A/N: Hey hey hey Portal fandom!

Thanks for all of the reviews so far! I know I say that in every chapter, but I can't help it! I love you guys! Love~ I love you for loving this story which I love writing to allow you to love it!

Anyway, enjoy, and keep those amazing reviews coming!

I never believed it when they told me that if I ever went into sleep mode that I would die. Not for a second.

Until now.

I was a core the first time I awoke. A broken core, mind you, but still a nice little robotic ball. She was holding me by one of her monstrous arms again, and I suddenly had a replay of what happened previously when I found myself in the same situation.

"Oh, you're awake. I wanted you to see something." GLaDOS said, slowly turning me so I was able to see the view of a camera. I never remembered seeing the Aperture Science Medical Department before. Must have been new, considering that the facility had never once cared about the well-being of its employees, much less the injuries they received.

And then I saw her.

She was lying on a small bed, obviously unconscious, with various scrapes and bruises more apparent through the tint of her pale skin. It was Chell. There was a clearer gash above her eyebrow, dried crimson making a sly little trail down the side of her head. Broken was the word to describe it. The only word.

What have I done?

"I can feel your emotions, you know. That's the one thing the scientists kept between us. You're guilty."

Her voice barely registered in my mind. I was too focused on the damage my own actions had inflicted upon my only friend. Well... ex-friend now. How could she ever forgive me for that?

"She won't." Does that monster ever shut up?

"What is this, some kind of bloody guilt trip...?" I muttered. I could feel the cold twinge of metal rubbing against metal as the arm tightened its grip on me ever more. I let out a small whimper of fear.

"I should kill you. You deserve to die. Taking over and almost destroying my facility. Putting me into a potato. Trying to murder her." I stole a glance at Chell again. "But, I think killing you instantly is too good. You can blame Caroline for what I'm going to do."

For one, I had absolutely no idea who this Caroline was, and for two, I was scared out of my metallic skin with whatever idea she had planned for me. Dying seemed like such a better option, now that I thought about it.

"Do anything you want... I deserve it, you're right." I sighed, lowering my optic. Her orange stare seemed to go right through me, and it made me all the more frightened.

"I know you do. Which is why I'm doing this. Terrible dreams, imbecile." With that, she tightened the arm and easily crushed me like a tin can.

I knew something was wrong when I had my first nightmare.

Cores never were able to dream. Machines never were able to dream, either. We didn't need sleep like humans. It made us all the better, according to someone named Cave Johnson. We worked faster than humans ever wished they could.

I just had to have a bloody dream about being a monster, didn't I? Oh, yes, as if my mind wasn't already fried to a crisp with guilt.

One by one, those cores had been attached to me. I had a blurry flashback about something to do with cores in general, (brain mapping, I think) but it rushed by too fast to focus on. The only thing that pinned itself to my memory was the new-found fact that cores had once been human. The rest, I couldn't, nor wanted, to remember.

"Are we going to SPACE?" asked this orange-opticted core. I assumed it was made to spurt out never-ending hyper-voiced monologues about space. It interrupted my trail of thought – every time I said something to Chell, every time I fired a bomb, it had to have its own little input. About space.

"Agh! The bloody bombs are stuck–!"

"Are the bombs in space?"

"Doesn't matter, I've reconfigured the shields!"

It was no use ignoring the voices. Adding two more cores onto me made it impossible. Their blubbering never ceased, and it was actually painful to hear, like having too many brains crammed into one head. Why was she trying to hurt me?

"I can't hear myself think! Bloody hell, shut up! All three of you!"

"THAT THORN IS GOING TO TAKE YOU DOWN, YOU CHINA CABNET–"

"You can see China from space!"

"Fact: you can see the Great Wall of China from space."

She kept using my own bombs against me until I was corrupted enough for another core-transfer. I wasn't about to give this body up so easily, though. Didn't she know that? She would fall right into part five of my trap, I knew it. And then the adopted fatty would be dead. Everything would be fine.

"Bloody – what do you think you're DOING?"

Oh, no. I thought I took care of that voice earlier. It was something that GLaDOS had refereed to as her "conscience" in a small file in the mainframe. I tried to delete it – multiple times, but it just kept popping back up.

"She helped you! You helped her! You are friends!" Ha, what a lie. I deleted the voice again, it would only be temporary, but the less ramblings the better.

I didn't know what I was feeling anymore besides pain from all of these cores sticking onto me. Each one brought a different sensation. The space one brought a strange burning, the adventure one a stabbing, and the fact a stinging. It was like being stabbed, stung, and burned repeatedly. No mercy. No... nothing. Was this android hell? Because it sure felt like it.

"Stop... stop..."

The explosion of the bombs.

"Part five: booby trap the stalemate button!" I felt no sense of triumph inside, but my shout was swimming with it.

"During the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, booby trap bombs were often used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army to kill British Army soldiers and Royal Ulster Constabulary officers."

"Booby traps were used in Vietnam, I remember that. I invented the Grenade in a Can." Please make it stop.

"Booby traps are in space. Black holes are booby traps." Just. Stop.

There were the cores, the Itch rearing its ugly little head again, the plan, the numerous bomb-hits, the frustration of it all, and the guilt.

"Why did you ever think this was a good idea?"

Oh, add Conscience to the list too.

What if she was really dead? She hadn't moved for at least minute. There was something tugging at me, some thread of who I once was, just a small AI in a small sphere in a small world with a small idea. It was my humanity. My sanity. I severely regretted everything I had done on that split moment when I felt like myself again. But then I saw the blood. A pool of deep red that boomed from under her.

She was dead.

But what I hadn't realized was the fact that she had managed to press the Stalemate Button before the bombs exploded.

I looked down from the gory lifeless body to find what looked like thousands of tiny, scrambling screwdrivers, all getting ready to dissect me from my mainframe.

Then there was nothing but pain.

My optics quickly snapped open and I blinked multiple times to get used to the off-white light and quality of the room. I had never had a dream, and that was one of the most horrific things I had ever experienced. Never again would I let her put me into sleep m–

Wait... optics? Plural? Why would I have two of them? Last time I checked, which was who-knows-how-long, I had only one.

I gasped, and then gasped at the sensation of taking my first breath. Of air. Into my lungs. Which hadn't existed before. Because I wasn't...

I wasn't human before.

I slowly let the recycled air flow out of my new... nose? It was quite an odd feeling, breathing. In and out, evenly. Wow.

I blinked again and winced at the sudden stabbing, burning, and stinging feeling that I had experienced in my nightmare. It was right above my optics– eyes? –and was slightly more painful now that I could feel my pulse in my head. I had a bloody pulse? This had to be android hell.

"Ohh... ouch..."

At least I had the same voice. Well, it was a slight mumble, but my old voice nonetheless. She hadn't done something like try to make me into some kind of female, so that was a plus. I began to experiment with my new body a bit, flexing the fingers on my right hand. Oh, it felt tremendous to move, even if all of my limbs felt like lead.

I began to reach up to ease the searing pain in my forehead when I noticed the small clear tube trailing out from my wrist. It was an intravenous drip feed, or as the humans say, IV. That stung as well, making It probable that it had just recently been eased into my vein. I lowered my hand suddenly as I felt something cold slide through the small tube and into my skin.

It was either A: a sedative, or B: a painkiller. Or a mix of both, which I immediately assumed as my mind slowly fogged over with a sluggish feeling of bliss. It was frighteningly similar to the euphoric response from testing, but it felt so much better as a human. That was the scary part.

"Hm." The curious hum of an all-too-human voice jolted my eyes open. I hadn't even realized they were closed. "And I thought you were too much of an idiot to be able to feel such a thing."

"W-what...?" I was still getting used to the fact that to speak I actually had to open up my mouth and move it at the same time. It was... amazing.

"Your reaction to a natural painkiller is normal to that of a real human's. I was just making sure."

"What was that for, a-anyways...? Was it painkiller-poison?" I propped myself clumsily on my elbows, looking at the small camera where she was obviously observing me.

"No, idiot. It was a simple opiate. That was..." she paused, most likely calculating whatever sentient insane AI's calculate in their insane AI mind. "That was test ten. Already. I've done so much to you while you were unconscious, and you have no clue or intellect to realize it."

"What did you do to me?" I swallowed slowly, fumbling with my fingers. I hadn't even been in this body for twenty four hours and had already developed a nervous habit.

"Lots of things. Of course, you've been out for nearly two days, so there was plenty of time to try out a few new... experiments."

I didn't like the sound of that at all. Not one bit. I took a deep breath, in and out, hoping it would calm me, even though the painkiller had worked its magic, putting me into a slightly sleepy state.

"Would you mind telling me what you did? Besides the whole human part? Because that, I noticed."

She sighed, exasperated. "Fine. Do you see that pendant there, on your neck?" I absentmindedly grasped for it, and felt the smooth marble on my fingertips. I attempted to raise an eyebrow, because when humans do that, it usually means that they are looking for an explanation.

"That's what was left of your old form."

The grip on the small half-sphere tightened as if I was trying to protect it from her. What had she done?

If this tiny thing was all that was left...

"The rest of your core is probably – hopefully – somewhere in android hell." Wonderful. Now I would have to be a smelly human forever. Unless there was some way I could re-activate myself into another core.

"...Alright. Okay. I'm... I'm... managing not to freak out. Not a problem. What else did you do?" I tilted my head a little to the side and ran a head through my hair. It was surprisingly soft. The sense of smell, sound, touch. Wow.

"Oh, just inserted a microchip in your skull. So if you decide to try and escape again, I'll be able to pin-point your location."

I nodded in understanding and blinked several times. She was smart, that was for sure. I gently touched my forehead where the pain had been, and found small little things imbedded in the skin. Stitches? That must have been where she inserted the microchip.

"Did you purposely make me half-blind?" I replied, rubbing my eyes. I could barely see a thing. Blurry blobs of color and shapes. Human bodies were so... un-advanced. Their immune systems were totally crap, they could easily get injured or die, and they smelled. Badly.

"No, I just got lucky with the body I picked out for you. Look on the table, idiot. There should be glasses. It says here on your file that your eyesight is twenty over one hundred. That is bad."

"I'm not an idiot!" I shouted, groping the table – or what I thought was the table – until I felt the small sides of glasses. I carefully placed them on my nose and pushed them up, smiling to myself as everything became clear. Much better.

"Now, for your first test, I want you to stand. Or attempt to. This will be entertaining." she said. I gave her my best glare and swung my legs clumsily over the side of the bed. I wiggled my toes and then tried to stand. I was shaky on my feet – it felt odd to balance on these stilt-like legs. How did humans do it?

"Good enough. Now lie back down before you pull your intravenous drip feed from your wrist. If you do that, you will bleed to death."

I immediately fell back down onto the blankets.

"H-how are you going to take it out, then?" I retorted, crossing my arms without bothering the little tube in my arm.

"You'll see."

I didn't like that tone at all. It was her "I have something evil planned for you" tone.

My eyelids fluttered open and I groaned. I fell asleep? I either hadn't had a dream, or I did and just didn't remember. I was hoping for the former.

Sitting up was much easier than before. I was far from getting used to this body, though. I saw that the IV on my wrist had been replaced with a small bandage, and I rubbed the area around it softly. It was sore, and slightly bruised.

"It's about time you woke up. Now we can really start the testing."

"A-already? So soon? Because... Heh, I don't think I'm ready for any t-testing..." I anxiously fiddled with the blue pendant clasped onto my neck.

"You're right. You need something to eat first. You've already had plenty of sleep, so you should be able to stay conscious for at least twenty-four hours worth of test chambers."

Twenty-four hours? I thought humans needed at least eight hours out of that number. They slept for one-third of their lives, after all.

I felt a pang of something that could only be described as hunger in my middle. I put a hand over my stomach and glanced at the camera. Its never-blinking red eye stared back. "Something to... eat, sounds like a good idea, actually. If you don't mind."

"Combustible lemons or cake?"

"U-uh. Er... I'll go with cake. Cake sounds better than exploding lemons, if I do say so." I squirmed uncomfortably, waiting for my... meal, as I should call it, to arrive. There was a small ping sound from a clear, wide tube on the side of the wall, and a slice of brown cake was waiting for me. It did look appetizing...

"Ah! It's poisoned, isn't it?" I exclaimed, pointing a finger at her little camera. "You want me dead!"

"If I'm going to test on you, you have to be alive. Idiot. Now, eat. I don't have all day."

Reluctantly, I picked up the small plate in one hand and a fork in the other. Humans... how did they eat? They put the food in their mouth... chew it... and swallow. Sounded easy enough. I poked a small piece off and stuck the fork in my mouth. Huh. So that's what cake tasted like. It made me wonder vaguely if the lemons had a different flavor. "I have to say, I'd like vanilla next time." I mumbled through a mouthful.

Wait. ...How did I know what vanilla tasted like? Strange.

I shook my head and finished off the piece of cake, sliding the plate and fork back into the small tube and wiping my mouth just in case there were any crumbs. I hate to admit it, but that was delicious.

"Oh, good. You're done. Now we can get started." The door on the side of the room opened slowly, and I cautiously stepped through into a plain deserted hallway, using the wall for balance. Papers littered the ground, and it was ghostly and quiet. I bent over, nearly falling flat on my face, still not used to having legs and arms, and picked up one of them. It felt like it could crumble to dust in my hands. It was crisp and wrinkled and tan with age.

Core Transfer Project: GLaDOS Behavioral Testing

Core name: Intelligence Dampening Sphere

Real name of employee: [Redacted] Merchant

Purpose/what are you going to do to this guy?: Take his memories, store them in his own hard drive so that they are inaccessible unless something reminds him of his old life. Potentially kill him and insert his intellect into a core, and edit it to our will to attempt to make GLaDOS behave.

Location of the body: Stasis pod number 1048392

I glanced back at the closed door of what had been my room. It had 1048392 engravedon it.

Oh, god. I looked back at the paper again.

Core number: 2843

Purpose of Core: To be the stupidest thing that has ever lived.

The bottom of the sheet was torn off, the jagged lines of ripped paper proving it. I stared, re-reading it again. And a third time. I read until I heard her voice again, reminding me where I was and what I was about to be forced to do.

"We're going to have lots of fun."

A/N: Ta daaaa! Took a bit longer than I would have liked, but I had to re-write the beginning, like, four times. D: Stupid OpenOffice.

I hope you liked it! Chell will be in the next chapter, silent but deadly as always. :D