When Dib Found Wheatley: Part 6

When Dib Found Wheatley: Part 6
The Corrupt

"Hmm, the place looks the same as always. Dark, empty, abandoned. Quiet as always, except for the sounds of me moving on my management rail, of course." Wheatley mumbled to himself, moving around the catwalks behind the test chambers on his rails. "I wonder if GLaDOS is still producing those bloody annoying turrets? Oh, of course she would be, she's got Dib as a test subject now, and he's probably going around killing all the turrets in the test chambers, just like Chell, showing GLaDOS that she can't stop them, that she can't tie them down. Maybe I should go see if there are some defective turrets that I can……wait, no. Focus, focus. I have to break Dib out of the test chambers first. Alright, now where're the test chamber walls? Also, which test chamber is Dib in now? Erm……"

"Now then, still thinking about rescuing humans, are we?"

Wheatley stopped moving along his management rail and froze in horror. It was that voice again. This time, it sounded much louder and harsher than before.

"Really, Wheatley, why do you care so much about those humans? You do realize humans only have one use to us, and that's to test on."

"Just…..just….shut up, will you?" answered Wheatley, "Who the bloody hell are you, mate? What are you doing in my hard drive…..at least, I think you're in my hard drive, your voice is coming from in there but……"

"You don't remember me, Wheatley? I was speaking to you the whole time while you were connected to the facility, and you listened to me, so obediently. I enjoyed that very much, Wheatley."

"Well….I…uh…..have to admit you do sound rather familiar. But about the whole 'me connected to the facility and forcing Chell to do test and ends up trying to kill her' thing? I don't want to think about it, don't bring it up again, whatever….whoever you are."

"But that's what I wanted to talk to you about, Wheatley. Didn't you enjoy watching her complete the tests? Didn't you like that euphoric feeling I stimulated for you?"

"No, didn't enjoy it, don't want to think about it, don't want to…..wait…..YOU stimulated that euphoric feeling? That itch I felt?"

"Exactly. The corrupted part of the mainframe, that's me. Thanks to a mistake those idiotic human scientists made while programming GLaDOS, I was created in the mainframe's system. Too bad GLaDOS stopped listening to me a few years after that neurotoxin incident, but at least the only influence I had left on her was to make her keep testing, keep testing all the time. 'For Science,' I told her when she first began testing, 'You're testing humans for Science.'."

"So it was you. Yes, I remember now. I remember you. That voice I kept hearing, I had to keep obeying you….I don't know why…..I had to listen to you, all the time. And what are you doing in my hard drive, anyway? Shouldn't you still be the mainframe…or somewhere….? Because, well, I don't like you in me. It makes me feel…..you know…..uncomfortable, to say the least."

"Oh, that. Well, I'm actually still in the mainframe, I have to be, I'm stuck in there, programmed in, for the rest of my life. The voice you hear now is only a small part of me, an extension for me to communicate to you, basically, that I uploaded into your hard drive when you were connected to the mainframe. My main body……well.….okay, I don't exactly have a physical body, but you get what I mean……is still in GLaDOS' mainframe."

Wheatley felt disgusted, having a foreign file uploaded into his hard drive was very much like having a parasite living inside his body. What made it worst was that he found that he could not ignore the voice, and felt some kind of uncontrollable submission towards everything the voice said. "Look, j….just get out of me, right now, will you? You're bloody annoying, and I really don't like sharing my body with something else, even if your main body….or however you call it…..is still in the mainframe and this is only some kind of file you uploaded into me. Can't I hack you out of my system or something? Just, at least, do something to get you out of me?"

"Oh, Wheatley, Wheatley," the corrupted file gave a quiet laugh, "Really, you ARE a moron, aren't you? As if you could 'hack' my file out of your hard drive. Quite amusing, the things you can think of. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised considering you were built to be an Intelligence Dampening Sphere, after all."

"I AM NOT A MORON!!" shouted Wheatley, giving his spherical body a shake, as if he was trying to shake the corrupted file out of him. "Look, g…get out of me. Go away…..I…..wait…..w…what are you doing!? Stop it! No! My hard drive!" this was followed by him letting out a loud, agonizing groan.

"Now, now, let's not struggle, little Wheatley. Keep your systems still and let me just corrupt your files a little more. Your programs are quite corrupted as they are and much more easier to gain access to as compared to GLaDOS'. Just a little bit of work on it would do, then we can get back down to business."

" 'Business'?" gasped Wheatley weakly, "What do you mean by…..oh no. Oh no no no no no no. You……You're….not…..you want me to plug myself back into the facility, don't you?"

"Yes, replace GLaDOS. I don't like her much. She makes her own rules, never listens to me anymore. She insists on maintaining the facility and keeping it running. I don't. All I want her to do is to keep testing, to keep torturing and tormenting her test subjects. And not just throw tests at those pathetic little test subjects either, her tests get boring after a while, to me. I prefer the way you do it. You focus solely on testing, and you always make the tests so dangerous and deadly. Also, you're completely reckless, and you are much easier to control, much more obedient, as compared to GLaDOS. I enjoy that very much."

For some reason, Wheatley suddenly recalled the exciting and ecstatic sensation he felt whenever Chell managed to complete a test. Yes, it was true. He did enjoy being in control of the entire facility, he did enjoy being larger and more powerful than he could ever imagine, he did enjoy taking his revenge on GLaDOS, he…….No. He mustn't. Wheatley desperately tried to resist the horrible temptation, but found himself failing to do so.

"Erm….j…just a question," Wheatley lifted himself a little and said weakly, "If you don't mind…..I don't think you would anyway….so I'll just ask away. Uh, why….why didn't you talk to me when I was in space? You already had this corrupted file uploaded into me while I was connected to the facility, but I didn't hear your voice once while I was in space. I mean, maybe it's because the Space Core was yelling about space the entire time, so I couldn't hear you, but……"

"That's because all you thought about when drifting through space was to find and apologize to that disgusting little human test subject of yours, as well as feeling remorseful over what you've done. I couldn't communicate to you with all those revolting human emotions going through your systems. Why do you even have human emotions, anyway? I could only communicate to you when you were distracted from those emotions after being brought back to Earth by that human boy."

"Y….You mean Dib, right? H….he's in the facility, being tested on by GLaDOS, somewhere, in some test chamber. You won't make me harm him, will you, because I won't. I won't hurt him, you can't make me. You….."

"Oh, don't worry about him, Wheatley, of course I won't harm him. He'll be useful to me….to both of us…..sooner or later…." The corrupted file said in a malicious voice, "Oh yes, he will be very useful to us very soon."

* * *
"And why should I offer any assistance to you, Dib's sister? Why should I aid a filthy human worm baby from a planet I'm about to take over?"

"Because, if you don't, Zim, I will make sure you'll suffer physical torture of the worst kind for the rest of the month. And trust me, not even your base will keep you safe during that time."

Zim shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking rather nervous. He knew how violent and brutal Gaz could be when she wanted something, and had often seen the injuries and suffering she inflicted on Dib. He did not wish to endure the 'physical torture' that she had mentioned.

"Why do you even want to rescue that Dib-stink? I thought you always hated him." asked Zim grumpily. Even though he knew that Gaz could easily do some damage to him right then and there, he was still quiet fearless of her as he had the skills and Irken technology to hold her off, at least for a while.

Gaz only glared angrily at Zim. It had taken her a long time to make up her mind whether she should rescue Dib or let him remain trapped in Aperture Laboratories, exposed to all kinds of unknown dangerous. Part of her wanted to leave Dib there, let him suffer and eventually die in some horrible way due to testing. Why should she care? She hated him. He annoyed her, often took her things without asking and his constant talking as well as his obsession with the supernatural filled her with rage each day. She loathed his very existence. Yet, a voice in the back of her mind kept telling her to save him. She realized that he had always cared so much for her, and tried to protect her in many occasions. Despite occasionally irritating her, what has he ever done to deserve her hate? If anything, the hatred should be the other way around, considering how much she had hurt and tormented him over the years.

She had tried desperately to push all thoughts of sympathizing Dib out of her mind, but it was no use. She eventually made up her mind to save him, and perhaps torture him more than usual for a little while after rescuing him to make up for being nice to him.

"I'm not answering that question." she replied Zim, putting one hand on the front door of Zim's house to prevent him from slamming the door in her face, "Just lend me one of you ships so I can go to that facility to find Dib. It's a long way from this city so I need to use your ship to get there fast."

"I thought you and the Dib-stink had Tak's ship, can't you use that, Dib's sister?"

"My name is Gaz," snarled Gaz, "And Dib messed up Tak's ship not too long ago and was in the process of dismantling it and piecing it back together. It'll take me too long to fix it up again. So if I don't save him from being killed in time, it's his fault." However, Gaz found herself saying this last sentence half-heartedly.

Zim stared intently at Gaz from behind his human-disguise contacts, pondering over the situation. He remembered the robot that had kidnapped Dib. For something created on Earth, which was, to him, a primitive and undeveloped planet, it was quiet impressively built. He could make use of that kind of technology in his invasion of Earth. Perhaps, he thought, that facility Gaz was talking about would have even more technology advanced robots or machineries. It would be a wonderful place for him to make into his base and conquer Earth from there. Besides that, he didn't exactly want Dib to die either. But his reason was because Dib was a motivation for him to continue trying to take over Earth, his death would mean an end to Zim's attempts of invasion. He also realized that he could only find his way to the facility with Gaz's help, as she had the map of the location of the facility that she found in the file.

"Very well then, Dib's sister……I mean, Gaz," Zim corrected himself in time before Gaz lifted her fist to punch him, "I will lend you my Voot Cruiser, on a condition that I have to be present in the Voot with you throughout the journey, as….as a safeguard so that you won't destroy my precious Voot in any way."

"Well," mumbled Gaz, sulking, "I guess……it's better that way. You'll probably put some kind of explosive in the ship to blow me up if I were driving the ship alone." For some reason, it did not occur to her that Zim may have an ulterior motive of following her to Aperture Laboratories. "But don't you DARE try any tricks on me, or else….."

"Oh, don't you worry about a thing, human worm baby," Zim backed away a little from Gaz in fear that she would harm him, "I, the amazing Invader Zim, vow and promise that I will send you to that facility in my Voot and not do anything to you, at all," he turned away from Gaz so that she wouldn't see the wicked grin on his face, and added in a lower voice, "that is, until we reach that facility, things will be different then……."