Portal: Euphoria

Chapter Nineteen

Nineteen

Caroline's voice was flat and reserved. "Don't be sorry, GLaDOS. You've done nothing wrong. Thank you. For everything."

"But Caroline – your mother –"

She laughed bitterly. "Oh, don't worry. We have a form letter that covers that."

GLaDOS knew that if Caroline had disappeared on her one day, a form letter would not have been at all adequate, and they weren't even related.

"Beginning brain scan. Please wait."

GLaDOS tried to figure out what Caroline had meant, trying to ignore what was going on and the creeping fear that something terrible was going to happen to her when it did. At the very least, she was going to lose Caroline. GLaDOS wished she'd known about this beforehand, because she would have tried to make it easier. Or at least more plausible. She could feel her processors straining to translate Caroline's scan into data the mainframe would be able to understand, and wished they had sent the data to the lesser computers while at the same time being relieved that they hadn't. GLaDOS didn't like having her brain used against her will to complete the task, but she knew she had more computational power than any other computer in the facility, and therefore was the best chance for Caroline's survival. The scientists had of course blocked GLaDOS herself off from seeing the data, probably so that she couldn't modify it.

GLaDOS began to be afraid once more.

She was afraid of losing Caroline, afraid of what would happen to her personally if this didn't go over, and afraid of what would happen if it did. And she realised that Caroline must have been just as afraid as she was, but she wasn't going to give Henry or Greg or the other spindly little humans who had come into the room the satisfaction of seeing that. No, Caroline was a scientist, and even if she didn't particularly like the experiment, she would see it through without complaint. And so would GLaDOS.

Maybe there was nothing GLaDOS could do to prevent it. Maybe there was nothing she could do after the fact. But she'd be damned if she sat there quietly like a good little test subject and waited patiently for the end to come. Oh no. She was going to show those ignorant little twits just what they were dealing with, and if they failed to heed this warning too, well, they had it coming to them.

"My best friend gave me the best advice… she said, each day's a gift, and not a given right…"

Caroline was looking at her with a very strange expression on her face. Was she doing it wrong? Maybe she hadn't extracted the melody properly? Oh God, what if she wasn't able to hear it and just thought she had?

Caroline smiled.

"Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind… and try to take the path less travelled by…"

Oh, that was a relief. Caroline's voice, strong and clear, was a positive match to her own. She really had done it. It was real. She was real.

"That first step you take is the longest stride… what if…"

Now everyone in the room was staring at her, which only happened on very rare occasions. Usually everyone pretended she wasn't there. GLaDOS did her best to pretend they weren't there and instead focused on Caroline.

"If today was your last day, and tomorrow was too late, would you say goodbye to yesterday? Would you live each moment like your last, leave old pictures in the past, donate every dime you had?"

"We're making a mistake," one of the engineers shouted suddenly, but someone else shook their head.

"It's too late. It's probably just a glitch anyway."