Author's Note: This is my first story and I hope it works out ok. I've been reading several entries on the site and wanted to try my hand at writing one myself. Fingers crossed it works. This is actually the 2nd version of chapter one, I rewrote it. Hope you enjoy this version more.

Chapter 1: Part One: Exile, Vilify

As GLaDOS looked down at Chell's unconscious body she wondered why she didn't just end it right now. She wouldn't feel a thing, it would be better than the torture and death the Combine would give her out there, but she couldn't do it, it felt wrong. Some part deep within her had grown attached to the madwoman who lay before her without a care in the world – wait, no, that wasn't quite right, Chell was shifting in her sleep, muttering insensible comments, GLaDOS realised she was having something humans called a 'nightmare', whatever she was dreaming, the test subject obviously wasn't enjoying it. GLaDOS's eye screwed up in worry as Chell uttered another comment "No! Don't hurt them! Somebody do something! Daddy!" this, GLaDOS decided, was worrying. Chell appeared to be having a nightmare about that fated Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, the day when Chell's adoptive father had been killed. GLaDOS felt a pang of guilt as a voice in her head reminded her that she had killed Chell's father and that at the time she had enjoyed it, she felt another stab of guilt as she remembered that she had felt that same evil pleasure each time Chell had been hurt, each time GLaDOS had directed an insult her way and each time she put her through a test she knew would injure her. She was a monster. But if she was, then why wasn't she killing Chell now? Certainly something had changed between them; a bond had formed when they had been in aperture's old section. It was almost like friendship, but GLaDOS had killed friends before in the interests of facility security, and Chell was the biggest security risk that had ever existed within the walls of aperture laboratories. It came back toi the same question: why didn't she- no, why couldn't she kill Chell.

GLaDOS looked deep into her emotion databanks and pulled up the emotions she felt for Chell. Immediately she wished she hadn't. In the file, just below Friendship was that one word, Love. She was in disbelief. No, it couldn't be right; it must be a glitch with her databanks. It must have gotten corrupted when that little IDIOT had been plugged in to her. She searched her secondary and tertiary banks but came up with the same result. The foremost emotion she had felt for Chell, Hate, had been replaced by the polar opposite. She loved Chell. She hadn't really doubted her databanks but there had been part of her that had hoped it wasn't true, that she wouldn't have to face e the consequences attached to that particular emotion. Her train of thought was interrupted by a jolt of pure joy as Chell woke. If she'd had any lingering doubts, they were stopped in their tracks. It was certain, GLaDOS loved Chell and she couldn't ignore it. As Chell stood, GLaDOS spoke "Oh, thank gosh you're all right!" and she meant it. Chell looked suspicious about her sudden change from hostility and sarcasm. GLaDOS quickly rambled on about reasons for letting her go and pretended to delete Caroline."You know, my life was pretty good before you showed up" a voice in her head said no, it was lonely and boring before you showed up, GLaDOS ignored it, she could dwell on her feelings later. " all I did was test", GLaDOS continued, " nobody tried to murder me, or put me in a potato" GLaDOS's inner voice said she'd quite like to kill that sphere in the most painful way possible, GLaDOS had to agree with herself on that one, "and then you showed up, you dangerous, mute, lunatic" in her head the voice whispered my dangerous, mute, lunatic, who I'll never see again because you have to leave, before my evil side kills you. As GLaDOS started the elevator's ascent, she said her farewell to Chell "it's been fun, don't come back" don't ever come back, said the voice, because if you do, I don't know if I'll be able to stop myself killing you.

Before Chell leaves completely, GLaDOS had prepared a little surprise for her, she had arranged for her turret orchestra to play a song she had dredged up from her databanks, Caroline had been sung it as a child and GLaDOS just changed the name it was addressed to from Caroline to Chell. Yes, that would do. GLaDOS quietly began to sing along, goodbye, Chell said the voice in her head and if anyone had been watching, they would have seen a holographic tear drip down her optic.

Chell stood up straight as the elevator stopped and a door opened, revealing an ambush of turrets. That robotic bitch queen! See, she told herself, this is what you get for trusting a megalomaniac AI. Chell braced herself as the turrets' sides popped open and their guns sprung out. But they never fired, instead they began to play. An incredulous look dropped onto her face as the elevator rose and row after row of turrets played the song. GLaDOS, Chell thought, you shouldn't have. She smiled with a warmth she had never shown before and the elevator rose into a chamber packed with turrets, a fat one in the middle and a huge leopard skin one with a crown at the rear of what must be a turret orchestra. Chell grinned and shook with silent laughter at GLaDOS's final joke, the show ain't over 'till the fat turret sings. The music paused and sprang back into full chorus, the fat turret was singing in a voice that was just enough like GLaDOS's for her to realise that GLaDOS was singing, albeit in a more beautiful voice. Chell knew the song was for her and tears ran down her cheeks as she realised that GLaDOS had gone through all of this for her alone. She felt something GLaDOS-shaped fill the hole in her heart where her parents and friends had been before they had died. Chell realised she had forgiven the AI for killing them. Just how strong a bond had they gained? Chell waved goodbye as a fresh batch of tears ran down her cheeks. She mouthed the words goodbye, GLaDOS, I'll miss you. Her heart was singing and hurting at the same time and a melancholy feeling settled over her as the lift stopped and she stepped out into the world. It didn't feel as good to be free as she had thought, oh god, I miss her already. A loud rumble from behind interrupted her thoughts and the door opened, expelling the companion cube she had 'incinerated' ages ago. Written in the ash on the side were the words something to remember me by. Chell walked forward and kissed the camera poking out from the iron shed and turned away, a blush spreading on her cheeks as she wondered why she had kissed the camera. She thought deeply as she carried her cube trough the fields of endless wheat and came to one conclusion, she really liked GLaDOS, and almost enough to call it love. She walked off with a grin on her face, a melancholy feeling in her heart and tears in her eyes.

GLaDOS had watched as Chell had kissed her camera, and by connection, her. She felt a new pang of grief and she sank into deep thought, playing an appropriate song. She listened with a pained look in her eye as she looked through all the best footage of Chell over and over. The song played on. Exile, it takes your mind, again. You've got sucker's luck, have you given up….

Chapter One: Part Two: Overwatch

Chell was exhausted by the time she made it to the woods outside City 19, she lay in the branches of a tree and looked down into the city, transfixed by the ring of blue metal towers around a swirling mass that looked like a cross between a hurricane and a portal. She watched it spin and drifted into an uneasy sleep. In her dream, Chell was back in aperture, it was the dream from earlier, where she watched helpless as everyone died around her, only it was Wheatley instead of GLaDOS and Chell screamed as she saw GLaDOS's head being dragged into a chamber where Wheatley fired missile after missile into her, blowing her casing apart as GLaDOS cried out and – Chell woke up, panting, and tensed as she heard a static-obscured voice from underneath her. "There's something up there, someone send up a scanner", a metal object with an eye like GLaDOS's rose up. Chell hit it with her cube and it promptly exploded. A different voice spoke, "there's someone up there all right and they're armed" the first voice spoke and Chell almost cried out when it gave the order "Fire!"

Chell dropped from her tree and ran, her long fall boots aiding her in her escape. She ran towards a cliff where she promptly sped up and leapt- "What the hell is she doing?!" said the first voice as Chell hurtled down, her boots translating her downwards speed into forwards motion as she hit, springing off at twice the speed. All the while she'd kept her cube safely in her hands. The soldiers walked to the edge of the cliff and looked at one another. The leader, in white armour with a single red eyepiece broke the silence: "I don't know how she survived that but that's not the issue here. Her clothing had Aperture Laboratories symbols on it and she looked like a test subject. Nova Prospekt will want to interrogate her. Call back the Dropship, I'll get some air support and when we catch her we'll be getting promotions within a week." "Don't fail me or it isn't just a pay rise you'll lose. Is that understood?" the soldiers nodded and filed back into the dropship's pod. The elite spoke into his radio "Doctor Breen? Yes, I have news, we have spotted an aperture laboratories test subject, with brand new equipment, she's escaped but we have her position. How? She jumped off a cliff, Yes, you did hear me right, She survived and is heading North-North-West, Yes, we're about to tail her in the Dropship, I'd like some air support, she doesn't seem like one to come quietly, Yes, I'm aware of the risks, Sir?, Sir, can we have air support?" on the other end of the line, in city 17, Doctor Breen grinned evilly, an aperture test subject, eh?, he thought to himself, yes, she'd be useful to them and when Overwatch was done with her, he'd save the tapes to his private collection and have her turned to a stalker, to serve him. Yes, he liked that plan. He was aware of the Overwatch Elite repeating his request for air support, Breen answered. "Yes, Overwatch 322-Alpha, you may have air support, hunter-chopper 849-Theta at your disposal" Under his facemask, the Elite smiled, "thank you, sir", he was going to enjoy this.

GLaDOS had been watching all this through the cube's in built camera, she had also heard the radio conversation between the soldiers, it had been encoded but she'd broken through. She almost wished she hadn't. The words were spinning round her head, Nova Prospekt, the combine "prison" that was really their place to torture information out of their victims, Air Support, they were sending in airborne killing machines, Hunter-Chopper meant it was one of their helicopters and all this boiled down to one thing: they were going to gun Chell down, capture her and then torture her before ripping her mind apart to see what else she knew. GLaDOS couldn't let that happen. If it did, she would probably go into shutdown, unable to cope with losing the only person she'd ever cared about. No, for her sake and Chell's she had to do something, it couldn't happen, ever. Even as she thought this, the blue-gunmetal monstrosity spotted Chell and prepared for the kill….

Chell had dived to the side when the 'Chopper's first rain of gunshots were fired in her direction, now she was cornered, with nowhere to hide. A lesser woman might have given up but Chell ran forwards, deflecting the second barrage with her cube before hitting the gun with it, the gun was damaged but still functional, it charged up a final time, but just as she would have been hit, the cube fired a beam of electricity from its top right corner, the gun heated up, the metal glowing white as the gun was surrounded in a crackling, lightning blue aura, Chell got the feeling she should get away and backpedalled, right into a combine tripwire set up by the soldiers, the mine went off, blowing Chell into the air and into a pool of water, at that instant, the gun had erupted into blue flame and exploding, blowing the front of the 'chopper into smithereens. The now pilotless helicopter span, fire streaking from its engine pods as it neared the ground, spilling its spherical mines before hitting the cliff face above Chell and erupting in a blue and white supernova that sent parts of the cliff tumbling down, along with the unlucky soldier standing there. Chell was thankfully unconscious when the metal shards landed on top of her. GLaDOS watched from the cube's perspective as it was carried along with an unconscious Chell into the pod of the Dropship, headed for Nova Prospekt. She would have shut down if not for the fact that if she did, Chell would die. GLaDOS cheered up as her rather morbid sense of humour cooked up the perfect plan to get Chell back, right from under their noses, yes, she would get her lunatic back before too long. She just prayed she wouldn't be too late to save what was left of Chell's sanity.

Her eye narrowed to a slit and she started work. It was going to be a long night…

Author's Note:

So, that was the rewritten version of chapter one, it's about 800 words longer than before but I've packed in a lot more story and detail, as well as a bit of back story and I think I did a much better job of it. In my opinion the first one wasn't very good. Hope you like this one more, I know I do.

Chapter 2 is on the way, part one will be called Bad Prospekts and basically there's a lot of portal related mayhem as Chell escapes from Nova Prospekt and makes her way back to a very emotional GLaDOS. Hope I wrote the two well enough to please you hard-core portal fans. Let me know what you think and I'll try to make it work for you. Thanks for reading, Zombificus.

P.S I might rename this at some point, 'Conflicts' isn't too catchy so give me ideas for a new name.

Also, I do not own Exile Vilify, hopefully I haven't broken any laws by putting the lyrics here, sorry to The National if it is.