Secrets And Sins Part 3: Happy ever after

Chapter 51

***Hope you guys are enjoying this, it's a blast to write at the moment... Anyway, next update might be a little late. I need to do some chapter outlining and am behind. I'll do my best to get it out on time but no guarantees.

Happy reading :)***

~Beatrice~

Her first thought as her feet touched the ground and her wings tucked themselves into her shoulder blades was how easy it had been to blast her way several stories under the Vatican. Beatrice had not expected the power to bend to her will so easily, or to give her enough force to disintegrate the layers upon layers of wood, steel, concrete and stone that lay between her and her destination.

Perhaps her portion of the Halo power missed Ava as much as she did, perhaps it wanted to reunite? It gave her hope, well it did before her gaze found the Ark, or what was left of it. A quarter of its steel and wire structure was gone, and not in a disassembled kind of way, Beatrice could see the sharp edges of broken metal. Her heart faltered.

I'm too late...

"What the..." A voice thick with dust coughed to her right, snapping her into focus. A man in navy overalls was hunched against a computer bank. He held a walkie-talkie against his lips. "...Dear God, it's her. Guards!"

Beatrice walked towards him gracefully despite the rubble laden floor, an idea brewing.

"Guards? Hello?" He fiddled with the radio's dial, his hands trembling. "Anyone?"

She stopped in front of him and cleared her throat. He dropped the device in fright, sending it clattering to the ground as his wide, fearful eyes lifted to meet her own. "New orders, turn the Ark on."

"I... I... but it's broken?"

Beatrice smiled, hiding the bitter panic that still threatened to climb up the back of her throat; it couldn't be broken. "I can see that. Do whatever you need to do, just make it work."

"I don't think I can, I'm sor..." His apology was cut off with a choking noise as Beatrice's hand curled into the collar of his shirt, pulling him up to his knees.

"Fix. It."

He looked up at her, terrified, but Beatrice didn't let that stop her. If this is what it took to get Ava back; if this is what she had to become, or revert back to, she was okay with that.

"Put him down, Beatrice."

She didn't need to turn around to see who the newcomer was. "Stay out of this, Mary."

Mary approached them, and by the sounds of her uneven footfalls and labored breathing, she hadn't been unscathed by however she had gotten down here.

Mary's hand closed around Beatrice's wrist, squeezing slightly, though she didn't dare try to make her release the engineer. "This isn't you, Bea."

Beatrice looked at her then, voice cracking with her reply. "It is."

Mary was searching her face almost desperately, like she couldn't find what she needed to find. "It's not. Ava showed you that remember..."

The words summoned a very specific memory into Beatrice's head, the moment after Reya had used Ava to hurt her.

"Would you call me a monster for the Church using me to kill people? At least you didn't have a choice."

Ava's face softened, something finally getting through the wall she'd put up between them. "You're not a monster, Bea."