GLaDOS had been waiting for this. She should have been happy. She should have been ecstatic. She should have been running ahead of Chell instead of lagging behind. But as they stepped closer and closer to the entrance to her old domain, her home, all she felt was dread. She had been longing for this day the moment she left Aperture. She had wanted nothing more than to return. However, she did not want to go back if all it meant was death. She couldn't forward the cause of science if she was dead.
She simply couldn't shake the feeling that what they were walking to, what they were about to face, was far out of their league. They weren't ready. Even with Chell and Elli both agreeing that it was time for them to go back, she still felt that it would take months, no, years of training for them to successfully reclaim the facility. They had only taken weeks, with the last couple weeks consisting of them doing nothing due to Chell's injury. If what GLaDOS suspected was true, there was no way they'd get out of this alive.
She absentmindedly watched the tips of Chell's feathers brush over the wheat stalks as they walked, trying in vain to come up with a strategy, which was quite difficult considering she had no idea what she was going up against. All she knew was that Rattmann was a powerful wizard who used dark magic. Extremely uncomfortable about her past, Chell had refused to reveal anything else. That was not nearly enough to go on at all. Elli, meanwhile, had stayed behind in his shop, giving them nothing for their trip but a smile, a wave, and a "Good luck!" In an instant, GLaDOS had gone from respecting him to loathing him.
Finally, they reached the shed and stepped onto the lift that made up the floor. Instantly, it began to descend. Chell flashed her a defiant smile in an attempt to be reassuring, but GLaDOS did not return the favor. When it came to fighting, especially with magic, Chell was the more experienced of the two, and thus would probably do most of the heavy lifting… which meant she would probably be the first to die should things turn south. GLaDOS, however, did not want to lose her. She was a valuable test subject… and a valuable friend.
As the lift continued to descend, GLaDOS felt a headache begin to come on, one not unlike what she felt when she first gained the ability to sense aura. She felt as though something was pounding at her head, forcing its way in. As the pain quickly increased, she put her hand on her forehead and sunk to the lift's floor. Chell immediately came to her aid, putting her arm around her shoulder. As soon as the angel touched her, the pain seceded, but only slightly, and continued to increase as the lift slid downward. The angel, knowing this, wrapped her black wings around her, which at first seemed to shut out whatever aura was hurting her, but soon began to seep through again. She pushed her head against the angel's shoulder in hopes that it would help her drive the pain away.
GLaDOS felt as though something was trying to drill into her head and drag her by the brain farther down into the facility. She felt like it was shouting in her ear for her to come, and so desperately wanted her that it would not take no for an answer. For some reason, however, she wanted to go with it, if only to end the pain, but there was something else about it that seemed familiar.
When the lift came to a halt, she realized what it was. Peering over her friend's wing, she saw her real body, hanging limp and dead from the ceiling. After being away from it for so long, it almost looked strange and alien. However, she wanted nothing more than to either get back into it or run as far and as fast away from it as possible. Being close but outside of it was literally too painful, but now that she was here, she wasn't sure she could ever bring herself to leave it again, no matter how much it hurt her in its attempts to suck her back into it.
Meanwhile, she realized that she was in the middle of a mental tug-of-war. The chassis was literally killing her in an attempt to draw her soul back into itself, while Chell was trying to keep her alive. She wondered if she should tell the angel to stop and let it take her, or if doing so would cause her to simply die rather than go back into it and she needed to find another way to transfer herself.
"It hurts, doesn't it? The call of the chassis…" came a slow, sinister voice. She noticed a man standing next to the chassis, grinning at them. He had cleaned himself up considerably since the last time she had seen him, back when he meant nothing to her but a schizophrenic lab rat scurrying about the innards of her facility. In fact, he looked as though not a day had gone by since she first took over the facility and killed his coworkers. His black hair was short and neat, and his beard had been cleanly shaved off. His lab coat was brand new, almost gleaming as bright a white as her chassis. His eyes, however, had changed. No longer where they bloodshot with light blue irises, but instead were deep and dark. He ran his hand along her chassis, which made GLaDOS shudder as though she had actually been touched. "I did, after all, design it to be a prison – to hold you, weaken you, make you a slave to our wills, so I could easily kill you when the time was right. I suppose I should have already learned to not underestimate my experiments…" he looked pointedly at Chell, who silently glared at him.
"You were not on the development team," GLaDOS said, her voice soft but dripping with malice.
He chuckled. "No. I did not build you. I did, however, modify your body so it could hold a proper soul rather than just a digitized copy of Caroline's brain. After all, what fun would that have been? Perhaps the humans would consider it a scientific achievement, but in the magical would it would have only been a waste of an angel, as much as I hate you oversized crows. Anyway, I laced the chassis with light magic in an attempt to keep you weak, since the light magic of the chassis and the dark magic of your soul would constantly be at odds, but instead the light and the dark blended to make you neutral. You began to get stronger each day without even realizing the magic building inside of you." He took a few steps closer to them, which caused Chell to get up and stand protectively over GLaDOS, but he hardly cared, keeping his gazed locked on the former AI.
"I did not want you dead so I could take over this facility myself," he explained, his voice low and dark and his grin gone, "No, far from it. I wanted to kill you simply because I wanted to kill Caroline, and I wanted to kill her simply because she was an angel, a creature of the accursed sky, an enemy of the deep earth. The only reason I allowed the scientists to make her into you was so I could see what would happen if we put the mind of a supernatural being into a machine. Then, I would destroy you, use this facility to run a few more experiments, and then destroy it and move on to somewhere else. I hate being in the same place for too long, as interesting as my stay here has been."
Clasping his hands behind his back, he calmly strolled around the opposite end of the room, watching them as he did so. "Why don't I explain what I've been doing while you've been out having your little adventure? For the most part, I've been trying to bring you back here. I knew you would come back on your own, but still. I didn't want you to get too comfortable with freedom."
"You were the one who killed those light angels, didn't you?" Chell said, more like an accusation then a question.
"Yes, of course," He replied, as though he was surprised she would ask, "And I sent their little son running to tell you just to make sure you would investigate and stay outside long enough for the Night Mare to find you. Before killing him too, of course." He looked at the ceiling and put his hands on his hips as if the panels above him would help him remember something. "Let's see, what else did I try? I sent some your old vampire test subject friends out to fetch you, but you didn't seem to like that reunion… There was the hunter, of course, that was a close one, but he ran off… Was that really it? Hmm, I should have thrown a bit more at you. What sort of villain lets his quarry rest?" He laughed heartily while Chell and GLaDOS both glared daggers at him.
"Anyway," he said, his tone falsely good-natured, "This experiment has gone on long enough, and is reaching its conclusion. Now, it is time to finish it by finishing the both of you. Well…" he grinned malevolently at Chell, "I suppose you won't be totally gone; if all goes to plan, you'll come back under my control. Still, it seems that you've managed to actually make this easy for me to kill two birds with one stone… literally, in a sense, thanks to that curse you set on her," he cocked his head toward GLaDOS.
"…Curse?" GLaDOS said, forcing herself to stand despite the giant nail her chassis was hammering into her mind. She looked suspiciously at Chell, who was avoiding her gaze. "What curse?"
"You haven't noticed it? I'm surprised," Rattmann said, leisurely pacing the floor, "After all, it was the only reason Chell was able to break the binding spell I set on her. All she had to do was draw a little bit of your life force, but instead, she enacted that curse. I did make sure you knew how to suck someone's life force," he scolded Chell, "Why didn't you just do that?"
"I…" the angel seemed to be extremely nervous; her feathers were fluffed out, and she was avoiding eye contact, "I… I didn't want to hurt her…"
For once, Rattmann allowed himself to look angry. "Why not?" he hissed, "You were raised to be a killing machine, raised to kill her no less! What possessed you to show mercy at the last minute?"
Chell's cheeks flushed. "She… She was the only friend I had. I didn't want to lose her." She turned to face GLaDOS, who felt her suspicions melt at the sight of the pain in her eyes, "I didn't want to be alone again," she said innocently.
Rattmann snorted. "I'll never understand you birds and your desire to flock. Was that really it? You wanted a friend? That is why you gave your life to her?"
"What?" GLaDOS was stunned.
"Yes, that's exactly what she did!" Rattmann exclaimed, "Some call it the 'Guardian Spell', the spell that makes an angel a Guardian Angel. She has sworn to protect you, granting herself more power in return, enough power to break my spell. But," he grinned slyly at GLaDOS, "If you die, so too will she. Thus, all I have to do is kill you. But first…"
He fired what appeared to be a small ball of dark energy at Chell, who quickly shielded herself. However, the ball pierced her shield like a hot knife through butter, striking her squarely in the chest. She screamed and collapsed. A hole had burned through her shirt, and imbedded in her chest was what looked like a narrow blade of dark black stained glass. The skin around it was inflamed and red and streaks of black slowly spread from the wound, following her veins. GLaDOS knelt beside her. She attempted a healing spell, but nothing happened.
"It's funny, isn't it, Caroline?" Rattmann whispered as he walked toward them, "How the one thing you swore to protect will die because she swore to protect you? I thought my original plan was ironic enough – using her to kill you – but that, unfortunately, failed. I tried to make her kill you twice before, you know. The first was on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. I injected her with more demon blood than any subject before her had survived. Of course, years of periodic injections of increasing doses made her resistant enough to it. Even with that much blood in her, though, I still couldn't control her. Instead of kill you, she rampaged, killing half the scientists in the facility. The other half, of course, was killed by your neurotoxin. Not that you knew any better, since your mind was shielded from magic. The second time I simply made her your test subject, knowing she'd escape and kill you even without magic. After that, however, some robot dragged her off somewhere into the facility, and I lost her. I decided to go into a dormant state, sort a demon's way of hibernating, to wait for her to awaken and break the binding spell I put on her."
So that was why seeing Chell stand over dead bodies seemed so familiar back there. She had seen it before on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day, when she was checking her facility to make sure all the humans were either dead or captured. She may have forgotten that until now, but perhaps she wasn't quite as oblivious to magic as he thought. "What did you do to her?" GLaDOS demanded, her voice soft.
He chuckled, standing directly behind her now. "That doesn't really matter to you now, does it? I'm going to kill you slowly, just because the Guardian Spell hurts her when you suffer and she doesn't do anything about it." He suddenly swatted her away from Chell's defenseless body as easily as if she weighed nothing. He knelt next to Chell and put some sort of silver amulet around her neck, the chain of which immediately dug into her skin.
GLaDOS struggled to stand, dazed from both the impact on the chamber floor and the constant screaming in her head from the chassis. She heard a puff beside her, and a hand was placed on her shoulder. She turned and saw Elli kneeling next to her, helping her up. Rattmann immediately stood to face him, rage evident on his face.
"Hello, old friend," Elli said without an ounce of friendliness. Thrusting his cane forward, he sent Rattmann flying with a sudden burst of powerful icy wind. Immediately he ran to Chell's side, dragging GLaDOS with him. He laid his hand on Chell's shoulder, and the world disappeared to blackness with nothing but a rush of cold air. They reappeared on the surface next to the shed.
Elli pulled a sheathed sword out from beneath his trench coat and handed it to GLaDOS. "When he comes up here, I'm going to fight him," he explained, "When he is weak enough, stab him with this. It should be easy once you get close; just make sure to not stab me."
"What is he trying to do to her?" she asked quietly, still concerned about her friend.
"Crystalized demon blood," he said, nodding to the blade in Chell's chest, "It will slowly replace her blood with demon blood until she has nothing but demon blood. At that point, not even she will be able to resist his control. It is at that point that he plans to kill you to kill her to activate the curse in the amulet."
"And what curse-"
The ground behind them exploded as a creature as large as a lion leapt out of the earth. It was covered in long, dark brown fur, had a bulky, muscular body, the head and feet of a rat with long, dripping fangs and black claws, and a long, naked tail. Its eyes were small and beady, but unmistakably crimson. Rearing onto its hind legs, it roared savagely.
"So that's why he's called 'Rattmann'," GLaDOS sighed.
Elli stood and walked confidently toward the beast. He stopped and thrust his cane into the ground, releasing a blast of dark magic. Where he had stood was a massive bird with coarse black feathers. It had a long, bristling neck and featherless legs with grey scales and black, scimitar-like talons. On its head were a grey, hooked beak, scarlet eyes, and a crown of long, bluish-black feathers. With a screech, it lifted into the air; its broad wings, banded with black, grey, and dark blue, thrashed the air, stirring it into whirlwinds around itself. The clouds in the sky changed course, swirling toward the bird and amassing into a growing cyclone, within which thunder began to boom and lightning began to flash. It screeched again as if in challenge.
Rattmann roared in response. His tail whipped the ground, shaking the earth. A pillar of mangled metal and machinery capped with stone, earth, and wheat shot out of the ground, carrying him up to Elli's level.
GLaDOS looked down at the sword, recognizing it immediately. Demonite. Of course. Rattmann was a demon. Both he and Elli were.
Chell, meanwhile, had not moved. The crystal in her chest had sunk deeper into her skin, and the tell-tale signs of demon blood were becoming evident – pale skin, purple veins. She trembled as GLaDOS hovered over her, watching the two monsters clash.
Rattmann leapt from pillar to pillar in an attempt to get close to Elli, each one shaking the earth as it was thrust out of the ground. GLaDOS felt more nauseated with each new pillar – Aperture was not designed to withstand earthquakes, not to mention the displacement of machinery. Elli, on the other hand, seemed to be doing everything in his power to knock his opponent out of the air. Wind whipped in all directions unpredictably, and lightning struck the pillars seconds before Rattmann leapt out of the way.
Once more Rattmann flung himself toward Elli's throat, yellowed fangs flashing, once more Elli rolled out of the way, buffeting his wings to send a gust of wind in Rattmann's direction. Once more both titans missed their mark, neither scathed but both increasingly frustrated. Rattmann was sick of circling his opponent, cautiously trying to dodge closer while avoiding his attacks. Recklessly, he charged directly at Elli, leaping from pillar to pillar, making a beeline for the bird who only hovered in place, waiting. Finally Elli attacked when Rattmann had come very close, bringing down another bolt of lightning onto the giant rat. Rattmann jumped to the side, the pillar he was standing on seconds before now smoking and covered in soot. He was now very close to and behind the bird. Seizing his chance, he lunged, sinking his fangs into the thick feathers of Elli's shoulder. Lightning flashed. The monstrous rat fell, smoking, to the ground, the bird spiraling down after him.
Elli landed on top of Rattmann, pinning him down as he shrieked and struggled. His beak dug deep into Rattmann's throat, staining it black. GLaDOS saw her chance. She unsheathed the sword. No longer was it dull, scratched, or even lightweight; it was shining and sharp and weighed heavily in her grip. It was radiating with power, and seemed to be pulling towards the battling demons. She charged.
Its power did not go unnoticed, of course. As she ran toward him, Rattmann managed to break free of Elli's grip and plunge into the earth, leaving behind a hole that Elli did not seem keen on going into, leaving the bird scraping harmlessly at the dirt. Elli and GLaDOS watched as the earth arched upward as Rattmann tunneled beneath it, realizing too late where he was going.
Chell.
The rat shot out of the ground beside the angel and immediately dug his fangs into her wing, shaking his head back and forth like a dog shaking a songbird. Before GLaDOS even realized what she was doing, she found herself standing behind the giant screaming rat as he stood on his hind legs, twisting around in a vain attempt to pull the black sword out of his back, which hissed and steamed as it slid down his spine like a hot knife through butter. Wailing in agony, he danced away from his prey as a multitude of lesions opened all over his body, spilling black blood onto the wheat stalks, which shriveled on contact. He finally collapsed to the ground, the sword sticking straight up out of him as he melted into a pool of steaming black liquid. When his body disappeared completely, the sword, hovering in the air, began to slowly absorb the liquid, streams of the stuff drifting up to it and melding into the blade hardening into the black glass-like material that made up the sword, increasing its size. Meanwhile, the pillars of metal and earth sank back into the ground.
GLaDOS, meanwhile, knelt beside her friend, momentarily dumbstruck by the mangled sight of Chell's once beautiful wing. It was shredded; bones protruding here and there, blackish-red blood staining her entire body. GLaDOS hovered her hand above the feathered mess, and put everything she had left into a healing spell.
The heat, of course, came back full force. In fact, it was worse than before. Much worse. Vaguely, she reflected that she could serve as a heat source for the boiler of a steam engine. But that didn't matter. She couldn't lose her only friend.
Soon Elli was beside her, doing the same thing, which was good, because not long after he joined in, everything faded to black.
A/N: Oh man. Am I allowed to say that I'm proud of this? I got so into it that it took only two days to write.
But, yeah, there's your action. Sorry to keep you waiting. The next chapter will be the last, and I hope to have it out before the school year ends.