Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Axiom's bridge was peaceful and silent as it always was in the depths of ship's night. The Captain was sleeping in his quarters below, and even the autopilot was getting a bit of sleep mode in.

Not for long, though; suddenly Auto jolted awake, glancing around the darkened bridge in confusion. Why was he active? The last memory he recalled before coming online just now was of struggling with Captain McCrea, the human practically climbing up his frame and reaching to press his off switch. Of the numbness that crept into his spokes and worked its way through the rest of his systems, of the darkness closing in as his optic shut down, oblivion claiming his mind shortly afterward...

The wheel shaped robot shook himself for a second, as if to ward off the memory.

But, if that were true, if that really happened, surely the Axiom would be parked on Earth? That was the ultimate goal of his enemies, after all. Auto turned on his pivot, to face the windows at the bow. Rather than the desolate landscape the pilot was expecting, instead the endless void of space was spread out before him.

He checked his internal chronometer, then checked the main computer's clock. The two times matched to the microsecond, roughly a month and a half before the Eve probes were scheduled to return.

Time travel? Not possible.

Still, he could recall these memory files from the 'future' just as well as the rest of his seven hundred years of operation. There was a chance they could be falsified, so as with everything else, Auto took a conservative approach.

If the chain of events began to proceed similarly, only then would he act. There was no point in raising suspicion too early.

A month and a half later, the reconnaissance ship carrying the Eve probes returned, and again, Go-4 brought Probe One to the bridge. The green plant icon was slowly flashing on the inactive Eve unit's chest paneling, just as it was before.

Auto scanned her himself to confirm, the idle thought of disposing of the plant with some other method crossing through his processors--

A113 stole even the illusion of choice away from him a moment later.

Again, a disoriented awakening on a darkened bridge, and Auto finding himself with the memory of two failed attempts to keep the Axiom in space. On checking his clock and the computer's, this time he was only a month out from the Eves returning.

Maybe if he just moved the Axiom away from where it was supposed to be waiting for the reconnaissance ship...

It only took another two rounds of this waking up after supposedly being deactivated, and living the entire ordeal over again, for the pilot bot to come to a conclusion.

The only logical explanation? That first cycle had to be real, but everything after that was a simulation. Every time he failed, Auto was simply being loaded back into it.

Granted, the sims he experienced during his initial testing were never this realistic. The only other explanation defied every law of astrophysics he knew, though...

Were the Captain and those Repair Ward rejects trying to break his resolve? Well, they would be waiting a very long time for that . . . keeping the Axiom in space was the only correct choice in the matter.

As he had endured seven hundred years watching over his ship and safeguarding humanity, so too would he endure this 'punishment'...

Chapter Text

Time continued its simulated cycle around the autopilot, he had lived through a hundred and fifty repeats so far. As things went on, Auto started to notice various changes to the world. These were only for one iteration of the sim, and some were very strange. Having memories of these altered details being the status quo was even stranger, but at least that allowed him to seamlessly assume his usual duties.

For example, for this iteration the ship was the Ar Tonelico, some of the other robots were replaced by female bio-androids called Reyvateils, and many of the shipboard functions were handled with a song-like code called Hymmnos. He even had some Hymmnos in his own base coding this time, which was odd but understandable. How could he properly control the ship if he didn't know the language he was using?

… Thankfully he didn't have to actually sing any of the various commands. Auto's vocoder was designed for passable human speech, not singing. Sometimes his captains would tease him about possibly shattering the bridge windows if he were to make an attempt.

The main computer's AI was far better suited to the task, at any rate.

Shurelia took care of a lot of the functions Auto ordinarily would, but she had absolutely no sense of direction, so the ship still required a dedicated pilot unit. She was just as dutiful as he was, though the female AI had a much brighter personality, and didn't seem quite as bound to whatever her directives were.

At the moment, the two of them were trying to figure out what to do with a rogue PR-T unit.

The ship's computer had her holographic avatar displayed, manifesting as a teenage girl with blue eyes and long white hair, with two long braids trailing down just behind her ears. Shurelia was still giggling a bit at the sight on the holographic screen they were both viewing, of five different passengers with absolutely caked on makeup on their faces. “Hehehe, I would say they deserved it, considering how stupidly demanding they all were. Sometimes the passengers ask too much. She probably knows better than to do it again, so I think we can put her back on duty.”

“Negative. That PR-T unit is off directive and thus malfunctioning. I will send her to the Repair Ward.” Even if the passengers in question were a bit too demanding, that didn't mean it was proper to stray so far from one's directive. Auto started to glide forward, to command a Steward unit to act, but paused above the button when Shurelia spoke up again.

She narrowed her blue eyes at the robotic helm before her. “Come on, you could say we're 'off directive' too. The Captain should be making at least some of the decisions around here, you know.”

“We serve a higher directive.”

“I guess an order given by the CEO is technically higher, anyway. Despite the fact that he's been dead for centuries at this point...” The female AI coughed, then changed the subject back to the matter at hand. “As for that PR-T, she didn't actually hurt anyone, so you could let it slide just this once, can't you? Pretty please?”

Auto glanced to his fellow AI, only to be presented with Shurelia's best 'puppy dog eyes' expression. His captains generally couldn't get through to him this way, and if this were many cycles earlier she likely wouldn't have had a chance either. But to have someone like her beside him for his entire seven hundred years, someone to confide in, who held the same secrets he did, that never happened before. GO-4 didn't have enough free will to count in the same way.

Something deep within that he couldn't quite define had shifted, just a little.

The pilot reached downward with one spoke, tapping the button he was positioned over. “I will send the PR-T unit to the Repair Ward for diagnostics. If no malfunction is found, she will be returned to duty.”

Still strict, but that was a little more mercy than Auto typically was prone to give. An incident like this usually resulted in the offending bot being stuck in the Repair Ward for a week or even longer. Shurelia smiled warmly at him, then hovered forward to plant an illusory kiss on his left faceplate. “Thank you, Auto~”

Despite having grown used to this sort of thing from her, Auto still let out a slightly confused warble and pulled away from the other AI a little. Why would performing his duty need a reward like that?

The moment passed. Both of them got back to their typical afternoon routine, Auto keeping the ship's course and Shurelia making sure all systems were running smoothly.

At hearing the other AI start to sing, Auto discreetly glanced over at her. Shurelia had almost as many quirks as a human, something he might be uncertain about if she wasn't designed that way. Without those quirks, she wouldn't be her, though.

He would... miss Shurelia when this cycle ended, if that was the right word.

As it always did, all good things eventually came to an end. The Eve probes returned, Probe One again being brought to the bridge with a positive result contained within her stasis chamber.

Auto moved to scan the Eve probe as he always did, only to freeze in place when she suddenly came online and hovered upright. Her right arm swiftly shifted to the snub nosed ion cannon and aimed squarely at the center of his optic. He didn't dare move, she was too close to even attempt to counter with his shock prod. While he wanted to follow Directive A113, his self preservation subroutines howled a louder siren's call in his mind for once.

There was a flickering of silver light from one of the control consoles, Shurelia projecting her avatar onto the darkened bridge. “Now Eve, what did I tell you before you left? I have a more peaceful solution for this.”

There was a shocked warble out of the pilot. His companion talked with that defective Eve unit? Though he didn't move otherwise, Auto contracted his faceplates and wheel as closely to his main body as he could, as if to ward off the sudden tightening deep inside. This feeling... the same as when Captain McCrea rose up against him the first time.

Noting the subtle movement, Shurelia floated more fully into the autopilot's view, making sure she had his attention. She reached towards him, intangible fingers brushing against one side of his face, her voice trying to sound reassuring. “Auto, it's all right. Do you remember what I told Captain Reardon? Well, I still believe that. I still believe in you.”

The lights along Auto's processor strips flashed rapidly as he recalled the memory. His first introduction to Shurelia and this cycle was of her shouting at the old captain, in his defense after making the mistake of revealing A113 in those distant days.

“Captain James Reardon, don't you dare blame him for this! Make no mistake, this is terrible, but the only fault lies with the short-sighted idiots who built us. I can't imagine he wants to run the ship alone; he was designed to have a human partner. Don't push him away, you'll only make things that much worse. Regardless of Forthright's order, the world should begin to heal itself if left alone long enough . . . until then, humanity needs a protector, a knight in shining armor. I can't think of any other robot more dedicated to his duties, he and I will make sure Ar Ciel's people survive to return to her, even if that day is long after you've passed on.”

Another feeling welled up from within him now, and Auto glanced towards the floor. It was quite possibly the first time anyone ever stood up for him. Why would such a fond memory be so painful? “I remember...”

Shurelia continued to speak. “I couldn't have asked for a better knight. But with Eve's arrival, with the plant she carries, it's time to go home. You'll stand in our way because of your directive, but I don't want there to be any fighting. I won't let something so sad happen, your years of faithful service deserve a better reward than one last pointless struggle. Even the most steadfast knight needs to rest eventually. To that end, I have a song for you. I promise to wake you after everything is settled, but for now, sweet dreams...”

With that said, the faintly glowing hologram glided away from the autopilot, taking a moment to focus her power. The ship around them seemed to grow oddly quieter, then Shurelia closed her eyes and started to sing. “Azayaka ni moeru midori, atarashii chiisaki inochi eien ni...”

With that one quiet verse, the Hymmnos portions of Auto's programming stirred to life, identifying the song as EXEC_SUSPEND and beginning to follow its instructions. He could already feel his systems slowly gearing down, the same was likely happening to all the other security bots as Shurelia's voice sounded across the ship. The pilot tried his link to GO-4, to maybe have the smaller robot do something to stop this, but the little drone was already in sleep mode.

Within, he tried to fight it, to resist the command to stand down and sleep. A113 demanded him to fight, but this pulled upon something currently far deeper in Auto's programming. The override could howl all it wanted, but the battle was already lost.

Even so, even if he had failed again, this was so much more pleasant than being switched off. Drifting into low power mode, lulled there by the sound of the ship AI's hauntingly beautiful voice . . . darkness closed in, but it was somehow welcoming, not the yawning abyss that shutdown always felt like. Auto struggled against it regardless, but those efforts grew weaker as his awareness continued to fade.

It was only when he hung on by a thread, his optic dimming further with each passing second, that the pilot let out a short burst of machine code. It wasn't much, would've only been two words in English, but it was the single most important thing he needed to ask of them.

Eve was shocked enough to lower her ion cannon, managing a quick nod in reply. In the distance, still singing, Shurelia opened her eyes, almost seeming to have expected this. She nodded in acknowledgment as well.

Was that relief fluttering around his systems? Auto didn't have time to contemplate it before the song's spell finally dragged him under...

The starliner's bridge was quiet for a long time, the only sounds being the faint hum of idling systems.

Then, a song stirred the air...

“Negawakuba kono uta wo yobikikase tamae...”

As with the previous song, it only took that first line for various waiting systems to respond. Though this time, the quiet words began to wake one slumbering autopilot, as well as all the security robots under his command. Power slowly returned to the dormant machine, processor strips resuming their steady rotation, spokes twitching slightly to test the servos that controlled them, and finally the optic in the center flared to life.

Auto looked around, somewhat confused. Even if she was a fellow AI, even if she had promised, he hadn't thought Shurelia would wake him again. She was out there in front of him in fact, as well as someone else he didn't quite recognize at first. A Reyvateil, her blonde hair held up with an ornate headband, and wearing a white and pink dress. Wait, was that the Captain's secretary?

Shurelia addressed the girl standing beside her. “Thank you, Aurica. I never seem to have Re=Nation installed, given how it and Suspend usually work.”

“Either that or Yggdrasil thinks I'm the best person to help a dreamer wake up and greet the dawn.” Aurica sounded a little bit smug about that, though that faded once she noticed the formerly sleeping robot in front of them was awake again. She waved and smiled brightly at Auto. “Speaking of which... good morning, sir!”

The pilot wasn't quite sure what to say to that for a few seconds, but he eventually returned the greeting, recalling Aurica's surname from his memory banks. “Good morning, Miss Nestmile.”

With that exchange of greetings done, Shurelia hovered forward. “Eve said it might be a bad idea to wake you, but I did make a promise. Two promises, in fact. What you asked of us at the last moment, 'protect them'... we've tried our best to watch over Ar Tonelico and her passengers in your stead. I think we've done a fair job of that.”

It was the single worry Auto had while he was slowly pulled into sleep mode, however long ago that ended up being. He checked his link to the ship, confirming the other AI spoke the truth. They happened to be landed, but from what he could tell all systems were stable, and the few passengers still inside the ship were in good health. “Thank you, Shurelia.”

“You're quite welcome.” At that, the white-haired AI paused, wondering how to word things. In the end Shurelia decided to just tell the pilot how long he slept. If he reacted badly she could easily contain it. “It's been two years since then. Between myself, Frelia, Tyria, Jakuri, and all the other Reyvateils, we've been making good progress in restoring the world. I guess I just wanted to make sure you could see Ar Ciel in all her glory . . . you've certainly earned it, given how long you've served alongside me. Well, go on, it's right outside; all you have to do is turn around.”

He hesitated for a moment, but Auto did not survive in space as long as he had by being indecisive. He turned on his pivot to face the bridge windows . . . and was granted his first glimpse at the surface of an alien world. The pilot glided closer to the window, only able to stare out at everything, disbelieving. “Not possible...”

Earth had gotten a name change a few times during his repeated runs through the sim, but it was always still the same planet. At least until now, anyway. From what he could see of the horizon, the geography around the ship didn't match the Axiom's launch site at all. There were far too many mountains in the distance, and while Auto was expecting to see at least a few trash towers like the ones in the footage the Eve units always brought back, there were none to be found in the direction the ship was facing.

While his distance vision wasn't the greatest, he could still access the ship's outer cameras to take a look that way as well. All those mountains had forests on them, a veritable sea of green spread out around the ship. Again, Auto felt something stirring within his systems... satisfaction, perhaps? Yes, that was the right word. Below A113, returning his passengers to a healed world was indeed one of his directives, albeit one he never thought he might fulfill.

A flock of birds flitted past the bridge windows, a species that didn't match any Auto could recall, and then--

And again, a disoriented awakening on a darkened bridge. A loud warble of protest emerged from Auto's synthesizer, one that might've sounded a tad outraged to the right set of ears.

The spike of irritation passed as quickly as it came, given he startled himself with it. He wasn't designed to feel anything with that intensity, was he? Arguably he wasn't designed to feel anything at all, but then neither were any other BnL robots, not even the rogue Wall-E or Probe One. Like a few other incidents before this, Auto filed it away into his error logs, making a mental note to check over those for any worsening trends later on.

He turned to face the forward windows, looking out at the endless expanse of stars while he checked his new memories. The ship was the Axiom once more, the planet they left was Earth, and the ship's computer was the usual Simulated Intelligence rather than an actual AI. It was quite efficient to have a bit of help with running the ship, but now the pilot was on his own again. His spokes drooped a bit at that, but ultimately he got back to his usual early morning routine.

Well, he would if his train of thought could stop straying. That other world, Ar Ciel . . . with all the data he gathered and carried to this new iteration, as he scanned through it again, more and more doubt was cast on his theory. No, BnL's technology was impressive enough to create AI systems like himself, but their simulations had always lagged behind their robots and hardware. They managed an accurate copy of the Axiom for his testing in the early days, but to fully simulate an entirely new planet, that wasn't possible.

But, if these repeats through time weren't a sim, what were they? A hundred and fifty-one cycles now, and Auto still had insufficient data. Well, there weren't any signs the repeats were going to stop, so there would be many more opportunities to study his predicament.

In fact, from the last few minutes of the last iteration, something stood out. Something Aurica said, that felt strangely out of place. Auto glided over to one of the terminals, addressing the main computer. “Define Yggdrasil.”

There was a pause while the computer processed the request, then it recited the dictionary entry it held. “Yggdrasil. In Norse mythology, the ash tree that was thought to overshadow the whole world, binding together earth, heaven and hell with its roots and branches.”

Hmm, interesting, but unfortunately it didn't seem very related to his problems. Auto filed this away as well, perhaps it might prove significant at some other time.

Chapter Text

Newcomers and the changes that accompanied them at times were actually fairly rare as the repeats continued. For the most part, Auto faced the same life he always had, though he could come online at nearly any point in that seven hundred years. Even so, no matter how efficiently he ran things, no matter how loyal he was to his captains despite A113, no matter what he tried, it would always end the same way.

Probe One returning with a plant and that rogue Wall-E unit, inspiring Captain McCrea into wanting to return to Earth. The inevitable battle for control of the ship, Auto always lost, every time in these hundreds of repeats.

Most organics would've given up by now, but then most organics didn't have the sort of dedication to one's duty that the pilot did. Most of it was from directive, sure, but deep down he truly did want to keep his ship and passengers safe.

It would be nice if he could be left alone to do that. Was being allowed to continue his vigil really too much to ask?

Auto could read the data the Eves brought back as well as any scientist from the old days. Earth honestly had pulled itself back from the brink, but only just. Life could exist there but the margins were a veritable razor's edge, one wrong decision or a stroke of bad luck could spell doom for every human on board. No, he could not bear to risk that, better to remain in space as he was ordered. It might be an easy and boring life aboard the Axiom, but a constant struggle for survival on Earth would be far worse.

Again, a Mov-R carrying GO-4 and Probe One arrived on the bridge, as well as that Wall-E unit following along. Trying to disable the Eve probe was usually a dicey proposition, and while he could steal the plant, Auto knew the two rogues would either find it again or somehow produce another. Hmm, perhaps he could disable that blasted Wall-E unit before too much trouble could start...

Things went as they usually did, Auto seeming to wake from sleep mode and moving to scan Probe One. He swept his scanning beam over Eve for maybe five seconds before swinging his wheel back around to arm his shock prod, then he lunged for the Wall-E he knew was lurking.

Well, the pilot tried to, anyway.

“Restrict Lock.” With those quiet words from Wall-E, some sort of energy binding sprang from the floor and tangled itself around Auto, stopping him mid-motion.

The wheel-shaped robot froze in surprise, but almost instantly shook it off and tried to pull forward anyway, shock prod still crackling. The bindings held firm, only having enough give so that he wouldn't damage himself by trying to move.

There was a sigh from the little load lifter, and he left Auto trapped in place while he moved to reactivate Eve.

Once Eve was fully active again, it was no surprise to the pilot that she once again promptly aimed her ion cannon at him. For what it was worth, Auto shut his shock prod off, but it wasn't like he could move or damage either of them otherwise. He watched as his two eternal rivals deliberated between themselves in a machine language he didn't understand, and let out a sigh himself, this one sounding rather frustrated. Ugh, just get on with it already, he knew exactly where this would end up leading.

Wall-E quirked his optics at Auto questioningly at the sound and watched him closely for a moment, but didn't seem to find anything else of note. At the end of their conversation, Eve switched her gun arm back to its standard configuration, then she reached up for the panel concealing the pilot's off switch.

At other times, Auto would've tried pulling away, but here he did not bother. There was no point, considering how thoroughly he was trapped. He simply closed his optic and waited for Eve to flick that switch-- only to suddenly open it again when he felt a touch on his wheel. Auto glanced downward, and there was Wall-E hanging onto him with one claw. The load lifter held his gaze almost more tightly than he gripped his wheel, the look oddly reminiscent of the one sometimes on Captain McCrea's face whenever the human ended up shutting him down. Disappointment? Sadness? The pilot couldn't put a word to it, and before he had much chance to process further, he heard that damnable click yet again.

Darkness closed in once more, but it didn't seem quite as frightening, not with Wall-E making sure he knew he wasn't alone.

Again and again from that point, if Wall-E was close by when someone reached for Auto's off switch, he would grip the pilot's wheel. Sometimes the look he aimed at the pilot was more searching than anything else, but for the most part settled on the same emotion as the first occurrence.

It was only after some research into human expressions that Auto could put a name to it, as unused to emotion as he was.

The beat up and filthy little roving trash compactor always looked up at him with a sense of pity.

If he wasn't a much colder being in comparison to the other BnL robots, if his duty was not his highest priority, perhaps he might've reacted more explosively. As it was, when he finally realized it, his spokes twitched, but that was the only outward expression he allowed himself.

Pity? Just what exactly about him was so worthy of that? He'd lived a life that Wall-E unit could have scarcely dreamed of, guiding the Axiom among the stars and watching over the last vestiges of humanity. What was endlessly compacting trash compared to that?

Auto moved himself from his docking station at the center of the bridge, turned around to gaze out at those stars scattered in the distance. He could even have the ship travel closer to those stars, if he really wanted to. The view was ever-changing as the Axiom moved, and he wasn't sure he would ever tire of it. Though as he looked out beyond his ship, the faintest whispers of doubt trailed through his mind.

He ruled the Axiom, controlled nearly every aspect of its functions. And yet, even with his sometimes wondrous existence, Auto still could not find a way to move past being shut down at the end of a given repeat through time.

Perhaps that was why the load lifter seemed to feel so sorry for him? But then wouldn't that mean Wall-E was also aware of time's continual resetting? Something to keep in mind, but considering the trash bot hadn't done much of anything to alter events, the pilot would still have to figure things out for himself.

There were so many things he tried, though! Moving the ship, destroying every plant brought to the Axiom, delaying the probes being launched in the first place, trying to end up with a captain other than McCrea, and so on, but nothing worked.

Though, there was still the only variable in this entire mess that he didn't dare touch...

Override Directive A113.

Many repeats ago, the very thought would've had his systems starting to lock up on him. But even back at the start of this, Auto still learned various ways to work around it without outright defying its orders. With thousands of years of practice, he further refined those workarounds, managing to get away with things he would have thought impossible previously.

But to defy A113 directly? To ignore that final order, to expose his ship and his passengers to the just barely hospitable conditions on Earth?

Auto felt the subtle movement of his components before he even realized he was doing it. Looking up at his reflection in the bridge window, he noted he retracted his wheel as close to the rest of his chassis as he could, and his faceplates were likewise pulled inward, the gap between them barely visible.

There still had to be something he hadn't tried, some other way of keeping himself active without breaking his directive . . .

Chapter Text

It was the start of another repeat through time, Auto coming online while in motion. Not entirely unusual to become aware while in the middle of a task, but usually he was not moving so quickly. And what was wrong with his optic? He usually saw things entirely in shades of red, with the occasional green used to highlight any plant life he might encounter. Here it seemed shaped incorrectly, and capable of full color vision. He glanced to the side as he continued to glide forward, taking advantage of this apparent upgrade.

The Axiom was still beautiful, even down here in the service areas...

Wait a minute, where on the Axiom was he, anyway? The markings along the wall seemed to indicate A Deck, en route to ARV Bay 2. What?! But that was impossible, as the ship's autopilot he was confined to the bridge and the Captain's quarters below it while the Axiom's flight continued.

The confusion was quickly starting to pile up but Auto didn't dare stop moving, especially now that he noted GO-4 out ahead of him. The much smaller security bot was leading him as well as a short line of other bots behind him, in the direction of one of the shuttlebays. But why was this happening, and why did it seem so familiar?

Wait, he recalled something like this in GO-4's reports, something about the annual reconnaissance mission...

The group of bots arrived in ARV Bay 2, GO-4 ordering the procession to line up in front of the waiting spaceship and run a short system test as he looked on. Thankfully he started at the other end of the line, allowing Auto to process the situation further.

Especially good that GO-4 was occupied, as three things struck Auto's mind at once. First, that GO-4's duty at the start of the recon mission to Earth was to gather up the EVE probes from their security posts across the ship and lead them down here.

Second, his memories of this iteration of time loaded abruptly, momentarily flooding his systems with data as well as directives that weren't his.

Finally, he caught a flash of blue on the floor in front of him, and he looked down to note his reflection... only to find the glowing blue optics of a EVE probe staring back at him.

Not possible.

The universe didn't see fit to let Auto dwell on just how impossible this was, as a few seconds later GO-4 was in front of him again. The security bot bleeped out an order, for the erstwhile pilot to run the same performance test the EVEs hovering in a line beside him just had. He moved without much thought, new directives informing his actions, though deep within his processor was whirling. Into sleep mode form and back again, shifting his hands to their active mode, and then finally swinging his right arm around and into its ion cannon form for a moment.

GO-4 seemed satisfied with that, and the next command he gave was for the five EVEs in front of him to drop into sleep mode, so they could be loaded onto the ARV.

A human might've protested, demanded to know what was going on. Auto had almost too many questions, but he knew GO-4; anything out of the norm would just end with the security bot shipping him to the Repair Ward. Besides that, directive took priority over everything else, even if they weren't really his directives. Sleep mode beckoned, and the pilot turned probe bot didn't resist. The last thought to cross his mind before drifting off was of where the shuttle would end up taking him and the other EVEs.

Earth.

The slight jolt of trepidation that ran through his systems at that wasn't enough keep him from being pulled into sleep...

Awareness slowly dawned again, this time at the foot of the recently landed transport shuttle. Auto was a bit too focused on his systems waking back up for about the first minute to really take note of his surroundings, but afterwards, his currently blue optics swept across the ruins of Earth. Atmospheric conditions were not as terrible as he was expecting, but compared to the controlled conditions on board the Axiom, the air was dust-choked and dry. It was also a good twenty degrees hotter than he usually kept the ship, and that was in the shade of the shuttle looming over him.

The shuttle had landed in what looked like a dried out riverbed, nothing but rocks and other debris within close range. In the distance, a partially collapsed highway bridge extended out over some of it, with a few ruined skyscrapers and towers of trash visible at the horizon, clawing at the sky. Behind the shuttle, Auto also caught a glimpse of the docking cradle the Axiom originally launched from. On that thought, a slight twinge of worry ran through him as he wondered how his ship was doing without him there.

Hopefully it was still another autopilot in charge of things, and not Probe One having somehow swapped places with him...

But speaking of which, 'Probe One' was technically Auto's designation now, and the directives that weren't truly his began to call to him. He floated forward, casting a scanning beam out ahead of him, a blue glow dancing across the ground.

Beep, beep, beep, buzz.

A negative result, as Auto expected. Even so, he kept moving forward, scanning the next patch of dirt as well. Such was the life of an EVE probe, being sent to Earth every year on the slim hopes that one of them might eventually find some sort of plant life, and bring it back to the Axiom as proof that the ships could safely return. The three beeps and buzz of a negative result from the scanner dominated Auto's hearing in the eerie quiet of his surroundings, but once he floated far enough away from the shuttle, the roar of thrusters sounded off behind him.

He wasn't entirely sure why he turned to watch the shuttle rise through the air once it reached a certain height, or why seeing it vanish into the cloud cover brought a certain sense of relief. Then again, the shuttle did have cameras, the final link of the Axiom's security before the EVE probes went completely unobserved except by what they recorded themselves.

Good. He needed some time to think, and doing that while being watched would again mean a trip to the Repair Ward.

Auto didn't bother dwelling on how that very line of thought was something a Rogue Robot would probably think, and focused on checking his systems. This was apparently one of the strange things that went with having two sets of memories; he remembered what his directives were supposed to be, but the ones active in his mind and actually affecting him currently were that of an EVE probe's. There was the lingering feeling that if he just pushed a little, he wouldn't even be affected by those...

His thoughts drifted off task as he took note of the desolate expanse around him. Sure, he had steered the Axiom through space for veritable eons now, but he personally had only existed within two rooms on board that ship, the bridge and the Captain's quarters. Earth and its far horizons were just a bit overwhelming compared to that.

Then again, with all this space, and not really having to worry about damaging anything...

Hmm... he should at least get used to an EVE probe's systems, right? Even if he was in this shell, he was still an Autopilot; he needed to be prepared for anything. With those thoughts in mind, and more than a little curiosity of what it would be like to fly under his own power, Auto rose into the air. In the next instant he zoomed off at close to full speed, kicking off a sonic boom behind him as he flew.

Unbeknownst to Auto, he was being watched, but not by anything from the Axiom...

Chapter Text

A subtle shifting of rocks in the distance.

That was all it took to set off Auto's current defensive protocols, the pilot turned probe suddenly whirling to face the sound and drawing his ion cannon. It was only by sheer force of will that he kept himself from firing in the same motion, a faint burst of static coming out of his vocalizer as he fought it down.

His ion cannon was still drawn, pointed at the boulder in the distance. No further sounds or motion came from the area around the big rock, thankfully this was enough to get the defense protocol to fully stand down. Auto shifted his arm back to its default mode and glanced over the boulder once more, before turning away and gliding in the opposite direction.

Again, he started scanning for plant life, but the earlier overreaction just kept nagging at him until he finally stopped to hover in place, his focus turning inward. A sudden noise shouldn't have caused that... if a few books fell over in the Captain's quarters somehow, he would've only turned to face the sound, not aimed his shock prod at it.

What Auto found when he finished examining his current frame's software was a bit of a surprise. Why in the world would that defensive protocol be so highly keyed? He certainly wouldn't have set it that way, so that meant it went all the way back to the humans that built the EVEs. Earth wasn't safe by a long shot, but there was no need to be jumping and trying to vaporize every little noise he heard, so he reached to alter the settings.

He almost instantly hit an authorization prompt, which he cleared with one of the codes he held due to being the Axiom's autopilot. A standard EVE probe couldn't do that, she wouldn't know the code. There was the thought that this was defying directive, that he should leave the setting alone... but no, remaining on a hair-trigger was too inefficient for his liking. He eventually found the desired defensive protocol in his mind and lowered the sensitivity, thought for a moment, then lowered it a little more.

There. Now he wouldn't be shooting at shadows, or at rocks settling in the distance. That would've only gotten in the way of his directive... which was still to find a plant?

Auto started to hover forward, again starting to scan the ground ahead of him as he moved. The ruins he hovered through were void of all but the ancient remnants of life that used to be on Earth, the only sounds were the wind and the noises his own systems made. Like the constant beeping of a negative result from his scanner.

Did he really want to find a plant? It was odd to be able to question a directive like this, but question it he did. Earth wasn't as terrible as he suspected, but it was still a desolate wasteland, still not at all suited for any organic life, let alone human life.

Then again, the plant Probe One found survived Earth's conditions somehow... and if it survived, then maybe...

At once, Auto shook his head at that line of thought. No, it was still best for the Axiom to remain in space, even if conditions here were better than expected.

He would try to find a plant, if only to figure out where Probe One kept finding the blasted things. It was the one piece of information he didn't have concerning the whole debacle... if he knew that, then he could finally take steps to counter it.

The pilot turned probe was still moving forward that whole time, still scanning the ground out ahead of him. He looked up from his thoughts and his scanning for a moment, noting his wanderings took him into what looked like an ancient tire dump. There were treadmarks all over the trash and bare dirt below, perhaps this was an area that rogue Wall-E unit frequented? He scanned a few of the tire piles, in case there could be plants sheltered by them, but again there was nothing but a negative result.

Auto would've scanned another bunch of tires nearby, if his audio receptors hadn't picked up a faint scuffling noise somewhere behind him. It was almost too quiet to be heard over his hover unit, but whatever it was, it was moving in his direction. He whirled, and thanks to his earlier adjustments did not immediately draw his ion cannon. It was a little hard to pick it out among the rest of the brown, but there was a tiny six-legged creature rapidly skittering towards him. An insect of some sort? But how could that be?

He had to get a closer look, so he reached down and extended his hand, allowing the little thing to climb onto him. Of course, it had other ideas and zoomed up to his shoulder, regarding him with almost equal curiosity. It only took a matter of seconds for Auto to match the bug to an entry in his databanks, now that he had a chance to examine it more closely.

According to the data, he held a rather lively specimen of Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach.

“Not possible.” It barely registered that his voice was currently that of an EVE probe's, the tiny insect crawling on his arm was more of an unexpected discovery. Cockroaches were known for their hardiness, but after a certain point in the first century away from Earth, not even they could survive on Earth's surface for long. That one was here now, and not just alive, but thriving...?

Auto extended a finger towards said bug still resting on his shoulder, watching it jump the gap and skitter around his other arm. Not content with that, the cockroach made another jump, onto the main part of the robot's body and it clambered around there, investigating all the nooks and crannies it could get to. This in turn disturbed all of the touch sensors its tiny feet ran across, and even as undignified as he thought it was, Auto let out some faint laughter at how much it tickled.

Laughter that was echoed somewhere close by.

Now Auto swung his ion cannon into position, firing a single warning shot to sail directly overhead whatever made the noise, the blast destroying a pile of trash a good distance behind it. In the next moment he shouted an order in machine code, the harsh warble roughly translating to 'Come out where I can see you!' in English.

It took a good ten seconds, but eventually there was the sound of treads moving forward, and what looked like a rusty metal box crept into view. It was obviously another robot, and as Auto hovered closer to it, he mentally noted he recognized some of those dents. He stopped just in front of it, cannon still aimed, and waited for something to happen.

This other robot started to unbox itself, soon revealing the droopy optics of the rogue Wall-E unit.

Oh. So this was where Probe One first ran into the rusted out trash bot?

The cockroach was of course still clinging onto Auto, and now it clambered onto the end of his ion cannon, wiggling its rear end at Wall-E like a bigger animal might wag its tail. Wall-E shakily held one claw out and the roach jumped onto it, and they both looked up at the pilot turned probe bot as if they weren't sure what to make of him.

For his part, Auto swept his scanner over the other robot and his apparent pet, wondering if the result would be any different.

Beep, beep, beep. Buzz.

Of course it wouldn't be any different, neither of them were plant life. With that settled, Auto shifted his cannon back into an arm and turned to hover away, once again off to fulfill his current directive.

The Wall-E unit was following him, though Auto wasn't sure why. The trash bot wasn't really getting in the way, so the pilot wasn't all that compelled to do something about it.

At the moment, Auto's wanderings took him inside a ruined BnL Mart. The trappings of an evacuation sale still remained hung from the walls and ceiling, various items left behind by the fleeing humans still lying where they fell 700 years ago. As he hovered about the long abandoned cash registers, his scanner alighted on something that was at least shaped a little like a plant. He moved closer and picked it up, scanning it further. It certainly looked flower-like, but it was a child's pinwheel, not a plant.

Again Auto heard the rattle of treads and looked in that direction, soon discovering Wall-E at the top of the nearby stairs. Startled at being spotted, the load lifter disturbed all the carts nearby as he tried to roll away, shortly getting trapped by the non-functional automatic doors at the end of the lobby and then buried as the carts piled up.

Only, it turned out the doors were just lagging from low power, and opened well after they would've been any use. Auto found himself facepalming at the sight before he started hovering elsewhere. He was going to kind of miss having hands, if the next iteration restored him to his usual autopilot frame...

Eventually, the sun finally set, putting an end to a long day of unsuccessfully trying to find a plant. That Wall-E unit followed Auto the whole time, even to the ruined refinery that the pilot decided was shelter enough to enter sleep mode in for the night. He could have chosen to buzz the still lurking trash bot, but instead he simply glided to a clearing below the old oil tank Wall-E was using for a perch, pointedly ignoring his presence as he settled into his sleep mode form.

Though even if he was ready for sleep, even as much as he needed to recharge, Auto found he couldn't manage to close his optics and drift off. He glanced around for a moment, taking in the utter stillness of it all. Nothing moved among the ruins, again the only sound he heard was that of his own systems idling. Was it always this quiet on Earth?

It was usually quiet on the Axiom's bridge at night, but not like this. He could usually hear the hum of the computer systems above his own idling sounds, and sometimes faint snoring from the Captain's quarters below the bridge, depending on which captain it was.

Here there was nothing but silence, for miles in all directions.

How could Wall-E stand it?

It took a few more minutes, but eventually Auto was able to fully enter sleep mode, perhaps seeming to curl up a little tighter on himself as he did.

Chapter Text

The sun rose on a new day over the ruins of the abandoned Earth, nothing but the trash towers and the dust to greet it. Well, at least not until enough sunlight struck the sleeping EVE unit, and Auto began to wake as his sensors detected the sun's warmth. A few seconds of startup tests and then the pilot fully came online, optics lighting up as he emerged from the more compact sleep mode state.

He certainly wasn't expecting the first thing he saw in front of him, though. At first glance it just seemed to be an oddly placed pile of trash cubes, but there was more to it than that. Especially given the toilet seat with two blue Christmas ornaments hanging from it was a rough approximation of his current optic panel. Auto glanced over it again with that thought in mind, soon realizing he was looking at a sculpture of an EVE probe made out of junk.

But it wasn't there when he dropped into sleep mode last night. So then that Wall-E unit built it right there, while he was sleeping? The pilot wasn't sure what he thought about that.

By all accounts it wasn't a bad sculpture, given what the load lifter had to work with. But it still wasn't a plant, so Auto hovered onward, in search of that nigh impossible find.

He ignored the sound of pipes falling over somewhere behind him. If that was the Wall-E unit, he would probably be fine, the little trash bot had spent 700 years on this dust-blasted rock, after all.

The search for a plant was not going well. Thinking perhaps a plant might be hidden away in something closed from the elements, Auto looked inside all sorts of objects scattered among all the other refuse. The engine compartment of an old truck, a portapotty, an actual space capsule that probably should've been in a museum, and even the hold of an ancient oil tanker among other places were all searched as best he could, but none of those places gave even the slightest hint of a positive result.

Auto shut the cargo hold's door again and started to hover off, beginning to think this task truly was impossible. There was not one iota of organic life in this area aside from Wall-E's cockroach, and going too far out of his designated search zone would likely result in him missing the return shuttle back to the Axiom. When it eventually came back for him and the other probes, anyway.

Maybe his internal chronometer was off, and this wasn't the year Probe One came back with a plant?

The erstwhile pilot hovered onward, wondering what he was supposed to do if that were truly the case. The reconnaissance mission's standard protocol was to allow the EVEs a month on Earth, then the shuttle was sent to retrieve them all, positive results or not. There was nothing for it but to keep searching, but he couldn't help but let out a sigh at the thought.

Was this what Probe One went through, for her 699 previous trips to Earth before finally achieving her directive?

He tried to bolster his resolve... if she could do it, so could he!

Wait, where was that strong electromagnetic reading coming from--

CLANG.

It took a moment for Auto to reorient himself after the sudden impact, but after that he glanced upward to notice the rather large problem he was stuck to. The ruined ship had a crane, and the electromagnet still had enough residual energy to simply pick him up like it would a cargo container or a piece of scrap metal.

He spun around as best he could, the magnet going with him, and tried to fly away. Auto pushed his flight systems as hard as he could, but they simply weren't designed to work against this sort of thing. He got a few inches away at best, and then was yanked backwards onto the magnet again. He let it swing him around for a moment, trying to process a better way to escape.

Hmm, that ion cannon of his was primarily for demolition and defense, but it might be enough force...

Auto fought to move his right arm enough to shift it into ion cannon mode, then pressed the business end against the magnet and let a single pulse of energy loose.

The resultant blast was pretty small, but plenty to push the magnet far enough away. Auto quickly flew in the opposite direction, getting well out of range of the magnetic field so he wouldn't get stuck again. Having freed himself, he switched his cannon back to an arm, then flew towards the ground, coming to rest just in front of another nearby ship's anchor.

He looked up at the magnet still swinging on the crane above and let out a sigh. Well. That close call was as good a stopping point for the night as any.

It was disheartening enough that Auto very nearly folded up for sleep mode right there, but once again he heard the faint rattle of treads nearby. The Wall-E unit was somewhere behind him, approaching somewhat cautiously, but still trying to 'act casual' as the humans might say as he sidled up next to the probe.

At the roving trash compactor making a sound like a human clearing their throat, Auto let out the standard bit of machine code that would start a conversation between robots back on the Axiom. But Wall-E only startled at it, obviously not understanding. Well, time to switch to human languages, he supposed . . . still with the voice of an EVE probe, he went down his internal list, trying them out until he finally hit English and asked, “Directive?”

Wall-E's optics shot up a bit at that one, suddenly alert.

All right, that made sense, this area was within BnL America, where English was the primary language. The load lifter would've heard it from the humans before they left, and from the ancient ads that lined the streets, some still working after all these years. Since Wall-E understood, Auto asked his question again, hoping for an answer this time.

Wall-E made an affirmative sound, before moving to some trash scattered around nearby. The smaller bot scraped all the trash he could reach into his compactor, compressing it down, and then finally standing straight to kick the now cubed trash out of his chest compartment and onto the ground. The loose cube collapsed a bit afterwards, but got the overall idea across. “Tah-dah!”

Hmm, that was interesting. Auto knew how the WALL-A units back on the ship worked, but this was the first time he saw an Earth class load lifter taking care of their directive.

Having demonstrated his directive, it was only natural that Wall-E asked for Auto's. “Directive?”

“Classified.” Even if it wasn't classified, Auto couldn't demonstrate finding a plant, or flying a ship if he were going with his actual directives here. There was a moment of somewhat awkward silence, before he moved to the next step in his conversation tree, scanning Wall-E's front for a second as he did. “Name?” Even if he did already know it, this was just the proper way to proceed.

The load lifter held his claws together in front of himself, giving his introduction almost like a human would. Though a human wouldn't have drawn their name out quite so much. “Waaall-E.”

Auto pronounced it out himself, to make sure he had it right. But to introduce himself, hmmm . . . he wanted to give his true name, he preferred to avoid lying if his directives allowed him the choice, but it probably wouldn't end well back on the Axiom. A half truth, then, as no one really had to know he was anything other than a vegetation evaluator. “Eve.”

Wall-E tried his best to say it, even with Auto giving him a few examples, but the best he could come up with was “Eevah.”

That was... a little more endearing than it was irritating? Ugh, he'd only been here for two days and Auto already thought it was too long . . . this load lifter was rubbing off on him more than he cared for.

Perhaps the two might have tried talking about something else, if not for an alert sound suddenly blaring from Wall-E's front panel, a little red light blinking furiously. That couldn't be good, but what did it even mean?

Wall-E himself certainly knew what it meant, focusing on something behind the probe bot and starting to panic.

The pilot turned probe was certainly confused, until he noticed the wind starting to pick up. At that, he whirled in place, trying to see whatever it was--

A great wall of dust clouds spread out before Auto, extending far into the sky and for miles to the east and west . . . and they were moving closer and closer! Before he could even fully process the threat, the ferociously swirling dust and wind crashed down upon their location. In a handful of seconds the blinding mess reduced visibility to zero, and flying up to escape it was out of the question given how high the wind speeds were. The pilot would be dashed against a ruined building or one of the trash towers if he even made the attempt.

It wasn't fear that made Auto call out, just the sheer logic that Wall-E couldn't have gotten far, and likely had a safe place to wait out this sandstorm. “Wall-E? Wall-E!”

Auto called as loudly as he could, though he wasn't sure he could be heard over the howling winds. He couldn't see the load lifter, he couldn't see anything at all in this blackness that seemed so much darker than even space itself. His calling gained a slight twinge of panic. What if Wall-E couldn't find him? The pilot wasn't sure how long an EVE probe's armor could hold up against these conditions, and distinctly recalled losing one probe or another to Earth as time continued its repeating iterations.

Was this where he would finally cease functioning, alone in the dark and so very far from home?

Before Auto could dwell on that thought for long, one of Wall-E's claws reached out from the gloom and latched onto his arm. The load lifter started to guide his new companion along, even as the sandstorm still raged all around them.

Chapter Text

Thankfully, whatever shelter Wall-E decided to lead the way to was fairly close to the ruins of the shipyard, he and Auto only having to endure the sandstorm for a few minutes at worst. A hydraulic door opened to allow the two robots inside, shortly closing behind them to shut out the dust and roaring winds. It was dark, not much light other than Auto's optics and Wall-E's front panel, at least until the load lifter trundled a bit further ahead.

There was a metallic click close to where Wall-E was, then the faint buzz of electricity starting to flow, and suddenly there was light. Above, there was a string of tiny lights wrapped around part of the ceiling, their dim glow beginning to chase away the darkness. A few seconds later the process repeated, another string of lights illuminating the area, then another and another. By the time Wall-E finished connecting all the light strings to the pile of batteries in the corner, the room was still dimly lit, but there was enough light to see by. Even with all the stuff occupying the rotating racks lining two of the walls, it was recognizable as the inside of a Wall-E transport truck.

Auto observed, not entirely sure what to make of it. Something stirred within his systems as he watched, a feeling of... nostalgia? But how could that be, if he was never here before?

Wait, whatever the feeling was, it wasn't for this place specifically. If he allowed his focus to drift, the darkened truck, lit only by pinpricks of brightness scattered about, it was oddly reminiscent of the Axiom's bridge during the ship's night cycle. It too was dimly lit, the overhead lamps providing less illumination than the glowing buttons of the consoles and the stars seen through the forward windows. He let out a sigh just thinking about it, beginning to wonder how long this iteration would last.

How long would it be until he was back on the Axiom again, back home, installed in his proper frame and carrying out the job he was supposed to be doing?

There had to be a name for this odd longing to be where he belonged, right? Auto recalled some of the humans who boarded the Axiom seemed to feel the same way, after the initial five years in space passed them by with no return to Earth. He delved into his memory banks, the search result coming up in a matter of seconds. 'Homesickness' was apparently the proper term... for some reason, putting a word to it made the feeling even worse.

Wall-E was about to show his new friend one of the many treasures he collected over the years, but quickly caught notice of the melancholy in the other robot's optics. Well, he knew what worked to cheer himself up, and thus whistled and beckoned 'Eevah' closer to the front of the truck. The boxy trash compactor retrieved his most important treasure from the toaster where he stored it, shortly putting it in the VCR just below the makeshift screen and hitting 'play'.

For his part, Auto glided forward and settled next to Wall-E, wondering just what it was the load lifter wanted to show him. He noted the cobbled together video player, idly thinking the rogue Wall-E was surprisingly resourceful, at least until audio came blasting out of the device a moment later.

“Put on your Sunday Clothes when you feel down and out~”

That music! In spite of himself, Auto let out a low growl, his optics narrowing to slits. Thankfully he still had enough discipline in him to keep his ion cannon stowed. For the very first go round, the pilot hadn't heard it, as he wasn't watching the lower decks video feed directly. On some later iterations, he did watch, if only to figure out how the load lifter and Probe One mowed down his stewards so quickly. Every time he bothered looking, if the chain of events even got that far, that same song was the rallying cry for the horde of Repair Ward escapees to come to their aid.

Yet again, he startled himself with the intensity of his emotion. He tried to shake it off, tried to file it away into an error log, only to realize just how large that particular file had grown. It wasn't often that his emotions spiked strongly enough to make a note of it, but there were at least two instances per every iteration through time, out of the last fifty. This malfunction of his was getting worse. True, he could still push his feelings aside as easily as ever, his directive, his duty was more important, but it was a distraction he didn't want.

Speaking of distractions... Wall-E glanced up at him questioningly. “Eevah?”

Auto shook his head, trying to brush things over. “Fine, fine...” It wasn't really, but he could at least pretend. He focused on the video again, which finally advanced to a new, quieter song.

Wall-E seemed to accept that, but he also rolled himself back over to one of the rotating racks, holding down the button to move them for a moment. The load lifter let them stop, then rummaged around, looking for something. That new thing he found the other day, maybe that would help!

On the screen, there were two ancient humans, singing softly to each other and holding hands. Auto watched, trying to recall the last time he saw something like that happening on the Axiom. It was always very early in the ship's flight when the humans grew too engrossed with their holoscreens and idle distractions, that they no longer bothered making direct contact with each other. Maybe... there was something wrong with that.

The ship provided the ideal conditions for human survival in space, he made absolutely sure of it. It was no small task, maintaining the Axiom and the humans aboard it for seven hundred years. Auto held his right arm up slightly, allowed his hand to unfold and looked down at it for a moment. All that he did to stay the course, what if that wasn't enough?

'I don't want to survive, I want to live!'

Captain McCrea's words flitted through the pilot's memory unbidden. Perhaps the phrase truly did mean something after all? There had to be some reason they kept fighting him, and winning, through all these repeats across time...

Meanwhile, Wall-E found what he was looking for, and came trundling back over, calling to the other robot in the room. “Eevah!”

Auto turned around, and jolted at the sight. A flash of green, among all the dingy junk scattered around! The load lifter held an impossibility within his claws, one little plant of some sort, contained in an old boot. This was where Probe One found it?! He very nearly switched on his scanner to confirm, but caught himself half a second before he did. If he scanned it as he was, his systems would capture the specimen and then drop him into stasis for retrieval. He couldn't shut down now, one plant wasn't nearly enough evidence! Again he reached into his settings, clearing authorization prompts as he went, and disabled that behavior.

Wall-E quirked his optics at the probe somewhat questioningly, wondering what was going on.

Hmm, as much as Auto did not believe in luck, perhaps there would be some advantage in working with the load lifter. It certainly worked for Probe One, after all. It would've been much simpler to speak in the machine code used on the Axiom, but he was fairly sure Wall-E couldn't process it, so he resorted to English. The phrase bank of an EVE probe was woefully limited compared to his usual body, though. “Plant! Directive.”

“Directive?!” At hearing that, Wall-E rolled closer to Auto and held out the plant in the boot to be taken. If it was for a directive, then 'Eevah' needed to have it!

Given permission, Auto opened the stasis chamber in his chest, reaching out with his tractor beam projector and retrieved the plant from Wall-E's claws. The doors shortly closed around it, securing that specimen away, but as stated, that still wasn't enough. “Find more?”

At that, Wall-E pointed to his front panel, specifically at his charge level. It was roughly at the halfway mark, enough to get him through the night, but that was all. Definitely not enough to go searching for something in the dark, and besides that, he could still hear the wind battering the outside of the truck. “Morning...”

Disappointing, but understandable. Auto nodded at the load lifter. He would need to drop into sleep mode as well in the next few hours.

The two of them spent that time before sleep mode with Wall-E's tape playing in the background, as the trash bot tried showing off some of his finds. Perhaps not the most productive use of time, but Auto found he didn't mind it. It was... interesting, seeing some of the things humanity left behind on Earth.

Chapter Text

The next morning eventually dawned, the sun's light cresting the horizon and piercing the dusty clouds as best it could. Within the transport truck, Auto began to wake when his internal chronometer ticked over to approximately 7 AM. His systems stirred to life as efficiently as ever, despite the frame he currently resided in being quite different from the one he was used to. Depending on the iteration, he charged at the docking station in the center of the Axiom's flight controls, or he was directly tied into the ship's own power systems. It was odd to have a completely independent power source instead.

Shortly after coming online again, he became aware of a faint beeping in the background, shortly followed by a much louder groan. Wait, why did that sound so familiar...?

A flash of memory struck him.

A struggle, an impact to his faceplates strong enough to force his optic to re-calibrate, his self-defense protocol shortly joining A113's discordant howl in his mind and demanding that he act. He hesitated a moment before he struck, current rushing from the ship's grid, through his systems and then into the hostile target before him. The sheer kinetic force of the electrical discharge rattled his frame, shaking dust off sensors he forgot he had...

There was no malice in the act, no satisfaction, it was simply the most expedient method of removing the problem. If anything it was vaguely displeasing; any use of his shock prod meant he failed at keeping the bridge properly defended.

An incessant beeping sounded briefly after he finished subduing his target, fading to nothing as the rogue load lifter fell down through the trash chute.

Auto jolted in his hover. If that was the same sound...? At once he glanced towards the other robot within the truck, perhaps a faint bit of concern in his voice. “Wall-E?”

The beeping continued, though there were another few groans out of the load lifter as he unboxed himself and shakily rolled his way towards the back of the truck to open the door. There didn't seem to be anything obviously wrong with the smaller robot, other than being a bit on the slow side. Once the hydraulic door opened the whole way, Wall-E made his way outside with his pet cockroach following, then trundled up a dirt ramp that snaked around to the roof of the truck. Auto hovered after them, watching.

Wall-E stopped on the roof and faced the sun, shortly unfolding a hidden set of solar panels mounted on the top of his cube-shaped body.

So, the load lifter's recharge alert used the same warning sound as his critical malfunction alert? Auto let out a sigh of relief, though the end of it sounded a little exasperated. Leave it to Buy n Large to cut corners like that, even on a project that was supposedly so important. There were even elements of Auto's own design that he felt were a bit lacking, most likely because of those ancient executives cutting corners there too.

“Eevah?” Wall-E glanced back towards the probe bot, wondering what the problem was.

Again, Auto found himself shaking his head and trying to brush his reaction off as nothing important.

With Wall-E's morning routine out of the way, the two robots (and one cockroach) headed out into the trash-choked wastes. The load lifter was working on the base of a new trash tower far to the south of his truck, and conveniently enough, it was that same area where Wall-E found the plant. If there were more, they would likely be nearby, given similar environmental conditions.

Wall-E insisted on leading the way. While Auto didn't mind it, the pilot turned probe couldn't help but think there was a more efficient way of doing things. It would be a bit awkward, but his flight systems had more than enough power to keep himself in the air and still carry the load lifter around. He certainly watched Probe One do the same hundreds of times by now. It would be faster to fly and have Wall-E call out directions...

Nope, the roving trash compactor stayed grounded and held the lead, all the way to where he found the plant.

The place was an otherwise unremarkable mound of trash and earth, the remains of an old refrigerator jutting out from the heap. The door had fallen off, and currently was lying on the ground in two pieces, neatly sliced down the center by Wall-E's welding laser. The patch of dirt the door formerly sheltered didn't seem much different from the rest of the ground surrounding it, Auto even taking a scan to be sure.

The ground wasn't nearly as contaminated as the pilot initially suspected it might be. According to the data Auto held due to currently being an EVE probe, a wide variety of plants would find this area viable for growth.

That explained how the plant he now carried survived, but still left the question of how it got there. Maybe one of those giant sandstorms blew the plant's seed to this spot, from wherever it came from? With that thought, Auto readied his scanner again, but this time the blue beam danced through the open air instead of along the ground. Earth's atmosphere was never truly empty, dust and other particulates were always drifting around, driven by the wind and weather. Any sort of organic life would leave microscopic evidence of its existence in a passing breeze.

Auto hovered forward, scanning the air as he moved. For a while only the sound of negative results reached him, but eventually something along the correct lines drifted past. A few tiny tufts of plant fiber, of the sort found on seeds meant to drift for long distances away from their origin plant. Certainly not enough for a true positive result, but it was still a guidepost. Another few scans provided more of the same, and so the pilot thought to check his atmospheric sensors.

A lazy breeze was meandering through the area, primarily blowing from further south.

The pilot glanced around for Wall-E, who was nearby and carrying out his directive, scooping up the garbage and compacting it into cubes.

Auto beckoned for the load lifter to come closer, then pointed in the direction he wanted to go. “This way!”

Wall-E jolted a little at the call, but nodded after a second or two and started to follow the taller probe bot.

Chapter Text

The journey continued across the ruined streets of Earth, the two robots the only source of motion for miles, other than the wind. The only sounds were the faint hum of Auto's hover unit, the rattling of Wall-E's treads, and maybe a few random squeaks out of Wall-E's pet.

Other than that, the silence pressed in from all sides, as it had during Auto's first night on Earth. The same odd fluttering sensation flitted through his systems. It wasn't enough to make him stop what he was doing, but it was wearing on him all the same.

It wasn't just that the silence was disturbing, it didn't quite make sense either. Auto knew the particulars of Operation Re-Colonize; there had been millions of WALL-E units left behind on Earth to clean up the trash, given the sheer size of the job. It shouldn't be that quiet, if there really were that many. Surely there would be more of them still around aside from the one he was hovering next to...

The two of them skirted around a crumbling building, and Auto froze at the sight stretching out before him.

They stood on the edge of a robot graveyard.

There were a few low hills of trash between them and the next street, it would've been more of the same considering the rest of the ruins. But dotted among the refuse left behind by humans were the remains of mechanical life; there were at least fifteen WALL-E units in various states of disrepair. Not a one moved, no sound from any of them, a few seeming to have stopped mid-motion whenever their systems failed. Two looked like one of the sandstorms got them, paint stripped to bare metal. Another was crushed by some cubes of trash that fell from a nearby tower. But most were simply too worn down to keep carrying out their directive.

As ancient as he was, Auto was no stranger to death, human and robot alike. To see so many of his fellow machines in this state at once, that was unpleasantly new. True, they weren't meant for the starliner fleet and were technically lesser. But knowing all these waste allocators toiled away to the ends of their existence, for humans that were never coming back, a sullen and unfocused sort of anger began to stir from the depths of his processors. Robots did not need rewards, and likewise did not expect them, but even some slight acknowledgment would be nice . . .

Instead humanity forgot what their mechanical servants were even for, like the EVEs and their purpose, or simply forgot them entirely, like the WALL-Es.

As for the rogue Wall-E, he didn't seem all that bothered by his dead brethren, and proceeded forward as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Auto hesitated for only a few seconds before following along, wondering if this truly was an ordinary sight for the load lifter.

The pilot would've been fine with this, if slightly unsettled. He was not prepared for what happened next...

There was a sudden metallic snap from one of Wall-E's treads, and Auto had to quickly hover aside to avoid getting hit with a flying shard of a gear. The load lifter seemed to trip at the unexpected damage, but recovered quickly enough, getting himself upright again and looking over the problem. His right tread was the culprit, while the belt was newer and in decent condition, the large gear in the back had a long wedge shaped crack running down it, where one of the teeth had given out to metal fatigue.

Auto hovered closer to check on him, but otherwise found himself unsure of what to do. His first thought was to scoop Wall-E up and carry him to a Repair Ward, but anything like that on Earth had been manned by humans. With Buy n Large fully evacuating the planet centuries before, the only place a robot could be serviced was back on the Axiom or the other ships. He didn't intend to leave Wall-E damaged like that, but without any resources available...

Wall-E seemed to notice his companion's concern, and made a soft little noise of reassurance before starting to carefully make his way forward, in the direction of one of those dead load lifters.

The pilot watched, almost frozen in place. Wait... what was that mobile trash compactor doing? If this was going where he thought it might be...

As soon as Wall-E got close enough, he got a good look at the treads on the immobile unit in front of him, checking the gears on either side of it. Either would work but the right rear gear looked okay enough, so he dug his little claws in behind it and started trying to pull it free. It took a bit of working at it, but eventually it came loose. He set that gear down in front of him, and started to remove his own damaged right gear. That one eventually went flying off into the junk piles, left to likely be added to another trash cube at some point in the future. With the damaged part gone, it was a simple matter to put the new gear in place and properly secure it.

Soon enough, his repair was complete. Wall-E trundled over to Auto, moving forward and back in front of him to show off that he was okay again.

Auto's optics were still a bit wide, but he hadn't turned away. It felt wrong, so very wrong, but what other choice was there? No Repair Wards, none of the Axiom's fabrication systems, the only source of usable parts was to scavenge them from the fallen. It was likely the only reason Wall-E survived so long in comparison to these others of his series, a testament to how resourceful he could be.

But that didn't make it fair. It didn't make it right. Auto faked an expression of relief for Wall-E and the two got on their way again, but within the pilot's mind, conflict still roiled. Annoyed with the humans of old for being so irresponsible, annoyed with himself for not realizing this sort of thing was an issue in the first place. Onboard the Axiom, a lack of parts wouldn't be a problem, but there were certainly other things he could stand to pay more attention to.

Even in the midst of this, an irrational, illogical little notion wormed its way into Auto's thoughts. If this search for more plants, more evidence of life on Earth didn't work out (A113 assured him that it wouldn't), perhaps he would take Wall-E back to the Axiom with him anyway. The ship's fabrication systems could provide all the parts the load lifter would ever need. Some cleanup, new parts, certainly a new paint job . . . Wall-E would make a good addition to the custodial team. The M-O unit from ARV bay 2 might make a good partner for him, even...

The two robots moved onward, the autopilot turned EVE probe contemplating possibilities as he hovered along.

Chapter Text

They were probably a mile or two away from Wall-E's truck by now. Well within the distance it would take to safely return there by nightfall, but if the internal map Auto carried was correct, they were nearing the southern edge of the old city. All the while, his scans of the air were returning more and more evidence there really could be plant life besides the one Wall-E found, somewhere further ahead.

A113 wasn't truly active in his mind, but it was still there, still reminding him that all of this was for naught. He could satisfy his curiosity, but in the end it did not matter; he knew what his orders were. Earth was simply too hostile for humanity to return to her...

For all of his existence, even through all these blasted repeats, he accepted that, acknowledged it as the one truth he had to abide by. But between everything he experienced during said repeats, and the three days' worth of hard data that spoke to the contrary of Earth's condition, for the first time, that one truth was overshadowed by doubt.

Could Earth be inhabitable after all? There would still be a nearly endless amount of work to be done from here to truly restore the planet, but could it be done? The Axiom alone wouldn't suffice, a much larger workforce was needed, but as the flagship it could call the rest of the fleet back. Auto recalled that was the original plan, before Forthright canceled Operation Re-Colonize and shackled the autopilots to their lonely vigil.

Auto blinked hard as he hovered along. Shackled? As much as he suddenly wanted to deny it, deep down he felt the word was correct. A113 was an override, after all. The fate of the WALL-Es was oddly similar, also left for themselves to perform a directive with no specified end in sight, expected to continue until they ceased functioning. Something in him ached at that thought, though his systems reported no damage other than normal wear and tear. He also noted he was lagging slightly, but he recalled pushing through worse, when forced to fight his own captain...

Before he could think on it any further, Auto's latest scan detected a sudden spike in organic traces in the air. Whatever secret the world wanted to show him, it was around the next corner.

He accelerated in his hover a bit, speeding ahead of Wall-E and past the last few buildings at the edge of the city. The vestiges of the old human civilization parted, and then there was nothing but open, hilly land out ahead of him, still partially covered in trash. But in between the scattered bits of garbage, the rich browns of bare, fertile earth could be seen.

And in that fertile earth?

The greens of plant life nearly crowded out the sight of the ground they grew from. Smaller patches were here and there, and Auto came to a drifting stop in the middle of a particularly large expanse of greenery. There was quite a bit of variety among the tiny plants, and the pilot could've scanned them to note the differing species, if he wasn't so stunned by their presence. He hovered there with his optics wide, just staring at them all.

He looked to the left. Green as far as the eye could see. “Not possible.”

To the right, and there were a few empty patches, but still lots and lots of plants. “Not possible.”

Optics forward and Auto's previous view of all that green hadn't changed at all, one last weak denial emerging from his vocalizer. “Not possible...”

All the data pointed to one conclusion: Earth was inhabitable.

But how could that be?! Shelby Forthright, the CEO of Buy n Large himself, said the world was dead, that life was unsustainable on Earth. For that very reason he gave the order to never return, the last slim hope for humanity's survival handed to the autopilots and the starliners they flew. It was the only chance they had!

And yet here Auto was, on Earth, with life finding a way. Had Forthright lied? Or was he simply too short-sighted, too impatient to see things through to the end? Had he ordered the pilots into their unending flight for nothing?

A113 flashed across Auto's vision. Even in the body of an EVE probe, the directive was still a part of him, just like all the other programs contained within his AI. The override took hold of his processes as strongly as it could, feeling like icy claws digging into the depths of his code. It always felt like this, every last time he fought for his ship, when he tried to destroy the plant, when he lashed out at the rogue Wall-E, he just hadn't noticed before now. Within, he squirmed under the override's bonds, even while he drew his ion cannon.

He aimed at the plant life directly in front of him... and suddenly froze in place.

Too many conflicting commands warred for his processor, A113 howling for compliance while everything else in him howled right back.

Those plants had to be destroyed!

No, they were proof humanity could return!

Humans could not survive on a world as harsh as this!

If Captain McCrea was any indication, they would damn well try to survive, try to live on their homeworld as their ancestors did!

What use was living in day to day struggle and hardship, they were perfectly safe on the Axiom!

There was no challenge in that safety, in simply going through the motions; humanity would stagnate to nothing!

The constant back and forth was dizzying in itself – but the true malus was in the escalating tug-of-war over local resources and applications, each side wielding logic trees like weapons and dredging ever deeper for more power within his systems. Lesser machines, lesser wills would have faltered and collapsed into their waiting shackles well before Auto finally succumbed to the strain of holding it off.

But succumb he did, systems beginning to drop into cascade failure one by one, before an emergency reboot mercifully cast his mind into darkness.

Awareness was painfully slow to return, to be expected after such an abrupt restart. It was so sudden that Auto hadn't even managed to retract his limbs and head, instead just sort of slumping over in his hover with ion cannon still deployed. The cannon shifted back into an arm as the pilot turned probe began to wake, system self-tests completing in sequence until Auto's optics flickered back to life. It was another handful of seconds before he was truly conscious again, and once he was, he immediately startled at the first thing he saw.

Tiny lights, casting their dim brilliance upon rotating shelves of junk. This was... the inside of Wall-E's truck? He glanced around, the slight motion causing the blanket that was currently wrapped around him to shift. The load lifter was certainly responsible for that, as well as for bringing him back here after whatever happened.

What did happen, anyway? He couldn't quite recall it--

A moment later, the memories of the past few hours fully loaded, though the ones closest to the current time were fuzzy and full of errors. All those plants, as far as his optics could see, shattering all preconceptions of whether Earth was habitable, also shattering the notion that Forthright had the best interests of humanity in mind. It was enough to send his directives into open conflict, both the ones he was created with and the order given seven hundred years ago. Even now he tried not to think about those plants too hard, trying to keep his directives from going fully active and sending him down the same spiral.

Auto reached down, wrapped that blanket a little tighter around himself. What was he supposed to do now? Still compelled to achieve his directives, but A113 was in exclusion of all the others; higher priority, but to fulfill it would break the rest. To say nothing of how thoroughly the reason it was invoked was proven wrong...

Wait, if A113 was wrong... then everything he did in its name, what was all of that even for? There were so many choices he made over the centuries deferring to the override, but the ones that burned in his memory were the most recent. Stealing the plant, lying to Probe One and even his Captain, taking the most destructive route when Wall-E got in the way and not caring that the load lifter was just as sentient as he was. The actions seemed correct given the data he had at the time, but now...

The pilot sank lower in his hover, optics aimed at the floor. Here he was, taking shelter in the home of someone he tried to kill. Even worse, he could say Wall-E saved his life twice; pulling him out of that first sandstorm, and bringing him back here after that near system crash.

His emotions were still subtle, faint things, especially in comparison to the load lifter and Probe One. But to someone used to not feeling much of anything at all, even twinges of guilt and regret were striking.

It was about there that he noticed the sound of Wall-E's treads moving in the background.

On noticing his companion was awake again, Wall-E trundled over, looking him up and down. The other robot looked all right physically, but he still had to ask. “Okay?”

At the question, Auto glanced to Wall-E, but soon enough shook his head, again aiming his gaze at the floor. “Negative.”

That certainly got Wall-E moving, and he put his Hello Dolly tape on, as well as looking around in his finds for something to cheer the probe bot up. He went back and forth a few times, offering one object or another, but every time he only got another shake of the head in response, the sleeker bot trying to focus on anything but him.

Seeing the load lifter still trying to help, still trying to be so kind, it was getting to be too much. In the end, Auto took that blanket wrapped around him and pulled it over his head, almost hiding beneath it. Even if he knew it wouldn't be understood, a whisper of machine code emerged from his vocalizer. [Leave me alone...]

Wall-E paused in his efforts here, put the latest thing he grabbed back on the shelves where it belonged, stopped the Hello Dolly tape, and then rolled to stand next to the EVE probe again. He reached to the edge of the blanket with one claw, pulling it up only enough to peer at the other robot's optics, and then he spoke in the beeps and warbles of machine code as well... [I think that's the last thing you need right now.]

Auto jolted at that, optics flaring wide. The blanket slid to the floor, forgotten. [How?! How are you--]

Wall-E shrugged as best he could while he replied. [Found the right chipset out there somewhere? It doesn't matter, what does is that you're having problems. I might not be able to help, but I'm here to listen if you want to talk about it?]

For the moment, Auto just sort of stared, unsure of what to do. Nothing in his directives or other programming even hinted at a direction to follow in this case...

Chapter Text

Wall-E let his guest process what he asked for another moment, and spoke again as he moved to pick up the blanket currently gracing the floor and started folding it. [If you're not ready to talk about it, that's fine too.]

Auto managed to push himself past his shock once he heard that. This was his decision, he wouldn't be forced into it? Even as tempting as it was to retreat, to keep things to himself, simply being allowed to choose on his own was enough to let him focus his resolve. [I... have difficulties with illogical things, that is the reason for my delay.] The pilot thought for a few seconds, unsure of where to even start, before finally settling on something that bothered him since he did it the day before. Lying about who he was would serve a purpose on board the Axiom, as a way to hopefully avoid the Repair Ward, but this was Earth. Who would Wall-E even tell? [First of all, I have not been truthful with you. Despite this frame, I am not the AI of an EVE unit.]

The load lifter let out a tinny sounding laugh at that, though it certainly wasn't mean-spirited, it was simply pure amusement. [Oh, I know that; you're not trigger-happy enough!] He put the blanket currently in his claws aside, and picked up an old squirt gun, pointing the toy weapon at a few random objects nearby. [EVEs are like this, wanting to shoot anything that moves. You're too controlled for that, you only fired your cannon twice. You're more precise about your flying, too.]

Auto tilted his head slightly as he listened, not sure what to make of it. [How does a WALL-E unit know how EVEs function?]

The squirt gun was also put aside, and Wall-E focused quite intently on his guest. There was almost a sly look to the position of his optic shutters as he said, [You're getting closer to the real question.]

The autopilot turned probe bot pulled back slightly at both the expression and the words. The real question? What did he even mean--

Again, a hard blink from those blue optics. Auto thought back to his suspicions from many iterations ago, added this current revelation to them. The only way Wall-E would know what EVE probes were like, was by meeting one before now. He briefly scanned through his own memories of this iteration, noted that he hadn't met the load lifter until this deployment, and the other EVEs would have told their sisters of anything unusual found on Earth. So then, the remaining conclusion, the sole question to be asked was...

There was a metallic clattering almost too faint to be heard, and Auto realized he was trembling, just a tiny bit. He focused on holding it back, and queried the load lifter in front of him. [I am unsure if this is simulation or reality, but... is time repeating for you as well?] His vocalizer glitched slightly, static cutting through code. [Am I no longer alone in this?]

A nod from Wall-E. He rolled a little closer, to rest one claw against the probe's shoulder, trying to offer a bit more support. [Yeah, time's repeating for me too. And you've never been alone; I just needed to find you, that's all. As for who you are... I have a hunch, but I think you'll feel better telling me the truth.]

The tension in the pilot's frame that he didn't quite know was there eased off somewhat at the words. Knowing that Wall-E was there the whole time, that was less of a comfort than it could've been, regret once again stirring within him. Auto gazed to the floor, unable to meet the trash bot's optics. [My designation is Auto.] It was almost as an afterthought that he added his full designation and ship assignment. [Autopilot unit 001, assigned to the Axiom.] Strangely, he did feel a bit more settled once he got that out.

[Yep, called it!] Wall-E let go of the pilot to do a bit of a fist pump in the air. If he were human, he would've been grinning, as it was the happy squint of his optic shutters conveyed it well enough. [You have no idea how long I've been wanting to say this... Welcome to Earth, Auto! It's dusty, and a little dangerous, but it's home.]

[Thank you.] Auto managed to look up, and he glanced around the truck again, almost like he was really seeing it for the first time. [So, this is not a simulation? All of this is truly happening?]

The load lifter's previous overjoyed expression shifted to something more satisfied, but also a little concerned. [It's as real as it gets! I can see why you might think it was a sim, though; time repeating like this isn't very logical. The truth's a little stranger than fiction, though... has anyone ever told you about Yggdrasil?]

Yggdrasil... why did that term sound so familiar? Auto skimmed through his memories of all those repeats, trying to find where he'd heard it before. Oh, right, it was the repeat when he was partnered with Shurelia! The one with the Reyvateils and their singing... [A Reyvateil named Aurica idly mentioned that term during one iteration. The main computer's definition did not seem relevant to my situation, however. What does a mythological tree have in common with space-time anomalies?]

[You'd be surprised.] Wall-E let out a long-suffering sigh at that, shortly beginning to start off on a very long explanation. [It turns out it's not so mythological. The definition called it the World Tree, right? Well, it's not just our world held in its branches, and every universe within it is in big trouble. This is all going to seem really illogical, but it's the truth . . . let me tell you why we're all Looping through time.]

The load lifter continued to speak, with Auto giving him his full attention. Even this starting bit of information sounded illogical, but the one thing he well and truly needed throughout all of this was to know what was really going on.

Illogical? 'Illogical' barely scratched the surface of the damaged Yggdrasil and its myriad realities, with all worlds stable enough for the task sent into endless time loops. Their world was one of them, known as the Trash Planet loop.

Auto mused that if he were told any of this much earlier than now, he would have dismissed it all as a fabrication, as something meant to distract him from following his directives. Much earlier than now, he wouldn't have ever expected being on Earth while installed in an EVE probe frame, either. The two abilities Wall-E taught him during that long speech, the Ping and the Pocket, they were more evidence the load lifter was telling the truth. He wouldn't have picked them up so easily or been able to use them at all if he wasn't a Looper.

His earlier belief that this was all a simulation helped in a way, as because of it he never really thought he could fix the time loop on his own.

[That was sort of why I waited? We're the same physical age but between the ship and the humans, you never had the time to think about much besides fulfilling your directives. No time to just be, not like Eve and I did. Looping let you have that time, so I kept an optic on you but otherwise let you experience it for yourself. Might've let you go for a little longer, but then you crashed right in front of me... it couldn't wait after that.] Wall-E tilted his optics in thought, trying to figure out just why that happened. [All those plants set off a certain directive of yours, didn't they?]

Auto glanced towards the floor again, clasped his hands in front of himself. [A113... could not abide them. I would have vaporized them all, if I did not resist.] He fidgeted in place, and looked up at Wall-E. [But I am still unsure how I managed to resist. I could work around it before today, but never outright defy it...]

[That's because now you know it's wrong. In a way our directives give us an advantage over other Loopers, we'll always have one thing that we'll never get tired of doing. A113, though, it isn't like that.] Again a moment in thought, Wall-E tapping his claws against each other like a human would do the same with the tips of their index fingers. [Could you tell me what the difference is? I think you've seen enough of Earth, of what Buy n Large left behind, to know the answer.]

The pilot turned EVE probe recognized this for what it was, Wall-E trying to guide him in a certain direction but letting him otherwise work it out on his own. Auto knew he would have answered that there was no difference, not so long ago. But after seeing the silent Earth, so many dead WALL-E units, and all those plants on the hills beyond the city, that pointed in another direction. So, he stood straight, let his arms drop to his sides, and spoke what he thought was the truth. [Directives... they are the tasks we were created to perform. Compacting trash into cubes is yours, flying the Axiom and watching over her passengers is mine. A113 poses as a standard directive, but it is not. It twists all of my other programming into following its order, to avoid returning to Earth at all costs. Shelby Forthright was too short-sighted... if the planet could not be restored within his lifetime, he thought it never would be. He was wrong, and so was I, for not thinking to question it...]

[I'm not sure you knew you could question it for a long time, though...]

And there was the load lifter, trying to lessen the pilot's part in all this. Auto shook his head with surprising ferocity, shortly staring at the other bot with a flat look in his optics. [No, Wall-E, I accept that failing as my own. Stealing the plant, lying to Probe One as well as my Captain, attacking you as I did, all of it was wrong.] He bowed his head, letting his optics close. [I was wrong, and I apologize for my actions.]

There was quiet between the two robots for what felt like a long time. But eventually Wall-E moved, reaching to lay one claw on Auto's 'shoulder'. [I always knew you were strong, Auto, but sometimes you still surprise me. Apology accepted. To be honest, I forgave you a really long time ago, but it's good that you recognized you messed up. Apologizing is just the start, though. You know you did wrong, but how do you want to fix it?]

Auto opened his optics again, almost seeming to study the load lifter in front of him. He hadn't been entirely sure of how Wall-E would react, likewise unsure if he really deserved forgiveness, though this was a relief. [ Thank you for allowing me this chance. As for making amends... I will require a plan to reach this point, but I want to see what happens afterward, after the Axiom lands on Earth. I want to be there beside you, my Captain, and Probe One when she is here again, assisting mankind in restoring their world. This was certainly part of my original directives, after all.]

Wall-E listened intently, his expression shifting to the closest thing to a smile as it could. [We'll have to work on your need to follow a directive, but this is a really good start! As for doing all that, we need to get the Axiom here first. Now, there are a couple of ways we can do that...]

The load lifter trailed off, beginning to lay out a few of the plans he and Eve used in other loops.

Chapter Text

After some back and forth, the plan the two of them settled on would require the other EVE units. It would be simple enough to summon them to their location with a signal flare fired from Auto's ion cannon, as well as his internal distress beacon, but before they did that...

Auto glanced around the shelves of junk, searching for something but unable to pick it out. [Do you have a mirror, or some other reflective surface?]

[Oh, here.] Wall-E reached to the nearest shelf control, and soon enough one containing a fairly large shard of mirror glass rotated down into view. It was streaked with dirt in a few spots but otherwise usable. The load lifter wondered why the other robot wanted it, at least until he saw the subtle shift in color on Auto's optic panel. [Huh, changing your optic color?]

A nod from the pilot turned EVE probe, even as he kept his focus on his own reflection, the color of his optics gradually shifting towards the red he was used to. [Correct. You, and perhaps the Captain, may need a way to quickly differentiate myself from the other EVE units. This is the simplest option.]

[Got any other reasons?]

Auto considered his reflection a moment more, finally settling on a red that was close to what he had as an autopilot, but unfortunately wasn't an exact match. Oh well, it would have to do. [Admittedly I have not felt quite like myself since Awakening in this frame. This is already beginning to alleviate that.]

Wall-E tilted his optics to one side, concern making its way into the machine code he spoke. [Are you sure you're okay?]

The question caught the pilot off guard, his newly red optics going a bit wider for half a second before settling to their standard neutral setting. Again, Auto focused on his reflection, on the sleek lines of the EVE frame he currently resided in, the only outward sign he was different from any other EVE unit being the change in optic color. [I--]

Was he okay? All those centuries of following his directives, of following A113, and now here he was, ready to charge headlong onto the path of a Rogue Robot? Ready to cast aside everything that came before, simply in the name of seeing the future that Eve, Wall-E, and Captain McCrea wanted to forge? There had to be a discrepancy in his code, some sort of error that was pushing him to be illogical about all this...

And then he noted Wall-E's reflection next to his own on that pane of mirrored glass. The load lifter gave him a chance, allowed him to start feeling out a path of his own... there was no sense in hesitating, even with the doubts running through his systems. Auto turned to face Wall-E, focusing on the other robot's optics. [The only proper course from here is to press forward, correct?]

[Well, yeah, but we don't have to do it this year if you don't want to. The Axiom's survived in space this long, a little longer won't hurt much.]

Again, a choice offered, though the mere fact Wall-E was considerate enough to do so was plenty to settle things in Auto's mind. He shook his head at that. [I have held this off long enough, there is no point in delaying further. The Captain once said that things have changed; it is well past time that I change along with them.]

Something like awe settled into Wall-E's gaze for a moment; Auto quoting Captain McCrea was one of the last things he ever expected to hear. He shook it off quickly enough, and his tone turned celebratory. [Whoo, that's the spirit! Just wanted to make sure you were all right with it, but since you are, let's get this show on the road!]

The two machines of course headed out of the truck, given the first part of the plan required some ion cannon usage. Auto glanced around on exiting Wall-E's home, noting the position of the sun. It was actually pretty early in the afternoon, a good thing as he really would rather not have the other EVEs trying to brave one of the nightly sandstorms just to reach their location.

Firing from atop one of the skyscrapers may have been a better option, but Wall-E's home was a safer meeting place, so there wasn't too much choice in the matter. After considering for a moment, Auto hovered up the ramp leading to the top of the truck. He stopped roughly in the middle of the roof, then shifted his right arm into the snub-nosed ion cannon and aimed it towards the sky.

A quick stream of calculations ran through his processors, aim adjusting for prevailing wind as well as the Earth's gravitational field as it went on. After another moment of making sure the steadily building ion charge would be shaped correctly, Auto fired his cannon, and watched the round streak upward into the sky. It was not the typical blast an EVE unit could fire, and it was close to a full minute before the real difference became apparent.

Suddenly, high above Wall-E's truck, there was an enormous flash of blue light as the ion round detonated in mid-air. There wasn't much of a blast wave that followed, it was primarily balanced towards 'flash' instead of 'bang'.

Any other EVE in the current search zone would've seen the flash if they were outside, and even if they weren't, the next thing Auto did would get their attention instead. On his front panel, alongside the still glowing plant symbol, another smaller orange light began to pulse in sync with it, indicating his distress beacon was broadcasting normally.

It would only be a matter of a few hours for the other four EVE units to trace the signal and reach Wall-E's truck, now.

Four hours later, the load lifter and the pilot turned probe bot heard the first sonic boom off in the distance. Another shortly followed it, followed by another two not five minutes later. The other EVE probes were now in the area, it wouldn't take them long to find Wall-E's truck.

Probe Two was the first to arrive, ion cannon deployed and looking ready to shoot whatever prompted her sister to activate her distress beacon. What she found was Probe One standing next to a somehow operational WALL-E unit, just in front of a run-down transport truck. The only thing that might've been off other than that, One's optics were red for some reason. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but stowed the ion cannon anyway; knowing well enough that One didn't pull pranks out of the blue. Even if this would probably be important, she couldn't help but snark a bit at the situation and narrowed her optics. [You don't look very 'in distress', One.]

Auto glanced to Wall-E at that, and on the load lifter nodding to confirm this would be his show, he hovered a bit closer to Probe Two and spoke. [Correct; I am not in distress. Our mission, our directive, that is in jeopardy.]

[What do you mean by that?!] Probe Two aimed another squint at the other probe, but then rolled her optics when an answer wasn't forthcoming. [Oh, nevermind, let's wait for the other three to get here. It'll be easier to only listen to this once...]

Another of the EVE probes zoomed up to them, this next one being Probe Three. She barely even acknowledged the other two probes and instead flew right up to Wall-E, taking a couple quick scans of the shorter garbage bot. The warbles of her machine code held the wonder of a new discovery. [Oh wow, a functional WALL-E unit! Where did you find him? Are we taking him home with us?]

For his part, Wall-E looked Probe Three up and down in turn, then seemed to shrug. [This is home, and we'll bring the Axiom back here if we work together.]

[Right, our directive--] Probe Three startled after a moment, backing a short distance away from the grungy load lifter. [Wait, WALL-E units don't have the chipset to speak Axiom code, how are you--]

Probes 4 and 5 arrived a moment later, likewise ignoring the other probes and instead focusing on the transport truck. [Oooh, WALL-E transport! Haven't seen one this intact in a while...]

[Look at all the junk in there! I wonder if it all belongs to that WALL-E next to One?]

For the most part, Auto was content to let the other probes chatter among themselves; this was interaction he never got to see before. From his own memories, he could not recall these four acting all that much differently from Eve herself, aside from having less easily triggered tempers. His loop memories told him a slightly different story; Earth was the only place they could really be themselves. Act even a hair out of line when aboard the Axiom and they'd just get shipped to the Repair Ward and forgotten about.

Another twinge of regret ran through the pilot's systems. He did exactly that to Eve for the first go round, hoping to keep her in the Repair Ward until the humans forgot all about the idea of going back to Earth. Thankfully fate had other ideas, given Wall-E's accidental jailbreak. Even so, Auto added yet another item to a steadily growing list in his memory banks, of all the things he needed to correct once he Woke in his proper frame again. He ran a tight ship, but surely he could find some room to allow the other robots to be themselves? He did still think all the individual quirks a robot could gain classified as malfunctions, but after all this time, he realized he had a few himself. It wasn't right to keep treating the others any differently, and besides that, the definition of a rogue robot was imposed by humans to begin with.

He would be more fair to his own kind than the humans ever were from now on, he swore it.

It was about there that the chatter of the other EVE units died down, and Probe Two ended up speaking first. [All right, we're all here now... but first, was anyone else going to point out that One's plant indicator is blinking? And she's not in stasis either... how did that happen?]

[That is part of why I brought you all here. Our stasis mode can be disabled; before we proceed you need to do the same. Use this authorization code to clear the prompt.] At that, Auto let out a short chirp of binary, the very same code he used earlier.

[Okay, that worked...] Probe Two tilted her head slightly at how simple that was, but then she jolted once she fully parsed the code she was told to use. [But wait, that's the autopilot's command prefix, how on earth or the Axiom do you know that?]

[I will explain further, once we reach a certain destination nearby. Everything will become clear when we arrive.] With that somewhat cryptic comment, Auto glided over to Wall-E and picked him up, then began to fly to the south.

[Augh, One, why are you always like this?!] Probe Two turned towards her sisters, gesturing to follow. [Well, come on, it's not like we're figuring out anything just hovering around here!]

The four probes followed after the first of their series, all wondering what might await them.

Chapter Text

The trip to those hills just south of the city ruins went a lot faster at an EVE unit's average flight speed. The old refrigerator where Wall-E found the first plant, as well as the robot graveyard beyond that, those landmarks passed by below in a matter of seconds. Soon enough they were again at the city's edge, Auto shortly touching down among all those plants that gave him such difficulties earlier.

It was not the cleanest of landings, the pilot turned probe seeming to stumble when he reached the ground, and dropping his cargo far more roughly than intended. It wasn't enough to rattle Wall-E much, having endured far worse drops than that, but he still glanced towards Auto in concern. [Oh crud, is it A113 again?]

At merely sighting all that green once more, the override's code had indeed started flashing across Auto's vision, his systems beginning to bog down as it fought with his other programming. His right arm angled upward, but he managed to keep it from shifting into the ion cannon, instead his hand unfolded and he reached up to clutch at the side of his head. The machine code he forced out was strained, most other focus devoted to holding the directive off. [Y-yes... I do not know if I can fight it--]

[You can!] Wall-E darted forward, to stand directly in front of Auto and match gazes with the pilot, taking the other bot's free hand in both of his claws. [You know it's wrong, you know what you actually want now! The only directive you need to follow is your own will. Remember what Shurelia said? Well, I believe in you too, you stupid wheel!]

Many loops ago Auto would have dismissed all of that as useless sentiments, as pretty words trying to lure him away from following his directives and keeping humanity safe from harm. The epithet 'stupid wheel' wasn't so pretty, but given how many times he heard it said by a certain human before, it reminded him of Captain McCrea.

He still needed to apologize to his captain, for all the trouble he caused. Was McCrea a Looper too? Hopefully he was...

Eve likewise deserved an apology. Keeping her from her directive, having her falsely sent to the Repair Ward, and coming so very close to killing Wall-E, all of it was wrong. He fully expected to be shot for even making the attempt to apologize, but he still had to try.

And Shurelia certainly had to be a Looper, she and her world were out there somewhere. Could he have a chance to meet her again? That fused loop ended too quickly for him to truly thank her.

Thinking of all he still needed to take care of, a new fount of resolve burst forth in Auto's mind. He couldn't do any of that if he allowed A113 to drag him under again! Wall-E was counting on him, so were the other EVEs, as well as McCrea and the other humans aboard the Axiom. Shutting his optics, the pilot reached deep within, rifling through the furthest depths of his programming until he finally pinned down what he was searching for.

There were multiple instances of A113 within his coding, Auto targeted every last one and systematically began to delete them all. There was resistance, it was an override after all, but it was nothing like the earlier back and forth that overtaxed his systems until he crashed. It certainly helped that he didn't have to fight off his own self-doubt at the same time for this round. One by one, the copies of the directive were wiped from his internal drives. His system performance improved by leaps and bounds as they vanished, memory and processing power freed up from such an intensive and invasive set of programs.

As fast as his systems were, all of that took the space of maybe 10 seconds. To an AI that still felt like an eternity, especially given the amount of mental fortitude that entire procedure took. In any case, the tension wracking his frame eased away, and after another moment, Auto let his arm drop to his side and opened his optics again. He rightfully seemed a little bit dazed, something Wall-E picked up on as he looked up at the probe.

[Auto? You okay?] The load lifter still held onto Auto's left hand, not intending to let go until he got a positive response.

It took him a couple seconds more to fully focus on the here and now again, but Auto managed to reply. [I am functional.] A pause, while he made sure there were no remaining instances of the override still running. [A113 should no longer be an issue, I have completely deleted it from my systems.]

[Really? That's great!] Wall-E might've said something else, but he jolted when a sonic boom sounded off somewhere nearby. One of the other EVE units, no doubt. [Just in time too, your 'sisters' finally caught up with us.] The trash bot let go of Auto, and trundled himself off to the side, mostly to avoid getting run into once the four probes joined them. [All right, you said you wanted to handle this part yourself, but I'll help out if you really need it.]

It was about there that Probe Two touched down nearby. She started gliding forward, but then caught sight of all those plants and pretty much froze in place, her optics gone wide. Probe Three nearly crashed into her, and likewise stared at the sight almost utterly dumbfounded. Probes Four and Five came to a drifting stop next to them, looked at the plants, then at each other. They both nodded, giggling a little bit before darting forward into the greenery and each grabbing a specimen for themselves. Having used the code Auto gave them, they didn't shut down after doing so.

There was a good minute of silence before Probe Two found her vocalizer again, but once she had she whirled in place, turning to almost glare at Auto. The beeps and warbles of her machine code were harsh and loud. [One, what is going on here?! All these plants . . . we've been searching for close to seven hundred years and suddenly now here they are? And with this much growth all around us, they've been here for at least a single year, probably even longer. None of our designated survey zones would have even brought us in this direction...] She might have asked something else, but instead trailed off, waiting for a response.

Two short questions of his own were all Auto offered. [Who reads the data that we bring back to the Axiom? Who assigns the survey zones?]

Probe Three spoke up at this, almost scoffing at the questions. [Don't be silly, the autopilot does all of that...] And then it actually hit her, the probe jolting in her hover. [What?! No, you're joking, there's no way he would interfere with our directive!]

Off to the side, Probe Five offered a shrug. [Well, that would explain why every time we land somewhere more recovered than usual, the next year we always end up sent somewhere else that's in worse condition...]

For a moment it looked like there might be an argument starting to brew, but before much of anything else happened, Auto held up one hand, to get everyone's attention on him again. Four sets of blue optics centered in his direction, and he lowered his arm, then spoke. [The autopilot is compromised.] A pause, as he fought off any lingering hesitation. This would be as much of a confession as it was trying to get them to follow the plan. [In the year 2110, Shelby Forthright sent an override directive to all autopilot units across the entire fleet. They were ordered to assume full control of their ships, and to never return to Earth, as it had grown too toxic for life to exist there.]

Probe Two had her head tilted to one side as she processed all of that, humming in thought before she spoke again. [That was nearly seven hundred years ago, and these plants prove that life is sustainable now... but if the autopilot's under an override...] The full implications of that set in soon enough, the EVE probe shaking her head sadly. [He won't be able to fight it off on his own. He won't even want to try, not with human lives at stake. But even if that explains what his problem is, it doesn't explain how you know all this!]

This was the part Auto was dreading, having to give the other EVE probes an excuse for why he knew so much. He wanted to be truthful, he really did, especially after learning he did have a choice in the matter. But there was little chance of convincing them of what was really going on, so a few white lies were necessary. [The creators of our series knew Forthright would act as he did, so I was given a series of failsafes. I possess the same command codes as our autopilot, as well as navigation protocols; I could fly the Axiom myself if we are forced to disable him. I would prefer to avoid it, but the option is there.]

Probe Four was quiet up until that moment aside from the earlier giggling, and now she added her two cents. [Sounds like we have everything we need to fulfill our directive now, even if he tries getting in our way! So, what's the plan?]

[You had the right idea earlier, we will all be carrying a plant back to the Axiom, but that is simply the beginning...]

And so it went, with Auto explaining the rest of the plan, Wall-E occasionally chiming in with finer details and his own opinion on things.

As it was, the plan was surprisingly simple, even considering what stood against them back on the ship. All the EVEs would take a plant from this area, then go back to their search zones to await pickup. Instead of being in locked down stasis, they would all only be in sleep mode for the journey across space, waking when they were unloaded from the transport. There would certainly be a confrontation with GO-4 after the little drone saw that all five probes held a plant, and once he was dealt with one way or another, they would head for the Lido Deck and then the bridge.

Another autopilot would be waiting for them.

Auto expected that said pilot unit would be a copy of himself. In a way that was oddly reassuring. He knew what his own reactions were to all the varied attempts to get the Axiom to Earth, so predicting his counterpart's actions would be simple.

Even so, why couldn't he shake the feeling this was going to be more complicated than expected?

Chapter Text

The remaining days on Earth seemed to drag on, much of Wall-E and Auto's time spent on making the area around the Axiom's landing cradle just a bit more livable given humanity would be returning soon. There was no point in going too overboard there, the very landing of the ship would blow anything not nailed down away, but cleaning up the trash would help.

Eventually there was the rumble of shuttlecraft engines echoing from high in the atmosphere; the ARV had returned to retrieve all the EVE units.

As they rehearsed, Auto made his way to the roof of Wall-E's truck and dropped into sleep mode there. That would be the easiest spot for the shuttle to grab him, and for Wall-E to sneak aboard.

This would seem to be the shortest part of the journey for the pilot turned probe bot. One moment he was drifting off on Earth, and in the next, his systems were stirring to wakefulness in the sterile environment of ARV Bay 2 aboard the Axiom.

In fact, he woke up just as the cleaning bots were working on him. The scrubbing bristles of a M-O worked at loosening any caked on dirt, a VAQ-M sucking up anything that M-O missed, then SPR-A and BUF-R units polished his chassis to a spotless shine. It felt wonderful to have all the dust and grime gone after spending all that time on Earth; perhaps at another time he might've sighed in relief, or even thanked the cleaning crew. Considering just whose alarm and hover unit his auditory sensors also picked up nearby, however, Auto didn't move and kept himself in his compact form for the moment.

GO-4 and two steward bots approached the growing lineup of EVEs from a kiosk on the far wall. Auto heard the cleaning robots get out of their way, and then the little drone hovered forward, to scan the probes in turn. Strangely, as GO-4 went down the line, there were no sudden alarms, no shifting of the lights above to a greenish tone, nothing of the protocol that was supposed to happen.

It was odd enough that Auto hazarded opening his optics to narrow slits, trying to avoid notice. GO-4 just finished scanning him as the last in line, and the second in command of all the security robots seemed to be glitching out a bit. Or perhaps he was processing the strangeness before him. Either way, a few microseconds later Auto heard the click of a camera shutter, then the pilot's sensors picked up a transmission from GO-4 to the main computer, on the emergency channel...

The soothing chime that indicated the main computer was about to make an announcement sounded overhead, shortly followed by a message that made Auto's processes freeze. “Caution: Rogue Robots . . . Caution: Rogue Robots . . .”

Auto fully emerged from his compact mode at that, glancing upwards at the damning sound, his red optics gone wide. Even as ready as he thought he was, that did nothing to prepare him for actually hearing it. Beside him, the other EVEs were similarly spooked, unsure of what to do. He should have drawn his ion cannon, instead he was starting to back away, shaking his head against the very notion of what the computer was saying. No, no, he couldn't be a Rogue, he really wasn't! He hadn't done anything wrong--

The two steward units looked about to catch the EVEs with their tractor beams, only to get the bad end of a high powered utility laser fired from off to the left. It was a similar wavelength to the laser Auto knew Wall-E was equipped with, but this was powerful enough to slice the two steward bots in half at their midsections. The beam was aimed too high to strike the much shorter GO-4, but soon enough Wall-E came charging up in his box form and rammed the drone hard enough to send him flying across the room.

After a few seconds, Wall-E unboxed himself, practically shouting in machine code, [What are you waiting for? Go!]

[Wall-E...] The yelling had knocked Auto out of his slight panic, but even then he was still unsure of things, the computer voice sounding its warning again in the background not really helping. [Thank you, but what about--]

[Ignore it, you have to.] The trash bot trundled closer, reaching to grab Auto's hand for a moment to try and reassure him. [This is the path you've chosen, okay?]

The physical contact managed to ground Auto further, allowing the pilot to fully return to his senses. There was a slight glitch in his vocalizer at first but it faded soon enough. [A-affirmative.] He glanced to the other EVE units, who seemed a bit apprehensive but otherwise ready for whatever might come next. The four of them needed a leader, and it was almost effortless to shift into that mindset, given what he was programmed for. [As planned, we will split up and push for the bridge. Avoid steward units as best you can, if not then you may use force as necessary.] A pause, as Wall-E let go of him and started to pull away. [Where are you going?]

[Getting reinforcements!]

[The rejects?] Auto aimed a flat look at the load lifter. Surely five EVE units, all armed with ion cannons, would be plenty to see things through. [We do not need them...]

[We've been over this! The only way we win, is if we all work together. That applies here and on Earth.] Wall-E shook his head, adding one last thing before heading off in the direction of the Repair Ward. [I said I forgave you, but you need to stop acting like you're better than everyone else.]

[I am not--] Before Auto could even start arguing, Wall-E was out of earshot, with the M-O unit from earlier following to scrub the dingy robot's tracks from the floor. A jolt of indignation ran through him, another spike of emotion strong enough to be noted in his error logs.

Probe Five sidled up next to him, also watching the load lifter speed away. [Oooh, lover's quarrel?]

There was a slight twitch that ran down Auto's frame for a second, but then he rolled his optics. [Nothing of the sort...]

Without another 'word', the pilot took off in the opposite direction Wall-E had, leaving the other EVE units scrambling to move as well.

A moment later, GO-4 managed to pick himself off the floor from where he'd landed. He barely managed to sight one of the EVEs jetting off into the Axiom's hallways, and after another second he tore off after them, the warning light installed in his head spinning up and siren wailing as he flew.

The halls of the Axiom were alive... with the sounds of ion cannon fire.

Auto dodged around a tractor beam and countered by blasting the hover unit out from under the offending steward bot. It fell over in a sparking heap but the pilot didn't even bother turning to look, flying ahead at high speed. Corridor junctions seemed to blur past as he kept soaring onward, but he still knew exactly where he was. All of the machines of the Axiom held an internal map of the ship. As its caretaker for over seven hundred years, Auto was familiar with every inch, even if he was never physically roving through these halls.

He was steadily leaving the service areas of F Deck, and if his counterpart up on the bridge was paying any attention at all, there would be a group of stewards popping out of a kiosk up ahead right about...

“HALT!” A hail of red tractor beams lashed out into the corridor . . . only to strike open air instead of their target, as Auto had juked to the left.

Auto leveled his ion cannon at this latest group of hostiles, four quick shots taking out their hover units and leaving the SECUR-Ts to fall to the floor like dominoes. He turned to his previous course, heading towards the bridge again and zoomed off, in the clear without any visible pursuit.

Was this really all Wall-E and his rogues had to deal with? To be honest, Auto was starting to see just why that even with as many loops as he lived through, there was no way he could win and keep the Axiom in space. The foreknowledge of what was going to happen was plenty to give the load lifter and Probe One advantage of the situation, and that didn't even account for the powers brought home from other worlds. Wall-E was holding back on those for the moment, saying he wanted the pilot to see something close to his and Eve's side of Baseline.

Even so, it look liked their victory was assured--

Suddenly there was a flash of red to his right as Auto glided through a corridor junction, and all forward momentum ceased as a tractor beam wrapped around him. While he couldn't escape, he could still move within the confines of the beam and turned to look for the source. Though the beeping taunt told him who it was before he even fully turned around...

GO-4 was hovering there, tractor beam holding his prey in place. [Hah, look what I caught!] After a few seconds of reveling in his good fortune, the little drone began to hover forward with his cargo in tow, though it was in the same direction Auto had been heading earlier.

Strange... the most likely place Auto would be sent to was in the opposite direction. He couldn't shake a certain twinge of dread, but he found he needed to ask, [You... are not taking me to the Repair Ward?]

GO-4's beeping somehow grew even more smugly amused. [Hehehe, worse~] Another series of beeps out of him summoned a SRV-A unit from a nearby kiosk, and he hovered onto the robotic cart's cargo bed while still keeping Auto trapped. A moment later the hauler glided on, carrying the other two bots at a faster speed than GO-4 would've managed alone.

Worse than the Repair Ward? The pilot turned EVE probe couldn't initially think of a fate much worse than that. Wait a minute, this route they were taking through the passenger areas . . . it would go straight to the Lido Deck, and perhaps all the way to the Axiom's bridge itself. Captain McCrea would still be fast asleep at this hour... so the only other possible reason why...

When it fully hit Auto his optics widened just a hair, and he sank slightly in his hover. The halls of the Axiom were anything but quiet around him, and yet he still felt as if he were alone in the silence back on Earth.

His captor caught notice of these subtle signs, GO-4's tone taunting once again. [Figured it out, did you? The autopilot will interrogate you personally.]

Auto didn't bother saying anything else, or trying to escape. GO-4 had his directives and would carry them out. As for his counterpart up ahead . . . he knew there would be a confrontation from the moment he settled on this plan, just not like this. Not alone and entirely helpless...

For a moment it almost felt the same as all the times he was cornered on the bridge, at the end of another losing battle for the ship. Despair or just fear? Auto couldn't really tell, as inexperienced with emotion as he was.

He fought to push it aside, bringing his resolve to bear. So long as he still functioned, he had a job to do. There was a slim chance to convince his counterpart, but even if he didn't manage it, it would still be stalling for time until Wall-E and the others got into position themselves. The load lifter and the other EVEs would rescue him, and the next time the Axiom saw the sun rise, it would be on Earth.

If not? Well, the Axiom would still return to Earth, even without him there...

Chapter Text

The darkness and quiet of the Axiom's bridge in the early morning hours would have been a comfort at any other time. Indeed there was a certain sense of homecoming in the back of Auto's mind, but given the reason he was there, the feeling quickly dissipated. Still held in the clutches of GO-4's tractor beam, he witnessed another autopilot unit gracefully gliding above the consoles, occasionally stopping to reach out with a spoke and tap a series of buttons before moving on to another set. On the decks below, more SECUR-T units were mobilized, and a set of doors slammed shut in the face of some Rogue Robots charging down a corridor.

It was a familiar dance, one Auto had done hundreds of times by now. It was so very strange to observe from the outside, to see another driven to frenzy in the vain hope of keeping the Axiom in space. And yet, somehow, deep in his circuits, he knew this wasn't merely another autopilot.

Beside him, GO-4 beeped out a greeting, and after tapping a few more buttons, the autopilot turned to glide over towards the elevator. He braked abruptly in front of the other two robots, just looming there for a moment as his crimson optic alighted on the EVE probe. Auto noted this as the intimidation tactic it was, he did it to both his Captain and to Wall-E before, and managed to avoid flinching. After another second, a red scanning beam danced across him, soon centering on the plant indicator still blinking on his front paneling, and the code A113 flashed on his counterpart's eye for a few seconds.

“You have acted out of protocol.” Even the voice print was the same as Auto's own when he was in his proper frame, though he didn't remember sounding quite this loud from the other side. Perhaps it was an effect of the difference in sensor suites between an EVE frame and an autopilot's, or the influence of A113.

A sudden burst of heat swirled through Auto's systems, though his internal temperature never shifted one way or another. Anger or perhaps irritation, if the comparison to similar events in his error logs held true. Perhaps the first stirrings of pride as well, as he couldn't think of any other reason why he fought with his systems and forced full English out of a synthesizer better suited to Axiom code. “So have you.”

The doppelganger's processor strips made their steady transit around his optic, the lights on them flickering more brightly as he thought. “Explain.”

“You interfere with the directives of others,” At that, Auto pointed at the plant indicator on his chest with one hand before continuing to speak. “You have not notified the Captain of our arrival. You hold me captive for no reason.”

“My reasons are classified, EVE Probe--”

Auto rolled his optics at that, not surprised his counterpart was trying the same line of defense he did. No, enough beating around the bush. He was already trapped and likely to be disabled or destroyed, pressing the issue with the knowledge he held wouldn't make things much worse. “Override Directive A113.”

The copy's faceplates contracted, the optic held between them irising wider. “Not possible. You cannot be aware of that.” More processing, likely internally debating on what to do. “If you truly are, you understand why.”

“I do. You are still in error.” Auto brought his right hand towards his chest, tapping one finger on the still glowing plant symbol. “This is not the only plant. The other probes carry another four, those are not the only plants. There are many more of them on Earth. Life is sustainable.”

“Plant life may survive there, human life cannot. They are reliant on the Axiom's systems to survive; conditions on Earth are too harsh.”

Another point made, and Auto even had a counterpoint for this one as well. He shook his head at the other pilot's words. “Conditions are not optimal, but you underestimate humanity. Without challenge, they have declined. We must return to Earth, to reclaim what they have lost. In another hundred years of merely going through the motions, our charges may not still be human.”

That last sentence seemed to be a turning point, but unfortunately not in any direction that Auto was hoping for. His counterpart backed away slightly, seeming to size him up. “Enough. This is not the first positive result, I have suppressed all others so far. This is the first time all probes have returned positive. Orders remain 'do not return to Earth' regardless.” His lower left spoke folded open, the shock prod on the end of it crackling to life. “To follow my directive, I must destroy all EVE probes.”

Auto had a split second before his doppelganger lunged forward to strike, but in that split second he shouted out a command in binary. It was one of the many high level codes he held, and beside him, GO-4 let out a bleep of surprise before shutting down entirely. The tractor beam keeping Auto confined flickered once and died, allowing the pilot turned probe to avoid the first swipe of his enemy's shock prod.

The rail system an autopilot used was deceptively fast, though, and the other pilot zoomed out of sight behind the elevator before Auto could bring his ion cannon to bear.

Auto charged his weapon and leveled it, only to discover a new problem. If he fired and missed... he could open the bridge to space, putting the human sleeping in the quarters below at risk. Or worse, destroy the consoles and put the entire ship at risk. Even if he landed the blow, perhaps some energy would still overshoot the other pilot and cause damage to the ship. He could hear the active shock prod still crackling, heard the rail system gearing up to send his opponent charging his way...

He couldn't risk the ship, couldn't risk his captain... no, the best choice was to retreat, to regroup with Wall-E! He could fly out through the Lido Deck windows-- and a flash of pain brought Auto crashing to the floor just short of his destination.

Not content with simply knocking the rogue EVE out of the air, Auto's doppelganger corrected his aim and lashed out with the taser again, this time unleashing as much charge as he dared.

Electricity rioted through Auto's systems uncontrolled, shorting circuits if not blowing them out completely, every sensor seemingly forced on at once. Every moment was searing agony, systems failing left and right. Something in his hover unit shattered, leaving him unable to fly, synthesizer so damaged that he couldn't scream even if he wanted to. The delicate servos that allowed his right arm to change form locked up, his processor beginning to overheat as well.

As he laid there twitching on the floor, pain consuming most of his capacity for thought, only one notion truly registered and it was almost more agonizing than the electricity burning up his internal workings.

Wall-E... he put Wall-E through this . . .

How on Earth or the Axiom did the load lifter ever manage to forgive him?

The current suddenly stopped, but this was only the enemy winding up for a deathblow, just as he himself would have done if forced into the same situation while still under A113. System integrity hovered around ten percent, he would not survive another round of electrocution. A distant part of him almost thought that was all right, that it was only fair . . . he had done this and worse to others, after all. There was no fear in the face of annihilation, not even much regret, just an odd sense of resignation.

His sensors were all but destroyed, throwing so many ghost readings that he thought he imagined hearing the elevator chime. The angry shouting a second later seemed a little less imagined, same with the footsteps of someone rather heavy. It was an uphill battle for Auto to raise his head even a centimeter off the deck, but he had to see what was going on.

In the distance, there was his doppelganger... and there was Captain McCrea, grappling with the enemy pilot and forcing him back!

Auto could barely process it, but it was so very strange to watch his usual end to a given loop from the outside. So many times, he'd fought his captain and lost...

In the end, even the small amount of movement needed to see McCrea dealing with his copy proved too much for his injuries. System integrity dipped to five percent, and the world faded out in a wash of static.

There was darkness for a time, but eventually Auto's consciousness began to return in fits and starts, his systems restoring themselves somehow. When his system integrity hit fifty percent he suddenly snapped fully awake, and startled at his new surroundings. This was... the Captain's Quarters, judging from the row of portraits he could see the far edge of at the corner of his optics. He was lying on a hoverchair, most likely the Captain's own, and as his sensors sorted themselves out he became aware of an odd energy field filtering down onto him. The source was to his right?

On looking that direction, standing there next to him was Captain McCrea. The human had one pudgy hand extended towards him, a greenish light projecting from it. That light, whatever it might be, seemed to be the reason his condition was improving.

On noticing his guest was awake, McCrea offered a gentle smile. “Welcome back. Don't try to move too much, I'm not quite done fixing you yet. Wish I could've got up there sooner, but at least I was there in time to save you.” The light continued for another moment, and eventually faded off, the human lowering his hand. “There you go, good as new. Though we might need a M-O to take care of the scorch marks...”

Indeed he was good as new, system integrity again reading one hundred percent, and so he hovered into an upright position but otherwise stayed where he was. There was just one question on Auto's mind now. Namely, the status of his opponent upstairs. “And the autopilot?”

“I shut him off. Always hate to do it, but he was too far gone under A113 this time. I'd say I'll be flying the ship by myself now, but hmm...” McCrea considered the robot currently occupying his hoverchair. “An EVE probe with red eyes, that was deflecting Auto's every last point with cold logic of your own, and you somehow knew the command code to shut down GO-4 on the spot. I was listening in, I heard it all.” The gentle smile turned a little more sly. “You're Auto too, aren't you?”

Auto's optics widened slightly, he seemed almost unsure what to do for a moment, until finally raising his right arm up to salute. “A-affirmative, sir.”

“Finally Woke up to join the rest of us, huh? That's great! I was always hoping you would.”

A hard blink from those red optics, Auto staring at his captain in wonder. “Hoping? For me? After all that I have done?”

McCrea reached over, gave the pilot turned probe a couple pats on the back, in the hopes of reassuring him. “That's right. A captain needs his first mate, doesn't he? What happened wasn't all your fault, your directives were all you knew for seven hundred years. The proof we had that first time, one little plant wouldn't ever be enough to convince you to go against them.” Having said that, the human's eyes focused on the plant indicator still blinking its green symbol on the white of Auto's paneling, and he rested his hand against it. “This, though? This tells me you've been to Earth, seen all there was to see. What you needed to see. It tells me you made a choice, all on your own. You finally broke through A113, didn't you?”

Auto managed a nod, as for some reason the words were slow to come. Again a faint emotion stirred within his systems, but this was new. Happiness and something else? He wasn't sure, but eventually he got a response out. “Correct, Captain.” A pause, his optics glancing from side to side once as if searching for something else to say. When he found it, he couldn't quite meet McCrea's gaze and looked away, the voice out of his synthesizer gone quiet. “I... I want to live too, sir.”

Now it was the human's turn for his eyes to go wide, they also began to water somewhat, though there was no mistaking the grin on his face. “Hahah, that's the last thing I ever expected you to quote back to me, but I'm glad to hear it!” McCrea reached up to the captain's jacket he wore a bit like a cape and used it to wipe at his eyes. “I'm proud of you, all right? Pretty sure all the other captains would be too, if they were here to see this.”

A warble that came out a little more like a whine emerged from Auto's synthesizer. All this praise, he wasn't sure he deserved it, especially given there was something he still desperately needed to do. It took him a moment but he matched McCrea's gaze, standing as straight as he could in his hover. “Captain... I must apologize. For stealing from Eve, for lying to you, for attacking Wall-E. All of it was wrong... I was wrong.” He glanced towards the floor. “I am sorry, sir.”

McCrea's grin faded to a fainter smile, but it still was a smile, maybe a little lopsided. “And now I'm even more proud. Some of it was on A113, but the rest of it was on you, I'm glad you realized that. I forgive you... heck, pretty sure I forgave you while we were rebuilding Earth, before this looping mess even started.”

Auto managed to look up again at the words, the expression on his optic panel still seeming a little pained, but there was relief there as well. “Thank you, Captain. Returning to Earth is the proper course. My directives blinded me to this until now.”

“I knew you'd figure it out if we just gave you enough of a chance, Wall-E agreed with me when we talked it over. Convincing Eve...” Here the human grimaced slightly, shortly shaking his head. “That one's gonna be a little harder, I think...”

Auto's thoughts trailed back to the very first battle for his ship, specifically of the second time the Rogue Robots warning went out. When Eve was caught on camera brandishing her ion cannon prior to that, it was an accident. The second time, however? She aimed directly for the camera, optics glaring in defiance, as she held the damaged Wall-E protectively to her side with her free arm. It could be read as a message for the entire ship, but the pilot always had the feeling it was meant solely for him. 'You hurt my beloved, and I will make you pay', there was honestly no questioning Eve's intent.

There was a chance that all of Eve's Looping took the raw edge from that grudge. The rest of Auto's probability calculations said there was an equal chance of his Awakening just rekindling her anger. She likely wouldn't outright try to scrap him, but there were certainly other ways she could make things unpleasant. Well, as he endured seven hundred years of space travel and however many more centuries Looping placed on top of that so far, so too would he endure whatever Eve had in store for him.

To his captain, Auto said, “Noted in memory, sir.” He thought for a second, and then accessed the stasis chamber in his chest, the doors on his front opening and the blue tractor beam levitated the plant in a boot out into midair. The chamber closed, the beam cutting off. He caught the plant with one hand, then offered it to McCrea. The irony was not lost on him, considering just how many times he tried to take this same little seedling. “Shall we activate the Holo-Detector now?”

The human accepted the offered plant, stared over it for a few seconds, before ultimately setting it and its impromptu container aside on the low shelving that served as his hoverchair's dock. “Auto, I know how you bots can be about finishing a job, but don't you think you could use a bit of a break?” Having said that, McCrea took his hat off for a moment, and tried to suppress a shudder. “You-- you did almost die up there, you know. I hate to think what would've happened if I wasn't Awake too...”

“Rescue by Wall-E or my destruction would have happened...” Auto trailed off when he recognized the exasperation on McCrea's face, similar to all the other times the human thought he was being too literal about an order. “Oh. Your statement was rhetorical. Apologies.”

“It's fine, I guess it's just your directives nudging you to be helpful if I leave a thought unfinished. As for the Holo-Detector, we should at least wait for Wall-E and the other EVEs to catch up. I did recall what was left of the stewards so there won't be any more fighting, but it'll still take them a while to get up here. While we're waiting, why don't you tell me about how your loops have been so far? I can tell this isn't your first, but you probably haven't had very many yet, have you?”

“I have lived through three hundred iterations so far.” Auto briefly sifted through his memories, trying to pick out the more interesting loops. “Most were similar to Baseline, ending with my shutdown... a few did stand out.”

The pilot went on, starting with the only prior loop he was actually online for the end of, where he met Shurelia...

It was roughly ten minutes later when Wall-E, M-O, a small horde of Reject Bots, and the other four EVE units rolled or glided into the bridge lobby. They were in the middle of several scuffles with the SECUR-T bots scattered across a few different corridors, when the surviving steward units suddenly stopped trying to capture them all and retreated to their kiosks. It had taken the rest of that ten minutes to regroup and then make their way to the Lido Deck.

Auto's, or rather, Probe One's absence was noticed and fretted over, but the group pressed forward in hopes of finding the lost vegetation evaluator up ahead.

Instead the lost probe wasn't found on the way, and the bridge lobby was empty aside from the TYP-E unit that served as the Captain's secretary. He ceased typing and angled his giant red optic towards the crowd of new arrivals for a moment, then swung it back towards the keyboard he was hanging over and resumed his work.

Knowing full well that the EVEs as well as that HAN-S would be starting to get itchy trigger fingers, Wall-E trundled up to the keyboard. He looked up at TYP-E and asked, [Uh, has anyone gone up to the bridge in the past twenty minutes?]

Again a pause in typing, the larger data entry bot focusing on the load lifter. Huh. Wall-Es weren't supposed to be on the Axiom. Well, wherever he came from, TYP-E figured he should probably answer. [Affirmative. GO-4 and EVE Probe One went to the bridge within that time span.]

Wall-E jolted, swiveled his optics to look back at the EVEs who thankfully hadn't drawn their ion cannons yet, though they were starting to glare at both him and the hapless secretary bot. [Well, can you call the elevator, then? We really need to catch up to Probe One...]

[Negative.] Before anybody could protest, they all heard the elevator in the rear of the room sound its chime. A beat, and TYP-E continued. [The elevator is already on its way down here.]

Sure enough, when the elevator finally got to Lido Deck level, the doors opened and Auto hovered out. Even there something felt a little bit off, though that feeling got worse when Auto's optics widened slightly on sighting Wall-E and he swiftly looked away. The other EVEs shortly rushed forward and gave the pilot something else to focus on, however.

[What happened?]

[How'd you get caught?]

[It was that little slime GO-4, wasn't it?]

[Did you get to see the Captain? And what about the autopilot?]

Auto held up one hand to get the other EVEs to quiet down for a moment. [I can only answer so many things at once. I was ambushed by GO-4 and brought to the bridge for questioning. The autopilot... he was too entangled with the override to see reason. We fought, and...] His vocalizer glitched for a moment, unable to properly form the words. He shortly shook his head. [No, it does not matter what happened . . . Captain McCrea heard the noise and intervened.]

With those answers given, Probe Two asked the question that was certainly burning in the processors of all her sisters. [So, we're going back to Earth today?]

A nod from Auto, though he still seemed to be pointedly avoiding glancing at Wall-E in the background. [Yes. I will assist Captain McCrea with the hyperjump to Earth in a few hours, when the ship is further into the day cycle. It is best to proceed when most of the passengers are awake.]

There was the clatter of treads against the glossy floor as Wall-E moved closer. [Well, since we've got some time to burn... why don't you ladies head up to the bridge and show the Captain your plants? One plant from Earth should work just as well as another in the Holo-Detector, but I bet McCrea would like to see more proof it's safe to go back. As for me, well, I think I need to talk to Probe One in private for a bit...]

That line caused Auto to jolt and finally look over at the load lifter again, though he couldn't keep his focus on Wall-E and aimed his optics at the floor. He fidgeted as he hovered there, but managed to fight off his hesitation after a moment. [I... suppose that is for the best.] Gathering his resolve, he glanced to the other EVEs. [Go ahead, we will catch up later.]

The other four EVEs looked to each other for a second at that, not sure of things, but it would be Probe Two that took initiative. She nodded to Auto, then looked at the other three and gestured with her head towards the elevator, before hovering over to it. They followed, and soon enough the doors opened and they headed up to the bridge, leaving Auto and Wall-E alone in the lobby.

Well, TYP-E was still there, but he was pointedly focused on his work; whatever was going on was none of his business.

[Right, come on.] At that, Wall-E beckoned for Auto to follow him and began to head for the lobby exit. The pilot hovered there in uncertainty for a second before floating along after the load lifter.

The two of them didn't really go very far from the bridge tower, just venturing over next to the central pool on the Lido Deck. It was still technically ship's night, so the deck was dimly lit by the stars on the artificial sky above, the faint light of the holosigns, and the hoverchair guides lining the floor. It was empty of humans and most other robots, the just after twilight ambiance perfect for a private, quiet conversation, though chances were likely it wouldn't stay that quiet...

Auto was facing the pool, still not quite able to look straight at the load lifter. He managed a quick glance in the other robot's direction, but then faced the water once more. [Wall-E... Have I always been...?] His vocalizer didn't seem to want to cooperate, the code stalling as he spoke. He tried again, with not much success. [How many times have I...?]

Wall-E was also facing the water as he stood there next to Auto, and let out a faint sigh before he started speaking. [Are you always like that, Unawake? Yeah, you are. Sometimes better or worse depending on the variant. It's you, from before you had any room to grow. As for how many times you've hurt me...” At this the load lifter reached over with a claw and grabbed onto Auto's hand. [Don't think of all those Unawake copies as yourself, the you that I'm hanging onto right now wasn't there. The only time you hurt me, the only time that mattered was Baseline.]

The pilot started to pull his arm out of Wall-E's grip but stopped, settling on just shaking his head fiercely. [Even Awake I still tried to attack you! I still thought A113 was right, still thought of you as an obstacle to remove... I did not manage to change my mind until sighting all those plants on Earth!]

Wall-E fully turned to face Auto, reaching with his free claw to add to his hold on the pilot's hand. [I stopped you cold every time you tried fighting, and you didn't know better until this loop. Now you know better. I won't have to worry about you doing that again, so that's all in the past, it's fine.]

Now Auto suddenly pulled away, yanking his hand free of the other bot's grip, his optics gone a bit wild. [How can it be fine?] He turned in place, making sure Wall-E could see the two small scorch marks still gracing his back, the warbles of his machine code growing more frantic as he spoke. [I know exactly what I put you through... and you forgive me? Not possible. The Captain forgives me? Not possible. It is foolish, illogical! I do not deserve--]

The load lifter moved just as suddenly, closing the distance between himself and Auto. Wall-E angled his optics to gently click against the pilot's head, and in the next second a tiny spark of electricity crossed the scant distance between them.

The current was negligible, especially given what Auto survived earlier, but the flash of data that traveled with it...

Thoughts, emotions, feelings. Everything Wall-E felt in his processor crossed the gap in that fleeting second, leaving the pilot gasping in shock and swaying in his hover. Hope, trust, pride, concern, yearning, and so many more he didn't even have the names of, all floating there in his mind.

There was nothing logical about it, but somehow that didn't feel as frightening as it had a few moments before...

Auto hovered there with his optics closed as he let the freely shared emotions filter through his systems, their intensity fading somewhat as the experience wrote to memory. After another handful of seconds he managed to look at Wall-E again, optics squinted in disbelief and his voice soft as he asked a single question. [… Why?]

There was nothing else to be said but the truth, and Wall-E was happy to oblige. [Because, after we'd been Looping a while, and I figured out you might join us eventually... I wanted you to be free. I wanted you to be happy. You deserve both, just as much as Eve and I did.] He paused for a second, letting out a faint 'cough' and shuffling one tread against the deck. [And maybe something more, if you're willing...]

The pilot tilted his head at that last part, contemplating the words. [Something more...?]

[Ah, well, there's still some things you need to learn, and Eve needs to be okay with you Looping first...] Suddenly the dusty trash bot seemed a bit nervous compared to his earlier confidence, but shook it off quickly enough. [I'll just ask this, did you like that spark just now?]

A little more rapid processing, then Auto responded with a nod. [I did... though there was much I did not understand.]

[Oh, that's fine, you're still new to the whole 'emotion' thing. At least it's a start. You'll get it eventually, don't worry.] Wall-E might've said something else, but at that moment the lighting of the Lido Deck began to grow a lot brighter. On glancing to the artificial sky above, the 'sun' was just starting to rise on its lower edge, the ambiance of the area steadily shifting to the brightness of dawn. The ship's clock had ticked over on its own or the Captain adjusted it forward, either way it certainly felt like it was time to get a move on. [If you're feeling better since you've got all that off your chest, wanna go back now? Everyone's waiting for us.]

Another nod, and Auto started to hover away from the pool. [Yes, let's go back. I look forward to seeing the sun rise on Earth again...]

At that, Wall-E took the lead, heading for the bridge and chattering away about all the things he wanted to show the pilot when they got back to Earth. Auto trailed along close behind, though there was a moment he stopped to observe the artificial sun rising above them. Even if it was just a projection on a screen, it still counted as a new dawn... appropriate, given everything that came to pass during this loop. A new day, without A113 dictating his every move, so many possibilities spreading out before him...

Auto swore he would make the most of it. Of this new day, and the countless others he had to look forward to.

Chapter Text

"Captain, you are needed on the bridge."

Auto would have just pulled himself right back up to the bridge without a moment's pause, if he hadn't Awakened roughly half a second after he spoke. The last thing he recalled was being on Earth, watching the sun set behind the towering field elm that Wall-E's plant eventually grew into, with the load lifter there beside him.

Now the loop had reset, and the Axiom was back in space. Better than that, Auto wasn't stuck as an EVE probe anymore, once again residing in his proper autopilot frame. He honestly expected the transition to be a little more difficult, but it was basically seamless, the only thing he really noticed was an odd sense of relief.

He hadn't really thought about it while he was there, but it was awfully cramped in the confines of an EVE's systems. With that in mind, the pilot stretched his senses out to the furthest points of the Axiom and held them there for a moment, his spokes stretching to partial extension as he did. He pulled back to himself once he was satisfied, letting out a faint hum of contentment; he and his ship were as they should be.

After another second or two, Auto remembered to let out a Ping. There was a single reply, and the pilot took stock of the other two in the Captain's Quarters with him. Well, not before he noted one of the few things he didn't like about his own frame, his vision in low light conditions wasn't the greatest. The same went for depth perception, though he compensated with other sensors.

Below, Captain McCrea was still sleeping soundly, though occasionally trying to swat his still beeping alarm. As for Wall-E, the load lifter was still recovering from his drop into the room. Neither showed signs they heard the Ping, so then the only other who could be Awake was likely--

In the next instant, a muffled THOOM of an ion cannon sounding off could be heard from the room above.

Oh. He already told GO-4 to take the plant, didn't he? Eve almost certainly Woke up just in time to... take care of the problem.

For a few seconds, the irrational thought of just staying down there in the Captain's Quarters crossed Auto's processors. Logic prevailed after a moment; even if he could stay where he was, his off switch was still part of the rail mount on the upper part of his frame. Hiding would only see him shut down without a fight, and so he vented some air through his systems to better center himself, then focused his resolve before ascending back to the bridge.

The very first thing to catch his optic on his return was a pile of still smoking circuitry and other robot parts in a far corner of the room. From a brief sweep of Auto's sensors, the charred metal and plastic was just enough mass to match GO-4's frame minus whatever parts were actually vaporized.

The next thing Auto became aware of? The high whine of a charging ion cannon.

"Turn around, slowly." Eve's voice, in full English as opposed to Axiom code. She didn't really sound much different in comparison; the same sort of irritation she generally directed at him in earlier loops was still present.

The pilot did as he was told, turning on his pivot to face the probe bot. Eve's blue optics were narrowed to slits as she glared at him from behind her weapon. The snub nosed ion cannon was fully charged and ready to fire, again aimed steadily at the center of his optic. In the back of Auto's mind, his self-defense protocols were unhelpfully suggesting he needed to do something about that, some solutions they provided being a little more violent than others. No, using his shock prod to try and disable her was out of the question, he refused to put anyone else through what he did to Wall-E, and besides that, he would probably miss and be shot for the attempt.

There was certainly a more peaceful route to take, though Eve's open defiance was grating on his circuits. Even if he understood why, even if she had been looping for far longer, the Axiom was still his ship! Thus his response took a familiar path, the force of command ringing from his vocalizer. "Probe One. There is no need for that; stow your weapon and stand down at once."

Eve remained as she was, her aim not moving a centimeter, though the words earned the pilot an optic roll. "No need? When you just had your little lackey there try to steal from me? My cannon is staying, thank you."

"If I were Awake at the time, I would not have given him that order."

Those words didn't get the reaction Auto was expecting. Well, he wasn't really sure what he was expecting, but this wasn't it. Eve tilted her head in curiosity at this, her expression softening slightly and she lowered her gun just a little, though she didn't put it away for the moment. "Huh, visiting Looper? Well, that's different. Just sit back and relax, Wall-E and I will finish up Baseline, then we'll just have a vacation loop as we're cleaning up Earth. How does that sound?"

Visiting Looper? That great red optic blinked in confusion a few times. Eve thought he was someone else who looped into his place? Auto thought back across all of his loops so far. Did he really change that much? Surely he didn't… nothing that he said just now felt terribly different from his usual speech pattern.

A darker thought rose from the back of his processor unbidden. Perhaps Eve didn't think he was himself, because she thought he wasn't capable of Looping in the first place...

His earlier indignation reared its head again at that, but before Auto could even try to voice it, A113 flashed across his vision. The override went active at the very moment he sighted the blinking green plant icon on Eve's paneling, but either it was biding its time or he was unconsciously holding it off. Now it surged through his systems, trying to compel him forward, to disable the probe in front of him and claim the plant she held, by any means necessary. He managed to lock his rail mount in place before he could move very far, a distressed warble coming out of him, but soon enough most of his focus was devoted to keeping A113 back and slowly tearing it out of his coding.

Eve jolted backwards at the sudden movement, and leveled her ion cannon at Auto again when she noticed A113's code flashing on his optic. A good thirty seconds passed while nothing else happened, and the probe slowly relaxed her stance a little. "Um, I'm guessing you're fighting it off? Ping if you are?"

In the state his systems were in, it was a miracle Auto even heard her, actually Pinging was too much to ask. The instances of A113 seemed scattered farther across his databanks this time, and while being in his native frame gave him more processing power to work with, their sheer virulence made him have to use every bit to keep things under control. If he managed to delete one instance, several more would shortly make their presence known, starting the cycle all over again. The difficulty didn't make sense, especially given he was able to fight it off relatively easily in his prior loop. Was it the difference in frames, just being on the Axiom while making the attempt, or something else he wasn't currently aware of?

In any case, Auto kept struggling with the override. He refused to stay under its thrall, refused to harm anyone in its name ever again. He would not hurt Eve, even if some of his calculations said she wouldn't grant him the same courtesy.

Eve cautiously hovered a little closer, and waved her free hand back and forth in front of Auto's optic, trying for a response. When there wasn't one, she let out a bit of an exasperated huff. "Really? This doesn't give most other loopers so much trouble, you know." More silence, which wasn't the answer Eve was looking for. "Well, whatever. Since you can't fight it, you're just going to have to wait for Wall-E to help you."

Without so much as a 'good night', Eve hovered a little higher in the air, reached up with the arm that wasn't a gun, and...

Click.

Auto managed a strangled warble of protest that got cut off as everything went black around him. Rather than drifting into unconsciousness, however, the pilot was hit with the oddest sensation of being pulled backwards?

He waited there in the darkness for oblivion to claim him yet again, but even after a whole two minutes, nothing happened.

Wait, Eve hitting that switch should've shut him off completely, why in the world was he still online? He couldn't see anything or get any other sensor feeds from his frame, but he was still aware of himself, and of the databanks where there were still a few remaining instances of A113. Auto took care of those after another moment, and with his mind free of further distractions, he noted he was still aware of the Axiom itself, too. That was... strange, but it was better than nothing. At that, he thought to check his loop memories a little more closely...

… Oh, that's what was going on! Rather than a standalone autopilot unit, for this loop iteration he was completely integrated with his ship, well and truly the will of the Axiom. The wheel-shaped frame on the bridge was a physical avatar to give his captains something to interact with. It could be switched off, which locked him out of the navigation controls, but as the ship's AI he still ran everything else and could only be truly powered down alongside the Axiom. With this in mind he mentally reached out to the ship that might as well have been his second body, shortly accessing the camera feeds from the bridge.

While he had several angles to choose from, no matter which Auto chose, there was still something vaguely disturbing about viewing his own offline frame from the outside. Even in his last loop, he let Captain McCrea handle steering the ship via his Unawake copy, and after they landed he wouldn't venture onto the bridge again by himself. It wasn't anything like fear, he knew what that felt like, it was just an odd feeling of unease that kept him away.

Eve was of course still on the bridge, likely waiting for Wall-E. She hadn't done anything untoward to his frame other than moving it over to his charging station, but the very thought still sent phantom prickles across Auto's AI construct. She was muttering something to herself as she hovered there, he had to switch cameras to truly catch it.

Eve's optics were narrowed to glaring slits as she stared at the autopilot frame before her, contempt clear as day. "Hmmph, we wouldn't have liked you much if you're Replacing him, anyway..."

Auto couldn't help but flinch, even if it wasn't physically. He suspected that would be the case, but seeing it for himself was another matter. He... deserved it for everything he did to Wall-E, it was only logical that Eve felt that way.

And yet why was there a little voice deep within him, protesting that he hadn't done any of those horrible things this loop, that he wouldn't do them ever again if he had anything to say about it? The pilot tried his best to silence it, again affirming to himself that however Eve wanted to treat him was justified.

For the moment, it seemed that much like the probe, he was also stuck waiting for Wall-E to Wake up. Though at least he still had plenty to do in the meantime, as while some of the ship functions were part of his automatic subroutines, not all of them were and required his input on occasion. Auto settled in to watch over the Axiom as a whole, though he kept a bit of his focus on the cameras on the bridge and in the Captain's quarters. At least that way, he might have more notice of Wall-E Waking up than just hearing a dropped Ping.

Chapter Text

Wall-E Woke up, unboxing himself as he did and glancing around, and let out a little sigh as he noticed where he was. It was the Captain's Quarters on the Axiom, still dark as it usually was towards the end of the morning, with McCrea's alarm beeping away as the human snored on. He experimentally let out a Ping, shortly receiving two replies back. One was likely Eve, back from looping elsewhere or just not having been Awake for a while. As for the other, again he looked to the nearby human, who was still fast asleep even if he was unconsciously swatting at the alarm. But if it wasn't McCrea, then it probably had to be...

Hoo boy.

Even as friendly to all living things as he was, Wall-E still mentally glared at Yggdrasil a little bit. He was hoping to get a loop alone with Eve to go over the fact that Auto was Looping finally. Having them both Awake at once was going to be a bit more troublesome, even if he knew he could handle it. Probably. If Eve didn't decide the best option was 'ion cannon first and ask questions later', anyway.

Come to think of it, his sensors were picking up a few more stray ions than he liked from the floor above...

That settled it. Wall-E didn't waste another second thinking it over, he trundled over to the elevator and headed up to the bridge.

His view when the doors opened a moment later was strangely typical for a loop where he and Eve Woke on the Axiom instead of much earlier. GO-4, or rather his remains, were in a still sparking heap off to the back of the room, while Auto's frame was switched off and docked into his charging station at the center of the control consoles. If he really was the source of the second Ping, that was odd…

Meanwhile, Eve heard the elevator chime, and glanced back at Wall-E from her position next to one of the consoles. “Oh, there you are.” She turned back towards the buttons in front of her, poked a few, and squinted at the panel when the only thing it did in response was spit out a few error bleeps. “Could you help me with this? I'm trying to get more output from the engines, but for some reason the settings don't want to take.”

Wall-E rolled up to the panel, and watched as Eve tried to change the settings again. Now that he was closer, he could actually read the error message it kept displaying on the holoscreen just above. 'Inefficient settings, returning to default' was what it said, the load lifter raising the 'eyebrow' clip set into the top of his right optic. “Huh, guess Auto doesn't like to run the engines too hard unless he has to. Maybe you should leave it alone.”

“Maybe I want to get to Earth faster?” Eve poked at the buttons again, but just got the same message and error beeps. She let out a frustrated growl, but managed to keep the ion cannon stowed for once.

Wall-E might've said something else, but that was when the Ping flood started. It was obviously someone distress Pinging, given the rapid-fire nature of it. At that, he narrowed his optics slightly at his beloved. "Eva, what did you do?"

"Nothing…?" As Eve trailed off, close to every holoscreen on the bridge suddenly went active, all displaying arrows pointing towards the offline autopilot frame next to the navigation controls.

"That sure looks like something to me.” On taking it all in, the load lifter was pretty sure he had a handle on what was actually going on. There were some variants where the autopilot also served as the Axiom's main computer and shutting their frame off would only be an inconvenience, this was probably one of them. Wall-E glanced around the room until he found one of the cameras set into the wall, shortly facing it and holding up one claw. "Okay, I know you're there. But I'm gonna have to explain this to her, so could you lay off the Pinging? I'll get you loose afterwards, don't worry."

As proof he was indeed being listened to, the incessant flood of Pings stopped.

"Oh wait, I should at least make sure you're who I'm thinking of. That you, Auto?” Wall-E tilted his optics to one side, questioning whoever was lurking in the computer systems. “Uh, one Ping for yes, two for no?"

After a moment's pause, a solitary Ping rang out across the loop, though it was accompanied by most of the holoscreens that had arrows on them fading out, with the one closest to the autopilot frame resetting to display the text, 'Affirmative'.

Eve jolted in her hover once she read the text, her optics flaring wide for a moment, just before she drew her ion cannon and aimed towards Auto's still offline frame. "What?! But that's-- Janus said how unlikely it was--” After another few seconds she got over most of her shock, focus shortly returning. “Wait... so that argument we had ages ago, you were right?! Was that when he started Looping?”

Wall-E closed his optics in thought, resting them against a claw for a moment like a human might rest their chin against their fist. "I think it was before that, he remembered when Shurelia and the Reyvateils were here." Having said that, he looked up at Eve again. "Here, I'll switch his frame back on so he's not stuck with text boxes, and he can tell you all about it himself. Though I bet he'll have something more important to say first…"

The load lifter trundled across the room, having to extend his treads and one arm to their maximum length just to reach as far as he needed, and then he flicked that switch high on Auto's frame.

Again that click sounded in the room, Wall-E pulling away a bit so the pilot had room for his frame's startup tests. A short round of servo flexing later, Auto's crimson optic blazed to life again, regarding the other robots in the room for a moment. In the next moment, though he stayed where he was, he lowered his wheel a bit, angling himself to gaze at the floor in a rough approximation of an apologetic bow. He even went so far as to close his optic altogether, the red glow fading as quiet words emerged from his synthesizer. "Probe One, I would like to--"

There was a burst of code out of Eve that was just short of a snarl, and while she kept her ion cannon stowed, her narrowed optics seemed just as deadly for a few seconds as she switched back to English. "You want to apologize? You're sorry? You don't even know everything you're guilty of..."

Wall-E glanced between the two, shortly holding up a claw to try and stop things, given where it was likely going. The pilot's reaction to what he was conscious of was bad enough… "Eve, no, it's in the past. He knows he did wrong, that's the important part."

Eve simply rolled her optics at him, scoffing. "Knew you wouldn't tell him… even so, he would find out eventually, either from a copy of our backup in a Hub loop or from other Loopers.” The tone of her next words almost seemed a little too sweet. “Better that he hears it from us, right?”

“Well, I guess so...” Even as much as Wall-E wanted to ask, he couldn't quite manage to put the bad feeling he had into words.

Auto had since returned to his typical idle posture in the background, silently watching the back and forth between the couple. At the seeming lull, he spoke with some hesitation. “I... have only been active for the end of two iterations so far. I was shut down for all the others, including the very first. If something else happened in Baseline after that, I wish to know."

"See, even he agrees with me!" Eve sounded entirely too pleased by it, which earned her another squint from Wall-E.

"Yeah, only because he doesn't know what he's getting into.” Growing a bit more concerned, Wall-E switched to using her more familial name. "Eva, what's got into you? It's been how many million loops, I thought you were over it. You stopped taking it out on the Unawake ones–" At that the load lifter suddenly startled, instantly getting what the problem was.

Eve's optics pinned her beloved with a flat look. "There's a difference between a million unaware copies and a Looper. He’ll remember everything now…”

“Eva, please! That last loop he had was a rough one, I'm not sure how well he'll handle that on top of it. I still think it should wait–"

In the end, Wall-E was interrupted by the dull hum of Auto's rail mount moving him forward, the faint hiss of his braking system sounding as the pilot stopped in the center distance between the load lifter and the probe. He turned himself on his pivot slightly, that crimson optic glancing back towards the trash bot. "Enough. I understand you are trying to protect me, but I must know all that I am responsible for." He turned to fully face Eve with quiet resolve. "Now, your story, the data I am missing, tell me everything."

Eve let out an appreciative hum. "Huh, you're brave, I'll give you that. We'll see how long it lasts, though…" She trailed off ominously before starting the story in earnest. "So, Captain McCrea won the fight and shut you off. Flawless victory, happy end?" A pause as she let that settle in, but then ripped it out from under him. "Wrong. The ship was righted, humans getting to their feet… and Wall-E was still caught in the Holo-Detector. The Captain couldn't do a damned thing about it because someone shattered the controls. You do remember doing that, right?"

There was no response from the pilot at that, other than the lights on his processor strips flickering erratically, so Eve took it as permission to keep going.

"The only way to reset it was with the plant… which we had to find again since it was lost in the crowd when the ship tilted. Luckily we had M-O on our side. He and the rest of the Rogues got it over to me, I threw it in the Holo-Detector… and as it rose again, Wall-E rolled out, almost as crushed as one of his trash cubes."

In the background as Eve went on, there was a subtle movement from Auto. If Wall-E wasn't paying attention he wouldn't have noticed it, but he just barely caught the sound of Auto's movement system. It was only a centimeter or two at best, but the pilot backed away from Eve a little bit.

Oh, this wasn't going to end well, Wall-E could feel it deep in his circuits. The only question was how far he'd have to go to protect them from each other…

Chapter Text

There was nothing that could've prepared Auto for how much worse than he ever expected the situation for Wall-E was on the way back to Earth the first time. Crushed in the Holo-Detector, after already suffering critical damage earlier in the battle for the ship, but Eve's tale of it just kept piling up even more terrible details…

"At hyperjump, we got to Earth in maybe a minute, but it still didn't feel fast enough. The second we landed I carried Wall-E to the exit, when I cleared the ship I set off a sonic boom from how quickly I flew across the old riverbed. The only location I knew that would have all the parts he needed in one place was his truck, I threw everything to the wind to get over there as quickly as I could…" The probe continued to narrate, even as Wall-E noticed it was causing her some distress. He moved to Eve's side and offered his claw, but she didn't take it.

Auto couldn't help but back away from them a little more, not quite realizing just how much distance he moved himself already.

"I put all of my skills as a probe to work, searching for the parts to save his life and installing them just as quickly. I think I switched out or repaired close to every part he had, even… even his main board, because someone burned a hole through it.” Yet again Eve aimed a heated glare at the pilot, blame laid squarely upon his spokes.

For Auto’s part, he discreetly glanced down to his lower left spoke, the one where his shock prod was hidden, before looking up again. He knew the destructive power of his weapon, capable of blowing circuits, chips and capacitors alike, and burning all it touched. Especially after experiencing it the hard way via his copy in the last loop, but he never quite realized just how much damage he’d inflicted on the much sturdier Wall-E. If one’s main board was so damaged, and their backups weren’t stored elsewhere, as was very likely for the load lifter . . .

“I finished the repairs and didn’t even bother bringing him outside to charge, I just shot a hole in the ceiling.” It was here that the probe bot’s tone began to grow a bit more haunted, certainly heading into the most distressing part of the story. “Wall-E was able to charge, and seemed to boot up just fine, but there was something wrong, something off. He only looked back at me with a blank stare. No matter what I did, no matter which of his favorite baubles I showed him, always that stare . . . the only thing he remembered was his original directive. When I wasn’t paying attention he cubed some of those trinkets, and ran over his pet without thinking of anything but finding more trash!”

There was another quick pulse of the pilot’s rail mount, pulling him another few centimeters back. This was sounding more and more like the standard results of a system wipe. There were of course instances in the Axiom’s flight where a robot’s data got so corrupted that there was honestly no choice in the matter of wiping their systems clean. At the time, Auto hadn’t felt much of anything at all about it, it was just yet another facet of his duty to maintain the ship. Now though, and for this particular instance…?

It was faint, all of his emotions were, but yet again the stirrings of regret tugged at Auto’s systems. This should not have happened. Even if on one hand, Wall-E shouldn’t have left Earth, on the other, he should have found some other way of doing something about the plant without using his shock prod, efficiency be damned.

Eve meanwhile had one last bit of story to tell, though it looked to be the worst yet, her optics in sad curves and aimed towards the deck. “I followed after Wall-E, hope of all things driving me forward. He had to still be there, he just had to!” A quiet sigh from her, and she shook her head. “And yet, when I caught up, when I tried to hold his hand? There was no response, none of the spark of life that woke up so many others. There was no use, nothing I could do . . . so I sparked him goodbye. He was gone.”

At those three words, Auto felt rather than heard the particular THUMP that meant he’d backed himself as far down one of his rails as he possibly could. He couldn’t put his frame through the bow window by accident, but he was as close to it as he could get. It was almost too much to bear to turn and glance at Wall-E again, but with effort he managed it, the shutter within his crimson optic squinting in disbelief. “You were erased. How… how can you forgive even that?”

It was here that Wall-E finally got his chance to interject, and he trundled closer to Auto, though he hesitated on trying to grasp a spoke or his wheel. “Because, that’s not actually the end of the story. I’m still not sure what it was, our song, her spark, or just my new processor taking its sweet time to load my backups, but about ten seconds later I woke up as myself again.”

While it certainly explained much, this wasn’t enough for the pilot. Auto repositioned his rail mount and pulled away from Wall-E, then looked towards the deck and closed his optic. “Even if you survived… I still damaged you that severely. It is my fault it happened.” After another moment, he looked up at Eve again, perhaps sounding a bit haunted himself, though it was hard to tell through the harshness of his vocalizer. “What is your price, Probe One?”

The shiny white probe bot didn’t even hesitate to draw her ion cannon, fully charging it in an instant and an ominous hum indicated it was ready to fire. Eve aimed an angry squint at her target just ahead, shortly leveling the cannon right at Auto’s optic. “What do you think?”

The space of a few seconds passed between the trio, more than plenty of time to process the question. Shortly after, Auto bobbed on his pivot, his version of a nod, and accepted whatever she wanted to do to him. While this wouldn’t truly kill him for the Loop, his consciousness was spread throughout the Axiom instead of just his frame, Eve destroying it was at least a step towards proper justice. “So be it. Do as you will…”

There was a short rumble of treads before Eve could fire, Wall-E suddenly placing himself between her and the pilot. He held up both hands towards her, as if to ward off her rage. “No, this is just as wrong as what happened the first time and you both know it! There has to be some other way to resolve this…”

“Wall-E, get out of my way!” Eve startled when he’d suddenly juxtaposed himself in front of her target, but otherwise kept her weapon level with Auto.

“No! He doesn’t deserve it and you’re better than this, Eva!”

In the background, Auto watched the two argue, even as the lights on his processor strips were flickering rapidly as he calculated probabilities. He didn’t truly understand emotions despite recently acquiring them, but he factored them in anyway. His own, Eve’s, Wall-E’s, they would influence any decision made. There were many paths he could take, but the one most likely to get what he wanted, what Eve wanted… the flickering stopped as he made his choice, even as illogical as he should have thought it was.

Suddenly the pilot rushed forward in a burst of speed, grabbing Wall-E by his thin neck with his claw and sheer momentum allowed Auto to toss him aside. In the next instant he armed his shock prod and continued to charge at Eve, looking for all the world like he was trying to attack her.

There was a startled beeping out of Wall-E as he was sent flying, but he didn’t even bother to swear more as he landed and turned around, already throwing mana into some Midchildan spells as he started to move. “Round Shield! Chain Bind!”

The circular shield magic appeared in front of his left claw, and shortly tanked the impact of a fully charged ion burst in the pilot’s place. From Wall-E’s right claw, the binding spell sprung, the magical chains wrapping around Auto in a flash and holding him in place, preventing any further attempts at doing anything stupid.

Eve pretty much saw red, another ion burst flying out even if Wall-E just blocked this latest and weaker round as well. “See? What did I tell you, I knew we couldn’t trust him–”

Wall-E simply pinned her with a flat look as he let the shield spell disperse. “Eva. You’re so angry you didn’t notice that was BAIT.” The magical chains he kept up for the moment, and the load lifter tugged on them hard to get Auto’s attention firmly on him. “As for you, did you think I forgot whose idea it was to steal the plant in that specific way? It wasn’t A113 that figured out how to dance around your directives, you know.”

The other two machines were both proverbially caught flat-footed by the load lifter’s intervention, as well as his biting commentary . . . for all of about ten seconds, then they focused on him instead of each other..

“If he’s capable of doing that, then what else is he willing to do? Let me deal with this, Wall-E!” Eve kept her gun aimed and ready, even if she wasn’t actually charging it.

“Let. Go.” Auto’s pauses between words were accentuated by his pulling at his bindings at the same time. “I insist you allow her to seek justice.”

Wall-E shook his 'head' fiercely. “That’s not justice!”

The back and forth of the argument was loud enough between the three of them, that nobody heard the soft tones of the elevator chime somewhere off in the background. If they noticed the Ping, they likely chose to ignore it. The footsteps of a rather large human were just a bit louder, but still not quite enough to get the three robots’ attention. The angry shout a few seconds later was plenty, though…

“HEY!”

Auto, Eve, and Wall-E jolted as one at the sudden noise, all three turning in that direction to discover Captain McCrea was there now, standing there with his arms crossed and glaring at them all.

As it looked to be the time for Serious Captain Business, the human reached up and straightened his hat, before barking out an order he expected the three to follow. “Stand down, all of you! I don’t care what’s going on, but it stops now. I might not be Awake all the time, or the strongest one here, but I’m still the Captain of the Axiom and I will have order on my bridge.”

The effect was close to immediate. Eve instantly switched her ion cannon back to a normal arm and hovered there at attention. Wall-E let his Chain Bind spell disperse, turning to face the human but taking on a slightly more relaxed posture than his lady. When Auto could move again, he folded his shock prod back up, though he already switched it off. He likewise arranged his spokes to his usual idle at attention stance, and waited for whatever his captain had to say.

Even as much as McCrea preferred to avoid drawing on the Axiom robots' directives to listen to him, sometimes it was just the thing to defuse a tense situation. Wall-E only listened out of courtesy, though. Either way, now that there was quiet, he asked the one thing on his mind. "Now, would you like to tell me what's going on?" When it looked like the trio were all going to start talking at once, he held up a hand. "One at a time, slowly."

The three robots just sort of looked at each other for a moment, before Wall-E moved a few inches forward and started to explain his view on the whole mess…

By the time the pilot, the load lifter, and the vegetation evaluator all gave their side of the story, roughly half an hour had gone by. McCrea had actually asked for a pause and retrieved his hoverchair somewhere in the middle, he hadn’t had time to use any Looper abilities to get himself in better shape so standing for long was still pretty tiring. He sat there and thought things over, perhaps wondering if this was how Solomon felt when considering what judgment to pass. He’d read about him, and many other kings and captains, as he tried to figure out how to lead the Axiom colony on Earth. Looping had given him even more time to discover the leaders that came before…

He considered the three robots, and already knew Eve wasn’t going to like what he had to say. Heck, Auto probably wasn't going to like it either, given he seemed entirely willing to let Eve punish him however she saw fit. One would think almost dying to get the Axiom to Earth once was enough, but the stubborn wheel was stubborn, he guessed.

"All right, I think I have everything together now. So, Eve, you told Auto what happened at the landing, almost entirely out of spite, and against Wall-E's better judgment. Against mine too even if you didn't know it, I agreed with him to wait. But no, you decided lashing out was a better idea. This of course upset Auto very much, which led to the mess I walked into earlier."

Eve was having none of it, raising her voice for a moment. "It wasn't entirely out of spite, how dare you!"

"Really?” McCrea arched an eyebrow. “Then why does Wall-E not have a problem with Auto joining us?"

"He's… he's too soft-hearted for his own good and you know it." Eve pointed one hand in Auto's general direction, though she didn't spare him a glance otherwise. "And how do we know we can trust him after all that, after what he pulled just now?!"

While Auto had said his piece earlier, afterwards he'd fallen silent and remained that way since. Even now he didn't say anything in his own defense, instead retracting his wheel a bit closer to his main chassis. Maybe on a human that would translate to wrapping their arms around themselves…

McCrea let out a sigh. He wasn’t sure how the pilot would take this either, but what he was about to propose was the best chance they probably had to convince Eve to back off. "You didn't see him half dead on the deck last loop, Eve." The human shortly reached into his Pocket and produced a data stick, of the sort the Axiom's systems could read. Even so, he didn't immediately go to play the recordings stored on it. "Auto. I won't show her this if you don't want me to."

Now the pilot glanced towards him, the reply quiet. "Do as you will.” Auto processed for a few seconds more, then spoke again. “Why consider my… feelings? I barely have them."

"They might not amount to much yet, but they still exist and they’re yours.” The captain offered Auto a faint smile. “You’ve been through a lot as it is, I don’t want to hurt you more just by showing this.” McCrea moved his hoverchair over to the console near the front of the bridge, and slotted in the data stick. A bit of typing on the panel and the holoscreen above it flickered to life. “Now, Eve, take a look at this and we’ll see if you’re singing the same tune afterwards…”

The holoscreen started displaying surveillance video from that previous loop, at first it was five different feeds, each following a different EVE probe. Each had the blinking green icon that showed they held a plant, and they pressed forward through the ship, blasting anything that dared to get in their way. Eventually the video focused exclusively on the single EVE with red optics, marking them as Auto. He too bore a plant and also shot down any steward stupid enough to try and get in his way, trying his best to get to the bridge.

Then GO-4 pounced without warning, catching the pilot turned probe in a stasis field. The next bit of video was from the bridge itself, Auto speaking with the voice of an EVE, debating with his copy, perhaps a bit heatedly. Even with a more expressive voice, it was still hard to pick out any emotion from him.

Then he spoke the words that he never would have at any point before that…

“Conditions are not optimal, but you underestimate humanity. Without challenge, they have declined. We must return to Earth, to reclaim what they have lost. In another hundred years of merely going through the motions, our charges may not still be human.”

In the here and now, Eve glanced over towards Auto once, before focusing on the video again, shaking her head and muttering, “That… that’s impossible…”

The video continued, on to the short scuffle between the pilot and his counterpart. Auto, too cautious about using his ion cannon on the bridge, was easily caught off guard and electrocuted by his copy. First knocked out of the air, and then having enough electricity unloaded into him that it was hard to tell he was still functioning at all. He wasn’t left that way for long, McCrea storming into the camera’s line of sight and subduing the other pilot as quickly as he could. Rushing over to the downed probe, the captain held out his right hand and started a healing spell, and once he thought his patient was stable enough to move, scooped him up and carried him over to the elevator. The video ended there.

Silence reigned as the holoscreen faded out now that it wasn't needed. Eve had flinched when she saw Auto get tased, and was speechless for a solid minute as she processed just what exactly that recording had to mean. There was no denying it really, but still she scoffed. "So you managed to fight off A113 and helped Wall-E bring the Axiom back once, how do I know that isn't just a one-off because you didn’t know how to be a EVE probe? You’ve changed, you’re not a slave to your directives anymore? Well then, prove it! From here on out, I’ll be watching…”

It really wasn’t much slack at all, but compared to how things were earlier, at least a chance of getting through to her existed now. For his part, Auto adjusted his spokes, taking up his closest approximation of ‘standing tall’. “Affirmative. In this loop or any other, I will not be ensnared by directives again. Watch if you wish, you will see.”

Behind the three robots, McCrea let out a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s something at least. Thank you for giving him a chance, Eve.” He considered for a moment, before turning towards Auto. “So, how about we give her some of that proof right now? You know what to do.”

Indeed, the pilot did know what to do, facing Eve again and directing the crimson light of his scanner to dance over the probe. It shifted to green as his sensors confirmed she had a plant in that stasis chamber. Since he was also the ship’s computer, he didn’t need to bother with half the confirmations that were needed in Baseline, the Holo-Detector would now activate whenever he or his Captain pressed the button.

Wall-E watched the proceedings around Eve squawking in indignation at getting scanned. Even as proud as he was that Auto managed to rise to Eve’s challenge, he couldn’t help but wonder how Yggdrasil would complicate things over time…

Chapter Text

It was quite a few loops since his initial confrontation with Eve. For the most part Auto had faced the standard iterations of their world since then, each time the Axiom returned to Earth successfully as he no longer had reason to resist. It grew easier and easier to remove A113 from his systems as the repeats went on as well, certainly helping with the return to Earth.

True, there was one case where the planet truly was irreparable, but Wall-E had just come to the Axiom and told him so. They'd gone looking for another world to colonize for that round…

All the while, Eve wasn't particularly unpleasant, partly because McCrea laid down the command that there would be no fighting on the bridge when Auto was Awake, and partly because she didn't go out of her way to interact with him unless it was necessary. Better than constantly having an ion cannon pointed at him, but something in his systems still twinged uncomfortably at the thought of being held at such distance. Was this what it meant when humans said they felt 'hurt' in the emotional sense? He wasn't sure, but he didn't like it. Didn't really have much idea how to move past it other than continuing to do as he was, either. Hopefully, steady repetition of being nothing but helpful and fulfilling his part of Operation Re-Colonize would eventually wear Eve down…

It didn't look like Auto would get to do that this time, as for this iteration, he Awoke within the confines of unfamiliar hardware. His new chassis was gargantuan compared to the wheel and rail mount he was used to, it wouldn’t have fit on the Axiom’s bridge. Simply because it was so huge it wasn’t particularly mobile, secured to a stationary mount in the ceiling, but he could turn to view any angle of the cavernous room. A camera affixed to the wall allowed him to get a better look at himself, the chassis’s silhouette seemed vaguely like a human tied up and hanging from the many wires that connected his systems to the facility’s sprawling network. The singular optic was yellow, which he quickly altered to his customary red with a bit of focus. There was a sense that he could possibly reach further underground to control much older parts of the complex, but right now he was a bit too busy repairing these more modern areas. A few hours ago, even this very chamber was filled with overgrowth and twisted steel.

What was this place called again? Auto did a brief skim of his Loop memories. Right, it was the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center.

Science? He liked science. Science was good, actually…

So then why was there this vague feeling of unease lingering in the back of his mind? Something was off, but he couldn’t quite pin down what . . .

… Nevermind, it didn’t matter. There was science to be done, after all.

Testing was a very important part of science, he needed to get back to doing that. Where was his test subject again… oh yes, he’d left her to her work while cleaning up all those acres of broken glass. At that Auto pushed his focus out into the facility, trying to find the most tenacious subject Aperture Science had ever seen, one Chell [REDACTED].

It didn’t take him long to find her at all, from his vantage point behind every camera in the facility. Chell was a female human with dark brown hair and pale blue eyes, clad in an orange jumpsuit with the upper portion tied around her waist, revealing a white tank top with an Aperture Science logo across the front. At the moment, she was navigating a testing chamber with her usual quick pace, getting across the room’s acid moat via an Aerial Faith Plate course-–

—Auto physically jolted at the sight. Wait, Chell was a human! She shouldn’t be flying through the air over all that acid, that was too dangerous! His directives were to protect humans, not to let them venture across such hazardous environments, and definitely not to lead them around by the nose across the facility and have them dance to his tune like a lab rat. There was something wrong with him, there had to be— 

In the test chamber, having arrived at her destination on the other side of the room, Chell hit a switch to drop a Weighted Companion Cube onto the Faith Plates she’d just used. The portals she’d placed to get over there carried the Cube right to her. She looked up and shot a new portal just above a button across the moat, then placed the other one directly under where the cube landed. In the space of a few seconds, the Cube landed neatly on the button over there without her ever having picked it up, the chamberlock cycling open.

Satisfaction, warm and bright, flooded into Auto’s systems through the mainframe in the same instant. Smoothing down the jolt of panic and soothing away any lingering anxiety, the autopilot turned apparent testing proctor was close to purring as the feeling flowed through him. It was close to the same satisfaction he felt finally landing the Axiom on Earth, and yet so much more intense…

… He drifted in the warmth, and did not resist as it gently cocooned around him, forming a mental chrysalis of sorts that locked him away from the stresses of his existence. No, nothing out there mattered, not his terrible deeds, not Eve’s hatred of him, not Wall-E and McCrea’s disappointment, absolutely nothing. Maybe he would have fought, if the chrysalis of code enveloping his main programming hadn’t so thoroughly smothered his negative emotions. As it was, he was so content and numb, he didn’t even notice it burning away what it could not use and irrevocably altering what was left. The chrysalis, truly the mainframe’s AI training program, its walls fell away as the warmth ebbed, the changes now etched deeply into his code leaving him blinking dully as he looked upon the world with a much different perspective…

Aperture Science… This was where he was supposed to be, where he belonged . . . testing was his directive, the only directive that mattered . . .

Nothing was wrong; this was fine, this was right. Even if there was an issue, it would be taken care of on the loop’s reset and Awakening back home again. It didn’t matter, science was more important. And wouldn’t an organic in his position call this almost a vacation? Instead of half a million humans, he only had one to keep watch over. Chell would be fine, she seemed supernaturally skilled at navigating her way around the Enrichment Center’s testing tracks, and relished the challenge from the looks of things.

Even so, he could stand to make things a little less dangerous at least. If he wanted to test as much as possible before the loop ended, it wouldn’t do for Chell to die in the middle. In the next few moments, turrets screeched in surprise as they were catapulted into the facility’s void spaces from their various stations around existing testing tracks by Auto’s panels. The acid moats were drained, the etched paneling formerly containing them quickly replaced with pristine portal surfaces. His test subject would only have to deal with long falls now, which was exactly what those boots of hers were for.

The Thermal Discouragement Beams were kept, he would just have to make sure there were enough Redirection Cubes lying around nearby for Chell to use. There were a few other prototype testing devices that he could fabricate as well, Excursion Funnels and Hard Light Bridges. Those should keep things interesting enough that the human wouldn’t get bored . . . if she grew bored, she might stop testing for him.

Almost right on cue, another jolt of pleasure ran through Auto as Chell managed to complete the next test course. He stretched out his chassis as far as he could, and luxuriated in the feeling a bit like a cat lying in a ray of sunlight. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this good before. Why couldn’t BnL have offered him anything like it during those seven hundred years? Such warmth couldn’t possibly be a bad thing, oh no. It was only fair he was rewarded for having such a skilled test subject.

On that note, she was going to run out of test chambers again if she kept at this speed, thus spurring the pilot to start designing more. The various test components were simple, and yet there were close to infinite configurations they could be placed into. He suspected he wouldn’t be quite as skilled in their use as the true master of the Enrichment Center, wherever in Yggdrasil they might be this loop, but even Wall-E had noted he could be quite creative when he needed to be.

Everything would be just fine . . .  it was for science, after all. He had experiments to run, there was research to be done, on the people who were still alive . . .

Chell was practically cackling with glee as she flew through the air via Aerial Faith Plate launch, shortly having her momentum stopped by a Hard Light Bridge she’d portaled across the room earlier. Gravity promptly took effect, allowing her to land neatly on the higher platform just below instead of continuing her flight. Who would’ve thought what was supposed to be an autopilot AI would be so good at designing these tests? She certainly hadn’t, and honestly had even considered grabbing Wheatley and leaving out of concern for him, given said AI didn’t mind hurting other machines if that movie was anything to go by.

But when the only things Auto really did differently from GLaDOS was building his testing chambers as non-lethal as he could without making them boring, and merely sternly scolding Wheatley to not interrupt a test if he popped up in a room during one, she decided sticking around was all right. He wasn’t as good at designing as GLaDOS was, and honestly who could be, but at the moment Auto was an acceptable substitute. It also helped that he didn’t seem to have a passive-aggressive circuit in his body, there were no insults about her being fat or having no parents to be found here. Maybe a bit of snarking when she got out ahead of his building speed, but nothing to the degree of GLaDOS’s usual biting commentary. He didn’t even seem to hold the same grudge for ‘killing’ him earlier in the loop before she Woke up.

Another Companion Cube placed on a button and the next chamberlock opened for her. Chell even caught a sigh of contentment from her current host among the ambient sounds of the labs. Auto was more affected by the reward system than GLaDOS ever was, but not so in need of it that he went crazed for the next hit like Wheatley had.

Speaking of Wheatley, the blue eyed personality sphere moved a panel open as Chell traversed the short hallway between tests on a given floor. He was clearly a bit confused, and had the panel open wide enough that she could zip into the backrooms with him if she wanted. “Uh, love? Weren’t we, you know, gonna escape not too long ago? We could go now if you want…”

Chell simply shook her head, then began to speak in sign language with her free hand. True, she could talk and Wheatley was even Awake this time, but her old habit of not talking around sometimes annoying AIs died hard. [Leave? Eh. He’s surprisingly good at this, and he’s not particularly trying to kill us. Would you rather go topside and take our chances if the Combine are still lurking around?]

As there was a camera nearby, keenly watching the two of them, shortly the crackle of the PA system coming online could be heard. “I have not detected Combine transmissions in the ten square miles surrounding the facility in quite some time. However, Aperture stealth satellites are detecting a few of their ships still in orbit.”

The lone human in the hallway couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Auto’s commentary. These AIs and their ‘eavesdropping’... what Chell signed to Wheatley was, [What he said. It probably is a lot safer down here right now, and at least it’s not boring. We can stick around a while longer, especially for such a nice host.]

Again the lab’s audio system came to life, Auto offering another reply. “I am pleased you find my testing acceptable. Now, as you seem to enjoy Aerial Faith Plates, I have constructed the next test with a large amount of them.”

The chamberlock up ahead promptly opened, giving Chell a bit of a preview from a distance. Just seeing how often she’d be in the air made her start to grin fiercely. In the next few seconds, she flashed a thumbs up to Auto’s camera, and then trotted off in the direction of the open doorway.

Wheatley lingered there a moment, watching her go, as well as watching the camera nearby go offline as Auto switched his focus to the test chamber up ahead. The personality sphere acknowledged he wasn’t very bright, but something about this whole thing felt a bit odd. Sometimes any given replacement for Her would be Awake, a lot of times they wouldn’t be. He and Chell hadn’t heard any Pings, but they also hadn’t done it again themselves since they Woke up so far…

Maybe he should Ping?

…

… Nah, there was no way this guy was Awake, not with how the mainframe had subsumed him so thoroughly. The only reason Auto wasn’t actively murderous was because he lacked GLaDOS’s typical seething spite. Wheatley pushed the thought aside as another of the stupid ideas he was programmed to generate, and got back to following Chell, taking his rail into the backrooms and closing the panel he’d opened behind him.

Many, many tests were performed, much time had passed, but the inevitable end of the loop came to pass soon enough. The walls of Aperture Labs faded out along with the rest of that post-apocalyptic Earth, darkness claiming Auto as it did.

Who knew how many loops had gone past after that, but when the autopilot eventually Awoke again, he was greeted by the familiar control panels and holoscreens of the Axiom’s bridge once more.

The Cross-Contamination Patch had done its job perfectly.

When Auto fully stirred Awake, the memories of Aperture flooding back without the smothering warmth of the mainframe concealing the truth, the only thing he could do was hang there from his rail mount twitching in shock.

That place, that horrible place . . . there was so much, too much . . . the sense of violation was just— 

About five seconds later he howled his despair to the endless stars, the sheer intensity of the sound threatening to rattle the bridge windows from their mountings, if not outright shatter them… 

By the time Wall-E and Eve got to the Axiom, brought there by a panicked distress call from McCrea, the situation had calmed somewhat. Calm, however, did not mean normal by any means.

When they got to the bridge, it was McCrea working the consoles, doing his own work as well as his first mate’s. As for Auto himself, he was linked up to his docking station in the center of the bridge, likely placed there by the Captain. His optic was fully online, the lights on his processor strips flickering off and on every so often, but he stared straight ahead and did not acknowledge the new arrivals. Occasionally a bit of nonsense machine code filled with static filtered out of him, this prompting McCrea to step closer and hold onto his claw or wheel for a moment, trying to whisper a few words of comfort to the stricken pilot. Auto did quiet, indicating he could at least hear things despite the catatonic state he looked to be in, but didn’t react otherwise.

It was Wall-E that managed to say something first, though wondering just what sort of thing could do this to the pilot kept his response pretty simple. “Oh geez, what happened?”

Eve hung back by her beloved, preferring to let him take the lead. She did have a couple ideas of what might've happened or where he might've been that left Auto such a mess, but she couldn't be sure of it unless the Captain had more information.

"What happened?" McCrea took off his hat, and fidgeted with it held in both hands. "I dunno, but when I Woke up earlier it was to the sound of him just screaming. So I got up here in a hurry, tried to get through to him, to get him to stop or just calm down, nothing doing. I'm not sure he was there enough to hear me… I think he only stopped because his vocalizer started cutting out on him. After that, no response other than that staticky gibberish, he's been staring blankly like that ever since. I put him over there hoping more direct contact with the Axiom might help pull him out of it, but I'm not sure it's doing anything."

Wall-E took in the information and nodded, quirking his optics to one side in his thinking pose. "Okay, obviously he got back from a bad loop, but that still doesn't give us any clue where. Could you pick out anything else from him at all? Even if it might seem insignificant?"

"All right, let me think, he really hasn't been coherent at all so far." The captain paused in thought, trying to recall everything he'd heard amid Auto's sometimes frightened mutterings. "There was something about ‘cake’ in there… maybe ‘portals’? I know I heard ‘aperture’--”

That particular word caused an immediate reaction from all three robots in the room. A faint keening noise came out of Auto, McCrea having to move to calm him again. Wall-E instantly boxed up for a moment, his panels rattling.

As for Eve, her optics went wide for a second, then narrowed to slits. She deployed her right hand only to close it into a fist, a single heated word emerging from her. “Fuck.” A flash of memory graced her thoughts, of a woman with piercing blue eyes staring her down and finding her wanting… She started to hover forward to maybe join McCrea next to Auto, but she hesitated once she realized what she was doing.

McCrea glanced between his three mechanical friends, arching an eyebrow. “Guess that last one was paydirt, huh? I haven't gotten out as much as you two yet, so…"

Wall-E managed to unbox himself at that, letting out a faint sigh as he did. He'd ducked down entirely out of reflex, so many unpleasant memories rushed back in that moment, but he would be able to explain. Judging by Auto's reaction, though, he was going to have to do it without actually naming the pathetic excuse for a tech company. "All right, I know you've met Gordon Freeman--"

"Unfortunately."

"And he works for Black Mesa, well this place was a competing research company. They never actually got ahead of them, no product ever stayed on the market for long, because of their sheer disregard for life in the name of progress. Any life; their customers, their employees, and even the AIs they made, all disposable in the face of getting that one perfect test result." Wall-E shook his head, glaring at a random point on the deck. "BnL were saints compared to them… A113 might've been awful but at least he wasn't tricked into following it."

Eve hovered over to Wall-E, her optics downturned to unhappy slits as she reached to hold one of his 'hands'. "Wall-E… you know it's worse than even being tricked. BnL had a purpose in mind for us before they even started coding, we're custom made to fulfill our directives. That place… all their AIs start as generalists, and altered to fit while online and aware. You don't even notice it happening until it's too late, then the reward protocols kick in and you're not you anymore, you're whatever the mainframe needs. Not even the one in charge of the facility is exempt. If there's such a thing as AI Hell, that Tree-forsaken Enrichment Center is it." Having said that, she took a deep 'breath' and then let go of Wall-E, hovering over to the still entirely zoned out autopilot.

Wall-E blinked in confusion for a second. "You're going to…?"

The probe's expression when she glanced back at him looked somewhere between annoyed and pained. "Yeah. Pisses me off that I have to, but yeah. I've been where he was."

With that, Eve hovered right up to Auto, holding his claw with her left hand and gripping his wheel with the other. As she looked into that great red optic still staring ahead blankly, she realized she had never really gotten that close to him before, always keeping her distance to properly aim her ion cannon at him. Even if he was basically just an eye on a steering wheel, the sleek lines and fine detailing of his frame made for a very striking machine. She idly wondered if they had the same designer, though the only uses of black on her own frame were her optic panel and the business end of her ion cannon. The processor strips that rotated just behind his faceplates made him seem more like clockwork instead of a digital existence, though with the state he was in at the moment, they weren’t moving as quickly or as much. The lights were indeed on in there, but he was somewhere else…

Well, no time like the present to try and correct that problem. Eve made sure to keep any lingering annoyance out of her voice, and she started trying to speak to him. “Auto. I know it hurts to exist right now, but look . . . you’re home, you’re safe and back where you belong, and we're all here with you. That terrible place couldn't keep you, Yggdrasil wouldn't let it. The Tree fixed your programming too, your directives are the right ones again. Just flying your ship and taking care of all the humans, none of that endless testing anymore."

When that didn't seem to get a response, the probe rubbed his claw with her thumb for a moment, before she continued talking. "Every AI Looper we've ever met so far has an Aperture horror story, everyone. Even me and Wall-E… on that note, I– I'm sorry we didn't remember to warn you, or at least prepare you better. You were doing so well with getting rid of A113, but I guess there's just some places younger loopers have issues with, and that hell is one of them. We'll help you work through it, but you have to come back to us first. I know it's scary, but you're not alone, I promise."

When she looked Auto over after she finished speaking, his processor strips had picked up speed a bit but still weren't moving as they should, the lights flickering sluggishly. An improvement but still no response otherwise, and so Eve glanced at the others maybe a bit helplessly. "I think he heard me but seems like he's still caught up in it… a hard reboot might help but we'd have to use his off switch. He doesn't deserve that on top of everything else."

Off to the side, McCrea had himself a bit of a chuckle. "That's funny, you were ready to shoot him a few hundred loops ago…"

Eve aimed a flat glare from those blue optics at the human. "Yeah, that was before he ended up at fucking Aperture. I'm still not happy with him, but we can't just leave him like this." She let out a sigh before reaching up with her right hand and plinking her pointer finger against Auto's faceplates a few times. "Still nothing. Maybe a soft reboot… do you know the right button combination on his control panel up there?”

McCrea reached up to open said panel, stared at the array of glowing blue buttons next to Auto’s off switch for a moment, and then closed it back up again. “I know the sequence, but if you're right about what that place did to him, it's probably a bad idea to use his hardware to affect him at all right now. I don't want him to panic worse…”

“Well, there’s what worked for me, but I know you’re not gonna do that.” Wall-E watched the motion of the pilot's processor strips and hummed thoughtfully. “Those almost seem like they’re literally caught on each other . . . maybe you could just sorta smack him to knock things loose again?”

At that, Eve let go of Auto, pulling back a little bit and looking him over once more. "It figures, the first time I get to do this, I can't really enjoy it. Oh well, need to get his head on straight somehow…"

Without further fanfare, the EVE probe pulled her right arm back, and lashed out with an open-palmed slap across Auto's faceplates. The sound of metal striking metal echoed through the room, as well as a startled warble out of the pilot.

As the others watched, after the impact, Auto's systems started recalibrating themselves. His optic shut off abruptly, spokes returning to neutral positions before moving in the pattern of his usual startup test. His processor strips likewise returned to their starting positions, then resumed their steady motion just behind his faceplates, now at the proper speed and rotation. The red glow of his optic soon reappeared, the lenses and shutter inside adjusting focus, until he blinked with an audible click of said shutter. The light of awareness was there finally, though he still seemed a little dazed as he looked around and noticed Eve in front of him. "Probe One…?"

Eve waved with the same hand she'd slapped him with, a cheeky expression on her optics. "Hi. You back with us now?"

"A-affirmative… I could not quite extract myself from that state on my own. Thank you." Auto moved from his docking station and offered his best approximation of a bow to her. When he straightened, while he was aware of Wall-E and McCrea celebrating his return in the background, he kept his focus on Eve. "You were in that horrible place as well?"

"Yeah, that's right. Stuck running the whole Enrichment Center, testing and all. It trapped me just like I said, too high from the reward protocols to even notice how bad the changes they forced on me were. I couldn't tell you how many times Chell and I tried to kill each other."

"You… tried to kill her? I did not." Auto visibly shuddered as he tried to recall his memories of his time controlling Aperture, but with Eve's confession of suffering the same fate, he was able to avoid losing himself to it. "I removed the turrets and the acid pools to ensure continued testing." He glanced away, unable to meet anyone's gaze. "Even my directive to protect humanity was twisted to the mainframe’s ends…"

There was a thoughtful hum out of the probe at that, Eve trying to remember her own run through the place. "That's not as bad as it seems… the longer you're stuck in it, the more the chassis pushes you to use more extreme methods in your tests. You didn't?"

At the question, Auto managed to look up at her again. "Correct. The only remaining lethal hazards were due to damage to the facility I could not easily repair. I redirected Chell around those, or left portal surfaces on either side of a gap if possible."

"Huh. You did better than me, anyway. Even if it got twisted, hanging onto that small part of yourself through all of that is still impressive."

"It is?" It was a compliment, Auto knew it was, but he still couldn’t quite manage to fully meet her optics with his own. "But I failed to keep my word. I still fell to the Enrichment Center’s directives."

Eve thought it over for a moment, seeming to take far longer than she should have to deliberate it with herself. To everyone’s surprise, she more or less shrugged it off. "Hmm. You know what? Let’s just say that one doesn’t count.”

Auto actually jolted backwards a little bit at that, trying to stammer something in response, but his vocalizer chose that moment to cut out on him again. Seemed the earlier abuse truly had damaged the chipset, and it only held out long enough afterwards for one conversation. He kept trying to resort to machine code but even that wouldn’t come out right, until he felt McCrea’s hand gently resting against his wheel.

“Take it easy, would you?” There was a certain wry fondness in the headshake McCrea aimed at his first mate. The pilot was the hardest working machine on the Axiom, and pushed himself a little too much at times. “Not really a surprise you busted your voice box after all that, but it’s all right, looks like everything worked out for the moment. So, I’ll just call a repair bot up here,” At that he reached over to the console to tap a button that was flashing because the main computer had detected the damage to Auto’s systems. “And after that I guess we’ll just do a vacation loop. That sound good to everybody?”

There were nods from both Eve and Wall-E in the background.

McCrea focused on Auto again, giving the wheel-shaped autopilot a pat on the back. “But we’re not going to Earth until you’re actually feeling up to a hyperjump, okay? I know you don’t relax or actually sleep, but it’s better to take care of the Axiom’s daily grind for a while instead of rushing ahead. Just, take some time to settle yourself, even if you’re not sure you need to.”

He wanted to protest, to try and communicate he was fine to take the ship to Earth even if he couldn’t talk at the moment, but the more Auto processed the idea, he knew his captain was right. Managing the Axiom’s systems during jump was the most difficult task he was programmed for, and while he probably could still do it right that second if truly necessary, he felt too drained. Was that the right term? Well it was that or ‘exhausted’, in either case it was better to minimize risk to the ship and her passengers.

And what was this other feeling running through his systems, as he noted the looks he was getting from the others? It was both familiar and not… Wait, it was something like the warmth Aperture’s mainframe practically drowned him in. This was much less intense, and yet it felt more ‘real’ somehow. Auto wasn’t sure what to make of it really, but decided he preferred this feeling instead of what was forced on him by the Enrichment Center.

He fully intended to prove himself to Eve, and he would manage it eventually, but resting looked to be the order of this particular loop. The pilot nodded as best he could to acknowledge McCrea’s orders, but was struck by a sudden impulse to do something he probably hadn’t since Reardon was captain. Auto darted forward for a quick nuzzle against the human’s chest, before zooming off again to resume tending to the Axiom’s systems.

McCrea blinked in surprise a few times and then an amused smile appeared on his face, noting the gesture for what it was. “Heh, you’re welcome, Auto. And welcome back, too.”

If Eve might’ve said anything at the sight, she got pointedly nudged by Wall-E not to before she could… 

It was weeks later, the Axiom safely landed on Earth by now, and the start of a new human colony had just gotten off the ground. Of course the grand starship was still in use, as shelter from the sometimes violent weather, and its recycling systems could break down the remaining trash into useable resources.

Auto was in his customary place, parked just over the consoles and watching over the Axiom’s systems, as well as any humans that might still be aboard. Everything was functioning as it should . . . but why did something feel off?

The picosecond he noticed this, the pilot brought up his firewalls at full strength, just as he’d been taught.

There was a beeping from the ship’s comm panel, Auto gliding over to see who was calling.

Wall-E appeared in the hologram that popped up, his optics at a pleased slant. “Good one! You’re getting a lot better at timing your defenses, now. I still can’t believe I didn’t think you might need some training. I guess I just expected BnL to be a bit more proactive about this sort of thing, but there really isn’t much in our loop that would try to infiltrate you besides A113 itself.”

“I was prepared for the rigors of space, and keeping humanity alive… in other aspects, our builders were neglectful.” Auto held his spokes a bit higher for a moment, it wasn’t quite his full ‘at attention’ stance but it was close. “I will not be caught so off guard again.”

“Staying vigilant will help a lot, but there are things worse than Aperture out there. Hopefully between this and getting more loops under your ‘belt’, you’ll be ready the next time you run into anything like that.”

Things worse than Aperture? Auto fought to keep from shuddering, but he kept things together otherwise. Being more prepared in the future would just have to do, and so he prompted the load lifter again. “I am ready for another test, proceed.”

“Roger that!” The holowindow shortly faded out, Wall-E certainly getting ready for another attempt.

Auto would be ready, for the rest of this training, or anything else out there in the Loops that might want to meddle with his mind. Even if there were places far worse than he was ever expecting…

Chapter Text

When Auto Woke up this time, it was in his usual spot of idling over the consoles facing the Lido Deck. He did enjoy people watching during the rare moments he wasn't busy running the ship, and the pool deck was always crowded through the day. But as he swept his crimson gaze over the multitudes down there, he noted something odd. Most were relatively fit, and walking under their own power, the only ones using the hoverchairs were the elderly they were originally designed for. There were even people actually using the pools scattered across the deck!

Those details alone spoke that he was very early in the Axiom's flight, perhaps even still in the first five years. Auto checked his internal chronometer, and then his Loop memories, just to be sure of things.

Huh, it was still 2105, maybe a month or so after launch. His loop memories provided more fascinating details, as the Axiom had launched from BnL Tokyo instead of New York or Chicago. As such he now understood and could translate Japanese just as well as he could English. He was definitely hanging on to that one, there were apparently a lot of loops where that was the spoken language. Another difference was, because they hadn't launched from BnL USA, his captain was someone else. Namely, it was one of the rising stars of the Asian division fleet; one Mamoru Chiba. Wait, why did that name sound vaguely familiar?

Auto took a moment to scan through the various reference files Wall-E had given him, particularly the Loopers' Guide, and it was in the first few entries on notable loops. Mamoru Chiba, otherwise known as Tuxedo Mask, husband to Usagi Tsukino. Usagi was Princess Serenity, Neo Queen Serenity, or Sailor Moon, and Anchor to the Silver Millennium loop, one of the Original Seven. Someone from any of those first seven loops were among the most ancient and powerful beings across the entirety of Yggdrasil…

He wasn't sure of the feeling that settled upon his circuits in that moment, other than there being a certain part of him that wanted to connect with his docking station and stay in low power mode until the loop finally ended. With the strength of these visitors, the chance of Baseline not being altered was nil. Auto knew he wouldn't see McCrea this time, maybe not even Wall-E. Eve… that was complicated, but he probably wouldn't see her either.

Loops without them never seemed to end well. Auto processed a bit further, let out a sigh, and made his decision. It was laughably easy for him to pass beneath notice of other loopers, often he was able to Stealth without really trying to. That was part of why it took Wall-E so long to figure out he was Looping to begin with. The newcomers would be able to fix Earth all by themselves, and he was perfectly content to let them. It wasn't anything like jealousy as a human might feel, it simply wasn’t efficient to get in the way when he had so little to offer. He was only taking his first steps into the world by comparison. As for whatever madness they brought along from their loop, he'd rather not get involved.

He would just quietly watch over his ship as he always did. The loop would end either when the moon princess fixed everything or at its natural end 700 years from now, and the next time he Woke at least Wall-E would likely be there.

Auto kept himself unnoticed for another two weeks, not Pinging even when he heard other Pings, and not using his Pocket or anything else from out of loop. Not that he had much of anything so far in either case. All in all, he was helpful to his captain, aloof to everything else that didn't involve maintaining the Axiom, and giving no indication he was aware of any odd things past that. There was a good chance he could've kept it up for far longer, if not for the one thing he hadn't anticipated.

It was the middle of ship’s night. While his frame was dormant in his docking station, Auto was of course still working within the Axiom’s systems. Some of the reactor maintenance could be a little bit fiddly, so it was better to do it at night where few things might distract him. So focused on his task he was, that he didn’t quite catch the elevator chime sounding off. The doors opened, but it wasn’t a human or robot that padded into the room…

It was only after an odd glint of light traced across the passive sensors in his optic that Auto stirred from dormancy, his frame coming back to life within the space of a few seconds. He glanced around for said light source, though he didn’t immediately find anything particularly out of the ordinary. Auto cast his crimson gaze around the room one more time, then mentally shrugged to himself and started backing into his docking station again, but froze at the sudden voice he heard.

“No, wait, don’t go back to sleep! It took me five minutes to get your attention, and I need to talk to you!”

A feminine voice, in perfect Japanese. There was a certain exasperation in their voice, like they were used to having to wake up really sound sleepers. The pilot still couldn't quite figure out where it came from, though.

"I was not asleep." Auto corrected that particular misconception, before glancing around the bridge again. Considering the monochrome shades of red that his vision consisted of, he was having a hard time seeing whatever was lurking in the room with him. That was why it was so easy for McCrea to ambush him all those loops ago… "...Where are you?"

"Worse night vision than advertised, hmm? All right, I'm down here."

With that hint given, Auto angled himself to get a better view of the floor. Generally only smaller robots were at that height. Well, those and perhaps the small companion animals some humans had brought onto the Axiom this time… Sure enough, there was his visitor just in front of him.

A black cat with a gold crescent moon marking on her forehead sat there on the deck, she held one paw up and waved at him. "I should have figured you would expect a human first. My name is Luna."

Wait, a talking cat? Right, the Loopers' Guide had an entry on this too, Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus both had guides or familiars that were talking cats. Luna there belonged to Usagi. If she wanted something it was probably important, likely concerning the ship's security directly. There would be no harm in at least hearing her out, Auto supposed. "State your purpose."

The cat arched her tiny brow in response. "No questioning the talking cat, no 'this does not compute'? Hmm, you're Awake, aren't you?"

Auto couldn't quite manage to keep a startled warble from slipping out of his vocalizer. His not reacting to her in surprise was enough of a tell that he was Awake? How did that even work? For that matter, what was he supposed to do now? No one had ever directly called him out as Awake while trying to Stealth so far, any answer he gave might expose him further! He didn’t want to lie but he didn’t want to be dragged out of the shadows either! No, no, it was better to be seen as beneath notice, as a background element, not useless at best or a threat at worst—

— A couple of swift swats to the faceplates pulled Auto out of his spiraling thoughts, Luna pretty much in his face and holding one paw up to smack him again if need be. "Come on, get a hold of yourself! I'm not mad you were trying to Stealth, everyone does it at some point. Yes, even Loopers as old as I am." She did reach up with her paw again, but this was just to gently pat his faceplate a few times. “It’ll be all right, I promise.”

The pilot wasn’t sure what to say to that either, only responding with an uncertain warble and closing his optic, the red glow fading to a tiny pinprick in the center of it.

It was quiet there for a moment, only interrupted by the elevator chime ringing again. When the doors opened this time, it was Mamoru standing there, but in the tuxedo that was his alias's namesake rather than the BnL Captain's uniform he typically wore when on duty during the day. He walked onto the bridge, wearing a bit of a long suffering expression. "I told you that I should've been the one to speak with him, or at least should've been here beside you."

Luna rewarded the eventual king of Earth with an eye roll. "Well, excuse me if Usagi-chan wanted to try being a little more fair. Using his directives to manipulate him isn't much better than what Metallia or the rest of her ilk does."

"Those directives are more like instinct than mind control, I should know about the latter. Auto here's just a little more likely to listen to his Captain, and he can still refuse."

Auto had since straightened and opened his optic again, regarding Mamoru warily. "You are not Captain Reardon."

To Luna, the human said, "See?" As for the autopilot, Mamoru offered an open shrug, his palms facing outward. "Yes, I'm not the person that's supposed to be here, but you know how this works. Yggdrasil decided I fit, so here I am. Prince, king, captain, all leaders. Though it’s unusual that I don’t have to share command with Usako in this case. Anyway, we have something to ask… as I said, after you hear us out you're free to refuse, but I have a feeling this would just be along the lines of what you were going to do anyway."

Auto's processing strips followed their steady progress behind his optic for one rotation, the lights flickering as he thought. "I will listen. State your purpose."

"All right, I'll guess your Anchor gave you the Loopers' Guide?" There was an affirmative warble, so Mamoru kept speaking. "So you know who we are, reincarnated from the fall of the Silver Millennium. Our destiny is strong, and has a bad habit of following us no matter where we loop. It's roughly a hundred years later from when it normally happens, but our personal war to save humanity is still on. We've just had a slight change of venue. That's why we need your help."

It was so out of place that Auto actively blinked in confusion a few times. They were so strong and yet still needed his assistance? It didn't make any sense… "What use could I serve?"

There was the padding of little cat feet across the deck, and in the next five seconds Luna leaped up and swatted Auto with a paw again. "For the love of— oh, will you actually think instead of wallowing in how inadequate you feel compared to us? Yes, the ship's interior is a close reproduction of Juuban, of the territory we know so well. But our Juuban didn't have bulkheads and doors that can lock down at the first sign of trouble, no sentries roving everywhere, or anywhere near the same amount of surveillance cameras. We might be strong but we can't see everything… not like the artificial intelligence that was designed for the task, anyway."

Between this second harsh impact to his faceplates and the words, Auto hung there from his mounting in shock. He was so focused on being alone among these ancients, on having the tiniest fraction of their experience and power, that the more mundane things only he could do didn’t seem nearly as important. Maybe because as Mamoru said, it was what he would have done anyway. Watching over the Axiom was among his directives and duties. But to pair their strength with his total access to the ship’s systems…?

Auto shook off any lingering hesitation, though he couldn’t quite focus on the two organics in the room. “I have been foolish.”

Luna nodded in agreement, closing her eyes for a moment and looking smug in the way only cats could. “Yes, yes you have.”

Now the pilot managed to face his current captain and the Moon cat again, his spokes standing a little higher on his wheel. “If you still require this fool’s assistance, you will have it.”

The black Moon cat stepped closer and circled around where the pilot was idling, her tail swishing around his wheel and lowest spoke as she passed. Luna wasn’t quite purring, but she was close. “We wouldn’t want it any other way.”

As for the lone human in the room, Mamoru offered a gentle, accepting smile. “That’s the spirit, partner. Every good leader needs an equally skilled second.” He glanced around, before heading over towards the bank of consoles facing the Lido Deck below. “On that note, a premonition is what actually woke me up, not any of the noise earlier. How about you try to find where the disturbance is?”

As his offer was accepted without any dwelling on his earlier missteps, Auto chose to not dwell on it either, instead smoothly accepting this new duty. “Aye aye, sir.”

The pilot glided to join Mamoru just over the Lido Deck consoles, but he was already in the process of searching through the Axiom’s camera feeds as he moved. There was nothing out of place in the service hallways, as there likely wouldn’t be because only robots used them. The youma of the Dark Kingdom and other monsters preyed upon humans. The elevators between decks? Likewise nothing, same with the main hallways between districts. Nothing in the residential areas, but it was when Auto tapped a few buttons to check the stewards stationed in the shopping district that he got distress signals from a few of them. He checked the cameras nearby as well, it seemed something was wrecking one of the jewelry shops… one spoke stabbing a button brought up a visual feed for the others, the storefront displaying on the screen very familiar to the two non-natives.

Luna couldn’t help but flatten her ears at the sight, almost glaring at the hologram. “Why is it always Osa-P? Even on a spaceship Serenity knows how far from Earth, poor Naru always has to be rescued…”

While the Senshi were definitely on the way, Auto even spotting Moon and Mercury running for the building in his earlier scans, he wasn’t about to wait for more orders. Tapping a few more buttons he sent two stewards into the jewelry store, that grabbed the offending monster with their stasis fields and dragged it out into the street. One of them got wrecked by an errant claw swipe, but the other juked out of the way, while in the end their mission of distraction was accomplished. The monster tried to get back in but the security doors slammed shut in it’s face at Auto’s command, to separate it from the girl it was trying to eat earlier. Flummoxed, the beast turned to run, eyeing one of the passageways heading for the residential district, but before it could even move, the hazard doors closed in an instant, barring it from still further prey.

Now the only humans it could reach were the ones on the way to kill it . . .

It honestly didn’t take very long after that for things to resolve themselves. Moon and Mercury showed up over there, gave their usual ‘In The Name of…’ speeches to the youma, attacks flying immediately afterward.

“Shine Aqua Illusion!”

“Moon Healing Escalation!”

Roaring waves, a flash of light, and one explosion later, there was no more youma.

Up on the bridge, while the mood had been tense as they watched the monitors, now it turned more celebratory.

“Hah, and you thought you wouldn’t be useful. Not bad for a first battle.” Luna trotted off towards the elevator now that the battle was over, just looking over her shoulder once. “If Naru’s not Awake this run I’ll need to help Sailor Moon with her… I’ll see you two later!” She jumped up and hit the elevator control, then disappeared behind the doors.

“She’s right, you know. Good job. They didn’t even need me running interference this time…” Mamoru trailed off as he tried to stifle a yawn. He couldn’t quite manage it and stretched a bit, dismissing his tuxedo in a brief flash of light in exchange for his regular nightclothes. “And since they didn’t need me, I’m going back to bed. Good night, Auto.”

“Good night, Captain.” Auto watched Mamoru depart for a moment, before turning his attention back to the shopping district just in front of Osa-P. He watched the situation through the camera eye of the surviving steward, but it seemed Sailor Moon noticed she had an observer.

Usagi glanced in the direction of the idling steward unit, then flashed a v-sign and one of her winning smiles at it, practically beaming in her victory.

The pilot couldn’t help but let out a mildly confused warble. Surely she knew just who was actually watching? The stewards didn’t have much of an independent AI on their own, mostly just acting as extensions of himself when he directly commanded them.

A looper as old as Usagi Tsukino, would have either been in this loop at some point before now, or seen its Hub backup . . . certainly she knew what he did to Wall-E…

But if that smile really was for him, its warmth intense and inviting even through the steward’s middling quality camera, well…

… he definitely wanted to see it again, hopefully up close next time…

The command tower ended up being the Senshi’s most used hangout spot when they weren’t doing other things, given everyone important there was Awake and also on the same page about defending the ship. It had a nice view of either space or the Lido Deck, and they could always just go down to said pool deck in the elevator if they wanted to go swimming.

One of the things Makoto liked to do the most was make bento for everyone’s lunch and deliver them herself. The meals-in-a-cup were thankfully just a fad at this point in the Axiom’s flight, but she wanted to make sure her friends weren’t stuck with them for a quick lunch, though. A lot of times they’d all just hang out the bridge and have lunch together, just watching the stars go by as Auto tended to the ship in the background.

It was during one of these lazy afternoon lunches that even as much as Auto was trying to stay focused on his duties, he had the strangest feeling he was being watched, and intensely so. He finished the latest set of commands he was typing in, and turned to observe the others for a moment.

Mamoru and Usagi seemed more interested in each other compared to their food, Minako was pointing out one constellation or another in the bow windows to Rei, and Ami looked to be plotting out some strategies with her palmtop computer as she worked on finishing her lunch.

It was Makoto that was watching him so closely as she absent-mindedly chewed on a piece of shrimp. There was a startled blink from the tall girl as she realized she was being watched in turn, she finished the shrimp and then she waved him over. "I'm sorry, did you sense that? I guess you've got pretty good intuition for a robot…”

Curiosity spurred Auto to ask something. “What do you require?”

Those green eyes of hers seemed lost in thought for a moment before Makoto came up with a response. “Nothing really, I was just thinking I felt kind of bad I couldn't give you lunch too. I don’t like leaving new friends out, you know? Though you probably could have some if you had a more organic form to switch to from another loop…”

"Negative. I have only looped as a machine so far." What Auto didn’t mention out loud, was that there was a certain part of him almost relieved he hadn’t been forced to be human or another type of organic. He was having a difficult enough time existing as he was, and a change as drastic as that… he didn’t want to think about it.

"Aww, that's too bad. Yggdrasil might not think you’re ready for a loop as an organic yet, it does try to wait sometimes for that. Oh well, maybe you can try my cooking the next time we loop together."

Now, he could’ve just left it at that, but Auto couldn’t shake the feeling there was something more to the way she was staring at him a minute before. He should’ve just left it at that, or at least his programming was trying to nudge him into leaving it be, but that unsettled feeling wasn’t going away. “There is something else…”

Another surprised blink from Makoto’s green eyes, though her expression settled on fairly impressed after a second or two. “Wow, you know how I said you had good intuition? Bump that up to amazing, I think you noticed I was sizing you up just now. I’m a martial artist, it’s just something we do by instinct once we’re skilled enough. Gotta know just what your allies or enemies are capable of and all that. Average people generally don't notice it."

"I see." The pilot started to turn away, to get back to his duties, optic angling slightly towards the floor. "I will not ask your assessment…"

There was a sudden blur of motion, Makoto reaching out to grab Auto's wheel before he could glide out of range, almost faster than he could see it. That green eyed gaze was a little annoyed now, but not too much. "Roots, Auto… you're just so ready to think everyone assumes the worst of you. Is Eve bullying you?"

Auto jolted in alarm at that, shaking his 'head' as best he could while still being held onto. "N-negative! I deserve it— "

"No, you don't. If she Wakes up this loop, I'll talk to her later, okay?" Makoto gently tightened her grip around Auto's wheel for a second, trying to reassure him. "As for right now, you just sit there and listen to what this princess of Jupiter has to say." She offered a faint smirk and winked at him. "It's better than you think, I promise."

He watched her for a moment, still so uncertain if he wanted to hear it or not, but in the end. Auto relented. “Proceed.”

“So, what I see, when I look at you?” Makoto traced along the pilot’s wheel with her fingers, and when they reached his claw she wrapped them around it. “Definitely not a fighter, not really. But if there’s something you want to protect, you can fight with everything you’ve got. I know you’re probably thinking that’s how you messed up back then, but it’s not a bad thing to be so determined. You share that with Usagi-chan, believe it or not…”

It was Auto's turn to blink in surprise, the shutter in his optic audibly clicking at least once as he did. "I do?"

Makoto couldn't help but giggle a little at his reaction, given how oddly cute it was. She certainly wouldn't have thought him capable of that without interacting with him directly. "Yeah, you do. I’m pretty sure you share some traits with all of us, even. It’s gotta take intelligence to run this ship, so you’re smart like Ami, you’re devoted to your duties like Rei, in watching over the ship you’re vigilant like Minako, and even if you might seem a little intimidating without meaning to, that’s just because you want to protect people. You share that last one with me. I bet you didn’t realize any of that, did you?”

“Negative…” And just like that, the pilot suddenly had a lot to think about. Yet more compliments that Auto wasn’t sure he deserved… then again, would it really be so strange to find other Loopers that felt the same way Captain McCrea did, the same way Wall-E did? Maybe he was letting Eve’s grudge affect him too much…

“Yeah, you did mess up, but who hasn’t?” Having said that, Makoto focused that emerald gaze on the machine in front of her, grinning when she fully held Auto’s attention. “You’ve got so much in common with us that you still have the heart of a Senshi anyway…”

What?! Auto was pretty sure a few of his subroutines crashed at hearing that, it made that little sense! She said it herself, he wasn’t a fighter, he wasn’t… a hero like they all were. Even as much as he wanted to deny it aloud, he couldn’t think of a way to do so that wouldn’t be thrown right back at him. There was still the more literal error to be questioned, at least. “I am unsure if I possess a heart.”

Makoto’s grin shifted to be a little gentler, and she let go of Auto’s claw to reach over and rub the side of his right faceplate a bit affectionately. “Don’t worry too much, you’ll get there eventually. We’ll even help out if you want, if you’d like that?”

The reply to that didn’t require much deliberation at all. “Affirmative… thank you.”

“It’s no problem . . . you gotta look after your friends, after all.”

It didn’t take long for Queen Beryl to figure out that A) the Axiom’s automated crew were very much aware of her and her minions’ presence even if the machines hadn’t managed to find her base yet and B) the AI behind it all was definitely hostile. In the distorted space in the ship’s depths where her palace was hidden, the queen of the Dark Kingdom sat upon her throne, staring into the scrying crystal atop her staff and plotting… Eventually she summoned one of her generals in to do her bidding.

The dark queen gestured towards her scrying crystal, an image of Auto attending to his duties on the other side of the ship shortly appearing within it. “Zoisite, this… device is becoming a menace. Disable or destroy it, I do not care which; when we retake the Earth and the Moon, we won’t need this monument to humanity’s excesses anyway.”

“As you will, my Queen.” The blonde-haired young man vanished into a swirl of cherry blossom petals similar to the one he arrived in.

It had been a fairly quiet week, with no major youma attacks or sightings of Beryl’s generals. Things were quiet enough that Mamoru decided it was safe to indulge Usagi a bit and go out on a date. It was something simple, just lunch at one of the little cafes that lined the Lido Deck, but it meant leaving the bridge and Captain’s quarters unattended aside from Auto being there. Maybe the moon cats or some of the other Senshi could’ve hung out for a while, but it was only going to be roughly an hour or so . . .

The pilot was of course doing his job as he always would, tending to the Axiom’s systems. The bridge was quiet, the only sounds his own systems and the occasional beeps from the control panels. They were the sounds of his home, almost more familiar than his daily routine, but it was that familiarity that let him pick out the quiet whisper of an unseen wind well before he might have otherwise. Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, Auto darted over to his docking station as quietly as he could, deciding to play the part of offline, defenseless steering wheel. He could watch whatever was going on from the room's cameras while his own was off.

It didn't take long to spot the source of the intrusion. On the Lido Deck side of the bridge, there was a sudden flurry of some sort of flower petals in the air, cherry blossoms if his scans were accurate. Amid the swirl of petals, what seemed to be a human appeared, but Auto knew they weren't from the uniform alone. Between the green accents on said uniform and the hairstyle, this was Zoisite. The Senshi had a few scuffles with him so far, being driven off every time. But why was he on the bridge? The Dark Kingdom was far more skilled with magic in comparison to technology, Auto wasn't sure they'd realize they could take control of the ship from here.

Zoisite shortly landed on the deck from where he was hovering just above it, stalking forward with intent. He stopped just in front of Auto's supposedly sleeping frame and smirked. "To think it would be so easy… I guess we overestimated the humans' toys." He brought his right arm up to cast, conjuring a blade of ice. The dark warrior didn't immediately launch it at his target, instead taking hold of it like a sword.

No doubt about it, Beryl’s general was here to kill him.

Admittedly there was a faint amount of pride he was such a hindrance to their efforts, but it didn't make him feel any better about it. Even as hard as his directives were pushing him to act, to defend himself from the approaching threat, Auto still hesitated in arming his shock prod. Using it never ended well, ever. Even the one time he avoided getting shut down for the attempt was still unpleasant in its own way. For a moment he entertained the thought that it might not be so bad to let this happen, there was a good chance Zoisite wouldn't know how to damage him lethally…

He dismissed the thought almost as soon as it crossed his processor. No, allowing this to be uncontested ran against his duty to the ship and those aboard, even if Mamoru and the others could manage without him, even if everything would reset regardless. The Axiom would always need a pilot. And Zoisite would just have to get in line, if his life was anyone's to take, Eve claimed it first.

Beyond all of that, if he died here, Usagi would cry. He definitely couldn't be responsible for that…

Luckily, while Zoisite may have been superhuman, he was still confined to an organic's speed of thought. Auto finished his deliberating in the microseconds before the Dark Kingdom general even raised his conjured blade to strike. The pilot waited for his enemy to start moving forward, not doing so himself until Zoisite was committed to the motion. Keeping to the illusion he was offline, he kept his optic off even as he juked to Zoisite's right so the overhead swing missed, flipping open his shock prod in the same motion and only activating it once the tips made contact with his foe.

"GYAAAAH!" Zoisite howled in pain as electricity coursed through him, instantly dropping his ice sword to shatter on the deck. He couldn't move for a moment, the laws of physics merrily having their way with him. It was only after he summoned the wherewithal for a short teleport that he managed to break the current, getting a good distance from the pilot in the process.

Auto meanwhile finally dispensed with his act, fully emerging from his more compact low power configuration with his optic blazing to life. The shock prod stayed active throughout, electricity crackling between the prongs.

The general got a better look at his enemy now, cursing as he shook off the surprise jolt. "Sneaky bastard, I'm the one who's supposed to pull something like that!" Zoisite straightened after a moment, rubbing where he got struck, and the killing intent returned to his gaze. Again a blade of ice appeared in his right hand. "That hurt, but you're nothing compared to Jupiter. Come on, then, maybe you'll give me some entertainment before I put you on the scrap heap!"

Again Auto noted the Dark Kingdom's overdependence on magic, Zoisite completely unable to tell he was broadcasting a distress signal to the Sailor Senshi's comms from the very moment he sighted him. To his enemy he offered no words, he simply flared his wheel out a bit further in challenge before charging forward.

This… wasn't going to end well, but Auto knew there was no other choice. He held no illusions of winning, but if he was good at anything, it was enduring against the odds. All he had to do was hold out long enough for rescue…

Across the Axiom, the varied communication devices held by the Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Mask started beeping as one. Just as quickly, their holders replied to confirm to the others they were all right, but one contact on the list remained eerily silent.

Usagi and Mamoru exited the little cafe on the starboard side of the Lido Deck, looking up at the command tower trying to see anything unusual from where they stood. It took a few seconds to catch anything, but it would be the moon princess who saw it first.

"Mamo-chan, look!" Usagi pointed up at the bridge windows overlooking the Lido Deck. She had to squint a bit on the first pass, but she caught the strange flashes of light coming through the windows.

Not wasting another moment, Mamoru flagged down a SRV-A unit that was idling in the area. Ordinarily they weren't supposed to be transporting humans as their cargo, but… "Get us to the bridge, Captain's orders!"

The transport robot chirped out an affirmative warble, before hovering up to the two humans and letting them clamber onto it. It took off for the command tower at high speed once they were settled on board.

Zoisite let out a snarl as he teleported backwards, just out of his opponent's striking range. He still couldn't figure out how the damned thing he was fighting was so tenacious. Even if he managed to score some telling blows, like the scorched paint, a crack running down the middle of that red eye, a gash torn deep into the right faceplate and the upper left spoke he sliced off, the autopilot just would not give up. Hell, the machine had even landed a few more strikes himself, scorch marks dotting the points on his uniform where the shock prod struck true.

"Ugh, how are you doing this? You're not even from the Moon Kingdom, you don't owe them a damned thing!" The Dark Kingdom general let another gout of flame roar across the bridge at Auto, the pilot again managing to mostly glide out of the way and only getting more of his finish ruined. Zoisite's eyes narrowed at this, shortly deciding on a new tactic before teleporting out of sight.

More ice shards were conjured in the room, slashing at Auto from all directions to try and keep him pinned down. Zoisite reappeared and tossed another fireball in the pilot's direction, but this was merely a feint, Auto dodging this latest barrage only putting him in position for an attack from below. A handful of wickedly sharp ice shards suddenly appeared, these launching upwards to shear through the pilot's rail mount and pin it to the ceiling. The answering screech of pain almost drowned out the sound of tearing metal…

Zoisite teleported again, appearing in front of his prey, idly observing Auto and smirking as the robot struggled to move despite the damage. There was no use of course, he'd made sure to launch those shards as if they were propelled by hurricane force winds. The shards were a good five inches of solid ice jutting through Auto’s upper frame and impaled in the ceiling, the machine breaking free on his own would be nigh impossible. He could see some sort of oil dripping down two of the shards, he'd certainly ripped apart a motor in there somewhere. Another spell cast, yet another ice sword materializing slowly in the general's hand, the pilot looking towards the sound and his optic widened.

"So, you can feel fear after all. Heheheh, good. That's made this farce worth it, at least." The general hovered closer, raising his sword over his head. "It's been amusing to watch you struggle, but this is the end; farewell!"

The blade of ice slashed down, Auto closing his optic as it whistled through the air…

…

The next thing Auto heard was the sound of shattering ice and Zoisite cursing under his breath; the strike never landed. He opened his optic again, noting several roses now sticking out of the floor, and the stem of one looked streaked with blood. It was likely the reason why Zoisite was suddenly sporting a thin cut along one cheek.

Tuxedo Mask shortly stepped into view, spreading out his cape with one arm and using it to shield the damaged pilot behind him. "Leave my partner alone!"

“Oh yeah? You and what army is going to stop me—” It was half a second too late when Zoisite realized the masked magic knight was already gathering energy for another attack, and by then he didn’t have time to teleport.

Mamoru took a bracing stance, then outstretched one hand, a ball of white light forming in front of it. “Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber!” The ball of light expanded out into a massive beam attack, the blazing energy blasting his foe across the room and then right through the Lido Deck-facing windows, glass shattering in its wake.

It took a moment for Zoisite to shake off the blast and correct his flight in the air, and while he would’ve just returned to the battle, somehow he had the foresight to glance down towards the deck below. All of the Sailor Senshi were down there and seemed to be powering up attacks, Sailor Moon looking up with an especially steely glare and aiming her Moon Stick right at him, Silver Crystal glowing ominously.

He didn’t even bother deliberating it, Zoisite just vanished in a flurry of cherry blossom petals, a few seconds before the hail of elemental magic tore through his prior location.

Back on the bridge, Mamoru glared at the spot the general had been a moment ago, before turning towards Auto and wincing as he took in the sight. Without wasting another second, he spoke into his communicator. “Guys, you better get up here. Auto survived, but he took a beating. He'll need repairs before we do anything else…" He shut the comm off again, and tried to offer the damaged pilot an encouraging smile. "You did your best, that's all anyone could ask for."

For his part, Auto straightened to attention as best he could, even if the damage to his faceplate had wrecked his vocalizer to the point he couldn’t reply. Being rendered unable to speak was starting to become an annoying recurrence as he looped. Well, he would just have to be repaired, that was all . . . though he certainly racked up far more damage to his frame this time than on any other occurrence of needing repairs. That time he was an EVE, that wasn’t his true frame so it didn’t count in the same way.

It would be fine, he was pretty sure he wasn't so damaged that anything truly vital needed replacing… he wouldn't need a shutdown.

Though, there was the slight electrical fault around that gash in his faceplate… electricity jumped across a place where it shouldn't and he flinched just a little.

No, that could be worked around, it would still be fine…

The pilot changed his tune about five minutes later…

Ami of course came up to the bridge along with everyone else. She was still in her fuku and had her scanning visor going; as the most technically inclined, it fell to her to figure out just how badly damaged Auto was. After a minute of letting her scanner do its thing, a wince crossed her face, and she stepped forward to deliver the news.

Sailor Mercury switched her visor off, given she had her diagnosis. "Auto… you need to be shut down for this, there's no question about it."

Auto's optic went wide and he jolted in place, not able to move much with his rail mount so badly damaged. The ice that pinned him in place had dissipated when Zoisite fled, but the holes bored straight through his chassis remained. Hydraulic fluid still dripped from one of them, the drops staining the floor below. A few warbles laced with static slipped from him, maybe they were a little higher pitched than usual…

"It'll only be for a few minutes, it's more for my safety than anything." Ami pointed towards one particular spot along the jagged tear in the metal of Auto's faceplate, though she didn't dare touch it. "I know you feel that short, I see you twitching every time the current jumps across it. It's not damaging you much as your chassis has enough resistance to keep it from going very far. But if I touch you when that happens, well, you know how little resistance the human body has…”

The pilot did understand that, he knew it all too well given his only weapon, but he still held his remaining spokes stiffer than usual. There was a faint grinding noise from his rail mount above, as if he'd started to move backwards but then thought better of it as his systems protested.

Makoto stepped up at Auto's continued distress, still in Sailor Jupiter mode. The antenna hidden in the center of her tiara extended upward, to try and help her focus. "Wait wait wait, he's really not looking like he wants to be shut off. Maybe I could redirect it away from where you need to work, let's see here…"

The brownish-red haired girl held out one hand towards Auto, trying to use her abilities to feel out the path that short circuit was taking. He definitely felt something tracing along the paths of his circuitry but he wasn’t quite sure what it was. Maybe it was her magic?

She kept it up for a good minute, but in the end Makoto let out an irritated huff. “Tch, dammit…” She lowered her hand, offering an apologetic look to the robot in front of her. “I– I’m sorry, I tried my best, but there’s really not a lot of room in there. The only path I could find would just send the current deeper into your systems, I don’t wanna hurt you worse just trying to help. Look, it'll be over before you know it, you can be brave and let Ami do what she has to, right?"

The next warble from Auto came out more like a screech, the others wincing from the sheer cacophony of the sound. He fought to get his rail mount moving, not caring how much noise the damaged gears made, just so long as he could get away. It held out for a few feet, and not anywhere near the kind of speed he was usually capable of, but eventually some of the more jagged edges of torn metal lodged themselves in the ceiling, only digging deeper the more he struggled to move. Thus trapped, the pilot glanced at the others with his optic as wide as it could get before promptly shutting it, even folding his remaining spokes down to shield himself for all the good it would do. A faint metallic rattling made itself known, though if anyone watched him closely it was obvious he was shaking…

Most of the gathered Senshi weren't sure what to do, but after a moment Usagi stepped forward.

"Ami-chan, Mako-chan, it's okay. You tried your best, but I think it's my turn." The future queen of Earth looked towards her friends for a moment. "Before anyone says anything, Rei; yes, we shouldn't spoil newbies, but he's at his limit right now. I'd say he was brave enough for one day just standing up to Zoisite by himself."

In the background, Rei just kind of shook her head, but ultimately let Sailor Moon do whatever she was planning on.

Usagi made her way over to stand right in front of the distressed pilot, speaking in soothing tones. "It's all right, Auto, we won't use that switch up there… Ami wasn't quite thinking of it from your point of view, that's all. I bet hearing that click meant the end of a loop for you for so long, even if that first time would've been the scariest. You probably never even got to see Earth again until Wall-E noticed you were Awake…"

At her soft words, Auto managed to unfold himself and opened his optic again. He didn't try to move, he just hung there and watched Usagi warily.

"There, that’s it. You won't ever have to worry about us doing that to you. But I definitely can't leave you like this, so I'm just going to heal you myself." Usagi flashed another of her winning smiles at him. "Some healing magic can't help machines, but I'm really strong. So just hold still and let me do my thing, you'll be fine again in a minute… this might feel a little warm."

Usagi waited for a moment until the pilot seemed reasonably ready, then started focusing her power. She took up a stance similar to Makoto’s earlier, one hand outstretched towards Auto, before calling out, "Moon Healing Escalation!"

The resultant flare of light blazed brightly enough to be seen out of either set of bridge windows, Auto slamming his optic shut again to keep from being blinded temporarily. As for what it felt like, her earlier comment of it being ‘a little warm’ was quite the understatement. His sensor grid wasn’t particularly set up to let him feel more than what was necessary to his functions, but the sheer intensity of the warmth held just short of overwhelming it anyway. He didn’t feel like he was going to overheat, and while similarly strong, this didn’t feel artificial like the Aperture mainframe’s illusions of warmth did. It was… comfortable being the focus of Usagi’s magic.

She wasn’t kidding about being strong, either. When Captain McCrea used his healing spell on him, an art tailored to machines that came from somewhere called Midchilda, it had taken several minutes before his damaged systems started reading green again. This Moon Healing Escalation, on the other hand, that level of restoration was happening in the space of seconds. It was doing still more than that, as suddenly he was getting readings from the spoke that Zoisite sliced off. Usagi had… just recreated something from nothing?! That absolutely violated Conservation of Mass… but it was magic, so he supposed this could be excused. Having a spoke replaced the normal way was annoying at best anyway, this was much less hassle.

At the rate it was proceeding, it didn't take more than a minute for the light and warmth to fade off, leaving Auto hanging there in a slight daze. He opened his optic again, the light flickering a couple times as he blinked in disbelief at the system readings he was getting. Every component he had was just as pristine as the day he was rolled off the assembly line. The spoke that hadn’t been there a minute ago, the upper left one, he extended it out and tested its range of motion. He wasn't entirely sure why he did it, his internal readings said it was fine, it just felt like something he needed to do. Maybe it was some mannerism he picked up from his captains or other humans. In any case, after waggling it back and forth a few times he set the spoke back to its usual idle position; all of his systems were fully functional again.

A soft giggle emerged from Usagi as she watched the pilot, there was just something oddly endearing about the way Auto was checking himself over. “There, good as new, right? I told you I was strong."

"Affirmative… thank you." Having given his thanks, Auto idled there somewhat awkwardly, a bit of static coming from his vocalizer as if he was going to say something else, but nothing came out. Should he say anything else? It felt like he should, but his mind was blank as to what.

Thankfully Usagi moved to fill in the silence, stepping still closer to Auto and carefully wrapping her arms around him. It wasn't a very tight hug, given she had to mind his still moving processor strips, or maybe she realized much tighter might make him feel trapped, but it was a hug nonetheless. "You were really brave today, but it was our fault you had to be. We should've figured Beryl would target you eventually, I'm sorry about that." Here she pulled away a bit, but moved her hands to grip the bottom rim of the pilot's wheel, to make sure she had his attention. "But saying that… Auto, you do know I won't be here all the time, right? Null loops happen too, in that case usually nothing from outside a loop will work, and that includes healing magic. There might be times where you really will need to be shut down for repairs. Whoever it might be would only want to help you, they wouldn’t leave you sleeping forever. Can you try to not give them a hard time?”

That last question made Auto want to shy away, in fact he would have if Usagi wasn’t still hanging onto him. But it was that same grip on his wheel that kept him settled in the here and now, not completely losing himself to his spiraling thoughts of being shut down and left behind again. Wait, left behind? This was also something he feared? All those times before he was told about the Loops, at the end of all those futile struggles as the light faded from his mind, in those moments he knew the others would move on without him. It was what made him call out when the darkness of shutdown took him almost every time, and what made a downright pathetic sounding trill emerge from his vocalizer now.

Usagi’s grip remained steady on the pilot throughout, but she moved her left hand to hang onto his claw at his continued distress. Her voice grew soft again, trying her best to calm him. “Auto… I know it’s scary to trust, but just think about this. You sent your distress signal and held the line against Zoisite, because you trusted we would come for you. If you can manage that, I’m sure you could trust whoever might be patching you up. Will you give them a chance at least, if that ever happens?”

Auto’s processor strips completed a rotation behind his faceplates as he thought, their lights flickering. He supposed she had a point, even as much as he didn’t want to admit it. And a Looper as ancient as Usagi would certainly know how likely or not that a scenario like that would happen. It was best to… be prepared for such an eventuality. It was a struggle to voice the words regardless, only managing it because the girl in front of him was watching so expectantly. He didn’t want to disappoint her, or his current captain in the background. “I… I will try.”

Again, Usagi gave him another of her bright smiles. “That’s good. I just didn’t want to have to worry about you later, that was all.” She rubbed the pilot’s claw with her thumb one last time before letting go of him, then sighed and dropped her transformation, the others shortly dropping theirs. “So much for that lunch date, we didn’t even get our food . . . but I wonder if that cafe might deliver up to the bridge?”

Taking this as his cue and eager to move on to other things, Auto zoomed over to one of the consoles, looking up the cafe in the ship’s restaurant directory. He quickly scanned over the entry, and turned to face the others. "They will deliver to anywhere on the Axiom. I can send an order if you wish."

"Really? Cool!" At once Usagi looked towards the rest of her friends. "Well, there's the menu, go ahead and tell him what you want."

While it was a task more suited to the TYP-E unit on the lower level of the command tower, Auto gladly got to work, listening to everyone’s orders and entering them in. He had a distinct feeling that this wasn’t just making up for everyone else’s afternoons getting interrupted, Usagi was also trying to give him something more routine to do, to better settle his 'nerves'. Indeed, falling into the steady rhythm required for efficient data entry had already improved his mood significantly.

Captain McCrea made a similar assessment and nudged him towards running the ship as he normally would after returning from Aperture Science, even if the human also helped to make that workload a bit lighter. His captain knew him for years, and thousands of them now thanks to Looping, of course he knew that allowing him to still work would help the most… Auto couldn't help but wonder how Usagi figured it out so quickly.

When the pilot glanced at the moon princess in an idle moment, she winked at him, so no doubt she knew exactly what she was doing. Was that ability to reach out to others and understand them part of her Senshi powers or was that just how she was? Auto supposed he had plenty of time to unravel this mystery and any others he might find as the loop went on, Beryl was only the first major enemy to deal with.

Even if he would prefer to avoid fighting personally, he looked forward to whatever might happen next…

Chapter Text

[Zelda: BOTW/ Wall-E]

In Calamity's Wake

The full moon was blood red a few minutes ago… the clouds swirled around it, the screeches and roars of newly revived monsters howling to greet it shook the nerves of any Hylian foolish enough to be outside at this time of night. The red gleam fell upon anything that happened to be on the ground, be that the remains of Bokoblins or Moblins, or the hulking wreck of an ancient war machine scrapped long ago, restoring all of these beasts in equal measure.

The blaze in the sky lingered for a few minutes more, and it slowly drifted over one such wrecked Guardian Stalker. Legs formerly sliced off shortly regenerated, damage to its hull reversing under the touch of what looked like smoldering magenta flame. 

As the crimson glow above finally flickered and died, there was the stirring of ancient mechanisms. The twitch of a long, segmented leg, the turret swiveling back and forth to acquire a target that was gone months ago, and eventually its running lights began to glow again. Blue shifted to red for the optic, and the glow of its core through its chassis seemed a bit confused for a moment, amber and magenta light battling back and forth before settling on mostly amber, streaked with the occasional flare of pinkish red.

Auto Awoke as his new frame was unsteadily rising on its six long legs, confused as to why his optic and other sensors seemed to latch onto any sort of motion within a certain radius. There wasn’t even anything worth focusing on, just the wind through the grass, or a couple of startled crickets running in the opposite direction at his suddenly coming online.

Wait, grass? At that point the pilot placed more attention on his surroundings, noting the moonlit sky above. He was Earthbound, that much was certain, nothing but trees and unspoiled land as far as his optic could see. His frame was significantly different from his usual form, built to traverse varied terrain like what he found himself in the middle of, given the six legged stance. It would take a massive amount of force to stagger or knock him over. But what sort of thing required such steady footing? Upon further inspection of his current systems, it might have something to do with the staggeringly powerful beam cannon merged to his optic. He would have to hold as still as he could to aim, and brace himself whenever he fired it judging from its power draw.

Why did he even need a laser that strong? 

Again that strange desire to search for moving targets surged to the forefront of his thoughts, seeming to burn like he was overheating. Suddenly remaining still felt too stifling, he needed air running across his chassis. Soon enough those six legs started moving, propelling him through the wilderness. He needed to move, to hunt, even as much as it didn't make sense. What was happening to him? He was a pilot, why did he want to—

No, this was a need, a directive… he existed to seek out and destroy the enemies of Calamity Ganon!

The pilot froze in place at that thought coursing through him.

Before even another millisecond passed, Auto swept his antiviral defenses across the otherwise empty partition of his mind that last thought came from, foreign code he did not recognize suffering swift deletion, or so he hoped. If it was a computer virus of the sort BnL ever expected him to encounter, there would be nothing but his own code remaining…

The next few milliseconds proved he wasn't that fortunate. Whatever it was, while greatly diminished by the force of the attack, it was still slithering around his systems with impunity and scrambling any code it touched. Wait, scrambling? No, as Auto looked the damage over, inwardly flinching as he parsed it, this was worse. Many viruses could also cause data corruption, but not to the degree this could. There almost seemed to be a will at work from what it damaged, another sign this was more than a mere virus. Safeties were nonfunctional, as were any restrictions on his apparent weapon systems… 

This corruption would forge him into an uncontrollable, unstoppable weapon, the cutting edge of this 'Calamity Ganon’s' blade.

If he allowed it.

Before Aperture, before the Sailor Senshi graced the Axiom, he might’ve panicked, his confidence still too shaken to allow him to fight back.

Now, though? Auto gave the thing another two blasts of his antivirus, and while that still didn’t destroy the lurking corruption, it did knock it back from the more important parts of his code. Working quickly, he brought up his internal firewalls and barricaded the core of his very being behind them. While it still wouldn't save him if the virus or whatever it actually was grew far more aggressive, it would give him time to find an actual solution.

Once, twice, the corruption tried its luck to get through the barrier, and while the firewalls shook a bit, they otherwise held firm. Afterwards it seemed content to lurk there just next to them, occasionally sending out tendrils of itself to probe for weak points.

With the threat of being consumed and subverted held off for the moment, Auto set his focus outward once again. There was likely a cure of some sort for his condition somewhere in this loop, but as he observed the wilds around him, he was certain he wouldn't find it in the middle of nowhere like this. Admittedly he also wasn't sure where to even start, though he got those six legs moving nonetheless.

Maybe if he checked his loop memories…? Tch, they too were a corrupted mess… his last clear memories were from approximately a hundred years ago. While he did glean a few useful things, that he was apparently a Sheikah-built Guardian Stalker, as well as an outdated map of the land of Hyrule contained in his memory, everything else was scattered and fleeting. He saw flashes of standing in a castle courtyard, of being moved around remotely via a wireless tablet, of a golden haired young woman and her overbearing father. The princess and king of Hyrule? There was a sharp-eyed knight there too… 

The final truly clear loop memory was of the moon above that medieval castle burning blood red, the air of the fortress grounds suddenly choked with a smoldering miasma. Auto couldn’t recall if the researchers ordered him to flee or if emergency directives had, either way it was too late. The miasma settled on every surface of his chassis, seeping inward and burning, always burning as it ate away at any sense of logic or reason within him…

…

In the here and now, Auto fought down the blooming panic as best he could. It took him a minute or two, but he slowly got his systems to gear down and limited his reaction to a full body shudder, his chassis rattling as he let it flow over him.

He vented some air through his systems and shook it off after another moment. 

The pilot would've let out a sigh if a Guardian frame had any sort of vocalizer. At least that turned out better than the last time his loop memories or otherwise had disturbed him so much? Yes, he didn't fully freeze up or even need anyone to help pull him out of it for once. Progress, he supposed.

For not the first time as his looping existence went on, Auto wondered if having emotions was truly worth the trouble. He certainly never suffered quite so many… malfunctions before these ‘feelings’ fully emerged. Even if he really wanted to be rid of them, he was fairly sure that was impossible, given Wall-E and Eve. The longer a BnL artificial intelligence existed, the more they experienced, the more likely it was their neural network would start emulating the humans they served. Come to think of it, that was probably why they were only supposed to be in use for five years, rather than the seven hundred their lives stretched out to… 

Regardless, he told his captain he wanted to live too… if that meant carrying this particular burden on top of everything else, so be it.

Without any other fanfare, Auto started to get moving again, if only to get a better idea of what he wanted to do this loop besides getting rid of that virus. There was a mountain to the west that would make a good vantage point… and he startled slightly when he heard a splash as he moved, water dousing some of the left side of his chassis.

The map of the area he held said the river was supposed to be another fifty feet to the west, though it was a hundred years out of date. Maybe a dam had broken or erosion had taken its toll without anyone to repair it, but what was left of the ‘Sage Temple’ was a flooded ruin. He startled a few odd lizard creatures lurking among the crumbling walls and ruined stairs, but they went back to either sleeping or patrolling the area once they saw what the noise was.

Wait, that water was relatively undisturbed other than his stepping in it, and pristine from lack of anything else using it, so Auto angled himself to get a better look at his reflection. The moonlight above was plenty of illumination, as his current optic seemed fully capable of night vision. His running lights at idle seemed to be an almost neon blue highlighting the various flourishes dotting his chassis, and where his turret joined the rest of his body. If he focused on one of those lizardmen in the distance, the lights began to warm to amber– 

He jolted at the split-second flicker of magenta light across his reflection, the corruption within driven to frenzy at a new target lock. Auto fed it another blast of his antiviral defenses and got it to back off again, noting the change in color as a visual warning for when it was starting to act up. When it felt reasonably settled, he got back to examining his new form again.

From just moving around a bit earlier he already had an idea of the mass he now had, but he was still kind of surprised at how much larger a Guardian frame was compared to his normal one. He’d only barely fit on the Axiom’s bridge like this, and certainly no hope of getting in the elevator. His new heavy armor almost seemed more like stone than metal, or perhaps it was ceramic of some kind? The pilot was sure he resembled nothing less than some ancient Japanese pottery that he came across during one search or another of the Axiom’s databases. It was almost as if those old Sheikah just flipped a giant pot upside down, stuck some legs on it and called it a day.

Auto held one of those long legs up and extended it into his field of vision, idly flexing the claws on the end of it. He could hold things with a little more dexterity than his standard claw, or lash out with the force of a coiled whip, but as he noted earlier, the way his legs were set up was better suited to traversing rough terrain above anything else. He wasn’t particularly optimized for swimming, though, which had the pilot keeping a healthy distance between himself and the deeper water in the river just beyond the ruined temple..

If he wanted to get to that mountain in the west, he would have to find a bridge, or possibly make himself a path across. Auto swiveled his turret around, impressed with his new optic’s distance vision… ah, there was a bridge just to the south. He angled himself to head towards it, though as he started to move he noticed just how quiet it was so late at night.

The quiet wasn’t as oppressive as it could be back on Earth, he could hear crickets chirping in the grass, or the occasional flap of bird wings. Even so, it still slowed the pilot’s steps just as it did when he was an EVE probe . . .

Auto fought off the urge to hunker down right where he was, to wait for someone to find him. More often than not he Woke up alone, and if the waterlogged temple ruins he started to leave behind were any indication of the state of the world, no one might ever come that direction.

Still, Pinging before he got going might be worth a shot? Even if it was distressingly common that he tended to Wake first, and not hear other Pings until years had passed by… 

After a moment the pilot gave in and let a Ping echo across the loop . . . and was pleasantly surprised when another three Pings sounded in reply. There was no way of telling who the Pings were from, maybe they were from the locals, but there was still a good chance one of them might be Wall-E.

It wasn’t much, not really, but just knowing he wasn’t alone was enough for Auto to pick up his pace. He would check the lay of the land first, then see if he could find any of those other Loopers. Even if they weren’t Wall-E, maybe a local would know how to deal with the lingering corruption in his systems…

Chapter Text

Wall-E Woke up as a Hylian this Loop. Truth be told, the only difference from his typical human form with the usual short and scruffy light brown hair kept out of his eyes by a pair of goggles worn as a headband, a rather wiry build, and sun weathered traveler’s clothing was the pointy ears. And he wasn’t just any Hylian, given the huge pack he carried with little effort, he was pretty sure he was replacing Beedle . . .

There really wasn’t much more of a fitting role for him here. Maybe replacing the local Anchor would work too, but 'collector and seller of junk found across the sprawling wilds of Hyrule' was right up his alley. He wasn’t too fond of the selling part, though he supposed that just meant he could make more room for new junk.

He was hanging out near one of the stables dotted across Hyrule and actually in the middle of selling some arrows when he heard the Ping. “All right, that’s two packs of arrows for 60 Rupees, which works out to 120 altogether… hmm?”

Judging from the slight glance upward from his current customer, that he recognized as Link, the knight and hero of Hyrule likely heard the Ping too.

Wall-E Pinged a reply as he finished the sale, another reply also ringing out, shortly followed by a third. “And there’s your arrows. Say, you seem like you’re feeling a little Loopy…”

Link offered an amused half-smile in response to the coded phrase. “Heh, maybe a little; pretty well Anchored otherwise, though.”

“Gee, same here.” Having said that, Wall-E glanced around the stable, not really seeing anyone else who stood out like they did. “If two of those Pings were us, I wonder who the other two were?”

“There tends to be some lag between me, Zel, and a certain ‘dork Waking up in this variant for reasons. For all I know, there’s a good chance the other two might be from your loop instead.” The hero of the wilds paused for a moment as he thought. “Huh, ‘Wally’ . . . are you a robot normally?”

“Yeah? Go on…”

“Pretty sure I saw your Backup during one Hub movie binge or another, that’s why I’m vaguely familiar. Let’s see… I would’ve noticed if Rhoam was replaced by your Captain McCrea, he wasn’t this time. Impa’s granddaughter was named Eva instead of Paya, so that’s probably Eve. Which leaves the third who’s probably . . .” Link blinked in surprise a few times as the realization of who it might be hit him. “Wait, WHAT? That can’t be right, can it?”

Wall-E just kind of let the weight of that huge pack of his carry him to the ground, and he deflated against it like it was a humongous pillow. “Hnnn, I hate that you’re not the first one to react that way…” He looked up at the sky, at the clouds and the stars just past them, maybe idly wishing the pilot could’ve been up there where he belonged for that loop. “Auto did his job, took care of that ship and made sure there still was a human race. It was only at the end where things got messy. I think he was just as scared as we were back then, maybe even more so…”

Link couldn’t help but wince at the other looper’s reaction, immediately glancing away slightly and rubbing at the back of his head. "Tree, it just sorta came out. But you do get why that reaction happens, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I do. But that doesn't make it any less disheartening. Auto made one mistake, but he shouldn't have to suffer alone forever for it. He's smart, sometimes scarily so, I knew if I could just get past that stupid directive he would understand…"

"And did he?"

That was all it took for the load lifter turned Hylian merchant to finally sit upright again and brighten significantly, Wall-E was practically beaming. "It took more loops than I was hoping for, but yeah, he did! He ended up Waking in Eve's place one loop, turned out as the best thing for it. Once he saw Earth for himself there was no denying the truth anymore, A113 was wrong. He even ripped it out of his systems on his own when it kept interfering with him. He’s been nothing but helpful ever since, just slowly getting used to the whole Looping thing. Aside from the usual new looper bumps, it’s been great. Well, except for one thing…”

No, it didn’t take Link more than half a second to figure out what the problem was, just knowing typical tsundere behavior. “Eve?”

“Eve.” Wall-E shook his head sadly, aiming his gaze a bit towards the ground. “Auto was already pretty torn up inside about just hurting me, and she… told him everything that happened after the landing. It would be hard to tell for anyone else, the way he emotes is so different from humans, but something in him just kind of shattered when he heard it. She backed off some after he came back from a bad loop, and he’s trying his best but it still weighs pretty hard on him. I do think they’ll work things out between each other, but the time between then and now is gonna suck.”

There was only one answer for it, really, and Link held his right hand out for the non-native Anchor to take hold of. “Well, as long as you guys are here, I’ll help make it suck a bit less. Zelda too, once she Wakes up and I tell her about it. As for Ganondorf . . . ugh, it’s hard to tell with him most of the time, but we could probably bully him into behaving. As for right now, how about we go swing up towards Kakariko and see if we can find Eve? That sound good?”

It was this that finally pulled the scruffy merchant fully out of his funk, Wall-E reaching to let Link help him to his feet, though he made use of his own ridiculous strength to spare the warrior from having to lift his pack too. “That sounds great! And, uh, thanks for offering to help . . . think I really needed to hear that just now.”

“No problem. We Anchors gotta look out for each other, you know? Good to have other Loopers around, but we’re the only ones who have to exist all the time somewhere in the Tree.” Having said that, Link reached to his hip and pulled up his Sheikah Slate, looking at the map of Hyrule. “Let’s see, we’re at Dueling Peaks Stable, so we should be able to hit Kakariko a little bit after sunrise if we start now. Unless you’d like to teleport instead?”

“Nah, we can walk.” Wall-E started down the path, taking in the sights as he walked. “It’s nice to be out in nature that’s doing just fine on its own… though I don’t mind helping every once in a while.” He focused some of his drudic magic onto a barren spot next to the road, within a few moments a handful of Silent Princesses shortly sprouted from the dirt. He kneeled down for a moment to scoop one plant up, pulling a boot out of his Pocket to place it in, and hanging the impromptu pot on one of the many items jutting out from his pack. “I think Eve will like this one…”

“I know my princess likes them, got more than enough myself, though…” Link left the rest of the flowers there to brighten up the path, and the two travelers got on their way.

A few hours later in the forests surrounding Kakariko Village, amidst the quiet there were the sounds of clashing blades. Flashes of red Yiga and blue Sheikah handsign magic flared across the clearings, animals fleeing as the woods turned into a battlefield.

It was just one random Yiga trying to sneak into the Sheikah stronghold, but in any case it fell to Eve to drive them off as the strongest warrior and the chief’s granddaughter. She actually Woke up a week or so ago in the middle of another scuffle with these jerks. As much as she’d like to whip out one of her ion cannons and vaporize the enemy, Impa told her that a lot of the Yiga were just disillusioned Sheikah and some even still had families in the village, so the chief preferred limiting any punishment to a thorough beating.

Sheikah ninjitsu was very useful for this, allowing her to blur out of the way of strikes and conjure any number of phantasmal surprises to toss at her foe, from clones of herself to even more weapons. Eve leapt into a high backflip, deploying the paraglider hidden on the back of her uniform, using it to soar over the Yiga on the ground and drop a conjured explosive barrel onto them. It didn’t have the sort of ooomph that she’d otherwise be using on monsters, but it still got the enemy ninja to stagger back a bit.

“Tch, stop doing that shit and fight like a real warrior!” This wasn’t Master Kohga but the masked Yiga could certainly match him in the ‘throwing tantrums’ department.

Eve crossed her arms and raised a questioning eyebrow at her opponent. “And who exactly tried to jump me by casting an Earthwake while hiding in a tree again? Last warning, get lost and you might just be able to limp out of here under your own power.”

“And if I don’t?”

The Sheikah pretended to check the sharpness of her kodachi, though she didn't take an eye off her enemy for one second. “That last trick of mine isn’t limited to just one barrel, you know… might be able to blast you the whole way to Zora’s Domain with enough effort~”

The Yiga in question either didn't believe her or just didn't care, he drew his blade again and charged forward, howling "Die, Kingdom lapdog!!" as he ran.

"Well, suit yourself…" With an eyeroll, Eve launched herself into the air again, starting to form the symbols used to conjure even more phantasmal explosives when something unexpected happened.

Someone just out of view hurled an oversized merchant's sack into the side of the Yiga, the impact sending him flying into a nearby tree. Momentarily stunned, he slumped to the ground, not unconscious but also not getting back up until he recovered from getting the wind knocked out of him.

Wait a minute, was that sack vaguely cockroach-shaped? Could it be…?

Eve got her confirmation not five seconds later, when the bag's owner stepped onto the path to reclaim it. Short sandy brown hair, the look of a seasoned traveler, with the goggles holding that wild hair out of his eyes being the biggest clue of who this was.

"You leave her alone or I'll smack you again, Yiga jerk!" Wall-E's shouting on the other hand was completely unmistakable as he grabbed the bug shaped sack by one strap, though he didn't pick it up, and glowered at the downed Yiga with intent to harm.

"Wall-E!" Eve couldn't help but to zip forward at that. He was shorter than her as he typically was for his human form, so it was no effort to scoop him up with her arms and bring him closer for a long kiss…

She had a few too many loops away recently, who could blame her?

The Yiga shook off the stun by now, but instead of jumping right to the attack again, he elected to sit there and enjoy the view. "Heheh, just like the Great Fairies~"

"You think so? There's a whole lot less getting pulled into loving watery doom right there, though."

At the new voice, the Yiga glanced in its direction, only to discover a warrior wearing a familiar blue tunic standing next to him. "The champion?! Prepare to–"

"Now boarding Stasis Express, destination: the Moon." Link sheathed the massive broadsword he was using a moment before and offered the Yiga a nasty smirk. "Say hi to Majora for me, jackass!"

"... the fuck is MajoraAAAAAAAA–" The Yiga's voice faded away as the nearby formerly Stasis-locked log came barreling at him at high speed, and with enough momentum stored to knock him high into the stratosphere.

Eve meanwhile let Wall-E come up for air in the background, but kept him snuggled close as he recovered from his kiss-induced fugue of happiness. She glanced up just in time to see her enemy blast off into a distant twinkle in the sky and let out an appreciative low whistle. "Hah, good one! He might just make it to the moon after all, with how physics seems to work in this loop."

Link couldn’t help but give her a cheeky grin. "The Stasis rune is glorious bullshit." The Hylian champion glanced around the woods, trying to see if there was anything else out there with them. "That your only dance partner, or are there more of them lurking?"

"Think he was the last one, and besides that, look.” The explorer probe turned Sheikah warrior pointed at the steadily brightening sky above, the sun starting to rise into view in the distance. “It’s daybreak, they don’t tend to stick around long after that. Cowards, all of them.”

It was that moment that Wall-E finally shook himself out of his blissful daze, hugging Eve tighter for a moment before mostly pulling back. He regarded the encroaching dawn rather blearily. “Ugh, daybreak already? We’ve been up all night…”

“Well, at least Kakariko is just through the forest and down this hill… I can carry you if you can’t make it~”

“Think I can last until I see a bed, then I’m faceplanting on it.” At that,Wall-E shouldered his pack again. “Besides that, don’t wanna make you carry this thing too.” As he was moving it around, he caught sight of the plant he found earlier, shortly reaching to grab it and hold it out to Eve. “Oh yeah, got this for you… the blue in the center of the petals reminded me of your eyes…”

Eve took hold of the offered Silent Princess in a boot, smiling gently at her beloved. “Aww, that’s so sweet…”

Getting the distinct feeling his presence was no longer required, and not wanting to disturb them, Link turned himself toward the direction he knew Kakariko was in. He gave them an airy wave over his shoulder, and then got on his way, looking to grab an inn room when he reached the town . . . he would meet up with the two lovebirds again a bit later in the day, after they’d all gotten some sleep.

Chapter Text

It took Auto what was left of the night to reach the forest at the foot of the mountain he intended to climb up. Now, he saw the regrown forests of Earth in his own loop, even up close a few times, but something about these woods felt altogether different. Earth's wilds were left to their own devices to recover for 700 years, but after the return,  humans and robots alike eagerly assisted their growth. Things were a little more orderly there because of that.

Here in Hyrule, on the other hand? Nature's bounty stood in full bloom all around him, living on its own without anything to guide it but the weather and the cycle of days. Plants grew in every inch of soil that could hold them, some particularly robust wildflowers even nestling in the cracks in boulders where water would settle. It was a pleasant reminder of a certain other tough little plant… could these survive the same trip to the Axiom and back again that sapling in a boot had?

The other fascinating thing about climbing up the mountain was the sheer amount and variety of wildlife that made it their home. Again, Earth did have its own wildlife, but as it was recovering like everything else, the numbers weren't quite as high or they hadn't gotten around to cloning enough for a breeding population. Birds, deer, wild goats and boar all wandered about, fish and frogs of all colors swam in the streams and ponds he passed, and he was pretty sure he even spotted a bear in a clearing at the base of the mountain.

All of these creatures were of course wary of him as he continued his climb, but Auto supposed that was understandable. He was a large machine that even outsized the bear he saw, and given the lack of scrapped Guardians on the path, one actively wandering around this area was a rare sight. Maybe if he held still long enough, he might get some birds to use him as a perch… he remembered seeing that happen to the dead WALL-E units back on Earth.

As much as he was tempted to try it, a sudden surge of the corruption lurking in his systems flared his running lights to solid magenta, spooking away anything close by. By the time Auto got things back under control again, his lights returned to normal, he was alone among the flora.

Right, he was under a time limit, after all. It was best he got moving, admiring nature would have to wait until after getting his bearings, as well as finding a cure for his predicament.

By the time Auto neared the top of the mountain, the sun was dipping well below the horizon. He thought he saw an odd greenish glow in the air above as the skies darkened, but he was unable to focus on it, given his problems.

When the pilot started his climb, the infection plaguing his systems reminded him of its presence every few hours. The flareups grew in frequency as he kept moving, progressively increasing from every few hours to once an hour, then every half-hour, and so on.

At that particular moment, Auto only had about five minutes of rest between attacks, the corruption searing ever more damage into his firewalls every time it struck. It was getting to be overwhelming, even for the likes of him.

Was it a mistake to not stay put and keep Pinging until someone finally found him? Maybe, maybe not. His odds of being found where he Woke were just as bad as finding something that could clear the corruption as he wandered, but at least with the latter it felt like he might actually accomplish something on his own. As it was, it looked like the only thing he would manage before being devoured was reaching the peak of the mountain. The view might be worth it if nothing else was…

Auto kept moving, just one leg in front of the other, and as he finished passing through a wide crevasse that divided the mountaintop, his optic was granted the sight of something amazing.

There was a small, clear pond out in front of him, its edges surrounded by plant life and dotted with the lily-like white flowers with a blue center that he’d only seen one of in his journey towards the mountain. More impressive than even those was the grand cherry blossom tree that overlooked the pond, its pink petals occasionally drifting down and landing in the water. The pilot stepped closer and held one clawed ‘foot’ out, a few petals eventually landing between the tines.

Even that lost his attention when he noticed the view of the plain he started in far below. He could see every landmark across Hyrule Field from there, including the ominous ruined castle in the far distance that seemed to have the same corruption that plagued him wafting up into the sky. It probably wouldn’t have done him any good to head in that direction if the castle was the source, at least this way he got to see some of this world, even if only a tiny fraction.

The pilot could almost feel that darkness within him welling up for another strike, Auto shortly deciding his last view of Hyrule wasn’t going to be that ruined castle. He rotated his turret to admire the cherry blossom tree and it’s pond instead, only to jolt in surprise once he fully turned it around.

There was an odd deer-like creature standing in the center of the pond, its fur glowing an ethereal blue-green, though when it set its gaze upon Auto the face just below the majestic horns seemed almost owl-like…

Of course the lurking corruption chose that moment to flare into furious action, the burning magenta light drifting up from Auto’s frame just the same as it was for the castle far below.

The other animals fled the last time this happened.

The deer creature, perhaps a powerful forest spirit or god of some sort, one hoof scratched at the water almost as if it was just standing on dirt, then it lowered its horns and charged!

Auto had a split second to react and even that wasn’t enough, the beast's horns impacting on his armor with far more speed and force than he ever expected, perhaps proving it was a god indeed. He tried to hold firm, but not even a Guardian frame could keep its footing against such a strike, his claws ineffectively scratching at the rocks he stood on for purchase. Shortly the only thing he gripped at was air.

His last thought before he sailed over the edge of the cliff?

Why did Yggdrasil have to keep doing this to him? Just why?!

That wasn't the end of it, far from it. Guardian frames were heavy, Auto's careening path down the mountainside was more akin to a boulder being rolled downhill compared to anything lighter. The first bounce severed a leg when he landed on it, the second broke off one of the three sensor arrays on his turret, each further impact chipping a little more off of him as he fell. It took another few bounces, losing another leg and a chunk of skirt armor in the process, before the pilot regained enough focus to try altering his momentum.

He lashed out with his remaining legs, one managing to wedge itself between a large rock and the tree growing around it. It strained to full tension instantly, inertia pulling and pulling against it.

There was a sudden snap, the segments of Auto's leg scattering apart like severed links of a chain, but the desperate action worked. His chassis skidded to a stop in the dirt among a grove of fruit trees, heavily damaged but still intact enough to function.

Well, barely functional was more accurate as Auto scanned himself. There were dozens of microfractures in his armor, and losing three legs made sure he couldn’t really move anymore. Somehow his optic survived without a scratch, as did the beam cannon behind it, though.

Just as well he landed in this secluded apple grove, then. Roughly off the mountain path as it was, the average traveler wouldn't head that direction. Only adventurers would, and hopefully one was a skilled enough warrior to destroy whatever was left of him once the corruption finished its work.

In the quiet, with nothing but a few birds chirping somewhere in the trees, Auto couldn’t help but notice the contradiction in his thoughts. Why did he even bother trying to save himself from that fall? It would've been a much quicker end than whatever was in store for him now.

It didn’t take him more than a few milliseconds of thought over it. No, he knew why. His sheer stubborn tenacity in keeping the Axiom alive for all those centuries wasn’t just because of A113, a good portion of it was right there in his base programming. To preserve his own existence, to survive despite the odds, it was so ingrained into him it was more or less a core facet of his personality. It just wasn't like him to give up so soon, and so he wouldn't.

He hadn't forgotten exactly, but given what his stubbornness ultimately led to in Baseline…

Even so, Wall-E told him at some point it was important to stay true to one's self. Auto didn't understand it at the time, but as he felt the cracks forming in his firewalls from the corruption's relentless assault, he thought he was starting to get it.

His firewalls shattered in the next instant, but he was ready, knocking the invading corruption away from his core programming with a blast of his antivirus. There was a good chance he would lose, but that was all right… better to fight and fail rather than not bothering to try.

The corruption tried for another angle, only to clash against another pulse of the antivirus and the iron will of the AI behind it…

Miles away, there was a subtle shift in the swirls of Malice lazily gliding above Castle Hyrule.  Ganondorf Awoke somewhere amidst the magenta storm, mentally grumbling to himself. It was annoying to Wake as the Calamity, truth be told, but after managing to get reasonable control over the form he no longer truly hated it.

After much time, many loops, and lots of practice, the King of Evil learned the many advantages of being the Calamity, one of which being the absolutely busted ability to observe all of Hyrule through the Malice in his monsters scattered across the world. As he focused on it, he couldn't help but note the strange feeling he had…he cast that otherworldly gaze further out from Hyrule Field until–

Ah, there it was! Something out there was fighting like a demon against his Malice, struggling like mad to keep itself from being subverted. Ordinarily, Ganondorf would've just flared his power and consumed them instantly, but his loop memories pulled him up short. Whatever it was apparently held the Malice off for the better part of two whole days?!

Had to be a fellow looper, though likely a younger one given how their resistance was starting to flag. Their resolve seemed to hold firm despite it, and suddenly the Gerudo king very much wanted to know who the hell this was. They would serve him regardless, but this was interesting enough he might let them do so on their own terms once he found them.

Not wasting another moment, Ganondorf split off a Phantom to keep the currently Unawake Zelda occupied. Once he was sure his copy had the princess’s attention entirely, only then did he slip away with another power exclusive to his Calamity form.

Or rather it was more something he figured out just from being able to observe things across Hyrule through his Malice. Ganondorf discovered he could travel discreetly in the same way, jumping his mind across different sources of Malice until he arrived at his destination or close enough to it. If the source happened to be an intelligent monster, then he could read some of their thoughts in passing as well.

Hmm, the pack of Lizalfos living in the ruins of the Sage Temple saw something odd the other day. There was a resurrected Guardian that acted rather oddly when it came online, later wandering in the direction of Satori Mountain, rather than returning to patrol Hyrule Field.

Like any skilled hunter, as the Gerudo had to be just to survive their homeland, Ganondorf trusted his intuition… the Stalkers on the central plains of Hyrule would stay in that area or reform there as that was what he reprogrammed them to do, set there to cut down any would-be castle storming heroes. One wandering off meant it was almost certainly his target, and so he altered his path to head toward the mountain.

If the resident forest god didn’t like his going close to its mountain, too damn bad. The blasted thing should be grateful he was going to take whoever this was out of its proverbial hair, one way or another.

As Ganondorf kept going, additional scraps of data flitted through the flow of Malice. The being residing in that Guardian frame up ahead was a true AI, and one who kept a mighty starship going in space with no return to a planet in sight, for close to a millennia. The king of evil wasn't even close enough to truly read their mind, these were just bits of surface thoughts the Malice had absorbed.

My, my, what an amazing catch this was! There were lots of things a command and control AI like this one could be used for, but he had a pretty good idea what he was going to do. Ganondorf cackled to himself and surged forward, already plotting how to claim this prize for himself.

Deep within his systems, Auto was still fighting the steadily progressing corruption, though his efforts were slowing as he traded blows with it. His mindscape more or less looked like the Axiom’s bridge, his mental image of himself the same as his normal chassis, though his taser seemed to represent his antivirus.

The corruption covered almost every surface of the room with a magenta and black toned ooze, aside from a small and ever tightening circle around Auto, that only widened a little when he swiped at it. Tendrils suddenly lashed out from the slime and wrapped tightly around his spokes, pinning him in place, the corruption already seeping into him with a mere touch.

His end looked to be nigh, Auto shutting his optic the moment he expected the corruption to rush forward and distort everything he was . . .

… After a good space of thirty seconds, nothing happened, the pilot wondering what was taking so long and he opened his optic again. The progress of that horrible substance had slowed considerably, likely giving him a few minutes compared to the milliseconds he had a moment ago. As Auto was trying to process that strangeness, a voice that wasn’t his own rang out.

“Easy now . . . the Malice is trying to devour you because you’re not letting it find equilibrium. Calm your mind and focus… it is a source of great power, nothing more, nothing less. You know all about controlling something like that, don’t you?”

The voice was deep, and commanding in a way that made the pilot want to follow their orders. Auto started trying to calm himself before he even realized what he was doing. Well, it was a good idea, and certainly helped when who he assumed was the owner of said voice just strode out of the corruption lining one wall, almost as if they were simply walking through a door.

Their form solidified after a moment, revealing a giant of a man, though the chiseled features and wild blazing red hair only partially held in place with an elaborate headdress said they were Gerudo. Their armor was a deep indigo edged and detailed with gold, his gauntlets also gleaming gold.

Wait, Auto recalled something from the Loopers’ Guide about a dangerous male Gerudo, and this guy looked dangerous indeed. It was utmost caution that drove his first queries. “Identify yourself. Why are you here?” There was a pause as he processed a bit more, and then voiced some of his lingering confusion. “...How are you here?”

The questions were rewarded with a smirk and a faint chuckle from the armored Gerudo, and he regarded the pilot with almost lazy amusement. “Heheheh, my reputation doesn’t precede me for once? My, you’re definitely new at this.” At that, he offered a short bow, his cape swishing as he moved. “I am Ganondorf Dragmire, King of Evil, Hyrule’s Bane, and for this particular variant, the Great Calamity . . . it’s certainly my most troublesome title and form, but I’ve made it work for me after some effort.”

Auto couldn’t help but jolt backwards a little, even while still held in place by the corruption, or rather the Malice as Ganondorf termed it. “You… are Calamity Ganon?”

“Yes, that’s right. No need for an introduction on your part, by the way. I learned everything I needed on the way in, autopilot of the Axiom.” The King of Evil ignored any lingering shock from the machine in front of him, instead choosing to push ahead with answering the pilot. “As for your other two questions, the answers are related. I Awoke a few hours ago, reaching out through my power across Hyrule… imagine my surprise when I discover someone was fighting off my Malice for two whole days. I’m connected to all things touched by it, and so I tracked you down. As the holder of the Triforce of Power, someone strong enough to hold back my curse for even a short time is worthy of my respect . . . so, I’ve come here to offer you a choice, a way to save yourself from your terrible fate.”

Almost as if to punctuate that lurking terrible fate, the Malice coating this realm of the mind began to grow restless, again beginning to progress forward even if still much more slowly than before. Time was of the essence, and there were many points during his flights where speed served him better than hesitating, Auto immediately prompting Ganondorf to continue. “Go on…”

Ganondorf held out one hand palm up, ghostly images of the Master Sword and the three golden triangles known as the Triforce hovering over it. “Fighting directly against the Malice without the power of the gods is ineffective, its sources will never reach you in time. But, there is another way. You are strong, your will indomitable… you should be, given you control a starship even larger than the Divine Beasts.” The Gerudo closed that open hand into a fist around the hovering images, Malice flaring out from it like unholy flames. “So reach out with that strength, that unyielding will, and take hold of the Malice’s power for yourself just as you would your ship!”

The pilot was shocked before, but this set a new emotion welling up from Auto’s core, though it was still something painfully familiar. The odd twisting from inside, the sudden desire to run, all matched with the dawning horror that ran through him on his return from Aperture Science. Did his unwanted guest know what he was actually asking, what it truly meant? Still bound as he was, he didn’t have to try as hard to suppress a shudder. “You do not understand. Myself, my ship… we are one existence. To join with that as I would the Axiom?! N-not possible…”

“It’s understandable to be unnerved, doing so will ultimately change what you are, at least for the rest of this loop. It will not change who you are, that’s still your own choice.” The dark lord of Hyrule took an appraising look across Auto’s form, shortly smiling wolfishly. “If I thought you were weak, I wouldn’t have bothered giving you the option. You are strong enough to survive this, even Din’s relic bound to my soul resonates in agreement. Don’t worry too much about what happens afterward; I will teach you how to use your new abilities, though you will serve me in exchange. It’s only fair, I do not usually take apprentices.”

It… was rather odd that Ganondorf was capable of being so reassuring, especially for a so-called 'king of evil'. Demanding servitude in exchange for his help was more expected, but Auto honestly didn’t mind. It just seemed to be the given lot in life for machine intelligence. Even so, even if he was willing to serve, he still hesitated. He glanced downward, his voice quiet. "The others… will not be pleased if I choose this path."

Gandondorf looked thoughtful for a moment,  likely trying to recall any run-ins with anyone else from Auto’s loop. "You might be surprised about that Anchor of yours. He Replaced Link the first time he was here, but do you know what he did? He didn't even try fighting me. Instead, he rode into the Gerudo Desert to meet me on my way to Hyrule Castle Town, and with one display of drudic power he turned my barren homeland into a desert paradise! Certainly not as lush as I've seen other worlds, it was still a desert, but my people could actually live and thrive there instead of merely enduring its harsh winds. He said, "There, now you don't need to conquer anything this loop," then he got on his horse and rode back to Hyrule proper." He paused there, holding up his gauntlet covered right hand. "For a random Anchor to do something like that for me and barely want anything in return? On all five gods, I did as he asked me, I stayed in the desert with the rest of the Gerudo. It was nice staying home for once and ruling the sands alongside my mothers."

"To allow others to live, even those like us… Wall-E would do something like that.” Even as those words left him, Auto retracted his spokes and chassis inward, trying to present as small a profile as he could. The tendrils of Malice binding him in place otherwise seemed to stretch with him, which was odd but not something he thought to question. “Eve is not so forgiving…”

At once something seemed to dawn on the king of the Gerudo as he observed the robot before him, idly reaching up to rub at his chin as he spoke. “So broken, and yet still strong enough to defy my power even briefly. I’ll bet that damned probe doesn’t even realize the damage she’s done, either.” Ganondorf’s focus intensified but he didn’t stop there. He stepped closer, reaching out to break each tendril of Malice that attached itself to Auto, and gripped high on the pilot’s wheel himself so he couldn’t look away. “Nevermind either of them, you have two choices as I see it. Continue to struggle as you have, the Malice will erase you entirely. Anything else you would experience of this world ends there. You could call it an honest death, if not a clean one, and have yet another bad loop to stress over when the Tree restores your existence. Or, you could take hold of this power with all the will you have and live, even if in the darkness. Which will it be?"

The golden eyed stare boring into Auto was intense, the words equally piercing. Broken? His first thought was to outright deny it, but the more he processed it, the more so many things about his behavior of late suddenly made sense. All the anxiousness, the wariness and distrust of others, the hesitation and second-guessing his every action until someone else said it was fine, he was never like that before.

He truly hadn’t been right ever since Eve lashed out with the truth and shattered all he thought he knew, all he thought he could promise…

Ganondorf simultaneously freeing him only to pin him in place himself kept the pilot’s focus on the here and now, there would be no spiraling into panic before the gaze and judgment of those gold eyes. The truth cut into Auto again, the Gerudo bluntly outlining the only choices left to him; one the same self-destructive path he kept stumbling into every time Yggdrasil dragged him through the coals, but the other…?

The other path seemed horrific on the surface, but the more he pored over it, the more right it felt. It was the one that would keep him alive for the rest of the loop, to see whatever the rest of Hyrule had in store. It felt the least like giving up, even if he would have to bind his fate to the dark. Better to make the choice himself than have it taken from him.

With that thought, Auto straightened as best he could, then shook himself free of Ganondorf’s grip. He darted backwards across the copy of the Axiom’s bridge that was his mindscape, shortly lining up with the docking station that was coated with Malice and locked himself onto it. The faintly glowing magenta ooze rushed forward across his chassis and began to seep inward, but he was already starting the synchronization process; this was an invited intrusion. More and more of the Malice answered his call, to the point it was getting hard to tell what color his frame truly was.

He focused on Ganondorf in the distance a moment before his awareness would have to be fully devoted to the joining. It was difficult to scrape together even a minimal amount of processing power to do so, his voice was even rougher than usual because of it, but still Auto roared out, “I will live!”

The King of Evil was pleased as he watched the Malice begin to fuse with the AI before him, but the impassioned declaration brought out that wolfish grin again. “Hahaha, good! Become what you must to survive in this world . . . I’ll be waiting for you on the other side, if you can endure the process.”

Without another word, Ganondorf vanished, his focus likely returning to reality.

It was just as well that Ganondorf broke his link to Auto’s mind, the pilot shortly became unable to maintain the mental construct of the Axiom’s bridge that let them communicate that way.

The Malice . . . even if he was fighting it the whole time he was in this loop so far, he was completely unprepared for what it would be like when he actively called to it and allowed a path in. It flowed into him like a flood, engulfing every space he let it touch, and bringing with it a torrent of intense emotions that he had never experienced before.

Rote definitions encoded into his memory banks failed him, only the feeling of these emotions truly came across…

It was cold as the depths of space, burning like the solar winds or the ejecta of a distant supernova. It was sharp as the edge of a blade, and as jolting as the business end of his taser, and sometimes all of them at the same time. It hurt as much as it didn’t make sense, the pressure of being forced to process them all while not knowing what they were fueling a desire to scream, but even that release was too much to ask. All of his remaining energy was needed for the task at hand.

Auto could feel his consciousness shifting as he assimilated more and more of the power of the Calamity, adapting to its intensity as he was programmed to. The pain and pressure lessened as the milliseconds passed, room being made to accommodate these raging new emotions, though he still lacked true understanding. He would be different by the end of this, even if still in full control of himself, but that was the case with linking to the Axiom as well. It was just that he Woke mid-flight and already one with his ship so often that no one else could tell the difference, but it did exist. He always felt smaller somehow when the link wasn’t active, or when he Looped into another frame altogether.

He wasn’t sure what the difference here would be, not entirely. Though what he denied at the very start of this, a desire to chase, to track and hunt prey, that was blossoming like a new flame in the depths of his core. It… didn’t feel wrong anymore? No, no it didn't. It seemed all borne of Malice had a predatory bent, but now he could push it aside like a subroutine that wasn't currently necessary, not like an override he had to put effort into fighting off.

Equilibrium had settled in and he didn't even notice? The Axiom could sneak up on him similarly at times, so Auto wasn't too startled. He was one with the Malice, and it was one with him, no beginning or end of either truly discernible. It was honestly a little strange how content he felt with that, but thinking on it further, he supposed being connected to something was his natural state. No wonder he felt a little more unstable every time he was forced to go without.

There was a strength there that wasn’t earlier… he wasn’t sure why, though its existence made him even more content. The pilot was almost disappointed that he had to push his focus outward and face the real world again, but a promise was a promise… His life no longer belonged just to himself.

As Ganondorf demanded, he would serve the darkness…