Wheatley awoke, back in Aperture. The white washed walls and sterile environment gave his location away. He also remembered dying pretty well so where else would he be?

"Ah. You are awake I see."

He knew that voice. It haunted his nightmares in space. Not that droids have nightmares per-say, they just get memory flash backs when in sleep mode.

"Well, what are you going to do with me now? Repeated forms of you destroying me? Torture? Send me strait to android hell?" 'This place IS android hell.' He thought.

"Nothing quite like that. Look around you." He did. He was hanging from the ceiling, seemingly in perfect condition. He had a monitor to his left, and blank walls everywhere else. "What does this place remind you of?"

"It reminds me of, of, of your room."

"Good. My model is in good condition then."

"Model?"

Smugness leaked like corrosive goo from Her voice. "Yes, model. I decided that you were too much of a nuisance to keep you as you were, so I took the liberty of giving you your own facility, mini sized, for you to destroy. Like you did mine. But mini. You have all the powers you had when you callously hijacked me from my body, but now you are the one the size of a potato."

His optic had shrunk. He saw what She was doing. She was reminding him in every way Her twisted processor could think of, of the biggest mistake of his life.

She was reminding him of when he had betrayed Chell, the only one who had ever saw him for him and put up with him. And who had forgiven him. She was metaphorically pouring salt on the preverbial wound.

"Enjoy your stay."

It was not long after that, that she had pretty much forgotten about Wheatley. She stored him away somewhere, that even he didn't know, and never bothered him.

He was thankful for that, and that she had given him unlimited power inside his box. It was truly like a miniature version of the whole upper part of the facility.

The first thing he did was create himself a new body, fashioned like a human male's. He had pictures of what they looked like, and thought he had made a pretty decent copy.

He wasn't sure why he had done it, just did.

Well, it did give him unlimited mobility, and he treasured being able to walk wherever he liked, turn off his map and get lost in the maze of tunnels, challenge himself to run up the catwalks faster than the last time, just plain anything to get his mind off of Chell.

Anything.

He stopped beside the railings many times, part of him wanting to fall over, that would take his mind off of her wouldn't it? But he would always remember her making him promise not to end himself.

'Please, for me, please, don't end your life because I am not there.'

So he always backed away, ran up the steps, found the replica of her sleeping quarters, and huddled in her bed, whimpering and crying to himself.

It took him many weeks before he realized what they had been on the verge of.

Love.

He was in love with her.

And she was dead.

He would never talk to her again.

He sobbed into her pillow for a whole hour, nothing interrupting him in his eternal-

A loud ding interrupted him.

He didn't look up. He didn't want to. He just wanted to stay here forever, never leave, locked in his replica of her room and-

The ding sounded again, louder.

He pulled the blankets up over his head and hid his face under the pillow.

An automated voice rang throughout his minicity (As he had come to call it)

'Email

File received

Test subject [redacted] #(error)

First test run results: outstanding, high tenacity

Second test run results: incomplete

Data: 289 gigabytes of download.

Note from sender:

"Took me awhile to get this without GLaDOS noticing.

All of the test subjects have their memory, personality, yada yada put in a file. This file is constantly being updated, even if they leave Aperture without being properly removed from the 'active subjects' list, and will be updated until they die.

This is your girl.

Regards,

Caroline."

End of email'

Wheatley was stunned. Was Chell really waiting to be downloaded from a file sent via email? And who was this Caroline? How did she get this out from under GLaDOS's optic?

He leapt out of her bed and ran back to the main room, already downloading the file.

He started constructing another construct, one that looked just like her and would have her capabilities as well.

As he finished, so did the download, and he began the transfer and copy immediately.

He held his breath.

Could he dare hope?