A/N: Hey all. Griffin-Queen here with yet another Portal fic. I just recently played through the new bit of DLC for Portal 2, and I completely fell in love with the ending. This is just a short scenario I cooked up in my head for what happens after the ending of Peer Review. I hope you all enjoy it, and don't think it's too ridiculous.
" NO… NO NO NO for the last time… NO!" GLaDOS shouted. " you're supposed to KILL the mouse… not fly away from it!"
This had been what felt like the hundredth trial she'd run today. She had tried, and tried, and tried some more, to turn her three new "subjects" into killing machines… but so far, nothing was working. The three crows, now fully fledged and grown, sat huddled on a tall, t-stand perch, staring down at the mouse that now skittered around on the floor below them, agitation apparent in their ruffled feathers and twitchy gazes.
" What is wrong with you three? Just look at yourselves." A panel on the wall flipped itself around, revealing a mirror. All three crows jumped and began cawing angrily at the mirror, pecking at it with their beaks as if there were three other birds glaring back at them. " You're built like killing machines… I can see murder in your eyes. I KNOW it…Do NOT make me feel as though I was wrong." One of the crows managed to crack the mirror with one well calculated strike. " See? Why can't you do that to living creatures?" The crows were silenced when the broken mirror turned around again. Exhausted, GLaDOS sighed and drooped down a bit. She'd been at this for months… and if there was one thing that irked GLaDOS, it was not receiving any results from undeniably hard work.
She stretched herself out and stopped herself inches from the birds. They did not flee… for some reason they were not afraid of the colossal construct before them.
" You three are currently in the process of letting me down… I advise you to stop doing that. Results will be highly unfortunate for all of you. Yes, I'm talking to all of you… Mr. Chubby Beak, Ms. Ugly Feathers and Mr. Bug Eyes." She had given the birds these names when they were babies, and they were full of more affection than anything else, though GLaDOS hated to admit it. The birds cocked their heads in all sorts of directions, cawing at her every so often. With another heavy sigh, she backed away from the birds and brought up a large cup on a stand from the floor. It was filled with an assortment of seeds, nuts and what looked like fresh berries.
" At any rate, it's time to eat… Though, don't you feel as though a meal would be more rewarding if you had killed it yourself?" She asked, knowing full well that they could not understand her. She watched the crows tuck in to their meal, happily picking away at the food as they always did, and always had. When they were babies, she had fed them through a small tube that she had running to a container of pureed worms. She had sent the co-op robots on a mission to collect as many worms as they could find, and once they had returned, GLaDOS pureed the worms and stored them in a special container. Nowadays, she made their food herself, in a chamber she had built and named the Aperture Science Botanical Germination Center. It was effectively a greenhouse, but she had built it specifically for creating homegrown bird food, with the hopes that she would find a different use for it later…
A few more weeks passed and GLaDOS was growing frustrated with her feathered subjects… they simply weren't learning anything. It was as if they didn't absorb anything she was teaching them at all.
" We've been at this since you were infants, and I grow tired of your incompetence. Why can you not absorb any of the information I provide? I know you are simple creatures, and your brains are no bigger than peas… but I've known many that can surpass my expectations and perform beyond the normal limitations of their race…" She paused. "well…actually… she was just one person." there was another long pause, as a string of painful emotions coursed through GLaDOS, throwing her completely off her train of thought.
" You know what… I've had enough. I don't care what you do with yourselves at this point. Stuff yourselves full of food until you bloat up so badly that you explode… litter my floor with your droppings… break my technology… I don't care." GLaDOS hated feeling depressed… it made her sluggish… and above all it made her angry. Angry at the birds for failing her…. and angry at herself for feeling this way…
Her thoughts were interrupted by one of the crows landing on the top of her head.
" Ugh… what do you want? I said I didn't care how you spent your life from here on out… I didn't say you could loiter on me." The crow swung down and pecked her on her optic, making the slightest "tink!" sound. She yelped, and half expected her optic to shatter, seeing what the crows beaks had done to glass before, but it did not. The crow seemed to be trying to make a point rather than to cause her any harm.
" Oh knock it off… I know I'm moping. So what? I'm allowed to mope if I want to…" He pecked her again. " Ow! Stop that! If you break my optic I'll make a tiny roast out of you and your brother and sister!" Another strike from his beak, and GLaDOS shook her head, gently shooing the bird off of her. " If you can't behave then you don't get to sit on me… I'll just go back to moping if it's all the same to you three." She turned away from the birds, dropping her head down and retreating back into her own thoughts.
" Of all the mistakes I've made in my life… Well… that one is the first one I actually regret…" Slowly, she craned her graceful body up, as if looking out a window that did not exist this far under the ground. " I wonder if you're even still alive…" Sadly, she looked down at the three birds who were now watching her curiously.
" I suppose now you want the same thing…" She opened up a hatch that was next to the tube that brought a lift down into her chamber. " Go on… This emergency hatch will lead you all the way up to the surface…where I suppose you belong." The birds looked up at the open hatch, but they did not budge. " Well? What are you waiting for? You're of no use to me anymore… Go on and live out the rest of your relatively unintelligent avian lives." She shooed the birds with her robotic arm, but they merely fluttered around for a while, before sitting back down on their perch. " Why won't you go?" She tilted her head. " Are you so foolish that you can't see freedom when it's glaring you in the face?" One of the crows cawed, and flew over to her, perching on a clump of wires that ran along the curve of her body. She sighed. Soon, the other two birds followed, perching comfortably on her body. One bird, the one she called Bug Eyes, perched on the top of her head, but he did not peck at her optic. He merely sat there. She could feel the little bodies warming her where they sat… occasionally shuffling around with their little bird feet.
She began to feel warm all over… a feeling she had not experienced since… well, she'd rather not think about that. These were her little babies… she had raised them all on their own, and they had become hearty, healthy adults thanks to her care… She experienced a sudden flash of pride… She had done something useful. For once in her life, she felt as if something she had done had a true purpose. No mindless testing… or experiments that the world could care little for… She had successfully raised a life from birth to maturity… or more specifically, three lives were now successful because of her. She was their mother… their hero… and for a moment, that felt better than being the villain ever did. Tilting her optic as far up as it would go, she observed the crow perched on her head. Then, allowing herself a moment of weakness, she spoke softly, and in a voice entirely uncharacteristic of her.
" Mommy loves her little babies… She took care of you all by herself, and now you've all grown up to be healthy and strong." Her optic narrowed in what resembled a smile. " Mr. bug eyes… my handsome boy." As if he understood, the crow puffed out his chest and beat his wings a few times, in a virile display of health and happiness…
In that one fleeting gesture… those almost robotic beating wings… something hit GLaDOS like a brick wall. Her optic widened as far as it would go, and if she had a jaw to drop, it would be on the ground.
" Wait… wait just one deliciously science filled minute… I-… I've got it!" The crows all began cawing, and flew off of her and back onto their perch as she began moving about with all her vim and vigor restored by the blessing of one simple idea.
" I don't know why I didn't see this before! I've been going about this all the wrong way! Instead of turning YOU three into killing machines… I'll just BUILD one based on YOUR structure! That's positively genius!" She rushed over to the three birds, and shot a blue light out of her optic, scanning each bird. They cawed in protest, but seemed otherwise enthralled by the blue light. After her scans were complete, she turned to her monitors, observing the scans.
" This is going to be fantastic!" Complex equations flew along her screens, all being solved by her effortlessly.
Soon enough, a complex schematic was displayed on her screen… and the mother of Aperture Science let out a devious, musical laugh. Shutting down the lights, she turned her attention to the birds
" It's time for bed now you three… Wait until you see what Mommy will have cooked up by tomorrow morning…"
As she began cycling the lights in the chamber, simulating a sunrise as she had done since the eggs had hatched, the sleeping birds began to stir, and finally awaken. She moved over to them, and they all jumped onto her.
" Look at this. Look at what I made while you were sleeping. You're going to love this." She opened a hatch in the floor, and out of it rose a white smoke… and in the smoke, a sillouhette could be seen. When the smoke cleared, a construct stepped out of the hatch, its mechanical talons clicking along the floor as it walked. This construct was a robotic bird that stood about two feet high. Its smooth, chrome body gleamed fiercely in the light, and it bore the Aperture logo on each of its wings. The robotic bird held out its wings, and instead of feathers it looked as if its wings were composed of razor sharp knives. Its beak also looked to be lethally sharp, but what was more fearsome was the piercing red eyes that activated as soon as the creature spread its wings.
" Babies… say hello to the Aperture Science Avian Sentry Turret… or as I like to call it… Killer Crow…. Killer Crow, say hello to the three birds that were responsible for your flawless structure." The creature turned its head.
" Hello… friend." After the trademark turret voice… a piercing, mechanical screech filled the room as the red eyes emitted laser crosshairs.
" Stand down." She commanded. " You are not to lay a single bullet on these birds." The bird deactivated its laser sight. "They are under my guardianship." Jets activated in the birds feet and wings, and soon it was zooming around the chamber at sickening speeds. GLaDOS shivered with excitement, juggling the birds around a bit. " I can't remember a time that I've been so pleased with my accomplishments… and it's all thanks to you three." GLaDOS once again looked up into an invisible window… The look in her optic becoming as close to sadness as she could manage.
" I wish I hadn't sent you away… you'd really get a kick out of this." She sighed. " Ohh the fun we would have…"