Flame did a quick double portal, flinging herself on top of the Leader as bullets flew, soldiers marching through the glass hallway into the central room. It was utter chaos. The Combine had clearly been waiting for their Leader to call them over, to command their weaponry. The Leader quickly dodged away from her, his voice soft and eerie.

"You still don't get it, do you?"

He stood, softly, watching her. He tilted his head, even taking the time to adjust his tie. All around the two of them, a little turret had started spraying bullets into the crowd, sending the humans to cover and for quite a few of the Combine soldiers to be on the ground bleeding out.

He stepped calmly over a body, and softly chuckled, somehow not getting hit by the spray of gunfire.

"You've come so far, you've got so much potential... and you'll die like this? I know your past. You gave so much to leave, got dragged back, and was shoved out another time. And after that, you'll just die here."

Flame portaled a Combine solder's body on him, but he just dodged. One of Copper's missiles, one that missed its target, flew by and almost hit the Leader, but that also missed. The air was filled with bullets and with chaos, as the Manhacks started flying in as well, though they were quickly taken out by the sheer surge of firepower in the room.

She felt a feeling like a punch in the stomach, before looking down. There wasn't pain, but she'd been clipped in the side, and bleeding heavily. She felt oddly numb. She'd been shot quite a few times by turrets, but this was worse. Quite a bit worse.

She looked back up towards the Leader, and softly chuckled. She would not speak.

She didn't think he deserved that from her.

Silver was overwhelmed. So much was happening in one room, and the metal walls of the chamber were reflecting the bullets and most of the sound. Not to mention, she was the only one who hadn't been in a massive fight already. Flame had been here, Bronze had survived the Port Massacre, and even Copper had survived a number of incursions. The blood in the air made her sick, and the fact she was armed only with her two beloved pistols was worse.

Copper was next to her, having her back with the missile launcher. But she found herself on the ground, having slipped on the blood. A soldier had looked right at her, to shoot, but he promptly exploded. Copper held out his non-injured arm for her, and she took it. She'd keep fighting.

I was providing cover fire, and so was Bronze. In our little corner of the room, it was oddly quiet.

Maybe I just blew out my hearing circuits, who knows.

But there seemed to be near-endless Combine soldiers. And then the Goddess reappeared, a panel moving away just for her and the crow to fly in. She had no weapon apart from cleverness, and she soon managed to vanish into the chaos.

I could hear a little British voice shouting fearfully over the ruckus, though.

"This is... oh god no, what do I do?! I mean, I'm just... I can't really move on my own, without a rail or anything. If I had a rail, then I'd be able to be just as, well, probably still utterly terrified, but I'd be able to help out a lot more."

The Goddess ran over to him, and started messing around with the technology in the center console, hidden for the old human scientists to be able to fix things. A panel rose, closing off the room, making the infinite Combine much less infinite. Another panel rose, as she started silently tinkering with the core transfer mechanisms.

Flame ran forward, and accidentally shot a portal into a Combine soldier's face. His reaction was rather interesting... the blue sparks flying against his face indicating a misfire are rather poisonous, after all. He soon fell to the ground, and the Leader's face was a bit shocked.

"...Well that is impressive."

She shot a portal at him as well, but he dodged, and the portal misfire hit another random soldier, who reacted in the same way as the first.

He smiled softly, taking out a small pistol, and raising it.

"I guess this is goodbye."

"No."

What happened next happened very quickly. Moments earlier, Copper had run out of ammunition for his missile launcher, and his secondary weapons had been used up or given to Silver. He was defenseless. Still recovering from a shot wound, as well as a second one in the same arm from earlier in the fight.

So he saw one last chance to save the only girl he'd ever loved. He threw himself in front of the shot, which ripped through his chest, puncturing a lung from the look of it. Flame's face widened in shock, as she had not realized the pistol was raised towards her. Much less that Copper... no, that Noah was going to do...

She hardened herself. He looked like he was alive, and it was only pistol caliber, right now, she had to take out this son of a bitch. She ran forward, portaling under him again, which failed due to his floating. The lights turned off, because of GLaDOS and her tech work, so the only light was from the portals and gunfire flashes. The Leader was stopped for a moment, which gave Flame enough time to pull out something.

A little old Glock that Noah had gifted her once she'd joined the little group. It had a few shots left, maybe five? She took it and shot. It grazed his arm, and a bit of black blood leaked from it. She shot again and again, until the shots were used up, all of which hit him. She then took the portal gun, and shot him twice in the face. He still struggled, shooting the pistol at her, one shot of which hit her in the leg. When the lights came back on though, he'd stopped moving.

Anyone less emotionally numbed than her would have been shocked about that death, but she just ran over to Noah as the last of the Combine solders in the room were being cleaned up.

She sat him up, looking at the wound.

"Oh god, Noah, I'm so..."

"Don't."

His face was pale from bloodloss, and he was clearly bleeding out. She saw looking at the wounds that he wasn't going to survive this.

"I knew what I was doing. But I just didn't want... to see you die here... Chell, I need to be buried by the old oak, can you promise that for me?"

"Noah, don't talk like that. I'm getting you out of here. You're not going to die."

But her face betrayed her emotions.

The others, a bloodied up Silver, and a Bronze carrying a Turret, were running over to them. Silver's voice rang out.

"Oh my god COPPER! I... what happened?! When did this happen?!"

Silver looked scared, Bronze's face was shocked, the Turret's eye had dimmed, and a robotic woman watched from the side, remembering what that gifted Turret had said so long ago.

Olympus will live, but at what cost?