It was funny, she thought, that she hadn't realized how terribly vindictive that GLaDOS could be despite all of their history together. Here she was, thinking they had gotten past it all when this little situation happened. Chell sank down to sit on the floor, her back against the cool steel of the column that she somehow had to get to the top of by climbing up some rope. With a hand pressed to her ribs, she struggled to find her breath amongst the sharp stabs of pain.

"Get up. Keep testing."

She shook her head.

"Fine."

Once more, the claw descended from the ceiling and started for her. But in a moment's hesitation, she picked up one of the turrets instead and brought it over. Thankfully the claw's crushing grip was enough to stop the gun panels from flailing and spraying her with bullets, though it didn't stop it from pointing its laser at her.

"I see you!"

"You have twenty seconds to climb up that rope as high as you can go before I let go of this turret. They really don't like you after what you did to them, you know. They want revenge."

When GLaDOS started counting down, Chell figured that she should probably listen. After all, she had broken her ribs just minutes earlier for no reason other than the fact that she could. Clambering to her feet, she then dug her toes into the rope and did her best to inch her way up it like some pale little caterpillar. At least it mostly required leg strength, but pulling herself up by her arms to go higher was torturous. Giving a yelp and closing her eyes as a burst of gunfire peppered the wall, she hung there waiting to be killed. But upon opening her eyes and looking down, she found that the gun plates weren't able to tilt up quite high enough to reach her. A few little dents in the column were surrounding her feet, but for the most part she was out of harm's way.

"Hm. Disappointing." GLaDOS sneered, but waited until Chell was up on top of the column before she knocked the turret over and killed it. After all, she wouldn't be able to complete the test if it remained where it was.

Pressing her hand down on the little button on the podium while still sitting where she was, the test subject peeked over the edge to see what happened. Just as she had thought, the tiny tiles began moving up and down several inches before slamming back down again. It most definitely wasn't in a wave formation, or she might have actually been able to run over it easily. These seemed to have absolutely no pattern to them, and once she got down there and tried to get across them she'd run the risk of getting her toes broken as well if they slammed shut on them. They weren't quite big enough to put her whole foot on by the looks of things. And to top it off, thermal discouragement beams shot out at different heights across the tiles, though there were none of those fancy cubes to redirect the beams. The only good thing about it all was that the moving floor had upset the turrets guarding the way and had tipped them into the beams. They were soon fried, and the way was relatively clear. But she'd have to do some hurdling to get there.

With an unhappy groan, Chell slipped back down the rope and went and stood by the uneven floor. This was just killing her. She hunched over, determined to find some kind of position where her side didn't hurt so badly. But killing her seemed to be the point of this exercise, so it wasn't like she could ask to pretty please take a break. All in all, it made her quite glad she'd miraculously suffered no serious injuries during her testing days.

"[Subject Name Here], you are so slow that I might just have to put down 'Idiot' in the career field of your permanent record. I'm almost tempted to reunite you and that moronic metal ball you're so fond of. You are slow in body, he is slow in mind. I could put you in a chamber together with no doors and charge a viewing fee. They used to do that with lunatics, you know. You were made for each other."

The test subject peered up at the white camera with a tired and wilting stare and shook her head.

"No? No what? Oh, you're right. That would be cruel. You'd probably kill him."

That hadn't been the point that she'd been trying to get across, but the childish antics of the supercomputer weren't going to let her get very far anyway. Her best bet was to simply finish the chamber and try to talk to her then. Hopefully while she was still high on testing euphoria. Then and only then might she be more amenable to listening.

So across the moving floor she went. It took her a few tries just to figure out how to do it. Walking wasn't an option, as it threw her around like a drunk walking on marbles. Eventually she settled for rolling across it and protecting her ribs as best as she could. She still got a few of the pneumatic tiles slammed into her sides though, and it left her spitting up a bit of blood and nursing a few thermal burns from the beams by the time she finally made it across. After that, the Vaseline streaked pole she had to climb up seemed unnaturally cruel.

But she made it, and collapsed next to the huge red button, wheezing and rattling. Chell closed her eyes and laid there on the cool floor, her sweat-soaked hair stuck to her forehead. Even from a distance, GLaDOS could see her lips were stained as red as the button she laid next to. The little twinge that she assumed to be Caroline said to help her, but she wasn't having any of it.

"And to think; that was only the calibration test. You've really let yourself go, you pathetic, soulless monster."

"I'm sorry..." Chell mumbled.

"I'm sorry too. Science will never get done at this rate. Deploying Aperture Science Forcible Cranial Motivation Embrace."

The large claw made its return, forcing Chell to look up as its pincers clacked in front of her face. They soon clamped around her head in much too tight of a grip, lifting her up until she was on her knees. Scratching at the metal did her no good; it only ripped at her nails. So she settled for holding it back somewhere near the cable that it was attached to. This must have been how Wheatley felt, she briefly noted, as the claw gave another squeeze. It made her jaw ache as the crenulated grips dug into her cheeks and prevented her from opening her mouth properly to speak. The pressure in her head was just as wicked, and almost made her forget about her ribs.

"Is it working? Do you feel like testing yet? I assure you, testing is far less painful than dying. I should know. I've done both."

Not even tugging at the claw seemed to dislodge it. In fact, it only made the grip close on her that much tighter. Chell's hands slipped across the well-oiled metal as she tried to find some way to make the AI let her go. All it did was bring that metallic scent to her nostrils. The one that distinctly reminded her of GLaDOS. And despite the pain, it sent a pleasant little tingle down far below her belly.

Somehow, she knew that GLaDOS had seen it when she didn't say anything for a while.

"There's something seriously wrong with you. Is this what you like? Destruction? You humans are terrible. All you do is break each other. You're like spoiled children with toys." The AI's voice sounded more strained than she'd like to admit. "Not that you'd know," she quickly added. "Your parents never loved you enough to give you any. But you're certainly making up for lost time."

"Nn srree." Chell whined through the grip.

GLaDOS eased up a little bit so she could actually move her jaw.

"I'm sorry! I didn't kiss him! He tried to, but I didn't." It wasn't much of an excuse, she knew. But it was better than nothing. "And...I was scared."

"Scared? Of what? Huckleberry Finn and a woman who has never seen a jar of anti-wrinkle cream in her lifetime?" GLaDOS scoffed.

"No...Just-..."

"Just what?"

"Just of what they'd think...What they'd do to you. What they'd do to me. I-...I just want to be normal." She mumbled so softly that a part of her wondered if the supercomputer had managed to hear her.

GLaDOS was being awfully quiet.

And then the claw closed tighter.

Chell let out a partially muffled scream, the clamping motion locking her jaw into place. She swore she could hear her bones creaking under the strain while starburst of pain exploded in front of her eyes, blinding her momentarily. Scrabbling madly at the claw, the test subject desperately searched for something to get her out of the headlock. Gradually her face reddened under the strain as the tiny capillaries burst beneath her skin, the tears dribbling down her cheeks making them glisten brightly under the harsh artificial light. It was then she saw the button out the corner of her eye, swimming in the watery haze. But no matter how much she strained to reach it, she couldn't pull herself far enough away from the claw to press it.

"LNEG OO! Negoonegoonegoo!"

Chell wailed as best as she could, pain ripping through her side and stealing her breath away as easily as GLaDOS had taken it from her with a kiss. Kicking madly in any direction that her legs could reach, her sweaty feet caught the metal flooring, shrieking as they struggled to pull and push and get her out of that grasp. It was only when she'd stubbed her toe against the button that she realized she could reach it with her feet. Kicking out once more, she slammed her foot down on the large red surface and threw as much of her body weight in its direction as she possibly could.

When GLaDOS let out a short gasp, she knew she'd succeeded even before the claw let go and dropped limply on the floor where it twitched about. Despite the fact she knew the claw could reach her just about anywhere in the chamber, Chell dragged herself across the floor as close to the closed doors of the elevator as she could possibly get. For some reason, it felt much better being as far away from the claw as possible. Especially with the throbbing agony inside her head threatening to make her day even worse.

The AI didn't respond for some time, but when she did, the claw slowly retracted back up to the ceiling where it was hidden amongst the shadows once more. To Chell, she sounded exhausted and rather more melancholy than the spitting tizzy she'd been in before and barely managed to control.

"I'd forgotten about that...The euphoria...I hate you so much. Just...go. Leave me alone. Like you always do." The speakers crackled almost endlessly, her voice a little huskier than usual like she was leaning on and breathing right into the microphone.

"...I don't hate you?" Chell offered peacefully, but decided it was best to crawl into the elevator before GLaDOS changed her mind. And she stayed there curled in a ball until it had taken her back to the surface. The sun was hardly pleasant as it stabbed into her eyes and made her headache worse.

Also unpleasant was the gravel road cutting into her palms as she crawled all the way home.