Part 5

Ava fell onto her knees when oxygen just left her lungs in one go. Intense pain burnt her midriff where Beatrice had just hit her with a stick. She took a couple of deep breaths then stood up gingerly.

Beatrice was perplexed to say the least. They had started to train five days ago and while everything was fine when it came to basic training, whenever it was time to work with the Halo, they hit a wall. Or rather, Ava hit a wall.

Beatrice wa loss. Something was obviously wrong. At first, she figured Ava was just tired but now she was certain it went deeper than that.

Ava cursed silently and Beatrice didn't ask her if she was okay. She did care, in fact Beatrice was deeply concerned, but she couldn't bear to hear Ava lie to her yet again. Every time Beatrice had queried about Ava's well-being, Ava had fibbed, affirming that she was alright yet never meeting Beatrice's gaze.

The issue needed to be addressed though, because everything rested on the power of the Halo, if they didn't have that then…

"Let's stop here for today," Beatrice stated softly.

There was no point in pushing. Ava was supposed to phase through Beatrice's attacks but she wasn't, so instead it was turning into a beating. At this point Beatrice wasn't sure the Halo was doing its job healing Ava, or if it was the effect was much slower than usual.

"No, we can go on. I can train some more," Ava protested.

"I know you can," Beatrice reassured her. "But we're on evening shift today, I think it'd be best if we get some rest before we have to go to work."

Ava clenched her jaw to contain her anger and frustration. Sure, Beatrice made it sound like there was a good reason for them to stop, but she read between the lines. She saw the way Beatrice was looking at her, like she wasn't good enough. She couldn't blame Beatrice though. Five days of training and frankly she sucked. Hard.

"Fine," she sighed with resignation and walked away.

Part of Beatrice wanted to rush after Ava but she didn't go with that first instinct. She had watched a myriad of emotions dance behind Ava's eyes before settling on some quiet anger. It was like Ava was resenting her for something and she didn't get it. Ava had been shutting her out and she didn't know how to get through to her.

Right now though, she didn't feel that pushing the issue would do them any good.

Ava needed space and maybe she did as well, she needed time to figure a way out of this funk for the both of them.

By the time they started their shift, Ava's natural good mood seemed to return. Beatrice watched Ava working around the room, exchanging witty words and bad puns, making everyone laugh or smile. Ava was a natural people person. She exuded something that just made you want to be in her orbit. Beatrice envied that ability to be around people and connect easily with them.

For a moment there, Beatrice imagined Ava's life without the Halo and all that came with it. Ava would fit right here; she'd have a good life here.

"Beatrice!" Hanz, the other barman called a bit loud, which let her know he had called her once before.

"Sorry."

"It's alright, I need 2 Cuba Libre and a Zombie please."

"Coming right up," she nodded and focused on making the ordered cocktails.

When they get back to the apartment it was already half past one in the morning and they were both exhausted. It took twenty minutes for them to get through their evening routine and be ready for sleep.

Ava exited the bathroom just as Beatrice was about to enter.

"Goodnight," Ava said, she gave Beatrice's shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"Goodnight," Beatrice echoed.

Ava nodded then moved on to go lie on the bed.

The day had been quite long so Beatrice fell asleep almost as soon as she had lied on the couch.

Beatrice woke up with a start and the gut feeling that something was wrong. There was a small electric-like tremor making everything slightly vibrate around the room. Briefly disoriented, her attention was called to the moaning sounds and light coming from the bed.

"Ava!" she almost fell flat on the floor in her haste to get to her feet and rush to the bed. Without hesitation she sat onto the bed and gathered Ava into her arms, holding her tight to stop her flailing.

Ava was struggling against her, moaning through her clenched jaw. Beatrice forced herself not to loosen her grip even though the surge of energy coming from the Halo was painful.

"Calm down, calm down…" she repeated like a mantra hoping that Ava would wake up and power down.

Ava came to abruptly with a barely contained scream of horror. There was a small implosion of light and Beatrice felt like a violent punch in her guts then the Halo went out. She gritted her teeth at the shooting pain but focused back on Ava immediately.

Ava started to debate herself more vigorously but calmed down when she was able to resituate herself.

"You're okay…shhh…" Beatrice's soothing voice brushed her ears. "Everything is okay, you're okay."

Ava stopped trashing around and leant against Beatrice, she put her hands on the arm Beatrice had wrapped around her shoulders and held on for dear life.

She had been back in the cave with Adriel, only this time there was no escape and… she closed her eyes to block the memory. Drenched in cold sweat and shaking with remnant fear, she try to focus on Beatrice's voice. She let herself go to the gentle rocking and slowly she felt calmer.

Beatrice kept swaying them both, she didn't stop until she felt the trembling of Ava's body subside. She started to shift her position and felt Ava's grip on her arm turn painful.

"Please don't go," Ava begged.

"I'm not going anywhere… just getting more comfortable."

Ava nodded and allowed her to move. After a couple of minutes, they were lying down and Beatrice was spooning her.

"Try to rest."

"Don't go," Ava pleaded softly again.

"Not going anywhere, I promise."

The words were enough to make Ava relax completely and let herself go back to sleep. Beatrice kept watch for a long time, too worried about Ava.

Something was wrong and they needed to figure it all out sooner than later.

Thanks for reading