chapter twenty two
the betrayal
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They watched as Ikaris ruined Phastos' creation making the man fall to the floor.
Arden gasped and ran to the man, helping him up as the rest of the eternals stepped closer.
"Boss," Kingo spoke. "What are you doing!?"
"I've let this go on long enough," he replied.
"Don't hurt him!" Sersi shouted, running over to help Arden with Phastos. "He lied to us."
Arden and Druig sent each other a look as though they had both tried to figure out exactly what he was lying about.
"He already knew about the emergence," Sersi continued.
Oh, Arden thought to herself, that's what he lied about.
"No he didn't," Kingo spoke in disbelief.
"Ajak told me everything when we left Babylon."
"What?"
"That was so long ago," Arden whispered.
"You were never gonna let us stop the emergence," Phastos pointed out.
"No," he confirmed. "I only wanted to protect you from the Deviants."
"You didn't do so well," Arden pointed out making everyone look to her. "As you can see, some of us are missing here."
Sersi nodded and looked back to Ikaris.
"If Ajak wanted you to take her place, why did she choose me?" It was quiet after she spoke, no one daring to utter a word. "What have you done?"
"He killed her," Druig spoke up making Arden freeze.
She held her breath and her fist remained clenched as she stood there staring at the floor.
"I had to," Ikaris told them.
"She loved you," Sersi whispered.
"Did she?"
"She loved you," she repeated as she held Arden's hand when she heard the girl sniffle.
"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," Phastos spoke, rubbing Arden's shoulder mostly for his own comfort. Arden didn't complain. "Is this why you're willing to kill? You are so pathetic!"
"I'm an Eternal, Phastos," Ikaris said. "I exist for Arishem. As do you, it's who you are."
"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."
Arden flinched when a gust of cold air kissed her skin and she found Makkari standing there smiling. She sighed in relief at the sight of the woman there because she had become quite worried when she didn't see her around.
"I found Tiamut," she signed and Arden's eyes widened.
"No!" Phastos yelled, making Arden gasped as she frantically thought of what to do.
Kingo was quicker however, yelling Makkaris name and jumping in front of her to stop the laser from Ikaris' eyes hitting her.
"Kingo!" Arden shouted and ran to his side next to Makkari. "Are you okay? Does it hurt really bad? Does-"
"Get out of here!" he told Makkari, ignoring Ardens panicked words.
Druig helped her off the ground as Ikaris walked closer, she watched intently to see what he was going to do.
"Kingo."
They all watched as Kingo began to use his powers.
"Haha finger guns," Arden whispered into Druigs ear but he just shook his head.
"You do not turn against your family," Kingo said. "Gilgamesh died because of you."
Arden frowned at his words and looked around the room to find Thena, but she wasn't in there with them. She couldn't tell if that was bad or good. All she knew was that Thena would definitely be pissed at Ikaris.
"You will not succeed against me, and i'll kill every one of you if I have to," was all he said.
"You're so mean Ikaris," Arden sighed, looking at the tears on Sersi's face.
He looked to where she was looking and stared for a while before walking away. Arden shook her head as Sprite stepped forward.
"Wait, I'm going with you," she said.
"Sprite. . ." Sersi said.
Arden looked up to see Thena walking in.
"What is this?" she asked.
But they were gone before she could even get an answer.
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"Why did Sprite go with Ikaris?" Makkari signed.
"Because she loves him," Kingo said.
"I used to love him too," Arden replied. "What's so different?"
He gave her a look and she furrowed her eyebrows. Why was he looking at her like that?
"Like how you love Druig," he sighed, realizing she wasn't catching on.
"I love everybody equally," she rolled her eyes before the light bulb in her head turned on and she let out a small 'oh'.
Druig gave her a nudge and she found her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.
"You guys didn't pick up on that?" Kingo asked.
"The only thing I pick up is sticks and chicks," Arden tried to joke with a wink, but no one laughed. Thena sent her a smile to try and make her feel better.
"He really fooled us, didn't he?" Kingo mumbled. "Karun lets go."
"Wait, where the hell are you going?" Phastos asked.
"I can't help you guys. I still think Ikaris is right," he explained.
"So that's it huh? Just gonna follow him?"
"I love the people of this planet. But if you stop this emergence, you are preventing so many other worlds like this one from being created. I still have faith in Arishem. But I refuse to hurt any of you for my beliefs."
He began walking away but before he could leave completely, Makkari stopped him.
"We need you."
"Even with my help, we're no match. It's Ikaris," he said. "But, I hope to see you on the next planet."
"Thank you for all you've done. . .for humanity," Karun spoke. "It's been a great honor. I will miss you all."
"What a sweetheart," Arden frowned.
"Look, if i'm gonna get myself killed going up against Ikaris, we'll need to have a backup plan."
authors note!━━━━━━━
GUYS IM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IM SO SORRY HELLO IM SORRY ITS SHORT ALSO
IDK IF MANY OF TOU GUYS ARE STILL HERE BUT IF YOU ARE ILY DEARLY