Entro felt weightless.
Somehow, he remained conscious as the rest of his senses were discarded for energy while his body waged war with alien cells.
Initially, the pain tore him asunder and filled his every thought, but then there was silence.
Now he was floating through an unknown space, for an unknown amount of time.
Slightly out of reach, he could sense the battle going on.
Memories, his memories, played muffled through a barrier between him and reality.
It stripped him clean as a person.
Tapping into his deepest desires. Pushing past the supposed want to help people, to save others, It went deeper, brushing past wanting to provide for his kids.
Only when he reached the feeling buried the deepest, did it stop, curiously analyzing it, digesting.
The feeling of not wanting to be forgotten.
Entro developed this after realizing his position and how far he had fallen. His shack of sorrow, his workplace of woes, everything pointed him a singular direction; dying unknown to the world.
Entro was born that way, but he refused to die that way.
So far, it was clear to him, the Aether was a sucker for fitting in. It couldn't stand being the odd one out. Entro didn't know what that translated to wherever it originated, but here, in his body, that meant becoming one with his biology.
It was what he was betting on.
The Aether's capability to exhibit signs of loss when his blood cells died only strengthened his decision. Something told him, the Aether wouldn't let that happen again should it encounter more human cells; he was right.
He could feel it. The reaction was much more violent since this was a more complicated scene than a petri dish, but the result was the same if he could survive.
The only issue at hand, the Aether was exploring his mind, and his mind didn't like that.
Never has it had its authority questioned.
The foreigners invading his body were curious little buggers.
They went everywhere unabated, most likely never having to answer to anything or anyone for billions of years.
But one thing they had yet to encounter, was the indomitable human will.
Until now at least.
Cacophonous whispers echoed through the empty void, filling the space around Entro, growing louder and louder.
"QUIET"
Silence.
"Pick one of you to talk to me. You're giving me a headache."
The whispers returned more controlled.
For every voice that resounded, a response ensued, layering into an orchestra of discussion.
Eventually, the voices ceased.
Then, to Entro's confusion, the scenery changed before his very eyes.
He was now sitting on a bench under a tree.
It was his park.
Sitting next to him was a dark-haired girl kicking her feet over the bench and watching the grass sway in the wind.
Hope.
"How did you do that," Entro tentatively asked, a bit fearful about how they controlled what his brain showed.
The young girl responded without looking up, her voice identical to Hope's, save for the whispers layered under.
"We didn't, we asked you to take us to a more comfortable space for you, did we upset you?"
A realization dawned on Entro; they could talk to his subconscious.
"No, but what do you want from me."
Finally drawing its eyes from the ground, the Aether looked at him with an expectant gaze, "What are we?"
Entro chuckled, "You know the answer to that."
They just went through as many of his memories as possible. The Aether knew he didn't know the answer to that question, just theories.
Seemingly disappointed, it looked down at the ground again.
"Help us."
He raised an eyebrow.
"If you're asking me to help you find your origins, I'm sure you've already seen that I'm in the middle of a project that's very important to me; a project seeing very little success."
The Aether pursed its lips.
"No, we don't wish to be left alone again."
Entro sighed, "You want a friend out of me?"
The Aether hopped off of the bench, walking in front of Entro with its back turned, staring at the sky.
It was a beautiful blue, most likely pulled from one of the prettier days Entro had taken Hope out here to play.
"No, we lack purpose. The only thing we know how to do is survive."
Turning to face Entro, the Aether had a resolute expression on its face.
"After living through your memories, we realized, that is not life. We wish to have a reason to live."
The Aether lowered into a kneel with its head down.
"We wish to have a leader."
Something about Hope's figure kneeling before Entro gave him a weird feeling.
"This is a huge decision, how do you know your leader isn't still out there?"
Entro was less worried about them swearing fealty to him but actually interested in whether or not alien life still existed somewhere in the universe.
"We are still capable of communicating over vast distances, either we're all that's left, or unable to be in contact."
That answered Entro's question, albeit slightly. There weren't any of their type of lifeform anywhere near Earth.
Now it was time for him to play hard to get.
"I'm not sure if this is very beneficial to me, what can you do for me?"
Although Entro wasn't exactly planning on rejecting the offer, he still wanted to know what they had in mind.
"Of course. We noticed our brothers and sisters kept dying under their intellectual potential, we can facilitate their growth to your desires."
Entro wasn't sure why they called the embryos their siblings, but he didn't care to ask questions.
"I accept, now could you stop killing me?"
Entro remembered the pain and the shadow of the mess being made of his body vividly, regardless of whether the damage was permanent, he did not care.
As long as his passion was realized.
"Killing you?"
The Aether chuckled.
"We were not killing you."
Entro began to contemplate the meaning of their words.
"It is ready"
Now confused even further, he couldn't make sense.
Standing, the Aether exclaimed, "Awake!"
"Awake and be born anew Father. Leader of the Aetherians."
Entro's eyes shot open.
He was still in his lab.
Next to him, Aurelian was fast asleep, taking deep and deliberate breaths.
'I must've worried him to death'
Smiling at how much the boy seemed to care, Entro rose from what appeared to be his computer being used as a makeshift hospital bed and landed on his bare feet.
'He must have taken my shoes off to regulate my temperature better; smart boy'
Hauling Aurelian over to a more comfortable chair, throwing a blanket over to make sure he was as comfortable as possible.
Entro turned his attention towards the capsule.
Walking over, he stopped by his computer and set another embryo to be released into the pod before making his way to the lid.
Let's see if this works.'
Entro, however, was a bit startled when a voice responded.
[Your will shall be executed, Father]
'You're not going to drop the "father" thing, are you'
[We won't]
'Where did you even get that from'
[When learning about human relationships through your memories, the male parent role seemed the most appropriate for you]
'sigh'
Entro didn't know if he would ever get used to this.
Hovering his finger over the lip capsule lid, blood gathered at his fingertip, as if it cut itself, dropping into the incubation liquid and dissolving instantly.
A few hours later, a ring at his computer told him the embryo was fully stabilized and incubating properly.
''How long will it take to finish.'
[We assigned this project to the young ones; 2 weeks]
'That's not bad.'
[Father]
'What?'
[Is this project the final piece for your life's purpose?]
'No, this is merely the beginning.'
---
Aurelian slowly opened his eyes.
He was mysteriously covered with a blanket and a pillow behind his head.
Only when he looked around, did he notice Entro was missing from the table.
Fearful of what happened, he jumped up and started looking around, finding him sitting at his old desk, reading a book.
"You're alive," he whispered.
"Sorry to disappoint you," Entro responded without looking up from his book.
Aurelian was taken aback a bit for a second, he hadn't spoken very loudly, but he might have misheard himself.
"What happened?"
Looking up, Entro gestured towards the computer, "Why don't you go take a look yourself."
Eager to be caught up, he rushed over and read the readings.
Everything was stable, there was no sign of the fluctuations they spent months dealing with.
"How?"
Entro finally set his book down.
"Sit down my young protege; let me tell you a story of conquest."