'Ello!

Yay, I'm back! To all the people who read Laugh (the drabble), did you like it? I'm kinda thinking of making a sequel to it. Just a sweet little thing, y'know. Speaking of which:

LC IS NEARLY DONE! No I haven't finished thousands of chapters and not published them, I'm just going to finish it soon. Also maybe making a prequel, as well, so watch for that soon.

On a totally unrelated note, I kinda made something up:

Fact: Bring Your Daughter to Work day was the day GLaDOS went rampant, releasing neurotoxin and killing everyone- Except Chell, of course. That was the day the intelligence dampening sphere, Wheatley, was attached to her in a vain attempt to stop her from flooding the enrichment center with neurotoxin.

I'll stop now. ONTO THE REVIEWERS!

Spawn of Madness: ...I. Umm... don't know... how to... respond to that... [ERROR. Short-circuit detected.]

Procella: I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU! *Shoots* HAHA WHOOPS THAT WAS AN ACCIDENT. Anyways, if you're still alive, I found the error! But I'm too lazy to fix it.

shouvin: Heh. Fine. Take your energy drinks. BUT YOU CAN'T STOP ME. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. AWESOMENESS. HAHA. Lol. Anyways, you'll see.

FangirlyNeko: Yeah, I've been getting that quite a bit. But some people are just like that and complain that they can't tell who's- I mean, nicely point out that they can't tell who's talking. *Awesome pose* *hair flip* Hah! I WAS RIGHT. You can go look in a thesaurus, does that help? :)

darkbangle: A few days? More like a week! Still though, glad to have you back. I think the plot's kinda wrapping in on itself, so that makes it really deep, and I like it that way. YAY SPAAAAAAAACE. XD

Anyone who reviews gets a bowl of Wheatley's, the breakfast of morons! I mean, champions!

Wheatley's POV

"It was you? But why-"

Wheatley sighed, running a hand through his hair and grinning sheepishly up at the android. "Well, we had to round up all the relatives of the test subjects, see. To tell them their kin had been tested on..." He trailed off, scratching his head. "Honestly, I don't even remember half of what happened, but what I remember was horrifying," he muttered.

"Horrifying?" GLaDOS asked, confused. Wheatley frowned. "You don't remember?"

"No."

"Your human side died that day. As soon as the scientists had uploaded Caroline's data into the chassis, you just... Kinda slumped over, crying and then-" Wheatley's voice cracked. "Ch-Chell... she fell over backwards... She saw you die.She had no idea who you were, obviously. But it was probably terrible for her to watch. That being her first memory, too."

GLaDOS gaped at him. "You were corrupt even then? You moron!" She yelled at him. Seemingly at the speed of light, her hand whipped forward, striking Wheatley square in the face. The moron recoiled with a yelp of pain, falling onto the wet, grassy ground. "Hey, I couldn't help it, okay?" He snapped at her. "I punished myself for it too!"

"Sure."

Wheatley snorted. "I'll prove it to you."

[Date: July 26th, 2003, 5:15 AM]

Unknown to Chell and Caroline, Wheatley had been hiding in the ventilation system above them, peering through one of the metal grates, watching as Chell's eyes turned blank and she got up, shrugging and turning away. Wheatley sighed, pushing himself through the pipe until he saw the vent leading into the main room. Punching the vent out, he pushed himself into the room.

Slam.

Wheatley punched the wall as hard as he could, hitting the jagged rock with his fist. He growled, feeling the pain shoot through his arm as he saw blood darkening the wall. His hand was nothing but a mangled, bloody mess now.

"Bloody hell!" He snapped. "Why do I- Why did I-"

That was when Wheatley saw the human-to-core transfer device.

"Perfect," he murmured. "I'll find a way to fix this one day." He stepped towards the machine and flicking the switch. The computer on the inside of it turned on, and Wheatley stepped through the door and shut it behind him.

[Human-based core transfer- Human detected.]

[Switch to core y/n]

[Matching DNA...]

Wires shot into him, stinging slightly as they broke his skin. He didn't care. He just stood there, his mind nearly blank, nothing but Chell's face running through his head.

[DNA matched. Transferring...]

It was a very odd feeling that came over Wheatley, almost as if he was getting sucked out of his own body. There was pain, yes, plenty of pain, but it was... distant.He let out a yell of shock as he saw an empty core on the other side of the computer panel, obviously waiting for the transfer to complete.

Bzzt.

For a second, everything went black, and Wheatley was stuck in the middle, but then-

"Transfer complete. Intelligence Dampening Sphere created."

And that was when Wheatley opened his optic for the first time, all of his previous memories wiped away as he was sucked into a tube leading far away from home.

Chell's POV

Chell shot awake, cold sweat running down her face. She gasped for breath, turning to face her clock.

3:02 AM

"Dammit," she growled. "I can't get a good night's sleep? Just once?"

Tap tap tap.

"Apparently not."

Chell threw the covers off of herself, yawning and walking to the door. It flew open before she even touched it, whacking her in the face and making her stumble backwards and fall back onto her bed.

"Chell? Oh, thank god-"

"Oi, move aside, lady! You're blocking off all my space!" Wheatley's voice came from behind GLaDOS, sounding disgruntled. "Honestly, it's three in the morning, shove off! I want to get to bed!"

Chell sighed, getting back up and heading for the door, knowing exactly where it was, thanks to both Wheatley's muffled protests and GLaDOS' bright, glowing eyes. "Move, mom. I think you might be choking him," she said, looking up at the android, who sighed and reluctantly moved aside, letting the moron himself fall right into Chell's arms, knocking her yet again, back into her bed.

"Look at that, luv, you caught me!" Wheatley said, sounding both happy and uncomfortable all at once. Chell narrowed her eyes. "You said you'd always be there to catch me. I guess it's my turn to catch you." Wheatley sighed. "You know, then, don't you? Well, anyways," he said, rapidly changing the subject. "I should really get some sleep. He turned to GLaDOS. "You should go," he said quietly. GLaDOS nodded.

"Good bye, Chell. I- I don't want to leave, but Aperture needs me. I'm sorry, Michelle." Without even waiting, she closed the door and left.
When Chell turned around, she noticed that Wheatley had already curled up under the sheets, fast asleep. Sighing, she lay down to sleep as well.

It took a while, of course, but sleep eventually came to her. And right before she drifted off, she could feel Wheatley wrapping an arm around her possessively, and hear him whispering in her ear. I'm sorry, Chell. I still love you...

GLaDOS' POV

Through the field of grass that she'd come from, she walked away, trying not to think of the people she'd left behind. It's pretty hard to leave memories in the past, the android thought wearily, staring up at the darkened sky. But I'm going to have to.

The grass was wet underfoot, slick with rain. After an hour or so, it actually started snowing softly, with enough to coat the ground with white. Every flake that touched her fizzled immediately, evaporating. GLaDOS sighed. "Did I have to leave them?" She thought aloud, her mind still filled with images of Chell and Wheatley as children, smiling, hugging, kissing...

Loving...

If there was one thing she couldn't understand about humans, it was love. She'd mastered all of their other emotions, having experienced them herself. At one point, she may have seen or felt love, but never actually returned the feeling, not knowing how to do so. Shrugging off the thought, GLaDOS kept trudging through the snow, having finished what she'd come to do.

Did I?

Somehow, she couldn't answer that question.