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thegayestofbats · 3 months

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We're Dancing in the Sky

This is the first fic I've ever written, so don't hesitate to give me your thoughts or criticism.

Rating: General Audiences

Pairings: Space Core/Wheatley

Summary:

Getting stuck in space with the most annoying core you've ever met seems like a punishment worse than death, but maybe it won't be as bad as you thought it'd be.

Wheatley and Spacey are stuck alone together in the endless void that is outer space for the foreseeable future, why not get to know each other and become friends? (Or perhaps more?)

2,417 words, 1 chapter

Read on ao3:

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“ I am genuinely sorry.”

Those were the last words Wheatley had said since he and the Space sphere were hurled into space.

The two of them had been in space for a few days, at least as far as Wheatley knew. It was hard to tell up here, and he wasn’t too confident in the accuracy of his internal clock, especially after all of the adventures he’d been through just a couple of days ago with Chell.

He meant what he said, he really was sorry. Now that he’s had a while to think about it he still isn’t sure if the body he’d been put into was the thing that’d corrupted him or if it was of his own accord. “SPAAACE! Space! Need to see it all!” His thoughts were cut off by his partner’s incessant ramblings. He’d been talking since they’d gotten here, and he showed no sign of stopping or sign that he’d ever change the subject. It was really starting to give Wheatley a headache, or whatever core equivalent to the human sentiment was.

“Will you stop that, mate? I’m trying to think here!.” Wheatley yelled, losing his patience with the chatty robot.

“Oh- okay.” The space-obsessed core replied, actually listening to him for once, before finally shutting up for the first time since they’d arrived. Wheatley let out a sigh of relief at the silence. “Look! A comet!” the Space Core broke the silence before blabbering on again. Well, at least he got a couple seconds of peace.

☆

It’s been about a month since the last time Wheatley had been on Earth’s surface.

It seemed that the other core had finally run out of energy to speak and had decided to go into sleep mode. Now Wheatley had a moment of peace and quiet to think.

Yep… time for some thinking

In silence.

In the vast, endless void that is space.

All alone.

It seems that after listening to his partner talk for a month straight that he’d gotten used to it. His mind began to buzz with the emptiness as he slowly turned around to stare at the Earth from afar. It was quite a beautiful sight, he had to admit, but he couldn’t really enjoy it due to the unadulterated dread that began to set in.

They’d probably never make it back home. He was stuck in space forever with a bumbling idiot to talk endless chatter into his ear until one of them got crushed by space debris or succumbed to the death of a dead battery. He’d never get to talk to his rude self-centered manager again. He’d never get to talk to that nice mechanic again. He’d never be able to talk to any of his friends again, and it was all his fault.

God, he really was a moron, wasn’t he? Why couldn’t he have admitted it sooner?

“Are you alright?” A familiar, light robotic voice chipped next to him. He yelped in surprise, it seemed like his moments of silence were over. He braced himself for more space talk before he noticed what his companion had said.

He’d finally said something that wasn’t about space. Wheatley didn’t even think he was capable of that, but I guess he still had a lot to learn about this guy he’d probably be spending the rest of his life with.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” Wheatley replied apprehensively.

“Okay!” The Space Core said before getting distracted again. “ Hey, look!- It’s the Earth!” He admired the scenery in front of the two of them. They’d probably seen the Earth from this angle at least a hundred times by now, but this time was different, he had someone to enjoy the sight with.

“She really is beautiful from this height, isn’t she?” Wheatley remarked with a slight chuckle in his voice. The Space Core nodded in agreement beside him.

☆

It’d be a few days before the other core would say anything real again. During the wait Wheatley worried it’d be a one-time thing. God, he hoped not, he wasn’t sure how he could live with that.

“What’s your name?” Wheatley asked the other core during a few rare moments of silence between them. The core didn’t respond, and Wheatley almost repeated himself thinking that maybe he hadn’t heard him.

“I don’t remember.” The Space Core admitted a bit forlornly.

“How about I call you Spacey?” Wheatley offered.

“That’s a great idea! How’d you come up with that?” The core seemed to light up at the idea, forcibly turning his body in space to look at Wheatley. His gaze was piercing, as if Wheatley was simply a specimen he was studying closely. It was the first time he’d focused on him, come to think of it. Did he look at everything else with such intensity?

“U-Um.. It’s just that- you like space, so why not name yourself after it?” He stuttered from the core’s burning gaze. He couldn’t hold eye-contact long, glancing to the side every now and then before looking back to the core’s unfaltering eye.

“I LOVE SPACE!!” The core enthused, spinning around happily, finally breaking eye-contact and conversation. Wheatley was a little surprised that he’d been able to keep up a whole conversation with Spacey, sure it hadn’t been long, but it was progress.

Spacey spent the rest of the day rambling about space as he usually did, and now Wheatley enjoyed hearing him a bit. It was better than the infinite silence that was space. Eventually Wheatley grew tired and went into sleep mode. He’d recently learned that the personality cores had built-in solar batteries that charged best when in sleep mode, so he didn’t have to worry about losing power as long as they had the sun’s UV rays around.

☆

Wheatley woke up a few hours later according to his internal clock. Spacey was still floating around, awestruck at all the stars around them. Wheatley wondered how he could stay so interested in them. The stars hadn’t visibly changed since they’d gotten here. Sure, they were pretty, but aren’t you bound to get bored of them after hours and hours of staring at them?

He drifted towards his companion, trying to look in the same direction that he was.

“Good morning-..” Spacey greeted, not finishing his sentence “What’s your name?” The core asked

“Wheatley. The name’s.. uh.. Wheatley.” He answered awkwardly, he didn’t expect conversation with Spacey to become a regular thing so soon. “Good morning, Wheatley!” Spacey sang, continuing where he left off.

“ How do you know that it’s morning?” Wheatley asked curiously

“I don’t.” Spacey replied casually before going back to stare at the stars.

☆

It’s been several months since they entered the cosmos. Wheatley doesn’t remember what month it is. Maybe August or September? He wasn’t entirely sure. It doesn’t really matter, does it?

He’s learned more than he’s ever wanted to about space from his space-obsessed companion.

“Hey, hey Wheatley!” Spacey yipped, trying to get Wheatley’s attention.

“Yes, Spacey?” He sighed, he wasn’t exactly in the mood for more endless space talk.

“What’s your favorite color?” Wheatley hadn’t expected the question, and to be honest, he hadn’t ever really thought of a good answer to it. There were so many colours to choose from, why choose just one?

He thought about it for a moment. Blue was a nice colour, it was his eye colour, but he wasn’t sure it was his favourite colour. He wasn’t too fond of himself, anyways, after what he’d done. Green was nice, organic, but it reminded him too much of the humans. Red was pretty, but too passionate for him. Purple was overrated, in his opinion, and he never really had an opinion about orange.

He looked to Spacey while thinking, and he just looked back at him patiently waiting. Over time he began to get a little more used to the intense studying look that he gave everything. Spacey was the only person who’d ever looked at him with such undivided attention, and it was pretty nice to feel so seen.

“Yellow.” He finally answered confidently as he stared into his companion’s golden yellow optic lens.

He was the first person to really care about Wheatley or pay any real attention to him. Chell was a nice friend, but she only liked having him around when he was useful to her escape, he could easily see that. His friends back on earth never paid much attention to him, just seeing him as a moron that would never mean anything to a conversation, laughing at whatever he said. After spending so much time with the other core, he found that he began to grow fond of him.

“What’s yours?” Wheatley asked in return, wanting to learn more about his space friend. (Were they friends? He supposed they were.)

“Blue.” Spacey answered quite a bit quicker than Wheatley had with the same strong confidence. He didn’t break eye contact while saying it either. The single word made Wheatley feel his heart skip, despite not having one. It was a feeling he’d never experienced before, it felt so foreign. He never thought there would be someone out there that cared for him as much as Spacey did. How could he forgive a monster like him so easily? Shouldn’t he hate him for what he’d done?

“How can you forgive me so easily after what I did?” Wheatley said his thoughts aloud. He was beginning to doubt that Spacey actually cared for him as much as he thought he did, was he just assuming things?

“Are you sorry about what you did?” Spacey retorted with another question.

“What- of course I am!” Wheatley defended.

“Then shouldn’t that be reason enough?”

He’d never thought about it like that. He did something so unforgivable by his standards. He made other people’s lives so much harder for his own personal gain, and he feels horrible about it. If he could go back and change what he’d done, he wouldn’t hesitate to, but he couldn’t, so why did it matter? Spacey seemed to read his train of thought easily.

“You clearly regret what you did. You didn’t mean to hurt anyone. So, what’s the point of holding a grudge?” Spacey added on to his point. Wheatley wished he could see it that way as easily as Spacey could.

“Thank you, Spacey. For forgiving me.” If Wheatley could cry, he thinks he’d probably be on the verge of tears right now. He didn’t think that anyone would ever truly forgive him.

“Anything for a friend!” Spacey chipped. You could hear the smile in his voice. He quickly got distracted by a meteor that flew by near a distant planet. He always seemed to find a way to entertain himself in the most boring places.

☆

It’s been a while since their last meaningful conversation. Wheatley is fondly listening to Spacey’s ramblings. It gives him something to pay attention to in the vast and exhausting emptiness of their current predicament. Spacey is happily spinning around while explaining something random about the moon and what it’s made out of and why it makes such a good portal conductor. Wheatley wonders how he’s able to navigate the vacuum so easily, it’s pretty challenging to move even a little bit out here, at least for him, but it seems that Spacey had gotten the hang of it fairly easily.

He appeared to be almost dancing out here. It was quite an amusing sight to see him jump around so happily like an excited puppy.

“How do you move so easily out here?” Wheatley asked his companion. It couldn’t hurt to speak what’s on his mind. He’d been making a habit of doing that more often than he ever did back on earth. He can trust that Spacey wouldn’t make fun of him.

“It’s pretty easy. You just build up a bunch of energy, and launch yourself!” Spacey explained, pausing his prior moon explanation to pay all of his attention to Wheatley and his query.

“That seems like a lot of work. How do you not get tired?”

“ I guess I just have a lot of energy,” Spacey answered simply

“That makes a lot of sense, knowing you.” Wheatley chuckled, and Spacey giggled in unison. After a moment, Wheatley decided to try it for himself. He closed his eye and braced himself before throwing himself forward, almost bumping into Spacey in the process.

“Woah!” He yelped while flying a few feet past Spacey.

“There you go!” Spacey praised. Wheatley did it a few more times, trying to get the hang of it. Before long, the two of them were jumping around in space while laughing together.

They eventually began forming a sort of rhythm, dancing together across the inky black sky. Wheatley was clearly more clumsy than Spacey was, still struggling to get used to steering himself across space, but they were both still having fun together.

Wheatley ended up accidentally bumping into Spacey mid-launch, causing him to launch Spacey a bit. Spacey didn’t mind, erupting into a fit of laughter at the action. As robotic as it was, Wheatley thought that his laugh was the most contagious and beautiful one he’d ever heard, so it wasn’t long before he began laughing as well. They both drifted back together, pausing their dance to laugh together.

“Heh heh, I love you.” Wheatley admitted breathlessly without thinking as their laughter waned. After noticing what he said his happiness broke immediately as he became absolutely mortified. He looked to Spacey as he looked back. He didn’t appear angry, or upset in any way.

“Awww, I love you too, Wheatley.” Spacey giggled, a smile appearing in his voice. He looked at Wheatley with such adoration that it was hard to doubt his words.

“Wait- really? Like.. more than just platonically?” Wheatley puffed, dumbfounded.

“Yeah, maybe even more than space itself.” Spacey admitted his thoughts aloud. Wheatley hadn’t expected his feelings to be reciprocated so easily.

“Oh..” Wheatley didn’t really know how to process the sentiment, it’d happened so suddenly. “Would you like to be something more than friends?”

“If that’s what you want.” Spacey responded patiently as always.

☆

It’s been a couple days since Wheatley started his first and probably last relationship, and now he thinks that he doesn’t really mind that Spacey is the one he’s going to be spending the rest of his life with. He wouldn’t want it to be anyone else.

It’s nice to finally be loved and appreciated for who he is.

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Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day/night!! I'm thinking of expanding onto this story in the future, it'll likely include GlaDOS, Chell, and the stories of the other cores while all of this goes down.

Here's the playlist I listened to while writing this

#portal #portal 2 #wheatley portal #space core #spaceley #space core x wheatley #fanfic #portal fanfiction #my art :))#I love them <33 #fluff #getting to know each other #falling in love

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for-science-ao3 · 3 months

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For Science- Chapter 1

Ao3 link; https://archiveofourown.org/works/41680413/chapters/104553549

Discord Server Link: https://discord.gg/KB6vWVAp

To summarize tags for those reading on tumblr; This is x reader fanfiction. This work of fiction is partially canon compliant, but is planned to be 'canon-adjacent'. This genre is Isekai, but mainly for explanatory purposes and forced omnipotence of the mc.

Portal mods included in story: Portal stories: Mel, Portal: Revolution

Word Count: 4.4k

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Chapter One

Science is objective. Anything could be an experiment, and to Aperture Science, Ethics are a suggestion made by Morons.

–

You knew something was wrong the moment you opened your eyes. It felt like waking from a dream, although you were certain you had just closed your eyes for a moment while talking to a co-worker one moment you were in a bleak little office party with disinterested co-workers, talking to the one you could stand, and the next, you were in a little bleak creme colored room with one pair of doors opened on the other side of it. The hinges to the doors squeaked back and forth as they rattled opened and closed. Dazed, you stare around yourself, look down at your hands for confirmation. Not a dream. At least..you’re doubtful it were. Time would only tell, but most dreams have something off about them.

A panel to one of the walls collapsed before your feet as you stood up, revealing wiring and metal that didn’t seem normal. A room was built of panels held up by wood or metal framing, but this wasn’ a frame. You were no architect but even you knew this wasn’t normal for a panel.

The door behind you squeaks again, catching your attention, and against your rational judgment, you left the soft colored room out into the bleak.

Stark gray pillars as far as the eye could see, stretching into the sky and far into the ground below. The only walk-space you had was a narrow catwalk made of decaying bars that shuddered and creaked as you stood on them. Unnerving,you decided. You'd try to find an area not made of catwalks sooner than later.

You Give yourself another once-over while you walk. Same shirt, same pants. Same shoes, too. Nothing about your attire had changed. That'd be a first for a dream.

The catwalks stretched on for what seemed to be forever. As far as you could see, they connected and spiraled and led to different areas of a bleak open space. Somewhere broken with rusted metal hanging just over your head, other areas shuddered and clattered as you jogged across them. It felt like you were running behind something. The area itself reminded you of the backstage. Was there something on the other side of the panels? A show, maybe?

You entertain yourself with the thought, just for fun. Something to brush your mind away from bubbling worries of kidnapping or escapes.

What if, behind that very panel, were some actors playing a terribly done rendition of Macbeth? Funny enough, in your opinion.

The catwalks lead you through doors that whirr as they unlock, a little orange light turns green. Occasionally, they take too long to open, as though rusted. Like the rest of this place, you find yourself lamenting in annoyance. You wanted to get out of here quickly. Through one set of doors was a catwalk leading beside a time. One little blinking red light catches your attention. While the thing is familiar, you can’t make sense of it.

Though you try to walk by, a little voice stops you.

“I’m different.”

“Hm.” you have places to be, and you really can’t spend time with..whatever this is. “Nice ch–”

“Icarus flew to the sun on waxen wings, desperate for its warm embrace.Though gentle to the earth, the sun was not gentle to man. Icarus burnt,falling to the cold sea.”

“..Nice chat.” you mutter, thoroughly disturbed by the little thing as you passed by another set of doors. It’s just mythology. And not even accurate mythology.

There’s something familiar about all of this, though you couldn't put it in words. Something like deja vu, which seemed outrageously silly to you. Until you heard a voice, muffled behind a set of doors.

“I should probably bring you up to speed on something,right about now.”

Familiar. You decide. Like someone you’d heard before. You swear you recognize it, but you can't puzzle it out. You passed through the squeaky set of doors, glancing briefly down at the floor of tattered checkerboard,unaligned and broken, concrete raised precariously out of the ground that you had to step around to avoid

Familiar, you frown as you walk through the hallway and see it. Him, more like. A robot, followed closely by a brunette woman in a jumper with something in her hands. Their backs were turned to you while they walked, and while he talked.

You know where you are, and you felt silly for not realizing it sooner. A game you played as a kid, and what the hell were you doing here?

Though the robot wasn’t just a core, he did have arms and legs and a body as anyone would expect of an android..but the core for a head. Weird, you decided.

“In order to Escape, we have to pass through Her chamber…and she will most definitely kill us. If she's awake”

Your foot slips against a checkered tile, and it slides a few inches ahead of you, clattering around with the sound of fragile glass. It gives both the android and the woman pause. The woman looks over her shoulder, and her gaze narrows as she spots you. The android, on the other hand, starts walking over without another thought “Oh, Hello! Are you staff? You must be staff, since there isn’t anyone–” he pauses,optic blinking wide”er–ignore that, nothing’s wrong with the folks in suspension! Heh..-uhm..” he taps his hands together as you stare between him and the woman standing rigid behind him.

He follows your gaze and after a moment, he waves dismissively “her? She’s a bit brain damaged, you know how they are when they come out of it! Can’t speak at all..” he squints “I think.”

“Right.” You mutter. The moment you speak, the core’s head turns back around and he exclaims

“Ah-! You speak. Great, really great. I was getting a little tired of being the only voice in the room. uhm..So- I’m trying to get this one out of here. She seems eager enough, and er..that’s..that’s not going to be a problem, is it?”

“Ah..No, not at all.” why you were going along with what the moron set for you, pretending to be a member of aperture, you weren’t sure. To avoid suspicion? Chell, however, seemed perfectly suspicious of you, not moving from where she stood on the far side of the room. “She’s offline, as it were,so…testing can’t really er..happen.”

“Right.” the core nods, turning back around on his heels as he keeps walking after chell, talking loudly “So, to recap. Facility? Brink of destruction,totally unstable. Unfixable, even. Getting the lady-and myself-out of here through her..her chambers.” He grunts and shies away from the door once it starts opening from Chell’s proximity to it. “Actually– hold on, wait, we don’t have to. We should just– leave it be, yeah we should leave her be and–” the door reaches the top, and in a heap of dirt, dust and botanic life was a humanoid figure with an oblong head, optic partially hanging out of the ‘head’ “Whew– she’s off.” Wheatley mutters, hanging to the side of the doorway for a moment as Chell trudged ahead of him without stopping. You followed after the human and robot, and Wheatley whistled.

“There she is..” he steps delicately over her body while you walk around her “Nasty piece of work she was–right?” he looks at you with a wide optic.

“Right.”

Wheatley jogs to keep up with Chell, and you followed suit “A proper maniac she was, really. Word of mouth? She killed everyone in the facility once. Railway operations department was not happy about that.” he shakes his head. “Know who took her down, in the end? A human. Like you too. All flesh and bones took her down.Not much known about him. Just..took her out and went and uh..no one’s seen him since.” you almost find the prattling amusing. If you weren’t trying to figure out a whole different matter of how to get out of here. “And uh…not much has happened since. Just..a lot of quiet and then us escaping now so er..yeah don’t touch anything.”

While Chell walks ahead of the two of you, Wheatley just keeps on talking, which you don’t particularly mind filling the silence. “This place has seen better days,certainly. I’m er– glad that she’s gone, of course. But it was a lot cleaner when she was awake. There’s this one fellow I know? Obnoxious with the cleaning ‘this is messy’, ‘this chamber is filled with bones’, ‘this track is broken and i can’t fix it,what if someone comes’, just prattling, really.” he huffs “not the best of guys, either. My standards are..not everyone’s, of course. Probably fine. Probably a fine guy but uhm..he wanted to turn her back on. Tried to, too, I think. Dunno how that went down but seeing as she’s still off…safe to say he failed, i’d think.” you’re not even sure who the hell he’s talking about, but it is filling the silence, so you don’t interrupt him,for his own sake. “Ah, we’re coming upon a drop. Rusted bars n’ all. Might want to watch your head. And your feet. And maybe..” he glances over at you, squinted and scrutinizing. “You..don’t have fall boots.”

“Nope.”

“Well, that is definitely an issue, considering the drop. I mean, you humans are plenty fragile without the danger of drops or injuries or blood or–well actually, no, a drop like that might be fine, if you can stand a broken bone or two. Though, we don't actually have any way to reset the bone, so as long as you’re fine with a permanently odd leg, then it should be perfectly fine.” he eyes the drop over Chell’s shoulder, and starts up again “uh–lady, think you’ve got the boots to sp–” Chell jumps off of the railing without a second thought, hitting the floor rough and stable. She briefly turns, looking back up at the railing, before she takes a step back to rest against a wall. She’s waiting, now.

Wheatley glances down at the drop again, and squints “Actually, now thinking about it, a human’s head would split like a melon from a height like this. So, a good bit of advice doesn't land on it. Or your arms, either. They'll break like the legs. So uh..don’t go head-first. Or arms first. And especially not elbows first. I don’t have elbows, but if i did, i wouldn't want to fall on those. Or–actually, judging it..it is probably too high to jump without long fall boots. so…Metal man, Human..person.” he squints “More likely to survive a good old fall, yeah? Not made of plastic and all that.”

“You’d probably be fine.”

“Well...i did fall off my management rail and was perfectly fine, so..” Wheatley hums as he stares down at the drop. Unceremoniously, you were thrown over the android’s shoulder, which hurt far more than it should’ve, and dropped back onto your feet after the jump. “Et Voila!” Wheatley hums with a little flourish of his arms ``perfectly intact, the both of us.” Chell bumps her shoulder off the wall as she turns around the corner..to another set of catwalks. Wheatley yelps not long after, staring directly below himself “Ah- I do not recommend looking down, awful long fall…Ah-! Just done it again, terrible..This place just goes down. Miles and miles really. All sealed off years ago, of course.” The robot mutters, metal hand gripping the bars to the catwalk far too tightly as he shambled after Chell.

A silent woman on a mission, she was. Understandably so. A desire for freedom from the hell that aperture was at its core. A Tumor of unethical practices and a lack of humanity or morality.

Chell pauses upon coming across the main breaker room, and wheatley walks around her, squinting at the wall of buttons “Alright,” he chirps “So, there should be a switch labeled ‘ESCAPE POD’, don’t touch anything else. Not interested in anything else. Don't Touch anything else. Don't even Look at anything else, just--well, obviously you've got to look at everything else to find ESCAPE POD, but as soon as you've looked at something and it doesn't say ESCAPE POD, look at something else, look at the next thing. Alright? But don't touch anything else or look at any--well, look at other things, but don't... you understand." Wheatley rambles on as his head turns this way and that, searching up the wall of levers and switches with a narrowed pupil, humming to himself “No..no.. movement controls, interesting– no. nothing else. Lights…mmmnh no nothing else.” In a fluid movement, the android spins halfway to face you and Chell.

“Tell you what, Might be easier if I'm plugged into the system. And..the lights. Might need the lights. So just plug me on in and I'll turn on the lights.” You were going to ask how exactly to go about that, before Chell pulls a long cable from the main breaker, plugging the cable into the back of Wheatley’s head as he turns back around to the system. The lights flash on at once, and both you and the woman cover your eyes briefly as Wheatley gestures “Let there be light!”

“That’s uh…god. I was quoting god..” Wheatley trails off slowly, and when met with an awkward silence by both you and the mute woman, he grunts “Tough crowd.”

There was an issue you hadn’t considered. Glados. She was going to turn on, throw Wheatley to rubble and throw Chell into testing, but just what would she do with an outlier? And Anomaly, more like? A wrench in the plan, even. You’re not entirely certain you wanted to find out.

But aperture rarely left time for pondering, as the platform started to turn slowly, and Chell wobbled on her feet, grasping behind her for anything to hold onto. “Oh, it’s turning!” Wheatley chimes nervously as he laughs “Ominous..but fine, as long as it doesn’t start moving up. Now..escape pod..escape pod.” he trails off quietly to himself. The platform whirrs loudly as it starts moving up, and the robot grunts “Ah it is–it’s moving up.” he hunches over the control panel as he talks “Okay! No, don’t worry. Don’t worry at all, it can fix this, I can fix it–fixing it…now” Wheatley’s pupil shrinks to a pinprick as he looks above himself. “No..makes it go faster..uh-oh..”

“Can you still fix it?”

“Listen– don’t panic, stop panicking” Chell watches the robot with a stony expression as the main breaking clicks into place at the ground level. “I Can, I Can still fix this, I can still stop it.” Wheatley glances down at the main breaker as the intercom whirrs to life

“Powerup initiated.” Daunting, that’s what that is. A message in dead air of what’s to come. A very large part of yourself hopes that Glados finds you an interesting anomaly and keeps you alive.

“Ohh that is not good” Wheatley mutters “ah- oh.there’s password. That is..fine. I‘ll just hack it. Not a problem.” You’d say you and chell beg to differ.

As Wheatley tries to hack the password combination by combination, Chell’s expression steels at the sight of the android’s figure being lifted up from the ground by pipes and wires connected through the back of her neck. Her legs were in a state of disrepair, one torn with red and blue wiring spilling out of it, and blue and yellow sparks flew as water dripped out of cracked casing. Her head slowly rises and falls backwards while sparks flew from her head, optic pulling itself back in and establishing a connection.

“Can you help at all?” Wheatley mutters “I think…I did B already. Someone needs to write this down. Grab a pen or–”

“Powerup Complete.”

“Okay, okay alright. This is fine. Just be nice– totally nice, act natural, we’ve done nothing wrong.” Glados’ head falls forward as her optic constricts and contracts, before ultimately focusing on Chell, who stares right back at her. Without a lick of fear, that one. “Hello!” Wheatley chirps.

“Oh.” Glados’ steps forward and broken legs. It nearly looks like levitating,pulling along by the tubing out of her head “It’s you.”

Wheatley’s head spins to look between you and Chell. A silent woman, but her glare gives her away “You know her?” he questions.

“It’s been a long time.” Glados chides smoothly, not paying any mind to you nor the core, focused on Chell “How have you been?” Chell’s eyebrow twitches. You conclude that this ‘long time no see’ tone of phrase isn’t all that pleasing to the woman “I’ve been really busy being dead.” Glados breathes without the need to “You know, after you murdered me.”

“You did what?”

Two claws descend from above Glados’ chassis, lifting chell up from the hand, though if she were in pain, she betrays nothing to Glados. It’s commendable..if not worrying. Wheatley on the other hand, is lifted from the head, screaming “No no no—No no no-Agh!” Sparks flew as the wire connecting him by the head to the main breaker was ripped out and clattered by your feet.

“Okay, look. We both said things that you’re going to regret.” glados’ head doesn’t even turn to regard the core before the claw drops and grabs, crushing Wheatley's outer casing,and his optic blinks out as the claw tosses the body into a heap across from her. Something about even that reads to you now as restraint, exerting Control, even. Crushing the core as to not crush her enemy. “But I think we can put our differences aside. For science. You monster.”

As the claw slowly drags Chell over the incinerator, Glados’ voice takes on a lighter tone,body being dragged along by wires “I will say though, that since you went to all the trouble of waking me up, you must really really love to test. I love it too. There’s just one small thing we have to take care of, first.” You watch as the claw drops the woman into the incinerator. Only once it closes and the claw rises up and away, does Glados turn slowly around to regard you. The anomaly.

Glados’s optic stares down at you, a blinding yellow light amidst the decay, and you shrink back a step, towards the heap of scrap that Wheatley currently was, laying in a broken pile. The robot’s angular body shifts forwards as she walks towards you, wires dragging slowly behind her broken legs. Commanding, that’s what you think of her in person. She commands a respect about her, and she was downright scary, even smaller than you’d seen her in the game.

“You are not permitted to be here.” She states. Not a question. An objective, undeniable fact. “You are not a test subject.” Glados has no panels to her optic, like the core. It’s far harder to read her ‘expressions’ beyond tone of voice. The monotony of it doesn’t help you one bit. Mad? Intrigued? Civil? You couldn’t be sure.

“Yeah.” you trail off, not denying the fact.

Wires spill out behind her legs as she walks straight towards you, looming over your head.”What are you doing here?”

You don’t have an answer for her. What would you say, something as childish as ‘i dunno’? Absolutely not. So you lie. “..Studying.”

The robot’s head tilts backward as she scrutinizes you. Or at least, you certainly feel as though she was. ‘Go.”

“What?”

“Study.” She states, turning slowly on her heel. “When the incinerator is operational, your study ends.” You don’t like the sound of that. It’s not malice, but it’s undeniable that in the robot’s view, you were an intruder of some sort. “Take the core with you.’ It’s not a request for you to do so, she was telling you to leave and take the core with you through a different door she had opened.

“Why?” You don’t know exactly what compels you to ask. To question Her, while she’s telling you your time is limited. You don’t have the seconds to waste, and yet you were.

“A test.” she doesn’t turn around, nor turn her head to stare at you. Instead, she regards her facility in such a state of disrepair. “Humans are made of Will, in theory. She proves it.” You’d think that might be the nicest thing she’s said of Chell. “Either she is an anomaly, or you will prove it as well.” So it’s a test for you to get answers about her.

You don’t have it in you to stay any longer in the room with a homicidal rogue AI who is still currently upset from the encounter with her murderer, instead quickly hooking your arms around the broken core’s body and dragging him along with you back through the door, which slams shut as soon as you were through it.

Wheatley Whirrs back to life not long after, on the catwalks. You had dropped him not moments ago, the strain being too much to bear on your arms. He sits up, searching and bewildered as you laid your hands on your knees, breathing hard. Solid metal, you’re frankly surprised you got this far. A single turn away from the door you were allowed through.

“Oh…this is not good.” Wheatley mumbles as his cracked optic looks this way and that, constricting and contracting. A constriction too small for the iris, and sparks would fly “Agh-”

“Thank god.” You mutter “Heavy metal.”

“What?”

“You. Are heavy.” You point with one hand as you straighten back up, turning your head around to stare down the seemingly endless line the catwalks made.

“Well, yes, I’m-I’m made of solid metal and titanium bearings, of course i would be heavy. Not exactly meant to be carried. Or to do the carrying– really, but i did, if you’ll remember–”

“We’ve got to go.” You decide, squinting. In the first place, you needed to find some way for Wheatley to fix himself up. His optic hanging that loosely out of the ‘socket’ couldn’t be good, neither were the tears and large cracks in the casing. Wires hanging out of the top of his head.

“You what?”

“We’re running on borrowed time.” you don't wait for him to get onto his feet, although you reasonably should’ve. Now that you’re not carrying a hunk of dead-weight metal with no-functional springs, you’re running on adrenaline. Not healthy, doesn’t feel good at all. You wonder how chell was going to fair was the slightly drug-induced testing tracks.

You don’t actually like remembering the game, in this case. It’s bothering you immensely already, what’s to come.

Wheatley scrambles after you on wobbly legs as he stares around himself wildly “Look, I’m all for an escape plan. Clearly. Planned to escape her. Think it was a pretty good plan, if i do say for myself–which i am, really. It was a good one, if that main breaker had agreed with me. You know, all the bots down in the wiring department really should condemn a machine like that. Definitely wasn’t supposed to raise. I don’t think so, anyways. Broken as a heap–”

“But?”

“aha..Uhm. But this is ‘by the seat of our pants’, as it were, right?” Wheatley questions, shambling after you “i mean you certainly don’t know where we’re going, Scientists aren’t allowed behind the catwalks–and that's not to say that you wouldn’t be able to direct us, i’m sure you’d be great at it, but i have some idea of where we are and let me tell you, it is far too close to her.”

“I know. It isn’t a good plan.”

“So you agree, good, good.” You glance over your shoulder, just a touch offended. Wheatley’s iris contracts and sparks fly as he nervously backtracks “Like i said, like i said, i’m sure you’d be great at it if you knew where we were.”

“You’re welcome for carrying you.” you chided as you headed through a set of doors. Ultimately, he was right. You haven’t a clue where the hell you were right now. In the game, you would’ve been testing, there was no need to really know where the catwalks lead

“Right–yes, thank you. Greatly appreciated. Wouldn’t much care for being left to uh..die.”

“Who gave you and Her the concept of death?” you question while you walk. Filling the silence now. The chatterbox surely could fill it.

“Well- you would know, wouldn’t you? I don’t. They don’t exactly apply a ‘made by’ sticker.”

“Right. I haven’t been here in awhile. Excuse any lapses.”

“Totally excused!” Wheatley chirps “Actually, now that I think of it, this is a great plan. Get away from her, and then we can come up with something else.” and he claps his hands together with a metal thud “Oh! Great idea. We go get Her, the brain damaged one? Seems perfectly capable, that one.” he pauses, and you’re certain he’s staring at the back of your head, expecting some sort of back-talk “Obviously not to say that you and I aren’t perfectly capable, but apparently she killed Her before?” he stumbles right into his own plan a little “Oh! Hold on, really, that’s good. We get her to shut Her off, and then the three of us escape! The musketeers, our little trio’ll be, right?”

“Maybe shutting her off isn’t the best of ideas–”

“Think about it! I mean really think about it. Chances are, you die twice, you’re not coming back a third time, right? Just need to make sure the death sticks this time, like J– actually..shouldn’t say that.” the core grunts as you both pass through another set of open doors.

“Maybe.” You haphazardly agree. You really don’t like knowing what’s to come. “First things first, though, have to get you fixed up.”

“Right. Definitely, priorities in order. Put myself in working order, retrieve her, defeat Her, escape! One issue though, No spare parts. Another issue, no spare optics on hand. Third issue–”

The sound of other voices stunt you both in your tracks. The sound of yelling, arguing and monotony bothers you a great deal. What? They weren’t supposed to be anywhere near here.

“Fact, Adventure core is a Crass excuse for Indiana Jones.”

“What!? Have you got an oil leak in your main chambers? Indy is a crass excuse for Me.”

“I think…Indiana Jones should’ve gone to Space!”

Despite your apprehension, Wheatley goes jogging ahead of you with a tone of delight “Others! Isn’t that great?”

“Hold on–”

Now you’re shambling to keep up with a broken robot.