Secrets and Sins Part 2: Finding Mary

Chapter 42

~Beatrice~

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Beatrice asked again, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she worked to break Ava’s zip tie by rubbing it against a rusty patch of metal on the bars between them.

She didn't like this plan; it was a dangerous gamble, and the sister warrior was feeling uncomfortable with how much it hinged on the deity’s honesty.

But we have too. There's no other way.

"Are you sure that you can get the Bearer to trust me?" Reya countered.

She paused her efforts to free the Halo bearer’s wrists, looking up to meet her reluctant ally’s gaze, "She would never trust you."
“But she will trust me.” Beatrice knew that for a fact, Ava had complete faith in her, just as she had complete faith in Ava.

Reya made a gagging noise, rolling her eyes, “Do we need to go over it again or has your tiny human brain finally grasped it.”

Beatrice sighed, “Has anyone ever told you you're really hard to work with?”
She went back to grinding the thin piece of white plastic against the metal and to her relief the zip tie snapped, “Fucking finally!”

A cacophony of metal scraping against metal, interrupted her small victory. The warehouse's roller door opened, an identical furniture truck to the one that Beatrice and Ava had travelled in, reversing in. It was the first sign of activity since they had been locked up and it gave the sister warrior are bad feeling.

Two of their guards strode across the concrete floor and threw the rear doors open to reveal the machine that Beatrice still had nightmares about. Her chest tightened and her vision tunneled as she stared at the metal table built into the front of the white hub. The memory of Ava’s pale, lifeless face flashing before her eyes.
Beatrice blinked, a sharp sting to her upper arm snapping her out of the anxiety attack. Tearing her gaze away from the machine, the sister warrior looked down to see a bruise forming halfway up her bicep. Reya pulled her hand back through the bars, an irritated look on her face.

Did that bitch just pinch me?

"Get a hold of yourself!" Reya whisper-shouted at her, "I need you level-headed for this."

Beatrice knew she was right. They only had one chance at the escape plan, they couldn't afford to fuck it up. The sister warrior took a deep breath trying to compose herself, she needed to be ready for Ava to wake, as if on cue there was a groan from her lap.

“Bea?”

~Ava~

Ava clearly remembered entering the clearing, a passenger in her own body. She remembered thanking Halo for saving Bea as she tried to suppress the guilt eating away at her. She even remembered the bright light followed by inky darkness as Halo went dormant. But after that everything got weird…

Ava’s consciousness felt like it was floating, untethered, somewhere in an endless void. The Halo bearer didn’t know how long she was lost in the sea of black, it could have been a few seconds or a few days, time didn’t seem to mean anything. Abruptly, she felt an almighty tug and, all of a sudden, Ava had a body again, a very stiff, exhausted body. Soft voices reached her ears, both of them familiar, but only one filled her with a deep sense of relief.

“Bea?” She groaned; her eyelids felt like they were made of lead.

Warm hands framed her face, thumbs massaging her temples gently, “Ava?" She loved her voice; the delicate English accent warmed her heart.
"Is that you?”

Who else would it be? Oh right, Halo. Why did I forget that? Ugh why is thinking so hard?

She fought to form words, her sluggish brain taking it's time to wake up, "Yeah, baby…It's me." She whispered, hearing a sharp intake of breath at her reply.