"I see you."

"There you are."

Chell froze in fear as childish singsong voices rang out, red dots painting her chest. What in...?

She looked up to see a huge glass wall standing between her and two tiny, thin white robots. They had three twiggy 'legs' and one piercing red targeting eye, all locked on her.

"Hello."

"Could you come over here?"

Chell didn't want to move, lest she activate them somehow. What are they going to do?

She gestured slightly with the portal gun, testing whether or not it would invoke a reaction. Nothing. She cocked her head. Nothing.

Jumped.

Nothing.

It had to be the glass then. She took a few small steps, their red eyes keeping locked on her. The button was located about six feet from the edge of the glass... but leaving the barrier would make her vulnerable to them. She needed to see what they were going to do, but she already had a pretty good idea.

Chell threw her hand and portal gun past the edge of the glass wall, holding her breath.

"There you are."

"Target acquired."

She watched in horror as their red eyes swung with blinding speed to her hand and their robotic sides opened up to start firing countless rounds of bullets. Turrets.

She whipped her hand back behind the glass faster than she thought possible and covered her eyes as bullets bounced off the glass. The turrets stopped firing a couple seconds later and she breathed a sigh of relief as she realized the glass was bullet-proof.

"Target lost."

"Are you still there?"

A few seconds after the little robots had settled down, she threw her hand out again, this time counting how long it took the turrets to actually start firing at her. Two, maybe three seconds. I'll have to be quick.

When the turrets settled again, she jumped from behind the barrier, shot a portal underneath the first turret, then a portal on the ceiling, and jumped back to safety in the brink of time.

The unfortunate turret fell from the ceiling, crashing straight into the second turret, bringing them both down. They deployed dozens of bullets each, spinning spastically before finally shutting off.

"Shutting down."

"I don't blame you."

She shivered involuntarily at how creepily cute they sounded. Who designed this stuff?

Chell finished the test quickly and left for the next one, feeling slightly less confident. After all, who knew what horrors awaited in the next twelve chambers?


Chell was getting irritated by the constant bombardment of life-threatening situations she was being exposed to. Lasers, acid pits, turrets, etc... her nerves had just about reached their limit. However, she made herself appear as stoic as possible. She would give them nothing. That was her mantra.

Walking into this new test, she scanned the layout of the room quickly, deducing the steps she needed to take in order to solve the test.

A storage cube here, a timer button there, a few portals here and there...

She did a double-take as she scanned the room, noting a loose panel in the corner of her eye. It was out of place in the meticulously laid out testing chambers and stood out to her scrutinization. She glanced up at the multiple cameras lining the walls and walked casually toward the crack in the white exterior of the place.

Chell, facing away from the wall, nonchalantly aimed the portal gun into the crack and fired a portal, making a show of looking around the room earnestly. Then to obscure the vision of the people watching her, she placed a portal directly on the cameras in her viewing space. She heard them clatter to the ground behind her in the nook in the wall and smirked to herself.

Now let's see what secrets lie behind... maybe she could escape. Although she really did want to see what was going to happen at the end of all these tests... what the endgame for Aperture was. None of it made sense to her.

Chell turned to the wall behind her and fired an orange portal, giving her direct access to the area behind the wall.


Doug was alarmed when a portal opened up in his nook behind the testing chamber. He hadn't even realized that Chell had spotted his little viewing port. He shimmied and crammed himself into the farthest corner of his crawlspace away from the offending blue portal.

CRASH

A security camera flew through the portal and smashed into a few dozen pieces at his feet. Then another one. He could vaguely hear Glados give Chell some kind of scolding for damaging Aperture equipment. He would have laughed if he wasn't so terrified of being spotted.

Doug held his breath and squeezed even tighter into the corner next to the portal as he saw Chell's face peek in. Her features were outlined by the light shining from the testing chamber into the darkness of his nook. He had turned off his flashlight as to not draw any attention to the nook. Apparently that didn't really matter now.

He breathed out slowly, watching her sharp grey eyes scan the walls of his nook, drinking in every detail. While waiting for Chell to enter this test chamber, Doug had scrawled all over the walls of this hole in the wall. Her eyes stopped scanning and lingered over a chunk of words he had scribbled after listening to Glados chattering over the loudspeakers.

The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.
The cake is a lie.

Chell blinked and pulled back out of the portal into the testing chamber. She turned around, obviously finished with his creepy nook. Then Doug had this overwhelming urge to speak with her, tell her how sorry he was that she was in this predicament in the first place.

This is my fault, Chell!

He reached out to her, mustering his resolve... then he heard Her. Glados was masking her irritation with Chell's newly-found blind-spot by telling her there was no way out of the testing chambers without finishing the test. So she needed to solve the test already... typical Glados.

His resolve fell apart as his hand hovered inches away from Chell, very delicately brushing the tip of her ponytail. He shot his hand back and curled back into a ball as the portal closed off, plunging Doug Rattmann into the darkness again.


During the next test after discovering the strange nook in the wall, Chell was distractedly thinking of the vague words lining the creepy hideaway. The cake is a lie. The woman over the loudspeaker had offhandedly mentioned cake at one point. She shuddered and walked up to a cube dispenser, pressing the button. To her surprise a weighted storage cube appeared, but had completely different markings on it. She took a step back and watched it warily. Was this one a bomb...? Why was it different?

"The cube that has been placed in front of you is called an Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube. It will accompany you through the duration of this test. Please take care of it."

A... companion cube? It looked no different from the other ones except that it had hearts instead of the Aperture logo on each side. It also had a sort of strange humming to it. Either way, Chell didn't really trust the cube.

"Aperture Science will now take this opportunity to remind you that the Weighted Companion Cube cannot speak and will not threaten to stab you."

What?

She picked up the cube gingerly and went on her way through the test. Turning the corner she spotted a small staircase leading up into a dark, cramped hallway. Creepy. She climbed the first two stairs with her cube and peeked up quickly to make sure there were no turrets lying in wait. Not spotting any laser beams through the black corridor she started through it carefully.

Chell felt her nerves tighten as she took each step through the corridor. She had to shuffle through, hunched over so she could fit. The disembodied woman was being mysteriously silent and all Chell could hear was the light clanking of her special boots. And... a slight humming noise? She glanced at the cube, it's hearts glowing softly in the dark. No, it wasn't the cube... this was getting louder.

If Chell could have screamed she would have. A large glowing energy ball was careening towards her head at an alarming speed. She dropped to the floor, letting go of her Companion Cube in the process. The energy ball had singed the very tips of her bangs as she fell, the heat grazing her head. The static electricity caused her bangs to stand up.

The electrified ball hit the wall behind her and bounced back through the tunnel in the opposite direction.

She lay on the ground, her chest rising and falling as she panted. That was close. She had been centimeters from certain death, that much she was sure of. Chell knew that the energy ball would be back at some point, so she decided to wait it out and count the seconds until she found a pattern. If she got up from her prostrate form on the ground, she would get roasted. Horribly.

Ten minutes later it was becoming agonizingly clear that there was no pattern. The little balls of death came and went at varying speeds and times. Chell was starting to shake as her nerves took over. The dark was closing in and all she could see was the blue glow from her portal gun and the pink hearts dancing across her Companion Cube. The useless box she had been told to take care of.

She hugged herself trying to calm down. Lying on the ground wasn't going to get her anywhere. Being afraid wouldn't do either. Then she heard it.

A light humming was echoing through the darkness and silence, save for the high-pitch screeches of the flashing balls occasionally passing through. Chell strained to hear the humming... it was a human hum. Not mechanical. It was... a lullaby.

She listened in surprise as the lullaby her father had often sung to her as a child filled her head.

The lady over the intercom wasn't singing to her, was she? That was unlikely, as Chell wasn't even sure if the messages were live or recorded. She glanced again at the Companion Cube, which was emanating an even brighter glow around the hearts. It felt... happy. Soothing.

Suddenly Chell was much happier too. This little box was trying to make her feel better... she just knew it. She let her fingers dance lightly over the cube's hearts, the warm feeling growing stronger. This cube was alive.

I can help you.

Chell lifted the cube up high above her head, an epiphany hitting her. As a flashing enery ball shot through the corridor, Chell bit her lip as it came closer and closer to the lifted cube. This was going to work.

The ball slammed into the cube, almost causing Chell to drop it, and shot right back down the hall where it came from. Chell grinned and pulled the cube to her tight. The cube seemed pleased to have helped her and didn't appear phased at all by the onslaught. She jumped right back up and started down the corridor again, keeping the Companion Cube in front of her as her shield. A guardian angel.

Once Chell had passed through the test she walked up to the double doors, expecting them to open for her automatically.

"Congratulations on completing this test! The Weighted Companion Cube certainly brought you good luck."

It certainly had. Chell patted her cube softly, keeping her face neutral.

"Unfortunately, the Cube can no longer accompany you through the testing chambers and must be euthanized."

Euthanized? What did she mean by that?

"Please escort your Companion Cube to the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator."

A machine to the left of Chell came to life as it opened it's gaping maw to reveal an inferno below. She was supposed to drop her little Companion Cube in there...

Chell took a horrified step back from it. No way.

"While it has been a faithful companion, your Companion Cube cannot accompany you through the rest of the test. If it could talk - and the Enrichment Center takes this opportunity to remind you that it cannot - it would tell you to go on without it because it would rather die in a fire than become a burden to you."

Chell continued to watch the furnace, hugging her cube tightly. I can't do that... it's alive. It is!

"Destroy your Companion Cube or the testing cannot continue," the woman sounded slightly impatient.

Then it wouldn't continue. Chell wouldn't do it. She couldn't just toss her faithful companion into the flames. It wasn't right. None of this was right!

"Testing cannot continue until your Companion Cube has been incinerated."

No.

She felt a cold stab of fear in her head, but it wasn't hers. She looked down at her cube, glowing softly at her. Do it. Or you'll be next.

Chell bit her lip, knowing the cube was telling her the truth. Without another second to spare, she stepped forward and dropped the cube into the gaping hole and watched it disappear without another peep.

I'm so sorry.

The doors slid open and the elevator came into view, ready to drop her off at her next testing chamber. "You euthanized your faithful Companion Cube more quickly than any test subject on record. Congratulations."

Chell glared coldly into the camera.


That was a lie, of course. Like many others. This test subject, Chell, had been remarkably slow at tossing the Companion Cube into the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator. In fact, she had the record time for completing this simple task the slowest.

Glados fidgeted in her chair in annoyance. This boring test subject had done absolutely nothing of interest, save for her strange attachment to the Companion Cube near the end of the test. She had still shown no sign of a deviation and blew through the tests with ease. Maybe she had some kind of fear-negating deviation or something. Or she could pause time for a second or two. Whatever it was, she wasn't displaying it or she simply wasn't using it. It irked Glados immensely.

The testing was practically complete and then she could get on with her Robot Testing Initiative. What fun.

"The testing is nearing it's conclusion. The enrichment center is required to remind you that you will be baked... and then there will be cake," Glados smirked as the test subject's eyebrow twitched slightly in response. The girl was maddeningly calm.

She watched as the subject jumped onto a moving platform through a complicated laser grid maze. Beneath the platform there was about seven feet of liquid goo that would cause instant death. The girl jumped from panel to panel, shooting portals through the walls and jumping through hoops like a pro. She didn't fear death.

"When you are done, you will drop of the Device you are holding off at the equipment recovery annex. The enrichment center regulations specify that both hands must be empty before any cake is served. Thank you."

Cake... maybe she should bake a cake. She wouldn't have to share it with anyone. Glados wondered why that hadn't occurred to her in her four years of blissful isolation. It was genius.

She watched with anticipation as the test subject vaulted through her last portal onto the final platform... this was Glados' favorite part.


Mm... Cake. We're still in the early stuff... I promise it'll get more exciting later. ;)