I'll admit that I'm shocked at how well-recieved this story has been, considering that the Prologue was short, simple, and made relatively no sense. But I certainly appreciate all the reviews, even if I haven't replied to them all, and any suggestions are always considered.

You might've guess it by now (and if you haven't, then you certainly will have by the end of this chapter), that I'm writing this entirely on a whim. I don't really know what's going to happen in this story, or what it's really about and how it'll turn out, aside from that I expect it to be around eight chapters long, and updated sporadically.

Once again, any criticisms and critique are always appreciated, especially if I've made a typo or two. Also, keep an eye out for any continuity mistakes, as because it's been so long since my last update, there's a pretty high possibility that I've forgotten most of the things I wrote about in my last chapter. (Re-read the last chapter? Heaven forbid! :P)

And yes, I know this is short, but I'm lazy. It's all that leftover turkey that's done it.

Chapter 1-

The skyline of the city had been unchanged over those seven hundred or so years, and when the humans had arrived back on Earth, the towering skyscrapers had generally been deemed too dangerous to inhabit. Despite this, a few humans had tried to use some of these old structures, particularly certain smaller ones on the outskirts of the city that seemed to blend in with the new haven currently being built out of recycled materials.

Smoke billowed into the atmosphere, its source immediately obvious to anyone within a mile of the area. EVE reached the large double doors of the blackened building only to be pushed backwards into the street by a wave of burnt robots and a single coughing human.

"Doc-ter?" EVE enunciated the word slowly. The professor didn't seem to notice, instead muttering to himself and looking up at the burning building.

"Another experiment ruined! I knew I shouldn't have mixed that yellow liquid with that blue stuff..."

As EVE continued to attract the professor's attention, WALL-E finally zoomed around the corner, waving a fire hydrant about his head. EVE quickly took it from him and began blasting the white froth at any robots that were still on fire and then, once sure that everyone outside was alright, carefully floated into the building itself. She found just the one fire, apparently where the professor had been conducting his strange experiment, and efficiently put it out.

The professor walked up behind her, shook his head and covered his eyes with a hand before being ushered out by a safety-conscious EVE. Ever since they had arrived back on Earth, the humans seemed to have been rapidly evolving and making up for the years lost floating around in space and gaining weight. Their individual differences were now becoming more pronounced, and they were learning about the world around them all over again, like toddlers going to the playground for the first time, or something equally as sweet and naive to that effect. Unfortunately, some humans were deviating to an extreme, insisting on finding out things that were once common knowledge. The professor's experiments weren't popular, but his discoveries (or re-discoveries) were helping to maintain the robots. There were only a certain amount of robotic parts available from the Axiom or left abandoned on the Earth, after all.

"I'm sorry, EVE," the professor said, as the two of them stepped outside. "I thought that by recreating the metal used to make those microchips of yours, I might get that bit closer to understanding the link."

EVE nodded. She, like most other robots in the area, knew much about the professor's key aim- to understand how robots had come to be conscious, to have their own morals and sense of right and wrong. And she, like the others, agreed that it was a pretty pointless thing to find out. Never mind understanding how the robot mind worked- the human mind was still a mystery.

EVE, satisfied that her work here was done, rejoined WALL-E, who, in the meantime, had patiently been waiting, occupied by watching M-O try to clean the blackened building bit by tiny bit. His efforts were futile, but funny.

"Ev-a!" WALL-E squeaked at the sight of EVE, bopping slightly in excitement. He rummaged around inside himself, revealing the empty box once more in the hope of reminding EVE where they had left off. It worked, EVE's eyes narrowing, giving the impression of smiling without a mouth, and they made their way back to WALL-E's truck.

Auto looked around himself. Despite being a clinical, emotion-less robot, he couldn't help but feel confused. He accessed his memory bank with difficulty, only able to recollect a few strange images of the Captain grabbing hold of him and shouting.

Auto shuddered, but without physically shuddering- there was just a slight feeling of repulsion. It was as though he had been...violated. In all of his years as an autopilot, he had rarely been touched, and had never been turned off. Once, he had been in complete control of everything around him, even able to influence the humans into doing what he wanted them to. Then something had gone wrong.

"Captain?"

Silence.

Everything was dirty, unkempt. No controls beeping, nothing lit up. The only source of light was coming from outside.

Auto processed this slowly, turning for the first time, right around. His censors processed this light as coming from the sun, but it was much closer- and therefore much brighter- than it had ever been before, even as it was setting.

He turned back around, swivelling exactly one hundred and eighty degrees, facing the inside of the Axiom once more. There was nothing there but darkness. No humans, no announcements on the billboards, no robots scurrying around, doing his bidding.

If Auto himself contained any human qualities, he would've broken down in racking sobs at this point, or at least would've been terribly frightened by the sights around him.

But, as it was, he just spent a nanosecond creating a list of things he should do, with the final point being 'collect humanity on Axiom- return to space- achieve directive', and got on with it. He began starting up the ship's consoles, gauging how much power the Axiom still contained, and opened up some more external solar panels.

There was work to be done.

WALL-E switched the lights on in his little home. Hal's antennae twitched as he and EVE entered, and WALL-E held out a hand for Hal to climb on before switching on the lights. WALL-E hadn't always bothered with the lights when he had lived by himself, but now EVE was with him, it was always worth it.

Setting up the projector screen and sitting in front of it, WALL-E revelled in being able to enjoy his favourite film with his favourite robot. EVE hovered next to him, lowering herself as close to the floor as possible, and stared at the screen intently. No matter how many times they watched it, that moment when the two humans held hands in the film was just so immensely special to them that it never became boring or monotonous. If anything, their feelings for each other intensified during their daily viewing of Hello, Dolly!. Sometimes, even Hal felt the need to look away and give them a little privacy.

And now they saw humans doing it, holding hands all over the place. It was as if they'd rediscovered love and all the emotions connected to it, and it was so wonderful to see others following WALL-E and EVE's example.

The music was now climaxing. Soon, the special moment would arrive, the two hands intertwined as a symbol of love for eternity. WALL-E glanced over at EVE, just as he did the very first time he had shown her this film, but this time, she returned the look, with eyes full of emotion and wonderment. She outstretched her hand. He outstretched his. The two became one.

WALL-E sighed deeply, his eyes lowering, triggering a little giggle from EVE. Things couldn't be better.