The three figures having tea on the dock look towards the new Rapture light house.
"It was all clear when we were on the Von Braun." Elizabeth laments. "I thought I had all the answers."
"Trial and error, my girl, trial and error." Rosalind attempts to comfort.
"I killed Caroline, a little girl, slit her throat and left her there for her mother to find in a pool of her own blood."
"You were destroying SHODAN and that only exists in those realities which probably no longer exist."
"I still know. It still feels like it won't wash off..." Elizabeth rocks slightly.
"I know, I know..." Robert places a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"When did you two start being so chatty anyway?" Elizabeth says as she stands to walk a few steps in the direction of the light house and evading his hand.
"What? Oh. That." Rosalind says with annoyed tone. "You can thank Robert for that."
"Hmm." he agrees guiltily. "We-"
"You." Rosalind corrects.
"Yes... I thought that full knowledge would be detrimental to the thought experiment, and potentially dangerous to the whole affair. But I think that you've now proved that untrue. Doesn't seem to matter what we bloody do!"
"Robert..." Rosalind scolds.
"Sorry, dear. So anyway, yes, no more riddles or nonsense."
"L'oiseau ou la cage?" Elizabeth asks him with one squinted eye, wondering if there is actually an answer to that one.
"Oh don't get him started." Rosalind rolls her eyes.
"Well..." he says with embarrassment, "when we started out we had no idea about the full scale of the problem, assuming as you did that the cause was our experiments, Comstock and all that, amending variables where we thought pertinent, pushing, guiding."
"If only it were that simple." Elizabeth says.
"Indeed. So one of my ideas was the variable of you."
"Me?"
"Yes. You. There's always you."
"I suppose there is. So the bird and the cage?"
"Did the choice itself of one of the other have a positive or adverse effect on your mind, and ergo the state of the paradox and the universe, either way. The other paradox I mean, of course."
"Oh, of course." Elizabeth agrees with a raised eyebrow, then poses, "But doesn't the observation itself have an effect on the results?"
"Hm. Quite." Robert agrees, this sticking point unavoidable.
"Well. No time for tittle tattle." Rosalind begins setting about packing up the picnic items back into the hamper. Robert collapses their chairs and slings them over his shoulder.
"Going so soon?"
"We'll let you get on." Robert looks towards the new light house.
Elizabeth frowns, "Hmm. Any clues?"
"No clues, I'm afraid, but..." Robert pauses a moment then says genuinely, "just be safe, we've no idea what might be going on down there. You're not quite so... powerful, for want of a better word, in these disjointed realms."
Gordon pokes around the shed, assessing its structure; the door is firmly shut and refuses to budge, even after a good seeing to with his crowbar. Chell stands away, arms folded and annoyed.
"Why won't you tell me what's in there?" Gordon asks, discovering that the shed is not so decrepit as it first appeared.
"Can we just go?"
"Sorry, no."
"You seem like the cautious type to me, don't know why you won't accept that there's nothing but danger in there."
"Cautious type?" he puzzles.
"Most people who go hunting only wear an orange hat. You've got bright orange, full body armour! Talk about overkill."
"Hunting?" he looks back to her.
"You're not hunting?" she says, now backing away a little. "Then er... why the rifle?"
Gordon looks to the automatic weapon over his shoulder. Weaponry is common place around the world in the fight against the Combine, even most children not enslaved receiving at least some practice in small arms.
"You really don't know what's going on, do you?" he asks.
"Neither do you, Gordon. There's nothing in there you need. I'm not even certain we could get in if we wanted to."
"Oh we can get in, alright."
Gordon goes to his holdall and pulls out a satchel charge. He slings his bag over the free shoulder, then places the charge against the door.
"Get back." he orders.
"What the hell are you doing?! Why the hell have you got... those... them thingies?! Who are you?!"
Chell grabs her charred companion and jogs a safe distance. Once a suitable distance away, Gordon crouches.
"Get down low behind me." he tells her, the firing device in hand.
"You're fucking crazy!" she shouts but follows his instructions regardless, using her cube as further protection.
"I just hope this doesn't bring us any heat." he says before igniting the device, covering his face with an armoured arm.
A huge bang follows, with debris flung towards them at great force. Gordon suffers the brunt, protected by his hazard suit, and shielding Chell and her friend from the blast. He immediately stands again to assess the damage. The metal facade has been blown off by the blast, but there remains another sturdier, re-enforced concrete looking structure within that was obscured by the sheeting. The door that lay behind the facade looks thick and virtually bomb-proof.
"Huh..." he says.
"All Aperture technologies remain safely operational up to four thousand degrees Kelvin." Chell says with the appropriate dry delivery.
"What?"
"I'm just saying, that's probably why it didn't knock down the door."
"Aperture?"
"Yes?"
"That's the entrance to Aperture?!"
"Yes..."
"Of course! I knew there was something about that logo on your shirt. Wow. I read about Cave Johnson. Totally reckless. He blamed Black Mesa for losing contracts but it was because of his unethical research, though he just wouldn't have it. One of his assistants mysteriously disappeared and there was all kinds of law suits."
"You don't know the half of it. You're from Black Mesa?"
"Oh. Yea! You've heard of us? Not many left that have. Or they'd rather forget, at any rate."
"Hm. Black Mesa, eh? But still, you've never heard of a portal gun? Sounds like us at Aperture might have had the jump on you boys after all."
"Oh, yea. Sending The Borealis across the dimensions, what a great idea that was!"
"The Borealis? I know that name..."
"The SS Borealis. One of their first experiments into-"
"Portal technology..." she completes for him, staring into the ether, her curious misadventures down there coming into at least some focus and that this odd scientist might not be as delusional as she first thought.
Gordon studies her a moment, "You seem to know a lot all of a sudden."
"No, no. Just what you said then, made some things a bit clearer for me."
"Glad I could help but I'm still pretty much in the dark here. Any ideas on how to get in there then, Aperture Girl?"
"Best I've come up with so far is to ask."
"Ask? Ask who? The box?"
"It's a cube." she frowns at him with a pout.
