Unknown year.
The Plan.

Things were looking brighter for Chell, despite her current circumstances. She knew Doug was not far away, and although she was frustrated that she hadn't seen him, the thought gave her comfort. Also, she knew that Wheatley was finding her a way out of the test chambers. He was not the most capable of allies, but she appreciated his efforts all the same, and hadn't quite ruled out the possibility that he would succeed. GLaDOS's comments were irritating, but nothing that she couldn't cope with. All in all, she was in a better situation than she could have hoped for, considering.

She was convinced that she'd only just missed Doug in chamber twelve. The first thing she'd seen when she'd entered the room was a panel falling from the ceiling, and a flash of white just disappearing out of view, gone before she could really register it. The hem of a lab coat, if she wasn't mistaken. But there had been no sign of him by the time she'd portalled up to the room. It was maddening.

Chambers thirteen to sixteen were uneventful, not counting the tests themselves. GLaDOS continued her running commentary, ranging from the usual petty insults to hints about people in cryogenic storage. Chell wasn't sure what to make of that information. GLaDOS was far from reliable as a source, and Chell knew the A.I. was lying about finding two people with her last name. Her biological parents wouldn't have the same surname that she did. And besides, her name was redacted, Doug had assured her of that. It was strange how his paranoia had given him such useful forethought in this situation. Chell didn't think that he would have ever considered it advantageous in any way, yet it had kept them both alive. The world worked in odd ways sometimes.

After all the time she'd spent in stasis, it only felt like she'd been testing for a day or so. She could clearly remember the people she'd socialised with yesterday, only it wasn't yesterday. Even still, having only robots for company was starting to grate. She had to catch up with Doug. Whatever it was that was keeping him from contacting her, she was determined to convince him that it was okay. They would work better as a team, she knew it. She didn't want the responsibility all on her own.

And then, out of the blue, a thought struck her. The facility was dilapidated, clearly a lot of time had passed. What if he's avoiding me because...he got old?

The scenario was so startling that it stopped her in her tracks. She couldn't fathom why she hadn't thought of it before, but it seemed possible, even likely.

He probably thinks it would change everything, she surmised. But it wouldn't. As if I would abandon my best friend just because he aged. He should know me better than that.

Fast on the heels of that reflection came another. No...if he has gotten older...he probably can't remember me all that well.

That thought was sobering. And surreal. From her skewed perspective, she'd just talked with him a day ago. It was crazy to consider that that conversation might have occurred years ago for him. Crazy and alarming and depressing and altogether unfair.

Okay, lady luck, Chell thought irately, you've screwed me over enough times lately. Please let this not be true.

Perhaps it was selfish to wish it, seeing as Doug was alive and, hopefully, relatively unharmed, but there was so much uncertainty in Chell's future, she wanted something she could still count on. Having her friend back, as she remembered him, was definitely something to count on.

Sighing, she entered chamber seventeen, pausing just inside the door to do her usual initial sweep of the room. The exit was ahead of her, high up on the wall. There was a button, a cube, a hard light bridge. It didn't look too difficult to figure out. Piles of debris littered the floor, and the ceiling looked almost ready to collapse, its cables hanging down like jungle snakes. There was a panel open, in the wall near the ceiling. Chell did a tiny double-take, almost missing it. Her stomach gave a flip. Was it Wheatley's way out for her?

She shot portals, getting up onto the bridge and directing it across to the gap. She glanced left as she crossed it, peering through the broken window of the observation office. The door through to the corridor was open.

Chell halted at once, eyes widening. She redirected the bridge across to the office, ducking down to avoid the cables and girders. The glass had shattered messily, its jagged edges making it impossible for her to climb through unhurt, but she could see the corridor beyond. She shot a portal into the wall, grinning when it burst to life. Part of her had been a little worried that the walls wouldn't be compatible. Her boots absorbed the impact as she dropped to the floor, the bridge having vanished when the portal moved. She shot the second one into the wall, stepping through it eagerly.

The corridor beyond was dimly lit, empty apart from a couple of water bottles, one end of it blocked by rubble. The doors there were firmly-shut automatic ones that she couldn't prize open. Her fingernails just weren't strong enough. Giving up, she examined the bottles, one empty, one that still had water in it. She gave it a cautious sniff. It was fresh, the faint musty smell coming from the container itself. Setting the portal gun on the ground, she lifted the huge bottle and took a grateful swig, accidentally spilling water down her chin. Silently laughing at herself, she wiped her face with the back of her hand and wondered how long ago Doug had been there. The water had been put there for her benefit, she was sure. He couldn't be too far ahead.

She tugged the pen from her pocket and pondered where to leave her message. She'd kept up the task since chamber three, but she didn't know if it was doing any good. She felt marginally better for doing it, so she supposed that was something. Her attention was pulled to the open observation office door, the main source of light in the corridor.

Probably why he left it open in the first place, she thought.

If he returned there, he'd probably want to close it. Chell moved the two empty water bottles, leaving them up against the wall by the door. In the space she left between them, she scribbled her message on the flaking paint, letting the bottles stand guard either side, neatly framing it. Task done, she took another look around, finding her attention drawn to the fan gently rotating in the ceiling. Dim light filtered down from the room above, illuminating what looked like another painting on the wall. Curiosity stirred, and Chell aimed up, managing to shoot a portal into the wall after a few misses caused by the fan getting in the way. She stepped through into a dead-end room, vaguely circular, the floor dipping down to the fan in the centre. The ground was littered with mugs. Turning, she examined the mural, another portrait of her, less accurate and more stylised than the one she'd seen before. There were a few cartoonish turrets there too, and a graph indicating levels of tenacity.

That's why I was rejected for testing, she recalled. Strange that he should remember that.

The rest of the room and the short corridor leading out of it yielded nothing else, and Chell figured that she should probably get back before GLaDOS brought the walls down. There were stairs at the end of the corridor, and she jogged down them, her boots making the rusting metal ring. She emerged at an open panel high up in the wall, the one she'd spotted from the floor of the test chamber before she'd gotten distracted by the observation office door. She jumped down, landing neatly. If GLaDOS was surprised by her momentary disappearance, she didn't show it.

Chell walked over to stand on the button in the ground to see what it did, unable to help shooting a quick glance up as she went. The panel was closed. Above her, there was a faint whirring whisper. Suspicious, she quickly redirected the bridge, crossing it to look through the office window once again. The door was now shut. Her eyes widened as she considered the likelihood of Doug being on the other side of it at that very moment. Part of her wanted to climb through the window – broken glass be damned – and knock on the door until he opened it. But that would be reckless, she knew. She had to be more patient and wait for Wheatley to get her out. If it was true that Doug had been the one to fix him, then maybe there was a chance that the core would lead her to him.

Reluctantly, Chell returned to the ground and continued on with the test. She was starting to feel antsy, and she suspected that GLaDOS could see it. She only hoped that Wheatley's big escape plan wouldn't come too late.

"I told you not to leave that door open," the cube scolded, as Doug crouched behind the door in question, having just slid it shut after Chell's departure.

I couldn't see what I was doing, he thought defensively.

"And the panels?"

Those were her way in. I just...didn't expect to be here when she found them. Got them closed in time though.

"I still think you should just talk to her."

Doug didn't answer that, even silently. Eyes adjusting to the new gloom in the corridor, he soon spotted the water bottles sitting neatly up against the wall.

Why did she do that? he wondered.

Scooting closer, he saw the scrawled writing in between them, and his heart gave a jolt as he realised it hadn't been there before. He leaned forward, nose almost to the wall as he fought to see in the dim light.

'Please don't hide from me,' it read. 'Let's escape together.'

He sat back, scrubbing his chin with one hand as he thought. I can't do that, Chell, he admitted to himself. The plan was in place, it didn't make sense to deviate now. Wheatley would rescue Chell, shut down GLaDOS's turrets and neurotoxin while Doug made sure that the supercomputer was corrupt enough for a core transfer. Then, if he felt brave enough, he would meet up with Wheatley and Chell on the surface.

"You are brave enough," said the cube, its tone firm.

I don't feel it, he answered inwardly. I'm...unstable.

"You're a lot more stable than many others would be in your situation, you know that, right?"

That's because I have you. And my therapy. But even still...you saw the mess upstairs. All those mugs scattered all over the floor, and I can't even remember why I did it. I'm sure there was a reason at the time.

"There was," the cube told him. "You remember this. You thought that putting all the mugs in one room would keep you alive, and you panicked thinking you wouldn't find them all."

"That's right," he said aloud, voice quiet. He was mindful of Chell still in the test chamber. "The voices...they persuaded me. And it seemed so rational too." He pressed the heels of his hands to his closed eyes. "See? This is why I need you. You're the voice of reason."

"You mean I'm your coping mechanism, but okay."

"Whatever. Point is, I need you...to maintain some semblance of sanity."

"So?" it said.

Doug sighed heavily. "So...who wants to stay friends with a crazy man who relies on a talking cube to keep his head relatively sane? Stress the word 'relatively'."

"Chell does."

"You don't know that."

"You know her," the cube said calmly. "She's always stuck by you. She stuck by her father too, until he pushed her too far away."

"She stuck by me while I was medicated," Doug countered. "This is different. Now I spend half my time fighting to ignore voices, forcing myself not to see shadows out of the corner of my eye. Okay, so I can cope like this...to an extent. What about when I have a bad day? You know what that can be like."

"You're just making this into an excuse. She will accept you. She will help you. If you let her. You know that."

Doug fell silent, his gaze settling on Chell's message. The cube was right, he did know that. But he had no idea how he was going to bring himself to follow its advice.

He heard the faint sound of GLaDOS commenting as Chell solved the test, and he took it as a cue to leave. Cube on his back, portal gun in hand, he made his way along the maintenance walkways outside the test chambers. By chance, he caught up with a network of management rails and found Wheatley nervously navigating a crossroads.

"Hello!" the core greeted him cheerily. "Chamber twenty-one, mate!"

Doug shot him a look of slight confusion. "Pardon?"

"That's where I'm going to spring her! Chamber twenty-one. So, if you could go and do your...corrupting...thing. That would be absolutely tremendous."

"Where is she now?" he asked, trying to calculate. He'd been running for a while.

"Chamber twenty," said Wheatley with confidence. "So I'd better get my skates on. Figuratively speaking."

"Okay," Doug agreed, turning to him. "Wheatley, tell me honestly: do you have a plan?"

The core made an amused scoffing noise. "Course I do! See you up top!"

Not particularly reassured, Doug nodded in defeat. "Okay." He paused to watch Wheatley zip away on the rail, vanishing through a gap in the wall.

"I don't like this," the cube commented.

"It's the best plan we have," he told it. "It will be fine. Come on, we have a central core to corrupt."

The plan went smoothly, without a single hitch. Doug had found himself a place to perch on top of some transport tubes outside the central chamber. GLaDOS had remodelled since the last time he'd been there, breaking off the glass-walled corridor and removing the surrounding floor altogether, cutting herself off completely. Chell had only managed to get to her because GLaDOS wanted her there. After escaping from chamber twenty-one, Chell and Wheatley had gone off to take out the turrets and neurotoxin. Doug had fulfilled his side of things, programming a simple virus designed to set in as soon as GLaDOS attempted to activate the neurotoxin emitters. She was too smart to let herself remain corrupt for long, which is why it had to be done after Chell had gotten Wheatley to the main chamber. That way there would be no time for GLaDOS to purge the virus before Wheatley could be set up as a substitute core.

There was no way that Doug was foolish enough to enter GLaDOS's rebuilt fortress, but his hiding place was close enough that he could hear what was going on inside, even see slivers of the room through the gaps in the panels. Even being this close was dangerous, but he wanted to see Chell leave, to know for absolute certain that she was free. Then he'd consider himself.

He wasn't sure how long he waited there, but eventually he saw her portal her way into GLaDOS's trap room. He heard the A.I. taunting her, bidding her goodbye before summoning turrets. They were defective, he could hear them trying to fire. Eventually they just exploded. Then GLaDOS called for neurotoxin, and Doug grinned to himself, knowing that his handiwork would now be active. Instead of neurotoxin, the pipe she lowered into the chamber delivered Wheatley. Doug didn't have time to figure that one out, he was simply glad that the core was now where he needed to be. There came the sound of breaking glass, followed by Chell's footsteps. The announcer declared GLaDOS's level of corruption, which seemed to cause the A.I. some confusion. Following Wheatley's enthusiastic prompting, Chell initiated a core transfer and bypassed the stalemate situation that arose from GLaDOS's vehement refusal to cooperate. There came a cry as GLaDOS's head all but detached from her body, rendering her powerless.

With growing anticipation, Doug shifted along the transport tubes, edging closer to the main chamber. He wanted to see what was happening, and it finally felt safe enough for him to do so. Wheatley was yelling as the console he was plugged into dragged him down. Shortly after that, GLaDOS too began screaming, dozens of robotic arms replacing her core with Wheatley. Chell was standing as far back as she could get, a horrified expression on her face. The arms dropped GLaDOS's discarded head to one side, then Wheatley emerged, spinning around and shouting in triumph as he adjusted to the new body.

Doug found himself smiling once more, although he was afraid too. Afraid because they were so close to succeeding. With his usual luck, that meant it was almost time for something to go horribly wrong.

"Stop that," scolded the cube, making its voice heard over Wheatley's smug crowing.

"I can't help it," he retorted truthfully.

Below, Chell was grinning, making her way across to the elevator Wheatley had summoned. Doug kept his eyes on her until the angle of the panels cut her from view. Impatiently, he listened to Wheatley gushing about how good it felt to be in charge. The core excitedly tossed a few test objects around the room before spouting a sentence of rapid Spanish.

Doug heard Chell knock on the glass of the elevator.

Wheatley responded with a little laugh. "Oh, sorry, no, the lift, yes, sorry, keep forgetting!"

The gentle hum of the elevator's transport tube started up, and Doug braced himself to finally, finally watch Chell leave Aperture behind.

"This body's amazing, seriously!" Wheatley went on, unable to shut up despite his speedy promotion. "I can't get over how small you are! But I'm huge!" He laughed again, a relatively harmless sound that gradually grew in volume and intensity until it was as maniacal as a cartoon villain.

"Oh no," the cube moaned.

With a burst of clarity, Doug reflected on how much of an understatement that was, and he chided the part of him that was the cube's opinions.

"Actually," said Wheatley slyly, "why do we have to leave right now?"

The top of the elevator, just visible in the tube, started to sink back down.

"No," Doug whispered, maintaining a white-knuckled grip on the pipe he was crouched on.

Power corrupts.

"Do you have any idea how good this feels?" Wheatley asked rhetorically. "I did this! Tiny little Wheatley did this!"

The room turned darker, as did the area surrounding Doug's hiding place. He eyed the walls warily.

"You didn't do anything," GLaDOS spoke up faintly. "She did all the work!"

"What do we do now?" the cube asked, panic leaking into its voice.

"I…I don't know."

Wheatley took on an imperious tone. "Oh really? That's what the two of you think, is it? Well, maybe it's time I did something, then."

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS said frantically. Doug had never heard her so alarmed. "No! No! No!"

Frustrated with his lack of view, Doug slipped down off the transport tube and crawled along an air conditioning pipe that took him almost right over the main chamber. Peering down through the gaps in the panels, he saw the chassis – with Wheatley stuck on it like an awkward head on a snowman – leaning close to the elevator.

"And don't think I'm not on to you too, lady," he was saying. "You know what you are? Selfish. I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here. And what have you sacrificed? Nothing! Zero. All you've done is boss me around! Well, now, who's the boss? Who's the boss? It's me!"

There came a chime from the open pit beneath him, and he moved back, allowing a robotic arm to extend. It was clutching a small brown object that Doug couldn't identify from the distance.

"See that?" Wheatley said helpfully. "That is a potato battery. It's a toy for children, and now she lives in it!"

Doug frowned, aghast, unable to see how that was even possible. But somehow, Aperture Science had made it work. The potato spoke in GLaDOS's voice, tinny and pained.

"I know you."

"Sorry, ah, heh, what?" said Wheatley sharply.

"The engineers tried everything to make me behave," GLaDOS explained. "To slow me down. Once, they even attached an Intelligence Dampening Sphere on me. It clung to my brain like a tumour, generating an endless stream of terrible ideas."

"He won't remember that," Doug muttered under his breath.

"No," Wheatley declared, "I'm not listening, I'm not listening!"

"It was YOUR voice!" GLaDOS spat gleefully.

"No! No, you're lying, you're lying!"

"Yes," she insisted. "You're the tumour. You're not just a regular moron, you were designed to be a moron."

"I am NOT. A. MORON!" Wheatley bellowed, using the robotic arm to hit out at the elevator.

From his lofty viewpoint, Doug saw a flash of orange leg as Chell danced back from the glass.

GLaDOS screamed back to the best of her ability. "Yes, you are! You're the moron they built to make ME an idiot!"

"Well how about now?" Wheatley retorted, smashing the glass with the arm and throwing the potato inside the elevator. "Now who's a moron?"

"I can't watch," whimpered the cube.

Doug, however, couldn't look away. His eyes widened in horror as he watched Wheatley repeatedly whack the robotic arm into the top of the elevator, smashing through the transport tube. With growing alarm, he realised the lift was sinking through the floor. With the tube broken, there was no current of air to keep it from falling.

"Could a MORON PUNCH. YOU. INTO. THIS. PIT?" Wheatley yelled as he worked. "Huh? Could a moron do THAT?"

The elevator creaked once in protest, and Wheatley seemed belatedly concerned. "Uh oh."

Then it vanished, dropping out of sight in less than a second, Chell and GLaDOS with it.

"No!" Doug screamed, a harsh, desperate sound. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

The panels below him opened up, and the robotic arm reached for him, clutching his sleeve and pulling him from the pipes. For a wild moment he thought he'd be following Chell down the messy hole in the floor, but the arm dropped him by the side of the pit.

"Don't think I'd forgotten you, mate," Wheatley said sardonically. "I knew you were up there, lurking, watching my ascension to greatness like some…lurker."

Doug pushed himself to his knees, trying to gather his racing thoughts.

She can't be dead, she can't be dead, she can't be dead.

"This is good," Wheatley went on. "This is…karma. It's karma. Or…hmm…that's not very sciencey, is it? It's…it's a just reward for a job well done, that's what it is. I'd, y'know, share it with you, but I don't think you've earned it. In fact, you've been holding me back, mate."

"What?" Doug hissed venomously.

"I'm the one who came up with all the plans! I'm the one who got Chell out of the test chamber. I'm the one who got rid of the turrets and the neurotoxin and who nearly got carried away to who-knows-where in the process. That was me. All me. And no jumped-up little potato-robot-lady is going to tell me otherwise, oh no."

"You wouldn't have been able to do any of that if I hadn't fixed you first," Doug growled.

Wheatley halted, his optic narrowing in thought. "Be that as it may," he said at length, spinning in a lazy circle, "I'm the boss now. And that means you do as I say. You're a scientist, so…build me a test chamber or something."

"No."

Wheatley turned to him, his outer casing flaring in irritation. "Excuse me?"

"I'm going to find Chell," Doug said with determination.

"Um…right. I, uh, don't know which conversation you were listening to, but…I'm pretty sure I just accidentally killed her."

"I need to know," he replied. "For certain."

Wheatley chuckled patronisingly. "Well good luck getting down miles and miles of sealed off departments."

Doug's heart sank as he realised the core had a valid point. The vast majority of Aperture's lower levels had been sealed for years before he even joined the company.

"Unless, uh, you want to take the same route she did," Wheatley went on. "Y'know, down the old hole in the floor. But then you'd be dead, and that can't happen because I need you. For science."

Doug stared up at him, gritting his teeth as he tried to contain his anger. "She trusted you," he said. "I trusted you."

"And the plan worked."

"The plan was to escape!" he burst out, getting to his feet. "Not for you to turn into some power-crazed..." he trailed off, too furious to even find the words. "What happened?"

Wheatley blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

He doesn't even realise he's done anything wrong.

Doug plucked the portal gun from the bag on his back. "You know what? Never mind. I'm going."

"Uh, no, no, you can't do that," Wheatley protested. "I've got things I need you to do."

Without bothering to reply, Doug shot an orange portal under his feet, falling sideways into a corridor.

"Oi! You're not supposed to do that!" Wheatley exclaimed. "Where's that arm gone?"

Before the robotic arm could reach for him again, Doug fired into the wall, cutting off the route to the main chamber.

"Lucky you thought to leave an open portal here," the cube commented.

"That's not luck," Doug said grimly, "that's paranoia."

He pushed himself up, hugging the portal gun to his chest. His hands were shaking, his lungs suddenly feeling restricted. He was moments away from a panic attack.

No, no, I don't have time for this.

"Hey," said the cube in its most soothing voice, "calm down. We're going to sort this out."

What if she's...

"We don't know for sure."

But she fell...

"She has a knack of surviving."

Doug nodded, knowing it was true. Chell always beat the odds. Always. Even still, he was deeply afraid that maybe this time it was too much. The elevator shafts went all the way down, miles and miles into the salt mine. And Wheatley was right, he had no way of following. Not safely, anyway.

She's dead, hissed a voice. She's never getting out of here, and neither are you.

"That's not true," countered the cube. "We don't know anything for certain yet, you know that, Doug."

Why would we lie to you? the voice went on. Give up now, it's for the best. You're going to die here, it's just a matter of when.

"No, no, no, no," Doug murmured, dropping the portal gun and clapping his hands over his ears. It was technically pointless, but somehow it sometimes worked. His vision blurred, swamped by images of Chell's broken body. His heartrate increased, he could hear the blood rushing in his ears as he struggled to breathe. "Help me," he gasped, sinking to his knees.

"It isn't real," the cube spoke up. "It isn't real, and she needs you. She needs you to stay alive. Do you hear me?"

"Yes," Doug whispered, feeling the tears slip down his cheeks, getting lost in his beard. "Yes, I hear you."

"Good. Focus on my voice. Don't listen to the others, they're nothing. Now breathe."

Shaking, he did his best to comply, counting as he inhaled, held it, exhaled, gradually bringing his heartbeat back to normal. The visions of Chell faded. The other voices lost their power over him. Suddenly he was seeing clearly again. He let out a ragged breath.

"Are you with me?" the cube asked.

"Yes."

"Good. Because I know what we can do. If Chell is alive, she'll start affecting things down in the lower levels, right? So there must be a console somewhere that will show the changes. You know, lights going on, doors activated, etc."

Doug nodded, wiping his face on his sleeve. "You're right," he said, his voice still holding a faint tremble. "Good plan." He stood up, picking up his fallen portal device. "Let's find a console that can give us some answers."

"That's the spirit."

Pulling himself back together, Doug set off walking, reaching over his shoulder to pat the topside of the cube as he went.