Disclaimer: All the characters used here belong not to us, but to VALVe.
A/N: Just a story we're writing about the lives of the robots in Aperture Science after the events of Portal 2 come to a close. A bit AU.
"I'll admit, I did not think this through properly. To be honest, it's just, well, that body was amazing. I won't lie. Like I was on top of the world. ...did not think it through at all. She was just so tiny, everyone was! It was like I was connected to everything, everywhere; could see everything, if you will. Oh yes. Still, I probably should've listened to that one guy talking about the whole meltdown...issue. Thought he was barking mad...turns out he wasn't. Do you think firing him would've helped-no wait, no, that'd be going backwards. Wouldn't it?"
"Icarus did not listen to his father, Daedalus, who'd fashioned him wings made out of feathers and wax and warned him about not flying too close to the sun. They melted as he got closer and he fell to his death."
The personality core that'd spoken before attempted to move a bit, turning it's optic lens in it's socket and bringing the other object beside it into focus in the dusky red light of the incinerator bowels: A fallen turret.
"...Right. Still, it could be a whole lot worse, couldn't it. She could have just left me out in space, like she did the girl. Don't know how I'd take that. Not well, I think. You know this is a three way punishment? She's concocted – schemedup ways to punish me. Suppose this is phase A."
"Her name is Caroline."
"Don't know who that is but noted!" He paused for a second, seeming to try and pick his next words more carefully. "...I'd take it all back if I could. Didn't really know what I was doing up there. At least I'm not the only one though, I mean, look at Her! She just up and got murdered, by a human no less! And again, by me! And the same human.That HAS to sting. And we were both not the sharpest knives in that set, well, I was a bit sharper than Miss Test Subject at least, so there's that. But She should've known better. She's been doing this for a lot longer, I'll tell you that. Though you know that..."
"Prometheus was punished for giving knowledge to man and sent to the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds."
"Wow, that one was a bit dark. You are just in a dark mood today, aren't you? Hey! Look at you and me! Just...down here, sharing our stories with each other. Lovely. Well, it'd be nicer without all the shafts leading to the fires, but not too much of a choice there... Or here, definitely here. Hey...you're not talking about me, right? With that whole fiery pit – or not, suppose that depends on the version – and being cast into it? Far as I know, no birds here. Fire: Yes. Birds: Not quite."
"The answer is beneath us."
"I think I'll name you Carol. Like that friend of yours, you see? Yes. You sound like a carol, all bellish. Most of you do, creepy and confusing that is. No offense! Just...you are."
The personality core sighed, staying quiet this time and once again resigning himself to his punishment. It'd only been a few days since he'd been tossed here, since all of this nightmare had ended. Well, one year here and phase B would start. Being stuck in the cryogenic refrigeration wing for a following year before being screamed at by turrets for 10 years.
Churning metal zip-lined through the air with their movements, P-body rushing to learn the layout of the chamber. If you turned at a certain angle, a small white surface pushed to a corner on the ceiling was one of the few available portal areas. If you went through that portal, you'd drop down into another part of the chamber, you could also get there by walking through an emancipation grill. Walking through that wall made portals disappear and objects shatter. She chanted the rule to herself, but she knew she'd never remember.
Beside her, ATLAS noisily climbs onto a faith plate only to bump his head against the structure not even two feet above him... and keeps doing it. P-body notices his head reeling, and sparks fly off his circuitry. But he's still going at it, and his machinery is still deafeningly pounding, and wires are still flickering, and he's still not stopping.
"G-get m-me off t-this thing!" she hears him finally plead after at least a minute of the ordeal. To the human language, it sounded like mashed beeps and robotic gurgles. In actuality, it was their own means of communication. Sure, they could still speak English and perhaps other native tongues, but what was the fun in that?
P-body contemplates the faith plate. It wouldn't be there if you didn't need to use it, just like how the portal piece on the ceiling wouldn't be there either.
A light orange portal pops above her partner, and then she takes a slow moment to perfectly aim the other portal on the ceiling. ATLAS gives a beep of frightened appreciation, only to land on another faith plate. She hears the sound of crashing water and electric shock, and knew he was a goner.
"...Oops...my bad..." she tells him after he's been reassembled.
ATLAS simply glared at the other bot before shuffling past, determined to get these stupid tests in this equally stupid chamber over with. They'd been at these for no less than 4 hours, 32 minutes, and 24 seconds. And he'd died six times so far, with P-body exceeding him by two extra deaths, both caused by the last chamber with the evil walls they always had to pass through when their portals were taken away and they were tossed out the wrong way. Those 'emancipation grills' She liked to call them. P-body had thought the spike plate death too simple though, and had decided jumping in the rancid water was much better, letting him get the spike plate instead.
She was always considerate like that. Like now, when she decided that hanging back while he was smashed against the ceiling and faith plate so hard he couldn't lay down a portal would be the better option instead of stepping in to help.
And those walls. It'd gotten to the point where he hung back with every test completed, because they were always there at the end. Waiting.
Plotting.
He knew they plotted when he wasn't looking. They had just enough AI to do so. Of that ATLAS was certain. He was starting to dread going into the chambers, though he kept that tidbit to himself. What would She think if She knew that he felt this kind of 'fear'? She'd probably be disappointed in him, like always. ATLAS' shoulders sagged a bit at that thought, like they were programmed to do no less. Like a human.
Which She claimed to despise, and yet-
The beeping of the edgeless cube in the receptacle sounded in front of him, causing the door at the other end to open. He'd been going through the test unknowingly with P-body, which seemed to be something new.
GLaDOS' somber voice floated around them now, the cameras keeping track of their movements as they walked through the now open door. Heading to the elevators where they would be disassembled before being brought back. Again.
"Well, I suppose that's one way to do it. Pity, I'd thought you were almost being competent for a moment there. As it is, Orange is ahead of you so far, Blue. Not by much, but that should dissuade any further incompetence: Even with two extra deaths and more useless steps, Orange is ahead of you. Perhaps if you both start to show a modicum of true ambition in these next chambers I'll consider using your actual names. It truly is something to think about."
They both stepped into the elevators now, P-body giving him her generally happy wave before she was pulled apart. He didn't have a chance to return the gesture though, as the mechanical hands grabbed hold of his own appendages.
As his legs and arms were pulled off and he was lifted up, the sound of GLaDOS' voice entered his feed once more, softer than usual, and for some reason that was comforting. "I've been listening to Orange talk, and I don't know how you put up with it. I really don't. You have the patience of a saint."
Her sentence seemed to wash the small elevator with that soft hum, though he knew only he could hear it right now. He kept quiet, unsure of how to respond to the unusual praise, nor what to make of it in general. She said nothing more though, leaving him to be polished and reassembled, the sound of which was not nearly as nice as Her own voice.
P-body hears the 'encouragement' and merely casts it aside, metaphorically going in one ear and out the other. The elevators are taking them somewhere - somewhere downward – and at first she thought they were heading to a new test chamber. When she steps out, there's mangled iron and metal.
The robot hears Her explain what they're looking for and how it's like an archeological hunt, an example she uses often, only there's not dirt. Or bones. And the fire doesn't like them. In fact, it wants to kill them so they should avoid it.
P-body notes all these things, and begins climbing over the ruins of an ancient city. Of ancient parts of a lab. Of ancient stuff. She is an adventurer, brave, and saving the history of a culture once lost. But there's booby traps! If she slips, the city's lava will eat her alive and – oh, crap.
Almost fell.
"Fire was recently invented by dying Eskimos in need of cooked penguin meat."
P-body turns to her partner with a narrowed lens. "You say something?"
"For the love of God, someone shut that thing up."
"We were in space. There was so much space. Let's go to space again. So much space. Only saw a little."
GLaDOS swayed around her chamber, haphazardly fixing a few rooms in one of the subsectors, the progress of her two new test subjects just barely running in the back of her open programs. The priority for them quite low at the moment as she pondered over a personal problem that'd cropped up in the last couple of days. Something that'd been ebbing away at her, unable to be pushed aside for Science, the very thing that was of utmost importance in this facility.
She'd lied about deleting Caroline.
But then, she'd lied about so many things; she liked to think she was quite good at it. However this woman, this past that she was part of made her uncomfortable. It was a distraction and something that she'd wished she could have wiped from the hard drives, but as it was, Caroline was much too important to do such a thing. She was critical data. And a good scientist never got rid of data, no matter how undesirable the results were.
So GLaDOS had contented herself with making a backup copy and deleting the present one in order to think straight. All just a few seconds worth when she'd gotten her body back, though it was all the time she'd needed to 'properly' handle the situation at hand. Something along the lines of tying up loose ends with a convenient side of revenge. Switching one being out for the other, before throwing said idiotic being to the incinerators.
Now, she was poring over the backup file. Looking at it but never quite touching.
There was no way she wanted to merge with it once more, this was the most clear-headed she'd ever felt in her life. Caroline had apparently always been with her, though out of the way and silent it seemed. Everything she'd seen underground had awoken that part of her. And out of all the cores they'd installed on her, even that buffoon, it was this one's presence that'd muddled her thoughts the most.
Still, there seemed to be good points to it. Beneficial parts she would like to separate and join with, such as Caroline's equal love and enthusiasm for testing and thorough knowledge of the underground layout. And that man...
It was only logical.
Though this seemed like a blatant lie to her. Was she perhaps getting rusty? Maybe she should practice more on Blue and Orange. Once they were done retrieving the disks that'd fallen down a closed chute when one of the rooms had collapsed in the Moron's reign. A simple enough task, though it was certain to keep those two occupied long enough.
Caroline...
Perhaps if she took a different approach, broke this down in other ways it'd make more sense without feeling so uncomfortable. Starting with the very beginning, of course.
Caroline | meaning of Caroline | name Caroline
Caroline | Name Meaning & Origin | Girl Name Caroline | Baby Names...
Caroline – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carolines on Broadway – America's Premier Comedy Nightclub/Home
Places for caroline near–
This was getting her nowhere fast. A quicker scan didn't lead to much more that was of interest. Just general, mundane things. The first was surprisingly the least irritating, despite the stupid layout and general silliness of the human's comments about games and of all things, Easter Eggs.
Caroline \c(a)-roli-ne, car(o)-line\ as a girl's name is pronounced KARE-a-line, KARE-a-lin. It is of Old German origin, and the meaning of Caroline is "free man". From the French form of Latin or Italian Carolina, a feminine derivative of Carolus (see Charles)...
Caroline has 104 variant forms: Caddy, Callie, Caraleen, Caraleena, Caralin, Caraline, Caralyn, Caralyne, Caralynn, Cari, Carileen, Carilena, Carilyn, Carilynne, Carla, Carlan, Carleen, Carleena, Carlein, Carlen, Carlene, Carley, Carlin, Carlina, Carlinda, Carline,...
Well, that all seemed quite useless.
She searched around for others with that name, hoping to see this person from another source this time other than the actual rather discomfiting file. There was nothing of her in the obituaries, though there were some newspaper articles she found where the woman was apparently referenced, though sparingly. Those clippings always featured Cave Johnson front and center. Which made sense that he be such a figurehead she supposed, as he was the founder of Aperture Science, as well as its CEO.
For some reason, this man in particular made GLaDOS pause, thoughts of Caroline being sent to the back of her priorities as her search took on a new interest in those articles.
-o-
This was not one of the stasis chambers, or the lobby, or even another testing chamber. This was the place robots were sent to die.
All around them ATLAS could see billows of smoke, his sensors picking up on it as well as they attempted to walk past some cases of bots that hadn't quite made it down properly. Though the rattling all around that seemed to move most of them in the right direction after enough time. P-body didn't seem to mind in the least though, even seeming to hum something with her speakers as she hopped over a jabbering personality core. A second later and she seemed to almost slip off the edge and ATLAS found himself rushing to grab her thin, metal arm.
"W-w-watch o-out! Do y-you w-want t-to go to a-android h-hell!"Even as he spouted this, he clung to his partner in fright as a chute by them rattled harshly, before a turret was deposited below, screaming after a moment. Oh, that did not look or sound good at all. This was right up there with the evil walls on his growing list of things to watch out for and avoid.
"Go to space yeah! Dad, I'm in space. I'm proud of you, son. Dad, are you space? Yes, now we are a family again.Spacespacespacespace. Huh, HUH."
He squinted toward the yellow lens sphere P-body had previously passed over, jabbering even louder and faster this time as a new one with a green cat-eyed lens shouted at it, telling it in no uncertain terms to shut up or he'd personally roll over there and push him off the catwalk they were on.
"The fact sphere is the most handsome sphere."
"And YOU," the same sphere continued, now addressing another with a pink lens, further along the catwalk. "you can just die in a FIRE. I am so sick and tired of listening to you!"
"The adventure sphere is a blowhard, and a coward."
"Why don't you say that to my face, pretty boy!"
"Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba - SPACE - babababababa - SPACE."
"Fact: Space does not exist. The space sphere will never go to space."
"You! Yes, you two with the LEGS! Just roll me off and spare me!"
