AUSTRALIA
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Air blew (Y/N)'s jacket back as she and the rest of the group walked along the sand of a deserted place where the only thing surrounding them was piles of sand, along with small bushes and rocks through the dirt as well as the mountains from far away.

The first thing that they all noticed as they walked closer to their destination was the rotting body of a Deviant laying in the sand a few feet away, with a black liquid dripping from its side.

"This is the Deviant you fought in London?" Kingo questioned first.

Ikaris shook his head. "It's different. There must be more out there than we thought."

Karun, who was trailing behind Kingo with his camera still resting on his shoulder, approached the dead Deviant to observe it from up close with awestruck eyes. "Is. . .is this a Deviant, sir?"

"Yep."

"It's a beautiful creature."

"What? This? This? No. It's hideous," Kingo scoffed in disbelief as he pointed towards the Deviant in disgust while Karun trailed after him. "You've never had one try to bite your head off. Roll."

Kingo stepped back to the others to face the camera as (Y/N) found it hard not to laugh at the faces he was doing, continuing her walk towards the small hut a few feet away as she could still hear his obnoxious voice from behind.

"You're about to meet two of the greatest warriors the world has ever known," Kingo spoke to the camera. "Thena, legendary, deadly, fashionable. And her trusty friend. . ."

Kingo gestured Karun to change the focus of the camera towards the front door of the hut, and he did so with out hesitation while Ikaris stepped forward to knock on the front door of the hut. ". . .A mighty powerhouse of strength, the fearsome Gilgamesh!"

There was no response from the inside and this seemed to ruin Kingo's expectations. "Gilgamesh!"

This time, the door opened and out stepped no other than Gilgamesh himself, wearing a 'Kiss the Cook' apron that was too small for his own good. He looked unbothered by their presence, and (Y/N) then noticed the bleeding cut on his arm.

"What took you so long?" he frowned and then grunted when he saw Karun filming him. He walked away from the door and through the others without sparing two glances. "You look younger today, Sprite."

"I have the same apron," Karun laughed.

Gilgamesh reached towards the outdoor oven and dared to look back at the unfamiliar face with a raised eyebrow. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Karun. Kingo's valet."

"Oh, valet. Like Alfred in Batman," he grinned and continued fixing whatever he was doing with his hands, but he was still facing the group.

"Gilgamesh," Ikaris called his attention. "The Deviants are back."

"No shit," Gilgamesh scoffed. "I could have used some help."

Sprite decided to speak up. "We were attacked by a Deviant in London, too."

"Even Ikaris couldn't kill it," Sersi agreed.

Ikaris seemed to be offended by her words, but (Y/N) and Kingo exchanged one of their knowing glances as they bit back a laugh. Gilgamesh turned around fully now, surprised by that.

"You couldn't?"

"I was distracted," he defended.

"Oh, yeah? By what?" (Y/N) raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, man," Gilgamesh stopped him from answering and laughed while he ran to the oven to pull the plate out of it without bating an eye, revealing a hot pastry. "Hey, you guys wanna try my pie?"

"I'm sorry, Gil," Ikaris continued. "Ajak's dead."

"It's true, buddy," Sprite said. "We lost her."

This washed the smile he had in his face and he dropped his arms, making the pie slip to the ground with a thud as the insides poured out. When he noticed this, Gilgamesh only sighed and cracked the plate because of his tight grip.

Sersi had stared off to the distance, and (Y/N) followed her eye of sight to spot a familiar outline from far away, which belonged to no other than Thena as she sat at the edge of a dried tree. Gilgamesh offered to take them there but with caution, and they all took slow steps as they approached to stop her from getting paranoid.

Thena was innocently painting in the floor at the foot of the tree with rocks and animal bones all placed in a symmetrical circle, the air blowing back her white hair.

Sersi took a step towards her but Gilgamesh stopped her before she could move any further. "Sersi," he warned. "The attack triggered her. She's no fun to be around right now."

Gilgamesh was the one to walk forward since he was the one already used to take care of her. "Hey, Thena. Look who's here. Give me your hand."

Thena paused for a millisecond before she rose from the dirt, forming her spear in hand as Gilgamesh blocked it with his forearm just in time without a flinch, suspecting it would happen. "Thena."

"Everyone in Centuri-6 is going to die," Thena said with her eyes being milky white.

"Give me your hand," he shrugged her words off.

"It's too late," she breathed. "We can't save them."

"Thena."

Thena grunted to attack but before she could, golden lined circles formed all around her and the group and enveloped them in a dark room, which they all recognized to be one of the main rooms in the Domo. Sprite held her hands up and her fingers had the gold circles too, since she was the one responsible for making the illusion.

"Thena," she slowly said as the woman in question held her spear tight since the abrupt change took her by surprise. "We came to Earth together on our ship."

Sprite waved her hand around to make a projection in the air, the silhouette of a woman with a sword and helmet being the only thing glowing in the illusion. "You're an Eternal. The greatest warrior of Olympia. The legendary protector of Athens. The goddess of war."

"Remember who you are."

The white disappeared from Thena's eyes for a small second as she blinked before it reappeared, the hesitation evident on her face while she began to breathe heavily with her weapons slowly shimmering out of sight.

She extended a hand and Gilgamesh copied her actions, linking their hands together slowly to not make her jump back. "Remember."

The illusion faded away and they were now back to the sand-filled surroundings, the white leaning Thena's eyes as she looked around. Now that she was fully back, she was able to notice the presence of the other five people standing back.

"Thena," Ikaris nodded.

"Hi," Kingo waved along with Sprite.

"Hey," (Y/N) smiled at her like old times.

Thena stared at them up and down. "Hello."

"Hey, who's your gardener?"

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"This is just what you guys eat every day?" Kingo questioned as he served himself more food to his plate in the long table, where everyone was casually eating from the food that Gilgamesh had offered.

(Y/N) sat alongside Sprite and savored the food in her plate, enjoying the meal as much as everyone else. She used her knife to cut through part of the meat and then proceeded to drink from her beverage.

"This is amazing,"  she complimented, which made Gilgamesh grin in appreciation.

He was the only one standing and he placed a hand to his hip. "Thank you," he then moved to respond Kingo's question. "Every day."

"Thank you for this," Ikaris said.

"Oh, you're welcome," Gilgamesh shrugged. "Help yourself. This one is a trio of wine, beer, and mead. Made for all the soldiers in the battle of Troy."

He placed the bottle in the middle of the table and Karun looked back to look at him with a smile. "That's so thoughtful."

Karun swallowed deeply when he noticed Thena's eyes on him as she slowly entered the food to her mouth in a way to intimidate him. Kingo frowned at her behavior and leaned back to whisper down to Gilgamesh with curiosity.

"Should she be drinking?" he asked.

Gilgamesh leaned down to whisper in his ear. "No, hers is non-alcoholic. For kids." He got up to his full height and offered a smile like nothing happened and Thena took a sip from her drink without listening. "I gave you the same thing, Sprite."

This made Kingo and Gilgamesh to break into a fit of laughter while Sprite only sighed at their antic as she raised her hand softly and waved it to create an illusion on Gilgamesh's clothes, turning them into a pink baby onesie as he walked away to join her side of the table. Sersi and (Y/N), who were sitting across from each other, noticed this and bit back the smile while the others chuckled.

"I was just kidding," He said. "Yours is a secret brew Odin taught me as a thank-you after we helped defeat Laufey's army in Tonsberg."

Gilgamesh stopped when he heard everyone's laughing and looked down. "What? Oh. I'm a big baby. Very mature. Can you stop?"

Sprite waved her hand again and this time the baby onesie disappeared but the laughs continued until they died out.

"Speaking of Odin," Kingo spoke up. "Thor used to follow me around when he was a little kid. Now he's a famous Avenger and won't return my calls."

"Speak for yourself," (Y/N) teased, shrugging off as Kingo's jaw dropped at her revelation.

"So, now that Captain Rogers and Iron Man are both gone, who do you think is gonna lead the Avengers?" Sprite questioned, using her knife to cut down her food.

"I could lead them," Ikaris confessed. "I figure I'd be good at that."

"Yeah, you would," Kingo agreed.

Gilgamesh placed a hand on his shoulder. "Ajak didn't even choose you to lead us."

"Whoa."

"Low blow."

"Ouch, Gil. Ouch."

"Harsh."

"I'm gonna let that one slide because, you know, you've always been bitter that I can fly and you can't," Ikaris told him.

"Oh, so what, you can fly," Gilgamesh rolled his eyes at his words. "I'm better looking, everybody knows that."

Sersi stood up from the table after she'd been staring ahead for the last part of the conversation, making everyone's eyes fall on her form because of her actions.

"Where you going?" Ikaris asked.

She paused and looked back. "I'm just gonna get some air."

They all watched her walk outside from the hut and continued digging into their food. (Y/N) frowned at her sudden change of behavior but decided to let her be and clear her mind, all while Kingo still held his cup with the beverage from before.

"Mmm," he stared down at the cup. "This is really good, Gil. You know, I could sell this. Put my face on it, move some units."

"I made it from corn," Gilgamesh confessed with a smug grin. "I chew each kernel myself and ferment it in my spit."

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Night hit the place quickly and Sersi had returned from her break outside, where she came in with a solemn look on her face as she confessed that she was able to speak with Arishem again. They all gathered on the table as she slowly broke the truth to everyone.

The complete truth that confessed that their main mission wasn't the one to exterminate the Deviants from the planet, it was to allow the emergence to happen and give birth to the Celestial Tiamut. The truth which said that neither of them were real and were fabricated by Arishem himself, stopping them from evolution while their memories kept resetting every time another emergence happened.

"So, you're saying we're basically fancy robots?" Kingo broke the silence. All the laughter from earlier had died out, and now everyone wore a serious look on their faces. "And our past memories are stored somewhere in space?"

"And Arishem made the Deviants," Sersi confirmed.

"I'm sorry, Thena," Gilgamesh said with his eyes fixed on her. "You tried to warn us."

"The last time Arishem reset your memories, something must have gone wrong," Sprite said.

"What do you mean?" Kingo tilted his head.

"Well, that's what Mahd Wy'ry is, isn't it?" Sprite explained. "All this time, Thena was remembering all the other planets we were sent to and everyone dying dying  the emergence."

"I thought we were heroes," Gilgamesh stared down at the table. "Turns out were the bad guys."

"We're not the bad guys, okay?" Kingo laughed nervously. "We've helped the Celestials expand life across the universe. That's not what bad guys do. That's what good guys do."

"Every time innocent lives have been sacrificed for the greater good, it turns out to be a mistake," Sersi said decided. "We have to stop the emergence."

"Sersi, we have no right to stop the birth of a Celestial," Kingo tried to reason.

"There has to be a way Tiamut can emerge without destroying the Earth," she pleaded. "We just have to delay it until we figure out how."

Gilgamesh spared (Y/N) a glance before speaking up. "Could Druig control its mind? Maybe put it to sleep?"

(Y/N) tensed up at hearing the name, giving up to the fact that there was no way she could avoid him forever. Sersi caught her eye and searched for any type of anger or annoyance, but all her eyes could say was a deep nostalgic look.

"'Put it to sleep?'" (Y/N) tilted her head in confusion. "Are you serious? You make it sound so easy."

"Gilgamesh asked Druig to put me to sleep once," Thena revealed.

"So I could take a vacation to Fiji, you know?" Gilgamesh grinned proudly.

"We're talking about a Celestial, okay?" Kingo snapped, searching for agreement in the table.

"We have to try," Sersi insisted. "Come on, we're not gonna let everyone on Earth die, right?"

"Right," Karun was the only one to respond without hesitation. Everyone's glances fell on him. "I'm human. I'm a little biased."

"The world is ending," Kingo spoke in Hindi. "You need to go home."

"And do what?" Karun frowned. "Watch TV? When I could be with the Earth's original superheroes as they try to save the world?"

"Fine," Kingo sighed. "If you want to, stay."

"Thank you very much, sir."

Kingo reached up to drink from his cup but then remembered what Gilgamesh had said earlier about the drink and he spit it right back. "Gilgamesh, could you please get rid of the saliva beer?"

"I thought you like it, man."

"We need to go," Ikaris said. "Now. Find the others. Once we're all together, we'll decide what to do about the emergence."

"Great. Just what I wanted," (Y/N) groaned, knowing what was coming. They were going to visit him, and she wasn't at all prepared to see him.