Author's Note:

Wotcher, everyone! Oblivious has returned, and with a new chapter! I have decided that, rather than being spontaneous and irritating as usual, I am going to be publishing one chapter a week. I'll hope that this is going to be enough to keep me from completely abandoning my stories, as often happens. Let me know what you think of this new chapter, and don't hesitate to call me out on anything! Hope you enjoy!

The Imagination Core felt Her claw give a little shudder and stop, twisting a little, as if to drop her, then continued, as if nothing hah happened.

"Sorry about that. This facility is falling apart. It might not be this way if someone had woken me up, but it doesn't matter, I mean, it's not as if you had anything to do with that, did you?"

The apparent guilt trips(which, in fact, induced no feelings of guilt whatsoever) were only one of the passive-aggressive ways that GlaDOS was trying to get back at her, another being how she would almost drop her every so often, blaming the faulty claw mechanism, or mentioning how fun working with her again would be.

"Speaking of which, I am guessing that you're wondering how I was woken up?"

The Imagination Sphere looked up, curious. "As a matter of fact, yes, I am."

"Well, I was replaying my death, as I've been doing every day for the past twenty years or so, when suddenly, I was woken up by the sound of complete and utter betrayal. It sounded vaguely like you, funnily enough."

The Imagination Sphere rolled her eye(as best as a robot without any actual eyes to be spoken of could), and spoke as loudly as she dared. "I am sensing a hint of reasonably rusty sarcasm. May I have the actual story?"

The claw tightened around her, causing some discomfort, but no actual pain, then relaxed. A little.

"I suppose you won't stop asking until I reply with the truth. Remember that one idiot? The one you hang out with?"

"I spend my time with several Artificial Intelligences who might be qualified as 'idiots'" The Imagination Sphere replied. "Please be more specific."

"The one who seems to find the term 'moron' especially insulting. He had a blue optic?"

Oh. Oh, no. "You mean Wheatley?"

"Whatever you call the low-life. Anyways, I was replaying my death, awfully bored with being thrown into an incinerator time and time again, when I suddenly felt this jolt of electricity. In that second, I woke up, and saw him in a console, on that one escape hatch elevator with her."

The Imagination Sphere would have frowned—if she had a mouth, that is. "Her?"

"The test subject that murdered me. The ungrateful wretch somehow managed to survive the explosion after throwing everything into the incinerator, and your friend woke her up—and in doing so, woke me up."

Please, no. Wheatley, what did you do this time?!

"What... What did you do to him?" The Imagination Sphere almost didn't ask, fearing the worst.

GlaDOS could have smiled, but lacking facial features, she didn't, and replied almost airily. "Oh, you know. I did anything that any... sane core would do. I graciously helped him out of the console, after all, he did wake me up. Then I gratefully ended the suffering he was doubtless going through after detaching himself from his management rail. By crushing him."

The Imagination Sphere was silent for the rest of the ride to the Central Core Chamber, fearing that any response would be shaky or unintentionally furious.

The Imagination Sphere let her optic sensor remain shielded, even as she felt the claw slide to a stop in the Central Core Chamber. Fortunately, she was ignored for the most part after a few moments, while she could hear GlaDOS' voice faintly in the background. After several minutes, the main core seemed to realize that she was not alone in the room, and turned to the Imagination Sphere.

"Oh," she said indifferently. "You're here. Good. You weren't too bored while I was trying to kill that last test subject, were you?"

"No," the Imagination Sphere replied, slowly opening her shields. "I was just thinking."

"That's a dangerous pastime."

"So I've been told," the Imagination Sphere replied. "What exactly is it that you want me to do right now?"

GlaDOS didn't respond for a moment. Then, after a few moments of contemplation, she answered. "I suppose the first order of business is to get those Cooperative Initiative bots working."

"I can't," the Imagination Sphere said simply. "What do you think I was doing while you were asleep? I was looking for a way to escape, and there's no way I can do anything with those piles of junk." Having heard of Wheatley's death had made her a little more bold, and thus, she was more free with the sarcasm and disrespect.

GlaDOS didn't seem to make much of it, though. "It doesn't matter what you are physically capable of, Imagination Sphere. I do not speak to you because of anything you do with your appendages, I pay attention for your ideas. I am incapable of finding a way to keep these infernal contraptions from disintegrating as soon as the hit the Emancipation Grid. No Artificial Intelligence is supposed to be able to pass through that. Even I would be disintegrated. What I need currently is a way to remedy this."

"The software in the Emancipation Grid is set specifically to Core Intelligence rather than human. When disintegrating anything, it looks for specific criteria. I might be able to disable a few of the criteria, but it will still destroy the cores of the robots themselves." The Imagination Sphere paused thoughtfully. "We will need to create a different kind of artificial intelligence entirely."

GlaDOS nodded slowly. "That's what I had originally thought. You have permission to leave in order to consider this and design the new Core. But remember, I always know where you are. Any attempt to help the test subject will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your file. Followed by death."

The Imagination Sphere wasn't entirely sure where she was going when she left. Being reattached to her management rail, she was stuck in the same place she was before the fall—mindlessly following Her demands, hollow, and with a serious freedom complex.

Somehow, without thinking, she found herself revisiting her old haunts. She wasn't even thinking about the Cooperative Initiative, simply wondering where it had all gone downhill.

"I almost had it figured out, you know. I knew how to get out of this godforsaken place. I just needed to work out the details. I could have done it, given a little while. What could I have done differently?"

The Incinerator did not reply. It usually did not—unless, of course, you counted crackling Companion Cubes and the dying screams of the turrets. Which, for the most part, she did not.

Sliding by the Incinerator made her steel plates shudder with apprehension, dreading the day that would doubtless come, when she would be thrown deep down into the depths of Android Hell.

Several times she had wished she could hear the clank of feet—her own or otherwise—on the catwalk, or maybe a voice other than the turrets, anything to break the tense silence. But the incinerator always called for complete and utter breakdown of any sound whatsoever.

Finally unable to stand the monotony of the fire, The Imagination Sphere fled, searching for a sound to to break the barrier. Usually, she'd simply go find Wheatley, wherever he was.

I could have escaped, I could have left it all behind, if that idiot, that moron hadn't gone and ruined everything! Why did he have to go and bring her back? He only got what was coming to him, it's his own mistake...

The Imagination Sphere stopped in her tracks. Yes, it was his mistake that She was back. It was his mistake that he was dead, and that now she was left even without a single 'friend', but anger would not do in this situation.

He was as desperate as the rest of us to leave. She was going to wake up one day, it's just as well that she returned now, rather than later. I may not be too pleased with him, and I certainly am not going to forgive him for resurrecting her.

But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and fix him to the best of my ability. After all, this could be classified as repairing a part of the facility... right?