Chapter Fifteen: Infinite Regress
Light came flickering back to his eyes as his mind, reeling and filled with confusion, returned to consciousness. For a moment his frighteningly foreign surroundings and fluttering sporadically blurry vision stole away any memory of how he'd arrived here. Soon enough though flashes of remembrance flooded through his mind forming a fractal pattern. He desperately tried to place those scattered pieces in an order that made sense as he watched several gaunt and grotesque figures enter the room. They seemed human enough, at least at first, but soon his eyes caught a closer glimpse as one stepped towards the table he was laid on. Skin and bones with twisted gears and bolts protruding from their heads and horrid gangly legs tipped at the bottom with robotic peg-legs. Emil Nemico had heard of them before, Stalkers, but this was the first time the former Templar had ever seen them.
Emil Nemico, he repeated in his mind as his memory at last returned in whole. Only now did the horror occur to him of what was happening. He tried to move but found himself paralyzed, likely drugged, even if he'd had the ability he could see that several straps held him in place. Even more disturbing were the clear plastic tubes protruding from his skin feeding an unknown neon blue liquid into his body.
"What are you doing to me? Let me go goddamn it!" Emil shouted though his words were barely understandable. An electric shock coursed through his body peeling away any remaining layers of defiance.
Emil looked down at his body, his skin was sickly pale. At a distance his eyes, which were only now returning to full focus, caught sight of something against the wall, a group of Combine solders, Overwatch and Combine Elites, watching his transformation.
"No!" Emil shouted, "I won't become one of you! I won't!"
Another jolt burst through him, the agony through him from consciousness for almost a minute until his eyes at last opened again. He looked up at the sickly Stalkers as they adjusted machines and poked him and prodded him with instruments. They themselves had had this very thing done, they themselves were members of the Resistance at one time. Their wills were now broken by the Combine, as his soon would be.
"No," Emil whispered quietly truly lamenting his fate, a third shock followed and soon he was enveloped in the darkness again.
Alyx opened her olive eyes with frantic calls echoing in her ears. She looked up thinking she would see Cheng Yin standing right in the room with an eager expression. The man was rushing up and down the halls yelling about how he'd managed to get the Animus up and running and despite it being the crack of dawn outside he seemed extremely excited. Cheng had spent two and a half days, almost without sleep, working on the Animus and now, if his early morning shouts of jubilation were to be believed, he was just about finished.
Alyx glanced beside her to where Theta lay. The woman was sprawled out beneath her covers with nothing but a tattered old shirt on. Alyx gave Theta a smile and planted a gentle kiss on her lips as she opened her tired eyes.
"That was wonderful," Theta said with a yawn, "Now can you go tell him to shut the hell up."
"I thought you wanted the Animus to be done," Alyx chided with a grin as she, wearing nothing but her skin, got back into her clothes.
"I do," Theta argued, "but I value my sleep, especially after such a," she paused for a moment as if looking for a way to phrase it, "busy night.
Alyx gave Theta a naughty smile before heading for the door where Cheng, who'd been pressing the buzzer for a good twenty seconds, stood waiting. Cheng wore a different kind of smile and had a glow that seemed contrasted by his exhausted expression and the deep blue bags under his tired eyes. He jumped up and down happily shaking Alyx's hand frantically before rushing into the room.
"How much coffee did they give you?" Theta asked with a laugh, "I thought instructed them to limit your access to caffeine."
"I've done it," Cheng said ignoring her joke, "the Animus is running like a dream!"
"It works then?" Alyx asked.
"Well, I'm not sure," Cheng admitted, "I mean I did a few modifications to the design. Come on, I'll show you."
Theta followed Alyx and Cheng her attention torn between watching the hyperactive inventor or watching the graceful gait of Alyx Vance. She could hardly believe that the answers to her past could now be unraveled at her leisure. More than thirty years of her life remained hidden from her and what little had returned in flashes of memory had only added to the mystery. She stepped into the Animus chamber utterly amazed at how polished the prototype looked despite it only being a few days of construction.
"Incredible," she whispered as she ran her hands over the metallic surface.
"Looks almost like the real thing," Julian said with a smirk.
"Yeah, it does," Allison echoed though her expression was more one of apprehension.
"I added a monitor here," Cheng said, "this will allow all of us to watch what's happening in your ancestor's memories as you relive them."
"Everything looks good," one of the scientists, an older man by the name of Jerry Bauman, said as he punched something into the computer terminal set up beside the Animus, "but we'll need to test it out on a subject."
"Do you want to?" Alyx asked Theta.
"Are we even sure this will work?" Theta asked biting at her finger-nails, "I mean the memories I most want to access are my own."
"It should be able to do that," Jerry said, "Might have to adjust a few parameters but that's perfectly feasible."
"I'll do it," Alyx announced with a distant expression as if she was remembering, "I know just the ancestor I want to visit too."
Ressian watched as her most beautiful creation went to work on the Resistance convoy. She knew she was close to a Resistance stronghold, all the intel they'd gain had led her to this area but for all her trying she'd been unable to find it despite more than a day of searching. Finally she and War Hound had come across a patrol and the massive metallic canine was getting some practice for the fight ahead.
Already War Hound had taken out one of the two soldiers carrying rocket launchers. The other was some distance away cowering behind a tree and desperately trying to load his launcher. The soldier was obviously inexperienced. Ressian wondered how on Earth any human could be inexperienced at fighting the Combine after this many years of alien occupation. It made little difference really. War Hound was closing in on the soldier now as bullets and pulse rounds poured in from the other Resistance in the area. Bullets did almost nothing to the resilient robot and pulse rounds left small but negligible dents in his armor.
He crashed into the copse of trees where the rocket wielding soldier had holed up and tore through the densely packed trunks. Just then the man stepped out, took a knee and fired off a rocket. Ressian's black alien eyes went wide as the smoke cleared. War Hound was holding the soldier helplessly in the air above him, his armored face plate was charred and even from this distance Ressian could see his eye lens was cracked yet other than that he was entirely undamaged. A darkly satisfied feeling rushed through Ressian when her monstrosity crushed the life of the Resistance soldier almost snapping the man in two with his massive hands.
She moved in now hoping to get in on the fun. Several stragglers had broken off from the main group and she was determined that none would make it back to the base to warn Julian and the others. She'd spent two days of travel to get here but the assassin's trail was not so easy to follow even with a convoy of civilians in tow.
One of the soldiers broke off and attempted to get his ATV started. Ressian could see that War Hound was busy bashing through the forest in pursuit of four or five other soldiers. This was her chance, she drew her sword and rushed forward with impossible inhuman speed. Like a black shadow she dashed past the tree line and toward the trail the patrol had been traveling down. The man had his vehicle started now, he looked up and attempted to ready his weapon as he caught sight of her. He fell to the trail bleeding out from the wound in his neck before he could fire off a single round.
Ressian felt a bullet strike her left arm. She narrowed her insect-like eyes in the direction of the human who'd hit her. She was a good distance away up in a tree holding a sniper rifle of some sort. Ressian felt another bullet strike her, this time in the abdomen. The alien winced and grabbed her side amazed that the weapon had the kick to pierce her naturally armored hide. The alien dove grabbing the MP7 from the man she'd just killed and taking aim. The sniper was considerable distance away but Ressian didn't have the eyes of a human being, she could easily see her target. The alien fired off a series of shots and watched as the sniper dropped out of the tree. To Ressian's surprise though the woman wasn't even immobilized, though clearly at least one round had found its mark. Ressian took aim with the SMG again but before she could fire off a round War Hound emerged through the trees and grabbed the woman.
"Stop!" Ressian shouted in command as she approached the scene, "I wish to speak with her. Place her down gently."
War Hound responded with a series of friendly robotic buzzes and whirs setting the woman down softly on the trail below. Ressian noted that she'd been hit in both the outer thigh on her right as well as in the shoulder. She also noticed that the woman was far older than she'd expected, at least sixty Earth years of age.
"What the hell are you?" the woman grunted trying to stand. She didn't seem at all afraid despite her question.
"We're looking for a base," Ressian said, "The place called Hunter's Fall. We believe that a man has come there."
"I don't know what you're talking about," the woman said grimmacing with each step.
"Hunter's Fall," Ressian demanded with the blade of her sword on the woman's throat, "You have already fought honorably and showed great endurance and earned a small measure my respect... do not make me kill you. Hunter's... Fall."
Ressian felt no remorse as the woman fell dead before her. She searched around for several minutes hoping to find at least one other survivor but War Hound's efficiency had been her undoing. She decided it would be best to follow the trail the patrol had taken, hopefully it would be enough to lead her to Julian's doorstep.
Shephard walked through the POW camp with his head hanging low. The once proud man had been brought low by the Combine, brought not only to a point of surrender but to a point of cowardice. Now the General could hardly bear to look his fellow Resistance members in the eye. Most of them didn't blame the man, they'd heard the leverage that the Combine possessed. The Empire had found access points to the tunnels where all of City 12's children were being kept safe. To not give in would have caused the blood of those children to be on Shephard's hands.
It was small comfort that the children of City 12 were still alive to Shephard for he knew the Combine had untold horrors in store for them even if they agreed to honor their arrangement. It was a big IF. In the early days of the invasion Shephard remembered hearing of similar situations where Resistance children were captured and used as black-mail leverage and then killed anyway. The Combine used others for tests and still others for slave labor but many millions of children had been killed by the Combine. That loss still hung heavy over the human race and now the hope that had been restored, the ability to procreate, had been swept away.
City 12 was immediately put under the power of a new suppression field keeping all citizens from procreating. While most soldiers who'd surrendered had been moved into the camps outside the city most of the civilians had remained inside City 12. Shephard had heard rumors that the Combine planned to kill them all though he thought it far more likely that they would be forced to rebuild the city starting with the Citadel.
Shephard sat on the ground under the blaring summer sun and watched his fellow soldiers walk like lifeless zombies around him. Morale had been utterly annihilated by the surrender and despite his best efforts to keep his own spirits high he too had succumbed to the hopelessness of their present situation. He could only hope that Julian had a plan to return to City 12 and take the city back.
"Why the sour face?" a familiar voice asked and Shephard looked up to see General Amber Cartwright staring him down. She was standing on make-shift crutches with a wide grin on her face. She plopped down beside him and put a hand on his shoulder, "This is only temporary."
"It was our victory that was only temporary," Shephard corrected, "Our Resistance was only temporary... we've lost."
"Losing is only temporary," she argued, "Eventually we have to win, that's just statistics."
"I don't see how you can remain hopeful," Shephard sighed.
"You, prisoner, stand up," a Combine soldier demanded. Shephard stood, "Not you... her."
"She's injured," Shephard pointed out with an indignant tone.
"Stand up," the soldier once again demanded, this time he got out his stun baton.
"It's fine Shephard," Amber replied refusing his help to get herself on her feet.
"Good," the soldier mused, "Now take off your shirt."
"Excuse me," Amber replied with an angry glare.
"Leave her alone," Shephard demanded, the soldier pushed him away and held up his baton as if threatening to strike.
"The shirt," the soldier demanded once more this time grabbing Amber and tearing at her clothes himself, "and the pants."
Shephard watched as the soldier tore her shirt off laughing as he did it. The General's eyes darted around and finally came upon a particularly pointy rock buried in the ground. He rushed over and pulled it out lifting it over his head as he got a feel for it in his hand. He bumrushed the soldier tackling him to the ground and taking several baton blows to the head all the while driving the rock down into the crevice between the Combine stooge's armor and his helmet. Amber rushed to help holding the soldier's arms as Shephard did his work. Soon blood flowed freely from the Overwatch soldier's neck and Shephard found himself surrounded by prisoners who watched on with agitated cheers. Soon though Shephard was joined by more than two dozen Overwatch who held their guns out ready to fire at him if given the order.
"Thanks Shephard," Amber said as the Overwatch put them both in cuffs, he watched as they dragged her away screaming, "Remember, there's always hope. We have to win this fucking war!"
Alyx Vance had been present for a great number of scientific experiments in her twenty-nine years of life but most of them had taken place before she was old enough to understand or even truly remember them. There was one man who was present for them who did remember them though and that man had passed his memories to her. She stood now in the lab coat and polished black shoes of her Father Eli Vance. It was a strange feeling being placed into the body of her late Father even stranger was that she was looking at herself through his eyes.
Eli was seated on a playground bench in some sort of inside daycare facility watching her play. She was three or four years old and playing with a child who looked a few years older. Through her Father's eyes she watched the two children play. Her Father turned then to regard a balding man with handsome features seated beside him.
"She looks a lot like her Mother," the man said to Eli and Alyx recognized the voice as belonging to Doctor Isaac Kleiner, "How is Azian taking it?"
"Azian doesn't know what to do Izzy," Eli replied, "The administrator has covered the whole thing up, it's that damned superior of his, you've seen him around. Government man," Eli spat, "Doctor Eisley was a colleague, she did so much for Black Mesa and her husband was a war hero!"
"And we're getting more and more Xenian samples," Doctor Kleiner said with a worried expression, "There's no telling how many crystals will be just as unstable as the one that caused the accident. What will become of her daughter?"
"I don't know," Eli said shaking his head, "She was in the room when it happened though."
"My God," Kleiner remarked with mouth agape, "she seems to be playing with Alyx alright, she seems fine."
"He wants her tested," Eli sighed with tightened fists.
"Who?" Kleiner asked.
"That damned G-man."
Alyx felt herself floating in a sea of memories drifting out of her Father's eyes and away from that moment in time. Someone was using the external controls to guide her to another memory. She'd chosen the dates more or less at random except for one date, the day of the Resonance Cascade. It was on that day that the aliens broke through the dimensional barrier because of the meddling of some scientists at Black Mesa. Her Father was one of those men though she knew he only held a small portion of responsibility for the incident.
She fell back into her Father. The blaring desert sun scorched his eyes, the sound of helicopter routers spinning filled his ears. Directly in front of him Eli stood a man in a blue suit who seemed vaguely familiar to her. Alyx's younger self stood at her Father's side holding tightly to his hand as they stood in the desert. The man in the blue suit adjusted his necktie as he struggled to be heard above the roar of the nearby chopper. Beside the man, who held a Black Mesa briefcase, was the same little girl Alyx had been playing with earlier.
"It would appear that you owe me a debt Doctor Vance," The g-man cooed before turning to the young woman beside him, "As for this little one, I will take her off your hands."
It was now that Alyx saw the girl's almost gray eyes and knew immediately who she was. It seemed so impossible and Alyx had to wonder if her present memories weren't in some way encroaching on the Animus' presentation of her Father's memories. It was Theta.
"Dammit man," Eli shouted, "You've stolen this girl's family and now you're going to steal her away from her last friend in the world?"
"If you don't like it than perhaps I could take them both," the g-man hissed and Eli grew quiet, "As I expected."
Alyx cursed her luck as she began to fade once more from her Father and began the journey toward another memory. The background went blank as if there was nothing. A sea of fragmented memories exploded into view and slowly she was focused down onto one memory. At first she thought to force herself to exit the Animus, a mental exercise that Doctor Bauman had taught her before going under but as her sight returned she felt warmth and sadness flood her mind. She was once again watching her younger self through her Father's eyes. She was a few years older now and beside her stood a small four-legged bot no taller than she was.
"Can I keep him?" she heard herself ask in a young girlish voice.
"Can you keep him?" Eli chuckled, "I built him especially for you. He's like a guardian angel, he's programmed to keep you safe."
"Angel?" little Alyx asked dismissively, she watched as the mischievous mechanoid rolled himself into a sort of ball and began somersaulting around. She reached out and petted his face plates and he responded with a pleased whirring noise, "He's more like a dog."
"Alright then," Eli said with a smile, "We'll call him Dog."
"Come on Dog, let's go play," Alyx said and Dog buzzed eagerly, "I'm gonna teach him some tricks."
"You do that honey," Eli replied, "But be careful. I'll be in the lab."
"But don't you wanna play too Dad?" young Alyx asked with a pouty face.
"I wish I could sweetie but you know that Judith and I have a lot of work to do if we hope to save the planet from this awful mess."
"Always in the lab with Judith," Alyx griped, "Come on Dog, let's go so Daddy can have his alone time with his girlfriend."
Eli chuckled as she walked away but Alyx could sense the sadness behind that laugh. Slowly she began to come out of that memory as well and soon enough her real eyes were opened. She looked up at Cheng, who still hadn't gotten any sleep, and Doctor Bauman. She could feel that her real eyes were wet with tears that she hadn't felt before, those teary eyes searched for Theta but the woman was nowhere to be found in the room.
"She left," Julian explained, "During the first memory, when the two girls were playing."
"She knows," Alyx realized leaping from the Animus and feeling a bit disoriented once her feet were beneath her.
"Knows what?" Allison asked.
"That litte girl was her," Alyx explained as she struggled to regain her coordination.
The old Emil Nemico was no more. As his eyes opened he soon realized that he wasn't seeing through eyes anymore. His biological binary sight had been replaced with some kind of high-tech heads up display. He looked down at his hands, armored gloves that allowed for increased dexterity. These were not the hands of your average Overwatch soldier. Indeed as he studied his armor he slowly came to the realization that he wasn't an ordinary soldier at all. All of his memories were in tact and his mind seemed, for the most part, unmolested and yet as the General, Yvolslog Urwel, entered the room, he felt compelled to stand at attention before the beast.
"I must say they are getting good at this," the General proclaimed in barely understandable English, "It only took them a few days to do what would have taken a month not long ago."
"I don't understand," Emil Nemico said noting the robotic and artificial sound of his voice, "I'm not an Overwatch."
"You're a synthetic," the slug-like General explained dragging his wretched form across the room to regard the Stalker's handiwork, "Part of a new unit I've developed."
"My mind is the same," Emil said with astonishment, "I thought you would bend me to your will."
"We have," the General cackled, "You are entirely under our power but you still retain the illusion of complete and utter free will."
Emil felt panic flood his mind, he felt bile well up in his pseudo-mechanical throat, he felt anger but he could not strike out against the General no matter how hard he willed it. The General was right. The former Templar, once proud of his autonomy, once hungry for individuality, was now part of a collective. There was nothing Emil Nemico could do. With a resigned sigh and a profound feeling of despair her hung his head low.
"What would you have me do General Urwel?" he asked in a flat tone made only more monotonous by his robotic voice.
"Ressian Malil is close to the assassin, close to Hunter's Fall," the General said, this time in his native alien tongue, yet somehow Emil fully understood every word, "She is retrieving the apple. You will take four thousand troops with you, all of them Combine Elites, and you will make sure she succeeds."
"Four thousand Elites!" Emil exclaimed.
"Many of them were proud soldiers defending City 12 to their last breath," General Urwel snickered, "Now they will help the Combine to gain unlimited power."
Emil wasn't sure what the General meant. The Apple of Eden, while certainly a powerful device, was far from all powerful. Were the Combine really that confused about the Pieces of Eden. It seemed unlikely for an advanced empire that had been seeking the Pieces for years to be so misinformed about them. Perhaps it was a translation error, he thought, he still wasn't fully sure how he was able to suddenly comprehend the General's language.
Emil stepped out of the room and into the midsummer sun wondering how much of his body was still human. Clearly his brain had been retained, or at least some aspect of his personality. But then how could he tell? How would he know if this was the real him or just a copy downloaded onto a computerized brain? For all he knew the real Emil Nemico might have died with his physical brain. He shook those thoughts from his mind when his eyes came upon a sight they thought they'd never see again.
"Vera!" Emil exclaimed startling the Templar leader who was inspecting a group of Synthetic humanoid soldiers similar in armor to him.
"Soldier?"
"It's me Vera, it's Emil," he explained as the woman eyed him nervously, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"You're a synth," she said absent-mindedly ignoring his question, "I cannot believe they did this to you."
"Nevermind me," Emil said still not sure if he was happy to see her or not, "What are you doing here? Why are you helping the Combine? Is this where the Templar loyalties truly lie?"
"The Templar loyalties lie many places," Vera admitted quietly as she pulled the man, or synth, aside, "They're looking for something, something powerful."
"The Apple," Emil stated bluntly.
"No, not the Apple," Vera said once, her wild eyes checking to see if they were watching from any side, "Something better."
Alyx opened one eye and let it adjust to the darkness of the room. She could barely make out Theta's sexy figure in the bed beside her but the way her partner was breathing gave her all the information she needed. Theta was asleep. Alyx held her breath and slowly but surely slipped from under the covers and put her pants back on trying not to make any noise. Thankfully Alyx was trained by the assassins and was more than stealthy enough to sneak out of the room.
She passed quietly passed Cheng's chamber where the man was finally enjoying some well-deserved rest and soon came into the Animus room. It was quiet, too quiet and if she made any amount of noise she was libel to wake everyone in the complex. She rushed to the computer terminal taking only a few moments to learn the controls before programming in her destinations.
Alyx Vance wanted that connection to her Father but more than that, she wanted to know what happened to her Mother, what happened that day. The day the whole world went to shit. The day of the Black Mesa Incident. She closed her eyes and let the Animus take her under, she swam in a sea of memory once more. Eons of her ancestors, a web of interconnections sprawled before her as far as the eye could see, an ocean of infinite regression.