Year 2033, April
20:00 P.M
Great Corporate United's Military HQ, Stockholm, Sweden
_._
_._
I was in my room at the military HQ.
Red-painted walls filled my vision as I laid on my bed. Slowly, I pulled my plain red blanket over my body.
"Daddy . . ."
That specific memory of when I saw Daddy frozen at his spot, refusing to move. However, when I looked into his eyes back then, I knew he was already dead.
And Ava was the cause.
I sighed and shifted my eyes towards the heaps of teddy bears on the left side of my room. An assortment of them had brown color since I liked it a lot.
A particular brown teddy bear the size of a meter sat still at the front, overshadowing the little ones behind it.
"Setsuna," I called the teddy bear. "You missed Daddy too, don't you?"
It did not reply, but I kept telling it how I felt.
How frustrated I was about what happened in Chad.
"If only . . . I was strong enough, Daddy wouldn't have died," I mumbled.
Ava, back at that palace, was different. Her Aegis had gotten so strong that mine could not possibly be compared to it.
To me, it was like comparing a cat to a teddy bear.
The difference was very obvious.
My fingers squeezed at the blanket. "How could she . . . if she had only been obedient to Mommy and Daddy, she wouldn't have suffered."
I was sad.
But my eyes did not shed any tears.
I felt miserable, but at the same time, I was relieved.
For what reason, I did not know.
I coped with their experimentations on my body by accepting my fate.
The fate of my existence until then.
I was only a tool, and I did not doubt that I was anything else. If I were useful in a way, to Mommy and Daddy, they wouldn't discard me.
Like what they did to Ava.
"But . . . she has someone she loves all this time. Someone so precious that she's willing to do anything for him. As if her purpose up to this point is only to be with him. In other words, she's also a tool to that guy," I muttered.
'We're all a tool one way or another. There's no going against it. It's fate," I thought.
I looked at the red ceiling and blinding fluorescent light shone at my eyes. I winced from it and strained to look at my door.
My ears picked up distant footsteps and I sat straight, putting my blanket down.
The door opened slowly and Mommy poked her head.
"Sweety?" she said.
"Yes, Mommy?"
"Oh. Are you about to sleep?" she asked.
"No. Not really," I replied.
She walked in and closed the door behind her. "You can't sleep?"
"I don't want to sleep. Not right now."
"Oh . . ."
Mommy went over to my bed and sat next to me. "You can tell me anything you know, sweety."
My eyes locked in at her after she said that.
"Why did you leave Ava?" I asked.
She frowned. "Why do you ask?"
I gritted my teeth. "She's suffering, Mommy. Her eyes looked at me with no emotions. Ava . . . had turned evil. She's someone else. Not the Ava I knew.," I said.
"Evil, huh?"
Mommy closed her eyes for a few moments before opening it again.
"I've been thinking, Aya. All this time, I seek knowledge. I seek people for that. When I found a person that bears potential inside them, I couldn't help but keep experimenting. No matter how twisted my methods were, most of them granted me good results. Ava's no different. I saw potential in her, and that's why she becomes what she is right now," said Mommy.
I glanced at the door. "You mean, she becomes evil because of you?"
"Probably. Back at Mansel Island, she yielded infinite potential. Maybe she still is. Her Aegis turned out to be superior to most of us. Instant Aegis formation without Ava even has to think about it. Even her second Aegis surprises me," she said.
"Then, why you left her? I'm sure if Mommy brought her back, she will become something else," I said.
"Something else?" she muttered. "I see that you've picked up some of my habits, Aya."
I raised an eyebrow at her statement.
She shifted her gaze towards the door. "I left her because I could see what she will become in the future. If she's able to control her Aegis fully, at that time, I'm sure it would bring more harm than good to our country. So, when His Supremacy suggested Ava to be the subject of the Second Aegis Implant experiment, I was skeptical. We never got her to use both of her Aegis, and when we're fighting at Chad, she's able to manipulate it with ease. It backfired on us."
I nodded. "She took Daddy's Aegis, and Mister Hughes's Aegis. I've never seen anything like it."
"Her second Aegis's capability is Absorption. We, the scientists, never figured out what it's supposed to do." She sighed. "Until today, I cannot help but feel bad at leaving her. I should have killed her instead."
"Kill Ava . . ." I mumbled.
Truly, I could feel it was impossible to avoid fighting her in the future. I would even end up killing Ava.
"You're afraid of her isn't it, Mommy?" I asked.
She flinched and darted her eyes to the teddy bears. "Probably. You must remember, Aya, that Ava is malicious. You shouldn't think of her as your friend. He killed my husband."
I clenched my fists. "She's just lost, Mommy. I'm sure deep in her heart, she just wants to be loved. She wants to be taken away into a life that she has wanted all along."
Mommy glared at me and I grimaced.
"A life that she wants, huh?" she said.
"You've taken that away from her, Mommy. I'm sure she hates you because of that. You're the reason for her suffering."
She raised her hand and I jerked my head back.
However, she stopped and pulled away from me. "Apparently so. It seems like I shouldn't have meddled with her, to begin with. That kid did nothing but made my life worse."
Mommy stood up and turned towards the door. "Aya, if you need anything, you can ask me."
I nodded and she stepped out of my room, vanished into the corridor.
"Mommy hurt Ava more than she had with me," I said to myself. "Ava needs someone to care about in order to hide her wounds. In order to heal herself. She needs me as a friend. But . . ."
I was being optimistic.
After what she'd done to Daddy, it was only a matter of time before I, too, delivered my anger towards her.
"I'm sorry, Ava. Unlike you, I care about Daddy. I'll be sure to avenge him."
My blood red crystals popped out of my palms suddenly and I pulled it back.
"I just wish I wouldn't have to do that. But I love Daddy, Ava. And so did you long ago."
My heart wrenched from all sorts of feelings that I felt.
I wanted to avenge Daddy, but I wouldn't want to hurt Ava.
I wanted to relieve Ava from her suffering, but she wanted to kill Mommy.
I wanted to help Ava.
But, I was not sure she could be saved anymore.
She was beyond saving.
She had been broken and those pieces of hers were yet to be replaced.
I had a feeling she didn't want to feel any other way. The path she'd chosen was one that would bring her more suffering.
Ava wanted to live her life the way she'd lived, so in the end, she was obviously begging for me to kill her.
And I would kill her the next time we met. In order to release her from the burden that she had been shouldering by herself.