Wheatley scrambled over the edge of the wall to find Chell was already searching for their next destination. He brushed himself off and rushed to catch up.
"Wow, you are actually pretty fast. I absolutely adore how efficiently you're navigating through here. I strive to be that way myself, but um, maybe you don't have to go that fast."
Chell ignored him and pressed on. He started to fidget with his sleeves after a few minutes, then he suddenly jumped out in front of her.
"Okay just stop right there! Uh, can I just get you up to speed on something really quick?"
Even though she'd heard those words before, Chell had no choice but to listen to Wheatley ramble about her.
"In order to escape, we're gonna have to go through her chamber. And I'll be honest- completely honest with you, ah... I don't wanna do it. You know? Because if she's awake, she will most definitely kill us."
Chell pushed him back and marched right through the door, prepared to confront the AI about the cake she'd given her, and to get some answers.
"NONONONO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING- she's off! She's off, heh. Welp, that's a relief."
Chell was slightly confused at why GLaDOS was not active like she had been when she went to bed, but she moved forward anyway. Wheatley followed closely behind her as she stepped over various bits and pieces of what was once GLaDOS. This wasn't the one she'd originally defeated. It was the same one as the GLaDOS who had brought Chell back and tricked her into eating that cake. How did this happen while I was under? Who did this? Chell thought. The whole scene looked the same as it did the first time.
"Alright, just down these- WOW that's a drop. That's quite a long way down isn't it?"
Before Wheatley could comment anything else on the pit before them, Chell grabbed his arm and jumped. He let out a long surprised yelp all the way down. They landed in a large puddle, causing stale water droplets to leap out and land a few feet away.
"OH don't do that! I could've died there! At least give me a warning, will you? AH!"
Chell rolled her eyes and looked back at Wheatley. He was leaning on the hand rail, looking up at her with a sheepish grin.
"Uh sorry, I just looked down. I don't recommend it."
She just kept walking and sure enough, he fell into place beside her.
"Okay so there should be a room with the escape pod control switch around here. Keep an eye out but don't touch anything! Don't touch- don't even look at anything. Well, actually look at some things cause you need to uh, look to find the switch for- oh whatever I think you get it."
Just like she had done once before, Chell found the breaker room with ease. This time she wasn't about to let a certain someone mess with the lights and accidentally active another certain someone.
"Do you see it anywhere? No? Tell you what, I'm gonna do a bit more hacking okay? Just gonna get the lights here, and you tell me if you find it or not."
Wheatley reached out to a keypad in the center of the room, but Chell slapped his hand away before he could do any of his 'hacking '.
"OW! Hey! I'm only trying to help! What's your problem?"
Chell blocked him again and shook her head. Wheatley made a poor attempt at pushing her aside and was kicked in the shin.
"OKAY, OKAY YOU WIN! You lunatic!"
He gazed up at Chell with a pitiful look, and for a moment she fell for it. In that moment, he tackled her legs and she stumbled backwards into the keypad.
"YES! HAHAHA! I win!" Wheatley cheered triumphantly.
The floor jerked upward without warning, beginning a slow ascent.
"Oh that's... ominous. Don't panic! It's probably fine. Just lemme uh..."
He reached out a tapped a few numbers into the keypad. It sparked, and their ascent became twice as fast.
"Nope. That makes it faster."
"Power up initiated."
Chell turned pale from the sound of the announcer's voice, who signaled the fast approach of that someone she didn't want to activate. She glared at Wheatley, who was frantically trying to stop the sequence.
"Umm... a, a, a. A, a? A? No? A, a, a, a, a, b. No? Not that one either?"
Various parts rushed to meet together in the center of the chamber, grinding, clicking, and scraping into place. Wheatley ran up beside Chell, and she could barely make out his frightened words over all the noise.
"Okay, new plan. Just act natural. Act natural, like nothing happened."
He grabbed Chell's shoulder and gave a not-so-convincing smile.
"Hello!"
GLaDOS glared at them through harsh golden eyes. That familiar sickly sweet voice (which Chell had been greeted with before) was clear as day.
"Oh, it's you."
There was a short silence that seemed to last a decade as their menacing gazes locked firmly on one another.
"You know her?" Wheatley whispered with a mix of adoration and fear.
"It's been a long time." she said, dusting off years of filth. "How have you been? I've been really busy being dead."
She slowly crept closer to them, until she was inches away from Chell.
"You know, after you murdered me?"
Wheatley backed away from Chell, shocked.
"You did WHAT?!"
Two claws descended from the ceiling upon Chell and Wheatley, snatching them up like ragdolls for GLaDOS' amusement. Chell felt helpless, as she could do nothing but watch the distance between her and the ground grow further.
"NO! NONONO- AGH!"
GLaDOS quickly grew tired of his cries, and tightened her grip around his neck to silence them.
"Alright, we both might have said some things you're going to regret."
There was a yelp of pain, cut short by a sickening crunch as the claw jerked on Wheatley's neck. Once she knew he was done for, GLaDOS allowed the claw to release him. Chell had not been very fair to Wheatley throughout their time together so far, but she couldn't not get upset about what she'd just witnessed. He might've come back from it once before, but she couldn't imagine him having that much luck a second time. GLaDOS quickly moved on with her monologue as if nothing happened.
"But I think we should put our differences aside, for science."
GLaDOS' snickering was barely audible, making Chell question if she'd actually heard it.
"You monster."
She lifted Chell right up to her face and smiled maliciously. Chell could feel her frigid breath as GLaDOS hissed the same insult she had previously. This time, she showed more emotion in those two words than Chell had ever seen before. Not much in Aperture scared her, but this had.
