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

Chapter 90: One Must Die

Ava stared at Aphrodite. He stared at her dead in the eyes. She was talking nonsense, this girl who he'd spent months traveling with, she'd come to kill him.

His friend.

His friend?

He wasn't sure. She was Ava's friend, not Akira's friend. If she was going to try and stop him, he'd have no qualms about doing whatever it took to get her out of the way. After all, she was a human as well, so was Mother. Humans didn't belong in this world.

Then again...

"So, how do you expect to be able to kill me? What have you been keeping from me all this time?" he looked at her up and down, tried to examine what could possibly be keeping her alive in this harsh environment. When he was Ava, he used to her consider frail and delicate, but now she was sturdy as a rock.

"You already know Ava. I'm not 100% human, half of me is machine. And my uncle, Locke, he examined my body and revealed to me that there was some sort of switch that could activate that part of me, any sort of command mother set for me would turn me into something else, something I wasn't comfortable with... When I was at the sanctuary that version of me, it slaughtered countless innocent women. You hacked me and took out my receiver once, remember?"

"I remember. That's right. But-"

"In the end though, the human version of me is a weak lump of flesh, most of the protocols she programmed in me wouldn't be possible with me as a human. I mean, I slaughtered those girls, a frail body like mine would never be able to do that. There was that damn monster inside of me, that... horrible monster," of course, the tears didn't stop. "I.. I don't want to do this!" she could barely hold her weapon, it was shaking uncontrollably. "Remember, mother didn't create me to be a human, she created me to be a weapon. The Servs knew that, they sent droves of Block-2 Evos to kill my type, it never went well, did it?"

"So your body, it can change?"

"That's right." her body started to heat up, her clothes burned as a black sheen started to overtake her skin. What was once soft and exposed had started to become hard and metallic. "This is the body that murdered those girls, this is the body that was strong enough to smash their faces in, this is the body that was created to be a Serv killing superweapon. Mother spent thousands of years working on nanotechnology, tech that was far beyond that of the Servs or the Evos, and created units like me. When this mode is activated, everything in my body changes."

"...You knew all along, and you didn't tell me?"

"You're my friend Ava!" she shouted, "how could I tell you that mother had programmed me to kill you!? As long as you followed the plan it'd never be a problem! I didn't want you to look at me with suspicion all this time. I didn't want you to consider me her slave."

"If you told me, I could've hacked it out of you!"

"Locke told me most of the protocols in me. Tampering with my programming is one of the ones that would activate this mode. Unlike the receiver that you disabled when we met, this protocol was hard programmed into me. If you hacked that, I'd kill you." she grit her teeth, "and I have to kill you now too Ava."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. If you're going to get in my way," he pulled out his baton and then extended it, "I'll have to kill you too.". Unfortunately, while Ava was a master at hacking, Akira wasn't. He had no combat experience at all, but he did have a superhuman body. He wouldn't be able to use the baton to lock on and hack into her, so he decided to activate the mode best used for killing biological organisms, and with that, the baton retracted each side and revealed a long dagger.

"I'm not going to stop. I'm going to destroy that tower Aphrodite." Ava muttered,

"It doesn't matter. My protocol said if you deviated from the plan, I should kill you. It's too late now Ava. I hope you're strong enough-" she gripped the knife and got ready, "to kill me."

With that, she ran towards Ava, no holding back. She truly was going in for the kill. Ava focused, with his mind as Akira, he wasn't sure exactly how to access any of his combat skills, he focused as hard as he could and noticed his mind was suddenly able to slow time to a crawl, it was suddenly able to predict the trajectory of Aphrodite's first attack, and his mind's eye managed to isolate several supposed weak points on her body.

Still, from what his programming was telling him, it already seemed like Aphrodite's fighting form was close to perfect. That programming in her, it was deadly. Ava had been told that she was a weapon because she'd be able to take control of Serv units, but it was clear now, she was built to be an assassin too.

The moment Aphrodite went in for the first stab, Ava instantly managed to parry it with his dagger, but the parry left his body open, and in an instant, Aphrodite threw a kick right into his torso. It was planned, she knew he'd parry.

The damage was insane, his body was meant to be top of the line, and yet, he could feel his insides crumble, his shell had already cracked and dented. How much power was behind that body of hers?!

His Serv programming told him Aphrodite's key weak point was a direct point in her chest. That made sense. Mother decided to put the robotic core right there. The programming had turned her heart into a machine.

Before Ava could think any more, Aphrodite made another lunge at him, it was incredible how fast she had gotten, this time he had no choice but to block, and the knife went directly into his arm. The pain sent a sharp signal throughout his entire body, and for a moment all those robotic elements of his body became disabled. It became fuzzy.

Aphrodite attacked again. Ava blocked again. The same arm, again it became badly damaged.

"I don't want to kill you Ava! Fight back!" Aphrodite exclaimed, "fight back!"

For a moment, it looked like Aphrodite had slowed down, as if she'd intentionally left an opening. Without a second thought, Ava lunged towards her and aimed directly at her heart.

But no.

The moment he got close enough, and the knife approached her heart. He faltered. For some reason, his body stopped.

In the brief moment, Aphrodite found her one deadly opening. She stabbed Ava directly in the stomach and pushed the knife in as deep as it could go. The wise decision was the pull it out, end the fight there.

But she didn't. She left another opening, and so Ava, with a knife in his stomach, unthinkingly pushed his dagger straight into her heart and kept it there.

The two stood for a moment, both leaking fluids, both trembling. They slowly descended to the floor, still holding their weapons, still refusing to pull them out. They were locked together with their weapons. Ava and Aphrodite slumped over each other as they stayed on their knees.

"Thank you Ava." said Aphrodite, "I-I told the Major to back up your data. It's the best I could do. I'm sorry. The you from when you were on the building ten minutes ago will be revived soon."

Ava didn't reply. He didn't know what to think.

This was Ava's friend. Not Akira's. Akira had failed what he had set out to do. But that unconscious stab to Aphrodite's heart, he couldn't deny it would be enough to bring him to tears. The back up would probably consider himself Ava, not Akira. So he was going to die, these were his final moments...

"Ava?" Aphrodite asked. She coughed, black fluid came out of her mouth,

"What...?" Ava was fading,

"We're still friends... right?" voice was quiet, barely audible,

What was Ava meant to say?

"Ava loved you more than anything." his voice was quiet too, he wasn't sure if Aphrodite could hear him. "You were his best friend."

She wasn't replying.

Ava wanted acknowledgment, he wanted to know that she knew that before she died.

Nothing.

Ava could feel himself slipping away.

Darkness.

Cold.

Darker yet.

Even colder.

Pitch black.

And then, nothing.