SEVEN

                 ELIZABETH STOOD ALONE AS EVERYONE STOOD AROUND THE FIRE WHERE GILGAMESH WAS BEING CREMATED. Leaning shoulder first against a nearby tree, she glanced down at her hands, frowning. For hours now, she had been losing a mental battle, it felt like her brain wouldn't stop running. Like she was on overdrive.

She glanced between each Eternal, each of their mournful expressions only making her guilty conscious grow. Her back was still killing her, she was sure that a dark bruise was going to start forming soon.

"Elizabeth..."

This time she ignores the deep calling voice and simply glances over her shoulder before sighing and looking back to the fire. After a few seconds, she pushes her hands back into her pockets and retreats through the forest.

She needed to be alone with her thoughts for a while.

Leaves crunched as she walked deeper through the forest, praying she didn't run into another hallucination. She had to figure out where her powers came from, why her? Why now? What gave her them?

This morning after the water incident she would have been reluctant to admit that she has 'powers' but after she failed to save Gilgamesh there was no way she could deny it to herself or others. 

She has powers, some confusing ones, some that don't work when she wants them to. If they had just worked earlier, she could have saved Gilgamesh's life, maybe even kill the Deviant that had sucked out his powers.

Gilgamesh died for no good reason.

Without realising it, Elizabeth had walked back in the direction of where Gilgamesh had died. Pursing her lips, she glanced around sadly, her chest starting to feel heavy again. Her heart ached the most for Thena, the woman has spent centuries with Gilgamesh, he was the only person who could really calm her down and now he was gone.

And it was all Elizabeth's fault.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?"

Sersi's shaky voice stopped Elizabeth from continuing her journey through the forest, she turned around expecting to only see Sersi but is instead met by all of the Eternals. Furrowing her eyebrows, she folds her hands over her lap.

"I feel an intervention coming.." She says, tilting her head to the side with a frown. She watches as Sersi releases a shaky breath and nods her head, her face paling noticeably. Elizabeth made a face at the pale look on her face, --"What is it Sers? What's wrong?"

Sersi chews the inside of her cheek, glancing at a stern Sprite who nodded her head. --"I know what you are."

Now she really had Elizabeth's attention, shifting on her feet, she nodded and folded her arms. --"Am I going to like this?"She asks with a frown and Sersi paused for a moment before shaking her head.

"When I spoke with Arishem back in Australia, he also told me all about you..."She says softly, her eyes never leaving Elizabeth's. A wave of confusion hit Elizabeth, Arishem knows who she is? how? Sersi suddenly lets out a sigh, --"You're probably best sitting down for this, Liz..."She trails off and Elizabeth shook her head.

"Just spit it out, Sers."

Her sharp tone was enough to have Sersi flinching and she nodded her head. --"You were put on this earth over 5,000 years ago..." She started out and that alone was enough to have Elizabeth's mind blown. --"Arishem put you here with a clear purpose..."She trails off and Elizabeth swallowed nervously.

Her heart felt as though it was in her throat. --"You were put here as a backup plan if we were to ever disobey Arishem."She says, her eyes searching Elizabeth's terrified ones. --"W-What are you saying?"Her voice broke as she asked the burning question.

"You were put on this earth to eradicate us if we ever went against Arishem. You aren't an Eternal you're proper name is the Lapis Wiccan. You were put on this earth to destroy the Eternals."

Wiccan.

Elizabeth stood in silence for a further 5 seconds, her eyes watering even more. --"W-Why can't I remember any of this?", Sersi frowns and takes a few steps forwards only for Elizabeth to flinch back in fear. Sersi sighs and drops her arms by her side.

"Arishem had it specifically set in stone that you're purpose would only be fulfilled at the emergence, then you would get your memories back. But until then he resets your memories every 30 years or so..." She trails off, --"That's why none of us can touch you right now and why none of our powers will work on you. That fight in London, that Deviant, somehow triggered the memory process, have you been hearing voices?"

Elizabeth glanced from Sersi to the Eternals standing behind her, each with a sympathetic look on their face. She nodded. --"That voice was supposed to tell you what you're mission is just before the emergence. And because of that, none of us can touch you."Elizabeth turned her gaze back to Sersi who was now frowning with a real upset look on her face.

"If any of us have more than six or seven seconds of skin contact with you, you'd kill us."

Elizabeth's face fell and she instinctively glanced to Druig who was already watching her, a clear upset look on his face. She purses her lips and looks back to Sersi, a hot tear rolling down her cheek. 

"S-So you're saying I can't help you with the emergence? I-I can't touch any of you? I can't do anything?"She spoke, her voice cracking emotionally, --"No! I'm not saying that at all!!"Sersi spoke taking a hesitant step towards her.

"We are like you. I was supposed to be following Arishem's plans through with the emergence but I didn't, instead, I told all of you what was going to happen. You aren't who Arishem wants you to be Elizabeth, if you were you wouldn't have tried to save Gilgamesh."She tells Elizabeth who looked at her feet at the mention of Gilgamesh.

"You tried to save an Eternal. Arishem wants you to be an Eternal killer but you're not and you're never going to be."

Elizabeth inhales shakily, another tear rolling down her cheek as she pursed her lips. --"Yeah well that's not what my body wants, otherwise I would be able to hug you guys or shake hands with some of the new ones I've met."She tells Sersi who stopped speaking after releasing just how much this news had broken Elizabeth.

Elizabeth glanced at each Eternal. --"I, uh, I need to think."

And with that, Sersi watched as Elizabeth disappeared back through the forest, still not walking completely healthy after her fight with the Deviant. The Eternals stood in silence for a second until Sprite spoke, --"Do you think she'll be alright?"

Ikaris, who was standing beside her swallowed as he watched her figure disappear in the distance. --"She's going to need to be."Sersi spoke up with a frown.

----

Elizabeth was back at the now destroyed camp that Druig had spent centuries working on. Her mind was completely blown as she looked down at her hands. She was sitting on a plank of wood on the ground, her face completely pale.

She couldn't be 5,000 years old, she just couldn't be, surely she would have noticed or someone would have pointed out that she hadn't been ageing. And how convenient is it that she's best friends with someone that she's apparently supposed to kill? 

What if she gets her memories back before the emergence and she turns on them? She would be turning on her friends and Sersi who she more considered as a sister. What if she kills one of them? She couldn't, could she? Would she even be mentally functional when she gets her memories back? Or will she be like a completely different person?

This information was confusing her more by the minute, if they do manage to stop the emergence- will her powers go away? Or will she still have them? If she's over 5,000 years old does that mean that she's immortal too? Can she be killed?

What about pregnancy? She still gets her period- how is that even possible? Does that mean she'll have her period forever? So would she be able to get pregnant? 

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows at her thoughts, her thoughts are diving into dangerously weird territory.

The sound of footsteps caused her to lift her head and she smiled softly when seeing Kingo standing there. --"Y'Know in my long long long lifetime on this planet I've learned that talking about things when your sad, helps."He spoke, taking a seat beside her on the plank of wood.

Elizabeth instinctively shuffles away a little, making sure she didn't touch him by accident. Elizabeth chuckled in response to his advice, --"Yeah well I have also apparently spent a long long long lifetime on this planet and I can tell you for a fact that that is a crock of shit."She says with a small smile of amusement on her face.

Kingo chuckled softly and nodded his head at her, --"You alright?", she released a sigh and raised her eyebrows at him, --"You just lost a family member- are you alright?", Kingo sighed and nodded his head.

"Gilgamesh wouldn't want us to be sad, he'd want us to look out for each other, especially Thena. He died protecting her.", Elizabeth swallowed and nodded her head. --"I could have saved him..."She spoke so softly that for a moment she didn't think Kingo had heard her.

"If I just been stronger I could have killed the Deviant-", Kingo stopped her from speaking by placing a hand on her shoulder, --"It wasn't your fault, you did all you could, Thena told us so."He told her and she shook her head.

"I was weak, maybe the reason my powers stopped working at the time I needed them most is because I was put on this earth to kill your kind..."She trailed off, her brain now beginning to delve deeper into her thoughts.

"No," Kingo spoke sternly pointing a finger in her face, she looked at him with a heartbroken look on her face and Kingo frowned. --"Do not do that to yourself. You wanted to save Gilgamesh and I know that because you wouldn't be beating yourself up so much if you didn't want to. Your power stopped working because you've never used them before, now if you keep beating yourself up I will force you to sit and watch hours of awkward footage I take of Sersi."

Elizabeth chuckled half-heartedly and shook her head at the amusing male sitting beside her. --"Alright, alright, alright. Thanks, Kingo, "She nodded her head at him and he smiled softly in return. --"You are not a killer Elizabeth Lockheart. You are a protector."He told her with a stern look on his face.

She smiled in response and nodded her head in a convincing manner which Kingo seemed satisfied with. Elizabeth hadn't had much time to speak properly with Kingo so she was glad that she had had this conversation with him, especially since it seemed to flow so naturally.

"As touching as this is-"

The pair turns their heads in surprise to see Druig standing there, his arms behind his back and an unreadable expression on his face. --"We need to get moving.", Elizabeth inhales sharply and nods her head standing to her feet. --"I better go check on Sers, I'll see you guys on the jet."

She moves past Druig who followed her figure with his blue eyes, he never takes his eyes off of her as she walks back through the forest to find Sersi. He only looks back to Kingo after her figure had completely disappeared, Kingo chuckles at this.

"No need to get predatorial, man. I'm not interested in her like that."He spoke as he stood to his feet. Druig makes a face at his comment, confused. --"What?", Kingo raised his eyebrows as he looked at his fellow Eternal, --"You like her?", Druig only tilted his head to the side in confusion, something that Kingo instantly started laughing at.

"Oh, that's adorable."He laughs as he moves past him, patting Druig on the shoulder in amusement, Druig followed after him with a confused look on his face.

---

Okay!! I want to clear something up because the end might seem out of character for Druig!! Basically in this book he never had feelings for Makkari, the pair actually have a more sibling-like relationship, because of this he has never held any romantic attraction for anyone before so he obviously wouldn't recognise when he did- this doesn't mean he'll be clueless forever of course 😂 

Also, do Elizabeth's background and powers make sense? I tried really hard for it to make sense and if it doesn't I am really sorry- I'm trying!! 😭

Ps. If there aren't more scenes of Druig and Makkari in the next Eternals movie I'm suing Marvel :)