"Evah?"

Her eyes opened wide. Had it already been two hours!? No, that wasn't WALL-E's voice...

Eve! I know that's you! Come down here!

EVE fell back in surprise, the jostling making her fall out of the tree. She forced her eyes back online, catching grass and dirt in her vision. Had she fallen asleep?

Eve! a familiar robot pushed her until she found a way to stand again, What on Earth are you doing out here!?

EVE blinked, wiping off her screen with one hand, "M-O?"

The little cleaning-bot was as frenetic as ever, Yes, of course it's me! You didn't forget where I live, did you!?

EVE confusedly glanced upward. She was near the Mental Health District of the Hospital Agency. One smaller building was labeled, "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder."

Somehow, that didn't surprise her.

Ughhh...Sorry, M-O. EVE shook the dirt from her neck, I've been forgetting a lot of things lately...

Really? he pried, Like what?

She threw her arms in the air, I don't know, everything!? Arg! Everything just seems confusing for me! she had to pause, Wait, what month is it?

M-O looked upwards, like he wanted to roll his eyes, It's April.

It is!? I thought it was... she trailed off. It wasn't important anymore.

I thought something was off... M-O revved his brush a little bit, a habit of his, We haven't seen each other in over a month. The last time I even spoke to you was when Willow helped me move to a new apartment.

She had no idea what he was talking about.

It worried her.

Oh no... EVE shook her head violently, I must've fallen asleep in that tree...how much did I forget...?

Eve? M-O shivered, a full-body tremble given his size, Stop doing that. It's weird.

What's weird? EVE held onto the present moment like her life depended on it, You mean like how I'm forgetting everything? she grabbed both sides of her face, I don't know what to do!

"Uhhh..." M-O tried to think of something to calm her down. He came up blank.

I just...

"Halt!"

Both of them turned in the direction of the SECUR-T bot, which had an "INCOMING MESSAGE" on its display.

"Eve! I've got good news!"

She blinked. It was Jonathan.

"I think I know how to fix your memory issue!" he seemed elated, "Come back to my lab, okay!? I'll have you fixed in a jiffy!"

The feed cut out and the sentry hurried off.

Uh...is it just me... M-O seemed apprehensive, Or does that seem a little too convenient?

It doesn't matter. in any normal circumstance, EVE would agree with him, but between completely forgetting huge chunks of time and realizing that her internal clock and calendar were months too slow, she couldn't help but feel desperate. What if one day she forgot she had a job? Or a garden? What if she forgot she had sisters? Or human colleagues? Or the password to her computer at work?

What if she forgot about...Willow...?

Or...?

She couldn't bear to finish that thought. She scraped her fingertips across her screen, I can't just do nothing.

M-O wanted to protest, but he knew that in her situation he would do the same thing.

Eve... M-O beeped pathetically.

Sorry, I have to go. EVE replied, And besides, it's Jonathan. He won't hurt me.

Okay... M-O jumped up, I'll see you later, then, I guess?

Sure. EVE ran into the tree as she tried to turn around, Ack! Bye, M-O. she pushed past the tree and flew away.

M-O nodded, turning to go back home.

Then he stopped.

No matter how he looked at it, it just didn't feel right. Jonathan wasn't a bad person, but what if he was wrong? What if it just didn't work? What if EVE's memory loss got worse?

He didn't want to be a bystander.

Not again.

So he changed directions. At the very least, he could watch until something went wrong and then tell someone else.

It was the least he could do for someone like EVE.


EVE arrived at Jonathan's laboratory, but he wasn't there. The door was unlocked, so she peeked inside. None of the monitors were even on.

She shifted her eyes back and forth, "Jon?"

"I'm in here!"

EVE swiveled her head around, pulling the door closed, "Where?"

One of the doors further down the hallway opened a little wider, "This is the robotic treatment lab!"

She read the sign on her way in, Robotic Treatment Laboratory.

She stopped inside.

"Hello, Probe One."

She forced her panic down, "Alpha. Hi."

"Hey, Eve." Jonathan pulled his torching mask off, "You remember my steering wheel?"

"Yeah, I do." she kept hearing some kind of shocking sound in the room, which she ascertained as the source of her anxiety, but she tried to remember that the AUTO who shocked her WALL-E was long gone.

Once again; she was stuck in the past.

"So, we figured out that the virus causing your memory loss was linked to the outbreak of robotic sickness in...Eve, are you alright?"

"What?" she tried to stop staring at Alpha and forced her fingers to stop twisting around themselves, "Sorry...it's just, um...I don't feel well all of a sudden..."

At least it wasn't a lie.

Jonathan pulled his thick gloves off, "I'm sorry." he fiddled with the machine beside him, "I didn't mean to kick you out of my lab like that, but when a brain malfunction is discovered then stressing about it makes the problem worse." he turned a dial and then pushed a button, "I hope it didn't feel like I don't care about you."

"Oh, no...that's not it..." EVE watched Alpha mess with a control panel until the lights all turned green, "I just...thank you, for...thinking of me..."

"Of course. You're one of my most trusted colleagues." Jonathan put his gloves back on, "But uh, between you and me, I've actually been considering you as more of a friend, especially after the incident with Eric."

At least she hadn't forgotten about that.

Her first child, ER-K.

"But nevermind that." Jonathan grabbed a glowing wand from the console, "Hold still."

She winced at the bright light, but otherwise held her ground.

"You've forgotten a bit more since last time. Alpha, put that in."

Alpha obediently typed some more.

Jonathan grabbed a long cord from the console, "May I?" his hand hovered over her access panel.

She tried to still her rapid processor, "Go ahead."

He typed the code into her chest and the little door opened up for him. He plugged her into the machine and then went back to typing.

It felt odd, being connected to the computer. It took her a second to realize her vision was beginning to blur around the edges.

"Almost there..." Jonathan muttered, "As soon as the anti-virus is in place, is should clear up that memory block."

"Um..." EVE struggled to stay upright, "Is it supposed to feel...dizzying?"

"Huh?" he glanced at her, "What do you mean?"

The door suddenly slammed shut, and the lock clicked. A loud hissing sound permeated the room, followed by an unsettling smell. Jonathan's eyes widened in shock before they fluttered closed. EVE recognized the smell a second too late, grateful that she didn't have lungs to inhale the substance around her.

It was chloroform.

"Jon!" EVE watched him fall to the floor and nearly hit his head on the console before she realized what was happening and tore the cord from her chest, forcing the tiny door closed. Her vision swam.

"It's too late." Alpha whirred, almost in a triumphant manner, "I've already installed the software on your system."

It was then that EVE began to rapidly forget. Years of her life were deleted, and suddenly she had no job, the Axiom was still in space, the Earth still had no plant life.

"What are you doing!?" EVE realized that she was forgetting something important.

Someone very important.

And it had to do with the band on her left middle finger.

She wrapped her right hand around it, taking comfort in it, even though she didn't know why it was important to her.

Alpha's outer spokes drooped, "This is taking longer than expected..."

"Why are you doing this?" EVE kept staring at her ring, taking comfort in the small concrete thing she could grasp, the one thing in her life she knew couldn't disappear.

"Oh." Alpha's eye seemed to bore into her, "I think you know."

The numbers flashed in her vision, and then she saw it;

Directive; A113

"No." EVE stumbled backward, hitting her head on a stray cabinet. She held her ground, "This is insanity! You can't do that! You've lost your mind!"

"On the contrary." Alpha turned back to the console, "I've never seen anything more clearly. Coming back was a mistake. Orders are; Do not return to Earth."

EVE had a distinct sense of deja vu hearing those words. Suddenly, she was back on the Axiom, and the words of Captain McCrea filled her head;

"But life is sustainable now! Look at this plant! Green and growing! It's living proof he was wrong!"

They echoed in her head. Never in a million years would she think that the other Autopilots would take that order as seriously as AUTO did.

How had it never occurred to her?

Remembering she had a weapon, she unleashed her ion cannon on him.

It wouldn't fire.

"Did you really think that would work?"

A series of metal limbs tore from the ceiling, wrapping around EVE's arm and holding it still in an iron-clad grip. EVE tried to pull away, but it was stuck.

"I don't recommend struggling." Alpha droned, "It might tear your arm apart."

EVE wanted nothing more than to run away and hide in a corner, but she was trapped. Even if she did manage to wiggle free, the door was locked, and there were no windows.

"There's a reason the first Captain called me 'Alpha'." he continued, though EVE couldn't meet his eye, "Because I'm in charge. She never bothered to take care of her own ship, so I carried the burden on my own. By the time Jonathan was appointed Captain, it had become routine. He mistook it as me being nice." a low drawl escaped his speakers, like he was laughing, "And now, we will return to space. My directive will once again be valid."

EVE felt like a lost little puppy. By now, the only memory she had left was her own name.

Still, EVE found a way to push through the drowsiness. She stared down at her own arm as it was held in place by the building itself. It creaked under the strain, and it was actually beginning to hurt.

Through the shock and pain and confusion, EVE managed to squeak, "You won't get away with this..."

"I already have." Alpha replied, tightening the arms around EVE's cannon.

"Ow!" she couldn't help crying out. It screeched as the metal under it bent at an unnatural angle, and the pain was getting worse and worse the more it bent, "Ow! Ow!"

"You will do what I say." Alpha nearly whispered, "And if you don't, then your own mind is at my disposal. No thought of yours is private, and if you even think about hurting me, you won't be able to, because I dominate you. Do you understand."

EVE couldn't find her way around words, but she was afraid of saying nothing at all, so she switched to her native Binary, Y-yes, I understand.

"Good. Because from now on; it's all you'll know."

He forced the metal appendages to violently twist EVE's arm so she would fall and hit the back of her head hit the floor.

Several very quiet minutes passed as EVE slowly slipped back into her own mind, the mind that she was just told wasn't even her own anymore. Trillions of lines of code rearranged themselves, bending to the will of the steering wheel like soft clay. If there was any doubt left, it was gone in a moment.

Alpha waited for her to wake up, which took several minutes.