Chell had never felt so alone. She was sat, stranded, in the middle of a glorious gold wheat field. The sky was a vibrant blue above her, but as she sat on her scorched companion cube, her mind wondered. The shed, or entrance to Aperture Science, sat behind her. It looked as though it could fall over at any point or disintegrate. Yet her freedom was not a welcome reward. She felt alienated. Testing was all she had ever known, and now she was out to fend for herself. With a drawn out sigh, she clambered up from her cube, picked it up, and looked around.
"Hello?" She asked, looking around for any sign of other human life. No reply. She asked again, her voice coated in desperation, but yet there was no answer. She huffed and sat on her cube once again. It was a weird sensation to Chell: talking. For so long she had avoided GLaDOS' taunts, to the point where she was believed to be mute. Her voice was coarse from the years of not talking, cryo-sleep and crying.
It had soon got dark and Chell had no other choice but to sleep under the stars. She had pulled the top half of her jumpsuit on to keep warm and conserve body heat, as the wind brought a night chill with it. It was all a far cry from Aperture. No robots, no turrets, and no portal gun. Her one source of defence was gone (unless the cube suddenly was a great weapon). She stared at the tiny bright lights in the sky, with a small amount of anger but also hope.
She imagined Wheatley floating around with the Space core. She should've found it funny, or she should've been angry, but she was indifferent, and it worried her. Wheatley had betrayed her yet she still (only just) considered him a friend. Hell, he was more of a friend than GLaDOS ever could be. She cradled her companion cube and soon fell into a painful sleep, plagued with nightmares.
In the depths of Aperture Science, GLaDOS was watching over Atlas and P-Body as they tested. It was her favourite feeling, to watch people test. However, she missed making her usual sarcastic remarks to the mute girl. But then again, she didn't miss Chell at all. She did murder her, rip her to pieces and throw those pieces into a furnace. Then again, she had science to do. Science was her main priority, not Chell. GLaDOS simply checked in on her android test subjects, wiping that train of thought from her processor.
Meanwhile, Wheatley had indeed been in space. He called it a 'harrowing experience' and said that he regretted everything that got him there. So much time to think and reflect on how he had betrayed the only person to have cared about him; the only person to even be called a friend. The Space core, on the other hand, had the best time ever. He enjoyed watching the stars, and the moon, and was too busy yelling "SPACE!" To even acknowledge Wheatley's mutterings.
Chell awoke from the rattling sounds from the shed behind her. With a gulp, she slowly walked closer and closer to it, before being ripped from her cube and pulled into the elevator by a so called 'Party Escort Bot'. Chell punched at the glass with broken sobs as she was dragged back into her own personal hell. But her own hell was not the facility, not the test chambers, not her betrayal, but a certain AI in charge of the science facility. One who flooded it with neurotoxin on a fatal 'Bring Your Daughter To Work' day.
"I would say that we missed you, but I'm not one to lie to make people feel better. No, you weren't missed at all." The familiar, female, robot voice echoed around Chell. "I've been busy testing, without you, and there are a lot less complications when you replace humans with androids." The robot that hung from the ceiling in her glory, with her blinding orange eye, gestured her 'head' over to the robot pair in statis. "I could always bring the moron back. He and you seemed very close."
Chell refused to answer GLaDOS. "I nearly forgot that you appeared to be a mute. Shame. Now you can't protest."
She took the opportunity to say goodbye to her freedom. Knowing GLaDOS, she never meant to let Chell go free. The gun was back in her hands before she could even run to the lift again. "Oh, and I got you a present. A real one this time, not like when I lied about your surprise. Would you like to see it? Don't answer, I'm showing you anyway". GLaDOS said, the drawn out sarcasm in we voice as usual.
Before she could make a whale comment, or one about Chell's weight, a clunk fell in front of Chell. Shaking, she slowly looked down towards her feet, where a burnt up, battered metal core sat. It had a barely alive blinking blue light and was looking around as if asking for help. Another core sat beside it, a yellow light this time, and as Chell bent down to see both of them, it weakly muttered "Space!".
For once in her existence, Chell felt tears prick at her eyes. She held a hand to the larger core's metalwork. It was her fault that they had both ended up like this. Battered, broken. It reminded Chell of herself. "W-Wheatley?" She managed to choke out, earning looks of shock from the two cores and GLaDOS herself.
"You're not a mute? How…interesting" she replied sarcastically.
"So you can talk, Luv." Wheatley chuckled weakly from his place on the floor. "I…I just wanted to say, I'm bloody sorry." Chell picked him up using the gun, and watched as it slowly replenished his batteries and life source. It was not her complete forgiveness, but she would save her questioning for when he was feeling better. All of a sudden, GLaDOS picked up the core and eyed it with that horrible eye.
"I have a little…experiment."