(I really recommend listening to Exile Vilify or Don't Say Goodbye to set the background tone of the Aperture Labs sections.)
I wanted to follow Chell, but I was getting more and more worried about the girls I left home. Since they have wings as well, we are connected, so they should keep that universe active while I am away. To not make them worried, I got an idea that could even make me some extra funds back home. I selected the camera option from the Tool Gun. My current hypothesis is that once I fix it to my turret companion, it would be able to record and show live footage to the girls since it's connected to my vault through the gun, just like my puppets—and even they are after our 'bonding.' After configuring its settings, like adjusting its size, making it see-through, and making it unable to collide with any objects, I will be honest: this thing is so much more versatile and powerful than I expected. Who in their bloody mind thought it was a good idea to just throw it away? But I guess I shouldn't really question their intelligence. Aperture would be the perfect example of some people with max intelligence and no wisdom, in D&D terms. The whole GLaDOS situation reflects this perfectly as well. I mean, come on—AI 101 literally always starts with the possibility of rogue AI. How could they not take the most basic steps when booting up an AI? Why would they start by directly connecting it to the mainframe of the whole facility?
I felt a tingling feeling in my wings as I looked inside my vault. Inside, I saw an interesting sight: in front of the large gate, there was now a black monolith. When I got closer to it, I saw through my "eyes" that I seemed to have left behind some kind of weird corporal form in my original universe. I saw the girls now awake, trying to check on me to see what was wrong. From the window, I caught a glimpse of my reflection: My body was covered in a purple light, the only feature I could still clearly see were my eyes, which were large glowing white orbs. I had an idea and connected the camera feed to the black monolith. The next moment, I saw that my "eyes" started projecting its feed onto the wall I was facing. I didn't have a way to talk to them directly, so I exited the vault, but I did fix another camera towards the monolith so I could observe their reactions live. When I exited, I quickly connected their reaction feed to a wrist display that Mei made a long while ago.
I set the turret down on the floor and made it look like I was talking to it: "Hello, hi? I think this video has sound as well, so it should be good. I know that you are probably confused about what happened with me. Well, first of all, that thing in the room is not me. It's just an avatar of me that my power made to stay strongly connected to our own world, since I couldn't leave fully. Most likely, it's so I can supply my puppets and you girls with energy." They looked like they wanted to ask a million questions, but I stopped them. "Look, this is important. I didn't leave permanently, but for now, I don't have the necessary power to return. You did hear right about me leaving our own universe. Yes, Mei, the multiverse is real. No, Momo, I don't know how this works." I answered the questions that were likely on their minds. "To not make you worry, I will stream my whole journey here. You should probably record it as well, so you can show it to the others while I am away. Another thing is, while I can't talk to you guys yet directly, I can see you through my eyes, so don't worry, I can still somewhat understand what is happening back home."
After that, I just picked up the poor, confused turret and tried to follow Chell. With the help of the Tool Gun, I fixed a rope between the floor and the ceiling so I could climb out. On the other side, Chell was waiting for me, a bit confused about what took me so long. I just pointed at the Tool Gun and my new display on my arm. She nodded in understanding, probably not wanting to alert GLaDOS to my new item.
GLaDOS, after we finally started moving again, spoke up: "Finally. Now, once testing starts, I am required by protocol to keep interaction with you to a minimum. Luckily, we haven't started testing yet, so we have plenty of time to talk." We just moved through the broken hallways, not really listening to GLaDOS, although the girls, from what I could see on the screen, were really excited about the abandoned lab, but mostly about my and Chell's devices. Mei, obviously, was super excited to learn about the prospect of such a powerful AI since, due to our Loader project, she has been researching AI development non-stop, but she hasn't gotten far just yet.
"Do you know the biggest lesson I learned from what you did? I found out that I have a sort of black-box quick-save feature. In the event of a catastrophic failure, the last two minutes of my life are preserved for analysis." Chell and I both stopped in our tracks, a bit shocked at the news. "Yes, really. Thanks to this, I was able—well, more like forced—to relive you killing me. Again and again. Forever." I don't know how she did it, but her already cold, mechanical voice turned even colder by the end of her rant aimed at Chell. I could see that, even though she hated her, Chell didn't wish this fate on her. I just put a hand on her shoulder as we continued through the rubble toward the exit.
"You know, if you'd done that to somebody else, they might devote their existence to exacting revenge~. Luckily for you, I'm a bigger person than that. I'm happy to leave this all behind us and get back to work. After all, we've got a lot of tests to do, and only sixty more years to do it. More or less. I don't have the actuarial tables in front of me." I kind of found it funny that GLaDOS can be so vengeful. Unfortunately, no one else found it funny, not even the girls back home. Their initial hype about universal travel died down quite a bit after GLaDOS's increasingly threatening comments.
Eventually, we arrived at the elevator on this floor without a problem, but then she spoke to Chell once again. "But the important thing is you're back. With me. And now I'm onto all of your little tricks. So there's nothing to stop us from testing for the rest of your life. After that…who knows? I might take up a hobby. Reanimating the dead, maybe." In the end, I couldn't hold it in and broke character, laughing out loud. Chell's head snapped toward me, looking a bit hurt by my reaction, so I tried to clarify: "I mean, it's a little funny, no? It has to be a level of pettiness, to be so bitter toward someone that you don't do anything other than try to annoy them. Seriously, this place seems like it's on the brink of collapsing, but instead of doing anything about it, she just tries to rile you up."
Somehow, this managed to shut up even GLaDOS, who I'm certain is stuck in a loop just thinking about it all. After I said this, Blinky also laughed a little on my back. And for the first time in the company of machines, I heard Chell make a noise—she was cackling, literally on the elevator floor, crying from laughter. This came as another shocking blow to GLaDOS's inflated ego and pride; most likely, she was still under the impression that Chell either didn't understand her or was legitimately brain damaged.
When I pointed this out to Chell, she became even more ecstatic. She really liked the fact that GLaDOS now had to doubt herself about Chell's real condition. This will most likely piss off the reactivated robot even more. While Chell was laughing and GLaDOS was basically rebooting, I took a look at my wrist monitor to see the girls' reactions. I was a bit shocked, however, when I found out that they had moved my avatar into a large warehouse, where now every important personnel in the Citadel was watching me fool around with amusement. They even brought out a large camera system so they could record my journey locally.
I ignored them for now and turned my attention once again toward Chell and GLaDOS. They had recovered, and now GLaDOS seemed to want to make Chell speak, much to the latter's amusement. From my perspective, they looked more like siblings than mortal enemies. But due to me liking being alive and all, I didn't say my observation out loud.
We then continued our little journey in this lab, and even if neither Chell nor I wanted to admit it, GLaDOS quickly restored almost everything to working condition. The only problem she ran into was the lack of supplies she needed to run the factories and different stations. I had a bad feeling about this. If GLaDOS herself was shocked by the lack of reinforcements and resources, then what could have happened to the surface? Last time, when she was more machine-like with little to no emotions, she didn't mention a similar problem.
We smashed through these challenges and tests with relative ease. GLaDOS was still with us, obviously, and even Wheatley somehow managed to survive her previous awakening. Wheatley is still working out a lot of the kinks in the plan to take down GLaDOS this time for good. When neither of them were present with us, Chell and I talked a lot about the families we had, the duties we were responsible for, and finally, I even told her that I am not from this universe. To once again prove how messed up and unbelievable things were down here in Aperture, Chell just shrugged and said, "Well, it isn't the weirdest thing I have seen or heard down here. There are plenty of demons hiding inside the walls of Aperture." She gave me a side hug after she said that.
"But thank you for putting your trust in me. It really means a lot." She then helped me up, and we marched forward toward the exit of this weird place. "Let's get going, Jack! I honestly can't wait to finally get out of here, I have so many things that I want to try out once we are out of here!"