Aenon felt himself becoming more conscious as the cold faded from hid body. Getting put into stasis was no picnic as the machine forced him into what felt like cold sleep. He didn't even dream anything; all that filled his mind was darkness.

Is that what it feels like when you cease existing?

As he began waking up, the pod that contained him let out a loud hiss as the door opened, letting in a flood of unfiltered light that dissuaded him from opening his eyes. After prying them open, he saw the room he last remembered before the stasis and the hundreds of pods that were contained within.

As he got out of the pod with a shiver, a question struck his mind: Why weren't any of the others waking up? Was he simply the first one Aquarius woke up due to needing his help?

"Good morning to you, Aenon Kamabo."

Aenon, despite having just woke up, whipped around to see the small monitor that the A.I. likes to use before falling over. "Jeeze, Aquarius. Cut a guy some slack when he's recovered from a god knows how long stasis slumber…"

"Good to see your wit hasn't left you in the 12,102 years since you were first put into stasis." He suddenly starts looking at the other pods with a somber look on the monitor.

Aenon was too shocked to notice. "12,102 years?! I thought this sub could only hold us for 6,000 years tops! Why did it take so long for you to wake us up?"

Aquarius sighed. "You mean… wake YOU up, sir?"

"What are you… talking about?" Aenon finally got a good look at all of the other pods in the room. They were all frozen over, explaining the chill that persisted in his body. A different chill ran down his spine as the horror grew in his eyes. "Please… don't tell me… They aren't…"

"I'm sorry… I failed you all. Aenon… you're possibly the last human in existence." The A.I. sounded choked.

Aenon began breathing heavily as the statement sunk further into his mind. "No… it can't be…. It can't be…" He suddenly rushed off to some pods some ways of. "Voltare! Please, tell me you're alive! Mark! Allie! River! Benji! Sally!"

His calls were in vain. Even through the ice-covered glass, he could see that all of his friends were cold and lifeless. Aquarius could only look away in guilty silence as the boy slowly broke down into tears. "Guys… please don't… don't leave me… we promised… to see each other…"

Aenon crumpled onto the floor, the only sounds coming from him were choked sobs. First his father stayed behind to die, now his best friends were frozen beyond life. And with every single person in that room frozen over, the same thought drove him into further despair.

He was the last human in existence… and he's never felt so alone…

Aquarius simply remained silent as he waited for Aenon to recover from his break down. The A.I. knew that he was lucky in having a system reboot to bring him out of despair faster than normally possible. That wasn't possible for humans, who have to experience every single agonizing moment at all times.

After what felt like an hour, Aenon's sobs finally stopped as he got up; dead-eyed and tears running down his face. He turned to Aquarius' monitor before hugging it. "Is… this what you've been feeling for over 12,000 years?"

"Only the sheer loneliness… But 600 cycles ago, I found out that a virus had infected one of the pods and was spreading to the others like a plague. In my delusional state of mind, I was only able to save one pod… your pod." The monitor shook itself. "Forgive this faulty A.I. for his incompetence. By the time I discovered it, it was too late… always too late…"

"No." A curt response came from Aenon. "It wasn't your fault. If anything, you were very brave in trying to isolate my pod, exposing yourself to the virus and potentially corrupting yourself. You tried your best. That's all anyone would want out of you."

"Sir…"

"Just Aenon will be fine, Aquarius." He wipes his face off with his sleeve. "And I know my friends wouldn't want me to grieve for them forever. That was the other promise we made each other." The lights suddenly started flickering, bringing him out of his thoughts. "What's going on?!"

Aquarious' monitor started flickering. "Apologies, Aenon. The only reason why I woke you up now was because the generator for this ship has quit 2 cycles ago. This vessel has been running on reserve power for quite some time. I would suggest you find the appropriate gear and ready for evacuation before- "

"NO! I'm not losing you as well, Aquarius!" Aenon interjected. "Besides, I think I have an idea!"

He bolts out of the room and follows a series of hallways leading to many different rooms. The room he wanted was the power generator room and he had a general idea of where it was.

When he reached the room, he saw why the generator quit: there was only so much an A.I. like Aquarius could do to keep it maintained. It will require a human touch to fix, but it would take too long for one person. As such, he pressed a series of buttons on a nearby control panel and a hidden wall opened up, much to Aquarius' surprise. "I have no records of that door!"

"Probably because father intended for this to be a last resort." Aenon quickly entered the hidden room, revealed to be the auxiliary generator, and activated the machine within. Almost immediately, the machine whirred to life and crackled with electricity.

From outside, Aquarius suddenly said, "Power stabilized. Life support systems fully operational, but most of the facilities in this vessel are remaining offline. Until we find an alternate power source or repair the main generator, this place will be little more than a glorified boat."

Aenon exited the auxiliary power room and looked at the nearby monitor. "Yeah, that'll be the case. The worst part is, while we do have the parts necessary to repair the main silo, it flat-out cannot be done by one person." Exiting the room, he sighed. "Finding an alternate power source is more likely, even giving the situation we are in."

"Then might I suggest heading for shore?" Aquarius' voice echoed through the speakers in the halls Aenon walked through. "The auxiliary power was also enough to restore movement to this vessel. I have already taken the liberty to chart a path to the surface of the ocean and closer to dry land."

"Thanks, Aquarius. I think that prototype exo suit that father was working on should be in here. It should provide good underwater mobility and protection on land."

"Most wise. I have no data on the current situation on the surface as all probes lost connection with my systems, presumably destroyed." Aquarius went silent for a bit before asking, "I must ask… are you in need of nourishment?"

Aenon was about to say no when his stomach growled loudly. Nobody was allowed to eat anything before entering stasis as to prevent any "mishaps" from occurring.

Aquarius sighed. "I'll take that as a yes. Unfortunately, while we do have a kitchen and dining room, we were not stocked with any food since it would have spoiled long before releasing stasis on anyone. I hate to say it, but you'll have to find food on the shore. I'm currently unable to lure in fish due to power constraints."

Aenon shook his head solemnly. He knew surviving in a world after humans wouldn't be easy, but he expected to do it with 499 other people. Doing it by himself will be incredibly challenging, but even though he had no hope of restarting humanity, at the very least he wanted to explore the aftermath.

Aquarius directed him to the Suit Maintenance Bay where he beheld the exo suit, code named Neptune. The design reminded him of a suit that he saw in a very old MMO he once played; Elsword was the name as far as he could remember. It was mostly silver with highlights that were literally lights and stood much taller than the boy.

When Aquarius cleared him for launch, Aenon had difficulty getting into the suit, as it wasn't built for his size of person. After making enough adjustments to make riding in it bearable, he activated the suit. "It seems this thing works on advanced maneuvering mechanics. It feels like a second skin… that's way too big."

"The second skin part was intentional. It was built not only to allow the rider to survive harsher environments, but to also allow them to do things that you could do outside of the suit."

"On second thought, I feel the suit of armor analogy would fit better…"

Aquarius ignored that as he opened the air lock for the submarine. "Your first objective is to secure provisions and a source of clean water. Once that is done, we need to find an alternate power source for this vessel if you wish to use any other facility."

Aenon chuckled sadly. "That second one is going to be quite the stretch, Aquarius. I highly doubt there's going to be a random power source just laying around for us to use. It would be easier just to construct a solar battery."

"Duly noted. In any case, I'll keep in touch with you on your suit's HUD system, so don't feel as though you're completely alone." He simply nodded to that, the suit's head nodding with him, as he walked into the air lock.

It didn't take long after the door behind him sealed before the other door opened, instantly flooding the room. Neptune's water-navigation systems kicked in and Aenon was able to swim to the surface near a shoreline. The boy entertained the idea of creating a flight module for the suit.

When he emerged from the water onto land, Both Aenon and Aquarius beheld the surface for the first time in over 12,000 years as the sun was setting. Where they were, all they could see was greenery and forest, untouched by the influence of society. Aenon keenly noted the chirping birds and chittering insects, but the suit picked up no signs of mammalian life, human or otherwise.

This disheartened the boy. "I guess humans weren't the only mammals consumed by the floods…" He shook his head. "No time for that. Can the scanners be set to search for edible flora?"

-SCANNER SETTINGS MODIFIED…

-SCANNING…

-REIGON RICH WITH APPLE TREES, ORANGE TREES, AND RASPBERRY BUSHES. ALL SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

"Huh, that was easy…" Heading into the forest, Aenon quickly saw what the suit meant. Every fifth tree was an apple or orange tree and the raspberry bushes were often nearby. Wanting to quiet his stomach, he disembarked from the suit and began picking berries and fruit. "A shame no cherry trees around. Those were always my favorite."

The suit has a storage container as a foot-step, so all the provisions collected went in there. Just as the boy was about to eat an apple, the suit's systems started blaring, forcing him to reenter the suit.

-WARNING: GROUP OF UNIDENTIFIED ENTITIES DETECTED. ADVANCE WITH EXTREME CAUTION

"Unidentified? Then again, 12,000 years WOULD be long enough for Darwinian evolution to create new species. I wonder who they evolved from?" Aenon reentered and directed the suit towards the location of the signals.

When he grew close, he saw what the suit was warning him about: in what looks like a campground, there were human-like entities with tentacle-like hair milling about. In the middle of it all was a giant wooden structure that sounded like there was a paint battle waging on.

"Aenon, I would not advise getting any closer." Aquarius' voice suddenly cut through the suit's speakers, startling the boy. "They may look human, but both the suit and I are unable to identify what they actually are. Additionally, there is no guarantee you'll be able to communicate with them even if they are friendly."

"Yeah… and yet I'm still relieved to see a new species taking over for humanity. I still hope they're friend- " He zoomed in on the battleground in the middle and saw one of them shoot a bright pink fluid at another, causing the second one to explode with the same pink fluid. "Never mind… they're probably violent."

Aquarius hummed. "So, it would seem… my advice is to make sure none of them see you. We can study them at a later point; survival is far more paramount. I've found a river that leads into the ocean coming from the lake you see before you. That'll do for clean water."

Once Aenon was hydrated, he started making his way to shore, the sun now below the horizon. Right before he entered the water, he saw a peculiar sight: there was a giant flying object in the distance that looked like it was holding a giant fish with glowing whiskers. Close by were a multitude of other flying objects, some of them dangling bags filled with… presumably smaller fish that all had glowing whiskers.

Even with the zoom function, Aenon was unable to identify anything. What he did see was one of the glowing fish falling out of a bag into the water. The carriers paid no attention it as they flew to what looked like a hollowed-out island in the distance.

Aenon couldn't contain his curiosity, even when he was hungry. Diving into the ocean, he quickly headed to the place where the one fish fell in. When he arrived, he was stunned by what he found: a creature that bears a striking resemblance to a catfish, yet the quick scans showed that it had an organ capable of producing electricity. "Well, Aquarius, looks like you weren't just whistling dixy when you said FIND a power source."

"I wouldn't celebrate too soon. That electric catfish might not be friendly like the other species we've seen so far."

"Never hurts to try." Aenon knew that simply going up to the scared fish would probably get him zapped. As such, he slowly approached the fish within it's clear view, attempting to use some body language to convey that he wasn't hostile.

The fish responded by swimming rapidly into the suit's arms like a scared child, surprising Aquarius. "I guess what you saw earlier scared this creature half to death. Hopefully if doesn't misinterpret our intentions." There was a moment of silence before he suddenly said, "Interestingly enough, this fish can breathe both underwater and above it as well."

"Glad to know I won't suffocate it bringing it on board the sub. That'll just be perfect; save a creature from death, only to kill it in it's supposed safe environment." Cradling the electric catfish, Aenon headed back to the submarine. He noted that the suit's energy reserves started recharging after he took the creature in his arms. Looking down, the fish had what appeared to be a happy look with it's whiskers planted in the suit's chest piece. "Also glad these little guys don't mind being a power source. I would feel kind of bad exploiting a creature like this if I didn't want to do so."

"And yet you saw fit to bring it back to the vessel regardless?"

Aenon pouted at that response. "I wouldn't have exploited the poor thing! I would have just kept it safe, maybe keep it as a pet! I know I have you, Aquarius, but one can never have too much company."

"I'll take your word for it. By the way, you're on the wrong side." Aenon yelped when he almost ran into the side of the now uncloaked submarine, earning a look of confusion from the catfish.

After getting on the right side and entering the sub, he disembarked the suit, causing the creature some surprise, but was happy to know that his savior wasn't as metallic as he thought. He started nuzzling his holder affectionately, causing Aenon to tingle pleasantly. "Aww, I love you too, little one."

He didn't know if the catfish could understand him, but he cuddled it just to show his own affection. Aquarius got his attention with a low cough. "Perhaps you should eat before anything else. I recall the suit's sensors interrupting your meal, so you've still yet to ingest anything."

"R-right! Hope you like fruits and berries, Voltare!"

"You're naming the fish? And after your late friend no less…"

"Why not? By no means is he going to be a replacement for the human Voltare. I just figured giving him a fitting name in honor of my friend would help…"

"Of course. I didn't mean any harm in asking that question."

In Octo Canyon

"Did you imbeciles seriously drop one of the small zapfish into the ocean?!" DJ Octavio growled at his lack-of-serious-intelligence-and-sapience Octarian troopers. "And after all the trouble the Octolings went through to get them all, yo!"

"Relax, DJ. As long as there's enough zapfish for every kettle, we should be fine." Callie, with her hypnoshades on, interjected. "How many zapfish do we currently have total?"

One of the nearby Octolings quickly stepped forward. "Minus the one zapfish lost, we have 27 small zapfish, 32 mini zapfish, and the great zapfish itself, sir!"

Octavio grumbled. "Thank the beats we still have enough. Commence the next phase of our plan! Inkopolis WILL fall this time!"