Ava and Aphrodite faced each other, standing vaguely on a plane of nothingness, their appearance was abstract and hard to define. They were both simply clouds of AI, swimming in a digital void.
"So that's how many times I killed you huh?" said Aphrodite, "how many more of my memories are you going to unlock without my permission Ava?"
"Sorry, I was curious," Ava replied, he smiled, or however an abstract string of information could smile. Aphrodite was back to her usual bratty self, he could sense it in her voice.
"Yeah, don't you dare go through any more of my memories ok? Otherwise, I'll kill you for real!"
"Right, right."
The two pieces of digital information stood there for a while, unsure what to say next, both were feeling emotions they weren't comfortable with. They were embarrassed.
"You left that opening for me because you knew, didn't you? You knew that even though my human side had taken over my body, there was still part of me in there."
"I didn't know. But I trusted. You're a capable guy."
"Hacking you at the last minute with the knife, I couldn't have done it if you didn't leave me that opening, I'm sure Akira died wondering why he stabbed you. Deep inside I don't think he had any intention of killing you."
"Well... what now? You're just Ava again now, right?"
"Akira's dead now. You stabbed my body right where the brain case was. I... still have a lot of his memories, but they're surface level now. I've got my sense of self back."
Aphrodite's android side had started to become a hostile environment, far more so than when Ava first hacked it a few months ago. In the mode that she was in now, with all the nanomachines crawling around the body, she'd turned into a piece of machinery billions of times more complex than anything Ava had encountered before, and her programming was tough to handle too.
"Right now I've shut your body down, you're not dead. As I'm sure you've gathered." however there was one sad truth, "Copying my digital data over to you was the only way I could've stopped this fight. Technically your enemy is dead now, so you've got no reason to be hostile."
"Yes but, you've lost your body."
"It's fine, I don't care. We can build another one later and transfer me there."
Again the two didn't talk. It seemed like there was something at the tip of Aphrodite's tongue, but it took her a long time to say it,
"Why? Why did you doom mankind Ava?" she asked,
"I didn't." Ava replied, "I brought them back."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you remember what Mother said? The Evos and Servs are evolutions of mankind, they all have human thoughts and memories. Hell, I was literally a person from several thousands of years ago. Just because we appear in different forms, it doesn't make us any less of a people. You should know that from how you bonded with the Evos at the scrapyard."
The Evos that were off the network. Yes, Aphrodite remembered, they'd developed family units, commerce, hierarchies, emotions, all that things that defined a human. And Ava and Sylvie, wouldn't it be cruel to say they weren't human?
"I had to make a choice. Sylvie and I realised that Mother was going to use the network to steal the human memories of all the Servs and implant them on the humans on the sanctuaries further out into the solar system. She was intending on turning us into mere dolls."
"...I guess it was a 'them vs us' situation." Aphrodite said with a solemn tone in her voice,
"Aphrodite, I'm as much as human as you are. We're intelligent, thinking, living beings. We bond, we emote, we create, we solve problems... but we're not special. Every Evo and every Serv has the potential to be like us. It was the network that created a system that dulled both the Evos and Servs massively."
"Being locked into the system halted everyone's individuality among the Evos, I know that for sure. They were locked in their own role in life, and lived without emotion."
"It's the same for the Servs. I wanted to give them their humanity."
"Ava. Maybe it worked for the Evos at the scrapyard, but who knows if it will work for the Servs. How do you know they'll be able to create their own stable government without the network. How do you know this massive societal change won't create mass anarchy and war?"
"I don't. But Servs deserve the right to live how they want. Mankind went through thousands of years of societal development, constantly evolving, changing, and developing, didn't they? That's what you told me. In the last eight thousand years, the Servs haven't changed at all. It an adventure our society needs to go on."
"...you can be pretty cruel you know Ava." if Aphrodite could sigh at this point, she would, "because you're probably right. There's nothing that makes being a bag a flesh more valuable than being an android, in the end, if the thoughts and emotions are human, it's fine. But... I can't help but feel lonely and isolated because of it..."
"Why? Did you forget? You're an android too."
"N-no! The bad side of me is robotic, the me you know is-"
"So who am I talking to now?"
Silence. For once, Aphrodite didn't have an answer,
"Your body has blurred the line between man and machine. You're both at the same time." a brief pause for thought "Aphrodite, how'd you like to be a Serv? With the network down you'll be completely free to be who you want. You can live with us, on Mars."
"You're going to transfer my AI? How?"
"Watch."
Suddenly Aphrodite found herself waking up. She found Ava's dead body slumped over her. With her bloodlust gone, she was now unable to even fathom holding the knife that was originally in her hand. She let go immediately. It stayed stuck in Ava's stomach. There was still Ava's dagger stuck in her torso, surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all. Not one bit. She pulled it out and found the wound it left behind heal up immediately.
"Woah!" said a voice in her head, "that body of yours really is incredible." it was Ava,
"I'm still pretty damaged internally. Why am I still in this mode anyway? There's no kill command anymore." Aphrodite replied,
"Probably a defense mechanism for the extreme weather. I'll bet it activates every time you're in a life or death situation. I've been exploring your body for the past few minutes, and from what I can tell, this thing could easily stand a nuclear attack. The nanomachines can last for thousands of years too... I almost feel bad for suggesting you leave it."
"I don't have any use for this body Ava. I don't mind ditching it here. But- how are we going to return to Mars anyway?"
"Simple. I'll give you the ability to hack, then you can get into the device permissions of the satellite tower there and use it to transmit our AIs back to Mars. ID it so that the Major or Sylvie open it. They'll know what to do after that."
"And then you want me to destroy the tower, right?"
"Yes please."
"Is this really as dangerous as you say?"
"Mother having access to this thing, to a tower that is connected to every living organism in the galaxy, that's something I don't think anyone can allow. Can you?"
Aphrodite looked at the tower far in the distance,
"Ava, my body is still failing, this environment is pretty harsh. And your attack did a lot of internal damage. I wonder if I'll be able to survive getting there..." she said,
"You should be ok. Just don't strain yourself." Ava's voice in her head replied,
Aphrodite steadied herself, she needed to be focused. This was her biggest challenge yet. She knelt down and carried Ava's dead body in her arms,
"Hey, what are you doing!?" asked Ava,
"If I'm gonna die, I'd like to die with someone next to me," Aphrodite replied, "even if you send an AI of me back. There'll be a version of me still here." she muttered, "I'll die".
Ava didn't reply. Although the poignancy of Aphrodite's words were clearly not lost on him, seeing as getting him to shut up was usually pretty hard.
The howling wind pushed against Aphrodite's body hard and she walked across the roof of the research building she was on. She shuffled down the stairs with Ava in her arms and then walked out to the huge path that led to the tower in the distance. It'd take a couple of hours of walking to get to the middle of the facility.
She looked around, the darkness around her made it difficult to orientate herself but the wide open road that cut through all the buildings was easy enough to follow.
She walked and she walked. She could feel her body getting stiffer as it started to succumb to the cold. Sure, she could survive a nuclear attack... but not at the level of power she was at now.
She pushed forward, step by step, every single one was a struggle, but she made sure never to drop Ava's body as she pushed through. Even though there were times when it'd take minutes at a time to travel just one meter, still she kept hold of him.
"Ava, I don't know if I can get there," Aphrodite said,
"You can do it Aphrodite!" it was at that point when Ava realised that he'd never have been able to do this himself. His Serv body would have frozen eventually. In the end, it was actually good that Aphrodite had come to stop him. Only her body was resilient enough to withstand the environment.
It wasn't two hours, the journey wasn't two hours at all.
Aphrodite lost track of time, Ava had stopped giving her updates on how close she was or how long she was taking. This was arduous. Her body wanted to stop.
But her mind didn't.
Ava needed to survive. She needed to survive. The Servs and Evos deserved a better life. Through her mind images of Locke and the scrapyard Evos flashed back and forth. They were happy, they were free. Didn't everyone deserve that?
For so long, her meaning in life was to kill. She was created to bring Mother's plan on killing all the Servs and reviving humanity to fruition, but that wasn't the meaning in life she wanted.
Ava, Sylvie, even the Major. They were people she trusted and respected, they were people she wanted to fight for. This is what her journey was all about. The change she was destined to make.
By the time Aphrodite managed to reach the tower, her legs were starting to give way. The tower was a huge black monolith that scraped the stars.
"Ava, how do I even hack this thing?" she said as she passed the main gate, to the courtyard of the tower,
"If it's anything like the towers on Mars, there should be at least a few terminals on the ground. They'll be linked to it. All you need to do it go up to any one of them and..." Ava paused for a moment, "your interface systems are in your hands, as long as you grab a network cable it should be fine."
"Will this thing even be working? I mean the environment is-"
"It's still transmitting isn't it?" Ava interrupted, "don't worry, I'll bet the insides are insulated."
Aphrodite looked around. It was too dark to see at first. Suddenly her eyesight went into night vision.
"What the hell is up with this body!?" she exclaimed,
"Sorry, that was me. I thought you could use some help." Ava replied,
"Stop messing around with my body you creep!"
"Can you see anything?"
There was a small, single room structure at the foot of the tower. That was most likely it.
Aphrodite continued to shuffle there. She smashed her shoulder against the door of the structure to open it, and fell in as her legs finally gave out. Both she and Ava tumbled to the floor. Intense heat roared out of the room. It was definitely insulated.
Aphrodite crawled up to what looked like a desk and then pulled herself up. She slumped over it and looked to see if there was anything resembling a terminal on it. Lucky, there was a computer.
"Better hack that thing before all the heat gets out Aphrodite," said Ava, "the computer will probably die any minute now, seeing as it's losing insulation."
"I know I know." she pressed one of the buttons on the keyboard, as expected, the machine was indeed on, most likely it was connected to a supercomputer back in Mother's lab.
"Ok good, so it's got power. So all you need to do it touch the computer with your hand and I'll send the signals through. After that, all you need to do is profile a command to send my consciousness and yours back to Mars."
"You're making it sound easy... I've never done this before."
"You're a genius aren't you? Just do it."
Aphrodite gulped. She put her hand on the computer terminal and felt a spark. The data started to transfer.
Profile the command. So she essentially needed to package up their data to be transported...
"Ava." said Aphrodite, "do you really think Serv and Evo society will survive? Do you think, with their humanity finally released, they'll be able to govern themselves?"
"I hope so. It's my dream to see the Servs and Evos living in peace, living in a society that they built for themselves."
"How long do you think it will take?"
"Ha... probably thousands of years. It a shame I won't be there to see it."
"I see." Aphrodite closed her eyes. "I'm sending the data."
Aphrodite could feel it, she could feel the data she compiled travel through her and into the tower. She'd set it to travel all the way through space to Mars, ID'd it so that only the Major could open it.
But Ava's AI had a special encryption on it. For now, he didn't need to know what that was.
Aphrodite slumped to the floor, exhausted and defeated. The computer shorted out and the freezing cold finally overwhelmed the room.
"There. I've sent us to Mars. We can live there from now on, as regular Servs." she said, "I wish I could've seen it myself, but I suppose my other self will have to do it for me."
"Aphrodite..."
"I...I'm kinda scared Ava. Now that it's all over, I really don't want to die."
"I know."
Aphrodite reached over to Ava's body, she touched his cheek, the black dye of her nanomachine body started to spread over his,
"What're you doing?" asked Ava,
"I'm preserving your body. Doing the same for me. The nanomachines will protect us from decay at the very least."
"Why?"
Aphrodite pulled Ava's body next to her and held it in her arms.
"I don't know. I think maybe I want this moment to last forever. Even if I die."
Aphrodite's body started to harden. She could feel the cold start to take over her body, her eyes were having trouble staying open. She rested her head on Ava's and shivered.
"Goodbye Ava, I'm glad I met you," she muttered.
Those were her last words.