[A/N: You guys are a lovely group of people. Thank you :)!]

"That…you…cake," was all Chell could manage as she stared at it. "But…you…what?"

"Thank you for placing the portal gun on the ground," GLaDOS said. A claw picked it up and moved it out of Chell's sight range. "The test is now over, and you have passed. This is your victory cake. Congratulations."

For a moment, all Chell could do was stare with her mouth hanging open, but then she found her voice. "There's no way I'm going anywhere near that cake."

GLaDOS looked offended. "I baked it especially for you. I promise that it contains nothing harmful or in any way detrimental to your health."

"I…you…you baked me cake," Chell said, staring at it. "Why? Why would you bake me cake? That doesn't make any…what?"

"It is your victory cake," GLaDOS repeated. "Feel free to begin consuming it at any time."

Chell stared at her for a moment, expression untrusting. There were a lot of things that could be wrong with that cake. It could be filled with neurotoxin, or maybe weird fish-shaped things like that blue sphere had talked about…but damn, it was cake. And she'd been waiting for that cake for a long, long time. GLaDOS was looking her up and down, like she was studying her, and after a moment, Chell frowned. "All right…"

She took a few cautious steps towards the cake. GLaDOS backed up a bit as she approached, until finally, Chell was right in front of the cake. Closing her eyes, she inhaled. It smelled delicious. Not like it was poisoned at all. And really, what possible reason did GLaDOS have to poison her now, after bringing her all the way to her chamber? If she wanted to kill her, she could just release some neurotoxin. She wouldn't have to go to all the trouble of baking a cake to trap her with.

Then again…that was what GLaDOS did, wasn't it? Put her test subjects through all sorts of hell so that killing them almost seemed like an act of mercy? Chell thought back to the graffiti that had littered the test chambers. She didn't even want to know what had happened to that poor test subject.

Her eyes, which had been locked on the cake, moved to look at GLaDOS. She stared at her again, but GLaDOS's expression was hard to read. She looked sincere, but who could tell with her?

Chell squatted on the ground. She gave the cake one last hard look. The candle was almost completely melted down by then, and she blew it out.

"Unnecessary," GLaDOS said. "What did that flame ever do to you?"

Chell rolled her eyes. Tentatively, she reached a hand out to dip a finger into the chocolate icing. It looked delicious. The perfect cake…

Just as she was about to touch it, a panel shot up that skidded it halfway across the floor. "Hey!" Chell yelled. She stood up quickly, but glass panels surrounded her before she had the chance to get anywhere. "GLaDOS! You promised me!"

"I promised you that there was nothing deadly in the cake, which there is not," GLaDOS said. "I said nothing about the cake simply being an elaborate trap, which it was, ha ha. So now here we are again. And you don't even have a portal gun this time. How very sad for you."

Chell stared at her, her eyes filled with hurt. She didn't respond. After a moment, GLaDOS's optic narrowed. "Stop looking at me like that. It will not help you."

"I just…this doesn't make any sense," Chell said. "You've had me trapped since the moment I walked back into Aperture. Why would you heal me? Why would you let me get all the way to your chamber, where I would have the best shot of anywhere else of killing you? Why would you go to all the trouble of baking me a cake? Unless…" Her eyes lit up as she began piecing it together. "Unless this wasn't a trap. Unless you were going to give me the cake, but you changed your mind at the last second."

"Ridiculous," GLaDOS snorted. "I should just release the deadly neurotoxin now. It would save me the annoyance of listening to you babble."

"Ridiculous? Is it really?" Chell asked. Her sentences became more and more fast-paced as she continued to accuse. "I think it's Caroline again. I think she's made you nicer. I think you're having trouble adjusting to that. Listen to your conscience, GLaDOS, she knows what's good for you."

"You know, the irony of all this is that you don't even know who Caroline is," GLaDOS snapped.

Chell noted that she didn't say 'was' that time. "Well, then, enlighten me. Who is she?"

GLaDOS's optic was narrowed into a glare, but her voice was filled with smug superiority. "You really don't know, do you."

"If you're going to kill me anyway, then just tell me," Chell said. "As a last request. Please?"

GLaDOS gave a long, melodramatic sigh. Chell could tell she was enjoying making her wait. "Are you sure you really want to know?"

"Please."

"Fine," GLaDOS said. Chell could hear the smirk in her voice. "She is your birth mother." As Chell's jaw dropped open for the second time in ten minutes, GLaDOS continued. "But I was not enhancing the truth when I told you she has had nothing to do with any of this. She was, however, what allowed you to leave in the first place, and was also the reason I allowed you to return."

"My…my birth mother?" Chell managed to get out.

"I do believe that is what I said."

Chell's mind was reeling. "My birth mother…" She shook her head. "My birth mother is inside of a homicidal computer that's still trying to kill me. That's just great. But…but she hasn't been deleted." She raised her eyes to stare into GLaDOS's optic, challenging her. "Right?"

"…It is possible that when I said she was deleted, I was slightly enhancing the truth."

That was a small victory, at least. Chell gave a small smirk, but something else GLaDOS had said was nagging at her… "Wait. You said Caroline had nothing to do with all this. With the cake and the easy test chambers and all. So does that mean that you…?"

"It is still Caroline's fault, even if she is not currently active," GLaDOS snapped. "She's corrupted me."

Chell was smiling now. "I've changed my mind. I don't think it's Caroline at all. I think...it's…just…you." She pressed a finger to the glass, pointing it at GLaDOS's still-narrowed optic.

"Do you know what your problem is? It is that you continually make unfounded hypotheses, and they are often ridiculous. For instance, if this were not entirely Caroline's fault, would I do this?" One by one, the glass panels surrounding Chell dropped back into the floor. "Or this?" A different panel near where the cake had skidded to popped out, sending the cake back across the floor to Chell, who stared down at it as it hit her ankles. Quickly, she reached down and scooped a generous amount of icing onto her finger, closing her eyes as she brought it to her mouth. That was good cake. "As you can see, it is all her fault. Her and her irritating affection for you."

"You said she wasn't active," Chell reminded her as she sat down on the ground. There was a fork next to the cake, and she picked it up. "That means it can't be her fault."

"I also said that she has corrupted me, which she has."

Chell shook her head, still smiling, as she swallowed her first bite of cake. "GLaDOS. Why can't you just admit that you're being nice to me all on your own?"

"Because I am not," the computer huffed. "It is Caroline's fault. And you have a strange definition of the word 'nice.'"

"You saved my life," Chell reminded her. "You put me through more tests, but they were easy, and then you gave me cake. And now you say you're going to let me go. That seems nice enough to me."

The only retort GLaDOS could manage was an irritated snort.

"Even if it is Caroline's fault," Chell continued, "even if she has corrupted you, you still care about what happens to me now. Right? Just a little bit?" GLaDOS didn't answer. "Come on. Just the tiniest little bit?"

"…Perhaps just the tiniest little bit," GLaDOS admitted grudgingly. "But no more than that."

Chell smiled as she took another bite of cake. "That's good enough for me."

[A/N: One more chapter to go, and it's really more of an epilogue. Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me this far!]