"Even though I'm a robot you still want me to be your girlfriend?" Carly asked.

"What part of 'it doesn't matter' didn't you understand?" Axle laughed. "Now I'm gonna ask you again... Carly, will you be my girlfriend?"

She looked at him with an uneasy stare.

"I'm still not sure if I should." Carly told Axle. "What do you mean?"

"You killed somebody Axle, a soldier from the army. You almost died in the process too. How much people have to get hurt, how much people have to die because of me?"

"I promised to protect you, no matter what happens. And I also told you that I wasn't gonna break that promise Carly. Whatever burdens may come, I'll shoulder each and every one of them. Not because I have to, because I want to. You're not in this alone. Not anymore." Axle told her with a reassuring voice.

"You idiot..." Carly looked at Axle with a weak smile. "Do I really mean that much to you?"

"Yeah. You do. So what's your answer?"

Carly thought long and hard about this. She had been developing certain feelings toward Axle but she didn't want to take any risks. She didn't want to cause him any further pain. What if his family fell into the mix. She couldn't allow that to happen.

"Sorry Axle, the answer is no." Carly bluntly said. "Look, this isn't a nice feeling, for both of us, if you'd like I still want us to be friends." She said trying to keep him out of the pit known as misery.

"Okay. Carly, just forget I asked you that okay. " he smiled. He was hurt. He woke up from a month long coma only to have his heart torn to shreds by Carly's rejection. He looked into her silver eyes but is wasn't with the glimmering shine that he had when he woke up. They were empty to say the least.

Carly saw this and she, on some instinct, wrapped him up in a tight hug. She was sad. She didn't like rejecting him, especially with the dark emotions that she knew were present within him. All she could hope for was letting him know that he had a friend by his side willing to comfort him.

"I'm happy that you're still alive Axle. You've been taking care of me so maybe I can do the same for you."

"What do you mean?"

"You've been in bed for a month Axle. It's clear that you have to go through rehab if you wanna walk again."

"Crap, I can't believe I forgot about that." Axle chuckled as he looked at his almost boney fingers. He balled his hands into fists before saying, "Carly... I'm making a vow right now. I may have protected you but I almost died doing so, so once I'm done with rehab I'm gonna keep getting stronger. I'll get stronger to keep you safe. Android with super strength or not, I won't stop protecting you."

"Then do so, but know I'll be protecting you too dummy." She then kissed his forehead.

Axle let out a genuine smile before nodding.

The next couple of weeks was hell on earth for Axle. He had been pushing himself to get back in shape and better than that. Carly was his support for this.

She helped him and kept encouraging him to get back walking again. Once he was walking again he kept going against his workout regimen. This constantly brought pain to his body and he hated it. He may have been stubborn but pushing himself somehow helped him walk better and sooner. Normally doing this would have worsened his condition but he didn't allow that to take over him. He fought through it like a soldier.

The girl he loved was way too strong for him, so he used that as motivation to keep on moving. He was doing this to not only make sure that he'd reach Carly but to surpass her as well.

"Ryder, your rehab is going well but you need to learn to stop pushing yourself. You're not superhuman. I'm giving you this regimen." The nurse said. She then gave him his needle regimen and said, "Follow this to the letter kid. We don't want you back in here because you broke your body by rejecting the doctors orders."

"Okay then." He said as he took the schedule. "I'll be seeing ya." He said before leaving with Carly.