Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 30

~Beatrice~

“Wait so Vincent is here? And is on our side again?” Mary didn’t hold back on the skepticism leaking into her tone.

She understood her disbelief, the priest had orchestrated Shannon’s death after all. Beatrice hated to think what she would do if someone did the same to Ava.

They wouldn’t be existing anymore…

They were only part way through the summary of the last year that Mary had missed while she had been captive, their friend’s constant questions derailing the story every other sentence.

“He is here, yes.” Camilla spoke carefully, observing the injured woman’s reaction.
“He is remorseful for what he did to us Mary and he was the only reason we were able to take down Adriel.”

Wrong thing to say Cam.

“Vincent is the only reason Adriel needed to be taken down!” Mary snarled, rising off the bed slightly and wincing as her wounds protested.

Camilla looked down at her lap, wringing her hands, “I know, Mary…but a lot has changed. With the Holy war and Reya turning out to be a threat, we needed all the help we could get…Vincent was part of the team, he earned his place back with us.”

The bedridden woman scoffed but didn’t reply, Beatrice knew it was highly likely that Mary would never forgive Vincent and that was okay. They just wanted to avoid their friend beating the shit of him when she was back on her feet.

After a moment of silent fuming, Mary sighed, nudging the nun’s thigh with her blanket covered leg, “I’m sorry Cam, I don’t mean to take it out on you. It’s just a lot to take in.”

Camilla looked up, teary eyed and gave the other woman a small smile.

“So…” Mary started looking between Beatrice and Camilla, “Tell me about Lilith.”

“Lilith?” The nun raised an eyebrow, a little smirk starting at the corner of her mouth.

“Cam, don’t even start.”

Beatrice watched the exchange with confusion, why did it feel like she was out of the loop?

Mary's gaze slid past Camilla, eyes widening, “Ahh, it might be the painkillers talking, but I’m pretty sure I can see Ava?”

Beatrice's head turned so rapidly she nearly gave herself permanent neck damage.

Oh my God!

Ava strode out of the wall beside the door, wearing an enormous grin, "Hey guys!"

~

“Beatrice, why did you summon us…Ava!?” Mother Superior froze on the threshold of the briefing room staring at the Halo bearer who was standing beside the window.

The leader of the OCS quickly snapped out of her shock striding towards Ava as though she were to hug her.

Ava held up her hands quickly, “Sorry Mum, I’m all ghosty right now.

“Oh…” Mother Superior paused, “Astral projection?” The Halo bearer nodded, looking pleased with herself.
“Well, it’s good to see you!” The older nun’s expression turned serious, “Are you okay?”

Ava’s smile became strained, “I mean it’s no five-star resort or anything but could be worse.”

“Well, you look physically healthy enough.” Mother Superior murmured, scanning the younger woman for injuries.

“I do?” The Halo bearer glanced down at herself, surprise flickering over her face for a split second before she smoothed it over, “I mean, yeah, I’m fine. Spook-tacular even.”

Silence followed the bad pun, until Yasmine dissolved into giggles which set Ava off as well.

“Yas don’t encourage her.” Camilla groaned.

Beatrice frowned; the Halo Bearer definitely seemed to be hiding something. Ava met her eyes across the room and quickly looked away, the sister warrior’s frown deepened. Her girlfriend knew how easy it was for Beatrice to read her, a crack of power echoed through the room interrupting her speculation.

“I got your message, what’s…Ava?” Lilith’s mouth fell open upon noticing the Halo bearer.

“Lilith. Glad you made it back okay. How’s Mary?”

“She’s fine. How are you…astral projection?”

“Yep, pretty impressive right?" Ava preened, smirking.

Lilith rolled her eyes, but then her face fell slightly, “Ava…I…”

“Don’t Lilith.” The Halo bearer stopped her, smiling gently, “It’s okay, thank you for doing what I asked and getting Mary out of there.”

The former sister warrior nodded, Beatrice felt a sting of betrayal finding out Ava had told Lilith to leave her behind, but tamped it down, now was not the time.

“Have you found out where you are?” Camilla asked, hopeful.

“Not exactly.” The Halo bearer sighed, “But I know it’s somewhere on the coast of the Baltic Sea.”

“Holy shit!” Yasmine gasped slamming her pen down on her notepad, all eyes turned to the nun in shock. No one had ever heard her swear before.
“I’m so sorry for my language.” The woman looked horrified by what she had let slip out.
“It’s just…I've solved it!”

Everyone looked at her expectantly, the nun was literally trembling with excitement, “The Baltic Sea! That's what I was missing! The book you stole Ava, it was written partially in code to hide the locations…”

Ava winced, “Oh…sorry about that.”

“No, no, don’t worry. I’m sure all of their records would have used the same cipher, just in case of infiltration.” Yasmine quickly dismissed the Halo bearer’s concerns.
“Anyway, every time the book referred to the Brotherhood’s location it had this one word, König , that just didn’t fit. It’s the German word for King and I just couldn’t understand why they were using the German word for King and not the Russian word when all of the book is written in Russian…” Yasmine paused to take a breath, everyone in the room was listening intensely, “...But there is a Russian exclave that lies on the Baltic coast called Kaliningrad and guess what the locals refer to it as?”

“Yasmine you’re a genius!” Ava beamed.

Beatrice felt hope bubble up in her chest alleviating some of the dread that had been ever present since Ava had left to find Mary.

“Wait, wait, wait, before we get too excited, do we know for sure this place is definitely where they are holding Ava?” Mother Superior interjected.

“I’m almost certain Mother. All of the shipments recorded in this logbook state König as the delivery destination.”

“Very well. We will mobilize a squad to travel there and break you out.” The older nun declared turning to the Halo bearer.

“Ahh about that…I think the Brotherhood are about to commence plan B of ‘Remove the Halo from the Bearer’, there’s not much time.” Beatrice’s heart clenched at the fear that flashed across Ava’s face, they had to get her out of there.

Wait, plan B? What was plan A?

Mother Superior’s expression hardened, “We will not allow that…” She paused, puzzling over their situation, all of a sudden, she spun to look at the priest at her side, “Vincent, do we have any OCS chapters near Kaliningrad?”

“Um, I believe there’s still an instalment in Lithuania which is on the Northern border.” The man answered, Beatrice was impressed at his recall.

“Okay, this is what I propose. We send Lilith to the Lithuanian OCS to lead the sister warriors there on a rescue mission.” The winged woman nodded her agreement.
“Vincent, Camilla, can you two get in contact with the Lithuanian OCS, immediately.” The younger nun and the priest left the room to complete their task.
“Yasmine please continue with the logbook, see if there’s any information on weapon shipments or anything else relevant we could use?”

“Of course, Mother, I will fetch my laptop to help with translation.” Yasmine too exited the room.

“Lilith please prepare yourself to leave, have Sister Dora fit you out with weapons and whatever else you might need.” The winged woman disappeared with a crack of purple energy, leaving just Beatrice, Mother Superior and Ava in the briefing room.

Ava was looking over at her nervously. Beatrice had a feeling she knew what was coming next.

“Beatrice…” Mother Superior started, squaring her shoulders as she turned towards the sister warrior.

I know that tone.

“I’m going.” Beatrice said sharply.

“But Bea, you’re hurt…It’s too dangerous.” Ava said softly, her golden ringed eyes imploring the sister warrior to listen.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Ava’s right, Beatrice. You are still recovering from a major injury; it would be too much of a risk.”

“So? I’ll hang back from the fighting.” The sister warrior challenged, meeting her the older woman’s eyes and crossing her arms, “I’m going with Lilith.”

Ava shuffled uncomfortably while the two women stared each other down. Beatrice watched as Mother Superior considered her words, the sister warrior had never confronted the nun so openly before.

After a moment, Mother Superior smiled, surprising her, “Beatrice, you have grown into such a self-assured and strong young woman." The nun started, "Because I know you won't let me stop you, I will allow you to go with Lilith but swear to me that you will stay out of the fighting as much as physically possible and not unnecessarily endanger yourself.”

The sister warrior hid her sigh of relief, “I promise. Thank you, Mother.”

Mother Superior pulled her into a brief hug, “Go and gather your things, I will let Lilith know you will be accompanying her.”

Beatrice nodded, starting to head out of the room until she registered Ava wasn't following.

"I'll be right there Bea." Ava reassured her, the sister warrior furrowed her eyebrows but continued on.

She made her way slowly back to her quarters, trying not to be worried about what Ava had hung back to talk to Mother Superior about.

~

“Don’t be a showoff.” Beatrice muttered without looking up as Ava walked through the wall instead of the open door.

“Sorry, it’s just kind of cool…no, it’s fa-boo-lous…and not as unpleasant a feeling as phasing.” Her girlfriend grinned sheepishly.

The sister warrior sighed, unable to stop herself from smiling fondly at the younger woman’s ridiculous pun. She closed the door to her room to give them some privacy.

Turning back to Ava, she leaned back against the door, "I wish I could touch you…" Beatrice whispered, everything she had been suppressing for the last few days forcing its way to the forefront of her mind.

The Halo bearer took a step forward, the mischievous glint in her eyes at Beatrice's words fading when she saw how distressed the sister warrior was.

"My God Bea, so do I." Ava breathed.
“I’m sorry about staying back. I really, really wanted to come home to you.”

"I know, darling." Beatrice closed the distance between them, one hand reaching towards her girlfriend’s cheek pausing just before her fingertips could pass through the projection.
"Are you okay? Like truly okay?"

Ava glanced away from her eye contact, the sister warrior's heart rate accelerated, the avoidance was answer enough.

"Ava. Tell me?" The taller woman requested gently.

Her girlfriend’s projection shimmered for a second before settling once again, Beatrice’s breath caught when Ava finally looked back up at her. The left side of her face was mottled purple and blue with bruising, her upper lip split and angry looking. The skin that wasn’t discolored was pale and sickly, overall, Ava looked exhausted and unwell.

"They ahh…they tried to take the Halo from me. With extractors." The Halo bearer whispered.

Beatrice fought to stay calm, but rage at the men that had dared to do that to Ava blazed through her.

I'm going to kill them. All of them.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I could alter my appearance while astral projecting, I only realized when Mother Superior commented on how well I looked, I wasn’t trying to hide it from you I swear…”

“It’s okay, I believe you.” Beatrice swiftly reassured before the younger woman could spiral too much.

Her girlfriend let out a huff of relief.

"We are going to get you out of there Ava. I promise." The sister warrior swore, voice shaking slightly as she struggled to clamp down on the anger flooding her system.

"I know, Bea." Her girlfriend smiled.

"Fuck!" Ava abruptly turned to look over her shoulder.

"What is it?"  Beatrice questioned, fear gripping her.

"I've got to go." She looked back to the taller woman with a desperate expression on her face.
"I love you so much." The sister warrior flinched at the words.

Why does that sound like a goodbye?

"I love you, Ava."

The Halo bearer disappeared, melting into nothingness, leaving Beatrice standing alone, heart pounding against her ribs.

I will save you, just hang on.