"𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞..."
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
They all sat around a table, which was meant for no more than three people but somehow managed to all squeeze into a spot.
All of the eternals, including their human guests, were gushing over the food.
And the bread, of course.
They ate like they had been starving for days, but it was understandable.
Gilgamesh was incredible at cooking as he had always been. His food was mouthwatering.
"Is this what you guys eat everyday?"
Kingo questioned, speaking with a full mouth.
"Yeah, this is amazing."
"Thank you, Gil."
Ikaris said, looking up at the proud man.
"Oh, you're welcome."
He smiled, glancing over at the others.
"Help yourself."
It was moments like these she had missed.
He jolted around the table, grabbing something from a cabin.
"What's that?" Persia questioned, taking another bite from her bread.
"This one is a true wine delicacy, made for the soldiers of the battle of Troy." He put the fancy looking bottle up, patting a hand to Karun's shoulder who said something.
Oh, Persia knew that liquid and she scrunched her nose at the thought of it.
When Gil passed Kingo, he pulled him toward him and whispered something.
"Should she be drinking?", pointing towards Thena, who gave them a stare as she took a sip from her drink.
Gilgamesh whispered something back which Persia didn't catch.
Kingo set a smile on his face and directed himself towards Thena, before nervously turning back to his food.
"Can I try that too?" Maya asked, her face stuffed with the meat that was served.
Gilgamesh was about to hand her the bottle, but Persia put a hand out.
"On, no way."
"What, why?!" Maya pouted, putting her hands up defensively.
"You can't handle any alcohol." Persia scoffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"I won't carry you, passed out, out of here like we did on the plane."
"Hey, we talked about that!" Maya exclaimed, her voice going higher,
"I was tired, that's why I fell asleep."
"You fell asleep, on a private plane, after drinking like six shots, after meeting a movie star?"
Kingo proudly bowed as Persia spoke.
"Well, yes.." Maya argued.
"Give in, we all saw it." Sersi smiled at Maya, whose cheeks were colored a red shade by then.
"I gave you the same thing, Sprite." Gilgamesh laughed.
"I am just kidding," he added, Persia watching amused as Sprite flicked her wrist and-
"yours is a secret brew Odin taught me as a baby..."
No one could properly understand him anymore, his words were swallowed by their loud laughter.
The fearsome Gilgamesh-
standing in a cutesy pink baby romper.
The man finally noticed, giving a sarcastic laugh.
"Oh, I'm a big baby, very mature."
He somehow found a way to make fun of Sprite while looking like a gigantic toddler.
"Can you stop?"
Sprite dropped the illusion with her chin up in the air, declaring her truce with a simple nod.
"Speaking of Odin, Thor used to follow me around when I was a little kid. Now he's a famous avenger and won't return my calls." Kingo said, taking a taste of wine.
Persia considered telling him what it was actually made of, but decided against it.
Gilgamesh has fooled her once with it too, the last time she ever visited.
And she wasn't going to lie, she had to stop herself from laughing.
"Are you sure, I haven't heard that from him." Persia smirked slightly, receiving a stunned look from Maya.
"Hold on, you-"
"Come on, Persia. I'm a favorite amongst the gods." Kingo declared, sending a beaming smile towards Thena.
The warrior rolled her eyes, but pulled the corners of her lips slightly up.
"You guys know the Avengers?" Maya finished.
Persia put another bite of the bread into her mouth. "I have been on Shields' radar many times." she shrugged, "When you blow things up frequently and leave behind those huge energy traces, I shouldn't have been surprised."
"And then?" Maya's eyes lit with curiosity which couldn't help but keep Persia talking.
"I met quite a few of them, they tried catching me. I had a fun few months throwing them off. Eventually I allowed myself to get captured and had a talk with that guy with the eyepatch."
"Nick Fury?" Sprite questioned, to which Maya nudged the girl's shoulder. „Did you know that he lost his eye during a Nazi grenade blast?"
„Oh yeah, he's a nice guy actually." Persia said, "I also got in trouble with that guy, um- the one with the red cape?"
"Vision, the humanoid robot?"
"No," Persia thought, but couldn't remember his name, "The wizard, you know-"
"Dr. Strange?" Maya huffed in disbelief.
"Yeah right!" Persia clapped her hands, trying to remember why they crossed paths, "He said something about not entering some sacred building in New York..."
"So now that Captain Rogers and Iron Man are gone, who do you think will lead the avengers?"
Sprite brought up, the talks going quiet around her.
"I could lead them." Ikaris then replied, a little silent but not enough for no one to catch it.
"I figured I'd be good at that."
"Yeah you would." Kingo agreed.
Gilgamesh pursed his lips slightly, "Ajak didn't even choose you to lead us,"
Persia's chin dropped in disbelief, shooting her eyes up alarmed towards the man who obviously didn't know the difference between being blatantly honest and being nice.
Gil didn't care about his cruelty.
The others laughed, or at least uncomfortably chuckled.
"Ouch." Ikaris whispered, a small breath to his voice.
The blade to the warrior.
Persia knew that Ikaris was feeling confused with Ajak not choosing him but-
Sersi cleared her throat and got up from her chair, only bearing the others a look when everyone went quiet.
"I'm just gonna get some fresh air."
Persia considered going after her,
she wanted to.
But this time, she had no clue how to comfort her.
"This is really good, Gil." Kingo took another sip, slipping the last bit into his mouth.
Persia couldn't believe he drank it all.
"I could sell this with my face on it for some units!"
"I made it from corn, I chewed each cornel myself and fermented them in my spit."
Kingo spat it back into the can and didn't touch it for the rest of the night.
They talked, until the sun was drenching the endless sand in gold.
Voice lowered, for no reason at all.
Laughing, joking. Simply talking like it wasn't any more serious than that.
A family, reunited, like Persia always wanted it to.
Of course, they couldn't have known what was at stake.
They spoke, until Sersi came in, breathing so heavily that for a second Persia got scared that a Deviant had appeared.
When she opened her mouth to talk, no words came out.
"Hey, are you alright?" Ikaris asked, going to get up when Sersi finally said something.
"I talked to Arishem."
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
The sky was dark, a faint breeze weighing in the room because the windows weren't fully intact anymore.
Only a few flickering candles illuminating their faces.
Persia had her eyes glued to nothingness, lost in thought.
No one spoke.
No one had words to share.
"So you're basically saying we are some fancy robots and our memories are- stored somewhere- in space..?" Kingo summarized slowly, breaking the ongoing silence.
"And Arishem made the Deviants."
Sersi bore Persia a glance, which she held a little too long.
It felt as if she wanted to say something else. Sorrow, a type of guilt dragging her eyes down.
The woman broke it off, shook her head.
What was that?
Gilgamesh took a long breath, then turned to the woman in white, put his hand on top of hers to grasp her attention. "I'm sorry, Thena. You tried to warn us."
"The last time Arishem reset your memories, something must have gone wrong." Sprite said.
"What do you mean?"
Persia blinked a couple times. "Mahd Wy'ry. Thena was remembering the other planets we've been to. She remembers everyone dying during the Emergences."
Her voice came out distorted, like it wasn't hers at all.
"I thought we were heroes," Gil muttered, for once his voice heavy with emotion."turns out we were the bad guys all along."
"We are not the bad guys, okay?" Kingo interrupted, a brief frustration behind his words. "We have helped the Celestials expand life across the universe."
Like he was trying to convince himself too.
He loved humans, he loved this planet.
"that's not what bad guys do, that's-"
"At what cost, mhm?" Persia raised her voice, shutting him up.
"Do you know how much we have sacrificed only for more to sacrifice?"
She wasn't just talking about the Earth.
The loss of her family, their leader.
Each of the eternals a part of themselves.
"Every time life's are sacrificed for the greater good, it turns out to be a mistake."
Sersi spoke, tilting her chin a little higher.
"We have to stop the Emergence."
"Sersi, we have no right to stop the birth of a Celestial." Kingo interrupted, Maya having to squeeze Persia's hand so she wouldn't argue back.
"There has to be a way for Tiamut to emerge without destroying the earth."
Sersi said, aware that it was a desperate plan.
"We just have to- delay it until we find out how."
It was quiet.
Persia had it at the back of her mind the entire time.
"Druig could do it."
"Yes, Druig could try to control its mind? Maybe put it to sleep..." Gilgamesh spoke almost to himself.
"Put it to sleep, are you serious?" Sprite scoffed, leaning into her chair.
"Gilgamesh asked Druig to put me to sleep once." Thena talked very slowly, narrowing her eyes at Gilgamesh.
"So I could take a vacation to Fiji." he added quietly.
"He could do it to me too, without effort." Persia said, causing the others to avoid her sight.
Kingo straightened his back.
"We are talking about a Celestial!"
The woman threw her hands into the air defensively, leaned forward.
"We have to try, we are not going to let everyone on Earth die!"
"Right!", Karun agreed enthusiastically, quieting as soon as everyone looked at him, "I'm human, I'm a little biased."
"You should go home, Maya." Persia mumbled, taking a shaking breath.
"What, no-"
"Go visit your mom, or your sisters." Persia didn't notice how she squeezed her friend's hand tighter. Her face was right opposite hers.
She didn't notice how tears raised into her eyes either.
All this time, trying her best to learn how to control, how to live.
Down the drain, along with her memories.
And all of these people.
Ajak's life, gone.
They would probably get that memory taken from them too.
"I can't have you get hurt." Persia pleaded, putting her forehead against that of the girl.
"Don't risk it all because of me."
Maya chuckled lightly, "I will stay and go down beside you."
Kingo conversed with Karun in a language which Persia couldn't pick up on so fast.
"And do what, watch TV?"
Karun argued, "When I could be with you, the eternals saving the world."
Kingo exhaled a breath.
"Fine," he put the cup of liquid to his mouth again, "if you want to."
He held it for a second before remembering, then spat it out.
"Gilgamesh, could you please get rid of the saliva beer?"
"Why don't you like it-"
"We need to go, now." Ikaris voice cut through the thick air like a blade,
"When we will be together again, we will decide what to do about the Emergence."
He was the only one standing, looking around the people.
Sersi nodded, Sprite did too.
When he met Persia's eyes, she gave him a slight nod too.
"Where is he?" Gilgamesh asked, suddenly everyone's eyes rushing to Persia.
The girl was caught so off guard that her face fell into itself before she furrowed her brows in confusion.
"Is this a joke?"
"Can you trace his energy?" Ikaris asked, clearing his throat.
Her head pulled back, body cowering further into itself.
Persia's magic was no longer what it used to be, the others knew.
She was familiar with his energy, far more than she would have liked.
Far beyond she would have admitted over her immortal body.
He felt like the hot breath of air when everything was freezing.
A spark about to set off an explosion.
Neither calm like Ajak, nor distorted yet centered like Thena.
It was the closest to what she felt when touching a human.
A simple human.
Humane, that's what his energy felt like.
The need for oxygen.
Thing was, Persia knew where he was without even feeling for his energy with the tips of her fingers.
She took a deep breath, gritted her teeth.
"I can bring us to him."
—
A/N: Enjoy this little wholesomeness, as you probably guessed, Persia will be encountering Druig in the next chapter !
thank you all so much for 6k, i'm so grateful for every single one!
again, i don't really like my work with this chapter, i'm hoping to get back on track.
i hope you guys can still enjoy this :)