A/N: Hi, again. Enjoy another theme. This one was an oddity to write - I hadn't the foggiest idea of what I was going to do for this theme, and went, 'All right, A.M., well I'm going to open the notebook and whatever I write down, so long as it's Portal-related, will become the theme.' This ... drabbley-thing, written between my mother's temper tantrums (sigh...), was the result. It was quite a fun way to go about things, but rather difficult on what few brain cells I have. I don't think I'll do it again.

10. Memories
Summary: Forced to hide in the walls, away from Her cameras, it was his memories that kept him from despair.
Genre: General
Characters: Doug Rattmann, Companion Cube
Warnings: None

It was his memories that kept him from despair, memories of a time before Her, before endless tests and false promises of cake, a time before he had been forced to hide in the walls, away from Her cameras.

Any semblance of sanity had long ago slipped away. How long had it been? - weeks? months? years? He hadn't spoken to another human being since the fateful Bring-Your-Daughter-To-Work Day, only to artificial lifeforms: the Cube, the strange, Greek mythology-spewing turret he had once met, and the occasional personality sphere roaming the facility, out of Her eye.

He was sure that without his memories and the hope that the lady would defeat Her, he would have given up a long time ago.

"Do you think it's still the same out there, Cube?" he asked, opening another can of beans and scooping out a spoonful.

"I don't know," she answered, in a voice not entirely unlike a turret's. On an intellectual level, he knew that it was just a hallucination; a trick the mind played on itself, a combination of schizophrenia and prolonged isolation from human contact. But in his heart, he knew that the Cube was alive.

He wondered how his wife and family were doing, whether she had found someone else. He couldn't blame her if she did. As good as nostalgia could it, it could also be a dangerous thing; spending all ones' time recollecting how things used to be and longing for the past could prevent you from moving on.

"When we get out, you won't need me anymore," the Cube said.

"I'll always need you."