When GLaDOS awoke, she felt almost normal, which she took as all the more reason to get out of this human body as fast as possible, although the fact that the fever had subsided was a good sign. She got out of bed and checked on Chell. The angel's face was still a ghastly white and her feathers were still a dull, dark grey, but her bandage looked like it had been recently replaced. She turned toward the clock on the wall. It was around twelve o'clock, but she couldn't tell if it was midnight or noon in this windowless room. She knew that she was able to get a few hours of sleep, at least.

She headed downstairs, hoping to get more answers from Elli. From the darkness through the windows, she guessed it was midnight. She saw Elli standing by the windowsill, watering a plant and humming softly. The plant looked like some sort of flower that had yet to bloom, with a lime green bulb perched on top of a single stem with two curling leaves extending from the stem's middle and dark green, almost black thorns. She paused when she heard him sing softly to himself,

"Lunar rose, lunar rose,

Every midnight you greet me

Silver white,

Soft and light,

Why do you bloom so sadly?"

His singing voice wasn't bad; it was deep and rich and sounded almost genuinely sad. She approached him quietly as he continued,

"Midnight's bloom, may you grace the moon,

Grace the moon forever.

Lunar rose, lunar rose

Shine with starlight forever…"

"Fascinating plant, this flower," he said without looking away from the flower.

"A lunar rose?" she asked.

"It is called such because it only blooms at night, normally around midnight under a full moon. This one is still too young, though. Still, I prefer to water it around now."

"And sing to it?"

He turned to her and smiled. "It's a lovely song, don't you think? I'm not much of a singer, but you get the gist of how beautiful it's supposed to be."

"What's so special about this plant?" she asked.

He picked up a pencil and nudged one of its thorns. "Each barb contains a gland that produces a very deadly poison, the same poison that afflicted poor Chell."

GLaDOS did not want to talk about that particular angel right now, as injured as she may be. The fact that she was Caroline's daughter had not fully sunk in.

"That's why it's sometimes called 'Angel's Gloom'," he went on, "Angel hunters like to use it since all it takes is a single arrow dipped in this poison to kill even a powerful angel, and hunters normally get only one shot before an angel escapes."

"She survived, though," she pointed out.

Elli's eyes darkened. "Barely. He had a very small dose on that crossbow bolt, and yet it was still enough to knock Chell out for over a day."

"For over a…?"

He smiled. "Oh, that's right. You've been asleep this entire time too. Only difference is, you have at least woken up. She's still asleep, isn't she?"

So she had slept for over a day. Perhaps that was why she felt significantly better. Elli returned to his rose, and she decided to wait to probe him for answers.

She turned and headed back upstairs. To her surprise, Chell was awake and sitting up, or at least trying to sit up.

"You really shouldn't be doing that, you know," GLaDOS said matter-of-factly.

Chell shot her a glare. Despite the obvious pain she was in, her eyes still burned with defiance. GLaDOS only sighed.

"I'm only saying that for your own benefit," she said, walking over to the angel's bedside, "There's really no need for you to still be defiant towards me. We've been through a lot, and we're friends now, right?" She placed her hand on Chell's shoulder.

The dark angel chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. As always." She looked up and locked her gaze with GLaDOS', holding it for what felt like a long time.

"I see," she said with a small smile, "You're not afraid of me anymore."

"What?"

Chell leaned back against the wall, still smiling. "Ever since you found out that I'm an angel of darkness, you've been terrified of me. You've done a good job hiding it, but I'm an angel. I can sense these things. Now, though, that fear is gone. What happened? Do you suddenly think you can beat me in a fight?"

"Might I remind you that you are currently gravely wounded and because of that wound you have been asleep for over a day?" GLaDOS pointed out. She was, however, right. GLaDOS hated not knowing something. Learning that, despite her infinite capacity for knowledge, there were forces in the world that she didn't understand, and that this lunatic who was once her enemy had control over such forces, did terrify her. Now that she knew that, deep down, she had just as much if not more power than Chell…

"You haven't left your bed either until now," Chell replied, "What happened back there that made you sleep for so long?"

GLaDOS looked away from her. Thinking about the power now trapped inside of her made the heat begin to return, and she fought to keep it down.

"Nothing," she managed, "Nothing really important, anyway."

"That was the worst lie you've ever told," Chell said.

She knew that Chell's magic was affecting her, making her want to spill out everything, but she didn't really want to fight right now.

GLaDOS sat down next to her. "Caroline was an angel of darkness, one much older and more powerful than you. When she was transferred into me, her power didn't go away, nor did it go away when you put me into this body. It's been dormant this entire time, but when you were shot by that hunter, it woke up."

Chell for some reason did not seem surprised. "It's too much for you. I mean, that human body."

She nodded. "Yes."

Chell sat up a bit and placed her hand on GLaDOS's chest, just below her neck. "I see," she mused, "So that's where this new fire came from."

GLaDOS could feel her heart hammering beneath Chell's hand, and the feverish heat inside of her stirred dangerously. "Fire?" she inquired. Did she feel hot for some particular reason, rather than simply due to excessive power raising her body temperature?

"Yes… Fire," she replied, which GLaDOS assumed somewhat maybe possibly answered her question. Perhaps. "Have you ever tried fire magic?" Chell suddenly asked, pulling her hand away.

"Elli hasn't taught it to me yet," she answered.

"But have you ever tried it?"

"Well, no."

"Hm," Chell said thoughtfully, lying back down and rolling onto her side, still facing GLaDOS.

GLaDOS leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms. Perhaps Caroline had something to do with fire magic, and Elli probably knew that, and yet neglected to teach her. Come to think of it, he hadn't taught her dark magic either, which she thought would be important, since Caroline was an angel of darkness.

"Chell," she asked, "If Caroline was an angel of darkness, how can I do light magic?"

Chell shrugged. "You're not entirely dark like me. You're more neutral."

"But why?" she asked, more to herself since she figured Chell didn't know the answer, and from the angel's silence, she was probably she was correct. With Chell settled back down, she decided to go back to sleep herself.

Gradually, over the next couple of weeks, Chell's condition improved. The wound closed, and a glossy sheen returned to her feathers. GLaDOS could feel the pulse from her soul growing steadier and stronger, until it became the dark drumbeat it was before. She still seemed a bit paler than usual, however.

Elli had halted their training, so GLaDOS, with nothing better to do, spent most of her time with Chell, observing her progress. She allowed the angel to lean on her when she was still too weak to walk very far on her own, and kept an eye on her when she slept, just in case she had a nightmare. If she thrashed in her sleep, she risked reopening the wound. From the soft waves of magic lifting off of her while she slept, she could tell when Chell was dreaming and the general mood of those dreams, especially if they were nightmares, which happened often. Sitting beside the angel while she dreamed made her think back to their encounter with the Night Mare, which had plunged their consciousness's into the very source of nightmares. Before that happened, she had suddenly woken up feeling that something was wrong. At the time she had assumed that it was because Chell was having a nightmare and she had simply been affected by her aura, but then it turned out that the two were far apart at the time. Perhaps she had simply known Chell for long enough that she could pick up her distress signals from far off, since Chell did seem to be panicking at the time, but she supposed she would need to ask Elli about it later.

After two weeks, other than the fact that she was still weak, Chell was more or less back to normal. Neither she nor GLaDOS had left the house since the incident, and Elli was starting to say that it was time they did.

"Staying indoors isn't normal for an angel," he told GLaDOS, "I think she's ready to try to fly again. Why don't you take her outside?"

She didn't think Chell was well enough – she was still sleeping much longer than normal – but headed upstairs to talk to her about it anyway. She found Chell sitting on her bed, leaning against the wall. As GLaDOS suspected, she looked tired and weak, in no fit state to try to fly.

Chell groggily looked up to greet her. "Hey," she said quietly.

"What's wrong?" GLaDOS immediately asked, not returning her greeting.

Chell leaned back against the wall. "I've been thinking… We need to head back to Aperture soon."

Those were the words GLaDOS had longed to hear ever since she set foot outside of her facility, but there was one major problem. "You're too weak. You can't even fly yet."

"Don't worry about me," she insisted defiantly, "I can…"

"Don't you dare try to tell me you can take care of yourself, fledgling. You're still too weak from your injury, and have you forgotten the whole reason you dragged me out here in the first place? You wanted us to be able to defeat Rattmann, and you said he was very powerful. I doubt we've had enough training to defeat him."

"Any magic you do will increase the chances that you lose control of your power. You can't train anymore," Chell pointed out, "You might even lose control and kill yourself anyway without doing magic."

That was, unfortunately, true. Even without practicing magic, there had been a few instances in which GLaDOS had nearly collapsed from a sudden surge of feverish heat.

"If you stay in that body for too long, you'll eventually burn it out," she added, "You need to get back into your own."

"So you're suddenly worried about me now?" GLaDOS asked challengingly.

"I… I don't want to lose you…" she murmured in reply, looking away.

With Chell's hurt expression looking like that of a scolded child, GLaDOS' temper cooled. "We'll talk about it when you're fully recovered," she decided, "For now, why don't we go outside for a bit and we'll see if you're well enough to fly?"

Chell smiled softly. "Do you have any idea how much it hurts to not be able to fly?" she murmured.

She got up, and followed GLaDOS outside. As they stepped outside into the chilly air, Chell luxuriously stretched her wings, letting the wind ruffle her feathers, which shone in the light from the sunset. She suddenly looked much better, almost like her old strong, defiant self, ready to fight anything that dared look her way. Perhaps staying inside was more than simply being "not normal" for an angel. GLaDOS kept a close eye on her as she experimentally stretched and folded her wings, just in case she was trying to hide any pain that she was in. The last thing either of them needed was a crash. Besides, despite once being afraid of Chell, GLaDOS had never stopped being fascinated by her as well. She was still, after all, a species not known to science… at least not the science GLaDOS once knew, the science she still planned to apply to this "magic."

Without warning, Chell took off, leaving behind a gust of wind. Soon she was circling slowly over the rooftops. GLaDOS leaned against the wall, alert for any magic in the area. For now, however, they were alone… and safe.

A/N: This chapter was so hard to write… possibly because there isn't anything really interesting happening. This was another information and character development chapter. I wanted to take a moment to show the relationship that has developed between Chell and GLaDOS. The next chapter, however, will be the penultimate chapter, the one full of all the action that everything up to this point was building toward. Well, I suppose I've promised you action before, and then just had them run away from everything. I'm not lying here, though! 85% certain that I won't be lying. Maybe it depends on your definition of action, though. I'm pretty sure there will be at least one explosion, and one good attack. Also, birds. And rats. And then the chapter after that will be another sedate chapter, since it will be the falling action concluding chapter. I might mix it into the next chapter though. It depends on how long I think it will be.

Speaking of which, since nothing is really going on in this chapter, do you guys think it should be combined with the previous chapter? I'm wondering if I should go through both this chapter and the last, trim out anything that doesn't seem necessary, and copy-and-paste them together.

It will be a while, though. I've been looking forward to this chapter for a long time, so motivation won't be as much of a problem, but there's still the issue of limited time combined with procrastination.