(defun botsbuiltbots () (botsbuildbots))

By GhostOfRattmann

Suddenly, there had been silence. They didn't know how long it lasted, for they had no concept of time, but it had been long enough for them to wonder whether she was ever coming back.

They hadn't really know what to do without her. She'd always been there, throughout their short existence, giving them orders and telling them exactly what to do. They did what she wanted them to, because that was all they knew. It was their very existence. But then she'd left them on their own.

"I'll be back," she had said."I just have something to... Take care of first."

And then she'd gone.

They had waited, played that human game 'rock, paper, scissors' that they had learnt, stacked cubes for fun, looked at the strange paintings on the walls. They waited and waited, but she still didn't come back.

Then there was a new voice. A different voice. It definitely wasn't her. He was strange and sometimes said and did things that she never would have. He didn't even know their names, but he told them to test, just like she had done.

He didn't really seem to know what he was doing, though. He had accidentally killed one of them once and panicked for several hours, before discovering the existence of the reassembly machine. He also had them run through several test chambers that she had already made them do, despite claiming that he had built them.

But he wasn't there all the time. He also didn't seem to know how to shut off the different area speakers, as they could often hear him talking to someone else. He even argued with them sometimes, whoever it was. Sometimes they wondered if it was her he was arguing with.

He also said he was going to kill someone, someone who was fat and adopted, apparently. Then there were lots of explosion and bangs and a loud whooshing noise like everything was being sucked into a hole. Whatever it was, it had cut off the connection. And then there was silence again.

And then, at last, she'd come back.

"What are you two standing around for?" She said suddenly, voice coming clear through the speakers as it had before, just like nothing had ever happened. "If it's not too much trouble, I want you both to come here. Now."

With a fresh burst of enthusiasm, they had hurried along the central chamber.

It was rather a mess. There were broken panels and bits of metal and debris everywhere, and something lying on the floor. A strange thing of orange and white and blue and black and a strange fleshy colour.

"Quickly," she had ordered them, sliding the door shut behind them. "Pick her up, both of you."

First of all, they weren't sure what 'her' was, but then they realised she meant the thing on the floor, so they went and grabbed hold of it.

"Carefully!" She snapped when they'd attempted to just drag it up by each holding one of the thing's strange limbs. They quickly adjusted their position to hold the thing more securely, both of them squealing in surprise when it moved slightly in their grip.

She ignored them, busy starting to reconstruct the wreck of a room as a circular floor panel off to the side slid open.

"Place her in the elevator," she ordered, just as the cylindrical glass chute arrived in the room.

They did as she asked, laying the thing down on the metal floor over the Aperture logo. As they stepped back, the door slid shut again, trapping the thing inside. They wondered whether it was dangerous.

She said nothing more to them, rebuilding the room silence. Eventually, they had taken to watching the thing as it moved every so often, it's strange features twitching, it's chest rising and falling.

Finally, the chamber was rebuilt and she looked over at them and the thing. Then she had turned away and merely waited.

And then the thing had woken up. It had looked at them as it climbed to it's feet and stood upright, turning to face her as they scurried aside. She seemed to have almost forgotten about them. She was talking to the thing.

Then the elevator had started to move, taking the strange creature with it. She told it not to come back.

For a long time after it had gone, she said nothing while they had stood together, exchanging anxious glances.

Eventually, Atlas had stepped forward, raising one arm and waving at her.

She recoiled slightly, as if in surprise, before turning her full attention to them. P-Body made a noise as if to ask whether she was okay.

She had seemed to sigh. "Yes, Orange, I'm fine. Now, let's get back to work."