A/N: Well, here it is. The final chapter. I honestly had a lot of fun writing this story, guys, and I hope you had fun reading it as well. I'm gunna take a little break from writing fanfiction (or at least, that's the plan. Who knows what will actually happen) but that doesn't mean I don't still want to read it. If you're writing a Portal fanfiction, I'd love to read it. Write on, fellow writers!

I own none of the fandoms mentioned in any of the chapters. Just want to point that out. NONE OF THEM.

Okay, I'll stop gabbing, now. Enjoy the final chapter.

Chapter Ten

After the Credits

Space, says the magnificent book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is big.

Boy howdy, they weren't kidding. The infinity of space stretched away in all directions. No longer was there any sense of up and down. There was not a breath of wind, nothing to be felt except for heat and cold, both in the extreme, both regulated by our systems. The stars were little points of light in an all-encompassing curtain of darkness. It was quite beautiful.

At least, it was beautiful for the first five minutes or so. After that it became incredibly dull. There was the moon over there, the earth in the distance, and Kay beside me, not to mention a splendid collection of Aperture rubbish floating around, but other than that there was nothing. Everything else was too far away, just sparkles in the universe. Even Rick was too far away. I couldn't contact him on my radio. He had been swept in a completely opposite direction than us.

Kay didn't seem to share my boredom. To her, space was just as novel in the first hour as it was in the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the twelfth, and the fifteenth.

Or something like that. I couldn't really keep count of how long we stayed out there.

No matter. Suffice to say it was – as Wheatley states in Blue Sky – a bloody age to stay stuck out in the middle of literally nowhere with a companion whose only ability is to enthuse about space and with nothing to do but poke at the bits of Aperture rubbish that just happens to be close enough for you to whack at it.

Thankfully, I was still Wheatley, more or less, and he was a talker. Even more thankfully, Kay didn't pay much attention to me, so I was free to ramble on about anything that I liked.

"I hope this is the end," I mentioned, lounging back on nothing with my hands behind my head. "I really hope you were right about the whole 'we'll get to the end and be out of here' thing, because I would be most displeased if you were wrong. To put it lightly. If we started all the way at the beginning again…" I took a moment to contemplate this, then shook it off. "Well, anyway. Suffice to say that it wouldn't be pleasant, alright? Not nice for anybody."

"I'm in space. Oh-oh-oh-ooooohhhhhh. Space," babbled Kay happily, trying to catch a far-off star.

"But really, I'm not sure what else could happen," I continued. "Yes, maybe we could start over, and maybe we could be released. But… but what if there's a whole other option? What if we get sucked into one of those fanfictions that happens after Portal 2?"

I stared at Kay, who was flipped upside down. Or maybe it was me who was upside down. Who knew? "Kay? What if we get put into Blue Sky and we have to finish that one to get out? Oh, ew." I wrinkled my nose. "Oh, I forgot that one's a Chell-n-Wheatley sort of story. Yeah, no, that wouldn't work. Plus, you'd get smashed right at the very beginning, so forget about that."

"I'm in space. I'm in space. Hey, hey, you wanna see me? Gotta buy a telescope. Wanna see me? Gotta buy a telescope. 'Cause I'm in space!"

So, that's how it went for a while. Me talking and Kay gabbing back. Every so often I would grab her leg or her arm to keep her from drifting off or to flip her right side up or to get her attention and she would stare at me with those wide, blank eyes of hers and grin a dull, happy grin. Sometimes she would tug on my shirt sleeve and point out a planet off in the distance. Other than those two occasions, she didn't seem to notice me. Her gaze was full of wonder, her head far, far above the clouds. It was a bit sad to see her like this, but I was glad to see her happy.

After an hour or so of drifting, I started singing all the portal related songs I knew. Fortunately, I had built up a pretty good arsenal, so I spent a hefty two hours singing portal songs and keeping up a running commentary about my favorite fan-made videos. After I had gone through all the Geekenders songs, I moved on to Harry Callaghan songs, working my way through his Nightmare Before Christmas Portal remakes. It went on pretty well until I got halfway through 'If I Were a Core' and sang:

It's a little too late for you to come back

Say it's just a mistake

Think she'd forgive you like that?

If you thought she would let you back in

You thought wrong…

My voice petered out and I bit the inside of my cheek, looking down (up?) at my feet. "Do you think she'll forgive me?" I asked Kay softly.

"Space. I'm in space," she answered, wiggling her fingers in front of her nose.

"Not GLaDOS, I mean. I don't care beans about her. I meant Lauren," I clarified, hitching my knees up to my chest and resting my chin on them. "I did some pretty terrible things to her. Even when I was trying to be nice-ish I was still being really mean. Do you… do you think she'll forgive me if I asked her really nicely?"

"Saturn. Rings of Saturn. I'm in space."

"I mean… I wasn't myself," I mulled. "I was very obviously not myself. She would've caught onto that if she was paying attention at all, but it's really no excuse, is it? No, not a good excuse at all after I did all that to her. Tested her… tried to mashy spike plate her… tried to… oh my- I tried to kill her!" I covered my face with my hands. "I tried to murder her – I honestly did! Oh, man!" I slumped over as best as I could, lightly bonking my head into my knees. "What kind of a brother does that?"

I could see Lauren shunning me. I could see it so clearly when I closed my eyes. I would wake up and she'd be beside me, crying. I would try and touch her shoulder and she would flinch, knocking my hand aside, scrambling to get away from me, screaming in anger and fear at the brother who betrayed her. Even the fantasy thought was painful.

Then again, there was another scenario. Just one other that was a bit better. I wished for that one more than anything else.

One thing was certain: I wasn't going to be let off with just a pat on the back. Lauren wasn't going to simply say, "Oh, yeah, we're all good. No problem," and walk away with a smile. What I had done was too horrific for that. I didn't even want to be let off so easily for my crimes. I would be worried if I was.

Kay tapped my shoulder repeatedly until I looked up. "Hey. Hey. Hey." She spread an arm out and pointed at the vast expanse before us. "Space!" she cried.

I laughed and stretched my legs out again, twirling Kay around like a ballerina. She giggled like a little girl. "Yes," I agreed. "That is definitely space out there. And there. And there. And look! Over there as well! There is space all around us!"

Kay, like the announcer, did not pick up on my sarcasm. She just giggled again and whispered, "Space," under her breath.

"At least I'll still have you," I said, holding onto the back of her belt so she wouldn't drift too far. "Even if Lauren shuns me, you'll still be around. Provided I can find you, of course. I hope I can. I wish I knew what area of the world you live in! I wish I knew if we even spoke the same language!" I sighed. "It would make things a whole lot easier."

"Comets. Meteors. Meteor shower."

She wasn't paying attention to me. I let my words drift softer, slower now. More to myself even though I still spoke to her. "I was never really good with girls. Went on a few dates, but I always wrecked them by talking about… headcrabs or something. Something would come up, I'd act like a weirdo and scare her off. But not you, though."

I looked up at her face. Her eyes were constantly roving, playing connect-the-dots with the stars. "You wouldn't freak out if I mentioned headcrabs, would you? You might even enjoy it if I did."

"Orion. Cygnus. Scorpio. Leo," she mumbled under her breath.

"If… I found you…" I said even more slowly, "…maybe I could ask you out. Maybe you'd say yes. How about it, Kay? Would you say yes?"

"North star!"

"I know a little café in the north side of town," I added, staring off into the distance. "Or how about the little ice cream shop down the road? Either one. We could just sit there… and talk… and you'd know your real name at that point, and you could tell me all about who you really are. And- and if that goes well, maybe I'd take you to a movie sometime! Don't know if you like superhero movies, but Marvel's been pumping out some good ones lately. Maybe I could take you to one of those, eh? Would you like that?"

Her head was cocked as if she was listening, even though she was turned away. My hand strayed from her belt and up to her shoulder. My other hand rested on her waist.

"And if that went well," I continued, my voice even lower, "and I'm not saying that it will, I'm just saying that it might, but if it does go well… well then… maybe we could have a night at my place. I'd send out for pizza and we'd huddle down on the couch. Huddle, not cuddle, unless… you know. Un- unless you'd want to. Um… anyway. So, pizza and maybe some sodas, and then we'd binge-watch Doctor Who. Or play videogames. Something cooperative. Or singleplayer and we'll pass the remote back and forth. Probably not Portal, though. We'll be sick of Portal once we get out."

Kay twisted to face me, and suddenly both my hands were on her waist. Her arms were at her sides and she stared dully over my shoulder. The tip of her floating golden hair tickled my cheek. She didn't look at my eyes, but her left hand came to rest on my arm. It was almost as if we were dancing.

"Would you like that, luv?" I asked, my question barely audible, now. "Would you like to go out with me?"

For a moment it seemed as if she was listening, as if she was thinking about my proposition very solemnly. Then her eyes widened, she looked excited, pointed into the distance, and screamed, "Spaaaace!"

I laughed, amused but somewhat disappointed. "Yes, you're right," I repeated, twirling her again. "Space is over there, too."

The next few hours were dull and not much happened. More of the same, really. The landscape didn't change except when I whacked at floating debris. It was so dull, I was about to consider going into sleep mode. I didn't, thankfully, because something eventually happened.

It was subtle at first. So subtle it took me a while to figure out what it was. I cocked my head and listened intently, but yes. There it was.

"Is that… music?" I asked in wonder. I began scanning about. "Where is that coming from?"

A broken monitor drifted over, flipping slowly. I began to laugh. "Ohh. Look at that, Kay! GLaDOS' credit song!"

Now it was close enough, the words came clearly, singing through the speakers on the monitor:

You want your freedom? Take it.

That's what I'm counting on

I used to want you dead but

Now I only want you gone.

"I didn't think it would show up all the way up here," I laughed again, grabbing Kay by the waist so that she squealed, "Space cops!"

"Come on, Kay," I grinned. "Dance with me."

I tried to do the dance steps in mid-space, which must have looked pretty silly, but I didn't care. I sang along with the lyrics and Kay interjected every so often with shouts of "Space!" It sounded a bit like:

Go make some new (Space!) disaster

(Space!)

That's what I'm counting on

(Space… ooh, space.)

You're someone (Space!) else's problem

Now (Space) I only want (Ooh, ooh, space) you gone

Now I only (Space?) want you gone

Now I only want you

Gone…

I had let go of Kay during those last few lines and she spiraled away, going into a small orbit around me. The monitor flipped aside. I steadied myself. This was the true finale.

"I'm in space. Need to see it all," Kay whimpered.

Now it was my turn.

"I wish I could take it all back," I started slowly. "I honestly do. I really do wish I could take it all back. All the parts where I was mean. Everything cruel I did. All of it. And not just because I'm stranded in space."

"I'm in space," Kay informed the universe.

"I know you are, luv," I smiled. "Yep. We're both in space."

"SPAAAACE!" she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth, which was unnecessary because we were both using our inset radios to communicate since in space nobody can hear you scream.

"Anyway," I continued. "You know, if Lauren was listening to me right now at this moment, you know what I'd tell her?"

"I'm in space."

"I'd say… I'm sorry." My mind grappled with a better way to say this, but failed. "Sincerely. I'd say I'm sorry about everything I did to her, down to the last insult. Down to the last test. Nothing can undo what I've done to her. When that button was pressed, I knew it would end me up here. I just wish it didn't have to play through like it did. I was bossy… and monstrous… and… so much worse. And all I can say is – and I say this from the bottom of my heart…"

I looked up at the space before me as if an invisible camera could capture my image.

"…I am genuinely sorry."

"I'm in space," muttered Kay. I looked straight at her as I said the two final words of the game:

"The end."

All the stars went out. Kay disappeared. My soul slipped out of my body and was forcibly put in the In-Between.

Kay had told me about it, but nothing she or any of the others could have said would have prepared me for this. Such a wrenching sensation. Such terror – the horror of being nothing. It was like a 3D person being squeezed into a 2D universe. Or maybe a 4D universe.

There was such a sense of loneliness as the entire game collapsed around me, being forced into the same area I was occupying. I could feel GLaDOS' mind for a moment – cold and calculating – before it was extinguished. I could feel the others, Dan and Rick and even Lauren, once, but they whirled away before I could make any sort of contact.

It was like sliding through an infinite bag of marbles. Everything was motion, nothing was private. There was nothing to hold onto. I could feel myself being shredded, stripped of my mind, recreated. The Wheatley part of me screamed once and then was torn away. I could feel something plucking at me, tearing me into ribbons.

Make it stop, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP, screamed my mind.

There is no way to tell time in the In-Between, so I don't know how long this went on for. Worse than anything else was the thought: I failed. I went through all of this, did everything humanly possible to finish the game, and I still failed.

But then something switched. Something felt different, although I couldn't pinpoint what. The humming buzz of thoughts all around me heightened in tune and I could feel excitement growing. I brushed past Rick's consciousness and heard him thinking in Russian. Dan's thoughts were all an excited babble. I could make nothing out.

But when Kay passed by, I could feel her thinking the words, It worked. After all this time… it worked!

She was swept away again, but the thought remained. A building hope budded in my chest. Could it be possible… could it have worked? Were we getting out? Were we going home?

Before I could answer this question, or any of the others that hammered at my brain, something shifted. I felt like liquid being sucked through a straw, like a helpless ant being flushed down the toilet. I would have closed my eyes if I had had eyes to close. I would have screamed, flailed, but I could not. All I could do was wait and hope.

And wait.

And hope.

And wait.

Then, suddenly, there was a dropping sensation. A lurch. A spinning, flickering, painful sort of light. And then—

I lay flat on my back on the floor, eyes closed. My glasses were crooked. I straightened them. My hand explored the carpet, feeling its every bump and curve.

Wait. Carpet? There were no carpets in Aperture.

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling, sat upright, rubbing my arms. My house. My home was all around me! I patted down my arms, trying to decide if I was alright. Yes. I would go with true. Despite feeling a bit rattled, nothing was wrong with me. My skin was flesh again. I was back in my baggy brown hoodie.

Human again.

I glanced over at the computer, which stood as I had left it, the game on pause, the cheat screen open. I got to my feet, wobbling a little, and sat down at the chair, peering at the message that appeared on the cheat screen. Under the 'userabsorbance_player' cheat were several new messages that went:

userabsorbance_player activated

commencing usermode

.

.

.

usermode completed.

userabsorbance_player cheat not found.

I sighed and slumped in my chair. It was over. We had defeated it entirely. No more usermode. Nobody else would ever be trapped. We were back. I was John – myself – and Lauren was-

I rocketed upright, scanning the room. Where was Lauren? Had she gotten out alright? She wasn't still part of the game, was she?

Ah, there she was. Lauren sat on the couch in front of the tv. I could just barely see the tip of her head. As I came closer I could hear the sound of gentle sobbing. Lauren was crying, her head turned away from me, shoulders shaking.

I came close and sat beside her, tentatively putting my arm around her. She curled up into me, crying as if her heart was breaking. I rubbed her shoulder, trying to put into action everything words could not say. We were safe. We were together. We were sane. That was all that mattered, for now.

After a moment of non-verbal sibling communication, she thrust herself away from me, glaring balefully through her tears. "You jerk!" she screamed, hitting me in the arm. I didn't flinch, much. I deserved far worse. "You mean, inhuman, monstrous, murderous, horrible… jerk!" She hit me again and scootched as far away as possible, curling up into a ball. "I hate you!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." An American accent had never felt so strange on my tongue. "I hate me, too."

"You threw bombs at me!"

"I know."

"And tried to chop me up with whirling blades!"

"I know." I toyed with the edge of my shirt, feeling acutely aware of every painful memory.

"And punched me down into… do you have any idea what I went through?"

I couldn't look at her. Her words were harsh enough. How could I face her eyes? "I do. Yeah, I know what you went through."

She was sizing me up, measuring me with her eyes. Every second of silence that ticked by was like the pause before a slap. The silence before the storm.

"You knew what you were doing, right?" Lauren asked at last. I nodded tightly. Lauren rustled, pulling her legs up onto the couch beside her. "You meant to do all that?"

"Not all of it," I defended weakly. "There was a point where I just… couldn't stop."

"Why'd you start?"

I explained everything, starting at the beginning. I told her how I knew everything from the start, but the spoileritis kept me from telling. I said how Kay had warned me that the only way to get out was to stick to the game, and how I had almost failed when we got to the core transfer. I mentioned Kay's suggestion about acting, and how I had acted my way through the transfer, but how the game started to take me over when the Itch started. I tried to avoid the subject of the reward, but put special emphasis on just how badly the Itch had tormented me, how it had driven me to hurt her. I also admitted that it was me who did it all, that even if the Itch did drive me, I was the one who made the decisions. After I was done, I apologized again and sat back, ready to take my medicine.

Lauren, who had been silent the entire time I had spoken, hardly moved from her position. Her eyes were fixed on an invisible spot somewhere on the couch between us. They flicked as if she was reading and she chewed on her lower lip.

"Did I…" I started hesitantly when she didn't speak. "Did I… k- kill you? At all? When I tried? Did… did you die at all?"

Lauren nodded slowly, her eyes still glued to the same spot. "Yeah. I died a lot of times all the way through. With the GLaDOS chambers—" (She said this word slowly, but only, I realized, because I was the only one who had ever said it out loud to her. GLaDOS' name is never said out loud in either of the two games) "—I fell into the acid a few times and got shot by those white robots once or twice. Those healed quickly, though. I was better by the next level."

It was weird having her talk so matter-of-factly about dying. Even so, it was rather intriguing, all the same.

"With your chambers…" Lauren shrugged. "I dunno. About the same, I guess. Yours were less painful because they didn't have acid. Hers did. After you were trying to kill me…" Here I winced, "…I died a few more times. Falling, one of the robots got me once… yeah, mostly just that. You know what's really funny, though?" she added, looking up at me.

"Wh- what?" I asked.

"Sometimes when I died, I could hear you freaking out," she said. She had a tiny little grin on her face that made me feel chilled. It was a thoughtful grin, brows creased, as if trying to figure out a hidden meaning behind her own words. "I would fall and you would start screaming. You wouldn't stop, you'd be all like, "Lauren, no!", and then everything would go dark and I'd be on my feet and you'd be back to mean again." She gulped, but pressed on. "That's not the way it always went, you know. Sometimes – and sometimes it was even in the same level – I would die once and you'd be freaking out, but then I'd die another time and you'd be like, "Seriously? You had to die there?" It's like you had two different settings and you kept flipping between them."

"That's kind of what it felt like for me, too," I admitted.

"Hmm. Yeah." Lauren shifted and the springs in the couch made a funny noise.

"Could you hear what I said in space?" I asked.

Lauren's brows creased. "Like, when we were hanging out of the portal?"

"No. After that."

"No. What'd you say?"

"Just basically that I wish I could take it all back. I'm sorry that I tried to hurt you, I'm sorry for everything I did and everything I ever tried to do that was mean to you. I understand if you can't forgive me, and I personally think that I should get the 'Worst Brother of the Year' award for what I put you through. But… I am truly, honestly, genuinely sorry."

Lauren nodded slowly, her gaze turned away. "I'll… consider it."

"That's all I'm asking." We sat for a few more minutes before I added with a sideways grin, "It's nice to hear you talk again."

Lauren laughed a little. "Thanks."

I let out a deep breath and heaved myself off the couch. "I'm going to order a pizza. You want some?"

"How can you eat after this?" Lauren demanded, looking a lot like her old self.

I shrugged. "I've been an android powered by electricity for too long. I need some actual, factual nourishment. You want some or not?"

Lauren leaned her head back, staring up at the ceiling. "Sure. Why not."

In about half an hour the pizza arrived. Lauren and I ate our slices quietly, not talking much. What had happened – what I had done – had built a wall between us. Maybe one day the wall would be broken down, but today it was taller than ever.

"How long were we in there?" asked Lauren at one point.

"It was about eleven when we went in," I said, looking at my watch. It's four-twenty now. So, we got out at about… three-forty-ish. Huh. Four hours. About as long as it takes for someone who hasn't played the game before to play the game through in one sitting. Not bad. I wonder if we were unconscious through all of it, or if our bodies were absorbed into the game."

"We were unconscious," answered Lauren, examining her pepperoni as if it held the secret to life. "I woke up first and you were still stretched out on the floor."

I nodded. "Good to know."

That ended that conversation.

Lauren was finishing up her third piece and I was well into my sixth (I'm not proud) when Lauren's phone rang. Several hours worth of in-game experience had not dulled her reflexes. She had that baby out before I could say, "Hey, your phone's ringing". Fastest draw in the west.

"Hey, Hannah," she said into the phone. I tried my best not to eavesdrop, but it's kinda hard when the eavesdrop-ee is the only other one in the room and she's talking out loud on the phone. "What's up?"

Even I could hear Hannah talking at full throttle through the phone. "Hey, hey, slow down," Lauren said over her friend's prattle. "I can't understand you. Could you talk slower, please?"

Even slower, Hannah still talked faster than a speeding jet. Lauren listened, her eyes widening. "What? That's great news, Hannah! Oh, I'm so happy for you!"

Her friend talked a little more, but Lauren's eyebrows slowly sank and folded together in thought. "Wait… wait a minute. Hannah? When was this?" Hannah gave her answer. "Huh," Lauren responded. "Okay. I'll be over in a little bit. Okay, bye."

She put her phone back in her pocket and turned to me, a strange expression on her face. "Hey, remember Jane? Hannah's sister? The girl who lives next door?"

I nodded, trying to figure out what she was getting at and find a delicate way to wipe away pizza grease at the same time. "Yeah," I mumbled around my mouthful.

"She woke up from her coma," said Lauren.

I smiled in surprise. "That's great news! Sis, that's awesome!"

I couldn't understand why her expression was still so queer. She should be happy for her friend, and her friend's sister. "John," she said slowly. "She woke up at three-forty-ish."

I stared at her.

"Hannah's words exactly," she added.

Adrenaline suddenly pumping through my veins, I shoved the remainder of my pizza slice into my mouth (kids, don't try this at home. I'm a professional) and dove for my car keys. "Come on," I gasped at Lauren. She didn't ask any questions, but got into the car with me.

"She's in room 205," was all she said.

My hands gripped the steering wheel and I drove as if in a dream. It had been so long since I had seen Jane. I hadn't seen her since we were in… what, eighth grade? I dunno. Sometime around that, give or take a year. Enough time to let me forget her face and voice. It could be possible that…

No. That was just wishful thinking talking. She was just Jane, the sister of Lauren's friend. She could have no connection!

But those times… the exact time we woke up. That couldn't just be coincidence, could it? The correlation was too great to doubt.

And yet I doubted. I doubted and I believed and wrestled and it was like the Itch all over again. I played the scenario over and over in my mind, trying to lower my own expectations. I would go into the room, see Jane on the cot, and it would just be the girl next door. I would wave and say, "Hey, remember me? I'm your next door neighbor, John."

And she would answer, "Oh, hey, John! I haven't seen you since you were in grade school. It's been a long time."

And that's all it would be. Just a girl waking from a coma. Nothing special. No connection between us.

But what if…

I drove into the hospital parking lot, almost taking out an old guy in a wheelchair as I parked. The nurse wheeling him out glared more balefully than GLaDOS as Lauren and I hustled inside, racing to the front desk and getting directions to Jane's room.

The Aperture-white tunnel of walls and doorways had never seemed so long. Even our semi-jogging footsteps didn't get us there in near enough time. It was an eternity before Lauren pointed at the plaque on the door that said '205' and said, "There." We ducked inside.

There was a bustle of activity. All of Jane's family was there, along with several doctors and nurses. I couldn't even see Jane's bed, much less the girl herself. I craned my neck, but couldn't see anything.

"Lauren!" Hannah elbowed her way out of the gathering and gave my sister a bear hug. "Thank goodness you're here!"

I waded through the gathering, trying to see. Hannah's parents were there right by the bed, and her mother was crying, her cheeks streaked with mascara. Still, all I could see of Jane was her hand, holding her mother's.

The doctors folded up their equipment and prepared to leave. The gathering, with exclamations of gratitude, parted to let them out. Before the gap could close, I snuck through and got to the foot of the bed. My heart caught in my throat as I saw the girl for the first (but not really the first) time.

I knew her.

She was thin and pale and had a lot of wires and needles stuck into her. Her eyes were brown, not golden, and she wore a white hospital gown. The covers were pulled up to her chest. Her hair was brown, but I would have recognized that pixie-cut anywhere.

She looked up at me and a flash of starlight seemed to light up her eyes from the inside. "Hey, Wheats," she said out loud, holding out her hand to me. Her smile was more dazzling than all the stars in space. "You said something about a date?"

The
End