Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Comes another.”

“Find them, we must!”

“Hurry for they wander without knowledge.”

Chell could hardly believe it. GLaDOS had kept her word. She had already tested the area and it was real. Not synthetic wheat and hologram clouds, but actual living world. Chell was currently sitting on top of her companion cube and just gazing at the expanse of blue above her. It was almost enough to make her cry. She refused to cry though. Not in a place that GLaDOS might still be able to see.

Eventually Chell would need to find shelter. She could use the shed but that was a bad idea for several obvious reasons. Using the cube, Chell stood on top of it and then clambered up onto the roof of the shed.

As it turned out, the wheat went on for miles in several directions. To the North, all she could see was wheat. To the south was much of the same. To the west looked to be a tree line, but the east seemed to offer the best option.

Out to the east Chell could make out gray silhouettes that couldn’t be trees. They looked to be rectangular in shape from her vantage point so that made Chell think it could be a series of buildings. Building meant a town, a town meant people, and people meant anyone that wasn’t a robot. Chell jumped from the roof of the shed and smiled. She was glad that she got to keep the Long Fall Boots. Despite hating Aperture, the boots could still be useful.

Chell then looked to her companion cube. It was big and a little heavy without a portal gun to carry it with, but it was also comforting. It was one of the strangest things that Chell could never understand. Why did a box that served no purpose but to block high powered projectiles and push buttons provide such comfort?

Was it the small pink hearts? How it became both a stepping stone and shield in a test chamber? Or was it that, if you listened closely, you could hear music coming from some internal mechanism in the cube?

Whatever the reason, she didn’t want to leave it behind. If it became a burden, then she would leave it behind with no strings attached. Or so she told herself.

Picking up the cube, Chell started her walk towards the town. One foot in front of the other, but there was this nagging feeling that she was going to hit a wall. Eventually she would find the edge of a room and this entire area would be revealed to be fake.

It soon became her own experiment. She would walk twenty steps and if she didn’t hit a wall, then she would walk twenty more. If she kept the idea that she was in a simulation, that this was all a trick, then she wouldn’t be disappointed when she found the truth.

All the while, Chell never took her eyes off the companion cube. She didn’t look up as she left wheat behind to give way to yellow grass. She didn’t even look up to see that the grass turned to barren dirt. It wasn’t until the crunch of dirt turned to the sound of metal tapping against stone that she noticed she had walked out onto a street. Setting the cube to the side, Chell looked down at the street as if it was the first time seeing one. She took several steps back and forth just relishing the sound of her heel springs making contact with the pavement. To anyone else it would be a simple thing, but the road made Chell drop to her knees and place her hands against the ground. She needed this.

It was warm to the touch and pressing her hands a firmer into the ground made little pebbles bite into the skin of her palms. It was too real. Chell felt another smile spread across her face as she picked at the grains of dirt and pebbles that clung to her hands. If this was a simulation, GLaDOS had gone the extra mile.

Standing back to her feet, Chell looked up to get a better look around. If she had to guess, the walk had taken an hour and she still had a bit more to go. The road had curved around from the north and straightened out to lead directly into what was most certainly a town. Or was a town…

The closer Chell got to town, the more she saw that there were large chunks missing from the buildings. Not only that, but there were no cars on the road and the pavement had tufts of weeds and grass growing up through any crack it could find. The bit of hope Chell gained was slowly seeping away at the sight. Something bad happened here while she was underground.

Once in the town, the first building Chell approached a residential building. The ground floor windows were either boarded up or the glass was covered in a thick layer of dirt and grime. She didn’t feel like breaking a window right now. Instead, Chell wanted to look around the town a little longer in case there was someone who might be nearby. Maybe that was just an abandoned building…

With each step, each building seemed to get bleaker and in further disrepair than the last. Stopping at a crossroads in the middle of an intersection, Chell sat down on her cube and frowned. There wasn't a single person out on the street.

Two hours ago, she had hope that there would be civilization but now she was stuck in an abandoned town with no way of knowing which way to go next.

She felt a small sting in her eyes but Chell quickly wiped at her eyes and hardened her expression. She wasn’t going to cry because she was going to find someone and live. She will do more than survive.

Going back to the apartment complex, Chell tossed her cube at a window. For some reason she liked the sound of the glass breaking. She listened to the building for any indication that someone heard the crash of glass. When nothing replied or appeared, Chell carefully moved through the broken window pane and entered the building. The lights were out but she could see enough to read a sign pointing the way to the stairs.

The air was filled with so much dust that Chell had to put a hand to her nose to keep from sneezing. It had been a long time since anyone had come through this building. A shelf had somehow been moved and leaned up against the door and effectively blocked her way. She didn’t think much about it while slipping under the dresser; back against it, one foot on the door and the other braced on the floor. With a heave, she managed to tip the dresser back and away from the stairway door. The wood splintered as the dresser rocked back and crashed into the floor.

Entering the stairwell, Chell froze up. Everything was white. Not solid white since there was a layer of grime covering every surface, but she knew this certain shade. Panels. The entire stairway was made of panels and metal stairs. It was the sign hanging on the wall was the nail in the coffin.

Aperture Employee Apartment Building Number 5
Floor 1
Floor 2-5
Roof Access.

This entire town was still part of Aperture if that sign on the wall was anything to go by. Chell felt suddenly hyperaware of everything and she found herself checking every corner around for any sign of cameras. Seeing none, Chell carefully headed up the stairs, not checking any doors until she was on the fifth floor.

Peeking down a hall, Chell couldn’t see any cameras but she was still cautious as she went further into the building. Everything looked abandoned, but it also looked like it had been raided. Furniture was ripped to pieces and tossed around the halls, strange brown stains littered the floor and walls, and something smelled rotten. Where had everyone gone?

Had all these people died inside Aperture or did they just up and leave after what happened with GLaDOS. There should have been at least one person in the town besides Chell.

Had anyone even come back to this town? What about the police? An entire town disappears in one night and no one came looking? Was there an investigation?

You’re not a good person. You know that, right? Good people don’t end up here.

Chell shook the thought from her head. No. She wasn’t like that. She thought she wasn’t at least. She had vague memories of her past but there wasn’t anything concrete. She knew she had a father that worked at Aperture. She knew her own name. She knew her age, or what is was before she woke up in Aperture. She was sure that she had a life before Aperture as well.

Then there came what she didn’t know. She didn’t know where she lived. She didn’t know if she played sports. She didn’t know what college she went to or if she had a college degree. She didn’t even know if she had a high school degree. It’s like her mind had been flushed of everything that didn’t have to do with Aperture.

Chell audibly sighed before she pushed open the first unlocked door she came to and walked inside. The room was just as dirty as the rest of the rest of the apartment complex. Dust littered every surface and the paint was flaking off the walls. There was also a large suspicious water stain on the ceiling that Chell didn’t want to go near out of fear the roof would collapse on top of her.

There was a small kitchenette in the corner. Chell checked the taps but they only hissed in response. The cabinets were empty of food.

The bedroom was in just as much disrepair as the rest of the apartment. The mattress and threadbare and springs were popping out of it. Mouse droppings could be seen in the corners, so she didn't bother laying on the bed because she was sure there would be a nest in it.

Moving the entire bed away from the wall stirred up a lot of dust but it settled soon enough. Where the bed had once been left a bare spot of non-discolored carpet. It gave an idea of what the place may have been like at one point. At least there would be a clean area to sleep on.

Chell then placed her cube in the corner and laid with her back nestled against it. Closing her eyes, the cube seemed to hum just like it did in Aperture. It was comforting.

The weighted companion cube will never threaten to stab you and can not speak.
I think that one was about to say 'I love you.'
They are sentient of course.

With the soft sounds of the cube and the growing darkness, it didn’t take long for Chell to slip into the embrace of sleep. It was the first real sleep Chell had had in a long time. It was sleep that wasn’t due to the drugs they pumped into the stasis pods or the relaxation chambers. It wasn’t from being knocked unconscious after falling nearly two miles down a pit. It most certainly wasn't from falling unconscious again after being pulled back from the vacuum of space

If she could, Chell would have gotten some sleep between test chambers but the adrenal vapors saw to that being a fantasy. Despite feeling wide awake in Aperture, that didn’t mean she didn’t feel the strain on her body the vapors put her through. Her heart had felt like it would burst from her chest and despite feeling angry at everything, there would be times that waves of anxiety would build up and release all at once. Destroying the security cameras had helped alleviate some of that extra stress.

But at the moment, Chell was fast asleep. Her entire body limp and all the tension easing from her after everything she endured. The hardness around her eyes slacked into a restful expression. Every few minutes there would be a shift in her body; an instinct wired into her that she would need to get up and move at a moments notice. Chell remained unaware of this. Something related to a past that was forgotten.

Although, if Chell been awake, she would have heard the bumps and creaks of floorboards shifting. She would have heard the pained moans issuing upwards from the street below. Strange snarls and growls came into being from hearing the sound of prey. Long dormant and rotting corpses stood up without consent from the parasites attached to their heads. None of them could see it but they could smell it. They could feel it in the air. There was something in the town that shouldn’t be.

Chapter Text

Chell awoke feeling stiff. Her neck had lolled back against the edge of the cube and left a crick in her neck that made her wince at the sudden movement. Standing up, she stretched her arms above her head and began to shift her body to loosen up and then began to work on her neck. Not the most comfortable sleep but at least it was restful.

With the morning came more pressing matters. Chell felt the pain in her stomach that came with the lack of food. The adrenal vapors had made her not feel hunger but when she had dropped into Old Aperture, they had worn off pretty quickly. She had felt hungry and there wasn't anything to eat down there. There was relief when she reached New Aperture to actually not feel the hunger as much, but it was still there. The last thing Chell remembered eating was a can of unopened beans she found in one of those alcoves with the paintings.

Chell liked those hidden areas. They had helped her catch her breath and clear her mind. Even though she had ideas of what horrors Aperture held before, those little rooms sealed her mind on the matter. They warned her and guided her where to go. It may not have been to an exit, but they took her where she was needed.

She had made it outside after her fight with GLaDOS. She had made it to the surface but was only teased with the thought of freedom before being draggedback inside. She had blacked out soon after but not before seeing something moving among the wreckage. It had been human shaped and looked to have a mop of dark greasy hair. They must have been the artist. Chell hoped they lived at least. Someone who managed to help her the way they did needed to live.

Picking up her cube, Chell made her way back down to the street. The sun was still low in the sky, but it was light enough for Chell to see. The buildings cast dark shadows across the broken streets and made everything blend together. Despite that, Chell thought it might be best to get her bearings and find somewhere she could get food and water. She had justescaped and she didn’t plan on dying of dehydration or starvation anytime soon.

For a place designed to house employees of Aperture, then there had to be a place they all got their food. It would justtake some searching is all. It’s not like all the employees gained nutrients like plants. They were human and would need to eat like everyone else. Even if there wasn’t some sort of grocery store, there should at least be a convenience store or gas station.

Although the streets were quiet, Chell couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching her. She held the cube a little closer and kept walking. Sometimes Chell thought she heard something squeak but when she turned to look nothing would be there.

Chell approached what looked like it could have been a store at some point. Wiping away some of the dirt, she peered inside but still found it too dark. Tugging on the door proved it to be unlockedand a small bell above the door range to welcome her inside. An actual bell, not one of the electronic ones.

Inside was justas dreary and some of those same brown stains littered the ground and walls as they did in the apartment complex. Although here they looked darker, stranger... It wasn’t until Chell noticed how it looked as if something had been draggedacross the floor that it registered what the stain trulywas. Blood. Lots of blood long dried on the ground.

Something bad happened here to cause so much blood to appear. Something that GLaDOS couldn’t have done…

‘Things have changed since you last left the building. All I know is that I’m the only thing standing between us and them.’

Chell felt her body stiffen. It wasn’t good. Whatever had happened made Chell’s blood run cold in panic. Turning back to look over her shoulder, Chell noticed the dark brown blood stain on the wall justleft of the door. A smeared handprint and two small holes near it. She reached out with a frown to trace the holes. Bullet holes…

It was at that moment that Chell heard it. The low moan and shuffling of what sounded like someone dragging their feet. Thinking that she finally found someone living, Chell turned back but was metwith an entirelydifferent site.

The clothes consisted of blue denim pants and a white shirt. Both ripped to shreds and barelyhanging onto the figure that slowlyapproached Chell. It was coveredin crusty brown blood and some strange orange stains as well, but the entire torso looked to have been rippedopen. She could see the remaining organs it still had and several broken and jagged ribs. Its arms were bare and the fingers were almost a foot long and curved into jagged claws. Then came the head. It wasn’t human at all in shape. It looked like a plucked raw chicken or a mutant crab sitting on a human shaped body. It was disturbing and horrifying to look at.

Then there was the smell. It smelled like as much like death as it looked up close. The closer it got, the more Chell realized the smell of rot and decay she had smelled back in the apartment building was the same as the creature. If she could, she would have thrown up. Did that mean there were more of these things in town? How had Chell not come across one before now?

Chell turned around to leave the store but she was a second too late as the creature launched a nearby snack stand at her. It caught Chell in the back as she fumbled to pull the door open. She gave out a pained hiss before running out the store.

It was a few seconds later that she heard a mighty crash of glass and the creature stumbling towards her with more purpose in its step. The cube in her arms suddenlyfelt much heavier as she rounded a corner into an alley and came face to face with another of those things. Bounding into view as well was something that looked much like a strange dog at first but was shapedmuch like a smoked ham.

It came up to her knees but was as big around as an oil barrel. It had only three legs, two front and one back, and was a mottled green color with a ridged back. The gaps between the ridges was a deep purple. There was no visible mouth, but its face was coveredin tiny black eyes all fixed on her.

The second crab headed creature took notice of her and made to move justas the dog thing went down into what could be considereda crouch. It then began to let out a high-pitched whine that increased in volume before a powerful shock wave emanated from the dog. It tossed both Chell and the second crab headed creature back. Chell had the misfortune of landing against a dumpster that had more rust than paint covering it. It was justher luck that she hit the worst of the rust and the metal gave way, causing bits of the metal to imbed itself in Chell’s shoulder and arm.

The second creature had been knockedaway as well by the shockwave and had hit its head on the wall. It didn’t get back up at least. The dog creature was already starting to make that whining noise again as Chell stumbled to her feet. Without hesitation, Chell kicked the dog thing much like a soccer ball and sent it flying. Despite its size, it was surprisinglylight judging by how far her kick sent it. It hit the opposite side of the alley wall with a thud and splattered yellow blood across the bricks and ground.

Distracted by the dog creature, Chell momentarilyforgot about the first crab headed creature. She was about to pick up her cube when those long claws raked across her stomach. There was a tearing of fabric and a sting of pain but Chell didn’t stop to access the situation.

Instead she gazed the alley much like she would a test chamber. Her fingers flexed as if pulling the trigger of a portal gun to make a quick exit. If should have bothered Chell more than it did with how natural that came to her. A little above the dumpster she had crashed into was a fire escape. The ladder would need to be jumpedto, but at least it was a way out.

Using her cube as a stepping stone, she climbed on top of the dumpster then took a leap to the ladder justas the creature swiped at her feet. It clipped her heal springs and caused her to hit the ladder with less grace that she would have liked, but she managed to not fall back to the ground. After that, she climbed up the ladder as fast as she could until she was well out of harm’s way.

The creature tried to toss Chell’s cube up at her but it banged harmlesslyagainst the underside of the fire escape. She felt the vibration of the metal and heard the cube hitting the concrete but didn't dare look.

Catching her breath, the adrenaline in her system started to fade so the pain in her back and shoulder was increasing. Alright, so she was out of reach of one creature, but there were surelymore of them nearby. She was safe on the fire escape but staying there was not an option. Seeing the only logical choice, Chell began to climb the stairs upwards and approached a window that wasn’t boarded up.

She tapped the window a few times to see if any creatures appeared but when nothing happened, she kicked at the glass until it shattered inwards. Chell then reached an arm in to unlock the window.

By the time she had lifted the window and clambered through, her shoulder was aching and her stomach was feeling sticky. Chell began to scout the room and found it looked much like the living room from the apartment she stayed in the previous night. The only difference was the furniture colors and the amount of cardboard boxes scattered around. It wasn’t the same building but it seemed all the apartments had the same layout in the town.

Chell eventuallyfound the bathroom, but the lights didn’t work in this building either. It didn’t matter in the end as there was a tiny plastic flashlight beneath the sink. The batteries were incrediblyweak, but it gave off justenough light for Chell to survey the damage to her back.

Where the metal snack stand hit her, nasty discolored bruises were already forming across her back. Then came her shoulder and arm. It was bleeding and aching horribly. With careful fingers, Chell picked out the largest pieces of metal and tossed them into the sink. Fishing once again into the drawers, she found an old pair of tweezers in a drawer. Chell put one end of the flashlight in her mouth to see and set to work getting the smaller pieces out of her shoulder.

Chell was actually surprised by her stomach. After untying her jumpsuit and pulling her undershirt up, she saw that the bleeding was not enough to warrant an emergency. It was more of a scratch than a wound. The knot from her jumpsuit sleeves took the brunt of the clawed attack at least. The only problem was that as Chell tried to tie the sleeves back around her waist one of them had ripped completely off and rendered itself useless. Without anyway of securing the jumpsuit it decided to slip down her legs and pool around her boots. She had some cotton shorts on under but with what was going on outside, she would need something more sturdy.

Looking back under the sink, Chell was happy to find a tiny bottle of rubbing alcohol but no bandages were in sight. As nice as the alcohol was, it wouldn’t do much except sterilize the wound. She needed the bleeding to stop.

Chell looked around but found and frowned at the lack of towels in the bathroom. There wasn't any in under the sink either. Seeing no other option but to use what bit of cloth she did have, she pulled the jumpsuit completely off and began to tear a leg off to act as a bandage.

She then sat on the toilet seat and put another piece of her jumpsuit in her mouth and bit down. This is going to suck she thought. One, two, three... A deep breath before she poured the contents of the bottle onto her shoulder as her eyes screwed tight and her hisswas muffled bythe fabric. The pain was stabbing and continued to linger even as she managed to get the orange fabric strips tied around the wound. She repeated the whole process for her stomach as well before standing up and moving back into the hall.

Going to the bedroom, Chell opened the door but immediately stopped in the doorway. It wasn’t another creature, but it was justas disturbing to see.

Laying on the bed was a person. Or what was leftof one. All that was leftwas a skeleton, long decomposed. It was wearing a threadbare suit with one hand laying at its side, the other on its chest. Above the skeleton’s head was a large brown stain splattered across the headboard. Another blood stain. Getting closer revealed a sizable hole in the skull. Chell pursed her lips and squeezed her eyes shut. She felt like she needed to say something but nothing came to mind.

Upon opening her eyes she noticed the glint of metal laying on the figures, justbeneath the corpses' hand.

The site made Chell frown once more. She put a hand on the foot of the bed and closed her eyes, giving the person some form of respect before she completely desecrated their bedroom. Without another thought, Chell turned to the closet and nearby dresser. A quick scan revealed several shirts and pairs of pants. She took several out and laid them on the floor instead of the bed for obvious reasons. The shirts were good enough but the pants were too large. Chell found a belt in another drawer and used it so the pants wouldn’t fall off.

The shirt was a long sleeve burnt orange color and the pants simple dark blue jeans. The clothing had some holes from mice chewing through, but they would serve her purpose. After dressing justoutside the bedroom, she reentered and approached the bed. Chell kept her head turned away and eyes closed as she picked the gun up. She was robbing and desecrating the dead but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Chell didn’t remember ever holding or using a gun other than the portal gun before so she tried to remember movies. No single movie stuck out because she couldn't remember any but the motions in her mind played out. She pushed a button near the trigger and the magazine fell out. No bullets in it. She put the magazine back in and pulled the slide back. Nothing in the chamber either. The skeleton must have used the last one for themselves.

She tucked the gun into the waistband of her pants since a holster couldn't be found. Chell mostlyjustdidn't want to search for one at this point.

The last two things Chell snatched from the room were a spare bedsheet from the closet and a jacket. The jacket was a dark grey and a little too long in the sleeves but was warm enough. The bedsheet was foldedand tied into a makeshift sling bag for the extra clothes and it would soon hold Chell’s cube.

Her cube… She had left it on the street. She shouldn’t have done that. It was probablywondering where she was by now. She should have brought it with her! She could have gotten it upstairs but no! She had left it behind. What a horrible thing to do!

'You are a horrible person. That's what it says; a horrible person We weren't even testing for that.'

She shook her head at the memory before taking a deep breath. Her cube would be fine for a few more minutes. Nothing bad would happen to it...

After casting another look at the dead on the bed, Chell frowned once more before saying, “Thank you.” Her voice was quiet and foreign to her own ears, but she was happy to have gotten the two simple words out. She turned the lock inside the door and closed it behind her, sealing the grave once more.

Back in the living room, Chell fished through a few of the boxes but they were all files. Justboxes and boxes of files but nothing of use to her unless she wanted to start a fire. She pushed them aside before going into the kitchen. Most of the cabinets were empty but strangelyshe found an extra box of bullets in a drawer. At least she would have some form of protection against the creatures outside. She loaded the gun, flipped the safety on, then stuffed it back into her waistband. She had five extra bullets and put them into her pocket before continuing her search of the kitchen.

She opened the freezer but shut it as fast as she could a moment later. The smell of rotting meat that had been sealedinside wafted out and filled her nostrils. It made her start coughing uncontrollably. The fridge was empty except for strange stains and mold growing in a corner like a culture test. Chell was down to the last cabinet and the hopes of food were getting slim. As if some force of nature was taking pity on her, she found a single can of tuna, unopened, in the cabinet.

She grabbed it and pulled at the tab on top before digging her fingers into the fish. She didn’t like the smell, but the taste was amazing to her. Her stomach was growling as it was wanting more and more. Unable to take it anymore, she scooped up a handful into her palm and ate much like an animal would out of a handler's palm. The can was empty far too soon for Chell and her stomachs' liking. Something was better than nothing at least.

After licking her fingers clean the best she could, she tossed the can out the open window and into the street below. If she was going to do this, then she’d need to move sooner rather than later.

She knew the answer but just to test it out, Chell tried the taps. They didn’t work but made a hissing sound instead. No water.

Double checking her makeshift bag, Chell climbed back outside the window and started climbing up the fire escape once again. She climbed until it went no further. If she could, she would have climbed up onto the roof so she could see better, but the fifth floor would have to do. She could see her cube far below and that creature still justwalking aimlesslyaround it. It’s as if it knew she was still nearby. Chell watched it and calculated its speed before climbing up onto the railing of the fire escape.

Another moment passed then there was the feeling of falling. Accelerating at high speeds that is stoppedsuddenlywith as much force as if she only took a small hop in place. The only difference between this jump and a test chamber is that she landed directlyon top of a snarling and dangerous creature. Chell had aimed one of her feet to hit the very center of the creature's head and she heard a grunt then silence. It no longer moved or tried to attack so she assumed that meant it was dead. That brought a smile to her face. Funny how she was smiling more on the surface with murderous creatures than she did back in Aperture with murderous robots.

The only thing was that Chell’s smile died the moment she looked down. The creature was different now. The plucked chicken hadn’t actually been the head at all but a different creature all together. It had been sitting on the head of what Chell now realized was a person. Or what used to be a person…

Chell dropped to her knees and could only stare. She did her best to keep the food she had justeaten from coming back up at the sight. There was driedblood crusted around the eyes, nose, and mouth of what was once a human being. Whatever was not covered in blood was pale as a ghost in comparison. Its hair was shreddedand knotted with deep lacerations on the scalp that revealed the skull underneath. The eyes were twistedshut and practicallymelded together into a smooth expanse dotted by black specks of what might have once been the eyes. The nose was bulging and pale, but the mouth was the most horrifying aspect.

The mouth was twistedinto a perpetual scream. It was wider than any mouth should be and stretched to the point that the corners of the mouth were ripped. The tongue looked to missing all together, but the inside of its mouth was justa swollen mass of red. If she could ascribe one word to the sight, it would be agony. Pure unadulterated agony. It was terrifying and yet hard to look away.

Looking to the creature that had been sitting on the persons head, Chell felt a surge of anger course through her. She picked it while clambering to her feet. In an instant, she dropped it and kicked it as hard as she could before it could hit the ground. It went sailing like a ball and bounced off the nearby wall with a wet smack. Looking around, she saw where the other one had been and stalked over to rip the chicken thing off and revealed a much similar sight beneath. If it wasn’t for the slight difference in hair color and jaw shape, she would have thought they’d be the same person.

They were humans at one point… Chell felt her hand tighten on the skin of the creature before she tossed it away with all her might.

It couldn’t be, Chell thought to herself. She couldn’t be all thatwas leftof humanity. There had to be more than these creatures. GLaDOS had said there were humans on the surface and deer too. It could have been a lie though. She had lied in the past, had she lied about humans too?

Putting her cube into the sling, she walked back to that convenience store from before and began to scour the shelves. No more creatures but there was another skeleton. Chell soon found what she needed. She opened up the map to find what she believed to be her location. She didn’t have much to go on besides being in the Michigan Peninsula, but there looked to be a larger road nearby. If she was to find civilization, that would be her best bet.

Her face shifted into stone as she made another pass through the shelves. The only other source of food she could find was a single can of potted meat. Shoving it into the sling as well, she exited the store and started walking.

She met a few more of the crab headed creatures but she found out if you moved out of site quicklyenough they seemed to forget about you. Chell nodded at that and continued to move. She wasn’t going to give up just yet. No. She was only beginning.

Chapter Text

“Say, Doc? Where’d you want this again?”

“Just put it in the corner, Barney. I’ll get to it later.”

Barney shifted the large box in his arms and struggled to peer around it to look at Dr. Kleiner. The doc was currently nose need in some files and data which left Barney as the heavy lifter slash errand boy for the moment. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do.

He had arrived to White Forrest on just a few hours after the strider attack. Barney and his group of refugees could hear all the dropships flying them in from the wastelands. They had done their best to stay out of sight until they were sure the Combine were gone. It was just their luck though at what they found at White Forest.

Barney had come in with all smiles and cheers that he had arrived with most of his evacuees in one piece after their train had been derailed. They lost several in the initial crash, but those who made it out had arrived back; albeit some limping and being supported, but they made it.

Barney had expected them all to be welcomed with smiles but the site was far somber.

He didn’t even have to ask what had happened when he saw explosion marks and bullet holes riddling the halls.

He remembered walking up to someone. He couldn’t be sure who it was, but he just needed to know. He had asked about the numbers. The response Barney got was thirty-two dead and countless injuries.

He punched the hard concrete wall after hearing that. That was too many. He should have been there sooner. He could have done something. At least that’s what Barney was telling himself.

In reality, there was nothing he could have done. Even Gordon and Alyx had been helpless to the horror that awaited them in the hangar. If it hadn’t been for DOG, then many more may have suffered the same fate as Eli. At least DOG had been able to kill the Advisor and run the other one off from what Barney had been told.

Since then, Barney had been running himself into the ground, trying to do everything he could to help get White Forest back into shape.

In the mornings, he would run patrols near the perimeter and outlying areas. He would then go to the armory and take stock. He would often come out smelling like sweat and gun oil but at least it would all be in shape. After that, he’d just go to check in with the communication specialists and see how the injured were fairing in the infirmary. The end of the day would be Barney checking in with Magnusson and Kleiner to see if they had anything for him to do.

No matter where he went, there was mourning. Friends, lovers, family. Nothing was sacred anymore. You never know when the last time you'll see someone will be, Barney thought to himself. It's why he always would say 'see you when I see you' to anyone he was leaving behind.

Eli was different though. He was the de facto leader of the resistance and everyone liked him. Everyone was mourning Eli. Kleiner would have to take short breaks and compose himself whenever his emotions got the better of him. Magnusson wouldn’t say it but he was mourning too. His temper was shorter but there wasn’t the same urgency he normally had in his tone of voice.

Gordon and Alyx? Well… The few short hours Barney had been with them before they left were, for lack of a better word, unnerving. Sure he had seen Alyx angry before but this was something new altogether. There had been fury in her eyes hidden behind a face like stone despite how red her face had been from crying.

While Gordon… Barney had known Gordon a long time or at least he thought he did. Gordon had been wound tighter than a spring. He was more withdrawn, quieter… Well he was quieter than usual. Barney had placed a hand on Gordon’s shoulder in comfort and the man nearly hit him with that damn crowbar he carried. Barney had never seen Gordon like that and he'd once seen the man hyped up on energy drinks and coffee with no sleep for two days.

Barney thought he had a handle on his own emotions. He was mourning too but he wasn’t going to stop moving. The combine were still out there, and despite being cut off from the pit of hell they came out of, they still posed a threat. He wasn’t going to let them get the drop on anyone else. He couldn’t have anyone else be an Eli. He wouldn’t if there was still something that could be done.

Setting the box to the side, Barney stretched out his arms before going to Kleiner’s side. “Whatcha working on now, doc?”

“Hmm? Oh. Just going over some readings. Some of our old sensors are picking up strange signals and power fluctuations near the Michigan Peninsula. Strange thing is that if these are right then it’s the old Aperture Science facility,” Kleiner said, eyes never leaving the paper.

“Aperture? Think it could have to do with Gordon and Alyx?”

“No. I highly doubt it.”

Barney frowned and shifted his weight. “You know… You never did tell me what the big deal is about Aperture. Yeah, I know they were Black Mesa’s competitors, but that’s about all I know.”

Kleiner placed his notes back on a desk and sighed. He just didn't have the same amount of energy as he did two weeks ago. “Well, the competition goes back to the sixties but we always came out on top for government funding. In the mid-nineties, we started a race for teleportation… You can see how that ended for us, but no one knows what happened to Aperture Laboratories.”

“What do ya’ mean by that?”

“I mean they completely dropped off the map. One day they were releasing information of some of their projects and then the next… nothing. It’s like they vanished in the middle of the night.”

Barney picked up another box and stacked it with some others in a corner before continuing. “Any theories?”

“As to what happened? I can’t say I do.”

“I can,” a stern voice interrupted from the other side of the room. Doctor Magnusson had walked in with Uriah behind him. They were each carrying one of those Magnusson Devices. “Aperture Science was a joke filled with nut jobs and dangerous lunatics who knew nothing of safety or ethics.”

Barney had to stifle a smart ass comment at that. Safety? Coming from the guy who worked at Black Mesa before shit hit the fan. Hell. All three of them had come from Black Mesa and that place was a walking hazard sign. It only took a cataclysmic disaster for Barney to see it.

Toxic spills with only a single door to block the radiation, walkways that seemed to be built from balsa wood and paper-mâché, walkways where explosive materials were stacked, scaffolds with no guardrails over pits that looked bottomless... Barney could go on forever about the walkways and scaffolds in general. Had the Incident not occurred, he probably would have sued Black Mesa for the lack of safety rails.

Barney must have had a smile on his face because Magnusson’s face screwed up as he said, “What’s so funny, Calhoun?”

“Nothing, Doctor Mags.”

Magnusson gives Barney a dirty look at the nickname but doesn’t say anything else. He and Uriah go set the devices on a nearby table and they begin tinkering with them.

Going back to Kleiner, he handed the man the newest data from the printer. He knew the man well enough to know when he would be needing it.

“Thank you, Barney,” he said. He began to peer over the notes and frowned then looked to the ones from before.

“Something wrong?”

Kleiner shook his head, “No… Just odd. There was another spike in readings from Michigan. More severe than the last one…”

Barney didn’t like the sound of that. “Any idea what it could mean?”

“Could be any number of things, but it’s hard to say for certain.”

“Worth checking out?”

Barney was secretly hoping it would be. It would make him feel more useful than just doing all the little things around the base. He wished to be out there. It’s what he was good at doing. He was a tactician. A fighter. He needed to be out there, not stuck indoors and hidden behind concrete walls.

But life had other plans. “No. You are needed here and the journey is much too far and dangerous. It would take you too long to get there even if you made it there alive. No. It’s best if you stay here.”

Barney managed to not look defeated but nodded his head to Kleiner. “Sure thing, doc.”

Barney was about to leave when he heard Doctor Magnusson call out. “Calhoun. You don’t look very busy. I need you to move these crates for me.”

Barney sighed before turning back around and getting to work once more. Someone had to do the dirty work.

Chapter Text

Chell focused on the rhythmic tapping of her heel springs on the road. She had to keep moving is all. She’d run into a town sooner or later. something. Or that’s what she told herself at least. A full day had passed since her encounter with the creatures, yet she had still not found a sign of civilization. The main road had been a surprise to Chell when she stumbled across it.

One being that it was littered with broken down and abandoned cars. They were all rusted with tires either flat or missing altogether. She had slept inside one at the previous night just to stay out of the open air.

The major difference between the two roads was that the main road looked like a war zone at times. Large holes marked areas of the road and entire vehicles would be smashed into tiny pieces. At one-point, Chell came across a strange vehicle that looked like some sort of armored car. It even had what looked like a mounted gun on the roof. But it wouldn’t help her since the gun was too heavy to carry and she needed water more than she needed a weapon.

When she had woken up in the backseat of that car, her mouth and felt like it was filled with cotton and her lips were cracked. Her one can of potted meat was gone, already eaten, but she still hadn’t found a source of water. Not even a puddle.

At the moment her head was pounding like a drum and she just felt weak. Chell pinched the back of her hand and watched how the skin stayed in place as if she was still holding it. She silently cursed herself for being dehydrated. She needed to find some water soon or she’d be in real trouble if she encountered any more of the strange creatures.

Pulling out her map, she did her best to figure out where she might be. There was another town marked on the main road and that was the direction Chell had been heading. There, about halfway between where Chell thought she might be and the town, was a tiny line of faded blue. Some sort of river? She'd even accept a creek if it meant water.

She couldn’t tell if it was a small lake or maybe part of a river, but it meant water and it was in the direction she was heading. Shoving the map back into her pocket, Chell moved with more purpose to her hopeful water source.

She was tired already, but she needed to reach that water source if she wanted any chance of facing the future. She felt hot, but she wasn’t sweating. Another bad sign. Chell decided she needed to hurry.

It was over an hour later and the ache between Chell’s temples only grew in strength. If she hadn’t been looking for it, she would certainly have missed it. Just off to the right of the road was where the water source would be. The only problem was that it wasn’t there. Sure, there was the slight slope of a bank and runoff line from a river, but where it water should have been was nothing. All that remained was a dry and cracked pit of dirt.

She walked down the embankment to the dried-up riverbed and went to her knees in the center of it. She tried digging a little, hoping that there might be some hidden beneath the dirt, a pocket of mud, anything! The only thing the digging causes was her fingers to ache and reveal her worst fear. There was nothing there. Not a drop.

Chell squeezed her eyes tight before getting back to her feet and walking up the bank again. She wouldn’t give up over such a setback. There had to be another source of water somewhere.

Halfway up the embankment, she paused at the sound of dirt and twigs being disturbed. She moved a few more feet up but paused when it was only one of those crab-chicken things again. It wasn’t on a human this time but was wandering closer to Chell with its long front legs extended in the air. Chell pulled her gun just as it leaped at her.

She raised a forearm to stop its jump, but she felt something sharp bite into her arm. She cried out in pain as it fell to the ground in front of her. The crab-chicken began to crawl away. She thought it was running away, but no. It turned around and leaped once more at her. This time Chell ducked and it soared over her head.

She didn't give it any more time. With quick steps, she brought her foot down directly on top of it. It squeaked it pain but that was silenced once Chell pulled the trigger on her gun.

She kicked the creature away much like the ones back in the Aperture town. Well, they seemed easy enough to kill when they weren't on a human and they liked to aim for the head. With that in mind, Chell thought finding and wearing a helmet wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Once back on the road, she tucked the gun back into her waistband and kept moving. She'd just have to find something once she reached the town. It only had to be a couple more hours away if she walked fast.

It was only a few minutes later that she paused again at the sound of something coming down the road. It almost sounded like…

As if on cue, a vehicle turned around a bend and was racing down the road in her direction. It was all black and geometric in shape. As it came closer, Chell could make out a glass dome on top with a gun mounted on it. It was the exact same as the one she had seen earlier turned on its side.

It was moving fast so Chell quickly moved out of the way and began to wave her arms. This could be it! Maybe her luck was turning for the better.

The occupants must have noticed her because they slammed on the breaks and three figures jumped out of the vehicle. Chell started moving towards them, but she quickly found they had weapons and were bringing them up to aim right at her.

Her body froze but not in fear. She froze out of the urge to analyze the situation. Her eyes darting around every aspect of the scene, taking in the angles and advantages she might have. Things were not looking up for her.

One, she had given away her position. That was stupid of her. She had done her best to hide back in Aperture and avoid cameras just to get the drop on GLaDOS and Wheatley, at the right time, but that was gone.

Two, she didn't have her gun drawn. Not only did they already have guns drawn, but theirs were bigger. It didn't take a genius to know a bigger gun was more powerful.

Three, there was nowhere to run. She could try but that might just make them shoot her on sight.

In short, she was screwed.

Two of the figures were wearing dark padded jackets with white shoulder patches and belts cinched tight to their waists. They also had dark green pants with the cuffs tucked into combat style boots. The third figure was wearing a dark heavy padded coat and military-style jacket and vest. Kevlar, her mind supplied. Their pants were a black and blue camouflage with extra padding in the thighs. On the sleeve of their jacket, they had a patch that looked like a black hourglass inside a yellow circle. Some sort of insignia of who they worked for? They didn't sport any sort of flag on their uniform, so who were they?

The most unsettling aspect of the soldiers, Chell was certain they were soldiers, were their masks. All three wore gas masks. The two in the standard padded jackets had white masks with emotionless black eyes lenses. It reminded Chell too much of a skull. The third had a solid black mask with glowing blue eyes. Although not as creepy as the white masks, it was still unsettling.

All three looked at her before the dark masked one stepped forward.

“Malignant, you are chargedwith code 507, code 69, code 94, and code 17-F. Throw away your weapon and get on the ground,” the soldier in the dark mask said while pointing his gun at her chest. The voice was masculine in nature and distorted by the gas mask, but there was something off about it.

Not seeing any way out of this, Chell removed the gun from her waist and dropped it on the ground. One of the soldiers in a white mask picked it up and tucked it into their belts.

“Sentence will be decided after questioning.” The dark mask said. Chell then realized what was off about them. The voice wasn’t just muffled but it sounded machine-like.

She didn’t get to think much on the topic before the other white-masked soldier came forward and struck Chell in the head with some kind of baton.

The last thing Chell noticed before falling unconscious was the electricity coming from the baton and one of the other soldiers putting their dirty hands on her companion cube.

When she came to, Chell was aware of her head pounding for two reasons. One being dehydration and the second being the knot courtesy of the soldier that hit her. Said soldier was currently standing a few feet away with his counterpart in the white mask.

The third was sitting on top of her companion cube like a chair and looking over his gun. It was bigger than Chell’s for sure, but she didn’t know the exact name for it. She felt that she didn’t use guns very much before so all she could think to call it was a machine gun.

She blinked the grogginess from her eyes before getting a better idea of what happened. Organizing her thoughts was like moving through an excursion funnel; slow and disorienting.

She couldn’t see the road so she’d been moved. That was something at least. She tried to move her hands but she quickly found out they were bound behind her back. She felt something rough with her hands that she thought might be a tree. A quick peek revealed that to be the case. Her feet felt strange. Wiggling her toes made her realize she was barefoot. They had removed her boots it seemed. Another glance to the shoulders showed that they were tossed in a heap next to her companion cube.

The soldiers seemed to be distracted, but even if she could get to her feet, there was no telling how far she’d get if she ran. They had guns and a vehicle. Chell had nothing and her hands were tied, literally and metaphorically.

They must have noticed she was awake because all three were moving towards her.

“Sit her up.”

The one with the blue eyes was definitely the leader as the two white-masked soldiers grabbed her arms and set her back against the tree. The blue eyed one looked down at her, unmoving. She stared back with defiance in her eyes. They nodded to the white masks one of them touched their stun baton to her arm and held it there. Pain raced through her arm and shoulder as she hissed in pain.

Even after the baton was removed, Chell felt like her arm was on fire. A quick glance showed a burn mark where the baton had been pressed. That small movement must have displeased them because the other one pressed his baton to the untouched arm and the pain began anew.

It lasted longer that time and soon, both of the white masks had their batons pressed against her arms at the same time. Chell tried to keep quiet but she couldn’t stop the cry of pain that echoed out of her.

When they finally stopped with the electrical shocks, she was breathing heavily and her whole body hurt.

“Where’s the resistance?” Blue eyes asked.

Resistance? What was he talking about? Chell didn’t meet his eye this time but she didn’t say anything.

Not speaking resulted in her getting a kick to the stomach. Chell gasped and started gagging instantly but all that came out was bile and a few chunks of what might have been the potted meat. So much for that.

“Where’s the resistance?” He asked again.

“I don’t know…” Chell managed to choke out.

That was not the answer they wanted as the bandage on her back was ripped off and the baton was pressed onto the open wound. Chell’s cries continued as the white mask began to twist the baton into the wound, tearing flesh more than it already was. She didn't bother trying to stay quiet after that.

She wasn’t sure how long it continued that way. They would ask a question she didn’t or couldn't know the answer to, then they’d hit her or electrocute her. At one point, they showed a canteen of water and splashed some on her face to get her attention. Then they poured the entire contents out on the ground in front of her. It was maddening.

Most of the questions had to do with some sort of resistance. Where were they? Where are their supplies? What are they planning? Chell didn’t know any of that so the torture she was going through was all for nothing.

She was getting dizzy and staying awake was getting harder by the minute. If she wanted any chance to get away from these people then she would need to give them something.

"What are those? Where did you get them?" blue eyes asked while pointing to Chell's cube and boots.

She was still catching her breath so her reply didn't come as soon as they wanted. They were just about to start another round of electric shocks when she coughed out a strained reply. “Wait… I- I'll tell you where I got them…”

The white masks looked to blue eyes. He shook his head at them and they lowered the batons. Chell felt a wave of relief go through her body at the small action.

“Where?”

It was difficult to talk. Between the repeated blows to her stomach and several kicks to her ribs, which she thought might be broken due to the struggle breathing posed, it was difficult to speak. “A days walk… from where you found me… underground... look for the metal shed in a wheat field. That's all I know.”

“Copy. Sentence being carried. Malcompliance verdict: amputate-cauterize-confirm.”

Life became slow motion after that. The blue eyes pulled out his gun and slowly pointed it down at Chell’s head. She kept her eyes fixed on the soldier, not believing it could actually end like this after everything she went through. They were supposed to let her go, right?

His finger started to tighten around the trigger but before the end could come, he vanished.

Chell blinked in surprised and realized he didn’t actually vanish but had been knocked several feet away by some sort of green energy. Looking in the direction in came from, Chell saw the strangest creature yet.

It was a mottled brown color and stood on two legs much like a person, but its arms were spindly with a third vestigial arm protruding from its chest. It was hunched over and green energy was sparking between its two-fingered hands. The head was about the size of a basketball and was dominated by a large red eye with a few smaller ones surrounding the central eye.

“To the void with you!” It shouted before firing another stream of energy at one of the white masks. It could talk? It could speak English? The surface truly was a lot stranger than Chell had first thought it would be.

Blue eyes was standing up again moments later although looking worse for wear. The initial blast from the creature had torn and singed away part of his coat and vest to reveal unnaturally pale skin. It scared Chell with how white it looked against the dark camo. They couldn’t be human.

As if she was forgotten, the soldier picked up his gun and scrambled to her companion cube to use as cover from the creature. He would duck down to reload then pop up to fire his weapon wildly in the general direction of the creature.

The still remaining white mask joined up with the other soldier behind the cube while Chell was left on the ground. It was her chance to run and she was going to take it.

Rolling onto her stomach was difficult enough with the amount of pain she was in, but standing was near impossible. She managed to anchor her shoulder to the nearby tree and use it as leverage to inch her way to a standing position. With every inch she climbed, the ache from the burns seemed to intensify by the bark digging into the tender flesh.

All the while, the creature was running among trees to dodge the potshots the soldiers were shooting. They were so distracted by the first creature that they didn’t notice a second one coming up from behind and firing a devastating bolt of green energy at them. They both let out a cry of surprise which soon changed to pain before the air was filled with a high pitch single note tone. It reminded Chell of a heart monitor flatlining.

But now she had to deal with the creatures and they had killed the soldiers like they were nothing. And her hands were still tied!

Not seeing any other option, Chell turned and began to run. She found herself running on her toes as it felt natural after wearing the long-fall boots for so long, but her balance felt off. She had to use a tree and lean her shoulder on it every few seconds to catch her breath and regain balance before running again.

She paused for a moment to look back over her shoulder. Her companion cube sat there all alone. It looked so sad and Chell wanted to go back to it, but logic was telling her to keep running. So that’s what she did. She would return for it she told herself.

“Wait!” She heard one of the creatures call. Its voice was deep and gravelly, but Chell didn’t listen to what it said. She kept moving. She could hear the sound of something following her so she increased her speed but that proved to be disastrous. Her balance went off center and without the aid of her hands to stop her fall, Chell crashed into the ground. Her body rolled several times, further aggravating her wounds. She wouldn’t be able to get back up before they were upon her.

She was acutely aware of one of those things standing over her. She managed to flip over onto her back because if she was going to die then she wanted to look into the eyes of what killed her. Her eyes locked onto the large central eye of the creature as it gathered energy into one hand. Chell laid helpless, but eyes defiant as it reached down to touch her forehead. After that, everything went dark.

Chapter Text

Chell really didn’t like being knocked unconscious. That was the first thought she had upon waking up. The second thought was how the hell did she end up in a cave. That goes back to her first reason of disliking being unconscious. You never knew where you would wake up next. For her, it was always either a relaxation pod, relaxation chamber, bottom of a mineshaft, in an elevator... When she thought of it, she had spent more time being unconscious than sleeping.

Sitting up, Chell became aware of a crackling fire nearby, the smell of something cooking, and two gravelly voices speaking. She looked over to see the two creatures talking to each other in strange guttural tone. Had she hallucinated them speaking English? No, she was sure she heard them speak.

Chell didn’t want to alert them that she was awake but she didn’t want to stay near them. They had taken those soldiers down with ease, but why had they not killed her?

Chell looked to the mouth of the cave, getting ready to run, when she noticed her hands were no longer tied. She also noticed sitting nearby was her companion cube with her boots leaning delicately against it. The creatures had brought them along? What did they want from her?

Sighing, she felt her hand brush against something and found it to be one of those soldier's canteens. Without another thought, she popped the lid off and drank deeply.

“Ah! She awakens!”

Chell nearly spit out the water when the creature spoke but resulted in a coughing fit instead. She took another sip to stop the fit before whipping her head around to the creatures.

They were looking at her with interest as they approached. Chell scooted back until she was pressed up against the cave wall.

“There is no need to fear. We mean no harm to the traveler.” One of them said.

“We have stitched flesh and mended broken bones. You were lucky we found you before the Combine could sever your chord,” the other said in turn.

That was the moment Chell realized all her injuries were no longer hurting. In fact, they seemed to be gone. Her ribs didn’t hurt and breathing was easier, the burns on her arms were healed and all that remained were scars. She reached back to her shoulder and found the skin healed over as well.

“We have also removed foreign contaminants that were clinging to the internal structures of your body. They were attempting to deteriorate your essence.” The first one added.

Clinging to her insides? Almost sounded like…

‘If you sat on a metal folding chair in the lobby-’
‘It does not like the human skeleton!’
'That's not part of the test. That's asbestos.'
‘Ground up moon rocks are pure poison. I am deathly ill!’

The reality that these things managed to heal her injuries and remove whatever Aperture had done to her felt no less than a miracle to Chell. The mere fact that what Aperture had done was already affecting her body only made her feel more grateful to the creatures. Yet again the question came to mind. What were they?

“But not all problems can be solved for other matters rely on yourself,” it continued while the other held another small black container. It offered it out to Chell and that's when she saw what it was. Another canteen!

With no hesitation, she took it from the creature and began to drink it just as she did the first. It had a funny aftertaste, but it was water and that was all that mattered to Chell.

“We hope the traveler has an appetite that rivals their thirst! Come, join us in a meal.” The first one called and pointed to the fire. Sure enough, speared all the way through and hanging over the fire were two of those chicken-crab things. They looked even more like chickens with the way they were being cooked at the moment.

She grimaced at the sight but silently followed behind the two aliens. That’s the only thing she could think to call them instead of creatures or monsters. They did help her although she still wasn’t sure as to why.

Without her boots, she felt every little pebble and rock dig into the soles of her feet. It felt a little nice as it reminded her that she was on the surface and not dreaming. Once by the fire though, she sat down and enjoyed the warmth it offered.

The aliens stood by the fire, silently watching her. Chell watched them right back. At first glance, they looked exactly the same but she was finally seeing some subtle differences between the two. The one on the left had a more orange color to their large central eye compared to the other. The second had a more wrinkled appearance to their skin compared to the first who was smoother. Other than that, she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference in them as they were the exact same height and build.

The silence lasted for several minutes but there wasn’t any sort of pressure on Chell to speak. The aliens seemed to respect her silence. She liked that because it gave her time to think on the situation.

They could have killed her but they didn’t. They could have left her behind but they didn’t. They could have left her injured but they didn’t. They could have even left her companion cube and boots but they had brought them along as well. She’d occasionally cast a look to her cube just to double-check it was still there.

Her thoughts were interrupted by one of them handing over a piece of the not chicken on the fire. She looked at it in her hands and felt disgusted by the thought of eating it, but it smelled nice and her stomach was growling in response. She took a small tentative bite.

The taste… was not actually too bad. It was chewy and the taste was different than anything she could remember, but it wasn’t horrible. The aliens seemed pleased as they too began to eat.

She ate in silence with the aliens. The food offered a nice distraction but once it was gone, the thoughts crept back in. What could these aliens possibly have to gain from helping her. She’d been betrayed before and she didn’t want that to happen again. Were they going to take her somewhere and leave her for dead or were they just toying with her? Her experiences always led to disaster when it came to something or someone helping her.

It all became too much for her as she broke her silence at last.

“Why?”

Their eyes widened slightly at the question. She couldn’t tell if it was shock or confusion.

“Why would you help me?” Chell mumbled to them.

“We help all who seek freedom,” the wrinkled one said.

“We help because we too have suffered the yoke of slavery and wish to bring down the Combine once and for all,” the other continued.

There was that word again. They mentioned it a few minutes before but she hadn't questioned it at the time. “Combine?”

They were quiet for several seconds. They looked as if Chell should know what that is.

"What does the traveler know of the Combine?"

“Nothing. What is it?"

Orange eye picked up the conversation. "The group that held you captive. They control this world and countless others. The resistance has worked hard to expunge them from this realm.”

“Resistance? That’s what those soldiers, the Combine, were looking for?” Chell frowned. Just what happened to the world while she was away?

The wrinkled one screwed its mouth in what may have been confusion. "Where has the traveler been that they do not know of these things? Pray tell, what do you remember of this world?"

Chell shrugged her shoulders at that. What was she supposed to say? That she was literally living under a rock for however long the Combine has been in control?

"I don't even remember who I am." Not a lie really. She knew her name but the rest was still a mystery.

She was left with more questions than answers with each answer she was provided. The aliens must have sensed her confusion as they moved closer and kneeled in front of Chell. She tensed up but relaxed when they didn't move to hurt her.

“It shall be easier if we show rather than tell. Come. Join hands,” the wrinkled one said. It held out a two-fingered hand that had a small glow of energy dancing around in the palm and lacing between its fingers. It pulsated and flashed in a way that Chell didn’t want to take her eyes off of it. The other alien had the same energy within its own outstretched hand.

Chell hesitantly reached out and took their hands. She felt a strange sense of power flow through her. It could be compared to the hairs on her arms sticking up when a balloon would be rubbed against her skin. The feeling became secondary as the next moment, images began to flash before her eyes and it felt she couldn't breathe.

One moment she was standing on a floating island, a vast expanse in front of her full of wondrous colors. Strange aliens that looked much like a stingray floated by and they would twirl through the air with grace. There was pain through her body, focused around her ankles and neck, when another strange alien with a head like a balloon floated down from above.

The next moment she's in a gray corridor with several humans in jackets like the Combine Soldiers but they had been heavily modified. They all had a symbol that looks like an upside-down Y on their sleeves. Lambda, her brain supplied.

Then she was watching as long black cylinders rain from the sky and a three-pronged opening pops wide. Several of the strange chicken-crabs jumped out. She hears someone yell out ‘headcrabs’ before the sound of gunfire filled the air. She had been pretty close with their name then…

The scene changes once more. She’s strapped to a chair, surrounded by soldiers. They are talking and she can see humans being led past an open door in chains, most of them sporting bruises and looking as if they had missed a few meals.

The next moment she is back among the floating islands but this time there is a giant alien looking down on her. It sits in a large metal chair with wires hanging down. It's head was massive. Her eyes fixed to its head, she sees it open wide like a flower and then a green and yellow ball of pulsating energy came straight for her. The next moment she was in a hallway and a soldier in white camouflage and a red beret brought a gun up to meet her.

Before the soldier could fire, the scene changed again and she was running. She wasn't sure why but her body was running and she couldn't stop. Looking back over her shoulder, a creature with a triangular body and three impossibly long legs chased after her. Floating along next to the creature is something that looked much like a slug. She couldn't tear her eyes away from it until the scene changed again.

It continued that way, for how long Chell couldn’t say. Scenes changing and revealing some new horror or revelation. All she knew is the last thing she saw was a bespectacled man in strange metal suit swinging a crowbar directly into her face.

Chell gasped as she leaped back from the aliens. No. Vortigaunts. She knew that now. How did she know that? She didn’t stop moving until her back was pressed, once more, against the cave wall. She made a point to check over her whole body and face for any sign of injury. Her breathing came fast and hard.

“No need to be alarmed for you are unharmed. You have bore witness to a small glimpse of the vortessence that binds us all, traveler. We are unable to restore those memories that have been lost but we wish to aid in the times ahead.”

She had seen what they had seen? So she must have been seeing through the eyes of the vortigaunts. Just what kind of creatures were these things?

The images were still swimming in her head. Justflickers that didn’t want to linger on one thing for long. It reminded Chell too much of the giant screens in GLaDOS’ chamber the first time she had taken her down.

“Black Mesa? That's where this started?”

They only gave a slow nod of their head in response.

She knew that place. She had seen it mentioned back at Aperture right before going up against GLaDOS that first time. Then she heard Cave Johnson mention it in one of his messages in how he believed they were stealing Aperture's designs. She couldn’t quite place it but something else was bothering her about the whole thing...

Maybe you’ll find someone else will help you.
Maybe Black Mesa?
That was a joke, ha ha, fat chance.

Chapter Text

Barney had his hands behind his head and eyes fixed on the ceiling. He’d been in the same position for the last hour and yet nothing changed about his condition. Instead of sleeping he’d been focusing on every single thing going around him. At the moment, he was focusing on a rebel and a vortigaunt playing chess.

In Barney’s opinion, the vortigaunt had an unfair advantage due to that weird 'all in one' shared mind vortessence thing. Nonetheless, those two seemed to always play with each other. No matter what, those two never seemed to stop playing chess.

Barney could hear a sudden scrape of the vortigaunts chair. Barney peered over at the pair and noticed him picking up an already captured piece and placing it in the very center of the board. “Comes another to the field.”

“You can’t just add pieces to the board, Bud,” the rebel said while picking the piece up and putting it to the side once more.

The vortigaunt, Bud apparently, reached out and plucked the piece from the table and examined it carefully. Barney didn’t play chess. Now checkers? Checkers he could play. Get him a deck of cards and he’d get a round of poker, blackjack, or Texas hold ‘em going. But chess? That wasn’t his style. Even Gordon didn't like chess. But the chess piece that Bud picked up looked like a little castle. Barney couldn’t remember if that was a rook or a bishop but the vortigaunt was studying it with intensity.

“You have said life is like chess, yes?” Although phrased like a question, Barney could hear the vort had another meaning behind the words.

“Well, yeah, but this is different. That piece is considered dead since it's off the board,” the rebel said, not really hearing the second meaning to the vortigaunt's words.

“In life, some pieces are not moved until they are needed, Marcus,” Bud said and placed the piece back down, but not on the board. He kept it near his hand. "Is it not for those who are needed to come back?"

Barney had sat up and watched the exchange unfold. The two devolved back into silence as the game continued. It was as if the entire conversation never happened. Someone coming back when they are most needed did sound familiar to him. Heh, Bud must have been talking about Gordon again.

Finding the whole thing dull, Barney stood up and wandered back towards the labs. He was too wound up to do nothing. There was still so much to do. Why had he even been laying down in the first place?

Barney yawned and rubbed his face but kept walking. He could go for a little longer. Just a little longer then he would get some proper rest. Or at least try. If not, then he'd just have to get back to work.

“Hey, Calhoun? You don’t look so good, man. Maybe you should get some rest,” The rebel, Marcus, said. Barney took a good look at him, trying to remember the face with the name. He always made a point to remember everyone’s face because he never knew when the last time he’d see them would be. Marcus had a thick head of shaggy brown hair, a hooked nose that looked like it may have been broken at one point and sloppily set, and a patchy growth of facial hair. He looked like he needed a shave and a few good meals but that was most everyone in White Forest.

“Nah, I’m fine. I’m just going for a walk is all,” Barney smiled at the man. He was tired but he'd gone longer without sleep before and he couldn’t stop moving yet. If he did stop then that gave the Combine time to move and he didn’t want to lose anyone else.

Bud looked to Barney and gave the closest thing to a frown it could, “It is unwise for the Calhoun to push himself so. Please rest.”

“Really. I’ll be okay. I just want to check on Magnusson and Kleiner,” Barney replied while walking backward out of the room. He didn’t need someone babysitting him. That was his job. He had to look after these people.

He made a beeline for the labs, but apparently going there was a mistake. No sooner had he walked in that he wanted to walk back out as another argument was taking place.

“-only saying that it could be a possibility.”

“Please, Kleiner. It’s ridiculous. It’s been over twenty years.”

“Why would all this data be pouring in now when its been quiet for so long?”

“A bird must have flipped a switch? An old power core exploded? Nothing is alive in there because it’s a death trap!”

They hadn’t seen him yet. He could still slip out unnoticed! Maybe-

Click.

And there went the door closing behind him. Aw crap, he thought to himself as Magnusson and Kleiner looked his way.

Magnusson had a vein on his forehead bulging in annoyance while Kleiner looked as if he was on the verge of smacking Magnusson in the head with his clipboard. God how Barney wished Eli could have been with him. Now he had to deal with two stubborn old men who were also two of the most important people to the resistance by himself.

“Uh… hey, docs. What’s going on?” Barney said, breaking the tension he caused by neglecting to catch the door.

The two men were quick to compose themselves and moved back to their respective areas. That was another thing Eli was always needed for. He had always acted as a middleman for those two. Whenever their arguments would get out of hand, Eli would be the one to mediate and find a solution or tell them to knock it off. One time he had made them hug it out. Barney really wished he had a camera that day. At least he would always cherish how grumpy Magnusson looked while having his face pressed against Kleiner's shoulder.

Kleiner at least had the ability to look sheepish about them being caught in another argument at the moment. He cast a look to another section of their shared lab. It was only a desk with several small books sitting on it but there was also an old and tattered lab coat. Eli’s.

“I was just discussing,” Kleiner paused to look at Magnusson who gave a snort, “with Doctor Magnusson that more of those strange readings are coming in from Upper Michigan.”

Good old Kleiner. Once he had an idea in his head, he didn’t want to give up on it. Barney had done his best to dissuade the man from attempting to domesticate a headcrab, but Barney failed at that. Miserably he might add. Sure the thing calmed down after having its internal beak removed so it couldn’t clamp down on some poor saps head, but it annoyed Barney to no end. Always jumping out and scaring the hell out of him or being a nuisance. There was one time it jumped and managed to lodge itself on Barney's head. Almost gave him a heart attack. The thing practically got Gordon killed when it messed with the teleporter in Kleiner’s lab back in City 17. He’d almost killed the damn thing before because he mistook it for one of the wild ones. Kleiner gave Barney a lecture that reminded him too much of his father.

Strange thing was, he hadn’t seen the head-humper since he arrived at Black Mesa. Had it finally run away? Or did some rebel unknowingly kill it? Barney wouldn't mind but he would mind having a moping Dr. Kleiner.

Getting back to the topic at hand, Barney put his hands on his hips and sighed, “Any idea what they could mean?”

“Theoretically, yes. It could mean someone is still alive inside,” Kleiner responded.

“It’s a fools errand, Kleiner. What are the odds of that place going dark for over twenty years and suddenly being up and running again? The odds of that are more likely than the Combine just packing up and going home tomorrow,” Magnusson crossed his arms and huffed.

Although rude, he had a point. The mere idea that someone decided to take a nap for twenty years and suddenly turn the power back on was ridiculous to think about. But stranger things have happened. The two scientists and his self were testaments to that after everything they'd encountered since Black Mesa.

Kleiner stuck a finger up in the air for emphasis while looking to both Magnusson and Barney, “Yes. That’s the exact point I’m making. We have no idea what they had been working on prior to going dark. Why, they could have perfected s-“

“Listen to me, Kleiner. Anyone who goes in there, does not come out!” Magnusson interrupted. Although he sounded short, there was an underlying tone that made Barney weary. Barney had not seen Magnusson act like that before. Sure, he’d seen the man annoyed and plain angry, but there was such conviction in his voice that Barney didn’t know what to think.

Kleiner deflated, but looked to Barney with a slightly pleading face. Oh no. He knew that face.

Barney sighed and walked with Kleiner back over to his desk. The older man shuffled a stack of papers and organized them before mumbling, “I just think it wise to keep an eye on things. If we are getting these readings, then I’m sure the Combine is too. You never know what might happen.”

Magnusson looked like he had something to say but Barney cut in first. “Say, doc? You hear anything from Gordon and Alyx? Got to thinking about them and I've gone and worried myself about what trouble they could have gotten into.”

That’s right. Change the subject. Get them both thinking about something else. Anything at all so they won't be at each other's throats for five seconds.

“With good reason,” Kleiner said, a more familiar and serious expression painting his features. “We managed to get a message from them a few hours ago. Apparently, their helicopter was brought down due to a freak blizzard. They survived but they will have to travel on foot to reach the Borealis. It's will be nearly a two-day walk for them unless they find transportation."

It was concerning that their ride was gone, but those two were smart enough to find some way back home. Although having to trek through the snow for two days didn't sound like much fun. Poor Gordon having to deal with that metal suit of his. Hell, Alyx could find shelter or a way to keep them warm at night. A little cold wouldn't be able to get those two.

“Listen, thanks for the info, but I should probably get back to work,” Barney said while fighting another yawn.

Kleiner frowned at him. Dammit. He’d noticed. “Barney? When’s the last time you got any sleep?"

“Aw not you too. Listen, I’ll get some rest soon, but I just need to do a few more things, alright?”

Kleiner fixed him with a stern look but the man didn’t have it in him to push anymore. His shoulders sagged in defeat. “Alright but promise me you’ll take care of yourself. You do so much for us already.”

Barney gave the man a thumbs up. “Sure thing. I’ll get to rest soon as I’m done.”

The thing about war is that the work is never done, Barney thought to himself.

“But-“

“Doc! I’mfine!” Barney snapped back.

Kleiner held his hands to his chest as if burned. Barney winced at that. He didn’t mean to bite the man’s head off, but he didn’t need a babysitter.

“Sorry… But relax. It was one yawn. I’ll see ya tomorrow, alright?”

Kleiner nodded. “I’ll see if I can find Lamar. I have no idea where she could have gotten to. Really. It’s been days and I still haven’t found her!”

"I'll keep my eyes open, doc," Barney assured and turned towards the door once more.

Outside the lab, he stopped to rest against the wall and rub at his eyes. He just needed to go a little longer. The main thing bothering him was the pounding behind his eyes. Maybe he just needed some food? Yeah, a little bit of food and he'd be right as rain.

The mess hall of White Forest was more or less a place to eat and relax. It had your standard areas of a cafeteria: a small kitchen tucked into a separate room just off the eating area, some couches tucked into one corner, and rows of tables. Although the tables differed greatly from the cafeterias Barney had grown up with. They were mostly salvaged from surrounding areas or built from chopped down trees. Chairs were much the same way; large wooden spools, repurposed crates, and benches were set up near the tables to sit on, some even being stumps from the now demolished sawmill.

Heading into the mess hall revealed a few rebels lingering around. It was after the dinner rush but there should have been more people here. Another painful reminder of his failure to protect everyone.

Barney took his tiny meal, a single potato, from the chefs before joining up with two people he recognized from his group in the forest.

“Hey, Liz. Hey, Sven,” Barney said and slipped into a bench across from them.

Liz was a woman not much younger than Barney. She had short brown hair that she always kept tucked under an olive green beanie, big brown eyes, and a smile that made you think everything would be okay. She had a sunny disposition that helped keep morale up when their group made their way to White Forest Base. He hadn’t seen that smile since they arrived though. He missed it.

Sven, on the other hand, looked about Barney’s age, maybe a few years older, and had short cropped black hair and blue eyes. He was built like a truck and had a rough bedside manner. Great for a soldier but not what you would expect to see in a medic. He was one of the best damn medic’s Barney had ever met. Apparently, he’d been studying to be a trauma surgeon before the world went to hell in a handbasket twenty years prior. He'd had done a great job of tending wounds in both City 17 and the wastelands. The escape from City 17 and the hike to White Forest all but emptied their medical supplies. The afternoon they strolled through the fences, half the group was taken to get proper medical treatment.

Liz met Barney’s eyes and forced a smile but there was nothing genuine about it. It didn’t have the same warmth to it as the others did. Sven kept the same stern look on his face as he always had while munching on a small combine ration packet. Someone must have looted through the combine trucks after the attack to get those. “How’s it going, boss?” Liz asked.

“Been better. But everyone could say the same,” Barney mumbled. He took a small bite of his food but he didn’t taste it. It was all motion with none of the want.

Sven didn’t remove his eyes from Barney. That man was always on the watch for any sign of weakness. He was a great medic sure, but he was also a man you couldn’t hide from. “You sure, Calhoun?”

“Yeah. Really, I’m fine.” Barney had to control himself from snapping at Sven like he did Kleiner. He didn’t do anything except ask a simple question.

Sven frowned at that. “Get some rest. You don’t look good.”

Barney scowled at that, “Gee. Thanks, man.”

“Just my professional opinion,” Sven stated before biting into his food again. "But what do I know?"

He didn't feel very hungry anymore. Barney looked down at his food before sliding it to Liz and Sven. “Eat up you two. You need it more than me. I’m going to see about joining night patrol.”

Yeah. Night patrol. How had he not thought of it sooner? He should have started helping out with that when he first arrived. If he was the Combine, he’d want to strike while everyone else was asleep and not expecting an attack. Hell, night raids were a common thing back in City 17. He’d been forced by Civil Protection to join in capturing citizens and Barney would release any he could save. He hated being undercover with the CPs but it gave the resistance an edge.

Barney got up from the table, nearly tripping over his own feet in the process. He had to grab onto the edge of another table to steady himself before exiting the mess hall. He didn’t want to hear them ask any more questions about his wellbeing. He was fine! He didn't need everyone to baby him as if he was helpless.

Barney was the picture of health. He'd always prided himself about being in shape but he never thought he'd have to use his strength. In fact, he felt so good that he'd probably take the morning patrol too. No one could tell him that he was being too helpful. All he would need to do is- Had the room always been spinning?

The wave of dizziness that hit Barney came so sudden that he had to lean his back against the nearest wall. There were spots dancing in front of his face and no matter how much he massaged his eyes, they wouldn't disappear. He just had to let it pass is all. It would pass and he’d get right back to work!

That didn’t happen though. The moment he tried to take a step was like a signal for his entire body to betray him. The only thing he became aware of was the feeling of floating. He thought he heard someone calling his name, but he was out cold before he hit the ground. Damn. He was going to miss the night patrol.

Chapter Text

Chell didn’t know why she decided to stay with them, but she did. Everything in her was saying to go alone, don’t speak, and just fend for herself like she’d always done. That was not the case with the vortigaunts because she walked between them down the highway towards a destination unknown. Not fully unknown as they knew it was a town, but they didn’t know what to expect once they got there.

All the while walking, Chell was still dealing with the flashing images in her head. Every now and then she’d have to steady herself because she’d be caught in another wave of what she now knew as memories shared by the vortigaunts. Apparently, they all had a shared telepathic link. If one experiences or witnesses something, then they all share and see it. Chell didn’t understand how anyone could possibly deal with that.

After stopping for the third time in an hour, the orange eyed one frowned, “Is the Traveler feeling well?”

Chell nodded. “Just trying to sort through the… What did you call it again? The vorte-“

“Vortessence, yes. We must apologize. We forget humans may not always make sense of what is revealed during times of revelation like the one you experienced,” he replied.

“As we mentioned before, what we witness, all vorti-kind witness as well,” the other said.

That was another thing about them. They didn’t really have any sense of gender but it was easier to refer to them as ‘he’ and ‘him’ because of their voices. Although rough, they had a masculine sound to them. Would they be considered ‘its’?

They fell into a calm silence after that. Chell still had some water in the canteen that she now carried in the sling with her companion cube. She didn’t have any sort of weapon since the soldiers took hers, but being with two aliens that could provide protection helped ease the nakedness Chell felt.

“What say you? Where have you come from?” Orange eye asked.

The question caught Chell off guard. She had not expected them to ask questions about her life after the long stretches of silence they had already been having. The silence had been comforting.

“Sorry?” Chell responded.

It looked amused at her, but there was also patience. “Your kind calls this ‘small talk’. It’s polite, yes? We are making conversation with the Traveler.”

Chell found herself fidgeting at the question. She never really fidget before or she didn’t think she did. The brief flashes of memory she had of her testing application made her think she was bold and not the nervous type. Not really having any other answer, she replied, “Aperture.”

Both the vortigaunts perked up at the mention of it. “Ah! The place of many a mystery for our collaborators!”

Wait… There were others who wanted to know more about Aperture? She honestly hadn’t expected them to search for answers about the place after all the bad press. The little she had seen in Old Aperture had told her all she needed to know about the experiences the public had with Aperture. Sure it may have been a famous scientific research center at one point but Chell thought they had been left to rot after GLaDOS took over.

“Pray! Why is it that you have left the place of wonders?” Orange eye asked.

Chell shifted the cube once more and found her hands tightening ever so slightly. They wanted to know how she escaped? Or what truly happened with Aperture? She wouldn’t be able to give the whole story but she could tell her story.

So that’s what Chell did.

She started from the first thing she remembered.

She started with the preliminary testing questions and how they were confusing and contradictory to speak about. It was like it was designed to make someone feel helpless from the beginning. She also remembered how there were several involving her favorite type of cake and how she preferred to eat it. Everything before that day was a blank to her. It all took place in a small office about the size of a closet with the proctor, a single table, and a computer sitting on it.

Chell explained how she had this instinctual urge to not say a word to the people there and that she didn’t feel like she belonged among them. She didn’t remember ever leaving that office.

The next thing she remembered was waking up in the relaxation pod. Her memory was clear after that because it was the most recent thing to happen. There was confusion and wonder but also the ever present caution that Aperture made her feel. Chell had known something was wrong because she didn’t even know how she got there or who she was. That was when the initial panic had set in. All through the tests, Chell had done her best to remember any inkling of what happened to her.

All the while moving through tests, she had to deal with the ever present voice of GLaDOS. She had started off innocent enough but there was the way her voice would glitch and fizzle out as if it was planned to try and trip Chell up in a test. Every now and then she would get this feeling that the voice was reacting to what she was doing. Her feelings had proven true the moment she had escaped the final test chamber.

The vortigaunts never reacted to her story, but they listened intently. She was mentioning how she was forced to throw her companion cube into an incinerator was the only time she thought she saw a reaction but it was only for the wrinkled one to cast a glance to her cube. Her cube was still dirty. She would need to find a way to clean all the ash and dust off it.

All through Aperture, she had help. Some unseen artist aided her journey by sending her in the direction she was needed to be. It may not have been the exit but it had led her where GLaDOS had been.

After taking down GLaDOS and seeing the surface, Chell went on to talk about being dragged back inside the facility once more and waking up in the relaxation center. Then along came Wheatley.

She had thought he was charming but incredibly stupid at times. Like how his ‘hacking’ skills consisted of smashing windows or cracking codes by trying to go in a sequential order.

Then came the betrayal. She told how both GLaDOS and herself were thrown down a shaft and landed in Old Aperture.

While down there, she had felt she actually started to bond with GLaDOS and see things from her perspective. Had she been forced into a computer like Caroline, she probably would have wanted vengeance against the people who did that to her. Even though GLaDOS didn't truly remember her time as Caroline until the end. Chell had believed that was the reason GLaDOS did what she did to the scientists.

Once back into the upper levels of Aperture, Chell went on to explain how she and GLaDOS managed to take down Wheatley and put her back in charge. She then spoke of how she woke up in the floor of an elevator after being pulled back into the facility from space.

GLaDOS had deleted Caroline from her brain… For some reason that hurt Chell, but it still didn’t stop GLaDOS from releasing her back to the surface. Although the AI did attempt to scare her one last time with the turrets.

Chell had been angry and scared when she saw them but the moment they started to sing, she relaxed. She had heard them sing like that in one of the hidden artist’s dens but now they were singing to her. The song had been beautiful and Chell desperately wished she knew what they were saying, but it would be something she'd remember fondly.

Then she was on the surface. Once done with Aperture, she skimmed over what she found in the Aperture town.

"-after that I woke up in their camp. That's when they started the torture and asking questions about the resistance. Then you two showed up before they could kill me."

The vortigaunts didn’t interrupt once and Chell found herself happy for that. They took everything in stride and made a point to listen to her. They actually acted like they cared for her.

When she didn’t speak any more, they took that as indication that she was done. They both inclined their heads and closed their eyes in what looked like prayer once they put their hands together.

“So you too have felt the of joy of freedom to only have the yoke of servitude once more wrapped around your neck?” Orange eye asked.

Chell inclined her own head and thought of the images she had been shown. That giant creature with the bulbous head, the Nihilanth, had enslaved the vortigaunts just as the Combine have done to the human race. She may be free of Aperture but these beings only knew slavery. She frowned before slowly reaching out to place a hand on orange eye’s back.

Chell didn’t think she was one for physical contact because it felt strange to reach out and touch him but it could have been her own feelings or how his skin felt beneath her fingers. Either way, Chell pushed her feelings aside so that she could offer what little she had to her companions. The vortigaunt gave what she thought could be a smile back, but it was difficult to determine due to the shape of their mouths.

Silence took over the group once more.

Chell never realized it before but her companion cube was rather heavy even when it was in the sling. Back in the test chambers the portal gun had been used to carry it with its zero point gravity field control. Chell shook her head at that. Was that what it was called? She hadn’t been aware that she knew the name for what carried the cubes around.

Not thinking anything more, she shifted her cube once more and sighed.

“Does something trouble you, Traveler?” the wrinkled one asked.

Chell shrugged then readjusted the cube once more.

The vortigaunt noticed and came to a stop in front of Chell. “Please. Allow us to carry the burden.”

Chell’s eyes narrowed slightly as she turned her body in a small defensive posture. She didn’t like the idea of anyone else carrying her cube anymore. It was hers! She looked over her shoulder at it and felt sad once her eyes glanced over the surface. It was dirty. She should have cleaned it up already and try to fix the dents in it from Combine bullets and the high energy pellets of Aperture. She should have done more to protect it. She really was a monster to let that happen to her cube!

But there was the fact that it was incredibly heavy and the vortigaunts had proven to be trustworthy enough. They were gentle with her so maybe…? With a sigh, Chell carefully removed the sling from around her shoulders and passed it to the vortigaunt. He was just as careful to put it over his shoulders much like it had been on Chell’s. Once she made sure he had it in place, she rolled her shoulders to ease the tension from them.

“Just as you hold mysteries, so does your strange companion,” the vortigaunt said before starting to walk once more.

Chell was confused by his words. It was a companion cube, albeit hers, but a companion cube nonetheless. She herself may have been a mystery but that was Aperture’s fault. Everything was their fault in her life. All she knew was her name and that her father worked at Aperture. The only reason she even remembered her father was because of that damn potato project that was left near the neurotoxin generator. She wanted to know who she was, but everything and everyone who could have told her was probably dead. If it wasn't for her cube, she would have been alone in the world.

Chell fell back in line with both Vortigaunts as they ventured closer and closer to the next city. The silence took over again but after her story, all three were more open to asking questions. The vortigaunts would ask Chell how she felt or what she could remember of her past while Chell asked questions pertaining to the lingering visions in her head.

She was in the middle of asking a question about who the man in the orange armor was when she was interrupted by a strange buzzing sound. The next moment, something large and solid rammed into her back. causing a sharp corner of her cube to dig painfully into her spine. She was on the ground moments later and felt something attempting to claw at her. There was a loud clicking noise followed by electrical energy from the vortigaunts before whatever was on her back was replaced by a cold slime splashing over her body.

She rolled onto her back and felt something warm among the cold slime causing her shirt to stick to her back. She'd worry about it later and focus on the more pressing issue, their newest visitors. Moving to her feet, Chell got her first look at another strange new creature. They were giant bug-like creatures with long hindlegs, triangular-shaped heads, and wings folded tight to their bodies. They were mostly green in color with flecks of red and yellow spots dotting the hard shell that protected their wings. She noticed how they would burst from the ground in a cloud of dirt and then push themselves into the air with their powerful legs and glide towards the frenzy with their wings. They reminded her of grasshoppers.

The wrinkled vortigaunt dropped her cube sling on the ground before summoning his own bolt of energy and firing it at the bugs. It caught one just as it landed and it burst into several pieces and yellow blood burst out in several directions. A quick look down revealed that was what her back was covered in, but a sharp pain was also present in her back. She pressed her hand to the area and brought it back to her line of sight. Her fingers came back red.

So she was injured once more. She growled out a curse before looking around for a weapon. There were several more bugs coming and Chell really wished she had something! Her fingers were twitching, pulling invisible triggers of the portal gun she longer had in her hands. There had to be something she could do.

The vortigaunts were able to fire bolt after bolt of energy but they were too focused on one direction. Looking back, Chell noticed another of those bugs burst from the ground and lunge towards them. Without thinking, Chell picked up her sling and swung it with as much force as she could, catching the creature mid-flight. It shrieked in pain and toppled next to the vortigaunts. Orange eye didn’t hesitate to lift a hooved foot and bringing it down on the creatures head. It shot Chell an appreciative smile before firing another bolt at the remaining creatures.

As quick as they appeared, they stopped. It was one of the most intense moments Chell had experienced on the surface. Feeling brave, Chell crept over to one of the burrows and found it connected to a series of tunnels once she stuck her head inside.

She didn't see any more of the bugs but she did see a strange grub-like creature clinging to the walls of the tunnel. It had startled her at first as it was only inches away from Chell's face, but she was able to get a good look at it. It had six stubby legs, a luminescent body, and made a chirping noise when it realized Chell was nearby.

The vortigaunts must have heard the noise as one of them came over and reached down and easily plucked it from the tunnel wall. It made a more frantic noise before being crushed in the vortigaunts hand. It bled yellow and a small yellow ball that glowed brightly fell to the ground.

“What were those?” Chell asked, catching her breath.

The wrinkled vortigaunt poked his foot at the mostly intact body of the one Chell had hit with her companion cube. “Antlions,” he answered. “Back in our home, vortigaunts specialized in antlion husbandry but now… they have grown unruly.”

Orange eye had picked up the small yellow ball and turned to Chell. "You are injured. Please, allow this one to provide you with care. Antlion grubs produce a substance that heals and soothes minor injuries," he said while holding the tiny ball.

Chell touched her back again and hissed in pain. She didn't want to ruin her clothes by bleeding all over them but she was also wary of the effects that the grub ball might have. But then again, the vortigaunts knew this new world better than Chell. Sighing, she nodded and went down to her knees and pulled her shirt up enough to expose the lower part of her back to the vortigaunt. He then pressed the glowing bulb to her wound until it burst. She felt whatever was within run across her skin and drip down into her pants while the vortigaunt smoothed most of it into her wound. It stung but also felt nice in a way.

"The wound has stopped leaking and should heal on its own without worry," he said as he helped Chell to her feet.

Once she was up, both orange eye and wrinkles looked to where the antlions had come from and frowned. “We must hurry though. How does the Traveler fair?” Wrinkles asked.

She was feeling better already despite the soreness of the afflicted area. Nodding her head, she picked up the cube sling once more and gave a thumbs up as an answer. They returned the nod while one of them picked up mostly intact antlion carcass and slung it on their back for some reason.

“Excellent. Antlions are territorial beasts and we fear what else may appear if we remain for much longer,” Orange stated. Just like that, the group was more or less jogging to get away from the scene of their attack.

Chell was able to keep up with them after spending so much time running in Aperture. Thinking back, she had been able to run pretty well then. Had she always been good at running and jumping? Even if she had been, it only meant it came in handy for what she was doing.

Chell couldn’t be sure how long they jogged for, but she knew that she was grateful when they finally stopped. Yes she was in good shape but jogging for miles with a heavy cube on her back was difficult. Chell shook her head at that. She wasn’t going to think anymore on how it would be easier to leave the cube behind. It was her companion and in no way a burden!

The group made camp a short distance off the road next to a large rock formation. It provided protection from the wind and blocked the view from anyone coming down the road. Chell cleared an area for a fire and piled up some kindling while the wrinkled one gave the area a small jolt of energy. A few moments later a small flame took to the kindling and they had a fire.

Apparently the antlion carcass was to be their dinner as both vortigaunts began to peel back the hard exoskeleton and pierced the soft innards with sticks. They then began to from the sticks so that they would hang over the fire to cook.

While they had been preparing dinner, Chell had watched their movements and tried to memorize how to prepare, cut, and prepare an antlion. If she ever parted ways with the vortigaunts or just found herself alone, she wanted to know how to prepare food in the wild.

It was while the antlion was cooking did something register with Chell. Other than the sound of a distant bird, the fire crackling, or even the antlion meat popping and sizzling from the fire, Chell could hear something else. It sounded like… music? There was a distinct melody to the sound but also a dissonance to it as well.

The vortigaunts took notice of the sound as their heads perked up from the antlion meat and turned towards the direction of the sound. Chell frowned when she looked back over her shoulder but the only thing she could see was her companion cube. Crawling over to it, Chell placed an ear against the cold metal. There! It was her cube! Her cube was singing! It was singing for her!

Chell had heard her other cube sing too. It sang back in Aperture with the chamber that had a broken emancipation grill, but GLaDOS had fizzled all the cubes. She wasn’t able to keep the singing cubes, but now her own cube was singing! It must have finally forgiven her for throwing it in the fire!

She found herself hugging the cube and a smile plastered on her face. It did love her if it was singing!

Chell heard one of the vortigaunts approaching but she didn’t look up. She could hear the sound of the vortigaunt gathering energy and then it released it in a crackle onto her cube. She felt a small tingle of electricity and she was about to protest that they hurt her cube, but she was cut off by her cube's reaction. It’s singing had grown louder. The song was becoming even clearer and Chell found she recognized the song. Although there were no lyrics, the chords matched that of the turret opera. Why would it sing that? Chell found she didn’t care, she only loved that it was singing for her!

Chell stood to her feet to get a better look at her cube and found the vortigaunt still had a hand on the top of it. She saw another surge of energy flow into the cube and the music only grew louder and the hearts on the side seemed to glow. It was beautiful. Then as suddenly as the music started, it stopped but the hearts continued to shine bright, casting pink shadows across the ground.

Another sound soon filled the small camp. It was metal sliding against metal and a knot started forming in Chell’s stomach at what it could mean. She watched in horror as the metal discs with the hearts plastered on the sides fell from her cube .

It felt like a punch to her stomach. Her faithful companion had been desecrated by these monsters! They stopped the beautiful singing that her cube produced but for what reason? It never hurt them! They could only be jealous because they shared such a close bond! Chell felt tears sting the corners of her eyes as she started to stride forward to confront the vortigaunt. She didn’t even get two steps before she froze in place.

Chell had seen the wrinkled vortigaunt reach inside her companion cube where one of the plates had fallen away and pulled something out. Her breathing hitched and heart skipped a beat. It happened all in slow motion. The sleek white casing followed by a black barrel and protective chamber, then the three arms for the zero point energy manipulators. The vortigaunt held the device in his hands and examined it with a curious expression. He held it out towards Chell as if he was a knight offering up a sword to their king.

Chell wished she could have been at a loss for words. Isn't that what was normally done in that kind of situation? Confronted by something so surprising, someone was to go silent? Chell wished she could have been silent or at least said something more eloquent. Instead, for lack of better words to say at seeing a portal gun again, Chell mumbled, "Holy shit."

Chapter Text

Barney was awakened by someone coughing and then groaning in pain. Opening his eyes revealed he was laying in a cot between two rebels, one getting bandages changed while the other slept. The second had one of their legs wrapped in bandages from the knee down. Well, at least he knew he was in the infirmary but for what reason?

He remembered being with Liz and Sven then heading somewhere… He couldn’t remember where he had been heading. That couldn’t be good.

He tried to sit up but that only resulted in his entire body protesting against him. He was sore all over and every joint was stiff. He felt like he went ten rounds with a Hunter and then got thrown into the ring with a former heavyweight champion of the world for good measure.

Barney groaned before exerting as much energy he could to get himself sitting up.

He had one leg already off the bed and was about to swing over when he heard a someone call out, “Calhoun!”

The voice was firm and made Barney freeze at once, his other leg stuck in a bent position on the cot. It was rare to find Barney feeling like a kid again but that’s what happened. That voice made him freeze much like when his mom caught him sneaking cookies before dinner or the time his dad found him drinking a beer behind the house when he was fifteen.

Looking to the source of the voice, Barney was met with the scowling face of Sven tending to another patient. The patient had a bullet wound to the arm and was having their bandages changed by the medic. He watched Sven finish bandaging up the rebel before the medic came stalking towards him.

Barney thought his bedside manner had been rough before but he had not been prepared for the man to put a hand to his chest and force him back down onto the cot. He then lifted Barney's leg back into place on the cot before scowling once more. “What the hell do you think you are doing?”

Barney sighed and rubbed his face with his left hand, “Getting back to work. I’ve got to go check on things.”

Sven looked pissed. “Like hell you are. You passed out in the hallway last night and hit your head. You’re staying right here.”

He did what? He thought hard about it and Barney did remember going into the hall, but nothing after that.

Barney groaned again. “Come on, man. You know I can’t do that. There’s work for me to do.”

Sven’s scowl only deepened. “I repeat. Like hell you are. I mean, really? When was the last time you got any sleep?”

Barney tried to think of that. He had squeezed in an hour nap the day before, right? No. He had tried but that was a lost cause. Didn’t he- no, he had helped Kleiner and Magnusson that night.

The mere fact that he was having to think about it gave Sven all the answers he needed. “You dumbass! No wonder you are sick. What about food? How much have you eaten, besides the two bites of a ration pack last night?”

Once again Barney had to pause and think. His last full meal had been back in City 17. Much like everyone else around the base, the uprising in City 17 left everyone getting food wherever they could when they could just like sleep. That would put Barney’s last meal nearly two weeks ago. Since then, he had been limited himself to a bite of food here or there to keep up his strength. There was always someone else who needed it more.

“I think… I had some rations day before yesterday?”

“You dumbass! I swear, if you weren’t half-dead, I’d kill you for how stupid you are!”

Barney felt sheepish at that. Yeah, he hadn’t been taking the best care of himself but all the food in the base could and should be going to the people who needed it most. Barney had a job to keep people safe but he couldn’t do that if he was stuffing his face with food.

“You are staying here in bed and resting. You are getting some food in you as well,” Sven grumbled and took a few steps over to a dented up file cabinet and pulled out something wrapped in paper. He tossed it into Barney’s lap without even looking at the man. “Eat that and then get back to sleep.”

Sven walked off while Barney slowly unwrapped the paper. The paper had been one of those propaganda posters of Dr. Breen. Inside the paper was an apple and some headcrab jerky. Barney wasn’t the biggest fan of eating headcrabs but the apple was something of a novelty. So the orchard they planted a few years back was finally giving off fruit! He felt guilty for even thinking of taking the first bite but when he looked up, Sven gave him a pointed look and stabbed a finger at the food in his lap. Sighing, Barney took a bite of the apple while keeping eye contact with Sven.

Barney tried not to think of how good the apple tasted but that was a losing battle because it was the best thing he had tasted in a long time. The last time he had tasted anything remotely sweet had been nearly ten years back when he found a candy bar and gave it to Alyx for a birthday gift. She had been twelve at the time and shared it with her father, Kleiner, and himself. Damn, he missed chocolate. And cake. What he wouldn’t give for a chocolate cake. He'd even take carrot cake…

He finished the apple nearly eating the core with it. Barney looked to the headcrab jerky and frowned. He really didn’t want it. Looking up, he noticed Sven tending to someone else so he quickly shoved it into one of his pockets for the time being.

“Calhoun! Don’t try to hide it from me,” Sven called without even looking to him.

Barney froze, hand half in and half out of his pocket. Was he a freaking owl or did he have eyes in the back of his head? What the shit, Barney thought to himself.

There were a couple pieces of the jerky so perhaps he could be sly about it. He left the others in his pocket but took a single piece out and began to nibble on it. It was tough, salty, and tasted the way rotten potatoes smelled. Sure the recently cooked crabs didn’t taste half bad but when dried out and made into jerky, it lost everything that kept the flavor in check. Despite that, he pushed through it and swallowed the bit of jerky, but keeping the rest hidden in his pocket.

He must have either eluded Sven’s eyes or the medic was letting him get away with it since Barney didn’t get any more retorts from the man. Sven came back to Barney’s side a few minutes later and took the apple core away as he mumbled about people not getting enough nutrition and the place falling apart at the seams. Barney had been trying to prevent anyone else from starving and get White Forest back in working condition so Sven's words only made him want to work harder. He needed to be back out in the halls, clearing debris and be on patrol. Barney could already feel a plan forming on getting out early. He would need to bide his time for a couple hour.

Sneaking out would be pretty easy. Barney would have to wait for Sven to leave the medical wing when someone else arrives to take over. It’s not rocket science and the next person would surely not be as receptive to him slipping out against his orders.

As it turned out, Barney didn’t have to wait for too long. It was just over an hour when another medic came in to relieve Sven for the day. That was when Barney made his move. While the medic went off into the next room to wash up, Barney slipped out of the bed, despite the protest of his sore muscles and a throbbing headache. Once in a standing position, he moved towards the exit as fast as he could. He paused for a moment to make sure Sven wasn’t lingering around before walking out and assuming a casual pace as if he didn’t just sneak out of the medical wing like a teenager would sneak out of school. Walk like you own the place and no one would question what you are doing.

Since he was free from the confines of the medical wing, he could get back to work. He looked out the nearby window with the thin metal lattice preventing glass from shattering and noticed the sun was pretty high in the sky. If he had a watch, he’d guess it was a little past noon. His patrol time would have passed but he could pick one up later so he decided to stop by Kleiner and Magnusson’s lab first. They would have something for him to do at least.

Barney passed a few rebels in the hall and they exchanged passing glances and greetings. They tried to ask if he was feeling better but he gave them a dismissive answer. “Wouldn’t be walking around if I didn’t right?” They had shared a laugh over that. In truth, he still felt like shit, but no one else needed to know.

The moment Barney tried to step into the lab, he was met by another rebel carrying out a large crate. Barney had to sidestep as the rebel fumbled with the crate a bit but managed to recover before it dropped. The rebel was younger than Barney and had a head of thin blonde hair and blonde stubble attempting to resemble Gordon’s goatee but it was a pitiful resemblance. The rebel sighed in relief as he made sure the crate was secured and then kept moving down the hall while Barney stepped fully in the lab.

“Hey, doc? You here?” Barney called out.

He heard a dull thud and a muffled groan as Kleiner crawled out from under his desk. He looked up and when he saw Barney, his eyes widened in alarm, “Barney! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be resting?”

Ah dammit. Just how many people knew about his stumble the previous night?

“Nah, Kleiner. I’m fine! Thought I’d come by and see if you needed any help,” he said with as much cheer as he could muster.

Doctor Kleiner actually looked a little embarrassed by Barney’s words as he rubbed his head where he'd bumped it against the underside of the desk. “I’m sorry Barney but we don’t have anything for you. We already had Kurtis, the fellow that just left, aide us today with you being ill and all. Frankly, I believe you should get some more rest. You still look tired.”

Barney sighed and tried to not look upset by his words while leaning against the nearby wall. “Come on, doc. I’m feeling better. I just wore myself out,” Barney explained, his arms crossed but his eyes firmly fixed on the floor. He didn’t want to meet Kleiner’s eyes out of fear the man would be able to see through his lies. “You sure you don’t have anything for me?”

“Quite sure,” Kleiner responded without hesitation. “Please Barney, get back to your room and rest. You can go one day without working.”

Then Kleiner did something that surprised Barney. He took him by the arm and started dragging him out of the room and into the hall. Once there, Kleiner ducked back inside and clicked a lock in place to keep Barney from coming back in. Sure, Kleiner was no stranger to weapons as he’d seen the man fire a shotgun at some manhacks back in City 17 and clubbed a houndeye with a pipe with as much bravery as any other rebel soldier but he’d rarely seen the man get handsy with people. The idea that he was locked out from the lab made Barney feel confused more than anything. The sight of the locked door was enough for him to scratch his head and hum something unintelligible before turning on his heels and walking to the other side of the base. If he couldn’t help Kleiner then he’d go on patrol.

Barney stopped by the armory to pick up a pulse rifle and then walked out the main gate of White Forest. He only got about fifty yards from the gate when someone ran up to him and put their arms up to his chest to stop him. She was small and had a curly red ponytail hanging out from beneath the beanie on her head, some freckles dotted her cheeks. She also had bright blue eyes and a nose that looked like it had been broken at one point in time but wasn't set properly. Barney wouldn’t deny she was cute but despite that, he didn’t think he would like what she had to say. “Woah there, Calhoun. I was given strict instruction to send you back if I saw you outside the gates.”

Yep. He didn't like it.

“By whose orders?” Barney said, annoyance evident in his voice.

“One of the medics. Steven-“

“Sven?”

“That’s it. He told us to send you back since you are too stubborn for your own good,” she replied but froze when she realized what she said. “Sorry! Don’t shoot the messenger. Just repeating his words, sir.”

Dammit, Sven. Barney couldn’t fault the woman but he was still angry and it showed. “And what if I refuse? I want to go on patrol so that’s what I’ll do.”

She sighed and shook her head. “He thought you might say that so we have backup arranged.”

The woman suddenly put two fingers to her mouth and whistled. A flock of birds flew from nearby a nearby tree and a soft pounding sound could be heard nearby. Barney’s eyes widened at the sound while looking at the woman. “You didn’t…?”

She only shrugged and looked towards the source of the thumping. “Sorry, sir. But orders are orders.”

Barney looked to the forest before turning tail and running the other direction. He could climb a tree or hide behind some rocks before he’d be caught. The thumping kept getting louder and Barney was already breathing heavy. Shit. He wasn’t going to make it. All the trees nearby had branches that were too high up or all the rocks had been moved to block service roads.

As a final moment of desperation, Barney dove into a nearby ditch that may have been a creek at one point. He kept his head down while the thumping continued to get louder and closer by the second. Suddenly there was a crash of something breaking through the bushes followed by deep mechanical vocalizations. Barney didn’t move, he didn’t dare breathe. That all amounted to nothing as he felt a large metal hand pick him up like it was nothing.

“Aw come on, Dog! Really? Put me down!”

The robot gave a series of chirps that was close to a laugh as he held Barney by the back of his coat. In an instant, the robot had a better hold on Barney as they took off back to base. Barney was forced to hold tight to Dog as it was a bit terrifying to be jostled around by Dog’s uneven strides. Barney was ready to get off Calhoun’s Wild Ride. It wasn’t until Dog set him down on the ground once more that Barney realized they were back inside the fences of White Forest, but they weren’t at the main gate.

They were situated near a cliff with a scenic mountain view in the distance that would have made Barney smile once upon a time. Oh, who was he kidding? It still made him smile to see beauty like that in the world. Other than the view, that wasn’t the only thing he saw in front of him. The mound of dirt and a wooden cross made from some old crates with three little letters carved into it made Barney pause.

Dog sat down in front of the grave before bowing his head and giving a long sad vocalization. Barney had watched the funeral and made a hasty retreat once the last of the dirt had been piled on top of Eli’s coffin. This was the first time in over a week he’d even been by the grave. He had thrown himself into his work the moment the funeral was over and had not stopped since. Barney wanted to take off running again but when Dog turned his head to look at him, Barney found himself sitting down in front of the grave as well.

Barney keeps his eyes fixed on the scenery behind the grave, he can’t bring himself to look down or he will have to face the fact that Eli was truly gone and nothing could change that. He knew the man was dead but he didn’t want to believe it. Eli had been like a father to him over the last twenty years. Hell, the man had been like a father to half the rebellion with his advice and leadership skills. Barney didn’t think the last time he would see the man in person would be a video call before the failed teleportation event in Kleiner’s lab, but that was the thing about people. You never knew when the last time you'd see them would be.

Dog let out another vocalization as his faceplates shifted to look to the sky. He was facing north. Of course…

“You're worried about them, huh big guy?” Barney mumbled, one hand going up to pat Dog’s long arm.

The robot only vocalized another long sad sound.

“Yeah. I miss them too, but don’t worry. You know those two can handle themselves out there.” Barney stood to his feet, but not without difficulty as he was feeling the strain on his body even more so than earlier. Maybe he did need to rest up. “We can keep things safe here for when they get back, alright?”

Dog turned to look down at Barney and gave another vocalization that Barney took as an agreement. Sometimes the robot was difficult to read but Alyx had done a great job of modifying his personality through the years. There were times he'd be a little troublemaker but he meant well. Even if he’d only truly listened to Alyx or someone he liked, it wasn’t so bad because he’d protect anyone just as he would protect her.

He cast another look down at the grave and sighed. He thought of what he had been doing to himself the last week and had paid dearly for it the previous night. He could practically hear the scolding of Eli as he thought of what the man would say. Without thinking, Barney took the other two strips of headcrab jerky and began to chew them up. It still tasted like crap, but he couldn’t shut down yet. He’d keep going, not just for the rebellion’s sake but for Eli’s and his own as well.

He cast one last look towards the mountains and frowned. His prayed they were safe. With that, he slowly started making his way back to the interior of the base with Dog following right behind him. He had work to do.

Chapter Text

Chell couldn’t believe it. An actual portal gun was right there in her companions hands! She couldn’t blink. She couldn’t look away. All she could do was stare at the device that had caused her so much trouble but had also saved her life time and time again. Her fingers were twitching at the prospect of having the familiar weight once more in her hands.

The vortigaunt moved over to her and she slowly took the device, the weight settling into her hands just as easily as breathing. It was too familiar. She was torn between destroying it right then or holding it close and keeping it safe. It wasn’t until she noticed the scratch to the right of the exhaust port on the top casing that she realized it was her portal gun. The gun had received that scuff after she fell down into Old Aperture. Upon closer inspection there were several flecks of orange and blue from the gels. Her eyes were utterly transfixed on the device as she ran a hand over every aspect. She had thought it had been lost into the vacuum of space but here it was, in her hands and away from Aperture.

If her life was going to involve taking on alien creatures and soldiers everyday then she would be happy to have it. Although the questioned remained; why would GLaDOS give her the portal gun the first place? And why would she hide it inside the Companion Cube? The reasoning behind anything she did always had some sort of hidden agenda. Yeah, GLaDOS would be pretty straight forward with her threats and insults disguised as thinly veiled compliments but some of her actions were confusing. One moment she was saying they were best friends and the next she deleted the closest thing to morality she had. One moment she made Chell believe she had been betrayed again but instead she received a turret opera. Then she had a companion cube returned to her but it contained her portal gun within? What did GLaDOS have to gain from any of it? Had she rigged it to explode the moment Chell used it or would it function just as it normally did? For the time being, Chell held it close before looking back to her companions with a slightly forced smile.

They returned the gesture. The wrinkled vortigaunt gave her a bow but sniffed the air a moment later as if they smelled something strange. The second vortigaunt began to reattach the circular discs to the side of the cube but they too sniffed the air as if sensing something. They both moved closer to her cube, the two strange appendages on the sides of their heads flared. Chell assumed them to be nostrils of some sort with how the valves contracted and flared.

“Is something wrong?” Chell finally managed to say.

“We apologize but we are afraid your cubical companion is no longer functional,” Orange Eye replied.

That put Chell on edge. So they did hurt her cube! She brought the portal gun up, tempted to try it on a living thing to see what firing a portal at them would do. She wanted to get them back for hurting her cube. “What do you mean by that?”

They continued putting the pieces back to the cube, unfazed by Chell brandishing the device at them. “Yes. We apologize for this. It seems some internal mechanism has ceased to operate.”

Chell narrowed her eyes at them. “What sort of function?”

Wrinkles took this as a time to speak up. “We have smelled the device. The companion gave off an aroma to affect the human mind in similar fashion to the pheropods of an antlion guardian to other antlions.”

Pheropods? Chell didn’t know what that was but she did recognize the ‘phero’ part. It sounded a bit like pheromone. Was it some sort of pheromone? The cube produced pheromones? The cube. Produced. Pheromones! Chell suddenly felt a wave of anger flow through her as the mere idea that she was being drugged by the cube since she first brought it with her. Thinking back, she realized how clingy she had been to it over the last two days and how it only got worse after she had fallen asleep next to it that first night. She'd been stuck in a tiny room with it the entire night and had only been exposed to it even more since then. It shouldn’t have surprise Chell that Aperture would do such a thing. It was probably seen as a testing element to see how someone would react in a test chamber. Force an emotional bond, no matter how flimsy, between a test subject and their cube just to make it more difficult for someone to incinerate at the end of the test.

The damn pheromones could make anyone grow increasingly dependent on the cube. Chell found herself thinking back to those dens with the paintings and mad writings. There was one she found in Chamber Seventeen that had a poem about the cubes.

Not in cruelty, not in wrath…
The Reaper came today
An Angel visited this gray path
and took the Cube away

Those writings...

Whoever wrote them must have been with their cube for so long. Chell shuddered to think what kind of condition they must have been in and how dependent on the cube they had become. The room was only a hint of what they might have been like and it wasn’t pretty.

Soon she was disturbed from her thoughts as the vortigaunts alerted her that the antlion was ready to eat. Chell looked to her cube and then had an idea. Going over to it, she began to pull on the metal discs the vortigaunts had only recently reattached. She was angry at the cube and aperture once more and she wanted the cube gone! It felt wrong destroying it after she had been with it for so long and all it did for her, but she blamed those thoughts on the pheromones. What had it ever done for her?

It was big, heavy, and all it was good for was making a ladder or to throw at an antlion. Chell did her best to ignore the guilt in her stomach at what she was doing. It was difficult but she managed to dislodge one of the discs and that must have triggered a chain reaction as each one fell off as well. She picked them up and tested their weight in her hands and was satisfied. Approaching the fire, she gave both vortigaunts a disc and smiled, “Since I won’t be needing it anymore, I thought these could make plates.”

It’s a simple thing but Chell didn’t like the idea of getting her hands dirty from food and having a plate would keep her hands free. The others, since being made of metal, could feasibly act as a makeshift grill or pan for cooking.

As they ate, Chell thought the antlion tasted better than headcrab. The texture was like biting into shrimp but the taste was more like a vegetable. If she had to describe the taste, it would be somewhere between a zucchini and bell pepper. Such a strange comparison for her to make yet it seemed fitting.

“It is getting late. We should retire for the night and continue our journey when the morning comes, Traveler,” Wrinkles said once they finished their meal. He then moved to sit down with his back to the rock face. “This one shall keep watch for the night.”

Chell relaxed as she used what was initially a sling for her cube into a makeshift mat for sleeping. What she hadn’t realized before was that the combine had removed the extra clothes she had packed and her companions must not have grabbed them when transferring her to the cave. It wasn’t a huge loss but it would have been nice to have extra clothes incase her new ones got ruined. Oh well. Chell laid on her back and listened to the fire crack, crickets chirp, and watched the stars overhead. That was a sight she didn’t think she would ever get tired of seeing. As she watched, a single shooting star passed overhead. It brought a smile to her lips. With contentment flowing through her, it wasn’t long until she was asleep.

The next morning they were on the move. Chell placed the metal plates on the sheet then folded it in one direction until it was a folded in a way she could . She then draped that across her body and tied the sheet together at her shoulder to once more act as a sling. Although this time it hugged her body more like a lumpy sash and she could move freely in a way the cube wouldn’t have allowed.

The cube…

A night in the open air without the pheromones or whatever drug it had been pumping out had cleared her head. With the majority of the drug out of her system, she realized just how strange her attachment to the cube had been. It had started singing for her and she had nearly cried about it, but now? Now all she saw a metal box with sad holes spotting each of its six sides. Yet another thing the vortigaunts had saved her from. She owed them a lot and repaying them seemed to become a bigger chore with each passing day.

Having the plate sash was better for movement if she was going to be lugging around the portal gun. If she needed to use it, she didn’t want to have to worry about carrying the cube around anymore as it could have proven to be a burden when evading pursuers like the combine or any of the other creatures that may be around.

After an hour of walking, the silhouette of a city could be seen in the distance. A city would either mean people, creatures, or soldiers. For Chell, of the three, normal humans would be the preferred choice, but with how her luck usually went there would be nothing at all in the town. She hoped to find a source of fresh water as she had finished off the canteen that morning when she woke up.

As the group neared the city, Chell could already tell they wouldn’t like what they would find. The tops of buildings looked jagged from explosions, but it was the only place nearby they may be able to find necessary supplies to keep going.

From what she could see so far, some buildings were nothing but rubble and others had large chunks missing from them. The closer they got, the more detail could be seen. Just like the road, there were cars littering the streets, some looking as if they were fleeing but had crashed into other cars or telephone poles. The Aperture town was pristine compared to the town the group approached.

The first building they passed had bullets holes littering the outside and all the windows were smashed open. Besides the bullet holes and collapsed buildings, there were more of the Combine vehicles broken down and scattered. Not only that, but Chell had to stop and inspect some strange contraption that looked like a cross between an airplane and a fish. It had a large circular rear with a single propeller but the front was segmented and narrow with two fin-like arms. The area that would contain a mouth was replaced by a long metal barrel. Some sort of gun? Chell brushed a hand over it as they passed by. Whatever had happened in the town, it had been a warzone…

They soon came to a large crater in the center of the road and as they walked around it, Chell saw it contained a long black cylinder with a tripod opening. A flash of a vision, courtesy of the vortessence, swam in her head as she realized what it meant. Headcrab shell… A cursory glance proved that there were more around and some sticking halfway in and out of buildings.

“We must be vigilant,” Orange Eye said, voicing Chell’s thoughts. She nodded and moved a little closer to her companions.

It’s almost as if they knew because no sooner had Chell moved closer to the vortigaunts did the first zombie come lumbering out from behind an overturned car. Wrinkles took it out with ease.

Despite only being on the surface for a few days, Chell had learned where there was one obstacle, there was always another just around the corner. That’s why she wasn’t surprised to see another zombie make a growling sound and drag its way out from beneath a pile of rubble while another clawed its way out a broken window. They too were taken out with ease.

Suddenly Chell heard a loud banging noise coming from the closest building. She approached it slowly and took notice of the entire front. There were no windows on the bottom floor, a chain was fastened to the outside, keeping the doors locked and the roof was completely missing. What windows were available were smashed or boarded up and Chell could see several headcrab shells lodged through the sides of the building. The pounding on the door was growing louder as the vortigaunts took notice of Chell’s investigating.

“We should move quickly,” Orange Eye said.

But the group didn’t get to take a single step before the doors were completely destroyed by a mighty swipe of long clawed fingers. The noise they had been making or their smell must have alerted the dinner bell because zombie after zombie started pouring out of the building. The vortigaunts were able to take out a few but they just kept coming. What had started as a trickle soon became a raging torrent of zombies.

Fighting them all off would take too long and with the time it took to charge each attack, the vortigaunts and Chell would eventually get overtaken. Chell only had her portal gun but she couldn’t see an appropriate escape route or source that was smooth enough to place a portal. So instead of fighting, the group turned and began to run down the street, jumping and dodging the odd swipe from a zombie that had been waiting around a corner. As they neared another building, it too had a chain on the outside, locking everything inside but the growls and snarls from the street urged the occupants to crash out as well. What could only be classified as a horde began to pour out of the second building and joined the pursuit. Despite gaining ground, more continued to join which only spurred the others to join..

“We must find high ground!” One of the vortigaunts called out. Chell didn’t look to see who said it as she ducked a wild swipe from a zombie that jumped out from the broken window of a car.

Scanning the area, there was a multistory building nearby and as the group turned the corner, they saw that the door was thankfully off its hinges. As they neared the door, something came tearing and screaming out. It was thin and completely devoid of skin. Exposed muscle and tendons that looked to be barely hanging on to the bones beneath pulled tight as it turned towards the group. On top of its head was another headcrab but this one had longer legs and looked to be thinner than the ones Chell had seen so far. With a mighty roar that sent chills down Chell’s spine, it charged. She had not expected it to be that fast as it barreled into her at an alarming speed that sent her rolling across the concrete.

It snarled and clawed at her body, the sound of fabric tearing and pain laced through Chell. With a mighty heave, she managed to get her legs underneath it and pushed. It was surprisingly light as it went flying and hit the wall of the building. Apparently, it was only dazed as it shook itself and readied to jump again but was met with a bolt of energy from the vortigaunts. Chell nodded her thanks to the vortigaunts as she got to her feet and ran inside the building. While they ran, Chell felt relief that her sling took the brunt of the attack and the metal plates prevented the zombie from getting to her skin. She'd probably have bruises. Despite its frame, that zombie had been surprisingly strong.

The building they ran into might have been a hotel or another apartment complex as there was a staircase right in the lobby across from a desk. Behind the desk was another zombie but the group was able to avoid it with ease.

The group ran up the stairs to the second floor. Chell paused long enough to examine a map of the building on the wall and saw the quickest way up. She took the lead and led them down a hallway to a service door. It was locked but a quick blast from the vortigaunts removed that problem. On the other side of the door was another set of stairs and all three started moving up as fast as they could. It wasn’t a terribly tall building but once they reached the top floor, Chell started feeling short of breath.

Bursting out of the door at the top, the group found themselves on the roof. Chell slammed the door back and prayed they put enough distance between them and the zombies that they wouldn't come up to them.

The roof was what you would expect from a war-torn city apartment rooftop. Rusted pipes, roof vents, and a crashed helicopter that was half on and half off the edge of the building. The helicopter was sleek and the shape was reminiscent of the Combine vehicles. Going to the edge, Chell found they were six stories in the air and the zombies were pouring into the building. It had to be at least a hundred or more on the street (not counting the ones that already entered the building behind them) and they were all heading their way.

Other than a few rusty pipes and debris from the helicopter, Chell couldn’t find anything that she could feasibly use as a weapon. At least the door could act as a chokepoint for the zombies so they could be picked off easily if they made it too the roof.

“We do not have much energy left for all of them,” Orange Eye said as Chell moved back to their sides.

His words surprised her. As she looked at him, she noticed both the vortigaunts seemed to sag and the nodes on their faces looked to be flaring more than usual. Were they tired? Oh this was not good…

She had to do something or else they would all die. All she had was a portal gun! Wait... She had a portal gun! Chell looked down at the roof and a smile spread across her face. It was smooth concrete.

Her smile disappeared though at the low grumble of a Combine radio. Oh great, they were here too? The sound had come from the helicopter but upon looking, all she saw was what looked like a combine soldier but its helmet was destroyed, its hands were contorted into claws, and a headcrab was planted firmly on its head.

As if they couldn't get any creepier, they just had to add body armor. It lumbered towards them, but the vortigaunts had focused their attention on the door as a loud pounding noise echoed against it.

The combine zombie, (Combie? Zombine? No. That's just dumb, Chell thought) started moving towards them, but it did something surprising to Chell. It pulled cylinder from its waist, pulled something off and started runningtowards them. The cylinder was blinking and Chell didn’t like whatever it was. Without thinking, she fired a portal in front of her and fired the next at the side of the mostly intact building next door. Chell felt relief to see that the portal stuck and the two linked into perfect harmony.

Chell was glad they weren’t the smartest things as it fell through the portal. Chell watched as it fell through the air but it never reached the ground as whatever Combine Zombie had pulled from its waist exploded and sent pieces of armor everywhere. Oh, it was a grenade, Chell thought to herself.

The vortigaunts looked at her when the explosion went off but then noticed the glowing blue circle at her feet. Without another word, Chell changed the blue portal’s location to rest right in front of the open service door. All three of them watched in anticipation as the door flew off its hinges and the first zombie stumbled out the door. Chell put a hand on Orange Eye's shoulder and shook her head at him. He had been charging another attack but he stopped to watch what would happen as the zombie walked into the waiting portal. Chell’s smile returned as she looked to the linked portal and saw the zombie fall through the air and land in a crumpled heap on the ground.

A wave of relief flooded through Chell as more of them started falling through her portals. Even the vortigaunts seemed relieved as their shoulders relaxed and they moved further away from the door so they could watch the second portal. Once the pile of bodies started to get high, Chell moved the orange portal over a few feet so the zombies would fall onto an empty area of concrete.

It continued this way for nearly an hour, Chell occasionally moving a portal or the vortigaunts needing to blast electricity at one of the fast zombies since they could jump over the one at the doorway. Chell didn’t like those at all. At one point, a zombie wandered though whose entire upper body was a swollen mass of black and red and there was at least four headcrabs on it. One on each shoulder, one on the zombies back, and then the one on its head. Before it fell through the portal, it had ripped one of the shoulder headcrabs off and thrown it their way while the headcrab hissed and clicked at them. One of the vortigaunts managed to kill it before it could even reach them. “You must be wary of the poison headcrabs. They are inedible to humans for they contain a powerful toxin,” Wrinkles explained once it was dead.

Chell was about to sit down, something caught her eyes about the zombies. As one of them wandered forward, she couldn't tear her gaze away from the size. It was so small. If she stood next to it, it would have only come up to her stomach if she didn't wear her boots. The long claws scuffed the ground on the thin arms. The clothes it was wearing were a tiny pink shirt and a small yellow flower could just be visible beneath the bloodstains.

Chell couldn't look away until it too fell into the portal. Her face felt wet. Touching it revealed twin trails of water on her cheeks. She was crying? How did that happen? She wiped her face with her sleeve before the vortigaunts noticed.

"A poignant sight, was it not? To see something so young being ripped from the world?" Wrinkles said, its large red eye fixed on Chell.

She only looked back, not saying anything. The only thing she could do was nod her head and turn back to the horde. With each zombie, Chell did her best to see what they had been instead of what they became. They had all been humans at one point but the parasites on their head turned them all to monsters.

With each small zombie, Chell felt angrier at the Combine for what they did to the town. They had killed children! Where had their mercy been? They were no better than the scientists in Aperture.

'Chell! Don't wander off. It's very important that you stay with me.'
'Why?'
‘Just do as I say, alright?'
'Alright. But I don't understand why you are having me do this test.'
'I told you. It's for science.'

What the hell was that? Chell squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. Had that been a memory? Chell tried to bring an image to her mind of the scene but nothing could make sense from the words. Who had been the other voice in her mind? It sounded familiar but she couldn't figure out who it might be. Most likely some nameless neck-bearded scientist...

When no more zombies came through the door, the group

moved to the edge of the roof once more to see the damage. A few headcrabs could be seen wandering around that had detached from their host but that was all that could be seen. They had done it.

Chell couldn’t help but frown at one thing though. There had been chains on the doors that most of the zombies had come from. It was almost as if the people had been locked inside before... No...

Looking down the street from where they had come from, Chell took note of how there wasn't any kind of fire-escape or first floor windows. The roof had been destroyed by the headcrab shells and some of the windows had been boarded up. She knew the truth but didn’t want to acknowledge it. She didn’t want to think how people would have been gathered inside but then someone came along and put chains on the door. She didn’t want to acknowledge how it had shelled to hell and the people trapped inside became subjected to the horror of what their fate would be. Had she been in there, she might have chosen a quick death of jumping from a window than to be subjected to becoming like the poor souls below.

Heading back down, they wandered the hallways. They checked the occasional door to see if it was unlocked or take out a zombie that had been lagging behind. It would taken care of with either a bolt from the vortigaunts or from the metal pole that Chell had salvaged from the helicopter. After finally finding an unlocked room that was happily zombie and headcrab free, the trio walked in and began to look around. Or Chell looked around at least. Her companions sat on the bare floor of what was the living room and closed their eyes. She couldn’t tell if they were sleeping or if it was some type of meditation as she felt they were aware of what she was doing despite not seeing her.

The bedroom revealed a single dirty mattress, a bare closet, and a crumpled up bedsheet. Chell took that and swapped out the one she had as it was now torn to pieces from the fast zombie on the street.

The bathroom didn't have anything useful but the kitchen is where Chell hit the jackpot. Most of the cabinets were bare but stuffed into the back and hidden behind an empty popcorn box were four unopened cans. Two cans of beans, one potted meat, and the last was mixed fruit. She scoured the drawers and came away with her prize. A manual can opener!

Returning to the main room, she set the cans on the ground in front of her companions. She’d eat hers once they were done recharging. She thought it might be polite to share another meal together.

Chapter Text

“Levels remain as they were,” Uriah said, handing a clipboard back to Magnusson.

Magnusson gave a nod in thanks before shifting through the pages and going over the data. He was happy to know that his rocket was still in place and showing no signs of shutting down or his work reversed. Not that it could be reversed without another dark energy reactor intervention, but the only one on Earth was destroyed in a fiery explosion. Said reactor was only destroyed in an attempt to reopen contact with the Combine home world and restart another invasion. Had it not been for his rocket (and a little help from Freeman and Miss Vance) they would not have been able to stop the second invasion from coming.

The launch itself had been a harrowing ordeal all on its own. What with the intrusion of Combine forces and the Striders making a mess of his facility and outposts. In the end, White Forest prevailed and the launch went perfectly. Although the weight variance in the launch still confused him to no end. It was ten pounds that was unaccounted for and although not too heavy for the launch, it was much more than just a spare hammer or wrench left inside. It didn’t really matter anymore but Magnusson didn’t like not knowing and having unexplained variances in his work. He preferred structure and order. It's how White Forest managed to function so smoothly for the last few years without incident, but all that went to hell when the uprising in City 17 began. So many refugees from Black Mesa East and then the city itself had thrown their food reserves into a frenzy so rations were cut back. That also meant more people would be sent out to scavenge or hunt so there was a bigger risk of being captured by Combine patrols. Needless to say, his stress levels had been through the roof over the last few weeks.

He was also not used to being around Kleiner as much. He'd spent more time in Kleiner's company over the last week than he had in the last ten years. It was probably Black Mesa the last time he'd spent so much time with the man. At least that damn parasite had disappeared and was no longer in his hair. In fact, he hadn’t seen it since the rocket launch.

Wait…

Magnusson looked over to Kleiner and then remembered the weight variance. He had to suppress a chuckle at the idea. There’s one mystery that's solved. It’s one answer he’d keep to himself because he did not want to deal with a mopey Kleiner who'd never seeing his precious headcrab again. The man was smart so he’d figure it out himself eventually and start asking questions, but Magnusson would cross that bridge when he got to it.

“Thank you, Uriah. I think we can get back to work on our other project now,” Magnusson said to his vortigaunt friend.

Uriah simply gave a small bow and walked out of the lab. Turning on his feet, Magnusson moved to look over Kleiner’s shoulder to see what the man was working. His printer continued to spit out a new page every ten seconds and a geographical view could be seen on the computer screen. The area was dominated by a large patch of yellow with dark gray squares off to the left side of the screen and thick forest to the top. Looking to the paper, Magnusson sighed as he realized what the man was looking at.

“Honestly, Kleiner, what do you hope to accomplish by looking at that place?”

Kleiner jumped in surprise and dropped his clipboard in the process. He smoothed out his lab coat before bending over to pick up the clipboard but not without giving Magnusson a sour look. Arne ignored it.

“I’ve been going over the data because it is an anomaly. Just look at the graph I’ve compiled!” Kleiner took his clipboard and shoved it into Magnusson’s face. Arne was forced to grab it and blink away the sudden blurriness the object has forced upon him.

Upon closer inspection of the clipboard, a neatly drawn graph had been created. The X axis of the graph indicated time consisting over the last few weeks while the Y axis indicated the strength of the radiological emissions coming from the former Aperture Science facility. A red line had been drawn from where there had been no activity, one large burst of energy, then a rise and fall of energy like a wave. Then there was a single huge burst of energy like a tidal wave that was followed by a single line of energy leveling itself out. Magnusson had to agree it was strange but not that he’d say it out loud.

“And that’s not all! Just look at this!” Kleiner looked back to his computer screen and began to zoom in on the section of gray squares which revealed them to be city blocks. The town was mostly intact, at least it looked to be from the air. “This was taken from a month ago before any sign of activity was discovered. Now look that this…”

Kleiner pushed a key on his keyboard and the image changed. Half the buildings were in shambles and thick smoke and flames were pouring up from various dots on the screen. He then zoomed in on a large central domed building where a large gap section of the ceiling was missing. Although the image was dark from smoke and the night-time image capture, Magnusson could make out lights coming from inside the dome. As Kleiner moved in even further, a strange shape took form. It was terribly pixelated from the zoom but it was in the vague shape of a person laying on their back. There was a splash of orange and white for clothing but nothing else could be seen.

“When was this one taken, Kleiner?” Magnusson found himself asking.

Kleiner perked up and a proud smile appeared on his features, “Just a week ago.”

If that was a person, seeing the state of the town above Aperture, Magnusson doubted they’d be alive. If the state of the town was anything to go by then whatever was going on below the surface would be even worse.

Despite that, Kleiner was an optimist and always believed the best would happen. That is not a practical mindset when it came to being a scientist. Magnusson believed a scientist should be practical and realistic. Take everything with a grain of salt until you had undeniable proof that a theory could be considered proven fact. In Magnusson’s opinion, a pixelated image of someone lying on their back in a burning facility was hardly enough to warrant a confirmed theory, but Kleiner already had that smile on his face. Magnusson hated that smile. To anyone that didn’t know the man would think he was only happy but Magnusson knew better. After all the time they spent competing for grant money, he knew when Kleiner was being smug.

With such powerful evidence suggesting someone could be inside, no doubt Kleiner would continue to pursue it. That gave Magnusson an idea.

“Are these the reading surrounding the facility?” Magnusson pointed to the printer that just finished spitting out another page.

“Why yes! They are,” Kleiner nodded and flicked the image on the screen to a wide area shot of the burning town.

Magnusson picked up a few pages and furrowed his brow as if closely examining the date. He thumbed through before stopping on a page that was labeled from three days ago. There was a small jump in readings then another one that came in just that morning. Strange indeed.

Magnusson handed the papers Kleiner while pointing out the spikes. “There are small jumps in the readings here and here. Keep your eyes on it and see if a pattern emerges.”

Without another word, Magnusson moved back across the lab to his own workstation. Despite losing Kleiner to a wild goose chase, it would at least keep the man occupied and out of Magnusson’s way until he finished his latest project.

After picking up his tools, Magnusson cast a look over to Kleiner who had thrown himself into discovering the truth behind the signals. That was one thing to be respected about Kleiner. Once he started working on a task, he diverted all his efforts into it until he had the answers. Kleiner’s tenacity was one of the few things Magnusson did enjoy about the man. He never gave up on scientific pursuits or stopped his curiosities. Stubbornness was a good quality to have when it came to most things in life. Usually it would be the most stubborn of people that yielded the best results in Magnusson’s personal history.

Magnusson walked the halls with purpose in his step and that made anyone in his path move if they saw him. Those that didn’t see him were asked to get out of his way in the most polite way he could manage with how much of a hurry he was in. The only thing was that it equated to him saying, ‘Out of my way, I’m in a hurry!’

Arne eventually Arrived to the basement level with his tools where he found Uriah speaking with a couple other rebels. They were nodding to something he was saying before they walked away. He didn’t bother saying anything to the rebels as they got back to work the moment they walked away from Uriah.

“What’s the status, Uriah?” Arne asked while setting his toolkit down.

The basement was a maze of pipes and breaker boxes. Large generators dominated one end and they provided energy to most of the complex. Their only problem was that they're finicky and prone to breaking down at times, so the rebels of White Forest had to think of creative ways to keep them going. A couple years back they'd fashioned solar panels together to keep the facility working but they weren’t as efficient as hoped for once winter months hit. Another tactic had been utilizing a waterwheel and a nearby waterfall but it didn’t work out very well either once the river turned into a creek. So what was left of the river was diverted and channeled to run by the base where a network of pipes were fixed at certain areas so that it could be purified for drinking or funneled into pipes for bathing.

“The generators are in prime condition. This one has provided a jolt to generator three to provide it with the energy levels you find satisfactory,” Uriah explained while moving over to lay a hand on the side of the large generator.

It was massive. Easily fifteen feet high and just as wide. If it wasn’t for the coils and wires attached to the center mass, the rounded back could be mistaken for a jet turbine. Uriah lifted up on a nearby panel to expose some buttons and a key slot that could manually shut down and start the generators. “This one has also taken the liberty of preparing the area for the Magnusson’s arrival.”

Magnusson nodded to his friend and approached the generator. He examined a nearby dial and made mental notes of the energy output they were receiving. Generator three had always been the trickiest and most prone to error but it seemed to be holding on for the time being. Although he was afraid of it breaking down again because if it did, he wasn’t sure if it could be repaired.

Reaching down into his tool kit, Magnusson took out a device of his own making. It was some sort of gaming device at one point but now it would provide him with information on the inner workings of each generator. It was rectangular in shape and had a large central screen. A large data pack was inserted where a game would reside and held in place with electrical tape and wires. Coming out from the bottom was a long thick cord with a metal spike attached to the end that Magnusson would insert into the key slot of the generator and it could send him all the internal workings of the machine. He thought it was a clever little device despite the snickers he would receive about the pink color.

Generator three thankfully showed no signs of strain or breaking down. Generator two would need a few wires patched up but Uriah could handle that or one of the maintenance workers. Generator one was in perfect condition, or as perfect as it could be considering its age.

Magnusson carefully put his device back into his bag before straightening out his lab coat and nodding to Uriah. “I think I’m finished here. We can report the data to maintenance. In the meantime I would- AH!”

Magnusson was cut off by a hot burst coming from an overhead pipe. Clutching the back of his head and muttering a string of silent curses, he turned on his heals to see what attacked him. Steam. It was a burst of steam! “Who is responsible for this obstructive burn hazard?” He called out through the basement.

He noticed a few workers looking sheepish as they appeared from behind a mess of pipes, one of them clutching a large pipe wrench. “Sorry Doctor Magnusson. We didn’t see you there.”

“What is the meaning of this?” He asked but it came out more as a scold than a question. The one holding the wrench visibly winced.

“Working on the pipes. Some are a little old. We’ll fix that one next but we managed to get our main task completed, sir,” the rebel not holding the wrench said.

“And what is it?”

Both rebels smiled, looking practically smug. Wrench wiggled the tool in his hand, “White Forest has hot water once again.”

Chapter Text

Chell ran the water over her bare arms in an attempt to get clean. It was a poor excuse for a bath, but at least it made her feel better despite the chill of the creek. They had found it not long after leaving the destroyed city behind. The vortigaunts had assured Chell that it was 'free of contaminants' and safe to drink and that’s precisely what she did. Without another thought, she had dropped down to the ground and dunked her face directly into the water, gulping down large mouthfuls.

She had made the mistake of drinking too fast and ended up with the hiccups, but it was a small price to pay to not die of dehydration. Once she had her fill of water, Chell had taken the canteen from that soldier and filled it until she couldn't hear any sloshing sound within. With no way of attaching it to her hip, she shifted the sheet sling to accommodate the canteen without letting it fall out.

Once the water situation had been handled, Chell took on another pressing matter. Hygiene. The closest thing she had to a shower in a long time was when she had been doused with the water pipes down in old aperture in a frenzied attempt to get the repulsion gel off her skin. She had been forced to walk under one of the repulsion gel pipes to even enter a test chamber. Although it helped remove most of the gel from her skin, the water smelled strange and made her feel itchy afterward. Itchy pipe water aside, since she arrived on the surface, Chell had amassed a collection of grime on her skin. She had dirt sweat caked onto her face and body, and patches of dried blood clung to her as well thanks to the new and several odd inhabitants she’d encountered. Half the blood wasn't even hers to begin with. Yellow and green patches of the alien blood were clear against her tanned skin.

The creek wasn’t deep enough for Chell to sit fully submerged but the water came up to mid-thigh while she knelt in the middle of it on her knees.  She had asked for some privacy from the vortigaunts and they obliged her, but not before saying something along the lines of, ‘We shall not bother the Traveler while she disrobes and cleanses herself.' Although blunt, at least they were polite.

Chell had kept the exercise shorts she wore under her Aperture jumpsuit on beneath her new jeans and her sports bra as well. She left those on as she got down on her knees in the creek. She didn't like the idea of being fully naked out in the woods, what with all the strange things she’d seen so far made her feel too exposed. Once settled, she had begun to scrub at every inch of skin she could reach. She had sacrificed part of the bedsheet to act like a rag but not even halfway done with scrubbing, it had already turned a dingy, dark brown from how much grime was stuck to her skin.

Her portal gun, boots, and clothes were all settled on the bank the sheet sling. All within her sight and in easy reach if needed in a moment’s notice. She’d cast furtive glances to it while scrubbing at the dark patches of grime on her arms and it soon became evident of how many scars she had obtained. Her shoulders were a spider web of pink lines from the electrically charged batons of the Combine, a five inch long laceration along her right bicep, and faint burns along her hands and forearms. Each scar told a story and she cataloged all of them. She could pick out and remember how she received each one. The bicep cut came from smashing her body into one of the monitors Wheatley had set up. The burns came from the explosion trap during the core transfer stalemate. If she had a mirror, she would probably have more on her back from smashing into the metal gate due to the explosion.

How did her life become so messed up? Why had she gone down into Aperture in the first place? Chell wracked her brain and willed herself to remember anything about her life before Aperture, but it still remained like a radio station stuck between channels. All that remained of her past was static and she couldn’t find the right frequency to tune into. The fact that she had memories that weren’t hers floating around in her head didn’t help anything, but those were easy to separate out as they all involved the years the surface experienced while she was underground.

No use dwelling on it for the time being. By the time Chell was finished, the impromptu rag was nearly black, her skin tingled, and she felt cold. Not wasting any time, she slipped back into the jeans but not appreciating how they clung to her still wet legs. Wet denim was definitely not a pleasant experience. She went ahead and put the boots back on before grabbing her shirt. She had just bunched up her shirt and had her arms through when she heard the snap of a twig nearby and rustling of leaves.

The hole that her head would go through was plastered to her chest as she kept the shirt on like a strange backward shawl, but her body was on high alert. That was not the sound of random branch breaking but a clear snap that meant something was nearby. Not out of sight but still with their backs turned, the vortigaunts perked their heads up. So they had heard it too? She quickly pulled the shirt back over her head and grabbed the portal gun. Her jacket was left on the ground for the time being. She needed to be ready for whatever was coming.

Snap!

There it was again. Another snap of a twig as if something was getting closer, but it sounded deliberate. The vortigaunts thought safety to be more important than checking to see if Chell was decent as they soon flanked her on each side, the group scanning every direction.

Then there was a startled cry and a splash. The group turned to look towards the opposite bank of the creek and saw a figure struggling to stand up and out of the water. “Holy shit that’s cold!”

The now soaking wet figure was revealed to be a man around Chell’s age or a few years older with short cropped black hair and stubble on his jaw as if he hadn’t shaved in a few days. He stood shivering in the ankle-deep water and looked up sheepishly towards the group as if only just noticing they were there. He was wearing a dark blue shirt beneath a vest version of the white masked combine jackets. An armband was wrapped around his right bicep with a bright orange lambda painted on. “S- sorry for scaring you. I didn’t want to sneak up on you, but… yeah. Sorry. But thank god! I finally found someone else, I've been wandering around for days!”

Chell took notice of how she still stood in a defensive pose and slowly relaxed because this was a person. A real living and talking human being! She was silent as her arms went limp, but her grip on the portal gun remained so it hung down at her side in a relaxed position.

The stranger waded through the water and shook his feet once out of the creek, but it wouldn’t do anything considering his boots were soaked through. Despite the water, they looked in decent condition.

“Oh hey! You got some vorts with you? That’s great!” The man asked as he approached Chell and her companions.

As he approached, Chell could see he had brown eyes and a small scar on his forehead. He’d be about Chell’s height if she weren’t wearing her long fall boots once more. He smiled, but she didn’t smile back. A tense silence passed between them.

Chell didn’t know how to proceed. It had been so long since she had seen a living human and yet there was one right in front of her. Was this real? No. She had gone over it all before and that she was on the surface. So he was real and not a robot. Her eyes went to the vortigaunts who had relaxed somewhat at seeing the man.

“Yeah…” Her first words to another human in a long time. She thought she would have said something more profound upon breaking her silence to another human. As it turned out... Saying profound phrases was a lot harder to think up of on the spot.

“So are you going to the camp?” The man asked, perking up once she spoke. “I was on my way to a rebel camp not far from here.”

More people? There was an entire camp of people nearby? Chell turned to look at the vortigaunts. They seemed confused by the prospect, yet also intrigued.

“We were not aware of such a camp. Are there no vortikind there?” Orange Eye asked.

The man shrugged his shoulders and made a noncommittal noise. “Not sure, I just know its somewhere nearby. They might not have any vorts at the camp so having you two there will make even more of a difference.”

He gave a broad smile and put his hands on his hips. Chell raised an eyebrow at him but couldn’t help a smile from forming. “So… you know where it is?”

“Sure do! My name’s Gabriel by the way. You guys want to join me? It's always better to travel in groups, right?”

He gave Chell a curious look as if looking for her assurance and confirmation. Out of the three times she traveled with someone, one had resulted in a betrayal, the second resulted in her discovering the origins of GLaDOS, and the third made her find out the horrors of the surface. Chell probably wasn’t the best one to answer that question.

"I'm not alone though,” Chell answered, gesturing to the vortigaunts by nodding her head in their direction.

Gabriel laughed at that and nodded, “Yeah. Guess you are right about that. Guess what I’m saying is would it be okay if I joined up with you?”

He was a little forward with his question, but he sounded harmless enough. Maybe a bit too friendly, but harmless.

Chell shrugged, “I guess. But it would be nice to see more people.” She then turned to the vortigaunts, “What do you two think?”

“We shall follow wherever the Traveler leads,” Wrinkles said.

So they wanted to follow her? She didn’t understand why they would support her on this decision because she had been following them the whole time. Or so she thought. It had been her who had suggested the city and what route to take. Chell had just assumed they were going that direction anyway, so they all decided to stay together. Had they actually been wanting to stay with her?

Chell could wonder why later because there was a chance to meet up with people who could have more supplies. They may even have a bed! Oh, how she would love an actual bed instead of a hard panel in a service area of Aperture or dirty carpet.

With her mind made up, Chell looked to Gabriel and nodded her head. “Yeah. I think we can travel together.”

His face lite up at her confirmation. He was an excitable one that’s for sure. He instantly pointed off in a direction and took the lead, “I think it’s this way or at least that’s the direction my group was going.”

Chell waited a moment before following behind Gabriel. He was strange and seemed to mention things only as they came to him. He had a group?

“Your group?” Chell said as she fell in stride beside him with the vorts trailing behind her.

Gabriel nodded his head, his tone turning saddened, “Yeah. Reggie, our leader, he had a map to the camp but… a Combine patrol came out of nowhere. I managed to get away but… I don’t know if anyone else got away.”

“Then shouldn’t we search for your group? We believe there to be safety in numbers, just as you have said,” one of the vortigaunts said.

Gabriel shook his head. “No. We had decided as a group that if anyone became separated, just head South. That’s the direction of the camp so we could meet up there later. So if they are anywhere, they’d be there.”

Chell looked to the vortigaunts and nodded her head at them.

The new member of the group fell into their rhythm very well. He’d say something about the camp and what they are supposed to have or that it wasn’t much further. ‘A couple hours at most’ he would assure. He was talkative but not the most talkative companion Chell had ever had.

It was an hour after they met that he finally asked Chell, “So what’s with the strange looking gun and shoes?”

She figured the question would be asked eventually, but it still caught her off guard. She was usually more careful than that. Maybe traveling with the vortigaunts had made her lower her defenses? She couldn’t do that, or she’d risk opening herself up to being hurt again. She fixed herself and pulled up her walls once more, but she’d allow her voice around these people. It was too late to go mute again.

“I found them. You ever heard of Aperture Science?” Chell answered.

“No,” Gabriel said.

“Yeah. It’s an old facility. I used to… I guess the best word would be ‘lived’ there for some time? Managed to get free and kept the boots and gun,” she explained.

Gabriel looked close to the portal gun, an intrigued grin plastered to his face, “What’s it do? Looks pretty special.”

“You could say that,” Chell mumbled, shifting the portal gun so she could hold it better if needed. She wished she had another handgun. Out in the open without high portal surfaces, she couldn't do much for defense. Whereas a gun that shot actual bullets would be better for defending herself than the portal gun.

“And the boots?”

“They’re special too. They make me jump good,” Chell said, not telling the real purpose behind them. She needed to keep her some secrets for the time being.

“How good?”

Chell shot a smile at him and gave a quick jump. Although the heel springs did help give her extra height in jumping, it wasn’t substantial enough to be amazing.

Gabriel nodded his head at her jump, “Not bad. Certainly higher than average. So this Aperture place? What was it like?”

Chell raised an eyebrow at him, “You ask a lot of questions, you know that…”

“Just making small talk. Isn’t that the polite thing to do?”

Chell looked back to the vortigaunts who gave the closest thing to a smile they could. If she didn't know any better, she'd say they looked smug. She rolled her eyes and smiled back. Yeah, she could see how the scenario was similar.

With a sigh, she shook her head. “I guess so but... Aperture isn’t a place you want to be.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s a deathtrap.”

That gave Gabriel pause and made his footsteps falter. “What do you mean?” Despite the tone, he had an amused smile on his face.

Chell sent him a glare that she hoped would look like a warning to stay away from the place. “I mean that I’m the only person who has come out of that place alive.”

Gabriel went silent after that, his eyes unwavering from the ground and his lips pursed. Chell watched him out of the corner of her eye. If he were curious, he’d ask more questions, but if he were a smart man then he wouldn’t pursue it any further.

It turned out he was not smart a smart man.

“So how did you get out?” He finally asked.

Chell shook her head. “I didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was let go. Apparently, it was easier to let me go than to try and kill me according to-“ she cut herself off before she could say what really controlled that place. “Well, according to Aperture. It’s nice to see the sky again.”

“How long were you in there? Sorry, it’s just that… You don’t look very old,” Gabriel said. At least he dared to look embarrassed by his question.

Chell only looked at him before shaking her head, “Far too long."

It was the only answer she had as she wasn't entirely sure how much time had passed.

“What kind of science did they do?” He asked.

Chell paused at that. She didn’t remember mentioning it being a science facility, but he must have come to the conclusion of that from the gun and boots.

Shrugging her shoulders again, Chell indicated to her gun, “Mostly testing now. I suppose you can make an argument for-“

Chell cut herself off again as her gaze went to the ground. She had caught sight of Gabriel’s shoes and frowned.

“Hey… Where did you say you came from?” Chell asked.

Gabriel looked a little annoyed by being brushed off but perked up at her question. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I never said, but my group was actually camped out about an hours walk north of where we met.”

"An hours walk? But I thought- Never mind." Chell narrowed her eyes again. She had him.

"Oh, sure."

She had him, but she wanted to see how deep of a hole he could dig himself.

“How long had you been staying there before you were ambushed?”

“We moved place to place, but we were up there for a couple weeks,” Gabriel said, the same relaxed tone in his voice. It made Chell’s eyes narrow at him.

Shifting around, Chell looked to the vortigaunts and sent them a glance then used her head to motion at Gabriel. Taking a step away from him, she used the portal gun to point down at his shoes. “If you’ve been out in the wild for weeks and apparently wandering for hours, then why do your shoes look new?”

Gabriel’s smile faltered as his gaze traveled down to his shoes. When he looked back up at Chell, there was mild surprise that soon melted into anger. “You know... That was an excellent story.”

In a flash, he reached behind his back and attempted to pull out a gun that Chell had not seen tucked into the waistband of his pants. He didn’t get the chance. Orange eye had barreled into the man and sent him rolling to the ground. That gave Chell the time to leap on top of his back and pinned his wrists to his lower back.

Despite his smaller than average size, Gabriel was able to turn his body over and toss Chell off his back. Chell rolled with her momentum and came up on her feet in a natural position that she would find herself in after a harrowing jump in a test chamber. Before Gabriel could even get into a similar position as Chell, the vortigaunts were upon him. They had gone to his sides and grabbed each of his arms and pulled them back and forced him up on his knees. Despite how thin their arms looked, they easily kept Gabriel down on his knees with his arms spread out wide as if ready to be embraced. If he attempted to get up, he’d run the risk of popping a shoulder out of place with how the vortigaunts had his arms twisted.

“Release me at once, you parasites!” Gabriel cried out and wiggled against the tight grip of the vortigaunts.

Chell ignored him and stalked around to get behind him and the vortigaunts. She found the gun he had stashed in his pants and slipped it into the waistband of her own before tearing open the backpack he had been wearing.

“Get out of there! Stop touching my stuff!” He cried out and thrashed about.

Undeterred, Chell began pulling things out of the bag. There as a blanket and a few ration packs, but down in the bottom was a familiar sight. Grabbing onto it, Chell held it in one hand while keeping her eyes trained on Gabriel.

“I won’t allow myself to be betrayed again,” she snarled at him before throwing the item at Gabriel’s chest. It bounced off him and settled into the dirt with the soulless black lenses of the white gasmask gazing up at the sky.

Chapter Text

Barney lolled his head back against the concrete wall while blindly throwing the ball across the garage to Dog. The robot was sitting in the same position as Barney across from him about thirty feet away. He easily caught it within the charged field around his hand that acted much like that gravity gun Eli had built, although Dog’s was much weaker. After a moment, Dog sent the ball back towards Barney who caught it in turn.

Barney had been desperate for something to do but was not allowed to do any work, so he went digging into the storage rooms. Hidden in a far corner was the old baseball. The laces were ripping and the skin was peeling back, but it gave him something to do and kept Dog entertained while acting as his babysitter. He didn’t need a babysitter, but Dog wouldn’t let him get twenty feet without following behind like… well, a dog! A ten-foot-tall dog that could rip a Combine transport in half with ease but still a dog nonetheless.

Sven had found out about him leaving the infirmary and ripped him a new one. He’d been called quite a few colorful idioms and half had not even been in English, but Barney knew he the gist of what was being said. In the end, Sven had allowed Barney to stay out of the medical wing, but he was not allowed to work until the medic said otherwise. That left Barney with one of the worst cases of cabin fever he’d ever experienced and it’d only been a day.

As a kid, Barney never liked sitting still for too long. No kid really did but he his had been to the point where’d he act up in class. He’d tried ways to cope, but it wasn’t until years later that he found outlets for all his pent-up energy. Being a security guard at Black Mesa had been one of the best things for him. Sure the hours could be insane, but there was always something for him to do or people to help.

He still had bouts of restlessness and when forced to stay inside, Barney didn’t do well. He’d already done what little work he could and that was performing minor maintenance on the car Gordon had arrived at White Forest in. Minor maintenance being that he tightened a few bolts and checking the engine components to see if everything was in working order. Sadly everything was perfect. So that left Barney and Dog to their own devices several yards away from the car and tossing the baseball to each other. It kept Dog entertained and gave Barney something to do with his hands that didn’t involve manual labor.

“You know, Dog? Twenty years ago, I would have killed for some downtime or a nap. Hell, even ten years ago!” Barney said while tossing the ball once more. “But now that I’m being forced to rest, all I want to do is get back out there.”

That’s what fighting did to people he guessed. Someone would crave getting to rest and stop fighting, but once they have to stop, all they want is to get back up and fight. Even sleeping had become too much of a chore over the years. There would be days at a time where he couldn’t sleep, or when he did, he’d be awakened by nightmares of Black Mesa, battle, or discovering he was being forced through the Combine upgrade process against his will. Those were the worst. In his early days undercover with the CPs, he had been so thankful for the mask because he was scared that he would be discovered. There would have been two options for him had that happened. One was instant death and the other would be that he'd be turned into a Stalker. If he could remember who he'd been, then he’d wish he was dead. That is if he even remembered who he was after the process.

“But now? I don’t know what to do with myself. People have always relied on me, but they’re putting me on the sidelines. I can do so much more around her to make it safer,” Barney explained.

He liked venting to Dog because he didn’t have to worry about being pitied or getting strange looks. He couldn’t talk, but he sure would listen. Dog threw the ball while making a few long-noted sounds.

Barney rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “I wish they would let me do more. I need to do more, Dog. It’s my job to keep everyone safe and I can’t even do that! Had I just gotten here sooner then I would have been able to do something. Some security guard I turned out to be, huh?”

He threw the ball once more.

“Can’t even do one thing right. All my fault really…”

Dog went strangely quiet.

“I mean- Oh holy SHIT!” Barney gasped as something hard hit him right in the chest. Looking down at his lap, there sat the baseball.

Looking up, Barney frowned at Dog, “Dammit, Dog. What was that for?”

Dog made another series of notes as Barney threw the ball back. “Whatever.”

As soon as Dog had the ball, he threw it once more with as much force as before but this time hitting Barney in the stomach, winding him once more.

“What’s the big deal?”

Dog made a few more noises, but this time they actually sounded a little angry or upset. Why would Dog be upset with him? Wait. Could he…?

“You don’t like it when I put myself down?”

Dog made a long single note sound and shook his head as if to say, ‘no you dumbass.’

“Geez… Think you could find a better way of telling me? That really hurt,” Barney said while rubbing at his chest. He knew enough about himself that it wouldn’t bruise, but the sentiment was still there.

“Would you do the same thing to Gordon or Alyx?” He smiled at the robot.

Dog nodded vigorously. That made Barney chuckle as he tossed the ball back.

Gordon and Alyx. Wonder what they are up to, he thought to himself.

Those two were an unstoppable team once they got together. They had blown up both Nova Prospekt and the Citadel, slowed down the destruction process of the Citadel to let other people escape, and brought back a data packet that allowed the Combine super portal to close up for good. No wonder people looked up to them.

Barney was a little guy compared to them and yet he’d already done so much for the resistance. Twenty years of fighting then suddenly Gordon shows up and everything turns for the better. Guess he really was the Opener of the Way as the vortigaunts called him.

“Sometimes I think people like Gordon more than me,” he smiled sadly.

Dog was quiet. He had expected another hit from the baseball, but when he looked up, Dog was frozen in place. Barney was about to call out to him and ask if he was alright but then he noticed that the baseball was frozen in place as well. It was stuck in midair and still on a trajectory with Dog’s waiting hand. Paw? Claw? Didn’t matter as time was frozen in place. What was going on?

“That is to be expected when it comes to symbols of hope, Mr. Calhoun,” someone said.

The voice came from nowhere yet everywhere at once. It sounded both far away and right in his ear at the same time.

Then a figure started walking forward, but something was wrong with them. They began as a silhouette, but they were approaching from behind Dog which shouldn’t have been possible because he had been sitting against the wall like Barney. The figure looked as if they were walking down a corridor that wasn’t even there. They walked at a leisurely pace and as they approached, Barney could make out their features.

It looked like a man. He was in a dark blue suit with a deep purple tie and carried a briefcase. He had a rectangular face but at the same time had sharp features. His cheekbones were high and his face shrunken to look almost gaunt. His skin was pale. Nearly as pale as the Combine Soldiers beneath their armor but not to that extreme. The paleness was still unsettling. His hair was a short black crew cut that made his head look even more rectangular than it already was.

Once he walked through Dog, Barney noticed the man was transparent as he could see Dog through the man. This was probably the most terrifying thing Barney had experienced in his forty-six years of life. He stopped to poke at the baseball that was still frozen in midair as if brushing some dust from it then turned to look at Barney.

That’s when Barney saw his eyes. They were an unnatural shade of green as they practically glowed with how bright they looked. They struck Barney to his very being and had made Barney stop struggling altogether. When had he started fighting to move? Why couldn’t he move in the first place?

The man. No. The Man. This was not some ordinary every-day person and he wasn't normal. Barney had to make the distinction between everyone and Him.

The Man smirked as he looked down at Barney. “Long time, no see. It has been a while, I know, but it was for the best I assure you.”

The way He talked was unnatural. There were pauses that shouldn’t be and inflections on the wrong syllables. He had all the words but none of the natural flow that language should have. It reminded Barney of an old text to speech machine. They had all the words, but couldn’t say them as well as a person.

Barney tried to speak, but no words came out. He was entirely at the mercy of the Man in front of him. Barney opted to glare at the Man instead.

“I can tell by your expression that you are not pleased to see me. I had thought we would be on… better terms considering all I have done for the resistance and yourself. As for Dr. Freeman. He is alive for the time being.”

As He had been talking, the scenery changed from the White Forest garage to a black void then slowly changed to a long corridor. Barney could see through the man that two people were moving down the corridor. Their backs were to Barney, but he would recognize the HEV suit anywhere. So that meant the person in the beanie and heavy coat to the right side of the corridor would by Alyx. They had guns drawn and moved slowly, careful of anything they might encounter. Seeing nothing, Alyx lowered her weapon and turned to Gordon. She nodded to him before they jogged around the corner and out of sight.

The scenery changed once more, and they were back in the black void. “Your methods of survival have not gone unnoticed, Mr. Calhoun. They remind me of another.”

Barney suddenly remembered Him. He’d seen Him once before at Black Mesa! Then again years later. That day was fuzzy in his mind, but he knew he’d seen the Man before.

“That’s why I have decided to provide you with a gift, despite what my… employers say. It should be very beneficial and aid you in aiding others.”

Barney started to struggle once more. He remembered what this Man was now. He was the one who kidnapped Gordon all those years ago!

Back in City 17, Barney had been checking in with Dr. Kleiner when the Man had appeared to them. He had brought Gordon’s HEV suit. There could have only been one way that He could have gotten that, and Barney wanted answers. The Man had only given Barney a smirk before going on to explain that Dr. Freeman was unharmed and in safe hands. Barney had called bullshit on that. He’d left the HEV suit behind for Kleiner and left them with parting words that Gordon would be returning in the near future.

When he had left, Barney’s memory had been fuzzy about the whole thing and he’d discovered the HEV suit all tucked into a crate. When he asked Kleiner about it, the man seemed ignorant about it and didn’t know where it had come from. Kleiner had modified it to use Combine energy outlets and only a few days after that was completed did Gordon show up at the train station.

Barney remembered that with anger in his heart. How dare He mess with their memories like that and use them as puppets. But the question remained as to what the gift would be? Was he going to take Barney away like he did Gordon? He couldn’t do that! Barney still had so much to do at White Forest.

“Before I take my leave, remember that this conversation is a private matter,” He said before slowly fading away. Color started to return to the world and Barney found himself sitting in the same place as before, but time was still frozen.

A few more seconds passed when everything came back online. The ball moved, Dog caught the ball, and Barney gasped. He put a hand to his head and found sweat had broken out across his forehead.

Dog was on his feet and at Barney’s side in an instant, checking him over for injury.

“I’m alright, Dog. Just fine. Just spooked myself is all,” Barney lied. He remembered the Man. He remembered everything about him. Barney was not going to forget him again.

Chapter Text

Chell paced back and forth while the vortigaunts continued to hold the soldier down. Chell was pissed. She had been betrayed before, but she found satisfaction that she managed to snuff out the lies before she could be betrayed again.

Picking up the helmet once more, she kept it tucked under her arm and scowled at the man. “Where were you actually taking us?”

Gabriel spat at Chell, a thick glob landing on her pants leg. She ignored it. Instead, she opted to grab a fistful of the front of his jacket. “Just know that everything I said about Aperture is true. You go there, you die. You go inside, you will die! Bullets, crushers, gels, neurotoxin? Those are only the things I encountered,” she growled.

Gabriel’s angry expression remained intact. Seeing no reasoning with him, Chell decided to do more digging into his backpack. Inside, she found the rest of his uniform, spare magazines, packages wrapped in silver foil, and a radio. The radio had a long cord attached with a port on the end for it to be connected to something.

With nothing to worry about for the moment, Chell investigated all his gear. She discovered the jacked was padded and had some form of armor covering chest. It wasn’t very thick, but it might cushion her better than the thin shirt she was wearing. The pants were softer than the denim she had been wearing and had extra pockets. Opening one of the silver packets, Chell discovered it to be some kind of wafer or protein bar. She took a small bite and grimaced at the taste or lack thereof.

Picking up the helmet once more, she looked it over better. It was some type of metal, but it was far lighter than she’d expect for the material. Tapping the lenses revealed them to be made of glass. The helmet would divide into two pieces. One piece acting as a back then hooked onto the jacket and on this piece is where Chell found the place where the port would hook into. The other half of the helmet was just the gas mask and lenses. She held up that part to her face and found out despite the dark lenses, looking out of them didn’t obscure her vision. Instead, it seemed to enhance and make all the surrounding colors more vibrant than before.

Chell looked to Gabriel once again and frowned. He was watching each of her movements with keen interest. She ignored him once more before going over the gear again. Fiddling with the radio, she turned it on, but no sound was coming out. Looking to the receiver then the helmet, she put plugged it into its port but nothing still. On a complete gut feeling, and curiosity, Chell slipped the mask over her head. It must have some sort of pressure plate within the helmet because as soon as her ears pressed into the padding there was a small click and then a trill of beeps before a voice started to fill her ears.

-to all outlying Overwatch Agents, be on the lookout for possible malcompliance subjects...

It was a voice that sent a chill down her spine, a woman’s voice. It was mechanical in nature, but it sounded so much like Her that it left Chell frozen in place. It couldn’t be GLaDOS but why did it sound so much like her? GLaDOS had taken over and she’d kept them out of Aperture before. She had said so herself during their first fight. But why did it sound like Her? It wasn’t right!

Despite that, she had to keep searching for answers. Taking a deep breath, Chell sighed, “Okay.”

Chell paused. That wasn’t her voice yet it was her word. Right. The mask must have some sort of built-in voice modulator, vocoder her brain supplied, to give the soldiers a way to blend in with each other or to make everyone exactly the same.

“CP-1295, check in.”

Chell froze. She really hoped that wasn’t her.

“CP-1295, check-in, over.”

Chell removed the mask and looked to Gabriel with mild panic on her face. “Are you CP-1295?”

Gabriel kept his gaze fixed on Chell, but even he couldn’t stop the smirk that tugged at his lips. Shit.

Chell turned to the vortigaunts, “I need him to stay quiet. We might be in trouble.”

There was some hesitation before she slipped the helmet back over her head. The click sounded and once again the mechanical female voice filled her ears once more. The chill still ran up her spine, but it wasn’t as bad as she’d been prepared for it.

“CP-1295, check in.”

This was probably the stupidest decision she has ever made. Although this could provide them with some answers, it could very well end up with her death. Chell took a deep breath and stepped into the abyss. “Checking in.”

“Status on the suspect?” the voice answered in return.

Chell looked to Gabriel (CP-1295?) and frowned. What was she to say? She tried to think back to any movies or television shows she may have watched, but her mind drew a blank. She’d already taken the plunge and had to respond or risk suspicion from the soldiers on the other side of the mic.

Was that her? Was she the suspect or could it be someone else?

“CP-1295, respond.”

Dammit. She must have been lost in thought again. “Suspect attacked me. Stole most of my gear.”

Chell looked to the vortigaunts who had shifted their gaze to the backpack. Orange eye had an uncertain expression on their face.

“We have a lock on your location. We will send transport to pick you up for debriefing,” the other side responded.

Chell’s eyes widened in fear. Her jaw tightened and caused her to accidentally bite down on the inside of her mouth, but she didn’t feel it. Her body felt numb with the revelation.

“Do you copy, CP-1295?”

Chell felt a lump in her throat. She had to be careful now or risk tipping them off if she hadn’t already done so with how she’d been behaving over the radio.

“Copy,” she finally managed to say.

“Roger. Remain where you are and transport will arrive within the hour,” the radio responded before there was a click and all she heard was the mechanical female voice giving updates.

Chell pulled the helmet off her head and tossed it away. She felt cold once her face was exposed to the open air and that’s when she noticed sweat had broken out across her forehead and was running down in rivulets. They were on their way and would arrive within the hour. That’s what she gets for being careless! When she gets careless, something wrong always happened.

Turning to Gabriel, she stalked towards him before rearing one of her legs back and kicking him square in the gut. He let out a choked sound and attempted to double over, but the vortigaunts held him in place. That resulted in him vomiting on his lap. Kicking him didn’t make her feel any better but she needed something to take her aggression out on, and he was the closest thing.

“What has angered the Traveler so?” Wrinkles asked.

Chell looked to him with fury in her eyes before pointing to the radio and helmet, “They know where we are and are on their way here!”

Chell wanted to kick Gabriel again, but it wouldn’t accomplish anything.

“What shall we do then?”

Chell looked to Wrinkles again and shook her head. “Why are you asking me? Every decision I’ve made had led us into one bad decision after another. It was my idea to enter the city. It was my idea to stick to the roads. It was my idea to let him travel with us. And now another one of my ideas has the damn soldiers coming towards us.”

She was on the surface! It was unpredictable and so different than Aperture, yet she had continued to apply what she had learned in testing to the surface. Aperture tests were predictable and had a straightforward goal, but the surface was the complete opposite. There was no order, no path, nothing. She had been following the surface as if there was a line she had to follow but she couldn’t keep doing that or she would end up dead.

So Chell began to way her options. She could split up with the vortigaunts to get far away from their current location and then try to meet back up, but that left the question of what to do with Gabriel. Option two was to hide from the transport but if what the vortigaunts had shown her was anything to go by then that would be a bad idea. Yet both options involved one crucial variable; Gabriel.

If they left him behind, he could easily attempt to follow, and they’d end up captured or dead. If they killed him and ran away, then they’d be pursued and the story Chell had told to the radio would be proven false. Killing him seemed to be the better option as it would provide them with a better opportunity to escape.

So that’s what she decided. Chell went to where his gun had been dropped and took it in her hands. She checked the ammo, made sure the safety was off, then pointed it at Gabriel’s head. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on her. Only two days prior had she been in the exact same position. At the time, the two white masks had kept her in place while the blue-eyed one had pointed the gun. Chell didn’t think anyone would be coming to the rescue of Gabriel.

This isn’t brave. It’s murder.

I’ve been really busy being dead. You know… After you murdered me?

Say, you’re good at murder.

No. That had been survival! Self-defense! Chell had never murdered anyone, but the idea of killing Gabriel made Chell feel sick. He looked just as human as Chell. He didn’t have that unnatural pale skin the blue-eyed soldier had, but he was still human. Killing him wouldn’t be right no matter how much safer Chell and the vortigaunts would be.

The gun wavered, her eyes drifted to meet Gabriel’s. His mouth was a thin line and he looked to be still winded from the kick she delivered, but his eyes held defiance. He truly believed he was going to die but was facing it head-on. His eyes… They reminded her of how she felt when she shot the portal at the moon. Her eyes then drifted to look at the vortigaunts. They almost seemed… sad?

Dammit!

Chell lowered the gun and stalked away. She pressed her hands to her head, hands gripping at her hair. She wasn’t supposed to make decisions that decided the fate of someone else! She was supposed to have come to the surface, find some help, and live her life, not get caught up in a revolution and continuously on the run from soldiers with two alien bodyguards.

Gritting her teeth, Chell tossed the gun to the side in anger before shoving most of the contents of Gabriel’s pack back into its place. She left the uniform out.

Chell approached the vortigaunts once more with her arms crossed, “I have an idea, but it’s incredibly stupid. I need you two to leave me here.”

They perked up in surprise at her words. Wrinkles tightened his grip on Gabriel, causing the man to wince. “We can’t do that, Traveler. It is wiser for us to flee. The combine shall-“

“There is not enough time for that,” Chell interrupted.

“What shall we do with the traitor,” Orange eye asked.

Chell met Gabriel’s gaze once more. He still had a defiant look, but there was something else there now. Hope? Confusion?

Frowning, Chell met Orange once more, “Take him far away and leave him. Don’t kill him.”

Gabriel’s eyes widened at that. Had he expected her to have the vortigaunts kill him instead?

“What are you planning?” Wrinkles asked.

Chell didn’t answer as she was too busy stripping out of her clothes. Modesty be damned. She scrutinized each piece of uniform before pulling it on. The pants were a little long on her and the shoes a couple sizes too big, but she tucked the ends of the pants down inside and kept the laces tight to prevent them from slipping. The jacket was a little big in the chest and it was apparent she wasn't as broad as Gabriel. Looking around at what she had at hand, Chell grabbed one of the companion cube discs and shoved it down in the front of the jacket just over her chest. It not only provided the extra padding to fill out the chest, but it also hid the fact she was female through the jacket. She then cinched all the belt tight to her body, letting it all mold to her shape.

Last came the radio. Inside the pants, Chell found a pocket that looked like it was supposed to hide the receiver. She fit it inside and ran the receiving chord through her jacket and out the top to connect to the helmet once more.

With the helmet tucked under her arm, she looked to Gabriel. “You’re going to die,” he said.

“I haven’t yet,” she shot back.

He narrowed his eyes in anger, “You should have killed me. If they find me, then they will kill me. If they discover what you are doing, you will die.”

“Then I better not get caught,” she growled back.

Orange eye shook his head, “I must advise against this course of action.”

“We don’t have time to debate this. Either I go with them while you hide or we risk them finding us together. At least this way, I can buy you some time,” Chell explained while slipping her portal gun inside Gabriel’s backpack along with the rations and the remainder of the heart discs. At least if she survived this, she wouldn’t have to use a bedsheet anymore.

She handed the pack off to Wrinkles with a sad smile, “Keep this safe. I’ll meet back up with you when I can.”

Wrinkles looked to Orange and they shared a look. Wrinkles let go of Gabriel, but before the man could fight back, Orange had gathered a ball of energy in their hand pressed it against Gabriel’s head. He let out a sigh as his body went limp.

While that happened, Wrinkles approached Chell and placed a hand on her shoulder, “We shall meet again. We feel it in the vortessence just as we feel your resolve. Be safe, Traveler, for we wish to finish our journey with you.”

Chell smiled and reached out to place a hand on his shoulder as well, “I’ll see you soon.”

Both the vortigaunts gave her a smile while Orange picked up Gabriel in his arms. They cast one last look at her before they took off running into the woods. Chell watched them until she couldn’t see them anymore and then waited for the sound of their movements to die down. Even then she waited a few more minutes before finally lifting the mask from under her arm and slipping it once more over her head and securing it to her coat. With clumsy fingers from the gloves, she plugged the radio in once more and waited for the click. The female voice filled her ears once more.

Going to the road, Chell stood in the middle to wait. It wasn’t long until one of the armored vehicles that she had flagged down two days ago approached. It slowed to a stop, and two soldiers hopped out. They were both wearing the white masks like her own.

They nodded to her and she walked with purpose to the vehicle. The interior was dark, but a red light was illuminating the interior. With a mechanical sigh, Chell climbed inside and once more found herself in the abyss.

Chell said nothing as she took a seat near the back. The interior was cramped, but there was just enough room to hold four soldiers inside. One seat for the driver, one for a gunner, and two passengers. Her eyes skimmed every inch of the cabin, trying to see what she could use to get out of her current situation.

Along the walls were lines that resembled circuitry panels and there was a panel situated into the wall of the vehicle directly behind the driver. Her fingers itched to look inside but doing so might jeopardize her cover, so she decided to stay seated.

Looking at the back wall, Chell saw a line of weapons. There were a few pistols like the one she had taken from Gabriel but had left in the backpack with the vorts, some machine guns like the one the blue-eyed soldier had held to her head, some shotguns, and two rifles she had never seen before. In fact, they didn’t look anything she’d ever seen before. They were solid black and had two barrels stacked on top of each other, the lower one being shorter. On the side of the weapon was a box attached that curved underneath and looped back to attach itself to the side. Was that the ammo? Strange place for the ammo to be stored on a gun. What she assumed was the ammo had a soft red light but besides the main trigger was a secondary trigger. Why would a gun need two triggers? Was it a type of portal gun too? No. It was too militaristic to be a portal gun.

Drawing her gaze away from the weapons, Chell nearly jumped at what she saw. How she had missed them before she didn’t know but there was a third soldier only this one was very different than any of the ones she’d seen before. It was clad in solid white padded armor that looked much thicker than the jackets and vests the other soldiers had been wearing. The only splashed of color that wasn’t white were its black boots and a red armband on its right arm that Chell couldn’t see what was on it from her angle. On the left arm of the soldier was another white armband with an insignia of a cracked skull that looked to be held within some kind of claw. As her gaze moved upwards, she noticed this solder had some sort of neck guard as well, but then she saw their mask. It made her freeze in place and bring back memories.

The gas mask was domed and completely rounded over the top of the soldier’s head and that combined with the bright single red eye gave Chell the creeps.

Dispensing product

It was like a turret. Black legs, white body, single red eye. Even if it weren’t because of the extra armor, Chell would stay as far away from the soldier as she could. She didn’t have to be a genius to know that soldier was a completely different caliber of fighter. Despite how Chell looked at it for several seconds, its gaze never left the wall opposite its seat. Completely stationary, although she doubted knocking it to the ground wouldn’t put it out of commission.

Wherever they were going, it didn’t take long to get there. It must have been a little over half an hour when the vehicle stopped and the doors opened. The soldier in white was the first to exit the vehicle, followed by the gunner and driver. Chell was slow to leave, but once she stepped out into the sunlight, her eyes widened in shock.

Their vehicle had parked beside several others just like it and was soon hooked up to a mass of power lines that ran over her head. The chords all joined up to an antenna in a building placed in the center of the combine soldier compound. All around her, soldiers in different types of masks and armors marched and proceeded to direct orders. They were organized and methodical, but all she could think was how stupid her plan was in that moment. Chell suddenly had an idea of what a mouse in a nest of vipers might feel like.

Chapter Text

He ran fast as he could, crashing through bushes and trees without care. There had to be something around; a landmark, road sign, even a damn building! He’d been wandering around for over an hour and yet he’d come across nothing but trees and rocks.

He didn’t even know why he was out in the middle of the goddamn forest in the first place. Oh, when he found the son of a bitch who abandoned him, he’d make him pay! The first thing he’d have to do is find civilization, then he’d have to find the bastard. Okay, maybe he’d need to take things one step at a time.

Looking around, the man tried to find the sun, but it was blocked out by the trees. As he kept his eyes fixed up, he wandered around trying to get his bearings. That ended up being a mistake as he’d been too busy looking at the sky that he neglected to see the cliff.

He’d been walking backward, and the moment his foot stepped off the edge, his stomach was in his throat. He felt weightless as he scrambled like a mad cat to find purchase, but all he found was air. His back hit the dirt and he tumbled over backward down the steep embankment before landing facedown in a creek.

Ow. Everything hurt, but he didn’t think anything was broken. Definitely bruised but not broken. At least the water was cold but wet clothes was never a pleasant feeling. Sitting up on his knees, he groaned and looked up from where he fell. Twenty-five feet at the maximum. Yeah, not a fatal fall but it hurt like hell.

Once on his feet, he noticed he was in what used to be a river but was no more than a creek. Looking around, he smiled at finally seeing something manmade. It was some kind of barrier built into the creek out of corrugated metal sheets and road signs. The lettering on a few of the signs was some kind of Cyrillic alphabet. Was he in Russia?

Sighing, he shook his head and climbed up the stairs to the left of the barrier and hopped over. Once down, he had to pause at what he saw. The biggest and ugliest thing he’d seen yet was laying dead in the water in front of him. It had three long legs that easily reached thirty feet each they were attached to a triangular shaped body. Part of its body had been torn off, by what he didn’t think he wanted to know. He inspected it and noticed it dripped a deep mauve colored blood. The man made a disgusted sound before walking past it.

He made it only a few feet past a second large creature that looked like a mechanical whale, when he heard the snapping of twigs nearby. His eyes scanned the area, but it was too late. He’d been spotted.

“Stop where you are!”

His head snapped up to look up the cliff where a man in a dark vest, denim jeans, and dark hair was holding a strange gun. Said gun was pointing in his direction. Wait. He was speaking perfect English. What was he doing out in a European forest?

“Don’t move, until you’re cleared!” The man called out. Suddenly two more people appeared on the cliff and started climbing down with surprising ease. As they approached, he noticed they were both wearing similar uniforms, and they sported a familiar symbol on each arm. He rolled his eyes as they approached.

The two that approached were both sporting MP7s. As they got closer, he began to notice more things about them. Although they were dressed the part of soldiers, they weren’t soldiers. Their stance, the way they held their guns, the way they approached him. It was all... wrong.

One of them approached him, their gun hanging loose around their shoulders by a nylon strap. Wrong again. They didn't even have a hand on it.

“Arms above your head and legs spread. We can’t take any chances,” one of the fakers said.

He complied, but as soon as they started their pat down, the man pivoted on his feet and snatched the gun from the fake soldier's side. The strap provided some resistance, but he used that to bring the phony soldier off balance. The sudden change in momentum brought the faker forward, so the man was able to wrestle the MP7 over the head of the fallen soldier.

With the sudden change in direction, the second faker ran at him. The man had expected that and pivoted once more on his left foot to bring his right knee up and into the gut of the approaching attacker. They grunted in pain, and that’s when he realized it was a girl. Shit, he just hit a girl!

Double shit. He just attacked two people while someone still had a gun aimed at him from above.

Looking sheepish, he dropped the gun he had stolen and went to his knees in defeat.

The first faker was scrambling back up and looking rather angry. The man gave an apologetic shrug of his soldiers before putting his hands on his head. “Sorry…”

An hour later, with hands bound behind his back, he was led into a compound of sorts and steered towards a small metal building. Must have been used for storage at one point but the inside had a single table and a chair. He was forced into the chair rather rough by the woman he’d hit. He’d already apologized for that, but she hadn't accepted it. His hands were bound to the chair and ankles too. At least they did something right, but the question remained. Would this be torture or interrogation? Sometimes they weren’t mutually exclusive.

He didn’t have to wait long before he heard something outside the shed. There were a mechanical pounding and some long drawn out sounds before voices that were mumbled by the metal walls reached his ears. He couldn’t make out what was being said, but he was sure it involved him. Of course, it involves you, dumbass, he thought to himself with a sigh. He was the one tied to a fucking chair.

The mechanical sounds drew closer and so did the voices.

“I don’t know, man. He looks like a civilian, but he took down Roger and Maya like it was nothing, Calhoun!”

Oh yeah. They were talking about him.

“Let me talk to him,” a second voice answers. He assumed that voice must be Calhoun.

A few minutes later a man with dark hair walks into the room with a second chair. He looked like hell warmed over with the heavy bags under his eyes, sunken cheeks, and messy hair. He had some gray in his hair at the temples and a few streaks appearing near the front of his scalp, but he was probably in his late forties at least.

“Alright, Rambo, care to explain why you attacked two of my men and then gave up?” He asked while swinging the chair around to sit in it backward with his legs spread to accommodate the width of the chair.

Rambo?

“I don’t know. It just happened really,” he answered.

“Do you make a habit of attacking people or do you just do it to rebels?” The man asked.

“Are you in charge here?”

This guy, Calhoun, held himself like he was in charge but there was something off about the whole situation. His shoulders were rounded, not square like all the big guys held themselves. He also seemed more relaxed with how he sat in the chair. This was not the attitude of someone in charge.

Calhoun was caught off guard, that’s for sure. He visibly flinched at the question and his gaze looked to the ground. “No.”

At least he was honest.

“But I’d like for you to answer my questions,” he continued.

“Alright…”

Calhoun smiled at that and stood up from the chair. “Alright, so why’d you attack the rebels?”

“I felt threatened,” he shrugged.

“For what reason?”

Was this guy serious? “Excuse me for waking up in the middle of the forest and stumbling across some fake soldiers holding guns in my face. That tends to make me jumpy.”

That made the guy pause again.

“Why’d you wake up in the woods?”

Was he serious?

“Some jack-hole kidnapped me. He then abandoned me out in the fucking woods of god knows where… I don’t know!” He glared daggers at the dark-haired man. “And just what the hell are you talking about. What are you doing out here running a guerilla compound in the first place?”

Now the man looked confused. He damn well should be confused.

“What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up?”

A voice. That damn voice. It was everywhere and nowhere. “You won’t believe me…”

“Try me,” Calhoun smirked.

Taking a deep breath, he said what would either condemn him to a padded room or mockery. He’d take mockery any day. “Well, I remember an explosion and some green lights…” he paused. He wanted the Calhoun guy to believe him, but his story was just so outrageous. “Some strange creatures appeared. They teleported out of thin air, then that... guy appeared. There was darkness, then I woke up in the forest without my fatigues.”

The man looked to give his answer some serious thought. Just who the hell was he?

“Before we continue, Thunder Dome, you got a name?”

“Course. What kinda guy doesn’t have a name?”

“Alright, smart ass. What is your name or should I keep giving you nicknames?”

He shot Calhoun a look before answer. “Shephard. Adrian Shephard”

Adrian, huh?

Barney looked at the man with curiosity. He had a strong build to him and with what he heard from Matt outside, he had some fighting experience. Not only that, but he had witnessed some sort of teleportation event and possible memory loss with how he claimed to wake up in the middle of the forest. He could be lying about that.

Yet something bothered Barney about the whole thing. The central fact being the guy didn’t look a day over twenty-five and manner of speech was strange. Fatigues? That was military speak. In fact, everything about him screamed military. From the way he squared his shoulders as if it at attention to his clean shaved face and a shaggy yet well-kept crew cut. Just who was this kid? Damn. He was just a kid. He couldn’t be a day over twenty-five.

‘sending you a gift...’

Barney pursed his lips in thought and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright, think you can answer a couple more questions for me?”

“Sure. I don’t have any other plans,” Adrian responded, wiggling his legs and jerking his shoulders to accentuate the fact he couldn’t move if he wanted.

“You're a little smart ass, you know?”

“Takes one to know one,” Adrian replied.

Calhoun sighed before continuing. “Alright, Adrian. After the stunt you pulled down by the river, some of my guys think you might be a Combine Soldier,” Calhoun said as if he was discussing the weather. “Care to confirm or deny that?

‘Combine? What’s the Combine,’ Adrian thought to himself.

“What the fuck does farm equipment have to do with me?”

Barney sighed as he realized what that meant. He had no idea what had been going on the last twenty years but what could this guy have to help Barney? He looked like a kid, but there had to be more to it.

Teleportation… Barney prayed he was wrong. “Joking aside, time to get back to business. You ever hear about Black Mesa?”

Barney watched as Adrian’s entire frame went rigid at the mention of the old facility. So he had been at the labs and combined with his lingo, Barney had a steady idea of what he was.

“That damn place…”

“So you do know about it? What can you tell me?” Barney said. He had to have confirmation. He needed to know if this was one of those bastards that killed his friends.

Adrian shook his head and grimaced. “I tried. I tried all I could, but it all amounted to shit.”

Barney cocked his eyebrow at the kid.

“I tried to do everything I could to stop it. Nothing I did seemed to be good enough. I- I was too late to save them,” Adrian mumbled. He paused to take a breath before looking up to meet Barney’s gaze. “Briggs, Davies, Travers… Otis… They all died because I wasn’t there, or I was too slow to save them.”

Barney had a flicker of a memory. A large man who had a big stomach and an even bigger heart. The man had been an amazing shot with a handgun and had spent many hours with Barney helping him get better with his pistol. He hadn’t thought of Otis for years.

“We were called in. My team. I was about to find out my orders when the Osprey was shot down. I was out until the next day. It was hell. I tried to fight my way out but everyone I met… I thought I could save them all. I did all I could. That bomb. I turned it off! But…” He paused again. He squeezed his eyes shut tight as if in pain before looking up at Barney once more. “But it still detonated. What’s the point of putting on the uniform if I couldn’t protect anyone!”

Barney had reached out and gripped onto the side of Adrian’s shoulders. He then began to shake the man hard enough for the chair to start shaking. “Hey! Calm down, kid!” Barney then took his knife hidden inside his boot to cut away the ties holding Adrian in his seat. Didn’t want him hurting himself trying to get out.

Adrian instantly stood to his feet and began pacing back and forth, hands raking through his short brown hair.

Barney recognized the signs. He’d seen many people go through the same over the years and there came a point where it became a natural occurrence to see. The kid was having some kind of panic attack, a pretty big one too. Seemed all the stress of what he’d been through was catching up to him. Barney watched as Adrian’s breathing only became harder and his movements quicker. If he continued like this then-

“Where the fuck happened?”

And there it was.

“I’ll explain it all, but you will have to give me the full story as well,” Barney said. He kept his voice slow and what he thought was a calming tone. “Think we can do that?”

Adrian kept his eyes fixed on Barney as if he was a predator about to pounce, but he knew the man was right. “Yeah… I think so.”

Barney nodded his head and sighed. “Okay. Let’s get you checked out in the med bay then we’ll get the full story.”

Despite the panic attack, Barney knew who the guy used to be, and he wanted answers from him. He wasn’t about to let one of them out of his sight.

Chapter Text

Chell looked over the compound and felt a trickle of sweat run down the back of her neck. Why did she think going with them was ever a good idea?

Looking around, she got a better look at the compound. It had a chain-link fence going around the entire perimeter with barbed wire along the top. Two more soldiers guarded the gate with blue-eyed masks and another with red. The red-eyed soldier brandished a shotgun and had full armor in dark gray and black compared to the blue and black of the blue-eyed soldiers.

There were several buildings within the compound. There were two identical buildings off to one side where other soldiers in uniforms like her own were milling about out front while the one next door had one of the singular red-eyed soldiers guarding the entrance. She really needed proper names for the types of soldiers if she was going to have to keep referring to them by their eye colors.

The next building she saw had more windows than the other, but all had bars on the outside. She did her best to look like she belonged, so she did her best to walk much like everyone else. Eyes forward and stride with purpose. Whereas she had been treating the outside world as a test when she didn’t need to, this would have to be treated like one. Stay focused at all times or end up dead.

The last building was the largest and located in the very center of the compound. It was a two-story building with barred windows on the second floor and a large antenna attached to the roof. The antenna had long thick cables branching off and traveling to all the surrounding buildings and the fence.

Along the fence perimeters were black spires with the wires attached to the top and a luminescent blue field of light could be seen. It reminded Chell of an emancipation grill from Aperture. First, the voice that sounded like GLaDOS and now Emancipation Grills? What did Aperture have to do with the Combine?

If she wanted any chance to survive, she would need to find out all she could about them and escape. It was still early, so she had plenty of time to explore before dark. With her decision made, Chell moved around the compound with ease.

The building with the other white masked soldiers out front turned out to be a barracks of sorts. Chell walked inside to keep up appearances as if she was going back to ‘her’ bunk. There was a line of bunk beds along each wall with numbers posted on the frame on each bed. Some beds only had one set of numbers while others had two. On the beds with two sets of numbers, there would be two storage chests at the foot of each one while single set only had one chest. Bunk assignments. What had they addressed her as in the woods? She walked along the beds, scanning each number, until she noticed a bunk with CP-1295 stamped on the frame.

‘CP-1295, check in.’

That was the number. It was one of the beds to have a single stamp, but it was also furthest from the exit. No matter.

There were a couple other soldiers sitting on their beds or off in corners talking with each other. Some looked her way and nodded in greeting. She nodded back. That satisfied them enough as they would turn back to whatever they had been doing before.

Keeping up appearances, she opened up the chest in front of the bunk and began to rummage through it. Not much in the way of belongings. There were a couple boxes of bullets for a pistol and extra casings to hold the ammo, magazines her mind supplied. Along with the ammo were a few of the awful ration packs and a large black duffel. Smiling, she started moving all the items into the duffel. It could all come in handy once she left the base.

Just as she put the last ration pack into the duffel, Chell came across a small but worn out book tucked into the bottom of the chest. It was tattered, and several pages had been dog-eared as if it had been read several times. The title was Civil Authority of the Universal Union. It was plain white with a script that didn’t provide any sort of excitement. The only form of a logo on the paper was the strange claw grasping onto a ball down in the right-hand corner.

Universal Union? That’s a new one. Flopping down onto the bunk, Chell began to thumb through the first few pages. What it turned out to be was a manual of the different branches of combine troops. Apparently, the branch she was masquerading as was called ‘Civil Protection’ and not considered actual soldiers. Explained the CP in front of the numbers on her bed and it doubled as giving her an actual name to the white masks. They were in charge of keeping order within the core cities, but that didn’t explain why there was so many outside of a city.

The soldiers with the black masks were called Overwatch Soldiers. The more Chell read, the more disturbed she became with the idea of them. Apparently, they would undergo surgical modifications to make them better fighters. She didn’t read all of it, but they had some sort of ocular implants, built in vocoders, and adrenal implants for increased strength. It made Chell shudder to think of what the implants must feel like.

Then came the red-eyed soldiers. There were called the Overwatch Elite. They had taken the step further when it came to modifications and training until all they cared about was serving the so-called Universal Union. Whereas the standard soldier still retained some form of humanity, the Elite surgery went further and became more extensive. Their limbs were manually reconstructed, they received hearing implants to increase their range of hearing, and the adrenal implants took it a step further so not only would their strength increase but their pain receptors would shut off the second they needed it to. The way the booklet was worded, it made it all sound inviting. Its exact words were: ‘The Overwatch Elite is the next step in humanity’s evolution to greatness. By pledging yourself to become an Elite, you shall reap the benefits of what the future shall hold for the human race. Not only will you be highly regarded among the Civil Authority, but you will receive personal gratitude from myself and our benefactors.’

Chell cringed when she read it. Looking at the front cover, she frowned at the author's name. Doctor Wallace Breen. Administrator.Breen? Chell hadn’t heard his name before, but whoever he was, he sounded like a pompous ass.

The rest of the booklet was codes to identify certain situations. They ranged from someone standing on a street corner to armed rebellion. There were lots of codes, and all the soldiers were required to memorize them? If she wasn’t horrified, she might have been impressed.

Shoving the booklet into one of her pockets, Chell got off the bed and started to head out of the barracks. She was halfway there when she heard someone call out to her.

“Hey, Gabe!” Well, not her specifically.

Chell turned to look from where the voice had come from and saw one of the Civil Protection officers that nodded to her when she arrived. She felt mild panic at being noticed and called by the name of the CP officer. She had to reassure herself that she could do it. She just needed to stay confident and focused.

“Yeah,” she replied, managing to hide her nervousness.

“You promised you’d tell me how the mission went. Any news?”

“Failed. The suspect got away,” Chell said. Although she was nervous, she also felt a little smug at being able to say that to the enemy.

“Damn. Sorry man. At least we need all the men we can get or else you’d be in some serious trouble,” the CP laughed.

Chell forced a chuckle in response, but she didn’t even want to think of what would have happened to her had they not been short on soldiers.

“Anyway, I’m 'bout to head to the mess hall. Want to come?”

“No. I’m not hungry.” Chell shoved her hands into her pockets and looked to the doors.

There was a tense silence, or at least it felt tense to Chell.

“Suit yourself,” the CP finally said.

The CP walked out of the bunks and Chell was right behind them. He headed off to the central building while she headed towards the building next door. The guard made her avoid attempting entrance, but she walked along the side of the building and peeked inside. It looked to be a storage building. The inside was filled with crates and cabinets.

Further into the room, Chell could make out a rack with more of the strange shaped guns. It made sense to have weapon storage near the barracks in case of attack, but at the same time, it seemed a risk to Chell. She couldn’t understand why she felt that way.

On the other side of the compound was a building with large doors that rolled upwards from the bottom. Peering through the side door revealed the inside to house more of the vehicles like the one she arrived in.

“What are you doing?”

Chell spun around to come face to face with one of the blue-eyed soldiers. He had snuck up on her and Chell couldn’t help but feel he could see through her despite the mask.

Seeing they were wanting an answer, Chell straightened up to look more professional, “Inspecting things. Checking for signs of weakness,” she managed. It was a flimsy excuse, but it’s all she could come up with. She tried to think of what GLaDOS might say, but even then, her lies were always easy to pick out because of her past behavior.

“Inspecting… for weakness?” The soldier said, confusion evident in their voice. “Cease at once. You are needed in the main annex for questioning. Follow me.”

Questioning? Why would she need to be questioned? She hadn’t done anything since getting back other than sit in the bunks. Had it been scheduled already for the CP or was she found out?

She had question after question going through her head. She still followed the Overwatch Soldier because if she ran, she would die before she even took five steps. Chell doubted she’d get even two steps if she decided to run. Damn. When had she become such a pessimist? Chell had been an optimist for most of her time below the surface of the earth, but why the sudden attitude change? She blamed the stress of the whole situation.

Chell followed the soldier to the central building and paused to watch as he walked through a luminescent blue field of light. It reminded Chell of an emancipation grill in Aperture. It was getting ridiculous at how much technology the combine had that resembled Aperture tech. She was starting to think it wasn’t a coincidence anymore.

Feeling hesitant of what would happen if she walked through the field, Chell took a deep breath before stepping forward. There was some resistance as if it could feel she was wrong, but it still let her pass through without destroying any of her clothes or teeth. Her tongue gently prodded at the empty spot where one of her teeth had been vaporized by the fields the first time she went testing against GLaDOS.

The OS led Chell through the annex, passing several doorways that held the same blue energy fields. She tried to see what was inside each room as they moved. Passing one room made Chell pause. It was a vast room and filled with rectangular towers with blinking lights and they were all protected by glass. In the very center of the room was a large cylinder with a glowing ball of light that continued to bounce up and down within. The ball reminded Chell of high energy pellets, but the towers are what really caught her eye.

It was a server room. With that many servers, it meant that the entire compound would be computer controlled and they had a lot of information that came through the station. Chell smiled to herself. She had a way to break out as she had a habit of breaking computers.

Eventually, the soldier led Chell to a room with an actual door. He led her inside and took a seat at the lone metal table. She sat down across from him, her hands resting on the table, fingers interlocking. They were soon joined by a second OS but this one with a red-eyed helmet. It carried a small packet of paper and some device. It set everything on the table and Chell got a good look at the device and her eyes lit up. It was an electronic tape recorder.

The OS she followed took the recorder and pushed the central button to record.

“Commencing debriefing of CP-1295 in regards to Suspect AS2. CP-1295, state the status of the mission you were given,” the soldier said.

Chell felt both relief and panic set in. It was like an interview, but she had to answer questions about herself and Aperture but have it come from Gabriel? Steeling herself, she managed to keep up the stiff posture of authority and nodded her head. “The mission in leading the suspect to a nearby transport was a failure, but they provided valuable information.”

The OS wrote down some notes on the paper before looking up at Chell. “Why was it a failure?”

Chell couldn’t help but smirk. “The suspect was smarter than originally planned. She discovered I was lying after noticing my boots looked new despite my story that I had been on the road for months with rebels.”

Another note from the OS. “What sort of information did the suspect provide?”

Now, this is where Chell was going to have some fun. “Suspect provided me with information on Aperture Science technology and where to find an entrance. The suspect told me how the entire facility is abandoned and in disrepair.”

Chell felt the lies roll off her tongue with ease. With each one came another and soon she had an entire web of lies of what they might expect inside Aperture. If she had to deal with the Combine, then she would make sure they were poorly equipped for dealing with anything involving Aperture.

“Suspect said they were the only one left alive, but I feel they may have been lying about that. They woke up, found some clothes, and navigated their way out. No security systems in place at the moment. At least that’s what they told me,” Chell finished.

The OS wrote a couple more notes then clicked off the recorder. “That is all. One more stop then report to your barracks for lights out.”

The OS stood to his feet and Chell quickly followed suit. She followed him out of the room and down the hall. They turned into a doorway without energy field, but Chell promptly learned why the moment she stepped inside. To her left was a field that took up the entire height and length of the room so that it was divided in half. Through the blue energy, Chell could make out someone curled up into the corner with their back facing the OS and herself.

Chell could only see their hair and back, but it was enough for her to freeze in place. The individual’s hair was bright red with tangled mats in a bun. Their clothes looked to be a wrinkled brown jumpsuit with orange decals along the waist, back, and legs. They didn’t look like much, but the single detail that left Chell frozen in place were the three words emblazoned in white on the back of their jumpsuit. Aperture Test Subject.

At their approach, the figure sat up in alarm. They had bruises on their face, and they looked to be in pain just from the simple act of sitting up. Chell bit her lip to keep from saying or doing anything foolish.

Once they were up on their knees, Chell finally could see it was a woman. She looked to be older than Chell, possibly in their late twenties or early thirties. They had freckles across their cheeks and nose, bright hazel eyes, and a distinctive mole above their lip. She was pretty in Chell’s opinion, but she was also in a lot of trouble. She reached out one hand and let it rest against the blue field, but her hand didn’t pass through. It acted much like a wall instead of a light barrier. As her hand touched the wall, Chell noticed her hair started to stand on end as the energy raced through her body.

“Suspect, stand up,” the OS said.

The woman let out a silent grunt from the exertion, but she managed to get to her feet.

“Your verdict will be carried out tomorrow. Do you have any questions?”

The woman shook her head, her eyes not making contact with either Chell or the OS.

“Very well. CP-1295, if you have any questions for your suspect, ask them now,” The OS said before walking out of the room. Although he was gone, Chell felt like they were still listening.

Approaching the energy field, Chell took a deep breath before walking through. The woman flinched at that and took a few steps backward. That’s when Chell noticed what looked like the remains of a pogo stick attached to the back of her right boot. Some early form of the long fall boots?

Chell had to keep up appearances if they were watching. “Don’t move!”

She hated yelling at the woman, but it was necessary. The woman stopped moving back as Chell continued to approach. It wasn’t like the woman could go anywhere as she had accidentally backed herself into a corner.

Chell was suddenly happy for the hard back-plate on the helmets for what she was about to do.

With careful hands, she undid the clasp on her helmet and removed the protective white mask. The rush of cool air felt nice on her skin, but she didn’t relish it long, as she took in the surprised expression of the woman. Keeping her voice low, Chell inclined her head towards the woman. “Keep your voice low. They may still hear us,” she said.

If the woman had been confused before, her expression only continued to become alarmed. “You aren’t the one who led me here,” she loudly whispered.

She had a slight accent to her voice, but Chell couldn’t place what it might have been, but she put a finger to her lips and nodded. “No. I stole this suit to hide.”

“Why would you do something so stupid?” The woman replied.

“I asked myself that too once I got here.”

That elicited a smile from the woman. Either she was the trusting type, or she was indulging Chell.

“I’m escaping tonight, but I can’t leave you here. I’ll be back to let you out when its time, alright?” Chell assured.

She looked skeptical. “Why should I believe you? You could be leading me into another trap.”

She had a point. Chell didn’t think she would be so trusting of another person after everything that happened. She should never have trusted Gabriel in the first place. Chell crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

“I really don’t care if you believe me, but we came from the same place. Come with me or not, but I’m leaving tonight,” she huffed before sliding the mask back into its place.

Before she had the chance to turn around, Chell saw the flicker of confusion on the woman’s face. At least she would have something to think about before she started her plan.

Chell found out most of the CPs slept without their masks on but kept their uniforms untouched. Strange. Apparently, the Overwatch Soldiers needed to sleep as well as they were in the bunks closest to the door, but they didn’t take off their helmets. The Elites on the other hands… not a single one was in the bunks. Chell didn’t know where they were, but she had to get moving or risk another day of being discovered.

She had waited a full hour after lights out to slip from the cot. She grabbed the duffel with the rations and tiptoed to the other end of the bunk. Every single pad of boot on tile sent panic down her spine or every huff of breath through a mask. Her fear was unfounded as she managed to open the door to the barracks and stepped into the moonlight without issue.

She stayed near the walls of the bunks and crept around to look at the next building over. There stood an Elite with one of the strange guns in their hands and back to the door. Not a problem. Chell simply started walking the long way around the building until they were at the back end of the supply shed. Lucky for her, there were windows at the back and someone had left it unlocked. With some difficulty, she managed to clamber inside and started to sift through all the crates. Her bag soon became overflowing with ration packs, what she assumed to be first-aid kits by the red cross stamped on the side, and ammo. To be safe, Chell had grabbed some weapons as well. She had grabbed a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, and one of the strange double barreled rifles. The final crate she opened was marked with a warning sign and silhouette of a cylinder with a handle. Chell was happy to see grenades, but she was running out of room, so she only took three. While she was in the shed, she decided to go ahead and load up the guns with ammo. Better to be prepared for anything than nothing at all.

Her bag was heavy. She had never known how heavy guns actually were until she had four of them on her person. The pistol she kept in the holster at her side, but the rest went into her duffel, but they stuck out one end as they weren’t a perfect fit. She was forced to push it back out the window and let it drop to the ground before she could scramble out. Chell was less than graceful coming out the window than going in. She fell out and landed on the bag, the barrel of the shotgun digging into her spine. She hissed in pain but was up in seconds.

She picked it up but not before hearing the sound of footsteps coming closer. Her heart quickened as she started moving around the side of the building and out of sight. Turning on her feet, Chell took off running as fast as the bag would let her to the main annex. There was no resistance as she walked through the particle field and into the building.

She did her best to retrace her steps to the server room. She made sure to drop off the supplies near the door before moving towards the central cylinder. Monitors and control panels were circling the energy sphere on all sides.

Chell pursed her lips as she wondered how to go about destroying the place. She could toss the grenades around the room, but she’d run the risk of alerting everyone on base and not crippling them very well. She continued to think as her fingers lightly danced across the large control board in front of her. She didn’t even register what her hands were doing until she looked up at the screen in front of her.

Lines of code danced above her and Chell frowned at it. On reflex, she tapped on a few more keys and another window pulled up. It was a security feed of the garage. Another few taps and one of the vehicles came online, and the doors to the garage were unlocked.

She looked down at her hands in question. How did she know to do that? She didn’t question further as she let her body take control of the situation. As her fingers wrote up code after code on the control panel, Chell watched the systems on the screen come online and die. She read each line and found herself knowing what it would do once she finished. It made her smile at the prospect.

While working, she found a security feed of a room filled with headcrab shells, but it was blocked off with an energy field. She went ahead and closed that field down and let the pods open themselves up. All the headcrabs started scuttling out of their pods and into the compound. She’d have to watch herself once she left the annex.

The last few lines of code were written and all she’d have to do it release it. It would disable all door locks and energy fields in the base, cut off communication, and turn off all power. A digital suicide code. The woman in holding would be free to meet up with Chell, and they could leave in the awaiting vehicle.

Chell let a smile come to her face, but just as she reached out to confirm the code, she was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. She grunted in pain before looking up to see the single red eye looking down on her. She scrambled backward as the Elite brought his weapon up to bear. She rolled out of the way just as it fired at her. Each bullet was marked by a flash of blue and white from the barrel of the gun the Elite carried, but Chell was too busy rolling out of the way to care. Meeting one of the server towers, she fumbled with the pistol at her side as she attempted to fire off a shot. She managed to fire it twice and caught the Elite in the stomach, but it didn’t even flinch. Not even a sound! It then took a step forward and kicked a foot forward and sent the pistol in her hands flying across the room. Reaching out, Chell sat up but was met with a kick to her stomach that knocked the breath out of her and sent her sliding across the floor with the force the Elite used.

Chell felt her roll into something and her eyes opened up to see her bag. Her bag! She looked up to see the Elite stalking forward, gun up. She was in pain and that caused her to struggle to tear the zipper open. She needed to grab a weapon. Her hand clasped onto the machine-gun and she brought it up to fire, but she was too slow. The elite fired its rifle and caught Chell in the chest before she could even put a finger on the trigger.

Chell fell limp as the Elite looked down at her. In an instant, he reached down and pulled the mask off her. Her eyes were open, looking up at the ceiling unmoving.

“Threat amputated,” the Elite said.

Chapter Text

It stood silently at the door, its head swiveling to the left or right every now and then. It had to guard the door. In precisely two minutes and seventeen seconds, it would leave the door, make two laps around the building, then take up position at the door once more.

With one minute and seven seconds to go, the Elite heard a solid thump come from the far side of the armory. The sound would have been ignored or inaudible to someone without auditory enhancements, but the Elite went to action. It leveled its gun and started moving slowly around the back of the armory. It was used to working in pairs, but it was alone at that moment. It could handle anything though.

Three... Two... One... It turned the corner and saw nothing. No one was there. It crept further behind the building and noticed that the window had scratches into the wood. It had been opened recently. They were not supposed to be open at all. An alarm should have been tripped.

A quick scan of the ground revealed scuff marks and footprints in the bare dirt. Said footprints were leading away from the armory and towards the central complex. Without hesitation, the Elite moved towards the building.

Its optic switched to contaminate view and dusty footprints appeared in stark contrast to the hard concrete floor. It followed and stalked the trail like the hunter it was designed to be. Turning a corner into the server room, it saw the threat.

It was the CP from before. It knew something was different and it was trying to destroy the compound. It kept its footsteps quiet while striding forward and grabbing the target by their padded collar. With a quick pull, the target was brought to the ground. They looked up and just as the Elite brought up its weapon. As it fired the AR2, the mark began to roll out of the way. So they could think fast? Good. It made this hunt more interesting.

They soon met one of the server towers and brought up a pistol. They fired it twice, but the Elite didn't even stop. Their pain receptors had long been suppressed. Pain is weakness. Pain is the enemy of the future.

It kicked the pistol from their hands, and as they sat up, the Elite brought the foot up and kicked the traitor hard enough to send them sliding across the room. Their body came to rest against a duffel bag. The Elite would smile if it still could as the prey struggled to pull something from the bag. A dying animal in a desperate final attack. The Elite raised its weapon again and fired. Four high powered shots fired and hit the traitor in the center of the chest.

They went limp. The Elite reached down and pulled the mask off to get a better look at the target. They stared down at the tan skin and dark hair that fell free from the confines of the helmet. So their target had infiltrated the base? It would need to report that.

“Threat amputated,” the Elite said into his com unit before turning towards the console. It examined the code before going to cancel it out. It made no show of emotion as it continued to sort out everything she did. She was clever and knew her code.

Despite its high-level hearing and several other upgrades, the Elite failed to notice the sound of shifting fabric over the beeping buttons of the console.

“Hey!” a voice cried out. It echoed around the room and caused the Elite to freeze in place.

His hand hovered over the command to shut down the terminal and all the work the anti-citizen had done. The Elite turned around to see the dead anti-citizen holding up an MP7. The weapon she had been attempting to pull from the bag. It was aimed at its head.

“I’m still alive,” she shouted before pulling the trigger.

There was the sound of static, a shrill beeping, then nothing.

Chell watched as the bullets tore through the Elites head and neck. The high pitch whine filled the air that accompanied the death of a soldier followed by speakers with that voice indicating what happened. All that was left of the Elite’s head was a mess of wires, viscera, and fabric once the clip ran out.

The body of the Elite fell to the ground, and Chell dropped the gun while taking in deep lungfuls of air. She unzipped the CP jacket and watched the disc from the companion cube fell out of her coat. She saw four large dents embedded into it. It had stopped the bullets from hitting her, but holy shit did it hurt! Chell shoved the disc back into her jacket and continued to breathe.

She looked to the dead Elite and frowned. There really was only wires and what little blood was visible had a dark color to it. It wasn’t human. Not anymore at least. She hadn’t killed a human. She wasn't a murderer.

Stumbling over to the console, Chell hit the key to send out the code, and it plunged the annex into darkness. Then the red emergency lights kicked in, and a siren started screaming. She groaned in both pain and annoyance as she half carried, half dragged the bag of supplies with her down the hall.

She was just wandering into the holding room when she saw a leg swinging towards her stomach. Chell managed to put her arms out in time to catch the leg, but there was enough force to knock her to the ground.

“Relax! It’s me. I got us a ride, but we need to move,” Chell wheezed. She held the bag up for the woman see. “You with me?”

The woman looked at her in surprise before a steely determination lit up her face. “I heard the shots. I didn’t know what to think.”

“No time to do that yet. Help me carry this,” Chell demanded.

The woman picked up one side of the bag and Chell grabbed the other. Chell then began to drag the woman in the direction of the garage. The moment they left the annex, it was a battle outside. The sirens had awoken the sleeping soldiers, but some of them had already succumbed to the loose headcrabs. It was a simple matter of running to the garage and climb into the waiting vehicle. The woman strapped herself into the passenger seat while Chell took the driver seat. Thankfully it was an automatic shift and not stick. Throwing it into drive, Chell sped forward and off into the night, no one being the wiser.

Ten minutes later, Chell unzipped the jacket and let the companion disc clatter to the floorboard. Her chest was sore and would be badly bruised, but she was alive. The shock of being shot had made her freeze. Thankfully the Elite had thought she was dead when it tore the mask off her face.

“I never asked. What’s your name?” Chell said, one hand rubbing her chest.

The woman looked to Chell, hands fidgeting in her lap. “My name’s Mel.”

Chell looked over to her in surprise before letting out a laugh. “Are you serious? My name’s Chell.”

Mel laughed and for the first time since she arrived on the surface. For the first time, she felt like everything would be alright.

Chell drove as fast as the vehicle would allow but not too fast as she didn’t want to risk passing anything that she might recognize. About half an hour later, she stopped the vehicle when she saw a fallen tree that was half on and half off the road. She remembered seeing it when the vortigaunts left her shortly before the Combine troops picked her up.

The vehicle was parked on the side of the road and Chell hopped out while Mel followed after. Chell kept a shotgun with her to be on the safe side. Mel didn’t grab a gun because she didn’t like the idea of handling a weapon or think she could.

She didn’t tell Chell how sore her body felt because she didn’t fully trust the girl yet, but she did seem to have some sort of plan. Although this could be another trap. Mel wanted to believe in Chell though.

The brunette led the way into the trees, trying her best to see in the darkness. She wished she had the sense to grab a flashlight from the compound. Luckily they didn’t have to travel far before Chell noticed a dim light in the distance. It looked orange in the distance, kind of like a campfire.

She was still cautious as they got closer and closer to the light, but Chell could soon make out two figures near the fire. They had hunched postures, long spindly arms, and if she listened close, she could hear gravelly voices. Mel reached out and grabbed Chell’s arm in surprise when she saw them. “What are those things?”

Chell gently pulled Mel’s hand away from her arm and smiled, “They’re safe.”

Chell lowered the shotgun and walked closer to the campsite with Mel lingering nearby. When the two women were about twenty yards from the campsite, one of the vortigaunts perked up, and Chell recognized the motion. They were smelling the air. They then turned towards the direction of the women and gave a smile, “Traveler! You have returned! And we see you have brought someone else? Come, we have sustenance!”

Chell felt herself smile and walk with ease the rest of the way to the campsite. She would see a small bundle near one of the vortigaunts. They had taken care of her portal gun and boots it seemed.

Mel stood further away from the campsite while Chell strode forward and sat down. A couple headcrabs were hanging over the fire, and she didn’t waste any time to reach out and take some. Looking back, she motioned to Mel. “Come on. I’m sure you’re hungry.”

Mel took tentative steps forward until she was near the fire. She tried but failed miserably to hide the disgust on her face at what was hanging over the fire, but the emptiness in her stomach was too strong to resist. Mel took the meat that Chell offered out to her and took a tentative bite. One bite was all it took before she began to devour whatever that thing over the fire was.

Chell watched the woman eat as if her life depended on it. Considering where she’d come from, it probably did. Chell rubbed her chest while chewing on her own piece of headcrab. The jacket hung open and beneath her shirt was a large bruise from where the metal plate knocked against her chest from the force of the bullets.

“Is the Traveler injured?” Orange eye asked.

“I’ll be fine. Just a bruise is all,” Chell assured them. Looking to Mel, she inclined her head towards the woman. “What about you. Are you in any pain?”

Mel looked down at her lap and nodded her head. “Some. I can keep moving but yeah.”

“Please. Allow us to ease your suffering,” Wrinkles urged.

Mel visibly flinched at being addressed by the vortigaunts. Chell gave her a reassuring look. Chell had been skeptical too of them, but they could be trusted.

Mel slowly started to unzip her brown jumpsuit to reveal a plain white wife beater underneath. Once her shoulders could be seen, Chell knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. There were bruises across her chest and dipping down into her tank top. As she raised the hem of her tank top up, Chell saw how she winced. Her stomach had several bruises in varying states of healing, but the worst was the swelling around her ribs on the left side of her body. It was dark purple with yellow edges and looked painful. Chell couldn’t even understand how she was able to move so fast with what pain she must have been feeling.

Wrinkles closed his eyes as he placed a glowing hand against her side and let his energy flow through Mel. The woman gasped in surprise at the feeling as Chell watched the scene unfold. It was interesting to actually be able to see the process happen from an outside perspective and watch as swelling diminished and bruises faded.

When Wrinkles pulled his hand back, Mel ran a hand over where the worst of the bruising had been, and her eyes widened. It was almost comical how she looked, but Chell didn’t laugh because she probably looked much the same. As what happened to her became clear, Mel’s face softened into one of comfort and compassion. “Thank you,” she mumbled to Wrinkles.

Chell walked kept low to the ground but moved to grab the bundle on the ground. Her portal gun and boots had been wrapped gently in the bedsheet and held in perfect condition upon her return. As Chell removed the CP boots, she curled her toes in relief before slipping the long fall boots on once more. All the while, Chell noticed how Mel watched her with interest.

Once both boots were on, Chell stood up with the portal gun in her hands. “I think we should get back to the road. We are barely an hours drive from the compound, and they’ll try to find us eventually.”

“Traveler is right. The Combine will not be pleased with you escaping and shall pursue with haste,” Orange eye said before kicking dirt into the fire to extinguish it. Mel was on her feet in a flash, much quicker than Chell would have expected.

The group was silent as they closed up the small campsite and returned to the vehicle. Once inside, Chell took the driver seat once more while the vortigaunts sat in the back with Mel.

The first twenty minutes was silent until one of the vortigaunts broke it. “Traveler. We have communed with our brethren and have a destination set. There is a camp with other vortikind and humans as well. It would be best for us to travel there. This vehicle is a boon as it shall reduce the length of the journey severely.”

Chell didn’t say anything but nodded her head. A destination sounded better than aimlessly wandering and hoping for the best like she’d been doing.

“Tell us, where have you come from?”

Seemed like the vortigaunts would keep the conversation going but this time it would be with Mel. Chell wondered if they would do the same thing with Mel like they’d done with herself.

Apparently being healed by them made Mel more trusting and open.

She had been hesitant to divulge information about Aperture at first, but it became clear to Chell what happened to her. Mel was an Olympic athlete who apparently signed up for testing in 1952 and to test out a suspended animation machine. It was supposed to last a few minutes and at the most an hour, or so she’d been told. She later found out that she’d been lied to and that the test was to actually see if the suspension machines could stop the aging process. It had worked, but no one had bothered to wake her up. So those were the precursor to the relaxation vaults it seemed.

The only reason she woke up at all was thanks to a core named Virgil. Mel described the paint job on the core and briefly wondered if there were more still in Aperture with fancy chassis’. Whoever Virgil was, he sounded more competent than Wheatley. Sure, Virgil had woke her up for his own reasons at first, but those two had quickly formed a friendship that took down a security system named Aegis and prevented the facility from flooding with the toxic waste that littered the facility.

When Mel finished talking, Chell briefly looked back to her and smiled. “Thank you. Had it not been for you, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Chell couldn’t see it, but she felt that Mel was smiling back. “Survival, right? But… How’d you wake up?”

“Well, I was woken up by a core too, but…” Chell paused to try and think of how to describe Wheatley. Sure he was a moron, but he was friendly enough. At least up until the core transfer where he revealed what he was actually like. Selfish and self-serving. Yeah, he was helpful, but he was also a pain in Chell’s neck.

“The only words I can use to describe him are 'lying moron who woke up GLaDOS,'” Chell said.

That made Mel perk up. She then stumbled on moving and sitting up front with Chell. “What? How did you get out if GLaDOS was awake?”

“She let me go really. After killing her once and putting her back in power after Wheatley took over the facility, she thought it better to let me go.” Chell shrugged before chuckling.

“Killing her? Wait… are you the stubborn test subject that Virgil mentioned?”

Chell laughed at that. “Yeah. I guess you could say that.”

Mel laughed once more. “I think we’ll be getting along just fine.”

Thousands of miles away, Arne Magnusson was tinkering with one of his Magnusson Devices. He wanted to be ready for another attack at any moment, but if it happened while Freeman was indisposed at the Borealis then they wouldn’t be able to do much without the Gravity Gun.

He was toying with a way to force the device to have thrusters and be able to fly to Combine energy signatures then explode remotely without the outside influence of bullets. Yes, the original device was effective, but it could be considered a prototype, and there was always room to improve on the prototype. Without Freeman around, the improvements were evident and needed.

A few minutes of tinkering later, Magnusson was disturbed by Uriah approaching. The vortigaunt was wearing his usual lab coat and carried a small tool pouch and clipboard. He placed the items on the table before addressing his friend. “Magnusson, my kin have communed with me and claimed to have found a traveler.”

“That’s nice, Uriah. Could you hand me to soldering tool?” He replied, only half listening.

The vortigaunt handed over the tool with no hassle. “They claim she was found in a Combine camp and came from the home of origin of the ship that the Freeman and the Alyx Vance seek.”

Magnusson nodded along until the reality of what Uriah was saying sunk in. He dropped his tools, and the Magnusson Device rolled off the table and away from the man. “That’s impossible, Uriah. No one could have come from there.”

“My apologies, but you have said in the past that there is room for error, yes?”

Magnusson nodded his head. “Yes. I suppose I have said such things in the past.”

“Then it should be said that there is a survivor from the place of mysteries,” Uriah smiled, not unlike Kleiner’s notorious smug smile.

Magnusson rubbed his temples, accidentally smearing oil on his face in the process. “You said ‘she’? Did they mention a name?”

“No. She has not provided them with her name. They have taken to calling her ‘Traveler.’”

Magnusson sighed as he stood up from his bench seat. He wasn’t going to tell Kleiner, but he was going to see the man to see what he may have uncovered about Aperture. He’d surely find evidence of someone coming out of there eventually.

As he wandered back through the halls and into their shared lab space, Magnusson didn’t find Kleiner at his usual station. Kleiner’s desk was littered with papers, and his printer was spitting out data in a steady stream, but the man in question was instead bent over Eli’s desk. At first glance, he looked to be crying with the constant shaking of his shoulders. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen the man cry in the middle of the day since Eli’s passing. He was about to walk back out when Kleiner let out a cry of pain and stuck a finger in his mouth to ease whatever he had done.

So the man was working on another project? What was the new project that made him use Eli’s desk in place of his own?

“Oh, hello Magnusson. Do you need something?”

Arne shook his head at the man. “No. Just came to grab a few things.” Like hell he’d actually admit that he wanted to check on the man’s side project to his face. “What’s that you are working on?”

Kleiner had a smile on his face as he picked up what looked like a Kevlar vest, but upon closer inspection, Magnusson realized what it was. The small wires feeding out near the neck, the wide green harness straps across the shoulders, the cross-body strap and a small electronic box fixed to the side of it. It was a blast from the past to Arne although the last time he’d seen one had not been pleasant.

“Is that- “

“A Powered Combat Vest? Why yes, it is,” Kleiner said with that smile.

“How did you get it?”

“That’s the thing. I found it in my stuff that I left here in storage last time I had to spend time here,” he explained while placing back down on the table.

“What are you doing with it?”

“I thought Barney might get good use out of it, so I’ve been attempting to modify it to be powered by Combine Energy Outlets, much like Gordon’s HEV suit,” Kleiner explained.

Made sense. Black Mesa had designed the PCV for military use after they had designed the HEV suits. Such a shame their very inventions were used against them during the Black Mesa incident.

“How’d you even get that thing, Kleiner? I didn’t even know there were any of them left in the world.”

Kleiner had started tinkering with the internal controls of the vest again but paused at Magnusson’s comment. He gave a thoughtful look to the vest before turning to the other man. “You know… I actually have no idea.”

Chapter Text

“From this moment on, you are Marines! But you are more than that! I am proud to call you men my family! We are brothers in arms! The man to your left and to your right is your brother! You will protect your brothers in everything you do!” Drill Sargent Barnes yelled over the graduating class. “You will not lie! You will not cheat! You will not let your brothers come to harm! Honor! Courage! Commitment! Those are the core fundamentals of a United States Marine!"

Adrian stood at parade rest and took in the words of DS Barnes. He was a hard-ass but dammit he admired the man. He could hold a crowd like a candle carried a flame.

"When debate falls, and compromise is unattainable, you men will be the ones to carry the sword and defend your family against those who would do you harm. It is because of this that you will discover the truth about the world. You will not have to rely on the so-called 'experts' to give you information because you will see it for yourself.

"That is why we challenged you! You men needed to be pushed harder than ever just so you would be ready for when the truth of the world came down on you! From this moment, you will have to make life or death decisions faster than you can blink or risk annihilation!

"Before I close here today, I have some final advice... Draw your energy from your family. The ones who raised you and the family you have made at here at basic. They will continue to support you. I would also ask that you stay selfless! Don't throw yourself down and give up but fight hand in hand so that you can share the glory of a victory well received.

"Never apologize for who you are. There will be men who look down on you, spit at you, or even call you a murderer, but they are not worth your time! I helped train you men to eat danger and crap victory, and that is what I hope to see from you. Be proud of who you are!

"Finally, stand tall and proud! Keep your weapons clean and blades sharp. Never panic, or you have already lost. Watch out for each other. Always be vigilant and on the lookout for trouble. You are a marine!

“You men are the best, and I expect you to continue to be the best you can be! Honor! Courage! Commitment! You must rely on your skills and those around you to continue being the best. I expect you to live your life with integrity and honor in all walks of life!"

Integrity and honor… Adrian felt a smile tug at the corners of his lips. That was why he became a Marine. He wanted to keep people safe and make something of himself. His father had raised him to have a set of honor and to uphold it in his life. ‘If a man doesn’t have honor, then he isn’t a man at all, Adrian,’ is what he would say growing up. Adrian’s father hadn’t been in the military and had been surprised when Adrian enrolled, but he’d still been proud to hear of why he’d decided to join. Adrian didn’t hold any false ideals of the military that he knew, but he’d still do what he could to protect his home.

“And with that, I am proud to call you Marines!” DS Barnes yelled out while bringing an arm up to salute. The entire graduating class followed his movements. “With great honor, I pronounce you soldiers of the United States Marine Corps! OORAH!”

As one thunderous voice, Adrian and his brothers replied, "OORAH!"

A couple years later he would go back to boot camp under the command of DS Barnes and be promoted to Corporal within the Hazardous Environment and Combat Unit. A few months later, he was approached about joining the advanced training regimen. Only two weeks later he was somehow bumped to the top of the recruitment and training list. Less than a year later, he would find his entire life turning upside down, and all sense of the code he kept for himself would be questioned. He would discover the truth.

Adrian hummed in delight as the medic placed a rag soaked in some strange greed liquid against his back. Apparently, he had acquired quite a few cuts and scrapes from his fall, but luckily nothing was broken. As the rag was dragged across his skin, all the pain faded and was replaced by a cooling sensation. It reminded him of something from his past

“As you can see, you are not dead!”

Adrian shook his head at the memory. That felt like a lifetime ago.

The rag was removed and soon replaced by strips of gauze being applied with tape to various places on his back. “There we are. The large one on your shoulder blade might be tender for the next couple of days, but at least you won’t have to worry about bleeding through all your shirts,” the medic explained.

She was a short girl in her thirties with short cropped brown hair and brown eyes. Her hands were calloused from years of work but were gentle with applying the bandages. She patted Adrian’s back with a smile, and he took that as his cue to stand up.

“Nice tattoo.”

“I’m sorry?” Adrian replied.

"I said nice tattoo. I haven’t seen one like that before,” she smirked before going to a nearby sink to wash her hands again.

Adrian rubbed his shoulder and sighed. There was a nearby mirror that he strode over to and got a better look at the permanent memory.

“Come on, Adrian! Out of everything you could get, you’re gonna be a fuckin’ boy scout over this?”
“Fuck you, Briggs! It’s bad enough you’re dragging me here tonight.”
“Well, it ain’t every day you make corporal, shit for brains.”
“Yeah, yeah… whatever, man. Let’s get inked.”

 Adrian looked at the eagle with its wings folded inwards as if in flight while it clutched the earth in its talons. An anchor, mostly obscured by the Earth, was positioned in the background and had a length of rope wound around it. All the while, a banner fluttered from the beak of the eagle and rippled as if caught in the wind. The words ‘Semper Fidelis’ were written into the banner.

He shook his head before shrugging his shirt back on.

Walking out of the med bay, Adrian found Barney leaning on the opposite wall with his arms crossed.

“Alright. I’ve been patched up, and I’ve been poked and prodded with all the tests they could do. Are you satisfied now?”

Barney smiled and nodded. “Just had to be sure you checked out. Can never be too careful nowadays.”

“So you going to give me some answers now?”

Barney nodded his head and crooked a finger to indicate that Adrian should follow. He followed Barney down several flights of stairs and long hallways. Apparently, the base they were in was a lot bigger than he initially guessed. When they finally stopped, Barney pulled open a large metal door and ushered Adrian inside. The interior was well lit but empty. The ceiling was incredibly high in the round chamber as well.

“Why did you take me to a missile silo?”

Barney crossed his arms, and his expression turned serious, “Because it’s quiet, unused, and I don’t trust you. Now talk.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I went through all your damn tests in the med bay and yet you still don’t trust me? Why?”

“Because of what your people did at Black Mesa!”

Adrian froze at that. “You were-“

“Yeah. I was there. I was a security guard. Just doing my job when you and the other HECU assholes decided to start killing everyone instead of helping us,” Barney fumed.

Adrian shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but Barney cut him off.

“Don’t speak! You assholes tried to kill everyone! You didn’t even try to-“

“You don’t know shit!” Adrian yelled back and firmly shoved Barney in his chest.

Barney stumbled back and caught himself on the wall of the silo. Adrian didn’t move away, but he didn’t move towards Barney either. “You don’t know anything about me! I didn’t do any of that! I did my best to try and save every single person I could find!”

“Guess your buddies didn’t get the memo? Because from what I discovered, silencing the entire facility was your mission?”

Adrian made a noise of disgust as he strode towards Barney, “For your information, I never received my fucking orders! My osprey went down before I even got them.”

“Ain’t that real convenient,” Barney scoffed, arms crossed over his chest.

'Men will spit on your and call you murderers...'

Adrian kept the sneer on his face as he stared Barney down. He had no right in what he was saying! Adrian had to stay proud because he knew the truth! He didn't need approval, but that didn't stop him from fighting back.

“What do you want from me? Between the damned aliens and that government spook that kidnapped me, I haven’t got a clue what is going on anymore!”

As if a switch was flipped, Barney’s entire demeanor relaxed, and a relieved sigh broke the tension that had built between them. “So you met him too?”

Adrian froze mid-step when those words left Barney’s lips. “What?”

Barney moved to sit on some nearby crates and pointed to the one across from him, “Take a seat. Time for me to fill you in on what you’ve missed.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Without a word, Adrian went and sat down across from Barney.

Barney had a colorful way of explaining everything. He’d go into deep detail on arbitrary things but almost wholly gloss over large parts of history. Adrian had so many questions, but he found each one was getting answered before he could ask. Barney had started from the bomb going off at Black Mesa then skipped over several months in time to when the Combine first appeared and all the military force of their synthetic soldiers, commonly called synths. Adrian figured out Combine came from how they seemed to combine creatures and technology into monstrous amalgamations.

The next fifteen years of history could be summed up in three short sentences. The rebellion was formed. They would fight back. The Combine was stronger.

All through his story, Barney kept referencing someone named Gordon. The way he spoke about the guy made it sound like they were close or that he was a well-known guy who Adrian should already know. When it came to questions, knowing who the Gordon guy was, became the most prominent. It was apparently with his help that they managed to beat back the Combine over the last couple of weeks with much success.

“-and then Gordon and Alyx left to take out the Borealis to stop the Combine and as a last wish for Eli,” Barney concluded and bent forward to rest his elbows on his knees. There was a tenseness to his shoulders as he got close to the end of the history lesson, but Adrian felt it wasn’t his place to intrude.

Adrian shifted uncomfortably in his seat and sighed, “Damn.”

“Yeah,” Barney sighed in turn. The silence stretched out for several minutes. “Look. I don’t know if I still trust you a hundred percent, but don’t you guys have some sort of code?”

Adrian felt a grimace form. “Yeah, but don’t get how good that is now.”

Adrian had seen what some of his fellow Marines did at Black Mesa. How could they forget all that they pledged to do? They were supposed to protect people from enemies, not mow down helpless scientists and confused security guards. Then the damn black ops teams moved in and tried to silence the marines as well as the scientists. The worst part of all had been the situation with Waters. He’d been surrounded by the exact people he’d been trained to not become. Mindless drones who followed all orders given to them.

“Alright. Here’s how it’s gonna be, Thunderdome,” Barney started. “Consider yourself on a trial phase. You gonna stick with me and follow my lead. Keep the fact that you’re HECU to yourself. There are a few people around here that wouldn’t take kindly to that, but I think you could still do some good around here. So how about it? Either stick with me and help out, or we send you packing.”

Either stay and live or get sent out to the wilderness to die?

“You’re not giving me much of a choice here.”

“That’s the point. So, what’s it gonna be,” Barney asked while crossing his arms.

Adrian glared at Barney for several seconds before giving in and shrugging his shoulders. “Alright.”

“Good. Now, do you have any questions?”

Adrian nodded his head. “Yeah. Who’s Gordon?”

At the mention of the name, Barney’s eyes widened a little before he burst out laughing. “Oh right. I guess I never touched on who he is. Well-“

He didn’t get to finish as someone came rushing into the silo with a panicked expression on their face. “Calhoun! We’ve been looking all over for you. We have word on Freeman!”

“Really?” Barney said while standing to his feet in a rush. He then looked back to Adrian. “Let’s get a move on rookie. We can finish this talk later.”

Adrian nodded and started to follow behind Barney, although he couldn’t stop thinking back to Black Mesa after hearing one word. Freeman.

‘Forget about Freeman!’

‘Maybe we’ll get a shot at this Freeman guy…’

‘You must hurry, Freeman!’

Adrian had flashes of memory and color dance across his vision. Cramped vents. Glowing balls of green light. A blue suit. A black void. All of it happened in seconds as his breathing picked up yet, he still followed after Barney.

“That blizzard came out of nowhere. Me and Gordon were forced to take shelter for the last couple days, and it prevented us from getting any communications out to you,” Alyx said into the com station she had rigged up. “If we are lucky, the Combine will have needed to hunker down until it passed as well."

"Have you found Dr. Mossman?"

"Not yet, but we know she was here."

Everything she said was right. They had made progress after their helicopter was shot down, but had been forced to seek shelter after a freak blizzard rolled in and turned visibility for miles around to zero. It had been pure luck that they managed to reach an old weather outpost station before it hit. The station had been converted to a combine outpost, but it had easily been cleared by through the dedicated teamwork of Alyx and Gordon.

While there, they had found a large hole blown into the side of the building and a smashed console with a camera. It had taken a look down the hallway for Gordon and Alyx to realize it was the location Judith had been filming herself from before they had been discovered.

In the days they had been stuck in the station, they had found several valuable supplies. Gordon found a stash of Combine batteries and a couple Energy Stations. He used one of the stations to charge up his suit and saved the battery cells for a later date. Along with the energy for his suit, Gordon found some med-kits and actual canned food instead of the ration packs, but the best thing of all was a jeep. It was a Combine styled jeep, but it was designed for traveling across the snow. Gordon had found it inside a garage for repairs, but he and Alyx had managed to fix what was wrong with it. Mostly Alyx. He had stood back and handed her tools when she asked for them, but half the time he would give her the wrong one. He wasn’t a mechanic or an engineer! He was a scientist! A theoretical physicist! Or at least he thought he was.

Gordon looked down at the crowbar in his hand and the suit he was wearing. The suit had several scuffs and dents from all the bullets and falls he’d suffered since arriving at City 17. He flexed his fingers and felt how the electrically charged rubber around his entire body moved with ease. The suit truly was a marvel of scientific advancement for protective systems, but it was also a huge curse. Despite keeping him alive, Gordon was scared to remove it.

‘Minor fracture detected.'
'Major fracture detected.'
'Blood loss detected.’
‘Vital signs are dropping.’
‘Morphine administered.’
‘Have a very safe day!’

Thinking about it nearly made Gordon laugh. Had it not been for the needles injected into his spine and his wrists, he wouldn’t even be able to stand on his own feet. The day he took the suit off, he would need a bed to fall on. The moment those needles left his skin would be the moment all the pain he was most likely supposed be feeling would hit.

His crowbar wasn’t pretty either. It was stained with blood, both yellow and red, and became his best friend and worst enemy.

The suit and crowbar. His most notable features. The symbols of freedom and the ‘The One Free Man.’ He hated it.

Gordon never wanted any of it. He had only been doing his job that day at Black Mesa. There were so many people involved yet he was labeled as one of the most prominent, if not the most significant cause of the Incident. He’d only been trying to survive and help as many people as he could. He never wanted to be a hero. So many people had been counting on him to do it at Black Mesa, but no one ever asked if he wanted to do what they asked. Then the day he arrived in City 17, it had been the same thing. People ordering him where to go and what to do, but they all looked at him in awe and wonder. Some thought him as a messiah. Gordon did what he had to do. Saving Eli had been a mixture of both, but no one ever bothered to ask him his opinion. They didn’t dare ask him what he wanted.

‘ Rather than offer you the illusion of free choice, I will take the liberty of choosing for you... ’

He grit his teeth at the memory. His fault. All of it had been His fault somehow, and Gordon was paying the price. He caused Black Mesa, and that led to what they were doing at the moment. If it hadn’t been for Him, Eli would be alive. The world would be alive instead of the shell of what it used to be. Gordon could be back at Black Mesa in another test chamber, listening to Magnusson and Kleiner argue, sharing a beer with Barney, or babysitting Alyx while her parents had a night out. All that gone. So many people. So many lives crushed. So many broken hearts.

He had no choice but to keep going. He couldn’t stop. If he stopped, then more people would die. He had relaxed after the rocket launch, and that led to disaster. He should have known something was wrong with how Dog reacted before running off to somewhere unknown. He’d known they were close and tried his best to fight them, but he came too late. Gordon’s muscles tensed in barely contained fury at the memory of what the Advisors did to his friend.

He walked into what used to be the living quarters and sat on the bed he’d chosen for himself. His muscles were still tense and his hands were shaking. He couldn’t keep going like this. Gordon’s eyes were fixed on a poster on the opposite wall. It was a picture of Dr. Breen in a three-quarter pose smiling serenely with a dove flying above his head. There was a sun shining on a distant horizon behind Breen, but Gordon couldn’t tell if it was a sunrise or sunset. Breen would probably have said it was a sunrise on a new beginning for humanity, while someone else may say it was a sunset on the end of human race. The signature combine claw holding tight to circle sat in the bottom right corner. He figured out that circle represented the planet Earth in the ‘loving embrace’ of the Combine pretty fast.

Unable to take it anymore, Gordon strode forward with Crowbar raised and began to swing it into the poster. It made a small tear, but he didn’t stop. Gordon continued to swing the crowbar into the poster until it was on the ground in shreds, but even then, he didn’t stop beating the wall. Chips of concrete went flying and hit his face, but none went into his eyes thanks to his glasses, but even then he was fine as his eyes were screwed shut. He had to keep going. It was the only thing he could focus on.

“Gordon?”

Gordon stopped swinging the crowbar to look back at the doorway. Alyx stood there with a hand on the doorframe and grease smudged on her cheek. She must have come to find him.

Looking back to the wall, Gordon realized he’d made a sizeable hole in the wall. Chunks of concrete, dust, and paper littered the floor at his feet and his breathing was hard. His muscles ached. How long had he been doing that?

“Morphine administered,” the suit said into his ear. That answered one question as the pain in his limbs faded.

“Gordon?” Alyx repeated.

He looked up at her again as if just noticing she was there. With a frown, he nodded at her.

She rubbed at her cheek, attempting to wipe off the grease but only smearing it further. “Just letting you know that the jeep is almost finished. We can leave soon. I need you to gather our supplies and load them up. If you want that is.”

Another command, but at least Alyx had the frame of mind to make it seem like he had a choice. He nodded his head and followed after her.

The jeep itself wasn’t actually a jeep. Its body resembled a large truck that had been stretched out and the bed covered with reinforced metal. Thick rubber treads sat in the place where tires would go. It was painted a bright orange like Gordon’s suit for visibility in the snow. That could cause a problem once they got back on track, but Gordon silently hoped for an uneventful drive.

He tossed their bags into the backseat. Two duffels that were filled with medical supplies, weapons, food, and several changes of warm clothes. He placed Alyx’s heavy green coat in the passenger seat before grabbing his protective hoodie. Kleiner had called it something else, but it reminded Gordon of an oversized hooded sweatshirt although much heavier. It was thick and had a port to connect itself to the HEV suit but was designed to prevent the frigid north from sapping his suit power. The attached hood had an additional benefit of containing a flap that could be pulled down to protect his face from the wind and cold.

Along with the flap, there were built in goggles that would fit over his glasses with comfort and prevent his eyesight from deteriorating further from the harsh light bouncing off the snow. The biggest comfort to him was that it wasn’t bright orange like his suit but a charcoal grey. The only splash of color on the gear was an orange lambda symbol on his shoulders and the orange color of the goggles.

Once the supplies were loaded up, he set to attach a thigh holster to his leg and slipped a magnum to rest in it, a shotgun with a shoulder strap was slung over his shoulder, and his crowbar remained in his hand. After getting set up for the road, Gordon climbed into the cab just as Alex was slipping her coat on.

“Couldn’t get the heat working, but we shouldn’t be in here long,” she said while slipping some thick gloves on and then a pair of mittens on over those. She had far more layers than Gordon, and yet she was still cold. Two pairs of pants, two shirts, her Black Mesa hoodie, her father’s vest, and a thick green jacket with a fur-lined hood were still not enough to keep out the chill. At least inside the cab, there wouldn’t be the biting wind to worry about.

Gordon frowned but nodded nonetheless. He didn’t like that she was cold, but hopefully they would reach the Borealis soon.

With a mighty growl, the engine came to life. While Gordon put it in gear, Alyx pushed a button on the console that lifted the massive garage door in front of them up. Snow had piled high against the door, but Gordon drove forward, pushing through it until they were once more outside and rolling with ease.

The ride was silent for the first hour. Alyx had her eyes set on the horizon for any sign of trouble. The only sort of excitement they had was when a Gargantua had burst from a snow bank. It had chased after them for a short time, but soon gave up when it realized they were moving faster through the snow than it could. Gordon had been surprised to see it as he hadn’t seen any since Black Mesa. He thought they must have been all wiped out, but apparently, he was just lucky.

The second hour into the trip, Alyx broke the silence. “Did you know my mom?"

The question caught Gordon by surprise. He looked over to her with a quizzical expression and noticed how her brows were knitted together, and mouth was tense. Gordon knew she was still taking Eli’s death pretty hard and had not allowed herself any time to come to terms with it.

“Sorry. I know its sudden and sorta random but… The only two people who have met her were Dr. Kleiner and Magnusson… but-“

Alyx stopped herself. Her mouth screwed up and she shook her head as if she didn’t know where she had been going with that sentence.

“Never mind. Forget I said anything,” she sighed and looked back out the window.

Gordon returned his sight to straight ahead. Not that he had to worry about crashing or losing track of where he was. Everything looked exactly the same in the vast expanse of white and gray, but Alyx had the coordinates, a map, and an old-fashioned compass for backup purposes.

Another half hour passed until Alyx spoke again. “We should be getting close.”

Gordon nodded once more and continued to drive. They only made it another couple hundred yards when an almighty crack broke through the air. It was loud enough to be heard over the sound of the motor, but at the same time, the sound made Gordon turn off their vehicle.

“What’s going on? Why’d you stop?”

Gordon put a finger to his lips while looking out over the expanse in front of them. Nothing. Then something all at once. The ground around them rocked violently, causing Gordon to be thrown hard into the steering wheel. Alyx had managed to throw her hands up and catch herself on the dash to prevent her head from colliding with anything.

Gordon rubbed his forehead where it hit the top of the steering wheel before looking to Alyx. She was already standing up and had half her body out the window. As she did that, Gordon saw the problem. A giant crack in the ice was forming around their vehicle.

He attempted to start the snow-cat again, but the engine sputtered.

“What’s the holdup, Gordon? We have to move!” Alyx called out over another loud crack, and the vehicle bounced again.

The engine continued to sputter with each twist of the key.

‘Come on!’ Gordon thought to himself.

Another violent shake and a crevasse opened up behind the Cat, and the entire shelf was tilting upwards. The new angle was causing the Cat to slide along the snow towards the cavernous maw of the frigid North.

“Gordon!”

With one final crank, the Snow-Cat came to life and trundled up the ice. It was slow moving, and the Cat didn’t have the best speed, but they were hopeful. They were so close!

They were just about to reach the safety of flat land again when another loud crack filled the air. The shelf they had been climbing broke free, and an ice wall appeared in front of them that was higher than the treads could reach.

“Damn it!” Alyx yelled before climbing out of her window and onto the roof of the cat. With as much grace as she had always exhibited, she launched herself from the roof and onto the flat ground.

“Gordon! Come on!”

He wasn’t as lithe as her, and he had the sense to grab onto two of the supply bags he’d packed earlier in the day.  He opened the door and struggled to clamber on top of the cat, legs kicking wildly as he pulled himself up.

“Hurry, Gordon!”

The cracking of ice was deafening in the air, but he eventually managed to get up on the roof. With a might sling, he tossed one bag and then the other, then his crowbar. He then got down and readied himself to jump. Just as he started forward to run, the ice shelf fell away completely, leaping through the momentary abyss as his stomach collided painfully into the ice.

His legs hung down in the deep and unable to get a grip on the slick sides of the ice. It wasn’t working, and he was sliding down. Gordon’s gloved hands scraped at the snow, unable to find purchase.

Then something was shoved into his line of, and he grabbed onto it like a lifeline. Looking up, he saw Alyx holding one end of his crowbar and tugging with all her might. She wasn’t the strongest in the world, but she did keep him from sliding further down into the crevasse.

“Gordon, climb!” Alyx grunted with exertion.

 The problem was that Gordon couldn’t climb. His boots weren’t designed for walking on ice, but that didn’t stop him from trying something else. He began to swing one of his legs up to try and catch the edge, but it was an awkward angle. His muscles were nearing his limit, and if he didn’t climb up, then he’d risk pulling Alyx in with him. He tried again. Then again. Then finally on the fourth attempt, he managed to get the toes of his right boot up on the ledge. With that, he was able to scramble up and he rolled several times away from the edge, breathing hard.

As he laid there in the snow, Alyx appeared and looked down at him from his left side. The sight was so much like their first meeting that he had to smile.

“You okay?” Alyx asked.

Gordon nodded again and slowly sat up. The initial shock wore off, and his entire body began to shake. He recognized the symptoms of shock, but that didn’t make him feel any better. That was probably the closest he’d come to death from natural causes. Almost a relief over the whizzing bullets, explosions, or giant vats of toxic waste he’d been met with as of late.

The shakes started to wear off as the suit pumped more drugs into his system to keep him going. Once he only had a faint tremor in his hands did he stand to his feet.

He inched his way over to the edge of the shelf and looked down at the crevasse that formed. The snow-cat was wedged between the two walls about a hundred feet below, but he could see where it was getting loose. Another second, the groan of metal and the cracking of ice sent the vehicle bouncing and tumbling far below and out of sight in the deep blue depths.

Turning back to Alyx, she handed him the crowbar before picking up one of the bags. Gordon picked up the other, and they fell into pace next to each other, walking in the direction of their quarry.

They did their best to not think of the incident, but every sound, every crunch of snow sent them on the edge of another crevasse possibly opening up around them.

An hour later, Alyx was visibly shivering, but they couldn’t stop moving yet. Suddenly a plume of snow was sent skyward, and the duo dropped to the ground in response to what could be happening.

Gordon looked to Alyx and nodded before they started crawling in the snow to where the snow had been sent skyward, and they soon came to another icy cliff. Although this one had much more going on with it.

The plume had come from a large amount of snow falling off the edge of another ice shelf and causing a cascade of ice to drift off into the wind. They had been lucky that had happened because only a mere fifty feet below, stuck half in and out of the icy cliff and supported by Combine supports was the Borealis.

They made it.

Chapter Text

While they drove, Chell learned a lot about Mel. She had already found out she was an Olympic track athlete, but she hadn’t found out Mel was a bronze medalist. Mel had grown up working on a farm and had been the fastest runner among all the workers and her brothers. On an errand for her parents, the track coach at her school had seen her and wanted her to try out for the team. From that moment on she had been on track for her Olympic career.

Mel had a warm personality, and Chell found herself enjoying the woman’s company. Although she wouldn’t deny that she was jealous of Mel. She could remember her past while Chell was struggling to find any semblance of who she used to be. She had all these clues and pieces, but no idea how to put them together and get a picture. Pieces of a long-ago conversation, knowledge of coding, she could read binary, and she knew how to load a gun with surprising ease. What had she done before everything?

But Mel… How did she remember her past where Chell couldn’t? What had happened to make her forget? Chell’s biggest theory had been the relaxation pods and vaults, but Mel ripped that theory to shreds with how much detail she could provide about her past.

“Chell?”

Chell shook her head and focused back on the road. The sudden movement caused her to jerk the steering wheel but not enough to send them off course. “Yeah?”

“I asked you about yourself. What did you do before Aperture?”

Chell shook her head, “Wish I knew, Mel. I can’t remember.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Mel frowned and looked straight ahead.

“I’m used to it,” Chell shrugged.

A few minutes later, Chell pulled over and turned to Mel. “Can you drive? I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours.”

Mel nodded in agreement. Chell unstrapped herself from the seat before climbing into the back and sitting in the floor, using a spare CP jacket as a pillow. The vortigaunts sat in the chairs, and they gave her a passing look as she got herself ready. Her head rested back against one of the empty seats, her eyes closing, and she was out within moments.

It’s a shame only twenty minutes later that her sleep was interrupted by a thunderous explosion that caused the APC to veer off course. Mel managed to keep it on the road, but it was difficult when another explosion caused her to jerk the wheel once more.

Chell struggled to stand from her spot and looked around wildly, all traces of exhaustion leading into a panic. “What’s happening?”

“They found us!” Mell yelled while jerking the wheel to the right.

Another explosion sounded, but this one wasn’t as bad on the vehicle.

Chell staggered to the glass dome in the center of the APC and looked out toward the back to see a second APC in pursuit. She watched as a stream of white smoke came out of the vehicle and something was spiraling towards their location. It slammed into the ground right behind them and caused the back two wheels to go up into the air and slam back hard on the ground.

Chell braced herself against the dome and heard the vortigaunts grunt in pain from the violent shake. Gritting her teeth, she looked around the inside for anything that could be of use. If the APC behind them had a canon, then… ah-ha! Finding a switch near the rim of the dome, Chell slammed her hand down on it. There was a hiss of steam before a lever covered in buttons and switched lowered from inside the roof of the APC and into Chell’s hands. Along with the lever, the interior of the dome darkened and the surroundings took on different colors as they passed, mostly blue and greens. Although the second APC was covered in more red and yellows. Heat signatures! The handle that deployed was actually a control lever!

But a control lever for what?

Another explosion sounded, and Chell had to stabilize herself by grabbing hold of the control lever. Doing so caused the interior of the dome to go crazy in how it viewed the outside world but that steadied once Chell managed to right herself.

“Sorry!” Mel yelled.

“We are worried about the integrity of our vehicle!” One of the vortigaunts yelled.

Chell grit her teeth and pulled back on the large central switch on the lever. Two rockets flew out of their APC and soared towards the pursuers. The enemy was able to evade them, but they were forced to swerve to get back on track as the explosions rocked their vehicle.

‘Everyone likes revenge, indeed,’ Chell thought.

Wasting no time, Chell fired another rocket, but the Combine were able to evade it as well. The attackers launched another rocket that caused Chell's group to nearly spin out. They couldn’t take much more battering.

“Little help would be great, Chell!”

“Working on it!”

Chell looked at the other buttons on the lever and flicked on them. The dome suddenly changed and made everything dark blue and everything passing by look black. Another flick and everything looked blue but made any passing bird or animal show up in bright yellow. Chell grit her teeth in anger as she tried once more. The dome cleared and she thought she had accidentally turned it off until she noticed the grid lines and a solid red dot.

She didn’t understand what it was before she fired another rocket. This one didn’t curve through the air to attack the heat source of the second APC but instead traveled a straight line past the vehicle. A sudden jerk caused Chell to yank on the lever, and the red dot shifted. As the dot moved so did the rocket she had fired. It exploded into a mass of trees, causing leaves and branches to scatter everywhere.

‘Oh, it’s a laser guidance system,’ Chell thought with a wicked grin.

She took charge of the lever once more and used it to lock the red dot onto the APC. The smile on her face widened as she fired. That smile fell the moment they launched their own rocket as both collided midair in a fiery explosion that left her blind for a few moments.

A flare of anger hit Chell as she looked around. She didn’t know how many more rockets she had and didn’t want to risk losing them. It didn’t escape her mind that the other vehicle was firing them less than before.

Looking out the front of the dome, Chell saw they were approaching a tunnel. It would be cramped inside and very difficult to move out of the way of a rocket. If they tried, they would inevitably crash into a wall.

That’s when she saw it. Right near the mouth of the tunnel was a group of tall pine trees, all thick as oil barrels. They were on an embankment that led down towards the road so they would fall in front of the tunnel if the dropped. Chell sighed as she decided on the course of action. She’d have one chance.

Mel sped towards the tunnel, Chell trained the laser on the trees, and the vortigaunts braced themselves. With a definite sigh, Chell fired the rockets. Two rockets fired out and traveled in an arc before finding the target that Chell had picked out. They crisscrossed in the air before landing with a shower of fire, dirt, and bark at the base of the trees.

It took several agonizing moments, but they tilted down towards the road and soon began falling faster and faster. Three large pine trees threatening to block the tunnel if they didn’t get to it first.

“Go, Mel!”

Mel was already going as fast as the vehicle would allow. It was a lot different than her father’s old pickup truck, but she had adapted pretty well after having watched Chell behind the wheel. She didn’t look at the trees but only focused on the darkness of the tunnel to provide them with safety.

The vortigaunts were clutching onto the seats with all their might. They didn’t like being enclosed in such a space with so many bumps in the road. They wished to be of service, but they would only be a hindrance in the given circumstances.

Chell could hear the creaking of wood over the sound of the engine. It was close, and so was the tunnel. Looking forward in the dome, Chell saw the branches of the first pine tree brushing the ground, but Mel didn’t stop. She pushed through them, barely missing the trunk of the tree by inches.

Mel let out a victorious screech as Chell looked back to their pursuers. They had crashed into the first pine tree, and she could barely see the second come tumbling down directly on top of their APC. She couldn’t stop the smile from spreading out as she lowered herself from the dome.

As they made it to the other side of the tunnel, it was like reaching the promised land. Yes, they were still being pursued, but they had blocked the tunnel, and any other roads could take a lot longer to reach them. They were safe for the time being.

An hour later, Chell had done some digging into the interior of the armored personnel carrier and discovered there was a source code assigned to each vehicle. The code allowed locations of any and all Combine transports to be monitored from a relay station. She did her best to scrub the vehicle’s system of that code and ripped out a portion of machinery she believed to be behind the tracker. It was tossed out a window and into a ditch.

Chell tried not to question how she figured out the code, but it was a losing battle. Just what was she supposed to think of herself if she was able to figure out something like that? She couldn’t keep moving forward if she struggled to get over the past she couldn’t remember.

At one point the APC had powered down, but a quick check of everything showed it was out of power. The vortigaunts gladly offered up their skills to charge the vehicle back up and get back on the road.

The group had stayed inside the APC to camp for the night. The inside was warm, and although it was cramped, it provided shelter that the open air lacked. It had been a good thing too because when the group awoke the next morning, there was a group of strange two-legged creatures with spots like a leopard and tentacles fanning their mouths. Starting the APC startled the animals into charging their vehicle and spitting green slime. The slime was revealed to be acidic, but it didn't do much other than peal some paint off the APC. The vortigaunts informed the humans that they were known as ‘bullsquids.’

Two hours later, the group approached a bridge but were forced to turn around and find an alternate path when it was revealed to be destroyed. Chell didn’t know how well the vehicle would perform off-road, but there was no time to try like the present. Seeing a hill with a smooth enough path for a vehicle, Chell eased off the road and further down the trail.

The APC handled surprisingly well off the road. It must have been built for any possible terrain as the occupants could hardly tell they weren’t on a smooth surface with how steady the cabin was being. Eventually, the slope turned into an actual road once they reached the bottom. Chell hadn’t even noticed the road at the top of the hill as it was hidden by the trees, but she was thankful for it nonetheless.

“The Traveler will wish to turn right,” one of the vortigaunts said.

Chell did that and looked back to Mel. She was dozing in the back while wearing the second CP jacket. She had donned it to sleep in the previous night as it was comfortable to her. Chell smiled before taking her focus back on the road.

She looked back just in time as a large tree was down in front of the APC that caused Chell to slam on the brakes. The vehicle slid due to the leaves covering the road and didn’t provide any grip on the dirt. By some miracle, she got the APC stopped before they could crash into the blockade.

Mel groaned from being rudely awakened and wiped a bit of drool from her chin. "Wha- Why'd we stop?"

“Looks like we will have to go by foot from here,” Chell groaned while unbuckling herself from the driver seat.

Mel continued to rub the sleep from her eyes but nodded anyway at Chell.

As they gathered up the supplies, a deafening crack filled the air followed by a metallic ping at the same time. All four occupants froze in place at the telltale sound of a gun being fired at them.

Chell was back in the driver seat once more, ready to throw it into reverse at a moments notice. She was happy for the thick glass and that no one could see her moving.

Throwing the APC in reverse, she only got a few feet before the back of the vehicle was hit with a spray of bullets.

“Don’t move!” A voice rang out through the forest.

Looking forward, Chell saw who had spoken. Standing on the fallen tree like some sort of action hero was a figure in blue denim, charcoal gray vest, and a lambda armband. A moment later two more joined the first. Mel poked her head out of the dome and saw several more people surrounding the back of the vehicle. Despite the guns and the threatening posture of the people, Mel couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her face. Chell only felt weariness of what the people may hold.

Chapter Text

“Still find it hard to believe one guy fought through countless black ops. Aren’t they supposed to be the best of the best of the best?”

“You’d think so,” Adrian said. He munched on a Combine ration pack and frowned. He had been expecting a military-style MRE. Maybe some ‘four fingers of death’ being the worst case scenario, but somehow, they had managed to take out the flavor of a ration pack. It was like eating paper. No flavor to speak of and felt like he was chewing an entire package of saltine crackers at once. Good god, was his mouth dry.

“So after you fought through more black ops, what happened?”

“A security guard sent me down into a basement where this big ass portal that looked like Pepto-Bismol but smelled like raw sewage was held. Nothing happened for a few minutes, but soon this giant worm creature that looked like the cross between Cthulhu and a grasshopper crawled its way out of the portal,” Adrian said before taking a large sip of water. Yeah, that taste wasn’t going anywhere for a while.

“Luckily there were these laser-cannon things? Some sort of crystal or shit was lodged into them. Seemed to hurt the freak when I shot it in the eyes since it to roared in pain. It would rear back and expose its mouth or soft stomach? I wasn’t sure. But I just unloaded every fucking thing I had at it.

“But this big green shit? It could spit out portals! It sent more of those big guys with the bug things that shoot electricity after me, but I managed to get them out of the way. Nearly died in the process…”

Adrian had trailed off as he remembered the feeling of electricity course through his body and how his arm had taken nearly the full force of that worm’s strange breath attack. It had been like acid was eating at his skin and large wounds oozed puss and blood. The one hit had left him only one arm for the remainder of the fight. Whatever happened, there was barely any evidence that it ever happened at all. Just faint scars along the length of his arm, but that was it.

“Eventually, it went back into the pink portal.  Not sure if I killed it or it retreated, but… everything after that was a blur. Green balls of light started pouring from the portal. I tried to dodge them but, in the process, threw myself off a catwalk. It amounted to shit as I was still caught by one of those green balls. Turned out to be another portal.”

Adrian wanted to talk more about what happened after, but even after his story, the idea of an alien bureaucrat kidnapping him was too farfetched. He’d been careful through the whole story. He omitted how the bastard opened a door for him so he wouldn’t get eaten alive by electrified toxic waste or closing a door so he couldn’t join up with his fellow soldiers during the evac.

Then came the time defining moment. He had reactivated the fucking bomb! Adrian had done everything he could to ensure the place wouldn’t go up in a fiery glass crater and kill everyone who managed to stay alive, but He had undone all of it. Adrian had tried to break the window with his wrench, but that didn’t work. He then tried to shoot the glass out, but it didn’t do anything. Had he not been so angry at the time, he probably would have wondered why ballistic glass would be in a parking garage.

“How’d you get out of there anyway?”

Adrian rubbed at his scars and pursed his lips. There had been the worm retreating into the portal, then a flash of bright light. Then there was Him. He had been standing in front of Adrian as if it was the most natural thing in the world, yet Adrian had been unable to move or say a word. He knew that his weapons had been taken. Everything from the red pipe wrench to the green squid-like creature. Then he’d been left to sit in an abyss of black until being unceremoniously dropped into fuck-nowheresville without even saying anything.

Just as Adrian was about to talk, he found himself being interrupted by another rebel running into the small sitting room.

“Calhoun! Did you hear? Freeman made it to the Borealis!”

The rebel was probably the same age as Shepherd, but had a weariness around the eyes that made him look older. He had red hair cut close to the scalp and a thick scar that disappeared into his hairline.

Barney was on his feet in moments, “Are you serious? That’s great! Are they still on coms?”

“Not sure. I just came to alert you of the development,” he said.

And just like that, the rebel ran off. He was apparently playing messenger and alerting everyone he could.

“Come on, Shep. Let’s see if we can catch the docs before the connection gets lost again,” Barney said before moving out of the room.

Adrian quickly followed after Barney but only to reach out and grab the man by the shoulder. He had run off before Adrian could finish talking before. “You asked how I escaped? It was-“

“Barney! Did you hear?” A female rebel yelled down the corridor.

“Yeah! I’m on my way to see the docs, now!”

Adrian scowled. Twice now he’d been interrupted. It most probably a coincidence.

“Calhoun? Could you answer a question for me?”

“Can’t it wait?”

Adrian shook his head, “Not really.”

Barney crossed his arms and sighed. He inclined his head toward Adrian to indicate he could speak.

There’s the chance to speak about Him, but if He were causing some kind of manipulation, then there would be no way to openly talk about Him without interference. Two times within minutes could be a coincidence, but the timing of their conversation topic was too convenient. Adrian needed to speak to someone about the Man but how could he if he was being prevented.

‘No hesitation, Adrian,’ he thought.

Change of tactics was needed.

“You never answered my question before. Who’s Freeman?”

Barney looked at Adrian for several seconds before laughing. “Yeah. You’re right… but, shouldn’t you already know?”

“If I did, would I be asking?”

Barney only looked at Adrian with a blank expression before sighing and rubbing the back of his head. Frankly, Barney had been thankful for the prior interruptions. Although now Adrian was demanding an answer. “Alright, fine. It’s my buddy Gordon. Happy? Now hurry up, and you may get a chance to talk to him.”

With that, Barney started a slow jog down the hall.

Adrian followed, but his mind was somewhere else. The war hero Gordon was the Freeman guy from Black Mesa? Something about that didn’t match up with what he knew. One of the big things was that Adrian had seen Freeman jump into a portal back at Black Mesa. What he had been doing was a mystery to Adrian.

The difference between Gordon and Freeman was hard to distinguish to Adrian. What he had learned in Black Mesa is that Freeman was thought to be the cause of the entire incident, but Barney showed Gordon as a hero. All the rebels saw him as a liberator. The idea of this rogue sabotaging scientist and the battle-hardened leader of the resistance clashed greatly with what Adrian knew of the man. The myth? Apparently, some kind of legend among the people.

Just who was Gordon Freeman?

Adrian had all these thoughts burning in his head, even as he nearly bumped into the hunched figure with wrinkled skin and bright red eyes.

His entire body went rigid as he took a step back. He could feel the electricity run up his arms and down his spine. The garbled cries of his comrades falling to the ground, unable to reach them in time.

Adrian was about to grab onto the tiny head of the creature and smash it against his knee until he saw something that made him pause. Was it wearing a lab coat?

A lab coat?

Why the hell was the alien wearing a lab coat?!

Why the fuck was an alien walking around in the base and wearing the lab coat as if it was the most normal thing in the world?

Before he knew it, the Alien turned to look at him and nodded its head. “Greetings.”

They can talk now?!

The sound of its voice must have attracted Barney because he looked back. Adrian must have looked panicked as he analyzed the situation since Barney looked sheepish, “Yeah. Forgot to mention that they are on our side now. This is Uriah. He works with Dr. Magnusson and Dr. Kleiner.”

Adrian looked back to Barney with an expression that was something between ‘fuck you’ and ‘how could you have forgotten this.’

“Just remember what I said, Adrian. Don’t make a scene and stick with me,” Barney explained and entered the lab. Uriah followed after Barney and Adrian after Uriah.

Adrian was good at following orders, but not very good at staying in one place. He would always want to move around and fiddle with things nearby. Standing in one spot had been the worst part of boot camp as he always needed something to do with his hands. Not being able to move had gotten him in trouble with Drill Sergeant Barns on more than one occasion.

‘What is your major malfunction, dirtbag? Can’t even stand still correctly? Need me to hold your hands?’

So the moment Adrian walked into the lab, he had the urge to run his hands over the various machines and equipment. Instead of moving to touch everything, he resorted to what he always did. He ran the pads of his thumbs over the sides of his index fingers as if continuously flicking a lighter on and off. That’s what Adrian continued to do as he moved next to Barney.

Hunched over a table with his back to Adrian and Barney was a balding man in a lab coat. He seemed to be fiddling with something, but Adrian could not see what it was from the angle he was standing.

“Are they still on, doc?”

“Hmm?” The scientist said turning to look at Barney. “Oh. I’m sorry, Barney. You just missed them. They had to cut off transmission or risk being found, but they are both quite alright!”

The scientist had a gentle yet generic face to Adrian. If he had been back in Black Mesa, he doubted he would have been able to tell the man apart from any of the countless other employees there; what with his thick-framed glasses, balding head, blue shirt, and lab coat.

“Damn. Oh- sorry, doc.”

“It’s quite alright, Barney. I’m sure they will call back soon. But you are just in time to see the unveiling of my newest achievement!”

Barney had a smile on his face while placing his hands on his hips. “Alright, Doctor Kleiner… Let’s see what you got.”

The scientist, now revealed to Adrian to be named Kleiner, turned around and held up something for Barney -and by extension, Adrien- to see. What the scientist held up stole Adrian’s breath away. The very thing he had been trained to use when he first entered the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. A PCV, Powered Combat Vest, was held in Kleiner’s hands like a present and presented it out towards Barney.

“I found this among my things and thought it best to modify it just as I did Gordon’s suit. This old PC vest can now be charged on Combine energy outlets.” Kleiner explained and prodded at a port near the shoulder.

Adrian wanted to grab it and put it on. He wanted to wear it again. To feel the comforting embrace of the vest once again. The needles pierced into his spine be damned. He would rather have it on than to be out in the open air with nothing but a thick coat. And some belts like the rebels he had seen so far. He needed the vest again.

The scientist finally turned to look at Adrian and perked up as if just noticing him. “Hello. I don’t believe we’ve had the honor to meet.”

Adrian started to open his mouth to respond, but Barney cut him off. “New guy. Just showed up a couple days ago. I’m showing him around since I still can’t go out on patrols.”

Adrian nodded to the scientist and had to restrain himself from saluting. He wasn’t an officer despite being in charge. “Corporal Adrian Shepherd, sir.”

“Corporal?” Dr. Kleiner questioned.

Dammit. Out of the corner of his eye, Barney had a look on his face that he wanted to be anywhere else in that moment.

“This is the Shepherd! He who watches the flocks and keeps all safe from harm!”

Adrian spun on his feet to see that the alien had spoken up from the other side of the room. Had it been listening to them the entire time?

“Uriah? Do you know this man?” came another voice.

In the corner stood a man with square shoulders, gray hair that may have been black at one point, and a sneer on his face that looked to be permanent. He reminded Adrian of some of the officers back at the base in Arizona. Sergeant stick-up-his-ass.

The new guy was wearing a lab coat as well, so Adrian assumed he was a scientist as well. Since the bald one was Kleiner, Adrian knew this man to be Magnusson.

Turning back to Uriah, Adrian saw it nod. “Indeed. We see him in Black Mesa.”

A silence so tense that it could snap with the smallest of pressure took hold of the room. It lasted for only a moment, but it felt like an hour.

Barney let out a curse and Adrian went rigid with the fury that twisted Magnusson’s face.

“It’s bad enough we had to deal with those brutes twenty years ago, but now we are inviting them into our home?” He yelled to everyone yet no one in particular.

Kleiner looked nervous, but he still approached Magnusson, “Now, now see here. Look at him. I’m sure there is a reason for his being here.”

“He’s here because he’s like the rest of us yet he can’t hide from the things he has done!”

“We don’t know for sure…”

“I didn’t kill anyone!” Adrian found himself shouting at the older men. “I never harmed any civilians while at Black Mesa!”

Magnusson looked ready to rip Adrian’s head off but stopped once a wrinkled hand reached out and grabbed his sleeve. “It is true what the Shepherd says. We still see him within the halls of Black Mesa. He guides soldier and scientist alike to safety all while slaying those that seek to do harm. We could not ask for a finer ally in these troubled times.”

Magnusson still looked angry, but he slowly backed away from Adrian. He suddenly felt a lot happier that the alien was on his side in this conversation.

“Adrian, was it?” Kleiner spoke back up, his voice sounding a little meeker than before.

Adrian turned to the man and nodded.

“Right. What do you plan to do now?”

Adrian shrugged his shoulders. “I plan on doing what needs to be done.”

Kleiner looked to Barney and Barney looked back. Adrian watched as they exchanged a look and a nod before the scientist grabbed the PCV from the desk and approached Adrian.

“You should be the one to wear this then. I was going to give it to Barney and let him get acquainted with it for the field, but seeing as you have the knowledge for it, you would find better use of it,”Kleiner said while holding the vest out to Adrian.

Adrian humbly took it and looked the vest over. Seeing it in good condition, he took off the jacket he had been wearing and slipped the vest over his head. Once it was a comfortable position, he made sure everything was in alignment before activating it.

There came the sharp bite of needles as they found their way into his skin, but they would surely save his life if the time came. No mask meant there was no heads-up display so he’d have to rely on the attached meter across the chest, but it would work. It fit him, and he had his lifeline.

A smile came to his face as he ran his hand down the chest but froze as he felt something cold and metallic that was strangely foreign. Looking down, Adrian saw the silver metallic Y on his vest. To anyone else, it would be λ. A Lambda. It was prominent and right over the center of his chest. A crest of the rebellion.

Adrian gave a look to Barney and Kleiner before nodding. Time to get to work.

Chapter Text

Chell shifted uneasily in the cabin of the APC, but Mel looked out the window with excitement.

“Alright! Come out with your hands up!” One of the rebels shouted to them, although it was barely legible through the thick glass of the windows.

Mel looked a little worried by their attitude but knew there was nothing to truly be scared about. This was a real rebel camp compared to the false rebel in the past.

Chell and Mel exchanged a look before the latter opened the door. The metal screeched with a hiss and sunlight flooded the cabin. Both girls slowly clambered out with their arms above their heads while the vortigaunts followed.

Upon seeing the vortigaunts, several of the rebels lowered their weapons, but others took that as an opportunity to get closer.

“Get the Vorts clear!” The same rebel shouted.

Chell saw two rebels move close. They had red crosses on their armbands along with the yellow lambdas mirroring the other arm. They ushered the vortigaunts away from the girls. Chell wanted to go after them, but the weapons aimed in her direction kept her standing in place.

“State your business! Why are you dressed like a CP and in a Combine vehicle?” The rebel spoke once more.

The rebel was a man in his late forties with graying blonde hair and hazel eyes. His cheeks were sunken, but he didn’t look to be starving. None of the other rebels seemed that way, so that made Chell believe he was just like that.

“We were heading East. The bridge was out, so we tried to find an alternate route.” Mel explained while lowering her hands.

“Hands back up!” the rebel yelled.

Mel complied.

“Damn, Jackson! It’s just a couple of girls!” Another rebel with rounded cheeks and curly black hair called out to the one called Jackson.

“Yeah. Two girls wearing Metrocop jackets and driving in a Combine APC,” Jackson snapped back. He then followed it up by spitting on the ground.

“But there are vortigaunts with them!” The same rebel responded. While they had been talking, the vortigaunts had been ushered away by two medics.

Chell wished she had her portal gun in her hands. She had left it inside the APC, but her fingers twitched as if pressing the triggers. It wouldn’t do any good out in the forest, but it would provide a comfort, no matter how small.

“They were probably prisoner transports, Davis,” Jackson snapped back.

“Then where are their shackles, genius?” The one called Davis responded. He looked younger than Jackson but by only a few years. He had thin brown hair and tanned skin. He had a long scar along his cheek and was missing half of one ear.

Jackson gave Davis a sour look before rounding on the girls. “Are you going to tell us why you are here or not?”

“We would if you’d give us a chance to!” Mel shouted back. From her location, Chell could see Mel’s hands balling into fists and clutching tight to her hair.

Jackson looked ready to start shouting again, but before he could, someone reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. It was a woman. She had dark skin and had hair tied back into a tight bun at the base of her skull. She didn’t say anything but only fixed Jackson with a look. That was all it took for the tenseness in his shoulders to lessen and his head to nod. “Yeah, you’re right…”

The next moment, Jackson raised a hand in the air with his index finger extended and made a large circular motion. “Alright. Let’s move. Get that vehicle off the road and have the women escorted back to base!”

Like a well-oiled machine, the rebels all moved as one. Some parting into pairs and moving out, others fanning out to the edges of the group, and then three approached the girls and helped them to their feet. Mel stumbled a little, but Chell was there to catch her. The gave each other a reassuring smile before allowing themselves to be led away from their vehicle.

All the while they walked, Chell didn’t speak. Instead, she listened and watched. She noticed how the three that had helped her and Mel to their feet didn’t take their eyes off of them. She also made note that the way the group was positioned was in a wedge shape as they moved through the forest. Mel and Chell were near located near the back of the wedge with the leader, Jackson, only a few feet in front of them. The woman that had touched his shoulder walked by his side. She cast a glance at the girls and smiled. Mel returned it, but Chell only kept her eyes peeled to her surroundings.

If it weren’t for the group of people milling around a fallen tree trunk, Chell would never have known they had arrived at the base. Calling it a base would be stretching the truth, but it wasn’t a campsite either. At one point there were trees, but they had been chopped down and cleared away to make space for the people. In the clearing they arrived to, there wasn’t much except a few groups of people walking around and strange raised mounds of greenery and sticks.

Chell watched as one couple went to the group near the tree trunk. They were pointing at something beyond the log that Chell couldn't quite see. The girls passed by, and Chell noticed there were a couple more tree trunks down and made a small square patch with plants spaced every couple feet from each other. A garden? They had planted a garden?

That was the moment when everything else started to funnel into Chell’s mind. She hadn’t seen any tents or buildings because they were hidden. A closer inspection revealed that the mounds of greenery and sticks were the tops to underground homes. Passing by one of the mounts, Chell managed to see a set of hard-packed dirt steps lined with rocks for grip disappearing into the depths.

On the opposite end of the base, Chell could see two men with large plastic water containers walking towards one of the more massive mounds. If she listened hard enough, she could swear she heard the sound of running water over the sound of marching boots. Was there another stream or even a river nearby?

Even as she took everything in, Chell only had one thought on her mind. It was a community! An actual hidden community in the middle of a forest.

One of the other things that surprised Chell was how casually everyone moved and spoke to Jackson.

“Hey, Jackson? We got some kind of grub problem in the gardens.”

“Do what you can to get rid of them. If we have to till a new area, we will.”

“Hey, Jackson! Patrols claimed they saw a Gargantua today. About ten clicks.”

“Alright. We’ll bring the patrol nearer to base for tomorrow, but if the big ugly gets closer, we’ll hunker down until it passes through.”

“Jackson? You seen Mary anywhere?”

“She’s got the afternoon patrol, Colt!”

Jackson seemed to not just be the leader but was also the go-to guy for anything. Any food questions? They checked in with Jackson. Looking for someone? Check with Jackson. Two strange women arrive in a Combine vehicle? Better call Jackson.

The group finally stopped in a cleared-out, dirt trodden, area in what Chell assumed to be the center of the camp. Chell kept her arms cross over her chest while Mel stood with her arms at her sides. While they had been walking, other rebels had taken notice, and soon at least fifty people were surrounding them. Along with the people, Chell saw the two vortigaunts. Seeing them brought a small smile of relief to her.

She then turned her face to look once more at Jackson who had approached them in the time it took Chell to see the vortigaunts. His face was still stern, but he didn’t look as angry.

“Alright,” he started, his hands gripping his MP7 in a ready position but not having it up to aim, “why exactly are you here and how did you find us?”

Chell and Mel shared a look before the latter spoke. “Would you believe us if we said it was an accident?”

Jackson and several other rebels looked skeptical.

“Like I said before… the bridge was out on the road, and we had to find an alternate route. I was actually rescued from a Combine compound by her,” Mel pointed to Chell.

Chell just looked around and nodded at Jackson.

“What about you,” Jackson said, motioning to Chell with his left hand, right never leaving his weapon.

Chell wondered if she could get away with not speaking. She had already broken her silence on several occasions, what was one more time? Just because she would talk, didn’t mean she would be courteous.

“I was tricked. The vortigaunts helped me subdue the would-be attacker. I impersonated him and went undercover into the compound,” Chell said flatly. There was nothing but business and to the point in her explanation. The less talking, the better.

Turning to the vortigaunts, Jackson cocked his head to the side and asked, “Can you confirm her story?”

“Yes. We have traveled for many days with the Traveler and have seen the path that is before her. It is only recently with the Mel,” Wrinkles said with a nod.

“Traveler? Does she not have a name?”

Orange eye was the one to speak up next. “She has not given it up to us.”

Chell's face screwed up at their words. A tightness formed in her gut and it was all because of her damn stubbornness. She had been with them for nearly a week, and she had yet to tell them her name. Come to think of it, she hadn’t even asked for their names either. She mentally kicked herself for being too stubborn to even give her name to the two beings she saw as friends.

The revelation broke through, and her eyes widened a fraction. They were her friends...

You're not a good person, you know that, right?

She had given her name up to Mel within hours of meeting her, but she had never even said it to the vortigaunts. They never asked for her name though, Chell thought. They had just resorted to calling her ‘Traveler.’

“It’s Chell.”

The words left her mouth before she processed them, but she had made a point to look right at the Vortigaunts. Her eyes attempting to give some sort of apology to them. They looked back, but she was unable to read their expression.

Jackson gives each of the girls another look before turning to look at the woman from before. They share a look and Jackson sighs. “Alright. You two are clear, but I’m going to have you watched for the time being. Don’t be messing into things you don’t anything about.”

Mel let out a relieved sigh while Chell showed no change. She didn’t like the situation, but she would just have to adapt and overcome.

The next few minutes were just the two of them being led down into one of the half-buried buildings. Inside is dimly lit with oil lamps, but the walls are covered in tarps, metal signs, and some black material. Chell assumed it was all for waterproofing the insides. They were each given a small bundle containing a mat and a blanket. They would be sharing the sleeping area with several other people, but the two women went ahead and set up their mats in a corner furthest from the door.

While they got ready, the woman that made Jackson calm down slowly made her way to the corner where they were and gave a warm smile. “Hey… My name’s Sylvia. I wish to apologize for Jackson’s behavior. I don’t want you to feel unwelcome.”

She paused as if to let Chell and Mel speak, but when they didn’t, she continued. “He’s just paranoid. We’ve been betrayed in the past by new people and he wants to prevent that from happening again. And honestly… with how you showed up, it does raise red flags.”

Mel shrugged while sitting cross-legged on her mat. “He’s a real wolf, but from what I’ve seen… It seems warranted.”

The woman smiled despite the slightly confused expression on her face at Mel’s terminology. “I’m glad you understand. But this group? It used to be larger. Almost twice the size it is now. We lost a lot of good people.”

“I’m sorry,” Mel said.

“Why are you apologizing? There’s nothing you could have done. You weren’t even here,” Sylvia said. A sad smile was displayed on her face.

Mel pursed her lips and visibly sagged. “It’s just the thing that is supposed to be said, right? Offer up some sympathy?”

Sylvia smiled but shook her head at Mel. “There’s no need for sympathy right now. Sorry doesn’t do anything for the dead, because sorry can’t change anything. Apologies should be reserved for the living. Only they can receive them.”

Chell listened intently to the conversation but quickly realized she wasn’t much for philosophy. She had been dealing with facts since she woke up in Aperture and only focused on what was in front of her. She didn’t see the point in debating on apologies when there were more important matters at hand.

“You’ve been quiet. Is something wrong?” Sylvia asked, directing her attention towards Chell.

Chell shrugged and then shook her head.

“…Alright. If you say so,” Sylvia replied while keeping her eyes on Chell. She gave a final smile to them both. “I wish to welcome you both to camp.”

With that, Sylvia left the same way she came.

Once she was gone and the girls realized they were alone, Chell instantly looked to Mel and with a low voice said, “We can’t tell them about Aperture.”

Mel seemed to have the same thought as she nodded. “I know. We could put them in danger if anyone finds us.”

“They are already in danger. With us being here,” Chell added.

They both went silent after that.

They spent nearly an hour in that corner just trying to get their story straight for how to avoid Aperture. Mel did most of the talking while Chell only provided a sentence here or there.

Chell may not have been wholly silent, but Mel could tell something was different about her. Her voice was quieter, had more bite to it. It was as if she was trying to not be heard yet wanted to make a point at the same time.

“Okay. What’s the matter with you?” Mel finally asked. “Why are you acting like you don’t want to talk to me?”

Chell thought of snapping back at her, but it was Mel. Although they barely knew each other, they had the shared experience of escaping Aperture, so maybe she would understand.

“Habit.”

“Can you explain?”

“Silence… It was one of the few things I could control back… there. I guess now… whenever I’m in a situation where I don’t have control, I feel like I should be quiet.”

Mel doesn’t do anything at first. She just sits on the ground across from Chell for several moments. She then slowly reaches out and grabs onto Chell’s right hand and nods. “I get it. Do what you feel needs to be done.”

“Thanks,” Chell whispers before standing to her feet.

Mel followed her and as they walked into the afternoon sunlight, there were two rebels outside waiting for them.

“Hi. My name is Warren and this is Ross. We’ve been selected to be your escorts,” the taller of the two said.

Ross was a woman of average height. She had black hair cut short, almost down to the scalp but the defined shape of her brow and jaw would not hide the fact that she was a lady. Her eyes were a rich hazel color and she had a mole above her right eyebrow.

Warren was a man only slightly taller than Ross but only by an inch or two. His head was cut similar to Ross,’ but it looked patchier.

“Hey,” Mel returned to the two.

Mel looked to Chell before nodding and walking in the direction of a garden patch. Warren and Ross shared a look before the former followed after Mel. That left Ross and Chell to stare at each other for several seconds.

“I’m going to the APC. There are things I need from it, and I need you to carry one of the bags,” Chell announced before walking in the direction from which she came just over an hour ago.

Ross nodded and fell in step next to Chell. “Fine, but don’t try anything.”

“Whatever,” Chell grumbled back to Ross.

They both remained silent all the way to the vehicle. Apparently, a few of the rebels had hooked it up to some robes and chains and dragged it off the road and had proceeded to gut it. Her bags had been already removed from the vehicle and a couple of the backseats.

Anger flared through Chell as she stalked forward and searched through the bags laid out on the ground next to the APC. She found her portal gun and felt instant relief to see it was in one piece. Before she could even close the bag, Ross had snatched it away to look inside.

Chell snatched it back, coupled with a noise that was practically feral. Ross answered in turn, one of her hands not leaving the pack. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s not a weapon, but it is mine,” Chell answered, eyes full of steel and voice of poison.

Ross looked Chell over before releasing the pack. She looked in the second pack on the ground, the one full of weapons and ration packs. “This one will need to be checked with Jackson.”

“Whatever,” Chell replied, holding her pack close.

That made Ross meet Chell’s eyes once more. Both women kept eye contact, neither wanting to be the first to break. Then it happened. Twin smirks crossing their faces at nearly the same time.

Ross brought her free hand up to hover in the air between the two and Chell met her. Their hands clasped together as one and they each gave a tight squeeze. They stayed like that, eyes locked, before finally nodding to each other.

“So what’s the deal with that pack?” Ross said, voice more casual than before.

“Sentimental value,” Chell answered, holding the bag a little closer.

Getting the second pack checked with Jackson turned out to be a hassle. He had taken most of the ration packs and guns, but he left Chell with the MP7, a pistol, some boxes of ammo, a single grenade, and five ration packs.

The only reason he had left her with anything is the fact that she admitted she didn’t plan on staying for long. She planned to keep moving and never stay in one place for long. Staying still made people complacent and easy to prey on.

Chell felt cheated out of her supplies, but it was better than having everything taken from her.

As she went for a walk around the base, Chell couldn’t help but notice how Mel had a group of rebels around her. It looked like she was instructing them and it seemed that she was educating them to do something. She was crouched down into one of the garden plots and holding up some white worm thing. She tossed it far away before going on with her talk.

Chell went back to her assigned bunk and sat down on the mat she had been given. It wasn’t long before others started filing in and laying down as well. Mel came in with the same group she had been talking to earlier. Seeing Chell, she made her way over and sat down near her.

Mel motioned to Chell’s pack and nodded, “Is that it?”

Chell nodded in turn. “Yeah.”

“Good to see it,” Mel smiled and then laid back on her mat.

It wasn’t long before even more people came in and laid down on their perspective mats. It got to the point of being crowded in Chell’s opinion. Being underground didn’t help matters either. After spending so long underground in small boxes and narrow halls, sleeping in an underground shelter wasn’t appealing to her.

 About an hour after the sound of snoring filled the air, Chell carefully rolled up her mat and tiptoed her way out of the shelter.

Coming into the small clearing, Chell saw the vortigaunts and rolled her mat out near them.

“Evening, Traveler. Shouldn’t you be resting like the others?” Orange eye asked.

“Too crowded. I’d rather be out here,” Chell answered.

She rolled out her mat and laid back, eyes fixed on the sky. A thousand stars dotted the sky.

“Pray tell… Has the Traveler found the key to their untapped memories?” Orange continued.

Chell looked at them out of the corner of her eyes, but shrugged her shoulders despite the awkward angle of laying down. “Maybe? There have been glimpses. Numbers and codes. Mostly numbers. Machinery. Bits and pieces of conversations.”

They seemed happy with that. “You have seen a glimpse? So you must figure out how to fully open that door, yes? All that is needed is to find the key.”

She didn’t respond. Instead, she let out a sigh and rolled over onto her side to look at the vortigaunts. “I’m sorry for not giving my name before.”

Both vortigaunts shook their heads in sync. “There is no need for apologies. What you wish to do with your name is not of our concern, but knowing it now makes the bonds between us stronger,” Wrinkles said.

Chell tried to smile but it looked forced. “Do you have names?”

Once again, they shook their heads. Wrinkles let orange eye take over. “For was are all in one within the vortessence, names are inconsequential to the grand scheme of life.”

He paused as if to take stock of Chell’s expression. He must have found something as he continued to speak.

“However, many a vortigaunt has taken a name to help humans differentiate us between each other. Any name given to us is most treasured when it comes from a trusted friend,” Orange concluded.

Chell bit the inside of her cheek to keep from making any sign of what she was thinking. Were they saying they trusted her and considered her as a friend?

She looked at them both then turned back onto her back to gaze at the sky.  It was the same sky, yet it felt so different. It felt like she had never honestly looked at the sky before and she was transfixed by the beauty of the stars and moon. It was the same sky, but it was different every night. The moon was high in the air and only half full. It had been full the night she had sent Wheatley into the black abyss and into the moon’s rotation. Had it only been a couple weeks since that night? With everything that had happened since she stepped foot on the surface, it felt like a lifetime ago.

That night had been full of adrenaline and Chell could almost remember every aspect of it. The mocking tones of Wheatley, the burning pain from the explosions, the pressure of being pulled into the vacuum of space, and how clearly she could see the light bouncing off the lunar landing zone.

She blinked at that. It was such a minor thing in the long run but the fact that she remembered seeing it felt strange to remember.

Somewhere a bird called in the night and Chell smiled to herself. She’d give them their names in the morning.

“Goodnight, guys,” Chell mumbled to them before rolling once more on her side.

“Goodnight, Chell,” both of them said. She smiled once more before succumbing to sleep.

Chapter Text

Alyx and Gordon stayed perfectly still on top of the ice shelf. They needed to assess the situation first before charging in blindly like they usually did. It was the Borealis, and there was no way there’d only be a few guards patrolling the outside like an outpost. It would require stealth and trying to get in without being seen or heard.

That could prove to be a problem and Gordon already felt exposed in the bright light. He had lost track of when he last saw the sun disappeared beyond the horizon if it ever did. He had been told what it was years ago but only knew that if you went far enough north, you’d reach a part of the Arctic that would experience weeks of straight daylight during the summer. It was disconcerting and made Gordon steadily lose track of time.

Getting down from the shelf to the ship was another matter. The desk Borealis was fifty feet. From that height, Gordon knew survival was only a fifty-fifty shot. Even if they did survive, they would have numerous broken bones and be unable to run. Even with the hazard suit, he would be in horrible shape.

Then the next problem was the dark gray building below the ship. It was made entirely of the same dark metal segments that made up the walls and barriers dotted through City 17 and Nova Prospekt. Although it wasn’t very tall, it was wide, and there was no telling how deep it went or how many soldiers could be inside.

Gordon scanned the surroundings and noted a metal staircase leading up to the deck of the ship. That would be their way on board, but they just had to find a way to get down first. He scanned the surroundings once more just as the patrol made their way around the building once more.

“Gordon,” Alyx whispered to him while pointing to the far side of the building.

The man brought his eyes to where she was pointing and thought nothing of it at first. That is until he saw a snow drift going all the way from the top of the ice shelf to the ground. A smile pulled at his lips at the site of a soft ramp of snow allowing them to climb down without risk of breaking any bones.

The duo exchanged a look before they slowly began to crawl all the way over to the far side of the ship and to the drift. As they neared, Gordon could see that it was still a bit of a drop, but by dropping into the powder instead of something substantial, there wouldn't be a risk of serious injury. It was only a fifteen-foot drop at most.

Once situated, Gordon and Alyx fell into a routine. Alyx had an old watch that had to be wound to work, and she held it up for Gordon to see. They had no idea if the time was correct but it The two then kept their eyes on the watch and the building down below where the patrol would circle the building.

The two stayed up on the shelf for thirty-seven minutes exact, and like clockwork, the patrol would circle the building every six minutes. In that time, the two of them would have to slide to the bottom of the shelf on the drift, climb the stairs, and get inside the Borealis. All without triggering any alarms or being seen. We’ve accomplished harder things, Gordon thought.

He looked over to Alyx. She was slumped deep in the snow, her eyes looking drowsy. Gordon nudged her, and she jolted awake. “Sorry…”

He frowned at her.

She needed to get indoors and warm up quick. They’d been outside too long, and they needed to rest. It was dangerous to fall asleep in the snow, even Gordon knew that.

Another five minutes passed and the patrol appeared. They slowly circled past the large snowdrift and out of sight around the corner of the building. Gordon and Alyx shared a look before joining hands and fell over the edge.

There was the feeling of weightlessness and the feeling that his stomach was in his chest but then came the crunch of snow and sinking feeling of his body. Gordon’s free hand came up to his face to prevent his glasses from falling off as he started rolling his body down the hill.

He lost hold of Alyx’s hand as they continued to tumble down the slope and his speed was increasing. He needed to slow down or risk hitting the ground harder than needed. Taking the risk of going blind, Gordon let go of his glasses and threw his hands out, dragging against the snow. His hands glided right through, but he could feel his momentum slowing. The flakes of snow were flying into his face that forced him to close his eyes. He just waited till he could no longer feel himself moving before finding the courage to open his eyes once more.

He was relieved to find he was near the bottom and pushed his way to through the snow until he could stand on his own two feet again. It was awkward, and he came away with snow caked into a thin sheet of ice on his protective layer. No matter how he brushed his hand against it, the snow refused to leave.

Going to his face, he made to brush the snow away from his glasses but realized he’d been wearing his goggles the entire time over them. He felt silly for even trying to hold them in place to begin with. Force of habit, he thought.

Turning around, he caught sight of Alyx pushing her way out. As usual, she moved with the grace of a cat. She still had the bag he saved from the snow-cat attached to her back. It had food and some weapons. Gordon made sure his was still firmly attached to his shoulder before nodding at her.

She nodded back, and they took off in a mad sprint for the stairwell at the far end of the base. They ran in step with each other, eyes fixed on their prize, without any other thought than to reach the stairs and get inside the Borealis. Gordon reached the stairs first and had been too focused on the goal at hand that he failed to notice the steps were covered in ice. That’s why the next moment, Gordon found himself falling forward and knocking his chin on the stairs.

Gordon scrambled to his feet while Alyx looked on with amusement and concern. “You alright?”

Gordon spat to the side, red mixed into his spit. Must have bit his tongue when he fell. He threw a thumbs up at her before looking at the stairs.

“Good. We’ll just have to go slow up the stairs carefully,” she said before taking the lead.

He was thankful that she took point because he didn’t fully trust himself to be in front after his slip. Between his metal boots with smooth rubber soles and previous encounter with hanging into a blue abyss of the Arctic, he didn’t want to risk slipping and pulling Alyx down with him.

With one foot in front of the other, Gordon watched every spot he placed his foot. One step at a time, he told himself.

About a quarter of the way up, he stopped to look back over his shoulder to check his pack. Still okay. Just as he was about to keep going, Gordon froze. Coming around the compound was the patrol.

Gordon clicked his mouth to get Alyx’s attention. She looked back with confusion as Gordon made a motion to his wrist as if asking the time. Alyx looked at the watch and looked back at the ground to see the patrol.

“Dammit,” she hissed, her body pressing flat against the stairs. Gordon crawled up to her and huddled over her body, hoping the gray of his hoodie would conceal them both.

She watched the guards from beneath Gordon and Gordon watched her. He saw how her eyes flickered to the guards, to the stairs, then to the snowdrift where they had come from.

He followed her gaze and tightened his jaw at the remnants of what they had done. There was a clear sign of something having jumped and tumbled down the slope. At least their footprints couldn’t be seen by all the other prints from the Combine troops.

There was no saving grace as the patrol noticed the disturbed snow. From their hiding place, Gordon could hear one of the troops speak into their radio. “Possible sign of biotics or malcontents. Be on the lookout. Requesting higher security protocols.”

Gordon dared not move, his shoulders tense with nervous energy. The patrol had yet to walk away from the corner they had rounded. The rebel duo could try and crawl the rest of the way up the stairs, but it would be slow going.

As he was hunched over Alyx, Gordon got a cramp in his shoulder from his bag and tried to transfer it to his other shoulder. He wanted to move it between his body and hers, but it got snagged on a chunk of frozen ice. He gave it a small tug, but that proved to be disastrous. He ended up tugging too hard, and the bag slipped from his grip altogether and began to tumble down the stairs, ice and metal ringing out with every bounce the bag took.

There was a single moment where the world was quiet. No wind, no Combine radio chatter, no suit voice. All that happened was the patrol turning on their heels to see the bag and trail up the stairs to see Gordon and Alyx. That moment passed as Gordon’s goggles met the unfeeling blue eyes of the soldier.

“Anti-citizens confirmed! Move in!”

Gordon growled as he launched himself from Alyx and down the stairs. He nearly slipped, but he had had enough speed to stay on his feet. The last few feet, he jumped and crouched over the bag like some kind of feral animal protecting its young. With both hands clutching the bag, he started running up the stairs.

There was the telltale sound of gunfire from three different sources. Two being the soldiers, then Alyx providing cover fire from above. He would have smiled if he wasn’t so preoccupied with not slipping on the icy stairs. He was just reaching Alyx when he heard one high pitched whine fill the air and followed by the sound of the Overwatch voice issuing backup orders.

That made him move all the faster. They were in not the best position to enter a firefight with an entire base. Being in a high priority area, there was sure to be a lot more backup on the way and only two of them with limited amounts of ammo.

He nearly slipped several times, but with Alyx providing covering fire, it spurred him further until he was to her once more and they were both heading up the stairs. About halfway up, the ice became less pronounced, but it was still hard for Gordon to get his footing. In the end, he kept his crowbar ready to latch onto the stairs if he started sliding back down again.

More gunfire filled the air just as they reached the top deck of the Borealis. The entire area is covered in a sheet of ice and Gordon was having a hard time moving once there. The gunfire was getting closer, and as he looked back to the stairs, he noticed that they were clamped to the deck instead of bolted adequately.

It was a rushed job it seemed, but it gave Gordon an idea. Ripping open the bag he had risked his life to save, he pulled out the bulky plastic case and flipped the latches open.

“Hurry, Gordon!” Alyx yelled as she ducked behind the railing of the ship.

Gordon ignored her, focusing on his prize. The Gravity Gun. It had been packed away for safe keeping in the plastic carrier while on the flight to the Arctic, and it had been easier to leave it in the case than to always have it attached to his hip with a leather strap.

The Gravity Gun had a handle that worked much like the twist clutch on a motorcycle. By twisting it one way, the gun would pull things closer just as a bike would slow down and turning the handle another way would send an object flying just as a cycle would speed up. With that in mind, Gordon took the device up and bared it, he took aim at the thick clamps holding the metal stairs the ship and twisted the handle back and gave the secondary fire to send a gravitational force of energy. There was the sound of groaning metal, but the stairs didn’t budge.

He can hear Alyx shouting for him to join her, but he had to try. He had to slow them down, even if it's just a few minutes. Once again, he twisted the handle forward once more. The stair clamps groaned again and moved an inch.

Seeing the movement spurred Gordon on. He continued to activate the secondary fire on the Gravity Gun continuously, even as the pounding of boots on the stairs neared. He couldn’t give up yet... Even as he heard a bone-chilling trill fill the air.

He spared a glance at Alyx who went white at the noise but continued to struggle with opening an iced over door. She was using the butt of a rifle to chip away at the ice, but that familiar sound filled the air made her look to Gordon.

Hunters.

He had to get the stairs away from the ship.

With speed unlike him, he pulled his crowbar out and threw it across the deck of the ship. It clattered against the ground before sliding to a stop at Alyx’s feet.

“I got your back,” Gordon managed to call out before once again turning his attention back on the stairs.

Alyx made a mad grab for the metal rod and began to chip mercilessly at the ice. The sharp, clawed end of the crowbar made her work go faster, and with each glance at Gordon, she saw that the steps were making small inches away from the deck. The bad news was that the soldiers were almost to the top and a lone hunter was circling the bottom of the stairs.

The hunter must have seen Gordon because it made a loud trilling sound before releasing a volley of the blue planchets at him. He barely ducked in time as they sailed over his head. He dropped to the deck of the ship, one hand going to rest on the plastic case that housed the Gravity Gun. Looking at it gave Gordon an idea.

Picking it up the carrier case with the primary function of the Gravity Gun, Gordon got near the railing of the ship, in view of the hunter. It let out several loud chirps in anger before firing another half dozen rounds at Gordon. He ducked again but kept the case up in view of the hunter’s attack.

With luck, three of the planchets struck home and Gordon waited for the telltale high pitched noise coming from them. When it seemed to come to a crescendo, Gordon triggered the secondary function of the gun and sent the planchets and case into the heavy metal clamps.

There was a flash of white that accompanied the small yet powerful explosive bursts, but it was enough. The clamps were destroyed.

Gordon moved to stand in front of the stairs again. As he readied his second favorite toy, the first soldier appeared in front of Gordon. It paused as it took in the damaged clamps and how loose the entire staircase suddenly felt without an anchor point.

“Shit,” said the soldier.

Gordon smiled and fired.

There was the groaning of metal followed by the sound of ice breaking apart. Several more soldiers cried out in surprise and Gordon watched as the stairs buckled and broke apart. It crashed into a satisfying heap of metal and high pitched whines as several of the soldiers died in the crash. Some stumbled out and looked up at Gordon. He still had a smile on his face and as an added touch, have the remaining soldiers a wave of his hand.

His victory was cut short as the hunter was able to evade the crashing staircase. He launched a few more planchets at him as more soldiers than before started pouring out of the base.

With his mood instantly soured, he took off to join Alyx. She had most of the ice chipped away and was using the crowbar to try and twist the sizeable circular knob in the center open.

Gravity Gun in hand, Gordon blasted it a few times to loosen the ice some more, and the lock began to turn little by little.

Down below, Gordon could hear the units mobilizing and more hunters joined the first.

With a mighty screech, the two managed to open the door and clambered into the narrow metal corridor. Shutting the door behind them, they turned a similar large knob back to lock the door and watched as metal rods slid into place in each corner of the door. Alyx looked around the edges of the door and smiled when she found her prize. A thick metal rod that she shifted and effectively locked the door in place. The simple fact of knowing that the door was locked brought some sort of security to Gordon even if they could blow it open.

“Won’t hold them for long, but at least we made it,” she said.

Gordon nodded in turn and accepted his crowbar back when she offered it.

They both turned, backs to the door, to look down the dark corridor. They started walking, together, into the unknown.

Chapter Text

“Three… Two… One… Contact!”

There was a small explosion and a shower of dust, but the steel door no longer remained. The troops filed inside, two abreast until all six were inside the tight dark area of the shed.

They had been deployed to the area after Aperture 1 had escaped and Aperture 2 had eluded CP-1295. They were tasked to scout and verify if everything CP-1295 claimed was correct. So far his claims of a metal shed in the middle of a wheat field were accurate. The two subjects were still at large but being tracked as they had taken one of the APCs. It would only be a matter of time until they were found. In the meantime, a band of six soldiers had been deployed from the survivors of the base to see what could be found.

The lead approached the other side of the shed and saw the large hole in the middle of the floor. A type shaft with clear glass sides all around. It was large enough to fit three people side by side with ease. The elevator tubes... Another point to the CP.

As one, three lines of cable were attached to the top, and all six started their descent. Two soldiers to each wire. Their cables ended at a solid white floor. Although dark, the squad could see everything as if in solid daylight in thanks to their augmented eyes and their helmets.

Their surroundings were panels of solid white, and a quick scan of the area showed a hallway made of similar white panels. The squad brought their weapons to bare and moved as one unit down the hall.

The hallway eventually turned a corner, and the squad continued to move, but they were startled by a bright light flashing into existence.

They turned their weapons on the source but no one fired. It was only a sign. A large sign that stretched from floor to ceiling and glowed a vibrant white. The illuminated sign displayed a large number 1 and several small boxes containing pictures beneath the number. The Aperture logo adorned the bottom left corner.

“Move out,” the squad leader said,

They moved beyond the sign and through a half-opened foot thick steel door. The moment the last squad member made it through, the door closed tight, and a circle in the two joined halves spun and locked in place.

The squad was on guard at once, joining with their backs joined in a circle, ready for anything to appear. They stayed that way for several seconds before all the lights kicked on, surprising them all. Then came the voice.

“Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center,” it started. The voice was flat and mechanical in nature, but familiar. The soldier recognized the sound of their Overwatch Dispatch, but it lacked the smoothness of it.

The data poured into his helmet of how they acquired the voice from samples of technology found at the Aperture Science facility located in what used to be Columbus, Ohio. Along with the voice samples that were part of a separate project at their central facility (they had not been able to get inside until this moment. All the entrances strangely disappeared before they could arrive somehow), they had found several other forms of technology that helped shape their dominion on earth.

“Although fun and learning are the primary goals of the enrichment center activities, serious injury may occur. Please refrain from- ftzzzzzz-“

The voice cut off in a cacophony of static. It was enough for the squad to lower its weapons. They were relieved to find it was only an automated system, but the locked door still proved to be a problem.

“Have a nice day,” the voice finally concluded.

“Spread out. Look for alternate ways out. Eight-five-three, make contact with the outside,” the leader said.

OS-853 flicked their radio on to receive orders and to transmit as well. It was strangely quiet. “Scouting party Scalpel checking in…”

No answer.

“OS-853, Scouting party Scalpel checking in. Comply…”

No answer. Only a vague static sound.

There was the sound of static coming from unseen speakers again, and the voice spoke once more. “Please note that any attempts to contact anyone outside the testing track is prohibited. For your safety and convenience, the enrichment center has blocked all incoming and outgoing signals from within the testing track.”

The squad looked to each other before slowly gravitating closer to each other. That response seemed too planned. It was too perfect of timing.

The hallways opened up into a larger room with an open door on the other side. It almost looked to be waiting for them.

“Please note the incandescent particle field. It will- ftzzzzzz,” it started but fizzled out before finishing once again.

As the squad moved, they noted a blue particle field running the entire length of the room. It split the room into two perfect halves. OS-853 recognized it as a particle field that they would use to sequester citizens from different parts of the cities, make gates, and to provide fencing and doors in their bases. Although this one looked more fluid. It was like water whereas the ones the Universal Union used in cities was more like static.

Nonetheless, the squad moved forward as one with purpose. The team had been walking with confidence that they would be allowed through the field without any issues in thanks to their built-in override chips in their helmets. They had only been half right.

With three in front and three in the back, they didn’t have any warning before their weapons were ripped from their hands and vaporized before their very eyes. The guns floated away in a blaze of white light and black ash as the soldiers could only look on in confusion. OS-853 cursed as the data he had in his head was scrambled into pieces. Along with their weapons, it had vaporized his data storage within his helmet, and the taste of blood filled his mouth. A prod of his tongue revealed two teeth were missing.

That field wasn’t like their fences at all but acted like their contraband confiscation fields in some of the citadels.

“Please note that smuggling non-test objects into the testing area is prohibited,” the voice cooed.

No. That wasn’t right. It had been so flat and mechanical before, but its tone of voice had suddenly changed? That couldn’t be right.

“Any non-test objects will be emancipated from the perpetrators,” it continued. The voice then followed it up with a laugh. A laugh? A laugh?!

“Move!” the leader commanded before moving. OS-853 noted their commander’s vocoder had a new static sound to it. He blamed it on the emancipation field.

All six soldiers ran for the open door, but it slammed shut in their faces as they neared it. That voice chuckled once more, and a soft mechanical whirring filled the air. OS-853 looked around and noted two white cameras with glowing red lights were fixed on his squad. They had been watched from the beginning.

“The test may be over,” the voice continued, only sounding a cross between amused and bored, “but please note that any attempts to leave the enrichment center will be met with disciplinary action.”

The group, despite not having weapons, grouped up with their backs to each other once more. It wouldn’t do much, but it would prevent anything from sneaking up on them.

“This charade has been fun, but it’s time to get back to business. Goodbye.”

There was a small sound of static and the voice left, the cameras drooped like dead flowers, and the room grew dark. The squad grew less tense as they believed the voice was letting them go.

Sadly, that was not the case.

At least a dozen panels around the room opened up from different points of the place. Despite the darkness, OS-853 could make out spherical objects mounted on three black legs. Red lights slowly came into focus, and a chorus of ‘hellos’ sounded off.

Thin red beams of light appeared and swiveled the room before each little robot had a laser on a squad member.

The last thought that OS-853 had before the sound of gunfire filled the air was, “Oh. They're turrets.”

Back in the main chamber, GlaDOS allowed herself a small giggle. “That was fun, now back to testing… Orange receives five science collaboration points.”

While she continued to observe the bots, a signal was attempting to ping her. It was incessant, foreign but familiar as well. Although annoyed, she tore her attention away from the cooperative robots to tune in to the signal.

There was a beat as she took it in.

“Hmm? Oh! Oh, this is just a turning out to be a wonderful day.”

“Hey Gordon, check it out,” Alyx said while hunched over a sizeable, outdated console.

He scanned the hall once more and checked the door was secure before going to Alyx’s side.

After they had made their way onto the ship, the duo had made a point to find a control center, but not go near the bridge seeing as it most likely had large windows and they could be spotted by the Combine. That would open them up to potshots from the ground or if they managed to get on the deck.

So far they hadn’t heard any explosions or gunfire. Gordon believed they wouldn’t use any largescale explosives for they feared to damage what technology could be on board the ship.

They had eventually found the small room filled with a large console and several monitors. The part that had really drawn their attention was a flashing yellow light on the console itself. That meant the ship still had power! Alyx had pushed the flashing light, and the entire console had lit up like a Christmas tree. The light grew up brighter, and the screens above the console flickered into life to shine in their faces. Each one bore a yellow Aperture logo.

Turning his attention to the screens, Gordon watched with interest as equations and several pictures flashed across the screens. “Apparently this thing had been receiving data from Aperture Science for the last thirty-five years!”

Gordon looked confused for a moment until the time frame dawned on him.

“Dr. Kleiner once told me that Aperture disappeared from the public about twenty-five years, so why would there still be data transmitting from inside?” Alyx continued. She had a smile spread across her face as she continued to type across the console and brought up more data.

Gordon remembered when they went dark. One day they had been bragging how they were nearing a breakthrough just to rile Black Mesa’s feathers, then the next… nothing. It was all quiet. Gordon had thought it strange at the time but had continued with his work in Anomalous Materials like it was any other day.

“Strange thing is-” Alyx paused to pull up a graph with a red line going up and down then bottomed out before picking back up near the end of the chart.

“This graph shows the data over the last thirty-five years. You can see where the data slowly climbed from the moment they went dark then one huge spike, but then nothing until… only two weeks ago?”

Gordon continued to watch the screen but noticed Alyx pull her EMP device from her pocket. “Wonder if I can…” she trailed off while activating the device. A bright arc of electricity lit the room even brighter, then as soon as it appeared, it was gone. “Yes!”

Alyx smiled again as she began typing once more. “I'm pulling up security footage to get some video feed of what should have been causing the data spikes.”

A few seconds passed before grainy videos appeared on a multitude of screens. They slowly cleared up, but they all seemed to show the same thing. A woman in an orange jumpsuit with a strange device in her hands.

In some videos, she has boots and the jumpsuit tied around her waist while in others, she is barefoot with strange braces on her knees and the jumpsuit fully on.

Gordon and Alyx were confused but glued to the screens. They watched as the woman would fly through the air and land unharmed in a seemingly impossible place from where she had been.

While they stood transfixed, a red light slowly came into being on the console, unseen by the two. It would blink in long intervals, fading in and out.

“I don’t understand. What is with these tapes? How can one woman cause so much data?” Alyx mumbled to herself.

“I’ve wondered a very similar thing,” a smooth electronic voice answered.

Both Gordon and Alyx jumped in surprise, one holding a pistol, the other a crowbar. They look around the room, but there was no sign of anyone.

The voice was a familiar one. Both Gordon and Alyx recognized it as the Overwatch Dispatch voice, but they knew something was different about it. It was smoother, less choppy and strung together. It still sounded electronic, but that could be due to it coming through an old speaker system.

“Why are you trespassing on my property?” the voice asked. Clear annoyance laced its tone.

“Who wants to know,” Alyx answered, but Gordon could tell she didn’t mean it as a question in turn.

“Aperture Science wants to know,” the voice answered with a hint of anger.

Gordon and Alyx shared a look, both equal parts surprise and confusion.

The voice made a humming sound as if in thought before speaking again. “Interesting… How did you find this place?”

Gordon shrugged his shoulders while Alyx shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We are here because we need to use it.”

“So you are thieves, then-“

“We are not thieves!”

“Thieves and liars it would seem,” the voice continued as if Alyx had not even spoken. “Now I told you who I am, now why don’t you introduce yourself?”

Alyx was clearly agitated, and Gordon wasn’t doing too much better. He looked around the room, for any sign of a camera. They must have been small or hidden better than he thought because he couldn’t find anything.

“I’m Alyx and this is Gordon-“

“Stop… No need for names because I don't care. I just realized who you are…” The voice interrupted. “There’s no need for the introductions anymore because I know you're with Black Mesa.”

“How do you know that?”

If silence could have a smug expression, then the voice would have it. “Because you just told me," she said with a smoothness that was like silk. When she spoke again, her tone changed to be matter-of-fact rather than the smugness from before. "And I recognize the tacky boots your silent friend is wearing. A Hazardous Environment Suit? Debuted by Black Mesa in the late nineties, although his model seems more advanced than the Mark Two I'm familiar with.”

Alyx grit her teeth in anger at the voice. “So you can see us, but we can’t see you. Just who the hell are you?”

The voice laughed. “Isn’t it obvious?”

One by one, lights in the room turned on and brightened, the door that had been locked before, unlocked then locked itself back. Gordon and Alyx moved to stand back to back, but there was no one else in the room that could be causing the power fluctuations.

“Are you in the bridge?” Alyx asked.

“Yes. I’m also in this room with you. I’m on the deck. I’m in the motors. I’m everywhere and everything,” the voice said, her voice oozing arrogance. "I am Aperture Science."

The realization came slowly to the duo. To Alyx, it was dawning horror while Gordon is amazed at the implications. The voice wasn’t a person at all. It was a machine.

“I really should be thanking you,” she continued. “If it weren’t for you activating the security tapes, I probably never would have found this place.”

There was a slight hum through the entire ship that seemed to grow in volume until there was a shift in the very foundation. Gordon and Alyx grabbed onto each other for support to keep from falling to the ground.

“Thanks to you, I have been able to fully integrate myself into the system. The Borealis is online and fully operational.”

Chapter Text

Chell awoke to someone nudging her with a boot. Her instincts kicked in and she rolled to her stomach, grabbing her bag in the process, ready for a fight. Her eyes became steel as she focused in on her would be attacker. Only instead of an attack, it was a surprised looking Jackson.

“Easy, girl. Just me,” he said, hands up in a placating manner.

Chell’s shoulders eased the tension they held, but she refused to put her bag down. “What?”

“Why are you out here? You should be sleeping inside,” he said.

She responded with a shake of her head. “Too crowded. Hate that. I don’t like being underground either.”

“Tough shit, girly. Can’t help that it's cramped, and the underground keeps us out of sight,” he went on. “Come on. We need to talk.”

Chell slowly followed after him, both curious and unsure of what Jackson wants from her. He led her over to one of the mounds and disappears down inside. She paused for a moment but nonetheless followed him down. The inside was filled with boxes and piles of equipment. She didn’t focus much on her surroundings because she didn’t think it to be necessary.

Chell rolled her eyes as she sat on top of a wooden crate with her pack in her lap. “What do you want?”

Jackson stayed in place as his arms went to cross over his chest. “First off… I apologize for the rough treatment yesterday. Second, I need to know if you plan on staying or not. Didn’t want to have this conversation in the open because I didn’t want Sylvia to find out.”

“You don’t want us here?”

Jackson shook his head. “No. Not like that. I need to know so I can make plans. Syl wouldn’t like me asking this is all.”

Chell frowned but understood his logic. He was in charge and would need to know what to do for the future. She then shook her head and sighed, “No. I don’t plan on staying. I don’t know about Mel, but I can’t stay here.”

“And what if she does want to stay?”

Chell went quiet as she thought it over. She barely knew Mel, but they had the shared experience of Aperture and that made her hesitant.

“I’ll have to talk to her about it. No matter what happens, I don’t belong here,” Chell stated firmly.

She didn’t belong. She didn’t like being underground in the dirt or prowling around in the woods. She couldn’t stay there, or she would risk being complacent again. There was something she was missing from the camp, but Chell couldn’t figure it out, and that is what made her angry about the entire thing. She didn’t belong there and she couldn’t understand why.

“Let me know when you do. We could use more hands,” Jackson said before walking out of the storage mound.

Chell was left in the semi-darkness and musty air. There was a stale scent in the air that was strangely familiar but sickening at the same time Wandering through the piles of crates and tools, Chell focused on that smell. It led her to a corner furthest from the opening and a burlap sack.

Stooping down, Chell pulled back the flap of the sack and frowned at the sight. Potatoes. Old potatoes with eyes and long stalks of growth sprouting from said eyes. There was no telling how long they had been there, but the smell gave Chell indication.

"Look at that, it's growing right up into the ceiling. The whole place is probably overrun with potatoes at this point. At least you won't starve, though."

It was no wonder the smell was familiar. That mustiness that hung in the air was the same as the hallways of the daycare center of Aperture. It always came back to potatoes. That stupid project brought Chell to a near breaking point. Seeing her name written in such childish handwriting.

It could have been a coincidence, but nothing ever was when it came to her. It wasn’t a common name, but it had given her some sort of idea of who she is or had been. She had a father that worked at Aperture. The daycare center still had the projects set up so something must have happened for that area to be sealed off.

Take your daughter to work day. That did not end well.

What happened on Take your Daughter to Work Day? Something was tugging at the back of Chell’s mind telling her that she should know but she couldn’t. The door was still locked tight, and she was unable to access them. All that is needed is to find the key, the vortigaunts had said. Her key must have been tossed into the incinerator back in Aperture for all her luck.

Chell tossed the potato with no care back into the sack and stood up. There was dried dirt on her hands from the potato, so she proceeded to wipe it off on her pants. She was still in the jeans from the apartment complex near Aperture and finding a better fitting pair would be nice. Her hips had started to chafe due to the ill-fitting denim and belt. Maybe a new coat as well, she thought as she poked at the bullet holes in her current jacket.

Wandering back out into the open air, Chell enjoyed the sunlight filtering down on her skin. She didn’t ever want to take the sky for granted because she knew what it could become. It could all be taken away if you aren’t careful.

Going back to the main bunk area, Chell dropped her mat on a pile of others before looking for Mel. A quick scan of the area showed that she was already gone. Sighing, she left the bunk area and wandered back into the sun.

Seeing the vortigaunts, Chell smiled before moving towards them. They were talking amongst themselves in a deep guttural tone that Chell could not understand. Upon seeing her, they nodded in greetings, “Hello, Chell. Did you enjoy your night?”

She nodded with a smile. “I did. Have either of you seen Mel? I haven’t seen her this morning.”

“Yes. This one has seen Mel leave with other rebels on a patrol,” orange eye said.

“Oh. Oh, ok,” Chell said.

She’d just wait until later to talk to her.

“Why does the Traveler look troubled?”

Chell looked back to wrinkles and frowned. “It’s not a big deal.”

“But it’s enough to disturb you. Why?” Orange eye continued.

Chell pursed her lips and sighed. “It’s this place. I can’t stay here.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

The question actually took Chell off guard. She hadn’t expected the vortigaunts to challenge her in such a way, or to make her think on her actions.

Did she want to leave or did she have to leave?

In the end, she didn’t want to face the answer yet. Instead, Chell changed the topic.

“You mentioned last night that you don’t have names. Why is it that no one has given you names yet?”

Orange eye was the one to answer. “We have not traveled with a human as long as we have traveled with you. Moments are passing yet live on in the minds of all. We have met humans who had been nothing more than blips in the great cosmic view. Yet they live still within the universe. We have not taken names for we have never needed them before.”

Chell frowned. She didn’t fully understand what he meant, but she could feel the deeper meaning behind it all. Even with the flashes of memory that she had been plagued with in part to their history lesson, she could understand how one person could flicker out of view but be back the next.

“Names ensure you can be remembered. With a name, you aren’t just another face in a crowd,” Chell managed to say.

In Aperture, she was a test subject. She had a number and a jumpsuit. On her tumultuous journey through the relaxation center at the whims of Wheatley, she had seen the other metal boxes containing what used to be test subjects. They had names at one point, but none of the containers had a name on the outside. Only a barcode, numbers, and check-boxes indicating the bare essentials of what someone could be.

She refused to be stripped down to a face. She had a name, and she would give them a name too. She didn’t want them to be just a ‘vortigaunt’ among many.

“Would you be okay with me giving you a name?” Chell asked. Her voice firm but not commanding.

The vortigaunts turned to each other and shared a look but then their mouths curled up in that expression Chell assumed to be a smile. “As we said last night. Any name given by a friend shall be cherished.”

Chell smiled softly and gave a single nod of her head. She then approached wrinkles. She didn’t know if this needed to be a serious ceremony type event or if she should be casual about it. She opted for a mixture. She placed a single hand on his shoulder and said, “Apollo. I’m happy to know you as a friend, Apollo.”

Apollo nodded his head at Chell in understanding. “This one graciously accepts their name.”

Chell returned the nod before placing a hand on orange eye’s shoulder. “And Crow. I’m happy to know you.”

“As well, I am gracious to accept a name from you,” he answered.

Crow and Apollo. Her saviors, protectors, companions, guides, and friends.

Two hours later, Chell was sitting in the nearby creek behind several tarps. The rebels had a rudimentary bathing area. It boiled down to lengths of rope and cable lashed between trees then large tarps draped over the cables for privacy.

Chell had been lucky to arrive without anyone else being around. She left the jacket on a large rock along with her holey shirt and pants. She left her sports bra on and the shorts as well in case anyone decided to pay a visit.

She scrubbed the days of sweat and dirt from her skin and sat fully in the water. It came up to her ribs when she sat down. It had been warmed by the summer sun and felt nice. Pulling at her hair tie, Chell let her hair fall around her shoulders but most of it hung in a knotted clump. Taking a deep breath, Chell leaned back into the water, submerging her entire body. She then began to scrub at her scalp and hair. Although she didn’t have any soap, just having the water in her hair and working at the knots made her feel cleaner.

Needing air, she raised back up. Her hair plastered itself to her shoulders and neck, but it no longer hung in matted clumps like it did before. She repeated the process with her two more times before she felt like she was clean enough. Without a towel, Chell clambered up onto the bank of the stream and sat on a flat rock to dry.

It was a short time later that Chell heard footsteps approaching. She was prepared to run again but relaxed when she saw a face poke out from behind the tarp.

She recognized the face as one of the medics that led the vortigaunts away from the APC when the group first arrived at the camp.

The medic was a woman who looked to be in her forties with graying hair and brown eyes. She had a bundle under her arm and seemed surprised to see Chell sitting on the bank.

“Oh, hi. I didn’t expect anyone else to be out here,” she said. She had a southern, but from where exactly, Chell couldn’t say. “Name’s Sid. Mind if I do some work?”

Chell shook her head as she stayed rooted to her rock.

“Thanks. So whatcha think ‘bout our set up here? Not too bad, eh?” Sid asked as she unfolded her bundle. Said bundle turned out to be a pile of clothes wrapped in a large canvas tarp and what looked like an antique washboard.

“It’s nice.” Chell left it blunt and to the point.

Sid picked up a shirt and flicked her wrists to make it flutter before settling down onto her knees next to the water. She then dunked the shirt in the water and started rubbing it against the washboard.

“Quiet type, huh? Not a problem. But since you’re sitting there all pretty, why not give me a hand here?” Sid asked, not taking her eyes from the laundry.

Looking at her hands, Chell slowly slid off the rock and moved over to Sid’s side. She thought it best to help even if she didn’t plan on sticking around.

“Thanks. Now we only got the one board, so I’m gonna scrub, but I want you to wring everything out and drape it over that line-“ she pointed to a lone cable that was draped between two trees, “-for them to dry. You got it?”

Chell nodded her head and took the shirt from Sid and began to squeeze all the water she could from the fabric, then she’d drape them from the wire. It was a process that had a good rhythm. By the time Sid had an article of clothing scrubbed, Chell would have one rung out and hanging to dry.

As they worked, Chell found out that Sid would hum to herself while working. Chell found herself enjoying the warmth.

“Say,” Sid said, finally breaking the string of not talking, “you ever think about the future?”

“Huh?”

“The future. What you want from it?”

Chell was caught off guard. That had been happening a lot lately, and she didn’t care for it. The question also made her think when she was used to reacting on instinct. She liked having time to think though.

The question wasn’t a cut and dry thing. It was broad and contained a multitude of possibilities for her. The most significant aspect that she had always wanted from the moment she woke up in Aperture the first time had remained the same.

“Freedom,” she responded.

Sid seemed to ponder it for a second before nodding her head and smiling. “I hear that. I remember life before the Combine showed up. You’re such a young thing, you couldn’t have been no older than a few years, so you probably never knew much about freedom.”

Chell wrung more water out of a shirt and used it to disguise the tension in her hands. Squeezing it gave her a cover. “You’re right…”

“Well, once we do have our freedom back, what do you plan on doing?”

And once more, Chell was forced to think. She hadn’t thought of any long-term goals. She had only focused on two to three things max. Get her freedom, take down whoever was in charge, then run as fast as possible. Whether it was Aperture or the surface, her short-term goals had not changed.

What was she supposed to do if the so-called rebellion did push the combine out? Chell was nothing more than a mouse caught in a maze, forever trying to find the way out. Turning one corner, thinking it’s an exit, but only finding herself blocked into another corner.

“I don’t know,” Chell finally said. “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

Sid seemed to study Chell for a moment before turning her head and getting back to work. “That’s alright. Not everyone has an idea of what they want, but it helps keep you focused,” she smiled sadly. “As long as you have an idea, then you’ll find your way.”

Freedom? But what was Chell willing to do to achieve that?

Mel smiled brightly while wiping at her brow with the back of her hand. She most likely smeared dirt across her skin in the effort to wipe the sweat away, but it felt good to be using her hands again.

She had a pile of grubs resting on a tattered piece of cloth that used to be a shirt but was more holes than fabric at the moment. Folding it up, she used it as a makeshift basket and walked several yards into the woods before unceremoniously upending the grubs into the dirt.

As long as they were away from the garden and the birds were enticed by the prospect of food, then the camp wouldn’t have as much trouble. Without proper farming equipment or some good pesticide, she had to make do. If she could find the materials, Mel thought she might even make a few birdhouses just to try and get them to stay around and tend to the garden pests.

Tucking the rag to hang from her new belt, Mel walked back into the central area of the camp. She was just in time to see Chell walking back with one of the other rebels. Mel waved at her before jogging to catch up.

She had managed to finally rip that spring from her boot that morning and she no longer felt like she was going to trip from the unequal bounce of each foot.

“Chell! Where’ve you been?”

Chell did her usual shrug and smiled, “Went to bathe. Met Sid there and helped her with laundry.”

Mel was happy to see that Chell was getting along. Although they barely knew each other, she wanted to see the other girl happy. Based on what she had learned, Chell seemed to have had a tougher time in Aperture that herself.

Although she was kind enough, Chell often felt like a wall. She had her emotions and thoughts locked deep beneath the surface and would only show her anger or indifference around people. Mel wanted Chell to get away from that.

That is also why Mel could see that Chell was hiding something. She wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how to approach it.

With a sigh, Mel grabbed onto Chell’s arm and started guiding her to a more secluded area. It just happened to be the bunk she had slept in the previous night.

“Okay, chickadee… what’s on your mind?”

“I can’t stay,” she said without a hint of emotion.

Mel’s stomach dropped. There was a weight in her body caused by three little words. She slowly let the smile fall before putting her hands together, fingers interlocked. “Can’t or won’t?”

Chell looked taken back at first but finally shook her head. “Is there a difference?”

“Is there- of course there is! Chell, do you not see what this place is? It’s safe!” Mel was gesturing wildly with her hands and eyes wide. She couldn’t understand why Chell would

Chell only shook her head. “No. It’s not safe here. Not while I’m here at least. The longer we stay, the better chance they have of finding us!”

“This place is hidden-“

“How much did you tell the soldiers about Aperture?” Chell interrupted.

Mel had her mouth half open in response before closing it and relaxing. She shook her head in response. “Everything I know… It amounted less to what you know, but… but I had no choice.”

Chell didn’t look angry. She didn’t even look sad. She looked… contemplative. “They were going to kill you. Did you know that?”

Mel closed her eyes and slowly nodded her head.

“If they find you, they will kill you. If they find me, I’ll be killed. We might even be tortured first…”

Mel saw Chell’s expression change for a moment as she reached up and touched one of her shoulders.

“But I can’t let them have that chance. If they find us here, then everyone else will be in danger. We can’t be free of them until we are sure they can’t find us,” Chell continued.

"That's if they find us! I'm useful here, Chell. I know farming. I'm a fast runner. I know how to live out here. I can be someone! But out there? I'm out of place. The world is so much different than when I went to sleep. It's different for you too, but you... You have moxie. Based on what I've seen and heard about you, you are the bravest person I've ever met. I'm not like you."

Mel pursed her lips and shook her head. She didn’t want to leave. She felt the first moment of peace since her goodbye to Virgil and now she was expected to leave it behind? She couldn’t do that. Not after everything.

Chell’s head bowed slightly, and eyes narrowed. She rubbed her temples before sighing in defeat. “Do you truly want to stay?”

Mel nodded her head.

Before Chell could respond, a gravelly voice cut in, "We are sorry to intrude, but we have been searching for you, but we apologize for eavesdropping."

Chell and Mel looked up to see Apollo and Crow approaching.

"We wish to say, that even if you separate and the distance between you grows, there is no need to worry. You two shall never remain apart," Crow said. He reached out and placed a hand on each of the girls' shoulders and gave a smile.

Mel and Chell looked to each other and frowned. The anger that Chell felt when Mel didn't want to leave abated while the helplessness that Mel felt lessened.

Mel then opened up her arms and smiled, "If you plan on leaving, I expect a proper goodbye."

That caused Chell to let out a small laugh as she stepped forward and hugged Mel.

Despite only knowing her for a short while, it was the shared horrors and experiences that allowed them to become friends. GLaDOS had once said Chell was a bitter unlikable loner with no friends, but the surface had changed that. She was making friends all over the place.

When Chell finally let go of Mel, the two women only looked at each other. A silent understanding of what was to come. It may be the last time they see each other, but the vortigaunts were right. They wouldn't be apart. Not truly. With that, they joined hands and began walking out into the sun in search of Jackson.

Chapter Text

"I don't want you pushing yourself like you did before, you got that?"

Barney smiled and nodded at Sven, "Yeah, yeah. I got it."

Sven narrowed his eyes at Barney before looking over at the other guy. He almost looked like a kid he was so young. "You his friend?"

Adrian perked up from where he had been passively watching Barney in his checkup with the brawny medical officer. He had sized the man up and knew it best to stay out of his way and keep a low profile. The years had been rough on the guy, from what Shepherd had noticed.

"You could say that," Adrian replied.

Sven nodded at him, "Then you in charge of making sure he eats and gets some sleep. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Adrian said. He felt the need to salute but managed to prevent it. This guy was definitely not his superior officer.

As they left the med bay, Adrian looked at Barney out the corner of his eye and smiled. Barney looked happier but at the same time annoyed. It's like he could tell what was on Adrian's mind.

"Don't even think about it, Thunderdome," Barney started.

"I wasn't going to. I just think it-"

"Don't-"

"Kind of dumb for someone to overexert themselves-"

"Just stop-"

"To the point of passing out in the hallway," Adrian concluded, smugness spread across his face.

Barney pushed the young man but not enough to hurt him. "Aw shut up. Not like I was hurting anyone… except myself."

Adrian shook his head at the man. "No. You hurt everyone when you don't take care of yourself. If you can't take care of yourself, how can you take care of everyone around you?"

Barney ignored Adrian. He didn't have to deal with the former marine talking to him like that.

As they walked, Adrian smirked to himself. He took the silence from Calhoun as a win in his book. As they rounded a corner, they met a rebel coming their way.

"Oh hey, Maya," Barney said.

Maya? Oh! Adrian remembered that name from when he was being interrogated the day he arrived. That meant… Oops.

She looked at Adrian with sharp blue eyes. He sent her a nervous smile before looking away while rubbing the back of his neck. She was the one he had kneed in the stomach when he found the camp.

"Hey, Calhoun. Dr. Magnusson wants to see you," she explained and sidestepped the both of them. As she walked away, she shoulder-checked Adrian.

He turned to look at her and managed to say, "Sorry about before…"

If she heard, she didn't react.

Barney looked at Adrian and shrugged his shoulders, "Okay. Let's go see what the good doctor needs."

Adrian followed Barney, thumb flicking over his finger like a lighter the entire way.

The lab was just as Adrian saw it last time. Two scientists and an alien working diligently in different areas of a large room. Kleiner was examining several pages of paper and had drawn graphs before comparing them to a computer monitor. Magnusson had a strange device on a table that was about the size of a beachball and looked like it had two pie tins attached to each side.

"Ah, Calhoun. It is always good to see you," the alien said.

"Thanks, Uriah. It's good to be appreciated," Barney laughed. He then turned to Magnusson who was wiping the grease off his hand with an oil soaked rag. "You needed to see me, doc?"

Magnusson straightened up and nodded. "Yes, Calhoun. I have a job for you. Shouldn't be too strenuous considering your current condition-"

"Actually-"Barney tried to cut in, but Magnusson continued undeterred.

"-but I think even you could do this. Bring the soldier with you if it makes you feel better," Magnusson said as he picked up a small rectangular box from his desk and handing it over to Barney. "I need you to take that car that Freeman arrived in out to one of our outposts. There's some interference, and I need it fixed immediately."

Barney sighed as he knew there would be no getting out of this. Magnusson's word was law in White Forest. "And the box?"

"Glad you asked. It's a signal booster and scrambler. It will enable us to listen in on combine channels without detection as well as spread the signal to a much greater distance. If it works, we could potentially open up communication with Dr. Green and Dr. Rosenberg again," he explained while organizing the tools on his desk.

Rosenberg… Barney hadn't seen him in nearly eight years. They had escaped Black Mesa together, and they had stuck together for the longest time until he was shipped off to City17 for a civil protection transfer. With Barney's help, they had established a link between the East and West, but with the destruction of the citadel, no one could establish contact with them.

Barney tucked the box under his arm and nodded, "You got it, doc, but it's probably just a birds nest in the wires."

"Even still, I want you out there to fix it," Magnusson huffed.

Kleiner looked to the men and shook his head. "Now Magnusson-"

"What are you waiting on, Calhoun? Get going," Magnusson said before Kleiner could finish.

Not wanting to get between them and another argument, Barney vacated the lab as soon as possible. Adrian followed behind.

Looking to the soldier, Barney made a motion to get his attention. "Here's your chance. Prove to me that you are willing to work with us. Be my copilot out there."

Adrien froze for a moment at Barney's words. He figured he would go with him, but he was going to be proving his self while with him? He cursed himself for thinking it would only take his story of Black Mesa to gain the trust of the others. He didn't think he would achieve it from the scientists, but he at least thought he might have had Barney's.

Nothing could be changed about it anymore, and it wasn't like he had a choice. No way would Barney leave him behind in the base.

"Fine. Let's get going," Adrian said.

Barney nodded and retook the lead. He led the way to a part of the base that Adrien hadn't been to before and stopped in front of a large metal door. As he typed in a numerical code into the keypad, the door hissed and slid open to reveal the armory.

The room was lined with MP5 and 7s, shotguns, a multitude of handguns, and stacks of ammo caches. Along with the firearms, there were piles of crude melee weapons. There was rebar, lead pipes, and carved wooden clubs. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the armory back at his base in Arizona, but it was remarkable for a rebellion using guerilla warfare.

Adrian watched as Barney picked up a strange double-barreled rifle and attached a strap to it. Adrian was about to grab one as well, but a hand seized his wrist.

"I don't think so," Calhoun said, not taking his eyes off his rifle.

Adrian ripped his hand from Barney's grasp, "You expect me to go back out there without a gun?"

"Sure do," Barney replied. He lifted the rifle up to look down the sights. He grabbed a couple extra clips of ammo for it and stowed them into his ammo pouch.

"Fuck you," Adrian grumbled.

He attempted to grab one of the pistols but was blocked as Barney took a step to the side. "No gun of any kind for you."

Adrian had to restrain himself from ramming Barney into the stacks of guns. That would wind him up in another holding cell without the chance of getting out based on the attitudes of the scientists.

Stomping over to the melee weapon racks, Adrian got a good look at each thing. He wanted something in the field. He wouldn't feel complete or safe without some form of defense on his person. As he browsed, his eyes caught sight of something shiny.

Looking back, Adrian saw that Barney was distracted and deciding between two different handguns. With quick hands, Adrian grabbed the prize and crouched down to act like he was tying one of his boots. Instead, he secured the straps of his award around his ankle. He tightened the straps and made sure the knife was secured in its sheath before standing up again. It was small, but it helped make him feel better.

"Alright, I'm ready," Barney said as he slung the rifle over his head to hang by the strap.

Adrian looked at the man and noticed he held the rifle in the correct position at rest. At least someone knew how to do it.

A short walk later and they were in a large garage and sliding into a beat-up yellow muscle car. It cranked with a deafening roar of the engine, and they sped off fast enough to push Adrian back into his seat.

The drive was quiet, but not unbearable. Despite the mild confrontation in the armory, Adrian found himself enjoying the scenery around White Forest. The mountains and thick forest were a welcome change from the craggy rocks and desert surrounding his former base. It was a far better place to be than the gray corridors of Black Mesa or the void he'd been in before.

His time in the void may have felt like a few minutes, but nothing could hide that he'd been away for years. It was a place he never wanted to return to. He'd sooner put a bullet in his own head than to go back.

At one point, Adrian saw a small pack of the strange dog-like things with the multitude of eyes. They chased after the car for a minute before giving up and trotting back into the trees. The world had become a strange place.

An hour after they left, Barney pulled the car up to a small encampment. There was a squat one-story building that had seen better days. It was composed mainly of rotting and termite damaged wood, corrugated tin roof, and plywood covering the windows.

About thirty yards of separation from the building was a tall tower with a ladder leading up to a small metal platform that had an array of wires and receiving dishes. Despite the appearance of the building, the tower was in remarkably good shape aside from a few rust spots here and there.

As they slid from the car, Barney stalked over to the tower and craned his head back to look at the top. It was about a thirty-foot climb to the platform, and with how the tower was built, a trapdoor was used to reach the top. That prevented Barney from getting a good look unless someone climbed. 'Aw hell,' he thought to himself.

"I'm going to climb up there and see what's going on. You stay down here and keep watch, okay?"

Adrian grunted in agreement as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the hood of the car. Barney watched him for a moment before setting to his task.

As Barney climbed, Adrian immediately took the older man's distraction to get a better look around.

With Barney distracted with his climb, Adrian walked over to the building and inspected the door. He didn't open it because his eyes were drawn to broken glass resting on the outside of the building. He crouched down and rummaged through it before looking up to the window itself.

There was a spider web of glass branching out from a circular hole in the window. With the glass on the outside, the break had to have happened from inside the building. Adrian prodded at the hole and frowned when he felt small splinters poking at his finger.

He thought he had somehow broken the skin as when he pulled his finger back, the tip was red. A quick wipe revealed it to not be him, but his eyes were fixed on the building, then back to Barney. Testing it again, Adrian touched the hole and felt a tension in his stomach as once more, there was red on his finger.

Taking a step back, Adrian crouched to take the knife from his ankle and moved to stand at the corner of the building, away from the windows and door.

"Calhoun," he whisper-yelled.

Barney didn't hear him as he was busy trying to pry open the trapdoor of the platform.

Adrian cursed as he looked back to the door over his shoulder. "Calhoun," he called again, a little louder.

Barney was struggling with the trapdoor, unable to focus on Adrian calling his name.

"Fuck," Adrian mumbled and moved over to the door. He pressed a hand against it and got ready. He could fight alone, but he would rather have Barney prepared as well if his hunch was correct.

Moving to the car, he searched the floorboards but gave up when he realized there wasn't even a pistol left behind.

Growing tired of it, Adrian jogged to be directly below Barney and yelled out to him. "Calhoun!"

At that moment, three things happened.

Barney managed to get the trapdoor open with a cry of triumph.

The door to the building exploded outwards by a powerful kick.

A loud mechanical roar echoed in the clearing.

Adrian focused on the matter closest at hand; the three, heavily armed, soldiers in black gasmasks filing out of the small building with guns drawn. Having the feeling that something was about to happen, he leaped behind the car and out of sight of the soldiers. It wasn't the most ideal of hiding spots, but it would provide cover until he could make his move.

While up in the tower, Barney scrambled up the rest of the way and shut the trapdoor behind him. If he were lucky, the combine bastards wouldn't have seen him. It's too bad Barney had the worst luck imaginable. Not even two seconds later were bullets pinging off the tower and his hiding place.

"Son of a bitch," Barney sighed with exasperation.

Hearing the shots, Adrian peaked his head over the car and saw two of them focused on the tower. Wait, two? Where was the-

"Don't move," the synthesized voice growled

Ah, there it was.

Adrian turned his head to see the third soldier, his MP7 fixed on Adrian's chest. He reacted without thinking. With one hand, Adrian shoved his hand into the barrel of the gun and pushed it away hard while he threw his entire body weight into the soldier.

The two grappled for control, but Adrian managed to get the upper hand by shoving his knife into the ribs of the soldier. He then twisted his body around so that his torso pressed against the soldiers back and legs wrapped tightly around the waist, Adrian used his arms to wring the neck of the soldier quickly and forcefully.

There was an audible snap then a high pitch whine filled the air. One down.

Hearing their comrade perish caused the two soldiers that were focused on Barney to turn their attention on Adrian.

'Ah shit,' he thought before scrambling out of the way of their bullets.

Barney could only watch from his perch as the bullets burrowed their way into the dirt as Adrian rolled his body out of the way. From under his breath, he mumbled, "Move, dammit…"

They were going in a large circle around the car. If it weren't for his vantage point, Barney would have thought Adrian was panicking and acting on impulse, but he could see what the kid was doing. Despite the erratic and large circle they were moving, Adrian was moving back to where the first soldier dropped his gun.

Adrian grunted in pain as he felt some bullets clip into his back, but he didn't stop moving. He had to get the gun or her was good as dead. There was a burning sensation in his ass just as he grabbed onto the gun. Did they seriously shoot him in the ass?

They shot him in the ass!

With a roar, he began to fire widely at the approaching soldiers. The bullets fanned and spread in a wide arc, catching one soldier in the shoulder, but the other went down in a crumpled heap of fabric and flesh.

The third soldier didn't stop. It ran forward and kicked the gun from Adrian's hands. The gun went sailing and bounced across the dirt to rest at ten feet away from Adrian.

'Fucking shit,' Adrian thought as the soldier brought his gun level with his head.

Three high powered blasts echoed around the clearing. Adrian froze then checked over his body. No more bullet wounds? Then a fourth boom sounded, followed by that high-pitched whine.

The last soldier fell to the ground.

"You alright, Shep?"

Looking to the tower, Adrian could see Barney had the strange rifle propped up in his direction. Adrian saluted the man before going to retrieve his knife.

"Yeah…" He paused to look down at the soldier that Barney had killed. He scowled before rearing back a leg and kicking the corpse with all his might. "Fucker. That's for shooting me in the ass!"

He didn't get two steps away when that loud mechanical chirping filled his ears again only much closer. Too close.

Turning in the direction of the noise, Adrian saw what looked like a giant three-legged bug. It had a blue carapace covering its back and each leg, three tiny eyes, and two large glowing blue holes situated in the front of its body. Each of the legs ended in rounded hoof with a sharp barb jutting out. Beneath the bright blue holes, there looked to be some sort of vestigial limb covered in metal.

In Adrian's opinion… It looked like a pain in the ass. Dammit.

It fixed its tiny eyes on him before emitting another loud chirp and charged like a bull. Adrian didn't have any time to react before he found himself flying through the air and colliding with the side of the car.

He looked around in a daze as he struggled to stand up. No weapon, no idea what that thing is, and nowhere near as fast. "Fuck this…"

Barney could only watch in horror as Adrian dragged his body into the car and started the engine. He shook his head in disbelief that the man was actually trying to leave him. Even as the car sped away down the road, he couldn't think.

It took several of the exploding planchets from the hunter being shot his way for him to shake out of the stupor.

With a mighty roar, Barney unloaded his pulse rifle at the hunter. Even as the clips ran dry and he only managed to make the hunter bleed a trivial amount of white blood, he continued to scream. "Adrian! You dirty rotten traitorous-" He stopped as a familiar sound was getting closer once more.

"-beautiful son a bitch!" A smile spread across Barney's face as he saw the yellow muscle car speed back up the road. The hunter spun to see the car barreling towards it and was in the process of moving out of the way. It wasn't fast enough to outrun the vehicle once Adrian hit the turbo boost.

Barney laughed to himself till he got the hiccups when he saw the hunter get hit with full force from the car. Adrian slammed on the breaks, and the car drifted sideways to a stop.

Hopping out of the car, Adrian waved up at Barney, "You good?"

Barney laughed as he shot Adrian his middle finger. "Yeah…" he hiccupped.

With the danger past, Barney quickly set up the array they had been sent to do and climbed down from the tower right after. He strode right up to Adrian before shoving him right in the chest. "Bastard. Don't scare me like that again."

Adrian laughed as he felt no strength behind Barney's push. "Sorry, man. Kind of hard to do anything without the right caliber of weapon." He then used his thumb to indicate the car over his shoulder. "Just needed something a bit bigger."

"Yeah, yeah… whatever," Barney sighed. He then let out another hiccup that resulted in both men laughing. "Come on. Let's finish up here."

They wandered into the building the combine had been hiding in to see a horrible sight. Two dead rebels both having bullet holes through the center of their foreheads. The exit wound to one had been through the plywood and glass that Adrian had been inspecting minutes prior. Barney frowned as they dragged their bodies outside.

While Barney finished up the work at a communication terminal, Adrian looked around. In a corner, he found two strange metal boxes attached to the wall. They were both black, but one had an orange glow to it while the other had a blue glow and a red cross stenciled on. Inspecting the closer, he found a port attachment and toyed with it.

He had a moment of enlightenment as he grabbed the port and plugged it into his PCV, only fumbling a moment as he accidentally attempted to put it in upside down. Looking at the electronic display, he watched as the numbers climbed from 15 percent all the way to 90. Doing the same thing with the second machine, he saw his health rating go from 70 percent to 100.

A moment later, he heard the sound of something small land on the wooden floor and bounce away. Looking down, he found the bullet that had hit him had been pushed out. Touching the spot, he was pleased to feel that the skin was already closing up. He put the spent bullet in his pocket.

While still crouched down, he noticed a red box had been slid under the table that Barney was using. Feeling curious, Adrian reached out and took it. Upon opening it, he sighed in frustration but acceptance at the same time. He grabbed the contents before sliding it into one of the loops on his vest.

"Alright, I'm done here. Ready to go?" Barney asked.

Standing to his feet, hand resting on his prize, Adrian nodded. "Yeah, boss."

"Good. Let's get going," he replied.

As the two fell in line, Adrian looked curiously at the new attachment to Adrian's side. "What's with that thing?"

Adrian patted the red pipe wrench and shrugged, "You know? In case someone needs a plumber."

Chapter Text

The scenery passed by with a serenity that Chell tried to absorb in all the fleeting moments on the surface. Trees gave way to mountain ranges that gave way to rolling hills.

They had left the camp before sunrise that morning, and Chell was still thinking of her goodbye with Mel.

“You sure about this?”

“Yeah. Are you sure you want to stay?” Chell mumbled while shifting her pack over her shoulder.

Mel nodded as she loaded a second bag into the APC for Chell, “Alright, I’ll do what I can to stay in touch.”

Chell smiled at that as she set her back into the driver seat. “You better.”

“I’ll also try to keep tabs on Aperture, but you promise to be safe?”

Chell’s smile became a little tense. “I’ll try, but safety isn’t a guarantee.”

Mel chuckled before pulling Chell into a tight embrace.

As they pulled away from the hug, Mel kept a hand on Chell’s arm as she helped the girl into the vehicle. “Your chariot awaits. Now be sure to stay on the beam, and don’t get pinched or offed, got it?”

“Got it,” Chell said, starting the APC up.

“Good. Now scram,” Mel smiled with a tension in her lips and eyes.

As she pulled away from Mel, Chell looked into a screen on the dashboard that showed a camera view of what was directly behind that vehicle. Standing thirty feet back, Chell thought she saw someone in a suit step behind a tree.

The more she thought about it, the more confused Chell became if she actually saw what she thought she saw. A person in a suit walking through the woods seemed crazy considering most people she saw were wearing refurbished civil protection vests and blue denim shirts.

In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she convinced herself that it was just a rebel not wearing a vest at the time. There was no way someone would be wearing a business suit in the middle of the forest.

“The Traveler shall wish to turn right ahead. We can feel our kin nearby,” Apollo said from the front seat. They had been quietly meditating for so long that Chell had thought they had fallen asleep.

She still didn’t understand what she offered the vortigaunts. They gave her everything. Protection, guidance, and companionship, yet she had nothing to offer. Back in Aperture, she at least had common goals with Wheatley and GLaDOS. Wheatley wanted out of the facility before it exploded and then to help Chell escape. GLaDOS wanted back in power and to keep the facility from exploding as well.

Strange how often the facility seemed to want to explode…

But with the vortigaunts? Chell couldn’t figure them out. What did she have to offer that made them want to stay with her?

When would she stop asking questions and start getting some answers?

Taking the turn like Apollo instructed, the two turned down an overgrown dirt road. It was slow going and every bump nearly made Chell fly out of her seat and smack her head on the roof, but they eventually found some flatter ground. The road was lined with a thick canopy of trees on each side, so when Chell turned a corner and they opened up, she had to slam on the breaks with what she saw.

In the distance, taller than anything she had ever seen, was a black metal spire reaching up to the clouds. With sleek sides and long, thick cables hanging off like vines, it stood like a dark shadow watching over all. The throne of darkness that eats everything; the all-seeing eye. A testament to a world that is under the control of a more powerful force. Chell hated it the moment she saw it.

She was forced to see the monolith as she started the APC forward once more. There were times she had to swerve back on track because she became distracted by the towering fortress.

As she pulled around a bend, her world opened wide once more. In her sights was a field of sand, dotted by rocks and beached ships tilted on their sides. The vessels seemed pretty far up the shore, but that’s when she realized the truth.

The ships weren’t beached. The ocean had receded. Was this the Combine or did it happen naturally? What could have even made the water disappear like that?

More questions. Less answer.

Pushing it from her mind, Chell drove over what used to be the sea floor, running over a few antlions in the process as they jumped out from under the sand. Crow informed Chell from the back that the antlions liked to reside along the coast as the sands allowed for an easy way to escape to the surface. Although informative, she cared more about killing them than learning about their habitats.

The sand soon led to a slipway that enabled Chell to drive into a decrepit warehouse district. The buildings were close together with alleyways between them that prevented vehicles from going between, so Chell was stuck to the main roads around the warehouses. A few of zombies were seen shambling between the buildings but nothing else of significance.

She soon was forced to turn down a side street when a collapsed building prevented her from going any further. Said side street ended up being a dead end as it stopped in front of a different warehouse, and there wasn’t enough room to turn around. Chell groaned in frustration.

“They are close. We shall walk from here,” Apollo said, placing a hand on her back.

She nodded her head once before slipping the pouch with her portal gun onto her back and grabbing the bag with the ammo across her body as well.

Apollo took the lead with Chell behind him and Crow taking up the rear. They moved slowly to keep an eye out for a stray combine patrol or the odd headcrab or zombie. It took some time, but Apollo stopped after ten minutes of walking to point out a tiny symbol of the resistance hastily scraped into the side door of the warehouse.

Chell motioned to it with a wave of her hand. “Are we close?”

Apollo and Crow nodded.

As they continued to walk, Chell took notice of the symbols. Some scratched into old telephone poles, spray-painted on walls, or even drawn with marker on broken down car bumpers. It left a trail of breadcrumbs leading to a large warehouse on a long concrete dock. The dock was long enough to reach out to the receded ocean.

Approaching the end of the dock, Chell noticed what looked to be a rope hanging out over the water. It was secured to a metal piling, and a large cleat meant for cruise liners or cargo ships, and hanging from a second rope in the center of the first line was a still alive headcrab. It was wriggling and screeching a few feet above the water.

“Hey! Get away from there!” Someone called out from behind her.

No sooner had they yelled, there was a flash of red and a violent spray of water coming from below. The headcrab was gone and in its place was a large red creature pulling fruitlessly at the rope.

From behind Chell came several people all carrying long poles with sharp pieces of metal at the end and rope. As they neared the edge of the pier, they tossed their sticks at the strange creature.

The creature let out a roar of pain as several of the sticks embedded into its flesh. The people then took the long ropes still attached to their weapons and began to pull. The group of rebels fought hard against the creature, one nearly went over the edge, but another grabbed the back of their jacket to pull them back.

Not wasting another moment, Chell jumps into the fray. She gets behind one of the rebels and holds onto their rope and pulls with them as hard as she can. Her muscles strain with the effort as whatever they are pulling in is incredibly strong and heavy.

The beast roars and thrashes all the while the group pulls. It was slow going, but the group finally managed to drag the creature out of the water and onto dry land. It continued to thrash, but someone came up behind it and stabbed a final harpoon right between its eyes.

A cheer went up among the gathered rebels as they began to pull their harpoons out of the giant creature. Now that it was on land, Chell was able to get a better look at it.

At first glance, you’d think it was some kind of shark, but it was too misshapen to be even be related to a shark. It was a deep red color with a tan underbelly. Its mouth was gigantic, over a meter wide and lined with teeth that looked more like daggers. Each tooth was nearly a foot long and as thick as her wrist. Along the spine of the creature were sharp barbs that traveled the length of its body to end at a stubby tail. In place of fins, it had two arms shaped much like the arms of a praying mantis, but instead of small points, the limbs turn into sharp blades.

Everything about the creature was sharp and pointed and big.

“Thanks for the help,” someone says while planting a large hand on her back.

Chell jumps at the contact but manages to right herself and smile. She meets the eyes of a rebel man.

“You must be the one the vortigaunts mentioned?” He continues. She must have a look of confusion on her face as he laughs and points back to the warehouse. “That acts as a stopping point and a vortigaunt camp. They said someone was coming and they had two more vorts with them. Seeing how there’s a couple vorts here and I’ve never seen you before, I assume that’s you.”

Chell shrugged her shoulders and nodded, “Guess you assume correctly.”

“We were told you’d be coming here. Glad you made it on time. We are moving out tomorrow,” he went on to say. “My name’s Koji by the way.”

“Chell,” she replies.

“Well, Chell, mind helping us out with dinner?” He makes a motion to the large fish creature they had just caught.

As a group, they managed to drag the creature closer to the warehouse where they ripped out the teeth, and cut it into more manageable pieces. She then learned it was called an Ichthyosaur. Chell managed to keep one of the teeth and tucked it into her belt for safekeeping.

After it was cut up, the pieces that couldn’t be cooked were tossed back into the ocean. Chell saw tiny white worms devouring the pieces faster than the rebels could throw them away. She made a note to not put her feet in the ocean no matter how tempting.

The inside of the warehouse was impressive. The area below had been fashioned into a base of operations with tables or large wooden spools for cables set up everywhere. In one corner, several humans and a couple vortigaunts were cutting up the creature into smaller pieces and dropping it all in a large pot. In another corner, a rebel woman was taking inventory on weapons and food supplies then packing them up into manageable bags. Chell set the bag of weapons down with the others as she noticed Apollo and Crow had done the same with the food.

In another area, Chell noticed Apollo and Crow conversing with another vortigaunt. The third had a jacket draped over their shoulders. The coat was a brown duster that brushed the ground as it took each step, but it was almost comical seeing it wearing clothes.

She sent them a smile before looking around again. She could see Koji speaking with another man, and Chell started to think of what he said. They were moving out tomorrow?

What did he mean by that?

She saw him finish his conversation and then moved to a metal ladder embedded in the wall. Chell followed after and once at the top, she watched as he was looking out a large window with a pair of binoculars. She took a spot next to him and sighed. “You said you were leaving tomorrow?”

He jumped and put a hand to his chest, before turning to Chell. “Holy shit!” he took a few deep breaths before laughing. “You’re quiet, huh? Didn’t even hear you come up the ladder.”

She suppressed a laugh at that.

“What can I help you with?”

Chell crossed her arms and shifted her weight back and forth between each foot. “Where are you going? You said you were leaving tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah,” he said while handing her the binoculars. “Take a look.”

Chell takes the binoculars and looks them over before holding them up to her eyes. It took a moment for her to adjust to the new way of viewing the world, but she changed the sights, and everything looked clearer.

“Now, do you see that shipyard?”

Scanning the horizon, Chell searched until she saw what Koji was talking about. Out in the distance was a large ship with several shipping containers loaded onto the deck. OS Soldiers and CP Units alike were patrolling and checking everything over. They were like ants, patrolling the colony to keep everything in line and defend from intruders.

“We’ve been watching them. They are set to leave tomorrow, but we are going to take the ship,” Koji said. He took the binoculars back and set them gently on a nearby crate. “Their movements are scheduled, and if we can get there between a guard change and on the deck, we can take the ship.”

She frowned and held her portal gun bag a little closer. She hadn’t let go of it despite relinquishing the others. No one could take it from her.

“Are you going to go with us?” Koji asked. “You look unsure.”

Chell frowned to herself and shrugged again. “I don’t know. I’ve been in a lot of trouble and I’m not sure if I am willing to throw myself back into the fire.”

She then turned to look out over the warehouse and how everyone was working together. She saw the same woman from before finishing up inventory. She saw Apollo carrying a crate to another rebel. She watched Crow join in the effort to prepare food. It was too easy to fall back into complacency, but at the same time, Chell had to keep moving. If these people were planning on moving, then maybe it would be best to stay with them.

“Where are you planning on going?” She finally asked.

Koji reached out and put a hand on Chell’s shoulder, “We were planning on meeting up with the resistance movement in Europe. We received word that Gordon Freeman blew up the Citadel in City 17. We want to go help however we can.”

Gordon Freeman? The way he said it made her think she should know who that is already. Add that to her list of growing questions.

“I’ll need to think about it,” Chell finally said.

“Well, think fast, because with or without you, we are moving out tomorrow,” Koji said before going back down the ladder.

Chell stayed in the loft until someone called out that dinner was ready. She joined a line and was given a plastic bowl full of soup with bits of meat floating in it. She took small sips at first but then she was practically chugging it. The taste was the best thing she had eaten in weeks. It was salty, yet had an aftertaste that lingered on her tongue long after she swallowed. It was a taste she couldn’t place but thoroughly enjoyed. She ended up getting two more bowls.

In the short time, she had been on the surface, Chell had managed to eat more food than she ever had in Aperture, and she was starting to fill out more. There was a firmness to her arms and legs that wasn’t there before, and she was feeling stronger every day. To survive this world, she had to be stronger than ever. Despite that, Chell could practically hear GLaDOS insulting her, and the idea made her want to laugh.

She would probably say something like, “If you continue to eat like that, you might explode. Wouldn’t that be tragic? Tragic because I’d be the one to clean up the mess.”

 With a shake of her head and a smile on her face, Chell went to a large basin and deposited her bowl for cleaning. She thanked the rebels that cooked the food before walking to join the group of vortigaunts.

There was five in all, including Crow and Apollo. They were all talking in that deep growling sound, but they smiled at her approach.

“The Traveler approaches,” one of the new Vortigaunts said.

She smiled, sheepishly, at the name.

“We humbly ask of you what you wish to do?” Crow said his hands coming together as if in prayer.

Chell pursed her lips and shook her head, “I was actually hoping you could tell me what I need to do.”

All the vortigaunts shook their heads in unison, but it was Crow that continued to speak. “We can not tell you what to do for it is not our path to make, but we will stay with you no matter what you choose.”

“Why? Why do you follow me when I have nothing to give?”

Apollo and Crow shared a look with the other vortigaunts. Chell felt a wave of anxiety wash through her body as they had a silent conversation. She needed an answer or she would be lost.

After nearly thirty seconds of complete silence, Crow stepped closer to Chell. “We stay for it is dangerous without us. You play a part in a grand scheme and far distant eyes watch us all. We shall not name it, but they seek those who hold the keys to salvation and keep them guarded for selfish desires. We keep our vigil of this world to protect those from that which we do not speak.”

They were protecting her, but they couldn’t say what from? Just what kind of bullshit answer was that? Chell growled and shook her head. Forget it. She wasn’t going to play their game.

As she walked away, she heard one of the vortigaunts sigh, “What’s next in this parade of obstacles?”

She looked over her shoulder in confusion. “I’m not an obstacle, but I refuse to be a puppet.”

As she climbed the ladder back up to the loft, she could have sworn she heard that expression somewhere before. She was trying to find a place to sleep for the night when she stumbled across the binoculars that Koji had left behind.

She thought about throwing them to vent her anger, but that wouldn’t help anyone and it’d result in a broken piece of valuable equipment. Instead, she snatched them up and looked towards the ship.

It looked the same as before. Shipping containers, soldiers, and big. Although this time she caught something different. He stepped out from behind a shipping container. It was a man wearing a blue suit. She couldn’t tell much about his face from where she was, but she could tell he had black hair and held a briefcase in one hand. He then raised his hand, palm out to be shoulder level and gave the smallest of waves to Chell.

Her hands tightened around the binoculars to the point her knuckles turned white. It was him. The person she saw in the woods when she left Mel.

He finally lowered his hand and stepped back behind the shipping container. She watched for him again, but he never reappeared. Whoever he was, Chell felt frightened for the first time in a long time.

Chapter Text

Alyx slammed her hands on the door, trying with all her might to get it open to no avail. The door wouldn’t budge or unlock no matter how much she fought.

“What the hell are you?” Alyx yelled at the screens, her hands slamming on the control panel in rage.

The voice sounded annoyed when it spoke next. “Really? Is the violence necessary? Well, if you must know, I am the single most advanced work of artificial intelligence ever designed.” It or she paused with a delighted hum.

Certainly not humble, Gordon thought. Although there was another part that gave him pause. Did she say artificial intelligence? That couldn’t be right. Black Mesa hadn’t even been close to perfecting their artificial intelligence program. Something was off about the whole thing. The closest form of artificial intelligence Black Mesa managed to make was a waffle iron that kept burning swear words into the waffle, and yet Aperture apparently had one and it was capable enough for human conversation?

“Artificial Intelligence?” He finally managed to question.

There was silence from the voice until there was a soft chuckle. “Oh, good. He can speak. I thought I was going to be dealing with another mute who only wanted to destroy my property.”

Gordon rolled his eyes at the remark. It wasn’t the first time he had been accused of being mute, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. The last few weeks had been a stressful and no one gave him a chance to speak, so he didn’t bother trying unless it was one of the rare moments when he wasn’t being shot at.

Alyx was messing with the panel, trying to get the door open, to no avail. “Dammit! I can’t get us out, Gordon.”

“Of course not. This is my property, and you are trespassers,” the AI responded.

Alyx crossed her arms, anger and annoyance mixed together on her face. “You keep saying that. What about the scientists and employees of Aperture? Doesn’t this belong to them?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. None of the staff are alive to claim it,” she replied. Her voice was refined and measured, as if she knew she was smarter than everyone. Reminded Gordon of a less angry Magnusson.

Alyx wasn’t putting up with it. “How can you know that they are all dead?”

“Because I killed them.”

It was like the air had been sucked from his lungs and then he’d been kicked for good measure. The only sound he could hear was the pounding of his own heart as the gravity of what the AI was saying sunk in.

Alyx and Gordon looked to each other in a mixture of panic and confusion. Alyx was the first to respond. “Let us go right now!”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Alyx then pulled her pistol from her hip and aimed it at the control panel. “Let us go or else!”

The AI had the audacity to laugh at that. “Or else what? You think I’m afraid of a little gun? You’d only be hurting yourself,” she said. She paused as the screens flickered on to reveal diagrams of several different physics models. Gordon recognized them. Most dealt with forward momentum. “Look at the screen. Speedy metal projectile plus a tiny metal room? Do the math.”

Gordon frowned. He did do the math and it wasn’t pretty. The size of the room, coupled with the average speed of a bullet, would not spell well for them. Even if the bullets lost velocity after the initial rebound, they’d still run the risk of serious harm.

With a resigned sigh, Gordon reached a hand out to place on top of Alyx’s hands. She still had the gun extended, but Gordon slowly made her lower it. “It’s right.”

“Of course I’m right, but I do not appreciate being called an It. If you must know, I am the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System; a.k.a. GLaDOS,” she replied.

Alyx holstered her gun, but she was practically vibrating in rage. Her face was screwed up tight, fists clenched at her side, and shoulders tense. She was like a stretched rubber band, ready to snap when the tension got too much.

And it did.

“What do you want from us?! Let us go!” Alyx screamed at the screens. She went to the door, ripping Gordon’s crowbar from his hands as she went. He looked put off from the action as she walked by, but he could only watch as she tried to pry the heavy door from its hinges.

“Hmm… Rage truly does cloud the mind, does it not? You shouldn’t need my help to know that isn’t going to work,” GLaDOS said. “Besides, you are perfectly safe. For now, at least.”

Alyx gave a few more pulls with the crowbar before giving up. She rounded on the console and threw the metal rod as hard as she could. It struck one of the screens. It sparked wildly as broken glass fell to the ground in a shower or crystalline pieces. Gordon frowned as he walked over to collect it while brushing some of the glass with his foot to rest under the console.

“Stop breaking stuff. If you want to survive, I need everything to work,” GLaDOS snapped.

Gordon paused. Survive? Was she threatening them? No. It wouldn’t make sense to do so even if she did kill the Aperture employees. Her wording was off too. She needs everything to work, to survive…

“I can feel them coming. They are on the deck, trying to break in, but I am keeping them at bay for the time being. Although a couple sealed doors are not going to last forever. What I’m saying is that I need you to protect this place and activate the rest of the security measures,” GLaDOS went on to explain.

“I thought you said you were fully operational,” Alyx replied, her voice took on a mocking tone.

GLaDOS let out an annoyed sigh. Gordon would have laughed at the idea of an AI sighing if it wasn’t such a serious moment.

“I am, but some of the security devices are offline and separated from the primary grid. I need you to activate them for me.”

Gordon grit his teeth at the prospect of saving the very thing they were being sent to destroy. It was all that mattered to him. He had to destroy the Borealis, or Eli’s death would be for nothing. Eli had to be avenged.

“And if we refuse?” Alyx asked.

“I’m not asking. You will protect this place, or I will kill you.”

Gordon and Alyx shared a look again. There were a thousand words shared, and none at all. What were they supposed to do? How could they protect something but then destroy it in the next moment?

The silence dragged on for nearly ten seconds before there was another pleased hum. “Like I said before… This is a small room and sealed quite tight. I could always tamper with the vent system or up the carbon dioxide levels.”

To accentuate her point, Gordon heard the sound of the small metal vents shutting tight. He looked to them and frowned as they opened up again before closing once more in a wave motion. Gordon furrowed his brow that she was showing off just what she would do and how she could do it.

Gordon grimaced and bowed his head. There was a sigh of defeat before he mumbled, “What do we do?” Gordon said softly.

Alyx looked to him in shock. “Gordon, you can’t be-“

“The Combine needs to be stopped. Then we can do what we came to do,” he said with finality.

Alyx kept that same angry expression on her face, even as she sighed in resignation.

Then the door hissed and slowly opened for them.

“Perfect. Go out the door, turn left, then go down the stairs. There will be a room at the end of a hallway with the things I need. Do hurry. I feel that they are almost inside,” GLaDOS explained, a bored tone laced the edges of her voice.

The humans moved in tandem, following the directions exactly. The door in question was a little rusted, but they managed to get it open after a few good pulls on the crank.

The room was pitch black, the only light coming from the doorway behind the humans. It cast a dim glow that reflected off strange white shapes.

“Hold on. Let me get the lights,” GLaDOS said.

There was a blinding light that caused Gordon to rub his eyes at the suddenness of it. When the spots in his vision cleared, he got a better look at what he was dealing with. Rows upon rows of white spherical pods on three black legs. They stood like sentinels, unmoving statues to a time. All smooth curved lines, awaiting orders.

“What are they?” Alyx asked to no one.

Gordon crouched down in front of one. He tentatively prodded at it with one finger, but it all that came of that was the structure oscillating on its three black legs. When nothing else happened, he rested his hand on top and ran it over the sides. He could feel creases running through the smooth while metal sides, but couldn’t pry it open. His gloves prevented him from getting a good enough grip on the surface.

While he was studying the structure, Alyx was at a terminal. GLaDOS was speaking to her on how to activate the security measures.

The words slowly started reaching his ears as the dots began to connect.

“And there we go!” Alyx cried out.

“Perfect. Now let’s see what we can do,” GLaDOS chuckled.

Gordon started to slowly back away from the structure, but twin shutters opened in the center of the body to reveal a bright red eye. Every last structure in the room flickered to life as red beams of light swiveled around the room, like children entering a building for the first time. Then the lights all focused on him at once.

Gordon froze in place.

They all moved in sync as the indentations opened at an agonizingly slow speed to reveal what the structures really were.

Huh… Turrets, Gordon thought.

“Hello,” they all said in unison.

All the turrets focused on him, and he reflexively brought his hands up to cover his face for protection, but none of them fired a single bullet. There was silence in the room as Gordon and Alyx locked eyes. Sheer panic written on both their faces as the reality of what could happen is happening.

Then as sudden as the lights appeared, they all adjusted to stare straight ahead, away from Gordon. Their guns whirred back into place as Gordon stumbled back in shock.

“Sorry about that. I nearly forgot to reset their targeting parameters to not shoot you. How clumsy of me,” GLaDOS laughed.

Gordon shook his head as he calmed himself down. If this was her idea of a prank, it wasn’t funny.

“You are to set these turrets up and defend this ship. I don’t know how many of them are coming, but you cannot let them take it,” GLaDOS commanded.

Gordon understood perfectly. He would do whatever it took to make sure the ship was destroyed. Readying the gravity gun, Gordon picked one up. The turret distressed its concern at being picked up, but he ignored it.

This was the routine. They would pick up a turret, it would say something about wanting to be put down or wondering where it was being taken, they’d put it in a defensible position, then return to the room to do it all again.

By the time they set up the last turret, there was the soft echo of vocoder voices coming from somewhere in the ship. Gordon and Alyx set up base in the security booth where they found the turrets to begin with. Armed and ready, they took deep breaths.

This is where they make their stand.

“Ready?” Alyx asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” Gordon nodded.

They turned back to the door with weapons drawn as the sound of childlike voices and bullets echoed down the halls.

Chapter Text

It was still dark out when the rebels moved out. Everyone had their duties as bags were distributed, and orders were given. They were to be divided into groups of five and move through different routes to reach the docks where the ship was waiting. Chell’s group consisted of Crow, another rebel woman, and two rebel men. She hadn’t learned their names yet and asking in the middle of the mission seemed too late.

The trip through alleys and side streets was mostly uneventful. There was a time when one of the men tripped over the outstretched leg of a zombie that had been dormant near a rusted dumpster. The woman had leaped on it, driving a knife through the top of its head before it could take a swipe at their teammate. The headcrab fell away, and Chell turned away at the grotesque sight of the shredded face. She would never get used to seeing such a horrifying thing happen to someone. The second man said a quick prayer for the dead human then the group fell back in line as if it never happened.

Chell was amazed at how efficient they moved. Every stumble was corrected by someone else, and the others would make sure the first person was okay to proceed. They had a rhythm in their movement, and Chell was left wondering how she fit in it. She felt like a leaf floating in a stream, being taken away and pushed in every direction except the place she wanted. In Aperture, she had a place that she fit in. She felt like a stranger in this world. It wasn’t the life she wanted. Just what was next in her parade of obstacles?

In the end, Chell was still following a group of men and women who were about to enter a war zone. She held a gun so different from her portal gun, yet it was all too familiar at the same time. How many soldiers was she going to have to kill? How many would it take to ensure she doesn’t die? It didn’t matter. As long as she came out on top, Chell would keep fighting.

When they finally arrived at the docks, Chell’s group placed themselves behind a cluster of shipping containers. She had been instructed on what to do. The thing about the combine troops is that the moment one dies, an alert goes out over their communication systems of when and where they died. Chell remembered how they would emit high pitched whines like a heart monitor when they die, so she believed that had something to do with it.

The plan was to hit the troops hard and fast before they had a chance to mount an offensive. To do that, they had to bide their time and strike hard to ensure they could get on the ship. Chell didn’t think she could do it. She wasn’t one to follow orders well, or even know how to fight within a group. That’s why the moment she had an opportunity, she slipped away.

She had given an excuse to go check on the other groups to see if they were in position. That was a lie. She had her own agenda. She alwasy worked better alone, but having to fight in a group was different. There were too many variables and not taking them into account could lead to failure.

She had been analyzing the situation the moment she saw the area. There was a metal staircase with a walkway at the top that could be extended to reach the deck of the ship. A veritable maze of containers littered the area that provided cover but could also run the risk of being cornered by turrets. No soldiers. Not turrets; not anymore.

Then there was the Man. What was He? Why did He make Chell feel scared? Was He working with the Combine, and if so, why not lead them to her and the other rebels the night before? He had known she was watching him going by the small wave He sent her way. It was as if He was watching her. She didn’t like it, and thinking about Him only lead to more questions that she would probably never get answered. He was unnatural, but Chell felt that He knew something about her. For what other reason would He be following her around?

Chell approached the large crane that was designed to lift the crates and swing them up onto the ship. It was a long climb to the top, but she had to get there, or this entire thing could go up in smoke.

She was halfway up the crane when she heard the sound of multiple combine troops falling to gunfire. With renewed vigor, Chell climbed faster than before, nearly slipping when one of the heel springs on her boots caught a rung in the ladder. She would have been fine had she fell, but it would have cost her precious time.

Just as she reached the top, she heard the ricochet of bullets off metal and saw sparks in front of her eyes. She had been spotted. Ducking down, Chell scanned the area to see a soldier on the deck of the ship taking pot shots at her.

She’d deal with them in a moment.

Looking down, she saw the rebels scrambling to reach the staircase, but it wasn’t looking good. She already saw three dead rebels on the ground below her, and the walkway from the stairs was no longer extended out. Even if they reached the top, they wouldn’t be able to get on the ship.

Chell had foreseen something like that happening, so that’s why she snuck away. Once more, she scanned the area and smirked at what she saw. A broken slab of concrete from a destroyed building was leaning oh so nicely for her at a beautiful angle for what she had planned.

Pulling out her portal gun, she fired the blue portal. She sighed in relief as it stuck to the surface. Then with confidence that she held every time she took a leap, she jumped off the crane, headfirst, to the ground. As she fell, she brought the portal gun around and fired the orange portal. It stuck to the flat concrete, and soon she was flying through the air from the blue portal. She soared like a bird and the freedom she would experience never ceased to bring her joy. When she had her portal gun, she was untouchable.

She swore she heard all gunfire stop momentarily as she landed on the deck of the ship. Turning around, she locked eyes with the soldier that had been taking pot shots at her. They tilted their head to the side like a confused dog. “How-“

They didn’t get to finish as Chell had brought up the machine gun and fired off several rounds into their chest. They stumbled back but didn’t go down like she wanted. Panicking slightly, Chell fired off more shots but this time into the head of the soldier. A mess of wires and blood burst out the back of the head of the soldiers. She looked at the mess and felt a shiver run down her spine. Not fully human. Still not a killer.

Looking over the edge of the ship, she could see a group of rebels making it to the stairs. Racing across the deck and firing wildly at any approaching soldiers to force them into cover, Chell skid to a stop in front of a control pad. There were only two buttons as a cord ran from the pad to the walkway. Pushing the green button, Chell saw the walkway slowly extending outwards towards the deck. Far too slow.

Meanwhile, Chell fired her orange portal at a nearby steel wall on the ship and the blue at the ground near a group of rebels. She jumped through the orange portal to be among the rebels once more. “Come on! We have to move!”

She tackled one rebel as a soldier fired several shots off at them. Chell cried out in pain as she took the bullet in her arm. Despite getting grazed by a turret in Aperture, taking a bullet head still felt like her arm was on fire.

She could still fire the portal gun at least, but if she needed to use a sidearm, then she was screwed.

She felt someone grab her arm, and as she turned to look, there was a second sharp pain in her arm. She attempted to jerk away, but the rebel who had her arm held tight. “Not so fast. Let the medkit do its work!”

“We don’t have time to wait!” Chell cried out as she grabbed the medic by their vest and dragged them through the portal. They cried out in surprise but looked around in confusion. Chell suppressed her smile. She was the same way the first time she walked through a portal.

Although no one else could get that luxury. Chell stuck her head back through the portal and yelled for the other rebels to come with her. Some cried out in fear while others only looked on in wonder. “Now!” she commanded.

Everyone around jumped to action as they hurried through the portal, fighting off combine forces as they went.

Just as Chell closed the portals, the group running up the stairs made it. When they saw Chell at the top with the group of six other rebels, they had a brief moment of confusion before jumping to action once more. The height advantage the combine might have had from the ship was lost

A rebel named Rita ran to the railing of the ship and shrugged off her pack. Chell had spoken with her the night before. She was the weapons expert of the group and had arms thick as tree trunks and could navigate her way around any gun that was put in front of her. Rita had even managed to fashion a sling for Chell’s portal gun so she could use it or an MP7 at a moments notice.

Rita undid her pack and pulled out a long-barreled gun and strapped it down to the railing. Within moments, Chell saw a stream of bullets lay down suppressing fire from the railing to prevent anyone from reaching the stairs again.

“You guys go! I got it covered here!” Rita called over, all the while she never stopped firing.

Going to the main entrance to below deck, a rebel took the center and twisted the large round handle to the watertight door. Koji took the lead as he waited for the door to swing open, a large revolver in his hand.

It happened so fast. Koji had been prepared, but they had been ready for longer. Two soldiers with glowing orange eyes stood crouched on the other side of the door, and the moment Koji was in view, he was filled with pellets from their shotguns.

He went limp like a ragdoll as the blood burst from her chest and stomach. Chell’s eyes widened as she stared at the going puddle of red spilling from Koji. It was like steel wires were holding her in place as she watched the life slowly drain from him. She knew him for less than sixteen hours, and yet he was gone in a moment.

When she looked up the soldiers were dead, and the rebels were looking around as if unsure what to do. Is that all it took? One major person falls and they devolve into disorder? Where was the team she saw moving through the alleys?

No. They were still there. They were in shock, but she couldn't let them stay in a stupor in the middle of a war zone. She wasn't a leader or leader material, but no one else was making a move...

With resignation, Chell slowly picked up the revolver that Koji had dropped. It had his blood on it, but she ignored it for the time being. Tucking the gun into her belts, Chell hoisted the portal gun once more. No one else would die today. “Follow me and keep quiet.”

Moving to the front, Chell lead them into the dark.

The hallways were cramped, but they had plenty of smooth steel walls. For that, she was thankful. As they reached the first turn in the hallway, Chell held up a hand for everyone to stop. She silently instructed two rebels to focus their guns on a nearby wall as she fired the first portal. She then fired the second so that they’d be able to see down the hall around the corner.

Just as she thought, three soldiers were waiting for them. They were shocked to see the rebels, but that didn’t last as Chell’s group filled them with holes through the portals. The sound was loud and reverberated harshly in the enclosed hallways. It made a loud ringing sound in her ears that forced her to wait until it passed.

That was the way each room and hallway was checked. Chell would take the lead and use her portals to check rooms or around corners. It was efficient, and they managed to clear each floor without losing anyone else.

As they entered the bridge, Chell instructed some of the people to stay posted at the doorway to prevent anyone from sneaking up on them in case they happen to have missed any soldiers. Out the window, Rita could be seen still firing. She had been joined by Crow, Apollo, and the Vortigaunt with the duster. They flanked her sides, providing additional coverage and suppressing fire with their energy attacks.

Then she caught a reflection. It was the Man in the suit. She could see His reflection in the glass of the bridge windows, but the moment she turned to look at Him, He was gone. His disappearing act sent anger through her. Just what was He?

Turning back to the console, Chell set the portal gun down for the freedom of both hands. Like every time before, her hands moved as if they were completing a dance they had done thousands of times before. She no longer questioned why it happened. In fact, there was no questioning her at all as she managed to shut down security measures, bypass overrides, and tear the worlds of code apart. She was the one in control. The security bowed at her commands with each line of code she typed and each firewall she smashed her way through. No one could stop her. She was-

Oh shit.

She had overlooked a program. It had been running in the background the whole time, and she didn’t realize until it was too late. The unseen camera mounted into the ceiling swung down to look directly at Chell. It beeped several times in quick succession while flashing a bright yellow light, then a single bright white flash sent Chell stumbling backwards. She rubbed at her eyes until her sight came back, but she could still see spots.

Hands were on her, pulling her back, as gunshots went off. Then came the sound of sparking wires as electrical currents were severed and machinery destroyed.

“Shit! They got our picture!”

Chell blinked the last of the spots away as she approached the console again. The camera hung limply from the ceiling like a decrepit chandelier. Chell pushed it to the side and kept working. There was no point in attempting to scrap the data from the photo. It was an instantaneous system that shared major security breaches to the higher-level and nearby Combine Outposts. It wouldn’t take a genius to know what would happen next.

“Can’t be helped now. We need to get this thing moving,” Chell said aloud. Despite her words trying to settle everyone, she was angry. Her face would soon be in the Combine database, and if they didn’t know who she was, her gaze going to the portal gun still resting on the console, they’d know soon enough.

Chapter Text

Skidding to a stop, Gordon set the turret back up on its feet and reset it’s firing mechanism by pushing down on the small antennae at the top. While it came back online, he fired several rounds of pulse fire into the chest of a soldier that attempted to charge down the hall. Then the second soldier appeared and Gordon curled into a ball beneath the turret as the tinny voice sounded and fired bullet after bullet at the soldier.

He waited for the tinny voice to bid its victim goodbye before taking off running once more. He had to push his glasses up his nose from the sweat pooling across his face several times already, and the fear of them falling off was present with every fall and slide he had to perform. At one point, he had to catch them mid-air after they slid entirely off his face while taking a sharp turn to avoid gunfire.

Gordon was not only going blind with nearly every sharp turn or stumble, but he was exhausted.

His breathing was getting ragged, but the Combine soldiers were like ants. They never stopped moving, and when one fell, it seemed there were three more behind it. Gordon and Alyx had fought through wave after wave, but they showed no signs of slowing down. It was too much.

Not only did he have to remember the layout of the ship on the fly, but he was having to set turrets back, and return fire at the same time. A few times he accidentally doubled back right into the line of fire of soldiers. It was worse than the time he had to use Combine turrets at Nova Prospekt. It was worse than attempting to shoot the turret controls back in Black Mesa.

As Gordon gained his breath, he heard the ringing of more gunfire then silence. The silence stretched out for nearly a full minute before a crackle from unseen speakers broke it. “Congratulations. You fended them off for the time being, but I can feel them mobilizing for another push,” GLaDOS said.

Gordon’s shoulders sagged as he shuffled his way down the hall. The HUD display in the corner of his glasses indicated his health was in the seventies while his suit was down into the sixties. He needed to rest and juice up the energy soon. He met Alyx as he arrived back at the security room, she looked just as tired as he felt. Dark circles under her eyes, sweat making her headband darker than usual, and spatters of brown blood on her clothes. The blood was too dark to be hers, that made his mind settle at the sight. He didn’t want to see her blood again.

The look of fear in her eyes as the hunter skewered her. How the blood seeped from her prone form. The way her breathing became ragged while she was laid on a table in the middle of a mine…
"Her heart has stopped!"
“If we lose her, we lose all!”
He had been in a panic when he had heard that. The idea of getting the damn extract from the nest then hearing that she could be dead before he even reached her sent him clambering out of the elevator even before it could open. He had wasted no time in offering up his hands to the vortigaunts if it meant saving her life.
He had felt a pull on his body the moment he had touched the vortigaunts. It had been like he was floating in a fog despite his feet being firmly planted on the ground. Alyx's body would arch off the table like a marionette on strings.
“We weave the Freeman’s life hers.”
Then He showed up. Gordon thought He was going to be taken away again, but no. Something much worse. He had turned his attenion on Alyx and revealed that He had saved her from Black Mesa. Then He instructed her to say those damn words to Eli.
"Prepare for unforseen consequences."
She woke up then nothing else mattered in that moment.

Gordon suppressed a shudder at the memory before slumping down against the nearest wall in the security room. Alyx does the same a few feet away, her pistol still gripped, although limply, in her right hand.

He watched her for a few moments, his eyes flickering over her clothes but settling on the spot where she had been impaled. Her life was bound to his according to the Vortigaunts. Did that mean if he died that she would as well? He nearly lost her once, but he couldn’t do that again. Not after losing Eli. She was part of the only family he had left. He wouldn’t let her die. Neither would he allow Him to take her away.

“Normally,” GLaDOS started as the humans settled in, “I’m not so polite to squatters. In fact, I’m ordering you both to rest. I can’t have those frail human bodies collapsing in the middle of a crucial moment.”

Gordon rolled his eyes.

Then she giggled, “You’re not test subjects after all.”

She hummed a few notes of some song, but Gordon didn’t pay any mind. His eyes were growing heavier with each passing moment. As much as he wanted to stay awake, it was a losing battle. Not even ten seconds later, he was asleep with his chin resting against the rim of his suit.

Fifteen minutes later, GLaDOS scanned the room. Both humans were in a state of sleep that would enable her to work without waking them. She internally smiled as she began to ping the strange suit Gordon was wearing. She knew it to be an HEV Suit, but she wanted to know more. No. She needed to know more.

The suit had some form of wireless system as she could sense the dark energy ports located in the left forearm and chest piece. It may take some time, but she could hack her way into the suit and get a better idea of how it worked. And by time, she meant sixty seconds.

After fifty-seven seconds passed, GLaDOS spoke softly to herself, “Oh, I am good…”

The suit itself was an exciting piece of tech. Able to monitor vitals and provide a mixture of painkillers, medication, and adrenalin to lessen the pain but keep the user on their feet. It seemed a more complicated version of her adrenal vapors, but to each their own it seemed.

Along with the aforementioned vitality monitoring, the suit could survive quite a lot. Heavy impact resistance, fire resistance, protection from mild and some harsh acids, radiation resistance and non-absorbing as well… There really were some nice upgrades to the current model compared to the model she had last seen. The Mark One she had seen had a risk of spontaneously injecting the user with too many painkillers and cause an overdose, but the current model kept the user aware at all times. It’s a shame the toll it still took on the subject.

Getting an idea, GLaDOS sent a file to the suit and forced it open past the firewalls and tamper-proof protocols. They were child’s play to her. Getting the file running and installing it into the subsystem of the suit was the prize because she was leaving a piece of herself in the suit to continue monitoring him. She’d be able to watch him at all times and get a better idea of how the suit worked while in a combat or other hazardous situation.

It was all for science, after all. It would also allow GLaDOS to focus her main body on the facility. There were still groups of them trying to get in, and she needed to keep them locked out. She’d already sealed the elevator shaft, but there were other entrances to Aperture that needed monitoring.

The data she was already getting on the suit was interesting. If Black Mesa was able to make something like it, she pondered what a real partnership between the two facilities would birth. Not like it could ever happen after what they did in the past. According to her own investigation, the corporate espionage had been conducted up until she took over the facility. If she was to keep their secrets and advance the understanding of the sciences, she couldn’t risk anyone else barging in and taking credit for her work.

Still, the possibility of a long-term partnership was tempting. It’s a shame it could never happen.

In White Forest, Arne Magnusson was tinkering with one of the Magnusson devices. He believed the dark energy homing device he created was installed correctly and just needed time to work with the rest of the systems. His readings, with the use of his pink energy output recorder, indicated it would work as expected, so all he had to do was test it. They needed a way to protect the base in case of strider attacks and to prevent destruction from the planchets of hunters. He’d seen how effective they had been to destroy his work during the last attack.

He was reattaching the casing when Dr. Kleiner burst through the door with a rather wide grin on his face. Oh great… Now what? Magnusson thought.

“You won’t believe what I’ve intercepted! With the scrambler that Barney and Adrian managed to attach at the base, we are receiving updates on Combine broadcasts and security updates just as we imagined,” Kleiner said with glee.

Magnusson rolled his eyes and scowled. The man just couldn’t say anything without circling around the entire subject. “Get to the point, Kleiner.”

With confidence in his step, Kleiner strode across the room and slammed down a grainy photograph on the table next to Magnusson’s tools. It was blurry due to the old printer that Kleiner used and the type of ink used, but the features of the picture could be clearly seen.

The background was only a mass of muddled shapes, but in the center was a woman with unkempt hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a civil protection jacket with a pink heart barely visible through the fabric, but she lacked the armband of a rebel. Her eyes are wide and mouth slightly agape as if caught by surprise, but her face was clearly shown.

Magnusson stood transfixed on the picture for several seconds. He almost didn’t hear Kleiner.

“I’ve been keeping tabs on the Aperture situation, and I have reason to believe this is who we saw in the satellite images! Look here!” Kleiner pointed his finger down in the corner where half of a strange white device could be seen. There was a black tube protected by glass and a white domed top. “Based on the reports we collected and stored back in Black Mesa, that device matches the description of the Aperture Science temporal wormhole technology!”

Kleiner continued to stare. No. Nothing could come out of Aperture. It was a deathtrap, he had said so himself the day Kleiner had discovered the strange energy readings coming from the Michigan Peninsula, but faced with that face.

“Magnusson, are you alright?” Kleiner asked. “You look pale.”

He took a step back and shook his head. “I’m fine.”

Kleiner reached out and put a hand on Magnusson’s shoulder. “Are you sure? You can tell me if something is bothering you.”

“I said I’m fine!” He snapped at Kleiner, and the bald scientist recoiled as if he had been bitten.

Nothing was said between the two for the longest. The two men stewed in silence before Magnusson sighed, “I apologize for that. I just need to go for a walk.”

If he weren’t so shaken, he would have basked in the shocked expression on Kleiner’s face at the apology. Instead, he said nothing and slowly walked out of the lab, his hand still gripping the picture.

He didn’t have anywhere in particular he was going, but he allowed his feet to wander and take him where they would. He was but a passenger in his own body.

He walked to the rocket launch control room, still holding the picture. He continued outside to an overhang looking out over the mountains and gripped the railing for support as he looked at the sky where a swirling vortex of pure energy once resided only two weeks prior. He never let go of the picture. It was a lifeline.

He still held the picture in his hands, the edges wrinkling with the pressure he was applying to it. It wasn’t possible, but the answer was staring at him with a surprised expression and opened mouth from the center of the photograph. He tried to tell himself it wasn’t true, but even that wasn’t holding up to the proof. He tried to convince himself that it was fake and that Kleiner was attempting to play a prank as he continued to stare at her.

In the end, he shoved the photo in his pocket and closed his eyes to the truth. There was no scientific reason for it to be true. How could she still be alive? How did Chell survive?

Chapter Text

“Hey, Chell!”

Chell looked up from where she was getting a lesson on how to properly clean a gun from Rita. The pieces were spread out in front of her on a tarp while she used several strips of cloth of varying sizes to clean the parts of gunpowder and dirt. Rita was using a bottle of some type of oil and running it over the internal mechanisms and then passed it to Chell for her use.

She was in the middle of applying the oil when she was called out. There was a group of four rebels who had managed to get several of the several shipping containers open. Two had headcrab shells inside. Those were promptly shut and labeled to not be opened under any circumstances.

The third container contained several black tubes that were reminiscent of a coffin.

They were on the fourth now.

“We found a container full of ammo! Where should we do with it?”

Chell turned to Rita and nodded at her.

They both stood to their feet, hands wiping the oil on their pants in the process. Rita sighed before putting her hands on her hips and calling back, “Just organize it by type and caliber! I’ll be around later to help distribute it evenly!”

“M’Kay! Just a heads up, there’s some secondary firing shells for the AR2’s up here!”

Rita’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. “Hell yeah!”

That was one thing Chell wasn’t fond of at the moment. When someone needed to report something or found an interesting item, they would seek her out, despite there being more competent people nearby. Chell was new to the world, yet they saw her as someone to turn to with questions. That wasn’t who she was inside. She was a fighter, but the idea of leading people didn’t fit into the picture she had of herself.

Chell couldn’t understand what they saw in her? She wasn’t leadership material. She had only shown up the day before they attacked the port, yet they still looked to her for leadership? Half of them didn’t even know her name, yet they flocked to her like bees to flowers. She didn’t know what to do half the time, and she came to rely on the others, like Rita or the communications technician Moira.

Since they had set sail the previous day, she had been bombarded with questions and reports from all over the ship. From someone mentioning the food stores or the cache of underwater missiles located in a lower room of the ship.

The guided rockets could be useful. She’d need to take a look at them later. Maybe she could break them down for parts or change their code. She’d just have to wait and see what she could do with them.

She received the odd question about her boots and gun. Mostly about where she got it. She managed to brush it off most of the time. Although it was only about an hour prior that someone finally asked how the gun worked.

Her answer left her mouth as if it was rehearsed.

“It requires a constant singularity to occur within in the housing chamber that is protected by specialized rings and an event horizon wheel for focusing on ensuring that it all works together and prevents any sort of harm to the user or the gun itself.”

Chell shook her head and blinked several times as the words tumbled from her. She didn’t even know where they had come from, but they were there. It’s a good thing the other rebel had looked confused too because they didn’t even ask Chell for an explanation.

It had been strange, and she’d been thinking about it for the last hour. When did she learn that? She couldn’t remember ever reading about it in Aperture or GLaDOS having told her. Not that She’d say how anything worked anyway.

It had been weird. Just like everything else she could do without knowing how it happened was strange.

Like the lines of code she could write like a second language.

As Rita instructed Chell on how to reassemble, what she finally found out was called an MP7, the latter noticed how Rita would get a confused expression every now and then. Chell didn’t feel like prying, but if she had to be with them, then she’d do her best to ask about their problems.

Chell’s own thoughts drifted back to Jackson and how everyone would report to him, and he took every request the same way. Everything mattered to him to keep his people safe. If these people were looking to her that way, then she’d need to take the first steps with Rita.

“Something bothering you?” Chell asked, testing the waters.

Rita shook her head, “It’s nothing. Just had a funny thought.”

“Want to share?”

Rita pursed her lips for a few moments before sighing, “You. Everything about you is not what should be expected.”

Chell cocked her head to the side to give an indication for her to continue.

“It’s the way you move and how you look at things. You don’t walk like a citizen, nor do you act like one. You don’t talk like a rebel leader or move like one. I’ve met both since the seven-hour war. You walk… you walk with a purpose…” Rita trailed off, her lips pursed. Rita’s gun was still in pieces, but her fingers toyed with each piece.

“It’s as if you woke up one day and decided to fight the entire world with your teeth. You act much like a cornered animal, wanting to look for any escape possible, but if that’s not available, you attack what you have to, but at the same time… You look like you want to run away at any moment,” Rita went on. Then quicker than thought possible, Rita reassembled her gun and pulled the slide back. She moved with such grace and efficiency that Chell could only look on in amazement.

Chell shifted her gaze away after that. Rita’s words sunk into Chell as she kept her eyes fixated on her own hands.

“You’ve got to slow down and think. Stop reacting to the world, and make plans,” Rita concluded. She then stood up, patted Chell on the shoulder, and sauntered off.

Chell knew Rita was correct. If she didn’t make proper plans, then she’d be stuck in a corner and never reach what she was fighting for.

“If I slow down, then I won’t be able to catch up,” Chell found herself saying.

Rita stopped to look back at Chell. The two women shared a look, neither wanting to be the first to look away.

It was Rita that caved first. “Then you need people who will run with you. For now, let’s get some dinner.”

Chell didn’t have anything else to say, so she followed behind Rita to the mess hall. The Vortigaunt in the duster, Apollo, and several a few rebels were behind the counter making and distributing food to everyone. The smell alone told Chell that it was going to be better tasting than the ration packs.

The rebels took up only a few tables, but they were all laughing and having a wonderful time. Upon seeing Rita and Chell, they raised their arms and waved for the two women to join their group. Once the girls got their food, they squeezed in next to the rest of the group.

Apparently, a few of the other rebels were in an intense debate about the happenings of their destination.

“I’m telling you, we are closer now than we ever have been! With the fall of City 17, the Combine is on the ropes,” a rebel man with black hair said to a brunette woman.

She shook her head and smiled, “That may be, Roger, but what about all the other 24 cities? Is Gordon Freeman going to walk up and destroy them too?”

Roger, apparently, laughed in return. “I was stationed in City 17 for three years. Do you not understand what that City falling means? That was the main headquarters for the entire Earth occupation! Freeman won’t have to do a thing as long as we can keep fighting at this point. Our freedom is so close!”

“To freedom!” Several other rebels cheered and held up half-filled bottles.

They all drank at the same time as another round of laughter filled the hall.

“But since you’re talking about Freeman, have any of you heard about the crazy shit people are saying about him?” Someone asked.

“Yeah! I heard he waltzed up to the Citadel riding on the back of a Strider!”

“I heard he took down six gunships at the same time!”

“I heard when the suppression field came down, ladies were lining up to have Freeman Jr.”

“Sounds like a regular Saturday night in my life,” Roger said.

“With what? Your left and right hands? Or do you get in line to have Freeman Jr?” The woman from before shot back.

Everyone laughed at that as Roger went red as an apple.

The evening continued on with more joked filled with innuendos and stories. The ones about that Freeman guy, Chell took with a grain of salt. Most of the stuff sounded too far-fetched to be true. She could believe he was a leader and a great fighter, but she didn’t think one man would be able to take down an entire Citadel. She’d seen the one from the other day, and apparently, the one that fell was even bigger.

At some point in the evening, the group started an impromptu karaoke contest. Most of the people that sang only remembered half the lyrics or they were way off-key. Rita got up and started singing a song that caused people to groan and throw bread at her. Even though Rita wouldn’t give any of them up, she sure let them down by singing that song.

“What about you, Chell? You know any good ones?”

She wasn’t sure who said it, but Chell shook her head. “I don’t know any good ones.”

Not a complete lie. Chell couldn’t remember any songs from before Aperture. The only ones she could remember were the turret opera and the song from the radio in her artist friend’s nest.

“Come on! Just humor us, okay?”

Everyone was staring at her with expectant glances. She didn’t want to leave yet and risk losing their respect, so she sighed, grit her teeth, and stood to her feet.

Chell grabbed the empty bottle people had been using as a pretend microphone and closed her eyes as she thought of the words.

“Exile… It takes your mind again,” she sang.

The words came to her like rain from clouds. Each lyric and word flowing forth as she put on the performance for the rebels.

“You’ve got sucker’s luck. Have you given up?”

No. She hasn’t given up yet. She won’t ever give up, no matter how hard it gets. So what if she has scraped by on lucky shots and tenacity alone? They worked for her. She’s still alive, and that’s what matters.

“Are you thinking too fast, like marbles on glass?”

It was the only way Chell could think.

“Does it feel like a trial?”

Sometimes.

“Vilify, don’t even try.”

No. She has to keep trying. She’ll never stop trying. Never.

As the song concluded, Chell put the bottle down. Soft applause came from a few rebels, and a few others looked at her in delight, but on the inside, Chell felt a battle raging.

She shouldn’t have sung.

Once the rest of the group took up the jokes and stories again, it became easier to push the thoughts away. Chell soon found herself laughing along with the others. The relaxed atmosphere was almost enough to make her forget her current worries. Almost.

When the food was gone, and people dispersed, Chell found herself wandering the ship. Crow had joined her in the walk, and she enjoyed their company. As she walked, she found herself doing rounds on the ship and checking up on tasks. It was strange, yet oddly familiar.

The first place she went was the bridge where she checked their heading and spoke for a few minutes with the two rebels that had taken the night shift. The ship was on autopilot, but someone needed to be there to monitor any warning lights and scan for hazards.

The next place she went to was the engine rooms. It was stifling hot and loud, but not unbearable. No one was there, so Chell left after giving a cursory glance around the room.

After the engine rooms, Chell went back up to the deck to see what everyone else was doing. Someone had opened up a few more cargo container and found one was stuffed to the brim with boxed up food. Mostly things that could be mixed with water, like powdered eggs and milk, but it was a great find.

When she couldn’t think of any other tasks to complete, and the sun had sunk below the horizon, Chell made her way to the bunks. Crow still accompanied her, and Apollo joined as well once he finished helping clean the kitchen.

On her way there, she had to pause and tighten up the bands on her long fall boots. As she stood to her feet, she caught a glimpse of blue out the corner of her eye. As she turned to look, she saw Him walking away. Chell attempted to follow, but the corner he turned down was a dead end. The only thing of note was a fuse box and some electrical pipes.

“What is the Traveler doing?” Crow asked.

Chell shook her head and sighed, “Nothing. I just... thought I saw something.”

The vortigaunts shared a look before taking the lead once more to the bunks. Chell still couldn’t figure out who that Man was or what He wanted. Coupled with how He seemed to disappear out of thin air only added to her anxiety about the entire situation. He could be watching her at any time or from anywhere.

The bunks were similar in construction to the Combine barracks from the outpost she had infiltrated. The main difference is that the beds and storage chests were all bolted to the ground to prevent them from sliding all over the place while the ship was in motion. Some of the beds even had straps attached to keep people from falling onto the floor in case of rough seas. Luckily the Atlantic Ocean had been strangely calm for the time being. She attributed it to how much lower the sea level had become.

As everyone settled in for the night, Chell’s mind was troubled by her journey and that Man. Why was He following her? Was it even her that He was watching?

Then it was her conversation with Rita. She didn’t understand how to slow down. Her entire life was fighting and moving faster than what was trying to kill her. If she slowed down for a second, then she could die.

But how could she find people to run with if she didn’t try to slow down? That stupid song. She shouldn’t have sung. Her entire life was a trial, and she had to work hard or risk falling behind. What was the purpose of trying if it was all for nothing? Like marbles on glass. That was the only way she could think.

As she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes, Chell pondered the idea of giving someone a chance to move with her.

Apollo and Crow looked to each other before sitting down in silent meditation. They had been neglecting themselves and needed to recharge or risk everything falling to ruin. They became one with the darkness and allowed the vortessense to flow through their bodies until the darkness gave way to memories and light.

The two of them watched through all the eyes of vortigaunts at once, taking in everything. Hundreds of fleeting visions and concurrent memories all held together by a single force. The chords of the vortessence entwined all of life together and revealed the history of the universe.

They saw some chords had been severed but others shining bright. They moved through Black Mesa. They ran through City 5, City 12, and the still standing City 17. They walked through Xen as witnesses to the humans’ arrival. Some fighting their brethren, but one liberating them all.

Xen was the darkest time of all. Enslaved by the Nihilanth. Unable to control their own actions or risk pain from the shackles that once bound them to its control. Apollo and Crow still had scars from their time of enslavement.

Although unseen to the naked eye, dark brown lines cut into the skin of their wrists and necks. The shackles brought pain if they disobeyed, but when the Nihilanth fell, and the bonds fell away, there was rejoicing among all vortigaunts. They finally had the means to fight back against their oppressors.

The Controllers were the first to fall. Without the vortigaunts working the factories and the Controllers dead, all of the synthetic grunts and soldiers were left to rot in their stasis pods.

Through a single eye, they watched as it took a large crystal. The being that wore features that were not its own. It took the crystal and smiled at the single vortigaunt before that thread was cut.

Feeling a disturbance, both vortigaunts came out of their meditation and saw the very being standing only a short distance away. He was alone in an ever-expanding black void of his own creation. The only other figure was Chell, still sleeping soundly and looking as if she was floating in the air within the void. She was curled in on herself, arms tucked tight to her chest and legs bent into the fetal position. Even when resting, she was all about her self-preservation.

Both Apollo and Crow stood to their feet and grimaced at the creature.

“Leave. You have no place here.” They spoke in their guttural native tongue.

The being stalked forward and placed a hand on the edge of where the edge of Chell’s bunk would be. “You can not watch her forever,” it replied.

Apollo took a step forward, allowing a burst of energy to float between their fingers. “We shall watch for as long as it takes. Now move away from her.”

It straightened its tie and gave what the humans called a smirk to the vortigaunts. “We shall see about that.”

As the being walked away and vanished into a doorway that sprang from nothing, the vortigaunts moved a little closer to Chell. She turned over in her sleep and groaned as if she could tell what had happened. She couldn’t be taken, or they risk losing the war.

Chapter Text

Gordon held the turret out in front of him with the gravity gun and allowed it to pepper the Elite with bullets before engaging the secondary fire and having it smash into them. The vital signs flattened out as that familiar noise filled the air.

He pulled the turret back to him and reset it once more. He had run out of ammo and had to rely on other methods. The meant he was stuck carrying around a turret with the gravity gun and using it as his gun then launching it at attackers if need be. Although unconventional, it worked surprisingly well.

He had killed three elites with this process already, but he was down three turrets. When the elites had first come in, they used the secondary fire on their AR2s. Doing so caused his turrets to be vaporized into white ash in the process of defending his self.

Gordon had never had a problem with asthma growing up. He’d been made fun of for his stutter, but he never once had a problem with his lungs. The cold air and constant running around the dark halls to keep the Elites out was making him start to think he may have it after all.

He paused to lean back against the wall and cough several times. Taking deep breaths, he took off running once more, picking up a turret on the way to find more Elites.

“Alert! One of them has made it to the bridge!”

He quickly changed direction, feet sliding against some empty shotgun shells jumping over the bodies of fallen soldiers. The turret chirped a greeting before exclaiming surprise at being carried around by some unknown person. Down the hall, a left, then a right, up the stairs and straight down to the open door.

He didn’t bother letting any bullets fly this time. End it quick by launching the turret at full speed at the back of the Elite. It had been typing something into the central console. It only had enough time to hear Gordon coming, but not enough to dodge the turret. The white sphere struck the Elite with enough force to launch it backward, it made a sickening crunch as it was lifted off the ground and hit the thick glass windows of the bridge.

Gordon stood in the doorway of the bridge, shoulder leaning heavily against the frame. He then turned ninety degrees, so his back was pressed against the frame and slid down until he was sitting. Just a minute. He only needed a minute.

Then came the shrill sound of cheering and whistling. It sounded like a stock sound television stations would play during a sitcom.

“Congratulations. You’ve won for the time being. I can’t feel any more of them making a move!”

Hearing the synthesized voice of GLaDOS declaring victory brought such a rush of relief, Gordon could swear he felt tears prick the corners of his eyes. His sitting position soon turned to him laying down, spread-eagle, with his legs in the hall and body still in the bridge. He’d need to get moving, but just a couple minutes of laying still to recover couldn’t hurt.

Just a couple-

“Comfy?”

Gordon slowly sat up, blinking several times at the intruding voice. Standing at the bottom of the stairs was Alyx. Her arms were crossed over her chest and a playful smile on her face. “Sorry for waking you.”

“Wasn’t asleep…” Gordon mumbled, pulling his glasses off with one hand and using the other to rub at his eyes with the thumb and forefinger.

Alyx giggled at that. “You sure? I heard snoring.”

“No. I was groaning.”

“Sure, you were… For the last five minutes?”

Gordon only looked at her, his cheeks burning in embarrassment. “City 17 didn’t have me this drained.”

Alyx let out a full laugh as she reached out to grab his hand and haul him to his feet, “I know what you mean. And with this whole midnight sun thing… I don’t even know how long we’ve been here.”

Gordon had to agree with her on that. His body was dragging more than usual, and he had no method of telling the passage of time. The suit didn’t have a built-in clock, so without a day or night cycle, the passage of time meant nothing.

“Come on. Let’s get back to the security station. We need to finish this,” Alyx stated.

As they walked, Gordon would pause to pick up some ammo or replace his a gun with a better one. Usually, it would just be swapping out a weapon that would jam from the amount of gun powder caked inside or damage received while fighting. He didn’t have time to clean his guns, so from all the rounds of ammo he had fired, they would eventually start to jam. The revolver was fine, but none of the soldiers had ammo for it. Instead, he had to rely on the pulse rifle and the SMG. Strangely, the pulse rifle didn’t jam no matter how many rounds were fired. Gordon assumed it must be the type of metal being used since it was a Combine creation.

Upon entering the security room once more, Gordon was greeted by the voice of GLaDOS. “There you are. We were getting worried about you,” she said. Gordon raised an eyebrow at her voice. “Afterall, it’s rude to keep someone waiting.”

There it was.

Gordon and Alyx rolled their eyes simultaneously.

“But now that you are here…”

There was a loud clang as the security lock was engaged once more. There wasn’t any panic from Gordon or Alyx this time around. Instead, Alyx crossed her arms and cocked a hip to the side while Gordon leaned back against the wall, crowbar swaying gently in his hand.

“This again?” Alyx said, unperturbed.

“Yes. Because I have some questions for you now that the immediate threat is over… Why do you want to destroy my things?”

GLaDOS almost sounded confused. Although they had heard her speak enough to know she wasn’t confused in the slightest. Every tone she uttered was planned to make herself the victim or to seem in control.

“What makes you think we want to destroy it?” Alyx responded.

There was a hum of thought from GLaDOS. “Your bags. I noticed explosive rounds when you were getting your ammunition earlier. You have explosives and detonators, but weren’t using them in the fight? In fact, going out of the way to not use them? Obviously, you have some use for them. Coupled with the fact that you neglected to tell me why you were here in the first place, Black Mesa. So I’ll repeat my question… Why do you wish to destroy my property?” Her voice took on an accusatory tone

Gordon and Alyx shared a look then nodded at each other. Gordon went to their supply bag and zipped it up while Alyx moved closer to the terminal. “We came here to destroy the Borealis, yes, but we have a reason. The soldiers we fought off? They want to use the ship to wipe us all out. We only want to prevent them from using it.”

There was a tense moment of silence from GLaDOS. Without any sort of face to see, Alyx had no idea what to expect.

“Although I don’t care if you are wiped out, I can make more, but that takes time… If I happen to grow bored of my current tests, I shall miss the opportunity to grab some new test subjects now and again…” GLaDOS said as if speaking to herself, although it was clear she directed to the room. “Alright, I’ll allow you to destroy the ship. It’s not like I ever used it…”

Alyx perked up. GLaDOS almost sounded sincere. At least as sincere as was possible for a disembodied voice of an AI. Alyx pushed that to the back of her mind. She had to focus because she was so close to fulfilling her father’s last wish. She could finish it and finally rest. God… was she tired.

Gordon had already hoisted the bag over his shoulder and stood back, listening to the conversation. The fact that GLaDOS was letting them complete their task surprised him, but it didn’t stop him from smiling. His heart was pounding at the prospect of being so close to finishing the job.

As if to accentuate the point, the humans heard the sound of the locks disengaging. Gordon tried the door, and it swung open without any trouble.

They looked to each other before walking back into the halls, spotting the fallen soldiers around them. Now that the fighting was over, they could see just how many of them had attacked the vessel. Empty bullet casings, dents in the walls, and brown blood coated everything. It was a massacre, yet they had managed to hold the ship. Just the two of them against an army. Gordon felt another wave of exhaustion flow through him at the sight of all they accomplished.

“You will want to detonate the charges in the ships power station. It will trigger a chain reaction. Down the hall, turn left and go down the stairs for two flights. Take the first right. There will be a dead end. There will be a pipe on the wall that will need to be turned three times to the left then twice to the right,” GLaDOS said, breaking the silence of the ship once more.

Despite having fought off the horde, Gordon and Alyx still went down the corridors with weapons drawn and ready. They didn’t want to risk anything jumping out at them or a potential straggler that might have been missed.

They stayed that way all the way to the dead-end that GLaDOS mentioned. Just as she said, there was a dead end with a fuse-box and a pipe jutting out from the wall between two curved joints. It didn’t look like much, and they had moved passed the area several times due to the signs of fighting around, but it was so unassuming.

Gordon took point to activate the code, while Alyx continued to watch his back. The pipe didn’t want to move at first from disuse. There was rust in the joints and flakes of ice as well, but Gordon eventually managed to get it started. One… two… three… One… Two…

There was a loud hiss of air as the pipe was jerked from his hands. The entire wall slid back three feet then lowered itself into the floor, revealing a hidden dark corridor. Gordon looked back to Alyx with a smile, and she gave a mock clap of her hands.

“Alright, Gordon… Let’s finish this.” She said, suddenly turning serious again.

The hallway slowly lit up from hidden fluorescent lights in the ceiling, and a grisly story started to unfold. When they had first arrived, Gordon had noticed a distinct lack of anything remotely human. Not a single trace despite the stories of the ship disappearing with the crew and drydock. It soon became apparent that the reason for that is everyone took refuge within the power station. Bones and clothing were discarded into separate piles, but if the people died, shouldn’t they have been still wearing their clothes?

As they turned went down the stairs, Gordon and Alyx both stopped in horror. For written on the walls in dark brown stains was a message.

Mr. Johnson. This is a testament to your sins!

It was written over and over along the walls in that same reddish-brown color. Dried blood…

Gordon thought he was going to be sick.

Then came the artist. They found the artist long decomposed in a corner, curled up on a dirty lab coat clutching a notebook and someone’s skull. A sharp piece of metal was nearby that was also stained brown, but several layers were built up. Another pile of bones and clothing were discovered as well, but this time, it was clear what happened.

“Gordon…” Alyx mumbled.

She had gently taken the book away and was flipping through it. Inside was the details of the Borealis crew. After they had teleported away, they had been desperately trying to get back or even to get in touch with Aperture. All their hailing frequencies were ignored or possibly never got out. The ship was still in development, so no real supplies were on board. Then the hunger set it.

The journal detailed the ramblings of a madman, spiraling into insanity as he attempted to prevent his friends from cannibalizing each other before finally giving in.

I’m the only one left now. Terry, Pak, James, Dmitri, Christine, Gai, Murray, Erin, Hans, Jian, Connor, Nina… All gone. No one left to mourn me when I’m gone. At least I still have Nina. She’s been here the whole time. Yes, Nina. I loved her so, but then why did she leave? No. She didn’t leave me. She’s still here. But why won’t she speak? She’s been so silent lately. I did everything to save her when they turned on her. She was so weak, but I still have her, so why won’t she speak?

It’s all so fuzzy. I can’t even walk anymore. My muscles won’t stop shaking, and my arm hurts. Nina is taking care of me. She brings me water sometimes. Just yesterday she told me a joke. It was so funny; I couldn’t stop laughing. Even now, I find myself laughing and unable to stop.

Oh god… I killed them. I’m sorry, Nina. I tried to save you. I hope Mr. Johnson knows what he has done to us. I hope he rots.

Nina told me another funny joke today. She knows how to make me smile like no one else.

I can’t go on. Nina… I’ll see you soon.

The rest of the journal was illegible. Either from being marked out with a pen or being saturated with blood from the owner. Gordon had been reading over Alyx’s shoulder. The writings of a man overcome with grief and loneliness.

He heard Alyx sniff as she placed the journal back with the skeleton. She quickly wiped at her eyes before standing up once more, a righteous fury in her stance. “Let’s burn this place to the ground.” Gordon gave a single nod of his head before following her deeper into the ship.

They soon came to a large steel door without any buttons or obvious way to open.

“One moment…” GLaDOS said. She had been uncharacteristically quiet that it made Gordon flinch. “The ship was designed to eventually house a lower level AI for opening this door. Fortunately, they never came to pass. I saw the designs, horrible really. Far too chatty if the prototype is anything to go by and preferred dancing to working.”

There was the sound of beeping as if buttons being pressed. Gordon rolled his eyes that she would actually make the buttons sounds audible. Not that he minded, but she seemed to get off on making everything sound more complicated than it could be.

There was another hiss of air as the door slowly raised into the ceiling to reveal the inner workings of the Borealis mystery.

Gordon and Alyx could only stare, the crowbar nearly slipping from his hands as his eyes adjusted to the sight in front of him.

The chamber was smaller than expected, but the room was stunning. It was a spherical room with a walkway wrapping around the outside edge and leaving a forty-foot gap across the center. Along the walkway were stations for computer monitors, server stands, and observation stands. Although it was impressive, it was ignored by what was happening in the center of the room. A swirling mass of iridescent light rings interlocking around one another and spinning at impossible speed around a large central structure. Said structure was a palpitating mass of pure energy with flares of light arching off and being adsorbed into the spinning rings. With each pulse of the mass, the rings would expand and contract to accommodate the energy fluctuations. It was beautiful.

“Oh my god,” Alyx whispered.

“Dyson Sphere? It shouldn’t be possible… not when this was built at least…” Gordon managed, hardly stuttering at all.

“Oh, but it was. Aperture needed something powerful enough to power quantum transportation technology and what better power source than a star? So they created their own self-contained energy source,” GLaDOS explained. Her voice was smooth and dripping with pride. Just couldn’t resist bragging how far ahead Aperture had been, regardless of the possible dangers.

“But what you are seeing is just the first part of what makes the Borealis so special. The star will collapse on itself, but the Dyson Sphere absorbs the energy from doing so, and when the star reaches its singularity point, it will trigger the tunneling event,” she paused to let out an electronic sigh, “works similar to the old fashioned quantum tunneling devices, but on a much grander scale.”

They were creating and destroying black holes… That was insane to think about, but Gordon could see it with his own two eyes. It was gorgeous yet utterly dangerous. Eli was right. It needed and should be destroyed no matter what.

Just as he was about to step fully into the chamber, a shimmering blue field of light sprung up in front of him. He and Alyx both stumbled back from it.

“That? That’s nothing more than a fancy metal detector. Just go on through,” GLaDOS said.

Gordon frowned. It looked like the combine barricades he encountered in City 17 and in the wastelands between the city and Nova Prospekt. Tentatively, he reached out and touched it, his hand thankfully passing through without harm. There was a tingling sensation, but nothing more.

Seeing Gordon was unharmed, Alyx walked on through without issue and Gordon was right behind her.

When he stepped through, two things happened at once. The bag that had contained the explosives was ripped from his side into a flurry of flashing light and ash, along with his guns and crowbar. Great... Another one destroyed. The second thing that happened was GLaDOS chuckling.

“Did you honestly think I would let you destroy something of mine? This place is one of the greatest innovations of scientific discovery ever created, and you wish to destroy it? I can’t allow that… So why don’t you say hello to the Aperture Science Emancipation Grill? It emancipates all unauthorized equipment that could interfere or harm the equipment.”

The steel door they had approached through slammed behind them and forced Gordon entirely into the room. Looking around, he realized that the sphere was acting up.

“What the hell are you doing?” Alyx yelled at the AI.

Another chuckle. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m bringing the ship back to Aperture where it belongs. Once the sphere reaches the point of singularity, you will cease to exist.”

Alyx and Gordon looked to one another in a panic, but then Alyx’s eyes traveled to Gordon’s side. A sly smile crept into place as she pointed. “The gravity gun…”

Gordon looked to his side where it had been hanging by a leather strap. The gravity gun was vibrating and took on a pale blue color just like it did in the citadel. Whatever that particle field was, it acted the same way as the Combine confiscation fields. Gordon mirrored her smile as he brought the gun around and readied it.

Gordon walked confidently along the walkway, hands attempting to hold the twitching gravity gun in place.

“What do you expect to do with that? I’ve seen how it works. You can’t possibly hope to-“

She didn’t get to finish as Gordon unleashed the primary firing mechanism on a nearby control panel. It groaned in protest once before ripping out of the wall and being held within the field of energy emanating out of the device. In one fluid motion, he turned and launched the panel into the sphere.

“Oh dear… Is that a counter-resonant singularity device?”

 “Maybe,” Gordon replied, face neutral of emotion.

He then took off running around the walkway, engaging the firing methods and launching any and all machinery he could into the sphere or into the bottom of the chamber. All the while, GLaDOS was yelling at him to stop, Alyx was yelling for him to keep going, and he was keeping silent. Isn’t that how everything ended up for him? Someone yelling to go, another trying to stop him, and he remains silent.

With each station, each monitor, and each power junction, the sphere and rings were becoming more erratic. There was a steadily building heat within the chamber as he rejoined Alyx’s side.

“That should be good, Gordon. We need to get out of here!” She cried out while looking at the steel door. “Think you can make us an exit?”

With the chamber becoming hotter by the second, Gordon set to work on the door. He unleashed burst after burst of the secondary firing mechanism on the door. With each blast, the door buckled and bent until finally, it broke free, allowing them a small gap to clamber through.

“Stop! You have no idea what you are doing!” GLaDOS yelled, but Gordon could have sworn she was speaking directly into his ear.

All around them, sparks were shooting out of walls and pipes were crumbling like soda cans. The entire ship was breaking apart. They had to hurry or risk going down with the ship. Faster and faster they ran, trying to find their exit, even as the walls of the vessel started taking on a transparent tone to give way to dark voids of blue mist and distant lights. What was that?

“There! Come on, Gordon!” Alyx pointed to the open doorway down a long corridor where sunlight was streaming through.

They rushed out onto the deck, the ship getting progressively worse with each step and the phasing in and out of locations becoming concerning.

The duo stood on the edge of the deck, frantically searching for a way off. The problem with Gordon destroying the stairs left them without a safe way off the ship. Although the soldiers had to have a way to get on board as well. It wasn’t like- Oh!

“Alyx,” Gordon cried while pointing to a series of rope ladders hooked onto the railing of the Borealis.

She took off running and immediately started down the first ladder she came to. Gordon took the one next to her, his feet slipping a little on the metal rungs and balance going wide due to the precarious nature of the ropes, but he moved with purpose.

“Gordon! Look!” Alyx had paused halfway down to point back up at the ship. The ship was nothing more than a ghost caught in the ice. Rust red side fading in and out, becoming less noticeable by the second. There was a resounding crash and explosion before the ladders were cut loose from the source. They both fell to the ground below.

Alyx had more experience in falling safely, and she had been closer to the ground than Gordon, so she came away with nothing more than a couple bruises and snow in her eyes.

Gordon on the other hand fell and landed upright on his feet before tumbling backwards.

He groaned in pain as the suit voice kicked it. Wait… that wasn’t the suit voice.

“Congratulations on fracturing your ankle, and by the way… Do you have any idea what you’ve just done, you monsters?”

Over three thousand miles away, deep underground in Northern Michigan, something was happening. There was the hint of humans yelling and creaking metal. Then came the sight of something large floating in space above testing track Kilo-Oscar.

It happened nearly all at once.

The Borealis returned home, but not in the exact location it disappeared from. It exploded in a fiery force leaving no part of the ship behind. The final part was what did remain behind. Although faint at the moment, there was a sliver of something floating in the air. It looked like a shimmering line of rope gently blowing in the wind. It was like hair blowing in the breeze, or a plastic bag twisting while caught in the wind. A small, yet slowly expanding rift in the world was tearing itself open in Aperture.

Chapter Text

Her eyes slowly opened, but something was wrong. The ceiling wasn’t the smooth metal of the bunk above her but instead was white tiles. Chell tried to sit up but found that impossible to do. Instead, her body was moving on its own.

Her head twisted to the side to see a metal pole with bags of clear liquid hanging from hooks. They were attached to thin tubes that ran down and connected to her arm. Her pudgy and scar-free arm…

Something was really wrong.

She couldn’t move, but she could hear voices nearby. To her left, there was a wooden door and on the other side were two muffled voices.

“-ervous system. She probably won’t remember anything that happened.”

“Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive?”

“It’s hard to say. She could remember some, all, or none of it.”

There was a long moment of silence before the voice said in a much quieter tone said, “Thank you, doctor.”

The door opened up to reveal two figures. They were both wrapped in some sort of white mist. It would flicker and flash in intensity, but never showing who the people were.

“Chell? How long have you been awake?” The figure that had been the second voice said.

“What’s going on? Where am I?” Chell mumbled. She couldn’t tell if it was instinct or her actual response.

“You had an accident, sweetheart, but you’re going to be okay.”

“Can I still go to work with you?” Now that had not been her next question, yet the words still poured out of her mouth.

The figure didn’t respond as the area faded out of view. The white mist spread out from the figures to cover her entire vision till all Chell saw was a white void. 

Senses came back to her steadily, but she found herself still trapped as a passenger within the dream. The void faded away to give way to a computer terminal with sticky notes around a monitor, empty energy drink cans scattered on the desk, and blaring music in her ears. Chell found that she enjoyed the sound of the electronic dance music, and her body tapped its foot in response.

The computer had several windows of varying sizes opened and scattered across the monitor, some running tasks in the background while others were awaiting input. The one in the center was displaying lines of code as her hands cut and paste pieces of code or corrected other lines. She commanded the sea of numbers that ran the entire system.

Just as she was finishing up another line, her music disappears as something is ripped from her head. “Turn down the music you freaking bass-head! Good lord, you’ll go deaf by the end of the year at this rate!”

Chell’s body twisted as she snatched the headphones back from another figure shrouded in mist. “Don’t take my stuff! Now, what do you need?”

 The figure scoffed, ”Why haven’t you come by-“ the figure’s voice became muffled as if they are talking around a mouth full of cotton balls. “I requested assistance nearly an hour ago! What are you doing that is more important than my printer?”

Chell pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. “I’m not IT, Mr. Egotistical. For now, I want you to go back and turn it off then back on again, got it? Think you can handle that, or should I draw you a map?”

“I have a doctorate, I’ll have you know! Now, why aren’t you helping me?”

“Wow! A doctorate?” Her voice oozed sarcasm. “And yet you can’t cure your eyesight or ears? I already told you this isn’t the IT department.”

The figure scoffed at Chell. “Arrogant code monkey… Where’s your supervisor?”

Chell could feel her lips twitch into a smirk as her chair spun to fully face the ghost of a person. No answer came from her lips as the scene faded away.

Instead of the white mist, everything shifted into darkness. A never-ending expanse of black in all directions. Chell turned circles, trying to find any semblance of light. Her heart was racing as she continued to turn, but then she stopped, as she came face to face with a man. He had dark hair that was starting to gray near the temples. He scowled at her with his arms crossed. “About time you showed up.”

Chell suddenly sat up, fists clenched tight around the blanket someone had draped over her in the night. Her entire body was wet with sweat and tremors wracked through her.

Why was she freaking out? Nothing about that dream had been terrifying, yet she couldn’t shake the terror going through her body. Why?

“You alright, Chell?”

Jerking her head to the side, she met the concerned face of Roger, the rebel from dinner the previous night.

Releasing the tension in her shoulders, Chell forced a smile at the man, “Yeah. Just give me a minute.”

“Of course. Just thought I’d let you know we are making a good pace. If the weather holds out, we could arrive ahead of schedule,” Roger said, thumbs hooked into the belts around his waist.

Chell nodded at him as she swung her legs around, and her bare feet touched the cold metal floor. It sent a piercing, yet not unpleasant, sensation through her body as she curled her toes and fumbled under her bunk where the long fall boots were kept. The chill of the metal was actually familiar after running through the service areas of Aperture.

Once her shoes were in place, she set off for a morning patrol. This time she had Roger with her who proved to be useful in double-checking everything. While checking over the maintenance areas, Roger found a toolbox with a soldering iron and other valuable items for fixing small electronics. 

It was upon seeing the soldering tool that Chell grew excited and dragged both Roger and the toolkit down to the storage area where the underwater rockets had been found.

What are we doing here?” he said, wiping sweat from his brow.

Chell slipped out of her coat and tied it around her waist as she approached the first missile. “Rita said these are designed to avoid combine energy centers, correct?”

“Yeah…?”

Chell ran a hand over the casing before finding the hatch she needed and unscrewing a panel with a large wrench. “We are going to fix that.”

An hour and some minor burns later, Chell and Roger had finished the initial stage of the reprogramming the missiles. Chell had grease smudged across a cheek and forehead, and sweat running down the back of her neck, but she had finished the first step.

The first step was to see how the interior worked, and what sort of mechanisms were used in the making of the missiles. After some careful prying with a flathead screwdriver, Chell managed to pry out the guidance chip to see what she was working with. It wasn’t until she turned over the chip that she paused. Etched into the underside was a strange logo that she recognized.

It was a full circle with a quadrilateral shape with one sloping side to imitate a flat mountain. Black Mesa… She didn’t know why she knew that. Had she seen the logo in Aperture somewhere? No. She was positive she hadn’t seen it there, but how did she know what it was? Why was this random chip stamped with a Black Mesa logo?

Chell had rubbed at her eyes as a headache started to form. She could dwell on it later, once her work was completed at least. The chip was in working condition anyway, so she patched everything back up.

“Is that all you needed to do? Pull out some kind of computer chip?” Roger asked. He had loosened up his own coat in the stifling room.

She shook her head as she took the wrench from his hands to tighten up the screws. “No. Just needed to see how everything worked first. They should all be hooked into the main grid, so I can reprogram all of them at once from the bridge.” Chell used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe at the grease on her face, but only further smudging it.

Roger made a noise of understanding.

“Say… You know about Black Mesa, right?” Chell pondered. She had to be careful because she didn’t want to ask questions that could lead to pointed questions about her past.

“Hell yeah, I do. Everyone knows about them. Why do you ask?”

“It’s nothing. Just their logo was stamped on that chip back there…”

Roger nodded his head as he hooked his thumbs back into his belt. “Makes sense. What with that Breen guy being appointed ‘Administrator for Earth.’ Combine probably manufactured the chips ad just never removed the logo.”

“Breen?” Chell asked as she patted at the pockets on her clothes. She had nearly forgotten about it, but she pulled out the codebook for Civil Protection from one of the many pockets on the vest. His name was on the cover as the author, but he was the Administrator as well? She recalled not knowing who he was, but something was in the back of her mind, nagging away. It caused her head to ache more than before.

Ignoring the pain, she slipped the book away and sighed. Thinking on his words, Chell came to a realization, “So you think Breen just handed over all of Black Mesa’s technology? Sell us out to the enemy?”

“What choice did we have at the time? According to some, it was the only way to avoid total annihilation. Me? I’d rather die fighting on my feet, gun in my hands, and a girl a pretty girl at my side,” Roger explained while rubbing the back of his head.

“Some would call that foolish.”

 “Excuse me for not wanting my life dictated by men in suits,” he grumbled, but then followed it up with a laugh. “But yeah… Breen’s a prick, and I hope he rots in hell.”

Chell found herself agreeing with the man.

As they entered the bridge, they were both greeted by Moira at the communications station in the corner. “Afternoon, captain!”

“Hey, Moira, anything to report?” Roger asked as Chell moved over to a different station to see what could be done about the missiles.

“Nothing much. We got pinged about an hour ago by something, but no one has blown us up yet, so I would say we are good,” she replied, one hand toying with the radio chords, the other propping her head up as she leans against the console.

“Just keep an eye out for any more, alright?”

Chell stopped listening as she dove straight into the world of numbers and symbols. As the ship sailed on one ocean that moved to its own desires, she found herself navigating the sea that obeyed her commands. 

As she worked, she started humming that song from her dream the previous night. The synthetic electronic beat hammering in her head. A hammer in her head… Her headache was getting worse, but she pushed past it. There was too much work to do.

She spent three hours hunched over that console, going over the guidance systems. She’d delete, write, and drag lines of code where she saw fit. Shaping the world to a design of her own imagining. It obeyed her and only her. The numbers, like the Red Sea for Moses, parted to her commands and allowed her to protect those she saw fit.

With a smile, Chell stood to her feet, pressed her hands to the small of her back, and leaned backward. Her spine letting out little audible pops with the roll of each joint. She let out a soft moan at the sensation before turning to whoever was on the bridge.

Moira sat at the comms station, but Roger was nowhere to be seen.

Not wanting to disturb her, and feeling pleased with herself that the guidance systems would no longer avoid Combine energy outlets, but to actively seek them instead.

Chell was walking down a corridor when out of the corner of her eye she saw that Man again. He was standing there, clear as day down a hallway, smirking at her. Then he straightened his tie and turned to walk away. Just as she was about to run after Him to get answers, she was gripped by a terrible pain in her head. She had to lean against the wall to keep from falling to the ground. As she bent over at the waist, back to the wall, Chell’s hands rested against her temples with her eyes screwed shut.

It was like trying to look underwater without goggles. Everything was fuzzy, but there were glimpses of clarity that revealed images flashing in front of her vision. It was like the memories of the vortigaunts only much more visceral, but making far less sense.

There were olive trees and a cannon sitting outside a building as she gazed out a window. A cramped room with wood framed bunk beds. A school,perhaps?

Meetings with other people all gathered around computers while music blared and energy drinks shared.

Men and women in blue shirts with ugly striped ties walking down hallways.

A man with dark hair and a disgruntled expression standing near a vending machine…

All at once, the images faded as two-fingered hands grasped her arm and energy flowed through her. Chell’s eyes went wide as the pain stopped, and she met the bright orange eye of Crow. Seeing him was a relief as she nearly collapsed into him to give the vortigaunt a hug.

He didn’t reciprocate, but he didn’t pull away, “Forgive us, Traveler. We did not mean to leave you alone for so long. The other rebels required our assistance.”

Chell clung to Crow for several more seconds as she took deep, steadying breaths. She then leaned back just enough to look him in his large central eye, “I think… I think I’ve almost found the key…”

“Is that it?” Magnusson said, hand gripping back of the chair belonging to the poor technician who only wanted to go to bed.

Said technician made a noncommittal noise as they checked over their notes again. “Maybe? It is the most likely candidate based on the time and data you had provided me. I’ve pinged them, but they didn’t respond.”

“I don’t need ‘maybe,” I need a definite answer. I need to know if that’s her ship!” Magnusson declared, hands tightening on the back of the chair.

“I’m sorry sir. I’m doing the best I can,” the technician whimpered.

Magnusson didn’t say a word as he let go of the chair and stalked off. If it wasn’t her then so be it, but if it was... He just hoped he’d finally get some answers if he got to see her again.

Chapter Text

“So, the crazy robot AI is in your suit?”

“Mhm, but she says she’s far more advanced than a simple AI,” he mumbled.

“You don’t say?” Alyx huffed.

Gordon nodded as he peeked his head around the corner of the Combine base.

After the Borealis had transported away, Alyx and Gordon had elected to find some transport in the base. Although it wasn’t as big or expansive as a standard base, it still went several stories underground. The two humans had actually rushed as fast as they could to the building out of fear that the Hunter that had attacked when they first boarded the ship was still around, but they had seen no trace of it. 

How long ago had that been anyway? Hours, or days? Gordon rubbed a hand at his face, feeling how his once nicely trimmed goatee was a beard at that point. It made his face itch.

On top of everything, Gordon also had to deal with his suit’s newest feature... 

She was still prattling away and berating him for destroying the ship, and it was getting old.

“Honestly! What did you think would happen by destroying the containment field for an ever-collapsing yet self-sustaining wormhole? Oh, look at me… I’m a human. I think I’ll push this button that says do not push!”

“We destroyed that ship for a reason,” he growled out as he rounded another corner. Scanning the area for hazards before continuing on down the hall.

That ship had to be destroyed. It was the only way to truly stop the Combine from getting another foothold into the Earth, and to carry out the wish of Eli.

“You don’t get it,”  GLaDOS snapped back at him.

He raised an eyebrow before motioning for Alyx to do her magic on the door. With a flick of her wrist, she brought out her miniature EMP device to override the controls for a nearby door. All the while, GLaDOS was talking.

“Tell me, what happens to a star that collapses in on itself? It rips a hole into the fabric of reality that expands and devours everything in its path…”

Gordon’s brow furrowed as he started putting the pieces together.

 “And you just managed to destroy a containment field to prevent that very thing from happening.”

A dawning realization took hold as confusion was replaced with horror.

Prepare for unforeseen consequences…  He smirked when he whispered that into her ears. He had known what would happen!

Oh god…

“And now you may have doomed my facility and the entire world! Good job on destroying it, hero. I hope it was worth it!”

The world? Gordon looked at his hands as he stumbled backward into a wall. No. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. It was supposed to be a victory for them. It was meant to be the beginning of the end for everyone fighting. The moment where the liberation was at hand and the Combine would have to be the ones defending instead of the rebels. And it was his fault.

“And not to mention all the pests I’ve been dealing with… They are like flies. I haven’t had to fight them off this hard since the beginning,”  GLaDOS concluded.

Gordon was shaken out of his reverie by her words. “T- them?”

“Do I need to spell it out? Who else but the very ones you just spent three days fighting?”  GLaDOS’s voice had taken on a snarkier tone of someone at their wits end instead of the calm and collected voice of the deadly artificial intelligence that had been directing their every move since they step foot on the Borealis. For the first time, Gordon believed every word that she said was true.

He was once again interrupted from his thoughts by Alyx letting out a shocked, “Oh my god!” He saw her disappearing into a room, and he quickly followed, gun at the ready.

Gordon quickly lowered it upon seeing a hunched over figure wearing a gray winter coat, thick winter pants, but no gloves or hat. The lack of hat allowed the vibrant red hair of Judith Mossman to show brightly against the cold slate metal of the holding room.

Both humans were at her side instantly and checking her for injuries. She was alive but barely. Although no physical harm could be seen, her face was gaunt, the tips of her fingers were blistering and shriveled to the point of looking like raisins, her skin had become a pallid gray, eyes cloudy and dilated to the size of olives, and unable to focus. The most troubling was that her entire body was unresponsive to the point she was barely breathing with an incredibly weak pulse.

That’s when Gordon felt a chill seeping through his suit that reminded him of the industrial coolant reserve room back in Black Mesa. He had to fight through that room and watched as his suit power would slowly drain away from the cold. If it wasn’t for his protective layer plugged into his suit at the moment, he was sure the energy would be bleeding out of it.

“Dr. Mossman? Can you hear me?” Alyx said, grasping the woman’s shoulders.

No response.

“Gordon, can you carry her?”

Without thinking, he moved to scoop her legs under one arm and the other supporting Mossman’s back into a bridal carry. She was lighter than he expected her to be. As he started to lift her up, he nearly slipped. That’s when he noticed the layer of ice covering the floor of the room.

“My god… I wonder how long they kept her in there?” Alyx asked out loud as they left and resealed the room. Instantly Gordon started to feel warmer.

Gordon made sure to move behind Alyx at that point now that he was out of commission to immediately fight anything they might come across.

“Hmm… this one is suffering extreme hypothermia. If you don’t start getting her warm, she is going to die,”  GLaDOS said, no hint of anger or annoyance. A cold, calculating, fact of life.

Yet another thing he needed to take care of.

With that, he started moving with more urgency. Despite everything she did, Mossman was still alive. She may have betrayed them in the past, but she betrayed Breen in the end to do the right thing. Gordon wasn’t going to let another person die if he could help it.

“Alyx. Open every door. We need to find something to get her warm,” Gordon commanded.

Alyx hesitated as she looked from Gordon to Judith. The latter had her eyes half-closed, looking more dead than alive. 

Then the moment passed. Alyx nodded her head and set to work. It was the first time he had managed to command her to do something instead of the other way around.

Most rooms were full of servers, communication centers, empty crates, or nothing at all except for strange metal booths with wires hanging from the back as if awaiting something to be hooked up. Gordon avoided looking at those.

They finally found the holy grail upon opening a door to find an actual supply room. One thing about the Combine is that they had a strict organization system. One half of the room was dedicated to weaponry, while the other half was full of miscellaneous items that the soldiers might need, including the thick padded coats the soldiers wear.

They grabbed several of those and wrapped Mossman as tight as they could while ensuring she could still breathe. Gordon sat on one side of her while Alyx sat on the other to try and pass some form of body heat between them. Although Gordon wasn’t able to do much due to the thick metal plating off his suit. So he spent several minutes gathering up ammo and weapons. Among the stash the Combine collected, he managed to find another crowbar to replace the one that was destroyed. Funny how they keep turning up where he least expects them.

While they sat, Gordon relayed what GLaDOS had been telling him about what the Borealis did when it disappeared. Alyx had wanted to get moving right then to find a way back to White Forest, or straight to Aperture and fix it. She was yelling and raving about how Mossman was dead weight at the moment and only being a burden. Mossman was as good as dead in her current state. She was saying everything besides just leaving her behind. Alyx was suggesting it, but if she came out and said it, Gordon wouldn’t allow it to happen.

He’d been forced to leave behind people before. Back in City 17 or in Black Mesa. The security guard who couldn’t jump across the elevator shaft to the ladder. The scientists that refused to leave the biology labs. The countless men and women he’d seen bleeding in City 17, and he’d been unable to do anything to save them, except try to make their last moments count by ending the fight for good.

In the end, Alyx finally relaxed although her expression was anything but pleased with Gordon or anything in general. She’d been that way since Eli.

They stayed like that, not saying anything, as they tried to get her warmer. It was over an hour of sitting in place, Gordon massaging her wrists, and adjusting the coats, that they started to hear a clattering sound from her. Her jaw was shaking, causing her teeth to click together, and her entire body was shivering. Gordon frowned, thinking they were doing something wrong.

“Congratulations. You managed to keep her alive long enough for her body to start working again, but she will still need help. Now get back to work.”

Sure enough, along with the shivering, Mossman’s breathing wasn’t as slow. A quick check of her pulse revealed it to be increasing as well. Still, she wasn’t out of the woods yet.

“Think we can move her?” Gordon mumbled to Alyx.

Alyx had been sitting in her irritation for the last hour. She wanted to move out, but finding Mossman alive hadn’t been expected. Even still, she was valuable to the resistance. When she wakes up, she could have something useful to say about the Borealis. No matter how many times Alyx says she is of no use anymore, she couldn’t deny that the woman was smart and could provide vital information.

“Let’s try. We need to get going,” Alyx nodded as she stood to her feet. She yawned and rubbed at her face but shook her head to clear that away.

With as much care as he could, Gordon managed to keep Judith covered in the coats and to carry her at the same time. It made the walking even slower than before, but if it meant she was getting warmer, then he would go as slow as needed. 

There was still no sign of any more resistance or the missing Hunter, and that kept him on edge. The lack of soldiers he could blame on the constant waves of them on the Borealis, but it wasn’t like the Hunters to give up on their prey.

The further they got into the base, the darker it seemed to grow. There were hardly any lights and what was available barely illuminated anything beyond a few feet. It was as if-

“This place… It’s running on auxiliary energy,” Alyx voiced as if speaking Gordon’s thoughts. “Damn, I hope we can even find something to get us out of here if that’s the case.”

As if a gift from the gods, the next door Alyx opened slid to reveal a long dark hangar. In the middle of that hangar was a very nice helicopter. That is why when something seemed to be going in their favor, something must go wrong.

A lone mechanical chirping noise could be heard as the missing Hunter stalked its way out from behind the helicopter.

Gordon and Alyx both ducked back behind the corner before they could be spotted. Alyx put a hand to her stomach as her eyes widened while Gordon nearly dropped Mossman in his attempt to get away quickly.

It was tense and terrifying. The stillness that overcame them as cold terror squeezed their chests that their hope of escape was only thirty yards away, but something that could quickly destroy it blocked the path.

Gordon looked down at Mossman’s face, her teeth chattering away and held her a little tighter. He had an idea, and it was going to be very stupid…

Walking to a nearby corner, he set her down and made sure the coats covered her well enough to not be seen. He then moved to Alyx who was calming herself down as she peered around the corner to get a look at the Hunter that disappeared behind the helicopter once more. When he placed a hand on her shoulder, she jumped and pulled her gun out, aiming it at Gordon in a panic.

He ducked out of the way and pushed her arm upwards just as she realized what she nearly did. Her gun fell but with reflexes faster than he thought, Gordon managed to catch it in his free hand.

“Gordon… I- I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry… It’s just-“

“I know…” No matter how brave she could be, there is always a point when you can’t go anymore. Gordon often wondered when he’d reach his end.

She nearly died from the Hunters in the past. He wasn’t going to let her go against them again if he could help it.

He grabbed her and pulled her into a quick hug before leading her to a corner opposite from Mossman. It provided cover due to the terminal that was in charge of opening the door and operating the security defenses of the area. He pressed his forehead to the top of her head and smiled. “Stay here,” he managed to say, barely stuttering. “You’ll know when to move.”

Pulse rifle slung over his back, gravity gun at his hip, revolver in one hand, and crowbar in the other, Gordon moved to stand in the door leading out into the hanger.

“You know you might die, right? Whatever you are planning, it could kill you.”

He huffed out a small laugh. He didn’t think she was still watching.

“Life story…”

With that, Gordon took a deep breath and whistled. The stomping feet of the Hunter paused for a moment as the whistle echoed through the base. Then came the thumping of the feet once more as it stalked around to look where the sound had come from. Gordon met its beady little eyes with his own before raising the revolver and firing off a shot. It dinged out the chitin like armor of the Hunter, but it was enough to send it into a frenzy as it took off full speed in Gordon’s direction.

With that, Gordon took off running. He cast a furtive look back at Alyx who looked at him as if he was insane. His view was quickly obscured by the angry Hunter barreling into the hallway at high enough speed to ram itself into the wall opposite the door. With a muffled curse, Gordon turned and began to run faster than before.

The faster he ran, the stupider his plan seemed. There was no way he could outrun the Hunter, but he could at least do one thing…

Using his crowbar, Gordon hooked it onto a protruding pipe and used it to carry his momentum around a corner without slowing down. If he stumbled once, he was good as dead.

The Hunter roared again as he heard it bang into the wall. There were no steps, but there was the sound of it charging up its launcher. Gordon dove headfirst down a flight of stairs to avoid the planchets that passed close enough to his head that he could feel the breeze off them.

He tumbled and rolled painfully at the bottom and listened to his new suit voice list off his latest sprain. He’d worry later as he could see his goal up ahead.

The Hunter was having a difficult time getting down the stairs which worked in Gordon’s favor as he punched orders into the control panel that would open the door that Mossman had been contained in. He rushed inside and waited for his moment.

The Hunter steadied itself as it locked its eyes on Gordon once again. It fired off another volley of planchets, but these were avoided by Gordon diving into the corner and out of sight of the beast. It roared again as if it took off running, while Gordon readied himself.

“Are you insane?”

Maybe, Gordon thought. This looked so much easier in Jurassic Park…

Just as the Hunter burst into the cold room, Gordon dove forward, sliding on the ice-covered floor between the legs of the Hunter.

Without a solid base, the Hunter was left to stumble and slip on the icy floor. Gordon slammed a hand on the control panel once more to close the door, but not before the Hunter stuck its foot out of the door. The metal stopped in the wake of the impossibly hard chitin armor.

Then slowly, the metal sheets of the door started to slide back open with the force the Hunter was applying to the door. Gordon panicked as he pulled the revolver out again and fired round after round into the leg of the creature, but it did nothing to deter it.

When the gun clicked empty, Gordon threw it to the side and began to beat at the leg with his crowbar, but that did nothing as well. Huffing, he slung the AR2 around and readied it as the door continued to creak open steadily. He didn’t have any of the secondary firing pods, but he had another idea.

A second leg was wedged into the door, but that was enough for Gordon. He could finally see the eyes once again. Without letting up, he fired round after round of fully automatic ammo into the creature. He ran out of one clip but continued to fire once the second clip clicked into place from the automatic reloading mechanism. He only got seven rounds into that clip when the Hunter ripped its legs from the crack in the door to escape the pain.

The sound of the slamming metal was music to Gordon’s ears as he smashed the door controls with the butt of the AR2.

The Hunter thumped uselessly against the metal door, only driving Gordon’s joy higher. He actually managed to let out an excited laugh as it finally ceased its banging.

Picking up the empty revolver and his crowbar, Gordon gently swung the rod in his hand like a baton.

“Do you get all your ideas from movies? Because that’s what it looks like. All the crazy things I’ve seen you do looks like you are copying movies.” GLaDOS didn’t sound happy or impressed, but she did seem confused by his antics.

Gordon just grunted in response as he rounded the corner to see Mossman still tucked into the corner, but Alyx missing. His good mood soured.

He rushed forward and looked out into the hangar, relaxing upon seeing her working on opening up the retractable ceiling. Sunlight was filtering in as he walked up beside her. Upon seeing him, Alyx rushed forward and pulled him into a hug.

“Do you and Barney compete on who’s the most reckless?” She practically yelled as she parted from him. “That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, Gordon!”

He winced at her words, but he didn’t regret running off like he did. “Sorry, but I got rid of it, right?”

“That’s not the point, Gordon! I could have lost you!”

“I’m fine-“

“No! You are not fine! I could have lost you and then where would we be? I’d have to go back alone and tell everyone that you died. I can’t bury anyone else. I’ve lost too much already, dammit.” Alyx’s brow was tight and eyes wild. He hadn’t seen her this angry since Nova Prospekt when they realized Mossman’s betrayal. Only this time it was directed at him.

“Promise me, Gordon. Promise you won’t throw your life away,” Alyx pleaded. Her eyes were determined, and Gordon knew the right answer, but it would be a lie.

Was it better to tell the harsh truth of a situation or allow someone to live a relatively happy lie? Was it better for him to lie to make her feel better, or admit that he won’t ever stop putting his life on the line to save the people he cares about?

Then again, this was Alyx. The woman who grew up in a Combine controlled world and had seen many allies fall in the line of battle. She had experienced betrayal, heartache, and soul-crushing tragedy in the war. Alyx needed something good to happen.

Taking a deep breath, Gordon managed to say, “I promise.”

He managed to not stutter a single time.

The tension in her face relaxed as Alyx looked up at him. With a sigh, she pressed her forehead to his shoulder for a brief moment, then turned back to the controls. “Alright, let me just finish getting things set up here. Why don’t you go get Mossman?”

Gordon nodded and did as she asked. Mossman was still shivering away as he picked her up. There was no change in how she behaved, but he could only hope she would continue to improve.

As he walked further into the hangar towards the helicopter, he caught sight of something out the corner of his eye. Flicking his eyes skyward, he saw Him standing on the edge of the hangar’s ceiling exit, looking down on Gordon from afar. He looked between the three humans before a sly smile crossed his face.

“Hey, is that-“Gordon whipped his head around to look at Alyx. Too late, she was shaking her head and looking back at the ground. “Never mind,” she continued. “Come on, let’s get loaded up and out of here. I’m sick of being cold, and we have to warn White Forest.”

And the hope that someone else had finally seen him was dashed once more. Sighing, Gordon moved towards the Helicopter. After setting Judith inside and making sure she was secure, he ran a hand through his hair as he thought about the Man.

Gordon thought he may have been free of Him for good after what happened in at White Forest as that had been the last time he’d seen Him. Turned out he was wrong once again. He grit his teeth as he loaded up some bags with ammo from a nearby crate. Would he ever be free again?

Then what was it that Alyx had seen? Had she actually seen Him or was it wishful thinking. Gordon needed answers.

Turning to Alyx, he was about to answer when he realized something was horribly wrong. She was standing there, in the middle of tossing a bag into the helicopter, but it was all moving in slow motion. The pack was frozen in mid-air. Not again.

“Doctor Freeman…”

No.

“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting for so long.”

I can’t leave now, he thought.

“But other matters have been needing my attention.”

The world around Gordon slowly faded to that dark void with the occasional flashes of places or events. As the Man walked forward, an all too familiar scene was playing, although not from his own point of view.

“I understand the temptation of telling all is convincing, but… I must inform you that doing so would not end well for you,” he smiled.

The scene was drawing to the climax. Gordon watched through Eli’s eyes as the skylight of the White Forest hanger was ripped away in a shower of glass and twisted metal, then he saw as his own body and Alyx’s were lifted into the air, unable to do anything as the Advisors slowly descended upon them.

“Afterall,” the Man continued, “it’s a shame what happened to Doctor Vance.”

Gordon, still in the point of view of Eli, witnessed the scenery change as he was forced to lock eyes with his own body and Alyx. The fear and desperation that were present was haunting. It only made Gordon angrier for what happened to his friend. Then before the end came, Eli’s eyes flickered upwards to the doorway out of the hangar. The Man was standing there on top of a platform. That ever-present smirk splayed across his face. Eli’s eyes then went back to Alyx.

His final words may not have been heard in the flashback, but Gordon remembered them. ‘Close your eyes, honey.’ Don’t look. Worst of all, Eli’s death was because of Him. All because he was going to talk to Gordon about the so-called Mutual Friend. Gordon’s anger flared even brighter.

“Your discretion has been appreciated, but I’m afraid we can no longer work together.”

What? No! Gordon tried to move but found his body wouldn’t obey anymore.

“I’m here to terminate your contract, as my… employers are looking in a new direction. You can expect your… compensation upon arrival to White Forest. In the meantime, do keep our this our little secret.”

He slowly faded away, and Gordon was left with a sinking feeling in his stomach. On the one hand, he seemed to indeed be free of his influence without risk of being pulled away at a moment’s notice, but on the other, he suddenly had a fear for Alyx. She had to be the one He was looking at based on what happened in Victory Mine and Black Mesa.

If He planned on taking her again, then Gordon would only fight harder to protect her. Not because she needed it, but because he refused to let anyone else get swept up in that Man’s schemes.

Moving towards the helicopter, that sinking feeling turned to a solid stone pressing down as GLaDOS piped up.

“What in the hell was that?”

Chapter Text

“Com- in… -ver. Whi- For- over. Do y- -ead?” The voice flickered in an out of focus on the radio.

Moira was fiddling with the controls in an attempt to get the incoming transmission clearer, but it was proving to be a difficult task. It could be a number of issues when it came to the signal. Old equipment, broken hardware, long-distance, or even the satellites in orbit finally breaking down. It might not even be on Moira’s end of the connection.

Since she woke up that morning, Chell had been working non-stop to keep the ship going as efficiently as possible to reach land ahead of schedule, but she wasn’t an engineer. That’s something she knew, at least.

Moira had suggested they try to increase the signal on the radio to receive rebel frequencies. All rebels operate on different frequencies depending on where they lived, but she had been fortunate to once have been part of the underground city rebellion of City 12 in what used to be London. They would often communicate with the City 17 rebels to coordinate and get ideas of how to transport people across the wastelands and avoid Combine outposts.

After being moved to City 1 three years ago, Moira had quickly joined the rebel group there and took her spot as a communications specialist. Then a year ago, she had managed to break out of the city with a small group of citizens and rebels to brave the outside world. Then a few weeks ago, when City 17 fell, she had devoted her time to communicating with all rebel outposts within the broadcast distance of City 1. She had recently managed to contact a small yet thriving encampment located in the middle of the forest, located just over a hundred miles away from the warehouse district they had been living in. Being able to get a signal that far away with the beat-up equipment from before was an accomplishment.

So the idea of tinkering with new radios using Combine energy was exciting because she could manipulate the correct frequencies to piggyback on the Combine’s airwaves. She just had to find any potentially listening rebels across Europe.

The only problem was that some of the Combine tech relied on the outdated satellite grid from before the invasion. If that grid went down, then she’d have to go back to using citizen band radios boosted with satellite dishes and any scrap she could find.

So as Moira fiddled with the controls, she prayed that the signal would stabilize. And as if someone was listening to her prayers, she finally managed to get the frequency as the once static laced voice came through with clarity. 

If her suspicions were correct, whoever was on the other end was the same that pinged their location a couple hours ago.

“Come in. Can you read me, over!”

Chell placed a hand on Moira’s shoulder and smiled, “Great job.”

“I know,” Moira laughed as she picked up the headset and placed it over her head.

“This is the Aleana. Unknown signal, identify yourself,” Moira responded, voice turning losing the joviality she had before.

‘Since when did the ship have a name,’ Chell thought. She didn’t dwell on it long as she was focused on the radio.

“Aleana. State your location,” the voice responded.

“Not until you identify first,” Moira returned.

“Please state your location, Aleana… Prove yourself.”

Chell paused as she listened to the voice on the other side of the radio. It had trailed off as if they were thinking carefully of what to say next. Whoever was on the other side was probably just as suspicious of her ship as they were of the voice.

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen. This isn’t some wolf at the door, so no surprises from me,” Moira snapped back.

There was silence on the other end for a few moments before chuckling could be heard. “Read you loud and clear, Aleana. This is communications officer Zhao of White Forest Base. Alright, Aurelia, mind sharing your location now?”

Whatever had happened between the tense lines spoken between the two radio operators? Some sort of code, or was there something else? Chell would make a note to ask Moira about it later.

In the meantime, she would continue to listen in on the conversation between the two radio operators.

“Near the southern tip of Spain. Should be entering the Mediterranean Sea within the next few hours. Moira explained, body slouching in the chair with one hand going behind her head to rest.

“Glad to hear it. We can-“

“-Is that them?” Another voice called only it was muffled as it said from across the room from the radio operator on the other side of the line.

“Huh? Oh, uh- Hey!” 

Zhao was protesting and there was the sound of static on the other end, but that questioning voice was coming in loud and clear moments later. The moment Chell heard it, her entire body froze.

“This is Dr. Arne Magnusson of White Forest. Is this ship located as latitude 45.44 and longitude -9.45?” The man had an angry voice, but Chell could hear the frantic tone beneath it all.

“Just a hunch, but you guys the ones who pinged us yesterday?” Moira asked, voice turning more aggressive.

Chell felt like she was in a different place. She was no longer on the bridge, but instead... She was nowhere yet somewhere. She was in an area that didn’t exist, yet she’d known about it her entire life. Why did that voice trigger something in her?

“Just answer the question, would you? We don’t have long until the signal cuts out!”

“Dr. Magnusson, if you know out location, what can I do for you? You aren’t an RH, but you wish to speak with us. So, what do you want?” Moira drawled. She was obviously annoyed by the interruption he caused, but at the same time, she was interested in what could be important enough for the base to have pinged them the earlier and initiate contact.

There was a grunting sound on the other end, and the first waves of static were filtering in. “Confound it all, generator three is acting up again! Look, I’ll cut to the chase. There should be a woman with you. Dark hair with blue eyes. Her name is Chell!”

Moira’s eyes flickered to Chell.

Chell’s eyes flickered to the radio.

No one said anything as Chell found her hands reaching for the second set of headphones on the desk next to Moira. Her hands fumbled for a moment as she pressed the button to allow the other side to hear her voice.

“How do you know my name?” Despite her rush to grab the second headset, Chell’s voice came out hesitant.

There was a deafening silence on the other side before the man with the angry voice spoke again, only much softer than before. “Chell? Is that really you?”

The static was getting worse.

“You said your name was Dr. Magnusson? How do you know who I am?” Her voice was less nervous and more accusatory. Just how did the Magnusson guy know who she was?

“Chell, it’s me, A- Magnusson! We-“there was a long string of static then a slew of curses as the voice came back into frequency. “No- time… Come to White- rest. Explain every- alright? Dock -dinates!”

The signal was getting worse and worse, but Chell could understand what was being said. If she wanted answers, she needed to get to White Forest.

There was another ping over coms, but this time there was a solid message attached. With some quick work, Chell was able to get the point across. It was a set of coordinates.

“Copy that. I’ll be there soon.”

With a destination set, Chell instructed those on the bridge to head for the southeast coast of the Balkans.

“No, no, no! You are telling me that Gordon Freeman isn’t some evil genius with ninja skills?” Adrian laughed between bites of food.

Barney guffawed as he nodded his head. “Evil genius with ninja skills? Where did you get that idea? Unless MIT has a minor in being a supervillain.”

Adrian coughs violently as he nearly inhaled some food from laughing too hard. He pounded his chest and swallowed hard to get the food down before continuing. “Come on, Barn. I just find it hard to believe that a man who kills aliens and soldiers with ease on the regular spent his Saturday mornings in pajamas, eating cereal, and watching Star Trek reruns.”

Barney shrugs his shoulders and smiles, “I know. I tried to get him into Star Wars instead, but the nerd preferred his intergalactic field trips over saving a galaxy. I mean, Han Solo would kick Kirk’s ass.”

“You would say that, cowboy,” Adrian groaned.

“Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.”

Adrian smiled at that, “And there’s a movie we can agree on enjoying. Die Hard is a classic.”

“Damn straight. Used to watch it every Christmas with my folks back in Oregon. Christmas morning would be opening presents, a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, fruit, and chocolate chip pancakes. Then we’d watch Die Hard before the extended family would show up lunch,” Barney rambled. As he spoke, he gently prodded at the powdered eggs, boiled headcrab, and slices of a ration pack. Damn, he missed his old life.

Adrian smiled sadly at Barney. What had been only a few months to Adrian had been decades for his new friend. 

Oh god… Adrian frowned to himself as he thought of his parents. Had they survived the invasion? Did they believe him dead or that he somehow survived but was too far away to ever reach? They could be anywhere…

As if sensing what he was thinking about, Barney sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, man. I just get sentimental sometimes, and I forgot for a moment.”

Adrian shook his head. “It’s fine. I think it’s better that I don’t know what happened. Gives me something to hope for, right?”

Barney couldn’t count the number of times he heard that over the last twenty years. So many people have lost family members to skirmishes, separation by movements around the cities, or surprise raids in apartment blocks. So many people would find that the only family they had would be missing, and there was nothing they could do other than hope they were alive somewhere. Sure, some gave up on everything in the end, but it was the ones who had faith that kept Barney fighting.

There was once a woman who was separated from her husband by the civil protection. She didn’t know where he went, but she never gave up hope that he was alive somewhere. Barney had thought he was ‘taken for questioning,’ and that would be it for him, but she never gave up.

It was in the uprising of City17 that the outlying rebels stormed the city to aide the ones already inside. He had been leading a group of refugees through a sewer to get to the train station when they were ambushed by Overwatch Soldiers. The hopeful woman was with him and ensuring she always had a spare clip or magazine for him when he needed it in his fight. He was down to his last pulse rifle magazine when a band of rebels rushed in and saved the day.

Among those rebels was a man with tired eyes, but when he saw the woman, there was a spark of life. He couldn’t stop the woman as she ran into the arms of that man in the most touching and tearful reunion he had seen. They didn’t even care about the corpses and smell of feces, because they had each other once again.

It showed Barney just what hope could provide in such a hopeless situation.

“Yeah… Guess you’re right, Shep,” he smiled.

Moments later, they were disturbed by both Doctors Kleiner and Magnusson coming to their table, the latter slamming his hands flat with more force than necessary. His eyes were frantic as he looked between the two.

“Sorry, Barney. I tried to get him to be patient-“

“I need you to do something for me immediately, Calhoun,” Magnusson stated, voice leaving no room to question him. Barney had never seen the man with that expression before.

Barney floundered for a moment as he adjusted to the change in the man. “Uh… sure doc. What’cha need?”

“There’s a ship that’s going to be docking along the northern coast of Albania. I need you to go there with the marine and meet the people getting off and get them back here as soon as you can. It’s vital!”

“I have a name,” Adrian grumbled under his breath. If Magnusson heard him, he gave no sign of it as his focus was solely on Barney.

Then Magnusson did something that surprised both Barney and Kleiner as they knew him better than Adrian. The man reached out and placed both hands on Barney’s shoulders and said, “Please, Calhoun. I need you to do this for me…”

Holy shit… Magnusson willingly said the ‘P’ word and touched someone? Was he sick?

Barney was at a loss for words. His mouth was just opening and closing much like a fish at the shock of hearing Magnusson ask something politely.

“Can you do this for me?” Magnusson asked, voice softer than Barney had ever heard it before.

The man took in a large breath and nodded his head. “Y- Yeah… I… We can do that for you.”

Magnusson’s shoulders visibly relaxed as he removed his hands from Calhoun’s shoulders. Then he took a deep breath before straightening up and taking on his former sneer at everything as if they hadn’t seen his momentary lapse in character. “Be sure to leave as soon as you can. I’ll have the coordinates you need waiting for you in the garage.”

Magnusson didn’t dare look back at the two stunned men and the one confused soldier.

“I take it that is a rare occurrence?” Adrian said, wanting to try and get rid of the awkward silence.

Barney looked to Adrian as if he just remembered he was even there. “You could say that.”

“Indeed,” Kleiner added.

The atmosphere was still awkward, so Adrian decided to pipe up again. “By the way, Barney. Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie.”

Adrian was already laughing as Barney turned on him, “Okay, first of all-”

As Magnusson walked down the hall back to his lab, he pulled the grainy photo of Chell from his pocket and stared at it. Just a couple more days, and he’d get his answers.

Chapter Text

She’s walking down the hallway, but not of her own accord once again. She didn’t try to fight it like last time. Instead, she wanted to see where she would go. Just a few steps ahead her was another figure. Unlike the others in the past, she could see they were wearing a white lab coat and navy pants, but their face was obscured by that same mist from before.

“Yes, Ms. Chell. Since you are Freelance, you won’t get the same benefits as our fulltime employees, but that doesn’t mean you won’t still be treated any different. We’re all equals here in Aperture!” They said, their voice sounding warped and muted as if muffled by a rag.

“You may see things down here that can confuse you, but don’t worry about it. We know what we are doing. As for your security clearance, I’m afraid the highest we can go is level three. You’ll be allowed into all servers rooms, but none of the security stations or labs without supervision.”

She doesn’t say a word. Even if she wanted to, Chell doubted she even could.

“Now I’m going to hand you off to one of our chief programmers. He’s a little strange, but I think you’ll get along with him.”

As Chell follows the figure, another appears. The second figure is smaller and hunched over a desk. It’s fiddling with some papers and a pencil, jotting down notes, and checking over a clipboard.

“Ms. Chell, I’d like to introduce you to your supervisor. This fine gentleman is D-”

The name fades into the background as the scene slowly shifted around her.

As the mist enveloped her then settled, Chell found herself sitting at a desk with a computer monitor in front of her. Her hand was absentmindedly tapping on the counter with a pen in annoyance.

Question 12: Not including periods of mandatory silence, what is the longest you have gone voluntarily without talking?

Weird and personal. Oh well. Chell typed out answer eight. Greater than one year.

Question 14: What is your favorite color?

Hadn’t she already answered this question? Apparently, not as all the available answers were different. Whatever.

Question 15: Lying about my favorite color makes me feel:

1.] Sorry

2.] Not Sorry

Okay, the questionnaire was officially the worst.

She let out a groan and pushed herself back from the table. “So, what’s the point of this questionnaire again?”

The small hunched figure from before turned their body to look towards Chell. In their hand was an orange tube of some kind. “Just something all employees have to fill out every year,” the figure said.

Chell rolled her eyes and answered a few more questions.

She scratched at her head in annoyance once again. “Okay, but what do all the questions about cake have to do with our jobs?”

The figure shrugged their shoulders before popping something into their mouth just as the mist enveloped Chell’s sight once more.

It took a little longer to clear away, but when it did, she knew she was in an argument. There was an anger in her chest that flared as she looked to the figure in front of her. Although his features were hidden by that mist, Chell knew it was her supposed father from her previous dreams.

“The whole reason I took a job here was to try and talk to you! And now you are just going to ignore me?” Chell’s hand reached out to grab onto the lab coat of her retreating father. He wasn’t going to get away that easily.

“I don’t know what you want from me, Chell. I’m incredibly busy today and-“

“You are always busy! You never had time for me before I left home, so I guess that’s still the same,” she spat.

Her father turned to look down at her. Despite not having a visible face, she could feel the anger coming off the man. “It’s not that easy. My work is-“

“Important, I know. But what about me? It was like you just woke up and were a different person. You haven’t been the same since  that  day.”

He took a step back in a mild panic. “I didn’t think you remembered that.”

Chell’s fury spiked. “I don’t! That’s what I need from you. What happened on Take-“

“Don’t say it!”

“-Your Daughter to Work Day? Why can’t I remember?”

Her father answered by walking away, and the scene was once again overtaken by the white mist.

When the world came back into focus, Chell was in a cramped area between two terminal towers, a portable computer in her lap, and a mess of wires connecting from the towers to her laptop. She had a headset attached to her ear, it was plugged into the computer as well. There was a voice coming through the earpiece, but no words could be understood.

“So, I got it hooked into the system. I’ve already set up my proxies and other safeguards to act as a firewall. Don’t worry, my VPN is undetectable. The data should be transmitted back to you soon,” Chell said as she readjusted the headset to sit better on her head.

The voice was saying something, but it refused to become understandable. It was like the earpiece was covered in cotton and submerged in water.

“Yeah. I’ll see what I can find... Still, I’m looking at their current projects, and they are working on something big that’s protected by several firewalls of security. It will take some time for me to get past those.”

The voice sounded annoyed.

“Look, I’m doing what I can here… Ugh! Yes! Stop asking me already, okay? It’s true, and I’ve already changed my employee records. Not that it would have happened in the first place. They labeled me too stubborn…”

There were several minutes of silence when that voice piped in again.

“You asking me that isn’t going to make this go any faster. I’m only scratching the surface as there is a lot more going to this project. Although I do have a name for you. Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. I get the DOS, but what is the genetic lifeform aspect?”

The voice on the other end had an exasperated tone but then turned to the same questioning tone from before.

“…Why the hell is there a cake recipe in here written entirely in binary?”

The voice didn’t respond as the scene changed once more.

The next scene is her feeling panicked. Her hands and gripping onto that smaller person’s shoulders and taking deep breaths.

“Alright, just breathe. It’s nothing. You know that, and I know that,” Chell said, despite the anxiety in her chest, the words sounded calm.

The man’s breathing was shaky, but as he heard Chell’s voice, it grounded him back to the present. “You are real, right?”

“Of course, I am.”

“How can I know for sure?”

“You just have to trust me.”

Chell then picked up her supervisor’s sketchbook and made a quick doodle in the corner. “See? I couldn’t do that if I weren’t real.”

He eventually calmed down, but as he walked by a few minutes later, she noticed he had added wings and a heart to the little box she drew.

It made her smile for some reason.

The scenes shifting in and out of view were becoming old to her. Despite knowing she was in a dream, she couldn’t wake up. Being forced along for a ride through what could be her memories wasn’t exciting enough if she couldn’t see the faces of the people she was speaking to.

When her surroundings cleared once again, Chell found herself back in the server room once more. She was tucked into a corner with her laptop, but there was an incessant feeling of something nudging her arm and knee while she sat on the floor.

A quick glance revealed it to be a cat of all things. What was it doing in the server room? It didn’t belong there. As long as it didn’t chew on any of the wires, she wasn’t going to get rid of it.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m transmitting the data now. No need to get your tighty-whities in a bunch,” Chell groaned into her earpiece.

The same voice from before, although completely non-understandable, spoke on the other end. They sounded angry.

“Look, I’m going as fast as I can here, sir. I may need to finish this up later because I need to get back to my post soon, or someone is going to notice me missing.”

The cat that had been trying to curl up into Chell’s lap is lifted and placed away. It meows loud enough for the person on the other end of the line to pause their tirade to say something else.

“It’s just a cat. Aperture had a ‘Bring Your Cat to Work Day’ apparently… I-“ Chell had cut herself off as the lights in the server room went dead momentarily to only be replaced by a foreboding red light fading in and out. Emergency lighting? No. It’s probably a false alarm.

Then she heard the first scream.

Her associate on the other end of the line was in the middle of saying something else, but Chell cut them off. “Something’s wrong. I’ve got to go.”

She didn’t allow them to reply before killing the connection and shutting the laptop. Chell had a sudden urge to keep quiet. No matter what happened next, she couldn’t say a single word.

Without another thought, Chell stood to her feet, lifted the laptop over her head, and brought it crashing down to the floor. She did this a couple more times until the innards were skittering around the room. Picking through the wreckage, she grabbed the memory cards and hard drive before rushing out into the hall.

Her lungs were instantly assaulted by a sickly green gas. Having never seen it before, Chell held her breath as she moved through the hall as fast as she could. She saw a few people stumbling through the corridor, but then fall to the ground, unable to get back up. She ignored them. She had to keep moving, focusing on herself, or possibly suffer the same fate.

Her lungs were burning as she reached the elevator. Still, no matter how many times she swiped her ID, the security pad kept flashing the [Access Denied] light.

She couldn’t take it anymore as she let out a breath and inhaled some of the sickly gas. It didn’t have an immediate effect, so Chell held her breath once again and moved away from the elevator, trying to find another exit.

The further she moved, the more people she saw, but most were barely moving on the ground or not moving at all. Chell’s mind was going fuzzy by that point. Her fingers had gone numb, and she was having a hard time remembering where she had been or gone.

She just knew she had to keep moving and not say a word.

Her vision was getting blurry, and she couldn’t remember why she was trying to hold her breath, so she didn’t. The world was becoming fuzzier by the second, and all she wanted was to sleep.

Her bedroom had to be close, right? Isn’t that what she was looking for? It had to be just around the corner. Why was her apartment complex so complicated to maneuver?

Her eyes were closed as she stumbled into her bedroom. Strange, she didn’t remember her room being so white or her bed looking like an egg. She was too tired to care. She had some trouble getting into the bed, what with the strange glass cover someone had put on top.

Once the cover was peeled back, Chell slipped into her bed and fell into her slumber, not really being able to move anymore as the glass moved back into place, effectively sealing her inside.

There was no mist this time. There was just darkness.

A darkness that gave way to bleary eyes and a grayish-blue ceiling that was distorted by a glass film sliding back.

The only thing on her mind was two questions, “How did I get here?” and “Why can’t I remember anything?”

Then… a voice.

“Hello, and again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center.”

Chell didn’t say a word.

She sat up with a gasp as she was assaulted once more by her dreams. It has been two days since her conversation with the people at White Forest, and yet she had the same dream two nights in a row. She couldn’t be sure if they were actually memories or if she was just trying to fill in the gaps somehow in a desperate attempt to know who she was.

It was driving her mad.

As she was slipping her long-fall boots on, one of the rebels appeared near her bunk with a CP helmet under his arm. “It’s time,” he said.

Chell nodded as she reached under her bunk and pulled out the Portal gun.

Chell made sure to grab her own CP helmet from under the bunk as well before moving out of the sleeping quarters. She was soon flanked by Crow and Apollo as she made her way to the bridge of the ship.

Several of the other rebels were walking around on the deck with helmets already on and attempting to look busy.

The shipping crates had come in handy in an unexpected way when the ship had come within range of a Combine hailing signal. When they realized the docks they had been heading for was currently being used as a terminal for Combine forces, there had been an initial panic. Still, it had been Roger who suggested the idea of a Trojan Horse situation. They just needed to look the part, and one of the crates just happened to be filled with uniforms. In all, there were some people dressed as Overwatch Soldiers, two Overwatch Elites, and the rest were standard CP units.

“Remember, stay out of sight until it’s safe,” Chell instructed her vortigaunt friends.

They both bowed to her. Apollo moved away from the windows while Crow stayed by her side. “Traveler, this one shall keep watch over you in the battle to come.”

“What about Apollo?” Chell asked, eyes flicking in the direction they went.

“We have discussed at length, and my kin will aide the others, but I shall stay by your side.” Crow gave one of their crooked smiles while moving away from the windows to stand in a corner. Chell looked to Crow once more before slipping the helmet over her head and clicking it into place. The familiar beeping noise entered her ears as her head pressed into the pressure pads. Moira had done some tinkering with the suits to enable the rebels to communicate with each other for privacy with just the click of a button. Everyone was thankful for that. She also fixed it so people wouldn’t have to hear the vocoded voice of friends.

“Remember,” Moira said after a couple minutes of silence, “keep chatter to a minimum. We need to stay vigilant.”

There was the sound of people checking in to confirm her command.

“Alright, Chell, they got us hooked up to a ferry. Just give us the signal, and we’ll light the place up,” Rita said. She was one of the people in a standard soldier uniform. Someone said she needed to be in the elite uniform as she was a ‘heavy gunner’ and needed the protection, but she refused based on losing visibility with the single red lens compared to the standard lenses of the soldier helmets.

They had also argued that Chell needed an elite or even a soldier uniform, but she refused. It was too bulky and to properly move around when she tried it on. Yes, it had better padding than the CP uniform, but she needed speed over protection. To compensate for lack of protection, Chell made sure to keep one of the spare heart plates tucked into the chest of her jacket.

When they had arrived close to the port, they had been hailed by the Combine post. Their instructions were to stop the ship in a designated area to idle where they would be met with a ferry. It would then attach itself to the ferry and be pulled the rest of the way into port for docking purposes.

The dock itself was, at one point, a seaside community going by the still-standing buildings around. If it wasn’t for all the Combine activity and low sea level, it might have been beautiful.

If Chell wasn’t so preoccupied with planning the assault, she might have noticed how desperate they were to get the ship into port. She was more focused on ensuring that everyone played their part in pretending they were an ordinary Combine ship.

When they were only fifty yards from shore, Chell clicked her coms button, “Rita… Do it.”

There was a tense moment of silence while everyone waited. The missiles Chell and Roger had reprogrammed had been loaded up into the cannons as soon as the plan had been set.

So when there was a jolt through the entire ship from the launch, everyone on deck gripped their weapons a little tighter, as the missiles launched high into the sky. At the apex of their journey, the sun glinted off them beautifully, and all in attendance watched as they fell to the earth, increasing speed by the second, to only bathe the ground and surrounding buildings in a blaze of shrapnel and destruction.

Then the gunfire started.

The rebels on the deck started firing their weapons into whatever they saw moving on the docks, not wanting to give them any chance to mount a counteroffensive. They had the high ground after all. It was a battle of attrition, and they had plenty of ammo.

Rita was up on the deck and firing her weapon through the smoke at anything that was moving. Chell was running across back and forth, dropping off caches of ammo for those running low. Roger was calling out orders for fire to be localized on specific points.

The chill ran down everyone’s spines as the deep mechanical groan filled the air, followed by heavy footsteps. In the distance, everyone could see the trees thrashing wildly as something big was coming towards them.

No one had thought about it since it couldn’t have been seen, but once the Strider made its way out of the trees, everyone started to go into a panic.

“STRIDER!” Someone yelled as if everyone didn’t already see it.

Chell saw Rita, her helmet gone, pause for a moment to look at the giant synth before grabbing two other rebels by the collars of their uniforms and barking orders. They nod at her before running back to the bowels of the ship.

Chell called out for the mounted guns to be fired at the Strider, but they didn’t seem to do anything. It stepped closer, and she could only watch as it unleashed high powered rounds of pulse fire in their direction. One rebel didn’t get a chance to run as he took a shot through his collarbone and obliterating everything in its path. Another rebel took a round to the arm, but it wasn’t fatal. Although it would result in the man being unable to fight.

Everyone else ducked below the edge or behind shipping containers as the synth continued its onslaught. Chell barely managed to dive behind a shipping container in time; the metal denting and sending off sparks only inches from her face where she moved to hide.

“Anyone have rockets? We need rockets!” Someone yelled. No one made a move, too busy trying to stay away from the hail of bullets.

Then the firing stopped.

Peering out from behind the storage container, Chell could see the Strider spreading its legs wider and lowering its triangular body to the ground. The giant cannon that had been waving wildly with each step was pointed straight at the ship. As Chell continued to watch, light seemed to blend and gather into a concentrated point at the tip. Then it released.

The beam of pure energy hit the side of the ship with enough force to nearly knock Chell off her feet. Some of the other rebels did fall from the power, but they were up and ready for orders the next moment.

There was a crackling sound in Chell’s ears as the com device she had strapped to her ear fizzled to life. “We’re taking on water! We need to get everyone off the ship!”

“We can’t until that thing is dead!” Chell called back, using the MP7 she had hanging at her side to fire off a few blind shots at it. The Strider responded with its high caliber rounds towards her hiding place.

“Leave it to us, Chell!” Rita said through the coms. There was the sound of rushing water in the background, and it made Chell freeze up.

Before she could even ask, Chell watched as another rocket was launched high into the air, but this one didn’t come down in a straight line. It changed course mid-flight and made contact with the triangular body of the Strider. It made a pained noise as it turned its attention to where the attack had come from.

“Now’s your chance, commander! Get moving!” Rita yelled into the coms. “I’ll catch up!”

Chell didn’t feel right, but she had to keep moving. If she stopped, she would die.

Looking around, Chell tried to peer through the fog to get an idea of where to go or what was a useable portal surface. Then she saw it. On the roof of a building, over a hundred yards away, was a concrete shack that would lead to a set of service stairs. In an instant, she fired off a blue portal and smiled when it stuck. She shot the orange one at her feet before activating her coms again. “Everyone! Fall back to me! We are going to shore.” 

Chell went through first. The change in the direction of gravity was something she was used to, so she made sure to reach through the portal and drag each person out and help them as they came through. She had nearly twenty people on the roof with her, but there was still some left on the ship, and the Strider was focusing its attacks on the large canon on the back of the ship. Another missile fired off and hit the strider again. It started leaking a yellow ooze and looked as if it would fall over at any moment.

“Rita, talk to me!” Chell called, the roar and splashing of water was still prevalent.

There was a sputtering as if someone spitting out water. “Working on it!”

Not good enough. These were her people, and Chell wasn’t going to let someone die if she could help it. When Crow finally came through, Chell jumped back through the Portal. Once through, Chell heard the sound of footsteps behind her. She expected to see Crow but was surprised to see someone else.

Turning around, it was Roger. She opened her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it. “I’m going with you! She’s too stubborn for her own good!”

Chell didn’t have the time to argue with him, so she turned back and started running across the deck of the ship. The Strider fired at their direction momentarily, but the shots missed them due to the Strider’s weakened state.

Roger and Chell slid into the interior of the ship and beelined their way to where Rita and her cohorts were. The entire ship was shaking, and Chell could already hear the water pouring into the vessel from their location. They needed to move fast.

Reaching the staircase that would lead to Rita was blocked by a torrent of water gushing at high speed to the opposite side of the corridor and running down to fill the lower levels.

“It’s the only way…” Roger said.

He was right. There was no other way to her, and the lower levels were filling fast. They had to hurry or risk losing her.

Chell was surprised when Roger took her hand and started counting down from 3. When he said go, they jumped from the top of the stairs and into the powerful stream of water rocketing across the hall. The water hurt. It felt like the time she took several rounds of fire from one of the aperture turrets in her leg and side. Thank Cave that they didn’t use actual gunpowder or she may not have survived...

Her grip on the portal gun tightened as to not lose it, and she made a conscious effort to keep it above the water. Despite Chell finding the portal gun half-submerged in a puddle, she didn’t want to find out what would happen if the entire thing got wet. She remembered the warnings.

They pushed their way through the continuing to rise water as another boom echoed through the ship. Either the Strider had attacked with its strange canon again, or another missile was launched. Either way, they couldn’t stop to rest.

There was the sound of something crashing against the ship, and Chell felt everything shift upwards then back down. With renewed vigor, she and Roger kept pushing forward until they came into the room with Rita.

She was slumped back, head barely above the water as she blinked slowly at her surroundings. All the controls were dead, but a quick look around showed no one else around. Roger was at Rita’s side in seconds, holding her close, so she wasn’t struggling to keep her head above water. Chell only then noticed the water around Rita was red.

“Said I’d catch up. Didn’t know when, though,” Rita said as she talked through her pain.

“The others?” Roger asked.

Rita shook her head. “One was heading up the stairs when the bastard hit us. The other had to manually detonate the missiles when the controls went dead. Don’t know where they are now…”

Chell looked back, frowning that she hadn’t noticed anyone. Maybe they were already on deck? No. She would have seen them.

“We’ve got to go! We can’t stay here any longer!” Chell shouted as she aimed her portal gun at the nearest wall.

“Wait!” Roger called.

Too late, Chell shot the orange portal again, and it was like being sucked into a vacuum. All three were pulled towards the portal as the water attempted to drain from the ship. Roger managed to keep hold of Rita as they went on a rapid adventure through the hole in reality.

Chell felt herself come out on the roof, but her journey didn’t stop there. The force of the water was sending her closer and closer to the edge of the roof. Water cascaded over the side like a waterfall. She didn’t see any other rebels caught in the stream, but she had to get free. 

Without thinking, Chell started firing off the blue portal again in hopes of getting it to stick to anything. And luck is what she had as she felt the water stop pushing her almost immediately. Still, she didn’t take into effect the amount of force two people directly behind her would have if they crashed into her back.

Had Rita and Roger not been there, Chell might have stopped with only her feet hanging over the edge of the roof, but seeing as they were there… There was the moment of relief, then pain, then weightlessness as she was hit hard enough to send her toppling over. It was a four-story building, and she caught glimpses of rebels having stormed the ground to take out the soldiers, and the dead Strider sprawled across the sinking ship in the harbor. Then finally a second, still alive, Strider making its way out of the trees and towards the fighting.

Chell landed hard, and she was instantly running for cover behind a large slab of concrete. She stayed there as she assessed her portal gun for damage, the steps of the Strider pounding the pavement coming closer.

She heard yelling from above and saw Roger and Rita asking if she was okay. She responded by raising a hand in the air and waving. They then turned their eyes up, and both scrambled back from the edge of the roof, and presumably, into the stairwell. Chell knew the Strider was coming closer, but if she moved, then she’d risk being seen. Her concrete slab overhang was the closest cover, and anything else would risk her getting taken down by the powerful pulse fire.

The strider stopped walking, one of its long legs crashing down only feet from Chell’s hiding place. All the while, she had heard the gun firing at anything that moved, but it grew silent. It made a loud groaning noise, and Chell dared a peek at the creature. It was squatting down, that strange bending of light that seemed to be drawn to the cannon appeared. The energy being brought to the synth was making Chell’s scalp tickle at how close she was. It hadn’t seen her, but the Strider was aimed at the building she had just fallen from. 

She was too close to it. If she stayed, she’d be caught in the blast as well. 

Time seemed to slow down around her. She saw a group of three rebels running out from a hole in the wall of the building, one of them firing shots in a wild spray at an approaching soldier. They weren’t looking as the bending light reached a crescendo, and Chell’s body reacted before her mind caught up.

Her finger twitched on the orange portal as it made contact with the ground beneath the Strider’s leg.

The thing about a Strider’s warp cannon is that it has massive kickback to the point the Strider had to squat down to position its weight correctly or risk falling over. So when Chell’s portal connected, the Strider was in a precarious position with its center of gravity.

Chell watched as the leg fell through the portal, its massive carapace hitting the ground. Before it could even adjust, she closed off the orange portal and saw yellow liquid pouring from where the leg used to be. She had always wanted to test what would happen to something so big being cut between two portals…

Then the cannon fired.

Being so close to it made Chell’s ears ring, and everything around her was like being underwater. Her concrete cover was destroyed, and she went with it, but instead of hitting hard ground, Chell landed against something soft. She smiled at seeing Crow.

“Greetings. I apologize for being away after my promise, but someone decided to run off without me,” he said with a sheepish, yet at the same time accusatory, grin.

She had knocked the vort to the ground, and as she crawled out of his lap, they helped each other to their feet. She saw a line of yellow blood oozing from Crow’s arm, but he seemed to be fine everywhere else. Chell, on the other hand, realized she was bleeding from her head, her left wrist hurt from falling off the roof, and it was difficult to breathe, but she was alive. At least that was something.

Turning around, Chell saw how the Strider’s cannon had blown a crater into the ground, but due to its body being within such close proximity to the blast, half of the carapace had been blown away. As they walked past it, Chell couldn’t resist kicking it.

One by one, rebels starting filtering their way into a cleared off area, free of any soldier corpses or potholes from explosions. Out of the twenty or so rebels, only nine were left. Some were using each other for support, while others picked through the wreckage, looking for anything of use.

She felt eyes on her. She did this. She cut the group from over twenty to less than half, and it was her fault.

Then something surprising happened. Someone placed a hand on her shoulder and laughed, “Good job out there. You managed to get us to victory.”

After that, the small group offered up humble praises for her ingenuity and quick thinking. No one had ever seen a Strider killed in one shot before, so seeing how she got it to kill itself was terrific. She neglected to mention that it was an accident in killing it.

Once the initial buzz of victory vanished, the group began to administer medical attention to each other. Chell finally got to see first-hand what and how the medical kits were used. They were either in two forms. A glass canister or a white box with a larger cartridge attached. The canisters were filled with a green viscous fluid that, when spread across scrapes, the skin would stitch itself back together as if nothing had happened. For more severe wounds, every kit had an attached needle that would inject the fluid directly into the body and provide extensive work.

Chell remembered how the grub the vortigaunts had crushed and spread across her back contained a glowing yellow ball that behaved similarly. Is that what the goo was created from?

There weren’t enough kits to go around, so only the most severe wounds were treated, while other scrapes and bruises would be left to heal themselves. Chell’s ribs were deemed vital as it interfered with her breathing and to ensure they weren’t broken. So she was given one of the small canisters injected into her side to fix the cracked rib she suffered from falling off the roof.

When they started pilfering through the wreckage, it became clear that the Combine was low on health kits and ammo. Made sense for why they were in such a hurry to get the ship to port, but what was going on with their munitions?

As the group gathered up their supplies, a new noise could be heard. A loud droning noise of an engine.

“Aw crap! Reinforcements!” Someone yelled.

Everyone got into position, Chell being flanked by Crow and Apollo, but no one was prepared to see a yellow muscle car tear up the road in their direction

It screeched to a halt, small stones bouncing around the tires as they left black lines on the hard concrete ground. Two people jumped out, guns at their sides, but they didn’t raise them to fire. Instead, they just looked at the group of rebels in relief as they took in the damage around the port.

The first man was around Chell’s age with brown hair, denim pants, an urban camouflage shirt, and some sort of vest. His expression was calculating as he took everything in, but paused when he saw Chell. He looked at her for several seconds before blinking a few times and shifting his gaze to the other guy from the car.

The second guy was older, with dark hair graying at the temples. He wore a full civil protection uniform minus the helmet, but he had a faraway look to his eyes as he looked at everything. When he turned back to the group, he had an easy-going smile on his face that would make anyone trust him.

So, naturally, Chell was skeptical.

He looked the group over before clapping his hands together and allowing his smile to grow, “First things first. I’m Barney. That’s Adrian. Now… Who's in charge here?”

Chapter Text

“First thing’s first. I’m Barney. That’s Adrian. Now… Who’s in charge here?”

Barney looked around the small group of rebels who all looked ready to fall over at a moment’s notice from the battle. Among the living were five men, four women, and three vortigaunts, one of which was wearing a long leather coat.

The woman who was standing in the middle of the group while being flanked by two of the vortigaunts held a strange device in her arms, but Adrian paid it no mind. He was too focused on her eyes.

They were filled with a raging fire of anger from the battle, but they were also cold as ice in the way she seemed to analyze everything around her. There was a trickle of drying blood caked down the left side of her face that started at her forehead to end at her cheek. She reminded Adrian of the lioness he would see in a nature documentary, watching and waiting for her moment to strike.

Adrian noticed how the other rebels would cast looks in her direction. Yet, she was the only one to keep her focus squarely on Barney and himself.

He only realized he’d been staring too long when she locked eyes with him. He flinched under her gaze.

He meant to apologize, but what came out instead was, “Neat gun.”

Her eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down, “Thanks…”

“You in charge?”

She shook her head. “No one’s in really in charge here.”

Adrien narrowed his eyes in thought as he took in her disheveled appearance. Right before they left, Magnusson had fished out a heavily creased piece of printer paper with a grainy black and white photo on it. If her face was free of dirt and blood, he believed it could be who they were looking for.

“Are you her?” He finally asked.

She finally lowered her strange gun and rolled her eyes, “Need to be more specific.”

Adrian frowned at that. “Are you Chell?”

“Could be, but what’s it to you,” she growled, the gun lifting upwards slightly.

Adrian pursed his lips in anger while he heard Barney start laughing at the exchange. “Fair enough. We’re from White Forest, and we were sent by Dr. Magnusson to find someone named Chell.”

“The Magnusson!” The vortigaunts all chimed at once.

Crow stepped forward and gestured to Chell, “This is the Traveler that you seek. She has fought hard and prevailed in her journey.”

Chell shot a look of mild panic to Crow but schooled her expression back to a neutral one. “How can we trust you?” She questioned.

“Fear not, for it is hard to find anyone more reliable than the Calhoun and Shephard,” the Vortigaunt in the duster answered.

“You know them, Eastwood?” Moira asked.

Eastwood, the vortigaunt, shook his head, “Not personally. Our kin share tales of the valiant efforts of those in this unending war. They speak highly of the Calhoun and Shephard.”

Chell looked between the Vortigaunts and the two men. She noticed Adrian had a sheepish look on his face, while Barney rubbed at his own. Her eyes narrowed at them in suspicion before allowing the portal gun to hand at her side. “Okay. I believe you.”

“Just like that?” Adrian cocked an eyebrow at her.

Chell nodded. “Just like that.”

Adrian looked out the corner of his eye and saw Barney smile and nod his head. “Glad we got that settled, but now we have a new issue. How are we going to get everyone back to White Forest? We weren’t expecting such a large group.”

A murmur went through the group on how long it could take to get to White Forest on foot, but then Eastwood stepped forward and gestured towards the tree line. “Fear not, for this one has spotted transport.”

Adrian looked back to the trees and squinted. Just near the trees in a secluded area protected by a few tall pines stood three of the strange geometric vehicles he’d seen flipped over on the drive to the coast.

Barney sighed. “No good. We need clearance to operate them properly, and I doubt my old civil protection codes will work on them.”

Chell, or so Adrian believed as she neither confirmed nor denied, wasted no time striding through the rubble, her strange boots clicking against the concrete, then becoming muffled as the ground became dirt and grass.

“What is she doing?” Adrien asked Barney as they watched Chell try to open the door of the APC, but only to find it locked.

Barney shrugged as he watched her crawl beneath the vehicle. “I think she’s trying to hotwire it… But it won’t work. Those things were designed to be tamper-proof from the outside.”

“Maybe you could go help her? You seem to know more about them than I do,” Adrian suggested.

Barney watched her for another couple moments as she watched her crawl out from under the APC. “Crow! Apollo! I could use your help!”

The wrinkled vortigaunt and the orange-eyed vortigaunt moved past Barney and jogged out to Chell. Seeing them move to her broke Barney from whatever stupor he had been in and followed after along with Adrian.

When the men arrived, Adrian noticed Chell’s expression had shifted from a guarded look to steely determination. She had a strange curved spike in her hand and in the other was a black metal box with wires coming out of it

“You don’t want to tear that off. It could lock the entire vehicle off and render it unusable,” Barney said as he crouched down near Chell.

Adrian watched as Chell rolled her eyes. “I’m not getting rid of it!” She then proceeded to hold it out to the Vortigaunts, who took it with a smile. “Mind giving this some juice?”

The more wrinkled vortigaunt channeled green energy between its hands before allowing it to flow through the metal box and into the vehicle.

Barney let out a sound of protest but was silenced when the APC’s lights started flashing wildly for several seconds and all doors to crack open. Chell laughed at the result. “Didn’t think that would work!”

She then disappeared into the APC, and the men could hear her fiddling around with the controls. Moments later, the sound of the engine turning on could be heard.

Adrian laughed at Barney’s stunned face. Whoever she was, Adrian liked her.

It took just over an hour to get three of the APCs running and for the rebels to be on the road to White Forest. Barney took the yellow muscle with Moira. Chell, Adrian, Roger, Rita, and Apollo were in one vehicle, while Crow, Eastwood, and the rest of the rebels were divided into the others. Each APC, besides Barney’s, had a vortigaunt to share information with each other.

Had it not been for the vehicles, there was no telling how long the trip would take to White Forest. If they keep a good pace, the group would arrive before sunrise the next day. Much faster than the pace they had set to arrive at the port.

Chell took over the driver seat without asking if anyone else wanted to take control. Rita took the passenger seat, that left Adrian, Roger, and Crow sitting in the back. Adrian was squeezed between Roger and the back of the driver seat chair, while Crow was sitting across from him, the large central eye fixed on him. He felt like it was staring, but it was hard to tell.

He couldn’t help but think back to Black Mesa and how he killed several of them in his pursuit to escape that hell hole. He joined the Marines to protect the people he cared about, but he never expected to fight aliens. It was one of those jokes people had growing up about training to fight E.T. who wanted to steal Earth’s resources, but he never thought it would happen.

Then the shit hit the fan…

If it wasn’t for Barney clueing him in on what happened over the last two decades, Adrian would most likely not hesitate to plunge his knife into the eye of another vortigaunt.

The memories of driving his blade into the eye of a vortigaunt while fighting off the black ops assholes made Adrian squeeze his eyes shut. He couldn’t think about that. He had to keep moving forward or risk being distracted. A Marine can’t have their thoughts wander away from the mission, or they risk getting themselves and their family dead.

There was a deep rumbling sound from the other side of the APC. Looking up, Adrian realized it was the vortigaunt humming. He was sure the vort was looking at him then. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet the Shepherd of Men,” it finally said.

Adrian huffed in amusement. “I’m sorry?”

“You are the Shephard, are you not?”

“Yeah… my name is Adrian Shephard…”

“Then you are the one my brethren speak of in high regard to almost the same level as the Freeman,” Crow said.

Adrian remembered how the Vortigaunt back at White Forest called him the Shepherd of Men but never thought much about it. He killed several of them in the past, yet the ones he met acted as if he was their hero. Adrian didn’t think of himself as a hero. He had only tried to survive the bowels of Black Mesa. He was meant to die in that loading bay with the giant green octopus worm, but Houdini’s asshole of a cousin with the glowing green eyes had other plans.

What he wouldn’t give to wipe the smug look off that bastard’s face.

He was pulled from his thoughts by someone smacking his knee. He jerked up to see Chell reaching behind the seat, without taking her eyes off the road, and was trying to get his attention. “You awake? I asked what White Forest is like!”

“Oh, sorry. It’s… it’s nice? I’d only been there for a few days when I was sent out to find you with Barney,” Adrian answered, amusement in his voice.

“Really? Why send the new guy?”

 Adrian shrugged, despite Chell not seeing it, “Guess quality military training is hard to come by?”

That made Chell chuckle. “Military? They still have some soldiers up around to train people?”

Adrian furrowed his brow, not a hundred percent sure how to answer. He couldn’t just come out and say what happened to him. No one would believe him, yet this girl somehow knew Dr. Magnusson despite looking around Adrian’s age. She would have been a kid twenty years ago, and he doubted a child would be spending time around the prickly cactus that is Arne Magnusson.

Was she some kind of long lost daughter? Adrian quickly shook that thought away. The girl clearly had some sort of Asian descent and possibly something else, but she in no way resembled Arne Magnusson.

The thought was confusing him to no end, so he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “So how do you know Magnusson?”

She was silent for so long that Adrian didn’t think she heard him. It wasn’t until she sighed, “I wish I knew.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means I don’t know!” Chell snapped. She then sighed loudly while everyone looked towards her. “Just don’t talk about it, okay?”

Her outburst made Shepherd visibly flinch in his seat. He heard the other man, Roger, snort before looking over at Adrian. “Tough luck, man.”

Adrian ignored the jab.

Roger, realizing he wasn’t going to get a response, turned his attention back to the front. “How are you holding up there, Rita? Need a break?”

“I’m fine. I can go a little longer,” the woman yawned.

Adrian noticed how Chell’s head swiveled to look over at Rita. “Wrong. You and Roger switch places.”

“Chell, I’m fine. Promise,” Rita said, stifling another yawn.

“No. I’m vetoing that. Get in the back and rest. You got hit pretty hard and nearly drowned-“

“But-“

“Now, Rita,” Chell commanded, using that same tone she had just used with Adrian.

Rita didn’t say a word as she sighed and began to unbuckle herself. She then began to maneuver herself into the back.

Roger had then stood up and reached out to grab Rita to help her sit, one of his hands gripping her bicep, the other on her side.

Then the vehicle hit a sudden bump in the road, and it caused the two people standing up to scramble to hold on to something. One of Roger’s hands, the one on Rita’s side, fumbled to grab onto something. What he caught wasn’t the most ideal.

Rita looked down at Roger’s hand and sighed loudly, “Mind getting your hand off my ass?”

Roger’s eyes widened as he realized what he grabbed, but it quickly morphed into a smirk. “Sorry, but it’s just so soft…” He immediately let go of her and allowed Rita to sit down without support.

Before he could get away, Rita sent a quick boot to Roger’s own behind. He managed to catch himself on the back of the driver and passenger seats from the force of the kick. Adrian couldn’t help but chuckle at the blush that crept onto Roger’s face.

That was how the trip went as the sun finally set, and the group drove through the night. The caravan would stop every couple hours for people to stretch their legs and relieve themselves if needed, but after each break, someone else would take over driving.

He noticed how Barney wouldn’t let anyone else drive. He’d have to confront him about it soon, but it wasn’t the time or place. Besides, Adrian would want to have Sven there when it happened. The large Russian man wasn’t someone Adrian wished to cross.

The cold gray light of dawn was just fading into orange when Adrian started to see familiar radio towers in the distance. Relief flooded his senses at the prospect of finally arriving back to base.

Back in Arizona, he had a routine whenever they’d be relieved of duty for the day. His first stop would be a shower with water as hot as it could go. Second would be his shoes would be polished, before he’d finally pull out a magazine or comic book. Still, he’d only get one or two pages read before succumbing to sleep.

Adrian knew he wouldn’t be able to do everything like before, but he would just need to find a new routine.

As the vehicles pulled up to the gates and the group of rebels hopped out, it was hard not to notice the number of armed rebels outside, ready to open fire. It made Adrian smile that they were hesitant. For god’s sake, they showed up in the vehicles belonging to the enemy. Anyone would want to have a weapon ready to fight.

Once it was clear that there was no danger from the group, the White Forest rebels rushed in to check for the wounded. Everyone was taken to the medical bay to be treated for the various injuries that couldn’t be healed from the Strider battle due to the shortage of supplies.

Rita was looking a little wobbly on her feet, but Roger was able to keep her steady as he lead her through the gates. The two soon disappeared into the base proper. That’s how everyone moved towards the infirmary. Some limping, others being practically carried, but all heading towards the sanctuary.

Chell was limping a little, so Adrian approached her and shifted her arm to loop across his shoulders.

She ripped herself away from his touch, her eyes cold as steel. “I didn’t ask for your help!”

Adrian sighed as he held up his hands, palms outwards. “True, but I was just trying to help.”

“If I wanted it, I would ask, or you could offer it without barging in,” Chell snapped back, eyes full of ice.

Adrian pursed his lips in annoyance. But realized she was right. Yeah, he could be brash at times, but he’d never be allowed to hesitate in the field. Hesitating would lead to people dying, and his squad would always help each other pick up the slack. Whether that was carrying each other to the med bay or helping someone carry a heavy bag, a Marine couldn’t do anything without their brothers’ help.

Chell wasn’t a marine. She was a civilian who had seen some heavy shit.

Adrian recognized that coldness to her eyes. He had seen it in the men who had seen war zones and combat. They all came back with a faraway gaze or eyes like daggers. Half the people Adrian had come across since arriving at White Forest had one of the two looks, but Chell’s eyes… They were the eyes of someone who had fought for their life. The eyes of a survivor.

Adrian rubbed at the back of his head and groaned, “I’m sorry. It- It’s a habit. It was drilled into me to always pick up the slack for others, and- I don’t really know anymore. It’s hard to be around people again… Normal people, at least.”

Although her eyes still had the impenetrable ice wall, it almost appeared as if some of it melted. The corners of her eyes softened the tiniest amount, and her tight lips loosened. “I can understand that. If you want to help, that’s fine, but just ask next time.”

“Yes ma’am,” Adrian said, a serene smile spreading across his face. “Now… Would you like some help?”

Chell eyed him up and down, her eyes narrowing in thought. She then turned on her feet, “Not really. My legs are just sore, not injured.”

Adrian stood and watched her go before laughing and jogging to catch up. He really liked this girl.

As they walked, Adrian would point out things to Chell. Mostly the direction of barracks, cafeteria, training yards, and such. She wouldn’t say anything but nodded her head. He did notice how she would scan every inch of the base as if looking for something.

As the two rounded a corner, Adrian saw Barney in what looked to be a one-sided yet heated conversation with Arne Magnusson. The scientist was gesturing around the hall, but his voice not being raised like Adrian would have suspected.

When Barney shook his head and lolled his head around, he met Adrian’s gaze. That caused Magnusson to figure out what had caught Barney’s attention.

It was almost comedic to see all the annoyance and frustration vanish from Magnusson’s face to only be replaced by that of a fish out of water. Eyes wide open and mouth agape, gently moving as if trying to form words.

Had he been looking, Adrian would have noticed Chell had a very similar expression.

The two people slowly started closing the distance.

Adrian watched as Chell and Magnusson took slow steps towards each other, neither of them saying a word. They only stopped moving when there were only three feet of space between them to go.

It was Chell who finally broke the silence. “Arne?”

“Chell...”

“Can you tell me who I am?”

Magnusson frowned at that, but he did nod, “I think we should talk…”

Chapter Text

The sound of blaring music fills her ears as she types out a few more lines of code. Her hand reaches out to grab the energy drink to her right, but once she tips it back, she finds that it has already been finished. Grumbling to herself, Chell chunks it into a wastebasket under the desk.

Slipping the headphones from her ears, she takes in the quieter sounds of the server room. The subtle beeps from the machinery and the whir of cooling fans circulating. Crossing the room, she walked among the rows of towers until she found the right one. Tower 5-3B. Popping open the door, she examined the rows of wires and grumbled to herself.

‘Incompetent interns screwing around again,’  she thought as she switched a few wires around into the correct spots.

The little red lights switched back to blue moments later. Sighing in satisfaction, Chell moved back to the desk and grabbed her supplies before leaving the server room. As she opened the door, a blast of warm air hit her in the face that was a welcome sensation compared to the nearly frigid temperature of the server room.

Stopping by the tech station, Chell dropped off her bag, grabbed her lunch, then started making her way to the break room. She’d been working nonstop since the previous evening, and she had skipped both dinner and breakfast in her hyperfocused state. A headache was forming behind her eyes from the lack of food and sleep.

Once in the breakroom, Chell stood at the counter as she prepared the lunch she brought for herself. As she worked, footsteps could be heard approaching from behind.

Chell didn’t even get to turn around before an annoyed voice said, “By all means, block the microwave all day.”

Without turning around, Chell responded, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this was made specifically for you.”

“Well, clearly, I’m in a hurry!”

“Well, as the saying goes… Time moves for no man. Even crotchety scientists…”

“Simple-minded programmer!”

“Mindless, arrogant undergrad!”

“Undergrad?” The voice actually sounded offended by that.

It made Chell turn around with a laugh to look at Arne Magnusson, “You know I’m joking, Arne.”

Arne had a put off expression on his face, but he quickly schooled it back to being stoic and commanding, “Yes, well… You were rather convincing today.”

Chell shook her head with a laugh as she leaned back against the counter, her thermos of coffee in her left hand, “So what sort of top-secret work can you not tell me about today?”

“The kind that involves the Administrator of Anomalous Materials checking in constantly. That man hovers over everyone as if we are in preschool,” Arne said, popping his food into the microwave. The perpetual annoyed state that Magnusson was always in shined brighter than before with the mention of Doctor Wallace Breen. Chell had a few interactions with the man as she worked with the Programmers and Analysts over Sectors C and D.

“That’s all I can really say,” he shrugged. “But what about you? How goes your work?”

A strange look settled over Chell’s face. Her eyes looked dead inside as she turned her gaze to the ceiling. “I may kill someone today, Arne. I think I might finally snap and kill one of the interns.”

“Can’t possibly be that bad,” he snapped, eyes rolling as the microwave continued to hum.

Chell’s eyes snapped to Magnusson with a manic expression. “One of them tried downloading porn and nearly crashed the servers. I caught another using the disc tray as a cup holder. But the worst offender? They thought it would be funny to make a program that triggers a song to play on the server room speakers every time someone walked in. The code they wrote became a virus, and that damn song started playing any time someone needed to play up an audio file. That means any time a message needed to be sent out by the announcement system, the song would start playing in the server room. I’ve been dealing with that since yesterday morning. I haven’t slept in 22 hours, and you have no idea how much I want this coffee to be vodka right now.”

With that, she took a large drink of it, burning her mouth and throat in the process.

If she wasn’t so frazzled, Magnusson might have laughed. Instead, he reached out and patted her back. “There, there… You can murder them later. For now, just enjoy your lunch.”

She nodded as he led her to the nearby table to sit, her hands clasped tight to the thermos. The food she had been preparing was placed in front of her, and she began to eat, not really tasting it.

“Arne… I swear if I ever hear that song again, I will snap. I had to listen to it on repeat for hours on end while working. I can’t go through that again,” she shuddered, the plastic fork in her hands on the verge of snapping with the force she was holding it.

“Forget about that. Why not tell me about any side projects you are working on,” Arne continued, trying to get her mind off the stress.

She swallowed a large bite of food, a sense of sanity returning to her face. “You know how the Anomalous Materials people are always pushing their machinery too far and overloading their servers? Well, I’m making something that will prevent that from happening.”

Arne narrowed his eyes at Chell, “Explain.”

“Nothing malicious. Someday they are going to push their machines too far and cause someone to get hurt. I’m doing what I can to save the machinery and prevent anything from being overworked again,” Chell explained. She’d heard too many stories and witnessed the computer systems in Sector C getting fried. Even elevators going out on the other side of the facility all because of the people in Anomalous Materials. It was becoming a problem.

“Good luck with that. Hope you don’t get in trouble over it,” Magnusson smiled. He paused to check on his food. “After all… you are the only one here who isn’t unbearable.”

Chell smiled at that.

A moment later, a young man with dark hair and wearing a gaudy yellow shirt entered the break room. Chell’s eyes widened as her fork finally snapped.

The man had been singing.

“-make an input-output request!” He finished up as he slipped money into the vending machine.

That manic look returned to Chell’s eyes as she slowly turned her head to look at the humming man retrieve his soda.

Her arm extended, an accusatory finger extended outward, “You!” Chell’s voice was cold, and Magnusson was frankly enjoying the show at this point.

The young man turned to look at Chell, an embarrassed smile crossed his face, “Oh… hey! So, I see you got that thing fixed. I will admit, it was my bad. My intentions were good, though. I just thought we could add some humor around here! Make things livelier and less serious!”

Chell just continued to stare at him. If the man has any self-preservation, he’d run away or shut up, Magnusson thought. 

Unfortunately, the intern had neither.

“You can’t blame me for it becoming a virus. If you look at it, it’s your fault for not designing a proper anti-virus software to counteract any bugs in the code,” he stated, his hands resting on his hips.

Magnusson felt a smile pull at his lips as he watched Chell slowly stand to her feet. She was a good half-foot taller than the intern and had a far more commanding presence. “What was that?” She asked. Her voice lacked any emotion. It had a cutting edge that made Magnusson almost worried for the poor intern. Almost.

Finally, the man realized he may have said something wrong as he attempted to step back from Chell, but just ended up pressing his back to the soda machine. “I- I mean- What I meant to say was… uh- um- The big guy wanted you! The Administrator, yeah! He stopped and asked me to deliver a message! He wants you to come by his office for a meeting!”

Chell narrowed her eyes even further, just looking the kid up and down. “What for?”

“He didn’t say, miss Chell ma’am! He just wanted to see you!”

She was silent for a few moments before the tension in her shoulders relaxed. “Alright, but if you ever try something like you did yesterday, I will end you…”

With that, Chell packed up her lunch, plucked the unopened soda from the intern’s hand, and walked out of the break room.

The room was silent for several seconds as Magnusson took another bite of his food. 

The intern looked at Arne and huffed, “She stole my soda…”

“And that’s not my problem.”

The Administrator’s office was similar to most of the others in Sector D. Green carpet, wood-paneled walls, and a desk. That’s where the similarities stopped.

Dr. Breen’s office was easily twice the size of a standard office with a desk that was large, ornately carved, and solid wood compared to the shabby prefabricated slabs every one else had. Dr. Breen’s desk was tacky in Chell’s eyes.

The only thing Chell did like about the office was a painting on the wall that looked like the sun rising over the New Mexico desert. It was a large canvas to give the impression of a window. Being underground for most of the day would make anyone want to see the sun, no matter how fake it might be, Chell thought to herself.

Then came the man himself. Dr. Wallace Breen…

He was an unassuming man with dark brown hair that was graying at the temples. Chell believed he colored his hair if the state of his eyebrows and facial stubble were anything to go by. They both had more gray than brown.

His personality also left something to be desired. He ranged anywhere from an annoyance to actually helpful. He may have good intentions with the people around him, he often came across as a scolding parental figure. It made a lot of people dislike the man on principle. Luckily for Chell, she hadn’t had to interact with him much.

So that made this meeting strange.

She had finished the poor intern’s soda just as she was walking into dr. Breen’s office. Without a care, she crushed the can and dropped into the trashcan next to the door. Breen pursed his lips at her display but ignored it in favor of the meeting.

“Nice of you to join me. I trust your day has been going well?” Dr. Breen commented, gesturing to the chair sitting on the opposite side of his desk.

“Yeah. Just finished working on a bug with the audio systems actually,” Chell answered.

Breen nodded his head at her, “That’s good. Do you have any big projects you are working on?”

Chell had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes at him. She didn’t want to talk about her current project. In fact, she’d rather get the meeting over with as soon as possible. However... it was Dr. Breen. She couldn’t talk to him like she would to Arne. She’d just need a little more tact… “Actually sir, I’d prefer if we skipped the small talk. I am curious as to why you have called me here today.”

The way he stared at her made her feel like it was the wrong thing to say. No matter, as he simply sighed and sat back in his large leather chair with his hands steepled. “Straight to business with no room for deviance. It reminds me of Dr. Magnusson… No matter, I wanted you here to discuss a possible business venture.”

Chell raided a brow at him. “What sort of venture?”

A sly smile spread across Breen’s face as he slid a file across the desk towards Chell. She accepted it and opened the envelope to the first page. Ice suddenly gripped her heart.

It was her file. Well, a file on her. It was extensive. There were pictures of her graduation from CalTech, high school transcripts, a list of achievements, but the most prominent piece was a photograph. The photo contained Chell as a child sitting on a man’s shoulder’s in front of an Aperture Science welcome sign and security gate.

“How-“

“-did I get that? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you neglected to tell us that your father worked for a rival company. Our biggest rival, in fact. Nowhere in your files have you mentioned your father. So, that makes me curious about how can we trust you in the future? What else have you possibly lied about?” Breen said, the smile still on his face.

Chell unceremoniously dropped the file back on Breen’s desk. “He’s not my father. I’d hardly call him a dad at this point. The whole reason I applied to Black Mesa in the first place was to stick it to him.”

That made Dr. Breen perk up. “So you harbor some sort of resentment to this man? What happened?”

“Are you my therapist, or are we going to talk about this so-called business venture?” Chell snapped, clearly done with being polite.

Breen nodded as he pushed the file out of the way and pulled up a new one. “This is a resume for one “Freelance Programming Specialist” to an open position at Aperture Science. I want you to take the job.”

“Are you firing me?”

“On the contrary. I’m giving you an opportunity.” Breen then handed the file to Chell. “Along with the resume, you will find a contract, a pay increase for yourself, and an outline of what I’d like for you to accomplish. You don’t have to accept right away. In fact, go back to your domicile and read everything over. You can give me your answer tomorrow.”

Chell had already started looking at the contract but had been caught off guard by the pay. That couldn’t be right, could it? No, it had to be a mistake, right? She barely registered herself nodding as she stood up, still caught up in the pay increase. It had to be a typo, right?

As she walked out of the office, she brushed the shoulder of someone else. She muttered an apology and looked back to see who it had been. Chell locked her gaze onto the green eyes of a pale man in a blue suit. He didn’t say anything to Chell, but only gave a tiny smirk and nod of his head before walking into Dr. Breen’s office. As she entered the elevator, she couldn’t help how cold her shoulder suddenly felt.

“So, he wants you to do what?!” Arne hissed. He was careful to not raise his voice too loud. The walls were thin, after all.

Chell was currently sitting on Arne’s couch with her feet resting up on his coffee table and the contract in her lap. She had been looking over it for hours and was having trouble making a decision. She had vowed to never go back there, but…

“And he’s going to pay you how much?!”

“Believe me, it’s the last place I want to be again, but… that is a lot of money. I could finally get a private dorm in the residential sector. Maybe get some proper soundproofing or headphones,” Chell pondered.

“He’s offering that much of a raise, and all you can think of is headphones?!”

Chell smiled at that, but slowly shifted back into a more serious look. “Arne… You can’t tell anyone this. Promise me you won’t tell.”

Magnusson rolled his eyes at her, “Just who am I going to tell?”

“Promise me. You can’t let anyone know. No matter what happens, you can’t let anyone find out what I’ll be doing.”

“So, you are going to do it?”

Chell slowly nodded her head. “Yeah… if it means I get to screw over Aperture, then I’ll do it.”

Arne nodded his head, “Alright. Just be sure to keep in touch.”

Chell entered Dr. Breen’s office the next day with the contract signed and determination in her eyes. Wallace was in the middle of computer work when she unceremoniously dropped the folder onto his desk, some of the papers sliding out. “I’ll do it.”

“Excellent, now let’s discuss business,” Breen said while pushing fixing the folder.

The two discussed at length at what Chell would be doing. She was to obtain the job at Aperture. With the qualifications and sources listed in her resume, Wallace doubted they’d bat an eye. While there, she would work under the guise of wanting to see her father and reconnect with him. She didn’t like that idea, but if she had to use that excuse, then she would.

While in Aperture, she would send any data she could obtain straight to Dr. Breen using a specialized laptop designed for encryption and security. It would route all data through several proxies and a VPN to prevent the data from being traced back to her or Black Mesa. 

The downside to the work she would be doing is that she’d have to put all her current projects for Black Mesa on hold, including her bootstrap code. She’d just have to hope nothing went wrong while she was gone.

Before she left, the final words Dr. Breen said to her were, “And remember, my dear, if you are discovered or captured, say absolutely nothing. Stay silent at all times, alright? Don’t give them any ideas.”

Chell nodded before walking away. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of that same man in the suit walking towards Dr. Breen’s office again.

Six months later, Chell was in her shared lab with an associate. He was tinkering away with small electronics and periodically typing something into his computer. He was a strange man, but he didn’t pry into her business. In fact, she had somehow become friends with the man since she started working there.

She’d been introduced to the man on her first day of work. Chell had been all but thrown into Doug’s lap that day, and they had been forced to flounder around each other. The main issue was trying to get to find common ground on space and who would take what jobs.

He was a talented coder and a fantastic artist as well. He confided that the art was a form of therapy after his last episode. She didn’t pry and further.

While he was distracted, Chell was busy going through some of the encrypted files. Since she had arrived, she had found prototype designs for a zero-point energy field, adrenal vapor that was designed to act as a pain killer and amphetamine, and something called the Genetic Life Form and Disc Operating system. That last one was under too many walls of security for her to even try and send everything. What she did discover was barely a fraction of the truth.

Looking at the time, she shut everything down on her Aperture issued computer before making the long trek back to the communal area. It was the one place where employees could get snacks, coffee, or make phone calls on landlines other than one of the cafeterias.

Since starting at Aperture five months ago, Chell and Arne had set up a schedule of when they could call and chat. It would be on his first break of the day and Chell’s lunch period, and he would always be ready for her call.

He picked up after the second ring.

“And what do I owe the pleasure?” Arne said upon answering.

“You get to here me berate you over the phone.”

“Funny. It just doesn’t have the same bite to it.”

“Only because you can’t see me imitate your scowl,” she laughed.

There was a harrumph sound on the other end, and that only made her laugh more.

“By the way, I ran into my adoptive father yesterday. He wished me a happy birthday,” she continued.

“But wasn’t it-“

“-two weeks ago? Yeah.”

“Will you ever tell me what happened to make you stop talking to him?”

Chell pursed her lips at the memory of her dad yelling at her about wanting to take a job with Aperture after college. It got so heated that Chell applied to Black Mesa out of spite. She never told her dad about that job, he just thought she was doing freelance IT work across California. At least that’s what Chell told him the last time he asked. 

He had changed from the man she used to know. Sometimes she wanted to reconcile, but always remembered how he kept throwing himself into his job. In her last two years of high school, she probably ate more dinners alone than with him.

“…it’s complicated. It’s why I can’t wait for this five-month contract to be up! I tried to talk to him a few days ago, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Then you don’t need him, Chell. Just three more weeks, and you can put it all behind you,” Arne assured her.

Chell remained silent for several seconds before sighing. “Yeah. Thanks, Arne. Talk to you tomorrow.”

Tomorrow never came.

Chell arrived to work at Aperture as usual. She checked in, worked with Doug, then took her bag and a laptop to “check on the servers.”

Once in the server room, she settled on the floor and got to work. Just as she was getting all the wires plugged into her laptop, she heard a tinkling sound and saw something fuzzy trotting to her with a bell collar around its neck. The cat instantly started to nuzzle its head into Chell’s knee.

She had forgotten it was Bring Your Cat to Work Day. The cat must have slipped into the room with her when she wasn’t looking. Well, as long as it didn’t mess with any of the server towers or chew on any wires, she wouldn’t bother it.

Soon as the secure connection to Dr. Breen was connected, she called the private number he had set up to his office.

It rang four times before he finally answered her call. “You’re late today.”

“Good morning to you too, sir…” She drew out the last word to show her disdain. She was so tired of dealing with him.

“I have a meeting to attend soon, so I will need anything you have as soon as possible.”

Over the last few months, Dr. Breen had become more and more annoyed with Chell’s brash personality. He no longer tried to keep up a polite façade with her, and she didn’t restrain herself with how she felt about the man. What was he going to do? Fire her? If he did that, she’d have enough information on what she had been doing to ensure Black Mesa burned to the ground. Would she feel guilty? Maybe. Was she vindictive? For sure. Everyone likes revenge.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m transmitting the data now. No need to get your tighty-whities in a bunch,” Chell groaned into her earpiece.

Breen huffed into his phone. “You have no right to speak to me that way. Just do the job that I hired you for.”

Hearing him angry almost made Chell laugh. Almost.

“Look, I’m going as fast as I can here, sir. I may need to finish this up later because I need to get back to my post soon, or someone is going to notice me missing.” 

That was a lie. Chell just wanted to annoy Breen and make him wait.

The cat that had been trying to curl up into Chell’s lap is lifted and placed away once it accidentally poked her legs with its claws. It meowed loud enough for Dr. Breen to pause his tirade to say, “What was that noise?”

“It’s just a cat. Aperture had a ‘Bring Your Cat to Work Day’ today apparently… I-“ Chell had cut herself off as the lights in the server room went dead momentarily, to only be replaced by a foreboding red light fading in and out. Emergency lighting? No. It’s probably a false alarm.

Then she heard the first scream.

“What’s going on? I heard a-

Chell cut him off. “Something’s wrong. I’ve got to go.”

Magnusson sat by the phone, waiting for the call to come. 

It never did.

Chapter Text

Alyx was pacing back and forth in the hall. She had gone back and forth between the two ends over one hundred and sixty times. It would take her around twenty seconds to get from one end of the hall to the other and back and again. Gordon did the math, and she had been at it for fifty-three minutes.

Judith Mossman could be seen on the other side of a glass window in a cot, her head, and hands wrapped in gauze. After they had left the North, the group had to stop and refuel their helicopter at a rebel outpost, and while there, they sought medical help for Judith.

As her circulatory system started to work again, the levels of frostbite she suffered revealed itself. The tip of her nose, her ears, and several fingers and toes had turned black, and she had required immediate medical attention to the affected areas.

“Do you really have to wait around?”  GLaDOS said into his ear. “I’d rather not have an unstable, expanding rift in reality in my facility.”

Gordon only grumbled in response. He then turned his attention to the rebel medic coming out of the room. Alyx stops her pacing to approach the medic.

“Well?” Alyx asks.

“We won’t know how extensive the damage is for several more days. She will need surgery, but we have to wait on that as well. If we attempted to start amputating the damaged tissue now, we risk hurting her further or causing infection,” the medic said.

“So what should we do then-?” Gordon mumbled out.

“Yeah, we are on a tight schedule,” Alyx interrupted.

The medic pursed their lips and sighed. “The only thing I can think of is to just leave her with us for the time being. There is no telling when she will wake up if at all.”

“Then that settles it. C’mon Gordon, we got to get back to White Forest as fast as we can. If we leave now, we could get there by tomorrow,” Alyx said, her eyes fixed on Gordon.

The man himself was lost in thought as he looked down at the crowbar in his hands. Either abandon one person or abandon everyone. The choice was obvious, but it didn’t make it any easier. There were so many people he had been forced to leave behind back in Black Mesa who refused or couldn’t go any further.

He tightened his grip on the hunk of metal and nodded in finality.

No more abandoning people. Judith would be the last person he ever left behind.

Back at White Forest, Chell is sitting on a table, head in her hands, as Arne finished telling everything he knew about her. As he spoke, there would be a nagging pain behind her eyes as if her brain was trying to remember it all, but couldn’t make the connection if it was real or not.

Although, when Magnusson mentioned how he never received another phone call after the conversation about her father that triggered something in her mind. She remembered the strange dreams of a man shrouded in mist... Not wanting her to talk about something and another moment of being stuck in a server room when emergency lights flickered on.

Arne had been her key...

The final day of her life before succumbing to the depths of Aperture flooded her mind with as much force as the day the Vortigaunts shared their memories of the last twenty years. It caused Chell to catch her head in one hand while the other gripped the desk for support.

It was a lot to take in. Despite being such a small influx of memory, it was the clarity that caused Chell to pause. She could hear the screams vividly and watched as the green gas filtered through the hall. Still, it bothered her why she lost those memories to begin with.

“You alright?” Shepherd asked.

Chell nodded her head but kept her eyes squeezed shut. “Yeah… just a headache.”

Magnusson pursed his lips at her answer. He could always tell when she was lying. “You truly don’t remember anything?”

Chell shook her head. “Only pieces. It’s coming back, but slow.”

Magnusson grit his teeth. It wasn’t fair! He finally had his best friend back, but she could barely remember him.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Kleiner piped in, a finger held in that air, but his back hunched as if trying to take up less space. It angered Magnusson for reasons he couldn’t explain. “But what happened? Pardon me, but you hardly look old enough to know Magnusson back at Black Mesa.”

Magnusson could have smacked the man for that.

Chell only laughed. “And you don’t look senile, yet here we are!”

Okay, that made Arne smile. That was the Chell he knew.

Kleiner looked offended, Barney was surprised, and Adrian had to prevent himself from laughing.

Chell then hopped off the table, picking up her strange device in the process and sighed, “I’m not serious. Truth is? Aperture is designed to kill anyone who steps inside.”

Magnusson couldn’t help but send a smug look to Kleiner. ‘Told you it was a death trap,’ his eyes said.

Kleiner responded with a roll of his own. ‘Fine, you were right,’ his eyes seemed to reply.

Since Magnusson finished his story, it was time for Chell to give her tale of how she survived. From her first time waking up in a relaxation vault to discovering GLaDOS. From being woken up by Wheatley to his betrayal and then her short trip to the moon…

All through the story, Kleiner had made his way over to a nearby desk and had been examing the papers scattered across it. When Chell finally finished up in how she met Adrian and Barney, Kleiner was flipping through his papers with excitement.

“My dear! I need to show you something. Can you verify some things to me, please?” Kleiner exclaimed and started spreading out papers that Magnusson recognized as the energy spikes of Aperture.

“Can you make sense of these energy readings?”

Magnusson watched Chell as she leaned over the graphs and data, her brow furrowing and lips pursed. Some things stay the same even if they change…

Chell finally blinked as the information clicked. “It’s… Aperture? It shows what happened beneath the surface…”

As she looked at each energy spike, Chell could pinpoint the specific events of her fight. There was a steady stream until there was a slight spike when GLaDOS took control, then a slow, steady stream. A significant spike formed where Chell fought GLaDOS the first time, then no data at all until a couple weeks ago. Then the data went crazy. It went wild with highs and lows that indicated the time in which Wheatley took control. Another significant spike in the data indicated the moment the facility being vented once GLaDOS was put in charge again, then finally stabilizing.

She spoke out for what spikes matched up to what she did in Aperture. “That’s when she woke up… That’s Wheatley’s takeover… and his launch into space… but what is that?” Chell had been about to put the data down when she noticed a giant spike that was holding steady. It was only three days ago, which was strange. “I have no idea what that is…”

“No idea at all?” Kleiner said.

Chell shook her head.

Kleiner perked up and began to organize his papers. “Well then, I shall be sure to monitor the issue with great enthusiasm!”

Magnusson narrowed hie eyes at Kleiner. What was he thinking?

“Calhoun… Why don’t you get Chell settled in?” Magnusson said, his eyes fixed on Kleiner.

“Sure, doc… Come on, let’s get you a bunk and a tour,” Barney said while stretching an arm above his head and bending back far enough to make his back pop.

Chell looked to Magnusson for a few moments before sighing and following Barney.

Once they were gone, Magnusson turned on Kleiner. “What are you up to?”

“Hmm?” Kleiner turned to the other man. “Oh, nothing. I’m just going to check up on Aperture and see what sort of satellite images I can pull up. It will take some time until the one I need moves into position.”

Magnusson should have known… That man never knew when to stop chasing shadows. No matter, Magnusson had work to do, and he had his friend back.

 “It ain’t much, but you got a mattress, so that’s something at least,” Barney said as Chell dropped a few things she had accumulated out of her pockets and onto the bed. One of the items was what he recognized as the strange white pick that she used to pry the circuit boxes off the APCs. Looking closer, it looked like an abnormally large tooth.

Chell dropped a few bullet casings out, some live rounds, some dented metal plates with pink hearts painted on, and a pair of wire cutters. Where had she gotten those?

Chell ponders on leaving the portal gun behind. It’s a terrifying thought to become so reliant on the device, yet it had saved her life countless times. All the scuffs and dents detailed a story of survival. 

Yet she was free.

She was in a place free from Aperture, and there were other people to support her. She didn’t have to go alone anymore.

With great care, Chell set the portal gun in the center of the mattress and followed after Barney. Adrien walked next to her, one arm swinging at his side and the other resting on- was that a wrench? Why did he have a wrench hanging off his hip? She’d seen weirder, but it was strange.

The made the rounds of where other bunks were located, various labs, the mess hall, and the tour concluded with the trio outside in a valley. Barney pointed out how people were in the middle of rebuilding a sawmill that had been destroyed a few weeks ago.

He had been in the middle of a saying how the striders were swarming all over the place but paused when a loud trill filled the air. Barney then took on a mischievous expression as he turned to look at both Adrian and Chell. “You two like dogs?”

Neither got to answer before Barney whistled long and loud with two fingers to his mouth.

That trill sound turned into a trumpeting as thumps started sounding through the valley. It made Chell freeze as it sounded like the large metal plates smashing against each other in Aperture. When what was causing the noise crashed through the trees, Chell had to take a step back.

Adrian did the same, but he looked surprised.

A large robot made of different metals was running full speed in their direction. He looked to Barney, but Chell saw its eye turn and fixate on her.

The robot made a sound that sounded almost excited before picking up speed in her direction. Barney looked to Chell, then to the robot. “Aw crap! Dog! Stop! It’s not her!”

It was too late. Chell was grabbed and pulled into the thick and unmovable arms of the robot. It wasn’t hurting her yet, but Chell had to get away. If she didn’t get away from it, she would be crushed.

As soon as she was picked up, the robot dropped her. Chell fell backward and started moving away as fast as she could, her hand groping at the grass, looking for her portal gun. She momentarily forgot that it was back in her room.

Adrian was at her side moments later, “You alright?”

“What the hell is that thing?” Chell spits out. The panic leaving to only be replaced by anger.

Barney looked sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry about that…” He paused to gesture to the large robot with his thumb. Said robot which had previously been hopping around in an excited dance was hanging its head in what could be interpreted as embarrassment. “This is Dog. He must have thought you were Alyx at first…”

 “Alyx?” Chell questioned.

“She’s not here right now. Dog was originally built to protect her, but she’s off on a mission with Gordon right now,” Barney said, patting Dog on one of his massive arms.

Chell looked at the robot, distrust in her eyes

What made her pause was how it seemed to shrink in on itself under her gaze. She watched as Adrian approached it and began to run a hand over the metal. The robot looked as if it was enjoying the contact. Maybe it wasn’t so bad?

Standing to her feet, Chell slowly approached the men and robot. It’s not an Aperture robot. It’s not a turret or a core. It’s a guard dog. Just an eight-foot-tall metal guard dog...

Dog turned his head to look at Chell. The aperture around his eye contracting and expanding while the flaps around his head wiggle in anticipation. Chell raised a hand up, and Dog met her halfway by pressing his face into her palm.

They stood there for several seconds before Chell’s body finally slumped as the tension left it. 

Barney laughed at the display. “See? He likes you.”

Chell felt a smile tug at her lips.

A couple hours later, after they had gotten some dinner, Chell rejoined Magnusson and Kleiner along with Adrian and Barney. They had been summoned, but no one told them for what reason.

“Ah, there you three are. The satellite feed over Aperture is almost complete. I thought you might want to help me figure out what’s going on over there,” Kleiner said.

Chell nodded in his direction and moved to sit on the desk she had been at earlier.

As she sat, Kleiner kept rambling. “Even now, no one truly understands just how large the subterranean labs of Aperture go, so who knows if we will even see what the issue is on screen. I suppose that’s the trouble with underground locations. You can never know for sure if you aren’t there. At least by today’s standards.”

Chell and Magnusson exchanged glances. It was so familiar and foreign to her.

They were all interrupted by a series of beeps coming from the computer monitors set up next to Chell.

Before Kleiner could approach, Chell reached out and tapped out a few commands on the nearby keyboard to bring up the images. What they saw was shocking, to say the least.

Chell had suspected to see a destroyed town and a vast field of yellow wheat, but instead it the yellow was dotted with specks of black and green shapes. Despite the details being challenging to make out, Barney was the one who voiced everyone’s thoughts.

“Combine? What are they doing there?”

They all looked to Chell as if she had the answers. “No clue,” she voiced. “But they are not going to like what they find…”

Chapter Text

Chell awoke early the next morning. She sat up and looked at her roommates, who were still sleeping and did her best to not wake them as she grabbed her long fall boots and walked out of the room.

Due to the number of people, Chell and Moira were rooming with Shephard and Roger. The latter was sprawled across his cot with limbs going in all different directions while Shephard slept like a corpse, body straight and arms at his side. She slept the same way…

In the corner sat Apollo, his eye closed in that meditative trance to recharge. As Chell neared the door, he lazily blinked his eyes open and shifted his gaze to look at her. She had never noticed before, but his eye seemed to glow in the dim light of the room.

“Where is the Traveler going?” Despite his rough tone, the vortigaunt could talk rather low.

Chell shook her head, “I can’t sleep. I’m going for a run to clear my head.”

“Shall this one join you?”

She looked at him for a moment before nodding her head, “If you’d like.”

It took a few wrong turns, but Chell eventually found the exit out into the valley that Barney and Adrian had shown her before. There was a half-asleep rebel sitting in a chair near the door, and he shot up at her approach. He greeted her before opening up the door and letting Chell pass through.

“Be safe out there,” he called as the door closed behind her and Apollo.

As she stretched her legs out, Chell met Apollo’s large eye. “So, where did Crow disappear to?”

“My brethren has made their being in physical pursuits. They enjoyed easing the burdens of others and has elected to aide those who are injured, while this one prefers mental pursuits,” Apollo answered as they did several squats in place, mimicking Chell’s current motion.

Chell nodded, “Do you know what you’d like to do yet?”

“This one is not sure, but we are sure it will come in time,” Apollo said.

 Chell nodded and began to run across the valley, nearly sprinting. She followed a dirt road and saw the damage from the attack she had heard mentioned. A few buildings were in various states of repair or being torn down entirely for spare materials.

At the far end of the valley was a sawmill. It was being restored to the best of the rebels’ ability, but Chell paused when her eyes caught sight of something familiar. Laying on its side and armor falling away was the body of a strider. Chell wiped the sweat from her brow as she moved to examine its body up close.

The battle from the previous day still fresh in her mind as she fixed her gaze upon the creature. She ran a hand over the hard chitin body and grit her teeth in anger before kicking it.

“It is good to release your frustrations, but I feel that we must be returning soon. The Calhoun and Shephard will be searching for you soon,” Apollo said.

Chell didn’t want to leave yet, but she knew the vortigaunt to be correct. With a nod, Apollo turned and started moving back towards the main base. Before she could follow, Chell’s eyes caught another glimpse of something. Out of the corner of her eye, upon the cliff stood that Man again. She looked at him, and he looked right back. He then cast his gaze to the departing vortigaunt in displeasure before walking into the tree line and out of sight.

 Not wasting any more time, Chell moved to catch up with Apollo. If He didn’t like the vortigaunts, then she’d make a purpose to try and stay near them.

Back in the base, Apollo and Chell checked in with Rita. She was apparently confined to bed rest until fully recovered. Rita had been nearly restrained to her bed when the large medic, Sven, caught her attempting to sneak out of her room.

That was a funny thought. Chell momentarily pictured Rita being physically restrained but then breaking from her bonds with a mighty roar. After wishing her well, Chell wandered around the base and checking everything out, where she eventually found Dr. Magnusson in a small room off from his lab. He was fiddling with a hot plate and an old metal tin. She watched him for several seconds in amusement before knocking on the frame of the door.

“Just a moment,” he said, not looking over his shoulder.

Chell, not one to listen well, strode forward, and began to assist the man.

“I said- oh! Chell…”

He said it in a way that made it difficult for Chell to understand what he was thinking.

She didn’t stop, but grabbed two of the chipped mugs and began to prepare them with what she believed to be powdered creamer and some old sugar packets. One sugar packet for her and two for Arne. Cream for her, none for him. She then put the cups in front of him with a smile.

“You remember how I like my coffee?”

Chell shook her head. “It’s… instinct? I know how to do things, but not why I know.”

Magnusson didn’t say a word but poured the coffee he had been making into the two cups.

“I thought if I knew who I was, then everything would be better. It’s not. It may have made things worse because now I know what I’m missing, and yet I can’t remember it all! I can’t even recall my last name! Why did this happen-“

“Bishop…” Magnusson interrupted.

Chell looked at him, frustration still on her face. “What was that?”

“Your last name. It’s Bishop. Chell Bishop,” he said.

Chell went quiet at that and moved to sit in a nearby chair. “I’m frustrated. I hate not knowing who I am. Why can’t I remember when Mel could…”

Arne pursed his lips into a tight line. He had been thinking it over for some time and had a theory. Sighing, Arne sipped what the combine constituted as coffee before continuing. “I believe it was the neurotoxin… Exposure to it can lead to memory loss and other issues with the brain.”

Chell blinked at him before her expression shifted and hardened. Of course, it would be the neurotoxin. It couldn’t just be a drug or some test that they did to her in the past. It had to be the damn neurotoxin! That little orb just had to be right once again! She just had to have brain damage!

Chell felt the mug in her hands being forcibly taken away by Arne. Upon looking up, she discovered the handle had broken off in her hands because she’d been gripping it so tightly.

“Your temper hasn’t changed. You still have a stubborn streak the size of New Mexico,” Arne said. He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. “And you have a roundabout way of asking for help.”

Chell couldn’t take her eyes off of Magnusson. He was right. He was the only one who knew her, and she had been trying to find out what happened to make her forget in the first place. 

The entire time, it had been just Chell. Escaping Aperture had been her. Fighting GLaDOS and Wheatley had been her. Finding out the horrors of the surface had been just her. Yet… she had made allies.

Mel, Apollo, Crow, Rita, Roger, Moira, Barney, Adrian…

Magnusson…

Chell sighed and slowly put the broken piece of the mug into one of her pockets. “Can you help me?”

“Of course,” Magnusson said, “But for now, I think you need to rest and a shower. You are getting that manic look in your eyes. You only get that when you are lacking sleep and stressed. And to be frank, you smell like ash and sweat.”

Chell couldn’t help but laugh.

Apollo watched the entire exchange, their eye closing, and a smile pulling at the corners of their mouth. Laughter… Such a pleasing sound, they thought. Twas the sound of healing.

An hour later, after a shower where she was surprised to find it had hot water, Chell and Apollo met up with Adrian and Barney in what looked to be a recreation room.

The room had a couple beat-up couches with mismatched cushions and repair patches from several different types of cloth, a shelf with old and tattered books, a few board games that she was sure wouldn’t have all the pieces, and a game of chess set against a wall that already had a rebel and another vortigaunt playing together.

The two men saw Chell enter and waved her over to join them. Barney was reclining on the couch while Adrian was fiddling with the black box strapped to his strange vest.

Chell sat down next to Barney and let out a groan. The conversation she had with Arne relieved some stress, but the toll of always being on the move and fighting was catching up to her.

Being on the ship had been nice, but there had always been work to do. Chell had never had a real moment to just sit back and relax. She had expected White Forest to be all work again, but she’d been wrong. To an extent, at least. She would still be assigned a job soon, but Magnusson said he would ensure that she would work alongside Kleiner and his self.

For the time being, she had been instructed to rest, so that’s what she was doing.

“So…” Adrian started, “You don’t actually remember your past?”

“No,” Chell said flatly, her eyes closed and face directed towards the ceiling.

There was a beat. “Shit, that blows.”

“Yep,” she replied in the same tone of voice. “It’s fuzzy, but I think the talks I’ve had with Arne are making things clearer.”

“I just can’t believe someone can stand being around him for more than five minutes,” Barney laughed.

 “I’m sure some people say the same thing about you, Calhoun,” Adrien said.

Barney made an annoyed noise but didn’t fight back.

The silence stretched out for a few more beats, and Chell thought she was about to doze off when Barney spoke up. 

“Alright, I’ve got to ask… Why are you wearing high heels? That can’t be practical,” he said. He moved to lean forward, elbows resting on his knees and eyes fixed on her long fall boots.

Since arriving on the surface, they had received scuffs, and the pristine white color was covered in dirt and yellow blood, but they had helped her through everything.

“First off, they are called long fall boots. Second, I’d rather have these than what you are wearing any day,” Chell said, shifting to look at her boots.

Adrian turned his attention to Chell’s boots. “They don’t look like much. Are you sure?”

“Want me to prove it?” She snapped, although a smile threatened to pull at the corners of her mouth.

The men shared a look between them before nodding. “Yeah. We do,” Barney said.

“Fine. Give me five minutes,” Chell replied and disappeared back to her room.

A few minutes later, she walked back into the rec-room with the portal gun in her hands and a determined look in her eyes.

She found a clear spot in the middle of the room before turning back to look at the men. “Alright, stand clear,” she said and readied her stance. 

Looking up, she first the orange portal right above her head and paused to watch it stick. Barney and Adrian were already transfixed on the swirling vortex of orange energy. They didn’t have time to fully comprehend what they were seeing before Chell fired the secondary portal into the ground directly beneath her feet.

The two men watched as a blue ring of swirling energy hit the ground, and the next thing they knew was that Chell was falling through the floor and out the ceiling in a continuous loop. Faster and faster, she was falling. Chell’s hair was whipping wildly around her face and made it difficult to see as she soon entered terminal velocity.

Adrian and Barney watched in amazement as she kept going. It was incredible to see how the portals worked and allowed for such ease of movement between two places. 

Then the mounting horror started in Barney’s stomach. He realized just how fast Chell was going, and if she left the loop, then she may not survive. He began to look around the room for anything that could potentially slow her descent, but he never got the chance to help as he heard the sound of her strange gun go off again, and there was the sound of metal hitting concrete. 

Scared of what he might see, Barney slowly turned around to see Chell standing in place, gun hanging loose at her side and left hand on her hip. Her damp hair was coming loose from its tie, and she had a smirk on her lips, but she was unharmed. “So… any questions?”

Adrian and Barney were speechless.

Seeing their expressions made Chell cock her head to the side, awaiting some kind of reaction. She finally got it when Barney shook his head as if shaking water out of his hair and moving towards her with that stunned expression.

“That thing is incredible!” Barney’s face shifted into one of adoration as his eyes flickered between the portal gun and her boots. He was busy imagining what the world would have been like had they obtained the technology she possed to fight back against the combine over the years. “Man, Eli would love these!”

 As if realizing what he said, Barney’s good mood soured and his expression shifted to be more blank.

“Who’s Eli?” Adrian asked.

Barney pursed his lips before shaking his head with a sigh. “He is… was the resistance leader. He died not long ago.”

“What happened?”

Barney was silent. His face a twisted mask of emotions that made it clear that what he wanted to say was making him angry and sad at the exact same time. “He was murdered by the Combine…”

Chell looked to Apollo, whose large eye was half closed and head drooping. He gave a slow nod to Chell in assurance as to what Barney was saying was true.

Looking back to the man, Chell watched as he stood to his feet and paced around the room. He would halfway across the room, randomly change directions, or stop altogether. Barney raked his hands through his hair hard enough to make Chell wince, then hooked his thumbs into the belts around his waist.

Calhoun looked down at the jacket he was wearing, and his expression grew even angrier. With his rage-fueled mind, it made his hands clumsy as he fumbled with the belts that kept the CP coat and vest tight to the body. When they were gone, Barney unfastened the vest and jacket and tossed them across the room.

The heavy clothes hit the wall and fell into a wadded lump, but it didn’t make Barney feel any better. He was left standing in the middle of the rec-room with a tattered white shirt.

The rebel and vort that had been playing chess paused to watch the display, but a quick look from Chell and Adrian had them vacating the room, but not before the vortigaunt moved one of the rebel’s pieces.

“I should have been here, dammit! I’d been helping Eli for the last twenty years and look what happened!” Barney ranted, but it was clear he wasn’t talking to Chell and Adrian anymore.

“I wasn’t here! I could have done something! Dammit, what are we even doing? I can’t do shit for anyone! Look at us! I was a security guard before this, Gordon was a scientist. Now people look at me like I’m some kind of general, and he’s the fucking messiah! We’re just human and- and-“

Barney stopped himself as he slumped to his knees. His voice was cracking with the raw emotion spilling from him.

“-and we’re human… We’re all gonna die…”

Then the tears started to slip from his eyes. “I should have been here.”

Chell and Adrian exchange looks before the latter gets up and goes to crouch next to Barney and put a reassuring hand on his back. Adrian knew he couldn’t compare to twenty years lost, but he had seen his friends and squadmates die before his very eyes back in Black Mesa.

Chell may not know much about her past, but she was sure she wasn’t equipped to comfort someone. It felt awkward to see someone have a mental break in front of her. She had lost her memory, but she knew the people she had lost. Her estranged adoptive father and the coworker from Aperture that enjoyed art. She couldn’t remember their faces, but there was a pang of sadness that she wouldn’t see them again.

Strange…

Either way, she felt like she needed to say something to the man.

While Adrian was crouched down next to Barney, she bit her lip and took a few tentative steps forward. When she was standing over him, she fidgeted in space for a second before letting out a sigh.

“Barney…” she began, “We are still alive, right? I… I didn’t know Eli, but he was important to you, but- but he’d want everyone to keep fighting, right?”

Chell paused to kneel down next to the man but didn’t dare touch him. She didn’t even know if what she was saying made sense.

“So, I think he’d want you to fight. Stay alive and fight for everyone that is still alive,” she finished.

Barney didn’t make any motion of recognizing what she said, but the shaking of his shoulders was subsiding.

Adrian furrowed his brow as he absentmindedly scratched at the shoulder where his tattoo rested. He looked Barney over and sighed.

“One of the guys in my platoon,” Adrian started, “he would always quote these Latin phrases and bible verses. We called him Plato. He’d drive people nuts half the time…

“Well, his favorite quotes would be ignis aurum probat and memento mori memento vivere. I swear, half the time I think he did it just to look like he was smarter than everyone else.

“One day, I got curious about what he was saying. That first one? ignis aurum probat? It meant that fire tests gold. I started to understand him a bit after that. I did some more searching, and it turns out it meant that difficult circumstances were designed to make us stronger. It helped motivate me to keep pushing myself and not give up…

“The other one, though? Memento mori memento vivere? The first half of it means remember we will die. How fucked up is that? I was about to get angry at Plato for that until I read the rest of the meaning.

“Memento mori memento vivere… Remember you will die, remember to live…” Adrian paused as he shifted to be in front of Barney. He then took the older man’s head in his hands so they would look at each other in the eye. “You are right. We are all going to die, but that won’t be today. Remember, Barney, you will die, but first… you have to remember to live.”

The tears in Barney’s eyes had ceased, but they were red and puffy. He couldn’t say anything, or he’d risk crying again. Instead, he closed his eyes in understanding.

“Stay alive, Barney. For Eli’s sake,” Adrian mumbled.

When Adrian finally let go of Barney’s head, he nodded at the soldier and slowly stood to his feet. He was going to die, but dammit! He refused to give up! Wiping at his face, Barney moved to pick his coat up once more. He would fight for as long as it took.

A few hours later, long after Chell, Adrian, Barney, and Apollo vacated the rec-room, a noise could be heard coming from the other side of the base. They had radioed ahead to not cause a panic, but a single helicopter was landing at White Forest. The two humans within ready to start the next step of their mission.

Chapter Text

GLaDOS had come to a conclusion. She hated the HEV suit. More specifically, she hated not being able to do anything to it. She’d already memorized all the specific uses, mapped out its blueprints, and thought of countless ways to improve it. Yet, she could do nothing more than monitor the current resident’s vital signs.

And his vitals were a nightmare. Several cracked bones, sprained wrist and ankle, lacerations, and contusions. It’s a marvel he was still walking. Of course, GLaDOS realized it was the automated morphine drip within the suit that allowed that. It gave him just enough to not feel the pain, but not too much to make him tired. Combine that with the cocktail of adrenaline and trace amount of other drugs, he was a walking pharmacy.

Big whoop. Aperture did adrenaline shots for their test subjects when they were in pain, and it enabled them to perform better in the chambers. The suit wasn’t so special.

Along with disliking not being able to control anything inside it, the overall design was terrible. It was bulky, ugly, and ugh… designed by Black Mesa.

The silver lining of the entire thing is that her central consciousness was still in her chassis at Aperture. It was a good thing too, because she had already needed to focus her attention on two separate groups breaching her facility. They had been taken care of with extreme prejudice, but she could feel more of them coming and congregating on the surface. They were getting ready for something big. She couldn’t tell exactly, but it was something.

Not knowing worried her.

Another downside of being a passenger in the suit was the memories associated with it. It reminded her too much of her time as a potato. Unable to really see what was going on except for the expressions across her face. The anger, the annoyance, the way her forehead would crease in concentration. Then the smiles whenever she’d break one of the moron’s monitors. That had been fun. So much so that she gave advice on how to break them a few times.

While she was thinking of a certain mute, GLaDOS’s current traveling companion had been rather silent the entire flight back to their base. Ever since that moment in the Combine hangar… Her prodding had all been for naught as whenever she’d question him about it, he wouldn’t say a word.

All the systems were functioning correctly. If she wasn’t in the suit at that moment, the data would have been looked over as a momentary glitch. It was nothing more than a drop in the bucket of diagnostics and data running through the HEV suit, but she was the suit. For a full second, there was no data. It was as if Gordon was removed from the suit entirely, and he ceased to exist.

The missing diagnostics within that second revealed a mystery that GLaDOS needed to understand. What had happened to cause the disturbance? Was the suit malfunctioning? Did Gordon do something wrong? So many questions, yet the man refused to answer anything.

Within her digging, she did discover it wasn’t the first time it had happened either. There were multiple occasions of these blips in the data occurring, and that puzzled her further. The frustrating part was that she couldn’t even run an experiment because of her inability to test the suit in her current state. It was frustrating.

How could a grown man simply disappear into thin air?

She was still running through scenarios when the helicopter they were in flew over a valley and approached a sprawling base. From the air, GLaDOS recognized it as an old soviet bunker from an era gone by. 

A quick search of the area back in the main facility revealed that this so-called ‘White Forest’ was purchased by Black Mesa back in the eighties. If she had to bet, it was an effort to allocate funds to ensure they kept their funding for the years to come. They couldn’t do enough real science, so they had to throw money around to look like they were busy? Couldn’t they have come up with a better name than White Forest? It was just the exact opposite in name to Black Mesa. There was no creativity in that…

The moment their helicopter touched down, GLaDOS became aware of a thundering noise of something large coming straight towards them. A few humans who had been milling about and excited to see Gordon and Alyx suddenly moved away from the helicopter just as a sizeable rusted robot barreled their way.

Alyx barely got to say anything before being grabbed by the robot. GLaDOS thought it was about to crush her. She hoped it wouldn’t because it would be a shame to find more people and get them up to speed on the situation. Fortunately, Alyx started laughing as she hugged the giant robot back.

“Dog! I missed you!” She cried out while swinging her legs back and forth to try and get free.

The moment Alyx was set down, the large robot swiveled its head towards Gordon. He took a half step back, but that only made the robot leap forward and scoop Gordon up in a hug as well. With it being in close proximity to GLaDOS and the force being put on the suit, she could tell it was strong and rather impressive. Yet it was a lower form of artificial intelligence. Lower form as in nothing could compare to herself, after all…

She’d need to look further into the design of the robot later. From what little signal she could gather coming from it, she’d have to describe it as a mutt… Its code was a mess of alternate modes and attitudes to give it a playful yet protective nature. It wasn’t originally built as it was, but had been added to and made bigger over time and with each addition, more code was added. That was reflected in its system with how much overlap she could feel. A mutt of different codes and designs to make what it is now. What else could she expect from Black Mesa?

When they were finally put down by the mutt, a human in a black padded vest ran up to the two of them and greeted the two humans warmly. Alyx returned the greeting but with less enthusiasm, while Gordon only nodded. Gordon and Alyx moved with purpose through the hall, but all the while more humans in the vests shouted praises and greetings.

 “Someone’s popular,” GlaDOS said into Gordon’s ear.

She felt the small rush of adrenaline through his body.

 “Increased blood flow and adrenaline? It’s amazing how one can measure human emotions if they know what to look for. Embarrassed, are we? That’s almost funny.”

Gordon grunted in reply and picked up the pace.

The two humans burst into Kleiner and Magnusson’s lab after a couple minutes of walking. There was no sign of Magnusson, but Kleiner jumped in surprise at the sound of them entering. He turned his head in panic, but that quickly melted to relief and excitement to see Gordon and Alyx.

“You’re back! Oh, my relief is astronomical. You were gone, far longer than I would have expected,” he said, striding towards them.

Alyx and Kleiner hugged each other while Gordon shook his mentor’s hand.

“I know we just got here, Dr. Kleiner, but we actually have to get to Aperture Science as soon as possible,” Alyx stated before Kleiner could say anything else.

 “Funny you should say that. We recently had someone arrive at White Forest, who was a survivor of Aperture. They had quite the story to tell.” Kleiner mused.

“Aperture survivor? No, I know I killed all the scientists…”  GLaDOS said, unheard by anyone but Gordon.

“Do you know where we can find them?” Alyx asked.

“I believe they went to the mess hall with Barney…”

No sooner had the words left his mouth that Alyx was marching out of the lab. Gordon couldn’t help but notice that Kleiner looked a little dejected at how Alyx left in a hurry. He made a point to nod in understanding at his mentor.

Gordon had to jog to catch up to Alyx as she was tearing through the base like a bat out of hell. The purpose and determination that radiated off of her was enough to send any person in her path to skitter out of the way. Like her father, she had a commanding presence, but hers demanded attention while Eli’s would coax you with a warm smile.

When the two finally entered the mess hall, Alyx and Gordon scanned the room. After a moment, they saw Barney animatedly talking with a man in a black padded vest and a woman in the standard rebel vest, but with an orange shirt underneath. 

Upon seeing the girl, GLaDOS decided to pipe up once more, “Oh you have got to be kidding me…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me...” Chell laughed, a cup of coffee held between her hands as they rested on the table. “He actually had one of those things as a pet?”

“You’re full of shit, Calhoun,” Adrian laughed.

“It’s true. Dr. Kleiner had Lamarr for like six years before she went missing a couple weeks ago,” Barney said, arms crossing over his chest and a smile crossing his lips.

His eyes were still a little red from earlier, but there was a change in him. His shoulders didn’t look as slumped, his smiles were less forced, and he acted… unguarded.

For the first time in weeks, Barney was able to relax.

So that’s probably why when he saw two familiar people standing in the entrance of the mess hall that he practically vaulted over the table to rush and meet them.

“Alyx! Gordon! You’re back!”

He crashed into them and pulled both of them tight to his body, his relief at seeing his friends alive and so close only heightened his sense of relief.

Gordon squeezed Barney tight to his body. The sight of him was a lot to take in, and it almost made him forget what they came to do. Alyx was the one to ensure he didn’t forget as she broke away from the hug first.

“Barney, it’s great to see you, but we are looking for someone,” Alyx said.

Back at the table, Chell watched the two new people with both curiosity and apprehension. The woman wasn’t familiar, but the sight of the man caused Chell to freeze up.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she remembered the visions the vortigaunts shared with her and the dreams that followed. That orange armor, the thick-rimmed glasses, and the damn crowbar he carried at his side. He was the one the people flocked to. The one who went up to the citadel with an entire antlion colony at his command. The One Free Man.

When he looked towards her, Chell couldn’t decide if she felt like fighting or running away with the nerves building up in her stomach. 

Chell watched as his brows furrowed in thought before looking up to meet Chell’s eyes. He then tapped Alyx’s shoulder and used his head to indicate her direction. Alright, that tension in her stomach was becoming stronger.

“Woah, where’s the fire,” Barney piped up as Gordon and Alyx made a move towards the table.

Alyx looks to Chell, then back to Barney, “It’s great to see you, but there’s something we have to do.”

While Alyx and Barney continued back and forth, Gordon looked to Chell and gave a small wave.

She returned it with a nod of her head.

Then to her surprise, he raised his hands and starts to sign at her, and she could understand it. She didn’t even realize she could read sign language. She’d have to ask Arne how she knew that later.

‘My name is Gordon Freeman. Who are you?’

‘I know.’

Chell assumed he must be deaf if he was signing. Strange how that never came up in conversation bef-

“So Gordon, what do you think about the place? Remind you of the old days?”

“A little,” Gordon mumbles.

Chell blinks. Okay, he’s not deaf, but why would he sign at Chell? Did he believe her to be deaf? Why would he assume that about her without asking?

That pit in her stomach only grew larger as apprehension increased.

“Barney, we are glad to be back, but we have something important to discuss with her,” Alyx cut in while gesturing to Chell. “We need to get to Aperture Laboratories as fast as possible.”

And there it was. The pit consumed her, and ice crawled up her spine. No way. Chell wouldn’t do it. She couldn’t go back!

Alyx approached the table, placing her hands flat against the table as she looked down at Chell, “We were told you came from Aperture. We need your help to get back.”

Chell kept eye contact with Alyx as she shook her head.

“No? What do you mean by no?” Alyx glared at the women in front of her. She could have the key to saving the world, and yet she refused to fight for it? How could she be so selfish? How could she sit there with such an apathetic expression and deny helping? 

The Combine has taken everything from Alyx, and here was a woman who was relatively unscathed by them, and all it took was a trip to Aperture to finish it. She had been inside Aperture and made it out. She was their best bet at navigating the massive facility. Still, when her time of need was coming, she was refusing to offer assistance. 

“How can you say no to this?!” Alyx snapped. “My father gave up his life to stop these bastards!”

“If you step inside Aperture, you will die!” Chell responded.

Gordon blinked at her, unable to stop himself from asking a question. “You’re not mute?”

Everyone looked to Gordon then, but Chell’s surprised expression quickly turned to anger again. “Why would you think I was mute?”

Gordon had the sudden urge to shove his foot into his mouth. It didn’t help that GLaDOS had suddenly gone quiet.

Chell stood up, her boots making her have to look slightly down at Gordon. Her eyes were ice cold, but her voice was calm. “Why would you think I am mute?”

Gordon shrugged his shoulders in defeat. “I think... we need to talk…”

Chapter Text

Adrian was used to watching the world around him. As a marine, he was drilled into watching his surroundings and identifying dangerous situations, threats, or potential problems. So when he saw the infamous Gordon Freeman and the girl, who he learned was Alyx Vance enter the cafeteria, he knew to start watching.

Alyx moved like a caged animal. She was wound-up tight and ready to unleash her fury on anything that looked at her funny. He’d seen it before. 

It a few hours after he woke up in Black Mesa and joined up with one of his fellow marines who had been left behind as well. The man had been beyond angry. His eyes had been wild, seeing potential enemies behind every corner and driving headfirst without thinking.

In the end, Adrian had been helpless to prevent the man from charging into a black-ops ambush. Their bullets had turned him into swiss chess, yet he kept fighting. He’d been able to take down two of their numbers before a round took him square between the eyes.

Adrian didn’t want to see that happen to anyone else, and unless someone could reign this Alyx girl in it would happen again.

Doing his best to ignore the emotions radiating off of Alyx, Adrian found himself staring at the back of Gordon Freeman’s head. It was the second time that had happened with the first happening back at Black Mesa.

‘It’s ready! You must go now, Freeman!’

The sight of a man in orange armor running full speed into a floating green ball of energy and disappearing. A scientist crying out in pain as the platform he is standing on collapses. Floating aliens with bulbous heads shouting in anger at their lost pray and turning towards Adrian. The soldier running around the room in a panic, being teleported to a strange alien world after blindly jumping into a second ball of energy.

Adrian found himself flicking the pad of his thumb over his index finger again as he became lost in the moment of deja-vu.

This was the man that had killed countless marines and aliens alike. The man who was said to be an ‘Opener of the Way.’ Someone that was messianic in the eyes of the people.

What a tool...

Yet Barney once caught the man using a security guard helmet in place of a bowl for oatmeal because the guy had been awake for three days straight and wasn’t thinking. One time he even got stuck in an air vent because his lab coat got caught in a fan, and Barney had to cut him free.

It was hard for Adrian to place the two sides of Gordon apart. Especially when the group entered into a meeting room, and Adrian watched Gordon sit down on a small sofa, his expression sheepish, unlike the hardened warrior people claimed he was.

What. The. Fuck?

Barney stood next to Adrian, watching the scene play out, Alyx was standing next to the couch with her arms crossed but clearly on the defensive. Chell stood over Gordon, her eyes like ice.

Gordon winced at something unseen and began to look around the room to avoid Chell’s gaze. In the process, he caught Adrian’s eye. There was a flash of confusion as if just noticing the fifth person in the room. Adrian made no motion to greet the man.

There was the tightening of Gordon’s jaw as he forced himself to meet Chell’s stare. “Do you know about the Borealis?” He finally asked.

Chell narrowed her eyes at the man before shaking her head. “No. What does that have to do with anything?”

Gordon was fidgeting with his hands, clearly distracted by something. “It was a ship designed by Aperture. W- w- we-,” He paused to take a deep breath and compose himself. “We destroyed it. Alyx and I. While there, we activated a security system.”

As he talked, Adrian could see Chell tensing up and taking a half step back.

“The system… It, um, it spoke to us. It- She put a piece of herself in my suit and stuck around-“

“She’s in your suit?” Chell asked, her face turning even angrier. Adrian could swear the temperature dropped in the room a few degrees with how Chell spoke.

Gordon shrunk in on himself even more, and Alyx looked ready to step in. The only thing that stopped her was Gordon giving her a shake of his head.

“Yeah… She is. She says hello, by the way. She’s surprised to see you alive and found your voice. She also mentions something called a… companion cube?” 

 Gordon’s stutter was acting up the more he spoke. Barney frowned at the man, knowing he was trying his best in this interrogation, but he had his limits. Being in a situation and forced to talk under a stressful environment was not one of Gordon’s strong suits.

But her silence was deafening. Chell’s hand reached up to her chest and tightened it into a fist over her heart as she tightly gripped the fabric. As the material tightened under her grip, Adrian could make out the shape of something circular hidden beneath the surface.

“I can tell you have a rough history with her-“

Chell let out a mocking laugh as GLaDOS did the same in Gordon’s ear.

“-but we could use your help. I don’t know the full history you have with each other but, we need to get to Aperture as fast as possible. Alyx and I… We destroyed the Borealis, and it caused a hole- a rip in the universe. If we don’t close it, the Combine could use it and destroy us all,” Gordon explained. As he talked, the nervousness that caused his stutter to worsen became less pronounced as he gave way to urgency. He had to break through to Chell. She knew Aperture and could help them. All they needed was-

“No,” Chell said

“What?”

“I said no.” Chell shifted to place a hand on her hip. “I’m not going back there! I almost died trying to escape that place, and besides… I’m not wanted. She told me not to go back.”

 Gordon paused as he diverted his eyes and furrowed his brow. Adrian assumed he was listening to whoever was in his suit. He heard stories of the Hazardous Environment Suits. They were pitched to the US Military, but they were deemed too bulky and expensive for troops, so they went with the Powered-Combat Vests. Although they didn’t cover the body as well as the HEV, the PCV benefited from not talking or detailing every scrape or injury to the user.

Dwelling on injuries would lead to panic, and panic would lead to destruction for a marine. A soldier was designed to work as a team and carry on at all costs. If there are too many distractions, then the mission couldn’t be completed effectively.

Even now, the voice in the HEV seemed to be a distraction that was ruining the mission for Gordon.

Gordon sighed as he looked towards Chell again, “She says she is willing to make an exception.”

Chell glares down at Gordon. “I’m not going back. There’s nothing you can say that will convince me.”

With that, Chell turned around and walked out of the room. Alyx attempted to go after her, but Adrian blocked the way. “Just wait. The more you push against her, the harder she will fight back.”

Gordon looked to Adrian with a frown, his eyes fixated on the vest he was wearing. It was so familiar, but he couldn’t place where from. He removed his glasses to clean them off to get a better view as he was sure he’d seen it before.

Gordon didn’t realize it, but his hand was slowly tightening around the crowbar as he continued to look at Adrian.

The hunk of metal fell to the ground as Adrian was the one to slip out of the room and follow after Chell, claiming he would try to check on her.

Chell stormed into her room, relief that it was empty of her roommates. The portal gun sat on the bed, where she left it, along with a small pile of things she had collected since arriving on the surface. The other plates from the companion cube, the ichthyosaur tooth, a broken coffee mug handle, some bits of wire, pliers, and some miscellaneous bullets.

Without thinking, Chell picked up one of the bits of wire and began to wrap it around her fingers into corkscrew shapes, unwinding it, then wrapping her fingers again in the opposite direction. The repetitive action allowed the rage she was feeling to ebb away, and the emptiness of the room made Chell realize just how alone she was.

It was the first time she had been alone since before she met Crow and Apollo. Just over a week of traveling, and she was missing their presence. Being alone was actually starting to be the worst thing for her despite wanting nothing more than that less than two weeks ago.

Chell sat on the floor with her eyes closed and her back resting against her bed as she continued to toy with the wire when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was accompanied by that feeling she had in Aperture when the cameras would follow her every move. The feeling of being watched.

Looking around, the world around Chell had faded to a black void. There was no sound of people chatting in the hall or the gentle hum of machinery and fluorescent bulbs. The smell of sweat and grime didn’t permeate the air. There even seemed to be a lack of temperature if that was even possible. It was like she was in a state of being both dead and alive within the confines of the darkness that surrounded her.

Then her eyes landed on Him…

He stood a few feet away with an expression that said he’d been waiting to be noticed as if he’d been there the entire time, and it wasn’t strange for someone to be wearing a pristine suit in the middle of an old Cold War-era bunker. The slightly bored expression shifted into that smug grin she’d seen him have when he’d be skulking around corners.

Although it seemed he was done with corners and finally decided to stop hiding.

“Miss Bishop… It is wonderful to finally speak face to face,” he said.

His voice was grating to Chell’s ears. It wasn’t synthetic and clipped like GLaDOS’s had been before her morality core was destroyed. Instead, it was as if someone was trying to talk who didn’t fully understand how to form the sounds. The grammar was there, but none of the flow of conversation.

She tried to get up, but an invisible force was keeping her pinned to the ground. Chell tried to wiggle her fingers and toes, but they refused to cooperate either. All she could do was blink at the man and school her expression into one of anger. It was the easiest thing to feel at the moment.

“No need to get up on my account,” he chuckled at his little joke. “This conversation won’t take long.”

The longer she sat in place and focused her ire, a memory was bubbling to the surface. She had seen the man before. Not just on the ship or in the forest after saying goodbye to Mel. It was before that… It was at-

Black Mesa… He was the man she bumped into when leaving Br. Breen’s office the day he offered her the Aperture position.

“It has been some time since I’ve set my eyes on you. Although promising, you proved an obstacle that needed to be removed…”

 As he spoke, images began dancing in her vision. She could see the man and Dr. Breen talking together with her employee id picture in a file on the desk along with photos from the servers rooms in Sectors C and D of Black Mesa.

The images faded to Chell arriving at Aperture and the man watching her while hiding in a crowd of people nearby.

“But you have come a long way and shown to be able to survive against incredible odds.”

More visions. Chell’s first fight with GLaDOS, the rooftop battle with the vortigaunts against the zombies, how she took charge of the rebels when they took control of the Aurelia.

“You’ve performed so well in fact, my employers wish to extend an offer to you…”

 If she could, Chell would spit on him.

“I sense hesitation on your part, so you do not have to give an answer at the time being… But you will do something for me.”

Chell didn’t want to do anything he asked.

“You will go to Aperture Science, or I shall ensure a demise that is far worse than anything that could happen within those halls…”

 As he said that, another vision swam in Chell’s vision. It was of an older man with dark skin, white hair, and a prosthetic leg. He was crouching on the ground, but Chell watched as he grabbed a steel pipe and swung it in a wide arc upwards into the side of a sizeable grub-like creature. The creature cried out in pain before a mechanical claw attached to the side of the beast grabbed the pipe and threw it aside. The man was then knocked down and pinned to the ground as a shower of glass and metal swirled around the room from some strange energy radiating off the creature.

Through the debris came a second grub creature, and it plucked the man from off the ground. All the while, Chell could hear a female voice calling out to him. They kept yelling for him to run and crying out curses at the floating grub creatures to let her father go. A quick glance to Chell’s left revealed the voice to be Alyx only without the green vest. That’s when Chell realized the man at the mercy of the grubs was wearing it.

Chell could only watch helplessly as the other grub lifted Alyx’s father into the air, and a long tentacle-like tongue snaked its way out of a tiny mouth.

“Close your eyes, honey! Don’t look,” he yelled out to Alyx before the grub’s tongue struck out with enough force to pierce the back of the man’s skull. Chell wanted to look away, but she was unable to even as the first grub turned its attention on Chell and Alyx.

She was pulled away from the vision as the suited man took a few steps closer and loomed over her. “I await your choice, Miss Bishop,” he said before walking away and into a white doorway of light that suddenly appeared in front of him.

The moment the light seeped back into the world, Chell found herself overwhelmed and almost threw up right there on the floor. She managed to keep everything down, but that didn’t change what she saw or what she felt. The anger, disgust, and horror of it all. It was too much, and Chell didn’t know what to do.

A few moments later, Adrian walked into the room to see Chell on her hands and knees, looking as if she was on the verge of collapsing. He rushed forward and began to look over her for injuries. “Are you alright?”

Typically she would have lied and said she was fine, but she couldn’t do it anymore. Instead, she shook her head. “No. I’m not.”

She thought back to how Alyx had snarled in the cafeteria...

‘My father gave up his life fighting against these bastards!’

 “What’s wrong? What do you need?”

Chell struggled to stand up, and she was pleased that Adrian was there. Reaching out, she grabbed the portal gun and grimaced, “I need to go back.”

Chapter Text

After Chell had left and Adrian chased after her, Alyx instantly began pacing again. “How can she not help us? Doesn’t she realize what’s at stake here?”

“Take it easy, Alyx,” Barney said. “From what she’s told us, I’m not surprised she doesn’t want to help.”

 That was the wrong thing to say as Alyx turned on her feet to glare daggers at Barney.

“So, you are taking her side?” Alyx shouted.

“I’m not taking anyone’s side!”

While those two argued, Gordon was left on the couch with his hands resting between his knees, shoulders hunched, and an expression like a kicked puppy or a kid watching their parent’s fight.

And on top of that, he still had GlaDOS talking in his ear.

“Do they always do this?” she asked Gordon.

He shook his head slowly.

GLaDOS hummed in thought before continuing. “Grief has always been fascinating. So unpredictable at times, but always easy to exploit.”

Gordon frowned at that.

“But her? She’s going through the stages of denial. It seems she’s stuck on anger at the moment. Trying to blame all of her problems on other people.”

 He rubbed at his ears, wanting nothing more than to turn the voice off.

“When in reality, she can’t come to terms with herself. There is no one she blames more than herself, and all that self-loathing is being projected onto other people who won’t fit into her train of thought.”

 Gordon grunted, his jaw tightening in anger.

“As for my lunatic… I suppose I hold some blame for her refusal. I did tell her to not come back after all… It’s funny that this is the one time she follows my instructions.”

He did his best to block her out, but GLaDOS was persistent in being heard.

“Did you know she was the most tenacious test subject ever recorded within Aperture? I’ve gone back over her file, and she was never actually supposed to be a test subject. Isn’t that funny? A woman who was too stubborn to die when may be the key you need for survival. And by funny, I mean tragic.”

“Shut up,” Gordon mumbled.

He meant to say it to only GLaDOS, but he managed to catch the attention of Barney and Alyx as well. They were still at each other’s throats, and they looked to him as if they were only noticing him for the first time.

Seeing the opportunity and the buildup of emotions inside him came out all at once. Like a Molotov being thrown, the words flowed from Gordon.

“Just shut up! Everyone shut up!” He cried out.

It was the first time Alyx had heard him yell like that. Barney had heard it only once before, and even then, it surprised him how angry Gordon could be.

Gordon was supposed to be the soft-spoken nerd. Not the loud and angry man that sat on a derelict couch.

“Stop yelling! That’s all I hear lately, and I can’t take it. No one ever stops anymore, and I can’t take it!” Gordon huffed. It was the loudest he spoke, and somehow he didn’t stutter once.

“We are going to Aperture no matter what. With or without her help. We are going because its what Eli would have wanted, and he would not want us to force people into submission,” he continued. Somehow he was able to go on his rant without stuttering once. “Isn’t that what we are fighting for? Freedom? So, we are going to give her the freedom to choose what she wants. And Barney? You can’t decide what’s best for others when it’s obvious you are neglecting yourself! I’ve been your friend long enough to know! So stop being a hypocrite and do something for yourself for a change.”

Gordon had stood up in the middle of his speech and placed himself directly between the two quarreling people.

“And I heard you were the quiet one,” the voice from the doorway called.

Standing halfway in and out of the room stood Chell with Adrian right behind her. In her arms was a strange, sleek, white device that looked like a handheld cannon.

Out the corner of his eye, he could see how Alyx was glaring at Chell, but the latter made no motion of acknowledgment towards the former. She had all her attention on Gordon. “I’ll help you with Aperture. Get everything you might need ready,” she said, her voice flat but barely holding back the anger she still harbored. 

Gordon knew something must have happened to make her change her mind, but what could have done so in such a short amount of time was beyond him.

“And Freeman? I need to speak with you and her alone.” Chell then turns on her feet and walks further down the hall. Gordon scrambled off the couch as fast as he could, wanting to get away from the tense atmosphere. Shephard nodded at Gordon as he passed through the door, but then stepped in the way to prevent Barney or Alyx intruding on Chell and Gordon.

Chell only stood thirty feet down the hall, holding the device angled upwards so that it rested on her shoulder. The other hand on her hip that was cocked out to the side. When she saw Gordon, she set her expression into one of determination.

As he approached, he noticed how her eyes scanned every inch of his suit.

 “Can the volume on that suit be raised for me to hear?” Chell finally asked.

Gordon shook his head the same time GLaDOS said,  “No. Believe me, I’ve tried. Your friend with the anger issues seemed better conversationalist than you. It’s a shame. I’ve been told I am an excellent therapist.”

Chell sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. It almost made him laugh as he’d seen Magnusson do that multiple times back in Black Mesa.

“Alright… I’m going to need you to mediate for her…” Chell then schooled her expression back to the less annoyed and more determined. Her eyes taking on that ice-cold glare but, at the same time, hot iron quality to them. 

 “GLaDOS…” Chell said it as if trying it out on her tongue for the first time. Had she ever said the AI’s name before now?

 “GLaDOS,” she said again. “If we come to Aperture, there will be conditions.”

“I’m sure…” GLaDOS said to Gordon. 

“She says okay-“

“Say it right,” Chell said.

 “Say it right,” GLaDOS said at the exact same time as Chell.

Funny how Chell could tell when it wasn’t GLaDOS’s words.

Gordon repeats his answer, being sure to use the exact words he was given. After that, the conversation went smoothly between Chell and GLaDOS, much to Gordon’s frustration of the AI’s word choice. He just wasn’t a fan of being overly sarcastic to people.

 “You have to keep your word,” Chell stated. The way her voice carried, it left no room for argument. At least from Gordon. “No tricks, no lies, no loopholes. You let us all go once we deal with this.”

“Is that all?”

“For now.”

“For now? So the demands are conditional? Can I expect more in the future?”

“Possibly.”

  “Hmm… And if I don’t follow these conditions? What could you possibly do to me?”

A positively devious smile crossed Chell’s features as she continued to look at Gordon. “I’ll put you back into a potato and feed you to the birds.”

A strange threat, Gordon thought. So strange, it caused him to chuckle. Although, for some reason unknown to Gordon, GLaDOS remained silent.

When she did finally respond, it was to yell in Gordon’s ear to shut up. He promptly did.

“Tell her I accept her conditions.”

With her answer, Chell reaches out her free hand to Gordon to shake. A few pumps of the hand and the deal was finalized.

An hour later, the group was gathered around a series of monitors and computers in one of the more massive silos. It provided privacy for what they were doing while at the same time, allowed everyone room to gather. Crow and Apollo stood like sentries next to Dog. The three acting as protectors of the group while they worked. 

“Have you got that communication relay up yet, Arne?” Chell said as she typed line after line of code in quick succession.

“Don’t rush me,” Magnusson snapped. He was currently messing with a mess of wires and an old longwave radio. “We could barely reach you off the coast of Portugal, and now you expect us to reach the Michigan Peninsula?”

Gordon frowned at the irony of the situation. Magnusson was famous for rushing people around, and yet he couldn’t take it himself.

It was made all the worse when GLaDOS said,  “I like him… Now tell him to adjust the angle of the communication antenna by two point eight-five degrees south.”

It took nearly an hour of work between Chell, Arne, and instruction from GLaDOS to get everything set up. When the ping finally came through, the room sagged in relief, but Chell remained tense.

Her entire body was tense when her voice filtered through the speakers. “It says I’m transmitting. Finally, you can all hear me, but first… Hello, my lunatic. You have been busy, I see.”

Chell’s only response was to glare at the speakers.

 “If you want to glare at me, then I’d say you should look at the orange-clad idiot who caused this whole mess to begin with. I sadly don’t have visual at the moment,” GLaDOS said with a slightly bored tone to her voice.

Gordon frowned at her choice of words. He was tired of being blamed for things that were outside of his control. Yes, the Borealis was his fault. That’s something he will accept because he didn’t fully understand what would happen to the ship, but everything else? He had just been following orders.

That could be addressed later. More important things were happening.

Magnusson looked to Chell in shock. The full weight of what happened to her was coming down on him, and he could only see how much it affected her. Even in Black Mesa, Chell has never shown such a response to someone’s voice.

 “Alright, we have communication up for Aperture Science, but how is that going to help us? You can’t honestly think about going back, Chell,” Arne said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

 The woman in question shot a look to Arne. He’d seen that look only a few times before but never directed at him. Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders. “This is foolish, Chell. You almost died there. You said it yourself! You can’t trust that thing!”

“And to think I was starting to like you. I am much more than a simple  thing as you put it,” GLaDOS added before Chell could retort to Arne’s comments.

“I am the single greatest creation that has ever existed. I’m the most massive collection of wisdom and raw computational power that has ever existed, and I am-

“Incredible!”

The new voice somehow managed to defuse all the tension in the room. GLaDOS was silent, Magnusson’s shoulders relaxed, and Chell’s face softened. Then everyone’s eyes went to look at Dr. Kleiner, who was listening with rapt attention.

“Absolutely incredible. A true artificial intelligence without restrictions. You are easily the most fascinating creature I have ever spoken with,” Kleiner said while looking towards Gordon.

 All in all, this wasn’t helping Gordon’s nerves due to people looking at him while speaking. It felt weird to hear such praise come from Kleiner.

GLaDOS remained quiet for several seconds before her voice came back through the speakers. Although less annoyed than before. She sounded almost… proud.  “Yes. I am impressive, but we have more important things to discuss.”

 Magnusson shot a quick glance to Kleiner, who sported a smile that could almost be a smirk. It made Arne furrow his brow. Had the man known that would be the way to calm everyone down? Clever man…

“What exactly do you plan on doing about the rip in reality that your silent friend caused?”  GLaDOS continued.

Gordon grumbled as Alyx spoke up. “I don’t know what you expect us to do. It took her over a week to get here. By the time we even get to you, it could be too late.”

And like that, GLaDOS’s annoyance returns.  “And here I thought Black Mesa might have one competent person, but it seems I was wrong. You do have the dual portal device, correct?”

Chell pursed her lips as she shifted the gun to be held in both hands. It suddenly felt a lot heavier in her hands.

“And? I can’t shoot a portal to Aperture from here,” Chell snapped back.

 She didn’t miss how Magnusson smirked at her reply.

“Must I walk you through everything?”  GLaDOS said dryly.

GLaDOS then went on to explain what to do and what supplies they would need. When they didn’t have what was needed, they managed to compensate with things they had lying around. That came with a few snide remarks from GLaDOS about not having the appropriate supplies for a science facility.

 The first step was removing the outer casing of the portal gun. It required more force than initially thought, but with some wiggling, prying, and wedging Chell’s ichthyosaur tooth into the gap, they were able to remove the outer casing. It revealed a small panel that was held in place by a few tiny screws.

After the screws were removed, two small sticks reminiscent of WWII german stick grenades were nestled into a small slot inside. Those were carefully set aside while internal wires were snipped, crossed, and rerouted into the White Forest power grid.

 It didn’t go unnoticed how the lights seemed to glow a little steadier and that the constant whine of the generators lessened. 

Magnusson looked at the gun in awe and fear at what it could do. It made him want to keep it for a power source, yet destroy it at the same time. Nothing that small should be powerful enough to power the entirety of White Forest. He couldn’t help but look at Chell as she continued to work alongside him.

“I’m sending you another file. I need you to run.”

 There was a ping, and Kleiner was the one to open up the file for Chell and Magnusson. “I’ve done it,” Kleiner said.

What followed was a series of beeps from GLaDOS’s end of the connection before she spoke again.  “Alright, now shoot the portal gun on any usable surface.”

Being careful to not dislodge any of the wires, Chell pointed the gun at a nearby wall without obstructions and watched the blue swirl of energy stick. With whatever GLaDOS was doing on the other side, the blue linked up to its orange counterpart, and a doorway was formed for the group.

Only a thirty-foot walk and they’d be five thousand miles away.

Chell watched as Magnusson and Kleiner approached the Portal with Gordon. All three examined the gateway with interest, but whereas Magnusson and Kleiner were thinking of the science behind it, Gordon walked on through without pausing.

 Alyx quickly followed behind him. Dog approached the portal and, with great difficulty, managed to squeeze his large body through the gateway.

Adrian looked at Chell before following Barney through the gate, two large duffel bags strapped to his back.

Crow and Apollo looked to Chell, a silent question of what she plans to do. Not like she had a choice in the matter with the ultimatum over her head. She refused to die on someone else’s terms.

Before she could walk through the portal, Arne reached out and grabbed Chell by the arm.

“Are you sure about this?” He asked.

“I have to.”

“No, you don’t! You nearly died there once, and you are going back like nothing happened?”

“They could die without me.”

“And you might die with them!”

Chell narrowed her eyes at Magnusson in silent anger, and he returned one in time. “I don’t have a choice here, Arne. I can either die here or fight to survive there, but I don’t have a choice.”

“There is always a choice!” He yelled, effectively startling Chell, Kleiner, and the vortigaunts. “You may not think it, but you always have a choice. It’s not a black and white argument as there are shades of gray. In that gray, you will find your third option!”

“Arne-“

“And I am not letting my best friend throw her life away like this again just because she is too stubborn!” With that, he pushed past Chell and disappeared into the portal.

Crow and Apollo followed close behind along with Chell. She didn’t want him to be in Aperture as it was too dangerous. She couldn’t risk losing the one piece of her past due to his stubborn nature. 

Just as she caught up to him, snagging his shoulder by the lab coat, she heard the shifting of panels and the fizzle of a portal closing.

A quick look over her shoulder revealed the portal was closed, and they had been closed off from White Forest. Six humans, two vortigaunts, and one robotic guardian all gathered close to take in the giant cylindrical chamber.

“Hello, and welcome to the Aperture Science Central Chamber,”  GLaDOS said as she swiveled her massive body around to look at the group.  “Now, let’s get to work.”

Chapter Text

GLaDOS swayed back and forth from the ceiling in the main chamber like a serpent hanging from a tree. Thick cables winding down and coiling into a central location to support the body of Aperture’s queen. Through her movements, the soft lights would glint off her chassis to further prove just how massive she was. She was beautiful as she was dangerous.

 “What the hell is that…?” Barney mumble, just loud enough for Chell to hear.

She shrugged her shoulders in response. “My ex,” she said. No hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“And we both know I could do so much better than you,”  GLaDOS said, making it clear she heard them both.

Chell glared at GLaDOS while the rest of the group looked on in surprise and confusion. She hadn’t expected the AI to join in.

“All joking aside, now that you are here, what do you intend to do? How do you plan on fixing this problem?”  GLaDOS said, as her optic shifted between each member of the group.

No one spoke up for the time being.

“Anyone? Don’t tell me I have to come up with the plan as well,”  GLaDOS said, her face shifting to look directly at Chell. The two engaged in an intense staring contest as if daring the other to try something.

“We- we need some sort of resonance device. Something that will allow the rift to stabilize so we can close it properly,” Gordon said as he moved to stand next to Chell. 

“Something similar to the source code back in City 17?” Alyx asked.

“Yes, I have thought of that and have wanted to pursue it, but there is one small issue…”  GLaDOS added as she moved a few panels from the walls to reveal several screens.

The screens flickered to life with security feeds, and the rift was on display for the group to see. It was a flickering mass of pure energy. Bolts of energy in a multitude of colors erupted from the tear in reality to lash wildly in all directions, heading no mind to the surroundings. The rift seemed to widen and grow with each flare of power, tearing catwalks and structures apart to only leave behind white-hot metal and rubble.

“Oh god-“Shepherd mumbled as his fists clench.

“That is only the beginning. Please watch the screen,”  GLaDOS instructed.

On the screen were two robots Chell recognized from the central chamber the day she left Aperture. They looked to be hesitant as they approached the rift. They were right to be cautious as there was a sudden surge in energy, and both were instantly caught in the beam, which lead to both exploding in a mess of sparks and wires.

“The same thing happens to organic material as well. Plants, birds, rabbits… It’s all the same.”

“Harmonic reflux,” Gordon and Barney said at the same time. The former looking surprised that Barney knew what that was.

Barney just sent a smirk to Gordon and shrugged his shoulders. “What? You have to be the only egg head around here?”

Barney remembered his time experiencing harmonic reflux during his escape from Black Mesa. He had stayed behind to let Dr. Rosenburg and the other scientists go through the portal first to hold off the military. Just as he had jumped into the portal, the soldiers launched grenade rounds into the room, causing a malfunction with the teleporter. 

Barney had been caught in a constant teleportation loop that sent him to random places all over Black Mesa and into Xen. It wore off, but that could have been due to the military’s destruction of the lab or the power finally depleting. Like Gordon, he had been stuck in the same situation after the teleporter accident in City 17. He became stabilized after they shut down the machines. 

‘You can’t enter the beam. It will tear you apart,’ Kleiner had yelled to stop Barney from interfering back at the City 17 lab.

If anyone touched a person caught in the reflux, they would meet a gruesome end.

“Yes, it seems-“ GLaDOS started but cut off as if distracted by something.  “One moment… We have a minor infestation.”

 A series of clicks and beeps came through the unseen speakers, followed by a distant explosion that echoed in everyone’s chests.

A worried glance passes between the group as what the ‘infestation’ could be. Three guesses what it could be, and the first two don’t count.

“If you have thought everything, then why do you need us?” Alyx asked, moving to stand by Chell in the center.

“To fix your own mess,”  GLaDOS said while swaying her body to the side as if the answer was obvious.

She was lying. Chell could tell that much after having dealt with her for so long, but getting her to admit it was half the fun.

“You don’t actually know how to fix it, do you?” Chell stated, one of her hips cocking out in the process.

That made GLaDOS go silent as she swiveled to glare at Chell.  “Do not question my intelligence. Fixing it will be easy to complete now that you are here.”

“So why not fix it yourself?”

Another beat of silence from GLaDOS.

“I think I liked you better when you were mute…”  She finally said.  “Fine, I’m too distracted to do it myself. Something up there is attempting to bypass my security system and firewalls. It’s taking a lot of effort to keep them from getting in, and I need to focus on that while you fix the rift.”

The others look to Chell while she kept her eyes fixed on GLaDOS. Yes, the robot was a known liar, but in those moments of truth… It was raw. GLaDOS would never admit that things were hard for her and yet acknowledging that she needed help wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

That’s why Chell gives a single nod of her head. “Then let’s go to work.”

Magnusson moved forward to grab Chell by the shoulder. “Chell, you can’t b-”

“I am,” Chell said, not looking to her friend. “While I’m gone, I want you to stay here with Crow and Apollo. Worst comes to worst, this is the safest place you can be.”

“Chell-”

“Just stay here and be safe!”

Arne couldn’t find the words he wanted to say. Instead, he squeezed her shoulder and said, “Don’t bother coming back if you die out there.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. I’d have to deal with seeing your mopey expressions again,” Chell responded without thinking.

“Again?

 “Remember Abigail from Accounting?” Chell said.

Her words’ gravity took a second to register, but Arne couldn’t hide the ecstatic yet perturbed grin.

“Typical. You would remember something so menial,” he pouted.

“If it means messing with you, then it must be important,” she smirked.

While those two had their bickering moment, GLaDOS had moved aside a few panels from the floor to reveal several pedestals. Two contained pristine portal guns while the others had small palm-sized devices of unknown use and several pairs of long fall boots.

“Line up and grab what you need,”  GLaDOS commanded.

Shoes were traded out for the long fall boots. The small devices were revealed as electronic maps of the facility with programmed routes already running. That would come in handy…

Chell grabbed one of the two portal guns as her original was back at White Forest while Adrian took the second. He ran a hand over the sleek chassis before inserting his hand into the end of it and feeling the buttons. 

Chell gave him a rundown of the internal triggers while pulling out her navigation pad to study their route. There would be a few tricky areas, but nothing that caught her eye at the moment.

While they busied themselves with the portal guns, Gordon examined the long fall boots and looked at his metal plated legs. He pursed his lips and adjusted his glasses as they had started sliding down his nose due to the angle he had his head.

“How am I…” he trailed off, holding up one boot and gesturing to his legs while looking at GLaDOS.

“Oh, I almost forgot.”

Before anyone could react, a panel opened up beneath Gordon, and he disappeared beneath the floor. Alyx and Chell were on the defensive immediately, while Barney dove to the panel’s edge, trying to find his friend.

There was the sound of metal clanging and sparks shining in the darkness, with Gordon letting out grunts of discomfort small curses at what was happening to him.

“Bring him back!” Alyx demanded.

“Relax,” GLaDOS sighed as a claw lowered from the ceiling and disappeared into the floor’s hole.

Gordon was slowly raised up, the large claw wrapped around his waist, glasses askew, and an annoyed expression on his face. He was then rudely dropped back to the ground, but instead of a heavy thunk of him falling over, he almost looked graceful in his landing.

That’s when everyone noticed the modification GLaDOS had added to Gordon’s suit. Connected to the legs of his suit were two black curved pieces of metal. With each step, they would bend with his weight and absorb all impact to the point it was like walking on soft grass.

“Will the long fall upgrade suffice?”

 Gordon lifted one leg off the ground and prodded one of the additions to his suit with interest. “Yes. They should.”

The group of five humans and a giant robotic guard dog moved along the catwalks single file. Chell took the lead as she was the only one familiar with the surroundings. It turned out to have an added benefit as the other four were having trouble getting used to the long fall boots’ springs. There were quiet curses from the group, but strangely, Gordon was the first to get the hang of walking in them.

Chell instructed Crow and Apollo to stay back with Magnusson to keep him safe if anything were to go wrong. They tried to object, but she needed them to stay behind. She could handle anything inside Aperture, but needed to make sure Arne would be safe.

It’s not that she didn’t trust GLaDOS. She didn’t trust the AI one hundred percent, but that wasn’t the point. Chell wanted to be sure that all bases were covered. This was Aperture, and anything could go wrong at any second.

Barney was walking right behind Chell, his AR2 pointed at the ground but ready for action at a moment’s notice. He bit his lip as he looked into the expansive abyss of blue-tinted mist that stretched in every direction to only be dotted by large cube-shaped structures, support beams, and distant lights. It felt so empty. “So…” He started. “That was the robot that tried to kill you before.”

“One of them at least,” Chell mumbled, sparing a glance over her shoulder.

“And you had to deal with all those passive-aggressive comments the entire time?”

“Yep.”

Barney had to suppress a laugh. “Sorry… but no wonder you can stand Dr. Magnusson.”

Chell didn’t have a response, but it did make her chuckle.

After a few seconds, she responded with, “I’m telling him you said that.”

She didn’t see the slightly panicked expression on Barney’s face.

Near the rear of the group, Adrian keeps his eyes locked on the back of Gordon’s head. This was the man who slaughtered his way through Black Mesa. It was hard to see at first, but with the way Gordon moved, eyes fixed and scanning his surroundings… Adrian could see how he survived.

Hey… I don’t think we were really introduced,” Adrian finally said. It had been several hours since they were in the mess hall of White Forest, but this was the first time he had actually addressed Gordon directly.

Gordon looked back at Adrian and nodded. “No. We haven’t.”

And awkward silence stretched between the two—each wanting the other to break first.

“I’m Gordon Fre-”

“I know who you are.”

“Oh…”

Another silence stretched.

“I- I’m Adrian, by the way. Adrian Shephard,” he said.

More silence.

“This may not be the best time, but- but I was at Black Mesa too. I saw you jump into that portal,” Adrian finally said. “The lambda lab, I think?”

He knew this wasn’t the right time, but Freeman needed to know. Adrian couldn’t risk the man figuring it out on his own and deciding to take out some sort of vengeance for his colleagues. Even if Adrian had nothing to do with that.

“You were the guard?” Gordon asked.

“No,” Adrian said.

Shephard remembered the lone security guard within that chamber. He’d seen the man lying in a growing pool of blood as those flying creatures with bulbous head continued to pelt everything around them with yellow bursts of energy.

Gordon’s eyes traveled to the vest that Adrian wore, and recognition hit him like a brick.

“You were a-”

“Marine. Yes.”

Adrian watched as the crowbar in Gordon’s hand twitched with the amount of force the owner had on it.

He knew it was coming, but Adrian didn’t stop it from happening.

Gordon rounded on Adrian, pushing the man into the catwalk’s railing and using the crowbar, had the length of it pressed against the former marine’s chest to block him from getting up.

“Gordon, stop!” Barney called out.

“Don’t you know what he is?” Gordon called out to his friend.

“Yes!” Barney yelled, moving back to put a hand on Gordon’s shoulder. “But I trust him. Gordon, look at his face. What do you see?”

Adrian’s face was blank, sweaty, and… young? Gordon blinked at that as he realized he couldn’t be older than twenty-five. No. He shouldn’t be that young. Anyone who survived Black Mesa would need to be around Barney’s age or older. That would mean…

Him.  He had something to do with this once again.

“You don’t have to trust me right now, Freeman. But I had nothing to do with what happened at Black Mesa. I never hurt anyone,” Adrian said, not bothering to push against Gordon; instead, he kept a death grip on the railing to prevent from going over.

Several tense moments passed before Gordon roughly pulled away from Adrian. “I won’t hesitate if you give me an excuse. I lost too many colleagues to your people.”

Adrian rubbed his chest where the crowbar had been pressed. His PCV protected him, but it was mainly out of habit to check for injuries. 

“I lost my people to your actions too. Their orders were barbaric, but that doesn’t change the fact that you have blood on your hands. No one came out of Black Mesa without scars,” Adrian stated.

“The difference between them and me… I tried to fix my mistakes. They just tried to cover it up,” Gordon replied coldly before turning on his feet. He then moved to the front near Chell.

Adrian looked to Barney with a sheepish expression. Barney, on the other hand, looked to Gordon with a worried expression. Alyx glared at Adrian while Dog let out a few concerned noises before nudging Adrian to get moving again.

This group…

It’s a bomb ready to blow at a moment’s notice. Adrian only hoped it wouldn’t go off too soon.

“I see your conflict resolution needs work,”  GLaDOS’s voice came from their datapads. So, she could still see them? That was good to know.

“You’ll want to take a right up ahead. In a few hundred yards, there will be a staircase. Take it and enter the chamber it leads to,”  she instructed the group.

They did as instructed, the silence fell over the group again, but it was a lot tenser this time around.

When they approached the door GLaDOS mentioned, Chell froze. In front of them was a circular blast door, and as they approached it, the locks turned in place and rotated until a hiss of steam escaped the seams and beckoned the group entrance. Chell still stood in place, not wanting to venture any further.

“Yes, I get your reservations, but it’s the quickest way.”

Chell glared at her datapad and attempted to fiddle with it to find another way around. All other routes would take hours longer and require backtracking.

“If it makes you feel better, the ones you will be moving through will be familiar. You’ve completed them before. I’ve even turned off the high energy pellets and lasers,”  GLaDOS continued.  “There truly is no faster way.”

Chell’s whole frame shook in anger before she finally snapped out of whatever trance she was in and walked into the chamber. The others followed behind her, and once all entered, the door slammed shut and locked behind them.

Chell’s body took on a far more defensive posture as she glanced towards a giant black screen. It flickered into life, and a large number fourteen came into view.

“Welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center,” Chell finally grumbled out as she once more leads the group through the test chamber.

Chapter Text

While the five-person rebel squad moved into the testing track, a warzone was happening near Aperture’s surface.

The Combine had all manner of equipment and synths on standby, attempting to breach the facility in any way they could. It hadn’t taken long for them to realize something was inside, actively foiling every attempt to reach the rift.

It didn’t matter what they did. It would result in the same thing. Lasers grids would wash over a squad, the floor would drop out beneath them, and if they survived that, a large panel covered in spikes would drop down to crush the remains.

So when a small team found a smaller entrance, several miles away from where most of the action was taking place, they saw it as an opportunity.

Overwatch High Command ordered several teams to fan out and search for other entry points or force their way in by any means necessary. 

Some teams decided to dig their way in with the terraforming synths or force their way through the main entrances with overwhelming force, but others tried subtle approaches.

They had found a small service entrance for maintenance staff and used some explosive rounds to destroy the locks holding everything in place. 

The team rushed inside, accompanied by a member of Overwatch High Command, and began their mission. It wasn’t long before the facility started to fight back. A mixture of turrets, lasers, pressure-sensitive catapults, and the floor did everything possible to stop the team, but they were determined, and Overwatch High Command assisted when needed.

An hour of running around led to only two members of the original ten-man team to remain, but it was enough. They managed to reach a server room, and they soon set to work. Their first task was destroying the cameras, second, being to see what they can find within the servers.

While the two soldiers went to work, Overwatch High Command focused its mind of a nearby wall before destroying it and floating out into the expanse that is Aperture. Its metal arms twitching as it moved with ease, unobstructed to its goal.

When GLaDOS said that Chell had completed the chambers before, she had not been joking. Chamber fourteen was the exact same test Chell had completed the first time she went through Aperture. The only difference was that she could move through without worrying about being hit by the high energy pellets. They had two chambers to push through before reaching chamber sixteen. Hopefully, the turrets hadn’t been replaced. Then after that, they would need to get into a service area of chamber eighteen.

Chamber fourteen only required them to lift a cube and replace it on a button to continue as the small platform wouldn’t lower otherwise.

Once in chamber fifteen, the group had some issues when it came to the momentum challenge. Those that had never used the long fall boots were hesitant, but Alyx was the first to take the plunge after Chell explained what to do.

Alyx hopped through the portal, and as she started the plunge, Chell dropped another portal below her. The group watched as Alyx let out surprised yells as she was flung through the air and landed on the other side of a glass wall without being harmed. 

She looked to the group with a smile on her face. “You have got to try this!”

And like that, they all dropped into the portals with ease, knowing they would be safe upon landing. Barney had to restrain himself from yelling in excitement due to the seriousness of the situation. If he came out of this alive, he’d like to do that again sometime.

While the humans regrouped on the other side of the wall, Dog clambered over as fast as he could, effectively splintering the glass of the wall. When he jumped down, his landing’s vibrations caused the glass to fall to the floor, no longer to pose an issue.

“Why didn’t we think of that sooner?” Adrian asked.

No one had an answer for him.

Near the end of chamber fifteen, Chell thought they would have some trouble with the moving platforms, but GLaDOS merely reversed their direction. They had to fit two people per platform while Dog had to sit on one himself. His weight making the platform creak in protest.

From that point on, they proceeded through the test with ease.

Chamber sixteen was the one Chell had been worried about. It had been the room with the turrets, but relief flooded Chell to see the first turret already tipped over the moment they entered the chamber.

Alyx and Gordon exchanged a look at seeing the turret while Barney, Adrian, and Chell gave it passing glance. Dog, on the other hand, picked it up and started playing with it. He would toss it up in the air a few feet to judge the weight before finally setting it up on its legs once more.

While the others moved ahead, Dog pushed down on the antenna at the top of the turret, which resulted in it resetting itself and reactivating.

Dog’s faceplates flared as the red-eye came to life, and a thin beam focused on his face.

“Hello,” the turret said.

The tinny voice echoed through the chamber, and Chell put her back to the wall in a panic, eyes looking for the familiar red laser.

She found it, but it was trained dutifully on Dog, but the turret didn’t fire strangely.

“I took the liberty of programming the turrets to not fire on you or your acquaintances. I thought it best if someone was foolish enough to reactivate them,”  GLaDOS explained over the speakers. “Looks like I was correct to assume.”

Dog attempted to shrink down on himself from the comment.

Chell felt the blood rushing in her ears as the red light scanned to look directly at her. It stayed like that for several seconds until that childlike voice came again. “Hi Chell. Welcome back.”

Her grip on the portal gun tightened, but she didn’t say a word. Chell only nodded at the turret, her mouth slightly open.

The next two turrets they passed, Dog spent just as much care in righting and resetting them. The third turret they moved by, he ended up carrying with the group.

“Where are we going?”

Dog made a few beeps in response to the question.

“Oh, sounds dangerous! Can I help?”

Dog nodded his head and made a few happy beeps.

“Yippee!”

Chell remained nervous about the turret, but the rest only smiled at Dog’s actions. They thought it was cute. They were going to get killed if they didn’t remember where they were or what could happen.

Turning a corner, Chell stopped the group as they came across the one thing she had been dreading.

Although faded and smudged, still on the ground was the word ‘Help’ in red paint. Crouching down, Chell ran a hand over it before looking to the panels that were still pushed out from the wall.

The others watched as Chell crouched down and moved into the service area in the test chamber. Barney was quick to follow her inside to take a look.

He paused as he looked at the crazed scrawling across the wall, but Chell was only placing a hand on one of the drawings. She mumbled something too low for Barney to hear before moving out of the room with purpose, a renewed vigor, and hardness to her expression.

Once they were out, Barney noticed the rest of the group looked at a suspicious brown stain on the wall. Chell’s hand went to rest on her left thigh at the sight of dried blood.

“Listen. There is something in the facility. I don’t know what it is or how but it got passed my security system, and I can’t see well where you are. Most of the cameras in this area have been destroyed. Be careful,”  GLaDOS said, shaking everyone from their thoughts.

Chell had sudden regrets about trying to destroy all the cameras in the past. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The rest of chamber sixteen involved Dog resetting more turrets, finding faded arrows and handprints in black paint, and dragging cubes around when needed.

“We are almost to the end. Just drop a cube on that button, and we will be good to go,” Chell said, indicating Adrian to pick up a nearby cube.

“Sure th- Ah!” He broke off in a pained cry and clutched at his head.

Along with Adrian, everyone else did as well, while red flooded their vision. As the pain faded, Alyx had a look of rage and panic on her face.

“Advisor,” she practically growled. Alyx then looked to Chell, “We need to move quickly.”

Adrian moved to drop the cube. Just as that happened, a resounding crash could be heard. When the door opened, on the other side of the door was an emancipation grill, the cavernous void of Aperture, and a floating slug creature with mechanical limbs coming off of a collar attached to its bulbous neck.

The Advisor didn’t hesitate to attack.

It sent the humans flying across the room, the ones without any kind of protection grunting in pain as they were pressed hard into the panels and glass, their motor functions robbed.

On the other hand, Dog was still able to move as he had been around a corner and out of sight. He turned the turrets in his hand on the Advisor, and as they started to fire, he ran forward at full speed.

The Advisor let out a screech of pain before sending out another wave of psychic energy that toppled the turrets and stopped Dog in his tracks, mere inches from the emancipation grill.

The bullets barely left a scratch on the Advisor. It only had a few trickles of yellow blood run down its body.

“No! No! Not him!” Alyx yelled out as Dog was slowly lifted into the air by the Advisor. “He’s all I have left! Stop!”

Dog was thrashing in the air as the Advisor ignored Alyx’s pleads of mercy.

She was crying as she heard Dog let out loud whimpers of pain.

Everyone in the room was forced to bear witness as the metal of Dog’s body creaked and groan due to the telekinetic strength of the Advisor. His body was becoming smaller, and the metal was protesting every step of the way.

Then with one mighty cry of pain and a shower of sparks, Dog’s body was crushed like an aluminum can. The Advisor then tossed the crumpled remains of Dog into a corner before turning its attention on the rest of the group.

Alyx’s cries were anguished as she twisted her head to look at Dog, but no one else made a sound.

Barney felt like he was going into shock at seeing Dog’s body be destroyed so quickly. The lovable robot always seemed invincible, but he couldn’t dwell on it for long. He no longer felt the pressure of the wall as he was being brought closer to the Advisor.

His heart rate was increasing with every inch he moved. When he was in the center of the room, the Advisor chose the moment to finally pass through the emancipation grill.

That was its fatal mistake.

The mask an Advisor wears is essential for them to live in Earth’s atmosphere. It is designed to filter the atmosphere of Earth into a gas that the Advisor could breathe. They had toyed with building factories to make the Earth’s air breathable for Advisors, but the tests concluded it would destroy all resources the Universal Union required from the planet.

So, when the Advisor passed through the Emancipation grill, the mask and its mechanical claws were instantly vaporized.

Barney was dropped without ceremony, along with the other humans. Alyx scrambled over to Dog’s body, while the others picked themselves up to fight.

The Advisor was crying out in pain and writing on the floor. It could only lift itself off the ground a couple feet before once more falling to the ground in spasms. Its body halfway between being in and out of the room.

Barney began to fire pulse rounds into the Advisor, but Gordon had a better way. He brought the Gravity Gun up and activated the primary charge, sending the cube Adrian had dropped onto the button away. The effect was immediate. The massive blast door closed with enough force to cut the Advisor in half, sending yellow splashing across the floor. The blood slowly spread pooling beneath the still twitching Advisor, but no one said a word.

Everyone was too distracted by Alyx’s sobs echoing in the room.

As Barney got closer, he could see the red optic of Dogs eye flickering in and out of focus. His body was beyond repair. Wires snapped, arms and legs compacted smaller than they should be, the metal plates fanning around his face twisted. It wasn’t fair.

“Alyx?” Someone said. Was it Gordon? Looking to his friend, Barney saw Gordon had put a hand on Alyx’s shoulder.

“We need to get going,” Gordon said.

“I can’t!”

“I know, but we have to.”

Alyx didn’t make a move to leave, so Gordon shifted his hands under her arms and knees and then lifted Alyx like a child. She tried to fight him off, but her frantic movements and hands did nothing to hurt him due to the HEV suits.

She screamed and demanded to be put down, but Gordon wouldn’t listen. He carried her out of the room and away from the robot that had been her protector for years.

The mood turned sour as Chell, Adrian, and Barney filed out behind Gordon and Alyx. With a glance over his shoulder, Barney cast a last look at Dog, only to see his body be slowly removed by a series of panels and mechanical claws.

Back at White Forest, Dr. Kleiner was monitoring the situation. Some of the rebels that had arrived with Chell had shown up looking for her. In the end, they started working with Kleiner to monitor the situation in Aperture after everything was explained.

Moira was on communications while Roger was watching the energy readings with Kleiner. Things were getting worse by the hour.

GLaDOS had been keeping communication open between White Forest and Aperture. They had managed to tap video feed into the small lab. Roger was currently looking at the vortex of energy building up within Aperture while Kleiner was reading off the current energy spikes.

“Oh, dear… If this persists, I’m afraid of what’s to come,” Kleiner stated.

“No shit, doc,” Roger replied, his unblinking eyes fixed on the screens. “But what do you mean, what’s to come?”

Kleiner tugged at his lab coat, attempting to smooth it down, then fixed his glasses. He was obviously nervous, and it radiated off of him in waves.

“I mean, if the growth remains constant and doesn’t slow, we are looking at the destruction of the planet!”

“Okay, that’s bad.” Roger breathed.

“Yes, and I predict that if our little group doesn’t close the rift within the next eighteen hours, it will be too late for everyone!”

Chapter Text

Magnusson was pacing around the central chamber, the Vortigaunts watching him as they sat in meditative poses beneath GLaDOS’s swaying body.

Crow was focusing on the Vortessence, and he could feel the Shu’ulathoi nearby. It made his eyes twitch in fear, not for his own safety, but for the humans and their mission. He could feel the Traveler’s energy even at the distance that separated them. They had spent enough time together that he would be able to find her with ease through the power that swirled around everything in the universe. That connection was only aided by the Vortal energy he and his kin had imbued within her the day they met.

When they had shown Chell the history of the last twenty years, they left a piece of themselves within her, and they had taken a part of her as well. The three were connected. It was through the connection, they could see what she sees while in a meditative trance. They’d always be a part of her this way.

It was times like this that Crow wished humans were able to tap into the Vortessence to truly feel the world around them. Although the humans had a similar word for it in the form of Chi, it couldn’t fully reach the parameters that lay within the Vortessence. The past, present, and future could all be laid bare before those that could utilize it. The past was definite and set in stone, the present could be read with certainty, but it did not adhere to strict laws as it couldn’t adapt to specific influences. The future, although it could be seen, it was like a river delta. Many winding paths of things that could or could not happen. Many branches within Aperture showed disaster, and the vortigaunts would do everything to prevent that.

Crow froze as he felt Chell’s fear levels spike, and her body was slammed against a wall. The Shu’ulathoi found them, it seems.

Apollo could feel it too by the way he mirrored Crow’s actions. The two vortigaunts bowed their heads and focused deeper to try and stop the Advisor. It hurt, but they had to concentrate harder. They could feel Chell’s rage and fear, so they attempted to send calming energy to her. She had to keep a clear head now more than ever.

As the robot protector fell, and Shu’ulathoi turned its attention towards the Calhoun, the Vortigaunts could only watch as Chell’s anxiety started to influence them as well. The vortigaunts pride themselves on their clarity of thought, but they felt unsure of what to do at that moment.

As the Advisor’s equipment vaporized in the blue particle field, a sick sort of excitement came over the vortigaunts. It was so strong, they momentarily lost concentration on Chell and the others. When they found their center once more, it was to see the crumpled remains of Dog, but the Advisor laid dead, and the humans remained. Small victories were important.

“Well?” GLaDOS said, looking down at the two vorts.

“They are unharmed, but their robotic protector is vanquished,” Crow answered.

GLaDOS made a soft humming noise before a deeper and more masculine system sounded over the intercoms.

“Military Android Retrieval System engaged. Sending Military Androids to Service Department.”

Magnusson stopped his pacing to look back to the Vortigaunts. “That robot is dead?”

“Crushed, by an Advisor.”

“Is Chell-”

“Only bruised. They move on, Magnusson,” Apollo assured, moving to stand up once more.

Despite their assurance, Magnusson only looked even tenser than before. They could tell she was worried, but not even the Vortigaunts would try to dissuade him in his current state, despite how highly they viewed him.

Back with the humans, Alyx was moving on autopilot, but silent tears trickled down her face. More than once, someone had to grab Alyx by the arm to guide to the next area. She stayed in that fugue state for all of chamber seventeen, and part of eighteen.

It was GLaDOS that made her break free.

“Hurry. I don’t know how much longer I will be able to keep them at bay if whatever slipped through found you,” GLaDOS said to the humans.

“Shut up! We wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you and that damn ship!” Alyx screamed, the ball of her fist hammering against one of the panels. The tears still flowed, but Alyx’s face was murderous.

GLaDOS sighed.  “Although I may not have seen what happened, it is clear that you have lost a member of your party, and you are trying to find something to blame. I am not responsible for your loss, and I am not going to provide the comfort you seek. We don’t have time for that.”

She paused as a few panels slid away for a service area to open up for the rest of the group.  “And unless you don’t get moving, everything will collapse, and you won’t have your revenge on those actually responsible.”

Chell knew what GLaDOS was doing. It wasn’t a pep talk at all, but it did have the desired effect on Alyx. Chell watched as her teammate angrily scrubbed away the tears and marched into the service area with the others. Gordon looked up at the ceiling for the speakers, an angry expression on his face at GLaDOS’s words.

Chell, on the other hand, had spotted a camera nearby. She gave a nod to it in understanding before moving into the service area as well.

Chell paused at seeing more art from her little helper, but this time felt her heart seize up. It was Chell painted from the waist up. Her face was serene, and her blue eyes looking down at what she held. Chell was holding a winged companion cube and wearing actual clothes. No orange jumpsuit in sight. It took up most of the wall, and there was a stack of crates piled up in the corner from where the artist had climbed to reach the top of his canvas. Beneath the cube were the words “Trust in Her” written that same stylized writing as all of the other murals.

“Doug...” Her lips said without her input.

“Looks like the artist had a thing for you,” Barney said, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

Chell shot him a glare before shaking her head. “No... He was my friend.”

“You are real, right?”

“Of course, I am.”

“How can I know for sure?”

“You just have to trust me.”

As her hand trailed over the cube, she felt another memory flood to the surface.

She had been doing some data entry while Doug, her supervisor, was drafting up plans. He had been casting looks around the room, and Chell knew what was going on. Another episode...

“Chell...” He finally said.

“Yes?”

“We are friends, right?”

She had paused to push her work to the side.  “Of course.”

“Just checking. You wouldn’t lie to me, right?”

That had made Chell stand up and go to his desk.  “I won’t lie to you.”

He nodded at her before getting back to work.

But she had lied to him. She had to be friendly and play her part to steal any information she could from Aperture. Her mission was a failure, yet she remembered him. Why? Why did she only remember him at that moment?

Not only had she somehow made friends with the strange man, but she found her chest tightening up at the thought of what happened to him. He had survived GLaDOS’s takeover and took to living in the walls of Aperture. Not only that, but he had been leaving clues for her to follow. Had they explicitly been for her or for any subject that came through?

No. If the mural was anything to go by, Doug had meant for Chell to see the clues he left behind. He trusted her, and she had failed him.

Chell jerked away from the painting when someone’s hand came up to grab her shoulder.

“You alright?” Adrian asked, his eyes full of concern.

Chell shrugged before moving towards a nearby service door. “Gotta be.”

The group eventually moved into an office area. The area was dimly lit and smelled of mildew, with a maze of cubicles spread out in every direction. A few cubicles had turrets stationed within, propped up in the seats acting as if they were at work. Whoever did that had too much time on their hands.

The other thing about the office area was how empty it was. There was always something wrong with emptiness when there should be people or noise, but all that was left was an eerie silence that permeated their very souls.

“This place gives me the creeps,” Barney said.

“It should. This is still part of the enrichment center,” Chell responded.

“Meaning what?” Adrian piped up.

“You are most likely standing where somebody dropped dead...” Chell said it in a way as if it was just a regular thing.

The quiet that had been apart of the air becoming that much more tense for everyone. 

Alyx moved to walk next to Chell, the air between them thick, yet they were of one mind in getting things over with as soon as possible.

“You know a lot about this place. More than I would have expected.”

Chell shook her head at Alyx. “I was a corporate spy. Had to learn as much as I could, or I’d be found out, and frankly...” Chell paused to look inside a cubicle where a lone turret was propped at a computer, the monitor blank. “It didn’t change much. I ended up in the same place as so many other employees who didn’t perform well enough.

“And if they didn’t get employees, Aperture would contact local prisons and have inmates sign up for testing for some time off their sentence. What a joke that is. The tests were deadly before She took over. Signing up for testing was practically a death sentence in and of itself.

“It’s... Dammit! I hate this place!” Chell screamed, one of her feet kicking out at a cubicle divider, sending it toppling and making everything on the desk inside crashing to the floor. 

“Yeah! Show that wall who’s boss!”  A voice cried out.

Everyone reacted at once. They all turned around with guns drawn on the voice, only to see a robotic sphere hanging from a rail that ran above their heads.

“Hold your fire, I’m a friendly!”  it cried out again. His green eye casting a glow across everyone.

Chell looked at the Personality Sphere and sighed at the sight. Her gun lowered as she put a hand out for Alyx to do the same. It was the movement that brought the sphere’s attention to them.

“Well hello, ladies! Might I say you two are looking mighty nice today,”  he said.

No one knew what to say. Chell rolled her eyes while everyone else looked on in confusion.

Barney was the one to voice everyone’s question. “Alright, what the hell is that?”

“Name’s Rick, and I’m an Adventure Sphere,”  Rick said, his optic narrowing at Barney.  “Now back off, hombre, while I speak to the ladies.”

Adrian lowered his weapon with a sigh. “Let’s get moving.”

The group continued on, although they were accompanied by a new member, a talkative core who was intent on flirting with Chell and Alyx. It was only made worse that Rick insisted on being in the front because he claimed the entire area was an unexplored territory and he would need to watch out for dangers.

“-and then I karate chopped the guy so hard he was split in half,”  Rick continued with his story. Alyx had asked him how he’d been able to do all the impressive kicks and chops without hands, but it fell on deaf ears.

“Have I told you about my black-belts? I can’t wear it since I ain’t got a waist, but I got em in just about everything. Karate. Larate. Jujitsu. Jarate. Kick punching. Belt making. Taekwondo ... Bedroom, ” he said, his voice dropping lower in a sultry impression while waggling his upper optic plate like an eyebrow.

Alyx couldn’t take it anymore as she leaned into Chell. “You mentioned you dealt with these things before? Any way to get it to stop?”

“Not if they are corrupted. That one? He’s one of the reasons I’m still alive.”

“And the one that almost killed you? Was he anything like this one?” Alyx continued.

“No. He was even more talkative, and he thought humans were smelly,” Chell sighed.

But Rick happened to overhear them and cried out in surprise,  “Who said that? I’ll tear their circuitry apart!”

“He’s already gone, Rick. He was tossed into space!” Chell called out to the chatty core.

Rick then let out a shout of joy.  “It is you! Man, you are even more beautiful than I remember. Hey, remember when we took down that maniac? Good times! Maybe later we can get a drink? I happen to know a great rail system with a view of the reactor core.”

Chell only groaned and did her best to ignore Rick and his endless flirtations and brags of his nonexistent adventures.

The three men in the group were annoyed by him, but that was overshadowed by how funny they thought it was. More than once, they all had to stifle a laugh or hide a grin from the girls. Wouldn’t want them to see how they reacted to Rick.

Barney elbowed Gordon to point our how Alyx looked to be on the verge of tearing her hair out. That did make Gordon giggle, which resulted in Alyx looking back at them with fire in her eyes.

Then Alyx stared at them with a devious star before she looked up at Rick again. “You say you are strong and a great fighter, but I heard one of them say you couldn’t beat any of them in a fight.”

With dawning horror, the three men realized what Alyx just did. They were then subjected to insults and talk of how much stronger Rick was than the men. Barney and Gordon looked to Alyx with betrayal in their eyes.

“You got something to say, four eyes? You are awfully quiet. Or what about you, old man? Got a lot of gray in that hair of yours. Don’t break a hip when I kick you to the ground! Think you can take me? Or what about you, kid? You seem pretty young and think you can beat me? I bet you don’t even have chest hair! I’d like to see you try and take me!”

The result left Chell and Alyx holding on to each other, trying not to laugh or risk catching Rick’s attention once again.

It was good to smile when you could. Never knew when it would be your last.

Miles away in another part of the facility, two Combine soldiers were huddled among the server towers of the room they managed to take. One of them had a series of drives with a source code that crippled one of their bases not far from the facility. It had been shut down after a prisoner escaped, and the rest of the area had been overrun by parasitic biotics.

Someone from higher up had managed to isolate the code that was used to shut down the system and improved upon it. A self-replicating, self-sustaining virus that would bring everything to a halt by forcing redundancy. With it, they could finally put whatever was fighting their forces out of commission.

After a few more minutes of fumbling with all the servers and finding the correct ports, the two soldiers went to work, plugging everything in.

It would take a few minutes for the full effect, but once it did, the party would really get started.

Back in the offices, Gordon was examining his datapad when it started flickering. He slapped his hand against the side of it, but the problem persisted. He showed it to Barney, and his pad was doing the same thing.

“That’s weird...

The pads did finally settle, but the group only got a few steps before GLaDOS’s voice boomed through the entire facility.  “STOP!”

“What’s going on,” Adrian called out.

“They are trying to lock me out. I don’t know how, but my defenses are goinG oFfliNe!”

Her voice was growing more panicked by the second and trailed off in a series of garbled glitching.

“NonoNoNOno, theY Are trYinG to ShUt Me DOwN!”

Chell felt a vice around her chest. If they took GLaDOS down, there wouldn’t be anything to protect them between their current location and the rift.

“I- I- I nEEd y- y- you to- zzzzzzhhhhh”

Everyone waited in bated breath for any semblance of GLaDOS to return. When she did, it was with a boom.

“r- r-r- RUN!”

Then said no more.

Back in the central chamber, Dr. Magnusson was panicking. He watched as GLaDOS’s giant body swayed around the room in obvious pain. She was doing everything she could to fight off the virus that had infiltrated her systems but to no avail. Crow and Apollo went to Magnusson’s side, not knowing what to do or how to respond to the AI’s thrashing.

After agonizing moments, her body stilled, and she hung limply from the ceiling, her faceplate inches from touching the ground.

It hurt. It hurt more than anything to feel all her capacities be shut off and severed. Not only was she losing her sight from cameras, but her motor functions, and even her thoughts. Things were growing dimmer and dimmer, so with the last of her consciousness, she did her final act of desperation.

Every last file, she encrypted to the point no one would be able to crack it. Anything else, she condensed down and downloaded it all into a receptacle she would be able to access. She would not let Aperture fall without a fight. 

As the panels that hid beneath the circular platform beneath her started to rise, she let the claws and wires do the job, her body crying out in pain as she felt herself being pulled from the chassis once again.

Magnusson listened to the agonizing synthetic scream echo around the room, and he felt afraid. Even as the panels lower, he didn’t know what to do when he saw no light coming from her faceplate’s optic housing.

Then an opening on the floor appeared. The aperture shutters of the floor sliding against each other to push something round and metallic out. It was unhooked from a metal port and rolled forward to rest between Magnusson’s feet, revealing that it had two handles attached to it.

He watched it in curiosity as two shutter like panels slid apart and clicked against each other as if whatever was at his feet was blinking. A warm yellow light came from the sphere, and he realized it was to represent an eye.

Whatever it was scanned its eye over Magnusson and the vorts before it lowered its eye shutters in what could only be described as a glare.

“Well, are any of you going to pick me up?”  GLaDOS said.

Chapter Text

Three sets of eyes looked down at the newest personality sphere inside Aperture, but none of those present had seen one before that moment. Magnusson, Crow, and Apollo blinked down at GLaDOS as she continued to look between each individual.

Apollo took the lead as he slowly picked GLaDOS up from the ground, holding her as if she would break on contact. "New surprises at every turn," Apollo said as he studied the new form GLaDOS had taken.

"Yes, it is all  very  fascinating, but we don't have the time to sit around anymore. We have to get moving now!" GLaDOS exclaimed, her handles flapping in exasperation.

Magnusson crossed his arms over his chest at that. "And go where? Isn't this the safest place?"

GLaDOS spun her housing around to look at Magnusson with the dirtiest look she could muster. "Not anymore. At this point, we need to reach Sector 13-1, or we won't stand a chance."

Dr. Magnusson was in no position to argue, and he was tired of sitting around. Looking at Crow, the human nodded his head. "Fine. Where to?"

"First, I need one of you to force open the panels over there," GLaDOS said, rotating to look in the proper direction. "There will be a staircase leading to a glass walkway."

While Apollo carried GLaDOS, Crow and Magnusson pulled open the panel like GLaDOS instructed. Once they were on the other side of the walkway, the group moved down the maze-like halls, forcing doors open when needed or alternating due to debris.

"Hold on," GLaDOS said, her gaze flicking upwards. "There is a management rail above us. Attach me to it! It will let me guide you faster."

It didn't take much to attach GLaDOS to the rail. There was a small click, and GLaDOS was practically pulled from Apollo's grasp, magnetic locks clicking into place, and securing GLaDOS's body to the rail. "Finally. Now I won't feel anything touching me. It's nothing against you. I just don't like being touched. Personal space, really."

"This one understands the need for space," Apollo replied, bowing his head in understanding. He absentmindedly rubbed at his neck where faint scars could be seen.

"Alright, try to keep up. We need to move as quickly as possible," GLaDOS instructed before taking off down the management rail. 

It was difficult for Magnusson to keep up, having spent so many years in the lab and not able to focus on his body like he should, he was subjected to the flow of life. In short... His age was catching up to him. Despite that, he didn't fall too far behind the vortigaunts or GLaDOS as they raced across catwalks, through the abandoned labs, or crisscrossing halls.

After twenty minutes of nonstop running, the group finally stopped. Magnusson put a hand to his chest, trying to slow his heart rate. He let out a few rasping coughs as he kept one hand on his knee to hold his weight up.

"Hey! Stop right there! Yes, you!" GLaDOS called out.

Magnusson peaked around the vortigaunts to see another metal sphere, but this one had a vintage paint job with a floral pattern ring around its eye. It casually moved over towards the group, its eye looking at the Vortigaunts and Magnusson with surprise. 

"Look, I don't know where you found them, but I can't help you. I've got to get to maintenance," the core said. His accent was strange. Was that Icelandic or maybe Scandinavian? Magnusson had some family from that part of the world before everything went to hell. He didn't even know if any of them survived. The last time he saw any of them was thirty years ago, and even then, they had never been close.

"And even if I could, GLaDOS would ensure none of them make it out," the core continued.

GLaDOS narrowed her eye at the core. "That's not important right now. I demand you help us, or I will personally throw you into Android Hell. This is vital to Aperture's survival."

That only made the core laugh. "Hey, that's a pretty good GLaDOS impression. Not the best one I've heard, but it's up there."

"What are-" GLaDOS paused to blink a couple times at the core. She then shook her body and sighed, "You know what... Maintenance Core VG-1L, I don't harbor any resentment that you allowed a test subject to walk free. I'm sure your little Olympian is just fine out on the surface. Mel, was it?" 

Whatever passed between the fancy core and GLaDOS had the desired effect.

The core's optic shrank into a pinprick at GLaDOS's words. "Who told you her name? I never told anyone. Not even Rainbow! I couldn't risk telling him now that GLaDOS is awake!"

"Did you honestly think I wouldn't check the equipment history in my absence? Impersonating the Aperture CEO, modifying turret target parameters, and destruction of company property... You made quite a list of issues while I was away," GLaDOS said, her voice oozing arrogance. No matter the body, she could be in control of the situation.

The poor core only looked more scared by the second. "I- I'm sorry, ma'am! I didn't mean anything by what I said. I'll do whatever you ask."

"That's better. I need you to take the human and two aliens to the military android department as fast as you can. Then meet us at the area I'm sending you," GLaDOS explained. She then went rigid as her optic widened and rotated back and forth. "I just sent you the quadrants and sector. Hurry!"

GLaDOS then started racing off down another rail. Magnusson watched her disappear among the blue-tinted mist in the distance. He was shaken from his vigil when the painted core spoke up.

"Wow... I am so lucky to be alive right now..." the core laughed nervously. "Alright. It's not far, but be sure to stay close. No clue what we are going to run into if she's not in the chassis anymore. My name's Virgil, by the way."

GLaDOS moved as fast as the management rails would allow her. Her enrichment center was so quiet and lifeless, without anything in control. They had to finish this as quickly as possible. Time was of the essence, and everything was stacked against them. Even if they managed to close the rift, there was no one around who could keep the facility's vital functions in operation to prevent it from exploding. They had succeeded last time by the skin of their teeth, but she didn't want that happening again.

She was no longer plugged in, but the facility was fully operational. With that was the reactor core. If it wasn't vented properly, it would trigger a chain reaction that would turn the entire facility into a smoking crater and take half the state of Michigan, and three of the great lakes with it.

An hour of traversing through the facility left GLaDOS on edge. The longer she was away from her body, the greater her anxiety grew. Unlike the potato, the core body allowed her to get angry and feel things without overloading. She had been reduced to muting her emotions more than she ever did when the cores were attached to her, and that only left her being alone with her thoughts. It's what allowed Caroline to make herself known.

Caroline... Why couldn't she have stayed dead? Had it not been for her, GLaDOS may have continued to do Science in peace, but no. She had to deal with Caroline and what came with her. She couldn't even delete the little nuisance anymore. She'd already tried multiple times while in her main body, but it didn't work. She'd be reinstalled without her input like a virus.

You can't get rid of what makes who you are

Dammit.

She didn't need to be hearing that annoying little voice of a conscience at a time like this.

Why not? It's a sign that you care.

Because she couldn't afford to care about the humans. There was always that fine line between the test subject and the observer. GLaDOS had always been the observer. Well, she had been until Chell woke up the first time.

She had always been different from the others since the moment she woke up. Chell hadn't acted scared or nervous when she had emerged from the relaxation pod. She had looked confused. It was so different compared to any other subject on record. That had prompted GLaDOS to glance at Chell's file for the first time and noticed her tenacity rating was incredibly high. Then a scientist had entered a note to never test Chell.

GLaDOS didn't listen to that because back then, there had been humans overseeing the tests. She was an all-powerful being within the Enrichment Center. She could handle a simple stubborn test subject.

GLaDOS had gone too deep, of course. In her efforts to rid herself of the tenacious test subject, she forgot to focus on a second variable within Aperture. Rattmann. He had left clues for Chell that enabled her to escape. She should have taken him out sooner. Maybe then she wouldn't be forced to live with the reality she currently resided.

But then you wouldn't have realized the truth.

Truth? Please! Yes, Chell may have become her best friend in some sort of sick codependent way, but their relationship was far from ideal. Continually trying to kill each other, but then helping each other take down an idiot that had no right to be in charge.

So what if GLaDOS had grown accustomed to Chell or actually wanted her to succeed. If Chell could beat the moron, then GLaDOS would win by default and be back in charge.

But you still care about her.

Shut up. That's not the point. Yes, the two of them had gained a camaraderie in old aperture and became a team in the moron's chambers, but that had been for their survival. It's not like GLaDOS planned on helping Chell plan out ways to destroy the monitors or found herself enjoying flying through the air while mounted on the portal gun. Yes, it was terrifying at first, but GLaDOS knew Chell wouldn't let her fall.

You trusted her.

There was no choice.

Liar.

GLaDOS liked it better when she didn't have a conscience. At least then she wouldn't have so many conflicting feelings.

If it wasn't for Caroline, you wouldn't have become who you are now.

And that terrified GLaDOS. The sentiment she held for Chell could lead to lapses in judgment and clouded thinking. Having that distance between her and the test subjects allowed a clear line of thought in how to proceed. Now though... How could she trust herself to make the logical choices instead of the sentimental ones? If she couldn't trust her own decisions, she'd just have to rely on the humans. As much as she didn't want that, their combined choices would determine Aperture's future just as much as hers would.

She needed to focus on the science and let the humans do the work.

You can't spell Conscience without Science.

She groaned at the joke her mind came up with.

GLaDOS raced through the offices and emerged once more into the grand abyss to find the humans already walking across a series of crisscrossing pneumatic tubes to reach a secondary catwalk. They were moving far too slow, and they were off the path by half a mile. She should have repaired this wing of the facility its full capacity, but she had been distracted by other matters at the time. Mainly dealing with Orange and Blue to make up for the testing she missed while in the potato.

Barney was messing with the datapad, and from her vantage point, she could see that the screen was flickering in and out of focus. "Blasted thing is still malfunctioning. Are we even going the right way?"

"No. You're not," GLaDOS said, drawing the attention of the group.

They all swiveled as one, GLaDOS finally noticing that the Adventure Sphere was still tagging along with the group. At the sight of her new form, the group looked unsure of what to do. There was, of course, surprise, but then a mild panic among the faces. As usual, when it came to her, Chell's face was unreadable.

"Yes. Get a good look at me. As degrading as it is to be in this form, it's necessary. You are off target, and we are on an even stricter time schedule now that there isn't anyone plugged into my body."

The Adventure Sphere, although corrupt, would know that GLaDOS was his expedition leader. She was terrifying, but she was the best of the best. She was the one who sent him into unknown territory and report back everything he saw. He'd venture into anything from freezing cold to blazing heat for his missions. After one expedition to check on the destruction of wing forty-two in sector nineteen, he had to race through a raging waterfall. That water scrambled his circuits, but he was ready to go after a while, so he knows it to be serious when his commander reports in person.

Nodding at what GLaDOS said, Rick rotated to look at the group, "You folks heard the lady. Time to get a move on!"

GLaDOS paid no mind to the Adventure Sphere. "Hurry across those pipes. I've recalculated the route, but we need to hurry."

"You got it! Let's move people!" Adrian cried out, readjusting the pack of ammo he carried on his back.

GLaDOS led the way with Rick trailing behind her. His mindless chatter was grating on her mind, but she could ignore it for the time being. If he proved a burden or detrimental to their goal, she'd throw him in a pit. Until then, GLaDOS allowed him to continue talking.

Barney and Adrian were continually sweeping the abyss for any signs of danger. After seeing one Advisor, they were not in the mood to see another. Chell was keeping her eyes on GLaDOS, Gordon was watching Alyx, and Alyx was watching everyone. She refused to lose anyone else on this mission.

"With your detour, we are going to need to take some unconventional travel methods. Shouldn't be too hard on any of you," GLaDOS called out.

All of them were curious as to what she meant by that until she stopped in the middle of a catwalk. 

"Here we are," she said.

"Where? I don't see anything but catwalks and chambers," Barney replied, as he shifted his rifle so the but was on his hip and the barrel pointed up.

Chell gripped the railing and looked into the abyss with a sigh. Of course...

Adrian noticed the action before looking over the edge as well. "You can't be serious..."

"I am. It's the fastest way, and as long as you land on your feet, you will be fine," GLaDOS said, moving slow to hang directly above Chell. "The boots have been tested at heights of over fifteen thousand feet, and you will only be falling a fourth of that distance."

"And your test subject survived this?" Alyx asked, not fully trusting GLaDOS to tell them the truth.

"Yes," Chell sighed, "I did."

The group went silent as they were once again hit with what she dealt with. And she didn't even have someone to talk to. It was only her inside Aperture.

"Well, what are we waiting for, hombres! Let's get going!" Rick announced, promptly detaching himself from the management rail and nearly falling into the abyss. If it wasn't for Adrian's quick reflexes, that might have been the end of Rick the Adventure Sphere. Grabbing the wrench at his waist, Adrian stuck it out, managing to hook onto one of Rick's handles before he could plummet into the void.

"Woah, buddy! What do you think you're doing? We got work to do!" Rick complained.

Adrian rolled his eyes at the core before pulling him back over the railing. "Making sure you don't die!"

"I'll be fine, but thanks for watching my back, kid! I'm promoting you to my second in command. What's your name?"

While Adrian and Rick conversed, GLaDOS moved to an area of the rail that was over the catwalk instead of the bottomless pit. The rest of the group followed, ready to hear what she said.

Looking to Chell, GLaDOS sighed, "I'm going to be honest here. I don't know what will happen next. I don't know what is happening anymore, but I do know that I need your help."

Looking to the humans, all in various states of readiness shared the same steely determination in their eyes. "I am putting my trust in you. I only ask that you trust me as well."

The group nodded in agreement, while Chell shifted the portal gun to hang from a strap around her waist. She then held out her arms to GLaDOS. Without words, GLaDOS detached from the management rail and landed in Chell's arms unharmed. 

Chell's actions surprised GLaDOS. She had reviewed the security footage of Chell and the moron moving through her facility before being woken up. When he had detached himself from the rail, Chell's expression had been filled with annoyance and distrust, but it had appeared she had every intention to catch the moron. Then he panicked, and Chell grew impatient. 

The moron has fallen to the floor, and Chell had watched him flounder like a fish for several seconds, unsure of what to do with him. Yes, GLaDOS had seen them grow to almost friends until he betrayed her, but Chell wasn't someone to easily trust. It took time and effort for her to work with anyone unless it was out of necessity. That's precisely what Wheatley had been, a necessity. Same for GLaDOS when they were reunited in Old Aperture, but that had changed at some point. Sometime after finding that portrait, but before they reached the Enrichment Center.

But after all that, GLaDOS was skeptical of Chell's thoughts on her. 

So the simple act of being caught by Chell and being held tight to her chest was enough to momentarily make GLaDOS fall silent.

"I don't know what comes next, but I am putting my trust in you. Don't make me regret my choice," Chell mumbled low enough for only GLaDOS to hear.

"You won't," GLaDOS said.

And like that, the group approached the railing, one by one. They climbed over the safety bar and jumped into the abyss. It was a leap of faith.

Chapter Text

The wind beat against Gordon as he continued to fall faster and faster, left hand on his glasses while his right held tight to the crowbar. The wind in his ears was deafening, but looking above showed Barney flailing his arms. Looking below revealed Alyx bracing for impact for out of the mist came the ground. Closer and closer it came.

Chell landed first. The heel springs offered some resistance for adjustment due to the fall's height, and she jogged a few steps to accommodate the extra weight of GLaDOS. Alyx landed next, her legs buckling as her body adjusted to the sudden stop of free fall.

Gordon landed next, the boots of his suit protesting at the added springs cushioning his fall.

"Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiit!" Barney yelled as he grew closer to the ground. His landing was fine, but he immediately crouched to his knees and pressed his forehead to the ground they stood on. "Oh sweet mother of god... I'll never take you for granted again, floor."

Gordon could have sworn he kissed the ground at one point.

Adrian landed in the same manner as Chell, jogging a bit due to the ammo bag's weight and Rick in his arms.

Chell frowned as she took in their surroundings. It looked like they had landed directly between two test chambers. She tapped GLaDOS's chassis and quirked an eyebrow as if asking where to go next.

Despite not being able to see the rift, the group could feel it in their core. It felt like the air during a thunderstorm, the feeling of electricity and a pressure mounting in their shoulders, only multiplied to a greater extent.

"A quarter-mile away is a metal staircase that will lead us into research and development. There are labs there with a clear view of the rift. From there, we can work and control anything needed to stop things from getting worse," GLaDOS explained.

A few minutes of jogging later left the group going up the stairs and into more offices.

"What are we looking for?" Alyx yelled out as they continued their jog.

"A series of labs and control rooms. It will be separated from the rest of the sector!" GLaDOS answered.

The group scoured over the walls, and Gordon finally pointed out a sign pointing the way. "There. Research and Development."

From there, it was easy to get where they needed to go. Turn after turn, they ran, never stopping. Even as the carpeted floors gave way to tiles, and the false wood walls turned into panels, the power floating through the air grew more substantial.

"Stop! Here!" GLaDOS cried out.

The group skid to a stop in front of a steel door GLaDOS indicated. It had a numerical keypad mounted into the wall to the side, and a metal plate extended outwards. The plate had the outline of a handprint on it with a green-tinted screen. They tried for the handle, but it wouldn't budge. Chell was about to pry the keypad and get to work when Alyx pushed to the front. Chell watched in amazement as she pulled a small device off her hip and an arc of electricity hit the pad. Chell shielded her face from the light but saw how the keypad lit up green in acceptance, and the door clicked open of its own accord.

"Good. Now hurry!"

The group filed into the room, shucking bags off their tired shoulders and positions taken.

The lab was a long room at least forty feet in length with a long steel shuttered window running its entire expanse. Multiple control panels and lab stations littered every part of the room.

Chell pulled out a rolling chair and set GLaDOS on it. "Power up the room, and I'll walk you what to do next," GLaDOS said.

Chell nodded at her as Alyx, and she began to boot everything up and wiping off the generations of dust. The lights overhead flickered to life, and a low hum of electronics filled the air.

Once that was complete, Chell moved to a different console and flipped a switch. That caused series of panels in the room to open and several personality core ports revealed themselves.

"Plug me in. I'll be able to do more for you that way!"

Barney picked up GLaDOS and moved her to the ports. Once she was connected to the port, there was a series of beeps as more lights and panels shifted into working at a higher capacity. "Alright, let me get those windows open..."

Another series of beeps and the steel shutters started to rise, revealing the rift.

"Oh my god..." Alyx and GLaDOS said at the same time.

What they had seen in the central chamber was not what they saw at that moment.

What had started off as a large rip with surges of energy coming out of it in timed intervals had turned into a gash with a virulent storm lashing out at anything in its way. Large multicolored bolts tore apart catwalks and nearby chambers of unknown use or importance to only leave behind searing white-hot metal. With every part of the facility consumed or destroyed, the rift seemed to shift and grow.

They were a safe enough distance to not get hit by the energy of the rip, but at the rate, it was growing, no one could be sure how long that safety would last.

"It shouldn't have progressed this fast... What is going on?" They heard GLaDOS say, fear and concern lacing her voice.

Gordon was left transfixed on the rift and seeing how it fluctuated in power and size. Without another thought, he ran to one of the whiteboards. He frantically wiped away the remnants of equations and notes another scientist had been working on before Aperture was sealed off. It was incredible the board didn't stain from the long abandoned ink markings.

"What are you doing, Gordon?" Alyx asked, as she began to flip switches across a control board and activating a security system for the labs.

Gordon scrambled for a dry-erase marker and tested it out. It somehow still worked after so many years. He then began to write out new equations. The rift functioned so much like a black hole in the way that it grew more expansive with every piece of matter it consumed, but the energy it was giving off became even more destructive as time passed. If it was a black hole, there shouldn't have even been energy release due to the amount of gravitational force on everything that enters it.

The mathematics of it all flashed in front of Gordon's mind as he tried to figure out the potential energy the rift was creating.

"I was a scientist before I was ever the One Free Man! I'm not going to die without trying it my way," Gordon called. He wrote out a few numbers and began to formulate theories.

The numbers swirled through his head like clouds in the sky. He was lost to his element of numbers and equations. Should he use Lagrangian or a different method? Should he take in the mass of the Borealis itself in his equations or the facility's potential mass? What is sustaining the rift? Is it like the Xen portals, or does it rely on a singularity event like the citadel's dark energy teleporter?

There were so many questions, and the whiteboard he was using was filling up rapidly.

Barney could see that Gordon was locked in and would be stuck that way until he figured it out, so he prepared two more whiteboards for his friend.

Adrian plugged Rick into one of the other ports near GLaDOS, and he began to swivel in place.

"Thanks, buddy. Now I can really get things going around here!"

"Don't mess with anything-" GLaDOS started but was quickly interrupted.

"You know what we need? Turrets! I'm diverting some to this sector!"

GLaDOS blinked before sighing. "Fine. Bring us turrets. We will probably need them." She then looked at Adrian. "I've managed to tap back into the cameras, and they are pouring into the facility. I don't know how long it will take for them to reach us, but-"

As she said that, the entire room shook, causing some of the equipment in the room to fall over and crash to the floor. Everyone in the room didn't move for several seconds out of fear of what it could be.

Two minutes later, as they were getting back to work, the sound of a propeller and a mechanical roar echoed through the facility. Three of the five humans stiffened at the sound. Having never heard the sound before, Chell and Adrian went to the window to figure out what was making that noise. It almost sounded like a helicopter. Coming out of the mist was something that looked like a cross between a whale and an airplane. It had a long cannon for a mouth, two flipper-like wings, and a large circular propeller keeping it aloft at its rear.

The Gunship paid no mind to the group as it made a beeline for the rift. As it got close, it flew its body directly into the prismatic rip in reality, causing the Gunship to explode in a fiery display of carapace and metal.

The Gunship's destruction seemed to fuel the rift even more as it unleashed a blinding display of light and continued to grow in size. Seeing the rift act in such a way spurred the lab occupants into motion.

Chell and Alyx were pouring over the computers, setting up any defenses the room had. First was reengaging the room locks and setting up the emancipation grills across the entrances to each door that led into the room.

Rick continued to funnel turrets up and diverted them to areas he believed were crucial to protecting. Granted, they covered nearly every surface area of the offices, but it was effective.

GLaDOS tapped into the grid for the enrichment center and diverted several test chambers to their location. They would need as many portal surfaces as possible.

Barney and Adrian were checking over their weapons and ammo supplies. They made sure everything was loaded and within easy reach if needed.

Gordon... he was locked into the world of numbers and theory. He ran the numbers and thought of every theoretical study he could remember. It wasn't enough, though. He needed more. He needed-

He needed Eli and Dr. Kleiner... They had been like family to him, and they would always be able to see what he overlooked. He wouldn't get that help this time. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Gordon continued to work.

He had to figure it out, or they all would be doomed.

Miles away in a secluded part of the facility, two little robots explored and chittered to each other among the catwalks.

"It's strange. She hasn't contacted us in a while. Should we check on her?"

"Maybe, but when are we ever going to get some time away from testing again?"

"...Good point, Atty."

"Of course it is, PB."

Atlas and P-Body continued to trot along, pointing out interesting things in the facility or new areas to explore. The world around them was always so small yet vast at the same time. They had only been outside the testing tracks once before to find some sort of disc for Her. Still, at the time, they had been violently disassembled before they could explore further.

Now with Her being distracted by something, it left the two testing robots to roam free on their own terms. It was both exciting and scary at the same time.

"Hey, PB, what do you think happened to that human? The one She spent hours worrying over as she fixed their damage?" Atlas chirped.

P-Body hopped out of their portal and did a little twirl in victory upon a successful landing. "Hmm? I don't know, but I hope they are okay. The human looked nice."

"They did. I wish we could have tested with them! It would be so much fun! Imagine testing with three portal guns!" P-Body spun around on the tip of one foot like a ballet dancer as they talked of testing. It was a fun thought. "But wait... Humans break easily, right? It's why she made us for testing," P-Body continued.

"Yeah... I don't know if they would be good partners, PB. They can't be rebuilt like us."

"You're right... But I do hope we will see them again someday," P-Body said, firing off another portal to cross to a different set of catwalks.

Atlas let out a series of chirps that could be considered laughter. "That is as likely as mobile turrets being built."

"Well, those are being made!" P-Body exclaimed. "I saw the blueprints!"

"Now you are pulling my antennae," Atlas laughed. "Mobile turrets don't exist, and they never will exist. Can you imagine how terrifying they would be in a test chamber?"

Suddenly the entire facility started to shake with the force of an explosion. Atlas and P-Body gripped each other for support, not sure what would be happening next. They waited a minute before slowly uncurling their fingers from each other's bodies.

"What's wrong, PB? Scared?"

"You were just as scared as me!"

"I wasn't scared! I only wanted to make sure you weren't hurt!"

P-Body responded by grabbing onto Atlas's central body piece and pulling it from his arms and legs. They then proceeded to hold the body piece over a railing. "Scared now?"

Atlas's arms were scrambling to reach out for their body. Unfortunately, their arms weren't long enough to reach compared to P-Body's long limbs. "Come on, PB! Not funny!"

P-Body laughed before inserting Atlas's body piece back onto the arms and legs unit.

"Sorry, Atty. I won't do it again," P-Body said, patting a hand on Atlas's back.

As they continued to move, there came a new sound within the facility. It was like footsteps but not the metal on metal sound of their feet on catwalks. It was a new kind of movement. It was some sort of synthetic material if their hearing receptors were working correctly.

The two bots paused, both nervous and curious about what could be walking around Aperture other than them.

Then it moved around a corner from the outer edge of the test chamber. It was all white with two legs that became black halfway down. It had a domed head with a single red eye, and in its arms was a strange oblong tube that was as black as its feet. Overall, it was shaped like a test subject, but it wasn't orange and didn't look scared or angry. It didn't really have any kind of emotion at all.

"What's that?" P-Body asked.

Atlas shrugged, "Don't know. New testing element? It kind of looks like-"

Atlas took a single step forward as they spoke, but the strange red-eyed thing raised the tube in its arms. A spray of blue and white came from an opening at the end of the tube and slammed hard into Atlas and P-Body's bodies.

"Mobile turrets! I told you they were real!" P-Body chattered as the two robots turned tail and took off running.

The two bots ran as fast as they could, feet pounding on the metal, but the mobile turret came chasing them, firing off bullets every now and then. At one point, the turret fired off a white-hot ball of energy from its singular gun just as the bots turned a corner. It bounced off the catwalk railing and went flying off into the depths of Aperture before exploding into white sparks.

"High energy pellets! It shoots high energy pellets!" Atlas cried as they continued to run.

The Combine Elite only knew to eliminate all potential hostiles. Aperture was unknown territory, and anything of unknown use should be eliminated. So it ran after the two robots that were carrying strange weapons.

The two robots ran through a small office complex, but the Elite managed to stay with them, even as they entered a new maze of crisscrossing catwalks before leading into a large circular door and chamber.

The Elite scanned the chamber. It had high walls with a series of tiered rises that couldn't be reached without a ladder but saw no evidence of one or the robots. Strange. There should be no reason they disappeared out of thin air.

Then he heard the chittering noise of the robots talking, but it was from behind him. Standing in the doorway that led back to the office area was the tall spherical robot. It gave a small wave to the Elite before firing its weapon. It didn't hurt the Elite, but a quick look at its feet revealed a swirling orange oval.

Then there was the sensation of falling. The Elite fell through the floor and was back in the office area. It attempted to stand up, but the falling sensation returned as it fell through a cyan-colored portal and out of a large support beam outside the office complex.

The Elite started falling faster and faster, its body twisting in the air, scrambling for something to grab, but it was pointless. It landed hard, every component within its body breaking apart with what little organic material was left oozing out in a brown gelatinous mess. The only noise that penetrated the void was a high pitched whine of its artificial heart stopping.

Back on the catwalks, Atlas and P-Body high-fived each other and continued to explore.

Meanwhile, Magnusson was examining the different android designs within the robotics wing of Aperture. Some were more human, while others were designed after animals. The one he was currently fixated on was a small robot that would come up to his knee that was modeled after a chicken. A small plaque situated in front of it explained how it would lay eggs, but the eggs would act as landmines or proximity grenades. Strange but effective... But mostly strange.

"Ugh... This is a lot of work, but at least the backup is nearly complete," Virgil said, moving over to the Vortigaunts.

"We appreciate your kindness. Your work is needed in these trying times," Crow said.

"Yeah..." Virgil started. His eye shifted between the two aliens before sighing. "Listen, I just want to know. Not to be rude, but... what are you?"

Crow bowed their head to Virgil. "This is not rude at all. We have many names, but the humans call us Vortigaunts. We came to Earth to escape the danger that is now pressing down on this place of mystery."

"Right, but GLaDOS is just allowing you to walk around? And with a human?"

"And what's wrong with that?" Magnusson interjected.

Virgil looked up to Magnusson in surprise. "Nothing! Most humans I've met have been good. It's just, when GLaDOS took over, any humans that didn't die... She rounded them up and put them into the testing tracks. Most died trying to escape, died testing, or just... died. Except for one creepy guy who lived in the walls for a while. Don't know what happened to that guy."

The last part made Magnusson raise an eyebrow. He remembered Chell mentioning art on the walls that told her to not trust GLaDOS. He wondered if the so-called creepy guy was the same person who left the art.

"What did killing everyone accomplish? Who did she expect to do everything around here?"

"Us. Mostly her. I'm mainly a maintenance core with some engineering on the side. I can certainly fix things faster than any human," Virgil boasted, his eye rotating slowly back and forth.

Magnusson rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Science can't be left to machines."

"Two words. Human. Error."

"And I have two for you. Free. Will."

Magnusson and Virgil were locked in a heated staring match when the entire lab started shaking. Magnusson dropped to the ground and slid under a table for safety, Crow and Apollo braced themselves against a doorway. Virgil shut his optic shutters to prevent damage to his eye if anything decided to break loose within the lab.

When the shaking subsided, the group slowly eased out of their safe zones. Virgil blinked as he ran diagnostics on himself and the facility, trying to find out what happened.

"Earthquake?" Magnusson asked.

"No," the Vortigaunts and Virgil answer simultaneously.

"It was an explosion of some sort... but... The coolant reserves? That can't be right... They were at normal levels just yesterday." Virgil mumbled to himself as he tried to figure out what caused the explosion.

Magnusson clutched at the lapels of his lab coat, his knuckles turning white at how hard he was holding them. "We need to hurry," he said, his voice heavy with concern. "Is it ready yet?"

Magnusson quickly approached the behemoth they were waiting on. A colossal beast of hard angles and smooth white chassis took up a good portion of the room. It was hooked to several wires of different uses, but Magnusson dared not mess with them.

With its large forearms, inverted legs, domed head with a protective shuttered metal hood for protection, the beast would be formidable. That's if it could fight.

After a few moments, its single eye that had been fading in and out a soft red light, grew stronger until it made the area around it glow the same shade of red. Its head rotated every direction, trying to take everything in. The eye focused in on Magnusson, its eye widened at seeing him.

It let out a discordant series of hums at

"She's alive. They all are last I heard, but they need us now. Can you get us to them?"

The beast nodded his head and let out a few beeps in confirmation.

"Good. Miss Vance will want to see you as soon as possible," Magnusson said.

Before he could react, the beast picked Arne up and grabbed Virgil in his arms before barreling out of the room. The new body would take some getting used to, but he'd figure it out on the way. He had to.

He had to keep Alyx safe. He was a good Dog.

He moved slowly to the valves and pumps of the coolant station. A few twists here and some rewiring resulted in the coolant pumps being shut off while still allowing the pipes to move it. It would soon pool and condense into a single area to dangerous levels of pressure.

The thing about coolant is that it's flammable. It contains high amounts of a chemical called glycol. However, the Aperture brand coolant contained nitroglycol, an oily and colorless compound that's far more explosive than nitroglycerin.

With the pipes blocked and pressure building, there was a veritable bomb building just beneath Aperture's surface. All it would take is a small spark to make all hell break loose.

As the Man walked away from the coolant control room, he smiled as he felt the Combine troops ready for another entry blast attempt directly above the coolant pipes.

When the depth charge broke Aperture's surface, it was just enough to burst one of the cooling pipes. Said pipe took the flame like a candle. With all the pressure built up, what should have been a simple entry blast caused a chain reaction of explosions that shook the entire facility. It took out several soldiers in the initial blast radius, but it was paltry at the number of forces coming down on Aperture.

Over the few days, when the rift's energy spikes had been picked up by Combine, they had been diverting all supplies and forces to this location in an attempt to breach the facility that continued to fight back. All remaining outposts had diminishing weapon supplies as they were all going to Aperture.

So when the dust from the explosion cleared, a large hole appeared in the ground, and forces started pouring in like water being poured from a cup.

A lone gunship flew through, snaking its way among the chambers towards the promised destination. Several troops poured in and started spreading out. A dropship flies in, delivering other troops to secure locations.

All the while, the Man smiled.

Chapter Text

Kleiner, Moira, and Roger were desperately trying to get in touch with the Aperture group. They had a stable signal, but then it started to grow unsteady before the connection was entirely severed. It didn't make sense because all the equipment on their end was working at optimal conditions. It had to be on Aperture's side, but that should be impossible with that AI's processing power.

"Are you positive? Recheck the connection," Kleiner pleaded.

Moira tried everything, but the connection was severed, and they couldn't get it back. It was as if Aperture was cut off at the source.

"I'm doing everything I can, sir! I don't know what happened!" Moira tried, again and again, to get in touch with the facility to no avail.

Roger looked at the timer they had set up. Roughly three two hours had passed since their conclusion on the fate of the rift, and each second that disappeared only increased Roger's anxiety. As he was looking at the countdown, the monitor to his left was pinging a signal.

"I have something here!" Roger opened the signal for broadcast to the group.

Despite their hopes of it being the Aperture group, they were met with the face of someone else whose face was bandaged to the point of looking like a mummy. All that could be seen of the mystery person was their brown eyes and a mess of red hair cut close to their scalp. Roger didn't know who it could be, but Kleiner was in awe as he looked at the screen.

"Dr. Mossman?"

"Hello, Dr. Kleiner," the feminine voice said, although heavily muffled by the bandages. They raised a hand to wave, and it too was covered in bandages. "I must apologize for my absence, but I experienced some delays, as you can see."

Kleiner only looked on in delight to see her. "Never mind that. I'm just happy to see that you are alive. Gordon and Alyx told me how they found you near frozen to death."

"Had they not found me when they did, I would have been... But where are they? I had thought they would be here when I woke up," Mossman said, rubbing the fuzz of hair that was poking over her bandages.

Kleiner bowed his head and sighed. "There was an... incident. Upon the destruction of the Borealis-"

"It was destroyed?!"

"Yes, but it had repercussions that caused a devastating effect. Gordon and Alyx have gone to Aperture Laboratories with a small group to fix this," Kleiner explained.

Mossman's eyes widened, but that's the only indicator of her surprise as that was the only visible part of her face.

"How did they get there? What have I missed? Where's Eli?!" Mossman said, each question growing in panic.

Kleiner flinched at the last question, and his face took on a mask of pity.

It did not go unnoticed by Mossman.

"Isaac... Where's Eli?"

Dr. Isaac didn't have a proper response. He pulled a chair out and put his hands in front of his mouth as if in prayer.

"Isaac?"

Kleiner shook his head. "I'm sorry, Judith."

Despite only seeing her eyes, Roger could see the despair that flooded them.

"I-" She paused as she choked on her own words. "I- I'll be fine for now. But..." The bandages around her eyes started to look damp from falling tears. "I have important information on the Borealis and the Advisors..."

Back in Aperture, the tension grew as the group waited for whatever fresh hell the Combine would throw at them next. As luck would have it, a few moments later, a distant rumbling echoed through the facility as the group awaited what would be coming next. Barney, Gordon, and Alyx knew the sound almost instantly.

"Dropship..." Barney mumbled as he took up a position near the door. Adrian quickly followed suit, and soon after, the rumbling of the ship drew further away. It meant they had deposited their troops and were possibly going back for more. 

Between the thunderous rumbles of the rift, the whir of machinery, and the humans' collective breathing, there was silence in the lab. No one knew what to say, so they waited.

The silence grew longer, and with each passing moment, the tension grew stronger.

Then came the sound of tinny voices and hundreds of rounds of bullets firing at once. With so many turrets, the gunfire lasted only seconds before silence filled the room again.

Barney relaxed his shoulders and smiled at the group. "Glad we got them! Right, Gordon?"

Gordon was about to respond when the sound of another dropship came. The only difference between it and the last one was that the air reverberated into a profound symphony of noise. No... Oh no... 

As if sensing his thoughts, Alyx ran to a security console and pulled up a walkway security feed. Of the few cameras still operational in the sector, she could see three dropships coming in at once, along with another gunship.

"Dammit! They're going to try to swarm us!"

Gordon looked over his equations for another moment while running a hand through his hair hard enough to make his scalp hurt. "Maybe..." He then dashed to kneel in front of GLaDOS. "I need something to give off an electromagnetic pulse. A huge one!"

"Are you insane! That could take out power to the rest of the facility and kill us!"

"Not if it's fed into the rift!" Gordon yelled back. His stutter was returning, but it was not the time to block it out.

When a star reaches its singularity, it explodes in a violent display of particles and energy. It's something scientists have wanted to see for years but have never been able to fully comprehend. That was also what caused the entire mess once the Dyson Sphere was destroyed. He had been approaching the sequence as if it was a black hole singularity event, when instead, it was something different.

The rift was a collapsing Einstein-Rosen bridge, a wormhole! To function correctly, a wormhole would need an entrance and an exit, or it would collapse in on itself and leave untold damage in its wake. Aperture's portal technology relied on portable wormholes based on the portal gun he had witnessed Chell using throughout their trip through Aperture. He had to assume the gun acted like a slingshot of sorts to prevent the portals from collapsing in on themselves.

There was also the fact the rift was growing more significant the more it consumed from the surrounding structures in the facility. It behaved both as a wormhole and a black hole simultaneously. Gordon needed something that would neutralize the containment field of the wormhole to make it collapse. Still, at the same time, he needed something that wouldn't make the rift grow larger.

If they could get it to collapse in on itself, it would neutralize the energy output and close off any danger. All they had to do was transport the EMP to the rift and have it be absorbed. By the energy from the EMP being absorbed into the rift, the cores and equipment would stay safe as well.

The only issue would be the potential for violent energy release. With all of the energy the rift had absorbed since forming, it would have to go somewhere once closed, and that somewhere would be the surrounding area. The chance of victory outweighed his fear of the potential consequences.

GLaDOS looked to be having the same thought process with how her optic narrowed at Gordon. "That isn't the best way, but we are short for time. I'll see what I can do," she said and closed her eye, her handles flicking with the strain of working so hard.

As GLaDOS got back to work, Gordon looked at his work once more, trying to account for any error in his calculations. There was always the fear of not doing it correctly, which could be the difference in life death for them. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to dwell on it. He had to do everything he could to keep his group alive.

Gordon picked up a gun just as the new gunship flew over their lab, but instead of flying into the rift, it arched its body to turn rapidly around and face them. 

"Get down!" Alyx yelled as the gunship opened fire.

The high powered bullets pierced through the Aperture brand safety glass like a hot knife through butter as all five humans dropped to the ground and covered their heads.

The cores watched the group take cover from the gunship while the sound of grenades echoed within the area on the other side of the lab doors. Turrets could be heard flying and crying out in pain and asking what they did wrong. It would take time to clear the door defenses, but they would eventually have a breach in their lab.

The gunship only ensured the group couldn't get up to fight back. Trapped like rats.

But the Aperture rats could find ways to escape. They were stubborn like that.

GLaDOS could feel the Adventure Sphere trying to pump more turrets up, but they wouldn't be enough. Instead, she focused on moving a nearby test chamber closer and shifting panels around. They would have to time it perfectly.

It was slow going, but the chamber was close enough for Chell to aim the portal gun with marksman precision. She just had to activate their new window, seeing as the current one was a mess of glass shards on the lab floor. 

"Get ready!" GLaDOS yelled to Chell.

Chell dared to peek over to see the test chamber and what GLaDOS had done. With a nod of her head, she waited for the gunfire to stop as the gunship would need to fly into a new position if it wanted to continue its onslaught.

When the gunfire stopped, Chell sprung up with the portal gun ready. Two quick portals and the hard-light bridge GLaDOS had moved into the nearby test chamber shifted to run the room's length. Chell had just enough time for the protective light-barrier to be put in place before the gunship appeared and started firing again.

Only this time, the bullets blasted against the hard-light barrier but couldn't penetrate through. It made GLaDOS proud of her test subject.

As Chell stood in front of their barrier, her brain was kicked into high gear on how to get rid of the gunship. She analyzed its movements like she would any test chamber. Unlike turrets, this was a moving target, and she couldn't hide from this thing or portal her way out. There had to be a way to get rid of it.

She looked to her gun, the white panels of test chambers lining each side of their battlefield, then to the movement patterns of the gunship. It would pass by the white panels every now and then, which might allow it to be hit by something through the portal. The only problem with that is their lack of anything powerful enough to take it of commission instantly. 

The colossal beast slowed to a stop so it could turn around to start firing at them again. It was at that moment that Chell saw it. 

A momentary pause in all movement so it could properly right itself and continue on its course. 

"There! Adrian, am I seeing this right? Is there a pause while flying before it comes back?"

Adrian squinted at the ship as his hand thumped rhythmically against his thigh. His brain was going too fast, and he had to calm it down or shift his focus to something else. So with Chell's request, he could look to what he needed. It was only a moment, but he saw it too. "Yeah, it is... but why does it matter?"

Chell smiled at Adrian before jogging over to stand in front of GLaDOS. "Can you get a conversion gel pipe up here?"

"Of course. It won't take long," GLaDOS said as she went back to work.

Chell rejoined Adrian's side. "Grab the second portal gun. I have a plan!"

Adrian didn't hesitate to do what Chell asked. She knew what Aperture's things could do, and Adrian trusted her to make the right choice to keep them alive. So when he returned to her side, she was staring out at a distant chamber where a pipe had appeared. Flowing from the pipe was a thick white substance that looked to have the same texture as glue and left a thick residue on anything it touched. Chell already had a blue portal placed on the main point where the white gel was shooting out against a wall.

"Drop a portal on one of those panels, Adrian. This will have to be quick," Chell commanded while pointing out towards the white wall near the spot she put her portal. "When I tell you, fire the second portal directly at the gunship!"

"You got it!"

"What good is that going to do?" Alyx cried out as she protected her head with her arms while tucked under a desk, as another round of gunfire pelted against the hard-light shield. A few bullets found their way between the gap above the shield and the ceiling. They embedded themselves into the lab's metal walls, leaving large golf ball sized dents.

Wait..." Chell commanded as the ship turned around and made a pass further away from them. "Wait..." It neared the test chamber.

As it passed by her portal, Chell fired off the orange portal, and the white gel soared through the air, completely coating the hard carapace of the gunship and its tail propeller.

Then it turned around and came to a stop in the air.

"NOW!"

Adrian fired when the ship had its momentary pause in movement. The portal stuck but only for a moment. The movement displacement caused the portal to fizzle from existence, but it was enough.

There is an important reason the scientists had a disclaimer to not look into a portal device's operational end. Not just because direct eye contact with the power core inside the device's housing could cause blindness. The reason is that if the device is fired at organic material, there is violent expansion as the hole in reality attempts to form.

In this case, due to the conversion gel covering the organic material, the portal fully formed but only for a moment.

That moment was enough as the portal fizzled out, the gunship roared in pain as a perfect oval of white-hot metal and carapace formed into the outer shell of the gunship. It thrashed violently in the air, and its flying pattern was erratic. It swayed through the air before rolling over and into the test chamber. Panels crushed against each other into crumbled heaps, the buckling of metal reverberating through the lab. It made the group's teeth vibrate uncomfortably.

As the gunship laid motionless, the group let out a whoop of victory. Adrian punched a fist in the air, Chell high-fived Barney, Alyx and Virgil laughed that they were still alive, and Gordon smiled while looking towards GLaDOS.

"How soon can we get that EMP?"

"It's halfway here. We just have to hold on for a little longer,"  GLaDOS explained while focusing more energy on the lab. That meant sacrificing cameras further away, but they needed the extra power. 

Diverting power from parts of the facility was child's play. As loath as she was to admit it, the first area to go was the enrichment center. It wasn't in service for the moment and only cost precious power. The second thing to go was the office areas. No one used those, and the lab needed everything it could use to fight back. GLaDOS was about to divert power from communications when she felt the tiniest ping of a signal.

GLaDOS attempted to increase the signal. It took a lot more work than it should, but she could feel a signal bouncing off the communication array set up by their intruders on the surface and using adjacent satellites to hide their communication signal. Clever.

GLaDOS managed to increase the signal by diverting some power into communications. 

"-in, over. This is Moi- hai- Ap- Sci- over. Come in -ture Science. This is Moira with White Forest, over! Hailing Aperture Science!"

GLaDOS didn't think she would be relieved to hear from the humans again, yet here she was.

"We hear you. I have no idea how long I can keep this channel open, though,"  GLaDOS said. Her voice hectic, but noticeable relief evident in her tone.

There was the shuffling of papers and flipping of switches on Moira's end of the connection before she continued. "I'm doing all I can here. It will only last until the satellites move out of position, but I am patching someone else into the call. They have important information regarding the Combine's movements!"

"Put them through," GLaDOS commanded.

There was the sound of static and another voice coming through, asking if it was working yet. It was a feminine voice, but there was a breathy aspect to it. "This is Judith Mossman. Who am I speaking to?"

"This is the Genetic Life-form and Disc Operating System, GLaDOS,"  she said. Despite the severity of the situation, GLaDOS always found time for a mild quip. "Mossman... You were the one they carried onto the helicopter. I'm surprised you survived the frostbite, but let's back to business. What is it that you have?"

"I've been briefed on what is happening. Tell Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman that this will be a final stand for the Combine! They have managed contact with their homeworld using the old Xen relays. They are being abandoned if they fail in obtaining that rift," Mossman cried out. "This will be our last chance at total victory!"

GLaDOS relayed the information to the group, and there was elation but a coldness that passed through the room. The small lab is all that stood in the way of victory or defeat. Even if the rift was closed, there would be a chance they may not make it out of the fight alive.

"Tell them to keep fighting. We are all rooting for them!" The connection was growing faint. The satellites must be moving out of position. "And tell Alyx that I am so-"

GLaDOS didn't get a chance to relay the message before Gordon spoke up.

"How is the delivery coming along?" Gordon cried out as he fired off a few rifle rounds through the door. It seemed more soldiers were pouring in.

"Ten minutes out!"  GLaDOS yelled over the gunfire.

And like that, their communication was once again cut off.

Even with the turrets and their security system, it wasn't clear if they would be able to hold out for another ten minutes. The Combine troops were increasing in numbers while their ammo supplies were dwindling. 

At one point, an Elite that had managed to make it to their door ran through. It fizzled into white ash when it made contact with the emancipation grill. All the internal wires and augmentations fizzled away to only leave a sickly brown sludge that pooled on the floor and left a rotten smell permeating the air. It caused Adrian to retch at the implications, but he managed to keep what little food in his stomach down.

Time continued to pass, and the troops kept coming. At one point, when there seemed to be a lull, Chell ventured out with her portal gun and used it to drop all weapons and ammo that belonged to the fallen soldiers into their room. When a new wave appeared, Adrian dropped a portal under Chell's feet to instantly bring her back to their room while she closed the portals she had created.

"Three minutes!" GLaDOS called out.

And Murphy's Law always takes effect in situations like these...

Their only indication that something was wrong was a searing headache that made everyone see red. The electronic command panels started to spark wildly, GLaDOS and Rick cried out in pain, all turrets that still stood were tossed away by an invisible force. The pipe that had been spitting out conversion gel was crushed like a soda can. Then the roof of the lab was ripped apart. It crumpled to pieces like a paper ball and was sent soaring through the air much the same.

Then came the feeling of weightlessness as all humans in the lab were lifted into the air. As the group floated helplessly, they were met with the site of two very angry Advisors lit up in a brilliant display of kaleidoscopic colors from the rift.

Chapter Text

The group thrashed against the raw psychic power of the advisors pressing down on the group. There were grunts of pain with their fight to break free, but it all amounted to nothing when it came to the Advisors' strength.

Chell looked down at GLaDOS and Rick, their optics only pinpricks at seeing the Advisors' tremendous power. Rick was stunned into silence, while GLaDOS only felt panicked at not being able to do anything.

This was how they died. They had failed, and they would be killed. It made the anger inside Chell burn brighter than ever, but none of that would prevent their deaths.

Barney was trying to reach for the pistol at his waist. All he needed to do was grab it, and he might be able to save everyone. Yet his arms refused to move.

Adrian was in the same boat as Barney. He was attempting to reach for a grenade at his hip. It was frustrating to have it be so close yet unable to use it.

Alyx was panicking on the inside despite the anger across her face. They were so close, and she couldn't believe that it would all end here.

Gordon felt numb. He knew he should be trying to fight, but he couldn't find the energy. He was in disbelief that it would end for them here. He could faintly hear his suit power being drained by the power the Advisors were subjecting him to, but it was all white noise.

Even as he was brought closer and closer to the Advisors, he couldn't find the drive to fight back. The Advisor looked at him closely before that slimy appendage wormed its way out of what could classify as the Advisor's face.

Gordon was aware of Alyx yelling and a commotion going on somewhere nearby, but he only felt numb. He was spun around and made eye contact with each horrified face of the group; the most heartbreaking was Alyx. He felt the appendage prod at the back of his head to find the sensitive skin at the base of his skull. He knew what would come next. He only hoped he didn't feel any pain.

Alyx was screaming his name, but Gordon couldn't look at her. His eyes traveled upwards to the sky as colorful lights bloomed through the facility and a strange bipedal creature looking at him.

Before the Advisor could strike, the creature jumped down and tackled the Advisor that held Gordon. Like dominoes, the group fell in crumpled heaps by the Advisors losing concentration.

The numbness that gripped Gordon gave way to full adrenaline-fueled panic as he scrambled over to the nearest corner and grabbed his knees for support. He took in deep breaths while Alyx moved to his side and pulled his head against her chest. "I thought I was going to lose you too... I can't lose you, Gordon."

Gordon held onto Alyx like a lifeline, his fingers gripping the edge of her jacket as tears pricked the corners of his eyes.

"I'm happy we are alive, but does anyone want to tell me what that is?" Adrian said, his eyes fixed on the white blur that was fighting the two advisors. It was moving so fast that the Advisors couldn't focus enough to pin it down. They only managed to get glimpses of it as it jumped to grab the wall above the group's hiding place.

One of its large forearms then split apart into separate segments. The action reminded Chell so much of a turret that she wasn't surprised when a hail of gunfire erupted from it. It leaped off the wall and held continuous bursts of ammo on the Advisors.

"Chell!" A voice called out

Chell wheeled on her feet, portal gun raised as Magnusson ran into the room with Crow and Apollo. Crow was shooting bursts of green energy at soldiers that had tried to pin them down, but he provided cover for Arne and Apollo. 

Apollo would have helped but held onto a personality sphere with a floral pattern painted on its chassis in their arms. Chell recalled Mel telling her about a sphere with a similar pattern. What was his name? Vernon? Vincent?

"What are you doing here? You were supposed to stay where it was safe!" Chell snapped, lowering the gun to her side.

Magnusson scoffed at her. "As if anywhere in this death trap is safe! Especially when she was forced out of her body."

Chell wanted to fight back so much, but his logic was sound. Without GLaDOS to protect the main chamber, there was no telling what would have happened to him or the vortigaunts. Instead of retorting, she puffed her cheeks and huffed at him.

"But what is that thing? Can I get some answers? Is it on our side?" Adrian said, his voice a little more desperate as he checked over his weapons and kept his body hidden behind the control panel.

The group watched as it continued to fight the advisors with an angry ferocity that was only seen in wild animals. 

Alyx watched it in awe. "It moves like..."

The robot was a monster. It fired off more rounds from its dual forearm guns to lay down cover fire before leaping onto the back of an Advisor. The Advisor floated through the air like a leaf caught in the wind, crashing into walls in a desperate effort to knock the robot off its back, but it was no use. It had wrapped a large hand around the wires that connected the Advisor's respirator to the converter apparatus.

With a mighty pull, the Advisor cried in pain and convulsed as its precious supply of breathable air was denied. The robot jumped from its back and attempted to grab at the second, albeit heavily injured Advisor. The robot narrowly missed as it flew off as fast as possible, a flurry of debris being sent away in its panic.

With a mighty roar and a shake of its fists, the robot jumped down to land in front of the group. It then made its vocalizations come out much softer as it made a series of beeps and coos, looing to each group member.

Alyx took a slow step forward, her hand coming up to rest on the smooth expanse of its face, her thumb brushing across the red optic. "Is that you in there, boy?"

Before anyone could react, the robot reached out and pulled Alyx into its arms. She yelped but quickly situated herself to wrap her arms, to the best of her ability, around the chassis of the robot. It let out several noises of excitement while Alyx devolved into sobs and laughter. "Oh my god! How did you survive? I thought you were gone, Dog! I don't- just don't scare me like that again!"

Chell looked to Alyx before looking over to GLaDOS, who kept her optic fixed on the group as a whole. Chell walked over to GLaDOS and Rick and crouched down in front of them.

"Hello, darlin'. Things are looking pretty hectic, but don't worry. I got this covered,"  Rick laughed as he continued to lazily spin in the port.

Chell only nodded to Rick before fixing her gaze back to GLaDOS. The two stared at each other for several moments before a sly smirk spread across Chell's face.

"Oh, don't start,"  GLaDOS groaned, rolling her optic dramatically.

Chell kept the smile as she shook her head and placed a hand on GLaDOS's chassis. "You pretend not to care, but you do."

"Please... The mutt was useful. I'd be foolish to let it go to waste. And if it had to the added benefit of boosting morale in you humans, then who am I to let it die,"  GLaDOS explained as if the logic was obvious.

Chell only sighed but kept her smile across her face. "If that's what you say," she teased. The look she received from GLaDOS was downright toxic, but it made Chell chuckle in amusement.

As they continued to have their staring contest, they were interrupted by Alyx coughing to get their attention. She shifted her weight as she looked at GLaDOS. "I don't know what you did, but thank you. It means a lot that you saved him."

GLaDOS didn't get a chance to respond as Rick let out a guffaw of laughter. "Ha! Looks like the cowards are pulling back. Guess we scared them off!"

That put the group on high alert. Why would the Combine troops retreat? Unless...

Right on cue, the group heard the straining of metal and the popping of pins launching in unseen directions. Eight sets of eyes and three optics all moved towards the pipe that had been dispensing conversion gel. Said pipe had been crushed like a soda can when the Advisors had shown up, but that didn't stop the flow of gel. The pressure in the pipes only grew higher as more gel became compacted inside with nowhere to go.

The pipe was buckling and violently expanding, ready to burst at a moment's notice. Adrian's eyes traveled up the tube and noticed how a large crate was moving slowly on a rail that ran perpendicular to the pipe. Said pipe was swollen, and the crate was rather large and was heading their direction... Oh shit...

"Is that the EMP?" Adrian asked as he pointed towards the crate. "Can you get it here any faster?"

"It's going as fast as it can,"  GLaDOS stated.

Chell looked between the pipe and the approaching package, knowing what would happen first.

"Crow, Apollo, Arne... Get down," Chell said as she stayed transfixed on the swelling pipe.

Arne did as Chell asked as he slowly sat down beneath the control panel, making sure his head was protected.

"Plug me with the others, four-eyes,"  Virgil objected.

Apollo quickly moved towards GLaDOS and Rick to plug Virgil into the third port in the wall. He made sure that the core was secured in place and not going anywhere. "You shall call this one Apollo," they said.

Virgil blinked up at the vortigaunt. Apollo's wrinkled face looking more defined in the harsh shifting lights of the rift. "Right... Sorry."

"It is fine. Now stay safe, friend," Apollo smiled and moved to join Crow and Magnusson.

While they were huddled down, Chell was ransacking cabinets in the room for anything of use. In total, there were four lab coats, two fire blankets, and several pairs of plastic goggles. She quickly gave everyone the goggles except for the vortigaunts. Due to the size of their eyes, it wouldn't work correctly. Instead, Chell found a couple large face shields in a chemical spill kit that would fit over their faces.

Also in the spill kit were several pairs of rubber gloves. She passed those out as well. "I don't know how far it will burst, but do not let the white gel touch your skin. It's highly toxic."

Gordon and Barney were both covered from the neck down in gear, so she gave each of them a lab coat to cover their heads with. Adrian had exposed forearms and face, so he received the third lab coat. The larger fire blanket was given to Arne and the Vortigaunts while Chell and Alyx would take the smaller one.

Adrian was keeping his eyes on the pipe and crate. He'd been right that the container wouldn't be able to clear the pipe due to expanding to twice its original size. The crate was pressing against the pipe, the tracks it was on sparking with the force of trying to get it to its destination.

He took that as his cue to duck down with his back to a wall, head covered by the coat and arms tucked into the sleeves. Gordon and Barney followed suit.

Chell spread the blanket over Arne and the Vorts, making sure no part of them was visible. She then took the final lab coat and spread it over the three cores plugged into the wall. She didn't know how the gel would affect them, but she'd rather be safe than sorry. The coat just barely fit over the three of them, but it would have to do.

The groaning of the pipe was getting louder. The sound reminded Chell of the neurotoxin generator imploding in on itself, but she couldn't dwell on that. Diving next to Alyx, the girls quickly covered their bodies in an attempt to shield themselves. The rift's cascading colors caused strange shadows of light to filter through the fabric, just enough for the girls to see each other's faces.

A quick peek out showed that Dog took up position in a corner curled up on himself into a near-perfect sphere. His optic was fixed on Alyx.

Alyx nodded to Dog before covering back up and looking at Chell. The groaning metal, the roaring of the rift, and the uncertainty in the eyes of both Chell and Alyx... It was a perfect storm. Alyx pursed her lips before reaching out a hand. Chell took the offered appendage and gave it a squeeze.

"Thank you," Alyx mumbled.

Then the pipes burst.

It wasn't as grand or as pronounced as their little lab being ripped to pieces by the Advisors, but it was enough to make everyone flinch. A resounding screech of metal tearing apart, and a wave of gels sent flying across the facility. Alyx and Chell could feel the blanket they hid beneath get coated in a large splash of the white paste, but none of it adhered to their skin.

Once they were sure it was fine, the blanket was thrown off to reveal conversion gel had painted what remained of the lab in white like it was a Jackson Pollock painting. Gordon had his legs coated in the stuff, but otherwise, he was fine. Barney's back was splattered with it, but nothing touched his face. Adrian came out spotless, as did Arne and the Vortigaunts. Dog uncurled his body and shook himself much like the animal he was named after. It sent flecks of gel around the room, which caused everyone to raise their protective layers up once more.

"What is this stuff anyway?" Adrian asked, his boot poking at a puddle of the gel in a corner.

"Conversion gel,"  GLaDOS said as Barney lifted the lab coat off the cores.

"This is the stuff that killed Cave Johnson," Chell explained as she assisted Arne to his feet. "So do your best to not touch it with your bare skin."

GLaDOS nodded her optic in agreement. "Be glad it's already in gel form. If this was powdered moon rocks, you all would be good as dead."

Chell used the blanket's clean side to wipe down the control panel to see if anything was still operational. They still had power but not much. Things were looking pretty grim.

Once everyone was on their feet, they cast aside their safety nets. They still had a mission to complete, and they would do whatever it took to complete it.

All eyes moved to look where the crate had been pressing up against the swollen pipe. The rail system was destroyed, and the container hung by only a thread. Then it made a final creaking noise before breaking loose and disappearing into the abyss, their spirits falling with it.

Everyone looked at Gordon.

"Any other ideas?" Barney asked.

He had nothing to say.

Instead, his eyes looked towards the rift as it continued to expand and devour more of the facility. The colors were growing more intense by the minute, and his eyes were starting to strain from the shifting hues.

His plan failed.

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but... The soldiers are coming back,"  Virgil mumbled with trepidation.

"Dr. Kleiner... I don't think these readings are right..." Roger said, getting Kleiner's attention.

Roger was reading over the energy spikes coming out of Aperture, which didn't seem to match up with their hypothesis. The data was coming in stronger over time, as they had predicted, but it was off. It was too much energy. Roger looked between their notes and the printouts coming through every couple of minutes.

Kleiner approached Roger from behind to look over his shoulder. Something must have grabbed his attention, as the scientist reached out and grabbed the notes from Roger in an action that was unlike Isaac. "This... this can't be right. They should have at least ten hours left! But..."

Kleiner's hands started shaking as the papers fell from his hands and fluttered away. They had made a mistake. They had forgotten an essential piece of the puzzle. Kleiner had failed to account for any additional mass that might have been devoured from existing structures and particles within Aperture. The group didn't have ten hours anymore. With the way the rift was accelerating, they had less than an hour remaining before it would reach its point of no return.

Kleiner moved without purpose away from the desk and out into a hall. He continued to walk as the fear and anxiety within him continued to grow. He didn't know what happened to lead him outside, but he found himself in front of Eli's grave. The sun was setting in the distance, and silent tears slid down Kleiner's face as he went to his knees.

Then he did something he hadn't done for a long time. He prayed. 

He had not done so in years, but with nowhere else to turn, Kleiner prayed. Half remembered words for protection and safety passing his lips. Hebrew coming out in shaky and half-remembered syllables. The guilt of not remembering weighed heavy on his shoulder, but after the years away from Temple and not seeing any hope in the world under Combine rule, he moved away from his faith. With nothing else available, he prayed for his friends. He prayed for safety. He prayed for the fallen. And finally, he prayed for the dead.

He concluded by pressing his forehead to the dirt mound where Eli lay to rest. His prayers done, tears trickling down his face, Kleiner moved back towards the interior of white Forest. He couldn't give up yet. He just needed to hold on to his hope and the faith he had for his friends.

Chapter Text

Their plan died. The EMP was a bust and lost to the abyss below. Soldiers had started bearing down on them, forcing them to focus all their attention back towards fighting. On top of that, the troops were growing in numbers by the minute in an infinite line of soldiers. Rick dropping in turrets wasn't nearly as effective as it had been, as the combine had set up positions and squads to watch and get rid of them when they appeared. The humans couldn't even go out to gather more ammo due to how many soldiers were bearing down on them. 

If that wasn't bad enough, another gunship had appeared. Without the safety of their roof, staying out of its line of sight was a bigger problem. At one point, Gordon had to jump in front of Crow to take the brunt of bullets to his back. It hurt him more than anything, but he could take it due to the HEV suit. Not much longer, though, as the suit's power was dwindling by the minute.

So the short of it was: they had low ammo, barely any coverage, and in desperate need of a new plan. Just another day of surviving against the odds, but it didn't look like they would make it this time.

"Any ideas yet, Gordon?" Barney yelled as he fired several rounds of pulse fire at soldiers coming towards the doors.

He tossed a grenade to the far side of the office area just as seven soldiers rounded the corner. It took out three of them while the other four were left limping, immobilized, or crawling for cover. "Working on it, Barney."