Chell's Story: Part D
Episode I, Chapter Six
I bounced around the walls of the slaloming shaft as I fell. Two pairs of crushing spike plates came together just before I passed through. After a harrowing, ten-second plunge, I landed hard on solid level ground.
"Here we are. The Incinerator Room. Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that didn't get completely burned when you threw them down here. The Dual-Portal Device should be around here somewhere; once you find it, we can start testing again just like old times."
There were wrecked pieces of scaffolding bridging large pits of fire surrounded by chute exit leading into the fire. Carefully walking across the wrecked scaffolding, I reached the other side of the fiery pit. I passed by a chute that dropped two cubes and a robot girl.
I managed to get into a cool area on the other side, and I saw spark being thrown up by something under a panel.
"There it is." GLaDOS's voice echoed through the space. "Hold on..."
The panels struggled to get themselves off the portal gun underneath, but they ultimately succeeded. "There."
I reached for the controlled end of the portal gun, and again it grabbed hold of my wrist.
"Good. You have a Dual-Portal Device. There should be a way back to the testing area up ahead."
The boarded-up hallway in front of me looked vaguely familiar. Once I managed to portal myself to the other side of the pile, the familiarity became clear; I was going through Test Chamber 19 backwards.
"Once testing starts, I'm required by protocol to keep interaction with you to a minimum. Luckily, we haven't started testing yet; this will be our only chance to talk."
As if I had anything to say to Her.
I portaled past another collapsed ceiling before coming to a dead end in the trench.
"Here. Let me get that for you." A panel above the wall dropped, revealing a portal friendly surface, which I used to get to the next part of the trench.
"Do you know the biggest lesson I learned from what you did? I discovered I have a sort of black box quick-save feature; in the event of a catastrophic failure, the last twenty minutes of my life are preserved for analysis. I was able... well, forced, really... to relive you killing me again and again forever."
I portaled myself to a platform where a door-raising button had been.
"You know, if you'd done that to somebody else, they might devote their existence to exacting revenge."
The window was missing, allowing a clear portal shot to the room near the entrance.
"Luckily, I'm a bigger person than that; I'm happy to put this all behind us and get back to work. After all, we've got a lot to do and only sixty more years to do it. (More or less; I don't have the actuarial tables in front of me.)"
I made my way into the hall, where ravaged panels were struggling to retract themselves.
"I'll just move that out of the way for you; this place really is a wreck."
With the path clear, I reach the elevator without further hindrance.
"But the important thing is you're back. With me. And now I'm on to all your little tricks, so there's nothing to stop us from testing for the rest of your life. After that, who knows? I might take up a hobby. Reanimating the dead, maybe?"
My only response was to rest my head on the window divider at the back of the rising elevator.
