"I've been thinking." Everyone stopped when Cave's voice came over the speakers again. The closer to the current Aperture we got, the worse Cave's condition became. I knew he was already dead, but it felt horrible having to hear him as if he was still alive, coughing while speaking and asking for pain meds.

And every time Caroline spoke I froze in my tracks. I couldn't help it. Tails had to drag me along once because I hadn't moved. Chell looked around the room, then up at the speakers before walking into a corner and staying there. I could see a tear run down her cheek. I'm guessing she was like me when it came to the voices. I froze at Caroline's, she cried at Cave's.

"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back!" Over in the corner I saw Chell smile a bit. Heck, Cave was making me smile too. Even in his dying days, he wasn't gonna let life get the better of him. Tails looked up at the speaker. I was behind him, so I couldn't see his expression. Dad was confused.

"Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!"

Cave finally quieted down and began talking like normal, but the speech had done its job. Tails was stunned speechless. He was staring at the intercom and opening and closing his mouth repeatedly, but no sound came out. Wheatley was also staring at the speaker, but he was going through every expression he could, not saying a word.

As for me, that's my family for you. We're an odd bunch, and that rant wasn't completely unexpected. It still fazed me a bit though. I turned to look at Chell in the corner and heard her speak a full sentence for the first time since I'd met her. "Burning people. He said what we're all thinking."

This freaked me out. "Nobody is thinking of burning people, Chell." Tails' gaze shifted to her and he gave her the 'are you insane?' look. As an explanation, she got up and went through several of the nearby desks. We were in an employee area, and apparently she was looking for something.

It took about ten minutes, but she was successful. She pulled an envelope and an object out of a desk. The envelope had a photo in it of a science project for Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. The object turned out to be a potato. How that thing wasn't rotten by now nobody knew.

She shoved the potato on one of the prongs of the portal gun and turned to Wheatley, repeating the line to him. Tails and I still didn't know what she meant, but dad did. He rattled off, "I'm sorry! I already apologized! I thought you accepted my apology! It wasn't my fault!"

Chell facepalmed. So she hadn't wanted that reaction from dad after all. "Explain. Them." She gestured to me and Tails. Dad seemed to understand correctly this time, as his tone was less depressed. "The potato is supposed to be the potato battery I shoved Her in. Chell is trying to show you who said the line about burning things. She was just repeating it."

So many people thought dad was a moron, but he could be quite smart if he tried. So mom as a potato battery had come down here with Chell. I explained this to Tails and we continued walking. We had a problem getting up the defunct elevator shaft.

The lights had been working for Chell, but they finally gave out when we stepped in. Nobody could see anything until Wheatley turned his flashlight on and floated above us. Even then it was hard. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I do remember a lot of dialogue. It went something like this:

"Momentum! Try the blue!" "But the blue will just throw her at the wall. She has to put an orange there." "Right, sorry. Use the orange!" "Dad! Move the light to the left!" "What do you think I'm doing? I can't see where I'm go-ow! Sorry!" "Don't shake the light!" SMACK. "Chell? You all right?"

We did get through though. Dad flew to the top and lit the shaft. I took the portal gun, shot a blue next to Chell and an orange at the top after Tails flew me up. Chell followed through the portals. It was still a lot of walking to get out, but we did. After a long time, we did.

I knew because I saw a familiar door and emancipation grill at the end of the hallway. Excited, I ran ahead, everyone else following. "Finally! A few more chambers and we should reach GLaDOS' room!" Amy, Shadow and Rouge were still there. I hoped they were okay.

We went down a catwalk and used a portal to enter a test chamber. This one was a lot newer than mom's usual ones. And easier. It was like the first chamber in the original test track. A cube on a button and the door opens. That was all there was to it.

The strangest things were the cubes and the monitor. Mom used security cameras, not monitors. On the wall to the right was a giant rectangular black monitor. The cubes weren't normal cubes either. There was a fusion of a cube and two turrets. If they were stood upright and not dead, they would be able to walk. The second dad saw these he shut down and fell.