Want You Gone

[Chapter Nine: Still Alive]

"Well, you found me. Congratulations. Was it worth it? Because despite your viloent efforts, the only thing you've managed to break so far, is my heart. Maybe you could settle for that and we'll just call it a day." There was a pause as I stared up at the menace, dangling from the ceiling in her pristine den. So this is where GLaDOS been hiding all along, while I maneuvered my way through her dangerously pointless tests. I just narrowed my eyes, and zipped up my jumpsuit, holding the portal gun firmly in my hands. I would test for her no longer. It ended here. 

"I guess we both know that isn't going to happen." Her tone, while purely robotic and almost devoid of emotion, sounded loathsome. She hated me, I foiled her plans, but the feeling was mutual. "You chose this path, now I have a surprise for you. Deploying surprise in five... four..." She was cut short as a spherical object fell to the floor. The object seemed to have been attached to her. A part of her, perhaps.

"Time out for a second. That wasn't supposed to happen." She lowered her 'head' to stare down at the ball. Then, she looked back at me. "Do you see that thing that fell out of me? What is that? It's not the surprise, I've never seen it before..." She said curiously. "Never mind. It's a mystery I'll solve later. By myself. Because you'll be dead." I took a risk and walked forward, studying her. It was the first time I had ever really seen her. Before, I had only heard her voice. She had quite the unsettling design. She was nothing but motors encased on the outside by white painted metal, and above her, looking up into the ceiling, were several whirring discs on which she operated. The only real movements she could make other than controlling all of the machinery throughout the enrichment center, were rotating around, and moving her 'head,' which was really just a semi-circle shaped attachment with a yellow eye in the middle. At least, I had only assumed it was an eye. She squinted It like one, and she used it to direct her attention. I guess it was a camera of sorts. Looking at her creeped me out, so I instead turned my attention to the sphere that had fallen to the ground. I crouched down and picked it up by the two handles that were attached to it. 

Whatever it was, it seemed sentient, but it did not speak to me. It, too, had an eye, which it used to stare at me. I stared back down at it's purple colored optic and tilted my head. I backed away from GLaDOS cautiously, while still keeping an eye on the sphere. "Where are you taking that thing?" She snapped. She seemed protective over whatever it was, which didn't surprise me, if it really was a part of her. What part of her could this possibly be, though, I wondered. 

"I wouldn't bother with that thing." She said, her voice seeming to revert back to its normal, lifeless, robotic tone. "My guess is that touching it will make your life even worse, somehow." I gave her the side-eye as I circled her, the sphere still in my grasp. It had looked away from me and was slowly drifting it's optic across the room, eyeing everything calmly. I came up on a set of stairs that led to a platform. On the platform was a small enclosed room, with a button inside. I wasn't quite sure what this button did, but I was about to find out as I headed up the stairs, still glaring at GLaDOS.

" I don't want to tell you your business, but if it were me, I would leave that thing alone."  I looked between the button in the room and the spherical robot that I held by the handle. I wasn't sure which 'thing' she was talking about, but I knew that I wasn't going to leave either alone. I proceeded up the steps and set the sphere down, slamming my hand down on the button. I noticed the room heating up as soon as I did. Looking around for the source of the heat, I found it, on the far side of the room. There was an incinerator, much like the one I had sacrificed my friend, The Companion Cube into. I put two and two together while glancing between the incinerator and the quiet sphere. If I burned this thing up, would it hurt GLaDOS? It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I shot a portal right above the incinerator hatch. I might burn up if I got too close. The other portal was placed on the wall behind me, and I picked the sphere up once more, looking down into the hatch through the portals that I created.