-1Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.

The Black Mesa Incident

Chapter Thirty Seven: Nihilanth

"FREEMAN…"

The booming, drawled voice echoed around his head, bouncing all around the walls of the darkened chamber around him.

And there, floating in front of him and staring straight at him with hollow, black eyes and a wrinkly, nose-less face, was the creature he was here to kill. It resembled the controller creatures, just on a huge, grand scale. Its' pale grey skin reflected the sparkling energy of the spots of energy orbiting it. A platform made of technology Gordon would probably never be able to understand supported its' legless, fleshy torso, letting it float high above the ground below.

The chamber itself was cylindrical and much bigger than anything Gordon had seen in Xen or on Earth. Looking down below, Gordon realised what it reminded him of.

It was an arena.

He was stood on an outcropping of rock roughly parallel with the creature, and he didn't even notice the cracks growing along its' surface until the monster spread its' lamppost length arms out to either side, using a wave of telekinetic energy to crush whatever was keeping the platform together. And so Gordon tumbled down into the chasm below, the barely visible watery pit so very far below him rushing up to meet him.

Several spikes grew out of the grey-green liquid, set at an angle in seemingly random places that Gordon was sure were set out for a very specific purpose. As he approached one of the spikes, he noticed its' flat surface and adjusted his fall accordingly. With an awkward twist in midair, Gordon managed to hit the side of the spike with his back, sliding down it and into the murky water below. It splashed around and over him as he landed, and he skidded for a few metres before he got control of his momentum.

He got to his feet, and noted that the ground below the water was surprisingly hard, considering that hitting it at speed hadn't hurt him at all. In fact, sliding down the spike was more uncomfortable than hitting the ground.

Bright lights cast a deep shadow behind him, and Gordon looked up. Three of the energy orbs that the controllers used were flying towards him. Except these were as big as monster truck tyres. And almost twice as fast as the ones the controllers fired off.

So Gordon started running, shotgun in hand. One of the orbs landed directly behind him, the blast lurching him forward off his feet and face-first into the ankle high water beneath him. Gordon managed to turn the fall into a forward roll and was quickly on his feet again, running ahead of the next two blasts. The next hit the ground just between his legs, propelling him up into the air but still managing to make him travel forwards.

He grasped his glasses with one hand as he gripped the shotgun tightly with the other, and scrunched his eyes shut as he hit the wall with a thud, bouncing back and splashing down in the water. Gordon blinked a few times before he realised there was a third blast coming his way and scrambled to his feet. Squinting as he tried to see past the droplets of water that had gathered on his glasses, Gordon spotted another spike just a few feet away.

With a dive forward that he was sure looked more action hero-like than he was feeling, Gordon tucked himself behind the angular shape, waiting for the blast to come as the light shining around the structure intensified. And then, with the barest of crackling static, the light disappeared. With a cautious frown, Gordon peeked around the spike and saw only the smallest of burn marks. He looked around the dark chamber, confounded. This was a very strange place.

But then his eyes settled on something else beside the spike. It was one of the pink, fleshy trampolines he had encountered back at Black Mesa. Now, he was no expert on pink fleshy trampolines, but Gordon imagined that if he leapt onto it with sufficient force, it would be able to take him up to the menacing creature glaring down at him. After a few checks at the offending monster, he saw that it was simply watching him, waiting for whatever he was going to do next. Maybe it needed time to charge its' attacks, since they were so damned big.

With a shrug, Gordon just sprinted for it, kicking up frothy splashes of water as his feet thumped against the solid ground beneath. He jumped up and landed on the trampoline dead centre, and, with the customary inflating noise, it sent Gordon tumbling up into the air, and far higher than he had initially anticipated. Gordon managed to keep a grip on his glasses as he peaked just above the creature and then started falling again.

He whipped the shotgun up and fired again and again into the creature's bulbous visage. With some measure of satisfaction, he saw huge bursts of green-yellow blood spew forth, leaking out into the watery it below. But then, as Gordon spent the last shell of the shotgun, he saw something that wasn't quite so welcome. Flickering lines of golden electricity came from three corners of the chamber around the creature. Gordon followed the energy to its' source; three huge, truck sized golden crystals, the same kind…

The same kind that had started everything. And they were feeding this creature. The wounds he had inflicted on the creature healed almost instantaneously. Gordon's amazement held until he realised he was quite far below the creature now, and almost certainly about to impact nastily on the ground below. Looking around below him, he saw another of the trampolines just a few relative inches to his right. Swinging the shotgun around, he managed to twist his body in mid-air until he was fairly sure he would hit the trampoline.

With barely a whisper, the revolver in Gordon's hip holster slipped out and tumbled to the ground, disappearing in the grey liquid. Gordon bit back a quiet curse, and comforted himself that he still had the shotgun. As long as he had the shotgun, he would be okay.

It turned out, much to Gordon's dismay, that he hadn't positioned himself particularly well over the trampoline, and only found his legs being pushed back up by the nigh-on clairvoyant machine, which seemed to detect him coming. Gordon was sent twirling forward, the shotgun tumbling out of his hands and his glasses very nearly going the same way. But random flailing of ones' arms seemed to do the trick every now and again and Gordon managed to save his eyesight, at least for now.

He landed rather ungracefully in the water in a sitting position, kicking up another wave of water that seemed to spread quietly out to all side of the cylindrical chamber. Gordon was fairly sure he had bruised his rear with that little number. His gaze travelled up to the monster above him. Very slowly, it spread its' arm out in a spread eagle position, gradually bringing them together in a technique that Gordon knew precipitated explosions and pain.

Looking down, he took stock of what he had left. Two grenades, some shotgun shells, and a crowbar. And he really didn't have time to go looking for his guns. He looked first to a third trampoline, then to the crystal growing out of the wall high above it, level with the monster.

He still had two grenades and a crowbar.

That was enough.

Gordon heaved himself to his feet and sprinted to the trampoline, using his knowledge of physics to at least try and predict how best to reach the glowing crystalline mass above him. With a loud gust of air, it delivered him diagonally up and towards the crystal. As he approached it faster than Superman, Gordon started to become a little wary of the golden energy that seemed to be constantly coursing through it. Would that interfere with his suit? As the thought occurred to him, he flew up just above the crystal, and he instinctively latched out to grab onto it.

Nothing happened. No massive electric shock, no warning beep from his suit. That was good. He swung his legs over and straddled the larger outcropping of the crystal. Reaching to the belt around his waist, Gordon yanked out a grenade and pulled the pin, wedging it between two spiky growths. Wasting no time, he pushed himself to the side and kicked off with his legs, diving away from the crystal and down into the murk.

He was halfway there when the grenade exploded, the resounding bang only barely topped by the shattering noise from the crystal. Suddenly there was less light in the room, and Gordon couldn't really see where he was going. With a quick movement of his hand he flicked on the flashlight. He had been aiming to hit the trampoline before the lights had been switched off, and it looked like he was still heading there.

This time, it was a much more graceful landing, the trampoline quickly slowing his ascent and merely popping him a few inches into the air, allowing him to leap down onto the ground with barely a grunt.

He frowned as his shadow was suddenly cast along the water again, but this time by something of a luminescent green. Gordon turned and saw a portal bearing down on him.

This thing could make portals?

But then again, it only stood to reason. This thing was keeping a portal open that was big enough to allow an invasion through, so obviously it would be able to manage some comparatively little things. Gordon, however, had no desire to find out what hell awaited him on the other side of that portal, and started running towards a spike.

The ominous hum of the portal increased as grew ever closer to him, the green glow practically bathing him as he checked over his shoulder to see where it was. It was nipping at his heels. And, as if the speed weren't enough, it seemed to be following him. Gordon finally reached the spike he needed and ducked around the corner.

With a bright green flash that made Gordon crush his eyes shut, the portal noise vanished. Slowly, Gordon opened one eye, then the other, confident that he would be someplace else.

But he was still in the chamber. Looking around, Gordon turned to see that half the spike had promptly disappeared, taken by the portal to some death-trap from which there was no escape. With a desperate smile, he looked up at the monster before noting his next glimmering target.

There was no trampoline beneath this one, but a fairly hefty run up to the one closest quickly fixed that problem, sending him spiralling haphazardly through the air and perilously close to the creature's arms. Fortunately, the pale limbs were far too slow and lumbering to even touch him, and Gordon was soon sliding to a halt atop the crystal, the back of his head banging against the wall as he stopped.

Hissing, he rubbed the back of his head as he pulled out the last grenade and pulled the pin with his teeth. It came out with surprising ease, and Gordon jammed it between two shards below his feet. He ran and leapt out into the void, the explosion knocking him a little off course. Not that he had a course this time round. Gordon tumbled, his arms and legs scrambling around futilely in the air as he fell. The light from the crystal vanished, plunging the two enemies into almost darkness, the only vision they had provided by the warm glow of the last crystal.

But that didn't really matter now, because the great Gordon Freeman, saviour of the world, was about to go splat in a pit of grey, stinking water.

Gordon landed with a splash. That was all, just a splash. No thud, no crack… it felt as though he had just fell off a diving board into a swimming pool. And a low down diving board at that. He instantly sat up, surprised to find that his glasses were merely tilted at a slight angle on his face from the drop. His gaze fell down to the water below him, and he ran his fingers along the ground beneath. It felt solid enough, and when he pressed down on it there was next to no give.

Very odd, for sure. But not something he was about to complain about. Slapping his hand down on his knee, Gordon hefted himself to his feet and looked up at the floating monster above him. Two energy globes bore down on him at incredibly frightening speeds, and Gordon ran. The first hit directly behind him, tossing him into the air and skidding along the watery ground. The next shot straight down at his head, and Gordon barely rolled out of the way before the back of his HEV suit took the brunt of explosion, the force of the blast still throwing him along the ground and into the wall.

Gordon blinked as he tried to sit up. The stats in front of his eyes were flickering madly, but he could just make out that they weren't inspiring. Xen had taken its' toll on the Mark IV Hazard Suit. Ironically, it was probably designed for use in an alien world in the first place.

He shook his head and pushed his way to his feet, pressing his palms against the scaly wall behind him for support. Looking up, he saw the crystal directly above him, and a trampoline beside him. With a crick of his neck, Gordon ran to the device and leapt onto it.

He had no guns, no grenades, and no HEV suit. But he had a crowbar and his brain.

And for Gordon Freeman, those two were all he needed.

With a mighty rush of stale air, the trampoline inflated and sent him rocketing up into the sky, his short hair fluttering as he ascended up past the monster he had come to slay. It rubbed its' hands together, the deadly glow emanating from between them casting itself onto Gordon menacingly.

He reached the side of the crystal and used his crowbar to hook onto a smaller shard poking out the side. With a grunt and a mighty pull of his skinny, not-muscular-at-all arms, Gordon hefted himself up onto the crystal and stood atop it. He stood right at the back of the placement, the point of the crystal extending out in front of him and poking straight towards his enemy.

Like the yellow brick road. Gordon smiled.

The monster unleashed its' attack, and Gordon started running. He leapt forward, his booted feet burning as they were only just caught in the aura of the orb. The blast hit the crystal behind Gordon, shattering it. The entire chamber shook around them, and Gordon continued to plummet down onto the bulbous, smooth head of his enemy.

Then, like a blooming flower, the head opened, suddenly filling the pitch black chamber with a brilliant white light. The head had split into four equal 'petals', and Gordon managed to grasp onto the far one to stop his fall into the now invisible watery pit below. Gordon pulled himself inside and stared at the glowing orb in wonder.

It was a portal. This creature's brain… was a portal.

Gordon grasped the crowbar, the long end downwards, and lifted it above his head, ready to plunge it down.

And suddenly, Gordon knew.

He knew of the Nihilanth, the last of a once great race, enslaved and then forced to flee from its' home by an even greater power… Shu'ulathoi.

"Their slaves, we are their slaves, we are…"

Forced to flee to the no-place, the world between worlds, enslaving those once in service to the Shu'ulathoi. And then others came, taking the lights with them to another world… a better, stronger world. And so, desperate, the mighty Nihilanth decided to take this new place as its' own. Until another came. One who knew the trials of surviving at all costs.

"The last, you are the last, you are…"

This thing was just like him. It had done terrible things… it had inflicted so much horror and death… all in the name of survival.

And so, Gordon had one reason to spare the Nihilanth.

But he had well over twenty to go through with it. And most of them were dead.

Gordon plunged the crowbar down into the Nihilanth's head, and didn't stop until only the hook remained, poking out of the top. The monstrous thing below him bellowed in pain, the floating device holding it aloft buckling from the sudden strain and tipping Gordon off. He toppled down into the blackness below. With a splash, he landed down in the water, his arm finding something hard beneath the water. He felt around and pulled out the shotgun.

A sudden light from above drew Gordon's attention up, and he watched the Nihilanth shake spasmodically as it gradually turned around, green energy blasting out from the top of its' open, exposed head. Gordon started rapidly loading his shotgun, although he had no idea why. As he did so, his foot tapped against something else in the water, and he quickly fished his revolver out, putting it back in its holster. Gordon finished up loading and cocked the shotgun, looking up and watching as his enemy for the past two days died, wailing into the darkness around it.

The chamber shook, and the walls started to crumble. The green lights coming from the Nihilanth started to strobe, and Gordon shielded his eyes.

And then, suddenly, with one final green flash, Gordon was plunged into darkness. And, echoing in his mind, the Nihilanth's final words came to him.

"You are a… man, he is not man… for you, he waits, for you…"

Slowly, as though opening his eyes, the blackness faded back into light again. Standing before him, as clear as day, was the man in the suit. They were standing in some kind of alien elevator shaft, the platform below them curved like a hill. Circles of rock occasionally flashed up around them, giving Gordon the feeling they were going down. There were no walls to speak of. Just the open Xen sky, greens and blues merging together and forming a mist across one of several suns that were setting in the distance.

The man smiled, and took a loud breath.

"Gordon Freeman, in the flesh. Or rather, in the Hazard Suit."

Gordon only then realised his shotgun was gone. Reaching down, he also found the revolver missing, along with all of the straps and belts he had brought with him to Xen.

His host tilted his head to the side almost imperceptibly. "I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons." He smiled. "Most of them were government property. As for the suit… I think you've earned it."

His manner of speech was… wrong. That was the only way Gordon could describe it. Emphasis on the wrong words, gaps between words were there shouldn't be… and yet every word pronounced so exactly. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

With another green flash, Gordon suddenly found himself somewhere else, the man in the suit still stood before him. They were stood in a sandy pit that looked suspiciously like it was from Earth, although the sky spread out above them was anything but normal. Soldiers lay dead around them, scorched gun placements and tanks haphazardly thrown onto their sides, the acrid stench of burning flesh occasionally wafting its' way to Gordon's nose on the wind.

His new companion continued as though nothing had happened. "The border world, Xen, is in our control, for the time being. Quite a nasty piece of work you managed over there, I am impressed."

The smile of approval on his face made Gordon wish for a crowbar. Another green flash banished the thought from Gordon's mind. They stood on the ledge of an island, Xen sky surrounding them. From behind him, a bridge of rock extended up over their heads and across to another island far away from them, itself linking to another to create a grand web of glowing rocks. But these were different from those Gordon had become accustomed to leaping from.

These were beautiful.

In the distance, Gordon watched as non-descript shapes, looking like paper triangles in the wind, flapped about in synch, moving like a flock of birds through the swirling green sky. Gordon could only watch in amazement as the man continued beside him.

"That's why I'm here, Mr Freeman. I have recommended your services to my…" he seemed to stall on the next word, his voice croaking as he searched for the correct term. "…employers, and they have authorised me to offer you a job."

A job? Frowning, Gordon looked over at him, questions on his lips. The man continued regardless, ignorant of his need to speak.

"They agree with me that you have limitless…" He hissed the last syllable of the word as he again searched for the correct word. He smiled when he found the right one. "…potential."

Gordon took a breath to speak. But another green flash silenced them, and suddenly, Gordon found himself back in the place these two apocalyptic days had started. A tram from the Black Mesa transit system. Everything about it seemed so mundane now, so ordinary. The faded paint of the disabled symbol on the floor, the warning to stay away from the door, the stuffing of the cushions bursting out of the seams… so long ago now. So boring. So… wonderful. But instead of the landscape of the Black Mesa facility slowly trudging past him, there was nothing. Just blackness, punctuated by the occasional thin streak of light, like a star whizzing past.

Unaware or uncaring of his nostalgia, the man continued quietly on.

"You've proved yourself a decisive man, so I don't expect you'll have any trouble deciding what to do. If you're interested, just step into the portal and I will take that… as a yes. Otherwise, well…" He swallowed loudly, as though uncomfortable with the whole idea. His face, though, betrayed nothing. "…I can offer you a battle you have no chance of winning… rather an anti-climax after what you've just survived."

His dead gaze remained on Gordon as the door behind him opened. In the doorway, fizzling and throbbing away in the void, a bright green portal waited for him, bathing them both in its' glow. Gordon looked from the man to the portal and then back again.

"Time to choose."

Gordon frowned. This wasn't something that could be rushed. Hell, he wouldn't even be able to decide if this was a normal job offer, never mind whatever the hell this was. And Gordon had questions. So many questions about… everything. Everything that had happened in the past two days, all the deaths and horror and suffering… he wanted his questions answering so that it wasn't all for nothing. For all he knew, everyone he ever cared about in that facility was gone. Killed by an alien, or soldier or just some freak accident. All because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the man beat him to it.

"It's time to choose."

Gordon's mouth clamped shut. He could ask questions later. Now was the time for him to make a decision. Hell, he had been making life and death decisions for two days straight, a job offer should be no problem for the great and heroic Gordon Freeman. But this wasn't just some job offer. This was an opportunity for something that he had never thought possible. The worlds he had seen in just those brief glimpses… there was so much power behind those visions.

Power he could use to help those he had left behind on his travels. If he said no, they would die for certain. But if he said yes… he could have the chance to save them all.

Without one more glance at the pale, sunken face of the man beside him, Gordon walked straight into the portal. With a flash, he was encompassed in blackness.

As though still beside him, the man's voice hissed into his ear, sounding optimistic at his choice.

"Wisely done, Mr Freeman! I will see you up ahead."

Then, a noise akin to the air being pulled away from him made his ears pop, and the void truly surrounded him.

Gordon Freeman closed his eyes, and prepared for the future.