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“Ava? Ava!?” Beatrice yelled out into the cold, dusty air of the destroyed church, coughing as debris entered her lungs. “Ava, where are you!?” Adrenaline surged through Beatrice’s body reaching her brain causing her eyes to dilate.
The Sister Warriors thought they banished Adriel to Hell, ending the seemingly never-ending war between Hell and Earth. All seemed fine until Jillian, in her last effort to regain her son, opened the portal to Hell, allowing Adriel to re-enter their plane of existence without them knowing.
Beatrice rounded a corner, still no Ava coming into her view. The building had exploded 5 minutes prior due to some unknown force. Beatrice managed to find the rest of the group catching their bearing and clearing out their lungs.
Her breath began to quicken. She was hyperventilating in a panic.
“Ava, please! Answer me!!” Beatrice spun around in a circle as her eyes searched and searched for any sign of the Warrior Nun.
~
“Ava, please! Answer me!!” Ava couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, and could barely hear, yet Beatrice’s words still made it’s way into Ava’s mind. And Ava tried to call out. Tell Bea where she was and that she could hear her. She tried desperately to call out her name, but all that came out of her mouth was coughing as her lungs were full of debris from the explosion. She couldn’t feel or move her legs, but her arms still worked, so she tried something she saw in a movie once. Glancing to her right, Ava saw a piece of stone that had once been the wall. She slowly but surely moved her aching arm to grab the stone. Pain shot through her arm and body as the movement brought to life the injuries she sustained from the explosion. Finally, she was able to grab the stone and bang it against the closest mass, hoping Bea would be able to hear the noise.
~
*Clack clack clack* Beatrice could hear stone against stone. At first she thought it was just falling debris, but then she noticed a pattern in the sounds.
“Ava? AVA!?” Beatrice sprinted towards the noise as fast as she could, hurdling over any obstacles that separated her from Ava. The sound grew closer and closer until she was right over it. Instantly, Beatrice began lifting the heavy stones that covered what she assumed was Ava. After moving 3 large pieces of stone, Beatrice uncovered Ava’s upper half.
“Ava! I’m here, don’t worry, I’ll get you out of this!” Tears brimmed in Beatrice’s eyes as she saw the state of the usually strong woman.
“Beaa….” Ava said her name weakly. So weakly, she hated the sound of her name.
“Just hold on Ava, hold on!” Beatrice uncovered the stone that was covering the majority of Ava’s legs, then moving on to remove the one covering her stomach.
“Be-“ before Ava could even begin to utter her name, she erupted into a fit of coughs. When she finally stopped, she was gasping for air as her lungs were now raw from the friction of the dust.
“Just one more Ava, one more.” Beatrice groaned out as she slowly lifted the heavy power of stone before falling completely silent and still.
“Bea?” Ava was able to recover some of her breath as she noticed the nun fall still.
“I-“ Beatrice wouldn’t- couldn’t do this. “I’m here.” They were just supposed to recover some Divinium from another church. They weren’t supposed to face any resistance so they didn’t bring any gear. This wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.
“Bea-“ Ava erupted into another coughing fit. “I can’t feel my legs.” The tears finally dropped from Beatrice’s face as she immediately started sobbing. “What’s wrong?” Ava was finally able to get out a full sentence without coughing.
Beatrice couldn’t look at her face. A large piece of Divinium, just smaller than Adriel’s shield, had pierced Ava’s stomach. There was no way out of this.
“Nothing Ava.” Beatrice wiped the tears off of her face and finally turned to face Ava. Seeing the blood trickle out of her mouth and somewhere on the top of her head made a few more tears escape.
“I don’t- I don’t feel good, Bea.” Beatrice could see Ava begin to panic as her eyes flitted around the small collapsed space they were in. “Make it stop Bea- please make it stop.” Tears were falling at a much faster pace now as Beatrice felt powerless.
“I’m so sorry Ava. I wasn’t able to protect you.” Beatrice began sobbing hard, as she bowed her head down on to Ava’s chest. When she raised her head again, Beatrice could see Ava’s face getting paler as the blood left her body.
“It’s okay Bea, I forgive you.” Ava tried to lift her right hand to touch the side of Beatrice’s face, yet her attempt fell feeble as her finger barely grazed Beatrice’s cheek before it fell back down. Some of Ava’s blood seemed to have wiped off on Beatrice’s cheek.
“Ava, I just want you to know-“ The tears wouldn’t stop, so she glanced away for a second. “That I love you,” When Beatrice glanced back, Ava’s chest wasn’t moving, her face somehow became even more pale, and her eyes turned dull and unmoving. Beatrice let out a cry which sounded more like a scream as she sobbed harder than she ever had in her life. She desperately grasped at the fabric on Ava’s unmoving body as she tried to get closer to the girl she once loved, yet never had the courage to confess to. Visions of what could have been of a life together with Ava barged into her mind, tearing the nuns heart apart.
~
“I’m so sorry Ava. I wasn’t able to protect you.” Ava was confused on what Bea was saying and why. She just needed to pull Ava out of this rubble, give her some water, and then they could figure out what happened. For some reason Bea was crying and Ava just wanted her to stop.
“It’s okay Bea, I forgive you.” Ava just wanted out of here. She was feeling weaker by the second and didn’t know why Bea was stalling so long. And sobbing for that matter. It felt like she was about to die and it was kind of scaring her. Seeing the tears on Bea’s face was making her upset, so she attempted to wipe them off, yet for some reason she wasn’t able to keep her arm off the ground for very long. Darkness started to form around the corners of her vision and Ava started to panic. Why did she feel so weak? Staying awake was taking so much of her energy. Maybe if she just took a quick nap, all would be good later and they could get back to what they were doing. Yeah, that sounded like a great idea.
“Ava, I just want you to know-“ Ava closed her eyes and everything just went blank.