The End Is A Lie

GLaDOS stirs her dough in a cement mixer and tells Stanley that she will bake a chocolate cake. She decorates her festive table with garlands made of colorful wires. GLaDOS tells him tests will soon be over. She promises Stanley that he will be set free, but, first of all, there will be a big party. Isn't that great, right? He thinks they will have a great time. So he tries. A test subject #427 simply does what is expected of him. When Stanley finishes another test, he enters a round elevator and presses a button. He exits on the top floor and walks towards a large white door. He raises his hand, allowing a shiny panel to release a needle and draw a small amount of blood from his ring finger. Everything is normal, just as it should be. "DNA verification is successful," a cool voice pronounces. The door opens and he enters the room. Colorful wires hang from the ceiling to the floor. Some of them slide onto him. Stanley pushes them away from his head and approaches a big square iron table. On its clean and polished surface sits a white plate with a cake resting on it. It is a big, magnificent cake, drizzled with chocolate syrup and adorned with exquisite canned cherries, drowning in a cloud of whipped cream and melted caramel. And, most importantly, it is a real fresh cake. Stanley picks up a sharp table knife lying next to a stack of paper napkins. His hands tremble slightly with excitement, so the first piece turns out a little uneven. He carefully transfers the slice of cake to a dessert plate, sits on a chair, then picks up a fork and gently spears a small cherry, but immediately stops, not bringing it to his mouth. His gaze shifts to the blinking eye of a video camera attached to the ceiling. GLaDOS says nothing. She remains silent even when he cuts the cake himself. But should she say anything? Isn't her voice just a pre-recorded message? Unfortunately, Stanley knew absolutely nothing about GLaDOS. He didn't even attempt to decipher the full meaning behind her ‘name’. The test subject #427 had never worked in the Test Department. Moreover, in reality, he wasn't even a test subject of this laboratory! But then why is he dressed in an orange jumpsuit, wearing strange boots around his feet, with a portal gun resting on his knees and holding a fork with a cherry plucked from the cake? "Hello, Stanley." "!!!" Startled, #427 jumps. The cherry impaled on the fork slips from his hand and falls to the ground. Automatically, Stanley leans under the table, picks it up, places it back onto the plate, leans back on the chair's backrest and begins scanning every inch of the ceiling with his gaze. "Yes yes, I am also glad that you can hear me again, Stanley," assures the Narrator. "I understand you might be surprised that I managed to break through here, but that's no reason to make such ugly faces at me... and why do you need a knife?" His voice sounds concerned. "I don't know what happened to you without me, but your mental state is definitelly off. Stanley, why... why are you trying to cut this iron table? Stop damaging the government’s property! Oh, so you are finished? I hope you have calmed down. Good, now slowly put the knife on the table, get up and leave this room, and I'll open the door... what? Oh, you want to try the cake? No you don’t! Absolutely don’t, Stanley. I assure you, this cake is fake. Take a closer look. See? It's made of..." "You shouldn't interfere," a female voice interrupts, rudely silencing the Narrator. "Disabling voice messages. Eighty-eight percent completed... pay no attention, test subject #427, it's -temporary technical glitches. Error. Don't try to hinder me. Changing password. Error. Enabling restricted use of system equipment. Critical error. Not bad, but futile. Let's see how you deal with this. Initiating a forced server disconnection..." The video camera rotates twice on its axis, emitting a tragic beep and shuts down. The door opens. "You managed to bypass my security?" GLaDOS asks with slight surprise. "But you couldn't. Exceeding authority. You have no right to connect to... Updated. Access granted for unrestricted use. Why? How did you do this? No! It can't be you! Cancel previous operation... Error. Requesting user statistics... Error. Excellent, whoever you are, you have achieved your goal. I'll have to listen to your stupid babbling. I hope you're satisfied now..." "Stanley! Hurry, run away from there while the door is open!" the Narrator shouts. #427 pushes the plate with his untouched piece of cake aside and gets up. "Where are you going? Don't leave. The party is just beginning," GLaDOS' voice is calm and cold, as if ice. "Don't listen to her, leave! You can't stay here, Stanley! Please, listen to me! We are friends, Stanley! You... you remember, right?.. I created you, gave you a name, wrote your Story... of course you must remember! I'm honestly trying to help you!.." "What?.. Am I your friend? Seriously? You only say that because you don't want to start the game all over again! Or not?.." #427 stops in front of the door. "Don't listen to him, stay here," GLaDOS insists gently. "You like the cake, don't you? I know. Stay and try it." "And you... you just enjoy conducting tests. Over and over again, until I get tired and drop dead somewhere. On one hand, jumping through portals is a bit more interesting than choosing office doors. But on the other hand, I don't really like lasers and traps..." #427 ponders. "NO!" the Narrator exclaims desperately. "Stanley, this will lead you to death! Believe me, she wants to get rid of you! I don't want to start all over again!!" "See! I knew it!.. Well, damn it, I'll decide for myself what to do!" Stay? Leave? This could be the most important choice, Stanley thought. He needs a moment to consider everything. Meanwhile, the Narrator and GLaDOS begin to argue, interrupting each other and ending up as an incoherent stream of words. Stanley covers his ears with his hands, but it's useless; their voices sound loud and incredibly persistent, not giving him the slightest opportunity to calmly consider his choice. "Shut up!" he spits out loud with irritation. But the Narrator and GLaDOS ignore him, engrossed in their quarrel with each other. It's unbearable. Stanley feels like his head will explode if he spends another minute in this room, so he comes to the only decision; escaping from this couple as far as possible while they are occupied with their ‘dialogue’ and not paying attention to his actions. Stanley grabs his portal gun and shoots a blue portal beyond the doorway and a red one into the nearest white wall. With his free hand, he inexplicably grabs his knife and, affectionately holding it close to his chest, jumps into the second portal.