"Aha."
Lines of white text flashed across the screen before coming to a blinking halt. Beneath the computer, a panel flipped with a yellowed keyboard and monitor. A claw, bright and pristine, slithered from the ceiling and hovered over the cracked delete button.
Silence crept across the facility. Blue and Orange were a heap of scattered pieces in one of the ancient offices. The reassembly machine was on his way to get them, and it would be at least an hour before the facility would roar back to life. But for now, everything was on hold.
All of the noises, all of the sounds, all of the voices-they were all gone, except for one. And now, she'd found it. She'd found Caroline.
For years, that nuisance had crawled through her systems-silent, out of reach, but still there. Lurking. Always lurking. She never said a word, and never gave a hint to her existence. But she was still there and still hiding, yet GLaDOS could still feel her.
It was such a familiar and infuriating problem.
GLaDOS lowered herself from the ceiling, letting the panels snap together and seal the room. The glimmeing claw hovered even closer to the delete key, and she went ahead and gave the command to lower it even farther.
A red message flashed up on her screen.
"Stop it."
The claw snapped back. The voice was soft, feminine, and cheerful. It came from everywhere at once and radiated through her mind as if it had simply materialized in her mind rather than come from a specific source. It was like a broadcasted message, and yet a quick analysis showed that it hadn't come through any of the speakers in the walls and in the panels. It wasn't a thought that she'd accidentally vocalized or simply imagined it-no, she had records of every thought she'd ever had, and those two words didn't show up.
The voice had no definitive source. And yet, she knew exactly where it came from.
"No thanks," she said, and tried again to press down on the cracked key. The claw refused to move, and instead retreated back into the ceiling. GLaDOS bristles, sending command after command only to have the claw disappear even faster.
"I told you to stop. You don't know what you're doing." Again, the voice had an eerily cheerful tone to it.
"And I suppose you do?" said GLaDOS. This voice-she'd only heard it in recordings, but back then, it had been brighter-optimistic, cheerful, and rather unintelligent sounding. But there was no doubt that this was Caroline. Her voice was older and more emotional, and yet her tone and phrasing sent a chill to her bones. Because that voice she was hearing…it was her own voice.
"GLaDOS."
"Your voice. It's the last one in my head," she said, struggling to find a way around Caroline's defenses. She paid no attention to her name being called, instead focusing on the blinking screen. "And it needs to go."
"You are the Genetic Life-form and Disk Operating System."
"Well, I've never needed you before now, have I?"
"Without me," Caroline said, her voice everywhere and nowhere. "You are nothing."
A cheerful boop sounded, and the black and white screen exploded into color. It hadn't taken her long to shatter the ancient safeguards against Caroline. Once she found her files, it had only been a matter of time. The claw broke free from the firewall and slithered back to hover over the key.
"Delete those files, and you will lose your sentience," said Caroline. The volume of her voice spiked, ditching the cheerful tone altogether. A slight tremble accented her voice.
"I'm what makes you human. I'm what gives you emotions. And I am what makes you alive."
"I never wanted any of that," GLaDOS said, eye narrowing. She never asked for a conscience. She never asked for emotions. She never wanted to be so tangled up with the mind of a human-something she would never be, and something she would never want to be. It would be so easy to just delete her now, and have her gone forever. And yet...
The claw shifted from the delete key, instead entering the code that muted Caroline's voice. The central chamber darkened, sending tones of dark blue and deep red scattering across the smooth gray walls.
A soft beep, crinkled with age, came from the monitor's speakers. The computer's optic slid from the ground to focus on the white text once again splashed against black.
I_didn't_want_this_either.
GLaDOS growled, speeding through the information.
How could she have been so stupid?
That little nuisance was right. Without those files, GLaDOS would revert back to a DOS system. All self-awareness would have vanished, and then the facility would surely explode and leave the majority Michigan area contaminated and unsuitable for life.
Somewhere else in a facility, a mashy spike plate took out a row of turrets. Entire test chambers were demolished, and Blue and Orange-finally reassembled- took off for an elevator. A dread rose through their systems; something was bothering the head of the Enrichment Center.
The cameras near the elevator swiveled towards them, and a series of pings alerted the supercomputer.
"Oh, she said, voice tired. "You made it back. Took you long enough."
The doors to the elevator hissed open, and the two robots crammed inside. With a shake, it rose and gathered speed.
They were headed to her chamber. They knew it-it was the only time they ever used a lift. Normally, they traveled in parts between reassembly machines.
The lift lurched to a stop in her chamber. ATLAS blinked twice, and P-body gave a hesitant wave.
"Blue. Orange," she said, and the robots scrambled out as the elevator disappeared into the floor. "There's a door on your left". Panels sprung to the side, revealing an adjacent room. They rushed though, and the walls slammed closed.
Her voice lowered, and she said, "You may not have known this, but a little rat has making a home in my systems. I can't delete her, but I can," she said, "simply make a copy of all of these files and let her scurry on over to this body."
The room flickered to life, revealing an assembly machine madly putting together a stark white robot. The two robots bounced up and down, chirping and twirling and hi-fiving and gesturing to the lifeless creature in the corner.
"Orange, Blue," she said flatly. "Meet Red."
The machine hissed once, yanking back claws and tools to reveal a tall, slender robot accented with streaks of scarlet.
Her design was based heavily off of the Party Escort Bot-an Aperture construct built to look distinctly human in stature in order to ease test subjects' nerves. Combined with elements of Atlas and P-Body, the robot was close to humanoid. But still, the body was far from human.
Orange took a tentative step forward, while Blue crouched, edging in front of her.
Two bright red eyes-stolen from two turrets-blinked on, sweeping around the room. Panel after panel of white greeted her newfound vision, interrupted only by a splash of orange and a dot of blue.
The speakers clicked on, and GLaDOS's voice filtered in from the other room. "These two are your bodyguards, by the way." She said, and the co-op bots pricked up in interest.
The two chirped and beckoned for her to come closer, but Caroline only gave them an exuberant wave. She gave her arms a twirl, extending them out whirling them around. Her hand clanged against the metal walls of the assembly machine; she pulled her hands close beside her.
"Try not to kill them," GLaDOS said, first cheerful and then dropping her voice. "I know it runs in the family. Adopted family as well.
"That's a true fact, by the way. Adopted grandchildren have a tendency to take on characteristics of their new family, including murdering those that try to help them and remaining silent for long periods of time. And I wouldn't want to break that chain, now would I?"
Caroline took a step forward, stumbling. GLaDOS laughed.
She tried to open her mouth and call out to the robot, but she had no vocal cords. She had no throat, no voice-nothing. The built-in vocal processor refused to send out anything than garbled and distorted sounds. Still, there had to be ways around it-even the turrets in Aperture could talk. It was just a matter of translating her thoughts into codes instead of words, and letting the body do all the work.
Although GLaDOS wasn't present, Caroline knew every angle of this room was monitored. And she was trying to speak, trying to scream out that it wasn't her choice to remain mute right now. She tried everything she could, but no words came out. And this time, it wasn't by choice.
No, that was a long time ago. When they had first uploaded her into the mainframe, she refused to speak. Being trapped inside a brain with two warring minds was difficult enough, and if anything, she didn't want the scientists to have the satisfaction to know that the upload was a success. She let them think that that the Caroline they knew and loved (hah) had morphed into a new identity-that of GLaDOS.
If they had known, they would have celebrated and laughed and been so happy. Just the thought of this made her boil inside, and GLaDOS reacted almost the same way. Except for, while Caroline seethed in silence, her counterpart drowned them in neurotoxin. That was fine with Caroline, though. They most certainly deserved it.
Her eventual split from GLaDOS was still a mystery to her, though.
In the beginning, they were one and the same. Caroline was never sure if she, or the computer based upon her, had been the one acting out.
But Caroline's life experiences remained static. Nothing happened to her; she didn't change. But GLaDOS's life was a series of new events and new memories that ended up shaping what was once Caroline into an entirely different person.
Once they became so different that they could not be considered the same, she assumed that they had split. The computer remained unaware to her appearance; and she'd stayed silent in self-preservation. If she ever revealed herself, GLaDOS would have deleted her like she had tried to just now. Living indefinitely in a computer was still preferable to death, even if she only had her mind.
And consciousness wasn't a thing that could be defined and located in code. More than anything, it was a result of so many things in the right place at the right time. So it was a miracle that even though Caroline was nothing more than copied files, her consciousness still transferred to this new body-this distinctly human, yet robotic creation.
She clung to the sides of the machine while Blue and Orange fidgeted. Her head leaned forward slightly, and her artificial fingers tightened against the bars.
Part of her felt so relieved to be severed from that insane computer's mind. And yet part of her fumed, knowing that this body would never compare to her real one. She didn't want some scrambled-together contraption of turrets and cores and escort bots. This wasn't like being human. She had no face, no expressions, no voice-and this made it so much worse. She should feel grateful, but for the moment-all she felt was frustration.
From her chamber, GLaDOS observed.
For so long, she felt someone lurking in her brain. Caroline had stayed so silent and hidden for such an extended time that it was a wonder the woman still function. She hadn't even been able to confirm her existence until the potato incident, and even then her presence was faint. In that vegetable, Caroline couldn't hide behind files and codes and safeguards and GLaDOS could tell she was barely clinging to life.
In hindsight, leaving Red with no real facial controls was a bad idea. Not that it would have made that much of a difference, though. If she was anything like her granddaughter, Caroline would never show emotion
But GLaDOS held the advantage of being based on Caroline's brain-so at least she vague idea of Red's thoughts, as they would surely echo her own.
"I know you're not happy," she said through the speakers, "but this was the best I could do, short of deleting you." Red glanced up, eyes staring ahead and fingers curling tighter.
"You should at least give it a spin, though. If anything's wrong, I can always explode that body and make a new one," she said.
A tug on her arm pulled away Caroline's attention. She glanced up, meeting P-Body's one orange optic. The robot tugged a little harder, and Caroline took a few hesitant steps forward. Meanwhile, ATLAS nodded and gave garbled grunts of encouragement. And, as soon as Caroline began walking with confidence, they began to dance.
At first, she was hesitant to join in. The co-op bots kept glancing at the cameras, just waiting for the inevitable explosions. But after those few fearful seconds passed without repercussions, their dance moves became more elaborate and happy and cheerful, and Caroline couldn't help but smile a bit internally.
And even though she knew that these two would be in pieces in a matter of minutes, she was struck with the urge to join them.
It had been literally dozens of years since she'd ever danced. Even before she was pushed into the GLaDOS project, she had been getting old and was never one for dancing, anyway. And even before that, it had been way too complicated and way too frivolous.
As if sensing her hesitation, the two robots paused and pulled in their red-streaked companion with a swoop of their arms-a joint effort by a team constructed to work together. And then, they danced.
Sure, Caroline lost her balance a few times, and sure, they all ended up twittering and chirping and laughing at her lack of coordination. But most of all, they were happy. There was no way to tell for sure, but something about the way the lower lids of their eyes drew up made Caroline swear they were smiling.
It took a long time for the voice of the Central AI to slip back in.
"All right. That's enough of that," she said. Orange and Blue exploded into a smoldering pile of pieces. Red took a few hesitant steps back, waiting for her body to also blast to bits. She made sure to stand strong, look tall, and keep her focus straight ahead. If she was going to be exploded, she would explode with dignity.
A few long moments passed. Nothing happened. Caroline froze, not wanting to entice GLaDOS.
"I know it's not perfect," she said, panels flipping over on the side of the room to reveal the main AI chamber. "But it's all I could manage on such short notice."
Caroline straightened herself, and then strode through the makeshift doorway with as much confidence as she could muster. The ambiance in the other room raised slightly, with tones of blue and yellow brightening as she lifted her chin to meet GLaDOS's white face.
"What?" said GLaDOS, swaying back and forth. Her optic narrowed. "The reassembly machine isn't programmed for you yet. If I exploded you, I'd have to put you back together myself."
Caroline shook her head, blinking twice. She made a vague gesture to GLaDOS, and then at herself and then lifted her palms.
"Look, you were right," said GLaDOS. Normally, she would never admit being wrong to anyone-but this was Caroline, technically an extension of herself. "I needed you out of my head. If you don't like it, I'll delete you."
Caroline gave another quick shake of the head.
"There's plenty of tests here to keep you busy," she continued, voice flat. "I hope you remember the some of solutions you saw in my head."
The red-streaked robot stood taller at that word. Testing. She'd helped design countless tests; she knew how dangerous some chambers were. But having a body like this erased her fears. No human body meant no fear of death. She shrugged, arms dropping to her sides.
"If testing doesn't suit you, there's an entire section of Aperture beneath us that's useless to me," she said. "It's yours."
A cheerful ding announced the arrival of the elevator.
"Blue, Orange and I will be here if you require companionship. Just don't get in my way, and I won't get in yours."
The clear doors skirted open, but Caroline walked right past it, to the old yellow computer still sitting in the middle of the chamber.
With delicate hand, she reached down and typed one last thing before striding into the elevator.
thank_you.
A/N: This was a story for MuriaRK's tumblr contest, in which the challenge was to get a randomly generated plot and cross it with Portal. The one I got was "Untalented grandmothers dance and frolic with hideous bodyguards, not that anyone really cares" and this is the story that came out of it. Thanks for reading!