I close my eyes to rid the image from my head
It's the same dream she's had every night since they landed in Milliways.
( of blackened promises, of rivers running red )
She's in Nova Prospekt, on the teleporter platform, firing on an endless stream of Overwatch soldiers. No matter how long she waits, no matter how many soldiers she guns down, the onslaught never lets up and the charger never gets any closer to full.
( I am immobilized, left gasping my last breath )
But tonight, something's different. Gordon's not there, for one thing; it's just her, holding off the Overwatch all by herself. She wonders, vaguely, where he is, why he's not watching her back like he usually does. It's not foremost in her thoughts, though; she's got bigger things to worry about.
( bleed me, stare me down, you swore me in then sold me out )
At least, she thought she did. She takes one more glance at the portal charger (still no fuller than the last time she checked), and when she looks up again the soldiers are gone.
( I don't know who I am anymore )
But the room isn't empty. Oh no.
( break me like human clay, mold me in a different way )
There's a horribly mutilated figure stumbling toward her--arms amputated at the elbows, legs replaced with metal braces, ribs and pelvis jutting grotesquely from its gutted body. A Stalker.
( I don't know who I see anymore )
And another. And another. Hundreds of them, pouring out of the doors where there had been Overwatch soldiers seconds before. Her grip on the gun tenses as she stares at them, but she doesn't fire. What are they doing here? What do they want with me?
( tears of the terrified hands of the brigade )
The one in front is limping; the stump of one leg is shorter than the other, and the braces aren't adjusted to compensate. Its skin is darker than that of the others, and wrinkled with age...
( pull me to pieces as your fallout renegade )
The gun drops from Alyx's suddenly nerveless fingers. Oh, God, no.
( bleed me, stare me down, you swore me in then sold me out )
( I don't know who I am anymore )
"Dad?"
( break me like human clay, mold me in a different way )
( I don't know who I see anymore )
It stops in its tracks and turns toward her (it's looking at her, oh God, it has no eyes and it's looking at her). For a moment, it just stands there. Then its ruined mouth opens (Stalkers can't speak, everyone knows that, they no longer have the apparatus to speak with), and it moans a single word. "Alyx..."
( I believed in simple things that mattered to me )
"Alyx!" "Alyx..." "Help us, Alyx!"
( now I see those simple things never belonged to me )
They're all crying out for her now, and her stomach turns as she realizes she recognizes them. Leon. Noriko. Griggs. Sheckley. Dr. Kleiner. Barney. Everyone she knows in the Resistance, everyone she's ever cared about, reduced to this.
( and now we feed on another's need to breathe )
They're crowding around the platform now, limbs scrabbling uselessly against the tile as they try to climb up to reach her. Alyx frantically backs away, too overcome with horror and revulsion to speak or even cry out.
( and I don't need your sight to help me see )
And backs right into something solid. No, she realizes as she turns around, not something, someone. Someone in the pure white body armor of an Overwatch Elite.
( I was deceived by shadows, thoughts, your bold pretensions )
As she stands there paralyzed with fear, the Elite removes its helmet. And although his head is shorn of hair and his skin is deathly pale, there's no mistaking those blazing green eyes.
( fallout renegade )
"Vance Subprime engaged," says Gordon Freeman through a Combine vocoder, and raises his rifle--
The scream she couldn't let out before escapes her now as she sits bolt upright on the floor.
( of blackened promises, of rivers running red )
She's in Nova Prospekt, on the teleporter platform, firing on an endless stream of Overwatch soldiers. No matter how long she waits, no matter how many soldiers she guns down, the onslaught never lets up and the charger never gets any closer to full.
( I am immobilized, left gasping my last breath )
But tonight, something's different. Gordon's not there, for one thing; it's just her, holding off the Overwatch all by herself. She wonders, vaguely, where he is, why he's not watching her back like he usually does. It's not foremost in her thoughts, though; she's got bigger things to worry about.
( bleed me, stare me down, you swore me in then sold me out )
At least, she thought she did. She takes one more glance at the portal charger (still no fuller than the last time she checked), and when she looks up again the soldiers are gone.
( I don't know who I am anymore )
But the room isn't empty. Oh no.
( break me like human clay, mold me in a different way )
There's a horribly mutilated figure stumbling toward her--arms amputated at the elbows, legs replaced with metal braces, ribs and pelvis jutting grotesquely from its gutted body. A Stalker.
( I don't know who I see anymore )
And another. And another. Hundreds of them, pouring out of the doors where there had been Overwatch soldiers seconds before. Her grip on the gun tenses as she stares at them, but she doesn't fire. What are they doing here? What do they want with me?
( tears of the terrified hands of the brigade )
The one in front is limping; the stump of one leg is shorter than the other, and the braces aren't adjusted to compensate. Its skin is darker than that of the others, and wrinkled with age...
( pull me to pieces as your fallout renegade )
The gun drops from Alyx's suddenly nerveless fingers. Oh, God, no.
( bleed me, stare me down, you swore me in then sold me out )
( I don't know who I am anymore )
"Dad?"
( break me like human clay, mold me in a different way )
( I don't know who I see anymore )
It stops in its tracks and turns toward her (it's looking at her, oh God, it has no eyes and it's looking at her). For a moment, it just stands there. Then its ruined mouth opens (Stalkers can't speak, everyone knows that, they no longer have the apparatus to speak with), and it moans a single word. "Alyx..."
( I believed in simple things that mattered to me )
"Alyx!" "Alyx..." "Help us, Alyx!"
( now I see those simple things never belonged to me )
They're all crying out for her now, and her stomach turns as she realizes she recognizes them. Leon. Noriko. Griggs. Sheckley. Dr. Kleiner. Barney. Everyone she knows in the Resistance, everyone she's ever cared about, reduced to this.
( and now we feed on another's need to breathe )
They're crowding around the platform now, limbs scrabbling uselessly against the tile as they try to climb up to reach her. Alyx frantically backs away, too overcome with horror and revulsion to speak or even cry out.
( and I don't need your sight to help me see )
And backs right into something solid. No, she realizes as she turns around, not something, someone. Someone in the pure white body armor of an Overwatch Elite.
( I was deceived by shadows, thoughts, your bold pretensions )
As she stands there paralyzed with fear, the Elite removes its helmet. And although his head is shorn of hair and his skin is deathly pale, there's no mistaking those blazing green eyes.
( fallout renegade )
"Vance Subprime engaged," says Gordon Freeman through a Combine vocoder, and raises his rifle--
The scream she couldn't let out before escapes her now as she sits bolt upright on the floor.