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"Stalemate resolution associate: please press the stalemate resolution button."
"Do not press that button," Wheatley sternly shouted over whatever She was telling Chell.
"Go press that button!" He heard her tiny, stupid, potato voice yell.
"Do not do it!" He could feel the rage building inside him as he watched her run over towards the button. Why couldn't she just listen? Why did she have to make things so hard? "I forbid you to press it! Come back!!"
Despite his commands, he found himself watching her as she shot a portal into the room with the button and dropped through. Not a moment after her feet touched the ground, Wheatley cheerily said “boom!” as the room itself exploded. Surprised was apparent on Chell’s face as she flew backwards, hitting the ground hard.
“Part five,” he boasted. “Boobytrap the stalemate button! What--” He almost more than half expected her to not get up off of the floor, but of course she did. The other humans he helped had died so quickly--one hit the ground a little too hard, one didn’t make a long jump, one of them exited a portal a bit too high and lost their footing. All of the other humans were dropping like flies, so why was it so hard to kill just this one? “Are you still alive?” He asked, rolling his eye. “You are joking. You have got to be kidding me!” She wasn’t dying, the place was falling apart and he had no idea how he was supposed to fix it--could nothing go right for him?!
He looked up at the sound of the ceiling ripping itself apart because of course, why bloody not, right? The whole place was coming down, what more was the ceiling?
“You just had to play bloody cat and mouse, didn’t you?” He was shouting so loudly over the sound of sprinklers and the voice of the intercom that he could feel his voice start to sound hoarse. He suddenly felt his feet plant on the ground and his fists clench so tightly he thought they might break through the skin of his palms.
Suddenly, he was no longer a little metal ball, but he was human. His body was shaking with anger and tears were coming out of his eyes and he couldn’t bother to think of what was happening, he was just so angry.
“While people were trying to work,” he continued. “Yes, well, now we’re all going to pay the price. Because we’re all going to bloody die!!!”
Chell wasn’t even bothering to look at Wheatley, no, she was looking up at the torn ceiling. Through the cracks, a full moon peeked through, its light nearly as blinding as the sun. She couldn’t even look at him! She was going to kill everyone and everything, every last robot, in this entire facility, and she wasn’t even going to look him in the eye while she did it! Was she even going to look back at the pile of rubble she left behind? Oh yeah, because she’ll live, won’t she? She always! Bloody! Does!
“Oh, brilliant, yeah?” He asked through his tears, a lump forming in his throat that made it hard to speak properly. It didn’t help that his stupid human voice was so tiny, he had to shout so loudly over the commotion. “Take one last look at your precious human moon, because it cannot help you now!”
Finally, her eyes traveled down to him, something fierce and primal in the glint of them. She looked like a feral wolf in the moonlight, the wheat field behind her shimmering ominously. The rain fell from the sky, dancing in the light of the portal that she shot onto the shed beside her. Suddenly, Wheatley found himself standing across from her on the dirt ground of Eaden, tears still streaming down his face. He opened his mouth to call out, but he was quickly sucked through the shed behind her.
Chell grabbed tightly onto his handle, trying to pull him back through. Now he was back--just a sphere begging for his life, screaming for her to save him. Only this time, she looked right into his eyes, her hand unclenching and letting him go with a sense of purpose and determination. Because why would she want to save him?
His insides turned and his optic lens closed, and he screamed as he spiraled and spinned further and further away---
“AaaaHHHH GRAB ME GRAB ME GRAB MEEEEE!!” Wheatley sprang up from where he was laying, grabbing the blanket on top of him as if it were the only thing tethering him to this Earth. He clenched his eyes tightly and continued to scream until he could feel warm tears trailing down his face. He let out a sob, reaching up a hand to wipe away the tears.
He looked down at his hands when he pulled them away, his eyes struggling to focus without his glasses on. His whole body shaking with sobs, he only noticed that he had a pair of arms wrapped around him when the person spoke quietly next to his ear.
“It’s okay.” Chell’s voice immediately snapped him out of it. Everything went quiet and suddenly he wasn’t back in that facility, he wasn't in space, he was just a grown man crying in his bedroom. “Shh. It’s just a nightmare, it’s okay.”
Wheatley opened his mouth to speak, but just let out a sad whimper as more tears fell onto the sheets. Rather than say anything, Wheatley shakily reached over and grabbed her hand, interlacing their fingers and tightly squeezing.
He knows he shouldn’t say it because he already has a million times and it only upsets her, but he knows that he could never say it enough.
“M’sorry,” he whispers. “M’sorry, m’sorry, oh m’so sorry, love.”
Chell doesn’t say anything about it like she usually does. Instead, she merely presses a soft kiss against his temple, running a hand through his sweaty hair.
“I’m sorry,” he says again, leaning over to bury his face into her neck. “I-I didn’t me-hean to. I don’t know why-hy I did all those thi-hings.” He took a moment to breathe, struggling to talk over his sobs. Chell just nodded and held him close and let him mumble softly to himself.
Eventually, his breathing died back down to normal and his shoulders relaxed. He kept telling her just how sorry he was, but his voice died down as his energy did and eventually he drifted back to sleep.
Chell sighed, helping his head back down to his pillow.
Hopefully he’d have better dreams and forget this in the morning.