Work Text:
Chell woke lazily on her birthday. She gave herself time to lie in bed, hovering at the edge of consciousness, enjoying the simulated mid-morning sunlight filtering through the blinds. She stretched broadly, and then slid out from under the covers. The soles of her bare feet settled on the familiar carpet.
Rising, she went first to the bathroom. She used the toilet first—“Your business is appreciated,” it chirped at her, as usual—and then decided to start her day with a shower. The warm water relaxed her muscles as steam filled her lungs. It felt calming, wholesome. A welcome change from the heart-pounding adrenal vapor from her first time here. Chell tried most days not to think about that, but in this place it was hard not to remember. She focused instead on the shower—the soothing sound of the water, the feel of it on her skin. The anxiety passed.
She stepped out, and caught sight of her own shape in the steamy mirror as she toweled off. She wiped it clear to look at herself. She looked good, for fifty-four, or at least she thought so. Lines were beginning to form around her mouth and eyes, but those hardly mattered. Streaks of gray in her hair gave her a distinguished look. But her eyes, her bright eyes with their preternatural focus, were still the same.
Next she dressed in a comfortable tank top and workout pants, something she could wear under a jumpsuit in case they wanted to test. She brushed her teeth with Aperture-brand Tooth Maintenance Gel (guaranteed not to cause burns or bleeding), combed out her black-and-silver hair, tied it back in a ponytail, and was ready for the day.
As she stepped out of the bathroom, GLaDOS’s voice said from everywhere, “I have a surprise for you.”
A surprise—that meant more than the usual cake and testing. Chell couldn’t help feeling suspicious. GLaDOS hadn’t tried to kill her in decades, and she trusted her now not to kill her by accident, but her surprises weren’t always welcome things. Sometimes they were beautiful, like when GLaDOS had made her an underground garden with real sunlight from the surface. But her last surprise had been trying to coat Chell’s bones in titanium.
Osteoporosis, she’d said to justify it. Counteracting the onset of brittle bones—just to be safe. She’d always been protective of her only human, but recently it had gotten worse. Could a thing born of kindness get worse? Yes, Chell decided that it could, as she walked apprehensively through the door to see her latest present.
“I’ve been thinking. You’re in good shape, for a woman of your age, but you’re not as young as you used to be. Eventually your organs will fail faster than I can replace them, or you’re going to break something I can’t fix. Which will happen sooner if you don’t let me reinforce your bones, by the way.”
Chell didn’t like where this was going. A floor panel folded back, no doubt for dramatic effect, and a pedestal rose up in front of her.
“So I thought I’d whip up a little something to solve the problem.”
On the pedestal was a robot.
It stood as tall as Chell, and looked more human that the ones GLaDOS had made before. Jointed arms with five articulate fingers, legs with front-bending knees and feet with toes. The slope of neck into shoulder matched Chell’s own. But the head—the head was a round core-like structure, one single eye, tacked on like an afterthought. Its optic was dark and dead. Nobody home.
“I tried to keep it humanlike, so it won’t skew test results. It should operate exactly like a human body. Without all that eating and sleeping, of course.” GLaDOS paused as Chell looked the thing over. “Well? What do you think?”
Chell looked incredulously at the security camera in the corner, where she knew GLaDOS watched. What was this, a new testing robot? Something to replace her? No, Chell’s guess was worse.
GLaDOS confirmed. “It’s your new body!”
Chell’s jaw clenched. It was a familiar reflex—it meant they were about to have an argument.
“I’m pleased with the way the hands turned out,” GLaDOS continued, oblivious. “I took my time getting them just right. The smooth joint action is really excellent—if I do say so myself.” She paused again, expectantly. “Don’t I get a thank you?”
Chell knew this conversation would come eventually. Bracing herself, she looked steadily into the camera and said, “I don’t… want this.”
“What’s wrong with it? Is it not human enough? I can give it skin, if you want.”
“No, I—”
“Maybe it’s not perfect, we’ll have to test it. I can always make a better one—”
“I don’t want this. At all.”
GLaDOS stumbled. “We’ll have to put you somewhere once you’re uploaded.”
“I’m not being uploaded.”
“Not right away, we still have another twenty or thirty years, but—”
“Ever.”
It took a moment for GLaDOS to find her words. “You’re not serious.” Chell said nothing. “You don’t actually think I’d let you—that’s absurd. And it’s not funny. Don’t tease me like that.”
Chell folded her arms, staring silently into the camera.
“I know you’re not stupid. Don’t be stupid.”
Still Chell didn’t respond. She’d said what she needed to say. Now it was best to let GLaDOS talk herself out.
GLaDOS went silent too, for a thoughtful second. The camera stared back at Chell. “You know,” she said slowly, “I expected this. I expected you to be ungrateful, but I went to all this trouble anyway, just in case you showed some sense for once.”
Time for the insults. That meant GLaDOS was hurt, which Chell expected, but she could allow no room for compromise. She’d made this decision a long time ago.
“Is this why you won’t let me upgrade you? Some kind of deathwish? You’re looking forward to the day you can’t even hold a portal gun? It’ll happen, you know. Your pitiful human body will waste away into nothing, and even I won’t be able to save you.”
The words came out in a rush. Chell could read embarrassment in the pause that followed.
“Look. I don’t want you to die. You don’t want to die. Right?”
“I don’t want to live like that.” Chell nodded at the robot.
“What’s wrong with that?” Her temper flared again. “You’re too good for robots, is that it? Too good for me? You’ve always thought you were so superior. Well I’ve got news for you—there’s nothing superior about being meat. And there’s nothing glamorous about dying. I would know.”
That got under Chell’s skin. No amount of verbal abuse could faze her anymore, but the reminder of GLaDOS’s pain…
“Dying is horrible. Just trust me on that.”
Chell felt guilty despite herself. GLaDOS deserved better than silence. “Can I see you?”
GLaDOS hesitated for barely a second. Then Chell felt the little room begin to move, like a rising elevator. Once it stopped, the left wall folded away, connecting it to GLaDOS’s central chamber.
Chell stepped out into the larger space, where GLaDOS hung from the ceiling above. Her chassis, huge and majestic, still stirred a sense of awe in the human after all these years. Her faceplate alone was almost as long as Chell was tall. She walked up to face her, gazing into her single golden eye.
“Well?” asked the robot. “Do you feel like apologizing?”
Chell understood her fear. All those years ago, when GLaDOS let her walk out of the facility, she’d chosen to come back. It had taken months of wandering the wasteland above—and months of GLaDOS trying not to worry about her lost human—but eventually, she’d returned. She’d chosen to return, no encouragement required, and she’d chosen to stay.
But this wasn’t like that. This time, if GLaDOS let her go, she wasn’t coming back.
The conversation had to come sometime, but maybe it didn’t have to be now. She rested a hand on the smooth white panel of GLaDOS’s face. “Let’s talk later. I want to enjoy my birthday.”
GLaDOS relented. “Fine. Would you… like your cake?”
Chell’s face broke into a smile. “Yes.”