A/N Listening to 'The Wheatley song'. Inspiration begins.

Wheatley wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do. All She'd said was "be yourself". Well, right now himself was telling him to help Chell. She should be close to the catwalk where She had dropped him. Hopefully she wouldn't be too mad at him. Wheatley kept telling this to himself as he found a broken panel which led into a test chamber. Luckily for him, this was the one Chell was just entering, portal gun in hand. She jumped a little at the sight of him.

"Hello! I'm here to get you out."

Chell glared at him, walked forward, and slapped him across the cheek.

"OW! What was that for?"

"For getting me stuck down here."

"Alright, I understand that you're angry; I would be too, but I'm making it up to you by helping you get out."

"No."

"What? What do you mean 'no'? I'm bloody giving you a free ticket out and you say 'no'?"

"I'll get out on my own, thank you very much. I'm also a lot less likely to be betrayed if I'm on my own.'

"Now why would I betray you? I'm her to help you!"

"Come on, it's pretty clear you're teamed up with Her, otherwise you'd be dead by now. You're just going to turn me in so She can kill me."

"I-I'm not a bloody double agent here! I want to be out of this place just as much as you do, and I can't just kill a bloody civilian!"

"Don't you get it; I DON'T TRUST YOU! Now get out of here!"

"B-but…"

"Now."

"Okay."

Wheatley dragged himself back through the hole he had come from. He glanced back at Chell as a final hope, then gave up and left. Chell continued the test with ease, clearing her mind of all thoughts and only concentrating on the task ahead. Back on the catwalk and very confused, Wheatley paces around, trying to think up a plan. When he can't think of one, he finds the nearest camera and begins to speak to it.

"What am I supposed to do now? She bloody hates me!"

"I'm sorry, I can't help you. Really, it's programed in me so that I am not able to choose sides unless one side endangers my existence. You're on your own."

"Maybe-maybe if I prove that I'm not bad she'll come with me! I'll just have to help her in all these tests."

"Good luck with that, you'll need it."

So Wheatley set out to prove himself. He wasn't quite sure how one proved oneself, but he was sure to figure it out. It probably had something to do with not doing anything he's done before. So far Wheatley wasn't off to a good start. It was going to be hard, and normally he would just give up; but something was making him do this, and it was something new to him. Whatever it was, it wanted Chell to like him.

Wheatley made a plan: in each chamber he would do something to help Chell until she trusted him. Then he would help her get back to her father. The only thing is; he needed Her help. That thought didn't really make Wheatley jump for joy, in fact it rather frightened him. Teaming up with a mad robot was never a good thing, but it was his only option.

"Hey, I know you're not able to choose sides, but could you at least tell me what the tests will contain?"

"What's in it for me?"

"Well, I'll make sure I stay on the team that works with You, and I'll keep them from shutting You down."

"That's one of the worst ideas I've heard. I like it. Tell you what, you help me and I'll help you. Deal?"

"Deal."

Wheatley was pretty sure he'd just done something terrible, but that didn't really matter. As long as he could help Chell, it was fine.

"How will I help you?"

"I haven't decided yet; I'll get back to you later. The next test involves light bridges."

The camera shut off. That meant She wasn't watching him anymore. In any other circumstance Wheatley would have sprinted to the nearest exit, but it was his job to protect Chell, and that's what he was going to do no matter what. Wheatley could not stand to fail at his job, even if failing meant his safety while success might kill him.

She had said the next test involved light bridges. Wheatley had never seen those before, but it couldn't be too hard. Hopefully. The hard part would be being secretive. He entered the chamber, checking for Chell. Luckily, she had not entered. There should be plenty of time for Wheatley to secretly help Chell. He found the usual button, hit it, grabbed the cube, brought it to the entrance, and left, watching the room through a crack in the wall.

Chell walked into the room and found herself face to face with a cube. She had no clue how it had gotten there, the dropper was almost impossible to reach. Not trusting it, she dropped the cube in the pool of toxic waste near her. She then hit the button and got a new cube.

Back in the catwalk, Wheatley sighed. It was going to be much harder if Chell remained so untrusting. How was he to help her if she keeps shutting out the help? It was pointless, mad!

"Wow, that's cold. I should know, I've experienced pretty cold things. Nothing this bad, though."

That was true, but Wheatley wasn't about to give up. This was his one task and he was going to complete it no matter what. That was all that mattered; doing his job. It was the motto taught to all Aperture staff: Testing is the future and the future starts with you. Cheesy as it sounded, that was true. The world today was run by science, and Aperture was just one of the many companies forwarding it. Black Mesa was another, and was their biggest competition besides the government and human rights activists.

"So, what's in the next test chamber?"

"That's it? You're just bouncing back up and trying again?"

"Yeah, I've always been kind of an optimist."

"Optimism is a fool's tool to make themselves feel better."

That tested Wheatley's patience. Optimism happened to be a rather popular thing, not just for fools, thank you very much. He would have said that had he not been talking to an omnipotent AI.

"I think it works rather well, then."

Silence. Wheatley wondered if She had turned off the camera in disgust when Her voice came back on.

"The next test has turrets."

A/N

When little old Wheatley says 'there's trouble behind that door' you'd better pay attention, 'cause I'm the Wheatley core- and if you aren't shaking, the there's something very wrong, because this may be the last time that you hear the Wheatley song. Whoah Whoah Whoah Whoah Ooh Ooh He's the evil Wheatley core.

I have to stop listening to that…

I guess I'll put on 'Why, Wheatley, Why' and get out the tissues.

Yay portal 2!