Portal 3 Chapter 28

While the elevator continued to roll downwards, Chelsea was sitting on the floor hitting the back of her head against the wall.
“What are you doing?” Jeffrey asked feeling the motion of her rocking forward and backward while he was in the form of an ice pack.
“I’m trying…to think…of a mental playlist…of songs…to sing,” Chelsea said as she continued hitting her head on the back of the elevator.
“Are you banging your head on the back of the elevator?” Jeffrey said.  “That’s what it sounds like you’re doing, but I can’t see when I’m in this form.”
“Maybe,” Chelsea said.
“You need to stop doing that,” Jeffrey said.  “You could lose brain cells.”
“On the contrary, it helps me think,” Chelsea said as she stopped banging her head and let it rest on the back of the elevator.  “Besides that, it gets my mind off the tingling in my brain.”
“It started again?” Jeffrey asked in concern.
“Yes, it has,” Chelsea said in a sigh.  “You know, I hypothesize that the adrenal vapor in our air supply may be making it worse somehow.”
“It just might be, but how about you talk to me instead of hurting yourself?  How many songs have you picked out so far?”
“I’ve thought of about six songs so far, and one of them is from a Disney movie.”
“That is good start.”
“Not good enough for me,” Chelsea said.  “Most of them are romance songs.”
“Most songs are romance songs if you think about it,” Jeffrey said.
“Yes,” Chelsea said.  “But I don’t want her to think I’m flirting with her.”
“Chelsea, she knows that you’re against homosexuality,” Jeffrey said.  “I seriously doubt that she will think that.”
The elevator finally came to a stop, Chelsea stood up as Jeffrey shapeshifted back into a fly and returned to his position on the back of her neck, and the elevator doors opened.  Chelsea walked through the doors and stopped when she heard GLaDOS’s voice.
“Due to your suicidal tendencies, I have decided to start medicating you with Aperture Science anti-depressants,” GLaDOS said.
“What suicidal tendencies?” Chelsea asked incredulously.  “I’m not depress…OW!”
Chelsea looked over to see that a doctor robot had in one move grabbed her right arm and injected her with an unknown substance.  She felt Jeffrey move around in her hair as she stared at the robot who was done injecting before she had even had time to react.  The doctor robot pulled out the syringe, placed a band aid on the spot, ran into the elevator and went back up towards the surface.
Chelsea grabbed her right arm in fear and asked, “What have you done to me?”
“Though it is not necessary, it is good that you feel afraid,” GLaDOS said coldly.  “Your faster heartbeat will really help the drug to work faster.  Anyways, that drug was only the medication that I mentioned before.  All it will do is help you not to feel depressed.  Might I ask, how are you feeling?”
“I feel pissed off because as I was going to say I’m not depressed!” Chelsea yelled.  “You’re trying to turn me into a damned vegetable!”
“I am only trying to treat your ailments,” GLaDOS said calmly.  “It is not very often that I receive a test subject such as yourself with so many mental problems.  I simply am looking for the medicine that will help you the most.”
“If you want to help me, then why the hell won’t you bother to treat the burn that I received on my left shoulder?!” Chelsea yelled as she gestured towards the spot with her left hand.
“It is against testing protocol to treat the injuries of test subjects before they complete all the tests,” GLaDOS said coldly.
“You’re despicable,” Chelsea said as she walked down the hallway towards her ninth test.
This medicine worked even more quickly than the other medicine did.  Chelsea felt nervous about what she felt was going on inside her.  The medicine made her feel emotionally numb.  She felt no anxiety, fear, or anything else any longer.  In spite of that, she was upset.  These medicines were developed for people who really needed the help but on her they were being used for control.  Even though her body would not let her feel the emotion, Chelsea was angry.  Chelsea stopped and stared at the camera that was on the wall looking at her as she was about to enter the room.
Then with all the emotion she could muster, she said, “You cannot control me like this you know.  All these drugs that you force into me may control my emotions, but they will never change my will.  The will runs deeper than anything I feel.  It is inside my soul and that is something that you don’t have the power to destroy even if you do think you’re the devil.  You have two choices.  Either you accept it or you will go insane from your efforts to break it because it’s not going anywhere.”
Chelsea walked into the room before GLaDOS had the opportunity to respond.  She looked around and saw that there were two lasers pointing horizontally, two lasers going vertically, one laser pointing at a left angle, and one laser pointing at a right angle, six lasers in all.  There were also six laser redirection cubes littered all over the floor.  Then on the other side of the room was a door with generators forming a square around it.  Chelsea had to figure out a way to get all six lasers directed to the other side of the room while only using her portals once.  She breathed in and out deeply as she picked up her first cube and decided upon her first song, the only Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong song that she remembered all the way through.
“You won’t be satisfied until you break my heart,” Chelsea sang as she positioned the cube in front of the laser that was vertically pointed down from the ceiling in such a way that it connected to the generator.  “You’re never satisfied until the teardrops start.”
“I tried to shower you with love and kisses,” Chelsea sang as she picked up another cube and walked to the other laser that was horizontally pointing across the room.  “But all I ever get from you is naggin' and braggin’.  My poor heart is saggin'.”
Chelsea placed the cube so that its horizontal laser was also going into a generator while singing, “The way you toss my heart around's a cryin' shame.  I'll bet you wouldn't like it if I did the same.  You're only happy tearin' all my dreams apart.  Oh, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart.”
The second cube was able to get the third generator going but unfortunately for Chelsea the rest of the test was going to be more difficult.  She had to figure out a way to get the rest of the lasers to go to their proper place.  Chelsea paced around in an effort to get an idea for what she should do.
“No, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart,” Chelsea sang while pacing.  “You're never satisfied until the teardrops start.  I tried to shower you with love and kisses, baby.  All I ever get from you is naggin' and braggin'.  My poor heart is saggin'.”
Chelsea finally got an idea.  She used her discs and moved them under the four remaining boxes.  However, she quickly realized that she didn’t have the mental capacity to direct the movement of four discs at one time so she dissolved them and allowed the boxes to fall to the ground.
“The way you toss my heart around's, is a cryin' shame,” Chelsea sang in frustration.  “I'll bet you wouldn't like it if I did the same.  You're only happy tearin' all my dreams apart.  Babe, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart.”
Chelsea quickly got another idea.  She picked up a cube with her portal gun and walked towards one of the lasers that was hitting the wall at an angle.
Chelsea sang as she walked over to the laser and moved the cube so that the laser was hitting a specific spot on the wall, “The way you toss my heart around's a cryin' shame.  Oh, yes!  I'll bet you wouldn't like it if I did the same.  You only tearing all my little dreams apart.  Oh, you won't be satisfied until you break my heart!”
Chelsea finished her song and thought for a moment about what her next song should be.  The camera had not moved at all when she sang the previous song, but Chelsea was not willing to give up.  She decided upon Al Jolson’s famous song that he would sing all the time in all the old radio programs that Chelsea listened to on her father’s iPad, changing the lyrics where appropriate of course.
“I’m happy, so happy, walkin’ on air,” Chelsea sang happily as she walked over to get her next cube.  “The why and the wherefore is someone I care for!”
Chelsea picked up the cube with the portal gun and walked over to the next laser while continuing to sing, “I’m yellin’, I’m tellin’ folks everywhere.  I know that he loves me, so what do I care?!”
Chelsea positioned the cube so that the laser was hitting the same spot on the wall while singing, “There’s a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above.  Oh the sun shines bright, the world’s alright ‘cause I’m in love!”
She then fired an orange portal while singing, “There's a rainbow around my shoulder and it fits me like a glove!”
Chelsea then turned around and walked back to the door while continuing to sing, “Let it blow and storm, I'll be warm `cause I'm in love!”
Chelsea fired her blue portal just a few paces from the door and watched as the two lasers went into the generators above the door while she was singing, “Hallelujah, how the folks'll stare when they see that great big solitaire that my little sugar baby is goin' a-wear!”
Chelsea was now at a loss for what else to do.  There were two generators left that she had to get working, and the lasers were both firing horizontally from different places in the room.  She could not get them to go through the portal that she already created and have them go where they were supposed to.  
Chelsea started pacing around the room while thinking of what to do and continued to sing, “There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above and I’m shouting so the world will know that I’m in love!   There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above and I’m shouting so the world will know that I’m in love!  There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above!  Oh, the sun shines bright, the world's all right `cause I'm in love!  There's a rainbow around my shoulder and it fits me like a glove!  Let it blow and storm, I'll be warm `cause I'm in love!”
Chelsea finally came up with an idea for what she would do.  She would now use her discs and not have to move the portals at all.
Chelsea walked to each cube and created a disc under each of them while continuing to sing, “Hallelujah, how the folks'll stare when they see that great big solitaire that my little sugar baby, baby, baby, baby, she's goin' a-wear!”
She then moved the discs so that the cubes were each positioned at their lasers and the lasers were hitting the generators they were supposed to while finishing out her song, “There's a rainbow around my shoulder and a sky of blue above and I'm shouting so the world will know that I'm in love!”
The door opened, and Chelsea smiled in satisfaction as she quickly walked through the door.
“Nice work,” GLaDOS said.  “The medicine appears to be working already.  You are in a much better mood.”
Chelsea sighed in frustration.  Her last song had not worked either, but as she had four other songs to choose from, she could afford to be optimistic for the time being.
Chelsea walked up the stairs and started to sing optimistically, “I know you!  I walked with you once upon a dream!  I know you!  The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam!  I know it’s true that visions are seldom what they seem, but if I know you, I know what you’ll do.  You’ll love me at once the way you did once upon a dream!”
As she was about to enter the elevator, she continued to sing, “I know you…”
However, she suddenly stopped singing as she heard GLaDOS continue to sing, “I walked with you once upon a dream.  I know you.  The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam.  I know it’s true that visions are seldom what they seem, but if I know you, I know what you’ll do.  You’ll love me at once the way you did once upon a dream.”
Chelsea turned around and stared on at the camera completely in shock and unable to believe what she was hearing.
GLaDOS finished singing and said as if in a vision, “I remember that song.  I was in a movie theatre.  I was too old to be there, but I wanted to be there anyway.  There was a fairy with horns on her head who I liked very much.”
“You mean Maleficent?” Chelsea said in disbelief and confusion over how to react.  “She was the evil fairy who cursed the princess.  Why would you like someone like that?”
“She was misunderstood and rejected by the others, so she had to get back at them and get what she deserved the only way she knew how,” GLaDOS said.
It was then that GLaDOS snapped back to reality.  She realized what she had just experienced and what she had just said.  GLaDOS had had another memory, another memory from her, and lost her composure in front of her test subject once again.  As she stared back at Chelsea, she realized something else.  Chelsea had wanted this to happen.  Every song she sang these past few test chambers was a song from the 20th century, a time period with songs that GLaDOS could potentially recognize.  That girl was so cruel.
“What are you staring at, sparrow?” GLaDOS said.  “Get into the elevator.”
Chelsea turned back around and entered the elevator.  The doors shut behind her, and she rode it down to her next test as GLaDOS figured out what to do.