"0645 — Reboot"

EVE's visor came to life.

WALL•E was still in his shelf, dormant.

EVE was grateful to find him still where he was supposed to be. The past several mornings, this new WALL•E, compelled by his low charge alarm, would reboot and run off to recharge and work without EVE realizing it. When she awoke, EVE then frantically searched from the air to find him. She would try and instruct him to awaken her before he left, but it wasn't working. So EVE forced herself to give up dormancy for one night, watching WALL•E until he rebooted in the morning. She then programmed herself to awaken before the time that he would reboot. Although just coming online herself, EVE was relieved her plan worked this morning.

EVE was now awake, watching WALL•E, waiting for him to wake up. For a moment, she was alone with her thoughts. She started to replay her security camera images of WALL•E from when she had been dormant with the plant inside her. They had become like a warm hug to EVE in her mind, from the WALL•E she loved.

Oh how she wanted her WALL•E back.

WALL•E's low charge warning alarm started to beep. His eyes sleepily opened, and moaning with grogginess, he groped his way out of his shelf. EVE was there to guide him towards the door, as it was too early for the hole in their roof to be of use. She helped him put on his treads, and opened the truck door for him. It was another bright, sunny day and WALL•E just stopped on the ramp, opening his solar flaps to recharge — having no awareness that he used to go to the roof.

In her own way, EVE was grateful just to be able to help and watch him do this. Sustained by her memories, she was coming to appreciate the simple ways she could just be with him, and help him. EVE just had to periodically remind herself though that this was a different WALL•E, or maybe her WALL•E at his birth.

WALL•E's happy "full charge" chime sounded, and he was ready to go. EVE didn't want him to just start cubing trash again however, not today. She wanted to teach him about so much — from who he used to be, to love, "Hello Dolly", everything. She was at a loss though as to where to begin though. She couldn't even communicate at decent speeds to teach him, she realized in frustration.

WALL•E was still looking at her, but after no instructions from her for 60 seconds, he defaulted to starting to his basic directive to scan for trash to be cubed in his surroundings.

"Wait . . ." EVE said to him, "Wait."

WALL•E complied, stopped, and proceeded to stare blankly at her, awaiting further instructions.

All of this was starting to seem overwhelming to EVE. It had only been four days since she had lost her old WALL•E, yet it was seeming like an eternity. She wasn't a teaching bot, a nurse bot, a maintenance bot, nor an engineering and research bot — yet EVE found herself having to be all these to take care of WALL•E now. She was an Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. She knew plants. That was all she'd been programmed for.

EVE broke down and began sobbing softly, with WALL•E still just staring at her, when M-O and the other rogue robots happened by.

EVE beeped apologies to them in standard Axiom code, saying she just wasn't ready to see them right now. The robots gathered around her though, and lifted her up on their shoulders, as they had once done for WALL•E. That simple gesture touched EVE deeply, and the electronic tears in her visor turned to ones of gratitude. She hovered down and hugged them. It was the first real hug she'd experienced since losing WALL•E.

How he had rubbed off on her in so brief a time, she thought. Before WALL•E, something like hugs had meant nothing to EVE. Now, they felt better than anything else she had ever known.

EVE realized that not only was WALL•E still her primary directive — she strangely felt she almost belonged to WALL•E, even though he wasn't around, except in body. EVE began to grapple with an idea that she was truly awake and self aware for the first time in her centuries of existence. She wanted WALL•E back fully even more now, if nothing else than to give him the gift of herself and her new realizations. EVE remembered with melancholy how much WALL•E had just wanted to hold her hand. Now, she wanted to give him that, and so much more.

Having experienced the other robots helping to lift her spirits, literally — out of the blue, EVE just thought to ask them, "How fix WALL•E?"

M-O just chirped, "O-l-l-d-d-d parrrts. WALL•E. L-Lab!"

PR-T echoed, "Yes darling, just pack everything up over to the Diagnostics Lab!"

EVE realized they were right. The Diagnostics Lab in Axiom's Repair Ward had a variety of tools and knowledge she lacked. Even if she couldn't fix him there, it dawned on her that she could still learn how to better communicate with him, and he could perhaps even learn about his own past.

EVE turned to WALL•E again. "Stay . . ." she instructed, pointing to the ground. She hated to communicate in orders to him, but they were the only thing this new WALL•E seemed to understand at the moment.

She then turned back to M-O, PR-T, and the other robots, saying, "Watch . . . WALL•E."

With renewed hope and determination, EVE flew rapidly around the inside of WALL•E's truck, retrieving everything she might need over at the ward — WALL•E's damaged motherboard, other circuit boards she'd tossed aside while desperately repairing him, the "Hello Dolly" tape, and more. EVE even plucked the light bulb and the Rubix Cube out of the trash cube that WALL•E had first compacted days ago inside the truck. EVE paused for a moment, remembering how sad she had been to see him make that cube out of his favorite things — how it had given her a sudden sense of dread over him.

EVE put all things she had collected in her bio-stasis chamber. She didn't yet know how she was going to fix WALL•E, to get him back. But EVE was now more determined than ever to try!