On That Day something fell from the sky.

Chell and the rest of the town watched in horror as it shot across the sky, scarring the sky behind it with dark streak of smoke. For the short time it was there it was almost too bright to look at: it was moving so fast they heard it break the sound barrier. That wasn't what alarmed Chell the most though: what truly frightened her was that, as it fell from the sky, she swore she heard it scream.

Everyone else was worried about what it was. Where it had landed. If it was dangerous. Chell knew the answer to the first two but not the third.

She opted to go find out.

They reluctantly allowed her to do so, nervously eyeing the sea of wheat in the distance. Only two people had ever returned from there, and neither one of them had been in good condition when they had done so. They told her to be careful, that she didn't have to do this if she didn't want to. She told them that she did.

While they returned to their homes Chell donned her Aperture orange jumpsuit and set out towards the shed. The sun rose lazily behind her as she trekked through the fields, and by the time the shed was within seeing distance it had already risen far above her. She had enough light to see clearly now.

But Chell still did a double take at what she saw when she reached the shed.

Chell hadn't expected to find Wheatley on the surface. She had expected something more along the lines of an open shed door and a sarcastic "Welcome back." requiring her to plunge back down into the depths of Aperture and break Wheatley out if she wanted to save him. Which wasn't going to happen.

During the trek to the shed Chell had come to an agreement with herself that she would not go back inside Aperture for any reason. If Wheatley was on the surface and it was a matter of picking him up and hauling him back to Horizon she would do so; but she wasn't going to risk her life for him after all he had done. Chell knew he wouldn't do that for her.

When she reached the shed she was surprised to find that Wheatley was on the surface, but she was more surprised to find that he was no longer a core.

Wheatley was human.

He was laying at her feet in a crumpled heap of lanky limbs and Aperture orange, looking more pathetic than after She had crushed him as a core. Chell realized that, now, she didn't have much of a choice over whether or not she would save him. As horrible as it sounded (even to her), saving a little robot was very different than saving a human being.

It was also much harder.

"Isn't it a lovely day?" Chell looked up to find that she was being watched. A small white camera was mounted on the shed, following her movements while relaying Her voice, which was lighter than Chell had ever heard. "The birds are singing, the sky is nice and blue. I even saw a deer this morning." Chell gave the camera an annoyed glare. There were currently more pressing matters at hand than the weather. "I'm sorry, am I too peppy for you?" She asked innocently, "It's just that I'm having such a wonderful day. Your replacements have been testing day and night for weeks, I recently found an entire wing of the facility brimming with test subjects, and now I'm finally reuniting with you again after all these years. How are you?" Chell glared down at Wheatley, then back up at the camera. "Oh." The happiness drained from Her voice. "The first time you stop by for a visit in over three years and you didn't even come to see me. I should have expected as much." Chell could practically see Her shaking Her head. "Don't worry about him, he's fine. For now."

Chell disagreed. Wheatley looked thin and dirty and fragile. He looked frail enough that he might snap in half at a touch. Chell watched him shiver by her feet for a moment before She spoke up again.

"I could kill him, but, out of the two of us, I'm not the killer. You are. So I'm going to let you decide." Two turrets rose out of the ground on either side of the shed, both pointing their scarlet beams at Wheatley. "Speak now or forever hold your peace."

It was a trap and Chell knew it: She wanted to steal her voice and her emotions at the same time. She expected Chell to save Wheatley, to want to save him. If Chell openly admitted that that was what she wanted she would be exposing an emotional vulnerability. She would see it, and She would exploit it: hurting both of them at once by killing Wheatley. Chell didn't want that, so she did the only thing she could think of. She deviated.

"Why?" She warped her voice into something stronger than its usual whispy lightness. She needed to sound strong and angry. Using her voice in such a way hurt her throat but she kept at it.

"Why what?"

"Why would I want to help him?" Chell demanded.

"That's a good question."

"He used me, he betrayed me, he tried to kill me." Chell glared down at Wheatley with bright grey eyes. "He's selfish and egotistical. He can't do anything right. He never shuts up." Her voice turned soft again, unable to hold up any longer. "Have fun. I'm not taking him."

Chell gave Wheatley a detached look before she turned her back to him and the shed and began to walk away. She didn't get very far.

"Wait."

'Reverse psychology.' Chell thought to herself.

Chell making it sound like she didn't want Wheatley would (hopefully) accomplish two things. One, GLaDOS would think that making Chell take him would serve as a punishment to both of them, making Her force Chell to take him. Two, it would remind Her that She wouldn't want to put up with him for very long because it would likely punish Her just as much as it would punish him. Or at least that's what Chell was going for; there was a chance that GLaDOS would see right through her.

Chell obeyed. She turned back around and looked up at the camera stoically.

"If you want him dead, that's perfectly fine with me; but like I said before, I'm not a killer." Chell swore the camera's optic narrowed at her. "I'm going to leave him here. If you leave he dies. Not because I killed him, but because you didn't save him." Her voice was slowly filling with conviction. "That would make you a killer. A real killer. You'd be killing another human being."

Chell glared fiercely at the camera for a moment before she bent over to help Wheatley up. He came to as she touched him on the shoulder, immediately recoiling from her touch and looking up at her with terrified blue eyes. Her expression remained stoic as ever.

"This is much better for everyone. I get to clear my conscience once and for all, you get to reunite with your old friend, and he gets to live another day. It doesn't matter that you two spent half your relationship trying to kill one another. Or even that he was the first person you trusted in years and he repaid you by stabbing you in the back and smashing you down an elevator shaft. I'm sure you've both changed for the better." Chell and Wheatley exchanged a doubtful look.

"Do what you want with him. I don't care as long as you keep him away from here."

Chell nodded at the camera before she lugged Wheatley to his feet.

'I will.'

Author's Note:

Two of eight!

This was a flashback chapter about the day Chell found Wheatley outside of Aperture. You've heard the characters refer to this day as That Day previously in the story.

I had a hard time getting all that GLaDOS dialogue to sound (vaguely) in character. I'm still not sure that what happened in this chapter was very clear. Sorry. I plan to revise this chapter in January, so you'll get a better version then.