Chapter Text
“Hey.”
He says, casually. Like they aren’t in some hellish alien chamber and he isn’t fifty feet tall.
“Hey...”
Gordon replies, because he has no idea what else to say.
“I knew this was gonna happen.”
“What— what do you mean, you knew this was gonna happen?” He stutters one response. He always knew something was off about Benrey— like an integral part of him was just... built incorrectly.
But this... Gordon never even considered the thought that Benrey was some sort of eldritch abomination.
“I’m telling you! Uh, look— I’m, I like everything.” Benrey babbles nonsensically. “I’m a great cool—“
Gordon glances back at the science team, as if to make sure that this is actually happening, and not just a result of his (numerous) concussions.
“I feel a good, but you make me angry!” The security guard continues. It sounds like he’s just spitting out words as they come to him— a pure stream of consciousness that isn’t really meant to make sense.
“Why? Because I don’t have my fucking passport?”
“Uh— no! You remember..? The first time we met, you walked— you walked in. I’m on my shift and you come in and you got a dick slip in your— in your HEV suit..!” He says, his eyes wide. “I tried to stop you, I tried to tell you!”
“What?!” Gordon interrupts briefly.
“I was stopping you, I was going like ‘Hey... yo dick out.’ But you didn’t— I was trying to be nice...” Benrey’s tone softens, sounding almost defeated. “And then, you were talking to my friend, j... jefferem... and you’re telling him, like, ‘Aughhh I don’t have my passport bleuh!’”
Gordon honestly can’t believe what he’s hearing. There’s no way— no possible way that he walked into Black Mesa with his dick out. Benrey’s lying— like he always does. He has to be!
“But... and he was so upset, he has anger issues, y’know. I was gonna protect you from him, we were— I was gonna be nice to you!”
A short pause.
“Remember that?”
“Yeah, and then you contradicted yourself almost immediately— I didn’t say shit to you, you immediately started attacking me! And you just harassed me—“
“No! That’s just my job!” Sounding genuinely distraught, Benrey interrupts the scientist.
“To do what? What is your job? What is THIS, where the fuck are we?!”
“I—I mean if there’s a dick— if, you know, someone’s dick out on the job, I gotta stop ‘em!”
“What are you on about?!”
“But like...”
“What?!”
“You don’t remember?”
“My dick has not been out all day!”
“No, no! Like— the first time we met.
“Yeah— in the fucking— before the test?”
“What test?” Benrey asks, like he’s completely forgotten everything that doesn’t directly relate to the dick slip. (Maybe he has. His memory isn’t the best.)
Once again, Gordon glances at Bubby and Dr. Coomer, checking time see if either of them find this whole thing insane. (They’re both just staring at Benrey expectantly. Neither of them meet Gordon’s gaze.)
“What does this have to— I don’t understand—“
“LISTEN, I had a whole thing planned at the end of my shift, me and my friend... gonna go home, we were so close to clocking out, and then you show up— dick out— ruining shit, and we’re— we were gonna go home and play... oh I got PlayStation THREE! We’ve both got PlayStation plus, one month,” He begins to ramble.
“And... I got Heavenly Sword, new game out, Heavenly Sword is NOT a rip-off of God Of War.”
“Okay? Yeah—“
“Heavenly Sword was going to be the new Halo for Sony.”
“What are you talking about?!” Gordon can’t help but burst into incredulous laughter. He’s never even heard of Heavenly Sword— but apparently Benrey thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world.
“What does this have to—“
“And it was gonna be GREAT. There was gonna... Heavenly Sword was gonna have DLC where you could have 60 people in one server! Throwin’ fraaaags ‘n shit.”
“Okay— okay!”
“And you’ve ruined that— you RUINED that! And now I have to go ask everyone at my job— it’s embarrassing to ask for a free month of PlayStation plus cause I couldn’t go home and play with my friend.”
A long pause as they stare at each other.
Benrey’s lip curls, twisting his face into an expression of anger.
Gordon’s heart beats heavily in his chest. He wonders if he’ll ever see Joshua again.
“YOU KNOW HOW— how sucks that is for me?!” The security guard growls. “Bro?!”
“I— no.”
“It’s REALLY annoying! And then I have to go home, and I— I load up YOUTUBE YOWNLOADER to look up Heavenly Sword videos cause I can’t DO IT because you RUINED it cause I couldn’t go to the GameStop and get it from my friend Josh, who’s the cashier.”
“How do I factor into this?! I don’t— What do you mean dick slip—“
“You walked in with your dick out and ruined the whole night!” Benrey yells, causing the entire chamber to vibrate.
“How does that have to do with fucking anything?!” Gordon stomps along with the words, causing the strange red liquid to splash on his HEV suit.
There’s a long, drawn-out but of silence as the two stare at each other. Benrey’s eyes narrow.
“My friends are here.” His face twists into a grin that makes Gordon’s blood run cold. “These are the people I met online on when I had PlayStation Plus. Sony CEO Jack Tretton SURVIVED a nuclear— a nuclear bomb!”
“I— what?” Gordon chuckles nervously. “What? Should we—“
“SONY CEO JACK TRETTON HIRED— uh, a Nintendo CEO Reggie and they built a big BOMB that was gonna go off, but I saved the WORLD!”
“S-should we stop him?” Freeman glances back at the rest of the science team. “Should we just start shooting at him? I dunno— it’s not going to do anything—“
“No! No! Let— we need to understand!” Tommy cries.
“I don’t understand a damn—“
“It would be rude to interrupt!” Dr. Coomer says, in his typical cheery (and slightly patronizing) tone.
“So I didn’t— I didn’t have a big plan! I was supposed to be nice, but you forced me to be baaad, so I gonna be baaad!”
“How did I force you—“
“The—the—the big plot is slowly unraveling before our eyes, look at this!”
Appearing out of thin air, skeletons begin to circle above Benrey like vultures.
Benrey rises up slowly, his body twisting and morphing in ways that will give Gordon nightmares for years to come. (If he makes it out of this alive. Which is seeming more and more unlikely as time moves on.)
“I didn’t want to do this—“ The security guard’s voice echoes within the physicist’s head. “You FORCED my hand, Gordon Feetman! You— you made me be baaaad!”
Gordon freezes. Some part of him— something deep and ingrained rages against the words. A break in the script— a carefully choreographed waltz ruined by one stray dancer.
Benrey doesn’t say that— Gordon knows Benrey isn’t supposed to say that.
“You—“ He stops himself. He isn’t supposed to say anything, either. He knows, suddenly, what’s happening.
“You need to wake up, Feetman!”
“Wake up, and smell the ashes...”
—
—
—
Gordon Freeman wakes up alone in his dingy one-bedroom apartment.
Another night, another nightmare. It’s comforting, almost. A routine that he’s become far to accustomed to.
He glances over at his clock— 4:16 am. Hm. Not the earliest he’s been woken up. His sleep schedule is honestly a mess.
It has been ever since Black Mesa.
Yesterday marked the two-month anniversary of the... ‘incident,’ as it is now called. The resonance cascade and it’s repercussions are still something of an unknown— new fuckups are being discovered every day.
Two whole months since he’s seen any of the science team face-to-face. Two months since he last saw Benrey.
(Feels like it’s been a lot shorter, considering he’s a staple in Gordon’s near-daily nightmares.)
He sighs, dragging a hand across his face. His right hand, specifically. (Using it still feels strange, even though he only had the mini gun for a couple of days at most.)
The only proof that he lost his hand at all is a thin scar on his arm. It still aches when he thinks about it too hard.
Technically, Black Mesa has him on paid leave as an “apology” of sorts. It’s probably just a form of damage control, but Gordon’s not in any position to really complain about it. It gives him more time to... reflect? He’s not sure what he’s doing anymore.
Anna— Joshua’s mother— had suggested therapy, and had even steered him towards one she knew.
(He promised her that he’d look into it. Once everything settled down.)
Somewhere outside his room, Gordon’s phone begins to ring.
Another glance towards the clock— 4:30 am. Way too early to be getting a call that’s anything other than spam.
He ignores it, and eventually the ringing stops.
Not even a minute later, it rings again.
He ignores it, and folds his pillow over his head.
It stops, and then starts once more.
Whoever it is, they’re persistent. Gordon will give them that.
In the back of his mind, he realizes that if someone is making the effort to call him this many times at four in the morning, it’s probably important.
Slowly, and reluctantly, he slides out of bed and stumbles into the kitchen. His phone lights up the small room, and the caller ID only says “UNKNOWN”
He sniffs, swipes to answer the call, and holds his phone up to his ear.
“Who is this?” He asks groggily.
“Hey, uhh,” A horribly familiar voice drawls. “Can I borrow, like... 60 bucks? I’m trying to buy the new Animal Crossing.”