After After Aperture Part One

"Running from a life of tests, where something's always at stake…"

Chell groaned and hit the off button on her alarm. She did NOT want to go to work today. Or speech therapy, really-it wasn't working as well as she'd hoped. She could say some things, but she sounded like a two-year-old child. She rolled out of bed anyway, patting her Companion Cube.

She pulled on her Aperture jacket and a pair of jeans-her job wasn't too fussy about uniform. After that, she grabbed the morning newspaper.

APERTURE SCIENCE TO RECLAIM FACILITY was the headline.

What? Chell started reading.

Aperture Science resurfaced last night, announcing plans to retake the facility from a computer program called 'Gladys'.

Gladys?  Chell thought, amused. She could picture GLaDOS's reaction to being called Gladys.

Gladys took over the facility, using neurotoxin to kill the scientists and their daughters. The computer program was intended to test, so some children are probably still alive. Please call the number below if you see any of these children.

A list of names was underneath. Chell scanned it briefly-oh crud. Her name was on it. She had used her proper name, Chell Johnson, coming here. Stupid!

The town was beginning to stir now. Chell picked up her Companion Cube-she was wearing her Aperture Science jacket already-and left.

She arrived at the wheat field soon enough. There was the shack. She knocked briskly on the door. Moments later, a camera swiveled out and stared at her.  "I told you to go."

Chell took a deep breath. She tried as hard as she could. "Gla-os." She would later swear the camera looked surprised.

"Gla-os. Paper." Her therapist encouraged her to be brief.

"I KNOW. Those morons will never get near me. However, since you are here, take this." The door opened and a core rolled out.

"Chell!" The core spun around. "Chell! Nice to see you again, love! She hasn't killed you? Great! For you, I mean."

"Why do you thin I wan him?" Chell inquired.

"Because otherwise, I will crush and incinerate him. And then send him back into space with the Space Core."

"Oh! Chell? You still like me, right? …Cough if you still like me."

Chell coughed. Wheatley's optic lit up. "Oh! You do still like me! Really?"

"Ye-yes." She pushed the heart on her Cube, revealing the hollow storage container, and placed Wheatley inside. Now she had warned GLaDOS, but she had a new problem-how to avoid notice back home.

"The Enrichment Center wishes to remind you that former test subjects with Weighted Companion Cubes containing Intelligence Dampening Spheres are NOT allowed outside the elevator shafts."

Chell waved the paper at the camera. "Gla-os. Paper. I am in it." Ha! She was getting better.
A sigh echoed up the shaft.  "Do not hurt yourself, test subject." The door opened to reveal a waiting elevator. "Bring the moron."

Chell stared at the screen.

"I will not incinerate, crush, or otherwise harm him," GLaDOS said, sounding irritated.

She got in.

The elevator sped towards GLaDOS's chamber, its occupant convinced she was insane. She was voluntarily headed back to Aperture Science, and about to see GLaDOS again.

GLaDOS- Chell sighed. She had mixed feelings towards her. True, the A.I. had let her go, but she had also tried to kill her on numerous occasions.

The elevator slowed and stopped in GLaDOS's chamber. It had been cleaned up and restored-however, she had kept Wheatley's no-portal-surfaces, Chell noticed with a smirk.

"Exactly what do you find so amusing, test subject?"

"No-ing," Chell said, still smirking.

She stepped out of the elevator, and GLaDOS's voice took on its 'protocol' tone. "(Subject Name Here), you have been permitted to temporarily stay at this facility while a bombing or other apocalyptic circumstance is taking place. When the event or events mentioned above have concluded, you may go back to (Subject Hometown Here)." A pen and some paper dropped in front of Chell. "So that you do not kill yourself attempting to talk, (Subject Name Here)."

Chell wrote on the paper, I THINK YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PUT MY NAME THERE.

GLaDOS narrowed her optic. "Very amusing, (Subject Name Here). I did not give you paper so that you could be snide."

WHY, THEN?

"I have already answered that question. I have given you an alternative means of communication so that you do not injure yourself in a futile attempt to talk."

FUTILE? I CAN TALK NOW, I'M WORKING ON IT.

"(Subject Name Here), your prolonged interaction with the portal gun, combined with the time you spent in your Extended Relaxation Vault, damaged your vocal cords."

AND YOU FORGOT TO TELL ME?

"No. I…was unsure," she admitted. "You are the only sane test subject to make it past the final test; therefore, I did not have a comparison."

Chell had to laugh at GLaDOS's reluctance to admit she didn't know something.

"What is so funny?" demanded the A.I. She sounded offended.

Chell sat there and laughed. Eventually, she calmed down, writing: DID YOU REALLY DELETE CAROLINE?

"No. She is a part of my programming, and so cannot be deleted. I did, however, restrain her somewhat, so do not expect any more lullabies."

Chell was about to write something else when a robot smashed through the elevator.

GLaDOS's optic rolled. "This is the attempt to reclaim this facility? Pathetic." She sent the elevator downward with the robot. "Now then, (Subject Name Here), I am sending you to an Extended Relaxation Vault until this inconvenience has been taken care of. Once the threat to the facility has been neutralized, I will send you back to that anthill of a town you live in."

WHY DO YOU CARE IF I'M IN DANGER, AND WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE YOU?

"You may take your Weighted Companion Cube, and anything inside it. Please inform any cores that they are confined to your vault room." She paused and looked at Chell's paper. "It is protocol to keep test subjects out of non-test related danger. You should believe me because the alternative is getting killed by these robots."

Chell pulled her Companion Cube to the elevator. Two more robots attacked in that time, GLaDOS getting rid of them efficiently. When she got there, she wrote one more thing on the paper. YOU HAD BETTER NOT BE LYING TO ME, GLaDOS.

"I'm not…Chell…" she heard faintly as the elevator sped downward. Chell smiled to herself and patted her Companion Cube as the elevator continued its downward journey.

The lift arrived and opened at a standard chamber, except with a management rail. There was a portal gun on the table. Chell found out quickly that it wouldn't do portals, just lift objects. She used it to place Wheatley on his rail.

"Chell? Where are we? Oh! I know where we are! Are you okay?"

Chell just nodded. She didn't trust GLaDOS, but she trusted the scientists responsible for her even less. So she sat on the bed and went to sleep.
                                                                          ---

"Good morning! You have been in suspension for (50) days. In compliance with state and federal regulations, every test subject must be revived periodically for a mandatory physical and mental wellness exercise."

Chell rubbed her eyes and sat up. Fifty days? GLaDOS had either lied, or the scientists had succeeded.

"You will hear a buzzer," the message was saying. "When you-bip." It cut off and beeped quietly for a moment.

A calm voice Chell didn't know came on. "Good morning, Miss Chell Johnson. Please proceed quickly and quietly to the elevator waiting outside your room. Your record indicates you have completed testing tracks before. This will be a short track. Please leave your belongings behind, as they may become lost or damaged during testing."

Chell was panicking. GLaDOS was gone. She was alone in the facility. And she had to test again.

"Miss Johnson," came the voice again. "Please proceed to the elevator." The TV repeated this in several languages.

Chell got herself under control. She didn't test well under stress. She waved to Wheatley. "I'll be back!" Then she flinched. Aperture—or GLaDOS—must have repaired her vocal cords while she was sleeping.

Chell found the elevator and got in, worried about GLaDOS.

The elevator arrived at a simple testing area. Chell did not want to test again.

"Chell, the object of this test is to move a cube onto that button," the voice explained. "There will be a series of tests similar to this. At the conclusion of testing, an elevator will arrive to escort you to your victory cake, and then to your Vault."

"Cake?" Some things don't change.

"Yes, cake. However, you must complete your testing track first."

"Where's GLaDOS?" she asked.

"The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System has been taken offline. Your record shows you are exceptionally fast at hard tests, so these should be easy for you."

Offline. Aperture had won. GLaDOS was gone.

Chell avoided her grief by moving as fast as she could through her testing track. The tests were easy—they were proper tests, not disguised ways to kill test subjects.

She finished the last one—it was an odd feeling to not almost die—and got in the elevator. It arrived at a room with cake, her Companion Cube, and Wheatley.

The scientist that had talked to her throughout the tests greeted her. "Chell, glad to see you made it. You may want to get your cake before it's gone."

Chell cut herself a slice of cake. "This is unreal. I've completed a testing track, GLaDOS is gone, and I'm eating cake."

"Yes, it's noted in your record—you are Caroline's daughter? And you have a history of trying to kill or replace GLaDOS?"

Chell nodded. "I didn't know she was Caroline. Wheatley and I thought that if we put him in charge, things would be better, but instead he almost blew up the facility."

She paused to take a bite of cake. "We got GLaDOS back in charge, and she let me go. I stayed for a while, but eventually left and made a home in the town nearby."

She finished her cake. "That was good cake."

"I thought you'd like it," the scientist smiled. "Please take the elevator back to your Relaxation Vault."

Chell wondered, as she got in the elevator carrying her Cube and Wheatley, if this was the rest of her life. Testing, testing, more testing, until she died.

"Don't worry, Chell," Wheatley said, looking up at her from inside the Companion Cube. "You'll be all right."

Chell got out of the elevator, placed Wheatley on his rail, and went back to sleep.

* * *

GLaDOS wasn't gone.

Oh, she was close. She was hiding from the scientists, deep in the mainframe.

She was beginning to remember why she had neurotoxined the original scientists. They had treated her like an ordinary computer, sending robots in to deactivate her. Hence her present situation.

While it was a temporary solution only, one thing held GLaDOS back from flooding the facility with neurotoxin: Chell.

Chell would be used as a test subject and, unfortunately, GLaDOS had noted her unusual speed at them. So it was likely that Chell was testing right now.

Now, GLaDOS could handle robots. But Aperture knew that. They had sent in dozens of the things. They were fast and prepared. If she ever retook the facility, she would need to rebuild her body first.

In the meantime, she accessed an already-active camera, missing the days when she had had prompt access to every camera in the facility—except the ones that Chell destroyed, of course.

She saw a Faith Plate test. A tall, slightly chubby man was testing it, but it kept sending out distress calls.

She withdrew, realizing that her life literally depended on Chell finding out what had happened.