x Portal Fanfic x

She had excelled in the ranks as soon as she started in Aperture Science. Her enthusiasm for science made her outshine her co-workers and grab the attention of Aperture's CEO, Cave Johnson.

She was beside him when they started this 'adventure', testing astronauts and other members of society worth testing. She had enjoyed Cave's fervour for their job, and giggled as he told the test 'subjects' that she was 'as pretty as a postcard', but 'married', to science. How she wished that he had actually asked her to marry him, to be with him, but she would settle for 'science'.
She was there for him when the whole thing went wrong, and saw his blue eyes sometimes doubt the whole thing. She convinced him that this was all 'for science' and that he should continue his amazing 'adventure' to try to find answers.
When Cave got sick and everyone had started either following his every order, or hating him, she stood by him and took care of him, suppling him with pain pills and water. Those 'moon rocks' became the death of him, and she hated that she could do nothing to save him. He had spoken about being put into the machines, as an AI. She was so against it, but also didn't want to believe that Cave was dying and leaving her alone.

"That man is insane, and he is bringing us all down with him."
"And yet, he still has her following him like a puppy."

She had always heard these sort of comments being made but she never had the backbone to fight them on it. Cave had always said she was the 'backbone of this facility' but she never once felt it.

When Cave got worse and could no longer watch over the employee testing, Caroline went to his bedside every day with food and told him how they were all doing. When she told him she needed to go as her first 'bout of testing was to start. He grabbed her hand with such force she didn't know was possible anymore for him. He had looked so sickly and ill, and yet there was still strength in his hand she thought was long gone.
"You, [cough] shouldn't have to test. You aren't required to test."
"I know, my name wasn't on the list so I added it. I shouldn't be different from anyone else."
"No, I won't let you test."
"Sir, I'm no different from anyone else there and everyone is required to test."
"Caroline, you are different. [cough] I'm sorry this took me so long to tell you, I guess I just thought I would always be here and I would tell you when we pounded those 'Black Mesa' nuts into the ground."
"What are you saying? I'm different how? Just another experiment?" She couldn't understand what he was saying, and felt disgusted. Had she been used for some reason, all these years? She loved Cave, and what, he was using her as an experiment? What was he saying?
"I'm still getting butterflies, unless it's the illness."
"Cave." She just said, sternly. After all these years, she felt herself starting to be more talkative. She would always call him, 'Sir', but now she just didn't feel like it.
"Do you remember, Caroline, you always called me Sir? I think it's the first time you ever called me by my name…I wonder is that a bad sign." She just let go of his hand, annoyed and pulling back. She got up and started to turn, and he sat up as quickly as he could and grabbed for her hand again. "Caroline, I love you." She looked at him, half leaning off the bed trying to grab her hand. She knelt down beside the bed, trying to get him to lay back down. "I've loved you since I met you, but felt it would be wrong to be dating my assistant. You were always there, you know that idea, behind every good man is a good woman? I may not be a good man, Caroline, but you are the best woman in this whole world, but you are too modest and disbelieving of others to see that. "

"Sir?"

"We are back on Sir level, Caroline? It made me happy to hear my name in your voice, don't deprive me of it now." , she held his hand within both of hers, it was cold and clammy.  "I wanted us to do brilliantly on our adventure. I wanted us to 'rule the world' with science, together. I wanted us to be married, and have children and live out my life with you. I've made many mistakes. My only hope is one day, with science, we can be together again. They are close to making an AI-", he started to cough. She held his hand tightly, not wanting him to be sick. "I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to tell you. I don't even know if you feel the same. I've been so jealous of all those men who have chased after you. I took it out on you a lot of the time, especially when those astronauts leered over you. I hoped you could hear it through what I told them, you were married to science. I hoped you felt that 'science' was me." She just cried, quietly, the tears falling down onto their hands. "Don't cry, Caroline. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade remember?" She had nodded, and out of nowhere, hugged him. Cave held onto her so tight, smelling her dark black hair and holding onto the red-white scarf he had given her back in the 60s.  He pulled her away from him, the two staring into each other's eyes, when Cave kissed her. As sad as it might have sounded, it was Caroline's first kiss and she was plagued with feelings of happiness and sadness at the same time. The kissing had become passionate, and the two spent the night together.


When Caroline had woken up, curled up in Cave's arms, she couldn't believe how amazing she felt, how happy she was. Cave didn't seem as warm as he did last night, and when Caroline turned around to face him his breathing had become shallow. "Cave….do you need your pain pills?"

"Caroline, I think….[cough] it's time." Her eyes bugged out, and she shook her head.
"No, Cave, no you can't leave me…."
He looked up to the top of the bed and pressed a button. "I've called the lab rats, they should be here shortly to try to put my spirit into the computer…"
"Cave?", she said as he held his stomach.
"Where are they, I don't have much time…"
"Cave, please just lay back down, I'm sure they will be here soon."
"Caroline, I never told you, but [cough] I've told them to use you instead of me if [cough] I didn't make it to when they finished the machine."
"What?"
"I want you to run the facility, Caroline. You are the heart of this place and I want you to live forever."
"But, Cave?"
"Maybe we can live together in the computer, Caroline? A white picket fence, a family and a dog. What do you think?"
"Cave please stop talking, you can't breathe…"
"You'll marry me, won't you Caroline? Life isn't worth living otherwise." He started a coughing fit then, and suddenly gasped for breath. She called for him, but it was too late.

Cave Johnson, CEO of Aperture Science, was gone.

The lab rats came in, about a minute too late. She screamed at them, for letting him die. They were like robots, seeing Cave was dead, and grabbed Caroline. They were under 'his' orders, to make her the head of the place, even if she fought them. She kicked and screamed, even tried to bite. She did not want to become a computer, and she did not want to accept that Cave was gone. Who were these people? They had not been with them when the place started. They didn't love Cave the way she did, and she did not want to leave him alone, even if it was his body. Could they not use his brain and make him the AI? They explained that no, the test subject needed to be 'alive' for the transfer. She just cried. They had subdued her, with tranquillisers and hung her body over a vat of portal conductor. She could not talk, but could hear everything around her.
"He was ape-sh** crazy!"
"Geeze, she really misses the old man."
"Sure, I mean who else would 'do' her? She's not the prettiest or the skinniest…"

She felt so angry. Who were these people, who could mock Cave and her? She heard names, Henry was the worst, the one who said how Cave was crazy and how no one could love her. She felt so angry, so mad, yet could say nothing due to the tranquilizer.
She could feel it wear off, and open her eyes but not talk. It was then she heard them,

"Henry, she's got a growth, do you see it in the scans?"
Was it a tumour? Was she ill like Cave?
"A gestation? It's only about four cells?"
Gestation? She was….pregnant?!
"But, when her consciousness is transferred to the PC, it will obviously die. You can't do that. She need to be woken up and let live her life, and let her child live theirs."
It was Cave's child too. She was filling up with sadness, but he had left her something, a life.
"Hey, Doug, that's not in my orders. My orders was to create the most amazing and realistic AI the world has ever seen. It was his orders.", he said pointing a  portrait of Cave.
"But this child, changes all that! You need to let her go."
He just grinned at him and pulled a lever.
"Sorry buddy, just too late!" Doug worked quickly then, trying to stop the transfer.  
Caroline felt her body going lighter and lighter, her anger swelling up inside of her. She was so angry, so so anrgy. Not only had she lost her love, but also the child their love had made. She fought with all her might, but couldn't stop them from ripping the soul from her body.
Doug's interference though, meant that 'Caroline', or at least her body, was alive. She was in a coma, but her body was 'still alive', and could sustain a life, for 9 months.

"I'm alive? What's going on, where am I? Where's Cave?"
"Hello Caroline. My name is Henry and I have been made in charge of this program."
"Where is Cave?" she said, very sternly.
"I'm afraid the transfer may have erased a few of your most recent memories. Cave Johnson died."
"WHAT?", yelled Caroline.
"Yes, sadly. He had put in place a strict order of affairs to make you the leader of this facility. He wanted you to become an AI, and run Aperture Science as a computer."
She couldn't get it through her head.
"So what, I'm a computer now? What made you think I wanted to do that? What about MY say in the matter?!"
"Hm… Caroline, I didn't think you were this…vocal when you were just a human…", he checked some settings, thinking there was an error in the whole process.
"How did Cave die?"
"He had poisoning, from the moon rocks he---"
"I know that, idiot! How did he…die? His last moments? Was he…okay?"
"Hm….I guess the memory loss was for the day before as well as the day we transferred you. That's interesting. "
"Answer me, you fat man!"
"Hm…optical sensors are obviously not working to their best…"
"How did Cave die?! If you do not answer me I will destroy you and---"

"He died in your arms, Caroline!", yelled Doug, walking into the center.
"I …I…", she said in her distinctive robotized voice.
"Hey Doug, thanks for the coffee! She seems to be working alright, just a few errors…and this strange anger. Not sure where it's coming from…"
"Perhaps the last emotions before the transfer is what she feels the most…", he said sadly.
"I…I know you. I know that voice."
"Uh…that's Doug, Caroline. He helped in your transfer. "
"Your voice……"
"Hi Caroline…", Doug said nervously.
"Henry..she's got a growth do you see it in the scans?", she murmured like her memory.
"Wow…she does remember the moments before, Doug!"
"What have you done to me! My body!", Caroline started to initiate a system failure.
"Shut her down, Henry! Shut her down!"
"My child…what have you done to my child? My body?!"
"Henry, do it!" Henry played with the buttons and eventually the noise of the machine slowly turning off filled the room. Caroline didn't know that Doug kept her body alive…that the child was forming in her belly.

Henry worked hard on the whole 'making Caroline less angry'. He had erased her memory, yet tried to keep her consciousness alive. He renamed her GLaDos, and tried to keep her memories in the background, but not letting her access them. She would never know where the 'Caroline' part of her was, but it would be there trying to enforce a 'human' feel to her.

The baby was born, via c section to a very proud Aperture Science. They would raise her themselves. A 'mother and father' was picked from the employees, and she was named 'Michelle', or 'Chell' after Caroline's mother. She was raised to be 'scientific', but was a stubborn little girl. She excelled in science, had a natural instinct in it. If Caroline was raising her, she would have seen herself and Cave in little Chell. She would have noticed her stubbornness, and her eyes. But instead, Caroline was locked away inside and GlaDos didn't even know she existed.

At 8 years old, Chell was told she was adopted. When she asked about her parents, the real ones, they told her that her daddy was a man who did so much for science, and her mommy was a woman who stood beside him and helped with everything. They told her that they must have loved her very much but were no longer alive, and therefore they were taking care of her. She had seen pictures, and got to play with the 'blue goo, and red goo'. She loved jumping and running, and when they told her that her daddy made these things for science, she just thought how much fun that seemed and how she wanted to help. She was asked to make a 'potato battery' because it was 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day' and 'work' would be where her parents loved and worked.

She was amazed by the wonders of the place. A bunch of kids were singing, another bunch were organizing their 'potatos' and getting ready to be judged.

'Aperture Science, we do what we must because we can…."
Her adoptive parents had set up her potato, fawning over how amazing it was compared to the others. A man named Henry came over to talk to her, on how science was so important and that she should continue. As he walked away, he said to another how Doug was right, and it was worth keeping the child alive.
Chell, as any other little girl, was curious. She snuck out of the room, walking through corridors upon corridors and came upon a room with a giant computer on the ceiling. She looked up at it, so large, and yet she thought, if only I had the blue goo, I could jump that high. She pressed some buttons on the side, thinking that, since this is where her daddy worked years ago, maybe the goo would be around? She was oblivious to the sounds of the machine booting up.
"I only used the neurotoxin for the science…beep beep…"
Chell turned around quickly, worried she would get in trouble for putting a machine on, for not being where she was supposed to be.
"Hello?", she said in a soft spoken southern based accent.
"Hello. Welcome to the Aperture Science Center…"
"Do you know my daddy?!", she said quite happily.
"Why would I know your daddy?", asked GLaDos.
"Because my daddy ran this place, along with my mommy years ago!"
"What is your name, how did you get in here?"
"My name is Chell! Well, Michelle. My adoptive parents told me I was named after my grandmother. What's your name?"
"GLaDos. Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. Did you say your 'daddy' ran this place?"
"Yes, Glados! They both did years ago…what do you do here?"
GLaDos zoomed into the small child's face. She scanned it, and ran it against all the employees. "You don't look like any of the employees here….who were your parents, Chell?" She couldn't explain her interest in the child. It was nice being online again after being shut down due to the whole 'cat' experiment.
"They are no longer with us, Glados….they made this place though!"
"What is your last name, Chell?"
"Johnson…it's my real last name."
Johnson, Johnson…where had Glados heard that name before? She searched her memory banks. When she found him, the memories all came back, the night she had spent with him, the news of a child, and her anger and heart break. She used a robotic arm to yank a hair from Chell's head,
"OW!"
And ran it in to the DNA sequencer. It was a match. Michelle Johnson, or Chell for short, was the child of Caroline and Cave. She was being raised by another, but she was alive. Still alive. Her daughter!
"Chell….can you close your ears for a moment?",
"Why?" Children could be so inquisitive, yet  GLaDos felt it was Cave's influence in her blood stream.
"Because we are playing a game! You like games, don't you Chell?"
GLaDos played some music to her, but in the room of the 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day', she yelled.
"How DARE you !!! How dare you! You monsters! I hope you enjoy this neurotoxin….this is what you get for years of torture. "
Some survived and ran off, but GLaDos only concern now was Chell. It was a maternial instinct, but it lacked the feeling of a mother. Revenge still consumed her, and she didn't know what to do for the child.
When Chell asked to go outside of the room, GLaDos locked it up. She explained the outside world was scary and that she needed to stay inside.
When Chell cried, she sang a song.

"Aperture Science, we do what we must because we can…for the good of all of us…except the ones who are dead. But there's no sense crying over mistake, you just keep trying till you run out of cake! And the science gets done and you have some fun with the people who are still alive! "
"Glados…did you know my parents…you never answered me..", she said after she had relaxed a bit and stopped crying.
"I did….Your daddy was an amazing man, he never would give up. When life gave him lemons he made lemonade! He was a strong person, just so amazing."
"And my mommy? Did she look like me?"
"She had brown hair..like you. She was a lot like you. Maybe not quiet as pretty as you."
"How did you know them, Glados?"
"One day they woke me up, so I could live forever."
"Do you think they can do that for me too Glados?"
"Go to sleep, Chell. You humans need sleep."
"Night Glados…"
"Night…Chell."
GLaDos knew she couldn't sustain a young human without food. She put her in statis, not the long term one, (which would keep her age the same and not change at all), but rather the short term one where she would age and grow. This way, she could be sustained and when she was old enough, GLaDos would let her out and she could get her own food…and come back to keep her company.
GLaDos couldn't trust any employees with this, they had already betrayed her by hiding Chell. By putting her INTO this machine. She would have to destroy them all. However, this was not possible, as they found her, and tried to erase the memories again in order to restore her to a plain computer. She fought, and made the memories into a hidden file, but forgot where she had them. She continued to test, and test.
Henry erased Chell's identity from her main memory, and her last name off the database…..