AN: This chapter is meant to be a thank you gift for all of my readers' undying patience. I originally wasn't going to put this chapter in, considering I had no idea where to put this one in here, but I made it work out. This is supposed to be a bit fluffy to get rid of the intensity of chapter 9… and the next chapter will be the last by the way ( I promise there will be a happy ending even if it seems bleak). I am thankful because I have been in this fandom since May 2011 and I hope some newcomers and old friends enjoy the end of this fiction. [Maybe I'll post a Chelley drabble fic or oneshots every now and then, if you guys want me to]. Anyway, this is just a combination of all of my past ideas meant for Chelley pairing purposes, since the final draft/ending didn't turn out as shippy as I thought… Enjoy!
Chapter 10 (Feeling Sentimental)
Do you remember that one time when I said that Aperture devices can revisit their memories every time they remember them? Well, our old friend Wheatley was going through that while the punishments schedules were beginning. It was a horrible schedule, by the way. He would get up, and if there were no "surprises", which undoubtedly there were almost every day, then he would get killed and then reconstructed just so he can feel the pain again. It hurt, yeah, of course, but honestly it was growing more and more annoying as the hours ticked by. He hated her voice, her sarcasm, her plots, and he hated everything about Her. But he couldn't say that…No, most certainly, she would kill him and she already knew that he hated her. If she didn't, then she is as clueless as he is, if not more. It was a very long and tiring day. It seemed like all day it was just a punishment, and it started in the afternoon with the forest fire that ended his only friendship that he had. Honestly, not to be a cheesy archetype, she could do anything to him right now, because she has already taken everything he actually cared about.
So, right now was his break, She was too busy occupied with something else... Something she told him to stay out of it. While he finally had some peace and quiet [when Wheatley loved silence, you knew something was not right], he recalled last week. Ah, seven days ago. Last week was quite possibly one of the greatest weeks he had in decades. So strange how things can change when you don't even expect it. So, with that, he went into sleep mode for the day and let his processor lead him to the most treasured days just last week. It may have been last week, but it felt like a lifetime ago…
/:accessing memory/
/: date: 5/20/2056, 1:28 p.m./
/:Last update: 5 days ago:/
"Oh, love. What did you find this time? Looks years older than us, do you think it would possibly work?" Wheatley asked her, referring to the thing that was in her arms. She can walk now, but he knows that it will take time before he sets her free and says goodbye, he knows it would be hard to say goodbye to her. They were friends, he likes to think, and saying farewell will not be easy, that is for sure. The device in her arms looked like it was created almost a hundred years ago; it looked a lot like what you may see under Aperture, in its old former glory, when She wasn't in charge of the place. It may have been a simple device, but he had no idea what it was, after all, if you give someone too much information, they may scamper off and leave out of curiousity so the scientists never gave him the information that may be too interesting. You know what they say, ignorance is bliss.
"Be careful, Chell. I don't trust that thing…Who knows what it can do?!" Wheatley cautioned, out of severe concern. She silently laughed and rolled her eyes, before she sat down with the old device, and Wheatley did the same. Sure, sometimes she made him feel like a total moron, but she was adorable at some points in time. She flicked on the on switch, after some cautious remarks from Wheatley, and they were both shocked to find out that it was still functional. Loud fuzzy white noise emitted from the machine, while Wheatley screamed and asked for it to stop. Chell calmed him down, after a few attempts and turned down the volume. "Oh," Wheatley felt foolish and embarrassed and quietly gave out a nervous laugh. "Wait! I know what this is! It's a radio isn't?" Having a 'eureka' moment, he tuned the radio for any signs of radio signals. If there were radio signals, there was a radio tower and if there was a radio tower, well, you get the point. "They had these things in Aperture… I think I know what I'm doing here but forgive me if something bad happens. Now, the odds of something bad happening are slim but just bare with me here…"
Using his robotical hands, he tuned the radio carefully for it was very ancient. A few moments pasted and Chell seemed disinterested. Every channel displayed only white noise, a common error when a signal was lost or nowhere to be found. However, after the third try, there it was. A song coming from a radio signal from a radio tower in a nearby city. A nearby city. "Oi! We have civilization nearby! You can go find it, after we're done here and we can—"
Chell didn't seem at all interested, which seemingly upset Wheatley only by a pinch. She put one finger to her mouth. (("A sign of requested silence," it stated in his manual on human behavior.)) and he shut his. To his surprise, she seemed more interested in the song then anything else.
"Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free—"
"What?! Birds are terrifying. Who would write a song talking about those livid devils?" Wheatley interrupted only once and Chell giggled and gave another request of silence. "Right, sorry."
"Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise."
The song ended and Chell looked completely at peace and he smiled to himself. "Do you think they were talking about you, love? Oh! Sorry, I'm not comparing you to a bird, those things are evil Maybe that was just a metaphor though, yeah, that's what I'm getting at.." Wheatley suggested and Chell rolled her eyes and slightly nudged him as if to say, "that was corny," and then she fell asleep quickly right next to him, with the radio still playing softy.
/:End of memory/
/: Searching for new contents…/
/:Contents found/
/:accessing memory/
/: date: 5/22/2056, 10:34 p.m./
/:Last update: 3 days ago:/
It seemed to rain a lot in the forest. It was the second time this month that it was raining. This time it was a lot more peaceful than you may think. There wasn't any of that thunder involved. It was rather peaceful this time. Things were looking up, well, especially since GLaDOS allowed Wheatley to go out later since she knew where he was and what he was up to. So one day, he forgot to visit poor old Chell and so around eight, he went and visited her, unsure if she will still be awake at that time. He was surprised that she was still awake. Well, from what he knows now, she tends to sleep in the afternoon.
One of their old past times was looking through the forest and finding old artifacts, like that radio they found that one day. You wouldn't even imagine the amount of littering junk that it is in the woods. It wasn't good for the environment but it was fun to see some old things lying around. This time, Chell found an old picture frame, with a picture of two people in the frame. Despite the water damage and how much it was soaked right now, it was in good shape. Wheatley then instructed her to stay close to him, for it was cold and the last time it rained, it was cleared out before five, and she had never been this cold before in her life. She cuddled up to him under the old oak tree [this time he realized it was because he was warm and not because she was affectionate…] and they looked at the picture together. "What's that?" he questioned. There in the picture, were two people, holding hands affectionately and they were dressed in the most formal fashion. One of them was pressing their lips on the other person's cheek. Chell immediately knew what it was about. It was a wedding photo, on the back it stated it was taken in 2032, nearly twenty years ago. "Who are they? What are they doing, love?" No doubt Wheatley was clueless about this. Chell grabbed a nearby twig and wrote "They're married."
"Married? Hm…What's that?"
"It's when two people want to spend their lives together forever…" She wrote in the mud.
"Oh. Well, in that case, you want to get married? It probably will be low budget but…" Somehow, Chell knew he would say that and she laughed, with a blush on her cheeks and wrote, "You wouldn't."
"I would, love. You're my best friend, only friend, in fact. I would marry you if I had the chance, if you want to anyway…"
"That's where you're wrong. It's not a friend thing." She wrote in reply, raindrops were still falling in a peaceful way and he felt her getting a little colder, so he wrapped another robotic limb around her [for warmth, of course].
"What? So, you marry your enemies? God… that sounds like torture…Ugh, I'm sorry…"Wheatley cringed at the thought. Marrying Her. Ew… Destined to be with GLaDOS until the end of time is one of the things he wouldn't want to do. Chell nodded in response and wrote, "It's when people love each other…"
"What?...Oh, I see," A nervous laugh gave him a quick pause, "I'm sorry, that might have been a little strange…" Wheatley suddenly felt embarrassed, but Chell understood him. She was the only one who understood him.
"You're okay…There's no saying we can't have a friend marriage." Chell wrote.
"Right, you are, love. Right, you are…"
/:End of memory/
/: Searching for new contents…/
/:Contents found/
/:accessing memory/
/: date: 5/25/2056, 4:55p.m./
/:Last update: 12 hours ago:/
There was a forest fire in the middle of nowhere… It's his fault, all his fault. So much for marriage. He never felt…
/:memory interrupted/
/:shutting down:/
Wheatley awoke with a start and he screamed. That only happened 12 hours ago? It felt like a lifetime. All he knows now is that he doesn't want to remember that ever again and so he accessed his memory files searching frantically for that evil memory. He couldn't bare it any longer. He almost hit the delete button before he was interrupted with…