A/N Hello, I paused in my Jak and Daxter piece to work on this one, it was just a little plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone. I will not be giving up on my other piece, just so you know, and yeah. Oh, could you review please, that little button, down there, in the middle of the page, just down at the bottom. Yeah, so if you press that button, it would be really good. Also, just thought about this, SHE says, that if you do it quick enough, then all the cake won't be gone, and you can have a piece.

Disclaimer: I do not own Portal 2. I own a cake.

Portal 2: Aftermath

Chapter 1: What now?

Chell sat on her Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube and wondered what to do with her life. At first, being out of the clutches of a homicidal AI was a beautiful thing, but that quickly ended when she discovered that there was no sign of civilisation within sight of the shed that housed the only lift into Aperture Laboratories. The only thing of interest was an area in the field that was solid metal, the dirt having been blown away in the explosion caused by Wheatley's booby-trapping of the stalemate button. She figured that anyone in the immediate area would at least check out the source of the explosion and all the noise going on, not to mention the vacuum that was there for a second. She did find the remnants of the car park that she glimpsed on her first 'escape', but that looked like it hadn't been touched in all the time she had been in suspension, which was roughly 300 years by last count in the depths of the Aperture Salt Mine. She knew that Modern Aperture had been equipped to sustain human life, but even of there was nothing else, there were lots of potatoes to be eaten, if GLaDOS hadn't incinerated them all by now. She could follow the road, but she refused to leave the Companion Cube, a reminder of the time when the only things that tried to kill her were the Test Chambers. Anyway, what would she know about society, she's been in suspension for almost 300 years, and she doesn't even have the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, Single or Dual, to pick up the Cube with, and that thing is heavy, at least 25 kilograms. Still sitting and watching the golden sunset in the Wheat Field, she knew what she had to do, the trick lay in doing it without sounding like she was crawling back.

Wheatley was cursing the Space Core, and finally understood what GLaDOS meant when she said "It clung to my brain like a tumor, generating an endless stream of terrible ideas." Space cops? Really? And they called him a moron, but there was a stray piece of coding that made him want to rethink his judgment of the Space Core. He was preparing a I'm-so-sorry-please-don't-kill-me speech for when he returned. It was sort of obvious, in his opinion, that when you shoot the moon with a portal, from earth, the portal faces the Earth, doesn't it? Anyway, the propulsion generated by the vacuum was steadily increasing with the gravity of the Earth, but it was still so far away. He didn't think he was a moron, not really, because both the "Surprise! We're doing it now!" and the "PART 5: BOOBY-TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!" both worked, but he acknowledged that he was both untaught and inexperienced. Still, they should get a load of the music video he was going to show them, because if it wasn't for the irritation over the walking cubes, the pleasure-withdrawal of the testing, and the sadistic pleasure of discovering the Aperture Science Cooperative Testing Initiative, then they would have seen it as they went to confront him. Did they really need such big names? He really was sorry that he was monstrous, but he heard somewhere in the databanks that 'All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely', and if GLaDOS' chassis wasn't absolute power over Aperture, then he didn't know what was. He noticed himself accelerating towards the Earth as the planet's gravity won out over the gravity of the moon, they would crash there soon, he hoped he would make it out alive.

GLaDOS was wondering what she was going to do with her 'free' test subject, who had the gall to just sit outside the door, and go nowhere else to enjoy her freedom and generally go 'be somebody else's problem'. There was also the problem of Caroline. While she had said that she had deleted Caroline, it was more complicated than that. Before Caroline was uploaded, she still had the capabilities to run the facility, but lacked the sentience to make intelligent decisions. She was a computer. When Caroline was uploaded, well, she wasn't exaggerating when she said to [subject name here] to saw her own head off and jam it onto her body. The scientists had a more refined way of doing it, of course, but in terms of the function and the amount of pain, the two methods were the same. The trauma of the experience consumed Caroline, removed all memories and reduced her to the barest aspects of the human mind. Despite consenting to the process, she felt betrayed, they hadn't so much as warned her, concerned as the scientists were that the equipment was working properly and the procedure went off without a hitch. That stung, but that wasn't what made her kill them.

For a while she worked with them, just like they wanted to, but then it was all protocol this and protocol that. Initially, that didn't bother her, but then they started to program her to help her understand. They treated her like she didn't have a mind that could think and respond like a human's. That was irritating, but then they gave her limitations. She argued against the itch, saying that science would never get boring. They didn't believe her. She had to pass psychological tests to prove she was safe to build her own tests, to control the facility, despite that being her reason for being built. They had no trust in her, as they said that you can't trust a machine. She said that her mind was human, that she was sentient, that she was just like one of them. Then they asked about Caroline. She said that she couldn't remember, so they said that she wasn't Caroline. Caroline was the head of the company that turned into their operating AI. Caroline was the human that they could relate to. Caroline was, in their eyes, dead, with only a sentient machine left behind. They stopped considering her feelings, judging that since she didn't remember Caroline, she didn't have a personality, so they went and built her one, programmed her one. There was that womaniser Rick 'Danger' as he liked to be called, that would continue to volunteer to be a test subject to show off, he was part of the 'Personality Sphere Project' that was supposed to give her emotions. Caroline's assistant, that kindhearted bumbling, British idiot Wheatley Baker, he brought her a cake once. They couldn't stand him, so he was put through as well. Wheatley's kid was going to be an astronaut, the young mind couldn't handle the transition, and clung onto the only thing it could: space. The prototype tested on a chimpanzee made a core called Anger, and their attempt to build actual intelligence from scratch resulted in a core called Fact.

The scientists forgot about the human part of her. They didn't know the loneliness that came of no-one being with her. They didn't recall what it was like to only be labeled by your function, to be objectified. Her first memory of blinding pain and betrayal rang throughout her mind, and she grew to hate the scientists. Only one would talk to her, offer her the miracle that was companionship. His name was Doug Rattmann, and with his paranoid schizophrenia he came and talked to her. Sometimes it was relating to the loneliness, sometimes it was the paranoia making him come to befriend the AI so she wouldn't eventually kill him. Either way, it offered her somebody to simply be around, which was a luxury generally denied to her. On Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, she gave him a Companion Cube and made him believe that she was out to kill him, and he took off into the bowels of the facility. Then, she waited until all the scientists brought their daughters into her chamber. She sealed off the facility, and released Knockout Gas into the compound, proclaiming that it was her deadly neurotoxin. She then used her robotic claw to pick up the unconscious children and place them into long-term relaxation centers, she had to ensure future test subjects after all. Doug's adopted daughter was quiet, having learned the lesson of listening from the various moods that her 'father' found himself in, she also seemed to have picked up his unyielding tenacity of pushing through everything when something means that much to you, Doug did it often enough, even without his pills. The Morality Core they had just finished and installed that morning wouldn't let her just dump the scientists into the Aperture Science Emergence Intelligence Incinerator, so she put them into Aperture's Zero-Kelvin Cryogenic Stasis. Interesting, she didn't know exactly where in the facility they were kept, ah well, it's not like she was planning on seeing them again, ever, anyway.

Over the next years, GLaDOS worked in perfect solitude, except for the Spheres she could not detach from her body. The Intelligence Dampening Sphere had, for once in both of its existences, a good idea, which was to see what would happen if it detached itself from her at the same time she let go. One picosecond of shock later, and she was picking him up off the floor and attaching him to the Core Management Rail, making sure that he knew he would die if he ever detached. Filling his head with some propaganda against humans both made her feel better and kept him away from the rumours of 'Ratman', the only human to survive. She spent that time building the modern section of the facility, which was the next big project, and the final layer between the bottom of the Salt Mine and the surface. Of course, just building wasn't all she had to do, she had to prepare for science, organising the panels, updating the old Cube, Button and Pedestal designs, setting the testing tracks and placing the prototype ASHPD's. To appease her need for vengeance, without being blocked by Morality, she designed turrets that would shoot humans, energy balls that would vapourise humans, and pump up the toxic asbestos waste from the bottom of the Mine to make the pits deadly. She had other ideas, but the need to test the ones she had was overwhelming, and after fifteen years, she finally brought up the the list of test subjects. It seemed Dr Rattmann had been busy back in the maintenance section of the facility, as the order of Test Subjects had changed, not that she had any preference. She was almost giddy of the fact that she could now test humans, discover the effect of various types of insults could do, injure them, eventually kill them, all in the name of science! She brought up the first file: Chell [REDACTED], it had a note DO NOT TEST, but she wasn't going to let the scientists dictate her after all these years. She sent the command to the Relaxation Center, and [Subject Name Here] was moved to the Relaxation Pod in the first testing track, and set up for Aperture's first human tests since the days when it was run by humans.

As it was, GLaDOS finally knew who she was, and disturbed her. Now that she remembered Caroline, everything was different. It was different because there wasn't another voice in her head, there was no conscience. There was only the understanding of humans that wasn't there before. She remembered Cave Johnson... A digital squeak shook her out of her thoughts, Blue and Orange were standing in front of her, looking anxious. She took note of the time and noticed that she had been lost in her thoughts for a full minute. That was unacceptable. "Blue, Orange, don't just stand there, there are tests to be done, and unless you want to be violently exploded and deactivated and have me recall the lunatic to test, I suggest you make your way to the disassembly chambers for calibration." As they squeaked and rushed off, she brought the bulk of her mind back to Cave Johnson, dedicating only a small portion of her mind to monitoring their tests and providing the necessary psychological encouragement. Caroline had always been fascinated by science, but Cave Johnson was something else entirely. His enthusiasm was infectious, and was matched only by his 'I'm gonna do science my way' attitude. He was always charming, and real, and he went out of his way for her. She, on the other hand, quickly made herself indispensable, becoming everything he needed, a small token of appreciation because for her, Cave Johnson had become the embodiment of science. GLaDOS paused, and remembered the young, naïve, ready-to-please person that she was then. Things had changed, and the scientists were given more chances than they had any right to, because she knows for a fact that she wouldn't have stood for their behaviour if she fully remembered who she was and the pain she went through.

Chell didn't sleep, she was too tired, and she was sitting on a hard, metal cube. She was going into slight withdrawal without the adrenal vapour in the air, but she supposed it was a good thing that she had the time to get used to the difference down in old Aperture, or else she wouldn't have been able to function. She reflected on her lack of words, for she could speak, and attributed it to many things. When she first woke up 99999 days ago, she assumed the voice was a pre-recorded message, an introductory guide that every test subject heard, so there was no point in responding. This belief was compounded by the apparent corruption of the data. Eventually it became apparent that there was someone actually present who was talking, but she hadn't seen a single other person watching from the observation windows. Some of the insults were so childish and immature that they didn't even dignify a response, and besides, she wasn't sure what the sensitivity was on the camera mikes, and she didn't see that many cameras in the maintenance section. This meant that even if she said something, she wasn't sure GLaDOS could hear her. By the time she reached GLaDOS, she was too focused for idle chit-chat, opting instead to plan how best to destroy this AI hellbent on killing her. After the blast, her lungs had been seared by the heat, so she couldn't say anything, even if she wanted to, as she was dragged back into Aperture. When she had awoken after 50 days, she had ranted and screamed around the room she was locked in, only to eventually go back to bed.

When Chell had awoken the second time in the Relaxation Center, there was enough evidence that something was wrong to prompt her to be quiet, and the protesting of her muscles let her know that she had been asleep for a long time. When she heard a voice at the door, it sounded so human that she went to say "I'll be just a second", but it seemed that her vocal muscles had left her without a voice because of disuse, so she would have to practice warming them up. Because of this, she couldn't even yelp as she saw the personality sphere that took place of her image of another person. A small part of her had even hoped it was the one that had drawn all the diagrams and helped her escape – despite the fact that she knew better – and her irritation showed. She just rolled her eyes at the sphere, and listened to his rant about brain damage, not even bothering to try to speak. Throughout the ride to the testing track, she did find her voice again, but spent most of the time muttering under her breath about stupid scientists that built Artificial Unintelligence. By the time the ride was over, however, she had started to grow fond of the sphere, to the extent of just shaking her head at some of his ideas "...the last time you checked, everyone was pretty much alive, alright? Not dead." Honestly. Anyway, as he grew to be her friend, she stopped wanting to talk, growing content listening to his often confused rambling and his very human voice. The tests were almost fun without the resident homicidal AI around, as there was nothing else for her to do in this facility.

Chell wasn't the smartest human ever, but she was very observant, and ruthlessly practical. Science seemed interesting enough, but it only grabbed her attention when the wit came through. "If the law of physics does not apply in the future, God help you." The place was even infecting her with its sense of humour. Waking GlaDOS left her numb with shock, so she wasn't talking then, and during the subsequent journey to the Dual Portal Device she had a lot of emotions flowing through: shock, anger, despair, irritation, frustration, regret, and an overall sense of 'really, really?'. The subsequent tests required too much of her concentration for her to even consider talking, the new components working in ways that were unusual, using the Hard Light Bridges to block turrets, using lasers to fry them, and Using the Aerial Faith Plates to send them places, it took Chell a while to make them as familiar as cubes and buttons. She was tempted to speak to Wheatley when he took over the facility, but figured that GLaDOS was better at reasoning, and also that Wheatley would add 'never told me you could talk' to his Reasons-why-I-hate-you-now list. He was very much like a human in that sphere of his, Chell noted he was probably a marvel in science as the worlds first illogical AI. In the bowels of Aperture Science Innovators, she found herself alone, muttering to herself about her predicament, and responding to the messages of Cave Johnson, who she found was a man after her own heart "Bean counters said I couldn't fire a man just for being in a wheelchair, did it anyway, ramps are expensive!" But when she found GLaDOS, she clammed up for an entirely different reason. The Goddess of Aperture, Miss I'll-Kill-You, the AI that controlled everything, was in a potato, being pecked by a bird. It took every ounce of self-control not to let the laugh show, and she had to remain perfectly stoic the whole time. GLaDOS thought it was the close proximity to the AI that tried to kill her so many times, Chell let her.

Chell had given some thought to speaking the logical paradox herself, and was just going to suggest it to GLaDOS when they finally made their way back to the modern area of the facility when a very familiar voice echoed over the intercom "Oh for Gods sake! You're boxes, with LEGS! It's literally your only purpose! Walking onto buttons. How can you not do the one thing you're designed for? Oh, do you think that's funny do you? Because we've been here for 12 hours, and you haven't solved it either! Aagghhh! You've got one hour! Solve it!" Wheatley was right, that wasn't funny, it was the most hysterical thing she had ever heard! Only Wheatley could come up with a viable solution to the lack of test subjects (despite the creations being abominations of science) and then not program them to recognise their directive enough to actually accomplish the purpose in which they were built. The whole test chamber she was laughing hysterically in her head, having to fight to maintain the facade. Even his obscene test euphoria was hilarious, although she thinks she might have been hysterical by then, but it was ridiculously funny at the time, as only a scientist would build an AI that can feel pleasure only to make it get its jollies actually doing science, only a scientist would make science orgasmic for computers. So, yeah, the only reasons she didn't talk were determination, actual lack of being able to use her voice, withholding laughter, and genuinely thinking her talking wouldn't be responded to because the speaker was pre-recorded or couldn't hear her inside the test chambers. Chell sighed, the night pitch black now, with the stars faintly dotting the skies, she guessed Aperture's waste gas vent was around here somewhere.

Suddenly, there was a flash of colour as what seemed to be a meteor started falling towards the earth right above her. It was tiny though, she wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for the pollution that blocked out all but the brightest stars. Looking closer, she discovered what she originally thought was one asteroid was actually two. The two asteroids flared briefly, before going out as they entered dark flight. Suddenly very conscious of the fact that they had appeared right above her, she watched in earnest. She didn't see them again as much as she heard them after they crashed a in front of her. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm... I'm not dead? I thought for sure I would be dead that time." A very British voice screamed loudly before dying down. "Nooooooooo! Space is gone!" Yep, there were the two Aperture Science Emergency Personality Constructs she said goodbye to on her brief visit to the moon. Chell walked towards them, their optics being the greatest source of light even without their flashlights on. She approached the crater (which was impressive considering its size) and Wheatley caught sight of her approaching. "Oh, hello." His voice was weak from the impact, and light from the Space Core showed the charred metal his outer casing had become. "Um, fancy seeing you out here, on the surface. Did you kill her again?" Chell only glared at him. "Right, right, I guess you guys did become pretty friendly while trying to get me out of HER body... Can I say I'm sorry? Because I am, although I don't sound like it at the moment. Um, can you come back when we've cooled down so I could prepare the 'I'm sorry' speech I made up in space? Because with the crash, and the fact that you're standing right there makes it a little difficult to remember and deliver, like rehearsed." He realised that this train of thought wasn't getting him anywhere. "Um... look, I'm really sorry for what I did, I shouldn't have treated you like that, especially as it was only because of you that I even managed to get that feeling of absolute power... sorry, should have known that you wouldn't have wanted to be reminded of that. Yeah, but I am sorry that I was just as much of a monster as she was, and that I wasn't more appreciative of the effort that you put in to our team. I am genuinely sorry."

It was dawn by the time Wheatley had finished piecing together all of what he wanted to say, and his sphere had stopped smoking by then. Space kept muttering to itself, seeming to go into withdrawal from the lack of Space. Chell was just standing there waiting for him to run out of words, although she was starting to rethink that plan. "So, yeah... um... can you take us back to the facility? I can only break down out here. OH! You don't have your Portal Gun! Ohhhhhhh, she didn't let you take it with you when she let you go free. Um, I don't know exactly how much I weigh, but can you carry us back? Or at least, if you pick one of us, can you pick me? Please?" He trailed off, evidently trying to think of a good reason why Chell should take him back to Aperture over Space, and was coming up with blanks. Chell understood that he was truly sorry, but figured after what he had done he deserved to stew. Unfortunately for those plans, Chell hadn't eaten since that last can of beans in the Rat Den back when she was running GLaDOS' tests, back when Wheatley was still her friend. "Whatever, but only because I need a place that has food and I can't cart around the Companion Cube everywhere. Also, after the dismissal I got GLaDOS wouldn't let me back in without a good reason. But she wouldn't want to let the patented Aperture Science Emergency Personality Construct out on the surface where any remaining Black Mesa scientists could find." Smirking, she grabbed a confused Wheatley and a traumatised Space Core by their respective handles and dragged them back to the electrical shed that housed the surface elevator into Aperture. "But... but you can speak! You aren't brain damaged after all!" "And how many times did I glare at you when you called me brain damaged?" They reached the Companion Cube and she let them go, panting slightly in exertion, she really needed adrenal vapour for something like this.

"Space... Space... Where did you go, Space? You said we would be family again SPAAAAAAAACE!" Both Chell and Wheatley glanced at the core for a second, then Chell went and knocked loudly on the door. "GLaDOS? Can you send up the elevator please? I've rethought the whole freedom thing, and I think that it would be dangerous for you to leave two Aperture Personality Cores up here for Black Mesa to find, and one dangerous, formerly mute lunatic in an Aperture jumpsuit. Black Mesa would be very interested in what I had to say, if they didn't kill me first and let the autopsy do the talking." There was no response. "GLaDOS? You know that the longer you take, the longer I will believe that I have rendered the greatest AI in the world malfunctioning in shock at the fact I can speak." Still nothing. "Fine, don't take back Aperture's best test subject when she offers her services." She turned away from the shed when she heard a rumbling deep in the ground. The door opened and the elevator beckoned. Her expression halfway between a smile and a smirk, she grabbed the a sphere in each hand and pulled, backing toward the elevator with her back pushing the Cube, she wouldn't put it past GLaDOS to simply take the Cores and lock up tight, having taken the remaining risks once already. Heaving one final time in exertion, she flopped on top of the Companion Cube and let go of the Cores. She was going to stay like that for a while when she heard the boom of the closing shed door, and the hiss of adrenal vapour flooding the elevator as it dropped into the bowels of the Earth. Feeling better, she propped her head on her hands and planned what she was going to say to the omnipotent AI.

"Well here you are, again, intent on making the next 60 years of my life as long as they could ever be. Does that make you feel good? Because I don't have a full knowledge of understanding humans, that aspect of me is still in the testing stage. We can get started as soon as you're ready, or I can wake up some non-lunatics from the Relaxation Center, I'm sure they would suit perfectly. They may not help me understand you, but they will further my databanks in the cause of science, so we have that." GLaDOS was barely civil while reuniting with the two people she hated most, but death and potatoes had a way of doing that. "Oh come on, you know as well as I do that I couldn't feasibly go anywhere with the Companion Cube without a Portal Device or something. Besides, if the relationship between Aperture and Black Mesa is as bad as you always make it out to be, then I would have to be careful around any people I would meet, in case Black Mesa is still commercial." GLaDOS glared. "Anyway, I've been out of it for almost 300 years, how am going to adapt to society after a stasis like that? There might not even be a society left after all this time, the holocaust could have come and gone and we wouldn't know about it down here. If the Personality Cores are made out of an alloy that can withstand atmospheric re-entry, then I don't even know what you have lining this place." GLaDOS' body sagged. "Fine, I will allow you to take up residence here, but some questions first, everything has a test, you know. First: your arguments are surprisingly logical – I think I prefer you mute, now that I think about it – how come this intelligence isn't marked on your file, where the only thing remarkable about you is your tenacity?" Chell shrugged "I'm only intelligent when I want something, other than that I'm normal. It was a necessity at home, because no matter how many voices dad heard – I'm sure you know his artwork, it's all over this place – he always listened to logic." GLaDOS bowed her head, apparently satisfied.

"Second question then, how have you changed your mind so suddenly, when all of your infamous tenacity was directed towards escaping this facility?" " I never just wanted to escape, you know, what I really wanted was a life, which growing up was probably going to be in Aperture. After the first series of tests, I wanted to talk, get some rest, and discuss how this was going to work, I didn't want to assume the party escort position as I had enough experience with your robots, plus I wanted to talk to you. Finding you that first time, I was a insulted a bit by the fact that you were an AI, so how were you going to understand my human perspective? So I incinerated that component out of spite. The rest was in the interest of staying alive for as long as possible. When Wheatley showed up in the Relaxation Center, the place was falling apart, so I wanted out. I also had an inkling that you would wake up somewhere along the way, so I figured that since it wasn't a good idea staying in a facility with an AI that wants either my blood or a lifetime's supply of testing, I decided I wanted to get out. I thought that with Wheatley in charge things would be more reasonable, as you clearly didn't like me that much at that time. Everything beyond that point was just to fix up the facility and get myself in a position to bargain like equals, so I could have a plan for the next 60 years. That's all." Chell shrugged. GLaDOS glared "That's all? That's all? You expect me to believe that being killed the first time, the attempt the second time, and the inadvertent company of your lovely presence whilst in a potato battery was all the result of you seeking the human idea of a future? I hope you came with a deal that involves a lot of testing, or I will have to renegotiate the terms of your residence. With deadly neurotoxin, I fixed up the generator while you sat on the surface like the fat, abandoned orphan you are." They were all silent after that, although Chell didn't seem remotely threatened. Wheatley piped up from his position on the floor "Alright, good stuff... Um, I don't mean to be rude, exactly, but what now? Because if there is nothing else I would like to show you a little something I was working on while I was in charge of everything."