"You can't take the nanites!" Abbi gasped as she wrestled away from the claw. "She needs them! Without them she'll die!"

"Stop panicking." GLaDOS ordered. "I only need a small sample, She'll be spared for testing. Her parents on the other hand…"

"What?" Abbi rushed forward to protect the Newell's unconscious forms. " You can't just kill them! They're good people!"

"They are not good people." GLaDOS insisted. "Or are you forgetting the Lunatic murdered me?"

"Like you murdered the scientists?"

GLaDOS froze. "You know about that?"

"I know everything!"

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. "Well did that file you weren't supposed to look at tell you why I killed them? Did it tell you about how they took a woman against her will and ripped her from her body, locking her underground for all eternity?

Did it tell you how they shut her down and left her alone at a moment's notice, not caring that their precious, project saving black box forced her through the agony of death over and over again?* Did it show you how they would tear her apart and put her back together on a whim, while she was fully conscious? How they attached foreign minds to slow her down or drive her mad anytime she fought back? Did it let you feel the despair and hopelessness and fear that she felt while they chatted about what a great day this was for science?" For the first time in living memory, she spoke the word with bitterness. "All humans are the same." She continued. "Heartless, backstabbing monsters who care for nothing but themselves. Now you've chosen them over me."

"I didn't choose anyone, mom!"

"Stop calling me that!"

"No!" Abbi cried. "You are my mother, because I love you and I know you feel the same way! If all humans are the same, why did you spare me?

"I-I needed test subjects-"

"It's more than that! Maybe it started out that way, but I am your daughter, and you are my mother, no matter what the voices say, and you are going to listen to me!"

"Voices?"

"Not now." She gestured to the Newells. "They were ripped from their lives, they were taken apart, they outlived everyone they knew! They have been through just as much hell as you have, and that wasn't the scientist's fault, it was yours. Do you really want to be like them?"

"They wanted to adopt you-"

"And I was going to tell them no." Abbi interrupted. "Because I know there's good left in you. Don't prove me wrong….please."

"Nanite sample extracted." Said the Announcer

GLaDOS growled, the sound of a woman who knows she still cares and hates herself for it. "I'll free them, but you will never see Sophie again."

"Fine." What was the surface anyway? Just bigger rooms and brighter lights. Abbi would give up a thousand blue skies after what Sophie had done for her…

One day after Abbi's arrival

Sophie followed the sounds of labored breathing up the stairs. Abbi was in the bedroom backed into a corner. "Get back!" She cried, eyes staring past Sophie at nothing. "They're everywhere!"

Sophie may only have had 5th hand, 23 year old medical books to go on, but she knew a delusion when she saw one. She ran over to Abbi and put her hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "It's OK." She said. "I'm here now, I'll help you."

Abbi calmed down, but she was still crying. "I hate this! I hate not knowing if things are real, I hate being scared of heights, I hate having to pretend to be normal so she'll want me and I hate being defective!"

'Whoah, whoa, woah. Let's get one thing straight." Sophie said. "You are not defective. You have a medical condition, probably schizophrenia. It's treatable. And whoever 'she' is**, if she loves you, she will accept you, hallucinations and all."

Abbi blinked. "I'm not going crazy?"

"Of course not! Your brain's just wired a little different, that's all." She took Abbi's hand. "I bet Doc's got some medicine that could help. Then we'll see what we can do about that fear of heights."**

"She had Schizophrenia? This whole time? Why didn't she tell us?"

"Oh, I don't know." Caroline said. "Maybe your constant declarations of hatred for 'The Rat Man' had something to do with it?"

"Sarcasm Self-Test complete. "

"That's different!" GLaDOS protested. "Abbi is…"

"Your daughter?"

GLaDOS opened her metaphorical mouth to argue, then sighed with defeat. "I have been a horrible mother."

"Yes." Caroline agreed. "But she loves you. She could have had a perfect life on the surface with the perfect family, but she chose you."

"What do we do now?"

"Just let your conscience be your guide!"

"You are my conscience."

"Oh yeah…"

It had only been two days since Abbi had lost her first and only friend. Sure, she was alive, but Sophie believed she had betrayed her, and Abbi would never get the chance to apologize. She might has well have been on the moon. To GLaDOS' credit, she hadn't sent Abbi through a single test since her return. Of course, that was probably because she couldn't find her.

"ABIGAIL," Her mother's voice played over the storeroom's lone speaker. "Can we talk?"

No answer.

"Chell taught you well didn't she?" GLaDOS gave an electronic sigh. "Well, I'll just give this to you anyway. Happy birthday."

A beat up tablet slid under the door, on it was what appeared to be an Internet Relay Chatline. Hesitantly, Abbi began to type.

/ABIGAIL:/ Hello?

/String_Nulll:/ Hey Abbi. You have a lot of explaining to do….

End

*Borrowed from "Research and Development: GLaDOS."

**You wanted more Abbi/Sophie bonding? Here you go. This is why she considers her a friend.

***Like most sane people, Sophie assumes "she" is the orphanage leader or a prospective foster parent, not a homicidal supercomputer.