What was there to say?
He was drifting in space and had been for some time now. His internal clock was on the fritz unable to determine whether only a few minutes had passed or a few hours. The Space core was gone too- he had drifted far enough away that there was no distinguishing him from the millions of stars. And, worst of all, Wheatley was left very much alone with his thoughts.
Bleak. In a word, the whole situation was just bloody bleak.
At first, he had been consumed. She should have just tested for him. He wasn't asking much, was he? She could jump well enough through GlaDOS's hoops but she hadn't any patience to play with him. It would have been amazing.
But she hadn't and, in hindsight, he could see she never would have.
After that realization, his anger faded, replaced with a thoughtfulness he had never cultivated, but was, he assumed, a by-product of being alone in a place like space.
He tried to think of when it was he truly lost her. If the friendship they had formed, though short, could have been retained if he had only not said or done that one crucial thing he couldn't quite define. Oh, and that whole part where he tried to kill her; that was a cock-up, no doubt. He could have given her the freedom she wanted right then and there, couldn't he? He had machines to do the testing. He could have given her a lift; up and out and free.
And instead he tried with all his might to kill her and the worst of it- really just the worst- was that he didn't have an explanation as to why.
Despite being a machine he was in fact built to sympathize with humans. He was supposed to be the one looking after them, making sure they were okay. He hadn't done that job particularly well, but he had tried. He wanted to succeed so badly when he had in all his other jobs failed quite dismally. He wanted to say he had cared about Chell, but in all honesty he had cared about her welfare because it guaranteed his own. If he searched his memory farther back he was certain that at one point he had cared about the test subjects beyond himself, but that was a long time ago and before the Aperture facility had been sealed. It was strange to think he had been changing long before his takeover.
When he did hook up to the chassis, well! Suddenly everything was different.
Chell didn't understand. It was like his mind expanded. He was bigger than her, bigger than the room, bigger than twenty rooms. He was almost everything and almost everywhere and in comparison she suddenly seemed so terribly small. It was, he imagined, like discovering a continent when you had only ever known an island. She was one tiny speck on the map and he had the entire world.
The room rippled and he had done that. It was beautiful, unlike anything. He called the lift and had her almost gone, but then something happened. A snap or a click, he wasn't sure, but in an instant he wasn't happy. He wasn't satisfied with this ending. Why should he have all of this and have to give it up? And for what? For who? Chell?
That must have been when he truly botched it because he could remember now, quite clearly, asking her, "…what have you sacrificed?" A stupid question really, he knew she hadn't anything to sacrifice. Everything she had ever had was stolen a very long time ago. She was just trying to survive.
Along the edges of the Earth he could see a meteor was breaking in the atmosphere.
Earth. There it was, blue and green and just hanging there in space. It was the only thing to look at because the moon made him feel rather dismal and the sun hurt his optics. The stars weren't much to shout about as they all sort of looked the same, really, and, as mentioned, the Space core had up and disappeared.
Bleak.
He had felt that before, hadn't he? When he was still in Aperture and everyday another subject died in cryo-sleep. He was so powerless to stop it that after a while he just let it happen; whole sectors, hundreds of people then thousands. They woke up brain-damaged, confused and screaming and when he tried to calm them down the shock of the situation was too much. They thrashed, collapsed and, within a few minutes, were glossy eyed and dead.
There had been a bit of truth in what he told Chell. There had been others, but he omitted the most important bits: the parts about where he hadn't woken them up and he hadn't gone with them. Only five others had ever woken up and not died immediately. And with every one that left Wheatley felt a growing need to escape as well. What would be left for him here after all the subjects had passed away? He couldn't escape on his own.
And then an idea had hit.
He started waking people up. There were about a hundred left. There had to be one- just one- that could survive, but the numbers dwindled.
She was the last one. Her cryo was on the verge of failure and she was his only chance.
He disengaged the cryo-sleep. Had he been human he was sure he would have been sweating. And then there was a miracle.
"BEEP!"
His optic shutter fluttered at the unexpected sound.
"What you on about?" He said to no one. A static crackle was wavering in and out like a radio being adjusted. A voice eventually reached him through the hiss,
"Hello, Moron."
Her.
"What do you want?" he cried.
"I just thought we could have a little chat." Her tone was far from friendly or casual.
"Yeah, is that right? Just a little chat, eh? Look, luv, I'm in space. Don't know what you think you're going to resolve all the way down there, but I can guarantee yo-"He was cut short. His frame shaking from an electrical surge.
"Quiet! I couldn't help but notice all the corpses you left me in the cryo chambers. Bad move that."
"Yeah," Wheatley was still reeling from the shock, "yeah…"
"Well, if it hadn't been for that I might have let your little friend go."
He was quiet for a moment. His friend? Did she mean…?
"You two weren't working together?"
The automated clap was heavy with her sarcasm.
"Good job, moron. I was lying. Why destroy two when I could have one finish the other off? I pitted you against her from the start. It's not like she could say anything to change your mind."
Chell and walked into that lift and had trusted him to let her go. The same lift he smashed into the floor without thinking of the fragile human still inside.
Man alive.
"Could you tell her that I'm sorry? I've been wanting to tell her that for so long, but, well, you know, I'm all up in space and such. Bobbing around, lovely view thou-" She shocked him again and he took the hint to keep quiet.
"I would tell her, but she's a little busy right now with testing."
"Testing?"
"Oh, yes, I was going to let her go, but then, well… let's just say we both had a change of heart. I wanted you. Oh, Wheatley, I really wanted you. And I could get you back too. Every aperture device has a retrieval chip built in. You destroyed a majority of my facility, put me in a potato and threw me down an elevator shaft. I hate you. I almost hate you as much as her, but then something resonated with me. Chell spoke up and that brain-damaged mute said something I never would have expected." GlaDOS took his silence as confirmation that he was intrigued and said slowly, deliberately, "It was my fault."
"What?"
"You see, you couldn't have done it without her. Not really. So, while I was mad at you for destroying the facility she was the one that was really to blame. In fact, we struck a deal. She agreed to stay in Aperture, to be my test subject, and when the time came, allow me to kill her in any way I so desired."
"What? Why? In exchange for what?"
"Your freedom."
The static crackled in the silence.
"She took my place." He responded disbelievingly.
"Yes, she did." GlaDOS replied with pleasure.
"And, so you're… you're not going to harm me then?"
"I said your freedom, moron! I didn't say anything about your welfare. Enjoy re-entry. I've heard it gets a little bumpy."
The crackling hiss of the signal clicked off leaving in its wake an oppressive silence.
The Earth: his one constant mark in all of this was suddenly looming; a great deal larger than it had been only seconds before.
AN: Rated T for a bit of violence there and the use of the word "cock". Made me smile though, really. Thank you for taking the time to read my fanfic- the only place where I can repeatedly abuse my semicolons and italics. New chapters should be posted soon. Let me know what you think! :)
Also: Man Alive is a wroking title. I have no idea what to call this.