"Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your viloent efforts, the only thing you've managed to break so far, is my heart. Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day." There was a pause as I stared up at the menace, dangling from the ceiling in her pristine den. So this is where GLaDOS been hiding all along, while I maneuvered my way through her dangerously pointless tests. I just narrowed my eyes, and zipped up my jumpsuit, holding the portal gun firmly in my hands. I would test for her no longer. It ended here.
"I guess we both know that isn't going to happen." Her tone, while purely robotic and almost devoid of emotion, sounded loathsome. She hated me, I foiled her plans, but the feeling was mutual. "You chose this path, now I have a surprise for you. Deploying surprise in five... four..." She was cut short as a spherical object fell to the floor. The object seemed to have been attached to her. A part of her, perhaps.
"Time out for a second. That wasn't supposed to happen." She lowered her 'head' to stare down at the ball. Then, she looked back at me. "Do you see that thing that fell out of me? What is that? It's not the surprise, I've never seen it before..." She said curiously. "Never mind. It's a mystery I'll solve later. By myself. Because you'll be dead." I took a risk and walked forward, studying her. It was the first time I had ever really seen her. Before, I had only heard her voice. She had quite the unsettling design. She was nothing but motors encased on the outside by white painted metal, and above her, looking up into the ceiling, were several whirring discs on which she operated. The only real movements she could make other than controlling all of the machinery throughout the enrichment center, were rotating around, and moving her 'head,' which was really just a semi-circle shaped attachment with a yellow eye in the middle. At least, I had only assumed it was an eye. She squinted It like one, and she used it to direct her attention. I guess it was a camera of sorts. Looking at her creeped me out, so I instead turned my attention to the sphere that had fallen to the ground. I crouched down and picked it up by the two handles that were attached to it.
Whatever it was, it seemed sentient, but it did not speak to me. It, too, had an eye, which it used to stare at me. I stared back down at it's purple colored optic and tilted my head. I backed away from GLaDOS cautiously, while still keeping an eye on the sphere. "Where are you taking that thing?" She snapped. She seemed protective over whatever it was, which didn't surprise me, if it really was a part of her. What part of her could this possibly be, though, I wondered.
"I wouldn't bother with that thing." She said, her voice seeming to revert back to its normal, lifeless, robotic tone. "My guess is that touching it will make your life even worse, somehow." I gave her the side-eye as I circled her, the sphere still in my grasp. It had looked away from me and was slowly drifting it's optic across the room, eyeing everything calmly. I came up on a set of stairs that led to a platform. On the platform was a small enclosed room, with a button inside. I wasn't quite sure what this button did, but I was about to find out as I headed up the stairs, still glaring at GLaDOS.
" I don't want to tell you your business, but if it were me, I would leave that thing alone." I looked between the button in the room and the spherical robot that I held by the handle. I wasn't sure which 'thing' she was talking about, but I knew that I wasn't going to leave either alone. I proceeded up the steps and set the sphere down, slamming my hand down on the button. I noticed the room heating up as soon as I did. Looking around for the source of the heat, I found it, on the far side of the room. There was an incinerator, much like the one I had sacrificed my friend, The Companion Cube into. I put two and two together while glancing between the incinerator and the quiet sphere. If I burned this thing up, would it hurt GLaDOS? It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I shot a portal right above the incinerator hatch. I might burn up if I got too close. The other portal was placed on the wall behind me, and I picked the sphere up once more, looking down into the hatch through the portals that I created.
"Let's be honest here, neither of us knows what that thing does. What if you bring the whole facility crashing down by incinerating it? Just put it in the corner, and I'll deal with it later." GLaDOS ordered. I looked back at her, still dangerously close to dropping the thing into the burning pit. She wanted this thing alive, whatever it was. She was trying to convince me not to destroy it. It was almost as if she was begging for mercy, in her own little way. "Think about it, if that thing is so important, than why don't I know about it-? Are you even listening to me?" She shouted as I let the sphere go, and watched it fall down through the doors of the incinerator.
There was a delay and all went quiet, until the incinerator door closed, and a distant explosion could be heard underneath us. The whole room shook, and the lights flickered. GLaDOS whipped in my direction, furiously, glaring at me with her yellow eye. "You are kidding me." She said calmly. "Did you just stuff that Aperture Science 'Thing We Don't Know What It Does' into an Aperture Science 'Emergency Intelligence Incinerator?'" I smirked lightly. Something about the way she was acting once the thing was destroyed told me that it really was a part of her, and it must have had something to do with her personality. What was the real purpose of that thing, though? What exactly did I change? "That has got to be the dumbest- woah, woah- woahh-" She started glitching out, her voice changing every few seconds, before she suddenly stopped twitching around so much, and drew herself back into the center of the room.
Among the glitching, I could almost hear a small, sadistic laugh in her voice, as it lowered, and suddenly took on more emotion to it. "Good news... I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did..." She said in a nonchalant, smoother, and significantly less robotic tone of voice. My eyes widened slightly as I stared at her. I didn't know she was capable of showing any sort of emotion at all, and while the one she was currently displaying could be described as careless, it was definitely a step up from manic AI, or at least, I thought so.
"It was a morality core that they installed after I flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin to make me stop flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin... Get comfortable while I warm up the neurotoxin emitters..." She growled, depraved. I stepped back and pressed my back against the nearest wall. I realized my mistake. I had destroyed the one thing that gave her any sense of morality, and now, I didn't think she would hesitate to kill me. My only way out of dying was to kill her first, as quick as I could, and I found just a way to do that. In fact, she gave me just a way to do that, by pitting a weapon against me in the tiny room. Unfortunately for her, I did have a brain.
"That core must have had some ancillary responsibilities. I can't shut off the turret defenses." She said as a rocket turret activated beneath her and immediately set its sights on me. The rocket turrets were not the most efficient way to beat something that wasn't stationary. It took a long time to aim, and its ammo moved fairly slowly in a straight line. However, through the process of being a moving target and getting the turret to shoot through one portal and out through another, aimed directly at GLaDOS, I could easily take her down. She knew as well as I did that it was genius, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Her demise was planned, and there was nothing she could do now to prevent it but wait.
"If you want my advice," She said as I positioned the rocket's aim through the portal and waited for it to fire. "You should just lie down in front of the rocket. Trust me. It'll be a lot less painful than the neurotoxin." As she spoke, I could see a faint green gas cloud the air from a few vents at the top of the room. I coughed and dodged the rocket as it flew through and slammed into the side of GLaDOS. It didn't seem to do much else than knock off another personality construct and cause her to glitch out. "Alright. Keep doing whatever it is you think you're doing." She growled as I went to grab the other sphere.
This one seemed more lively than the other, glancing around frantically, asking questions, and being generally adorable. I found it a little harder to incinerate this one. As I stepped up near the button to open the incinerator, she looked at me. "Who are you?" She asked. GLaDOS chimed in. "This isn't brave, it's murder... what did I ever do to you?" The tone she used almost made me feel bad as I pressed the button and picked the curious core back up. "Where are we going? What is that?" I once again used portals, so I didn't have to get near the incinerator. "Is that a gun? Do you smell something burning?" Her orange eye darted the room, then fixed on the incinerator as I held her over it. GLaDOS and her words, and the innocent and naive tone of the personality core made me feel awful, and the ear-piercing scream that could be heard when I dropped the core into the incinerator made my eyes water.
The building trembled once more. The ruthless head of the facility was weakening. I could hear it in her voice. As the building shook, I thought I could make out a noise of pain come from the robot. It was odd, I didn't think they could feel pain, which made me feel even worse about the cores that I had thrown away. "You think you're doing some damage?" She hissed. "Two plus two is... ten... IN BASE FOUR, I'M FINE!" She yelled, even more emotion in her voice than previously. I had destroyed her morality, her curiosity, so I wondered now what was left of her. All I could do was listen to her voice and speculate.
"I let you survive this long because I was curious about your behavior, and you managed to destroy that part of me. Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to now, I can't get the neurotoxin to your head any faster." As she spoke, it became harder to breathe. I knew that my time now was limited. If I stalled any longer, I would surely die, just like all of those scientists did before. She liked to talk about how I was so in the wrong for attempting to kill her, when she herself had killed hundreds, no, thousands of the people that had helped to create her. Tell me now that she's innocent.
"I'd just like to point out that you were given every opportunity to succeed," She began as the rocket started to take aim once more. I was curious now about what she had to say, so I made my way back to the room with the button, where I was safe from the rocket and could sit still for a moment. I was aware that I was wasting time on her; time that I really didn't have to waste, but I couldn't help but want to listen to what she had to say. Perhaps that was my biggest fault.
"There was even going to be a party for you. A big party, that all of your friends were invited to." My mind flashed back to the platform ride on the way to her chamber. She had promised me cake, which sounded nice at the time, but I couldn't trust her, and with all of the graffiti on the walls of the chamber from a former test subject claiming that 'the cake is a lie,' I was going to let the more experienced decide on my behalf whether I stick around for the promised cake or not. "I invited your best friend, the companion cube. Of course, he couldn't come, because you murdered him." I glared at her. And who made me throw him in the incinerator, hm? "All your other friends couldn't come either, because you don't have any other friends, because of how unlikable you are."
I shook my head, blocking out her pointless comments, and positioned the portals again so that I could hit her with another rocket. I was done listening to her nonsense. "It says right here on your personnel file: Unlikable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikable loner whose passing shall not be mourned. 'Shall not be mourned.' That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official." She tried in a desperate attempt to bring me down as I stood in front of the rocket, ready for it to take another shot at her. "It also says you were adopted, so that's funny, too." She said softly as the rocket was fired. It knocked off yet another personality core. I hoped that this one was the last one left. It wasn't, of course. If I could get rid of this one, I would only have one more. I could see it attached to her still.
The construct that had flew off managed to land on a glass platform high up in the room, but I had no trouble reaching it with the neat gun that I had. I could still hear her threatening me as I approached the sphere. His voice was deep and dull, and his blue optic was dilated. He listed off ingredients in a monotone voice. "One 18.25 ounce package chocolate cake mix, one can prepared coconut pecan frosting..." The recipe was just a simple one, for a cake of all things. It made me wonder if she really did have a cake waiting for me, but that was the least of my concern right then.
As I jumped from the platform and headed to incinerate the next sphere, the ingredients he listed got stranger and stranger. " Fish-shaped Ethyl Benzene,...Alpha resins,...Adjustable aluminum head positioned,...cordless electric needle injectors..." I shuddered, ready to incinerate that one as quickly as I could. What did she put in the cake? I slammed my hand down on the button to open the hatch and threw him into the incinerator. This time, I felt no remorse.
"Here's a hint, you're going to want to pack as much living as you can into the next couple of minutes," GLaDOS muttered. She had been talking while I was concerned about what the blue-eyed core was saying, but I didn't catch any of it. As the facility trembled again, I heard her produce a few simulated coughs.
"Neurotoxin...So deadly... choking...." She laughed, but I didn't find it very funny. I just glared at her and tried not to breathe if I could help it. The room was filling with the toxin more and more by the second. "I'm kidding!" She snickered, pointing out the obvious. "When I said 'deadly neurotoxin, the 'deadly' was in massive sarcasm quotes. I could take a bath in the stuff, put it on cereal, rub it right into my eyes... Honestly, it's not deadly at all... to me." I found it odd how she spoke about herself as if she was human. She was pure machine, not even remotely resembling a human, anchored to the facility. How she would have done any of this with neurotoxin was beyond me, but perhaps it was just some sort of idiom that flew over my head. "You on the other hand, are going to find it's deadliness a lot less funny..." As she spoke, it seemed that the room flooded faster. I had to act quick. I already felt lightheaded and sick, if I didn't do something quickly, I would be dead in no time, and she would win.
I got another rocket shot at her, and down fell her last personality construct. Whatever it was, I wondered what she would be without it. As I picked this one up, it thrashed and snarled, and I only assumed this was what had control of her violence. I coughed, trying to make it to the incinerator, but everything was going dark, and quickly. "What is your point?" GLaDOS sounded frantic. "Survival? The last thing you want to do is hurt me." I opened the incinerator and stared her down as I took the last piece of her and threw it down into the incinerator.
"Are you trying to escape?" She chuckled as the facility shook, much more violently than it had before. I grabbed onto the railing of the platform and stared at her. "Things have changed since the last time you left the building..." Her voice glitched out, raising and dropping rapidly in pitch, until it was hard to make out what she was saying. "What's going on out there will make you wish you were back in here..." I felt a strong force from above, as if there were a vacuum, and it began sucking up everything that was in the room. GLaDOS struggled to get her last words to me out before she was destroyed completely, but it was hard to focus on anything as the room was being sucked into the ceiling.
"I have an infinite capacity for knowledge, and even I'm not sure what's going on outside... Unless you plan on building some super-computer parts in a hurry, this place won't be safe for much longer..." She said briefly, before the was drawn up into the blinding light that filled the room, and I felt the platform begin to rise. I was being drawn up to the surface, I was free... And I could feel myself slowly losing consciousness. When I was able to open my eyes, I saw an empty parking lot. I saw the sun, I saw plants, and I saw the broken parts of GLaDOS, just laying there, lifeless. I could feel something tug at my legs, and I heard a faint voice from behind me. "Thank you for assuming the Party Escort Submission position," Then, I swore I could hear music... A voice... Her voice... This isn't how I remember it...
My eyes shot open. I could hear a faint humming, maybe even singing, but I couldn't make out the words. It took me a moment to realize that it was GLaDOS, singing over the speakers. Her voice was oddly calming, and it had never occurred to me that a robot could have such a pleasant singing voice. Perhaps she had lulled me to sleep. I felt rested enough when I stood up and rubbed my eyes, but troubled. It all came back to me; what happened before I woke up in the relaxation vault, so many years after the incident. I relived it all in whatever short time I had been napping against the wall.
As I thought about it all, GLaDOS had stopped singing. "Oh, good. You're awake. I thought of waking you, but I decided I would give you a brief recess from testing, you know, after all I put you through." I looked at the camera and yawned. "Thanks... I guess-" I was contemplating apologizing to her, after all I had done, myself, but she changed my mind with her next dialogue. "I don't feel bad about any of it, of course. I just thought you might perform better if you got some rest."
It occurred to me that we still hated each other and that if I was going to get out of here, I needed not stop and think about showing her any kindness. After all, to get out of here, I'll probably have to kill her again. So I turned around and went on with the pointless testing. Wheatley and I are going to take her down again, that's all that matters now.
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Hello, all! If you're a little confused about this chapter, it's kind of a flashback scene in the form of a dream sequence. GLaDOS has been beating Chell up about killing her and all, but I never really went into detail about how it all went down. I was considering doing this scene here as the prologue but I didn't for some reason, so I needed to find somewhere to include it. Why not a good old fashioned flashback dream? Eh, idk. It was fun to write, though. The events of the dream happened almost immediately before the prologue, except there was a good 50 day delay there where Chell was just asleep because she was dragged back to the facility, then another [9999999999999999999999999999999] (Give or take) days before the story actually begins-- thought I would clear that up, mostly for myself.
I hope you enjoyed it, uhh, we're gonna get to see a lot of Wheatley in the next few chapters so that's fun. ;)
or is it?