TW: Mentions of war and violent death
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{☁︎}
575 BC - Babylon
Various Deviants stampede through the village, creating damage as they topple over everything in their paths. People scream as they run away in fear. One Deviant charges at a small family, who wails as they try to get away. Serina bolts toward the creature from behind and leaps onto its back, digging her Jian into the skin and sliding down, slicing the Deviant's back as she goes down. It screeches out in pain and collapses onto its side, blood oozing from the long gash on its back. The family looks at the dead Deviant before gazing at Serina with their mouths agape. "You're okay now. Get to safety," she tells them in Babylonian.
The family fastly nods their heads and begins to turn around to run off. "Thank you," the father responds, his voice full of appreciation. They zoom away and Serina watches them with a small grin before running off to take down more Deviants. She sees one up ahead chasing after a group of humans. She halts and sucks in a breath, bending forward as she releases a powerful scream. The Deviant flies back and crashes into the building behind it, dead before it hits the ground due to the high-intensity sound waves.
"Hey, I had that one!" Kingo shrieks, throwing his hands up.
"Maybe, but I got it first," Serina teases, shrugging. She points to the Deviant that Thena is fighting a few feet away from them. "You can have that one." As soon as she says that, Thena chops its head off. "Oh. Just kidding," she remarks.
Kingo sighs. "Hey, that one was mine!" he shouts at Thena. "Oh, never mind," he adds, bringing his arm up and aiming his fingers at another fast-approaching Deviant. I'll just let him have this one, I don't want to steal his thunder, Serina thinks as she watches him shoot the monster. Ikaris and Makkari take down a Deviant that was about to attack a little girl. Now there's just one left, which happens to be the biggest one of all.
It zooms toward the Ishtar Gate, which Gilgamesh is guarding as people run through the doors. Once the last few people make it in, the giant doors close. The Deviant charges at Gilgamesh, who strikes it with a forceful punch, making it crash against the closed gate. It recovers and attacks Gilgamesh, sending him flying into the air. Serina races to the scene just as Ikaris flies over above her and Makkari speeds in and catches Gilgamesh. Ikaris blasts laser beams at the Deviant and Serina lets out a sonic scream once she's close enough, making it fall to the ground with a hard thud.
It scrambles to its feet and Kingo shows up and starts shooting energy at the creature while Gilgamesh throws Thena up. She lands on top of it and starts slashing the Deviant with her weapons made of cosmic energy. Makkari speeds over and lands so powerfully that it creates a sonic boom, causing the Deviant to collapse once again. It gets back up and with the Eternals' teamwork and one final punch from Gilgamesh, the Deviant is finally defeated. They all gather around and Serina and Makkari high-five each other when the speedster flashes over.
{☁︎}
Serina stirs in her bed, her eyes fluttering open as she wakes up. It was just a dream, she thinks. For a moment, she actually thought that she was back in Babylon with the other Eternals. She can't lie, she misses them. The one she's interacted with the most since they separated is Kingo. Since they're both celebrities, it's not hard to keep track of each other. Kingo has given her acting tips when she starred in projects such as You and In the Heights and voiced his support for her music on social media. Serina has shown her public support for his movies as well. She would love to reunite with everyone else though... especially Druig.
The very last time she saw him was in 1955 and she hasn't heard from him since. It's like he dropped off the face of the Earth with no warning. To this day, she still wonders if she did something to push him away, to motivate him to disappear from her life forever. No, no, don't dwell in the past, she reminds herself, throwing the covers off of herself and jumping out of bed. The Latin Grammys is today. Focus on that. Focus on your career, she thinks.
— ꕥ ~ ꕥ ~ ꕥ —
Serina is surrounded by makeup artists as they touch up her hair and makeup. She takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. She always gets so nervous yet so excited before a performance. This is her first time sharing the stage with El Alfa, which she's overjoyed about. "Here's your mic!" Alex declares as she jogs up to her.
"Oh! Thank you so much!" Serina responds, calming down now that she has the microphone. She was wondering where it was and was internally freaking out about it. She straightens her black and yellow jacket and smooths down her checkered skirt anxiously.
"40 seconds! Serina, get on stage!"
Oh, shit, Serina thinks as she starts to head to the stage. Alex rushes over to her and encourages, "you got this, okay? You're gonna dominate that stage like you always do!"
Serina nods her head. "Like I always do, right. I got this," she repeats before jogging out on stage to take her position. You got this, you got this. Soon enough, the studio lights are shining on her and the music starts blaring.
(Her performance)
El Alfa and Serina place an arm around each other as the song ends and the audience goes wild. "Muchas gracias, Latin Grammys! [Thank you so much, Latin Grammys!]" the girl shouts into her microphone, causing the cheers to get louder. They head backstage and she thanks El Alfa for the performance.
"Muchas gracias, fue un placer. Cuídate [Thank you, it was a pleasure. Take care]," he tells her as he pulls her in for a hug.
"Igualmente [You too]," Serina returns. They pull away and El Alfa strides off. Once he does, she spins around to go to her dressing room but freezes upon seeing three familiar faces a few feet in front of her.
Her jaw drops, completely stunned to see Sersi, Sprite, and Ikaris. She opens her mouth to speak, but no words come out. "Hey, Serina," Sersi speaks up as she smiles at her. Sprite just gazes at her with her usual neutral expression and Ikaris waves.
"Um... hey," the girl finally voices. A smile makes its way onto her face as the shock starts to pass and she steps closer to them. She can't believe these three are here right now. She hoped to see her fellow Eternals again someday.
"It was a great performance. And congratulations on winning all the categories you were nominated for," Sersi compliments, smiling proudly. Serina goes right up to her and the two embrace each other.
"Thank you!" she returns before pulling away.
She hugs Ikaris next, who chuckles. "It's great to see you."
"You too, bro," Serina replies before going to hug Sprite, who just smiles.
She pulls away and looks between them all and chirps, "wow, this is so crazy! Why are you guys here?" As happy as seeing them makes her, she finds it strange that they randomly showed up backstage during an awards show.
Sersi's smile slowly falters. "We need to talk," Ikaris states. Serina's smile falls upon noticing his serious tone. Before she could ask what this is in reference to, Alex dashes up to them.
"Girl, you crushed it ou- hellooo..." she pipes up, interrupting herself when her eyes land on Ikaris. "Heh," she chuckles as she checks him out. Sprite furrows her eyebrows, giving her a weird face. "Serina..."
"Hm?"
"Who, uh... who are these fine people?" Alex asks, smiling widely at the trio before fixating her gaze on Ikaris. Oh, God, please tell me she isn't attracted to Ikaris, Serina thinks.
"These are my old friends," she answers, giving Alex a knowing look.
Alex's face falls in realization. Her jaw slightly drops as she scans the three. "Oh, my God, this is them???" she whisper-yells, to which Serina nods. Pure amazement takes over Alex's features as she stares at them. "Wow, I'm so happy to finally meet you guys," she addresses them. "I've been waiting to meet the Eternals this chick talks so much about," she adds, pointing to her friend beside her. The trio gives Serina a surprised look.
"She knows about us?" Sprite questions.
Serina casually shrugs. "Yeah? I completely trust her... And don't worry, I only told her good things about you," she claims, ruffling the girl's red hair. Sprite scoffs and pushes her hand away.
Alex leans close to Serina and murmurs, "damn, you weren't kidding, Peter Pan got a bit of an attitude."
"I told you," Serina whispers back.
"Serina," Sersi's voice sounds, interrupting their little gossiping moment.
"Yeah?" Her head snaps up.
"This is important. We need to talk now," Sersi states.
An unsettling feeling washes through Serina's body. "Okay. Let's go to my dressing room," she responds. Everyone follows her to her dressing room and Alex shuts and locks the door once they're all inside. "So what's so important that you couldn't wait until after the whole show was over?" Serina asks as she walks over to the chair at the vanity, turning it around to face her friends before sitting down.
They all give her a solemn look. "I'm sorry, Serina..." Ikaris softly speaks up. The girl gives him a quizzical facial expression.
"Ajak's dead," Sprite informs her. Serina's heart drops when she hears this. No, that can't be true, she thinks.
"What? No... that... she can't be-"
"It's true... I know how much you loved her... I'm so sorry," Sersi confirms. Serina has always wondered what it was like to have parents and Ajak was the closest thing she ever had to a mother. She can't believe she's gone now.
Her heart feels heavy as she hangs her head to avoid eye contact with anyone. "How did it happen?" she quietly asks.
"It was a Deviant," Sprite answers.
Serina glances up at her at the mention of that word. "A Deviant? I thought we killed them all centuries ago."
"They're back now. We're not sure how many," Ikaris pipes up.
"One attacked us in London," Sersi chimes in. Serina sits there in shock, processing all the information being thrown at her. How are they back? She wonders. "We need your help," Sersi's voice sounds again, making her look up at her. By the tone of her voice, Serina knows she means right now.
"Wait, what? But the show's not over, can't you hold on until-"
"Serina, there could be countless other Deviants out there hurting people right now. We have to find them," Ikaris interjects. The girl considers his argument, knowing he's right. I hate the thought of them hurting the people of this planet again.
"You should go."
Serina's head snaps up and the other Eternals turn around to see Alex straightening up from the couch. "All your categories were already announced and you don't have any more performances or anything. There's only an hour left of the show and this is way more important," she conveys as she walks forward.
Serina realizes that she's right. "Huh, just leave early," she pipes up.
"Exactly," Alex affirms, giving her an encouraging grin.
Serina makes up her mind fast. "You know what? Yeah, let's go. These things killed Ajak, I want to return the favor," she states before hopping off her chair. Alex helps her undo her high ponytail and take off her makeup before she goes into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Alex and the other Eternals wait for her on the couch. Soon enough, Serina comes out in more casual clothing. "Alright, let's go," she voices.
"Cool," Alex comments in a singsong voice as she grabs her things. "So where are we going first, gang?" she enthusiastically asks.
Serina stares at her, a mixture of shock and sternness on her face. "What? No, you're not going."
"Uh, yes, I am. As your best friend and assistant, I go where you go," Alex sassily fires back. "Plus, I've always wanted to hang out with superheroes. I wanna see you do your thing," she adds in a singsong voice, smiling goofily.
Serina sighs. She doesn't want her to join them but she knows Alex won't let anything stop her from doing what she wants. "Fine but if we run into a Deviant, you do what I say," she commands, giving her friend a stern stare. Alex vigorously nods her head and they all exit the dressing room.
Serina is pretty protective of Alex. She has quite a melancholic past when it comes to friendships. She's had two human best friends before Alex, who both knew she's an Eternal. The first one was Alma Zuñiga, who she met in El Salvador in 1987. The small Central American country was in the midst of a civil war in the 80s, and Serina tried her best to not interfere but she couldn't stand by and do absolutely nothing. She protected people against the military death-squads and helped many hide from the guerrilleros [rebels] and soldiers so they wouldn't be forcefully drafted to fight. She grew close with Alma over the years, they were like two peas in a pod.
However, in 1989, the military was bombing neighborhoods all over San Salvador that they suspected of supporting the FMLN (the guerilla army). Serina was at the market when explosions started rocking the Earth. She ran all the way to Alma's house to make sure she was okay, only to find her body underneath the rubble of her demolished home. Years later, she met her second best friend, Jason Romero, in the Dominican Republic in 2000. They became close quickly but Jason, unfortunately, met his demise five years later due to a heart attack.
Serina doesn't want to lose another friend to the Grim Reaper. She can't go through that again.