Portal: Love as a Construct

Part Sixty-Four: The Agreement

Part Sixty-Four.  The Agreement

It was something, being alive again.

Wheatley’d been dead before, obviously.  It wasn’t a time he liked thinking about, because it’d been extraordinarily painful, and had involved some sort of automatic restart, the details of which he was still pretty fuzzy on.  GLaDOS and Carrie were always happy to see him, but to be honest, he didn’t really like it.  He felt as though some part of them were absent.  His ladies were fiery and fierce, but not so much right now.  He didn’t mean to be ungrateful, but he hoped that changed soon. 

It did for GLaDOS a day or so after his return, when the scientists at Black Mesa mentioned they were going to reconnect her to the facility.  She didn’t wait a single second to get back into her systems, and both her relief and her satisfaction were palpable, at least to him.  Even he didn’t know the full scope of what went on in her head as the Central Core, but it seemed that lacking control and tasks to complete really had been driving her stir-crazy.

“There was… something we wanted to discuss with you, my dear, if we may,” one of the scientists said, a shortish, nervous scientist with only a ring of white and grey fuzz wrapped around the back of his head for hair.  He had a habit of pushing up his glasses that must have been quite severe, for Wheatley to have noticed it, and he had a sort of… reverential respect for GLaDOS.  Wheatley had yet to discover why.  He’d never before met a scientist in awe of her before, though of course they all should have been, so it was a bit weird.  But reasonable.

“And what would that be,” GLaDOS said, her voice flat.  Wheatley tried to stay still.  It seemed the scientist had no idea that GLaDOS disliked being asked to do things by… well, anyone, really.

“The Combine,” said the lady who’d come in with the scientist.  He’d only seen her a few times, but he liked her brash forcefulness, though honestly she was a bit frightening.  She was much darker-skinned than the scientist and wrapped in shades of brown.  She also had quite a bit more hair.  “We all know they’re on their way.”

“And?”

“Combining our efforts would be the best strategy from here on in,” the scientist said.  Before he could continue, GLaDOS laughed.

“And what would you have to contribute?  Look.  I can handle myself.  I have re-evaluated my stratagems and will require no aid from a bunch of mangy humans that only learned to fire their weapons yesterday.”

“Mangy,” the lady started to say, but the scientist held out his arm sideways in front of her, his fingers spread out. 

“Alyx.  Allow me.”  He looked up at GLaDOS, and Wheatley honestly thought he might get through to her.  For whatever it was he wanted.  This man did hold a respect for her, for some reason, and he knew GLaDOS would appreciate that and probably be flattered.  He hoped the man didn’t realise it, but she was pretty easy to convince when she was flattered.

“We know you are perfectly capable of handling things on your own.  There’s no doubt about that,” the scientist continued.  “However… this fight is not your responsibility.  It is ours, and you have been forced into… shouldering it, as it were.  I admit I’m not fully informed on the activities surrounding your inception and operations, but I’m not certain your distrust of us is founded.  I will admit that the circumstances that brought this situation about were, in part, due to things under our control, but… from what Alyx has told us, there may be something at work here we do not understand.  And it is something you have more knowledge of than us.  In the end, I suppose what I’m trying to say is… we are only attempting to clean up our own mess.  I don’t deny that you have the capability to deal with anything that comes your way.  We only ask that you help us to help you.”