Well now, it's been a while. I had a sudden urge to do more for this story.

So sit back and enjoy the 15th chapter...7 years after the last one.

Wheatley was near to throwing a tantrum in his frustration. The test euphoria withdrawal was really getting to him and it was evident now that there was no negotiating with a power-mad AI stuck on synthetic satisfaction. The door exiting the test opened and the blue-optic robot was rushing us along again.

"Alright. Still nothing, let's keep moving. Sorry about the lift. It's, uh...out of service. Because it melted." It melted? I feared that the whole facility would burn up before Wheatley would get pulled from the literal seat of power. A quick glance at my potato comrade and I stepped forward through the grille and onto an incomplete catwalk.

"S-so glad we have a plan to fi...fix this." I murmured, carefully stepping into the excursion tunnel. It always felt like a strange combination of stepping into molasses and onto a moving walkway...I didn't like it. Especially with the facility crumbling around me.

"Might as well give you the tour..." Wheatley rambled, the blaring sirens seemingly playing backdrop to every space in Aperture. I sighed and looked to the right with massive eyes, "OH GOD RUN! THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THERE." All the memories of Chell from a tiny girl to now seemed to flash by, though the later memories seemed similar to one another in a hopeless kind of way...the potatoes were fun, though.

Really...being smashed to death would be a mercy to the blazing nuclear fireball I was currently planning. Being trapped in this slow shuttle meant I had no way out and no escape. I shut my eyes for the inevitable.

"Are you alright back there?" How sweet, Wheatley was worried, "Here, I'll turn the beam off." Wait what? I felt all support vanish in an instant and a ragged shout of surprise leaped free as I flailed to get my boots under me. Instant regret rang out from the speakers as the moronic robot realized his mistake, but really, he had done me some favor in the end. GLaDOS was remarkably silent as I tucked and tumbled into a small office space conveniently below where the beam had let me off.

"After seeing what he's done to my facility - after we take over again - is it alright if I kill him?" I shot GLaDOS an angry look.

"No k-killing." I responded, getting back on my feet and hurrying along another metal walkway. While I would never ask for Weatley's doom, I certainly would not be opposed to some sort of punishment.

"You have too big of a heart, you know that?" The potato retorted, "I should know. I ordered your MRI before we both hibernated for however long." A roll of my eyes and a shake of my head and I stepped into another tiny room to get to the next chamber.

I was sure Wheatley was getting to developing another nasty plan and there was no time to focus on my sore knee. I'd stepped wrong for the first time in a while and jerked my knee in a very odd direction, but it wasn't busted any further than that. There was supposed to be two more test chambers before his big surprise. GLaDOS was suspicious and so was I, especially considering neither of us was fully capable of predicting Wheatley's next move.

"Remember when I told you that he was specifically designed to make bad decisions?" She prompted.

"V-vividly." I answered in a grumble.

"Because I think he's decided not to maintain any of the crucial functions required to keep this facility from exploding." No, really? I thought he was making cupcakes. My glower must have told her my thoughts because the potato was quick to silence herself as the lift carried us up through the dark shaft and towards another level. "Oh...my facility." GLaDOS seemed so mournful of the current state of everything. Something must have really flicked a switch in her down in the bowels of Aperture.

"I'll bet you're both dying to know what your big surprise is. Only TWO more chambers!" How many tests have I done at this point? Before and after my latest stasis wake up call...I had honestly lost track some time ago...but, there was no mistaking there was something funny about Wheatley's tone. Once again, we parted from the lift and passed the ominous blue screens flashing trouble going on in the facility. I was antsy and so was GLaDOS.

"We're running out of time..." She seemed to whine in what sounded like serious worry, "I think I can break us out of here in the next chamber. Just play along." I glanced at the AI with doubt before again stepping forward into yet another test room.

'I have a very bad feeling about all this...' The room was dark...no white panels in sight. Just a tube poking in from the ceiling, an exit door across a gap with a button switch to open it, and an aerial faith plate. A cube fell from the tube and I proceeded forward to assess the room, the bubble of nerves in my stomach rising. Something wasn't right...and it was proven when I was thrown in said direction by the faith plate.

"SURPRISE! We're doing it NOW!" Oh I should have known.

"Okay, credit where it's due," GLaDos started as I maneuvered myself to land on yet another faith plate, "for a little idiot built specifically to come up with stupid, unworkable plans, that was a pretty well laid trap."

"Smelled f-fishy to me." I responded as we both were caught up in yet another excursion tunnel. How many of these were there? Give me a light bridge any day over this slow and steady ride. At least the bridge was warm to the touch.

"And he offered us no real recourse." She sighed, resigned to her position on the claw of the portal gun as we floated along amiably.

"You've probably figured it out by now, but I don't need you anymore." Well, he seemed confident about that, "I found two little robots back here. Built specifically for testin'!" I blinked, looking to GLaDOS for an answer.

"Oh no. He found the cooperative testing initiative." GlaDOS all but whispered. There was a shock of genuine fear in her tone...and that unnerved me more than it probably should have. "It's...something I came up with to phase out human testing just before you escaped." Boy, I wish she had finished the initiative sooner. Then we wouldn't be in this mess. "It wasn't anything personal. Just...you know. You DID kill me. Fair's fair." I didn't have any time to retort as a robotic arm bearing a panel slammed into my side, propelling us to an ominous space with multiple screens featuring Wheatley's optic and metallic 'face'.

"Well. This is the part where he kills us." GLaDOS proclaimed as we landed on a tiny platform.

"Hello! This is the part where I kill you." And looking around at the many robotic appendages featuring spike walls...he really meant it. Wheatley proceeded to perform the typical villain monologue as I kept glancing around, my brain running as quickly as could be managed. There was a small portal surface back behind the right of Wheatley's screens with a catwalk under it...but how to get there? I was on a non-portal surface...with no other floor around me. Something the intelligence dampening core made sure to make obvious.

"Hold on. Couldn't we just use that conversion gel?" GLaDOS observed.

"Conversion gel?" Wheatley and I both asked simultaneously. How this little potato saw the one other white spot in this area when I missed it, I will never know. Nor will I ask. It was a perfect diversion as I discretely lowered the portal gun to aim at the whitened spot of wall. Wheatley seemed far too confident, denying GLados' claim. Soon as his optic shut, I shot an orange portal as the dripping spot and rapidly fired the blue portal at the spot behind Wheatley's screens. Blessed be trajectory.

While I was now covered in white conversion gel, I moved the gun to aim a new orange portal beneath me. The arms had just started to move in with their spike walls when I dropped through and onto the catwalk behind his screens. A new escape achieved, I ran full tilt away from Wheatley's 'kill chamber'.

We'd nearly gotten crushed by another of his walls and other falling debris, forced into a trap room full of defective turrets, nearly shot up by functional turrets, and again escaping his 'mashy spike plates'. Really, I don't think I had ever had such excitement in the facility before. Even the earlier escape from a revived GLaDOS couldn't compare, though the first battle to take the queen AI down was a very close second.

"Did something break back there?" Wheatley asked. I looked back to see the torn walkway decorated with blue repulsion gel I had just crossed. A pipe had fallen, taking out much of what was in its path and was now gushing the blue fluid. So...yes, I would certainly say something did break back here. I took a deep and calming breath as the adrenaline started to wane and continued on, by hurt knee now loudly protesting my steps. "Oh! Oh! Did it kill you? Oh, that would be amazing if it killed you." Close Wheatley, but I am still very alive.

I sighed and shot a portal at the wall beside me and the ceiling of the observation room ahead to my right. The stress of the day was beginning to tell and I could use a rest. It was then that Wheatley got an idea and proclaimed he would return. With a pane of bulletproof glass protecting me from the turret gunfire across the gap, I decided to take a moment to catch my breath.

"You're tired, aren't you?" GLaDOS asked as I gingerly set down the portal gun and remove my hand from the grip. I nodded and hissed as I flexed the sore and aching fingers. Really, all of me was sore. And tired. And some of my deeper scratches had reopened, inspiring small blossoms of red to appear through my jumpsuit. "I guess any break is better than pushing forward over and over again." I looked to GLaDOS with guarded surprise.

"Very consid...consi...consid-derate of you." I struggled through the bigger word, briefly hoping the struggle would fade as I went on. Already, I'd made massive strides from saying 'apple' in my designated relaxation chamber. Was that really only a handful of days ago?

"How are you holding up?" The AI asked gently.

"Could be better. Th-thirsty. Hungry. Dirty. Tired." I sighed, glancing back at the turrets staring blandly ahead of themselves. If GLaDOS could nod, I would assume she was doing so as I looked back to the potato-powered computer. Really, she'd been through some stuff herself. "H-how are you doing Glaaaa...GlaDOS?"

"Well enough, considering my current predicament." She replied with easy snark. It made me give a huff of a laugh and shake my head. Were it any other situation, she and I might have been friends. As it was though, 'grudging comrades' was as great a title as I deigned to grant our partnership. I enjoyed the next ten minutes of quiet before deciding I was ready to stand again. Time to move forward to stop Wheatley and - I was hoping - to save him from this madness.

Thinking if his madness reminded me of Rattmann, the mangey old man we found on our way up from the depths of the Aperture facility...I wondered how he was doing.

For anyone who has been waiting so long for an update: you have my eternal gratitude for such patience.