Here's the next chapter. Beware, it a bit of a sad one.

Disclaimer I do not own any of VALVe's characters.

Note: I know that some things in this story don't quite match up with what happened in the actual canon story (ie; Chell was a child at the time of Bring Your Daughter to Work Day). I can't stay completely canon to tell this story, or Wheatley would've been married to a child, which is weird.

Also, this story is being told out of order, so don't get confused by the sudden jump back.


"Begin procedural log…time is 10:21 p.m…. heading up the procedure is myself, Dr. Laurel, with my assistant, Austin Marks. Procedure title: IDS personality alterations." A scientist spoke into a tape recorder before setting it on the desk to record.

"Why do we need to alter the personality, again boss? I thought this one was chosen as the IDS due to his fitting of the requirements."

"He was, but some things still need to be altered, it's not perfect yet. The scientist we got the personality from is only the beginning."

"Ah, I see." The inactive core was clamped down by two metal clamps to keep it from rolling away, and a bright light was shone on it to shed light on it's inner mechanics, which were visible through the unscrewed opening in the back.

"This will be the first time it's being powered on since the transfer procedure…powering on now…" The optic glowed to life behind it's metal lids, and the core spoke for the first time.

"Argg…what is thi- FORMATTING DRIVE NOW- what the…? What's going o-" It was cut off as it's drive formatted, it's body letting out a series of clicks and whirrs as it's new machinery was tested. "FORMATTING COMPLETE." It said in a mechanical voice. The two working on the procedure waited for the core to settle into it's new body.

The optic opened a crack, looking around slowly. It opened wider, looking around, highly confused. "What is this…? What happened? What's going on here? Last I remember, I…" It's optic widened and it realized the predicament it was in. "No. N-No, that can't be…I…I'm…" It's optic flashed to the two in the room, suddenly noticing their presence. "You! What have you done to me! You monsters! What have you done?" It cried out in a mixture of anger and fear.

The scientist sighed, rolling in his wheeled chair to the back of the machine. The assistant gave an uneasy look at the now freaking out core and stepped behind it as well. "Let's begin." The doctor said, putting on magnifying glasses and grabbing the necessary tools.

The core was remembering everything that happened right up to him waking up there. His processors froze, however, when he remembered an errant sentence from one of his last conversations.

Yes yes, if I'm not back in an hour, you can come round me up.

He never came home that night.

Which means she went looking for him.

She, who probably knew entirely too much about what they were doing at Aperture, from what he'd told her.

No.

"My…my wife. My wife! What have you done with her?" The core shouted while trying to thrash madly in it's metal restraints. The scientist sighed, clearly annoyed as the sphere's thrashing was preventing him from doing what he needed to do.

"Austin, power the IDS down to 50%. It'll be able to talk to us but it won't have enough power to move itself around like that."

"Yes, sir."

"You monsters, answer me! What have you done with my wife? What have you…" The sphere trailed off as it's power was decreased, leaving it feeling sluggish and half there. It's optic drooped closed and it stopped moving around. "What have you…done with my…wife?" It asked softly, finding the words difficult to get out now.

"Altering memory chip now." All was silent as the scientist tinkered around with the core's memory chip. "Who were you talking about just now?" The scientist asked the sphere.

"I was talking about…uh…h-her…I was talking about her…my w-"

"Altering memory chip." The doctor cut the sphere off, not really caring what the it said after that. "Shine the light over here, where I'm working Austin." The core let out a few winces as it's memory was altered, leaving it confused and disoriented. "Who were you talking about just now?" He asked again.

"I…was talking about…I-I…don't remember…" The optic spoke out, feeling as though it just lost something great, but having no clue what.

"What's the earliest thing you remember?" The scientist asked, hand poised over his memory chip.

"Erm…I…I woke up here, right? And I was shouting about…something, I don't remember…" The sphere stuttered out, wishing it could open up it's optic and look around.

"Good." The Dr. Laurel commented. "Memory chip alteration complete. Moving onto logic and thinking chip. This will need to be altered a lot." He said aside to the assistant, low enough that the core couldn't hear, "He was a scientist here before, a shame he was picked for this core, all those years of schooling to do what he did will be lost…ah, well, it's in the name of science, as Mr. Johnson says…er, said."

The assistant looked uneasily. He was relatively new at Aperture and still uncomfortable with the methods the company used to create it's AIs. It made him wonder back to the wavier he signed when he began working there, and why he didn't bother to read the fine print…"Sir, why do we need to alter his logic and intelligence?"

"Well, to fulfill what the IDS was made for. Didn't they brief you on the core before you were put on the project?"

"I asked, but they told me it was classified."

The scientist reached over and snapped off the tape recorder, "Oh, well, I'll let you in on a little bit of it, but you have to keep your trap shut. This core is designed to be completely stupid. It's primary function will be to dumb the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System down, so it will be stupid enough to stop trying to kill us whenever we activate it." The assistant nodded at in understanding at what his boss was saying. Poor guy… He thought about the sphere, though he knew he'd be fired if he ever said it out loud.

"Allright, back to work." With a press of a button, the recorder was back on. "Beginning logic and intelligence alterations." The Dr. Laurel spoke into the tape recorder. "IDS, can you please explain to me how one would go about hacking into a standard computer to obtain information?"

"Well, to begin to go about that…first you'd have to run a vulnerability scan to…determine the weaknesses in the computer system's firewall and other ways that it's security can be exploite-" The sphere shut off and let out a groan when it felt it's inner hardware being tinkered with. "What are you…doing…ah, ah…stop, stop…" It whined, feeling thoughts slipping away from him, becoming inaccessible.

"IDS, can you please explain to me how one would go about hacking into a standard computer to obtain information?" Dr. Laurel repeated, testing to see what the new answer would be.

"Well…erm, I suppose you could…you could…first look at the security…of the computer…determine where things could be, well, hacked, and then you could run some kind of programs that would, well, hack it…." The IDS rambled, sounding a little more jumbled and baffled after the alterations. The scientist once again began tinkering with the core's hardware.

Austin Marks stared at the ground, feeling guilt for letting his superior essentially erase this man. But he's not a man anymore, is he? They took that from him…he's…just a machine now… Austin thought, ashamed. He was almost glad the optic couldn't open, he was sure he wouldn't be able to meet it.

"IDS, can you please explain to me how one would go about hacking into a standard computer to obtain information?" Dr. Laurel asked a third time.

For the first time, the core was at a complete loss for what to say. For almost a minute all he let out were a series of 'hmm's and 'umm's. Finally it spoke, "First, I suppose, you would, um, well…try hacking the password for the system…"

"And what would be your method for trying at passwords?"

"Hmm…tough one, tough one…I would definitely start out with A A A…er,..A…A…and if that somehow doesn't work, I'd try A A A A…D, I suppose." It spoke, a little confidence in its voice as it finished, beginning to feel that his answer was right.

Dr. Laurel let out a low chuckle and pat the sphere a few times, "Good job. It's perfect. IDS complete, estimated working time about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Core is ready for attachment onto the GLaDOS unit." The scientist shut off the tape recorder, setting it aside to be entered into the record later.

Austin's guilt was starting to eat at him. He heard how intelligent and smart the core was upon first activation. It, he…he even had a wife before that. What if they had kids? A whole life, destroyed, taken, and from what he gathered…against his will. The assistant grabbed the chart for the IDS's human component, looking at it and seeing that he didn't, in fact, have any kids.

"Huh," Austin said with a chuckle as Dr. Laurel was deactivating the core, "His chart says that people used to call him Wheatley,"

"Wheatley…" The core mumbled almost inaudibly before it's blue glow faded and it shut down.

"Hey! Don't touch that!" The scientist shouted. The assistant closed the file quickly, looking down in embarrassment.

"Sorry sir, I-I-"

"It's all right. Inquisitive, young minds, what can you do?" The scientist let out a hearty chuckle and clapped Austin on the shoulder before turning to his desk to shut down the computer and put away the tools.

"If you don't mind me asking, what did happen to his wife when she came looking for him?"

"Ah, nothing much. Put her through some tests to determine her abilities as a test subject, but from what I hear she was rejected. She'll be put in a relaxation vault till they need her, whenever that is." The scientist turned back to his assistant and stared for a few seconds. A strange glint grew in his eye.

"Hey, since you're so curious about things, I have a special assignment for you. A promotion of sorts. If you will, Mr. Marks, please follow me to the medical ward…" And the scientist led his very uneasy assistant through Aperture's facility towards a fate that was clearly outlined in the seventh clause of his signed, mandatory wavier.