Redemption

Ikaris was quite surprised when Ajak’s message appeared on his tracking device Phastos gave them a while ago. He was currently investigating a supernatural murder incident in Northern Alaska, the perpetrators are none other than Deviants that have been frozen in the glaciers since the last Ice age, which has been released due to the increase in temperature of the mantle, probably also a side effect of the upcoming emergence.

After he left Sersi, he has become quite indifferent and withdrawn, isolating himself somewhere deep in the mountains, away from humans especially because they always remind him of her. After all, he had lost everything, the only thing that kept him from living was to carry out Arishem’s mission-to ensure the birth of Tiamut. Therefore he traveled around the world, looking for Deviants that had been missed before and secretly exterminating them.

The blip wiped out half the population on Earth, delaying the emergence. If he was his former self, he might still have the urge to find out who was responsible and perhaps avenge their lives. But to him now, it was nothing more than just a few thousand years of waiting (Honestly, he had not expected the Avengers to succeed in bringing everyone back in just five years), after all, he was an Eternal, with unlimited time to spend, plus not needing to see Sersi suffer also made him feel better.
Perhaps that was the only good thing about their separation.
In the past hundred years of isolation, Ikaris forced himself to build countless high barriers around his mind, like an indestructible fortress of sorrow and despair, burying the only remains of humanity deep inside the dark abyss which will never see the light of the sun again.

Ikaris followed the coordinates on the message and arrived in the suburbs of South Dakota. There was a small wooden cottage, sitting on an endless grassland that stretched as far as one’s eyes could see. Ajak was busy gardening in a glass greenhouse nearby. Ikaris could see flowers and a wide variety of vegetable crops growing happily in this petite chamber, a great contrast to the cold, stormy sky outside. He could hear thunder rumbling in the distance.

“Ah! Seems like you got my message.” Ajak popped out from behind a small bush of sunflowers, holding a bunch of freshly harvested horseradish with a smile on her face and comfort in her eyes, like a mother finally meeting her son after a long time.
“Did you notice the severe earthquake yesterday?” Ajak asked, patting the dirt off her lap as she stood up.

“Yes. It seems to be a global one.” Ikaris answered, fingers tugging on a small bush of fluffy sage absentmindedly.

“How’s Sersi?”

“She’s fine, had a great life in London.” Ikaris replied, looking a bit depressed.

“I bet she misses you very much.”

“If I’d gone back to her, I would’ve told her everything.”

“We should. The emergence is due, Ikaris.” Ajak sighed, putting the radishes into a basket that was already filled with other fresh produce.

“That’s good news, isn’t it? We finally accomplished the mission.”

“Yes, but-” Ajak hesitated. “There are so many things special about Earth…”

Ikaris couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The prime Eternal, whom they had followed for so long, who used to be loyal to Arishem, was hesitating.

“The birth of a Celestial is to create more worlds like this one, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Ikaris. You‘re right. For millions of years, I trusted Arishem, helped many Celestials to be born and I’ve never doubted him until now-”

“Why now?” Ikaris raised his voice as confusion and rage started to cloud his mind. The emergence is at the corner, all the suffering is about to come to an end. They were so close to success, why did Ajak change her mind?

"Five years ago, Thanos wiped out half of the earth's population, delayed the emergence; but the people on this planet were so united that they brought everyone back with just a snap of a finger…You know, after we parted, I traveled around to live with humans…I’ve witnessed them deceive and fight, but I’ve also seen them laugh, grow and love, seen them create and dream... This planet... ..Humans are special, Ikaris, they changed me. Unlike the planets we've visited before, they have a level of conscience and intelligence that I've never seen before, and I'm afraid that the cost of Arishem’s design..might be too high."

“How many days do we have?” Ikaris asked.

“Seven. But-”

“But?”

“Together, we might be able to stop the emergence.”

“What … ?” Ajak’s words smashed into him like a large boulder, a deafening noise echoing along with the barriers in his heart. For thousands of years, he had believed that the emergence is an essential event, a natural law to keep the universe from operating, which cannot be broken under any circumstances, and his only mission is to ensure all of this can be accomplished. So he chose to shut himself, letting go of all the attachments he had with this planet, lived in isolation, away from his friends, his lover…
And now Ajak told him that all of this could be changed? Then what was the purpose of his sacrifice to protect this secret? Could it be that all his suffering and efforts turned out to be worthless?

“Ikaris….”

“I trusted you!” Ikaris yelled, trembling as he could feel tears of anger and remorse swelling in his eyes.
Seeing the joy in Ajak’s eyes as she spoke of the memories she had with humans infuriated him even more. Why should he bear all the pain alone? Why was he the only one sacrificing for their mission?

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about this sooner, but we have to get to the others as soon as possible, it’s urgent.” Ikaris can sense the apology in her eyes, but he still hadn’t recovered from the fact that the prime Eternal had turned her back on Arishem at the last moment.

She had betrayed their purpose as an Eternal. She had betrayed him.
She had failed everyone, nor was she qualified as their leader anymore.
A person who used to be like a mother to him, turned out to be the one that hurt him the most.

“...There’s something I have to show you first.” After trying his best to calm down, Ikaris muttered. He raised his head, and there was no longer any warmth in his icy blue eyes.

************************************************************************

They approached a cliff at the end of the forest, where roars of the Deviants could be heard. Down below the frozen lake, a few Deviants were feeding on the corpse of a worker, blood and body parts scattered across the white snow, looking even more frightening.

“I thought we eliminated all of them…” Ajak mumbled in disbelief as she looked down.

“They must have been frozen for centuries until the glaciers melted because of the emergence. They massacred a whole bunch of local mine workers in just a few days.”

“Have you informed the others?”

“Not yet. I was planning to eliminate them, but you reached out to me first.” Ikaris replied in a cold tone that seemed foreign to himself.

“I’m very sorry, Ikaris. I know the truth is indeed a heavy burden for us…but now…now we have a chance to turn this around. It’s time for us to unite. Together, we can end Arishem’s inhuman- ”

“I lost everything, Ajak!” Ikaris yelled, a dangerous hint of gold flashing in his eyes. “For thousands of years, I gave up my life, my love…I gave up everything to serve Arishem, and now you are telling me to renounce my duties and the mission?” All emotions erupted at once as rage and grief struck him like a suffocating undercurrent.

“Oh, Ikaris.” Ajak was also crying, fingers gently stroking Ikaris’s tear-stained face. “It’s my fault…I’ve led you down the wrong path…I loved you, Ikaris. We all do…come back to the family and stop being alone…”

“I know, Ajak. But that's the only path I know. I love you too…but even so, never had I doubted Arishem’s design.” The mission was so close to success, any obstruction would jeopardize his own belief, even if facing the person who was a like mother to him, it was a direct threat to his dignity and existential values.

"You shouldn't have come to me, Ajak." You shouldn't have given me this task.

“Ikaris?”

“I’m sorry Ajak, but I have no choice.” Ikaris quickly stepped forward and pushed her down the cliff which was more than ten meters high.

The loud thud of her descent quickly drew the attention of two Deviants, who dropped the corpse and started speeding towards Ajak, hissing dangerously. Though Ajak managed to wound one with a shotgun on the ice, she was outnumbered as the others rushed towards her, snarling as they surrounded their prey. Plus Ajak has never been good at close combat among the Eternals, it certainly looked like a fight to the death.

“Ikaris!” Ignoring Ajak’s cry for help, Ikaris painfully turned his head away. A part of him was eager to rush down to kill the Deviants and save her, but his vocation and sense of mission prevented him from doing it. Two invisible forces were tearing him apart from the inside, surpassing all injuries he had suffered in his past battles with the Deviants.

After the noises below subsided, he flew down slowly, gently picking up Ajak’s lifeless body, and returned to her home in South Dakota, where he carefully laid her down in the backyard, next to the small glass greenhouse.

“I….I’m so sorry…” Ikaris knelt beside her, bursting into tears as he could not bear it anymore. He roared towards the hazy sky, golden beams of cosmic energy shooting out of his eyes as he vented his emotions, leaving a large pile of scorched debris around Ajak’s body, the glass windows of the greenhouse also shattered into pieces because of the intense heat.

There have been too many sacrifices all along. He was well aware that he had passed the point of no return while killing Ajak meant that he was certainly out with his fellow Eternals. They would never forgive him for what he did today. After all, this was a solitary path, only he could realize Arishem’s design and ensure the birth of Tiamut. Perhaps the Deviants may serve as a divergence to keep them busy, if things go well, all of this may be over, without knowing the emergence. They will be sent to another planet, memories erased, and start another mission.

All it would take is seven days. Seven days later, it will be over.
But what Ikaris didn’t know was that the Deviant that killed Ajak, Kro, the one hiding inside that cave, had absorbed her cosmic energy, which will eventually, become his greatest obstacle in the future.
Ajak’s sacrifice inadvertently had become the strongest catalyst for the evolution of the Deviants.

-TBC-