The player let out a long sigh and rested their head in their hands. That was...a lot to process, but the screen was already displaying the text, "Chapter 10: The Surface." The player didn't want to continue, but felt they must, and placed their hand on their mouse. The animation for the wind blowing through the wheat fields was mesmerizing, to say nothing of how the clouds moved slowly across the sky. The effect was nearly lost on the player, who was still contemplating the recent events.

They turned Chell around, attempting to open the door with their "e" key, but nothing happened. They knew it would not open, and wondered where they should go now. There were only golden fields, with no buildings or people as far as they could see. Then the player remembered that, technically, this was a puzzle game. There must be something that they could follow, that would advance the story and turn this into...whatever this would become.

For a brief moment, the player wondered what kind of game this would be without GLaDOS's witty commentary, or without Wheatley's chatter. What kind of world could be built outside of the white panels, with no turrets, or cubes?

The player shook their head, and knew that no matter what happened next, they would keep playing. They had to see this to its end.

Then they noticed the footprints. Clever, they thought. A new kind of puzzle…

The player closed their eyes briefly, then pressed "w". Time to see what else was in store for them...

Chell didn't feel much. She knew exactly what she should feel, if she were a real person: betrayal (Still lingering from Wheatley's sudden turn), excitement (She was on the surface, after all), fear (How had the surface changed? What would happen to her out there?), and a bit of sadness. But all of her emotions were shallow, detached.

She knew exactly why this was. She was a tool, something the player could use to interact with her world. She wanted to believe that she was a person (Didn't the fact that she could want such a thing make her conscious, at least?) but she knew that all she was, or could ever be, was lines of 1s and 0s.

Chell quickly grew bored as the player wandered through the fields for what seemed like hours. After 15 minutes, she made a game of trying to guess the next key the player would press. Most of the time she was right, but it was better than just walking.

She knew that most would be resentful of having to do whatever someone told them, but she didn't mind too much. It was almost peaceful, knowing that whatever happened wasn't her fault. She could just relax, and let them do whatever they wanted.

When they were stuck on puzzles, though...Especially in Old Aperture, Chell had spent hours fuming as the player couldn't solve what, to her, were simple puzzles. Just put the box there! No! Don't...you already put the portal in the wrong spot...great. We're going to be here for days...

Chell sighed internally, knowing that the puzzle of how to reach the end of the field would not be one that the player would solve easily. She went back to guessing which key they would press.

GLaDOS wondered if it would really be worth the effort to bring the moron back. She could torture him for all eternity...or he could sit there and be bored. She could ensure his death would be slow and painful, or he could...well, probably be fine for a long time. Eventually he would likely be hit by an asteroid or something like that, and die.

She mulled it over for a millisecond, and decided that he wasn't worth Her time.

She diverted Her attention to one of Her screens, where Jerry and his crew had just finished rebuilding a test chamber. She was almost impressed at how good it looked- She couldn't see any evidence of it having been destroyed in the first place.

GLaDOS simulated a sigh, and thought of all the Science She wouldn't be able to accomplish without a human test subject.

Somewhere, in a long forgotten piece of Aperture, a little cube with hearts on its sides sang. It was a familiar tune, one they all knew. It poured its sadness for its friend into the song, and its joy for the human woman. It sang about its loneliness, and it sang about its hope for Aperture's future. It would have brought tears to human eyes, but the only human near enough to hear was in a pod, and had not been awake to hear the cube's songs for years.

The cube missed him terribly, but knew that She would not let him live if She knew that the "rat" was still in Her walls. The cube had to let him sleep for now, so that later, he would have a chance of living.

The cube's song echoed through the empty halls, and then, all was quiet. The song was finished. The cube sighed internally, and began another song. This time, it was new. No one had ever sung it before, nor would it be sung again. The cube followed where the melody led it, and would keep singing its song until it couldn't sing anymore.

A/N: It's been a while since I've written anything, but I'm hoping to get back into writing again. As stated in the description, uploads will be whenever I can manage. I apologize in advance for if/when I do end up on hiatus for some reason. Thanks for reading, and have a good day/night!