Chapter Thirty-Five: The Power of Persuasion
June 23, 2007
Sylar groaned as he ran through the snow. He glanced over at Ava as she ran beside him, barely breaking a sweat. "How in the hell can you keep this up?" He gasped.
"Simple, I just remember what Kane did to you and I remember why I'm fighting." Ava smiled softly at him. "I imagine that he's running from me and that I'm chasing him to the ends of the earth to kill him for laying a hand on my man, that's what keeps me running like this."
"Good motivation, I guess." Sylar panted. "So here's another question for you. Why are we running and training on a fucking Saturday when we were supposed to start having weekends off and WHY aren't YOU training Elle this morning?"
"That's two questions." Ava muttered, her eyes growing cold at the mention of Elle's name.
"Yeah, and?" Sylar looked pointedly at her.
Ava sighed. "After Elle's little stunt last night, there's a possibility that Adam could end up finding us sooner rather than later."
"I thought Matt and the Haitian took care of the reporter from last night."
"They did." Ava nodded. "But not before she sent a report and a video to Anchorage about the blanket-toss. Noah told me this morning that the footage from the report shows Hiro and Elle in the background and that the footage is online. If Adam sees it-"
"-He'll come to Barrow and from there, find the compound." Sylar muttered.
"Exactly." Ava breathed.
"Lovely." Sylar gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the burning pain in his legs as he continued to run. "Remind me to thank Hiro and Elle for their stupidity with that shit."
"Hiro's already beating himself up over it enough, don't add to it."
"And Elle?" Sylar asked her.
Ava's eyes narrowed. "Just stay the fuck away from her too, that's what I'm doing."
Sylar stopped and grabbed Ava's arm, staring at her as the others ran past them. "What the HELL happened while I was gone getting Mac?" As Ava started to speak, Sylar shook his head. "And don't tell me that nothing happened. When I got back you were acting strange and pissed off and Elle was freaking out. In fact, everyone was angry as hell with her about something and now you're out here running and refusing to speak to her while Claude is stuck training her crazy ass. What happened?"
Ava shrugged and started running again. "I simply realized that I don't want to have to deal with her immature ass anymore, that's all."
"Fine, don't tell me then." Sylar pursed his lips together for a moment before shrugging. He took off running to catch up with Ava, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
April 29, 2006
Ava strolled into the Burnt Toast Diner and waved to Noah as she approached him. He smiled softly at her as she slid into the booth across from him. "Welcome back. How was Bogota?"
"Okay." Ava stared unflinchingly at Noah as he fiddled with the silverware in front of him, noticing the way his hands shook slightly. She could sense the fear and nervousness coming off of him in waves.
"You got all of Simon's affairs in order?" He said softly.
"Yes." Ava leaned forward, her eyes boring into Noah's. "So what's going on? You called me three times while I was in Bogota in the last week to make sure that I would be home by today and you kept insisting on meeting me here. You're freaking out over something, what's up?"
"I'm okay." Noah swallowed hard.
"No, you're not." Ava shook her head. "I can sense the fear coming from you, Noah." She frowned, her brow furrowing. "It has something to do with Claire." Her eyes widened. "Has she manifested?" She whispered.
Noah closed his eyes and leaned back against his seat. "I think so." He opened his eyes and looked around the diner before leaning forward. "Last week, I got a call from a man in New York, a geneticist. His name is Chandra Suresh. He's identified genetic markers that indicate when people are-" His voice faltered as he fiddled with a napkin nervously.
"-Special like me?" Ava asked. Noah nodded. "And he got a sample of Claire's blood and found that marker, correct?"
"Apparently when she had some blood tests done as a baby, her doctor submitted a sample of her blood to the Human Genome Project." Noah gritted his teeth. "And now this Dr. Suresh thinks that Claire has special powers."
"But has she manifested?"
"I don't know for certain, but I think she has." Noah took off his glasses for a moment, polishing the lenses before placing them back on the bridge of his nose. "The other night, Jackie came by with some good news for Claire, she's on the cheerleading squad. She and Jackie got into an argument, there was some roughhousing, I don't know. The upshot of it was that Claire's hand got cut pretty badly. She had to go to the emergency room for stitches. The next day, I went to New York to see this Dr. Suresh, when I returned, I asked Claire if I could see the cut on her hand." He looked at Ava, his eyes filled with worry. "The cut was gone."
"Gone? In just a day or two it was gone?" Ava's eyes widened.
"Completely and totally. There wasn't even a scar. It had healed up practically overnight."
"Whoa." Ava sat back in her seat, her eyes sparkling with surprise. "Now THAT'S a power I wouldn't have minded having, cellular regeneration."
"You're not seeing the big picture here, Ava. Claire has almost definitely manifested."
Ava nodded. "Oh I see the big picture alright. If she's manifested, it means that you have to turn her in to the company."
"I have to give up my little girl." Noah blinked back tears. "You and I both know that. I'll have to turn her over for testing and-"
"-you'd have to give her to Thompson." Ava's face grew hard. "And that's not fucking happening." As Noah watched her, her face twisted angrily. "He's not getting his hands on your girl, Noah."
Noah breathed a sigh of relief. "So you see what I'm facing?"
Ava nodded slowly. "I see. You can't turn her in."
"I have no intention of doing that." Noah shook his head. "But I need help."
Ava smiled at him. "Tell me what you need and I'll do it, no questions asked."
Noah smiled back at her, feeling a weight lifted from his shoulders as a waitress walked over to them. "Well hey there, Ava!" The waitress greeted her. "Lord girl, where have you been?"
Ava smiled up at the waitress. "Hey Charlie!" She stood and hugged the young woman for a moment. "I was away in Bogota."
"Oh." Charlie grinned at her. "Visiting with that hot guy you're always bringing in here on Saturday morning, the one who always orders scrambled eggs with jalapenos and chili peppers?"
Ava shook her head, her smile fading. "Not exactly. Unfortunately he was killed a few weeks ago. I went there to pay my last respects."
"Oh Sugar that's terrible!" Charlie placed a sympathetic hand on Ava's arm. "Oh my, that's just-" she shook her head sadly. "-I'm so sorry, I know you two were very close."
"Thank you." Ava sighed. "It's been pretty rough these last few weeks."
"I'll bet." She turned to Noah. "How sweet of you to worry about your friend, Mr. Bennet."
"Thanks. She's been working with me for so long now, I wanted to touch base with her the moment she got back." Noah nodded.
"Well," Charlie lifted her pad, sighing "I don't know if you have much of an appetite after what you've been through but-"
"-Actually I'm starving." Ava smiled kindly up at her. "And I think I'll have-"
"-Your regular?" Charlie nodded. "Scrambled eggs, ham steak, toast with strawberry jam and grits with extra butter with a tall orange juice?" She turned to Noah. "And I know you're probably going to order the same, only with hash browns instead of grits and coffee along with the orange juice, right?"
Noah stared at her, surprised. "Just how often DO I come in here?"
"Pretty often, but that's not why I remembered what you always order." Charlie shrugged self-consciously. "It's weird but I've been remembering EVERYTHING lately."
"That's not weird at all. It actually sounds pretty handy to me." Ava handed her menu to Charlie.
"It does come in handy, I will admit that." Charlie laughed. She glanced over her shoulder, and noticed a young Asian man walking past, pushing a busboy's cart. He smiled at her and blushed before walking on, pushing his glasses up as he cleared off a table nearby.
"Looks like you have an admirer." Ava teased.
Charlie blushed. "Oh, that's Hiro. He's new." She laughed softly as she turned away from Noah and Ava. "I'll have your orders up in just a sec."
Ava raised an eyebrow at Noah as Charlie left. "Suddenly remembering things?" She smiled. "Ya think?"
"I don't know and I'm not going to investigate her or alert the company to her." Noah grinned. "Right now, I say live and let live."
"Unless the company comes after Claire, then it's live and let die." Ava crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Tell me you have a plan."
Noah nodded. "I have a plan."
June 23, 2007
As they entered the building from their run, Claude met them at the door, shaking his head angrily. "I've had it! I refuse to train that little-"
"-What did she do now?" Bob asked wearily as he mopped his sweaty brow.
"What DOESN'T she do is the question and I'll give you the answer now: LISTEN! She doesn't listen, she doesn't pay attention and she's acting like a fucking brat!" Claude turned to Ava. "I don't know what in the hell she did to get you so bloody pissed that you refuse to train her, but I have to tell you, suck it up and train her anyway. You're the only one that spoiled, immature little trollop listens to. If she pissed you off so badly, take it out on her in the training room, beat her narrow ass to a pulp and finish the training because I'm DONE!" He turned and stomped away as Ava sighed.
"Shit." She muttered. "I don't even want to have to look at her, much less train her."
"What the FUCK did she do to you?" Sylar asked, frowning as he noticed the guilty looks that Noah, Peter and Matt exchanged. He pointed to them. "You three! You know what she did, out with it?"
"She just acted like a pain, that's all." Matt turned and walked away.
"It's more than that, I know it!" Sylar whirled around on Peter. "Well?"
"If Ava doesn't want to talk about it, I'm not discussing it either." He turned and walked away from Sylar with Noah quickly following behind him.
Sylar turned around, noticing the confused expression on the others' faces. "Does anyone ELSE know what's going on?"
Angela pursed her lips together, her eyes narrowing. "No. Apparently the rest of us are just as in the dark as you are, but rest assured, I'm about to take care of this myself." She grabbed Ava's arm and turned to Bob. "Don't follow us, you always make the situation worse." She escorted Ava towards the gym and stopped, raising an eyebrow at Sylar when he tried to follow them. "Don't you have a dog to walk?"
"What?" Sylar glared at her. "I have a right to know what's going on here!"
"You need to go walk that bouncing pile of fur you call a dog before he shits all over your quarters, so GO!" Angela stared at Sylar imperiously for a moment before he finally turned and stomped off. "I don't understand why people are so scared of him." Angela mused. "He's really just a bully who backs down when faced with a strong woman, obviously he has issues with his mother due to that." She turned back to Ava and shoved her towards the gym. "You and I are going to sit down with Miss Bishop this second and deal with whatever's crawled up your asses this instant!"
April 29, 2006
Eden McCain looked up from the couch in her room as the door opened. She frowned as Noah Bennet walked inside, followed by a young red-haired woman. "Okay, what's up with this?" She stared at Noah. "I heard you rarely come in on Saturdays."
"I do when it's work required." Noah nodded to Ava. "This is Avery Reese, she's an agent with the company."
"And?" Eden's brow furrowed. "Does this have to do with that assignment you were tempting me with the other day? I still haven't decided if I'm going to do it or not."
"Oh, you'll do it, and Agent Reese here will go along with you to provide back-up." Noah nodded. "I have it on good authority that an apartment directly across from Chandra Suresh's has recently become vacant. It's been rented in your name. On Monday morning you're going to be moving in there and Agent Reese will be posing as your sister. She will be helping you move in."
"My sister?" Eden snorted as she took in Ava's green eyes and red hair. "So what were you, the family recessive gene?"
"I'll be changing my hair color before we go to match yours." Ava sat down on the couch beside Eden, smiling at her for a moment before scanning the room they were sitting in. "Wow, it's been a while since I've been in here." At Eden's confused expression, Ava shrugged. "This was my room when I first came here."
Eden raised an eyebrow at the frilly pastel décor. "So you were what, fifteen when you came here?"
"Close, seventeen." Ava smiled. "I've been with the company for nine years now. I've become one of their top agents. It's a good place to be, especially for people like us."
"What's your power?" Eden asked.
"Trust me, you don't want to know." Ava cocked an eyebrow at her. "I understand that you can convince people to do what you want, right?" Eden nodded. "Don't try it with me."
"So what's your main job here?" Eden stared at her. "Are you the company executioner or something?"
"Something like that." Ava nodded. "Like I said, don't use your power on me, you won't like the result." She smiled again at Eden. "As long as you remember that, I think that the two of us will get along fine in New York."
"Will you be living with me?" Eden asked.
"No." Noah shook his head. "Ava's going to be living in an apartment a couple of blocks from yours. You're going to be on your own for the most part, but don't think that doesn't mean that you won't be watched, understand? If you try to run, if you try to double-cross us-"
"-I've got it." Eden nodded. "I'll be a good little girl, befriend Dr. Suresh, take your daughter's name off of that list and return here the conquering hero."
"Exactly." Noah sat on the arm of the couch, staring down at the young woman. "And you're not to discuss this mission with Mr. Thompson."
"Who?" Eden frowned, her brow furrowing.
"My boss." Noah shrugged as Eden glanced over at Ava, noticing the way she frowned and looked away at the mention of Thompson's name. Eden raised an eyebrow for a moment before turning back to Noah as he continued to speak. "If he finds out that my daughter has manifested a power, he'll take her from me."
"And we don't want that to happen." Ava finished.
"No. We don't." Noah sighed.
"Why not?" Eden's eyes widened. "What would they DO to her?"
"You don't want to know." Noah stared at the ground. "The treatment you received when you got here-"
"-you mean being tied up and having my mouth duct-taped?" Eden smirked.
"Yes. What they would do to my daughter, the tests they would run on her, it would make your first day here seem like a trip to a five-star hotel."
"A day at the beach." Ava nodded.
Noah stared down at Eden. "You weren't tested when you came here. We do that most of the time with people we recruit as agents, we bring them in and subject them to minimal testing at best. The others that we bring in here-"
"-you test them in a pretty rough manner, I'd gather." Eden grimaced.
"Some we do, yes. When we're finished, we inject them with a radio isotope for tracking purposes, wipe their memories of their stay here and release them back into society, if we think they're SUITABLE for release, that is."
"What do you do with the unsuitable ones?" Eden asked. As Noah and Ava glanced at each other before looking away, she nodded as she sagged in her seat. "Oh. I see." She laughed nervously as she watched the two of them. "Well, good thing I've been deemed suitable for society then."
"Only if you agree to be an agent and work for this company." Noah stared down at her. "If not-"
"-I die." Eden whispered. She took a deep breath before swallowing back a lump in her throat. "When do we leave for New York, Sis?" She asked Ava.
June 23, 2007
Angela hauled Ava into the gym, raising a haughty eyebrow as she spotted Elle. The girl in question was curled up on the floor, reading a fashion magazine as she listened to an Ipod. Ava's eyes widened. "That's mine, you little thief!"
Elle ignored her as she continued to listen to the music, slowly licking a finger before flipping the page on her magazine. Ava started towards the girl while trying to yank her arm out of Angela's vise-like grip. As Ava turned to yell at Angela, she stopped at the expression on the older woman's face. "I don't know what your vendetta is against Ms. Bishop," Angela said quietly "but we'll work it out, starting now. Let ME take care of the larceny while you calm yourself." Ava nodded as Angela stroked her arm, then her hair. "Just calm down, please. Ms. Bishop and you are going to sit down together, talk with me and work things out, understand?"
"Okay." Ava whispered softly. As Angela smiled and released her arm to walk over to Elle, Ava blinked and looked around the room, confused. "Wait, did you just-?" She gasped as Angela turned back to her and slyly winked reaching down and snatching the magazine away with one hand, the Ipod with the other. Elle shrieked as the earbuds were painfully yanked from her ears.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Elle looked sharply up at Angela.
Angela held her hand out behind her, wordlessly handing the Ipod back to Ava before glancing down at the magazine in her hands. "I was wondering where my latest issue of Vogue had gotten off to." She mused. "You know, in many countries, stealing is punished by chopping off the hands of the offender." As Elle's eyes widened, Angela gave her a tight smile. "Good thing you don't live in one of those countries, isn't it? I must say though, I certainly would find it rather entertaining to see you fight that bloodthirsty freak Kane without your hands." She glanced over her shoulder at Ava. "Send Hiro in here, tell him to bring his sword."
"Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me!" Elle jumped up from the ground, her mouth hanging open. "Just because I borrowed-"
"-borrowing things without asking is akin to stealing, wouldn't you agree, Ava?"
Ava smirked. "Oh, I most definitely agree with that. Should I tell Hiro to sharpen his sword or just hack away and hope it'll do the job with one blow?"
"CUT IT OUT!" Elle glared at Ava. "You're just pissed because I blabbed that you-"
"-SHUT IT!" Ava yelled at Elle. "Just hush for a few minutes, okay?" She turned and opened the doors to the gym, glaring at Sylar as he lurked outside of them. "With your hearing, I figured you'd just try to eavesdrop from our room."
Sylar shrugged. "What's going on? What did Elle say to you?"
"Go walk Mac." Ava started to close the door and frowned as Sylar lifted a finger, keeping it open.
"I think I have a right to know."
"Not if it doesn't concern you." Ava glanced over at Angela. "Care to ask him to leave yourself before we go to the sound proof room to hash this out?"
As Angela took her place at the door, Ava walked over to Elle. "My stuff is off limits, got it? You cannot 'borrow' my clothes, my dog, my Ipod or my guy, do you understand me? And I swear to God, if you say what you saw outside of a sound proof room again, I'll rip your vocal chords out, understood?"
"Whatever." Elle shrugged. She frowned as she glanced over Ava's shoulder. "What in the hell is she doing to him?"
Ava turned and watched as Angela spoke to Sylar while stroking his upper arm. He nodded as she spoke, his eyes glazing over more and more with each pass of her hand over his arm. "She's just convincing him that being nosy isn't such a great idea."
After a moment, Sylar looked up and met Ava's eyes. He nodded to her as he cleared his throat. "I'll see you back in our room."
Ava tried not to laugh as she nodded back to him. "Yeah, you do that."
As soon as Sylar left, Angela walked over to Ava and Elle, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Well? Out with it! What's caused Ava to finally decide to write your skinny little ass off?" She asked Elle.
Before Elle could speak, Ava shook her head. "Not in here. I don't know how long that whammy you put on Sylar will last, and he doesn't need to hear this."
"Fine." Angela sighed, a bored expression on her face. "Let's go to the sound proof room and then you two had better start talking, or else I'm going to wear a blond wig, put Kaito in a red one and sideline the both of you."
May 3, 2006
"What's my name again?" Ava asked as she stretched her legs, wincing. "God, I hate flying coach." She muttered.
"Your name is Melissa McCain." Eden recited. "You're two years older than I am. We've both moved to New York City from Newark. I work in an antique book store and you are a docent with a local art gallery." Eden frowned. "Isn't a docent a hard job to get in New York? I'd figure there would be tons of people with art degrees fighting to get into galleries and museums."
"There are, I have a connection to a gallery, though. I have an old friend whose daughter runs a gallery and he's agreed to bring me in to pose as a dealer and docent."
"You have a lot of old friends and connections, don't you?" Eden glanced at Ava out of the corner of her eye. "But you're not friends with that Thompson guy. I could tell by your body language that you obviously can't stand him. Why is that?"
"I just don't like him, that's all." Ava flipped through some files as she tried to stretch her legs again, grimacing. "Noah couldn't have shelled out some company money for First Class? I've got to remember to talk to him about this."
"You're very close with Mr. Bennet though, aren't you? I can tell." Eden nodded. "You seem very comfortable with him. He's like a father to you."
"Very much so." Ava nodded as she continued to go through files. "Remember, we're flying into Newark first to pick up a rental car. From there, we're driving to Brooklyn where we'll meet with the moving van that Noah and I sent out on Monday to get you moved in."
Eden stared at Ava, her brows knitting together. "A moving van? Why?"
"On Sunday, Noah and I went around to a few second-hand stores and got some furniture for you. It's nothing gross or skuzzy, I promise, we just got stuff that looked like what a young woman moving to New York for her first job would have, sort of a shabby chic motif. Anyway, we put that in a moving van and sent it to Brooklyn, they should be arriving there this afternoon. If we want this to look good, if we don't want to get Chandra Suresh's back up and make him suspect that something is hinkey, we have to make you look the part from the very beginning. You have to look like a young woman who is moving to Brooklyn with the few bits of furniture she could afford for her first job in the city."
"Playing a part, got it Aves." Eden sighed. "I'm used to playing parts. I had johns that loved it when I did some role playing." At Ava's surprised expression, she smirked. "Oh, I see someone didn't read everything in my file. After my dad left and my stepmother died, correction, after I KILLED my stepmother, I had nowhere to go but the street. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to survive, right?"
"Right. And for the record, I DID read your file, I was just surprised that you talked about your past so freely."
"It's in the past, it's not who I am anymore, but I'm not going to run away from it or hide it, either." Eden sighed. "It made me who I am today." Cocking an eyebrow at Ava, she smirked again. "So, you read my file?"
"Your name is Sarah Ellis. Your father left home when you were a child, leaving you with a bitch-crazy stepmother who treated you like a servant. It was your job to tend to the house if you didn't want to be tossed out on the streets. Finally one day, you snapped and told her that you wished she'd just die. What you didn't realize was that you had manifested your ability and it killed her, causing her to drop dead in front of you. You didn't kill her on purpose, Eden."
"She's still dead nonetheless." Eden shrugged and looked away. "Whether I meant to do it or not, it doesn't change the fact that she's no longer among the living."
"I know." Ava sighed and shook her head. "Trust me, I KNOW." She glanced at Eden, noticing the rapt expression on the girl's face. "When you manifested you killed one person, try killing most of your classmates."
"SERIOUSLY?" Eden looked around the cabin of the plane and shrugged, noticing that there weren't many people on board. She leaned close to Ava. "Are you kidding me?"
"Ever read or see Carrie or that cheese-fest from the seventies called The Fury?"
"No shit." Eden stared at her. "Yeah, when you said that pissing you off isn't a good idea, you really weren't joking, were you?"
Ava shook her head. "Nope."
Eden laughed softly. "The Fury, huh? That movie was made before we were born, you do realize that, right?"
"I know, but when it's late at night, you can't sleep and there's shit-all on the television, you take what you can get."
"Well, think of it this way, at least your not as whiny as Amy Irving was in that movie."
"Which one?" Ava laughed, with Eden joining in.
June 23, 2007
Angela sat down in a chair, her brows knitting together as she took in everything that Ava and Elle told her about the scroll. Templing her fingers under her chin, she nodded. "So Ava is going to be the one who is seriously hurt in this fight, possibly killed."
"I don't think 'possibly killed' is a fair description." Elle snorted. "She looked pretty fucking dead to me in the vision."
Angela pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow at Elle. "How tactful of you to put it that way, my dear. If you showed that much decorum and diplomacy in blabbing it to Agent Reese, I can see why she's not too keen on associating with you at this time." As Ava nodded, Angela's eyes cut over to her. "But we don't have a lot of time before Kane finds us, thanks to Ms. Bishop and young Mr. Nakamura's outing. We don't have time for petty arguments and fights and we don't have time for you to sit around and sulk because Ms. Bishop did what she always tends to do: put her foot in her mouth. Here's what the two of you are going to do. Elle, you are going to keep your head down and your mouth shut. If you breathe a WORD of that damn scroll to ANYONE else, I'll personally see to it that you are subjected to a lifetime of pain from here on out. If Mr. Sylar ever found out that Agent Reese is destined to be seriously injured or killed in this fight, I have a terrible feeling that he'd take his fear of losing her out on the rest of us. Just who do you think I'd throw at him first, young lady?" Elle swallowed audibly as Angela's eyes bore into hers. "You're going to never mention that scroll or what you saw in it again. You're not going to tell your father or whomever you've invited into your bed at night. You're going to continue to train your ass off with Agent Reese and you will do EVERYTHING she tells you to do from here on out without complaint, even if she beats you to a bloody pulp all day, every day until Kane decides to show up here. You will refrain from leaving this facility until you have been told that you can leave. You will go to bed at an early hour to get the rest you're going to need and you're going to stop drinking and slutting it up with every man that glances in your direction. You are going to live and breathe your training from here on out. If you do not comply with every order I have given you, I will 'convince' Mr. Sylar that he'd really like to have the power of manipulating electricity. Do we have an understanding?" Elle nodded and Angela leaned forward in her chair. "I don't listen to body language, I want to hear you tell me that you are going to be a good little girl from here on out and that you will keep that silly little trap SHUT!"
"I understand." Elle whispered. "I'll be a good girl and I won't talk about the scroll or what I saw in them."
Satisfied, Angela turned to Ava. "And now it's your turn. I don't care if Ms. Bishop hurt your feelings, I don't care how much she pissed you off by shooting that pie hole of hers off. The only thing I care about is that there is a lunatic who is almost certainly on his way here to destroy each and every one of us, before he continues to travel the world and destroy others like us, when he's not being a whiny baby and killing couples because four-hundred years ago, some silly woman hurt his feelings by choosing Hiro over himself. The only way we're going to save ourselves as well as those that we have sworn to protect is by putting our anger and hurt feelings aside and getting the job done. I thought you were a professional, Agent Reese."
"I AM a professional, Mrs. Petrelli." Ava nodded.
"Then prove it. Continue to train Ms. Bishop, since you apparently seem to be the only one who can get through that thick, empty skull of hers and get her ready to do her part when Kane finally shows himself. If you want to take your anger out on her in the training room, have at it, but don't permanently maim or kill her for the moment, alright?"
"Agreed." Ava glanced over at Elle and covered a laugh as Elle cringed beside her.
"Very well." Angela stood up, pulling back her shoulders to regard the two younger women imperiously. "I'd hate to have to see either one of you 'retired' before the battle begins because you both preferred to act like children." She turned and walked out of the room as Elle stared at Ava.
"Retired?" She asked weakly. "What does she mean by retired?"
Ava rolled her eyes. "It means exactly what you think it means."
Elle groaned. "I was afraid of that." She started to walk towards the door. "See you tomorrow."
"For?" Ava stared at her.
Elle turned, her hand on the doorknob. "For my training. We're starting back up tomorrow, right?"
"Did you train today, or did you just act like a brat with Claude and refuse to do anything?" At Elle's shamefaced expression, Ava nodded. "That's what I thought. Meet me in the gym in ten minutes. You don't get a day off!" She stepped past Elle and walked towards the gym as the younger woman leaned against the doorway watching her trainer stomp away, her hands balled into fists.
"I'm so screwed." She moaned.