This is my first Portal fanfiction...as well as my first fanfiction in general. I can already tell you that GLaDOS will be a challenge to write, but I'll try my best. Enjoy.
Chell
Chell wove silently in and out of the rows of wheat, counting her steps as she neared her destination. The wheat encircled her body and brushed back without a sound. The only noise that could be heard in the black night was the soft crunch of her boots on the ground and even that was muffled by cautious footsteps.
If there was one thing Chell knew, it was how to be silent. It seemed a natural trait of hers, and also helped in saving her ass on more than one occasion. She smirked to herself only to have it quickly fall as she saw the end of the line coming into view. Her body responded naturally to the place now. Any mentioning of it or recollection that forced its way into her mind sent chills up her spine. Her heart rate increased and her body was instantly covered in a layer of cold sweat.
And that was nothing compared to when she woke from the dreams.
Screaming and writhing and throwing herself off of the bed, punching and kicking anyone or anything that seemed to get too close to her. Her hands and feet were constantly bruised and even the relief at being awake, being away from what caused her night terrors, was only minimal.
But she had to put that behind her. She had a job to do. She promised herself that it would get done on the sole hope that it would ease the fear in her life. Diving into the bowels of the earth was something she'd done on many occasions, more or less. She could do it one more time, if it meant peace.
The tiny metal shed had rusted significantly since she last saw it, and the roof was caving in. Chell reached a hand out and pushed two fingers against the wall, pleased that it didn't give. At least it wasn't too weak. She opened the door, only to find that something stopped it halfway. Looking down, she felt a bizarre, nauseous warmth creep into her stomach.
The little cube seemed to look up at her, asking why he'd been abandoned. The shiny metal had since been worn away by the elements and the pink hearts could no longer be made out. It was scuffed in the corners and very worn on top. She knew it was silly, but she couldn't stop herself from gently reaching down and patting it on the top of its head. This seemed to please the cube and she smiled down at it before gently pushing it to the side with her boot and opening the door further.
Though initially she'd been hard pressed to get rid of everything that reminded her of this place, she couldn't get rid of the boots. They were comfortable, durable, and heavy duty. Giving them up was a no brainer, and looking down at the long fall that awaited her, she was glad she'd gone with her gut. Chell turned and looked up at the night sky one last time. It was a deep shade of black, but the clear night allowed her the sight of stars, and the barest sliver of a crescent moon. She followed the sky downward and roved her eyes over the wheat field, taking in the smell of fresh, non-sterile air and the wind that pushed lightly against her arm.
This could possibly be the last time she ever saw the outside again, after fighting so hard to get to it. But she couldn't think about that now. She was on a mission. Taking a deep breath, Chell hopped down the long shaft, hoping her boots hadn't gotten weaker with age.
She landed with a light 'plink' on the metal ground, but, not being used to such acts, fell over anyway. Despite everything within her screaming to get up, look around, be prepared, Chell found that she couldn't. Her heart was thundering loudly in her chest and ears and it was difficult to breath. She ran her hands only the metal floor in an attempt to grip onto something, but it was smooth.
Against her better, but out of practice instincts, Chell moaned lightly, looking at the tube she'd just plunged out of. It had to be a good ten feet above her head, even when standing. There was no going back now. At least, no going back that way. Her adrenaline running out, Chell felt her heart slowly calming down, along with her breaths. However it was still hard to breathe. Chell cursed herself for closing the door of the shed behind her. At least she could have stood under the tube for the rest of her life and lived. That didn't sound too bad, in the grand scheme of things.
Forcing her breath to become even, Chell stood slowly and surveyed her surroundings. She remembered this room from her last day here, but from the looks of it, it wasn't the main chamber. And yet… Chell shook her head. There was no sense in trying to make sense of this place.
Tentatively she walked into the center of the room and looked around. It was spacious, but the walls were dark and it was hard to see. So hard, in fact, that Chell resorted to walking along the perimeter of the room with her hand against the wall. Her method worked out as her fingers ran across the subtle indentation of a door. Smiling to herself, Chell turned the knob, more than relieved when it opened and light shined through.
The door led to a small catwalk and Chell felt a comforting stream of familiarity as she stepped onto it. The vast underworld of Aperture Science loomed down and around her in massive buildings, railings, and tubes. She stared at it for a moment, lost in its vastness, before looking down. It was a long fall to the barely visible panel below, and the sight made her dizzy, which was unexpected. The dizziness lasted long than she expected, taking deep breaths and leaning against the door she'd just exited. Once she felt clear headed enough to continue, Chell did as she'd always done, and jumped before she could talk herself out of it.
The fall took a long time, and Chell struggled to remain focused. But fatigue and dizziness were quickly overcoming her. She tried desperately to keep her legs steady. If she could just land, she would sleep, but her legs would hear none of that. Chell closed her eyes and waited for death, cursing her body for betraying her when she was so close. So close to being free from all this, and she can't make a jump. GLaDOS must be in hysterics right now.
Chell landed sideways on the panel, letting out a pained grunt as she felt something shatter in her leg. The pain woke her up only for a moment before the shock and dizziness lulled her back to sleep. Just before she slipped into a sickened unconsciousness, she felt the panels slide beneath her and she was in the air again, falling.
Thankfully for Chell, she passed out before she landed. At least her death would be painless.
The first thing that Chell noticed when she woke up was that she could breathe. It was no longer the mind numbing struggle for deeper breaths that she encountered when she first entered the facility. Her mind felt more at ease, and less dizzy and she took a few deep breaths just to make sure it was all real. It was then that she realized she was no longer on a hard metal floor, but something soft. And it was slightly warm, but only slightly.
Then she felt the pain. An agonizing, burning, invasive pain in her thigh. Without thinking, Chell shot up to grab it, only to have the motion be cut short by a pair of hands on her shoulders. The woman fell back onto the bed, feeling the hands upon her, and tried to focus on them as opposed to her pain, but it was proving difficult. She writhed underneath the grasp, but soon stopped, as the motion only increased her agony.
Chell huffed in defeat, tears leaking from her clenched eyes. Her jaw tightened and she was sure a she was going to crack a tooth. She'd had plenty of injuries in the past, but nothing like this. In fact, this was the first time she could recall that something had actually broken. The thought made her sick, and scared. What had happened? Where was she? Who the hell was holding her down?
Tentatively opening her eyes, Chell focused on the figure before her. It was a woman. A slightly taller, pale woman with black eyes and dark auburn hair was peering down at her curiously. Chell forced herself to focus on the face and learn every detail, every strand of hair and its placement. Focus on anything but the pain. The woman didn't seem to mind, but she didn't lessen her grasp either.
After some serious concentration, Chell determined that this woman was very attractive, just what Chell liked in a woman, actually, but that wasn't comforting. After studying the face, Chell lowered her eyes to find that the woman was in the same all too familiar orange jumpsuit. Only this jumpsuit, along with the woman's hands, was covered in blood.
Chell gasped and tried to scramble back, but that only resulted in more pain. So she took to staring wide eyed at those dark eyes and praying that whatever happened would happen quickly. The woman narrowed her dark, dark eyes, looking deeply into Chell's. They were so black that even after serious searching, Chell could not find the pupils of the eyes. Sweat peppered her trembling body and Chell closed her eyes, unable to look any longer. It was then that the woman spoke. The voice was calming, sensuous…and slightly robotic.
"I'm going to take my hands off of you. You will not move. Moving will cause further damage to the fracture and may misalign the internal fixators. Do you understand me?"
GLaDOS.
The voice swept calm over Chell like she never expected. Still she did not let her guard down. The one thing giving the supercomputer a conscience had been deleted. Chell was witness to it. This…this what, this android? She wasn't going to fall for whatever tricks she had. But right now, she was slave to the AI until she had more information. And though she didn't understand entirely what GLaDOS had said, she did understand the not moving part, and nodded slowly to show it.
The two hands were lifted, along with Chell's eyelids, and she glared at the creature before her. Whatever curious look that was on the AI's face before changed into an almost insulted glare. "Don't look at me like that. You should be thankful. I saved your life. Normally, I kill the hobos that slither down here. You're lucky I noticed you before such instance occurred. However, I must admit, I was tempted…" She gestured downward and Chell lifted only her head to see that her pants were gone.
Her cheeks reddened at that but upon further investigation, she saw quite the bloody mess on her leg. Well, technically, it wasn't a mess. The stitching was precise and the cut looked straight, but whoever had done it had forgotten to clean up her mess. Dried blood was caked all over the bed and her leg, a sign of what had happened.
Chell looked up at the AI questioningly, but GLaDOS only glared. "I am not going to answer any question that you don't speak aloud. I know you can talk. And judging by the current looks I'm getting from you, what you want to know won't be easy to ask, even with your skill at primate-like gestures."
Chell gritted her teeth. She hated giving in. Hated it so much. But the not so stupid supercomputer was right. Taking a deep breath, Chell opened her mouth. "What happened to me?"
"Oh, you mean when you invaded my facility for the third time?" GLaDOS' voice was sharp with rage, but Chell forced herself to keep eye contact. She wasn't going down that easily. "And after I explicitly stated not to come back. But I should have known. You never, never do anything anyone asks of you. I should have told you to come back any time you wanted. Then I'd be rid of you forever." GLaDOS ran her eyes up and down Chell's body dismissively before she continued.
"When you left, you were the last being in this facility that needed oxygen. The cryogenics, naturally, do not need them and I myself only need air for cooling. Oxygen doesn't have to be in it. So I stopped wasting precious time and energy on carbon dioxide conversions. When you somehow managed to squeeze your…rather generous frame down that shaft, you let in the most oxygen that ever gets into this facility." The computer smiled cruelly.
"And I don't expect someone of your brain damaged intellect to understand that you need oxygen to survive and won't bother with the biology of it, but you do. Lucky for you I managed to switch it back on fast enough."
"You talk too much," Chell responded blatantly, crossing her arms. The insults never really got to her, but sometimes the AI could prattle on and on and the insults were only entertaining for so long. Chell fought back a smile as she watched the AI's face contort into a grimace once more.
"I think I preferred your primate imitations."
"What about my leg?"
"Ah," the AI said, almost happily, smiling down at what Chell assumed was her handiwork. "Failing to land on those highly expensive long fall boots resulted in a transverse femoral diaphysis. I did an open reduction and internal fixation procedure and I must say: it turned out beautifully." The AI ran her finger very gently down the side of the scar and Chell winced, even though it didn't hurt. GLaDOS looked up at her upon the wince. "Did I hurt you?"
Chell shook her head and the computer nodded slowly, as if disbelieving. "Well, needless to say, you broke the hardest bone in your body. This results in a longer recovery process. From my analysis, you will need about four and a half months of recovery. Oh, and you can't walk for at least two weeks."
"What?" Chell shouted, causing the AI to startle. "Two weeks down here! Are you crazy?"
"Is that a trick question?" the AI smirked.
Chell rolled her eyes and listened as GLaDOS continued. "And not just two weeks; four and a half months, as I've already stated. That's also assuming you don't suffer infection, as this facility isn't exactly sterile, and that the materials I found to suffice as internal fixators hold up. You could end up losing your leg. Whoops."
Chell exhaled deeply, glaring down at her leg and the robot took the initiative to continue. "Do you think I'm happy about it? I have to carry your whale-like body around, tend to your wounds, and do physical therapy. Why couldn't you have broken your neck and spared the both of us this trouble?"
"I wish I had," Chell mumbled under her breath and the AI found she did not have a response for that. Luckily, she didn't have to focus on it for long before Chell asked another question.
"What are you, an android?"
GLaDOS paused for a moment, then blinked quickly. "I'm proud of you, [Subject Name Here]. Android, or Gynoid, as some call the feminine form, is the correct terminology for what I am. I had no idea you knew more than monosyllabic words."
"Why?"
"Because you are a moron."
"No," Chell groaned, rubbing her temples, "Why are you an android?"
GLaDOS looked confused for a moment, her eyes following the length of Chell's body a time or two before she answered. "I was still in my chassis when you entered the Enrichment Center. I watched you. I thought it would be an interesting test to see how you acted in a minimal oxygenated environment. I hadn't expected you to fall over the railing, or to not catch yourself at the landing."
GLaDOS was silent then, as if in reflection. Chell furrowed her brow in impatience and watched as the AI blinked again and continued as if nothing happened. "Naturally, you ruined my data, as you always did, with your wound and bodily leaking. In order to maintain some of the data, I had to keep you alive. And I couldn't very well perform surgery with the large claws of my chassis, so I downloaded myself into the Artificial Intelligence Mobility Surrogate."
"You just…had that lying around?"
"The Artificial Intelligence Mobility Surrogate wasn't 'lying around.' The scientists downloaded the prototypes for a surrogate into my mainframe before I killed them. I created it on the off chance that the Enrichment Center was infiltrated. I'm sure that you of all people know how weak I am in that massive chassis."
Chell smiled at that, causing GLaDOS to narrow her eyes. "Oh yes, good times. Good times of you murdering me. Twice. You're a horrible person. I don't know why I saved you. I should have left you to bleed on that panel. The mess would have been easier to clean up too."
"Then why did you save me?" Chell asked, the hardness falling from around her eyes.
GLaDOS looked at the test subject before her. The dark ponytail and striking gray eyes were just as she remembered them all those years ago. "I thought you would be the perfect test subject to interact with the Artificial Intelligence Mobility Surrogate. Also, I'd like to test my handiwork at open reduction and internal fixation. You always were a remarkable test subject, [Subject Name Here]. After years of boredom you've now given me a litany of things to monitor. Just like the old days. Only I should hope you won't try to kill me."
"Chell."
"Cover your orifices when you sneeze. I've no desire to have any part of human liquids on me."
"No, my name is Chell. It's much easier to say than 'subject name here.'"
GLaDOS opened her mouth to answer, only to watch as the test subject laid back down and closed her eyes, falling asleep almost immediately. The AI sighed and placed a piece of gauze over the wound, preparing to tape it down. Truthfully, she had no idea what she was doing with…Chell. She didn't know why she was back, what she was here for, or why she really saved her. Thinking back on it, her response to that question was weak. She'd have to perfect for the next time Chell woke up.
Chell.