The universe is bloody huge! Wheatley thought in amazement as he and his enthusiastic travel buddy floated deeper into the dark abyss. So quiet though.

"We're in space. Want more space."

Wheatley groaned aloud and looked to the Space Core. "Yes, I would like some more space, thank you! Space away from you!" They had been travelling for so long that Wheatley's inner clock had melted with the state that he was in. It had stopped somewhere around the 260 day mark before dying out completely.

Spending all that time with no one but the Space Core was enough to drive even the sanest of bots completely mad. Wheatley had had his share of "space madness," as he had called it. For seven days Wheatley had screamed nothing but bloody murder at the other core until he finally came to his senses and stopped himself. That had been…what, 50 days ago?

"Space. Space. Spacespacespacespacespace…."

Wheatley vented loudly. He would have disabled his audio receptors months ago if he had the ability to. But of course he did not have that luxury. Instead he had to live with a constant voice in his skull screaming about space and how great it was.

"Uh, huh-huh, mate, can we have a little talk?" Wheatley asked, even though he already knew what the answer was going to be.

"SPAAAAAAACE!"

"Great!" Wheatley exclaimed as if he had not heard the other core. "Well, let's talk about something other than—"

"Space. What is space?"

"Uh, yes, let's not talk about that," Wheatley said. "You know, I had a friend once. Not one of those 'oh hi, how're you doing' type things, no, this was the real deal. I'd say 'jump' and she'd jump, she'd pick me up and plug me into the wall. We trusted each other. I—I miss her."

"Space? Wherewherewhere…."

"Where did we meet?" Wheatley asked. "Well, heh, funny story really. The facility was sorta falling apart. Not my fault, nooo, it was the higher up's fault, the big bosses'. We escaped, accidentally woke her up, well, I've told you the rest before."

"Spacespacespace…."

"She never asked for anything in return for helping me. Never asked for anything, actually. I feel terrible about what happened. I mean, I could have been a hero and saved her, but I didn't. I tried to kill her. My only friend in this massive universe. I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve any of it, if I'm perfectly honest."

Silence met Wheatley's words.

"Um, mate? Am I too boring for you?" Wheatley asked nervously, looking around for his companion. "How about this space, huh? Really bloody big—"

Everything went black.

Fizzle. Fzzt. Fzzzzzzzzz.

Wheatley opened his optic a crack. "Ughh, what-what happened?" His body felt battered and sore all over. "Mate, are you there?" He tried to move his optic to search for his companion. A sharp blinding pain fired through his processor and Wheatley screamed.

"O-okay, bzzt can't m-move that—" He broke off into a fit of harsh coughing. "Mate, don't leave me like th-crrrcckkzzz." His voice turned into static.

He tried to open his optic wider and focus past the fuzzy static he was seeing.

"Mate?" he managed. "Space budd-zzzzzzt?" Are you there? His optic finally focused on a single object floating in front of him. My reflection? Wheatley wondered dully. It took him a second to realize that he was staring at an offlined optic plate that had a bunch of pointed shards sticking out of it at odd angles.

Wheatley shrieked. Doing so caused his optic to completely black out, leaving him entirely in the dark.

"Don't be dead don't yyyyrxdghgv fzzzzzxt xxxxzzzzrteeeeeeeee….."

Hearing his external speakers become a thin high-pitched whine, Wheatley switched to his internal speaker system. Using it was rather pointless, as there were no Aperture tech around to receive his frantic messages.

My voice is ruined and that guy's dead and I'm rambling because I'm alone and maybe maybe just a little scared and –ow!- hurting….Sharp pointed things are stuck in me and they hurt and we must have collided with some sort of space rock…. Wheatley tried to think through his panic. Of course, there was one person who could possibly receive a message. GLaDOS might, just might be able to pick on his feeble transmission.

Straining his range to the limit, Wheatley tried contacting the big bad robot herself. He didn't have a lot of time left, but maybe this would work.

Um, hello! Gzzlt—trying to contact you from a-a very long way Hgggt—anyway, I know you hate me and want to send me to android hell and all, but kkkkgtrr have a message for my- for my friend.

Please, if you do anything, just tell her this, y'know, if she's still alive and all. FZZZttzz.

Fzzzxththt her to know that I'm—well, I'm really truly sorry for-for hurting kkkkhhhr. You're my friend and I bzzzz treated you better. Actually, that's not even that importazzzzt. Just tell her, tell her-tell her I—I'm—fzzz….

Silence. A soft blue star winked out and disappeared forever into the never-ending night.

The entire universe was silent.