Sorry about the wait, and the slight change in format. College has given me a tight schedule and the state of mind in which I purge all creative thought from my head and play video games on my days off. Taking a break from using your mind is refreshing, but comes at a cost; my happiness over yours, and I'm sorry. :( My friend and I hit a roadblock that came at a convenient time between my finishing of the Harry Potter books and a swell in stress, I just didn't have any motivation. I apologize that this couldn't have come sooner.

Everyday Since Leaving

Chapter 12.

Chell had never had a more anxious elevator ride. All those times GLaDOS had sent her down to those diabolical testing chambers, never expecting to come back up, didn't beat this. Even when Wheatley's core had smashed her elevator to pieces, sending her into a free-fall through the empty shaft accompanied by an extremely irate potato, only came in a close second. At least then she'd known only she was in any real danger.

Now was completely different. She stood in the dark, claustrophobic cylinder, her broken wrist still wrapped in there jumpsuit, and all her thoughts focused on her friend upstairs.

is he still unconscious? I hope his scab hasn't cracked. What will GLaDOS tell him when he does wake up?

Her thoughts continued to run in this self destructive pattern in high paced circles. She tried a couple of times to calm down, breathe deeply, and clear her head, but GLaDOS had added horrible monotonous music to the the ride that, for some reason, gave Chell an intense desire to punch a hole through the elevator's glass walls.

"How do you like the new music?" asked the cool female voice that was so familiar to Chell.

She had always hated how GLaDOS seemed to be able to read her mind.

"Of course," continued the AI, "It's only the first of many changes I've made since sending you up to the surface."

GLaDOS paused for a moment, probably to give Chell time to absorb that piece of information, but the young woman simply rolled her eyes. Of course she knew about the changes. She and Wheatley had landed in one of them. The question was, why did GLaDOS need the extra room?

"Those robots you met briefly, before I tried to release you, were quite efficient in their testing…" GLaDOS sounded disappointed. "Though, they weren't nearly as entertaining to watch as flesh and blood subjects. In the end, however, they discovered something most useful to me…"

As the elevator stopped, and the doors slid open, Chell beheld a familiar sight. She decided to stop thinking about anything except the task at hand. All around her, the large monitors that surrounded the transparent elevator depicted a list of profiles of the personality cores, complete with pictures and brief descriptions of each one. Her eyes ticked through each one. Anger, Intelligence, Fact, Space, Curiosity, and more until they rested on one with a brilliant blue shining lens.

…Wheatley

"Your little idiot is still asleep," GLaDOS notified her. "Perhaps if you do well on this test, you'll be able to see him."

Chell's heart pounded painfully in her throat. Not because of the promises GLaDOS made, she was used to the computer's lies.

Your?

"Are you going to stand there all day?" Drawled the computer's voice. "Or don't you want your reward?I can see why you wouldn't, he's not very good company, is he?"

Chell glared at the nearest camera pointing at her from above the doorway. Haughtily, she stalked past the computer's eye climbing the metal stairs and finding herself in another circular room. The walls were all white. In truth, it was a very pretty room, if not for the impending atmosphere.

In the center of the room stood a small dais, on which sat a white fingerless glove, very similar in appearance to Chell's long-fall boots, and a familiar gun.

"The glove is for your hand," GLaDOS spoke as if speaking to a child. Chell turned and looked blankly at the camera in the room.

Well duh.

"Your broken hand." GLaDOS spoke irritably. The girl rolled her eyes again and proceeded to gingerly strap the glove on. "It should keep your hand stable, more so than your current get-up." Chell could hear the scrolling mechanism as GLaDOS her up and down, disappointingly no doubt. "It'll also give you enough strength to hold your portal gun."

Chell lifted the gun off it's podium after strapping the gauntlet onto her forearm. the coldness of the material sent goosebumps along her bare skin. Feeling the gun's weight in her arms again made her realize just how much she missed the object, in a weird way.

As soon as she had it situated, in her hands testing her wrist, the door in front of her unlocked. she tossed away her torn jumpsuit from around her shoulder and proceeded through it in her tank top and shorts.

The click of her boots on the floor echoed as she stepped cautiously through the opening, and her eyes took in the large spherical room. It was exactly like the Science spheres were like before, down in the murky abyss of Aperture's Netherworld, only much cleaner. The rusty, metal structures and crude, alloy armatures were updated to the more recent panel technology. Even the moat seemed to have less of an acidic-green pigment. The rusty metal walls remained however, and added shadow that was much more pleasant to her eyes than the vivid glare in the previous room.

While she took in her surroundings, she was also focusing on the layout of her test. It seemed easy enough, though. What was GLaDOS playing at?

This should be a lot harder. She knows what I am capable of, so why the beginner tests?

Without further hesitation, Chell grabbed the cube sitting on a small, raised platform and set it on the large red button connected to a great, paneled drawbridge. This lead to another area of the enormous sphere. As she crossed the bridge, she looked at the puzzle before her. There was only a slight change in difficulty. Glass windows separated her and the button from the cube. The cube itself sat on a white panel. As she paced the window, she noticed there was a circular hole in the glass.

Chell stuck the nozzle of the portal gun through the gap, angled it toward the panel and shot an orange-dyed portal at it. Seconds later she flicked the gun almost lazily, yet swiftly out of the window and shot a blue portal at the ceiling above the button. The door behind her opened and she sauntered through the tunnel into the next arena.

"Is this boring you as much as it's boring me?" GLaDOS chimed as Chell had already solved the third gauntlet.

The question was obviously rhetorical, as GLaDOS had opened the elevator shaft at the end of the course without any need for the test subject to place the cube.

"There is no need to test the pathetic beginner levels, as I'm sure they work perfectly. If my previous tests are any example, I'm positive they'll live up to my standards."

She hesitantly walked into the glass capsule, hoping that this was not the place she would call her grave. Not after she caught a glimpse into the life that she had been missing her whole life, or that which she could remember. When she had left the facility that dreary broken day, she told herself that she would make the best of her regretted actions. That she would make her new life a paramount of her friend's loss.

Chell still thought of Wheatley.

She should have left the facility when she got a hunch. But no; her curiosity got the best of her and she now had a new burden to her conscience. She had gotten him into this. It was her fault that this happened, and there would never be ay day to come that she wouldn't blame herself for it.

The test subject was so lost in her thoughts that she had missed most of the commentary that GLaDOS was now providing.

'Control yourself! Pull it back together before you lose it. Focus on getting out! Don't throw it away just yet. You have to be strong, if not for yourself, then do it for his sake. Constantly reminding yourself of your failures isn't helping anyone.' A voice in the back of her mind told her.

"…use. Acid and fire was a notable setback in motivation. But I'm positive you'll be able to handle it."

Great.

AN: Looking over my chapter notes, I believe that I am going to have a good time with the next chapter!