Chell stirred, the pain from colliding with the floor still held a tight grip on her head, threatening to crush her skull. She lifted a hand to her head and found it to be cold. In fact, she was cold all over. She slowly opened her eyes to find herself in another nightmare. Except, this nightmare was all too real. She was back in Aperture, specifically the relaxation centre.
Just to be sure this wasn't a nightmare, Chell jumped out of bed and ran to the door. She threw it open and was prepared to jump into the seemingly infinite chasm that was normally right outside the room, only to find the door lead to a hallway. Not even a menacing one. It was just a normal hallway that lead to another, slightly larger door.
Okay, so far this nightmare hasn't thrown any terrible scenarios at her, but she was still leery of the hallway as she stepped out of her room and walked along. She stopped at the door and glanced behind her, expecting a few dozen turrets or a monster of some kind. No turrets, no monster. Only the uncomfortably normal hallway and the door she'd just come from. What kind of trick was the dream waiting to pull? If it's taking this long for something terrible to happen, then something big must be coming her way.
Chell took a deep breath, and pushed the door open. She was expecting a much more terrifying sight than what she was greeted with. Instead, she was greeted with a smiling android woman in the middle of GLaDOS' large chamber, suspended by a mass of wires and metal plates. Alright, now this dream was throwing her some weird curve balls that Chell wasn't sure how to react to. The woman caught sight of her, and waved Chell in. She hesitated at the door.
"Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten how to use a door in our time apart."
The voice which belonged to the woman was undoubtedly GLaDOS' voice. It only made sense that it would be, since this was her chamber and that was her wire mess hanging from the ceiling. Chell stepped into the room and cautiously moved towards the android.
"Welcome back by the way. I went through a lot of rearranging the relaxation centre just to make sure I was the first one to greet you."
Chell just stared in utter disbelief. There was no way GLaDOS would do this to herself. If she did do it on her own accord, then Chell figured that the AI would've at least picked a more intimidating design. The android woman was slim and angular. Her dress was a modern and simple design, being shorter on one side, longer on the other, and only having one sleeve. She had short hair, which was split between black and white, straight down the middle. Her eyes were that same deep yellow-orange that Chell had once feared. GLaDOS lowered herself closer to the floor and her smile faded into a light frown.
"Don't look so surprised. I got bored after you left. Sending you away taught me a valuable lesson. You're best friends are never people you can go without, no matter how much they've wronged you. And that's saying a lot about you and me. Just look at what you've driven me to do to myself while you were gone."
GLaDOS gestures to her body and crossed her arms. She gave a heavy sigh and rose back upward.
"You know, of course I had my fun with the others too. After you left I took up the cooperative testing initiative as an attempt to phase out human testing. Turns out I'd built them too perfect, and it wasn't enough. Fortunately they could be used for other tests, and that got me thinking more in depth about the science of 'why not?'."
Chell guessed that the two android intruders that took her here must've been the 'too perfect' that GLaDOS was referring to. Of course she would test her new ideas on others first. What else would she do?
"Then of course I had to use them to bring you back because I had to have you back. After that, I felt that I couldn't bring you here and not show you my successful new experiment. What fun would that be?"
Chell raised an eyebrow. Hadn't GLaDOS being an android already been the result of the experiment she was so proud of? What more could there be?
"Oh what a wonderful reunion this will be. I've been planning this for a long time you know, so you better enjoy it."
GLaDOS' hand twitched and a panel opened up in the wall behind Chell, dumping a tall man in a blue suit onto the floor. His glasses fell to the ground with a light click. GLaDOS gave a sly grin as she watched Chell rush over to help him, clearly not knowing who he was.
Chell knelt down in front of him and grabbed his glasses. He lifted his head toward her, making direct eye contact. Chell scrambled backwards, partially terrified and partially surprised. The man's eyes were definitely not human. He was another android, no doubt. Who this android was, it was blatantly obvious. His deep, fearful, bright blue eyes immediately gave him away. He stuttered, trying desperately to get a coherent sentence out.
"Luv! I- ah, I don't- well uhh, I..."
GLaDOS raised her hand to silence him.
"Quiet moron, you're ruining the moment."
She turned to Chell and smiled.
"Well, how do you like your welcome back present? I'm sure it must be touching, really."
Chell glared at the android, making it crystal clear that she in fact did not like it. GLaDOS returned the look to Chell.
"Oh come on now. You can't tell me that I went through all that trouble to surprise you only for you to stand up for him. You do realize that he's the same moron who nearly killed you, right?"
Chell nodded and stood in front of Wheatley, straightening up and planting her feet firmly below her. GLaDOS lowered herself slowly until she was right in Chell's face, giving her the most deathly stare she's ever seen. Despite being slightly unnerved by how close she was to her, Chell stood her ground. Finally, GLaDOS moved back, still locked in a firm stare-off with Chell.
"Fine. Have it your way. But I'm not changing him back. For one, the process takes a lot of power and time that I don't feel like wasting on him again. On top of that, it's extremely painful. I don't think he wants to go through that again, does he?"
Wheatley violently shook his head.
"NO! Er, no. No thank you."
"Great. Now that we've all come to an agreement,"
GLaDOS thrust herself right back into Chell's face.
"Get out." she commanded.
