He was gone.
Dead, forever, no more life in him, no more vibrations, no more Druig. He was dead, dead, dead.
Makkari retrieved his body from the hole on the earth where he'd died and made sure for herself that there was nothing that could be done. But there wasn't. Druig's skin was grey, ashen and he wasn't moving or blinking or anything even though his eyes were open.
His eyes were open but he wasn't looking anywhere, there was a blank expression on them as if they forgot they were supposed to see. They weren't the usual gorgeous colur they'd been in life, either, but some ugly pale grey that didn't do justice to everything that he'd been, everything he'd done, everything he'd seen. This was not Druig.
This body, damaged everywhere, with his chest all burnt off, all covered in blood and unmoving, this couldn't be him. And yet, Makkari knew that this was all that there was left of Druig. The love of her life, light of her days, her best friend and constant companion, and he was dead now.
This mangled, crushed bunch of grey limbs was all that was left of the man she'd loved since she could remember and... She took it in her arms, and rocked, begging him silently to please wake up, to please come back to her, that she couldn't bear to be without him, that this wrong, wrong, wrong, that he had to live for so many years more....
She saw on the side of her eye Ikaris fying away. No. He wasn't going to get some dignified hoero's death, he wasn't going to go as he wanted to. He wasn't going to die in pain and in fear, knowing who was killing him and knowing why he was dead. Because he'd deprived of one of the most wonderful creatures on Earth, all on a foolish attempt to stop them from saving a plante and it people.
He had to pay. She gently placed Druig (his body, just his body) on the beach again and sped through the island, until the highest point of the statue that had once been tiamut, and she jumped, with all the strength she had into that man's direction. She tackled Ikaris, they fell to the floor and while Ikaris tried to recover from the blow on his head and lungs (she'd been busy while they fell), she signed a simple "fuck you, murderer" and snapped his neck.
Now he was dead too, he was dead because he'd killed someone that he shouldn't have.
And so she went back to the beach, a tiny part of her hoping that maybe she'd imagined what had happened, that maybe Druig was actually ok and he'd woken up and he just... died for a bit, but now he was back, looking at her. Thinking that he hadn't lost him for good and that they would be able to smile at each other again, live adventures again, be together again.
He'd known that Ikaris was... wrong. Druig had known so much sooner than they had that something was off about the mission, that Ajak's orders somehow didn't make sense, that that Ikaris was too ready kill them all, no matter how much time they'd lived together, if those were his orders. Druig had known how heartless Ikaris could be, but no one had paid attention. They had dismissed him, thought him dark and ruthless, when he was anything but.
Her Druig was a sweetie. He cared for each and every life, and wanted everyone to be happy, not have to be afraid or in pain or ever suffer. Her Druig smiled a lot, he was complimentary and kind, he remembered details about everyone else, he had this little smile when he chewed food... And ow that was all gone.
Because in the beach, there was still that body, who looked so different than him, but it was everything that was left of him. She took it in her arms again, cried to that hair she'd caressed so many times. Everything was lost. He was dead and gone and he had gone suffering while trying to save the world. He'd spent his whole life trying to help, trying to save people, only for others to knock him down.
Sersi approached her and she nearly growled.
She couldn't look at anyone, couldn't see anyone. She had saved so many people across the years, hell, she'd helped save the entire human race, the whole planet and she wasn't able to save he who mattered the most. No. She refused.
She would break space and time if she had to, this wouldn't stand.
*
They... didn't exactly know what had happened.
There had been some "new Avengers" meeting when something, like a gust of wind came through the door.
A woman in a red uniform, with bloodshot eyes.
She took one of the laptops from a shelf installed some program in a second (something to translate her signs into words) (she needed to be loud, she needed all of this people to hear her, in each and every way).
I need you to do whatever you did to bring back the people, after Thanos. I have to bring someone back.
"It doesn't work like that." Strange said. "If you play with those forces, you..."
Suddenly, before he could even finish, he had a knife in his throat.
"Whoa." Carol said, thinking about how she was going to neutralise someone that fast. "Maybe calm down."
I need him back. If I don't get him back, I will destroy....
"I'll help you." Someone (Scott Lang) said. "You obviously lost someone important, and I am tired of people here telling me I can't do anything for the sake of the Earth, they also said in the beginning that what I was thinking about time travel was impossible. They were wrong, we got the people back. I'll help you, and so will Bruce, right?"
"You're the guys who stopped in the cataclysm in that island, right? All my data said that we were done for, but had no means or time to evacuate. We'll bring him back, whoever he is."
*
Makkari was in that beach once again. And once again, they'd won but her beloved was nowhere to be seen. She was talking about what had gone on with Tiamut with the others, trying to be cool, trying to control herself, and then....
And then he appeared there, on the beach, limping a bit and with blood on his face but alive, as he should be, as he always needed to be.
This would probably have conseuences, Makkari knew. Time and space would complain, because she'd gone against the natural course of nature. But honestly, she didn't fucking care.
Druig was not gone anymore, Druig was alive and breathing and embracing her and telling her that he was okay, and the rest of the world, time and space, Celestials and Eternals and humans could go screw themselves.
He was okay.
The world could continue spinning.