Incubus I (UNDER EDITING)!!!

Chapter 59

                             The entire squad were standing around, weapons drawn around on the rock, when Aureathria  stepped out of the cave, she combed the surroundings of the cave till she came to an edge of the cliff where Ava sat alone,  throwing pebbles into the woods below. she stopped a few feet behind her and studied her for a bit,  but Ava turned in her direction to indicate her awareness of Aureathria's presence.

"what did you do to her" Aureathria asked from the distance
"what are you talking about " Ava replied
"you know what I'm talking about " she replied
"no I don't, what happened " Ava asked standing up on her feet, her face revealing a form of panic.
Aureathria found it difficult to see past her gloomy countenance, and consequently was forced to believe, she didn't have anything to do with it.
"come see for yourself " Aureathria said turning back the way she had come. Ava waited a few more seconds,  then followed behind her.

Natasha on the other hand had gotten up and began browsing through her books and the pages Eruwine had retrieved. She was glancing on a page, when her eyes landed on a folded note, with her handwriting, between a page.
She tured it open, to reveal these words.
" Ava, not what she seems "
She pondered on the note, like she wasn't the person who had written it, unable to bring herself to recall when she wrote it. Then Aureathria's earlier questions came back to her, hinting her to the possibility that her mind could have been tampered with.

She got up instantly, and began picking ingredients to make an elixir from her pack.  She was boiling it in a pan with a conjured flame,  when the entire squad walked into the cave. She immediately put out the fire, and emptied the contents into a cup,  before shoving the pan under her blankets.

"How are you feeling now" Kira asked,  sitting next to her
"except for this cuts, I'm good" she replied
"what happened to you last night " Edda asked
She looked up and round at them first, stopping at Ava first, who had a concerned look,  and then to Aureathria,  who nodded an approval
"I don't quite remember " she said softly
The squad looked round at themselves, not satisfied with her reply.
"I practically don't remember anything about last night,  I just slept, woke up, only to see I had run though the woods in my sleep " she said referring to the cuts and bruises.

The sentence made Ava's heart dip, but she stabilized moments after when she realized, Natasha had said that unconsciously.
"do you guys mind,  I still need to rest a bit" Natasha said laying back down.
"we need to get the hell out of here" Edda stated
"yeah, she just requested some privacy" Vulcan acknowledged
"no... " Edda cut in " I meant, out of here"
"that's exactly what I said" he retorted
"we should all excuse the.... Ohh" his tone  lowered at the end of the sentence, as he grabbed what she was trying to say.
Low toned chuckles went round as Vulcan made his way out first,  and the others followed after. Ava was the last to take her leave, she was on the edge of the exit, when she picked up the scent of an ingredient of the elixir. she sniffed the air, and picked a couple more,  a combination she knew well, as the counter to the memory wiping spell she had used on her a couple of hours earlier, she immediately turned and went back into the cave.

Natasha brought the cup out from where she had hidden it, and gulped down it's contents, but she had brewed it too strong, it sent a surge to her brain,  a surge that made it feel like her brain was being compressed, and expanded at the same time, she fell down to the blankets,  and lost consciousness instantly, dropping the cup and spilling the rest of its contents all over the stone floors.

Everything that had been taken from her memories were restored in a flash,  and she releived every single moment of it,  up till the moment when Ava had begun the healing process.
She open  her eyes to look around her, only to find darkness and nothing but orange light that came from a flame burning not too far from her.
The entrance of the cave no longer passed any light  in, so she perceived it was dark already.
She turned on her side and began pondering on everything she had seen.