A chance
Makkari loved Druig.
With all the power of her immortal self, she loved him and had done so for many centuries. It was so easy to love him, no matter what Kingo said, no matter how surprised Sersi was, no matter how Ikaris stared at them both as if wishing death on her mind-controller whenever they joked or laughed together lately and no matter if they had shown it as open as others or not, if their family had wanted to see and recognize it or not.
Makkari loved him. His little quirks and habits, his excitement about new and old favorites of food and how much he genuinely cared about those around him, even if it could hard to see sometimes. His whole character, with which the others sometimes found it so difficult to get along while it had always been thew most natural thing for her to fall into an easy, loving, trusting dynamic with him even if centuries had passed.
It all made him unique, wonderful and, in her eyes, absolutely perfect.
Only Druig was able to read her in a way that didn't need words, only his smile, the one meant only for her that he showed when they were alone, made her heart beat so much faster, so fast that it was almost a rival to her supernatural speed. She loved him even though that smile was nowhere to be seen right now, even though his beautiful blue eyes where hidden behind sickly pale eyelids.
And exactly because she loved him so much the heavy silence, that filled the whole room after Ajak had finished her explanation of the situation they where facing, was so unbearable to her.
Phastos wiped a bit rushed through the scans he had previously taken and asked to see again, what exactly he was looking for that Ajak hadn't discovered yet was a mystery to everyone, but the healer had let him do as he pleased if only to give him something to do at all.
Sprite had obviously already known from her previous overhearing of the conversations, so her shock was limited. Nevertheless, she looked as if she had been forced to swallow a fresh lemonade whole and kept throwing glaces over to Sersi who deliberately stayed in the background, standing a little behind Ikaris, who had crossed his arms in front of his chest with a stoic expression, awaiting orders like a loyal soldier.
Sersi, in contrast, kept her eyes cast down to the ground as if the faint patterns imprinted in it were incredibly fascinating.
In places, the pale gold lines that snaked delicately and gracefully through the dark material of the floor were abruptly broken in places. There were still traces of Ikaris' attack on their spaceship several months earlier, they were barely visible but if you opened your eyes and looked for them you could always spot them in some corners and rooms in the Domo.
Gilgamesh, who had leaned back against a wall at the news thrown at them, frowned deeply and rubbed his eyes. It was him who finally broke the silence again.
"You're joking, right?"
"Ohhh no, definitely not. Ajak, maybe but before Druig makes jokes, the Sahara will freeze over." Kingo said in a typical attempt to lighten serious situations with banter.
Thena elbowed him in the ribs and the actor cursed something unintelligible and turned away, treading both of his hands through his hair, clearly stressed now. It betrayed his true mood.
"Unfortunately I am serious." said Ajak. "I wish I could tell you something else, but I only have this option."
"The possibility of destroying his mind." said Thena coolly.
Behind Ikaris, Sersi winced.
No! Makkari signed emphatically. It was a surprise that everyone understood, considering how fast her hands were moving. No we can't do that! No!
Though she had been concentrated on Druig, she had followed the short conversation with enough attention that her heart clenched painfully at even the thought.
She stared at Ajak in desperate horror. Betrayal was reflecting in her brown eyes and the healer sighed.
That was exactly why she hadn't wanted Makkari to find out about the situation too soon.
"Makkari." she said urgently, signing the words along. "Please, understand."
No!
Makkari just shook her head resolutely, a panic was blossoming in her chest. A moment ago, her worry had come from Druig's condition but now it had turned into an immediate threat to him that had adrenalin pumping through her veins like it usually only did in a fight.
With the difference that a fight wasn't nearly as frightening.
The speedster's eyes darted around the room, trying to quickly determine the mood and attitude of everyone present.
You can't be serious! That is not an option!
The fingers of her free dug into the gray fabric of her man's shirt while she signed. If it became necessary then she would grab him and drag him away, she thought.
Knowing Ajak, her warnings were not unfounded and she would have to come up with something as soon as she could no longer rely on the help of the others and on Ajak's healing powers or Phastos' technology to keep Druig alive but speed was her specialty, and she wouldn't let her former leader erase everything that made him such a wonderful, perfect being that he was.
She couldn't do that! They couldn't do that to him. Or her.
She caressed his face once more and ran her hand through his hair, lost in the wish that he would just open his beautiful blue eyes again for a moment.
Ajak interpreted said moment as hesitation.
"I only want to help him." she said. Makkari saw her approach out of the corner of her eye and her head shot up again.
Before she could refuse her once again though, this time with way different certain words, Thena moved as suddenly as fast.
She strode forward, nearly stabbing Ikaris in the hand with a quickly summoned lance when he tried to grab her arm to stop her.
Sersi grabbed the back of his T-Shirt and yanked him backwards, only barely succeeding in avoiding a small bloodshed, and Thena stepped between their former leader and her unconscious brother. She firmly blocked Ajak's path, determination written all over her calm, battle worn face.
She didn't say a word and held her cosmic weapon only loosely in her hand but she didn't let it go or vanish into thin air either, making it clear that she wasn't going to let her former leader pass.
Silence fell over the room for a moment as the two women stared each other down and everyone elses eyes focused on them in turn.
One could literally feel the tension in the room.
"Thena" Ajak finally said, softly but with a warning undertone in her voice that each of them heard and understood by heart. "Step aside."
"I will not."
"You are only delaying the inevitable. He'll weaken. The sooner I do it, the better his chances are."
"You agreed to let us search for the Deviant first." Sersi interfered from the side.
The transmuters eyes darted through the room between Makkari, who tried and failed to be angry at her for trying to keep her oblivious of the whole situation at their former leaders orders, and Ajak.
"I have, but the more time we let pass, the more critical his condition will become."
Makkari whimpered softly. She put a hand over Druig's heart again.
It beat gently but steadily beneath her fingers. His warmth was still there, his smell, his vibrations. He was still here. She couldn't accept that, in a few minutes, this wouldn't be the case anymore if they took Ajak's advice.
She had never thought that it would come to this, but if she had to she would fight her about it, no matter in which way.
She knew Ikaris would jump to Ajak's aid and she had painfully learned that she couldn't win against him, but she could outrun him or, at the very least, go down with a fight if she had to.
She cast another pleading look around.
Please, she signed. You guys, come on.
At Kingo, who grimaced almost in pain and averted her gaze after a few seconds, at Sprite, who returned it, and at Sersi, whose hectic heartbeat all evening made so much more sense now.
She turned back to Druig's still face and swallowed.
"Thena." Ajak tried again. "Nothing I'd do would happen with the intent to harm him."
Thena snorted. "Do you know the feeling of not understanding what happens around you?" she asked.
Her voice was calm but it still carried so many emotions. "To be a stranger to your own family? Not to recognize the face of the person dearest to you?" the goddess threw a quick gaze over her shoulder, just a blink of an eye as if expecting a surprise attack from the front at any moment as soon as she became inattentive.
She knew her family and their abilities well enough to be careful with that.
"I know it." she continued, turning back to Ajak with a warrior's stoic and determined yet pained expression, the lance of cosmic energy rocked up and down gently once as she closed her fingers around it a little tighter. "Those moments of Mahd Wy'ry feel like that. If you try to do that to him, you'll have to get through me first."
"Thena." Gilgamesh said, trying as always to offer a voice of reason whenever they hit a wall with a decision and as always his voice was the one that managed to get through to her.
"He protected me when she tried to make me forget my life. I remember that."
She looked her partner in the eyes, turning away from Ajak for a moment. "You should understand too, don't you?"
"Thena." Ikaris cut in. He glared at the warrior, his arms still crossed and unyielding in his stance. "Ajak will know what she's doing." he said.
"Ikaris!" Sersi hissed in horror.
Makkari looked up from her mind-controller at the sudden heat in the vibration of her sister's voice and as soon as Phastos repeated Ikaris' words, which she had previously ignored, for her she was gripped by a burning furry and glared at the bastard almost hatefully.
There was still a different, wild rage against him that rampaged deep inside of her. Since the day of the Emergence she carried it within her, since Ikaris had shown her his true face.
She had grown weary of him after that, even more after Druig had told her what he had said to him. Since that day she tried to always keep an eye on him. If Sersi was kind enough to forgive him, if Ajak, Kingo and Sprite decided to ignore his misdeeds and the other's wanted to try to continue on, then that was on them. But Makkari wanted to be ready, wanted to be prepared for the day he would show that ugly merciless side of him again.
This time she wanted to be able to at least do some everlasting damage to him if the time came.
Ikaris threw an evil look at Phastos, but he only replied with a glare of his own. "What? And don't even think about lasering me in here!" he threatened.
Ironically, the safe room that was the Domo hadn't been able to do anything against Ikaris' laser, but that had been a weak point that Phastos had patched up and eliminated in several repairs over the last months. He had really been hell-bent on making the entire spaceship Ikaris-safe and he hadn't wasted a chance to remind him whose fault it was that those repairs and the new security measures on the outer shell where even necessary at all.
Rightfully so, in Makkari's eyes.
The thing was that she had not always disliked Ikaris, no, she had actually gotten along with every member of her family, but whatever positive feelings she had hold towards that particular brother of hers had died, at the very latest, when he had tried to kill Druig.
She would never forget the cursed helplessness she felt when he had grabbed her mind-controller by the throat and took him up into the sky, the one damn place Makkari couldn't reach him, not even with her speed, where she couldn't help him, or protect him, in any way.
No. She was ready to tolerate Ikaris because she had to, not because she wanted to, but she would never forgive him and, like Phastos, she would let him feel it whenever she could. To hell with what Ajak said about that matter.
"Enough." Gilgamesh pushed off the wall and stepped between Ikaris and Phastos. He fixed Ikaris with a warning gaze that made him roll his eyes and turn away before looking at Makkari for a moment.
She looked at him pleadingly. Repeated her previous request one more time, hoping that at least Gilgamesh would be reasonable like Thena.
And it looked like Arishem, or whoever was responsible for their decision making, took pity on her because Gil obviously had made his.
"Come on, Ajak. You know yourself that we can't allow that."
Ajak's shoulders fell a little at his words. She finally broke her staring match with Thena, turned to him instead and sighed. "What, you too, Gilgamesh?"
"Sorry Ajak." the addressed Eternal shrugged. He had his arms crossed over his chest again and exchanged another long look with Thena that no one but the two of them could decipher, even Ajak hadn't been able to figure out what their silent conversations meant for millennia, it was an exchange on another level.
Either way, Gilgamesh shook his head. "If there is another way then we should take that one first. Isn't there, Sersi?"
Sersi nodded. "If we can figure out what caused this then maybe we can reverse it."
"Everything has a trigger. And when you find it, you can usually devise a countermeasure." agreed Phastos, always thinking logically.
Sersi nodded, grateful for the encouragement. "The Deviant."
Phastos considered her words. He tipped something into the hologram that still flickered in front of him before nodding. "I can do scans. Maybe there was something special about this Deviant, it wouldn't have been the first."
"Alright, sounds like something. I say let's try." Gilgamesh said. He shrugged and looked around in the room to take everyone else's opinion.
Makkari smiled at him gratefully and signed him a silent expression of gratitude.
Her hand on Druig's chest was shaking slightly but she took comfort in his still beating heart and the new hope Gilgamesh had just offered her. It would be fine. Druig would be fine. She couldn't allow herself any other thought and so she didn't.
Thena nodded, never relinquishing her position as self proclaimed protector even after Ajak stepped back.
Sprite wasn't sure if she still had a say, all things considered, but she nodded anyway, siding against Ikaris and Ajak to the surprise of the first. It was very visible in his expression.
"Well, he's not exactly my best friend, and Makkari, I'll never understand you. You could have someone much better." Kingo said before sighing dramatically. "But I guess he's family. And you don't turn against your family. Let's do this."
All eyes turned to Ajak in the middle of the room.
The former leader caught the speedster's gaze and her eyes softened. "Very well." she said. "I do hope you will be successful."