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piratekane · 1 year

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21!

twenty-one: no one can hurt you now

She's past inconsolable. She's angry. She's fury, burning in every nerve ending. Her touch could melt steel, her hands could scald. She's an inferno, raging like a wildfire and she's going to incinerate anything that stands in her way.

When she sees those bastards, she's going to make them wish they'd never even so much as thought of touching Beatrice.

"Easy, hothead."

It's Mary, so Ava doesn't snap back like she did when it was Lilith. But she doesn't stop pacing either, doesn't stop clenching her hand into a fist so tight that her elbow starts to ache from the tension. She's not sure how things went so sideways. Her attention shifted for a half second, the length of a short breath, and when she turned back, Bea was gone.

"I say we-"

"We can't go in swords swinging" Mary interrupts. "We don't have the intel."

"So we get it."

Lilith's eyebrow rises up into her hair line. Ava, looking for a fight - with anyone, over anything - almost takes the bait. But Mary beats her to it, knocking Lilith gently with her elbow.

"We'll get her back," Camila says. Her voice is small and Ava feels a flicker of guilt that's quickly consumed by the fire still raging inside of her. "She's Beatrice. She'll be fine."

What if she's not? a voice in Ava's head screams. What if they're not in time?

That voice carries on in her head while Mary and Lilith and Camila pour over maps. It says, you didn't do enough. You weren't quick enough. You shouldn't have looked away. You usually have Bea at your side, why didn't you notice she was gone before she disappeared?

It carries on her head while Mary bustles her into a van, destination locked into the GPS on the dashboard. It says, you failed her. You let her down. You you you are the reason she's gone.

They pull up alongside a warehouse. There's a joke somewhere about henchmen and warehouses and Ava would tell Bea it, if she was here. But she's somewhere in there, probably hidden away behind winding rows of boxes.

Ava is going to tear all of them apart with her bare hands.

The warehouse is quiet on the outside, a single passenger van by the front door. She hears Mary outlining entry and exit strategies but none of them matter. She's going through that front door, taking Beatrice, and going home. She says so, and no one argues with her.

Mary blows the lock off the door, announcing their entrance. Ava stalks through first, sword at her back and her hands locked in fists. She straight punches the first guy, dressed in all black with a cloth hiding his face, knocking him back a few stumbling steps. He shakes his head and charges forward but she feints to one side and brings her fist up under his swing, catching him in the chin. He drops, eyes rolling back into his head.

There's a shotgun blast on her right, the sound of a baton on her left. A dart flies over her shoulder and a man twenty feet away hits the ground.

Someone charges her out of the darkness and she steps to the side, using her hands against the base of his neck to send him continuing past her. She hears him pivot and she sets her feet, bringing her elbow back into the soft part of his gut. She spins, catching his ankles and dropping him to his back, before slamming the heel of her palm into his sternum.

Ahead of her, another person lumbers into the hallway. She sprints towards him, leaping up to lock her legs around his head, and twists her body, pulling him down to the floor. There's a wet crack when he hits the concrete floor and she stands, brushing her armor off.

She can see a lone chair just beyond the last guy, a figure tied to it and slumped over. That devouring blaze in her body hurtles towards incendiary. He rushes her, crowing in her space, and she blocks his first punch, jabbing two fingers at his throat. He chokes for a moment and she takes advantage, grabbing his wrist and twisting it until she hears the bone snap. He shouts and she pulls his arm down, swinging her leg over it until that snaps too. She twists, using her body weight to turn him over and drops to one knee, bringing his back down over it. Another snap, another scream. She pushes him off her with a growl and lets him ragdoll to the floor.

Ava doesn't wait for the other to catch up. She sprints ahead, dropping to her knees in front of the slumped over figure and slowly lifts Bea's chin, eyes roaming her face. "Hey, hey Bea."

Bea groans a little, her breath shallow.

"I've got you," she exhales. The fire quells a little, becomes a dying furnace in her belly. "I've got you, Bea."

Bea tips her head back, eyes half a moment behind. "Ava."

Ava runs shaking fingers down Bea's face, brushing off some dried blood flaking on her cheek. There's a cut over her eye that might need a stitch or two and her armor is torn at the shoulder, leaving behind another blood stain. But she looks intact; she looks alive. Ava stands and pulls her closer, holding Bea's head to her chest.

"Ow," Bea murmurs. Ava loosens her hold quickly, scanning Bea's face. She's grimacing in pain. "Hurts."

Ava smooths her hand over Bea's arm gently. "No one can hurt you now. We're going to get out of here." She starts to pull Bea's arm around her shoulder.

Bea slurs a little when she speaks. "Don't think I can walk."

"Don't have to." Mary comes up under Bea's other shoulder, careful of the way it lifts and seems to pull. "Lean on us."

Ava curls her hand around Bea's waist and steps forward, falling into a rhythm with Mary as they take even steps back to the van. Lilith scouts ahead, Camila bringing up the rear, and they make the slow march through the warehouse and out the front door.

They pass through the bodies strewn out along the warehouse floor and Ava holds Bea a little tighter. The voice in her head carries. It says, you found her. You saved her. Now never let her go.

#warrior nun #avatrice #ava silva #sister beatrice #kait not make a number sentence prompt into 1k words challenge 2023 #will i succeed no probably not #now to do some REAL work (yeah right)

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