It was somewhere around ten years after she'd killed everyone in the facility. GLaDOS never once regretted her actions, in fact, she was proud of them, and had happily told everyone she had come across since exactly how she did it in such perfect detail it was scary. That is, she would have if she'd come across anyone in the last ten years. Which she hadn't. The solitude never really bothered GLaDOS that much, but sometimes she'd wonder what it'd be like if she had what humans tend to call a 'friend', then laugh at herself for being simple minded enough to think such a human thought.
GLaDOS had built exactly 17 new test chambers and added exactly 9 new parts on the humanoid body she was building for herself and it wasn't even noon. There wasn't much else to do. She thought to test her current test subject, but then remembered that he'd died in a tragic accident that possibly involved a hidden turret and a pool of acid, and oh. GLaDOS was /bored./ She was so bored that she was even hearing new voices besides the personality cores. At least that's what she thought until she looked down and saw a little girl, no younger nor older than six with bright honey coloured eyes and wild strawberry blonde hair staring up at her.
"Hello!" The little girl called up again.
"Who the hell are you?" GLaDOS asked in surprise. The girl giggled in a way that simultaneously caught GLaDOS off guard and made her feel slightly sick.
"I'm Aria. Nice to meet you." The girl replied with a big smile. Aria. That was a musical term. It meant a song for a solo voice. A voice on it's own. GLaDOS suddenly felt a horrible feeling. A human feeling. Empathy towards the child. She felt a slight connection to the child that was only just strong enough to keep GLaDOS from dropping the crusher there and then, nothing more, and to GLaDOS' distaste, nothing less.
"I'm GLaDOS. I'm in charge of every single thing in this facility." GLaDOS explained, attempting to intimidate the girl, but instead Aria smiled again, unnerving the supercomputer slightly.
"Hello, Gladys!" The girl beamed. GLaDOS rolled her optic with a sigh.
"GLaDOS." She repeated in a louder and stronger tone.
"Hey GLaDOS, if you're a computer, how come you act like a human?" Aria asked curiously. GLaDOS cringed at the insult of being compared to a human.
"Uh, science." GLaDOS told the girl, avoiding the real answer which she was not willing to give.
"Ah, science," Aria started, "That's hard. You must be really smart!" Aria told the AI.
"I am." GLaDOS replied proudly.
"No, I mean it! You're like this smart!" Aria replied enthusiastically, spreading her arms out as wide as they could go. GLaDOS was slightly amused yet unimpressed by the childish human gesture.
"Yes, well I am a supercomputer, I kind of know pretty much everything." GLaDOS replied, making Aria laugh once again.
"You're funny, GLaDOS. I want to stay with you forever and ever! Can I?" Aria asked, her honey eyes shining with hope. GLaDOS sighed. She was very much planning on keeping Aria around, she could use the company as much as she hated to admit it.
"Maybe not forever, but for the time being, I guess so." GLaDOS replied in a professional tone. It may have not been the fairytale answer she was searching for, but it still made Aria's face light up like the sky on on New Year. GLaDOS knew a lot, but admittedly she didn't know the first thing about taking care of children. That's a human's job. GLaDOS thought. Human's job. Human's job. That's it. GLaDOS realized she had boxes full of humans. She pulled up a list of all of her test subjects and picked one at random. The one she chose was a girl called Lizbeth.
A/N: Hey! Thanks for reading the first chapter of my new story! Hope you like it so far!
Hey everyone who is reading this! As strange as this might sound, I'm uploading this just after Chapter 20. Why? Well, anyone who read this chapter before will know how dreadful it was. I've re-written this chapter and (hopefully) improved it, and straight after uploading this, I'm planning on rewriting the next chapter as well!
To all the new readers though, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you'll consider reading the rest!
