The trio walked through the darkness of old Aperture's facilities. With the exception of their footsteps, the silence was almost deafening.

Kronos looked about, seeing strange pictures, drawings, and words written all over the walls. The scattered pieces of cubes, turrets, and an occasional puddle of gel littered the floor.

Katie started moving closer to Kronos, whispering only loud enough for the testing bot to hear, "I hear voices..."

The two kids stopped in their tracks, not noticing Doug walk ahead of them.

Kronos's optic widened in fear, "V-voices...?"

Katie nodded, holding Kronos's arm. "I think I know this place..."

Kronos's motor started to run at a higher rate, "Y-you do...?"

Katie nodded, "This place...i-is haunted by the voices of turrets. A long time ago, the old caretaker of the turret production line went crazy from neurotoxin...and he destroyed his entire staff of robots..."

Kronos shivered, "Creepy..."

Katie squeezes Kronos's arm, "I don't like this place...Let's get out of here..."

Kronos nodded, "Yeah."

Katie looked around, "Wait, w-where's...?"

Kronos's optic shifted around the room, "Rattman? Hello?"

clang!

Katie jumped, one hand flew straight for her waist where she kept her weapons.

"Hello...?" She called out, her red eyes scanning the room for any movement.

Without warning, Kronos's arm was ripped out of her grasp, followed by a scream from the bot. Katie drew her weapons and opened fire in the direction he was taken. The sound of bullets hitting metal was heard, but nothing else.

Katie stopped firing for a moment, "Kronos...? Kronos? Where are you!"

She suddenly realized something she hadn't thought of, "Rattman!" she yelled aloud, "I knew there was something weird about him! I knew it!

Katie reloaded her weapons and readied herself to fire, "Give Kronos back, you creep!"

A familiar green light appeared in the darkness.

Her eyes widened, and she lowered her guns, "Kronos?"

He didn't answer, she only saw the glow of his optic in the dark. "Hang on, I'm coming!" Katie quickly made her way over to her friend and found him tied to a metal support beam. He was struggling to free himself, but he didn't say a word.

Confused, Katie knelt beside him, "A-are you okay? Why won't you say anything?"

"Because I disconnected his audio..." a voice behind her said.

Katie leapt up and jumped out of the way of a cutting laser, retrieving her firearms. "Rattman! Show yourself, you coward!"

She suddenly tripped over a broken conveyor belt, looking up, she saw something that shocked her even more.

It was Rattman, tied up and a cloth tied around his mouth, making him unable to speak.

"Thank you for assuming the party escort submission position..." a droning voice said.

Katie jumped to her feet and dodged another laser. Firing her gun in the direction of the voice. "Let them go!"

The laser fired once more, this time burning her wrist and causing her to drop one gun into the abyss below.

Katie saw the Party Escort Bot dart across the shadows. She heard footsteps behind her, and immediately turned and fired. Her aim was perfect, sending a bullet in the optic of the detanged robot, blinding it. Once it couldn't see, she aimed for the vital mechanics and fired rapidly.

Once the mechanical menace was dead on the ground, Katie stood there shaking with both fear and adrenalin. She lowered her gun, and stared at the lifeless chassis of the Escort Bot. She simply brushed it off like another gunned down test subject, and returned to Kronos and Rattman.

"Can you fix Kronos?" Katie asked as she began untying the former scientist.

"I'll do what I can." he answered.

After untying Kronos, Rattman went to work repairing his audio processors. He opened up a panel in Kronos's back, revealing a plethora of wires, plugs, and buttons.

Katie stared in awe at how advanced Kronos was compared to his parents. Kronos tried to turn his core to see what Rattman was doing.

"Here...hold still for a second..." Rattman said, turning him back.

"He's trying to fix you so you can talk again." Katie explained.

Kronos nodded to indicate that he understood.

With surgical precision, Rattman located two halves of a severed cord, and put them back together. With a spark of electricity, the two cords connected by themselves.

"Ow!" Kronos yelled.

Katie sighed with relief, "Thank God, you're alright..."

Kronos's optic shutter upturned in his trademark smile, "Yeah, I was worried I was going to be mute for the rest of my life! ...And that's forever..."

Katie gave him a quick hug, "I'm glad you're alright. Now let's get out of here. This place is freaking me out."

"You two go on without me." Rattman said.

"Why? You could come back with us." Katie offered.

"No, She'd kill me if She ever saw my face here. It's better if you go on without me."

And just like that, he turned and left without another word.


A/N: I've been watching a playthrough of Amnesia: The Dark Descent lately... O_o So that should explain the creepiness in this chapter. Which I apologize for. I don't own Portal 2 or any of it's characters. Except Kronos, he belongs to me. :3 And Katie belongs to Keroa here on FanFiction, a.k.a. Wolf-Shadow77 on DeviantArt.