Major spoilers if you haven't finished the game. Seriously. Don't read if you haven't finished the game, I am warning you right now.
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She woke slowly, as there were no startling noises or people there to wake her up, and naturally she needed the rest after what she had been through. Nearly the entire time she had been running on pure determination, and it was around the time where she shot a flipping portal at the moon that she really began to just give up. She'd done it, after all-she'd pushed the button, GLaDOS had fixed whatever had been wrong, and the facility wasn't going to explode. It was insane, though, for her to shoot the moon-she knew that, and she didn't fully understand why she'd done it. She nearly sacrificed herself for a homicidal robot who hadn't done much in the way of being friendly towards her. In fact, she'd nearly killed Chell countless times.
"Oh, thank God you're alive," well, that was different. Chell sat up and looked at GLaDOS, who was back to her old grandeur, and looking almost relieved, even though she was a robot. It must have been something in that honey-colored eye of hers... What was it with all of the robots having only one eye, anyway? Chell took a moment to wonder about that when she probably should have been listening to GLaDOS talk. She came around just in time to hear the robot call her her friend. Her only friend. Well, how sweet of her. If it were anyone else, Chell might have smiled.
Suddenly, after deleting Caroline rather unceremoniously, GLaDOS seemed to remember something.
"Oh. He's here too. Just there," Chell looked down, noticing a curiously silent Wheatly on the ground next to her, just sort of sitting there, eye darting from GLaDOS to Chell and back again. He was nervous, and that was good. He had a lot of completely sensible reasons to be nervous, after all. In fact, Chell could hardly believe that he was still alive. Hadn't GLaDOS been ranting on and on about how she was going to kill him before? Torture him, even?
And, angry as she had been at him, Chell had pretty much been right there with her on that particular subject. Not that she'd ever admit it. If she even physically could. Honestly, she couldn't remember the last time she spoke to anyone (or anything), and anyway she'd had a sneaking suspicion ever since she woke up in that bloody relaxation room that something might be seriously wrong with her vocal cords. She'd have to get them checked. Eventually. When she got out... Well, if she got out, really. And, you know, if there were any humans left anywhere to check them for her. Maybe she'd always been a mute, though. She couldn't remember that, either.
Chel couldn't really remember much of anything before the Aperture tests.
"You worked so hard to keep him alive, after all, being half dead and managing to keep a ridiculous grip on the moron. So I deduced that you would most likely continue," she spoke with a hint of contempt that was probably aimed at the both of them-Wheatly and Chell. But the human couldn't care less, honestly. She was still tired, and GLaDOS was still talking; she had a feeling it'd be good of her to listen this time, "And you know, deleting Caroline from my brain just now taught me a valuable lesson. The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one. And I'll be honest. Killing you? It's hard. I'd rather not go through you to get to him. Because honestly? I'm tired. I didn't even know I could get tired. So congratulations. You know. For that. Making me tired. Should have expected it after you killed me and everything.
"You know what my days used to be like? . . ." And on she went. Honestly, Chell was sort of convinced that GLaDOS just liked to hear herself talk. She could hardly keep herself from dozing off again. Now that Caroline was gone, it'd probably mean certain death, ". . . So you know what? You win. Just. Go."
Chell could hardly believe it. She reached out a hand to reflexively steady the personality sphere beside here, as he began to roll slightly when the floor rose up from the other ground. He said something then, quietly, but she wasn't listening. She was listening to GLaDOS. Trying to believe it.
GLaDOS chuckled presently, as if she knew.
"It's been fun. Don't come back." Well, no problems there.
They reached the surface then, after a brief interlude of being scared shitless by four harmless turrets ("OhmyGodwe'regonnadie, OhmyGodOHMYGOD!" Wheatly had been shouting, but Chell hadn't really been listening to him), who had seemed to be programmed to sing to her on sight. And then they were greeted by a whole flipping room of them, and treated to a mini opera. Which, Chell wasn't going to lie, was pretty pleasant and relaxing. Not to mention surprising. It was like GLaDOS had arranged it ahead of time, on purpose. Well, of course she had. Maybe it was supposed to be meant as a present to her. For saving the facility. Or something.
She picked up Wheatly, looking around herself at the vastness that was this place. The outside. A loud sound from behind her made her turn to see-rather humorously-that the entire facility above ground was just a small shack with a reinforced door. She wondered briefly how far it stretched below ground before her eyes settled on the scorched companion cube that sat outside. The door closed. She walked over and, though it was heavy and she was tired-already burdened with the spherical idiot that was Wheatly, she lifted it from the ground, and began walking away from Aperture Science Laboratories, leaving it behind to be lost in the golden fields of wheat.
"So, uh, where are we goin'?" Wheatly spoke up, audible to her for the first time since he'd told her to hang on to him, "Oh, uh, and, uh, I'm sorry. Probably should have said that first. Yeah. Y'know, for... Tryin' to kill you and everything. Sorry. Really, I am. Genuinely sorry. Wasn't really my fault you know! I mean, I, I am to blame, but, you know, I was corrupted... and... all that jazz."
They were silent for a time, and Chell thought back to when GLaDOS had said she'd seen a deer out here. Did that mean there could be more animals? Was there actual wildlife? And did that mean there were other humans too? She didn't know how she felt about that prospect. Good, she supposed. Maybe. She should have been excited, but she was still in shock, and she was also so very tired.
"Hm. This's all wheat, huh? Yyyyyupah. Lots of it too, by the looks of things. Hm," it made the nicest sound against her long-fall boots, and she couldn't stop inhaling the fresh air. The sun felt so warm, and the breeze blowing by was just wonderful. Had she ever been up here before? She couldn't recall if she had, but she supposed that it'd be alright if she never did. It might diminish the pure, childlike wonder of it all, "So... so am I forgiven? Can... is it alright? Are you mad? You aren't still mad, right? You aren't going to just look for a big rock you can kill me to death with, right? Ooooh, you are. You are mad... Are you? You aren't. You aren't, I knew it... Oooh, you completely and totally are."
He was so worried. But, if Chell could-even for a moment-forgive GLaDOS enough to be able to team up with her, she could certainly forgive a certain little bot who'd gone a little mad for not too long. It had, after all, been purely the influence of GLaDOS's body. He'd been all about escaping before he'd been in control, and her corrupted body had damaged him. However much he'd done, she had to remind herself that it wasn't his fault, not completely.
Besides, who else would she have to listen to?
"Oh, I wish you could talk," Wheatly, inevitably, spoke up again, "Brain damage. It's a ruddy thing, you know. Well, of course you know, you... you've got it... Not that it's bad, or anything! I-you certainly aren't," He was quiet for a long time, and Chell stopped walking, looking back. The laboratory was so small now, almost gone on the horizon, "I'm sorry."
Chell set down the companion cube-which had been beeping out a quiet, happy melody-and-ignoring Wheatly's cries of "I'msorryI'msorry, don'tkillmeplease!"-she turned him around so that he could see her face, and she smiled. He paused for a moment, his large, glowing blue eye darting around her expression, as if searching for something to let him know that this smile wasn't an "I-forgive-you" smile, but instead an "I'm-going-to-end-you" smile. He seemed satisfied, and sighed heavily.
"Gotta tell you, love-not gonna lie-I was pretty scared for a while there. Honestly," she sat down, settling him next to her, and lay on her back in the wheat, closing her eyes and letting him talk, "I was pr-etty terrified for a time there. Yup. A pretty lengthy period of time. You, hah, you had me goin'! Thought you were gonna-thought you were gonna do me in, you know? Run me through. So relieved-gotta tell ya-so relieved."
She smiled again, and let it stay with her while the sun shone down on her skin, warming and comforting.
"So, uh, where are we going?" He asked for a second time, and Chell didn't honestly know, really. So she shrugged in response, and he hummed, letting them lapse into silence. They both listened to Companion Cube's gentle song.
She didn't really have a plan, and she didn't know what she was going to eat. Well. Maybe bread, if she could. Or just wheat. There was plenty of it here, it seemed. But there had to be more things out there, and Chell was going to see it all. She was going to take Wheatly and Companion Cube with her everywhere, and together they would see it all. It was a beautiful place, after all, and Chell was looking forward to exploring it. For now, though, she needed some more rest. She could worry about everything else later; for now, there was peace.
...
She really hoped they would see a deer.