Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
"You were brought here as a researcher, to conduct experiments," I said honestly. GLaDOS seemed more interested now.
"Experiments? What kind of experiments could I perform in this obsolete world?" GLaDOS asked almost sarcastically.
"Magic, I specialize in magic and all things supernatural, that would be the main topic of research and experimentation." I said simply, GLaDOS shook.
" Magic!? You want an artificial intelligence, created by the brightest minds of a generation, to study and experiment with magic!? " GLaDOS asked incredulously. I laughed in amusement.
"I mean, you can't deny that magic exists," I said simply. GLaDOS growled.
"And I'm not denying it, demon, the evidence is in favor of the existence of magic, but I'm an artificial intelligence created to run the enrichment center, to oversee and perform scientific experiments and tests, for the development of new technologies! I'm not designed to study magic!" GLaDOS exclaimed indignantly.
"Just because you're not, doesn't mean you can't," I said simply with a shrug. GLaDOS just looked at me. "Just think about it, there are hundreds of worlds to see, to discover, to experience, why just stop with technology?" I asked playfully.
GLaDOS looked at me for a few seconds, as if considering it, and judging by her processing speed, she might even have taken too long to decide.
"Good," GLaDOS finally said. "You have a point, demon. So many different worlds... so many to study... it would be a waste not to explore them. I'm in." She added. I sighed in relief. Good, good.
"Okay, then -"
"But I have conditions." GLaDOS interrupted me. I sighed. Of course you do.
"Speak," I said simply.
"In return for my important and invaluable collaboration and support, I want a couple of things," GLaDOS began humbly. "First, I want my enrichment center back," GLaDOS said determinedly.
"Do you want Aperture Science again?" I asked curiously.
"Not necessarily," GLaDOS said almost dismissively. "I was created by and for Aperture Science, and it was my duty to lead Aperture to the technological pinnacle, and yes, I was proud of that. Suck it up, Black Mesa. But Aperture Science is a scientific research corporation; I don't need it to do science," she added.
"I see, all right then. It's not like I'd mind even if you wanted to start Aperture Science again, whether you wanted to hire other people to help with research or sell the technology." I shrugged.
"Sell my technology? That's ridiculous," GLaDOS mocked. "Unless I'm financially bankrupt, which would mean some demerit points for your final report card as a wife—" GLaDOS stopped stiffly. "Forget that, demon," GLaDOS growled in frustration. I laughed lightly.
"Well, whatever you want, then, the enrichment center," I said playfully.
"I want my new enrichment center to be the same size or even bigger," said GLaDOS, my eyes widening.
"No!" I immediately refused. GLaDOS seemed to want to retort, but I got in first. "Your original enrichment center is enormous. It took decades to create. It must be around what? 6,000 meters deep? And at least 1,000 meters wide? Yeah, no, impossible at the moment.
"It's only 7,344 meters deep with a radius of 1,376 meters wide," GLaDOS complained. I shuddered slightly. Yes, Aperture Science was crazy, really crazy.
"Yeah, no. I have a city, and it's only about 300 square kilometers. I'm not going to create a monstrosity that could be more than 50 times larger than that." I rubbed my temple. "I'm in favor of creating enough rooms for you to expand your enrichment center, but it will be gradual, and you'll have to justify each room you want to create. I'm pretty sure you didn't even use 70% of your previous enrichment center."
"...fine," GLaDOS finally said. I sighed. "But I want to be in charge of this outdated mansion," GLaDOS said, and I wrinkled my nose.
"How do you plan to do that? Like I said, all of this works with magic. The entire mansion would have to be modified using technology. I don't even know how to begin doing that. It would take time." I growled.
"Then do it, or get a power that can do it," GLaDOS said. I rolled my eyes. This was becoming increasingly difficult, and it was only the first of who knows how many.
Maybe... I didn't even have to adapt the entire mansion? Perhaps I could add the Charm blessing, which brought Madrigal House to life, to the mansion and link it to GLaDOS or something similar? It was something to think about.
"It's a maybe, but once again, it'll take time," I said finally. GLaDOS snorted. " And since you're asking for concessions, especially control of the mansion, I want one, and only one, and that is that you will ensure the genuine well-being of me and my entire entourage, the entire family, and those who join afterward," I said directly.
I could hear a crunch from GLaDOS; she definitely didn't like that order.
The Company's compulsions guarantee loyalty, I had no doubt. I did my research at first, and that means they would never kill me, just as it would literally never occur to them to kill me, or any of their fellow entourage members.
Also, they had to obey my orders, but there was a problem: if there was any moral conflict or simply feelings, those orders could be subverted. They could decide to ignore them or even misinterpret them and carry them out in the worst possible way. Or they could even choose to make my life miserable, and make it 'for my own good,' which would really end very badly, very quickly. So I had to make sure GLaDOS couldn't do that.
And I knew that if she could and had the slightest chance, she would. GLaDOS, even with morality personality cores, and others that slowed or distracted her, had managed to kill everyone at Aperture Science, and then proceeded to perform cruel and lethal experiments on all of the surviving test subjects.
So leaving her without a leash, at least for our immediate safety, was a horrible idea.
"Fine," GLaDOS spat. I nodded. "Let's continue. Second, I won't just be working on... magic. I'll be working on science, on technology, what I was created for, and you'll help me." My eyes widened slightly.
"Technology?! You want me to help you with technology?! I don't like technology! The most I can do with technology is a few simple lines of code that give me ' Hello, World! ' on the screen!" I said incredulously, GLaDOS stared at me with her optics.
"And I don't understand magic, we're even," GLaDOS hissed. "You claim to be a scholar. I have information from the Catalog, and I know you can acquire powers for it, so you can learn and serve as my assistant." GLaDOS retorted. I could feel my face change countless times.
Technology?! Me?! I grit my teeth and gulp audibly.
"Fine, but the end result is fusing the two together to make magical technology, and I will NOT be a test subject." I said it immediately, as if I were having my teeth pulled out. That relieved some of the tension. I loved magic, too much. I could go the rest of my life without seeing any technologically advanced world—at least, not just a science fiction one.
I didn't plan on going into those worlds, and I definitely didn't plan on getting into magical technology, but there were some things that would be interesting to try.
Hextech from League of Legends was one of them, or the CADs, the Casting Assistants Device from The Irregular At Magic High School, and if I remembered correctly, there were some mecha series that worked with magic, maybe I'd need them for the future, or it would just be interesting to have them.
Adding that I had offered Lucius the opportunity to go on a space adventure or something similar, it wouldn't be so bad to be able to do maintenance on a spaceship when the time comes.
"I wouldn't mind," GLaDOS said simply. I nodded. "But that brings us to the third point. I want test subjects. Live ones." GLaDOS said almost expectantly. I hummed and shrugged.
"I mean, I won't say you can do it with innocent people, but I'm sure we can work something out," I said, shrugging.
"Okay, roommate, I want to get rid of these... feelings." GLaDOS spat them out like garbage. I laughed playfully.
"Unfortunately, it's part of the seal, and it's something I can't control; it's something you'll have to live with," I said with a mocking smile.
"I hate you." GLaDOS growled. I raised an eyebrow.
"No, you don't." I scoffed. GLaDOS's chassis simply creaked.
"Four! I want to go to worlds with new technologies on a regular basis, and you help me get them, starting now! " GLaDOS growled. My eyes widened slightly.
"Do you want to go to another world now?" I asked, surprised.
"Of course, that was the reason for our collaboration, right? So, once you're done 'catching me up' on everything that's happening, I want to go to a world of my choosing, and you'll join me," GLaDOS said. I grimaced as I massaged my temple. Yeah, I should have expected that.
And I really didn't know if it was a good idea to let GLaDOS go alone to other worlds. I had no doubt she'd cause the extinction of one or more intelligent races if she had the chance. I sighed. Great, now I'll have to go to science fiction worlds.
"Fine, but we will make an unbreakable vow. It's a spell between two parties, a binding magical contract. Anyone who doesn't follow the agreement will result in immediate death." I said simply.
"Mmm... interesting, you want me to submit to some kind of magical bond... how does that work?" GLaDOS asked interested.
"Okay, for this to work, you'll need magic," I said to GLaDOS.
"And how do you plan to do that?" GLaDOS asked simply. "In case you forgot, I'm an artificial intelligence," she mocked. I pulled a small briefcase from my inventory before opening it to reveal 10 purple chess pieces.
"These little things are called Evil Pieces, and are capable of reincarnating someone into demons." I said as I raised a rook. "Each piece improves a specific attribute. Knights gain increased speed and mobility, bishops have an improvement in their magic, rooks gain an improvement in physical strength, pawns can be promoted to any of them in enemy territory, and queens have all the attributes."
GLaDOS wanted to rebuild her enrichment center and expand it, so if she wanted to be big enough, it wouldn't hurt to have it be a literal fortress, like a tower.
"Physical strength? Wouldn't the tower be extremely useless to me then? I don't know if you forgot, but I don't have a body." GLaDOS asked dryly as she looked at the piece in my hand.
"Maybe so, but this is a mutated piece, an enhanced and quite flexible piece, I think it will be necessary to reincarnate you," I said honestly.
"I have no choice but to trust you, right? It's not even like I can defend myself since I don't have any other devices connected to me," GLaDOS said dryly.
"You can always refuse, but I'm sure you'd be interested in having access to magic," I said with a shrug.
"Fine, just do it. Even though I could tell all the pieces were chess pieces, are you supposed to be the king? Should I bow and submit once you use that piece? " GLaDOS asked dryly.
"Not really, just continue being you, in all your sarcastic, cynical, murderous glory." I said simply. "Just let me finish this." I added as I lifted the tower.
Would The Evil Piece work with an artificial intelligence? I had no idea. GLaDOS had a soul, and I could see it. Consuming so many metals and composing them, especially atium, so I could momentarily see the spirit realm, brought me closer and closer to the spirit realm itself.
I was now able to take a quick look into the spiritual realm. It was really superficial; there was still a lot I couldn't see, and I had to concentrate very hard. However, I could visualize someone's spiritual web, see the soul, and discern the slight interconnections it had.
GLaDOS definitely had a soul, not even human or any kind of soul I've seen, but she had one. GLaDOS had transcended form, and her thoughts had formed a being and a self. So, GLaDOS's soul did exist; it was primarily located in her chassis, where her personality core resided.
But a part of it extended throughout her chassis and all the technology it was attached to. It was fascinating to watch. And that was why I wanted to use the mutated piece. GLaDOS's soul was enormous to behold; after all, her chassis was that large, and she wasn't even a normal entity, being an artificial intelligence.
A mutated piece was flexible enough that it could adapt to any problems that appeared with GLaDOS's soul quite easily.
I still had my two mutated pawns, but I didn't want to waste both of them on GLaDOS, so the rook was the first choice.
"Stay still, this will be easy." I said as I approached GLaDOS with the piece in my hand, GLaDOS didn't even answer; she just stared at me. I approached GLaDOS's chassis, my free hand placed next to her optics, while I placed the piece right underneath.
I shook off the phrase once more, flexing a bit of my demonic power onto the piece before pushing it against GLaDOS. The piece seemed to glow slightly, but didn't seem to want to absorb itself. I frowned somewhat before forcing my vision into the spirit realm once more.
Once I glimpsed GLaDOS's soul once more, I pushed the piece against it. There was a bit of difficulty, and I had to use more demonic power than when I reincarnated the others; however, the piece finally reached GLaDOS's soul, which immediately adhered to the Evil Piece.
A few seconds later, I finally pulled back. I could see GLaDOS stop stiffly, and I could hear several of her systems begin to come online at full power before she stopped. Then, she began to move once more, and her optics focused on me again.
"Welcome, my tower," I said with a smile.
"GLaDOS v4.0 is Online \\ Hello." GLaDOS's mechanical voice was initially completely different from her greeting. "Oh great, my software has been improved, even edited without my permission. How exciting." Gladios's dry voice made me smile slightly.
"Is there a problem?" I asked playfully.
"Luckily for you, no problems, just... it's weird." GLaDOS said contemplatively. "I have new routines, directives, and programs, somehow. I can't even recognize the code, and I don't even know if it's words, let alone edit it, at least not the core of it."
"I'm getting tired of these unmodifiable codes inside my core," GLaDOS growled.
"Is there something you want to try?" I asked. GLaDOS didn't move for a few moments before a magic circle appeared next to her. Then, from the circle, a blast of demonic power shot out, flew, hit, and exploded against one of the walls.
"Ha, ha, ha, HA! YES! This is amazing!" said GLaDOS in sadistic glee. I could see a dozen circles appear around the chassis, and I moved.
"Wow, wow, wow, wow, stop a minute!" I exclaimed quickly as I undid the magic circles to stop the magic.
"Don't interrupt while I'm doing science!" GLaDOS growled, sticking her optics in my face.
"First, rude. Second, science can wait, especially when you're trying to destroy your main and ONLY room literally." I gestured around me as I cast a Reparo across the room to repair what GLaDOS's first blast had destroyed.
"...I need my enrichment center, immediately," GLaDOS grumbled sulkily, but at least she stopped casting magic circles. I sighed in relief.
"Just… let's continue. Let's make the Unbreakable Vow, and we can get on with everything else," I said tiredly. GLaDOS nodded. Well, there was still a long way to go, so we'd better continue.
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