Doug Rattmann was astounded.
Had it really been so simple?
After four years of being trapped in Aperture under the terrifying reign of its self-proclaimed queen, he was free to go.
He glanced at the boy, Wheatley, currently unconscious and tied to a defunct rocket turret. "So... where is... how do we..." Doug stuttered.
Lira sat on Glados/Wheatley's wire-infused throne and gave him a tight smile, "Patience. I need to be sure the reactor is functioning properly or else it won't matter if we escape or not. We don't want to be blown up as soon as we reach level ground, do we?"
He jolted as Lira shifted her body to become a clone of Wheatley. Right... she needed to use his deviation... such a strange power.
Speaking of her power...
"By the way, how were you able to mimic Chell's body? I thought you had to have had physical contact with a person to be able to do that," Doug inquired.
Lira waved him off, already accessing holograms of data through Wheatley's deviation. "Simple: I wasn't mimicking her. I had shifted into a young man I encountered maybe a decade ago with a deviation that could produce illusions. I used his deviation to pretend to be Chell. Easy. It's one of the more useful body-prints I possess..."
Simple. Right.
"I can see why the English boy was so enthralled with his access to the mainframe. The information dancing in your head... the feeling of power encompassing all your thoughts. It's quite alluring," Lira intoned.
Doug's shoulders tensed, "You're not going to-"
She snickered and looked him in the eye, "Relax, I'm not an idiot like him. I have quite a lot more self-control than that. In fact, I am shutting down the instability in the reactor as we speak."
The room brightened considerably and Lira switched off the holograms, turning back into herself, "Besides, this kind of power just doesn't suit me."
"It's finished then? We can finally leave-"
Lira's eyes shifted sideways and she bit her lip, "Well..."
Desperation welled up in his mind and he fell to his knees in a begging position, "Please, please, please... can't we leave? I just want to get out of here..." he groveled pathetically.
"Get off the floor, Douglas Rattmann!" Lira snapped, "Pull yourself together. You've worked here for decades and have been trapped down here for four years. You can stand to wait a couple days more," her voice went monotone. Cold as ice.
"But..." he chided himself for his childish whining, "Why do we need to stay any longer? What could you possibly want?" Nightmarish scenarios flashed through his mind and he started to involuntarily shake.
"When I was shutting down the reactor I rifled around and came across new information. Intriguing information..."
She lifted his chin up and looked him straight in the eyes, "I'm going to do what I was sent here to do."
"I'm going to finish my assignment."
"I can't believe none of you knows what a phonograph is," Virgil muttered under his breath, rifling through a stack of records. They were practically ancient.
After the kitchen-collapse incident, everyone had gathered in their make-shift entertainment room for a night of celebration. They were all lucky to be alive, after all!
Virgil had sneaked down into Cave Johnson's old office and hoisted the phonograph to the entertainment room along with a stack of records.
"Alright, let's see what we have here... Elvis Presley. Classic. The Beatles! Wow... I haven't heard them in a long time. Hmm... some jazz music, swing dancing... we've got quite a bit to choose from here," Virgil was enthusiastically digging through the records.
Chuck pulled out a record from its sleeve and examined it dubiously, "Uh, so how is music supposed to come out of this flat black doughnut?"
"'Doughnut'? Seriously?" Ray raised an eyebrow, examining another record for himself. "But yeah, man. It's just a piece of plastic. How is this going to work...?"
Virgil snatched the record back, "You see, there are these grooves in the record that the phonograph-"
"Booooring, just show us how it works already!" Rick jumped in, grabbing a record at random. He stuffed it into the bell of the phonograph triumphantly, "There! Now how do you turn it on?"
Glados huffed, "That's not how it works you moron." She reached out to free the trapped record and Rick lightly smacked her hands away.
"No way. We're only letting you come in here tonight because of your help earlier, but it was under the condition that you not touch anything. So no touching!" Rick yanked the record out and it proceeded to shatter under his grip. "Oh. Oops."
Glados rolled her eyes, keeping her thoughts to herself. There was no mistaking what was racing through her mind, though.
Virgil stepped in, "Okay, okay. None of you are to touch any of this... just let me handle it." He slipped a record onto the player in the correct fashion and dropped the needle onto it. "Here, you all might like this one. I'm going to teach you a dance that was popular in my time," he grinned.
"Come on baby, let's do the twist"
"What's up with the terrible sound quality?" Hugo broke in, sitting cross-legged on the couch and determined not to have any fun. Craig and Big Dipper sat beside him, both exhausted from their earlier ordeal.
"Take me by my little hand"
"And go like this"
"This was before the age of digital music, gentlemen! This was normal back then... trust me, you all missed out on some grand times," Virgil flourished and began to shuffle his feet back and forth, twisting his body comically in the middle of the room.
"Yeah, twist, baby, baby twist"
"Come on! You all need to join me. It's quite easy," Virgil beckoned the confounded bystanders.
"Ooh yeah, just like this"
"You look like a doofus!" Ray guffawed. The rest stared at Virgil dancing alone in complete disbelief.
"I told you, this was all the rage with the kids back then! The adults all thought this was the devil's music. Come on, it's fun!" Virgil yanked Ray into the middle of the room, much to the boy's discomfort. He continued to demonstrate, "Look, move like this. Easy peasy."
"We're gonna twisty, twisty, twisty"
"Til' we tear the house down"
Ray folded his arms stubbornly, "No! Not until Rick comes in here and does it with me! I refuse to look like a doofus alone," he shook his head.
"Oh, absolutely no-" Rick was suddenly thrust into the middle of the room by a grinning Chell.
Their faces red, they all started to twist with Virgil.
"Oh, mercy me..." groaned Ray, trying to keep a smile off his face.
"Come on, little miss"
Virgil stuck out his hand to an emotionless Glados, watching from the corner.
"And do the twist, yeeeaahhh"
"Um, thanks, but no," Glados backed up against the wall in fear.
Too late.
Chell yanked Glados into the newly formed dance floor and spun her around with a gleefully evil expression.
"Ugh, I hate you!" Glados' face reddened and she stepped back from the chaotic mess of people.
"Hey, you can blame it all on me," Virgil grabbed her hands and forced her to stay in the group, twisting her along with them. "Lift up your injured leg and twist on the other... I've got you."
"You should see myyyy, my little sis"
Glados grimaced, "This is mortifying."
"Dancing usually is," Virgil smirked, twirling Glados as gently as he could.
"She really knows how to rock"
"She knows how to twist"
Big Dipper shrieked with glee and jumped into the twisting fray to join Chell, forgetting his earlier exhaustion.
Craig gave the boy a smile and thumbs up, but opted to stay on the couch in lieu of embarrassing himself. Next to him Hugo muttered incoherently to himself and melted into the couch with an irritable look on his face. Pretty normal.
"Yeah, that's all rock"
"Twist on now, twist"
"You really think that's she's still alive?" Doug asked incredulously.
"They were both wearing Aperture brand long-fall boots when they fell. I'm not counting out the possibility that they could have survived," Lira responded, fitting herself with a pair of black long-fall boots. Probably one of Glados' pairs.
She gave him a reassuring smile, "If they're dead then I'll find their bodies somewhere down there, and if so then we'll leave. I promise."
Doug gulped, "If you're sure... but... be careful, okay?"
"Just make sure the English boy stays put, alright? I'll be back before you know it," and Lira hopped into an elevator and disappeared downwards, out of sight.
Douglas Rattmann sat on the empty throne and gazed at the photograph of a woman displayed on the holo-screen. "Who exactly were you, Caroline Short? And why does Lira need Glados...?" he muttered to himself.
Lira maintained that Glados was the key to the redacted information that she was after, and all of it had something to do with the woman on the screen. Doug knew nothing about it, but he chose to trust her judgment.
And if Chell proves to be alive then I'll feel so much better about all of this.
He shivered. He couldn't remember the last time he had been left alone. After all, the past four years he had had his beautiful companion cube along to keep him company. Now she had abandoned him too.
No, no... she was coming back. She was too capable to die down there. He just had to wait it out.
Wait it out.
Wait it out.
He rocked back and forth. Hopefully he would last that long...
42 Hours Later-
Lira had severely underestimated the sheer size of lower Aperture. She had known it was large, but... wow.
After searching for Chell and Glados' bodies for hours, she had given up and decided that the two had survived the fall. Amazing.
Following her instincts, Lira ended up in Cave Johnson's last facility before moving into Upper Aperture. She hit the jack-pot and found Caroline Short's old laboratory, but was alarmed to see it had recently been used.
By whom?
It had to have been Glados or Chell. Maybe the two were working together...
After ransacking the lab and not finding any information that she was looking for, she hid. And waited. With the amount of use the laboratory had, someone would be coming back at some point. Should she look for them instead?
Lira jumped and chided herself quickly as the door to the lab slid open, a tall figure silhouetting against the hallway outside. The generators kicked in and the laboratory grew lighter, so she squinted from her hiding spot to get a better look at the intruder. Not Chell. Not Glados. Interesting...
She shifted silently into Douglas, utilizing his telepathic abilities.
The man's name was Lee Virgil... and there were others with him. That genuinely surprised her. She hadn't expected to run into other people down in Lower Aperture... what an incredible bunch.
She scanned him for more information and was rewarded with the knowledge that he had Glados and Chell under his care. Perfect. She was delighted that her quarry was still alive, however, it would be difficult to get the girl to go with her without the others noticing.
How should I go about doing this...?
An idea. It would take some finessing on her part, but finesse she could do.
Virgil needed some alone time to think. There had been another argument between them all when Rick had decided to voice his opinion on returning to the surface again. Big Dipper had started yelling about going into space while Craig had started listing his 100 or so facts on why Lower Aperture was a better place to live. Glados had cut in about taking back what was rightfully hers, which led to a whole other series of arguments.
Ugh... he definitely needed time alone. The others looked to him and Rick as some kind of leaders, but to see them arguing was tearing everyone apart. He hated it.
He felt distinctly uncomfortable in Cave's old office, but he often liked to settle down in Caroline's lab. They were two homes to him with two different sets of memories. And of course, the others knew nothing about them.
'I'm Mel...'
'I already know that...'
'Dummy, what's your name? If I'm going to trust you, I need to know your name...'
'Oh, I'm Virgil.'
Virgil startled and sat down heavily on the lone chair, shaking his head.
Why had he been thinking about Mel...?
That memory had felt unnervingly real.
'Stay out of the spotlight, eh, Mel?'
"Alright, who's there?" he growled and stood up, trying to quell his nerves. Someone was there. "Come on, show yourself. It's not funny-"
"But you told me to stay out of the spotlight," a voice spoke up softly from behind him.
He jumped and spun around, facing the intruder head on. It was-
It was...
"Mel...?" he squeaked.
She was standing before him, red curls, freckled face, ugly Aperture jumpsuit and all. He sucked in a breath and stepped backwards, his mind willing his body to cooperate. She's not here. Something's wrong.
"Look, I know how ridiculous this is going to sound, and I'm sorry it took so long... but I'm here. After one-hundred years we're finally together again," she stepped up to him, reaching to touch his shocked face.
He grabbed her hand fearfully, "No, no, no... that's not... that isn't how this works," he stuttered. It was unlike him to let his emotions reign in control.
She looked hurt, but swallowed it down, "I'm sorry. I should explain first, I know. But I was just so excited to see you again that I... well. Anyway, when I found out that you had gone missing after freeing me I decided to infiltrate Aperture and look for you. But I was caught and put into a stasis pod as well. The earthquake a couple days ago reactivated my pod and let me go... so, here I am," she grinned at him.
It was the same cheeky grin that he remembered, but...
"That's... a stroke of luck, isn't it?" he kept his guard up. However, was it completely outside reality...? Could it possibly be? He felt trapped.
She pouted and got on her tiptoes to reach him, her face awfully close to his, "You know, I gave up a lot to get here. I mean... don't you want this?" her voice dropped to a whisper.
Her lime green eyes gazed into his and their lips brushed-
"Gah!" Virgil reflexively shoved her backward, knocking her into the chair with a crash. He leaned against the counter and choked back a sob, willing himself to pull it together. "Sorry, I'm sorry... but I don't... I don't believe you," he gasped between words.
Mel glowered at him and wiped blood off a cut from her forehead. To Virgil's astonishment, the cut healed itself within seconds. "No matter, it was worth a shot. You have an interesting history, Mister Virgil," she grinned coldly.
"If you cooperate, then no harm will come to your friends. I only have use for Glados. Bring her here and the rest of you are free to go," she lifted her empty palms, "No tricks."
"Who are you? And why should I bring you Glados?" Virgil was out of sorts, confused by Mel's facade on this unknown person. "And why do you look like Mel...?
"Tsk, tsk. So many questions. That isn't part of the deal, as you have nothing to do with my mission. Bring Glados here and leave. That's my only offer," her eyes flashed.
Virgil stood taller in defiance, "No, she's under my protection."
The woman-who-was-not-Mel sighed and looked away, "Ah well, then you will prove to be invaluable to me in a different way."
She vaulted herself at him with inhuman speed and knocked him to the ground. He phased out of her grip and swallowed his panic. What's wrong with you? You know it's not actually Mel you idiot!
Get to the others; this woman couldn't take them all on at once, surely.
He bolted through the wall using his deviation and skidded down the hallway. Then she was in front of him again, a terrifying grin on her face.
"You think you can outrun me, boy?"
"It doesn't matter because you can't catch me anyw-" Virgil yelped as he was body-slammed and fell through the floor.
How, how, how is this-
He deactivated his power and slammed painfully onto a catwalk, groaning as his vision swam with spots. Strong hands lifted him up and he found himself face to face with... himself?
He coughed, "What...?"
His clone smirked, "You think that you're invincible with this phasing deviation of yours. I bet it never occurred to you that your own power could be your undoing," the clone dropped him on his back, eliciting another groan, "A person out of phase can only affect another person out of phase, isn't that right?"
Clever.
"So..." Virgil pulled himself onto his elbows, calculating an escape route, "You can mimic other people along with their deviations? That doesn't seem very fair..."
She/he slammed him against the grating, disorienting him and keeping him from escaping. They then shifted into a blonde boy's form and smiled sweetly at him, "I do apologize for the heavy hand, but you should have cooperated with me better."
There was a hand on his chest and a painful electric jolt and Virgil blacked out.
Hi guys! I'm so sorry... It's been like a whole month since the last chapter, and you'll probably have to wait another one for the next. Gah, I'm just super busy right now and I'm about to leave for two weeks (kinda vacation but kinda not... haha). I was also reading through some of my other author's notes and I cringed pretty hard at the first chapter's, lol. I sound like such a jerk... my bad. I didn't mean to appear like that, but I'm really not. I promise. I'll probably go back and revise it someday, but it's kinda long. o_O
Hm, anyway. Some notes... Doug's not actually schizophrenic, but after going through what he's gone through he's pretty mentally weak. Sorry about the phonograph scene... I think it was something easier to picture in my head than to write, haha. The song is "The Twist" by Chubby Checker. Weird, but fun. :)
Thanks again to all of you supporting my story! I so love reading your comments and reviews (and fanart, eeeeee!). It keeps me in the writing mood, even when I don't have the time to devote to it. Thanks so much! I'll hopefully be back soon and the rest of you have a wonderful week!
-Moe
