It wasn't hard to find the boy who stole Nora. It was almost as if he wanted to be found. Valentine was hanging out in the lobby so Doug waited in the chamber alone as a metal claw dragged the young man through the facility to him. He usually enjoyed being alone, but for some reason it made him feel uncomfortable right now. It made him…itch.
"So that's what Mikey replaced the need for testing with," he muttered to himself. "A need for company." He shrugged a shoulder. "Could be worse, I guess."
He felt some relief when he heard a voice shouting in German. The kid was brought into the chamber and the claw held him in front of Doug. When the kid saw the man with wires coming out of his back, he could only stare in awe.
"You must be Charlie," Doug said, his arms crossed. "I remember Nora mentioning you. Speaking of our mutual friend, what the hell did you do with her?"
Charlie said nothing. He stared at Doug with wide eyes that were beginning to tear up. This didn't bode well for Doug; he assumed the worse judging by the boy's tears.
"What did you do with my friend?!" he demanded, quickly letting his anger and fear take over. "What do you know about this Rehabilitation Center?! How could you let her end up there?! And why did you kill her body?!"
"I-Ich weiβ nicht!" Charlie cried. "I don't know! I was tinking it was a monster the computer made! It acted like a animal!"
"A monster?! It was a human body!" Doug shouted at the kid. The chamber shook slightly. "You murdered a human body!"
"I-I was afraid!" Charlie whimpered. "Bitte! Don't hurt me! I'm sorry! I did not know what else to do!"
Doug took a moment to try to calm down, breathing deeply. As he breathed, though, he was only reminded of the wires that were digging into his shoulders. "Do you understand what your actions have caused?" he asked. "When you took off GLaDOS' head, you left the mainframe unattended. There was no one to supervise the controls of the facility. The mainframe was desperate and forced me to connect with it! Look at me!" It didn't take long for Doug's rage to overwhelm him again. "Look at what the mainframe has done to me! I'm a monster because of you!"
"I-I didn't mean for anyting like dis to happen!" Charlie cried. "I am so sorry! I was tinking if I could destroy GLaDOS then we would all be safe and could leave!"
"What did you do with GLaDOS?" Doug asked. His anger was put aside momentarily for curiosity. "You tried to destroy her, right? Where is she now?"
"I put her into the furnace!"
Doug stared blankly at Charlie for a few seconds. GLaDOS was in the furnace burning away. He could imagine the paint peeling off of her as she screamed in excruciating pain. He could see her yellow light blinking out before it melted into goop like the rest of her. She was gone now. She could never have control of the facility again. He had always wanted to do something like that, but now that it was done, he felt dread filling him.
"There's….no one to take over the facility then," he said in a flat tone. "Nobody can take over. I'm….I'm stuck here." He fell to his knees and stared at the floor with no expression. "I'm stuck here. I'm stuck. I can't do anything about this now I'm stuck forever stuck I'llnevergetoutofherestuckI'mstuckI'mstuck…" He began mumbling incoherently, paying no mind to Charlie who still hung by the claw clutching his jumpsuit.
"Doug….I didn't know," the young man said quietly. "I didn't know someting like dis could happen. Please, I am sorry. Believe me."
"I believe you," Doug said, cutting off his own babbling. He looked up at Charlie but his expression was still blank. "What happened to Nora after you left this chamber?"
"A claw grabbed her from me," Charlie said. "It said something about corruption and rehabilitation. I don't know that last word, though."
"I do," Doug said. "I can try to bring her back here so she can leave with everyone else."
"Will you hurt me?" Charlie asked quietly.
"Of course not," Doug said. "I'm…sorry I got so angry and blamed you. I know that your intentions were good."
Charlie didn't know what the word "intentions" meant but he thanked Doug either way.
"How will you leave the computer?" Charlie asked.
"I still need to figure that out."
