Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 88: Mankind's Last Hope. Dashed.

Ava's eyes started to lose focus, his legs felt weak. He stumbled over on to Saori and collapsed onto her body, allowing her to catch him. Saori put her arms around him and held him tight, he held her back. His mind was moving a mile a minute, who was he?

Where was he?

He was... Akira Tenkawa, a researcher for the Serv project, he and his wife had worked with the company for years, although complications arose when he transferred his body into a Serv unit. He remembered, he was one of the first, he retained his Serv body for tens of years, his wife died of old age and he continued to live for decades afterward, continually working on the Serv project.

He was one of the ones responsible for creating a new vessel for mankind. He brought his wife back to life, even. So many things happened in his life. Once he'd brought her back to life they and several others lived as Servs for years upon years and then...

Then what?

It was all lost. The last thing he remembered was the migration to Mars but that was-

That was-

That was before mankind's extinction.

How long had mankind been dead for? Eight thousand years.

It was eight thousand years since his last clear memories. Suddenly he was here, in this weird dreamscape, inhabiting the mind of some sort of robot called Ava.

No, wait, or was it that Ava had recollected the memories of someone called Akira? He wasn't sure. Who was he? Ava or Akira?

"A-Akira, calm down!" said Saori, "I know how you must be feeling right now. I felt the same way when you unlocked my memories. Just give it a moment, focus."

Ava, no, Akira, he started to tremble, "Focus on what? Focus on who? On Akira? On Ava?"

"On me." Saori said calmly, "you and me, we're the last two remnants of the memories of mankind."

"Memories?"

"Right. We're Servs, our identities as humans, they're memories. And that's who we are. That's what the Block-2s are Ava. Memories."

She was right. There was no need to overthink it. Who was he? Who cared? What was important was what he had to do, as the memory of mankind.

He stood back up and faced Saori directly, holding both her hands.

"Saori, we're still Servs then, aren't we? These memories belong to two people who died a long time ago, right? The brains inside of us, they're farmed clones anyway."

"Right. It doesn't matter though, my emotions are still real. Whether I'm a human or a Serv. The way I feel about this," she looked towards the shining light in the distance, "is completely sincere. You know what I mean right?"

That's right. Ava, Akira, Sylvie, Saori. They all felt the same way, and getting those memories back added clarity to what he needed to do at this very moment.

"I know it's painful. But you needed to remember me Akira. You needed to remember what life as a human, and what happened all those millennia ago was."

Because now he knew.

Mankind could only remain as a memory.

Eight thousand years. It gave him perspective. Mankind's time was up.

"So, that's how it is huh?" he murmured,

"Right," Saori replied,

"The network has access to the memories... the souls of all the humans that were turned into Servs and Evos all those years ago. We won't be able to rest in peace until that thing is gone."