[Mines of Moria]
After defeating the Balrog and intimidating the surviving orcs a bit, Daniel, along with the rest of his new and improvised group, began making their way out of the mines, moving at an unhurried pace.
The journey turned out to be fairly quiet, since at that moment the only ones conscious were Daniel and Emily.
At least until, after a while, Entrapta started waking up from her short nap, shifting slightly where she was.
"Mmhh… what happened?" she murmured, confused.
She quickly realized she was on top of Emily. She blinked a couple of times, getting her bearings, and looked around, noticing they were still inside a cold, dark tunnel.
As she tilted her head slightly to the right, she saw the white-haired boy walking while carrying the fire demon over his shoulder, now transformed into a woman who emitted a faint glow that lit up the corridor.
A smile spread across Entrapta's face. "Nice, it wasn't a dream," she thought, perking up as she adjusted herself more comfortably on top of Emily.
Daniel glanced at her out of the corner of his eye when he heard her move.
"I'm glad you're awake, Entrapta," he said calmly, without stopping.
"Thanks…" she tried to reply, but stopped when she noticed something.
She leaned forward slightly. "Wait! How do you know my name?" she asked, curious.
Daniel didn't react and pointed at the robot carrying her with his free hand. "Emily told me," he replied casually.
Entrapta's eyes lit up, clearly interested.
"You understand Emily?" she asked, leaning in a little closer.
The truth was, it was hard for anyone to understand Emily, mainly because she didn't communicate with words. Entrapta herself could only do it because she was the one who had reprogrammed her.
"How?" she insisted, leaning toward him.
Daniel shrugged, not seeing the need to come up with any elaborate lie. "I understand everyone."
Entrapta went blank for a moment, processing what she had just heard. It wasn't what she expected, but her scientific nature pushed her to keep asking questions.
"What exactly does that mean?" she asked, refocusing.
"I understand all written and spoken languages that exist, existed, or will exist," he explained with confidence and a hint of pride.
Entrapta was already pulling out her notebook, starting to write while nodding.
"Can you talk to animals?" she asked without looking up much.
Daniel shook his head. "Animals don't have an established language, there's no syntax, grammar, or abstraction," he explained.
Entrapta wrote it down quickly.
"So for you to understand a language, it needs to be a structured system meant to communicate information?" she formulated, speaking faster.
Daniel blanked for a moment. "I have no idea what you just said, but sure, I agree," he replied in the end.
Entrapta watched him for a second, evaluating her new test subject. He didn't seem very smart, so she decided to simplify her questions.
"Just answer the following questions however you can," she said, raising one finger.
"Do you understand sign language?"
Daniel nodded, remembering he had already tested that with Neo.
Entrapta wrote it down and continued. "What if someone communicates through dancing?"
Daniel hesitated a bit. "I guess I could—"
He couldn't finish his answer as Entrapta cut him off. "What about music?" she asked right away.
Daniel tried to think quickly, technically music had notation and resembled a language. "I think so, I've never tried—"
"Awesome!" she cut him off again.
"What about painting? Secret military codes? Body language? Math? Programming?"
She fired everything off in one go, not giving him any space to answer.
Daniel stayed silent, waiting for her to finish.
When Entrapta noticed he wasn't answering anymore, she stopped. "You do know what math is, right?" she asked, doubtful.
Daniel sighed, a bit tired.
"I know what math is," he replied patiently. "I'm just not sure if math or programming actually count as a language."
Entrapta looked visibly offended at his words.
"Of course math is a language!" she shouted without hesitation, stepping closer until she was practically in his personal space.
"Math is the purest way to describe reality, it's universal, precise, and allows you to predict and model the universe…" she continued, speaking faster and faster.
"IT IS, IN ESSENCE, THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNIVERSE!"
Her voice rose more than it should have, and she ended up worked up, her breathing uneven. It took her a few seconds to calm down, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out.
"You've never tried it?" she asked, calmer now.
Daniel shook his head slightly, completely ignoring her little psychotic outburst.
"I didn't think it was an option…"
Time passed, and the two of them kept talking as they moved forward, though in practice it was Entrapta carrying the conversation, throwing question after question without stopping.
Among them, she asked where they were, how he had gotten there, and how that fire demon had ended up turned into a woman. Nothing particularly strange, and nothing Daniel couldn't answer.
They kept going like that for quite a while until, after about an hour, they reached the exit—largely thanks to Emily, who guided the way, since Daniel would have had no chance of finding it on his own.
The moment the doors opened, a strong gust of icy wind hit them head-on.
Entrapta, being the only normal human in the group and with no resistance to the cold, immediately hugged herself.
"Brrrr… it's freezing…" her teeth chattering.
Daniel looked at her for a moment. Noticing she wouldn't last like that for long, he simply gave in. He sighed and extended an arm toward her.
"Come here—"
Before he could finish speaking, Entrapta had already thrown herself at him, hugging his body in search of warmth, whether his or even the Balrog's, whom she didn't dare touch directly since it was still wrapped in flames.
But it wasn't necessary.
Daniel's body began to heat up gradually, surrounding her in an increasingly pleasant temperature.
[Inferno "Skill: Allows the user to release continuous streams of fire from their body"]
"Ahhh… much better," Entrapta said with obvious satisfaction, relaxing.
Her hair moved on its own, wrapping around both of them and adjusting to keep her in place, forming something like an improvised cocoon.
She stayed like that as they kept moving forward, until they finally stepped completely out of the cave, greeted by the darkness of the night, faintly lit by the broken moon.
Entrapta's eyes widened the moment she saw the sky.
Inside the cave, Daniel had explained that this was no longer her world, but he hadn't mentioned anything about the stars.
"Wiiii!!!" she let out a high-pitched squeal, a huge smile spreading across her face.
"They're stars!" she said, pointing upward, completely fascinated.
"Do you know what they mean?" she immediately asked, bringing her hands to Daniel's face and turning it so he would look at the sky.
"No…?" he replied, a bit unsure.
Entrapta didn't care about his ignorance. She turned his face again, this time making him look directly at her.
"My theories are real!" she declared excitedly.
Daniel didn't ask what those theories were, fairly certain she was going to explain them anyway.
And she did.
Entrapta let go of his face, pressing herself against his body again as her hair wrapped around them once more, adjusting to get more comfortable.
"This means that Etheria, my original world…," she continued, practically trembling with excitement. "My entire planet is trapped in an empty dimension!"
Daniel didn't change his expression. "I'll be honest, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about…"
Entrapta took his words as a personal challenge, so over the next few minutes she made sure to explain everything in detail, talking non-stop.
She described how her original world had no stars and how she was certain that was because of the First Ones, an ancient and advanced civilization that, according to her, had hidden the entire planet between dimensions.
Though in the end, she admitted she didn't know the reason why they had done it.
She only stopped when they reached the edge of the mountain, and in front of them opened up a fairly deep cliff they would have to descend if they wanted to get off the mountain.
Entrapta looked at him with a bit of hope. "Is there a way down?"
A smile formed on Daniel's face as he turned to look at her, glad she had finally stopped talking.
"This is the way," he said, teasing slightly.
Without further explanation, he lifted the robot. Now he had the Balrog in one hand, Emily in the other, and Entrapta clinging to his back.
Before Entrapta could ask another question, Daniel jumped.
"AAAHHHHHHHH!!"
Entrapta screamed along with Emily, both of them twisting in his grip as they fell.
The fall lasted several seconds.
The air slammed against them as they descended, until finally Daniel crashed into the ground, landing on his feet in the snow without any issue.
The others were unharmed as well.
He felt how Emily, despite being a robot, was trembling in his grip. Meanwhile, Entrapta's hold on his back kept tightening, even though they were already on the ground.
Daniel chuckled to himself and kept moving forward through the snow; the ships weren't far anymore.
As he got closer, he was surprised to see that almost all the stolen ships had already been dug out by the robots inside them, who had been working for the past three days to make it happen.
It surprised him… but not nearly as much as it did Entrapta.
"WHAT IS THAT?!" she suddenly shouted, completely forgetting about the cold and her recent near-death experience.
Without hesitation, she broke out of her cocoon and shoved Daniel with a force that would have easily knocked over a normal person.
Her eyes lit up as she ran toward the ships and the robots.
"So many ships I've never seen before!" she said excitedly, approaching one of the robots, who completely ignored her.
"Wow! Look at how advanced they are!"
While she examined them, Daniel walked toward the largest Bullhead he had arrived in. As he approached, the doors opened for him.
Even so, Entrapta was the first to go in, running in without slowing down and immediately starting to touch and inspect every machine and tool she didn't recognize.
"Can I keep this?" she asked, holding up something even Daniel had no idea what it was for.
"Ah…" he sighed, tired. "I really need to rest."
—/—
[GLaDOS and The Boys]
After the improvised mission to retrieve Sadako's scroll, the group had finally returned to the Bullhead.
But as soon as they got close, GLaDOS narrowed her eyes as she picked up the ship's signals: Daniel had not only arrived earlier, he wasn't alone either.
Rosella, with her enhanced senses, recognized Daniel's recent scent the moment they got near the area without any difficulty.
"I knew he'd make it!!" her tail wagged with clear excitement.
Everyone hurried onto the Bullhead, heading straight for the room where he was.
When they opened the door, the scene was slightly strange.
The room was filled with electronic components scattered across the floor. In one corner, a purple-haired girl was focused on something, soldering parts without acknowledging their presence.
In the center of the room, slightly reclined on the bed, Daniel watched them while holding a harmonica in his hands.
Next to him, lying down, was a girl with half of her head made of fire, whom everyone assumed was the Balrog he had been fighting earlier.
"Oh, hi," Daniel greeted them with an obviously forced smile. "I didn't see you there… please, come in."
He paused briefly, adjusting his position a little.
"While I was waiting for you, I composed a song that expresses my feelings toward you."
"It's called 'I hate you guys.'"
He cleared his throat a bit and, without hesitation, started playing the harmonica.
"I hate you guys♫"
[Harmonica sounds]
"You guys are assholes♫"
[Harmonica sounds]
"Especially GLaDOS ♫"
[Harmonica sounds]
"I hate her the most ♫"
He looked up at the group, inviting them to join in.
"Okay, now let's try one all together"
[Harmonica sounds]
"I hate you guys...♫"
[Harmonica sounds]
"Ah, come on, you guys know all the words!"
[More harmonica sounds]
"...Especially GLaDOS, I hate her the most...♫"
No one sang.
Except Sadako, who clapped lightly to the rhythm, though Rosella quickly stopped her, shaking her head when she realized it clearly wasn't the moment.
Before Daniel could continue with the second part, GLaDOS rolled her eyes and, in one swift motion, drew her weapon and shot the harmonica, sending it flying out of Daniel's hands.
He didn't react much to the loss of his beloved harmonica.
"I see you're still alive…" GLaDOS said in a flat tone with a hint of condescension.
Daniel's smile tightened slightly, a small twitch appearing on his eyebrow.
"Yeah, I'm alive…" he replied tensely. "And not thanks to you, you bunch of traitors!"
He raised his hand and pointed at the Balrog resting beside him on the bed. Her demonic tail moved calmly, almost like a cat's.
"Did I already introduce you to my new friend? No?"
He made a slight face, as if noticing his own oversight.
"How rude of me…" He straightened up a bit. "…This is Balrog, the fire demon, Durin's Bane, flame of Udun, also known as Valaraukar."
He wasn't improvising. She herself had told him all those names the moment she woke up.
"I call her Val for short."
The atmosphere in the room quickly turned awkward.
GLaDOS narrowed her eyes, watching him suspiciously. "You fucked her, didn't you?"
Daniel answered almost instantly, indignant. "I did what I had to do to survive!"
GLaDOS let out a dry, clearly mocking laugh.
"That just means yes."
She reached into her jacket and pulled out some bills.
Rosella and Aegis did the same at the same time. The three of them turned and handed the money to Sadako.
"Stupid ghost…" Aegis complained. "She cheated, I don't know how, but she did…"
Daniel shook his head, staring at them in disbelief.
"You bet on me…"
It wasn't a question, it was a direct statement.
"Stop whining," Aegis said in an annoyed tone, still perched on the goat's head. "You're still alive and, unlike us, you didn't lose any money."
The goat started moving around the room, approaching Daniel as Aegis guided its movements.
"Besides… what's the point of training you if you expect me to fight all your battles?"
He raised his claw and pointed at the rest of the group.
"But if it helps your fragile ego, they were actually worried."
At that exact moment, both Rosella and Sadako threw themselves onto the bed.
Rosella moved in right away, rubbing against him while marking him with her scent almost instinctively, since after three days away from him, it was starting to fade.
"I knew you'd make it," she said enthusiastically. "You triumphed and dominated your enemies!"
Sadako, on the other hand, simply lay on top of him, staring at him with her usual neutral expression, without saying a word.
Rosella leaned closer to his face, smiling with a hint of mischief, showing her fangs.
"It felt good, didn't it?" she asked with a soft laugh.
Daniel didn't need to ask what she meant. He understood perfectly: she was talking about the feeling of victory, of dominance, of standing above after defeating the Balrog and claiming his place as the strongest.
Even so, he chose not to answer. Rosella probably wanted to provoke him into starting a war or something like that.
His gaze shifted back to GLaDOS, who met his eyes without changing her expression.
"If you're waiting for an apology… I suggest you get comfortable. Unlike you, I can stand here forever."
Daniel didn't respond; he simply looked away, a faint smile forming on his lips.
Then he raised his hand and pointed at the purple-haired girl, who hadn't reacted at all to the group's arrival and was still completely absorbed in her work.
"I almost forgot. She's my new employee, Entrapta… she's a genius."
GLaDOS wasn't impressed.
Daniel pointed at the collars both Val and Entrapta were wearing around their necks.
"She made those. She found a broken translator collar model and, in less than thirty minutes, she already had her own improved version."
GLaDOS narrowed her eyes, looking at him suspiciously. "What's your point?"
Daniel shrugged indifferently. "I'm just saying she'd be a good replacement for you…"
GLaDOS's fist clenched tightly, though her expression didn't change in the slightest.
Without saying another word to him, she calmly walked over to Entrapta.
A quick glance at her workspace was enough to notice that every piece she was using had been taken from the ship and parts of her own lab.
That only annoyed her more, though she kept it under control.
"Entrapta, right?" she asked in a deliberately calm voice.
Entrapta reacted to hearing her name and looked up.
"Hi!" she replied, looking around as if she had just noticed everyone else. "When did so many people get here?"
She tilted her head slightly toward Daniel, who was still lying down, looking for answers, but before she could ask, GLaDOS snapped her fingers, drawing her attention.
"So this moron…" she pointed at Daniel without turning around. "He hired you?"
Entrapta nodded several times, clearly excited.
GLaDOS gave her a pitying smile.
"That's great, but… did he tell you that everything you build will probably be used as weapons of war, for control, domination, or dangerous and dehumanizing experiments?"
She tried to sound serious, like a warning, but to her surprise, Entrapta nodded again without losing her smile.
"I think he said something like that… but I stopped listening after he promised me all the resources I wanted."
GLaDOS sighed, disappointed. Clearly, the girl had serious mental issues.
"Well… I tried the nice way, I guess now it's the hard way…"
In an instant, her arm transformed into an energy cannon that began charging with a low hum.
"Nothing personal…" she said, not really trying to hide that it was.
The reaction wasn't what she expected. Instead of backing away, Entrapta gave a small jump, clearly excited.
"You're a robot!"
She stepped closer, staring directly at the tip of the cannon without any caution.
"Self-reprogrammable metal capable of adopting different forms…" she said, practically drooling as she imagined possibilities.
She narrowed her eyes slightly, evaluating it more closely. "Although… this cannon looks kind of low power…"
GLaDOS tensed. People could criticize many things about her, but never her technology.
"This cannon is perfectly fine!" she snapped, pressing the tip against Entrapta's forehead, wanting her to take it back.
Entrapta made a face, clearly disagreeing. "It's fine… but Emily's is better."
GLaDOS raised an eyebrow, slightly confused.
"Who is Emily?"
"She's my friend!" Entrapta replied, raising her hands and clapping quickly.
That was the signal. Instantly, the steel wall behind her changed color, turning an intense red.
GLaDOS barely had a second to react.
She moved just in time to dodge the red beam that tore through the wall, destroying it and punching through two more behind it.
The impact shook the room, making the floor tremble, but GLaDOS didn't react to the damage to the ship.
Her gaze stayed fixed on the hole in the wall, from which a spherical robot that clearly wasn't one of hers began to emerge.
The two robots locked eyes, their cannons charged and ready to fire at any moment.
"This is Emily," Entrapta said, hugging her proudly. "I reprogrammed and upgraded her myself."
GLaDOS didn't respond; she was already busy with her hacking attempt, launching a direct intrusion to take control of Emily.
Several seconds passed in silence until, after failing repeatedly, she gave up.
Emily's defenses turned out to be far more advanced than she had expected.
Her cannon shifted back into an arm as she looked away with slight annoyance. Emily did the same, deactivating her laser without taking her eyes off GLaDOS.
"I suppose you can be useful…" GLaDOS said reluctantly.
Without waiting for a response, she grabbed Entrapta by the collar of her clothes and started dragging her toward the exit without much care.
Entrapta didn't resist.
"Oh, we have so much to talk about!" she said excitedly, not really noticing the danger she was in. "Who created you? What are you made of?"
Her voice grew fainter as they moved farther down the hallway.
Emily didn't stay behind and started following them, clearly intending to protect Entrapta.
Aegis watched the scene for a moment without intervening.
"Do you think they'll be fine on their own?" he finally asked.
Daniel nodded, though without much confidence. "Probably…"
There was a brief silence in the room until he raised his hand, pointing at the animal Aegis was riding.
"Where did that goat come from?"
The goat, noticing it was being acknowledged, straightened up a bit, adopting a more dignified, almost elegant posture.
"It's a long story…" Aegis replied.
—/—
[GLaDOS's Lab]
The lab doors opened as GLaDOS walked in, dragging Entrapta effortlessly.
Entrapta kept talking, but GLaDOS had already shut off her auditory receptors.
Without much care, she dropped her onto the floor.
"Ouch…" Entrapta complained, though she quickly recovered, getting up almost immediately as she noticed the lab, starting to move around the room while examining everything around her.
She went from one side to the other, picking up tools, inspecting machines, and checking parts without any apparent order.
She didn't get very far.
Mechanical arms descended from the ceiling, grabbing her and placing her onto a chair that left her right in front of GLaDOS.
"How did you build Emily?" she asked bluntly.
She didn't waste any time.
Emily's software seemed elegant and well-programmed to her, but what interested her the most was the hardware. Many of its parts were clearly more advanced than others, which didn't make much sense if everything had been built by a single person.
Entrapta didn't feel fear. Only joy at being able to share her achievements.
"Oh! I didn't build her completely," she explained without any shame. "I took a Horde robot, reprogrammed it, and improved it… adapting some First Ones technology."
GLaDOS accepted the answer without issue.
She smiled to herself, satisfied to know that Entrapta wasn't as smart as she had initially thought, though she still had one question.
"Who are the First Ones?"
Entrapta started rolling around slightly in the chair as her hair grabbed some nearby devices.
"The First Ones are a lost and technologically advanced civilization in my world!"
That caught GLaDOS's interest. "How advanced?"
Entrapta gave a small excited jump, stopping what she was doing to lean a bit closer.
"So advanced that they make my technology, even yours, look like children's toys!" She grew a bit discouraged, slowing down. "I've spent years trying to integrate their technology into my experiments… but Emily has been my best attempt so far."
Her expression dropped for a moment, though she quickly regained her usual upbeat attitude.
"But I'm hopeful that my assistant can decipher the code that's still inside Emily."
Her excitement grew the more she thought about it. "If I could crack her code… I have no idea what I could build!"
"Something like that could create infinite power! HAHAHAHAH!" she laughed with a clearly villainous tone.
GLaDOS assumed that by "assistant" she meant Daniel, but that wasn't the important part.
She wanted some of that power… or rather, all of it.
"Where is that technology?"
"Under the surface of my original world, of course!" Entrapta replied without hesitation.
GLaDOS frowned slightly, a bit confused. "Like in vaults?"
Entrapta shook her head, spinning in her chair. "Not exactly." She rolled over to Emily and pressed a button. Instantly, the robot projected an image of the planet.
"If my theories are correct, the First Ones didn't settle on the surface."
The hologram shifted, showing the interior beneath the crust, the entire planet appearing covered by a complex metallic structure.
"Their technology is in the core…"
GLaDOS's eyes widened slightly, showing a rare hint of surprise.
"The entire planet is one massive machine…"
"Bingo!" Entrapta exclaimed.
GLaDOS leaned toward her, placing her hands on her shoulders to stop her from moving around.
"I assume you want to return to your world for that technology, right?"
Entrapta nodded several times without hesitation.
"And do you have a plan?"
She nodded again. "Now that I know my world isn't in another universe but trapped between them in an empty space, it'll be much easier to find…"
She paused briefly, as if organizing her thoughts.
"Of course, I still need to build the technology and get an incredibly powerful energy source to open a portal."
She shrugged, not too concerned.
"Minor details."
Her gaze fixed on GLaDOS with curiosity. "Why do you ask? Do you want to go too?"
GLaDOS gave her her best smile. "I'm interested in seeing your world… and its technology."
She paused slightly, remembering an important detail.
"But it would be better if you kept this information a secret from Daniel. He really doesn't need to know this." Her tone remained friendly, almost casual. "In return, I can help you build what you need."
Entrapta looked at her, confused, tilting her head slightly.
"Who?"
GLaDOS stayed silent for a moment, evaluating whether she was serious.
"Daniel… the boy who brought you onto the ship."
Entrapta kept smiling, but clearly had no idea who she was talking about.
GLaDOS brought two fingers to her temple, incredulous. "Your assistant!" she said through gritted teeth.
"Ah!" Entrapta finally reacted. "No problem! I'll be very discreet."
GLaDOS let go of her and stepped back without saying anything else.
She wasn't entirely sure whether that alliance was a good or a bad idea.
—//—
Author's Note:
I hope you liked the chapter. I spent the whole week making it— nah, just kidding, I did it yesterday in a few hours. I was busy the rest of the week.
I guess for those who don't know who Entrapta is, this whole chapter doesn't make much sense… Oh well, what can you do?.
In case you didn't notice, now that Daniel fucked the Balrog, he has part of its stats, which turns him into a walking tank. He's not invincible; a group of veteran hunters could still take him down. I guess I'll leave a reference image of the stats here.
[Image]
Fun fact: for GLaDOS, the multiverse isn't something unknown. I mean, Aperture Laboratories had already worked on and achieved communication with other realities, mainly to make them work, steal their product, and in the end not pay them at all.
[Image]
Well, I think that's everything I had to say… except for the lack of comments on the previous chapter, you rats! Now I don't know if it's because you didn't like it, because it was a completely +18 chapter, or because you were busy jerking off. I want to believe it was the last one.
Anyway, thanks for reading…
Hugs and kisses!