Wordcount: 3,096

GLaDOS's yellow optic narrowed. The chamber was completely silent, save for the gentle humming of her machinery. She stared down at the dark-haired test subject, who was silently staring back. She let out a mechanical scoff, and swung her chassis to face the wall.

"You must take me for a fool. Don't you remember what I said?" Turning to face the mute test subject again, she was slightly unnerved to note that Chell had not moved a single inch from her previous position. She tried not to dwell on it.

"You cannot live forever." She said coldly.

She simply blinked. They both stared at each other for a long time. Finally, the test subject turned and walked over to the elevator, her arms at her sides. Without a word, she punched in a string of numbers, and the elevator gently hissed as it descended into the depths of the facility. GLaDOS had not turned to look at her at all during this. The way the test subject acted had gotten under her skin, so to speak. She was used to the silence. The test subject could only communicate with pen and paper. But the way she had looked at her...

She sighed, wondering what went through that lunatic's brain-damaged mind. First she came back to the facility after being granted her freedom. And then, she asked to be just like her. She wanted her conscience transferred onto a personality construct, just like the scientists had done with Caroline. She failed to see why the woman wanted her thoughts, emotions, and knowledge ripped from her human body and put into a core. That meant she had to sacrifice her mobility, and her ability to eat. Most likely that would be the best deterrent for her. She was amused by the very thought of it.

She shook her head, brushing off the incident. Whatever drove the test subject to propose such a ridiculous thing didn't matter to her. Besides, she had important work to do.

The dark-haired test subject stepped out of the elevator. She began walking down the long hallway, her Long Fall Boots clicking against the metal catwalk. The woman stopped after a few minutes, opening the door to her Relaxation Vault. She walked in, swinging the door shut behind her. She sat down on her bed, unstrapping the boots and sliding out of them. Then, untying the sleeves of her jumpsuit and sliding her arms back into them, she retrieved an apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchenette. The apple had a slightly off taste as her teeth sunk into the blood-red skin. Detached and dull. She thought nothing more of it as she swallowed, glancing out the window. The light was sombre and cold, and dark clouds were gathering on the horizon.

She bit the apple a second time.

She couldn't understand what was wrong with her. Did she take her for a fool? No. She was the greatest collection of knowledge by man. She knew that. Why did she refuse to let her go through with it? She had mulled the idea over a few times before, and could see no possible complications. The scene was vivid in her mind. One of her testing bots sliding a syringe filled with anaesthetic into her arm, the other preparing the core. Then, her consciousness fading. Then, her waking up in a new body.

No way it could possibly go wrong.

She bit the apple again, slowly becoming more accustomed to the taste.

She remembered hearing the last words of the tape recorded by Cave Johnson down in Old Aperture. "If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place." Caroline, his wife. They used her as a guinea pig for their little foray into artificial intelligence. Her conscious was poured into the core that became GLaDOS, the central core of Aperture. Caroline was, on some level, GLaDOS's subconscious. It was something she would never have thought could be done. But then again, if she hadn't seen Aperture, she wouldn't have thought the Portal Gun would be possible, or the Hard Light Bridges, or the Excursion Funnels.

She bit the apple again.

Immortality. A concept man had only dreamed of. Being able to live forever, and never die. You could see more, know more, and experience more than you could if you had died. If all that knowledge and experience could be contained on a hard drive, you would have that forever. It would never disappear unless a wipe was performed on the drive. A shudder went through her body at the thought of that.

True, but dying also erases all the hard work you put in finding all that knowledge, a voice rang out through her head. Immediately, her previous thought disappeared from existence completely. Immortality. She wanted it now. Wanted it more than she had ever wanted anything. Asides from freedom, but that was in the past now.

She bit the apple again, reaching the core of the fruit. It was at that moment when the sound of her teeth slicing through the flesh of the fruit reached her ears that something inside her head snapped. She dropped the apple, hearing the sound flood the room as it hit the floor. She should've been confused as to how dropping an apple could sound so loud, but she wasn't. She opened her mouth, silently laughing. Immortality. It was so easy to want, so hard to find.

Not here, as Cave Johnson would have said, had he still been alive. The delicious irony made her laugh harder.

A flood of revelations hit her all at once. Immortality was possible. Just like the Funnels and Light Bridges were possible. Caroline had her conscious poured into a computer, and that was GLaDOS, which proved it was possible. There was no danger, no chance of anything happening if they were careful. There was no danger at all. She finally understood.

GLaDOS was holding her back.

She wanted to be the only immortal thing in this world, asides from those two testing bots. She wanted to remain superior to her. She told her no, she couldn't live forever.

But Chell knew she could. She knew GLaDOS wanted to stop her from becoming immortal like her.

She wouldn't let her. After all...

She had tenacity on her side.

GLaDOS glared at the screen. The test subject appeared to be having a seizure, but she knew better then that. Probably just her tantrum due to my refusal. She made a derisive noise, scrolling the footage forward a bit. She did the same erratic movements for about three more minutes, before pacing the room a few times, and then leaving the Relaxation Vault. She closed the window, shaking her head. Not my problem.

She'd go and explore the facility. She'd walk it off. She'd visit the corrupted cores, who knows. It wasn't her problem right now. She was busy focusing on the Co-Operative Testing Initiative. They were behind the scenes, making their way past laser cutting machinery, cube manufacturing, and test chamber production. Orange pointed to a lone panel and nudged Blue, who in turn nodded. They placed their portals in according spaces, and practically flew over the bottomless pit, and over to an office section. She switched the camera view, following their movements.

Orange made a noise of curiosity. Blue looked over at her. Orange pointed at a few smashed panels that formed a gap in the wall. They both nodded, squeezing through the gap, and going along their merry way.

GLaDOS made a noise of rage. She turned on the camera microphone. "Wh-what the..? That is NOT the way to the testing track! Turn back immediately!" She said. They seemed to not hear her. This annoyed her even further.

"Turn back now! Just where do you think you're going anyway?" She demanded. She began flicking through camera views, trying to find them. A broken-down cube-making machine, the Turret Redemption Line, a few destroyed offices, anything but those two stupid robots. She began wishing she had hands so she could rip them to pieces. But she dismissed the thought. That's what the disassemblers were for.

A few more camera views, and then finally. It was a normal office. Two desks, monitors, computer towers, filing cabinets, dead plants, the usual. She swivelled the camera, trying to figure out where the robots were. There was a crack in the lens causing the view to be a bit blurry. A bit more swivelling, and then... there they were. They were peering through one of the windows protected by grating. This only served to anger her.

"What might I ask is so interesting about a small office with no human or inhuman inhabitants? I demand you leave, and get back to the route we were on or else I'll-" She stopped.

Sitting in a swivel, restrained by mechanical arms coming out of the wall, surrounded by the bright lights of the monitors and computer towers, was her.

And sitting on the table was an inactive personality core.

She held back a sound of horror as she noticed a sharp metal arm hovering over her head. She was really going through with it?! She had told her not to, and as a general rule Chell normally did what she was told, and solved her tests in exchange for shelter and food. But she had ignored her, and was now about to transfer her human mind to a robot body. What could've made her want to do so? Did she hate her, and was only doing it to spite her? Or was she really just insane?

GLaDOS turned on the microphone and hurriedly spoke. "Test subject! I mean... Chell... Stop that this instant! You are about to transfer your human conscious onto an inactive core, don't you realise the danger you're putting yourself in?"

The dark-haired test subject turned to her, and for a fleeting instant, terror was on her face, before being replaced by an insane, lopsided grin.

Okay... the AI thought, recoiling at the sight. She really is crazy.

The woman barged into the office room, shutting the door behind her. She slammed a few documents held in a binder down onto one of the desks. Then, she set the core down on the other desk. Its optic was dark, and its handles unmoving. She sat down on a dirty swivel chair, spreading all the documents out on the desk. She read over them, still fascinated by them, despite reading them many times before. The reports written by the scientists about how they created GLaDOS. She had everything she needed. The only trouble was that she didn't have anyone to perform the final part. She needed someone to transfer the conscious over to the core, but since she'd be incapacitated during that part, she figured she'd have to try a second method that was mooted in the report.

For this, she'd need to confirm the transfer. But then the computer would do all the work. The problem, the scientists said in the report, was that the computer often encountered errors during the transfer due to "unknown complications" whatever the hell that meant. But she was willing to take a chance. What did she have to lose anyway? No family, no friends, no nothing.

Well, let's do it.

She took hold of the zipper of her jumpsuit, dragging it down to her waist. She let the sleeves fall to the sides. She began preparing the transfer, attaching strange pads with wires coming out of them onto her head. The wires all seemed to be going to a box that plugged into the back of the core. She referred to the documents again, and continued. She sat down on the swivel again, and typed on the keyboard a little. A few panels opened, and mechanical arms restrained her. There. She smirked. Now there's no going back.

She clicked CONFIRM on the Transfer. A box popped up. PASSWORD REQUIRED it proclaimed. Her fingers curled in frustration. She searched through the computer, attempting to find a clue as to what it was. Aperture projects, emails about food missing from the fridge, an employee's pet... and then an email from the Head of Security, notifying them they'd all had their passwords changed due to security concerns. She returned to the program, and typed in d1ff3r3nt. She smirked. Now where had she heard that one before...

After a little more screwing around with various security measures, and answering a few questions to authenticate the process, it was finally ready. More mechanical arms grabbed her, and now she couldn't move at all. A strange metal appendage with a sharp end moved out of the wall, and hovered above her. The computer screen flashed with a message that the core transfer had begun.

"Test subject! I mean... Chell..." She heard. Her head snapped in the direction of a camera, operating in the far corner of the room. Then, to a window where the two testing bots were observing her, making incomprehensible, synthesised noises. "Stop that this instant! You are about to transfer your human consciousness onto an inactive core, don't you realise the danger you're putting yourself in?"

A sudden fleeting instance of terror crossed her. Uh oh. This is NOT good. But it almost immediately passed, and she laughed internally. Stop? Why stop now when immortality was right before her? She wanted this, so she would do what she wanted.

A twisted grin found its way onto her face. She couldn't see it, but she knew GLaDOS was disturbed, and she was letting it be known. "Stop! No!"

The sharp end of the appendage jabbed into her head. She was shocked mostly by the suddenness of it. But the pain was still part of it. The searing, agonising pain. So painful it was that she actually produced a sound close to a groan, her vocal cords hoarse from not being used for so long. It felt like the end was spreading its reach throughout her brain. It hurt... but she wouldn't stop. Partly because she couldn't. The mechanical arms were so tight she couldn't move at all.

GLaDOS was screaming at the testing bots, who were bashing on the glass. Somehow they weren't making any progress. The pain remained, but had lessened. She forced her eyes to look at the computer screen.

downloading Chell[REDACTED].exe

anger dot exe transferring...

memory #2056 dot mov transferred

happiness dot exe transferring

sadness dot exe transferred

ERROR [attempt to call nil value at NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-

She tore a scream from her throat as the sharp end pushed harder, practically drilling into her skull. How long did it take for those damn memories, emotions, and all the other human crap take to download to a core? In retrospect, she probably should've brought anaesthesia, but had been caught up in the thrill of the moment. She turned her eyes back to the screen.

core transfer Chell [REDACTED] to Personality Construct #999999999#^$&! $&L %#

now at 62%

She now realised that she had screwed up big-time.

Something was corrupting the transfer. And there wasn't anything she could do to stop it. No matter how much she thrashed in the chair, there was no escape.

The sharp end dug deeper. Biting her lip so hard it drew blood, she gazed upon the screen again, noting the transfer was now at eighty-six percent.

motorskills dot exe transferred

ERROR

What now? What more could you possibly want with me? She wailed to herself.

She struggled against the metal arms, but it was useless. She had lost her motor skills, the computer said so herself. "Oh no..." GLaDOS whispered, barely audible. That's exactly what I was thinking, the test subject thought.

The end dug into her head further, eliciting one final scream from the test subject as the thick smell of blood filled the air.

core transfer Chell [REDACTED] to Personality Construct #999999999#^$&! $&L %#

now at 100%

She gasped, breathing deeply. It was finally over.

The computer buzzed loudly, another window opening on the screen.

warning: core corruption at NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-

She would've screamed, had it not already broken.

Her vision faded. Her eyes fell on the camera that was fixated on her, smiling weakly. Look at me now... I will live forever... just like you.

"Ch-Chell..." GLaDOS said weakly. "N-no..."

Everything finally went black, releasing her from her body for good.

"Bring it here! Let me see it!" GLaDOS demanded. The two robots obligingly set it down on the floor of her chamber, before leaving. The core was completely lifeless. She prodded it with various instruments, ran system checks on it, and could find that nothing was online. She smiled wryly. "Well, well... You really were brain-damaged after all... Chell." How hilarious was that? Even after her test subject had basically killed herself, she still found it funny. Which, in a way, it actually was.

The core remained silent.

GLaDOS sighed. Summoning a claw arm, she picked up the core by one of its handles. She held it above the incinerator, saying, "I hope you know this is all for the best. You're as good as dead right now anyway... And you know what?" She leaned closer to the core. "Because of what you did... I failed someone today." She wished she could yell at it, but she just didn't have the energy for it. "I tried to hold up my end of the deal, and, well... the rest is history." She breathed a mechanical sigh. "Look at me..." She said, letting out a forced chuckle. "Talking to a dead thing."

She sighed again as she opened the incinerator hatch, the smell of burning metal parts filling the air. "I might as well put you out of your misery. It's the least I can do..."

One of the handles twitched slightly. GLaDOS recoiled, stared at it in shock. The optic flickered to life, its yellow light shining on her faceplate. The core focused on her, its optic narrowing slightly. Then, from its synthetisised voice box...

"Hello."

Here's a couple of facts about this chapter:

1. This follows the regular Portal 2 storyline, as in Wheatley is stranded in space with the Space(X) Core, Chell gets her freedom, etc. etc. Except in this one, she stays at Aperture occasionally.

2. The memory 2056 is a reference to the number you constantly see around Aperture in Portal Stories: Mel.

3. The reason the 'dot exe's weren't written with a normal full stop is because the document for some reason removed them each time, so I had to write it that way.

4. The wordcount is the length of the chapter itself, not counting the introduction and the author's note section.

5. This probably isn't even close to how Caroline became GLaDOS. I just made it up. Nobody knows how it works, and we probably never will.

And it's probably better that we don't.

Please rate/review, as I'd like to hear your thoughts about this story. If people like it, I might continue it. I have some ideas for a few more of the chapters. It'd only be short, about 3 chapters. But, tell me if you want to see it. I'm curious.

Thanks for your time,
- offbrandbiscuit