here she is — the dreaded tenochtitlan flahsback. tbh, i don't love how i actually wrote the abandoning bit so sorry if it doesn't hit as emotionally deep as it was meant to

also, someone reached out to me asking about how i feel about you pointing out spelling errors. i am a touch dyslexic so you're doing me a big favor by pointing them out !! even with grammarly and proofreading twice, i still miss lots of things so feel free to correct me all you want besties ♡︎

☽︎

"you exist for arishem. and you will continue to exist for him. i can't do it anymore. eternity is too long if spent surrounded by this."

THEN

The dark of the night was riddled with fire and screams and bloodshed. The Deviant attack had lit a spark of an uprising, the great city of Tenochtitlan falling as the humans and their invaders battled mercilessly.

It was a long and hard battle for the Eternal fighters. Ajak and Phastos had been mistaken on the number of Deviants present in the city, so they were not prepared. But finally, after many close calls and having to split up on opposite sides of the city, they put a stop to the creature's reign of terror.

If only they could do something about the horrifying scene around them.

Khaos tiredly followed behind Thena and Makkari as they met with Ajak and the thinkers in the woods. Not even the darkness that surrounded them could rejuvenate her. She needed Ajak. And a nap. A long nap wrapped in Druig's arms.

"Where are the others?" Ajak asked, frowning as she noticed Gilgamesh, Kingo, and Ikaris's absence. It was a rare thing for Khaos and Ikaris to separate in battle.

Makkari quickly signed their explanation, "We had to separate."

"They'll make their way here soon," Khaos said, having confidence in her fellow warriors.

"There were more Deviants than you said," Thena said, clearly displeased with the incorrect information.

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

Thena simply smirked. "It was."

Phastos then activated the device in his hand, which showed a projection of the planet. It was able to monitor the heat signatures of the Deviants so that they could locate them from anywhere.

"Once the others kill these last Deviants, we will have eliminated them all from the planet," he informed them, clearly pleased.

The sounds of gunshots and screams pulled their attention away from Phastos. They watched as innocent, unarmed people fled the city, their attackers pursuing them, not caring if they were men, women, or children. Druig stepped forward determinedly, prepared to end it.

"Don't," Ajak said carefully as his eyes started to glow. "We don't interfere in their wars."

"This isn't war. It's genocide," Druig corrected. Khaos's heart broke for him, knowing how their actions hurt him. "Their weapons have become too deadly. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea helping them advance, Phastos."

"Technology is a part of the evolutionary process, Druig. It's not exactly something I can stop," Phastos reminded him, growing tense.

"No, you can't, but I can!" Druig said, raising his voice.

Khaos stepped in front of him, placing a gentle hand on his chest. "Druig, let's just go back to the ship, alright? Just forget about them."

"It's too late," Thena spoke suddenly.

They all whipped around to look at the warrior. There was a far-off look in her eyes, like she wasn't really there with them in that moment.

"Thena?" Sersi asked hesitantly, stepping toward her.

"Everyone is going to die," Thena stated, and her eyes began to glow.

"Are you okay?" Sersi asked her. Then suddenly, Thena created a spear in her hand as if there was a threat. "Thena?"

She moved so quickly, so suddenly that none of them anticipated it — well, aside from the speedster that reached Sersi just in time. She swept Sersi to safety,but the crazed warrior still managed to knick them with her weapon. Thena then stabbed Phastos in the shoulder, who never saw it coming.

Khaos jumped into action, using her shadows to grab the spear and keep Thena from lashing out at the others again. Thena conjured a sword and brought it down hard, but Khaos blocked it with her arm. The blade slightly pierced her armor, digging into the skin, but she had had worse as she pushed back on the weapon.

"Snap out of this, Thena," Khaos ordered through grit teeth. Gold energy pulsed around Thena's face and then she went completely feral.

She fought Khaos off with unmatched strength, expertly maneuvering around the shadows that she tried to contain her with. They could all tell that Khaos was holding back somewhat, terrified of hurting Thena because of whatever was happening.

"Take her sight!" Ajak ordered while healing Phastos.

Khaos conjured a mass of black shadows and surrounded herself and Thena with it. But even with her sight gone, Thena's other senses were unparalleled, which Khaos, unfortunately, learned as she dodged attacks and dealt out her own.

The others watched with bated breath, unable to see or hear what was happening inside the swirls of nothingness. It was as if the two were wiped from the earth, fighting on another plane of existence.

Then darkness caved in on itself suddenly, revealing Thena standing over Khaos's body, impaled by her sword that ran clean through her stomach.

"Khaos!" Druig shouted, his voice breaking. He surged forward to try and catch her body before it hit the ground, but Ajak held him back, not wanting him to be hurt as well.

Thena raised her blade to deal the fatal blow, but their leader stepped in, catching the sword with her hand, not caring how it dug in. Her hand healed, and with Thena's attention on her and off Khaos, her hands began to glow and she tried to heal Thena's mind from whatever was happening.

"Don't listen to your head Thena," Ajak said, her methods seemingly working as Thena stilled. From the side, Phastos was holding Druig back, refusing to let him run to Khaos's side — she was still too close to Thena for comfort. "Listen to my voice. You are safe. You are loved. You are Thena."

Whatever progress Ajak was making disappeared as the sounds of gunshots grew nearer, the invaders spreading out. It broke the trance Thena was in, and she lashed out, stabbing Ajak.

Arriving just in time — or rather too late for some of them that were worse for wear — Gilgamesh arrived. His strong arms wrapped around her, keeping her caged and contained.

"Thena! Stop. Stop!" he pleaded, hoping to get through to her.

Thena broke from his hold and the pair battled. Gilgamesh, just as Khaos, was scared to hurt Thena, clearly holding back.

With Thena far enough away, Phastos released Druig who had never stopped struggling. He was at Khaos's side in an instant, cradling her head carefully, pushing hair off of her blood-splattered face.

"You're okay. You're okay," he repeated, his voice shaky. His hands shook as they hovered over the worst of her wounds, the gaping tear in her stomach. It sounded as if he as trying to convince himself.

"I'm okay," Khaos repeated, somehow managing a smile.

"Ajak!" Druig called helplessly.

The healer was there in a second, pushing Druig's hands away from her abdomen. Her hands glowed golden and they watched as Khaos's wounds quickly healed. She let out a breath of relief and rested her head on Druig's chest tiredly. He swept her up on his arms, not intending to let her walk back to the ship even if she wasn't on death's doorstep anymore.

"Thena, please. Come back to us," Gilgamesh said, trying one last time to reason with her.

But Thena was too far gone and she attacked once more. It pained Gilgamesh to hurt her, but he had to. With a forceful hit only ever intended for Deviants, he knocked Thena unconscious with a cosmically charged hit.

☽︎

They resided in the temple in the center of Tenochtitlan. Thena was laying on the offering table, everyone waited impatiently for her to wake up. Would it be the real her, or the animalistic version of her from the forest?

Druig hadn't dared to let go of Khaos. Only once they were inside the temple did he let her feet touch the ground, keeping their hands intertwined as she leaned tiredly against him.

"I thought Mahd W'yry was a myth," Sersi told them sadly as she looked down at Thena.

"There is no cure," Phastos said, clearly upset. "So no one talks about it."

Finally, Thena's eyes opened, and thankfully, they were their normal brown color instead of glowing white. Even still, Kingo pulled Sersi away from her. All the fighters stood tense, ready to protect the others if a fight broke out.

"What happened?" Thena asked quietly.

"Thena, you attacked everyone," Ajak informed her in a careful tone. "Wounded Sersi, Phastos, Makkari. You nearly killed Khaos."

Khaos squeezed Druig's hand as if to remind him that she was alright. They all were.

"I don't remember," Thena muttered as she sat up.

"You have Mahd W'yry. Your mind has fractured under the weight of your memories," Ajak explained. "And all I can do is erase them so that you can start over. I will have to inform Arishem and take you back to the ship. We have the technology to help."

Makkari, like everyone else, was upset with the news she'd have her memories wiped. "But she won't be Thena anymore," she signed, shaking her head.

"What if it happens again?" Kingo asked her. "She could have killed you. She could have killed all of us."

"Please. Please," Thena begged, her voice shaking. "I - I want to remember. I want to remember my life."

"Thena, I love you but listen to me. It's not important if you remember or not," Ajak told her. "Your spirit will remain. You will always be Thena deep inside. Trust me."

"Why should she trust you?" Druig asked suddenly. He pushed off the stone wall and dropped Khaos's hand. "You are asking her to let you erase who she is."

"Druig, I know you're upset—

"Upset!" Druid interrupted, beginning to shout. Khaos almost flinched at the anger in his voice. "We've trusted you for seven thousand years, and look where you've got us. I've watched humans destroy each other when I could stop it all in a heartbeat. Do you know what that does to someone after centuries? Could our mission have been a mistake? Are we really helping these people build a better world?"

"Druig," Khaos said softly, but her cry fell on deaf ears as Druig turned to watch the fighting outside below. The screams traveled up to them, innocent lives slaughtered in the bloody streets.

"We're just like the soldiers down there," Druig said, his voice so quiet, so pained. "Pawns to their leaders. Blinded by loyalty. It ends now."

Druig's eyes began to glow and he reached out with his mind. In an instant, the screams ceased and each man dropped his weapon, standing as still as a statue. Before anyone could say a word, Ikaris harshly grabbed Druig and threw him into the wall, holding him there.

"Let them go," Ikaris ordered.

"Get off of him," Khaos told her brother, not wanting a fight to break out between the two men. She couldn't watch her brother hurt her Druig. But both paid her no mind, just continuing to glare at each other. "And Druig, let them go! This is wrong."

"Gonna have to make me," Druig said challengingly.

"Stop," Ajak said firmly. Ikaris hesitantly stepped away from Druig, wanting nothing more than to burn him with his cosmic beams.

Druig stared down their leader, and it was clear that he had lost all respect for Ajak. "If you want to stop me, you're going to have to kill me."

It took Khaos a second to realize he was leaving, his face void of emotion as he descended the steps, planning to take the entire army of invaders with him. Khaos snapped out of her daze and scrambled after him, taking the stairs two at a time as she helplessly called after him.

Almost to him and halfway down the stairs, her frantic feet got caught and she tripped. Before she could fall over, warm, familiar hands were on her waist, steadying her.

His eyes that she loved so much were fixed on the top of her head instead of truly looking at her. Why wouldn't he look at her?

"Druig," Khaos said. She placed her hands on his shoulders as if that could keep him there longer. "Druig, jus - just stop for a minute. You're not - you're not thinking clearly."

"I am thinking more clearly than I ever have," he told her, taking his hands off her waist.

"No, no," she said, shaking her head. "Your powers are causing you to feel the same emotions that the humans are, and they're heightened with the fighting."

"You won't talk me out of it this time. This is the only way—"

"But it's not!" she interrupted, her desperation easy to hear. "You don't have to do this. You don't — you don't have to, to leave."

To leave me, she wanted to say. Because it sure as hell felt like he was about to walk out of her life for good. No, she wouldn't let him.

"We - we can't leave the others. Makkari, Kingo, my brother. They're our family. We can't abandon them," Khaos said, her eyes welling with tears.

She couldn't bear to lose any of them from her life. And Druig knew that.

"I'm not asking you to abandon them."

Khaos felt as if her entire world was crashing down. Druig was going to leave. Without her.

"What happened to yours for eternity?" she asked, her voice wavering. A tear slipped down her cheek, and Druig had to stop himself from flinching.

"No eternity is worth this cycle of endless death," he said, his jaw tight. Druig turned his back to Khaos, knowing that if he looked at her any longer, his resolve would crumble. He'd give in and stay and let this anger and resentment simmer before he inevitably blew up again. "You're his soldier, Khaos. You exist for Arishem. And you will continue to exist for him. I can't do it anymore. Eternity is too long if spent surrounded by this."

Druig left Khaos standing on the steps of the Tenochtitlan temple, a trembling, whimpering mess. His own, silent tears fell as he led the mindless army away. Away from Ajak, from Arishem, from the only family he'd ever known. From Khaos.

Khaos stood with her eyes glued to the spot he had been standing, willing herself to wake up as it must have been a terrible dream. But it wasn't one. A hand touched her shoulder, and she turned to Ikaris standing behind her.

"He's gone."

A new type of rage filled Ikaris as he heard how empty his sister sounded, how broken. But he couldn't hunt down Druig and kill him for hurting her — it would only make things worse. So Ikaris wrapped his strong arms around her and she cried into his chest.

"I know," he whispered as he led her back up the steps of the temple. "I'm sorry, Khaos."

"I'll watch over Thena," Gilgamesh offered. They had already lost so much in the last minute, he thought. And as he watched Khaos quietly crying in her brother's arms, he knew none of them would survive losing Thena. "Let her keep her memories."

"One day, when she attacks you, you might have to kill her," Ajak said as a warning.

Gilgamesh looked lovingly at Thena, who was moved to tears by his sacrifice. "We will take that chance."

Ajak looked around at them all, taking in how tired, beaten down, sad they all seemed. "You may all go," she said, shocking them all. "The Deviants are gone. There is no reason for you to stay with me."

"Shouldn't you ask Arishem first?" Ikaris asked, alarmed at her decision. He was the only one of the team that knew the true reason for their mission — to split up and let Druig go made no sense. "We're a team. We should stay together."

"I didn't ask you for your advice, Ikaris. Do not forget your place," Ajak said, giving him a pointed look. Then she met the eyes of each and every one of them. "This is where we say goodbye. You are free to go. I want you to go out there and live a life for yourself. Not as soldiers. Not with the purpose you were given. Find your own purpose. And one day, when we see each other again, I want you to tell me what you've found."

Khaos found a lot of things over the next few years — a love for sitcoms, boy bands, and poorly written vampire romances. She found a love for movie nights with Kingo and basketball games with her brother and dressing up with Sprite for Halloween.

But Khaos never found her way back to Druig.