"give me your hand, sister. we'll go to the next planet. together."

NOW

Khaos and Druig had made their way back to the lab hand in hand. They each had blissful smiles on their faces despite the forthcoming face-off against Tiamut. Sprite eyed them as Druig whispered something in her ear, making her giggle.

"Gross," she muttered, shaking her head.

It seemed they arrived just in time, as alarms started to sound. Phastos pushed the bracelets to the side and pulled up a monitor of the planet. The Earth's core was heating up rapidly and earthquakes were hitting all over. The Emergence was starting.

"Oh my god," Phastos breathed out, eyes wide.

Ikaris and Sersi both ran in. "What about the Unimind?" Sersi asked, knowing from the sphere that there wasn't long now.

"I haven't figured out a way to connect us, but I'm close," Phastos said. "I'm very, very close."

"How much longer?" she asked.

"I don't know, Sersi!" Phastos shouted, growing more frustrated. Then he turned to Makkari and handed her a tracker of sorts. "Find the point of emergence."

Makkari shot off like a rocket, running as fast as she could. As Phastos went back to working on the Unimind, Ikaris hastily left the room. Khaos moved to follow him, sensing that something was troubling him, but Sersi beat her to it. So, Khaos stayed by Druig's side.

"You always knew the end was coming," Druig said to Thena. The warrior was admiring a stolen painting on the wall. "It must be a relief."

"That Deviant is still tracking us," Thena muttered, a hard look on her face.

"Revenge won't bring peace for you, Thena," he told her.

A devious smirk crossed her lips. "But killing it might," she said before leaving them.

"Fighters," Khaos said, shrugging. "We never change."

The couple sat by and watched Phastos work, knowing he needed silence to stay concentrated. It was all boiling down, and everything depended on those bracelets.

Phastos looked up at the sound of Ikaris's heavy footfalls. He was already in his armor — Khaos figured he was ready to fly off as soon as the bracelets were ready and they knew where the Emergence was happening.

"I'm close to figuring it out—"

Suddenly, Ikaris shot his cosmic beams straight at the bracelets, destroying them and knocking Phastos backward.

Khaos was on her feet in an instant, all of them watching Ikaris warily.

"Boss, what are you doing?" Kingo asked.

"I've let this go on long enough," was all he said.

Then Sersi rushed into the room and straight to Phastos's side. "Don't hurt him!" she pleaded, helping Phastos up and blocking him from Ikaris. "He lied to us. He already knew about the Emergence."

"No, he didn't," Kingo denied, scoffing.

"Ajak told me everything when we left Babylon." Khaos felt like time had frozen at his admission. He had known this whole time? And he didn't tell her?

"What?" Kingo asked.

"You were never going to let us stop the Emergence," Phastos said. It wasn't a question that needed answering.

"No. I only wanted to protect you from the Deviants."

"If Ajak wanted you to take her place, why did she choose me?" The haunted expression on Ikaris's face at Sersi's question sent a chill down his sister's spine. "What have you done?"

"You killed her," Druig accused, his jaw clenched.

"I had to," Ikaris said, shaking his head.

"She loved you," Sersi whispered.

"Did she?"

"She loved you," she repeated, her heart breaking even more.

"Do you think it was easy to live with the truth? To know that one day all this would end? To keep on lying to you?" Ikaris's gaze fell on Khaos, and she flinched. "If we gave humanity the choice, how many of them would be willing to die so that billions more could be born?"

"We're not giving them a choice!" Phastos told him. "Is this why you're willing to kill? You are so pathetic!"

"I'm an Eternal, Phastos. I exist for Arishem. As do you. It's who you are."

Those words, just what Druig had said to Khaos once.

"I wouldn't change a single thing about who I am. Born or made. But I do not exist for Arishem. I exist for my family!" Phastos shouted, growing angrier.

"You are making the same mistake Ajak did," Ikaris said lowly as Phastos approached him.

And then Makkari arrived, so clueless to all that had changed in such a short amount of time. "I found Tiamut," she told them, grinning.

"No!" Phastos shouted.

Ikaris turned on Makkari and shot his beams at her. Kingo shoved her out of the way, and she zoomed to the other side of the room, leading to Kingo getting hit. Makkari raced to his side to check on him.

"Get out of here!" he ordered, not trusting Ikaris to not kill her.

As she fled, Ikaris approached Kingo, who was getting to his feet. "Kingo."

He formed a ball of energy in his hand, pointing it at Ikaris. "You do not turn against your family. Gilgamesh died because of you."

Ikaris set his jaw, not intimidated by Kingo. "You won't succeed against me and my sister."

It was as if everyone had forgotten Khaos was in the room. They had forgotten that they came as a set, an unbreakable pair. The sun and moon.

"No," Khaos said, her voice barely above a whisper. They could see her trembling from across the lab, having backed up against the wall, tears welling in her eyes. "No. Y - you, you're not — th - this isn't - you can't."

"Give me your hand, sister," Ikaris told her, holding his own out for her. "We'll go to the next planet. Together."

Khaos kept shaking her head helplessly. "This isn't you, brother. Do not let Arishem change you—"

"We are soldiers!" Ikaris shouted, and she once again flinched. "And I have let you run around lying to yourself for the last five centuries to convince yourself otherwise, but it stops here. This world, this life you've distracted yourself with doesn't matter. All that matters is us and Arishem."

"You're the liar, Ikaris," she said, shaking her head. "You are lying to yourself if you think it meant nothing. You're lying to yourself if you think I'd ever watch this planet be destroyed without trying to stop it."

"Don't do this," he said, his eyes glassy with unshed tears. "You're my sister. We have always stood together."

"Then I beg of you to not go where I cannot follow," she pleaded, her voice so quiet not even the others could hear.

Ikaris stared at her for a moment longer before stepping away, a guarded look taking over his eyes as he put his walls back up, back to the emotionless soldier he was meant to be.

"You won't succeed against me," he said, addressing them all. "Not with Khaos injured — if she can even bring herself to fight me. And I will kill every one of you if I have to."

Ikaris turned to leave them behind, not allowing himself to look at his sobbing mess of a sister. No matter how much it hurt to leave her behind, he had to trust that they'd see each other on the next planet, where they'd have no memory of this argument.

"Wait," Sprite called before Ikaris could leave. "I'm going with you."

"Sprite," Sersi said in disbelief.

"What is this?" They all turned to see Thena had arrived, back from putting on her armor. Sprite acted quickly, casting an illusion that turned her and Ikaris into lightning bugs, distracting the others so that they could escape. Thena conjured a spear, but it was too late.

They were gone.

Khaos's knees buckled and she fell on them, a sob escaping her throat. Druig crouched by her side, wrapping his arms around her as she cried into his chest.

"H - he's right," she whimpered, shaking her head. "I - I can't fight him. I can't hurt him, not even after this. I - I'll distract Sprite, but I can't hurt him."

"We're not asking you to," Druig murmured softly, glancing up at the others. They couldn't imagine how she was feeling after his betrayal — not even Sersi. "We're not asking you to."

"Why would Sprite go with Ikaris?" Makkari signed.

"Because she loves him," Kingo said, stumping them all. "Oh, you guys didn't pick up on that? He really fooled us, didn't he? Karun, let's go."

"Wait, where the hell are you going?" Phastos asked as they all looked at Kingo in disbelief.

"I can't help you guys. I still think Ikaris is right," Kingo admitted, heading to the door.

"So that's it? You're just gonna follow him?" Phastos asked, clearly upset. They couldn't lose another one.

"I love the people of this planet, but if you stop this Emergence, you are preventing so many other worlds like this one from being created. I still have faith in Arishem, but I refuse to hurt any of you for my beliefs," he told them sadly.

Makkari stopped him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "We need you."

Kingo shook his head. "Even with my help, we're no match. It's Ikaris. The only chance we'd have is Khaos — uninjured, not in the daylight, and emotionally stable," Kingo said. And they all knew it was true. "But I hope to see you on the next planet."

Karun followed Kingo out, but he stopped to say goodbye, speaking in his native tongue. "Thank you for all you have done for humanity. It was a great honor. I will miss you all."

Druig nodded goodbye to Karun, knowing Khaos was too upset to say goodbye to the valet she had grown to like. It seemed there would be no documentary for him to finish.

It was silent for a few moments, the sounds of Khaos's sobs that were growing quieter the only thing they could hear.

"Look," Druig said, not giving up. "If I'm gonna get myself killed going up against Ikaris, we'll need to have a backup plan."

Khaos shook her head. Ikaris wouldn't kill them. He wouldn't. Despite his threats, she knew her brother would only hold them off until the Emergence took their memories.

"All of our powers, even if they're amplified, are not enough to kill a Celestial," Phastos told him.

"The tree," Khaos managed to say, sniffing. She leaned her head on Druig's chest and looked at Sersi. "Sersi turned a Deviant into a tree."

"I'm sorry, what?" Phastos asked, his eyes wide. That information had been left out when telling him and Makkari what had happened. "You didn't want to tell me that?"

"You've never been able to do that before," Makkari said, frowning.

"I don't know how it happened, okay," Sersi told them. "And I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it again."

"Well, now is the time to try don't, you think?" Phastos asked her.

"Phastos, that Deviant is dead. Our plan is to put Tiamut to sleep, not to kill it," Sersi said, shaking her head. "I can't kill a Celestial."

"Sersi!" Phastos said, clapping to try and get her to see reason. "Sersi."

"We can't!" she exclaimed, horrified by the idea of killing something. "We can't."

"It's okay, Sersi," Druig told her, needing her to remain calm. "I've got this."

Khaos couldn't fight her brother. Sersi couldn't kill the Celestial. So how the hell were they meant to pull this off?