companionwolf

PC peers around the wall— there are two sarcophagi on either side just behind it, and then four more centered around a pillar in the middle of the room; to the left and right and against the back wall are stairs leading to inert Psi Gates.

Pools of water accentuate the floor, disturbed and shaking as the Gates each hum to life. Somewhere, a Elder makes a soft tsk noise. From the left, 2 mutons, an elite, and a floater; from the right two sectoids and an outsider; and from the back, two cyberdiscs.

Reality tears, and out steps one of the proto-Avatars, all grey and black and sleek humanoid robotic form. It lacks the purple face shield and hair, but PC guesses that comes later.

Its form flickers with psionic energy, and it is suddenly no longer near the middle of the room, instead back beside the Psi Gate against the far wall.

"That's a lot of enemies," says Espeon, clinging to his shoulder.

"Aim for the Avatar," PC says, loud enough for the rest of the team to hear him. "Every time a new one comes in, that's our goal. The rest of them are just distractions. Keep covering yourselves and keep moving."

"That's kind of a paradoxical statement there, bud," says Tulip, who cringes as a plasma shot from the oncoming enemy forces goes through the glass wall over her head.

"What about the sarcophagi?" asks the Spartan.

"If you can damage them, great; if not, well, we'll find out soon enough if that's an issue," he answers.

"Affirmative," says the Spartan, and darts from the cover to the wall to behind the sarcophagus flanking the rest of the walkway, avoiding gunfire from the sectoids.

The humans scatter into the room; Tulip ducks behind the sarcophagus opposite from the Spartan, Davey runs the Cyberdiscs hail of bullets to crouch near the centerpiece of the room, Alex takes up the spot the Spartan has left besides the statue. Espeon jumps from PC's shoulder and scampers across the floor, narrowly dodging the fists of the mutons as she takes cover behind a small alien planter.

PC remains where he is, sword tight in his hands as he points it toward the Avatar and channels psionic energy down its length— it goes crackling through the air, a focused Null Lance, slamming the proto-Avatar against the back wall for a moment before the latter teleports away.

His attention shifts as the Elite comes upon him, switching to one handedly swinging the sword at the alien's legs, knocking it off balance; he spools Psionic energy about his free hand, and punches at the Elite, who punches back, sending him flying back toward the entrance door. Alex fires a Null Lance from their position by the statue, cutting through the Elite's side as it begins to rise to its feet. It bellows, spit flying from its mouth, yellow blood splattering the ground. PC scrambles for his sword with both hands and struggles up just in time to stab the Elite in the stomach.

Somewhere, PC hears plasma shots, alien cries, and then Espeon yelling in triumph, followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. There is another louder plasma shot, and then the sound the proto- Avatar teleporting again. He flicks his vision in tactical— Espeon is still behind the planter, whispers of purple about her. Good, he thinks, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding.

He checks on the others quickly: Tulip is exchanging fire with the mutons, Davey is still avoiding the Cyberdiscs as he tries to land a shot on the proto-Avatar (it's near the right hand Gates now), the Spartan has felled the sectoids and their commander (from the looks of it, their mind controlled actions were the source of the proto-Avatar's most recent move.)

The right hand Gate hums again, and out comes 2 regular Floaters, followed by a heavier one. The Cyberdiscs move forward, both flanking Davey now on either side of the middle structure. The remaining muton is shot down mid run by him, as he flees toward the left Psi Gate; he yells as one of the 'discs finally lands a shot, a sizzling sound of plasma against flesh, but manages to get across the room and press himself up against the wall, gun in hand and teeth gritted. He fires back, and the 'disc that attacked him goes off, exploding into shrapnel that peppers the human. He cries out, and there is blood on the floor.

Tulip fires at the other 'disc, accompanied by a Psionic ball of energy from Espeon, and it explodes too, taking two of the approaching Floaters with it. The Spartan is given a clean second shot at the proto-Avatar, and takes it.

The proto-Avatar collapses, a ghostly purple figure rising from its corpse. "You will be overrun. You bring yourselves to the doorstep of defeat so willingly," it says, before dissipating into the air; one of the sarcophagi, the one Tulip is crouched behind, dims slightly.

"Guess we don't have to break them," PC murmurs to himself as he jogs across the room toward the right hand Gate, barely reacting as the remaining floater fires into his chest. He slashes at it, knocks it from the air, and grinds his sword into it— it dies whining and sparking, and he twists away from the small flickers of fire emitted slightly more panicked then he'd like.

Davey has climbed on top of the middle structure, shouting to the rest as the back Gate flares to life and produces 2 elites and a second Proto-Avatar. The Avatar teleports away back behind the entry wall, and the elites break left and right, one toward Tulip (who fires at it; the Elite fires back, nails her in the shoulder, she screams) and the other at PC, who pushes it back with a Psionic wave of energy. He hears Alex shout, and looks back: the wall is engulfed in a purple vortex.

"Get out of there!" he yells at them. They hurry out of the blast zone, ducking against the middle structure as the vortex claps together, the wall shattering, glass falling onto their collective heads. The statue goes falling too, the humans leaping out of the way to the right side of the room, the Elite bearing down on Tulip crushed beneath it as it crashes hard onto the floor. The walls of the place remain steady— Alex gets up from against the floor and fires a Null Lance at the proto-Avatar, knocking it against the entry wall before it teleports away again.

PC feels hands grasp at him, turns just in time to see the proto-Avatar behind him, lifting its Psionic rifle to his lower middle and firing. He cries out, kicking furiously, but to no real avail.

Suddenly: "Hey!"

He's knocked forward as something slams into the Proto-Avatar that still has its grip on him; it releases him, turns— Espeon stands on the stairs of the right Psi Gate, lashing her tail.

"There's more where that came from, fucker!" she yells, and lets loose another ball of psionic energy at the proto-Avatar.

PC staggers away, chest heaving, barely conscious of the fact the Spartan comes and grabs him by the back of the shirt, depositing him against the right side of the middle structure. He stares into space, blinking hard, trying to regain his senses.

He hears plasma go off, hears a Gate hum, hears alien footsteps, hears the Avatar teleport again. So much noise. His head hurts. His chest hurts. He's wheezing hard; the wound he shrugged off before is blending with the shot to his abdomen now and everything aches.

His brain is flickering him back to things that never were, wondering where is the blood, how is he breathing, where is the fire and alarms and smoke —

Up, says Elyion, pushing him from his slumped and dazed position, shattering the illusion of a burning building slowly forming around him. Up, up. There's still a battle to be won.

Right, he thinks back. Right. He takes a shuddering breath, shakes his head, and checks tactical.

Espeon is fleeing the right hand Gate, where two Outsiders are emerging from. Davey remains on top of the middle structure, engaging the proto Avatar below, even with his hurt leg. Tulip and Alex run together across the room to cover besides the fallen statue, avoiding the hail of bullets from two more Cyberdiscs that have entered from the back. The Spartan is behind another alien planter on the right, firing at a second proto Avatar as it exits from the left Gate.

PC peers around the middle structure and fires a Null Lance at the second proto-Avatar; somewhere else, he hears Espeon yelp, and then the sound of a body hitting the floor.

A Elder's voice rings across the room: "What will you do if you succeed here? How will you get home? You will die here with us, foolish quest realized or not."

"You know, they've got a point," calls Tulip, from her half seated position in a crook of the statue, as Alex messily applies bandages to her shoulder wound.

"They're Elders, they don't have any points at all," Espeon yells back, dodging the plasma fire of the Outsiders, back and forth and zig and zag. "They're incorporeal!"

"You know that's not what I mean," Tulip says.

"We'll run back to our Gate, won't we?" asks Davey, voice raised over the sound of the Cyberdiscs humming.

"Probably with all these bastards on our tail, but sure, that sounds about right," says Tulip, rising slightly from her place behind the statue to fire a barrage at the oncoming Cyberdiscs, Alex supporting her with a Psionic pushback wave followed by two quick Null Lances.

Espeon reaches PC, ducking behind his legs as the Outsiders come upon him; he just barely manages to grab his sword in time, taking a shot to the head in the half beat it takes to swing at them. From below Espeon fires small balls of psionic energy, pushing the Outsiders back back back until the Spartan is able to fire at them and they collapse into their telltale shards.

From atop the middle structure Davey shoots at the last present proto-Avatar as it shoots at him; he manages to duck, the Psionic rifle fire narrowly brushing his hair, and loads three shots into its chest. It staggers, but remains up. PC steps from behind the middle structure toward it and fires a Null Lance of his own at it— it meets that with its own Null Lance, and the beams battle each other, and PC thinks he understands.

The building rumbles around them. Without looking away, PC calls, "it's time for you all to get out of here."

Espeon begins to say something, only to be silenced as Davey jumps down from atop the middle structure and scoops her up. The building is shaking now, support pillars snapping; Tulip and Alex take the Spartan's hands and rise when it comes to them, and the group of them run.

Still meeting the proto-Avatar's attack PC follows them via tactical back through the fortress. They dodge falling beams and crashing walls, water pouring in as the generator room is all but destroyed, but they make it, he sees them make it— he sees through to Alice still holding the shard up on the other side, sees Davey limp run through with Espeon in his arms, sees Tulip and Alex holding hands as they run through it together, sees the Spartan bringing up the rear.

He relaxes slightly and proto-Avatar knocks him clean through the entry wall onto the Psi bridge, the sound of his sword clattering muffled by the crash of the last room's walls as they fall to the pressure of the ocean.

He is on his side, struggling to get up on his feet, when he sees the sarcophagi crushed, splintering under the weight of the glass walls and then washed away into the oncoming tide. The Proto-Avatar is swallowed up into the dark. (But he feels its Psionic signature extinguish.)

They did it. They did it. And the humans got home safe.

Relief floods him. The water rolls over him, slams him against the floor. He lets it happen, lets himself be dragged along by the harsh current.

It's over.

It's over.

The fortress stretches before him as he is pulled away from it further into the black, the water relentlessly tearing it asunder before his eyes. It all falls away into the cold and the dark.

Eylion's voice then, as the water sinks into every fiber of his being: tell me where you want to go, and I will get you there.

He curls into himself, gathers his frayed edges and pushes the stuffing that is trying desperately to spill out back in with shaking hands, and thinks of home.

He thinks of home—

He thinks of—

It has been nice, being your Ethereal.

It's been nice being your host, he manages to think back.

I am going now, the Ethereal says, to whenever beings go when they have finished their time on planet Earth.

Thank you for being my friend, Pillow Central.