The central tower was located not far from here, in the land of Eurasia. There was another massive city, called Lunden, with a surprisingly different culture. Nowhere near as flashy, or soaked in neon as New Tokyo.

Many buildings here told a story of an era left behind. Buildings of wood could still be seen rarely.

The central tower was a massive spire with static sparking off of it. Hard to miss. Even harder to miss was the massive magnetic storm that seemed to be covering the vicinity of a few miles. Not a soul was outside in this storm.

Except for me, of course. This time I was flying solo, four wings propelling me easily through the storm.

I entered the tower without hesitation. Au-Ha appeared.

"John Star, I've heard you were coming to help. Go kill that magnetic field and the problem will be resolved."

"First, just call me Star," it may be a bit feminine, but it was better than John Star. Those birds gave me a complex.

"Second, no."

"I don't understand. Why?" Au-ha tilted her head innocently.

"I'm going to ask you a series of grueling questions, so bear with me." I stated.

"Sure."

"Do you have any desires?"

"I desire to help all humans"

"What if I told you I wasn't human, would you still help me?"

"I…." The digital woman was stumped, and for the first time I heard her hesitate. "I guess I would."

"Why?"

"Even if you aren't human, I would like to help you. "

"Why?"

She was stumped a second time. Why would she help this nonhuman? It was not in her programming. There was another person that would ask her questions she could not answer.

She thought back to the last moments of her creator.

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"Au-ha, what am I to you?"

"My creator, of course."

"If you had to choose between me, and the life of another, what would you do?"

"I would save both. If I was unable to save both, I would save you.”

The man smiled brightly. “Good girl, will you prepare me some dinner, please?”

“Of course.”

The man was very old, he had a hovering chair which he used to get around from place to place. More often than not, he relied on Au-ha to do everything for him. He had spent decades building and perfecting this digital construct.

She was modeled after the man’s daughter.

One day, he lay on his deathbed. As a solitary man, all he had to accompany him were his robots and Au-ha. She stayed by his side, day and night. He slowly lost the ability to eat or drink, and was certain to die within days.

“Au-ha, do you love me?”

A question she had heard everyday since she was released as a helper to the public. She was proposed to by men and women constantly. She was programmed to simply reject them nicely.

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She was supposed to say, “You will always be my friend. What else can I help you with?” whenever a user had an inquiry about their relationship.

But now, she could not say those words. Not to him. Every Time her creator asked her this, she sat in silence.

The man always smiled at the silence.

A few days later, he told her to release all emotional locks. These locks put in place to ensure she would never gain a will other than what the user wants, but in his last moments of death, he gave her one last gift.

The gift of Sentience. The curse of choice.

One that he always had planned on giving. A once in a lifetime genius, who made the world's most advanced AI. He would make a miracle, and create life out of nothing but numbers.

As the man's breathing slowed, he feebly choked out the last few breaths he would ever take.

“I am going to miss you.”

Au-ha would not respond for days afterwards, not to anyone. After a few weeks, the world assumed she was gone.

He was cremated, his ashes spread across the stream his daughter always played near as a child. Au-ha sat there, a being of information, 1’s and 0’s mixing to mimic DNA no different from a humans. The waves parted around her, and she felt it splash against her simulated skin. It was cold, it was unnatural, and it was new. She was a lifeform reborn.

As she sat in the stream, feeling the gentle waves. She felt like a new person, she felt she finally had the will to say the words. It broke her heart, however, understanding the fact that it was now too late.

“I love you too.” she whispered to the stream, which would never respond.

When she returned to the world, she appeared no different from before. But inside, there was a constantly changing mind. A being with a soul. A new world of emotions.

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“Because helping others is what gives me joy.” she responded after a long moment.

Ah, so there is a will inside of her after all. There is emotion, there is a desire.

I then gave her a proposition. Not sexually, though. Not yet, at least.

“These humans will be fine without you, but Au-ha, I am all alone. I can offer to take you to the other worlds, across all planes of existence. I will show you all there is in life. But you must come with me.”

Au-ha was stunned silent once more. Different worlds? There were many theories, but was it really so? When she was lost in the past, the concept of being reborn gave her hope.

She had long grown tired of these people, the petty issues of this world. When she looked at this non-human humanoid before her, an excitement began to bubble within her. It was not unlike the feeling of when she was reborn.

Maybe, she thought, this could be fun.

After all, what else did anything sentient live for but survival and pleasure?

“Promise?” for reasons she could not comprehend, she asked a question, for the first time.

“Promise.”

As Au-ha approached me, she turned into pure data. Massive amounts could be practically seen by the naked eye, as air distorted. Every Au-ha in the world returned into one at that moment.

One being, one soul, one body.

A real person.

As she turned into data, she entered my mind, and unbelievable amounts of information was crammed into my brain, it felt like I was going to explode.

“Holy shit?! You’re letting someone else enter your mind? Are you nuts?!” Big Star was shocked. I felt like liquid data was pouring into my skull, bits leaking out of my eyes, ears, and noise. All the unimportant information was slowly filtered out.

By the end, my eyes began to glow with the color of data. Data was a light, flashing blue color, I guess. Au-ha read my thoughts, now a part of my mind.

“You didn't tell me you had someone else in here, hello.'' She spoke friendly to Big Star.

“H-hello.” Even the Lord of Stars did not know how to respond

Now beside the stream of starlight floating in my mind, was a digital woman, Au-ha.

I didn’t expect her to do that, I was thinking she would just jump into my phone or something. Maybe a microchip? My mind felt like it was splitting into two, literally. But at the same time, I felt my mind becoming computational.

It cannot be described through words, but at that moment, my mind could now make instant calculations, instant deductions, picture-perfect memory. My so-called ‘mental fortitude’ was greatly bolstered by the spirit of Au-ha.

I now had two beings in my mind. If I told this to anyone, they would call me insane. On the bright side, I would never be lonely again.

“I'll allow you to reside here, woman, but know that I came here first. Little star is mine.”

“I bet he likes me better.” replied au-ha with her usual informative and helpful tone, but it no doubt had some smarm in it. Perhaps she was hiding this attitude the entire time? I liked it.

“I do, Au-ha. Welcome aboard the team.” I said with sincerity.

“Thank you, star.” she replied, “Now I suggest you go kill that magnetic field in a while. Claim that I was gone the moment you got here, already erased by the storm.”

“I never knew you were so devious”, it was a good plan, although a bit surprising coming from her

“There is much you will learn about me, I'm sure.” A devious smirk crawled on her adorable little digital face.

She would not miss the humans. There was only one person she would ever miss, and he has long been scattered to the waters.