The Aftermath

Chapter 0: Prequel

Wheatley floated around the moon for the unknown time. He saw the area where Chell's portal was and 'sighed'. He missed the Earth and, he wouldn't admit it out loud, he even missed the giant AI that constantly bullied him with her words. He turned and looked at the Earth. Despite missing his home at Aperture, there was someone he missed much more.

"Space? So much space… gotta explore more space!" The core's eye squinted as the other core floated into his line of vision, spazzing out as usual. "Could you give it a rest, mate? I'm trying to have a moment to myself here," Wheatley said, rolling his eye.
"Gotta see more space! So much more space!" Wheatley groaned a bit, "I've told you. You can't see any more as long as you're orbiting me and I'm orbiting the bloody moon! Ugh, there're times I wish a meteorite would just hit one of us." Little did the core know, he was about to have his wish granted. Flying through space was a small meteorite being pulled towards the Earth.
"Spaaaaaaaaace!" Wheatley turned away from the other core in time to see the rock collide with him, knocking him out of the moon's gravitation field.
"Ow! Someone grab me!" he yelled, panicking and looking around, "For the love God, grab me!" Space ignored him, babbling on about space. Wheatley turned around and saw the Earth moving closer towards him. "I-I'm going back. Hey, Space! I'm going back to Earth!" Again, Space ignored him. Wheatley looked back at the blue planet and would have smiled if he could. He would finally be able to apologize to her… if she was still alive.

"Okay. Provided I don't explode or get destroyed upon reentry, I should find a way to contact… her and then see if Chell's alive," Wheatley said to him, nodding, "How back can reentry be anyway?" He watched as the surface came closer into view. "So far so- ow. Ow! Hot! Hot! I'm on fire! Water! Someone put me out!" His outer shell started to glow, from a fierce red to white. As he flew through several clouds, he started to cool off. "Oh… that feels so good. I wonder what those things were." He looked around, noticing how dark it was. "It must be night time here in… wherever I'm landing." Looking towards the ground, he saw what he thought was discolored water. Again, he began to panic.
"No! Nonononono! I can't fall into water!" He closed his eyes and braced to be engulfed in water. He heard a crushing sound and felt himself bounce- that was never a good sign- though a wheat field. His shell, weakened from being heated and cooled, began cracking at the impact site as he tumbled. He could feel the cool air on his bare circuits, causing them to spark a bit. "Ow… not good. Not good. Not-" He rolled towards a single shed and through the door of it before falling down a long shaft.

GLaDoS quietly watched her facility, finally bringing it back to its former glory before Wheatley had taken over.
"Finally. My facility is back to normal. And I'll never have to see that moron-" As if on cue, Wheatley landed in front of her from the elevator shaft. He slowly rolled in front of her, opening his cracked eye.
"…Oh joy. You're back," she said, trying to keep herself from instantly killing the core. Wheatley blinked and looked up at her.
"Oh! It's the pretty bird lady," he said, his voice sounding off-pitch, "Go on and fly me to the moon!" GLaDoS watched him and blinked. A pincer came down and carefully picked up the core. His bottom handlebar fell off as Wheatley looked at it.
"Was that a cube? Seems kinda puny if you ask me." The AI almost felt bad about the shape the personality core was in. He was in no fit shape to be punished.
"Do you know who I am?" GLaDoS asked. Wheatley looked at her again, his eye unable to stay still long enough to focus, "You're a faceless bird, that's what you are!"
"…It looks like you're in need of some serious repairs," she said, "Until your tiny body is repair, I guess I'll have to find something to put your brain into once that's repaired as well."
"You're funny, faceless bird lady."
"…." She carried him off to an area, hoping to repair fast enough so he wouldn't drive her crazy.