Chapter Text
After a very lengthy and irritating interrogation, Gila just barely got the indication that the SeaWing’s name might have been, just possibly, Burbot. Finally, he’d be able to keep track of these dragons. Well, actually, it didn’t make it any easier since they were all very insistent on running head-on into exposed electrical wires and screeching headcrabs.
“Okay, so have any of you tried to cross the facility without the tram? On foot, not flying.” Gila asked as the group made their way through yet another beat-up hallway. The fluorescent lights above buzzed and flickered, making it difficult to navigate through the corridor.
Luckily for them, Beluga had a spare moon globe, though its light was dim and its surface cracked from so many years of previous use. “I was born down here,” Beluga declared, leading the group with the moon globe held out in front of him.
“Black Mesa does that? They do test tube hatchlings?” Gila laughed, though he stifled his chuckles when Beluga shot him a glare.
Beluga snorted, the moon globe returning to his shoulder as an open entrance came into view. “This place is old, Gila.”
“Yea. Older than me, probably. I have to be younger than all three of you guys combined.” Gila mused, though he paused when he glanced at Kit. “Well, no- Kit’s, like, five.”
Kit shook his head in response, puffing smoke out of his mouth. “I’m twenty!”
Well, I can’t argue with that. It felt odd to know that he was just one year younger than Kit. He had graduated MIT at fifteen, and was left pretty much aimless until he found Black Mesa at seventeen. That would make it, what, two years working at Black Mesa? Gila never bothered to keep track—He’d figured he’d be working here for the rest of his life.
As the group rounded the corner, the following hallway was shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the red glow of crisscrossed lasers. Gila remembered using the lasers for a test once—Something about sandwiches, or whatever. He didn’t know why he didn’t assume that the lasers would run throughout the entirety of Black Mesa.
“Careful, Gila!” Dr. Cornus chirped. “It appears our laser networking system has been compromised!”
Gila suddenly became acutely aware that Burbot was no longer trailing behind Kit like a lost puppy. Instead, he was perplexed to see the SeaWing sitting on one of the fallen filing cabinets, a laser wandering dangerously close to his head.
“It’s been completely compromised- And the fuckin’ the guard from earlier, the passport guy, seems to be standing right—“ Gila’s words were cut off by an otherworldly roar as one of the lasers crossed right against Burbot’s skull, the smell of burning flesh now apparent.
“Holy shit!” Beluga exclaimed in surprise as Burbot clambered off of the filing cabinet, stumbling his way over to the group with a smoking scar now tattooing his forehead.
“Dude- Dude!” Gila gasped, grabbing the SeaWing by his shoulders to keep him upright. “Are- Are you okay!?”
Burbot only let out a weak grunt, to which Gila panickedly said, “Okay- Does anyone here have medical knowledge!? Is there a health pack nearby, or—“
He was completely cut off as Burbot suddenly lurched forward with a disgusting gagging sound. After a few wretches, Burbot vomited up a stream of those same bubbles he had blown into the other guard’s face. They were thicker this time, and the purple and blue orbs hung in the air for a moment before slowly beginning to dissipate.
“Oh god, he’s spitting out blue- And purple.” Gila’s voice came out more deadpan than he meant it to, but in reality, he was so confused and dumbstruck he didn’t think he was capable of expressing any kind of emotions right now.
Kit suddenly held up a talon. “Wait, I can read this!”
“You- You can read it?” Gila breathed.
The SandWing approached Burbot, looking at the slowly-fading bubbles with a concentrated gaze. “It’s blue, to purple… Like the spring- Of a spring evening… Which it- It means he’s okay.”
Gila blinked, staring at the now-deflated body of the SeaWing on the ground. “Okay- So he’s okay now?”
Said SeaWing was now unsteadily rising to his feet, supported by Dr. Cornus as he helped him stand. Amazingly, the wound on Burbot’s head seemed to just be… Gone. All that was left was a small dash of soot, which Burbot casually wiped away with a talon.
Before Gila could process, a flurry of cold dashed past him as Beluga beelined straight towards the hallway full of lasers. “Run for it, Gila!”
Kit and the now-recovered Burbot were already happily trailing after him as Gila caught his bearings. “Don’t- Please be careful! You saw what those lasers did!”
Gila had to perform the kind of acrobatics he’d never paid attention to in the Black Mesa Training Facility, just barely missing the graze of the scauldering hot lasers. Luckily, it seemed everyone had made it across with no trouble.
Though, Gila couldn’t help but notice the rotting, smoking body on the ground. It was a dead MudWing guard, half of its body severed off by a sparking laser. Gila’s heart twinged for a moment—Being one himself, MudWings were kind of the only dragons Gila felt it easy to feel bad for. He couldn’t help but wonder, Where are his sibs? Do they know what happened to him? Was he their BigWings? Questions he knew he shouldn’t dwell on for someone he didn’t know, but he couldn’t help it. There weren’t many other MudWings working in Black Mesa, especially because of the recent tensions between the Sand Kingdom and Mud Kingdom.
“Gila!” Beluga’s sharp voice cut through his thoughts for the second time. “Are you coming or not!? We found an elevator!”
Shaking his head, Gila reluctantly tore his eyes away from the body and joined his crew at the end of the hallway. Before them stood a doorway, and after that a yawning elevator shaft. Looking over, Gila absentmindedly hit the up button on the outer elevator controls.
The walls screeched as the elevator box suddenly whizzed right down the shaft, the screams of the three dragons inside following it. Gila was frozen with horror as the sound of the elevator hitting the ground and crashing filled the room.
“ What the hell is wrong with you!? ” Beluga screeched, tail lashing as he glared at Gila.
“I- I didn’t…” Gila stared dumbstruck at the empty elevator shaft. “I didn’t…”
He felt a talon on his shoulder as Dr. Cornus spoke. “Now Gila, you may have just ended three innocent lives, but it’s important to stay calm.”
How can he say that so calmly!? Gila had just killed three dragons. He’d seen dead bodies before, sure, but he didn’t think he’d end up causing those deaths. The memory of those horrible screams would be forever burned into his mind.
Kit pushed past Gila with a sympathetic look, before slamming the point of his tail barb right into the glass panels of the doorway. They shattered upon impact, and somehow, none of the glass shards made any injury to Kit’s tail.
The moment they made it through the door, Kit, Burbot and Dr. Cornus were already flying their way up the elevator shaft. Fortunately, there was a ladder on the very edge of the shaft, just barely where a dragon could still walk before they’d fall into the abyss. The ladder was cold and metallic under Gila’s talons, still shiny from the fact that nobody ever needed to use it.
For some odd reason, Beluga had decided to use the ladder as well. He was a few feet above him, hesitantly looking around, his tail swaying back and forth dangerously close to Gila’s head.
Gila was about to ask what the hold up was, when Dr. Cornus’s cry sounded from above. “There are creatures up here, Gila!”
“Oh shit,” Gila let out a panicked huff, pulling himself further up the ladder. When Beluga still stood in his way, he let out a grumble. “You could start moving a bit faster!”
“I’m- I’m afraid of heights!” Beluga snapped back, but it only took a few insistent pushes from Gila against his legs to make him scale the rest of the ladder.
Now on the next floor up, Gila climbed onto the platform to see Kit standing above a charred dragon’s body, his mouth glowing from recent use of fire breath. Did… Did he kill a dragon ? Gila was about to ask, when a snarl sounded out from nearby.
A bloody scientist was stumbling towards the group, a headcrab latched onto their face. With a roar, the dragon lunged at Burbot with both uncanny speed and horrible coordination. It completely missed and hit the ground on its jaw, soon meeting the deadly fate of Kit’s second round of fire breath.
“Headcrabs like to take over dragons' minds, and use them as puppets.” Beluga said, answering Gila’s question before he could even voice it. The IceWing seemed a lot less nervous now that he wasn’t on that ladder anymore. Gila didn’t even think dragons could be afraid of heights…
Gila watched curiously as Burbot wandered over to a nearby body, and crouched down in front of it. He made a strange sound that Gila wished he didn’t recognize.
“Don’t- Don’t eat the bodies!” He huffed. “We can find something. Maybe a vending machine is nearby?”
Burbot didn’t acknowledge Gila’s words, but he stood up and stepped away from the body. The MudWing just sighed heavily as the rest of the group traveled past him, now more energized on the idea of finding food.
———
After what felt like days, and was probably just an hour, the little survivor group found one of Black Mesa’s breakrooms. A headcrab scrambled its way across the ground, heading right for the group, only to be met with the powerful hit of Gila’s tail as it was crushed into a fine paste.
Kit excitedly jumped forward, spotting the two vending machines in the corner of the breakroom. “Grab a cactus juice, it’ll help you see faster!”
Gila let out a snort, approaching the machines. “Don’t know what that means, but sure!” Knowing that he didn’t have any money to put into the machine, and that it was probably broken either way, Gila spun around and slammed his heavy tail into the vending machine. It cracked open like an egg, and cans of cactus juice began to spill out almost immediately.
Before he could even speak, the other dragons were shoving him aside, diving for the cans like fish to meat. Gila let out a laugh of surprise as the dragons started crunching on the cans themselves.
“No- Don’t drink them now! We can save them!” Gila tried to say, but his attempts were overwhelmed by the sound of the dragons desperately ripping apart the cans with their teeth and claws and shotgunning it down.
He was left speechless as the vending machine was almost instantly cleared out. Dr. Cornus approached Gila with an in-tact can of cactus juice. “Would you like a sip, Gila?”
Gila shook his head, chuckling. “No, thank you. I- I think I’ve lost my appetite.”
As Gila began to exit the breakroom, he was stopped by Burbot hurrying up to him. “Hey.”
“…Hey?”
“What’d you do to the microwave?”
Perplexed, Gila turned around and found that the breakroom’s microwave had exploded with something inside of it. Whatever it contained was now covering the walls and floor.
“I didn’t do that. I think someone overheated it, or something.” Gila snorted.
Burbot looked Gila up and down, his eyes narrowing. “I think you’re a thief. Little stealer, huh? Vandalizer? Destroying company property? Huh?”
Gila held back a wheeze of amusement, instead turning away from the SeaWing. “How about you worry about being a security guard after we’re out of here, eh?”
He swept his tail across the ground, sending a few scattered papers across the room. “I don’t think your job matters very much right now.”
Gila had meant that light-heartedly, but he was a bit surprised to see a flash of hurt cross Burbot’s face—Only for a moment, though, because the moment Gila was done speaking, the SeaWing pushed past him back into the hallway.
“Gila, we are about twenty-four hours from the surface!” Dr. Cornus piped up. “If we continue at this pace, we’re sure to make it at the estimated time.”
The MudWing let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Okay, okay. That’s good—We’ll be out of here soon.”
As the crew exited the breakroom and resumed their trek through the winding halls of Black Mesa, Gila thought to himself with his head down. I wonder if anyone outside knows what happened. The blast must’ve caught the attention of someone from the surface, right?
Isn’t Black Mesa allied with the Sky-Ice Military? Maybe they’ll come to save the survivors.
No!
Gila was caught off guard by a sudden foreign voice echoing nearby. He staggered for a moment, feeling as if it were vibrating through the walls of his mind. He looked around, desperate to find the source of the voice, but he was only met with confused looks from his crew, none of which had a voice that sounded like the one he just heard.
“Are you alright, Mr. Monster?” Kit asked nervously, fidgeting with his tie. It was a bit humorous that the scientists of the crew all insisted on keeping their charred, half-burnt ties around their neck.
Gila shook his head, putting a talon up to his face. “I’m- I’m fine, Kit. I’m just a bit tired.”
As much as he wanted to, Gila wouldn’t be telling the group about that mysterious voice. He didn’t want them to panic, and not to mention, he didn’t even know if that voice was real. Had the blast from the cascade given him brain damage in the form of a talking tumor? Actually, that didn’t seem all that unlikely. Gila decided to stop thinking about it before he gave himself a panic attack.
Trailing along behind the group, Gila walked with his eyes on his claws. Speaking of the Resonance Cascade… He hadn’t really given himself time to process it, huh? Maybe he shouldn’t—Or better yet, never— process it if he wanted to keep his sanity, at least for now. These dragons needed a strong leader, and Gila couldn’t let the trauma of the experience overshadow the fact that he was the one in the high-tech everything-proof radiation suit.
Looking up from the floor, Gila found himself now alone in an empty corridor, the fluorescent light above swinging from its wires and flickering annoyingly. Silently, he began to panic. Did they decide to leave me behind? Did they get taken by a monster?
Gila was soon left relieved when he turned a corner to find the group of dragons still intact, huddled in a corner of the hallway where a vent was smashed open above them.
“Hey. What’s going on?” Gila asked with a chuckle, fighting to keep the signs of previous panic out of his voice.
He looked over Burbot’s head to see a LeafWing scientist curled up in the corner of the dead-ended hallway, shivering much like the leaf they resembled. Something about the dragon almost seemed familiar, but Gila couldn’t quite place his talon on it.
“Hey- Are you okay?” Gila pushed past Burbot and Kit, approaching the scientist. The LeafWing’s head shot up, a bloody scar stretching across their face like a vine.
Burbot was suddenly in front of him again, this time standing next to the LeafWing. His claws were hovering towards the scientist, and Gila recognized it as the posture for a successful neck snap.
“No- No! ” Gila cried, grabbing Burbot by the horn and pulling him back. “We’re not killing scientists! ”
That didn’t seem to make the scientist any happier, and they were letting out shrills and chirps of fear and panic. The frills along their spine were buzzing like a cicada.
Dr. Cornus walked up to the scientist and nudged them aside to stand next to them, which only made the LeafWing’s anxiety get worse. The buzzing was so loud it might as well be engraving something into Gila’s brain.
“Stop, you’re scaring them!” Gila said quickly, gently trying to tug Dr. Cornus away from the panicking scientist, though the green dragon seemed very determined to stay where he was standing.
Suddenly, it was as if the LeafWing was transforming. And, well, they kind of were. Their wings suddenly became frail and dark, and began peeling apart as easily as a real leaf. Their face contorted into a silent scream as their body disobeyed itself, breaking scars open across their scales and gushing blood. In a flash, the LeafWing collapsed, their lifeless body now… on fire.
Gila could only stare silently with his jaw dropped open. The other dragons didn’t seem phased, with Dr. Cornus still standing next to the scientist as if nothing had happened. Burbot had found a long stick of metal and was poking the body with it.
Then Burbot began to unleash his Black Mesa Sweet Voice™️ onto the charred body, orbs of cyan and green swirling around the dead dragon like a spider’s silk.
“What… What are you doing?” Gila heaved, staring at Burbot.
“He’s encasing them in a cocoon!” Dr. Cornus answered matter-of-factly, adjusting his tie. “Nature is beautiful.”
The only other sound Gila could get out of his mouth was a chorus of “Why. Why. Why.” Of course, he received no answer.
— Hello? Gila?—
A stab of pain shot through Gila’s head, nearly causing him to double over. He stumbled against a wall, using it to hold himself up as his brain echoed with that mysterious voice once again.
— I know you can hear me. You need to listen to me.
He could just barely make out the dragons in front of him as his vision blurred in and out of focus. He heard muffled voices, but they were overshadowed by the one blaring in his head.
You need… —Leave Black Mesa! Get… Sand Kingdom— The SkyWi—
The voice had gone just as quickly as it had come. Gila’s comprehension slowly began to return, and his vision no longer swam. He became aware of a weight against his side, and looked over to see Burbot staring up at him, his jaw parted, a purple glow coming from inside his throat.
“Calm down.” The SeaWing said flatly, detaching himself from Gila’s side.
Gila noticed blue and purple orbs slowly fading into the air, and realized Burbot had used his Sweet Voice on him. He shivered at the thought of that, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that he did actually feel a bit better. His body was more relaxed now, and he no longer heard the constant beating of his heart ringing through his ears.
“Uh… Thank you?” He said slowly, standing up from against the wall. Burbot just turned away, already prepared to leave once more.
That weird voice came back.
A small twinge of anxiety began to return in Gila’s chest as he remembered what just happened. Who was that? What was that? The voice was obviously trying to speak to Gila, but it didn’t seem like it could do so for very long. What was it the voice talked about… Something about SkyWings, maybe? There weren’t many SkyWings in Black Mesa, as a good majority of them had to enlist in the army per the Queen’s laws.
Maybe the Sky-Ice Military is coming to save us after all.
As much as Gila wanted to believe that, something in the mysterious voice’s tone told him otherwise.