Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

CHAPTER 1: BACK TO THE GATES OF HELL. 

Chell was  standing here once more, in  front of the old, rusty shed, in the middle of nowhere, with her companion cube straped to her back, she could not tell why she came back to this place, to this damn hell hole she escaped from so long ago, a little voice in her head told her it would be a good idea to pay GLaDOS a visit, another voice told her it must be her the cause of that idea, but even then , suspecting the worst, she abbadoned her new home and went back.

She was not very surprised to see the door open, she knew G. Must be expecting her.

The moment she entered the elevator and the door closed was when all the bad thoughts began to appear, she was cursing herself to take advice of that voice begging her to come here, but it was already too late, the elevator was slowing down and she knew what was about to happen.

The door opened and all she could see was just a few feet illuminated by a dim light, the simple aperture white tiles adorning the floor, all the lights started to turn on and the massive central chamber was filled with the blinding light and, in the center, was her, in the same place as the last time, hanging from the ceiling with a yellow light coming from her head piece, Chell was about to say hello, but decided against it since she intended to keep her silent vow.

Chell looked at her, but, something was off she was not looking the same as the last time they saw each other, moving that thought into the back of her mind she waited for GLaDOS to talk.

 GLaDOS : Oh, its you again, how have you been? its been a long time *she said while laughing a little* Did you came back for the cake or just missed talking with me?

Chell was keeping a straight face and her silence, it was her way to tell GLaDOS and all of Aperture how they will never break her, it was the only thing she had left after everything that happened inside this facilities, but GLaDOS was having none of that, she knew Chell could talk and was not going to explain a thing if Chell kept that stubborn silence.

G: Oh come on, we both know you have a lot of questions, so lets make this quick, i don't have all day.

GLaDOS was right, she needed answers, and the queen will not cooperate without some sense of superiority.

Chell: Fine (her voice was really sour, all those years without speaking did some damage to her vocal cords) why am I here?

G: you should know that already, of course is because how much you love to test and want to go back in the path of science and progress.

Chell's expression said more than words, of course she was joking.

G: Fine, i did made you come here.

C: How?

After a mechanical sigh, she answered.

G: Every test subject who completes all the task's given will receive an implant, a microchip located in the back of the head that will keep track of their location and, if its necessary, it will implant the idea of coming back to aperture and try another set of tests.

Chell's eyes and mouth went wide open, her hands formed a fist and her blood was starting to boil, the first time she met GLaDOS she thought it was just a recorded voice, she was surprised and scared the moment she saw the incinerator room, the time when Wheatley went mad she felt horrible, the only friendly robot in this mad house stabbed her in the back, now she felt like GLaDOS had took her heart and ripped it with one of her mechanical claws and throwing it to the incinerator.

C: You... You, you

G: Wait, Chell please, let me explain i just...

GLaDOS was cut off when Chell started to scream s

Chell started rambling furiously while her voice was breaking, she was screaming about how she thought they were friends, how after everything they went trough she really believed how GLaDOS had changed, tears started to flow down her eyes, and was shaking. sha was starting to scream louder and louder and her words became only angry mumbles.

Watching Chell break down like this would have been for GLaDOS a laughing matter, but that was before all that had happened, specially now, she could not handle it anymore.

"CHELL!" GLaDOS screamed, her words echoing across all the room, Chell was really surprised by her screaming, she sounded ... scared. "Im dying"

Chapter Text

The Silence, the dreadful silence filled the room, that was why GLaDOS looked so strange, so weak, she was... Dying

Chell: ....What... How...why ....?

G: It was in the moment when you got that Moron in charge, he was not as complex as i am and could not control all the activities necessary to keep Aperture running, thats why it was going to explode, but another things where left without enough power to keep working, one of those systems was the Auto Reparation System of the Central Core, even if we stopped this place to explode, Aperture is slowly decaying, shutting down, soon al the systems will stop working and... you are smart enough to know what will happen to me.

Chell was feeling guilty, it was her fault, at least at some level, that this was happening.

C: can I do something? there must be a way to stop this, maybe if i get there i could repair the systems, or ...

G: I did not summon you here to ask for help, Chell
She was confused, she did't know what she was meaning, and upon looking at her, GLaDOS simply said

G: I... I just want to spend my last moments with only person i consider a real friend.

Chell's started to cry again, and without thinking, she walked up to GLaDOS and embraced her faceplate.

GLaDOS closed her eye and simply let herself be lost in the warm of Chell's arms, she could't feel it in a literal sense, but she simply enjoyed the moment, knowing Chell was here, with her.

Chapter Text

Hours had passed, maybe it was already dawn, Chell was starting to nod off, the heat of GLaDOS faceplate was pleasant and she didn't even remember the last time she had slept well, ever since abandoning Aperture all her nights were full of nightmares, turrets, acid pits, missile launchers pointed at her in a room without exits, but somehow, going back here made her feel better, she couldn't deny she kind of missed GLaDOS, no, she truly missed her, she was the only true friend she had in this world, she had friends before working in aperture, after all her parents worked here, and she rememberers some familiar faces between all the other tests subjects, she even met some people from Black Mesa, they came to talk about a project and quickly left, she briefly talked to the one that looked the most sane, one with glasses, beard and a ponytail, but she can't seem to remember the name, and at the end of that day she heard those scientist came to ask for help in a new kind of experiment, but where rejected because it was too risky, if it was so risky that not even aperture would accept it then it could cause the end of the world.

The end of the world, the end of everything, she would be...alone, completely alone.

"GLaDOS?" Chell asked quietly

"Hmmm...." GLaDOs sounded like she just had woken up from a long nap

"Hey, wake up" said Chell waving her hand in front of GLaDOS eye

"What is it?" She said, still half asleep

"How much time? She asked with a worried tone

"w...What?" now she was full awake

"you know, how much time you have left, before, before that happens?

"..."

Chell knew that silence, that dreadful silence, maybe it was not the best time to ask that, but at the same time, if she didn't know it would be even more painful to watch her decay like this.

"3 days, counting this one"

then the silence came again, 3 days, what could anyone do in only 3 days?, why didn't GLaDOS called her sooner? NO, it was no time to think about any of that, she was going to spend this 3 days with her, there is no point in arguing, this needed to be the best days of her life.

She hugged her harder and then let go, if she was going to stay in here these days, she needed some things in order to survive.

"well then, you know where i can get something to eat?".

Chapter Text

Chell was starting to feel exited already, according to what G. has told her, there must be some sort of vault with canned food, enough for the rest of the century, and in the meantime, she would see Old Aperture again, hopefully from a more safer angle.
She was heading down, and she saw the immense cave system Aperture was built over, kilometers of little lights, like a sea of stars, she was mesmerized by the view, but it soon came to an end, she was already in one of the offices, the closest location to the vault, from here it should be easy, a giant Orange Door, impossible to miss.
After loosing focus and wandering off, she found herself looking at the old painting of Cave and Caroline, they where practically everywhere, he must have had a big ego, after all, according to what GLaDOS told her, he created Aperture from a Shower Curtain factory.
A Closed Door, marked with a strange drawing of a companion cube, this can't be something random, it was made on purpose. Chell simply backed away a few steps and kicked the door, thanks to the Long Fall Boots she didn't receive any damage.
Pretty common stuff laid in the desk, some paper weights, pages and pages of papers written before moving the laboratories to a higher space, a lamp... the lamp, the pattern of the desk is different, like it was moved by force, Chell moved the lamp and inside it was a key, a small key, maybe it belonged to this desk.
Inside where a lot of folders with a writing, CONFIDENTIAL, it read.
Chell was startled when the radio G. had gave her started to speak.
"Chell, why is taking you so long? did you find the Vault? "
"S..Sorry, i got distracted, hey...um... do you mind if i take some things from here?"
"... I guess it wouldn't harm anyone, everyone here is dead down there"
"THANK YOU, don't worry about me, im going back soon"
that went better than expected.
Chell quickly ran to the Vault and took everything she would need from the next days and some more, just in case.
She was super exited now, but the elevator seemed to take ages to go up, she was thinking about all those folders, what is inside them, her thoughts where interrupted by a strange sound, the lights started to flicker and the whole elevator started to shake, after trying to regain her balance and placing her hands in the walls, the elevator stopped completely, suddenly, all the lights of Old Aperture went out, she was surrounded by complete darkness, she hugged the folders, she didn't know what to think, her heart was running, it was like it would come out of her mouth in any second, her mind was a complete mess, she was thinking worse and worse scenarios.
And then, the lights of the elevator came back, and the travel to the Main Chamber resumed, she was still clenching the folders, and was out of breath, the most painful and longest 2 minutes of her life, it felt like an eternity in that little space.

Chapter Text

Chell went into the elevator and descended to the depths of aperture, at least the part that still had electricity.
She started to think this was a bad idea, Bringing Chell here, allowing her to stay, letting her go down knowing the power could ran out at any moment, this was just a big mess.
But she couldn't do anything now, whats done it done.
The day she found out, she felt like she was trapped in that potato once again, helpless, only able to scream and wait for the end to come, having Chell here made her feel more comfortable, being able to share her last moments with her inly and true friend.
But she still felt weird about all of this, Aperture once was the biggest technological company in the entire world, even with almost all of the employees dead, it still held together to create a better future for those who where alive.
During the first week she tried to find a solutions, sending Blue and Orange, training the crows how to repair nuclear reactors, make a new reactor, create a some sort of car and scape like a giant motorized building, but it all failed miserably.
In the end, one single thought made her decide to call Chell, "what if she comes back, and im already dead?" that though resonated in her mind for a long time, since she rescued her from that horrible feathered monster, they both started to grow more closer to each other, she had discovered her past thanks to Chell, she admitted being afraid, and most importantly, she found a true friend.
"It would be cruel to bring her here and make her be present during my final moments, but it would be more cruel to not letting her know and force her to discover it by herself"
At least there is someone with her now, someone to talk to, and maybe, she could tell her about ... no, that would be pointless now, she had her opportunity and instead she let Chell go.
She was brought back to reality when she felt it again, a pull, like all her strength in her back went away and she started falling, when her eye opened again she was laying in the ground, surrounded by darkness, another section of Aperture had lost all its energy and now her system was rebooting.
The only thing worse than being knocked down, unable to move on the ground of your own facility, was knowing Chell must be trapped somewhere unable to reach.
GLaDOS was feeling truly Hopeless

Chapter Text

Even when if the elevator started to went up, it was still very slow, and when she was finally just a few meters from the surface, it completely stopped.

Chell has sitting in one of the "corners" of the elevator, simply looking at the ground, dread, the only possible thought in her mind, she was almost sure she was going to die here.

No, thats impossible, she had to trust herself, she has come this far, besides, she had food and the elevator is made of glass, she can scape at any...time
while she was giving herself motivation and rising from the floor, she saw it.

When she was descending, she could see a sea of tiny lights illuminating the dark caverns, now, most of it, the far part of it, where gone, swallowed by the darkness.

Is this what's going to happen to all Aperture?- she asked herself, slowly sitting down, the dread was coming back, plaguing her mind, she shed some silent tears.

Suddenly, when her strength was about to abandon her, something happened.

Jazz music?

The elevator was flooded by a calming trumped, followed by harmonious saxophones, classical jazz

That had to be from GLaDOS, Chell's was starting to calm down, this was surely her making, she was fine, or at least she was still alive.

When her mind was back to normal, Chell reached onto the companion Cube, fetched a can of peaches and one of the folders and started to read, maybe she would be trapped here for a few more hours, but she knew it would be all okay.

Chapter Text

Chell had already ran through 3 cans of food, its the best she has had in months, if you could even call the mush she ate in the city food.

With a full stomach it was easier to concentrate, but her mind still went to one worrying though, if GLaDOS was okay, the music sounding in the elevator worked as a reminder that she must be, at least, alive, but somehow it fels as if something bad was going to happen in any second.

Looking around her only worried her more, where at the beggining was a sea of tiny lights illuminating all of Old Aperutre, was only a void, an endless void of darkness, and that made Chell though about the worst cas scenario.

Maybe it costed a ton of energy to operate this place and she was just waisting precious time by being curious, maybe GLaDOS made an error and there was less time than she thought, maybe it was a bad idea coming here after all.

No, it was not time to let those thought take over her, not time for self pity, GLaDOS has been handeling this place from a long time, there shoudl be no porblem at all, or at least that is what she said to herself to calm down a little

After breathing and drinking water she reached inside the companion cube for one of the folders, it appears to have some sort of rejected projects:

A paint gun listed before the creation of the Portal Gun.

A Time machine, she was sure one of the messages left by Cave Johnson mentioned that.

A report of another test subject, Mel. "Test subject terminated, she shows a similar attitute as the first test subject. cualified as too dangerous for further testing. Status: released and fired." weird, GLaDOS had never mentioned another tests subject before her.

she kept going and found all sorts of weird porjects, even for apperture, some of these seemed too dangerous, impossible or chaotic in general.

Other strange thing she noticed was the dates, some of theese seem to be from more recent times, more or less around the first time she woke up, far too recent in fact, what where these doing in an abbanodned offcie in Old Aperture?

The last one one of the projects was the one that caught more attention from Chell, "Project Test Subject 001-Cave Johnson November 30 1856", a project made by the founder and CEO of Aperture, it must have been really important.

Chapter Text

Project Test Subject 0001

{{Ever since the renovation of Aperture Science Innovators to Aperture Laboratories and the start of our new program of Test subjects we have found about one little issue.
Humans are useless, even when instead of picking average joes and homeless people off the streets we had Olympians, war heroes and astronauts at our disposal they only proved to be a waste of money, unable to understand basic instructions and threatening to sue the company over the most miniscule matter, hence I, as the CEO and owner of this company decided to ditch entirely the usage of human test subjects altogether, you might ask me what would we use instead, out products are directly marketed towards humans, so who can replace them?
Robots!
Not only they can be programmed to follow precise instructions, unlike humans they can sustain longer working periods without the need of rest, meaning even more ours to do testing and if they break, we would just rebuild them, no complains nor failure, in fact if I could jam my brain into a robot in order to keep on working all millennia I would, no questions asked.
Hence, by the moment you are hearing this recording our trustful scientist lead by Dr. Ratman will create a mechanical human to undergo the testing all these meat bags failed to do.
I want this message played daily on the sound system so they know I want those robots by yesterday, Cave Johnson over}}

That recorded message alongside some papers was the only thing Chell found in the sealed folder.
It was definitely Cave Johnson talking, but judging by the things it was saying it sounded a little like GLaDOs, at least before her change of heart.

Chell was still trapped, so she either could keep on drinking the leftover syrup from the canned Peaches and reading further or try and scape.... she knew how it felt to fall down an elevator shaft, and she hadn't tasted any kind of fruit in what felt like forever.
She tried to sat down as comfortably as she could and began to scan the rest of the papers

"Dr. Rattam notes XX/XX/XX -the date was censored with black marker, probably to keep some secrecy- This project is impossible, there is nothing in the world close to what -Cave- Mr. Johnson is asking -the name was scribbled over, does Cave forced his workers to call him mister?- even the security turrets in Black Mesa - Wait, I read that name somewhere else before- are just following the heat inside the human body to shoot, if anyone is stupid enough to trust them they would turn into a cheese grater in less than a second, what Mr. Johnson wants is true human intelligence inlayed into a circuit, nothing seen before, it’s impossible"

from there on the notes become more and more hard to read, sentences stop to make sense and the hand writing becomes more erratic, poor guy, the stress must have killed him.
advancing forward, ignoring the scribbles that turned into messy drawings Chell found something written in computer, printed notes
"Dr. Lucas notes XX/XX/XX, ever since the Doctor Rattman disappeared in mysterious circumstances my team was put in charge of the project, for now the progress we have made is small, we managed to make robots that follow certain protocols, but it’s not enough for Mr. Johnson, some of my colleagues are getting frustrated by the null progress we are managing to make and by the behavior of Mr. Johnson, he seems to be obsessed over getting to the moon and rambles a lot in his morning speeches about progress and lemons, on top of that I’m forced to keep this useless notes made by Doug, the imbecile in charge of human resources said they would be useful to decipher where he might have went, they don’t say anything, those are just complains and madman ramblings"

Just like the last, there is nothing worth mentioning, just more tests made in computer programs, she kept going for 3 more pages and the name of the doctor in charge changed again

"Dr. Kit notes XX/XX/XX After my predecessor Lucas decided to abandon this project upper management decided to put me in charge of this fiasco alone, apparently Rattman was found but instead of giving him this project again they put him into another one, also involving artificial intelligence, according to some rumors in the cafeteria he was found between the modern and old facilities, somehow he fell into a pitfall and was trapped under there for a very long time, I think there is something else to that story because he seemed just fine when I crashed into him the other day, he looked just as mad as the rest of us working here.
For now the project has advanced further, I managed to create an AI capable of imitating basic human functions, it works like a system of clocks, as the day passes some of the timers go out and the robot has to do a task and the timer restarts, this could work to made them go around the facility undertaking many tasks at the same time, but it’s still not what Cave is asking for, if we truly wanted to imitate the way humans acted we would need to copy and paste the brain of a real person, and that is even further away from making a robot that pretends to be a test subject, I’m sure we are wasting moor money investing into this project than just hiring the first idiot we come across in the street wanting to make a quick cash, but Cave has been very stubborn about it, I’ve never seen him being this erratic before, it must be due to his illness, I cannot imagine how Lunar Stone Poisoning must feel, but it must be very unpleasant, last time I received orders his assistant had to come instead of him, not that I complain talking with someone who doesn’t stutter her words and lashes out at every question I make, maybe I should talk with Dr. Rattman to discuss about some ideas."

That was the last written page of the report, the last thing it contained was a small UBS and a crude drawing, Chell was about to ignore it again when she saw something familiar in it, it was a concrete space behind a wall of white tiles, she knew there were some hiding places behind the walls of the testing chambers, it was a very weird thing, not even GLaDOs seemed to know about them, otherwise she would have mentioned them, this one seemed different to all the others, maybe she should try and investigate, once she is out of this elevator...

And just like she was heard by a higher power above, or GLaDOs, the elevator moved again, with its recognizable murmur and shaking from side to side, she picked up everything again and stored it in the hollow companion cube.

Once she finally arrived at the Queen's chamber she instantly dropped the companion Cube and went to hug GLaDOs tightly, it was very stressful for her to be trapped in the elevator and it must have brought bad memories for her, GLaDOs in any other situation would have made a snarky remark about how weak human emotions are, but she felt exactly the same, she didn’t wanted anything but to hug Chell back, but she was unable
Not having arms proved a great disadvantage for the all too powerful AI.

Chapter Text

Just now Chell realized how loud Aperture used to be back in the day she was a tests subject, when she first woke up on that relaxation vault the fisrt sound to greet gher wasn't a mechanical voice of an announcer nor the natural voice of a human, but instead it was the buzzing sounds of a working machine around her and the cheerful music of the radio stationed near her pod, even when the host of Aperture was quiet and only talked when it was necesary the laboratories were far from quiet opr silent, they somewat resembled a living organism, an animal of sorts, even when sleeping od resting there was something moving on the inside, lungs pulling air, a heart beating or slight twitches that indicated that said organism was in fact still living, only waiting for the next moment to resume its concious state in a endless cycle of rest and action.

Right now the only thing that served as proof of Aperture being alive was the heat emanating from GLaDOS faceplate and the slight buzz from her cooling fans, the facility she controlled no longer present in the background, her kingdom lay dormant aroun Chell, and while she tried to focus on the fact that GLaDOs was, in fact, alive just resting, it still felt unnatural to her to face the complete silence of a full facility, even when nature had overun Aperture it stil creaked with mechanical whines and the sounds of birds, it was soothing in a way, and she sought that same comnfort from the almost muted buzzing behind GLaDOs outter shell.

Once she had escaped the glass prision that was the broken elevator and was reunited with the AI they both silently agreed to not get far from each other again, now, half laying on the ground and half resting on top of the machine Chell was goin through the old reports again and again, turns out that some information on the documents contradicted each other, some dates were mispelled and there was a ton of secrecy surrounding the project, full pages had been covered in dark ink to prevent anyone from ever reading it again, and the documents on the USB weren't any better, most files were general information and transcriptions but what she guessed was the important stuff was encrypted, she was about top give up when something caught her eye, the last document, where every other folder and log had been organized with a name and a number to mean the person in charge and the date it had been written this was was just a keyboard smash.

The document on itself was more of the same, nonsense, absolute nonsense staining a white background extending for about 6 pages until the last paragraph made clear why it was that way

'Dough Ratman-XX/XX/XX' was the last line, shell gave an exasperated sigh, and was ready to close the document, but before she could her sigh focused on the title of the document once more... something wasn't right here.
The ammount of letters was the same...

Quickly rising from her seated position she went for the companion cube and produced a mostly blank notebook, writting down the name and date, the name of the document and tracing a line connecting them, using that as a guide she went to another page and started to slowly write down the results.

It wasn't difficult as it was slow and methodical, she was surprised when it yielded results and finally stopped once she had made and entire sentnce, gulping loudly the knot on her throat before reading it fully

"The test subject-001 project had been an utter failure..."

Chapter Text

By the time she had finished the third page of her notebook her hand ached like never before, nervous, sweating and her whole body shaking, Chell snapped out of her trance to notice all these things and looked around to see she was still surrounded by darkness, GLaDOS was still asleep and the main chamber was still covered in darkness, she closed her eyes, they burned and her head swim, how much time had passed? no matter, she went back to read from the top of the page and se what all this was about.

----

{ The test subject-001 project had been an utter failure...
...Whatever Cave Johnson had in mind when he made us work on this project had been impossible from the very start, creating a articfial inteligence algorith that behaves like a normal human would is something beyond anything any of us can make, but he has been so deadset on making it a reality we cannot refuse to work, not even Caroline can make him see reason.}

----

[So far the project has seen some progress, we made a functional prototype for a robot body that can move the same as a human one, we had to source a body from a local mortuary for reference, bussiness as usual, and while it can move, walk and jump from high altitudes like a tests subject with Long Fall Boots would, it still doesn't had a protocol of its own, we have to control it manually, of course we can't fool Cave, he seems satisfied with the prototype so far, but he insist we stop playing around and start with the AI part post haste.]

----

{They finally found him, somehow the madman was hidden between the old and new facilities, living in a crawlspace with a companion cube, after a few weeks back among his peers he seemed to get better, stopped talking to himself, but still he had the cube on his office, last i've heard of him was that he got moved from the GLaDOS project back to the Tests Subject 001.}

----

Chell was a bit confused by all this information, it seemed to be all mixed togheter without rhyme or reason, besides that it also seemed to be written by multiple people, like a compilation of stray notes left behind, still, it felt like this was leading her somewhere, and it had to do with the strange drawings she found alongside these documents.

---

{We fucked up, all Aperture fucked up, earlier in the week scientists from Black Mesa came to Aperture labs to discuss a project that apparently needed our involvement, they sent some scientist to talk with Cave about it and promptly left when he rejected the idea altogether and send them on their way back to New Mexico, then 2 days later we recieve a notice that security wil get reinforced due to a leak of information, while the main group of scientist went to talk with Cave other group came with forged Id's and began to wander around the offices looking for projects to steal, Borealis, the gravity gun and god knows how many others are on their hands now, fortunately our projects are on a lower lever of the facility, so as far as we are aware they are save, it goes without saying that Cave is less than pleased with this}

-----

[Cave called us to his office this morning, it has been a month since the last update on the project; Up until now we had been talking to Caroline about the progress and now i can see why, when we arrived at his office nothing seemed out of the ordinary, he asked us to enter and we had a little rundown on what had happened and the Black Mesa leak, at least that is what the others told me after the fact, i couldn't remember anything and if he noticed my atres he didn't showed it.
He looked so sick ans weak, his cheeks had sunken down and his eyes wre obscured with heavy eyebags under them, he couldn't even stand without help, but despite all of that his voice still sounded like the one i remeber from my first day working here, maybe thats why we didn't noticed a thing until now, he still spoke like the great leader and founder of Aperture despite being poisoned with moon rock and inching ever closer to his own demise.
The meeting ended in the blink of an eye for me, Cave started to have a coughing fit in the middle of his speech and we were dismissed immediatly, but even after the door closed i still could hear the sound through the walls, the rest of the team filled me on what happened and what direction the project would take from now on, needless to say I was stil pretty shocked about the state of Mr. Johnson, the things that worries me the most is that i don't even know if I truly feel bad for him, maybe this damned job finally sucked my soul dry]

----

(I lied to Mr. Johnson, i lied to him in his face, he caled to us to discuss oiur preogress with the robot test subject projects, but we didn't had anything, no progress, no ideas, not even a rough draft on how to create an AI that comoplex withotu extracting the brain of a living person and jamming it in a comoputer like it was a sasuage, I paniciked, so i went on a stupid idea to repurpose the project to an emergency deathswitch if we are ever invaded by the Governemnt or by Black Mesa again, we could download the most important information of Aperrure alongside GLaDOS to a movable body and burn down the rest so no one can get it, keeping safe what makes Aperture work until we find a new place to rebuild it, and he bought the idea, i don't know if it was thanks to his Lunar Poisoning or his senile state, but he agreed to the idea and now i think I made the biggest mistake in my life just short of opting to work for Aperture Science on the first place.)

----

Chell blinked and re-read that last part a few times, digesting slowly the words written in it one by one, with a shaky hand she closed the laptop and allowd herself to be consumed by the shadows covering the room, putting her notebook aside she turned towards the giant mainframe of the current owner of Aperture, passing one hand over the chasis, it felt cold to the touch with a hint of warmth coming from behind it, if what she had read was true, if that project did in fact go accepted and seen till te end, maybe there was something she could do about this.