Portal 2.5 Reader Insert Chapter 20

Portal 2.5 Reader Insert Chapter 20
By: bdaybear30

I feel the ground shake beneath my feet as the lift comes to a stop. I rub my eyes to try and adjust them to the brightness of the lights in the room.

When I can see again … the first thing I see is him.

He looks terrible. His hair is completely disheveled and sticking out in strange directions. His clothes is bunched and ripped in various places, as if he was on the losing end of a wrestling match. His eyes are open very wide and his pupils are as small as pin pricks and ringed in red.

The chair he is sitting in doesn’t look much better. Several pieces have been taken off leaving supports exposed and wires hanging loosely. More pieces of metal have been attached is seemingly random places all over the device and are so twisted and corroded, I can’t tell what they were originally built to be.

“Wheatly …” I say mostly to myself. “What happened to you?”

“Well, well, well. Welcome to MY LAIR!” he finish his sentence by having his voice amplified and depended by the speakers on the walls of the room.

I take a quick look around this room to see what I have to work with. It’s a large round room. The panels on the walls are of all different metals and it looks like there is some kind of fire behind some of them. There is some scaffolding over by a large pipe with some familiar blue markings.

“Lemme just flag something up.” Wheatly says trying to regain my attention. “According to the control panel light up there, the entire building’s going to self-destruct in about six minutes.”

I feel as a chill runs down my spine at the mentioning of this. ‘Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh, crap.’ I begin to chant in my head.

“Pretty sure it’s a problem with the light. I think the light’s on the blink.” he says with a hint of the naïve Wheatly I remember.

I take a step towards him. “Wheatly! It’s not the light. This whole place is going to blow up if we don’t stop it! Please! Just let us help-”

“STOP LYING TO ME!!” he screams interrupting my pleading. He tries regaining what little composure he has left. “But just in case it isn’t the light, I actually am going to have to kill you. As we discussed earlier.”

I can’t help but think that if he was listening to me, he would be able to hear my heart beating out of control.

“So, let’s call that three minutes, and then a minute break, which should leave a leisurely two minutes to figure out how to shut down whatever’s starting all these fires. So, anyway, that’s the itinerary.”

“Wheatly, stop this.” I beg. “Please, I just want to help you. Like how I helped the other people I have met here. I can’t just stand by and watch as this place is annihilated.” Tears begin to stream down my face as I say this trying everything to break through to him.

His eyes narrow for a moment before he goes on with what he was saying. “Also, I took the liberty of watching the tapes of your sister killing her, and I’m not going to make the same mistakes. Four part plan is this:”

“One: No portal surfaces.” he says motioning to the surrounding metals. He’s right no portals.

“Two: Start the neurotoxin immediately.” Several vents open up in the room and the same green gas from when I was little spews out of them and it begins to fill the room.

“Three: Bomb-proof shields for me.” Several large yellowish plate come down and surrounds Wheatly as a protective barrier.

“Leading directly into number Four: Bombs. For throwing at you.” A large, clear pipe comes down from above and stops about a foot above his head and faces out to wherever he is looking.

He looks around him at his accomplishments before saying, “You know what, this plan is so good, I’m going to give you a sporting chance and turn off the neurotoxin.”


I take a large breath and look at him. Really?

“I’m joking. Of course.” he finishes with a sinister smile.

“Wheatly, please.” I try begging him one last time in a soft voice with tears still streaming down my face.

I see him flinch before he closes his eyes and tucks his head down a bit. The last thing he says is “Goodbye.”

The pipe above his head begins to shoot out the same round bombs that I used before. I quickly run to the side to dodge the bombs and run around the room to try and come up with a plan.

He turns so that I am always in his line of sight and tries to talk me into just giving up, but I have to ignore what he is saying. I won’t have any hope of surviving if I do.

I see a pipe curving out of one of the far walls that has white gel running through it. Then I get an idea. I quickly run to and have just enough room to hide underneath it. Wheatly continues to throw bombs in my direction and he finally manages to hit the pipe, sending the white gel splattering all over the floor and walls.

“No! Don’t! No! AHHHHHHHH!” he yells as he watches step one of his plan is destroyed.

He tries to use logic to recover but it just turns into gibberish in my ears as I think of what to do next. The bomb shields are all grouped together near the base of the chair probably to make sure they don’t get in the way of the bombs being shot out.

I shoot a portal onto one of the upper panels that managed to get splashed and move so that Wheatly is facing away from the plate. He starts throwing bombs at me again and I stay still until the last possible moment. I quickly jump back out of the way and shoot my other portal to where I was standing, sending the bomb through the portals and straight into the back of his chair.

His body becomes limp from the explosive force.

I hear GlaDOS come over the intercom system. “Good work. I’m delivering Cosmo up near the catwalk. Grab him and put him on that chair.”

I quickly portal my way up to the catwalk she was talking about and watch as a robotic arm comes down and places Cosmo in front of me. “Space space space. Good to see not space.” he says as he sees me.

“Cosmo. Do you see the bright red light over there?” I ask him.

“Space yes.” he answers.

“I need you to attach yourself to the wires that are connected to that.” I explain.

He looks at me with a smile and nods. “Understood, not space.”

I shoot a portal on the floor directly below us and the other beside Wheatly. I look at Cosmo to make sure that he is ready, before pushing him forward and into the portal. The fall gave him just enough momentum to grab onto Wheatly right next to the light.

His jumping off the catwalk also caused just enough stress that it buckles and falls taking me and the blue pipe down with it.

He turns himself around and allows his circuitry to attach itself just as I instructed.

As soon as he is attached a mechanical voice comes on. Warning core corruption at 50 percent. Vent system compromised: Neurotoxin offline.” I watch as the vents for the neurotoxin close and fresh air refills the room. I take a nice deep breath and enjoy it. “Reactor explosion in four minutes.” Crap!!!

Wheatly begins coming back around. “Ahhh … Wha- What happened?” he asks “What happened? What, what, what have you put onto me? What is that?” he starts panicking as Cosmo starts to affect him.

The pipe starts to shoot bombs again. “Hold on. Ah, the bloody bombs are stuck on. Doesn’t matter though I’ve reconfigured the shields.”

He’s right. Now they are facing upward. Creating an umbrella of protection around him. But there is something that he’s missed. I do the same as what I did before, but this time I shoot the portal to be right below him and the bomb explodes the bottom of the chair, causing Wheatly to pass out again.

“Okay, great! Here comes Quent!” GlaDOS says from the intercoms.

Quent is also brought down by a robotic arm but, it’s a lot less stable and swings back and forth over where the catwalk used to be, which happens to be on the opposite side of Wheatly that I need him on.

“Quent! Can you get out of that arm?” I ask

“Yeah, of course I can.” he replies.

“Good ‘cause I’m going to need you to jump.” I explain to him.

He smiles at me. “Okay.” he says before he jumps.

I barely have enough time to shoot the portals so that he goes through the portal where he would have fallen on the floor and comes out on my side of Wheatly with the momentum pushing him forwards so that he lands on Wheatly’s chair. He turns and does the same as Cosmo did.

“Warning.” The automated voice says again. “Core Corruption at 75 percent.” Yes! “Reactor Explosion Timer destroyed. Reactor Explosion Uncertainty Emergency Preemption Protocol initiated: This facility will self-destruct in two minutes.”

“Oh, come on! Who programmed that in?!” I yell to no one in particular.

My yelling is enough to once again rouse Wheatly. “Enough! I told you not to put these cores on me. But you don’t listen do you?”

“You’re not listening to me even though I am trying to save you!” I yell back at him. He flinches before the angry look in his eyes return and the bombs start flying once again.

His shields are moving now. Sometimes their below him, sometimes their above him, and sometimes half of them are doing both. I manage to time it just right and send a bomb flying into the back of the chair again.

“Here comes Ingus! This should do it!!” GlaDOS yells over the loud explosions and noises of the facility falling apart.

Ingus comes in using a rail chair through an opening in-between the wall panels. Unfortunately, it gets stuck and is suspended near the ceiling. I think fast and portal up to the catwalk. I jump down onto the blue gel from the pipe breaking before and use all of my energy to jump as high as I can. I manage to reach the same height as Ingus.

I quickly shoot a portal beneath me and Ingus as I fall. I come out of the other portal and fly high enough to grab hold of Ingus around the waist and for him to grab around my neck. With my free hand I place the first portal to the side of Wheatly before we fall through and put Ingus on his spot just before Wheatly regains consciousness.

“Warning. Core Corruption at 100 percent.” says the automated voice. Finally! “Manual core replacement required.”

Wheatly also hears this. “Ohhhh, I see.”

“Substitute core: Are you ready to sta-” the voice asks.

“YES! COME ON!!” GlaDOS yells interrupting.

The voice continues. “Corrupted Core: Are you ready to start?

Wheatly looks up with an annoyed look. “What do you think?” he says sarcastically.

“Interpreting vague answer as YES.” replies the voice.

“No! No! NONONO!!” he yells quickly. “Didn’t pick up on my sarcasm.”

“Stalemate Detected.” Says the monotone voice.

Wait a minute. “Stalemate Associate present and ready to proceed!” I yell to the voice. Wheatly and GlaDOS both look to me but with very different emotions crossing their faces.

“Very well Stalemate Associate.” Says the voice politely. Yes, it worked! “Fire detected in the Stalemate Resolution Annex. Extinguishing.”

The sprinkler system is activated and water rains all over the room washing away all of the gels except for a small portion shielded from the water by Wheatly’s chair. When the fire goes out the wall opens up to reveal the same small room as before but with a screen separating me from it.

“Stalemate Resolution Associate: Please press the Stalemate Resolution Button.” Says the voice.

GlaDOS starts yelling at me to go and press the button and Wheatly is yelling just as loud for me to not press it. I run over towards the button as fast as I can. This needs to end now! I quickly place a portal above the button before running back to the one spot under Wheatly, placing a portal, and jumping through.

The moment I am through the small walls I hadn’t noticed were around the button drop and the numerous amount of bombs hiding behind them explode, launching through the screen and back into the main room and sprawling me across the floor.

“PART FIVE! BOOBYTRAPTHE STALEMATE BUTTON!!!!!” Wheatly yells in triumph.

My ears are ringing from the explosion but I am still alive.

“What, are you still alive? You are joking. You have got to be kidding me. Well, I’m still in control. AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO FIX THIS PLACE.”

I roll onto my hands and knees and grab the portal gun that fell next to me. The room shakes and I look up at the sound of tearing metal. I see that a part of the ceiling has been fallen away and gives me a clear view of the moon.

The moon …

Everything around me begins to slow down. I slowly bring up my arm and take aim.

Thanks for the hint, Cave.

I pull the trigger for the portal that was above the button and all I hear is the sound of the portal flying towards its destination. I see a twinkle of light appear on the face of the moon.

Everything comes back to normal speed and pieces of debris and even the air itself starts being pulled into the portal. Wheatly is half ripped out of the chair and is hanging on by his wires.

I feel myself being pulled towards the portal as well before being lifted upwards and towards it. I manage to take a big breath and grab onto Wheatly’s wrists just as I am pulled through and that is enough to keep me from flying off into space.

“Space!” Wheatly yells.

I look up and I can see earth from where we are. My lungs

Wheatly starts thrashing around. “Let go! We’re in space!”

I look past Wheatly and see Quent and Ingus holding Cosmo back and covering his eyes and Rusty, Urek and Egor and holding onto them. Good. My lungs begin to burn from trying to hold in what little air I have.

“Let go! Let go!” Wheatly continues to yell. “I’m still connected. I can pull myself in! I can still fix this!”

“I already fixed it!” I hear GlaDOS from the portal. A robotic arm comes out of the portal. “And you are NOT coming back!”

The robotic arm knocks Wheatly free from what little wires were still holding him to the chair. “Grab me grab me grab me!” he yells.

I have just enough strength to hold onto his wrists. I feel as the robotic arm grabs onto my ankle.

“-(name)-! Let him go! He’s not worth it!” GlaDOS yells to me. Wheatly looks at me with surprise and fear.

Everything falls into slow motion again. I let go of one of his wrist and with the last of my strength I use my now free hand to grab the back of his neck and bring him towards me before closing my eyes and lightly placing my lips on his.

I open my eyes and look at him before things speed back to normal time. I wrap my arm around his shoulder and he wraps his around my torso. I feel as the robotic arm pulls us back through the portal.

As soon as we’re through the portal closes and we fall to the ground. I gasp for breath as my vision fades and blurs. The last thing I see is several normal turrets girls carrying GlaDOS’ body in front of me before I am surrounded in the familiar darkness.

When I come to, I am sitting in a padded chair with an incline and I am surrounded by familiar faces.

“She’s waking up!” I hear Urek cheer.

“Hey.” I say in a low and hoarse voice.

The guys split apart and I see GlaDOS back up on her chair and back in her body. “Oh thank god you’re alright. We were so worried about you.” she says in a loving voice.

I hear a noise beside me and see the turret boxes come over and smile at me. I sit up slowly feeling some of the aches from this long journey. All of my friends start hugging either one by one or in small groups.

After they have all finished, I watch as they walk off to the side and let someone start walking through.

It’s Wheatly.

He walks up to me with his head down, causing his bangs to hide his eyes. He stands there a moment not saying anything before dropping down to his knees. “I am so sorry. I did such horrible things to you. I’ll understand if you never forgive me.”

Now it’s my turn to sit there for a moment. I drop down onto my knees just as he did and place my hands on either side of his face and raise it up so that I can see it. His eyes have returned to their normal blue color and they seem to have lost the craziness from before.

I smile at him as tears escape my eyes. “Of course I forgive you. I love you.” I move my arms so that they are hugging his shoulders as tight as I can. He is still for just a moment before he buries his face in my shoulder and hugs me just as tight around my waist. Several of my friends begin cheering and hollering for us and we laugh it off as we both stand up.

GlaDOS has been watching all of this from her chair. I quickly run over and climb up the chair enough so that I can hug her as well. She is surprise by this but returns it after a little while.

“Well, I would say you and I both have earned a vacation.” I say jokingly to her.

She chuckles lightly. “Yes. I suppose we have. But I think YOU have earned a much greater reward.” I look at her curiously. “You can leave.”

I stare at her for a moment. “What?”

“I said ‘You can leave.’ That has been your goal through all of this right? You’ve definitely earned it.” she explains.

I look at everyone who seems to be just as shocked as I am. “What about them?” I ask.

If they want to go with you then I have no problem with it. However, I would suggest that the turret boxes remain for at least little while. There is a chance that I can return them to their original state.”

She moves her hand quickly over a panel that is inlaid in the armrest and it calls a large round elevator into the room.

All of my friends start cheering as they make their way into the elevator and several robotic arms and normal turrets start helping the turret boxes. I turn and look at GlaDOS.

“Okay, but there is one more question I have.” I tell her.

Now it’s her turn to be curious. “Alright. Shoot.”

“What about you?” I ask quietly. “Do … do you want to come with us?”

She gives me a sad look. “-(name)-, I have to stay here. I need to make sure the facility stays stable. Besides, I’m pretty sure you’ve had enough of me to last an eternity.”

I wind my arms in-between her and the back of her chair hug her tightly. “I could never have enough of you. I love you, Mom.”

She slowly places her hands on my sides before wrapping them around my back and hugging me again.

I open my eyes and start to let go of her when I see something. “Wait. What’s that?” I see a small indent of a red heart just above where the wires enter her back. I try feeling it with my finger.

“Ow!” I yelp as I feel a prick on my finger. As I pull it back, I see that a small amount of blood has been drawn due to a needle that has appeared in the center of the heart. It retracts the needle The heart lights up going for the top to the bottom as if it’s analyzing something.

Suddenly, a small, square panel opens with the heart situated in the center of the newly made door. Inside there are two very different objects. One of them looks like a large, golden half of a cylinder. With several lights and sharp bits of silver metal. The other object is a round device with a flat bottom and a large light blue glass dome on top.

I step down from the chair to take a better look at them. Everyone looks at me and becomes curious about the new things.

The cylinder has several small lights with a slightly larger round light that is near, what I think, is the top. It also looks like an arm is attached to the larger light that could come out from the device, but I don’t know how I would do that.

I turn the domed device to try and learn more. On the flat surface, I find that someone has etched three words into the metal.

“Initiate Sequence Alpha.” I read out loud.

Suddenly the device whirrs to life and I drop it in surprise.

The dome lights up starts to shuffle through different colors until they all blur into a bright white. A few bright lights move over me and seem to be scanning me. Then several beams of light just as bright split off from the main dome. These begin to widen and move up and down until images begin to appear.

After just a few minutes, I recognize the image. It’s a 3-dimensional picture of my dad’s lab that he set up in our house. Everything is exactly the same as how I remember, well, a little more transparent looking. He even has the unfinished cybernetic arm on his desk that he was working on the day we came to Aperture.

Another section of lights separates and begins forming another structure. It slowly forms together and becomes clearer until it is finished creating the new image.

It’s a holographic image of my father.

He is wearing his lab coat, his work jeans with their small patches of burned fabric from the few times he has dropped hot electronics and metal from soldering pieces together, and his welding goggles secured just above his –(your e/color)- eyes and below his short –(your h/color)- hair. People said that it was really neat how I was always like our dad and Chell was like our mom.

“Hello –(name)-.” he speaks in the same warm voice from all those years ago. “If you are listening to this …” A sad look crosses his face before he continues. “… I’m sorry. I am so sorry.” He closes his eyes as if trying to hold back tears.

“Dad …” I whisper under my breath.

He reopens his eyes and continues. “I am going to hide this in a secret panel that is made to open from my DNA. This means that the only people who can access this are you, Chell, and I because you two are my children.” he explains. Well, yeah that makes sense.

“To make extra sure that it is you, this holographic device is programmed to start this sequence when you, and only you, say the password on the back, as you have done. There is another message set up for your sister if she says the same thing.” he explains. “I was able to use some of my friends’ research to figure out a way to know how your speech pattern would change throughout you’re lives, so no matter what you will be able to access this message.”


I can’t help but smile. “Nice thinking, Dad.”

“Since you found this, you or someone close to you must have succeeded in taking down … GlaDOS.” he says pausing for a brief moment. “I think you have known this since you were little, but I lied to you about your mom. She didn’t become sick and decided to stay at work so she can go through treatment.”

That’s right. Dad said that was the reason Mom had to leave. I didn’t believe him though and it wasn’t long until I figured out that something wasn’t right and went looking for myself and found what he had been hiding.

“I know you found out the truth. That she was being processed into what you see now. An android version of the person she used to be.” He looks away as he says this in shame.

He brings his head up again with determined eyes. “The other device that’s beside this one is a special device. It can be used to remotely control the facility. You can use this to shut down this facility so, that no one will have to go through the same things we have because of this place. Use it to shut off all of the major sequences keeping it in function and let everything here decay and crumble into nothing.” he explains.

His image steps closer until he is right in front of me and he seems to look me right in my eyes. He moves his arms around me until they just barely touch my back, the closest thing he can to hugging me in his transparent state.

He whispers in my ear. “I love you, -(name)- and I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you and your sister.”

“Daddy, I love you too.” I whisper quietly, mimicking his actions and hugging the hologram back with tears slowly rolling down my cheeks.

The image disappears without either of us moving and I know that this was the last goodbye from my father.

I turn around and find that everyone is staring at me in shock. I bring up the cylindrical device that is still within my hand.

I look at GlaDOS, but she looks away and says “It’s your decision.” I think she understands what I am thinking. If I can control the facility through this she won’t have to.

I move my hair away from my neck and line up the half-cylinder with the base of my neck. I bring it close enough to feel the cold metal press against my skin. The metal pieces pierce my skin and bright colorful dots flash in front of my eyes as electrical signals are sent through my central nervous system. I faintly feel as I fall onto my knees and the muscles in my back tighten and arch backwards as something cool wraps itself around my head.

More images begin to flash before my eyes; codes, security, production, maintenance, everything.

After what feels like a long time, the images slow down and fade. I fall to the ground and try to regain my breath.

Wheatly runs over to me and picks up my upper body. “-(name)-! Are you okay?!” he asks with fear in his voice.

“Yes … *cough* … I’m fine.” I reassure him, my voice harsh and raspy.

GlaDOS brings her chair closer to me and runs her hand through my hair comfortingly.

Egor comes over with a small hand mirror in his hand. HE would be the one to have a mirror. He moves it around so that I can see myself in it. I see that the metal pieces from the half cylinder is now sticking into the skin of my neck and separate arms have come off from it and worked from the device. Metal pieces and wiring have stretched their away behind my ear and up around until they connect to a large turquoise disk directly in the middle of my forehead.

I’m not sure how this works so, I just think inside my head to bring up what I want. The disk lights up and projects a screen in front of me. I sit up fully with Wheatly’s help as we all stare in awe. I bring my hand up and begin going to work.

As my fingers move at a fast pace, GlaDOS is shocked as the wires connecting her cease to do so and seem to move on their own. They are retracted into the chair and the panels on it light up brighter than they ever have. The chair moves up and into a hatch that I had opened and sending it off to do what I have asked of it.

With Wheatly’s help I stood up fully. I used this new technology to call an elevator into the room that was large enough to hold all of us and smile as everyone cheers and hug each other in celebration.

GlaDOS holds back and seems … uncertain. When everyone else was securely in the lift, with Wheatly’s help, I looked back to her. GlaDOS and I were the only ones left to get on.

I walked over to her and held out my hand for her. She looked at me and still had the look of uncertainty in the depths of her eyes. “Mom, trust me.” I say smiling to her.

A small smile spreads across her face and she takes my hand and I lead her into the elevator with everyone.

The lift begins to move upwards and all of us start looking up in anticipation until we suddenly come to a halt. Doors in front of us open and reveal four turret girls with glowing red eyes and their guns pointed straight at us. Everyone stops and stands very still from the shock.

But … nothing happens.

The turrets turn and look at each other before retracting their guns and looking at us. After a few seconds the turret girl on the far right moves its arms creating a sound. It continues this into a choppy rhythm. The others open their mouths and … sing?

It is a simple tune, but a familiar one. The elevator begins to move upward again slowly until their singing becomes faint and is replaced by the sound of just one singing.

Slowly we come up to where the single turret is and see that it is surrounded by many other different turrets of varying size and designs. The single one slowly ends its solo and the light surrounding it fades. The others around it take up the song and create a beautiful melody by working together to create different notes and chords together. There is even an extremely large one in the far back creating long low notes that almost shake the elevator from the depth of its voice.

“I remember this.” GlaDOS says on my left.

“I do to but, from where?” I ask trying to understand.

She chuckles lightly. “This song … was made for you.” she explains. My eyes widen as I remember.

“That’s right. This song was a gift. Uncle Cave had it orchestrated for us on our fifth birthday, after he started getting sick.” I say aloud remembering how he had flown in a grand orchestra to perform it at our party. We loved the song so much that he had it fashioned into a music box so we could listen to it as we went to sleep.

“I guess Mr. Johnson wanted to have the last good bye.” GlaDOS says chuckling under her breath.

The elevator moves again and the song seems to travel just as fast up the elevator shaft and surrounds us as we move further upward.

Until, we reach the top.

The single door in front of us unlatches slowly and opens itself letting a flood of warm light wash over us. I bring my arm up in an attempt to shield my eyes from the brightness, but my eyes quickly adjust.

I take a step outside and … it’s magnificent.

I can hear birds chirping and taking flight. I see fields of golden grass stretching on for what could be forever in every direction. I take a deep breath and let my lungs be filled with the fresh warm air. I can feel the sun warming my cold skin with a soft touch.

I turn back and look at my friends still just inside the door waiting. I can’t hold back the large smile that stretches across my face. Wheatly slowly steps just outside of the door and allow his built in sensors to experience the same as I did, before a large small spreads across his face as well. He rushes over and places his hands on my waist before picking me up and spinning me around. He places my feet back on the ground before he connects his lips to mine and we have our first sunlit kiss.

The others begin to come outside as well and re-celebrate as they begin to play and laugh in the surrounding grass and enjoy the outside. GlaDOS even comes out and runs her hand over the softly billowing grass so that they lightly tickle her hand before both me and Wheatly sneak up behind her and jump onto her back causing all three of us to tumble forward onto the soft ground.

This … this right here, is what I fought to achieve … and it’s better than I ever could have thought.

THE END





































“Hey!” I hear Urek and Rusty yell over to where we are all laying. I look up at them curiously. “What the heck is that?” they ask simultaneously.

I look to where they are pointing and I see … … … smoke?