Eternal Love [Druig]

Twenty-two

Over the thousands upon thousands of years Ira had been on this earth, he had never heard silence quite this loud. He knew it was coming, knew that Sprite would leave them; leave him. But it still hurt and Ira realized with a start that he hadn't been properly breathing in a long while. He guessed that since he wasn't actually even remotely human that he didn't need to breathe but a gentle hand on his shoulder from Druig was enough to break Ira out of his daze. At least, only a little bit.

"He really fooled us, didn't he," Kingo said, refusing to tear his gaze off of the area where Ikaris and Sprite had disappeared. He sighed."Karun, let's go."

A muted cry, a broken name on Ira's lips as he tied to stop Kingo; to say his name or beg him to stay tried to come from his lips but failed. They had lost so many others already, they couldn't afford to lose another one.

"Wait, where the hell are you going?" Phastos asked as Kingo started walking away, Karun following like a child dependent on its mother.

"I can't help you guys," Kingo said. "I still think Ikaris is right."

"So that's it, huh? Just gonna follow him?" Phastos pressed. Kingo stopped and looked back at them all, sincere in his words but that didn't mean they didn't hurt anymore. Ira hadn't known up until that moment just how many stabs his heart could take. He could only hope that it would suffer no more.

"I love the people of this planet. But-- if you stop this emergence, you are preventing so many other worlds like this one from being created." Kingo said. "I still have faith in Arishem. But I refuse to hurt any of you for my beliefs."

'We need you.' Makkari placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked down sadly.

"Even with my help, we're no match. It's Ikaris but... I hope to see you all on the next planet." Then, Kingo left; turned his back, and started walking, not once looking back, not once giving any indication that maybe he still had some faith in their bonds.

"Thank you for all you've done... for humanity," Karun said in Hindi, bowing his head and clasping his hands together. "It's been a great honor. I will miss you all." He said before he followed, turning his back and leaving the room suffocatingly empty. Just because Ira had sometimes forgotten about the presence of the valet entirely didn't mean his subconscious mind forgot.

He sat down defeatedly, his heart suddenly too heavy to hold himself up.

"Look," Druig said after a moment. "If I'm going to get myself killed going up against Ikaris, we'll need to have a backup plan." He said, giving everyone in the room a long look as he gauged their reactions, avoiding Ira's gaze in hope that he would be able to maintain a steady voice. This was not the time to let emotions overrule action.

Phastos sighed. "All of our powers, even if they're amplified are not enough to kill a Celestial, so..."

"Well, Sersi did turn a deviant into a tree." Druig mused offhandedly as if admitting the fact was a day-to-day fun fact that you only found at the bottom of corner magazines.

"I'm sorry, what?" Phastos asked dubiously. "You didn't think to tell me that?"

'You've never been able to do it before.' Makkari signed.

"I don't know how it happened, okay?" Sersi seemed to shrink in on herself. "And I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it again."

Phastos scoffed incredulously. "Well, now is the time to try, don't you think?"

"Phastos, that deviant is dead. Our plan is to put Tiamut to sleep, not to kill it." Sersi said without wasting a second. "I can't kill a Celestial." Her tone was serious but Ira caught onto every single tiny emotion lurking beneath, almost like he could read it now like a second language.