One Last Time (Wattys 2015)

Returning

He did wait. He waited for days, then weeks, then months. Little Space had gone off exploring and still hadn't come back. Wheatley floated above the Earth alone.

"Any minute now" he muttered. It was the same thing he had been telling himself since he arrived. It was a lie he had forced himself into believing. The hopeful illusion was wearing thin now.

"Oye moron" Great. Now he was hearing voices. Unless somehow GLaDOS really was talking to him. Was that even possible. He remembered the communication device he had. He had very nearly forgotten about it. When they first had the facility to themselves he and the other cores messed around by trying to see how far they could go before the devices went out of range. Somehow they never did. It didn't take very long for the novelty to wear off and they faded away into obscurity.

He wasn't hearing things. It was her. The sound of another voice was a relief. After all it had been a long time since he had heard anything more than his own mutterings.

That feeling of relief didn't last long. It was almost instantly replaced by the dread of what she could want.

"Well. How are you finding space?"

"Well urr it's big. Maybe to big. Plenty of stars to see. There nice. It's a little bit lonely...really lonely" he panicked and said the first things he could think of it.

"Oh well. I hate to cut your entirety of exile short but we have work to do. If I was you I'd stay as still as possible"

She disappeared from the communicator. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light. As quickly as it appeared it went away and everything went black.

The next thing he knew he was back at Aperture on the floor of her chamber. The sudden return of gravity was one of the most unpleasant experiences he'd ever had. Not to mention the intense pain in his le-

That couldn't be right. How can you feel pain in something you don't have? Perhaps it was all in his head. But the feeling was real. He looked down and nearly jumped up in shock but instead found himself frozen in place. He had legs. Arms to. She had made him human.

"Welcome back. I expect you have a lot of questions but there isn't time for that. Don't make any sudden movements for the next few minutes"

He decided to ignore the whole 'there isn't time' part of the sentence and went straight to the questions.

"What's going on?"

"Alright listen closely because there is no chance I will ever repeat this. I..." She didn't want to say it. She had promised herself a long time ago that she would make it on her own. She would never need anybody. Especially not somebody like him. "I need your help"

Wheatley had at least a hundred other things he had originally wanted to say. He couldn't remember any of it. GLaDOS rarely needed help and when she did she wouldn't just come out with it. Everything was always at a press of a button. Half of the time it didn't even take that for her to get what she wanted. She didn't just run Aperture. She WAS Aperture. Under what circumstances could she possibly want his help?

"I was going through some old files. It turns out there was a ton of experiments that even I didn't know about. I stumbled on an interesting one asking: can you create stable gate ways to another universe using nuclear power?"

"and can you?" he asked curiously.

"Of course not. The test was a gigantic failing. The experiment was to be scrapped but the people involved died before everything could be properly shut down. We now have a nuclear plant thats been unattended for 50,000 years. You can see our problem can't you?"

He saw it alright. The fact that it had stayed stable for that long was a shock and a blessing. There was no way it would stay that way for much longer though.

"For some reason it can't be shut down from up here. That's why I need a human. Someone smart. Brave. Someone who copes well under pressure"

"Oh w-well that's but I-"

"You? I wouldn't trust you to change a light bulb. No I need you to go out there and find Chell"

That immediately made him sit up and take notice

"Y-you mean she isn't with you?"

"No. I got sick of her wrecking up my home and she clearly wasn't going to stop until she got want she wanted. So I gave it to her"

He had counted on her being there when he got back. At least he knew she had got what she had been fighting for. Plus this was definitely a better way to restart. He could show her that he was a new person. Literally. A person who would risk the unfamiliarity of the surface just to find her. She'd love that surely.

With his goal in mind he leapt up and bravely attempted his first steps. Only to fall face first.

Being human hurt.