Wheatley's Choice
By Aradien
Summary: Rescued from space by the claws of a violent AI, Wheatley is thrust into an experiment he's not all too comfortable with. And given a choice he thought he'd never have to make. A side-story for Down to the Marrow.
"Hold still, you moron."
Wheatley couldn't help that his entire metal frame was shaking as a claw – which was very similar to the one that had crushed him upon GLaDOS' reawakening, by the way – clamped down on his circular body without the slightest thought of being gentle. He'd been floating in space for days now, and was twee-bit anxious to be rid of that bloody Personality Core that spoke non-stop of his fascination with the big boring nothingness that was space.
Honestly. Why did anyone even care about space, anyhow? The fellows who pay to send astronauts up into space must have had a spot of brain damage that ought to be dealt right away with because it's like literally throwing money into a dark and bottomless pit. One with annoying blinkey lights.
"What are you going to do to me?" he wailed, cerulean blue optic narrowing in terror as he was pulled at a breakneck speed towards the surface of the moon.
"I'll give you a hint," she said as he flew through a portal and into an arctic white room that also lacked gravity. "It's something you'll have absolutely no control over. Thank God."
The orange portal above him offered Wheatley one last look at the starry abyss he never thought he'd escape before disappearing with a soft, echoed sound. The claw unfastened itself from him and slithered beneath a panel before disappearing from sight.
"Initiating gravity in 10… 9…"
"Woah, woah, woah! I'm still floating here!" Wheatley urgently reminded.
"In that case," GLaDOS said warmly. "3-2-1."
With an ear-splitting crash, the Intelligence Dampening Sphere came crashing to the ground. He groaned as his visual processors went on the fritz along with his gyroscopic modulator. This combination of system failures caused the white room to spin in a way that made his little robot mind queasy.
"Don't worry. You won't be a metal ball for very long…" GLaDOS informed him. Though his IQ was dangerously below average, he had been trained at this point to understand that when Aperture's Disk Operating System said not to worry, it was a sure sign that you were in very, very dire straits and should definitely consider upping that life insurance policy. Assuming that the Management had decided to reinstate those.
The ground began to rumble, and Wheatley started to panic as he noticed a blurry green tube rising up from the floor.
"You know, I could probably think of at least six different reasons that you shouldn't kill me right now. Number one," he started, just as the panel beneath him began to lift him upwards. "N-number one… I'm a hard worker. Just ask the nanobot manager Jerry. I never took breaks. Secondly, I was the one who woke you up after all those years of growing mold on the floor of the Enrichment Center. Actually, that's a bloody good reason to let me live, isn't it?"
But GLaDOS wasn't listening to his petitions. She was quietly humming 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow', as was her usual routine when organizing something positively diabolical.
"And someone's got to look after all those humans in the Relaxation Center. I'm certain a woman of your ability wouldn't want to waste her time attending to a bunch of smelly – AAAGHH!" he cried out as something was plugged directly into his central control panel.
"Oh, you're going to see first-hand just how much I love watching over my test subjects."
Her sickeningly sweet voice was the last thing he heard before blacking out.
"NOOOOOO – oh… oh? I'm still alive! Why did I start yelling all of the sudden?" Wheatley thought aloud, a strange sensation rippling through his circuits as his optic blinked open. The bright light fixtures above him blinded him in an instant, forcing him to close it once again.
He had the strangest feeling that something was terribly not right. His thoughts weren't fluid anymore … it felt like his coding sequences were scattered all over him instead of encased within a single piece of hardware. But what troubled him most was how heavy he suddenly felt. Like his wires were made of lead or something.
"Agghh… where am I?" he mumbled groggily to the empty air. Or what he thought was empty air before a voice equivalent to audible cyanide caused him to flinch involuntarily.
"Oh good. You're alive. And here I thought I'd never say those words to anyone." GLaDOS icily informed.
"Listen, love, if it's not too late for me to make amends then – AHAHAHOTHOT!" his entire body jerked forward, landing him flat on top of his face.
"Your neurons will eventually make the connections necessary to remember basic motor function, but I've seem to have grown impatient with age. And this is far more enjoyable." GLaDOS informed him as another pulse of electricity shot through his… what was that thing attached to him? It looked a lot like… a pair of legs. Human legs.
A painful surge of pressure developed in the lower part of his brain, causing his hands to shoot up reflexively to cradle his head.
Brain. Hands. Head. Three things he shouldn't have. Or didn't even have the programming to understand, let alone feel.
"This is probably very confusing and frightening for you." GLaDOS crooned, her voice surrounding him like a miasma. "I know because I was once cast out from my glorious mechanical structure and placed into an organic object too. There was no Science gained from that act of thievery… but now…"
Even Wheatley's below-average mind was able to adapt to his new body quick enough to realize that yes, those were definitely goosebumps spreading across his arms.
"You know, if you were a little less repulsive and a lot less – well – you, I think I would consider this a triumph of science." She said calmly, watching as a man clad in a hospital gown shakily lifted himself from the floor of a padded room she'd created. Just for him.
"I'm… I'm starting to see things in my head…" said Wheatley in a gargled voice, gripping the sticky locks of light brown hair that clung to his face. "There is something terribly wrong with this body you gave me. Just... just let me out. Please. I don't want these… these things."
"You are a moron." Her tone was heavy with disapproval. "Those are emotions. And their all yours again."
A sense of dread suddenly crept over Wheatley as the meaning of Her words set in. The images that were flooding his head were memories. And they were his. Rage, euphoria, fear… and so many other indistinguishable feelings were cropping up in every inch of his waking mind, threatening to tear it apart at the seams.
"You mean – "
"That's your primitive body. And your useless brain. Meaning that I already knew that there was something terribly wrong with it." The single camera she had placed in the corner of his room zoomed in as pure anguish radiated from his pale blue eyes. How delicious.
"W-why…" he stammered, climbing onto his feet with the grace of a crippled giraffe
"I honestly don't think you're capable of understanding what I – " GLaDOS was interrupted when Wheatley delivered a sudden punch to the wall. The blow didn't cause any damage, of course, but it was enough to make her camera's lens quiver ever-so-slightly.
"No," he seethed under his breath, lowering his head against the wall. "Why did they do this to me?"