TITLE: Doing My Duty

AUTHOR: VIDZ

TIMELINE: immediately after the last scene in the game

WARNINGS: everything connected to this series

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc of the series F.E.A.R. and of the video/computer game F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this fic. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Alma is completely human in this fic, not a walking corpse. It was specifically said in the game that even though her heart stopped at one point, her brain kept the body alive. Because of the powers she had it's completely reasonable to believe she re-animated her body. After all, we HAVE seen her walk out of the vault in her normal-human state. She is not a corpse and the small-kid-appearance is used only when she can't be there in person and sends a projection of herself, thus that is not her real body. Contrary to some people on the net, Alma is NOT 8 years old, but considering how old Pointman must be (who is NOT Beckett's son nor his nephew nor brother... yet more theories posted on the net...) she is at least 35-40 years old. She gave birth to Pointman at 15 and you have to be in the military at least a few years to prove yourself in a regular unit before you are elligible for transfer to a Special Ops unit. Which would make her at least 35. Btw., Delta Forces requirements for applicants are College education.

DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED ABOUT THE FEAR 2'S ENDING!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Daddy."

I freeze upon hearing the word spoken by my unborn child. Our unborn child. Mine and Alma's.

I'm not an oblivious person, if I were I wouldn't have been selected for Spec Ops and the meaning of her gesture, taking my hand and putting it on her pregnant belly, hadn't escaped me. The only person with whom a pregnant woman will do that with such feeling and obvious seeking of approval is her unborn baby's father.

Does she love me? I don't know. She desires me, of that I'm certain, she wants me, lusts after me, the evidence is moving beneath my palm. I also know that from all the women I slept with she's the only one who wanted and still wants my child. She had so many men to choose from, yet she chose me.

Slowly the knowledge that she never wanted me dead comes trickling in. She had countless opportunities to finish me off, to kill me any which way she'd want, we both knew I was no match for her if she really wanted to kill me, no matter how physically stronger and how much an edge my combat training and experience give me, her powers too strong for me to fight off a determined attack. Not only that, along my journey she also protected me. She protected me from my team-mates who were jealous of what I mean to her and wanted to kill me in a jealous rage; she protected me from Armacham Black Ops, she protected me from her own Replica soldiers, from Aristide,... Even more, she guided me along the way, showed me secret passageways, entrances, ways around obstacles, she worked to make me see the truth about Armacham and everything they've done through the decades.

So, does she love me? Yes, I think so, from what Snake Fist said I'd say she loves me the only way she knows how.

I know I'm in denial and trying to ignore the fact that the woman before me, looking at me so trustingly, pleadingly, had raped me just a short while ago, had climbed onto me when I was strapped into this chair and taken what she'd wanted. A child no-one would ever take away from her. I know I'll have to deal with issues that will no doubt come from what she did without my consent, but not now.

Not while the world is aflame, not when I have other things to do.

In the end... how can I blame her? How can I blame her when she doesn't know there are other ways of getting pregnant, not just by rape, taking without consent, but with a mutual act of love and affection, from which both parties derive pleasure and satisfaction. She doesn't know because exactly this was done to her when she was only a child.

Twice over.

By her own god-damn father! May he rot in hell!

Medical rape is the word. Medical... hah! Using such a sterile, clinical word doesn't make it any less dirty, it doesn't make it any less sick.

Even with what she'd done, to me and to others, I still can't hate her.

It's a testament to how twisted this whole situation is that she is the victim here.

She's been mistreated since she was a toddler, experimented upon, taken advantage for her powers, locked up in isolation, demeaned from a person into a test-subject, denied the right of being a human being, put into a coma, impregnated against her will twice, and have had her babies taken away from her.

Even though she's killed countless people, she's also one of the victims. Most of the casulties lie on F.E.A.R.'s conscience anyway, for it was the organization's order to blow up the vault's reactor that killed tens of thousands of innocent people and a F.E.A.R. operative was the one to do the dirty job.

I know things know. I'm much more aware of the world. I guess it's a side effect of the amplifier, but now I can feel my powers are stronger than even Alma's. She doesn't know it yet, because I've been instinctively errecting a block ever since I came back from where-ever I was.

'She's the mother of the apocalypse!'

Snake Fist's words come back to me and I know what I must do.

There's only one thing I can do about this and with it I will be committing the rest of my life to this woman and this child. I will be committing my life to protecting the world by entrapping myself with them.

Keeping her out of my mind I slowly reach my hand up behind her neck, cupping the back of her head and slowly draw her face to me. She's watching me warily, but follows my lead. Finally our foreheads touch and I squeeze my eyes shut, summoning all the power I have at my disposal. I can feel my hands and forehead radiate heat where they touch her skin, electricity sparkling and I can hear Alma screaming in rage, thrashing against my hold, livid that she is helpless while I do what must be done.

I feel the baby inside her protesting and trying to protect itself, but it's miniscule powers are no match for mine.

Slowly, but surely I strip them of all their powers, and leave only normal humans behind. The baby becomes a normal baby, unaware of anything, gestating inside it's mother's womb.

With a final struggle Alma loses her own powers. After that is done I concentrate on sending her information about the world as it is now, knowledge she will need in her new life, even my academic knowledge. The moment she senses she's lost her powers she suddenly gives up fighting and collapses against me, acceptingly receiving the tons of information and knowledge I send her, while the burning landscape around us melts away, replaced by the view of the amplifier's chamber.

Looking around I notice the two female bodies: Stokes and Aristide. My heart twists when my eyes land on my dead CO. I liked Stokes, she was like family to me. On the other hand, if I get the chance I'll give Aristide's body a strong kick. The bitch had it all coming, I'm just sorry she didn't die slowly and painfully. By my hand.

Then my attention comes back to the naked trembling woman in my arms and I do the only thing I can: I tighten my arms around her and try to soothe her. This is my duty now, this frail woman, once infused with violence and an unquenchable thirst for revenge, now feeling only fear and uncertainty.

Not being controlled by her powers and thirst for revenge anymore she has her own will back and is also having to face the horrors of her past and of what she did in the past few days.

As if that isn't enough she must also grow into her body. During the last few days she'd mentally and emotionally matured in short, but intense bursts, until she became who she is now: an adult woman with more than her fair share of issues and demons.

I can safely say that emotionally and mentally she's now fully adult.

A pretty messed up adult, but an adult nonetheless.

Now comes the rest of my life: I've got to make Alma and I disappear. It won't be hard, among tens of thousands of dead those still alive are probably already assuming we've killed each other. I've got many contacts in the Black Ops community so it won't be hard to have complete new identities made for both of us. Then we'll disappear in one of the thousands of small, remote communities dotting this country. Or we'll even leave the country and try to find somewhere else to live, where Alma will give birth and I'll take care of them, staying with them partially to make sure Alma doesn't get her powers back and wreaks havoc again, and help her acclimate into normal life. Together with a psychiatrist that I know and who works with the shadow community. Because he already has experience with all this nothing will really surprise him nor will he have Alma committed into a mental hospital when he hears about ghosts, clones, specters, etc. and thus also knows to keep his tongue. We'll hide and pretend to be a normal family, no-one who comes up with the idea that we still live will ever guess to look for a family. I know I wouldn't because, frankly, at 30 I haven't thought of having kids yet, if ever. This will be something completely new for me and I hope I don't screw it up.

When I joined up I took an oath to protect this country and it's interests and by spending the rest of my life making sure neither Alma nor the baby get back their powers and try to destroy the world, and make sure nothing ever happens to them, I will be fulfilling my duty.

I'm sure someone would protest and say that I could protect the world better by handing Alma over to F.E.A.R., but I will under no circumstance be handing over an abuse and rape victim to another batch of curious scientists without conscience, to again experiment on her and treat her as just an object without any rights. I will even less give them an unborn child to do as they please, and definitely not MY child!

Neither will I be going back, when they'd realize the powers I have now they would no doubt want to imprison and experiment on ME.

So, this is it, we're disappearing into an unknown, as a family.

For my selfish sake I hope that at least something good will come out of it for me.

If not... well... I'm just doing my duty.

REVIEW!