Author's notes: Only got one exam and my driving test left, then hopefully chapters should be somewhat more frequent. Don't really have much to say about this chapter, it's a bit of a breather and gives us a few more details here and there.
Would like to once again thank my readers and I apologise if I have been overusing usages of demon, beast, heaven and hell, but they seemed appropriate and are something are running themes. Likewise, if I've been neglecting any character on the team, I'll try and sort that out. Piece by piece things will be revealed in due time...

Chapter 24: Frozen Fate

Isaac slowly blinks his eyes, the ceiling of the cold room slowly swimming into focus as his consciousness pulls itself out of the murky darkness. A slight shiver, his breath visible in the frosty air as he exhales and coughs. Some figure he can't make out is there, holding him and offering something...

Ah! Water! Only just realising how thirsty he was, the former-RED gulps down the contents of the glass and leans back into his bed. Mind now refreshed and vision clear, he turns to face Nils, the Medic turning to deactivate the nearby Medigun.

"I am glad to see that you are finally awake und well, Herr Howard. You've been out for...quite some time."

The German doctor adjusted his glasses before moving the Medigun to one side, tutting at some scratches and nicks the device has acquired over its use on the field. The room was sparse, a few beds, various savaged medical supplies and a nearby heater that strained but ultimately failed to remove the chill from the air. Whatever base they were currently residing at had clearly seen better times; the walls were a mess of cracks, chipped paint and dust. Pipes around the room were rusted and broken, with a single window offering some insight as to his location...or it would be offering clues if he could see anything out of it.

"...were you able to save everyone? Is Hale...?"

Any further questions the Texan might have had were stopped as Nils merely turned and looked at him, his eyes cold and bloodshot. Judging from the bags under his eyes, the man hadn't slept much, if at all, recently. Just how long had he been unconscious for the Medic, who was used to few hours of sleep, to have deteriorated so much?

"Shush. Your little sacrifice back there was successful, you were able to hold off the Beast long enough for me and Herr Conagher to collect everyone and the results of the overcharged Life Sparker proved to be most..."

The Medic paused here, pacing slightly as he searched for an appropriate word in English and failed.

"...interesting. In any case, zie rest of the team were able to recover from the brink of death, despite my worst fears. And as for your little stunt..."

It was here that Nils turned back to Isaac, suddenly uncomfortably close, a pained expression on his face.

"I don't know what exactly you did to unnaturally prolong that Über-Overdrive of yours, but it was enough to destroy most of the landscape and force Dell to risk his life to collect your battered body! And even then, you'd pushed your drained body so far as to be asleep for an entire week as the rest of us struggled to survive!"

Slamming a gloved hand on a nearby desk, the doctor didn't notice as the rickety frame collapsed, causing the needles and bandages to clatter off onto the floor. The Engineer gulped, taking in the sight of Nils' rage for another moment before the tired German sighed deeply, turning away from his patient, speaking much softer, forcing Isaac to strain his ears to listen.

"...so much destruction, and yet you slept. You'd lost so much blood and even with the wounds sealed, your breathing was so shallow...we feared we'd lose you in that madness."

"Madness, doc? What...what exactly happened out there?"

Perhaps the former-RED should have been a little more taken aback by having just lost an entire week (he'd certainly not meant to push himself that far!) but something massive had clearly happened and a sudden sense of guilt drowned him. What had his team had to endure whilst fleeing with his body?

"...you should be resting, Isaac. Let me check on the others first, then maybe we can together tell you..."

And with that, the Medic left, closing a battered door behind him. The Engineer shivered once more, staring at the ceiling, trying to calm himself down. What better way could he pass the time and distract himself than by putting a little further thought into the mysteries that still surrounded TF Industries and the entire conflict? He certainly wasn't going to be pulling any strategies for what to do next yet, not until he'd gotten some details.

Glancing one last time at the window, which he now released was coated in snow, Isaac wrapped himself in the stained and tattered blanket on his bed.

###

Eventually Isaac was brought to meet the rest of the team, after Nils had confirmed he was okay to walk. They'd thankfully managed to create something of a meeting area in one of the rooms on the lower levels that actually had some measure of heat to it. The room was filthy, full of broken junk, held a rumbling from nearby pipes, but at least the heating worked here and there were chairs. The rest of the team looked mostly okay, but a few winced when they thought nobody was looking, and they all shared the same exhausted look as the Medic.

The Engineer found himself in the midst of a terrible twist of fate, the tale woven by their words one that boggled belief. A tangled mess of viewpoints didn't help his understanding, but nonetheless, the true chaos of the situation rapidly became apparent and his respect for the rest of Team Fortress soared.

After healing from their confrontation with Hale, narrowly recovering Isaac's battered form and disposing of the explosively overworked Life Sparker, they had set their sights on repairing their modified trailer and returning to their original course. Unfortunately, in the time it had taken to deal with Hale and repair it, they'd found their route blocked by a truly ridiculous level of soldiers and vehicles, including a fair-sized deployment of tanks.

And so they were forced to change their plans, taking detour after detour as they shot, burned, blasted and hacked their way through their enemies, a seemingly never-ending stream coming from every direction. It wasn't known how such massive numbers had suddenly come against them, why several nation's armed forces were present or why the Administrator had waited so long to unleash this upon them, but one thing was for certain: this wasn't anything like previous attacks.

Indeed, under previous assaults and chases they'd been able to hold off their foes with minimal worries or damage. This time was sheer chaos, an eternal onslaught of varied foes that hounded them to the ends of the earth. Every possible escape was blocked, every hidden safe-haven destroyed, every form of attack from every possible direction struck them.

They attacked with bombers and attack 'copters from above. They attacked with soldiers and mercenaries and police and armoured cars and tanks from the front. Assault craft and Special Forces bit into their sides, drones and engineered monstrosities clawed at their rear. Explosions and machines tore through the ground at their feet.

Scout claimed to see battleships waiting by the distant coast, Demoman claimed to see various mythical monsters, Soldier stated that he saw a mushroom cloud in the distance and Spy spoke in hushed tones of what resembled a giant Pyro, cackling with satanic glee as it stomped from the bowels of hell itself.

Taking such descriptions with more than just a grain of salt, the situation was still dire. Their vehicle and plans were both destroyed and they fought on...and on and on and on. Carrying the wounded Isaac, they pushed through an endless swarm on foot. Wounded themselves, they shielded one another, carrying those who could not walk. Separated by smoke and fire and explosions and earthquakes and a sea of corpses, they struggled to reach each other once more.

And so it was, that Team Fortress, so confident and proud, able to take on the best the world had to throw at them, realised the true extent of their foe's power. Perhaps the Administrator had waited so long simply because it took a considerable time to amass her forces from across the entire planet? Perhaps upon realising that even Saxton Hale was struggling to subdue them she got nervous and threw everything at them? Maybe, just maybe...this was just another game to her, to toss them a sliver of hope before crushing them down again?

Nobody knew exactly how it had come about, but they did know that the stench of death hung over them like the Grim Reaper, cackling away as he sharpened his scythe. Days turned to nights, nights turned to days and supplies turned to nothingness, consumed or abandoned. And so they scavenged, sleepless and unresting, hoping that the next wave would be the last. Sometimes they succumbed to both injuries and tiredness, forcing the rest of the team to find a defendable location and hold out as long as they could. Sometimes they had to attack one of the less-defended bases to get the food, medicine and ammo they needed.

But never could they stay still in one place or truly rest.

It was to be the mountains that would be their saviour. The climbs were tough and arduous, the air cold and piercing as they greedily swallowed it, hearts racing. But there were less enemies there, vehicles could not make the climb and fierce winds coupled with sudden storms prevent aircraft from getting too close. Eventually, after what had seemed like a frantic eternity, they'd lost all pursuers and were able to locate one of the few abandoned and forgotten bases TF Industries hadn't been able to send their forces to.

The base was run-down beyond belief, most buildings little more than rubble in the snow. Even the main building in which the team now resided was a complete wreck, the walls barely shielding them from the snow that threatened to consume them. With a little effort, the major holes were filled and Dell, accompanied by Ashley set about restoring some heat to the facility. In the meantime, Grigori prowled the nearby wastes for firewood and building materials and Nils looked after the others, still re-cooperating from the journey.

As far as they'd been able to figure, the base pre-dated the current conflict, with no spare weapons anywhere and no respawn rooms. There didn't appear to be two elements to the territory and no marks of RED and BLU remained, hinting that the land may have belonged solely to TF Industries or some other sub-company not under the control of either of the Mann Brothers.

In any case, with the sheer numbers they'd cut down, the deaths of those who knew their last position, the snow covering their tracks and the mountains being too treacherous for anyone to scout out and find them, they were safe for now. Indeed, they'd been able to rest here for a few days before Isaac woke up. Perhaps with their tenth member shown to be well, they could truly breath easy and thoughts could go into their course of action.

But for now...

###

Dell frowned, calling over Ashley, wondering where on earth the Pyro kept vanishing off too whilst he was trying to sort out the heating. He'd been able to temporarily restore heating to the base through the use of some cobbled-together generators, electrical heaters found in the storage room and the occasional wood fire but...these were hardly proper solutions. The unnamed base did have its own proper heating system, which he'd been working on, but so many pipes were broken and so many rooms were destroyed, making it a painful effort.

And, even when he did manage to restore some measure of warmth, some critical pipe somewhere would freeze or the boiler would have some rusty part fall off. Which explained why he was glaring at a frozen pipe and calling for the Pyro, who was all too happy to play out in the snow, shrieking with muffled childish glee and leaping around.

"Dag nabbit dabbit, what the heck is Ashley up to!"

Leaving the pipework and his toolbox behind for a moment, the former-BLU Engineer walked to the window to find the Pyro (who, he reminded himself with a grumble, was supposed to be helping him) was sneaking up on the Heavy for reasons unknown. It looked like Grigori was planning on searching the nearby woods for any branches that could make good firewood or maybe for any food. The Russian was surprisingly good in the cold, easily capable of finding edible berries and had made mention of planning on hunting some of the wildlife for meat.

Grigori, his large form easily ploughing through the snow as if it wasn't there, didn't notice the muffled giggles of Ashley until the Pyro had scored a perfect headshot to the back of his head with a snowball. Slowly turning around and cracking his neck before grinning, madness soon followed. It wasn't long until the Engineer, frozen pipe forgotten, had gone out to join them and forget his worries for but a little while.

###

Elsewhere, the Sniper, Scout, Demoman and Spy were sat around a wobbly table, playing cards, drinking what liquor they'd been able to find hidden in one of the storage rooms underground (it almost seemed like a requirement that bases held emergency alcohol in them, they'd been very lucky in that regard) and swapping stories. Ewan spoke of monsters and magic, of legends and demons, slowly becoming louder and more drunk. Kevin bragged about anything and everything, taking his alcohol in small doses and trying not to choke. Jack was a surprisingly good storyteller, speaking of the dangers and horrors that could be found in the Australian outback, claiming that "just about everything there wants to kill you, up to and including the sky itself".

As for Gabriel...he was simply content to watch the other men get drunk as he won hand after hand, face smug as he slowly and subtly manipulated the other men into making substantial bets. Maybe next morning they'd realise their mistakes, but for now he was all too happy to stifle his snorting laughter as the gambling became more and more excessive, the Demoman and Scout hopelessly in his debt whilst the Sniper became wary and soon excused himself.

It was hardly professional, it was hardly fair to his teammates, but the Spy had been through more stress than a man of his calibre should have to endure and a bit of fun was more than needed at this point.

###

In the room which had been transformed into a medical bay, Nils slept peacefully, dreaming fondly of a life without war, of how things would be when this was all over. The Medic breathed gently, wrapped up in several layers, face content within his cocoon of warmth, the stress faded from his features, suddenly making him look much younger.

Nearby, sparing a short glance back at the sleeping doctor, Isaac stood, his form towering over the blue prints and scattered parts before him. Cross-referencing scrawled hand-written notes, he doublechecked everything one last time before raising his gaze to the frozen world outside.

Danger still lurked out there. The world was still in danger. Jaws brimmed with sharp teeth were ready to snap on them at any time.

And yet...

With a small, warm smile, the Demon left his work, quietly closing the door after checking on the Medic one last time. Strolling casually through the cold corridors and into the refreshing air held under the darkening sky, he looked into the distance, seeing not the mountains or forest, but something else entirely. Even as he returned, settled down and fell into dreamless sleep, the smile did not leave his face...

###

In the depths of another, much more advanced base, countless workers scurry, trying not to show weakness or inefficiency as their master looks over time. Clothed in purple and colder than any icy tundra nature could conjure, the Administrator looks down at them with unveiled disgust. She turns and leaves, the gathered remains of the man who was once Saxton Hale continuing to be experimented on and put under various tests.

Sitting at her own office, looking through the data they had gathered from the latest attempt to eliminate Team Fortress, Miss Pauling could only hazard guesses at what her employer was planning. Despite gathering forces from around the world and trapping the mercenaries, cutting them off from most bases they could ransack, let alone reach civilisation, they had escaped. The casualty number was little more than an optimistic estimate but the numbers still brought bile to even her ruthless mouth. Just what was the Administrator playing at, to have delayed with bringing out the heavier guns and to use such tactics...?

A spark of sudden realisation, a shocked gasp and some frantic rifling through papers...

###

Weary of war, trapped and beaten down, Team Fortress continue to escape the full might of an entire world after their heads.

Tired, in need of rest and recovery, mortal men do what mortal men must to keep their sanity and state of mind intact.

A warrior of circumstance, a genius of creation turned to a demon of destruction, sleeps content, ready for whatever fate may come at him and those most dear to him in this frozen land.