Impossible || Druig

03

"A deviant attacked you in London?" Soro repeated as he opened his hotel room with a buzz of his keycard. "But I thought we killed them all? I had a huge bet with Kingo over who would kill the last one. I won. Do I have to give him back the winnings?" He let them all through and into the small room. It was just big enough for a double bed, small wardrobe and a desk. The corner of the room was cut out for the bathroom and with the four of them, it felt a bit cramped,

That got no reply as he shut the door behind him, dropped his backpack on the floor and flopped onto the bed. The springs creaked and he messed up the white sheets. "Did you feel the earthquake yesterday?" Sersi voiced.

"Of course I did. It broke my glasses". He waved a hand at the silver and black frames. "I had to go and get new ones. Luckily Phastos carried my prescription".

"The deviant attacked us", Sprite took a seat at the desk while Sersi and Ikaris tried to make it look like they were standing just to be stylish. Ikaris leant against the wardrobe and it gave a warning creak. "Not humans. It healed itself too".

"Isn't that Ajak's thing?" Soro sat up, hair fluffy. "Have you told her yet?"

"We came to you first, cause you were the closest", Ikaris stated.

Soro rolled his eyes. "You came to me cause it was the cheapest flight and you want to use me for my powers. Urgh save it". He stood up and shook out his hands, ignoring the slight guilt on Sersi's face and the expectant stares from Sprite and Ikaris. "Someone grab my bag then. Guess I'm taking you all to South Dakota". Golden threads dripped from his fingers and he flicked them up to line the bathroom doorframe. They glowed and he turned. Sersi handed him his backpack and he pushed his hair from his face. "After you", he pulled open the door and waved her through.

Ajak's house was cold and gloomy when he entered after Ikaris, the portal closing behind him as he shut the front door. The wind whistled through the windows and a storm was blowing in overhead. The darkness of the clouds making it hard to tell what time of day it was . Rain pattered outside and Soro was glad that he was still wearing his thick coat. He glanced around the space, taking in the cosy furniture and old fashioned feel to the farm house. He had last visited back in the eighties and nothing had really changed since then. "Ajak? Sersi called. Her voice filling the emptiness for a second.

Soro stepped into the kitchen and paused. The back door was open and the wind was tugging on it. He stepped out, Sersi behind him. The darkness was rolling in and the wind was picking up. It tugged on his scarf and hair, whipping the red material around. Ajak's stables were in ruins. The horses long gone and the metal fences bent out of shape. The floodlights were on but their polls twisted. There was a shadow of a body on the ground.

Soro tripped on the porch step and went sprawling in the grass and mud. Head over heels in a very unflattering way that was not benefitting a normal twenty two year old man, much less an immortal being. On any other occasion Sprite would have been cackling at him, but this time she barely spared him a glance. Sersi was running towards the body. "Ajak!"

Soro rolled onto his feet and stumbled after her. Sprite and Ikaris just ahead of him. He knew as soon as he saw Sersi fall to her knees in the mud by the body. He skidded to a stop, the rain around them lessening as the wind continued to howl, and looked down at the body. He was distantly aware of Sprite sniffling but all he could focus on was how small Ajak looked. She had always been almost a head shorter than him, the shortest out of all of them apart from Sprite. But lying there she was so small and still. She was cold too. Skin almost grey with an ashy pallor and clothes soaked through from the rain.

There was a wet noise as Sprite dropped to her knees as well. "It was a deviant", Ikaris announced. His face was tight with unknown emotion. Soro had never seen the man exhibit many emotions, not to any huge degree, but he thought that the death of their mother figure would cause more than that. He could feel his own tears dripping down his cheeks, soaking his scarf and getting caught in his hair. Overhead thunder rumbled.

After a few minutes of silent shock, Ikaris took Sprite by her shoulders and helped her to her feet. "Come on. Let's get you inside and out of the cold". Together, they trudged away back to the house. Soro and Sersi remained, seemingly too in shock to notice.

Soro stood on legs seemingly too unsteady to hold him but were somehow still functioning. The rain had stopped now and the wind had calmed but the air was still full of a cutting cold that seemed to seep through their layers. He didn't make a sound as tears traced his cheeks eyes unable to bare looking at the body any longer and instead turned to the clouds above. Their darkness rolling with deep blues and distant flashes of lighting. His mind recalled the last time he had seen Ajak, in the autumn of Eighty eight. The house had been new to her then. The land and the job. He hadn't stayed long, merely a weekend. Sprite had already left to join Sersi in London by then so it had been just the two of them.

"Out of all of us", she had said, hands cupped over a hot mug of mulled wine that Soro had brought back from Norway. Their mugs steaming in the cool air and blankets wrapped around their pyjamas. "You are by far the most quiet".

Soro had frowned as he was not often described as quiet. He was often told to move out of the way and replied as such. She had shaken her head. "I do not mean quiet in the term of noise. I mean quiet like this". He recalled how she had waved a hand across the spread of land before them, their spots on the porch offering a view. "There is so much happening here but I only hear the wind. You are like that. There is so much in that head of yours that whatever comes out of your mouth only covers a tiny part of it. You're quiet while everyone else is loud. I know what they are feeling and thinking, even Druig though he is one of the hardest to read. But you, I never know with you".

The memory was painful and it stung his chest. He concentrated on trying to put a damn in the trickle of tears. Then the lights went out. Soro blinked, looking down in time to watch as a golden ball seemed to melt from the hollow of Ajak's throat. It hovered for a moment before shooting like a bullet into Sersi. She froze and Soro panicked. "Sersi!" He called, grabbing her shoulder and shaking it. "Sersi!"

"Move!" Ikaris commanded, one hand pushing Soro out of the way to fall to his knees and grab Sersi by the shoulders. Soro went sprawling for a second time that night, twisting awkwardly so that he wouldn't tread on Ajak's hair. He landed on his back with a grunt and an annoyed huff. Not that Ikaris or Sprite payed him any attention. They were both trying to wake Sersi.

Who woke with a gasp and a sudden flinch. "What happened?" Ikaris demanded.

"The sphere that Ajak used to talk with Arisham", she breathed. "It came out of her and went into me".

"Did you talk with Arisham?" Ikaris seemed stunned.

"Yes. He said 'it was almost time". She seemed quite shaken. Soro concentrated on getting back to his feet without slipping in the mud. His clothes were wet and horrible. He wanted a shower where he could hide in boiling hot steam and let everything wash over him.

"What does that mean? Could you talk with him again?" Sprite asked.

"I don't know how".

"But she chose you to replace her and she gave you the sphere".

"Hold on Sprite", Ikaris stopped her. "Are you sure you talked with Arisham?"

"What else could it be?"

"Mahd Wr'ry". The betrayed look Sersi gave Ikaris said it all. Soro sighed and bent down to run his hand over Ajak's forehead in a final goodbye. The skin cold and hard under his touch. Then he was standing and making his fragile way back to the house, uncaring of the three way conversation happening outside that he was obviously not apart of. He had more important things going on, like his desperate need for a hot shower where he could cry in peace.

unedited