Hi Guys
So I've been really busy with work and travel lately but here is another chapter.
I'm hoping to have another posted in a week or so... keep your eyes out.
:)
Chloe wakes up the next morning, her arm still wrapped around the smaller brunette's waist. She listens to the even breathing coming from Beca, knowing she was sound asleep. She gently takes her arm away and slowly gets up from the bed, smiling when she hears Beca groan quietly at the loss of contact before settling back to sleep again. The redhead looks around Beca's room, noticing that it is just her belongings and gym gear.
"Chloe?" Chloe hears Beca rasp from the bed. She turns back to gaze upon the brunette, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before glancing back at her.
"Morning." Chloe smiles as she walks back over to the bed, leans over and places her lips gently on Beca's. Beca pulls away and smiles.
"Morning." She says, her voice clearer after waking up a little more.
"I thought you left." Beca adds as she wraps her arm around Chloe and pulls her back to the bed. Chloe looks to Beca, her face registering shock.
"I would never leave you. Especially not after last night. Thank you for finally opening up to me." Chloe replies as she nuzzles herself into Beca's grasp.
"So my father and I are attending the Presidential Ball in a couple of weeks and he said I could bring someone. I was going to take Aubrey again but I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?" Chloe asks with a smile. Beca returns the smile before nodding her head.
"Yeah sure. Sounds like it could be fun." Beca says in return, watching as Chloe smiles before leaning down and kissing her passionately again. Azrael smirking on the inside. Her mission was coming together finally.
"Azrael, it's good to hear from you. How goes your mission?" Michael asks. Beca takes a breath before answering, smirking because she can finally give him good news.
"It's going well Sir, Miss Beale will be taking me to the Ball after I decided to take a different direction and pretend to be romantically interested in her." Beca replies confidently and can practically hear Michael smile on the other side of the phone.
"Very well done Azrael, you always were my best student, please continue with your mission and prepare for the contract to be done." Michael says and Beca remembers the task, now that she has gotten the invite to the Ball, she needs to figure out how to get close the Mr. Beale and kill him without anyone knowing it was her.
"Yes Sir, I will begin planning at once and call you again soon to run through my plan." Beca replies and Michael confirms this before hanging up.
Beca sits in her room, looking down at the knife she holds in her hand, the one from the night Amitiel had intruded in Chloe's apartment. She runs her finger over the markings, the Arabic text forged into the steel blade 'Azrael'.
"Why did you leave this for me?" Beca asks, hoping that Amitiel would appear out of nowhere and give her the answer but it didn't happen. She stands up from the bed and moves to where she had locked away the blade, placing it back from where she picked it up half an hour before. She looks down to her hand, the wrist that is currently shattered and swollen, noticing the scarring on her pinky finger that she remembers like it was the day before the current.
"What is that? Are you trying to poison me?" Beca asks Michael. The teacher sitting crossed legged in front of her. Michael stifles a small laugh, the only time Beca would hear it as he places a cup in front of her.
"It's a meditative tea. It will activate your mind and body." He replies, moving his hand from his head to the centre of his chest. The 10 year old turns her head to look at the racks of weapons beside her before looking back down at the cup of tea.
"I think I'm going to need more than tea to use those." Beca adds, nodding her head towards the weapons. Michael takes his cup and gently takes a sip before placing his cup back down again.
"The warriors of our past believed that first you fight with the mind, than your sword. I remember when I was first training to become part of the League, as you are now. I was 14. I began just like you, devastated by my past, angry, hurting." Michael says as he places a bowl of water on the small table between them. Beca listening intently, never hearing about Michael's past before, his life at all really.
"The pain of what my family did to me was unbearable, the fact that they could murder their own children. I lost my brother to their violence, Jacob. They turned on me but I ran and was picked up by my mentor, I was chosen, just as I chose you." He adds before turning to his side where there was a pot boiling under hot coals. Beca thought it was just the tea as Michael picked up the ladle full of the boiling hot liquid and held it over the bowl of water. Beca watched as the liquid dripped into the water and turned white and it was then that she knew it was wax, boiling hot wax.
"Just like this." Michael continues as he holds his hand out and proceeds to pour the boiling hot wax onto his hand.
"Sir, what are you doing?" Beca leans forward trying to force Michael's hand into the bowl of water but she notices he isn't even showing a grimace of pain, his face stoic.
"Every warrior must learn the simple truth, that pain is inevitable and suffering is only optional." He says as he quickly grabs Beca's wrist, holding it out over the bowl.
"What are you doing? No no no. Please don't, it'll hurt, please." Beca begs but Michael does not let go, he simply leans forward.
"You begged me to teach you the ways of the League." He says before sitting back again and starts pouring the hot wax over Beca's hand. Her screams filling the hallways of the League base.
"Beca?" Beca turns to find Stacie standing in her doorway.
"It's time to go to rehearsal." The leggy brunette adds as she tilts her head to the side, wondering what Beca was just thinking about, noticing the paleness in Beca's face.
"Yeah sure, I'll be right out." Beca replies as she snaps out of her flashback. Stacie moving out of the room and shutting the door to allow Beca to change her shirt and put on a beanie to stifle the cold Barden air. She makes her way out to meet Stacie and they head to Bellas Rehearsal.
Love to hear it
Love to hear that passion
Turn it around, Turn it around
T-T-Turn it around, Turn it around
T-T-Turn it around
The Bellas finish performing their song for the sixteenth time. Chloe's voice getting more strained and tired as they continue.
"I should have taken that cardio tip more seriously." Fat Amy suggests to herself, her breaths ragged and deep.
"How much have you done?" Aubrey asks as she grabs her bottle of water and walks to the front of the group.
"You just saw it." Fat Amy replies, making Beca smirk. For some reason, Beca always knew that the Australian could make her smile with her quick wit and openness even when she was in Azrael mode, it reminded her of Amitiel's attitude.
"Chloe, you've got to be able to hit that last note." Aubrey whines and Chloe already feels the stress of trying to sing the song but with her nodes, it was impossible.
"I can't. It's impossible. It's because of my nodes." She vocalizes her thoughts and the rest of the girls back her up although she hears Fat Amy say 'nerds' instead of 'nodes'.
"Well if you can't do it than someone else needs to solo." Aubrey suggests and Chloe smiles at the thought, leaping at the opportunity that was presented in front of her.
"I think Beca should take my solo." Chloe says, pointing back in Beca's direction but not keeping her eyes off her blonde co-captain who sighs heavily and glares in Chloe's direction, slamming her water bottle down on the piano, this all not going unnoticed by Beca or the other Bellas for that matter. Beca knew that Aubrey still blamed her for losing the Riff-Off four nights before.
"Yeah Beca would be excellent, but also someone equally as excellent and they might be shy and not want to come forward and say they wanted a solo." Fat Amy jumps in confidently pointing out that she would like the solo. To be honest, Beca didn't want the solo if it was going to be the same boring songs.
"Well Beca doesn't want a solo so…" Aubrey says, taking a sip of her water, a small glare pointed a Beca. The small brunette takes the opportunity to try compromise with the blonde captain.
"I would be happy to do it if I got to pick a set list and arrangement, make the Bellas sound different." Beca suggests and watches as Chloe nods her head along to the idea, well she got one captain onboard.
"Well that's not how I run things here." Aubrey quickly backfires and Chloe is a little shocked to hear that apparently Aubrey is the one running things when they are both supposed to be captains.
"Aubrey, maybe Beca has a point, maybe we could try something-." Chloe tries to voice her opinion as a captain but is cut off by the blonde.
"Aca-scuse me. You can sing Turn The Beat Around and last's the last I want to hear of this." Aubrey replies harshly. Most of her comment being aimed at Beca but hurting Chloe more. Beca glances over and notices Chloe's disappointment, something inside her screaming out to defend the redhead.
"That song is tired, we're not going to win with it. If we pull samples from different genres and layer them together we could-." Beca pushes the subject further, stepping forward confidently but again Aubrey cuts her off.
"Okay, let me explain something to you, because you still don't seem to get it. Our goal is to get back to the finals and these songs will get us there. So excuse me if I don't take advice from some alt-girl with her mad-lib beats and robot like attitude because she has never been in a competition. Have I made myself clear?" Aubrey dictates and Beca rolls her eyes before stepping forward into Aubrey's personal space, her assassin mode coming out of the cage and not dealing with the crap Aubrey was saying.
"Crystal, I won't solo…..and screw you." Beca replies as she walks over to her things and starts packing them up. She starts to walk away when Aubrey notices what she is doing.
"Beca, where are you going?" She calls out. Aubrey chases after Beca, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. Beca rips her arm out of Aubrey's hold.
"Let fucking go of me right now. Screw you okay! You glare at me and undermine me because you think you're better than me. Newsflash Aubrey you aren't! You are just a scared little girl who was probably bullied by daddy so she thinks it is okay to bully and undermine people the same way. I'm out of here." Beca starts yelling, turning to the entire group. She looks back at Aubrey. Beca pulls away and Aubrey stands shocked, watching as the small brunette walks away. She glances over to Chloe and the other Bellas to see they are equally as shocked as her. Chloe finally snaps out of her shock and runs out, chasing after the brunette but she was already gone.
"Aubrey!" Chloe calls out as she enters the apartment. Her best friend can be heard crying in the kitchen.
"Aubrey?" Chloe enters the kitchen to find Aubrey with her head in her hands, crying.
"Hey. It's okay. I couldn't find Beca but we'll look in the morning. Are you okay? What Beca said was out of line." Chloe adds as she wraps her arms around the hysterical blonde.
"No, she was right." Aubrey whimpers. Chloe pulls away from her and looks deep into her green eyes.
"What do you mean?" Chloe asks.
"I'm a bully because of my dad. Everything that Beca said was right. I'm scared because I don't want to disappoint him so I take it out on everyone else. I mean I was such a bitch to her yet she saved me from Jesse and brought me home from the party. God I need to apologise to her." Aubrey replies. Chloe places her hand on Aubrey's.
"Well we will find her tomorrow. We're going to need her for the riff-off tomorrow night." Chloe smirks and Aubrey nods, her head on Chloe's shoulder.
Ooooo... Next chapter is the Riff-Off and Beca is going off! Azrael is coming out and getting ready to play.
Does Beca really love Chloe or is she doing it for the mission?