Welcome to Ethereal City

"E-Ethereal City??! But no one from the Grotto has ever been to the City of Waifs!!! S-So w-what are we? R-rich? Oh my God…." stuttered Brie.

Moira took off her shades and revealed her eyes, which had a yellow cross on each eye.

"I am happy to oblige. I will take care of all of your needs in the meantime." She calmly invoked.

She crossed her leg over along with her arms and gave a stern look out the limo's tinted windows. The limo then becomes a hover vehicle with the wheels tucked into the bottom and started to gently ascends through the clouds.

"Want to know why you can't get to Ethereal City? Because we are the ghosts of the future, brought to the past," she talked to her mothers.

The clouds made the way so, lo-and-behold, a city full of skyscrapers in odd architectural designs. Unbeknownst to man, or creature, of elaborate symbolisms that so few could comprehend. The streets were in pristine condition.

The city's animals weren't run over on the city's roads. The creatures had designated passageways for them to cross safely. Children, with shopping bags full of notebooks, and new clothes. Stores with virtual signs that moved, and some with neon lights.

People were smiling and freshly groomed. Old cars of 170 years were driving through the streets. The limo went through the city and stopped at the widest building that overlooks the city in all its glory. It shocked Maria and Brie to see what a spectacle they both have seen compared to what they saw all their years in the Grotto.

"Miercoles…." said Brie.

Their mouths were agape in awe towards the tall ivory tower that cast a shadow of those behind it with strength and power. Moira grunted in pain slightly.

"Dammit! Not now! Mrs. Gonzalez, I will see you soon enough." Moira smiled gently, and the light gave a slight calm blindness.

Ava morphed back in front of them, and they stared at her in subtle shock.

"A-Ava? Mi hija?" gapsed Maira.

The concerned mother reached out to feel her daughter's face as if it had separated them for many millennia.

"Hi, Mami." said Ava, mustering up the strength to speak.

She laughed a little as she steps out of the limo. Putting pressure on her wound, exposed a huge gash on her abdominal side and broken ribs. She groaned in pain.

"Now you know who Moira is, so I guess I must introduce myself. Hi Mom, I'm your daughter and your boss." Ava said with a laugh but ended up coughing blood.

The breeze blew against her hair as the sunrise shone against her caramel skin and robotic skull glimmering like aquamarine. A smile, full of cheekiness, disguising the worry of what has happened the earlier fourteen hours before the events that occurred. With skies turned dim with the moon waxing on the horizon.

They exited the limousine. They saw how small they are, compared to the looming building. Brie felt quite nauseous from the ride, she wasn't used to flying. The twins were looking around in excitement. Ava came out of the limousine and one of the staff came running over. He's semi-elderly with a coif hairstyle and a twisted mustache with a very well-groomed beard.

"Madam!!" he yelled as he ran to Ava.

She stumbled and fell from how much she endured being Moira in an injured state. She gasped for breath through the exposed air against her open wound. Ava looked over at her family and Draven, the butler. He realized the tone of the atmosphere.

Ava was struggling to speak, " I-I'm okay Draven."

"Your grandmother, madam?" he questioned.

She shook her head. Her face turned pale, and the prosthetics' lights are turning dim. He looked over, slightly teary-eyed.

"They got to her neighbor…." Ava groaned and coughed up some blood.

She couldn't finish her sentence and looked down.

"Let's just go in quickly before the media catches any of this," said Draven, propping up Ava to help her move inside the building.

Draven gave the family an urgent nod toward the door of the building. The limousine hastily went on its way to the garage as the family scurried along the way and proceeded towards the room. Maria and her wife looked all over the place.

Draven said with a soft tone, "Please make yourself at home. Since this will be your home from now on. I will make sure that you are citizens of Ethereal City."

"It seems Madam Ava was keen on getting you all your citizenship, and since the law requires such papers. They're approved as of just last week." said Draven.

He looks around in the study and found a few papers. He handed Maria and Brie their identification papers. Maria and Brie were still worried about their baby girl. Brie grabbed the butler by the collar.

"Take us to see our baby. Or else…" said Brie, as she threatened the coif-haired butler.

Amora clutched Abuela's book tightly to protect it from strangers. Draven examined the situation with the whole family. Brie released the man from her grasp and knelt at the shy Amora. She held the book closer to her.

"I assure you that once she awakens, she will let you know. I will let you see her, but only if you hand over your book, little one." said Draven, softly and reached for the book.

Amora hesitated and pulled back and cried, "No! Aboo's book is mine!"

Draven sighed and looked at the parents.

"You understand. That I will have to hide this book away, so someway and somehow, so you guys won't get arrested." said Draven, cautiously as if he provoked.

Both mothers glared at Draven.

"We believe in the Word, and so we must stay true to the Word." said Maria, staring at the man like she was drilling the man's brain from afar.

Draven sighed and said, "Okay, but tell the children they may only read it inside this vicinity and nowhere else. Agreed?"

He smiled and winked at the kids.

"Now then, I will show you to your rooms in the meantime." said Draven, with a slight bow.

Draven cleared his throat and guided the family to their rooms. After the tour finished, Draven knocked on an old wooden-looking door.

"Come in." a male voice said from the other side of the door.

It was unlocked as he pushed the door open. The twins were right behind Draven, eyes lit up, hoping to see their big sister. But they started crying as they approached the doorway and ran inside the room. Maria and Brie were worried, and they followed their children inside posthaste. They saw a woman with liquid-like hair floating, and a man with curly hair in a lab coat, examining data from a tablet.

"She's in stable condition for now… I'm sorry you had to find out about her this way." said the doctor.

The man looked at the couple with sadness. Ava's body's laid on the hospital bed, breathing slowly as it turned her hair into a kind of fluid state. It made her look like she was a unique entity not from this world. Maria came over and gently placed her hand on her daughter's face.

Brie sat alongside her daughter and held her wife's hand, hoping that their baby girl would recover soon. Draven helped the anxious mothers out of the room and had the maids make them some tea. It surprised them how their daughter was living this kind of lifestyle. Maria looked at Draven with suspicion.

"I have many, many questions right now," said Maria

Maria gave an angry tone and expression of how her daughter deceived her whole family. Draven cleared his throat.

"Ava has been this way since before the accident at the lab. Since that day. She has been experiencing unique identities that have formed for her to cope with daily. She is still here, but not all here." explained Draven, calm and cold.

Brie and Maria were both relieved but worried still, as all parents should be.

"How was she able to become one of the most powerful companies in the Milky Way and not tell us?!" Brie exclaimed, as she was still attempting to grasp of the situation.

Draven concurred, "You may as well ask her that yourself in the morning. I shall take you to your rooms."

Draven stood up as he finished drinking his tea and directed the family to their rooms. It shocked the twins that a room as big as their living room was theirs. In addition, with a swirly slide and two desks with a small library. The room's painted in pastels of pinks, purples, blues, and greens.

Draven conducted the mothers to their room across from their children's. To a luxury suite, a room with a jacuzzi and scented incense of lavender. With a window that oversaw the city, the couple never thought about having to witness such a sight.

"The Madam has been taking care of your mother, Mrs. Gonzalez. Whenever her grandmother was feeling alone, just know. Your daughter helped her get better and provided her to pay for the house rent-free." announced Draven soft-spoken.

Draven bowed in somberness as he stepped away from the door. The old veteran entered Ava's room and sat down beside his master with an exhale of relief.

"If only they could understand why you did this. My goal has not changed for you, Master," said Draven.

He put his hand on the recovery chamber and his eyebrows furrowed with concern. The moon shined against the window, and the chamber glowed softly with ripples that resonated like the beating heart of a mother's embrace from her child.

"You have become a powerful person, and you don't have to do it alone, Master," said Draven softly, to the recovery chamber.

The veteran butler closed the door behind him and let a single tear fall. A shadow appeared on the door with dots glowing and tendrils floating in midair. Eyes open in blue iridescence that shone upon the door.

Suddenly, it disintegrated, leaving a trail of dust.