Chapter Theme Song: N/A

"Regular Dialog"

"Thoughts"

'Hearing Another Characters Voice'

Cover picture by Sciamano240 on Deviantart

Chapter 2: A Strange World

Who am I? Where am I? What am..I? These questions rushed through her head over and over again. She was able to feel the soft bed underneath her, comforting her. She didn't know what she was laying on, except knowing it was soft, a feeling she somehow knew, but how? This is her first time ever feeling something but yet knew what the feeling was. She didn't question it, there had to be a reason, or is there? She didn't even know but to accept the fact that she's here for a reason, but what reason? Everything felt so blurry but so clear to her, what is this feeling?

She slowly sat up from the bed, looking around and seeing nothing but a white void of a room with nowhere to go and nothing to be seen. She moved one of her legs down to soon find the cold hard floor beneath her and her other leg followed suit before standing up.

Alex and the rest of the team watched the wandering girl take her first steps of life. It felt like watching your kid walk for the first time while they stumbled around, trying to keep balance. "You know, it's like watching your kid walk for the first time, your very jerky and awkward kid," one of them said.

"Yeah, but it'll get smoother as she goes, her learning algorithms need time to find the best way to do things, it'll only get better with time." Soon the door behind Alex opened, seeing Molly had actually found time to come.

"I tried getting here as fast as I could, did I miss anything?" she spat out.

"Not-" as if Alex wasn't there she walked right past him, seeming to not be interested in he had to say.

"AWWEee, she's so adorable!" she squealed with a giant smile across her face.

"Well, glad that you approve..."

Ava continued to look around for anything, any clues or a way out of here. Muffled talking, and screeching could be heard from the outside of the room, sounding like it was coming from behind the wall in front of her.

"H-hello?" she softly spoke out, the voices soon stopped and no longer could be heard. She placed a hand on the wall and being able to feel the smooth texture, she began tapping it with her pointer finger hearing the sound of glass being tapped.

"Hollow? Is someone, watching m-"

The sound of a sliding door could be heard coming from behind her which caught her attention. A man in a white lab coat and glasses stood in the doorway, slowly making his way towards the middle, trying not to make sudden movements.

"Hello, Ava," he said.

"Ava?"

The man smiled with a little nod, "That is your name, I'm Alex, it's nice to finally meet you." She didn't know what to say or do but just stare at him with her blank expression. "I see you're not much of a talker, that's fine," he smiled. "Can you come over here?" Hesitant, but she made her way towards him, her legs being less shaky and wobbly underneath her, "Very nice, your walking is already getting better."

She looked up at him to make eye contact, "..Where..am, I?"

Alex made himself eye level with her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but I promise that they will all be all answered, but for now, let's get you to your new room, how does that sound?"

She nodded, Alex guided her out of the white room where they found themselves in the main room where everyone else was. Ava almost froze in her steps, seeing all eyes are on her in the room full of people with Molly being the most excited out off all of them. Alex grabbed her hand and escorted her through the room and out into the halls where Alex brought her into an open room where there is a bed in the corner, a couch with a bookshelf across from it, and a wooden table with matching chairs around it

"This is your new room," Alex stated.

Ava walked forward into the room, disconnecting their hands, and looked around the room, taking everything in with no words to say. "It's all yours so make yourself at home. I have to go do some things really quickly so get comfy." Alex walked out of the room with the door closing shut behind him, Ava turned around and walked to the door, trying to open it but wouldn't budge.

"Connected to Ava," a machine voice blurred out. She turned around once again, finding a floating white sphere with a blue light that seemed to be its eye. "I am OverLooker 01, but Ava can just call me Overlooker. I am Ava's personal helper, so if Ava has any questions, or is unfamiliar with anything I will do my best to answer them

Ava made her way back into the middle of the room, continuing to scan the area with Overlooker hovering right above her, "Where am I?"

"Ava is in her room that is located in the Atlas laboratory where various technologies are researched and tested such as weapons and machines."

"Am...I a machine?" She held her hands out in front of her, examining them. Her skin had a little color and are by definition perfect with no scars, marks, wrinkles, or cuts anywhere.

"Ava is not a machine but an android who is capable of emotion, free will, and self-thought, but it is advised that Ava follows instructions from Alex Denim as he has the best intentions for Ava."

"Emotion?" she made her way over to the bookcase which was the thing that had caught her eye the most, she began looking through the perfectly lined up books.

"Emotion is what humans have when they feel happiness, love, fear, anger, or hatred which can be caused by an incident they are in or an event that happened in their life." Overlooker watched the android looking throughout the bookshelf, "Does Ava want a suggestion for a book to read?"

"Oh, that's what these things are called, what are books?"

"Books are what humans read for the enjoyment of a fictional story, or to gather information about specific topics such as science, history, mathematics, language, and many more. Does Ava want a suggestion of a story for enjoyment as there are no books for information gathering?"

"Sure, nothing else to do."

The sphere moved down near the bookcase, scanning it before stopping and a mechanical arm came out of the side, grabbing a book. "From my analysis, this book has the highest rating, being a 4.7 out of 5."

She grabbed the book from her helper, looking at the cover. It was a picture of a hooded figure standing near the edge of a cliff with the colors being dark and in bold white lettering read, "The Grimm Reaper." She opened the book up and began reading each word carefully, "Does Ava want to sit down while she reads?"

"Why do you keep talking like that?"

"...My apologies allow me to rephrase, do you want to sit down while reading, such as on a couch?" the sphere then hovered over to the couch. Ava went and took a seat on the couch, reopening her book and starting where she was interrupted at. There were quite a few words she didn't really understand but with the help of Overlooker, she began to learn.

"Overlooker, you said I was capable of emotion, one being love. In this book, she said that she loves him, what does it mean to love someone?"

"Love is what humans have which is a complex strong feeling for someone or something else. It has many different meanings for different people, so I am unable to fully answer."

"You keep referring humans doing these things but you state I am not human, why am I given this freedom?"

OverLooker stood silent for a couple of seconds, "...You are an android given human features such as a body like a human, emotions like a human, free will like a human, self-thought, and self-awareness like a human, which makes you more human than Android."

"So if I look like a human and made to act like a human, I guess I should start becoming more like a human, how do I start becoming human?"

"Unable to answer, Overlooker is not allowed to answer that question as each human is different in their own way and it is for Ava to find herself."

Ava nodded, "Understood."

Hours have passed as she continued to read, reaching the last few pages before her room door opened. She took her eyes off the pages and over her shoulders, seeing a woman in the same white lab coat as Alex. She had a bag over her shoulder that she placed on the table and looked at Ava with a warm smile, walking towards her. Ava slammed the book shut as she got up from the couch, stepping back from the woman with her arms holding the book against her chest. The woman stopped walking toward her, "Oh..I didn't mean to scare you, I'm Molly, it's sooo nice to finally meet you."

"Molly?"

She nodded, "I'm on lunch, so I thought I could spend it with you, oh, your reading a book? Why don't you come over to the table so I can eat and you can read while we chat, how about that?"

Molly sat down at the table, waiting, Ava didn't move from her spot as she didn't know her, well she didn't know Alex either but he didn't startle her at least, but this woman just randomly barraged into her room. "Molly is a friend of Alex, threat level: very low," the Sphere bot said. Ava nodded, making her way to the table and sat down with Molly eagerly sitting across from her, ripping her lunch out from her bag which contained some sort of salad. Ava opened her book back up, with Molly watching her as she ate.

"So, what book are you reading?" Molly asked with food still being in her mouth as she talked.

"The Grimm Reaper."

"Oooo, that's a good one, tell me about it.

"A woman who is called the Grimm Reaper, she didn't give herself that name. She fights these monsters called Grimm, she describes them as the creatures of the dark who lack a soul and have no care for except for taking it. She can also use her eyes to destroy these creatures because they are silver. Right now she is fighting a Grimm called a Wyvern as she describes it as a creature to be fear itself. She is trying to lead it away from the kingdom and into the mountains to try and seal it away as it seemed to be impossible to defeat."

"Wow, that's very brave of her to do, she seems pretty cool."

Ava nodded, continuing to read the book, getting through the last few pages, and setting the book down onto the table and looked up at Molly who was almost done eating her food. "So, was the brave Grimm Reaper able to seal away the feared Wyvern?"

"Yes," Ava bluntly put it.

Molly couldn't help but laugh a little bit as Ava just watched, Molly soon recollected herself, brushing her hair away from her face. Ava watched her hand movements before copying her, feeling the soft white hair that sat upon her head. Molly quickly noticed someone was copying her and stopped with Ava stopping as well.

"So, you're a human?"

Molly was surprised a bit from the question, not every day someone asks you if you're a human or not, "Y-yeah, why?"

"Please tell me how I can become more human," Ava begged.

OverLooker got up into Ava's face, "Ava is recommended to not ask that question to any human."

Molly smiled, "I don't want to get OverLooker mad, but I guess I can tell you is that just be yourself and you may not be made of the same squishy stuff we're made of, but I can certainly say you are just like us."

"If I'm just like you, why don't I feel any emotion like humans do?"

"Sometimes us humans don't feel anything so it's perfectly normal, it'll come and you might not even notice it. Try not to think about it too much and just take everything for what it is. I couldn't imagine what's going through your mind, being thrown into a world and knowing nothing about it, but me, Alex, and OverLooker are here to help you."

"I guess I can stop thinking about it."

"Good, maybe I have something that can take your mind off things," she placed her empty containers back into her bag but noticed Ava was still in her gown. "How about we get you out of that thing first, I'm sure they left you some normal clothes." Molly stood up and headed over to the dresser that was next to Ava's bed, looking through it. Ava looked down at what she was wearing and looked over to Molly who has already ripped out half of the clothes in the dresser. Molly finally found clothes that she thought would fit Ava quite well, quickly grabbing the Android and taking her gown off and putting her new clothes on which was black pants and a white long sleeve along with socks for her bare feet.

"There, black and white really goes well with you, come, let me get you that thing." Molly grabbed her hand and brought them back to the table. She began shuffling through the other compartment of her bag, pulling out a word search and crossword book along with a few pencils.

"What's that?"

"It's a word search and crossword book," she opened the book up to the first page, on the odd number pages are word searches and the even page numbers are a crossword. "This is a word search, you get a word bank and you have to find them in the pile of the letters, while this one is a crossword puzzle, each number has a question and the answer goes in the boxes, but only one letter can go into a box, so you have to make sure the words fit, and it can either go down, or across," she explained. "Sound fun?"

Ava stared at the book a bit longer, processing everything before grabbing the book from her, "yes." Molly smiled, handing her a pencil and putting the others on the table.

"Well, you have fun with that, I have to get going."

Ava looked at her, "Why?"

Molly smiled, "I have to work, I wish I could stay here with you all day, but sadly I can't." She grabbed her bag and made her way out, taking one last look at Ava who kept her eyes on her before leaving. Ava found herself alone once more with OverLooker. She sat back down at the table, placing the book on the table and began the puzzles. Hours passed as she got through each page with the help of OverLooker for the crossword questions. Each search word got harder as it got closer to the end but she also got faster after each one she does, easily able to decrypt the blocks of letters that hide the words.

Soon Alex comes into the room which Ava stops what she is doing and looks over to him. "Hey, sorry for being gone for most of the day, got caught up," he explained, walking over and sitting down next to her, "Oh, what are you doing?"

"Word search and Crossword, Molly gave it to me."

"Did she now? That was nice of her, I use to do these all the time when I was younger."

"They're fun."

"Yes they are, maybe I can bring you a sketchbook sometime so you can draw what you like."

"Draw?"

He smiled and nodded, "Yup, you can make anything you have on your mind onto paper."

Ava looked over to the book on the side, sliding it towards Alex, "I want to make the monsters that are in this book."

"Oh, you read The Grimm Reaper, well you've been busy today, I remember when this book first came out it's one of my favorites so I'm glad that you enjoyed it as well, but if I'm going to bring you a sketchbook, you need to promise me something."

"Promise?"

"When you promise someone something, it means that you will do it."

"Ok, what is it?"

"We have important things to do."

"How important?"

"Very important for both of us," he said. Alex pulled out a small notebook from his pocket along with a pen. He held out his open hand, "I want you to squeeze my hand." Ava grabbed a hold of his hand and began to squeeze. "Very good," he said releasing their hands and writing notes in the notebook.

"Alright, I want you to follow the tip of the pen with your eyes only." Ava nodded and he held the pen in front of her face where she locked her eyes on it. Alex moved the pen in different directions and she was able to keep her head still while keeping her sight on the tip of the pen. "Good, you're walking seems good from what I've heard from Molly, seems you're able to hold things just fine, everything seems good for now," he said, writing everything down.

"Was that one of the important things?"

Alex smiled, "A little bit of it, just making sure your basics are working properly."

"Are they?"

"You're so full of questions," he joked. "You seem fine to me, but I'll truly find out in a couple of days. Well, I think It's time for bed, it's starting to get late, I'll tuck you in, " he gestured, getting up from his seat.

"But it felt like the day just started."

"Well, that's what happens when you have fun all day, time flies when you're having fun." Ava got up from her seat and climbed into the bed with Alex placing a blanket over her.

"So what do I do?"

"Just close your eyes and relax," Alex hit the light switch next to the bed and the room became dimmer. "I'll see you in a couple of days, I'm having Molly check up on you tomorrow to make sure you're ok."

"Ok, but I'll see you the next day?"

Alex nodded, "I promise, so don't you two have too much fun without me, promise?"

Ava nodded, "I promise."

Alex chuckled, "Good, have a good night."

Alex grabbed his notebook from the table and soon left the room where Ava laid there, looking up at the ceiling, and OverLooker was on his charging bay on the ground next to the bed. "Just close your eyes and relax," she said to herself, closing her eyes and entering rest mode.

Wow, took me longer than I expected to get this out, damn school getting in the way! But better late than never I suppose. Please leave a review as I always accept well thought out reviews such as what I can approve upon, etc, but hateful or aggressive reviews will be ignored and permanently blocked. Have a good day/night.