Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Good morning. You have been in suspension for- 99999- 99-“

Soul groaned as the unfamiliar voice droned on and on. God, was Mind fucking with him? The voice didn’t sound like Heart and it seemed vaguely robotic.

He sat up from his now strangely uncomfortable bed, looking around his-

Wait.

This wasn’t his room. It looked more like some shitty hotel room. None of his stuff was here, either, other than his lipstick on the table.

How did he get here? The loop reset, they split. He should be home. Where was he, where were Heart and Mind, who the fuck was talking to him-

Soul’s spiraling was interrupted by someone knocking anxiously on the door, followed by an unexpectedly British voice. “‘Ello? Anyone in there?”

Fucking hell, what did they do as CJ to end up here?

The person outside was still talking. “Are you going to open the door? Because it’s fairly urgent.” He groaned and stood up, wiping the undoubtably smudged lipstick off. He could feel that he looked sleep deprived.

Atlas opened the door to see a robot that looked like a metal ball. Some kind of core?

“Ha!-“ The orb’s eye brightened, only to immediately flinch back. “AGH- oh, god. You look terri- ummm… good. Looking good, actually.” He could tell that was a blatant lie.

The robot moved into the room on some kind of rail- how did Soul not notice that earlier? "Are you okay? Don't- don’t answer that. I'm absolutely sure you're fine. There's plenty of time for you to recover. Just take it slow."

They both flinched at the stupid robotic voice speaking again. “Please prepare for emergency evacuation.” What the fuck was going on? The core’s iris shrunk to a terrified pinprick.

"Stay calm! Stay- stay calm, prepare, that's all they're saying. Prepare. It's all fine. Alright? Don't move. I'm gonna get us out of here." He had already moved halfway into some panel in the ceiling before he spoke up again. “Oh. You might want to hang onto something. Word of advice, up to you.”

He yelped as what sounded like an engine started up. The room shook, some random objects going flying. "You alright down there? Can you hear me? Hello?"

The engine stopped and the robot came back down from the ceiling. He launched into a speech as Atlas moved closer to him.

"Most test subjects do experience some, uh, cognitive deterioration after a few months in suspension. Now you've been under for... quite a lot longer, and it's not out of the question that you might have a verrry minor case of serious brain damage."

WHAT?!

His breath hitched, which the orb apparently noticed. "But- don't be alarmed, alright? Uh, although if you do- if you do feel alarm, try to hold onto that feeling! Because that is the proper reaction to being told that you’ve got brain damage."

The core paused. "Do you understand what I'm saying? At all? Does any of this make any sense? Just tell me, just say yes.”

For whatever reason, Soul’s fucked up brain decided it would be funny to jump instead of saying anything at all.

“Uhm, no, that’s- what you’re doing there is jumping. You just jumped.” The robot cleared his nonexistent throat. “Okay, never mind. Say apple.”

Atlas paused, thinking for a moment. Should he keep doing the bit?

..Nah, he didn’t need to fuck with the poor guy anymore. “{Apple.}”

The core’s eye lit up. “Oh, you do speak! Wonderful, glad we got that out of the way. Erm. We do really need to get going, though, so hold on tight.”

He went back into the panel after that. The engine started back up, and the voice that was probably just announcements began playing again. "All reactor core safeguards are now non-functional. Please prepare for reactor core meltdown."

"Okay look, I wasn't going to mention this to you, but I’m in pretty hot water here." More objects were broken and flung across the room, including Soul. He immediately moved to the hallway and grabbed onto anything he could find. Jesus, was the engine for the entire room? "How you doing down there? You still holding on?"

“{Yeah, I’m fine!}” Atlas mumbled under his breath. “{Except for the part where I’m being thrown around like a ragdoll.}”

The core kept rambling about the relaxation center- which was apparently where Soul had been- running out of power and no longer waking up subjects, which meant everyone else was either dead or brain damaged to all hell. He also kept bumping into other rooms like Soul’s.

Finally, they made it to a section that looked less like a giant warehouse.

"Okay, almost there! On the other side of that wall is one of the old testing tracks. There's a piece of equipment in there that we're gonna need to get out of here. I- I think this is a docking station. Get ready..."

Soul braced himself and squinted at the writing on the wall. “Docking Station, 500 feet below”.

Wait a second.

His stomach dropped. “{No- nononono- THAT’S A WALL! THAT’S NOT THE DOCKING STATION!}” The room blasting forward made it clear the robot was either too focused on “docking” to listen, or just didn’t care.

Soul screamed as he went flying, barely able to grab onto something. "Good news, that is not a docking station. So there's one mystery solved. Uh- I'm going to attempt a manual override on this wall. Could get a bit technical! Hold on!"

“{DO NOT DO THAT!}”

He was once again completely ignored, but managed to keep himself upright this time.

They were rearing back again. Oh, god, no.

"Almost there! Remember, you're looking for a gun that makes holes. Not bullet holes, but- don’t worry, you'll figure it out! Seriously do hold on this time.”

“{WAIT-}” The room rammed into the wall a second time, throwing him to the floor. He could hear the wall collapse, and the robot come down from the ceiling for good.

"Phew. There we go! Now, I'll be honest, you’re probably not in the best state to run this particular type of cognitive gauntlet. Might be a bit… difficult. For you. But, um… you're a- you’re a good jumper! You’ve got that, at least. Uh, just do your best, and I'll meet you up ahead."

He stood up and collected himself. He took one step before stopping and speaking up. “{What’s your name, by the way? You never told me.}”

The core froze. “Did- aw, did I not say it?” He cringed when Soul shook his head. “Ah, I- I forgot about that part. I’m Wheatley! Just Wheatley, nothing else. No other names.”

…Weird, but alright. “{I’m Soul. Or Atlas, call me whichever one you want, I don’t care.}”

Wheatley nodded in approval. “Nice, good! Good name. Uh, should probably… keep moving. Don’t mean to rush you, just- everything’s falling apart, and all… you’ll be fine, you’ll- you’ll do great!”

Soul snorted. He took a deep breath and jumped into the test area.

“Good luck!”

Chapter Text

"Hello, and again, welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center."

Again? Soul had never been here before. Who the hell was Aperture?

"We are currently experiencing technical difficulties due to circumstances of potentially apocalyptic significance beyond our control. However, thanks to emergency testing protocols, testing can continue. These pre-recorded messages will provide instructional and motivational support, so that science can still be done, even in the event of environmental, social, economic, or structural collapse." Oh, that’s why it said again. They were pre-recorded.

"The portal will open and emergency testing will begin in three, two, one." He flinched as a blue framed hole opened up next to him. He could see a matching orange one open outside the glass, showing himself through the opening.

Ah, yeah, he could see why Wheatley yelled now. His hair was a mess, he looked like shit with the smudged and half-removed makeup, and he was visibly tired. There was absolutely no way he could find some caffeine here, but Soul fixed his hair and put on the lipstick he took from the room to at least look somewhat presentable.

He stepped through the portal, the realization fully dawning on Atlas that he was alone. Mind and Heart were nowhere to be found, Wheatley had left, and the only person talking to him was a recorded message.

The next room had a button and a box that fell out of a dispenser and onto the floor. He eyed the button, then picked up the box and set it down. "Cube and button based testing remains an important tool for science, even in a dire emergency. If cube and button based testing caused this emergency, don't worry. The odds of this happening twice are very slim."

Soul rolled his eyes and passed through what looked like some kind of force field. "You have just passed through an Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill, which vaporizes most Aperture Science equipment that touches it."

Oh, okay. That was good information, if he ever needed it. He got into the elevator, which sent him deeper down into the facility.

Next he had to get another cube onto a button, but this time there was portals involved. He solved it pretty easily.

"Hey hey! You made it!" Soul’s face lit up. He made his way into the chamber where Wheatley was. "There should be, uh, a portal device on that podium over there."

The core flicked his head towards where the device should have been, then squinted. "I can't see it though. Maybe it fell off. Do you want to go and have a quick look?"

He snickered. “{Yeah, sure, make the guy with legs do IT-}”

Atlas yelled as the floor fell out from under him. He landed in gross water that he had to fight to not get in his mouth.

"Hellooo? Can you see the portal gun?" He just didn’t respond to that, letting Wheatley realize the problem himself. "Also, are you alive? I- that's important, should have asked that first."

He shouted back up. “{I’m fine!}”

“Oh, good!” The robot went quiet for a beat. “Did you find the portal gun?”

“{I have no idea what it looks like, Wheatley.}” Dead silence this time. Apparently he wouldn’t be told what he was looking for. Maybe Wheatley just didn’t know how to describe it.

Soul sighed. “{…Tell you what. You go on ahead, I’ll figure out where the portal thing is and come find you. Sound good?}”

He could hear the core clear his throat. “Brilliant! Yes. See you when I- see you then! Whenever I get to you. Go team!”

As it turned out, the portal gun was just a short walk away from where Atlas landed. There were creepy murals surrounding it, but he didn’t look at them for too long. The person in the art looked too much like him or Mind to be comfortable.

He sped through the rest of the chambers. They were mostly just grabbing the cube and putting it on the button. One added momentum to everything, though, he enjoyed that one.

“To ensure that sufficient power remains for core testing protocols, all safety devices have been disabled. The Enrichment Center respects your right to have questions or concerns about this policy.”

He groaned. “{Oh, fuck off, that’s bullshit.}”

"Hey! Oi oi! I'm up here!" All of Soul’s attention snapped straight to Wheatley.

His eye lit up. "Oh, brilliant! You did find a portal gun! Oh, th- d’you know what? It just goes to show, people with brain damage are the real heroes in the end, aren't they? At the end of the day.” The core paused, thinking. “Er, well, you probably don’t have brain damage at this point, do you? No. I think we’ve ruled that out.”

Wheatley cleared his throat. "Anyway! Pop a portal on that wall behind me there, and I'll meet you on the other side of the room."

Soul did exactly that and started walking to where he guessed the exit was, then stopped when he noticed the core wasn’t following. “{Why are you just standing there? C’mon, let’s g-}” he stopped once he realized the problem.

The rail cut off before it could get to the exit. Wheatley was stuck.

He immediately ran back, looking up as the other started talking.

The poor guy was visibly nervous, hesitating more than usual. "Okay, listen, let me… lay something on you here. It's pretty heavy. They told me, never never ever to disengage myself from my management rail, or I would die. But, we're out of options here. So... get ready to catch me. Alright? On the off chance that I'm not dead the moment I pop off this thing."

“{Wait, hold on.}” Soul set the portal gun on the ground, then stood up. “{Okay, now I’m ready.}”

“Alright.” Wheatley took a deep breath despite not having any lungs. "On three. Ready? One... two... three!”

He didn’t disconnect. He watched as the core backed up, his pupil shrinking. “That's high. It's w- it’s too high, isn't it, really, that?”

He sighed, coming closer again. Atlas extended his arms. "Alright, going on three just gives you too much time to think about it. Let's, uh, go on one this time. Okay, ready?"

He nodded.

"One!” Wheatley disconnected from the rail, dropping very fast. “CATCH ME CATCH ME CATCH ME-“

Soul tried to catch him, he really did. The suddenness of the fall and Wheatley being lighter than he expected caused him to fumble, dropping the robot to the floor. “OW. Ow…”

“{HOLY SHIT.}” He scrambled to grab the portal gun and rush back to the core. “{Fuck, are you okay?}”

Wheatley stared at nothing for a moment. “I… am not dead! I’m not dead!” He laughed excitedly, looking at Soul as he was picked up. The portal gun could pick stuff up for whatever reason, so he decided to carry the orb using that.

A panel opened on the wall nearby. "Plug me into that stick on the wall over there. Yeah? And I'll show you something. You'll be impressed by this."

Atlas set Wheatley on the stick, the other looking away awkwardly. "Ummmm. Yeah, I can't do it if you're watching."

They both stared at each other. "Seriously, I'm not- I’m not joking. Could you just turn around for a second?"

Oh, he was serious. He immediately spun around and waited.

"Alright, you can turn ‘round now!" Soul turned around and-

There was a panel open. That wasn’t there before. "BAM! Secret panel! That I opened. While your back was turned." He picked Wheatley up again, looking at the door and the robot. He sounded so proud.

He started talking again while they were walking. "Look at this! No rail to tell us where to go! Oh, this is brilliant. We can go wherever we want! Jus- hold on, though, where are we going? Seriously. Hang on, let me just get my bearings. Um… just follow the rail, actually."

“Hello?”

Wheatley froze. “Oh, no.”

“Hello?”

"Yes, hello! No, we're not stopping!" He muttered to Soul when he was given a weird look. "Don't make eye contact whatever you do."

“Excuse me? Hello?”

The core kept talking as they strode past. “No thanks! We're good! Appreciate it!"

“Thanks anyway…”

"Keep moving, keep moving..."

Once they were out of sight, Atlas stopped. “{What was that about?}”

Wheatley groaned. “That was a turret.”

“{Like, with bullets?}” The anxious nod he got in response told him everything. “{Alright, good to know.}”

Wheatley got, surprisingly, even more anxious as they walked. "Probably ought to bring you up to speed on something right now." He took a deep, shaky breath. "In order to escape, we're going to have to go through her chamber. And she will probably kill us if- if she’s, um, awake."

Soul tilted his head. “{And who exactly is she?}”

No response. He sighed. “{Okay, guess I’ll find out on my own.}”

He stared at the wrecked hallway, then kept moving forward.

Chapter Text

Wheatley started rambling again when the door to “her” chamber opened. “Okay, I'm gonna lay my cards on the table, I don't wanna do it. I don't want to go in there. Don't- don’t go in there-!”

The door opened to reveal a deactivated robot, not unlike Wheatley. Except much bigger. He visibly relaxed. “S- she’s off. She's off! Don’t- panic over! She's off. All fine! On we go."

Soul frowned. Why was he so scared of some random robot?

As they approached what was basically a corpse, the core seemed to get more confident. "There she is. What a nasty piece of work she was, honestly. Like a proper maniac."

Wheatley glanced around and whispered, like he was telling some big secret. “You know who ended up- do you know who ended up taking her down in the end? You're not going to believe this, mate. A human! Or some kind of robot, I’ve- I’ve heard both. Not quite sure. He looked human, though, that detail’s stayed the same.”

Soul snickered. The guy who killed her almost sounded like a perfect description of Mind. “{Oh, tell me all about it.}”

Wheatley became visibly excited. God, when was the last time someone interacted with him? “Well! Apparently this human, or whatever he was, escaped and nobody's seen him since. Um… oh! Another thing, this part’s neat. I think he might’ve had your accent, too!” A- a badly masked Australian accent? That couldn’t be that rare.

It clearly didn’t matter much to the core, since he immediately moved on. "Then there was a sort of long chunk of time where, um, absolutely nothing happened and then there's us escaping now. So, um. That’s pretty much the whole story, you're up to speed. Don't touch anything."

Atlas waded through disgusting ankle-deep water. He transferred Wheatley into his arms to avoid him getting wet. "Okay, down these stairs."

"Jump! It- actually, looking at it, that’s quite a distance, isn't it?" He froze.

“{Sorry- jump? You want me to jump? Humans aren’t fall-proof, you know that, right?}”

Wheatley glanced down at his sneakers. “Well, you’ll- you’ll be fine. You’ve been jumping the whole time, a flight of stairs is nothing!”

A flight of stairs was in fact something, considering they both screamed when Soul jumped.

They had to walk over a catwalk next, which was apparently suspended over a bottomless pit. Who designed this place?!

“AAH! I just- sorry, I just looked down. I do not recommend it." He flinched as Wheatley screamed again. “AH! I've just done it again."

Finally, they approached some cylinder lined with levers. "This is the main breaker room. Look for a switch that says ‘Escape Pod’. Alright? Don't touch anything else."

The core kept rambling as Soul looked around. "Not interested in anything else. Don't touch anything else. Don't- don’t even look at anything else, just- well, obviously you've got to look at everything else to- to find the escape pod. But as soon as you've looked at something and it doesn't say ‘escape pod’, look at something else, look at the next thing. Alright? But don't touch anything else or look at any- well, look at other things, but don't... you understand."

Wheatley squinted. "Can you see it anywhere? I can't see it anywhere. Uh… tell you what. Plug me in, and I'll turn the lights on."

He did exactly that, hissing as the bright lights came on. "'Let there be light.' That's, uh... God. I was quoting God."

Soul immediately almost lost his balance as the platform turned. "Oh, look at that! It's turning. Ominous. But probably fine. Long as it doesn't start, y’know, moving up."

"Now. Escape pod, escape pod..." His stomach dropped as an alarm started blaring, the platform rising under his feet. “{Wheatley. Wheatley.}”

The robot stopped in his tracks, pupil shrinking. “It’s- it’s moving up.”

"Okay- okay! No, d-don't worry! Don't worry! I've got it I've got it I've got it! This should slow it down!" They stopped for a split second before rising quicker. "No. Makes it go faster."

They stopped right in front of the dead robot. “Power-up initiated.”

"Okay, don't panic! Alright? Stop panicking! Uh, I can- I can still stop this. Um, uh… oh, there's a password. Okay, it’s fine, I'll just hack it. Not a problem... umm..."

"A-A-A-A-A... Umm... A." A loud buzzer noise made them both flinch. The robot kept activating in front of them. "Nope. Okay. A-A-A-A-A... C." Another buzzer.

Wheatley stared at Atlas. "No. Wait, did I do B? Do- do you have a pen? Start writing these down."

“{WE DON’T HAVE TIME-}”

“Power-up complete.” He cringed. Yep, there was their confirmation, they didn’t have time for it.

"I don- Okay. Okay, okay, listen, alright? New plan. Act natural, act natural. We've done nothing wrong." Yeah, of course they hadn’t. Did the apparently homicidal robot lady need a reason to kill them, though?

“‘Ello!” The giant robot completely ignored Wheatley, her yellow light singling out Soul and sending shivers down his spine.

“Oh. It’s you.” He had no idea who she was. How did she recognize him if he’d never seen her before?

Wheatley blinked. “You know her?” Atlas barely had time to shake his head before she continued.

“It’s been a long time. How have you been?” No time for an answer. Mind and Heart let him get a word in more than she did. “I’ve been really busy being dead. You know, after you murdered me.”

“You did what?”

“{WHAT?!}” Soul’s eyes widened. “{What are you talking about, I don’t even-}” he was cut off by a claw grabbing him around the torso and lifting him into the air. The portal gun slipped out of his grip.

Well, now he was just pissed. He saw the core get lifted the same way, but he was too focused on the blatantly wrong accusation of murder. “{No- nononono, let me fucking speak! I have never met-!}”

Atlas choked as he was dropped, only to be caught by his jacket hood instead of his body. It felt surprisingly close to a noose, despite not being deadly.

"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret.” Movement coming from the other captive got his attention.

The claw dropped Wheatley, then caught him. Hard. His terrified noises went silent, the robot clearly broken in some way or another.

Soul’s stomach dropped. “{WHEATLEY!}” the pincer tried to choke him again, to shut him up.

“But I think we can put our differences behind us.” It threw the core somewhere he couldn’t see. The sound of a splash made him feel sick. There were so many rocks near the water that Wheatley could have hit.

“For science. You monster."

"I will say, though, that since you went to all the trouble of waking me up, you must really, really love to test." Soul went limp, the claw moving him towards some weird funnel that was opening up. "I love it too. There's just one small thing we need to take care of first."

The grip around his jacket released, and he plummeted down into- oh god, was this an incinerator?

"Here we are. The incinerator room. Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that didn't get completely burned when you threw them down here." Yep, there was his answer.

"The dual portal device should be around here somewhere. Once you find it, we can start testing. Just like old times." Oh. Great. Wonderful. He traded his only friend in this hellhole for a gun that could shoot two portals.

Atlas walked through the incinerator, trying not to fall into the flames. It didn’t take long for him to find his stupid reward. "Good. You have a dual portal device. There should be a way back to the testing area up ahead."

He hummed in acknowledgment. Why was she acting like he should know her? She recognized him even though he’d never met her in his life, so how did…

Oh. Oh.

“{Wait.}” Atlas grinned at the robot’s annoyed groan, then dropped it. “{Did I happen to have blue or purple eyes when I killed you?}”

Dead silence. He almost thought she wouldn’t respond.

“…Blue. And your voice was deeper. Did you get even more childish while you were in suspension?” He didn’t say anything, ignoring the insult.

Fucking Mind. Mind killed this random robot lady, and now Soul had to deal with the mess the logical side left him with because they looked almost identical.

If not for just wanting to be out of a rotting facility, Atlas was going to get out to murder Apollo.

Chapter Text

"Sorry about the mess. I've really let the place go since you killed me. By the way, thanks for that."

“Sarcasm self test complete.” Soul snorted.

"Oh, good, that's back online. I'll start getting everything else working while you perform this first simple test. Which involves deadly lasers and how test subjects react when locked in a room with deadly lasers."

Lasers? Soul froze for a second, only to realize it wasn’t actually as dangerous as he thought it would be. There was only one laser, and it went in a predictable straight line.

He walked to the platform and used his portals to send the laser into the receptacle. Atlas somehow managed to keep his balance as the lift rose.

“Not bad. I forgot how good you are at this. You should pace yourself, though. We have a lot of tests to do.”

Stepping out of the elevator and into the next chamber, Soul immediately saw another laser. And what looked like a glass cube.

"This next test involves discouragement redirection cubes. I'd just finished building them before you had your, well, episode. So now we'll both get to see how they work. There should be one in the corner."

Atlas picked it up and moved it to the laser, directing it to the target. He then walked up the newly lifted stairs and used his portals to get the cube onto the button.

"Well done. Here come the test results: You are a horrible person.”

Soul choked.

“That's what it says, a horrible person. We weren't even testing for that.”

“{I HAVEN’T EVEN DONE ANYTHING TO YOU!}” he bit back a groan when he remembered the robot clearly wasn’t listening and didn’t care.

He tried and failed to ignore her once he got to the next test. "Don't let that 'horrible person' thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep."

…What?

“{What- What the fuck does that mean?}” Atlas froze in realization. “{Do you think I’m an orphan?!}”

He was very much raised by his birth parents. Or rather, CJ was, but wasn’t that basically the same thing? He still counted as not an orphan.

So did Mind, now that Soul thought about it. Was she just pulling out random insults without checking if they applied?

He mindlessly completed the puzzle- it was just more lasers. Nothing too hard. "Congratulations. Not on the test." Oh god dammit, what now?

"Most people emerge from suspension terribly undernourished. I want to congratulate you on beating the odds and somehow managing to pack on a few pounds."

Soul couldn’t keep back a groan this time. “{I’m not fat, you’re just saying that to piss me off! I’ve heard shitty insults like that before!}”

Somehow, the robot was testing his patience more than Heart and Mind ever had.

He tuned her out for the next three chambers. One was more lasers and another fat joke.

The next two, however, were with things called “Aerial Faith Plates”, which were basically miniature catapults. They were at least fun to figure out, even if the robot kept talking shit the whole time.

"Did you know that people with guilty consciences are more easily startled by loud noises-“ Soul screamed as a train horn blasted in his ears. “I'm sorry, I don't know why that went off. Anyway, just an interesting science fact.”

He rolled his eyes. “{You’re just having fun torturing me, aren’t you?}”

As he walked into the chamber, Atlas noticed the cube looked different. Instead of an aperture decal on the sides, it was a pink heart. Cute.

It dissolved the instant he touched it. "Oh. Did I accidentally fizzle that before you could complete the test? I'm sorry. Go ahead and grab another one.” She sounded like she was holding back laughter.

The next cube stuck around for a bit longer, only to be fizzled once he tried to block the laser. "Oh. No. I fizzled that one too."

Soul growled and shouted at the robot. “{Can you stop destroying the damn things so I can actually finish the fucking test?!}” Was she just being an asshole, or was there something he missed?

The next cube dropped with no comment, and didn’t disappear. Thank fucking god. He completed the chamber with ease once she wasn’t fucking with him.

"Every test chamber is equipped with an emancipation grill at its exit, so that test subjects can't smuggle test objects out of the test area. This one is broken. Don't take anything with you."

Soul scoffed. “{What would I bring with me, the cube? I don’t need it.}”

He ignored everything she said when he walked into the next test. He could easily tell it was about emancipation grills.

"Oh, no. The turbines again. I have to go. Wait. This next test does require some explanation. Let me give you the fast version." She proceeded to say sped up gibberish that Atlas couldn’t understand a word of.

"There. If you have any questions, just remember what I said in slow motion. Test on your own recognizance, I'll be right back."

It was an easy test, not that he gave a shit.

God, he missed Wheatley.

Chapter Text

Soul relaxed as he entered the chamber, the robot still staying quiet. It was more faith plates. Easy.

He stepped on the plate and went flying upwards.

And Wheatley was staring right back at him.

Their faces both lit up. "Hey, hey! It's me! I'm okay!" The core’s voice faded as he fell back to the ground.

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

He put one foot onto it, waiting for the faith plate to work again. "There. Try it now."

Atlas went flying again, hearing Wheatley mid-ramble. "…believe what happened, right? I was just lying there, you thought I was done for, but I was…"

The voice faded again. “Hmm. This plate must not be calibrated to someone of your… generousness. I'll add a few zeros to the maximum weight.” Soul rolled his eyes. "You look great, by the way. Very healthy. …Try it now.”

He went up one last time. The core seemed to notice his annoyance at her insults, but kept talking anyway. "…a bloody bird, right? Couldn't believe it either! And then the bird…"

"You seem to have defeated its load-bearing capacity. Well done. I'll just lower the ceiling." It took him until now to realize that Wheatley was the reason the ceiling was too high in the first place.

Soul tuned out anything else she said, just silently completing the test.

"Enjoy this next test. I'm going to go to the surface. It's a beautiful day out. Yesterday I saw a deer. If you solve this next test, maybe I'll let you ride an elevator all the way up to the break room, and I'll tell you about the time I saw a deer again."

He missed being outside. He missed their house. He’d only been down here for, what, two hours? And yet Atlas was already tired of it.

"Well, you passed the test. I didn't see the deer today. I did see some humans. But with you here, I've got more test subjects than I'll ever need."

Soul softly hummed to himself as he walked into the next chamber. His eyes locked into what looked like blue bridges. Very… bright bridges.

"These bridges are made from natural light that I pump in from the surface. If you rubbed your cheek on one, it would be like standing outside with the sun shining on your face.” Good, he missed the sun, maybe he could- “It would also set your hair on fire, so don't actually do it."

Oh. Fuck him, apparently. Soul stomped on the bridge to make sure it was stable, then moved onto it.

He managed to figure out that the bridge could be moved with portals, and used it to cross the gap.

"Excellent! You're a predator and these tests are your prey. Speaking of which, I was researching sharks for an upcoming test. Do you know who else murders people who are only trying to help them?"

“{Mind?}” Atlas answered sarcastically.

"Did you guess sharks? Because that's wrong. The correct answer is nobody. Nobody but you is that pointlessly cruel."

“{Yeah, I figured.}”

He ignored her insulting his body. Again. This time it was his skeleton.

"Perfect, the door's malfunctioning. I guess somebody's going to have to repair that, too. …No, don't get up. I'll be right back. Don't touch anything."

He crossed his arms, waiting patiently. He definitely didn’t get bored and annoyed in seconds.

"Hey, hey! Up here! Um… I forgot your name?”

“{Soul or Atlas-}” Soul responded thoughtlessly, before his head snapped to the window. Wheatley mouthlessly smiled back at him.

"I found some bird eggs up here. Just dropped em into the door mechanism, shut it right down! I- AH!" What looked and sounded like a crow flew in to attack the core. He held back a laugh as Wheatley screamed the word “BIRD” over and over.

He eventually came back, sounding out of breath despite not needing to breathe. "Okay. That's probably the bird, innit, that laid the eggs! Livid!"

Wheatley sighed. "Okay, look, the point is, we're gonna break out of here! Alright? Very soon, I promise, I promise! I just have to figure out how. To… break us out of here."

"Here she comes! Keep te- just keep testing! Remember, you never saw me! Never saw me!" With that, he backed out the way he came, leaving Atlas alone.

"I went and spoke with the door mainframe. Let's just say he won't be... well, living anymore. Anyway, back to testing!”

Jesus fucking christ.

Soul tried to ignore the implications of that statement and moved on. He finished the test easily, Wheatley’s promise that they were going to get out of here still fresh in his mind.

"This next test involves turrets. You remember them, right? They're the pale spherical things that are full of bullets. Oh, wait. That's you in five seconds. Good luck."

Turrets. Okay. That was fine, he could deal with that.

Soul walked through the weirdly maze-like hall, a weird white thing at the end of it. A red light locked onto him.

“Target acquired.” Bullets flew past Atlas, a few getting lucky and grazing him-

BANG.

He didn’t realize that he pulled out the trident until it was already stabbed through the turret.

Okay, he couldn’t handle this. Maybe it was the ROE trauma, but something about being shot at made him bring out the trident by instinct.

And there was so. Fucking. Many.

Maybe one or two were just knocked over, but the rest were stabbed and impaled and ripped apart. He didn’t even notice the boxes until Soul saw the button to open the door.

Atlas was visibly drained after that test. He got a small break with lasers, only to immediately be thrown back into bullet hell.

"That outfit you're wearing looks stupid. That's not me talking, it's right here in your file. On other people it looks fine, but right here a scientist has noted that on you it looks stupid."

Soul hummed in acknowledgment. “{Mhm. Sure.}”

"Well, what does a neck-bearded old engineer know about fashion? He probably- Oh, wait. It's a she. Still, what does she know? Oh wait, it says she has a medical degree. In fashion! From France!"

He snorted as he tore his way through the turrets. “{That’s not a thing. Did the fat and orphan jokes get too stale for you? You have to go for my clothes now?}”

"I'm going through the list of test subjects in cryogenic storage. I managed to find two with your last name.”

He just ignored her. Was this a setup for another orphan joke?

"Three men. They look like they could be your twins. So that's interesting. It's a small world."

Atlas froze.

No. It wasn’t an orphan joke.

Three… any chance of believing her went straight out the window. CJ didn’t exist when Soul was separated from the others, and he was fairly sure Mind escaped when it went on its rampage. The only believable person was Heart.

…If Heart was even still alive.

The next test was just more turrets and lasers. He finished it quickly.

Soul was probably supposed to use the laser, but impaling them still counted, right?

"It says this next test was designed by one of Aperture's Nobel prize winners. It doesn't say what the prize was for. Well, I know it wasn't for being immune to neurotoxin."

Oh god. “{Did you poison the people who worked here?!}”

No response. Of course she wouldn’t answer that. Soul just took it as a yes and moved on.

"I'll bet you think I forgot about your surprise. I didn't. In fact, we're headed to your surprise right now. After all these years. I'm getting choked up just thinking about it."

He scoffed.

There was no way the surprise was real.

Chapter Text

"Initiating surprise in three... two... one."

Soul was blinded by the lights turning on. He was in a completely empty office. No one was here.

"I made it all up." Confetti blew out of some random tube.

He honestly didn’t expect anything else. Atlas strode through the office and walked straight to the next test.

"Oh, come on. If it makes you feel any better, they left you here all alone, so I very seriously doubt they'd even want to see you."

He wordlessly completed the test, completely ignoring her.

"I feel awful about that surprise. Tell you what, let's give your friends a call right now.” She didn’t feel guilty, it was such a bullshit lie. How would she even call them? CJ didn’t exist while Soul was on his own. This wasn’t going to-

“The Whole you are trying to reach does not love you.” Soul froze.

The voice switched from CJ’s to his thirds’. “([Please hang up.])”

He couldn’t breathe. No- no, there’s no way that’s real. Right?

"Oh, that's sad. But impressive. Maybe they worked at the phone company." They didn’t.

Atlas barely recovered from what was basically a panic attack, moving into the elevator.

…Was it taking longer to get to the next test this time? This elevator was much less claustrophobic.

He watched Wheatley come down a rail, immediately perking up. "Hey! How's it going! I talked my way onto the old nanobot work crew rebuilding this shaft. They are really small, so- oh."

The core argued with some nanobot he was calling Jerry for a bit, then turned his attention back to Soul. “Anyway, we're-” He ran straight into a metal bar. “OW!”

Wheatley kept arguing with “Jerry” for a bit longer, threatening… court. Sure. He finally got out what he wanted to say seconds before Atlas got out of his sight. "Anyway, look, just hang in there, for- for five more chambers."

“{Five chambers. That’s doable. I can survive that long.}”

One of five. Easy.

"Well, you know the old formula: comedy equals tragedy plus time. And you have been asleep for a while. So I guess it's actually pretty funny when you do the math."

“{Ha, ha. Yeah, it’s sooo funny. I’m really enjoying myself right now.}” Soul scoffed and glared at the nearest camera. “{You’re an asshole.}”

The chamber made him use relays to get lasers in the right spot, along using with a faith plate to fling himself around.

There were also turrets he couldn’t reach immediately, which made this the first time Soul hadn’t just stabbed them. He burned them with the laser instead.

"I thought about our dilemma, and I came up with a solution that I honestly think works out best for one of both of us." One of both. He didn’t like the sound of that.

Okay. Two of five.

"Federal regulations require me to warn you that this next test chamber... is looking pretty good."

What?

"That's right. The facility is completely operational again." He realized what that meant once he walked into the next chamber.

It looked like a goddamn hospital, it was so sterile. The walls were all a plain white- though he could place portals anywhere now, so that was a bonus.

Atlas placed a portal in front of the laser receivers, then another close to the lasers. He picked up the cubes and moved them to aim through the lasers. It was surprisingly satisfying to see three lasers crossing over each other.

"I think these test chambers look even better than they did before. It was easy, really. You just have to look at things objectively, see what you don't need anymore, and trim out the fat."

Okay, that was probably a threat.

They had five chambers before they could escape. Soul had done two and was walking into the third. Though, the sign said there was one more chamber after this… maybe he would have to do four tests before escaping instead of five.

Just two more chambers. He could do two more chambers.

Chapter Text

“I've got a surprise for you after this next test. Not a fake, tragic surprise like last time. A real surprise, with tragic consequences! And real confetti this time. The good stuff. Our last bag. Part of me's going to miss it, but at the end of the day it was just taking up space."

Soul stopped. “{Was that a threat?}”

No response. He tried to ignore the dread in his stomach.

He placed a portal at the end of a light bridge. He set another next to a button and walked through, dispensing a cube onto the bridge.

He looked around the chamber. This was… surprisingly easy compared to every other chamber.

Atlas moved to grab the cube. Or, he was planning to.

The lights shut off. The bridge vanished from under his feet, sending Soul falling to the floor. He missed the water by a few feet, thank god.

“What’s going on? Who turned off the lights?”

He was wondering the same thing, until a panel in the wall opened with Wheatley behind it.

"Hey, buddy!" Soul could barely keep back a laugh.

"I'm speaking in an accent that is beyond her range of hearing!” The accent in question was the shittiest attempt at an American accent that he had ever heard. "I know I'm early, but we have to go right now!"

Atlas scrambled upright and moved over to him.

"Look, metal ball, I can hear you." They both immediately panicked.

"Run! I don't need to do the voice. Run!" Wheatley switched back to his natural accent and opened the panels entirely, Soul frantically following after. "Run! Come on, I'm closing the doors!"

"Okay, quick recap! We are escaping! Alright? That's what's happening now, we're escaping. Uh- so you're doing great. Just keep running!" He hummed in acknowledgment and ran through the catwalks.

Wheatley rambled the entire time they were running. "Uh, quick word about the future plans that I've got in store. We’re going to shut down her turret production line, alright, turn off her neurotoxin, and then confront her. Again, though, for the moment, run!”

The core finally moved back into his view, which was when she spoke up again. "The irony is that you were almost at the last test." A wall opened up next to them, revealing an obviously fake test chamber. "Here it is. Why don't you just do it? Trust me, it's an easier way out than whatever asinine plan your friend came up with."

"Oh, what? C’mo- how stupid does she think we are?" Wheatley ended his sentence with a little laugh.

Soul glanced at the door, which opened up to plants and sunlight. Then he tilted his head up to the real surface, hundreds of miles above them. He turned and followed Wheatley, ignoring the faint scoff the other robot gave.

The light bridge turned off under Soul’s feet. “{SHIT-}” He braced himself to fall into another catwalk, bolting through the walkway.

Atlas carelessly moved through a more claustrophobic section, scrambling back when turrets were placed in front of him. The entrance behind him closed up.

This had to be a sick joke.

"We have to get you out of there!" Soul grumbled a swear and pulled out the trident, stabbing through every turret in sight. "What's going on in there?!" He was too focused to respond.

A turret managed to shoot a few bullets before it was slaughtered, making him yelp. "I heard gunfire! It’s a bit late, this, but- uh, look out for gunfire! Probably doesn't help at this point, but, uh, I have at least tried."

Soul shouted back. “{Thanks, Wheatley, but I already got it!}”

He made a portal out, landing on yet another catwalk. "You're okay! Great, come on!"

The duo ran through the corridors, only for-

"Turrets!"

-a turret to be placed right in front of Soul. “{YOU’VE GOT TO BE FUCKING JOKING!}” he shot the thing through a portal and moved on. "There's the exit! We're almost out of here!"

The catwalk shook beneath his feet. Everything was collapsing around him. "She's bringing the whole place down! Hurry!"

One path was smashed by a pillar. Then another. He was being corralled by the destruction. He glanced behind him and saw a wall speeding their way, fully prepared to crush them both.

Wheatley couldn’t sound more stressed. "Get in the lift! Get in the lift!" Atlas yelled every swear he knew, diving into the elevator. "We’ve made it! we made it we made it we made it..."

Everything was being destroyed in front of them. It was a goddamn miracle that they survived. "I'll meet you on the other side!"

Soul forced himself to take a deep breath, crumpling into himself. He was practically running on adrenaline alone.

The next door jammed halfway through opening. Great. He portaled to the other side and made his way to Wheatley.

"Ah! Brilliant, you made it through! Well done! Okay, follow me, we've still got work to do. At least she can't touch us back here."

Atlas flinched at the sound of distant banging. “{Are you sure? Are you sure she can’t touch us?}”

“…Um.” Wheatley suddenly looked very uncertain. “What’s- what’s happening?” The lights behind them shut off. And the ones ahead. The darkness closed in around them.

She was making them blind.

“Um. Hmm… ok. Okay, d- uh. Don’t. Move!”

Chapter Text

Soul couldn’t see a goddamn thing. The only sign he wasn’t completely alone in the dark was the core’s voice.

"Okay, alright. So. I’ve got an idea. But it is bloody dangerous. Here we go..."

He flinched at the sound of Wheatley screaming, a light suddenly coming on from his eye and blinding Atlas. "Oh, for god’s- They told me, that if I ever turned this flashlight on, I would die!” He moved down the rail, the other following behind. “They told me that about everything! I mean- I don't even know why they bothered giving me this stuff if they didn't want me to use it. It's pointless! Mad!”

Wait. What?

He stopped in his tracks. “{They told you that about everything?}”

Wheatley stopped too, turning around. “Yes. Well, no, not everything, but- y’know, a good amount of things.”

“{That’s fucked up.}” the idea that she killed all the scientists here suddenly didn’t seem as bad.

“Oh… um, yeah, I guess it is, isn’t it? Don’t really like to think about it.” He was quick to change the subject. “So- uh. Been meaning to ask. There was that whole thing, right, when she woke up? She was talking about you killing her?”

Soul groaned. He was really tired of being accused of murder. “{Fucking hell. No, it wasn’t me, it was Mind. My…}” Brother? Literal other half? “{…friend.}” Sure, that worked.

“Oh.” Wheatley’s eye lit up, then constricted. “Wait. You’re- you’re friends with someone strong enough to kill her?!”

“{Yeah, but it’s really not that impressive.}” He scoffed. “{She couldn’t be that powerful if Mind killed her. I could beat him in a fight, easy.}” He quietly cleared his throat and kept moving forward, the robot lighting their way.

“Ooh. It’s dark down here, isn’t it?” Wheatley hummed excitedly. Soul jumped onto a luckily deactivated conveyor belt as the core talked.

"Y’know, they say that the old caretaker of this place went absolutely crazy. Chopped up his entire staff… of robots. All of them robots. They say at night you can still hear the screams... of their replicas. All of them functionally indistinguishable from the originals. No memory of the incident. Nobody knows what they’re screaming about. Absolutely terrifying. Though obviously not paranormal in any meaningful way."

Atlas grinned, immediately playing along. “{Obviously not paranormal. The incidents probably aren’t even related, if we’re being honest. The replicas just like to scream.}” Wheatley’s little laugh told him the joke landed.

He was barely stopped from falling into a pit by Wheatley shouting. "Wait, careful! Let me light this jump for you.”

Soul stared down at the catwalk and sighed. He’d be fine. Apathy was a much longer fall and Heart survived that every single time, he could land this easily.

If he didn’t miss.

He took a deep breath and jumped, barely keeping back a scream as the catwalk cracked. It felt like a goddamn miracle that it didn’t break under his weight. “You alright down there?”

He gave Wheatley a thumbs up and kept walking, peering down at their next obstacle- a now activated conveyor. "Okay, this looks dangerous. I'll hold the light steady."

“{God, why are there so many conVEYORS-}” Soul screeched as he nearly ran straight into both a steel plate and a bunch of lasers. “{I FUCKING HATE IT HERE!}”

The core laughed pitifully at his reaction. "Here's an interesting story, this might cheer you up. I almost got a job down here, in manufacturing! But, uh, guess who the foreman went with? Only an exact duplicate of himself. Nepotism. Ended up giving me the worst possible job, tending to all the smelly humans."

Well, he was right, it did cheer him up. “{Ah, c’mon, I can’t smell that bad.}”

“What?” Wheatley froze, realizing what he had just implied. "No, no, the- the, um... sorry, that’s- no, I wouldn't say smelly. Sorry about that, that just- that just slipped out. A bit insensitive. Just, um- just attending to the humans."

“{It’s fine, I’m just messing with you.}”

They continued on through the catwalks until Wheatley suddenly stopped, shining the flashlight at a balcony. "Okay, we have to split up here for a moment. Portal up to that passage, and I'll see you on the other side."

He did exactly that, jumping through them portal to the little alcove.

…And there was no way for him to get over to Wheatley.

“Are- are you stuck?” Atlas nodded, prompting the other to turn and light up a nearby wall. “Right. Hm. Can you reach that wall back there?"

He immediately portaled over to the wall, then again as Wheatley lit up another area.

"Agh. I tell you. Humans! Ah! Love em!”

Oh, not this again. Soul interrupted before he could go on a tangent. “{Wheatley. It’s fine. I don’t care. You can say rude shit, I don’t mind.}”

He didn’t wait for the core to respond, his attention turning to the machinery packaging turrets next to them. “{What if I broke that? Would it fuck everything up?}”

Wheatley swayed back and forth in a way that mimicked shaking his head. “No, there’s tons of ‘em. It wouldn’t do much.”

Soul scoffed in disappointment and moved on. He peered down at a bottomless pit blocking their way, trying to figure out how to get through.

“Right. Well. I’m going to take this rail down the back way. See you at the bottom. Good luck!" His head snapped up to catch Wheatley leaving him to do this on his own.

“{How are humans supposed to navigate this place?}” Atlas jumped onto a pipe spiraling down, nearly slipping from the smoothness. He almost hit his head on a box that was a bit too low.

There was his answer, then. They weren’t supposed to navigate down here. He jumped down onto more stable ground and moved on.

“Turret redemption lines active. Please do not engage with turrets heading towards redemption.”

Soul rolled his eyes and blatantly ignored those instructions, jumping through a portal onto the conveyor.

“Turret redemption lines are not rides, please exit the turret redemption line.”

“{What, are you gonna stop me?}” He smiled when he didn’t get a response.

Metal crunched beneath his sneakers as he moved from redemption line to redemption line, making him wince. At least all the turrets were deactivated so he wasn’t getting shot as he stepped on the robots.

“I’m different.”

Soul’s stomach dropped.

He stared down at the very active turret, its singular red eye meeting his.

Well, if it was going to shoot him, it would have done it already. He hesitantly picked it up and tucked it under his arm.

“Thank you!”

He winced. “{Yeah, no problem.}”

“It won’t be enough.”

Atlas stopped midway through jumping down to a catwalk. Did… did this thing know about their plan?

“Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man. He was cast into the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds.”

“{Okay, Greek mythology fan, me too. What the fuck do you mean it won’t be enough?}”

It didn’t answer his question, continuing to ramble cryptic messages. “Grab him.”

“{Can you give me anything that isn’t just confusing bullshit?}”

“That’s all I can say.” That was a no, then. Wonderful. He dropped the turret like it burned him and walked away.

“Good luck!”

Soul squeezed his eyes shut.

He was just going to pretend that whole encounter never happened.