#f!eternal

I was pulled out of my thoughts by my co-worker, Armel, barging into the room I was working in. “Y/n, you have visitors,” He said and immediately piqued my curiosity. Who could possibly be visiting me? The last person in my family I had spoken to was Sersi, who seemed quite content in London. I don’t think she would be leaving anytime soon.

I spun around in my chair and faced Armel. “Did they say who they are?”

“The woman is named Thena, and the gentleman said his name was Gil. Would you like me to tell them they can wait?” He eyed me suspiciously. I had been working at this museum for ten years, and not once has anybody come to visit me, especially at work.

Now I’m very interested. I knew that Gilgamesh and Thena hadn’t left Australia in close to a century, probably longer. I spoke to them often enough, especially to make sure that Thena was okay. Her and I were as close as sisters, and usually didn’t keep anything from each other. And with Gil being in love with her for all of these years, he had settled himself into a brotherly role quite nicely.

I brushed myself off and stood up from my work desk. “No, please, send them in.” Armel looked as if he wanted to protest, but seeing how I was the most senior member of the museum's curator staff (in more ways than one) he only nodded his head and rushed out the door. I put away my tools and gave the bust of Athena I had been cleaning a final wipe down.

“I remember when those littered the streets of Greece.” I spun around and saw Thena and Gil standing in the door, Thena wearing an all white sundress that matched her white blonde hair, and Gil wearing a ratted shirt with black suspenders and linen pants. They truly hadn’t changed in the decade since I had last seen them.

I squealed and ran at her, wrapping her in a hug which she happily returned. “Well, it was only right that statues were made to honor the greatest warrior of their time,” I countered. Thena only smiled and playfully rolled her eyes. As I let go of her, two giant arms wrapped me in a hug. “Hello, Gil,” I huffed out as my lungs were crushed under his arms.

“Y/n, it’s been too long,” Gil told me, gently setting me down on my feet.

“I know, I’ve been meaning to visit, but I’ve been busy with work,” I told them. “But what do I owe the pleasure? Is everything okay?”

Immediately both of their faces dropped, their smiles replaced with solemn looks. Immediately I started to panic. “What happened?”

Gil stepped forward and took my hand in his. “Ajak is dead. A deviant got her.” I searched his face for any semblance of a lie, but judging by his red eyes, and the tears that Thena was holding back, this wasn’t some elaborate prank. Ajak really was dead.

I gasped and sat down on my chair, my hand covering my face as tears threatened to fall. Ajak was like a mother to me, to all of us. We had been together for seven thousand years. It felt impossible that she was gone, that I would never hear her voice again. I wiped my face and looked up at them. “Is everyone else okay?” my thoughts immediately going to a dark haired Eternal with beautiful blue eyes, and enough sarcasm to choke an elephant.

“Druig is fine,” Thena said, knowing exactly who I was thinking of. A blush creeped up my cheeks and turned my ears red. Even after all these years, just hearing his name was enough to make me blush.

“I was asking about everyone, not just him.” I muttered, but I knew that they could see right through the facade. Gil just laughed, and Thena gave me a knowing look.

“Everyone else is fine. Ikaris, Sersi, Sprite, and Kingo are making arrangements to go see Druig. We said we would get you and meet them down there.” Thena said. I nodded, and grabbed my belongings.

“Well, let's go then.” I headed towards the door, but when I didn’t hear footsteps behind me, I turned around. Thena and Gilgamesh hadn’t moved. I looked them over, and realized there was something they hadn’t told me. “What else is there?” I asked. This time Thena stepped towards me and put both hands on my shoulders.

“We’ve been lied to.” I looked at her confused before she ushered me to the chair I had previously occupied. Her and Gil took turns explaining everything to me. That Earth hadn’t been our first mission, and we were actually created over and over, our memories taken. I tried to wrap my head around why we would have to protect the planet if it was going to just get destroyed anyway.

When they finished explaining everything, we sat in a heavy silence for a few minutes. “I don’t want to believe it,” I whispered, but I knew that Thena and Gil wouldn’t lie to me. I shook my head and looked at both of them. “What happens now?”

“We stop the emergence. Protect the people on the planet, and then find a way to either move them off or move Tiamut.” Gil said. That was easier said than done, but I had never been blindly devout to Arishem, so going against the order of things didn’t bother me as much as killing this planet did. I had fallen in love with the people of Earth, I had created a life here. I didn’t want my memories wiped, and I certainly wasn’t going to let eight billion people die.

“All right then,” I said, standing up and grabbing my things. “Any other surprises?” I asked, heading towards the door. This time they both followed me out of the building.

“Only everybody’s reactions to finding out about you and Druig,” Thena slyly said. I grimaced, thinking about how we all hadn’t been together as a group in five hundred years. They had definitely missed some things.

“Yeah well, it’s not like we are the only married couple. Ikaris and Sersi are still married,” I said, walking out to the busy street. “Besides, if they couldn’t tell that we would end up together, then I can’t help them. Do we have time? I need to run to my apartment to change, and grab a couple things.”

After changing from my work dress and into something more suitable for the Amazon, we boarded a small flight and were hours away. Thankfully we were able to get seats together so we didn’t have to put up with awkward talking and eavesdropping from others.

Gil, being the size that he was, had taken the aisle seat and leaned across Thena to look at me. “So why aren’t you and Druig together? Trouble in paradise?”

I laughed and shook my head. “No, just a small vacation. We are still happily married, we just got into a small disagreement.” I said, and told them the story.

Druig and I sat on the porch of our home, watching the people that we had protected for generations going about their day. He held my hand as I read a book, the light shining just right through the canopy of leaves, and the gentle singing of birds creating the most relaxed background.

“What is wrong, my love?” Druig asked, and I looked up from my booked, puzzled. “You’ve been sighing to yourself for the last three chapters,” he explained, nodding towards the book which now layed in my lap.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t even notice,” I said, closing my book and setting it down.

“Don’t be sorry,” Druig said, rubbing his thumb across my knuckles, “Just tell me what’s bothering that beautiful mind of yours.”

I stared into his eyes, hesitating for a moment before deciding there was no point in lying to him. “I miss the outside world,” I said, reading his face for any hint of anger or betrayal. Druig only nodded, and looked back over the people of the village.

“It has been a while since we left here,” He said, keeping his voice neutral. I nodded with him, but didn’t say anything, letting us sit in silence. I knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t mad, he was merely thinking.

Druig and I have been together for six hundred years. We had finally gotten married in a small church in Scotland in the early 19th century after he had nagged me for long enough about making it official. It didn’t matter to me if we were official or not, as long as we were together but Druig, always one for theatrics, wanted a ceremony. And so we did, and it was the happiest day of my long life, standing in a small stone church with him by my side. We had been pretty inseparable since then, occasionally leaving the Amazon to visit others, or to explore, but it was exceptionally rare that we left each other.

“I don’t think I want to leave now, my love. I’m tired of the people of this planet, of seeing the terrible things they can do. I want to stay here, where there is nothing but peace, and us.”

I sighed, as this was a conversation we had had hundreds of times. “The world isn’t all bad, Dru. There are so many good things that we don’t get to see here. I don’t want to miss out on all of it,” I said. I had always been the one to have more faith in humanity, and as much as I loved the community we had built for ourselves, I loved the people out there too.

He nodded at this, and squeezed my hand in his. He got up from his chair, and kneeled in front of mine, taking both of my hands in his. He looked me over before smiling. “Well who am I to hold back my beautiful, beautiful wife. Go see the world, as long as you come home to me.”

I returned his smile and leaned down, placing a kiss on our intertwined hands. “I will always come back to you, you’re all I need,” I whispered. We stared into each other's eyes and studied each other's faces for another minute before I left to pack a small bag of clothes. Druig followed me around the house, making suggestions of things I could see and do, before I was all packed. Just as I was about to walk out the front door, he pulled me back into the house, wrapped his hands around my waist, and kissed me. I fervently kissed him back, knowing that it would be the last one for a while, before we both needed to breathe and I slowly pulled back. Even after almost seven hundred years, his kisses still left me reeling, dizzy on our love.

“If I thought you would, I would ask you to freeze us in this moment forever,” He whispered. I chuckled and shook my head. I had the ability to freeze objects, prevent them from moving, or growing old. It was useful in a fight, being able to freeze an enemy, but it took a lot of concentration, I could usually only hold something alive for a few minutes.

I quietly laughed at that, “And if I thought you would, I would ask you to make me stay,” I said, pressing my forehead against his so my head moved with the shaking of his.

“I would never control you like that. I promised you that long ago.” And he had. Back before we were a couple, when he was just my closest friend. We were laying together, on the outskirts of Babylon, staring up at the galaxy laid out above us. The night was filled with quiet conversations, deep thoughts, and murmured promises. I asked him if he would ever try and use his powers on me, and he gave me a strange look before looking definitively into my eyes. ‘I would never betray your trust.’ And he hadn’t in almost three thousand years.

He kissed me again, and walked with me to the edge of the village, and I left.

“That was shortly after World War II,” I said, leaning back in my seat. “It’s long overdue that I go home, though.”

“You haven’t spoken to your husband in almost eighty years?” Gil asked, eyes in disbelief. I’m sure it was hard for him to understand. Since we had left Tenochtitlan, I don’t think Gil and Thena had been separated, short for a week when Gil needed a vacation, and Druig and I had watched her.

“Of course not,” I said, slapping his arm lightly. “We write each other letters all the time. It’s easier to write it all out then to try and show him how e-mail works. And it’s romantic,” I said, smiling. Thena lightly rolled her eyes, but just by her smile I knew it was merely a jest. “This is merely a small vacation for us.”

We spent the rest of the flight in silence, thinking about the information we had learned in the last few days, and thinking of the fight to come. At least, that’s what I’m sure Thena and Gil were thinking about. I was just ready to go see my husband. I had missed our nights together, laying in each other's arms, knowing that no matter what happened we would always be together, always have each other. I missed the solace of his presence, how the world seemed to slow down when I looked at him. I even missed his teasing, the knowing smile and glint in his eyes when we would go back and forth with each other. I missed home, because he was my home.

I only turned my head enough for him to hear me, “I stayed here for a bit, I know the way pretty well,” I said. Gil snorted, knowing what I actually meant.

“Wait, you stayed with Druig?” Sprite asked and it took quite a bit of effort not to get angry at the judgemental tone in her voice.

“I did,” I called back, hopping over a dead tree that had fallen down.

“Huh, no wonder you’re grumpy sometimes. He must have rubbed off on you,” she laughed. I know that she probably meant it in jest, but that didn’t quiet the pang of annoyance that rose in me. I flicked my hand and for a second, Sprite froze over the log she had climbed over before being released and tumbling to the ground.

“Sorry, I’m just grumpy,” I said. Thena and even Sersi chuckled as Ikaris helped Sprite up. “Besides, it’s not too far from here,” I called. In about five minutes we would make it to the outer reaches of the village. In 5 minutes I’d be back in my husband's arms.

The trees around us started to thin out and as they did my feet quickened. The further we got into the village, the more people we saw. I had been gone for so long that I didn’t recognize many of them, but they still waved and quietly greeted us. I was barely listening as Sprite spoke to a young girl, my focus was on the house right in the middle of the village square.

“Hello, Sprite,” I heard in the familiar lilt of my husband, but when I spun around the only person standing there was a man with golden eyes. The man looked at me and smiled, and that was the only thing I needed before I turned back around and sprinted.

Just as I made it to our house, the doors swung open and Druig stepped out, his hands clasped in front of him and a smirk on his face. Granted, his hands didn’t stay clasped for long because I launched myself at him, clinging to him. He wrapped his arms around me and buried his head in my neck. We stayed there for a minute before he set me down and put his hands on the sides of my face. “My beautiful wife. Did you miss me?” He smiled, because he already knew the answer. Of course I missed him.

I only grinned, and stood up on my tiptoes. That was the only invitation Druig needed before he pressed his lips to mine in a soft kiss. My heart melted as I kissed him for the first time in eighty years. He was still the same, the decades having no effect on him. I smiled through the kiss and pulled away, resting our foreheads together like we did right before I left.

“Of course I missed you, my love,” I whispered. He smiled and pressed a soft kiss on my forehead, until he noticed that everybody else had gathered behind us.

“I see you brought guests,” He said as we both turned to look at everyone. I let out a giggle at the face that Kingo was making, which was one of complete shock. Ikaris and Sprite just looked a little confused, while Sersi was definitely giving me ‘I knew it’ looks. Gil and Thena looked a little bored, not even paying the two of us any attention.

“Um, would you like to explain yourselves?” Kingo asked, gesturing between the two of us.

I glanced up at Druig and saw him giving me an amused look. “Should we tell them?” He asked, nudging my shoulder with his arm.

“Hmm, I think we should, it’s been long enough,” I answered, leaning my shoulder back to nudge his back. I took a step forward and looked at everyone. “Druig and I are married,” I said, and while nobody else's faces changed Kingo’s somehow was able to add even more shock.

He spluttered before turning to Karun, “This is what happens when you become a hermit, you don’t tell anyone anything!”

“I understand, sir,” Karun said as he checked over his camcorder.

“Kingo, there isn’t that much to it. We had dated for a while so we decided to make it official. We got married in a small church outside of Loch Ness in 1804. It was a small ceremony, nothing major,” I explained.

“And we weren’t invited?” Sprite asked.

“No.”

“Well, it was spur of the moment.”

Druig and I answered at the same time. I gave him a ‘really’ look, and he just shrugged.

“Besides, Gil and Thena were there. And Ajak knew afterwards.”

Kingo turned to Gil and Thena, who were giving me small glares. I smiled apologetically at them, knowing that Kingo would be asking them for details.

“Where is Ajak, anyway?” Druig asked. I turned towards him and took his hand in mine.

“That’s why we’re here, Dru. Something happened.” I brushed my thumb across his knuckles, and that was all he needed. Druig knew me well enough to know that something was seriously wrong. He nodded and turned towards the building behind us. It was usually used for gatherings, so it was big enough to fit all of us in it pretty comfortably.

Once we all settled in, Druig looked around us, expectedly. “Is someone going to explain all of this?”

I squeezed my hand in his, and just as I was about to gently tell him everything, Ikaris broke the silence.

“Ajak is dead.”

I glared at him and I saw that I wasn’t the only one. Thena looked just as annoyed, and Sersi looked taken aback.

Druig didn’t look shocked, but he did raise his eyebrows up in surprise. “What happened?”

This time I didn’t give Ikaris a chance to not so gently tell him everything. “It looks like some Deviants are back. They found her, and we think they are tracking us down. One of them attacked Gil and Thena, and another one found Sersi and Sprite in London.”

“Are you alright?” he asked, brushing his thumb over my knuckles. I chuckled, having missed the little movements that Druig often did, almost without him realizing it.

“I’m fine, none of them found me,” I answered softly, and relief flooded Druig’s face.

I almost had forgotten that we were in a room full of other people until Kingo cleared his throat and whispered something to Karun.

“If we could get back to the point,” Ikaris said, giving both of us an annoyed look. I felt Druig tense up next to me, but I squeezed his hand and he relaxed. Ikaris went on to explain everything, from the Deviants to Tiamut, to Sersi becoming the new leader. I knew that it was a lot of information to get at once, especially when Druig let go of my hand and started pacing. He only did that when he was stressed, mostly because he didn’t want to show anybody how upset he was. But you knew him better than anybody.

Which means I wasn't surprised when he picked a fight with both Kingo and Ikaris. When Druig stormed out of the building everyone turned to me, expecting me to stop him, but I only shrugged. “He took that better than expected.”

“Aren’t you going to go after him?” Sprite asked.

“In a little bit. He needs to cool off, or everything I say will just go in one ear and out the other.” I stood up and brushed myself off. “In the meantime, I haven’t been home in 80 years, I’m going to see what's changed. Feel free to look around,” I gestured around me, before walking out the still open doors. I knew that Ikaris would be pissed, but frankly I didn’t care. I hadn’t been home, and I did want to look around.

I walked around the village, stopping to greet some of the children, and make casual conversation with some of the adults who were going about their duties. The sun was low in the sky and I hadn’t seen my husband in quite some time. I gathered a handful of fruit and walked out to the woods, knowing exactly where he was going to be. We had found a hidden clearing in the thickest part of the woods ages ago. The clearing had plenty of boulders to sit on, and most of the time we would take picnics out here. It was quiet, and peaceful, and I knew that Druig would be craving exactly that.

I approached the clearing and saw Druig sitting on a boulder with his back towards me. I smiled, and quickly let out a whistle, a melody of just a few short notes. I saw his shoulders shake in a laugh before he returned his own whistle, a few short notes that mirrored mine.

When we were in Babylon we would sit in the jungles and mirror the songs of the birds, having competitions to see who could get our whistles most accurate. Eventually we used it for lookouts, finding each other, and just letting the other one know that we were approaching, especially if we were having bad days.

I walked into the clearing and set the food down on a rock, before going to stand in front of Druig.

“Hello, my love,” I said, placing my hands on his shoulders as his hands automatically rested on my hips.

“Hello, my darling,” He said, pulling me closer to him. “You remembered our calls,” He said, smiling up at me.

“It was good. Technology is really advancing, which is nice. Better food, better coffee, music got a lot better. You should have heard it in the 70s,” I laughed.

I scoffed and sat myself on his lap so that I was straddling him. Druig instantly adjusting himself so I would be comfortable. “I haven’t been gone that long,” I brushed his hair away from his eyes, “You act as if I’ve been gone forever.”

“It felt like forever,” He said, moving his head to kiss my palm. Heat rushed to my cheeks and I bowed my head. This man really would be the death of me. “How was the outside world?”

“Darling, I know what the music is, I’m not that out of touch,” He muttered. He knew I was only teasing him though.

“I know, I know. Sometimes you’re just so easy. Besides, you already know everything I’ve been up to. It’s like I wasn’t even gone,” I said, knowing that I was only teasing him further.

The usual mischievous look settled itself on Druig’s face as he tightened his grip on my thighs and pulled me closer to him. “Trust me, it’s been agony since you’ve been gone,” He whispered, his accent getting thicker.

I grinned and leaned down to kiss him, but what was supposed to be a quick peck turned into a full blown make out session. Gone were the light kisses that Druig had greeted me with when I first got here. This kiss was filled with hunger and need, of a man who had been missing his wife for 80 years. I was happy to oblige and kissed him back with just as much fervor.

After a few minutes I was in desperate need of air, so I started to pull away. Druig, however, wanted no part of that as he tried to pull me back in. I placed my hand on his chest and lightly pushed back. “Dru, we need to calm down before we get out of hand,” I mumbled against his lips, trying to slow my breathing down.

“What’s wrong with that?” Druig replied, brushing my hair away from my neck and smirking at me.

“Normally nothing, but everyone is in the village and I don’t want to face them if they walk over here and see us,” I said, sitting up so I could easily slide off of his lap. “And I also don’t want our first time in 80 years to be on a cold rock.”

Druig stood up and walked in front of me, his voice lowering. “Trust me, Darling, you wouldn’t be touching the rock if I had my way.”

I suppressed the shudder that ran up my spine before blinking and taking a step back from him before I lost all of my senses. I cleared my throat and turned towards the fruit that had laid forgotten on the rock next to where we were sitting. I didn’t trust my voice to not shake so I only held the fruit out towards him. He laughed and took it from my hand. “Thank you, love.”

He sat back down and patted the space next to him. I complied, sitting so that our thighs were touching as we both nibbled on fruit. I had missed how peaceful the forest was. It was always a symphony of animals, the rain, the quiet sounds of the village. It was simple, and sometimes I craved it.

When I finished my food, I looked back to Druig, who had been staring off into space for the last few minutes. “Are you okay? I meant to talk to you about what Ikaris told you, but you distracted me,” I pretended to be offended as I nudged his arm.

Druig finished his fruit and finally looked at me. I could see the pain and conflict in his eyes. “Our whole mission was a lie. Our lives are lies. How am I supposed to feel?”

I grabbed his hand and leaned my head on his shoulder. “You’re supposed to feel exactly what you are feeling. We’ve been lied to. The only thing to really do is figure out how we’re going to fix it. Because I don’t want to forget you.”

“I’m not going to let that happen,” He said, squeezing my hand and pressing his lips to the top of my head.

“I know you won’t,” I said. I sat thinking for a moment, “Dru, can you even put a Celestial to sleep?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well maybe we can both do it together, I can freeze him and you can put him to sleep-” Druig cut me off before I could even finish.

“Absolutely not, I’m not putting you in danger.” He looked me in the eyes, he was adamant and I knew that there wasn’t going to be much I could say to change his mind. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t be there anyway.

“Well, I’m not letting you do it by yourself. We are in this together. For better or worse, remember?” I said, tugging on the chain around my neck that held my engagement ring and gold wedding band. I had decided against wearing them on my finger, so they didn’t get lost or damaged. The rings were so precious to me. The engagement ring had a small black stone set on a delicate silver band, along with a simple gold wedding ring. Druig had a matching chain around his neck, with just his gold wedding band attached.

Druig stared at the rings for a moment before sighing, knowing me well enough to realize that I certainly wouldn’t let him go headfirst into danger without me by his side.

We stayed together in silence for a few more minutes before I noticed that the sun was starting to go down. “As much as I would love to stay out here, we should get back to the others.”

Druig groaned, not wanting to leave our spot but I pulled away anyway. “Don’t give me that,” I countered, brushing myself off, “Besides, I want to make sure Thena is okay. She hasn’t been away from home for a long time, I don’t want her to get overwhelmed.”

I pulled Druig off the rock and he flopped on me for a second before standing up and walking out with me to the edge of the clearing.

“I’ll be back in a little bit,” I said, nodding towards the direction of the woods, “Behave yourself. Especially with Ikaris.” Druig only rolled his eyes, but still pressed a quick kiss to my forehead before walking back towards the village.

I wandered through the woods before I heard the sound of trees crashing to the ground. I ran over to the noise and saw that Thena was fighting Ikaris. Now normally I wouldn’t care if Ikaris got his ass handed to him, but I saw that Thena’s eyes were clouded over, and knew that she didn’t know what she was doing. If she didn’t stop, she could kill him.

I held out my arm and Thena froze mid sword stroke. Ikaris looked around in confusion until he saw me. “I can’t hold her long, go find Gil,” I said, my voice straining from trying to hold back Thena. Ikaris nodded and flew off towards the village.

At this point Thena was vibrating, trying to break free of the hold I had on her. I only held on for a few more seconds before she broke free and I was pushed back. Thena noticed me and started stalking towards me, her sword in one hand and a shield in the other.

“C’mon Thena, you know me,” I said, pulling out a long dagger that I always kept on me. I knew that when it came to it, it wouldn’t help much, but it was better than nothing.

I continued to freeze her the closer she got to me. She broke free every time but I was just buying time until Gil could come and try to calm her down. Finally, Thena was a few feet from me and my arms were shaking from exertion. She raised her sword above her head and I braced myself for the impact, but somebody pushed me out of the way and her sword reverberated off of something.

I turned around and saw that Gil had finally come back and was calming Thena down. He dragged her away from where we were and I caught my breath, shaking my arms out.

A branch broke behind me and I slowly stood up, and turned around. Yellow eyes glowed from the brush and I knew the Deviants had found us. I could hear the sounds of gunshots and fighting from the village. My thoughts wanted to run to Druig, but I knew that if I wanted to make it out of here alive, I needed to focus.

The deviant stalked towards me and I pulled out my dagger again. The deviant just looked me over before pouncing. I rolled out of it’s way, swinging my arm out so I slashed one of its legs. I scrambled to get back onto my feet when I saw Gil on the other side of the Deviant. I ducked just as he punched it and sent it flying.

“Try to freeze it, and I’ll keep hitting it,” Gil said. I nodded and waited for it to approach us again. I saw that it’s leg had healed, and found it odd, especially since they had never been able to do that before. I shook it off as I prepared to freeze him.

Gil and I worked well together, but my strength was depleting fast, and Gil was distracted trying to make sure Thena was safe. It only took one second for us not to be synced up before I was thrown against a tree, crashed through it and landed on the ground.

I groaned, trying to prop myself up but struggling with even the most basic functions. I laid there for a moment trying to catch my breath when I saw the creature pick up Gil with tendrils that snaked out of its body and hold him up in the air. The tendrils entered Gil and I knew that I needed to get up.

I grabbed my dagger that was lying next to me and sprinted over to the Deviant. I jumped and sliced the tendrils, making a clean cut and severing the connection between it and Gil. Gil hit the ground and the Deviant backed up, but not before mutating into a different being. It was still a Deviant, but it was more humanoid than before. I stood in shock, and I thought I heard it speak to me before it ran off.

I stared at it for a minute before turning back to Gil and rolling him over to his back. I felt a hand on my back and was startled to see that Thena was crying. She knelt down and gathered Gil in her arms.

“Is he okay? Is he…alive?” she shakily asked me, gripping him and watching as her tears melted into his shirt.

I placed my hand on his chest and my heart sank as I didn’t feel anything. Just as I looked at her with dread in my eyes, Gil’s chest rose lightly. I looked down and saw that he was lightly breathing, and his color was returning back to normal.

“I think he’s okay,” I hesitated, honestly not knowing for sure, but he was alive for right now.

Thena let out a noise that I wasn’t sure was a laugh or a sob, and leaned over him, whispering that she was right there.

I looked up and saw that all of the others had rushed over. My eyes immediately found Druig and I stood up and rushed over to him. I started checking him over for injuries, and he did the same to me. The only one that I saw on him was a light scratch on his arm, which was now sleeveless since he had discarded his outer layer.

We didn’t need to say anything, he only wrapped me in his arms and I felt his heartbeat hammering against my own. The forest was quiet except for Thena’s last sniffles and Kingo helping Gilgamesh.

“Where are the villagers?” I asked Druig. He sighed, and hugged me closer.

“I sent them to the river. They’ll have to take care of themselves from there,” He said, and I could feel the sadness in his voice. I know that he loved it here, the solitude and peace that we had created, and it would be hard for him to leave.

“I’m sorry, love,” I whispered. He kissed the top of my head but didn’t say anything else.

“Now what?” Sprite asked, breaking the quietness around us.

“We need to get to the others, then back to the Domo. From there, we can figure out a plan,” Ikaris said, helping Kingo lift Gil and half carry him to the remains of the village.

We trailed behind them as I looked at the houses that were destroyed and slightly smoking. Anger boiled up in me as everything we had worked hard for went up in smoke, literally. Druig must have sensed the change in me because he wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I just turned into him and buried my head in his chest.