This fanfic is presented in a fragmented manner: shows small chunks of story without explaining the gaps between these chunks. This, hopefully, creates a sense of mystery and speculation.

I realise that, gameplay-wise, many of these scenes wouldn't work as shown.




Some notes on decision making and final read-through realisations:



I wanted to explore Alyx's reaction to her Father's death. The pipe-weapon was an obvious choice of memento for her to take; whilst not one of Eli's 'signature' possessions, it does, I think, have some strong emotional and conceptual value. This pipe was the last weapon Eli used against the Combine.
In retrospect I'm forming more ideas around the pipe. The pipe becomes symbolic to Alyx, as representative of both her Father's failed attempt to hurt the Combine (the weapon failed to protect him) and of her failure to save her Father. It becomes vehicle for both her own and her Father's redemption. In this way it also allows her Father to continue fighting the Combine.
The jacket was the other obvious choice, being both a major aesthetic alteration to Alyx (given her relatively unchanged appearance throughout the series), and a device to show Eli's continued protection of her.
I considered Alyx taking a third object from Eli - his wedding ring. In hindsight I realise this would have formed a neat little trinity: a weapon, a shield and a binding object. It would also have, in a way, brought Alyx closer to her Mother. Before I realised these things, however (and my judgment on this still stands), I decided that it would have been more respectful for Alyx to leave the ring with her Father.

The loss of Gordon's suit was an interesting idea to play with. Originally he was to reclaim his suit, but I realised that this defeated the entire purpose of his separation from it - to show that he did not need it in order to win.
I understand that I may have deviated from the canon here, in that there's no solid evidence for Gordan's 'weak' body beneath his suit. I reasoned that because the suit could provide life support and because it enabled certain physical enhancements (the ability to sprint, for instance), that it could be responsible for his everyday movements. This use of mechanically aided movement over a long period of time would result in degradation of the body within, as it has to work less. This, I realise now, becomes one of Gordon's personal sacrifices as he 'does his job'.
Here I've also sidelined gameplay; I realise it would be difficult to make the 'weakened' Gordon a fun character to play as, and that any attempt to boost his physical ability quickly (through drugs, etc) would defeat the entire purpose of the loss-of-suit. Gordon should be capable of handling small, small arms (pistols, submachine guns) however. This opens opportunities to force the player to interact with the environment more - shooting out bolts to collapse walkways, etc. This, I realise, echoes the final chapters of the original Halflife 2. It shows more naturalistic ideas however; the victory of the 'primitive' and of the 'human will' over 'science'.
The interaction between Breen was unplanned. The exploration and creation of parallels between Breen and Gordon, between the Combine and the Gman, was an exciting surprise for me, but I'm quite happy with what came out of it. This ended up influencing the final scene which references the last scene of the original Halflife. It also gives some explanation for Gordan's reaction to Alyx's previous advances; Gordon's hesitancy comes from his knowledge that once his job is done he'll be stolen away and Alyx will be left heartbroken.
Sure, the ending's tragic, but who doesn't like a good tragedy?




As always, comments and criticism are very welcome! I want to know how you feel about this piece, what you loved, what you hated. Tear it to pieces if you want; just let me know what I could do better or could have done worse.