17. the goddess of beauty

☆ ゜・ 。。・ ゜゜・ 。。・ ゜★

Kingo showed me a tour of his jet that he got when working in films. At this point, he never changed, he loves showing off. I sat on the seat and looked out of the jet as we took off. I tried not to throw up, covering my mouth with my fingers, humming to myself.

"Can I interview you?" Kingo sits in front of, not letting me answer. "Okay, so what have you been up to for these years?"

"Why are you doing this?" I closed my eyes. "Do you have anything better to do?"

"What if we die? Its good content, to keep our spirits alive." I shook my head. "Answer the question."

"I've been around, meet people, im a teacher, one of my students is spiderman."

"Well I don't care about spiderman, you met Cher! Princess Diana! I could've been friends-"

"Dont do that." He coughs and goes onto the next made up question.

"I thought you and Druig would be together, ruling a small island-"

"You thought wrong." I turned back to the window. I did miss him. Everyday actually. But he never came back, he never looked for me. Then again, I didn't do the same.

"What happened?" I took a deep breath.

"I need a drink." I made my way to the mini bar he had and checked out the selection. Cup? Where are they? Nah, screw it. I twisted the cap and started drinking out of the bottle.

"Dont mess this up when you see Druig." Ikaris came and sat down across from me. Here we go. After years of not speaking to each other, he still has a bone to pick with me. I just want to punch him.

"Did your mother not love you?" I put the bottle down, sassed him with a look. "What is up your ass today princess?"

"Im just saying, your world revolves around Druig and the moment you see him, you're going to be clouded." My blood was boiling. He's the one to talk. I just let him go on, licked my lips.

"Like you?" I scuffed. "You're the same with Sersi."

"Im warning you." He stands up, looking down at me. Thinking he can control me.

"Or what? You're gonna kill me?" I stepped up. "I would love to see that happen. Remember I can kill you with a flick of my finger."

"Ajak-"

"Dont you dare." I snapped. "Stop pretending that you were close to her." I pressed my finger on his chest, poking him. "All you were to her was a parasite in her ear. You wanted to be her, i bet you're glad she gone." His nose flared, i touched a nerve. Something is up and I want to know why. "Im not scared of you Ikaris. Do all you want, if you get in my way, i swear to you, ill be the last face you ever see, know your place, and don't forget where you stand, behind me." I felt the plane land, walked passed him, putting on my sunglasses as we hit the hot, sunny Australia. The place hasn't changed at all, not one bit. Kuran and Kingo were behind as they filmed and I was beside Sprite. 

"I wonder how she is after all these years." Poor Thena. I can't believe how long its been and she still has Mad'ry. I've heard that she gotten worst. There was a deviant dead, on the way to the house. How many are we talking about now? It was definitely not the now I killed, it was different, a lot smaller. Ikaris knocks on the front door.

"The Fearsome Gilgamesh!" Kingo yells. He didn't come out. We waited and waited. "Gilgamesh!" The door slams open and there he was, wearing a 'kiss the cook' apron.

"What took you so long?" He walks down the steps and once he saw me, he had his arms open, waiting for me to hug him. I ran to him. Gilgamesh spins me around and takes me to oven. "Look at you! You look so beautiful!" He holds my cheeks. I scrunched my nose the complaints he gave me. Gilgamesh is sweet, caring, he's like your favorite uncle. "You look younger today Sprite."

"I have the same apron." Karun smiles.

"Who the hell are you?" Gilgamesh turns to him as he went to grab something in the oven.

"Im Karun, Kingos valet." He kept on smiling and holding the damn camera still.

"His valet? Like Alfred in Batman." He nods. Gilgamesh kept pulling me to the side and saw that he was baking a pie. "Im trying out that pie recipe you sent me, last time the cookies came out beautifully! Thena even liked them."

"Gilgamesh, the deviants are back." Ikaris butts in. We both sighed and looked back at him.

"Yeah no shit, I could've used some help."

"We were attacked in London." Sprite told him.

"I killed one in New York." Gilgamesh looked worried for me. He placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Even Ikaris couldn't kill it." I bite my lip, trying not to laugh. Macho man couldn't? What some news. Ikaris turns to Sersi.

"You couldnt?" I walked away from Gilgamesh and stood by Kingo.

"I was distracted."

"Imagine getting distracted? I mean I can't because I actually killed it on my own, with no help." Kingo and I laughed at the burn I made, high fiveing each other. Gilgamesh joins in with a laugh.

"Hey, you guys want some pie?" He pulls out the hot pie. I was hungry and all Kingo had was nuts.

"Im sorry, Ajak's dead." Gil's face saddened., didn't want to believe it.

"Its true buddy. We lost her." He drops the tray on his side, making the pie slide off. My heart broke. We all stood in silence as he took a seat, folding the pan in half. We headed to Thena, watching her under a tree, drawing her visions.

"Hey Thena, look whos here." She sits up straight, i swore to you, i heard her crack her back as she straighten herself. She quickly got up and her sword appeared, Gilgamesh blocked her hit.

"Everyone in Centuri 6 is going to die." Thena states.

"Give me your hand."

"Its too late, you cant save them." Sprite then used her powers to cloud us in, showing her, hopefully bringing her back.

"Thena, we came to earth together on our ship. You're Eternal. The greatest warrior of Olympia. The legendary protector of Athens. The goddess of War. Remember who you are." Thena blinks, reaching out for Gils hand and everything went back to normal. Thena closes her eyes and sighs. She smiles at us, winking at me.

"Hii." Kingo and I waved.

"Hello." She hums.

"Hey, whos your gardener?" I elbowed Kingo. All dead grass and sand. Sometimes, I cant deal with him, he's a actual child but i love him. We headed to the home and Gilgamesh prepared a meal for us, we dug in. I stuffed my face with the food as I was still stressing over the face that I, i mean we, we were going to see Druig.

"She should be drinking?" Thena didn't take her eyes off of Kuran, making him feel a little scared.

"No, its alcohol free." Gilgamesh whispers. "I gave you the same thing Sprite." I nearly choked. Spite wasn't having it so she turned Gilgamesh into a big baby, in a onesie, bib, bonet. I hid my smile, Thena and I looked at each other and giggled. "Oh, im a big baby." He looks at himself. "Very mature."

"Speaking of Odin, Thor used to follow me around when he was a little kid. Now hes a famous avenger, and wont return my calls." He looks at me. "Do you all remember that Celeste dated Loki for like 5 months?" Everyone hummed. I got uncomfortable. I dropped my fork and crossed my hands.

"Oh yeah!" Sprite went on. "He was already going to marry her! Remember that one time that they were making out in the ship and Druig was sooo pissed?! He literally dragged him out? I never seen Druig so mad! Celeste didn't talk to him for like a week!" Sersi and Kingo nodded.

"Remember he would call her the goddess of beauty? What a slick move to get her in his arms."

"How did you react when you saw him destroy New York, Celeste? How hes a false god? Your almost married a killer." Ikaris said to me. I bent the fork and stormed outside to take a breather.

"Woah Ikaris, too soon. She was like in love with him."

"And Druig, look where she ended up. Maybe she has a thing for villains." I heard as I went outside. I hid behind the house, squat down and let some tears fall. New York, 2012, I saw Loki was behind it all and I felt so useless since I couldn't intervene. Maybe if I went to stop him, maybe if he saw me, the battle of New York wouldn't happen. It did hurt me. I do wonder what he's been up to these days.

"I figured you would be here." Thena sways. I wiped my tears as she sat down with me. "I heard you crying, you sniff too loud." I cracked a smile.

"Thena?" She hums. "If I didn't break up with Loki, couldve New York be okay? If I didn't leave Druig, would-"

"Stop blaming yourself my sweet girl." She pulls my hair back, started to do a braid. "Things happen for a reason, if you did stop it, its going to happen anyways, eventually." She turns my chin to face her. "You worry too much."

"I worry about the ones I love." She cracks a smile.

"No wonder Druig fell for you." I looked down, remembering the past. "You still love him, dont you?" I nodded. "Well, maybe seeing him will change things."

"What if he doesn't want to?" She chuckles again. "After what I did."

"Worrying." Thena gave me a hug. "If you love someone, you are willing to do anything, protect them, love them no matter what."

"I missed you Thena, I really did."

"Dont tell anyone but, you are my favorite." We both smiled. "You always have been."

★

We gathered around the fire as Sersi told us about what she talked with Arishem. It was unbelievable. And of course I was in denial, didn't want to hear it. Everything was fake, Olympia, everything.

"Are you saying that we're basically fancy robots and our past memories are stored somewhere...in space?" Kinda half of the rerun.

"And Arishem created the deviants." I leaned back on my chair, rubbing my eyes. All a lie. My life.

"Im sorry Thena. You tried to warn us."

"The last time Arishem reset your memories, something must've gone wrong. A slip up?" I held her hand.

"What you mean?"

"Well, thats what Mahd Wy'ry is, isnt? All this time Thena was remembering all the disasters happened in different planets, and everyone dying during the Emergence."

"I thought we were heroes, turns out we're the bad guys."

"We're not the bad guys, okay? We helped the celestials expand the universe! Thats not what bad guys do, thats what good guys do."

"And none of us knew about it." I shook my head, I can imagine what Druig would react. He loves the humans. Hes the reason why we all split, so they won't be harmed. "We were living in a lie, all of it. I knew Olympia wasn't real after years." Thena pats my hand.

"Every time innocent lives have been sacrifice for the greater good it turns out to be a mistake. We have to stop the emergence."

"Sersi..." kingo sighs. "We have no right to stop the birth of a Celestial."

"That's because it hasn't happened before." I frowned. "There has to be a way for Tiamut to be born without destroying the earth." Sersi hops on my wagon.

"We just have to delay it, until we find out how."

"Could Druig control its mind? Maybe put it to sleep?" They all look at me. He is powerful but I have no clue if he's that powerful to take on Tiamut. No offense.

"Put it to sleep? Are you serious?"

"Gilgamesh asked Druig to put me to sleep once." I was there, I remember that.

"So I can take a vacation to Fiji." He smirks. "So..." he looks at me. "Can he?" I moved around my seat.

"We can try, and if hes up to it. He tried to control my mind but it didn't work." I said as I played with my rings. "Its going to take a lot of persuading."

"Thats why you're here." Ummm ouch? If I had to say, im the most strongest Eternal here. I can move things with my mind for crying out loud and they need me to persuade him?! I can do much more! I'll show them.

"We're talking about a celestial!"

"We have to try!" Sersi yells. "We're not going to let everyone on earth die, right?"

"Right!" Kuran said. We all turned to him. "Im human. Im a little biased." Kingo and him had a conversation, telling him to go back home. "And do what? Watch tv? When I could be with the earth's original mightiest heroes trying to save the world?"

"Fine. If you want to, stay." Kuran thanks Kingo, smiling as he does so. Kingo spits out his drink back in the cup, eeking. "Gilgamesh, could you please get rid of the saliva beer?"

"I thought you liked it."

"We need to go, now. To find the others, once we're all together, say on what we want to do for the emergence." We all nodded.

"Celeste, where's Druig now?" Everyone got up and i still sat there. Chills went down my spine, it's happening.

"If he's still there, which I believe he still is." I cant believe it's happening. Im going back home. Our home.