Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It happened on a night when Tenochtitlan was burning down around them. The Eternals had gathered in the high temple to discuss what would come of their inaction, what would happen going forward, where their home would be. Ajak had dismissed them, declaring their mission accomplished. But they couldn’t just split up like that.

Druig was fed up completely with Ajak’s secrecy. Ikaris was there to defend their commander, and a little too eager to be physical in his confrontation. Makkari tried to reason with them to calm themselves. Phastos was speaking loudly over all of them while Sprite and Sersi clung to each other. Kingo was trying to speak over Phastos, who would just speak even louder.

Gil and Thena were silent. He looked at her, face pinched. She placed a hand on his arm. He nodded.

Then a change in the air cut them all off. Colours danced in the air like light through glass. A rift opened up and out stepped their reckoning: the Prince Eternal himself, Eros.

“No way,” Kingo muttered to himself. Not only were the legends true but here?--now?! And why one of them? “This is not happening tonight.”

“Oh, but it is,” the newcomer said with a smooth voice, just a little roughed at the edges. He had a smile on his face, seeming all too happy to reap one of them away. “Arishem requires one of you.”

“I thought you were a myth,” Phastos stared down the smaller man, but he was unbothered by the hostility, obviously used to it.

“The man, the myth, the legend,” he smirked at him, “Phastos.”

“Well, who’re you takin’ then?” Druig snarled at him, his arms still folded together. His eyes sparked with light, as did the intruder’s. Then the embers went out and Druig flinched back with a scowl, “no.”

“Indeed,” Eros nodded, turning away from the rest of them and to the back of the room. “I am here for the lovely Warrior Eternal.”

Gilgamesh gripped her hip with his hand. This couldn’t be happening–he wouldn’t let it. “You can’t just come in here and take Thena away with you.”

“I can and I will, Gilgamesh,” Eros grinned back at him. His tone was light, his smile was friendly, but there was something so malicious about the way he said it. “If Arishem wishes it, it is done.”

“Wait,” Thena spoke for herself, her steady hands trembling. She looked at Ajak, who turned her eyes to the ground. “I can’t just leave.”

“You will.” Eros’ eyes took on a glow, and Thena’s followed suit, her body going still and limp.

Druig let his own eyes spark to life, but he hated to admit that the other Eternal’s power exceeded his. He had Thena’s mind wrapped up in a thick, warm fog, and Druig found himself alarmingly shut out. He straightened up. “So that’s it, you just take ‘er from her own family in the dead of night?”

“She can’t just leave,” Sersi spoke up with her featherlight voice.

“She can and we will,” Eros turned back to them. “She has a new mission now. This is goodbye.”

“No,” Gilgamesh spoke up, but the glittering lights collected in the air again. Thena’s eyes cleared but only as the lights appeared around her. “Thena, don’t go.”

“No, I-I don’t-” she stammered as he started fading from her vision. Her hand reached out, but he already couldn’t grasp it with his. “Gilga-”

She was gone.

They all stood in the altar room for a long time, choked with silence. Makkari looked around at each of them, reeling from what had happened in different ways. Thena’s just…gone?

“Can’t you do something?” Sersi stepped forward, looking at Ajak with pleading doe-brown eyes. But the other woman just shook her head.

“We're Eternals, Sersi. We are made for Arishem,” Ikaris’ voice was soft, for Sersi’s sake, but he meant his words. He looked back at her, even his blue eyes looking a little glassy, “his will be done.”

Makkari shook her head, walking over to Gil, who was so still and silent she had to look if he was breathing. He hadn’t budged since Thena had vanished before their very eyes. She placed a hand on his wrist, but it just fell limply to his side. Gil?

The other Eternals watched as he walked out of the room.

“Gil!” Ikaris barked at him as he descended the temple steps.

“Gil, wait!” Kingo called out to him next, but also to no avail.

Makkari stood next to Druig, who was more hunched over himself than ever. She placed a hand on his back, between his tight shoulders. He was a solitary being, shrouded with a unique loneliness that came with the nature of his power. He had always scoffed and rolled his eyes at their team’s ‘family’. But she knew him. And she knew that not only did he love his family, but that he had loved Thena in a way he had never been able to with Ajak. Druig, do something, please! Stop him!

He looked up at her, his lip wobbling a little, and shook his head. He’s already gone, Kari.

They went their separate ways that night. Druig was determined to stop the needless genocide of their people, with nothing over his shoulder except the promise to be here if any of them ever returned for him. Ikaris and Ajak watched it happen. They split off, one by one, some of them leaving together and others walking into solitude. Sersi gave Makkari’s hand a squeeze, also looking up into the sky as if they could see where Thena had been taken. But she followed Ikaris out with dragging steps. Makkari was the last there, looking up at the stars, to wherever her sister had been taken.

Chapter Text

“Sorry,” Sersi shook her head as Makkari nudged her arm. “I know I’m being miserable company.”

Makkari shook her head and patted Sersi’s shoulder. I knew you would be. That’s the reason I came to visit you.

“And thank you,” Sersi smiled and signed at her. Her signs were just as light and breezy as her voice and accent, her fingertips always having a little bit of fluttering in them. “I mean it’s been more than a hundred years, you’d think I could go through an anniversary without being a mess.”

I’ve never been married, but I’m sure it’s not easy to have an anniversary, she shook her head.

Sersi tilted her head at the other woman as they walked the streets of London. “Did you ever consider it?--getting married?”

Makkari let her eyes drift to the city around them, with its bustling activity and the tall architecture that created a funnel for all the sounds within. Who would I marry?

Sersi rolled her eyes at Makkari’s facetiousness. “Okay, fine, don’t answer me. How is Druig, since we’re on the subject?”

I was there maybe ten years ago? Makkari squinted in effort to nail down the year. He’s good, I think. I keep telling him to take some time away, but he’s happy living there with the people in the village.

Sersi nodded with a sudden sobriety to her. Druig truly never did leave what he considered his dutiful post of protecting the people in the Amazon. He had always had an unwavering devotion, when he actually decided to dedicate himself to a cause. A small thought whispered to Sersi: he had learned that from Thena.

Hey, no more sad thoughts, Makkari tapped the underside of Sersi’s chin, startling the taller woman. Are we going out to get drunk, or what?

Sersi laughed, at least a little more easily than she had before, and nodded. “I know a place.”

Makkari and Sersi both came to a stop, looking up and around them. One looked at the other, who nodded back. They ducked out of the crowd, walking down some steps to the canal. You remember that feeling?

How could I forget? Sersi’s brows were furrowed and her jaw was set. Her nerves were buzzing from the threat in the air. What would the reaper want with them again?

That telltale glittering appeared in front of them, as away from the eyes of the public as possible. It lit the underside of the bridge in the shadows of fading daylight. Makkari and Sersi braced themselves. Sersi raised her hands, but that didn’t make her a Fighter. Makkari tensed her legs.

A head of blond hair stepped out of the sparkling mirage. She looked different, and yet very much the same. Her hair had been pulled into a braid, but it was still the colour of white sands. Her eyes were still a deadly sharp green. Her armour was a little different than it was before, a little more like that of the man that stepped out behind her. But it was still pearlescent white and gold. She was still Thena.

Makkari and Sersi stared at her with dropped jaws. They hadn’t seen her in more than 500 years, but the second they saw her it was like no time had passed. That was what it was always like when they saw each other after time apart. Sersi slid the toe of her shoe forward ever so delicately. “Thena?”

The blonde rushed forward and pulled them both against her, cradling their heads to her. Her breathing was ragged, as if she had been holding it the whole journey there to them. Makkari and Sersi hugged her back, hands clinging with heartfelt desperation. She was real, and she was there in front of them. Thena took a moment to rest her cheeks against each of their heads before pulling back. Her eyes were teary. “I have missed you so.”

“We’ve missed you too,” Sersi sniffled with a smile. Thena’s thumb brushed her tears away, making Sersi laugh faintly. She was back. Her eyes drifted to the man that had followed her sister and an anger swept through her.

Makkari was already there, stalking towards him in her red converse as if she were wearing her armour and ready for war. He grinned at her like he would have welcomed the challenge. But Thena caught her arm and pulled her back.

“Later,” she promised the Speedster. Makkari couldn’t help but be surprised at Thena saying the fight could wait, but what was important now was that she was here, and it seemed to be for a reason. “I came to make sure you two were okay.”

“Okay?” Sersi frowned, her anxious energy starting to flow through her veins again. “Why wouldn’t we be okay?”

Why are you back? Makkari asked with wide eyes. As joyous as it was to have Thena before their eyes again, it appeared they would not be allowed time to luxuriate in their reunion.

Thena looked between them with a sombre frown. She bowed her head slightly, hands held tightly at her sides. “Ajak is dead.”

What?

Makkari shook her head slightly, but Thena nodded. She looked between Thena and Sersi, who was also trying to take in what they had been told. How?

It’s a very long story, and I promise to tell you everything. But we have to find the others. Thena pleaded with them with every swoop and swipe of her hands through the air. They were as clear cut as always, but Makkari met her eyes and was moved to find the softness that Thena had always signed with was still there. Where is Gilgamesh?

Makkari and Sersi looked away as if she had wounded them. Thena stood up straighter, her expression changing drastically with the slightest shift. Her eyes went wide and fearful, asking again. She brought her fist into her palm so gently it was as if she would shatter herself. Makkari placed a hand on Thena’s arm. I’m sorry, Thena. None of us have heard from him in…years.

Centuries, Sersi shook her head as well.

Thena’s breathing picked up, her throat tightened, Makkari could see everything warring on her face, in a way she had never been able to see plainly before.

Eros stepped closer to them. Sersi and Makkari glared at him, but his eyes were downcast. He reached up, coming incredibly close but not actually touching Thena’s shoulder. “Thena, we have to go. Every second counts.”

She nodded, not looking back at him. When she raised her head again her jaw was set, and she was the Warrior Eternal once more. “Who is closest?”

Chapter Text

So? Makkari turned slightly in the cramped plane seat, shutting the window. It was going to be a long flight to Mumbai no matter what powers any of them had. Thena was beside her and Sersi on the aisle seat. Safely cloistered between them, Thena could at least use her hands to speak.

I’m sorry, she shook her head before even starting. I went to see Ajak first, that’s how I discovered her murder.

Murder? Sersi leaned forward.

Thena nodded again. Her hands were heavy, and she raised and dropped them a few times before she managed to get it out. She avoided looking into Sersi’s eyes. Ikaris killed her.

No, Sersi denied in a second, shaking her head sharply. “He wouldn’t–he couldn’t have.”

Thena placed a hand on Sersi’s. Sersi glared at her, but Thena’s eyes were calm and unblinking as always. “I saw him there, Sersi. I fought him.”

Sersi’s tears built and escaped in seconds. She sniffled, blinking hard and shaking her head again. Ikaris wasn’t always the easiest to get along with of all of them. But he wasn’t a killer–not a murderer. Why? How could he-?

There is a Celestial in planet Earth, and it is going to emerge in a matter of days.

What do you mean, Makkari tilted her head, ‘in’ the Earth?

I have learned a lot in my time away from you. Thena paused in her story to pat both her sisters’ hands for a brief reprieve. Her eyes flickered up only for a moment before returning to her lap. Eros and I were only on Orexion-9 for a few hundred years.

With other Eternals? Makkari asked and got a nod again. How many other Eternals were there? They had already thought that the Prince Eternal was a figure of legend anyway, almost like Arishem himself.

He took me there when they were already well on their way to their own Emergence. I replaced an Eternal that had fallen in battle. Then… Thena’s eyes became distant and her hands started shaking.

“Thena?” Sersi whispered, taking Thena’s hand again. She had never seen her like that. Her grief and fear had settled over her like a veil in such an instant, pulling her far from them again.

Makkari squeezed Thena’s hand with hers. We are right here with you.

Thena sucked in a breath like she had been pulled out of ice water. She looked at both of them, beside her, warm and living. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she took a few deep breaths. The planet split apart, and a Celestial emerged. The other Eternals were gone in a matter of seconds. The planet died and an entire galaxy was formed in its wake.

Makkari and Sersi traded a look. It was hard to wrap their heads around the true magnitude of what Thena was telling them. Everything from the death of the other Eternals to the way a planet could be wiped out like that was overwhelming. Makkari set her chin, determined to help Thena along in her story. What about you?

Eros pulled me out, brought us here. But our escape won’t get by Arishem. That’s why I came, to warn you. A Celestial is going to split the Earth apart from the inside unless we stop it.

Stop it? Sersi balked at the suggestion. Her eyes fluttered and her lips formed and reformed words to no avail. How are we supposed to stop a Celestial?

With him,Thena glanced up at the seat in front of her, where Eros was sleeping. Or rather, probably pretending to sleep and waiting to be let in on their discussion. But Thena had wanted to speak with her sisters alone. And possibly Druig.

Druig? Makkari couldn’t help it, instantly and naturally bringing her hand up to her temple and spreading her fingers in the familiar sign for him.

Eros thinks he might be able to use their powers to stop the Emergence, Thena reasoned through without the most confidence even as she signed it, or delay it, at least. He’s willing to try to lull the Celestial into a state of dormancy.

Why? Makkari asked and didn’t care about the ramifications of it. She didn’t trust the intruder–her sister’s kidnapper.

Thena inhaled quietly. Her eyes rose to the back of Eros’ seat again. I don’t know why. But I told him I intended to carry out my true mission: protect Earth. He said he would follow me.

Makkari and Sersi raised their heads in one slow, long nod simultaneously. If Thena didn’t realise why then they certainly did.

“Are you talking about me, Thena dear?”

Thena raised her knee and hit the seat so hard he was flung forward into the seat in front of him, cracking his head against the tray table clasp.

Sersi and Makkari looked surprised, but Makkari did find it at least a little funny. She was glad to see that the Warrior Eternal still had the temper of a child around her fellow immortals.

Please, Thena rubbed her chest desperately, tell me where Gilgamesh is.

Her sisters deflated in their seats again, offering those sad, almost pitying smiles. Sersi’s hands shook as she raised them. Makkari rose to spare her. We all split up the night you…were taken. He walked straight out of the temple.

Where did he go? Why was he alone? Thena asked, her lip already trembling at the thought of him with nothing but the embrace of solitude.

We tried reasoning with him. I even travelled with him for a little while, Makkari offered a smile, although it clearly didn’t bring Thena any comfort. But he was quiet. By the time we got to Australia he had stopped talking all together. We split up there. He said he wanted to be alone.

But- Thena sighed as Makkari took her trembling hands into her own again. Her shoulders sank. It was too late for her to be arguing and postulating. What was done, was done. And her sweet Gilgamesh had been alone for centuries.

Sersi reached forward, brushing away Thena’s tears with her thumb. “If he sees you, we might still get him back.”

Thena tried to summon her resolve to her again but it just wasn’t happening. She wished - for another of thousands, maybe millions of times - she could lean against his warm and strong, comforting side. Sersi and Makkari both rubbed her arm on either side of her as she sank further and further down. She had been hoping to see him as soon as she was on the planet again. Every minute apart from him still dragged on for her, even after all these years.

Chapter Text

Kingo was first, and that meant Sprite too. He had made quite a name for himself in India, and as always, he was very…public about it all. Apparently, he was the latest in a ‘long line’ of movie stars. Currently, he was maybe the seventh or eighth generation carrying on his family legacy since the establishment of the Indian film industry took the world by storm.

Sprite was his head writer.

The other Eternals arrived to the set, drawing looks everywhere they went. They were long used to it, of course.

“Kingo certainly has a flare for the dramatic,” Eros couldn’t help but remark as his boots clacked on the soundstage concrete. They had found human clothes for him as well as Thena when it came time to travel amongst the humans.

“Don’t speak.”

Eros’ grin only grew after receiving Thena’s harsh command.

Sersi and Makkari walked on the other side of her, keeping away from him. They approached first, having agreed they would break the news to Kingo. Thena was going to have her work cut out for her trying to explain everything to Gilgamesh on their next stop. “Kingo!”

“Sersi, Makkari!” he beamed at them, just within his view of the flood lights. “My friends from college?!”

They waved him over with dour expressions. Kingo swallowed, seeming to understand what was happening and signalled for Sprite - seated in an assistant director’s chair - to shut it down. The studio was filled with the bustling of movement and chatter and scraping equipment in a second. He walked closer to them. “What’s wrong?”

Ajak is dead, Makkari signed to him languidly, wincing as his face crumbled at the news.

“What?” he blinked and shook his head, but neither met his eyes again. His throat clenched. “H-How?”

“Ikaris-” Sersi choked on just saying his name, looking away from the mirrored devastation on Kingo’s face.

“Okay, I know Ikaris has his faults, but he’s couldn’t,” Kingo started, but the words dropped off his lips at the sombre looks he got in return. “Sersi?”

She stepped back to direct his eyes to the blond just a few feet back.

Kingo’s eyes adjusted to the dark that lingered at the edge of her form. He had never seen her in modern clothes, but even in a white skirt set and her hair braided over her shoulder, that was most assuredly his sister. His eyes watered. “Thena?”

Surprising everyone, and him the most, Thena ran and pulled Kingo into a hug, supporting his weepy form as he leaned over her shoulders. Sersi and Makkari’s eyes watered anew. Thena may not have been one for affection, but nothing was going to stop them after spending 500 odd years apart. “I missed you, Kingo.”

“Thena,” he pulled away and shook his head, unbelieving of the mere sight of her. It was shattered in a second as he looked up and saw the other Eternal behind her. He even had the audacity to wave, as if he hadn’t been the deciding factor in fracturing their family apart. Kingo raised his hand, the air crackling with golden energy.

“Kingo,” Thena reached up and clasped his hand in hers, unafraid of his firepower sizzling in the palm of her hand. “Later. I promise.”

Kingo snarled a little at Eros but returned his attention at her request. “T, what are you doing back? I thought no one ever escaped the second calling?”

“They don’t, and now I know why,” she told him with deadly seriousness.

“Thena!”

Sprite ran at her, clearly having picked up some of Kingo’s exuberance in their time together. She threw her arms around Thena’s middle. “I thought I’d never see you again!”

“Me too,” Thena whispered with one hand around Sprite’s shoulder and the other in her wild orange hair. “But I’m so glad that wasn’t true.”

Sprite looked up at her with bright eyes.

“That’s right, the Eternal child.”

“What is he doing here?” Sprite pulled away and scowled at him, but he just tipped two fingers at her in a lazy salute. She gave him the finger in reply.

“We’ll need him for what’s to come,” Thena said to them all, back to her seriousness. “I will explain everything as best I can, but we need to keep moving.”

“Where?”

Thena looked up at Kingo. “How quickly can you get us to Australia?--and then the Amazon?”

Kingo and Sprite shared a look between them. They knew who was in each of those places, just not what would bring them all together again. Kingo pulled on his old ways, claiming the responsibility for himself. “I have a plane we can use. Won’t have to worry about the riff raff.”

“Unfortunately he has to come with us,” Thena glanced back at Eros.

He chuckled, “he wasn’t talking about me, my love.”

Everyone present bristled at the moniker. Kingo glared at him with a particular bitterness, “no, I have much harsher terms for you. Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

The house - if it could be called that - sat alone, the epitome of isolation. It was so far in the outback that even after Kingo had touched down the plane they had walked more than an hour out. But the pressure in the air led them to their own. Thena in particular walked like she was being pulled forward on a string.

“Is this where he’s been all this time?” Kingo looked at Makkari over his shoulder and signed to her.

It’s exactly the same as when I last saw him, she shook her head. It had been more than a hundred years ago, the last time she had managed to get him to even poke his head out of the hut-for-one. Druig had nearly had to possess him to make him come out and see us.

Sersi and Sprite winced at the words. This was not going to be easy. Or would it? Would seeing Thena again suddenly resurrect the Gilgamesh of old? Or was he too far gone from their grasp?--too far slipped through their fingers, Sersi corrected herself. Gilgamesh had always been such a strong force of keeping their team a family. He had always been a listening ear, cooking them meals so they would eat together. And when he had turned away…they had let him slip through the cracks in a way he never would have let happen to any of them. It was shameful, she thought.

“T,” Kingo said quietly, reaching out to her as they reached the hovel at long last. He was offering to go first, protect her from whatever was waiting on the other side of that door.

“You’re all being ridiculous,” she shook her head.

The door burst open and Gilgamesh emerged with his fists charged and raised, ready for whatever threat was waiting for him. Sersi pulled Sprite behind her and Makkari rushed in front of both of them. Kingo raised his hand, but Thena caught the punch of the Strongest Eternal with her shield like it was nothing. Her braid blew back from the impact.

He blinked against the blinding sun. It was like a ghost was standing before him. His arms dropped to his sides, as did hers. His eyes searched her form, still platinum blond and green eyed and perfect. She was as perfect as the day she vanished before his eyes. He turned around. “Today’s the day I really lose it, huh?”

“Gil,” Kingo called to her but Sersi held him steady.

He was still mid-stride when Thena collected her breath. “Gilgamesh.”

That was it. It was her voice, out of his dreams, under the beaming sun. The way she said his name was something special, completely unique to her. He had imagined it so many times in his self-imposed exile out here. The winds whispered things to him all the time. He was always fine with thinking he’d gone mad. He had asked to be left alone with his thoughts, it was only expected. He turned again.

“Gilgamesh,” Thena called to him again, walking over to close the distance. His hand dropped from the door as he turned back to her fully. She reached her hands to his cheeks. He flinched at the contact, but she persisted. His eyes were so dull they were almost a different colour, but they still had that rich, deep brown she remembered and had longed to sink into. “I’m here.”

“I missed you,” he whispered so softly the wind carried it to her ears. It was like it had escaped him as his breath did, natural and needed to live. Her thumb ran against his dimple.

“I have missed you as I would miss my own heart.”

It sounded light and flowery, almost romantic. But Thena only spoke in truths, and if she had said it then she meant it from the depths of her soul. She had been just as pained without him.

“You’re really here?” he dared to ask, leaning into her touch more and more. One of his hands touched the small of her back, like it had in their thousands of years together here on Earth. “I won’t open my eyes and…”

“I’m here,” she promised, bringing his forehead to hers. He let himself go completely, collapsing against her. Her knees gave out and let them both fall to the ground, folding over each other in a beautiful weakness.

Eros turned away.

Makkari noticed him turning away. She took them in for another moment, watching Thena cradle Gilgamesh’s head in her arms, soothing his trembling sobs. She was crying too. Makkari turned back to the intruding Eternal among them. She tapped his shoulder, bringing his eyes down to her. He didn’t know what she was saying, but she made it as clear as possible.

You. Love. Thena. ?

He got the picture. His eyes went over to them again before he looked back at her and nodded silently. “Would you blame me?”

“For plenty of things, but not that,” Kingo answered for Makkari as he walked over to them as well. Gil and Thena deserved their moment alone, plus it was hard to just watch them cry over each other. He had a feeling it would be hours for them to separate. Kingo walked right up to the Prince, glaring at him. “You’re a lot taller than I thought you were from a distance.”

Eros let out a faint chuckle, but it seemed his love of antagonising them had finally reached its limit. His voice shrunk until he sounded like a real person speaking to them. “Hundreds of years, we spent together. I thought she might warm to me over time. But every second she spent torn away from him was misery. Told me so every chance she got.”

Makkari’s lips picked up a little at that. That certainly sounded like Thena.

“I don’t like what I do, you know,” he glanced around at the Eternal who were now surrounding him. “I am at the beck and call of our creator, same as any of us. I just got stuck with the shittiest job.”

“But you saved Thena,” Sersi stepped forward. Her eyes were apprehensive, but there was something in them that every Eternal had: pure strength. “You defied Arishem and brought her back to Earth after the Emergence. You told her you would help us.”

“And I will keep my word,” he promised her and anyone else who wished to put him under the microscope. He met each of their eyes. “No matter what you may think of me and where my loyalties lie…I promised Thena I would help you save this planet.”

“How are we supposed to believe,” Kingo waved his hands around with a scrunched face of disgust, “any of this?”

“I suppose there is no obligation to,” he shrugged back at the other man. “But I’m not sure how many choices you have after your best buddy killed your leader in front of us.”

“I have plenty of choices and you want to know what my first one’s going to be?” Kingo answered back quickly through pinched lips. He stepped forward again, gripping the front of Eros’ light jacket as he did.

“Stop it, this isn’t going to help anyone,” Sersi reached out to the both of them. “We have to focus.”

“She’s right, which also means we don’t have time to dawdle here,” Eros turned his gaze back to the house. Thena and Gilgamesh were gone from being crumbled in front of the door. “Oh, bloody hell.”

Makkari was in front of him in less than a second. Give them time with each other.

Eros glanced up for a translation then back down. “Need I remind you that your planet is going to shatter like a marble in less than five days?”

“Then we can spare one evening,” Sersi answered him with more backbone than he had seen from her yet, turning back to the house with a flip of her hair behind her. Sprite followed her, giving him the finger again on her way.

Makkari joined them. Kingo was last, glancing at him over his shoulder. “If you-”

“Save it,” Eros scoffed aloud and strolled right past him and straight to the well beside the house. Kingo eyed him for another minute before following his family.

Chapter Text

Their reunion had been tearful and light. Gilgamesh’s voice was rough from not being used, but still, he was returning to himself. He had picked each of them up in a bone-crushing hug, cleared space in his hovel. To their surprise, it wasn’t littered with pots and pans, or full of holes in the walls or even books. Well, there were plenty of books, but they were journals, piled from the floors to the ceiling and each filled to the absolute brim. And they were all for Thena.

Eros, overhearing bits and pieces from his chosen spot outside, wasn’t surprised. She too had kept records of all she had seen for him, even if she hadn’t written it down physically. Not a day passed by when his name was not on her lips. And Eros had never anticipated that it would bother him as much as it did.

Gilgamesh was still a great cook, and with only an open fire and some pans he had fed them all with a beautiful, soul-warming meal. They had laughed until they cried, then they had just cried, and now they were all sleeping wherever they had dropped. It had been a hard few days’ journey. Sersi and Makkari were leaned against each other’s shoulders in front of the fire, with Sprite’s smaller body laid over their legs.

Kingo drifted back outside. “You going to sit out here all night like a sad dog?”

Eros hacked out a bitter laugh. “Is that how you see me?”

“That’s the kindest way I could describe you,” Kingo glared down at him on the well’s edge, “after what you did to us.”

“Like I said, hate me you all you want, it’s not exactly my choice,” he sighed, leaning over on his knees and rubbing his hands together.

“But now you know it is,” Kingo got right to the point. The haunted look on Eros’ face was all the confirmation he needed. “And it makes it worse knowing what fate you were dragging people to all this time”

Eros was shaking. He squeezed his hands together tighter to try and get a grip on himself. He had seen the signs in Thena after they had narrowly escaped the emergence. Every attempt he made at offering comfort was rebuked, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from trying if she needed it. And he had all the same symptoms, so it was quite easy to spot in her, he found. He glared up at the Sharpshot Eternal. “What do you want from me?”

“Since you brought Thena back, I guess nothing,” Kingo shrugged at him with his hands in his bomber jacket pockets. “After you help us with this whole Emergence thing you are welcome to piss right off.”

Eros nodded. He felt Kingo lean down into his space.

“And if you ever come near my family again, I will shoot your eyes out of your head and make you swallow them.”

Eros nodded again. The guy was creative, he would give him that. “Oh, you’ve nothing to fear from me. I know where I stand with all of you.”

“Not all of us.”

Gilgamesh and Thena were on the roof, under the stars. He had been showing her excerpts from his endless journals, mostly the highlights, since they didn't have the time for all of them. They still didn’t have enough time. And given their promised eternity, Gil felt particularly slighted.

“Have you always been such a poet?” Thena mused as she flipped through the pages with a smile on her lips. Every page was filled with things he had seen that reminded him of her, how much he missed her, how much he loved her. Some days had long, endless paragraphs of his thoughts. Other days were short and cramped, obviously painful for him to get out.

“Just for you,” he shrugged easily. He was lighter than he had been in centuries, sitting next to her under the endless sky. His face hurt from smiling so much in the last few hours. But it didn’t matter - absolutely nothing else mattered - when he could look over and see her there.

Thena looked up from the journal as he reached over and brushed some wisps of hair behind her ear. He had been doing it all evening. “You seem different.”

“Bad?” he asked her the one word simply, and it rang of their understanding of each other. Even after all their time apart, there was nothing extraneous between them. He knew her soul because it was inextricably woven with his own.

“No,” she shook her head with a smile. She reached up to his cheek as well in a mirror of him. “But I’m glad I’m here with you.”

His smile shrank just a little. He could say it every minute of every day until the sun went cold and he would not be done expressing how much he had missed her. But they had said the words, they had reunited, and there would be time for it later. He hoped.

“I have much to tell you too,” she whispered against the night breeze. “When we have the time.”

He swallowed, curling some hair around his finger. “Will we?...have time?”

“We have to.”

It was the only truth Thena could speak. They had to have more time together, they just had to.

Gilgamesh nodded, meeting her eyes with his. They were still Eternals, and they still had a mission, and it wasn’t to Arishem or any other distant relic of a god. Their job was to protect their home.

Thena blinked as he released her braid from its bind and her hair took the air around them. Gil’s eyes lit up as soon as it did. Her smile grew to match his.

“How did that even happen?” he chuckled.

Thena rolled her eyes and sighed. “Eros was always touching it so I bound it back out of his reach.”

Gil’s anger flashed through him in a second, but it was gone before Thena could even see it. “Well, you’re all mine again, so you don’t have to worry about him.”

A laugh bubbled up from deep within Thena’s chest. She smiled as Gil wound a lock of hair carefully around one of his fingers, drawing her in closer. Her eyes slid closed as he kissed her, 500 years of longing built up on his lips as they ached for her. How she had ached for him too.

Chapter Text

Eros blinked as Gilgamesh came to sit beside him on the plane. He had become very used to being avoided by the other Eternals. The only one who knew him as anything other than a traitorous puppet was Thena, and she had eyes for nothing and no one since reuniting with the man sitting down now. Eros placed his drink down.

Gil looked at him carefully. He had handsome features, lustrous brown hair swept back out of his eyes. He was taller than he looked at first glance too. He reminded Gil of Ikaris. “So, you were with Thena on that other planet?”

“Orexion-9,” Eros said with a light tone, but there was something buried underneath that was haunted just by saying it. “Half a millennia, give or take.”

Gil nodded at him. “What was it like there?”

Eros shifted in his seat. He wasn’t sure what the Strongest Eternal wanted from him, but he would play his game. “It was beautiful, all red fauna and glittering blue expanses of water. The sky was purple and the suns were pink. It was a spectacular place. Not like this drab little rock.”

Gil bit his tongue. Who was this guy to insult Earth? But maybe he was biased. He did spend all that time alone in Australia, listing all the ways in which the beauty of Earth both reminded him of Thena and also paled in comparison to her. “Did Thena like it there?”

Eros felt a smile come over him against his every effort. “No, she hated it.”

Gilgamesh sat silently, waiting for the Prince to elaborate.

“It was never quiet, so she had a terrible time resting,” Eros crossed his arms, shaking his head to himself as he went through his memories of the last few centuries. “She tried to take each and every watch we had, mostly to get away from me and the other Eternals at every opportunity.”

“Did she like the others?”

“Never really got to know any of them,” Eros let out a chuckle, “in all our years there. She is a very practised master of not speaking to people.”

“What were they like?”

“Well, I wasn’t all that close with them either,” Eros shrugged again. “They weren’t any more my team than hers. They were good people, of course, and they were close with each other. They knew we were interlopers.”

“Did Thena spend time with anyone while you were there?”

Eros looked up, pulled out of his memories at the question. Where was he going with this? “Well, yes, some of them did put in the effort with her. One, Alari, the Bright Eternal. She always went to great efforts to speak to Thena, even if it was talking at her for no response. I stuck with her when at all possible. Thena wasn’t alone, really. She just didn’t actually want my company.”

“But you were with her, and you made sure she rested, and ate.”

A new expression passed over the Prince Eternal. His surprise must have shown because Gilgamesh shifted as well. But his face was the same; he had known exactly what he was doing when he sat down. He hadn’t come over with the intention of learning about Eros’ time with Thena out of something as petty as jealousy. What had brought him over was what drove everything else about him: his devotion to the Warrior Eternal. Eros lowered his eyes. “I suppose I did.”

“Then I have you to thank.”

Eros felt something twist in his stomach. He certainly wasn’t expecting an expression of gratitude from the man. Even worse, it made Eros resent him all the more. He would have preferred if Gil had come over with envy and anger and possessiveness. But instead he was all easy warmth, for even a man who had stolen his love and joy from him for hundreds of years. And when he thought of all Thena had told him about Gilgamesh, everything she had said was painfully true: Gilgamesh was the Softest Eternal, with the biggest heart and endless love. The only thing that outmatched Gilgamesh’s love was the love that Thena had for him in return.

“I’m sure Thena would think otherwise.”

Gilgamesh just chuckled at the attempt at a joke. “She’s never been good at accepting help, you just have to do it so she doesn’t realise you’re doing it.”

Eros just nodded again and picked up his drink as Gilgamesh stood and brushed off his vest. He placed a large, heavy hand on Eros’ shoulder as he passed by.

“You saved Thena’s life. I will always owe you gratitude for that.”

Eros didn’t watch as Gil returned to Thena’s side. Even in her sleep, she moved closer to him, and he happily wrapped an arm around her to tuck her head under his chin. Eros had caught glimpses of it since they had arrived in Australia, and he didn’t need to dwell on it further. In all his time with Thena, he had never seen her smile so genuinely as when she smiled for Gilgamesh.

Chapter Text

“Hello Sprite.”

The group of Eternals glanced around them as Druig’s power bloomed within the villagers, like a field of flowers coming to life under their feet. He stepped out of a bunk a small ways away from them as he let go of his people again. “Well, well, well, isn’t this a surprise.”

Makkari zipped over and hugged him, uncaring of their family’s observation nor the questions she and Druig would have for themselves after the interaction. And as his arms wrapped around her in turn, those worries went further and further from her mind. She pulled back to smile at him. He smiled at her too.

“My beautiful, beautiful Makkari,” he smiled at her, letting the words slip from his lazily pursed lips. He let one hand come up between his chin and his chest, “did you miss me?”

“Is this new, because I hate it,” Kingo glared at them from his spot. Sersi slapped his shoulder.

It’s not just for a nice visit, she frowned at him, this is serious.

Druig dragged his eyes away from Makkari and to the rest of his family. His eyes got caught on the three in the back. Gilgamesh, emerged from the outback for the first time in centuries, waved at him. Eros, the kidnapper extraordinaire, just looked at him silently. Between them, but with her hand firmly clasped in Gil’s, was Thena. She was really and truly there, Thena, standing tall and straight and looking right at him.

Druig’s feet slipped a little on the slick wood of the deck as he rushed to her. He nearly pushed Kingo over in his rush but he didn’t care, not even about his carefully constructed armour of distance and apathy. Thena accepted his embrace, wrapping her arms around him as he buried his face in her shoulder. She felt warm. He dragged in a strained, watery breath. She ran a hand over his dark hair soothingly. Eventually, he pulled back to look at her. She really did look the same as she had in that memory. It replayed over and over in his head, cruelly. But hopefully this memory could replace it. “You’re here.”

“I am here.” She stated like a fact but said it like a promise. Her hands remained on his shoulders, reluctant to part with him. “I missed you.”

Druig’s eyes watered again but he stepped back, sniffing and swiping at his nose. He turned on his heel and walked quickly. “Don’t go soft on me, T, just come inside.”

They all smiled at his retreating back.

They followed him into the room, somewhat of a town hall, they guessed. They all took their seats on the benches while Druig leaned against the podium up front. “Obviously we’re not here for a heartfelt family reunion. Not if he’s here.”

Eros leaned against the wall, away from everyone, and met the other empath’s eyes head on. “Do you want to be told or do you want to just see for yourself?”

The audacity of the bastard; Druig let his eyes light up. Eros was clearly making a path for him to step through, but Druig could grasp what he needed. The memories were…horrific. To see a planet full of life split apart like that. He braced himself to keep his legs upright. He turned from Eros to Thena. Very upsettingly, she had the same memories of the horror and destruction. Druig returned to himself with a heavy breath and swayed back slightly. Makkari watched him with worry, chewing on the inside of her bottom lip.

Thena blinked to try and recover from the sensation of her memories being sorted through. Gil was there to pull her closer to him until their thighs were pressed together. It did seem to calm her.

“That’s a lotta bad news to get in one go,” Druig finally spoke, looking around the room at them. He held his lips tight as he spoke but the wide swoops of his vowels blossomed in the air. His hands moved in sign, knowing that his natural enunciation wasn’t enough. “So, you really think we can put a Celestial to sleep?”

“We have to try,” Sersi spoke up, even her gauzy voice coming out loud against the silence.

“What does his majesty need me for?” Druig tipped his chin in Eros’ direction. “He obviously thinks he’s powerful ‘nough for it on his own.”

“But I don’t know that I am,” Eros - surprisingly - volunteered for his own humility. “And more importantly, if I really am going to draw upon your collective strength, the more the merrier.”

“Well, you are the expert of usin’ other people for yer own devices, right?” Druig muttered at the Prince again.

Not helping, Makkari signed up at him from her place beside Sersi. Like it or not, we need this jackass.

Druig sent her a plaintive look but nodded, folding his hands behind him again. “Let me get m’self sorted here. Wait for me.”

Druig was halfway out of the room when his eyes took up a glow again. “Ikaris.”

Chapter Text

The other Eternals in the room rose at the name.

Eros stood from his lazy position as well, looking toward Thena. He remembered Ikaris, and she had told him about the most stolid of their team. He wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t for a fight. The way she pulled up her shield was confirmation of that.

Sersi hadn’t even realised she was walking toward the door until Druig held out a hand to stop her. She wished she could see what he was seeing. Makkari was at their sides too, one hand on Sersi and one on Druig’s shoulder.

“I’ve missed you,” Druig said with laughter in his voice. “Can’t believe the perfect li’el soldier turned on his own mother.”

“Druig,” Thena spoke out in warning.

“I know why you’re here,” Druig again said through another person’s eyes and voice. “They’re not-”

Ikaris’ eyes sliced through the walls like they were paper, igniting the wood and making it cave in on them. They crouched down and over each other as the building crumbled. Ikaris stood outside, already in his armour and clearly looking for a fight. “Druig, always such a natural liar.”

“Ikaris!” Sersi escaped Kingo and Makkari’s clutches and ran toward him. She skidded to a halt as his glowing eyes turned on her. He looked the same as he had when he left, still the man she had married millennia ago. But he also looked like a stranger–a truly frightening stranger. Her breath came out in gasps as her tears flowed. She shook her head at him, begging him not to burn that bridge. If he crossed this last line there would be no going back, not even for her.

“We’re Eternals, Sersi,” he said the same as he had last time they were in this very same forest together. His eyes were glassy again, but they were also so, so cold. “Ajak was wrong to try and stop the Emergence. And so are you.”

“She loved you,” Sersi rasped out over the fire and crackling wood behind them. He stood there, as if the words meant nothing to them. He looked as if none of them had meant anything to him. “I loved you.”

Ikaris looked away, finally stricken. He was clenched so tight, in every way, in every muscle. He spoke as if the words were being dragged out of his throat with a red hot poker. “Did she? Did you?”

“I love you,” Sersi reasserted, but even as she said it, she could feel that it wasn’t enough. He was too far, and all the words in the world were too little now. “I did.”

Ikaris looked to the ground, steeling his nerves again. He hadn’t come here to see Sersi one last time, as much as he might have hoped for it. He had come to carry out his mission for Arishem. “I am at his service, Sersi.”

Sersi took a step back as he drew himself up again, tall and broad shouldered, eyes glowing like the sun.

“And I will kill every one of you if I have to.”

Thena emerged from the protection of Gilgamesh’s arms and leapt through the wall of fire. She slashed out with her arm, nicking Ikaris’s side as he flew himself out of her way. Her blade and her shield were drawn and solid, and she wouldn’t let him take anyone else from her. “You’ve always been the worst of us. Ajak knew it, too.”

Ikaris’ veins rose under his skin at her words. They had been at odds plenty in their time together. Thena hated his arrogance, and he hated that she couldn’t just accept him as a leader. “You’re one to talk, Warrior Princess. How many people did you let die on that planet for you to be here now?”

Gilgamesh leapt out next, soaring through the air with a fist strong enough to put a dent in even Ikaris. The Soldier Eternal flew back though the tree canopy. Gil landed in front of both of them. He nodded at Sersi, who nodded, teary as it was. He reached a hand to Thena’s cheek, paler than usual and with a cold sweat on it. He got her eyes up to his and whispered his promise: “later.”

“Later,” she nodded, returning to herself and clutching her weapons tighter in her hands. She looked up as Ikaris sped back to them, his lasers ready. She raised her shield, able to take the force of the beams evenly.

“I think that’s plenty.”

Eros flew out, bending Earth’s gravity to rise to Ikaris’ height. His eyes were alight. Ikaris fought hard, too, straining and roaring with his effort not to fall to his power. His fist was still in its arc when Eros pushed through and Ikaris went limp like a doll. Ikaris’ mind was a whirling mess of anger and resentment and questions. Eros could almost feel for the poor guy. Almost.

Sersi turned her head away as Eros raised a fist and brought it straight down, sending Ikaris to the ground with such force that it cratered the dirt beneath him upon landing. A breeze rushed past them.

“That’s one way to do it,” Kingo muttered, mostly to himself, as he emerged from the burning building.

Eros floated down to stand above Ikaris’ little hole in the ground. “He came here to kill Druig. He didn’t count on me being here.”

“None of us did,” Druig barked over to him, ever eager to remind him that he was unwanted.

“No matter,” Eros turned, putting on his usual smile and swiping back a few stray hairs. “I don’t think he’ll be bothering us any-”

All eyes turned when Ikaris’ eyes tore through Eros’ body, through his back and shooting forward to snap the trees around them. Their branches and high trunks crashed to the ground and into the buildings under them. Eros was last to fall, onto his knees and clutching the wound that even an Eternal would suffer. He reached a hand up to his neck, where the beams had exited after tearing clean through him. It didn’t matter how fast he could heal if he wasn’t all together. He looked up again. “Thena?”

She swept forward, catching his head before it could hit the ground. Her eyes only left him for a second as Ikaris flew away to recuperate his strength for the time being. Eros’ breath gurgled. She looked back down at him, trying to comfort him as his blood flowed out over her. “You’ll be fine.”

Eros’ eyes were already growing dull. He looked up at her, backdropped by the low, mellow light of evening. “I think th-this is it, for m-me.”

The others watched silently. They might not have liked him, but a death was a death, and he had kept his word to them at the cost of his endless life. They could respect that much.

Thena’s eyes watered. She never did love him, and maybe she had never even grown to like him. But he had been an ally, standing beside her for more than half a millennia. She owed him this much, “I’m sorry.”

“Ah, don’t be,” Eros choked out. It was freezing. “H-Had a good run. You…and me.”

Thena caught his hand as his muscles started spasming in a last ditch effort to jump start his heart again. It wouldn’t be long now. “We did.”

“I hope,” he gasped out as the light from the sky started drowning out the rest of the world in his eyes. There was only Thena now, and the white, hazy promise of rest. “That I see you. Next time.”

Thena watched silently as Eros’ eyes went dark. He got out a few last gasping breaths until his skin went grey and he became a statue before their very eyes, his energy lines carved into his skin. She lowered his arm to his chest, folding it over the other and closing his eyes.

Gil sniffed and swiped at his tears. He knelt down, pulling Thena’s hands into his. They were trembling. He raised her up into his arms, rubbing her back softly and slowly. “I’m sorry, Thena.”

Druig and Makkari looked at each other. They were very much left at square one again. But Druig cared about that a little less this very second. He watched Thean bury herself in Gil’s embrace, letting him bear some of the weight that had built up over centuries.

Makkari was certainly surprised as Druig pulled her into his arms. He just didn’t tend to do this kind of thing unprompted. But her eyes watered and her arms wound around him in reply. If he was happy to hold her then she was happy to be held.

Sersi stood alone, looking up at the sky to where Ikaris had disappeared. The low rumbling of fire and the hiss of the trees around her were distant cries in her ears. She had her own love to mourn.

Chapter Text

They had burned his body.

In a slight surprise, Thena had insisted Eros get a proper send off. But they could agree that they owed him the honour of it. He had their gratitude, if nothing else. So they had built a pyre and let it burn, the sparks rising into the night in a startling reminder of the fall of Tenochtitlan. It had taken until morning for the flames to go out. Gil had helped Thena collect up the ashes and release them into the river.

Druig watched it quietly, having been silent since the death of the intruder yesterday. They were all reeling from it in various ways, most concerned with the question of what to do next. Their time was running out, and their strongest enemy had dealt a deadly blow to their plan.

What are you thinking?

Druig’s lips tugged up into a smile, even in a moment like this. He looked over to his beautiful Makkari. The morning light brought out the light freckles under her skin. I’m thinking I’ve got my work cut out for me in the days to come.

Do you think you can do it? She asked with a drawn face.

I honestly don’t know, he shook his head. Eros was stronger than me. A lot stronger.

Makkari let her surprise show at Druig’s admission. I’ve seen you take over an entire city of people before. Was he really that much stronger?

Druig’s mind was dragged back to Tenochtitlan again, the night he had marched through the city with every human present dragged behind him. He shook his head. I tried to fight him off that night.

Makkari watched the tremor in his hands.

I couldn’t even make a dent in it. Druig hated the taste of those words. He had tried to keep Thena with them. But his power had been no match for the other Eternal’s. It was the last straw in a long line of defeats. I was used to being told not to use my powers. But that was the first time that I could really use them all I liked…still wasn’t enough.

Makkari gripped his arm in her hand, hoping for the first time that she could communicate what she needed to. There was nothing you could have done. There was nothing any of us could have done that night, about any of it. Not Thena, not the city. Nothing.

Druig inhaled, trying to let her words sink in instead of bouncing right off of him. He placed a hand over hers on his arm, clutching it within his. I’ve been trying to believe that.

Makkari nodded and lowered her gaze. She couldn’t change things with a few words, she knew that very well. Even she had needed time to deal with her own thoughts surrounding that pivotal night in their lives. There was nothing she could do to speed their recovery, or their thought processes. They had to let their wounds breathe.

Druig still held Makkari’s hands under one of his as she held his arm below the elbow. He bent it against his side, pulling her closer to let her rest her head against his shoulder. They returned their gazes to the fog lifting off the river under the light of day.

Gilgamesh waded into the water to stand behind Thena. He lowered his hand to her shoulder gently. She didn’t startle. “He was a good man.”

“No, he wasn’t.” The words were cold, but he could hear a familiarity in them that made him smile.

“Well, I didn’t know the guy that well,” Gil said more lightly, rubbing her arm up and down as she leaned closer to him. “But he was your friend. And that makes him not so bad in my books.”

Thena nodded slowly, maybe considering that for the first time. She had been so resentful of his role in her life that even calling him her comrade seemed like some kind of conceit. But maybe he had been a friend after all those centuries.

“Come on,” Gil whispered to her, pulling her back to land with him. She was still absolutely covered in Eros’ blood. He soaked a cloth in the river and brought her back to the edges of the village, under a tree, just the two of them. His movements were careful, dabbing away every small swipe of red on her flawless skin. Her tears flowed thick and freely.

“Ikaris was right,” she let out in a ghastly admission of her guilt. She was shaking again.

“No, he wasn’t,” Gilgamesh shook his head.

“I saw that planet die, I saw them all dying,” she whispered, but her voice was so far buried that it sounded like her voice was echoing around in a hollow vessel. “The people, the other Eternals. They were nothing to the Celestial emerging from the core.”

“It’s not right,” Gilgamesh whispered, still wiping the blood off her trembling hands finger by finger.

“We left them there,” she gasped out. Her chest started to heave, desperate for air. Her eyes were wide, wildly replaying what she had witnessed on an endless loop in her mind.

“Thena,” Gil called to her softly. He held her hands between his, letting his warmth seep into them. She dragged her eyes over to him eventually. “It is not your fault. And just because you are alive, does not mean that you owe anything in exchange.”

Thena looked like she couldn’t even understand the words he was saying, shaking like a leaf in a storm. But Gilgamesh was steady, as always, eyes warm and loving on her. Her gaze dropped and after some time she nodded. She let him pull her into his chest again.

Gilgamesh held Thena tight as her sobbing turned into screams that rose up in the air around them.

Sersi hugged her knees tighter as she listened to them. The trees were neither cold nor kind, picking up Thena’s sounds of agony and spreading them around among their branches. She sniffed and swiped at her tears, quick and hard enough to redden the skin. What did she have to sit around crying about?

“Plenty,” Kingo said as he sat next to her, as if he had been able to read her mind. He put a hand on her shoulder. “How are you holding up?”

Sersi could have given him any number of answers. She wasn’t injured, Ikaris hadn’t hurt her…not physically, anyway. She didn’t even know if she would be able to fight him come the time.

Hadn’t she cried over him enough already? When he first left was bad enough. She had wondered when and if he was coming back, for days, then weeks, then months. Her heart had held out for her for years, even. He had stolen so much of her love for himself when he left that it had taken her decades to have enough for herself. And here she was again, letting him fly off with even more of her.

Kingo sat silently, lending his support as best he could. There were no words he could offer Sersi that would make anything any better, and he had probably met his match in terms of being able to understand how best to comfort her. He used to know them all so well he was damn good at having exactly what they needed to hear at any time. But that was a lifetime ago now.

“He was your best friend.”

Kingo felt the air leave him at the small, fragile utterance. He glanced at Sersi out of the corner of his eye. She was still curled up around herself, but she took his hand in hers, letting their suffering circulate between them. What was his pain was hers too. “Yeah, I guess he was.”

Kingo’s head lowered as his own tears fell. He had loved his brother, past his indiscretions and his flaws, and more than many of their family had. Kingo believed in the strength of their bond, not just as a team but as a family. And his faith in what they were as Eternals - as servants of Arishem - hadn’t wavered. He agreed that the lives given outweighed the lives lost, he knew it objectively. He and Ikaris were Fighters, the hands of Arishem himself to create entire galaxies.

But he couldn’t betray his family.

Sprite walked up behind both of them, leaning down to their weeping forms. She had never seen Kingo cry, not even the night Thena had been taken. And she knew they had been close, in whatever way they were. But Kingo had gotten a grip of it all and bottled it up. He had walked out into the night in search of a life that had everything that their mission didn’t have time for–couldn’t afford as luxury. And she had followed him, because under all his masks and his loud words and gesticulation, Kingo was a good brother. They were family, and he would do absolutely anything in the world for his family.

Chapter Text

Phastos looked up at the stranger walking into his yard like she owned the place. She was the same as ever, although she looked like she had had a rough couple of days. He was sure that was what brought her here. “Makkari?”

Hi Phastos, she signed to him, sliding her fingers on her palm affectionately. He hadn’t seen the sign for his name in so long. He ran over, hugging her shorter form and patting her back lightly.

What are you doing here? He shook his head in disbelief. Her smile faded, and he nodded. This wasn’t just a friendly visit. He nodded her into the house.

Makkari took it in with wide eyes. Phastos had pretty nice taste, but maybe that was his husband’s doing. She remembered his lab always being littered with half-started and half tinkered with projects. She took a seat at his table and folded her legs up on the chair, shoes and everything. He looked at her disapprovingly for it, and it made her laugh. Her brother hadn’t changed. I’ve missed you.

I missed you too, he signed with an ease he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was startlingly familiar. What’s happened?

Too much, she shook her head back at him. The others are on their way. I ran ahead because I’ve had more than enough of planes for the decade.

Phastos nodded. The vibrations had always made it hard for her to concentrate when they were so constant. At least the Domo had been different.

We’re also running out of time, she shifted gears, even her hands becoming heavier with the words. Ikaris will come looking for you.

Why would he be looking for me? Phastos leaned forward in his chair. “Is my family safe?”

Makkari looked down at the table. Phastos had more to lose than any of them. If we leave soon. But…

“But?” he both signed and asked through his teeth.

Makkari’s shoulders dropped and she bobbed her head around. This is why I wanted to at least bring Druig with me for this.

Phastos sat quietly as Makkari went through everything that she had learned over the past few days. Her hands flew at a speed that was almost as fast as her legs, and he had to watch intently in order to keep up with it all. But he didn’t live with Makkari for thousands of years to not be able to keep up with her at her fastest. He looked up at her as she trailed off again. “That’s a lot to take in.”

A smile came over her, just slightly. I saved the best for last.

There’s a best? Phastos couldn’t help interjecting, but it didn’t dampen her mood at all.

Thena’s back.

Phastos’ face fell with a darkness on it. “Don’t joke like that, Kari.”

She reached over and placed her hands on his, letting the gesture speak for her. He looked down at them, his eyes pleading and questioning. She raised them again. That guy Eros came with her. He saved her from the Emergence on Orexion-9 before coming with her to Earth. She’s back.

Phastos took in a breath, ran his tongue over his lips as they curled inward. He leaned back and took his glasses off. “Thena’s really back?”

Makkari nodded with a smile. You’ll see her soon.

He let out a breathy laugh, holding his head up to keep his tears in.

“Habibi?” Ben called into the house with groceries in tow. “Makkari?”

Makkari waved with an infectious smile.

“I’m guessing this isn’t just a world tour,” Ben mused, taking in the mixture of expressions on his husband’s face. “Is everything okay?”

Makkari looked up at Phastos, who looked back at her with a very clear message: she was not to bring up the potential end of the Earth as they knew it to his husband or child. Well then; she shrugged her shoulders and gave a thumbs up.

Phastos rubbed his eyes. Why was his family like this?

“Aunt Makkari, will you take me running on water again?”

“No!” Phastos groaned.

The sun was just starting to set by the time of the knock on the door. Makkari looked at Phastos with a nod. He rose and walked to it slowly. He still hadn’t fully absorbed everything Makkari had told him, mostly about Thena being back. But when he opened the door he had all the evidence he needed.

“Hello Phastos,” she greeted as if it was just yesterday she had seen him. Although her eyes were glittering as she looked at him. “I’ve missed-”

She was cut off as Phastos pulled her into a hug, something he had never done in all their time together before. She reached up and patted his back. For all his posturing about his exasperation with them, saying he was the only responsible one, he loved them. Sometimes they felt more like his children than his siblings, but he loved them with everything in him. And they had been a great precursor to parenthood for him.

“What about me?” Kingo, of course, piped up from the back of the group.

Phastos ignored him, shaking his head and sharing a smile with Thena at their brother’s bottomless hunger for attention. He stepped aside and let her in. Next he looked at another Eternal he hadn’t seen in well over a century. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

“Sorry it’s been so long,” Gil shrugged sheepishly at him. But his smile was the same as Phastos remembered, and it almost brought him to tears again. They hugged each other with loud pats on the back.

“You’re lucky Thena’s here or I’d whoop your ass for how long it’s been,” Phastos chuckled at him. Gil just nodded at him and joined Thena, who hadn’t taken another step into the house until he was beside her. “Same for you.”

Druig just gave him the finger and a smirk, sauntering his way in and past his brother. That was…to be expected: Druig never changed.

Lastly, Phastos looked at Sersi and Sprite, who were dragging themselves up the stoop like rained on kittens. He shook his head at them, picking them both up in an arm and carrying them in. They at least laughed at that.

Kingo’s jaw dropped as Phastos let the door shut behind him. He let himself in, “no respect.”

Chapter Text

Phastos raised his palm, the golden ringing of his power reawakening eagerly. He did miss using his powers when he left them dormant for long stretches of time. He felt the Domo’s systems power on in reply to him.

Everyone squinted against the roar of its engines as it unearthed itself. Kingo had at least gotten sunglasses for all of them before coming out here. And of course Druig and Thena had needed changes of clothes.

The Domo was the same as they had left it ages ago, although Makkari had spent the most time going back to check on it out of all of them. But it, like many other things over thousands of years, had slipped her mind. Thus it had gotten buried in the sandstorms and tectonic shifts of time. She had amassed a bit of a collection in it over the centuries.

“My lab!” Phastos let out mournfully as he took a look at the junk cluttering it. “What have you done?”

Keepsakes, she shrugged before zooming around the room on a stroll down memory lane.

“These are all national treasures,” Sersi whispered to herself as she looked over the books and paintings and artifacts. She looked over at her sister. “Did you steal all of these?”

Museums steal too, I just got there first, Makkari shrugged with an innocent grin. Sersi rolled her eyes at her, earning a laugh.

“The emerald tablet?” Druig raised his brows as he turned to her. She reached for it but he kept it from her reach with a grin. “How did you finally score this me lady?”

Ladies don’t kiss and tell, she winked up at him. His jaw dropped at the joke and she laughed.

“I thought we had an agreement,” he signed with smiling lips, “that those,” he glanced down at her lips, “were all mine.”

“I’m sorry, what are we watching?” Phastos glared at them from the doorway, only for Thena to nudge him out of her way. He glared at her too but she just raised a brow at him, quiet as ever. “Don’t give me statue face.”

Gil chuckled at the familiarity of their bickering as he strolled in behind Thena. As soon as they were out of the narrow corridor he was beside her again, tangling their fingers together.

“I have been looking for these!” Sprite huffed at Makkari as she unearthed a couple of scrolls from Alexandria. “They’ve been here?!”

You didn’t seem to mind at the time, Makkari shrugged at her, and those are some of my favourites of your stories!

“Mm, they’re okay,” Sprite murmured to herself as she read over her old work. She glanced up at the movement in the corner of her eyes. “Is that the Ebony Blade?”

“Excalibur,” Thena answered back with a grin.

“Arthur always did have a crush on you.”

She spun it again but it was blocked by Gilgamesh holding the tip of the sword against the tip of his finger. She grinned at him. He gripped the blade, completely unbothered by the sharpness, and pulled her into him with it. He let it clatter to the ground as his hands settled at the small of her back, her hands coming to rest on his chest.

“And when did this happen?” Phastos held out his hands, asking no one.

“I hate this too,” Kingo put in his two-cents as well, just to be flipped off by Gil.

“Leave them be,” Sersi shook her head at her brothers with a smile.

“Okay, okay, enough with the collection,” Phastos grumbled, clearing off his work table and summoning his rings to his will, resizing and shaping them as needed. “I’ve been thinking about what needs to happen for us to put a damned Celestial to sleep.”

“Do we still think that will work?” Kingo asked the room, at least willing to be the one to bring it up.

“What’s the alternative?” Sprite shrugged at her with her usual attitude. “Evacuate the planet?”

“We could, in the interim?” Sersi suggested, not looking too sure of it herself.

“We are not moving everyone on Earth into space colonies,” Phastos shook his head as he tried to focus on his work.

“Well, what’ve we got instead?” Druig spoke up from his place beside Makkari, her back tucked against his shoulder.

“This,” Phastos declared with pride.

“Nice bracelet,” Gil remarked mildly at the invention finally coming together in front of them. Thena nudged his side with her elbow, making him laugh. His hand, resting on her far hip, gave her a pinch as well.

“Gil,” Phastos scolded him with a shake of his head. “It’s a tool to link us all together, and maybe draw out Cosmic Energies together into someone else’s. Like multiplying an electrical current.”

“Sure,” Druig shrugged, grinning at the opportunity to add to his brother’s exasperation.

“It’s called,” Phastos paused with his hands rubbing together eagerly, “the unimind.”

“Terrible name!”

“That’s dumb!”

“I’m not calling it that.”

Phastos groaned loudly at his family. Why were they like this?! “It doesn’t matter what it’s called!”

“It does if it’s as bad as unimind!” Sprite raised her hand at it.

“We can all brainstorm-” Kingo threw out his arms with a grin. “That’s a way better name!--Brainstorm!”

Phastos turned on his brother with a glare, “I invented it, so I’m calling it whatever I want.”

Sersi buried her face in her hands at the new conflict. Druig was leaned against the greentank, laughing gleefully at the petty arguing. Makkari appeared between them, signing at both simultaneously and adding to the chaos. Gil and Thena were back to lingering in one another's arms, staring at each other’s lips like no one could see them doing it.

“This is getting absolutely nowhere very quickly,” Phastos raised his voice over them.

“I agree!” Kingo raised his voice to the same level, if nothing else, not to be outdone.

Sersi let out a breath, feeling her hands shake. “Enough!”

She wasn’t the loudest voice in the room, or the harshest or the deepest. But all eyes turned to her. They had maybe never heard her declare herself so loudly.

“We have to.”

Thena stood straighter. She looked at Gilgamesh, who nodded. She had said those very words just before they had left Australia. There was no use postulating, what was done, was done. They had to. “Sersi is right.”

She looked up at Thena, her eyes shifting as if able to see all of her second guesses laid out in front of her. But Thena folded her arms and nodded at her. “We don’t have any other options. The Emergence is upon us, and we’ll have to…we have to face Ikaris too.”

The rest of the room sobered, turning their dour expressions to the floor.

“We can’t just prevent billions of lives from being created,” Kingo shook his head, still lurching at the idea of what they would be preventing. Thena walked over to him, her shoes clacking in the echous room. She took one of his larger hands between hers.

“I understand,” she said plainly and simply. But when she raised her eyes he could see everything that was clinging to her still, from her time away all the way up to now. “But if you could see what happens…in that moment…Kingo, we can’t do nothing as that happens to this planet. Earth…this is our home.”

Kingo nodded. He knew she was right, and while he wasn’t willing to fight them for his beliefs, he supposed he wasn’t willing to be complicit in things for his beliefs either. And if Thena could look at him with tears in her eyes and plead with him, then he had no reason not to help them. He patted her hands with his other one. “Okay, you’re right.”

“We have to do everything we can,” she turned back to the others. She was the Goddess of War. She had addressed her fellow Eternals and she had addressed war rooms and she had addressed colosseums. But this wasn’t the Battle of Elysium, or the Siege of Troy or even preparing them for a particularly gruelling battle with a Deviant pack. This was the preparation for their hardest fight yet. “Or die trying.”

The others around her nodded. This was their mission: protect Earth.

“I really wish there were another option,” Kingo couldn’t help interjecting. He was ignored.

“If something happens,” Thena added, and now she had not only their attention but their worry. She inhaled. “It has been the greatest honour…and joy…of my life, to be with you all.”

She turned and walked out of the room, towards her armour, to prepare for War once again.

Gilgamesh followed her, of course, looking at his family and promising them that he wouldn’t let her say goodbye a second time. “You really freaked them out back there.”

Thena glanced at him as the cool metal of her tiara was settled on her forehead again. “I wasn’t going to let myself disappear for a second time without saying a proper goodbye.”

“You’re not expecting us to fail,” Gil scoffed, walking over to her with his hands in his pockets. “When we have the Goddess of War on our side?”

“And Ikaris is on the other?” she raised a brow.

“Like you’ve ever been worried about Ikaris,” he snorted. But she wasn’t following him up into his levity, so he met her in her solemnity. Although, with a smile. “We’ll win, Thena. Because-”

“Because we have to,” she whispered to him. He offered a hand and she slid hers into it, just like the first day they stepped onto this planet. She had let his hand grasp hers, and had loved him every second of her life ever since.

Gilgamesh pulled her into his arms, letting them fold around her smaller frame, burying his nose in her hair. They didn’t need the words. They had never needed them before and they didn’t need them centuries later. He knew. And she knew. And nothing would keep him from following her again. Not Ikaris, not the Emergence, not any fully formed Celestial–Arishem be damned.

Thena watched as he stepped into the station next to hers, letting his armour come over him as well. She could remember being in this room for the first time, looking over and seeing him beside her, and the inexplicable comfort it brought her.

Gilgamesh remembered seeing her in that moment, her blond waves standing out in the dark, against their grey robes. He remembered the glittering pearl colour that came over her. But most of all, he remembered looking into her eyes and knowing right away that he would follow her to the end of time and back.

The gold lines of energy pulled away from him, letting him step back to her. She reached for his hand, meeting him halfway. She squeezed his hand in hers. The rest of their family followed, taking up their stations one by one, dragging the weight of the world with them. Gilgamesh kept her hand in his, though. He had just gotten her back, and he wasn’t about to let her go again.

Chapter Text

Ikaris landed on the beach with heavy steps. He was exhausted, in so many ways. And he was so close to the end of his mission. He just had to see this through. Maybe he had hoped that his family had been discouraged enough after the fight in the Amazon, but he should have known better. They were just as stubborn as he was. Above him was a volcano, spitting out dark plumes of smoke and bits of lava. And stationed around him were five different illusions of the Domo. He sighed to himself. Okay, if they wanted to do things the hard way he would grant their wishes.

His eyes cut through each one of them. As always, Sprite’s illusions disappeared quickly after any kind of physical dispelling. His lasers cut along the side of the real ship. He could start there. He flew over to it at an easy pace. He didn’t know what their plan was now that they had lost the mighty Prince, but he was willing to bet that they were still intending to use Druig.

“Hey Boss.”

“Kingo,” Ikaris sighed. He had been glad, in the forest, when he hadn’t had to take on Kingo the way he had with Thena and Gil. “You’ve always been by my side, through thick and thin.”

Kingo held his jaw tight as his old friend approached him. He raised his hand. “That’s far enough.”

“Really, Kingo?” Ikaris tightened his eyes, forced a smile at him. “You wouldn’t really take that shot, would you?”

“Please,” Kingo heard the split in his voice, “don’t make me.”

“You don’t think they should be doing this either.” Ikaris shook his head. Kingo had always been too soft on them–all of them. “You know it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Kingo answered more easily this time, glaring down the other man. His charge was building, there was no way to hide it. It would take him time, and Ikaris would be able to fire his eyes at him in a fraction of the time with more power. “You turned your back on your family. You killed one of your own. And you’re still willing to let billions die without a choice.”

Ikaris nodded, his eyes drifting to the space between them. So, not even Kingo was salvageable. It was a shame, Ikaris thought. He had hoped he could still reach the brother that had always been closest to him. “Where are the others, Kingo?”

He stayed silent, the hiss of his Cosmic Energy building at the tips of his fingers.

“Fine.”

Ikaris fired his eyes at Kingo in an instant. Kingo's shot left his fingers the same second. Kingo was thrown through the statue of Arishem and through the wall behind it. Ikaris was blown back from Kingo’s shot, aimed perfectly where Eros had dealt the first blow days before. He didn’t have any desire to check for Kingo’s body. He had other things to attend to.

“There!”

The other Eternals watched as Ikaris ascended from the Domo. Sprite was holding illusions of other mountaintops along the volcanic expanse of the island. They were each stationed strategically, but connected by the…unimind.

Ikaris saw Druig, suspended in the air and already working on connecting with the Celestial. He charged the fire in his eyes and took aim. It was taking more effort, and his eyes were starting to feel the burn of use. But he had a job to do.

Druig did fall out of the sky, but Ikaris didn’t get a chance to finish it. Makkari had charged down at him once freed from the holds of their power. She was too fast for any of them, and Ikaris’ heat vision didn’t matter if he couldn’t see her well enough to hit her. She grabbed him, landing hit upon hit, barely a fraction of a second apart. She sent him flying into the mountainside with a sonic boom.

Next was Thena, descending upon him with that spear of hers–her favourite. He rolled out of the way and up into the air just in time. She had always coddled Druig when she was training them for combat. Their love for each other made them all so weak. “Do you really think you can beat me?!”

Thena and Makkari glanced at each other with a faint grin. He snarled at them. He had half a mind to go down there and snap their arms, but he felt himself pulled back. His head turned.

“You’re not going anywhere!” Phastos roared at him over the rumbling of the volcano.

Ikaris snarled as more and more restraints chained around him, dragging him to his knees and holding him there. His eyes lit, firing every which way in his efforts and his frustration. Thena held fast with her shield raised in front of her and Makkari. Phastos could create his own shield of sorts with his power. A booming crash sounded directly behind Ikaris. Ah, that would be Gil.

“It’s too late,” he said to Ikaris, standing above him and looking far too pleased with himself. Ikaris reared up within his trap but Gil placed his foot on one of Ikaris’ shoulders. He pushed him back to his knees and exerted a little more pressure, just enough to crush some rock below them. “Now, now, Ikaris; play nice.”

Gil got his hands up and charged just in time to keep Ikaris’ eyes from cutting straight through him. He was tossed back, but Makkari caught his fall and Thena held him steady beside her. Ikaris was breaking through layer after layer of his binds. Thena summoned a chain and sent it around him. Gil gripped her hands in his, pulling with their strength combined to bring Ikaris to the ground again.

“Just a little longer!”

“Enough!” Ikaris broke free as his adrenaline overtook him. He couldn’t feel his pain, or his limbs or the flow of his blood. He couldn’t feel anything anymore, which was a relief, knowing what he would have to do next.

The four below watched him take off for the top of the mountain. Thena turned to Makkari, who needed no instruction. She took off and returned in a flash of gold. Druig was leaning on her heavily, holding the burn where Ikaris had driven his body into the stone. Phastos turned and lent Kingo his shoulder just in time.

We have to go help her.

Thena looked at Makkari, dispelling her weapon just to touch her hand to the Speedster’s. “She can do it.”

Makkari was still coiled and ready for a fight, but nodded. Those who could make it could go, but the fight would be different. Makkari turned her head to Druig. He wasn’t a Fighter, and he was already hurt. It was best if he stayed with Phastos and Kingo on the beach. She reached up to his cheek, leaning their foreheads together. The overwhelming vibrations around them faded as she became attuned to only his warmth and his heartbeat and his breathing.

Druig raised his head only to leave a kiss to her forehead. His hand found the back of her neck, so small in his palm. “Go get ‘im.”

Makkari smiled faintly, giving him a nod. She would be back before he knew it.

“Be careful up there,” Kingo grunted out through his pain. His words were plain but his voice was pleading, begging them to come back to him.

“Don’t worry,” Gil nodded at him. He would be there with his fellow Fighters to the very end.

That was what worried Kingo. Thena nodded at him and then Phastos. Druig was looking at her with those big, sad blue eyes, as if asking if someone else could do it instead. She smiled, running a hand over his hair with a heavy sense of finality to it.

“We’ll be back,” Thena assured him, in an uncharacteristic promise that she couldn’t guarantee. But she was as resolute as ever, looking at her brothers again before starting the long climb up the volcano’s side.

Chapter Text

Ikaris landed atop the Celestial, where Sersi was. He guessed she had sent Sprite away when she saw him take to the sky. He shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Sersi.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” she said back to him with a hard edge in her voice. She was ready to face him, Fighter or not. He walked forward, arm tucked into his side but still one of the strongest Fighters for a reason. She backed up a few steps, like last time she had seen him.

“Sersi, please, I-” he sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes going red. This was the woman he loved. This was his wife. “I don’t want to fight…in our last moments.”

Sersi closed her eyes, the resignation washing over her as her tears fell. She knelt down, placing her hands on the Celestial’s surface. It was both burning hot and freezing cold against her skin. It was gold, but she could see the lines and circles that signified the Cosmic Energy flowing through it, just like it did with all of the Eternals. It was a sign that they were made of the same stardust.

Ikaris charged his eyes and let go a few times. He had been over this in his head. He had gone over his affirmations, his choices, he knew what the consequences would be. And he had been convinced that if he had to…he could do it. He had told himself that he could kill Sersi if he had to.

How wrong he was.

Ikaris fell to his knees, weeping at the sight of her tears, eyes closed and waiting for him to shoot through her with the force of the sun. He couldn’t do it. All that weakness he didn’t want had been in him the whole time he had known her–loved her.

“I know you can’t do it.”

Ikaris scrambled back, fearful, but Gil just reached a hand to his shoulder. Gilgamesh didn’t have a hateful bone in his body, not for his traitorous brother, not for the man who had stolen his soulmate from him. There was no room in Gil’s bottomless heart for hate. Ikaris’ chest heaved with panicked breaths.

Gil smiled at him. “I wouldn’t be able to do it if it were me.”

Makkari and Thena were at Sersi’s side, each with a hand on her shoulders. It had been only days before when Makkari and Sersi had surrounded Thena this same way, offering their support. Thena gripped Sersi’s shoulder with her hand.

Sersi opened her eyes. The golden lines and circles under her hands connected in her mind. Her hands took on their usual glow. Light spread out from the tips of her fingers, turning the gold beneath them to bright white stone. But it wasn’t happening fast enough. The Celestial’s hand was rising from the sea. Sersi let out a cry as she exerted all of her power.

Ikaris flew up into the air. The wind burned his cheeks where his tears were flowing against his skin. He had gotten his wish. He had seen Sersi one last time. He had actually gotten to see his whole family again. Wasn’t that all he could have asked for, in his most selfish thoughts? Well, if he really had one request of Arishem, it would probably just be…to have more time with Sersi. But that was Ikaris’ problem. For an Eternal with no set lifespan, he had learned of an end and spent every moment since counting down the minutes with dread. Everything in between had vanished before his eyes. It had possessed him entirely.

His family had lived happy lives, without the burden of their creator’s knowledge. And that was why he had kept it from them, even Sersi. He just couldn’t bear the thought of them having to deal with what he had learned. So he had chosen loneliness. He had thought he was protecting them, but maybe it had only assured this equally destructive outcome.

“Move!”

Makkari grabbed Sersi and ran down the cliffs and to the beach again. She saw Gil and Thena, hand in hand, leap from the head. She zoomed up again, catching them in their falls and bringing them down to safer ground faster than gravity ever could.

Ikaris was at terminal velocity. He closed his eyes. This was his last act of love, the last thing he could do for his family, and this planet that they had called home. It was the only thing he could do. He made contact with the Celestial’s head with explosive impact, caving it into itself and burning up everything around it in the process. The hand in the water collapsed from the shockwave. The head imploded completely, caving in those empty, soulless six eyes. A cloud sucked in first, then rose high in the sky as the volcano swallowed itself, the lava flowing down the rest of the body straight to the core of the Earth.

Sersi let out a scream from deep in her chest as she watched the mighty Celestial crumble against the impact of the meteor that was Ikaris. The stone she had turned it into was no match for Ikaris’ strength and the sheer forces of Earth’s natural atmosphere. He had hit straight down. They would never find his body, if anything of it even remained, which was doubtful. He had given himself up for them in his last minutes.

The Eternals huddled around each other as the final shockwaves blew out over them and the land surrounding. When they looked up the volcanic clouds were clearing. The sun was peeking through at them, birds could be heard flying around the jagged mountain that remained in the wake of their actions. It no longer resembled any sort of being, and surely the body of the ‘mountain’ descended into the Earth further than humans would ever be able to explore for themselves. But all the better for their protectors. With any luck, this would fade from the present like the Blip: a terrible event that could be considered in the past eventually.

The family on the beach looked up again one by one. Each and every one of them, from his love to his biggest rival, stared at the ‘grave’ that marked Ikaris’ sacrifice. They had all lost a brother today. Kingo bowed his head, hoping that Ikaris, if he ever existed again in any way, would have another loving family when it happened.

Makkari leaned against Druig as he pulled her to him, holding onto her with silent desperation. She let him, feeling every beat of his heart against her head. Her hands ran along the cool shell of his armour. She reached a hand up to the back of his neck to bring his head to rest against hers again. They stayed like that, swaying slightly, for a small eternity. When she pulled back she had a smile that was brighter than the recovering sun. Did you miss me?

Druig’s face lit up, making him look thousands of years younger.

Kingo rolled his eyes from his position, leaned heavily against Phastos, who also rolled his eyes at the couple. They both put a hand on Sersi’s shoulders, who was still looking at the mountain that would never be known as the monument to Ikaris’ selflessness that she had witnessed.

Gil crushed Thena against his chest. He felt like he could breathe again. His deepest fear since she had come back to him was that he would wake up and find her gone again. But she was really there, in his arms, living and breathing. And they would have the rest of whatever eternity meant for them now to spend together.

Thena sighed against Gilgamesh. This was the comfort she had dreamed of for 500 years. It wasn’t just his strength or his warmth. She hadn’t had a name for it before; the intimacy and love that existed in how well they knew each other, how their souls were at their barest together. And she had known no rest in all those years apart from him. The breath she released held centuries of loneliness she could finally start to shed.

Sprite ran to them from the Domo. “Where’s Ikaris?”

But she already knew the answer to the question. She had seen the ball of fire, descending to the Earth with a speed only the Soaring Eternal could achieve. Sersi’s tears said it all. But Sersi walked to Sprite and pulled her into her arms, both of them crying as silently as they could.

Kingo left the crutch of Phastos’ side to fold himself over his small sister, resting a hand in her hair as she cried into Sersi. Thena leaned in next, placing a hand on Sprite’s back. Gil was next, placing a hand over Thena’s hand over Sprite’s back. The rest followed suit, their whole family mourning the two that were missing from their reunion embrace.

Chapter Text

“The news is explaining it away already,” Sersi turned from the old television to the rest of the room. Why Ajak had chosen to keep a deep backed tv from the 1990s was beyond her. “We shouldn’t have a problem with it.”

Kingo, Druig and Makkari were on the couch, eating pizza ravenously and nodding but not really listening to her. She couldn’t blame them.

They had gone to the first place any of them thought of: Ajak’s house. And once inside they had all collapsed from the energy used, falling asleep for at least a day and up to three, in some cases. They were nearing the end of the week. Sprite and Kingo had woken first, then Makkari and Phastos, then Druig and Sersi. Gil and Thena were the last to wake, although the others were critical about whether or not they had actually woken earlier and just laid in bed ignoring their brothers and sisters for each other.

Phastos chuckled at the three stuffing their faces on the sofa. He looked up as Sersi drifted into the kitchen with him. She had been extra quiet since they had returned, even for her. He let his eyes drift to his feet. “Sersi-”

“I’m okay, Phastos,” she nodded at him with a faint smile. Of course she wasn’t, but if she could say that she was, then maybe she could make herself believe it too.

“You were always a terrible liar,” he chuckled quietly and shook his head. She sniffled and laughed as well. He pulled her into a hug, resting his chin against her silken black hair. “It’s okay to be okay, and also if you’re not, y’know.”

She nodded silently against her brother. She didn’t know which one she was, but she had all the time in the world to figure that out.

“Well, well, well,” Phastos parted from her only to scold the newcomers. They strolled in as if they hadn’t been hogging one of the actual bedrooms to themselves since they’d arrived. “Finally decide to join us?”

Gil yawned and waved off Phastos’ nagging as he headed for the fridge.

“There’s no pizza for people late to the party!” Druig yelled from the living room.

Thena placed a silent hand on Sersi’s shoulder, asking how she was without a word. Sersi nodded at her. Their eyes met, and it told Thena much more than the hollow words of assurance. She nodded though, and went back to Gil.

Phastos rolled his eyes at the way Thena attached herself physically to Gil’s arm, winding both her arms around his one. “Some of us are trying to eat.”

“Go bother Druig and Kari then,” Thena looked him dead in the eye and raised a brow at him.

“Oi!” Druig’s voice came and went unheeded again.

Sersi had to laugh a little. Her family hadn’t changed at all. They had evolved, but who they were themselves, and who they were with each other: it had stayed the same. She leaned against the door frame of the living room.

Druig and Makkari were making far too intense eye contact, playing chicken with a piece of pizza and biting closer and closer to each other’s lips. Sprite took the opportunity to throw her crust at them, which just initiated a war between all three anti-crust Eternals. Kingo snatched one out of the air and ate it for himself with a grin. Phastos was scolding all four of them for their childish behaviour and bad manners alike. Gil was sitting in the chair with Thena curled up like a cat on the arm. Her legs were tucked into the warmth of Gil’s side while he had an arm around her to run his thumb in circles against the small of her back.

Makkari looked up at Sersi as she came in and joined them, sitting next to Sprite on the floor. Are you sure you want to go back to London?

Sersi smiled again as she was bombarded with a flood of offers to join her family elsewhere. “I’m sure, at least for now. I’ll probably move soon anyway, I’ve been there for five years already.”

Everyone nodded; those who had experience with it knew well the lifespan their ‘lives’ in the modern world had. There was only so long they could explain things away with good skincare and good genetics. Even the small things like the idea that they were particularly on top of haircuts and trimming their fingernails had to be thought out.

“And I can experience just enough of London in that time,” Sprite smiled. Kingo nodded, looking a little sad. But he knew why Sprite was ready for a change of scenery, and he agreed that none of them wanted to leave Sersi alone in the wake of what had happened.

“Who knows, maybe I’ll join you two in your crazy showbiz life,” Sersi laughed quietly and nudged Sprite’s elbow with her own.

“You’re still a terrible liar, but it was a nice thought,” Kingo called her out but stuffed some pizza in his mouth in the middle of smiling. “I’m reaching a point when I’ll have to retire for a while before my ‘son’ takes the reins at the studio again.”

“You’re welcome in America if you want,” Phastos offered with a smile before it disappeared, “to visit. I cannot express that enough.”

“You haven’t invited us to visit,” Druig pointed between him and Makkari.

“Last time she was there Makkari told Jack she would teach him how to run on water,” Phastos shot a pointed glare in her direction, to which she just shrugged. “And I don’t want you anywhere near my child.”

“Hey, we’d be great babysitters,” Gil spoke up from the chair, gesturing between himself and his own other half.

“Immediately no,” Phastos shook his head at them, “immediately no.”

Thena laughed from deep within her chest as Gil argued why they could totally watch Phastos’ child without anything terrible happening.

“Speakin’ of, where are you off to?” Druig asked, particularly to Thena.

She smiled at him. The simple question was actually an incredible expression of concern, no matter how much he tried to dress down his words. “I’ll go to Australia.”

“You’re going back to…” Sersi glanced at Makkari, who glanced at Kingo, who glanced at Sprite, who glanced at Druig, who glanced back at Thena. Sersi straightened up, “your house?”

Gil laughed, open mouthed and at full volume. It was far too loud for the modest living space but Thena didn’t even flinch at it, staring at him openly and adoringly. He looked at her too, pulling her even closer (much to Phastos and Kingo’s chagrin). “I’ll build us a new house.”

“If you’re going to build a new house you could just move,” Phastos suggested breezily. Gil glared at him and he shrugged. “All I’m saying is we would like it to be less than a hundred years next time we see you guys.”

“You can always come visit us,” Thena shrugged and smiled at them. “We’ll have a house warming when it’s done.”

“You know that means you have to contact us, and most people don’t use charcoal letters, or carrier pigeons anymore,” Kingo snorted. Thena nailed him in the side of the head with her own crust. Gilgamesh quickly scooped up her other abandoned crust to eat for himself.

“One year, then,” she smirked at him with challenge in her eyes. It was the same look she used to give Ikaris back when he was on her nerves and she wanted to shut him up. Even Kingo and Ikaris had shared that look once or twice during a friendly aiming competition. “Gilgamesh and I will have finished the house by this time next year, on the date. You can fly everyone out to us.”

“Okay, you’re on, Boss,” Kingo grinned back at her. “But what do I get if I win?”

“You can say you want anything at all, because it’s not going to happen.”

“Come on, T, give ‘im a li’l bit of a chance,” Druig said through his fits of laughter.

Makkari met Sersi’s eyes. Her hands didn’t need to compete with anyone’s volume. I’ll visit you same time next year too. Then at the end of the week we can go right to Gil and Thena’s to continue the party.

I have a job, you know. Sersi shook her head at her wilder - freer - sister but couldn’t help the laugh that was pulled from her, the knot in her chest finally loosening. Thena smiled at her.

If you take back some of Makkari’s treasures from the Domo you’ll never have to work again.

Chapter Text

“Hey, you.”

Thena smiled as she felt his weight hit the roof and settle next to her. Her white sundress billowed around her ankles in the light breeze of the day. His hand found hers, as it always did, and always would.

Gil reached out his far hand and brushed back some hair behind her ear. Her other hand was toying with the rest of it over her other shoulder.

“Once…Eros asked me if I would come back to Earth, given the chance,” Thena began slowly and quietly. Gilgamesh was silent, giving her all the room she needed. “I told him: in a heartbeat, of course.”

“He told me that you hated Orexion-9,” Gil chuckled faintly, but his eyes were on her, carefully watching her every micro-expression.

“It was loud and bright and garish,” she let out a laugh as well. “It suited him.”

A faint smile came to her and Gil’s lips lifted as well.

She turned to him, her eyes wide and filled to the brim with adoration. “I missed you. I didn’t give the planet the fairest regard because of that.”

“I probably wouldn’t have either.” He moved closer, wrapping an arm around her and resting his hand on her hip, as he had done so many times before. He had already shown her his journals, his sketches and paintings. They’d been given the year with just each other. First, it was the slow and luxuriously slow journey back to Australia. Then, they’d savoured every day under the blazing sun.

But eternity wouldn’t be enough for them with each other.

Thena leaned against Gilgamesh, who supported her without any effort or thought needed. “I liked watching the sunsets and imagining you could see it with me.”

Gil had to smile. He could imagine her, leaning against a tree or a boulder, watching the sun fade and shutting out anything and everything else. “I’d watch the sunset here too.”

“I hate that you were alone.”

His eyebrows rose in surprise. That was something she hadn’t expressed in words yet. But she didn’t need to say it. The first time he told her how he ended up settling out here, with only himself under the stars, she had sobbed. He hadn’t considered it such a sad thing–if he wasn’t going to be with her then he would be with no one. But even after they had gone to bed he could hear her weepy breaths all night long.

“I would have followed you out here. I would have followed you anywhere.”

Gilgamesh brought her hand up, separating it from his only to rest her palm against his cheek. It always seemed to calm her. “We’re here now.”

She nodded. He was so good at dispelling her worries from the past. Sometimes she would get caught up several times a day, wondering what would have and could have been. But he wished only to look forward, to where they could finally be together.

“I’m glad that you weren’t alone,” he said softly, recalling the look on Eros’ face when he’d told him as much. “Away from me or not.”

She allowed a small smile. She supposed that as much as Eros had annoyed her endlessly, among much worse things, she certainly couldn’t say that he had left her alone. “He made several attempts to give me his heart.”

“But you refused, so it doesn’t have to bother me,” Gil’s tone turned up again, bringing Thena’s smile with it. “Was he more charming than me?”

“No,” she ran her thumb against his cheek, brushing by the dimples in his cheeks. Her smile grew to its full force. “No one is as charming as you to me.”

Gil leaned in, stealing a kiss that she was happy to give.

“You two gonna make out up there all day or you feel like showin’ us this house’a yer’s?!”

Gilgamesh dragged himself away from her and glared down at Druig. “I am going to get you for this, just you wait.”

Druig groaned as Gilgamesh landed, kicking up dust upon impact. The taller man ruffled his hair quite excessively before hugging him. “Oi!”

Thena landed beside them. She took up Gilgamesh’s place, also ruffling Druig’s hair to excess and then hugging him. He put up less of a fight with her, although still rolling his eyes and making a show of patting her shoulder reluctantly.

I told him not to interrupt you, Makkari proclaimed for herself, fully disavowing herself from any responsibility for Druig’s actions and greeting them both with a leaping hug.

“Should I have clarified that when I said ‘house’ I meant more than,” Kingo gestured vaguely with his hand. Gil picked him up and swung him around in his arms.

“It’s perfect for us,” Thena smiled at him, patting his shoulder. He patted her hand on his shoulder. “Besides, you didn’t say we had to spend the whole year building one house.”

“I guess I didn’t,” Kingo sighed. He should never have made that bet.

Sersi laughed faintly as the couple strolled into the house, talking between themselves and leaving the door open for their family. “I’m sure they were making up for lost time.”

Kingo faked a gagging noise.

“In what world was that necessary?” Phastos glared at her.

“You’re not our dad,” Sprite patted Phastos’ arm - more like slapped it - on her way past him and into the house, eager to be out of the sun.

Sersi followed. Kingo charged in, eager to discuss what exactly Thena wanted out of their friendly wager. Phastos was right behind them, already trying to lecture Sprite about respect and waiting for an opportunity to shoot down Thena and Gil’s displays of affection.

Druig slung an arm around Makkari’s shoulders. “So, what’d’you think, me lady?”

Thena’s right, it’s perfect for them, she smiled up at him as they were the last to cross the threshold.