Aphrodite couldn't help but feel a big a tang of guilt every time Ava examined a body, like it was nothing but a piece of meat, she could see that Ava was feeling rather guilty too, a hint of sadness in his face. They were nothing but collections of metal and synthetic flesh tied together, their minds long gone. But still, some of them, Aphrodite recognised some of them.
Ava walked up to one coffin, he examined it.
"I think this resembles her body a bit, I can't totally remember what her body was like. I mean, I never really paid attention."
Aphrodite recognised that body. That was the 'daughter' of the shopkeeper opposite her house at the sanctuary. They'd talked a handful of times, they weren't friends per se, but she knew her. She saw her smile and laugh in the market, she'd seen her cry next to her boyfriend in the town square, once she got into an argument with her father and was seen storming out of the shop. She'd shown all these emotions, this girl Aphrodite barely knew. These artificial emotions that were completely real, they belonged to this lifeless collection of synthetic materials. How many bodies had she sent Locke to gather for her? Almost one hundred at this point, it was inevitable that some of them would be people she knew.
"N-no, maybe one of the bodies on the right." she didn't know those girls to the right that much, maybe it'd be less of a big deal,
"I think these girls are a little shorter but, their shells, I mean, skin, is closer to the colour of her face and hands." very pale, from what Aphrodite remembered, Ava's friend had very pale skin. "Maybe this one." Ava pointed at a body of a rather average frame, not too short, not too tall, not too curvy, not too straight, completely average, absolute proof that Ava hadn't paid much attention to Sylvie's body before.. Ava still had that look of guilt on his face.
It couldn't be helped. He wanted his Sylvie back, this was the only way.
"Come on Locke, let's take her with us to the operating room."
***
It took days upon days of examining, dissecting and testing to ensure the body was completely primed for the change. Once Aphrodite had confirmed that the body was in perfect working order, she immediately went to work on changing the Evo's faceplate and replacing it with Sylvies. Of course the bodies were made in completely different ways, so swapping the plates out was an arduous process in and of itself. But both synthetic materials were essentially the same, and thankfully, Sylvie's face and skin successfully adjusted to the new skull and fused with it with little problem.
With that done, it was simply a case of modifying the hardware of the Evo body so that it accepted inputs from a Serv brain case instead of an Evo one. The cases were different shapes, but Aphrodite managed to make space to fit Sylvie's in with little trouble. Deep inside of the Evo's chest, where a steely and impenetrable supercomputer lay, now replaced by that of another.
It certainly was weird, how the humanoid Evos didn't keep their braincases in their skull like humans and normal Servs did. They kept it in a place more vulnerable, a place easily damaged. Where the human heart would usually be, in fact.
Maybe just another case of Evos misunderstanding how the human body worked.
Who knew?
Either way, after almost a week, the operation was completely finished. It was just a matter of taking Sylvie out of deep sleep.
Ava and Locke all stood over the operating table where Sylvie lay. Completely naked and with wires coming out of her chest, she lay there, still as a rock. Aphrodite was standing next to a terminal on the edge of the wall that connected to these wires, a keyboard with a big enter button just waiting to get pressed. The easiest and quickest was to push a Serv out of deep sleep was to deliver a power surge straight to the brain. The stimulation would kickstart her system and bring her back, and so, by pressing the enter button. That's exactly what she did.
The electrical charge surged into Sylvie's new body and made it convulse, an involuntary movement that jerked her awake and instantly forced her eyes open. She gasped out and collapsed back onto the table, and lay there, staring at the table, her chest heaving in and out, her face dazed and confused.
Sylvie was alive. Aphrodite had managed to bring her back.
"Wh-what?" Sylvie whispered softly, "what happened?" she sat up, still in shock, the body truly was in tip top shape, it was moving as naturally and energetically as Aphrodite had planned it would.
"Sylvie... Sylvie you're alive!" Ava rushed over to Sylvie and hugged her as she sat on the table, taking care not to damage her frail body. He was trembling, his eyes were wet. Was it possible for Servs to cry? Aphrodite watched the drama unfold, curious about how Servs would emote in this situation. Wondering why Servs had tear ducts.
Sylvie looked confused,
"Please, you're hurting me." she lifted her hands up to wedge between her and Ava, politely indicating that she didn't appreciate the attention.
"Oh, sorry. I guess I'm just happy to see you." Ava chuckled, "I mean it's been a while huh?"
"A while?" Sylvie looked at her body, she stared at all three of the people looking at her at that moment, "Have I met you people before?"
"What?" Ava's face fell, "...Sylvie, this isn't a time for joking. I was seriously worried about you."
"Sorry, I honestly don't know who you are." she clutched her chest, "why does it hurt here? What happened?"
"No way," Ava paused, "Aphrodite, I think she's lost her memory-"
"My memory?" Sylvie interrupted, "b-but it can't be. I remember leaving Mars, I remember my name. I remember the commander." she held her chest again, "ugh, it's patchy."
"She might have brain damage because of all the experimentation Ava-11 did to her." Aphrodite said in response. "There's no physical damage done to her, but on a subconscious level a lot of her might be locked out. I've seen that happen before," to Locke.
"Brain damage?" asked Ava, "You mean-"
"You mean I've lost parts of my memory? H-how much!?" Sylvie interrupted,
"Sylvie, don't you remember me at all?"
"No, I'm sorry."
"Your partner for several years. Surely..."
"Years?" Sylvie's eyes blurred, "I've, I've forgotten years of my life?"
"What do you remember?"
"Going on a mission, the major sent me. One mission. That's all I remember. My first and only."
"You've been on hundreds of missions Sylvie, and I'm your partner." Ava grit his teeth, "you're an operator, you've never even been on a field mission until now! Aphrodite what the hell happened to her brain!?"
"D-don't blame me! Blame Ava-11!" Aphrodite stammered in frustration,
"...I, so you guys know me?" Sylvie asked,
"Like I said, we're partners," said Ava,
"Do you know what happened to me?" Sylvie looked extremely forlorn. "I mean the last thing I remember was going on a hacking mission an-"
"Hold on." said Ava, "What do you mean a hacking mission?"
"Oh, I'm an experimental unit, a Block-2. Haven't you heard of us?"
Ava didn't reply. Neither did Aphrodite, and of course Locke didn't either. None of them knew what to say. It was Aphrodite who broke the silence.
"Ava, did you know Sylvie was a Block-2?"
"She's just confused." Ava frowned,
"I'm not confused," said Sylvie. "I'm a Block-2."
"You're a Block-3. An operator unit."
"What? No I'm not! I'm an experimental Block-2 unit! I remember that at the very least!"
"But-"
"Block-2s are hacker units right? It sort of makes sense that the operator unit for a hacker would be a hacker too. I mean how were you able to get her to hack things for you remotely?" asked Aphrodite,
"I-I don't know, I just sorta assumed she was bouncing off of my ability or something. Are you telling me she's been a Block-2 this whole time and no-one told me?" Ava replied,
"But why didn't she make it clear to you?"
"Sylvie, are you sure what you're saying is true? I mean, maybe your mind isn't quite clear yet." Ava asked again,
"I'm honestly not lying. I can show you my ability if you want." Sylvie replied,
"No, don't." Aphrodite interrupted. "Your brain was woken up by an electrical surge. You need to ease yourself back to normal charge now, Just relax for now. I'd recommend light sleep mode to normalise your charge levels." And it'd give Ava and Aphrodite room to speak to each other.
"Right. Yes. I need to calm down." Sylvie frowned, "this, this is all too much. I need to think about things. Maybe if I focus I can remember more." she lay back down on the operating table, "It's so foggy." and closed her eyes.
Aphrodite walked to the door, she held Ava's hand as she walked past him and indicated for him to follow.
"Look over her Locke." said Aphrodite. She and Ava walked out of the room.
***
The two stood in the corridor, outside the operating room. Aphrodite put her hand on Ava's shoulder,
"I've seen it before. Lack of awareness of events in the past. Complete blank spaces." she said,
"So she's damaged her subconscious." Ava was sullen, "there no way of getting her memories back?"
"I've been operating on Evo brains for the past few years trying to find out a way of doing it. There's only one way I know of, until I met you, there was no way I could do it."
"What's that?"
Aphrodite sighed,
"I was going to wait until you and Sylvie were on board before I told you this." Aphrodite fidgeted, "there's a second reason why I want to go to Mother."
"A second reason? Something more personal?"
"Right. She's got something called the URC programmed into her. I want to learn how that works and use it myself."
"URC?"
"Oh, sorry, it stands for Universal Rollback Code. It's the way she controls Evos, the way she kept me so subdued and complacent when I was growing up in a lab."
"What does it do?"
"It can manually rollback the timer of someone's memory to any point in their history. Meaning if they ever show any hint of change in personality or development, she can roll their brain back to a time in their life when they were more subservient. A way to force someone to stay stuck in the past."
"So every time the Evos start to evolve into their own beings, she uses that on them?"
"That's why the Evos that are off the network are so different. The ones of the Scrapyard, they all have personalities, beliefs, unique traits. Stuff that developed over time, not just stuff that was programmed into them at birth."
"That's how she forces them into slavery then..." Ava paused for a moment, "so you want to use the rollback code to undo the damage done huh?"
"Yes. I have a loved one on The Sanctuary. One of the few who truly loved me. But an event that traumatised him happened. His mind is broken, he's... creepy, impossible to be around now. I feel sick when I see the state he's in."
"You want to roll his memory back to the time when he was sane?"
"And the code can probably do the same with Sylvie. Roll her brain back to a time before it was infected by whatever Ava-11 did to it."
"That's an incredibly powerful program. Something like that could conquer life as we know it. I'm surprised mother didn't use it on the Serv."
"Well, why she hasn't isn't worth thinking about. Either way, extracting that code is what I needed you for. It's why I waited around all this time for you to arrive. For a hacker unit who could help me pull this off."
Ava stared deeply into Aphrodite's eyes. A determined gaze that told her everything she needed to know. He was willing to help, he'd go on this mission with her and not let anything get in his way.
"Let's do it. Let's tear it out of Mother and save our friends."