Divinity

Camila was finishing cleaning some weapons before putting them in travel bag for her quick visit to London, while Mother Superior called Duretti to have a conversation with him... or a little confrontation, depending on how things developed. 

Speaking Italian was not one of her skills, but the language had quite a few similarities to Spanish and that meant she could understand some words or parts of sentences and could get an idea of what the two were talking about. 

As she finished packing the weapons for her trip, Camila took advantage of Mother Superior still talking to Duretti to grab her phone and text Lilith to get a status report and find out if she was okay. 

A long, audible sigh of frustration came from Mother Superior as she ended the phone call she had been having for the past few minutes, a clear sign that the conversation had not gone well. 

Camila put her phone back in her pocket and walked slowly towards the older woman. “Are you okay?” she asked, trying to sound casual and calm to counteract Mother Superior’s mood; however, this didn’t seem to work and all she got was a slight nod as the other woman paced back and forth across the table with the map of the Earth. “You’re worried” she pointed out, opting to drop the subtlety and be more direct. 

“Sometimes I think the old teachings don’t work for me” Mother Superior admitted, keeping her eyes on the map on the table. “I need a more modern approach.” 

“It seems modern to me.” 

Mother Superior gave Camila a look of disbelief at her statement and then moved on to a more relevant topic. “Lilith reported?” she questioned, demonstrating that she had been keeping an eye on the younger woman’s actions as she spoke with Duretti. 

“Not since this morning.” 

Another frustrated sigh escaped Mother Superior’s lips before she turned and looked directly at Camila. “We’re working too hard.” 

“Yes, we should eat” the curly-haired girl proposed enthusiastically. “At the convent, it’s time for dinner.” 

Mother Superior flashed the small beginnings of a smile and nodded before walking toward the exit of the room. 

They passed the first door and crossed the archive room to finally exit the place, Camila opened the door for both of them, but Mother Superior motioned for the younger woman to exit first. 

Camila thanked her silently with a smile, though when her gaze was once again straight ahead all hint of happiness disappeared as she saw a nun lying on the floor of the hallway; she quickly ran to the older woman lying on the floor, crouched down next to her and noticed the pool of blood spreading across the floor and down the chest of the nun she now knew was dead. 

“They are stab wounds” Camila reported as soon as Mother Superior reached her to inspect the body. 

“Search the others quietly” ordered the older woman as she reached out to close the dead nun’s eyes. 

The curly-haired girl nodded, stood up and immediately walked to one of the walls of the corridor to grab a picture that was hanging and slide it over the wall, revealing the hiding place of a weapon, which she took carefully. 

They both walked to the stairs, encountering another pair of bodies on their way up, through that was only the beginning because when they reached the central courtyard of the convent they encountered many more. 

“Let’s go back to the base of operations” Mother Superior ordered when she saw the scene in front of them. 

Camila wanted to reply that they should search the whole convent in case there were still enemies in the place, but it was obvious that Mother Superior thought that was not the case and she herself had the same feeling; the overwhelming and terrifying silence made it clear. 

“Okay.” 

Returning to the interior of the base of operations, Camila took a much larger weapon and stood guard at the front door while Mother Superior worked urgently on one of the computers. 

“We must give notice in case this was not the only target” the older woman said as she typed rapidly. “Give me the codes to the other bases.” 

Camila immediately walked over to the other computer to do as she was told, but the lights on the map on the table caught her attention, which made her stop and watch as the lights went out one by one. 

“Mother Superior” she called, unable to believe what she was seeing, “something is happening.” 

“They’re either abandoning the posts or destroying them, I don’t know” the older woman muttered as she approached. “The Order is under a coordinated worldwide attack.” 

Both got to work immediately, Camila concentrated on searching for any signal on the Order’s secret emergency channels in the hope that someone could communicate and tell them what was going on. 

“There’s nothing” the curly-haired girl declared after more than half an hour searching for any sing of a signal. 

“The survivors have gone into hiding and are awaiting instructions” reported Mother Superior as she closed the laptop she was working on. “This is my fault... it’s my failure.” 

“Don’t say that, it was impossible to know this was going to happen.” 

“I knew it was possible” the older woman said angrily as she stood up and picked up some of the things on the table. “We must go and hide.” 

“Of course” she replied, picking up the weapon again and standing up to help pack what they could. 

“Camila, you have to accept that the Order may no longer exist” Mother Superior commented, trying to prepare her. 

The younger woman reached over and took the other’s hand in hers. “As long as there are two of us left, the Order exists” she said decisively. 

A small smile formed on Mother Superior’s lips and she gave the young woman a light squeeze. “Let’s get out things together” she said, returning her focus to the mission they were currently on. 

Camila nodded and picked up a couple of books that were on the table, then walked back to the other end in search of more things, but the flicker of a light on the map caught her attention; she approached carefully and looked at the single light on the map for a couple of seconds of check that she was really seeing what she thought she was. 

“Mother Superior, Madrid” she announced and pointed to the part of the map where the light was located. 

“Someone is still alive” whispered the older woman with relief and new hope. 

||||||||||||||| 

Lilith woke up around noon feeling exhausted, she had never collapsed like this before, but she didn’t remember crying being so exhausting. 

The sound of birds chirping outside the window was the only thing that could be heard inside the room as the brunette rolled over to lay on her back on the bed; however, the whimper that came from Lilith’s lips broke the silence inside the house. 

One of the new advantages that came with her powers was that her eyes didn’t burn or hurt when she rubbed her hands over them in an attempt to get rid of the remnants of dreams left in her, nor did they seem to be swollen despite all the crying she had done hours before. 

However, one thing her regeneration powers could not solve was the intense headache she had at that moment; it felt like when she returned to this world, like when something else inside her mind took her to the necropolis to stop Ava for reasons unknown to her at the time. 

Lilith sat down on the bed and immediately afterwards stood up, not wanting to think about how it felt to not have complete control of herself; she still remembered perfectly the sensation of a voice that she could not hear in her mind, but that she could feel and that could influence her so much that it felt as if someone else was guiding her actions without her being able to do anything to avoid it and regain control. 

The flash of an orange light did not go unnoticed in the reflection of the mirror by her peripheral vision, the entire room was in complete darkness, the sunlight barely and slightly filtered through the edges of the curtain at the window; Lilith’s movements stopped in mid-stretch and her muscles tensed at the possibility of an intruder. 

At that moment she remembered her relative state of undress, the night before, when she was finally able to get out of the shower, she had removed her soaked clothes and barely put on dry underwear before collapsing on the bed. 

She knew that fighting in her underwear, and without weapons, was not the most optimal, but she could handle it, her powers put her at an advantage even if she was outnumbered; she started to put together a plan of attack when she noticed it, the light moved in sync with her movements and she was finally able to connect the dots. 

Se relaxed and blamed her still mostly sleeping brain for how long it took her to figure out what it was, but as she looked at the mirror hanging on the wall near the bedroom door the worry came back to her, this time even worse than before. 

The small light in questions was coming from her own arm and this was not the only thing she had to worry about because there was also a black spot on her bicep. 

He slowly approached the mirror, making sure his footsteps were as quiet as possible on the wooden floor, reached out and turned on the room light before stopping in front of the mirror. 

The light that seemed to be coming from within arm’s length moved to second on his list of concerns as she saw the black scales stretching around it. 

Lilith turned er torso and inspected her other arm, which was in a very similar state. “Shit...” she muttered as she ran her fingertips over the scales covering her left bicep. 

Just when it seemed that things couldn’t get any worse, she was now transforming into a monster. 

She stood in front of the mirror, contemplating the changes in her body, for a long time while she carefully analyzed her options to decide what she should do next, although it was not as simple as it might seem at first. 

Her first choice to ask for help is Mother Superior, but Camila had informed her through her latest updates that the older woman was very busy trying to prevent more people from joining Adriel and preparing other groups of the Order to face the firstborns of the false angel; so Lilith didn’t want to worry her or give her more work than she already had. 

The second option, and possibly the most viable one to get answers, is Jillian, but the scientist was too busy trying to get her son back to even think about any other person or problem anyone could bring to her; Lilith still didn’t quite trust Silvius, her moral compass was compromised, even more than before, and she couldn’t blame her for that, she understood that the scientist was willing to cross any boundary for her son. 

It was strange to see that up close, everything about the relationship between Jillian and Michael was completely different from the relationship Lilith had with her own mother. 

Lilith walked back to the bed, sat on the edge, rested her elbows on her knees and dropped her head on her hands, letting a long frustration-filled sigh escape her lips; she didn’t need to think about her mother and all the complicated things that included her, she was already having a bad day, but she couldn’t help but wonder about everything she had been trying to evade since she came back to this world. 

She wondered how her mother had taken the news of her death, if it really mattered to her mother, if the pain of her loss was the first thing that hir her, if it hit her at all, or if it was the disappointment her daughter brought to the family legacy by not getting the Halo; however, deep down, Lilith knew what the right answer was, she knew her mother well enough nor to know. 

Mother Superior had informed him just before they parted ways in Italy that she had told her mother that her daughter was actually alive, in case any of the civilians who witnessed everything that happened at the Vatican had documented any images or video where Lilith was present, although she avoided the real details and told her that her daughter’s death was a necessary strategy for a special mission of the Order. 

Lilith knew her mother had believed everything they said, always believed in the Order more than anything, but she was also sure that wasn’t enough to make the disappointment go away, maybe even increased it in some way. 

She was also sure that there was no attempt at communication from her mother, perhaps not even a single question as to whether her daughter was well; Lilith was sure that Mother Superior would have granted them that after all she had had to go through, literal hell, or at least as close to hell as they knew, but that was not the case and it is for that reason that Mother Superior refrained from communicating to Lilith what her mother’s reactions was. 

It was hard, even though it wasn’t a big surprise and it was something Lilith could see coming from afar, she tried not to think about it, they had much more important things to worry about, but the part of her that was still human couldn’t help but get stuck on that thought, she couldn't help but care despite her effort to avoid it. 

The memory of her father suddenly struck her, hitting Lilith like an avalanche and making her feel even more vulnerable; the image in her mind was a bit fuzzy, distorted because of all those years of absence, but it still had a calming effect on her. 

She was sure her father would have cared, he always cared about her. 

“I wish you were still here” Lilith murmured to no one in particular, especially not as a prayer to God, only to the memory of her father. 

The whole God thing felt strange since she came back to life, she wasn’t sure if she still believed in what all her life she was taught to believe in, but she tried not to make a big deal out of it, she didn’t care if God was an idiot with stupid plans or if he didn’t give a shit, and focused on just keeping the people she loved safe and doing the right thing in the process. 

An idea pushed Lilith’s religious thoughts aside and took her full attention, causing her to sit up straighter and take a moment to inspect the scales on her upper arms again. 

The transformation to something else was obvious, no matter what, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could maintain control, so she made a decision she knew wasn’t the smartest, but she couldn’t leave in peace if she didn’t; something she felt would happen, again, soon, although it could also just be her paranoia about everything that was going on. 

Without wasting any more time, Lilith stood up and began to dress in her training clothes, which was pretty much all she had besides her mission gear; two minutes later, having finished putting on a sweatshirt so that it completely covered her arms, she used her teleportation powers to go to her childhood home. 

She was very lucky that there was no one around the back garden of the house, that last thing she needed was to cause a heart attack to a gardener who was just doing his job. 

The brunette took a few long seconds to observe the façade of the huge structure in front of her, which was exactly the same as she remembered it, nothing had changed during all the time she had been away and that was a small consolation; after all, she was there because of the memories and she had not stopped to think what she would have felt if nothing had been the same as she remembered it. 

If she remembered correctly, and if her mother hadn’t changed her routine in recent years, there shouldn’t be anyone in the house, neither her mother nor any cleaning staff or help, so after a long inhalation to gather some courage, Lilith finally stepped forward and prepared to enter the house. 

She didn’t even have to force the door somehow, or use her powers to get in, she simply turned the handle of the mostly glass door and pushed a little to make her way onto the gleaming wooden floor inside. 

Lilith walked with some nervousness, even a little embarrassment, as she met the gazes of the former Halo bearers in her family captured in the paintings hanging on the walls... reminding her again of her failure. 

Inevitably she walked in front of her father’s office and stopped just a couple of steps from the large wooden doors, debating with herself whether she should go on or go in, something she had not done since her father’s death years ago. 

There weren’t many of her father’s personal items in the office, what she would find most would be academic books and old documents, but Lilith had fond memories with her father from when she was a child and had an hour or two a day to behave like one, playing in the office or drawing on the desk, after spending the day studying and learning some martial art, while her father did paperwork or was on a work call. 

She spent another minute in front of the office, simply staring at the wooden doors while tapping the fingers of her right hand rhythmically and nervously against the top of her leg until she heard the chime of the old clock at the end of the corridors, which managed to startle her out of her thoughts. 

She sighed with relief as she realized that it was no one else, that she was still the only once inside the house, and then took one last look at the doors to her father’s office to finally start walking back towards the stairs to go up to the second floor. 

Lilith went straight to her parents’ room, which was now her mother’s alone, and went into the closet that was twice the size of her room at Cat’s Cradle, looking inside one of the many drawers for the old family photo albums; getting what she wanted, she went to her own room in search of a little more privacy and comfort. 

The first thing she saw when she entered her room was most of the medals, trophies and ribbons she had won in the competitions she had participated in since she was a child, although her mother had only decided to keep the awards from the competitions in which she had come in first place, the rest she said only represented a failure, so they were discarded. 

It didn’t look like anyone had been in her room since her absence, beyond the cleaning people who had kept the surfaces of the place free of dust, and Lilith was thankful that no one searched through her things because it was easy to find her old sketchbooks that she left hidden behind the study books on the small bookcase next to the desk. 

Despite the comfortable chair in front of the desk she had used throughout her adolescence, she decided to sit on the floor next to the bed and carefully opened the first photo album. 

She spent the next few hours, sitting on the hard wooden floor that was barely cushioned a little by the thin carpet under and around the bed, as the sun slowly descended across the sky and the yellow light coming through the window turned orange. 

Having finished looking through the last photo album, and after wiping the traces of tears from her cheeks, Lilith stood up to stretch her stiff muscles, even though physically she was not in any pain, her powers gave her that advantage for the moment; however, her demonic side could not relieve her of other pain. 

The barely open closet door caught Lilith’s attention, which made her walk with a bit of uncertainty and use her left hand to push the door slightly, making her way into the darkened room. 

She moved her right hand to the wall beside her, smoothly finding the light switch with the help of her muscle memory acquired from all the years she had lived in that house that no longer felt like hers. 

Being surrounded by her old clothes didn’t make her feel more at home either, maybe because it was never quite her style, everything about her was always affected by her mother’s tastes and the status of the family before the world, she couldn’t get out of certain parameters and she tried to adjust her tastes to that, but it never felt quite right, it wasn’t quite her. 

Still Lilith took off her sneakers and placed them neatly by the door, just below the switch, and subsequently began to undress as she moved forward with short steps and took at her old clothes. 

She didn’t bother to consider her clothing options too much and simply picked up the first items that caught her eye, which consisted of loose, worn jeans along with a white blouse with a type of print that was in fashion at some point several years ago. 

She didn’t care what she wore as long as it wasn’t combat or Order training clothes because she just wanted to feel some more of the relative normalcy she had in simpler times when all she had to worry about was gymnastics competitions or any other discipline that didn’t pose imminent danger of death to her or the people she loved. 

She took the old converse that were a gift from possibly her only friend during her adolescence, Rebecca, and put them on; she knew her mother hated those shoes, but Lilith wore them whenever she could as a small act of rebellion, especially when she was dating Rebecca and could be a little more of a normal person. 

She then grabbed a thin, lightweight sweater to cover the scales and lights on her arms; however, before she could completely slip one of her arms through one of the sleeves, a sharp, throbbing headache suddenly hit her, catching her off guard and causing her to nearly lose her balance. 

Lilith managed to stay on her feet by firmly placing her hand on the first surface that came within her reach, which turned out to be a large mirror that was to her left and which shattered a couple of seconds later when her claws came out and the force she applied on the reflective surface was too much. 

The pain remained for about five seconds more with the same intensity and disappeared as quickly as it had hit her seemingly out of nowhere. 

“Fuck” Lilith muttered, still shaken, as she saw her fragmented reflection in the broken mirror. 

She knew it was not a good sign, the same thing had happened to her when she was under observation after her return and that had happened just before she lost control and used her powers to teleport to the Vatican and try to stop Ava. 

She could feel that voice screaming at her from the back of her mind, but she still couldn’t understand it. 

However, an idea crossed her mind, if ava was able to see Shannon through her connection to the other side more stable and thus be able to communicate clearly with whoever she was connected to, even though she wasn’t sure if it was the best of ideas. 

She finished putting on her sweater and left her room, though nor before taking one last look at the photo albums on the floor next to her bed and the trophies piled on the wooden furniture. 

She walked down the hallway and down the stairs in a bit of a hurry, heading for her mother’s office to search the journals of her family’s Halo bearers for information that would ask to help her, but stopped near the bottom of the stairs as she heard the front door open and close. 

Lilith could have left, simply used her powers to go back to her room or go anywhere else, but for some strange reason, unknown even to her, she stayed there, just listening to the sound of her mother’s footsteps approaching. 

As expected, her mother entered gracefully, walking on her high heels, holding her expensive purse in one hand while swinging the house keys in the other and wearing large sunglasses. 

The older woman stopped as soon as she noticed her daughter’s presence on the main stairs and took a second to observe her. “Lilith” she said by way of greeting, with her characteristic neutral tone of voice. 

“Hello, Mother.” 

Lilith response was also something mostly mechanical and neutral, which had a bit of her nervousness about seeing her mother after more than a year and not just hearing her voice through the relatively frequent phone calls she made very couple of months. 

“Will you stay for dinner?” 

It was no surprise that after so long without seeing each other that was the first thing her mother would ask, Lilith wasn’t expecting hugs or an ‘I missed you’, but it was still a little disappointing. 

“Yes” she answered automatically, perhaps so as not to make her disappointment so obvious with a prolonged silence in the already lacking conversation. 

“Okay, dinner will be ready in thirty minutes” said her mother by way of farewell before starting to walk in the direction of her office. 

Lilith knew well that tone and the way her mother was giving her to understand not to bother her before dinner, so she just kept quiet and turned around to go back to her room since she wouldn’t be able to take the diaries if her mother was in her office, so she would have to wait until later to try. 

When she was back in her room she realized she had nothing to do while she waited for dinner to be ready, she had already finished looking through all the photo albums and in the rest of the house there was nothing to distract her. 

She considered the option of leaving, for the time being, unannounced and then returning during the night so she could take the diaries from her mother’s office, but the throbbing headache was a bad omen and she thought her father would not want her and her mother to continue the kind of relationship they had had since her death; she herself had already died, technically, so one last chance to mend the relationship with her mother before possibly losing her mind did not seem like the worst of ideas. 

She took a big breath of air and then exhaled it slowly before walking over to her old book so she could get to the back and grabbing one of her sketchbooks that she had hidden there. 

She smiled as she opened sketchbook to find a drawing of Rebecca’s face, even if it wasn’t as good as her last few drawings from the past few years where she had gotten a lot of advice from Shannon and had improved her technique. 

She looked at the desk in front of the window for a couple of seconds and decided to sit down to sketch a bit and pass the time until it was time for dinner. 

She took a pencil and started to draw some lines without any particular ideas until she silhouette of her father started to become more and more recognizable, so she decided to continue and add more and more details now that she had a fresh image of her father in her mind after seeing the family pictures. 

Tome passed quickly after that, so quickly that Lilith didn’t expect the light rapping of knuckles on her bedroom door, which made her jump a little in place from surprise, and the voice of an unfamiliar woman letting her know that dinner was ready before walking away down the hallway. 

She gave herself a moment longer to simply took at the drawing of her father that she had made, put the pencil down on the desk and got up from the chair and then walked to the door of her room and out. 

She was a little nervous, but it was dinner with her mother, something she had done countless times before, so she figured it couldn’t be that bed. 

[…] 

It was actually worse than she expected... 

Much worse. 

First her mother had thrown in a passive-aggressive comment, as was typical of her, about her hair; then followed the subject of the Halo and how she was a failure, that she always made excuses, that she could never get the Halo; and all of that resulted in Lilith scratching at the table in an attempt to release some pressure, which didn’t turn out as she had hoped and she ended up breaking down and talking back, which made everything worse. 

After stating that she had scars that showed there was whatever it took and that she was not a person who just made excuses, she continued with her venting, something she didn’t know she needed so badly, pointing out that she had died, revived and lost part of her humanity for expectations that were worthless, for nothing. 

That prompted Lilith to give a brief, but accurate explanation of what had really happened to her, how she had actually died and there was never a special mission that had needed her to fake her death, also how she had come back and how she had changed because of that. 

All of that finally ended in her mother visibly shocked and terrified, though perhaps more disappointed than anything else, calling her a monster and telling her that her father was better off dead so she couldn’t see what she had become. 

That caused Lilith to leave the house through the back door, feeling hurt and frustrated, and walk around the back yard trying to calm herself so that the tingling in her fingertips wouldn’t turn into claws. 

She stopped in front of the stone statue in the center of the garden and rested her hands on the base as she tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t seem to be working in the slightest, so she pulled apart a bit and punched the statue hard to release some pressure. 

Her first broke part of the statue and pieces of stone rolled across the ground a couple of meters to her left; Lilith looked at the pieces on the ground for a second, then looked at the damage she had done to the statue and finally inspected her hand, which remained intact. 

A long sigh of acceptance and disappointment left her lips as her eyes closed, her hands rested again on the base of the statue and she leaned forward to rest her head on the carved stone. 

“She’s right” she muttered to herself, feeling the claws reach out and scratch the surface of the stone. “I am a monster.” 

She took a few more seconds in the same position to get the claws to hide again, then she took a step back and finally used her teleportation powers to return to the safe house. 

She appeared in the middle of her room and without wasting a single second more of time she began to undress and then put her combat clothes back on. 

She left the room, walked to the couch by the main entrance and grabbed her coat that she had left there the night before after her encounter with Vincent and Adriel’s followers. 

She slipped her hand into her coat pocket and picked up her burner phone to check her notifications, though as she expected she only had a couple more messages from Camila who was probably very angry with her for not responding in over twenty-four hours. 

Lilith knew it was better to have an angry Camila mad at her than heartbroken over Mary’s death, so she decided to postpone the news as long as she could and tossed the phone on the couch so she wouldn’t take it with her, that way she would be less likely to give in to Camila’s messages, at least until she got back. 

She put on her coat and immediately afterward teleported to the outside of Jillian’s house to announce her arrival in a more normal way and not simply barge onto the property. 

She pressed the bell button in front of the door and waited a couple of seconds before hearing Dr. Silvius’ voice. 

~Who is it?~ 

“Sister Lilith” the brunette replied instinctively, pausing for a second to process the fact that she had called herself ‘sister’ even though she had decided to stop being one. “Can we talk?” she asked, letting go of her confusion at herself. 

~I’m sorry, Lilith, but I’m not in the mood for visitors.~ 

“I need help, Doctor” she insisted, admitting something she had rarely said in her life. “Something is happening to me and I have no one else to turn to.” 

The two seconds of silence that followed made Lilith regret her words and regret having sought Jillian out in the first place. 

~Okay, hold on. I’ll be right down.~ 

Doctor Silvius’ words made the brunette let out the puff of air she didn’t know she was holding at the moment. 

She decided to take a look around her while she waited, just as a precaution, in case Adriel had sent some of his followers to keep an eye on Jillian; she could hear the insects and animals, as well as the wind moving the branches of the trees, but only that. 

She hadn't realized she had started using her powers until she heard a door open inside the property behind the high stone walls, followed by the Doctor’s footsteps leaving the house. 

Knowing she could make everything quicker and easier for both of them, Lilith used her teleportation powers to enter the property. 

Jillian stopped abruptly and looked surprised, as if she had completely forgotten that Lilith had powers and could do that; the brunette didn’t think too much about it, she didn’t judge knowing that the scientist had many things to think about, mainly getting her son back. 

Lilith walked towards the blonde woman and asked her not to waste too much time, receiving a slight smile form Silvius as she led the way to the door she had exited a few seconds before. 

They both entered and walked through the interior of the house, with Jillian leading the way to the area she used for her work. 

The doctor entered one of the many rooms, walked over to a small closet to grab a change of clothes and laid it on the gurney. 

“I’ll give you privacy” said Silvius walking back to the door of the room. “I’ll be in the next room getting ready, so I’ll be back soon.” 

Lilith simply nodded and approached the stretcher, which was identical to the one in the Arp-Tech building’s facilities, as were the clothes, which somehow gave her a bit of familiarity, but also reminded her that she could lose control at any moment. 

She undressed and redressed for the third time in less than two hours, then began panic impatiently back and forth until Jillian re-entered the room while adjusting the collar of her medical gown. 

“What’s wrong?” 

Lilith stopped, turned around and lifted the short sleeve of her right arm to show the scales. 

“This appeared this morning” answered the brunette under the attentive and surprised Doctor. 

“May I check?” Silvius questioned, keeping a friendly attitude and pointing to the gurney. 

“Yes” Lilith nodded, obeying the unspoken request. 

Jillian put on her surgical gloves and then approached carefully. “I’ll need more access, can I...?” she pointed to the knot of the blouse at the base of the brunette's neck. 

She spent a full minute with Silvius simply checking the scales with meticulous care and attention. 

“What?” Lilith asked, looking away from the white wall, which she wasn’t really looking at, and her thoughts of her last encounter with her mother. 

“Does it hurt?” Jillian repeated patiently. 

“I’m fine.” 

Doctor Silvius could notice the absent state of her patient, but did not press on that and just continued doing her job by taking some samples from the scales. 

“What is that?” 

Jillian’s question caught Lilith’s attention again, causing her to look in the same direction as the scientist and find her necklace, which was on the gurney next to her, glowing and blinking. 

She knew exactly what that meant, so her brain immediately pushed away any other thoughts and focused as if she were in the middle of a mission, which she might be on soon because that communication channel wasn’t used for just good news. 

“The call” Lilith answered, reaching out to take the necklace. “An emergency code from the Order” she took the necklace in her hands and paid attention to the rhythm in which the light turned on and off in order to decipher the message correctly. “They’re in Madrid” she murmured more to herself. 

“Do you have to go?” 

The girl took a second to think about her options at that moment. “No” she said returning her gaze to the necklace in her hands. “I have something more important to do for now” she declared, more as a way to convince herself. “But first I must tell my sisters what happened to Mary.” 

Jillian obviously didn’t know what the brunette was referring to, but she didn’t press and just took the metal tray with the samples she had collected and then left the room to do a more thorough check with the help of her technology. 

Lilith began to hesitate, her thumbs recoiled from the Cross on the necklace just before she touched in to send the message, so she paused for a moment to think about the words she should use and tried not to collapse again in the process.