Wheatley had given up all hope of returning to Earth. He was starting to get used to deep space anyway.

"You still switched on, mate?" Wheatley asked his only company.

"Space." Came the reply.

"Yep. Space. No shortage of that." Wheatley sighed. "I'm going into sleep mode for a bit. My optic needs a break from all of this nothing."

"Space." The core repeated.

"Space." Replied Wheatley as he rolled his optic. "Goodnight."

Meanwhile at Aperture

"Finally, I get to meet you, Mr. Rattmann." GLaDOS said in her chillingly calm voice.

"What do you want with me?" Asked Doug Rattmann in his raspy voice.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. No, really." GLaDOS added seing Doug's raised eyebrow.

"Then what do you want. It's hard to believe that you went through the trouble of finding me just to say hello." Doug asked.

"You are a bright one, aren't you? But then again, you were a scientist here. And the only one to survive at that." GLaDOS said almost mockingly, but seeing Doug's face harden at the memory, she decided to move on. "Anyway, I needed to ask you about a woman."

"A... Woman?" Doug didn't have a clue what GLaDOS was trying to get at. Was she on about Chell?

"Yes. This woman to be exact." A portrait of a man and a woman that GLaDOS had seen down in Old Aperture flashed across one of Wheatley's old moniters that she had displayed in her chamber for the sake of having one there."Am I right in saying that this woman is Caroline?"

Doug swallowed. "So you found out, eh?"

"Yes. And frankly, I'm GLaD. In fact, it made me so happy to find out that there's human in me, I started a new project." GLaDOS explained. "But for that, I need your help."

"My help?" Asked Doug. "If it involves any more neurotoxin, I'm out already."

GLaDOS laughed, but for the first time since Doug could remember, it sounded sincere.

"Don't worry, no more neurotoxin. I'll explain everything later, and if you want to join the project, you're very welcome to. All I need you to do right now is tell me everything you know about Caroline."

Taken aback, Doug began telling GLaDOS everything he could remember about Caroline, though reluctantly at first, he told of everything from her first day as Cave Johnson's personal assistant, and how she was so nervous her coffee nearly spilled over the side of her cup for her shaking, to her last day as a human, and how she was against the GLaDOS project up until the very last moment.

"So that probably explains why you tried to kill everyone every time you booted up. You were against your own existence the whole time." Doug added with a laugh. GLaDOS was, for the first time, speechless.

"And you... How do you know all of this?" GLaDOS asked in a whispered tone.

"Me? Oh, I was Caroline's, uh, your best friend, I guess..." Doug explained, though it felt strange referring to the thing that had murdered all of his closest friends then drove him to the edge of madness trying to hunt him down and kill him as his best friend.

"A friend? I like that. Let's continue being... Friends. Are there any more people who are friends?" GLaDOS asked, clearly intrigued.

"Well, you murdered most of them, but yes. Of the ones you didn't murder, Me and little Chell."

"Chell?!" Exclaimed GLaDOS. "As in that murderous, mute, lunatic?"

"Because you're in a place to call someone a murderous lunatic. But yes, Chell."

"So that's why I felt a connection to her when I found Caroline. She was my friend." GLaDOS commented.

"Well not exactly..." Doug started.

"What do you mean, not exactly. Oh great, she even hated me before we tried to kill each other, didn't she?" GLaDOS commented sarcastically.

"No, by not exactly, I mean you weren't her friend as such, because you were hermother."