Chapter 21

Another area with dreaded silence. Doug was starting to hear his own heartbeat.

The lit rooms displayed an assortment of shelves with bottles and scatterings consisting of Dwemer junk, with desks with alembics and alchemy tables. It routed itself into several separate rooms surrounding a larger room filled with desks. Not of Dwemer creation but Aperture, with a large gray tube in the middle encased in ice. Nothing of unusual sorts, just samples of what ever they were resourcing back here.

Taking control of the situation, Daryn ordered them to look around; with Doug pitching the familiar atmosphere to Wheatley. They would have done the minor testing and creation of new chemicals in here. Bottles both used, unused and empty were scattered everywhere. Chell scrunched her nose in utter contempt of it. What use could this room be when they need to even get out? The light of the room was brought by ordinary lights, a tinge of white and humming was loud enough to nearly fill the void.

The walls were wrought with stains, evidence of the rooms usage. Doug approached one of the middle desks, before he hit the tube in the middle and placed his hands on them. The smooth surface of marble that finished the touch. He rimmed his fingers over it, recalling the benches back home.

Wheatley found a yellow button on the back concrete wall. Curious, he wanted to touch it, but having learned his lesson from earlier, he refrained from doing so and therefore stepped back from it. He called Chell over to help him investigate and relay back to understand what the button was used for.

Daryn became interested in the frozen tube in the middle. His eyes darted left to right, pinning on the ghastly aura within; the samples that made him pique with logical interests. The three foreigners were pre-occupied with their familiar territory as he pressed a few buttons on the frozen tube itself. There were faint, choking beeps that were barely audible but it was enough to give the Dunmer an unsettling grin.

"It kinda wants you to touch it. But you shouldn't. I uh...I think we...should?" Wheatley battered.

"Don't think too much about it." Doug belittled sarcastically. "If it was so secretive, I doubt they wouldn't have made it so easy to press. Apply basic logics here. It's at a children's height so it's not that dangerous."

Wheatley groaned. "Ugh, Not THAT dangerous you say. So there is the slight chance of being dangerous. Brilliant."

Doug barged through and whacked the button without delay, trying to prove his point to the bot.

Wheatley gasped. "Hey! If there's gonna be turrets in there and I get shot again, you realize that the likelihood of you guys dying will be higher than mine. That's to say that there are more turrets. You should always expect surprises when she's around."

The room shook as the back concrete wall lifted, almost tripping Wheatley over. There was a rail balcony that overlooked the abyss below, but the accompanying walls were made out of panels. It made Chell very suspicious and anxious.

There was a brief silence, before they heard a call, a shout that reverberated throughout with it's mighty echo, with a voice they knew.

Before their eyes heralded a might slam against the rail balcony, with an aqua, yet ethereal character that had landed feet first on the sturdy metal. It emanated a slight brisk aura with brushes of cold that turned into a orange suited woman.

"OWWWW...that...didn't hurt..." The individual whinged as she took her helmet off. From Doug's view her hair had that dramatic bounce to it, like from those shampoo ads. He had to blink twice, rub his eyes and whack his head three times for clarity. On instinct, he ran over and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Hey! You're okay!" He cried out with jubilation.

She composed herself in an instant and looked at the expression on his face. It was full of genuine concern and worry, but also with the tweaked lips that generated a warmth that she gladly welcomed and picked a minor smile from herself. Only for her to stand up straight and force herself back into a serious mode. Looking around, she ignored Doug as she eyed off Daryn. She pulled out her blade and grunted, ready to just get rid of this debt of hers. Wheatley queried if she was alright. Instead she ran up to Daryn who just seemed confused at her suddenly running up to him. She grabbed him via his collar and threw him on the floor, with her blade at his neck and foot on his chest.

Doug ran over and curled his fingers around her arm, pleading her to stop. She grunted again. Her eyes indicated she was ready to kill. Her fingers twitched with their grip.

"This elf deserves to die." She mentioned coldly. Her voice had a whispered and jittered husk.

He didn't expect her to be...well, not this vicious. He'd noticed her disdain for elvenkind but normally it was tiny white indiscretions that hurt nobody and by his peoples standards, prejudice was normal. Also, he feared being smothered in her flames if he'd back talked. But here she was, suddenly with the new driven and unwarranted intention to kill Daryn. He had to stop this. Even if he did risk getting his hands chopped off. The fear filled his lungs and discouraged him to get even a morsel of a word out of his lips. Daryn wasn't resisting, but he was keeping a keen connection with her without saying anything.

"Dragonborn..." Doug squeaked out, much to his surprise.

"Please..."

He noticed her blade started to shake in her hand. He sensed the hatred that was fueling her innate need to disembowel. The flame that so desperately wanted to escape. Doug failed to grasp the concept of her true reason, only that Daryn must have done something explicable horrible to warrant her wrath. He'd hung around her long enough to see who her enemies were and who deserved the meet their end at the tip of her blade or at the core of her fiery blasts.

"You...you make me...ANGRY! I don't know why but you do! You just do!" She cried out, small tears running down from her face. She gritted her teeth in her nearly snapped state.

Daryn looked at her with skepticism. "I'm being accounted for the fact that I just piss you off? See this is the kinda stuff your average brigand is made out of. I would have expected much more restraint from you."

She pressed her blade further, with Doug's grip on her arm tightening. His own eyes trained on to her which were not only full of fire, but from what he could read an unknown sadness as well. An internal conflict that he could detect. He desperately wanted to help.

"NO! There's...there's much more than that I know it! Something...something tells me that YOU have done far worse than being...you...I..."

Daryn smirked. "You know crimes are usually named... some crimes have names. You know, you could name one that I did. Now that would help your conversation with the slightest conviction of your own self-discussions."

He was definitely screwing with her. Foul, irritating, the entire fact that he was an elf. All things considered that were her reasons. She wasn't accustomed to murdering without a reason, a real reason and not just some order to take a hit. That's a thugs work.

It was imperative that she would do it, but with Doug's grip and unexplained aura she became distant to the idea. It hadn't been a good sign that she would suddenly make these accusations. Whether they were fact or fiction, there was forever in inbuilt feelings that his death would be necessary.

"Have you asked yourself why? I presume not. I'd help out but that's just a conflict of interest on my part. Sera."

She lost it as she screamed and made the attempt to stab him in the chest, only for Doug's foolishness to arrive as he wrapped his hands around the sharp sides of the blade. The Dragonborn froze and went wide eyed; her mouth dropping at the scientists attempt to even prevent such a thing. The fuel of her hatred was tempered at the sight of his pleading eyes that cut through her just as much. She saw the tremors that were amounted with his struggle to stop her and the pain he was experiencing as the blade was cutting through his hands. The blood dropped in moderate sequences, but that didn't bother him at all. The scent of his blood rifled her nose, sending her insane.

"Your world is in black and white. You witness grey and you have no clue and take the initiative to be ignorant about it about murdering people left and right." Daryn criticized.

His eyes started shining red as he gave her an evil grin, digging something into her mind that felt like her body was burning. She screamed as she dropped the blade and fell onto her knees and barely held herself together. What in Oblivion was happening?

"MONSTER! FREAK!" She roared.

Daryn took his time in getting up and dusted himself down, looking at them with a snarl. In that moment, the air around them shifted.

"I'm offended by you using such small words. Then again, You used to do that...never really that good with the insults. She claimed it was because of the genuine heart you had...what bullash that even meant..."

Doug looked at the Dragonborn accusingly. What was he talking about? He tried to help out, only that his palms stung from the cut of her blade. She got herself off the floor and snatched the sword back. She glared at Doug, furious at his interference.

"Murdering is in your blood. Ambition is just a side effect of your arrogance. No...yes...that's what she did..."

Wheatley stepped forward, not entirely sure what Daryn was getting at.

"Care uh, to explain to the rest of us? This may be before our time and we'd prefer it if were, uh, up to speed. That would be tremendous of you."

The Dragonborn gave Wheatley a scorned look and turned back to Daryn. He was manipulating her, she was so sure of it. Doug was none the wiser. She then released none of them knew what on Nirn was happening. But she was so full of this bursting rage that she had directed it at Daryn on the words of an Assassin.

"You've been shadowed far too long from the world. The real world. You've been fed lie after lie because she claims she's protecting you. No. The simplest way to say it is that she molded you the way she wanted you to be. I believe you have a fragment of your former, precious and pure self. I'm taking a huge variation on purity by the way. You have the filthiest blood by far. And yet..."

The Dragonborn had enough of this mindless talk. She swung at him with her blade but his agility was too much for her as he successfully avoided being cut, stabbed and decapitated with crouching and moving side to side. Doug walked forward but then was dragged back by Chell to safer position as they watched the pair duke it on in front of them.

"Let them sort out their problems. This is normal for them." Wheatley murmured to the mute, who just, with subtly, was displeased with that answer. But he was right. Both of them knew nothing, but they couldn't just hide there and remain frozen.

The Dragonborn send in another swipe with all her inborn might, but Daryn proved elusive and wouldn't let up. Instead he cast a huge fire wave spell that nearly enveloped her as she went by instinct to immediately shelter Doug from the blast. She almost crushed the poor man with the weight of her Aperture grade armor, which he'd had a closer look at in the split second that she lay on top of him. Although he could hardly breath, she asked if he was okay, letting him nod. With that, she got off him and ordered him to take the others to a safer place.

"No! I'm not leaving you here! Not like before. Just...no." Doug cried out.

All the Dragonborn did was raise an eyebrow before dodging another blast before she could give her ranting input. Doug dipped behind a desk in instant retaliation. The Dragonborn screamed with madness as she sprinted at the enigmatic Daryn and his awfully calm demeanor. She hated it. She wanted to stab it. Burn it...

She hated his smugness and she was completely right with his attitude. Just when she was about to believe in the lesser animosity towards mer this had pop up and thrown her back in the deep end in the pool of prejudice.

"You nords will never change. Your brashness will be your downfall, while the great Alduin consumes endless souls in Sovngarde." The Dunmer taunted. His words were an great insult. "Although with you it could be different. Your choices in recent times puts it into great doubt."

The Dragonborn grunted as she took a deep breath, preparing to shout.

"Fus..."

She wasn't even to complete the full shout properly as Daryn shot a fireball to her stomach. He'd been so damn quick with his attacks. She heaved over, holding her lower torso as Daryn sprinted towards the outer area, to the confusion of the others.

He raised his hands and muttered something under his breath. A few seconds of silence followed as an odd looking staff arose from the ground. Wheatley had a closer glimpse as he could see three sides with strange faces on them as it swirled around in telekinetic glory. Daryn grabbed the staff and smiled. The Dragonborn meanwhile stood up. She'd felt the pain of the fire ball but was otherwise fine. There had been no noticeable burn anywhere.

Doug had no idea what was going on as he stepped forward and tried to reason the feuding pair, but had come to realise and was starting to believe that the Dragonborns actions were justified, as bizarre as it was. The Dragonborn attacked first and Daryn was defending himself but... Daryn made him feel...ill. Just being there and his smile, which was a warped apparition to the previous ones he'd had. He shook his head and looked onward as Daryn strutted around with his new staff.

The Dragonborn had never seen such a thing. His pompous attitude suggested that he had nasty things in mind for what to do with it. There was no sinister laugh, only a jerked muffle that escaped through his nose. The Dragonborn stood before him with her sword, narrowed her eyes and growled. Doug gulped.

"It's been a short game so far with you." Daryn alluded. "One game of many, and yet, you still have no real recollection of previous events, those who have wronged you for the sake of your own protection. The truth is here, only if you ask for it."

The Dragonborn didn't want to admit she was interested in what he knew. Before she'd slice his head off. Her head was so heated it could burst.

"Good dog. Now, because its four against one. Although you could say one against one, or two, I don't consider any of them to be worthy warriors." Daryn cackled with a wider grin. "Yet I hold all the cards here. This exquisite piece of work is known as the Wabbajack."

Whealey was skeptical.

"What? What kind of pansy name is that? I thought wizards staff would have great names like Windfire or...or Staff of Wraithspire. Not this...Wabbajack stuff. Sounds ridiculous!"

Daryn looked at Wheatley with half lidded eyes and crooked lips. The bot was being obnoxious and foolish without knowing it.

The Dragonborn swung her blade around in her swiping fashion. Her sword hungered for blood, as the beast within had been starved for fresh meat. His was ripe for the picking. Daryn's eye went back to her forged the grin that made her uneasy. He had the nerve to call her out on things that didn't exist. At least, that she thought didn't exist.

The Assassin was like this as well. They guarded secrets with weird insights that the Dragonborn never knew or judged about herself. What ever happened was leaving her out of the loop, specifically her. His scent changed from generic elven to absolute nothing, merging with the sterile smell and offshoot of cold dew from the frozen pillar in the middle of the room. It almost made her sick.

Whether there was a truth or just mind games, she had the full intent of pure decapitation. Had Doug not interfered she would have done so. So now they were in this confrontation with no predictable out come. Her head was hurting from all the noise of thinking too hard. She thought herself smart, when fighting as all she knew.

"As I was saying..." Daryn continued. "It's a...tramontane weapon that is detrimental for our studies. It's one of the established Daedric artifacts from the Daedric Prince of Madness himself, given the gift of madness. Fitting to ones description."

The Dragonborn grumbled. This was going from bad to worse.

"All I had to do, was to present the Prince with a simple payment of artifacts as bizarre as himself. For sure he would be pleased with the products I'd given him. Thanks to the spirit that dwells in the mythical ruins around for finding it for me. I was actually glad to get rid of it. Stupid thing kept rambling on about space..."

Without moving their heads, Chell and Wheatley glanced one another for a split second.

"And now that I have you here, I believe it's time that we both realize your inevitable end Red. Or do I break the illusion she's casted on you all these years...she'd learned from the best, after all."

The Dragonborn shook her head.

"Enough of your lies and idiotic stories elf! Your neck shall open and greet the edge of my blade with your blood!" She boasted.

Daryn chuckled at the Dragonborn; who charged at him. He pointed the Wabbajack towards her and casted; out came a flame that came to her feet. She dodged and rolled out of the way in front of Chell and Wheatley. She roared, baring her grits.

"Your primal language speaks volumes Dragonborn." Daryn mocked. "I suggest you use it against your own kind. It does nothing to me!"

She roared again and threw herself at him with her sword once, only for Daryn to raise the staff and shoot out again. This time a yellow coloured burst came out and froze the Dragonborn in her place, tipping her over. Doug gasped and Chell knew she definitely had to do something now. She ran towards Daryn, firing a portal above Daryn, then shot one downwards. She jumped up high and kicked him into it, entangling him an endless loop of increased descent.

This gave them sometime to tend to the Dragonborn, who still laid motionless on the floor. Her limbs were locked in place as her lifeless eyes stared at nothing. Doug tried pickng her up, as did Wheatley as they attempted to find their way out of here, running away from Daryn as soon as possible. Chell kept watch as Daryn hit terminal velocity. She smirked before turning around when Doug carried a limp and lifeless Dragonborn in his arms.

Wheatley watched as Doug found a passageway out of the creepy room, with Chell following. He could see Daryn in the background still falling while walking backwards, and tilted his head as Daryn suddenly reappeared behind Chell, staff in hand. His immediate thought was that he'd escaped before he pointed his staff at the mute. He gasped as he pushed Chell out of the way, accidentally disengaging her portals at the same time.

And at that, his entire system shut down.

There was a predating sensation that versed through his circuits. A type of pain that was uncommon throughout his wires and other sensitive areas of his hull. He groaned as most of his start up drops weren't even there, nor could he access them. He tried hundreds of times into activating, but with no avail.

There were noises, despite that his audio receiver is normally off during the pre-operating mode. Without the start up menu that had normally come up before he turned himself back on from standby, he couldn't tell what was working and what was not. The surface sensitive as well as he internal hardware relay programs were acting odd, although it could be a glitch where the pain simulator had doubled since last time. The assortment of other...accumulated sensations were boring into his primary processors.

Nothing had felt this intense before. He just laid there, thinking to himself about why weren't they working? He was scared. Very scared. This drummed up a soreness from where he normally didn't experience what those humans had called soreness. They also had another term. Ache...he ached, like a bunch of synthetic fibres had become entangled and wrenched themselves so tight that it hurt.

Minor gusts of air were in flux with a rising plate somewhere on his body. Through an inserted apparatus on his face that absorbed then funneled out through an exhaust. He didn't even have one. He opened his eye and looked around. A light that had shone brightly entered his optics, which were slowly unblurring themselves. He strained to get out of the blur he was in. He could barely remember how he got himself like this.

Puzzled, he noticed that this was his room back at Gildekin. The sun was shining down through his window and a slight breeze ran over his plates. The sun on his plates washed over him and created a pleasant feeling of warmth, something he was definitely not that used to; at least, something that wasn't simulated of course. Panels shifted in reaction to this, albeit not knowing what it was.

Judging from the view out the window, there was a clear blue sky backdrop for the huge mountain dwarfing him. It was always the nicest view, looking at it as there were bigger problems out there than an unnecessary huge mountain, then thought, it wouldn't be a mountain if it wasn't so big.

He sat up, hearing the groans in his limps. Must have forgotten to take the frame off before going to bed. It didn't matter. He almost jumped as he saw Chell leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, staring at him with worrying eyes.

"Love...you...ohmygod....what..."

Chell made a funny smirk as Wheatley put his hand near where his speaker outlet was, only to find something furry. He tangled his fingers around it and made a choked wine.

"Ahhh! There's something on my head! Ow! Oh no! It's stuck to me! Quick! Chell! Help me geddit off! Ahhhh! ow Ow OW!"

Chell rolled her eyes and casually walked over, forcibly pulling his fingers out from behind his core. He was deathly frightened something had attached itself to him and was trying to kill him. She reappeared in front of him and sat on the edge of the bed he was in. There was a blue blanket that covered his legs, and that too, felt pleasant. Warm.

She placed his hands in front of him and pressed them down on his lap and just stared at him. He couldn't understand why she had that...studying expression that while non-threatening, were pinning him down. The eyes of judgement? No it wasn't that. But they were incredibly beautiful, like hard ice crystals.

In that moment he felt her hands on top of his. Her skin on her palm touched the back of his hands that sent a warm shock bolted down the back of his hull. He'd never had that before. It wouldn't be surprising if she made him feel this way. She'd made him feel lots of things actually.

She grabbed one of his hands and made it feel his face. She gently rubbed it back and forth on one side. It felt...stubbly and it was definitely not metal. It was a rougher texture than her hand. There were hard parts and soft parts as she moved his hand around. She introduced him to all kinds of foreign parts that weren't there before. His spherical self was greatly damaged. For some reason he had a real pointy bit on the bottom of it.

"So you patched me up? I can barely remember what happened back there. Last thing I recall was a bright light. And you for some reason. Though I don't think I could forget you so that's not much help at all."

Chell stifled a laugh and smiled. He had to admit was the sweetest thing he'd seen on her and it was doing it's thing to him. He didn't want to fight it, it was just so comforting and beautiful. He wanted to see her do it more often. His mind turned back to what ever was wrong with him, pushing aside those warm, friendly thoughts to focus on himself.

Chell looked down and didn't lift her head up until Wheatley did the same. She'd already put his hand back into his lap and went down her line of sight straight towards his hand. He saw another human hand in hers and was perplexed. There was another human in the room? No...the hand was a pale gold. The arm went up to under him. He faced Chell with his eyes almost popping out his head.

"I'm..."

Chell bit her lip and looked away. It was now obvious to why she was making those silly faces.

"I'm..."

He ran his finger over his ear. That too, was pointy. Human's didn't have pointy ears. Sons of Aperture! This was overwhelming him to the degree that he struggled to breath. It was amazing he even knew how.

He flipped the blanket off himself and saw long gangly legs sprouting out of his naked torso. Pale gold all over. This human was disgusting. Nothing compared to the soft tanned skin of the human next to him. He was identified himself as male at least, the memory of gender differences coming back to him.

He wiggled his toes. That was human. He bent his knees, that was human. He faked a cough. That sounded human. The evidence was there, although he judged his unusual skin colour on a supposed sickness. But he was fine. In fact, better than fine.

He swung his legs around and poured them over the side of the bed. Chell moved out of the way to glimpse at the mortal man before her. Although he was just wearing underwear which made her blush slightly. He slowly, but surely, lowered his feet to the ground and felt the sensation of hard wood press against them.

Chell kept an eye on him, wary of his steady movements. He'd already walked before, thanks to the frame. It was just the exchange of weight balance that almost made him fall out the window, hadn't been for Chell grabbing hold of his arms. She brought him back and stood him up straight, grasping his arms and adjusting him accordingly. She waited until he could find his center of gravity. Or his version of it.

She sighed with relief once he did find it. He was a touch wobbly though with practice it would fix that up eventually. A few trips and slips here and there. In given time, he would be a pro. For now, Chell threw him some human clothes. A dark blue shirt with some gray pants with some brown leather boots.

She helped him dress, feeling like she was helping out a child getting ready for school. Putting on the shirt was the hardest part, with his head trying to push out through the sleeve ends. But he trusted her to do the right thing and let her guide him through his newfound existence.

Eventually he was...decently attired. He kept rambling on about his own humanity and rattled forward unto endless rants about mortality and his inability to use his programs. Chell kept her eye on him as he paced back and forth across the room, throwing off troubled exerts. She didn't know how to tell him, what he really was.

His mouth shut as he heard a knock at the door.

"Wheatley?"

Wheatley smiled nervously as he looked at Doug. The man looked more tired than normal and had had properly patched himself up. He wanted to be make sure Doug didn't go crazy over the new style.

"Hey mate! Now I know what you do see here is that I am Wheatley, still Wheatley, just in a human form."

Doug met eyes with Chell, who obviously couldn't explain the situation to him further, but that..

"That's not it." Doug replied to Wheatleys tattle. The former bot couldn't clue on. There was only one way to break it to him.

"What is it then?"

The scientist grumble something underneath his breath. He hadn't the heart to tell Wheatley that...

"You're not human..." Doug iterated, sounding exasperated.

"You're an elf...a high elf...to be exact..."