Never Let You Go.

The moon; I hadn't seen the moon before.

This beautiful, glowing orb suspended in the dark blue sky that seemed to consist of sparkling velvet, small gems embedded in the soft darkness, wrapping around the outside of the world in a warm blanket of security and comfort. I had dreamed of it, for a long time; this moon, this shimmering, iridescent orb. I had dreamed of stepping barefooted, without the tight-fitting long-fall boots curving around my aching feet, calloused and sore from overuse, on soft grass, springy and fresh, spreading out amongst this field of green. No longer present was the sharp smell of chemicals that burnt my nose, the pristine walls of a decrepit, long abandoned facility, but a world that shone underneath the brightness of the moon. Yeah, a field of springy fresh grass… spread out around me like the ocean.

Oh God the ocean! I desperately wanted to see that too. Sparkling dimples imbedded in a churning mass of salty, shimmering blue waves: ankle deep waters, a cold rolling spray that calmly lapped up on a golden beach with a constant, beautiful pattern. I wanted to have my feet sinking into sand so soft, so different from the cold hard floors of Aperture... And the quiet swish of waves! Reflecting the warped sky itself, the glorious, amazing, one-of-a-kind blue sky with clouds so soft and wispy you could just reach out and try to catch them in between your rough worn fingers. And the sun! God, I wanted to feel the sun, not the harsh burn of the hard light bridges I so often had to run across, feet pounding on something that could waver and disappear under my feet any second… I wanted to feel its soft rays on my skin, warming me to my core — better than a blanket or a blazing incinerator; golden warmth… so unlike the flames that were around me now, licking at my skin like a hungry animal, sparking and roaring with an angry hiss. Unlike the blistering burning that was wrapped around me tightly in a constricting net of pain.

I'd even found a picture once, of the world up there, down in the depths of Aperture, some holiday portrait from the desk of an employee, torn and tattered with age, yet the smile was still evident, the faded colours still showed me a world I had longed to see for far too long. When She said the world has changed, I didn't believe Her, up there was something new and amazing, safety, comfort, a place where I wouldn't need to run anymore.

I had never been able to identify the difference between a normal dream, a dream where I could have a moment of respite and a happy moment all to myself; a natural dream filled with the faintest of pleasant and joyful memories, or hopes of a future I always thought unreachable… And a dream forced into my head by one chemical or another, forced sleep, forced thoughts — they couldn't control it, but they could sure as hell try… But even through the nightmares of walls that loomed forever, even through the fantasy of a world without cages, it still ended with the same impossible hope…

I wanted to see everywhere… everything.

And I had wanted to see everywhere with him.

"What, are you still alive!?" Wheatley screamed as I shifted my weight, a sharp pain stabbing into my gut. Shrapnel, shrapnel and burns and cuts and bruises… I was tired, I was hungry… I'd had enough. "You are joking! You have got to be kidding me!" Should I even bother standing? Should I even bother moving? What good would it do? I glanced around as best as I could… I think I'd broken a rib, there was a sharp throbbing pain in my chest that wouldn't go away, every breath I sucked in ached and burned, it was a chore just to suck in as much as I could, it was familiar, like the last time I'd been thrown around a bit too violently by one psychopathic AI or another.

I hissed sharply in pain as I groped weakly for the portal gun lying nearby, dragging it close to me as I rolled onto my back, clutching it to my chest for a moment, like a baby. From my view on the floor, there was a lot of fire, despite the earlier spray of cold water. They burned and bristled, licking at the walls with hungry tongues, eager for a meal. They would eat me too if I got in the way, they would eat everything, because fire was just that selfish.

'Don't think I'm not on to you too, lady. You know what you are? Selfish—'

Was I really all that selfish? Or was that just the corrupt chassis he was on talking? The darkness that had been controlled and contorted by GLaDOS into something so much more sinister than the AI itself… and it tainted everything connected to it… Was I selfish if all I wanted was my friend back? Was it so wrong of me to wish that I'd never hit that damn stalemate button in the first place?

"Well, I'm still in control, and I have no idea how to fix this place!" His desperate tone broke through my thoughts, he sounded just as frustrated as he did sad; absolutely depressed… defeated, but… how could Wheatley ever be defeated? He was the little invincible ball that helped me escape a lifetime of endless testing… until he himself was corrupted. I didn't blame him. I couldn't blame him, in a place where friends were so few that you became resigned to being alone in here forever… you couldn't just write one off because something went a little curvy, even GLaDOS perhaps, had grown a little closer to me, but I knew that relationship was strictly professional, as soon as She was in charge again, and I knew that the chance of that was slim, it would be back to testing.

"You had to play bloody cat and mouse, didn't you? While people were trying to work." His voice broke into a sad choke; he tried to hide it with his rage, his voice raised as high as it would go; a scream of almost childish temper... But I noticed, of course I noticed, past the dreadful ringing in my ears from what I dared believe was a concussion and the dreadful pain that was my entire bloody body… I noticed. He was the only (Semi) intelligent being in this entire bloody facility that hadn't immediately thrown me to the wolves in some crazy new test track, he'd tried to help me, he'd tried to save me and… he wanted a scape goat, and I was happy to play the role. I was happy to carry around this heavy personality core and try to escape… I… it felt great to believe for even a moment that there was hope. It felt even better to know it was a friend who had given it to me, a friend! In this… this hellhole! Even if I was just a prop on the stage he envisioned, it was a play I had willingly signed up for.

It was a play… and we would find the surface, we would be free… and maybe then… maybe it wouldn't be a play anymore, maybe we could stop playing pretend, and without worrying about crazy AI's or nuclear meltdowns… we could see everything, the sky, the grass, the world beyond Aperture, and we'd be safe.

"Yes, well now all of us are going to pay the price." He hissed tightly, I saw the chassis rise as he emphasised his point, jutting his head towards me angrily, bright blue optic narrowing… the simmering glare only broken by the repeated twitches he was suffering, the corruption of the cores I'd stuck on him, all three of them staring at me intently from their place on his body. But he couldn't hold still for a moment without his head jerking to the side like a broken record stuck on the same note. "Because we're all about to bloody die!"

I smiled quietly as I felt the familiar grip on the ASHPD once again. I guess he didn't want to see the surface with me. Not anymore, maybe it was because I wasn't a good enough escape-partner, maybe I was too silent, maybe because I was brain damaged, or because I was too fat? I'd seen myself in the rare glimpse one could get in a portal and I doubt fat would in any way suit my description… so… I guess I was about to die with him instead. I was actually okay with that — was that wrong; to willingly embrace death? They called it suicide, but it felt more like… giving up.

The irony here was that I finally get to see the outside world, barely a glimpse... a shimmering orb of lunar dust and a velvet blanket covered in glittering gems… And then I'll lose it all. I wouldn't get to walk on soft green grass, fresh with morning dew and springy under my tired feet, Wheatley in my arms, and as we promised, in a sullen silence, watch the natural sky pass above us.

Or perhaps Wheatley 'The Moron.' As GLaDOS had aptly named him, succeeded in what GLaDOS had failed at, twice. Of course, he had tried a few more time than Her, he hadn't given up, neither had She of course, but he certainly fit as many murder attempts as he could into the shortest period of time, and some of his plans really were more intelligent than GLaDOS's.

But Wheatley right now…God. Now he was screaming, ranting, yelling. All in a desperate tirade of rage he didn't know how to spend any more, if he had any left, it was half-hearted cries shouted at a deaf audience… but to me he sounded broken, his tone was cracked and if he was human I wouldn't be surprised to see him curled up, sobbing as he screamed to those around him for whatever deeds they'd done, like an angry god who had seen the race he'd worked so hard to protect fall apart, and he screamed and screamed at what they should've done… the ignorant should have known what to do… The ignorant should have just died when he told them to.

He also sounded scared, this I could actually relate to, I was only sprawled on the ground, portal device being clung to with wet clammy hands despite the burns all over my body… only just been through my one and only friend going completely and utterly insane — and was nearly killed repeated times… I was only waiting for the imminent spectre of Death that was sitting right behind me with his hourglass, waiting patiently as the last of my grains slipped through… I could understand.

I couldn't understand the fear of having something completely out of your control rushing around you in a mad panic when you were the one who could control everything… I was never in control, and in a way… that scared me.

I tried shifting again and failed miserably as he whirled on me. "All I wanted to do was to make everything better for me!" he cried… sad, it sounded sad; despite the raging overtone it was absolutely miserable. All I wanted, all I wanted- "All you had to do was solve a couple hundred simple tests for a few years! And you couldn't even let me have that, could you?!"His voice choked again and I cringed, hand tightening over the Portal device with a faint but dying determination… heartbroken. The choke in his tone, heartbreak, he just wanted… he just wanted me to die. He masked it all with anger, the harsh little break that made my heart clench painfully was overwhelmed by the dark and bitter roar he let out, shaking his head on the chassis as the fires grew, more of the roof falling away, the walls peeling apart like paint. All I wanted… I tried, but he seemed to sob, the sound would have been inaudible, but I was so intent on hearing what he was saying that it was impossible to miss, the quiet half-assed sob that one might hear a puppy make after being kicked across the room for the billionth time and it had just decided that it was high time it gave up… or perhaps the sound one would make… if everything was going to shit and you just wanted everything to be alright.

All I ever wanted…

Even if he still hated me for whatever heinous crime I committed, even if he was angry at me for any mistake I'd happened to make… even if he still wanted me dead… I just wanted him to stop crying like that… it wasn't him, it wasn't right; Wheatley smiled, Wheatley laughed… Wheatley was the moral support, I needed him to be… to be him, even if it was just the him from before. I wanted him to stop… because that hurt me more than that explosion did. More than the bullets I'd managed to fill my body with during my marvellous time in a testing facility that seemed to just beg for the miniscule amount of test subjects it still had left to somehow die in the most obvious and easily avoidable fashion, more than the bombs he hurled at me relentlessly that made you feel as if you were submerged in liquid fire if they exploded anywhere near you— He was still my friend… even if he betrayed me.

'Oh look, just open the door!'

I hadn't let him in... of course I hadn't… not straight away, my last memories consisted of a dead homicidal AI staring at me with black dead eyes and the feeling of cold metal on my ankles, dragging me away slowly and surely back into the hell I knew as Aperture, I remained suspicious and afraid. If you weren't suspicious and afraid in Aperture… then you weren't going to live long. And eventually he had succumbed to pleading with me from the other side of the door.

'Ah! She's awake!'

I couldn't stop her from breaking him. I couldn't warn him that that was GLaDOS, the absolutely psychopathic omnipotent AI that I had perhaps murdered and forced a massive grudge… If I'd been anyone else, then Wheatley would have been fine. But I wasn't, I was Chell—[REDACTED] and happened to be the object of hate for the all-powerful monstrosity recently reborn– I couldn't break free, couldn't twist or slip out of the metal claws grasp and grab him, couldn't scream at Her to stop…

'Judging me! Silently!'

I couldn't tell him that She knew me, I couldn't speak back, couldn't tell him 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry.' I couldn't even offer my name to this oddly polite, almost human personality core... I couldn't warn him about GLaDOS… I couldn't tell him that I wasn't trying to use him… I could never speak back.

But... I couldn't help those. I couldn't just open the door to a complete stranger when all I knew about the people here was that they wanted me dead, wanted me to test. All I knew was that beyond that door was deadly neurotoxin, incinerators, anger and frustration of a Test Subject who just wouldn't obey—couldn't obey. I couldn't stop GLaDOS either, I couldn't warn him or cut all the bloody wires and Her damn circuits with my bare hands, I couldn't wrestle with a claw capable of over three thousand pounds of pressure, because She was stronger than me, She was faster than me and had so much more control over everything... And I couldn't speak because the words just never came.

My eyes reopened as another memory struck out from the depths of my mind, it was crystal clear, perfectly formed and folded in the little lockbox in my mind.

'CatchmeCatchmeCatchmeCatchme -'

'Oh — you… you caught me — you actually caught me and — I'm not dead! I'm not dead! Aha- hahahaha!'

The only good I could do. The only thing I had ever really do for him and him in particular, he wasn't affected by neurotoxin and shooting him wouldn't really do too much damage… so all that sabotage… that was all for me, he didn't need to do it but he did, he went out of his way to help me… but there was one thing that would affect him… fear could, that terrible mind numbing fear that made him shake and made me freeze- he was human that way.

I guess that was my one good deed: reach out and grab him, this personality core that went up to my bloody knee if he was sitting beside me, it was almost a deadly catch, but I still did it, his weight forcing me to my knees, slamming them into the cold tiles with a sick crack, that had hurt, it had been agonizing, but he hadn't noticed, he was celebrating his 'still living' status and I was happy to let him be. I was happy too, it was contagious, that joy that radiated from him like adrenal vapour, it energised me, but it felt natural.

But I had honestly thought he would be a tiny bit lighter considering he was nearly hollow… I should've prepared, it was only sold metal that I was catching. But…But I hadn't let him fall. That was all that mattered because despite whether he had heard me or not, (I sincerely hoped he couldn't because him developing mind reading capabilities would leave me in a horrible position…) I just… I promised not to drop him.

But all I really wanted-

A distant explosion shook the already dismembered room as Wheatley continued to shout, every long moment to me… was just another second passing by, time seemed to stand still and somewhere inside I wanted it to stay like this, frozen and alive… an impossibility, and… maybe it was selfishness, but right now, right this very second, despite the urge to remain in that impossible frozen moment… I just wanted him to do that quirky reassuring smile he so often pulled, the 'It'll be okay' even though everything was falling apart around you, the 'Just stay calm' when you were about to die… Just once more, like he had done, a million times before, how he had managed to make the bitter sting of tears that would never actually flow, go away as I curled up, defeated after running from another horrifying turret encounter… and despite my fear, help me carry on. I'd be rather happy to just lie here and fade away, If only he told me, with his smile or his words, that it damn well would be okay.

I looked back up at the moon, lunar dust… Why would I describe it like that? What would be the point of such a ridiculous description for such a beautiful thing- Luna? That was its name.

All I wanted Wheatley, was-

"Yeah, that's right. Luv! Take one more look at your precious human moon, because it cannot help you now!" he screamed, my grip on the portal gun became a strangle hold, some instinctual urge to cling onto the only weapon I had. I knew somewhere it had meaning, somewhere I knew that this giant glowing orb had meaning other than a dying ember of hope, and for once, I noticed the room had gone silent, Wheatley had given up, GLaDOS had given up; we were all going to die... But…Truth was, it was die here; just lay down here, broken on a floor with my only friend sagging in his place in the middle of the room, completely and utterly defeated.; or listen to the niggling little thought in the back of my mind and actually try something, even if it was completely and utterly insane, it was better than nothing… than giving up.

So Luna... Lunar dust, that beautiful shimmering, poisonous skin of yours, it makes a great portal conductor, right?

Slowly, I lifted my other arm; it was aching and sore, searing with the intense warmth of a fresh burn, blood leaking from the large gash on my forearm that had reopened twenty times in the past two days and wrapped it around my right arm, which was still clinging to the ASHPD with the same grip I was holding onto life with; steadying it dizzily, and aimed it at the amazingly large, silver orb, hanging like a diamond in the dark, seemingly endless sky, a giant bloody target, a lantern in the dark.

Please work, please work, please work-

And pulled the trigger.

A pause as he half sobbed, making a half-assed comment about how useless I was, how I just got in the way and how I was so horrible to make this happen... He just... He sounded so desperately sad.

I wanted to hug him as I did before… when I found him again and we had finally found respite from the ever watchful gaze of GLaDOS, so happy not to be alone anymore, touch his warm metal hull that buzzed like a hummingbird's heartbeat… and promise to never let go as long as he wanted me there. But right now he didn't want me there, he wanted me gone. All I wanted-

All I ever wanted, Wheatley, was for us both of us to be happy.

Stuff the power, the ability to move the walls to your will; to control everything… we can be as weak as each other… I was happy long before you were a giant manic AI, I was happy when GLaDOS mocked me and called me fat, when she tried to kill me, because I was with you, Wheatley, we were with each other and we were on some brave adventure, we were going to escape together and find the surface — whatever happened to that?

For us to escape together.

The moon glimmered, a tiny orange spark.

For us to be free.

And then everything went flying forward, my portal gun tearing out of my grip and hurtling away, a hollow howling wind filling up the chamber as a core detached from the chassis and went flying out the hole in the ground — Rick, I think it was; the adventure core — Wheatley's own connection strained, snapping until he was clinging on by a wire that wavered as the gale tried to suck him in.

Instinctually I reached out as I slid across the dark grey tiles, the sticky white conversion gel slowing me down for a mere moment before the drag grew even stronger, pain forgotten as a fresh wave of adrenaline pumped through me; I tried to grab something, anything, I felt an incredible strength tugging at me, growing stronger the closer I got until I was lifted off the floor. Wheatley was rapidly coming closer toward me, whether he was aware of it or not, and the second cold metal touched the skin of my hand, my fingers automatically clenched around it, desperate not to go flying into the cold void of space. Wheatley's form wavered at the sudden pull, waving slightly to the side, and my grip strengthened around his handles.

Having clenched my eyes to banish the dust I opened them again, only to see Wheatley's wide optic orb staring up at me in a panic; darting everywhere before resting on me, completely dilated and devoid of any sympathy… then, a sharp pinprick. A trick of the light? — Or a sudden uncomfortable shift of his optic? For a second he looked like my Wheatley again; terrified… almost… concerned, before it returned to the irritable, arrogant bastard that tried to kill me.

"We're in space! We're in space!" He was screaming, something harsh collided with my left hand and flew past me, shouting as it went off with a joyful buzz, and desperately I pushed my hand back to grab his second handle again. My hesitant silver eyes locking on the bright blue and green disk not far from here, well, it didn't appear far, it just seemed small, like I could hold it in my hand… the Earth...

God it was beautiful, clouds wrapped around it like delicate, cold fingers trying to hold something fragile without leaving fingerprints to smudge its perfect surface. The blue ocean seemed to swirl around itself as I watched, or perhaps it was a mixture of the clouds and the blue dancing in tandem, the land itself stood solid and sturdy… more sturdy then the panels I'd lived with under my feet half my life, than the hard light bridges or excursion funnels… I could almost imagine… the actual Sun… warm… like a mother's embrace.

Well... At least I can say; that I saw the surface before I died — that… that we both saw the surface.

"Let me go! I'm still connected! I can still fix this!" I turned back to him with a mixture of shock and anger. Let go? Let myself fly into the void of space and-

If I let go he would be drawn in by GLaDOS, killed — brutally. She would punish him first, leave him in almost an eternal torture before finally putting an end to him in her own sick way; I would die a horrible death, thrust into space, never to return. But... "I can still fix this!" He can still fix this... if... He can, I believe in him. I could look back at every deed I've done and be happy, not that there was many deeds to speak of, I didn't have much to talk about at all, tests, killing AI's… but now perhaps, saving a friend… earned a trophy up on the God counter, right?

But since when has he fixed anything?

The thought was harsh and fast and it took a precious moment to realise it was me. I was angry, yes; I was bloody furious. Some part of me hated him for everything that happened. Some deep, dark part of me wanted to hold on tighter and make sure that if that wire snapped he would go flying. I wanted him gone for every bad thing he had done to me… but then I would remember who it was that woke me up, who it was that spent so much time around me without so much as a bad word, even with all the testing he'd been mostly motivational, only resorting to harshness when this 'itch' got bad enough. I would remember that it had to have been GLaDOS's corrupted body that tainted him… it was her…

Keep telling yourself that.

I will. I looked into his one, bright eye. The lids were fully drawn back in panic and I had a sudden realisation of just how harshly my lungs were burning. 'Let go?' I gasped desperately as he screamed at me; some air was left, rushing out of the facility in a mad rush. 'Let-go?!' Yes… It wasn't Wheatley, it was a part of him so corrupted by GLaDOS's old systems that there was nearly no trace of my old friend anymore. Maybe somewhere deep inside there was the little blue-eyed core that just wanted to reach the surface with someone… maybe he was fighting, maybe he cared. I saw him, I swear I saw him before, amongst the panic I saw a glimmer, in the fights there was always a hesitance… my mind kept flashing back to the little core that woke me up… he… had to care! He was so human-

Maybe he didn't.

I smiled sadly, breathing in another harsh gulp of air, my chest screaming in pain as my smile grew into a full on grin, forcing away the trepidation that haunted my every moment. My eyes were wet… it had to be all the dust flying out at me... Or maybe I was just scared… terrified, maybe I was crying because of this… But I didn't feel scared. Maybe that's why I was smiling... I was utterly convinced... Determined. I think I was crying tears of joy perhaps, or ultimate sorrow… succumbing to the need to just give up because I had fought long and hard enough. I guess I was smiling in reassurance… because he wouldn't ever smile like that at me ever again... so I would do it for him.

His optic widened, and I saw it again, the Wheatley, my Wheatley, glowing blue optic widening in shock as one of my hands slipped free from its grip on his handle, maybe I actually let go then, maybe I made that conscious decision to pry those fingers loose… or perhaps I slipped, grip losing the strength I disillusioned myself with, or maybe it just ached from when that piece of debris smashed into it... But I was immediately forced back, hand trailing behind me like a rag doll or a flag, I let it wave its surrender. There was human instinct however, and the other instinctually started to grip tighter, if I tried, if I honestly tried, I could pull back. I could get my grip. I could live. I... I would go back the facility, and GLaDOS would make me test again because if I learnt anything from my seemingly endless time in Aperture science, all the female AI did was lie... I would nearly die; time and time again, retain injury after injury.

Maybe Wheatley would stay with me. If he would let me keep him close to me ever again or If GLaDOS didn't kill him, no, that's right, She wouldn't kill him. She'd maim him, break him, and torture him until he wished that he had been flung into space. But maybe, just maybe, GLaDOS wouldn't try and kill me with Her tests, now that she knows of the woman named Caroline who remains inside her. Maybe She wouldn't care; maybe She'd play pretend and make my life hell, as She had done for so long.

Space... It was beautiful. More beautiful than anything I had seen inside Aperture… If I let go I would die. Rather quickly and perhaps painfully — most likely painfully, actually.

Perhaps it would be okay.

"You're... No. What?!" He stuttered, optic widening in… was that fright? Horror? "You're... Are you actually listening to me?" He looked... Hopeful. Little Wheatley was getting attention, after being ignored for a close eternity, little Wheatley might just survive this situation he's found himself in… little Wheatley looked scared as fuck.

Little Wheatley looked like my old friend.

I nodded with my ever-present silence, the one he had adapted to, talking for himself and for me in the most interesting self-dialogue I'd ever heard, he'd made me laugh, albeit silent… but that was a pleasant memory to cling onto… 'That one… and that other one… where he made you laugh…' actually. I offered that smile, still glued on my face, swallowing the dark knot in my stomach that didn't want to die. There were a lot of times when he made me laugh, it was beautiful and amazing. 'I'd never know what happiness was before you'd taught me Wheatley, all I knew was testing… all I knew was how to survive. You changed that for me, you made survival actually worth it.'

One final, shuddering breath, 'I always listened,' I mouthed, and moved to let go, fingers relaxing the very slightest… just when GLaDOS's cold claw clamped around my wrist, it was hard enough to keep me where I was, but not so tight it crushed my bone. Wheatley looked at me and for the smallest of seconds —he looked… happy. Was it because I had finally let go and he hadn't noticed GLaDOS's claw fixed around my wrist… or was he happy that I was still bound safely to Earth?

"I can… I can fix it."

My left hand trailed forward as I struggled to bring it closer to me, just as GLaDOS's claw shifted, bumping Wheatley to the side just enough to completely severe the wire that bound him to land. "I've already fixed it- and you are not coming back." GLaDOS hissed.

"Change of plan! GrabmeGrabmeGrabmeGrabmeGrab meGrabme- Oh God graaaab meeee!"

The hand that had been trailing behind reached out in the nanosecond I had, stretching tightly until I felt cold metal and closed my sore, freezing fingers around his handlebar, the sudden extra weight tugging at my arm jerking it out of its socket, and my mouth opened in a silent scream of pain. But I had no time for this, adrenaline powering every movement; I slowly forced my arm to pull against the force. The claw around my wrist tightened the second She realised what I was doing.

"Let go!" GLaDOS yelled.

"Don't let go!" Wheatley argued as he reached my chest, I wrapped my arm around him, cold metal digging uncomfortably into my elbow as my arm naturally wove through, but I was too afraid to readjust my grip. Too afraid that I might drop him, "Don't let me go! Don't let me go!" He was begging, desperation still reminiscent of the psychotic AI who had just recently tried to kill me.

"Let go!" She was more insistent this time, claw shaking gently as if that would dislodge the extra passenger I was clinging onto for dear life. I bent my head against the force and I felt a gentle tugging. I felt cold droplets sting my cheeks as Wheatley begged me not to let go.

Let go!

My own voice, in my mind, screaming orders at me based on logic and survival chances, something I've been trusting for a God-awful long time. It was a quiet, determined hiss; it knew what to do, it knew what I had to do to survive, and I had more than enough reasoning to last me a while.

He betrayed me. Turning on me when freedom was so close… it was like reaching towards a prize you long ago earned, you've worked for it; you've bled for it… It had always been so far away, but now it was so close and then he took it away, he put it on a higher shelf. He taunted me about it, about everything. He looked down at me like I was nothing and made sure that I knew that was exactly what I was; he tried to kill me, subtly and outright, he hurt me, he screamed at me, accused me of a million crimes. He tried his damnedest to break me. And on some level, he did. GLaDOS hadn't been there, the bird had long ago fluttered off with her in possession, and I had looked up at the elevator, and then slowly began to sob. But… he—I heard him say-

'Am I being too vague? I despise you, I loathe you! You arrogant, smugly quiet, awful jumpsuited monster of a woman!'

He—he… he didn't—I… that's not-

'Don't let go!'

This cry was sharper, it dug its hands around my arm and forced me to stick to my optimism — no matter how hard it was to stay so chipper for so long.

'Did you find the portal device? Oh! Are you alive? Probably should have asked that first.'

He woke me up, rather politely, hadn't burst in — had knocked, he didn't have hands but he still went to the effort to knock. He rescued me from the relaxation chamber and reassured me the whole time; he had done everything for me, whether he knew it or not… I wouldn't have made it without him… and I had done my best to do the same for him... He may not understand what it means to be hungry, what it means to be tired.

But he tried.

One thing he knew all too well was fear, and so did I. It was no longer a matter of finding a place to hide in all on my own while I tried to recover from whatever wound I'd gained now. For the pitifully short time he wasn't drunk with power, it was a matter of having someone there with you, who despite being very afraid themselves; absolutely terrified, reassured you as best as they could.

'I don't need to do the voice — run!'

He came back. Wasn't that enough?

And… if it wasn't, he was my first and only friend... I had no-one else. I'd never had anyone else… and I could never give up on him.

'I know you can't read thoughts Wheatley... I know I can't speak.' I thought desperately, clinging as tightly as I physically could to the small core. 'I know that you hate me for whatever crime I committed... Whatever it was is yet to be seen. I know all this... And I promised, whether you heard me or not, that I would not drop you!' It was almost a determined battle cry, my grip grew tighter around the small core and I managed to partially wrap my body around him; keeping him safe.

Over the roar of the rush of air billowing around me, the frantic beating of my heart and the burning in my lungs that dulled everything…I heard GLaDOS groan and felt the cold of the moon disappearing as the portal closed.

I was suspended in the air by my wrist for a hesitant second before I was dumped unceremoniously a whole half a foot on the ground, arm still lodged around Wheatley in the most God-awful position for someone who had injuries all over their damn body.

"I'm alive! I'm alive! I am… I am not dead! Not dead!" A quiet pause, contemplative; the silence that hung in the air was heavy and suffocating, until finally the little core lit up the dankness with a joyous cry: "We're alive! Of course it's a 'we'! We're escape partners! You didn't drop me!"

A sudden anxious silence settled over us again as I struggled to breathe in as much air as I possibly could, every breath an effort, a stabbing pain in my chest. I felt the handle wrapped around my arm shift, the glowing, cracked blue optic swivelled to try and see my face as I lay tiredly on the ground, then a shocked whisper too quiet to accurately be heard by the AI directly behind us. "You… you didn't let go... Why?"

I couldn't answer, I never could speak, not that I remembered, and I couldn't now, as much as I wanted to just to tell him the answer. Currently however, I was on the ground and tired as hell, well, that and covered with what I believed to be third degree burns, cuts that had once again reopened and bruises so black I didn't dare touch them. Despite the near silent whisper, the chamber was even quieter and his voice echoed off the walls… So GLaDOS kindly decided that She should answer for me, as unlike to me in social etiquette as could be, not that silent and glaring was better than sarcasm and repeated insults.

When She did speak She didn't even have the sarcastic grin in Her voice, or the dark smile that often accompanied Her tone.

Then: just as narcissistic as She was before, "Because she's a moron."

I curled Wheatley closer to me, despite the aching pain all over me; everything was on fire, everything burned and I wanted to scream, my shoulder ached from where I'd dislocated it and it was a pretty heavy source of pain now that the adrenaline had finally worn off.

I was alive, Wheatley was alive. We were alive. We were alive. We were alive.

We were alive.

Slowly, I let my soundless sobs escape my quivering, pale lips, body curling around the small core as I shuddered with unspoken tears.

We were alive… I had somehow managed to survive, I'd… I'd saved Wheatley! My sobs developed into a silent half-laugh and I continued to shake, clinging onto Wheatley with both hands, desperate to keep my long-sought, hard-earned prize safe.

And bloody hell I was in a hell of a lot of pain — The laughter didn't fade even as I sobbed, I clung onto him as I let out a silent wail, sob after sob shaking my tired, weak body, until finally a peaceful respite took over, the hallowed safety of darkness replaced the dim light that pierced my body like a thousand, red-hot knives.

I sunk deeper; unconsciousness, darkness, a deep, peaceful oblivion.