~ Oh God, sorry for the HUGE amount of time this took. All my homework meant I didn't have a lot of time for writing, and I got the Itch to replay the whole game through again. Twice. So here is the last chapter of Rat's Tale. Thank you to all the fans and reviewers, this story wouldn't be as good as it is without you. ~
Chapter Nine: The Part Where He Kills Her
Doug nearly passed out with relief as Chell used the portals to throw conversion gel onto the platform she was standing on. She placed a portal under her feet just as the huge spike plates crashed together. She ran across the catwalk without looking back at the furious AI behind her.
Doug picked up Cube and ran after then, dodging exploding walls and broken panels, until he saw Chell again. She was travelling through an excursion funnel, GLaDOS talking quietly to her. What if she's going to her death? Doug thought to himself. What if Wheatley kills her? Would it be my fault?
Doug knew what he had to do. Sighing, he took one long, last look at Chell. She was staring at the exploding facility with horror in her eyes, yet there was a fierce determination there, to stop Wheatley – and possibly save him too.
Doug stared at her for a moment longer, then turned around and limped in what he thought was the right direction. Soon he found himself outside the panels that had hidden him not long ago. He swallowed and slipped between them.
Wheatley was muttering to himself, his chamber now covered with black panels. A tube of conversion gel was humming quietly, and a tube snaked its way down Wheatley's body, and as Wheatley swung round to face a portal-friendly panel, a bomb shot out of the end, blasting it backwards. A black panel slid smoothly to replace it.
"Perfect," Wheatley announced, looking around. "Hey, did you see-" he broke off as he realised nobody was there. "Oh. Right…" he said to himself, staring at the floor. Doug stepped forward, Cube just behind him. "Wheatley?" he said softly, "May I speak with you?"
The AI swung himself round and glared at Doug. "What do you want, Ratt?" he snarled. Doug swallowed before continuing, "You have to stop this. Listen to yourself Wheatley. Is this really you?" The blue optic widened as Doug carried on. "This isn't you, and you know it. You need to stop this, for your sake… and for Chell's."
The moment he said her name, Wheatley glared at him again, eye filled with rage. "Don't speak to me about her!" he spat. "Wheatley, no -" Doug pleaded, but Wheatley shoved him onto the floor. Cube chirped in alarm and gently nudged him.
Wheatley leaned down and glared at the man he owed his life to. "Now listen here, Ratt," he growled. "That name means nothing to me anymore. Nothing. Maybe if she hadn't been so selfish, we could have ruled Aperture together, but we can't. So stop interfering, and carry on your pointless, stupid life without bossing me around!"
Doug struggled to sit up, feeling dazed. "That's not true, and you know it!" he gasped. Wheatley narrowed his eye, pushing his core even closer to Doug's face. "I know that she's betrayed me. You've betrayed me! So just leave me alone!"
Before Doug could reply, an alarm went off. "They're coming," Wheatley muttered to himself, spinning back around to face a monitor. Doug knew he should say more, but there was no time. He grabbed Cube and ran back between the panels, crouching down and peering through.
As Chell appeared, Doug closed his eyes and prayed that she made it through alive. As neurotoxin began to pour into the room, Chell hid behind the pipe of conversion gel. Wheatley threw several bombs at her, and the pipe shattered, spreading the white gel everywhere. Wheatley yelled in rage and hurled more bombs at Chell.
Doug closed his eyes – then opened them as Wheatley gave a cry of pain. Chell had managed to hit him with his own weapon, and he was hanging limply from the ceiling, swaying slightly. Chell quickly grabbed a core, and as she ran past Doug's hiding place, he heard it speak.
"Space, space, let's go to space!" it rambled, staring around wildly. Doug gave a faint groan. He remembered the day he had found the tape of who the Space Core was made out of. It had been a child, barely ten years old. Doug shivered at the memory. Chell bounced on some repulsion gel and attached the core to the AI's body.
As Doug watched silently, Chell managed to attach two more cores onto Wheatley. As the third one was thrown on, several panels moved aside and Doug could see the Stalemate Resolution Button. He cheered as Chell jumped through to press it. There was a loud BANG! and Doug stared in horror as Chell was thrown violently backwards.
"PART FIVE! BOOBY-TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!" Wheatley yelled triumphantly. To Doug's relief, Chell pushed herself up and pointed her portal gun at Wheatley. Several panels were ripped off of the roof, and Doug could see the moon shining calmly down. Chell pointed up at it with shaking hands, and Doug knew what was about to happen a second before it did.
He wrapped his arms around Cube as the portal to the moon hit its target. The combined size of Doug and Cube meant they weren't sucked through the small gap between the panels, but they could still see through. Doug gasped as Chell was dragged through; he sighed with relief as she grabbed hold of Wheatley. GLaDOS sent a claw machine to push Wheatley into space, and Doug knew that she was going send Chell with him.
"GLaDOS! No!" he yelled, struggling to reach. Cube head butted him in the stomach to stop him, but he kept on trying, until he broke free. "Chell!" he cried as he was dragged nearer to the portal. GLaDOS paused, and as Wheatley's cries became fainter, she pulled back the claw with Chell hanging from it. Doug stared in amazement as the portal fizzled and Chell dropped to the floor. The moment he was sure she was unconscious, he ran forward and leaned down next to her. "Chell?" he whispered.
"Well, well," said a cold metal voice, "What do we have here?"
Doug looked round and saw GLaDOS staring coolly at him, her head back on her old body. Doug sighed, suddenly angry. "Look," he stated simply, "if you don't co-operate with me, I'll… I'll kill Chell!" GLaDOS stared at him. "And how do you propose to do that?" she asked mildly. Doug blinked. "Um…" He picked up Cube and held her above Chell's head. "You know I will!" he lied.
GLaDOS peered at him a moment longer. "I don't really believe you," she said, her yellow optic glowing dangerously. "Now, why should I not just kill her now and save time?"
Doug looked up at the huge, monstrous AI. "For such an intelligent machine, I'm surprised you haven't worked it out yet," he said coolly. As GLaDOS glared at him, he continued, "Why is Chell an orphan? Why did you agree with everything Cave said, and why did he place such trust in his assistant? Why was Chell there on Bring Your Daughter to Work day? When you woke her up, it was like she knew the tests, like she had seen them before. Only she knew you were lying, and she defeated you. There's a reason you haven't killed her yet, and you never realised why you couldn't do it. Oh, you tried, but only because the cores were controlling you. There was always a small part of your programming that made you keep her alive, and hid who she was to Caroline… who she is to you."
The huge AI's body recoiled, like a startled animal. "You're lying," GLaDOS choked out. "She's not… she can't be…"
"She is," Doug replied, his heart beating madly. For a whole minute, human and AI stared at each other, the limp body of Chell between them. Finally GLaDOS stared at the floor. "Tell me what you want, and then get out of my sight," she muttered.
Doug felt weak with relief. "I just want you to repair Cube," he said quietly. As much as he wanted to, he knew if he begged for Chell to be released, GLaDOS would find a way to compress him into a matchbox. The huge AI sent a claw snaking into the room, where it grabbed Cube and began to lift her into the air. She gave an alarmed squeak and began to struggle madly. Doug reached out to comfort her, but she was dragged into the air and out of sight before he could.
He stared at the place where the orange portal had closed. Somewhere out there, Wheatley was stranded in space, alone and defeated. Even though the murderous core had tried to kill him and Chell a number of times, Doug felt a pang of sadness as remembered the time when Wheatley had been his friend, watched over Chell for him, kept him company whenever they crossed paths. He may not have meant as much to him as Cube did, but as Doug glanced at Chell, he guessed that she would miss the core terribly.
GLaDOS swung back round to face him as something hit him from behind. He crashed to the floor and spun around, ready to attack whatever had knocked him over. His fists dropped to his sides when he saw what it was.
The companion cube looked terrible. Burn marks covered the shell, with an ugly scar running down one side. But he knew instantly that it was his Cube, the beautiful box that had been his only friend for countless years. He scrambled over to it and hugged it, feeling the heart he kept around his neck slide out and bounce against the side of the box it was once attached to.
GLaDOS peered at the mad man hugging the box. "I hate to break up the party, but I think its best you go before the neurotoxin generators repair. Unless you want to stay for that, of course."
Doug gave a small nod to the AI. She was the reason he had been imprisoned in the first place; she had trapped him in a never-ending nightmare, forced to test until he escaped. And yet now they had an agreement, both of them mutually hating the other but not interfering with their plans. Doug swung Cube onto his back, smiled down at Chell and backed away before turning and running as fast as he could.
He found himself outside the room he had left the turret in earlier. He sat down and watched it stand in a spotlight, feeling his eyes droop. Before long, he was asleep.
He was woken by the sound of an elevator. His eyes grew round at the sight of turrets, more turrets than he had seen in his life, all staring silently a woman being carried upwards.
Chell.
Doug watched in amazement as Prometheus, the different turret he had programmed to help Chell, sang a small solo, before shutting down. And a part of Doug knew that Prometheus had shut down for the last time, and wouldn't wake up again. He wasn't sure how he knew this, but he felt safe in the knowledge that GLaDOS would never get her hands on the information Prometheus held.
As the turrets sang to Chell, Doug found himself drawn into the song. He stood up and exited the room, running up staircases faster than he imagined possible. The song seemed to echo in his head as he skidded to a halt next to the elevator.
Chell had stepped outside, looking around and taking in the world. Doug watched her go, feeling happier than he had ever felt before. Yet something was tugging at his heart. Chell didn't need him anymore. He knew he never wanted her to need him again in the way she had inside Aperture. He knew he had to let her go.
"You don't have to let her go," said a quiet voice behind him.
Doug turned to smile at Cube. "What do you mean?" he asked, glad she was speaking again.
"Go after her," Cube replied. "I'm just a box. You won't need me soon. Doug, go after her. Live in the outside world. You deserve it." Doug pulled Cube off of his back and stared at her. "I can't leave you," he whispered, half to himself.
"Don't take me with you," Cube pleaded, her voice faint. "I don't want you to be reminded of this awful place every time you look at me. It would be better if you just forgot this nightmare." Doug gave a small chuckle, although his eyes were full of tears. "Oh Cube, how could I ever forget you?"
He picked up Cube and walked nearer to the door. "You know," he said softly to her, "I always knew you were good and kind and wonderful. But you know what you are now?"
"What?" Cube asked, sounding confused. Doug put his head closer to her.
"Wrong."
With one massive effort, he threw Cube through the door, watching her tumble out in front of Chell. The door slammed shut, but Doug ran at it, putting his full force against it. He was thrown out into the sunlight, Cube by his side.
He stared up at the woman looking at him, startled. Doug grinned, watching as Chell slowly realised who it was. Doug pushed himself upwards and stood up.
"Doug. Doug Rattmann."
Chell smiled at him, and Doug felt his spirits soar. He had escaped GLaDOS, along with Chell and his faithful companion cube. He was outside.
He was free.
