Bronze's message was very simple, yet terrifying.
"They got Wheatley."
GLaDOS stopped in her tracks for just a moment, before returning to the earlink.
"Did I hear you correctly? The Combine, they..."
"They did. I even got a bit from their 'Leader', stuck up bastard he is. He wants ta transfer over to yous."
Silence for just a moment, Silver watching confused without any access to the earlink, before GLaDOS responded softly.
"I'll get him over."
She started to fiddle with the wires of the bud, connecting into his frequency across the place while Silver's voice echoed in the testing chamber. "What's going on?!"
"Silver, they took Wheatley. Their asset."
Back towards Bronze, she replied. "I've got your link to them. Leader, can you hear me?"
A cold, soft, calculating voice echoed from the other side, male, professional, calm. The sort of voice that'd kill someone with words alone. The sort of voice that would always be undeniably dangerous. His voice, while unassuming, was powerful, as it spoke to her.
"Hello again, Genetic Life-form and Disk Operating System."
She let out a sound much like a human's sigh, responding back to him.
"Just call me GLaDOS. You know that. You wished to speak to me?"
He chuckled emotionlessly, responding.
"We have our asset. We had intended to go back to the surface, but I know you are not the type to... let this incident be past."
GLaDOS laughed bitterly at that.
"Of course. You broke the contract I made. It wasn't even hard. Just stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours. You entered my facility without my permission to go after a piece of Aperture Science technology. I'm not pleased."
His breath could be heard on the other side. For just a moment, then it dropped off.
"Pity. You're the greatest piece of technology that's ever existed, the most intelligent, the most sadistic... and somehow all of that is undermined. By your damned stubbornness."
He took a breath, to calm himself down.
"But I wished to speak to you for a reason."
Her voice had dropped dangerously low, more robotic than usual. Hatred and malice in her voice, barely covered by that calm overtone.
"And what reason is that, Leader of the Combine?"
"I want the girl."
GLaDOS's eye widened substantially at that. "Which one?"
"We have our primary asset, but it's come to our attention that you have a second entity with you. A late escapee of that old program of yours... what did you call it?"
He paused, waiting for the genius super-intelligence to put the dots together.
"Do you mean Project Ximous? I..."
She laughed softly.
"I killed off the project. And its results. Those humans were too angry. Emotional. Irritable. Weak."
Silver looked at her with abject horror, though GLaDOS didn't notice.
"They weren't good test subjects. Now why do you think there's an escapee with us?"
He paused, before asking with his first hint of emotion.
"Can you receive images through this link?"
She let out a soft clicking sound, before responding.
"Yes. Though it will be downloaded directly into my vision, so I'd need to have warning."
"Alright. The girl's file is coming in three... two... one..."
Her eye went out for a moment, turning back on, flipping around like reading a page. And then, it widened, frozen.
"This must be a trick. I didn't make clones of... I wouldn't have..."
Flame almost jumped when she heard the sounds of portal fire faintly from above. Copper was almost awake now. She shook Copper lightly, as his arm was healing back up nicely.
"Whuh?"
"Noah, there isn't any time left. We've got to go!"
She sighed, letting out a little chuckle at the same time, looking towards the great big sleepy bird.
"Dahlia, you're going to cooperate with me here..."
She took a deep breath, letting out a call. And as per usual, Dahlia just continued staring out.
"Chell, what was that?"
He sat up, still a bit low on blood. Her voice came quickly after him. "Hey, Noah... calm down, you still need to rest."
He kept himself propped up, looking at her. "Are you trying to get the Crow to cooperate?"
Flame nodded, looking at him. "You have any clues?"
He smiled softly, and whispered playfully to her. "Your voice is a little bit too high-pitched to be hers..."
She stared at him for just a moment, before using the same call with a lower pitch to her voice. Dahlia promptly stood up, looking expectantly towards her.
She turned, surprised, towards Copper, who was biting his tongue in an attempt to not laugh too much. She elbowed him softly, laughing. "Could have told me sooner."
He smiled as she started helping him to stand. "I was asleep for a while, you know. And it was just a guess."
She helped him onto the bird before hopping on as well. She whispered softly into Dahlia's head, where she hoped the ears would be. Luckily, she was correct.
"Hey, Dahlia... up."
Nothing.
"Start flying... go... hm... oh."
She lowered the pitch of her voice again, trying to make it more like their mother's.
"Ok, my..."
She thought for a moment, remembering her wording, while Copper watched, seemingly enjoying her attempt to be a somewhat terrifying artificial intelligence.
"My little killing machine... yes, that's it. Dahlia, My little killing machine... FLY."
And then Dahlia lifted off, first flying a foot or two off the ground, before leaving the little dock and flying off into that foggy abyss again.
Copper was holding on tight, as that low voice, that strange alien voice she'd heard sending those manhacks after them, that very voice, came from a few floors above. Flame started to whisper into Dahlia's ear again, just a few simple words.
"Dahlia, take us to that voice."
The crow started to fly, up, just around one of the visible catwalks hidden in the fog, and off onto a small service passageway that barely fit Dahlia, making the two humans have to lay flat against her. Once they were through that, they saw everything, just behind a little metal grate.
Dahlia slammed through it, fluttering into a test chamber. A real test chamber. Flame felt those feelings coming back again. The tests. Those tests. Under HER. That voice.
Tests.
Just do the tests, Subject.
It would have been painful enough without the screaming that was already happening in there, as Dahlia had nearly crushed Silver.