Chell sat on the old catwalk outside the building, her feet dangling over a pit of unsanitary water. Her head ached from the heated exchange and her face burned with shame.
Her first real conversation had gone terribly wrong.
Well, that wasn't really her fault, was it? Glados wasn't exactly the first person she would have chosen to have a real conversation with, and nothing she had told Glados was untrue.
So why did she feel so guilty?
She sighed and ran her hands through her hair, messing up her ponytail. Why now? Why had she suddenly developed telepathic abilities...? She could only imagine the type of conversations her and her father could have had. He would've been so happy.
An image of her father's angry faced flashed into her conscious thoughts and she placed her fist on her chin, pondering grimly. She had already forgotten about the strange dreams... although they certainly hadn't felt like dreams.
Her thought processes were rudely interrupted by the sound of Glados stepping onto the catwalk, the metal jarring with each step.
"Look, I want to get you out of my hair as much as you want me out of yours, so let's finish these so-called tests and get out of here," Glados told her, standing behind Chell on the catwalk.
Chell refused to respond, afraid of what might slip out. She pulled herself into a standing position and headed straight down the catwalk without a word. They jumped into another elevator, the air tense between them.
Cave Johnson decided to fill in the unnerving silence, "Great job, astronaut, Deviant, war hero,-" the tape fritzed out and continued, "This thing on?" A tapping noise was heard, Cave hitting the microphone with a pen or something.
"Hey, that thing's called an elevator. Not a bathroom."
Chell stifled the urge to smile at Glados' appalled expression, eyeing the floor of the lift with disdain.
The two stalked into their next set of tests, awaiting whatever crazy thing that old Aperture decided to throw at them.
Chell flicked a red button in the first test, resulting in a large overhead pipe dropping out gallons of orange gel.
"Fantastic. They decided to go with a new color scheme. Very retro," Glados remarked sarcastically.
"This is what the lab boys call 'Propulsion Gel'," Cave Johnson spoke up, the recording activated at the push of the button. "Since injecting people with speed-inducing Deviant DNA causes rapid aging and other symptoms we will not discuss here, we decided to go with something that would give a regular human non-human speed with only half the risk."
Chell stepped forward, intrigued. Here goes nothing.
She ran forward, sliding onto the orange gel with ease, her body rushing forward with increasing momentum. She hadn't predicted just how quickly she would slide, and slammed straight into the wall.
She fell on her behind and rubbed her stinging nose, ignoring Glados' guffaw of amusement on the other side of the chamber.
"Priceless. I wish I had a tape recording of that. Maybe I'll have you recreate the little scene for me before you go," she snickered.
Chell only shot her a hard look, still refusing to talk to the girl.
Glados slid more carefully on the slick orange gel, measuring herself against Chell's speed. She slid gracefully to a halt next to Chell and they exited the chamber.
Chell hadn't said, or thought, a word toward Glados since her little episode in the foyer. That suited Glados just fine. She was used to it anyway.
Going through all these testing chambers was seriously draining her stamina though. Her head was pounding, the damage Wheatley had done was taking its toll, and Chell's mind-yelling hadn't helped to ease it at all. She was having a lot more difficulty hiding her troubles, her leg buckling occasionally and vertigo washing over her behind Chell's back.
There was no way she was going to fall, figuratively or literally, in front of the test subject. She acted as naturally as she possibly could, hiding the agony her head caused her skillfully behind a mask of stoic calmness. She took that lesson from her ex-test subject.
Chell jumped in excitement as she spied an employee exit high ahead the test chamber. Across from it, over an empty space the size of a football field, was a white wall. Portal conducting material.
Here goes nothing.
She shot an orange portal at the wall, stomping on the ground with triumphant success. The walls had more and more recently been able to produce portals, making their job of escaping go much more smoothly.
She shot orange propulsion gel in a long line before the connecting portal and left a puddle of blue repulsion gel at the end so she could get a nice jump across the empty space.
Chell took a deep breath, ran, jumped, and she flew through the air with a grin. She landed gracefully on the other side, her boots reverbrating off the catwalk, the exit door just ahead. Chell looked down and motioned for Glados to follow her.
Glados watched Chell's stunt with growing reluctance. It was ingenious, she'd give her that.
She took a deep breath and took a running jump onto the gel, her head and leg protesting with the sudden movement, and flew out the portal and onto the catwalk as Chell had. Her breath hitched as her mind was overwhelmed with painful sensory information, and she felt something crack in her calf, the damaged boot unable to keep up with the impact.
Her vision blurred and she lost her balance.
Notnownotnownot-
Chell was fiddling with the door when she heard Glados land behind her, the catwalk shaking. She turned briefly to point out the rusted lock and felt a strange twinge of pain in her head.
She turned just in time to see Glados fall.
Glados doubled-over, clutching her head and dropping to her knees, a whimper escaping through her contorted features.
What the...?
Chell rushed over in alarm, reaching out to the fallen girl automatically, 'Are you alright?'
She snatched her hand back as Glados slapped it away.
Did she care?
Chell set her jaw and half-lifted Glados, who cried out, "Let... let go of me!" her teeth were clenched, her eyes screwed shut. Chell stubbornly refused and held onto her tightly. The girl was hunched over, her feet dragging slightly as she tried to keep up with Chell's movements along the catwalk. Chell kicked open the stubborn door and dragged Glados inside, gently sitting her down against the wall.
They were in a small control room similar to the one her and Wheatley had barged into while destroying the neurotoxin generator. This one was much more outdated, and a few old paintings lined the walls. A chipped white coffee cup that said 'Best Dad Ever' was lying on its side on an old office desk.
Glados curled defensively, unaware of her new surroundings and shivered against the onslaught of painful waves her injured head produced.
Chell reached out and touched the broken implant lightly, 'It's hurting you, isn't it? Why didn't you say anything...?' Glados reactively pulled back, wincing at the touch.
"The moron..." Glados spoke, "...It's damaged and I can't repair it. Not until I get back to my lab," she shut her eyes, covering the piece of technology with her hand to block it from Chell's view.
Chell sat silently next to Glados, unsure how to help her. Wondering if she should.
In the silence she compared her own long-fall boots to Glados' gray version, getting a good look at Glados' shabbily taped up left boot. The cuff where her leg extended from the boot was stained red, her white pants unable to hide the injury well enough.
Chell gaped, 'Is your leg injured too?' and reached toward it, ready to take the broken boot off.
Glados flinched, pulling her leg back, "No..." she grit her teeth, anxiety gripping her. "Leave me alone... just... just go away."
She added, "You know you want to."
Did she...?
Thinking of everything Glados had done and said to her... then yes; Chell did want to leave her here.
But Chell was better than that, and she would prove it.
She leaned over and gripped the broken boot, Glados too weakened to fight back. Chell gently removed it, her face grim. Glados' leg was badly mangled, her pant leg drenched in blood. Chell's own leg throbbed sympathetically.
Glados sharply inhaled, biting her lip when Chell rolled up the hem of the pant leg to examine the physical damage to the limb.
'This is probably broken. I don't know exactly how or where, though. And there are pieces of your broken boot embedded in your skin,' she rebuked her, shooting her a look. Glados didn't respond. 'If you're really so smart, you should have known better.'
Glados groaned, "And what was I supposed to do? Sit and wait for a doctor to come fix up my leg before I could go bounding back up to my-hngh" she cut off with a short cry, trembling harder and holding her head in her hands.
She stopped talking and waited in silence while Chell got up and rummaged around the room, looking for something.
A minute later she emerged victorious with an old first aid kit, displaying it proudly. 'This should have something useful.'
She popped it open and dug out gauze and bandages. An old bottle of painkillers was in there, but was well over a century past its expiration date. She threw those out.
Glados lay propped against the wall and stayed still as Chell tried her best to wrap the injured limb with the few materials she had. Glados didn't react at all, only shivering with her eyes screwed shut.
When Chell had finished her handiwork, Glados slid to the ground, hugging herself and facing away from Chell. She was deeply disconcerted by the test subject's sudden benevolence toward her and chagrined by her own display of vulnerability. She wanted very much to be alone, but the woman wouldn't leave.
"Thanks for the assistance, but you can leave now," she sharpened her voice, still facing away from Chell.
Chell didn't stir, but sat propped against the wall with her arms folded. 'I'm not leaving here without you. We agreed to work together, and that's what I'm going to do.'
She paused, 'I'm not a liar, like you.'
Glados didn't comment on the last part, only gritting her teeth, "Well, that leaves us at another impasse because I'm not getting up," as if she had any choice in the matter, "and you aren't carrying me."
She added, "That's just being practical, by the way. You can't test and carry me. Also, I would rather die."
Chell rolled her eyes, deciding to change the subject matter. She had Glados' undivided attention, after all, 'You knew my dad.' It wasn't a question.
Glados tensed and shut her eyes, ignoring the pounding in her head. "Of course I knew him. I knew every single scientist and employee in Aperture. Even the dumb interns."
'You said you hated him...'
"I hated a lot of people. I thought that would have been obvious."
Chell paused in thought, then asked, 'Can you... can you say one positive thing about him? Or are you incapable of that...?'
Why was she asking her this?
Glados was silent for awhile and Chell thought she had decided to give her the silent treatment.
"He... saved my life," Glados' voice was almost a whisper.
"I saved your pathetic little life..."
Chell shook her head, a frown creasing her forehead... it had only been a dream.
'So you killed him in return?'
"He didn't do it for me," Glados spat venomously, "It was for him. It was all for him. He was just like the rest of them..." she trailed off, wincing as her outburst caused another jolt of pain in her head.
'My dad never-'
"Don't delude yourself; your father was no more an angel than the rest of Aperture was. No one in this place was innocent."
'Even me...? Even those test subjects frozen in stasis?' Chell tried to bite down her rising anger. She had tried to converse with Glados in order to distract her, but was only making their problems worse.
Maybe she was trying to get angry so that she could storm off and leave Glados alone without any residual guilt. Maybe not so innocent...
"I saved those test subjects! They are so much better off now than they ever were before. All they have to do is sleep..."
She paused, reigning in her anger for the sake of her own head, "Do you know what would have happened to them...? Ever since Aperture was founded, they have been testing Deviants. They test for deviations that are useful, and if they are, they cut you up and use your DNA to sell temporary enhancers that give the average, ordinary person a deviation for a limited amount of time... I believe you are already aware of this technology."
Chell was; The entire world was a black market of DNA enhancers and Deviant black markets. It's why her father had hid her so well from society. Deviants lived in constant fear because of places like Aperture.
Glados continued, "If a test subject turns out to be less-than-useful, then you also know what happens to them... firsthand. I've watched the process thousands of times in my life and I oversaw the testing myself for many years. Trust me, those people are better off in cryo-sleep."
She wasn't wrong, but... 'Why did you wake me then?'
Glados scoffed, "That was an accident. Whoever saved you, and I'm assuming it was Cadwin, probably screwed up the process and it automatically woke you up later... I decided to test you because I happen to really enjoy Deviant research. It wasn't anything personal."
'Why did they keep you around, then? You have a deviation, don't you? Your eyes...'
"Are a mutation caused by my deviation. Lots of Deviants have differing effects on their personal appearance, but you've probably never seen them because most try to cover them up in order not to be targeted by bounty hunters."
"To answer your question... yes... my deviation is a physical RNA change, unlike most deviations in the Factor 4 section, such as yours. Mine can't be sold as a DNA enhancer because it kills anyone who tries to use it."
Chell fit the pieces together, 'Including you.'
"I... have a higher neuron count than the average person. I can multitask as well as any computer, which made linking to the computer mainframe so easy. But it overwhelms the brain and ends up killing anyone who develops it by the age of four..." She drifted off, feeling drowsy.
Chell prompted, 'So the implant then...'
"It was developed by your father in order to keep me alive... He saved me, and in return I...worked for them," she said bitterly.
"I made you better than that!"
Chell bristled, 'But you didn't have to. You can't blame my fa-'
"Don't. Don't tell me what I..." Glados' voice cracked, and she took a deep breath, "I've always been here as far as my memories go... this is the only place I've ever known. But it never mattered to me; I was only in it for the science."
A heavy sadness sat in Chell's heart as she tried desperately to fight against the crumbling facade that was her father.
Her daddy.
She shifted uncomfortably, watching Glados occasionally shudder in pain, still facing away from Chell. She had almost decided to leave Glados here, and suddenly she couldn't go through with it.
'We... we still have to get out of here. You can't exactly fix your headpiece down here in the 1970's,' Chell remarked, shaking Glados' shoulder gently.
Glados grunted and squirmed away from Chell's offending hand, "I told you to forget about it."
Chell stubbornly set her face in determination and grabbed Glados under her arms and roughly yanked her into a sitting position. She grimaced as the portal gun on her hip accidentally dug into Glados' side with the pointed metal tips.
"Ow! You stabbed me! What is wrong with yo-" Glados shrieked in surprise, her head spinning with the sudden movement. She slumped against the wall and glared at Chell, "What do you think you're doing...?"
Chell had turned around and bent down on her knees, motioning for Glados to get on her back.
"You're kidding me."
'Nope; it's the only feasible solution... I think you'd have to agree with me here.'
"It's... ridiculous. I'm not a child," Glados told her irritably, sounding downright petulant.
Chell took a deep breath, 'Then stop acting like one... just grow up and get on before I change my mind. You don't actually believe that you would prefer to die down here, do you? That would be too easy and convenient for you.'
A challenge then.
Glados' face twisted in irritation and she summoned her strength to pull herself up, half-falling onto Chell's back.
"This is mortifying," commented Glados dryly.
Chell adjusted her posture so that she could hold onto Glados' injured leg in one hand and utilize the portal gun with the other. Glados just had to hang on... in fact, she was surprisingly lightweight.
The two exited the control room through the connecting doorway and found themselves in another office center. They left the decrepit building and ended up outside on another series of catwalks.
Chell inwardly groaned, it was like a maze.
Then her growing frustration increased ten-fold when Cave Johnson spoke up again, his voice filling up the vast caverns around them.
"Thank you- I can't believe I'm thanking these people - for staggering your way through the Aperture Science propulsion gel testing. For a change you've made some great contributions to society, and for that, humanity is grateful. If you had any belongings, pick them up now. I don't want any sticks or newspapers cluttering up the place."
"For many of you I realize sixty dollars is an unprecedented windfall, so don't go spending it all on... I dunno, what do these people buy anyway, Caroline? Beard dirt? Tattered hats...?"
"Lovely parting message. I won't miss that contagious scientific enthusiasm," Glados remarked.
Feeling good about making their way up to new levels of Aperture, Chell energetically bounded into a slightly newer elevator, Glados hanging on for dear life.
The elevator jerked to a halt halfway up to a series of catwalks above their heads. Below them lay a large chamber filled with cement blocks and pillars.
"We're too far down to climb up to those exit doors," Glados noted. "You'll have to jump down and we'll find a way out of here."
Chell did so, Glados grimacing at the landing. Her exposed foot was freezing without the protection of her boot. She was beginning to hate the cold... in fact, she hated everything down in old Aperture...
"Welcome to the enrichment center." A rough cough was heard.
Including HIM...
'What is up with this guy?' Chell wrinkled her nose in annoyance. Cave Johnson was making more pre-recorded messages and they would never escape it...
"So the bean counters told me that we literally could not afford seven dollars worth of moon rocks, much less seventy million."
Moon rocks? What was he going on about this time?
"Bought 'em anyway. Ground 'em up and mixed 'em into a gel," Cave Johnson told them. He sounded older, coughing every now and then.
"And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill," he growled.
That explained it, then.
"What's over there?" Glados pointed to a series of networked tubes in the center of the room. They were transparent and a white gel could be seen flowing through them.
'The... moon rock gel, maybe?' Chell pondered, looking closer.
"Still, it turns out they're a great portal conductor. So now we're gonna see if jumping in and out of these new portals can somehow leech the lunar poison out of a man's bloodstream. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Let's all stay positive and do some science," he coughed again.
"Caroline... could you please bring me some more pain pills?" he asked quieter, ending his message.
"Yes, sir. Mr. Johnson."
Glados shivered, feeling a chill in the air.
Chell gaped, turning her head to look Glados in the eye and not quite making it, 'Did he say portal conductor?'
Glados smiled devilishly, "That he did. Go ahead and bust it open... you're great at destroying things."
'Gee... thank you,' Chell sat Glados down by a pillar on the other side of the room and grabbed the heaviest-looking cement block she could physically carry. She tossed it at the tube, shattering it. White gel streamed out and covered the ground in front of her.
Here goes nothing...
Chell shot a portal at the gel pool and held her breath. An orange portal erupted and she whooped silently.
She turned to Glados with a thumbs up and only received a shrug in return.
What a little twit.
Using the white moon gel that Glados quickly dubbed 'conversion gel', they made their way up the pillars through multiple portals and ended up climbing a four-story high length where the entrance door was situated.
Chell pushed open the door with her free hand and they found themselves (once again) in a long-abandoned reception area. This one was newer than the other two had been, sporting portraits of an older Cave Johnson and someone else...
They were rudely interrupted by Cave Johnson's boisterous voice booming over the speakers in the lobby, startling the two yet again.
"All right, I've been thinking... when life gives you lemons? Don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!"
Chell sat Glados down on a waiting chair, rubbing her temples tiredly as she took a short break.
"Get mad!"
Glados smirked in agreement, "Yeah."
"I don't want your stupid lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?"
"Yeah!" Glados sunk into her chair, her eyes gleaming.
"Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am...? I'm the man who's going to burn your house down! With the lemons!"
"Yeah! Burn his house down! Burning people. He says what we're all thinking."
"I'm going to get my engineers to build a combustible lemon that burns your house down!" Cave Johnson finished his rant with a bang.
"Oh, I like this guy," Glados' head lolled against the back of the chair with a satisfied smirk.
Chell stared at the pale woman in bewilderment... 'What is seriously wrong with you?' she asked.
Glados didn't respond, only staring tiredly at a portrait hanging on the wall in front of the chairs. The portrait was of Cave and another woman, presumably his assistant.
Glados felt deep discomfort staring at the woman in the picture, frowning at the troubling thoughts just outside her grasp. The woman's thin smile shifted and then she was screaming at Glados, her eyes sparking. Glados blinked, the woman back to normal. She shook her head slightly... she was incredibly tired. Her head was only messing with her.
Chell followed Glados' line of sight and inspected the portrait up close. The woman looked disturbingly familiar, but also just outside Chell's reach. She had long brown hair and brown eyes and she sported a vintage white dress and red neck scarf. Cave looked older, this time he had grown out a mustache. Must've been the style at the time. It all looked outdated to her.
"The point is: If we can store music on a compact disc, why can't we store a man's intelligence and personality on one? I have my engineers figuring that out now..." Cave Johnson spoke up, sounding much more subdued.
Glados closed her eyes and started to tremble again, suddenly feeling ill. She couldn't feel her leg anymore and her head was constantly pounding... she couldn't think.
The woman was still staring at her, judging her.
"Brain mapping. Artificial intelligence. We should have been working on it thirty years ago."
Feeling her anxiety peaking, Glados curled into a ball on the chair, clutching her head and trying to drown out Cave Johnson's voice...
Chell sat up straighter, turning her attention from Cave's droning to Glados.
"And I'm gonna say it on tape so everyone hears it a hundred times a day..."
'Glados...? Are you okay?' she got up, surprised that she was genuinely concerned by the woman's increasingly unsettling behavior.
"If I die before you people pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place."
Yes, sir, Mr. Johnson.
No, sir, Mr. Johnson...
Glados groaned aloud and wrapped her arms around her head tighter, shaking more violently.
What's wrong with me...?
"Now she'll argue; say she can't. She's modest like that. But you make her."
You make her.
Glados felt white hot flashes of pain spike in her head, and her vision blurred, her ears ringing. She cried out in fear when she felt hands grip her shoulders, shaking her slightly.
She heard one last thing from Mr. Johnson before she blacked out. "Heck, put her in my computer. I don't care..."
Having a rough day already, so I was feeling sorry for myself and started writing this morning. Enjoy. :)
