Walking on Cat Ice
When Chell finally arrived outside the shack, she was shaking with nerves. What if GLaDOS didn't let her escape, and used her as a test subject again? Or what if She just killed her with neurotoxin?
She had come this far, and there was no turning back now. And if GLaDOS couldn't help her, Chell didn't know who could. She had to turn to her greatest enemy for help, just like when GLaDOS had turned to her.
Chell hesitantly stepped forward, looking doubtfully at the door. She remembered it had been quite a strong metal door, and it wasn't as easy to break as it looked from the outside. There didn't appear to be a handle. So Chell raised her hand and knocked lightly on the door.
She waited for what seemed like forever. Until-
Creak.
The door swung open gently.
Chell stood outside the building, staring in fear at the horribly familiar elevator waiting for her inside the shack. She knew where that went.
Very slowly, one small step after another, taking her last breaths of fresh air, Chell slipped into the elevator.
Instantly the door slammed shut and her elevator sunk down below the surface, and the terrible, sterile smell of Aperture filled her nostrils...
Suddenly the elevator came to an abrupt stop, and Chell closed her eyes, dreading what she saw next. But the horrible, sarcastic musical voice filled her ears;
"Oh good. It's you. Again."
Chell slowly raised her head, and opened her eyes to stare through the glass. And she saw the worst nightmare that had been haunting her for years.
Wearing a shaul of tangled wires, protected by the shining white, curved metal plates of armor, glaring right into Chell's eyes with that bright orange optic-
It was Her.
Chell instantly wanted to get out, she wanted to wake up from this nightmare, anything to escape Her. She pressed her sweating hands against the glass of the elevator, desperate to leave.
"I don't remember telling you to come back. In fact, I remember telling you to do the exact opposite," GLaDOS told Chell calmly, but her optic was narrowed in hatred. "So, what do you want? Are you just going to stand there and glare at me until I accidentally fill your elevator with neurotoxin, or are you going to say something - Oh. I forgot. You can't speak."
At this, the old anger of being constantly insulted started to creep through Chell, overcoming her fear. She was not going to stand here and let Her insult every flaw in Chell that She had caused in the first place. She was going to stand her ground.
"Well, I don't think this elevator can take any more of your weight, so I suppose you'd better get out of there and do whatever you have to do," GLaDOS told her, looking at her, satisfied to see her anger. The glass doors of the elevator slid open smoothly and Chell stepped out gratefully.
How was she going to tell GLaDOS what she wanted to say? How was she going to ask Her? Suddenly she had a brain wave. She mimed writing with a pen in mid-air to request writing what she wanted.
"Oh, I never knew you could write," GLaDOS said to Chell, lowering a panel with a keyboard on it to her. "Well, I suppose you learn a valuable lesson every day. Yesterday I learned that you should never listen to humans. They're much better off without speech. So I suppose when you think about it, that makes you one of the best humans I know. Oh, your also the only human I know. That makes you the worst too."
Chell paused at GLaDOS' snide remarks, glaring up at Her determindedly. I need your help, She finally typed.
"Oh joy. I suppose in some way or another, it involves you trying to kill me, not once, but twice, a moron stuffing me into a potato battery, and me being forced to remember what I was before they woke me up- oh. I forgot. That's already happened. So, what do you want this time?"
I don't want to stay in this place. I need to know something.
"Well that's something," GLaDOS replied. "So, what do you need to know? It's kind of sad that you came in here of all places to ask me something. Why couldn't you have asked anyone else? Oh, of course. How did I not think of that earlier? You obviously don't have any friends. I expect no-one really cares about you, do they?"
Despite Her cynicism, there was a small ring of truth in what GLaDOS said and it really hurt Chell. She might have friends at night school but no-one had cared for her like Wheatley had, or GLaDOS had before She had deleted Caroline. She paused to hide her face before she continued typing; Do you know any other top secret science research facilities besides this one?
GLaDOS froze.
Chell knew GLaDOS was dangerous, and could be extremely angry when she wanted, but she had never seen Her like this. Her entire mainframe body stiffened and Her optic narrowed so much it was hard to see the faint orange light that showed She was awake.
"Oh," She said, sounding almost shocked. "That."
Chell waited in silence, not daring to type anything incase it made Her even more angry. Why was She so angry in the first place, though? Chell had only mentioned a science research facility.
Finally, GLaDOS said something. "Well, there's Black Mesa." She spat out the name bitterly and hatred filled every syllable in her robotic voice. "But what would you want with them anyway? They're filthy scum bags, that stole all of Aperture's ideas and equipment."
Black Mesa, Black Mesa... Where had Chell heard that name before? She was sure someone else had said something about them before... Where did it come from?
"So, what do you want with them? Are you going to get revenge? Because if you are, tell them for me, they can eat my bankrupt-" Suddenly Her voice cut out and was replaced with "-Sir, the testing?"
Of course! It came from Cave Johnson. He had said it when Chell had been trapped in Aperture's old test chambers.
"Why did I just say that?" GLaDOS asked Herself, surprised. "I'm sure I've said that before... Well anyway. What are you going to do? You'd better be getting revenge."
In reply, Chell wrote; Where are they?
"Of course. I'll give you the exact co-ordinates. Actually no. I'll give you this new portal device, with the tracking system I've recently created, so you don't have to come crawling back when you get lost. You can be my test subject again. And it will be getting revenge. I can kill two birds with one stone. I don't like birds."
However much Chell hated being called Her test subject, she nodded her head and waited as a podium raised out of the floor. On top of it was the familiar portal device, but with a small heart where the light should be.
"I customised it especially for you," GLaDOS told her. "Now, it will automatically shoot a portal right outside their facility. This new device can portal anywhere except exclusively made anti-portal surfaces, but don't try to use it on glass. It will shatter as soon as it touches the portal beam."
Chell hesitated before she took a step towards the portal gun. She wasn't sure if she could believe her luck. GLaDOS wasn't thinking this through at all. She had just given Chell a portal device and now She was letting her out of the Facility without even knowing what she was going to do at Black Mesa. She supposed GLaDOS seriously just wanted her to leave.
Chell picked up her new portal device and rested it on her arm. She had forgotten how heavy it was, but still found it easy enough to hold. "Go, now, and don't come back," GLaDOS told her. "And... good luck."
Chell stepped backwards into the lift and instantly felt it ascending to the surface. Below her she heard GLaDOS saying with pride; "And when life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade."