IRAQ
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A group of archeologists scavenged through the dirt with their tools in the hot temperature, squinting their eyes against the wind that blew the dirt and blinded their vision. They were minding their own business until their eyes glowed gold, snapping their heads to the side and involuntary moving to pack their stuff up and leave.

When they left in two vans, Sprite waved her hands down to dissolve her illusion and make everyone else visible again, all walking up behind Phastos with sunglasses on since he was the one who held the device that turned the Domo on.

Phastos held his palm up and a loud rumble shook underground as rocks began to crumble and fall down from the ship that was rising in the air in a slow speed, allowing everyone to stare at it in amazement because it had been a long time since they'd seen it.

"The Domo," Karun muttered breathlessly, still holding onto his camera to record the scene.

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"A foreboding atmosphere fills the air," Kingo announced with a whisper to the camera in Karun's hands as he and the others walked through one of the Domo's hallways. "An eerie stillness chokes our lungs."

"What are you doing?" Phastos spoke up from behind him. "You know you are creeping us out. You know that, right?"

An object burst behind him and he was the only one to react in a bad way, jumping out of his skin and looking back to see what had caused the noise. "Oh! Oh, God! Stay calm, T, please!"

Thena gave him a weird look as she removed her foot from a bag of chips that she'd accidentally stepped on, and Phastos instantly chuckled out of embarrassment and reached out to grab the bag.

"Chip. It's just chips," he laughed.

"As you can see, being an Eternal does not preclude you from having human emotions," Kingo continued. "Such as cowardice."

The conversation stopped and everyone's gazes looked up at the sight of one of the main rooms in the Domo filled with countless of books and important artifacts all stacked without a particular order, but what caught (Y/N)'s attention the most was the person who was sitting in a golden chair with one boom in her hands, one of her closest friends, Makkari.

"What has she done?" Phastos gasped in horror. "Is that. . .a sarcophagus in my lab?"

"This is Makkari. Or should I say Miss Havisham?" Kingo explained to the camera in Karun's hands. "None of us have seen her for centuries."

Makkari closed her book and turned to her friends, signing each of her words. "Ready to go home?"

Everyone gave her awkward smiles. "Hmm."

While Phastos worked by himself in another invention of his, (Y/N) sat back down with Makkari after pulling her away from Kingo's explaining of how to use an iPad, since was planning on catching up with her after not seeing her for a very long time, especially since she had to tell her about the emergence.

"So you mean. . ." Makkari signed. "I've been waiting for centuries to go back to Olympia, and now you're telling me it doesn't exist?"

"Along with the fact that the world is ending in a few days," (Y/N) spoke and signed her words at the same time to make it easier for Makkari to understand in both ways.

"At least my boredom is ending," she said.

A thought came into (Y/N)'s head. "Do you remember that stone artifact I lost a lot time ago?"

"How could I not? You were obsessed with it before it disappeared," Makkari signed with a shake of her head. "Why do you ask?"

"He. . ." (Y/N) trailed off and her eyes fell on Druid's form after she saw how he and Ikaris exchanged a box of sweets and an emerald tablet a few feet away. "He had it all this time. Look — "

(Y/N) reached down for her pocket to pull the stone artifact up and show it to Makkari, who put the two together and a teasing grin formed on her lips.

"You reunited with him," Makkari teased. "And you still have feelings for him even after all this time. It's obvious."

(Y/N) scoffed at the accusation. "I do not."

"You never knew how to lie to me," Makkari continued.

(Y/N) stood up and crossed her arms as she noticed the quiet laugh that was threatening to spill on Makkari's lips. "We. . .It's complicated. I don't even know what happened."

Makkari looked behind (Y/N)'s shoulder and tilted her head to the side before signing, "Speaking of the devil. . ."

(Y/N) turned around just in time to see how Druig walked near her with something hiding behind his back, and she would lie if she said she didn't feel the slightest butterflies in her stomach — as humans would say — when she saw him approach.

"Look what I found for you," Druig's voice rang through (Y/N)'s ears as he walked up behind her and displayed the Emerald Tablet he and Ikaris fought over before in front of her. "My beautiful, beautiful (Y/N)."

Phastos removed his attention from what he was creating and Kingo joined his side along with Makkari, both men wearing expressions of disgust while the latter grinned smugly behind her palm at the sight, seeing how (Y/N) blushed at Druig's words.

"I'm sorry, what are we watching?" Phastos frowned. Because this —  Are you two back — "

Kingo pretended to gag. "Can you stop? Stop it, I hate it."

(Y/N) cleared her throat and slightly moved away from Druig's grasp as she tried to ignore the look of raised eyebrows that Sprite gave her from the side.

"Phastos," Druig called. "I need to control the mind of a Celestial."

"Okay, get ready for it," Phastos moved his arms to allow the design of his new invention, which were nine identical gold rings floating in midair to close in all the missing parts and show the result.

"Bracelets?" Kingo asked. "You made us bracelets?"

"So, here's a little Celestial 101," Phastos began and missed the way Druig attempted to grab (Y/N)'s attention by moving the strands of her hair out of her face and trying to hold her hand.

"Celestials are the most powerful energy generators in the universe," he continued. "When Arishem made us, he imbued us with infinite cosmic energy to keep our bodies regenerating. The bracelets, in theory, shut down our regeneration process. And once that happens, our bodies accumulate extra cosmic energy."

"What for?" Sersi questioned.

"Well, if the Deviants can absorb our energy, what if we can absorb each other's energy as well?" he muttered. "If I can find a way to connect us all, one of us could become immensely powerful, pulling the accumulated energy from the rest, forming. . ." Phastos clasped his hands together and the projection changed, showing nine identical figures and how a golden thread connected them together to form a bigger ring of light. "A Uni-Mind."

When no one reacted to the name the same way he did, he cleared his throat to explain. "'Uni' meaning 'one', 'mind' meaning 'mind'."

"Oh, no, we heard you the first time," Kingo said.

"Terrible name."

"We'll brainstorm — " Kingo began until he realized what he said and thought it was the best idea ever. "'Brainstorm'! That's a way better name!"

"No, I invented it, so I'm calling it whatever I want," Phastos argued.

Makkari shook her hand to catch their attention. "So suppose Druig can, say. . .put Tiamut to sleep — Then what?"

"We find humans a new home on another planet," Sersi replied without hesitation.

"Are we building a big ship, too?" Sprite asked sarcastically. "Take pair of each animal?"

"Well, you know what's never saved the planet?" Phastos cut her off. "Your sarcasm."

"Sprite's right, space colonization could take decades to happen," (Y/N) interfered.

Sersi didn't back down. "It could happen quickly with our help."

"What if we end up accidentally killing Tiamut?" Kingo continued. "We could be responsible for billions of lives not being created across the universe. Boss, am I right?"

Ikaris shifted once he noticed that Kingo was calling out for him, and he blinked out of whatever daze he was on and Sprite turned on her heel to look at him properly.

"Say something, Ikaris," Sprite pleaded. "You don't think we should be doing this."

"Ajak chose Sersi to lead us," Ikaris responded and there was a slight hint of annoyance laced in his tone. "Sersi should decide."

Everyone turned their attention back to Sersi, and all she did was uncomfortably shift her weight and couldn't form a sentence to defend herself before Sprite spoke again.

"Forget who Ajak chose. You're the strongest. You should be making this decision," when he didn't answer, her posture dropped. "Fine. Just keep lying to yourself."

"Sprite," Ikaris called and followed her out of the room.

Phastos placed his hands on his hip. "Okay, this is not — "

"Ikaris," Kingo trailed after him.

"Don't run after him," Phastos tried to warn but got ignored instead. Kingo, I — You guys."

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A loud beating echoed through the room of the Domo and it pulled everyone's attention from what they were doing to stare at the image of the Earth in the center of the room, and instantly Sersi rushed in because of the commotion with Ikaris trailing behind her.

"Oh, no. My God," Phastos rushed over.

"What about the Uni-Mind?" Sersi asked.

"I haven't figured out a way to connect us. But I'm close," Phastos explained. "I'm very, very close."

"How much longer?" Sersi insisted.

"I don't know, Sersi!" he snapped.

An orange color began to spread through the image of the Earth and Phastos grabbed a device to place it in Makkari's hands, leaning down to whisper down his words to make her listen to the vibrations of his voice properly. "Find the point of emergence."

Without waiting any longer, Makkari rushed out of the room with her superspeed, leaving (Y/N) to stay behind in the room with Phastos, Kingo, Druig, and Sprite while Ikaris walked off and Sersi probably went after him, like she always did.

Phastos was too busy concentrating on finding a way to connect the Uni-Mind that (Y/N) was the first one to notice Ikaris storming in once again, this time wearing his original blue and yellow suit before firing a laser beam directly at Phastos.

(Y/N) ran over to aid Phastos up as Kingo stood up from his seat with a voice laced with panic. "Boss, what are you doing?"

"I've let this go on long enough," Ikaris said.

"Don't hurt him," Sersi pushed behind him to help (Y/N) with aiding Phastos, stepping in front of her friends as she looked back at the man standing before her. "He lied to us. He already knew about the emergence."

(Y/N) frowned at her words and saw how Ikaris's eyes were beginning to grow red from fighting back his own tears but held a strong facade.

"No, he didn't," Kingo argued.

"Ajak told me everything when we left Babylon," Ikaris revealed.

Kingo stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"You were never gonna let us stop the emergence," Phastos looked at him in disbelief.

"No," Ikaris confessed, his eyes following everyone inside the room. "I only wanted to protect you from the Deviants."

"If Ajak wanted you to take her place, why did she choose me?" Sersi questioned with her voice cracking in the end, tears threatening to spill.

Ikaris's silence proved what (Y/N) feared the most, and she took a step back when she realized while looking at him in terror. "How far did you go?"

"He killed her," Druig spoke up.

Ikaris shook his head. "I had to."

A shudder ran through Sersi's body. "She loved you."

"Did she?"

"She loved you."

"Do you think it was easy to live with the truth? To know that one day all this would end? To keep on lying to you?" Ikaris's eyes were puffy red from his tears. "If we gave humanity the choice, how many of them would be willing to die so that billions more could be born."

"We're not giving them a choice," Phastos interrupted. "Is this why you're willing to kill? You are so pathetic!"

"I'm an Eternal, Phastos," Ikaris told him. "I exist for Arishem. As do you. It's who you are."

Phastos shook his head. "I wouldn't change a single thing about who I am. Born or made. But I do not exist for Arishem, I exist for my family!"

"Then you are making the same mistake Ajak did."

Makkari came back with wave of air, a successful grin formed on her lips since she didn't know what had happened before she arrived. "I found Tiamut."

(Y/N) noticed the glint in Ikaris's eyes and prepared a droplet of water in her palm and threw it directly at him to misdirect the laser beam that was coming Makkari's way. "No!"

"Makkari!" Kingo threw himself to block the laser beam and rolled on the ground, causing Makkari to kneel down to help him. "Get out of here!"

Makkari frowned but rushed outside all over again, and Kingo panted as he stood up while Ikaris made his way to him. "Kingo."

Kingo formed a cosmic energy blast between his fingers and pointed it at him. "You do not turn against your family. Gilgamesh died because of you."

"You won't succeed against me," Ikaris said. "And I will kill every one of you if I have to."

Sersi's loud crying was the only noise in the room and Ikaris turned to lock his eyes with her until he noticed that she wouldn't dare to look at him in the eye. He began to walk away heading for the long hallway before someone stopped him.

"Wait," Sprite called, joining his side. "I'm going with you."

"Sprite — "

Thena entered the hallway with a confused expression on her face, noticing everyone's tensed looks. "What is this?"

Sprite waved her hands up and this made her and Ikaris disappear in a flock of birds before Ikaris could fire his laser beam directly at her. Everyone stared at the spot they shimmered away with in shock, not processing what had happened.

"Why did Sprite go with Ikaris?" Makkari questioned once she returned.

"Because she loves him," Kingo revealed. "Oh, you guys didn't pick up on that? He really fooled us, didn't he? Karun, let's go."

"Wait, where the hell are you going?" Phastos perked up.

"I can't help you guys," Kingo shook his head. "I still think Ikaris is right."

"So that's it, huh? Just gonna follow him?"

"I love the people of this planet. But if you stop this emergence, you are preventing so many other worlds like this one from being created," he continued. "I still have belief in Arishem. But I refuse to hurt any of you for my beliefs."

Makkari grabbed his shoulder before he left. "We need you."

"Even with my help, we're no match. It's Ikaris," he sighed and grabbed his stuff. "But. . .I hope to see you on the next planet."

Karun turned to the group and began to speak in Hindi. "Thank you for all you've done. . .for humanity. It's been a great honor. I will miss you all."

"Look," Druig decided to speak up. "If I'm gonna get myself killed going up against Ikaris, we'll need to have. backup plan."

"All of our powers, even if they're amplified, are not enough to kill a Celestial, so. . ." Phastos trailed off.

"Well, Sersi did turn a Deviant into a tree," (Y/N) added on.

"I'm sorry, what?" Phastos frowned. "You didn't want to tell me that?"

"You've never been able to do it before," Makkari signed.

"I dont know how it happened, okay?" Sersi stared down to her feet. "And I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it again."

"Well, now is the time to try, don't you think?"

"Phastos, that Deviant is dead. Our plan is to put Tiamut to sleep, not to kill it," Sersi bit back. "I can't kill a Celestial."

"Sersi! Sersi!"

"We can't!"

"It's okay, Sersi," Druig cut her off. "I got this."