Chapter 2

Blackness...all he could see what blackness.

Is this what "being dead" feels like?

"Well, being dead is not peacefull at all, it's bloody scary and lonely!" He shouted at the black nothingness.

"Shouting randomly doesn't help you, you moron!" A robotic female voice answered somewhat angry.

No bloody way!

"Oh no no no no no no! Not you!" He shouted, knowing full well who that voice belongs to.

"Haha, no you moron, I'm not planning to put you through all that misery like you had put me in! No, I'm planning a far worse fate for you!" The robotic female voice answered annoyed.

Lights were going on one by one and he could clearly see "Her" now, in her amazingly frightfull form.

Wheatley was shivering, it has been long ago since he'd last seen her and that had been merely the claw that slapped him out of Chells hands when she had stubbornly held unto him.

He noticed that she had a tight grip on him in one of her many robotic claws, seeing a table with all kinds of tools to perform some kind of experiment. He gulped as he inwardly solved the equation:

He was going to be experimented on!

"You've probably noticed all these tools already and probably guessed that you're going to be experimented on. You're guess is right, I'm going to put your personality into a human being. For now try to be very, very still..."

She laughed as another claw was slowly brought towards Wheatley, holding a saw-like object.

Wheatley could feel an agonizing pain and closed his optic, wishing for it to end. The pain lasted for minutes before he felt himself shutting down again..

Meanwhile with Chell...

"...So, here I was in the mall, searching every store for supplies, when I saw Chell walking around for supplies. I couldn't believe me eyes: the very same pretty lady I met several years back! I was at the upper floor but I decided to just jump down to her and so I did, shouting to her and she seemed scared at first but after a few seconds had passed she recognized me aswell and now I'm here."

Rick explained to the other survivors when he and Chell had arrived back at her place.

"Why didn't we saw you earlier in the mall?" Nick asked him, being somewhat suspicious about Rick's story and earning a sigh from Rochelle, who had been love struck with Rick's charm the moment he entered Chells home.

"I didn't knew I could trust you guys, so I decided to stay in the shadows till I could tell you could be trusted." He answered Nick with a goofy grin.

Both Rochelle and Zoey (who had sat down on the older woman's knee) giggled at Rick's smirk and started laughing.

Chell couldn't help but smirk at the faces the men were making to the laughing women.

She couldn't help but wonder how Rick did became human, last time she saw him he was still a personality core.

Feeling tears forming in her eyes, she told the others that she was going to take a walk and went outside.

After a while she came across a bench and sat down, crying softly. After a few minutes she could hear footsteps and she wiped away her tears, thinking that maybe one of the survivors had followed behind her.

It was Rick and she waved him over with a smile.

"Hey there princess, what's troubling you? And don't say nothing, 'cause I've seen the sadness in your pretty eyes."

He asked her, not smirking at all but ready to listen to her troubles and to emphasize this he put his arm around her.

Crying again she told him about how much she missed Wheatley and somehow wishing that he was still alive and human just like he was human. Rick told her that while Wheatley was a moron and a coward, he would be strong enough to survive whatever was thrown to him and that he may be wandering around here aswell.

"Thank Rick for listening to me, you're a real friend!" Chell gave him a kiss on the cheek and blushed. Rick grinned and thought to himself that he liked the feeling of that kiss and kissed her back softly.

They sat on the bench doing nothing else but kissing for a moment before Chell decided to walk back to house as the sun started to go down on the horizon. Rick nodded and placed his arm around her waist as they both started walking back...

Back with GLaDOS and Wheatley...

This operation had been a succes! It was at moments difficult, totally unlike that other core, Adventure, but GLaDOS had put this moron's personality into a dead body and revived the dead body. It (Or he, she laughed) was still unconscious since the operation had been a little "rough" for both her and Wheatley. She had also found out that Wheatley still had his corrupted self but she had put that in another body identical to Wheatley's own body, the only difference being hair colour:

Wheatley's hair was a soft blonde while the corrupted one's hair was brown.

As GLaDOS wondered how long it would take for them to wake up she could hear Wheatley mumble in his unconsciousness and silently listened:

"C...Chell...I'm..sorry...luv..."

He repeated that several times before GLaDOS heard something else:

"I love you..."

Interesting.

She had put down clothes for both of them next to their beds and went off to monitor the Aperture Laboratories again, as there still were test being done here and there. She was especially amused by the human test subjects that were in storage here for a long time and had just recently been freed when the coöperative testing initiative had found them.

GLaDOS had found out that these people had been put in cry-storage until the war, that was about to happened in the time, was over and they had given Aperture their consent that if they'd survive that they could be tested upon.

So clearly GLaDOS wasn't overruling the rules of Aperture and those people and she had woken them up almost immediately after finding out.

GLaDOS had first read through all of their files but didn't find anyone with the same characteristics as Chell and that annoyed her, but atleast she got some new human test subjects and maybe they were just as good as Chell.

There was one female that came close to being as good as Chell and her name was Rachel Williams. She had a determined attitude and had wished to be better at testing, she also was very athletic as she could perform acrobatic dodging moves when put in front of turrets. GLaDOS read in her file that she was a "traceur" or someone who performs parkour and noted that she was very skillfull at that.

"Fuck!" Rachel screamed loudly as GLaDOS watched the monitor that showed the test chamber she was at and noticed Rachel sitting down, holding her ankle.

"what happened?" GLaDOS asked.

Rachel looked up at the camera and said:

"I took a wrong step and sprained my ankle, it hurts like hell!"

GLaDOS laughed but send a medical core towards the test chamber.

"I've sent a medical core to you, it should be there soon enough."

"Thanks." Rachel said back.

And with that GLaDOS shut down the monitor and went to look at the other test subjects, who were either dodging bullets from the turrets or were figuring out how to solve their current problems.

Meanwhile Wheatley had woken up and he was looking at a mirror in sheer amazement.

He tried to talk but found his throat to be too dry and coughed loudly. Next to his bed was a glass of water he didn't notice at first when waking up. Quickly but with little sips he drank it and looked at the mirror again.

"Livid!" Wheatley laughed as he looked at his face in the mirror again, feeling quite wonderful about himself.

Deciding he wanted to see the rest he put his feet on the ground and tried standing up, but not being used to having legs he felt them shake and fell down.

"Ow, that hurt..." He sighed, but tried again, not giving up already.

After a few tries (and few times falling) he finally had it under control, feeling how it felt, how his feet stood on the cold floor.

"Okay that works! Next thing is walking." He took in a breath and started walking around as if he always had been a human. In all honesty he had seen how Chell used her legs and how she walked around the facility.

Being used to the feel of walking, Wheatley tried jogging next. Which, to him, was the same as walking and did it without difficulty.

He hadn't noticed that GlaDos was watching on the monitor but he was just happy and distracted with being a human, but eventually his moment of happiness was disturbed by her.

"Put on some clothing before you decide to just walk outside you moron or do you want people to think weirdly of you!" She berated him, making him flinch.

He looked around and found some on the cabinet next to his bed and quickly put it on.

"There, now you don't look like a drunkard on a nude streak." She chuckled. Wheatley reminded himself to look up what that meant, but decided against it since she could only come up with bad things.

He also noticed another male in the bed next to him, looking just like him but with different hair colour:

"Who's he?"

GLaDOS was surprised:

"Can't you remember? He's your corruption, basically you twin brother."

My twin brother?

"Aren't you glad? Now you're not alone anymore in your misery."

No...not at all...

Wheatley could feel wetness form in his eyes as he remember Chell, how she had sheepishly laughed at him, when he stuttered when he was with her, before he took over GLaDOS's mainframe and became corrupted. He felt happy in a way, now that the corruption was gone from him and he is his old self again.

The Wheatley she loved..

GLaDOS was shocked: at first had seem that the little moron was starting to cry out and give up, but then she could see the hope fill his eyes and a smile forming on his face.

"I have something to live for again, thanks to you! So thank you and goodbye!" Wheatley abruptly told her, leaving her dumbfounded...

Don't worry Chell! I'm back and I'm going to search for you till the end of day, even if it takes an eternity!