AN: Phew, thanks for everyone's extreme patience for those who are still with me. I'll admit I was a bit lazy during the past six months but I am here to finish this story. I started it and I'll finish it no matter the cost, alright? In fact, I'm expecting to be finished with this fic in the next two weeks so bear with me, I'm almost done and I have nothing to do now that summer break is finally here. It may be a smart idea to reread some of the old chapters (I had to do so myself so I can still remember where I left off…^^') Anyway, my writing has changed so much, so I hope that some of you who are still here can notice a dramatic difference! :) Thanks so much, guys, it's an honor writing for you. Oh yeah, and this chapter is long, and you'll get two instead of one, you'll love it! ((psst, there's a trigger warning for fire in this chapter, I'm sorry to spoil a bit of it, but I realize that some people will be uncomfortable reading bits of this chapter))

Chapter 9 (You've Helped Enough Part 2/2)

Fear was coursing through poor old Wheatley's circuits. The queen was angry, and when the queen is angry, bad thing shall follow. This has been going on for about twenty minutes or so, mostly with Her yelling at Wheatley while he begs for forgiveness on things he didn't know she was threatening in the first place. He didn't know it would turn out this way, honestly. Wheatley continued to beg, highly doubtful if it were change the she-beast's [Don't tell her that he called her that, alright?] mind, "I-I-I don't care what you do to me, lady. Just as long as you don't hurt her. Besides, she doesn't deserve it, and she means a lot to me." Déjà vu hit once he said that sentence, it was before the compromise they made, he stated that Chell meant a lot to him, and She accepted his compromise shortly after. Somehow, this time was personal and a lot more serious than he had expected. If this didn't work, he didn't know what will. Wheatley tried to reason with the big tyrannical queen but she wouldn't budge and she had something up her sleeve, he wasn't that clueless to know what she was hiding under that yellow optic. A raging fire was inside of her and she was about to lay the metaphorical chess pieces all along the battle field. She was angry, although he didn't know why and he had the feeling that the surprise that she has been hiding for the past thirty or so days [can you believe it has only been more than a month since he was sent to space and all of this happened?] would finally hit. As his usual Wheatley way, he reassured himself and promised everything would be okay to prevent an anxiety attack to occur. This time, however it appeared that as each slow and drawn out second passed, it only made him even more nervous.

"Oh?" Her voice was venom but somehow he managed to be immune. "How sweet. That murderer means a lot to you, yes? Do you know what meant a lot to me?" She paused, as if waiting for a response and Wheatley pathetically stuttered only to be interrupted, "My facility…"

Her facility? What about it? It was something that she cared about but he wasn't going to take that away from her now. No, she can keep her damn facility until the end of the world; it only reminded him of bad memories. It only took him a moment to figure out the undying terror to what lies ahead. Maybe he didn't want the facility now, but that didn't change the fact that he destroyed her facility, the only thing that GLaDOS was capable to love, and now she was going to do the same. She was going to destroy the one thing that he cared about. "No…no-no-no, don't drag her into this. We had a compromise, don't you remember? You promised that you wouldn't hurt her, and I even agreed to a few more punishments… Don't…Don't hurt her, please. I-I…" Wheatley faded on his words, unable to speak any farther.

"What? You love her? If you honestly and truly think that you are infatuated with a human being then you are more moronic than I thought. You were created for one soul purpose and that purpose was being an idiot. I was programmed to keep this facility running until the end of time. We weren't programmed to be human pets and you are a disgrace to the scientists, as they were a disgrace to me. Now, I hate to bring her into this. She is nothing but trouble and she is a waste of time to take care of. She'll probably kill me before I do anyway. I'm not going to kill her…After all, we had a compromise, correct?" Her words surprised and also relieved poor old Wheatley. Now, he realized that all of that pointless begging was worthless because it was just a viscous trick made by the queen to scare his guts [again metaphorical guts…]

"Oh! Really!? Oh, that puts a lot of weight of my shoulders, you know for a second I thought—"

"I wasn't finished, moron." She interrupted him, quite rudely, he'll like to add. Oh well, so much for the false relieve. "That was what I was going to do, until I had some things figured out. Now, you took away the things that I cared about, and you ruined them. By the way, thanks for that, I spent the last handful of days cleaning it up. While I was thinking of a punishment, I had no choice but to make you feel the pain that I felt. And I realized that you care for our old friend, and what would happen if I took that away from you? Then, I thought of a greater plan: What if I made it look like you did it? And so, it's settled, during this couple of years, I want you begging for forgiveness, but I will never forgive you, I just want you to suffer for the things you have done. Do you really think that in 36 days, 13 hours, 55 minutes, and 16.75 seconds will make me change my mind about your punishment? No. I don't think so." She lectured and monologued to him. However, as each slow second washed away, he only got angry with her. He would like to think about how sane and considerate she would be if she wasn't in that chassis. He knows what type of voices run in her head, and the way she spoke, it all reminded him of that one voice. That was the chassis speaking. And the venom? That was its true colors. It all reminded him of horrible, insane memories and his processors tried to get him back to "remember" them but he fought it. His simulated emotions were growing but fear outgrew the anger.

What he was going to say, he would later regret, so he kept his mouth shut. Although, he was Wheatley, and keeping his mouth shut wasn't his perks, but he tried his hardest. He was going to say just how insane and brutal her punishment was, and that it was going maybe a bit too far. After all, that human was the only one who helped her when she was powerless and immobile. Without Chell, She wouldn't be here right now and she wouldn't have her precious facility. Now, she is just going to forget all of that and stab her in the back as a thank you card? He could have said something but it would bias. Wheatley cannot argue with that or say that it was wrong, because that would make him a hypocrite, for he had done the same thing to her just only 36 days ago. 36 days… he had changed so much then. So, he put the thought of arguing with her to rest and tried to calm himself down.

"Alright…Wh—What exactly are you going to do to her? She far way from your reach. I'm starting to think you're bluffing, honestly."

"That's what you think. I planned this all along, once I knew how much you cared about her, I sent the testing bots to—Oh, and do you know that forest that she's in? Well, I sent our cooperative testing bots to set it on fire." GLaDOS stated monotonely.

Anyone would know that Chell, at this moment couldn't move and navigate as efficiently as she wanted to. Her balance was poor, yet improving, but there was no why that she could run. Emotional files like fear, frustration and worry consumed him. "What? You're insane!" On any other occasion, Wheatley would have interrupted his speech to apologize, but this a special occasion. For once in his life, he honestly didn't give a bloody damn care in the world if he was being rude or not. "Oi, and to think you called me a monster! Let me go! I have to save her from this"

"And to this day you still think you can save her. It's funny, really. Why can't you see that you'll never be the hero? After all, you're programmed to mess up. As much as I would like to see your attempt, the forest is already in flames, you were too late. In fact, you were about thirty minutes too late." Venom from the chassis' voice was seeping out and Wheatley felt hopeless but he was still determined. Chell inspired him to be a bit more determined than he used to, and he silently thanked her for that. "No…I-I don't believe you."

"Fine, see for yourself moron, but don't come crying to me." A lift was called and Wheatley quickly went on, unsure where or what he was going to do when he found her, and if she was safe in the first place. Oh, please be alive… Chell survived through everything, what would be worse is if she died in a way that it was his fault. It was his fault… His entire fault. If he just looked at her, and her expression the first time he found her outside... If he followed her body language and never came back again, and never took that route again, he wouldn't be here. She wouldn't be here, running from the flames, which GLaDOS covered up to frame him. And if you really want to get technical, if he didn't wake her up in the first place, she would be safe and she would have never even had known him. Wheatley will be alone in the empty haunting hallways until the end of time but he would sacrifice anything to have her safe and sound. More importantly, he wanted her to be proud of him. To be…friends. He shook any guilty and harmful thoughts away because he realized that was exactly how GLaDOS wanted him to feel. Wheatley remembered Chell and how she would never give any satisfaction to her enemies. Now, he was going to do the same, and attempt to be the hero. He knows he might fail and he knows he was destined to mess everything up, but maybe just once, he can achieve something greater than he imagined…

As the lift finally came to a stop, he ran into her location. At least he knew that She wasn't bluffing. Up in the once blue sky was the darkest of clouds. Smoke... He recognized it from the time the facility was on fire and the time he was sent to the moon. [Don't think about it; don't think about it, that's exactly what She wants you to think.] For the first time, he didn't run away from the flames, he ran toward them [huh, that metaphor was quite literal…] searching for any signs of his human friend. He had learned that a forest fire was one of the most terrifying things he had seen in his lifetime. The flames seemed ten times hotter and they appeared not in their original orange luster but this time it was red. He went into the flame parade, even when he was terrified out of his mind, shouting Chell's name over and over again, not expecting any response, of course but hoping that she would be alive and well. The red flames all around him singed his metal casing as he ran hysterically, black charred spots showed up all around him. "Chell! Are—GAH! Are you alright?! Don't take it too metaphorically speaking, but I'm in a hot situation right now and I need you to tell me if you are okay and somewhere around here! Love!" He shouted before he got singed even more than before.

Where is she? Was she dead already? No… He wouldn't believe it until he found a body somewhere. He walked over and recognized the old oak tree that he met her on. It fell to the ground and a shower of embers and sparks flew as the enflamed old oak tree had its last moment. He screamed and ran; terrified out of his mind, until eventually he landed in a safer area near an old pond. He noted that he crashed into something on the way and stopped abruptly, because he knew in the deepness of his metaphorical heart that what he crashed into wasn't a tree. When he turned around, it was her! She was okay, maybe. She was coughing and wheezing, for the fact that she probably breathed in a lot of smoke but she was out of the fire and Wheatley's crash impact landed her in a muddy pond. "Oh—Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. That looked like it hurt. I'm just glad you're okay, I hope. Do you—"He was interrupted when a fist hit him in the optic, cracking a bit of his visionary lends. "Bloody hell!" He screamed, "That really hurt, love. What was that for?"

When he had the strength to open up his optic, there he found her. She had loads of wounds and burns all over her body but the one he could really recognize was the one on her shoulder…that one wound that he inflicted upon her when he was insane, it opened up again and her hand was trying to prevent more blood from escaping the injury. Blood was all over her, she obviously was not expecting the attack. Soot and ash covered her face and he could detect the same old expression that she carried around people she didn't necessarily like. The one that he hated, the one that read, "Go away and never come back." The forest fire behind her only made her all of the more frightening. She didn't have her portal gun, she was at lost to any sort of defense but she has proven today that she doesn't need a portal gun to bring him down cord by cord with her bare hands. Wheatley was scared stiff but also confused [would you mind tell me something I don't know?] and he managed to reason with her, "Look, love. I'm not here to hurt you. I would never do that again. She did this, not me… Please, trust me." He realized how ridiculous that must sound, GLaDOS was underground and she set Chell free in the first place, there was no way she would believe that. Saying that the testing bots did it for her would only make her confused and go on the route farther away from belief. She didn't buy it obviously. He could have just lied and said it was from natural causes but then again, she would have been able to easily walk away from that situation if it were a natural disaster, and that would make seem foolish and cowardly [well, more than he already is].

Her expression grew more intense, and Wheatley backed up and continued to reason. "Chell, you gotta believe me. I didn't do this… I would never do this to—"He was punched again. Christ, how can she pack that much of a punch on pure metal? "Gah! Okay, okay… I'll leave… I can see I'm not needed here obviously…Do you want me to leave, will you stop hurting me then?" Chell shook her fist out of the pain, bruises were showing up on her knuckles but she didn't care. She nodded and her brows were still furrowed and she was still very upset. Wheatley tried to ignore the fact that his heart shattered. "Oh, okay…Well, nice knowing you, love. G'bye…" He walked away slowly.

On the way "home" he avoided the forest fire and the image of her angry expression still showed up. The crack in his optic was here again and he went on the descending lift to meet punishing fate with Her, never feeling more content that she was safe and alive but never feeling so much like a failure and a disappointment. All of this time, he only wanted to make Chell proud and he didn't even succeed at that…