The Greatest Power

Chapter 5 - An Unexpected Experience

Camila was already waiting for Ava and Beatrice on the platform, as Beatrice had predicted. She was anxious, since Ava had appeared at the convent first after months and told the Mother Superion that she needed the help of the entire Order as she had never needed it before. Ava missed Bea and asked about her, to which Camila replied that Beatrice had decided to leave the Order and go away, she wasn't sure where, but she had an idea.

Camila never got a chance to talk to Ava. She was so different for just a few months away from them... What could have happened? Ava promised that she would tell everything, but only when Bea was there too.

Seeing the two getting off the train, Camila went to meet them with a wide smile on her face and open arms to receive them in a hug.

"Bea! I'm so happy to see you again! And Ava... I'm really impressed you found her so quickly. How did you do it?"

"I knew, deep in my heart, exactly where to look." She looked at Bea and made her blush, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Camila's ever-curious eyes.

"But come on, they're all waiting for you at the convent. Sisters can be quite curious, you have no idea."

"Just them?" Beatrice teased, running her arm friendly over Camila's shoulders as they walked to the car.

Camila couldn't help noticing how light Beatrice was, smiling... so different from Beatrice that decided to leave, with a heavy heart. Definitely Ava was good for her.

In the car, Beatrice told Camila how she spent the last 3 months in Switzerland, how she was trying to live her life and understand if she should stay in the Order... and if she could live without Ava, but that last part she kept to herself. Ava sat behind Bea and watched her in the car's outside mirror. Beatrice had no idea, but she was the reason Ava kept fighting to get back.

The welcome was warm and Ava felt right at home again. How strange was that, that she had never really felt at home since the accident that had put her to bed at the age of seven. And now, after returning from such a difficult experience, she finally realized that this really was her family, her home. And she knew she could always count on them. And even surrounded by the sisters and the Mother Superion, Ava's eyes were always on Beatrice. She was Ava's safe haven, her rock.

"Girls, let's settle down and listen to what Ava has to say." Mother Superion made herself heard and calmed the spirits of the sisters. "I think she has a lot to tell us."

***

"Well... I really have a lot to say, but at the same time I don't even know where to start." Ava said.

"Start at the beginning. Start with your passage through the portal to the other realm." Mother Superion tried to help Ava begin her narrative.

"Okay... well, when I went through the portal, I was pretty hurt. I felt just being sucked into it, I didn't have the strength to get up at that moment. I confess that I thought that was the end of me. When I got to the other side... it's hard to describe. It's not Heaven, but it's not Hell either. It's a parallel dimension, a huge void, unlike anything we can think of. The sky—if you can call that a sky—is a lot like what you might see here on Earth in a sandstorm. Reddish in color, hot, stuffy atmosphere... and those hisses in the air. A noise like screams, howls and strange noises that were interspersed with moments of absolute silence. As soon as I crossed over, I was lying on this cold, dusty ground, which completely contrasted with the very hot atmosphere, and then I felt the Halo burn on my back. The Halo works differently over there. The healing it gave me here on Earth was infinitely faster on the other side. The Halo there is much more powerful, it has much more energy."

No one dared move a muscle as Ava recounted her experience.

"I wandered through the void for a long time, alone, until I found some kind of palace... or whatever it was. I was afraid. And fear paralyzed me. I don't know how long I spent standing there looking at that place, thinking about what to do. At that moment she found me. Reya. Everything Michael said about her being an entity that took him in and trained him was nothing more than her manipulation. She's selfish, she just used him in an attempt to destroy Adriel. Reya wanted only the Halo, to maintain her realm and gain permanent passage to Earth... to expand her realm of demons. Being in possession of the Halo, she could ensure that her demons, even worse than the tarascs, managed to break through and conquer Earth for her. That's why the tarascs manage to stay only a brief moment on this side... there isn't enough energy on the other side to keep them here. That was why she so needed the Halo in her possession."

Ava paused briefly, took a deep breath. Those memories were a nightmare for her.

"Well then, Reya found me. She guided me to her castle, promising to help me to come back. I believed, because she welcomed me, received me, she didn't want to kill me. At least not at that moment. She helped me power up for a few days... and she knew what she was doing, because by powering me up, she would also be powering up the Halo. And I didn't understand the signs. The Halo burned my back every time she got closer to me. I figured it was because it belonged to her and wanted to go back to her, but no. I learned that the Halo is not hers, it belongs to the realm. Realm that was once very different from what it is today. Then, one day, Reya showed her true colors. She tried to deceive me several times, so that I would give up the Halo to her, that she would guarantee that I would stay alive and return to my world. But the moment I hesitated and took a step back because the Halo burned at my back, she attacked me. She reached across my chest the same way Adriel had in the Vatican tomb, grabbed hold of the Halo, and tried to yank it out of me. It was an immense, excruciating pain... and I screamed in despair."

The sisters didn't even blink.

"My desperation and pain were so great that the Halo activated and threw Reya away, taking her away from me. But it was not just that. The Halo went through a process that gave me excruciating pain and I thought this was how I would die for good. To die of pain, incinerated, disintegrated. The Halo fell apart, dissolved... and merged with my body. I passed out and was at Reya's mercy... and if it wasn't for Lilith to get me out of that place, I don't know what would become of me today."

"Lilith?!" Everybody echoed almost in chorus with the surprise in hearing Lilith's name.

"Was Lilith on the other side too?" Camila asked.

Beatrice was surprised. Ava hadn't told her that Lilith saved her.

"Lilith saved me... more than once. And it was she who helped me to escape from the demons and tarascs who wanted to capture me all these years... It was Lilith who got me out of there..."

"Wait a minute... years?!" Mother Superion wanted to know.

"Yes. Bea told me that 3 months have passed here... but for me, on the other side, it was 7 years."

Chins dropped across the room.

"Yes... 7 years running away and looking for a way out. 7 long years." Ava lowered her head. She remembered the troubles and dangers she went through in Reya's kingdom and that shook her a little.

Beatrice got up from where she was and sat beside Ava, rubbing her back.

"You're home now, Ava."

Ava smiled. She was really at home. But Beatrice didn't know that for Ava, home wasn't a place. Her home was one person: Bea.

"Lilith became very powerful after being dragged to the other side and came back transformed. She can easily transport herself within that realm and can also transit between this side and the other side. But, as with tarascs, it demands a lot of effort and energy from her. She gets very worn out on the passages and can't transit at any time. And it was she who took me out of dangerous situations, because with the Halo stronger in my body it was much easier for them to locate me and to capture me. Lilith was the one who explained to me what happened to the Halo in my body. The Halo has free will and it chose me for a reason... to be a part of it. Or it being part of me, I don't know. Father Vincent was right after all... fate put me on the path of the Halo and it chose me. And it turns out that since Reya's attack, the Halo and I... we're one."

"Ava... does that mean..." Camila tried to absorb the information.

"There is no more Halo. Because now... I am the Halo."