Without further ado, let the chapter begin!
Ava sat at the examine table without any complaint. She was trying not to cause any trouble with the scientists examining her. But being at the laboratory was bringing some old flashbacks.
The flashbacks weren't good ones.
Ava's past experience in the laboratory weren't that great. She would remember all those experiments that Zane forced upon her. She does know that this time would be different. The scientists at Providence wouldn't dare hurt her...would they?
"I'm sorry Ava, we don't see anything wrong with you. Your nanites aren't active. Are you sure you didn't start sleepwalking that time?" Amanda asked as she entered the lab.
Ava started to fidget around, they didn't believe her. Why do they think she was crazy? She was telling the truth, there was no way that Ava was sleepwalking.
Seeing that Ava was getting upset, Amanda pat her head.
"How about this? Would you like for us to have someone watch over you tonight? Maybe that might help us figure out what's going on?" Amanda suggested.
Ava thought about it and decides that this might help her. So she nodded her head and asked, "Who's going to watch over me?"
"I think we can assign Aaron to babysit you. I understand that you're more comfortable around him." Amanda smiled when Ava's eyes lit up.
Ava immediately got off of the examining table and said, "Can I go to the bathroom?"
"Do you remember how to get there?" Amanda whispered.
Ava nodded and hurried out of the lab. Amanda smiled at her, she went to go make a few phone calls to get a hold of Aaron.
After she used the bathroom, Ava was washing her hands in the sink. She hummed her ABCs so she knew how much time she had left to finished washing her hands. After Ava was done, she went to dry her hands with the air blower machine.
Ava felt something tapped her shoulder and she looked around. There was no one around in the bathroom. She started to frown until she saw a faint glowing orb by the doorway.
The orb phased through the door and Ava started to follow it.
Something was telling her to follow the orb, she wasn't sure if it was because her instincts were right or if Ava just wanted to go on an adventure. Whatever the case may be, Ava wanted to see where the orb was taking her.
Ava went to the elevator and smiled when the orb float to the button that should be pushed.
"You're a smart orb huh?" Ava giggled and pressed the last button on the wall.
When Ava was distracted with looking at her shoelaces, the orb transformed into Stephanie. Stephanie smiled faintly at Ava and tried to pat her daughter's head. But her hand went through Ava's head and she felt depressed.
After Stephanie sigh quietly, she started to transformed back into the orb.
The elevator doors began to open and Ava started to walk out. Ava stopped and looked around the floor she was at. The hallways was empty, no one was around, or so she thought. The orb began to zoom past Ava and went further down the hallway.
"Wait!" Ava squealed and started to chase after it.
Ava continued running until a familiar voice asked, "A-Ava?"
Lucas hurried to the bars of his cell door and stared at Ava. The last time that Lucas and Ava saw each other was a few months. It was before Providence went to rescue Rosie and Ava from Zane's lair.
Everyone thought that it would be best that Ava didn't go see neither Lucas or Zane. Rosie was worried that the encounter would be too much for Ava to handle. Lucas couldn't blame Ava for not wanting to see him, he wasn't much help to her back then. All Lucas ever did was watch Ava suffer. He was just as bad as Zane.
Ava looked at Lucas through the cell doors and tilt her head, "Mister Lucas? What are you doing here?"
Lucas sigh, "You already know why. I did bad things with Zane, so I'm spending the rest of my life here. Where I belong."
"But...you weren't the one hurting me. It was Zane." Ava whispered, she didn't understand what Lucas did that would make him be locked up here.
Lucas looked up at Ava and noticed the confusion in her eyes. How could Ava understand? She's just a child and couldn't see things a certain way. He sat down on the ground to reach to her eye level.
"Listen here, I'm just as bad as Zane. Even though I never once laid a hand on you, remember this. During those years that you were experimented on, tortured and abused...I could have stopped it. The worse thing that someone could do to a human being is just watch them suffer without bothering to help them. Ava, ever since you were a baby, all I did was let Zane hurt you. I could have done something to help you but Rosie was the one who decides to step in." Lucas sternly said.
Ava stared at Lucas with a blank expression. She stood there until she admitted, "Its okay mister Lucas, you were just scared of Zane. I was scared of him too. Until Rosie told me that its okay to admit you're scared. That means you're braver than most people if you admit you're scared."
Lucas reached through the gap of the bars and pat Ava's head.
"Go back to the elevator kiddo. If you keep heading down to the end of the hallway, you'll see Zane. And you don't want that, do you?" Lucas whispered.
Ava glanced at the hallway and stayed quiet.
The orb was heading there, does that mean its trying to tell her to go see Zane? For the past couple of months, Ava was in a constant battle with herself. Rosie told her that Zane is her brother and she has the choice to see him if she wants to. Ava would always make excuses that she didn't want to see him yet.
Now...it feels different. Something in her gut was telling her to go see Zane. She wasn't sure if its to forgive Zane for everything he has done to her. Or to talk about what happened. Either way, Ava wants to find out.
"I...I want to see him." Ava whispered and started walking away from Lucas' cell.
Before Ava could get any further, someone grabbed her arm. She jumped and looked to see who it was. She was relieved to see it was Aaron.
"Ava, what are you doing here? You shouldn't be here, come on." Aaron told her and picked up Ava. She didn't protest but peeked over Aaron's shoulder to look at Zane's cell door.
Zane was still in the straight jacket and he glared at Ava darkly.
That glare made Ava coward in fear as she stayed close to Aaron. Maybe meeting Zane isn't such a good idea right now. She knows that she needs to see Zane but this doesn't feel like the perfect time.
"Is Ava okay? Why are you watching over her? Did something happen and you're not telling me?" Rosie worriedly said.
Aaron and Rosie were video chatting again and she found out about what's going on with Ava. Trying to calm her, Aaron promised that everything was okay.
Aaron glanced at Ava while she was sleeping in her bed. He said, "I think she might be sleep walking. That's the only logical solution."
Rosie finished putting her hair in a messy bun and remarked, "Ava wouldn't make something like this up. Maybe her nanites are acting up without her knowing about it."
Wanting to get off topic, Aaron asked. "So, did you have fun roller skating with Farron?"
Rosie rubbed her bottom and said, "I may have a few bruises forming tomorrow morning."
Aaron chuckled, "Were you really that bad?"
"Hey! I'll have you know its not that easy learning something new!" Rosie pouted.
Seeing Rosie pout was cute, Aaron always like to tease her any chance he gets. Rosie shook her head and suddenly had an idea in her head. She looked at her laptop screen and whispered, "Hey...what if Van Kleiss is trying to control Ava? That might explain why she started wondering around the base that time."
Aaron frowned, the last time that Ava encountered Van Kleiss was before they captured Zane. From what Zane told them, Van Kleiss did visit Ava in secret. Ava told them before they captured Zane, Van Kleiss helped take out some excess nanites from her. Maybe he did something to her without anyone realizing it.
"I'll go talk to a few scientists to see if we can try monitoring Ava's nanites for now on." Aaron said.
Rosie smiled and whispered, "Thank you for keeping an eye on her. It means a lot to me. I just wish she could come back home with us."
Aaron reassured, "Just wait a little longer and Ava will finally return back to your family. Then you four can be one big happy family."
Rosie looked happy, she wanted to have Ava back home so she can be a normal kid again. Ava can finally go to public school, then will have friends her age, and won't worry about her past coming back to haunt her.
"Aaron, how's the investigation going along?" Rosie asked and started to get comfortable in her bed.
Aaron sigh and moved his hair back, "Well, we are currently having agents monitor the hospitals. They're blend in with the crowd, so no one will be suspicious about what's going on. We need to spy on Michael for a few weeks before we can officially do anything. Hopefully we catch them by surprise."
Rosie could tell Aaron was stressed about this and softly said, "Hey, you never let anyone down at Providence. This will work, I know it. Come on Aaron, you need to have more faith in yourself."
Aaron stared at Rosie and glanced at Ava. She was still sound asleep and Aaron noticed it was getting late.
"Hey, you should head to bed. You have a school tomorrow." Aaron told her.
Rosie sigh but whispered, "Good night Aaron."
"Night Rosie."
Rosie screamed loudly when she frantically kicked and squirmed around in her bed. She snapped her eyes open and started to throw all her shurikens around the room. Almost all the shurikens hit something in her room, from picture frames to her stuff animals, everything got hit.
After Rosie calm down, she started to breathe heavily and looked around her room.
It was still dark out so Rosie had a feeling what she experience was a nightmare.
"Rosie! Are you okay? Did you have another sleep paralysis?" Rebecca frantically asked Rosie as she and Six hurried in the room.
Rosie breathe in through her nose and exhale through her mouth. She tried to regulate her breathing and slowly said, "I-I had a bad dream again."
"Again? This can't keep going on Rosie. We're getting worried about you." Rebecca whispered and hugged Rosie tightly.
"As of right now, you're no longer getting involve with any Providence related business." Six sternly said causing Rosie to look desperate.
Rosie begged, "But dad! I can help out with the upcoming mission! I promise to calm down, but please give me another chance!"
Rebecca looked down at Rosie and admitted, "Sweetie, just when we think you're finding getting better, you're getting nightmares. As much as you hates but I agree with your father on this one. You hadn't been sleeping well Rosie. Your mental health is more important than worrying about what's going on with Van Kleiss."
Rosie felt upset with herself for letting this happen and started to feel guilty. The last thing she need was to worry her parents, she slowly sigh and tried to relax.
Aaron was resting his eyes for a moment after he finished his video chat with Rosie. He was already exhausted and thought a few minutes of sleeping wouldn't harm anyone. That is until he heard Ava moved from her bed. Not wanting to alarm Ava, Aaron opened his eyes slightly to make it seem he was still sleeping.
Ava slowly walked out of the room, Aaron quickly got up and frowned. Before Ava left, Aaron did noticed her eyes were glowing red.
That wasn't a good sign.
Aaron quickly touched his ear piece and said, "Kenwyn, notify Dr. Holiday that something's going on with Ava. I'm going to follow her."
"Roger that Aaron. Report back what's going on." Kenwyn told him on the other line.
Aaron didn't waste any time as he hurried out of the room and quietly followed Ava.
The little girl was still in a daze, she was still walking ahead. She started heading to the sealed doors that lead outside of the base. Aaron frowned and froze when a familiar portal appeared at the other side. "AVA! GET AWAY!" Aaron yelled and made a run for it towards her.
Ava immediately snapped out of her trance and frantically looked around. She noticed a hand sticking out of the portal, it was trying to grab her. Aaron immediately pulled Ava away from danger and threw her back. The hand grabbed Aaron's throat and pulled him inside. Realizing that Aaron was being taken away, Ava tried to chase after him. "Aaron!" Ava fearfully called out and reached for him.
The last thing that Aaron saw before he was pulled into the portal was the panic look in Ava's eyes. He fell to the ground and tried to get up until he was kicked in the stomach. Aaron grunted in pain and looked up to see Van Kleiss.
"I was expecting Avalon, but you'll do just fine." Van Kleiss grinned.
Aaron glared, "So we finally meet in person, Van Kleiss."
The next chapter is when we will see more of Van Kleiss. It was interesting to write this out. Thank you so much for reading the chapter. :)
Thank you for your last review in the chapter YellowAngela. :) Ryan's back for now, and Suzie is like the queen of mean in my opinion :O Farron will be a huge help to Rosie in the future :D And even if Aaron won't admit it, he will be jealous XD Since Rosie has her nightmares, her mind will start playing tricks on her, so that's why I add a little sleep paralysis. :o
I'm so sorry that the chapter came a little late ^^" I was busy typing the last chapter of Childhood Memories. Plus I had some family problems this week but everything seem to calm down. Somewhere next week, I say either expect a chapter from this story or Childhood Memories. :)
Make sure to stay safe out there and have a great night :)