Caroline sat and tinkered with the yellow device, tweaking an end prong carefully and bending it into the shape she wanted. Her hair fell into her eyes and blocked her view, so she quickly threw it into a messy bun and went back to work on her machine.

"There, that should do it," she whispered to herself, clicking the prong into it's designated spot.

Satisfied that the adjustment, she picked up the device she had been working on for six hours straight and aimed it at the large painted white circle on her wall.

She shot at the center of the circle, and a blue-tinged hole popped into existence. No spluttering or feedback this time. That was a good sign. She shot another one on the other side of the room, an orange hole opening up and finishing the loop.

She sighed in contentment and shot again at the two openings, closing them off. She'd have to make some notes...

"Oh, wow, that was magnificent!"

Caroline spun around, surprised by the intrusion and the unfamiliar voice. She was somewhat used to Cave barging in unannounced, after all, he did own the place.

She dropped the portal device onto the lab station and pushed it behind her, eyeing the newcomer warily. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

He raised his arms disarmingly, his eyes smiling, "I apologize, I didn't mean to startle you. I was told no one would be in here. I'm just the maintenance guy here to fix the heating output issue."

Oh. She relaxed a little, recalling that Cave had told her something about an engineer stopping by. She had lost track of the time.

"Well, I... I was just checking up on this lab, making sure... that it was, um... clean," she said lamely, at loss for words.

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Ma'am, if you wanna mess around with scientific equipment and whatnot, who am I to judge? You don't need to lie for the sake of my superior masculine ego," he grinned, making his way over to a panel on the opposite wall.

Surprised, she snickered lightly and observed him as he searched for the right spot on the wall, checking with his instructions. He was fairly tall and skinny, although it was difficult to tell under his long coat. It was brown with a golden collar and cuffs. He wore a brownish jumpsuit underneath with a flower pattern lining the top. It was quite outlandish... an artist, maybe?

He was well-tanned and had styled dark hair, friendly dark eyes, with a small goatee under his mouth. He looked to be in his mid-twenties. She frowned at herself; she was probably twice his age...

She turned away in embarrassment, realizing she had been watching him, but stopped as soon as she saw him reach his hand through the wall.

She stifled a gasp, "You... you're a Deviant."

He turned, still smiling, "Sure am. It comes in... handy, when you need to get into hard-to-reach places." She cringed inwardly at the pun, still absorbing the new information.

"It's not as if you haven't seen one before, seeing as you're one too, if I'm not mistaken," he noted, turning away to work on whatever it was he was fixing. He pulled at the panel from the inside and yanked it off the wall in one swift motion.

Caroline stared at him dumbly. How had he...?

Oh, her eyes! She scanned her lab desk and saw her contact case sitting where she had left it earlier, tired of wearing the things. They hid her Deviant DNA-laced irises from the outside world. She couldn't be caught without them, but here a complete stranger had seen her!

Noticing her stressed reaction, he responded, "Relax, I'm not going to rat you out or anything. I told you, what you wanna do and what you can do is none of my business. I gotta say though, I love what your facility here does with Deviants. Helping them control their abilities and learn more about them... it's admirable. Many people are starting to become afraid of us..."

Caroline felt a guilty pang in her chest and crossed her arms, listening silently to him speak. He had an exotic accent... Scandinavian...? Norwegian?

"That's why I use my ability so openly. Show people that there's nothing to be afraid of," he finished, concentrating on his work.

Yes, Aperture had been built on the foundation of studying deviations, but it had grown since then... since she had become the CEO's top assistant. New technology was allowing them to replicate DNA in order to induce temporary powers in other human beings, and Mr. Johnson had jumped right on it.

As more unfortunate incidents were beginning to rise from this new deviation-era, Caroline had become more and more concerned by the morality of it all. She tried to overlook the Deviant side of Aperture and buried herself in her work instead.

Since Cave had given her her own lab five years previously, she had worked more and more vigorously on her own personal projects. A couple small things she had invented had been mixed into Aperture's projects, unbeknownst to the male scientists on the other side of the facility.

They would have a hissy fit if they knew a woman was working with scientific research past their own understanding in the same facility as them. It was a man's world, after all.

"If you don't mind me asking, what was that device you were using when I first came in? It was unlike anything I've ever seen. I mean, I know this is a laboratory and all, but wow," he replaced the wall panel, satisfied with his finished work.

She flushed, clutching the device behind her back protectively, "I don't think you're privy to that information, sir. In fact, you haven't exactly shown me any credentials..." she realized. What if he was a Black Mesa spy?

The maintenance man laughed, "I'm sorry, I'm Lee Virgil, but everyone just calls me Virgil. I just got hired a couple days ago by Mr. Johnson himself. He was looking for people with deviations such as mine and ended up hiring me as a maintenance engineer. I have my stuff in here somewhere..." he dug around in his various coat pockets, searching.

She groaned, "No, it's alright, Mister... Virgil." She would ask Cave about it later, as he never hired anyone anymore. That was ususally her job.

"I am Caroline Short, Mr. Johnson's assistant. You are an engineer then? Could you tell me how this device works?" she tested him, handing him the yellow device.

He turned it over and examined it from all angles, "Maybe if I pulled it apart, which I'm not going to do... but I may be able to help fix your little kickback problem. I noticed it when I saw you fire the portals."

She frowned, "No, I can- um, the scientists working on this technology should be able to fix it themselves. Also, I believe they are calling it 'Gateway' technology."

Virgil wrinkled his nose in distaste, "'Gateway' technology? That sounds ludicrous. They're portals, plain and simple. You should relay that to the genius inventing this thing..." he handed it back to her knowingly, a sparkle in his eye.

She took it back thoughtfully and he thrust out his hand toward her, "Anyway, it was nice meeting you, Ms. Short. I'll be sticking around the facility, so I'm sure we will see each other again."

"Right, have a lovely day, Mister Virgil."

He performed a two-fingered salute playfully as he exited the lab, "Yeah, but it's just Virgil. Oh, and..." he mimed zipping his mouth shut and pointed to the device in her hands, "Won't tell a soul. And remember, it's portal technology." Then he was gone.

She turned the device over in her hands and grimaced when a prong broke loose, clattering to the ground.

Portals, eh?


No, wait, please...

I don't- I don'twant-

I DON'T WANT THIS!


Glados startled awake, her eyes snapping open to old degrading ceiling tiles. She unclenched her fists and turned her head slightly, hissing at the jab of pain in her temple. That's right. Her implant had stopped working.

She shifted her head slightly and she was staring up at Chell, who was lying against a waiting chair, dead asleep.

Glados' memories before she had fallen asleep slammed back into her, and she nearly choked when she realized what she had done.

What she had said.

She noticed her head was lying in Chell's lap, the awful hobo coat draped over her. She peeled it off herself gingerly, and slowly got up on her hands, scootching over to the other chair away from Chell.

She had to think.

Glados felt slightly better after her nap and she decided to wait for Chell to wake on her own. When was the last time either of them had gotten any real sleep?

Cave Johnson's portrait still leered down at her, but this time she didn't feel anything looking at it. The feeling of terror that had overwhelmed her before was gone.

She was only annoyed.

She was annoyed that this woman was looking down on her, annoyed that Cave Johnson never stopped talking, annoyed that she was down here, annoyed that her head hurt, and...

She grimaced, rubbing her temples softly. Being angry at everything wasn't going to help her out of this situation. She just wished that Chell would get up and they could both escape from this decrepit hole in the earth.

At the same time, she hoped Chell would never get up, because Glados certainly didn't want to look her in the eyes again.

What was wrong with her? Just because her implant was causing her nervous system to fritz out, it didn't mean that she had to have an emotional breakdown as well. She had always been proud of her emotional detachment to everything, logic and reasoning dictating all that she did.

That was why she had always been better than everyone else. Why she had preferred to be alone.

Why she had done what she had done.

And now Chell had made her feel regret over all of that. Everything about the situation was wrong.

Glados shivered inwardly; she didn't know how to feel, and that bothered her immensely.

She heard a small cough, and her gaze shifted to Chell who was staring at her, wide awake. Speak of the devil...


Chell awoke from her nap, noting the weight of Glados' head was missing and had been replaced with the oversized coat.

She glanced to the side, taking in Glados' hunched form against the chair beside her. She was frowning at the portrait, her face a mask of concentration. Chell exhaled with small relief; at least Glados appeared lucid again. Although, she wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

She coughed, getting the other girl's attention. Glados' eyes snapped to her, a look of shame flashing through them, then hardening again.

Glados crossed her arms, putting up her defensive barrier. "Thanks for the coat. Now we will both die of septic poisoning," she remarked, her ever-so-lovely personality back in full action.

Chell sighed imperceptibly, 'Always with the dramatic...'

"I heard that."

'I know.'

Glados glanced away, suddenly looking uncomfortable. She rubbed at her bandaged foot absent-mindedly.

'So... are we going to talk about it?'

Glados growled, "Talk about what?"

'What happened earlier...?'

"There's nothing to talk about!" she snapped back, running her hands through her hair agitatedly.

Chell said nothing, waiting.

"Look, this thing," Glados pointed to her implant, "It's defunct. Broken. Useless. It's... messing with my head. Causing hallucinations. Whatever I said before, it meant... it meant nothing." She didn't sound very convincing.

It sounded to Chell like Glados was only trying to convince herself. She decided to drop the subject, not wanting to agitate Glados any further.

'Alright, fine. Are you ready to head out again?' she asked, standing up and stretching. She tied her coat around her waist and yanked one of the water bottles out, chugging it and offering the rest to Glados.

Glados pulled a face, "Um, that's okay. I'll take my chances with less disease-ridden-"

Chell practically smacked the water bottle into Glados' face, Glados shrieking as water spilled down the front of her face and onto her shirt.

Glados wiped her face, a snort of broken laughter breaking through. "I suppose I deserved that..."

Chell lifted a sleeve of the coat from her waist, waving it towards Glados' face, 'Here, let me help...' she smirked mischievously.

Glados smacked the sleeve away, a hint of a smile on her face. "Nope. I draw the line there. You may carry me all you like, but I am not touching that hobo coat again," she waved Chell back.

Chell shrugged and tossed the empty bottle away. A minute later she had Glados seated comfortably (well, as comfortably as one could get) on her back again and the two set off.

'Upwards and onwards.'

"Be quiet, will you?"


To both women's relief, Cave Johnson's messages had completely stopped broadcasting. Chell continued up through a maze of catwalks, the tests long run out. Unfortunately, Glados was of no help whatsoever.

'Don't you have any, I don't know, maps of old Aperture? You practically have a computer in your brain,' Chell stomped down the wrong catwalk for the fifth time.

Glados scoffed softly, "Oh please, this place was closed off long ago. Believe it or not, I didn't have access to any of Aperture's old records. I never really cared to look..." Glados drifted off, her body sagging slightly against Chell.

Chell readjusted her grip, 'You still with me?' she attempted to keep the worry out of her thoughts.

Glados' head sank against her neck and shoulder tiredly, "'With you...?' Like you could keep up with my intelligence..." she mumbled.

Chell rolled her eyes, continuing their trek in silence.


Alrighty, we are leaving for vacation tomorrow, but I managed to get this done ahead of time and here we are! Also, I'm excited I got to finally write a new character (although there will be a lot more soon). ;) In addition, I got a very nice review on my last chapter and whoever you are, thank you very much! It seriously made my day. I hope the story doesn't disappoint... :) Enjoy the new chapter and have a fantastic day! I'll be back to update in another week or so.