Warning: I do not own Half Life or Portal except for the copies I own. It is owned by the Valve Corporation.

(The following statement may contain spoilers from Portal 2, if you don't want to know, please just continue onto the story)

Authors Note : After studying some of the new backstory revealed in Portal 2 I realize I cannot bring everything in effectively. I have decided to incorporate some things while excluding others. Pertaining to Chell being a child when the Enrichment Center was taken over, being in for 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day' (As evidenced by Chell's name being on the mutant potato plant); Chell will be the child of a Aperture employee, but this will be why she later goes to work for them; not why she got trapped in the first place. As far as the Events in Portal 2 itself goes, they will be ignored, since they essentially took place over 200 years after the events of Portal 1 putting it about 180 years past Half Life 2. However I will implement some of the dialogue that GLaDOS said in the first phase of the game, as if they occurred in Portal 1. Cave Johnson will also squirm his way into the story.

Half Life: A Grim Hope

Chapter 7: Quiet Little Town

Alyx and Chell made their way through town. It was a somewhat gloomy day out, but the sun poked out through the clouds at some points, illuminating the earth below. Chell was looking around in amazement. It was the first time she had been outside when she was not running for her life or bleeding to death since she escaped from the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. The entire town was pretty peaceful. They were still cramped, about 6 people to a house; just like in the underground but everyone seemed happier up here. Laundry hung from lines that stretched across the streets. There were still no children however. It was a bit of a disappointment for Chell. She had always enjoyed playing with kids, they were like dogs… only you know pleasant. It seemed like Alyx wasn't lying, the combine had effectively neutered the entire human population. Still people were smiling up here, and for the most part, didn't scowl at her like she was a stain that needed getting rid of. The town was over grown to be sure. There were as many building made of scrap metal as there were made of wood. There was a sense of community here… A sense of hope. 'It's so calm and peaceful, everyone underground seem so tense and on edge… but here… I could live here…'

Chell felt her arm get sore, she looked back at the cart she was dragging behind her. It was filled with all sorts of supply crates, and they were heavy as hell. 'Damn it… why the hell do I have to pull this thing? Maybe I could ask Alyx again… just more diplomatically' "Damn it why the hell do I have to pull this thing?" Chell asked her voice horsed just a bit.

Alyx looked back with a smile "Cause your new meat, which means you're up for the grunt work" she said with a smug sense of superiority just to bug Chell.

Chell switched to her right hand, her left arm feeling numb beyond all reason "Still aren't there any guys around here more suited to this stuff?" she suggested annoyed.

Alyx stopped for a moment looking back at Chell with a look of confusion and somewhat disappointment "Chell… I never suspected you of being so…" she sighed at the end "traditional"

Chell continued to drag the cart behind her, gritting her teeth speaking between breaths as they moved up hill a bit "Not… Traditional…. Just…. Lazy!" She stated, with determination pulling the cart up a brisk hill.

Alyx chuckled at the comment walking next to Chell "Really now? So did Rhys help you out with this stuff back at Aperture?" Chell started to laugh uncontrollably, using her free hand to hold her side, unable to advance any farther. Alyx stared at her for a moment with a look of confusion on her face "What? What's so funny?"

Chell stopped laughing for a moment before continuing her march up the hill "Ohoho… don't get me wrong, Rhys was a great guy, but he wasn't really all that strong" she chuckled "If there was anything I couldn't handle, I'd just bribe Skye into helping me" she said with a shrug

"You'd bribe him?"

"Bribe, blackmail, guilt trip. Whatever worked really" she said casually

Alyx chuckled at the e"So Rhys was kind of a wimp huh?"

"Well, kinda, when he got really got into it he was a decent mad scientist" she chuckled "He once made an AI with no other purpose than to make insidious comments about the people around it; he hid it in the air vent of the executive office's" she laughed "pissed off management a great deal"

"He didn't get fired?"

"Oh they did, he just threatened to have it hardwired into the intercom system,they claimed he was bluffing and canned him" she said a small smile coming on her lips "he set it off remotely, they hired him back within a week" she chuckled a bit at the memory "He had a weird sense of humor like that, he'd go from completely docile to an eerie calm; scheming some new revenge plot against whoever pissed him off that week" Chell kept smiling happily for a moment but then it got a little sad "I wonder what happened to him…" Chell kept trudging along for a bit a small frown coming over her face.

Alyx got a look of sympathy on her face looking at Chell. After a few moments she grabbed the grip of the carts handle and gave a small smile over to Chell "Here, let me take the load for a while"

After a little bit Chell and Alyx entered the much more industrialized part of town, factory buildings stretched into the sky, looking barely active in its present state, only a few smoke stacks actually billowing out smoke. Alyx looked proudly to the sky "Yea, we finally got those up and running again, making ammunition for the resistance" she said with some happiness in her voice, finally stopping the cart next to a metal staircase of the factory "Okay, let's get these boxes unloaded"

Chell looked over hope in her eyes "We're dropping them off here?"

"What? Oh no, were bringing them to the Church" she pointed to a white building that sat atop a cliff "It's just beyond that building up there"

"Up there? How the hell are we gonna get them up there?" she asked already dreading the answer.

"Well, we have this lift that goes up to the balcony up there" she pointed up to a platform above the factory "put the boxes in, and release it to go back to the other side, then we'll carry them to the church from there"

"We're carrying each box up those stairs individually, and then put them on that little lift? That will take hours!" Chell whined slightly.

"Yep" Alyx shrugged " so we better get started" she said grabbing one of the boxes from the cart.

Chell looked up at their destination and shook her head "Yea… screw that noise" with that she retrieved her Portal Gun from her back-holster, quickly firing an orange portal into one of the lower walls of the building, following it up with a blue portal right at her feet. A few of the passing by citizens gasped at this. Chell pretty much ignored this and started throwing boxes in.

Alyx watched her go, somewhat stunned "Ch-Chell, what are you doing"

Without stopping for a moment, Chell answered her throwing another box in "Thinking with portals" she stated simply. After the seventh box she walked over to Alyx and took the box she was holding. Walked to the edge of the hole, leaned herself parallel to the portal so she would be upright as she entered the other side. Chell dropped the last box on the ground before calling to Alyx "Come on Alyx, it's ok! Come on through!"

Alyx walked to the edge of the portal looking down into it a nervous knot in her stomach. She had used the portal before to catch Chell back when they first met, but that was on impulse and without thinking. Suddenly jumping into a rift in the universe sounded… idiotic "Are you sure it's safe?" she asked worried.

Chell was silent for a moment as if contemplating just how dangerous it was. Then called out "No not at all actually, it's all a trick, I'm really dead on this side" Chell poked her head into the portal view to stare up/over at her "Now come on, let's finish this gig and get back home"

Alyx nodded nervously, taking a deep breath and stepping into the portal, not sure how else to do it. "A-a-a-AHHHH!" She felt a sudden unease as gravity shifted on her, tripping over herself as she exited the other side of the portal. As she was about to fall to the ground, Chell caught her in her arms to prevent her from dropping to the ground. Alyx got a slight embarrassed blush at being so clumsy in front of Chell.

Chell had a soft smile on her face "Ya, the first few times it can get really disorienting" She stood Alyx back up "So, let's get things going eh?"

"Y-yea, sure let's get these boxes to…" she stopped for a moment looking around for a moment her look suddenly very serious "Do… Do you hear something Chell?" her voice had gotten serious, and worried.

Chell looked at her strangely for a moment giving a close listen. She tried her best to exclude all the static noise that came with nature. She still hadn't gotten used to all of it, but still, she couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary "No… why Alyx… what' s wrong?" Chell asked worried, feeling panic start to stick to her bones.

Alyx gave a look to the sky and shook her head "No… No… just got this weird feeling. Don't worry about it" she hauled up one of the many crates that had been haphazardly been thrown aside by Chell's little portal act. "Come on, let's just deliver these things and get out of here"

Chell nodded, pressing a button on the portal gun to close both the rifts in space "Yea sure thing Alyx" Chell picked up a box and started to walk alongside Alyx, staring into the sky with a new found sense of doom.

As the two of them walked the small path cut out of the mountain Chell couldn't help but realize just how useful this path would be to ambush the combine if they ever did invade Ravenholm. The entire place was really quite pleasant. You know. In a 'last hope for humanity' sort of way. It might be nice to set up a little mechanic shop up here, fix whatever little things the town's people needed help with 'It would be a nice change of pace from being trapped underground' "So Alyx, you ever think about moving up here?" she asked off handedly.

"Eh… a couple of times" she shrugged "But my father is down in Black Mesa East you know, so's all my squad mates, just inconvenient you know" she said staring back as the two of them approached the graveyard.

Chell briskly shrugged off her previous thought 'Eh… it would have gotten boring up here anyways… Besides, Skye would find a way to haunt me, despite still being alive' Chell continued to carry the box as if she was determined to do it all along "Ya I get it, come on, I have some cool designs I want to show you when we get back"

"Really now?" Alyx said interested "Well I'd be happy to go over them with you Chell, it'd be nice to have something to work on besides D0G"

Chell looked over with a smile "You have a Dog?" she said with mild distaste. It wasn't that Chell hated dogs, but… well ya she hated dogs 'They slobber all over the place. They chew up wires and drink motor oil, then your friend gets pissy when their fluffbag dies'

"Well Kinda, you better just see for yourself once we get back" Alyx said with a bit of excitement in her voice. It wasn't often she got to show off D0G to someone unless they just wanted to use him for some suicide mission. "I think you'll like him" They finally got to the door of the church, which had been built into the hillside for defensive purposes. There were a decent amount of people there, some there for the church, a good deal were just workers for the mine who were taking a break. Alyx knocked against the church door, the sound of a few door locks hit in an out before the door opened. Standing there was a stout man, bald with a thick beard, wearing an orthodox Christian necklace made of gold. The clothing he wore were simple, but not priestly garb. A blue sweater covering a white shirt, all under a blue overcoat.

"Welcome!" he said opening his arms, welcoming a hug from Alyx, who obliged kindly "Ah Alyx, it's good to see you again" he said in a deeply Slavic voice. He looked over at Chell with curiosity in his eyes "Ah… Now who is this? I don't believe I've seen you around the streets of Ravenholm before now…." He said thinking deeply as if trying to remember her.

Alyx looked back at Chell a soft smile on her face "Oh, Father Grigori, this is Chell Legends", she's a new friend of mine, just got out of the city last week"

Father Grigori got a wide smile on his lips "Ahahaha! So this is the famous Chell Legends"

Chell looked at him confused "You… Know of me?" Chell asked surprised she had never been described as famous before. Infamous sure, but not famous.

"Sure, theres a many rumors floating around about you, they call you the demon tamer, described you as some kind of witch dressed in white" He said with a heavy laugh "No one in five years had been able to calm down Skye"

Chell became slightly downhearted at the names she had been given but became interested when he mentioned Skye by name "You know Skye? Skye MacDonald?" she said as if to confirm the man hadn't misspoken.

Alyx became interested as well "Yea Father… You knew him?"

Grigori nodded sadly "Yes… Poor boy. He came to me for advice, confiding rather… disturbing thoughts he had been having… he had a very damaged soul, and I've been meaning to go down to see how he's been… but I'm glad he's back on the side of men, thank you for that" he said with a real sense of gratitude in his voice.

Chell smiled at the praise, glad that someone else had seen the good in Skye.

"Well, come in then I'll heat up some tea… It's little better then heated bark, but it'll do you good" the man said waving the two of them in.

It was a calm day in Ravenholm. In the Graveyard the men enjoyed well earned coffee from their work in the mines. A group of men were in a circle, discussing the same old stories from before the cascade, reciting all the same old jokes, as if trying to briefly forget their troubles. No one ever told anything new, or if they did it was just because they messed up the names of the story they told before. But no one ever interrupted, everyone just smiled, listened, and waited their turn to tell their story.

Then out of the calm came a low bellowing noise, most ignored it at first, going about their business without much mind. But the noise grew; it came to encompass the entire mouth of the mine. Any of the miners near the entrance backed away, weary of the sudden bellow. If it was another explosion it wouldn't have taken this long.

Soon dashing out of the entrance to the mine, first by ones, but then by groups were men, scores of men, running and screaming their heads off. One of the veteran miners took one of the panicking men by the arm, demanding what was going on.

"The Combine, the faucking combine are flooding the mines with head crabs, they're everywhere!" with that he shook his arm loose and kept running

The veteran minor gathered his will, and his men, yelling at all of them "OK men, let's seal up the mine! We can't let these things get into town.

That's when it came. All the men looked to the sky, an eerie calm, succeeded by the unmistakable whistle of missiles, hurtling themselves towards earth. All of them slamming to the ground with a slamming with bravado, hideous screams came from the town as the head crabs began to spring from their capsules

The veteran miner stared up and for a few brief seconds saw a small black dot approach him rapidly.

Then he never saw anything again.

Chapter 7 End

And one more down, bit of a quicker update from the last one eh?

Hope this was alright, setting it up for the rest of the chapter. If it wasn't clear before now, this is the story behind Ravenholm's destruction.

Thanks for the few who left reviews and came to read this fic, I appreciate it.

To PotterPhantomKitten, I see your point, however, I do not believe it is truly a crossover since Portal and Half Life takes place in the same universe.

Remember to review everyone, it's like writing fuel for me