Phastos had done a wonderful job fixing the Domo. As good as new, even better now. The team was ready to leave now. It wasn't as easy as Thena had thought. Everything reminded her of Gilgamesh here. Memories were all she had now. They weren't enough. Nothing would be enough until she had Gilgamesh back. Thena had to leave and find a way to bring him back. Without that hope, she had nothing.
Jack, Phastos and Ben's son, was very enthusiastic and curious about everything. He was asking a lot of questions about who they really were and what kind of power they had. Children had that curiosity about the world around them she always admired. Jack had called her Athena but that wasn't her. It had never been her really. Sprite had always loved telling stories to the people they were staying with. Her illusions made everything look better, the Eternals in particular. Thena wasn't goddess or particularly wise. She was a warrior no more no less.
"Drop the A." She told the kid.
Phastos didn't really appreciate her way of answering his son's question on her power. Perhaps she shouldn't have materialized a spear to get to the apple on top of the shelf. She would never hurt a child but Phastos was a little bit too overprotective like most parents were. The kid wasn't stupid. He had been watching TV like the rest of the world.
The Eternals had been on television for the most part of the last two weeks now. The people thought that after the blip, after five years of misery when half of their loved ones had disappeared, they simply thought that it was it. Nothing worse could happen than what they have already been through. Their heroes had tried everything, even died for them. It almost felt like everything had been for nothing.
The Eternals had shown they had formidable powers. They had lived among them for so long, blending in but they had never intervened. Humanity had been through wars, pandemics and famines and they could have helped if not stopped it all. So many people could have been saved along the way. Their inaction was hard to understand for most people and who could blame them really. Humanity had already been through too much. Now, a giant marble statue in the Indian Ocean would always remind them they meant nothing to people from the big vast universe.
Thena had always followed orders as long as she could remember. They hadn't known what Arishem's plan was for a long time. Ajak had lived with that knowledge for so long and for so long, she had believed in Arishem's plan. The fight against Thanos had made her change her mind. Ikaris had been told by Ajak and had embraced the cause. Druig had understood more than any of the rest of them. Thena had the Mahd Wy'ry for an excuse but what about before that? The press were right. They should have helped as much as she could have from the very beginning or at the very least during the Infinity War against Thanos.
Thena was actually relieved to finally leave the planet. She was eager to start. The Domo was fast. Each minute in the universe was a minute closer to her goal. The Eternals might not know where Olympia was, that didn't mean that the planet wasn't known by the rest of the galaxy. Populated planets were just around the corner. Hopefully, they would have a clue to carry on, directions, something.
Despite the distance, Phastos had found a way to stay in contact with them. Druig would report to him regularly. The one who had stayed on Earth still wanted to know the progress of the mission and if they could help, even from afar. The ship might get damaged along the way. Phastos would be able to give indication on how to repair it. The three on the ship still wanted to know how things would be going back on Earth. They had spent millennia there and weren't about to forget about it.
Druig was to contact Earth that day and kept trying but to no avail. This wasn't normal. Phastos would have warned them if he couldn't answer on a particular day or live like a message on an answering machine. Something was horribly wrong. Druig and Makkari's worries were justified and Thena really wanted to help. At the same time, she didn't want to go back. Her plan for Gilgamesh was somewhere ahead. Each minute spent alone was an agony she never thought possible. Her heart was breaking a little bit more with each day passing. Time was meant to heal all wounds. Thena was just the ghost of who she used to be.
