In This Life ~ Warrior Nun

Genesis 48:11

Ava and Lexi spent five days in the small Spanish town, the residents were glad to see Ava again and didn’t ask too many questions when she introduced Lexi as her daughter. After five days they hitched a ride with a young couple who had taken a few weeks off to go travelling and would be making her first stop in Tarifa. The young couple were more than happy to tale the mother and daughter with them and drop them off wherever they needed to be.

The first-person Ava reunited with was Jillian Salvius. After all that happened to her, the sacrifices she had made in the fight against Adriel, losing her son to the cause, Ava had decided that should be her first stop if only because she might have chickened out otherwise. Getting out of the car in front of the main Arq-tech building Ava thanked the young couple for the lift, took up her daughter and their belongs, then strode confidently up to the front desk. It was fortunate that the woman at the desk that day was the same one who Ava had smashed the desk in front of months prior, and upon asking to see Jillian, Ava was led straight to her office to wait. The wait was only a short one because no sooner had Ava sat down the door to the office swung open and in seeped Jillian.

“Ava!” She cried. Surprising the Halo bearer by sweeping her up into a relieved hug.

“Jillian.” Ava swallowed the lump in her throat, determined not to cry in front of the woman who had lost her son only a week ago. “I’m so sorry. Michael he…”

“I know.” The scientist looked on the verge of tears at the mention of her son. “I knew what he was going to do. The sacrifice he was willing to make. I made peace with it after you asked me to lie to the others about the location of the Ark. And Beatrice told us all what happened, how you defeated Adriel, how your injuries were so severe you had to be put through the portal to have any chance of survival. We have all held out hope that you would return.”

The scientist stood back and studied the younger woman, noticing she looked older, held herself with more confidence, and seemed to have a more mature aura about her.

“I must say.” She said thoughtfully. “You look younger than I would have expected. It’s been eight days since you left. By my calculations that means sixteen of seventeen years would have passed on the other side. And…”

Jillian trailed off as her eyes landed on a young girl who was looking at the small fish tank in the corner of the office. Although the girl had her back to the scientist her reflection was clear on the glass of the tank. There was no mistaking this was Ava’s daughter.

“Ava?” Jillian’s tone was full of wonder and confusion as she pointed to the child. “Who is she?”

“This is Lexi.” Ava said. Taking the girls hand and pulling her into the conversation. The girl seemed to go shy as she half hid behind her mother leg and offered a small way at the scientist. “She’s mine and Beatrice’s daughter. I know you must have a lot of questions and I have the answers. We have much to talk about and I’m afraid our fight isn’t entirely over yet.”

It took three and a half hours for Ava to fill Jillian in on everything that had happened in Reya’s realm, and everything she had learned. During that time the took a small break for lunch with Jillian taking a great interest in the young child, amazed at how she had come into existence. Once the scientist had been caught up on the current threat and a plan for how to proceed had been cautiously decided on, Lexi had fallen asleep on the small office sofa and Ava asked if Jillian had a way to contact the OCS to arranger for someone to pick them up. Jillian of course picked up her phone and called the Cat’s cradle, demanding to speak to Camila and told the young nun that there was something at Arq-tech that required her attention immediately and to come alone.

An hour later the young nun came rushing into the office, well ahead of the assistant who had meant to led her there, worried about some threat form the other world that Jillian might have encountered in her current experiments. Instead, she froze, as she came face to face with the Halo bearer.