I smiled to myself as I carried him along, realizing something. This was very good. This means that he isn't an enemy. This was a good step into what could lead to my escaping and maybe even a new friend:

Trust.

He trusts me. There's no way he would've leapt off of his rail if he didn't want me to be free. I'm glad he knows how much this freedom means to me.

"Look at this! No rail to tell us where to go! OH, this is brilliant. We can go wherever we want! Hold on though, where are we going? Hang on, let me just get my bearings. Hm, just follow the rail actually."

There were a few tubes filled with cubes flying through them. Then I saw something in one of the tubes that frightened me a bit.

"Oh no," Wheatley muttered.

"Hello?" Said a turret, stuck in one of the tubes.

"Yes, hello. We're not stopping."

It took me a second to realize that it was a turret, so, listening to Wheatley, I kept moving and tried to ignore it.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't make eye contact, whatever you do," said Wheatley.

"Hello?"

We left the turret and entered another room with black and white tiles on the floor and a door like the other. The door on the other side opened and unveiled a long, rubble-filled corridor.

"Probably ought to bring you up to speed with something right now. In order to escape, we're going to have to go through her chamber," he said.

There was a little room off to the side with some glass in it that I could look through. I saw a huge room somewhere near and a long corridor that connected to this one leading to it.

".. And she will probably kill us if, uhm, if she's awake."

I continued walking down the long corridor and turned right when I met a wall. About ten seconds later I find myself in front of a gray door that slid up slowly.

"Alright, I'm gonna lay my cards on the table. I don't want to do it, I don't want to go in there. Don't... Don't go in there don't - she's off, she's off. Don't panic over it, she's off. On we go," he said as I walked through the entrance.

I walked a bit more and found myself in a large room with a large object on the ground. It was her.

"There she is... What a nasty piece of work she was, honestly. Like a proper maniac. Do you know who wound up taking her down in the end? You're never gonna believe this. A human. I know, I wouldn't have believed it either."

There was a large metal object at the end of the room, which I was eager to make it to, with a slanted top. I walked around it and found myself walking down a small flight of metal stairs on a catwalk. After walking down just a little bit, the metal cut off and there was a long drop to another catwalk.

"Apparently this human escaped, and nobody's seen him since," he added.

It took a moment for me to realize that the human was me, Chell. I destroyed her with robots that looked like him almost and I was sent to the surface. I wanted to tell him so badly that he has seen me since. I jumped of the rail and he screamed until I landed.

"Still held! Still being held! You've applied the grip, we're all fine. that's tremendous."

As I walked along the rail I saw him look down.

"AH! I - Sorry I just looked down. I do not recommend it."

So he's clearly terrified of heights... The more you know. I walked into a room shaped like a cylinder, but it was more like a tower shape. There were at least fifty switches that covered the rounded wall.

"This is the Main Breaker room. Alright, look for a switch that says ESCAPE POD. Not interested in anything else. Don't TOUCH anything else, don't even LOOK at anything else. Well, obviously, look at other things to find escape pod. But as soon as you look at something that doesn't say escape pod, look at something else - look at the next thing. But don't touch anything else or touch anythi--well, you understand."

I nodded and looked all up and down the walls, struggling to read the small font.

"Uhh, can you see it anywhere? I can't see it anywhere. Tell you what, plug me in and I'll turn on the lights."

Another port revealed itself and I placed him on it. The room became much brighter.

"Let there be light. That's, uh, god. I was quoting god."

Suddenly, the platform/floor that I was on started rotating.

"Oh, turning. Ominous. But fine, a long a it doesn't start, you know, moving up. Now, escape pod-escape pod..."

Suddenly the platform started moving up the tower and it flipped all of the switches on the wall. I looked at him, desperate for him to get it to stop.

"It's... It's moving up. Don't worry! I've got this, I've got this! Here, this should slow it down," he said.

I heard a few button clicks and then the platform started moving up a lot faster.

"No, makes it go faster."

The platform continued going up until we were back at the room with the murderous AI. I tried to escape, but a stone-like wall rose around the platform.

"Power up initiated," said the other voice.

All I could do is sit there and watch as she powered up.

"It's fine! It's fine! I'll just-I'll just hack it. Uhm... A-A-A-A-A.. Uhm... A."

I heard a buzzer noise, which meant that he hacked it wrong.

"A-A-A-A-A... Uhm.. C," he said, followed by another buzzer.

"Wait, did I do B?! Have you got a pen, start writing these down!" He shouted, frantically.

The rest of the things he said were blocked out by the small noises she made when she turned on.

"Oh, it's you, she said, staring at me coldly with her eye. "It's been a long time. How have you been? I've been really busy being dead. You know, after you murdered me."

"You did what?! Shouted Wheatley.

"Look, we've both said a lot of things that you're going to regret...

Two metal arms extended down and picked Wheatley and I up.

"No, no! No!" he screamed, desperately.

She squeezed him tighter with the claw.

"...but I think we can put our differences behind us. For science? You monster?"

She squeezed Wheatley more until his optic broke and hung out of his dead (sort of) body. This made me extremely mad. She brought me over to the other side of the room and held me over the metal that I saw before, the slanted top opened and there was an even longer drop waiting for me.

"I will say, though, that since you went through all of the trouble of waking me up, you must really really love to test. I love it too. There's just one small thing we need to take care of first," she said, finally.

She dropped me and I went down into the incinerator. Only there was no fire. Instead, a long way down of bumping into walls and whatnot. I felt the Portal Gun slip out of my hands. I tried reaching for it but I fell down until I finally hit the floor.

[Chapter 2: The Cold Boot]

"Here we are. The incinerator room. Careful not to trip over any parts of me that didn't get completely burned when you threw them down here."

I looked up. There was a large fire pit with more and more heaps of scrap metal around it. One piece balanced just right so I could walk across it. I chose to have a small break first. Tears were swelling in my eyes. I was so frustrated with all of this and my best friend, a robot, was just killed. What kind of a messed up place could do this to people.

It was something about the tone of her voice. It was just that, for the first time, I can't tune it out. This hasn't happened to anyone else before, but it wasn't good. I'd always tried to teach myself to never, ever listen to people like her. Somehow, it wasn't working on her. Her cold voice makes me shudder and her yellow optic glares daggers into me. And she has her sarcastic, mocking, and just plain mean attitude to top it off. She is pure evil.

I say down for a moment. I tried to stay calm and think of what to do. I was usually good at doing that, but this time it wasn't so easy. It all lead down to that monstrous AI. She's the cause. I need to get to her again, destroy her the same way as last time. And then there's Wheatley, who just died because she was powered up. Why was he so clumsy like that? I need him more than ever, now that she's awake.

I started to cry, I couldn't help it. He's gone and he's never gonna come back to helping me get through this and now I'm stuck with her. I can't believe any of this is even happening. I stopped myself. I tried to remind myself that this is what she wants. She just wants to get to me. All of this is just to test some stupid gun, and it completely tore everything I knew and loved apart, I can't even remember any of it.

After a little while, I stood up. I had to convince myself that I could defeat her again. That I could go for a repeat and make sure that this never happens to anyone else. I stood up and walked forward on the platform.

Timeskip to later on. (Is to be later edited to avoid criticism.)

I stepped out of the elevator, which made another noise when it stopped. Something I shouldn't have to get used to. I walked a bit and found myself in a large room with a single faith plate in the middle. There was a ceiling above it and some more of the test was up on its own out of reach. I shot a portal on the ceiling above the faith plate and I shot one on the ceiling above the other half of the chamber.

I stepped onto the faith plate and it sent me flying. I didn't even take the time to notice that it didn't send me high enough because I saw something that really made me smile: Wheatley. He was barely visible through the corners of the ceiling. I heard him trying to tell me a story of a sort.

"Hey! Hey! It's me! I'm alive!"

That was all I heard before I fell back down an landed near the faith plate, dumbfounded. How is he still alive? I wondered. The faith plate starting beeping and I heard an all too familiar voice over the intercom.

"Well I'm back. The Aerial Faith Plate in here is sending a distress signal. You broke it, didn't you?"

A couple of seconds later, the faith plate stopped and I stepped back on it. I was flung back up where I met Wheatley again.

"A bloody bird, right?! And then the bird--"

I fell down again, unable to reach the ceiling. I didn't want to reach the ceiling.

"It appears that this faith plate is not calibrated to someone of your... Generous...ness. I'll add a few zeros to the maximum weight. You look great, by the way. Very healthy."

I heard a few beeping or button clicking noises, meaning she was adding the zeros and being even more offensive. I stepped onto the faith plate to hear his voice once again. I heard it, but I couldn't translate it through everything that was going on in my head. I landed again and she began speaking.

"You seem to have defeated it's load bearing capacity. Well done. I'll just lower the ceiling," she said.

The panel that Wheatley was in between lowered until he was out of view. Wheatley was here though, and I was gonna find him.

I shot a portal on the ceiling again and stepped on the plate, which sent me to the other side of the chamber. There were a few slanted panels that were obviously supposed to be used for momentum. I shot a portal on a random panel and jumped down to the faith plate. When I stepped on it, it sent me up and through the portal. I flung onto a small platform with a button. I pressed it and a reflection cube dropped from a platform across from me.

I jumped down and shot another portal on a different panel. I jumped down and back onto the Aerial Faith Plate. I landed on another platform with the cube and jumped down. I reflected the laser against the wall that was in between it and the receiver for the laser. I shot a portal on one of the other panels and the faith plate sent me over to a higher ledge with an exit door that was a bit high up. I looked down and shot a blue portal on the wall so the laser ran into it. Then I shot one on the other side of the walk so the laser intercepted the wall and entered its receiver.

This triggered the door to open and panels to rise up from the floor to create a staircase for me to walk up to it. So I did. I felt a bit like a baby now for crying over him, now that he's alive. But thankfully, he wasn't killed and she doesn't need to know that. He's very fragile in a place like this and he should just be a bit more careful.