Chapter Text
What happened next happened too fast for Eli to register.
One moment, he was about to be assassinated by a Combine Advisor, right in front of his daughter and colleague no less. And the next, he was on the concrete ground of the helicopter hangar, pain ripping through his aged knees and hands at the impact of his landing. A loud but dull thud of what he could only assume was the Advisor hitting the ground followed a split second behind.
God. Damn, those slugs were strong. The scientist's left hand went to grip his right side. His head snapped up to the left to see Dog throwing around the second Advisor like it was a simple rag doll, his large metal claws ripping into its flesh as the Advisor screeched in pain. Rather impressively, it only just managed to escape the robot's grasp, skittering around the concrete ground of the hangar like a panicked spider that had been flipped on its back and was about to be crushed by someone's foot, screeching all the while yellow fluid that the Resistance leader could only assume was blood ejecting from its sides in spurts. Eli yelped, and, rather quickly in his old age, flipped himself out of its chaotic path as it made its way out of the opened hangar doors and flew away. Dog followed its path, coming to a stop just at the nose of the helicopter and gazing up at the fleeing psychic slug, whirring would be several obscenities and threats if he could speak in a human tongue.
"Good boy, Dog", Eli praised, voice strained. It was remarkable that he hadn't fallen flat on his back and hit his head. Heh. Just another day in the life of Dr. Eli Vance. The scientist glanced at the corpse of his would-be executioner. Its body was badly burned, and he could faintly see the smoke rising from it. What in the hell could have caused that? The only possible explanation was that some Vortigaunt--or Vortigaunts, plural--had noticed the commotion, swooped in to the rescue, and saved his life. But...where were they? Eli looked around, but he couldn't see any of them anywhere.
Dog turned towards his creator, his large metal feet thudding heavily against the ground as he did so. His singular red eye dilated, and he emitted an inquisitive mechanical whine.
"I'm alright, buddy", Eli reassured him. The Resistance leader propped himself up with his right forearm and placed his left hand on the ground, about to lift himself up. He scoffed, trying to lighten the mood. "We really pissed 'em off with that--"
The robot let out a sharp whirr, his lens facing the wall in front of them.
“What is it, boy?”, asked the scientist, his harried gaze following Dog's.
Oh no.
Lying in a heap on the ground was Gordon, courtesy of the Advisors involuntarily dropping him. But...where was Alyx? She had been telekinetically held up by those space slugs too...
...
Oh no. Nonono, this hadn't happened! This wasn't what he thought it was.
The old man quickly put himself back on his feet, heart beating like a war drum. "Alyx?", he called out to the stairway to his right. Was she possibly tossed to the other side of the hangar? The Resistance leader jogged around the other side of the helicopter. "Alyx?!"
There was no sign of her around the other side, either. Dog seemed to have the same mindset as he did, as the quadrupedal robot charged out of the hangar.
"God, no", Eli muttered, voice quavering. Shaky palms came up to press at his greyed temples. "No, no, please no..."
It was rather useless in hindsight, given he knew deep down the exact cause for his little girl's absence, but he ran as fast as his legs could take him past the nose of the elevator to the opposite side of the hangar. Maybe she had used the elevator to grab some help?
But once his eyes landed on the elevator, they saw that it was still down on the concrete ground, unused, adding fuel to his ever-growing fire of anxiety and horror.
Eli couldn't deny it any longer. The data he'd gathered, both hard and theoretical, gave only one solid, grim conclusion.
That. Motherfucker. Had gotten his slimy ass hands. On Alyx.
The scientist slammed a fist against the nose of the helicopter. "Bastard!", he screamed, throat closing up like a trash compactor in anguish. "Nooooo!"
The man was a goddamn snake. Eli knew he'd been using her, making her bring up the past with his own words. He knew damn well, especially now, that the man had rescued Alyx, only at the tender age of four then, for his own reasons. The Resistance leader had been so caught up with the attack on the base and the Borealis that he didn't think to stop to consider what else the phrase "prepare for unforeseen consequences" meant this time around. God. Dammit.
...
With a shaky breath, Eli attempted to compose himself. Where that sociopath had taken his daughter, he didn't know exactly. But he had a sick feeling that he knew the answer to that particular hypothesis.
Panicking did nothing to help Alyx. He needed to focus. He needed a cool head to find her, and quickly. There was no telling what kind of danger she could be in right now.
"Warning: Vital signs critical. Seek medical attention."
The old man's head snapped up to his right. Gordon, who had still been out of consciousness during Eli's horrible new revelation, had begun to stir. There was no time to waste. Eli was going to need all the help he could get, and the younger man had proven himself time and time again to be the best asset he and the entire Earth Resistance had in their arsenal. The scientist clumsily stumbled over in desperation to his collapsed colleague.
"Gordon!", the scientist cried out. The younger man only groaned in discomfort, eyelids squeezing together tightly.
Come on, goddammit! "Gordon!", Eli beseeched his friend. It took everything within him not to slap awareness back into the other man. A gloved hand came up to push his glasses up to his eyebrows and rub at his eyes, while his opposite forearm started to prop himself up.
"Wake up, Gordon!", Eli begged once more. The hand over his eyes immediately fell away and jade green eyes rapidly blinked up at Eli with what, the scientist only realized in hindsight, was pure, gobsmacked, disbelief.
"...Eli?", the younger man whispered. "Wh...what--"
"She's gone, Gordon!", Eli exclaimed. "She's gone! Son of a bitch and his unforeseen consequences! I knew it!" The scientist paused, turning his gaze downwards as he swallowed a hard lump in his throat. Fire raged through his veins. If this puppet master seriously thought Eli would just stand by and let him use his daughter for his twisted games, he had another thing coming, superpowers be damned to the ninth circle of hell.
"When I get my hands on him", the scientist vowed to Gordon, voice low with just barely restrained righteous fury, "I'm gonna kill him."
Just then, Dog made his presence known from a hole in the damaged roof, dropping down from it onto the helicopter behind the Resistance leader, his search for Alyx having proved fruitless as well. "I gotta figure this out", the scientist mumbled as the quadrupedal robot thudded his way over to his creator, clutching something in his metal claws. He stopped and then opened his hand, the Gravity Gun implanted in his arm holding the object in place.
The object in question was a crowbar.
The old man blew out some air, forcing himself to calm to get to his new task.
Just another day in the life of Dr. Eli Vance. There was never a dull moment.
An alert whirr was emitted from his creation, his lens zeroed in on something to his left. Eli's gaze followed suit, and at once, his racing mind slowed to a crawl.
Gordon had stood himself up during Eli's fretful stream of consciousness, but his balance was slightly unsteady. His body was shaking violently, breathing growing heavy and erratic by the second. The expression in his eyes was of increasing pain; the older scientist noted the gaping hole on his left side. Blood had soaked through the poorly applied adhesive. There was a puncture wound on the chestplate of the HEV suit, blood having seeped out of that one onto the armor. Oh Jesus.
"...you're alive..."
It was barely even a whisper. More like a light breath of air. The eye in the storm of emotion about to be unleashed.
"...you're alive..."
The younger man took a small step forward before collapsing on armored shins, gagging and dry heaving on the concrete. A moment later, a throat-tearing sob made its way out of him, and he began hyperventilating.
Eli flew over to Gordon's side, kneeling down to his level and placing a reassuring hand on his armored back. "Gordon", the Resistance leader tried to console. "It's okay son. I'm okay." He tried to force a chuckle. "The Combine really ain't sendin' their best."
That was...a pretty bad joke in piss-poor taste. He shouldn't have been all that surprised when all of a sudden Gordon screamed, hands snapping up to grab at his grimy chestnut colored hair. The younger man trembled and sobbed violently, uncontrollably, harsh gagging and coughing escaping him in between the all-consuming wails of pure despair.
"Oh, Gordon", Eli lamented softly. He slowly moved his hand up to clasp his friend's shoulder. "Come on, buddy. Let's sit up." The scientist brought himself down into a sitting position. Gordon turned slightly, falling sharply on his wounded side--not that that seemed to bother him too much--and burying his face into the older man's stomach. His armored arms wrapped tightly around Eli's lower back, the now slightly muffled, heartbreaking sobs continuing to wrack his body.
As Eli hugged Gordon back as best he could, he couldn't help but think back to a similar instance so many years ago. It was when he had lost his leg. Alyx had been hysterical; she had unfortunately seen the grievous injury in all its glory. Eli couldn't recall this, as he'd blacked out from the pain and had been put under by the Vortigaunts as it was being amputated. What he did remember, rather vividly, was his then five-year-old daughter hugging him as tightly as she could, refusing to leave his side for several weeks after the crude prosthetic had been placed on what was left of his knee. She had tearfully confided in him that she thought he was going to go sleep forever.
...
The old man sighed, beyond bone-tired. The memories had been mostly healed by time, the pain they brought similar to a dull throb. Death was a harrowing concept to anybody, especially that of a child. His child, whose innocence had been stripped from her. His child, who had to grow up too fast. His child, who was being forced to partake in a sick, twisted game she never asked to play.
The same could...no, had to, be said for Gordon. Just like Alyx...just like all of them...he'd faced more than a lifetime of horrors and come out the other side. He'd managed to make himself the priority target of a lot of people--the aliens of Xen, the goddamn US Marine Corps, and of course Breen and the whole of the Combine military. And that was all in a matter of mere days.
Eli had meant it when he said he couldn't be more proud of the younger scientist. He was a hero, yes. But he was also human. Deeply, unequivocally human. A human who could only take so much before he would inevitably break down from how overwhelming all he had faced was.
Dog, who had been awkwardly watching this scene of raw vulnerability unfold, carefully clomped over to the pair, kneeling down on his legs and nuzzling Gordon's head with his lens, emitting a sympathetic whirr. Eli forced a smile at this, carefully removing one hand from Gordon and placing it on Dog's head to pet him fondly.
"It's gonna be okay, guys", the Resistance leader murmured, with a reassuring confidence that he didn't feel at all. "We're all okay. We're all gonna be okay."
...
...hopefully.
They all huddled around each other for what seemed like hours. The sun had begun to set by the time Gordon's sobbing had lessened into silent crying and sniffling and then down to light breathing. His hold on Eli had loosened significantly; his arms were now hanging off the older man’s hips.
Oh, dear. That whole breakdown he had most definitely sapped every last ounce of energy out of him.
Just then, Eli and Dog heard the faint opening of the door to the back entrance of the hangar. Dog moved himself from Gordon to better face whoever was coming out as Eli blew out a long-suffering sigh and looked to his right.
Yup. Just another day in the life of Dr. Eli Vance. There was never a dull moment.