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Description
Chapter 5: Silence, Solitude, reunion.

Disclaimer: I do not own Portal 2

--

" SPAAAAAAAAAAAACCEEEEEE!" Space shouted with enthusiasm, running through the wheat field without a care in the world, gazing up at the night sky. It had been hours since he was freed from the facility, and all the stars in the sky was making every little minute worth it. He was enjoying himself, right up until he looked at his hands.

As it turns out, the lift had been a very nasty trap, filled with turrets. He had no idea as to how they managed to escape, but they did, right up until they stepped outside. GLaDOS had been clever... and installed a security mechanism inside Wheatley's mobile body. It would self destruct if it ever went outside the laboratory. His wasn't built with such a feature, but it scared the both of them when they heard the announcement. Thinking fast, Wheatley went into emergency shutdown to try and dismantle the system, but it was of little use.

Unable to do much else, Space had forced open the mobile body's core, and removed Wheatley's important data from inside it, his personality center. He now had it clutched tightly in his hands, and he was the only one who could get Wheatley any further right now. But which way was he to go? This was too difficult for him, he wanted to go back to space so bad, but Wheatley was counting on him. All that time up in space... he loved it with all his might, but he still had time to listen. Wheatley was always lamenting up there, always sad and lonely, even though he was right there.

It was  that woman... the one from the tests, the one who sent him into space. Wheatley always spoke of apologizing to her, though he had yet to figure out what Wheatley did wrong. Cradling the personality center closer to his chest, he set through the field again, only to look up at the night sky.

" SPAAAAAAAAAAAACCEEEEEE!!!!"

All thoughts banished from his mind, he happily ran through the field, singing about various things in space.

–

Chell sighed softly as she held a single blue lens in her hand, turning it over and trying to see what shade of blue it was, searching through all of the lenses. A day had already passed since Lou had rushed off to the hospital, and things were quiet, save for the turret. Even though she knew that Lou might get mad at her, she had spent the night in the workshop, working on the android body. She had given it a face, a kind and gentle looking face that really appealed to her, and now she was looking for some color to add to the eyes.

Perhaps Lou would be pissed that she was shaping the android's face to her liking instead of his, but she still wanted to see it completed before Lou got back. Finding the matching lens, she held them up to the light, marveling at the blue color that seemed to draw her in before working on setting them in the eyes, being careful. Lou had showed her a few things about the body, but she didn't know it all. Next on the list was the synthetic hair, which she had redone to be a red-brown color, which really made the eyes stand out. Eyes were the windows to the soul after all.

Smiling, she continued her work, the Turret sitting beside her. It had gotten used to her, and she was actually attached to the little thing now. It didn't really speak much, but she felt as if it did understand her better now, and didn't wail all that much when she had to leave it alone. That alone was a blessing,  it would wail endlessly whenever she had a breakdown, because she was always hiding in a room whenever it happened.

She continued to work, typing at the computer that helped monitor the android, looking outside at the clouds. It was on and off raining, and it was relaxing if not quiet. It reminded her of the labs again, but she found that she rather enjoyed the quiet instead of the mad rush of the city. Lou's workshop was on the outskirts of town, and it suited herself just fine. Too much noise annoyed her anyways, and she couldn't take the turret into town either.

She jumped when she heard a crash against the side of the building, grabbing a large metal pipe and going to investigate, ready to beat the hell out of a burglar if there was one, train of thought derailed. What she did not expect to find was a robot curled up tightly underneath the jutted out portion of the roof to escape the rain, sobbing loudly. It looked like it had been running through a field of grass for hours, lots of materials were stuck in it's joints and all of it was a mess from the rain.

She tensed up when she saw the Aperture laboratories logo on the side of it's chest, raising the pipe threateningly. It didn't matter if it was crying, if it's mission was to bring her back, she would smash it to pieces. No way in hell was she going back there. She crept closer to the robot, tense as her foot scraped a piece of scrap metal, the robot looking up at her with wide yellow eyes, fearful. She instantly felt horrible, but held her ground until she saw the personality center clutched tightly in it's hands.

This robot... it had a companion who was smashed or crushed, and managed to remove the personality center before fleeing the lab. She felt more sympathy for the robot and gently held out her hand trying to coax it towards her. " You're the lady who sent us into space..." the robot said quietly, Chell faltering as soon as she heard those words. She only sent Wheatley and Space Core into space... there was no way that they should ever have been recovered. But still, she clung to the small hope that it was them and looked at the personality center, motioning for the robot to go inside out of the rain.

It obediently followed her, babbling about all the things in space, and she was almost positive now. But if Space Core was now in a mobile body, where was he? Was he left in space for some reason, or had something happened, and the personality center in Space Core's hands was him? Now extremely curious, she held out her hand, gently trying to pry the part from the robots hands. Surprisingly, it gave the part to her, and she cradled it in her hands, gazing at it before looking at the android body laying on the table.

Wheatley had to be rubbing off on her, this was a terrible idea and she was still going to do it.

–

GlaDOS rotated slightly as she monitored the signals. Of course she knew that Space Core and that moron had escaped, it would be extremely stupid of them to think they had escaped without her knowledge. But she was curious as to where two, well now one, mobile robots would go in a world where they didn't even look human. Not even she, with her superior intellect, ever entertained the idea of trying to blend in with humans.

But him...

He was a puzzle that she could never hope to solve. He was created to be an utter fool, but he still ascertained to break free of his very programing. It was burned into every part of his program, seared into his mechanical soul, but he still tried to be useful, no matter how many times he made a complete and utter fool of himself.

In fact, it was only thanks to her best test subject that he even got into the mainframe, he would never have been able to do it on his own, she would have incinerated him first. Now, she could see what some humans like to call "changes" in him, having watched him struggle endlessly in the tests. She wouldn't say that he had gotten smarter within the lengthy period of time that he spent in space and the testing labs, but he had gotten... more human.

He showed compassion to his companion, no matter how annoying he was, and even apologized to the turrets that were destroyed. The turrets were easily replaceable, but still, he apologized to each one. Another thing was a sudden sense of pain. It was always there, who wouldn't respond to having some of their circuitry ripped out, but he always expressed it more. For a while, she had become annoyed with his moans and complaints with his crushed leg, but it was always curious to watch.

His entire AI program was also another mystery to her. He was built to be a fool, but sometimes, he seemed to be intelligent, almost like how his companion occasionally did NOT babble about space. Quite the conundrum to her, and even better, she still had to deal with his mainframe personality data left over. He had somehow created a backup copy of himself while a part of the mainframe, and she was sorely tempted to delete the data, but had difficulty doing so. Instead, she filed all of it away in a encoded file, and made sure that there was no chances of it interfering with any of her work.

Checking on their signals again, she was surprised to find that the signal had stopped rather close to the labs, but far enough to be quite a walk for a human. Was that as far as that idiotic core could get?

Pitiful.

–

Chell made a frustrated sound, looking over the android body.  Where was she to install the personality center?  The head seemed like a logical choice, but when she opened up the compartment, she gave up on making any heads or tails of the wiring inside. With her luck, she would accidentally fry the delicate part in her hands. Space Core seemed to be hovering nearby her, curious as to what she was doing with the odd looking human-like body, Chell sighing and opening up the chest compartment. There was a place inside it that looked like the personality center would fit, but she wasn't one for just cramming parts in at random, instead turning to the computer.

Thankfully, the computer had a detailed guide for memory transfer, and she read it over five times before she was sure she could do it. The android body already had a core inside it, and all she would have to do is transfer everything over. But was it going to work? Transferring a personality core's entire memory wasn't the same as simply copy and paste. What if it didn't work? Or heaven forbid... only transferred the evil personality...

She shook her head and started to connect all of the wires, beginning the transfer process, watching the bar steadily tick across the screen, her nervousness increasing with each and every minute. The "what if" demons were running rampant in her brain, and no amount of loud humming would quell her fears.

" Space?" Space core asked the Turret, the turret simply observing him with it's single eye before reaching a decision.

" Who ARE you?" the turret asked fearfully.

Space core made a noise. " Space! Space, Space, gotta go to space, wanna go to space, hafta get to space."

" Malfunctioning." was all the turret had to say about this new arrival.

–

Chell let out a soft noise as the android body hummed to life, starting it's wake up procedure. The chest began to rise and fall, just like regular breathing, and she could almost swear she could hear snoring. The degree at which Lou worked on the body was amazing, she could see his craftsmanship all over the body, from the gentle strands of fiber like hair all the way to the strength of the legs and feet to support the body. Not to mention next to perfect detail in the anatomy... a little too much detail... but Lou had something to go by, his own body. But of course, the android body in question was of an average build with a good height to it.

Evidently, Lou had told her that it's a real challenge to build taller bodies, seeing as how most standard robotic legs are built to either walk alone, or not be for a very large frame. The breathing was meant to be the cooling system, along with a coolant that replaced blood to help keep the body cool. Several other features were there, but she doubted Lou told her every little secret that body held. Her nervousness was reaching it's peak now, her palms sweaty from all of the scenarios playing in her mind at once.

" Naptime." The turret said to her.

Chell stared at the turret, shaking her head. If it was him... he would be very lost and confused upon waking up, and she didn't want him to feel afraid. She didn't want him to feel the same way she had upon first reaching the city... a scared and alone soul with no background to speak of, the clothes on her back, no money of any kind, and a cube. It was hell for the first few days...

Her thoughts returned to the present when she saw the eyes of the android flutter faintly, a noise escaping it's lips, almost like a sigh. Clear blue eyes slowly opened and closed, before a scream escaped him, Chell lunging for him and placing a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, looking into his eyes, trying to convey that she wanted him to calm down.

Gently, with her free hand, she caressed the side of his face, stroking his cheek gently as his eyes widened, looking at her. She gently took her hand away from his mouth, letting him speak.

" Chell?"

–

To say he was confused was the understatement of the year. He was fully sure that he was a goner, once that system message had flashed across his screen that there was a self- destruct mechanism in his mobile body that would soon go off... but he seemed to be completely fine now. Even more so, Chell was right in front of him... this had to be what the humans liked to call " a dream"...

If this was a dream, he hoped he wouldn't wake up anytime soon. Staring back at Chell, he tried to assess the damage. All of his sensors were off, which didn't equate to a good thing in his eyes, but oh blessed gods, SHE was there...

It  felt like forever since he last saw her... but perhaps it was. But this was all a dream, wasn't it?  Was it just some cruel memory bit that GlaDOS was playing in his mind to instill some form of hope in order to crush it? Sadly, she was doing a good job of it. But since it was a dream, he could say anything, the things he had wanted to get off his chest for so long threatened to leap out of his mouth in a tangled mess.

" Chell!" he said sharply, then made a face at how startled she was. Oops... even if it was a dream, he shouldn't have snapped like that. " Chell... Chell, I'm so sorry... what I did... it was awful, terribly awful. If I could go back, and I wish I could but I don't think anyone's invented a time machine yet... or at least not one that I'm aware of, the technology might be a bit beyond us and- STOP rambling! What I mean to say is, I'm sorry for all that I did to you, and I wish I could take it back, but I know I can't. I can say sorry until my voice program goes corrupt, not that I need another part of me corrupt, but I mean it... I really am sorry."

There... he had got it all off his chest now. He wouldn't ramble the next time, he was sure of it. He would get it perfect when that time actually came for him to apologi-

Dream Chell gently wrapped her arms around him, hugging him softly. His body tingled from head to foot, this dream was just so real it was scary.

She gently pulled away from him, giving him a smile. " Welcome back." it was so faint he had to strain his ears to hear it, but it was there. Space was standing there as well, a turret in his arms, and that's when it hit him. This wasn't a dream, and he really did get the chance to apologize, and she had forgiven him.

He eagerly leaned forward to hug her again, stopping when he felt a tug on his back, looking at all the wires connected to him.

And then he looked down.

" Well, uh, heh heh... I guess I need some clothes, don't I?"

Description
Chapter 5: Silence, Solitude, reunion.

Disclaimer: I do not own Portal 2

--

" SPAAAAAAAAAAAACCEEEEEE!" Space shouted with enthusiasm, running through the wheat field without a care in the world, gazing up at the night sky. It had been hours since he was freed from the facility, and all the stars in the sky was making every little minute worth it. He was enjoying himself, right up until he looked at his hands.

As it turns out, the lift had been a very nasty trap, filled with turrets. He had no idea as to how they managed to escape, but they did, right up until they stepped outside. GLaDOS had been clever... and installed a security mechanism inside Wheatley's mobile body. It would self destruct if it ever went outside the laboratory. His wasn't built with such a feature, but it scared the both of them when they heard the announcement. Thinking fast, Wheatley went into emergency shutdown to try and dismantle the system, but it was of little use.

Unable to do much else, Space had forced open the mobile body's core, and removed Wheatley's important data from inside it, his personality center. He now had it clutched tightly in his hands, and he was the only one who could get Wheatley any further right now. But which way was he to go? This was too difficult for him, he wanted to go back to space so bad, but Wheatley was counting on him. All that time up in space... he loved it with all his might, but he still had time to listen. Wheatley was always lamenting up there, always sad and lonely, even though he was right there.

It was  that woman... the one from the tests, the one who sent him into space. Wheatley always spoke of apologizing to her, though he had yet to figure out what Wheatley did wrong. Cradling the personality center closer to his chest, he set through the field again, only to look up at the night sky.

" SPAAAAAAAAAAAACCEEEEEE!!!!"

All thoughts banished from his mind, he happily ran through the field, singing about various things in space.

–

Chell sighed softly as she held a single blue lens in her hand, turning it over and trying to see what shade of blue it was, searching through all of the lenses. A day had already passed since Lou had rushed off to the hospital, and things were quiet, save for the turret. Even though she knew that Lou might get mad at her, she had spent the night in the workshop, working on the android body. She had given it a face, a kind and gentle looking face that really appealed to her, and now she was looking for some color to add to the eyes.

Perhaps Lou would be pissed that she was shaping the android's face to her liking instead of his, but she still wanted to see it completed before Lou got back. Finding the matching lens, she held them up to the light, marveling at the blue color that seemed to draw her in before working on setting them in the eyes, being careful. Lou had showed her a few things about the body, but she didn't know it all. Next on the list was the synthetic hair, which she had redone to be a red-brown color, which really made the eyes stand out. Eyes were the windows to the soul after all.

Smiling, she continued her work, the Turret sitting beside her. It had gotten used to her, and she was actually attached to the little thing now. It didn't really speak much, but she felt as if it did understand her better now, and didn't wail all that much when she had to leave it alone. That alone was a blessing,  it would wail endlessly whenever she had a breakdown, because she was always hiding in a room whenever it happened.

She continued to work, typing at the computer that helped monitor the android, looking outside at the clouds. It was on and off raining, and it was relaxing if not quiet. It reminded her of the labs again, but she found that she rather enjoyed the quiet instead of the mad rush of the city. Lou's workshop was on the outskirts of town, and it suited herself just fine. Too much noise annoyed her anyways, and she couldn't take the turret into town either.

She jumped when she heard a crash against the side of the building, grabbing a large metal pipe and going to investigate, ready to beat the hell out of a burglar if there was one, train of thought derailed. What she did not expect to find was a robot curled up tightly underneath the jutted out portion of the roof to escape the rain, sobbing loudly. It looked like it had been running through a field of grass for hours, lots of materials were stuck in it's joints and all of it was a mess from the rain.

She tensed up when she saw the Aperture laboratories logo on the side of it's chest, raising the pipe threateningly. It didn't matter if it was crying, if it's mission was to bring her back, she would smash it to pieces. No way in hell was she going back there. She crept closer to the robot, tense as her foot scraped a piece of scrap metal, the robot looking up at her with wide yellow eyes, fearful. She instantly felt horrible, but held her ground until she saw the personality center clutched tightly in it's hands.

This robot... it had a companion who was smashed or crushed, and managed to remove the personality center before fleeing the lab. She felt more sympathy for the robot and gently held out her hand trying to coax it towards her. " You're the lady who sent us into space..." the robot said quietly, Chell faltering as soon as she heard those words. She only sent Wheatley and Space Core into space... there was no way that they should ever have been recovered. But still, she clung to the small hope that it was them and looked at the personality center, motioning for the robot to go inside out of the rain.

It obediently followed her, babbling about all the things in space, and she was almost positive now. But if Space Core was now in a mobile body, where was he? Was he left in space for some reason, or had something happened, and the personality center in Space Core's hands was him? Now extremely curious, she held out her hand, gently trying to pry the part from the robots hands. Surprisingly, it gave the part to her, and she cradled it in her hands, gazing at it before looking at the android body laying on the table.

Wheatley had to be rubbing off on her, this was a terrible idea and she was still going to do it.

–

GlaDOS rotated slightly as she monitored the signals. Of course she knew that Space Core and that moron had escaped, it would be extremely stupid of them to think they had escaped without her knowledge. But she was curious as to where two, well now one, mobile robots would go in a world where they didn't even look human. Not even she, with her superior intellect, ever entertained the idea of trying to blend in with humans.

But him...

He was a puzzle that she could never hope to solve. He was created to be an utter fool, but he still ascertained to break free of his very programing. It was burned into every part of his program, seared into his mechanical soul, but he still tried to be useful, no matter how many times he made a complete and utter fool of himself.

In fact, it was only thanks to her best test subject that he even got into the mainframe, he would never have been able to do it on his own, she would have incinerated him first. Now, she could see what some humans like to call "changes" in him, having watched him struggle endlessly in the tests. She wouldn't say that he had gotten smarter within the lengthy period of time that he spent in space and the testing labs, but he had gotten... more human.

He showed compassion to his companion, no matter how annoying he was, and even apologized to the turrets that were destroyed. The turrets were easily replaceable, but still, he apologized to each one. Another thing was a sudden sense of pain. It was always there, who wouldn't respond to having some of their circuitry ripped out, but he always expressed it more. For a while, she had become annoyed with his moans and complaints with his crushed leg, but it was always curious to watch.

His entire AI program was also another mystery to her. He was built to be a fool, but sometimes, he seemed to be intelligent, almost like how his companion occasionally did NOT babble about space. Quite the conundrum to her, and even better, she still had to deal with his mainframe personality data left over. He had somehow created a backup copy of himself while a part of the mainframe, and she was sorely tempted to delete the data, but had difficulty doing so. Instead, she filed all of it away in a encoded file, and made sure that there was no chances of it interfering with any of her work.

Checking on their signals again, she was surprised to find that the signal had stopped rather close to the labs, but far enough to be quite a walk for a human. Was that as far as that idiotic core could get?

Pitiful.

–

Chell made a frustrated sound, looking over the android body.  Where was she to install the personality center?  The head seemed like a logical choice, but when she opened up the compartment, she gave up on making any heads or tails of the wiring inside. With her luck, she would accidentally fry the delicate part in her hands. Space Core seemed to be hovering nearby her, curious as to what she was doing with the odd looking human-like body, Chell sighing and opening up the chest compartment. There was a place inside it that looked like the personality center would fit, but she wasn't one for just cramming parts in at random, instead turning to the computer.

Thankfully, the computer had a detailed guide for memory transfer, and she read it over five times before she was sure she could do it. The android body already had a core inside it, and all she would have to do is transfer everything over. But was it going to work? Transferring a personality core's entire memory wasn't the same as simply copy and paste. What if it didn't work? Or heaven forbid... only transferred the evil personality...

She shook her head and started to connect all of the wires, beginning the transfer process, watching the bar steadily tick across the screen, her nervousness increasing with each and every minute. The "what if" demons were running rampant in her brain, and no amount of loud humming would quell her fears.

" Space?" Space core asked the Turret, the turret simply observing him with it's single eye before reaching a decision.

" Who ARE you?" the turret asked fearfully.

Space core made a noise. " Space! Space, Space, gotta go to space, wanna go to space, hafta get to space."

" Malfunctioning." was all the turret had to say about this new arrival.

–

Chell let out a soft noise as the android body hummed to life, starting it's wake up procedure. The chest began to rise and fall, just like regular breathing, and she could almost swear she could hear snoring. The degree at which Lou worked on the body was amazing, she could see his craftsmanship all over the body, from the gentle strands of fiber like hair all the way to the strength of the legs and feet to support the body. Not to mention next to perfect detail in the anatomy... a little too much detail... but Lou had something to go by, his own body. But of course, the android body in question was of an average build with a good height to it.

Evidently, Lou had told her that it's a real challenge to build taller bodies, seeing as how most standard robotic legs are built to either walk alone, or not be for a very large frame. The breathing was meant to be the cooling system, along with a coolant that replaced blood to help keep the body cool. Several other features were there, but she doubted Lou told her every little secret that body held. Her nervousness was reaching it's peak now, her palms sweaty from all of the scenarios playing in her mind at once.

" Naptime." The turret said to her.

Chell stared at the turret, shaking her head. If it was him... he would be very lost and confused upon waking up, and she didn't want him to feel afraid. She didn't want him to feel the same way she had upon first reaching the city... a scared and alone soul with no background to speak of, the clothes on her back, no money of any kind, and a cube. It was hell for the first few days...

Her thoughts returned to the present when she saw the eyes of the android flutter faintly, a noise escaping it's lips, almost like a sigh. Clear blue eyes slowly opened and closed, before a scream escaped him, Chell lunging for him and placing a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet, looking into his eyes, trying to convey that she wanted him to calm down.

Gently, with her free hand, she caressed the side of his face, stroking his cheek gently as his eyes widened, looking at her. She gently took her hand away from his mouth, letting him speak.

" Chell?"

–

To say he was confused was the understatement of the year. He was fully sure that he was a goner, once that system message had flashed across his screen that there was a self- destruct mechanism in his mobile body that would soon go off... but he seemed to be completely fine now. Even more so, Chell was right in front of him... this had to be what the humans liked to call " a dream"...

If this was a dream, he hoped he wouldn't wake up anytime soon. Staring back at Chell, he tried to assess the damage. All of his sensors were off, which didn't equate to a good thing in his eyes, but oh blessed gods, SHE was there...

It  felt like forever since he last saw her... but perhaps it was. But this was all a dream, wasn't it?  Was it just some cruel memory bit that GlaDOS was playing in his mind to instill some form of hope in order to crush it? Sadly, she was doing a good job of it. But since it was a dream, he could say anything, the things he had wanted to get off his chest for so long threatened to leap out of his mouth in a tangled mess.

" Chell!" he said sharply, then made a face at how startled she was. Oops... even if it was a dream, he shouldn't have snapped like that. " Chell... Chell, I'm so sorry... what I did... it was awful, terribly awful. If I could go back, and I wish I could but I don't think anyone's invented a time machine yet... or at least not one that I'm aware of, the technology might be a bit beyond us and- STOP rambling! What I mean to say is, I'm sorry for all that I did to you, and I wish I could take it back, but I know I can't. I can say sorry until my voice program goes corrupt, not that I need another part of me corrupt, but I mean it... I really am sorry."

There... he had got it all off his chest now. He wouldn't ramble the next time, he was sure of it. He would get it perfect when that time actually came for him to apologi-

Dream Chell gently wrapped her arms around him, hugging him softly. His body tingled from head to foot, this dream was just so real it was scary.

She gently pulled away from him, giving him a smile. " Welcome back." it was so faint he had to strain his ears to hear it, but it was there. Space was standing there as well, a turret in his arms, and that's when it hit him. This wasn't a dream, and he really did get the chance to apologize, and she had forgiven him.

He eagerly leaned forward to hug her again, stopping when he felt a tug on his back, looking at all the wires connected to him.

And then he looked down.

" Well, uh, heh heh... I guess I need some clothes, don't I?"