Chapter 27 - Home (2)

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Ava stepped inside the familiar door and marble floors. If it evoked nostalgia no one could certainly tell for she went about the house unmindful of anything but her steps.

"Welcome home, Princess," a voice greeted from behind her as she turned towards the hallway to the left of the grand foyer.

"Is he here?" she asked over her shoulder.

"No, princess. Why would he be here?"

She nodded for a bit and continued on to the hallway that led to the basement - her father's lab.

She found it in the state in which she left it a few years ago, that time when she came back to live here on her own from Sybil before eventually leaving for university.

She did not believe she would find him here today - but she had hoped...a bit.

And no, he was never here. The lab is spanking bright, shiny and clean.

And no, she isn't one for nostalgia, but today is different....in light of everything that has happened recently.

Memories of the time many years ago when she first entered the present time came flooding in her mind. Her great escape.

She remembered the old man who came that tragic night. He took her under his wings and raised her like she is his own blood in exchange for the family he had lost. Even as a child she understood this. And she became the daughter he once had. And as a child she found security in him.

She looked to this man as her protector - like the Atlantean Guardians of old time.

And he treated her as that - the daughter he had to protect at all cost.

'Because of what you are, you cannot allow yourself to be weak and vulnerable. That is not what is required of you,' were his father's words.

Those words kept her alive all these years; kept her from being overcome by guilt and unneeded emotions.

She stood firm for the sake of Atlantis...

Ah her father - the only person who knew so much, knew the truth - but he didn't know all of the truth.

For he knew she is not of this world, but he never knew of Atlantis...or rather, he wouldn't want to believe. He had dismissed it as some planet. He is a scientist/ inventor after all, not a historian.

And as she came to know more of the myth that Atlantis has become in the new world, she decided to let him think the way he thinks.

With her arrival, her father was able to anticipate the oncoming invaders. He had vowed to himself that no one will take his daughter away from him again. Using his genius, he brought his ideas for a barrier system and super advanced space fighter systems to the World Government when the invasion became imminent to Earth; thus, subsequently returning to the world of the living.

However the crux of the matter is, the professor could care less about saving the world. Apart from satiating his own guilt and helplessness, the world genius invented his warfare technologies for her.

She remembered knowing nothing but the 4 wall corners of this quiet fortress for a long period of time as a child. She remembered incessant questioning by this man she had come to call her father. She remembered his most prize specimen - her and her crashed transport. She remembered his growing his fascination of the white crystal on her necklace. She remembered him spending long hours being in the lab and and her doing long hours of home self-studies. She remembered living in fear as a child - fear she had long vanquished.

Her father had worked so hard to keep her in a protective bubble, to keep up a very extravagant charade. He would not dare give her up now.... or can he?

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