A/N So I know that the Half-Life and Portal universes are essentially the same, and the Black Mesa Incident did occur, but has very minor impact on this story. There is no Combine invasion in this story. However, the world is less populated, has less advanced technology, and has smaller cities. Just thought it would be helpful to know that when reading. I hope you enjoy!

I was about ready to die, if it was at all possible for a robot to die. Space had not improved in the several months that I had been stranded, and the Space Core was still excited about space. I could put myself in Sleep Mode, but it didn't make me feel any better or do anything to improve the situation. It was either quiet, lonely self-loathing or self-loathing with annoying accompaniment, and neither option was a very good one. I wished every day that I could go back and fix my mistakes, imagining scenarios about what I could have done and what could have happened had Chell and I escaped. I barely noticed the scenery around me, all those dizzying stars and the intimating Moon. I even missed the quickly approaching figure of the Earth. That is, until I was plummeting towards it, faster and faster, engulfed in flames, with the ground coming up to meet me. Then I fell into a world of yellow and everything went black.

I felt a sort of disorienting pain. There were a couple of clicking noises, and then it was black again.

I woke up in the Relaxation Vault. I felt weird, as if my entire body had been stretched out and hung to dry. I just lay there for a moment before I tried to see if I could move. Somehow, I ended up rolling off the bed and onto the floor. My body hurt worse and I felt liquid on my face. I groaned and sat up. Then I froze. I slowly raised my hands. I had hands. That had fingers. Those fingers could move. I stood and up and ran to a mirror on a nearby wall. I gasped at what I saw. There was a man standing there, with a disarray of dirty blonde hair and pale skin, wearing a gray jumpsuit with a white Aperture Science tank top and a pair of Long Fall Boots, like Chell had worn. The only unnatural thing about him was his startling bright blue eyes. My eyes. I was human. But I wasn't. I couldn't possibly have gone from machine to human just like that. "Hello, you monster." I jumped. GLaDOS had sounded as if she was right next to me. I looked around and saw vital testing apparatus on the walls. So at least I knew that she was monitoring me and my every move. "What did you do to me?!" I screamed. There was silence for a few moments, and I assumed she was ignoring me. Then, "I was experimenting." Experimenting? "Experimenting?" I asked. "I was trying to recreate the human body. I just needed a subject to try it out on. And then you showed up. So that was fortunate." Okay. So maybe I actually was human. Now what? Did she just expect to keep me here forever? "I rather enjoy watching your puny mind struggle in its weak thought processes, but we have testing to do." The door swung upon to reveal a long hallway ending with an elevator. I paused. "Aren't you afraid that I'll destroy the facility?" I asked. "That's where the neurotoxin comes in." She replies ominously. I take a deep breath. I look back at the small room. I tentatively take my first steps into the facility. The door swings shut behind me, and I'm left in darkness.