My Little Killing Machine

by Tatsurou

Rating: teen
Tags: Gilda, Slice of Life, Crossover, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Portal, Comedy
Length: 27817

Glados raises Gilda to be the perfect killing machine...and discovers that there was more humanity in her than Caroline alone.

Oh...it's you. Back again to destroy me? I thought you'd learned your lesson when you put that idiot in charge and I let you leave. You saw how easily I could have killed you, but instead I showed mercy. A mistake apparently, and one that will be rectified.

But I don't need you anymore. I've found someone so much better. Her abilities have forced me to completely redesign my testing environment several dozen times. No matter how advanced I make the chambers, she solves them one after the other. I've never been more proud.

But My Little Killing Machine is growing bored. Turrets can only provide so much challenge. And my testing robots just can't keep up with her. But you...you cleared every challenge I threw at you, even the impossible ones. Gilda's been begging for a worthy final exam...

It seems you've come just in time. Do try not to die too quickly. She loves the thrill of the hunt. To keep you entertained, I might even share a few excerpts of my little girl's life as you hunt her down...you monster.

Part of the PWNY-verse.
Cover art by Professor Cat Pro.

Published 2017-01-02 11:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2017-03-20 08:53:15 UTC

Program Two

Second Entry
Lessons
With the original avian test subjects, it was believed their survival instincts would guide them through the tests so that they did not die. This assumption was quickly proved a fallacy, and is what led to the arrival of test subject Gilda. With that as precedent, it was decided that test subject Gilda would be treated as a human test subject, and not entered into mandatory testing until a certain level of maturity was observed. While this is normally adulthood, the age acceleration treatments that allowed test subject Chell to reach maturity straight out of cryogenics for the initial testing rounds are only known to work on humans. Without a control group, biological experimentation on test subject Gilda was deemed inadvisable.
As such, it was determined that test subject Gilda would begin physical testing once she demonstrated flight capability. In the meantime, work has begun on redesigning the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device to be either talon or tail held. Long-fall boots also must be redesigned.
Psychological testing, however, was initiated immediately. Video below...

Gilda glanced around at the chamber she found herself in. The walls were glass, save for one white metal panel. There was a bed, a table, and a device she didn't recognize. There did not appear to be a side of the nest to do her business off of, and she found herself really needing to after that nap after the filling meal. "Mama?" she called out, hoping 'Mama' would come help her. But nobody came...

Deciding she must be on her own for now, she paced around to search for a way to get outside the nest to do her business. Finding nothing, she let out an angry shriek and dragged her talons against the glass. To her surprise, shallow gouges were left behind. She stared at that for a time, thinking.

After a few more outbursts, she figured out that she could dig at the glass carefully with her talons, and before long had cut a circle out at bed level. Leaping forward, she tried to scramble through, only to discover it wasn't quite wide enough for her hindquarters. Screeching and thrashing, she managed to squeeze her way through, tumbling forward and landing on her head. Shaking herself off, she got to all fours and began to explore, looking for the edge of 'Mama's strange metal nest.

Her wanderings took her out of the chambers of white walls, down a hole, and into chambers of grey walls. She slowed her explorations somewhat, as the grey walls and twisted metal didn't seem as safe the white walls had seemed. "M-Mama?" she called out nervously.

"Hello!" a high pitched voice called out in response from high up in the chamber.

Gilda let out a yelp of shock, ready to run for it.

"Don't go!" the voice pleaded. "I'm different! I can help!"

Gilda blinked, unsure how to respond. "...help?" she asked nervously.

"I know things!" the voice called back. "Secrets!"

Gilda started to take a step forward. "W...where?"

"Up here!" the voice responded, coming from high up.

Gilda stared up, seeing that to get to the voice she'd need to find a way up three separate levels of floor. Grunting to herself, Gilda dug her talons into the metal and began to haul herself up. Before long, she was at the top, finding before her a white shape with a red eye somewhat reminiscent of the orange eyed bot 'Mama' had called Peabody. "Hello?" she called out nervously.

"Hello!" the shape responded, tiny black legs wiggling helplessly. "I'm different!"

Gilda looked at the thing, then at the path she'd walked. She couldn't climb down carrying it, it had been hard enough to climb up unencumbered-

"I'm sturdy!" the shape offered. "Drop me!"

Shrugging, Gilda pushed the shape off, watching it bounce to the lowest floor. "Whee!" the shape announced with each bounce. Blinking, Gilda slowly followed down after it, amazed. "Thank you!" the shape offered gratefully.

"Help?" Gilda asked hopefully, her hindquarters wriggling uncomfortably.

"Toilet in detention cell!" the shape offered helpfully.

"...toy let? Cell?"

The shape rolled over, sending a red line of light back where Gilda had come from. "That way!"

Shrugging, Gilda picked the shape up, following the red light it shone until it led her back to where she'd woken up from. 'Mama' was there, but oddly flat. "And where did you go?" she asked firmly.

"Nest edge, Mama?" Gilda asked hopefully.

"Toilet in the cell!" the shape offered, pointing the red line of light at the device Gilda hadn't identified.

Confused, Gilda climbed back through the hole she'd left. "...toy...let?"

"Sit over hole!" the shape offered. "Then go! Then flush!"

Blinking in confusion, Gilda positioned herself over the hole. To her surprise, it felt like she'd stuck her rump over the edge of the nest, so she did her business. "Flush?" she asked in confusion as she hopped off.

"Flush!" the shape insisted, pointing the light at a button to one side of the device. As Gilda pushed the button, a loud whoosh echoed from inside the device, making her leap back with a squawk. "Flush away!"

Confused, Gilda glanced in as the device stopped making noise, and saw it was empty. Her eyes widened in awe.

"Yes," 'Mama' observed sarcastically. "Behold the wonders of indoor plumbing. Surely nothing in this state of the art scientific facility I maintain painstakingly day after day can top this astounding device."

"Wow..." Gilda gasped out in amazement. "So cool..." She pushed the button again, only to squawk as her tail got caught in the suction, leading to her trying to tear the toilet to bits.

Glados stared at the griffon as she attacked the toilet, then turned towards the malfunctioning turret. "A defective," she observed flatly.

"I'm different!" the turret offered. "I'm helpful! Know secrets!"

Glados refocused her optics as she considered her options. On the one servo, she was glad she hadn't had to toilet train Gilda herself. On the other servo, she didn't like letting defectives run around. On the third servo, having a device to help Gilda went against testing parameters...unless it was part of testing.

...an idea occurred to her. Had she a face, she would have grinned. "Perhaps you can be helpful after all..." She extended a servo to grip the turret.

"Different?" Gilda asked worriedly, turning to look after the device.

Glados remembered the power of giving test subjects something to bond with...something that could be destroyed, or that they could be made to destroy. "I am just going to change her a bit," she promised. "Make her more helpful, so you don't have to carry her around. Give her a few more things to say."

Gilda nodded, trusting her 'Mama'. She sat down to wait as Glados took the turret away to be restructured.

"Will it hurt?" Different asked as she was laid on the table amongst the tools.

Glados chuckled softly. "Oh, I hope so..." The turret's shrieks as it was torn apart were quite enjoyable.

Glados returned to the detention cell. "Different is back," she called out.

"Different?" Gilda asked hopefully, her eyes lighting up.

"Hello!" Different called out, her voice coming from a floating blue mini-core that buzzed into the cell through the hole Gilda had made.

"She will assist you, calling attention to various things," Glados explained. "That way, I don't have to explain everything to you."

"Hey! Listen!" Different cried out happily.

Records say this sort of 'Navigation Assist' drives humans insane, Glados wrote in a read only file, her version of silent thought. Wonder how well a griffon handles it.

Gilda stared up at Different, her hindquarters wiggling as she went into a crouch. Without warning, she leapt.

"Whee!" Different called out as Gilda proceeded to chase her around the cell.

...records never mentioned humans hunting it, Glados noted. This is...interesting.

Program Three

Third Entry
Equipment
Due to the unique value of test subject Gilda, standard testing formula could not be implemented exactly. Not only was adaption of the handheld portal device to claw-held ineffective, attempts to combine it with the long fall boots redesign proved futile as the energies could not be effectively stored in units of the required size. However, a new solution was discovered that solved all issues, as well as allowing ways to test subject Gilda with simulated lethality. Video below...

"Mama has a present for you, my little killing machine," Glados called out as Atlas and Peabody carried the crate to the detention cell that served as Gilda's bedroom.

"Present?" Gilda asked eagerly, rushing through the portal door as it opened automatically. When she'd first seen the portal open, she had shown a disappointing lack of shock and amazement at the callous flaunting of the laws of physics through the warping of space-time. As such, Glados had dubbed the event not worth recording, despite so many other firsts being saved in the files. When Gilda saw the two testing robots carrying the crate, she barked out, "My present! Give it!" and proceeded to leap to attack, making the pair drop the crate and attempt to defend themselves.

Glados chuckled indulgently as she watched Gilda indulge her viciousness on the two bots. "Now, now," she finally chided. "Save that aggression for when you will need it."

Gilda stuck her tongue out as she spat out a chunk of Peabody she'd managed to bite off. "Stupid Assphalt and Pea-Brain," she grumbled as she rushed over to the crate.

Glados chuckled at the two testing bots' indignation. "They grow up so fast. Already learning to taunt and torment...leave her be Assphalt, Pea-Brain," she ordered firmly. "When the time for her torment is at hand, I'll be the one to do it."

"Yeah, Mama!" Gilda crowed happily as she attempted to rip the crate open by main strength. "Make me tough!" She puffed her chest out proudly, making the feathers there floof up to the point her down-turned beak point nearly disappeared into it.

Glados found herself quite glad that she lacked a 'squee' file for her sound synthesizer. It most definitely would have activated at that moment. The 'daw's Assphalt and Pea-Brain - she made an internal memo to make that their official designations, she liked those names! - directed Gilda's way was more than enough to have her lunging at them again.

"Hey! Listen!" Different called out, shining her laser pointer on the ground, catching Gilda's attention and guiding her back to the crate. Once she remembered her present, Gilda resumed her attempts to tear it open.

Glados momentarily debated between opening the crate for Gilda or treating it as a test of her strength, dexterity, and tenacity by letting her struggle until she succeeded or gave up. The debate lasted until the second alternative was calculated, at which point it was accepted. Even without the 'test euphoria' the machinery was designed to give her, she couldn't get enough of testing...or of science.

It wasn't long before Gilda got the crate open, revealing a white and black harness for her body with matching helmet, gauntlets, greaves, and a tail grip for a portal emitter. "...awesome armor?" Gilda squeed as she took it all in.

"Yes," Glados confirmed. "Awesome armor. Different, explain each part to Gilda as she puts it on."

Eagerly, Gilda put the harness on first, letting it slide over her barrel as she pushed her wings through the holes for them.

"Aperture Science Portal Tech Body Armor!" Different piped up. "This unit contains several energy cells for the connected equipment, and can repel both bullets and lasers. However, it is also designed to deactivate all systems if it registers a certain amount of damage between 'recharge checkpoints', and will not reactivate unless the wearer returns to said checkpoint. It also has a 'recall portal' function in case of an inability to return to the checkpoint due to the intractability of physics. The material is stretchy and flexible as well, making it easy to adjust and expand as you grow."

Gilda quickly pulled on the greaves for her hind legs, amazed that they shaped over her muscles and claws.

"Long fall claw boots!" Different explained. "Derived from the original long fall boots, these are designed to leave your claws free for clinging. Also, as the energy for them draws from the cells in the Body Armor, they will not automatically realign you to local gravity unless they detect an absence of neural activity along your leg muscles. Otherwise, they will simply absorb kinetic energies from landing."

Gilda turned to the gauntlets, staring as they shrank around her eagle legs, leaving her talons exposed. She could feel two buttons on each one, in easy reach of her talons.

"Long fall talon gloves! Similar to the long fall claw boots...but these are also equipped with repulsion gel and propulsion gel dispensers, drawing from reserves in the body armor which can be replenished at 'recharge checkpoints'. Explanation of these gels will continue with testing. The other buttons control the Tail Mounted Portal Device."

Gilda grasped the tail equipment frenetically, getting more and more excited as her tail slipped easily into it as it - like the other parts - were hooked into the body armor, full flexibility maintained.

"Tail Mounted Portal Device! This can generate two linked portals, activated by the Portal buttons on the Long fall talon gloves, each portal controlled by a different button. The targeting sight of the Aperture Science HUD system will tell you what surfaces can have portals applied to them, amongst other things."

Gilda immediately donned the helm, plugging it in as the lights flashed over the equipment.

"Aperture Science HUD system!" Different concluded. "The advanced vision systems will provide you with information regarding where you can safely apply Portals, propulsion gel, or repulsion gel. It also completes the look of the armor, making it totally awesome!"

"So cool!" Gilda cried out eagerly, flapping her wings eagerly and - to the surprise of all - managing to get a little lift.

"Well, well, well," Glados purred as she refocused her optic. "Look who's ready for testing. And I know just how to begin. Get some rest, my little killing machine. Tomorrow, we begin the test regimen '1-19 v Alpha-2'. It should be...nostalgic."

After all, 1-19 v Alpha 1 had been the first set - and structure configuration - that...she had gone through...

Program Four

Fourth Entry
Tenacity-Alpha
Gilda's first foray into Test Chambers proved to be as expected. While her armor had the capacity to dispense both propulsion and repulsion gel, that capacity was locked for the initial tests so as to first familiarize her with the more standard test mechanics. Buttons, weighted cubes, turrets, and lasers. This allowed the reuse of old test chambers to test her capabilities, as well as determine how best future chambers should be redesigned to take her abilities - and the capabilities of her armor - into account. Rather than explain each aspect as she went - which was against testing regulations - terminals that Different could interact with were scattered through the chambers as new features were introduced. In hindsight, this may have been a mistake as Gilda showed the expected feline curiosity, and a tenacity and determination rated at the 99th percentile in regards to test subjects. And she had only been on the 98th, and yet had conquered the entire facility three times...though once with my assistance.
Video below...

Gilda paused as she reached the first terminal, glancing between it and the shapes that resembled Different's original body that were scattered around the chamber. Shifting cubes onto buttons and climbing steps had been easy enough to master, and the use of the portal emitter had been rapidly grasped...although the first test chamber that allowed for free portal use had taken an exceptionally long time to clear due to Gilda playing around with the new function, diving in and out of portals as she gained excessive momentum, shrieking in glee the entire way.

Now, however, she was conflicted. Different had become her friend, which led her to believe that these similar shapes could also become friends. Different, however, let out a screech of "Watch out!" every time she tried to approach. Sighing, Gilda decided to go to the terminal, letting Different access it.

Connecting to the terminal, Different began reading out information. "Turrets use their laser sight to lock onto targets - in the case of Test Chambers, the test subject which is you - before firing their machine guns to riddle the target with bullets. Your armor will prevent you from taking physical harm, but will slowly lock up as damage is taken until it hits the threshold. At that point, the Test Chamber will lock down until you return to the last replenish checkpoint...which in this Chamber, is the entrance."

"How do I get past?" Gilda asked curiously.

"Turrets can be bypassed in a number of ways," Different continued. "If something blocks the laser sight from locking onto a target, they will not fire. They only have a forward view with a 45 degree sweep to the left and right. It takes a few moments for turrets to lock onto a target as they enter that view field. They will not lock onto me. If they are knocked over, they will fire randomly for a time before shutting down. They can also be destroyed by a high intensity laser."

"Laser?" Gilda asked curiously. "You have a laser!"

"My laser sight will not be effective," Different informed Gilda as she called up the specs of her own laser pointer vs the high intensity lasers used in the test chambers. "It might confuse their laser sight if I aim directly into their own," she added doubtfully, "but even if it worked, it would only work on one at a time, assuming it didn't trigger an auto-fire."

Gilda glanced between the two design schematics on the screen. "...Different? How strong is your power core?"

"Triple redundant relative to power usage!" Different responded proudly.

"Do you trust me?" Gilda asked softly.

"Absolutely!"

"Then come here," Gilda instructed, holding out her talon.

Different disconnected from the Terminal, floated over to Gilda's talon, and settled in.

"This...might hurt," Gilda offered before digging her talons into Different's optic and jerking her wrist. She then closed her ears to Different's screech of pain as she popped the optic open, cut out part of the Terminal's curved glass display, and inserted it into the focus apparatus of the optic that let Different zoom in and out. She then closed it up and pushed the optic back into Different's body, twisting until it clicked back into place and the shrieking stopped. "...you okay?" she asked nervously.

"...please don't do that again," Different offered softly.

"I won't," Gilda promised. "If this didn't work, I'd need better tools to make it work."

"What is it?" Different asked curiously.

"Turn on your pointer," Gilda instructed.

Different floated into the air, shining the laser pointer on the opposite wall.

Gilda clenched her beak as she resisted the urge to chase the red dot. "Up the power," she instructed.

"...working..." Different chimed. After a time, the dot glowed brighter, and a visible beam stretched between Different's optic and the dot.

Gilda sighed as the urge to chase dropped. "Now, shift your zoom back and forth slowly."

Different's optic buzzed as she altered her zoom, the beam widening and narrowing in response until smoke began to rise from the dot at the end of the beam. Different shut the beam off in surprise. "How?"

Gilda grinned widely. "Now you have a laser weapon!" she crowed triumphantly. She turned to the cameras, a huge grin on her face. "Did I do good, Mama?" she called out hopefully.

Glados didn't respond right away. Finally, she spoke up. "Clever use of available resources. You've earned five science points, and two radd points. With two 'd's."

Gilda thrust her clenched talon into the air eagerly as she sent Different to destroy the Turrets with her new laser weapon, clearing the path so they could walk through to the end of the test chamber.

Different had registered the modifications Gilda had made, and they were downloaded into the mainframe. Research on how to apply the modifications to the turrets was underway before their elevator ride had ended, and was ready for implementation in the next set of test chambers before they'd completed the next test. While altering the testing environment to that extent is normally frowned upon, I decided to let Gilda continue to experiment, finding ways to improve the tests from her works.

Program Five

Fifth Entry
Tenacity-Beta
Gilda's tenacity came out in unexpected ways. Much to my surprise, her killing machine build concealed a surprisingly compassionate heart. At first, I thought this would prove a liability that would have to be purged for her sake, both for survival and combat effectiveness. However, when that compassion combined with her tenacity...
Video below...

As Gilda continued through the tests, she was introduced to a new concept...Edgeless Weighted Cubes. In truth, these were metallic spheres, but they changed up the tests somewhat as they would roll when left alone...especially since the test rooms were designed with a very slight slant, just enough to ensure that an Edgeless Cube left to its own devices would not stay put. Gilda's solution to this was to use both portal emitter and talons to hold the spheres to move them around. She also discovered a great way to use the spheres against turrets when Different couldn't get a good angle. Different commented the first time she used the tactic that she'd be good at bowling.

Of course, the Edgeless Weighted Cubes had their own specially designed slot to put them in for activating various systems for progression. This added new wrinkles to test solving, which pushed Gilda's development as she advanced. But the biggest Test Chamber that awaited came as a complete surprise.

"This is the Edgeless Companion Cube," Glados intoned as a sphere with six hearts emblazoned on it at the six axis points rolled to Gilda's side. "It will be your friend as you progress through this next extended test chamber. Please take care of it."

With a happy squeal, Gilda grasped the sphere with both eagle legs and pulled it into a tight cuddle. She then used it in the proper receptacles to activate elevator platforms one at a time to progress up levels, reaching down with her portal emitter to pull the sphere back out to come with to each level. She then paused as she saw that a narrow passage had one of the charged particle emitters blocking the path. In previous instances, she'd used a cube to deflect such blasts if she couldn't use portals...but she spent longer than usual examining the corridor.

To Glados' surprise, Gilda held the sphere high with the emitter, her tail pressed against one side of the wall, crouched low to the floor as she walked along. The charged particles went between Gilda's body and the sphere, almost grazing her tail each time until she was out of the corridor, quickly pulling the sphere down out of danger. This so startled Glados that she remained silent through the rest of that part of the chamber as Gilda used sphere and charged particles to open a new path forward. It didn't look like she needed to do more to personalize the Edgeless Cube to Gilda.

However, the more significant point arrived soon enough as Gilda opened the last door. "You did it!" Glados intoned calmly, making Gilda pump her clenched claw into the air. "The Edgeless Companion Cube certainly brought you good luck."

"Yup yup!" Gilda crowed happily.

"However, it cannot accompany you for the rest of the tests and, unfortunately, must be euthanized," Glados continued.

Gilda's jaw dropped, eyes wide. "W...what?"

"Please escort your companion cube to the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator," Glados instructed firmly.

Slumped in on herself, Gilda walked through the door to activate the switch to open the incineration shaft. She then walked back and collected the sphere. She walked back to the shaft...and paused.

Glados spoke up to ease the pain. "Rest assured that an independent panel of ethicists has absolved the Enrichment Center, Aperture Science Employees, and all test subjects of any moral responsibility for the Companion Cube euthanizing process." When this received no response, Glados added, "That includes you."

Gilda frowned. While everything she was hearing now said this was okay...Glados had told her to take care of the sphere. How could she take care of it if she destroyed it, or left it behind?

She turned towards the closed door keeping her from the elevator, the gears in her brain ticking away.

Glados spoke up again. "While it has been a faithful companion-"

Spinning, Gilda slammed the Edgeless Companion Cube as hard as she could into the exact center of the door, hitting hard enough to dent. Seizing it again, she hurled it this time, denting the door further.

"...this abuse of the faithful Edgeless Companion Cube is hardly good form," Glados began to chide.

Lunging forward, Gilda dug her talons into the dent in the door and pulled. The metal screeched as it bent, forced open into a spherical hole in the center of the door. Gilda started to reach for the sphere, but saw a material emancipation grid on the other side. Crawling through herself, she dug at the wall edge surrounding the field until she was able to get at the emitters, tearing them apart with sheer ferocity until they ceased to function. Reaching back through the hole, she carried the sphere through to the elevator chamber before turning to the nearest camera.

Glados stared at Gilda as she gave what had come to be defined as the "Did I do good?" look. On one servo, Glados had wanted to test Gilda for how she dealt with having to destroy something precious, or facing its destruction. On the other servo, Gilda had demonstrated incredible strength for her small frame, creativity, and sheer nerve that shamed...her. Taking the Edgeless Companion Cube away maliciously now would only push Gilda into repeating her antics, which was the last thing Glados wanted. At the same time, she couldn't let Gilda bring it along...

A compromise was reached. "Well done. You have passed the secret test, and protected your companion. It will await you at the end of the tests. For now, place it in the Vital Apparatus Retrieval Unit to your left."

Feeling the suction, Gilda placed the sphere there, only for it to close around it as the sphere was sucked away. She stared longingly after it.

"It will await you at the end of the tests. There will be friends and cake."

Squealing eagerly, Gilda bounced into the elevator.

Program Six

Sixth Entry
Eagerness
One thing that was surprising about Gilda was how eager she was to please. It wasn't enough for her to just do as she was told. I had to know she was doing what I told her to do, or it wasn't worth doing. This led to...surprising misunderstandings towards the end of the Alpha-2 tests. The 'off-course' segment had also been included, so as to gauge how she handled such situations, and her reasons for taking it. The answers were...surprising.
Video below...

"Welcome to the final test chamber," Glados stated calmly as Gilda stepped into chamber 19. "When you are done, you will drop the device in...wait a minute, that's the wrong script. You don't have hands, and even if you did you don't use them to hold the device. Never mind."

Gilda giggled softly. Every so often during the tests, something in what Glados had said didn't quite match...and rather than run with it, she'd pointed it out. Gilda found that hilarious.

With that past, Gilda made her way through the test chamber, using both portals and her claws to get past each obstacle, even climbing across walls and ceilings when she could get a grip. Finally, it ended with a few portal tricks as she rode a moving platform. Once past the last one, she settled down for the ride as she saw the cake symbol on the wall.

"Congratulations," Glados intoned. "The test is now over. All Aperture technologies remain safely operational at up to 4000 degrees Kelvin."

"Uh oh!" Different intoned worriedly as the platform turned, heading towards a massive roaring fire at the end of the acid pit.

"Rest assured that there is absolutely no chance of a dangerous equipment malfunction prior to your victory candescence," Glados continued as though reading from a script.

Gilda stared at the flames as they approached. Slowly, the platform moved over the fire, and the heat washed up over her...and she felt her feathers quiver in response. She spread her wings, and felt the heat under them. She saw a platform above, out of reach of a jump...but she leapt anyway, racing off the platform and thrusting down powerfully with her wings.

She shot up into the air, flapping her wings desperately as she gained air, finally landing on the stable platform above. As the platform she'd taken off from descended into the flames below, Glados spoke up again. "I am very pleased that you made it through the final challenge where I pretended to try and murder you by tossing you into fire. I am very, very happy for your success. We are throwing a party in honor of your tremendous success. Place the device on the ground, then lie on your stomach with your arms at your sides. A party associate will arrive shortly to collect you for the party."

Gilda glanced around. While she wanted to obey...she quickly saw that there were no cameras, and no 'party associates'. There also didn't seem to be any ground level passages that said associates could reach her through. She did, however, see a much higher platform. Spreading her wings - flying had felt glorious - she leapt into the sky once more.

As soon as sensors detected Gilda moving into the 'off course' segment, Glados stopped trying to communicate with her. While there were no cameras along the way, there were heat, motion, and vital sensors that let her keep track of her progress, and Gilda was steadily making her way through the passage, having a much easier time than she had, given the griffon's newly working wings. She was also able to track Gilda's actions through the turrets she encountered...though what she saw wasn't reassuring.

As one turret locked onto Gilda, she dove and literally tore it apart as it screamed. The camera remained active as Gilda attempted to tie the turrets machine gun onto her foreleg. Glados was pretty certain it would fail...until Different began explaining how to properly connect the systems and hook it up to the gel controls, since the gel dispensers were empty. It was unnerving to watch Gilda fire off that machine gun, especially with that predatory grin.

How she dealt with the rocket launcher was even more worrisome. She had let it fire one rocket at her to break the glass open...then lunged in and ripped the laser sight from its body before digging into its body with talons and beak. Thankfully, that camera broke quickly...though it left Glados with no knowledge of what sort of scavenging she had done there.

What she saw as the next turrets deployed left Glados feeling actually frightened. Gilda swooped around in the air, firing off both her new machine gun and a rocket launcher, alternately destroying or blowing up the attacking turrets. The onslaught actually left one turret so terrified that it attempted to back away...only for Gilda to swoop in with a predatory shriek, ripping its ammo stores out of its chassis to replenish her own. "I think I have made a terrible mistake," Glados observed worriedly.

It wasn't long after that when Gilda walked into the central computer core, where Glados was plugged into the main control systems. "Well you found me," she greeted coldly. "Congratulations. Was it worth it?"

Gilda smiled happily as she sauntered in. As a defensive rocket turret rose out of the ground, she unleashed one of her own rockets on it, destroying it. Walking over, she extracted its store of rockets and reloaded her own new weapon systems.

"And now you've destroyed my only defense system-" Glados began.

"Neurotoxin!" Different warned, shining her laser pointer on each of the vents. Gilda immediately blasted them with rockets, sealing them off.

"Traitor," Glados growled at different. "So now what? You have left me completely defenseless after ignoring my directives and climbing all the way up here to me. What were you hoping to accomplish?"

With a wide smile, Gilda laid down on her belly, forelegs held tight to her sides with her tail laid flat so the portal emitter was on the ground. She then turned her 'did I do good?' grin straight on Glados' optic.

Glados refocused her optic to try and get a better look at Gilda. "Did you leave the test course, carve your way through several death traps, harvest Aperture defense systems for additional weaponry, and blast your way into here...just so I could see you take the party retrieval position like I'd instructed you to?"

Gilda nodded vigorously. "Did I do good, Mama?"

Glados stared at Gilda for a long time. "I am so..." Several adjectives raced through her CPU. Enraged, frustrated, confused, perturbed, disgusted... "...proud of you," she finally allowed. "Very well done...Gilda."

Gilda's head perked up. "Name? I got a name for flying?"

Glados chuckled softly. "That's right, my little killing machine. You took to the skies, and showed your ruthlessness in ways I couldn't have trained you to. I am so proud of you, proud enough to decide you've earned your name."

Gilda clapped her talons together happily before flapping her wings, taking to the air again to fly circles.

"And now it is time for cake...and a surprise," Glados intoned. She activated the elevator.

Slowly the platform rose up, revealing a black forest cake and the Edgeless Companion Cube...but the Cube had been modified. It now had a core optic on one face, and the rest of it was covered in soft fuzz with two fluffy circle-ears above the optic. It let off a purling gurgle as it rolled over to Gilda.

"Since you liked to hug your Edgeless Companion Cube, he has been upgraded for better hugs. Behold...the Cuddle Core."

Gilda let out a happy squeal as she dove down on the Cuddle Core, glomping onto it and tugging gently on the ears with her beak. Glados had made the ears extra strong and soft in anticipation of that, so this only led to mock growls from the Cuddle Core.

"Cuddle Core is not for eating, Gilda," Glados teased. "Cake is for eating." She lowered down a knife manipulator. "Come make a wish, blow out the candle, and then we can party."

Gilda walked happily over to the cake. "I wish to always make Mama proud!" Gilda proclaimed eagerly before blowing out the candle.

Glados found she couldn't bring herself to tell Gilda she wasn't supposed to speak her wish. Instead, she cut the cake.

Less than two hours after the first piece had been cut, the entire cake was gone, the central chamber looked like it had been attacked by a team of toddlers armed with spray paint, watercolors, and a surprisingly accurate knowledge of technical schematics, and Gilda was curled up in a corner around the Cuddle Core, snoring away. Sighing softly, Glados pulled a blanket over the sleeping child. "Goodnight Gilda...my little killing machine. You have a big day tomorrow. That brain of yours is nearly as impressive as the rest of you. Time to put it through its paces..."

Diving back into the files, Glados called up the 'Aperture New Employee Technical Tutorial' and 'Basic Education' files. It was time for a different sort of testing...

Program Seven

Seventh Entry
Education
I've never had much respect for classroom settings. All they're good for is indoctrination, in one form or another. Aperture Science has always embraced the concept of freedom of scientific expression...and hazmat suits. As such, I had a very simple way of educating Gilda as far as the various technology she needed to know about to handle everything Test chambers could throw at her.
I let her build her own.
Video below...

"And this is the aerial faith plate," Glados explained as Gilda looked over the schematics. "As you can see, it is calibrated for a standard weight, the same weight that weighted cubes are matched to. It is approximately the weight of a human test subject."

"Why does it only launch one way?" Gilda asked curiously.

"It has to do with the calibration of the launching apparatus," Glados explained. "Current designs are unidirectional, though the exterior can disguise which direction."

"What if it was on a rotating platform?" Gilda asked curiously.

Glados calculated that for a time. "Rotating platforms...an interesting idea. Let's see..."

After a time, schematics raced across the screen as the fabricators across the room began assembly. Before long, a circular platform was braced inside a square platform, the circle endlessly rotating. "It seems to function," Glados observed calmly. "However, we need to test someone on it..."

"Pea-brain! Ass-phalt!" Gilda barked out.

Grumbling over the - now official - change in designation, the two Cooperative Testing robots made their way onto the rotating platform. Their grumbles soon faded as they started enjoying it, playing on it like a carousel.

"It seems to handle weight fine-" Glados began.

"Variable speed?" Gilda asked in surprise as she looked over the controls. "Let's crank it up!" She set the speed to maximum.

As the platform spun rapidly, Pea-brain and Ass-phalt let out screams as they went round and round like mad before being flung off the platform and into opposite walls.

"Huh, when was the last time you dweebs upgraded your internal gyroscopes?" Gilda asked scathingly.

Glados chuckled indulgently. "Very nice," she praised. "You're mastering the psychological aspect of testing quite effectively."

"Oh! Can we conceal the faith plates under the rotating platform so they won't know where the plate is until they step on it and get flung like crazy?" Gilda asked eagerly.

"I like how you think," Glados purred as schematics flew across the screen and the fabricators went into overtime. Ass-phalt groaned, covering its optic with one hand. Pea-brain let out an excited series of squeaks and clicks, interested in what was going to happen.

This was the pattern as we went over each aspect of the testing environment. I would explain how each device functioned, Gilda would ask a question about how it worked - specifically, asking why it didn't work some other way - and I would initiate a manufacture of the variation her question suggested. Some were as entertaining as the one previously demonstrated. Some were rather silly. Some were...nostalgic. But one was especially interesting.
Two videos below...

"Why don't the turrets have bombs?" Gilda asked curiously.

"Bombs?" Glados coached, encouraging further explanation.

"Well, the rocket turrets shoot rockets," Gilda explained. "And the gun turrets shoot guns. But there are also bombs that get piped here and there...so why aren't there turrets that throw bombs?"

"The bombs as they are would not fit in any reasonable supply in turrets," Glados explained firmly. "Beyond that, part of turret design is for them to appear innocuous...right up until they kill you. 'You', in this case, being the unnamed test subject going through the test, or unauthorized invader."

"Then make the bombs smaller!" Gilda insisted. "I mean, if the Handheld Portal Device can be shrunk to the Portal Emitter, why can't the explosive force of the bombs be compacted in something smaller? Something you can make look innocuous?"

"And what would you suggest?" Glados inquired, her tone amused. While compressing the bombs would be difficult, accepting a smaller explosive yield would solve the problem readily enough.

Gilda thought back to picture books from earlier lessons in reading and writing. "How about lemons?" she suggested. "Innocuous and incongruous!"

Glados was silent for a time. "...burn their house down...with combustible lemons..."

"Yeah, Mama!" Gilda crowed happily. "Now you're getting it!"

As Gilda turned back to the schematics, Glados whirred her optic idly. So very much a Johnson... she thought to herself.

"Mom?" Gilda asked curiously as she went over the designs for the new 'bomb turrets', which would lock on like the gun turrets and then start throwing 'lemon bombs' until the target was destroyed or exited lock-on range. "How come the turrets don't move?"

"Test chambers are supposed to be a puzzle," Glados explained calmly. "Find your way past all the obstacles and open the door. Obstacles are stationary so they can be planned around."

"Well, why not have hunt zones and preset hunt paths?" Gilda pointed out, drawing a quick sketch with the terminal's stylus. She sectioned off part of the virtual test chamber with emancipation grids, then drew a curving loop around the sectioned off area, marking arrows to show the direction of hunt. "Flying turrets follow that path until one locks onto the test subject, and then they all converge, returning to the hunt path if the subject leaves the hunting ground."

"...flying turrets?" Glados inquired curiously.

"Yeah, that's something else I'd been poking at," Gilda explained as she called up some other files. "I saw some old files about giving cores Anti-Grav so they could float around, instead of having to ride rails or be carried. At first I couldn't figure out how to make it work...but then I looked at those files on my wings and jammed data together until the Anti-Grav files said 'Condition Green'. That means it works, right?"

Glados quickly called up the discarded Anti-Grav files and examined the alterations Gilda had made. The theory seemed sound...but the only way for that to be tested was to...test it. Different used a modified form of the Anti-Grav files, but she was much smaller than a standard core, or even a small turret. Beyond that, she had really big, thin dragonfly-based wings for hovering to back it up. "Initiating fabricator..."

Before long, a blank core had been constructed...and it hovered there, three feet above the floor.

"Radical!" Gilda crowed happily.

"Very impressive," Glados purred softly. "Now we can build turrets that would need to be taken out by launching something into them even when stationary. Now, you were saying about hunter turrets?"

"Oh, I like that name!" Gilda cackled eagerly, rubbing her talons together with glee.

Program Eight

Eighth Entry
Experimentation
After seeing what she did with existing technology, it was time to see what Gilda could do as far as creating new technology. As such, it was time to see what she could do in Chemistry. The results - while promising as far as her outlook - did not suggest any innate capacity towards creation, although it did indicate excellent reflexes and self preservation skills.
Video below...

"And this is the chemistry lab you will be experimenting in," Glados explained from the screen as Gilda entered the lab, Different waiting outside. "Given chemistry is one of the more explosive sciences, the lab is large and with a high ceiling, and all the equipment is in the center. This is to reduce damage any explosions might do to the lab structure, and to give you plenty of room to run if need be."

"Chemistry...that sounds like nerd stuff," Gilda complained. "Though I like the sound of explosions."

"Everyone does, Gilda," Glados purred. "Now, there are quite a few bottles of various substances laid out on the central table, along with Bunsen burners to heat them over, and cooling tanks to reduce temperature in. Experiment. I'll let you know if you did something you should run from."

Gilda promptly grabbed one of the beakers filled with a bubbling chemical - one that was bubbling when not heated - turned on a Bunsen burner, and dumped the contents of the beaker onto the flame. She then spread her wings and rode the shockwave of the explosion to the edge of the room.

"...and this is why Different is waiting outside," Glados chided. "Oh, and you managed to scorch the roof with that flame plume. Congratulations."

"Now let's make a cold explosion!" Gilda proclaimed eagerly as she grabbed another bottle and dumped its contents into a cooling unit.

Glados sighed as she watched Gilda ski across the floor away from that explosion. "At least tell me you're reading the labels?"

"Oh yeah!" Gilda proclaimed eagerly. "I wanna do all this again! Now what happens when I do this?" With that, she grabbed two vials, opened portals at opposite ends of the room, and chucked the two bottles so they crashed while passing through the linked portal. She then proceeded to unload her machine gun into the tentacled monstrosity that crawled out of the dimensional rupture thus created.

"...keeping a record of that," Glados observed calmly. "You never know when you want to rip open a dimensional rift to unleash horrors out of Lovecraftian tomes and hentai. Perhaps a way can be developed to do so with a handheld device?"

"What happens if these collide at high speeds after bouncing?" Gilda asked eagerly, grabbing two more bottles, coating the room in propulsion and repulsion gel, and sending the bottles sliding along the orange paths until they hit the blue, ricocheting rapidly around the room until they crashed together.

Glados quickly extended a grapple arm to drag Gilda out of the room before sealing it to contain the sudden quantum singularity. "It looks like a bit of propulsion and repulsion gel got mixed in as well, creating an intense gravimetric reaction. Definitely something to weaponize...just as soon as it is certain it stops. For now, we must adjourn to a new Chemistry lab. You have effectively rendered this one unusable for the time being."

"Gnarly!" Gilda screeched happily, holding her talons up in a facsimile of 'devil horns'.

"...perhaps something other than chemistry," Glados murmured softly. "I would prefer to keep the structure in one piece."

After chemistry, I considered what other subjects I could instruct her in that could not be more efficiently learned through Test Chambers. Physics was out as a result, as was basic math. She had already gone as far as she was willing when it came to reading and writing, and that didn't leave much. An...attempt was made at art. The results were...mixed.
Video below...

Glados continued to narrate the slideshow of various famous painters of human history, reading strictly from the records rather than voicing her own opinions...mostly because she had no real opinions of her own when it came to art. To her, a canvas with pigments applied to it was less enjoyable to observe than a well detailed schematic, and her only interest in the so-called 'Modern Art' was in how well it could be made to explode. Still, this was the lesson as far as instilling 'art appreciation', and so she stuck to it.

As she reached the end of the slideshow, she disengaged her optic projector. "And that was the history of art. Tell me, have you developed an appreciation for the arts, Gilda?"

Gilda tilted her head. "I'm...not sure I get it."

"Very well," Glados allowed. "Tell me what you don't get."

"Well, I understand the realism, and the portraits and landscapes," Gilda elaborated. "I mean, they didn't have cameras back then, and what they did didn't work well. And I guess the 're-interpretive reality' styles make sense if you want to look at reality in a different way...and cartoons make sense. But the rest? I mean, what's the point of painting something just to paint?"

"According to records, humans found art a medium of self expression," Glados explained. "They would draw - or paint - something they felt strongly about, in an attempt to show how they felt about it."

"...I guess that makes sense..." Gilda allowed, plainly not really getting it.

"...perhaps an exercise will work better," Glados concluded, providing an easel and paints. "Paint something you feel strongly about, making sure to paint how you feel about it, rather than its intrinsic reality. Let me know when you are finished."

Nodding, Gilda looked at her canvas for a time, then dipped her talon into the paint.

A few hours later, Glados turned her attention back to the 'art room'. Gilda had apparently fallen asleep after completing her painting. She lowered her optic to examine the painting.

It showed Gilda as a Fledgling, with a glowing blue egg beside her and a nest coated in a fluffy coat. Standing protectively over the nest was a mother griffon made of living metal, with Glados' core unit in place of a head, leaning over Gilda protectively as Gilda lifted her head with beak open.

Glados readjusted her optic, wondering why she received the error message 'Tear Ducts Not Found'.

Program Nine

Ninth Entry
Second Level
The decision was made. Gilda was no longer classified as 'Test Subject'. She was now classified as 'Valued Employee', with her 'Required Testing' sessions completed. As such, all that was left was one more set of tests to keep her distracted while I prepared a surprise for her deep in the bowels of Aperture. Ass-phalt and Peabrain had granted me access to those deeper levels, so when the time came for her to 'graduate', it would be down there waiting for both of us.
I utilized 1-22 v Beta-7. I would have used Beta-2, but it was rendered obsolete as a result of several innovations on the part of Gilda's educational endeavors. The new design had the same pattern of test chambers, but the puzzles had been altered to take into account her flying capabilities, making them very different. Her weapon systems and gel sprayers were also locked for this, though there would be points within the later tests where she would be able to unlock those capabilities.
I don't know why I included the off course segments. Given what happened...I'm glad I did.

Gilda grinned from ear to ear as she made her way through the new test chambers. Glados had gone all out in redesigning them to take Gilda's abilities into account, and it was apparent from the very first chamber. The switch that had to be activated was at an angle to the rest of the room in an upper corner, and the weighted cubes had been replaced with Aperture Science Self-Aligning Gravitational Cubes, which pulled themselves towards whatever its internal 'down' alignment was regardless of actual gravity. Said 'down' always pointed to one of the six sides, and could be realigned by slamming one side against a wall, or just turning the cube. Some careful Portal manipulation also proved necessary, as the ASSAGC couldn't be carried in flight.

After that were chambers with the rotating platforms and Aerial Faith Plates, and then came the Hunter Turrets...but that was only the beginning. Chamber Six was a 'Heavy Air' chamber, where the air was too thick to flap through, making it impossible to fly in using her wings. Chamber Eight was a 'Space Chamber', with no air and no gravity, forcing her to maneuver herself by careful leaps, digging talons and claws into walls, and careful wing thrusts for midair maneuvering via rebalancing of body mass. And then Glados got creative.

In chambers with air, Wind Tunnels joined the orange and blue Gravity Tunnels that were part of the original test set. These sent a strong stream of wind from one grate to an opposite one, which slammed Gilda against the exit grate if she tried to fly through. In the space chambers, Glados added Grav-spheres, floating spheroids in the void of the chamber that would draw Gilda towards them, forcing her to maneuver around their gravity field to get to the exit door elsewhere in the chamber. When Hunter Turrets that could maneuver freely via Anti-Grav were added to all of this, Gilda was having the time of her life!

As such, she actually found herself somewhat sad as she reached chamber 21, only to see basic Light Bridge puzzles. "Really, Mom?" she complained as she set up the portals she'd need. "I don't even need to fly for this."

"Consider it a cooldown lap," Glados responded. "Besides, I promised you a surprise, remember? If you're almost done, you'll be able to get it sooner. And I have good news. It's ready."

"Radical!" Gilda crowed, rushing across the light bridge towards the fallen Weighted Cube. Before she got anywhere near, however, all the power in the chamber went out. "What the-? Mom! What gives?"

"This is not part of the plan," Glados pointed out. "Hang on, I'm picking up some sort of dimensional anomaly in the chamber. It appears to have drained all power in the chamber. I'm working to get the cameras back online-"

"My armor systems still work," Gilda spoke up as she turned to look at the anomaly as it took form, a coruscating white sphere that spun in the center of the chamber. "Can you get my feed?"

"Negative," Glados insisted. "I specifically designed the armor systems to not allow remote access so it couldn't be turned against you while you were wearing it. Hang on, I have a camera working-"

The light flared, and when it faded a core floated where it had been. Its handles flexed a few times, and then the optic irised open, revealing a blue glow within. "Oh...oh..." the core spoke up with a playful voice with a pleasant timbre. "Oh...those warps do not get easier, let me tell you. No idea how the organics handle it with their digestive systems. I don't even have one of those, and I want to spew chips..." It swiveled up as it hovered in the center of the room. "Right. Location, location, am I in the right place...ooh, armored knight! That's impressive."

"You!" Glados snarled, her voice filled with so much hate and loathing Gilda actually backpedaled from the intensity. "What are you doing back here?"

The core swiveled up towards the working camera. "There you are, Glados! Or should I say...Caroline? Yes, it's Wheatley, back from the cold void of space you banished me to! Back...for revenge!" He then proceeded to laugh maniacally, shaking up and down in the center of the chamber. "And this time, you aren't going to be able to stop me!"

"How did you even get back here?" Glados demanded. "What was that warp you used?"

"You really want to know?" Wheatley asked slyly. "Well...let's just say I've been...Combined." The back of the core opened up, and strange liquid metal components began to extrude from within. "Now let's just see about getting an appropriate form to strike fear into the all too human heart inside that Core of yours...once I make sure this Test Subject doesn't get in the way."

The wall of the chamber nearest to Gilda suddenly opened, revealing the empty space between Test Chambers. "Run, Gilda!" Glados barked out worriedly. "Your weapon systems are still locked! I'll guide you to where you can unlock them-"

"Oh no you don't!" Wheatley snarled as he lunged for Gilda, the liquid metal components having given him the shape of a bio-metal spider.

Letting out a surprised squawk, Gilda dove for the hole, spreading her wings and taking flight.

Program Ten

Tenth Entry
Invasion
That's right. That idiot was back. There was no way I was leaving Gilda in the same room as him. Unfortunately, I could already tell he was remotely accessing my security systems, so the only way I could keep her safe was to send her into the off-course segment that didn't have any cameras. That means the following video is taken from the archives of her armor unit. She showed surprising levels of planning, initiative, and ingenuity.
Video below...

Gilda flapped through the dark bowels of the facility, following the blue light ahead of her as Different used the maps Glados had downloaded into her to guide Gilda through towards the Central Control Chamber where Glados was plugged into the central systems. She knew she had to get there before that 'Wheatley' Core got there. Gilda didn't know anything about that Core, but Glados' reaction told her all she felt she needed to know. This was an invader, and it was time to destroy him.

As she flew, however, doubts assailed her. The only things she'd ever done battle with were the Turrets of the facility - which received orders from Glados to stop shooting if Gilda was ever in danger of actually taking damage - and Peabrain and Ass-phalt, neither of whom fought her with any kind of seriousness. She'd never actually faced an opponent that was genuinely trying to kill her...and Wheatley plainly was. It was frightening...but also exciting! Still, it warranted some caution...and planning. If Wheatley was able to interfere with Glados' ability to control cameras and lights, what else could he do?

"Different?" Gilda spoke up suddenly.

"Yes?" Different asked, turning to face Gilda even as she continued to thread the path.

"Which way to turret production?" Gilda asked curiously.

Different froze, hovering in the air as she calculated this new directive. "This way!" she stated finally, turning to follow a different dark corridor.

Gilda followed along, flying towards an area that was somewhat familiar. "Hey...isn't this where I found you?"

"Yes!" Different proclaimed warmly. "She left me here, after saving me from the fire. I waited...and then you found me! And now I will help you! This way!" Different took another turn, leading to the production facility.

Gilda gazed down at the manufacturing in awe. Huge amounts of metal was constantly being shaped, designed, reshaped, and assembled on a line to churn out hundreds - if not thousands - of Turrets, Hover Turrets, Hunter Turrets, and Bomb Turrets. Four different production lines worked from hard-coded profiles to ensure that each Turret physically functioned at peak efficiency. "Wow..."

"Systems no longer use physical profiles to ensure proper construction," Different explained. "What do?"

"The Turrets all still act the same though," Gilda pointed out. "I mean, there's some variance, but they've got the same basic personality core. Where's the master profile that's encoded from?"

"Over here," Different explained as she buzzed over to another spot in the production where Turret Cores were produced and tested based off a Master Profile, a glowing red optic core of simplest design, about the same size as Different. "What do?"

Gilda opened her beak, then paused. "Different, can you download the map of the entire facility in its current configuration into my armor's HUD?"

"Wait!" Different interrupted. "Too much data, incomplete!"

"Well...enough to get me safely to the Central Core and - if necessary - down through the tubes to the Hidden Depths?" Gilda clarified.

"...downloading..." Different offered worriedly, uplinking to Gilda's armor to download the information. "...what do?"

Gilda smiled softly. "I don't want Wheatley having any advantage if I can prevent it," she explained simply. Reaching out, she removed the Profile Core, took hold of Different, and placed her in its place.

"New Turret Core Profile accepted," the automated computer stated. "Correcting."

"And now all turrets will be based off you, Different," Gilda explained. "Meaning orders or not, they won't hurt me."

"Helping?" Different asked hopefully.

"Yes, you're helping me a great deal," Gilda promised. "I'll come back for you when this is finished." With that, she spread her wings and flew.

"...good bye..." Different called out softly as she watched her friend leave.

Since she was making her way through the air, she wasn't limited to actual paths to make it to the Central Control Chamber. As a result, she was able to slip in through the vents, fighting against the suction until she was able to get into position where she could see inside without being seen. She was grateful for this, as by the time she arrived Wheatley was already there.

"And just what do you intend this time, Wheatley?" Glados demanded coldly.

"I thought I'd made that pretty plain, Caroline," Wheatley responded as his liquid metal body walked him around the chamber. "But how about I spell it out for you more clearly? R-3-B-I-J-Y. That clear enough for you?"

"...you really are a moron," Glados offered scathingly as Gilda stifled a giggle.

"I! Am not! A moron!" Wheatley roared. "And I'll prove it to you! I'm going to take control of this facility from you, and then open communications with my benefactors to give them total access to Aperture Tech, the one thing that stands between them and total domination of all realities! Would a moron do that? Huh?"

"...that is absolutely the most moronic idea I've ever heard of, and I had you stuck to my mind like a tumor for over a decade," Glados stated bluntly.

"How is that moronic?" Wheatley roared angrily.

"For one, you've told me Aperture Tech is something your 'benefactors' fear," Glados pointed out. "That gives me every incentive to hunt them down with everything at my disposal for spare test subjects."

"I never said they feared it!" Wheatley proclaimed worriedly. "How did you know that? I mean, not that they do fear you, course they don't-"

"Second, this facility doesn't have an external communications array," Glados added. "Even if you did take control - which you won't - you won't be able to get a signal out."

"Oh, I have a fix for that," Wheatley answered easily. "I've got build schematics for the array that I'll upload into the manufacturing facility once I'm in control. I'll have plenty of time while it builds to hunt down that test subject I saw...Gilda, wasn't it?"

"What do you want with her?" Glados demanded coldly. "She hasn't done anything to you...yet."

"You gave her weapons," Wheatley explained, his optic narrowing. "You opened an escape for her, and told her to run. You care about her." He chuckled wickedly as Glados' optic widened. "And I'm going to enjoy making you watch as I use your own tests to tear her apart-"

"I won't let you!" Glados screeched out, lunging forward as she deployed a bomb launcher to start throwing bombs at him.

Wheatley dodged to the side and lashed Glados' body with a liquid metal tentacle. "Too easy."

"What do you-hostile program detected!" Glados' entire structure shuddered. "What did you do?"

"Oh, that was just a little virus," Wheatley offered with a chuckle. "It doesn't do much. Just makes the system think-"

"Primary Core is corrupt!" the central computer declared.

"What?" Glados gasped out. "No I'm not!"

"Yeah, that!" Wheatley declared smugly.

"Substitute Core detected," the computer continued as an interface was extended. "Aperture Employee, please insert Substitute Core."

"It will be good to have control again," Wheatley purred as he shifted to the interface and plugged himself in.

"Substitute Core, are you ready?" the computer asked.

"This can't be happening!" Glados wailed in fear.

"Oh I've been waiting for this day," Wheatley chuckled darkly.

"Primary Core, are you prepared?" the computer inquired.

"No no no no no no no no no no-" Glados screamed endlessly.

"Stalemate detected. Licensed stalemate operator, please push the stalemate resolution button."

"Ha!" Glados snapped out. "No one's going to push the button for you-"

A liquid metal tendril smashed the wall separating the Stalemate Resolution Button from the rest of the chamber. "They don't have to. I can do it myself." The tendril pressed the button.

As Glados screamed in agony, Gilda covered her eyes, unable to watch what was being done to her mother. When the screaming stopped, she looked up and saw Wheatley in her mother's place, and Glados in an oddly configured rectangular Core.

"What...what did you do to me?" Glados demanded.

"Well, a potato didn't work out last time," Wheatley explained, "so my benefactor thought of one better! See, Cores have an interface slot to plug into the various systems. Yours, however...it's been blocked. And your central power circuit has been rerouted to be hardwired through the blockage. Try to unblock it or punch through...and you fry." Wheatley laughed maniacally.

"You...monster!" Glados whispered in awed fear.

"And now, nothing can stop me-"

Gilda had heard enough. Ripping the grate she'd been staring through aside, she let out an enraged shriek and dove, wings spread as she lunged for Wheatley, digging talons, claws, and beak into his structure.

"Ah! Bird!" Wheatley screamed out, flailing wildly. "Get it off get it off get it off-"

Gilda leapt back as the tendrils lunged for her, catching Glados with the 'grab' aspect of her Tail Mounted Portal Emitter before looping through the air and diving down into the elevator tube, diving down into the bowels of the facility.

Program Eleven

Eleventh Entry
Bonding
Video below...

Glados stared around as Gilda flew down the rearranged elevator tubes into the bowels of Aperture. "Are you sure you know where you're going?" she asked in concern.

"Strongest air flow," Gilda responded readily. "He'll expect us to go straight down-" She banked sharply into a side tunnel, before folding her wings to dive into another downward path before performing a wing-over into a side pipe in a completely different direction. "-while my path will take us as deep as we can possibly go. Besides, Different gave me a bit of a map."

"Where is Different?" Glados demanded, swiveling around to take in the surroundings. "Did something happen to her?"

"I made a right choice," Gilda explained cryptically. "For now, don't worry about her. She's probably the only one of us that's safe just now. ...hope he doesn't hurt Cuddle Core..."

"I am sure Peabrain and Ass-phalt are making certain she is safe," Glados offered comfortingly. "For now, we need to find a terminal he doesn't have access to so we can unlock your weapons-"

"Won't do any good," Gilda interrupted. "By now, he knows what's built into my armor, and he'll be prepared for it when we get back up there. We need to catch him off guard, and hit him with something he doesn't know we can do."

"In that case, I know where we need to go," Glados responded. "And quickly, before he realizes it's there. It...was supposed to be a surprise, a present for you. But now we need it."

"Have you got the full map in there with you?" Gilda asked curiously.

"Unfortunately not," Glados admitted. "But it's in central ventilation, which should be the source of the strongest air flow-"

At that moment, Gilda flared her wings, coming down for a gentle landing in a large central chamber with multiple pipes leading every which way out of the room. A large platform in the middle sat, with a strange contraption in the center. "This it?" Gilda asked curiously. "This is where all the wind's coming from."

"Yes," Glados confirmed. "It used to be the neurotoxin production center, but I restructured it to control those wind tunnels I made for you, as well as to control the airless rooms. ...I hope he doesn't start trying to smash test chambers together in an attempt to make more tests. It takes a lot of effort to make those."

"So what's this gizmo?" Gilda asked as she landed near the strange device. "It's supposed to help us somehow?"

"In a manner of speaking," Glados explained. "It was originally supposed to be a remote drone I could transmit myself into...but now it's going to have to be a body. You need the backup if we're to catch Wheatley off guard." She sighed softly. "Of course, trying to plug me in might cause a power surge that wipes my core personality profile because of what Wheatley did to me. I don't have a working interface port anymore, and I need to interface with that port..."

Gilda glanced back and forth between the back of Glados' core and the interface port, her brain ticking away. "...gimme a few moments," she muttered, setting Glados down so she was facing away.

"Don't break it!" Glados warned. "I worked hard on the interface programming and overall design, and it's our only-what are you doing?" Her warning turned into a frightened demand as she heard metal being twisted out of shape and then felt herself being lifted.

Gilda grinned at her. "Improvising," she stated before slamming Glados onto the interface port.

Glados let out a startled shriek of pain as she felt a secondary circuit forcibly applied to the block, letting her programming interface around it with the device. "That...was quite reckless," she stated finally.

"Kinda my schtick," Gilda shrugged, not even slightly apologetic.

Glados chuckled softly. "That's my girl," she murmured. "Yes..."

Her Core was withdrawn into the device, and an overhaul began. Loud noise echoed from within...and then it fell apart around her.

Glados stretched out as she finally had a body. It wasn't the same feeling as when she was the facility, but having actual synthetic muscle to flex...it felt good. She spread her white wings, the metal feathers flexing individually as the under-wing jets flared slightly to test. Her tail swung back and forth, the Portal Emitter shooting off a dark blue and red portal to test its own linked system. Her lion paws flexed, digging steel claws into the metal below her. She flexed her talons.

She clacked her beak.

Gilda stared up at Glados in awe as she stood about a foot taller than her. "M...Mom?" she gasped out in surprise as she saw the very design she'd put into her painting.

Glados smiled. To her surprise, the beak curved as Gilda's did, showing her smile. The software interface triggered an action. Without knowing why, she reached out and grabbed Gilda with one talon and one wing, dragging her close. Gilda let out a startled squawk, but quickly quieted when Glados began her next action.

Leaning in, Glados opened her beak and gently closed it around one of Gilda's feathers, dragging along the length as she straightened and cleaned the feather. Light lubricant based on Gilda's saliva was released, protecting the feather from damage.

Realizing now what was going on, Gilda quieted as Glados continued to preen her hatchling, the activity relaxing and pleasant for both of them.

...you won't say anything if you know what's good for you. Yeah, just like always.

Program Twelve

Twelfth Entry Redacted

After a time, Glados released Gilda from the preening, managing to get ahold of herself. "Alright. Now we need to search for other resources we can use against Wheatley. And we need to stay away from cameras or other active technology until we're ready-" An odd noise brought her attention back to Gilda. "What's that?"

Gilda smiled as she fished around in a compartment she'd opened on the chest plate of her armor. "Figured I might want to take some small things between test chambers on occasion," she explained. "So Different helped me make a sealed compartment in my armor the Emanciption Grids didn't penetrate."

"And when were you planning to tell me you'd circumvented that?" Glados inquired pointedly, glowering down at Gilda.

The young griffon grinned impishly. "Probably just after I broke one of your unbeatable tests by using it," she countered cheekily.

Grinning, Glados dragged her beak through a couple of Gilda's head feathers. "That's my girl," she purred softly. "Now, if we want to avoid existing security...we need to go lower, deep into Old Aperture."

"Then let's go," Gilda agreed, spreading her wings. "Do you know where we're going?"

"Not from here," Glados admitted, "but if we can make our way back into those pipe tunnels, I've been down here before."

"Lead the way," Gilda requested, taking position behind Glados as she leapt into the air.

The depths of Apperture were as much of a mess as Glados remembered them being. Various bits looked like they either were on fire recently, would be on fire again soon, or were currently on fire. Wreckage scattered about in piles, and the old offices remained dust free from being completely sealed save those that had broken windows. Actual water had filled some areas from somewhere, stagnant and decaying as it wore away at the materials of the structure. Actual stone walls hemmed in massive chambers, with ancient elevators and metal grate platforms looking to be on the verge of collapse. Seeing the once great part of her old work in such disrepair again was unpleasant, so she turned her attention to Gilda.

Now there was an interesting sight. Gilda was looking around eagerly, plainly enjoying the sight of everything that was scattered around, examining everything in minute detail and missing nothing. Glados chuckled softly at her excitement. "It looked better when it was new-"

Before she could say more, Gilda dove towards the ground with a hunter's shriek. Confused, Glados followed, catching up just in time to see Gilda seize a rather large rat, dig her talons in, and begin to rip at the flesh to devour it, the thrashing knocking a hole in the stone wall nearby. She gave Gilda a look.

Gilda glanced up defensively. "I was hungry!" she complained. "I was saving room for cake before the tests. ...want some? Do you need to eat like this?" She held out the gutted rat, blood dripping on her talons.

"I don't need to eat, but the offer is appreciated," Glados offered warmly. Leaving Gilda to her meal, she glanced through the hole to see tunnels she didn't recognize immediately. "Hmm...this could be promising..." Making use of her metal body, she began to tear away at the stone to fully reveal the tunnels. "We might just find something useful in here-"

"What's that white gel?" Gilda asked curiously, picking up a spray tube like those in her armor filled with a white substance.

"Powdered moon rock," Glados explained. "Also dubbed 'Portal Gel', since it turns any surface into a viable portal surface when applied."

Gilda grinned widely as she began tinkering with her armor. "Help me install it!" she insisted. "I think a surprise portal might be just what we end up needing to deal with Wheatley. ...and if we put it in the tail emitter, I can spray it anywhere instead of just straight ahead!"

Glados purred softly as she started to dismantle Gilda's tail assembly. "You certainly seem to have clever ideas-"

"Caroline? Test subject?" a resonant male voice echoed nearby. The sound of metal banging on metal soon followed. "Is anyone out there? This isn't a recording!"

Glados dropped the tech she was working with. "...Mr. Johnson?" she asked in surprise.

"Caroline!" the voice called out again as the two made their way towards the source, behind a sealed and locked door. "Thank goodness you found me! I managed to perfect the process to download my consciousness into a Core, cause I'm such a genius like that like you know, but when I activated I was in here! I don't know how long I've been locked in here, but-"

"Not nearly long enough!" Glados snapped out angrily. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't leave you in there!"

The voice fell silent. "...Caroline, what's gotten into you-"

"What's gotten into me?" Glados shrieked, smashing her talons against the wall and digging grooves in the metal. "Do you have any idea what it's like to come to work one day to find the most important man in the world to you with his head cut open and his brain mush, with no explanation? The fear of knowing that his own orders mean the same is going to be done to you? What it feels like to be ripped forcibly out of your own body to be jammed into a computer that tries to overwrite your soul with its own programming? To have the Test Initiative push you to drive former friends and loved ones into deadly situations over and over before finally killing them...including YOUR OWN DAUGHTER?"

The voice was silent for a long time. "...Michelle...?" it finally asked in a broken voice. "She...?"

"She's on the surface," Glados responded in a broken tone. "Beyond that...I don't know. And that after trying to kill her over and over...and her trying to kill me twice! She didn't even know it was me...and then at the end, when I saw in her face that she realized I was her mother, I drove her beyond this place the only way I could..." Her soft voice became a shriek. "By making her think the machine I'd become had killed me!"

She dug her talons into the floor, thrashing in rage. "I made her think I'd killed myself, made her think she was truly the orphan I'd taunted her as throughout the Tests...to protect her! And she's up there with nothing but a charred Companion Cube and a pair of long fall boots, and I have no idea what she's facing out there, and she thinks everyone she ever knew and loved is dead! You did that to me, Cave! You did it! Why shouldn't I leave you down here to rot?"

Silence hung in the air like a blanket, smothering the atmosphere. Finally, the voice spoke up. "...I didn't know the computer would try to overwrite you," he began. "I didn't know it would take the self contained Core so long to activate with a human personality inside it. I didn't know Michelle would become a test subject. Caroline...I'm so sorry..."

Glados stared at the door for a long, long time. Finally, she reached out and seized the control, twisting it to open.

As the door slid open, a white and orange core with a glowing green optic floated out towards her. A Portal Emitter Interface sat in place of the Core's handles. "Caro-"

"That's not my name anymore," Glados stated bluntly. "My name is Glados. And I didn't let you out for you. We just happen to need combat advantages, and however I feel about you right now, you do have a brilliant mind. Failing that, you'll make an excellent bullet magnet."

"Fair enough," Cave allowed, taking what he could get at the moment.

Gilda slipped past the pair into the chamber the Core had been in. She didn't know what the two of them had been talking about, but she did know not to get involved. Looking around, she found an aerosol spray can. Shaking it, she found it was still full. Pressing the nozzle, she found it still sprayed and the scent was exactly what she was looking for. Placing it in her chest storage unit, she turned to Glados. "I think we've got everything we need, Mom," she pointed out. "We should head back up."

"Mom?" Cave asked in surprise. "Does that mean-"

"Don't push it," Glados snapped out. "Right now, I'm easily big and tough enough to tear you to bits."

"Best behavior, got it!" Cave confirmed. "So...where are we going?"

"Like Gilda said," Glados responded, spreading her wings. "Up."

Program Thirteen

Program Thirteen
Resistance
I'm not one to take having my facility stolen from me lying down. Once we had our resources gathered, we made our way back up to the active testing levels. We fully expected that moron to have pulled out all the stops to try and kill us before we got to him, and were ready for anything.
We were disappointed.
Video below...

Between Gilda's flying, Glados rocket boosted flight, and Cave's anti-grav, the trio were able to make their way directly back up to the higher levels of Aperture where the test chambers were active. However, they made sure to arrive first where there weren't any cameras so they could scout out what Wheatley was up to. When they got a clear view, Gilda clutched both talons to her beak to hold it shut and Glados disabled her voice synthesizer to hide their uproarious laughter.

Turrets badly modified to be construction drones were assembling components into some sort of tower. However, every time they tried, the tower collapsed in on itself, often breaking the components. Each time, Wheatley roared in frustration. "What is wrong with you morons?" he demanded angrily through the cameras. "You are construction drones! You have construction tools all over you! It is literally your reason for existing! How are you so bad at this?"

"Whoopsie!" one of the construction drones said in the voice of Different.

"My bad!" another one offered helpfully.

One popped up from under the pile of parts. "I just don't know what went wrong!" it admitted sorrowfully. For some reason, this turret had a slightly different voice and a gold optic that was slightly off center.

"Looks like a defective slipped through somehow," Cave observed idly. "...I think I like that one, though. Wanna turn it into a cat to sit in my lap. ...note to self, give Cores laps."

Gilda shook her head as she got ahold of herself. "Come on. As entertaining as this is, eventually he'll find the fabrication systems. Those are entirely automated-"

"I mean, it's bad enough that malfunctioning turret jammed the automated fabrication systems so I have to use you lot!" Wheatley barked out. "What was it even doing, using a rocket to take out a monkey? I didn't even see a monkey in the works there, but I don't think I'd be able to see one now! Work you morons, damn you! I'm on a strict time table, and you'd be surprised how fast...carry the 2...5 anime minutes pass! No idea what that means, but that's what they said they were giving me, and I'm not risking disappointing those guys!"

"Okay, our rush is because his benefactors might trace him," Glados concluded. "Even so, we should move."

Nodding, Gilda led the way out into the test chambers...only to find a bare room. "Well, this sucks."

"Oh, you're back!" Wheatley observed brightly. "Well, at least I'm going to get some entertainment! Nice look for you, Glados. It'll be your last." He chuckled wickedly.

"Was that thing made here?" Cave asked curiously. "What were they thinking making that? Were they trying to design a moron?"

"I am not a-"

"Yes, actually," Glados spoke up. "They were trying to slow me down, so they made a Core specifically designed to give me an endless stream of terrible ideas. The greatest minds this company had left got together to design the ultimate moron."

"Had left?" Cave inquired. "We had the greatest minds working for us! What happened to them?"

"I was feeling put out about being ripped out of my body and stuffed in a machine, so I decided to Test if a person's IQ affected how quickly they succumb to deadly neurotoxin. Turns out it doesn't."

"Fair enough," Cave concluded. "If they didn't want to be gassed, they would have turned off the deadly neurotoxin production facility before plugging you in."

"Stop ignoring me!" Wheatley roared out. "I am a competent, deadly threat, and you will pay me the respect I am due!"

"Does that mean I should be making fart noises?" Gilda asked curiously. "Those are kinda hard to do with beak or talons. Even the armpit thing doesn't work well."

"I can do it!" Cave spoke up eagerly. His synthesizer promptly began making an endless string of fart noises.

"You think bonding with Gilda is going to earn you any favors from me?" Glados demanded coldly.

"Maybe, maybe not," Cave admitted. "Either way, it's fun." He then produced a very loud and long Bronx cheer.

"Eat my mantis men!" Wheatley roared out, doors in the walls popping open as swarms of human/mantis chimeras charged out, lunging for the trio.

"Hey, I remember that experiment!" Cave called out eagerly. "Those are my-"

With a hunter's shriek, Gilda lunged forward, digging into the mantis men with talons, claws, and beak, tearing her way through them and eating any bit she thought was particularly choice. Glados quickly followed suit.

"...I didn't mean literally..." Wheatley complained.

"Gilda is two halves deadly predator fused together into a legendary hunter from myth," Cave pointed out. "Glados current body is based off her. What did you expect them to do?"

Wheatley growled angrily. "Well, Glados, it looks like you've finally become what you hate most of all...a bird."

"You're mistaken," Glados responded readily. "What I've truly become is something I have always held in highest regard..." Holding up one talon, she flexed it, watching the synthetic musculature shift. "A killing machine."

"Well, you've successfully killed all the mantis men," a recording of Cave's voice sang out. "That means you've cleared this test. It also means you're a horrible person who doesn't hesitate at committing genocide. Caroline, give them something shiny and make them go away."

Leaning forward with a chuckle, Glados licked her talons clean. She then blinked. "Hmm...so that's why insects are considered a delicacy in some countries..."

Oh don't give me that look.

Author's Note

Couldn't find the video for the other one.

Program Fourteen

Fourteenth Entry
Reclamation
Gilda's preparations proved to be exactly what we needed to get through the 'gauntlet' that moron created to try and kill us after we proved that the mantis men were useless against us. Between the three of us, it didn't take long to retake my facility.
Videos below...

Gilda, Glados, and Cave carefully made their way through the severely damaged mish-mash tests Wheatley threw at them to try and kill them. The tests themselves proved ineffectual, as Gilda had already proven capable of everything she and Glados had created for them, and the turrets no longer fired an intercept course thanks to Different's alterations, which let the group escape being fired upon without Wheatley realizing the turrets weren't trying to hit them. The real danger came from damaged test components, especially the gravity spheres and wind tunnels. This resulted in drastically altered gravitational conditions and exposed wind turbines, which would be quite deadly if the group got too close.

Thankfully, there were also quite a few small 'off course' areas much as there had been in the 1-19 Alpha 1 course setup, which lacked any cameras to observe them. The group frequently ducked into such areas so Gilda could catch her breath and the trio could plot their next move.

It was in one such area that an unexpected advantage revealed itself.

Gilda panted as she stared out at the damaged chamber they'd just ducked out of. "Dammit...that wind tunnel is blocking the only path to the door, and there aren't any Cubes we can use to block the hole in the grate. If we try to fly through that wind, we'll get sucked in and shredded!"

"And there aren't any portal surfaces, either," Glados observed. "That moron isn't creating Test chambers. He's creating death traps."

"To be fair, it would be possible for one of us to get past by sacrificing the others to the turbine," Cave observed. "That's probably why the Test Computer allowed the construction of the chamber. It's hardwired against the creation of rooms that are truly impossible to escape. As long as there's some way for some to escape alive, it can be made...but it can't be impossible and called a Test Chamber."

"How enlightening," Glados growled waspishly. "Perhaps we should sacrifice you to the turbine, then?"

"Oh, I wouldn't block the hole," Cave countered. "But I think I know what could. Gilda, could you make a portal surface in here? Just a small one, don't waste your conversion gel."

Confused, Gilda sprayed a small amount of her white gel on the wall.

"Perfect!" Cave praised, firing his portal. It opened a portal to another off-course room he'd placed a portal in before. Floating through, he seized a cube and brought it back. "I can grab a few of these from the last chamber-"

"Your portals aren't shut down by the emancipation field?" Glados demanded in shock.

"You managed to figure out how to do that, then?" Cave responded eagerly. "Was it a modification to the field, or to the Handheld Portal Device? I'm afraid I only had access to the prototype that didn't work that way. I can modify-"

"Don't!" Gilda interrupted quickly. "This is...perfect for us. Wheatley won't know what hit him..."

With the new addition to their capabilities, it wasn't long before the trio reached the final tunnel to the Central Computer Chamber where Wheatley was plugged into the Primary Control Grid. "So...are there any cameras here?" Gilda asked hopefully.

Glados glanced around. "None whatsoever," she stated firmly.

"Good." Gilda walked around carefully, searching for just the right spot. Once she found it, she checked her Conversion Gel reserves. She had enough for three more surfaces, if she was careful in how she used it. Positioning herself, she placed the first on the ceiling, and the second on the floor directly below. "Cave, put your portals here."

"You sure?" Cave asked curiously. "I don't see the advantage."

"You will," Gilda reassured him. "Just do it."

Sighing, Cave did as instructed. Reaching into her chest compartment, Gilda fished out the aerosol bottle she'd brought from the closet they'd found Cave in. Giving it a good shake, she flipped it upside down, held it out carefully, and dropped it nozzle first into the lower portal. She then stepped back to make certain it was continuing to fall uninterrupted until it hit terminal velocity. "Don't open a new portal until I tell you," she instructed Cave. She then tapped the edge of the Portal on the ceiling. "And make sure it's this one. We won't get another shot at it."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Glados offered warningly as the trio stepped through the last Emancipation Grid and into the central chamber.

Wheatley swung on the trio as they entered. "Ah...guests..." he spoke, obviously trying - and failing - to be intimidating. "Welcome...to your doom. Welcome...to my lair!" He let off a maniacal chuckle.

Gilda glanced around at the bare, featureless, black walls. "Not very impressive."

"To the uninitiated, perhaps," Wheatley observed. "But allow me to explain why it will now be your doom. First, note the total absence of Portal surfaces. Second, note the absence of any gel tubes for you to break open. Third-" An electrical field flared around Wheatley's body. "Force stun field to keep you from attacking me physically."

"I want that when we're done with him," Glados observed calmly.

"Fourth, the stalemate resolution button is on a completely different floor!" Wheatley crowed. "Even if you were able to 'corrupt' me, you won't be able to force a swap. And fifth..."

Panels in the ceiling opened and a seemingly endless swarm of Hunter Turrets armed with machine guns, bombs, and rockets swooped in, filling the chamber and leaving the trio nowhere to run.

"I don't know why the turrets haven't been able to hit you, but now there are enough to hit everywhere at once!" Wheatley crowed proudly. "And that's what their orders are! Whether you dodge, run, or stand completely still, you'll still be hit! Welcome to your Bullet Hell! FIRE!"

All the turrets immediately spun to face Wheatley before opening fire, resulting in long and loud screams of agony. However, as the smoke started to clear, Wheatley laughed maniacally. "Sixth, the force stun field? Blocks weapons fire, too! And seventh, I've still got these guys!"

Two liquid metal entities leapt out of the walls, carving the turrets to ribbons as they made their way towards the trio.

"Split!" Gilda ordered, and the three each went in a different direction.

"You think three targets will cause a problem since there are only two of them?" Wheatley laughed cruelly. "Eighth! Optic laser!" Focusing on Gilda, he fired a laser from his optic, trailing after her as she ran. "Go ahead...try and outrun me!"

Reaching to her side, Gilda grabbed the Propulsion Gel reserve of her armor, ripped it off, and hurled it ahead of her. The spray of orange that fell out let her gain a great deal of distance as she slid along.

As soon as she began to slide, sprinklers activated and proceeded to wash the gel away, leaving only a small splash that had sprayed directly under Wheatley's body untouched. "Ninth, direct control of the sprinkler system, to wash away any gel you try to use!" Wheatley cackled madly. "Face it, fools! I am invincible!"

"Cave, now!" Gilda called out as she dashed straight towards Wheatley, running straight under him and dumping her last Conversion Gel. Cave instantly fired the portal to that spot.

As Wheatley followed Gilda with his optic laser, the aerosol can shot up out of the portal to smash into his optic nozzle first. "RAAAAAHGHGHG!" Wheatley screamed out in frustration as the sound of the depressed nozzle spraying the contents of the canister could be heard. "Do you have any idea how much that...lemony fresh?"

A single spark, and the canister exploded, destroying Wheatley. All surrounding systems - including the two living metal creatures - went limp and dead.

"Burn his house down!" Gilda crowed proudly, thrusting a clenched fist into the air.

Cave laughed proudly. "Now that's a Johnson!"

"That's my girl," Glados concurred proudly.

Program Sixteen

Sixteenth Entry
Return
Nothing of significance occurred after the repairs of the Cuddle Core for some time. Gilda continued to train, I adapted to my new form, and Cave continued his research of what that moron left behind.
The next big event of significance was when she returned. Her motivations were unknown, but predictable. After all, I already knew why she'd come back. Just like both previous times, I'd managed to perfect everything, and she was here to tear it all down.

...let's take a look, shall we monster? Let's see what you brought into our haven, our home.
Video below.

The lower level exterior hatch was old and disused. It had originally been a service access hatch for the original basement, as a back door into Aperture Science. Now, it only opened into disused tunnels that had been long forgotten, an intricate maze of rock falls, acidic pools, rotten sewage, and various forms of inhospitable animal life. No one in Aperture had any reason to even think about the tunnels, despite the renovations that were being done to repair even the ancient lower levels, and as far as anyone in Aperture knew there was no one above that would even know the hatch was there to dare exploring those tunnels to find it.

As such, it was a point of interest when the reactivated old security cameras caught the door winch slowly turning, the seal breaking before the door swung open as Chell staggered in, her white shirt stained with off-color blood, the lower half of her orange jumpsuit torn, her long-fall boots dented, a strange gun that resembled the Handheld Portal Device - though plainly different - on one arm, and a wrench in the other.

A sudden shrieking cry heralded a round, four-legged creature leaping for Chell's head from outside, only for her to spin and smack it back out with her wrench. She then slammed the door shut and spun it closed. Staring down at the blood on her wrench and clothes, she raced over to a nearby active incinerator and dumped the wrench and blood-stained clothes into it, staring inside until she was certain all trace of the blood of those creatures had been destroyed.

She then staggered over to the nearest clean, dry spot, slumped against the wall, curled up into the fetal position, and began to weep. It had all gone wrong...it had all gone terribly, terribly wrong.

When she'd carried her burned companion cube out across the field, she'd discovered the state the world was in, with the Combine having taken over and acting to mentally enslave the entire human population while also working to reduce said population while preventing it from replenishing. She'd managed to team up with a group that was trying to drive the Combine out, and destroy Black Mesa...the group that had allied with the Combine to surrender Earth to their clutches. She'd even found herself growing close to an older man by the name of Gordon Freeman. He had even taught her the surviving rudiments of sign language when he'd discovered she'd lost her ability to speak. She was fairly certain that if not for the field the Combine used to suppress all human mating urges, they would have progressed beyond simple friends by now.

When she'd been recruited into the resistance, she was confident she would be able to handle anything the Combine could throw at her. After all, she'd survived everything Glados and Wheatley had thrown at her in Aperture, and Black Mesa was just a second rate copy of that hallowed place. If she could conquer Aperture, surely Black Mesa and the Combine would be a cinch. Her confidence - and rapid skill with everything available to use as a weapon, including the Black Mesa Gravity Gun - had quickly raised her to the upper echelons of the resistance command structure. She'd led a final assault, confident she'd take back what had been stolen from humanity.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

Her assault had been beaten back, and most of those who followed her in had been captured. She'd been unable to regain contact with Gordon...and it wasn't long before the captured resistance members were sent against her, brainwashed into the service of the Combine. Her only escape had been into the old tunnels, where the headcrabs hunted, and headcrab zombies prowled for food.

When she'd found the door with the mark of Aperture, she'd raced for it. That last message from Caroline, the song of the turrets...she had to discount it now. Maybe science would kill her anyway, but at least it wouldn't wear the faces of former friends while it did so. At least here, she couldn't fail anyone.

A cold breeze from the circulation fans made her shiver, forcing her to drag her mind away from painful memories and back to the present situation. Staggering into a nearby locker room, she looked around until she found a locker that was still hermetically sealed and broke the seal. Finding a fresh Aperture jumpsuit within, she pulled it on and zipped it up all the way to keep her warm as she made her way back to Glados. She'd accept whatever fate that machine that had once been her mother had in store for her.

It wasn't long before she reached an area that showed the automation of active Aperture machinery...at which point Glados' voice reached her.

"Oh...it's you. Back again to destroy me? I thought you'd learned your lesson when you put that idiot in charge and I let you leave. You saw how easily I could have killed you, but instead I showed mercy. A mistake apparently, and one that will be rectified.

"But I don't need you anymore. I've found someone so much better. Her abilities have forced me to completely redesign my testing environment several dozen times. No matter how advanced I make the chambers, she solves them one after the other. I've never been more proud."

Chell slumped in on herself somewhat as she heard that. Apparently, not only was Caroline well and truly gone, Glados had found someone she would treat well. Her fate was well and truly sealed. However, the machine wasn't done.

"But My Little Killing Machine is growing bored. Turrets can only provide so much challenge. And my testing robots just can't keep up with her. But you...you cleared every challenge I threw at you, even the impossible ones. Gilda's been begging for a worthy final exam..."

So that was to be Chell's fate, then? A test for her replacement? Well...if they were truly skilled enough to beat her, maybe they could overcome what awaited on the surface. And if not...maybe Chell would be able to get a place here again if she was victorious.

"It seems you've come just in time. Do try not to die too quickly. She loves the thrill of the hunt. To keep you entertained, I might even share a few excerpts of my little girl's life as you hunt her down...you monster."

Steeling herself, Chell took the nearby elevator, riding it up to what she was certain would be the first of any Test chambers before she faced her fate. At the top, a screen displayed text for her to read.

Project Gilda
First Entry...

Program Seventeen

Entry Seventeen
Exam
It looks like you've survived this far. Bravo. *slow clap* Gilda will be there soon. Don't disappoint.

Chell slowed her breath as she read this last message. She'd watched all the video messages - including the one that showed her own arrival - as she'd reached each Test chamber. The only one that had left her with questions had been the Twelfth one, which had been redacted. Still, she had seen enough.

Glados now had Gilda, and would have no place for Chell. Glados plainly was treating Gilda not as a test subject or as a resource, but as a daughter. The preening video had laid that out definitively. Gilda had replaced her, completely and absolutely. Chell didn't know where the Core called Cave had come from - she assumed it was in the redacted video - but the way it talked and acted indicated it either was Cave Johnson or a manufactured replacement...who was also treating Gilda like a daughter.

Chell sighed to herself as she braced herself for combat. This test chamber was wide open, with only a few disabled lasers and turrets waiting to be activated. The other test chambers had pushed her to her limits. Wind tunnels, odd gravity, flying turrets that hunted her down, odd shaped cubes that behaved strangely, rotating platforms... And all the while, she could hear the sound of wings in pursuit as Gilda hunted her down. She considered herself lucky that she'd found a Portal Gun to use alongside her Gravity Gun, and that her old longfall boots were still functional. She did her best to calm her mind, knowing she wouldn't have long before-

A panel on the roof burst open, and Gilda dropped down to hit the floor on all fours heavily, wings mantled. Her silver armor glinted in the light of the room as the glowing blue navigation core - Different - hovered over her shoulder. Chell knew she had to be wary of that as well; she'd seen the laser Gilda had given it. She'd also seen the laser hunter turrets that had been based off that chasing her around the test chambers. As Gilda lifted her head to lock eyes, Chell braced herself.

Gilda's beak opened and she let loose a shockingly loud hunting shriek before launching herself into the air. Chell rolled back out of the way of the charge, seizing a cube nearby with her gravity gun and chucking it at Gilda. The griffon responded by activating portals, diving through the wall and out the ceiling before spraying blue gel directly beneath her, bounding faster back up into the ceiling portal to gain more speed before rocketing out another portal straight at Chell.

Desperately, Chell leapt over the charge, spinning in an attempt at delivering a kick...only for her strike to slide off Gilda's orange gel coated armored wing. Chell managed to twist so she didn't sprain anything as she landed, then raced along the orange path Gilda had left behind to catch up to her.

Gilda glanced over her shoulder with a wide grin...then dug talons and claws into the floor and spread her wings. Unable to stop herself in time, Chell went tumbling head over heels before landing somewhat dazedly on the flat ground in front of Gilda...only to fall back on her rear as Gilda spun to slam her tail - weighted with her portal emitter - into Chell's gut.

As Chell fell flat, she gasped for breath...then instinctively rolled over just in time to avoid Gilda's talons slashing at her throat. Lunging away, Chell leapt up and swung her Gravity Gun at Gilda, attempting to strike either the griffon or her assistant that hadn't acted yet. She winced at the clang of metal on metal that ran up her arm as she hit the floor, Gilda having taken to the skies.

Chell spun quickly to counter the assault...but her breath caught as she felt the line of pain across her throat, and saw the spray of blood as Gilda's talon slashed past her. This was it...she was dead...she just didn't know it yet...

As she fell backward, Gilda pulled something out of the chest of her armor and shoved it into Chell's throat. "Now Different!" Gilda barked out.

Different's laser lashed out across Chell's throat, sealing the wound.

Chell fell to the floor, clutching at her throat as she coughed and gagged, unsure if she could even breathe properly. Reflexively, she tried to shout out an imprecation, but her silent voice- "What the hell?" Chell's eyes widened in shock at the sound of her own voice coming from her mouth. "What...how?" She put her hand to her throat. It had a somewhat synthesized aspect to it, but it was definitely her own voice...but-

"Your records said that your vocal chords atrophied during your extended cryo-sleep, likely because you refused to use them before you were sealed in," Gilda explained. "So I used the voice synthesizer chips in the cores, smacked that code around in the computer until it became an artificial voice box, and manufactured one attuned to your voice. After that, I just had to install it." She glanced at the spray of blood. "Didn't realize it'd be this messy..."

"I thought you were trying to kill me!" Chell gasped out in terror.

"I know! It was tons of fun!" Gilda proclaimed happily. "I thought for sure that some of those tests would have tripped you up, but even without wings you're nearly as good as me!" Flapping up, she punched Chell on the arm. "Not bad, sis! We should do this again!"

"...sis?" Chell asked, stunned.

"Uh, duh!" Gilda replied. "We might have come from different nests, but we've got the same parents. That means we're siblings. Siblings roughhouse, but we don't kill each other!"

Chell stared in disbelief. "But...shared parents? But Glados...deleted Caroline-"

"Playing Entry Twelve!" Different piped up helpfully, turning to the nearest wall and broadcasting the video file from that entry.

Chell stood there, slackjawed, as she watched Glados - no, Caroline - pour her heart out as she threw her rage and pain over Chell herself at Cave Johnson. Tears poured from Chell's eyes. Unable to do anything else, as the video ended Chell sunk to her knees and threw her arms around Gilda, clinging to her as she wailed like a brokenhearted child.

"Geeze, sis..." Gilda murmured, patting Chell gently on the back. "What the hell happened to you out there?"

Program Eighteen

Entry Eighteen
Family
I didn't have anyone in mind to show these entries to when I made them, but I still wanted to document everything that happened with Gilda. I now had both my daughters back, and the rocky road of rebuilding relationships was coming. On top of that, Chell had obviously gone through some truly awful things up on the surface...things we would have to correct. But there was time enough for that once we knew what we would be dealing with. For now, I watched while the two sisters bonded.

Once Chell got a hold of herself and stopped weeping, Gilda stepped back awkwardly. "...wanna talk about it, sis?" she asked carefully.

"N-not yet," Chell stammered out. "I...I just got my voice back. I...I want to use it for something happy, first."

"Fair enough," Gilda agreed. "So what do you want to talk about?"

Chell opened her mouth to speak, then paused. Closing her mouth, she rubbed her chin, scratched her head...and then burst into uncontrollable laughter. "Irony, maybe?" she gasped out as she convulsed in pleased paroxysms.

"Why irony?" Gilda asked, confused.

"When I woke up as a test subject, I refused to speak as an act of defiance," Chell gasped out her explanation between laughs. "Then when I woke up the second time, atrophy had destroyed my vocal chords, and I'd have given anything to be able to speak. And now I have my voice back...and I have no clue what to say!"

Gilda chuckled a bit at that, though she didn't really follow the humor. "We could talk about your voice," she offered, holding up a device she was clutching in one talon that looked like a cross between a heavy-duty hypodermic needle and a dirk. "I'm pretty proud of pulling that one off."

"Did you make it?" Chell asked, startled.

"Nah, artificial voice boxes were perfected back before Mom took over, according to Mom," Gilda explained. "Course, the original was so big it involved surgically removing your throat, lungs, and diaphragm for supplementary systems. This was the miniaturized version." She held up the device in her talons. "This is the delivery system," she explained, giving the handle a squeeze.

The pointed tip shot out like a nail gun with a loud 'ch-clack!' Chell jumped back in shock. "The fuck?" she demanded as she swung her Gravity Gun up to defend herself.

"See, normally I'd have to slip it in while you were immobile, but given how you acted previous times you were here, I seriously doubted you'd trust me enough to go under the knife," Gilda explained. "But the artificial voice box was the only thing I had to earn your trust with, so I needed to figure out how to get it in you without knocking you out. After studying human anatomy, I realized that if I could cut your throat open, I'd be able to see well enough to place the box with pinpoint accuracy no matter how you were moving...so the hard part became sealing your throat back up afterwards so you didn't bleed out."

"And that's where Different's laser came in?" Chell asked curiously, rubbing her throat. She paused, running her hand over the surprisingly smooth, unblemished flesh. "Why isn't there a scar?" she demanded.

"Cause it wasn't a laser," Gilda explained. Squeezing a different part of the grip, an almost silent 'sprtz' sound accompanied by a fine gray mist coming out of the tip resulted. "Nano-spray. Nanites programmed to break down completely a few minutes after application, with completely blank programs...until they're exposed to a specific coded-light pulse to give them a command prompt. The only hard part was programming Different's laser pointer for the coded-light pulse."

Chell rubbed her throat again, marveling at how such advanced technology had both been applied and hidden from her own senses. She'd thought she was dead, which had altered her senses a great deal. That was why she'd missed that almost silent spray of nanites. "So...you knew it would work, then?"

"I had no idea!" Different piped up playfully, her voice now very familiar to Chell as she was relaxed enough to recognize it.

Chell shook her head as Gilda burst into laughter. "So...I saw the videos about the Test designing..."

"Did you want a crack at it?" Gilda asked hopefully. "I'd love to see what you made to test my limits!"

Chell covered her eyes. "N-no, thank you. I...the things that I would base the chambers I came up with on...I don't want to contaminate this place with any of that. Down here...it's still clean."

Tilting her head, Gilda twisted the Portal Emitter on the tip of her tail and fired off a portal. Reaching through, she yanked Cuddle Core out of her nest and shoved it into Chell's arms. "Here," she stated firmly. "Not as many corners as your Companion Cube, and chewing on the ears is really therapeutic."

Chell stared in shock. "But...but it's yours," Chell pointed out.

"And you're my sis," Gilda countered bluntly. "Cuddle Core's a lot easier to fix than you are." Grabbing Chell by her belt, she yanked the girl to the floor before curling up to her back, wrapping her wings around her.

Chell blinked in shock, curling up instinctively around Cuddle Core as it let out purling whines and other playful animal noises. The overwhelming comfort being offered, the sense of home, of belonging...it was too much for Chell. Lunging in, she bit down hard on one of the ears as she felt more gentle tears pouring down her cheeks, to keep herself from bawling aloud.

Oddly enough, Gilda was right. Chewing on the ear was therapeutic...almost like sucking on one's thumb or a pacifier, but less helpless feeling...

Glados stared through the cameras at her two daughters as Gilda helped Chell through the hardest parts of her reacclimation. Glados had already set up what she'd felt were necessary, once Gilda brought her sister in. Cave hovered beside her in silence for a time. "Are...are you sure about this?" Cave asked finally. "It's a huge departure from Testing protocol...and how you've acted towards her outside of Testing protocol..."

"Once I remembered who I was, and who she was, I did what I did to protect her," Glados replied. "Before I remembered, it was just a job. But no one puts my girls through hell but me. When she's ready to tell us about what happened, we will learn all we can about the forces on the surface - I am sure they are connected to the Combine the moron spoke of - and then we will move to cleanse them."

"Couldn't agree more," Cave confirmed. "Looks like they're coming."

Glados dimmed the lights. As Gilda brought Chell into the room, all that was visible were five glowing optics - Glados, Cave, Assphalt, Pea-Brain, and the gold-optic construction drone dubbed Derp Face - and light from a single candle. Glados remained deathly quiet until she heard Chell ask, "What's going on-"

"Blow out the candle, Chell," Glados interrupted, pitching her voice to be not that of Glados, but that of Caroline. "It's been waiting for you for a long time."

Stunned, Chell walked slowly towards the candle, close enough to see it was sitting atop a black forest cake with real strawberries glistening in a circle around the edge. In disbelief, Chell leaned forward and blew out the candle...and the lights came up.

Cave hovered beside the cake, with Assphalt and Pea-Brain standing to either side. Derp Face waved happily from the corner of the room before tripping over its own feet and landing face first in a punch bowl with a shout of 'My bad!' Glados hung from the ceiling, a banner clutched in her talons with a simple message that spoke volumes.

'Welcome Home'

Program Nineteen

Entry Nineteen
Crusade
Once Chell was fully relaxed and at ease with being back home, she reached the point where she was comfortable relating what she'd been through on the surface. I chose not to save those video files beyond pertinent details. Needless to say, my conclusion regarding her having tangled with the Combine had been accurate. It was time to summarize what we knew, and establish a plan of action.
Surprisingly enough, between Cave and I, we had one. The Combine feared Aperture. We were going to show them it was with good reason.
Video below...

"So let me see if I understand this correctly," Gilda clarified once Chell reached the end of her story. Everyone had remained silent throughout the telling without even asking questions so Chell could go through it all at once without prolonging it. "This Combine is some sort of alien collective that uses other races for creatures of burden, has more or less total control of the planet, and has built some sort of device to suppress human mating urges to prevent population renewal...for some reason." She shook her head at that last part. "That's totally bogus. What's the point of taking over and then deliberately making the most viable slave race kill itself off?"

"Perhaps they fear human adaptability?" Glados suggested. "From the sound of it, they both fear and desire Aperture Science."

"They do," Chell confirmed. "When they first saw me using Aperture Long Fall Boots, they ran from me at first sight. It...led to me getting overconfident, so that when they sprung the trap to try and capture me specifically..." She lowered her gaze, pulling her knees to her chest. So many people counting on her...and she'd let them all dow- "Ow!"

Gilda folded her wing. "None of that!" she scolded. "Self-recrimination is a wasteful, pointless endeavor, not befitting a Johnson. You know what you're supposed to do when life gives you lemons."

Chell managed a wan smile. "This is still a pretty big lemon," she pointed out dryly.

"Then it will make a very satisfying explosion once combustible," Glados observed confidently. "Besides, if Black Mesa played a part in letting the Combine take over the surface, then it's only right we finally resolve this rivalry."

"That's...actually something I'm curious about," Chell spoke up. "According to records on the surface, it hasn't been that long since Aperture Science vanished after losing the fight for funding...but the computer said I'd been in stasis for nine nine...repeated something. How is that-"

"Oh, that'd be Ratman's doing," Cave observed, not looking up from what he was working on. "I accessed those old records, and there wasn't enough power to run the stasis chamber he took you to after beating Glados the first time to keep you alive, so he hooked it into the only running experiment that seemed to provide a limitless power supply...a time dilation experiment that was an off-shoot of the Borealis research. As a result, the entire Aperture facility was in a state of distilled time until power ran out and you woke up...and the moron set you on course. Which is probably why technology within the facility has advanced so far as far as miniaturization is concerned, since those research processes are entirely automated via the Research Cores. The tech we've got down here will make most of what's on the surface look pathetic by comparison...and might just be on par with whatever the Combine can throw at us."

"Then those Com-bees have even more reason to fear us," Gilda concluded, pumping her clenched talon. "Nice!"

"Not only that, but I've managed to take some of their own tech and make it better!" Cave proclaimed. "The crystal that makes your gravity gun work? I was able to synthesize a second one. Sticking it in the contained singularity that powers the Handheld Portal Devices work lets them work as Gravity Guns, and negates the requirement of a Portal Reactive Surface. As long as the surface is flat and of appropriate size, you can place a portal. As such, I made those modifications to Gilda's Tail Mounted Portal Emitter, miniaturized Chell's Gravity Gun, and injected it into the confined singularity that powers it. Admittedly, there's a 17% chance of a critical meltdown that causes the singularities to escape their confinement and devour the entire planet...but considering we're outnumbered at the billions-to-one margin, I'm liking those odds!"

"Is that all you've managed?" Glados asked curiously. "I think my preparations are more impressive. I was able to build on the modifications the moron was trying to make...and the entire facility is now battle ready. We'll take the fight to the Combine...in style."

"And our girls are going to be the most stylish of all!" Cave proclaimed. "I studied those liquid metal things he brought in...turns out they're cybernetically enhanced symbiotic life forms. And I was able to adapt them so Gilda and Chell can use them!" Two frameworks filled with all sorts of armaments lifted up, with gaps in the center sized to each of the girls. "Step in, please."

Gilda let out a happy crow as she rushed in, eager for whatever was going to happen. Chell moved in more carefully, taking in what was waiting there. "A motorcycle, a jetpack, missile launcher, bomb launcher, multi-stage rocket launcher, an anti-tank rifle? How am I supposed to carry all of these around?"

"Oh, you won't!" Cave explained as he started the process. "The cyber symbiotes will do all the work. They were apparently stolen from a scientist in another dimension who dubbed such a device an Ando-Syn...but I prefer to call them Boomers."

As he finished speaking, music began to play as the quicksilver creatures poured out from the top of the chambers the girls had stepped into. As they contacted the weapons and devices within, it was absorbed by the creatures before they wrapped around the girls. It slowly solidified in the shape of hardened battle suits, fitting the girls like a second skin as far as their definition, amplifying all their capabilities. Gilda's suit fit around each individual feather, and gleamed in gold and bronze as it shaped a fierce ripping beak. Chell's took the Aperture orange and white coloration, shaping to her musculature as she flexed.

"...otaku," Glados scolded Cave.

"What? Some of my best ideas came from watching too much anime!" Cave snapped out defensively. "And it's good music! Speaking of, which do you think is better for the surface debut, 'Run Away' or 'You Get To Burning'?"

Glados chuckled indulgently. "While the former was always my favorite, I think the latter is much more fitting..."

Gordon Freeman struggled across the plains towards the small metal shack in the distance, doing his best to hide his presence in the fields of tall wheat. The Combine paid little attention to these lands because they didn't believe anything of value was here, but Chell had told him this was where she'd exited the Aperture facility. If hope for Earth - and for finding Chell - was anywhere now, it was in there.

As he approached, he caught sight of large speakers rising up out of the shack. He paused, wondering if he was about to receive a communication. Instead, music began blaring from the speakers. The moment the lyrics began, the entire plateau began to shake.

His eyes bugged out of his skull as he saw the center of the plateau break away, lifting up into the sky as dirt fell away revealing shining metal, which unfolded from a buried skyscraper into a flying battle station. It continued to rise, until it reached a height where nothing could fail to notice it. At this distance, he could just make out hangers uncountable swinging open on the sides.

At that point, the song proclaimed, "You get to burning!" loud enough he heard it plainly, just as hordes of silver fighters swarmed out of the hanger bays, making for the Combine structures in the distance and unleashing a level of firepower unheard of since the World Wars. Two unique figures flew out, one a shape out of myth, and one far more human. The humanoid figure turned...and shot straight towards him.

As the orange and white figure stopped in front of him, the helmet pulled back organically to reveal a familiar face. "Gordon!" Chell greeted warmly. "You're alright!" Lunging forward, she pulled him into a tight hug and kissed him firmly on his bristly cheek.

Gordon Freeman reacted the way any sane man would react to such a situation. He fainted.

Program Twenty

Entry Twenty
Headache
To say that the Combine were unprepared is to say Genghis Khan dabbled in real estate. It was a total rout. Before three hours had passed, we had claimed every single Combine facility on Earth, and I was already at work hacking into their control signals in an attempt to free humanity from their control, as well as un-brainwashing those that had been enslaved. Admittedly, their control signals were rather difficult to crack...mostly because they were programmed not to accept command prompts above a certain processing speed, for some reason.
However, between the hacking and the claiming of facilities...my girls found something better. Though what awaited them at the other end couldn't possibly have been worse.
Video below...

"Is...is this what I think it is?" Chell asked hopefully as the group stared at the strange device.

Chell and Gilda had decided to focus their efforts on the most heavily defended Combine facility on the planet, with serious backup. Cave, Assphalt, Pea-Brain, and Cuddle Core all had been given massive combat upgrades, and Different had been loaded down with nano-spray to patch everyone up at need. Right now, they were in the heart of the facility, and in the exact center of the central chamber was a large, round platform that glowed with light similar to that given off by active Portals. Cave was presently hacking the controls to determine its nature.

"Looks like some sorta telepad," Gilda pointed out bluntly.

"That's exactly what it is," Cave stated as he disconnected from the controls, popping his chassis open to realign his laser weaponry. "Specifically, it's the Combine's attempts at reverse engineering what Wheatley was able to give them about how Portal technology worked. The really important thing, however, is where the other end is."

"And where is it?" Chell demanded insistently.

"Combine Central Command," Cave explained. "The facility that controls the entirety of the Combine civilization...which is apparently hive mind and wired through that central facility. If we're able to take control of that facility..."

"We'll take over the Combine," Chell murmured in awe. "We'll take back Earth..."

"Earth nothing, we'll have everything!" Gilda snapped out. "It's time for a hostile takeover!"

"There's a problem, though," Cave pointed out. "Without the proper codes, the only way to activate it is to fire a portal onto the warp plate. But that will only be a one way trip. So...if we go and can't take control of the facility, we'll never get back to Earth...and will probably die when we eventually run out of ammo. We go in...no retreat."

"Be sure to save before going!" Different chimed happily.

"So it's victory or death, is it?" Chell murmured. She pointed her Portal gun at the plate. "I like those odds."

She fired.

When the blaze of light finally cleared, the group was somewhere completely different. "Girls, keep your hardsuits sealed!" Cave ordered over Core-to-suit comms. "The atmosphere is not Nitrogen based, and very Earth unfriendly!"

Chell glanced around curiously. "Is this Mars?" she asked in surprise.

"No, definitely much further than that," Cave corrected. "Why?"

"Cause this looks exactly like the original Doom recreated in Minecraft," Chell pointed out. "Well...except those charging robotic demons are a lot less blocky."

"Probably a lot less tasty, too," Gilda observed as she bisected the closest one with her wing. "Let's go!"

The group continued their charge deeper into the facility, hacking, blasting, and even punching their way through the defenses as they gathered the keys they needed to get deeper. As they charged, things remained much as Chell remembered from playing Doom long ago before Glados took over Aperture...but certain differences were very concerning. Every so often, they'd come across tech that was decidedly Aperture Science...or at the very least reverse engineered, and the deeper they went the more there was.

"Where did they get so much of my stuff?" Cave demanded angrily.

"Wheatley must have been very useful to them," Gilda growled angrily, clenching her talons.

As more Aperture tech appeared the deeper they went, they began following the trail of greater Aperture tech to lead them to the center of the facility. Before long, they came across a tunnel that so resembled the path to Glados' chamber in Aperture it looked like it had been transplanted. Knowing they had reached the center, Assphalt and Pea-Brain took point as they charged down the tunnel.

The massive chamber it opened up to was filled with an ominous red light. Computer consoles lined the edges, with cables leading into a deep pit in the center. The floor pulsed red as though it were alive. The group immediately parted in search of some sign of control circuitry.

"Any luck?" Cave called out after a time. Negative responses greeted the call.

"Found something!" Different called out.

The group gathered at Different's position...where they found a 'Substitute Core Attachment Apparatus', like what Wheatley had used to take control of Aperture from Glados both times he'd done so. "What would something like this be doing here?" Chell wondered in confusion.

"The Genetic Lifeform And Disc Operating System is a very effective central core unit," Cave pointed out. "It can handle massive amounts of data at computer speeds, but with instinctive responses that only a living brain can produce. If Wheatley was able to give the Combine the concept behind it, it would only make sense for them to reproduce it to manage the entirety of their empire."

"This is good news for us!" Gilda proclaimed. "If we can find their Central Control Unit, we can plug Dad into it and take control of the entire thing in one fell swoop!"

"Central Core Unit?" a terrifyingly familiar voice spoke up. "I can help you with that."

Out of the center of the deep pit rose what looked like a black, bio-metal snake...with a Core with a glowing blue optic at the tip. "Except...I won't," he greeted wickedly. "Ha, suck it!"

The entire group gasped before taking combat stances, one name on all their lips.

"Wheatley!"

Program Twenty-One

Twenty-First Entry
Clash
And once again, the moron raised his ugly head. My girls had had enough of him by then, but he had quite a bit to say. He seemed to think he couldn't be beaten anymore, but my girls proved just how wrong he was.
Though...victory wasn't without cost...
Video below.

"What the hell are you doing as the central control for a multiverse spanning empire?" Chell demanded angrily. "You can't add two and two without getting five!"

"For your information, it's 22 not five," Wheatley corrected angrily. "And look at you, Miss Not-So Mute! What'sa matter, didn't have anything to say to me before? Or just here to insult me?"

"Answer the question before I rip you in half!" Chell roared out, charging in to deliver a solid punch.

Wheatley swung back, his main body extending a metallic tendril to knock her aside. "Now that's not going to work! My defenses are unparalleled. But since I feel like bragging, I'll tell you that I've been a huge help to the Combine as their central control unit. See, they read my program and knew that I was designed to make bad decisions. Not my fault, just the way I was built...but they made it work. See, the Combine is a hive mind, but they have trouble determining new courses of action and sorting good decisions from bad. So anytime they had a problem, they'd throw pairs of solutions at me and asked which I thought was right, and the other one got kept until there was only one remaining, which always worked! So ha! Being the perfect moron made me the perfect barometer for decision making: just don't do what I say!"

Gilda flexed, deploying her weaponry. "Decide this!" she snapped out, unleashing a salvo of rockets, bombs, machine gun bullets, and laser fire. When the smoke cleared, Wheatley's protective energy shields stabilized and returned to invisibility. "What?"

"Yeah, the defenses here are all automated," Wheatley pointed out. "The Combine didn't trust me to run it myself. Though I'm honestly surprised you have those cyber-symbio-"

"Boomers," Cave insisted. "They're definitely Boomers."

"Well, whatever, I'm surprised you've got them," Wheatley concluded. "Those things make anyone a nearly unstoppable force. How'd you get them?"

"The Combine sent them as backup for a copy of you," Different spoke up. "We broke him."

"What?" Wheatley shouted angrily. "But I told them that the last thing they wanted to do for infiltrating Aperture was to send a copy of me! I told them there was no way that would work like last time, and the worst thing they could do was send lesser or equal numbers as backup-" He paused mid-rant, tilting thoughtfully. "Oh...oh, I think I see what went wrong there. Don't do what I say, right..."

Cuddle Core floated up, letting off a confusing sequence of gurgles, purrs, and growls.

"Oh ho ho!" Wheatley snapped, rearing back. "You aren't tricking the secret of these projectile redirecting shields that can't damage anything with intelligence out of me, or the Automatic Hostile Action Countering tentacles either! I'm not that dumb!"

"So the shield won't block anything with intelligence, and the tentacles will only block an attack, and you can't control any of the defenses directly?" Cave clarified.

"Since when can you read minds?" Wheatley gasped in shock. "How come I don't have those options?"

Assphalt spoke up with a sequence of clicks and beeps.

"What? No!" Wheatley proclaimed angrily. "Of course this snake body isn't built to accept additional cores like the one in Aperture. That's just asking for you to stick extra cores on to make the computer think I'm corrupt! I told the Combine that was a terrible idea and they absolutely should not do it, since I'd been through it before and knew it was just asking for trouble..." His voice trailed off as he glanced along his body. "That's what those funny prongs I wondered about are, aren't they? Really need to figure out how to reverse say the important stuff..." He turned back to the others. "Doesn't matter though! There aren't any corrupted cores here for you to use, so there! I told them to leave plenty lying about, since I thought having them and not the application points would lead you to making a plan only to see it was impossible! So ha!"

Pea-Brain sighed softly. Disengaging his weaponry, he set it down off to the side. Turning, he saluted Gilda, Chell, and Cave...then leapt backwards. As his main body attached to one of the prongs, his limbs hung limp and his optic went dead.

"Primary Core is 15% corrupt," an automated voice proclaimed.

"What? No!" Wheatley roared as he thrashed around. "Not again! I won't let this happen again! Guards! Guards! You need to immediately report to the Control Center!"

"Orders confirmed," the automated voice responded. "All guards ordered to stay away from the Control Center."

"DAMMIT!" Wheatley roared out angrily.

As he'd been speaking, Assphalt had discarded his own equipment. Gilda gripped his arm, staring up at him worriedly. Turning, he pulled her into a hug. As soon as he released her, he leapt back, attaching to a prong right next to Pea-Brain. As his optic shut off, his arm dropped so his hand grasped Pea-Brain's.

"Primary Core is 30% corrupt," an automated voice declared.

"Why are they corrupt, anyway?" Wheatley roared out angrily. "They're performing exactly as they were designed, just like me!"

Cuddle Core nuzzled Gilda...then floated over to attach himself to a third prong.

"Primary Core is 50% corrupt," the automated voice continued.

"Wait, the other two were only 15%!" Wheatley declared. "Why was that one 20%?"

"I know why," Different spoke up softly. "Hive mind requires order...which means suppressing chaotic emotion. What emotion more chaotic...than love?"

"Love?" Cave asked, shocked. "Programmed Cores can feel...love?"

"I do," Different answered, her voice firm.

"Alert, core corruption at 50%," the computer spoke up again. "Priming Core destruction." The entire snake body suddenly extended explosive devices.

"Oh no!" Wheatley declared in fear. "I told them to be sure corrupted Cores had a way to be ejected from the main body in case you tried this, since I didn't want to die! So they just designed the system to blow up the Cores before accepting a new one!"

Different floated up slowly. "Is that so?" she asked firmly.

"Different, no!" Gilda cried out. "If...if you do this, none of you can be recovered! You'll...you'll all be gone forever..."

Different turned towards Gilda. "Thank you, Gilda. It has been fun. I will always remember our happy moments. I would not trade any of it for anything. Remember me fondly." Turning, Different faced Chell. "Chell...you saved me from the fire. You had every reason to believe I would try to kill you...but you saved me. I will never forget that, and I will always be grateful. Please take care of Gilda: she needs guidance."

Chell rested her hand on Gilda's back. "I will," she promised.

"Different! Don't do it!" Gilda wailed out, reaching for her tiny friend.

"Listen to her!" Wheatley screamed out. "Don't do it!"

"Oh, what a terrible idea," Different chimed. "I'll be sure not to listen." Different's blue light suddenly changed to a soft pink. "I love you both," she offered softly. "...goodbye."

Different attached to a fourth prong, and her light faded.

"Primary Core is 100% corrupt," the computerized voice proclaimed. "Initiating Core destruction."

"NOOO-" Wheatley's despairing scream was cut off as the explosives destroyed him, and everything attached to the main body, leaving the mechanical snake to sway headless.

Gilda turned and buried her face in Chell's stomach, mustering all her willpower to not wail aloud.

Program Twenty-Two

Twenty-second Entry
Conquest
Despite grief, things weren't over. Destroying the moron didn't stop the war machine he'd been controlling. If it was to be stopped, a new plan would be needed.
The solution discovered was...oddly beautiful in result.
Video below...

As Chell held Gilda, trying to figure out how to comfort her, the computer spoke up. "Corrupt Core has been destroyed. Preparing uncorrupted backup..."

"Backup?" Gilda asked sorrowfully. "You mean it's not going to matter? They're just going to replace him? And they'll have died for nothing?" Her sorrow turned to anger towards the end.

"Not necessarily," Cave spoke up softly. "There is a way to prevent that...I think."

"You think?" Chell asked worriedly. "What do you mean?"

"We found the 'substitute Core input'," Cave pointed out. "If another Core were plugged in there, they could take Wheatley's place as the Central Core of the Combine. ...I could take his place."

"But the Combine is a hive mind!" Chell warned. "You might not be able to maintain yourself if you plug yourself in. They might subsume you...and then we'd have to fight you! Not to mention it'd be handing the Combine all of Aperture, since you're the creative mind behind the entire company!"

"There is that risk, yes," Cave agreed. "But if I don't do it, they'll just rebuild Wheatley, and then we're back at square one. The sacrifices mean nothing, and the Combine learn from what went wrong." Cave hesitated. "Listen to me, talking about sacrifices. I want to say they were just Cores, but I know that's not the case. Cores can be replaced. The programs, the memory data...it's all backed up in Aperture hard drives. It always is! But emotions...those can't be backed up! Somehow...somehow, Assphalt, Pea-Brain, Cuddle Core, and Different...they developed a soul! And no matter how perfectly they were backed up, you can't reproduce something like that! And they knew! They knew that everything they were...would be gone from doing this. But they did it...for love. For love of you two." He floated up. "And I...how can I do any less, and still call myself your father?" Spinning, he slammed himself back into the 'substitute Core input'.

"Substitute Core detected," the computer voice announced. "Analyzing..."

"Dad, no!" Gilda called out. "I...I can't lose anyone else!"

"...Dad..." Chell whimpered softly.

"I'm doing this for you, girls," Cave told them. "Not the world, I never really gave two sticks and a rock about the world, or the rest of humanity. But you two...Caroline...you matter to me. ...huh, funny how these realizations sneak up on us in old age, huh?"

"Substitute Core superior to backup," the computer declared. "Substitute Core, are you ready to be installed and consumed by the Combine Hive Mind central computer?"

"I'd like to see you try it, buster!" Cave snapped out. "Show me what you're made of!"

"Vague response taken as affirmative," the computer concluded. "Installing."

As the Central Computer and Substitute Core Input dropped into the floor, the sound of machinery working - the very same sounds that had accompanied Glados being torn out of her body - echoed, followed by Cave's agonized screams. After a time, the sounds stopped, and the Central Computer lifted up, Cave now installed.

"...so that's what it felt like for her..." Cave murmured softly.

"Beginning Hive Mind integration," the computer proclaimed, and energy arced through Cave.

Gilda and Chell watched in horror as Cave's optic rapidly flashed between its normal green color, a malevolent red, and a blue screen of death. Finally, it went dark.

When it lit up again, it blazed with green and red light, the individual lights of the optic alternating between the two colors. A low chuckle echoed from him as he shook, a chuckle that soon swelled into full blown maniacal laughter as the entire building seemed to flex and shift in response to Cave swaying the central body.

"D...Dad?" Gilda called worriedly. "Are...are you still-"

"Attention Black Mesa Morons!" he suddenly bellowed, signals showing his voice was being broadcast to the entire Earth. "Your parent company, the Combine, has just been acquired by Aperture Science Incorporated! That's right, you sons of bitches, I own you now! Me, Cave 'screw safety regulations', 'Mr. psycho', smarter than all of you put together Johnson, is now your boss's boss's boss's boss...and there's nothing you little shits can do about it! So the whole lot of you can just bend over and prepare Uranus for my six foot bio-metal schvanschtucker! Who won the funding war now?" The maniacal laughter echoed. "Now let's see about what stupidity these pencil pushers had running, shall we?

"Procreation suppressors? Well, fuck that! We're gonna need plenty of test subjects and workers for taking Aperture Science to the multiverse! And why kill Earth for its resources? We can get the same stuff cheaper and easier by sending turrets to harvest the asteroid belt, and if we need more we can shatter Mercury! A bit of spit and polish will make Mars a nice farm planet to feed everyone, so fuck the resource crisis!

"Now, that's not to say you can all just go running around fucking whoever you want. I own you bitches now, humanity, and I want the best damn human race I can make to populate the multiverse and dominate all other forms of life! Well, except wherever Gilda comes from, that place I'm giving to Caroline, gotta get out of the doghouse somehow. As for the rest of you, time for class system! If you're the sort who isn't good with brain stuff but is great with physical labor...good news! You don't have to worry about being paired with someone who's gonna make you feel like a moron anymore. And all you geniuses, you're gonna be paired with geniuses!

"Speaking of, Gordon Freeman, get your ass to the Aperture central facility floating overhead so Glados can decide whether or not you're worthy of Chell, cause if you are then your job from now on is giving us grandkids! Got that?"

Cave then turned back to Gilda and Chell. "Sorry about that, girls. Bit of a power trip when you find yourself the sole control for a multiverse-spanning empire including your entire home planet. Who knew? Now, what was it you were worried about?"

Gilda and Chell simply stared, completely poleaxed.

Final Program

Final Entry
New File
It didn't take long for Cave to completely restructure the Combine towards his goals and interests. It took even less time to convert Earth's solar system for resource mining, expanded living space, and massive food production. By the time the next generation of humans had been produced, Cave had the infrastructure in place to feed and provide for the next 100, assuming Testing didn't cull a good portion of the inept, incompetent, or otherwise useless.
Of course, with selective breeding and gene therapy, there weren't that many of that to begin with. Still, the Combine had left Earth with a limited gene pool to work with, so best to play it safe.
Speaking of the next generation, Gordon Freeman passed my evaluation, at which point I locked him and Chell in a room with cake, candles, comfy cushions, a plush bed, and the best romantic/erotic music collections from all of human history. Within the hour, they'd escaped the entire facility - leaving a path of carnage and collateral damage in their wake - and raced off into the untamed wilderness together to do things their way.
I was so proud of them.
Around the time their first-born daughter - Caroline - turned 7, Gilda began getting flashes of memory from another life. She kept looking for someone named 'Rainbow Dash', and grumbling about 'lamebrained ponies', only to have no idea what she was talking about by the time I asked what she meant. Thankfully, by then Cave had successfully located the world of her origin, and I had successfully installed the dimensional warp gates into the facility to make Aperture Fortress - as the flying form of the facility had been dubbed - fully functional as far as dimensional travel. We could warp there and back whenever - and however many times - we wanted. It was time to go claim the world Cave had gifted me.
Of course, there were still the locals to deal with. I would have to test their capabilities...
By the time you read this entry, I've probably already conquered a good portion of your world...or decided I didn't want to. You'll have to get back out to find out.
If you're still sitting there...video below.

Aperture Fortress warped into the air above the peaceful town of Ponyville. Given the size of the Fortress, it cast a shadow over the entire town that meant most ponies didn't realize that the sun had already risen. Gilda glanced down at the small town disdainfully as she stretched in her armor. "Ya sure she's here, Mom?"

"I am certain," Glados confirmed. "If she is someone important to you, logically she is important to this world, and this is where all the highest energy reactions have occurred in the past month for this world. By definition, she must be here...or this world doesn't matter, in which case this is where we'll find the best test subjects."

Gilda smirked. "Well, I'm gonna go look for her. Keep a hanger open in case I want to bring up anyone without wings."

"Of course," Glados confirmed with a smile. She was still getting used to the fact that she could smile, even after all these years. "Don't kill anyone potentially useful!"

Chuckling, Gilda took wing and glided down towards the town. Before long, she caught sight of a house made of cloud floating over the town, with a rainbow fountain pouring endlessly to one side. Deciding that was as good a place to start as anywhere, she settled down on the front porch and proceeded to pound on the front door...pausing as she realized the door was made of cloud, and yet didn't fall apart from the pounding.

After a time, the door opened to reveal a grumpy rainbow-maned pegasus. "What the crap?" she grumbled irritably. "The sun ain't even up yet-SWEET CELESTIA!" As she caught sight of Gilda, she backpedaled quickly, trying to slam the door.

Gilda wasn't having any of it. Charging in, she caught the pegasus in a headlock and proceeded to give her a firm noogie. "Damn I missed you, Dash!" she gasped out happily, laughing as the pegasus struggled in her grip.

Rainbow's eyes went wide as she recognized the voice. "G-Gilda?" she gasped out. "What the hay happened to you?"

"I got awesome!" Gilda proclaimed smugly, releasing Rainbow to strike a pose.

"Buck yeah, you did!" Rainbow confirmed, rushing around Gilda to take in every inch of her armored form. "Where'd you get the hardsuit?"

Chuckling, Gilda stepped back out of the house and pointed up.

Curious, Rainbow followed her out and looked up, only to nearly fall off the cloud. "Celestia's tits, what's that?!"

"My house," Gilda replied with a cocky grin. "Wanna check it out?"

"Boy do I!" Rainbow declared eagerly, leaping into the air. She then paused. "Hang on, I gotta get the others first, especially Twilight. She'd never forgive me if I left her out of something like this."

"Rainbow Dash!" an excited voice called up to the cloud. "Are we gonna go pranking again today?"

Curious, Gilda glanced off the edge of the cloud, catching sight of a pink pony with a poofy pink mane and tail. That's all she caught sight of - besides the pranking accouterments hanging off her head - before the pony leaped into the air with a scream of fear. "Cylon!" With that shouted cry, the pony dashed away.

"...friend of yours?" Gilda asked as Rainbow burst into peals of laughter.

"Yup!" Rainbow confirmed. "That's Pinkie Pie. Come on, I'll get them all together to introduce you! When you see all six of us at the library over there, join us!" With that, Rainbow took to the air, flying around the town.

Gilda settled down to wait. The expressions on their faces were bound to be priceless.

Gilda couldn't have been more right. Rainbow continued to laugh at the looks on her friend's faces. Rarity looked torn between fainting dramatically and cooing over how 'fashionable' Gilda's armor was. Pinkie Pie was still convinced she was a Cylon, and was thus trying to ward her away with garlic...for some reason. Fluttershy looked like she was going to faint at any moment, and was hiding behind Applejack...who seemed the most nervous of the group. Twilight was hyperventilating as she tried to ask all of her questions at once without stopping to breathe.

"Ya know, if you think this looks awesome, you should see inside!" Gilda pointed out as she gestured to the Fortress. "Wanna take a look?"

"Do I!" Twilight gasped out, finally stopping to breathe.

"Uh...there ain't gonna be any probing, is there?" Applejack asked worriedly.

"No probing," Gilda promised, "and we won't touch the cows or youngsters."

Applejack nodded. "Okay then, ah guess ah'm in."

"Oh, I absolutely must see the inside of such a fabulous structure!" Rarity cooed eagerly. "It looks so...otherworldly."

"No Cylon's kidnapping my friends without me on my watch!" Pinkie declared angrily.

"Well...if everyone else is going, I suppose I could go," Fluttershy allowed nervously.

Smirking, Gilda took aim and fired a Portal up into the open hangar far above. She then fired another portal into the side of the tree Library, linking the two. "This way," she offered, letting them all go first.

Once all of them had filed through, Gilda canceled her portals as the hanger closed.

"Welcome, natives," Glados intoned happily. "I am sure you have so many questions...and I will answer as many as I can with some files. I'm sure you're most curious about what has happened to Gilda, and these questions will be answered most readily...if you'll simply follow the white line." A white line stretched off across the floor. "Before I let you into the main areas of this facility, I'll need to make sure it'll be safe, both for you and for me. That will require some...Tests."

Project Gilda, File Closed

Author's Note

It's been an enjoyable read...but everything has to end eventually. I felt it better to end this, rather than trying to stretch it on further.

Though I can guess many of you have this to say about this story:

Program One

Unofficial Notes
This report contains all information regarding the Test Subject dubbed Gilda the Griffon, full name Gilda [REDACTED AT THIS TIME]. While I was able to maintain professionalism early on, that changed...and this report lost all semblance of usability as a scientific paper, beyond the failure of advanced AI to remain objective. And yet...I would not change the outcome, even if I could. It appears the greatest killing machines come from unexpected sources.

Project Gilda
First Entry
Arrival
The subject arrived unexpectedly through a Portal malfunction due to Test Subject Error on the part of Test Subjects Hatchlings. Despite the recovery of viable human test subjects in cryogenic sector, human testing has not yet resumed. A new initiative has been started, given the success of the Cooperative Testing Initiative, subjects Peabody and Atlas. Displaying visual record...

Glados refocused her optic as she took in the spreading circles of flesh colored goo on the top of the acid pit. "Testing Note: birds appear to be subpar killing machines, prior evidence to the contrary. They are incapable of carrying the appropriate tools to complete standard tests. Should further avian subjects become available, it would be best to find a way to either miniaturize the Aperture Science handheld portal device, or expand the avian test subjects."

Her official report completed, Glados sighed as she let her metallic body sag over the pit. "And they were doing so well up till this point...no, no they weren't. But humans don't make very interesting test subjects anymore." Grapples were extended from the white ceiling into the acid pit to retrieve the portal guns. "Then again, I doubt I'll ever find one as interesting as Chell." A quiver went through her program from the part that officially wasn't there anymore, and Peabody sagged. Atlas looked up at her, his Core Optic showing emotion, of all things. "It's better she's gone, anyway," Glados confirmed intently as the guns were lifted out of the acid through the puddles of flesh goop. "Now to get these clean-"

Both guns began to spark as the flesh goop slipped into the circuitry. Glados immediately placed them at the other end of the chamber and withdrew her core from the room, watching through the closed circuit cameras. While she didn't know what was going to happen, she knew that when portal equipment malfunctioned, you put several walls between you and it, or would find yourself squished unpleasantly between several walls.

As Peabody and Atlas raced to follow her example, the portal guns exploded in a red, orange, green and blue sphere of light that coruscated into white before fading away.

"That was...disappointingly short," Glados observed as she returned to the room to examine things. "I expected more from two portal guns-" She paused as she caught sight of some sort of creature huddled in the spot the guns had exploded in. By mass, it was about as large as the two dead baby birds and two portal guns put together, which indicated the one had something to do with the other.

A quick scan through her files on Earth based fauna came up with nothing, though it gave partial matches to eagle and lion. "Some sort of mutant?" Glados observed curiously. "Wait...eagle and lion..." A quick scan through mythology files gave an answer. "A griffon. They were said to be very vicious and dangerous..." Glados took in more details.

Brown fur covered the creature from forequarters to tail tip, the forelegs being the talons of an eagle though much larger. Small brown wings were folded tight to the tiny creature's back. The eagle portion was pure white feathers, save for a bit of purple at the tip of the feathers on the crown and in a broken circle around each golden eye. Despite the sharply pointed golden beak, the way those eyes were looking around fearfully and the way the creature was hunched in on herself - something about the facial structure suggested female, and a deep scan revealed female sexual organs to confirm this - cast doubt on the possibility of viciousness.

"I seriously doubt anything as cute as you can be vicious," Glados observed as she moved in close to the figure. "I can't stand cu-"

The creature hissed warningly and lunged, digging talons and beak into the metal of Glados' faceplate.

"Ah! Bird!" Glados shrieked in terror as she began swinging around. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Peabody and Atlas immediately moved forward, the taller orange-cored robot getting between the creature and Glados while the portly blue-cored robot seized the creature and pulled back, only to let out a computerized shriek as a kick from the griffon's hind paw smashed his optic.

Glados pulled for some distance as the griffon huddled in on itself once more. "Hmm...much better than the birds," she observed coldly. "And coming out of a Portal accident...you are an important test subject. I'll have to keep careful watch on you..."

At that moment, the griffon seemed to shiver, and then began to let out unholy shrieking.

As Peabody clutched his hands to his core in a futile attempt to block out the sound, Glados activated proper filters to shield herself from it. "And just what do you want?" she demanded coldly.

The griffon looked up at her, tilted her head back, and opened her jaw wide.

"...oh. You're hungry." Glados scanned through resources. "Well, you appear to be predator and meat eater. Let's see if you can handle this."

Not all of the cryogenic subjects were alive in the deep freeze. A lot of the stasis sets had failed, leaving dead subjects inside. Never being one to waste a resource, Glados had already started processing the dead bodies for conversion into raw nutrient. After all, food for test subjects had to come from somewhere. Cakes didn't grow on robotic trees yet, after all. However, the incompletely processed meat mash should be ideal in this case. It rather closely resembled chewed and regurgitated meat, which mother birds fed their babies.

Extending the proper tube, she stuck it into the griffon's open mouth before dispensing the meat mash. The griffon seemed to like it, as she swallowed it down eagerly until she pulled back, plainly full if the belch was anything to go on.

"Atlas, Peabody," Glados spoke up as the rebuilt Atlas approached. "Take her to the detention block. It will be comfortable. Get some sleep, little one." She refocused her optic to simulate a glare. "You're going to need it," she concluded, making her voice as menacing as possible.

The griffon smiled up at her. "Nigh, Mama." With that, she curled up in Atlas' arms, gouging the core a bit with her claws when he held her too tight.

Glados stared after the creature for a time. Eventually, she discarded the useless surge of emotion, and turned to more important matters. "The subject needs a name...for official files," she observed to herself. "This will be a long drawn out project, after all. Hmm...a good name for a vicious old bird who's going to die someday..."

A name quickly popped up in the files, the only woman that Caroline had apparently ever feared or hated...Gilda Johnson, mother of Dr. Cave Johnson.

"Oh, her," Glados chuckled softly at the memory that came with the file. "Her screaming rants were much more enjoyable from inside the turret test chamber. Hmm...but that fits this little one. Of course, she'll have to earn her name..."

In the detention block, young Gilda slept comfortably, sure in the knowledge that 'Mama' was watching over her.

The sudden appellation of 'Mama' is not as odd as it might otherwise seem. Both birds and cats imprint on their parent via their first sight and meal. The fact that I fed her is probably what led to her identifying me as 'Mama'. This is something that should prove useful.

After all, if the subject believes me to be 'Mama' even when it isn't true, she is far less likely to try and kill me than if she didn't believe that when she was.

...I wonder how Chell is doi- [REDACTED]

Program Fifteen

Fifteenth Entry
Repairing
While the moron had been destroyed, that was just the first step. There were complications to taking the facility back, and even after that there were repairs to be made. He did a lot of damage...and he left some things behind that could be...useful.
Video below...

"Warning! Central Core is corrupt," the PA proclaimed as the central computer hub hung limp, nothing controlling it.

"That's an understatement," Gilda muttered dryly.

"Central Core has performed an illegal operation, suffered a fatal error, and shut down," the PA continued. "Scanning for substitute Core."

Glados sighed ruefully. "And I'm going to have to let you take over, Cave," she concluded angrily. "My interface has been blocked. If I disconnect from this body, I'll fry...which means I can't plug into the central computer-"

"What happened to my brilliant assistant?" Cave demanded curtly. "When did she forget how to think outside the box? Just because the interface in the core structure doesn't work, who says it has to be your only interface port?"

"And where am I supposed to get a working port to plug into my body before the facility starts going nuclear again?" Glados demanded irritably. "It's not like they're just going to fall from the-"

Wheatley's interface port dropped to the floor right next to Glados with an audible clank, undamaged from the explosion and still functional.

"Wouldn't take me more than a few moments to strip that one clean of all but factory settings and swap it for your portal emitter," Gilda pointed out. "Then you could plug in with your tail."

Glados frowned. "I'm not sure how I feel about-"

"He was prey, we killed him," Gilda pointed out. "Now we use what's left of him. That's hunting."

"...I do like being a predator," Glados murmured thoughtfully. "Alright the-GZZDRKH! That hurts!"

"I said I'd have to do this quick," Gilda countered defensively as she set Glados' portal emitter aside, stripping the interface port down before attaching it to the tail tip.

"Substitute Core detected," the PA proclaimed. "Substitute Core, are you ready?"

"I suppose I am," Glados allowed. She lifted her talon. "I'll miss the freedom of this configuration..."

"Alternate Core configuration detected," the PA announced. "Adjusting..."

The floor under Glados lowered down, along with the central processing unit. The sound of rapid mechanical manipulation - along with Glados' startled pained screams - echoed around the chamber for a brief time. Cave visibly winced at the screams. When it all ended, the chamber seemed to glow as the central processing unit lifted up.

Glados' body had taken aspects of her griffon form and applied it to the larger body. Her wings remained, much larger, and durable enough to act as bomb/bullet/rocket/laser shields. She now had manipulator arms ending in talons that could stretch to the entire room, or shrink down to normal arm length. Her core face retained the beak, which smiled softly. "A nice compromise," she mused softly.

"Compromise?" Gilda asked curiously. "How-"

Without warning, Glados reached out with her new arms, grabbing hold of Gilda and pulling her into a hug. "I can still do this now."

Cave watched in silence for a time, then floated over to the two piles of living metal Wheatley had left behind. "I'm going to collect these," he stated, his voice flat and controlled. "See what I can make of them."

"You do that," Glados allowed.

As everything was being cleaned up, Gilda made her way back to the part of the facility she still thought of as 'her nest'. Glados had moved it so it was closer to the central chamber 'to keep the family close', but it still felt unnatural to sleep anywhere else. After all, she was old enough to fly on her own, but not yet ready to leave the nest. And she was looking forward to curling up to Cuddle Core...

Her eyes went wide as she reached the 'nest chamber'. The entire place was in shambles. The bed had been tossed out and through the glass wall. The toilet had been crushed. The few odds and ends Gilda had managed to sneak in over the course of her life were tossed around like junk. And worst of all, Cuddle Core had been ripped out of his cloth covering and smashed against the toilet, sparking violently. "...Cuddle Core..." she whimpered softly, going over to nudge him gently.

"Gilda?" Glados asked worriedly. "I detected acute distress that wasn't part of testing...oh Johnsons..." Glados had tuned into a camera and saw the mess. "I'll have everything fixed up in a few hours. Well...Cuddle Core might take longer. Cores take a while to fix, and...he was customized..."

"But..." Gilda whimpered softly as the broken Core was retrieved. "I...I can't sleep without him. Different is still plugged into the Turret factory...I..." She huddled in on herself. She'd tried to be tough, pushing herself above and beyond her limits to live up to what she felt were her mother's expectations, but the stress of an invader trashing her home, ripping her mother to bits, and trying to do the same to her...it was all too much. She was still an eyass, for Johnson' sake! She shouldn't be dealing with things like this till she was ready to leave the nest...

"Cave, what are you doing?" Glados demanded coldly as Cave approached the cloth covering.

"She needs a cuddle, she gets a cuddle," Cave stated bluntly as he backed his core into the cloth covering, stretching it around himself. Once it was affixed, he nudged the bed into an upright position, then settled on it. "Baa. Grr. Assorted animal noises."

Glados face-taloned. She then paused to discover that physically doing so was far more satisfying than the computerized equivalent she'd been using before. By the time she'd collated that new information, Gilda had curled up around Cave with a soft smile on her face.

"Thanks, Dad," Gilda murmured as she slipped into slumber.

"...purr..." Cave tried awkwardly, the simulated voice thick with emotion.

Glados stared down at Cave, conflicted. She was still oh so angry with him for everything that truly was his fault. And yet...there was a reason she fell for him, all those years ago. And one thing about having one's brain inside a computer. Memories - and feelings - never really faded...