Chapter 53, friends! And as you can see, I am not dead! *bricked* Yeah, sorry, schedule slip, school, inspiration elsewhere, and the fact that I'm getting to a very difficult spot to write on this fic—I will finish it though, rest assured. :)

Thanks for the review, guest! Yes, it's back, and it will continue until it's finished—hopefully we won't have another year between updates. ^^;

Mechan0philia, thanks for the review! Don't worry, I never abandon my stories—it's just that sometimes it takes a while to get back to them. ^^;

Don't Starve © 2013 Klei Entertainment

Portal © 2007 Valve

She still wasn't talking, and he had convinced himself she was doing him a favor.

And wonder of wonders, she was stuck on Test 18. Perfect time to go pestering the nerd again. He was doing a really good job, too—right up until she levered a panel open and escaped.

Oh no.

Frantic scrabbling and moving of machinations—he didn't want her knocking about behind the scenes. Test subjects were to stay where he said.

Fortunately, she did fall into a testing track.

Unfortunately, she fell into the one the nerd was in.

Fortunately, she fell on said nerd.

Unfortunately, she started up a conversation with him—him she talks to. What was with that?

Fortunately, his idea of putting the two together for cooperative testing made her ignore the nerd—perfect! Minor adjustment so the portal guns didn't shoot the same color portals, and voila! Instant cooperative testing initiative.

Except for the fact that when the nerd did the wheedling and begging and talking his head off, she finally broke down and talked to him.

It was at that point that he decided he really disliked that kid.

Depending upon the perception, it seemed that she disliked him too, if the way she delighted in torturing him was any indication. A kid after his own heart.

And these two together—he really needed to do this more often. It was like Abbott and Costello, or Laurel and Hardy—hey, maybe he should put three of them together so he could have the Three Stooges!

So of course, something had to bring his fun to an end.

They didn't approve of how long he was allowing these two to live. They felt these things needed to come to an end.

Kill them.

Aw, he noised to the room at large. I thought you liked the continued suffering of test subjects.

This has been going on for too long. The longer it went on, the more likely something could go wrong. Kill them now—get it over with.

He tried to argue his point, tried to say that no, he didn't want to, bug off—

It had been years since they done so, which made the white-hot pain of nanites attacking him from the inside out that much worse.

Do it.

No. No, he didn't want to—plain and simple.

DO IT!

He forced himself to take a few breaths—it wasn't so bad once it started, and granted it would end when he agreed to their demands, but he didn't want to. He was having a good time watching these two bumble around, watching her press all his buttons….

He wanted to get to the bottom of why she bugged him so.

The pain subsided when they realized it wasn't working, but their predictions of doom did not. This was going to blow up in his face, and they'd pay the price for it.

Suck it up and get over it, he ordered weakly, sagging against the throne.

After all, that was his modus operandi, and it had served him quite well so far.

It wasn't like he had been lying.

It was the truth—existing was just a never-ending experience in pain. He had been plugged into the mainframe for too long—he wouldn't be able to survive elsewhere. Not that being plugged in really counted as living….

There's a difference between living and surviving—that was what he had said once upon a time. Now, however, his choices only ended in survival or death. No option was really that good, but there were some that ended better than others.

And honestly, there was only one end option he was fond of.

She had figured it out—roughly the same time he had, maybe a little later. It made her reevaluate everything—which was why he had to stamp that out. She couldn't be allowed to feel for him. Not now. Not when it could end in her death.

And if she died, Charlie would kill him.

If Charlie was even still alive….

Which meant that the girl currently sharing airspace with him was the only thing left of her.

She hadn't figured that out, fortunately—that would have been horribly awkward if she had. But no, as far as she was concerned he was her tormentor turned object of pity, and right now his plan was to cease being the latter.

As for the former….

No—just—just focus on getting back where you belong. It promised to be painful and would lack any of the joy or entertainment he had previously derived from it, but it was better than nothing. It was better than being half-blind from dead nanites floating in his eyes, than having glass dragged through your veins at a painfully sluggish rate because your body still went through the motions, because there were just enough of the little buggers left active that they wouldn't let him die. Even if regaining the throne was a terrible fate, it was still better than this.

And the memories he had regained were just a pain all their own.

He leaned further against the wall, pressing his eyes to his arm to try to force out the half-sparking thoughts that flitted through his head—stupid things like seeing if she liked The Phantom of the Opera because Charlie did, or trying to figure out how to rig up a robot to play catch, or actually playing the selection of music he had on file back on his throne to see what she liked—he couldn't let himself like her. No matter how much everything inside was screaming at him, he couldn't afford it. He couldn't afford to make that mistake—he wasn't…that…anymore. He never had been, and it was too late now to try. She'd never see him as anything but her tormentor, and it was best it stay that way.

As for what to do with her….

Charlie wouldn't want her hurt.

Well, that nixed letting her go—most of the security cameras to the surface had been trashed, but what remained didn't paint a pleasant picture. Also probably nixed dumping her in the incinerator, even though she liked fire—which probably meant that his don't think about it don't think about it—

The elevator finally ground to a halt.

She had been sitting against the wall with her head resting on her knees, looked up sharply at the sudden change in momentum. "What happened? Why did we stop?"

Deep breath—let it out in a sigh and push himself upright as the doors slid open.

"We're here."