded angry, and impatient.
"For the last year you have been a part of us Luc. Your truly capable of so much more, yet you never grasp the true nature of your power. Return to us, let us help you. We will spare you and your remaining friends, your love will not be harmed."
A part of them?
"Yes, we all have been watching you, helping you, giving you guidance, do you not agree?"
He stopped squeezing the trigger on his gun. They were wrong, he was in control, it was him that got himself this far.
"You don't think you got this far on your own did you? Do you not remember when we first met?"
…
"Does the name Gulisa help you?"
Your…your Gulisa?
"No.. we are all one within ourselves, she is merely our emissary to you. She was the one to help you the most, our gratitude towards you. If not for her, you would have died long ago."
A pause.
"Come now, who did you think was that voice in your head was. Think about it, did you ever hear it before you crossed the desert?"
What voice? What was it talking about?
This voice.
Now it all clicked, like the last two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. All those thoughts, those little mental comments he had had during his time before and on the Avenger. Were none of them his?
I am the voice of Gulisa.
The whole time, he thought about it, it might have been his thoughts at some points, but couldn't be sure. His time before the desert didn't have as much mental comments as he did now. So one thing was clear.
Central was right, he was possessed.
Not possessed, I'm here to help.
A burst of energy atop the tower snapped him out of it, he saw an Avatar teleport behind Ana and Dan. Using one foot, it kicked Ana off the edge, sending her sprawling to the ground near Kurt, face first. Without looking to Dan to witness his fate, Luc stumbled towards Ana's fallen figure.
Some things hold you back.
"You will be our next greatest asset to this world, return, return to us."
Luc fought it, fought the voices, he recognised his own self speaking, but was drowned out by Gulisa.
No..I won't…I
You will.
He stood over Ana, his shadow towering over her. Without his own accord, he saw her as nothing more than an alien that needed killing.
Unknown to him, the Avatar on the tower had its amplifier pointed at him, it went unnoticed to nearly everyone.
Luc brought up his left foot, intent on smashing the snakes skull in. But before he could bring his boot down, and armoured figure smashed into him, and dent him to the ground.
It was Kurt, holding his blade to his side, with a surprised expression on his face.
"Luc! What're you doing?!"
"N…No…I'm in control." He muttered like someone in an asylum.
Embrace it, just let me in.
I can't, I won't let you.
You are nothing. Without us, you are nothing, you couldn't live an hour out there without us.
I escaped New Isa without you.
New Isa, yes… Tell me something, what happened the day before you found out you had cancer?
An easy Question.
…
I'm waiting.
The day before… The clinic, but before that he… He couldn't remember.
You erased my life!
I won't lie to you, I haven't done such things to you, only the first we met, that's all. And you got that back on your own, surely your whole life couldn't be forgotten, even for me.
She was right, in a way, she wasn't lying, he knew that. But the past twenty years of his life were blank. And he didn't need an Elder to tell him that much.
How about this, who was your father? Mother?
He didn't know.
He told Ana (he didn't know when) that they died long ago. He was lying, he didn't know they were alive or dead.
Why can't I remember?
I can tell you, I can give you all the answers, I can tell you who your parents are, who you are from before New Isa. But you have to embrace me, let me take control.
Luc must have had strong will to keep physical control for such a long time, but the Elder didn't comment on this.
Without thinking, Luc grabbed the blade Kurt held, and tugged it hard, his hand was cut badly, and the shock almost made him pass out. He chucked the blade to his other hand, and slashed at one of Kurt's knees, sending him down. Now Ana and Kurt were on the ground, Ana was dazed from landing on her head, and Kurt had his arms raised, telling Luc to calm down, but Luc didn't pay him no attention.
You don't care for him, but you care for her…
Luc held the fusion blade, and without control, he shifted towards Ana.
I..I do…there my friends…
Kurt? You don't care for him a bit and you know it.
He had told Ana a while ago that he always thinks about his old friends, Indira and James. Said he never forgot them.
He was lying.
He couldn't give a damn whether they lived or not.
That was the hard, sad truth.
But why? He knew, just knew that they were old comrades, living in the smallest city, but if he couldn't remember any of it, then what happened?
I can tell you, just do one thing for me.
What?
Kill her.
No..why?
She holds you back, she must go.
Why hadn't someone help him already? He couldn't shift his eyes much, only his two friends were in his vision, them and the blade. It felt like the time they entered the Elder's shield back when the Avenger was down. Time moved differently here, there only little reality inside the alien fortress.
Why didn't you make me do this sooner?
The Elders (And Gulisa) didn't answer. Luc thought it may have been due to the fact of Gulisa's weakness, or the help of the Elders in this room. But he couldn't be sure.
His arm holding the blade went limp, so did his body, he hadn't noticed he became ridged during the last few moments, Gulisa had given him control, wanting him to kill Ana on his own will, of his own accord. A cruel test that no one deserved.
Resist, he would surely be taken over and Gulisa would do it for him, and if he let her control him, the same outcome. It seemed to be the end of the road, either Ana would die by his hand, or the Elders. No matter how hard Luc tried, his mind seemed to be stuck in limbo, as if someone wedged a piece of insanity into his skull, tugging him back like rope.
He raised the blade high in the air, intent on bringing it down on Ana like a lumberjack hits a tree. Perhaps through her sacrifice he could save himself…Maybe he should bring it down on his own head, save himself the trouble.
Ana, still coiled down after her hard fall on her head, lazily opened her dreamy eyes and caught his gaze. She uttered one word, one she said as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Luc?"
He plunged the blade.
-XXX-
It clicked in his mind.
He had free will.
Perhaps he could get out of this after all. But not without sacrifices. It would bear him down for his life, or perhaps not. Apparently he didn't care about anything, so says the Elder.
But there was one thing he did come to care for, Luc didn't care for humans, but aliens were different, and he happened to fall for one.
The blade he held was coated with blood that dripped to the floor. He chucked it off to the side, and got to his knees beside his victim.
The weightlessness, the feeling of the lightness in his steps, the incredible psionic power within him, was gone. Gone like a grain of sand lost in the wind. True his hair was still white, and he would still be able to use his powers, but maybe not to such a high degree.
"Luc…"
"I… I'm sorry, Kurt."
He coughs, blood trickled down his chin. "F….Fuckin Elder's, hey?"
Luc couldn't believe that he saw a smile on the dying man's face.
"Yeah…"
Luc heard commotion above him, he turned, and saw the Commander Avatar finishing off the other Avatar on the roof. This now dead Elder had been controlling Luc like a puppet on strings, and now those strings were severed. Perhaps if the Commander was quicker…
Its amplifier smashed to the ground. That small little tool had brought forth Gulisa, and now...was she gone?
Gulisa's presence was gone. It was like a pimple, always there, yet now that it was gone, his mind felt empty like a cave. A sense of relief washed over him, he sighed, and turned back to his friend, supporting his head with his hand.
"Your…promise…"
"What?" Luc voice was light, almost a wheeze.
"You won the…bet…You know, kills?"
He felt like crying, but couldn't.
"No, no you're not going to die."
"You got me good…" he coughed again. "Don't bother..sugar coating it…"
Luc began coughing as well, coughing blood, yet it wasn't because of wounds. It was the cancer, it had return like the menace it was. Maybe Gulisa really was holding it back for him, waiting for the right moment…maybe.
Kurt didn't need words to ask Luc what was wrong.
"Cancer."
"Didn't tell me? Why?"
"I don't know."
Suddenly Luc realised something. There Kurt was, who lived in New Isa just like Luc, he had the answers, Kurt could tell him, tell him everything.
"Kurt, what happened when…Kurt?"
Kurt's body relaxed, arms no longer fighting the hole in his chest, the blade melted the area around his stomach. His eyes were cloudy, then whatever light in them, left.
This didn't stop Luc from carrying him over his shoulder like a fireman, he hoisted him up, and scanned his surroundings.
The Avatars were dead, and the rest of his team was running down to the final part of the platform, where one large gateway stood menacingly. Ana was now stood next to him, eyes full of surprise.
"Luc.."
"Let's move!" he said without emotion.
Without second guessing, they ran and slithered to the gateway. The Queen, along with only ten or so of her forces, was with his team. He checked them over, no one else was dead, Dan had a bloody head, but was still stood upright.
The water cave began to rumble, shaking like an earthquake. The portal began thrashing around, as if it was out of control.
Out of the nearby gates, this was the only one active, and it looked broken.
"Let's go back, back to the one we came through!" Thalia said above the collapsing fortress.
"No time." the Commander responded, outstretching one arm to the portal.
"Commander we…"
The Queen was cut off, the portal in the gateway stabilized, and the Commander was the one to do it.
"MOVE!" she cried.
The Queen and her forces were the first to pour through. After the last one was through, the gateway went crazy for a moment before going normal again.
Water began leaking through the glassy skies.
"Can't do this for long, get going!"
Without hesitating, XCOM went through. First Dan, then Thalia, but as Luc approached with Kurt's corpse, Phoebe froze in place.
"K…Kurt?"
"Move Pheebs!" he pushed her ahead of him, and she disappeared into the purpleness. The platform they stood on trembled, and Luc almost toppled over. He walked into the gateway, Ana on his flank. He yelled over the crashing base.
"You coming Commander?!"
"Right behind you!"
He nodded, knowing full well that she wasn't behind those words. After a moment he disappeared into the gateway.
Ana followed, and the last thing she saw was several ghostly figures behind her, all of them Elders. Then she saw blackness, and left the Commander to her fate.
-XXX-
A mouthful of sand greeted her. She spat it out after a few seconds, and heard the sounds of crashing waves ahead of her.
She looked up, and a great vastness of blue presented itself to her. Small waves of water, no taller than her hand, hit against her tail below her. She sat up, and gazed to her left.
Two armoured figures, one kneeling, one laying still, were two meters beside her. She got to her full height and approached him, the sand parted in her wake, until she was beside the hunched figure she loved.
Luc was breathing somewhat heavily, as if out of breath. She placed one hand on his shoulder and stared at the lifeless corpse he knelt beside.
She opened her mouth to say something. But Luc screamed, screamed a deep, angry scream. His face screwing up in deep hatred, hatred that he couldn't feel anything inside him, even as his friend lay lifeless beside him. He felt inhumane, he felt like a machine.
He closed his eyes, trying hard to find something, anything towards Kurt…
And found nothing.
To his left, a tree line of not so dense trees banked the sand, covering a large hill in greenery. Humans, local residents, had gathered around on the beaches edge, whispering and muttering to each other about them.
He raised up the commlink with one hand.
"Commander?"
Static.
"Central?"
A long droning crackle, then a swoosh, and muttering.
"Lance? What's your status?"
"I'm with K…Nox, he's down, Ana is with me, where at…I don't know, where's everyone else?"
"There fine, somewhere in Germany. We'll track you coordinates, Avengers on the way. Hold position."
"O…OK Central. What about the Commander?"
"She's alright… is Nox.."
"Dead. Pick us up last, there's… no point in hurrying."
"…Copy that, see you soon."
A click, then silence.
Luc went back on his haunches in defeat, and stared down at the sand, not willing enough to look at Kurt any longer.
Ana coiled next to him, and put one arm around him, leaning her head on his shoulder. He return it, and neither spoke.
And that's what they did, hug. Not bothering with the crowd nearby. The police would come, but XCOM would vouch for them.
After ten minutes of embracing, Luc stood up, and walked towards the beach, he trudged through the waves until he was about twenty meters in.
Ana looked at his back, he had left his rifle near her, but had taken his amplifier with him. She watched as he dropped it into the water, and brought his foot down on it. She thought it would electrocute the water, but perhaps Luc already knew it wouldn't, as he bent into the shallow water and pulled out two halves of the weapon. He held both pieces in both hands, examining them before chucking them further down into the sea.
His eyes burned slightly as he watched the orange sun, it was late evening, wherever they were, and the silence engulfed him. A blank, expressionless face was painted on him.
The broken man did nothing, merely watched the sun sink into the horizon.
-XXX-
"So, what happened after you got everyone out?"
"The Elders tried to keep me there to perish with them, but I… managed."
"Go on."
"Stepped back into my old body, back on the Avenger. We rounded up team…'Hugh Jass' who had been teleported around the world, but they got out fine. The survivors, that is."
"The Queen?"
"She and her guards sent out a signal, and we picked them up from Italy. She's pledged her whole species support to us, for some reason. But she's held up her end, reports say that almost every Viper out there is fighting alongside the resistance."
"You think she'll keep the alliance?"
"Probably, but I've worked with Ana, if she can be trusted, then the Queen may be as well."
"What have you done about…Thalia? Xida? And the other Muton's on the Avenger?"
"Those two Muton's are having none of your 'monitoring', they're going there own way, fighting and gaining more Muton's to their sides."
"A threat?"
"We get along, they won't be."
"And what about this 'Psi Operative' of yours, where is he?"
"That, I do not know."
"You're not a good liar Commander."
"I don't give away personal information."
"Maybe I'll go ask him myself."
"He's broken, he's had a lot on his plate, and I suggest you don't piss off a guy who can use his mind to cripple your own."
"You think this is over?"
…
"Far from it…but for now, I say it is."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-
A/N: I thank you, if you have read this far, than you deserve a medal. This will just about do it for Humanity's Ascension. And I had a lot of fun doing it. But I won't leave you in the dark as to what happens next for Luc and Ana. Nor will I leave his now more confusing past a mystery. Call it a 'Prequel' if you will. It will take place through the eyes of an older character, a certain father figure, do I need to say anymore? I'll probably call it 'Our Fall' or some shit like that, so keep an eye out for that.
Again, thanks for every review, fav, follow, and every visit and view.
(A small epilogue after this, hope you enjoy!)