chaos and control | druig ✔︎

07 | love

07 | life has to end, she said.

love doesn't

1521 AD - Tenochtitlan

The flames spread though the village, illuminating and burning everything and everyone who dared to cross its path. The forest was glowing red and orange, though the flames were not of Hestia's making. Running through the forest, she saw the silhouettes of her fellow Eternals standing on an open piece of land.

Hestia arrived at the group, and she heard Ajak ask "where are the others?"

Makkari signed back to her. "We had to split up."

"There were more deviants than you said." Thena sounded rather annoyed with the prime Eternal.

"Well, I'm sure that was a lot of fun for you." Phastos chirped.

"It was." The annoyance in her voice was gone, meaning that she had faked it in the first place. Thena was always the one who loved killing deviants the most.

Phastos pulled out his projector, pulling up the status of earth. "Once the others kill these last deviants, we will have eliminated them all from the planet."

Just as he finished, gunshots ran through the forest, and Hestia looked over at Druig with a knowing look. He wasn't paying any attention to her though; he had turned his head to look at the fight that was starting among the humans. They were shooting at each other like no lives mattered to them, dead bodies falling to the ground every second.

Druig had walked closer to them, his eyes glowing gold, but Ajak knew what he was up to. "Don't." She warned him. "We don't interfere in their wars."

Druig wasn't having it. "This isn't war. It's genocide. Their weapons have become too deadly. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea helping them advance, Phastos." Hestia slowly stepped closer to him, knowing she was possibly the only one who could make him stand down.

"Technology is a part of their evolutionary process, Druig." Phastos didn't back down. "It's not exactly something I can stop."

"No, you can't. But I can." He was raising his voice, and Hestia softly put her hand on his shoulder. "Look at me. Calm down." She whispered.

Out of nowhere, Thena started talking.

"It's too late. Everyone is going to die." Her eyes turned white as snow and her weapon appeared in her hands.

Sersi was standing right in front of Thena, trying to make her regain her consciousness, because to every single Eternal, it was obvious that this was not the Thena they knew.

"Thena?" Sersi stepped closer, but Thena had prepared to attack. Sersi didn't see it coming, though Makkari did. She ran over to her and pulled Sersi out of the line of attack.

Phastos walked over to Thena to check on her, but instead he got stabbed in the shoulder. Hestia hadn't thought her plan through, and she too, walked over to Thena. Just as she was almost in front of her, Makkari sped past again, pushing Hestia out of the way lightly and dragging Thena along with her.

Thena was quicker though. She had her sword ready and stabbed Makkari in the gut, making her drop down to the ground, holding her stomach in pain.

Hestia saw it happen and sprinted over to Thena, ready to protect Makkari. She bent over the woman, inspecting the stab wound. What she didn't know however, is that Thena had gotten back up again, and threw her sword.

"Hestia, watch out!" Druig screamed at her, but all the attempts to help the girl were futile.

She turned around and felt the sword drive through her chest. Her mouth fell open, wanting to scream because of the pain, but not a sound came out. The sword was glowing in her chest, and as her body sagged, it held her up. A tear slipped out of her eye, and she looked at Thena, who's eyes were still white.

"Don't listen to your head, Thena." Ajak chimed in from behind Hestia, trying to take Thena's attention off the girl, hoping that the sword would vanish if she lost her concentration.

"Listen to my voice." The prime Eternal lifted her hands up to Thena's head, both glowing gold. "You are safe. You are loved. You're our Thena."

Thena's weapons disappeared for a moment, making Hestia drop to the group, gasping and clutching at her chest. Though it appeared like Thena was back to her normal self, her white eyes reappeared within seconds, and so did her weapons. Ajak and Thena kept fighting, Ajak desperate to get the warrior back to her normal self, while Thena was desperate to kill her leader. She nearly succeeded, stabbing Ajak in the stomach, leaving her gasping, just like Hestia had moments ago.

Gilgamesh ran over to the two fighting, distracting Thena and fighting her. Meanwhile, Ajak healed herself, but she seemed to forget about the fact that Hestia and Makkari were still on the ground, bleeding out. Druig had ran over to her, muttering words of love and reassurance at her, telling her to hold on for just a bit longer.

Ajak ran over to Makkari, putting a hand on her back to help her get up from the ground, and one on her stomach, healing the spot where Thena's sword had impaled her.

Druig had sprinted over to Hestia, who was still laying on the ground, gasping for air. "Hestia, look at me." He held her cheeks in his hands, leaning his forehead against hers. "You're going to be okay? You hear me?"

"I-" Hestia croaked out. "I love you." She whispered.

"Don't say that. You're going to be fine." Druig's voice started breaking.

"Ajak!" He shouted demandingly at the woman. "Hestia's bleeding out!"

Hestia was looking in Druig's eyes to hold on to her consciousness. Her eyes were starting to get heavy. She had been laying on the ground for hours, it seemed, and her whole chest was soaked with the red colour of her blood. She felt Druig's hands lift her head up and heard him saying something to her, but it sounded too far away for her to hear her.

Far away she could hear Ajak talking to her now. "Hestia, stay awake. I'm healing the wound now, you'll be okay." It was as if she could feel her chest being stitched together, the pressure of her cut vanishing slowly. She finally felt like she could breathe properly again.

Behind her, she could hear a loud boom and it sounded like Gilgamesh had delivered a relatively painful punch. Hestia was starting to push herself from the ground and she leaned on her elbows before asking what had happened.

"Who deserved that punch?" She said jokingly.

"I think he might have brought Thena down with that one." Druig still looked concerned. He was franticly checking the girl's chest, to make sure there were no other gashes on her body.

"Hey, look at me, my love." Hestia put her fingers under his chin, making him look her in the eyes. "I'm okay."

"I'm glad you are, darling." Druig placed a delicate kiss on her forehead.

AN | how is it, that we hit 500 reads yesterday, and 600 today??