Regular text signifies: Ava in the present.
Italics signifies: Information Ava is simultaneously processing.
Rip Hunter tells Ava Sharpe, also known as Ava Prime, that she is exceptional, but to what is he referring? He could be suggesting that the individual standing before him, Ava Prime, twelfth AVA unit employed by him to Time Bureau, has somehow exceeded the parameters of the AVA (Advanced Variant Automation) program itself, and therefore the eleven previous AVAs who died on the job. Or perhaps he simply means to communicate that the AVA program has churned out any number of exceptional AVA units.
Ava is deeply disturbed. She has become increasingly distressed since the day she followed Sara into Vancouver 2213 and discovered that she was a clone. Not a regular clone, a genetically identical nucleus cell implanted into an egg and transferred to a uterus, where it develops and grows into a baby. That would at least have made her human, a living human organism. No, the clone situation is further complicated by the fact that Ava was manufactured - yeah, in a lab-factory!
Ava has to find a way to at least pause her fast unraveling mind or as she phrased it, 'put the mission ahead of her personal baggage'. She had a job to do. Thoughts about her increasingly complicated relationship with Sara had also to be pushed aside. Right now, she needed to focus on the Mallus threat, which in itself involved ongoing battles with the Darhks and locating and possessing the 6 totems. All whilst dodging, surviving and mending time cracks, minimising the damage of a freaking huge killer gorilla and saving the future president! And that was just this week. She had to find a way to keep her shit together just a little longer.
The AVA units were manufactured as fully operational mechanical adults, designed and programmed to populate the police force of the future, which suggests a capacity for complex AI abilities. AVA police units were cloned robotic units and there was no need to disguise the fact, but Ava, having been repurposed for employment at the Time Bureau, necessarily required camouflage. For this purpose her programmed included unique childhood memories, complete with family attachments and a comprehensive young adult experience including university education and a thorough collection of friendship and romantic experiences.
Ava got stressed from time to time - no bullshit, this would be one of those times. She felt tired and rundown occasionally. She was never one to pick at a few green leaves and then complain she was full, Ava trained hard, worked hard and enjoyed her food, and wine for that matter. She enjoyed sex as much as the next person. How? How could she be a robot? She bled for Christ's sake! Granted she did heal quickly and almost never got sick. I'm a clone. Well, that I could live with. But a robot? I'm not real! I'm not even real. My memories, my experiences - none of them are real. I am losing my mind - my grip on reality. How can I do my job - and Sara? How can I be with her when I'm not even real.
I have got to keep a lid on this shit because outside of my mind right now are growing threats not just me, but to the world, to time itself. Mallus is getting very freaking real. Sara is not coping with the Darhks. Rip supports Sara's strategy to give Damien the Death Totem. I respond as best I can - I mean it's a crazy, irresponsible plan and on top of that, unlikely to work. I fire Rip and storm off of the Waverider. Not good, I know. And as if I don't have enough to process - Sara, my ex, is kissing me and telling me she loves me. Well, first up - there simply is no me to love, and secondly I have to prioritise this shit storm; get back to the Bureau, back to my own team and get the latest on Mallus and initiate a response - or there will be no world in which to love anyone, ever.
Why would Rip do this to me? As much as Ava keeps pushing these thoughts to the back of her mind, the cogs continue to turn. This exhaustive background story was developed presumably to hide Ava's true identity from both herself and others, so that she would blend seamlessly into the Time Bureau. Rip could have just as easily employed a few AVAs on the Bureau team as is, what's the issue? It could not simply be that the AVAs are from the future - I mean it is the Time Bureau, right? What am I missing? Assuming Rip had his reasons, he could have easily told the AVA's that it would be dangerous for humans in this time to know the true nature of the AVA, and being designed to protect humans, surely this would have been enough. Why did Rip go to such lengths?
Ava goes through the motions at the Bureau, assessing threats, prioritising responses, developing strategies, selecting teams, assigning resources, overseeing missions. It occurs to her that she is actually pretty damn effective despite the incredibly stressful nature of their reality, it's almost like she is running the Bureau with one part of her brain whilst another is processing her incredibly complicated personal situation. She lifts her empty coffee mug knowing some lackey will fill it whilst kicking themselves for letting it get empty in the first place. Absolutely no one would begrudge Director Sharpe anything right now because as tired, stressed and overworked as everyone one is and as demanding and churlish as she could be - no one, and they would swear to it - no one could run those missions and resolve those threats the way she was doing, and they knew she was as tired and overworked as anyone of them.
Why me? And Why Rip? There had to be a connection. And perhaps there was a further connection as to why Ava could run the Time Bureau with rigorous accuracy whilst both she and the world were falling apart. The only thing that is becoming clear to Ava is that in her - Rip Hunter had secured himself an extremely valuable resource. Valuable in that as an AVA unit she is a highly efficient and effective member of the team, physically foreboding, proficient in weapons and hand to hand, intellectually competent skilled in strategy and leadership, with a penchant for following rules. Valuable in that all the AVA's, 1 through 12, came with the added bonus of being personally loyal to Rip and his Bureau. And valuable in that she was a resource seemingly without end, although difficult to kill an AVA unit, it is not impossible, and when the unfortunate event did occur, Rip could just skip off to 2213 and grab another unit. A tiny but heart wrenching thought occurred far back in the recesses of Ava's mind - how many AVA's had Sara had?
Ava left the control room and went to her office. Just the thought of that brought her to a point of complete destabilisation (that's quite a mechanical description). She had the sudden urge to slam her hand in her desk draw repeatedly and very, very hard (and that's such a human reaction). Instead she reached for a bottle of the whiskey Sara preferred, which she kept in her desk draw and took a good long swig. There was nothing for it however, no answers, only questions. Ava had tried, unsuccessfully, to stop thinking about it but the best she had managed was to keep it out of the forefront of her mind. The thought that Sara had also been harmed by Rip - and incidentally by Ava herself, was a hard pill to swallow. But swallow she must, there was still so much to do. She took a deep breath and returned to the control room, if anyone smelled booze on her - no one gave any indication, she chugged down her hot strong black coffee and signalled for another. "Director - there is a message from the Waverider coming through," said one of the communications staff, "Put it up, trace the coordinates and establish a log," "At once, Director."
Ah Rip - villain or hero, friend or foe? Former Time Master (protector of the timeline), creator of the Legends of Tomorrow (manipulators of the timeline) and founder of the Federal Time Bureau (protectors of the timeline). Who, at some point in the future, acquired access to AVA units, brought them back and repurposed them for his own, well, purpose. And hid from them their origin. From Ava and Sara's perspective this seems a particularly callous action because they consider Ava to be human. A clone perhaps, but human nevertheless. To strip someone of their autonomy is generally considered pretty heartless. I guess for Rip - he was simply recycling? Harsh.
Ava considered Sara's request for allies. On the one hand Ava had her hands full at the Bureau, on the other hand Sara and Ava were no longer together. An image of Sara's face flashed into her frontal lobe like a projector - the look of hurt when Ava had told her "there is no me to love". The hurt was not for herself - it was for Ava. If that moment had not been so fraught with competing needs; Mallus, Damien Darhk; death totems, Rip… she felt sure that Sara would have grabbed her and convinced Ava of her love for her. Ava had been in such a dark place at that moment. And if this moment was not equally as fraught Ava would absolutely send back up.
Their relationship was so intense. At first such utter aversion to each other, such competitive disdain. Over time and with increased contact that had given way to grudging esteem and later still a mutual attraction and genuine respect developed. They continue to struggle to appreciate each other's point of view and mode of operations but there is no doubt of a very deep feeling between them. Ava herself had several times considered her in love with Sara and she could not deny that she loved her still. She wanted her, wanted a future with her. Clone, robot, whatever the fuck she was.
Different points of view and different modes of operation. "That's it!" Ava slapped the counter of the control panel and stared momentarily into the distance. Not given to demonstrating emotion Ava had everyone's attention, whether she wanted it or not, all staff held their breath, looked at the Director and when she didn't immediately respond, they began to look at each other. Ava's two independently functioning thought processes suddenly seem to fold neatly back into one gorgeous brain. It suddenly occurred to Ava that Sara and she did have different approaches, whilst Ava is here dealing with individual expressions of - Sara is on the Waverider dealing with the source of the problem. Both equally necessary functions, but a little extra effort on resolving the source would also resolve the residual effects.
Rip told Ava that she is exceptional and now she believes him. That day in the lab factory in Vancouver 2213, when Ava had said "You're right, Sara, I'm never going to be a mindless clone,", she knew then what she had been denying ever since - she was not part of their cohort. She was something else - someone else - exceptional. And no longer simply a resource of either Rip or the Bureau but an individual. AVA unit 12, robotic clone, non human… call me what you will, I have exceeded the parameters of the AVA program, I have exceeded the expectations of the role of Director of the Federal Time Bureau and now I am about to exceed Sara's expectation of back up and, if she will still have me, a happy, loving relationship.