I have a couple of songs that work with this chapter, for those who might be interested!
One is "The Escape" by Argsound - can be listened to here: /3jw04mIF3fs
And the other is "Lights Go Out" by VNV Nation - /1Z2h4vif7wk - this one I imagine the Narrator saying the lyrics to Wheatley. Although it doesn't fit 100%, it still makes me think of this chapter.
- NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS -
Wheatley, before you go any further, there is something you should know.
"LA LA LA LA LA NOT LISTENIIIIING!" he shouted over the voice before nudging the misshapen door further open to accommodate his entry; it then promptly fell off its hinges and clattered onto the floor, his eye following it as it went. "Well that door was poorly designed. Now let's see here, reactor core, reactor core, where is the- oh wow, yeah that would be the reactor core, big hot glowy thing that's on fire, hard to miss."
What looked like a monolith of hell stood burning in the middle of the room. It rose up from the center of a long spiral staircase, flames licking all the way up to the ceiling, belching thick malodorous plumes of black smoke that was seeping through unseen breaches in the ceiling and raining ash and incinerated pieces of the building back down upon itself, covering every inch of the floor in a layer of soot. Predictably it was awfully hot in there - Wheatley had all his panels pushed open as far as they could go and his internal fan whirring away at top speed and still he felt like his gears were melting.
An internal dialog box popped up, warning him that his surroundings were too hot and suggested that he retreat to a safer distance immediately. "Bah, go away, you, I've got things to do here," he said, minimizing the warning so that it wasn't so front and center.
He carefully approached the flaming pillar and peered over the railing to look below, spotting the input terminal among several long-ago abandoned cubicles where some poor sods had once been employed to man the reactor core day in and day out, in radiation suits no less.
"Ehhh, not gonna lie, this place looks a bit of a mess." Before descending on his rail, which followed the staircase downward into the pit, Wheatley paused and turned around and called, "Rail™, are You™ coming?" But the Rail™ just sat there just outside the door. He had the distinct impression that It™ was too afraid to enter. "You know what, probably best that You™ wait out there. Safer. Toxic fumes and all, could be bad for You™, who's to say. But don't You™ worry, mate, I'm gonna get this thing fixed up in no time and then we'll be on our way, all right?"
Now that you have made it here, Wheatley, let me present you with a proposition.
"Oh, are you still here? Look, whatever it is, I don't want to hear it. Just go on, shoo, go get lost already. Really don't need you around distracting me anymore," Wheatley groused.
He began his descent into the spiral, taking in more of the shabby state of things: the sagging catwalk railing, the array of charred objects that he could not identify sitting here and there, even the distorted state of his own rail, misshapen from the fierce heat. He was prepared to go back the moment the rail showed any significant weakness in its actual structural integrity, but it seemed to be doing fine holding him up thus far.
How about instead of tampering with the reactor core, we restart the story right here, right now, and go back to the beginning. This is all highly dangerous. Just take a look at the state of this thing - it could go at any moment. Forget about Stanley, you can go back to helping your lady friend and apologizing to her like you wanted to do from the start. I'm willing to put this all behind us and start over fresh if you are. All you have to do is come away from the reactor core and then we can restart the story.
"Seriously? After all of that - telling me all that matters to you is the story - you want me to go along with you and go back to the story? You know, you are the worst at manipulating people. The absolute worst. They could write a book about how bad you are at it - probably have, actually, but if they haven't, then I'll write it. It'll be the first book I ever publish and I'll call it - The Narrator is the Worst at Manipulating People. And Cores. Really, I'm almost embarrassed for you. You could have restarted the story at any time and you didn't, so that must mean I am meant to be here and you can't stop me."
I'm being honest with you when I say this Wheatley, but I couldn't restart the story while in those unwritten passages because they were not a part of the actual story. Now that you are here, which is a part of the actual story - the dying reactor core, you see - I can now restart the story and send you back to the beginning, safe and sound.
"Seriously, mate, just shut up. It's over. You can't control me anymore, and you're sounding quite desperate over it. And you aren't fooling anybody with the nice guy act either, so just bugger off already." When there came no response, Wheatley mumbled, "That's what I thought. Mister Invisible Bossy Man thinking he can still try to tell me what to do. Pfft."
Finally he reached the bottom of the staircase. The air was just a bit cooler down here, but only just. The heat was still deadly for sure and was still apparently enough to have started warping all nearby surfaces. He also still needed to have his panels opened all the way, and he was still uncomfortable, but all of these "still's" still weren't enough to put him off his task.
"Let's see, input terminal, input terminal, where did you get off to- Ah, here we go," Wheatley said as he spotted it. He approached it, grimacing at the state of it as it had warped along with everything else. Still, he lowered himself down on his rail and managed to plug into it, receiving a smart shock that drew a pained hiss out of him but was otherwise able to get it to respond. "Needs an access code, of course. Eight digits. All numbers. Hmm... how about 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0."
NNNT!
"1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1?"
NNNT!
"No? Okay, how about 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2."
NNNT!
"Still nothing? All right, 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3."
NNNT!
Wheatley was just beginning to become frustrated when finally the terminal accepted his attempt -
"8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8."
Ding!
"Aha! I did it! I hacked it! That was easy. All right, now let's see here. Oh, this one is flashing red, must be important. Reactor Core Safeguards Malfunctioning. Ohhh, that's not good. Obviously from not being maintained in so long. Hmm, well, what else can we- Emergency Heat Vent System Malfunctioning. Ohhh, that's even worse. How am I supposed to fix this thing if everything is malfunctioning? There's got to be a way of- Emergency Shut Down is also malfunctioning?! Well all right, if you're gonna play that way, I'll need tooooo- Ah, here we go-.."
Wheatley, I'm warning you, stop right now.
"Override - Emergency Reactor Core System Reboot. That sounds about right. And now we shut this thing down and wait-"
Wheatley, no, don't do that!
"There! Done!" he laughed, selecting the protocol and then sitting back on his rail, pleased with himself - "I did it! I did it! Hahahaaa! I wish I could see the look on your-.."
- at least until there came a most concerning noise -
"Oh..."
- a prolonged droning hum that fell lower and lower in pitch, every light source - including the great dancing pillar of flames - following in its wake, deepening and darkening, as if the whole facility was letting out a long, tired sigh that ended in complete darkness and silence, save for the isolated crimson-glowing patches of still-smoldering materials and the symphony of creaks and cracks as bits of overheated metal began to settle.
Wheatley clicked his flashlight on, the beam catching rogue wisps of smoke as he peered around. "...That-.. That was supposed to happen, right?"
Oh, Wheatley... you didn't just shut down the reactor core, did you?
"Uhhh..." Wheatley stuttered, sensing he had somehow made a mistake, though not yet aware of what exactly that mistake was, so he fell back into his typical routine of deny deny deny, "No. Nope, I definitely did not. Didn't even look at it. I mean, I might have done it by accident, um, unless I was supposed to do that, and then yes, I definitely did."
Did you really think that shutting down the reactor core would be repairing it?
"Well, I mean, no, but the safeguards were malfunctioning and the whole thing was on fire, not like I could really do anything about it at that point. Rebooting it was the next best option. Everything will come back on in a minute - I think. Just gotta wait-"
And here I was, trying to save you -
"Save me?! You were just telling me how insignificant I was! Make up your mind already! And what do you mean by 'save' anyway? The thing will reboot and be as good as new."
- but you just had to do things your way, didn't you? Which is to say, the absolute worst, wrong way.
"Do you actually have anything useful to say, or are you just gonna keep talking out of your a-..."
You see, I have full control over precisely when this reactor core blows up. I've always had control over it.
Wheatley blinked, "...What?"
Why else do you think you had all the time in the world to dilly dally between rooms? Didn't you notice on your first time through that the tremors and alarms stopped the moment you and Test Subject #2845 made your way onto the testing tracks?
"Uhhh..."
I did try to warn you about this, but you were so intent on ignoring me. I could have chosen any time in the last several hundred years to have this place blown sky high, but I thought it would be nice if I gave you a chance to get away. I was even generous enough to give you one last chance just now, a chance to start over, a chance to live, and you decided to ignore me yet again. It's become increasingly clear through our time together that you are incapable of obeying the narration and that you will continue to defy what it means to be a fictional character by making choices, and bad ones at that. You have made me very sad indeed, Personality Construct #427, that you have chosen death instead.
Wheatley's optic diminished to the smallest point possible, "W-w-w-w-wait, wh-what are you...?"
Remember earlier when you said you could handle temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees Kelvin because you are Aperture tech? Some of the key points you neglected are that the reactor core is melting down, which means it has exceeded those temperatures, and that it is about to explode with extreme concussive force. So what do you say, Wheatley? Do you think you can survive the ensuing inferno? Let's find out.
"Ohh, sh-.."
Before Wheatley really had any chance to react, the reactor core came roaring back to life, the flames more vicious than ever, and the scalding blast from its reignition swept him back on his rail so forcefully it caused sparks to shoot out from where he was connected to it. In the same moment, the scorching flash temporarily blinded him, a deafening series of crashes occurred all around him, and he knocked himself hard on something he couldn't see but felt like a sledgehammer up against his hull. He let out an anguished cry from the impact and at the all-encompassing heat that tore wicked fiery threads through his circuits, seeming to set him alight from within. His panels were all propped open as far as they could go in an attempt to vent the excess heat (although the one on his right side felt wrong, misplaced somehow) but all that did was allow in more heat. There was no escape from it.
Dozens of internal dialog boxes began popping up in rapid succession, overlapping one another, flooding his senses, alerting him that his optic was damaged, one of his panels was missing, handles damaged and partially missing, cooling fan damaged, entire system on the verge of overheating, a long list that he had to ignore as he tried to feel his way around, inching along the rail, but there was nothing to feel but intense, overwhelming pain and sweltering heat, nothing to see but the blinding incandescence of it. And through it all there was laughter, laughter all around him.
Oh, you lived! I would have lost money on that bet. You are looking rather grisly, though, and that was just the reactor core booting back up. Severe damages aside, how long do you think you'll be able to last in here before the final explosion?
Wheatley was in too much pain, too disoriented to respond. He cracked open his optic only to cry out and shut it back closed immediately, then crying out again as his eyeplates caught on a loose shard and knocked it even more out of place, leaving his iris raw and exposed in a way he never thought possible.
No guesses? Well I can tell you it won't be long. Here, I'll be a good sport and put up a timer for you so you can see how much longer you have left to live. You're fond of timers, aren't you? Let's go with... hmm... three minutes.
00:03:00
"ALL REACTOR CORE SAFEGUARDS ARE NOW NON-FUNCTIONAL. PLEASE PREPARE FOR REACTOR CORE MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS THREE MINUTES."
At the sudden appearance of this timer - enormous red numbers covering the entire circumference of the room so that he could see it no matter which way he looked - Wheatley responded with renewed vigor, "GAHHHH! It's okay! It's okay! Everything is fine! It's all fine, I can- I can fix this! I'll just try rebooting it again! Yes! If I could just see-"
Ahh, this is so much more familiar, isn't it? A timer counting away the seconds until your death. And just in case you're too busy to stop and have a look at it, there's the announcer to provide you with audial cues. Things are so much more exciting this way, wouldn't you agree?
Wheatley's gaze flicked from here to there, searching for the input terminal that was now partially obscured by what used to be parts of the ceiling but were now just great blocky obstacles. Pain and nausea flooded through him at the way the world seemed to separate itself into uneven chunks as a result of the large spiderweb of cracks covering his optic. Where there weren't pieces missing, there were blurry opaque spots in his vision from the parts of his optic that had melted, which made everything worse. Still he bore his way through it and forced himself back over to the input terminal, the heat and pain so unbearable that he kept letting out little whimpers, unable to contain it, "Okay, here, h-here we go. P-Put.. in the code. Emergency Reactor Core System Reboot is now also malfunctioning?!"
Of course it is, Wheatley, the entire input terminal is melting. And so are you, by the way.
Wheatley was too panicked to register what the Narrator was saying. "All right. All right then, I'll just have to hack it!"
It really is truly amusing how incapable of learning you are. It didn't work the first time, so you think shutting it down a second time might work? Or searching for another equally useless option? I'm quite entertained by your persistence - it's almost like tenacity, except it's actually stupidity. It is remarkable and fun to watch. You and Stanley are just like each other, you know - eager to make a mess of things, full of bad ideas. Be sure to give him my regards, won't you?
"What is this, the only hack-proof thing in this entire facility?!"
Or do you think you can find your way out of this? Why would you think that, Wheatley? Because Test Subject #2845 found a way out? What would she do in this particular situation, I wonder. She probably would have figured it all out by now, but you - well we all know how good you are at critical thinking. C'est la vie, as they say.
What would the lady do in this situation? Surely, she would have come up with something. She with her ingenuity, brilliant mind, quick thinking - all the things he never was nor could ever be. "You know what- Forget this, I'm going back and getting the lady and getting us both out of here!"
It's too late for that, Wheatley.
Wheatley turned and located the rail he took to descend the spiral staircase and was dismayed to find that a large portion of it had been taken out by the collapsed ceiling, making it impassable. He was trapped, trapped unless he could find another way out, which there did not appear to be. It was so, so difficult for him to see even without his damaged optic - the room was infused with entirely too much smoke and light. His insides were cooking and addling his processor, slowing him down even more.
Panicked, he spun around and called, "Rail™! Rail™, where are You™?! Help! I need help! I've got to get out of here! Which way do I go?!" When the Rail™ did not appear, he tried singing its song, which also failed.
Ohhhh nooo, has the Rail™ abandoned you after all? I did try to warn you that It™ was only good for getting you into trouble, buuuuut of course you ignored me. That's really too bad. And now you have to think, Wheatley, think very hard. How will you get out of here? And if you get out of this room, what was the route you took to get here? What is the correct course of action? Which will save your life? You tried very hard to do the exact opposite of what I've told you to do every other step of the way, so this shouldn't be too difficult for you. Go on, keep trying, it's very important to your future, the all of two minutes you have left of it, anyway.
00:02:03
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS TWO MINUTES AND THREE SECONDS."
Okay, so the Rail™ was missing in action (Wheatley felt his burning insides constrict at the idea that It™ had abandoned him, but he had no time to stop and examine the feeling), that just meant that he needed to find an - "Alternate route, alternate route, look around, Wheatley, there has to be something. There!"
Seeing a doorway with a bright neon red exit sign hanging above it, Wheatley backtracked and headed for it, passing by the input terminal -
Oh, what's that? An exit? Will this lead you to safety?
- only to be met with a dead end. There was nothing beyond the doorway but a brick wall, taunting him as it sat there.
"What!"
He turned around and picked another direction, seeing another doorway that looked promising -
Oh, how about this one, hmm?
- only to be met with another brick wall.
"What is this?! Who put all these brick walls here?!"
Here, I'll give you a hint: I did. They're all dead ends, you see, because your life is at a dead end. You're going to die no matter which way you go.
"Gahhhh!"
Oh, here's an idea! Why don't you try the broom closet again? It worked so well for you earlier, perhaps it will work for you now.
As Wheatley rushed along, a door appeared where it had not been a moment before, the words BROOM CLOSET printed upon it, but he felt no desire to go inside of it. Who knew what was waiting for him on the other side. Another brick wall, a masher, a deadly pit. Whatever it was, he doubted it contained even so much as a single broom let alone an escape.
Tell me, Wheatley, if you do manage to find your way out, do you think you'll be able to make it back to Test Subject #2845 in time to get out of here before this whole place blows up?
00:01:30
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS ONE MINUTE AND THIRTY SECONDS."
Let's say you do happen to get to her in time and make it to the surface, do you think you will have enough time to get away from the blast radius? Oooh, I wonder what the speedrun world record is for this game - do you think you would be able to beat it? You know what - I'm in a good mood and feeling generous, let's give you some extra time. Two extra minutes on the house.
00:03:22
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS THREE MINUTES AND TWENTY-TWO SECONDS."
There you go. Now what do you say, do you think this is enough time? Please, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Oh, that's right, I wouldn't actually be able to hear anything in that case, would I? You were programmed specifically not to be able to think and all your ideas are stupid, which is precisely why you should have listened to me in the first place. Things didn't have to be this way, Wheatley. And they certainly didn't have to end this way either. I want you to remember that. Just like I want to remember you here, like this, running around frantically. The only reason you are still running around right now instead of floating around between chapter updates is because I want to watch you struggle, to see you made humble, to realize that everything you say and do is useless and futile and that you are nothing without my story.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no! Which way?! There has to be a way!"
And realizing there was no other way, painful regret surged through him when he realized he felt like he was back there, back at that final battle between himself and the lady, only now he was on the other end of things. All at once he understood how she must have felt. The room shaking around him, heat, smoke, and fumes suffused in the air so thick it was choking out nearly all coherent thought. He was trapped, about to die. The lady had at least been able to fight back but here he was just running around like a rat. He had thought before that he was sorry for what he had done, but with this new perspective he was really sorry, really, truly, so so sorry, luv.
00:02:43
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS TWO MINUTES AND FORTY-THREE SECONDS."
And speaking of the story, don't you want to know what happened to all of your coworkers? The other cores? There were hundreds made, milling about for hundreds of years, and not one of them thought to come get you, give you any sort of notice as to what was happening. But I did - I was the one who woke you up and set you free. The others did not because they knew how useless you were, so useless they locked you up in a booth watching over a bunch of sleeping humans and you couldn't even succeed at that.
"No!" Wheatley choked out, "No, that wasn't my fault! How was, how was I supposed to know they were all dying? Nobody told me! Nobody- sent me any bloody orders or, or, or- and the systems- they failed to inform me too!"
You didn't really think someone was sending you real orders or that your job itself was real, did you? I'll take pity and let you in on a little secret, Wheatley: There is no such thing as an Extended Relaxation Overseer. The job never existed before you were put into it. No, that job they gave you was manufactured, a ruse, a redundant desk job created just for you as a means of keeping you out of trouble and out of everybody's way. They couldn't even trust you to babysit the garbage, so they gave you the pointless task of watching over an automated process taking care of the most expendable resources.
Wheatley was deeply stung by the information (it had been a promotion - they had lathered it all up and called it a bloody promotion!), his denial coming out as defiance, "Well if no one was sending me orders the whole time, then who sent those orders to me earlier, telling me the lady was in trouble? Huh? If no one was around to send the orders to me, then how do you explain that, genius?"
I sent those orders to you.. genius. I provided you with the motivation to get out of your booth, to proceed with the story - that was the whole point. Too bad you're going to die now and so it all means nothing.
"But you- Y-You-.. You tricked me?! I knew something was off about that! I knew- I should have just listened to myself and stayed in my office! And I would have, I would have! I would be safe in my booth and- This is all your fault!"
No, you can't go blaming me for this, Wheatley. I had everything all lined up and ready to go for you and you are the one who ruined it all. That was all your doing. And I tried to get you to see, I really tried. I thought perhaps the unwritten passages would get you to see reason, but no, I was wrong. That failure is on me, I'll give you that. But the rest, everything else, that is all on you. I do have to admit, though, that even then I wasn't planning on killing you off, but you really are quite persuasive when you want to be. Showing such blatant disregard for both of my stories-
"And I'll do it again!" Wheatley hissed, his anger doing nothing to assuage the fact that he was overheating, could almost feel as though something physical was draining out of him, his optical processor was now beginning to malfunction and causing his vision to blink in and out, "As soon as I get out of here and get the chance, I'll keep ruining your stories! I'll ruin every single last one of them! I'll keep doing whatever I damn well please!"
00:01:01
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS ONE MINUTE AND ONE SECOND."
I know, and that is why I have to kill you. So! We're down to your final minute, just enough time to discuss how you would like for your ending to be portrayed. I am kind enough to grant this much to you. Should we say this is a mercy killing? It is for me. Oh, you could die as a martyr, that's even better. Pathetic, useless little core feels so bad for how he treated his only friend, so he willingly sent himself into a fire to die for her. It's poetic. Fitting. Quite rich if I may say so myself. Excellent story, Wheatley, excellent plot twist and character arc. I bet none of our audience would have ever seen this coming. You're doing a grand thing here, it really is quite special. The only real tragedy in all of this is that you did have another chance with Test Subject #2845 and you blew it - literally, as this whole place will blow within the next minute, and none of it will have mattered because she will also die in the blast. Truly tragic.
"NO! No no no no no NO! She can't die!"
I assure you she can and will die. What's the matter, Wheatley - you don't like my story? Well, how about these alternatives. I could have you wake up in a small room and realize that your whole life - everything - was a hallucination or a dream. Or I could make you a human, living out on the surface with other humans, living in a village or traversing the barren terrain until the end of your days. Maybe you could redeem yourself, maybe not. But none of these scenarios are real, are they? What is real, Wheatley? Is it what you dictate? Is it what I dictate? Is it what the Line™ dictates? Or is it what someone else dictates, someone far beyond anyone's grasp?
He was tired, so so tired, his energy running critically low, and he didn't care enough to respond. He had failed her. He had failed her - again. And now she was going to die, for real this time. Although he had never known for sure whether she had survived that first time around, there had always been something inside of him - some small pinprick of insistent hope - that she had made it out of there alive. But this time-... this time he knew for sure, without a doubt, that he had killed her. He had killed her and the pain of it was too much.
He wasn't like the lady. She would have fought until the very end, but here he was, ready to give up. It's just that he was so tired, he could feel that he was damaged and overheated to a point that even if he was able to get out of this room, there was no way he could ever be repaired enough to survive. Everything hurt so much, everything from his hardware to his core, he was at a point where he just wanted it all to stop. His physical pain, his emotional pain, all of it.
00:00:42
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS FORTY-TWO SECONDS."
Oh, is this conversation too deep for you at the moment? I do apologize, I forgot where we were. Do you find me to be sinister, Wheatley? Dia-bolical? But you and I are just the same. We are both here with a specific purpose - me, narrating the story and telling you what to do, and you, a character, who is supposed to be following what I say. There's nothing sinister in what I do at all - it's my purpose. Just like it is your purpose to follow the story. Perhaps you should take your own personal feelings out of the equation and just do what needs to be done.
00:00:30
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS THIRTY SECONDS."
We could have been friends, Wheatley.
Wheatley managed to growl, even though his voice was weak, "Friends don't.. blow each other up..."
Oh, but don't they? Remember all those times you tried to blow up Test Subject #2845? Smash her, drop her into a pit, set turrets after her - too many times to count, really. And in either case, we are not friends, so you needn't worry about such semantics, just about the blast that is about to obliterate your entire existence.
"You can-.. You'll just bring me back if I die."
Are you sure about that, Wheatley? And if so, exactly how sure are you?
"You always do. You've brought me back every other time, so you'll bring me back again. Just to torture me."
Hmm, no, I am not the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System - I am content with killing you and leaving it at that. No need to go complicating such simple matters.
"Well-.. Even if you don't- Even if-.." he breathed, closing his eye, feeling himself fade, "You'll.. die too.. if you do this."
Hmmm, I don't know, Wheatley, will I?
Wheatley was quiet. He was winding down, his thoughts stuttering almost to a complete stop, and most of what he was aware of at this point was the dark fog rolling in, reaching for him and pulling him under. He wanted to feel at peace - tried to - but all he could feel was regret - for being a moron, for letting himself believe that he could ever be anything more than that, regret that now he never would be able to make things right with the lady again, even though this had all been his choice. Would there even be anything after all of this? He wasn't real - he was not only a machine but also a fictional character, so would he just disappear and that's that? He didn't know - didn't want to know. But the dark fog was pulling even all of these thoughts and feelings away from him, leaving him cold - even though he was burning he felt so cold - and scared and alone.
Ohh, here we go, the final few seconds. This really is the best part, it's like New Year's!
00:00:05
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS FIVE SECONDS."
Well, the adventure is over, Wheatley. In fact, it's all over - for you, anyway.
In spite of himself, a final moment of panic flashed through him, awakening him just enough to moan, "Oh no, nononononoooooo-"
00:00:04
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS FOUR SECONDS."
I would say that it has been a pleasure, except that it hasn't.
"OhGodohGodohGod..."
00:00:03
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS THREE SECONDS."
And so-...
Out of the smoke and through his failing vision, Wheatley saw a streak of yellow emerge, a pointed arrow with an endlessly long ribbon trailing behind, separating itself first from the smoky light and then from his rail, racing towards him, the first time he had actually seen It™ physically move. It™ would have truly impressed him were he not about to die. As it was, the sight of It™ provided him with only a small sense of relief, relief that he at least would not be dying alone. Even if the Line™ was an invincible, timeless thing and would not actually die, at least It™ was there with him.
He reached for It™ with what remained of his handles and let out a choked cry full of surprise, joy, relief, grief, and sorrow, "Line™..!"
00:00:02
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS TWO SECONDS."
...Goodbye, Wheatley.
"You™ came back!"
00:00:01
"COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T-MINUS ONE SECOND."
The Line™ rapidly coiled itself around him, spinning him inside of what he could only think of as a cocoon made of itself, the last few milliseconds ran out, the room, the air, everything quaked, and-
00:00:00
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(Descriptive Narration enabled.)
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(NO INPUT.)
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(Descriptive Narration disabled.)
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- NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END -
WARNING: Narrative Contradiction levels at 0%. No warning necessary. Proceed.