Thrum, thrum, thrum.
After ages of near-silence, the sound was almost deafening. It was more than just the hum of electricity or the whirring of panels—it was the heartbeat of the facility. It was a sure sign that Aperture was truly alive again—and a constant reminder of what was quite possibly the biggest mistake Virgil had ever made.
I had to do it, though, he reasoned. She would be dead if I hadn’t. I would be dead. And—and at least now the facility’s not exploding.
Shortly after AEGIS had shut down, the reactor core had begun malfunctioning, which would have doomed the facility—again. But then she ha