AVA

Smog filled the air of Utopus. Pollution was in the sea. The police forces of a very powerful government marched the streets armored and armed. Outside was unsafe. The multi-million dollar safehouse was supposed to feel safe. To her it just felt...dark.

Darkness surrounded her, though she felt that she should see light. Cold (It was cold, right? and solid) was against her back. She was standing rather than reclining. Somewhere in the darkness, she sensed the sound of an invisible door. Then there were footsteps. Cologne; she smelled cologne for some reason. She had a visitor!

"Ava? Ava! Wake up now."

She blinked her eyes open as if on someone else's whim to find a man in a lab coat holding a porcelain heart locket. Something in her mind clicked over random memories as she moved her head to take in the sight of the man and recognition found its way to her features.

"Father!" she chirped.

Doctor Douglas Steel beamed with pride at his pride and joy even as the electronic laboratory doors opened once more to invite in a brunette boy of sixteen years and a woman close to the doctor's age with frosted blonde hair. The boy's green eyes met Ava's electric blue ones and a spark of recognition was felt as the two waved at one another.

"One moment, kids." Doctor Steel declared over his shoulder as he delicately snapped the heart locket around Ava's neck.

"Now," he added, stepping back to join the two late arrivals as the clamps on the standing table released from Ava's arms, "what do you say?"

"Adan!" Ava declared through a sparkling grin of recognition. Then,

she swiveled her head to face the stone-faced woman. Suddenly, something else clicked and she lost some of the joy and spunk in her face as she met the older woman's reaction.

"Hello, mother." she added, casually.

Doctor Steel and Adan approached Ava once more.

"Nervous, dear Ava?" the doctor asked, gently. "This is family."

"Hey, sis." Adan added, offering forward a portable computer and a book.

Ava took in the portable computer and leatherbound book before glancing back up at her brother.

"There were some...questions...about presenting you with a stuffed animal as well," Adan continued with a titter, "but you're, like, thirteen, so..."

"...I love these gifts!" Ava answered, throwing her arms around Adan (His skin felt warm! Was hers supposed to feel so cold?) "I would have loved a stuffed animal too!"

"He'll fetch it for you later, dear." the mother replied, coolly.

Dr. Steel glared up at his wife as Ava's face registered confusion. Adan decided to take the reins.

"We'll both find you a stuffed bear; he should be in my...our...old nursery somewhere." he blurted.

With that, Ava chased her older brother down the hall. The doors to the lab closed once again and the adults were afforded some privacy.

"Evelyn," Doctor Steel sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly, "we have spoken about being more openminded about this reunion. Ava is our daughter!"

"Evie was my daughter!" Evelyn insisted, haughtily. "Ava is a lovechild between you and your work!"

Doctor Steel huffed at his wife and slumped his shoulders.

"My work, at present, was to restore this family!" he retorted, picking up a nearby injection needle and inserting it into his palm. "It's been three years, dearest, and no amount of cybernetics can restore Evie. Ava is now our little girl. The computer in the heart locket instills all of her personality traits and memories."

"Congratulations, daddy," Evelyn scoffed, "once her personality catches up, we'll have just given birth to a thirteen year old girl complete with moody angst! Us two; and your laboratory table!"

"Be reasonable, Evelyn!" Doug sighed as the needle hung half in and out of his palm. He was already beginning to feel the slowed reaction time; the more mellow moods; less antagonistic; more...

With cat-like reflexes, Evelyn smashed the vial across the room and nearly snapped off the needlepoint in the process.

"Be realistic, Doug!" she countered.

Doug picked the syringe back up and examined it. Good; it had some fluid left. He pushed in the plunger and squirted some into the air.

"You care for some too?" he retorted. "We both know of its calming, nurturing agents; especially to avoid a fight."

Evelyn glared, stone-eyed, at her husband.

"I gave up using while Adan and Evie were not only twins but both two years old." she reminded him. "I...I have never meant to question your own audacity to continue."

"To each their own then." Dr. Steel retorted in a sloppy voice. "I still say that to do so generates euphoria; and to continue might have cured your cancer. Science is on my side."

Evelyn felt as though she had just been hit by a bus.

"There was a 5% chance that continuing to use may have one day cured my cancer." she admitted. "I prefer that sobriety is on my side."

She had a point and the doctor knew it. Besides, who was he to take up these arguments with her all of the time?

"Doug," Evelyn added, "could that have happened to our Evie because we were both using during procreation?"

"Preposterous!" Doctor Steel retorted; then, upon seeing the guilt and remorse on his wife's face: "We had both twins while using; cancer only has Evie now. That can't happen again; not with Ava. Don't you see?"

Evelyn saw the doctor's argument; the question was never whether or not she was taking the time to hear him. She glanced coldly back at the syringe.

"Well, with 5% odds of science on our side, maybe we should have injected Evie when she was eight and they first found the cancer." she snorted.

That wasn't worth responding to and even Evelyn knew it. She and Doug locked eyes following her stinging words.

"I'm sorry, dear." she murmured-sobbed.

"Quite alright." Doctor Steele answered. "I'll clean up in here. Besides, your apology is not with me. The sole problem with my laboratory is that the walls are dreadfully thin."

Evelyn turned red in embarrassment and left to go find the teens. It was true; she could hardly fault anyone for eavesdropping (especially Ava, who had just woken up to a brand new world) when she and Doug were the ones constantly quibbling like children ...

=========================

The false detour to the nursery was the furthest room from Doctor Douglas Steel's laboratory. It might have helped if their parents could have waited on the actual shouting. Instead, Ava had heard the start of the argument that had started at the worst possible place for her to overhear. There was no use in pretending that it hadn't happened and Adan sealed off the nursery following a fruitless search.

"Maybe Bonnie Rabbit was in Ev...your...childhood room." he declared, beckoning that Ava follow.

"Evie; you meant to say Evie." Ava informed him. "Who was she?"

"My sister; you're my sister now." Adan answered as casually as he could.

Ava took a moment, then seemed to accept that.

"I'm glad that you're my brother." she piped up as the pair approached Evie's old room and Adan disappeared until he found a weather-beaten, chewed, and well-worn velveteen rabbit with tear-streaked ears.

"Here she is!" he said, handing it to Ava. "I'm really glad that you're my sister too; and dad's super proud of you. Mom is too. Just give her time."

Ava was engrossed as she held the rabbit inches away from her heart pendant and the thirteen year old girl leaned to kiss where the button nose was missing.

"She's so cute!" she gushed, swinging the stuffed bunny around until she realized that holding the rabbit had caused her to run out of arms and hands for the book and pocket computer.

"I should have given you this long before too." Adan added, laying down her childhood backpack and sweeping the book and computer inside.

Suddenly, an adult shadow fell over the hall. Ava gulped and pivoted to find her mother taking in the bonding between the two teenagers.

"Oh, good; you found Bonnie Rabbit!" Evelyn declared.

Ava held up the stuffed rabbit to cover the bottom half of her face almost like a shield. She even smooched the back of its head behind its ears.

"Very good; that image is just picture perfect." Evelyn added before spying the backpack and picking it up. "You'll be needing this too."

With that, Evelyn helped the backpack straps over Ava's arms.

"Mom, what's happening?" Adan asked.

Evelyn glared at Adan for the interruption; then glanced sorrowfully between each child.

"I'm leaving your father." she answered, flatly. "He needs some...help; time to sort his brain out...I don't know what it is anymore. I'll be in the car once you two sort things out."

Without another word on the matter, Evelyn Storey-Steel was on her way out the doors. Ava and Adan could only look at one another.

"Outside; away from the safehouse?" Ava asked. "Smog! Disease! Sea pollution! The government's personal police force after lockdown hours!"

Everything that Ava knew from logic, Adan knew from experience. Through his mother's blind resentment, she knew of the threats as well.

"Come on..." Adan said, ushering her down the hall of Utopus's actual utopia of the laboratory...

==========================

Doctor Steel was just finishing cleaning up when the lab doors opened.

"Daddy?" Ava asked.

"Ava, dear!" Doctor Steel answered as the girl entered the lab and threw her arms around him. "What are you doing u...Evelyn???"

Evelyn and Adan entered next. Evelyn was stone-faced; Adan was remorseful.

"Douglas," Evelyn piped up, distantly, "I can't do this anymore. Adan and I are leaving tonight. Take the necessary time to sort your life out, then you may give us a call again."

Doctor Steel looked into his wife's face and, despite the mellowing injections, despite the arrival of his own daughter, let alone his son, he saw fire.

"You ungrateful wretch!" he spat, hauling forward with his open palm.

That palm passed right through his wife's face. It didn't stop the shock from finding Ava's face at the volatile reaction. Adan glanced to the ground and swallowed delicately. Evelyn only looked disappointed in him as her eyes flashed and flickered red. A hologram; and one that had been RECORDING the reaction besides!

"Goodbye, Doctor Steel." Evelyn's voice trailed off as her illusion faded away.

"No!" Doug shouted, sprawling himself on his laboratory floor. "What have I done???"

"Dad!" Ava answered, tugging at his lab coat to help him back into a sitting position. "Dad, I'm really here; I'm here with you."

Doctor Steel took in the flesh of his creation and the two embraced one another on the lab floor for a moment. Then, a piercing wail cut through the air. This was followed by a knock at the door and Doctor Steel already knew why.

"Police, Doctor Steel!" the sergeant barked. "Open up! We're here about a volatile domestic disturbance!"

Doctor Steel unhanded Ava and staggered back to his feet before checking his coat pocket. Good; his laser revolver was still there.

"Stay here, Ava!" he said over his shoulder. "Your dad has to have a little talk with the nice officers; then, that ungrateful, wretched woman is going to pay for this setup!"

Without another word, the lab doors shut. Ava heard the downstairs door and, finally, the laser blast. She no longer cared if that had been her father's trigger finger, or one of the cops. If it had been the doctor's, he was now an even more wanted man. Ava's legs gave out from under her and she collapsed in the lab with the child's rabbit in her arms. Familiar tears stained its ears once more. What would Doctor Steel, the twins' father, have done if he had known that Adan had masterminded the trick before he and Evelyn were already gone...?