Chapter Twenty – Polarity
The shadows swirled about his mind with seemingly dark intent shrouding from his memory the truth of what had happened. One thing seemed for certain to the man though, he was not dead. His injuries had been grave, certainly even for one who was built like he was they would have proved fatal almost instantly and yet here he was. Where was he? His head throbbed as waves of light began penetrating the powerful depth of the darkness. Aurora like arcs of light danced about him now as he realized that he was suspended in the air high above some dark rock that seemed to levitate beneath him. That island seemed to be floating in an abyss of stars and bright clouds. He found himself falling then toward a structure on the surface of that island, a building carved by hands ancient and then he felt the breath entering his lungs.
"I'm not dead," Emil Nemico found his lips saying as he sat up and took a look around. The truth of those words was unknown to him but for the time being it was his working hypothesis. He stood and brushed himself off before, in a moment of sudden terror, remembering his fight with Julian and the ghastly wounds he had assumed would kill him. It had ended in a flash of light as he lay bleeding out on the side of the Temple, "I am dead?"
The ground shook beneath his feet shuddering as though the rocks themselves were living beings. He took better survey of his surroundings as the shaking subsided and realized that he was standing on the side of the Starseed Temple, the same place where he had presumably met his untimely end. This was not the jungle however, this was not even Earth. The stars were foreign to his eyes and great clouds of pink and green fluttered about amongst a auroral sea surrounding the land mass on all sides.
Something moving caught his attention and the synthetic assassin turned to see a Vortigaunt moving toward them. He was old by the look of him and wearing more scars than the most battle-hardened human could ever hope to live through. Emil groped for his sword or his gun but found both missing. No matter, he though brandishing his fists in preparation for the fight, he could take the alien. Only then did he realize that most of his synthetic areas had been altered somehow. He put his hands to his face feeling a face instead of an armored visage designed by the Combine.
"Put down your appendages human," the Vort growled, "In this place I can strike you down into ashes with little more than a thought."
"What is this place?" Emil found himself asking as he dropped his fists lazily to his sides.
"The between-world," the Vort responded, "This is where the veil between the Vortessence is most thin."
"How did I get here? Am I dead?" Emil asked staring up at the vastness all around him.
"Not dead," the Vort shook his head, "you must have passed through the veil when the Temple was returned here."
"Returned?"
"It was not of your, how you would say, reality, it has existed in your world only because of the crystals," the Vort said, "Come inside now, we are not alone."
General Yvolslog Urwel sat in his bunker contemplating his next move. His superiors would not pleased with the reported failure of his forces at the Temple. They had not yet reported back of course but it had already been nearly three days since their departure. The General wasn't sure how the assassin and his friends had managed to fight off so large a fighting force but he was more than sure that the Assassins had been a thorn in the side of the Combine for long enough.
Vague rumors were all that had surfaced so far, stories of a massive shockwave in the jungles of Laos that sent every animal for a thousand miles scurrying the other direction. Even worse than the idea that the assassins had recovered the power of the Temple was the idea that Emil Nemico and Vera might have. The General knew full well that the two had a prior history together and that both were Templars, a pitiful faction of humans that attempted to play both sides of the conflict for their own perverse purposes and profits.
General Urwel's computer monitor flashed to life a few seconds later. As his serpentine tongue dug between his pointed teeth nervously the image of a Combine Advisor appeared on the screen. It's language was barely understandable to the General but the tone of it's alien screeches and psychic waves was more than clear. They were more than a little angry with the General's failed handling of the issue and they had monitored the release of energy from the Temple's destruction.
"What of the power it contained?" The General asked in his own native tongue.
"It is no longer of concern to the likes of you," came the definitive reply this time the Advisor attempted General Urwel's own language, quite successfully capturing the anger of that guttural tongue, "You have one last task in City 12, kill all the children. Once you have completed that task you are to be... reassigned. We will deal with the ones who have taken the power of the Temple."
"As you wish," General Urwel said gritting his teeth as mucous, like nervous sweat, dripped down his sickly skin.
The image on the screen vanished and the General let a sickly sigh of relief escape his grotesque lungs. They were reassigning him, though that didn't sound too promising he was at least glad to still be alive. Had they needed to the Advisors could have easily had him killed. He took no pleasure in the idea of having to kill the children however. There was no mercy to be found in the General's many chambered heart but killing off the only potential future work force, killing off the only potential future recruitment pool for Overwatch, seemed unwise. Going against the wishes of the Advisors in the wake of his failure however would have proved to be suicidal, the very pinnacle of un-wisdom.
Alyx stepped tentatively toward the big steel door and brought to her memory the knock that would give her entrance. Three quick taps followed by three heavy resounding thuds that nearly rubbed the rust from the door off on her hands. The base, known only as Agartha, was an old tunnel system built beneath this part of Germany used as a last refuge by the Nazis in WW2. It was ironic that these tunnels, built by Europe's oppressors, were now being reused by those who sought it's liberation.
A long pause followed Alyx's knock but soon enough she heard the steel bar on the other side slide away and watched as six armed guards came out to greet her. One of them recognized her and rushed out to hug her. Julian recognized the man as Barney Calhoun. He'd met Barney very briefly during their pursuit of the Borealis' contents with Gordon and Alyx. There was a warm comradery in that embarace, almost a sibling-hood.
"Just about given you up for lost," Barney remarked.
"Is Gordon-" Alyx began to ask but Barney was already shaking his head.
"Still MIA, as usual, damn man only shows up when we're absolutely on the brink of disaster... anyway it's good to have you back, I was getting tired of having to be the guinea pig for the Doc's experiments."
"You remember Julian of course," Alyx said and Julian stepped up to shake the mans hand.
"How could I forget the man who left me for dead fighting off two gunships," Barney smirked.
"I came back for you eventually," Julian joked.
"Well no use having you guys stand out there, come on in, Izzy's expecting you, ever since you sent that message he's been working almost non-stop."
"On what?" Allison found herself asking after no one else asked the obvious question.
"Do I look like a quantum engineer to you?" Barney replied with a playful smile as he led them down the tunnels until at last they came to a massive steel door with several hazard signs plastered across it and DO NOT DISTURB – SCIENCE IN PROGRESS spray painted in bold letters, "Lab's just through that door, I gotta guy check on security, we had a few shells hit the valley on the other side of this mountain and our guys have been out cleaning up the zombie problem. See you when I see you."
Julian grabbed his satchel as Alyx pushed the door open and walked inside. All the other felt strangely nervous as they stepped in to the room. There was a strange low hum, a whirring like the working of some dark machine, that haunted the air as they stepped into the lab. An almost fog-like mist shrouded the room making it hard for them to see. As they swatted in vain against the mists the sound seemed to be growing louder and more high-pitched, the shape of something spinning somewhere over their heads moved through the mist. Just like that the lights flickered and the sound died out.
"Doctor Kleiner!" Alyx shouted, "Are you in here? Are you alright?"
"Alyx?" an excited voice came out the shadows soon followed by the man himself, "Alyx my dear!"
The bespectacled man, easily in his late sixties, ran to Alyx to embrace her. He pulled back self-consciously when he realized his lab coat was soaked through with a gooey black substance like some kind of tar. He then moved over to the corner mumbling an apology about the state of the lab as he hit the ventilation system and began fanning out the smoke from the room. Only then did the expanse of space around them become obvious. The ceiling was high, at least thirty feet above them with massive industrial fans. Reinforced steel beams hung above them suspending a strange apparatus that had arms that seemed to reach down from the ceiling like giant fingers. Just beneath the reach of that artificial hand was a a small reinforced container that looked almost like it was designed to hold hazardous waste material.
"Well for those of you who don't know me my name is Issac Kleiner, formerly an employee of Black Mesa. I'm sure all of you know what we did there, and that many of us have tried as hard as we can to undo that mistake."
"That's why we're here Doc," Alyx replied attempting to lighten the man's mood, "We have something that might do just that."
"So I've heard," the man replied with anticipation, "may I see the crystals."
Julian opened his bag and removed one of the crystals. At first it seemed inert, inactive and cold with a blue lifeless slate surface. As Julian touched it the starseed crystal began to shimmer, it's light soon becoming all but intolerable to the small group of onlookers. Doctor Kleiner pulled his goggles down over his eyes and reached his hands behind him to take a pair of gloves from the desk located there all without ever taking his eyes off the mesmerizing crystal. Delicately the doctor took the crystal from Julian's hands and watched as it's glow soon died away.
"Great Scott," the man gasped as the light flickered before vanishing.
"What do you think Doc?" Alyx asked, "Is it the same cyrstal that was present for the Black Mesa incident?"
"No," the man replied emphatically, "the crystal that began the Resonance Cascade was yellow in color, not blue... We will need to take time to study it before we do anything."
"In the meantime you guys can all make yourselves at home," Alyx said turning to Julian and the others, "the Vorts will fix you up something to eat if you like and I'm sure guest quarters have been prepared."
"I could really use a good nap," Cheng mentioned yawning loudly and only then did everyone else realize just how fatigued they were from their ordeal. Tired, exhausted and bruised they went to their quarters and, in the peace of their present safety, fell into a deep sleep.
Emil Nemico glared out at the maddening depths of the vast cosmic expanse that spread before him. It was at once frightening and exquisitely beautiful to the man. He'd never been one to really stop to appreciate the beauty of the world, too busy as he had been taking advantage of it. Now he seemed to have little choice but to take in the sights and sounds around him although it was hardly Earthen beauty he was admiring. This was Xen, his Vortigaunt companion had explained to him, the Border World, a place that existed on the fringes of multiple realities.
Emil had heard tales of the place from some of the Vortigaunt Resistance members he'd met during his time as a soldier. This was their homeworld, or at the very least their homeworld was somewhere amidst the endless realms that made up Xen. They had been taken as slaves at one time, slaves to the Combine force to fight and kill before the one Free Man had freed them from the control of the Nihilanth. The story had been an interesting one but he'd always assumed it was a myth. There were many tall tales associated with those early days after the Earth was invaded by aliens but few if any had clear knowledge of the past.
Emil tapped his foot anxiously suddenly feeling uncomfortable around all the empty space that surrounded him. He turned back toward the Temple and entered the atrium before descending into the Vortigaunt's makeshift bed-chamber. There the Vort stood stirring a ladle in a caldron of some kind suspended over a roaring blue-white flame. The Vort hummed in a language entirely foreign to Emil's ears but it was a very resonant and beautiful sound, one that calmed the man as he took a seat on a small stool nearby to the Vortigaunt's stone bed.
"We shall feast on the body of a one-eye I killed earlier," the Vort said pointing to the body of a strange pod-like green alien with one giant eye, "It's flesh will be sufficient to sustain we two for some days."
"I need to get back," Emil declared absent-mindedly, "I can't be stuck here."
"The way back is not easy," the Vort said, "or else I would have attempted it centuries ago."
"You've been on this rock for centuries?" the man asked accepting the bowl of soup from the Vort.
"Of your Earth years yes," the Vort nodded, "time does not function the same way in some areas of the between-world. The Temple has a timelessness about it, it has stood between the worlds for eons unnumbered and so time will not pass for us here."
"There is a way back though?" Emil asked hopefully before taking a sip of the soup and turning white at the horrid taste.
"Aye," the Vort nodded, "In time perhaps I will show it to you, but not tonight."
Emil lay down a few hours later slipping a strange alien hide over him to keep him warm. Even with the tick stone walls of the Temple and the burning white coals of the fire the Xenian night was fiercely cold. He found himself wishing to be a synthetic again and wondering how in the hell that transformation had even taken place. How could his teleportation here have removed his synthetic aspects? Shivering beneath his strange blanket and with a stomach aching from the bizarre meal Emil Nemico fell asleep.
The mid-June sun warmed Julian and Allison's skin as they lay basking on the grass a few hundred feet from the main gate of Doom Keep. The assassin had refused to spend such a beautiful day buried in the underground tunnels. Allison's stomach was beginning to show a bit more and Julian found his fingers tracing soft lines around her belly as she lay on the grass beside him. It was the first time in a long time that they'd been able to spend any intimate time alone. With the world collapsing around them there was little time for such pleasures to be indulged in but, at least for now, they were safe and in possession of something that might help turn the tide in humanities favor.
The women of Doom Keep were still trapped under a Suppression Field however and Allison's stomach had been the start of more than one conversation as she'd walked the halls of Doom Keep the last two days. It was easy to forget the delicate ground on which the human race walked, flirting ever with absolute annihilation. Yet in those moments Julian and Allison could forget all that and dwell on each other. It was selfish perhaps, Julian thought as he leaned in to kiss her, but necessary for their sanity.
The moment was stolen from them when the ground began shake. Julian tried to ignore it but it soon grew stronger. The assassin sat up and looked down the rode aways, the trail wandered off into the forest but he could already see the smoke rising from the roadway. Julian took cover with Allison before hiding himself in the branches of a nearby tree. The vehicle at last came up over the ridge into their line-of-sight bringing a sigh of momentary relief when it turned out to be a small group of Resistance scouts.
"You the assassin?" the soldier asked as he parked in the garage and met Julian halfway to the big steel door of Doom Keep.
"I am, what's the matter?"
"Combine forces," the man replied wiping the sweat from his brow as he delivered the knock that would gain them entry, "They're moving this way too, I don't know how many, but they got Strider's with them and ten or more gunships."
"Everywhere we go disaster follows," Allison sighed.
"Come on, we need to see Barney," Julian replied as the massive door swung open.
Shephard knew something was up, his guards were late getting to his cell to take him to his daily interrogation session. They had developed a pattern and despite the fact that he had no clock or contact with the outside world Shephard had an intuitive sense of the passage of time. The pattern had been broken, they were late, more than an hour late at least. Normally the General was a logical man, a rational man, but he could not deny the intuition burning at his insides, the feeling that something was horribly wrong.
Finally he heard the heavy boots of intimidation slamming against the corridor just outside his cell. The door creaked and crashed open bringing brightness with it. Shephard's eyes took a split-second to adjust before he realized he wasn't looking at his ordinary guards. He shrugged dismissively as he stood up and followed them out of the room. They no longer needed to push him around to get him to move but every few feet they attempted to trip him or push him. Shephard was no weakling, even on the pitiful rations the Combine offered him in this hellhole, he barely even flinched when they hit him full force with their fists or batons. A blend of hatred and indifference swelled within him as they shoved him into the interrogation chamber toward the sickly Stalker that normally carried out the endeavor.
Shephard's sense that something was off returned to him as the Stalker seemed to ignore his presence. The sound of someone else breathing in the room, shallow labored breaths, filled Shephard's mind with panic. The lights began to brighten until Adrian Shephard could make out the shape lying on the torture table in front of him, the tiny shape of a child. The child was likely not even a year old. The Stalker hovered it's grotesque appendages over the child waving them threateningly. Adrian though to fight back for a moment but he supressed the urge to kill the Stalker as it's hand lit up with electricity and sent a jolt through the child's body. The muscles in the child's legs spasmed uncontrollably as it's pained cries filled the chamber.
Shephard collapsed to the floor on his knees with tears in his eyes.
"I'll tell you whatever you want to know!" he said, "ANYTHING!"
"What makes you think you have information we want?" A Combine Elite asked entering the room with several Overwatch soldiers, "We just want to make you suffer, watching humans suffer brings our Masters pleasure."
"I mean it!" Shephard repeated as the Stalker relented it's shocking and Shephard breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the child was still very much alive.
"We have to kill all the children of your City," the Elite admitted, "It is our orders and this child is the first."
"Children are very previous to your species," one of the Overwatch chuckled, "So pathetic, so weak."
"We used to be the same species," Shephard replied through gritted teeth, "you sick fucks!"
"Shock the kid again," the Elite demanded and the Stalker obeyed.
All emotion left Shephard's mind in those moments listening to the pained cries of that child. As they dragged him from the room he heard them give the order to kill the child, indeed they were going to kill all the children. His muscles felt limp and tired, his soul empty and hollow, his life nothing but a futile attempt to avoid the ultimate truth – extinction. Maybe the human race was not built to, or meant to, survive. As they pushed and prodded him he found himself tripping and falling and hitting the cold steel of the corridor. Shephard lay there for a moment hoping they would put a bullet in his head and end his misery, but instead an armored hand reached down to help him up before they continued to push him along.
"Are you sure it will work?" Alyx asked though she hated to question the man she'd learn to respect as knowledgeable on almost everything.
"All of the calculations suggest that it will," Kleiner replied, "In theory it's foolproof, there are very few variables that could cause a back-fire."
"Back fire?" Barney asked, "I don't mean to discourage you Doc but the last time you said back fire a poor little pussycat was vaporized."
"I'm afraid the repercussions in this fails would be much worse," Kleiner replied grimly, "But the odds of it happening are minute."
"If it succeeds?" Theta asked lifting an eye-brow.
"Well the basic principle is one of quantum polarity," Kleiner explained, "The Combine used the weakening of the border between worlds after the Resonance Cascade to pull through the Citadels, their technology, even themselves. If I recreate the Black Mesa Incident with the crystals you brought to me it should have the opposite affect though how wide spread it will be is up for debate the subsequent wave of resonance should remove anything alien to our world, anything tunneled through from their reality."
"What do you think Julian?" Alyx asked.
"I don't see how we have much choice," Julian replied, "The Combine are on the way here, and in the scouts are right they are coming with thousands upon thousands. We don't stand a chance with the fighting force of a few hundred we have here, no offense."
"How long do we have before they attack?" Allison inquired.
"An hour maybe before the first wave hits us, there's at least a thousand troops outside our front-door already," Barney answered, "I hate to say it Izzy but Julian's right, if you don't do this we're fucked."
"Very well," Kleiner nodded, "The machine will take some time to fire up, I do recommend that you all stand over there behind the observation shield. Julian, if you like you can slip into the HEV suit and assist me in the experiment."
"You sure Gordon won't mind?" Julian asked with a smirk but the smile vanished from his face when the walls and floors began to shake, "I think we better get this under way."
"I think I better go, they'll need me in the fight if there's going to be one," Barney mentioned heading for the door.
Julian slipped into the Mark V as the others slipped behind the protection of the observation shield, a translucent form of metal that allowed for the safe observation of even the most dangerous experiments. Kleiner retreated the control booth which itself was protected by a blast shield. Julian eyed the crystal which seemed entirely innert and lifeless as it lie on the lab table in front of him. The ground was still shaking and the sounds of battle having been joined out in the corridor came wafting in. Soon those sounds were drowned out by the loud whir of the machine starting up.
"Alright Julian the anti-mass spectrometer is warmed up," Kleiner called through the PA system, "you may now start the rotors, the green switch on the left panel."
Julian flipped the switch without hesitation watching nervously as the rotors began to spin and the three main digits lowered down toward the floor. A bright beam of light suddenly shot from each of the three arms spiraling like the double-helix of DNA down from the apparatus to the material holder on the floor. The sound was almost deafening and smoke began to pour from the machine making Julian wonder if it wouldn't simply break down again. The assassin turned in a panic as the door to the laboratory burst open and in flew a fragmentation grenade. On instinct alone the assassin leaped into a roll and came up with the grenade tossing it back toward the door while simultaneously leaping away. Julian grabbed his silenced USP from atop his pile of clothes and brandished it toward the door as a dozen Combine soldiers tried stepped in through the smoke firing off their AR2s.
"We've reached 100%!" Kleiner called, "For goodness sake boy put the crystal into the beam!"
Julian felt the pulse round hitting him, penetrating the suit. He grabbed the crystal as pain shot through his body and raced toward the beam. With more and more pulse rounds heading his way he reached into the beam blindly and put the crystal into the material holder. It began to glow immediately though whether it was from the experiment or his touch Julian couldn't tell. The air around him began to dance and weave, the smoke in the room began to swirl like the twisting darkness of a tornado. Then came the first pulse outward, the bright blue crystal seemed to be shaking violently as that first shockwave reached out. Julian felt a second pulse round, then a third, as they attempted to bury into his flesh. Before they could dig in too deep though the shockwave him them and Julian could sense them dissolving away as if they simply ceased to be. He watched as the oncoming Combine fired off a Dark Energy grenade and then saw that same grenade vanish into incorporeal nothingness right before his eyes.
To the assassins' surprise the soldiers themselves did not disappear but every round of ammunition in their guns did. The second shockwave came soon after, this one sent a resounding thud shuddering through the entire facility. The Combine soldiers, now attempting to switch to their side-arms, decided that after the second shockwave of energy they would turn back and run the way they came.
"110%!" He heard Kleiner shouting, "It's working!"
The machine sputtered to a stop but not before one final shockwave boomed forth shaking the very bones of the Earth. Julian felt the sting of his wounds but luckily they didn't seem all that serious. He was lucky that he'd been wearing the HEV suit or he would most certainly be dead from the first bullet, he was equally lucky that the experiment had worked as the alien rounds were peeled from reality and taken right from his wounds. An injection of adrenaline from the suit brought him more than enough strength to get to his feet and head to a nearby first-aid set designed more for minor lab related injuries. Theta and the others soon emerged from behind the glass.
"They're retreating!" A familiar voice shouted from the hall, "Most of the poor bastards don't have any bullets!"
The source of the voice was Barney who entered a few moments later wielding a smoking M60 light machine-gun and wearing a wide-grin.
"You should have seen it!" Barney said, "They had drop-ships, gun-ships, Striders, Hunters, the whole sha-bang! They dissolved right before our eyes, each shockwave took more of them! I gotta get back out there and keep pushing those who are left back."
"We did it!" Theta proclaimed, "entire synthetic alien machines wiped right from our reality."
"Unfortunately we won't know just how well we did for a while," Julian remarked as he slipped off the HEV suit.
"You alright?" Allison asked him.
"I ain't gonna lie, it stings like hell," Julian said stealing a kiss from her soft lips, "but I've had worse."
"Good," Alyx remarked grabbing her gun, "Patch yourself up, there's still work to be done."
In those moments, as Shephard rose from the cold floor, all thought for his own life fled from his mind. Consumed by the memories of everything the Combine had ever done to the human race Adrian Shephard snapped. He started by elbowing the first soldier which, combined with hooking the Overwatch's leg, brought the Combine stooge crashing down. Without missing a beat Shephard bum-rushed the second soldier putting his forarm against the soldiers throat and pressing as hard as he could. The Combine soldier unhooked his baton and began kneeing Shephard in the gut. The attempts did nothing to deter Shephard even as the baton hit him he felt nothing, just numb hatred for the Combine and everything they stood for.
The second soldier was up by now and more were on the way he knew. Adrian Shephard just held down his arm until the first one was dead. He turned then to the second bashing his enemies face with his fists. The pain of hitting that hardened face mask with his bare fists was amazing but Shephard was numb, his pain receptors unresponsive. With the cries of that dying child ringing in his ears he punched as hard as he could. He likely broke a few bones in his hand but he also broke open the mask and left the Combine' soldiers sickly face as nothing more than a mash of blood-red flesh.
Three Combine came from the corridor ahead of him with their batons drawn. He scoffed at their weapons and rushed toward them tackling all three to the ground. He disarmed one and took the baton blows of the others soon turning that disarmed baton on all three of them. Their armor was resistant of course but not once he'd smashed through their eye plates.
He was already bleeding and now more Combine soldiers surrounded him. One came at him with an MP7 but Shephard side-stepped the bullets and shunted into the soldier with a powerful shoulder hit that crunched him against the steel wall of the corridor. Down the soldier went and up came Adrian Shephard with an MP7.
Now came the Elites brandishing their AR2s and ready to mow down the attempted escapee. Shephard didn't care if it ended like this, in fact in those moments he wanted it to end just like that. He didn't want to live in a world where the Combine could not be defeated, where a second genocide of children was about to take place.
Something happened then as Shephard closed his eyes and accepted his own fate. At first it was a faint rumbling under his feet but then the General opened his eyes as the aftershock nearly bowled him and his enemies over. The AR2 bullets were already being fired but Shephard noticed that as they inevitably veered toward him, as they moved in to guarantee his death, they became unsubstantial and then, simply, disappeared. The Elites stood flabbergasted as they tried to fire their now empty weapons. Adrian Shephard felt another shockwave occur and found himself suddenly standing before several defenseless enemies. He mowed them down with the MP7.
An alarm was sounding somewhere outside and it was completely different from the one that had sounded when he began attacking the soldiers. This wasn't a prison escape, he realized as he moved toward the exit, nor was it isolated to the prison at all. Something widespread was happening. Shephard soon found his way to the interrogation room, he found the Stalker lying dead, defunct, and without his bionic implants. The child wasn't dead however, though Shephard noted the burn marks the Combine bastards had left on it, it was very much alive.
For the first time in a very long time Adrian Shephard smiled a genuinely happy smile.
"Wherever you are kid, thanks," he whispered in the darkness.
Julian stood overlooking the field of victory with his arm wrapped around Allison and a look of satisfaction on his face. Reports were coming in from all over the region that told the same story every time. Anything that was not of this world, any object that was alien to our Universe, had vanished. The happiest report came from City 15 the nearest Combine stronghold, where the entire Citadel was rend from our reality and all the Combine soldiers inside were presumed dead. An attack plan to fully liberate the city was already underway with thousands of Resistance across Europe pledging their support.
"Reports are coming in from as far away as South Africa," Alyx said joining them.
"Adrian Shephard in City 12 has already sent word, it's been retaken by the Resistance. Just in time too it would seem, the Combine were planning to kill all the children there. Now at least ee have a chance," Julian said, "With the Citadels removed, with the Suppression Fields down, with the Combine in a world of confusion... we actually have a chance, we actually have a future."
"Thanks in no small part to mine and Alyx's messed up memories," Allison added, "And Theta's, where is she anyway?"
"Gone," Alyx replied with a sad look in her olive eyes, "She went to meet up with the survivors of Hunter's Fall... loyal to the end that girl, she cares more for them then she does for the opportunity to find more about her own past."
"I can't blame her," Allison defended, "sometimes we're better off not knowing."
"Are you sure about this?" Emil Nemico asked attempting to judge the distance between the edge of the rock on which he stood and the next one. It was a barely visible speck yet his Vortigaunt friend insisted it was the only way to get back to Earth.
"Gravity is not so great here the Emil Nemico!" the Vort shouted back from the other end having already successfully made the jump, "You can make the jump!"
Emil took a few steps back and got a running start. Perhaps if he still had his bionic legs the jump wouldn't have seemed so intimidating but having been thrust back into his ordinary mortal body by means unknown to him he wasn't sure of himself at all. The jump was immense and if he missed by even a foot he would simply descend into the infinite abyss below the mysteriously floating land masses that seemed to compose all of Xen. Shaking his head at the sheer insanity of it all he built up his speed once more and then launched himself through the low-G air - if it could be called air – and felt his feet touch down on a rock a few moments later. He nearly slipped off the edge but his Vort friend pulled him back from the bring of the cosmic chasm below.
"In there," the Vort said pointing to a cave, "I cannot accompany you, this is the start of your journey but the end of mine my friend."
"You're just going to stay here forever?" Emil asked hoping the Vortigaunt would reconsider.
"Or until the Temple is as dust," the Vort nodded, "you will find a man in the cave, he is said to have the secrets of the gate to Earth and how one can pass through it."
Emil watched his Vortigaunt friend leap from the rock he was on to another. The man was truly on his own now. He gulped nervously as he entered the cave and followed it's winding passages, illuminated by strange blue-white light that seemed to have no source, until he came to a massive cavern with a flattened out floor. A pool of brilliant azure liquid sat in the center with a resonant hum of warm harmonic sound emanating from it. That wasn't the most startling or bizarre thing Emil's eyes found to behold for forty feet above the pool, suspended in mid-air, was a man. His eyes were bright-white and a bushy white beard adorned his face. The man turned to regard Emil and Emil noted that despite his obvious age the man had musculature more common of a man in his prime.
"What brings you hear mortal?" A voice like a thousand voices asked.
"I'm looking for a way to get back to Earth, I was told that you were the only one who could help me, sir, or, god."
"I am no god," the old man replied, this time in an ordinary voice, "In fact I once had a name... but I digress. Yes, I can help you find your way home, if that is truly all that you seek."
"What IS your name?" Emil asked feeling his curiosity overcoming his fear.
"I was a great man of science," the old man replied with a deep sadness that seemed to shake the air of the cave, "now they call me Jurai, the mountain-dweller, but once I was known by another name. Morgan Eisley. Now come my son, it will take some time to prepare you to take the path home, considerable time indeed."