They say it's the things you least expect that bring upon change. Like a blue butterfly that brings forth a raging tornado – it is the slightest of things that can cause destruction.

Aperture Science was never the best place to work in. At best, it was a shitty office job. In its worst, Aperture Science was secretly known for the manipulation and kidnapping of multiple homeless men and women. But well, a job was a job.

And he still needed to pay his bills.

[REDACTED], a (former) mechanical engineer of Aperture, was a middle-aged Caucasian man. The house he bought for his wife was never used – after an incident with his long-distance lover getting thrown out of her hotel room, the man was alone. Debt from the loan and the divorce were piling up, and just that day he had been kicked out of office, his (younger) boss smiling politely as he laid him off.

"Fuck!" The man yelled loudly as he kicked the nearest trash bin.

The man had been working with Aperture for the past 20 years, ever since Cave Johnson had opened the underground testing facilities. Times were good back then, when Cave Johnson was in charge. Although he had never known the madman himself, he knew that his pay was plentiful, and as long as he ignored the screams of the damned test subjects, he would be rewarded for his work.

It was only after Caroline Johnson had taken over that they started going downhill. Financial concerns became more apparent, and he had heard from management that they were planning to cut up on expenses. It would be obvious to say that their most expensive debts went to paying their employees.

"Fuck!" The man repeated. "I should've known it would go downhill with a woman in charge!"

At the offices, many were still astounded and angry at the fact that the company rights were now given to Cave's former wife – Caroline. Even in the current, modern decade of 1980, such huge corporate roles were never left to women – and although she had stood against all of that, opposition still blocked Caroline's path.

At the very least, this man was still angry.

He considered himself a good – no, one of the best engineers in his field, even turning down Black Mesa to work at Aperture Science. Sure, he realized he had older values, sometimes frowning when young, black scientists and interns crossed his path – but he was sensible. And more importantly: he was once the former project leader of the GLaDOS initiative.

Back in the golden days, when Cave Johnson held the reigns to the company – he was briefly assigned to be the project leader of Aperture's greatest endeavor yet. Sadly, that only lasted long enough before the whole project was shut down due to a change of management.

The man stopped in his tracks.

A change of management? How could a simple change of ownership vilify what was for the longest time known as Aperture's (soon to be) greatest achievement? How could one woman just stop all that Cave Johnson had worked for up until that point?

There must be something she's hiding.

From a deeply engraved frown, the man cracked open a grin.

It had been exactly three hours and 45 minutes since he was fired. His access card would be usable to him the whole day, just the next 5 working hours before he would be completely cut off.

He had a plan.

~oOo~

"Hey Frank," The man's knuckles rapped on the glass windows ever so slightly, just to get the old guard's attention.

"Oh hey! I haven't seen you around these corners. It's been some time since you last visited the underground facilities eh?"

"Yeah it has been." The man said as he tapped his foot. "It's been a shit day so far – how are you?"

"Well I've been doing same as always." Frank grinned behind his neatly-trimmed moustache. "Ever since the Caroline administration I've been told to guard these parts – no idea, or explanation why."

"That's good to hear," The man responded politely. "I was actually wondering if I could pick up some of my documents from the old labs."

Frank raised a bushy eyebrow. "And whaddaya need from that? You know the old facilities have been shut down for months now. You should've gotten the documents while you were moving office."

The man frowned uncomfortably. "Look Frank," he started, a hand to his tie.

"I didn't really want to say this, but I was laid off today. By the new management."

Franks brows shot up, momentarily saying nothing. "…Go on."

"I kept some of my…er, personal documents there, you know, for safekeeping. Research papers and blueprints that I'd like to keep with me through retirement."

"Huh," Frank tapped on his desk, unamused. "Well you know, rules are rules… I'm not supposed to let you in."

"Oh come on, Frank!" The man exclaimed, raising his hands. "This is literally my retirement wish. Let me have that, will you? Come on, for old times sake?"

Frank sighed deeply. "…Oh alright. You owe me a beer though." He chuckled.

Reaching for the wall beside him, Frank pulled the lever to signal the underground elevator. As the elevator came up, the man stepped in, waving at Frank.

"Thank you, I'll get you all the beers in the world when I'm through with this."

Frank blinked briefly, but smiled.

"You bet your ass I won't be forgetting that."

As the doors shut and the elevator left, the man snickered quietly to himself.

"You sure won't."

~oOo~

Greg ran into the elevator, excusing himself as best as he could while he squeezed into the tiny compartment.

In a matter of minutes, he had burst through the door of Caroline's office, his arms flailing in panic.

Caroline stared at him silently, giving him a moment to catch his breath. Words flew as they left Greg's mouth, and soon Caroline herself had bolted out of her seat, pushing him out of the way to get to the staircase.

"…I will say this - and I'm gonna say it on tape so everybody hears it a hundred times a day:"

In the upper floors of the corporate building, Cave Johnson's voice rang out for what seemed like the first time in years.

"If I die before you people can pour me into a computer, I want Caroline to run this place."

As people looked up from their cubicles, others looked towards each other for answers. There were none.

"Now she'll argue. She'll say she can't."

Caroline ran down the stairs, as fast as her age and heels would allow her to. The world was spinning before her eyes, and as sweat ruined her make up, she envisioned the end of the world.

"She's modest like that."

A mind trapped in a computer, a machine that would live only as long as they let her to. She didn't want this. She didn't want any of this.

"But you make her."

As Caroline barged in through the office doors, people were standing from their cubicles, their hushed voices growing louder as they expressed their confusion.

"Hell, put her in my computer, I don't care."

Caroline could only stand there, as the eyes of the employees of Aperture Science turned to look at her. In seconds the hushed voices stopped, and all eyes were trained on her. As she quaked under her fierce façade, she knew:

This was the end.

But the downfall had just begun.