Part 4

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Beatrice is still sitting there when Camila, Father Vincent, Yasmine, and Dora find her, minutes or hours later. She's alone, sitting against a wall, and she's sure her expression must give away a healthy amount of devastation. Because she gained, lost, gained again, and then has temporarily lost the potential love of her life in just the span of a few hours, and her head and heart are still trying to make sense of that.

Camila starts crying first, clearly reaching an obvious conclusion. There's just a lot of bloodshed, guts and body parts spread about. Without confirmation, Ava -

It's Father Vincent who appears in front of Beatrice and quietly asks, "What happened?"

So Beatrice tells them. She explains what she found when she arrived, and then Reya out of the portal, Adriel grandstanding, Michael dead on the ground, Ava hurt and crying, and Lilith. She explains the end; the Divinium bomb that didn't end up working, and the result of urging Ava to let go. Staying when Ava told her to go.

"They're gone," Beatrice finishes, looking towards the Arc. "They're all gone." Her voice catches. "She's gone."

Nobody asks anything more of her, and it's Dora who helps her to her feet, urging her forward and away. She stumbles slightly, her feet unstable. But she keeps walking, looking back only once, seeing the Arc as it is, both hating it and being grateful for its existence. If they likely didn't need it for the upcoming war, Beatrice would take great pleasure in blowing it up.

For now, she allows herself to be led away, allowing her grief over Ava to settle in her gut, hope desperately blooming eternal.

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