Work Text:
Ava hadn't been sure how to address the Halo giving out on her but in the end, Mother Superion had sought her out herself. Both of them sitting down in Ava's room next to each other, Mother Superion took a deep breath.
"You are afraid the Halo is rejecting you," she said, quietly, looking at Ava with a serious but also soft expression. Ava nodded.
"It gave out on me three times now. In the museum, in the church, and…" she trailed off, wincing, not wanting to remember the third time, which had just happened a few hours ago, when she had effectively died, again, falling from the 30th floor. But Mother Superion understood, nodding and taking a deep breath.
"And you want to know how I lost the Halo. How it rejected me."
Ava shook her head, not being able to bear how full of sadness Mother Superion's voice was.
"Only if you want to tell me," Ava said, just as quietly, feeling like she was intruding into something she had no right to. But Mother Superion just nodded gently, looking down at her hands in her lap.
Her voice stayed steady when she recounted the story. How the sisters and Mother Superion had been kidnapped, how her and Shannon had wanted to rescue them. How she had used the Halo's power on Shannon to take on the mission by herself. With every word, Ava's heart grew heavier and when Mother Superion recounted with a broken voice that she had gotten her Mother Superion killed, that then the Halo simply burnt its way out of her back, she couldn't stop tears from gathering in her eyes, even when she managed to suppress a gasp.
Understanding how hard this was for Mother Superion, Ava did not say anything, letting her get it all out. When she said that what she had learned that day was that no one could carry their burden alone, Ava couldn't bear looking at her, instead closing her eyes for a second and then looking down.
"You think that… that that's what's happening? That the Halo is rejecting me?" Ava asked, barely above a whisper. When Mother Superion stayed quiet for a moment, Ava looked up, almost pleading. Mother Superion looked at her softer and gentler than she had ever seen her and that just made her want to cry more.
"I don't know," Mother Superion said, also quietly. She smiled a little and put a gentle hand on Ava's cheek. "But whatever happens, remember that you are not alone."
Ava swallowed thickly and nodded. Mother Superion nodded too and then got up, leaving Ava to watch her limp out of the room, leaning heavily on her cane. Knowing now how she had gotten that limp, that scar, made Ava's heart go out to Mother Superion even more. She took a deep breath and thought about that story. About how she felt that need to protect her sisters too, to take Adriel on alone.
She just didn't want any of them to get hurt. Beatrice, Camila, even Yasmine, they were her family now. To lose any of them would be devastating. Feeling the Halo in her back, pleading with it to give her another chance, to not give out up on her, Ava kept sitting for a while trying to gather her thoughts before having to face the others and making a plan to thwart whatever Adriel was planning.
Whatever that plan would entail, she would make sure to keep her family safe. Even if the Halo was giving up on her, she would never give up on them.