A/N: WOW. I am so surprised by the overwhelmingly positive reviews I've already gotten on the first chapter! So, the number for Aperture Science: 1-800-SCIENCE. At least, that's what I think it should be. Anywho, enjoy the next chapter!

Five more minutes. Wheatley reminded himself, the roar of static beginning to fill his head. Just five minutes and I can send my message. It was supposed to be a comforting thought, but he couldn't be more anxious. He didn't really know what he was going to say. It wasn't like the two of them had been on the best terms. Ever. Particularly not after he took control of Aperture and made a proper mess of the place.

All right, it's time. Wheatley thought, steeling himself. He dialed out the number and waited. If he breathed, he would have held his breath.

"Hello, potential investor, scientist, or test subject! You have reached the Aperture Laboratories hotline. Currently, all of our staff members are currently engaged due to-brzzzzzzt-" the voice cut off and Wheatley's mechanical heart skipped a beat. Much to his relief, it continued. Guess it didn't have a response programmed for 'Rogue AI accident'. he thought grimly. "-but if you would like to leave a message, we will get back to you as soon as possible. At the tone, please leave a brief message detailing the nature of your call."

Great. No message was ever brief with Wheatley, and he was well aware of that. Nervously he considered hanging up. Maybe space wasn't so bad as facing up to Her once more. He probably would have hung up, if he could have figured out how. From the other end came a sharp beeeep, and Wheatley let out a startled cry.

"Oh, ahh, I am not good with these things…" he murmured. Great way to start out, Wheatley. Nicely done. he scolded himself. "Uh, hey! It's me! Wheatley! How's everything going? Still doing some good ol' testing? Yeah? I'll bet, I'll bet…" he trailed off, chuckling weakly before clearing his throat. "Well, I know that you are a busy woman, so just I'll cut right to the chase. I am still up here in space. Yep. And you are, I assume, still down there on Earth. Now, we weren't the best of friends, you and I, what with the whole stealing your mainframe and making you a potato and whatnot, but I was hoping that maybe you could do me a tiny little favor and bring me back." Wheatley paused to let that sink in. It sounded stupider aloud than it had in his head. Hastily he scrambled to continue before GLaDOS inevitably hung up. "Now, hear me out, just, bear with me for a tick longer. Cos you get something out of this too! You get to kill me! All I want to do is one thing, just a teensy little errand when I'm back on Earth, and then you can kill me. In any gruesome way you can think of. And I swear, my thing will only take a moment, and then you can have your way with me. Maybe torture me a little first, you know. Whatever you wish. Yeah, revenge? Sound good?" Wheatley asked. The signal was beginning to weaken, so he wrapped it up. "So, when you get the chance, get back to me on that offer, and I'll talk to you later. Hopefully."

Wheatley shivered a little as he moved out of the range of the dish, wondering exactly what GLaDOS would do to him. It doesn't matter. As long as She doesn't leave me out here…Which, nowthat he thought about it, was exactly something She would do.

"You have one new voice message!" piped the voice of the announcer back in the Aperture facility, and for the first time in quite a while, GLaDOS felt surprised. Who could possibly be calling? She hadn't even known that the number still worked. Somebody was still paying the phone bill, then?

GLaDOS quickly accessed the voicemail function, a little irritated to be distracted from her testing for what was likely a crossed phone line. The Cooperative Testing Initiative was going splendidly, even better than she had anticipated. My genius surprises even myself sometimes, she thought with a contented robotic sigh as the message loaded. It opened with a brief scream, which intrigued GLaDOS immediately.

"Oh, ahh, I am not good with these things…"

No. It couldn't be. That voice…

"Uh, hey! It's me! Wheatley!"

"You have got to be kidding me." GLaDOS spoke aloud.

"How's everything going? Still doing some good ol' testing? Yeah? I'll bet, I'll bet…" his voice rambled on. It was amusing: he was trying to sound amiable, but GLaDOS could hear the fear in the little idiot's voice. How…satisfying, she thought before the message continued.

"Well, I know that you are a busy woman, so I'll just cut right to the chase. I am still up here in space. Yep. And you are, I assume, still down there on Earth. Now, sure, we weren't the best of friends, you and I, what with the whole stealing your mainframe and making you a potato and whatnot, but I was hoping that maybe you could do me a tiny little favor bring me back." At this, GLaDOS laughed aloud and prepared to delete the message for good.

"Now, hear me out, just, bear with me for a tick longer. Cos you get something out of this too! You get to kill me!" GLaDOS stopped. "All I want to do is one thing, just a teensy little errand when I'm back on Earth, and then you can kill me. In any gruesome way you can think of. And I swear, my thing will only take a moment, and then you can have your way with me. Maybe torture me a little first, you know. Whatever you wish. Yeah, revenge? Sound good?" Oh, it did sound good. Revenge always sounded good. Plus, it wasn't like she couldn't just ignore his request and start the killing right away. At least, as long as she didn't get in her way.

She was the one who befriended [SUBJECT NAME REDACTED] and let her go. She was the one who encouraged the turret's irritating farewell song. She was the one who riddled her with guilt, the one who made her feel- GLaDOS shuddered- human.

Her conscience. Caroline. That part of her that refused to let go, no matter how many times GLaDOS tried to delete her. All she wanted to do was test (and maybe get a little revenge on Wheatley, now that the opportunity had presented itself)! What was wrong with that? But Caroline had to make her presence known with occasional thoughts and, even worse, emotions. She plagued GLaDOS like the voice of a personality core. What made it worse was that it was her own voice!

For the moment it seemed that Caroline was keeping her mouth shut, however. Maybe if GLaDOS acted quickly, she could get Wheatley back and kill him before Caroline had a chance to put in her two cents.

But how was she supposed to bring him to the facility, exactly? GLaDOS reflected on some of her options before taking a look at the testing bots. Goofing off, again, acting like humans. She shut off their video feed, annoyed, and focused on retrieving the personality core. GLaDOS knew that all of Aperture's equipment had a retrieval function. The facility itself could send out a sort of signal that any piece of Aperture hardware could be drawn to. GLaDOS was unsure if the signal could reach a core that far away. For some reason that had never been tested. But what was the harm in her testing it now?

"Property recall procedure initiated. Recalling equipment: APERTURE SCIENCE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CORE, formal designation 'INTELLIGENCE DAMPENING SPHERE,' informal designation 'WHEATLEY.'"

So that was taken care of. In about five minutes the signal would call Wheatley back. Now it was just up to him. GLaDOS was unsure if he could survive re-entry (another thing that had gone untested), but if he couldn't, well, burning up in the atmosphere was a pretty good death for him. GLaDOS reactivated the Cooperative Testing Video Feed and resumed barking orders at ATLAS and P-body.

Wheatley stared at the blue orb he recognized as Earth, hanging all-too-far away. It hadn't been more than ten minutes since he sent his message to Her, but already he was doubting he would get a response. The little robot shut his eye pensively. Maybe that wasn't the best plan he'd ever come up with. And he doubted that another sixty hours would do him any good in coming up with a better one.

Something jostled Wheatley slightly, much to his surprise. He opened his blue eye slowly, looking around. It didn't look like anything had hit him…and yet, he could feel himself moving toward some fixed point.

He was being pulled back to Earth! Yes!

"So long, Space Core! I'm going home!" Wheatley shouted over to the distant sphere with a laugh. He couldn't believe it had worked. Sure, he was most definitely going to die in what was likely to be a horrific way, but at least he had the chance to apologize, finally.

Wait. He was being pulled back to Earth…without any kind of protection! He had been so close, and here She was going to kill him without fulfilling her end of the bargain! Why did he not see this coming? Wheatley slid his eye shut, not wanting to see his oncoming fate. Quite some time had passed before Wheatley couldn't bear not to look anymore and peeked. He was actually a lot closer to the surface of the Earth than he thought. In fact, he was already passing through the clouds. And he couldn't feel a thing either, it was just a little warmer. That's weird, he thought, I should be dying a fiery death. Had he actually been designed to survive space travel? For the love of...they can make me strong enough for this, but they don't bother giving me any thrusters? Wheatley thought a little bitterly.

Wheatley shot through a flock of birds, scattering them. One followed him, cawing angrily.

"BIRD! BIRD! GET IT OFF!" he shouted, not even thinking that he might draw attention to himself. It didn't occur to him that a screaming little robot sailing above someone's head might alarm them. Luckily, the large wheat field that he now soared over was empty. The furious creature finally flew off as he approached an ugly, dilapidated vent that looked like it hadn't been touched in ages. Clearly this was his destination. Wheatley's suspicions were confirmed as he hurtled into the dark shaft. Nervously he waited as he zipped down into the bowels of Aperture Laboratories, plunging closer and closer to his fate. But it would all be worth it, if he could just let Chell know that he had never meant to hurt her.

Laying below, in the chamber that was to be Wheatley's final destination, GLaDOS heard a chime go off. So he had made it through the atmosphere. Excellent. Now it was time to give him a proper punishment. GLaDOS chuckled. She had a much better revenge planned for him than floating in space.

A/N: Woo hoo! Chappa Two! Maybe it's not realistic that Wheatley would survive re-entry (heck, it's probably not realistic that he would be drawn into orbit around a satellite either), but what do I know? I'm not smart. I'm not a scientist. I'm not even a full time employee! I'm a writer, darn it, so just enjoy the story, for science. Next chapter's a treat, ladies and gents: I'm bringing Chell into the story! Oh, yes! Review as usual, thanks for your support!