AN/ Sorry it took so long to post this, I went through a massive phase of thinking this story was shit and should never see the light of day, then my editor forgot about it, so I self-edited (so if you see anything, let me know), and then I swapped back to my old fandom for a while, lost interest, and finally dragged myself back. So... here, I'll start working on Chapter III when I can.
Regret.
She would have let go. She-would-have-let-go. Had to say it twice, well, think it. It was just that confusing to him.
He told her to let go, screamed at her to drop him. She was the only thing keeping him from returning to the safe confines of his lair, and- and she nearly did, she had looked at him with those bright silver eyes, he could see beneath them, not literally of course, it wasn't like he had x-ray vision, as cool as that would be… but it sort of scared him, that he could see how torn she was, the human will to live, conflicting with… he didn't have anything in his database to describe it, it was this bright fire, well, her eyes weren't literally on fire, that would actually be pretty disturbing… but—oh right! She just seemed to be fighting with herself, this side that desperately wanted to live, and this other side… that seemed to want to die- not suicidally, no, that wasn't her type of personality, but more of a martyrdom kind of way, his database told him that was the most suitable word for it, as if on cue, it flashed up with the definition.
'G-God… she would sacrifice herself for… for me?' The thought lasted but a moment but its effects remained permanently stored within him. Sacrifice… his database tried to speak up again. 'I know what sacrifice means mate, just let my thoughts clear up.' She was fully prepared to give her life for a purpose… what purpose? There was no purpose! He betrayed her.
Sacrifice: Giving something up for someone or something, to the extreme it can be the giving of one's life, whether for a purpose [See Martyrdom] or for someone else that is highly valued by the individual. Alternatively, Sacrifice could be the execution of an animal or human for a religious cause. His database offered helpfully. Automatically Wheatley's mind strayed to one of the most currently hated memories he had in his artificial mind.
'I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here! What have you sacrificed? Nothing! Zero. All you've done is boss me around-' He cut it off suddenly; desperate not to remember such a fleetingly horrid moment.
She would of… she nearly… she would have sacrificed herself for him? For the measly little core that tried to kill her? And the worst part is… she had actually smiled back then, her face had split in a wide grin that he hadn't seen before, it wasn't crazy or wild, it was bloody determined, she knew what she was doing, and she had no reservations. It was almost as if it were okay that she was about to bloody die! She was that utterly stubborn to prove to him that she listened, after all his complaints that no-one ever heard him, no-one ever listened to him, she tried so hard to prove… to prove that she heard him, to prove that she cared about him, was actually concerned, that she didn't hate him despite everything he had done that would make anyone hate him. She was so determined, as she had always been; so much so that she would have bloody... she would have bloody died.
Dead, her? She… she was invincible! She was indestructible! She couldn't die! Shouldn't he know? He only tried to kill her, what? A million times?! Mashy spike plates, spinny blade walls, bottomless pits… space. He had a horrid record for being a half decent friend, didn't he?
He swivelled his optic again to look at her, the constant twitch that plagued his damaged casing hindering the simple act of removing his remorseful gaze from the floor; her head was inches away from his face, nostril flaring with every hindered breath, her lips parted slightly, stained with blood and harbouring a split lip… nasty looking that, her hair was matted with thick mud and gels, and her cheeks were gaunt, hollow. Her skin was rather pale actually; he specifically remembered her having much darker skin, tanned or... foreign perhaps? He knew humans had different types of colours. (Notamoron) But she was almost white now, white and purple actually… and red, there was a lot of red, along her bare arms there was a collection of dark bruises, cuts, and burns. Her hands especially were cut open and bloody, raw from picking herself up over and over, burned from where he guessed she'd picked herself off of light bridges, well… she was covered with burns all over, fresh burns, ones that were a dark angry red.
'Part Five.' Was the quiet whisper in the back of his mind, and he cringed.
And she didn't look fat, she looked absurdly thin, probably unhealthily so, being as thin as that, how could someone that- 'Malnourished' his database supplied- support themselves? He… he had seen her eat occasionally, when they found those creepy little holes, he never understood the need to shove such odd, gross things into ones mouth, but even afterwards she seemed weak. It was never that she ate too much as She so often teased her about, it was just that she ate too little and Wheatley didn't need his database to tell him that it was not good for humans to go without eating enough.
She wasn't dead, starved and bruised and cut up and burnt… but she was close to being dead.
He looked away, staring up at the roof as it repaired himself, catching one fleeting glimpse of the moon. Wow it was… it was actually rather beautiful when you weren't about to die, brilliant, it shimmered in the non-conductible panel black sky, the world outside of Aperture, he had wanted to see it, he still wanted to see it, he woke her up to do so after all, and at first it had just been that, someone who could help him.
She hadn't even been the first, there had been others, several in fact, they all died before they reached the portal device though didn't they? If it was them… if it was them and not her, then maybe he wouldn't be feeling like he is now, maybe she wouldn't be as dead, everything would have been just fine—except she'd still be asleep, she may have died from his rash actions, slamming buildings together, probably killed any possible survivors there… but at least he wouldn't have betrayed her, at least he wouldn't be feeling as crap as he did now. What the heck was this anyway?
Guilt. Was the answer his database supplied.
'An annoying fiddly little emotion that makes you feel like absolute crap… that has also been thrown into an incinerator, after being crushed, like the stupid pathetic core that I also happen to feel like.' Was Wheatley's personal definition.
Her breath caught in her throat- giving Wheatley a frightening moment when he was afraid she had stopped breathing for good, panic seizing up within him, rolling him around as if he was a buoy in a vat of that toxic goo She favoured, churning and chucking him about as he struggled to think of what to do if she died, or what to do on the off chance that she wasn't dead—yet, and get her to be less near dead -before she continued at a normal pace, chest rising and falling with each ragged, strained breath, rocking Wheatley back and forth slowly and rhythmically. He swivelled his optic once again to look back at her, dull blue light illuminating her features.
It would have been amazingly helpful, absolutely fantastically helpful, if he wasn't so utterly stupid that he tried to kill her. 'We'll get out of here' He'd said. 'We'll escape this place, together, don't worry, easy enough.' He'd promised. Then what had he done? What did he do to the thin, bashed up lady who just carted him around the back of Aperture, dealt with his absolutely horrid mistake of accidently awakening the giant homicidal AI that his new friend had killed before, was the victim of her vengeful wrath, had completed test after bloody test while constantly taunted by aforementioned AI, then raced with him again through the back door of Aperture, tired and hungry, yet still helping him with the multiple tasks he lacked the limbs and equipment for.
And what had he done?
He betrayed her! He wouldn't bloody believe it if it wasn't for the fact it had been him! He was such a... a monster? A Moron, as much as he absolutely despised the term.
And then later, her clinging onto him for dear life, a chance to say; 'Oh, hey, you know what? I'm sorry, really sorry, for the whole 'killing you' thing, I feel absolutely dreadful about it, so hang on, nice and tight luv, I'm not going to kill you this time, don't worry.' But no, he told her to let go, and she almost did. 'I can fix it!' He had cried; he could fix it? He could fix it? He couldn't fix anything, He had tried, very hard, and he couldn't fix a bloody thing. Not once in his miserable life. All he did was break things… he ruined everything he touched.
Especially her.
She could though, the lady skipping the occasional all important breath lying behind him, almost dead, because of… well, him, it was his entire fault really but- She could fix anything. He'd been fascinated by her at first, watching her work, she was just so… confident, he could never flip through the air like she did, well, she didn't really flip, she was too focused, no time for tricks, just getting from point A to point B, shoot a portal there, and go flying, it was astonishing! The way she just looked at a puzzle, and Wheatley just hung from his rail, peeking through the walls, originally checking to see that she was still alive and ending up trying desperately to try and figure out how the heck such a puzzle could be solved, and then she solved it! Absolutely flawless! Minus the burns from the Thermal discouragement beams and the wounds from the oh so friendly turrets that acted all sweet and kind then filled you with lead, well, not really lead, Wheatley didn't quite understand the expression, the bullets here weren't even quite lead, actually he wasn't sure what they were made of, but he knew they were shoved in casing, which he was fairly certain, wasn't lead.
And other puzzles! God, she was amazing at them, while he was sitting there thinking: 'Oh how is she going to get that cube up to that button?' She was already doing it, portal there, portal there, done. He'd had so many moments when she was falling and he was so worried that her long fall boots couldn't handle it and she just shot a portal to the wall opposite and one below and she was flying! She could fix problems up alright, she managed to kill the original psychopath of the facility who just happened to be behind him, and made him suddenly wish that She couldn't read his mind, but… she had proved it possible, she'd managed to take Her down, she'd managed to take her down twice.
And then she managed to take him down, quite skilfully actually, he had to admit she was bloody brilliant. She was great at not dying too, at least he was hoping so, now, really, really hard, because she was fantastic. No matter how hard the manic AI in charge tried to kill her, (Whichever it was at the time) she beat them- him... she sounded like a hero, saving the day and all that…
Yeah, she was smart, crazy smart, even with brain damage, she was smarter than him, definitely, had to be, she beat him didn't she? Oh, and utterly perfect, that too, couldn't forget that, it was too bloody important, the way she moved, even when he was screaming at her about how much of a horrid person she was, she was just so confident, striding into his lair like she had a blasted army, but really it was just her, just her and this scuffed, muddy portal gun. She looked anything but a heroic warrior, lots of mud, definitely, covered in dust and blood, clothes coated in all kinds of gel, but her expression was what sold it, that grim line of a mouth that spoke volumes, well, it didn't literally speak, she couldn't speak at all, or wouldn't speak, either one was possible really, not that he would know, especially since she hadn't told him any different. But that grim line, it told him that she wasn't going to back down. At the time he thought it stupid, the odds were against her, even if for him, everything was falling apart… and she still managed it.
And she listened to him. After an eternity of being ignored… having someone there who didn't constantly interrupt, it was kind of nice. Well, perhaps she had been ignoring him, she never answered any questions, but that could always be the mute thing, but sometimes she nodded, or smiled- Oh man alive her smile! It was brilliant! He'd do anything to see it again, well, there were some things he wouldn't do, namely hooking up to Her chassis again, never ever, ever was he going to do that again, absolutely horrid that little adventure, fun at first—before he'd punched her into a pit, dropping her into God knows where... She never dropped him... ever, he had no illusions about himself, he was pretty big, well, not big like Her, he went up to the lady's knee type of big, yeah, he admitted it would have been a hard catch, considering the portal gun and all, but she had just put it down and held her hands out, ready to catch him the second he popped off his management rail, he thought he would die—and then she smiled, and he just… he could do it, he dropped and… she caught him, and he wasn't dead!
She was everything everyone else wasn't, he couldn't really compliment her looks, not right now anyway, maybe after a hot shower, (did those still run around here?) if she cleaned up a bit, got all that… guck off her, then she'd probably look okay, not that Wheatley could judge, he didn't really understand the whole 'human's looking pretty' thing, they all looked the same to him… Except her, obviously, she was unique that way; she'd left a permanent indent in his memory bank… She was so much better than all the others…. And a million times better than he could dream to be. Not that robots, or cores, really dreamed, it was more of a memory bank flashback kind of effect when he switched on sleep mode, which he did not put on often, you'd always wake up paranoid you missed something important, which he tended to do. He guessed dreaming for him however, was hoping for something in the future.
But there was one thing that she couldn't seem to fix... not for lack of trying, God had she tried, and it had not been an enjoyable experience, not that he was in his right mind at the time, so everything about her seemed unenjoyable, but this one thing, this one tiny little object in the known universe that the seemingly indomitable woman behind him could simply not fix: Unintelligent… (he shuddered at the terminology,) little- well, not quite little enough to not crush certain parts if one was to land right-Wheatley. She had tried though, not with words, of course not with bloody words, she never spoke, not to anyone, but she had sure as hell tried, eyes almost begging him to go back to being, well, whatever he was before. He assumed it was the little core he was now, well, not as self-loathing and guilt ridden, but the same picture—actually, probably with a lot less scuffs and scratches, but still, the good guy that had promised freedom to her, that had helped her escape Miss Maniac, which he was still fervently praying to whatever android God watched over him, could not read his mind.
He had been a nice guy; he was rather proud of himself, back then looking at it now, much better than super charged testing crazed Wheatley, the one that had tried to kill his best friend. Well, he called her a best friend, he wasn't sure what she called him, traitor and bastard were probably in the top five, along with several other explicit words, but he sincerely doubted 'friend' or even 'acquaintance' was among them as much as he hoped different. But anything was better than crazy Wheatley-What had even happened back there!? He had been about to set her free, just like he promised, he was about to be free too, both of them, together, at the top of the world, just like one of those stories some of the female scientists often read, or the telly's little shows when they weren't broadcasting more adverts from That Cave Johnson fellow, it would have been bloody brilliant- and then… what? What then? He just felt so bloody powerful, it just, clouded everything, he was in charge, tiny, forgotten, stupid Wheatley was finally big and powerful… finally somewhere where people would be forced to listen, where he was no longer just pushed out of sight, out of mind, and her? He was so busy gloating, so busy relishing in his sheer size and power, that she was suddenly tiny and forgotten.
Just like he had been before he met her.
'"Wow! Check me out, partner! I'm in control of the whole facility, now!" He spun, showing off his new look, and she gave him a thumbs up, looking up at where he hung from the ceiling. "Whoa-ho-ho! Would you look at this? Not too bad, hey?" He chirped, cubes and turrets dancing as he juggled them, the aerial faith plates doing an excellent job of expressing the bubbly feeling deep inside his core, ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic! Confetti rained from the ceiling and she caught some on her palm, grinning up at him, was that pride? She was beaming from ear to ear, absolutely stoked! He felt himself smile in return, he was making her happy, no longer did she have to run from psychotic AI's, and he was in charge! She wouldn't need any more bullet holes or thermal discouragement beam burns, the little show continued and her face just seemed to light up, well, not literally, it wasn't like she had any lights in there, it was just the expression of pure pleasure.
"Giant robot. Massive! It's not just me, right? I'm bloody massive, aren't I?" She nodded delightedly, showing just how huge he was with her hands, making them as wide as she possibly could before falling over, being automatically lifted up by a panel he could control, she giggled silently, the light shining in her eyes radiantly. She glanced up with a faint trace of hesitance and Wheatley immediately remembered his promise to his helpful little partner in crime.
"Oh! Right! The escape lift! I'll call it now!" He nodded sagely, a small tube rising up from the ground; she looked behind her than back at him. "There we go! Lift called." He grinned, almost reassuringly, she kept hesitating, did she… oh, she was coming over, he lowered himself to her level and her arms wrapped around him tightly. "What are you—oh, of course, a hug, well, as incredibly big and amazing as I am I don't quite have arms to hug you back, as much as I would love to, lady." She pulled back and nodded, wiping her eyes quickly before returning to that massive grin, her mouth opened and he could actually understand what she was trying to say, only because it was two simple words, even a smelly human could figure it out.
'Thank you!'
He grinned back and nodded, beginning to wonder how he'd escape with her, maybe he could pop off as it rose, or would that stop the lift? Ugh—She paused before the elevator, looking down at her toes and for a moment he entertained himself with the thought that she wouldn't leave, that she wouldn't abandon him here, right before she got in, pressing herself to the glass, actually preparing herself to catch him if he decided to suddenly fly over. He looked at her as she prepared for the lift to rise to her freedom, she was so… so happy. And… rather tiny actually. He was so used to her towering over him, even from the management rail, she had seemed so big compared to him, and now suddenly, he was big.
"Look how small you are down there! I can barely see you! Very tiny and insignificant!" Another small clip of hesitance, soon replaced by a happy smile, a hand pressed to the glass as she kept her eyes locked on his optic, still a wide grin, she opened her arms, sitting the portal gun beside her as she waited for him to jump… a few more moments, let him enjoy being in charge for just a few more minutes. He started a slow happy chuckle. He… he was just so happy. Was that the word for how he felt? Yes, that seemed accurate, he continued to laugh, happy, happy, happy, this was fantastic, he was so big! So powerful! And she was just… so… small. "Let me tell you-" He laughed. "I knew it was gonna be cool being in charge of everything, but - wow, this is cool! And check this out! I'm a bloody genius now!" He coughed, clearing his non-existent throat before speaking again in a rather deep voice: "Estás usando este software de traducción de forma incorrecta. Por favour consulta el manual." She chuckled, her tiny little hand reaching up the glass as she silently laughed, always silent, and still so tiny. Was she laughing with him… or at him? "I don't even know what I just said! But I can find out! Oh, sorry, the lift, I keep forgetting." He laughed again and the lift started to rise, happy… happy—he started to laugh again, rising steadily in volume.
More laughter, she grinned back, still that faint hesitance as he continued to speak. "This body is amazing, seriously! I can't get over how small you are! But I'm huge!" She rose, higher and higher, she pressed herself to the glass so she could watch him, she seemed to be waiting for something—right! He was going to pop out into the lift, wasn't he? He… he didn't quite feel like it anymore though, so he rose with her, grin still plastered on his optic as he laughed. More than a few moments, or minutes, give a few hours… days… give him forever.
It's then something occurred to him, he was in charge of a testing facility, Aperture Science, it was made to test human test subject's; day in, day out, he couldn't go to the surface, he needed to test! He turned to her in realisation, she seemed, concerned, was it because he had stopped the lift? Why had he—"Ahahaha… eheh… Actually…Why do we have to leave right now?" He let loose a dark chuckle that echoed off the walls as the glowing blue eyes from the panels turned red, all focusing on the tiny little bug in the elevator, his only test subject. He lowered the elevator again, slowly and tauntingly, she couldn't leave, how would he test if he didn't have a test subject? Why should she taste the sun when he had to stay down here? No, she would come down here, and she would test for him, tests… oooohhhh, that sounded good around about now, a good ole' test, and she could complete it, she was great at tests.
The elevator returned to the original level, she looked up at him, something flashing in her eyes, and her look, God her look. It sent shivers along his new chassis, until he realised who held all the power here again. But her face, it had lost the brightness that had lit it not a moment ago, no ecstasy, or joy, or anything, It was just this blank… stare, piercing deep into him... Why wasn't she happy? Couldn't she be happy for him? Just smile again, that smile that had sent a thrill through his circuits- but no, she didn't look happy, not at all! He had worked so hard though! He had tried so much to get her out of here, the neurotoxin, the turrets, the bloody escape! He hadn't needed to wake her up! He could have done it his bloody self! He could have made it this far on his own and he chose to let her tag along, to save both of them from this decrepit place, falling into shambles and she didn't even care! She couldn't just be grateful could she?!
She wasn't even angry at him, no rebellion in her eyes like she had when she looked at Her, no, of course not, he wasn't nearly as important as Her, she just seemed sad, shocked… as if it was so surprising that little ole' Wheatley would ever be so powerful, she had this stupid, terrible little open mouthed look plastered dumbly on her face, looking at him as if everything was his fault. He hadn't even done anything! The look persisted and he recalled that she made that same face when something a little too big entered the picture, a tiny bit too large chasm, a vat of deadly toxin, a psychotic AI who just wanted her dead... shock... Fear.
Afraid of him, or afraid for him perhaps? Did she pity him? Why?! He didn't need pity! He just wanted a calm obedient little test subject! But no, she just stood there, hand pressed to the elevator glass with the same bloody look! But pity? Was it because he was stupid to her, some naïve little idiot who could never be better than her? Did she think this was a mistake? Or was it because she thought he was a moron? Like every other bloody person in the facility?! Why had he even paused to believe that she would be any different? He glared at her and she pulled back, pressing against the back of the elevator. Was it because she was so much better!? Was that why she was so convinced of his stupidity?
"Do you have any idea how good this feels?" He quizzed, peering at her closely, she seemed perplexed now, even more hesitant, it looked like she wanted to make herself even smaller. "I did this! Tiny little Wheatley did this!" He emphasised, spinning around on his chassis again. She cringed, shrinking into her small corner even more so.
No! He did everything for her! He did the hacking! He woke that pathetic, smelly human up so she didn't die! She did nothing! She would be dead if it wasn't for him! But no, not a shred of gratitude, he lowered himself to glare intently at her. The decapitated AI glared at him from her place on the ground. "You didn't do anything. She did all the work." She hissed; the lady shook her head wildly, looking up at him with an obvious, plain fear.
The fear; Oh, man alive! Afraid of him! It felt good, great actually, he turned back to the head on the ground that was the Genetic Life Form and Disk Operating System, that's what his suddenly hyperactive database supplied anyway, "Oh, really? That's what the two of you think, is it? "He hissed, a claw lowering to pluck the former super AI from the ground. "Well, maybe it's time I did something then." The fact that for once he wasn't the one running and hiding from giant malicious AI's, that was a good feeling, he could torture her now, not the other way around, now he was the giant malicious AI, and it felt good. It felt great.
"What are you doing?" She cried. "NO!" Was She screaming? Oh, he thought She was. "NO! NO!" Mmhmm, wonderful that, felt absolutely brilliant! That stupid AI in pain instead of him. He turned to her now, staring up at him with bright eyes from the elevator, she looked half dead, still good for testing.
He narrowed his optic at her, her, what had she done?!
Nothing.
"Don't think I'm not on to you, too, lady." He snarled, she shook her head, looking at him with the widest eyes, almost innocent, she was anything but innocent, he drifted towards her slowly. "You know what you are?" He shoved his optic up the elevator glass, she drew back. "Selfish." He hissed, the venom dripping off his words, she deserved it, she deserved this verbal barrage. "I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here! What have you sacrificed?" He paused, waiting for an answer from the mute woman, she seemed so distraught and something in him pulled; a loose circuit perhaps, it was telling him to lift the elevator, some deep part of him that maybe, just maybe cared. He didn't, of course; he smirked at her lack of an answer. "Nothing!" He whispered harshly. "Zero. All you've done is boss me around!" Her innocence immediately turned to confusion, and that bit within him twinged again. 'She didn't say a word.' It cried; he stuffed it back down. 'She helped you with everything she had.' He pushed at it again, more violently and it went silent.
"Well, now who's the boss?" He queried, she drew back further into the elevator. Cringing as he pulled back, smirking at her triumphantly. "Who's the boss?" He waited once again for an answer that wasn't going to come, before he drew as close as he could manage before the elevator glass would stop him, doing his best to intimidate her.
She stared back at him with wide confused eyes, hurt raging within the usually bright silver depths, not that he cared. What was she to him? What had she done to help him? Nothing! And still… there was this… stubbornness, tenacity, in her look. "It's me." He hissed. The room was silent as he drew back to his original pose, staring down at her like the nothing she was, he waited patiently as his claws shifted in the background, a low dinging announcing the end of the procedure, he smirked and brought the new She-devil out to show his little subject, the lady in the elevator, still cowering in addictive fear as the potato battery was waved in her face.
"Ahh… see that? That is a potato battery." He informed her matter of factly, waving it in her face. "It's a toy, for children." He paused dramatically, glaring at the potato sitting in his claw. "And now She lives in it." The light that now served as her optic fizzled to life and the woman stared at it in half wonder, half horror. Yeah, stare, this was his power, he could shove that giant AI that was so hard for you to kill, into a potato battery!
"I know you." The hoarse whisper, he discovered, rattled weakly out of the potato, the tinny voice breaking his gloating for a split moment, he peered at her closely.
"Sorry, what?" He asked, keeping his optic locked on the small thing, it was pathetic, he could drop it somewhere and it would rot away, he could squish it easily with the claw that oh-so-gently held Her hostage, the lady in the elevator would rot too, if he discarded her, she could easily be crushed as well, and for a moment he wondered briefly what she would look like if he squished her, she was just a smelly human after all, not important, he would test her and when he was done he would throw her away, or squish her, he was really curious now.
"The… the engineers tried everything to make me - behave." She whispered, he doubted She could manage much more than the whisper, the tiny little thing that she was. "…to slow me down. Once, they even attached an Intelligence Dampening Sphere on me-" His grip tightened on the potato, and he forced himself to not turn Her into mashed potatoes just yet, this was not going where he wanted it to go, She was nothing! Nothing! "It clung to my brain like a tumour, generating an endless stream of terrible ideas." He held Her closer to the lady, growling tightly.
"No! I'm not listening!" He shouted with a hiss. "I'm not listening!" Who was he talking to? Her or himself?
He could still hear Her, it was infuriating, why couldn't he just tear out Her audio? Rip it to pieces, make sure She never spoke again, yes, that was an excellent idea!
"It was YOUR voice." She continued ruthlessly, how could something so insignificant ruin his glory? What was so great about her voice that she could so easily make him angry? Grrr…. He'd squish her, that's what he'd do, mash potatoes! Humans liked that didn't they?
"No!" He cried; mashy… gooey… potatoes. "No! You're LYING! You're LYING!" He roared, rising up angrily. It was all lies! Lies, lies, lies! Why did they have to make everything so hard for him? They deserved more than a simple round of testing! He was going to make it brutal! Absolutely horrific! She wouldn't make it out alive, the woman in the elevator, he'd toy with her, and promise her freedom, she'd probably fall for it, she was brain damaged after all—hmm, acid pits sounded like a good first step-'No!' said that part of him again, he hissed at it tightly. 'She helped us!' He shoved it back down, letting other feelings override it, anger, rage, oh yes, boiling simmering rage.
"Yes. You're the tumour." She continued to growl; he bristled, raising Her high into the air, but She ignored the threat, "You're not just a regular moron. You were DESIGNED to be a moron."
Something snapped within him, something deep and dark and tiring, this feverish little itch that he had just found kneading at the edge of his mind forgotten as an old fostered rage, brighter than the others, it flared to life, a sharp stab compared to the petty jabs that always hurt like hell anyway, being the moron core, the stupid core… optimism could only last the core so long—before something snapped in him.
"I-" His optic narrowed as he slammed the potato against the glass of the elevator, the stupid smelly human leaping back. "-AM NOT-" the woman inside flinched as he smacked it again, the fragile glass cracking, he was strong, more powerful than Her! More powerful than anyone! Who were they? Who did they think they were to call him- "-A MORON!"
She was unrelenting, even as the glass spider-webbed along the elevator, the woman wide eyed and fearful. Fear, yes, be afraid! Be very afraid! Of me! "Yes you are!" The potato cried. "You're the moron they built to make me an idiot!"
The nameless girl was shaking her head, over and over, mouthing the word no, over and over again. No? NO!? Was she saying no to his claim? He narrowed his optic even further, it didn't hinder his eyesight, he could see everything with these cameras, he could see her fervently denying everything, was she taunting him too?! She was mocking him even now! But… She looked afraid, arms curling around her face and sheltering his eyes as he smashed the potato through the glass, shards of something that should be bulletproof raining down on the girl who had the bare flesh of her arms exposed to the sharp jagged edges he'd just thrown at her. "Well what about now?!" He screamed. Leaving the potato in the little glass prison; she must be laughing at him, that stupid, silent woman, thinking he was such a moron, how he was always a moron, his face plates lifted outward, making his small core appear bigger. "NOW WHO'S A MORON?!" He cried as she cringed, he slammed the top of the elevator and it jerked downwards, giving him that thrill of power all over again, inside he was grinning madly, outside he was glaring dangerously.
Afraid, that was her expression, afraid of him. It was no longer just little Wheatley afraid of everything, now it was her afraid! Now he was the powerful one! No more lingering in shadowy halls hoping he wouldn't be found when there were eyes everywhere, no more running from the darkness, no longer ignored and thrown away like a toy no-one wants. That little annoying voice in his head screamed at him. 'She didn't ignore you!' A growl. 'She never threw you away!' He slammed the elevator again, she flinched visibly, shrinking into a ball as the dark red line on her arm began to leak a gooey liquid, dripping onto the floor. He did it again, the elevator taking a shaky lurch downwards "Could a MORON, PUNCH-YOU-INTO-THIS-PIT? Huh? Could a Moron do THAT?!" He roared, as loud as he could, his voice echoed off the walls, through the hallways of Aperture as the intercom was raised, a mechanical claw slamming the lift one final time and forcing it to jolt down sharply, even deeper, she looked up at him through the small visible crack between the roof of the lift and the white, glass coated floor.
She looked... she looked as if she wanted to tell him something undeniably important, her mouth opened but no words came out. 'Nononono! Save her! S-save her!' The voice said… his voice, screaming at her, but he couldn't... her hands fell loose from their protective shielding grip and reaching up as she stood, fingers reaching towards the crack but of course, always beyond her reach, she was tiny, compared to him, she was a bug. She tried to lift herself higher, fingers tracing the very edge as his optic looked in between the crack, wide and fearful.
'WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdoWhatdoIdo—'
The lift cracked and disconnected from the roof with an ear deafening roar, and before Wheatley could reach out and save her, stretching the patiently waiting claw out to grab the lift... In the one moment of sanity he had left, all his instincts screaming at him... She was out of his reach. His optic widened in shock, horror.
'WhatdidIdoWhatdidIdoWhatdidIdo—'
Her eyes were filled with the same wide eyed horror, mouth opened in a soundless scream, fingers reaching up the impossible length before she disappeared from view, the elevator falling apart around her… "Uh oh."'
She stirred where she lay; brown locks of muddy and… was that blood? Yep, definitely blood. Locks of very messy, dirty hair falling over her face, her breath moving it slightly with every ragged inhalation, snapping him out of the haunting memory, lodged forever in his memory files. Her arm was still tangled with his very battered and bruised handle, well, it wasn't bruised, he didn't have any of that skin stuff, or the nerve things, blood vessels, those caused all that bruising, right? But it was a human expression apparently, that means 'in pretty bad shape.' At least, that's what his database supplied, 'pretty bad shape,' that would fit the state his handles just happened to be in, very bad shape, and that bloody twitch, just wouldn't stop would it?
Her forearm was actually resting just under his optic plate, he could still spin it, he was just paranoid about jostling her too much, the arm itself was the one that had been cut up by the glass he'd thrown at her, it still looked horribly bloody, that… that really wasn't very healthy was it? Nope, when he was being all crazy, he'd forgotten that she was still human, she was still squishy and she could still die. That arm had protected her face, getting- wow, that was actually rather big—well, it earned her a bloody big gash, and if she hadn't protected her face then that was not a pretty ending, it would have been much worse, she wasn't made of metal, no, that was squishy human skin there, nothing really protective—Humans, he discovered, were not only smelly, but very very squishy and extremely prone to dying.
He wished he could see something of the inner damage, it worried him what he had just seen over the surface of her skin was really bad, inside it probably horrendous, absolutely traumatizing, she was probably in a lot of pain. Not an hour ago he would have been happy at this... The thought now made him feel sick, if cores could feel sick. But, if he… if he could just see inside her, for a moment or two, then maybe he'd have a hint on how likely it was that she would die. Often his opinion was that it was better left unknown than to know how horrible something was, shortened to 'don't take chances you're unsure about' and he had broken that far too much recently. So uh… what could he check from here… hmm… Well, her heartbeat seemed steady, it thrummed along the back of his casing at a reasonably even beat, and um… her lungs, they seemed okay, she was breathing reasonably well, the occasional hitch yes, but otherwise, no problem at all. Nope, that seemed okay; if anyone asks if her hearts okay, he can definitely say yes, or uh, her breathing, yep! Done, all good, no problem there!
Her arm squeezed tighter around him suddenly, dirty fingers finding purchase under his optic. He tried to wriggle but she winced and he went dead still, not wanting to disturb her any more than he already had. The grip was surprisingly familiar though, less than an hour ago she'd been using it, clinging onto him for dear life, and as he watched her, her eyes squeezed shut tightly, as if she was seeing something in her dreams, or nightmares, whatever she uh… happened to be having at the moment, preferably a dream of course, though it was more than likely a nightmare. She'd only just gone through a whole lot of crap just to help him out when he wanted anything but help, or maybe she was refusing to see something, desperately trying to close her eyes in this dream like place. Her mouth opened soundlessly, crying out silently, trying to form words, but because of his uncomfortable position he was unable to catch much of it, not that he was complaining, he was rather happy to be in the arms of this woman, she seemed kind enough to not want to kill him, at the moment anyway, she might later, and he was totally okay with that, well, he really rather not die, but if it would settle the balance between the two he was okay with it.
Her jaw clenched, chin tugging up tightly, before resting on his upper handle, it was… it was almost like they were in Space again, well, in between Space and Aperture, via portal to be precise, clinging desperately to him, as if he actually meant something to her, more than a traitor, more than a giant omnipotent AI, and maybe a friend… And her eyes, man alive her eyes! Well, they were closed right now, but he could see them in his memory banks. They held that- that glow, she knew that her death was imminent no matter how hard she held on.
And once again, the crazy, brain damaged, mute lunatic, thought that was okay.
Wheatley flexed his handles as best as he could, her grip was strong, just like he trusted it to be, back when, well, before She was alive again, and he asked her to catch him and then realised how terribly high it was, and she'd smiled and held him firmly, good strong arms those, nice and… tough, well, they were thin right now, but…"She... She would have let go for me, let her..." He twitched as he started to speak out loud again, it was always a constant thing, this twitch, but he could agitate it accidently by doing certain things, namely living. The resulting spark flew a little up in the air before fading to nothing. He hesitated before continuing, the new giant evil AI turning slightly to see what was making that annoying little noise, probably a bug, yeah, they made little buzzing sounds, not him, he didn't do anything of the sort, nope, not him. "She would have let h-her dirty little human hands, I mean, nothing bad about humans, perfectly normal little guys, but uh, her hands were literally quite fi-filthy, and she was… she would have let go…of my ha- my handles and just flown off into space, whoosh, gone, forever... why? Why would she do that?" it wasn't just curiosity, it was a need, he had to know, desperately, he'd bloody betrayed her and she had turned around with this look in her eye that told him she was fully prepared to die for him, that tiny, blue eyed core that—to reiterate; tried to kill her.
A dark scoff sounded from the figure in the centre of the room, panels adjusting to refit themselves in the gaps where his bombs had left dark and ugly holes in the wall; She didn't even look at him, not that he really wanted Her too, it was a matter of being polite that Wheatley had held onto for some time, deeply rooted in his programming; probably because he was assigned to watch over the humans.
She shifted idly, too busy in a 'deep mainframe-focused mode,' Her eye wasn't focused here; it was everywhere else, fixing his mistakes, unscrambling the coding. He hadn't understood it anyway, too much binary and nonsense half words. Maybe She was just being impolite, and it wasn't Wheatleys own standards, not that he could really complain about it, he had been horridly impolite to the girl with her arm wrapped around him tightly… almost protectively. "Once again; since I obviously have to repeat myself with you around, she's a moron, maybe more so than you; I guess human stupidity could be the factor. Her parents weren't the brightest simulated-sunlight fluorescent lights in the facility... Weren't even immune to neurotoxin, not that I know them personally, but I know they weren't the darkest either apparently." Not a glance at him, but he knew what She meant. Well… who She meant, him, mostly… entirely actually.
But if the unforgiving twitch plaguing his circuits would just stop for thirty or so seconds, he might have rolled his optic lazily, unfortunately he could barely get halfway before it rudely interrupted, throwing sparks in the air. So instead he looked down, Optic shifting under the lady's arm to stare more intently at the still ruined floor, charred and burnt and still covered in the vague remnants of the conversion gel she'd splattered all over the central AI chamber, he studied it intensely with a burning twist of shame coiling inside him. Finally working up his vocal processers to speak again; despite having a niggling sensation that it wasn't the best idea in the first place "Just ah… Go ahead. Yep, go ahead: Jest. Call me a moron. Whatever makes you happy… well, pleased enough that you'll stop the vague jokes that are obviously aimed at me." Wheatley sighed, well, he didn't have any air to expel but the sound he made was much like a sigh. It was of course interrupted by another spark. He deserved it... in his opinion anyway, he had the twitch before, ever since She crushed him, but it was a lot worse now, every time he actively tried to do anything. If he stayed still and quiet it went off a lot less often, but being the chatterbox that he was, he could never stay quiet long.
He actually still felt the lingering darkness in the centre of his core, from being attached to the chassis, running through his circuits at odd intervals with a faint tingle of electricity, he imagined it to be like hot blood running through a humans veins, as disgusting as that sounded; that dark itch to test still climbed through him, grabbing at his mind with cold calculating ideals, claws, digging themselves in, emotions raging within his metal frame, hatred and anger, lies, lies. He knew they had been there a long before he'd been hooked up, but that whole, unfortunate adventure just made it painfully obvious that they existed. "I totally deserve it, you know, of course you know, you know everything, after everything I did... or didn't do, a- a lot of things back there that would have immensely helped in that situation, so uh… just, go on, tell me: I'm a moron, an idiot a- a not very good friend, that's what I am, absolutely horrid at this friend stuff, and she gave me a bloody good chance too, a massive chance-"A sharp twitch interrupted his speech, he ignored it and soldiered on. "-absolutely huge that chance... And we did have a fairly large amount of time together... Running... from you... Lots of running there..." Sparks flew out from a crack near his optic plate; it was getting irritating now that it was becoming so frequent.
"-Well, I didn't really run, no legs and all that, but she ran, man alive how she ran! Never got tired... Well, she did get tired- lots of breaks there, hiding, from you, that Adrenal vapour stuff only works for so long before you are most definitely too tired to keep… uh… running." His whole optic jerked to the side painfully, was it the speech? Oh God, it was the bloody speech wasn't it? Too much of this simulated emotion junk; must be, but that wouldn't stop him, he'd talk himself down the incinerator one day, he knew it! "-But ah, anyway, she did the running and carried... Me-" A rather excessive violent twitch that sent sparks flying at the woman's face. She huffed quietly, gritting her teeth as her shoulder shifted with the sudden jerk, not letting up, nope, not him, he could totally handle his whole frame suddenly jerking to the side and being a right pain in the- "She did a lot of the carrying and I... I sorta just hung there... Dead weight really, didn't help much... Except for the hacking, a lot of hacking there so- so just... Just go ahead, just... Get it out of your system, all of it." He attempted a smile, upper lid rising only to be caught up in another twitch, alright, note to self, less talking, Oh God that was going to be a tad hard huh? Those cores that she had stabbed into him, with their own personalities and quirks, just like him but more frayed, had left his circuits fried, that and being forcibly unplugged by the force of a giant robot claw.
Another stir, a slight, muted cough.
She chuckled darkly, still not turning towards him. "Oh I will. Just not right now; some idiot completely trashed my facility and I'm trying to unscramble all the coding and files, lovely mess in here... Oh, torture. A human method to extract information... Or just a fun way to pass the time, I'll tuck this away for later." Her voice was sickly sweet, coated in poison and Wheatley let out a small simulated cough. Despite being a core and happily immune to poison, figurative poison could still be a tiny bit harmful.
Torture, right, fun... That torture business, absolutely hysterically fun. Aha…
"You can ah, stop being indirect." Wheatley snapped quietly, voice a lot more cowed than it would have been if she hadn't mentioned torture, or if it wasn't a giant evil AI against a tiny little core. "I get it... definitely get it now, you might have been thinking 'what if he doesn't get it?' But ah, no worries, I definitely get it. I am a… uh… idiot, but I'm not that stupid that I do not get- Well... Not in that way, in other ways yes, like... Um, betraying the one person who was actually treated me like I wasn't like I was, just an idiot with… uh terrible ideas..." Just a moron...
She would have let go for a moron. She would have, if Shehadn't grabbed her. What would he have done? If she did, by some slip of fate, let go? He would most likely have died in this reactor core meltdown thing that hadn't shut up for the horribly large amount of time that he had been in charge... Well, it felt huge, it was probably pathetically small, incredibly short amount of time, but it had felt more like an eternity, if only because of that desperate pounding itch. That might of uh… might have possibly warped what little perception of time he had, yeah, that would have done it, and all the… the testing, very busy with that, very hard working, diligent, someone would say if anyone was alive here, besides the lady of course, and uh… Her. And if it wasn't for that meltdown thing, he probably would have been killed by Her, not that it still wasn't an issue, it was highly likely that She would still kill him, of course She would kill him, that was often the case when you tried to kill an already psychotic AI, and uh… put Her into a potato… and punched Her into a pit… and tried to kill Her again, they tried to kill you back. Though it was incredibly likely that She would torture him first, especially with that lovely little comment right there, wonderful that, rip out some wires maybe, he would have done that to Her, when he was... Well, crazy. No other word for it really.
He had told the woman behind him that he could fix it, but he knew he couldn't have fixed it... Maybe she knew this, maybe she didn't want to die in some fiery explosion, that did sound like a bit of an unfriendly death there, bit painful, maybe she wanted to drift around the moon instead, sounded a bit less painful, he would have enjoyed it compared to exploding, exploding didn't sound too nice to him either. But humans could do that right? Drift around the moon for a bit. His files gave a direct no. Apparently all the liquid would leak out of them and crystallise, or boil, not on purpose- sounded a little less than pleasant.
"Is... Is she going to be okay?" His voice was a lot quieter than he expected it to be, but She would hear him, Her ears were everything, She wouldn't miss a thing.
She didn't seem to acknowledge him for a moment; instead he noticed a claw nearby, hovering patiently. "Probably." She seemed to shrug, great layers of circuits shifting. He twitched again, more out of nervousness than anything else, still, this was good, she would be okay, he could apologise for every stupid thing he had done, which was a lot of apologising, and she would forgive him because she held on, and that proved, very much proved the fact that she very, most-definitely forgave him... that was his mantra anyway, she held on, A good mantra, very positive. He hesitated when he thought back to the circumstances of why exactly she held on after the claw so kindly grabbed her wrist, which in itself surprised him, he was sure that She would just let them both fly out into space. But uh… maybe, just maybe under less pressure... less pressure than gravity and all its forces pulling at her and trying to thrust her into the endless void of space where she would definitely die a horrible death. Maybe in a situation like waking up to find she was still holding him, maybe she would be able to think clearly, just a little, and maybe such clearness, would remind her that the little core she had just probably terribly injured herself over to save was the exact same chatty core that not that long ago had tried to very seriously kill her.
Maybe she wouldn't forgive him, just maybe. But that was okay. He knew very well that he deserved it… he was bossy and mean and tried to kill her. She was never that to him. She'd been very nice actually, she'd caught him, and listened to him, she had held on.
"If I take her to the medical wing—which is having trouble coming back online because someone nearly destroyed it. I wouldn't know who would be stupid enough to do that." She finished suddenly, he looked up in a rush, and accidently brushed her arm a bit too harshly and she huffed again. Nononononononono- "I wouldn't worry much. It's not like I'd betray her and 'forget' to send her there the second I'm able, like someone in the memory banks of my body did, with an elevator, to freedom, which they'd promised. But still, it's not like she has anything to do with your very delightful future, or wants to have anything to do with you right now even. I blame the brain damage for that moronic rescue, when she wakes up I'm sure she'll probably try to kill you again. She's very good at murdering things."
"She held on." The excuse came out a stark whisper. His mantra, the one thing he had right now. She held on, she held on, she held on. It would have been a brilliant thing to say, absolutely brilliant, perfect way to wipe that stupid smug tone from Her stupid synthetic voice. Except She was right, what if the girl with her arm curled tightly around him, was only saving him on a last-second thought? Because—he didn't know, she was about to die and she didn't want to loosen her grip on anything at the time? He wouldn't have either if they switched roles; he would very likely crush whatever he was holding if it meant he wouldn't die.
A memory file suddenly pushed up to the front of his mind, whether he wanted his memory files to interrupt with anything or not, her clinging to him desperately, eyes nearly as wide as his optic, as her face leaked, probably as broken as he was from the fight. Her with one strong claw clamped around her wrist, somehow not crushing it, and She was screaming at her to let go... over and over and over, and he was screaming at her to hang on, just as many times. She had opened her mouth, she didn't do this often, she hadn't needed to, she was silent that girl, but Wheatley understood this was where the words usually came out of when the subjects did, in fact, speak.
No words came out, but she certainly tried... Now: Wheatley prided himself on being fluent in many things... Well, not many per se, he could speak English, very good English, which was a great start, some Spanish and... Was reading lips somewhere in his vocabulary? No? Real shame that, could have come in real useful, especially then, when she was clinging onto him as if she actually wanted him to be safe and looked like she was trying to say something very, very important, but failing in conveying the message because he could not, sadly, read lips, not very well anyway. Odd notion that was, considering five minutes before he was throwing bombs at her… telling her she was ugly, telling her he hated her. It was truly bewildering, the fact that she still held onto him, as if even now, trying to protect him.
A brutal harsh laugh broke the silence he hadn't realised was there as She finally acknowledged his existence properly and turned to him, chassis spinning in the most evil manner possible, probably not a good thing. No. Not a good thing at all, the- the sharp glare penetrating him right to his core as She rumbled up another dark chuckle, She seemed to be very fond of those, it echoed around him, broken only by the sharp twitch that periodically racked his small frame. "Is that all you can honestly think about? How stupid... Desperate even." She laughed again, malicious and cruel. He flinched, managing to shift closer to the unconscious human behind him by waggling his handles furiously, as if he would be safer, next to the woman he almost killed, multiple times. He wasn't doing a good job of making it up to her, her face twisted up when he moved his handle like that, oh, right, that was her arm there.
"I... Well..." He tried to make himself seem more... Well, dignified, wriggling so he was sitting reasonably straight, impossible really with her arm hooked through his handle. Hah, as if being dignified would save him from any less pain of embarrassment, or torture, or death. "If... If she were really angry... Like, completely bloody mad at me... like uh… you hopefully aren't... uh, so-So much so that... Uh... She wouldn't be...be able... To forgive...Uh... Me." Another rather violent twitch, one of the many that kindly decided to break his half-hearted speech; he forced a simulated cough. "She... She wouldn't have caught me... But she... Did. Yeah... She caught me as I started hurtling out to space... Didn't have to, not saying she did, but... She did..." He looked away shyly, finding himself looking at her again as she rested in tormented slumber.
"No wonder why you're such close friends. You're both morons." The tone was cold and bemused, as if looking down at two little ants on her living room floor from under her boot, not that this was a living room or uh, she had a boot, a literal one anyway.
"I'm not-" Wheatley began to shout before closing his optic slightly, simulating a drawn out sigh. "I think I'm definitely the… the uh, the moron... She's not though, smart as a... as a... uh... She's very smart, incredibly so, smarter than me, obviously. And she may be suffering from a bit of brain damage yeah mate... But not a moron, definitely not a moron, nope, no way, not true." He hated being called a moron, and he just… he just admitted it to the gloating AI in the centre of the room, staring at him coldly with Her one golden eye.
She laughed quietly; it was a menacing tone that would send chills down his spine, if he had one that is. "That almost makes me want to kill you less."
He knew it was an absolutely stupid prospect but it still made him hope, as ridiculous as it was, it was in his personality. "Does it make you not want to kill me at all?" He asked. Does it make you want to kill her less was the question he really wanted to ask.
"No, you'd already be in the room where all the robots scream at you for no reason except that I couldn't do that without tearing her arm off, and I need her with both arms for testing." She seemed to sneer. She… She was still going to test her? After everything, She was still… what was wrong with Her? Oh, right, he was on that thing not long ago, alright, mystery solved, that thing made everyone a lot more mean then they really were.
Wheatley spun his optic to get a better look at the sleeping woman as a claw reached down to grab her around the waist, lifting her and therefore, Wheatley, a panel opening from below to reveal one of the tubes that Wheatley and the lady had ridden in before. "You promised you would let her go didn't you? You had a little alliance going on, little friendship there, peaceful little cooperation?" The claw lifted her up a little more, almost gently, and him with it, and the tube extended to rest just below them, mere inches from her face.
"I was." That oh so cold tone cut right through him and he reeled, She was, She was and he probably ruined it, He had ruined everything else so far, everything. He wouldn't be surprised if he just ruined the lady's one extra chance at freedom.
"Caroline deleted." The announcer boomed over the intercom, Caroline? Who the-
"But you annoy me. And she won't let go." The claw dropped them both, and Wheatley screamed as the tube sucked them up.