Disclaimer: I don't own Half-Life.
Welcome to City 17
Chapter Fifteen: Dark Energy
Consciousness came back to Gordon in a blinding flash of light, and he blinked in his struggle to see what was causing the brightness. As his eyes adjusted, he was coming to a halt in front of two Combine soldiers dressed in the white uniforms he had seen in abundance in the lower levels.
It was a small room, with only enough space for the two of them to stand on either side of the closed door at the back. On either wall were two of the confiscation field lights. The soldier on the left pressed a button on the control panel in front of him, and Gordon's harness sprang open.
Two bolts of light from the walls slammed against his chest, pinning him to the wall. The lights snatched the Gravity Gun from his hands, despite his best efforts. It floated in the air in front of him, and the soldier on the right moved over to pluck it out of the air. The harness snapped back into place, and the lights deactivated.
The door opened, and the soldier stepped aside to allow whoever it was to get access to Gordon.
It was Mossman, confidently striding in as she spoke to the soldier.
"I'll take him from here." She turned to look at him, having the gall to change her expression and appear concerned. "Don't struggle, it's no use. Until you're where he wants you there's nothing you can do. I'm sorry, Gordon."
He stared straight ahead, finding it difficult to look at her. "I'm sure."
The coffin jerked to life, moving slowly along the rail and into the corridor beyond, flanked by Mossman and the soldier holding the Gravity Gun. A rich red carpet had been laid out on the floor of the corridor, sitting in stark contrast to the cool blues and greys of everything else in the Citadel. As they moved along, Gordon saw a doorway coming up on the right.
A familiar, smug voice echoed forth. "…carbon stars with ancient satellites colonised by sentient fungi… gas giants inhabited by vast meteorological intelligences, worlds stretched thin across the membranes where the dimensions… intersect… impossible to describe with our limited vocabulary."
As they rounded the corner and entered Breen's office, another voice replied; Eli, strapped to a similar harness and hung in front of Breen like a piece of art.
"What I've seen is also beyond words, Breen. Genocide. Unspeakable evil." His eyes travelled over Breen's shoulder and to Gordon, his face falling. "Good God."
The other man turned to face him and smiled, pressing a button on a small panel beside his desk.
"Well, if it isn't Gordon Freeman, at last."
A metal hook swung down from the ceiling and grabbed Gordon's coffin, bringing him around and closer to Breen, almost beside Eli. It was the same office that Gordon had accidentally teleported into when he first arrived in the city. The only part that was new to him was the long, stretching corridor behind Eli, though Gordon couldn't tell where it went.
Gordon watched in slight panic as the soldier brought the Gravity Gun to Breen. The administrator only gave it a cursory glance,
"What's this?" he chuckled as he waved the soldier away. "Put it over there."
The soldier did so, and Gordon tried to hide his relief, exchanging a look with Eli that suggested he was just as cautious. Gordon couldn't see, but he heard the door slam shut behind the soldier as he left.
"You have my gratitude, Doctor," Breen said, smirking in a manner that made Gordon consider delivering his first ever head butt.
"First you lead me straight to the doorstep of my oldest friend… then you deliver yourself? If I'd known you were going to come straight up to my office," he laughed, looking to Mossman for appreciation of the joke, "I wouldn't have bothered hunting you in the first place!"
Finding no support, he looked between Gordon and Eli, still laughing. "Having both of you in my keeping ensures I can dictate the terms of any bargain I care to make with the Combine!"
The laughing continued, and Breen put two fingers to his temples, as if the jollity was giving him a headache.
"But I thought you were laying the foundation for humanity's survival?" Gordon said sharply, and eliciting a smile from Eli. "Don't tell me it's all about you, Breen."
Breen's obnoxious chuckle faded, and his eyes bored into Gordon's.
Mossman came forward, wringing her hands but speaking as gently as she could. "Doctor Breen…"
"You seem to have found your voice, Doctor Freeman. I remember you being so quiet."
"Odd," he replied quietly, "you're pretty much the same. Less of a backbone, of course, but still-"
"Wallace," Mossman interrupted again, this time more insistent.
"Yes, Judith, what is it?" he said, trying to make it sound as though they were casual acquaintances. Though they probably were, considering what she had done for him. Gordon had never thought he could hate someone, but these two were pushing their way past 'intense dislike' and into the 'hate' arena.
Taking a moment, Mossman looked like she was searching for the right words. "The bargain we should be making is for Eli's life so he can continue his research."
Smiling in a manner he probably thought was pleasant but instead was infuriating, Breen put both hands on Mossman's shoulders.
"Thanks to you, we have everything we need in that regard. You're more than qualified to finish his research yourself. What neither you or I can do is convince that… rabble in the streets to give up their senseless struggle."
He glared over her shoulder at Eli. "Yet Eli refuses to speak the words that would save them all."
"Save them?" Eli scoffed. "For what?"
The headache looked like it was returning, and Breen rubbed his temple as he pressed another button on the panel. "Eli… if you won't do the right thing for the good of all people… maybe you'll do it for one of them."
One of the capsules that lined Breen's wall opened up, revealing a harnessed Alyx, her coffin moving over slowly to position her between Eli and Gordon.
"Alyx!" Eli and Gordon chorused, and she looked around in confusion.
"Dad!" she said, grateful and saddened at the same time. She looked to Gordon, and her face dropped.
"Gordon?" All resistance drained from her, her voice suddenly quiet and desperate. "No…"
"Sorry," he muttered, and shrugged. "Hell of a rescue, huh?"
"No kidding," she said quietly, smiling sadly. The expression made Gordon's chest hurt, and he was suddenly convinced that they were all going to die here, today.
His face screwing up, Eli practically spat on Breen. "God damn you Breen, you let her go!"
His smugness cloying, Breen shrugged loosely. "That's all up to you, my old friend," he said smoothly, moving up so close to Alyx that Gordon started willing Breen's head to explode.
"Will you let your stubborn short-sightedness doom the entire species…" Breen stroked the back of his hand down Alyx's cheek, and she writhed like a caged animal beneath his touch. "…or will you give your child the chance her mother never had?"
The glob of spit from Alyx that hit his face answered the question for him.
"How dare you even mention her," she hissed.
Breen slowly wiped the spit from his eye and stared at it in his hand. He brought back his arm as if to strike her.
"Don't you dare," Gordon growled, the intensity of the statement surprising even him.
After a quick glance at Gordon, Breen lowered his hand, instead grabbing her by the chin. "Alyx, my dear, you have your mother's eyes, but your father's stubborn nature."
She shook out of his grasp, almost trying to go for that head butt that Gordon had been considering earlier. "You haven't seen a bit of it yet."
Eli smirked proudly, and Breen looked at him, frustrated and full of fury. Then, suddenly, the rage disappeared, and he sauntered over to the control panel next to his desk.
"Really? Well, let's see how well it serves you… on the far side of a Combine portal."
"Go ahead, Breen," Eli boasted, chin up defiantly. "If that's the worst you can do, send us both through your portal."
In answer, Breen pressed a button, and their three coffins rotated, bringing Gordon around to the other side of the room and taking the others up towards a circular white light in the ceiling. It looked like a skylight, but Gordon had a feeling it was a passageway to somewhere far worse.
"Oh, it's hardly the worst," Breen said quietly, dangerously. "But you might find that hard to believe once you get there."
"It isn't necessary!" Mossman said desperately, moving to Breen.
He put up a dismissive hand, affording her only the smallest of glances before concentrating on Gordon.
"I agree, it's a total waste. Fortunately, the resistance has shown it is willing to accept a new leader." He walked over to Gordon, a knowing smile on his face as he spoke. "And this one has proven to be a fine pawn for those who control him."
"No!" Eli cried out, but Gordon barely heard him.
His whole world was spiralling around him. Breen knew? Or was he just talking about the rebels, about his penchant for just following orders?
"Don't listen to him, Gordon," Alyx insisted, determined even in the face of death.
Gordon looked up to her, lost and suddenly even more afraid.
Breen seemed to be enjoying this moment of power. Working for the Combine, it was probably one of the few times he got to feel like he was the ruler of the kingdom, as it were.
"How about it, Doctor Freeman? Did you realise your contract was open to the highest bidder?"
His contract? Hadn't He mentioned something about employers? They had authorised Him to offer Gordon a job. Gordon had limitless potential, that was what He had said. Did that mean a contract? Was he being employed to do this somehow? Why? Who were his employers? Gordon had never even taken the time to think about these things, and now they were all flooding in on him at once.
Had He done something to his mind to stop him thinking about this in too much detail? Maybe others knew about him. He had been reluctant to talk about Eli or Barney about Him, and about the strange man in the suit who had mastery of advanced technologies to an extent that frightened Gordon. Why? Was it something He had done, some suggestion He had planted in his subconscious?
"Gordon would never make any kind of deal with you," Alyx said firmly, and Gordon looked up at her helplessly, his words caught in his throat, eyes glassy.
What the hell was he supposed to do? Breen might have all the answers to his questions, to everything that had happened to him since that day in the test chamber, laid out for him on a silver platter. But was he willing to let Alyx and Eli die to get those answers? What was waiting for them on the other side of that portal?
"I…"
"I understand if you don't wish to discuss this in front of your friends. I'll send them on their way and then we can talk openly," Breen said, pressing a button on the control panel that began their ascent into the white light.
Gordon could only watch as they went, feeling trapped by the questions in his mind as well as the metal bonds around his body.
"Dad…" Alyx whispered, voice hitching in her throat. "I'm so sorry…"
Eli just smiled with such warmth it made Gordon want to scream. "Don't struggle, honey."
Then, suddenly, they stopped. Everyone's eyes whipped to the desk, where Mossman was standing over the control panel with Alyx's hacking device. Sparks flew from the panel, smoking and inert.
Breen cautiously started to circle around the table, speaking slowly and warningly. "Judith? What do you think you're doing?"
"We're doing what I could never do alone," she announced, sounding more confident than Gordon had ever heard her before. "We're stopping you."
"Yes," Alyx said quietly, excitedly. Gordon frowned, looking up at her. Had this been planned all along? A double bluff? No, Alyx's tears and anger at Mossman's betrayal were real. And the risk to Eli was too great. Mossman's betrayal had been real.
As was this betrayal.
Breen rushed to the intercom on the other side of the desk, slamming his hand down on the button.
"Guards, get in here-" Mossman blasted it with the hacking device, catching Breen's hand in the small explosion. He yanked it back and rubbed it tenderly.
Loud clangs came from the door to his office. Gordon guessed that Mossman must have locked it earlier.
Panicking, Breen circled back around the desk to speak to her. "They know you betrayed them, they'll turn on you! Judith… Doctor Mossman, please-"
"I'm sorry, Wallace," she said slowly, triumphantly. "You're all out of time."
She moved over to Gordon and reached up with the hacking device. Breen reached over to her, and she turned on him, the device raised like a weapon.
"Don't…"
He put his hands up in gentle surrender, and she got to work. Behind her, Breen scrambled for the Gravity Gun on the desk, and Gordon started struggling against the harness.
"Quicker, please," he muttered.
"Hurry up, Mossman!" Alyx shouted, which didn't seem to help Mossman's frenzied efforts.
Breen circled around until his back was to the corridor, lugging the Gravity Gun around with quite a bit of difficulty as Mossman finally unlocked the coffin. Gordon shoved it open and past Mossman, charging Breen and ignoring Alyx's voice.
"Watch out, he's gonna-"
"No!" Breen cried, pressing the primary charge and hitting Gordon dead centre. The blast tossed him back across the room, ploughing through Breen's desk and slamming much too hard against the wall behind him.
His supercharged HEV suit took most of the impact for him, however, and he was on his feet in an instant. Mossman had managed to lower Alyx and Eli's coffins and was working to free them.
Gordon sprinted at Breen, who was backing onto a glass platform at the end of the corridor, dragging the Gravity Gun with him. A glass door slammed down in front of him, and he ascended, giving Gordon a small, cheerful wave as he went. He slammed a fist against the glass, and stared up at where Breen was headed.
"Eli…"
"Dad!"
Alyx's voice brought his attention back to Breen's office, and Gordon ran back. Eli was sat on the floor, Mossman and Alyx huddled around him.
"No, no, no," he said quietly, "don't worry about me, honey."
Walking over, Gordon put a gently hand on Alyx's arm. "You okay?" he asked, breathing a little heavy from running down the corridor and back.
She nodded, giving him brief smile before Mossman thrust the hacking device out in front of her.
"You'll need this."
Alyx stared down at it before she gently took it, latching it onto her belt.
"Doctor Mossman… Judith…" She was struggling with what to say. She didn't seem ready for forgiveness or thanks yet, so she nodded down to Eli. "Look after my father."
The warmest smile Gordon had ever seen from Mossman was the response.
"Don't you worry." She sat down next to Eli, putting an arm around him. "I'm not leaving you again, Eli."
After a deep breath, Alyx knelt down in front of her father, taking one of his hands in hers.
"Dad. I'm not saying goodbye."
He grinned and shook his head, wrapping her hand in both of his. "Never."
Alyx bowed her head for a moment before standing and looking at Gordon, pointing down the corridor. Her lip was quivering ever so slightly, and her eyes were red.
"Come on, Gordon. Let's go."
"That's my girl," Eli said, the pride almost visibly swelling in him.
Gordon gave them a nod and a smile before he turned to join Alyx.
"Gordon."
He stopped upon hearing Eli's voice, and turned to face him.
"Thank you for choosing us."
A thousand questions sprang from just that one comment, but Gordon couldn't bring himself to ask a single one in the face of such kindness and humanity. Instead, he just smiled and gave the most honest answer he could.
"Why would I choose anything else? You're all I have."
"Gordon, we gotta go," Alyx called out.
Gordon shrugged to Eli, who waved him away. Mossman and Eli talked softly to each other as Gordon ran to Alyx at the other end of the corridor, and he had the feeling he would have just been getting in the way had he remained.
Alyx had used the hacking device on the elevator controls while Gordon had spoken to Eli, and the door opened for them just as he reached her. They stepped on. She worked her magic on the control panel inside the elevator shaft, and the door slammed shut behind her. The platform jolted to life and took them up to the floor above.
As they rose, Gordon kept his eyes on the glass door high above them that would lead to Breen. He had a few choice words to exchange with the man.
"Gordon…"
He looked to Alyx, who was staring straight ahead instead of looking at him. She glanced at him to confirm he was listening to her, but the momentary eye contact seemed to push her gaze to the floor.
"…we haven't known each other very long, but… I know you didn't have to do this. I had to rescue my father, but you… well…"
Alyx looked up at him, tucking her hair behind her ear and holding his gaze as she never had before. In fact, it was a look he had never experienced from anyone… something he didn't recognise in her expression as she afforded him a miniscule yet intensely warm smile.
"…thanks for coming after me."
Gordon felt warm all of a sudden. He took a breath, shrugging and smiling as nonchalantly as he could manage.
"You're important to me."
He realised what he had just said, and added, a little too quickly, "To the resistance, you're important to… the resistance."
He stared down at his feet, then to the wall. Why was this elevator taking so damn long?
"Gordon."
He nodded, and hesitantly glanced over at her. "Hm?"
"You're important to the resistance too."
Alyx was smiling, but again, it was in a manner Gordon had never seen from her before. Her usual defensiveness was gone. It was like she had dropped a barrier, allowing him to see something else, something that felt precious.
He was about to say something else - though he had no idea what - when Alyx threw a finger in the air.
"Hey, listen."
Gordon did so, and heard Breen's voice echoing from above.
"It's me you should be concerned about. I can still deliver Earth, but not without your help."
"That's him," she whispered, and Gordon nodded silently, putting his hand up to signal her to be quiet. What was he saying?
"The portal destination is untenable, surely you can set the relay elsewhere. There's no way I can survive in that environment. A host body? You must be joking, I can't possibly- oh, all right, damn it, if that's what it takes. Just hurry, he's right behind me."
The elevator stopped, and Gordon saw who he was talking to. It was the same green slug thing he had been conversing with in his office when this whole City 17 mess had started for him. Was that the Combine? Was that what they looked like?
"There he is," Alyx muttered, and she bounced on the spot like an athlete warming up, waiting for the glass door to open.
Breen turned around and scowled as he spotted them. "Oh, shit!"
The door opened, and Breen ran off to the left. Gordon quickly overtook Alyx as he ran around the corner, noting that the monitor had gone blank again. He ran straight into another glass door, blocking him from getting at Breen's smirking face. The elevator took him down as Alyx ran up beside Gordon.
"Damn it, not again!" Alyx groaned.
There was a pause.
"Hey, look what he left behind."
Gordon turned around and saw the Gravity Gun, bright energy core sparking and spasming from the power barely contained within. He picked it up, holding it steady in his hands.
Alyx marvelled at it. "What happened to it?"
"Uh… some confiscation… field… thing. I think it absorbed all the energy."
She cocked an eyebrow. "A supercharged Gravity Gun?" She smirked. "He doesn't have a clue, does he?"
"Probably not."
Her forehead wrinkled in a frown, and she looked back to the elevator Breen had disappeared down.
"I wonder where he's going," she pondered aloud, moving to the same large console Breen had been using to talk to the Combine. Tapping away on the keyboard, she did something that moved the wall behind the computer.
Metal slats peeled away, revealing a view of some complicated machinery behind. Beyond the window was a platform overlooking the tip of what looked like a large spire in the very centre of the Citadel. At the tip was a pulsating core of white energy, crackling and barely contained.
"Oh my God."
Gordon moved up beside her. "What?"
"This…" she swallowed, dragging her eyes off the view to look at him. "This is the Citadel's Dark Fusion Reactor. It powers their tunnelling Entanglement device. We'll never have a chance like this again. We've got to stop Doctor Breen."
She started tapping away on the keyboard again, but stopped just a few moments later, leaning against the panel, her head drooping down.
When she didn't speak, Gordon tilted his head down to speak to her. "Alyx?"
Slowly, painfully, she moved her eyes up to his, looking him straight in the eyes.
"I can't shut it down. Looks like he's turned over control to the other side."
He nodded. "I'll go inside."
Alyx shook her head, still not looking at him. "You can't."
"I'll be fine."
"You don't know that. There are energies out there that could-"
"Couldn't be worse than anything else I've-"
"You can't know that, Gordon!" she cried, slamming a hand down on the console.
"Alyx," he said, as calmly as he could manage. "This is the only way."
She looked up at him. Anger and fear, all in one expression. All in the eyes. "It shouldn't be."
He sighed. "Yeah."
She stared at him a moment longer before nodding. "Okay… okay. I'll stay here and move some of the machinery to help you get to the core."
She went back to typing. "Get in the elevator and I'll let you in," she said quietly, almost inaudibly.
Gordon nodded and silently went to the glass door, which opened for him obediently. He walked onto the platform, and the door slid shut behind him.
Alyx ran over, stopping just short of colliding with the door. Her voice was slightly muffled by the glass.
"Do your worst, Gordon, but…" She put her hands on the glass, staring into his eyes. "Be careful."
Sadly, and knowing that he wasn't going to survive, Gordon brought his hand up, gently touching the glass where her hands were.
"See you."
The elevator jolted to life and took him down into the core chamber. Gordon stepped out, squinting at the bright orb of energy that was at the centre of the machinery. Within it, barely visible, was Dr Breen, more a silhouette than a person.
"It's Doctor Breen, there he is," Alyx said, he voice coming in through the suit radio.
"Doctor Freeman, you really shouldn't be out there. At the moment of synapse as I teleport, this chamber will be bathed in deadly particles that have yet to be named by human science. Perhaps when I have the leisure to do the work myself, I'll name one of them after you. That way, you won't be completely forgotten," Breen announced, his voice booming out from everywhere.
The walkway ramped up to the right, and Gordon followed it along, keeping an ever present eye on the various doorways and walkways along the side of the core walls. He didn't put it past some of the soldiers to be suicidal enough to come here and try to kill him, even now.
He reached the end of the walkway, and didn't see any way forward. A metal platform slid down in front of him, and he smiled.
"Thanks, Alyx."
He stepped on, and it took him up, slamming into place far higher up. There was still nowhere to go.
"I could have told you that was pointless, Doctor Freeman," Breen sing-songed, like a child gloating.
As ever, Alyx's voice cut through the confusion. "Don't listen to him, Gordon."
Another platform swung around the core, moving in line with the platform Gordon was standing on, though there was a sizeable gap between backed up to the wall before running for it, his momentum carrying him along to a walkway circling around a shaft of light. Down below, Gordon could see Breen, safely enraptured in his orb of teleportation energy.
"Stay away from the core," Alyx warned, sounding a little more panicked than Gordon would have liked.
"Can do."
"When the singularity collapses," Breen said slowly, "I will be far away from here. In another universe, as a matter of fact. You, on the other hand, will be destroyed in every way it is possible to be destroyed, and even in some that are essentially impossible!"
"Alyx," Gordon said, eyes searching for a way up, "would you be able to patch me through to Breen so I could tell him to shut up?"
"Sorry, out of my hands," she laughed, though it did little to lighten the mood. "You'll have to shut him up the hard way."
Sighing, Gordon latched on to the framework of the core, throwing the Gravity Gun over his shoulder and clambering up as far as the various ledges and seams would allow. A platform grew out of the wall behind him, and Gordon leapt off, landing awkwardly on the edge chest first. His arms scrambled for grip, and he managed to latch on. Gordon heaved himself up.
"Go, Gordon!"
The platform was high enough to allow him to jump up to another ledge above him. Gordon pulled himself up, and watched as another lift slammed down next to the walkway he was now on.
Gordon stepped on, and it took him directly up to the balcony he had been overlooking with Alyx.
"Great!"
He could see her looking through the windows from behind the console, and he gave her the smallest of salutes.
Her smile was interrupted by something she saw over his shoulder. "Oh no, Breen's started his ascent."
Gordon whirled around, and saw that Breen's orb had moved up, almost level with the pulsating energy that sat at the tip of the reactor. Looking around the balcony, Gordon saw two of the energy beams that transported the small power cores set up on either side.
His HEV suit bleeped, and Gordon frowned. The stats were going down, faster and faster. The radiation from the core was draining it. He hoped the same thing didn't happen to the Gravity Gun; it was all he had to fight with right now.
He heard the roar of Gunships, and two swooped out from below the Citadel.
"Oh, typical," he moaned.
Gordon yanked out one of the orbs with the Gravity Gun, and opened fire on the reactor.
There was a thunderous bang, and the ground shook.
"No!" Breen cried out, giving Gordon a little moment of satisfaction as he stumbled about.
Gordon righted himself just as he saw metal shields float into place around the reactor. They rotated around it, making it difficult to get a clean shot.
The gunships opened fire, and Gordon ducked behind the pillar beside the energy beams.
He yanked another orb with the Gravity Gun and stepped out into the open. Three gunship bullets hit him, and he bit back the cry in his throat as he stumbled back.
"Gordon!"
Urged on by Alyx's voice, Gordon fired the orb at the reactor again, collapsing one of the shields. It gave him a gap. That was enough; he would just have to aim precisely, because he sure as hell didn't have time to remove them all. The Gunships swung around for another pass, and Gordon grabbed another orb with the Gravity Gun.
The sky flashed and rumbled, the clouds tearing themselves apart in a circle.
"Oh my God… the portal's opening."
Gordon looked up, watching as the Gunships struggled to resist the pull of the portal.
"Is it too late?" he murmured, his sense of scientific wonder still managing to distract him.
"Keep it up Gordon, it's working."
He nodded and fired again, this one hitting another shield. Gordon swore loudly, though it was lost to the roar of the Gunships and the thunderous rumble of the portal above. More bullets rained down on him, and he had no time to do anything except take them, hiding his head beneath his arms. The force of the hits threw him off his feet, slamming into the window beneath Alyx's feet.
"Gordon, come on…"
Opening his eyes, Gordon looked up to see Alyx standing over him, hands pressed against the glass as she stared down at him, pleading.
"You can do this."
Though it hurt his hand to do so, Gordon gave her a thumbs up before wobbling to his feet, almost collapsing when he stood up. Arms weak and trembling, he brought up the Gravity Gun, and pulled another orb to him. The Gunships were coming around again.
Gordon aimed, his vision becoming blurry. The last remaining shield spun faster and faster, making it more and more difficult to time the blast.
He took a deep breath.
He fired.
This one hit, and the shields tumbled. A tremor more violent than any that came before felt like it shook the Citadel to its foundation. The shockwave that came from the reactor tossed the Gunships away, at least for the moment.
"Yes!" Alyx whooped.
Breen wasn't so happy, and he ranted as Gordon pulled out the final orb he would need. The weapon that would end all of this.
"You fool! You don't know what you'll unleash! You could bring down this whole Citadel! Think, man! Think of the people below!"
Gordon did just that. He thought about Kleiner, Barney, Eli, Mossman, Chuck, Doberman, Amanda, Tess, Simon, Cara… Alyx, stood right behind him. Everyone down below who had fought with him, who had trusted him. Some had died for him, others had died fighting for a cause… but all of them had died. Killed because of the man that was screaming at him right now. This man who condoned a genocide to further his own ambitions.
Gordon thought about the people below.
"Barney has a message for you."
He pulled the trigger and collapsed to his knees.
The orb didn't do anything at first. But then the reactor fluctuated. Grew bigger. Flashed and spasmed, bolts of energy bursting out, exploding against random objects, striking the Gunships and blowing them to pieces. A bolt of energy raced past him, shattering the window between Gordon and Alyx. She ran through and got down beside him, watching.
The portal dissipated, and the core started to fade away, almost melting into thin air.
Breen's desperate voice did much the same, distorted and garbled as the dimensional energy fed back on him, given nowhere to go now that the portal had collapsed.
"You need me…"
"Yes! You did it!" Alyx cried, shaking Gordon with more enthusiasm than he could physically manage.
He couldn't help the grin, though. That just wouldn't leave his face.
"Oh my God," she muttered, standing up and walking to the ledge. She was looking at the reactor, which was making an ominous noise that sounded a lot like an overload, a high pitch whine growing ever louder.
He managed to get to his feet.
"Come on, Gordon," Alyx said, eyes on the reactor as she backed up. "We've got to get out of here. Maybe we still have-"
The reactor exploded. Gordon watched Alyx bring her hands up to her face, and he did much same, closing his eyes from the brightness and the heat.
But nothing happened. The heat faded, but the brightness didn't. Slowly lowering his hand, Gordon looked around. Everything was frozen. The explosion had been caught, like a freeze-frame. It looked like a blooming flower. He looked to Alyx. She was frozen, too. Hands up in front of her face.
He tried to say her name. Nothing. He tried to move to her. His body wouldn't respond.
"Time, Doctor Freeman?"
His heart stopped. Or it may as well have. All colour faded from his surroundings, dull greys and whites and blacks replacing the olive brown of Alyx's skin, or the brilliant yellow of the explosion.
And then, like a ghost, He appeared, walking towards Gordon from some inexplicable point in the distance.
"Is it really that… time again? It seems as if you only just arrived."
He came to a stop beside Alyx, inspecting her like someone admiring a museum piece. Reaching out with His hand, He picked an imaginary piece of dust from her shoulder.
"You've done a great deal in a small time…span. You've done so well, in fact, that I've received some interesting offers for your services."
The Man turned to face him and all of Gordon's surrounding seemed to blur around him, pulled behind Him.
"Ordinarily I wouldn't contemplate them, but these are extraordinary times, hm?"
Gordon couldn't reply if he wanted to; his voice was trapped in his throat.
"Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you… if, and when, your time comes round again."
Clouds of multicoloured light swirled around him, surrounding, blinding.
"I do apologise for what must seem to you an arbitrary imposition, Doctor Freeman. I trust it will all make sense in the course of…"
He smirked.
"Well, I'm really not at liberty to say."
With a flash of light, Gordon was encompassed in darkness, the only object visible being Him.
"In the meantime…"
He leaned forward, as though imparting some great secret.
"…this is where I get off," he whispered.
He turned around, and walked away. A doorway of pure light appeared on his right. Slowly and calmly, the Man turned.
He adjusted his tie and stepped through the doorway.
It slammed shut behind him, leaving Gordon in darkness again, his thoughts slowing, blurring, becoming one.
Don't let it happen, he thought. Keep on thinking. Keep on thinking. Keep on thinking.
Keep…
On…
