Aphrodite sat, lounging in her chair in the jar, the lights weren't on and she wasn't very aware of her surroundings, naked and bandaged all over, with a cast on her arm, she wasn't in much of a position so walk around the scrapyard city. Thankfully she was still able to leave her jar with the aid of homemade crutches and at least walk around the facility, as long as Locke dressed her in insulating clothes.
She listened to the music that played from the small headphones she had connected to her ears, soft and calming violin music, something written by a talented musician from another age. A being from a time when art and culture still existed. No-where in the universe were these sounds being heard, this one localised area, it was the only place where this beautiful music played. She'd spent months recreating this music digitally, months creating a sound system that would deliver the beauty of the music to its best. But it wouldn't ever be as good as the real thing, a real violin, played by a real musician. She was 8000 years too late to hear that.
A door in one of the corners of the room opened up, Ava walked in, Aphrodite could vaguely see him through the window of her jar. The lights turned on automatically, Ava jerked back a little in response. Aphrodite gently pulled one of the earphones out.
"Tch! I'll never get used to that!" he exclaimed. He seemed ratty, of course he was, all things considered.
"None of these buildings were made with lights in mind. I put a lot of effort into installing them you know." Aphrodite spoke faintly through the speakers so Ava could hear from outside her jar.
"Right, you guys need a high amount of light to see." he crossed his arms, as if he was unimpressed. Lately it seemed like he was getting less and less impressed with Aphrodite, no doubt because of how her crippled self had shattered his paranoid delusions of humans being some sort of deity.
"Light is the bringer of life. That's what we humans believed." she croaked
"Is that what you believe?"
"I don't know. Not yet."
"What?" of course, Ava was having trouble hearing her, she couldn't throw her voice far enough for the microphone in the jar to detect it, she was still too weak. Her poor and croaky voice made it pointless for her to try and talk.
Ava walked up to her jar.
"Can I come in?" he asked. Aphrodite nodded in response, she braced herself for the cold wind that would no doubt disrupt the already chilly air around her. "Right." he tapped on the panel next to the jar and let the door slide open. He quickly hopped in and let it close behind him.
"Don't just stand there, you're making me nervous." said Aphrodite. Indeed, another seat was placed next to hers, not as comfortable as hers, but still, there for courtesy, just in case Ava ever needed to discuss something with her. And he definitely did this time.
And so he sat, but there was an awkward silence between them, the only noise was the quiet but elegant hiss of the digital violin music playing through Aphrodite's earphones.
"You've got those ear things again?" he asked
"Earphones," Aphrodite replied, "I made them from the vocal synthesiser Evos have. This music was programmed using a digital-"
"I get it." Ava chuckled, "but what about the music itself?"
"...You want to listen?" Aphrodite passed one of headphones over to Ava. Ava raised his eyebrow and took the earpiece with a little apprehension. He slotted the device into his ear.
The two listened to the music on repeat for several minutes, neither said a word. Aphrodite didn't want to say anything before Ava had time to listen to the whole piece. It seemed Ava was having trouble deciphering what he was listening to, a look of intense concentration awash his face as he listened.
"What do you think?" Aphrodite asked, "Pretty incredible right?"
"Y-yeah. It's pretty phenomenal actually." his eyes were wide open,
"Do you have anything like that on Mars? Evos usually don't. There are a certain type or humanoid Evo that sort of do but, it's very artificial."
"This doesn't sound like any of the music we have in our social lounges. It's smoother."
"I see, so you Serv can enjoy music? That's interesting. Heh." somehow she was certain she was revealing something new and amazing to him,
"Nothing like this," Ava was still concentrating, like he was trying to understand it. From what Aphrodite had learned of him, it really seemed like something he'd do. The type who found it difficult to enjoy something without dissecting it, truly a curious cat.
Some more time passed, the two listened in silence. Was it awkward? No, maybe it was quite comfortable. Aphrodite liked the company, she liked seeing Ava's face twist as he tried to understand every note, it made her smile, something she hadn't really done sincerely in a long time.
She then realised.
"W-wait. Didn't you come here to say something?" It had been an hour and all they'd been doing was listen to music. Ava didn't reply for a while, but eventually he took out the earphone and talked solemnly.
"Locke said you could fix her. Sylvie."
"Oh, um, I can give it a try. But I've never seen the insides of a Serv before, I've only really engineered Evo bodies."
"Well, she's down corridor two, in the big lab. Locke already has everything set up for you." A deep sadness in his voice. He'd been waiting for several weeks now. Aphrodite looked at Ava apologetically. She got heaved out of her chair.
"Help me get dressed, and get my crutches."
"Huh?"
"I'll take a look at her now. I'll do my best Ava, I know what it's like to have a loved one lying in front of you, completely broken. Begging to be fixed." she grabbed his hand and pulled herself up, "I'll fix her."
***
The operating room was dark and dingy, rather small and most certainly not sterile. Everything was grey and made of metal, including the large table where Sylvie's body parts lay.
Ava, Aphrodite, and Locke looked over Sylvie's remains. Ava and Locke stood still while Aphrodite used a magnifying lens to survey the damage done to Sylvie's body. A lot of the damage was impact damage, especially to the limbs, many of the connectors were flattened, misshapen. Although she did notice something interesting,
"Her body is damaged beyond repair," said Aphrodite
"No... But Locke said-" Ava started,
"Don't worry, I've noticed something. The engineering behind her body, it's essentially the same as an Evo,"
"What? The same!?"
"Don't be so surprised, you both had the same maker. It's not a stretch to believe the original creators of the Serv and Evos used similar base hardware."
"So you're going to replace her body with an Evo body?"
"Her braincase, with a little modification, should be able to connect to the key areas of an appropriate Evo body. A body where she associates similar limb movement." Aphrodite frowned, "it'd have to be a humanoid body, there'd be too much disassociation otherwise, phantom pains, lack of co-ordination etc. I know Block-2s are comfortable being in completely different bodies. But I don't know about someone like her."
"I-is this the only way to bring her back?" Aphrodite could see it, a weird mix of apprehension and hope in Ava's face. "I mean, she'll be in a metal body..."
"No. That wasn't what I was thinking." Aphrodite brushed the hair away from Sylvie's pale but elegant face, "Sylvie won't lose this face."
"How? Evos are-"
"You don't know what shapes and forms Evos come in Ava. There are thousands of them. I can think of one that will fit her perfectly." the typical determined looks on her face, she turned to face Ava, "Follow me."
***
Another dark and dingy corridor, a white door at the end, it looked like steam was coming out of the edges, but it wasn't. It was vapour. Ava followed as Aphrodite and Locke led him to this new room. Aphrodite had insisted on showing and not telling Ava what he was about to see, hence the walk to the room was rather quiet. She approached the door handle, she winced as she held it and pulled the door back.
A pure white hall, much cleaner, much more well kept. Bitterly cold. It was massive. Ava was frozen still, but not because of the temperature. No, it was probably because of all the coffins that lay on the floor, all in droves, and the piles and piles of limbs and body parts that were stored. Human body parts!?
"Convincing aren't they?" said Aphrodite, "They fooled me for a long time too."
"What do you mean? These are humans aren't they? You've been cutting up humans!"
"Use your brain Ava, you're meant to be smart aren't you?" whatever intelligence he had was probably marred by his apprehension towards humans though, she couldn't blame him. "They're Evos. Evos made to look like humans."
"What...?"
"In the sanctuary they were used to help 'real' humans assimilate easily into a human society. Mother built a fake town full of these people, pre-made, so that when biological humans were sent there they didn't feel alienated or alone."
"Th-these are Evos?"
"Programmed to believe they're humans. Pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing. But their internals are the same as Evos, as are their brains. Programmable, easily swapped out... manufactured." But then the humans, and she, were too. Mass production, it really added to the artificial feeling of them. Whatever human affinity she had for them, it was long since gone.
"Why do you have these?"
"They died, there was a war. Most of these are damaged beyond repair. But some simply fried their brains due to a conflict in their programming. The desire to kill friends and family was too much for them. So they deactivated themselves. I've been spending the last few years figuring out how to revive those ones." she looked to the ground solemnly, "learning how to repair them. I pretty much know basic Evo engineering back to front now."
"It's how she helped the Evos in the scrapyard. Helped them develop their own strong and organised society. Stopped them from being mutated shadows."
"You could call it a hobby I suppose. It's what I spend most of my time doing," because there was one person's brain she had dedicated her life to fixing. One person she wanted back. One person who left her feeling lost and alone all these years. The Locke of the Sanctuary.
"You think you can give one of these bodies to Sylvie?"
"Installing her hardware shouldn't be that difficult. A simple operation that Locke can do if I guide him."
"She'll look like a human..."
"You already look human enough, is it that big of a deal? Are you turned off by how squishy our flesh is?"
"Her face."
"Your faces look like they're made of similar material. Some sort of synthetic flesh substitute. It might be a little more difficult but maybe if we replace the whole face plate, she'll look the same. Similar enough anyway." Hopefully. This was all theoretical, but it was the only chance she had, and Aphrodite felt a curious desire to make sure Ava wasn't disappointed. Maybe she felt like she had something to prove. Like she wanted to show Ava how powerful Humans really were.
Bringers of life.
"You've got a pretty big selection," said Aphrodite, "look around, find a body type that you think resembles Sylvie and we'll get to work. You'll get your partner back. I guarantee it."