The town was dingy and smelled of firewood and other scents GLaDOS thought were familiar. It was as if her body already understood all the sensations that came her way and her human brain provided her with the names of each of them. Like ghost memories.
Caroline's memories.
She shook her head in frustration. Caroline is dead. I deleted her.
Then why did she keep resurfacing?
She shook it off and turned toward an outdoor market, already scheming to filch food from the tables, then caught sight of Wheatley holding his nose like a human toddler.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"It smells unpleasant," he whined, "My body doesn't like it, so I found if I hold my nose like this I can't smell it anymore." He seemed almost proud of this discovery.
"Well, stop it. You're going to draw more attention to us," she folded her arms.
"Maybe you should have thought of that before making me walk in here naked," he retorted.
She hated to admit it, but he had her there. She pointed at a nearby rusty bench under a tree, "Go sit and wait while I get us something to eat."
"Could you get me some pants too?"
She shrugged. "I'll think about it."
GLaDOS made her way to the stalls, pretending to be interested in the various human wares as the vendors watched her carefully. Some of the items were bizarre. She didn't even know what she was looking at.
She ignored the junk and walked to the food stalls, mouth watering at the smell of the fresh bread and various spices.
An old female vendor made eye contact with GLaDOS and frowned. "You ought to get that face looked at, young lady. Don't want you infecting my goods," she shooed her away from the bread.
Huh? GLaDOS gingerly touched the damaged skin, disturbed to find the blisters starting to leak. It must look appalling.
She hurriedly ducked and ruffled her hair, covering the burned area as best she could. The hair stung as it rubbed against her face, but it wasn't the end of the world. She was getting used to the pain, she thought.
She kept her head down and made her way through the market, scanning for weaknesses. Vendors not paying attention. She had no experience stealing food, but how hard could it be to hide a couple of apples in her pockets?
Unfortunately, harder than she thought.
She was getting frustrated and her stomach rumbled, reminding her how much she hated being a human. Humans were the worst.
One particular table made her stop in her tracks, the pale yellow booth outfitted with various glass containers and surprisingly intricate cakes. It stood out from the rest of the market; too pretty to be there. She examined the cakes with interest, mentally creating a list of new recipes to try out later. She took pride in the fact that she was an AI who could bake. It made her special.
Caroline loved to bake too.
She gripped the table and resisted the urge to smack her head. Don't bring attention to yourself. Be careful.
GLaDOS's attention was caught by the top of a cake sitting in a box behind the table, just out of the customers' view line. She gasped. It was... it looked like...
"May I help you?" A woman's voice asked.
She turned around, ready to answer the inquiry when-
Her words jammed in her throat.
A very familiar face was studying her, thick brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail, hazel eyes piercing straight through GLaDOS like sharpened icicles. Dangerous eyes. A lunatic's eyes.
GLaDOS took an involuntary step back. It couldn't be. It wasn't.
"Are you alright?" the woman asked.
She's talking. She's talking to me. It's not her. You're seeing things. You must be-
But when the woman leaned in, her face didn't change. She didn't shift into someone else. The lunatic-
The dangerous mute lunatic was here.
Chell.
Author's Note: Heya! We're finally caught up with the fic that's been cross-posted on AO3, yay! In the meantime, I have a few more chapters written and edited, but the next few weeks are going to be really busy for me, so I don't know how much more I'll be able to post for a while after these. I want to get it finished asap though as I'm having a lot of fun writing it ^^ Stay tuned!
(Also p.s. to those who have left comments on both websites, I read EVERY single one with a huge smile, so I really hope you continue to enjoy the story! FF has some weird notification issues rn and won't email me anymore, so I have to manually check for comments/dms now, lol. Please check your own dms too ;)) Ty for reading 3