When Orange and Blue were back in sight with Chell, GLaDOS could barely contain her excitement. She sent an elevator straight away and brought them right to her chamber. As soon as they stepped out, she lowered a claw and grabbed Chell, lifting her. Blue, not anticipating this, was still holding on and got lifted up with Chell, optic wide and fearful as he hung on tight.

GLaDOS yanked the claw to the side and smacked him against the wall, knocking him off of Chell. He crashed to the floor loudly right on his arm in a way that snapped it in half, but GLaDOS paid him no mind as he let out robotic shrieks of pain. Her attention was solely on the modified cube now hovering in front of her optic.

"Well, it certainly took you two long enough," she said finally, "I am extremely disappointed. Were you busy dancing or doing something equally inane? No matter, just get out."

Orange and Blue looked thoroughly chastised and headed back to the elevator, Blue clutching his broken arm to his chest, where they were sent back down.

GLaDOS focused back on Chell, turning her around gently with her claw. Chell's optic shrunk at the light spinning sensation and feeling of suspension. Suddenly, the grip of the claw tightened almost painfully and the cube vibrated in the grip, trembling as even she didn't know she was capable of doing in fear.

"Oh, that's why," the AI said in a strained voice.

The yellow optic was focused on one tiny black paint smudge on her top surface. The grip on the claw tightened even further, making slight scratches in the cube. Chell's optic became even smaller as it let out a loud burst of static, bringing GLaDOS back to attention. The grip of the claw loosened immediately, turning her to see the damage she had done.

"Sorry about that. Just, the thought of you with that schizophrenic psychopath... I hope he didn't do much damage to you. In truth, I'm surprised you made it this long without destroying yourself. He must have been occupying your mind somehow."

Chell looked up at GLaDOS, continuing to shake.

"I don't know what more you want from me!" GLaDOS said frustratedly, "I already apologized. You want a cake? Well, you have no chubby mouth to even eat it with anymore, so forget it."

Chell shut her optic and kept it shut until she felt contact with the floor. Her optic opened. GLaDOS was running her claw gently over the indented damages with a worried expression on what stood for her face.

"I won't hurt you again, well, hurt you unnecessarily. You believe me, don't you?"

Chell stopped shaking, looking up at GLaDOS. The claw picked her up again and started to lift her.

"I made some modifications to your monitoring system. I'm putting you back in there. Just as well, you need some time to process whatever it is you've been through and I'm going to look through your footage to see what you've been up to since you were gone. Don't worry... He won't get you ever again."

After being put into the improved monitoring system, Chell quickly began tinkering into the improved systems. Her cameras could now move. They were attached to cranes all around the testing chambers and she could follow Orange and Blue physically to a point if she wanted and she did. At times, she would lower herself down until she was at Level with Orange and Blue once they solved the test and watched them dance, much to the disapproval of GLaDOS.

She also disapproved of how her time was spent outside of the testing chambers.

"I placed your processing center in the music bow setting of companion cubes and you actually used it? To make sounds? Not even logical sounds for communication, but for... enjoyment? That's incredibly human of you. I'm very disappointed."

Chell never answered her. She never spoke. GLaDOS in fact had no idea if she could understand what she was saying.

"Of all things for you to pick up on, language, observation, an inside look into a very unhealthy human mind, you picked up on that thing humans and the disdaining Orange and Blue use to dance? If I gave you a body, would you do that too, move it around and jiggle like someone of significantly less intelligence? Really now, we both know you're better than that. At least I know more about where that rat's been hiding."

An entire week passed before she noticed something just barely in her line of sight. She could only see a tiny bit of it at the edge of a wall panel. Upon closer inspection, the wall panel was moved forward just an inch. She stretched out the nearest camera to press against the gap and she could make out the shadow of someone moving.

Chell instinctively reached deep into her systems, skimming her programs for that thing. That thing that made noise, like her cube. She found it and the camera rubbed the edge of it's lens against the crack as her speakers flared to life, flooding the test chamber with music, that pretty song that had been her first.

"What... That music, Lunatic, is that you?Are you... making those sound things you picked up on? I thought we both agreed that your time and attention is much better spent elsewhere," GLaDOS said.

Three seconds later, Chell was noticed by the figure inside and jerked back in pain as the pried off lid of a paint can was imbedded in the lens of Chell's now sparking, twitching camera. The camera banged itself against the wall as the music cut off in static, trying to remove the lens as the sound of static got louder to the volume of a roar as the camera smashed against the wall again and again and again.

"Lunatic, what are you doing? What happened? Test subject?" GLaDOS questioned, her voice tinged with the unmistakable sound of worry, "Test subject! What happened to your camera."

The faint sound of running footsteps faintly registered in Chell's sound processors as she continued to focus on banging herself against the wall to try and stop the pain.

"It was HIM!"

The wall panel that had been raised forward an inch now slammed out of the way.

"Orange, Blue, get that schizophrenic and bring him back here, dead or alive," she ordered.

Orange and Blue ran behind the panel and down the hall behind it, trying to chase the fleeing shadow.

"And you," GLaDOS said, focusing back on Chell, "Have you lost all the logical processes you've gained so far? You're only hurting yourself more. You'll break it more if you keep doing that. Fine, don't listen to me, keep slamming yourself against the wall like the lunatic you are."

Chell let out another loud burst of static as she hit the wall so hard, there was a small crack. The crane had broken, but still remained together enough for the camera and broken end of the crane to dangle from the part connecting to the wall.

"Stop it, right now," GLaDOS commanded.

Chell pulled back the unbroken part of the crane once more and slammed against the wall one more time, snapping off the broken part of the crane and camera completely and sending it into the pit of deadly goo below. The pain became too much and the monitoring system shorted out, sending Chell into the bliss of mechanical unconsciousness.

GLaDOS held back a sigh. Really, even in a camera, the lunatic was as disobedient and pointlessly stubborn as always. The AI replaced the camera with a new one while running diagnostics on Chell's systems to check her status She was fine, just unconscious and not noticeably traumatized by the event. She did feel pain though, something more than physical pain. The pain her little Chell felt was coming from a much deeper level.

GLaDOS rechecked the footage of her journeys on a more detailed level to see if what she had gone through had anything to do with her mental upset. There was the Schizophrenic... handling her test subject. The journey of her little creation was really quite disturbing. Again, she watched the part where Chell learned to sing. Really, out of everything to pick up, she picked up singing. Well no, it wasn't even singing, it was just playing music.

Why hadn't she instead learned language? That would have been much more useful. Then it clicked in her head and GLaDOS was nearly shaking with rage at the discovery of it. Apparently Chell and the rat had bonded. Now that was just disgusting. She should realize it had nothing to do with her. It was just her unfortunate shape as a cube and the rambling psychopaths tendency to talk to everything regardless of whether or not it was sentient.

So that was why Chell was feeling pain. Oh, GLaDOS would make him pay for messing up her test subject once she got her claws on him.


Here's the next chapter. Chell's finally back with GLaDOS.

Not to be picky, but if you can review, please do. Am I writing GLaDOS okay? What about Rattman? Do you like the way Chell is developing? Dislike it? Is there anything in particular you want to see happen? Etc... Feedback and encouragement helps me write you know. Or you can tell me what you hate about the story if nothing else. Heh heh... _