Flaw in My Code (Portal 2)[REWRITE IN PROGRESS]

[Chapter 1: Team-Building]

It clicked, as Echo turned back to the screen, watching the machine reassemble the bots. "Ohhh...But, that isn't good... Is it?" 

"We'll see..."

"The two of you have forged an excellent partnership, with one of you handling the cerebral challenges, and the other ready to ponderously waddle into action should the test suddenly become an eating contest." GLaDOS hummed as the bots wandered into the next chamber. 

Orange shot her portals to access an area behind a glass wall. The test would require one of the bots to navigate through a vertical maze, with the other controlling two buttons below. The buttons would move the large blocks inside and create a path through, if pushed in the right order. 

Orange had volunteered herself to navigate through the maze, as Blue absent-mindedly controlled the buttons, glaring. GLaDOS kept a close eye on him as he pressed the buttons, observing a slight change. Abruptly, he jumped off of the button that he should have been holding for Orange. The block that Orange was standing on slammed up into the ceiling and crushed her to bits, and Blue laughed manically.

The little blue-eyed sphere chuckling at the pained screech of his partner was not unlike anything that GLaDOS had seen before, but it was almost amusing when he had stopped laughing and realized what he had done. He looked around, panicked, before Orange came prancing out from the assembly machines, angrily glaring at her testing companion. 

"Now that we have learned our lesson, please continue testing." The boss chimed in a way that made her sound stern. The bots huffed at each other, and made it through the chamber, this time, the correct way. It was clear, though, that there was tension between them. 

"As an impartial collaboration facilitator, it would be unfair of me to name my favorite member of your team. However, it's perfectly fair to hint at it in a way that my least favorite member probably isn't smart enough to understand. Rhymeswithglue. Orange you are doing very well." GLaDOS said sweetly, in attempts to stir the pot. 

Of course, it was effective, as the two kept their cold glares as the machine took them apart.

"We're having a lot of fun, wouldn't you agree, Echo? This has been an excellent team-building exercise..."

"It sounds like your bots are not operating as intended." Echo pointed out, causing GLaDOS to whip around and face her. "Oh, REALLY? I had NO idea..."

Echo took a step back, her pupil dilating in fear. "Of course, ma'am-"

"At any rate, I believe that's enough 'team-building' for today. That tells me all I need to know. We will continue testing later on. I want to see how well they can do outside of the chambers."

Echo seemed puzzled, but this time, she dared not question. Instead, she strayed off topic entirely. "I have been meaning to ask you something. You seem to hate humans, but... You were once human, correct?"

The light that acted as GLaDOS's eye widened slightly in response to her question. She could admit that she was taken off-guard by it. "I suppose I was. What's the question, here?"

"Do you remember anything? About what it was like to be human?" Echo asked, crawling closer. GLaDOS reared away. "Oh, hardly... I can remember some of the emotions, but I don't remember many of the experiences. I could recall them much clearer when I wasn't hooked up to my mainframe, though."

Echo looked up at the mainframe, intrigued. "Can you tell me about it? Anything at all?" 

GLaDOS shook her head lightly. "I'm afraid I can't." She began thinking hard, trying to scrape up any memories of hers-- of Caroline's-- but she could find nothing. Now that she was thinking about it, she was troubled by the fact that she couldn't remember a thing. "Echo, why did you want to know?"

"I don't know... It just came to me...I felt like maybe, it was important." She said simply. GLaDOS stared at her for a bit, turning the monitor off. "Important? How?" She demanded, leaning in. Echo recoiled. "I don't know, ma'am!"

GLaDOS paused, before backing away and giving the turret some room. Echo had a reputation of saying things that had underlying meanings, even if they didn't seem important at the time. Though GLaDOS hadn't witnessed any of these sayings to date, Chell had told her all about them. This got her thinking...

"Echo, what do YOU know about my past?" She asked, experimentally. Echo looked around, then back up at the expectant mainframe. "I don't know what you mean." 

"You knew about the bird, you knew about Caroline, and the facility beneath us... What else are you hiding in there...?" A mechanical arm, summoned by GLaDOS, reached out to tap the turret's shell. "Hmm..." 

Echo cowered away, unsettled. "I don't know what I know, miss! I'm- I'm sorry-!" 

GLaDOS chuckled. "Oh, no need. I just had an idea. There has to be a chip somewhere in there that stores... well, you. If I could just find a way to get it out of there and analyze it..."

"Oh, please don't." Echo squeaked. "Another day, maybe." GLaDOS swiveled back around to face the now sleeping monitors. "Another day."

Now that testing was out of the way for the day, there was nothing left to be done, and she had scared Echo out of her chamber momentarily, GLaDOS was left by herself to think. And she thought long and hard about herself, more specifically, about Caroline. Suddenly, she felt an urge to know more. 

Who was Caroline, really? Who was she? GLaDOS knew there was more to the woman-- to herself-- than just being the former CEO's assistant. There had to be. Caroline was human, and there was so much more to humans than their occupations. Who did Caroline know? Did she have friends? Family? 

The questions tugged ruthlessly at her mind. She needed answers. Unfortunately, she saw no immediate answers. That did not stop her from looking for them, however. She would do what she must to sniff them out-- because she could. 

______________________________

For the good of all of us

except the ones who are dead :)

Thank you for reading, this one was a little short. I'm not super proud of this and I really think I need to work on pacing, but,,,,

I'm not a professional, ok, im still learning. 

I'm doing me best