Chapter 9 - A Grim Tale
Chell sat down to listen and Wheatley cleared his throat. "Well, I guess things began when I was insane and I hit that lift a bit too hard...
"As you already know, I was testing with my own inventions, those weird cubey-turrety...things. Well, as surprising as this may be, they weren't really the best test subjects. Now, it was hard to figure out why, but eventually I concluded that they were too stupid to solve the tests. So I decided I needed a person. Eventually, after searching the mainframe, I found out that there was something I needed hidden in a secret place. I can't remember what I was looking for, but I do remember being bloody angry because I couldn't find them. But then one day, I found out there was someone who knew about it. And that was Galaxa.
"Now, you know that I am, after all, not in the least a moron, so I already knew I couldn't just bring her in and say, 'Oh, would you mind telling me how to find something so that I can test innocent humans to death?' She was different then. Very different. So I had the mainframe find her and bring her to my lair, and then I...and then I...oh, why are you making me tell you this? It's just that I...my evil self, that is...I pretended to love her.
"And she believed me. So I somehow got her to think I was completely bonkers for her, and then one day I asked my question veeerrrry nicely. And she said she was sorry, but she couldn't tell. So I begged, but she stood her ground. After a while, though, I got bloody angry again, and I trapped her, and I told her that I wasn't going to let her go until she spilled the beans. But she...well, she was terrified, but she still didn't say anything. So then I lost it, Chell. I lost it and I started...please remember I'm a changed man now...I started to...
"I started to torture her, Chell...
"Please don't hurt me, luv, really, please...you know it was that thing I was plugged into, and this is why I'm so scared of her, why she won't forgive me. I made her life hell for a long time...and finally she cracked and told. I decided though, because you know how completely crazy I was, that I rather enjoyed seeing her all sad. So I didn't let her go. Eventually though, I became preoccupied with trying to do you in, so I forgot her. I'm not really sure how she escaped...Oh, Chell, I hate myself. The things I did to her...the things I did to you..." And then he began to cry silently and Chell had to fight back tears herself. His voice was so hollow, his eyes lifeless, as if he no longer had the will to live. He slumped into a corner, hugged his knees, and put his face in them. Every time he gave a sob, he shook. Chell looked on, feeling sorry and yet not really knowing what to do. She felt a small wave of anger as well. GLaDOS's chassis truly had driven him to a desire so twisted and insane that the formerly adorable core had been willing to kill, and worse, torture, to acquire it. She scooted over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. When he lifted his head, she hugged him from the side, resting her head on his shoulder. He sniffed. "Y-you really do have brain damage, you know?" Chell gave a soft snort of laughter and then gave him a long kiss. There was a moment of silence. "How could someone as incredible you love someone as horrible as me?" Chell held him tighter. "Right. No voice." Another kiss. "I like it when you do that," sighed Wheatley. Chell smiled, then stood up and offered her hand. "You mean we're going to go to the others and tell them everything, and they'll know the truth?" Chell smiled a bit grimly and nodded, then mouthed one word, one Wheatley could somehow lip read.
"Together."
Rick decided he'd better shut up while Galaxa was talking, so he didn't get punched or something. "It started one day when I was minding my own business, when all of a sudden I was snatched up and taken to this big room, where Wheatley was. I asked him why I was here, and he said that, now that he was in charge, he had the courage to tell me something he'd never had the guts to. And well, he told me...he told me he was madly in love with me."
"...That son of a-"
"Now, I'm gonna be completely honest with you: I don't really know what it means, to be 'in love', but I liked the sound, and he would sweet-talk me and give me things and go on for hours about how amazing I was, and I was different then...more naive...you wouldn't believe this, but I was actually normally as giddy as a little girl then, giggling and the whole shazam. It's actually funny, now that I remember...I just assumed that I 'loved' him back. Well, we were together one day, Wheatley brought out some turrets and they played this song...he said it was something like the 'Turret Wife Song' or something like that...and then he asked me a question, one that threw me off for a second. He...he asked me where he could find a pair of robots specifically designed for testing. I wanted to tell him, really I did...but see, my newest job was keeping the location of those a secret. He tried to persuade me...y'know, the usual flattery, offering me things in exchange, promising he'd keep it off my file. But I told him, probably a gazillion times, that no, I couldn't tell him or I'd feel bad. And I thought that eventually he was gonna just be like 'Oh, OK, love ya,' and move on.
"I couldn't have been more wrong.
"He started to get a little ticked off the more I refused, and then eventually he exploded with fury. He yanked me off my management rail (which has now happened to me twice) and practically chucked me into a small cage and started to threaten me. Now, I kept believing he was going to stop, he was just angry, he would quit. But then he carried the threats out. He took a sharp, round blade and started to cut me with it. And boy, that was just the beginning. He burned me, yanked parts out of me, chipped my eye (I had to get myself a replacement later) and just generally made me miserable for a very long, agonizing time. He just hurt me...in fact..." She pulled up her left sleeve and sure enough, there was a scar there, as if he had tortured her human body. "Why are you making me tell you this? Never mind, I'm about halfway through anyway. Eventually I couldn't take it. I snapped. Then he said he'd let me go, but begame conveniently busy- don't ask me with what because I don't know- and I was in there until GLaDOS somehow got back in her body and undid everything he did. In that time that I sat, ignored, in the cage, thoughts bounced around in my motherboard, my mainframe, and I grew angrier and angrier. It changed me. I'm not the giddy, giggly little girl I was before. And maybe that was an exaggeration. I was just immature. But I'm not. Not anymore.
"As soon as I realized I was free to go, because GLaDOS unknowingly freed me from my trap, and my management rail reattached me to itself, I escaped. And I've been looking for Wheatley ever since. For revenge. For what he did to me."
"Revenge doesn't help anybody. I doubt it even makes you feel better. After all, it doesn't remove the scars. Both the physical and the emotional. But that's still horrifying. And what were you? Y'know, when you were an AI."
She shrugged. "A core, just like you, and the dimwitted d-
"Not necessary. But I meant which core. The Secret-Keeping Core or something?"
Galaxa looked at him, her eyes shadowed and hollow. "I don't know. Nobody does."
"What job did you-"
"Wherever they could put me, they put me. But whenever I asked, 'What core am I?' the scientists looked at each other, really uneasy. Not even GLaDOS knows."
"Thought she knew everything."
"Everything documented. She has to have a source. Nobody ever wrote down, to my knowledge, who I was."
Rick looked at the ground as there was a moment of silence. "Well," he finally said, "I think you're great, even if you don't know which core you are." He stood up before she could pound him, but when he saw her, she wasn't looking at him with anger. The look on her face was just curious. Rick walked toward the door.
"Wait!"
Rick turned. "What?"
Galaxa stood up warily. "Did you...did you mean that?"
"That you're great without an official fancy-pants job? Of course I meant that!"
Galaxa looked at the ground, and her stomach churned a little. What was this feeling she was having? Surely not...
"Rick, I feel a little queasy."
"You OK?"
She wanted to snap at him, but she couldn't. And then she realized why. But she wouldn't admit it. It was what Wheatley had claimed to have for her, but what she'd never had for him. Rick raised an eyebrow in concern. "Are you...Oookaay?"
"Yeah. Can I tell you something?"
"Sure."
"Come here."
Rick was a bit scared now. She wasn't going to hurt him, was she? Probably. In fact, this could even be the end of the line for him. Because he knew too much, maybe. He approached her, expecting the worst. But she smiled. A strange, almost an I'm-doing-something-I'm-not-supposed-to-do smile. Taken aback, he asked, "What is it?"
"Of all the things you tried to impress me with, do you know what worked?"
Rick almost fainted. He tried to hide how excited he was. "What?" he mumbled happily.
"Being yourself."
Rick only had two seconds to be utterly shocked before their lips came into contact.
When they were finished, Rick had to steady himself. When he was assured that he wasn't going to pass out, he ran to a window and opened it. Then he stuck his head out, grinning so widely it looked almost as if his lips were about to come off. "SHE KISSED ME!" he yelled cheerfully. "WOOHOO!" Then he turned to see Galaxa's face was a deep scarlet. "Say, where did you learn to kiss?"
Galaxa frowned. "Don't push your already extreme luck, buster." Rick just shrugged, still grinning stupidly. It was obvious she didn't mean it.
"Rick!" called a voice faintly. The recipient of the shout opened the window.
"Hi!" he said, all too enthusiastically.
"Are you alright?" asked Wheatley from down below. "We heard you yell!"
"I'm doing GREAT!" yelled Rick, which made Wheatley flinch in surprise. "I'm doin' juuuuuuust fiiiiiiinnnnne..." Wheatley did not appear to be convinced.
"Maybe you should come down here..."
"Sure thing! Coming!" Then Rick closed the window again.
Outside the building, Wheatley turned to Chell, who was standing beside him. "Do you think he's OK? He's acting absolutely nutty."
Chell nodded. She had a hunch as to why Rick had looked so blissfully happy...
Rick came out of the building, practically skipping, as Galaxa walked slowly behind him, blushing. "They both look like either they've been smoking something strange or drinking," murmured Wheatley, concerned. Chell simply sniggered.
Rick grabbed Wheatley and pulled him aside. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but you were right."
"What does THAT m-"
"She kissed me!" breathed Rick, making a small jump excitedly.
Wheatley's eyes widened. "She WHAT?"
"Ssssh! Not so loud. And..." he actually made a small giggle. "Well, just...yeah."
"Well, guess what? Chell kissed me first!"
"WHAT? When?"
"Tonight, before the fire started. It was amazing," he sighed.
Rick held out his fist. "Fist bump."
Wheatley grinned and then attempted to do a fist bump with Rick, but it just ended up being a face-fist bump, Rick being the receiver of the punch. Rick let it go; Wheatley wasn't very strong anyway. Then Wheatley felt a hand on his shoulder and turned. "Hello, luv."
Chell smiled, then gave him a less cheerful, knowing look. "O-oh. That. Y-yeah, alm-most forgot."
"What is it?" Rick asked.
Wheatley looked at the ground and shuffled his feet, and two of his fingers (his pointer and his index) began to move back and forth. rapidly, rubbing against each other as they flew. "Well, it's a-ab-bout what I d-did...We're going to t-tell every-"
"It's fine," said a voice, and everyone turned to Galaxa. "I forgive him. I don't like him, and I still think he's an idiot, but I forgive him. And nobody needs to know about it but us four. OK?" Chell and Wheatley looked at each other, mouths open. Then they both turned back and nodded, Wheatley looking as if his head was about to fall off, he was nodding so hard. Galaxa smiled, with complete innocence, for the first time since she had been a naive, trusting AI. "I think we'd better go and make sure GLaDOS and Ralph aren't being naughty in front of the apartment though." She smirked, and her nice moment was over. Chell rolled her eyes and Wheatley made a gagging sound to demonstrate his sentiments toward the suggestion. Nonetheless, they all began to head in the apartment's direction.
When they arrived, the only person they saw was Ralph. He stood up. "Please don't be mad!" he said. "She just left! Said something about going back..."
"That's right," said a voice, and everyone turned to see GLaDOS. Ralph passed out again. "I'm going back to Aperture. I've pinpointed our location and, coincidentally, we're very close. The field that Galaxa and the moron-"
"My name is WHEATLEY-"
"-walked through was the same one that Chell walked through. Isn't that right?"
Chell nodded. "It's just very large. So all I have to do is find the shed, ride the elevator down and find a way to put myself back in my body. As soon as I get back in, I'll put you cores back into your bodies-"
"What if we don't want to go back into our bodies?"
There was an awkward silence as GLaDOS turned to Wheatley with shock. "Why wouldn't you want to go back into your body?"
Wheatley and Chell's hands automatically found each other. GLaDOS gave them a sweeping, slightly disapproving look. "I see. Well the rest of you-"
"But I don't want to go back either," said Rick. GLaDOS looked at him.
"Why not?"
Rick put his arm around Galaxa and she blushed deeply.
"Has this whole world gone mad?" GLaDOS growled loudly. "Fine! I'll go myself. I was just trying to be a little nice, but you know what? That's perfect. It'll be quieter when you all aren't constantly babbling in my ear. All of you. I'll just find some test subjects and move on!"
"We'll go with you to the entrance," murmured Galaxa softly.
"Why?" snapped GLaDOS.
"Cuz we'll miss you, that's why," answered Rick. Wheatley and Chell nodded in agreement. GLaDOS looked at them all in surprise.
"Oh. Well, um...If...if you absolutely must." Everyone smiled. "Well, we...we might as well head there now."
Everyone nodded solemnly. Tonight they would say goodbye to GLaDOS.
For good.
