Ariadne | Druig | On Hold

Ch. 08: fights and hugs

Present- the Domo

After Phastos sent Makkari to find the point of emergence Druig, Thena, and Ariadne stand looking at a painting on the wall.

"You always knew the end was coming. It must be a relief," Druig speaks out of nowhere.

"That Deviant is still tracking us," is all she responds with.

"Revenge won't bring peace for you, Thena," Ari tries to remind her, but stops when she responds with, "but killing it might."

"Well, that just happened," Ari sighs and turns towards Druig. A worried frown then covers Ari's face making Druig worry.

"What, what's wrong?" He asks frantically, grabbing her shoulders, turning her toward himself.

Scanning her face and features for injuries she whispers, "I don't want you to die."

Taken aback he asks, "what love?"

"When you try to control Tiamut, you can't die."

He just looks at her for a moment, fully knowing he's in love with this woman. "I'll come back love. Okay? I promise," he puts his forehead against hers closing his eyes, her doing the same.

Grabbing his hands with her eyes still closed she barely whispers, "you have to, I can't lose you too."

"You'll never lose me, I'll always come back for you Ari. Because it's always been you." She was going to respond, but their broken apart when Ikaris shoots apart the design and Phastos falls down they move over to watch. Her hand still held tightly in his.

"Boss, what are you doing?" Kingo asks him.

"I've let this go on long enough," is all he responds with.

"Don't hurt him!" Sersi runs into the run helping Phastos up, "he lied to us. He already knew about the emergence."

"No, he didn't," Kingo tries to defend Ikaris, but Ikaris tells him, "Ajak told me everything when we left Babylon."

"What?" He whispers, hurt that his friend would do this to him. Ari stops paying attention when Druig slowly drags her behind him. She peeks her head out to watch everything unfold.

"You were never gonna let us stop the emergence," Sersi states.

"No," he denies, "I only wanted to protect you from the Deviants."

"If Ajak wanted you to take her place, why did she choose me?" She looks at him, heart broken whispering, "what have you done?"

"He killed her," Druig states, blank faced. Ariadne gasps, tears leaking out her eyes, heart broken knowing one of her friends killed her mother figure.

"I had to."

"She loved you," Sersi tells him crying.

"Did she?" He asks back, tearing up himself.

"She loved you," she repeats, still crying.

"Do you think it was easy to live with the truth? To know that one day all this would end? To keep on lying to you? If we gave humanity the choice, how many of them would be willing to die so that billions more could be born?"

"We're not giving them a choice." Sersi denies.

"Is this why you're willing to kill? You are so pathetic!" Phastos yells at him.

"I'm an Eternal, Phastos. I exist for Arishem. As do you. It's who you are," Ikaris tells him seriously with no emotion on his face.

"I wouldn't change a single thing about who I am. Born or made. But I do not exist for Arishem, I exist for my family!"

"Then you are making the same mistake Ajak did."

Makkari rushes back into the room signing, "I found Tiamut."

"No!"

"Makkari!" Kingo jumps in front of Makkari to save her from Ikaris. "Get out of here!"

"Kingo," Ikaris says.

"You do not turn against your family. Gilgamesh died because of you," Ari gets mad when he says that. She spent thousands of years with Gil, and Kingo was right. Her friend died because of Ikaris.

"You won't succeed against me. And I will kill every one of you if I have to," Ikaris reminds them.

"Wait," Sprite stops him from walking out of the room by saying, "I'm going with you."

"Sprite..." Sersi tries to stop them, but they disappear in a field of butterflies.

"What is this?" Thena walks into the room missing the whole thing. Druig moves Ari over to the corner of the room, not paying attention to anyone else.

"Are you ok my beautiful Ari?" He asks her softly. She just nods looking at the ground, so he puts his hand under her chin lifting it. "Now tell me the truth." She shakes her head this time making Druig pull her into a hug, his head resting on hers. Her arms wrapping around his waist, she stays like that.

Ari listens to everything happening from Druig's arms. No one questions it, knowing she needed comfort.

"Look, if I'm gonna get myself killed going up against Ikaris, we'll need to have a backup plan," Ari feels Druig's chest vibrate when he talks.

"All of our powers, even if they're amplified, are not enough to kill a Celestial, so..." Phastos drags out.

"Well, Sersi did turn a Deviant into a tree," Druig reminds everyone, well except for Phastos.

"I'm sorry, what? You didn't wanna tell me that?"

"You've never been able to do it before."

"I don't know how it happened, okay? And I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it again," Sersi says with worry in her voice.

"Well, now is the time to try, don't you think?" Phastos scoffs.

"Phastos, that Deviant is dead. Our plan is to put Tiamut to sleep, not to kill it. I can't kill a Celestial," Sersi denies.

"Sersi. Sersi."

"We can't!" She shouts. "We can't," she says calmer.

"It's okay, Sersi. I got this," Druig smiles at her, Sersi smiling back grateful. He turns his attention back to the woman he loves who is still hugging him. Making him smile softly, placing his head in her hair, hugging her tighter, her doing the same in return.

All the eternals share smiles knowing it won't be long before they finally get together.

A/N:

What'd you think?

Sorry for any mistakes you may find.

Till we meet again,

-E