Disclaimer: I do not own Planet of the Apes.

It didn't take long for them to spot what they had been searching for. It took about half an hour.

Soon, the group found themselves standing along a ledge, looking out at the dam. Above the waterfall were pieces of tree trunks, fixed to resemble a kind of structure. Ava found it rather odd and cast a confused glance over at Malcolm, he didn't really know what to make of it either. But, that wasn't the important issue. The first step; finding the dam, was complete. Now, they needed to see if the dam was intact enough for them to work on it.

They had to come up with a plan. Malcolm and Ava conversed with Carver over the matter, though Malcolm did most of the talking with Carver. Ava just merely listened. From the distance they were standing, the dam seemed to be pretty much intact. However, there was the matter of the conditions inside the power plant.

"We need to find a way inside, inspect the interior." Ava finally offered. "Who knows how messed up it all could be." Malcolm and Carver agreed.

"But, we're gonna have to find a safer way to get to the entrance," Malcolm noted. He then looked out farther and gestured toward the dam. "It looks like there might be a pathway if we go further up the hill."

"I'll go up the hill, see if there's a way," Carver said. Neither Malcolm or Ava made objections. He then quietly branched away from the group, going to look for an alternative route.

Once Carver was out of sight, Malcolm cleared his throat, "You and Carver are acting pretty civil with each other." Malcolm said, earning a faint scowl from Ava.

"That's because he hasn't done anything to piss me off yet." She then smirked. "I give it no more than five minutes for him to do something."

Malcolm huffed out a laugh, but Ava was only half joking.

Either way, the rest of the group started to scout the area. Trying to see if there was any other way to get to the dam, preferably, a safer way. However, as the minutes ticked by, Ava caught onto the fact that they have yet to hear anything from Carver. Surely, he would have been able to find something by now. And if there wasn't a safer way further up, then he should be making his way back to them.

She stared in the direction she last saw Carver and bit down on her lip. "Hey," she turned to Malcolm, who leaned closer to her. "Don't you think we should have heard anything from Carver by now?"

At her question, Malcolm's attention piqued. She was right. They should have heard something by now. Perhaps it was farther ahead than they thought. A sharp blast circulated through the air. Everyone froze. "That was a gunshot." Ava pointed out. Ava and Malcolm locked eyes, pulled out their guns, and then started running towards where the noise had come from. The entire time, all she could think about was what Carver had shot.

As they got closer, they could hear Carver shouting out for them.

"Hey! Over here!"

Ava's brows furrowed at his stance. His gun was drawn, aimed in front of him, and he was visibly shaking. What in the hell happened? She ran farther ahead of Malcolm and that's when she saw it. Two apes—chimpanzees to be exact, one was lying on its back, and the other was frantically calling out.

Oh my god. She stopped next to Carver, eyes widening when she realized one of the apes was injured. "What the hell did you do?!" She called out.

"I shot him."

"Why the hell would you do that?!" She turned her attention on Carver, wanting a quick answer.

"What do you mean, why?!"

"Did it try to attack you?!" Her question was only met with a side-glance from Carver. Ava snapped her attention back on the two apes. That familiar instinct started to kick in. The urge to just step forward and help the one that was injured. But, that would be stupid. She didn't know these apes, and the fact that Carver just shot one, they weren't going to trust her.

In the distance, a cacophony of screeches and calls grew louder. She looked up and saw a hoard of apes coming towards them. On instinct, she stepped back closer to the group, and held the gun up in a loose aim. They were all over the place, some were hanging from the tree limbs, others were huddled on the ground holding giant spears. Luckily, they didn't come any closer. The last thing she wanted to do was shoot any of them.

Holy shit. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her eyes scanned over the massive group when a thought popped up. These apes, they had to be the ones that escaped from the primate shelter ten years ago. No, it can't be them, if it was, that means... Her attention shifted onto one lone ape, who stepped up on a tree stump, signaling to the other apes to stand their ground, at least that's what Ava was able to interpret. It looked like he was using a variant of sign language to communicate with them. That got her attention. But, something else caught her eye. The ape, standing on the tree stump, it had a mark close to its right shoulder. She focused more on the mark, taking a small step forward. It was covered by a decent amount of hair, but it was still distinguishable to her eye, and it looked like the same birthmark that…no.

Ava's eyes slowly rose to the ape's face, and the recognition hit her, the moment she looked into his eyes. No, it can't be. She slowly lowered her gun, and placed a hand on Malcolm's shoulder, "wait a minute." She took two steps forward, ignoring Malcolm calling her name. She didn't falter. She took great care in her movements, making sure that they were steady. But she didn't take her eyes off him, not for one second. Ava slowly placed her gun back into her holster, all the while, trying to figure out how much she remembered on sign language. If this is who she thinks it is, he'll understand.

Surprisingly, the ape didn't seem threatened, more like he was curious. He had scowled at the group, assessing to see if any of them were a threat. But, once she stepped forward, his attention was on her. It didn't look like he recognized her, but she could sense that he was debating with himself. Something about her did look familiar. She could feel her stomach drop. He doesn't recognize me.

Finally, she raised a shaky hand and signed, "Caesar?"

It was like the air around them got thicker. Everyone; the humans and apes, had their eyes on the duo. Caesar merely narrowed his eyes at her. "Caesar, do you recognize me?" Ava signed, the shaking in her hand didn't stop. "It's me, Ava."

The moment she signed her name, Ava saw the recognition slowly etch into Caesar's features. But, she could also sense denial in his eyes. In a bold move, she stepped forward, quicker than she should have, while signing her name again. This made the other apes agitated. They called out warning noises to her, and Ava could hear her group raise their guns higher. They weren't going to get anywhere if everyone keeps their guns up.

She quickly stepped back, and with her eyes still on Caesar, she said to Malcolm, "put down the guns."

"Are you kidding me?" Foster was the only one who spoke up.

This prompted Ava to finally break her gaze from Caesar, and look to Malcolm. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. After a beat, Malcolm said, "Do as she says, put the guns down."

It took a moment for the others to follow along with Malcolm. But, as Ava glanced around at their group, she saw Foster and Kemp lower their guns. But when she briefly looked back at Carver, he still had his up. Her eyes darkened as she stared at him. "Carver," he didn't look at her, but she knew that he had heard her. "Put down the gun."

Ava spared a moment to look at Caesar, his face was no longer softened by recognition. It was filled with tension. With Carver still aiming his gun at them, Caesar was now more worried about this human injuring more of the apes. "Carver," Ava said again, keeping her eyes on Caesar. "Put down the gun." She demanded.

In her peripheral, the image of Carver lowering his gun made her breathe a sigh of relief. She thought that it would ease the tension between the two groups. But, it didn't change the way Caesar was staring at them. He looked unsure, even angry to a certain extent. There was something building inside of him, his breathing got heavier, noted by the rise and fall of his chest.

"We're not a threat." She signed to him. However, the image of the injured ape disproved her statement in Caesar's mind. He spared a glance in the direction of the injured ape, seeing him being cradled by his father. And when he turned back to the group, his eyes barred down on the group, making a chill go down Ava's spine.

"GO!" The word fell from Caesar's lips. His voice was harsh and powerful. Ava could almost feel his yell reverberate against her chest.

He just spoke.

Ava felt her entire body freeze, not knowing what the proper reaction to this was. She could even hear Malcolm and the others curse under their breaths. "Oh my god," she managed to whisper.

When they showed no signs of leaving, Caesar took the initiative and jumped off the stump, landing right in front of her. Malcolm pulled her back by the shoulder. "Okay…okay, we're leaving." Malcolm assured Caesar, as the group slowly backed away.

Then, all the other apes started shouting at them to leave. It was insane. Hearing these apes yelling, using words.

"Let's go…let's go!" Malcolm yelled.

The group scrambled, trying to get away as fast as possible. Ava saw Alexander slip on an incline and she grabbed him by the arm, pulling him out. "No, wait, my bag!" She ushered him forward, telling him to start running.

She was the last one to follow. Ava ran down the path, but something inside her made her stop. Her boots skidded across the dirt, and she whirled back around, seeing Caesar staring at her, preventing the apes from chasing after them. She needed to get another look at him, to see if it really was him.

"Ava!" Malcolm called out to her. "Come on!"

She didn't need to be told twice. She tore her eyes away from the ape and started down the hill. Her mind and heart were racing. She couldn't believe what just happened. After all these years, Ava finally had the answer.

Caesar was alive.

The drive back to the colony was quiet. No one had anything to say. They were all trying to make sense of what they had experienced in the woods. Even Carver said nothing, and he's usually the one who tends to freak out more over things.

Ava kept her focus away from the group by staring out the window the entire time. Caesar was alive, and she got to actually see him. But, there was a small seed of doubt sitting in the pit of her stomach. Maybe it wasn't him. It was possible that she could have mistaken that ape for Caesar. It's possible. She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against the window. No. She knew his face and his eyes…those were his eyes. And that birthmark. It was Caesar. It had to be.

But, he didn't seem to recognize her at first. How could he not? She had to stop herself and think on the matter. The last time she saw him was ten years ago, and their last interaction wasn't a happy one. She left the primate center confused and upset. And she regretted the way things were left between them. From that day and to now, a lot has happened. A damn pandemic wiped out almost the entire population, Ava struggled to survive, and Caesar was busy thriving with his own colony.

Why should he remember me?

The one thing she couldn't get out of her mind was the fact that Caesar spoke. It shouldn't have surprised her that much. After Caesar and the other apes had escaped, Will told her about what happened when he found Caesar in the woods. He spoke to me. She didn't believe it at first, but why would he lie to her about that? No, he wouldn't. Since then, she's lived with the knowledge that Caesar had the ability to speak. But to actually hear him do it…it was something else.

They finally made it to checkpoint 9. The car came to a stop when Malcolm saw Dreyfus step out of the checkpoint hut. Carver, who was sitting in the passenger seat, rolled down his window as Dreyfus walked up.

"Did you find it?"

Malcolm eyed Dreyfus carefully, before saying, "we need to talk."

"Why?" Dreyfus looked at the other occupants, seeing how dazed they all looked. From the looks on their faces, he knew something big had happened. "What is it?"

"The, uh—the dam is still pretty much intact. It could probably start generating power for us within the week." Dreyfus nodded, not exactly sure what the issue was. "There's a problem," Malcolm continued. "Get in."

Carver got out of the passenger seat, giving it to Dreyfus, then clambered into the back seat with Ava and the others. The gate to the checkpoint opened and Malcolm drove through. "What's going on?" Dreyfus finally asked.

Malcolm looked into the rear-view mirror, at Carver. "Tell him."

"I was looking for a safe path to the dam. And I came across two apes." This made Dreyfus turn in his seat, staring directly at Carver. "And I shot one of them. And then this huge group of apes came out of nowhere. I was scared, I didn't know what to do."

"They spoke." Malcolm's words were met with Dreyfus' confused expression. "They actually spoke to us. Told us to leave the woods, and we did."

That was the last thing he expected to hear. Apes speaking? There was no way that was possible. Dreyfus sunk into his seat and sighed, "Jesus Christ." He then turned his attention to Malcolm. "How many were there?"

"A lot of them, probably about 80."

"At least," Ellie added.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ava could see how frustrated Carver was getting. He raised his hands and she could see how they were shaking, probably out of fear more than anything else. "Okay, you're not hearing what he's saying. They spoke!"

Dreyfus shook his head. "That's not possible."

"They did Dreyfus," Malcolm confirmed what Carver said. "And I'm telling you it was incredible."

"Incredible!" Carver called out and Ava didn't fight the eye roll she did. Here he goes, about to go on some kind of rant. "They're talking apes, with big ass spears!"

She had enough. The last thing she wanted was to hear Carver go off. "God would you calm down!" Ava shouted, earning looks from everyone in the car. "If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it right then and there."

"You don't know that!" Carver argued back, causing Ava to glare at him. "And what the hell were you doing with the leader?"

Everyone in the car went silent. Ava's scowl turned neutral. She had completely forgotten that the others saw her trying to communicate with Caesar. Honestly, in that moment, she didn't even think about it. She just wanted to know if it was actually him, or not. If she had been paying attention when they got to the vehicles to leave, she would have seen everyone casting looks at her. But, this got Dreyfus' attention and he stared at Ava, waiting for her to elaborate what Carver was talking about.

"What does he mean?" Dreyfus finally asked, but when she didn't answer, he tried again. "Ava?"

For a moment, she glanced around the car, seeing that everyone was waiting for her to explain. It was rather odd for them, seeing her trying to communicate with the ape. But, she wasn't going to give them the full truth. She couldn't bring herself to do so. Not yet. She took a few seconds to scramble together a reasonable explanation. "It looked like they were using a form of sign language as their method of communication. So, I tried to communicate with the leader."

"You know sign language?" Dreyfus asked, incredulously. It was a fact about herself she never shared with the others. There was no point to.

"Just enough. He didn't respond to me." She paused for a moment. Her explanation seemed to work on them, except for Carver. Figures. Of course, he would still be skeptical of her. She brushed him off for now. "But they spoke, we're not lying about that." Why would they lie about that? "What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know. We need that power." Dreyfus went quiet, trying to decide what they should do with this information. There was a colony of apes living in the woods, near the dam. There was no way the team could sneak past them, and if they did, it would lead to serious problems. "Okay, not a word about this back at the colony. Not until we can figure out what we're going to do."

Carver slowly shook his head, clenching his jaw. "You gotta be kidding."

"No, I'm not, I don't want to create a panic."

It was the end of that conversation. Dreyfus was adamant that none of them say a word about it to anyone else, and she agreed with him. The group was already shaken up by the experience, and Carver was perhaps more unhinged than they were. The last thing any of them needed was for the entire colony to start panicking. She only hoped that Carver would abide by what Dreyfus said, and keep his mouth shut.

The rest of the ride was spent with Malcolm and Dreyfus discussing possible solutions to this new problem. Ava completely zoned out, her mind had become clouded. The fact that Caesar was alive was a lot to take in. She couldn't understand why there was still a hint of doubt. She thought for the past ten years, or so, that he could be dead. It was possible. The fact that there was never an answer, and now there is one, it was making her head spin.

When they arrived at the colony, Ava wasted no time in jumping out of the car. She quickly snatched her bag from the trunk. They had been in such a hurry to leave the woods, they didn't tie their bags onto the roof. She slid on the bag and started making towards her living quarters.

"Ava." Malcolm's voice made her stop and she turned to look at him, seeing the concern on his face. "Are you okay?"

She stared at him blankly for a few seconds, before finally answering. "Hm?" She saw him raise his eyebrows at her. "Oh," she stammered. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Just…kinda tired."

He nodded his head, skeptically. "You should go get some rest."

"Yeah, I'll do that."

Ava turned on her heels and started heading towards her room. That seed of doubt still in her stomach needed to be taken care of. And she knew exactly how to do it. Once she was out of their sight, Ava broke out into a run and she didn't stop until she was at the door of her quarters. Pushing open the door, she tripped over her feet, luckily, she caught herself before she could fall. After slamming the door shut, she threw her bag onto the cot, and then reached underneath, pulling out a small rustic box and held it in her hand.

She was really going to do this. She was finally going to look at the contents…after so long.

Pursing her lips together, she sat down on the cot and opened the lid. The first thing she saw was a small booklet on sign language. She gently picked up the item, examining the faded cover, immediately smiling at the memory it pulled up.

She carefully placed the item down on the cot next to her. Then, she focused on the item she had wanted to see. An old photo of her and Caesar, when he was around three years old. It was during one of their trips out to Muir Woods, but Ava homed in on what she wanted to see. The mark near his right shoulder. It was the same mark she saw on the leader in the woods.

Her entire body went numb. The realization didn't bring the kind of joy she thought it would. Caesar didn't recognize her at first. Ten years they've been separated, and he's been surrounded by his ape colony. She could only imagine that him seeing her and the others wasn't a good surprise. Caesar wanted her and the others gone from the woods. The last ten years did a number on her, she wasn't the same person he last saw at the ape sanctuary. And he was definitely different from the ape she grew up with.

2008

...

Ava's chin rested on her hands, that were folded together on the table. Her curious eyes watched the young chimpanzee as he suckled away on the bottle. It was a huge surprise when she walked into her uncle's kitchen, only to find a baby chimpanzee sitting in a baby booth. She didn't know how to interact with the animal. Therefore, she settled for watching him eat.

"Why do you have a monkey?" She asked for what seemed like the hundredth time. However, in her defense, Will had yet to give her an explanation.

"He's a chimpanzee," Will lightly corrected, as he took a seat at the table. "And I brought him here because he was at my work, and baby chimps aren't allowed to be there."

"Why does your work have chimpanzees then?"

Will hesitated. He didn't want her to know the full truth about his work, at least not yet. Animal testing was already unpopular with a vast majority of the population. He didn't want to risk upsetting her in any way. "They help us with our work, they're vital to what we do."

The reasoning seemed to work. Ava was too focused on the baby chimp, who had finished its meal. Ava smiled as the creature looked at her, instantly curious as to who this new person was. In response, Ava offered her hand out to the baby chimp, who examined it with its small hands. "How long is he going to be here?"

"For a while."

"Is it permanent?" She asked, rather excited at the idea of him keeping this baby chimp. How many people get to say that a family member owns a chimpanzee? Plus, this baby chimp was completely adorable.

Will chuckled at her excitement. "Yeah, he'll be staying with me permanently."

The baby chimp hopped out of the seat and onto Ava's shoulder. The young girl remained still, a smile plastered on her face. As the chimp ruffled through her hair, she managed to suppress a giggle. "What's his name?"

Will had no intentions on keeping the baby chimp. He was just waiting for Franklin to find a sanctuary to send him to. But, from the past couple of days, this little chimp has been showcasing an intelligence level that has perplexed Will, and while he does have a theory, he would need to look into it more. But, he never stopped to think of what to name this little guy. Now may be a good time.

He then answered with the first name that came to mind, one he had heard his father use the day he brought the chimp home. "Caesar."

A/N: So, I gave you guys a little more insight into Ava's past, and now you all know how she knew Caesar! There will be more flashbacks in future chapters during various points from Rise.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Until next time!