Chapter Text
For the sake of this story, Portal 1 took place after Half-Life 1, during or not long after the 7 Hour War. Portal 2 ended under a year before Gordon Freeman’s return.
The door opened to a field, the sunlight blinding her for the first time in decades, her eyes peered out, greeted by the vast field of wheat before her. Her pristine white boots, stained by soil for the first time in it’s long existence, the world was enormous, unyielding, and bright. The door slammed behind her, and her paranoia jumped and she twirled in fear, only to be met with the pathetic shed she had exited. Then the door opened again, and spat out a burnt companion cube, slamming itself once again.
She waited.
Surely there must be more to this.
A trap.
A trick.
Something.
Yet nothing.
“Finally.”
“Wakey wakey Alyx, we’re here!”
Her eyes creaked open, bleary and tired, exhaling at how dry her mouth was, and held her head. Trips to the White Forest were usually long, arduous, and more often than not, not worth it. It’s miracle enough that they’d found a working pickup truck, just a shame the driver was an unsympathetic dick. Way out here, the Combine couldn’t care less, safe in the ignorance that they could continue their genocide within the prisons they called ‘Cities’.
She rubbed her left eye, “What time is it?”
The driver adjusted his rear-view, “’bout quarter to 10”
Alyx held her head, a 10 hour nap? She was more sleepy than she thought. She looked up in a startled realisation, and shot another question “How the hell did we make it here with 10 hours of no interruptions?”
“Beats me, maybe the patrols have been extra sensitive for our guest.”
The guest. Apparently she was from America, had escaped all the way from Aperture Science of all places, she was lucky enough to have found an encampment that could connect her all the way to White Forest.
The welcoming party opened up the garage door, allowing Cameron to park inside, Eli opened the door in time to see Alyx jump out from the back, they couldn’t help but smile to see each other again, Alyx rushing to hug him, his old arms wrapped around her, “Hey there sweetie, did you have a safe trip?”.
Alyx pulled away for a moment “Safe enough, managed to sleep longer than I have in my life”.
“Good, good” he chuckled, and shifted his hand to her back, leading her through the door and down the hallway.
“How’s Magnusson, cranky as ever?” Alyx queried with a smile.
Eli looked to the ground “Oof, less said the better”.
She giggled and looked the floor as well.
They stopped at the door, with Eli turning to her, “Now, about our guest-”
Alyx put her hand on his arm “I know dad, she’s been through a lot, I’ll be careful.”
He took her hand off him and held her other, holding them between each other “Nono, it’s not about that.” he sighed, “She’s been… fairly uncooperative, only really spoken when necessary, whether what’s happened at Aperture traumatised her, or what was above made it worse. I’m not quite the charmer I used to be, but you certainly are. If I can’t get her to help us, I know you can” he let go of her hands to hold her shoulders, “she might know far more about Aperture than anything else we have, we might even get an advantage over the Combine this way.”
Alyx sighed, and put her hand on top of one of his, “Ok then”.
Eli opened the door, inviting Alyx into the living room, before her was a woman sat on the couch, leaning forward with her hands clasped together, with the torso of her jumpsuit tied around her waist, a tanktop brazen with the Aperture Science name and logo, her hair in a ponytail, and wearing strange muddied boots, like high heels, but with a spring on the back, it almost looked surgically attached. The rebel stood at the door and couldn’t help but stare for a moment, the guest stared straight back with tired eyes, god only knows how exhausted she could be. For now, there was only an uncomfortable silence between the 2. “Can I get you anything? Cup of tea? Coffee?”, the guest stared straight back, Alyx had never felt an awkwardness quite like this before.
If she wasn’t going to say anything, Alyx might as well make a move, fetching her favourite mug and some coffee, turning on the kettle with enough water for two, she held the tea and coffee pots in both hands, and turned to her guest, raising one, and then the other. She pointed to the coffee. Some progress, better than nothing.
She held up some milk too as an offering.
She shook her head.
‘Ok, so two black coffees then’.
Alyx looked deep into the brewing coffee mugs, her mind anxious for ideas of what to ask her to, what would help her talk, socialising was never her greatest strength, but she at least tried, but this felt… different. Whoever this woman was, she’d clearly been through a hell of a lot, it’s bad enough to find out the world you fell in love with is now a hell-scape of genocide and inhumanity, maybe humanity was what she needed. She’s a person, not a rebel, not an alien, not some cybernetically enhanced combine freak, she’s human.
She stared at her guest some more, with no idea how to even start the conversation, best she could do was give her the cup of coffee and hope for the best. She sat down next to her, her guest holding the coffee with both hands, feeling its warmth. Alyx couldn’t help but look at her, she had no idea what to make of her, but if she was going to get anywhere, she might as well start with basics.
“I’m Alyx Vance, I’m the daughter of the man you saw earlier. What’s your name?”, ‘good question Alyx, really selling the awkward vibe even more’.
The guest took a swig of her coffee, finishing it in one go. Alyx stared wide-eyed as she did. The guest exhaled, “Che-” she coughed “Chell”.
Alyx stared more, and maintained eye contact while drinking some of her coffee. “So… Chell.”
“Yeah” Chell turned to look at her, her tired eyes opening a bit more.
The rebel couldn’t look away from her. How do you follow that up? “Do you… know anything that could help us?”
She wiped her lips with her hand “Probably not.”
Being sat together on the couch like this, Chell still leaning forward, Alyx set at an almost uncomfortable distance from her. She sighed, “Ok, I’ll level with you, I don’t know how to talk to you about this, you seem like you’ve been through a hell of a lot, and… I’ve had my fair share, but you must’ve been through something else entirely.”
Chell was silent, inspecting Alyx’s mildly confused visage, her eyes darting for details on the rebel. “The Combine are horrific and… terrifying, but at least they’re not a genocidal manmade AI, that’s all I’m gonna say.”
Alyx stared wide-eyed again. “How...” she could only utter.
“Put it this way, I’m tenacious.”
She kept staring.
All the times she’d found her way out of City 17, across canals of corrosive acid, fought countless zombies, tangled with so many soldiers, but she always had help, always an outpost of people, some food available, organic and friendly. But to live entirely on your own, under the oppressive watch of an AI, for decades, no food, no human faces, living off whatever you can, and… genocidal. That word rung in her head.
Did this AI kill off everyone inside Aperture? It doesn’t sound like Chell wants to talk about it anyway.
Alyx managed to tear her gaze away to look at the floor and contemplate for a moment more, before raising her mug “Do you want another?”.
“No thanks” she muttered.
Was there anywhere to take this conversation next, clearly she didn’t want to open up, nor did she seem interested in helping much. Alyx got up to put their mugs on a tray to wash up later, and looked back to Chell, all things considered, she wasn’t hard to look at… pretty even.
The woman on the couch looked away, “There’s nothing else I can tell you really… or want to tell you”, her eyes sang of something solemn.
The rebel bit her lip, and surrendered “You… don’t have to join us.”
Chell sat up in shock, her eyes trained on Alyx, “What do you mean?”
She exhaled, brushing her hand over her hair “This must already be too much for you, and...” she looked down to the floor, her heart heavy, “not many people these days get to just… live”, her eyes realigned with Chell “I don’t know how much you’ve suffered, but you deserve a life to call your own”.
Her entire journey was spent hearing of how horrible the world was, that the rebels needed all the help they could get, of how she could do something, serve a cause.
“Lass, where ya gettin’ off at?”
“France.”
“France? That’d be uh… City 4, right?”
“Sure.”
“Ya know, saw ya clear a pretty damn high wall earlier, ya’d make a good scout for us.”
“...”
“Woman a yer skills, ya could probably make any Citadel look like a joke!”
“...”
“We’ve been in these tunnels for days, how many more fucking antlions are we gonna find, what are you good for, scout!?”
“I’m not a scout.”
“Yah, sure ya aren’t”
“I’m not.”
“Fine. Whatever.”
“Thought that gate was shut fer sure, how’d ya manage?”
“Electrical system was faulty, rewired it”
“You- you rewired it? That’d take days, how the hell’d ya-”
“I have to go.”
“No wait! You’d do well for us! We need a mechani-”
‘All this time. Spent hearing how they’d benefit, what they need. I need time, I can’t throw myself back out there. I’m not ready… I’m not ready’
Chell held her head in her hands, with Alyx having crouched in front of her, her hands on her shoulders to comfort her. “You don’t have to be with us”, she repeated, Alyx looked off to consider how she could make this work “I’m sure there’s something you could do around here, you don’t… have to actively do anything for us, but I don’t know how long you’ll be able to recover for.”
Chell sniffled, catching Alyx’s attention, “Hey… hey”, she moved her hands from her shoulders to the sides of her head, “It’ll be ok”. She revealed her face again, eyes red, just on the verge of tears, “Will it be?”
“Yes”
“Can you even promise me that?”
“...no, but I can try, for you.”
She looked to Alyx for a moment longer, before diving in to hug her, her arms wrapped tightly around her, her head comfortably rested on her shoulders. It took a moment before she could pull her arms around Chell, and carefully rub her back, as she sniffled more, “I know… I know...”.
Chell pushed her face gently into Alyx’s shoulder to dry her tears. For the first time in years, she was being told to just live, that it’d be ok, to finally be more than a test subject, or to do what’s right. “I couldn’t care” she began between deep hasty breaths, “if it’s a mistake not to help these people”, another deep breath “I just want someone to care.”
Maybe it was wrong, she worried that she was taking advantage of what she wanted, when she’s this vulnerable, and this desperate. In her heart though, she knew she could never turn down someone in need, not like this.
“Then I’m here.”
Chell pulled away for a moment, slowly, to look at Alyx, face to face.
“I’m here” she repeated.
Alyx looked deep into those teary eyes of hers, and saw so much, too much, she couldn’t have known what happened in Aperture, but she did, all too well.
Chell only saw the eyes of a woman who’d seen hell from her youth to where she is now, too much misery, too many sob stories, and could pull a smile anyway.
“Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
Their hug resumed, tighter than ever, Chell’s tears running down her face finally, and Alyx bearing some of her own. “How the hell have you done this to me” Chell managed to chuckle in her tears.
“Don’t ask me, you just deserve love” Alyx replied.
“Is that what this is?”
“Depends if it’s platonic to you or not” she giggled.
“I… wanna wait before I can say”
“That’s ok. But if you don’t mind me saying, you’re… really pretty”
Chell couldn’t help but laugh at that, snorting a bit, “You’re really pretty yourself”.