A ball of metal drifted through space, its blue light looked around at the vast emptiness around it.
"I'm in space!" An excited voice broke the quietness that lasted only one minute, it came from a similar metal ball that orbited around the blue one, its yellow light looked this way and that way.
"Yes, mate! I know! We're in space!" The metal ball with a blue light replied in annoyance. The counter in its system told him it was the one year anniversary of their banishment into space. Looking back at planet Earth, he sighed. "If only we weren't, if only I was there, I could see her again, I could tell her just how sorry I am. Oh, Wheatley," he finally spoke to himself, "you really are a moron, letting things fall apart like that. How could you do that? We had everything and you threw it away for that bit of power you had no idea how to control!"
Millions of miles away from Wheatley and his overly-excited companion, a girl stepped off an elevator. Her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail while her bangs hung over her brown eyes, the metal boots clanged against the metal walk way as she walked towards the door.
"Oh good, you made it through. Let's move on to the next test, shall we?" A voice echoed across the walls, it sounded mechanical and emotionless. She kept herself from expressing her frustration, knowing full well the voice would take pleasure in it. Her orange, baggy pants swayed from side to side as she stepped forward. A circular door ahead of her with a stick figure glowing on it slid open as she got closer to it, instantly closing behind her once she entered the white room. She instantly moved against the wall, clinging the gun with three prongs close to her chest as she watched the still and red light shine in front of her.
"Hello?" Another mechanical voice echoed against the metal walls, "is anyone there?"
"I hate turrets," she thought as she glared at the red light. At that moment she had an epiphany: she had no memories of her life before the two robots woke her up, all she remembers is test chamber after chamber, puzzle after puzzle, turret after turret. Staring at the red beam in front of her, she soon realized it was her best friend. Her salvation. It could put an end to her misery.
Before she could even step towards the light, a new noise erupted behind her. Her movements stopped and she froze in place, noticing a strange blue glow on the wall nearest to her. Slowly she turned around and gasped at the sight of a blue box in front of her. It was tall and different, the light on top nearly touched the ceiling of the chamber's entrance, beneath it were the words "Police Call Box" in glowing, light blue letters. Her head tilted in curiosity as her eyes lowered to look at the double doors. How did it get here? Is it a part of the test? Is it deadly? Those and many other questions soon flooded through her mind like Neurotoxin.
"What's going on? Who put that there?" The voice spoke up, clearly annoyed by the sudden interruption.
The door to the strange box opened, light poured out of it, causing her to raise an arm in front of herself to shield her eyes from the light.
"Now where am I?" A new voice questioned with excitement as a man stepped out of the box, closing the door behind him. He was tall, or at least wore clothes that made his figure seem taller than it is: boots, pants with suspenders, a tweed jacket, and a bow tie. His face skinny with a very defined jaw line, brown hair hung over his head, bits dangling in a very unique bang style over his very light blue eyes which were darting around the room. "White walls, red beam," his eyes rested on her as he finally realized he wasn't alone, "ah, hello. I'm the Doctor. And you are?" She just stared at him, not sure how or if she should answer him. Was this a part of the test? By the voice's response to the box, it might not be, but this wouldn't be the first time the voice tried to trick her. "It's quite alright," the Doctor spoke up with an encouraging smile after a few moments of silence, "I'm not asking for your whole life's story, just your name."
"I don't know," she finally replied to him, her first words since waking up.
"Interesting name, although I'm not really one to judge, I call myself a profession after all. Nice to meet you 'I-'" the Doctor stopped in mid-sentence and stared at her, "oh, you meant to say you don't know as in you, you don't know your name, correct?" She nodded. "I see."
"She has no memory of her life before, all she knows is this place. Not like her life was anything worth remembering," the voice jumped into the one-sided conversation, instantly making her feel like she should go somewhere, hide, and never come out.
"I wouldn't say that. I've met a lot of people and not one of them is not worth remembering. So who might you be?" The Doctor turned around in a full 360 degree spin, trying to find the source of the voice, his eyes looked at the gun in her hand, noticing the Aperture Laboratories logo on it. The excited look on his face was erased, replaced by a look of sorrow. "GLaDOS," he whispered.
"Indeed, and I've taken the liberty of reading your file. What a traitor you are? I've never seen someone with so much blood on their hands."
"I would say the same about you, but you don't have hands."
"They had it coming. Well, while you're here," the ceiling opened up as a claw came down and grabbed the blue box, pulling it up. The Doctor sighed as the ceiling moved back in place, preventing him from seeing his blue box, "you might as well do some testing. I'll be nice and let you test with Worthless – that is what I call her, by the way. I had to come up with something as the scientists deleted her file after hiding her in the Vault." He looked at Worthless and gave her a look she couldn't quite figure out. Pity? Soon he sensed her confusion and turned his attention towards GLaDOS.
"You know, you're not the first to separate me from the TARDIS, there have been plenty of others, and they all ended up regretting it," his hands were shaking as he glared up at a camera. Worthless soon caught on to what this emotion was, she experienced it several times and managed to keep it hidden: anger. He was furious with GLaDOS.
"It won't happen to me, I don't regret anything," GLaDOS calmly replied, "let's get to testing, shall we?" Worthless turned around to face the red beam. It was there, she could do it, GLaDOS already had a replacement right there, but she couldn't. Why? Something was holding her back, literally. She looked down at her arm and saw a hand holding it, following the hand towards the arm connected to it, she found the Doctor right behind her.
"I know what you're thinking," he whispered to her, "don't do it. I'll get you out of here, I promise, you just have to trust me. We'll get out of here and then the TARDIS can tell us who you are. Please, don't do it." A smile slowly appeared on his face again as Worthless began to nod. "Good. Now, let's get rid of this, shall we?" He reached into his tweed jacket and pulled out a small, metal stick with four prongs and a light at the end. The Doctor pointed it towards the red beam and pushed a button, the light at the end glowed green.
"Shutting down," the turret's voice sadly announced before the red beam vanished. Worthless cautiously walked towards the turret, after confirming to herself that the turret was in fact dead, she looked at the Doctor's stick with curiosity.
"Sonic Screwdriver," the Doctor answered the question she kept in her mind as he tossed the Sonic Screwdriver into the air and caught it nonchalantly, "useful for scanning, turning off devices, and putting up cupboards."
"What's a cupboard?" Worthless thought as she tilted her head. The Doctor merely smiled and walked past her, ready to investigate the rest of the chamber. She quietly followed him deeper into the chamber. After a few minutes of looking around the chamber, she quickly placed a blue portal at her feet and an orange one on the ceiling above it, jumped in without hesitation and began a never-ending fall. The Doctor watched in slight horror, really unsure on what she was planning. Instinctively, she moved the orange portal to the wall and flew through it, landing perfectly on her feet on a balcony high above the Doctor. An Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube rested at her feet, the white box floated in front of her when she pushed a button on the Portal Gun and remained airborne ahead of her as she jumped off the balcony and landed right next to the Doctor.
"I think I should come up with a new name for you," the Doctor smiled, impressed with her already, " 'Worthless' doesn't suit you at all."
"If you say so," Worthless calmly agreed, hiding her relief at no longer being called a degrading word. She walked over to a large, red button on the floor and laid the cube on top of it. Swoosh. The button glowed as lights on the floor lit up in a row leading straight towards a now open door on a small landing across a moat of toxic liquids.
"How do we get over there?" The Doctor stared at the toxic pool and then at the small area of safety by the door, already he noticed there were no portal surfaces by the door. Worthless proceeded to move the orange portal back above the blue portal and jumped through, after only three rounds of falling through the portals did she place the orange portal on the wall facing the exit. She fell through and soared through the air, her Long-Fall Boots making certain she landed on her feet again. The Doctor grinned as he watched the entire thing, clapping when she landed near the exit.
"Your turn," Worthless felt a smile form on her face. For the first time for as long as she could remember, she was in the company of someone who was friendly towards her and wasn't trying to kill her. It brought on a new emotion that she couldn't figure out. It was warm and comforting, something she didn't want to go away. For the first time in a long time she was happy. Without even thinking, she aimed and returned the orange portal above the blue one.
"Don't worry about me, I've got it," the Doctor pointed his Sonic Screwdriver at the walls and pushed a button, the walls soon turned and faced upwards, turning into a floor he could safely walk across on. Her smile faded as she watched him confidently walk towards her without a care in the world. "Something wrong?" He asked whilst passing her and going through the open doorway.
"Why didn't you do that before? It would have saved a lot more time," she replied in annoyance as she followed him into the elevator.
"I never understood that saying, 'saving time'. A bit silly, if you ask me," the Doctor pushed the button again and the elevator moved up with them inside, "can't really save time like you save money in a bank or anything, although I have saved time itself from falling apart. Long story."
"What are you talking about?" Worthless stared at the Doctor, completely lost now.
"Everything all at once, and nothing at all. Now about your name, I'm thinking 'Darra', it's Gaelic for 'small great one'. I think it fits rather well."
She was silent, very unsure on how to respond to that.
"I'll take your silence as an agreement," the Doctor smiled at Darra, looking away only when the doors opened into what appeared to be a large, empty room, "come along, Darra." He stepped off the elevator with Darra close behind him.