Author's Note: And here is another chapter.

I do not own Portal. Thank you all so much for reading this.

~o0o~

The Courtesy Call Pt. 3

Clopping footsteps echoed down the long corridor as Chell breezily strolled down it. Her brown eyes were constantly alert for anyway out or for anything that could kill her. Holding the portal gun up high, the woman had the personality core at the bottom of her vision. The core had been unusually quiet for the past ten minutes, minding its own business and probably imagining other means of escape, just in case something goes wrong. At least, that was what Chell hoped the littler blighter was doing.

As she went deeper and deeper down the corridor, the woman felt as though she was experiencing déj à vu. Instead of giving the woman hope, it actually sparked fear, knowing how unlucky things had turned out last time. Wheatley suddenly cleared his throat; however that worked, and said, "Probably ought to bring you up to speed with something right now. In order to escape, we're gonna have to go through her chamber."

For Wheatley, the woman's reaction was near perfect. She had ceased her walking, frozen stiff. He gathered Chell must have heard about her as well. In actuality, that was only half of it. At the corner of her eye, the woman saw an annex complimented with wide windows. Upon gazing through them, one would see the outside of a large round room, connected by a passage, surrounded by hazardous goo in an expansive space. Chell's heart hammered painfully. It felt like the organ had flipped into her throat.

"A-a-and she'll probably kill us if…um…she's awake," Wheatley informed nervously. So even the personality cores were afraid of her. "You wanna just call it quits? We could just sit here forever. That's an option. Option A: sit here; do nothing. Option B: go through there and if she's alive, she'll probably kill us."

Option B was the winner. Chell knew there was nothing to be afraid of, despite what her bodily reactions were saying otherwise. The woman had defeated that artificial intelligence long ago; the thing was dead and –Chell's grip on the portal device strengthened when images of a black forest cake flashed in her memory. The way a metal claw had dipped down and killed the flame on the candle…She couldn't be still alive, could she?

...deciding option B was still the better option, Chell continued forth.

"Okay, I'm going to lay my cards on the table: I don't want to do it! I don't want to go in there! Don't –don't go in there…" the core spluttered pathetically, while the woman simply ignored it. The door slid up to reveal the evil lair of the murderous robot. Chell stretched her legs to avoid water and moss, and put a great load of effort into keeping plants off and away from her skin. Wheatley still whimpered miserably about how they were going to die, until Chell turned a corner and there it was…

"She's off! She's off! Panic over! She's off! All fine! On we go."

…the corpse of GLaDOS.

The scars from their battle were still there, the big gaping hole at the top of the ceiling. However, the bright blue sky did not shine through. The massive space GLaDOS' chamber resided in had been repaired in some form to prevent any of the outside world to shine in. And so, all that did was cast the resting place of GLaDOS in a dystopian light; rotten and bleak, like the ruins of a great civilisation brought down after a long and mighty reign. And much like civilisation ruins, forests had occupied the spaces, eating away at humanity's touches until nothing was to remain; a true reminder of man's place on earth.

"There she is…" Wheatley commented, impressed. The personality core rotated its eye to his human companion and added, "Nasty piece of work she was. Honestly, like a proper maniac."

Lowering the portal gun, and therefore Wheatley, from her sight, Chell gazed at the head of GLaDOS. It had been torn apart from the main body. A long thick cord was securely attached to the head while the other was shredded like mangled cotton. The bulb that was once the killing machine's sick yellow eye was cracked and lifeless, like glassed eyes of a fresh corpse. GLaDOS' corpse was anything but fresh. It had had been laid to rest for many years, just as Chell had done. There was, of course, a noticeable difference, one that influenced a smirk to play on the woman's lips.

"You know who ended up purging her; do you want to know who ended up taking her down in the end?" Wheatley queried his voice whispery and mysterious, as though telling some old wives tale. "You're not going to believe this: a human."

In all honesty, due to Wheatley's less than brilliant history, Chell had expected that the core was simply building up a story to add a mystery ending with which no one could answer. Instead, it became apparent that no, Wheatley knew of a human that spelled the end of GLaDOS. Wheatley waved his handles around, "I know! I know! I wouldn't believe it either. Apparently this human escaped and uh, no one's seen him since."

Chell's shoulders slumped.

Poor little Wheatley was left pondering what he had said to produce such a reaction as Chell strolled through GLaDOS' chamber. It felt as though the woman had stepped into history; every emotion that raged inside her during the battle was prickling inside, reminding her just how close she met GLaDOS' fate. Feeling slightly sick, the woman swallowed thickly when she found the incinerator where fellow comrades in GLaDOS' reign had met their end.

Wheatley disrupted the woman's thinking, "Then there was this long chunk of time where absolutely nothing happened and then there's us escaping now. So –um…that's pretty much the whole story. You're up to speed. Don't touch anything," the core quickly requested when Chell reached for the incinerator.

Huffing at her unfortunate ability to come across bossy AIs, Chell turned to the left…to find a red arrow drawn onto the wall. Recognising the artist immediately, the woman followed the arrow. It led her back behind the incinerator. Before, there was just a wall. Now, however, due to the destruction of the chamber, walls had been torn down and the interior had been exposed. There were descending stairs past a curtain of plants.

"Okay, just down here."

And so Chell did. Her journey halted abruptly when the stairs cut off. Any guesses as to why? Chell bit her bottom lip, knowing all too well what she had to do but wasn't pleased about it. "Jump!" then the personality core reconsidered, "Actually, looking at it, that is quite a distance, isn't it?" It was. A chunk of stairs was gone, leaving a large gap between top and bottom. Chell grimaced. Despite her constant conflicts with gravity, she was still never completely happy about it. "Okay, you know what? Go ahead and jump! You got braces on your legs. No braces on your arms though. Gonna have to rely on the old human strength to keep a grip on the Device, and by extension me. So do. Do make sure to maintain a grip."

Chell briefly wondered if it was worth speaking up and informing Wheatley that she wasn't a total idiot. Just as Wheatley began to ramble to himself, Chell leapt off the ledge. A frightened cry burst from the personality core as they fell. Shivering from fear and the drop, the woman slammed her feet flat onto the ground, feeling the white boots absorb the impact. Wheatley gasped, "Still held! Still being held! That's a great job. You've applied the grip. We're all fine. That's tremendous."

After the slew of compliments, Chell proceeded in to the dark hallways below GLaDOS' chamber. It was odourless surprisingly and dry; so far untouched by the growing greenery. Chell clambered onto a catwalk and the personality core's bright blue eye flickered down then straight back up again when he gave another shocked cry, "I-I'm sorry! I just looked down. I do not recommend it –AH! I just done it again!"

Chell shushed him. Wheatley gave off the impression he was curling up into a ball.

Feeling slightly apologetic, the woman was about to say sorry when Wheatley forgot the dismissal, paying more attention to the tiny room located at the end of the catwalk. It was like all these devices and switches were crammed into a cylinder shaped elevator, much like those Chell travelled the science faculty through. Once again, it was much smaller. Chell squeezed herself inside. The walls were entirely layered with red and yellow switches. She could hardly see the top of the room. In the middle, on the ground, was an Aperture Science Core Input Receptacle. Wheatley made no attempts to be plugged in so Chell ignored it for now.

"Okay, this is the main breaker room. Look for a switch that says 'ESCAPE POD', alright? Don't touch anything," the personality core instructed, in awe at the amount of switches. "Not interested in anything else. Don't touch anything else. Don't even look at anything else, just –well, obviously you've got to look at everything else to find 'ESCAPE POD,' but as soon as you've looked at something and it doesn't say 'ESCAPE POD,' look at something else, look at the next thing. Alright? But don't touch anything else or look at any –well, look at other things, but don't –"

"–Quiet," Chell hissed, sick and tired of the robot's rambling. She still did as the core told, too uninterested in Aperture Science to even think about a switch that wasn't for an escape pod. So it was not as though the robot had needed to say anything.

"…y-you understand," Wheatley hurriedly finished off. He personally didn't like being interrupted. He liked talking. Talking is nice.

Finding nothing on the bottom layer, Chell placed the portal gun (and therefore Wheatley) down and started to climb up, gripping tightly and stepping onto the lowered switches –not forcing activated switches to turn off, just in case that did something wrong and dangerous and most likely life-threatening. She grunted as she heaved her body up, almost slipping a couple of times. Wheatley stared at the woman, happy with her enthusiasm. It appeared she really wanted to get out.

"Can you see it anywhere? I can't see it anywhere. Uh…" Wheatley cringed as Chell lost her grip and fell ungracefully down. Luckily, she hadn't been too high up to cause major damage. However, there was certainly going to be a bruise tomorrow morning. Chell growled at her misfortune. "Tell you what, plug me in and I'll turn the lights on."

Wheatley didn't understand why Chell was looking as though she wanted to strangle him.

Chell rubbed her eyes when lights flashed upon Wheatley's attachment. "'Let there be light.' That's, uh… God. I was quoting God," the robot mumbled, quite shamefully. Chell was about to begin her search again when the Core Input Receptacle rotated, turning Wheatley to the right. The robot giggled, "Oh look at that! Ominous. But probably fine. As long as it doesn't start moving up…"

As Wheatley toyed with data, searching for the escape pod, Chell subconsciously drew the portal gun closer to her chest, feeling sparks of anxiety coming to life. Something…felt…off… Chell gasped when the ground whistled, then proceeded to ascend.

"Oh, it's moving up," Wheatley muttered awkwardly. Up and up the sudden elevator went, passing the switches, towards the ceiling that split open in the sharp angles of the Aperture Science logo. Chell swore she saw a switch labelled 'ESCAPE POD' but it was too late now. Panic clearly overriding any sense of calmness, Chell scrambled around the Core Input Receptacle, trying to figure a way off. The personality core wriggled in his spot, "Okay, okay! No, don't move! Don't worry. I got it, I got it, I've got this! This should slow it down…

"…No, that just made it faster."

Just before Chell's foot was about to kick the personality core, the elevator emerged out into GLaDOS' chamber –too bad it was still sunk-in, with the outer shell of the Receptacle too tall for Chell to climb over and out. Keeping the portal gun on the floor beside the trembling personality core, Chell struggled for another escape out of the Receptacle however she simply tumbled back down again.

"Uh oh…"

And Chell saw what was 'uh oh' when the cord connected to GLaDOS' head squirm.

"Power-up Initiated."

Something must have slammed into the woman, for Chell felt this gut-wrenching pain and started to shake, clutching the portal gun, out of comfort more than anything. Teeth grinding, chipping away teeth for all she knew, Chell could do nothing but watch as electric sparks whirled into the giant robot along with the sound of active machinery. She snapped out of her frightful daze when Wheatley cried, "Okay, don't panic! All right? Stop panicking! I can still stop this! Um…"

Swearing under her breath, Chell's boots groaned as they were scraped against the slippery walls of the Receptacle. The woman clawed at the walls, feeling like an animal desperate to flee its cage that spelled its forever imprisonment. Not again, Chell thought as she saw the pieces of GLaDOS' body wound itself together. She wasn't going through this again! "Ah…oh, there's a password! O-o-okay, it's fine, I'll just –I'll just hack into it. Not a problem…um…"

The cord that was, in effect, GLaDOS' neck pulled the head back towards the torso. Chell could barely seep oxygen into her lungs as she fretfully tried to leap and reach for the top of the walls only to slip back down to the distressed personality core. She heard the sound of tools clanging together, creating another burst of terror.

"Um…A, A, A, A, A…and…A. Yes [BUZZER NOISE]," Wheatley bulked at the rejection. Chell felt all hope dwindle away. GLaDOS' nearly repaired body was gathered up to hang from the ceiling again. "Nope, okay. A, A, A, A, A...C [BUZZER NOISE]"

"Wheatley! Wheatley!" Chell snapped. "Forget the password and help me up!"

The personality core was silent for a few seconds (taking in the excessive amount of words he just heard come out of the normally quiet woman) before falling back into the moment, "No, no, wait! I didn't do it right! I think I forgot to try B. Do you have a pen? Start writing these down."

Crouching down, Chell shrank as she watched the fully repaired GLaDOS rear her body towards them. The light that was her eye was still out, meaning she had not regained consciousness yet… there was still time…wasn't there? "Power-up complete." Or maybe not.

"Okay. Okay. Now, listen. New plan. Act natural, act natural. We've done nothing wrong," Wheatley advised, clearly just as terrified as his human companion. His blue eye had dimmed somewhat and was peering down, too scared to face the big bad guy.

Chell closed her eyes and took a steady breath. She'd done nothing wrong.

But GLaDOS was hardly going to believe that.

The yellow eye blinked open.

"Hello!" Wheatley greeted, adding an extra dose of sweetness. Chell gulped as the awakened GLaDOS drank in the sight of her destroyed chamber and then the invaded guests, particularly the all-too-familiar human.

"Oh. It's you."

And oh, had Chell not missed that passive-aggressive voice.

"Wait. You know her?" Wheatley's eye darted back and forth between the females.

GLaDOS ignored the insignificant personality core and focused on the human, who tried to quench her fear and showed off a nasty glare instead. "It's been a loooong time. How have you been?"

Chell refused to answer back.

"I've been really busy being dead. You know, after you MURDERED me."

At the fury boiling in GLaDOS' words, Chell's grip on the portal gun tightened. Wheatley spluttered below her, "Y-you did what!? T-that was you!?"

Twisting down from the ceiling came two large mechanical claws. Neither of the pair was given the chance to escape. Chell's waist was clasped in a strong grip, purposely choking her. The other claw pinched the terrified personality core and tore it from the Receptacle. Chell scrambled in the grip, kicking at GLaDOS' direction and snarling at the very robot. Desperate, she also fired the portal gun everywhere which did nothing to aid in the situation.

"Oh no! Nononono!" Wheatley pleaded as the claw swung him around.

A pained gasp emitted from Chell when the claw clenched harder, pressing hard against her ribs, squeezing her like a lemon. "N-no!" she choked out. She seethed and pitifully pushed against the more powerful machine. "L-let go!"

"No! No!" Wheatley's panic increased when he was brought forward to GLaDOS.

"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret," GLaDOS said to her human enemy. The AI loved the way Chell was desperately reaching out for the personality core, sending a silent plea to let the robot go.

Wheatley's fearful crying was cut short when the claw crushed the little robot in its grip. Wheatley's blue eye lost its colour and blackened. His sides were dented and electric sparks escaped his body, paralleling to blood lost. Poor little Wheatley groaned miserably, overloaded with aching pain, but still taking the time to look to Chell and see how she was holding up.

The woman wasn't having it much better either.

Chell's breath trembled at the sight of her damaged ally. "W-Wheatley!" she fought against the claw again. "No! Let me go! Wheatley!"

Happy with the results (causing misery was so much fun) GLaDOS threw Wheatley away. The core's body smacked onto the ground and rolled into the dark greenery. Chell had no idea whether the robot was still alive or not. She wasn't given the chance to even check as GLaDOS continued their confrontation, "But I think we can put our differences aside. For Science. You monster."

Chell was lifted up high in the chamber, overlooking the entire place. Her brown eyes scanned the area, trying to find Wheatley. Nothing. But she realised that the claw was bringing her towards the incinerator. "I will say, though, that since you went to all the trouble of waking me up, you must really, really love to test."

GLaDOS got exactly the reaction she wanted: a hateful glare.

The incinerator opened its gaping mouth. There was no fire cooking down the dark pipe but it was definitely a long drop. Chell was dangled above it like a treat to a tempted dog. All this time, Chell's hands held onto the portal gun so strongly that taking it away from her would be like peeling off super glue, a hard task for those who do not know and not worth one's time.

"I love it too. There's just one small thing we need to take care of first." GLaDOS' words echoed as Chell was dropped and left to tackle the immense dive down.

~o0o~

Something must have gotten caught in her throat. She wishes air was blowing down her throat as easily as she was falling down this pipe. Now that she thought about it, it truly felt as though she was being swallowed up, making her way to the belly of Aperture Science. The laboratory had proved to be far larger than first perceived. When cool air wasn't filling up her lungs, it was uselessly whipping hair into her face and flapping loose patches of clothing around. It was also moving and pushing her like an ocean current, just like the Storage Cube tubes, ensuring the woman did not crash into the sides. Screaming was not an option either; beyond the lack of air reason, Chell was long passed emotions of fear. Now, she was simply anxious, waiting for the inevitable moment when she'd land in the empty unpowered incinerator.

Chell's thoughts wandered to Wheatley.

While the little bugger annoyed her, his companionship hadn't been awful.

And she'd never wish death upon anyone (unless they tried to kill her first).

The tunnel opened up like a funnel and exposed the incinerator in all its glory. Although Chell couldn't admire the view for long with the wind current propelling her body into a far corner. Her boots absorbed the impact once again but balance was lost and Chell tripped and smacked onto the ground. She didn't move. She just stayed still, sucking in air –in, out, in, out, in out –before finally getting up again.

Now that she wasn't being tossed about the place, like a Christmas gift no one in the family wanted but was too afraid to say no to the relative, she observed the incinerator. Or robot hell, take your pick. There were multiple tunnels connected to the incinerator that stretched out like tree branches over a deep hole in the ground. Chell pressed her back to the wall when she recognised the orange glow and burning heat frothing in that hole –so the incinerator was still up and running…barely.

It too revealed just how lonesome Aperture Science had been. No one had come down below to maintain the place. The incinerator was rusty and its fragmented pieces were chipping away bit by bit with every passing day. Debris from Chell's battle with GLaDOS had made its way here and luckily was assembled in a way that allowed the woman to crawl and climb across. As she did so, steadily traversing across a suspended pipe, GLaDOS spoke over the speakers, "Here we are. The incinerator room. Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that didn't get completely burned when you threw them down here."

Too be fair, Chell had not done that at all.

Chell released a high-pitch yelp when the pipe she was standing on creaked against a walkable section. It began to fall. Chell leapt and wrapped her arms around a tunnel, sacrificing her portal gun to the flames of the incinerator. The woman shakily heaved herself back up to a much safer position, stopping again for a quick breather and reminder of life, before continuing.

Taking note of the loss GLaDOS added, "The dual portal device should be around here somewhere. Once you find it, we can start testing. Just like old times."

As Chell crossed the last few 'bridges' she saw Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cubes tumbling down below, along with a few pieces of machinery. She was cranky with herself when a thought hoped the Companion Cube was okay. Chell was never going to forgive GLaDOS for getting her attached to an inanimate object. Just as the woman was about to exit the incinerator she saw a sad little turret meet its end ("Coming through!") squealing desolately on the way down.

Leaving the incinerator brought Chell to a wrecked empty room. However what mattered most was a white object hidden in the mess of debris. A grin that swept Chell's features dwindled away when the AI spoke (she refused to share the same eagerness as that piece of –) "There it is. Hold on..."

Dislodged sections of the wall, crushed underneath the rubble, were lifted up by GLaDOS' control, moving away the garbage, granting Chell easier access to the dual portal device. "There." Chell picked it up and felt strangely cosy with the gun in her arms.

"You have a dual portal device. There should be a way back to the testing area up ahead."

There certainly was. Near the ceiling Chell could see the walls on the other side. She applied a blue portal there and stepped through an orange, landing on the other side. Just like old times. Chell's legs rattled upon slamming hard onto the ground. "Once testing starts I'm required by protocol to keep interaction with you to a minimum. Luckily, we haven't started testing yet. This will be our only chance to talk."

Chell journeyed through a few more ruined corridors, feeling nauseous. When she reached the end, she found herself in a ditch too tall to climb up on her own. Luckily, the walls dislocated themselves and lifted up the rubble; it also cleared away garbage hanging over the only portal-usable wall. "Here. Let me get that for you."

When the young woman arrived above the dip the crazy AI chatted on in the same monotonous voice with a faint layer of bitterness, "Do you know the biggest lesson I learnt from what you did? I discovered I have a sort of black-box quick-save feature. In the event of a catastrophic failure, the last two minutes of my life are preserved for analysis…"

As Chell gazed through shattered glass and into an empty room, she could tell where GLaDOS was going. "I was able –well, forced really –to relive you killing me. Again and again. Forever."

Hopping through portals into another room, Chell steadied her breathing, waiting for what the deranged psychopath to conclude. "You know, if you'd done that to somebody else, they might devote their existence to exacting revenge," GLaDOS seemed to like the sound of the very word 'revenge' and all the meaning around it. "Luckily, I'm a bigger person than that. I'm happy to put this all behind us and get back to work. After all, we got a lot to do, and only sixty more years to do it. More or less. I don't have the actuarial tables in front of me."

GLaDOS certainly knew how to press Chell's buttons. The woman grinded her teeth, tempted to call the robot many colourful names, but held back for the sake of concentrating on getting out of this mess. Nothing was ever easy for Chell, was it? A majority of that was at the fault of GLaDOS, with a surprisingly doozy dose of Wheatley. Chell could hardly blame herself. Everything good that had happened so far was because of her. Either way, Chell had to rely on herself, no one else, in order to get out of Aperture Science and not be a test subject for sixty years. More or less.

Just as Chell began to climb over another chock full of mess, the unhinged walls removed the debris for her. "I'll just move that out of the way for you. This place really is a wreck."

While her path was being cleared, Chell inspected the area around her, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. The test chamber's screen flickered on and the woman's brown eyes widened. She was in test chamber 19, where purgatory had decided to dump her into hell. With the path now accessible, Chell strode through.

"But the important thing is you're back. With me. And now I'm onto all your little tricks. So there's nothing to stop us from testing for the rest of your life," it appeared GLaDOS remembered the events of test chamber 19 as well. Fantastic.

As Chell waited for the renovated elevator to come to her, she begrudgingly listened to GLaDOS' musings, "After that, who knows? I might take up a hobby. Reanimating the dead maybe."

Chell wished she could hurl every last mechanic piece of GLaDOS into a fire, again.