For better or for worse, Druig had managed for many years to protect those people from all the evil that surrounded humanity, including their own race, that was why he had started it all, for wanting to protect them from the evil of their own kind.
And he had paid a high price for it, worth it, he told himself most of the times, just for one aspect, something he missed in his life, but he tried to concentrate on his work and guiding them to avoid thinking of it.
In a way, he was like a father to all of them, he preferred that to being seen as a God. At first they did, but Druig immediately put the idea out of their heads. Yes, it was true that he had spent his entire existence up to that point among humans being considered a God, but he preferred not to be considered as such.
He was their protector , yes, he wouldn't let anyone hurt them, yes, but he wasn't a God.
There were things that he couldn't control, such as, for example, that it didn't rain in a season, an earthquake or some kind of natural catastrophe, accidents with the tools they used to work on a daily basis, some kind of death by some disease. Things of that kind.
Years ago, he would have felt bad when a mother died after giving birth to her beloved child, as had happened only days before, but he had understood that this was something beyond his control. Like many other things.
He didn't control all aspects of their lifes either, long ago he had decided that they were free to stay or go. The only thing he asked of those who decided to go out to discover what was outside his protection was that they not reveal its location to anyone outside the village. He didn't want to have to deal with the intentions of foreigners and what they might bring with them.
And it had worked well, everything was perfect, or at least, it was as perfect as such a situation could be.
Until the day came when everything changed.
The day started like any other, Druig got up at the same time as always, like clockwork, and after breakfast he set out to help some of the residents with their daily chores, filling buckets of water at the well, harvesting some crops and also went around the perimeter of the village, looking if there was something out of the ordinary that could set off the alarms. That day Flor, one of the girls who lived there, was getting married and the eternal wanted her to have a peaceful and beautiful wedding.
Everyone was preparing for it, many women from early in the morning were preparing the banquet, while the couple prepared and groomed for the event and their family did the same and finalized the last details so that everything was perfect, simple but perfect.
Druig didn't interfere in these matters, he had only attended one wedding during his life among humans, Ikaris and Sersi's, unlike his companions (and perhaps Sprite, although he didn't know why the girl looked as if she wanted to kill somebody during the ceremony), he had attended more out of obligation than out of affection for the couple.
Well, and because he wasn't going to miss the opportunity to see Makkari dressed up for the wedding.
But that was another matter, something that belonged to the past in which he didn't try to think much, but it summed up well the fact that he wasn't an expert in that kind of human cerimonies, although they used to invite him a lot since they considered that as their protector he must have been present (although he usually didn't attend) at such memorable events in their lives. Druig thought that they believed that if they didn't he would be offended, but nothing further, those events simply reminded him of things that he knew he wasn't going to have.
Why he had decided to attend this time was a mystery, perhaps because, for a change, he wanted to witness something like that.
Or maybe it was because Flor, like Makkari,was deaf and it had been him, when he had realized that when she was very young, who had taken it upon herself to teach her sign language, just like with her family or who was willing to learn to make life easier for the girl.
He knew that she was marrying a nice guy and that they loved each other, he supposed that was what mattered.
It was going to be a good day, a happy day, and nobody suspected what was going to happen in a few hours.
Druig had been asked to officiate at the wedding and although he had declined the offer several times (because he hadn't the faintest idea what to say) but after the bride's request, he had relented.
He just hoped he didn't make a fool of himself.
Standing at the improvised wooden altar they used for celebrations of this kind, waiting for the bride to arrive, and next to the nervous groom who every two seconds looked in the direction of the cabin where Flor lived, Druig mentally reviewed the speech that he had prepared.
Finally, Flor appeared with her family, so achingly beautiful that she made everyone present (basically the entire village) sigh in awe.
Druig went to do the same, but then he noticed something that set off all his alarms. A kind of energy, a change in the atmosphere that made a shiver run through his body and he suddenly tensed. Something evil, something that had changed. Quickly his eyes went from what was happening to looking for some apparent change in their surroundings, but he saw nothing, whatever it was, it was invisible to his eyes.
He thought it was nothing, that it had been his imagination, and he simply turned his attention back to the ceremony, but then, just as Flor reached the altar, something happened. The girl changed her expression from hope and happiness to one of horror and confusion before falling to the ground, causing everyone around her to gasp in surprise. Both Druig and her fiance ran to help her only to be astonished to see how the girl's feet turned to ash and little by little the rest of her body.
Druig was used to danger, he had lived through countless battles and had seen all kinds of things throughout his existence. But nothing like that, nothing like seeing little by little how a person who was healthy, was wasting away and ceased to exist without being able to do anything. The eternal felt powerless before that scene, all his power, all his knowledge and the only thing he could do, before the tears and the crying of all those around him and her especially, was to use his power to control her and prevent her, in case she was feeling any kind of pain while turning to ash, from suffering.
Confused as he had never been in his life, he began to feel the panic of the people around him at what had happened, but they didn't recover from Flor because another one began to disappear and another and another and another, up to five people ceased to exist and turned to ashes.
People looked at him, broken with pain and looking for his leader and protector to help them, but not even the eternal himself was able to understand what was happening. Six people had turned to ash for no apparent reason.
He did the only thing he could, he used his powers to send them all home and he went out for the first time in a long time to the nearest city. He didn't know why, but he felt that it was bigger than he expected.
It was.
The city was in chaos, there were all kinds of crashed vehicles, things lying on the ground, things that must have belonged to people who were going about their daily lives when that happened, there were people who were injured, confused and others were crying and shouting the name of who they had disappeared.
Terrified by the image he was seeing, helpless in the face of that disaster, Druig went back to doing the only thing he could do, control them for a few moments in which they wouldn't suffer, they wouldn't understand what was happening and they wouldn't suffer. But he couldn't control them forever so he knew that pain would come back eventually.
He didn't know until later the truth about what happened, that a titan named Thanos had obtained all the infinity gems, which he had placed in a gauntlet and had snapped his fingers, causing half of the population of the entire universe to disappear.
As simple as that and so horrendous that he was close to looking for that Thanos and smashing his face with blows and that Druig had never been in physical fights.
But what he did that day, when he realized what had happened, was think of Makkari.
If half the people in the entire universe had disappeared, there was a chance that she too had been a victim of it. There was also the possibility that it wasn't, but… How to know? Druig didn't know where Makkari was, he couldn't check if she was alive or not…and it killed him.
The day he realized that such a possibility existed, Druig locked himself in his cabin for days, sitting on the floor with a feeling in his body that he couldn't describe. He could only think that it wasn't worth living forever if his beautiful Makkari wasn't going to be in that world.
It was the most terrible thought in the world, and he suspected it was reality.
What was left for him then in his eternal life?
Druig remained practically locked up in his cabin for weeks, rarely going out and only going out because he knew the people in charge of him were just as hurt and confused as he was and they looked to him for guidance and advice and he tried to do what they wanted.
Little by little, Druig was recovering normalcy, like the rest of those who remained in his village, some left, looking for a meaning to what just happened or simply moving away from the memories of the people who were no longer there. The eternal wasn't going to force them to stay either, he hadn't done it in generations, he wasn't going to start after that.
Almost two months after what happened, something happened. He had gotten into the habit of taking care of more of everything, so he avoided thinking about what he shouldn't and that morning he had decided to dedicate himself to fishing to take a few and distribute them among the people who remained in the place for lunch or dinner.
But he didn't have half a basket full that he suddenly felt a wind blowing behind him or something at full speed and then he saw that the basket was gone. Thinking that it must be one of the children who were playing with him, he looked for the creature only to find the figure of someone he thought was lost in that world.
"Makkari" he whispered, not believing his eyes.
He had to be hallucinating, maybe he missed her so much that he was seeing her there, a few meters from him, with that mischievous smile that was so beautiful on her face that it seemed to tell her that she was having a good time with the face he must be making at those moments.
Druig had to check it out, he had to know she was real, so he took a couple of strides closer to her and hugged her. He held her in his arms as if his life depended on it, as if Makkari was going to disappear before him as he had seen Flor and the rest do. It was so natural that it seemed as if centuries hadn't passed since the last time they saw each other, she didn't seem surprised by the hug, on the contrary, as soon as he hugged her, she returned it and buried her face in his shoulder.
It had always amazed him how well they had fit together, not only because from the first moment they met in the Dome they felt a connection that neither of them could explain, as if they knew each other before or were soul mates, as humans said, but because they just seemed to fit together perfectly, as simple as that.
They eventually broke apart but kept looking at each other as if neither of them didn't think the other was okay.
“I thought I lost you,” Druig said at last.
“I thought the same” she signed back “I went outside and…half of the population had ceased to exist; they say it is the fault of someone named Thanos”
"Yeah...I heard the news" he told her.
“I asked some humans and they told me what happened” she explained “I was worried that something had happened to you, that something had happened to you”
“I'm fine but… we lost people that day” he acknowledged “the rest?”
"Gilgamesh and Thena are okay, and Kingo," she informed him, "I still have to find the rest, but I think they'll be fine."
"You're not going to stay long, are you?" Drug asked. He had some hope, but he knew better, Makkari never stopped.
In response, she caressed his cheek with one of her hands and gave him a sad smile.
"I wish I could, but I need to check on them, to know they're safe," she told him. Her expression of sadness for not being able to stay changed to one of relief and happiness "but I'm so glad to know that you're still here... when I thought I could have lost you... I didn't want to imagine a world without you"
“You won't be able to get rid of me that easily, my beautiful Makkari,” he reminded her. Although she knew that there were things that did not depend on him, such as what had happened, and he understood her fear because he himself had felt it "I also thought I had lost you"
“As you said, you couldn't get rid of me even if you wanted to, my handsome Druig” she signed with a smile.
He wanted to stay like that forever, to hold her and never let her go, the world had undergone a terrible change and he wanted to never lose sight of her again, not to make the same mistake he had centuries ago.
But he knew that it was important for her to be sure that the family she loved so much was okay, so he couldn't be selfish.
So, he holds her one last time, and he asks her to take care of her, she kisses her cheek goodbye and asks him the same.
And with that, Makkari is out of her life again.
It's okay, he tells himself, that's how things are.
And Druig continued with his life until, five years later, somehow the people they lost that day came back, Flor came back, just like the rest, just as they saw them the last time and without understanding what was happening. It was a happy moment, but the eternal knew that there must have been a great sacrifice for everything to return to the way it was before.
Humans could be their own destruction, but also their own salvation.