For You, The World

Chapter The Seventh

Issus Persia, 333 BCE

Kaia's disappearance had all but torn the Eternals apart.

When the rest of the eternals had made it down into the common room, they had found a mess of rubble, and Ajak healing a gash on Ikaris chest with shaky hands.

"What happened?" Sersi asked, rushing to Ikaris.

Ikaris opened his mouth, but Ajak beat him to it, "A Deviant. It was going after the innkeeper's family."

"It's dead?" Thena asked, peering out the wide hole in the wall that led outside.

Ajak nodded, "Kaia said she would dump the body into the sea."

Druig frowned, looking around the common room again. Something wasn't right; usually Kaia would've left the Deviant till she had time to recoup from the fight- and the burn marks on the wall, the outline of what hadn't been shocked by lasers, something wasn't adding up.

"I'll go see if she needs any help." Gilgamesh said, ducking out of the hole in the wall and starting off into the night.

The other Eternals had gotten to work, fixing up the inn, by the time Gilgamesh came back, looking confused, "There's no trace of Kaia, or a deviant being dragged."

The air in the room seemed to shift, and Druig could feel a strange sort of tension, as Ajak looked up from what she was doing, "What do you mean?"

"She disappeared. So did the deviant."

Sersi frowned, "Ikaris... Are you sure the Deviant was dead?"

Ikaris stared at the ground, "It had to have been..."

"And if it wasn't?"

"I don't know... Kaia can handle herself, can't she?"

Druig shook his head, "If she already used up energy killin it once... there's no tellin if she could handle it alone."

"We have to go find her." Makkari signed, looking around at the others.

Ajak nodded, "Let's start searching..."

Issus, Persia, 332 BCE

It had been a year since Kaia had disappeared, and still The Eternals refused to move from the place where they had last seen her. Everyday that they stayed there, Ikaris grew more frustrated. She had betrayed Arishem, and yet they continued to look for her as if nothing had changed.

A year may have just been the blink of an eye within the lifespan of the Eternals, but after that long staying there, at Ikaris' urging, Ajak was forced to put her foot down.

"I know that you want to continue your search for Kaia, I too want to find her more than anything..." Ajak sighed, looking around at the team, "But I think it is time we move on..."

Ikaris sighed as she trailed off, taking over, "For all we know, Kaia is dead, and we are wasting time away from protecting the humans. We cannot put our own loss above theirs."

Druig let out a scoff, "Do you even feel, anythin? Since when have you cared about human losses?"

"Druig..."

He just shook his head, standing up and moving out of the stuffy room. Since the very first night that she'd gone missing, he'd figured something wasn't right. Ikaris' indifference that boarded on hostility could've been proof enough, but the note he'd found on his desk, with Kaia's cramped handwriting, it only seemed to confuse him more.

He'd planned on taking it to Ajak, but after seeing her demeanor about the whole thing, he'd changed his mind; puzzling over the situation for himself. If she had been attacked by a deviant, then why leave a note like that? And when had she even had a chance to leave it? He knew that she hadn't before she went to talk to Ajak.