'Thoughts'

"Speech/radio"

"Other/Unknown"


Darkness.

No sensation, no indication that she's even alive, or as alive as a ghost can be.

Suddenly, without any warning, the sound of someone speaking through a radio assualts her hearing.

"Okay Goose 7, Proceed to sector 1-1 to LZ and rendezvous with Alpha-Bravo-Tango. Over."

"Copy that HQ."

'What the hell?'

The chatter is so distant, yet it sounds like it's coming from all around her.

"Watch your vector Goose 3, it's getting pretty tight in here."

"Goose 3 Copies."

"Anyone got a good view of the LZ yet?"

"Negative Goose 7, I can see some activity up there, but I can't tell what it is."

The sound of a vehicle flying by comes from the last radio call, it's faint, but Chara can still make it out.

ZZZZZZZZZZ

*STATIC*

"Holy shit! Goose 3 is down, Goose 3 is down!"

More chatter can be heard all around her, louder and more panicked.

"SHIT, were going down!"

"This is Bravo team, requesting air support on my position Now!"

"Look at the size of that thing..."

Chaos, that's what Chara hears. The sound of gunfire, of a rhythmic buzzing, and explosions all come together to create a symphony of destruction.

"Pull back, pull back!"

"Medic!"

"Please god no."

"I don't want to-"

"Foehammer just went down, I repeat, Foehammer just got hit by-"

More and more people are added to the collection of voices, barely recognizable as coherent sentences. It all sounds like a collection of shouting, and screaming to Chara. It's sheer volume almost deafening.

"Please, I'm with the science team!"

"TAKE. COVER."

One message can be heard over the rest however.

"Forget about Freeman! We are cutting out loses and pulling out. Anyone left behind is on his own. Repeat, if you weren't already you are on your…"

Silence.

If Chara could, she would breathe a sigh of relief. The endless chatter was somewhat terrifying. Screams are not alien to her, Frisk and her have caused all of Monster kind to collectively panic, hundred of times in fact, but it the amount of different voices - the cause of the chaos that was happening on the other side of the "radio", - that both intrigued and scared her.

"Shephard, you've made it. I take it you didn't find Freeman? Forget it Corporal. We are pulling out. The air strikes have already commenced. Get to the hangar while we await for evac."

The feeling of stone against her boots causes Chara to open her eyes.

The scene is very familiar. A large open space, with a flowerbed in the middle. Light can be seen coming in from a large opening far above the bundle of tulips.

All of this is familiar. She's played out this scenario a thousand times before. Frisk would fall in, go through the Underground, and RESET. Rinse and repeat. There is one thing that's strange this time however.

'Where is Frisk?'

Indeed, Frisk is nowhere to be found. A troubling aspect, as Frisk's DETERMINATION is the only thing that keeps Chara "alive." Without it, she won't be able to keep herself going.

If Frisk was here, then Chara would simply "teleport" or be pushed in her direction, as they are unable to be separated.

Yet, somehow, they are.

'What the hell is going on?'

Question and more questions. That all she seems to be receiving recently and it frustrates Chara to no end.

Suddenly, a swirling green ball of energy appears above the flower bed. Small arches of lightning emerge from the sphere, destroying some of the tulips.

Chara can only stare at the strange phenomenon curiously. The sphere itself is something she's never seen before.

At first, one would think it's magic, but Chara has never witnessed anyone who can conjure up spheres of green energy, and she has seen what every single monster in the Underground can do.

The sphere suddenly expands, until it's about as large as the flower bed it hover above.

Then, with a sudden *crack* it's gone.

And in its place is the same soldier from that vision.


The first thing that Adrian felt when he emerged from the portal was different from his last experience. Instead of the feeling of falling, or even landing on solid ground, that he's been accustomed to, Shephard lands back first on something surprisingly soft.

'Well this is new.'

Getting himself up, the lone HECU soldier takes in his current surroundings.

The area he finds himself in is very open. Walls and pillars surround him and the pile of tulips he landed on. Sunlight comes from a large opening above the flowerbed, illuminating both Shephard and the room. The patch of tulips he landed on are in pretty bad shape, with some being burnt to a crisp and others crushed by his weight when he fell. Ahead of him is a long hallway chiseled from stone.

With his observations done, Adrian moves onto inventory.

The first thing he notices is the familiar weight of his knife, deagle, and his M4 on his person. This prompts Adrian to check himself for ammo. Surprisingly, the lawyer never took his ammo from Black Mesa before taking him.

So that leaves him with 2 extra magazines for the M4, not counting the one already in the weapon, one 40mm grenade, and 4 magazines for the deagle. However he still has the ammo that he's collected from his journey through Black Mesa. So plenty of 12 gauge shells, one clip of 7.62 from his sniper, and one belt of SAW ammo.

This proves to be a problem, as he currently has no way to properly utilize most of the ammo he has on him without some of his weapons. He'll keep it all for right now, as it's possible he might come across weapons that might take the same type of ammo. It would be quite annoying for him to leave all that ammo only to find that a weapon for which he can use the ammo for.

Satisfied Shephard, checks his surroundings once more.

'Nothing new so far, no aliens, no cloaked spec-ops, nothing.'

The rustling coming from the pile of tulips interrupts his thoughts, prompting him to grab his rifle and aim it at said pile.

Hissing and rattling can be heard from the flowerbed, causing Adrian to approach it slowly and with his M4 at the ready.

Right in front of where the commotion is coming from, Shephard quickly pulls back the patch of tulips…

And taking on the full force of a shockroach jumping straight into his chest.

A little dazed from the sheer force of the jump Adrian, barely has time to prepare for the green mass that launches itself at him, causing him to take a step back lest he fall over.

Finally recovered from the sudden shock, Adrian speaks up for the first time since Black Mesa.

"Spitball? Sparkie? Is that really you?"

When Adrian first meet Sparkie, he almost had a panic attack. As an alien beetle latching onto your arm tends would do. However, he soon learned that the little guy was pretty docile, and was more than willing to shoot it's new partners enemies with lethal balls of electricity. While he isn't exactly "cute" by most people's standards, Shephard has grown attached to his tiny beetle like body.

Spitball on the other hand was picked up more out of pity than anything else. In fact, Shephard was tempted to leave the little guy - who was actually pretty big, almost the size of Shephard's forearm - but decided to pick him up after he heard the creature whining. It was later learned that Spitball was actually a baby of the over sized bug creatures that used other "Sparkies" as weapons.

The Three of them have become something close to a family, with Shephard as the parent, Spitball the innocent child, (or as innocent as one can be when blowing apart members of your own kind and dozens of unfortunate spec ops) and Sparkie as the aggressive older brother with a soft side for his family.

These guys have lasted longer than any fellow marine in all of Shephard's Career.

Not wanting to dwell on that particular thought, Adrian notices the object lying on the ground where the two aliens where.

A pipe wrench.

The same pipe wrench from Black Mesa in fact. Still dented and covered in both human and alien blood.

Attaching it to his backpack, Adrian notices that his two companions are looking over his shoulder, hissing and growling.

Quickly, Adrian turns around, M4 in his grip, and faces the possible adversary.

Only to stare at the red eyes of a teenager.


Another chapter done! This one took awhile since I wasn't sure how much I could add without making everything confusing.

Anyways, you might have seen that I changed the title of this Fanfic. I was orginally going to have it called A Destined Soul as that went along with the theme of this story pretty well. (Destiny, and change.) However I put A Determined Soul at the last minute so I kept it like that the first two chapters, until I noticed that my cover said a destined soul, so I decide I might as well change it now. Hope you guys like it! =)

See you guys in the next chapter!