When I fell into my deep slumber, I woke up in the Vault, the same as last time when I talked with Original Jack.
"Hey kid! I know you were 'busy' with your girlfriends, so I didn't want to butt in. I just came to warn you. Due to my years in the void, I came into contact with countless souls. While it's true that I didn't fuse with them, some of their essence stuck to us forever. Why is that important, you may ask? Well, it's simple: you will experience their lives as well when something related to them pops up."
I was still a bit confused about what this had to do with anything, so while I put some clothes on, I asked, "I get it, I'm more complex than just two people mashed together, but so what?"
"Sigh~ Look, kid, it's simple. The more your power grows, the more your overall potential becomes. Take your wings, for example. You did notice it's much easier to make units now, right?" I just nodded.
"Good, that means we're not completely braindead. When two of your wings appeared, your power grew exponentially. Now, instead of doing it one by one, you can double the number of Puppets made with the same amount of energy. This applies to every new wing you gain in the future, so right now you're at four times the amount per stamina cost. Do you get why this is a problem now?" I replied with a simple, "No."
"Alright, then I'll be real with you. Do you think people will accept you this way? No one likes it when someone is stronger than them. The problem with us being strong is that it's not proportional. We embody life as a concept, so while we can create more and more powerful creatures, we will never be strong enough to personally handle every threat. We might get more powerful over time, but it will never be enough for us to stand a real chance."
I agreed with him, so I let him complete his train of thought.
"I think the best course of action would be to build a force strong enough to withstand and even completely stop any enemy forces that want to use you or your family. So why don't we do the job of E.D.E.N. that was part of it by design? Don't forget, this power's main priority is to be a Nexus point for evolution itself, so we should use the Vault as it was meant to be used. Let's travel through the void to explore and develop different worlds. Of course, we won't know where we will end up, but who cares? Since we embody life itself, we obviously won't just appear somewhere without life and die instantly. We can always return here since the Vault serves as a nexus between universes. We just need to mark it to get its coordinates, and the big girl will do its thing." HJack finished by pointing at the giant arch above us.
"But how could I leave the girls behind? I can't bear to leave them alone just so I could go on and have an adventure," I tried to argue.
"Oh god, don't be a brick, kid. You guys are literally immortal, so you have the entirety of eternity to be together. And the laws of time don't really apply here since you'll leave the universe in its entirety. It's up to you when you arrive back here. I just wouldn't recommend traveling to the past since it would most likely cause the birth of another universe by permanently modifying your current one." Jack shot back at me.
"And don't tell me you're not pumped about the possibility of how different other universes could be. If we just go by the imprints made into the Named puppets, it can't be boring. So how about it, kid? We could speed up our research and DNA collection this way. Or do I need to remind you that in this universe, we don't have a super-intelligent AI to serve as the brains for our Loaders and other machines like I did back on Pandora? We've also almost made this whole place self-sufficient, so Thrawn and Breen can basically run everything without you being here. You've pretty much just been lazing around here for the past couple of months anyway. Also, after we check out a random universe, we could work on a dimensional teleporter so the girls can come with us."
Jack finally convinced me as I sighed and asked, "Alright, alright, I get it! So what should I do to initiate the jump?"
"That's easy, kid. Just let out your wings and think back to the void I shoved you from in our shared memory. That way, we can be flung through it and land somewhere, among the infinite realities."
I shrugged, manifested my halo and wings, and began concentrating on the mental image of the vast emptiness filled with echoes of long-lost and forgotten souls. The last thing I heard Original Jack say was a warning:
"Be careful, okay? After the jump, you won't be able to do another for a while, so find a place to stay for a bit."
The next thing I knew, I was hit with the strongest vertigo I'd ever felt. Upon landing on something hard, I immediately threw up everything in my stomach. However, I felt someone patting my back to help me through the nausea. When the world stopped spinning like I was on an overclocked carousel ride, I looked up to see a woman in a white tank top, with an orange jumpsuit used as pants while the top part was tied to her waist. She had a particularly strange device strapped to her right hand and weird-looking boots on her feet.
She held out one of her hands to help me up, which I gratefully took. Then I asked her, "Excuse me, I don't really know where or when I am. Could you please tell me? I can guess this was a lab of some kind that has been abandoned and fallen into disrepair, but I have no idea whose place this is."
She didn't answer at first and just stared at me with eyes full of wonder and relief. Then, out of nowhere, she hugged me.
"Thank God! I thought I was going insane, but you're real! Finally, another human other than me!"
She was obviously in distress, so I let her vent a bit to avoid going full crazy on me. After over five minutes, I just coughed as she still didn't let me go.
"Oh, sorry! I'm really not used to this whole 'other humans are here' thing. Oh yeah, uhhh, my name is Chell, I think. I'm a bit confused as well about when we are currently, but I do know that we're in one of Aperture Science's test chambers. I'm trying to get out with a Personality Core called Wheatley. If I read the number on the test chamber's display right, then we're in the 6th chamber of this specific route."
I was a bit stunned by her sudden info dump, but I could see she wasn't really used to talking with people—or at all—due to her throat getting hoarse after just a few minutes of talking.
"Right, well anyway, my name is John Adams, but just call me Jack. So, do you have any plan on how to get out of here?" She nodded and pointed at an orange thingy on the wall.
"Yeah, these puzzles are pretty easy for now. I only need to use my momentum through the portal to grab the cube, bring it to the button, and unlock that door. Although, I'm not so sure how you'll make the jump since you don't have Long Fall boots on."
I just smirked and said to her, "Don't worry about me, I'll manage, but I'm really curious about these portals you mentioned."
She just shrugged, and instead of explaining, she jumped into a large hole and shot a blue projectile towards it, which opened a blue gate through the orange one. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty cool. When she levitated the now-free cube on top of the big button, the door opened without any problem. She then yelled at me, "Come on, I'll hand you my boots and open a portal for you so you can come up here as well!"
I just shook my head and said, "Nah, don't bother. Just watch this!" I sprouted my two pairs of wings and flew up towards her.
It would be quite the understatement to say she was gobsmacked.
"You have wings, and you can fly!" she shouted, pointing at me.
"Yeah, I can. Why, isn't it normal here for humans to have some kind of weird power?"
She looked contemplative for a bit and then sighed.
"Well, it could be, but I don't have one, and the other people from my memories didn't have any either. But according to Wheatley and the automated system, I've slept for God knows how long in hibernation." She now looked really sad and lonely.
"Alright, it doesn't really matter anyway. This just means we can move faster than before," I quickly interjected, trying to lighten the mood. "Let's proceed to the next room." I grabbed her hand and started pulling her toward the now-open gate.
We arrived in front of a weird energy barrier, but Chell just walked through it without a care in the world. I shrugged and followed her, but it seemed I wasn't really welcome. The moment I passed through the barrier, all my clothes got atomized and vanished.
I heard giggles coming from Chell, who tried not to make it obvious she was laughing at me.
"Yeah, ha-ha, very funny. Now, would you please give me the top part of your jumpsuit so I can cover myself with something that won't fall apart? Or do you want to stare at me while I'm naked?"
She quickly shut up, lowering her head while trying not to look me in the eyes out of embarrassment. She then untied the upper part of her suit and handed it to me. Although I could see from her movements that she tried her absolute hardest not to peek at me, the subtle movements of her fingers on her face told me she failed. What I didn't expect, however, was that she'd also give me the baggy pants of her jumpsuit. Thankfully, it seemed she had tight-fitting pants underneath.
"Well, now you certainly look like a proper test subject of Aperture," she joked, patting my back as we moved forward to the second part of the test chamber.
"Do you know what happened to this place? I mean, you seem pretty knowledgeable about it." We were placing another cube on the button to control the door, but my question made her fall silent.
"Sorry if that was insensitive of me. I was just curious. You don't have to answer if it bothers you."
She looked at me with a broken and defeated expression.
"No, don't worry. It doesn't hurt anymore. To be perfectly honest, I have too many memories of this place. I essentially saw its decline and eventual destruction."
I placed a hand on her shoulder for support.
"You can share it with me if you want." She buried her head into my chest but began her story.
"I was born around 1989, give or take a few years. This was before the tragedy. I was just a little girl, no more than 12 years old. My parents used to work here, you know, and my father was supposed to be some big-shot head scientist of one of the branches. I clearly remember coming here for some kind of event, but the details have become foggy over the years. I remember the panic and the scrambling of everyone. Green gas was pouring in from the vents. If I remember right, my mother grabbed my hand and quickly led me out of there. She brought me to some kind of pod and locked me in it. I never saw either of them again. So much time has passed since then that now I don't even remember their names or faces."
She started to sob a bit, obviously shaken by the memories.
I sat down, placed her head in my lap, and began stroking her hair. When she calmed down a bit, her story continued.
"After that, the years became blurry, but I do know I was constantly participating in tests orchestrated by Aperture's very own evil AI, GLaDOS. The last time I was awakened, I was handed the HPD for testing purposes. Thanks to its capabilities, I managed to destroy GLaDOS. I thought I even managed to reach the surface, but I blacked out after the fight, and somehow, I ended up back here when I woke up. That's when I met Wheatley and started my journey toward freedom once again. To be honest, I don't really like any kind of AI, so I usually stay silent or ignore them to piss them off." She tried to joke a bit at the end.
"That's when I met you. So, that's the story for now. I think I've managed to avenge my parents and everyone here by finally defeating her. I don't know... now I just feel hollow without a purpose. I mean, what am I going to do when I get out of here? I have no real education other than the basics I still kind of remember. Because I've had no free time, I don't have any real applicable skills for work."
She then stood up with me and began smiling, but it looked a bit too forced for my liking.
"Well, no matter. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Now, let's go!"
We made our way to the door and crossed it. I saw a giant room with a small tube-shaped lift at the end of it. We both got in and started our ride. I don't know how far this rabbit hole goes, but I will at least help Chell get out of here in one piece.