A/N: Well, it's about time this got updated, isn't it? I'll start out by replying to Forte. I want to see that chapter, Forte, and maybe it'll end up in Average Life. It's not like I'm going to be writing anything for that anytime soon, other than a closer.

Chell's POV:

"I'm going to ask you again, Miss," the Black Mesa scientist said in a sickly sweet voice, "What do you know about Aperture Laboratories?"

He was answered by nothing but another stubborn glare. They were in a cement room that was bare other than the metal table separating them, a dim light hanging from the ceiling, and the chair Chell was restrained to. Her right hand only had enough space to reach a pencil and a piece of paper on the table.

The scientist sighed with mock regret and gestured to a guard that was standing in the shadows near the door. He approached her, casually pulling out some sort of taser. It had the general shape of a gun, with a long metal rod instead of a barrel that was attached to a black box with a trigger. She locked eyes with the guard as he approached, not showing fear but hatred, and braced herself.

Once the pain passed, her eyesight cleared and she was able to compose herself as if nothing happened. The only difference it made was that there was yet another burn mark on her shoulder, along with several other burns and tiny red dots that showed where they had injected her with… Well, she didn't even want to know.

"We're still searching for your children," the scientist said casually, "Have you ever thought about them while you're refusing to tell us anything? Do you know the benefits we could give them if you help us?"

She did know, but if it weren't for this, they would have been perfectly capable of getting them themselves.

"Not to mention," he went on in a quieter tone, "If, no, when we find them and you still refuse to talk, they'll be in the exact same position as you." He paused to let it sink in. "What good mother would want that? Don't you want to protect them? …I'll let you think about it."

He and the guard left, locking the door behind them. Chell silently laughed. If they haven't found them, they must be where she told them to go. And if she ratted out Aperture, it would be their lives on the operation table, no doubt. They might already be on the operation table…

GLaDOS's POV:

Glade and Alex were luckily less trouble than expected. For the next few days they spent at the Enrichment Centre, they were quiet from the shock of what just happened, and didn't do much other than wander around the facility, occasionally tinkering with broken, useless equipment just to pass time. GLaDOS planned to postpone testing them until she was sure she had them under control; destructiveness was in their blood, after all.

The plan was simple. She knew that there was no way Chell would be able to escape the Black Mesa facility, and would probably be dead within the week. GLaDOS planned to take her time; nurturing the children's hopes that their mother would come back for them, until the time was right to break the news that she was dead. Then it would be easy to make them think she was all they had left. Then she would be free to test two humans who she could count on to survive the tests and yet not want to murder her.

Of course, even though she deleted Caroline, there still seemed to be some file in the back of her mind that she just couldn't get rid of; that kept pecking at her saying this isn't right. Let them go, help their mother. But it wasn't like the science she was trying to accomplish could be completed with that sort of thinking, right? …Right?

Of course it can't, she scolded herself, forcing down the file. She turned her attention to her former test subject's oldest offspring, Gladys, or Glade for short. GLaDOS usually kept things formal by either calling something its full name or, in the case of most test subjects, not calling them by name at all, but Glade's name was an exception. Gladys. Why did that lunatic have to name her that, of all things? It made the AI feel… awkward, and she didn't even know her emotion processors could generate awkwardness.

The teen was lying on her back on the bed in one of the cryogenic chambers that had been set aside for her and her brother, staring blankly at the ceiling. She shifted her eyes to the camera on the wall in front of her.

"Hey, GLaDOS?" she said in a quiet voice.

"Yes?"

"You know a lot about Black Mesa, don't you?"

More than you would ever want to know. If you knew what I do, you'd be panicking. "Yes, I do," the AI replied after a pause.

The girl sighed, and avoided looking directly at the camera. "Do you… really think she'll be able to escape on her own?" Glade asked softly.

That file was pecking at GLaDOS's mind again. Tell her the truth. She decided to try to delete it again, or at try to dull its effects by burying it under other files that were just as worthless but didn't fill her emotion processors with useless feelings as soon as possible. But whatever the file was doing to her, she had to keep up the pretense.

"Of course she can," the AI replied casually, "She escaped me, didn't she? And I can outsmart any scientist Black Mesa has."

Glade chuckled a bit, showing that GLaDOS had succeeded. When that girl falls, she'll fall hard…

Then don't let her fall, the file seemed to say as it fluttered back from the corners of her mind and attempted to flood her processors with regret.

Shut up, GLaDOS thought to herself, ignoring the emotion and burying the file again.

A week passed, with no sign of Chell. GLaDOS was sure Black Mesa had killed her former test subject by now, but she planned to wait a bit longer before finally breaking it to the children. So far, she had kept their hopes up and convinced them that, no matter what happens, she'll be there for them. In a way, that was true, since they'll probably never leave the Enrichment Centre now. If only that file would just go away and stop fluttering around her head…

She might still be alive, if they're desperate for information. You know what she's going through. You should help her.

What good would that do? GLaDOS thought, She'll keep quiet about Aperture until her last breath. Besides, she owes me. I've saved her life twice now, and how has she repaid me? By expecting me to babysit for her? Then again, by doing that she did give two potentially good test subjects…

However, for the last few days Glade had been acting, well, odd. She seemed anxious and impatient, which GLaDOS brushed off as being due to the situation her mother was in. After all, Alex's actions were similar. But she seemed to be more restless; pacing around, drumming her fingers when she was sitting, staring off into the distance, and not listening to GLaDOS the first time she said anything. It was awfully similar to the way her mother behaved when she was on the brink of finding the missing link in solving a test.

Wait-

What if she was planning something? Glade was smart for a human her age, and her impulsive nature was surely genetic. GLaDOS turned her attention to the girl, who was leaning against a wall with her arms crossed, staring into space again. He brother was by the corrupted core bin; examining a corrupted core that had somehow managed to turn itself on and was shouting something about pie and the number pi. In a test chamber, ATLAS had lost control while running on propulsion gel and had ended up slamming into the wall, severely damaging his legs. Idiotic robots…

She looked back at Glade, who had already left the place where she was last seen. GLaDOS searched for her, spreading her attention over the section of the Enrichment Centre she and her brother had been designated to. She wasn't there. Mind racing, she looked further, even into the run-down areas of the facility.

There she was, sprinting through the plant covered hallways toward the elevator that she and her brother had first entered the facility through in the abandoned Aperture building.

"Glade, you don't know what you're doing," GLaDOS warned, "Come back. I'm not angry… yet."

Glade just shot her the same, silent glare her mother did long ago and kept going. She was nearing the elevator. That area had been out of use for so long, GLaDOS could barely control it. It could take hours to get the elevator to cooperate.

"Gladys, get back here immediately!" she nearly yelled through the old, crackling speakers, "You won't save anyone! You're only endangering us!"

GLaDOS wasn't lying about that. The main thing that changed between 17 years ago and two months ago is that now Chell had a major weakness. She could stand up to anything Black Mesa threw at her, but if they captured Glade, she would surely break.

Regardless, Glade reached the elevator and left the facility.

GLaDOS immediately began to create a seal around a section of the facility and led Alex and the testing robots into it, making sure that none of them could get out.

"Your sister is in trouble. Serious trouble," she told the confused 13-year-old, "I'm leaving to bring her back."

"But… How can you leave?" he asked, knowing she was a massive robot that hangs from the ceiling.

"I already have that figured out," she said impatiently, making preparations for her departure, "Orange, Blue, keep the human company while I'm gone."

The two robots saluted and nodded dutifully. She rolled her optic, not even wanting to know where they picked that up.

She knew that the only way to move among humans and remain unnoticed was to look like a human, and recently she had created the perfect android for the job.

And if Chell was still alive… Well, maybe helping her out wasn't such a bad idea. After all, the AI did know her weaknesses.

Her impulsive, stubborn, reckless, 16- and 13-year-old weaknesses.

A/N: OH MY GOSH IT SNOWED. IN EARLY DECEMBER. IN ARKANSAS.

Anyway, this didn't go quite as far as I thought it would, but I think this would be a good place to leave off. Hopefully the next chapter will be out by, you know, the end of the month.