Crushing was too good for him.

Yes, those were the exact words that She had said to the lunatic once, when she had been a potato battery stuck on the dual portal device. And that was the exact line that echoed in her mind right now, as she sat beside the unconscious android. His glasses were crooked on his face, giving the idiot's face the impression that he was even more moronic than he already looked. His hands were curled in loose fists by his sides, twitching every once and a while as his system slowly mended itself. Part one of his punishment was done. It was only a matter of time before she figured out the rest.

But watching the moron was not part of her day. She soon stood up and walked away, leaving the idiot to regain his consciousness without her looking over him. Which, in that case, benefitted both of them. She had more important terms to get to.

Until, of course, the moron had bad timing.

A wheezing cough was heard behind her, and she turned, seeing him open his eyes in the narrowest crack. She rolled her eyes and turned towards him slowly, giving him a look of indifference. He saw Her-she could see the realization burn in his eyes-and he knew he wasn't in space. The moron knew the facility was better than the vast darkness that lied out there, threatening to suck him farther and farther from the place called Earth. Hopeless. He was in a settled area, pressed firmly to the panel that held him by gravity. Nothing could let him slip out into that empty void in the sky. Nothing but Her.

He flinched visibly, sitting upright and waiting for pain to throb somewhere in his body. Nothing happened. He blinked, making his shrunken optics return to normal orbs in his eyes. A relived laugh escaped his lips in short gasps. "Haha! Will you look at-Look! I'm alive! I'm not hurting!" His mind automatically made him congratulate his success to being alive this long aloud, and he was reduced to a small ball as he glanced up at Her. His laughter died down to a nervous chuckle. "W-ell hello the-re, luv.."

No response. Wheatley would have sincerely wish She had said something, insult him, or even say the good old 'moron' once, instead of receiving that dead silence. She was planning something. He gulped, and the android swung his feet from the edge of the panel, letting his feet touch the cold smooth surface of the floor. She didn't so much as stir. Her yellow eyes were still trained to his face. "So you're alright. I guess that might be enough punishment."

Wheatley was ready to sigh in relief until she said, "Physically, of course." His blue eyes looked at her sharply, horror visible on his face. That didn't sound good. "Ph-ysically...? What-what do you mean by that?" It was then that she smiled.

It was not the smile he had previously wished the android to have that would have adorned her features. It was something else. This smile was the one that he had always imagined she used when she wanted to make sure people felt that she had cornered them, the smile she used when she knew she won.

Catlike, almost.

"I didn't think you would know what I meant anyways. But I do have one tiny hint that could mean a lot to you." He tensed up, looking at her as if it was painful. Her yellow eyes seemed to burn into his mind, and he suddenly didn't want to hear what she had to say. He rose his hand in front of him, shielding himself from an inevitable blow.

"Space."

The word hit him like a jarring blow to the stomach, making the android double up and hug his shaking figure, staring at his lap in horror. His eyes were glassy, distant as he remembered the black abyss, the weightlessness he felt as he spun slowly in space. Where, he didn't know, he only knew of the hopelessness that remained in his heart, the guilt that rose in him like an acid, boiling the depths of his artificial heart. And more than that, he knew the Lady couldn't hear him, and probably never will. His blue optics shrunk ad he remembered the loneliness that settled in his small compact body, the feeling that grew unbearable even if the core orbiting around him was blabbering on about space. He was completely oblivious of him, and it was no help to hear a voice out there that wouldn't listen to him. Like everyone else. And now that he came here, there was a part of him that sparked, a part of him that actually thought he would be listened to now, that his time in isolation made others notice his absence. Bur he knew it was silly. There was no one with a logical thought process except Her. And She hated him. The other cores regarded him coolly as an idiot, yet their obsessive blabbering was intolerable to him. How could they rant on about something so redundant? At least a moron could talk about a multitude of things, not simply going off about one thing. But that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that he was here, and as long as he was near Her, She would make him regret not staying in space.

She was amused at how the moron had been ready to shriek, quickly doubling up into a ball. She chuckled softly, bending down and leaning forward to seeing the wavering, distant blue eyes. "That was the hint. Though I didn't think it would give you that much of a reaction." She sneered, and she straightened, slowly lifting her arm upwards, and the moron flinched, slowly uncurling to look up at the sudden whirring that filled the chamber. It sounded horribly familiar, pulling at his heart with unease.

Oh no.

The dark ceiling had moved a significant amount of panels, and his eyes widened, letting the white light reflect on the lens of his eyes.

It was the moon. It was the moon.

It was the moon. The sky. Stars.

S-

Sp-

Space.