Chapter 1: Return To Aperture
"Oh thank god, you're alright. You know, being Caroline taught me a valuable lesson. I thought you were my greatest enemy when all along you were my best friend. The surge of emotion that shot through me when I saved your life taught me an even more valuable lesson: where Caroline lives in my brain. Goodbye Caroline. You know, deleting Caroline just now taught me a valuable lesson. The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one. And I'll be honest. Killing you is hard. You know what my days used to be like? I just tested. Nobody murdered me or put me in a potato or fed me to birds. I had a pretty good life. And then you showed up. You dangerous mute lunatic. So you know what? You win. Just go. It's been fun. Don't come back." GLaDOS was speaking as Chell was being brought up in an elevator to the surface of Michigan, away from Aperture Science.
Everywhere she would look, turrets could be seen, but they weren't firing their bullets at her. Instead, they were doing something much different. They were singing. Opera. Something about "My darling child" but it was hard to understand Italian. As the music got quiter, a strand of light could be seen behind a door. Chell opened it and soon light was flooding every direction she looked at.
She stepped out and looked behind her to notice that she had only come out of a tiny shed. Then, she heard a noise coming out of the shed. The door opened and the companion cube came bursting out of it. It looked burned, as if it were incinerated...Chell continued looking around and noticed that all could be seen was sky, the companion cube, and wheat fields.
Everything looked and felt so real! The sunlight, the non-reusable air! But something was wrong. Nobody was around. Chell tried grabbing her companion cube but then realized that she didn't have her portal gun anymore to help her pick things up. She would have to use her hands to hold something for the first time ever other than a portal gun. She walked forward and stuck her arms out. It hurt a bit to not have her arms in that bent position holding a portal gun but she made it work and managed to get a grip on the companion cube.
There was really nowhere to go so she decided to run forward. Chell literally ran for hours with her companion cube at her side but still no sign of civilization. Only wheat fields. Even with all her fitness she had gotten at Aperture, it was too much. She decided to take a rest. She laid down on the wheat fields and looked straight up at the beautiful sky. She was going to make pictures out of clouds.
After staring at the sky for a few minutes, Chell notice something. She felt the wind but, the clouds weren't moving. It was as if the sky was frozen in time. Chell turned around and saw the shed right behind her. Even with her hours of running, she hadn't gotten anywhere! Something had to be up. Chell grabbed her companion cube once more and opened up the shed.
The elevator was gone but the passageway was still there. Now was the perfect time to use her long fall boots once more. She jumped and let herself fall until she hit the ground. She was back in the room with GLaDOS "Did I not just tell you to never come back? Well, I guess now that you are here, we can continue testing because it appears you really like it." Chell moved one of her robotic cranes and pulled out a portal gun. It handed it to Chell. Suddenly, the floor below Chell opened up and she fell straight down it.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the depths of space...
"Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!" said the Space Core who was still circling around Wheatley. "For the LAST TIME, I KNOW YOU'RE IN SPACE! Just calm down and get over it, lad!" said Wheatley, tired of constantly having to here the Space Core's constant love for space. The Space Core continued but this time it was saying something different "Home. Wanna go home. Wanna go to Earth. Earth, Earth, Earth, Earth, Earth. Space too big. Wanna go home. Wanna go to Earth." The Space Core began floating back in the direction of Earth. "Wait, you can FLY in space! We could have gone home this entire time! Well then again, I guess I could have guessed it by you orbiting me this whole time..." said Wheatley in amazement. "Moron." The Space Core said out loud by accident. Now Wheatley was mad. Nobody called him a moron! "What did you just say?" Wheatley asked in a very direct and angry voice. "Uhh, Space?" the Space Core responded. The Space Core got right behind Wheatley and then rammed right into him making him float forward towards Earth. "Aperture Laboratories, here I come!" yelled out Wheatley. The Space Core followed behind. It wouldn't be long now...