Hello there! A bit of a foreword before we get down to the good stuff! This will be a story centered around Portal, with elements and aspects from the Half-Life series. They take place in the same universe, and I feel like the events of Half-Life are rather notable with the Portal storyline. So while there may be a few character cameos and mention of other events in the series, this will still be a very Portal-centered story. I have many plans for where this will go, so I hope you enjoy! Without further ado, here we go! -V

Space was much bigger than one might think, you know. Yet somehow he always wound up right back in the same bloody set of constellations. Sure, sure, it was beautiful and all, but staring at the same backdrop for countless months could really drain the system of interest. Of course, the same never applied to the yellow-lit core that floated around with him eagerly. The overzealous little thing didn't make for the best company. Day after day, the babbling got a bit tiresome on the more focused of the two AI.

Throughout the endlessly boring days and nights, Wheatley was left with his guilt. He looked back on his memories, on his mistakes, and he pinpointed at which instances he could have done differently, and of course what would come of that. Usually, it still wound up with him being stranded in a vast, starry wasteland. He supposed that was likely what he had deserved, though. He had acted a bit of a twat, after all. Being so small and insignificant for the longevity of your sentience, and suddenly being saddled with absolute power? It was difficult to resist. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Heh..

At the time it seemed like a good idea...

He found himself thinking this quite often.

He was ripped away from his thoughts whenever his only company rammed into him, their hulls clanking together rather painfully. "Ah-! Hey, watch it, would ya? Literally all of the universe at your disposal here. We're not exactly tight on space!" He snapped irritably. His accompanying core responded only with his usual reply of-

"SPAAACE!"

Wheatley let out a soft little sigh, his voice softening, "Yeah, yeah mate. We're both in space..still."

The situation scarcely changed as they drifted for what seemed like ages. Perhaps all of this was his karma for disengaging himself from the rail? That must be it. The days were unclear, and he stopped keeping track after some time. The most interesting development in months was if the two of them drifted a bit farther apart than usual. Other than that, it was just stars, planets...uh, space dust, retrieval robots and-

Wait, what was that last one?

The image had swept by him in a flash of crisp white. He shook and turned his deep blue optic, in an effort to turn his body to try and catch a glimpse of what he thought he had seen. When he turned, he was met with an uncomfortably close visual of an unfamiliar robot. "Ah-!" Wheatley let out a slight exclamation of surprise and veered back slightly. The robot's paint was pure white, a signature of most machines from Aperture. On the side was printed in clean, orange letters, Aperture Enrichment Center Retrieval Unit. Wheatley's optic widened slightly as he gazed at the robot that was steadily approaching him once more.

"You, you're here to retrieve me, aren't you? Oh, that's brilliant! Bloody fortunate! Oh, wow, finally! You wouldn't believe how glad I am that-" He paused slightly as something dawned on him. He stopped mid sentence, and after a very brief moment of silence, he began to shake himself side to side profusely, "Wait, no, no, no, nonononono-" He tried to move backwards from the robot, but it already had a hold of one of his handles with an iron vice, and was already dragging the, back through space, trailing along the path it had come. "Wait! Come on, lad Think about this! You, what you are doing right now, is, well, basically dragging me to my death. Yep, you are dragging me straight back to Her, and essentially to my demise, my very very painful demise. Is- is that really what you want to do? We Aperture robots really have to stick together, and right now you are doing the exact opposite of that, of what I just said-" He pleaded, his voice rapid with his attempts to persuade the bot. "No means no!" He quipped out in his frustration.

Well, he thought to himself, This is how I die.

Before he had time to recover from the overwhelming experience of passing through the earth's atmosphere- and bloody stressful that was -he found all of his fear and denial and pleading give leeway to the bright light that nearly blinded the little core. He squinted and turned away slightly, "Ow! Ow ow, okay I understand the ambiance behind it, but is there any possible way for us to dim that light a little?" Even in the face of death itself, he managed to make one sarcastic remark or another.

The light shifted slightly, as a darkened form silhouetted against the rays. The massive, mechanical being leaned herself down, until she blocked out the light almost completely as she gazed down upon him. Her voice was oddly smooth, for that of a machine. However, per usual, there was an undeniable sinister edge to it, lacing through every word with a sort of condescending air about her. "I'll admit, I'm impressed. I didn't think you'd survive as long as you did out there." A few slow, rhythmic claps were heard. "Oh, good. That's still working. Always good to check, you know." She pulled back slightly from the cowering core below her, the light evening out a bit to reveal her more clearly.

"Ah! Yes, uhm, well, yes you're right, there. Definitely right. Always good to, uh, make sure thing are all, in check...in order...in..sequence- you know it's funny, I-" His babbling was cut off, luckily for the both of them.

"Such a shame, though. I had a wonderful study going on the effects of zero gravity on mechanisms. You were the perfect candidate, as your screws always were rather loose, figuratively and literally. Unfortunately we had to cut that short for a much more pressing matter..." Before he had a chance to inquire, she continued. "You see, I thought for a long time that after you destroyed my facility, nothing would make me happier than seeing you waste away until your circuits finally fried.."

"Well, yes that is a, a reasonable reaction to what happened. Very understandable. Speaking of, I love what you've done with the place! Definitely an improvement. Don't know what I was thinking when I-"

GLaDOS's voice turned venomous and razor sharp, "Quiet, you blathering little idiot." She snapped before returning once more to her cool facade she usually kept up so well. "As I was saying...I realized something. I realized that there was one thing that would make me happier than killing you. Testing. Fulfilling the euphoric need to test gives me no greater pleasure, as I'm sure you remember...The itch scarcely heeds to the whims of mere machines... Compromises must be made." A metal claw came out from the darkness of her lair and grasped onto Wheatley none too gently.

"Woah woah WOah! Wait a second! C-Can we talk about this for a moment? Over a nice cup of tea? Er, can of oil? I'm sure there is a reasonable solution that doesn't involve-"

GLaDOS almost seemed to take pleasure in his begging. While normally the sound of his voice made her want to rip herself out of the mainframe, there was something about the pleading tone of fear in his voice that filled her to the brim with satisfaction...and anticipation for what was to happen next. The claw threw him into the machine to the corner of the room, the tube shutting in on him and strapping him in by his handles. His rapid words were muffled by the thick glass. GLaDOS approached slowly as the machine roared to life, causing the lights in the room to flicker. "Consider this an... experiment.." She purred out, the very word sending a ripple of anticipation through her.

Abruptly, the chamber filled up with an unknown gas, and the mechanism at the top shot out electricity into his circuits, conducting through the contaminated air. A bloodcurdling scream from the remorseful little robot sounded throughout the lair, and down the halls of the lab. He felt his core processor shutting down, and he gave one last groan before everything went dark.

The blinding light that once again filtered through his optic instigated a sharp stab of pain behind his usual mechanism. Now, as Wheatley found himself coming to, he noticed a similar sensation along the rest of his circuits, like needles pricking into his body in steady waves, slowly dying down as he felt an unfamiliar thumping against his hull and handles. A strained groan escaped him.

He moved his optic about, slowly urging the plates before it to open. He was no longer in the chamber he had shut down it. He was on an operating table, of sorts, it seemed.. More to his concern, he was still in Her lair.

"Oh. You're awake. How unfortunate. I was growing quite fond of the silence."

Wheatley felt chills run up through his circuits, as they did every time she spoke through the echo-filled chamber, words assaulting his processors as they so often did. All he could formulate in response to her were a few, incoherent mumbles, "W..Wha...t?" He pushed himself up so he wasn't directly on his circuit panel, but felt a lack of...rolling? Usually when he "sat up" it was quite easy to maneuver his core to a better position, but.. it wasn't as easy as it normally was. He felt his plates and panels creaking in protest as he moved himself to face her properly, not yet noticing what it was that made him feel so out of place yet- let alone the extra appendages.

His oblivious nature baffled GLaDOS even to this day. But she'd be lying if she said it didn't amuse her. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. and I do so look forward to seeing how you cope with this... This all must be so confusing for you." There was a note of mock sympathy in her tone, condescending until the end. "See, this is an experiment I've been looking forward to for quite some time.. I was about to try it, actually, and had quite a few different subjects lined up for it.. But I figured the final tests with the portal gun had to come first, before my personal project, thus it got delayed... I thought my remaining human subject would do quite nicely, as I was planning to get rid of her soon anyways-"

Wheatley had absolutely no idea what the hell she was talking about. Experiment? What experiment could she possible have had in mind that she would hesitate to begin? The mention of Chell stuck out from the sea of his confusion. The days in space that he didn't think of her were scarce, admittedly. Where was she, anyways? Had GLaDOS really let her go? Surely not.

"-But, of course, then you overthrew me and made quite the mess of my laboratory... That whole thing really set me back a few months on schedule.. Do you know how long it takes to restock deadly neurotoxin? It isn't cheap or timely, I assure you... But I digress..."

Wheatley, against the better judgement he still seemed to lack, decided to speak up, "Yes, that was a bit of a mess, but..what has this got to do with me?" Speaking felt odd, as well... His usually crisp words were reduced to a slurred sort of drawl, more pinpricks shooting through his body at the slightest movement.

She narrowed her optic slightly as she overlooked him once more. He was just as Wheatley as before. What a shame. "The scientists at Aperture were experimenting on whether uploading an intelligence into a computer was possible... I was the product of their tests. They planned to go further with it, to see if the opposite was possible..but of course, they were thereafter decommissioned... leaving behind so much unexplored territory.. So much potential for testing."

Wheatley frowned, opening his mouth to say something, but before he could actually get anything out, something dawned on him- he had a mouth.

He quickly scrambled to touch it, reaching up with his- oh bloody hell he had hands too- He had hands, and he couldn't feel them.

"It'll take a while for you to adjust to the new body, I'm sure.. you won't feel much of anything for a while. You've only just woken up...it'll take your heart a while before it can circulate blood through you. Once that happens, you should be able to feel things just fine.. that is, unless your nerves were fried from the transition. I'm not really sure, yet. I've no idea how reversing the upload process will affect you.. You're the first we've tried it on... Isn't it exciting to be a part of something to fascinating?

"Aren't you excited? I know I am..."

And there we have it! The first chapter is finished. I've been postponing this for so long, it's nice to finally put it up. Let me know what you all think, and feel free to give me some tips, suggestions, etc! I want you all to be a part of this story, and to help shape it. Thank you for sticking around through the first portion of exposition, and I hope to see you in my next upload! -V