They had sat up talking late into the night, and Chell offered to take Katniss with her into the maze outside of the testing tracks, but Katniss chose to continue testing. If she were to vanish, what would Prim think? What might GLaDOS do to Peeta? What would the Capitol do to District 12?

She was handling the tests fine. Chell admitted that much. So Chell left Katniss with enough time to get some sleep, and with a plan of action of her own: sabotage and recruit.

- Test Chamber Twenty-Four H -

This test chamber was much darker. Turret beams materialized far above her, on the walls. They framed a glowing connect-the-dots image of – Katniss squinted – was that a sun? With a little smiley face on it? And beyond it, she saw a moon and star, equal parts childish and happy.

She heard some tinkling music begin to play. It sounded like a lullaby.

She turned a corner and found a complex grid of turrets encircling a rectangular shape. A spotlight bore down on the rectangle, which rested on a big red button, which was keeping the door closed. So the rectangular box was the destination. OK.

She saw the excursion funnel twisting high above her. So get into the funnel, and drop out, onto the box, work your way out from there…

It wasn't until she was in the funnel itself, getting closer to the rectangular box, that she almost dropped the Portal Gun in shock.

It was a crib.

Katniss tried to wriggle out of the excursion funnel before she was carried out over the turrets. No such luck. She was readjusting herself and bracing for the clash with the wall when GLaDOS started to say, "I've evaluated the footage of your and Test Sujbect 23's interviews. It would appear that you are pregnant. Expecting. Containing a bun in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Oven. Soon to be great with child. I must say, you're looking greater with child since you entered the facility. I believe congratulations are in order.

"So, I designed this test with the joys of motherhood in mind. You'll either pass, or you'll die. Either way you'll have nothing o fear from motherhood again."

Katniss dropped from the funnel. As she hit the floor she gave a huff of frustration – and that's when she saw the Aerial Faith Plate.

GLaDOS went on, "Did you know that 76% of juvenile delinquents that fall from the path of righteousness had emotionally distant mothers? It's true." After a pause, "Children of emotionally distant mothers are 98% more likely to become emotionally neglectful themselves. Abusive, even."

Aha! The floor beneat the crib was portal-able. But there were grills and turrets in the way – hard to get a clear shot – unless…

"It is a rumor in Panem that the girls of District Five are forced to carry in their uteruses the mutt-tations – what a quaint term – for Capitol security and future Games. That is nothing but a ridiculous, disgusting rumor, probably started by District Five, just to make them feel important. It is entirely false."

Now – one shot – be ready to fire, step onto the plate –

"It is the women of District Twelve who have the honor of being living incubators."

Katniss' flight was totally off. She took off facing the wrong direction, couldn't fire in time, the turret beams skirted the air around her, and she landed on the other side without having acquired whatever was in the crib. Back to square one.

"Didn't you ever wonder why your mother was always so exhausted, why she shut down after the death of your father? Would you be exhausted, carrying cat-muttations in your uterus? With an ungrateful, cold daughter too busy killing things to give you the time of day?"

Katniss wanted to yell at her, to scream at the Artificial Intelligence that it was nothing like that at all. But that took energy, and she was low on sleep after her encounter with Chell, and she had Prim and Gale watching, and all of District Twelve. Maybe all of Panem. The Girl on Fire could not burn out.

She continued to test. There – jump on the plate, fire the portal, be frozen in the excursion funnel that floated up from the floor beneath the crib. She waited for the crib and its contents to float up to her – and found that it was a small cube, about half the size of a Weighted Storage Cube, with pink edges and hearts on it.

GlaDOS said, "I forgot to calculate emotional heartache into the test difficulty. I realized you might, perhaps, be feeling lonely. So in this next chamber, I'll provide you with a Companion Cube. Here is a picture. It is silent," the AI went on, "But entirely loyal. Incapable of thinking for itself. So you see, it's just like Peeta Mellark. Only bulletproof. The Companion Cube will also never lie to you in order to make you love it."

In the hiss of the doors opening Katniss almost missed the next part, "It may, however, threaten to stab you."

Katniss plucked the cube from the air with the Portal Device's static electricity holder. As soon as she did a panel detached itself from the wall – a white one – and rested at an angle. Aha.

Katniss shot a yellow portal – the one connecting the funnel – and she and the cube fell briefly before landing in the funnel anew, this time taking them up and up, towards the doorway to the next part of the chamber. It took her away from and over the circle of turrets, and finally she landed on safe ground.

She caught a glimpse, from behind the angled panel, of a woman in a jumpsuit running past. Katniss smiled and landed. She proceeded through the doorway, holding the cube under her left arm.

GLaDOS' voice was chiding. "Test Subject Twenty-Four! That is not the proper way to hold a baby!"

Katniss' experience with babies was terrifically outdated, but she adjusted her grip accordingly, and evaluated the test. Thermal Discouragement Beams, narrow courses, small portal-able targets…

"Oh. Oh, I get it." Katniss glared at the nearest camera, and proceeded onto the test.

After she'd talked with Katniss – bit of an odd name, but who was Chell to judge? – Chell felt on fire. She had a purpose; what's more, she had allies. To look at another human watch them take in breaths, make eye contact, move their fingers – she'd missed it, deeply and without even realizing.

But she didn't want to try any of the tasks on her and Wheatley's itineraries – sabotaging the turret production, cutting off neurotoxin, and overwriting the security cameras – without a handheld portal device. And the only ways to win one of those was to either

Fight a living tribute for it,

Steal it off the body of a dead tribute, or

Hunt through the still-ruined sections of Aperture, those which had once been her own testing tracks.

The first two options were decidedly unsavory. For the first, She might see, and Chell's greatest protection for now was her invisibility. Second, Chell doubted her strength in human-to-human combat, especially when the overseeing A.I. had no qualms about killing two humans in one blow.

And besides, since Chell had learned about the Games, their very idea was revolting to her. She wanted to avoid the actual fact of the Games for as long as possible.

To do her part, Katniss had agreed to continue testing and direct Her attention away from wherever Chell might be. They would rendezvous when Katniss returned to the Relaxation Vault, hopefully after Chell's itinerary was complete, or when the plan was totally fouled up beyond recognition and disaster was imminent; whichever came first.

Bring Your Daughter to Work Day –

"Well!" Wheatley said, once Chell had run out of the Neurotoxin Development Facility, covering her nose and mouth and slamming the door behind her. "What do you want to do now?"

Chell thought, following his management rail back to the graffitied security alcove she'd made her home. "We need to keep gathering allies," she began slowly, once she'd detached him from his rail and set him down in a pile of lab coats. She turned on the small television screen, which showed a staticky broadcast of the Capitol-approved version of the Games. The volume was turned way low. It was surrounded by twenty-four screens, displaying, in various combinations, the test subjects hard at work.

"Brilliant! I'll check which ones are asleep—"

"No," her voice dimmed his electronic enthusiasm, his optic's face falling a little. "It was lucky that I got Katniss on my side. I think the others – some of them will be less trusting than she was. And they're all dangerous. When I want to convince them, it may be best to have Katniss on hand."

"Oh. So, our, um, our 'gathering allies,' our 'the cavalry has arrived' bit, is that – um – put on hold?"

Chell eased off her long-fall boots. "I was thinking there's other kinds of allies. Wheatley, are there other Personality Spheres like you?"

"What? Oh, sure. Plenty of us, running around on auxiliary power, overseeing bits here and there – all quite independent, believe you me. But, honestly – more than a little, er, loopy."

"Loopy we can work with." In Test Chamber 12, the District 6 tributes were completing a masterpiece of a bear flying with the help of an umbrella, rendered in blue and orange gel. "Do you think you can recruit them?"

"R-recruit them?"

"I think you could do it."

"But – but – love, you don't understand. I have a bit of a way with words myself, could say a silver tongue, even – ha ha – that's a joke, you understand, considering I'm made of metal… but, where you've got this conviction is beyond me. Not conviction in a 'you're going to jail' kind of way, convicted in the 'I know what I'm doing' way. I mean, just until earlier today I was sure that if I took off from my rail, POOF! I would die. I have – I'm not brave, like you."

"You detached yourself from your rail," she reminded him. "You thought it would kill you. I would call that brave."

"You would?" his optic brightened up.

"Definition of the term."

Wheatley beamed – but then again, when a large part of your face consists of a light, it's hard to do otherwise. But he really beamed. "Really?"

Chell just looked at him, as if to ask him to doubt her again.

"Oh, man, man you have no idea what that means to me, Chell, thank you!"

"So will you do this for me?"

He paused before answering, and something about how his frame craned towards her gave her the sense that this falsely animate sphere craved something – was very lonely. She rested one of her linen-wrapped hands on his frame.

He gave a little start at the touch. "Well – yes, of course. I'll give it the ol' college try! Not that I've ever, heh, been to college… what kind of college would I even attend, Core College? Go Circuitboards! No? Well, whatever our mascot, I've got a team to recruit!"

In the Darkness, the Rails are Full of Starlight –

"So, yes, that's the gist of the general idea. You, me, a human associate, stopping the tests. All of this, obviously, top secret from Her, 100% confidential, sub rosa sub poena. So, mate, whaddya say?"

"Space."

"Yes… I do believe you've mentioned that before…"

"Wanna go to space. Wanna see space. Gotta go. Gotta go now."

"No, mate, listen, it's this plan, it's not in space, it's right here, in the godforsaken underworld."

"Wanna see space. Big Dipper. Jupiter. Milky way. Oooohhh yesssspace."

"But you can't – no one will – mate, I tell you what, if you want to see space so badly—"

"Space space space SPACE!"

"You get the job of overriding the security cameras, and, and, um, pointing them all towards space! Out of here, up to the sky, fly me to the moon and all that jazz, hey, you can even add a nice soundtrack, how does that sound?"

"… All to space?"

"Yes. Every camera. Then we can all see space."

"See space. See space. YES, then we GO. TO. SPACE!"

"… Wow. You really aren't the brightest."

"Space loves me the way I am."

"Oh, buddy, look, I'm sorry –"

"Kevin."

"Oh, Kevin is it? Kevin, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry."

"Stars will forgive us all."

"Can I count you in on this plan, as a yes?"

"Space!"

"Brilliant!"

Heart of Darkness –

In an entirely different, entirely dark passageway, riddled with the snarls of machinery and crushers, there was a glint of green. A monologue was in progress.

"And that virile safari wanderer carefully picks his way across the vicious, treacherous, obsidian rocks… keeping an ear out for the hiss of a snake… and then, just when he thought he couldn't wish any more fervently for a light, there was a—"

A blue light, a blue light appeared in front of him, and it said, "Why, for God's sake, would you go along inventing danger when there's no flipping need to?"

The green optic, in response, narrowed around its tiny rectangular pupil. "Wheatley."

"Rick."

"How's life, trying to tally up ten thousand vegetables and dreaming you have a purpose?"

"Same as usual… how's shirking responsibility and hallucinating lions and tigers and bears, oh my?"

"Fan-freaking-tastic. Whaddya want?"

For a minute the two just glared at each other. In the background behind Wheatley, a yellow optic blinked. "Ooh, it's dark out here. But not space-dark."

"Look," Wheatley broke the silence. "We don't like each other much. Not going to beat around the bush, not going to flatter you, I just do-not-fancy you, capish? But Rick, I can trust you not to bail out or get distracted—"

"Ooooh is that a star? Is it a white dwarf star? A yellow giant? Is it a supernova?"

"Right?"

Rick nodded to Wheatley.

"And I need a team – a team for a real, true, bona fide, stick that in your pipe and smoke it, adventure. It's nothing that She needs to know about – in fact, she mustn't, mustn't under any circumstances – and breaking the humans out."

"Aren't you supposed to be watching over the humans?"

"I am! And this, this is how. Have you noticed all the testing that's going on, Rick?"

"No," the green-lit sphere spluttered.

"Well, I have – can't exactly blame you if you're a wee bit out of the loop – but there are humans, they are testing, and I intend to make sure they are all perfectly safe and happy as can be. I'll show you exactly how an adventure really begins."

The Chamber of Screaming Robots –

"Hello, Miss?"

Wheatley approached the core with caution. It was stationed only a panel's twitch away from the a senate chamber full of gun turrets. The Core was staring directly into that panel, its rose-pink optic with a flower petal-like design relaxed and calm.

"Hello, how are you today?"

"Do." The syllable was low and clear.

"Dough? You're – you're full of yeast and flour? Oh, I'm so sorry, that must be awful – or did you mean to say 'No'?"

"Re."

"Ray? Death ray? Where?"

"Mi."

"You? You've got a death ray? Oh, splendid, would you mind using it for a good cause?"

"Fa."

"Now, no need to go sticking up your nose like that…"

"So."

"Yes. So. The crux of this mission, the linchpin, so to speak…"

"La."

"Huh? Oh – oh, that's what you're doing! You're singing!"

"Ti. Do."

"Well, that's—"

"Do. Ti. La. So. Fa. Me. Re. Do."

"If I had hands, you can bet I'd be applauding. Lovely set of pipes you have there, really mellifluous. That was quite a treat, those eleven notes I was paying attention to." For the first time, the Opera Sphere turned to look at him.

"Now, if I can interest you in a certain venture…"

Now the sphere began to sing, "Many mumbling mice. Making merry music in the moonlight. Mighty nice."

"What, well good for them, but my idea was, there is a breakout in the works, and—"

"Many mumbling mice. Making merry music in the moonlight. Mighty nice." Her voice was slightly pitched higher this time.

"Please don't interrupt me, it's very rude— I've enlisted a human, and she's been enlisting other humans…"

"Many mumbling mice. Making merry music in the moonlight. Mighty nice."

"Do you understand me at all? We are trying to break out!"

"Many mumbling mice. Making merry music in the moonlight. Mighty nice."

"Is that, is that a metaphor or something? Are the mice the humans?"

"Many mumbling mice. Making merry music in the moonlight. Mighty nice."

"Your voice keeps getting higher, is that another metaphor? About, I dunno, ascending to the surface? Which we are trying to do?"

"Many mumbling mice. Making merry music in the moonlight. Mighty nice."

"For the love of god listen to me!"

The Opera Sphere fell silent, staring at him.

"Yes, or no, are you interested in breaking the humans out, or not?"

Wheatley was a little impressed at himself. But when the Opera Sphere continued to stare at him with what could only be called "puppy-dog eyes," he began to feel a bit recalcitrant. "Please, I just don't want to waste either of our time."

At the other end of the corridor came a gleam of yellow. "Are there stars?"

"Stars," hummed the Opera sphere, "In your multitudes, scarce to be counted, filling the darkness, with order and light. We are the sentinels. Silent and sure. Keeping watch in the night, keeping watch in the night."

"Ah… I get it. Singing, that's what you do, singing, is it? Well – I like music. I'm pretty sure the humans we've got on our side do, too. So – are you with us? Breakout of the humans, top secret, dashing adventure worthy of any opera, I'm sure?"

The Opera Sphere fixed him with a gaze that he was sure, were it a human, would have been accompanied by a rustle of a mink stole and a brilliant smile. "I will never rest," it continued in a clear mezzo-alto voice, "Till then, this I swear! This I swear by – the staaaaaaaars!"

During the ensuing high note, Kevin felt the need to join in with "SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!"