EVE now admired M-O on a whole new level. Not only did he throw his directive away to call Earth his home, he denied what he was built for to get WALL-E out of the holo detector! She hadn't realized before how incredibly selfless and humble M-O was.

EVE smiled, Hey, M-O...if you like, I can call for the captain to turn your sensors off-!

"No!" he yelped.

"Huh?"

He averted his gaze again, Please, don't. It's who I am! Microbe-Obliterator! That's my name! It's my job! My purpose! Taking that away from me is like never letting you near plants again!

Well, EVE did love plants, in fact, she prided herself on the garden she had around her and WALL-E's truck. She was built to understand them. She knew almost everything about them.

M-O revved his engine a little bit, It's my identity. It would bother me more if it was gone, really. he glanced up at EVE, then back at the ground.

I see... EVE closed her eyes, thinking about what he had said, then smiled at everyone else, Who's ready to get revenge on AUTO?

Ecstatic cheers filled the air.

EVE narrowed her eyes, filled with renewed determination, "Then let's go!"

EVE blasted a hole in the iron shades of the captain's cabin. Once inside, she set VA-QM down and brandished her weapon, pointing it right at AUTO.

"Turn around!" EVE demanded, "Take us home!"

"We cannot." AUTO replied monotone, emotionless, "I must follow my directive."

"Your directive is irrelevant!" EVE seethed, "Your directive is wrong!"

"I cannot take us home."

EVE wanted to just blow him up right there, but if she did that, the Axiom would float uselessly out into space, never to return. What she had to do now was either switch him off and steer them home, or convince him that his directive was wrong (which wasn't likely). EVE's trigger finger was itching, though. She really wanted to shoot him until he was less than scrap metal.

That wouldn't help, though.

EVE began to beep very softly to the others, Ok. HAN-S, D-FIB, keep him busy. PR-T and L-T, find his off switch. Everyone else create chaos, enough to confuse anyone. I'm going to chart a course back home.

And find her WALL-E.

All at once, the room burst with activity. Everyone charged forward, distracting or searching, making lots of noise. EVE almost felt overwhelmed again, but she forced herself to focus. She scanned what was left of the control panel, her eyes jumping around at the speed of light, searching, processing.

In all the chaos, M-O held back and watched EVE, using the buzzing activity as a cover. He saw her arms moving in a blur, working to find.

She found what she was looking for. They were now in the stratosphere, almost broken from Earth's gravitational force. There was still plenty of time to just turn around and go back, but only if they could seize the ship in time. She fiddled with the controls.

What to do...

INCOMING CALL: The Captain

EVE answered, "Eve! Do you know where Auto's manual switch is?"

No.

"It's up by the ceiling! At his base! It's behind a panel!"

EVE gasped, spinning around to look at all the robots swarming AUTO. PR-T was flitting around him, looking for an off switch with L-T. EVE took advantage of the confusion, darting to AUTO's base and prying the panel open.

"No!" AUTO dashed to the side, hitting EVE's head hard and making her spin dizzily.

WARNING: BLUNT FORCE IMPACT. ATTEMPTING DATA RETRIEVAL.

"Ow..." EVE felt the dent near the back of her head. He had hit her hard enough to put valuable data at risk, hence the data retrieval. She was at risk of losing memories.

"Evah!" M-O jumped up onto the control panel and grabbed one of AUTO's appendages, yelling loudly. It was right in AUTO's ear. He spun violently, skewing the ship's artificial gravity until EVE's head was spinning.

Warning: System overheat imminent. Beginning emergency shut-down.

Override. EVE told her body as calmly as she could muster, Commence system cooldown.

As her fan icon came on her display, she gasped in horror upon seeing M-O sparking on the floor. She hurried to him, M-O? Are you ok!?

He simply moaned in pain.

EVE picked him up, cradling him carefully in her left arm. This is wrong.

"AUTO!" EVE cocked her weapon, pointing it straight at him, "Bring us home now!"

Everything was suddenly quiet. The rogue robots backed away from AUTO, except for HAN-S, who held the wheel in place so he couldn't move. Their attention was drawn to the poor broken M-O, who was not doing well. His golden eyes were flickering weakly on his screen as he fought to stay conscious.

"I am going to shut you down, whether you like it or-!"

Bang!