"Oh good. You're awake."

He could hear her voice, but his vision was blurry and dim. How long had he been out?

"I see the procedure worked. That's good. There was a 38 percent chance that it would simply kill you."

"Gnnngh…" He groaned, struggling to overcome the stupor that accompanied awakening from a deep sleep. He blinked once, twice, and his vision slowly came to focus. Glancing down, it became clear to him that, indeed, the procedure had worked: sprawled out before him was the scrawny, pale, naked form of a human male, the one he had inhabited in what now felt like a previous lifetime.

Despite having been a robot for some hundreds of years now, Wheatley remembered how to operate a human body fairly well. It was sort of like riding a bicycle (at least, that was how the phrase went – he'd never actually ridden one himself, so he couldn't really be sure how it compared). With some determination, he tried to move an arm, a leg, but found himself immobilized.

"Moron," GLaDOS sneered. "Didn't you notice that you're still strapped to that platform?" She moved closer. "But here, let me get that for you." One by one, the shackles at Wheatley's wrists and ankles flicked open. Simultaneously, four cables snaked down from the ceiling and coiled themselves around each of his appendages, then lifted him from the platform, suspending him in front of GLaDOS' glowing optic.

"Good. Everything seems to be in order." As she spoke, a fifth cable descended and began trailing itself up and down Wheatley's body, investigating, causing him to jerk and writhe uncomfortably in her grasp.

"Ah- cold, cold, cold," he stammered. "Please, p-put me down. Stop, I can't – hrrk!" The cable had coiled itself tightly around his throat, silencing him.

"It would be so easy to just kill you right now," GLaDOS sighed. "So tempting, too. But in the long run, it will be much more enjoyable to watch you suffer for the rest of your meaningless existence." The cable around Wheatley's throat slowly unwound itself, leaving him gasping for air as it snaked downwards, now looping itself insistently between his legs.

"You know, humans are so utterly useless, so easily manipulated," she continued. "But they do make the best test subjects, and they can even provide some mild entertainment." The cable with which she had been teasing and torturing him now slid upwards once more, under his chin, aggressively directing his head so that he was now staring directly into that piercing yellow light.

"And that is exactly what I have planned for you."

He opened his mouth to reply but before he could utter a word, each of the cables that had been holding him in place released their grasp and he was dropped unceremoniously to the ground, landing with a hard thud against the cold metal. He cried out in pain upon impact, and was surprised to hear GLaDOS' reaction.

"Nnnnn-aaaaahh!"

He had never heard her make a sound like that before. It almost sounded…as if…

"Mmmm, I may have forgotten to mention," she said, composing herself. "Your body isn't exactly the way it was when you left it. I've added a special little touch of my own." He was sitting on the floor now, rubbing his shoulder, which had borne the brunt of the impact. He was also refusing to acknowledge her, a mixture of fear and embarrassment preventing him from looking her in the eye.

"Well? Don't you want to hear what it is?"

Wheatley would have continued his silent protest if it weren't for the sudden jolt of pain that ran down his spine, originating at the base of his skull and spreading throughout his entire body.

"Nnnnnnnngh!" he gasped between gritted teeth. How had she-?

"Would you like to feel that again, or would you prefer to respond to me?"

Wheatley was panting, his body still throbbing from the pain. Unwilling to endure it again, however, he managed to turn and face her.

"What have you done to me?" he asked, tears sliding down his cheeks from both the physical and emotional pain.

"It's an entirely new technology, and might not be completely stable yet," GLaDOS replied. "But I've implanted a chip in your brain that's remotely connected to my own sensory core. Whenever I receive a physical stimulus, you will feel an opposite, but equally strong sensation. In other words, whenever you are in pain, I feel an equivalent amount of physical pleasure, analogous to testing euphoria."

Wheatley was dumbfounded, unable to respond.

"And do you know what's even better about this?" GLaDOS went on. "Since I am able to control my own euphoria response mechanism, I am able to hurt you whenever I choose to. And feel absolutely great about it!"

"Then that's how you – you just – " Wheatley shook with the memory of the pain she had just inflicted upon him. As if in reply, another burst of the same ripped through him; he cried out in pain and doubled over, clutching his chest as if something were trying to claw its way out.

"Mmmmmmm," GLaDOS hummed, clearly enjoying herself. "That feels so nice."

"It's not fair!" Wheatley shrieked, still doubled over on his knees, his hands planted against the floor to keep himself upright. "If I refuse to speak, you hurt me. If I speak, you hurt me. How am I supposed to know what you want me to do?"

"That's all part of the fun of it," GLaDOS replied. "And the science, of course. If I told you what to do, what would be the point?"

Somehow, Wheatley was pretty certain she wasn't doing any of this for the "science."

"Now," she continued, opening a panel in the wall to reveal an orange Aperture jumpsuit hanging in the space behind it, "cover your shame. We have quite a bit of testing to do."