WALL-E's Perspective

I looked out over the buildings in the distance, on the old side of the wall. EVE had suggested that we keep moving to avoid being caught, and we had swung all the way around to my home building, not too close of course, but close enough that EVE could swing by real quick to grab a part she had missed when scavenging earlier. She was currently twisting my old broken eye off so she could replace it with a new one.

"Ow." I winced.

She cringed, "Sorry..." she let up on the pressure, redoing the way she'd pressed the wires together.

We had tried to talk a few times over the past few hours, but it was hard to keep the subject light, so instead we really only spoke when we had to. That didn't really matter though, because we could say a lot without words.

EVE stuck the eye in and watched me readjust it, "Ready for the other one?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to talk at the moment. She was gentle as she pulled the eye off my head and stuck in the new one.

She squinted into my eyes, waving her hand around in my face, "Can you see alright?"

"Mm." I nodded again, pushing her hand away.

She made to reach for me again, but gave up and dropped her arms. The sun was streaming through the broken window, sparkling like diamonds. I looked back up at her, noticing how despondently she was staring at the ground.

"What are you thinking about?"

She sighed, "I don't know, Wall-E...I just..."

She didn't continue.

"Don't tell me you're thinking of the plant again."

"No no, it's not that..." she brought both hands together, trying to find the words, "It's just...I really want to give up, but at the same time I know I can't..."

"We aren't giving up." I took both her hands in my own, "We're just giving up for now. We'll figure something out..."

Maybe I should've put more conviction in my words, because EVE seemed even more defeated after hearing that, "I know, but how? None of this feels right..."

"Look, we aren't going to solve anything by moping and wishing we could have a real plan. I-I mean, think about it! Is there no way to at least talk to the humans?" I was thinking aloud at this point, "Auto was able to talk to us through screens and those stupid robots."

EVE's eyes snapped open, "That's it! Aha!" she straightened up, a new spring in her step, "I have an idea!"

I stared, "Really?"

"Yes! Okay. I know what to do." EVE spun around before I was swept up and carried off once again, "But we're going to have to be very stealthy."

"Okay, here goes nothing..." EVE whispered. We were looking out over the city that was going to sleep, having just reached the curfew time. The buzz died down until all that could be seen was a deep blue as the sun set and all we could hear were low generic machine sounds.

EVE carried me after an instruction to stay as quiet as possible, then she snuck me into one of the more run-down looking buildings. She set me down briefly to press a few buttons and then she pushed me into it, "Hold still." she pressed one more button and suddenly I was covered in white paint. It somehow dried within seconds.

"Ah!" I shivered as I climbed out, "Why?"

"Sorry, I just can't risk anyone recognizing you. I'll go through it myself in a second."

"Not that!" I tucked my arms away, "Why didn't you warn me that it was cold!?"

She beamed mischievously, "Consider it payback."

"Grrr..." I growled, though internally I was rejoicing. It was nice to see EVE finally teasing me again after her streak of quiet wistfulness.

EVE stepped into the paint shower next, and once it had dried, she formatted the system and carried me off, "We'll blend in much easier now. We just have to make sure we don't get too close to anyone else."

She got us to the tallest tower without too much trouble. We ran into more once we were actually inside, but since it was past curfew, everyone was in their rooms and not in the hall on the first floor. EVE set me down outside one particularly armored room and put a finger to the base of her screen in a shushing motion, then she went to the control panel and typed a bit on it. Occasionally, she would move away from the keypad and bring a hand to her chin, and then go back to typing, but eventually, the heavy door pulled inward and then slid sideways. EVE grabbed me again to bring me inside.

"Kay, we'd better hurry, because I don't actually have authorization to be in here." she set me down inside, going back to close the door, "Let's see here..." she stretched out her fingers in front of the massive keyboard, "How to contact the humans..." she began to work furiously, "...without attracting Auto's attention..."

I took in the rest of the room while walls of text flashed in EVE's visor. It was by far the coolest-looking room I'd ever seen, with lights on every surface and holograms showing various places throughout the square outside. I could hear plenty of hard drives whirring along with the clacking of EVE's fingers on the keys. I began to wonder if she even noticed anything around her in the room or if her attention was entirely focused on cracking the code to get into the database. I tried not to stare at her in case the latter was true.

I heard something shuffling outside, and it sounded like it was getting closer. I was hoping it was just someone passing through, but then I heard a subtle clicking sound against the door.

"Eve?"

She didn't respond.

"Eve!"

"What?" she turned to me, annoyed. The clicking continued and she snapped her head around, eyes wide. She went back to the keyboard and did some more furious scrabbling before the monitor shut off and she grabbed me, hiding us behind some heavier machines.

The door swung open again and a smaller robot entered. It had one giant red light on top of its body and tiny arms stemming up vertically from its shoulders.

"Go-4..." EVE breathed, narrowing her eyes and placing a hand over my solar-charge display. I didn't dare move a muscle as the robot, "GO-4", turned the monitor back on and did some typing. EVE stifled a flinch.

GO-4 paused, pressed a big red button on the side of the console, and then ran out of the room. The door closed, and he was gone.

"Goddammit." EVE hissed, flying with me back to the keyboard, "If he deleted my progress, I swear I'll..."

I watched her type for a second, "What was that?"

"Just a security check." EVE answered without looking at me, "I completely forgot about it. I just hope that..." she trailed off as she sighed, "Oh wow. Nothing was deleted. That's a relief."

I got a confused sort of vibe from that half-hearted response, but I didn't question it, turning back to the door in case someone else decided to interrupt her work.

The fans in the room kicked up as EVE hit one last key, "I...I think I did it! Haha!" she lifted both fists in triumph, "Okay, now all I need to do is contact someone, anyone, as long as it isn't Auto." she hesitated at the controls.

"What's wrong?" I asked timidly, still not daring to move.

"I don't know...I feel like it was too easy..." EVE sighed, "Well, I did all I could, so here goes nothing..." she pulled up a separate holographic screen and tapped it. The screen changed to a call symbol. EVE rubbed her hands nervously.

The screen flickered, and in its place stood a human with brown hair and a somewhat muscular build, "Eve!" he saluted, "It's good to see you again!"

EVE blinked, looking all around her and then back at the screen, "Who are you?"

"Yeah, it's been awhile, hasn't it?" he stuck a white captain's hat on his head, "But surly you at least recognize me, right?"

EVE gasped, "I do! You were one of the humans at the control panel when me and my sisters were created!"

"Bingo!" he seemed rather pleased with himself, "My name is Captain Jonathan Burnham. I was in charge of the original dispatch of the robots that stayed behind on Earth, including you and your sisters. I must say, One, I'm incredibly impressed that you managed to hack through all of Auto's firewalls, but I should tell you that you were almost caught. I rewired your access to my own personal link to avoid this."

"Oh." EVE blushed, "Sorry."

"Hey, I'm still impressed. If you weren't so meticulous, you would have been caught long before I realized you were trying to get in. But I must ask, you've already been living there for a long time, so why contact us now?"

"Because..." EVE stared down at her hands, "Because...we need your help..."

She then went on to explain everything. How she met me, how everything went wrong, how she ended up falling in love, and her desire to fix everything and save her sisters. The longer she spoke, the more obvious it became that she still blamed herself for letting the plant get destroyed and the manner in which I was electrocuted and nearly died. Her voice was dripping with sorrow and guilt, it broke my heart.

"So..." she finished, rubbing her screen as her eyes glitched, "Is there anything you can do?"

Jonathan was somber, "I don't think I can do much, but I'll see what I can manage." he rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm sorry, Eve. If I'd have known-!"

"I don't want your pity." EVE snapped quickly, "And you didn't know. I just want to know if you can do something now."

"Okay." Jonathan began to type on a keyboard that was out of frame, "Here's my link in case you want to keep talking. Oh, and don't forget to delete the history on this console before you leave."

"I know." EVE saluted, "Goodbye, Captain."

"Bye."

The feed cut out and EVE did a little more typing before shutting the whole thing down, "We'd better go."

I looked back at the blank monitor, catching our reflections in the old glass.

I looked like a broken ghost.