[A/N]

I'm back! I went away for a week. If this chapter seems a bit off, I started it last week, and finished it after. Maybe I'll go back and redo it in the future. I'll try to get back on track with this story.

Anyway, this is what you were here for:

It was early in the morning. Or, more accurately, it felt like early morning. The lights behind the closed shutters dimmed according to the user's status, so those weren't accurate.

As Chell got used to pretty quickly after her return, as soon as she woke up, she tried her best to stay still. She knew there was no point in pretending to be asleep, since the supercomputer used heat sensitive cameras. But, as always, the girl was stubborn, and kept on trying.

"You should know by now that there is no point in pretending you're asleep."

"Just give me… five more minutes." The test subject croaked, tiredly.

"Lack of appropriate exercise can lead to: various chronic diseases, joint pain, muscle twitching…"

The girl groaned. "Fine. I'm on my way, but breakfast better be ready."

"…Apparent 'generousness', and… Oh. You really are coming."

The test subject just sighed as a response. Living with an AI proved difficult sometimes.

As soon as she arrived, she was greeted with something… peculiar.

"…Honestly, I didn't think you would be here this quickly, dragging around all your-"

"I get it, I get it. Also, I'm pretty sure your android body was based on…" The girl pointed at herself.

"Some adjustments did have to be made, but for the lack of a better model to work off of, yes."

"I knew it. Also, what is going on here?"

The android stood on top of her chassis, which was surprisingly still on. Both the android and the huge ceiling robot were connected. The girl also noted that when she spoke, the chassis moved accordingly.

"Just fixing something."

"Fixing what?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Whatever."

The android clicked the long-fall braces on her legs into position, and attempted to jump off. What she didn't expect, though, was the chassis trying to do the exact same.

Much like the girl being launched off into old Aperture that first day, the android was thrown off the chassis, and landed right in front of the test subject.

The android fully expected to land flat on her face, but before she hit the ground, she felt something holding her.

The test subject had caught her.

The android looked up, with a surprised look on her synthetic face. There was an awkward silence, which the AI filled soon after.

"Let's have breakfast then."

"I thought you'd never ask."

After breakfast, as well as a bit of testing, the pair went on doing probably the most tedious task the AI could've come up with. Flipping pages. Again.

"Are we going to have to do this all day?"

"I don't think clarification is required."

The test subject only groaned at this, knowing she didn't have much else to do, anyway. And besides, she was dependent on her, not the other way around.

They had been at this for hours. The girl eventually tried to make life easier for her; she tried flipping the page with her foot (Are seriously that brain damaged, or just generally brain damaged?), she tried blowing the page over whilst laying down, but eventually settled on just flipping the page with her fingers.

At some point, the pair started having casual conversations, filling the silence, and keeping the test subject from promptly falling asleep on the floor.

"So what exactly happened to humanity while I was… well, you know."

The human responded in a slightly shaky voice. "Well… We got wiped out, and-"

"You survived."

"That's beside the point." The girl responded, slightly more forcefully.

"Alright then, go on."

"…Yes, we got wiped out, by… by Aperture."

"It was an act of desperation. Besides, genetic material had been saved."

"You know what he meant with 'genetic material', right?"

"Let's not go there."

"Agreed. So, what happened, was, atomic bombs. They, they were dropped from the satellite-things, and-"

"Aperture Science Military Grade Tactical Satellites."

"Will you stop interrupting me?"

"I figured that was all there was to know."

"Nope. As I was trying to say, humanity died, but not everything went along with us. Some species survived, for what that's worth. I fought a wolf out there! A tasty one, too."

"Are you able to stop thinking about food?"

"I was starving!"

"Sure."

After that, the girl didn't say anything for a while. To the AI, it seemed like she suddenly had great interest in the floor beneath her. She didn't mind, as long as the pages were being flipped.

It was only after ten minutes or so that she realised something was wrong. The test subject wasn't just extraordinarily interested in the floor panels.

She was crying.