From Eden

Prolouge

"I love you..." Beatrice whispered out but, her words were left with nowhere to go, Ava was gone. It took her a moment to realize what had happened, when she did, every fiber of her being screamed at her. She could've done something if she had gotten there earlier. If she had agreed to run away with her, Ava would still be here. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to plunge one of her knives into her heart so it would silence the heavy pain that was swelling in her chest. But she was numb. Lifeless. Empty.

The flow of silent tears down her cheeks slowed. Lilith stood next to her and Beatrice swore she had said something before she portaled out of the basement, but all she could hear was a sharp, almost painful, ringing in her ears. Beatrice limped to the arc and slowly lowered herself down, resting at the last place Ava had touched the earth. She didn't know how long she sat there. Minutes? Hours? All she knew was that as time went on, all she could think about was Ava. How outside Arq-Tech, Ava had asked her to run away with her. Beatrice wished she had said yes, if she had Ava would still be alive. They would be happy, maybe even....No. Beatrice forced the thought out of her mind for fear of crying again. Her breaths came in shallow puffs, Beatrice wished they would eventually slow to a stop, and she would just slip away into a peaceful sleep, void of her new found grief.

Rushed footsteps drew her eyes slowly up to the front of the cathedral, past the splatter of blood on the floor that used to be Michael. Camilla's petite figure rushed into the Cathedral, gripping her small handgun tightly, holding it out in front of body. Her soft brown eyes scanned the cement room, landing on Beatrice's lifeless form, sitting at the Arc like a statue, carved perfectly into marble. The small woman approached her cautiously, lowering her weapon to her side and holstering it. Beatrice looked... gone. Camilla had never seen her usually calm and collected mentor so...broken. Smooth tan skin had now turned to a shade just above gray, the vibrant honey brown that used to paint her irises was now dull and faded. It looked as though she was a corpse, not that she would have minded that being her reality.

"Beatrice...?" Her voice reached out, testing the waters of their silence. Beatrice gave no inclination of responding, unable to lift her eyes up from the ground, stuck in an almost paralytic state. "Beatrice where's..." Beatrice's silence spoke for itself and Camilla found her own eyes beginning to burn with small tears at the realization. Silently Camilla removed her black hood, letting silky brown ringlets fall back into place. Her head leant against Beatrice's shoulder and she ran her hand over her back in soothing circles. The two sat there in their soft almost reverent silence, much like the moment a casket is lowered into the ground during a funeral. Perhaps that is what it was, their own silent goodbye to their best friend.

Beatrice just sat there, like a hollow shell of herself. Was this a punishment for her... sin? Punishment for a love that denied God? If she hadn't given into temptation would that have spared Ava her fate? She couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt or responsibility. It was her job to protect the Warrior Nun, and she failed.

"Beatrice." Camilla whispered softly. "We need to go." There was a reluctance on Beatrice's part. If she left now, she would be forced to accept that Ava was gone. She would have to go back to Cat's Cradle alone, to the now vacant room adjacent to her own, to halls that used to be filled with shared giggles and cocky comments and quips that reflected the almost annoying sense of bravado Beatrice had secretly grown to love. Leaving the Arc would make it all real... .

"I can't..." Finally, Beatrice was able to bring herself to speak, though it wasn't really speaking at all, it was more of a broken mumble stifled by the growing knot in her throat. She watched as Camilla slowly knelt in front of her, eyes searching her almost stone like face. Soft, blood stained hands weaved their way into Beatrice's gently.

Camilla was like her sister, well, technically every woman in the OCS was her sister, united under God, but Camilla was more than that. They shared a bond that ran deeper than their vows. With one look, Camilla could already tell what she was feeling. "I can't leave her..." Beatrice whispered.

"I know..." Her thumb ran small circles over the back of Beatrice's hand, tears pooling to the base of her eyes. She looped her arm around Beatrice's waist, "Come on..." The younger woman whispered, pulling Beatrice to her feet. Once she was helped to her feet, she stumbled forward, a sharp pain spiking up the entirety of her leg. It had seized up on her as a result of her prolonged activity. The two limp away from the Arc, Beatrice using Camilla as a crutch to hobble forward.

For a moment, Beatrice had been too focused on hobbling forward that she had forgotten about the prior events, the newly formed hole in her chest. The dark red stain on the concrete floor brought Beatrice back into her new and painful reality. Seeing the small chunks of gnarled flesh that used to be Michael, brought Beatrice back to the moment she watched Ava detonate the bomb. Her heart had dropped out of her body and onto the floor as she watched Ava lift her hand, the Halo's glowing light igniting in her back, shining through her leather jacket, the blinding blue explosion, pieces of razor sharp divinium tearing through Ava's body.

Tears began to burn her eyes, a weight pulling her heart down deeper into her chest, each breath coming out like it was her last. Her steps became increasingly harder to take, the pain in her leg not subsiding despite the lack of any pressure on it. Yet, she still pushed on, the pain in her body helping to draw her mind off the unbearable weight of her heart. Another wave of tears surfaced when she looked down at the cruciform sword laying down in front of the two of them, abandoned in favor of the dying Warrior Nun. Its steel blade lacked the blue glow it held while in the presence of the Halo. It had been many months since Beatrice had seen any form of divinium without its blue glow, not since Ava had officially joined the OCS as the Warrior Nun.

Camilla bent down and picked up the blade, still trying to keep a good hold on Beatrice. She slipped it in between her belt and her habit, not having the sword's scabbard to seath it into granted that it was still slung over Ava's back when she went into the Arc. "Come on..." Camilla whispered solemnly.

Making it to the end of the cathedral was a relief. The tears that were flowing down her cheeks had slowly come to a stop, she had cried as many as her body would physically let her. It was just a weight to her body that felt slightly fuzzy, like it was pulling all the blood from her brain. She turned back to look at the dormant Arc. The cement that was stained with blood and scorch marks. Pieces of shrapnel littered the ground, remnants of the fight with Adriel. Camilla's hand moved its way up to Beatrice's shoulder, pulling her closer.

"She's not gone Beatrice...She's out there...somewhere...We're going to get her back." But could they? How could they get Ava back without knowing where she was, without having any way to get to her? The thought made Beatrice want to vomit even more than believing she was dead. Knowing she was out there somewhere in the universe, alive, unable to get back to her life, her home. She was trapped. Lost.