EDIT: Fixed Cave Johnson's death date. Thanks TheViolynist. Also found out I can edit this on my iPhone. Wonderful.

First off, I won't apologise for the longer intermittance (apparently not a word) between chapter updates, as I haven't received a single review for that last chapter. If there's one thong that makes a writer think that their story isn't going well, it's if people can't be bothered to review it. Perhaps you don't like the updates being so quick? Please tell me whether you prefer ASAP chapters, or gaps for a few days between updates. Review. And. Tell. Me. Please. Review the story! Thank you!

/Rage.

Perhaps this chapter isn't too interesting, though I think it is. However, a LOT of explanation goes on here, so don't skim it!

PS - Not my characters. Mostly.

Black Mesa

Chell was stunned. Before she had made a single move, the man to her right raised a small, pistol like object; and pressed a button on the side of the device. Immediately, Chell felt warm, and relaxed back into her chair. Her last thought was how strange it was. There had been no dart, no drugs, no anytthhh…

The light was bright. Too bright. It burned into Chell's eyes. She was sat on a bench, facing a table – on the other side of the table sat a man dressed in a crisp black suit. He looked similar to the two men that had apprehended her last night, though he was slighter in build. His clothing was identical, the symbol on his breast stark against his white shirt. However, this man was not wearing glasses.

His eyes were a perfect blue – too perfect – and his hair was black, but greying. It was spiked up erratically around his crown, a field of black spears. He was a young man, Chell guessed. There were no creases on his face that belied his age beyond that of a man between twenty and forty, perhaps. His eyes were unwavering, his gaze unblinkered.

"Welcome to Black Mesa" he said, "Your visit is unexpected, but welcome. We haven't received communication from Mr. Hunt for years. We assumed that the Aperture facilities were empty. We found nothing when we searched it after the incident."

Chell barely heard this; she was still taking in her surroundings. The room she was in was painted a pristine white, and the walls were uniformly dimpled. There was not a flat surface in the room. Thinking of flat surfaces, where was the- it was on the table in front of her. The man seemed to notice her recognition of it for the first time.

"The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. We found many files relating to it in the Aperture Facility, but no blueprint. We also found none of the devices themselves. Black Mesa investigators assumed at first, that the project to create the device had failed. However, in infiltrating further into Aperture Science databases we found evidence to the contrary. Plans to test the devices, and videos of this testing. Videos, of you."

Chell felt fear stir within her. She needed the Companion Cube to help her, she was uncomfortable, unsafe. What else did they know about her, about Aperture? Surely, it was her duty to defend Aperture? They had simply been advancing science, and GLaDOS was vulnerable without her. Her heart was beating in her chest, but tried to keep her demeanour blank. It wasn't hard.

"The final video was your completion of Test Chamber 19, which the voiceover we heard in the video told you was the last test. There was no further evidence. The dating of that file told us that it was very soon after that video was complete that the Aperture Incident occurred."

"Black Mesa decided we needed to find you, so we spent a very long time checking through all Aperture Files, and crossing them with our own. We feel we had a conclusion. It did not help us though, we could not find you. Here are the files we believe refer to you."

NAME: Cave Johnson

POSITION: Owner/Founder of Aperture Fixtures/Science

DEATH: 1980's

FAMILY (KNOWN): Chell Johnson (CHILD)(Caroline Surname Unknown)

NAME: Caroline

POSITION: Aperture Secretary

Aperture CEO

DEATH: N/A

FAMILY: Chell Johnson (CHILD)(Cave Johnson)

"These meant little to us at first, but that Cave Johnson had had a child by his secretary. This child had then disappeared from all records. We had no evidence as to what happened to the child. Then we found this."

NAME: Doug Rattman

POSITION: Aperture Programmer

DEATH: N/A

FAMILY: Chell Surname Redacted (CHILD)(ADOPTED)

"An Aperture Science Employee has an adopted daughter who shares the name of the daughter of the Aperture CEO. However, her surname has been removed from her person. Now we suspected that Cave Johnson had had his daughter Chell adopted by one of his own employees – whether he forced the child upon him or not, we do not know. We could not find further reference to the Child for a long time."

The man sat up straighter in his seat, adjusted his tie and blinked a few times, as one coming to the end of a long explanation.

"Then, Black Mesa hackers managed to break into a secret Aperture project – the GLaDOS project. We came upon lists of thousands of names, test subjects. It appeared that these test subjects were to be testing the ASHPD that we had come across earlier. The name at the top of the list? Chell. Surname Redacted. Here, see –"

NAME: Chell [Surname Redacted]

COMMENTS: Test Subject rejected, is too stubborn. DO NOT TEST.

"At this point, it was not farfetched to assume that somehow, the daughter of Cave Johnson had made her way onto the GLaDOS project, but had been rejected for testing due to stubborn personality traits. However, when our hackers looked into the history of the test subject document, we found that Chell had been moved from subject number 1496 to number one, top priority. We do not know how, or who altered this."

The man was still showing no emotion.

"And now, here you are. Chell Johnson, daughter of Cave Johnson and his Secretery Caroline, adopted daughter of Doug Rattman. What have you been through to get to us?"

Thank you very much for reading. On a lighter note, I've been pleased with the amount of subscriptions I've had, so at least people are reading. Thanks!

~daT.