I yawned and stretched my arms over my head.

"Try to pay attention Mr. Wheatley."

"I am. I am." I checked my watch. It was 10:15. "So am I allowed to be present at the event?" I asked.

The nurse smiled as she flipped through her papers. "Of course. Your tests are almost finished, so I'm sure we could let you off the hook. Just remember that if you disconnect from your management rail you will be running on reserve battery power and you'll only be able to walk around for about twenty minutes. After that, your body will shut down so that an assistant can carry you back to your chair. And make sure you call for assistance if you want to unplug from your chair. Those wires can be tricky and we don't want you to malfunction."

"Okay. Yes. Thank you so very much." It was almost 10:30; I was getting anxious.

"You remember the controls?"

"Yes of course I do," I said impatiently.

"This is all just protocol, Wheatley. Please don't get upset."

I sighed and turned my chair around.

"And one more thing," she continued.

I turned back to her. "Yes?"

"GLaDOS is going to be activated at 11:30 so we may need to call you in for that."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Protocol Mr. Wheatley. Just a heads up."

"Alright. Can I go now? It's about to start and there's someone I really need to see."

She smiled. "We've holed you up here long enough. Go see whoever it is you need to see."

I turned excitedly and zoomed down the hallway.

Since I had requested to become a helper for the test subjects, I had be plugged into a chair that was suspended from a management rail so that I could follow the subjects around and... well, help them.

I punched in a code and the doors opened. The sight in front of me made my heart swell. Men and women wandered around the room, holding their little girl's hands. Scientist that did not have daughters directed the crowd and kept people, especially children, from wandering.

In the back there were several tables filled with little science projects: a mini volcano, the forty potato batteries... Something was missing.

"Wheatley?!"

I looked down below my chair and met the lovely green eyes of Valerie Cassidy. "Hello love. What're you up to?"

She gave a wide grin. "Come down here!" she exclaimed, "Let me see you."

I clicked a button and whirred down until I was eye level with her.

"Oh. My. Gosh." she said.

"Do you like it? I think it's quite- Gah!"

She threw her arms around my neck, jumped into my lap, and planted kisses all over my mechanical face.

"Goodness, love! Calm down or you'll make me short circuit."

She pulled away with her hands over her mouth. "You look amazing, Wheatley."

"Thank you. Say, have you seen Chell around? I was looking for her a moment ago, but I couldn't find her."

Valerie slowly shook her head, unable to keep her eyes off of my new metal structure.

"Stop staring!" My face started to glow red. "I'm going to overheat." I jammed a few buttons and my face cooled off.

Valerie just kept grinning. "Look. There's Chell now," she said, pointing into the crowd.

The little black haired girl was by herself, setting up her poster board, almost sadly.

"Chell!" I shouted, waving vigorously.

Her head popped up and she gazed around the room before locking eyes with me. Her eyes widened and her mouth split into a grin so fast I could barely register it before she started tearing through the crowd. "Uncle Wheatley!" She stumbled out and threw her arms around me.

"Good to see you, love. So good to see you again. They've had me locked up forever to test me. Passed most of them, just about finished up now."

She pulled away and studied my face. "You don't look any different."

"No. I don't feel any different. And thank goodness for that."

Valerie grabbed my hand.

For a moment, I almost felt like we were a family. Like we were happy and that nothing could ever break us apart.

But then I remembered that I was a robot. A zap went off in my right temple. "Oops. Bit of a malfunction there. Hang on a moment. I'll have to put you down, love."

Chell slipped out of my arms as I hit a few buttons and rubbed the side of my head. "There. Nothing to worry about. I didn't zap you, did I?"

They both shook their heads.

"Okay good. Hate to do that. Here. Let's go enjoy ourselves." I ushered them into the crowd. Neither of them made an attempt to mingle, so we mostly just walked around looking lost.

Someone in the crowd screamed loudly. I turned sharply and hurried towards the sound.

On one of the nearby tables, Rick was standing straight and proud, telling a very intense story to the children gathered around him. "Calm down," he said, "It's not like it was Explosion Day. Then, through the hole in the roof, there came a great yellow eye, staring at me in all of its evil and malice. So I took out my guns and shot it's fricking face off."

The children didn't seem to understand. There was a short silence.

"Okay kiddos, story's over. Now scram."

The children slowly dispersed, muttering to each other.

Rick winked at a nearby nurse. Valerie's grip on my hand tightened. We need to go somewhere else.

"Come on Chell. Let's go. We'll take a look at your board. Come along, quickly."

We were too slow.

"Hey! You!"

I sighed and turned around. "Yes, hello Rick." I said stiffly.

"You still owe me twenty bucks," he growled.

"Er... From what?"

"Ha! I'm just mess'n ya. Hey, when are you gonna get out of that chair. You know it's bad for your back, right?" He sent a playful blow to my chest that left me wheezing.

"I've told you, I can't. I have low battery reserve. I'm not risking sustaining damage like that poor kid."

Rick scratched the back of his head. "Ah yeah. Poor kiddo. Patrick. Steven. Christian. Inigo?"

"Kevin."

"Right. That one. He'll be fine. He's just got a little brain damage is all. Got stuck on space or whatever."

"An infinite loop. Tell me Rick, would you like to live the rest of your life thinking about the same thing over and over?"

"Er... No?"

"Then excuse us." I grabbed Chell and Valerie's hands and moved as quickly as I could.

Valerie looked as though she couldn't breathe.

We stopped at Chell's science project board. "Are you alright?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah. It's just..." Her gaze drifted to the android who was now flexing his arms in an attempt to catch the nurse's attention. "It's just hard to lose him. I just don't understand... I mean, I understand. I know why... But at the same time, I don't."

"Don't worry. Everything's going to be alright."

"No. Not really. I made this to help people and it's taken everything from me. The bumps in my life are turning into a hill that I can't cross over. My rollercoaster's going down, Wheatley. This is it. This is the rest of my life. All I have left is science."

"Don't say that. You've got plenty more worth living for."

"Uncle Wheatley. Look!" Chell was pointing excitedly at a pot that rested on the table in front of her poster board.

There was a small sprout peeking out of the dirt, only now it wasn't small. It was growing and growing at an alarming rate until the stalk hit the ceiling.

"Wow." A scientist walked up to Chell, slowly clapping his hands. "I'd have to say this one deserves first prize," he said.

Chell grinned. "Wow, thanks mister," she said shyly.

I chucked. I was proud of her, even though she had stolen the materials that she used to make it work, she definitely deserved this. Much like Valerie, her life was full of ups and downs, but mostly downs. She needed something like this to help her.

My watch beeped. It was 11:30. "Oh no. I'm so sorry Chell and Valerie, but I've got to go. I'll be back as soon as possible. I promise."

My chair slid out of the room.

Why would they even think of activating her today? With all the children around, didn't they think something might go wrong? It didn't matter though. I was just an android. I couldn't change their minds.

My chair rattled to a stop. "Come on." I pushed the buttons, but it wouldn't budge. "Rusty old thing. Move it." I slammed my fist into the panel. The chair still refused to move.

What was going on now? I could faintly hear a voice. Feminine and robotic, but muffled. Had they already activated her?

I tried to stand up and check the management rail, to be sure that nothing was jammed in it, but the wires protruding from my back pulled me back down. I sighed. Maybe I could call for help. Would anyone be able, or willing, to find me?

Suddenly the robotic voice was loud and piercing in my ears. "Oh no. It looks like you're stuck. I wonder if you'll be able to help your friends escape from the neurotoxin."

Another robot's voice, this one male, echoed off the metal walls, "Neurotoxin release in T minus five minutes."

"What? Neurotoxin? No no no no no. That's wrong. Someone- Argh. Someone help!"

I knew no one could hear me. They were all trapped in the rooms around me, banging on the doors, yelling for someone to help them. And I was trapped in the middle of the hallway because my chair was stuck on its railing.

I reached out for a metal rod that was lying on the floor and smashed it into the management rail. The chair slid down a bit and rightened itself.

I smashed my fingers into the panel and my chair went flying down the hallway.

"Neurotoxin release in T minus four minutes."

"Override!" I shouted.

There was a buzzer sound. "Override rejected."

"Then go faster!" I wanted to help all of the trapped scientists, but I had priorities.

I slammed through the doors into meeting room.

"Wheatley!" There were tears streaming down Valerie's face. She was holding the hands of several young children. "We don't know what's going on. Someone activated a high amount of neurotoxin and we can't shut it down and-"

"It's the robot. It's GLaDOS. She's going to kill us all."

People were screaming and flooding out the exits.

Valerie was gasping for breath and trying to stand up without being knocked to the ground.

"Come with me," I shouted, "I can find a way out of here. I can still save us!"

Valerie shook her head. "I have to save the children. I have to go now. I know a way out."

"All those ways are locked!" I bellowed.

She shook her head again and beckoned to me. I lowered my chair to her level. She grabbed my tie and kissed me one more time, before seizing the children's hands and running out of the room. She didn't look back.

My mind was blank, but my heart was hollow.

"Neurotoxin release in T minus three minutes."

My eyes locked onto a little raven haired girl in the crowd. "Chell!" I shouted.

"Uncle Wheatley! Help me!"

I dove into the crowd and swooped her up into my arms. "Everything's going to be alright. I'm going to get us out of here." I crashed through doorways and flew down hallways.

I further I went, the deeper we seemed to be. If I wasn't careful, we were going to run out of time.

"Neurotoxin release in T minus-"

"Shut up will you?!"

Chell whimpered and buried her face in my shirt. "I'm scared. I'm scared Uncle Wheatley."

"Everything's going to be fine. It's going to be fine." I stopped in the middle of a long hallway.

We weren't escaping, we were going in deeper. I had made a horrible mistake.

Then an idea came to mind. A terribly foolish and dangerous idea. It would keep her safe though, and that was all that mattered.

I turned sharply down an adjacent hallway into the test subjects sleeping chambers. Amongst all of the red light doors, one was green. I rushed down to it and kicked it open.

A simple bed sat in the dark room. I laid Chell down in it.

"Neurotoxin release in T minus sixty seconds."

"It's going to be alright Chell. I'm going to shut down the neurotoxin, then I'll come back for you. I'm going to save you. I promise. Just wait here, okay?"

Her eyes were welling with tears, but she nodded.

"Okay. Alright. Good. I'll be right back."

She scrambled under the covers and laid there, quivering.

I backed out of the room and slammed the doors shut. The light turned red.

"Neurotoxin released in T minus twenty seconds. Fifteen. Fourteen."

The female voice came back. "Oh. I guess you thought that would save her, since you're the hero and all. Well it won't. I can still wipe her memory. But you know how much I would hate to do that. Oh wait. I wouldn't. In fact, I'm doing it right now."

"What? No! Leave her alone! Don't touch her!" I yanked on the doorknob and slammed myself into the door, but it wouldn't open. "Stop!"

"Mind wiping complete. Now she has no idea who you are. Oh look. Here's our friend, deadly neurotoxin."

Vents opened and a thick yellow mist sprayed all around me. "It's a shame that you're a robot since this won't kill you. It might make your circuits go haywire, but nothing more. What a pity."

I growled. This robot had taken too much from me.

I grasped the wires attached to my neck and pulled them out. There was a faint buzzing, but I ignored it. I tore out the cables in my back and jumped to the ground.

"I wonder what you're doing now," said the voice, "Trying to be heroic probably. Do you think you're the hero? Because you're not. You're just a robot now. A robot that can't even save it's friends. Boo hoo."

I fled down the hall. I knew where I had to go. A full map of Aperture was placed in my brain.

The thick yellow fog made it hard to see anything, but when I closed my eyes I could see myself running along the map. My metal feet crashed into the hard ground. I had to end this.

The floor beneath my feet disappeared and I fell. "Ah!"

My body smashed into the ground.

I groaned. I was only a robot, but I was built with pain simulators. Now I wish I wasn't. I wished I wasn't anywhere near human like. All I could do was struggle to my feet and keep running.

I reached the catwalk. It wasn't too far now.

"Oh. The main breaker room. I guess you think you're going to shut me down. Because you're not. There's nothing you can do. I'm in control of everything. I could drop you to your death or crush you under a falling ceiling. You're tiny and I'm huge. It's nothing you can fix. It's just how it works."

I threw open the doors to the breaker room and scanned it. It was a small tube shaped room with switches covering the walls.

I dropped to my knees in front of a metal box that was attached to the ground. I ripped it open and started pulling out wires. Heavens know that I had no clue what I was doing or if it would kill me, but I started plugging myself in.

"That's not going to do you much good, you know. There's nothing left for you to do."

"You're wrong!" I shouted, "There's still something I can do."

The room spun to the side and I lost my balance. As I struggled to my feet, the floor started moving up.

This was it. It hissed to a stop.

The mass of metal and wires that was GLaDOS glared down at me. It was enough to make the average man cower in fear.

Normally I was the average man, but not today. Today I had a steely resolve. I had to do this.

"Look at you," the robot taunted with a voice that made me shiver, "You're just a puny little robot. You must still think you're a man. You know, there are a lot of things that androids can't do."

My mind flashed to Valerie and a sharp pain plagued my chest.

"Did you also know that your mind is connected to my mainframe? I can hear all of your thoughts. I know what you're planning to do. You can hide it from me."

My breathing became harsher and my head pounded.

A loose wire hung from the robot woman's neck. I grabbed it with both hands and started climbing.

"Get off of me, you moron!" The figure began to thrash around violently and, try as I might, I could not hang on to the wire.

I was flung away and crashed into the ground several feet away. As I hit the ground, I heard a distinctive 'crack' just above my left temple. Pain spread from the spot and all around my head like a virus.

I groaned in immense pain and slumped to the floor.

"Oh no. You've damaged your brain, haven't you?"

The male voice spoke in my earpiece, "Severe damage to intelligence chip retained. Shutting down to reserve battery." My vision started to go black.

"No no! Override! Override!"

There was a whirring sound and my vision came back. "Override complete."

My head was like a bee's nest, buzzing and crawling with horrible little things. Ideas were digging themselves into my thought processors. Terrible ideas. I needed to run. I needed to run far far away and never look back.

No... I couldn't. I couldn't leave it all behind. Where was I?

I knocked a fist into the side of my head. "Think brain. Think," I muttered.

"You don't have a brain anymore. It's broken. Just like everything else inside of you. Now get lost." A claw reached down from the ceiling and grabbed at me.

I rolled to the side and latched onto it in return. "What are you doing?" It hoisted me high into the air, over the AI's head.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't remember how to speak as I flew through the air. I let go of the claw and landed on GLaDOS's back.

"Get off of me! We're not doing this again!"

I shoved my hands into the back of her head and started ripping out wires.

"Stop! You're going to break something!"

This was it? This was my brilliant plan? I was going to get myself killed.

But then... that was the plan all along, wasn't it?

I opened the panel on my chest and started plugging myself in. I was right; this was it.

GLaDOS stopped thrashing around. "You don't even realize how much of a moron you are. You just plugged yourself into my mainframe. While I was still attached. So now I can control you."

"No," I said firmly, "So that I can contain you." I plugged in one last wire.

Something inside of her flashed and electricity buzzed. I could see it hopping along my skin. My body was vibrating and I couldn't move. The buzzing became extremely intense and I could hear GLaDOS gasp a little in pain.

All at once, the electricity stopped and my body seized up. I slumped over, then fell off of GLADOS's back and hung in the air, with only the wires attached to my back keeping me suspended.

My vision went black, but I could still hear her horrible voice. "So, I guess you really thought you were going to be the hero today. Well you're not. In case you didn't pick up on that. You've made me incredibly angry, so do you know what I'm going to do to you? I'm going to return you to your factory settings. Do you know what they do that to? Toys. When a toy malfunctions, they return it to its factory settings which erases all memory that the toy previously had. Because that's all you are. Say goodbye to your memories, toy."

I could see Valerie. I could see her long blonde hair, tangled and sweaty, plastered across her face. She took a last shaky breath and collapsed to the floor, green eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I don't know why that recording played. Good for you to know though."

I could see Chell, hiding under the covers as a blue mist sprayed into the room.

"I'm putting her in cryosleep and then she's going to test. You know, since you put her in the test chambers. I don't know when she'll wake up. Maybe ten years from now. Maybe ten thousand. Either way, you won't remember to keep your promise. But then again, neither will she. Goodnight, you moron. Don't bother me again."

My mind faded into blackness.

The End.

A/N: Wake Me Up by Ed Sheeran = Alternate ending for Wheatley and Valerie. Thank you for reading my story. Leave me a review and tell me what you thought. Although I'm kind of expecting someone to yell at me for this ending. Heh. sorry. Love you all. Bye now. 3