Chapter 3- Nothing But Secrets
"For the last time, I didn't do ANYTHING to her!"
"That's a lie!" yelled Wheatley to the ceiling. "I saw you pick her up! What did you do?"
"Please, I implore you...SHUT UP AND TEST."
"No! Not until you tell the truth!" He sat down and crossed his arms, dropping the portal gun in the process.
"How about this?" responded GLaDOS2, and several explosives came out and aimed themselves at Wheatley. "You shut your trap and test, and I don't blow you to smithereens!"
Wheatley grabbed the portal gun and scrambled to his feet. "Never mind," he said hastily. "What's the next test?"
A door opened without an answer, and Wheatley stepped through. "I have things to do. Try not to die, OK?" Wheatley nodded and she was gone. He couldn't help but feel panicked. Where was Chell? What had happened to her? Would he ever see her again? He needed her. He needed her so much...
Chell woke up. This had to be the third time she'd woken up after an unnatural nap in the middle of Aperture. "Welcome back. You should be able to speak now."
She looked up at the ceiling in defiance, and out came her first words:
"I don't like you."
"I don't care," replied GLaDOS2, and the door opened. Chell got to her feet and staggered into GLaDOS's chamber. She'd never really payed attention to the appearance of the villainous AI. She looked exactly like GLaDOS, only with a purplish-pink eye. Chell didn't like it. Not one bit. "Alright, so, you need to know your job."
"I get it. I'm your nosy blabbermouth."
"No!" cried GLaDOS from her cage. "Not you too! Don't listen to her! She's lying!"
Chell gave her a sorrowful, slightly confused look, and GLaDOS stopped.
"I'm afraid she made a deal with me," said GLaDOS2, not sounding afraid in the least.
"Not a fair one," grumbled Chell loudly enough for GLaDOS to hear. "I'm sorry. She was going to kill him."
GLaDOS nodded, understanding. She guessed she still had a vague collection of Caroline's memories, and she'd loved Cave. It seemed strange to her. Love, love seemed strange. Strange, and yet she wanted to understand it...
She shook herself. Ridiculous. She was being ridiculous. Stupid Caroline, being in her head, interrupting her thoughts.
Chell had her arms crossed. "Why do you need me in the first place?"
"Talking seems surprisingly easy for you. How-"
"That wasn't my question."
"Well, technically, she-" She gestured to Galaxa. "- is for doing my dirty work, and you are for snooping around and lying and such."
Soon Galaxa was next to Chell. She held out a hand. "Nice to meet you."
Chell raised an eyebrow and slowly shook her hand.
"I'm Galaxa. It's good to have you on the team."
Chell gave her an incredulous look and pulled her hand away quickly. "What?"
"What's your name?"
Chell looked at her, frightened, as if Galaxa had some sort of disease. What was wrong with her? "Chell. My name is Chell."
"I told you not to listen," GLaDOS mumbled. "She replaced Galaxa's memories."
"Shut up! You're in no position to lie!" Galaxa shouted at her.
Chell nervously turned to GLaDOS2. "What do you want with me?"
"Oh, I'll find a use for you. Trust me...Oh! Wait! I know! Since I don't have a job for you, you can be a different kind of test subject."
On a screen near her materialized the words, "Experiment: Human's Response to Emotional Pain".
"Oh yes," said GLaDOS2, "this will be an entertaining test indeed..."
Rick sat hunched in a corner. Why did Galaxa not want to test with him? He'd thought she loved him. Had something happened to her? Did she no longer care for him? His hand automatically drifted to his lips. He'd thought she'd be dying to see him again.
He was dying to see her.
"Why the long face?" asked an unwelcome voice. Rick concealed his grimace. He was sick of her by now.
"What do you think?" he growled.
"You miss her, don't you?" asked GLaDOS2. "Well, I understand. But someone who would walk out on you just doesn't deserve you. I mean, she must've been lying all that time."
"With all due respect," Rick grumbled, "you're not exactly helping."
"Look, honestly, what's the point of worrying when you can just forget her and start over...Perhaps, with someone new."
"If you're talking about GLaDOS-"
"I'm not. All I'm saying is that maybe you cane find someone." Rick felt a chill. He didn't like her butting into his life. And he wasn't sure what she was trying to get at.
"Why do you keep me here?"
"Well, it's not safe anywhere else."
"What about your chamber?"
There was a pause. "Trust me, that would be my first choice, but as much as I l- I mean, would like to trust you, I can't. You could bust your friend out. And I have to keep an eye on her."
"Yeah, well, you make me uneasy. I don't wanna be rude, but, please leave."
"Uneasy?...Well, I can think of a reason why me being here makes you, as you say, UNEASY. I'll leave."
She'd told the truth. She was gone. Rick groaned. What did she mean? Why did she have to be so damn confusing?
Ralph finally made it from under the wall. Tricking the panels had been hard. But he'd done it. He really had.
He looked around. Ah, his faithful water bottles and bean cans. He remembered those. Some turrets made a few friendly beeps at him. He waved, and even smiled, for the first time in a long while. He continued to the staircase.
No, this place was not anything like it had been in its glory days. He could hear everything creak. There was rust growing like moss on the metal. A couple of times a few lights would flicker, as if trying to stay alive. If he recalled correctly, his destination was to the right. So he headed in that direction. It would take GLaDOS2 ages to figure it out. He still couldn't believe he'd done it. But he had.
Ralph Rattmann had escaped.
GLaDOS2 turned to GLaDOS. "Depressed yet?"
GLaDOS looked at her angrily. "Annoyed, yes. Bored, certainly. Depressed? Not a chance."
"This isn't working..." GLaDOS2 muttered.
"So this whole thing is just to make me sad?" GLaDOS asked. "Why would you want to make me-"
"Do you know how to make all the cameras in the facility work?"
"I'm afraid that wasn't-"
"They're not operating."
GLaDOS narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "No. No I don't."
GLaDOS2 grumbled in frustration. "He must have turned them off," she concluded, then made a small, peculiar noise, as if she'd said something wrong.
"Who?"
"No one! No one!" GLaDOS2 almost screamed.
"Wow. You are a horrible liar."
There was no reply. GLaDOS frowned. Who wanted this for her? Chell was captured and so was Wheatley, Galaxa was female so it didn't match with "he", and everyone else was dead.
Weren't they?
Hey, guys! It's me! I just noticed the lack of questions on the Ask Galaxa/GLaDOS blog, and so I'd just like to kindly remind you guys its URL, which is changing because the blog is changing. I'm going to let you guys choose any of the characters from my fanfictions to ask! So the new URL is longer: askmanchitasffcharacters(dot)tumblr(dot)com. Do check it out. I promise it's worth it! :)
Thanks again!
~Manchita
