Ash stared, stunned. It had been so long since she'd seen anyone and here she was staring at an anthro wolf of all things. She blinked, made sure he was real, took in every detail.

He was covered in black fur and muscle, and that was covered in some kind of grey and white armor. Its rounded edges reminded her of something, but she couldn't remember what until she saw the portal gun gripped in his pawed hands; it was the same aesthetic as the storage cubes, the turrets, the panels that made up the walls, the test chambers themselves--it was Aperture-brand armor.

"W-what...?" she stammered. "Who...?"

"It's confusing, I know," the wolf said. He reached out his free paw, offering it. She stared at the pinkish-brown pads. "Come on. Let us get you out of here."

"U-us?" she asked, still shaky, clutching her portal gun for all it was worth.

He smiled warmly and let his arm drop, adjusting his grip on his own portal gun.

"The survivors," he said. "There're a lot of us."

Her heart skipped. She'd hoped, dreamed, of reaching the end, of finding others like her.

"Survivors?" she asked, eyes widening. "How many?"

He chuckled, giving her a smirk.

"You'll have to see for yourself."

She glanced back over her shoulder at the big red button, the brilliant blue glow of the antimatter reactor beyond the controls.

"But the tests..." she said. "The system. It'll just keep abducting people, drawing them in, bringing them... here."

"I know," the wolf sighed, and walked over to lean back against the wall beside his portal. She looked through it, but saw only the opposite side of the corridor he'd just come down.

"It's awful," he said, "but we can't shut it down. See, we never figured out exactly how they managed to turn humans into... well, us, so 'til we do, we have to keep the system running."

"So... so you just... let this happen?" she asked, rage and pain welling up in her chest, directed at him now. She gestured broadly at the facility, waving her own portal device around, and he ducked.

"Hey, easy," he said, but she wasn't near done. She was furious, blood boiling.

"God damn it!" she shouted. "You just let people go through that, let them risk death a hundred times, and then, what, the ones lucky enough to get through get to live??"

"We tried to get you out," he said.

She stopped, her eyebrows knitting together. Her heart still hammered in her chest; she could feel the beat through her paw pads.

"What?"

"We tried," he said. "Every time there's a new test subject--sorry, that's a bad--I mean, those're their words not mine. Should I just call you--"

"I don't care what you call me, just get me out of this fucking place," she said.

"Right, yeah," the wolf said. "Sorry. Like I was saying, we tried. We always do. We can keep watch, hack the cams, so we know where you are. Any time a new subject--person--gets through the tests, we send in a team to pull them out. But the facility has its own defenses, so we can't always get to you in time. Sometimes it takes minutes. Sometimes the place is stubborn."

She let out a big breath.

"Oh," she said. "That... makes sense. Did... I-I hope no one died trying to get to me."

The wolf guy glanced away and chuckled awkwardly.

"Well," he said, scratching behind an ear, "one did, but it's fine. We, uh... we kinda have ways around... death."

She blinked and her fox ears twitched.

"You... what?"

"Yeah, I know, it's a lot," he said with a shrug. "Come on, let's get you out of here. I don't like to stay in this place any longer than I have to."

"R-right," she said.

He stepped up to the portal on the wall and gestured her through. Stepping through, she found herself at the end of the hall just down from the reactor control room. Her senses caught something new and she wheeled to see a bird lady, an anthro avian with brilliant red feathers and an orange beak, dressed in a sleek skin tight blue bodysuit, leaning against the wall and casually picking at her hooked talons. There was a portal gun under one of her arms, but it was colored red and gold. She glanced up with brilliant blue eyes and smiled.

"Heya, foxy," she said, wings flitting as she pushed off the wall. "Ready to go?"

Ash, at a loss for words, nodded.

The wolf stepped through the portal behind her, smiling, and hit a button on the side of his portal gun. There was a soft fizzle and the portal closed.

Just as Ash's heart sank at the idea that they'd have to puzzle their way out of this place, she saw the bird lady turn a dial on the side of her portal gun. The avian fired it at the opposite wall and a blue portal opened, revealing blue sky and green forest. Ash had never seen anything so beautiful.

She would have questioned how they just had a portal gun that opened right into the outside world, but she was too relieved to care as the cool, fresh air blew through the portal, carrying the scent of real dirt and pine and grass, the smell of outside. She was the first to step through.

And as soon as she did, she collapsed to the ground, her legs giving out. She was suddenly exhausted, and every muscle hurt. She was only just aware of the voice of the black wolf as he knelt at her side.

"Whoa, whoa," he said gently. "It's alright. You can rest."

And then everything faded.

***

She woke with a sigh, feeling exceptionally well-rested. More rested than she had in her entire life, in fact. She felt so incredibly comfortable, like she was lying on a cloud, and she almost didn't want to move, but she stretched and opened her eyes.

And it hit her. She remembered: the tests, the turrets, the portals, the endless white walls of Aperture.

She shot bolt upright with a gasp and found herself in... a cabin? That was what it looked like. A typical log cabin, horizontal logs making up the walls and ceiling, wood planks along the floor, covered in blue carpet, and all lit by a little lantern that hung from the ceiling, casting a warm orange glow over the room. There was a door in the far wall, but it was a normal door, with hinges and a handle, not those circular sliding doors that guarded the exit to every test chamber, and just seeing it was like a burden lifted from her mind.

The bed was covered in soft blue sheets, and she pulled them off. She blinked, clearing the sleep gunk out of her eyes, and looked down at herself. She was still all foxy (no pun intended), so it hadn't all been a dream. So then where was she...?

She remembered the muscular black wolf with yellow eyes who'd saved her, stopped her from blowing up the Aperture facility. In the haze of sleep, it all felt like ages ago, but she was quickly waking up. She stood, pushing off the bed, and saw a table on the left side of the bed, and on it sat her portal gun.

She heard a soft thumping, like gentle, padded footsteps. She caught an unfamiliar, but very alive scent moments before the door handle turned and the door swung open, revealing a tall grey-furred anthro wolf woman, dressed in a crisp white lab coat and khaki pants. She looked to be approaching middle age, had a kind smile, and her emerald green eyes sparkled as she saw Ash.

"You're standing on two legs, good," she said, stepping inside and closing the door. "How are you feeling?"

Ash blinked, hesitating, assessing her well-being before formulating a reply.

"I'm... fine," she said. "Well, at least I'm physically okay. I feel really rested."

"That's good," the wolf said, walking past her, up to her bedside. Ash flinched as she heard the very distinctive whirr of Aperture-brand machinery, and the wall beside the bed flipped, rotating to reveal a screen that showed her heart rate and other vitals.

"You're looking healthy," she continued, peering at the screen. What was this place, some kind of Aperture medical facility?

"Where am I?" Ash asked hesitantly.

The she-wolf's ear twitched and she turned with a sympathetic look, rubbing the back of one paw with the other. The screen flipped back into the wall as soon as it lost her attention.

"You're safe," the wolf said.

She walked toward the foot of the bed, stepping past Ash again, and went to the wall, moving as if to sit down where there wasn't a chair. Except then there was--the floor slid open and the grey wolf landed heavily in the seat.

"If you want specifics," she said, "it's an island off the coast of Greenland, near the Arctic Circle. Beautiful place, but it doesn't actually have a name. Well, the island doesn't technically have a name, but this place we call Redpaw Village--named after yours truly."

The she-wolf held up her paws and showed the pads, not a light pink or brown like a typical wolf's might have been, but blood red. Ash suddenly remembered.

"The messages," she said. "The bloody writing in the test chambers! That was you?"

The she-wolf nodded.

"Well done on getting that far, by the way," she said. "That takes... well, a lot. Brains, brawn, guts..."

"It was also a lot of luck," Ash said, sitting on the bed and setting her portal gun in her lap. She looked down at it for a moment.

"That too," the grey wolf--Redpaw--said. "And I'm sorry again that we couldn't get to you sooner. Though Axel tells me you managed to gain access to the core using a sample of my blood you found in a broom closet?"

"Oh," Ash said, one ear flicking. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"Clever foxy," the she-wolf said with a slightly sultry purr. Then she blinked and seemed to clear her thoughts as she saw Ash's bright red blush. "Right, sorry, not supposed to flirt with the new arrivals."

"Uh..." Ash said. "So... was the red paws part of your fursona and the paw print was just a recognizable way to sign the messages, or...?"

"Oh, no," the grey wolf said, shaking her head. "I used to just be called Alex. My fursona, anyway. My real name was--"

"Carla Sims," Ash said. "I found your file."

"Ah," Redpaw said, smiling. "So you saw what I looked like when I was younger. Mm. I do miss the old days, though I have found certain perks to middle age."

She chuckled, crossing her arms.

"Lots of people call me 'Mama Red,' these days," she said with a smirk. "Or just 'Red.' I was just an intern when this all started. I brought the idea of human/animal genetic manipulation up to the boss, pushed for it. I helped the first test subjects escape, and we built this place. A safe haven for us. So a lot of them do see me as a mother figure of sorts."

She sighed and sat forward, and her expression was sad now.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but... I'm afraid you can't go home," she said.

Ash's ears perked. She felt her heart sink.

"W-what?" she asked, the question coming out a little whisper.

Red looked heartbroken.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I am. But the way we are now... our most likely fate is dissection in a lab if we try to return to the outside world. Best case scenario, you're seen as a freak of nature. Maybe the military or government tries to exploit you for your enhanced senses."

Ash curled into herself, pulling her knees up and curling her tail around, bringing it up to hide her face in the fluff. She realized that aside from the unplanned panic attacks, she hadn't had a single moment to allow herself to just feel. It had all been thinking, thinking and running and jumping, barely a minute to consider the rest of her life.

She felt the bed shift as the she-wolf's weight sank into the mattress beside her.

"Hey," Redpaw whispered, "can I...?"

Ash just leaned into her, accepting the embrace.

***

She didn't know how long she sat there on the bed crying, letting out her loss, but by the end of it there was barely a spot on her tail--or the wolf's--that wasn't damp. And when she had no tears left, she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"We can send a message out," Red said softly.

Ash's ears perked.

"If you want," the wolf continued. "Just... if you want your parents or anyone to know you're alright. It's untraceable, so they won't be able to find you but--"

Ash nodded.

"I'd like that," she said.

"Okay," Red said, smiling. "I'll get that set up. And why don't I get you something to eat, hmm?"

Oh. That was another thing she hadn't considered.

"Yeah," she said. "God, I'm starving."

Red chuckled softly.

"M'kay," she said, standing. "I'll be right back."

She was--and shockingly quickly, in fact. And when she returned, she did so carrying a big tray of food, a plate of steak and a side of fries, and it smelled incredible. Ash got most of the way through the steak before she wondered where they'd gotten it from. She had a sudden vision of an anthro fox stepping through a portal and appearing in a five star restaurant in Paris, grabbing a plate, and vanishing back through the portal. It was more comical than a serious attempt to figure out how they'd gotten the food, but how did they get it? So, she asked.

"Oh," Red said. "The cloning kitchen."

She said this like it was a series of words that made sense.

"The what?" Ash asked between bites. The wolf smiled and gave a little chuckle.

"Aperture figured out cloning ages ago," Red said. "We mostly use it for food. We just take one animal--the non-anthro, non-sapient kind, of course--and we clone it as many times as we need to feed our people. We don't even clone all of it, just the bits that get eaten, so it's not even from a creature that was ever alive. Very humane."

"So it's... vegan steak?" Ash asked, arching an eyebrow and glancing down at her nearly empty plate. Red laughed.

"In a sense, yes," she said. "There are crops too, obviously. Plenty of herbivores among us."

"Makes sense," Ash said.

"Now..." the she-wolf said gently, bringing out a laptop, "I'll leave this here for when you're ready. It's all set up to send out a message to any email address or phone number, or it'll let you access any social media without being traced. Contact whoever you like. Within reason, of course--don't go giving away our location or anything."

Ash nodded.

***

Ash didn't know how long it took to get the words out, how many times she sat there typing and deleting, retyping, deleting. But finally, she was ready. She hit send and shut the laptop.

She sniffled.

The door opened and she jumped. Red walked in, holding... a Companion Cube? Ash's heart leapt as she saw it and she realized it was her Companion Cube, marred with scorches, blast marks, and bullet holes.

"Hi," Red said, smiling. "I almost forgot! We managed to salvage someone from the incinerator while we were looking for you. Figured this would cheer you up a little."

Ash let out a squeal of joy and threw her arms around the cube. It was awkward, holding the corners, but she didn't care.

She let go and stood up. Red walked over to the foot of the bed and sat, looking at her with a gentle and slightly concerned expression. But as soon as Ash noticed it, the concern was gone, and Red's face was entirely gentle. The wolf's green eyes flicked from Ash to the cube, then back again.

"Now," Red said, chuckling lightly, "I have to ask, has your cube ever talked to you?"

Ash's ears perked and she blinked. The way Redpaw had asked the question, it sounded like this was an actual possibility.

"No," she said curiously, glancing at the cube. "Is it supposed to?"

The wolf cleared her throat.

"No. It's not. As much as many have wanted their cubes to be sentient, thinking and feeling beings, they're unfortunately just a cruel psychological test by Aperture," she said.

"I figured as much," Ash said, though her heart did sink at the revelation.

"However..." Redpaw continued, with a cautious shift in her tone, "some of our members have experienced a good deal of trauma from their time in Aperture, and many have become very attached to their own Companion Cubes. Do you understand what I mean?"

Ash's ears twitched and her tail swished once.

"Oh," she said. "So... some of the people here... talk to their cubes?"

Red sighed slowly, leaning back.

"Yes. But it's important you know we're not asking you to just feed into their delusion. Treat these members the way you would anyone else; make sure they know that despite their close bond with their companion, they can still form friendships, romances, and other bonds here among us."

Ash nodded.

"Don't try and force them out of their shell, either," Red said. "The situation in these cases is very delicate. Everyone takes their own time to heal."

"Treat them like anyone else," Ash said. "Got it."

"Good," Red said. She looked at Ash's cube again and her ears flicked. "Now then, all that aside, there is something we can offer you."

She looked back up at Ash and her foxy ears twitched, perking curiously.

"Even if your cube doesn't talk to you, I'm sure you're quite attached to it," she continued, chuckling as Ash nodded. "In that case, we can offer some options, if you decide you do want it to actually speak."

Ash arched an eyebrow, eyes widening.

"Firstly, we can offer the simplest option: we install a state-of-the-art, genuine, entirely sentient, sapient, AI processor into your cube, stick in a speaker, and upload simulated memories into it using footage of your testing. It'll be as if it's been alive the whole time."

Ash's ears pinned back and she felt a flood of guilt. Even if the cube wasn't sentient yet... she would remember dropping it into that incinerator.

"And of course it would forgive you," Red said gently. "It would be programmed to, after all. They all are."

"So, others have done this?" Ash asked. "Modified their cubes to be... actually alive?"

Red nodded.

"Never did it with mine," she said. "But I don't judge. And we can do more than just stick a speaker in there so it'll talk to you. We can put in lights so the hearts glow, so it illuminates when it speaks, make it glow brighter when you're nearby, even have it change color."

Ash giggled, imagining a Companion Cube switching between every color of the rainbow.

"And if you want to completely rework things," Red said, standing and making her way to a nearby wall, where a screen flipped into existence again. She gestured Ash over and she stood, peering at the screen.

"We can give you a cube that'll do this," she said, tapping the screen.

Ash's eyes widened as the Companion Cube on the screen unfolded and shifted, expanding like a transformer until it was no longer a cube, but an admittedly adorable anthro wolf girl, with gray fur, pink eyes, and a pink heart pattern on the middle of her chest. As she watched, the animation reversed, the wolf curling into the fetal position and reverting back into a cube.

"Wow," Ash said finally. "Um... okay. That I didn't expect."

Red laughed.

"It's a very popular option. Unsurprisingly."

And now Ash laughed too.

"It can be any species," Red added. "Practically any size and shape too, as long as our engineers can fit it in the cube. And they can do a lot with nanotech these days. The personality and mannerisms are totally customizable, and—"

"Wait," Ash broke in. "Didn't you say it was sentient? And they're... customizable? Programmed to love unconditionally? Isn't that...?"

Red smiled, glancing away.

"Yes, well," she said. "There have been many philosophical debates on the subject, and usually it always circles back around to the idea that free will is an illusion—at least that's how I think they justify it. The companions themselves even insist that their existence is better than if they did have free will, because unconditional love is something most people would consider unattainable."

She gave an awkward laugh.

"I'm getting the idea that pushing the boundaries of ethics is something that's done frequently here," Ash said.

"Well, many of the village's founders were Aperture employees," Red said with a shrug. "Myself included. The whole 'Anthro Companion Cube Project'—and yes, that's what they called it—started as the actions of a few desperate survivors here, most of whom were plenty lonely even before running through the tests, and it just grew into... well..."

She gestured at the screen.

"Desperate, lonely, and horny scientists," she sighed. "Ah. Which reminds me, the cube is also customizable to be fully anatomically correct. Or incorrect. As you prefer."

"Of course it is," Ash said, turning to look at her own perfectly ordinary cube, sitting on the floor.

"I'll think about it," she said.

"Perfectly reasonable," Red said with a nod, the screen rotating back into the wall as she turned away.

"Now how about that tour?" Ash asked.