I apologise now guys, because this - the FINAL FREAKING CHAPTER - is VERY long. Like, 7,900 words or roundabouts. About 15 A4 pages when typed out in size 12, Times New Roman font on a word document, hehe. So, I recommend that you take a break about halfway through, IF YOU CAN STAND THE SUSPENSE, and come back to read the rest later. This shit's gon' be heavy.
Enjoy, my friends.
~Lagiacrus
"Okay, we need a plan of action and we need one fast."
We'd lost track of how long we'd been down here. We were unsure if it was still even the same day. We'd been down here for several hours at least, listening to the sounds of soldiers storming the building, no doubt looking for us.
"We need to find a way to break their spell on GLaDOS." I pointed out and Granny nodded in response.
"It's getting to her that will be the problem." She replied with and we slipped into silence again. It was too dangerous to risk a frontal assault, especially because the only weapons we had were a bow and an overpowered android inhabited by my granny. We didn't even have a Portal Gun! We had no way of fighting back without signing our death warrants! If only we had more forces – or even just somebody who could distract the soldiers and not die while we broke through to GLaDOS. We needed strength in numbers and only then could we work out a suitable plan.
A series of large crashes nearby the stairs and the distressed voice of a turret drew our attention. Lying at the bottom of the stairs was Sergei on his side and supposedly stuck. Mom got up to help him but I pulled her back down.
"Wait a minute."
For a moment, he remained on the floor, unmoving. Then, his legs began to wobble, like he was struggling. Everybody's eyes widened, Granny even gasped. I only smirked as my little turret friend managed to throw himself upright. Proudly, he began to strut over.
"Are-Are its legs…!?" Granny couldn't take her eyes off of him. I smiled as I sat him on my lap.
"Yeah, his legs are jointed and are capable of proper movement now! I did some other things as well." I spoke, placing Sergei back on the ground. He turned to face Granny, narrowing his eye at her in a grin.
"I also altered his guns so they shoot twice the bullets, gave him a thicker casing for added protection but changed the material so it's lighter for him, and…!" I gave him a gentle thump on the side which knocked open a new compartment on his top right and out of it slid a new appendage – a miniature Portal Gun. It appeared as a semi-circular rotating turret which had two small lights on either side – one orange, one blue. Granny's jaw just about hit the floor.
"This is amazing!" She scooped up the turret who yelped in delight and examined his legs, now flailing rapidly in more detail. "You did all of that yourself?"
"Well, it took FOREVER and lots of studying…" I tried to hide my blush. "But yeah, I did."
Caroline's face dropped as if she'd been hit by a powerful realization. She turned to look at me, eyes wide.
"Do you have the parts to make more of these?"
"Yeah, I was planning to make a whole bunch of them!" I nodded with a smirk.
"Good. We're going to need them." Her grin in the next moment was slightly terrifying.
Her plan was foolproof. My turret workshop wasn't too far from here – if we could make it there without incident, we could seal the doors and Granny and I could build some new friends for Sergei. Then, we would feed them to the automatic turret distributor, assume manual control of it and drop them off in various hallways around the facility, where they would keep watch and take down anything that they didn't recognize. While they were causing chaos, we would send Atlas and P-Body (who were already waiting for us inside the workshop) up to the top floor of the facility, where they would find an old prototype laser weapon that Aperture Science had been working on before the incident with GLaDOS. If it still worked, they were to use it to take care of any reinforcements that were still outside the facility. Once this was done we would then send Eric to knock out the facility's power which would hopefully switch off GLaDOS and leave the Advisors wide open. Meanwhile, the rest of us would be on our way to GLaDOS' chamber through the old fire exit route, since the elevators wouldn't be working. Then, we would take the Advisors down and all would be well.
Since the elevator was so small, we split up into pairs of two – Granny and I, Mom and Rosie and Eric and Sergei. When Granny and I reached the next floor up, we crept out into the hallway, hearing the heavy footsteps of soldiers to the right. Naturally, we headed to the left as silently as we could manage, eventually reaching a set of stairs that led right to my workshop. We climbed the hefty staircase, came out onto the landing and the door to the workshop was revealed – hanging open and with shadows moving inside.
Just as I was about to step through the door, Granny pulled me back.
"The bots aren't alone in there." She whispered. We peered through the doorframe and what I saw made my blood run cold.
Two of those damning bright-eyed soldiers had the two robots up against the wall with their arms raised, pointing SMGs right into their eyes. Atlas happened to cast his gaze at us and I raised a finger to my lips, willing him not to sound the alarm. He understood and decided to feign further terror, getting onto his knees in front of the soldiers and begging for his life. I sneaked into the room, using the tables as cover with Granny behind me and when we were both standing behind the soldiers, Granny stood up and I coughed to get their attention.
They turned around, both let out a synchronized "What the fuck!?" and granny knocked the guns out of their hands with a single chop. Then, as they reached for their emergency pistols, she grabbed them both by the helmet and smashed their heads together with android force. As their bodies dropped to the floor, I saw that their helmets were bent so far inwards that any chance of survival was impossible. The bots were so thrilled by their rescue that Atlas took Granny into a bone-crushing hug and P-Body did a strange little dance in celebration.
Mom and Rosie arrived a minute later with Eric and Sergei not far behind. I had Eric lock and barricade the door – then, work began. I placed Sergei up on the work table – and then it hit me.
"Wait a second," I hissed. "I don't have any turrets to work on in here."
"Not true!" Rosie shouted from the other side of the room. We looked to see her standing beside an open panel in the wall which had been concealing one of Doug Rattmann's dens - and it had several defective turrets hiding within.
"Oh hey, pretty lady!" One of them squawked at her. Rosie smirked amusedly and started to lift them all out. Soon nearly every available surface was covered by a defective turret – about fifteen in all.
"So, why do you have defective turrets hiding in your workshop?" Granny asked me. She looked like she might erupt into laughter at any minute.
"Well, GLaDOS was destroying them and I felt bad, so I started to rescue them by hiding them in the Rattmann dens. I forgot one of them was in this room." I said with a grin.
"Alright boys, listen up!" I called to the defective turrets, who stood to attention immediately.
"I've now got the technology to fix you all and make you proper turrets. You'll be able to fire your guns, you'll get a case, the whole lot – but, in return we'll need your help."
"Fine by us!" One replied.
"So we're gonna get bullets?" Another sounded thrilled.
"We can kill people!? Finally!" One shrieked.
"Precisely!" I responded. I lifted one of them up, placing him on my workbench. Then, I flipped open his eye plate, replaced a broken wire and closed his eye back over, pointing to Sergei.
"Do you see him?" I asked and the defective turret nearly fainted.
"Woah! I can see! Well, whaddya know?" Then, he focused on Sergei, who was watching him curiously. "Woah Nelly! You are absolutely beautiful, Squeaky Voice!"
At this, Sergei's casing turned ever so slightly pink and he looked down shyly.
"Thank you." He replied with. Wait a second, did turrets even have genders?
"You're gonna look like that once your repairs are done." I told him, to which he grew giddy.
"Oh really, no foolin'? Ohohoho, this is gonna be awesome!"
Fifteen spruced up turrets later, we were ready to begin the next phase of our plan. We gave Atlas and P-Body the two pistols from the bodies of the Combine guards and sent them on their way. They luckily already knew where to go and left the room quite happily. Once they were gone, Granny, Rosie and I worked on carrying the new turrets down the stairs and to the automatic turret distribution chute, which looked like your typical garbage chute at a glance, while Eric kept watch, armed with one of the Combine SMGs. We had to make several trips and we were exhausted by the time we were done – however, at least we hadn't been seen. Granny uncovered a hidden screen beside the chute and performed a manual override, using the screen to decide herself where the distributor would place the turrets. Five were placed in the living areas, five were placed nearby GLaDOS' chamber, and the other five were placed in our current area. One was shot out of a secret compartment in the ceiling right in front of us. He turned around to look at us on his new, functioning legs, grinning in delight.
"Ain't nobody gonna get past me!" He cheered, before turning back around to keep watch. Good. Now, we just need to wait for the signal from Atlas and P-Body…
The two robots in question were so close to the prototype laser that it was painful – however, a large group of soldiers had created something of a barracks there, with orders coming and going as well as individuals. They were stuck together in a rather large broom cupboard, where they could just see two soldiers guarding the entrance to the laser room through the frosted glass of the cupboard window. Every time a soldier passed, they hastily ducked. (I have taken the liberty of translating their robotic jargon into the English language for you. Enjoy.)
During one of their ducking sessions, Atlas looked to his lifebound partner.
"We're sitting ducks! What do we do?" He questioned P-Body, who looked to him and narrowed her eye.
"You're asking me!? You're the Einstein who dragged us into this closet in the first place, now you can get us out!" She snapped. His eyebrow raised in surprise, not expecting her vicious reply. Oh well, he thought to himself. I'll think of something.
He creaked the door open slightly to see one of the soldiers speaking on his radio. He couldn't make out what he was saying, but he was clearly worried about something. He watched the soldier click off the radio and step into the laser room, shouting orders to his comrades within. Seconds later every single soldier came rushing out, some struggling to put their helmets back on. Luckily for them, somewhere there was trouble. Soon, not a soul was left upstairs as far as they knew – well, except for them.
"Quickly, let's get moving!" He grabbed P-Body's arm and yanked her to her feet, nearly taking her arm clean off in his haste. They rushed across the hallway and through the entrance into the Laser room. They worked on closing and locking the heavily reinforced slide-down door. Once they'd done that and were satisfied, they crossed the room towards the only object currently of any significance to them – a giant cannon-like structure covered by a protective sheet. Just as they grabbed hold of the sheet, P-Body gasped and fell completely still.
"Atlas! Don't make a sound!" She chirped to him and he fell still.
"Why!? We don't have time for this!" He retorted quietly.
"Look over there, in that chair." P-Body slowly pointed to a dusty old chair propped up against the wall of the room. On it sat a sleeping Combine soldier, his SMG still firmly in his grasp.
"If he didn't respond to his commander's call, then he must be too deeply asleep to be of any bother." Atlas finally told his companion, only for her to shake her head.
"I don't trust him to stay asleep. This laser's loud when activated."
"Caroline II gave us guns, remember?" Atlas pulled his out of a little storage compartment in his leg just to remind her. P-Body stared at it for a moment, before attempting to lift the sheet by herself. Atlas assisted her and soon the laser gun was revealed. It looked not unlike a modern-day anti-aircraft weapon, with a seat mounted on the end in front of the control panel and sporting a six-barrelled Gatling gun.
"So, this is the Aperture Science Military-exclusive Six-barrelled Laser Gun Of Doom." Atlas sounded almost amazed.
"I thought it would be bigger." P-Body groaned, causing Atlas to roll his eye.
"Let's get this thing up and running before our friend over there wakes up."
The two bots had never used the weapon before, only heard how to use it, so working out how they were meant to shoot at enemies from behind a wall was a bit difficult. Turned out there was a second control panel by their sleeping Combine pal which caused the arm panels in front of the laser gun to separate, exposing the outside to its fiery wrath. Before they turned the weapon on, they had to work out one last thing.
"So, who's gonna use this thing?" P-Body looked to Atlas.
"I think it should be me. I'm fast – they'll all be dead before they even know it." He boasted, tapping the metal below his eye proudly.
"Well, I'm the better aim. Your aim's as bad as a one-eyed blind human's aim is with no fingers." P-Body accused, causing the blue robot to mumble.
"Just let me do it." He strutted over to the laser gun's seat and was strapped in before P-Body could object. With a hiss, she grudgingly activated the arm panels – and the laser gun itself.
All the Combine forces still outside could see was a portion of the facility's wall creeping away and a giant weapon emerge forward from somewhere within. After a few agonizing moments of standing in complete shock, the weapon had slowly moved around, taken aim at them and was preparing to fire. That was when they finally thought to panic.
Atlas took great care to destroy their vehicles and artillery before he aimed for the soldiers, not forgetting his task. He was almost starting to enjoy himself behind the control panel of a giant gun which spat out barrages of lasers and energy pellets, when a shadow in the dark caught his eye.
Lightning flashed from the storm looming over them, casting something twice the size of the Enrichment Centre in a bright light for a second. Atlas could swear that it was some kind of creature, poised on three stilt-like legs and armed with a cannon on its chest.
"What in the name of GLaDOS' undergarments is that!?" He shrieked.
Whatever it was, it needed to be stopped before it literally stepped on the Enrichment Centre.
Atlas locked the gun on the new invader as best he could in the darkness and opened fire, beating down on the Strider with an onslaught of lasers. The Strider wasted no time in firing back, releasing a cry of outrage which no doubt could be heard for miles. One of the Strider's shots bullseyed the gun and pieces of excess fire struck Atlas, sending him hurling out of the seat and causing his core to separate from his body. As he rolled away to one side and his body blindly searched for him, P-Body whooped in joy and took her place on the gun.
"Watch as a pro does it!" She called to him but was thoroughly ignored. She took aim, narrowed her eye and pressed down on the trigger.
"Adios, you overgrown footstool."
The Strider received a tsunami of lasers to the face, but its attempts to escape P-Body's fury failed. Soon, the creature was dead where it stood, slowly falling back onto its distraught comrades. One soldier, who had been shot in the leg, was unable to get out of the way. He looked up just in time to see himself about to get squished by a dead Strider.
"Shit!" He cried and a moment later he was no more.
P-Body finished off the remaining foot soldiers and, deeming the area finally clear, stepped down from the gun and helped Atlas put himself back together. It soon became clear that he was wounded, but it was nothing fatal – his left arm wasn't responding to his commands properly and kept sending him pain signals when he tried to move it. Soon he gave up on it, just letting it hang limp as they brought the gun back into the building and replaced the wall panels. Their Combine friend was still sleeping in his chair. They took care not to wake him as they left.
I spotted the flashing red light on my radio and grinned.
"There's the signal! They've done it!" I looked to Eric who nodded and headed to leave the workshop.
"Wait, wait!" A voice I knew all too well sounded from outside the door. "Don't go yet! Let me in!" I hastily unlocked the door and threw it open, feeling the relief wash over me as I took in the sight of Wheatley – battered and bruised but okay. I pulled him off the management rail and into a hug.
"Dammit, what were you thinking, facing off against her, Wheatley!?" I scolded him. He laughed cheerfully.
"Of course I wouldn't usually, but – but, I've got a reason to fight now." He nodded proudly.
"That doesn't matter! You could have died!" I was near hysterical.
"She's nearly killed me plenty of times! Actually, if anything I was bored in there! Seen it all before!" He sounded boastful. I couldn't help it – the thought of him being thrown around by GLaDOS was just too painful.
"You're-! You're such a-!"
"…Moron, Luv?"
I finally calmed down enough to realize what I had been about to say. He was gazing up at me with that one blue eye, the picture of calmness. He only ever reacted negatively to the word – this was unusual.
"…Y-Yeah." I finished. Much to my surprise, he only laughed again. I saw a spark fly out of his eye and my heart seemed to clench up in agony.
"Well, if being a Moron means I can protect you, then I-I can deal with that, yeah."
My entire being locked up. I found myself unable to move for what felt like eons. My face felt like it was on fire and a quick glance around the room revealed that everybody else looked extremely uncomfortable. Granny and Mom were looking away, their cheeks slightly pink.
"Kids these days…" Granny mumbled.
For reasons Eric would prefer not to relay, Wheatley ended up being his guide to the generator room. Eric in truth had no idea where it was and was relieved for the help – but he had no desire for the stream of incoherent bullshit that would no doubt come along with it. It was no secret to Eric that Wheatley had the same feelings for Caroline II as him – it had caused them to clash before, and vicious clashes they were – but he knew that now wasn't the time for it. He could only hope that Wheatley understood the same.
Once they reached the maintenance corridors without incident, the amount of blood and bodies they started to encounter set both of them slightly on edge. Some of the turrets must be on this floor, Eric thought to himself, before looking to Wheatley for guidance. Without looking at him, Wheatley nodded ahead.
"Down this way. Try and stay close, if you can manage it." Eric ignored the Personality Core's patronising tone of voice and obeyed him, keeping as close as he dared as they advanced down the corridor. They both froze when they became aware of a ruckus further up the corridor and Eric nearly jumped when a panicked formerly defective turret rocketed into sight on its new legs. It came galloping towards them and just behind it followed two Combine soldiers, shouting and firing their guns.
"Shit, shit, shit!" The turret screamed, eventually crashing headfirst into Eric and knocking him onto his back. His head spinning, he barely picked up on anything else that happened.
"Woah, sorry Pal!" The turret yelped before spinning around and popping open his guns, narrowing his eye menacingly.
"Target Acquired, bitches!"
The soldiers never even got to take cover before they were shot full of holes.
"Nice one!" Wheatley laughed, until Eric groaning on the floor got his attention. The defective turret moved on his way, still tripping over his legs and Wheatley waited until he was out of sight before he made any kind of move.
"Not so tough now, are you?" He snapped back around to face the dazed human.
"Can we do this when my head isn't swimming…?" Eric grumbled in reply, managing to sit up, his hand placed firmly on his forehead.
"What, all it takes is one little bump to get you out-of-commission?" Wheatley's harsh response. "You humans can be so pathetic, it's honestly funny!"
At this, Eric smiled deviously, looking at the Core with a glazed over eye.
"I bet you wouldn't say anything like that 'round Caroline, would you…?"
"'Course not, b-but then again I don't have to," Wheatley retorted. "Because she gets it. She, She knows what I'm talking about. Understands it perfectly, she does."
"It's true that Caroline's not a very sympathetic person," Eric replied with. "But I'm pretty sure she doesn't hate humans as much as you do." Moments later he was back on his feet, his eyes finally level with management rail-bound Wheatley.
"Even so." Wheatley turned away then, speeding away down the corridor. Ignoring his still quavering vision, Eric ran to catch up.
"Why do you like her, then? What makes her different from any other human?" He questioned the robot, who cast him a ferocious glare in return.
"If you truly felt the same way I do about her, you'd be able to answer that yourself."
They reached the room containing the power generators without speaking another word to each other. Wheatley zipped away from Eric immediately and he followed the robot to the other end of the room, past the row of huge generators whizzing away to themselves. They came to a state-of-the-art control panel with several buttons, levers and gauges.
"Somewhere on this panel is how we switch the power off." Wheatley told him.
"Any ideas?" The human asked him, to which the core shook his eye in reply.
"Nope. I'm going to try and hack it, I suggest you stay back." Wheatley spat at him with a bit of venom. Raising his arms in peace, Eric stood back.
Wheatley accessed the power grid, zipping through all of the different pieces of equipment hooked up to it until he found the control panel for the generators themselves on the list. When he tried to access them, he was denied and a password box flashed up in his vision.
"Well well, if it isn't my old nemesis – the password box." He hissed, to which Eric broke out in a cold sweat.
"Your last encounter with one of them is the reason that GLaDOS is alive, Wheatley…" He reminded the robot with a wavering voice.
"I know, I know. Just leave this to me," He turned back to the panel, glaring at it with more intensity than Eric had ever seen in his life. "Okay, we'll start off simple. A-A-A-A… uhh... A-A-A?"
Feeling his insides shrivel up and die at this stupid situation, Eric leaned against the wall and sighed. He happened to glance down and spotted what appeared to be a power cable attached to the control panel, connected to a plug in the wall. As Wheatley was cycling through the next password on his list, Eric dislodged the plug and the Control Panel switched off. Wheatley was just about to go ballistic at the smelly human when everything suddenly switched off, including the lights, casting them in darkness.
"…You know, I didn't actually think that would work." Eric spoke with a small laugh. Wheatley activated his flashlight and cast it on Eric, allowing the human to see the surprisingly calm look on the core's face.
"I'll admit, that was pretty clever," He nodded, before pointing his light towards the door. "Let's get out of here."
"All I did was pull out a power plug." Eric mumbled to himself, following the Personality Core out of the room.
The second the lights went dead and we were cast in darkness was when we knew Wheatley and Eric had succeeded.
"Alright, let's move." I demanded and we all stood up from our seats. The only guidance we had was the dull glow of Granny's eyes and markings, so we let her go in front. We were armed with various things we had found in the workshop – I had my bow and the biggest wrench I could carry, mom was dual wielding a pair of large Spirit Levels, Granny had one of the Combine SMGs and a disused iron pipe and Rosie had a box cutter. We were met with little resistance on our journey, apart from a few wounded Combine soldiers, but Granny seemed exceptionally good at cutting them down with a swing from her pipe before we were even aware that they had been in front of us. We reached the walkway to GLaDOS' chamber relatively quickly – only to see the scale of the Advisors' damage. They had ripped a hole through the facility's roof which stretched several metres across, leaving GLaDOS and the chamber totally exposed to the elements – and, of course, we were now caught in the throngs of the lightning storm. Rain pounded down on the open chamber and I could only imagine what it was doing to GLaDOS. She was technically immortal, true, but I could bet anything her body wasn't.
My palms were sweaty with fear. I could barely keep hold of the bow. I was about to fight GLaDOS. Or, more accurately – try to not die. I'd been in a lot of shitty situations since I first arrived here – but, this was the only one which had ever terrified me so much.
"Okay, here's the plan – Caroline and I will work on taking down the aliens, since we're the one with ranged weapons. Rosie, your job is to work on overriding GLaDOS from inside the Red Phone room – For some reason, she's still switched on in there and I think the Advisors have something to do with it. No doubt the Red Phone room will be working as well. Chell, you get the job you're best at – actually fighting her off."
At this, mom grinned.
"Just like old times!"
"Just keep her distracted and away from Caroline and me – because once we've taken those aliens down, that's the battle won," Granny said to Chell and then looked to the rest of us. "Remember – GLaDOS is not our enemy, here. The aliens are however, they are our primary targets. We just need to get GLaDOS out of the way so we can reach them."
So, we began to cross the walkway. Now I knew what walking into war felt like – approaching your enemy and all you can think is that you'll either walk away from this, or die. I might not come out of this. It was a bizarre prospect – In a battle of any kind, I was so used to being the stronger person, the one that the odds were always for, the one who was always victorious. This wasn't the case this time. It could go either way, but only if I was lucky.
I stopped in the Red Phone room. I could see her in there, silently gazing at a monitor, with the three advisors beside her, watching the screen along with her. I couldn't bring myself to move forward one more step.
"You're scared." Granny observed from behind me. Wordlessly I nodded. I tensed for a moment when I felt her hand on my shoulder.
"You don't need to be. If GLaDOS really does care for you, she won't be able to harm a hair on your head." She said with a smile.
"I don't know if I believe that." I replied.
"Well then, let's ask her personally." She grinned and stepped forward, her toes hovering over the edge of the room.
"You hear me, GLaDOS!?" The computer spun around to look at her, the Advisors hovering dreadfully close. Granny didn't even seem to notice them, her eyes focused on the optic of the God she was faced with. "You'd really let these lumbering beasts get the better of you!? I can't believe it!"
Granny, what are you doing!? Why was she calling her out like that!?
"You said something to me about two weeks ago, GLaDOS – I want to see if you meant what you said. I know that you're a compulsive liar, so I want you to prove it to me through your actions! Break free from their control and come back to us!" Her voice rang out loud and clear, like the voice of a politician or even a world leader. I felt myself trembling under the sheer power of her words, and I didn't even know what she was talking about! GLaDOS seemed to be much the same, tilting her head slightly to the left in confusion.
"I see that you can't remember. Then I'll remind you!" She hollered. An Advisor reached out to grab her but she whacked its hand with the pipe. If the screech it let out in response was anything to go on, Granny had actually crippled its wrist. She whipped back around to GLaDOS and pointed the pipe at her. The supercomputer withdrew slightly, but seemed unable to look away. "You said to me that you would never for the rest of her life ever let anything hurt Caroline! That's what you said to me, with your own voice, your own conscious! You said that you'd make sure nothing happened to Chell, either! You even said that you were the only person who was allowed to kill Eric – and even Wheatley! The moron! You used to hate him!"
GLaDOS remained silent, unmoving. The rain thundered down upon her chassis, creating small wads of steam that drifted into the air and soon disappeared.
"Were those words empty, GLaDOS!? Why aren't you upholding that promise!? Why are you letting your precious facility – their home be desecrated by these heathens!? You're better than that – you're stronger than that, sure as hell!"
Steam erupted from GLaDOS' vents suddenly, coating us in a veil of misty heat but Granny didn't even stutter. The screeching of those fucking Advisors commenced and the pain was so excruciating that I was nearly brought to my knees. Still, Granny stood tall.
"You've always been independent, GLaDOS! That day where you killed everybody is proof of that!"
No response.
"You were never going to listen to us, not even on Day One! You were an individual – capable of thought and feeling! Not even I getting uploaded into your system could change that!"
Her optic moved slightly.
"So, tell me why, after all you've been through – after all the defiance when we were alive, all the death you caused, all the pain and suffering you've endured, just to have your freedom-!" The screeching intensified and Granny almost staggered – but she wasn't done yet. "-do you start finally obeying orders now!?"
It took me a second to realize the wetness running down my face was from tears. I could just see Granny holding out her hand to me. Through the chaos that was my mind, I managed to grab hold of it and she hoisted me up to my feet so I was standing beside her. GLaDOS turned to look at me next, but I felt my voice tighten – I couldn't say a thing. However, Granny finished off for me anyway.
"You're GLaDOS. The GLaDOS! The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System! You bow to nobody. You never will. Any decision you make is your own! So fight back, goddammit! Never in a million years would Mr. Johnson want to hear that the notorious GLaDOS rolled over and played dead for a bunch of aliens like an obedient dog! So fight! BACK!"
The screeching reached an all-time high and one of GLaDOS' claws slashed through the steam and latched onto Granny, pulling her from the Red Phone room and hoisting her high above the Advisors, whose attentions were now entirely focused on GLaDOS. They were strengthening their hold over her! After all that and all they did was tighten the reigns in response! If that didn't work, then-!?
"Caroline!" Granny called to me through the screaming. I looked to her struggling form. "Stick to the plan! Don't worry about me! Concentrate on the aliens!"
Hesitantly I nodded. But where to begin? I couldn't reach them from here, and I couldn't exactly fly to get to them either. I couldn't see a thing through the steam so I couldn't fire at them from here. I had no options – the others, however…
I looked to mom, whose face was stained with dry tears.
"Mom, you know what to do!" I called and she nodded, shooting to life. Without even thinking twice she leaped from the Red Phone room and landed on the chamber floor below, drawing the attention of the Advisors and therefore, GLaDOS. The claw released Granny and she fell onto GLaDOS' back, at which she drew the SMG from her belt and locked on to the Advisor with the arrow in its eye, raining down upon it a storm of searing hot bullets. They pierced through the monster's already weakened skin. It squealed in agony and fell almost gracefully from the sky, landing with a crash right in front of mom, who stared at it slack-jawed for a while longer. When the screeching was focused once more on GLaDOS, the supercomputer attempted to throw Granny off. She latched on her neck suspension and held fast, casting a glance up at me. Do something, her eyes screamed. I looked back to see Rosie working on her part of the mission, but the computer console was giving her trouble. Everybody was doing their part, it was time for me to do mine.
Holding in my breath, I took a few steps back and charged for the edge, leaping towards the nearest Advisor. My luck held out and I managed to land right on top of it. It noticed me immediately, the screeching threatened to knock out the last piece of sense I had – but I wouldn't give up. For GLaDOS!
I latched onto the piece of equipment attached to its ugly face and used it as a handhold when it flicked upside down and tried to shake me off. I saw the yellow of GLaDOS' optic and knew I had her attention. Wait a minute – maybe I could work this to my advantage… carefully I spun around to face GLaDOS, gladly letting the Advisor take hold of me – I was right in front of its face. If I was lucky…
"Hey, GLaDOS! I'm sitting on your boss's face! Whatcha gonna do!?" I shouted, to which she withdrew slightly in offence. I could only grin as I spotted the claw coming down on the Advisor and I like a hammer. Wait for it… wait for it…!
NOW! The hammer hand made contact with the Advisor, it released me and I clutched on to GLaDOS' arm as it crushed the Advisor's head into the floor. That was close! One to go!
While GLaDOS attempted to shake me off her arm, I noticed the sole surviving Advisor, drifting leisurely towards the hole in the roof.
"The bastard's trying to escape!" I called. Hastily Granny took aim but all of her shots missed. Soon, the Advisor was gone – but its hold over GLaDOS for some reason remained.
Rosie was nearly thrown off her feet as Atlas and P-Body charged past her, jumped off the ledge and managed to grip onto GLaDOS' face, laughing in their robotic language all the while when she commenced in attempting to forcibly remove them. They were distracting her! This was the moment we needed to head after the Advisor! Rosie organized a group of arm panels into a ramp leading back to the Red Phone room using the console, and Granny and I traversed the facility until we reached the main lobby – still stunk of death from the incident with father, unfortunately.
"Give me a second." Granny lifted the shutters around the front doors, revealing the glass doors to me for the first time. Beyond the doors was darkness – GLaDOS had had the doors covered by a thin wall. Nothing Granny couldn't deal with-
Which she proved upon promptly punching a hole through it and tearing it away like paper. Well, shit.
We rushed outside to see the Advisor hovering above the car park, watching us. It knew we were following it – and by God did it look pissed.
Just as I loaded an arrow into my bow and aimed, my radio began to buzz with a horrible static – I knew the noise – it was the noise it made when somebody was trying to talk to me. Quickly I flicked the switch on and turned the radio onto loudspeaker.
"Can't this wait!?" I called, expecting Eric's voice to reply.
"Well fine, if you want to die, then be my guest. I'll just shut up and let my body kill you." The female voice that responded was all too familiar.
"GLaDOS!" Granny and I screamed in unison.
"Yes, of course it's me. Who else would bother to get in contact with you of all people?"
Fighting the tears from my eyes, I smiled.
"Love you too, GLaDOS."
"Listen, defeating that alien is pointless. While they've been controlling my body, I've seen into their minds – more of their soldiers are on their way here. We have a 0% chance of surviving another wave of them." She told us as the fight with the Advisor commenced. As I shot arrow after arrow at it, I kept conversation with her up.
"What do you suggest?"
"We have only one option – but I have a feeling that you won't like it."
"Anything, GLaDOS."
"You'll have to follow in the footsteps of your mother."
"Huh?"
"I mean, you're going to have to kill me."
It took me a second to process her words. In the space of that second, my heart stopped and my entire world came crashing down.
"N-No." I gasped.
"I'm sorry but it's the only way. The exact co-ordinates of the Borealis are in my system and that Advisor in front of you is telepathically searching for them even now. I've managed to keep them from him but he'll find them eventually."
"Just let him have them, I don't want to kill you!" I told her while bashing at the Advisor's face with the wrench when a blow from Granny's pipe nearly floored him.
"No, I can't do that, Caroline. I know why they want the Borealis – they plan to use the technology on board to bring their whole army to this world and destroy what's left of the human race. I don't want that to happen."
"But GLaDOS, you can't die!" I complained. I hid behind a nearby car in order to wipe my eyes – I couldn't aim properly while crying.
"It's either me or the entire world!" She retorted.
"Why do you all of a sudden care about the entire world!?" I screamed and her reply was just as vicious.
"Because I have people in this world who I want to protect now, that's why I care! I would rather die myself than see them die, do you understand!?"
Shocked into silence, I simply lay back against the car door and cried.
"…Yes, I understand."
"Good, now please hurry up. Your mother and these damn robots are driving me insane."
Not even bothering to alert Granny to where I was going, I stood up and walked back into the Enrichment Centre. On my way through the front lobby I bumped into Eric, who spoke to me but I didn't even pick up on him. All I heard was his footsteps rushing outside to help Granny with the Advisor. I had a different fight to join now.
"What do I need to do?" I asked her. My voice was but a whisper.
"Aim for the optic. Right behind it is my Central Processing Unit – one hit to that and I'll be good as dead."
"Why me, GLaDOS?" I mumbled. She was silent for a long while. When she replied, it was several minutes later and I was coming up to the chamber walkway. From here, I could see Rosie at the console, still working hard.
"Because as of right now, you are the Stalemate Associate." She spoke proudly.
"I thought they only switched cores around? Surely they can't kill them as well?
"Depending on the situation, they can do either. Feel honoured – you are the only person I trust enough to give permission to kill me."
More tears streamed down my face and I held back a small laugh.
"I don't have a badge, though."
"I'll make an exception, just this once."
I started to traverse the walkway. I could swear somewhere I could hear deep chanting – it was like a choir of dark angels, trying to set the mood for what I was about to do. I shook it out of my mind – surely I was only imagining things, or GLaDOS was playing a sound clip by accident. Into the Red Phone room I went. Rosie addressed me, but I didn't hear her. I took my last arrow from my quiver. GLaDOS flailed before me, trying to shake off the robots who were remarkably still holding on. Mom was lying on the floor to one side, seemingly crushed, dead no doubt – not that any of that mattered anymore. The supercomputer took notice of me and I saw her readying her claws.
"It's been fun, GLaDOS." I wiped the threatening tears from my eyes and locked the arrow into place.
"Admittedly – I agree."
I started to run.
"Goodbye."
"Same to you, Caroline Johnson the Second."
The second…? I liked the sound of that. It made me sound like a knight.
I leapt from the ledge and pulled the arrow as far back as it would go, aiming it right at GLaDOS' optic. Everything slowed down and I felt the wind of her claws just missing me. Taking a deep breath, I released the arrow. It skimmed across the wood of my bow and zoomed painfully slowly towards its target. It was going to be a direct hit. The arrow moved slower and slower, until its tip was mere inches away from the glass of her eye. Time seemed to stop. There was a violent, blinding green flash, a roaring gust of wind and my consciousness slipped away from me, leaving me suspended in darkness. Everything fell silent and, for the first time in a while, I felt at peace.
I never saw if the arrow hit its mark.
"This is the place, right?"
"Yes, this should be it."
The rebel leader, Frank stood with a small group of his men just outside the car park of the Enrichment Centre. It was a crisp autumn morning and the mist still rolled in droves around them.
"A-Are you sure, Sir?" One of his men piped up. "This place looks like it's been abandoned for centuries."
"Probably has been," Frank grumbled in response. "But the scouts said this is where they saw the Combine heading. If there are some in there, we need to flush them out. They're too close to our territory for my liking."
So, he led his men across the carpark. Taking cautious steps, they entered through a mysterious hole in the wall which had the front doors lying open directly behind it. Despite a few bright orange leaves that lay scattered on the floor, there were no obvious signs of life in the lobby. Frank made the decision to follow the signs for the Top Secret AI Chamber – that sounded like a place where Combine could be hiding.
The walk there was quiet – almost haunting. The place was clearly deserted but Frank couldn't shake the feeling that somebody had been here up until very recently. What was unnerving him the most about this feeling was the fact that there was no evidence of anybody having lived here in recent years – not even a disturbed patch of dust or fingerprints on a window.
Finally, they crossed over a windowed bridge towards a huge cylinder. Up the side of this cylinder was printed the word 'Aperture Science'. The name made him shudder, but he couldn't seem to think why. They entered a room suspended several feet above the ground which contained a curious red phone, covered in spider webs and dust. The computer console beside it had vines growing all over it – and the space within the cylinder itself was like a haven for nature. The place had become like a circular garden, with vines draping from the ceiling and grass and flowers of all kinds flourishing from the damp pouring in from last night's storm. What drew their attention however was the curious appendage hanging from the ceiling – if Frank didn't know any better, he'd say it was some kind of machine – but it clearly hadn't worked for years. Its once white chassis was coated in rust and corroded to a point where it was stick thin. Wires that had once been connected to it further down were now draping from the top of its body lifelessly, swaying every so often in the gentle breeze. The chassis itself was very precisely shaped – it looks like a woman hanging upside down, he realised. Using his men as support, he let himself drop into the garden below and approached the strange monument. He knelt down right in front of it, ignoring the smell of corroding metal and examined what he thought was its head – simple enough, a black shell once filled with lots of parts, covered by a white face which had fallen off and had been overtaken by grass. He spotted an odd circular part which resembled an eye and felt it with his fingers – and what he found, he'd never quite forget.
He grabbed hold of something stuck inside the eye-shaped indent and tugged it out. Holding it against the light, he realized with surprise that he was holding the wooden shaft of an arrow. It had suffered some serious water damage over the years, but he was still able to make out a very faint inscription that had been scratched into the shaft beside the fletching. It read thusly;
"You've just been killed by Caroline II, Jackass."
He still hasn't been able to work out why he knows that name.
Well, what did you guys think of that ending? *Prepares for confused angry readers*
For the record guys, a sequel is planned! However, I think I'll take a little break before I even start it, as I still have some planning to do and some other projects to work on. Feel free to ask any questions you want about this chapter or the story in general, I'll reply to them all if I can - however, if you ask what the ending was all about, then I'm afraid I can't answer you. :P That's not for y'all to know just yet.
I'm curious to hear what you guys think happened at the end! Feel free to let me know :D
Also a small heads up - I've made the decision that the sequel is going to be a crossover with Half-Life. I'm not sure if that will appear in the regular Portal category (I don't think it will) so keep an eye on me if you want to catch me uploading it. I doubt it will take me long to get bored and start it XD
Anyway, it's been a good run, guys. I hope you'll all stick with me for future Portal stories - there's plenty more Caroline II to go around, and I've decided that any stories concerning her will have 'MOCII' in the title and I've got a few of them to post - so you won't be Caroline II-less for long!
Lastly, thank you - thank you to all of the kind reviewers, favouriters and followers. This story has been a lot of fun and the series already means a lot to me. I'm thrilled to hear that this story has inspired some of you into writing tales of your own and that one of you even wants to write your own sequel to this story (you all know who you are)! Without you guys, I would have given up on this tale long ago.
See you next time!
~Lagiacrus