GLaDOS decided to play along with her passive-aggressiveness for awhile longer. She couldn't think up anything to surprise Chell with, so she'd just need to hold out a bit longer while she found something serious. Maybe her Weighted Companion Cube (Which, she still didn't know how the girl could love it so much, it was just a box.) which was still most likely in the incinerator. Or perhaps write a song that celebrates her, completing the test. Or cake... Cake would work too. Streamers, confetti, cake, some music, her Companion Cube. Maybe she'd feel a bit better afterwards... Though, the testing, she really wasn't sure what she'd do about it. She couldn't make Chell test any longer after a party celebrating her success so..

Maybe they could work on her speech? Or invent some new test elements, maybe invent robots together! No... Chell probably wanted to leave, so maybe she could convince her to stay for awhile longer? Probably not.

Wait.

I'm really thinking about ways to allow her to enjoy herself? She KILLED me. What is WRONG with me?

And then it occurred to her: Wheatley. Wheatley was Chell's friend, she guessed. Maybe. Or maybe Chell despises him to a high extent for waking Her up. And in that case, if he tries to contact her, maybe GLaDOS could talk Chell into staying, because maybe she fears him for doing the stupidest thing that had ever been recorded to man. And in that case..

No. Wheatley means no more to me than the nanobot work crew, or the reassembly machine, or even the Announcer.

...Or does he?

Wheatley sped down his railing again, noticing something odd about it. The railing was warm, which was strange to him. He always thought the system was connected to GLaDOS directly, of course, he never asked. He only knew that she could change the course of the railing at her own will, like everything else in the facility. Things had been odd around here since he'd talked to Her, calmer, even. Panels weren't randomly flinching around, everything was created perfectly, it was like She was trying her best to make this place look well-conditioned again. Which was working at this point. Who was she tryin' to impress anyway? All of the scientists were dead. Well, maybe. He wasn't quite sure, seeing all of the drawings on the wall, he began to wonder if maybe there was one running around. At least one, the blood leading to the vault, the odd drawings he'd never taken notice of, which seemed clear to him now. Some of them were fresh too, and music sometimes echoed in the background.

A quiet piano intro, turning into a song about being exiled. Or something. It was always muffled, so he couldn't tell what it was about, but it was closer this time, which disturbed him. Even if there was a scientist left in the facility, what would he be like? Could he help Chell, or at least direct him to a escape route? Or perhaps he had brain damage, like the rest of the people fresh out of suspension?

He giggled before beginning aloud, "Ohh boy, I wonder what that crazy man is up to now! Probably drawing on the walls again... I bet GLaDOS won't be too happy with you!~" He ended it in a tone that echoed out into the halls. It reverberated off the walls, through the panels, across the whole facility, or at least it seemed like it did. He shuttered as a gasp came in reply. It wasn't Chell's gasp, because it was deeper in tone, and it seemed much closer than any noise he'd heard before.

A scratchy voice replied, "They didn't listen! They could have lived!... Most of them deserved it anyway. They all thought I was crazy! I was right to give up on their unworthy cause! Unmorality! The Morality Core was supposed to help! But your conscience can always be ignored! In fact, I'm ignoring mine right now, by shouting out!" The rambling continued for a few minutes, and echoed, while Wheatley quickly fled.

He never realized that there COULD be other living things in the facility, other than rodents, Chell, and a few other constructs that could be considered living. A spark flew from his hull, where GLaDOS had crushed him, and his eye twitched. Maybe he had imagined the whole thing? Perhaps, another malfunction?

Indeed, they were common for him, not having had maintenance in years. No scientists had been alive to look at him, let alone tell him what to do, aside from tending to the humans. Which, by the time '9999999' had past, he'd been shut down and reactivated several times. It was most likely a power-save function. That was when he found Chell, in a reactivation period that he'd been jerked into after a partial system failure.

Wheatley finally noticed a wall that could be easily moved, and it lead right onto a walkway. He decided to wait for Chell there, and make their escape through the back of the facility. After all, if they went through the production lines, they could screw up her main defenses. Turrets, and neurotoxins, both of their factories would be back that way.

Speaking of this 'neurotoxin' ... Why would the scientists even give her the stuff if they knew it could be used against them? Especially giving her direct control of the generator. I mean, how stupid could you be? Well... they WERE humans, so that was an understatement. And turrets... well, she designed them, and he had to admit, they were devilish little machines. Extremely smart, compact, and friendly. He'd made friends with a turret once, she was extremely nice to him. Of course, as most turrets were, she didn't have a name, but she was... different. She gave the strangest information, and always had stories for him to listen to.

And as for GLaDOS, he'd wished she wasn't so evil. He knew she had feelings, which was odd, for an AI, but she was pretty nice when she wanted to be. Which, now that he thought about, was not often. Chell was a good person too, and all he wanted to do was help her escape. As for the voice behind the wall... He wasn't so sure about that. A mystery to be solved at a later time, he hoped.

A sudden echo rang through the chamber, "Not a fake, tragic surprise, like last time. A REAL surprise, with tragic consequences! And real confetti this time! The good stuff: Our last bag. Part of me's going to miss it, but at the end of the day, it was JUST taking up space..."

He quickly fumbled with the mechanism, which caused the panels to click open, and he slid up to the opening. "What's going on? Who turned out the lights?"

Here we go... "Hey buddy, I'm speaking in an accent that is BEYOND her range of hearing! I know I'm early, but we have to go RIGHT NOW. CASUALLY walk toward my position!"

"Metal-ball, I can hear you." She almost sounded dumbfound, as if surprised herself, by his bashful intrusion. Maybe it was just the timing?

"I don't mean to do the voice! Run!" The panels quickly opened and Chell ran out onto the catwalk, and began to hustle as Wheatley sped along his management rails. "Okay, so uh, quick recap: We are escaping! We're escaping, and we're going to go shut down her turret production line, and uh, destroy her neurotoxin generator! But again, for the moment: RUN!"

And, she did nothing but run, in fact, it was more of a sprint. They rounded the corner and a room opened up, GLaDOS replied, "And the irony is that you were almost at the last test... why don't you just do it? It's a better way out than any asinine plan your friend came up with." But there was no fooling Chell, she wasn't as stupid as the other humans. She quickly turned and ran the other way before the hard-light bridge disappeared, leading her to turn again.

Wheatley urged her to hurry because GLaDOS was cunning, she could place turrets, move walls, destroy walk-ways, all in an instant. At the same time. Which disturbed him, knowing that she held his life in her hand. Test chambers screeched on their railing, closing in around the duo almost instantly, and at that point, Wheatley was screaming at Chell.

"Get in the lift! GET IN THE LIFT!" He wailed out, as she quickly jumped in and the gate closed behind her. The lift slid upward and they pressed on into the darkest parts of the facility.

They were out of GLaDOS's reach.

A/N: Wow, this one is the longest one. I'm still thinking about how this'll work out, seeing as it's like a 3-way, almost 4-way split on view points. Weird. Reviews and pointers are appreciated! Thanks for reading this far!

Also: I know.. Chelly is probably the most popular pairing out there, but it seems like this one is less appreciated. I'm calling it WheatDOS because it sounds better than GLaDey. I'm also a fairly large fan of Chell/Doug Rattmann, as a fair warning.. so I'm not sure.