Author's Introduction

To my surprise, WALL•E — The Commitment: An Alternate Direction, has continued to attract new readers, new 'faves' and more in the seven months now since its completion, far more than my other stories have.

A number of you have asked for more here, especially about the family that WALL•E and EVE came to have in the Bonus section of that story. Having largely skipped over how their family came to be to tell of WALL•E and EVE's 500th Anniversary, the thought occurred to go back and tell the story of their family . . . or at least the heart of it — as I don't know if you'd want to read, or I'd have time to write, about all 500 years of life in WALL•E and EVE's household! WALL•E Director Andrew Stanton advised in the Director's Commentary on the WALL•E DVD to always write a story with the end in mind. I've drafted five chapters here (along with bits of others) before deciding to publish this, but I honestly don't know how this story is going to end right now. I know basically where this story is going . . . and there have already been some surprises, even to me, along the way. But amid the adventure, romance, and heartwarming love and growth that's emerging so far, and unlike the clear-cut quest EVE pursued in the last story here . . . I don't quite know how, or when, this particular story will wind up.

Remember also, this is an alternate timeline . . . if STAR TREK can now have more than one timeline, so can WALL•E and EVE! I am still making it true to the movie however, so look for some satisfying links and surprises through this story.

As always, I am grateful to Disney•Pixar for creating the characters in the movie of WALL•E.

So, just make sure you've seen the movie, and read The Commitment (. . . as it's really kind of key to this story that you do!) . . . and then enjoy seeing just how EVE and WALL•E came to have a family, and what they, and the Axiom community around them, do together . . .

Enjoy,

— Norwesterner

The stars.

He could stare at them all day, even from the moon he was now sitting on . . . except for one distraction. A pleasant distraction that was now taking his hand again.

"WALL•E," he felt her say.

"Eee-vaah . . ." he vibrated to her through his arm in return. "Look . . . starrs," he said as he pointed to them with his free hand.

"Yes," she agreed as she looked again with him up towards them.

They had seen the stars so much together in the journey that was their honeymoon. But as much as EVE now shared her partner's joy in looking at the stars in their full brilliance, undiminished by an atmosphere — she had something else she enjoyed more.

"Rather look you," she vibrated to him through their linked hands.

"Awww . . ." he replied, swiveling his optics to gaze at her now.

EVE just giggled. WALL•E enjoyed sensing that special sequence of vibrations from her. He looked at his hand in hers . . . the link they had discovered to hearing each other in the vacuum of space. At first he thought she could hear him . . . after all, he could hear himself internally whenever he said something. But after a while of space excursions, WALL•E thought EVE must be malfunctioning when she gestured and her eye forms changed, but no sound was being picked up by his onboard microphones. He came to realize this problem had in fact had always existed for them when they were in space, even during their first dance around the Axiom . . . he was just far too preoccupied with her to notice that he wasn't hearing her voice at the time.

EVE had been thinking that WALL•E had been malfunctioning when they were in space, too, having 'heard' herself speak internally. She would check and run diagnostics on him virtually each time they returned inside their ARV's cockpit, only to find his speakers and associated systems were functioning perfectly. WALL•E never minded her checking and fussing over him after their extra-vehicular excursions though. He just thought it was EVE's way of lovingly caring for him. He came to relish her extra attentions . . . even coming to open his access panels automatically upon their return from trips outside before she could ask him to.

It had just become a mystery to the two of them for a while, as they could hear each other fine inside the pressurized cockpit of their ARV . . . but then kept wondering why the other was failing to speak in open space. They had each just never been exposed to the fact that sound doesn't travel in the vacuum of space.

Something finally happened once though, when EVE grabbed a seemingly confused WALL•E floating in space one day, trying to convince him to come back to their ARV and rest.

". . . WALL•E, home," he suddenly felt her say.

"Therre you arre!" he responded back. "Hear you now."

"What?" she replied. "Can barely hear you . . . through a fin??" EVE puzzled, more to herself than him. Then she had an idea. "WALL•E, speak louder . . . also tie in and amplify audio feed to arm control inputs."

"Huh??" he asked, confused.

"Link audio output to arm control inputs, and boost audio volume," she repeated, as she made a similar connection within her own systems. "EVE hear you better . . . when in space, that way. Please. Solves malfunction."

"Ohh," he realized, now suddenly comprehending her far more clearly through his hand and arm as they floated near their ARV. "Howw thiss?" he now vibrated through his arms and his entire cube as much as spoke through his speakers.

"Yes," EVE simply replied as she hugged him all the tighter to hear him better . . . as if she really needed yet another reason to.

WALL•E just relaxed in her embrace, emitting a soft but steady vibration now.

"Sigh, correct?" EVE queried him happily, just confirming she was reading his vibrations properly now.

"Yess . . . Eev-aah," he blissfully replied, as they now gently rolled together in space, going nowhere in particular.

Now, even space was no longer a barrier to shared understanding, even harmony, between them . . . as if it ever really was.

— — — — —

EVE had gone on to pilot them on a cruise through much of the outer Solar System . . . exploring a number of asteroids, moons, even a passing comet. When it came to the rings of Saturn though, WALL•E insisted through repeated skimming gestures that EVE fly them right against the rings from underneath. But EVE just was not getting his intent.

"'Scuse," he finally said, gently elbowing her aside from the main pilot's panel, and especially the joy stick he had now seen her use many times.

At first, WALL•E lurched the ARV about, over-compensating again and again as he gripped the joy stick . . . even accidentally punching a hole through one of the rings with the ship, as the sound of icy particles grated around the hull.

"WALL•E!" EVE sternly warned, still not understanding just what he was trying to do.

He held up a finger, getting EVE to just pause as he gently submerged the ARV beneath the ring again, finally beginning to get the hang of maneuvering it.

"Rright herre," he finally said, hitting the 'Auto Pilot' button when he had the ship just where he wanted it. "Outside," he now said, turning to her and pointing at the hatch.

EVE compliantly initiated the cabin depressurization sequence, sighing and shaking her head.

"Sit on hull," WALL•E requested as the last of the cockpit's atmosphere was removed.

EVE was still thoroughly confused by what he was asking her to do, and why. But she did as he asked.

Upon exiting out the side of the ARV's cockpit with EVE once again cradling him within her fins, WALL•E pointed, gesturing for EVE to take them to the upper side of the cockpit that was now positioned just underneath the ring.

If WALL•E could smile, even grin . . . he would have at this point. He did his best to though, with his optics, almost bouncing and clapping with eager anticipation within EVE's fins. His systems just surged with joy as he was about to show EVE a delight he had experienced once before.

He now raised a hand to stop her as he now reached to anchor them to a rung of the ship's external ladder with one hand.

"Look," he simply vibrated to her as he raised just a finger of his other hand to start tracing a line in the ring as they and the ship continued to move beneath it. "Look . . . behind," he invited as their heads together started to swivel from looking up at the ring to the swirl of frozen particles WALL•E's finger was creating behind them.

"Ooo-ooo . . ." EVE vibrated to him with a degree of wonder in her distinctive, two-tone way.

"You do," WALL•E vibrated back to her as he pulled his hand back from the ring.

EVE now tentatively raised a finger into the ring, marveling at the path she began to make amid the particles, and turning to look behind them as she made her own swirl.

"WALL•E . . ." EVE sighed in vibration to him as she hugged him with both fins again. "Thank you . . . sorry doubted you."

"Trrust," he assured, gently patting her fin wrapped around him with his free hand.

"Yes, trust," she agreed, ". . . still learning."

WALL•E turned his optics to look at her. "Eev-aah good," he assured as he moved them to gently touch and nuzzle against her visor. EVE of course gave him a spark-kiss . . . a good long one.

She relished now feeling his happy warble in reply.

"Let go of ship," she then invited.

WALL•E drew his optics back, and looked at her with uncertainty.

"Trust," she encouraged. WALL•E then let go of his grip on the ship's ladder, and they floated up into, and even through, the ring. They began gently waltzing amid the ring of frozen bits of rock and ice. EVE saw the gently wavy pattern they were leaving behind them within the ring as they moved through it.

Then she had an idea . . .

A little later, as they left Saturn to return to the brighter and warmer inner reaches of the Solar System, it was EVE's turn to get WALL•E to look out the window this time, as she maneuvered the ARV around for one more pass by the rings.

Eve + Wall-e forever

. . . was now neatly written in large, flowing script within one of Saturn's rings.

WALL•E just turned his body and hugged EVE tightly as he continued to gaze with her out the cockpit window.

Then he turned to look at her, wanting to share something with her now that they were safely back inside the ARV, and could hear each other properly again. Something that had concerned, even troubled him, as he remembered some of their past together at times.

"Eev-aah," he just said, ". . . WALL•E with Eev-aah foreverr . . . Love Eev-aah foreverr . . . no matter what. If anything everr happen . . . like beforre . . . never miss mmee . . . okayy? WALL•E always nearr . . . WALL•E in youu . . . even now."

"No . . ." she gently disagreed as she looked at him. "Been there. Missed you . . . badly. Would miss you again. It what love mean . . . to me. No miss . . . no love."

WALL•E couldn't disagree with her. "Would miss Eev-aah, too," he sighed.

"Take care each other," she reassured him as she now held him tightly. "Brought you back . . . keep you safe now. Live . . . love . . . together, forever. Just will."

"If not," she added, " . . . bring you back again . . . or find way to join you."

"Eev-aah," he said sadly in concern, now caressing the side of her head with a hand, knowing what she meant with that last comment.

"My choice," she said as her eye forms now looked into his optics, " . . . be with you . . . go with you . . . forever."

"My choice . . . foreverr, too," he agreed and pledged to her as well.

Embracing each other tightly, they turned once again to look out the window at the pledge they had traced together in one of Saturn's rings. With her knowledge base of planetary physics, EVE realized their message might well disappear as the pull of gravity and grinding action of the particles would likely smooth out the ring and the disturbances they had made over time. But what they had written together would remain there, for all the Universe to see, for a while.

EVE then reached behind WALL•E and turned the ship with one fin and broke out of orbit. "Let's go someplace warm . . . and sunny . . . for you," she invited. "But for now . . . let's give you further charge . . . from my source, to yours . . ." as she reached for a pair of jumper cables they'd stashed in a nearby locker.

WALL•E had never felt so cared for . . . so loved . . . in his long life, or lives as EVE fed him power now direct to his battery terminal, at just the right level, from a port near her inexhaustible small reactor. She just looked at him . . . openly and lovingly as she gave him some of her own power. He just closed his optics and rested them beneath her head as they held each other.

It could not get any better than this . . . it just couldn't.

— — — — —

But now, they were sunning themselves on a moon again. This time Phobos, in orbit around Mars . . . it just provided a better, and constant view of the stars, compared to what they had experienced on the Martian surface.

"EVE need rest onboard ARV," she vibrated to his hand a while later after enjoying the stars and the moon's bright surface some more. "Need rest free of sand."

"Let's rest . . . in space," he suggested, ". . . hold each other."

EVE sighed happily as she picked up WALL•E and flew him back across the moon's surface to their ARV. She didn't think it could get any better than this, either.

Arriving with him back inside their ARV's cockpit, and re-pressurizing the compartment, EVE noticed a blinking button on the Comm panel.

She tapped it and a holoscreen emerged, with 'PRIORITY MESSAGE' written on it. She then saw Typing-bot's image appear on the screen.

EVE, he said in Axiom, at his usual slow pace . . . although he did now seem to be improving somewhat . . . we have a problem . . . an emergency, regarding the other EVEs and WALL•Es . . . especially the EVEs. Please commence your return to us . . . and contact me . . . as soon as you receive this. Axiom out.

EVE narrowed her eye forms in concern. WALL•E could sense from her changed demeanor that something was wrong. He reached a hand for her as he looked at her, emitting a soft tone of concern.

"Home," EVE said, now looking down. "Problem with other EVEs and WALL•Es. Needed."

"Ohh," WALL•E said in concern now as well, as EVE lifted and moved him into his cockpit slot for lift-off.

"Eee-vaah," WALL•E tried to assure her, ". . . we make it . . . okayy together."

That stopped EVE as she secured him in his slot. "Thank you . . . WALL•E," she said as she gratefully hugged him. "Feel better. You good . . . you so good . . ."

"WALL•E loves Eee-vaah," he gently replied.

"Eee-vaah loves WALL•E," she said warmly, her eye forms starting to smile now as she embraced and nuzzled him with her visor.

"Let's go . . . help," he suggested.

"You . . ." she admired as she spark kissed him, before moving into her own slot next to him in front of the main controls. "Launch," EVE now advised, dispensing with any countdown and just hitting the main ignition button.

WALL•E just reached a hand for hers now . . . no longer out of any fear as the rocket ascended from the moon's surface, but just to connect with EVE. She took his hand in hers as the cockpit vibrated around them. But she squeezed his hand somewhat more tightly than usual now. Sensing this caused WALL•E to extend his optics forward out of his slot slightly to look over at her. He could tell she was still concerned, seeing her eye forms now narrowed again as she looked forward.

"Eee-vaah . . ." he said, gently but loudly over the rocket's roar in the cockpit.

"Okay," she tentatively assured. "Clear moon . . . course Earth," she reported, hitting some more buttons now on the 'NAV' section of the panel in front of her. "Opening comm link," she added.

"Mee . . . want know, too," he asked as the rocket's roar died down to a gentler cruising mode now.

"Engaging translation," she reported, hitting some more buttons as Typing-bot's image emerged on a holoscreen in front of them.

"EVE, WALL•E," Tying-bot's translated voice said, managing to convey his relief at finally getting in touch with them.

"What is happening?" EVE's translated beeps asked.

"The Captain wants to speak with you, directly," Typing-bot's translated voice said, almost gravely. "Patching you through . . ." he noted, as the image on the holoscreen changed.

"Ohhhhh . . ." WALL•E and EVE now heard as a groggy Captain rose from the bottom of the holoscreen, obviously having been just awakened out of his sleep.

"Captain?" EVE translated beeps asked, not sure if she should be waking him up right now.

"EVE . . ." McCrea replied, trying to snap himself together. "Thanks for calling back. It's . . . oh, it's morning here now," he noted, looking towards a window in his stateroom and realizing he'd overslept again, ". . . but we need to talk . . . Just a sec . . . coffee . . ." he called to a panel beside him offscreen.

EVE tried to wait patiently, as WALL•E just looked at the holoscreen with her, puzzled.

"Okay . . ." the Captain resumed, having finally taken a reviving sip of coffee and shaken his head awake one more time. "EVE, WALL•E . . . we have a problem here. It's those other EVEs and WALL•Es you left behind. I don't know what you did with them in preparing them for your wedding . . . but they're not responding to instructions, from me, or anyone else. The WALL•Es just ignore us . . . and the EVEs . . . well, they have become dangerous."

"EVE," McCrea continued, ". . . folks here are now afraid of your class. The EVEs have been firing on and destroying Steward-bots left and right who try to rein them in . . . and yesterday, EVE 3 crossed the line, and fired on a young human boy who did little, if anything to provoke her. Fortunately, she missed, and the boy is uninjured. Typing-bot was able to figure out how to briefly disable but not destroy her using explosive shock charges that we managed to get close enough to her. We're now holding her in a shielded detention cell onboard the Axiom. She's fired in her cell, trying to escape . . . but fortunately the shields are holding right now."

"I've never had to dispense justice in my entire career," the Captain noted. "And I'm going against community pressure here in not terminating EVE 3 and even her sister probes, right now."

EVE became chilled upon hearing that, looking down now in sadness. WALL•E looked at her with concern, giving her hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze with his. EVE then began beeping in Axiom as the computer translated.

"Should WALL•E and I . . . collect them and leave?" her translated beeps asked. "Become outcasts?"

"No," McCrea decided, looking away from the screen himself now. "I want us all to remain together . . . united. To me, you and WALL•E are among the most valued members of our community. I don't want you leaving . . . and I don't want to have to terminate anyone."

"What do you want us to do?" EVE's translated voice now asked.

"I want you and WALL•E to come back," the Captain answered. "See if you can reason with the other EVEs and WALL•Es . . . get them under control. Otherwise," he paused, gravely, ". . . for the good of this community . . . I may have to terminate them . . . possibly all of them."

"Understood," EVE replied in translation. "Captain . . . thank you for giving us this chance. WALL•E and I will succeed with them," she pledged, ". . . or we will take them away, with us. We gave them self-awareness . . . sentience. They are our responsibility. We will make everyone safe . . . one way or another."

"I know you and WALL•E will, EVE," McCrea confirmed. "I'm sorry to end your honeymoon early."

"We have had a wonderful time already," EVE's translated voice assured. "We are fine . . . and you need us."

"Thank you EVE, WALL•E," the Captain replied gratefully. "See you here soon."

His image faded out as EVE looked down, worried, for a moment.

"Succeed . . . togetherr," WALL•E assured her as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Couldn't do this . . . without you," EVE replied warmly, as she looked at him briefly before returning her attention to the panel in front of her.

Typing-bot, she beeped as she opened another comm link with him, and his image reappeared on a holoscreen. Locate and track other WALL•Es and EVEs, but do not intercept, she instructed.

Understood, he replied. I should be able to scan for and track down the other EVE's through their locator beacons. Having studied WALL•E's type, I am not aware of any beacons on his class however. But I will work to find the WALL•Es anyway.

Also know that I have locked down the Axiom, he added. I have sealed the WALL•Es and EVEs outside, and everyone else inside . . . except for EVE 3. I am having Electro-Magnetic Pulse charges laid around a perimeter beyond her holding cell, and will use them should she escape. Her cell appears secure for now.

I . . . WALL•E and I . . . want to save these EVEs and WALL•Es . . . if at all possible, EVE beeped sadly to Typing-bot.

I know, EVE, he replied. I will do anything I can to help. But hurry . . . please.

Engaging hyperdrive, EVE confirmed in response. Even though we are on the far side of the system from you, we will be there soon. EVE out.

"WALL•E . . . EVE worried," she said to him sadly as she tapped the buttons to adjust their course towards Earth and engage the ARV's hyperdrive.

"You savve mmee . . . we savve themm," he reassured her as he now looked forward himself out the cockpit windows.

"Eee-vaah loves WALL•E," she said in open admiration to him, feeling much better at his assuring words.

"WALL•E loves Eee-vaah," he confirmed, as the ship took off towards Earth.