Chapter 1
"Spaaaaaace!" A yellow eyed core shouted enthusiastically, earning a heavy groan from the blue eyed core: Wheatley.
"Oi mate, I know we are in space, but do you NEED TO REMIND US EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY?!" Wheatley shouted, annoyed by his companion's hyper attitude.
He gave a sigh and mumbled: "I hope Chell's doing a lot better than me, the lady deserves it. After the way I treated her..." He trailed off, feeling guilty about that memory and wishing he could delete it , but even if he could, the lady would still remember, she would still be angry at him.
'That's because you tried to kill her you moron! Do you really think she will just accept your apology and forgive you?'
" I'm NOT a MORON!" Wheatley shouted, realising that nobody had talked to him, it was his corrupted voice. Even though he wasn't corrupted anymore after that battle, it seemed the corruption itself was still in his core. He could feel it spreading through himself like a sort of disease. He did everything he could to stop it from spreading, but the hopelessness he developed from being in space for too long made that difficult.
"You moron, do you really think you can defeat me? You made me and I AM you!"
"N...no.." Wheatley could feel his core shutting itself down, shadows appearing in the corners of his vision. He saw space core floating just beside him, clearly being distracted by the large space around him.
"Goodbye...mate..." He said, closing his optic...
With Chell...
"Don't think I'm not onto you too, lady. You know what you are? Selfish. I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here! What have you sacrificed? NOTHING. Zero. All you've done is BOSS ME AROUND. Well, NOW who's the boss? Who's the boss? It's me!"
With a long scream the woman woke up, startled and catching her breath. Tears flowed in her eyes after the realisation that she just had the same nightmare for the past 3 years. Wheatley had been her only friend that time, he had helped her escape her inevitable death hadn't she been woken up (the power in the relaxation chamber area had failed after so many years) and had helped her defeat the corrupted artificial intelligence GLaDOS, after accidentally reactivating her beforehand. But that moment after Wheatley had taken over, she had noticed he wasn't his cheery, goofy self. He became corrupted aswell and had betrayed Chell, making her do test for HIM. He even demonstrated his power over her by putting GLaDOS in a potato.
She remembered the fear she felt but also the loneliness because she would be alone again, defenseless:
Flashback...
GLaDOS had managed to make him angry by calling him a moron and he had smashed her against the glass elevator doors, which broke and she had fallen in it, laying down by Chell's feet.
But GLaDOS wasn't down, she was insulting Wheatley like crazy and he continued smashing the elevator in anger:
"I AM NOT A MORON!"
"YES YOU ARE, YOU'RE THE MORON TO MAKE ME AN IDIOT!"
After that he had smashed the elevator in such a way that it started to move down
"CAN A MORON *smash* PUNCH YOU *smash* INTO *smash* THIS PIT?!
Chell was too petrified to even scream at what happened then, the elevator gave one last sound and then fell down into the depths below...
End flashback...
Sighing she looked at the clock:
"Well it's almost 6:00 am, might aswell wake up and search for supplies in this place, maybe I'll find someone in this place aswell..."
When she first came to the surface, she couldn't believe her eyes. She was free to go anywhere she wanted, but the world seemed so empty. Luckily after walking for a while she came across a town, most of the houses were destroyed but there was one house still in decent shape and Chell decided it would be her home from now on.
After putting on her basic black shirt and jeans Chell walked downstairs, grabbed her sneakers and bag (where she put all the stuff in she found while scavenging). She then went to the kitchen, grabbed some canned food and started to eat.
After 10 minutes she was done, threw away the can and walked out of the door. The sun was slowly rising up on the horizon and Chell loved it, the beautiful colors in the sky and the warmth in the air, very comfortable. Slowly she walked towards the abandoned shopping mall, hoping that maybe people have found shelter there, but they hadn't in the past 3 years so she wasn't that hopeful for that anymore.
As she slowly manoeuvred herself through the broken plastic glass of the shopping mall's doors she heard a sound from inside:
Could it be...?
"He...hello? Someone there? Don't worry, I'm unarmed, I can help you!" She shouted in the darkened hallways of the shopping mall.
There were murmers and sounds of people moving towards her and she could see people in front of her. A few adults and a small child, all very malnourished:
"Are you wounded in any way?" Chell had asked them before taking them to her house.
"N..No, please, help us..." One of the adults had spoken, Chell felt relieved, knowing there were people still alive and cried tears of joy.
"Oh god, I though I was the only one alive.." She sniffed, slowly walking towards them to give them a compassionate hug.
"Come with me, I have found a home, there you can rest and eat something. Shall I carry the child?"
The adults nodded softly, feeling tired:
"Thanks for your help!" A woman smiled at her, Chell smiled back at her.
" It'll be alright now ma'am, I'm Chell."
"My name's Rochelle, this is Nick (she had pointed to the man beside her) and that is Zoey" (she had then pointed to the child in Chells arms)
Chell nodded and smiled to them:
"Come, let's go."
She slowly led the other survivors through the barren wasteland to her home, hearing Rochelle and Nick gasping in awe at her home.
"H...How did you find this place?" Rochelle asked Chell.
"I..it's a long story, when we're inside I can tell you all about it, while you can rest and eat." Chell explained.
Giving Zoey back to Nick she opened the door and let them in, smiling when she saw them sitting down on the couch and sighing in relief.
"Uhm, I only have canned fruit at the moment, I hope that's okay for you?"
The trio nodded and started to eat, thanking Chell for being so good to them.
"Oh right, I was going to tell you my story! I came here 3 years ago, before I had been trapped underground in a laboratory called Aperture, where I had been used to do tests for a power mad AI called GLaDOS..." Chell began and started talking about how she had been awoken by a core called Wheatley, the portal gun, being forced to do tests and eventually how she had escaped.
She didn't, however, mentioned Wheatley taking over as it still hurt her whenever she even thought about it.
Stupid Wheatley, if you hadn't been corrupted by GLaDOS's mainframe, you could still be alive and probably join me here above grounds!
"Is that cube thingy there from Aperture too?" Rochelle asked her, glancing towards the companion cube.
Chell laughed softly, telling Rochelle it was from Aperture, how she had felt when she brought it with her in those tests. How it felt like a real companion, like she could tell alot of things to it but never hearing something back because it's not sentient, it couldn't talk back.
Rochelle had patted Chells shoulder, to comfort her and said that she was a very strong woman to have survived being alone for a long time.
"Thanks, I'm going to search for more food, clothing for you guys, some shoes maybe aswell and medical supplies. Do you need something in particular?" Chell asked the two adults, noticing that Zoey had sat down next to the companion cube, talking to it with a smile.
They had shook, clothing and shoes would be fine and Chell smiled.
"Okay, I'm off then, make yourself at home, there's warm water if you want to take a shower and there are towels in the bathroom aswell. There is a bedroom for you guys upstairs too, just take a right and the first door on your right is for you. They both hugged Chell and waved her goodbye as she wandered off into the distance to the shopping mall again.
After carefully maneuvering herself once more through the broken doors, she found herself in the darkened hallways of the mall again and this time she slowly walked around in search of clothing, shoes, medical supplies and sustainable food. She found some decent stuff, put it in her bag and kept searching, not hearing any sound and it frightened her:
It's too quiet...
She could feel adrenaline rushing through her as there could danger lurking around every corner and slowly walked on. All of a sudden she heard a shout and saw a person jumping down from the ceiling and land in front of her. She noticed he had bright green eyes, brown spiked hair and wore clothing that made him look like an adventurer...wait...adventurer?
"Hello pretty lady, it's me,Rick!"
Rick? It is his voice alright, but how?
Chell found herself to be weak on her feet and fell into his awaiting arms:
"Now I would expect you to acknowledge me but I didn't expect you to fall into my arms that quickly hehe." He jokingly said, a hint of worry in his voice.
Chell herself was at a loss for words and just stared up at him, feeling somehow safe in his arms.
After a few moments of silence and staring at eachother it was Rick who broke the silence:
"So, you're still looking as cute as you were when we last saw eachother."
She couldn't believe it: Rick was here and he is most definitely human!
"Rick? This is crazy, how did you survive and more importantly: How did you turn into a human?"
He chuckled, hugging her tightly and answered:
"Well, I remember being sucked into space after our battle with that Wheatley guy but I blacked out after that. When I woke up, I was already in this body in one of the labs down in Aperture. I heard her voice talking to me, guiding me to the nearest lift to get out of this place and she asked me to find you."
She asked you to find me, why?
As if he could hear her thoughts, he added:
"But she didn't tell me why."
He let her go and watched as she was lost in thoughts, seeing how small and fragile she really looked and feeling the need to protect her.
If Rick had made it down here again then maybe Wheatley would be here somewhere too!
"Okay I get it, I'll go to GLaDOS to ask her what she wants but for now come with me, I got a house and you can freshen yourself up before we go there."
Rick just winked at her (Still a flirt!) and walked besides her, arm around her shoulders as they walked back to Chells place...
