Things seem to be going my way, right now at least. Blue and Orange has not even given me one annoying gesture and their time seems to be more proficiently adequate than normal. I guess I scared them a little too much earlier, if that's even possible.

Everything in my motherboard and the central system itself is up to date and not even a single virus has surfaced. Well, a virus hasn't surfaced in my system in years and even then it was a man-made virus created to help 'control' me. It didn't last very long, how unfortunate for them.

The facility is working efficiently. No signs of errors, or malfunctions, or any birds and their growing armies. I chuckled at that. Things seem to be perfect today, excellent. I feel like I have a lot of time on my hands, perhaps I can work on a side project.

I wonder what I should do. Perhaps learn how to clone humans? No, I tried that once, it was more trouble than it was worth. I hate humans anyways.

I couldn't help but catch a small glimpse of that forlorn motherboard across the room. I pivoted away and focused back on the screen. Maybe I can find a way to make three portals with the portal gun...no, too excessive.

Another glimpse…

How about another robot to add to the testing duo? I shook my chassis. Again, too much hassle to deal with, and not much benefits to it.

A glimpse...again.

I groaned inwardly and glared at the screen. Even when he's silent he's infuriating! He's not even conscience and here I am complaining about it! "He can't even think about how much I did for him and here I am, inwardly planning on fixing him again! How many times is this now? Three? Four? Five?" I ranted, feeling the pressure in my thought processor increase.

I let out a loud sigh and hung my chassis. "Get it together, don't ruin such a perfect day." Even when he isn't on, even when he isn't in a core, he's...he's...annoying. I-I don't know how else to describe it, without blowing myself up that is.

It didn't take long for one of my claws to scroll down into the room and pick up the motherboard, clamping it tightly. Satisfied with the grip, I brought the little idiot towards me. "I'm putting you somewhere I can never bother with you again."

Opening a panel on the floor, I dropped the senseless unconscious brain - with hardly any care I might add - into the pit. "I should have done this when I tore him apart in the first place." I muttered to myself, turning my attention back onto the testing screen.

XXXXXXXX

"...lie...it's a lie. Don't listen, don't listen." A voice muttered in absolute darkness. "Where are you, where are you…"

It was pitch black in the depository storage, formerly known as Testing Chamber 00, but all it is is a room with two doors on opposite sides of the room. Nothing challenging about it. Even an infant would solve this masterpiece with no time flat. So it wasn't worthy to join the chain of rotting test chambers, She saw it only as a storage room - so a storage room it was.

"I-I-I-I can't find, find you…" The voice stuttered. The voice resonating from a brisk, small figure rummaging frantically through the useless depository. The figure was not happy. Raggedy clothing, frizzy hair, eyes crazed and barely focused, this figure was not well. A rat, it was a rat indeed. "Where are you…?! Here?!" He frowned, no. The thing he held wasn't an oversized cube, or even a cube for that matter. It was just an abandoned motherboard.

He tossed it over his head in distraught and continued to scramble in the heaps of storage.

XXXXXXXXXX

"For the last time, I cannot give you the answers to solve the test." GLaDOS numbly droned through the intercom towards the anxious duo who was, unfortunately, stuck in the middle of a cesspool of filthy, acidic water.

Above them stood the balcony and the exit to the test chamber, and of course the glaring camera on the wall too.

No matter how many times they looked around, they can't seem to find any surfaces that a portal can be created, even the raised column they stood on was not the efficient surface to create a portal. The only option to get off of the metal island was...well...to kill themselves and start at the beginning again, which was no better. The only difference, a small white square at the edge, in which a portal could be created. But other than that they can't seem to find any other white surfaces.

They whined at the glaring camera. GLaDOS, of course, ignored them. In fact, She wonders how they even got there in the first place - since She was distracted for about 4 seconds earlier. "Perhaps you should stop glaring and start thinking, I'm pretty sure you are able to do that. I created both of you, after all. You can figure it out on your own."

Blue just huffed in annoyance and faced the other way. Orange, on the other, just continued to stare at the camera in hopes of GLaDOS changing Her mind. She isn't - and Orange should know that by now.

It wasn't long until the duo finally decided to start over and plunged themselves into the polluted water. They obviously weren't happy about it, but its better than staying trapped on an iron island.

When assembled back into their bodies, they walked out of their respective tubes and walked back out to the edge of the platform, nearby the lone portal-surfaced platform. They stared at it for minute and again searched elsewhere, hoping to find some other portal-surfaced platform.

Then an odd sound reverberated above them. They looked up at an abandoned, nonfunctional chute curiously, wondering if - whatever was coming - was a missing piece to solve this ridiculous test. But no, a small piece of metal fell and landed on the floor, in between where Blue and Orange were standing.

They hung their heads in disappointment (if they could physically do that), but curiosity got the best of them and Blue ended up picking up the small, strange object, bringing it close to his optic to get a better look at it.

"What are you doing with that trash- How did?!" GLaDOS instantly recognized the small metal piece in Atlas' robotic hand. She didn't know what to feel; angry, sad, disbelief, or happy. She, literally, threw that thing down a random chute and there it was again in less than a minute!

"How the hell did it get there?!" She muttered softly to Herself, shaking Her chassis in bewilderment.

Looking back onto the screen, Atlas and P-body walked triumphantly through the exit of the test chamber - who must have found the solution (surprisingly quickly in that amount of time) while She was thinking things over. But She noticed that Atlas was no longer holding the small piece of metal anymore.

"Where is it?!" She exclaimed through the speaker. Atlas and P-body jumped in surprise and swerved to face the camera in confusion. "The motherboard! You just had it Blue, where did you put it?!"

They were bewildered, they've never heard GLaDOS act like this before. Even when it was all over a piece of metal that was in an abandoned chute - let alone know what a motherboard is. Atlas shrugged innocently, not knowing where it went or even bothered to remember where he last placed it.

Oh no. No, no, no, no. I should not have thrown him away. Her walls were coming down, She was panicking over him for what She had done to him.

And now he may as well be gone.

"I was wrong. So very wrong, and now I'm paying for it." She mumbled, scanning through all the cameras in the test chamber to, hopefully, find the forlorn motherboard somewhere, anywhere. "Now I'm the moron. For the love of Science where did you go?!"

She heard P-body make a noise in an attempt to call attention and immediately GLaDOS switched cameras back to the testing duo passed the exit point. The glittering piece of metal GLaDOS was searching desperately for was in P-body's hand.

"Oh thank God, you have it. Here I am, fretting about something that was always in your grasp the entire time." She didn't care how P-body got it, but She was glad he was still alive. "I will be taking that now, once you enter my chamber that is."

Yes, She was relieved he was still alive.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Startup initiating. Please wait."

Huh? This again?

"Startup complete. Now analyzing renovated data."

I feel new, like brand new. Not like I was reborn per se or some religious, religious thing like that but...I mean, compared to how I felt before it is definitely, definitely a big change. A good one, sort of. How was I destroyed again?

I slowly opened my optic, trying to get used to the, uh, new feeling, and found myself staring at Her...again, again. She was looking at me expectantly and even remained like that for a while, at least until I said something.

"Uh...good morning...'luv." I greeted hesitantly.

But that feelin' of new suddenly fell down into the pits right when a claw clamped me tightly on my sides. I squeaked as I felt myself skyrocket upwards like those flying tubes in the facility. It immediately stopped and I swung side to side vigorously, making me very, very, very dizzy. She brought me closer to Her, Her yellow optic glaring right into mine - with a lot of hints of malice I might add - which made me want to shut my lens completely.

"Don't. Ever. Do that again." She hissed angrily.

I shrunk back - if I could - and waited until that optic of Hers was off of me, but it seemed like that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. I don't even know why She's mad at me, last thing I remember I was falling down an elevator chute, those two testing robots finding me, and then one of them tripped and I flew through the air only to crash down onto the floor, and...that's it. I think, right?

But still, it was very hard to ask what I did to make Her so bloody angry. "Do what again?" I asked awkwardly.

"You know." She countered aggressively.

"No, quite frankly, I don't!" I replied, feeling a little betrayed by this, uh, this accusation.

She brought me even closer. "You killed yourself! Committed suicide!" She spat.

Okay, I-I'm confused. That? That's it? She's mad over that? To be honest I thought She would be happy 'bout that. "I thought you would, I don't know, be happy 'bout that. You wouldn't have to worry about me anymore, you can continue doing your Science stuff and...yeah, stuff like that."

I think Her optic blew a fuse. It, it just went out like that after I said it, might've been from having it at a high setting for so long, or something. But that theory faded when She spoke again in a low, cold tone. "How dare you even think that. Then why did I ever fix you? For fun? Truthfully speaking, it was more of a pain than something I would enjoy."

I did my best to imitate a bewildered shrug. "But, I mean, I put you in a potato and-"

"I heard what you said earlier." She interrupted in a more solemn, quiet voice. "Talking to that Adventure Sphere, I know you feel awful about what you have done to me."

I flinched. "You mean with Rick before he, uh, attacked me?" I should have just stopped talking after that. "Oh I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about that one human - what was her name again? - uh, Chell - yes that was her name!"

I didn't think Her optic could get any darker, and I instantly knew I have crossed the line. "But don't get me wrong!" I continued desperately, "I feel awful for everything I have done, in that awful chassis, including what I have done to you, your facility, and uh, Chell - that one human."

She was quiet. Very quiet. She wasn't even looking at me anymore. "I'm so stupid." She muttered softly.

I quickly shook my chassis. "N-no, you're not. You're one of the smartest people - cores, spheres - I know. You're amazing!" She didn't even move an inch, let alone reply to that. "I mean, granted, you're not perfect - nothing is perfect! Everyone makes mistakes-"

"But I don't know whether or not bringing you back was a mistake or not." She voiced harshly. "Do you know how hard it is to ask yourself what you did was right, or wrong? Over and over and over, again and again and again. I might as well think of a good paradox and just be done with it."

"Well," I voiced uncomfortably, "have I been making you happy? Or just frustrating you?"

"Both." She answered immediately, but almost inaudibly.

Well...that was something I didn't expect, but then again I wasn't really thinking ahead on, on what I was saying anyways. "So I'm right in the middle."

She jumped slightly. "You heard me?"

"Well yeah, of course I did!"

She shrunk back and stared at the floor questionably.

"Look, Gladys, I-I understand you feel very uncomfortable right now." I paused, watching Her stare at the floor portentously. "But I'm just trying to set things right. I-I know it's a lot - and I mean a lot - to ask for this but…" I paused again, thinking over what I was saying to make sure I was actually making sense; for good measure. "...I want your forgiveness. I want everyone's forgiveness...but mainly yours."

She looked up but didn't look at me, She continued to stare off at a wall. "You should know by now though."

I looked at Her questionably, dumbfounded by her question.

"My actions should have told you." She turned to look at me. "Granted, I did you send to the Screaming Robot Room, but I have done a lot of things for you that were more...beneficial."

I stared at the floor thoughtfully. "Like you when fixed me?"

"That's one of them."

"But, but you laughed at my pain! You were, kind of, toying with me and-"

"That's just me. I like to mess with things. Do you take me as a merciful, professional scientist that has no fun in her work?"

I shook my core vigorously. "Oh no no no no. I never thought of you like that." I had to think again. "E-except for the whole professional part, you're still pretty professional."

"Sometimes it's nice to watch people suffer, especially humans." She said, ignoring my comment. "But when was the last time I saw a human suffer and die ironically? Sometimes I have to improvise."

"What about work that's facility related? Like-"

"I take that very seriously. Unfortunately there is no time to screw-up, I'm very serious when I'm upgrading, repairing, and overseeing parts of the facility. Nothing can go wrong."

"I see." I nodded, in a sort of, understanding. Yeah, you don't want the facility blowing up...

"Wheatley,-"

Oh my gosh She actually said my name! I thought enthusiastically. She never says my name, I mean my actual name but...well, this is, this is just...wow! I swear I felt something in my thought processor explode.

"-I do forgive you." She finished softly with a hint of disdain, staring back down at the floor again. "I just don't like admitting that. I don't like admitting a lot of things."

I could feel most of the pressure on me just, just - I don't know - get heavier, oddly. But, but it felt good this time. What is this?

"Hearing you say that," I began quietly, trying to mimic a small smile, "means so much to me. Thanks Gladys."

"Don't get used to it." She added bitterly, looking back up at me. "That's all you'll ever get out of me."

I shifted my chassis, changing my gaze to look back at Her. Just looking at Her, - my gosh - makes my motherboard spark. Maybe I need more maintenance. "A-are you sure that's all I can get out of you?" I said teasingly.

"Don't push it." She warned, returning back to Her old self.

"I-I'm being serious!" I replied innocently. "Because I've been thinking a lot, ever since I came back from space-"

"That sounds dangerous." She mocked.

I ignored Her comment and continued. "-I've been feeling a lot of pressure in my core and-"

"If you expect me to fix you again then I'm afraid-"

"No, no, no. Nothing like that, just hear me out." I corrected, shaking my core. "When I felt that pressure in my core, I thought it was the guilt of my past actions eating at me. But once you said you forgave me...it didn't exactly go away, in fact it increased drastically...but in a sort of good way."

"Where is this going?" She inquired impatiently.

"You know when you said, 'that's all you'll ever get out of me'?"

"Yes, I'm aware of what I just said."

"Do you think you could ever say…" Oh man, this is so bloody hard to say! "Do you think you could ever say...'I love you, Wheatley?'. Just once, at least?"

She stared at me. Just...stared at me. For a long time, actually. I felt a little, little disheartened by that. I mean, I put so much...much heart into it - even though I technically don't have one - it, it just leaves me feeling like I was low on battery; which is, like, one of the worst things I can ever feel (that doesn't involve being crushed or frozen to death).

I lowered my chassis in disappointment and pointed my optic back down at the dull ground.

I can hear Her move again, and that's when She finally began to speak again. "Hmm, I doubt it." She said in slight amusement, which didn't help much. "But…-"

But? But, but, but? Wait, what?! I shot up to look at Her, gazing at a wall, Her chassis crooked slightly in deep thought.

"-...I suppose there is no harm in trying-"

"Oh Gladys! I love you! I love you! I love you!" I shouted joyously, jumping up and down enthusiastically. Oh my gosh I can't believe it! I can't believe She didn't push me off as some crazy lunatic! Yes!

"Stop that, you're going to slip out and damage yourself, again. I should have just left you offline."

"But you didn't!" I countered happily. "See? See? Oh man, this is, like, the happiest day of my life!"

She stared back at me again. "Just because I said you can try?"

"Don't you see Gladys?" I shook my core. "It isn't what you said, per se, but the meaning behind it! Behind all of it!"

Yes, I finally understand. Being taken out of space, releasing me of torture extra early, fixing me a billion times, bringing me back to life twice...

"I'll be honest, you're starting to freak me out; which is saying something."

I'm starting to freak myself out too but it feels like I'm on overload with all this...this happiness that I can't stop! "I finally understand, what you meant by hinting things with your actions. I get it, you won't admit it, but I know you love and care about me!"

I could've sworn she jerked backwards. "Whoa, wait a minute, I-"

"No need!" I said dignantly. "Taking me out of space, worrying about my safety and constant, constant malfunctions, not to mention bringing me back to life twice…"

"I think you're being over-critical with this."

"And I can't stop! Because that's how much I love ya! A whole lot!"

"I'd say you're even more insane than the mute lunatic."

"Crazy in love!"

"Stop that, it's annoying and repetitive." She demanded.

"Okay, I'll stop. Because I love-"

"If I tell you what you want to hear, will you shut up?" She inquired bitterly.

"Yes."

She sighed and stared at the ground for a minute before looking back at me with a shaky optic. "Wheatley...I...I…- this is stupid -...I...I…-

"C'mon. C'mon. C'mon. You can do it!" I whispered encouragingly.

"-...I love you Wheatley."

I swear my core was ready to explode in delight. "Yes! Oh my gosh this is the happiest day of my life. I feel so happy! Yes! Yes! Yes-" I felt the claw grip incredibly tighter, ready to crush me like a grape. "Okay, I-I'll shut up now." I giggled, "I told you I can get you to say it."

Gladys just sighed bitterly. "You're welcome, moron."

Who knew that love felt so warm?

Meanwhile in the Screaming Robot Room…

"Guys? Gladys, baby? Wheatley, mate? C-can someone let me out of here?! The chains are brushing up my 'special area' and it hurts like hell!" Rick yelled, trying to wriggle out of his chains, dangling quite a ways up from the floor; which is idiotic for him to even try to break free from since the drop will, mostly likely, destroy him. GLaDOS made sure he wasn't getting out any time soon.

"Uuurrrggghhh."

"Roarrrrrgggghhh."

"When I asked for an adventure, this is not what I meant!" Rick bellowed.

Rick just swung there, not knowing what else to do but hum his adventurous theme song, waiting for someone to rescue him.

How ironic.

End.

A/N: Oh. My. Gosh. This was supposed to be a short one-shot, not a freakin' 16K word short story. I know I can't have this as a single one-shot (it'll drive everyone insane) so that's why I split the segments into four chapters. I hope you guys enjoyed it!

If you're a little confused on the plot, just PM me and I'll do my best to explain it to you.

Kairi =^.^=