Wheatley ducked as a laser beamed over his head. "Ah! I told you not to touch the cube!" He shouted at the Space Core.

Space looked at the cube, and sidestepped away

"No, don't try to look innocent! I know it was you!"

The space core shrugged.

Wheatley scowled at him and walked over to readjust the cube. The beam lit the reciever up and a set of panel stairs rose from the floor. "You know, you've done such a good job of not dying that I think you deserve a reward. She'll be glad to see- oops! Did I spoil the surprise?"

Wheatley's heart began to race. She's going to let me see her? He thought about how she had been able to escape the test chambers even before he had met her. She'd be able to escape with him too, right? The Space Core walked up to Wheatley and smiled as they proceeded through the doors. And maybe with Space, too. As they entered the next room, it was dark. He could see her sillhouette, though it seemed... Shorter.

"Hello! Who are you?"

Wheatley jumped. The lights flashed on and it became apparent that that was not the same human that he had tried to help escape before. This one had short blonde hair held back with a headband and hair clips. She also had lighter skin and bright orange eyes. "Hey! I thought you said that my surprise would be-"

"A 'she', yes. As you can tell, this one is a female."

Wheatley sighed and rubbed his temples. So GLaDOS wasn't gonna make this easy... The girl stared at him with wide eyes. "Who are you?" She chirped.

He gave a half-enthusiastic grin and waved. "I am Wheatley. And you are?"

She smiled. "I am the Curiosity Personality Construct. My purpose is to cloud GLaDOS's thought processses with inquiry to keep her from harming essential Aperture Science personnel."

Wheatley chuckled nervously. "Well, sorry to break it to you, but you're a little late for that..."

She then looked over to the space core and smiled. "Who are you?"

Space blinked, and looked at her. "S-Space."

"Space is a funny name!"

"I love space. Gotta go to space."

"What's space?"

The space core gave her a blank look, and then screeched. "Space is SPAAAACE! Planets, stars galaxies... I was on the MOON!"

Wheatley rolled his eyes. "We were orbiting the moon, mate."

Space put his index finger up to Wheatley in response as he faced the interested Curiosity core. "Sssh."

Wheatley folded his arms and listened as the two cores rambled on about space. It was annoying at first, as he had heard it all before, but the space core had on such a big grin, that eventually it made him sad when GLaDOS interrupted.

"Look how happy the two of you are." She said with a hint of venom. "It'd be such a shame if your moronic friend was unable to keep both if you safe in the following tests..."

Wheatley flinched and wrung the portal gun nervously in his hands. She was right, it would be a shame. He hoped to whoever had control over human-turned-robots that he could keep the two of them safe... He swallowed. And maybe keep himself safe too while he's at it.

. . .

Chell elbowed Rick in the gut once more as he made another advance towards her as she observed the test chamber closely. He grunted. "I get it. Don't worry darlin', message received." He raised an eyebrow. "You're just playin' hard-to-get."

Chell stepped onto a button next to her, and a laser shot in between her and the obnoxious core. He took a few steps back to avoid being singed and chuckled. "Aww, don't be like that, angel." She clenched her teeth and pointed furiously toward a redirection cube a few feet away from him.

Rick nodded slowly. "Riiight... Use the cube to direct the beam into that receptor there, so the panel will uncover the room and you can shoot a portal into it!" He shot her a thumbs up. "You're actually smart, for a lady."

Chell hit her forhead in frustration, but he actually proceeded to complete his part of the task quite quickly and efficiently. As they finished up the last few steps to the test chamber, GLaDOS chimed in. "You're actually working quite well with eachother. I'm impressed." Rick shot Chell a satisfied smirk. "Especially with your tendancy to incinerate, drop, and launch into space, aperture science personality constructs. How many have you harmed?" Chell rolled her eyes, but in her periferal vision she thought she saw Rick flinch a bit. "Well- actually it would probably be easier to say how many you haven't. The total comes to... 2." The intercom crackled to silence and Rick stared at her with an uncharacteristically fake grin.

"So... You a... Robot killer?" He asked, somewhat afraid.

Chell glared at him impatiently and headed towards the elevator. "Not that I blame you- I mean, there are some nasty robots around here..."

Chell began to tap her foot as he stayed in place

"Aww, don't be mad, angel." He walked into the elevator, though still keeping about an inch of space between him and her. "I still trust you... Sorta."

For those of you who read my first rendition of this story-golly it's been a while, hasn't it?

Now I don't plan on doing regular updates or anything like that, but this is my longest and most cherished fanfic, so whenever I fall into the pit that is my love for Portal again I'll make sure to keep on writing!

Reviews are always appreciated, and I love all of you for reading this far!