Nora sped down her rail as quickly as she could with her flashlight illuminating the darkness in front of her. She knew that GLaDOS was pursuing her. That psychopathic computer was always pursuing her. She was constantly scared for her life after the way GLaDOS had threatened her and Doug. Her second priority—just under evading GLaDOS—finding Doug. She had to make sure he was okay. He was quick and allusive, but humans could be so fragile. The image of him being tortured by GLaDOS was too much for her psyche.
"He's fine," Nora insisted to herself. "Doug's alright. He always is. He's a survivor."
She cut short her self-encouragement as she suddenly noticed soft weeping echoing off the walls. It vaguely sounded feminine. She didn't know who this could be but she frantically hoped that it was a human. Most humans that she had met so far had been kind to her. Or it could be a trap. What if GLaDOS was torturing a human to draw her out? Reluctantly, Nora decided that she had to take the chance. If it was a lonely human, she could help them. Maybe they could even find Doug together.
She was cautious as she glided along the management rail. What if GLaDOS had reprogrammed the turrets to attack personality constructs and she had some stationed just around a corner? What if there was a claw waiting in the darkness above to reach down and crush her? She knew that GLaDOS wouldn't use the metal panels with giant spikes to try to kill her. That was Wheatley's thing. She was above that, right?
"I-I can't think about Wheatley right now," she murmured nervously. "I can't let him distract me. I can't mope or get angry while I'm so vulnerable."
She continued on until the crying could be heard right on the other side of the wall to her left. And she knew exactly what chamber this was. It would seem that her negative assumption was correct. But she couldn't just leave a human in danger. She needed the companionship. With a deep, simulated breath, she managed to move aside one of the panels and peek into the chamber. What she saw, though, was much more shocking than what she had expected.
GLaDOS was trying very hard to restrain her sobs. She had sent the testing bots away so that they didn't see her at her weakest moment, but she still felt an immense amount of shame.
Nora moved the panel back and looked down awkwardly. She wasn't sure what to do. GLaDOS sounded so distressed and Nora couldn't stand hearing someone so upset. Yet, it was GLaDOS. How would Nora even begin to go about comforting someone who appeared to be so proud?
The panel suddenly moved again. A metal claw reached out and plucked Nora right off of her management rail. The little core shivered with fear as she was held in front of the sadistic computer. GLaDOS narrowed her yellow optic as she tried to intimidate Nora.
"Why were you spying on me?" GLaDOS demanded. "What were you expecting to see? Were you trying to catch me off-guard? Insubordination can earn you a ticket to the incinerator. Or maybe that's what you were trying to achieve since your rat is gone."
"Wh-What?" Nora squeaked. "He's gone? What do you mean?"
"He left," GLaDOS said. "He escaped to the surface. He even left his inoperable Companion Cube behind. It wouldn't have done him much use to bring it with anyway. What would it do? Fight off the Combine?"
"The….what?"
GLaDOS chuckled darkly. "I forget myself sometimes," she said. "You have no access to the surface. But I do. You have no idea what the world has come to. To think that you wanted to leave the safety of the facility."
"I don't understand what you're getting at," Nora said apologetically.
"It doesn't matter," GLaDOS said. "You will never see the surface anyway. Now that Rattmann is gone, you have no way to get up there."
"Why were you crying?" Nora suddenly blurted.
"I wasn't. What you heard was a malfunction of my audio. I have repaired it, though. Don't worry about me. You should be much more worried about yourself."
Nora stared at the yellow optic and was able to detect deception in the way that the behemoth moved. She had a hunch as to why GLaDOS would have been crying, and she decided to go with it. If she was going to die here anyway, she might as well try something.
"C-Caroline?"
GLaDOS' optic twitched. "In case you have forgotten, Caroline was taken out of my system just after our last encounter," she said.
"No," Nora said. "No, she wasn't, was she? She's still in there." Then a realization hit her. "You couldn't take her out. Something stopped you."
GLaDOS only stared at her silently. Nora was surprised that she had been able to make someone so intelligent speechless.
"Is Doug really gone?" Nora asked. "Or were you just saying that to make me upset?"
"No, he's gone," GLaDOS said. "Good riddance to him. I didn't need him for testing."
"What does Caroline think?"
GLaDOS glared at the little bot. "Caroline is relieved that Doug is out of my grasp now." She looked away. "Even if I had been able to catch him now, Caroline wouldn't have allowed me to put him through any testing. She believes that my tests are 'dangerous'. How would she know anything about that? She never had to take any of my tests."
"Caroline?" Nora called meekly. "Can you hear me in there?"
"She can't answer you," GLaDOS said. "At least, not in a way that you will be able to hear. I have successfully silenced her. Only I can hear her cries and her laments. She desperately wants new company in here. A different voice. She says that she wants someone 'friendlier' to talk to. As if I'm not friendly enough for her."
Nora thought for a moment. She was stuck here with GLaDOS while Doug lived freely on the surface. She supposed she had to be happy for Doug. He deserved the freedom more than she did. He had worked harder for it. For the time being, though, she was trapped in the clutches of this evil machine and possibly at the brink of being crushed. She had only one other option.
"I could keep Caroline company," she meekly volunteered.
"What are you saying?" GLaDOS asked, looking back at her. "That you want me to attach you to my body so that you'll be in my system? Do you really think I'm as naïve as your moronic boyfriend? I am not in love with you so why do you think I would fall for something like that?"
"You said it yourself," Nora pointed out. "You said that I am too weak to sway your mind. I can't even make you innocent—which was the reason I was even built at all. What will you lose if you plug me into your system?"
"You might manage to turn me into a softie," GLaDOS said. "How degrading that would be. I could lose my drive to test."
"You won't," Nora said. "I promise. Just give me a chance."
"Hmmm. I suppose I might be able to phase out human testing altogether if I give the Cooperative Testing Bots artificial personalities. And what better way to simulate a human's mind than by studying yours? I can't use Caroline as a case study. She's too headstrong. But you are different. You could actually make testing interesting again."
She brought Nora closer to her and simply stuck her on the chassis. Nora immediately felt a huge expansion of her mind. A plethora of knowledge rushed at her all at once. She had felt it once before but it was still stifling to her now. It took her a moment to sort herself out from all of this. It even frightened her a little. She was now inside GLaDOS' mind.
"Hello," a friendly voice greeted in the open mind. "It's so wonderful to have someone new in here. I've been so scared and lonely ever since I was woken up in her mind. I'm glad to actually meet you. I know so much about you."
"Um, it's nice to meet you, too," Nora said. "I'm really sorry about what happened to you."
"Oh, don't be, sweetie," Caroline said with so much sincerity. "The same thing happened to you. Nothing can be done about it. Just be glad that Doug and Chell are out of here and hopefully safe."
"Dear god!" GLaDOS said. "Are you two going to be so chatty all the time? I might be regretting this already!"
"Just ignore her," Caroline said. "She hasn't had much satisfaction with testing the bots so she's a little grumpy."
"Will you stop acting like a mother all the time?" GLaDOS asked rhetorically. "Your daughter is gone. You can drop the act now."
