There's a big turn of events here that's going to have a long term effect and act as a catalyst for...something...later on (no, I don't mean es-ee-ex)

Wall-E isn't mine, or Auto wouldn't have died.

- 4. Saving Auto -

Eve left her duties as vice-seraph late the next day, so it was dark when she was finally able to find her way out of the office building where she worked. She was tired from her work all day, so she had decided to head back to the large house that she used to share with Wall-E, but now lived in alone. She paused a moment to look up at the stars, something she found herself doing often, since it brought back fond memories of Wall-E and how he had done the same the night before she first came to Ereth. She even fired up her antigrav boots and flew through the sky some nights, just as she would have done with Wall-E in her arms.

That was one part of her that had not, and probably never would change. She still loved to fly. It still made her feel free and relaxed after a stressful day of work.

She was just about to take off when something slammed right into her, causing her to stagger backwards and the whatever-it-was to fall backwards itself. She heard it release a small grunt as it hit the ground. When she looked up, she saw Sauron sitting where he'd fallen in the dirt. She immediately reached out a hand to him, which he took, and pulled him to his feet.

"Sauron, are you all-" She cut off when she saw his face streaming with tears from worried, scared eyes and she heard his heavy sobs as he collapsed against her and buried his face in the front of her nanosuit.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Eve asked, pushing the boy away just enough for her to see his face.

"F-f-f-father!" he squeaked out between sobs, "The h-h-house is b-burning! F-f-father's st-still inside!" He buried his face in her suit again.

"P-pl-please, Miss Eve. You g-gotta help him! Please! He's really sick and he might be hurt! Hurry!"

Eve held Sauron tight against her, fired up her antigrav boots, and shot off in the direction of Auto's shack. It wasn't hard to find. All she had to do was follow the column of rising smoke that grew up into the sky and blotted out the stars. Then she saw the giant tongues of flame that enveloped the shack and even the old willow trees around it. She gasped when she saw how much damage the blazes had already done. Now she knew where Sauron had gotten some of the fresh burns and cuts on him.

She landed and set Sauron down a safe distance from the flames.

"Stay here." she told him gently but firmly. Sauron was crying too hard to answer, so he merely nodded. Eve took off running toward the inferno. She pushed aside a large piece of sheet metal, which released a billowing cloud of smoke that nearly choked her. Looking back, she could barely see the shadowy form of Sauron where she'd left him on the hillside. She knew she couldn't turn back. Sauron needed his father, and anyway she had promised to save him. She faced the shack again, took a deep breath, and stepped into the fires.

The heat was incredible, as though she were standing under one of the Axiom's huge ion-drive engines. She couldn't see more than a few inches in front of her, even with her superhuman augmented sight. Her other senses strained to pick up any clues to what might have happened to Auto and where she could find him. All around her, she heard crackling and hissing as different materials that made up the shack burned and fell, making it a dangerous place to move through. But every time she thought of leaving, she remembered Sauron's tear-soaked face and the scared worried look in his eyes when he begged her to help-

There! Off to her right she thought she heard a faint gasping sound, like someone trying to breathe while lifting something extremely heavy. As she neared the source, she could see where a particularly large metal bar had fallen. And there, facedown beneath that bar, his staff just out of reach, lay Auto.

He looked as though he had been walking or crawling out when the bar fell on top of him. She saw his back moving up and down as he struggled to breathe in the stifling heat.

"Auto!" Eve called, her voice going hoarse from coughing on the smoke. But it was enough. He heard her, and he raised his head slightly to look at her, his eyes full of pain and sadness. She rushed over to him, and with all of her superhuman strength, she threw the bar to the side. Turning back to Auto, she nearly gagged at the huge indentation and burn mark the bar had left on his back. Carefully, she turned Auto over, trying not to touch his open wounds. He whimpered softly as she lifted him into her arms.

"Shh, it's okay, Auto." she said, more to reassure herself than him, "You'll be all right." Seeing no exit and realizing she didn't have time to find one, she shifted Auto's small weight to one arm and drew her plasma rifle with the other. She pointed it toward the sky and fired.

Out on the hillside, Sauron saw the great cloud of sparks when Eve cast the bar aside, though he didn't know at the time what it was. All he could think about were the horrifying images of his poor father, dead or injured and being burned alive. He shuddered to think of his father in such terrible pain, it only brought more tears to his eyes. He looked up again when he heard the blast from Eve's plasma rifle. He saw the mushroom cloud of flame and smoke that followed the blast. Just as he feared the worst, he saw something white shoot up out of the cloud. As it came closer, he saw that it was Eve. And cradled in her arms...

"FATHER!" Sauron cried, jumping up from where he sat. He raced forward to meet her, slowing as he saw the condition his father was in.

"Come, Sauron," Eve said gently, "I can't help him, but I know someone who can." Sauron nodded and let her pick him up in her other arm. She flew as fast as she could to the Axiom. As she flew, she sent a message through her suit's messaging systems.

"D-Fib! Do you hear me?" A crackling sound, then.

"Eve? What's going on? You know I'm off right now."

"D-Fib, I need you at the hospital NOW! It's an emergency!" That woke D-Fib right up.

"I'll be there right away. Don't panic." With that, the transmission ended.

When they reached the Axiom, Eve headed for the aft end of the ship. She knew the medical ward that was now the hospital was in the lower part of the stern. Sure enough, when she arrived, D-Fib was there waiting for them. Eve paused only long enough to put Sauron down before she shot into the emergency room. D-Fib gave a whistle and her medical team appeared and followed Eve, with Sauron close behind them. D-Fib stopped him at the door to the ER.

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside, hon." Sauron opened his mouth to protest, but D-Fib turned around and went inside. A few minutes later, Eve stepped out and joined Sauron, who was sitting in one of the waiting room chairs and fidgeting with the sleeve of his robe. She walked over and took a seat in the chair beside him.

"She thinks he'll be okay." Eve said, "We got to him in time, she says. They'll have to run some tests on him to see how sick he is, but you can see him once they move him to a patient's room." Sauron nodded, weeping softly.

"I just don't want to l-lose him again." Sauron whispered. Eve wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into her lap. Sauron let his head fall on her shoulder as she stroked his long black hair.

"I know, sweetie." she said softly, "I know."

After what felt like ages, D-Fib appeared from the ER.

"Sauron?" she asked quietly, "Would you like to see your father now?"

"Yes, please." Sauron stood up and followed D-Fib up an elevator and down a long hallway until she came to a closed door with a blank card in a sleeve on the front. She opened the door and moved aside for Sauron to enter. He gasped when he walked inside, and a moment later, Eve did the same as she entered.

Neither of them had ever realized how small and frail Auto was until they saw him laying in the white pillows and covers of his hospital bed. Even his white hospital gown looked huge on his shrunken form. Now that he had been bathed, his pale skin was visible. It looked so thin, Sauron thought he could see his father's cheekbones through it. This was the exact opposite of how Eve had always pictured the Commander. She'd never once imagined him being weak or helpless in any way. Yet here he was, hooked to a heart monitor and an IV drip. Sauron knelt beside the bed and took one of Auto's bony hands in his own and rubbed the back of it gently before placeing it against his cheek.

"I love you, Father." he said aloud, so soft, Eve almost didn't hear it. Sauron llaid his head down beside his father, and was soon asleep.

Chapter Five coming soon!