Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.

Welcome to City 17

Chapter Fourteen: 'Our Benefactors'

Hydraulics echoed from somewhere ahead as Gordon crawled, the flashlight not giving him as much visibility as he would have liked. Gravel crunched and scraped beneath his hands and knees, kicking up a fine mist around him as he emerged from the tunnel.

He tried not to look down. A chasm stretched out in front of him, the blue fog down below preventing him from seeing just how far down it went. Crawling out of the tunnel, Gordon planted his feet on a rocky pathway running along the cliff face on his left.

Far across from him sat the base of the Citadel, deep grey metal sprouting out of the mist below and disappearing into the cliff face opposite him. Random bits of machinery moved up and down, attached to the spires that made up the architecture of the building. Metal jackhammers, slowly moving up and down. What they were actually doing, Gordon could only guess. But he could see that one of the jackhammers was close to both a ledge up ahead on the cliff face, and a walkway into the complex.

Back pressed to the wall, Gordon followed the path around until it was close enough to the jackhammer. He waited until it was lower down before pushing himself off, landing on the smooth metal far more violently than he predicted, his momentum slamming him into the wall but thankfully not over the side.

Still hurt, though.

As Gordon rubbed his sore forehead, the jackhammer slowly rose up, taking him up just next to the ledge he needed. He stepped on, rifle raised.

Wary of the guardrail-free pathway that snaked ahead, Gordon moved into the Citadel. Moving through icy blue metal corridors, Gordon eventually came out on a walkway overlooking… he wasn't sure what on his right. It was a deep trench, stretching up just as high as it went down.

A metal rung snaked around from just ahead of Gordon, coming from the left and joining with the main rail that ran along the middle of the trench beside him. Harnesses like those Gordon had seen Eli strapped into at Nova Prospekt ran along the rail, heading down the passageway before rising up and out of Gordon's sight.

Moving ahead and around the corner, he saw the coffin-like harnesses emerging from a force-field protected conveyer belt, one after the other. As he stepped to the edge, the coffin stopped and turned towards him, opening ominously. After a brief pause, it closed again and moved off.

Gordon moved back and looked up and down the corridor. Nowhere else to go. He looked back at the continuous flow of coffins, and saw one open up again.

He sighed, knowing he was going to regret this.

Gordon stepped inside, back first, and tried not to panic as the harness clamped into place over his chest. It turned, and then, with a jolt, he was off, heading to he left and higher up.

It turned a corner, taking him to what looked like a checkpoint, a Combine camera checking each coffin in turn and giving them the green light. It stopped on him, and a small alarm sounded.

"Shit," he muttered, struggling against the metal brace in front of him. It wouldn't budge.

The camera flashed and clicked, taking photos before he was violently shoved on his way again, his coffin taking a completely different rail than the others.

A horrific scream made Gordon duck his head, and he watched another coffin going in a separate direction, holding someone else. Or at least, Gordon assumed it was a person. They looked all muscle, the flesh seemingly stripped from their bones. No teeth, and from what Gordon could see, no forearms or calves either, replaced instead by long metal spikes. On its' face, a metal visor had been placed over the eyes, only a thin black slit affording any eyesight for whatever… whoever it was.

It writhed and cried out like an animal, thrashing against the metal clamps of the harness.

Gordon tried to put it out of his mind as he was swung over to the right and through a tunnel, bright light from the other side blinding him momentarily. When his vision returned, Gordon's breath caught in his throat.

He knew this place. He had been shown it, before he arrived in City 17. Shown by Him, His ghostly image smiling over it, almost pleased.

Those coffins, moving so fast, like a production line. Hydraulic arms grabbing the coffins, moving, reorganising… Gordon didn't want to think about what happened within these walls. Down below on a small platform, guarded by a soldier, Gordon saw two of the… creatures he had seen earlier working on a control panel, sparks flying from a laser beam coming from the visor on their faces.

Stripped of their body parts, their humanity… and then used as maintenance workers. Breen had a lot to answer for.

Turning another corner, Gordon tried his best not to jump when he saw three Striders moving towards him. The rail suddenly jerked, taking him upwards and over the monsters. They didn't acknowledge him. Why would they? He was just part of the Citadel's system now.

Beside him, one of the trains that had nearly crushed him in his car on the highway shot past, taking a gust of hot air with it.

Then another jolt, and he started to slow, moving through a threshold that seemed to move to a dead end. Looking down, Gordon saw the smallest of square rooms many feet below, two white lights on either side giving it an ominous, interrogatory look. The harness opened and tilted down, and he fell.

Gordon didn't even have a chance to try and grab on to anything, and plummeted. That was too high, even for the HEV suit. He was dead.

But then, for some reason, he wasn't. Looking around, Gordon saw blue sparks of energy gently swirling and dancing around him, . Somehow, they were slowing his descent, acting like an air cushion until his feet were safely on the ground. They dissolved, leaving him alone.

The woman's voice, distant and cold, echoed to his ears, talking about 'disinfection' and 'unauthorised' something. 'Confiscation field' was in there, too.

He frowned. "'Confiscation field'?"

The lights on the walls intensified. Gordon looked to the only doorway in the room. Blocked by a force field. The woman was counting down, and Gordon was stuck. Well. This was a hell of a way to go.

Three.

Two.

Gordon closed his eyes.

One.

Bright light made him screw up his face, and he opened his eyes when he felt something tugging at him, pulling the weapons from his body, holsters and all.

He could only watch as white bolts of light took the pulse rifle, the grenades, the Gravity Gun… even the crowbar, tossing and turning in the air in front of him. Gordon tried to reach out and grab them, but the blue lights that had softened his fall made it feel as though he were moving through sludge.

The beams concentrated on the pulse rifle, dissolving it into thin air with the same effect Gordon had seen the generator core have on those soldiers when he was with Alyx and the squad.

Then the grenades.

Then the crowbar.

They had destroyed his crowbar. In front of his eyes.

His. Crowbar.

Someone was going to pay.

Then the light concentrated on the Gravity Gun, and Gordon closed his eyes, preparing himself for the same treatment. But, instead, the light continued to blast into the Gravity Gun. It looked like it was absorbing it. The orange crystal at the centre of the device began to glow, changing to a brilliant blue hue. Then the energy lashed out through the Gravity Gun at him.

The HEV suit bleeped happily, charging up to 100%.

Then it kept on going, moving to 200%.

He frowned. What the hell was going on?

Then, with one, final burst of energy, everything collapsed to the ground. The lights in the wall sparked and sputtered, and the force field was gone. The announcer woman was having a fit, telling all units to converge on what he assumed was his decontamination chamber.

Panicking, Gordon reached for the Gravity Gun, wary of the blue-white energy that danced across it. The device sparked and jolted in his hands, but not too much to affect him. There was nothing to throw, though. He would have to wait until the soldiers were close enough and then steal one of their weapons.

Combine radios beeped and squawked from down the corridor ahead, and he heard the heavy boots approaching. Gordon tucked himself around the corner and waited.

A soldier whirled around the corner, rifle at the ready. Gordon pressed the button.

But instead of the weapon coming towards him, the entire soldier came to him, rendered immobile in front of him. He and the soldier stared at each other, equally shocked.

Gordon recovered first, and smiled. "Oh, look," he said, "a new toy."

He fired, slamming the soldier into the wall with such ferocity that he was dead before he hit the floor. Gordon whirled around the corner, blasting the next soldier in the face and sending him tumbling back into his comrades. Charging into them, Gordon went crazy, firing the primary charge and tossing them up and down the corridor like leaves in the wind.

That squad dispatched, Gordon emerged from the corridor and walked past a large console, eventually ending up on a wide glass walkway. Soldiers emerged from the doorway on the other side, and Gordon backed up as they opened fire. Some of the bullets hit against his stomach. But he didn't feel them. Checking his stats, he saw thee bullets had barely made a dent.

He laughed, amazed. Gordon would have to thank Breen for making this easier for him. He charged out into the throng of soldiers, blasting several spiralling into the air. Elbowing one in the face, he was surprised to see the soldier knocked completely unconscious, like he had hit a wall.

The soldiers were all dead within seconds. Gordon took a breath. This could get ridiculous.

"So, this is Doctor Freeman."

He whirled around, Gravity Gun at the ready. Finding no-one, he followed the source of the voice as it spoke.

"At last. I wish I could say this was a pleasant surprise, but it's neither a surprise, nor, as you will surely agree, very pleasant."

Walking back to the monitor near the corridor, he saw Dr Breen's grinning face staring back at him. Gordon snapped a finger in front of his face, and there was no reaction. Okay. So it was a message rather than an attempt at communication.

"Well, I am nothing if not pragmatic."

With that, the screen went back to blank blue, white text describing code Gordon could only guess at the importance of. Gordon moved on, coming to yet more soldiers, who were dispatched quickly. Gordon was getting used to this. And it was a bit frightening.

He passed another monitor in another corridor, and Dr Breen appeared again.

"Well, Doctor Freeman. Under other circumstances I like to think we might have been able to work together in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. Certainly, judging by your brief tenure at Black Mesa while I was its' administrator you showed every promise of becoming a valuable and productive contributor to the scientific process. And yet, I'm not sure what spurred you to it. But there really is no place in this enterprise for a… rogue physicist."

And then he was gone. While it was true Gordon hadn't known Breen that well during his time at Black Mesa, he had heard enough stories from Eli and Kleiner, not to mention Magnusson's very loud, very public rants, to know that he wasn't someone Gordon would have enjoyed working with on a personal level. Only concerned with his own welfare, his own advancement. Gordon would rather have a beer with Barney or have lunch with Eli or work on new procedures with Dr Kleiner, any day of the week.

He moved on through the Citadel, navigating his way as best he could. Stepping through a secure looking threshold, Gordon came to a massive shaft of light heading upwards. A walkway went around it, different paths branching off in five directions. Beside each separate branch were smaller beams of light. On each of them, Gordon noticed the Combine power core orbs travelling up the beams and further up into the ceiling.

A soldier ran around the corner, coming face to face with him. Gravity Gun already aimed over his shoulder, Gordon summoned one of the power cores to him. He fired it at the soldier, burning him away into white ashes. Other soldiers followed, and were dispatched just as easily.

Once he was satisfied they were done with, Gordon continued on. He found his way blocked by force fields. Exploring, he found a small balcony that led down to an out of the way corridor. There was, however, a monitor there, transmitting Breen's messages to him.

"Your mentors are partly to blame, of course," he announced irritably. "My disappointment in Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner is far greater than my sorrow over your unfortunate choice of career path. In a way I suppose you could not have done otherwise. Who knows what seeds of iconoclasm they planted when you were young and gullible. But while they certainly share a great part of the responsibility for the recent troubles, it is you alone who has chosen to act with such wilful disregard for humanity's future."

They were becoming monotonous now, and he was finding it easier to tune out. Like a troublesome student who was used to being scolded by his teacher.

Next up was a wide glass platform taking him up an equally large elevator shaft. There were thin slivers of windows all along the walls, and soldiers took delight in firing on him, knowing he could do nothing but curl up in a ball and take it.

But then Gordon noticed the white beams of light running up alongside the platform, the energy orbs along with it. When he summoned one to him, he could have sworn he heard a soldier distinctly mutter 'for fuck's sake'.

Moving on into the next corridor, Gordon was confronted with more soldiers than he had ever seen gathered in one place. Twenty, at least. He sighed, and summoned an orb to him. Gordon fired it into the crowd and charged, the bullets practically bouncing off him.

He ducked blows, responding with attacks that sent his opponents flying into the roof and sliding along the floor. Yet more soldiers poured out from corridors that were seemingly everywhere, tossed and crushed into walls and each other, blood spattering against Gordon's HEV suit and glasses. They even attempted a dog pile.

It didn't end well for them.

Finally, when it was all over, Gordon stood over what he had wrought, all the dead bodies and dying groans falling on almost deaf ears. He felt like Superman, for God's sake. Breen won't know what hit him.

Speaking of which…

"Tell me Doctor Freeman, if you can; you have destroyed so much. What is it exactly that you have created?"

Gordon looked down. Blood was dripping from his hand, pooling on the floor. He didn't even know which soldier this was from.

"Can you name even one thing?"

How had this happened? He was a scientist. Eli had once told him he was like a young Dr Kleiner, all bumbling friendliness and awkward mannerisms hiding a brilliant mind. Peaceful, harmless. Helping, learning, improving the world.

How many people had he killed today? And the day before that?

How many people were dead because of him? Not just from the Resonance Cascade, but all the people who believed in him, who followed him… all dead, trying to help him or save him.

"I thought not."

Breen was gone.

Gordon put his hand on the wall, leaving a trail of blood as he wiped it along. He didn't have time for self pity right now. Eli needed him. Alyx needed him. And Breen needed to be stopped.

But he wasn't Gordon Freeman anymore. That was clear. He wasn't that scientist anymore, and he probably never would be again. From now on, he was Gordon Freeman, fighter. Killer. Murderer.

He kept on going, ending up in a long chamber, snaking walkways bridging the gap between massive courtyard areas. Coffins waited on the walls on either side, towering over him. Breen's voice echoed out yet again as Gordon watched a wall in the distance rise up, revealing four soldiers coming towards him. They had backup. A Strider, each footstep thundering through the floor, its' weapon tilted towards him menacingly.

"I have laid the foundation for humanity's survival. And not as we have narrowly defined ourselves, but as something greater than we could ever imagine. Something we can now only begin to glimpse."

"Keeping talking, Breen," he muttered. "It's all you've got."

The soldiers were dispatched easily, with one of the coffins used to topple them like skittles.

The Strider seemed reluctant to use the more powerful cannon at its' disposal, instead settling for the bullets. Some caught him as he ran, still hurting him despite the supercharged suit. They were draining the charge faster than he was comfortable with, and he continued running towards the monster, hoping to get beneath it.

Two beams of light framed the room the Strider had been waiting in, energy orbs flowing up them predictably. Gordon navigated his way through the legs, sliding like a baseball player as he snatched one of the energy orbs, pointing it upwards and into the belly of the beast.

The orb exploded, sending out a shockwave that made the Strider stumble pretty violently. Gordon fired another, and another after that. The Strider looked unsure now, moving around like a drunkard. And moving towards the thin walkway Gordon has used to get here. It wasn't really big enough to accommodate a Strider, though.

Gordon fired another orb at one of the Strider's legs. With a pained roar, the Strider toppled into the chasm below. The almighty crashes that echoed up from below made Gordon hiss through his teeth. That was going to cause trouble.

There were no more messages from Breen as Gordon moved on, moving through suspiciously empty corridors and hallways until he ended up at another harness loading area.

Jaw set, Gordon looked around the area. All other exits blocked by force fields. Nowhere to go, except…

One of the harnesses opened, summoning him in. Eyes closed, Gordon allowed himself a deep breath before he walked over and stepped inside, gripping the Gravity Gun tightly to his body as the harness clamped shut around him.

The rail he followed took him around a corner and then up. It didn't seem to stop. As he went, Gordon watched as Gunships rose up from beneath, flying out of a port and into the open air, preparing to unleash hell on the rebels below. Green armoured beasts that resembled a cross between a frog and a turtle that Gordon had never seen before crawled along a conveyer belt, their numbers dizzying.

He moved further up into a narrow, tall shaft, the open walls offering him a view of City 17.

Gordon tried not to hyperventilate as he saw how high up he truly was. The lights of the city were dots beneath him, the explosions and smoke coming from below looking like a landscape painting.

The further up he went, the more difficult he found it to catch his breath. The oxygen was getting thinner, and he was getting colder. Fear gripped him as he wondered where he was going, what was going to happen to him. To Alyx. To Eli. To everyone in the city below. He hoped he didn't die here. Asphyxiation seemed a waste.

He hadn't even delivered Barney's message yet.


(A/N: A rather short one this time - aside from Breen's broadcasts, there isn't much going on here except SuperGordon (I should really copyright that) ploughing through soldiers.

Anyway, keep the reviews coming, everybody; we're almost finished (never thought I'd see those words in this fic).

Next Chapter: Dark Energy)