Redemption

Sersi had just finished celebrating Dane’s birthday with their colleagues at the Natural History Museum as they trailed along the Regent's Canal, heading towards home. Dane seemed to be in a good mood, walking at the front, humming little tones while asking if Sersi and Sprite wanted take-out pizza for a late-night snack (actually to compensate for Sprite's boring time at their birthday party).

A peaceful, beautiful night it seemed.

But soon Sersi noticed large ripples started to appear on the surface of the canal, before several dark tentacles slithered towards the iron fences on a nearby bridge, just a few steps behind Dane, who was unaware of the danger lying ahead, kept turning back to make fun of them as the nervousness in their expressions increased.

“What?” Dane laughed. It was his birthday! What could possibly go wrong?

Soon, a large Deviant quietly surfaced, bright, yellow eyes shining dangerously under the night sky.

“Dane…”Sersi warned, feeling a bit terrified and overwhelmed as she hadn’t seen a Deviant for hundreds of years. She wasn’t sure whether the Deviant had noticed them, but If they acted harshly, their sudden action may very likely put Dane in great danger since he was closer to the Deviant.

“Is that a Deviant?” Sprite exclaimed as Dane turned back abruptly, only to face the biggest monster he had ever seen in his life.

“Shit!” He jumped back like a startled rabbit.

“Dane, RUN!!” Sersi yelled at him. Since Sprite was screaming so loudly, backing off in silence was no longer an option. Grabbing Dane, they turned back and sprinted forwards without looking back.

Explanations could be made later, if they manage to survive this.

"I thought you eliminated them five hundred years ago!" Dane exclaimed in shock. The slight hangover at the bar earlier was completely eliminated by adrenaline rushing inside his veins. It was said that a good scare is the best cure for hangovers, pretty true.

“I thought so too!” Sprite screamed, running at the front, while Sersi turned her head back and forth, looking back at the situation behind her occasionally.

That Deviant was large, and fast. With countless tentacles on its back, it can easily grab the surrounding objects and push itself forward, meaning they are unlikely to overrun the creature.

Gotta buy themselves some time…she thought to herself.

Sersi stopped abruptly and turned to face the huge Deviant, which made the latter stop in an instant and let out a low roar.

“What the hell are you doing!” Dane noticed that Sersi wasn't following, panic written all over his face.

Sersi pressed her hands to the ground as countless golden lines and circles of different sizes appeared on the ground in an instant, which quickly spread out. The original hard tile floor seemed to turn into soft quicksand in the blink of an eye, and soon the limbs of the Deviant started to sink. Dane was completely dumbfounded. Although he had long suspected that Sersi was a wizard, this was the first time he had seen his lover using such amazing abilities, or, magic.

The Deviant was sinking fast, but it managed to stabilize itself by wrapping its tentacles around street lamps and trees. Seeing that it might break free anytime, Sersi hurriedly pressed the other hand onto the ground again, as the sand transformed into solid tiles once more, trapping the Deviant inside.

“Run!” She motioned them to keep on moving, as what she just did may only buy them a few minutes. She knew the Deviant was going to break free, but she didn’t know what to do. Neither Sprite nor herself was good at combat as they often played the supporting part in the past battles. They were thinkers, not fighters, after all.

She wished that Gilgamesh or Ikaris were here.

Ikaris.

Sersi’s heart tensed as she thought of her husband. She still couldn’t understand why Ikaris left without any farewell or explanations. At first, she thought that maybe he had gone to eliminate other Deviants, or was dealing with something important that he had no choice but to withdraw from her, so she waited.

A week. A year. A decade.

Ikaris never returned. Sersi had tried to find him several times, traveled all over the UK and Europe, she even contacted a few fellow Eternals whom they hadn't met for a few hundred years, yet no one had heard of Ikaris, as if he had just vanished from this world. Gradually, it dawned on Sersi that their relationship might never go back. So she tried to let it go, and eventually sealed all the wonderful memories into the deepest part of her heart. Since he didn't need her, she doesn't need him either, and she can still live a life. Later, she met the humorous, compassionate Dane at the Natural Science Museum, had a new relationship, and she finally embraced the familiar feeling of being loved again after a long, long time.

But now, facing the fact that she may not be powerful enough to protect Dane and thus putting his life in danger, a part of her still hopes that Ikaris can be by her side at this very moment.

“Sprite, watch over Dane.” Upon reaching under another bridge, Sersi instructed succinctly as she ran towards the side, flipping gracefully over a high fence onto the higher street, her agile figure disappearing without a trace in an instant.

“Sersi! Where are you going!” Dane didn't seem to have recovered from the shock.

“To save your sorry ass!” Sprite said angrily, but Dane could sense a bit of unease and nervousness in her usual joking tone, which definitely meant something bad.

“Can you kill it? It's friggin’ huge!” Dane exclaimed nervously.

"Sorry to inform you, no, we CAN’T. Do we look like we can take down that big guy?" Sprite asked rhetorically.

Dane just shrugged.
“I don’t know! Before today I thought that Sersi can only do something like turning water into coffee…perhaps..perhaps you can, I don’t know, fire a hyper beam?”

“God, we aren't Pokémon, alright? Besides, Ikaris is the only one who can emit lasers out of his eyes, if that’s closer to the Pokémon move you’re referring to. ”

“Ikaris? The guy Sersi had been talking about all the time? I thought he was a pilot?” Dane asked incessantly. Sprite couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“You’ll be fine.” Sprite squinted, seemed to realize that she had revealed too much unnecessary information, quickly followed the route that Sersi had just taken and disappeared on the higher streets above them. The Deviant in the distance roared as it broke free from the floor and quickly leaped onto the road, not even trying to look for Dane under the bridge at all.

"Damn it!" Dane cursed, picking up his speed and tried to climb up the bridge directly like the two Eternals, but soon found that his skills were completely outmatched, so he had gone for the stairs instead.

"Sersi, what should we do?" Sprite quickly found Sersi on the bridge. Simultaneously, the Deviant also jumped onto the road a few steps away, crushing several cars beneath it, setting off deafening alarms as people started to panic, screams and yells followed one after another, disturbing the tranquility of the night.

"I don't know... we can't start a fight here, there are too many people..."

“On it!” Golden rings started to form around Sprite’s fingers as she manifested her power. With a flick of her hands, she managed to create multiple phantoms of Sersi and herself, each moving in different directions to clear residents off the street. They were obviously too frightened to think even though there was a supernatural incident going on before their eyes, they just nodded and ran off in an instant. The Deviant quickly caught up with them, confused by the vast number of illusions surrounding itself. It let out a grunt of annoyance and swung its claws at Sersi, which just passed through thin air as if nothing was there.

“Carefully back off the bridge.” Sersi whispered to Sprite. “Where’s Dane?”

“I left him under the bridge, he’ll be fine.” Sprite replied.

“You know he’ll catch up with us…” Sersi sighed, scowling at Sprite with reproach in her eyes.

“But it didn’t go after Dane, and didn’t even seem to have any interest in the residents. It seemed to be coming straight for us.” Sprite said worriedly.

“Something’s wrong.” Sersi nodded in agreement.

Any ordinary Deviant would’ve started a killing spree upon stumbling into residential areas, as it would be a first-class buffet for them. But this Deviant was different, it was clearly targeting Eternals rather than humans.

Sprite turned her wrist slightly, controlling all the illusions to move away from the Deviant at the same time, while she and Sersi backed off to the sidewalk carefully. The Deviant seemed irritated, its ugly head turning as if trying to distinguish which illusion was real, growling in a low voice and it seemed to be piecing together human words intermittently. For seven thousand years, they have never encountered a Deviant with this level of intelligence. Could it be that they have evolved? Thinking of this, Sprite looked towards the Deviant, just to meet those yellow eyes which were fixed to hers with a death glare. With a roar, it started to rush towards themselves.

"It knows where we are!" Sprite screamed, running towards the nearest alley. If the illusions don’t work, this could be their demise.

"What! How is that possible!" Sersi panicked too, and hurriedly ran towards the other direction, while thinking how she should encounter its attack, perhaps freezing it under the water may work…

But that Deviant was too fast, with just a few jumps, Sprite was already in its reach. It stabled itself as several tentacles appeared from its back, lashing out with such speed, knocking Sprite to the ground.

“Sprite!” It was Dane’s voice.

“Dane, run!” Sersi yelled as she ran towards them, dodging the tentacles.

“Sprite, are you alright?” Dane picked up the petite Eternal and asked, panting heavily.

“I’m fine…”Sprite groaned as dizziness bloomed inside her head as a consequence of hitting the road during the impact. Sersi quickly rushed to Dane’s side, grabbing a long twig on her way and transforming it into a long, shiny, silvery spear, and turned to face the Deviant, eyes full of despair and terror.

Just as the Deviant launched itself towards them, a sudden beam of golden light which appeared out of nowhere struck it squarely in the chest, the intense heat burning its tissues in an instant. Then a shadow rushed towards, delivering heavy punches and laser attacks incessantly like a cannon barrage, not giving any time for the Deviant to fight back. Finally, with a loud noise, the mysterious figure blasted the Deviant into an abandoned warehouse with a powerful beam of energy, surrounding walls collapsing instantly due to the heavy impact, and the area was immediately shrouded with dust and debris.

Behind the smoke, a silhouette that Sersi was all too familiar with walked out of the ruins.

--TBC-