Welcome to the finale of the Citadel Saga. The next chapter will be epilogue and end to the part two, which was sort of short.

Oh yeah, since Celeste doesn't have a semblance because of plot reasons (jk, it's actually just me forgetting to give her one.)

I want you guys to suggest via review button what's her semblance gonna be.

But right now, on to the long chapter!

Celeste stuck to Union like a child with its parent, holding his left arm for some support. She had stopped crying and started walking by herself, but she couldn't handle using her weapon after it ended someone's life. Union was a bit down himself since Celeste being affected by taking someone's life had taken a toll on her and him? If he didn't know that the people here were people and not AI, then he'd probably do something amoral in exchange for power.

Maybe Celeste wasn't the murderer, instead, it's him.

"Hold." The Specialist leader raised his fist, the whole group stopped on the hallway they were just walking on.

"We're reaching the core room, get ready to breach." While the soldiers got ready for contact, Union looked at Celeste with a worried gaze.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked her. She gazed at her sidearm, then her weapon behind the leader.

"I...don't think I'm ready to hold a weapon again..." Celeste looked away and released her grip on his wrist to hug herself.

He nodded. "It's okay. Just...get ready when it happens."

She looked hesitant but nodded back. "I'll try."

Union drew his AR2, looking over the group. The last Combine soldier had a Citadel Guard's shield on his left hand, an AR2 given by an Elite on his right. The shotgunner still had his default weapon. Five Elites still had their AR2, with some of them having a shield or a sword. One of them had the SMG he traded with the soldier, opting to dual-wield it with the pistol he had.

Half the specialists had shields on them, the other half had their default weapons while having some melee weapons for anything getting too close.

The ones with shields lead the team, stopping on the corner leading to the entrance. After a few hand gestures, they raised their shields in front of them and rounded the corner, facing their shields on the entrance. Sure enough, a few turrets were waiting and fired their ammunition on the enemy.

The shields proved to be an invaluable asset, as they blocked the pulse rounds from reaching them. They also are a good cover for those brave enough to be in the hailstorm of bullets. One elite pointed his AR2 on the ceiling, angling it so it would go towards the turrets. The dark energy ball zigzagged up and down the hallway, closing in the entrance where the turrets sat.

The ball bowled the through the turrets and promptly exploded, but the deed was done and the group advanced. Union stuck close to Celeste, while also being in the front to go first.

Union was the first one to enter and got zapped by the laser tool used by the engineers. He turned to the engineer, a young man with black hair and blue eyes. He retaliated with his AR2 and shot him dead. His partner, who was a woman with brown hair and orange eyes, was behind Union. She was about to shoot her pistol, but was stopped when a dust bullet got her gun hand.

Union threw a quick glance to the side, noticing it was Celeste with her Sidearm. He ended the engineer quickly with a burst from his weapon. The rest of his group walked in, surveying the area. Union walked to Celeste and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks for the save." He smiled.

She nodded. "You're welcome." She still sounded hollow.

Union withdrew his hand from her shoulder. "You'll get out of this soon. Don't worry."

He looked around the room. It was a rectangular room with a high ceiling, a large turned-off display screen was above a few control panels. There was two doors in each side. The Specialist Leader looked at the door they just entered from, before grabbing the laser tool from the first engineer. He walked over to the downed turrets.

Union saw him mess with the internal workings of the turret, before the turret flashed green, then red, then orange. The specialist leader brought the turret upright and looked at Union for a while. He pointed the turret's gun at him, which made Union jump and panic. But the turret didn't shoot at him, nor did it flash any warning.

The leader turned the turret so it overlooked the hallway they just came from. He walked over to the next one and reprogrammed that one too. After the positioning was done, the specialist leader looked at the group.

"Let's clear the rooms." He ordered, walking towards the door with some specialists following him.

The others went to the other door, so Union and Celeste followed the leader. The specialist leader, after issuing an order through the radio, pushed the button to open the door. The shield users walked out first, blocking out the bullets thrown at them. The opposing forces were mostly engineers with metropolice-level weapons, and some Citadel Guards and Soldiers.

The energy source of the core was in the center of the large room they just exited to. It was a large red,ball contained by rotating, revolving, and spinning rings, it also had a small speck of black inside it. The catwalk was far enough away to avoid the core should it become unstable and grow in size. On the opposite side of the room the group just exited out, a similar building sat except it had a window to show off the core from the inside.

The two forces in the room battled it out, with the ones guarding the red core being severely outgunned. Union shot down a Citadel Soldier trying to shoot at the sides of the shield user he was behind. After the more competent fighters got shot down, the engineers ran towards the building with the window for safety. The two halves of Union's group prepared to breach the doors.

The doors opened after some meddling with the button, and Union shot down the ones with weapons. The room was identical to the other one, but it had the window instead of the display screen. The rest of the group neutralized the leftovers. Union checked his objectives tab again, going through the still-damaged menu.

Objective Update!

Connect with the core to begin the process.

Good luck!

'I have to touch that? Does the system not realize what happens when you touch the damn thing in the game?' He grimaced as he closed the menu.

"I think I have to touch the thing. You guys should bunker down." He suggested to the group.

The specialist leader nodded as he began picking out people to be in the opposite building. Union looked at the core with uncertainty, before going out the door.

Celeste stepped forward to follow him, but the Specialist leader stopped her. "He'll need you to cover him while he does his thing."

"What is his thing anyway?" She asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Take my word for it." He replied.

She raised a brow. The leader brought out her weapon and held it out for her. "Do you want it?"

Emotions welled up inside her, the feeling of dread holding the weapon was prominent. Half of her mind was telling her 'no', but the other half told her 'yes'. She looked at Union through the window, who pressed a button in a control panel to allow a bridge to bring him to the core. In the end, she grabbed it and gave it a soft gaze.

The elite nodded and looked at the door that'll be the first entry point to the enemies.

-Line break-

Union breathed, before shaking his head. "This is so fucking stupid."

He looked at the red core. Without the rings, the core was a bit more unstable. It was still contained due to the mere presence of the rings.

He sighed. "Alright. 1...2..."

Three. He touched the core with his fingers first, after receiving no feedback, he pushed it in deeper. After making an overused joke that is 'that's what she said' he submerged his hand inside the core. He suddenly felt weird, as if he was experiencing a high-altitude headache. He grabbed his head with his other hand, massaging it.

Connection established!

Collecting data of user to make connection obsolete...

Data collected!

Beginning Recovery Phase One...

1%

Union looked at the words infront of him, having to squint due to his headache. He brought out his AR2 for safety, though he took much more concentration due to the bloody headache of his.

Then by his luck, he started hallucinating or so he thought. He was standing in a blank white room, like that one place in gm_construct. A few lines of red code started flying past him, then more followed. They started combining infront of him, spinning like a tornado made of code.

A 15 year old girl with pale skin, short black hair, and red eyes formed infront of him. She had a dark grey long-sleeved shirt, a red skirt, black knee socks, and black shoes. Union noted one thing: she looked pissed.

"What do you think you're doing?" She seethed, a slight echo in her voice. A dark energy ball spawned when she opened up her hand in preparation.

"Uh..." Union tried looking for an escape, but there was none.

She glared at him before throwing the ball at him. He ducked, but had to dodge the other ones. After sidestepping another dark energy ball, he saw himself in the path of the girl's charge with a katana made of Combine metal on her hands.

Then the weirdest thing happened, the white room turned into gm_construct. Union looked around for the girl because priorities, and found her shortly after jumping out from the pool and holding a rocket launcher in her hands.

He immediately ran away from that, going to the weird garage thing. The rocket blew up behind him and the explosion got him flying forward. After going down the stairs to the basement, he ran down the hallway. But when Union passed the door leading to the colorable room, he got yanked inside of said room.

But the scenery changed again and he was on a grassy field. Looking around, he saw the word 'FLATTYWOOD' on the far mountains. Due to that, he looked around some more and found the structure. But then when he started walking towards it, a million VTOL gunships flew towards him from the structure, with the girl leading the swarm.

Like any sane person, he ran away from the things that are going to kill him. A rocket exploded behind him and he fell. He then found himself in a dark place that just screams danger.

"Aw shit! Come on, turn the damn flashlight on!" He screamed to himself.

Click!

"Oh, thank god." Union sighed in relief. The relief vanished as he saw the concrete floor and brick walls.

"Oh god no, not this map." He said to himself in dread.

He walked around The Maze, which various people in the GMod community used for spooky jumpscare NPCs. Union never downloads this map, because he never needed it in the first place. But he did saw other people use it.

He rounded a corner and found a dead-end. "Fuck! Not what I wanted."

When he turned back, he heard a shrill and unnerving scream somewhere. It made him panic and run away from the source as fast as possible, but when he reached a particularly long hallway, things happened.

A male citizen NPC was blocking his path and in a map like this, it just means death. Union gritted his teeth and started walking towards the near corner leading to another hallway. But the citizen suddenly snapped its head backwards, a disgusting sound accompanied it, to face Union. The citizen's eyes were white and they felt like they were staring into his soul.

After Union got creeped out, the thing just screams like he stepped on a Lego and started lag walking towards Union. The latter was startled and got pinned down by the thing smashing into him. It started flailing like a ragdoll stuck on a door, screaming all the while, and Union was getting barraged by flying limbs. Union pushed it off him and stood up while it spazzes out.

He ended the thing with a boot through the head. Then similar screams erupted somewhere and Union took that as a signal to just run. He stumbled across a door, which definitely wasn't in the OG map, and he heard heavy footsteps behind him, so he opened it, ran inside, and locked it. The door simply lead to another hallway, Union looked back and faced the door.

Then he heard music. It sounded familiar...what was that song again?

The door flew off its hinges and went over Union's head.

"SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD WAS GONNA ROLL ME" A t-posing Shrek came through the hallway and ran...I mean slid its way to the 100% spooked Union running away.

"OH MY GOD, WHY?!?!?!?" He screamed as the Shrek came after him.

He reached a large room, which definitely wasn't in the OG map, with a lot of boxes and decided to hide behind one of the larger ones. The Shrek passed by him, but not before shouting 'Donkey!' and sliding away. After that...ehem...interesting encounter, Union sighed a big sigh of relief.

"Why~" He breathed before escaping the box room and back into the maze.

And he reached another long hallway, and there was this skeleton on the ground. It rose up when Union approached it and started doing a dance, which then it brought out a trumpet and Union knew exactly what this one was and stole its instrument. It slumped and walked away into the darkness like a child losing its pet.

Union felt bad at the display, then his flashlight flickered. "Damn thing." He muttered, while trying to fix it by hitting the side of his head.

A few tries later, it started working again. When he shined the flashlight on the ground ahead of him, he saw black shoes. He knew exactly who that was. He looked up and glared at the girl's stoic face.

"This is the last time you're going to push me around, little girl." He sneered, holding the trumpet with both hands like a sword.

She raised a brow before drawing her weapon. And when she charged, the scenery switched to the white room.

Union was so ready for sweet, sweet revenge as he parried the katana and retaliated with his own strike.

-Line Break, Time Skiperoo-

Celeste hid behind the corner of the entrance, using her spear to get the turrets back upright. Two specialists were behind the turrets with their shields, covering the other two specialists behind them.

"How long is Union going to take?" She asked the leader.

The elite broke off cover and fired a burst on a charging soldier, killing him. "I don't know, but what I do know is that it is almost done." He replied.

"I hope so." She peeked over the corner, noticing some guards smart enough to use their shields to rush them.

A grenade was rolled up towards them, blowing them up as the grenade climaxed.

For some reason, the opposing side stopped shooting. Shortly after, a massive sword flew and shoved away the turrets and specialists infront of the entrance, sticking itself in a control panel. A futuristic black knight smashed into the panel next to its sword. It propped its head up at the people in the room and grabbed the sword from the panel without much effort.

Realizing the danger the knight posed, the leader called the specialists with him to attack the knight from a distance while he and Celeste distracted it. The knight strode towards its challengers menacingly like Mr. X does, not even minding the rounds bouncing off its armor when the specialists shot at it. Celeste was the first to attack, but found out that the knight was faster than it acted and shoved her away almost instantly when she tried poking it.

The leader was behind the knight and attempted a slash, but the knight saw that coming and bashed away the swords the specialist leader was carrying. The elite drew his AR2 and shot at the helmet, but that proved to be ineffective as the armor was as resistant as everything else in the knight's body.

So, the leader used the alt-fire, and it staggered the knight a bit as it tried to block the ball of dark energy. Just when the knight recovered, Celeste shot some Ice dust bullets on its feet, immobilizing it. That served some purpose as the black knight will take more time to break out of the ice, enough for the specialist leader to retrieve one of his swords and stab it into the knight's back.

However, the sword encountered major resistance and slid downwards off to the armor and at the same time, the knight broke off its icy shoes and backhanded the recovering elite. Celeste tried to stab the knight while its distracted and failed as her opponent sidestepped the attack and lift her off her feet by grabbing her head.

The specialist leader just recovered from the backhand, only to go back down as Celeste was thrown onto him. The specialists with them tried their luck, only to fail just like them. The knight hummed, and walked out of the building and into the core room. The Citadel Sentinels came through the the building and held the intruders at gunpoint.

It was the same situation at the other building, except without the Mr. X knight encounter.

The black knight was on the catwalk that lead to Union's unresponsive body, and prepared its sword. But in a moment of sheer speed, Union released his hand from the core, and launched a Strider laser at the knight. The blast staggered the knight into the wall, the girl Union was fighting appeared next to the knight in her red hologram form looking incredibly damaged as she flickered.

The knight looked up from its downed position, and saw his opponent.

Union's eyes were glowing cyan or light blue, like the color of the supercharged Gravity Gun. He stared down at the knight, and towards the opening doors as Citadel Sentinels walked in. All eyes were trained on him, as well as guns. Union stared around the room, looking at the various enemies present. Then, he cracked a smile, thinking about how he'll kick their asses...

Not.

"Oh, I'm not dealing with this." Union said out loud, seemingly poking the air once.

A loud shimmering sound was heard and a huge blue shockwave erupted from the core and covered the room.

In the most not spectacular way, the Citadel Inhabitants flinched and held their heads in agony. The knight had the least dramatic response, as it just knelt down and held its head. The girl had the most dramatic response to the point she was crying and Union felt a bit bad. Luckily for them, the fiasco was over as the whole room's lights turned from red to the cold blue the Citadel was known for.

The Citadel Inhabitants' red colors on their uniforms faded to cyan as their demeanor changed, feeling like they hadn't even fought against each other. The girl's hologram form and the core turned to the cold blue color as well. Union's eyes stopped glowing and suddenly he felt like he got hit by a car. Which felt like how he first 'respawned', except the fact he also felt like collapsing.

Union's surviving group were freed by the suddenly friendly enemies and walked into the control room to check out what happened. Celeste saw Union among the Sentinels and pushed herself through the crowd. Once she was through, she walked towards Union, who was looking at the knight taking care of the girl. So since Union was distracted, he got pleasantly startled when a hug happened, but he recovered and slowly returned it.

"It's finished." Celeste whispered loud enough for Union to hear.

"Mhm." He hummed, pulling away from the hug as the specialist leader approached him.

"Sir, since we regained control." The leader started. "Permission to move in here, there is a lot of equipment back at the camp and we got some valuable stuff in there."

"We can't get the camp go to waste though...might as well use it for something." Union placed his hand on his chin in thought.

"A Fall-back base? Not many knows where it is, except the village near it. So we can use it as a hideout."

"Alright."

Celeste yawned out of nowhere, her eyes drooping as she leaned on her weapon for support.

"Well, uh. Maybe we should get Celeste back home first?" Union suggested. "She's probably going to fall over, so we gotta hurry."

"I'm not sleepy, I'm tired." She mutters loudly.

"Uh-huh?" He raised a brow, before cracking a smile. "I think she's delirious." He whispers to the specialist leader.

"If you're looking for sleep, there's a bedroom available." The three of them looked at the speaker, which was the girl sitting on the knight's shoulder.

"We can take you there."

"Alright, take us there." Union nodded at them. She nodded back, her knight turning back to the building where he messed up Celeste and the specialists plus their leader.

"Since I don't need to sleep. I'll organize the transfer of equipment." The specialist leader informed Union, who nodded.

"Wish you luck."

~~~Time skip~~~

"Here it is." The girl disappeared from her spot on the knight's shoulder and reappeared on the table next to the large bed.

"Wait, why do you guys need beds?" Union asked after walking in the room, Celeste was behind him, staring at the window that showed Vale in the distance.

"We can choose to sleep or not, but since we've been pretty dormant without much action, we did sleep." The girl explained.

"Oh."

"Um, there's only one bed." Celeste spoke out. Union paled at the mention of that.

"Yeah? So?" The girl cocked her head to the side.

"We aren't sharing the bed."

"The bed is big enough for you two to have your own space."

Celeste looked at the bed, gauging its size. It actually was big enough just like the girl said. However, she moved a lot when she's asleep on a bed and she couldn't afford any...accidents.

"If you are still uncomfortable. You can still just sleep in the floor, I'm pretty sure both of you can do that." The girl chirped from the silence.

"The floor does look comfy." Union muttered. "Celeste, you should take the bed." He looks at her.

But she shook her head. "No, I'll be fine. You go."

The girl knew exactly what was going to happen, and decided to put a stop to it. "Just put a pillow between yourselves, so you'll know not to go there."

The two were uncertain about that, shuffling awkwardly.

"I'll leave you two to resolve this on your own." The blue hologram disappeared and reappeared back on the knight's shoulder, the two closed the door before Celeste and/or Union tried to object.

They looked at each other, waiting for someone to say something.

Suffice to say, their drowsiness caught up to them, with the two agreeing on sharing the bed.

Union took off his gloves and boots, reminding himself to go experiment with the Playermodel Selector to find out how new clothing are handled.

He got himself on the left side of the bed and placed the blanket over his body, leaving his head exposed. He noticed Celeste in the dark, without her jacket, removing her gloves and boots.

Union looked away and closed his eyes, ready to meet the next day. He felt the bed shake, which he interpreted as Celeste getting herself on the bed. He then felt a gush of wind and a soft thump near him, it was the pillow that the girl suggested to put between them.

The two fell asleep quickly, overcomes by the sheer work they had just done.

And they will do much more in the coming day.

~~~END~~~

I actually planned for the Specialist Leader, who is also known as Specialist 1-1, to die this chapter. But I didn't want the new allies to die from Union's rage so...

Also planned for Union noticing Celeste undressing during the last scene, but chose wisely and looked away.

Also also, the chapter was actually going to be Union and the group arriving on the core, to which they get ambushed and the knight takes Celeste hostage and the girl threatens to kill her. While the Union and the girl were talking, Specialist 1-1 touches the core which brings back Union's control.

Two problems I have with this. First, Celeste still hadn't gotten over her kill, so I didn't want her to be subject to getting pushed around. So I used Union instead. Second, since the bond is a better way to say 'pOwEr oF FriEnDShip' I decided not to do it and let Union actually do the work.

Responding to that one guest review.

RandomGuest: I'm pretty sure the VJ Default test NPC not being able to die is an intended feature, in case shenanigans happen.

Oops, I forgot to remove that part. I could just say half a combine squad but...I wanted to be specific and that happened XD.

In an unrelated note, the reason this chapter took way too long was the fact Halo: Reach got released to PC at December 3 which was coincidentally was my birthday! So I had a lot on my hands.

Next chapter: Union gets his powers back, with a different spawning mechanism due to the presence of the Citadel which is basically a massive factory. He and Celeste then goes down to the Vale defense line to talk with the Valean Army's commander. When they are there, the NPCs hold a meeting over the mysterious relic they found...

Again guys and gals, please suggest what Celeste's semblance should be! I'm not good at coming up with semblance.

So... I'll see you guys next?