I finished the chapter soon than I expected. So instead of waiting Friday to update, why not post it today?
Without further ado, let the chapter begin!
Its been a few days since Rosie has been at the base. She has been monitoring Ava's progress with her nanite powers. Lucas kept an eye on her and would report back to Zane. Rosie was granted permission to go outside with Ava to look at the plants.
Lucas watched them from a distance when Rosie held Ava as she carried her to a bush of roses.
"What's that?" Ava asked and pointed to the roses.
Rosie explained, "These flowers are called roses. They look beautiful but have thorns on the stem, sou you have to be careful with them."
Ava stared at roses and slowly touched the petals. She faintly smiled and Rosie softly kissed her forehead and set her down. The little girl slowly walked down the path and looked at the bougainvilleas.
Rosie smiled but glanced at Lucas as they slowly walked.
"She's been making good progress." Rosie admitted and scratched her neck.
"And you've been talking back to Zane." Lucas said and noticed the rash on Rosie's neck. During her stay at the base, Rosie has been electrocuted a handful of times. It results in her neck having a rash with her constant scratching.
Rosie rolled her eyes but noticed Ava staring at something on the ground. She approached her and kneel down, "What's wrong sweetie?"
Ava pointed at an injured bird on the ground and whispered, "Lookie."
Rosie stared at the bird, it had a gash wound on its side and she slowly picked it up. "I think we can help treat its wound."
Ava kept looking at the bird and carefully pet its head.
Rosie was about to get up when she noticed the wound on the bird's side was starting to heal. The bird frantically flew away from Rosie's hands and went to one of the trees to hide. Lucas and Rosie both looked at Ava while she waved bye to the bird.
"Is that her power?" Rosie asked and went to pick up Ava.
Lucas felt uneasy and motioned for Rosie to followed him inside, "Yes. Come on. We need to check something before letting Zane find out."
Rosie frowned but didn't protest while she carried Ava back. The little girl placed a daisy behind Rosie's ear and snuggled close to her.
"Are you sure about this Lucas?" Rosie asked as she glared at Van Kleiss who was in a hospital bed. He has a breathing mask over his face while a heart monitor beside his bed. Lucas kept watched from the door and said, "We need to know if this works before Zane finds out."
Ava looked at Van Kleiss curiously and looked at Rosie for approval. Rosie sigh but slowly nodded and let Ava approached Van Kleiss. Lucas motioned for Rosie to come to him, Ava started to poked on his hand.
"So...what's going to happen if we wake him up?" Rosie quietly asked.
Lucas crossed his arms, "Once Van Kleiss is healed and out of the coma, I'm making sure you escape."
"With Ava, right?" Rosie said while Lucas didn't make eye contact with her. If Lucas didn't look at Rosie then he won't say anything, but Rosie tilt her head to the side to look at him. He mentally cursed and sigh quietly, "Listen to me. Don't tell Zane I told you this."
Rosie didn't reply but motion for him to continue.
Lucas took a deep breathe and admitted, "Originally, the plan was to make Ava bond with you until one day...Zane kills you in front of her-"
Rosie's eyes widen and was about to angrily interrupt when Lucas frantically covered her mouth. "Let me finish." Lucas told her but flinched when Rosie glared at him darkly. He moved his hands away and nervously sigh.
"That plan was suppose to happen if Ava's powers didn't come in. However, I think we might wake up Van Kleiss sooner than I thought. So once Van Kleiss is out of his coma, we're leaving the facility and taking Ava with us. Plan B is make Van Kleiss have a close bond with Ava and then..." Lucas said and Rosie grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close to her.
"And then what?" Rosie muttered harshly.
Lucas sigh, "Zane will kill her."
Rosie was horrified and felt her legs shake before she let go of Lucas' shirt. "W-Why would he do that?"
"Zane and Ava's relationship isn't the best...he's still holding a grudge against her even though she was a baby when it happened." Lucas admitted.
Rosie glanced at Ava who was now poking Van Kleiss' cheek. She looked at Lucas and whispered, "Please, tell me what's the whole story."
Lucas glanced at the door and then made Rosie sit down. He whispered, "Zane and I known each other for years. His mom was the only one family he had left. Well, except for Van Kleiss but he didn't show up in any part of Zane's life...until five years ago."
Base on the time, Rosie assumed that it was the time before Ava was born.
"Five years ago, Van Kleiss started to visit Zane and his mom. Eventually Zane found out that he was going to be a big brother. Even though he was a teenager at the time, Zane was kind of excited to have a baby sister. That all changed when Ava was born." Lucas continued.
Rosie frowned, "So...Van Kleiss has two children...but what happened to make him end up in a coma. And for him to treat his sister horribly?"
Lucas frowned, "His father somehow knew that Ava didn't have any nanite abilities like Zane. So he tried to get rid of Ava but Zane's mom got in the way. I knew how much Zane did care about his mom and when she got killed, Zane snapped."
Rosie covered her mouth in horror and realized what Zane has done. Zane put Van Kleiss in a coma but she wondered why he would try to bring him back. Lucas guessed that Rosie thought the same thing and said, "Look, Zane is messed up in the head. He wants to revive Van Kleiss so he can gain his trust. If Van Kleiss develops a-"
Not liking where this is going, Rosie stood up quickly and glared, "Van Kleiss doesn't care about ANYONE but himself. He can easily manipulate Zane and you're letting this happen?"
"What do you want me to do?" Lucas glared until Rosie hurried to Ava and picked her up. She stroked Ava's hair and fiercely glared at Lucas.
"No matter how scared you are, if you really care about someone then that should be enough to help them. For as long as I'm still alive and standing, I won't let anyone hurt Ava. You may be a coward but I'm not." Rosie harshly said.
Lucas glared and opened the door as he ordered the guards to take the girls back to Ava's room. Once they left, Lucas immediately punched the wall and felt frustrated. It was too late to save Zane, he was long gone. What kind of person would harm an innocent child over something they didn't do?
Suddenly, Lucas heard coughing coming from Van Kleiss and he noticed he was slowly sitting up.
"Ah shit."
"What are you doing?" Ava whispered to Rosie as they were hiding in a small supply closet. When the guards were walking them around a corner, Rosie figured out where the cameras were located at. The moment that the guards were taking them to a blind spot, Rosie was able to knock them out.
Luckily for her, there was a supply closet where Rosie had to drag the guards inside.
Rosie scanned around the shelves for anything to open the collar with. After searching for a while, Rosie grabbed a pair of pliers and tried break the small device on the collar. Ava flinched fearfully when Rosie was getting electrocuted and backed away.
Trying not to scare Ava, Rosie bit her lip from making a noise. She desperately tried to break the collar and coughed loudly when the shock collar was finally broken.
"Are you okay?" Ava teared up and noticed the marks on Rosie's neck.
Rosie slowly stopped coughing and placed her hand on Ava's head. "Don't worry Ava, we're getting out here now. And I'm taking you somewhere safe, I promise. But you need to stayed quiet until we're out of here."
Ava stared at Rosie and slowly nodded. Rosie went back to looking around the shelves for any weapons. There was only cleaning products and a few brooms and mops.
"Anything can be used as a weapon." Six's words echoed in Rosie's mind while she stared at the booms. After she unscrewed the bottom part, Rosie held the stick in her hands. Ava tilt her head when Rosie grabbed her hand.
Rosie looked calm and whispered, "Come on, we're leaving but be careful."
Ava didn't protest and they silently left the supply room. Rosie heard Zane menacingly remarked, "Leaving so soon?"
Rosie quickly put Ava behind her and held the broom tightly in her hands. Beside Zane was an EVO that looked like a saber tooth tiger to Rosie. Ava immediately hugged Rosie's leg and shook in fear.
"I won't let you take Ava away." Rosie muttered and Zane started to laughed hysterically. He had a craze look in his eyes when he hissed, "Give her back!"
"Ava! Run!" Rosie yelled when Zane signal for the EVO to attack.
Ava screamed and started to run away as Rosie used the stick to fight back. Up ahead was an elevator and Ava hurried to press the button. She looked back and whimpered when Zane started to slowly walking towards her.
Zane quietly muttered, "You've been a naughty girl, you parasite. Do you realized what I have to do to make you listen? I got you the girl so you would behave. Do you want her killed?"
The elevator door opened and Zane was slammed against the wall when a gray whip struck him.
"Where's Rosie?" Rex glared and hurried out of the elevator with Six and Aaron right behind him.
Zane sat up and glared at Rex as he muttered, "You...This is all your fault."
Rosie's screams echoed down the hallway causing Six to run ahead while Aaron turned his attention to Ava. "Come on kid." Aaron quickly said and picked up Ava as he hurried back to the elevator.
"B-But Rosie!" Ava cried loudly until Aaron said, "Don't worry. Six will get her. All I can say is that I feel sorry for whoever harmed her right now."
The stick was the only thing that kept Rosie from being eaten alive by the EVO. She held the stick tightly against the EVO's jaw but it kept trashing around violently to try and attack her. The EVO raised its paw up and slashed at the side of Rosie's head.
She screamed and moved her head away as she felt the blood oozing out of her head.
The EVO snapped the broom in half and lung forward at Rosie. Rosie tried to backed away but jumped when the EVO was impaled by two sharp objects from behind. The EVO fell forward and didn't move, Rosie spotted Six was the one who saved her.
"Dad?" Rosie tearfully smiled and Six hurried to her. He noticed the wound on the side of Rosie's head and his face darken. Rosie felt uneasy and tried to make Six calm down by saying, "Hey, I'm okay. Its just a scratch."
"Your definition of a scratch is not amusing." Six frowned and helped Rosie up. She stumbled around and felt light headed.
"I'm just trying to lighten the mood...am I grounded?" Rosie said completely in a daze. Six had to pick her up and carried her out as he made sure to get her safely out of the base. Rosie's eyes slowly fluttered shut and everything blacked out for her.
So that's it for Chapter 16, thank you guys for reading it :)
And thank you for the kind words YellowAngela. Losing a pet is never easy and its very sweet that you did that for your son when your guinea pig died. We put Snowball in a special box and buried him near the flowers at the side of our house. Its still sad but this is the way of life. He lived a happy life and was spoiled with treats even if my sister did scold me for it :)
I'm glad you like the moments with Ava and Rosie, it does help that Rosie loves to be around children. With Zane and Lucas, they did have a bunch of bumps in their friendship and we'll see how that goes in the later chapters. I'm not really good at writing villains and their motivations, I hope this helps better clear things up :) I'll try harder as the story progresses.
Until then, I'll see you guys in the next chapter, bye everyone :)