He knew he was the last human left on Elysium, but he could never remember when the others left. Of course, he knew that his mother was also one of the last humans but he could never remember if the other one was his uncle, or father, or something in between.
The system assigned his name as 'the Master', due to him being in charge of the Master System. But he could remember his original name. Soner. A letter off from being 'loner' and it even meant 'last man.' Were his parents (or guardians, or whatever they were), know this when he was born? Did they mean to leave him behind? Was he planned to be the last of the humans on Elysium? Was he the last human in all of the universe, in keeping that line of thought?
Terra's Beta units were close enough to humans, he supposed, but they were not the real things. They were replacements; stand-ins. They were not to meant to last long in their existence on Terra, the Master could remember that bit of information too. He worked to change the bit of information as he got older and became more familiar with the System's little quirks. If only there was a way for him to disable the older system his founders had left for him, but it seemed that the new system and the old one were tied together- there was little he could do to prevent one or the other without severely damaging them both. His entire 3,000 year existence relied (a little too much, in retrospect) on the System to be perfectly operational. As fleeting as his thoughts of death were, he also did not want to venture in it until he knew the System could be shut down in his absence.
It was out of coincidence that the Master happened upon Mega Man Trigger, but it was purpose that made the Master seek him out more often. Trigger always seemed confused on why the Master wanted him as company than someone else (say, Mistress Sera), but never seemed to object when the Master invited him over for lunch. It was by complete accident when Trigger found an odd looking locket after dealing with an irregular unit near Elysium's genetic library. By virtue of what he understood was right, Trigger gave the Master the locket without much thought. After that, the Master refused to see anyone.
The locket was nothing too special- platted with a blue silver, and holding an engraved Omega symbol outlined with red diamonds. But there was just something about it that mystified the Master. Something that seemed to call out to him from a past life and just begged, almost demanded, for him to open the locket up.
He did make sure that Mistress Sera was no where near him when he finally gave in to his curiosity.
The Master opened the little locket and was instantly greeted with a bright flash of light. He covered his eyes only for a moment while the light receded enough for him to properly see again. When he looked down at the locket, the Master could only find himself to stare at the little holographic woman that had appeared. A cute little thing she was too, with strawberry red hair and big brown eyes. She wore a long white dress with green and blue accents, the ends of the dress dissipating into small fractals in the air. She couldn't have been anything more than in her early twenties, at most.
"Who are you?" the Master questioned, giving the little figure an inquisitive eyebrow raise.
The small being blushed a little before admitting, "I've had a lot of names over the years, but I suppose you can call me Aero. I think that's the name I should be using here. I think..."
"You've had a lot of names?" the Master then asked, growing more curious at this little creature the longer it was in his presence.
"Hm-mm." the little creature confirmed. "It's a bit complicated," she admitted, "But I'm certain that at this point in time, I should be known exclusively as Aero. And that's what I want you to call me- got it?"
"Alright." the Master agreed. "I'll follow. Why have you appeared to me, Aero?"
This question made the creature giggle a little. "I'm a present." she said. "Just for you."
"Are you now?"
"Oh yes." she nodded. "How much do you remember Juno and Vent, Soner?"
Suddenly, a small detail caught the Master's attention and he gave the creature a hard stare.
"How do you know-" he started to say before a brash knock on his door interrupted his thoughts.
"Master?" the stoic voice of Sera came through the door. "What are you doing in there?"
"Quick!" Aero instructed the Master, "Close the locket, and I'll go away until you open it again. But don't tell her that I was here!"
The Master nodded and did as he was told just as Mistress Sera came through his door. Looking as pleasant as always, Sera looked around the Master's room as if trying to find evidence of something horrible. While unannounced raids and interrogations from the Mother Unit were of no surprise to the Master, he did take note that she seemed to be extra thorough with her snooping today.
"Good afternoon Mistress Sera," the Master greeted quickly calmly and in a friendly manner. "What do I owe the pleasure of seeing you today?"
"You were talking to someone." the android informed him, simply enough without even looking at him. "Who was it?"
"Mistress Sera, you and I both know that I don't have anyone to talk to." the human replied with a genuine, kind smile. "Besides Trigger, of course. But he is too far away to bother at the moment, so it's just me here; alone."
"You're lying." Sera sharply retorted as she moved closer to him. "There was an unusual power spike in this area and when I come over to make sure you are safe, I hear you talk to some woman on the other end of your door. So who was with you Master? Well?!"
"My, Mistress Sera, you sure are being accusatory tonight." the Master then teased. "If you keep this up, I might have to send Trigger after you before you become too irregular."
Sera whipped her head around to give the Master a rather horrifying death glare. The human shrugged it off with a playful smile that didn't phase the Mother Unit one bit. After returning to snoop around the room for a little more, Sera gave up in trying to catch the Master in a lie and gave an annoyed sigh to show this.
"You will call when you need assistance, won't you?" she finally questioned.
"Of course, Mistress Sera. I always do." promised the Master with a boyish smile. Sera always hated that smile- it was too charming, too cunning, to ease her mind on whether he was lying to her or not. But, defeated, Sera left the Master's room, taking note to close his door rather carefully on her way out. The Master waited a few moments to make sure the Mother Unit was no longer on his trail before opening the locket back up. The bright flash of light appeared again, but was dim enough that the Master did not feel the need to cover his eyes. When the light faded, Aero had reappeared. This time she looked a bit sullen and had her arms folded in thought.
"Oh, Mistress Sera..." Aero bemoaned. "She follows the System a bit too well. No room for wiggle room with her. One day it would be her downfall."
"It's… very apparent, isn't it?" sighed the Master as he looked back at his door.
"Very." the little creature agreed. "But I'm not here to talk about her. Well… sorta. But not really."
The Master raised an eyebrow. "About Mistress Sera," the human then spoke up, "She mentioned a power spike in this area. Did you do that? How was that possible?"
"It's because of my nature Soner." Aero claimed, beaming now. "You see, I'm this thing called a Cyber Elf. At one point, I was known as the Mother of Cyber Elves, but that was a different time. There should be more information on us in Elysium's library network if you really want to know more."
"I'll take note of that." the Master nodded. "But that brings me to another question, how do you know my name? My real name?"
"Well," Aero entertained, rocking back and forth on her heels, "I'll answer that if you can answer mine too; do you remember Juno and Vent?"
At this questioned, the Master eased a bit back in his spot. He had to admit that Juno sounded the most familiar, so he started to focus most of his thoughts there.
"Juno was the Roman goddess of… No, more recent than that, right?" The Master lulled his thoughts together as he tried to remember who this Juno was. Then suddenly, the Master's body froze when he remembered who she was. In a quiet voice, he slowly said, "She… she was my mother. Wasn't she? Yes… yes I remember now. She was. I… I can't believe I forgot about her..."
"What about Vent?" the Cyber Elf then inquired with a neat little tilt of her head. This made the Master think a bit harder.
"Vent was… my father?" he guessed. "No… no, no, no. Juno's son, maybe? No… I don't think..."
"Don't hurt yourself." Aero warned him. "You were real young when they left- just a mere 300 years old."
"I don't remember Vent well." the Master finally admitted, looking at the Cyber Elf with some degree of sadness. "But I believe he was really reliant on her, as if he was always afraid of something."
"You three were the last humans on Elysium." the Cyber Elf confirmed, her tone more somber now. "And yet two of them could never find true happiness again after what had happened to them… It's so heartbreaking, but that's what life was like back then."
The Master looked at the Cyber Elf. "Aero..." he said, softly and barely able to be heard, "For the first time, I think… I think I feel sadness. I'm sad Aero because… because I miss them."
"It's okay." Aero comforted. "Sadness is a natural emotion that we all must endure. But don't lie: you have been sad before, and that was when they gave themselves to the System. The day that they, technically, died. To make sure you were as cozy as possible during that time, the System made you partially forget them and lavished you in creature comforts to ease the pain."
"And I did exactly what it wanted me to do, didn't I?" the Master asked with a dark undertone.
"It's not your fault." Aero rebutted. "They built the System for you, above anything else, really. It's only natural you 'fell' for the System catering to your distress. It's for this reason that you can't shut down the System alone."
The Master looked at Aero, doing hard to hide his surprise. Something reminded him that Cyber Elves were at least partially omniscient, but it didn't stop his surprise when she knew what he had secretly been working to correct for the past 100 or so years. Aero seemed to pick up on this and started to clarify;
"Juno and Vent left me behind for you Soner. Whether the System still operates is up to you, but it's a delicate process that could result on the old World System destroying everything on Terra. But in order for any of this to pass, you have to..."
"Die?" the Master finished as Aero trailed off. The Cyber Elf looked at him and gave a grave nod.
"And you must have someone that you trust to finish things in your absence." she continued. "Someone that does not follow the System to the letter."
"Like Mistress Sera?"
"Like Mistress Sera."
Thinking of this, the Master reclined in thought. But he soon thought of the perfect person for the job.
"I have someone." he informed Aero, smiling at the mere thought of it. "Mistress Sera might not even see it coming."
"Good." Aero nodded. "And now comes the matter of how you wish to..."
"I know how." the Master quickly dismissed. "I just need to put some things together. Is that alright?"
"We start whenever you're ready Soner." the Cyber Elf agreed. "Whenever you're ready."