Disclaimer- Valve owns Portal, I do however own Director Ross and Aiden Hall

A/N-Thanks so much for the reviews everyone!

Chapter Two: Like A Rat In A Trap

It was the second time she'd been knocked out and like the first time, waking up was a very nauseous experience for Chell.

Blinking Chell was almost positive that this time she was going to see the glass walls of the so called relaxation chamber. But no, when she had managed to clear her vision she saw that she was in the attic of the house that she had recently ran from.

A frown crossed her face at the moment. That had all really happened....hadn't it? Or had she just fallen asleep? This idea was quickly thrown away when she realized three things. One, the Portal gun was no longer with her, two the long braces on the back on her legs were all but gone. And thirdly and most importantly, there was a uniformed man standing in the corner of the room. Holding what looked like a very real gun.

At the moment he was talking into something that may have been a radio.

"She's awake now sir."

The man's attention was caught as Chell attempted to stand up. "I wouldn't do that just yet if I were you miss."

A wave of nausea proved the man right but Chell ignored it. "Or....what?" She managed to say, her voice raspy. "You'll shoot me...again?"

The man actually looked embarrassed at this. "I am sorry about that Miss. Vince really has an itchy trigger finger some times. You were intended to be met with a bit more civility."

Chell frowned even more at this, still shakily standing on her feet. "What did you do with my po...gun." She barley stopped herself from reveling what the true purpose of the gun was. Maybe this was all just a coincidence.

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say." The man replied. "But I-"

He was cut off at this, as the door to the attic opened. A woman and two men walked into the room. The woman was blonde, with her hair up in bun. She and the more nervous looking of the two men were wearing lab coats. The other was wearing the same type of uniform as the man who'd been talking to her. He was also the one to speak up.

"Hall, what have I told you about speaking while on guard duty?"

"Sorry sir." The man replied, looking down to the ground. "It won't happen again."

"It had better." The man nodded. "Now go help Steve secure the area."

"Yes sir."

With a small nod to Chell he was out the door.

Chell had watched all this with interest. She still couldn't figure out if these people were dangerous to her but she supposed she was just going to have to wait.

"Now." The woman said in a clipped tone as she walked in front of Chell. "Subject Chell, I'll have you know that a great deal of effort was put into reclaiming you. Effort that could have been used towards more profitable projects. So I trust that there will be no further trouble from you."

It was evident that this was a statement and not a question and Chell remained silent. Her hopes that this had all been just a mistake were gone.

"Good." The woman replied, seemingly happy with the silence. "Now you will be housed here for the meanwhile, as the centre is in no shape to house anyone. Guards will be keeping a close watch on you until we have a chance to upgrade this security."

Chell blinked at this, the woman was talking to her, but it didn't seem as though she were waiting for an answer.

"Good." The woman turned to the nervous looking man in the lab coat. "Now let's get back to the real business." Steeping away from the shocked women she made her way with the men down the stairs. It took Chell a few moments to realize what had just happened.

The people were out of the room before she was able to get a level head back. A guard was standing by the door, making it quite clear that she wasn't quite as free as she thought she was.

-

The day was long and Chell had nothing to do as she sat in the attic room. Once or twice she tried to speak up to the guard but he ignored her. The only time she was allowed out was a trip to the washroom that they allowed her after she'd eaten. The feeling of being a prisoner was even worse then when she'd been at the enrichment centre. As even then she had a chance to escape.

A guard escorted her back upstairs and into the attic room. She had no idea how long she was going to be left here and she really didn't want to wait to find out. Unfortunately she hadn't been able to think of an escape plan as of yet.

Sitting back on the floor sullenly she stared at the wall as she tried to think of something that could help her.

Her attention was brought away from the blank wall as she heard someone come up the stairs. Her hopes that it could be help were squashed quickly as it was just a change of guard. However, as they changed places Chell realized that she had seen this man before. It was the one who had gotten in trouble for talking to her that morning. He hadn't seemed very bad...perhaps.

"Where am I?" She managed to ask after a moment of silence. The guard looked down at her nervously.

"I'm not supposed to be talking to you." He replied, but his voice was hesitant.

"Why am I here?" Chell pressed forwards. The guard still didn't reply.

"What am I doing here?" Chell repeated, as though she hadn't heard his reply the first time.

There was silence as she looked over at him. Then glancing to the door nervously he spoke up.

"I don't know what's going on. I'm new here. They just told me to make sure you stay here. That's all."

"You don't know why?" Chell's shoulders slumped. It figured that the only guard willing to talk to her had no idea what was going on.

"They just hired me for security." The man repeated. "Something, an accident happened to a lot of the old ones. I don't know what." He shook his head. "Listen, I have no idea why you're here but it can't be for anything to bad right? And anyway, wouldn't you know what you were doing with the company?"

Chell just shook her head and went staring back at the wall. "That's true." She replied dryly. "Or it would be, if I remembered anything."

"Oh."

There was a pause.

"Well you must have worked with the company." The man put in tentatively, trying to be helpful. "After all you're wearing one of the jumps-"

"They said I was a test subject." Chell remarked and then went silently back to her observation of the wall.

"Oh." Was the only thing he could think of saying. "Well…."

The paused turned into silence.

"My names Aiden." The man tried. "I could try to find out something for you..." He trailed of hesitantly.

Chell glanced up curiously and realized why he'd trailed off. A moment later the door opened and another guard nodded at Aiden.

"You're off duty Hall."

Aiden nodded and with another glance at Chell was out the door.

As he left Chell went back to watching the wall. Was she hopeful that she might have found some help? Yes. Was she going to give up escaping on her own? Not a chance. It always paid to have more than one plan. Besides even if she did get some information from him, it didn't mean a way out.

Aiden had only been walking down the street a few minutes before a van had pulled up and ordered him in. The two guards he'd been walking back to the base with hadn't seemed too surprised at this so he just assumed this sort of thing happened a lot. He did hope that it didn't mean he was going to get fired. As strange as this job was turning out to be, he really did need the money.

As they reached their destination, he was lead into a large room that was filled with computer screens and equipment. Director Ross was standing in the centre of the mess, yelling out orders like a captain on a ship. She stopped though when she saw them approaching.

"Come with me." The director nodded to Aiden. "There's something I need to discuss with you. And you!" She turned back to the people in the room. "I expect results when I walk back into this room!"

"Follow me." She said coldly as she turned and walked over to a door.

-

"Now I know that you were talking to the Subject." The Director said as they walked down a long corridor. ""Now, tell me. What did she say to you?"

Aiden frowned as they walked into another room. "She wasn't talking to me.

"That's a lie." The woman replied with a shake of her head. "The room is wired. Visual only, at the moment I'm afraid. A very crude form of surveillance but it's the best we can do right now." She pointed to a monitor that showed the attic he'd been standing in, not nearly half an hour ago.

"So we saw you talking to the Subject. And I will give you one more chance to answer my question honestly this time or you will be fired. What did the subject say to-"

The door to the room burst open at that moment and a frantic lab hand came running in.
"Director Ross!"

The woman turned quickly, a furious expression on her face. "This had better be important."

"It's the program…" The man replied, so breathless that he didn't seem to be affected by the woman's glare. "We've managed to track it down."

"What?" The director grinned. "Excellent!" She turned to Aiden. "You, wait here." She turned back to the man who'd just run in. "Well what are you waiting for?" The man nodded quickly and set out of the room, the director on his heels.

As she rushed off Aiden glanced over at the door. Well this was just getting stranger and stranger.

Looking around the room he went over to a table and pulled himself up a seat. He wasn't really sure how long the director was going to take but it never hurt to be prepared.

-

As it turned out, it was a very good thing that he had decided to sit down. It was over an hour and Aiden was still waiting for the director to return. The only thing that kept him there for such a long time was the fact that, even though he was still fairly new there, he knew that when the director threatened to fire you, you paid attention. They'd already lost three people to the director in a bad mood. He wasn't willing to be the next to go. His job was the only thing keeping him off the streets at the moment.

It took another twenty minutes for the director to return to the room.

"Well that's done." She said more to herself, than Aiden. "Now you Ross." She addressed him as though she hadn't just been gone for over an hour. "Tell me, what did the Subject say to you?"

"She..." He'd had a lot of time to think about what he was going to tell her. It was clear that he was going to have to tell her something. "She wanted to know what was going on." He replied after a moment. "She wanted to know why she was there."

The woman nodded, a small smile on her face. "Good, then it has worked." She looked at him closely. "Very well you still have your job. However if you are caught talking to the Subject again…you'll be fired before you can say anything else."

Aiden nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you ma'am…May I go now?"

The director nodded. "You are dismissed."

Walking out into the hallway Aiden breathed a sigh of relief as he started on his way back to the guard station. He hoped he hadn't gotten her in any trouble but the director didn't seem too angry, so maybe it wasn't as bad as he thought.

Chell was starting to wonder if they had forgotten about her when the door opened to the attic. The guard on duty turned but seeing who it was resumed her normal position. It was the woman in the lab coat who had talked to her before.

"Hello again Subject Chell." The woman said with a nod, not seeming to expect a response. Chell however spoke up.

"Why am I here?"

The woman looked down at her. "You are here because the enrichment centre was destroyed. This is as good a place as any to store you at the moment."

Chell frowned at this tone. "What? Store me here...I'm a person!"

The woman shook her head. "No, you are a test subject. You belong to Aperture Science, and until we say otherwise you will be kept here."

The expression on Chell's face made it clear what she thought of that idea.

"Once the centre is rebuilt you will be back doing tests."

"And if I refuse?" Chell countered.

"You don't have a choice." The woman replied evenly.

Chell turned her head back to the wall as the Director left the room. She was going to have to find a way to escape from here. The last thing she wanted was to be trapped again. Even though GLaDOS was gone...her thoughts trailed off at this. It didn't make any sense. In the enrichment centre she'd been positive that the centre was being run by GLaDOS. Yet these people claimed that they'd been doing it.

She sighed turning to look over at the window. She could try to figure that out later. Right now she needed a plan. She didn't have the portal gun with her, working or otherwise and with the devices gone off her ankles, if she fell she wasn't going to be getting up again. Despite this she was determined to escape. She had survived countless traps, turrets and the AI herself after all. This should have been much easier.

There wasn't much in the room that she could use to help her though. Just some boxes filled with some random objects. Books, a lamp, candle sticks, just random things.

"Is it up and running yet?" The director Ross walked into the temporary control centre that had been set up.

"Almost." One of the techs replied as they sat at one of the computer stations. "We just need to make sure these firewalls are in place."

"How long will that take?"

"About twenty more minutes and then we can activate it safely."

Director Ross nodded. "Very well."

Chell's plan to escape wasn't very complicated but she was hoping it would work. It was still light out though and until it got dark she wasn't going to be able to make a move. She had what she needed though.

So leaning against the wall she closed her eyes and began to doze.

Unfortunately as she hadn't been exhausted this time or knocked out, her sleep was riddled with familiar voices and things that she'd rather forget.

She woke up with a start, the voice of the AI still echoing in her head. The guard on duty glanced over at her but didn't seem to think she was a threat at the moment.

Closing her eyes she tried to forget her dreams. She needed to be calm. The last thing she needed was to start bringing back more memories of her run through the enrichment centre.

"Can I get a drink of water?" She spoke up, causing the guard to look over at her.

"What did you say?" The man asked.

"Can I get a drink of water?" Chell repeated calmly.

The man regarded her suspiciously. "Very well, follow me."

Chell smiled as she stood up, attempting to look grateful.

As she reached the door of the room she waited for the guard to walk out. And then she hit him on the back of the head with the candlestick she'd managed to grab. She had no idea if she managed to knock him out or not as she had the door shut quickly. Making her way over to the window she opened it and crawled out. As she did she heard the guard swearing, well at least she hadn't killed him. Unfortunately since he wasn't knocked out it meant that there were going to be people after her very soon.

There was a small area of slanted room that she managed to crawl onto. She was hoping that could find someway down that wouldn't knock her out from the landing. It was times like these she was glad she wasn't afraid of heights.

She made her way over to the side of the roof, managing to keep her balance on the slanted surface. There wasn't very many ways to get down and already she could hear the people starting to come after her. She needed to get off the roof and off fast. With little options she went to the left side of the building, furthest from the window she had crawled out of. Grabbing a hold of the gutter she managed to let herself down the drainpipe. It wasn't the easiest way to the ground but it was better than jumping.

Now on the ground she quickly made her away over the back fence and into the yard beside her. It was eaiser in the dark, now she just needed a place to hide.

-

She could hear the vans coming now. The guard she had hit must have called for backup. This was not good. She managed to get over another two fences and make her way to the end of the end of the street.

Inching slowly into the driveway she was just checking on the positions of the guards when, someone grabbed her arm.

"Nice try little missy"

Chell attempted to get her arm free but it was a useless effort. The man's grip would not budge.

"Don't even think about it. You're coming with us."

Chell wasn't sure where she was. All she knew was that she had been pushed into the back of one of the vans. While the people talked in the front she had attempted to find a way out but that had failed even more. They had driven somewhere close by, something that looked like a warehouse of some sort.

She was lead into a small room that seemed to have a wall just for a machine of some sort. Chell didn't get much of a chance to look at it though as her attention was brought to the person standing in the centre of the room. The director was looking none too pleased.

"What were you thinking!" She exclaimed after Chell had looked up. "Did you really think you'd be able to run away?"

Chell stayed quiet.

"Well." The director walked up closer to her. "I'm waiting for an answer subject."

"It was worth a a try." Chell replied, bitterness added to her voice.

"Well you failed and now we're going to have to find a safer place to store you." She nodded to their surroundings. "You will stay here. This is the closest thing we have to a facility and it does make sense to store the both of you here."

"I don't..." Chell trailed off, her attention caught to the last sentence. "What do you mean both?"

"I thought you might ask that." The woman replied. Walking over to the side of the room she flipped a switch. "I trust you are familiar with the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System."

Chell took an involuntary step backwards. "GLaDOS."

Yes I know, evil.

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