Author's Note: Well, I think I've just updated at a completely new speed - Valve speed. Hopefully that means I've also reached Valve quality, but that's probably not the case. Well, one can dream.

Anyway, I just want to give a shout out to all you people following my story - man I'm third on the search engine (of portal and half-life crossovers) thanks to you guys. There's no way I can abandon this story now. Special thanks to my proof-reader, SweetChristabel (who I still can't believe is doing this for me). Special, special thanks to the guys who've been supporting me on Tumblr as well - amouat, I'm talking directly to you. And last of all, thank you Axel100, who's reviews I await with as much anticipation as people await my story. Thanks for listening to my idiotic blithering, and enjoy the story folks.

For a second, she thought she'd gone blind.

The dull, pulsing red light hit her before anything else. The permeating glow of the round explosive seemed to blink in slow-motion, appearing from a glass tube in the ceiling she hadn't seemed to notice before. By the time she took a hesitant step back, it was far too late.

The ball exploded, its outer shell fracturing into a million tiny pieces. The white light and deafening sound that followed shut down every sense she had, stopping time for what felt like an eternity.

Quietly, she shut her eyes.

Gravity seemed to shift sideways as she flew backwards. For a second her body levitated from the ground - only to crash into the wall with distinct crack and a loud grunt of pain.

Red seeped into her eyesight as she landed heavily the ground, recoiling into herself. She would have been amazed if every bone in her body wasn't broken by now.

Dazed and barely conscious, she looked around her. In the now small space of a room, Uriah was nowhere to be seen. Beside her own burnt arm, Igor wasn't doing much better. His body limp and his face kissing ground, he lay unconscious, his left hand bent in an unnatural angle. Was he dead? No, he couldn't be.

The world spinning around her, and a searing pain running through the arm that she had shielded herself with, Alyx crawled towards him. Above her, the ceiling began to crumble.

"…Hey," she said, catching back a gasping breath. "Hey, wake up."

No. No, no, no, no, no. The words resonated in Alyx's mind as she slapped him lightly, her movements getting ever more frantic by the second. I can't lose him. Not another one.

Around her, the room had begun to implode within itself, its fragile walls crumbling from above her. Black and white panels came crashing down, exposing the thick metal skeleton of the building that held the moving room together. Above the two was an infinite space of black, small blue lights flickering busily in the distance.

"My, my. Just look at the mess you've wrecked on to my facility."

GLaDOS seemed to snicker from around them, her low mechanical voice resonating smoothly above the two.

Alyx stared above her in silence, her shock too large for her to manage any sort of retort.

Doug was right.

As quickly as the thought cut through her mind, it was gone, leaving resonating echoes of the things she could have done in its place.

"…Goddamnit." She gripped her hand as it trembled. "Goddamnit."

Gripping Igor tightly by the shoulder, she shook the medic violently. "Damn it, Igor, wake up!"

His eyes fluttered open, gazing drearily onto Alyx's blurred features. A gasp escaped his lungs as he rose, coughing violently from the dust the falling rubble had spread.

Alyx sighed in relief. One life was spared.

…But what about the other?

Alyx looked around quickly, ignoring the burning pain in her right arm. Rubble now surrounded the two humans, cutting them off from the other section of the room – the section where the den lay. Uriah was nowhere to be seen. And neither was their luggage, which held the medical supplies they were instructed to bring.

Alyx continued to stare at the disaster in silence, thoughts crisscrossing her mind as fast as lightning.

Uriah was dead.

"…What a shame." GLaDOS seemed to sigh apathetically. "The subject I was most interested in – now gone. Organics are such fragile little things."

Dumbfounded, Alyx could barely even manage to blink. Beside her, Igor had finally ceased his coughing fits, realization striking his pale face.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

"But who are we to blame for such intangible things as fate? Even if one subject is gone, Science must continue."

Unconsciously, Alyx's hand had curled up into a fist. Before she realized it herself, her face was set in a growl, her dark eyes glaring fixedly at the red camera before her.

THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.

"Mustn't it now?"

~oOo~

…This wasn't supposed to happen.

Pacing around in his room, he held his head in his hands, groaning loudly. He had tried to contact them after that, several times. But the line had gone dead on his end, and he had no idea why.

What if something had happened to them?

What if GLaDOS had found out about their little ploy?

What if they just refused to contact him and threw away their devices?

Unfortunately, that was the most probable of the three.

"…Don't go that down on yourself, Doug," Cube chirped beside him. "If it's any comfort to you, they're probably doing just fine on their own by now. Most likely just working out a better solution to the problem."

"…I know." Doug sighed as he sat down beside the cube, his head still resting on his calloused knuckles. "But how long do you think that's gonna last? We both know that there's only one way out."

"Two, actually," Cube replied, nodding mentally. "The escape pod, or death."

For a second, Doug just stared at his friend.

"…Please don't say that again." He looked away.

"Yeah," Cube agreed. "I'm sorry, that was a terrible joke."

For some minutes, the two stared at the large TV monitor in front of them in silence, waiting for the static to cease. Around them, a monotonous nothing continued, an anxious silence blanketing the human and cube.

"…Do you wish you were there?" Cube asked, its voice ringing quietly in Doug's ears.

"What do you mean?" He turned to his friend.

"I mean," Cube repeated, clearing its metaphorical throat, "do you wish you were down there? Inside Aperture with them?"

"…" Doug looked away in silence, his hands clenching and unclenching in idle nervousness. "…Of course I do," he replied silently. "Of course I wish I was down there. Guiding them. Fighting with them, even." He looked down on his hands, massaging his face with them for the nth time that hour. "What do you think? I feel like a coward, just sitting here and doing nothing."

"Yeah," Cube would've nodded. "Yeah, I get what you mean. To think, after all the time we've spent getting out of there, that we'd even consider getting back in."

"True," Doug replied idly. "But there's a difference from before – now we've got lives at stake down there, and not just our own. Not just hers. Everyone here's already lost more than they should have. We can't afford to mess this mission up. Even with the price of ourselves."

"…" Cube remained silent. "You act as if you're disposable. But I know you aren't. You know you aren't. And that's why we stayed here, isn't it?"

"…" Doug didn't reply.

"We can't do anything now, true. But maybe we don't need to. Maybe not now. But our time will come, inevitably. It always does," Cube chirped optimistically. "All we need to do is wait. All we can do is hope for the best."

~oOo~

…Before everything turns to hell.

Alyx slumped on the ground, daintily caressing her burnt right arm. It hurt like hell, and their lack of provisions wasn't doing anything to dull the pain. Beside her, Igor was in even worse condition, securing his broken left hand with a hastily put together cast made of splintered metal and cloth binds.

"Here," Igor said, tossing a roll of white cloth towards Alyx. "Bind your arm with this. It's not much, but it should keep your burn scars from further damage."

"Thanks." Alyx replied gratefully, catching the last remains of their lost baggage. "I owe you one."

Sighing, she set to work on her own arm, lying against a large mound of rubble that had formed after the explosion.

To think, it had barely been an hour since they lost Uriah.

Alyx had exploded in anger after their ordeal with GLaDOS, throwing a rather hefty piece of rubble at the red camera that seemed to mockingly watch their every move. That had successfully unhinged the fragile camera, destroying it – and GLaDOS's method of spying on them – leaving the two alone in a protected space of privacy.

Unfortunately, that hadn't stopped GLaDOS from talking.

"My, you humans are such horrible little creatures, aren't you?" she spoke, as her voice rose in a mockingly disdained tone. "Running away from my cleverly constructed tests, defacing my facility – just like filthy little rodents. Yes, that's what you are."

Alyx ignored her to the best of her abilities, working on the binds that now covered her right arm. As she worked on healing herself, Igor looked on to the rubble, a rough look overcoming his usually gentle features.

"You are all the same. Just little rats running around in circles, trying to escape. But progress requires sacrifices, and freedom is one of them."

Alyx bared her teeth in silence, her fury just barely controlled under a façade of calmness. As she clumsily tied the knot with her left hand and teeth, Igor stiffly checked the damage done to his left hand. Flinching as he brought it up, he attempted to rotate it. It didn't move.

"Great." He sighed, letting it fall gently back into position. "I'm not going to be of much use anymore."

Alyx looked to him, concern in her eyes. "Don't be like that," she said through a tight-lipped frown. "We're gonna make it."

Igor smiled, briefly. "Yeah. I hope so."

"Are you two done doing whatever the hell it is you do when two humans are stranded in a life or death situation?" GLaDOS seemed to sigh, as if bored. "Well, even if you're not, Science must continue, and progress must be done."

Around the two, gears from beyond the walls could be heard moving, escorting the box of a test chamber to the lower levels of the facility. The ground shook from beneath them as the whole room seemed to rumble, separating the middle parts of the chamber from each other. Rubble from the pile that had built up in the center fell through, as Alyx hastily walked away from where she was previously sitting.

Below them, was nothing. A void of darkness met their eyes, blinding them and making their knees shake, ever so slightly.

As they descended, cut off from the other section of the room, Alyx could see blocks in the distance – an infinite number of test chambers floating around them, suspended in perpetual nothingness. And before the two, they saw a catwalk.

It was most likely the catwalk Doug had mentioned, connecting the chambers like a back alleyway through the city. In the shadows, she thought she could see something move.

20 meters down.

Doug's words resonated in her head as they passed the catwalk, delving deeper into the abyss of Aperture. How far are we going?

"…Because I am a merciful, understanding life form, I will allow you to see my chamber."

Alyx's head shot up at those words, anticipation brightening up her weary features.

"But this is a reward, not a given, and I will require you two to continue on your co-operative testing."

Her face fell instantly, as she grit her teeth and sighed.

"This is bullshit," she seethed as she massaged her temples.

"Hey," Igor said, a small smile on his own features. "At least we have a clear goal now. It might not be a way out, but if we can make it there, I'm sure we can make it out."

Reluctantly, Alyx nodded. "Yeah."

"We lived through the past tests, and we lived through this. We're not going to mess up, not now, not ever."

Alyx's smile became a little brighter. "Yeah."

As the two looked at each other, the ground shook as they finally reached their destination.

"Here we are," GLaDOS spoke mechanically. "Finally the lift seems to have ended. You know, it's much harder trying to move a whole room than it is a tube or an elevator. I could have accidentally, 'dropped' you two down in the pits of facility. But who would have wanted that? Oh, not me, of course. Why would you even think that?"

The exit door slid open as the two stepped outside, picking up a slightly damaged portal gun from beneath a pile of untouched rubble. The other one was gone, probably on the other side of the room they had left, or fallen down to the unknown void below. Feeling the comforting weight of the gun in her hands, Alyx breathed in slowly.

Well, it can't get any worse than this, can it?

~oOo~

"You idiot!" P-body beeped towards Atlas.

"What?!" Atlas replied, swinging its arms around. "I'm doing the best I can!"

"Well, obviously your best isn't good enough." P-body huffed, crossing its spindly arms together. "We've been at this area for hours now. We definitely aren't doing something right."

"Then you try to solve this!" Atlas responded, pointing at the mess that was once an office hub. "If you can find a disk from this mound of debris, then I'll give you my week's rations of Aperture Science Ground Fish Electric Fuel. Really. I'll do that."

"Yeah?" P-body would've smirked, turning a sharp gaze to the mountain of rubble. "Leave it to the master," P-body said smugly.

Pointing at the ground below the small hill with its portal gun, P-body shot a light orange portal underneath it. Then pointing its gun at the ceiling within the small room P-body shot another portal, the mound of messily arranged papers and other documents falling through the first opening. As the mound dispersed itself onto the floor, a shiny object bounced up, landing on top of the rubble of files and dust that had accumulated in the old office room. It was the disk.

Its eye agape in shock and wonder, Atlas turned to its partner. "How'd ya know that that would happen?"

P-body walked daintily towards the disk, picking it up primly in its free left hand. "Gravity, my friend."

"But –" Atlas objected, a raising a desperate finger. "That was just luck! I didn't even know the floor was covered in lunar gel!"

"Aha," P-body folded its arms together yet again. "But you knew that the ceiling was covered in it."

"But…but!" Atlas flailed its arms. "That's not fair!"

"Yeah it is." P-body would've grinned. "You knew that all the walls were covered in lunar gel. You could've easily figured out that the ceiling was too. See? We both knew that this would've happened. It's completely fair."

"Ugh," Atlas gave up, shrugging disappointedly. "…Fine, fine. You win. I'll give you my week's rations."

"Yes!" P-body fist-bumped the air as it jumped up in glee. "I told you there was a better way!"

"Yeah, yeah," Atlas beeped as it let out a low sound reminiscent of a sigh, folding its arms together. "Let's just get this over with."

As the two approached the flat box with a slit for the disk in the middle of it, (an antique device known as the 'CD processor'), P-body pressed a small button, booting up the slow machinery. As they offered the disk to the mechanical equivalent of an ancient being, it sucked it in, devouring the dusty memory device whole.

P-body gulped and pulled its hand back as it watched the slow degradation of the treasure they had just found, taking a respectful step away from the device.

On the wall before it, colours flashed, the words [UPLOADING] appearing on the massive projection. What was once a white screen turned dark brown, the yellow logo of Aperture appearing on the display.

Hesitantly, Atlas took a step forward, taking its position right beside its partner.

"…You know," it said slowly. "I've always wondered what these were for."

"What do you mean?" P-body responded, facing an eye towards Atlas. "They're for GLaDOS, aren't they?"

"Yeah, but," Atlas objected quietly. "I mean, what does she do with them? Does she eat them, like the device?"

P-body let out a high pitched giggle, covering the higher part of its torso with its hand. "No, you silly!" it chirped playfully as it patted its friend on the back. "These things are for information. She probably uses them to get smarter."

"But GLaDOS is already smart."

"Well," P-body replied. "There are probably things even she doesn't know."

"I guess…" Atlas looked down.

"Either way, we've got to get moving soon," P-body beeped, pointing towards the exit. "I'm pretty sure GLaDOS won't be pleased if we stay too long in here," it said as it walked towards the door, turning away from the large screen that was now flooded with various pictures of people in white lab attire.

"Yeah," Atlas replied, turning away from the screen. "I guess you're right."

In Atlas's peripheral vision, it could still see the reflections of words as they ran down the screen, flying faster than the human eye could follow. As the robot walked away from the messy office area, it could hear a small beep from the processors, and the quiet sound of final words being inputted into the projection.

Black Mesa Employee List

Update into Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System completed_

~oOo~

It had been four test chambers since the explosion.

Their sense of time had gone awry from the bright lights and the adrenaline pumped into the air, which barely kept the two from falling from fatigue. It had most likely been around twelve hours since they'd been on the surface. But to them, it felt like a week.

They were that tired.

Fatigued from using their bodies and minds to the limits of physics and logic itself, the two found themselves very discouraged. Alyx had realized how on edge she'd become since the explosion – fighting against her thoughts and even her sole partner, Igor. She had bickered with him more than once, feeling like she had no choice else but to give up on ever completing the tests and returning to the surface.

Massaging her temples thoroughly, she sighed.

"Hey," Igor said worriedly, putting his functional hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay? If you're tired we can rest for a while?"

"I'm fine," she almost snapped, pushing his hand away. "We can't stay here forever, Igor. You know that. We have to keep moving."

For a second, Igor stared at her, an obvious look of hurt in his eyes.

Alyx grit her teeth. She was doing it again.

"It's – it's okay," she said quietly, turning away from his gaze. "I'm fine. I really am."

"…You sure?" Igor replied, a tired tinge to his voice. "You don't need to worry too much – look, we'll make it back up. I'm sure we will. Somehow."

Alyx sighed again, more at herself than anything else. He was in even worse-off condition than her, and yet she was the one being comforted. This would've been a terrible joke, if anything.

"…I know," she responded quietly as she turned back to him. "Thanks, Igor." She forced a thin smile.

Igor nodded, smiling back.

"Now," Alyx looked towards the chamber. "We have to get out of here."

Before the two was the end of another test, with an empty white hallway stretching out in the distance. In the middle of the hallway, she could see a depression between the walls to her right, and one turret situated within it. Around it was all black panels, with no portable surfaces near their location. In reach of her portal gun she held a cube with six pink hearts adorning every side, its dull pink glow softly lightening their dark surroundings.

When she had first picked the cube up, she felt a strange sense of Deja Vu – someone she knew around her had definitely been carrying this around. But she didn't remember who it had been, and as quickly as the feeling came, it disappeared.

They had only one challenge left.

She understood clearly what they had to do – they needed to utilize the cube as a shield to protect themselves from the rain of bullets the turret would shoot at them. The metal casing of the box would protect them from the bullets, and if they approached carefully enough, knock down the turret from where it was standing. This was their last step. There was no other way to solve the puzzle.

Knowing that, the two had been resting for some time, preparing themselves for the dangerous task ahead. One step wrong, and they both could end up a victim to the turret.

Alyx looked up, expecting another wry comment from GLaDOS for being idle so long. To her relief, she remained silent.

Alyx inhaled slowly. "We can do this." She turned to Igor. "Are you ready?"

He nodded, gulping nervously in response. "Yeah, I am."

The two shielded themselves with the cube as they took their first steps, walking slowly alongside it. Alyx gripped the portal gun in the tense silence, nervousness overcoming her.

One, two, three meters. A few more and they would reach the turret.

Around them the facility buzzed in electrical activity, mechanical gears and the sound of a large energy processor sounding distantly through the walls. Small white lights on the ceiling guided their way as the two crouched and walked, hiding behind the large cube.

Above them, GLaDOS was silent.

Alyx nodded to her partner. "We're gonna make this."

Quietly, he nodded back.

"…Well, well." GLaDOS remarked plainly, the sound of her voice ringing through the invisible radios. "In my absence, you two seem to have made a large bit of progress."

Alyx looked down, muttering a curse beneath her breath. She had hoped to not hear that voice again.

"I'm a little…surprised, to be honest. I thought you wouldn't make it this far. Not many people have." She seemed to sigh. "Humans often make wasteful science."

The two crept towards the turret as she spoke, taking small, careful steps.

"I'm surprised you even came down here at all. Not that it was all completely unexpected."

One, two, three steps. They were almost in front of the turret.

"There are so many things down here that would be desirable from where you came from. The portal gun, for instance. Or our portal technology." GLaDOS paused. "Do you not think so? Alyx Vance?"

What's happening? Alyx raised her brow slightly as she continued on forward. This was the first she had been called by her name by GLaDOS.

"Or should I say…"

The cube seemed to fizzle before her, disappearing to nothing in mid-air as she let out an exclamation of surprise.

Beside her, the turret sensed movement, spreading its gun compartments to shooting position.

"…you Black Mesa thief."

The red laser of the turret tracked the two humans down, landing quietly, directly on Alyx's head.

"Target acquired."

~oOo~

Doug Rattmann held his head in his hands.

Fatigued from worry and boredom, he was half-asleep, dozing off slowly in front of the large TV monitor screens.

It had been roughly four hours since the last transmission.

Before him, the monitors buzzed in static, its screens showing the blurred grey lines of a broken television channel. It loomed above the man and cube as the sun through the windows threatened to set, staining the sky in a vivid bright orange and purple hue.

From the radio, Doug thought he could hear a distant voice.

"…or..Ratmann…"

He ignored it, assuming it a part of his usual hallucinations.

"Please…we're still here…"

He closed his eyes tightly, hoping that whatever was bothering him would go away soon.

"…Doctor…Rattmann…"

It didn't.

Quietly, he opened his eyes, massaging them with a groan. Drowsily, he looked above him, to the large television screens that disturbed his sleep.

For a second, he couldn't recognize what he saw.

~oOo~

"…Oh my god."

Alyx cupped a hand over her mouth as she stood above him, surveying the mess that lay before her.

By her feet, Igor's body lay bloody and barely conscious. Beside him, the turret laid on its side, deactivated.

Blood seeped through the man's shirt and unto the floor, staining the black panels with a dark, dull, red. Igor was still breathing, but not by much.

"Oh my god," Alyx whispered again.

When the turret had activated on the defenseless two, Igor had pushed Alyx away, taking a blunt of the blows that the turret had shot. Two bullets had dug through the lower parts of his stomach, setting themselves deep within his body as he fell.

Reacting quickly, Alyx threw the portal gun at the turret, knocking it over. Stray bullets had threatened to hit her, but fortunately the worst they had done was graze through her clothes, cutting open a small piece of her jacket sleeve. She was okay.

Igor, on the other hand, was not.

Groaning quietly, the man had curled up on himself, pushing the wound in with shaking hands to stop the bleeding. Sweat beaded his forehead as he writhed slightly in pain, making a valiant effort to stand up. Slipping on his own blood, he fell back down.

"I – I can help." Alyx stuttered as she took off the binds that concealed the burn scars on her arm, tying them tightly around Igor's waist.

Even as she tied the white cloth around him, blood still seeped from the wound, threatening to drown the two in it. He was losing blood very, very fast.

"Stay still," She ordered him as he tried to help, barely gripping the binds with a bloody hand. "This is the best I can do to fix you up."

Seething in pain, Igor attempted to respond. "Th-thanks –"

"Shh, be quiet," she told him as gently as she could, forcing a smile. "You'll make it."

But I don't know for how long.

He smiled back weakly, nodding.

"Hm," GLaDOS remarked, unimpressed. "I can't say I am not pleasantly surprised that you've survived that. But I must say – your friend there looks very, very pale. I suppose he has a medical condition." GLaDOS paused. "Possibly skin retardation. Or imminent death. It was a problem for my other test subjects who had been hit by turrets as well."

Alyx grit her teeth as she looked to the camera, fury threatening to overthrow her calm façade.

"This is all your fault!" she almost yelled towards the camera, her body hunched up over Igor. "Why did you do that?!"

For a second, GLaDOS remained silent, leaving Alyx's question hanging in the air.

"Either way," she said mechanically. "You've solved the test chamber. Congratulations."

The exit door unlocked as it slid open, revealing the glass elevator leading to the next test chamber.

"…Do you expect us to test after injuries like these?" she asked quietly, her dark eyes still glaring at the camera.

"Of course," GLaDOS replied promptly.

"…" For a moment, Alyx contemplated her options. She knew it was a long shot to protest or ask help from GLaDOS, but with Igor losing blood at the rate that he was, she had no other choice.

"GLaDOS…" Alyx said as she bit down her pride, supporting Igor as he stood up. "We need immediate medical assistance. If we don't get any soon, Igor might die."

"…" GLaDOS didn't respond.

Alyx sighed. This was bad. Very bad.

"…It's okay," Igor seethed through his teeth in pain. "I'll be fine. We just need to move to the next chamber. We can't stay here. The longer we do, the less I'll be able to hold on."

Hesitantly, Alyx nodded. He was right.

Taking small steps forward, the two walked slowly towards the glass elevator. As they reached it, the elevator descended, taking the two even deeper into the facility.

For several precious minutes, GLaDOS remained silent.

"…I've been considering your proposition for medical assistance," she said monotonously. "And I've come to a certain conclusion."

Alyx perked her ears up, taking in GLaDOS's every word.

"And my conclusion is –" She paused for effect. "That you don't need it."

At this, both Igor's and Alyx's shoulders sagged in disappointment. Why they had come to expect any better, they didn't know.

"Especially you, Alyx Vance."

She cocked her head at this, looking up to the ceiling of the small elevator. This was the second time she had been called by her full name.

"Or should I say, the family of Eli Vance."

"…!" Alyx took an instinctive step back. "…How do you know my father?"

"Aha. So my theory was correct."

Alyx looked away. She'd been caught in a trap.

"See, I've been thinking…" GLaDOS said in a low, quiet voice. "Plans change. Science changes. But people do not change." She seemed to sigh. "And I believe that they stay the same over generations. Eons of years, maybe."

"…" The two remained silent.

"You are the daughter of an important Black Mesa employee – the daughter of a thief."

Alyx growled, her hands curling up into fists. "…You know nothing about him."

"Oh, but I know what he did," she said quietly. "And trust me, I've been here longer than you have ever been alive."

Alyx didn't respond.

As the two stood there, the elevator jolted once to the right, changing direction. From the dark shadows around her, light began to show. She could see the silhouettes of wires that surrounded her, the walls seeming to get closer to each other as they entered a small lit space from the vast nothingness they were in. Something was different about their surroundings.

"Where are you taking us?" Alyx asked, more out of worry than anything else.

"Well," GLaDOS said as the elevator came to a slow stop, landing before a connection of rooms and a short hallway. "You said that you wanted to see my chamber."

The two stepped out of the elevator as Alyx supported Igor, who was now breathing heavily.

"And I decided that keeping my promise would benefit the both of us, not just me."

Another locked door before them opened, exposing a wide area filled with dark panels and a large object suspended dormant in the middle of the room.

As the two walked in, the suspended object seemed to turn around slowly, the tense air around them getting even worse as the silence continued.

"Hello again, Alyx Vance." The speakers rang as the source of the voice was identified, the two people gaping at the white object before them.

"And welcome to my chamber." She paused. "Thief."