[AN: This is a result of a sleepless night ad ideas given to me before I fall asleep. That's right, you heard me; this is an idea consumed at 4 in the morning! Enjoy, and remember, if you review, you save a Turret from redemption!
I don't own anything Portal, only my fluffy Companion Cube plush. Valve owns the real thing, not me.]
The sun blazed angrily as Chell trudged through the wheat field. Her Long Fall boots pressed softly into the soil beneath her, adding small indents in the already creased line of the Companion Cube. She pushed the box ahead of her, creating a path for her to walk clearly. The stocks of wheat bent ad tore from the weight of the cube, either lying flat into the ground or simply moving along with the object. The clouds in the sky had nearly vanished, leaving Chell under the merciless strength of the sun. It seemed to burn hotter with every step she took; as if she should regret leaving the cool space of Aperture. Moron, it said, turn back while you're still alive. Retreat to the safety of the facility.
Chell couldn't help but laugh aloud; safety of the facility? That place was more dangerous than anything. Then how is it I'm the one killing you instead of the facility? The sun questioned, echoing in her head. Was she really dying? She didn't feel any more than hot and a bit fatigued. She stopped pushing the box, walking a bit past it with a straight back. There didn't look to be an end to this field. She could very well die of hunger or thirst within the next few days. Her throat burned at the thought of water. Her chapped lips twisted into a frown; she needed water. She looked all around for anything; a building, any trees, a break in the field where a stream might be. Nothing but wheat; Chell sighed.
She held her hand to her forehead, finally feeling the strain of the sun mixed with dehydration and possible Moon-rock poisoning. Her head throbbed lightly, claiming the beginning of a headache. Each throb grew stronger and heavier; sound began to dull out, as if she were underwater. Her vision began to fade, blackness taking over. She's had this happen before; not nearly as strong, just a short moment of light-headedness. Usually she ignored it; like when she first heard the promise of cake, or when she met Wheatley, or when they saw that painted portrait of Caroline and Cave Johnson. Although, all of them combined couldn't hold a candle to the strength of this moment. She held her head with both hands, hoping this feeling would pass before she fell unconscious. She closed her eyes, and immediately upon doing so, she heard a voice she so desperately did not want to hear.
"Are you still there?" A childish voice rang in the distance. Chell's eyes snapped open and she looked around for the enemy. There was none; just her and her Companion Cube. But still, the voices spoke, sounding from a distance.
"Where are you?" The voice asked again, accompanied by an even more horrifying voice.
"She's still here, just asleep," GLaDOS said softly, although the fact that she said it so peacefully made it all the more unnerving. Chell spun around again and again, searching frantically for the voices. She was beginning to panic; was she really losing her mind? After so many years underground and she's fine, but the moment she's free she goes crazy. That didn't seem right. It wasn't fair.
"Go…" The AI said, muttering something afterwards too quietly for Chell to hear. She began to spin and turn quickly, looking for the disembodied voices. Once upon her panicky search, a wheat stalk twisted around her boot, bringing Chell to fall forward, slamming her temple into the corner of the cube. Immediately she was engulfed by darkness.
A soft tune played quietly, hardly audible, but audible nonetheless. It chimed peacefully, taking sound of a music box. Chell couldn't tell what the song was, but the tune sounded familiar. She tried to remember, but quickly gave up; her head was spinning and throbbing. Blackness still surrounded her, accompanied by a strong feeling of dizziness and numbness. Although, Chell no longer tried to wake up, being exhausted from everything she's been through. What was that, exactly? She struggled to regain memory of what happened; where she was; who she was. Okay, she thought to herself, I was somewhere hot, I was scared, and I heard voices… That seemed like a decent place to start. Voices, she pondered, what did they sound like? Then, as if on cue, she heard someone speak.
"Are you coming back?" A child asked, sounding curious and fearful.
"Of course, sweetie…" A woman replied surely, but it was easy to tell she was worried. They both sounded so familiar…
"Do you know who I am?" A man asked in the background, sounding aggravated, "I can sue you if anything happens to her."
"Sir, we can't do anything more than wait. We've been through this for months; we can't do anything but wait." A woman replied, stressing her words, as if talking to a child. The man sighed and spoke, though this time much closer,
"Caroline, I'm going to get lunch with the twins. We'll be back soon." He said, which prompted a quiet "okay" from the woman, who was supposedly Caroline.
Caroline…Caroline…Caroline…Why do I know this woman? Chell thought. Instantly her mind went back to some old building; full of machinery and tubes. She was holding something…some kind of gun, with a fruit attached to it? No…no, a potato! A gun with a potato attached to it. Somehow the potato was talking, repeating the same line Chell just had.
Why do I know this woman? Did I kill her, or—Oh my God…Look, do you think you can handle things here on you own for a while? I need to think. The potato said, leaving Chell standing in front of three levers. Pulling each one, a different colored liquid came from a different tube, covering the floors and walls with orange, blue and white…She went out and shot the gun at the ceiling, where some white liquid was splattered. She turned and shot at a wall to her left. Immediately a hole appeared, showing the rail on the other side. Chell simply went through the hold and fell onto the rail. She jumped off the rail, much too high to fall from without getting hurt. But she was fine…She jumped down, landed on the blue liquid, and shot right back up to the same height she fell from.
What was that? What were the gel-like substances? What was that gun, and how did it allow her to teleport? Chell wondered, searching the darkness for any hint to her past. Everything was so familiar, it was driving her crazy that she didn't know. That is, until another voice spoke.
There was a faint knocking sound, followed by a cheery voice. "It's bloody hot outside, inn'it?" He asked brightly. Instantly, Chell knew who it was. And the moment she recognized him, everything came back, hitting her like a bowling ball to the face. Suddenly millions of images flooded her mind, filling her head with Portals and Turrets, and a playful blue Core, and the menacing AI she had tried so hard to get away from. The memories came back so fast it hurt her head, and she would have winced if she was aware of her body.
The woman hummed quietly in response, sounding dazed. A sigh came from afar, probably from the Brit, and movement occurred. Chell heard footsteps, growing louder with each step, finally ending to her left. It was silent for a minute, neither of the two talking, leaving Chell alone in her quiet darkness. She waited, wanting to hear his voice again, wanting to hear him beside her and know he was safe with her rather than in the infinite abyss of cold. She wanted desperately to speak; to apologize, to make things better between them. She missed the old Wheatley; she missed her friend.
Suddenly she felt something, sending shocks through her. A light, warm touch made her aware of her left hand. The jolts of the touch surged through her, awakening the nerves in her arm, then her chest and neck, then her legs and head and everything in between. She was aware of several things; the warmth in her left hand, a similar warmth in her right hand, a very light breeze blowing across her face, cooling her head for a moment. Automatically she was calm; a cool breeze after hours of walking in the field felt nice. She enjoyed it so much she almost forgot about her company.
"I'm sorry," Wheatley muttered, "I wish I could have been there." He sighed, "Look, I don't know if you can hear me, or something, but," He breathed a short, nervous chuckle, "I would really love to see your eyes again. Or…hear your voice…"
Chell tried so hard to find her voice, if she had one at all, but came to no avail. She couldn't open her eyes, her eyelids were to heavy; she was still extremely groggy from passing out. There was nothing she could do…but….she could feel. She was aware of her hands, of her fingers; of the fingers interlocked with hers. Instantly, she focused on moving her thumb. She concentrated and put all of her conscious effort into that one little motion; it was so simple, yet so difficult. She mentally frowned. Why was this so challenging? It was so easy! Just move your thumb! She screamed in her head, it's a simple task! You've done hundreds of tests meant for scientists and astronauts; you can do a simple task such as twitching your thumb!
Finally, after several minutes of determination and extremely tiring work, she managed to get control of her thumb, and then her index finger, all the way up to her hand. The instant she could control it, she tightened her grip on the hand to her left. A quiet gasp broke through on her right, and the grip on her right hand tightened. It was silent for a minute, until the two finally breathed.
"Chell," Wheatley asked carefully, so full of hope. Upon hearing his voice, she wanted even more to be able to speak, or at least to open her eyes and see him; and see how on Earth he's holding her hand. Lucky for her, as soon as he spoke, and thanks to the hard work of moving her hand, her senses came to life. She could hear beeps and footsteps in the background; people talking somewhere away. The blackness was replaced by a dimmed whiteness. Immediately her drowsiness cleared some; just enough to give her the strength to open her eyes. What she saw shocked her.
Sitting to her left was a young man; wavy auburn hair, styled messily with bedhead; bright blue eyes, glowing even brighter with joy; and a cute, awkward smile, enhancing the excitement he felt. His smile turned to a grin, "Good morning, luv," he said cheerily. Chell smiled groggily at the boy, turning to look to her right. Now, that surprised her. The woman that sat beside her looked exactly like the woman in the painting. She smiled and lightly brushed hair out of Chell's face.
Chell looked confused now, glancing around the room she was in. It was a white room with windows to her right; blinds shut to block out light. To her left sat an IV, and to her right sat a heart monitor. She looked around the room , and then back at the woman beside her.
"W-where...A-am…I?" She stuttered, her voice hoarse. The woman smiled lovingly,
"You're at the hospital," She replied soothingly, as if the word would send Chell into a panic attack.
She furrowed her brows, "Why?" The dark-haired woman pursed her lips a little. The Brit beside Chell cleared his throat,
"Why don't you ask the nurse, she probably knows more than us…" He muttered. The woman sighed, "She should be coming back soon. So should your father."
Chell slightly nodded, giving a short hum and letting her eyes wander to the ceiling. Everything was so confusing now. One moment she's in a wheat field, after escaping the facility where Wheatley had gone mad with power, GLaDOS was apparently Caroline, and everyone was a robot; the next moment she's waking up in a hospital where Wheatley is his normal sweet self, and human, Caroline is no longer GLaDOS, and she's human, and she has parents. Was this a dream? Or was she dreaming all along? No, that couldn't be it; everything was so real, and she's been living in it for years upon years. A dream couldn't last for years, could it? Nor could it be so real. Honestly, when she left the facility, she had burns on her right arm, a huge gash on her left leg, and several cuts, burns and bruises. She looked at her arm, finding no burn marks. Her leg was fine and there were no wounds on her body, aside from a small scratch on her forearm. Although, her head hurt, specifically her temple, where she fell into the cube. So…what? Was she found in the field and taken to a hospital? That still doesn't explain the sudden healing of her wounds, and the human Wheatley and living Caroline.
Just when Chell needed the answers most, a doctor walked in and smiled at her, "Well, it's good to see you're awake. How do you feel?"
Chell took a moment to think of an answer, but simply ignored it and asked her number one question, "What happened?"
The doctor smiled again and glanced to the chart in her hand. She walked a little closer to the bed and looked at her chart, "You hit your head pretty hard. You fell and hit your head against the side of a desk at your college. The impact knocked you out. On the way to the emergency room, you had a stroke, which sent you into a coma. You've been in the coma for about seven months."
Chell stared at the doctor in disbelief. All of that happened? She was in a coma? So, everything was a dream; all of the Turrets and homicidal AI's, all made up? But, it seemed so real…Wheatley was there, GLaDOS was there…they weren't just figments of her imagination, they were real. She heard them, she saw them, she felt their metal surfaces. She felt the pain whenever she got shot by a Turret. She experienced being sucked through a portal, into space, almost lost in darkness forever. It couldn't be fake.
The pressure on her left hand increased and Chell looked over to Wheatley. He had an apologetic look, "I should have been there; I shouldn't have left. I'm sorry." She blinked and looked at him, completely unsure of everything. The doctor cleared her throat,
"The concussion could have resulted in some brain damage; whether it is inability to move completely, or speak using full sentences, or memory loss. What's the last thing you remember before waking up?"
What's the last thing I remember? She pursed her lips, Well, I was being tested by an evil homicidal robot, she wanted to kill me. Oh, and this boy sitting next to me was a core that took over the facility and became raving mad and tried killing me. And don't forget the Turrets. She frowned. She couldn't remember anything besides the facility, and if she were to talk about that they would think she was crazy. With that, she shook her head, "Nothing…"
The two adults by her sides sighed, and the doctor nodded, "Well, then you have a bit of catching up to do. I'll let you talk with your family for a while, I'll come back to check on you soon." She smiled kindly and left the room, leaving Chell with the two people she was never expecting to see again. She looked at Wheatley, whose smile was now twisted into a frown, and then she looked at the woman to her right, who wore an even more heartbreaking expression. Chell sighed and cleared her throat, wincing at the dryness, "Who's first?"
The two looked at each other and Wheatley nodded to Caroline. She looked at Chell and started off since the very beginning. She talked nearly nonstop, from birth all the way up to her twentieth birthday, which was the last birthday she had. Chell listened carefully, with each bit of information bringing a new memory to her mind. Specific memories made Chell nearly spring off of the bed with excitement; like the Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, and the bedtime stories her father would tell her about a fictional character named Rattman; a test subject that escaped from the experiments and lived in the vents of the facility. Every time she heard something like that, reality and her "other" reality clicked, bringing sense to so many things. Chell learned that Caroline, the woman in front of her, was her mother, and her father was a man named Calvin Johnson, being nicknamed "Cave" by coworkers because he always took Chell and his family on road trips, exploring caves and forests. She had a little brother named Terry, who was extremely fascinated by Greek mythology (so much, in fact, that he begged until they named their pet bird Prometheus), and he had a twin sister named Tawny, who loved to play games like Hide-and-Seek.
Chell grew more and more fascinated by her life, and how it connected with her life at Aperture. It was amazing. Her mother was happy that she was so excited about her life; her smile grew to a grin as she went on talking. A smile formed on Chell's lips as well, which also grew bigger as the story went on. The young adult acted like a child watching a magic show, grinning at times and gasping at others. She listened with intense focus, yet her focus was very easy to slip away at certain things being said, like when she tried selling lemonade, or when Caroline forgot to buy a birthday cake for Chell's tenth birthday. The way Caroline spoke, it seemed it was an endless story, but finally she stopped, twisting her lips into a frown and stating she had no more memories, but adding that they did have home videos. When she finished, Chell breathed a laugh, amazed at how everything related. Her thoughts were interrupted by a quiet cough to her left. She turned towards Wheatley, remembering one vague comment her mother made about when Wheatley "ruined" her birthday by tripping into her cake.
She smiled at him, "What's your story?"
The man smiled back, "It doesn't go as far back as your mum's, but still a while. Close to her story, but not quite. We've known each other since first grade. The moment I saw you, I had to be your friend. But, you didn't like me! Not at all, you thought I was a moron. For years you mocked me, calling me a moron and stupid. I didn't like it, but I couldn't ever get mad at you. Not really. Around fourth grade you matured a bit- not saying you weren't mature! You were mature. Very smart. Very mature…I meant…you were nice and became my friend." He paused, smiling at some memory, "You know, my name isn't even Wheatley. It's Pendleton Ley – One reason you made fun of me, actually," He blushed lightly. Chell couldn't help but smile at him. He continued, "But my dad owned a farm, including a wheat field, so you gave me the nickname Wheat Ley. The name spread, and now I'm known as Wheatley, thanks to you." At that, Chell chuckled, proud that she had influenced the tow to call him by his nickname. Wheatley smiled at her, silently admiring her laugh before continuing.
His story had fewer memory triggers of Aperture, but still it brought new memories of her new life- or old life. Wheatley's story was more comical than Caroline's, but that was mostly because he kept stumbling over words or just babbled endlessly and went to different stories. Nevertheless, Chell enjoyed every minute of it, but it was coming to an end, and she knew it. The boy sighed lightly and looked at Chell's hand, "And since then I knew you were the one…We've been dating for nearly three years now." He laughed once, his cheeks and ears turning red, "I left for England to visit my brother and mum, that's when your mum called me about what happened. I rushed down, before I could really get anything I wasn't planning done over there, besides one thing."
He glanced up to Chell, his bright blue eyes sparkling in the florescent light. His lips tightened, seeming nervous about something. The way he looked, added to what he said and how he said it, made Chell nervous as well. It was a kind of nervous that she got when she was leaving Aperture; she wanted it, but she was cautious about it. He smiled and took a breath, looking at Chell. Immediately, two kids, seeming about ten or eleven, ran in; the girl following the boy.
She tapped his arm, "Gotcha!"
The boy stopped and smiled, catching his breath from the run. The sudden burst in made Chell jump, nearly falling off the bed; Wheatley was quick enough to catch her before any cords were pulled. The two kids stopped and looked at Chell, eyes wide and grins even wider. They ran up to the bed and gave a pathetic hug around Chell's body,
"You're back!" They sang, so full of excitement that Chell couldn't help but smile. Terry jumped excitedly, "Prometheus missed you!"
Wheatley shook his head, "That bird is evil-"
"No he's not-"
"Yes! He hates me. He really doesn't like me. He's evil." Wheatley argued with the kid. Caroline stopped them before they got to loud.
Once they both shut up, a tall man with dark brown hair walked in, stopping momentarily when he saw Chell, but quickly composed himself and went to her with a smile. He rubbed Chell's hand, which Wheatley let go of, and spoke, "How do you feel?"
She muttered something about being attacked by homicidal AI's, but quickly shook her head, wincing when her head throbs, "Tired." Her parents nodded, kissed her head, and led her siblings out of the room. Wheatley stood up, twirling something in his hand. Chell looked over to him, "What's that?"
He jumped and held his hand behind his back, "Nothing. It's nothing," He gulped lightly, "Just a…ah, just a ball of fuzz I found in my pocket. That's all…" He smiled nervously, his cheeks red. Chell simply nodded and closed her eyes, too tired to argue with him. Besides, she liked it when he tried to lie; it was cute to see him panic and think she fell for his excuse.
He moved ad Chell opened her eyes, remembering he was going to say something before the kids ran in. She reached out and took his hand, "Wait, what were you going to say earlier?"
The Brit shook his head, "I'll ask later. Get some rest." Chell nodded and closed her eyes again. Wheatley leaned down and kissed her head, and then, without warning for either of them, Chell tilted her head up and kissed him. The boy smiled when her heart rate sped up, and stepped away from the dazed girl. "Get some sleep, luv. I'll come back tomorrow," He said, giving one last peck before leaving the room.
Chell lay in her bed, both shocked by the fact that she just kissed him, and excited that he kissed back. She leaned back again, trying to relax as best as she could, but in the end she was so excited that she couldn't calm down, let alone sleep. She couldn't believe it; she was really, finally free from Aperture Laboratories. That place didn't even exist! The facility didn't exist; the Turrets didn't exist; GLaDOS didn't exist. None of it was real. It was all just a dream. Chell smiled, the thought finally getting her muscles to relax; she was free; it was just a dream.
The music box to her right played the same song the Turrets sang when Chell left Aperture. She drifted into sleep with the final thought: It was just a dream.
[AN: I know, long one-shot (7 pages on my word document to be exact). I don't know if I ended it well, it seems choppy, but oh well. Please review! Shine light on this story; tell me how it is! If you do, I'll be sure to read and review at least one of your stories. And it saves Turrets from redemption! Do it for the Turrets! And, if you do, you'll even get to keep the Turret you save!]