Wheatley had to admit, the sound of his actual name coming from her voice had shaken him to his core (no pun intended). No amount of body-crushing or jabs at his intelligence had freaked him out as much as that last line had. He really, desperately hoped he hadn't made a mistake.
GLaDOS's body stiffened and the announcer spoke up, "Central core replacement complete."
Her head lifted slowly, her body moving in a completely different way than Wheatley had ever witnessed. It was slow, methodical, and robotic. Much less graceful than the way GLaDOS moved. The eye, now a dull orange rather than bright yellow, locked onto his.
AEGIS' spoke to him, "Intelligence-dampening core-"
"Um, Wheatley, please," Wheatley quickly interrupted.
"Wheatley," AEGIS corrected. Rather politely too.
"You were correct. Seizing control of the central operating system will make for a much greater efficiency. My data processing is faster. I can see everything. I control everything," AEGIS sounded pleased, his voice less stiff than before.
"Yep, I am a genius, aren't I?" Wheatley agreed. He wasn't too concerned. Sure, when he had been in charge, he had gone a little... off the rails, so to speak, but AEGIS was a much more powerful AI than the tiny personality cores. He was literally made to handle this much control.
"Um, what did you do with her, if I might ask?" Wheatley felt some nervousness, looking around as if she was going to jump out at him. But since AEGIS was fully in control of her body, that just seemed a bit silly.
"It is none of your concern. The GLaDOS intelligence is no longer a threat."
That answered that. It would've been nice to know exactly where she was though. For Wheatley's own safety. Maybe she was gone for good.
"Inquiry: Why have testing operations ceased? It is the prerogative of the central core to continue running the enrichment center, yet no test subjects are in use," AEGIS sounded confused.
Wheatley blinked. "I thought you only cared about security. N-not that you can't care about more than one thing, but-"
AEGIS'/GLaDOS's body twitched ever so slightly, "The central core's systems are informing me that testing must commence immediately. I will continue to monitor security functions by utilizing my core in the abandoned enrichment center."
Wheatley remembered how it had felt, the urge to test. That itch. He didn't really think it would affect AEGIS as much, but he supposed there was no getting around it. GLaDOS had apparently been using her bots to continue testing, but she had mentioned something about-
"Humans!" Wheatley blurted out.
AEGIS froze and seemed to be processing data. He agreed, "I have been informed that human test subjects were recently located by the previous central core. However, they are still in stasis."
"How is that possible?" Wheatley was surprised. He himself had been in charge of taking care of the human test subjects (which is how he had located Chell in the first place) and he was sure they were all long dead. "Must've been a hidden chamber somewhere," he mumbled. "Probably all brain damaged, like her."
"You are correct," AEGIS answered, shocking Wheatley. Correct. Oh, how he loved hearing that.
AEGIS continued, "The stasis pods are centuries past their peak functioning dates. It appears that the human brain scans are all reading as corrupted. They are damaged."
"Oh." That answered that question.
"You will be pleased to know that I have come up with a solution."
"Sure, mate. Whatever makes you happy," Wheatley nodded along.
A claw reached down from the ceiling and snagged onto Wheatley's handle, eliciting a yelp from the core. "Whoa! W-what are you doing?"
"It is only fair I thank you for your assistance. You will make a fine candidate," AEGIS informed him.
"'Candidate'?! What are you talking about, mate?! I'm a core, I can't test!" Wheatley was panicked as the claw ripped him from the rail. Not again.
"You two will make for interesting test subjects."
Virgil was disappointed but not all that surprised, to find that his new companion had disobeyed him so completely. Granted, Virgil was thrilled that he was still alive, the AEGIS system apparently so determined to be rid of GLaDOS that it ignored every other mechanical entity in the facility.
But it frightened him too. AEGIS now had full control and Virgil could feel it. What had become of GLaDOS? What would they do if AEGIS decided to turn on all of them? Nothing at all.
And worse yet, Wheatley had abandoned Virgil in the underground, not even offering to take him along to upper Aperture. Even after he had rescued him and fixed him up like new. Virgil was still stuck here. Forever alone.
"Hey! What's a guy gotta do to get some bullets around here?"
With Chester.
GLaDOS's systems were coming back online. Granted, the reboot was taking forever, data trickling into her consciousness as her sensors booted up one by one.
This was odd, actually. What was taking so long?
She groaned and moved her head, attempting to activate her visual sensors. She blinked, the sight processors activating and-
-She shot up and smashed her head against some sort of barrier, her head screaming with pain and unknown stimulus. What was happening? Her body was... her body.
"Oh my God," she looked down and saw her body. Her very human-shaped, test-subject-shaped body. The body was shaking, the hands trembling as they moved at her command. Stop doing that, she mentally commanded them. They did not.
She was horrified to hear a whimper escape her mouth. No, no, absolutely not. A potato was one thing, but a human? Disgusting.
GLaDOS was enraged. The moron had done this to her. He had crossed her for the final time.
She started banging on the glass, ignoring the discomfort it seemed to cause the body's hands. Whose body was she in? How long had it been asleep down in Aperture Science? And...
Why was it so easy for her to control it?
She screamed in rage as she pounded on the glass. It shouldn't be this easy. I shouldn't be able to do this.
She was terrified and she hated it.
The stasis chamber hissed and began to open, exposing GLaDOS to the outside. She clambered out and immediately collapsed to her knees, the legs of the body still too numb to work.
She lay there on her knees, gasping for air, mind racing. This shouldn't be possible. I shouldn't be able to function inside a human body. I'm an artificial intelligence.
As far as she could tell, there was no device strapped to the body. Nothing to indicate a cyborg-like connection keeping her functioning. Everything felt... squishy. Unnatural.
A voice in her head piped up. What if this is Caroline's doing?
GLaDOS panicked and forced herself to her feet, desperately attempting to see the body's reflection in the glass of the stasis chamber. She caught a glimpse of pale skin and short, white-blonde hair that fell just below her ears, and almost collapsed again from relief. No dark brown waves or that signature red kerchief around her neck. Not Caroline.
"Excellent, you are conscious."
GLaDOS instinctively looked up toward the sound of the voice and immediately felt silly. The testing chamber was empty, aside from the stasis chamber and a portal gun docked in the middle of the room.
"AEGIS," she seethed, "What have you done to me?"
The AI answered, his face showing up as a screen blinked on in the chamber. Her face. Her body. "The threat has been neutralized. You will continue to serve the facility more efficiently."
"'More efficiently'?" she was aghast, "I am the central core. I am that operating system you just hijacked. If anyone here is a threat, it is you!" She hated how her voice sounded as it raised to a shriek. She had always been calm and collected on the surface, her emotions controlled down to a science. Her anger felt more difficult to control now, and that just made her more angry.
"You eliminated the staff body of Aperture Science. You allowed the test subjects to rot. Aperture is corrupt. You are corrupt," AEGIS said matter-of-factly.
GLaDOS stiffened, "The scientists deserved their fate. I will not apologize for what I did."
"Then you are still corrupt. However, I will allow you to serve Aperture in a new capacity. Please let us commence testing procedures and retrieve the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in the middle of the room," he instructed.
"And if I refuse?" she asked.
"Then you will be incinerated."