No Such Thing

Chell felt a thrill rush through her body as she ran down the darkened corridors that existed inside the facility. She was beyond the test chambers, beyond the white tiles, far away from the computerized voice that had been controlling her. GlaDOS turning the lights out hadn't dampened her spirits one bit, for the blue core had flicked on his flashlight (after he'd gotten over the impression that doing so would kill him) and now he cast a warm glow upon the catwalk ahead of her.

The test subject laughed silently to herself, her features spreading into a smile for the first time in what seemed like forever. She felt untouchable. It was amazing to finally be able to let her guard down. She continued following the path that the blue core was making with his light, allowing her mind to wander.

Chell thought of the first time GlaDOS had woken her. She'd been so furious at how she was being forced to test that she vowed to never give anything in the facility the satisfaction of her voice. She ignored GlaDOS's taunts and the babbling of the cores. When she was struck by a turret's bullet, she had put all of her effort into not letting out a single whimper of pain. Her voice was one of the only things she had any control over while locked in this godforsaken place, and she wasn't about to give it up.

Then she thought of the core with the blue optic that was helping her defeat GLaDOS. Sure, he wasn't the smartest core she'd ever met- he'd been the reason GLaDOS had awoken in the first place- but he seemed sincere in his efforts to help her, and who knows? If he hadn't helped her escape into the inner workings of the facility, she could be dead by now.

She wondered if he had a name.

It's not like it really made a difference if he did or not, she told herself. According to the promise she'd made to herself years ago, she wasn't to use her voice at all while inside the Aperture Science facility, so it's not like she could talk to him. And besides, she hadn't said anything in so long that she wondered if her voice still worked at all.

But she still felt an odd kind of affection towards the core.

She felt comforted by his babbling, which filled the normally eerily silent corridors with sound. She found the expressions that he made with his moveable plates almost lovable. She liked the talkative friendliness that he displayed, something that she'd never found in anyone- or rather, anyTHING- at Aperture before.

Chell realized that the two of them were almost... friends.

It sounded absurd inside her head. A friend? In this place? She of all people should know that AI's couldn't be trusted.

But that was what the two of them were, wasn't it? Friends. Helping each other.

She had paused on the catwalk to consider this. The core with the blue optic seemed to notice that she wasn't following him anymore, as he spun to face her on his rail. "All right there, luv?"

Chell nodded, smiling up at him and starting down the catwalk again. Friends. She liked the way the word sounded. Even more, she liked the fact that she had one.

At this moment, she felt sure that the two of them would defeat GLaDOS and escape the facility. For once, she had a plan. And a friend. These two things together seemed to guarantee that she would be successful.

**

Everything had gone wrong.

It had been going perfectly fine up until then. She and the core had disabled GlaDOS's weapons successfully. They'd managed to get into her chamber. They'd even replaced GLaDOS with the core and given him control of the facility.

Chell felt elation beyond anything she'd ever felt in her life as she stepped onto the escape lift that the facility's new keeper had called down for her. She was going to be free. She and her only friend were going to get out of Aperture, once and for all.

And that was when everything went wrong.

Apparently power-mad, the core quickly changed his mind about Chell's freedom, calling the lift back down. Betraying her. Even though she'd been so sure he wouldn't.

With Chell standing broken-hearted but infuriated before him, he rambled on about how it felt amazing to be in control, and how he'd been the one to do it-

And that was when GLaDOS, discarded on the floor, weakly interrupted.

"You didn't do anything. SHE did all the work."

Chell, through her anger, was shocked. Was GLaDOS, the sadistic, passive-aggressive AI who had forced her into testing and tried to kill her, defending her?

The blue core didn't like this at all. The two got into an argument, which abruptly came to an end when he transferred her into a potato battery and ultimately ended up throwing the two of them down a shaft and into an old, abandoned part of the facility.

And now, only a short while later, the two were finding their way through the abandoned facility together. This seemed, to Chell, rather familiar.

But yet it was different. Instead of friendship, the two of them had only the common interest of revenge to hold them together. They both also seemed to realize that the other was their only chance of survival. Chell, without GLaDOS, would have no one to replace the core with, if she did manage to reach him. And GLaDOS, without Chell, would be even worse off; probably lying in a bird's nest being slowly pecked to death.

Still, their relationship was really no more than a grudging truce.

Away from her main body, GLaDOS seemed much kinder to Chell, although Chell figured it was only to keep her from chucking GLaDOS into a pit somewhere if she annoyed her. And even if it was genuine kindness, it wouldn't matter. Chell no longer trusted anyone.

Chell had finally learned the core's name. He'd let it slip during the incident that Chell now referred to in her mind as "The Part Where It All Went Wrong". The knowledge that his name was Wheatley didn't lessen her anger towards him at all. The cold, bitter hatred she felt towards him was pretty much the only thing she could think about.

Chell was startled out of her thoughts when she stepped out of a doorway and a large black bird cawed at her. GLaDOS, who had been silent for a while, seemed to have been surprised the same way, as she cried out "Bird! Bird! Kill it! It's evil!"

The bird, spooked by GlaDOS's tinny voice, flew into the distance.

"He flew off," stated GLaDOS, sounding relieved. "Good. For him," she added, apparently trying to regain some of her composure. "Alright, back to thinking."

Chell caught the corners of her mouth turning up at the potato's irrational fear of birds, and was shocked to find some kind of endearment suddenly present towards GLaDOS in her mind. She shook it off quickly.

If there was one thing Wheatley had taught her in his betrayal, it was that there were no such things as friends at Aperture.