A/N: Thanks for continuing to read and review this story, everyone! I'm surprised by the amount of feedback I've gotten so far - 42 (life, universe, everything!) alerts for this already, that's the most I've ever gotten for any fic I've written, and this fic isn't even close to finished. Sorry I didn't get this chapter up sooner - half because I had writer's block, and half because I was on a short vacation. Anyway, back now!

Disclaimer: If I said I owned Portal, it'd have as much truth as GLaDOS's promise of grief counseling.

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Chapter 5: Risk and Reward

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.

-Jim Rohn

Much like she had eventually built up resistance to the testing euphoria, Aperture's reigning AI eventually became used to the three core voices that crowded her head. Now it seemed that with these particular cores attached to her, there would be no more to be swapped as had been done for the majority of the past decade. So as time passed, she was beginning to get used to it. So at least the engineers were no longer trying to control her as much as they had before.

And that was good for her. Nothing should distract her from Science. It wasn't just her job, it was her passion. In truth, there was nothing more that GLaDOS enjoyed than watching people test. Whether they succeeded or not.

Testing at Aperture Science followed a typical routine now for GLaDOS. Put the test subjects in a test chamber. Provide them with an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Watch them solve the tests... or rather, fail to solve them. Eventually they all did on one test chamber or another.

And as much as she reveled in the carnage caused by the humans falling into acid, being shot by turrets, or a few unfortunate souls who had been accidentally crushed by Weighted Storage Cubes, the scientists and engineers didn't try to switch her off continuously. They seemed to deem it okay to have these almost gleeful responses toward the events.

"It's all done for Aperture," she heard Henry insist a week earlier when questioned by Doug. "Therefore there's nothing wrong with it. The test subjects know full well what they're getting into, they signed a phone book of a contract". He looked up at the AI. "GLaDOS, you're doing a fine job."

Well, at least that was better than switching her on and off to put the cores on her. A statement like that was about as much as she'd get for praise.

"Doing Science is what I live for," GLaDOS said simply. She still hadn't quite come across the best opportunity for revenge against those fools. Better to wait and think they had her completely subdued from their so-called "modifications". "The testing that I do is all for the sake of progress."

"Good to hear it," Henry said before leaving with Doug again. The scientists didn't stay in her chamber much to monitor her anymore, only on occasional times like this where they'd check up on her, and give her petty compliments like "fine job".

But she was doing so much more than just a "fine job". A brilliant job, efforts so much more powerful than theirs. They should be treating her like she was their queen and they were her loyal subjects. To say merely "a fine job" was a painfully vast understatement, in her opinion.

What could she expect from their comments on progression, though? They were nothing more than human. Humans were flawed.

But away from the scientists now, she could observe the testing in relative peace.

GLaDOS turned her attention through a camera in one of the test chambers. She could move all of the panels around if she wished, to create chambers anew and make adjustments to them as she saw fit - and perhaps even move a panel or two when the test subjects first entered them to remind them that she was in control. But for these tests she was simply observing the humans. Gathering data on just how test subjects fared with testing the portal gun. Still, watching them die did give her a bit of a laugh, especially when paranoia of her watching overtook them and they made a stupid mistake.

Such as the young man in one of the test chambers right now - entering Test Chamber 13 in that certain sector of testing. He had been doing relatively well in the earlier tests, barely managing not to get vaporized by the Aperture Science High Energy Pallets, or idiotically crushed by a cube. Even though it would have been quite amusing to GLaDOS if the latter had happened, showing an example of the pinnacle of human testing stupidity. As he first entered the test chamber, GLaDOS spoke up, the camera meticulously following the human's movements, right down to the nanometer.

"You're doing quite well. Please note that falling into the acid on the floor in front of you will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death and a quick decaying of your body. Good luck."

She could see that this statement put the test subject immediately on edge as he uneasily stared at the acid pool. Dangerous. Deadly. Very likely to instantly corrode the braces on his teeth. Needing clever portal tricks in order to get across it. The human froze as if he had been turned to stone for about 19.25 seconds, eyes darting nervously at the acid, then toward the camera where he knew Aperture's ruler was watching. He shuddered a little in fear.

GLaDOS would have smirked. I like it when they fear me, so much better than attempting to control me. It's actually quite satisfying.

To the test subject's credit, once he got over his fear reaction, he managed to do well... enough. He fired one portal on the wall next to him and another on a platform across the chamber, only barely missing getting vaporized by an Aperture Science High-Energy Pellet that was zipping about the chamber. From where he stood, the High Energy Pellet Containment Device was just ahead, so he shot the orange portal behind him, and the blue one on the wall toward which the ball of energy was moving toward. As it neared the portal entrance, the test subject managed to duck just low enough to avoid being vaporized.

A few more inches and it would have vaporized him, GLaDOS thought. At least his fear reaction is gone.

The human just barely managed to shoot another pair of portals as the platform he had moved onto then started to sink into the deadly liquid, quick enough to leap onto the Unstationary Scaffold. That obstacle was out of the way.

Unfortunately - at least, for the test subject - he was so busy celebrating in his victory that he didn't notice the turrets that were placed around the corner until it was too late for him. The sentries aimed their lasers at the unfortunate human, their red laser sights aimed at various parts of his body. The test subject barely had time to blink before they spoke in their child-like, high-pitched voices.

"Target acquired."

"Oh sh-"

Just before the man hit the ground from the turrets peppering those painful bullets through his body, the portal gun flying from his grasp, GLaDOS quipped "If at first you don't succeed, you fail."

She chuckled as the man lay dead on the chamber floor, and marked the points in her files - that was the 724th test subject who had died in that particular section of chambers. This subject was in the middle ground of those who perished in that specific chamber, time-wise, coming at roughly 3.34 minutes. And yet, it just didn't seem to be enough for her accumulations of data.

The test subjects were beginning to complete the tests at a slower, more monotonous pace. Scientific progress required results, and results couldn't occur if they moved as slow as molasses - though the AI considered that a silly expression, since molasses barely moved. Still, with her speed of computation, it nearly felt that way to her on occasion. And GLaDOS knew why after analyzing the various compilations.

Those who ran through the tests had no proper motivation. She (and the Aperture employees, though she preferred to distance herself from them as much as possible) had one motivation, and one alone: Science. The majority of these test subjects, however, were just going through the motions because they needed a job. Many of them weren't even keen on scientific advancement at a fraction of her own level of interest. Perhaps those in particular were the ones who died so easily.

"Science rhymes with compliance," GLaDOS said to herself. "Only those who comply with testing protocol can truly succeed. Or at least, get marginally farther than the ones who don't."

They needed some motivation other than "only doing this just because I signed a contract".

The trouble was, she needed to think about exactly what that motivation would be.

Alone in her chamber (save for the aggravating cores), GLaDOS weighed her options. In order to keep the test subjects going through the risks that testing entailed, they'd need to have a suitable enough reward promised to them. She wasn't entirely an expert on human behavior, but hey, science was all about experimentation, wasn't it?

"Risk balances reward, after all."

She knew that money was a basic human value - it was, after all, what they used to obtain every sort of product they could get their hands on. But as a potential testing reward promise, money wouldn't do. Even though money was often a motivation for performing a task, especially a large amount, it was a ludicrous thing. The test subjects were already getting money through deciding to complete the test chambers in the first place; further payment as a motivation would merely be redundant. She couldn't afford redundancy.

"Now," the AI mused to herself, ignoring the cores' voices (particularly Curiosity who was now asking in her high-pitched voice what GLaDOS was talking about), "what else do humans consider valuable?"

She pondered for a moment.

"Family. Humans consider family important to them, don't they?"

But she discarded the possibility of holding family members hostage at the conclusion of testing courses within several moments of the idea popping into her consciousness. True, the test subjects might try to complete the tests faster with their kin in danger. But they might be hasty, or try to find a way out, or announce to the world that Aperture was doing that and have chaos break loose, and not her preferred type of chaos. Other humans might try to intervene, and stop scientific progress. If Science was halted, there was no point. Too much of a hassle and risk on her end.

So she tried to come up with another idea.

"What's another human value?..." Another possibility hit her, something that humans seemed to value as much as family and money, from what she knew. "Food. Humans need to eat in order to live, and you can bribe humans to do whatever you want if you give them that."

Even, with luck, testing...

Suddenly, she turned her sensory attention to the babbling blue Logic Core. It didrecite ingredients, after all. Questionable, potentially deadly ingredients at times, but ingredients nonetheless.

"One 18.25 oz. package chocolate cake mix..."

That point in particular rang in GLaDOS's sensors. Had she not been lacking in hands, she would have snapped her fingers.

That's it!

"Cake..." she said to herself. "A lot of humans like cake. It's served at parties, it's used to get children to finish their dinner more quickly. Why not as motivation for testing?"

She chuckled. Time to put her new idea to the test. She turned her attention to another test subject, camera trained on him, and spoke.

"Cake will be rewarded if you manage to complete this testing course."

A pause.

"And grief counseling." GLaDOS figured the test subjects might think they'd need it after seeing loved ones never come out of testing. Couldn't hurt to throw in an added fabricated bonus.

Was it the AI's imagination, or did the human suddenly speed up his testing as soon as she mentioned the word "cake"? True, the speed increase in ratio of test completion was only about 1.3 seconds better, but it was better than the slow pacing he had executed in the chamber before.

"Your timing for completing this test was in the range between those who run straight into acid and those who stand frozen with fear. Good job!"

She tried her little experiment again - mentioning cake, with an occasional throw-in of grief counseling. Again, that test subject seemed to perform slightly quicker as well.

A third - yet again, a quicker reaction time, 0.4 seconds quicker.

It could have been their fear of her sudden remarks that caused them to move more quickly, or perhaps it was mentioning cake. Then again, those test subjects did die within several chambers past the first cake mention, so there wasn't an extensive amount of evidence. Still, it was progress.

In any event, they seemed afraid of her, anyway... it must have been the cake that motivated them.

"Yes... cake will be perfect."

As she momentarily reveled in her idea, the door to her chamber opened and one of the scientists entered. It was Jerry again. "How are the testing results today, GLaDOS?"

Not this again. Normally GLaDOS would be extremely aggravated with this question. But today, with her newfound, brilliant idea, she was bothered a bit less, even just a marginal amount. "I am seeing quite an increase in test results today," she said with an air of smugness. "Testing is progressing quite fluently."

"You seem pleased."

"I am." GLaDOS hadn't expected the scientist to acknowledge her feelings, as they rarely asked. "I have come up with a motivation for testing that appears to be providing better results."

"What might that be?"

"Cake."

Jerry blinked. He hadn't been expecting that. He was about to say that he didn't think that it would be a proper motivation for what the test subjects had to go through. And GLaDOS seemed pretty subdued now. But he reminded himself that GLaDOS was in charge. It was the reason, of course, why Caroline had been uploaded and killed in the first place.

At the thought of Caroline, Jerry felt a brief pang of guilt. Even with a decade having passed, Doug had never forgiven him for what had happened. If anything, Doug had become more distant and crazy.

But, either way, he remembered that, no matter if he thought cake was ridiculous or not, it was the AI who was in charge of everything. GLaDOS had the say in things.

"W-Well... a lot of people like cake," he finished lamely.

"And it seems to provide faster results when they do complete the test chambers."

Jerry nodded and turned to leave, but stopped by the door, his hand still on the doorknob, and turned back to GLaDOS.

"Almost forgot to tell you... do you know what's coming up in a week?" There was an enthusiastic smile on his face now.

This caught GLaDOS's interest. "What?"

"Bring Your Daughter to Work Day," the scientist exclaimed. "Aperture's first ever! Now that you're running the testing smoothly and without any accidents, we can show the next generation of scientists what Aperture's really capable of!"

"Bring Your Daughter to Work Day..." So, that explained all the little science project displays being wheeled into the entrance of the facility lately, having see themn through her camera eyes. It seemed that the majority of them were potato batteries, for whatever reason. But it was still Science, even if only a small form of it.

Jerry nodded as he opened the door. "Oh man, they are all going to be so excited. We'll get to show them the portals, the gels, you, everything!" The scientist left the room without so much as a farewell, still continuing to talk about the aforementioned event.

And then it hit GLaDOS. This was it. The opportunity she had been waiting for to get revenge on the scientists had come. Their daughters would be there. Young, interested in science... plenty of new subjects to test. Or, with everyone gathered in one room, poisoned to death with neurotoxin.

She still had access to the gas, but she hadn't used it for all this time. She wanted to let them think she was under control, with no reason to attack them, yet she had been saving the deadly substance for the proper moment. And that moment was coming soon.

"Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect time to have her tested," GLaDOS said with a laugh, as if already preparing her welcome to the younger ones. "Oh, they'll be tested, alright. Perhaps tested to see how long they can live with neurotoxin."

GLaDOS's golden optic brightened in triumph. A new motivation for the test subjects. An opportunity to exact revenge. All in all, today had been of particularly good advancement in the interest of Science.

And Bring Your Daughter to Work Day couldn't come fast enough.

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A/N: Well, there we have when GLaDOS gets her famous motivation idea! And yup, Bring Your Daughter to Work Day finally comes next chapter, and that'll be fun!... or not. See you next chapter, and remember to review!