I must say, this chapter was fairly hard to write, because I wanted to get the facts right, and realistic. However, VALVe are very vague on their timeline, so there's no definite dates. I must say I dislike this system, which is why I have included a solid date here, and I mean to go on using them. Everyone has their own opinion as to how long Chell was in stasis - I chose quite a short amount of time, as I do not want technology to have advanced too much, as it complicates the story. Thank you to the one person who reviewed, it helps keep my spirits up. Happy reading.

Reunion

There was silence for a minute. Two minutes. Three. Chell was scared – they had taken her Companion Cube, removed her ability to use her Portal Gun. There were no cards left in her hand. She needed the Companion Cube; it would protect her. It always had, right? Her heart was racing, the tension in the room was tangible.

"You gonna talk, Miss Johnson?" the man inquired, "I guess not. I mean, you never did before, did you? Says so right here in your file: subject refused to answer questions. Strange. I wonder if you can?"

Could she? Well yes, she used to be able to, and GLaDOS had told her she was able to. It had never crossed Chell's mind to answer questions, to talk to anybody. There were many questions shooting through her brain, should she ask them? It was the first time in years that Chell had felt an impulse, a need to express herself vocally. To talk.

No. She wouldn't. If Chell was going to talk, her first words should be to the Companion Cube; it was only fair. She'd get by without answers. But wasn't that one of her three points? It didn't matter, she thought. It wouldn't be fair for her to give her first words to this man.

He sighed. His blue eyes seemed to shift a little, like she had denied him a personal goal. He had really wanted her to talk. Maybe he'd put money on it with his colleagues. Well that showed him. That showed Black Mesa entirely; she would not cooperate with them, she was an Aperture employee… of sorts.

"This interview is terminated. You will be taken to a cell." Came the monotone line.

He leaned forward slightly, and made a move under the table – pressing a button, she assumed. Sure enough, the door opened and another man walked in. He wore the same suit as all the rest, but his muscles were obvious through the cloth. It was obviously a uniform, these men were not wearing them comfortably.

Chell reacted immediately, this man was all too similar to those who had captured her, brought her here. She grabbed the Portal Gun and held it close. The man also made a move towards his hip, where an all too familiar weapon was holstered.

"Whoah there Miss Johnson, we're all on the same boat here, so to speak. We're all on the same team. All working to make a better tomorrow for everyone. We'll take you to your room, whilst we work out where your place is in Black Mesa." The interviewer jumped in.

Oh really, thought Chell. A few minutes ago it was a cell, now it was her room. Well, she wasn't getting anywhere from here. She didn't know where she was in the Black Mesa Facility, nor where her Companion Cube was, nor how to get out. She had no answers. Chell needed answers, Aperture would want to know what was going on here.

There was no Aperture though. There was GLaDOS, and that was it. Not even Caroline anymore – she'd been deleted. GLaDOS, and her tests. Chell wasn't even needed for that now, she had those confounded robots, the fat one and the thin one.

Chell got up, and walked to where the man – the guard – was waiting, but she never loosened her grip on the Portal Gun. She looked up and glared at the man. He looked away, and Chell got a boost; that sort of put her above him.

"Well, um, this way Miss Johnson. I'll take you to your, ehh, room."

It was the guard this time. His voiced was deep and husky, but forced. He turned on his heel, and began to walk away. His hand also, never moved from his holstered gun.

The walls were dimpled here also, so that the Portal Gun would not work on them. She wondered if they had been built that way with the rest of the facility, or adapted just for her. "Again, your lack of emotional response at this gesture can be put down to the fact that you are a horrible person. Just saying." Came the imagined voice of GLaDOS in her head.

Reaching a door along the corridor – there had been many more, were there more people trapped here, waiting to be told where their place is in Black Mesa? – Chell moved through the door as soon as the guard had unlocked it. She would not be led around like a lamb. She was a lioness, proud and in control.

She waited until the door had closed to survey her roo- cell. Next to the bed, was the Companion Cube. Charming, she'd had a room assigned to her. All the same, they'd given her back her friend. Surely that was a friendly gesture? They'd cleaned him too!

Wait- him? The Companion Cube had a gender now? Well clearly, thought Chell, everybody has a gender, and the Companion Cube is definitely part of everyone. His- no, it just wasn't right. Chell felt too strange referring to the Cube as a him. Or a her for that matter, giving that it was pink. The pastel pink tones were clear of their ugly scorch marks. The Cube was clearly happy again. It had forgiven her, she thought!

Other than the Companion Cube, there was a bed with white sheets, printed with the Black Mesa logo, a door in the corner, a desk and chair (with paper, pen and a light), and a fake pot plant in the corner. How vain, she thought, and imagined GLaDOS' remarking on her depth analysis of the plant. Was it strange that she constantly reminisced about GLaDOS? No, the Companion Cube didn't think so. Of course it wasn't strange.

Chell examined the walls. There was a digital clock built into the wall above the desk.

11:32am

Friday 13th September, 2048

Chell did not know what to make of this. The Companion Cube didn't either. She cast her mind back all those years to her original testing at Aperture. She had been twenty years old when she had destroyed GLaDOS.. but she didn't know what year that had been exactly. Around the 2020's. That would mean she would have been in stasis for about twenty years, more or less. She was around forty years old, literally, though her biological age was still back in her twenties.

Well, thought Chell. I'm a middle aged woman now, I guess. She crossed to the door in the corner of the room, and it opened easily to a bathroom, as she had guessed. Not looking too bad, am I? She directed at the Companion Cube., after gazing at herself in the mirror.

Damn, I've got more of a mid-life crisis than most, she remarked to herself. Stuck inside a Facility absolutely foreign to the one I was born to work with.

Well, it put a lot of things into perspective. Of course, she didn't know exactly how old she was, but that didn't matter really. She was around twenty years older than she had been. Around sixty years left until my skeleton will be laminated in the Aperture Laboratories, she thought – and almost smiled. Chell hadn't smiled in, well, around twenty years, and she wasn't planning on starting now.

There was a knock at the door, and Chell swept up the Portal Gun from the desk and placed herself in front of the Companion Cube. She wasn't going to lose it again, it had only forgiven her grudgingly this time.

Slowly, the door opened and a woman stepped in. She was definitely older than Chell, by about twenty to thirty years or so. Her hair was nearly wholly grey, but it was obvious that it had been black or dark brown. Her eyes were also dark, a deep brown. Her face was quite angled, and a severe expression seemed to be etched into the lines of her face, which were beginning to show her age. This was not helped by the tight bun that her hair had been tied up to, which gave a sharp, controlling impression. Chell thought, for a second, that the face was similar to her own. She chased the thought away.

After a moment of staring at Chell, the woman's face softened.

"Oh darling, I am so very sorry" the words seemed to tumble out, and Chell did not want to hear them, "we never wanted it to work out like this, we truly didn't."

Chell stared.

I'm sure you'll have noticed that this is the longest chapter yet, and I actually really enjoyed writing this one - I feel the story is beginning to move apace again. Please leave me some feedback :)

~daT.