A/N: Do I go too fast in this chapter?
Glade's POV:
Glade stood off to the side of the lobby area where the mass of students were mingling, waiting for the first bell to send them to their first class. She heard a scraping sound, and turned to see Wheatley approaching, muttering once again about the rusty management rail he had to put up with.
"C-can we talk someplace private?" he asked, his optic quivering a bit as he eyed the other students, and more importantly, the professors.
"Sure," she replied, wondering why the core acted so nervous. She followed him away from the lobby and the gaggle of students down a dimly lit hallway. He slowly turned to face her again, his optic still shaking and the blue light much smaller than usual.
"Look, um, our… our last conversation wasn't as private as we thought it was," Wheatley began, refusing to look the girl in the eye.
"What's going on?" Glade asked suspiciously.
"Uhhh… Oi, I really messed up this time…" he stalled, backing away a bit, "They know!" he suddenly blurted after a pause, "They know about your mum!"
"What?"
"Black Mesa knows your mother was a test subject from Aperture," he whispered, "And they're gonna go after her!"
"What do you mean, they're gonna go after her?" Glade asked, getting a little scared as she glanced around to make sure they were still alone.
"Exactly what I said!" he nearly yelled, before remembering to keep his voice down, "They'll capture her, and try to use her to get more info on Aperture," he explained in a whisper, "Look, you've got to go home immediately, get your mum, and run! I don't know where, but you need to get away from here!" His optic was merely a pinprick of blue and shaking violently.
"You mean… Go back to Aperture?"
"Wait, how close is Aperture?"
"Just out in the wheat field…" Glade explained.
"That close?" Wheatley asked distractedly, "That's a little ironic, isn't it? I thought I ended up miles away… That's not the point! If you can get in there without being killed, yeah, maybe that's the best place to go."
They both jerked when they heard footsteps echo in the hallway, and barely relaxed when they faded.
"You got to go," Wheatley whispered again, "Down the hallway is a door to the outside. Uhh, good luck, maybe?"
Glade backed slowly down the hallway before turning and sprinting.
Chell's POV:
"Mom!"
Chell jumped when she heard Glade's voice. Wasn't she was supposed to be at school?
Glade ran into the room. "B-… Black… Mes…" she panted, trying to catch her breath after apparently running all the way here. Chell put her hand on her shoulder, meaning 'slow down, take a moment to catch your breath first'.
After a few minutes, Glade was finally able to straighten up and speak. "Black Mesa knows you're from Aperture, and Wheatley said they're coming…" her voice trailed off when her mother suddenly jerked back at that name, her expression hardening. Glade awkwardly tried to explain how they met, and what was going on.
Chell always had a bad feeling about Black Mesa. She thought it was just because of all the anti-Black Mesa propaganda in Aperture. Besides, BM had glorified themselves by taking all the credit for saving the world from the alien apocalypse, even though they had started it in the first place, and because of that, they were allowed to drive every other science company out of business and monopolize all research in America. If Glade, Alex, or anyone else wanted to get anywhere in any science field, they would have to go through BM, whether they wanted to or not.
She turned away from her daughter, trying to think of yet another elaborate escape plan, when there was a pounding on the front door. They both whirled around, and could see through a window a white van with Black Mesa's logo on the side. The pounding came again, harsher. She glanced between the window and Glade.
If they both tried to run, they would surely both be seen, chased, and possibly captured. Making a split-second decision, she ran to her room, grabbed the Companion Cube, and ran back, shoving it into Glade's arms.
'Just go,' she mouthed, ripping the back door open. Glade just gave her a confused, scared look. Chell managed a forced smile. 'I've escaped from worse than this. Just run, get your brother, and wait for me at Aperture.'
"But-" Glade protested. Chell pushed her out the door.
'Just wait for me! I'll get out of this.'
She shut the door behind Glade, locking it for good measure. The pounding had become a rhythmic banging; making it obvious they were resorting to breaking down the door. She turned toward the front door as it splintered and broke.
A guy dressed in a lab coat with Black Mesa's logo on the right-hand corner led a group of armed guards into the house. She noticed one of the guards wasn't holding a real gun; but a tranquilizer gun that they use on animals at the zoo.
"Ma'am, if you just come quietly…" the scientist suggested in a sneering voice as the guard raised the tranquilizer gun.
POP!
Nothingness.
Glade's POV:
Glade ran from the house with the Companion Cube in hand, not daring to look back. Could her mother really get herself out of this on her own, like she had at Aperture?
She finally slowed as she approached the middle school her brother, Alex, went to. Luckily, the students were still gathered in the courtyard, so she'd be able to grab him without anyone noticing. She placed the cube out of sight from the courtyard.
"What're you doing here?" Alex asked, annoyed, as his older sister dragged him from his friends, "Aren't you supposed to be at your own school?"
"We gotta go," she replied in a taut voice. Hearing his sister's urgency, he stopped struggling and followed her to where she hid the cube.
"What's going on? We could get in trouble for this," Alex warned as they walked down the street, away from the school.
Suddenly, Glade pulled him around a corner and behind a building as a car with Black Mesa's logo drove by, unusually slowly and with the people inside obviously looking out for something.
"They must be looking for us," Glade muttered.
"Why? 'Cause you're skipping school?" Alex asked, getting suspicious.
"No, 'cause we know about Aperture, their rival."
"What?"
Glade took a deep breath. "You know that AI they built? The sphere with the blue eye? They didn't build him at all. He came from Aperture." She proceeded to explain the rest of the story.
"And mom told us to wait at Aperture until she escapes?" Alex asked.
"Yeah," his sister confirmed.
They were once again walking, and were close to the wheat field. Once they had walked a ways into it, they set the cube down.
"GLaDOS?" Glade called, tapping one of the hearts on its charred surface, "Hello?" No response.
"Didn't she say there was a camera in there?" Alex asked, examining the Companion Cube.
"Yeah, but she never told us how to get her attention…" Glade muttered. Maybe she didn't want us to, she thought.
"Hey!" Alex said, knocking on it like it was door. There was still no response.
Finally Glade stood up and just kicked it over.
"There was no need to be violent," the kids breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of the AI's voice, but were taken aback by its unexpected malice. "Then again, you probably get it from your mother."
One of the circles on which the hearts were painted on slid over, and a small camera stuck out of the cube. It seemed to be glaring at them as GLaDOS continued, "The side with the camera was on the ground, idiots."
The two were taken aback by her words. She's never been that harsh to them before. The camera flicked impatiently between the two.
"Well? Is there a good reason for you to demand my attention so violently?"
At that point, the siblings began yelling at once.
"There was this core-"
"Black Mesa found out about us-"
"He said he was from Aperture-"
"And my sister abducts me from my school-"
"They were pounding on the door-"
"ENOUGH!" GLaDOS cut them off, "Tell me, ONE AT A TIME, what's going on."
The siblings glared at each other, both trying to get the other to explain it. Finally, Glade explained the story, feeling even more awkward than when she had to tell her mother.
"So, that moron isn't as far away as I thought… And he's still causing trouble…" GLaDOS mused, mostly to herself.
"This isn't about him," Glade pointed out exasperatedly, "Our mother was just kidnapped-"
"Yes, yes, I know," the AI said dismissively, "That is a problem… She told you to hide in MY facility while she expects to be able to escape on her own?"
The teens nodded.
"She has guts, I'll give her that much. Then again, she is a lunatic," GLaDOS went on like they were discussing the weather.
"GLaDOS…" Glade muttered, getting really annoyed at how little the AI was caring.
GLaDOS's POV:
No Aperture Science associate who had been sucked into any Black Mesa facility had managed to get out alive without the aid of a squad of armed androids. What made that lunatic think she was any different? She wasn't going to get out on her own.
GLaDOS just watched as the children shifted uncomfortably in front of the Companion Cube's camera. With their mother in such a situation, they looked like lost sheep. And they didn't know nearly as much about Black Mesa as she did.
Although things could get very disastrous very quickly if Chell gave them all the information she knew, the chance her giving in was still slim. GLaDOS knew she would stubbornly keep her mouth shut until they killed her, which was much more likely. This could open up new possibilities concerning her offspring.
The disaster Glade and Alex caused nearly mirrored the disaster their mother caused. Trying to test them could cause problems in two ways: They escape and cause another disaster, or even worse, their mother comes to the rescue.
But.
With their mother gone, that's one less lunatic to worry about, not to mention the children would be too devastated to fight back.
After all, it wasn't like Chell didn't set this up herself. She told them to wait with GLaDOS until she could escape Black Mesa, but since that wasn't going to happen, she just granted the AI custody.
"Alright," GLaDOS told the two kids, "You'd better get over here, quickly."
They nodded, glad that she was finally helping them, and picked up the cube as they set off toward the Enrichment Centre's entrance.