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Description
June 12, 2016; Battle Ground, Indiana

“I thought you said you drew up a map?” Ben asked Ruby as the group stood in the forests of Prophetstown State Park.

“I did!” Ruby insisted. She held up her phone. “See! Right there on the screen.”

“Then why are we lost?”

“We're not lost.”

“We're pretty lost, Rubes,” Jess insisted.

“Nah nah nah.”

“You're sure you traced Aveza’s steps exactly?” Carter asked.

“Yeah yeah. Uhh… totally.”

“You always did have a terrible sense of direction,” Ben half-laughed.

“Shoosh! I can figure this out!”

“Better do it soon,” Chelsea said, getting inpatient. “I wanna hurry up and get the van unloaded so that we can set up shop.”

“Alright alright just hold up already. Let's see… if we go left then right then… wait no. Uh… if we go this way then…”

Ava stood by the van, watching her friends squabble over which direction they needed to go to make it to the Temple of the Angels.

“You know, I never expected this to be the thing that delays us,” she laughed, looking over to her mother.

“Well maybe if we're lucky we just won't be able to find this place and we can go home,” Kiki said.

Ava sighed. She wasn't going to change her mother's mind anytime soon, that was for sure. She turned her attention towards the park scenery. It wasn't an exact match to the forests surrounding Prophetstown she had seen in Aveza’s memories, but it was definitely familiar. Her eyes wandered towards the canopies of the trees, and she caught sight of an eagle circling in the sky not too far away. It was making loops around the large stone structure of the Tippecanoe Battlefield Monument that jutted out high above everything else. Ava started to smile as an idea formed on her head.

“Where are you going?” Kiki asked Ava as she began to walk towards the monument.

“Getting a better viewpoint,” Ava said with a smirk.

“You're not seriously thinking about climbing that thing are you?”

“Mom, I'll be fine. I climbed all those trees in Minneapolis all the time when I was a kid.”

“Those were different.”

“I'll be fine, Mom. I've got the climbing skills of like six different people guiding me.”

“Mmrph…”

Ava kept her stride and pushed her way through the forest until she came up to the base of the monument. She cast a glance over at the statue standing tall above the commemorative plaque at the bottom of the structure. A statue of the Templar William Henry Harrison. A statue that caused Ava to feel a bitter taste in her mouth. It brought back memories of Aveza and 1812. She remembered the battle that her ancestor had fought here. She remembered how Prophetstown was burnt to the ground.

“Requiescat in pace,” Ava bitterly mumbled under her breath. And with that, she began to climb.

She went higher and higher until she was high enough to hear the eagle screech a few feet from her head as it circled around. She carefully hauled herself up onto the tip of the monument, and held her arms out in order to keep her balance. She slowly stood up on her feet, and looked out at the beautiful forest landscape, taking it all in as she scanned the park for the massive stone slab that she knew had the door to the Temple hidden within it. Sure enough, her golden eyes locked onto that very rock, which was sitting right within walking distance of her friends. She smiled, mapping a course in her mind before working on getting down. She looked down and saw a pile of forest debris directly below her. Deciding that would be enough to break her fall, she spread her arms and closed her eyes. And as the eagle let out another cry, she took her leap of faith.

She landed back-first into the cushiony pile, having the wind knocked out of her but okay other than that. She took a moment to catch her breath before leaping back out of the leaves and strolling on back towards her friends. Kiki came rushing up to her as she walked.

“Oh my God! Are you okay? That fall! Did you-?”

“Mom, I'm fine. Look at me! Not a scratch.”

“Well maybe you hit your head, got a concussion or something! We should really get you back to Minnesota so that we can-”

“Mom. Stop. I'm fine. I'm not going to Minneapolis.”

Ava quickened her pace and hardened her steps, getting more and more tired of her mother's reluctance. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and then she went up to tap Ruby on the shoulder.

“We gotta go that way,” she said, smiling as she pointed towards the direction of the Temple entrance.

The gang all looked that way. Ruby looked at her map to second guess herself, and then she simply pocketed her phone. “I knew that,” she said jokingly. Ava giggled and started walking.

“Come on,” she said. “Gabriel awaits!”

The group followed close behind her, and they pushed through the forest brush until they finally came across the rock that marked the entrance to the Temple. Ava approached it first, recalling Aveza’s first venture into the unknown. She carefully put her foot down on the surface of the rock. She gasped a little as her foot phased right through the surface and onto a stair below and her brain failed to catch up with the sudden shift in information. She quickly regained her balance though, felt a couple of the stairs to test their size, and then she finally descended downwards, into the rabbit hole.

She looked in awe at the stairwell walls she was surrounded by. No matter how many times she laid her eyes on one of these isu temples, whether it be as herself or as someone else, she could never quite shake the feeling of awe. The impossibly smooth walls, the glowing hieroglyphics. It all looked so surreal.

The others followed along, carrying a few initial boxes of equipment along with them. They all gawked and stared as well.

They followed down into the depths of the cavernous hallways towards the door to the Armor Room. They came upon the bridge that Aveza had unlocked over two centuries ago, the one that spanned across the bottomless pit of a room. They walked across carefully, and continued on their way until they finally made it to their destination, to the place that all of this adventuring and hardship had come down to. After all this time, Ava was about to fulfill her destiny.

She took the Key out of her pocket and looked down at it, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes before clutching it tight and stepping up to the door. She held it up to the glowing patterns that laced it, and didn't waste any time. She pushed the Key right into its little slot, stood back, and watched.

The engravings on the door lit up like the sun as the room started humming and vibrating just a small bit. A line of light split the door into halves, and those halves slowly slid open with the sound of grinding stone. After a few moments the noises stopped, and the room went still again. The group was left standing there, staring at the open passageway beyond.

Ava looked back at her friends, and she smiled. “Well. Let's go,” she said, and then she entered the chamber.

The lights came on immediately as they all entered the massive room. The hieroglyphs on the walls shined bright gold and the energy walls towards the back created a soft golden ambience as well. And behind those impenetrable defenses sat the shining Piece of Eden that had been destined to become Ava's for over 75000 years. The Armor of Gabriel.

“Damn. It's a lot more impressive in person, Ruby joked. She looked over at Ava. “You're gonna look hot in that suit, Champ!”

“What you saying I'm not hot as is?” she joked.

“Ah come on don't do that,” Ruby laughed, coming up and giving her girl a quick peck on the cheek. “Now go on. Go get that Armor while we set up our stuff.”

Ava nodded, and she made her way across the room to finally claim her prize.

She walked right up to the energy wall that kept the Armor protected. She stared at it, not entirely sure what she was supposed to do at this point. She stood there for longer than she was comfortable with.

“Um…” she said, as nothing seemed to happen. The defenses stayed up, humming away softly. She looked around. Didn't seem to be a button or anything…

Suddenly a blinding gold light erupted from the floor in front of her. She shielded her eyes and stepped back as the light rose up and started to shift and warp into form. A figure manifested in the display, an armored man with mechanical wings that jutted out from the compartment on his back. The hologram yawned and stretched his arms. He looked around the room, clearly a bit dazed.

“God, I wish I didn't have to do these future checks so early in the- Oh hey! Ava!” he said joyfully. “You made it! Holy crap! It's about time!”

“Um… hi Gabriel?” Ava said, not sure what else to say. Her friends came rushing up next to her, eager to interact with the angel that had guided them through this whole endeavour.

“Oh sweet!” Gabriel said as the others joined in. “You're all here… almost. Ah, but that's beside the point. What's important is that you did it! You made it to the temple!”

“Yeah it's great!” Ava said. “So you gonna open the door so that I can put the Armor on and go kick Lucifer's ass?”

“Nope!”

He said it with such a straight smile. The gang looked utterly baffled, with just a twinge of held back anger.

“Sorry what?” Chelsea said, disbelieving.

“There's still one last thing you need to find before you can get into this here Armor chamber,” Gabriel explained.

And the gang lost their heads.

“Are you kidding me!” Ruby shouted.

“After all the crap we've been through already!” Jess complained.

“Gabriel you can't be serious!” Ava whined.

Gabriel held up his hands. “Hey hey hey!” he insisted. “Guys calm down! You open that Armor chamber now, and everything you've worked for already will fall apart. I've seen the timelines, all the possible outcomes of every decision you guys could've possibly made on this journey. Trust me. If you want to save the universe, if you want to stop Lucifer, then you need to get one final thing.”

The group all did a collective sigh of defeat. “Alright, what is it?” Ava asked, crossing her arms.

“Michael's Scythe. The one we used to defeat him millennia ago back in Asgard. It's the only thing powerful enough to take him down.”

“Couldn't we just hunt him down and stab him?” Carter asked. “I mean, it's not like he has that fancy angel armor too.”

“Not now, he doesn't. But he's hot on the trail of finding where we hid his suit. It's only a matter of time before he gets it, and at this point there's nothing we can do to stop it. The most we can do is race against the clock and find the Scythe in time to stop him.”

“So how do we find it?” Ava asked.

A smirk appeared on Gabriel's face. “Well the same way you've found all the other pieces to this puzzle,” he said.

“Back into the Animus again?”

“Eeyup!”

“I don't think that's a good idea…” Ben said. “I mean, she just got out of a Bleeding Effect coma and-”

“Don't worry, Ben. That whole adventure in her mind took care of all that. She's cured… kinda. Her mind is back to how it was before her first time in the machine. As long as she doesn't push it too hard, she'll be fine.”

They all looked at Ava, clearly awaiting her final input. She shrugged. “Alright let's do it. I wanna save the world as soon as possible,” she said.

Gabriel smiled. “Awesome!” he exclaimed.

“I guess I'll get the machine set up then,” Ruby said, going over to her boxes and starting to gather up the Animus components. “What time period are we looking at?” she asked Gabriel.

“Look for someone named Evelyn Arlie,” he told her. “Late 1800s.”

She sat down with her laptop as soon as she had the machine all assembled. “Let's see here…” she mumbled. “Wanbli Arlie... Macha Arlie… Winona Arlie... Oh! Got it! Here we go. Evelyn Arlie, born in 1845 in Lyme Regis to a couple of Victorian scientists with a passion for paleontology. Says here she's Aveza’s granddaughter!”

“Really?” Ava said, walking over.

“Yep! Daughter of Aveza’s oldest, Connie.” Ruby spun to face Gabriel. “She was the last one the see the Scythe?”

Gabriel nodded. “Kid encountered it during her adventures in during the Bone Wars. She hid it away where no one but her would find it. Well… her and her descendant that is.”

Ava nodded, already sitting down into the Animus chair.

“I guess we'll go ahead and get to work on setting up our little temporary hideout here,” Carter commented. “Jess, help me unload the van.”

“What's the magic word?”

“You suck,” Carter laughed. Jess giggled back.

“Close enough,” she said, and the two walked back towards the entrance.

Meanwhile, Ruby was busy placing the headset over Ava's eyes.

“That comfortable?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Ava. “Snug as a bug.”

“Alright cool. Lowering the visor…” She did just that, and gave Ava a swift but passionate kiss. “Love you, honey. Good luck,” she told her.

Ava smiled ear to ear. “Thanks Rubes. I love you too,” she said.

“I'm gonna start you off slow, just to be safe. I'll load up a starting memory just to get you synchronized and then I'll pull you out before getting into the deep end.”

“Fair enough. Just like the good old times, eh?”

Ruby chuckled. “Yeah… it's good to have you back, Ava. I mean it.”

“It's good to be back, Rubes.”

Ruby nodded. “Starting up the program. Aveza’s granddaughter. 1863. Here we go!”

“Good luck,” Ava could hear the others say behind the visor. She took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, letting her muscles relax as the inside of the visor lit up with the welcoming white void of the Animus memory corridor. She could hear Ruby clacking away at her keyboard keys. A line of digital DNA suddenly appeared in front of Ava and stretched out into the void’s horizons. Ava saw a segment of the molecule unwind, and a single node started blinking red.

“You're almost there, Ava,” she could hear Gabriel say. “Godspeed.”

The node suddenly let out a familiar burst of blinding white light, one that engulfed her entire vision and ripped the air out of her lungs as her senses went numb and her mind was quickly being shifted into another time, another person. The isolated coziness of the Temple was replaced by the scene of the shore rolling away as she stood standing at the edge of the boat. She saw children skipping and playing on the streets while other folk were out for an evening walk with their families. She herself wished she could feel the same bliss as them. But instead she was here, stuck in the daze that she always ended up in after handling “sticky situations”

At least she had gotten the blood off of her blade.

Description
June 12, 2016; Battle Ground, Indiana

“I thought you said you drew up a map?” Ben asked Ruby as the group stood in the forests of Prophetstown State Park.

“I did!” Ruby insisted. She held up her phone. “See! Right there on the screen.”

“Then why are we lost?”

“We're not lost.”

“We're pretty lost, Rubes,” Jess insisted.

“Nah nah nah.”

“You're sure you traced Aveza’s steps exactly?” Carter asked.

“Yeah yeah. Uhh… totally.”

“You always did have a terrible sense of direction,” Ben half-laughed.

“Shoosh! I can figure this out!”

“Better do it soon,” Chelsea said, getting inpatient. “I wanna hurry up and get the van unloaded so that we can set up shop.”

“Alright alright just hold up already. Let's see… if we go left then right then… wait no. Uh… if we go this way then…”

Ava stood by the van, watching her friends squabble over which direction they needed to go to make it to the Temple of the Angels.

“You know, I never expected this to be the thing that delays us,” she laughed, looking over to her mother.

“Well maybe if we're lucky we just won't be able to find this place and we can go home,” Kiki said.

Ava sighed. She wasn't going to change her mother's mind anytime soon, that was for sure. She turned her attention towards the park scenery. It wasn't an exact match to the forests surrounding Prophetstown she had seen in Aveza’s memories, but it was definitely familiar. Her eyes wandered towards the canopies of the trees, and she caught sight of an eagle circling in the sky not too far away. It was making loops around the large stone structure of the Tippecanoe Battlefield Monument that jutted out high above everything else. Ava started to smile as an idea formed on her head.

“Where are you going?” Kiki asked Ava as she began to walk towards the monument.

“Getting a better viewpoint,” Ava said with a smirk.

“You're not seriously thinking about climbing that thing are you?”

“Mom, I'll be fine. I climbed all those trees in Minneapolis all the time when I was a kid.”

“Those were different.”

“I'll be fine, Mom. I've got the climbing skills of like six different people guiding me.”

“Mmrph…”

Ava kept her stride and pushed her way through the forest until she came up to the base of the monument. She cast a glance over at the statue standing tall above the commemorative plaque at the bottom of the structure. A statue of the Templar William Henry Harrison. A statue that caused Ava to feel a bitter taste in her mouth. It brought back memories of Aveza and 1812. She remembered the battle that her ancestor had fought here. She remembered how Prophetstown was burnt to the ground.

“Requiescat in pace,” Ava bitterly mumbled under her breath. And with that, she began to climb.

She went higher and higher until she was high enough to hear the eagle screech a few feet from her head as it circled around. She carefully hauled herself up onto the tip of the monument, and held her arms out in order to keep her balance. She slowly stood up on her feet, and looked out at the beautiful forest landscape, taking it all in as she scanned the park for the massive stone slab that she knew had the door to the Temple hidden within it. Sure enough, her golden eyes locked onto that very rock, which was sitting right within walking distance of her friends. She smiled, mapping a course in her mind before working on getting down. She looked down and saw a pile of forest debris directly below her. Deciding that would be enough to break her fall, she spread her arms and closed her eyes. And as the eagle let out another cry, she took her leap of faith.

She landed back-first into the cushiony pile, having the wind knocked out of her but okay other than that. She took a moment to catch her breath before leaping back out of the leaves and strolling on back towards her friends. Kiki came rushing up to her as she walked.

“Oh my God! Are you okay? That fall! Did you-?”

“Mom, I'm fine. Look at me! Not a scratch.”

“Well maybe you hit your head, got a concussion or something! We should really get you back to Minnesota so that we can-”

“Mom. Stop. I'm fine. I'm not going to Minneapolis.”

Ava quickened her pace and hardened her steps, getting more and more tired of her mother's reluctance. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and then she went up to tap Ruby on the shoulder.

“We gotta go that way,” she said, smiling as she pointed towards the direction of the Temple entrance.

The gang all looked that way. Ruby looked at her map to second guess herself, and then she simply pocketed her phone. “I knew that,” she said jokingly. Ava giggled and started walking.

“Come on,” she said. “Gabriel awaits!”

The group followed close behind her, and they pushed through the forest brush until they finally came across the rock that marked the entrance to the Temple. Ava approached it first, recalling Aveza’s first venture into the unknown. She carefully put her foot down on the surface of the rock. She gasped a little as her foot phased right through the surface and onto a stair below and her brain failed to catch up with the sudden shift in information. She quickly regained her balance though, felt a couple of the stairs to test their size, and then she finally descended downwards, into the rabbit hole.

She looked in awe at the stairwell walls she was surrounded by. No matter how many times she laid her eyes on one of these isu temples, whether it be as herself or as someone else, she could never quite shake the feeling of awe. The impossibly smooth walls, the glowing hieroglyphics. It all looked so surreal.

The others followed along, carrying a few initial boxes of equipment along with them. They all gawked and stared as well.

They followed down into the depths of the cavernous hallways towards the door to the Armor Room. They came upon the bridge that Aveza had unlocked over two centuries ago, the one that spanned across the bottomless pit of a room. They walked across carefully, and continued on their way until they finally made it to their destination, to the place that all of this adventuring and hardship had come down to. After all this time, Ava was about to fulfill her destiny.

She took the Key out of her pocket and looked down at it, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes before clutching it tight and stepping up to the door. She held it up to the glowing patterns that laced it, and didn't waste any time. She pushed the Key right into its little slot, stood back, and watched.

The engravings on the door lit up like the sun as the room started humming and vibrating just a small bit. A line of light split the door into halves, and those halves slowly slid open with the sound of grinding stone. After a few moments the noises stopped, and the room went still again. The group was left standing there, staring at the open passageway beyond.

Ava looked back at her friends, and she smiled. “Well. Let's go,” she said, and then she entered the chamber.

The lights came on immediately as they all entered the massive room. The hieroglyphs on the walls shined bright gold and the energy walls towards the back created a soft golden ambience as well. And behind those impenetrable defenses sat the shining Piece of Eden that had been destined to become Ava's for over 75000 years. The Armor of Gabriel.

“Damn. It's a lot more impressive in person, Ruby joked. She looked over at Ava. “You're gonna look hot in that suit, Champ!”

“What you saying I'm not hot as is?” she joked.

“Ah come on don't do that,” Ruby laughed, coming up and giving her girl a quick peck on the cheek. “Now go on. Go get that Armor while we set up our stuff.”

Ava nodded, and she made her way across the room to finally claim her prize.

She walked right up to the energy wall that kept the Armor protected. She stared at it, not entirely sure what she was supposed to do at this point. She stood there for longer than she was comfortable with.

“Um…” she said, as nothing seemed to happen. The defenses stayed up, humming away softly. She looked around. Didn't seem to be a button or anything…

Suddenly a blinding gold light erupted from the floor in front of her. She shielded her eyes and stepped back as the light rose up and started to shift and warp into form. A figure manifested in the display, an armored man with mechanical wings that jutted out from the compartment on his back. The hologram yawned and stretched his arms. He looked around the room, clearly a bit dazed.

“God, I wish I didn't have to do these future checks so early in the- Oh hey! Ava!” he said joyfully. “You made it! Holy crap! It's about time!”

“Um… hi Gabriel?” Ava said, not sure what else to say. Her friends came rushing up next to her, eager to interact with the angel that had guided them through this whole endeavour.

“Oh sweet!” Gabriel said as the others joined in. “You're all here… almost. Ah, but that's beside the point. What's important is that you did it! You made it to the temple!”

“Yeah it's great!” Ava said. “So you gonna open the door so that I can put the Armor on and go kick Lucifer's ass?”

“Nope!”

He said it with such a straight smile. The gang looked utterly baffled, with just a twinge of held back anger.

“Sorry what?” Chelsea said, disbelieving.

“There's still one last thing you need to find before you can get into this here Armor chamber,” Gabriel explained.

And the gang lost their heads.

“Are you kidding me!” Ruby shouted.

“After all the crap we've been through already!” Jess complained.

“Gabriel you can't be serious!” Ava whined.

Gabriel held up his hands. “Hey hey hey!” he insisted. “Guys calm down! You open that Armor chamber now, and everything you've worked for already will fall apart. I've seen the timelines, all the possible outcomes of every decision you guys could've possibly made on this journey. Trust me. If you want to save the universe, if you want to stop Lucifer, then you need to get one final thing.”

The group all did a collective sigh of defeat. “Alright, what is it?” Ava asked, crossing her arms.

“Michael's Scythe. The one we used to defeat him millennia ago back in Asgard. It's the only thing powerful enough to take him down.”

“Couldn't we just hunt him down and stab him?” Carter asked. “I mean, it's not like he has that fancy angel armor too.”

“Not now, he doesn't. But he's hot on the trail of finding where we hid his suit. It's only a matter of time before he gets it, and at this point there's nothing we can do to stop it. The most we can do is race against the clock and find the Scythe in time to stop him.”

“So how do we find it?” Ava asked.

A smirk appeared on Gabriel's face. “Well the same way you've found all the other pieces to this puzzle,” he said.

“Back into the Animus again?”

“Eeyup!”

“I don't think that's a good idea…” Ben said. “I mean, she just got out of a Bleeding Effect coma and-”

“Don't worry, Ben. That whole adventure in her mind took care of all that. She's cured… kinda. Her mind is back to how it was before her first time in the machine. As long as she doesn't push it too hard, she'll be fine.”

They all looked at Ava, clearly awaiting her final input. She shrugged. “Alright let's do it. I wanna save the world as soon as possible,” she said.

Gabriel smiled. “Awesome!” he exclaimed.

“I guess I'll get the machine set up then,” Ruby said, going over to her boxes and starting to gather up the Animus components. “What time period are we looking at?” she asked Gabriel.

“Look for someone named Evelyn Arlie,” he told her. “Late 1800s.”

She sat down with her laptop as soon as she had the machine all assembled. “Let's see here…” she mumbled. “Wanbli Arlie... Macha Arlie… Winona Arlie... Oh! Got it! Here we go. Evelyn Arlie, born in 1845 in Lyme Regis to a couple of Victorian scientists with a passion for paleontology. Says here she's Aveza’s granddaughter!”

“Really?” Ava said, walking over.

“Yep! Daughter of Aveza’s oldest, Connie.” Ruby spun to face Gabriel. “She was the last one the see the Scythe?”

Gabriel nodded. “Kid encountered it during her adventures in during the Bone Wars. She hid it away where no one but her would find it. Well… her and her descendant that is.”

Ava nodded, already sitting down into the Animus chair.

“I guess we'll go ahead and get to work on setting up our little temporary hideout here,” Carter commented. “Jess, help me unload the van.”

“What's the magic word?”

“You suck,” Carter laughed. Jess giggled back.

“Close enough,” she said, and the two walked back towards the entrance.

Meanwhile, Ruby was busy placing the headset over Ava's eyes.

“That comfortable?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said Ava. “Snug as a bug.”

“Alright cool. Lowering the visor…” She did just that, and gave Ava a swift but passionate kiss. “Love you, honey. Good luck,” she told her.

Ava smiled ear to ear. “Thanks Rubes. I love you too,” she said.

“I'm gonna start you off slow, just to be safe. I'll load up a starting memory just to get you synchronized and then I'll pull you out before getting into the deep end.”

“Fair enough. Just like the good old times, eh?”

Ruby chuckled. “Yeah… it's good to have you back, Ava. I mean it.”

“It's good to be back, Rubes.”

Ruby nodded. “Starting up the program. Aveza’s granddaughter. 1863. Here we go!”

“Good luck,” Ava could hear the others say behind the visor. She took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, letting her muscles relax as the inside of the visor lit up with the welcoming white void of the Animus memory corridor. She could hear Ruby clacking away at her keyboard keys. A line of digital DNA suddenly appeared in front of Ava and stretched out into the void’s horizons. Ava saw a segment of the molecule unwind, and a single node started blinking red.

“You're almost there, Ava,” she could hear Gabriel say. “Godspeed.”

The node suddenly let out a familiar burst of blinding white light, one that engulfed her entire vision and ripped the air out of her lungs as her senses went numb and her mind was quickly being shifted into another time, another person. The isolated coziness of the Temple was replaced by the scene of the shore rolling away as she stood standing at the edge of the boat. She saw children skipping and playing on the streets while other folk were out for an evening walk with their families. She herself wished she could feel the same bliss as them. But instead she was here, stuck in the daze that she always ended up in after handling “sticky situations”

At least she had gotten the blood off of her blade.