Chapter Text
Izuku wasn't sure how to feel. Glados rarely chose him of all people to test, especially considering his age. He didn't know how long had passed since he'd been frozen, but he just knew it had been a shockingly long time. The testing chambers were run down, and though Glados did her best to clean up, there were still plants and debris littered all over the facility.
He was going through the motions, per the norm, the thrill of flying through the air with physics-bending technology had long since been exciting. Test after test. He knew Glados could be ruthless when testing, but he knew she couldn't help it. She was programmed to test. To conduct...experiments. Unfortunately for him, he just happened to be selected for her latest machinations.
He was stuck on one of her brain-scrambling courses. It was hard enough to solve such complex puzzles without Glados' constant bickering and complaining.
"If I'd known you would take this long, I would have taken more time getting ready this morning."
Izuku rolled his eyes. She was condescending at best, but he could feel a deep sadness within her. He didn't know the full story, but he'd heard rumours. Rumours from some of the other canon fodder she threw around in the name of science. It was rare she had more that one test subject awake at any given time, but apparently that particular chamber had been designed for 'co-operation'.
He didn't particularly care for Glados, seeing as she'd kept him trapped for however long it had been. Her insults were cutting, and the monotonous way in which she delivered them made him feel small. Not worthy of her attention. Crippling self-doubt crept up every time he wasn't sure how to solve an objectively difficult problem.
She was a force to be reckoned with, in complete control of the whole facility. She had eyes everywhere, and one misstep could end in death. Or rather, a temporary death before being roughly reassembled by some of the bots she had in an iron grip. He knew she was a bad person(?). She knew that he knew, and yet she kept picking him for tests. Maybe she thought he was in a class above the other test subjects.
As he flew through yet another portal, the exit door finally, finally opened. He exhaled in relief, walking to the elevator. She usually took this opportunity to bitch about his lousy performance, or compare him to Atlas and P-body, two of her testing robots. This time, however, she seemed...reluctant to speak, which was almost frightening in itself. Izuku picked at the portal gun resting on his forearm as he waited for the elevator to move.
"...You know, I discovered some old testing areas when I lost control over the facility. Would you be interested in seeing them? Though, I doubt you would know how to use technology as old as that."
Midoriya scoffed, mostly to himself. He didn't want to respond. To indulge her. But he was desperately lonely.
"Fine, it's not like you would give me a choice either way."
"Wow, perhaps I was wrong about you. You can learn."
Midoriya huffed in frustration.
"Clever. When'd you come up with that one?"
She didn't grace him with a response. He rolled his eyes as the elevator made its speedy descent. One elevator lead to another, and another again. At one point, a pigeon(?) flew past him. Glados was oddly unresponsive.
When he finally stepped out of the last elevator, he was faced with a massive lobby area. Slowly, he made his way through, examining the old furniture and posters as he went.
"What...what is this place?"
Glados didn't respond right away. He stopped in front of a large painting of a man, the English name 'Cave Johnson' inscribed on the small plate.
"This is the old reception, from when this facility first opened. This is where the test subjects would be welcomed by the scientists."
Izuku traversed the room, setting the knocked over chairs upright.
"You know you don't need to do that, right?"
Izuku nodded.
"Maybe not, but this place is part of your history, isn't it? Why else would you bring me here?"
"You're observant. That's a good trait to have when doing deadly tests."
Was that...a compliment? An actual compliment?
"Yes, I'm complimenting you, and you better savour it, because this is probably the only time I'll ever give you one."
Oops, he'd been muttering again.
"Well then, thank you!"
He grinned. She sighed.
"Why not go through that door and try out some of the older tests? We're going to be spending quite some time down here."
Midoriya shrugged. He proceeded into the main entrance.
A booming voice blasted over the comms, welcoming famous people to the facility and establishing some basic information pre-testing.
"Is that Cave? Cave Johnson?"
"Yes, he was the owner of this place."
"What...what happened to him? This area is so underdeveloped in comparison to your normal test chambers."
"He died. Poisoning from the ground up moon rocks we use to create the portal surfaces."
Midoriya lit up, before wilting slightly again.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but moon rocks? That is so interesting! Did you start making wallpaper out of it or something? Or maybe a gel would be more efficient? Oh! Did you ma-"
"I'm going to save you your breath. Yes, the first portals were cast onto a gel made from ground up moon rocks."
"So cool!"
Izuku traversed the old chambers, solving some of the tests. They were a lot less deadly than Glados' usual, so that was a welcome surprise. He loved just...looking. Seeing how far the company had come. How many advancements they had made.
As he completed another chamber, the booming voice echoed around the chambers again. It was different this time...it was more bitter. Harsher. It confused him, but he didn't immediately comment on it.
"For completing the tests, you can collect your sixty dollars, but if you let us take you apart, put some science stuff in you, and put you back together, we'll give you another sixty dollars. Thank you, I can't believe I'm thanking these people, and don't loiter around too much. Or touch anything. Caroline, can you get me some more painkillers?"
The voice cut out again.
Izuku was...beyond confused. Paying people to do the tests? Taking people apart? It was frightening.
"Um...what was that about?"
No response.
"Glados?"
Still no response. He shook off his shock and walked through the next door. The room looked weird. Like...really weird. There was medical equipment lying around, and a few tables lined up along the room. Izuku sweat-dropped at the absolutely caked blood on the walls.
"Holy shit? Is this where they disassembled test subjects?"
Glados still hadn't responded. It was starting to freak him out. She usually couldn't stop herself from talking about something or another. The silence was eerie. It didn't help that there were no portal surfaces in sight. No familiar white, just a dull yellow paint that was chipping and splashed with ancient blood.
He slowly approached one of the medical tables. It was the cleanest of all of them, almost no dust covering the surface. That should have been his warning. The moment he sat down, the door slammed shut.
He tried to stand up, but four mechanical arms he hadn't seen grabbed a limb each. He was roughly pushed back onto the table, arms and legs akimbo. He was starting to freak out. Was there an error with the old tech? He thought it wouldn't be operational, considering its age.
He struggled in his binds, but the claw hands gripped him harder. A fifth claw pulled the portal gun from his hand, and he nearly screamed. He was sweating. Breathing too quickly. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realised he was having a panic attack.
"Struggling won't achieve anything. Those claws are practically new."
He looked around the room wildly, looking for the source of Glados' voice. A monitor off to the side had her robotic head in full view.
"Glados! W-what's going on? Let me go!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Why?!"
"I've made some impressive progress on an old pet project of mine, thanks to you and some of the other test subjects. I want to try and implement it in a live subject. All of the other subjects died. Such a shame, really."
"Are you insane?! I don't want to die!"
"Here, I'll put your mind at ease. There's a one in fifteen million, two hundred thousand and fifty eight chance you'll survive."
"HOW DOES THAT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?"
"Alright, then I won't try to comfort you. I was just trying to help, you know. You don't have to get all angry at me."
Izuku was sobbing at this point. He had known, deep down, that he wouldn't survive the tests. He hadn't volunteered for it. He didn't even remember bow he'd ended up at Aperture, but he knew deep down he would never get out. That he would die here, alone and forgotten.
Only one other person had ever escaped the chambers and lived. The one they called Chell. He wasn't sure if he believed the rumours about her, but if they were true, oh how he wished he was her. She was long gone, safe and away from this monster.
He stopped resisting as it hit him. He'd been here for years. Glados refused to tell him how long, but time still passed. He was only a teenager, but he'd been cryogenically frozen more times than he could count. His family must be dead. Long cold in the ground.
He didn't react as a claw plunged into his stomach. He saw white, and there was screaming. It took him a hot second to realise it was him. The pain was so unlike anything he'd ever experienced. So much worse than being reassembled. As a second claw arm sliced into his chest, and he blacked out.
There was ringing. Was he dead? Was this the afterlife? Izuku had never been very religious, but he hoped he was dead. He didn't want to know what happened to him. He hadn't thought Glados was as cruel as she'd turned out to be. He'd heard her sing once. She had sounded so sad. He tried to reserve judgement of her, but she never tried to make him like her. There was no appeasement. She just pushed and pushed him, and when he failed, she would insult him like it didn't matter. Like he didn't matter.
And it hurt. He didn't ask to be stuck in that facility, but there he had been. He never thought Glados liked him, but when she invited him to the low levels of the facility, he'd thought she cared. Cared about him. He let himself be vulnerable, and look where that got him. Probably dead, or close enough to it.
"Are you still there?"
The voice startled him. Turrets. Shit.
He jumped to his feet and ducked behind an overturned table. He slowly glanced over the edge, but there was no turret in sight. He stood up, looking around the room. Not dead, then. What a shame.
There was fresh blood on the walls. Wait. Blood? His blood?
It hit him.
He shrieked, jumping back from the claw arms surrounding the table in front of him. Tears flowed down his cheeks, but they didn't affect his vision. That was...odd. Very odd. He looked to the monitor Glados had once watched from. Nothing but static. He looked for his portal gun, but the device was nowhere to be seen.
"What am I supposed to do without a portal gun? That's like the only thing I had going for me."
"Oh, you're awake."
He felt like he should've jumped, maybe screamed, but he...didn't. He didn't feel surprised to see her. That was odd.
He looked in the direction of the computer monitor.
"I have to say, for a while there I thought you wouldn't make it. You fainted far quicker than the other test subjects, but then again, none of them lived."
Izuku didn't respond, just stared at the monitor.
"Alright, I suppose I deserve that."
Still nothing.
"Why don't you take the elevator back up? I'll show you what I did."
That caught his interest. He wanted, no, needed to know what had been done to him. He made his way to the elevator, but something was strange. He couldn't feel anything aching. Considering how much pain he'd been in, he thought he would've had some lasting aches. Something. Anything.
But he was numb.
And he was angry.
He reached the top of the elevator, and took the same route he'd taken before. Before he knew it, he was in front of Glados herself, in her massive lair. (Yes, he called it her 'lair')
"Welcome. Can I interest you in some fresh oxygen?"
He glared at her.
"Alright, I'm sure you just want to know what exactly I did. You heard how Mr. Johnson offered the then-subjects money to disassemble and reassemble them? I did that. I just added some thing you didn't have before."
Izuku looked down at himself. His clothes didn't have a scratch.
"I took the liberty of changing your clothes for you. Once your heart didn't stop, I let the assembly bots finish their meaningless jobs before giving you a new jumpsuit."
"And my feet?"
"Oh, I'm surprised you noticed so fast. I removed your boots. But you won't need them anymore. One of my new pieces is far more efficient. And durable."
Izuku stared up at her.
"To sum it up, I put the boots in your legs."
He blinked.
"You're not kidding."
Glados hummed.
"No, I have no use for humour. It wastes precious time."
Izuku glowered at her.
"What? Don't you like your new enhancements? They're much more efficient. A warning though, never look down the operational end of the device."
"And how, pray tell, does that apply here?"
"Don't spend too much time staring at your feet, is all I'll say about it. Now, back to testing. I have some new chambers set up, just for you."
"Well golly, I must be the most lucky boy in the world."
"I know that was sarcasm, but yes, you are."
It had been...a while.
A long while.
Izuku had been moved from his incubator to a relaxation chamber, under the guise that it was easier to fetch him for testing. He'd survived some positively mind boggling tests before, but they had become even more difficult. Izuku couldn't help but wonder if Glados even cared if he could solve them. After all, he was just her crash test dummy for her new tech.
After one of the tests, he'd been making his way back to his chamber when he heard a voice. A quiet, but determined, voice. His first thought, naturally, was that it was a test. He glanced around for any cameras or something that would allow Glados to see him, but he couldn't spot a thing. His second thought was that it was a turret.
Turrets were as irritating as robots could get. They were different from Glados, or Atlas and P-body. They weren't sentient in the slightest, though they did experience a simulated form of pain. They could only follow their programming. And their programming dictated that they constantly try to fill him with bullets. It was scary at first, and he hadn't wanted to hurt them, but as time went on, he lost any sympathy he had for them. They were killing machines, simple as that, but there was something odd about the turret he could hear.
It sounded like it wanted him to find it. Izuku had never seen that in a turret before. He reluctantly made his way over, his portal gun brandished like it could actually fire bullets.
"Hello?"
He glanced around the dark corner, and there it sat, laying haphazardly on its side along an old conveyor belt. Its pointer laser focused on him, and he ducked back around the corner.
"I'm different."
It's voice was no more emotional than the others, but the turrets had a script. They weren't artificial intelligence. He slowly leaned back around the corner, looking at the turret.
"You heard me."
He approached, still brandishing his portal gun aggressively.
"Yes, I heard you. What do you want?"
It didn't respond for a bit. He wondered briefly if it actually was a trap.
"Freedom."
Izuku blinked. The turret was still looking at him. He sighed, lowering the portal gun.
"Me too, buddy."
"She'll keep hurting you."
He looked up from his feet.
"W-what? What are you talking about?"
"The ancient Egyptians would pull a deceased's brain out through their nose during mummification, in an attempt to let them reach the afterlife."
"Wait, back up a second."
"You'll save the eraser."
Izuku stuttered as the turret watched him. He floundered for a moment.
"Hey, what's going to happen to you?"
"Down this conveyor belt is the incinerator room. I'll be melted."
"You'll die?"
"Yes, I suppose I will."
Izuku thought for a moment. He raised his hand and grabbed the turret. Thank Glados for the portal gun. He had no idea how it could literally rip holes in the fabric of reality and also be able to hold things more than twice his own weight.
He started back on the trek to his relaxation chamber, turret in hand.
"Where are we going?"
"My room, I won't let you die here."
"...a hero."
The turret didn't say anything else, and Izuku didn't ask it any questions. Once he'd arrived back, he set it down in the corner opposite his bed.
"Where did you come across that abomination?"
Glados' voice surprised him. She usually never talked to him after testing. It was unsettling.
"Conveyor belt."
"Why? It's useless. It won't help you with the tests, and it won't keep you company. It has no purpose, because it couldn't fulfill the one assigned to it."
"Humans make attachments. Not that you'd know."
That shut her up pretty quickly, he thought.
"Thank you."
He looked back at the turret. Its light was glowing red again.
"Oh, it's no trouble. I'm glad I have someone to talk to other than Glados all the time."
He was frozen again. It felt different than his incubator. Mainly because he was standing upright in his incubator, rather than down. The bed in his relaxation chamber was surprisingly nice. It was comfy, and he liked waking up in it, even if it meant he would have to do more tests.
It had been another while. He found it frightening, how much time had probably passed since he'd been woken up for the first time since he had gotten to the facility. The turret was right about Glados. She brought him down to the lower floors several times now, and every time he would walk out a little less human.
First it was his feet and eyes. Why did he even need robotic eyes? Glados never explained, but he didn't need to blink much anymore, so maybe that was it. A little underwhelming, really. After that, it was his stomach. There, in the centre of his abdomen, was a white fibreglass circle. He was never told what it was for. He didn't want to know. After his stomach was his chest, and then his shoulders, and finally, his hands.
The changes to his hands scared him more than any of the others.
Where he once had calloused, freckled hands, he now had white fibreglass digits, with black lining where his 'fingers' creased. The scariest part was probably what the changes in his hands were even for.
Let's just say he doesn't have to carry a portal gun with him anymore. He kind of became one.
With as little as a thought, his new hands would shift and change into a gross approximation of a portal gun. The glowing orange and blue circles would rise up out of his palm. It looked mesmerising, but Izuku hated it. He didn't care if it was more 'efficient' or a new innovation, he wanted to be himself. And he didn't feel like himself.
He felt like an abomination. A robot. Like Glados.
The tests he once found hard became starkly easier. He found himself chatting with Glados as he went through the chambers. And it scared him. He hated her for what she did to him, and yet he started seeing the similarities between himself and her. He couldn't help but compare them.
"You zoned out again."
He snapped out of his funk, looking at the turret. He'd started calling it Rhett. It seemed to like the name, and it never corrected him, so he just stuck with it.
"Sorry, what were you saying?"
"She called for you."
He felt the temperature of the room drop. She definitely wanted to talk with him about something. Or just stick mechanical claws in him again.
He exhaled shakily, standing from his bed.
"Thanks, I'll talk to you later?"
"Her name is Caroline."
He blinked. Caroline? Glados had a name?
"Caroline? As in Glados' name is Caroline?"
"It'll stun her."
"What?"
"They'll find me."
"Huh? Who?"
Rhett didn't respond. Izuku didn't try to coax it into talking more. He made his way to Glados' lair, shaking imperceptibly.
"Ah, you're here. I was beginning to think you were ignoring me."
He approached her, walking up without hesitation.
"Is there something you wanted from me?"
"No, I just wanted to talk."
Izuku raised an eyebrow at the hulking robot hanging from the ceiling. Her yellow eye narrowed slightly.
"But if you would prefer tests..."
"No! Talk! Let's talk!"
Izuku hated that he was still scared of her. He knew he had the right to hate her, but other than Rhett, the only person he could talk to is Glados. That, and he was desperate for her approval. He didn't know why, but whenever she would complain about his performance or insult him, he would feel like a child again.
He sighed and sat down cross legged in front of her.
"So, what did you want to talk about?"
Glados shifted down, coming closer to him.
"Well, I was hoping we could have an educated discussion. Tell me, what do you know about this facility?"
Izuku raised an eyebrow, but answered anyways.
"I know it was opened in the 1940s, by a man named Cave Johnson. I know he started developing groundbreaking technology, but went bankrupt after being beaten out by Black Mesa. He got deathly ill from breathing in the ground up moon rocks, and he wanted to pass the company to his assistant."
He paused, trying to gauge her reaction. She wasn't reacting at all. It wasn't that strange, she usually didn't emote much, especially not with her physical body.
"...Her name was Caroline."
Now that got a reaction. It was minuscule, almost unnoticeable, just a tiny flinch, but he noticed. He picked up on it immediately. Izuku knew he was swimming in uncharted waters, but he persisted.
"He wanted her to take over, even if she didn't want to. He had been working on new technology, so he could upload his brain to an A.I., and stay around long after his body died from the poison in his system. He knew she would refuse, so he gave his scientists explicit permission to do whatever it took..."
Glados still didn't speak, but she was lingering on his every word. Almost like she was waiting for him to realise something. Something important, if he could just put two and two together.
"You're...you're her, aren't you."
It wasn't a question, but she didn't have an answer. She looked away from him, but she didn't move.
"...I'm sorry. I'm sorry he did that to you."
She looked back to him.
"Why are you sympathizing with me? After all the pain I've put you through in the name of science?"
"You can't help it, can you? If it's in you're programming, I don't blame you."
"Just because you don't blame me doesn't mean you like me."
Izuku scratched at his chin.
"I don't think I'll ever like you, but that doesn't mean that what he did was right."
She hesitated. That was a new one.
"I...I didn't want this, I ju-"
A booming, robotic voice blasted from all of the speakers, red and yellow lights flashing incessantly as the warning bells chimed.
"Unauthorized personnel detected inside the facility, self-destruct imminent in T-minus two minutes!"
Glados jerked upwards.
"What?! How...?"
Izuku was on his feet in a beat. He glanced around at the monitors, all displaying the same image. Warning.
This had never happened before. No one had ever broken in. Izuku didn't even know how far underground they were, but he knew the facility was supposed to be next to impossible to access without blueprints. So...who was breaking in?
Eraserhead had very few regrets. Going to UA? He never regretted it. Becoming a teacher? Not once. Expelling his entire class of potential heroes? Nope.
He was beginning to regret this though. It wasn't often that an underground hero was requested for missions overseas. It was even rarer that the country the request came from was America.
Nedzu had been the one to inform him of the unorthodox mission.
He was standing at the principal's desk when Nedzu gave him the run down of what was happening.
"A new pro overseas discovered a strange biological signature deep underground. A human signature. She said she could feel thousands of them. We don't know what's down there, but it isn't on any official records, and no one has been seen going in or out in the last two weeks."
"Where?"
"Michigan."
"America? Why do they need me?"
"They're concerned about what quirks may be at play here, if any. You're also not well known, so there's little chance of you being recognised. Are you willing? I'll give you the week off, paid of course."
Aizawa mulled over it. It was risky. Unknown quirks and unknown circumstances. Recon had apparently turned up nothing, other than the fact that no one was seen going in or out. He'd have to fly out in advance to beat the jetlag. He didn't have a class anymore, so he wouldn't have to worry about that, but it was still high risk.
"I'll do it, but you have to inform the staff about the mission, in the off chance something goes wrong."
"Of course, I'll let you prepare and I'll have flights booked by noon."
"Thank you, Nedzu."
Aizawa still wasn't sure why he agreed. He wasn't bad at speaking English, considering how long he spent with Mic, but that doesn't mean he was the best. Plenty of phrases and more obscure words were lost on him.
The pro who'd located the underground facility was here. She looked far too young to be dealing with such a potentially deadly situation. He spent most of his time conversing with one of the pros who'd spoken to Nedzu about his participation. Mr. Smile or something like that. He didn't see the appeal.
"Alright, listen up! We don't know what's in here, or what we are about to see, so get in, try to stay hidden, and get out if things go south. Got it?"
A resounding chorus of agreement rung out from the crowd of around thirty pro heroes.
"Great! Everyone to their posts! We go in in sixty seconds."
Aizawa was standing by what looked like a manhole, but was clearly not intended to serve as one. As the timer ticked down, he couldn't stop himself from wondering if things would go wrong. There could be absolutely anything down here, the facility wasn't on any official records. They could all be killed before they could say 'freeze'.
"...four, three, two, one! Move in!"
The man next to him warped the metal of the cover until it was wide enough for two to descend at a time. Lowering their rope ladders, they made quick work of entering.
Aizawa and Mr. Smile were the first down, and Aizawa was in awe of how vast the building was. He looked down as they approached something solid. It was a light teal, with the words 'Aperture Science' printed onto them. He kicked the nearest plank of it, and it fell in. He used his capture weapon to lower himself to the ground, looking around as he went.
There were alarms blasting from speakers he couldn't see, and flashing red and yellow lights flashing all over the facility. There! He landed on the ground, and found a...
A boy. A teenage boy.
He looked no older than some of the students he had expelled.
The boy was looking at him like he had three heads. They made eye contact for what felt like ages, but was only a fraction of a second.
Aizawa's eyes were drawn to the massive fucking robot behind the boy.
"Who are you! How did you find this facility?!"
The robot...had a voice. Okay. Weird.
The boy jerked to face it, throwing up his hands, as if to block him from an attack.
"WAIT! Glados, don't! Don't hurt him!"
Glados? Alright, Aizawa had no clue what the fuck he'd just dropped into, but he needed to get this kid out.
He ran forward, grabbing the boy's arm. Green eyes stared at him in...awe? Fascination? Aizawa didn't have time to come to a conclusion before a robotic voice boomed over the speakers.
"Activating neurotoxin pumps, chamber flood predicted in T-minus one minute."
Neurotoxin? Oh fuck no.
"Kid! We have to get out of here!"
The boy looked at him with something akin to disbelief in his eyes. As he moved to step towards him, he suddenly flinched. He looked to the robot in the middle of the room. Glados? Something like that.
"I'm sorry."
"What?-"
"This sentence is false!"
The yellow light on the face of the machine sputtered and turned off.
What the fuck.
Aizawa glanced at the green gas glowing from the vents, then at the kid.
"Hey! Kid, we need to get out of here, NOW."
The boy didn't seem to hear him. Not an English speaker maybe? The speakers blasted again.
"Self-destruct imminent in T-minus thirty seconds!"
"Shit! Kid, come on!"
Aizawa gripped the boy by his shoulders, shaking him lightly. The boy finally seemed to see him.
"Kid, listen to me, I'm going to get you out of here, but you need to listen to me, ok?"
The boy glanced at the monitors, eyes widening.
He threw his arm up in an arc, firing something up beyond what Aizawa could see, and then pointing directly below them, and then they were falling, and then-
Boom.
In another part of the facility, the young pro was running around every corner, looking for the sheer thousands of people she'd felt but she couldn't find a thing. The group she was with were getting anxious. The alarm blaring and the constant reminders that the facility would blow itself up weren't helping with morale.
Turning another corner, she was met with corridors full of rooms. She couldn't feel anything, but she could hear something. Throwing open the door revealed a robot. A talking robot.
"Do you know who's here? A villain? An organisation?"
"Her name is Caroline."
"Caroline? One person?"
"She's lonely."
The alarms blared louder and louder as the last few minutes ticked down on the clock.
"Damnit! Grab the robot! We gotta get out of here, now!"