A/N: *slowly peaks up from behind my desk* I'm truly sorry that this took so long to upload. I had a lot on my plate that now has been cleared. Anyways, the updates should come faster. I think. So enough about me. I hope you are all doing well. Thank you LunaFan521 for not only following and favoriting this fic, but myself as well. You are awesome. Thank You FoxiiFur
-LunaFan521- Yeah I was laughing when I wrote the quote you mentioned. It just hit me when I was typing that scene and the line just made too much sense not to put in there.
-RedactedRiot- Thank you so much for reviewing. Thank you for your advice and I have and will continue to try to incorporate your advice about Wheatley. I honestly knew I wasn't hitting the nail on the head with him, but hopefully this chapter is closer to his actual character. As far as the Aperture employees, I thank you for your advice, but the fact they are so normal was a point that I wanted to make. In my headcanon and in this fic, Aperture appears normal from the "surface". This is why most of the experiments that occurring above ground are fairly calm. But below the surface, let's just say that things get interesting. Each of the employees reflect this. Thank you for your constructive criticism
Amora was going to kill Curra. All the moral implications aside, Amora decided that the nurse had to go. How dare the other woman make her wear this ridiculous pink, frilly disaster. Amora tried to fix the dress so it wouldn't irritate her skin. "You look absolutely adorable," Curra shouted from across the dressing room.
Amora gave the auburn-haired woman a fake smile trying not to indicate how much she hated the atrocity Curra suggested she wear. "This is very nice, Curra, but I think we should dress in according to the month," a blonde woman said as Curra held up an equally monstrous piece of fabric.
"Cici, that's a great idea," Curra said excitedly. "Amora, get out of that dress and we'll find you something else." Curra skipped out of the dressing room. Amora sighed and stepped back into the dressing room.
"Hey Amora, it's nice to actually have time to speak with you," Cici said from outside.
"It's nice to talk to you too. I know Dr. Rattmann and you have been very busy working on some sort of miniature stasis chamber,"Amora said as she exited with her own clothing on.
"Did you want to see a diagram of it?" Cici asked excitedly already reaching into her purse. Amora walked over to the other woman to look at the drawn diagram. It looked like a simple cube with a single heart in the center of each side.
"It looks very…small," Amora pointed out eyeing the scale that Cici wrote in.
"Well, that's the point. They wouldn't take up much space and could be held in a person's house," Cici said looking at her drawing lovingly. "Imagine all the patients with incurable illnesses. They can just rest in the stasis chamber and be opened when a cure comes along."
"That sounds nice, but what if the cures aren't found till decades later?" Amora asked. Cici looked at the woman as if unsure what Amora was saying. "This person would still be alive when all their family has grown up or possibly have died. I know I wouldn't want to wake up and know that everyone I care about was dead."
Cici shook her head, "But this could save their lives. Maybe whatever cure would be found quickly. And this stasis chamber would be useful for people waiting for an organ transplant."
"You're right. That does sound nice for the people on the transplant list. Well, you won me over. When will the first prototype be ready?" Amora asked.
"In a couple of months. We'll set up a demonstration for Mr. Johnson and then it could hit human trials," Cici said.
"So this is where you have been hiding," Caroline's voice said as she came into the hall of dressing rooms. "So what dirt does Curra have on you?" Caroline asked amused. Both women answered ' none' quickly. Caroline chuckled lightly. "Well, I wouldn't be so positive about that. Curra has her nose in everything that goes on in the office. In case you were thinking about breaking company policy." Amora took a slight step back unsure if the older woman had threatened her.
Once Curra returned the women continued to shop for the clothing they would need and after two hours of conversations and laughs they left. The women agreed that they would meet the next day and then set up Neil's going away party.
Amora left the group with a small wave and telling Cici that she will be going to her lab to check in on the stasis chamber. Curra had shouted out to Amora that she should visit the lab Andre worked in. With these meetings added to her mental calendar, Amora boarded the bus.
She climbed the stairs to her apartment slowly. She wasn't so sure if she wanted to see Wheatley at the moment. It wasn't that she was mad at him for nearly killing her with the peanut butter; she wasn't sure if she was ready for his rambling. Amora did find it adorable how he couldn't straightened his thoughts into a concise understandable sentence, but she really didn't want to think about how foolish she was not to ask what was in the chocolates. And dwelling on the incidence this morning would just be embarrassing. Amora sighed but unlocked the door and entered her apartment.
She was looking at the floor when a sweet mechanical voice called out, "There you are." Amora looked up quickly to see a white oval shape on three legs. Time seemed to slow and the object opened its sides revealing what Amora guessed to be some sort of gun barrels. Amora screamed in fear and curled up in a ball. She could feel herself hyperventilating as she hid her face from the machine.
"Apple! Apple! Apple!" Wheatley shouted.
The killing machine's sweet voice spoke again, "Sleep mode activated." Amora lifted her face from where it was hiding in her arms. She watched as Wheatley stood up from where he was sitting cross-legged on the ground.
"Did you learn nothing from the last time you brought a project home?" Amora asked still on the floor transfixed on the killer machine.
"Oh you mean the turret. There's nothing to be alarmed about. I haven't loaded it yet," Wheatley said as he pulled off the cover. "So we're perfectly safe. Yup, it would have just tried to fire its empty guns. I wonder if it would get upset when it realized that they were empty. But of course they don't have emotion because they are very simple AI's. They don't even feel pain…Well, they have a mock simulated pain so I guess it's real to them."
"You designed these killers?" Amora said still trying to recover from shock. Her voice was almost as shaky as her body.
"Well, part of it. I was the one who came up with the idea for them to target any moving object." Amora had to raise her eyebrow at this. "I also was the one who came up with the secret deactivation word. You know, so no one who shouldn't be shot wouldn't be shot. I think it is a brilliant word: Apple. No one could guess it looking at the turret. I was getting my lunch and the nice cafeteria lady, the one who was a pastry chef, Paisley, she had made fresh apple pie and I thought that the word apple would have been a brilliant deactivation word."
Amora sat there still shaking staring at the man in disbelief. She got up slowly her legs were wobbly underneath her. She was walking slowly past Wheatley who was now poking at something inside the turret. The blonde man straightened quickly causing the turret to wobble unsteadily. "Amora, are you okay?" he asked almost tripping as he reached to lay a hand on her shoulder. Amora just shook her head. "Well, that wasn't a bright question. You nearly died after eating that chocolate. Or maybe it wasn't the chocolate. It might have been all the stress you have been under lately." Amora could feel anger starting to bubble. She always tried to be patient and kind, but she at least expected someone else to care about her. And Wheatley was here ignoring the fact he traumatized her and nearly killed her in one day. She didn't think when she turned sharply on her heel and slapped the man across his face.
Wheatley's eyes were wide in shock and confusion. "Of course I'm not okay," Amora growled. "You nearly killed me a total of three times today. You nearly burned down my apartment. Then you nearly poisoned me and you tried to fill me with lead using Aperture equipment." Amora found herself standing on her toes trying to even their differing heights. She had to ignore how his too blue eyes looked hurt.
"Amora, there isn't any reason to be mad. You're perfectly healthy now. And did I say how great you look? A perfect picture of health. Maybe a little pale looking, but perfectly healthy-"
"You have this night, but you are leaving in the morning and not coming back," Amora said putting her foot down and storming into her room. She slammed the door a little harder than she intended. On the other side she allowed herself to cry. She couldn't explain why the tears ran down her face. Maybe because she was willing to do nearly anything for the man on the other side of the door and he couldn't even be concerned for her safety or even listen to her advice. On top of that, she couldn't believe that she lost her temper like that. She was supposed to be the kind one, the patient, the caring. Amora lowered her head. Maybe she was fooling herself when she labeled herself with those attributes.
A/N: So this chapter got out of control quickly. Anyways, LunaFan you were correct CiCi is Dr. Rattmann's companion cube. Question of the Chapter: Do you think Amora is over-reacting? And can you blame her for being upset?