"Well done. Here come the test results: You are a horrible person. I'm serious, that's what it says: A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that." Chell snorted. Let GLaDOS rattle about and insult her all she wanted, it wasn't going to get to her. She walked into the elevator that had been waiting for her and leaned against the glass wall once it started to descend. Chell sighed. Poor Wheatley, she though as the image of the core getting crushed under the deathly grip of the claw played over again in her head. It made her stomach twitch. Like she didn't have enough horrible and worrying memories already.

When the lift came to a halt, Chell firmed her grip on the Portal gun, ready for the next test. GLaDOS voice came over the speakers once the test subject entered the chamber. "Don't let that horrible person thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep."

Chell squirmed, trying to hold back any sign of emotion on her features. GLaDOS hadn't been able to mentally defeat her before, and she wasn't going to let her win now either. Chell glanced around the room, trying to concentrate on solving the test. Two lasers, a cube, a portal here and a portal there. Simple enough. She portal-ed onto a ledge to get a discouragement redirection cube and jumped onto the platform that was increased in the middle of the chamber. She carefully placed the cube in the way, turning it a bit so the laser got redirected into a spot on the wall. Just as she was about to put the last portals in place, she noticed something in the corner of her eye.

Curiosity got the better of her and Chell walked towards the hole in the wall. Behind it was a small room, hidden between the panels of the test chamber. The walls were covered in drawings and writings. It must be another one of those little hide outs she'd found in earlier tests as well. It was clear that someone else had been looking for a place to safely hide from the camera's and the all-seeing-eye of the supercomputer. She dropped down, crushing some empty bean cans under her boots. Chell carefully ran a finger over the chalk and paint on the walls, leaving white dust on her fingertips. There were words written in black marker that caught her attention. They're watching.

That was odd, normally a message like that would refer to GLaDOS watching through the camera's. But now it said they. What was that supposed to mean?

Chell jumped a little at the sound of loud static. She quickly turned around and noticed a small radio in the corner that started to play a soft tune. It felt somehow familiar, but she couldn't place it through all the loud static. Letting out a small sigh in relief, she went back to concentrate on the drawings on the wall, trying to make sense of it. To anyone else they just looked like weird scribbles of a mad man who had gone insane in the lonely depths of the labs, but Chell knew better. Some of the messages were warnings or held any form of important information and they had helped her in the past as well. The cake is a lie. Chell shook her head, trying to get that horrible memory out of her head, of the day she almost got burned alive in the incinerator. The day she'd defeated GLaDOS. The day she almost had her freedom.

She closed her eyes for a second, trying to bring back one of the few memories she enjoyed. The one where she lay outside, in the sun, surrounded by the falling pieces of her nemesis. A short, beautiful glimpse of her freedom, before she'd been dragged back into the bowels of Aperture Science.

''Exile. It takes your mind.

You've got sucker's luck

Have you given up?''

The soft melody played into her mind, filling that helpless, painful and scared feeling deep inside of her. She'd been so close. Chell frowned. No, she wouldn't give up. Never. No matter what it took; even if she had to solve every damn test that existed, if she had to kill GLaDOS again or burn this whole place to the ground… She was going to get her freedom back.

Chell exhaled determined, blowing some life back into her exhausted body. She opened her eyes again that immediately feel upon a small writing, the letters painted in a dark red color, that caught her attention.

The only way to win their game is not to play.

She frowned. These messages were like insolvable puzzles sometimes. Talking about puzzles, she should get back to the test before GLaDOS was going to get suspicious about where her test subject had gone. So Chell turned her back towards the wall with drawings and moved on to solve her test.

-0-

Chell stared around the room. According to the white panel to her left she was at test chamber 8. ''This next test involves emancipation grills. Remember? I told you about them in the last test area, that did not have one."

The test subject rolled her eyes in annoyance. The test she'd solved earlier had held a companion cube. Well, multiple of them since GLaDOS liked to fizzle the cubes just to impeded her throughout the chamber, making her go back for a new one every time. Eventually, through all the teasing she'd completed it. Only to go back in and get her companion cube when it turned out that emancipation grill was broken. But when Chell walked towards the elevator in triumph, GLaDOS just disabled the cube like the others and ended up helpfully reminding the test subject how must of an unlikable person she was and making fun of her how she had so desperately searched for companionship. Chell, of course, didn't let her see the somewhat hurt feeling inside of her. She couldn't believe she had fallen for her tricks.

But it won't happen a second time, the woman in orange thought to herself as she walked further into the chamber. Suddenly the room shook and the lights started flickering. The AI let out a frustrated sigh. "Ohhh, no. The turbines again. I have to go. Wait. This next test does require some explanation. Let me give you the fast version."

She started talking in incredibly high speed that only a computer would be able to do and understand. "There. If you have any questions, just remember what I said in slow motion. Test on your own recognizance, I'll be right back."

And so she left the confused test subject to her own devices. Chell just shook her head, not even trying to make sense of the gibberish the supercomputer had just said. It probably wouldn't be useful anyway if she had been able to slow it down. It didn't take her too long to solve the test. Once the cubes, lasers and portals were in the right place, the exit door opened allowing the her to continue. This time there weren't insulting comments getting fired at her the second she completed the chamber, and Chell came to the conclusion she enjoyed the silence for a while.

The elevator had brought her to the next test. This one seemed to be a bit more complex as it had more parts that needed to be solved in a specific order. So now these chambers came in to play, but it formed no problem for her. Chell looked down at the aerial faith plate on the ground, then at the portal-able platform on the ceiling right above it. The test subject understood what to do and shot an orange portal on the ceiling and the other above the ledge that she should be able to reach this way.

She stepped onto the panel that shot her upwards, but Chell couldn't reach the portal. Instead she looked Wheatley right in the eye as he happily greeted her. "Hey! Hey! It's me! I'm okay!" But gravity seemed to have other plans and pulled her back down once her momentum had faded. She landed safely on the floor, but much to her frustration the aerial faith plate didn't shoot her back up and instead started making a beeping noise.

"Well, I'm back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it, didn't you." Chell ignored her. Wheatley was alive! He was truly alive. Relief washed over her as GLaDOS got the panel working again and launched her back up in the air.

She smiled at the sight of the little core chattering on and on like he didn't even noticed she fell back down again. "You'll never believe what happened! There I was, just lying there, you thought I was done for, but -"

And she landed again. How long was this going to go on like this? "Hmm. This plate must not be calibrated to someone of your... generous... ness. I'll add a few zeros to the maximum weight."

Chell tapped impatiently with her foot, waiting for GLaDOS to finish up with whatever she was doing. And she was sure those beeping noises, like she was adding twenty zero's or more behind that maximum weight number was just an audio file the supercomputer played to try and insult the girl.

"Try it now."

And up she went again. "A bloody bird! Right? Couldn't believe it either.'' Chell gave a funny look. A… Bird?

"You seem to have defeated its load-bearing capacity. Well done. I'll just lower the ceiling." And the platform above came down, the orange portal disappeared as portals couldn't hold onto moving surfaces and Wheatley got sealed off. Well at least he was alright and that fact gave Chell some hope.

She shot the portal back in place and stepped onto the panel again, only this time she managed to reach the portal and shot through. On the other side of the chamber was another high ledge which led to the exit, that she could only reach with the help of portals. There were multiple platforms which were tilted a little, obviously places where she had to use momentum to rocked out of the portals.

So Chell got to work. It was a lot of walking back and forth, causing her to pant tiredly when she had finally managed to solve the test. At least flying through the air was cooling against her sweated skin and (she had to admit) it was pretty fun to do as well. "Look at you. Sailing through the air majestically. Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp."

Oh the fat jokes. Chell ignored it though and went back to the elevator. The working effect of adrenaline pumping through her veins started to become tiring, but she managed to drag herself out the lift again with the thought of Wheatley still being alive. It was somewhat comforting to know that he was out there, somewhere and that she wasn't entirely alone with the supercomputer.

Suddenly the door closed right before her, almost crushing the test subject's foot she had almost put between it. GLaDOS stupid little game of teasing her really started to get on her nerves. Chell searched for a camera to glare at, when she got the shock of her life when the whole room behind her was just… gone. It looked like a giant hand had ripped the room in half, but what made her worry was that there was nothing behind it. Just white. It stretched out for as far as she could see. The edges of where the walls flowed over into the white landscape slowly broke loose, like little pixels that jumped into oblivion. It almost looked like a glitch in time and space and it left Chell frozen in place, shocked to do anything.

A blue screen popped up out of thin air. There were words written over it, but they were all mirrored. Suddenly a ringing sound echoed through the room. Like a phone was going over, waiting to be answered. A dark, blurry figure came into view which stood up and walked away.

''Yeah yeah. I'm coming.'' A voice said annoyed. It sounded distanced and it was hard to make out what it said, it was like a person was talking from behind glass in a secluded room. Chell swallowed as she watched the figure leave. This really isn't funny anymore, GLaDOS. She thought to herself. There was something seriously wrong.

After a few moments of just standing there, staring into oblivion, Chell exhaled as her lungs almost begged her for oxygen. Nothing had really changed since all that had just happened, so she figured she could move again as well. Once the shock had died off a little, she dared to walk up to the blue screen. Chell concentrated on reading, trying to put the letters backwards to make some sense out of it.

Return to game

Save game

Load last save

Options

Exit to main menu

Chell frowned. This was all really confusing. When she raised her hand and carefully reached out, she accidentally hit the Options button and a new screen opened up. It was a big list with things she didn't really understand. Curiosity washed over her and Chell felt her fingers itch with the need to see what the rest did. So she touched the small beam that said Brightness and moved her hand from left to right. The world around her gave a weird effect of changing from darker to lighter based on which way she moved her arm. That was interesting.

She tried some other things like Resolution and Display mode, changing it from Full screen to Window. But nothing really changed. She even tried the audio that had the option of Music for some reason. She put it all the way up, but she didn't hear any music. Weird.

Chell exited out of the Options menu with one press on a button, coming back to the other screen from before. The test subject stared curiously at the words displayed in the air. Maybe this was just some weird system to control the test chambers, she reasoned since she could change the lightning and audio. GLaDOS probably let this happen on accident then. Chell looked over her shoulder at the still closed door. Maybe there was a way for her to open it. Or even better, use this opportunity to her advantage and escape. She nibbled at her lower lip, getting the tiniest bit excited to try and escape from GLaDOS grasp again. The only problem now was, how did she do it?

She carefully reached out, just choosing randomly what to press. Her fingers stroke over the words Load Last Save and suddenly everything started moving. It was like the walls and floor got sucked away. Chell glanced around, watching as the fell lights and colors flashed around her. Suddenly a small booming sound echoed through the room and everything was back to normal. Just her in the elevator room and an open door to the test chamber. The blue screen had disappeared, but Chell figured it didn't matter now that she could progress. But much to her disbelief and shock, she was back in the test she had just solved. Confused, she stared down at the faith plate on the ground.

She stepped onto it and got lanced in the air again. "Hey! Hey! It's me! I'm okay!"

"Well, I'm back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it, didn't you." Chell eyed the camera on the wall in confusion, taking shuddering breaths as she tried to make sense of what the hell was happening. GLaDOS had already said that before, right?

Chell blinked, feeling like she was going to collapse right then and there as a mean headache bounced inside her head. The nausea became even worse when she suddenly got shot back up again as she hadn't noticed GLaDOS had fixed the panel again.

"You'll never believe what happened! There I was, just lying there, you thought I was done for, but -"He had said that before! Chell growled in irritation, not understanding what to do or what to think. This whole scenario just made her head hurt.

The whole thing had repeated itself and when Chell was finally in a moment of peace, when the ceiling had been lowered and both of the AI's had finally shut up, she sighed. Just a regular deep sigh to calm herself down. Maybe it was just a déjà-vu, or maybe she actually had brain damage. Or maybe….It was time travel. Had she really traveled back in time by pressing that button in the menu? Was that even possible?

Chell shook her head, trying to get rid of all these confusing thoughts. She'd have figure it out later, first just solve this test… again. It took her not longer than a minute or two since she knew what to do this time. And when the exit door opened for her, she could hear her thoughts speak together with GLaDOS' voice. "Look at you. Sailing through the air majestically. Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp."

I'm losing it, Chell thought as she made her way to the lift. I'm really losing it.

Hey guys. First of I want to thank all of you for reading my story so far and especially the people who left those nice reviews. It really motivates me to write. Also I noticed we're almost at a 500 readers and that is mind blowing to me (it might not be a lot compared to bigger fanfictions but still) and I'm so happy about that! Thank you all so much!

Now a few little things about this chapter. It's a little longer than the others. That is because the first part was too small to be a chapter on it's own so I combined the two together what causes this to be a little longer. And a little thing for all you critical readers out there, yes I know that once you entred the elevators in the game that it automatially saves, so it wouldn't really be possible for Chell to end up in the last chamber when she reloads since the safe file had been overwritten. But I think we can look through that for the story's sake.

Also, I feel watched now whenever I pause the game. Lmao.