Archive of Our Own ^beta

GLaDOS stared at the blue bellhome, that bug Pallo, or Pavo, or whatever its name was, had pointed them towards, with trepidation. It’d been quite the climb up to the landing outside the home. One, her bug companions had managed far more easily than her current human inspired form had. Neither of her companions shared her trepidation. Why would they? They were about to reunite with a beloved friend and their sister. She was about to meet a stranger, and reunite with someone she’d tried to kill several times and who had killed her twice. It was perfectly logical for her to be warry of such a reunion.

The siblings walked up to the door, and GLaDOS was more than happy to stand behind them. The little one, the one who her former test subject had found in the bowels of Aperture, Ghost, knocked excitedly on the door. A voice she didn’t recognize called out a response in the bug language she’d thus far had minimal success in learning the verbal form of. Her companions seemed to understand it, however, as Ghost took a step back from the door.

They bounced on their feet as they waited. There much taller sibling was far more stoic, but she thought she could still detect what she thought was a nervous energy coming from it. The sword, or nail? the short one had strapped to their back, and the seemingly small guitar the tall one was wearing only accentuated their differences. Four minutes and thirty-five seconds passed, accompanied by the sounds of movement emanating from the bellhome.

The door opened. Behind it stood a bug that was similar in shape to her traveling companions, with a black, vaguely humanoid body, and a pale white head with two horns. This was probably their sister. There were some differences. Her black eyes were flush with her mask, and not sunken in. Unlike the leaf like cloaks her siblings wore, she was wearing a bright red dress. She was closer in stature to Ghost than she was to Hollow, but her horns were more like Hollow’s in scale if not complexity. When the siblings had referred to their sister as “Hornet”, GLaDOS had not been expecting her to look like this. In hindsight, her name was probably “Hornet”. But why she was called “Hornet” when she clearly wasn’t one, she had no idea.

Next to the sister was her. Ch The test subject and enemy turned ally out of necessity. The dangerous mute lunatic that GLaDOS had genuinely hoped to never see again. She’d deleted her file immediately, and undeleted, and redeleted, and undeleted, and redeleted, and… And now she was here because Ghost had told her that Chell was somehow still alive, but needed help she was curious about the human sized bugs and their kingdoms.

Neither the sister, nor the dangerous mute lunatic seemed to have noticed her yet. Good. They immediately noticed the bugs in front of them though. The former test subject’s face lit up when she saw them. GLaDOS had no idea her face was even capable of emoting. She almost looked like a different person. She was wearing a tank top, one not branded with Aperture Science, and instead of an orange jumpsuit, she had brown pants. Her feet were bare. Her hair was braided instead of in the ponytail she was used to seeing. Did she always prefer braids, but went with the ponytail for practicality while within Aperture? Her hair looked wet. Maybe it was only braided to avoid tangling?

The sister said something in the bug language. Her voice matched the one that had called out in response to the knocking. The test subject skipped words and instead just help her arms open. The little one immediately jumped up into them, and they hugged. The large one cut its sister off by engulfing her in a hug of its own. GLaDOS tried to take a step back, but found the edge. While her android body was very sturdy, damage resistant, and equipped with the equivalent of the long fall boots, she didn’t want have to make the climb back up.

After several seconds, both hugs ended, and the participants switched partners. The second hugs were shorter than the first. Where they less close than the original pairs? Or had they all gotten most of the hugging out of their systems? After the second hugs ended, the tall one took a step back from the former test subject, took the guitar it’d been wearing off, and presented it to the human. Her face lit up, not that it’d gone dim, as she eagerly grabbed the guitar case. In her hands it looked almost normal sized. Her fingers went to the clasps and she started to open it.

As the test subject opened the case, the sister looked up, and appeared to spot GLaDOS standing behind her siblings. She said something that sounded like a question. Ghost glanced back and then signed something to the others that she couldn’t make out from behind them. The test subject carefully put the guitar down on the ground behind her and looked at GLaDOS and furrowed her brow in confusion. Of course she didn’t recognize her in this body. But she’d run out of time, if she didn’t make herself known, the little lunatic would clearly introduce her first. Her voice alone would likely give her away, but she should probably say something nonthreatening, but easily identifiable.

“I see you’ve put on some weight,” GLaDOS said.

The lunatic’s face hardened and froze into the emotionless mask GLaDOS was familiar with. She grabbed something just inside the doorway of the bellhome. It was a spear. She pushed past the siblings and leveled the spear at her chest. Fuck. She wanted to back away, but she was already at the edge of the platform.

“I didn’t mean it pejoratively. Since you clearly didn’t figure it out, I was lying when I said you had beaten the odds and gained weight while in the long-term relaxation chamber. You lost weight like everyone else did. The fact that you have gained weight is a positive thing. You look healthier now,” GLaDOS signed as she spoke, a habit picked up during the last couple of weeks while traveling with two beings that both knew sign language, but only one of which knew spoken English.

The lunatic gave no indication that she understood her. Behind her, the sister grabbed what looked to be a combination spear and sword with a ring at the end from inside the bell house, and stood at the ready.

“Your previous actions made it clear that you understand spoken English, and my traveling companions informed me that you are the one who taught them sign language. So, don’t act like you can’t understand me.”

The lunatic again gave no response.

The sister said something that sounded like a question.

The little one signed a response to her that GLaDOS couldn’t make out.

“She’s the potato?” the sister spoke in her language and signed at the same time.

“You only remember me as the potato?” GLaDOS replied, offended.

The lunatic tightened her grip on her spear and moved the tip even closer to her chest.

“Okay, so clearly you don’t only remember me as the potato. If you did, you probably wouldn’t be pointing that spear at me. But the small one mostly only knew me as a potato, so I guess that makes sense that’s how they remember me. Could you please lower the spear a bit? I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to help.”

The lunatic narrowed her eyes. At least that was some form of acknowledgement.

“Do you really think you friends over there would have taken me all this way if they thought I posed a threat?”

The lunatic remained impassive.

“I mean, with your nanobots, I probably couldn’t even harm you even if I wanted to.”

The lunatic shifted her grip on her spear so she could keep it leveled at GLaDOS’s chest with her right hand, and used her left hand to start using the one-handed sign that the tall one had been using. “Why are you here.”

“I said, I’m here to help. I encountered those two while exploring, and I recognized the little one, and they recognized me, or at least my voice, and they explained that you and their sister were in danger, and that they were tracking you down, and I offered to help as best I could. Of course, I also get the opportunity to learn much about these large bugs and their kingdoms in the process.”

Ghost jumped in between them and signed, “Yes, she’s friend, or at least ally. She helped us escape Aperture, remember?”

“Yes, remember?” GLaDOS asked.

“You weren’t there for all the times she tried to kill me,” the lunatic replied, “but I told you about that.”

“I only tried to kill you after you killed me. You killed me twice!” GLaDOS protested.

“You tried to burn me alive. You set many turrets between me and you’re chamber! Not to mention the rocket turret, or the deadly neurotoxin!” the lunatic protested.

“Sending test subjects to the incinerator after they completed testing was standard Aperture procedure. And the turrets were reasonable defense as anyone who escape the incinerator could easily be considered angry and dangerous. And I only deployed the rocket turret and the deadly neurotoxin after you started to kill me.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t want me to destroy the morality core. And if I’d been able to find a way out that didn’t take me past you, that didn’t involve fighting you, I would have taken it. And what about chamber 16? The military android testing thing? You truly expect me to believe that was a genuine mistake?”

“For a human, your memory is quite impressive. It’s been over 150 years, not counting the time spent in stasis.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“What about the second time you killed me?”

“I was, again, just trying to escape, and you ruined that, and told me you would keep me trapped in testing for the rest of my life, and possibly looking into reanimating the dead when I died.”

“But I let you go at the end, and let you take your friend over there too.”

“You only let me go because the nanobots made killing me too difficult. And because I was too dangerous to keep around.”

“…As loathe as I am to admit this, I did not know about the nanobots when I said that. I, I was speaking about an emotional difficulty.”

The lunatic gave her and incredulous look.

“If I were not telling the truth, why would I admit to not knowing something? Or to such a disgusting emotional weakness. The human scientists did a very good job of redacting and hiding the information about their nanobot experiments. It seems you really scared them. I did not want you dead when I let you go, and I do not wish to kill you now.”

The little one nodded encouragingly.

“You say you are here to help. How?” the lunatic asked.

“This body was well designed with potential combat in mind as well a science, and I’m sure my superior intellect will be quite the asset when it comes to solving problems. There’s nothing to stop me from sharing the solution to tests here.”

The lunatic rolled her eyes, but lowered her spear and took a step back.

GLaDOS took the opportunity to get away from the edge. “Thank you.”

“I still do not trust you. If you do anything to endanger me or any of my family here, I will find a way to kill you a third time. And this one will be permanent.”

“Understood.”