With a clenching gut, Tess walked into the next room, Chell at her side, and Wheatley in her arms.

"Probably ought to bring you up to speed on something right now." The woman both stopped and looked down at the blue core. "In order to escape, we're going to have to go through HER chamber. And she will probably kill us if, um, she's awake." His optic moved to Chell. "So, Chell, I'm just gonna wish you good luck. We'll wait here."

"Wheatley?" Tess frowned, turning the core around, making him face her. He let out an artificial huff.

"What? She can do it on her own can't she?  There is no reason for us all to get killed right?" Tess narrowed her eyes.

"Listen mister. Chell is my friend and if she's going on some suicide mission than so am I. So, you've got two options. Option A: Sit here. Do nothing. Forever. Option B: Go through with us, and live the adventure of your life" Wheatley stared at the woman in front of him, weighing his options.

"Fine" He huffed. Tess grinned and send Chell a nod. They resumed their way, stopping in front of the huge overgrown tomb. "Okay, I'm gonna lay my cards on the table: I don't wanna do it. I don't want to go in there." Chell ignored the bot and stepped inside the room "Don't... Don't go in there" Tess tugged the core closer to her chest and followed after Chell, her stomach dropping as her foot made contact with the concrete floor.  "She's off. She's off! Panic over! She's off." Wheatley cheered, seeing the huge bot on the ground. "All fine! On we go."

With sweaty palms, Tess made her way further into the room, stepping over pieces of robot until she found Chell in front of the robot's head. "There she is...What a nasty piece of work she was, honestly. Like a proper maniac. You know who ended up, do you know who ended up taking her down in the end? You're not going to believe this. A human." For some strange reason Tess's eyes moved to Chell, seeing her stare at the head, almost like she recognized it. "I know! I know, I wouldn't have believed it either. Apparently this human escaped and nobody's seen him since. Then there was a sort of long chunk of time where absolutely nothing happened and then there's us escaping now. So that's pretty much the whole story, you're up to speed. Don't touch anything." Both woman snapped out of their stare and moved through the debris.

"Are you alright? You are shaking" Tess stopped walking.

"I've got a bad feeling about this" Wheatley stared at her in concern before he nodded.

"That's normal, seeing were in a room with a corpse." Tess nodded, though not convinced. "Okay, down those stairs. Jump! Actually, looking at it, that is quite a distance, isn't it?"  Seeing that none of the woman made a move Wheatley piped up again. "Quick question: Have you been working out? Because there's no evidence of it. I'm not a plastic cup. We will be landing with some force. So a bit of grip. Just using grip. Classic grip." Tess rolled her eyes, turning to Chell.

"I've got a plan. Seeing I don't have those braces. Can you make a portal down there so I can get trough?" Chell nodded and turned to the jump. With no effort at all, she jumped down and landed perfectly on her feet. "Show off" Tess muttered, staring at her friend. Wheatley laughed in her arms, making her scoff. With a noise, a portal was placed next to her. She quickly stepped through it and smiled at Chell. "Thank you"

The woman, and Wheatley, resumed their way to the breaker room. Just as they stepped on some grid's Wheatley yelped. "AH! I- Sorry, I just looked down. I do not recommend it. AH! I've just done it again." Tess stopped and stared at the bot. "I just now realized that I used to rely on my management rail to not fall into bottomless pits. And you're my rail now. And you can fall into bottomless pits. I'm rambling out of fear, but here's the point: don't get close to the edge." She smiled softly.

"I won't drop you, you know." Wheatley nodded, but didn't stop trembling. "Maybe, this'll help." She tugged Wheatley closer again, pressing his optic against her suit. "Now, don't look."

"How's this going to help?" He asked, his voice muffled by the fabric of her suit. Tess started walking again and smiled as she noticed Wheatley wasn't shaking anymore. Finally, she met up with Chell again, in a very slim but high room, filled with switches. Tess uncovered Wheatley and turned him to the room.

"Tada"

"The main breaker room! You are brilliant" Tess felt her cheeks heat up and quickly stepped inside. "Look for a switch that says ESCAPE POD. Alright? Don't touch ANYTHING else. Not interested in anything else. Don't TOUCH anything else. Don't even LOOK at anything else, just--well, obviously you've got to look at everything else to find ESCAPE POD, but as soon as you've looked at something and it doesn't say ESCAPE POD, look at something else, look at the next thing. Alright? But don't touch anything else or look at any--well, look at other things, but don't... you understand." Wheatley stopped, seeing Tess smile. They all started looking but it was impossible, most of them weren't even labeled.

"Can you see it anywhere? I can't see it anywhere. Uh. Tell you what, plug me in and I'll turn the lights on." Tess plugged him in and Wheatley nodded. "'Let there be light.' That's, uh... God. I was quoting God." With a click, the floor made a sharp turn. "Oh! Look at that. It's turning. Ominous. But probably fine. Long as it doesn't start moving up..." An alarm started blaring, making Tessa's head snap up. "Now, escape pod... escape pod..."

"Wheatley..." Tess tried but she was too late. The platform moved up, flicking every switch.

"Okay! No, don't worry! Don't worry! I've got it I've got it I've got it! " Nothing worked, they moved up until they reached the previous room, the one with the broken robot. "Okay don't panic! Alright? Stop panicking! I can still stop this. Ahh. Oh there's a password. It's fine. I'll just hack it. Not a problem... umm..." The robot started moving, reassembling itself. Chell got in defense mode, holding her portal gun high in the air. Tess backed away, but tripped on a moving bit of robot and fell to the ground.

"A...A...A...A...A... Umm... A." [BUZZER] "Nope. Okay. A... A... A... A... A... C."

"I don't think this is working" Wheatley' eye shot to Tess, his chassis twitching.

"Okay. Okay. Okay listen: New plan. Act natural act natural. We've done nothing wrong." The robot's head twisted until it was pointed at Chell.

"Oh... It's you. It's been a long time. How have you been?"

"You KNOW her?" Wheatley and Tess shouted in unison. Both Chell and the Robot ignored them.

"I've been really busy being dead. You know, after you MURDERED ME."

"You did WHAT?" Tess found herself lifted off the ground, making her spin around.

"Oh no! nonononono!" Tess managed to twist around enough to see Wheatley hanging there, not far from her. Sparks flew from his chassis as the bot squeezed him.

"Let him go! He has nothing to do with this" The robot finally seemed to notice her, twisting its head, its yellow optic focused on her dangling form. Its yellowish eyes blinked.

"Another test subject, pity this one is defect" With a flick of her arm, she threw Tess aside. She let out a scream upon impact, feeling some of her ribs break.

"Okay. Look. We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us." Tess heard a clatter next to her, but found herself to tired to open her eyes.  "For science. You monster. I will say, though, that since you went to all the trouble of waking me up, you must really, really love to test."