Moving quickly, the scene spun on its axis. Coagulated blood became new and returned to the hole in Eli Vance’s neck, his limp corpse falling back into the grasp of the… Combine Advisor, as the humans dubbed them.
A juvenile.
Dissonant ripples passed through him.
The older instance of Alyx was consolidated, for there could not be two, and the younger instance watched, speechless as everything rewound before her eyes.
Isolating the scene to the void, he stellated, this form shifting and another fading in closer to the juvenile. He had to force the next words out, keeping his voice smooth and even. He could not afford to show weakness. Leave any with the benefit of a doubt.
“Release your father, Ms. Vance…”
He observed from the cover of cosmic shadows, standing stiffly, hands at his back clenched in a white knuckled grip.
First disbelief, then a hopeful shift in her features. She flexed her fingers, marveling at the crackling vortigaunt energy jumping across her skin. Determination like emerald fire in her eyes, her hands shot out and let loose twin arcs of violent green lightning.
The energy blasted into the levitating Advisor, a perfect hit to the front. He could hear its screams in his mind. Errant green aftershocks jumped over to pinch at his skin, but he hardly felt the pain, unable to look away as the grub’s telekinesis failed and it plummeted to the ground in a steaming heap, dead.
It had not suffered for long.
“Good…”
Relaxing tensed muscles, he disrobed of the darkness.
“As a consequence of your action, this entity will continue—” he gestured to Eli, an afterthought, before turning to the left, “and this entity… will not.”
Fully exposed to the ravaged body, a hidden frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. Of course, he’d known this was coming. In the end, it was he who had orchestrated it. But now, in hindsight, the knowledge paled in comparison to the direct experience of it.
Great plumes of smoke rose from the charred body of the juvenile. Curled and blackened flakes of skin had peeled away, seared flesh protruding through jagged cracks. Vibrant yellow blood oozed from where its breather once sat, along with a stream of milky liquefied brain matter. The suit that encased it had partially turned to ash, revealing patches where skin had bubbled as it cooked.
He could do nothing to stop his mind from conjuring the image of the dead synth instead as one of his siblings, eliciting an unfamiliar nausea that rolled deep within him.
He did not know this one. But he knew its madness. Just like the others. Thousands, more than the eye could see, bound and enslaved by the Combine. Lobotomized and repurposed to serve hate and enforce domination. Made into monsters by the weaponized disease that misfolded their thoughts into broken, black shapes… drove them to depravity. Their life cycles seized, unnaturally arrested in bodies unable to moult. Unable to escape. This one, just another cog in the machine of the Universal Union. To him, another in a long line of necessary evils. One step closer to the end, but at the cost of striking down one of his own kind. No matter how far beyond salvation the juvenile had been, he could feel a black mark upon his mind that he doubted would fade any time soon.
Acrid particles of burnt flesh permeated his senses, and not for the first time, he wished he weren’t bound to human form.
He’d seen enough.
Banishing the corpse, it faded from the void and he watched the last wisps of smoke linger before dispersing into nothingness.
Someone was talking.
...Alyx.
He came back to himself, realizing that he’d momentarily blocked out auditory stimuli. He turned his head her way, replaying what she’d said.
Ah, her… father. He wasn’t done with that man quite yet. Loathe to lie to her face, he deflected her question and relayed to her the true nature of her situation, conjuring the illusion of Gordon’s crowbar and rotating it in his hand with feigned interest.
He could feel the slow build of distress inside her, getting worse with each word he spoke.
“A… previous hire has been unable— or… unwilling, to perform the tasks laid before him.” Letting the crowbar drift off into the void, he manifested a vision of Gordon as he was in the hangar and stepped to the side.
Now that Freeman was well and truly a free man, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t still heading down a favourable path. But his employers were understandably skeptical, unhappy with this loss of control over an asset.
But now? Now, he had her.
Calmly, he moved the conversation in the direction he needed to wrap this up. His employers were crowding the edge of his awareness, ghostly fingers pressing against his barriers, losing patience with his delay to their summons.
It was done.
Understanding settled on her face, panic widening her eyes. He turned and started to walk away, unwilling to watch her fall apart in front of him.
“No,” she protested, tone wavering, “I— I just want to go home. Send me home!”
Her broadcasted waves of fear prickled like needles. He slowed to a stop, tilting his head.
“… I’m afraid you misunderstand the situation, Ms. Vance.”
Jaw clenched, he continued on, walking into the portal of blinding light that opened before him. Just like the nauseating smoke still clinging to his suit, the imprint of her screams lingered long after he’d departed.