004. lonesome transcendence.

SUMMER OF 2024, PHILIPPINES.

THE LONG TREK TO ANITUN'S HUMBLE HOME

was as far and exhausting, residing near a cliff where the ocean was, washing the shore with violent waves of raging water; The petrichor from the nearby trees and lush grasses had pitter pattered its way into their bones, thumping in sheer delight and excitement, irking them to go further...

...the night was dark and cold, not a single light source was placed around the area near her place, and Kingo had been complaining about it since the five of them got out of his private jet, Sprite had argued to bring a flashlight before, but nobody listened to her, Kingo probably regrets that now, sighing softly like a small child as his assistant tried his hardest to keep up with the Eternal's phase while holding a heavy camera in his hand.

Kingo enthusiastically winked at the camera. Waving his hand in the air in excited an excited motion, narrating about the Eternal that they were about to visit ( and bother ), talking about how important she was in the inspiration of his previous movies... ignoring the risk of tripping down on rocks or roots from trees grasping the ground firmly; mostly all of them couldn't wait to see her again, some excited and some nervous and practically forced, especially Ikaris who was blankly staring at Kingo's figure through the dark... irritated and somewhat confused.

Trees and gigantic landforms enclosed the manor, and only a small part of it can be used as a way to go in and out of the place, a hole of some sort hidden away with trees and tall grass... covering it, hidden away from the naked eye to see, and it's not like the place was being visited anyways because the path looked too old to have people walking on it and passing by; Adobe rocks were being held up by vines, and dirt, trees and plants emitting from the crevices of every broken rock... and perhaps, there may still be a little bit of life in this gloomy place.

Her manor was quite to big to be overlooked, the trees covered some of the structure, but the roof can be seen underneath the mountain, the place is seemingly dead in the inside because there were no lights to accommodate the place, and it wouldn't be quite a surprise if the inside itself is cold... once Kingo had stopped with his ramble, he gripped his jacket tightly, shaking then and now as the harsh wind continued to go in their way... seeming as if it was teasing them, making them shiver.

The five of them was met with a colossal wall and gate with vines draping in each direction, looking like one of those fantasy movies and books where the other side of the garden was a paradise with no match at all, heaven sent to earth, a fleeting paradise wrapped around their fingers and all they have to do is step inside the gates and enjoy it all, but this other side of this place was a lot different, no paragraphs are to beautifully written about this place other than it was cold and dead, almost like a graveyard not even ghosts would wander off. The black gate wouldn't even budge, the vines keeping it shut tightly.

They were left with no choice but to climb, and luckily enough, the vines were thick and long enough to be used as some kind of ladder to the other side, Ikaris refused the offer, and so everyone tossed their belongings to him, including Karun's camera as he flew over the wall with eyes rolling in irritation, struggling with carrying all of the stuff given to him.

Sersi was probably the only one who did not struggled with climbing the wall, since Ikaris helped her... that left an annoyed Sprite, and exhausted Kingo with Karun grunting in the process, but there was no time to rest, Kingo immediately got a hold of his beloved camera and immediately gave it to Karun, ordering him softly to record everything that happens because it is most definitely important and entertaining...

...the camera pans into a wide swimming pool of some sort, water rippling in dead silence, the water was clean but not clear enough to swim to, Kingo walks over it, followed by the other four reluctantly, trying to find anything underneath but ended up seeing their reflection on the dark water instead, and the moon cannot be illuminated properly...

It was stupid to ever think that anything would emerge from the cold liquid, but nothing was impossible, and it felt like the atmosphere had changed, it felt like a horror movie, the suspenseful music gets louder and clearer, a monster peaked it's head out of the water,

Strands of hair swimming with the water and the creature gave them a nasty, cold glare... and they waited for it to do anything... but it did nothing but to stare and stare, and so did they... it finally decided to show itself, revealing a woman with wet, ebony hair and dull chocolate eyes, face glossy and etched with a soft scowl,

"Long time no see, Annie... what... are you doing?"

She placed her hands on the edge of the pool, lifting herself up, finally facing the Eternals in front of her, ignoring her current wet state, shivering from the cold night air.

"...Meditating" Anitun sighed and closed her eyes, immediately opening it to give Kingo a death stare... she looks around the area warrily, staring at the trees and observing them, perhaps the air was telling her something, everything suddenly turned humid, and she sighed exasperatedly.

"What evil have you brought here with y─" Anitun stopped halfway with her harsh statement, snapping her attention back to the forest around her,

"─it's already here!" Anitun immediately pushed Sersi out of the way as a gigantic humanoid creature landed itself where Sersi was last standing, Deviants... a deviant is here, those things are back.

Anitun immediately took notice of the situation and her hands found its way to it's old, previous state, just like the good old days, the firm stance, the sharp warry glare towards the creature from the woods, the ragged breathing and the beating heart attempting to get out of her chest, adrenaline rushing through her veins, voices inside her head ordering her to do the next, careful steps, fight, protect... and even if she wanted to badly forget everything... it will always come back, the only string from a puppeteer she'll allow, the string left forgotten, nestling on her mind... and it was now alive, once again,

Jarring screams were heard as the core of the ground shook with every violent move that the creature made, Anitun attempted to push it back harshly towards the cliff, with the help of Kingo and Ikaris's blasts, but the Deviant buried it's feet deep in the ground, anchoring it's weight and withstanding the blasts that the three Eternals threw at it,

"Anitun!"

Sersi, who was running towards every tree that was near her, called out for the Eternal's attention, Sprite coming to her aid, creating an illusion to try and distract the Deviant if it ever tried to pounce and attack her, making Anitun look back and gravely sigh as Sersi turned some of the lush trees into a fluid substance like a harsh dam for Anitun to use against the Deviant, she twisted and shook her fingers, turning the water like harsh flowing wind, and towards the creature with a harsh flick,

"Can Deviants drown?!" Anitun yells at Kingo, "There's only one way to find out!" Ikaris answered for him, Anitun rolled her eyes and advanced forward, finally pushing it down the cliff and into the deepness of the cold ocean beneath it,

The four ran towards the edge, staring intently at the ocean that sent violent waves, Anitun squinted her eyes to get a better look, until the Deviant clawed it's way towards them once again making them fall flat on the ground because of the sudden impact,

"Well that answers it... go!" Anitun grunted and pushed Ikaris towards the creature when they finally got up from the force of the wind she created,

She gently pushed Sersi and Sprite backwards with the wind to a safe distant as she finally called out for Kingo, sending a wave of brisk amplified air towards his direction, making the Eternal inhale it in a sudden motion and he coughed desperately,

"What is that?" Kingo cries, fanning his face in a dramatic frown.

It was one of those little tricks that she did with her previous Asgardian friend, it did worked for the Eternal beside her but she needed to find other ways to properly distribute her augmentation because Kingo was not looking like he was happy as he continue to strike the Deviant with the motion of his hands in a silly finger gun, now energised and with a lot more force.

"Power!" before her eyes turned lightbulb white as she stroked her forearm, augmenting herself.

In a daze of overwhelming confusion, Ikaris nudged the blank faced Eternal into doing something with her magic to kill it, the Eternal faced the Deviant, they had no other plan, motioning her hands to close in a harsh and tight grip, as if her hands was the large air, the creature charged towards Ikaris,

Anitun strangled the Deviant when it tried to swallow Ikaris whole, finally killing it... Deviant residue and blood splashed towards her when it exploded, she grimaced at the sticky substance covering her figure from head to toe, she ignored the voices of her fellow Eternals calling out for her name worriedly as she barges inside the doors of her manor, placing her gaze to the human with a camera in his hands, sitting by the window as he averts his gaze from the outside environment to hers, Anitun softly rolled her eyes as she rushed upstairs even before the four could go inside and stop her,

She cleans herself with a soft scowl, having to hear the banter of the people below her even with the bathroom door tightly shut, she lays in the bathtub, bringing a hand to her hair as she washes herself, runny nose scrunching in exhaustion,

Even if she badly wanted to treat her bathtub as her own little home... sinking deep in it's hollow ends as she lays cold, and shivering from the black water contaminated with the blood the creatures she had thought to long defeated centuries ago had... Anitun needed to face whatever it was that her old family is about to slap in her face, hard, and stinging with sinful truths and lies.

Perhaps whatever happened earlier had answered her questions... the thunder grew loud and clear just a few days ago, the wind had changed directions, the sky potent with birds and painted with white clouds were now grey and the little animals with feathery wings were no longer in sight... swaying with the gentle, flowing wind, it had changed, telling her to get ready, be scared, the wind has its ways to communicate with her and make her worry, the ground would shake in violent despair.

The world was about to end, and she is not ready, it's days are numbered.

Anitun finally had a good look with the ones who had visited ( bothered ) her when she went back downstairs, snuggled in warm clothes with a now dry hair... dedicating her attention to Ikaris who was looking at her from the end of the big staircase, the two were met with longing glares and sultry scowls. "Took you long enough" he remarks.

"Deviant blood is not easy to remove." she hissed.

"Well isn't this the warmest welcome?" Kingo speaks up to avoid the awkward tension, giving both Anitun and Ikaris a worried look as both continued to glare at eachother.

Sprite crosses her arms, leaning in on one of the couches, "Totally" she replies sarcastically. "Way to keep up the summer spirit" the young woman added, glancing at the fireplace.

Anitun walked passed them and into the kitchen, the rest following behind, Kingo ran towards her and engulfed her into a comforting hug, Anitun stood frozen in her spot, gently squirming her way out of the Eternal's embrace, "No." she deadpans to Kingo before taking a cereal box out of a cabinet and a milk carton from the refrigerator.

"Milk before cereals? And why are you not welcoming us?" Kingo asked with eyebrows furrowed, smiling awkwardly with the way she refused his hug.

Anitun takes a bite of her cereal, "Because you are not welcome, leave." she points to the door.

"You saw that Deviant... we need your help." Ikaris exclaims, settling himself in one of her couch as the other three does the same. "There is a lot more..."

"I am not helping." Anitun started to walk away, carrying her bowl of cereals.

"Ajak is dead." She stopped dead in her tracks, choking on the cereal she had on her mouth, making her grimace softly.

The last time she saw the Prime Eternal was hundreds of years ago, with a last embrace that she couldn't even succumb properly to. She looks down on her bare foot... unable to move but decided to look back at Ikaris with an annoyed look... ignoring Ikaris's sudden reply about the Prime Eternal's death, not thinking twice. "You had a Deviant following you around and none of you told me sooner"

"Now I don't have any trees around" She tilts her head towards Sersi in which the Eternal gave an apologetic smile.

"We didn't know..." Sprite shrugs at her, shifting in her seat beside Ikaris. "And at least we killed it" He added, glancing at Sprite with a small grin.

Anitun rolled her eyes, "With a lot of sacrifices, totally... just like what you did five centuries ago"

"We do not talk about that" Sprite deadpanned, giving Anitun a solid death stare.

Ikaris tilted his head, completely lost for words. "Those were just trees"

"What am I supposed to feel about that? At least they were not humans being tossed around to the Deviant? You Eternals have awful logic." Anitun rambles, throwing her hands everywhere as she rants with an angry tone, glaring at Ikaris furiously every now and then before calming down and bringing her hands to her hips with an exhausted sigh, slowly sitting down on the floor with her cereal bowl beside her.

And for once, the environment was silent, but not as peaceful as they wanted it to be... no one dared to say a word as each of them continued to stare and glare at each other with unreadable expressions, both good and bad.

Anitun simply wanted to laugh, knowing that it was probably Ikaris who wanted to reach out for her, acting as if he had never doubted and belittled her centuries ago... it's pathetic to think that Ikaris never knew how Anitun know and heard what she said about her, all of them, tone in that of someone who thinks they were better than anyone. ( Or maybe he does, and is just making Anitun look like an idiot. )

She heard what he had to spit on her everywhere... Anitun had carried and slept on his words from Mesopotamia to Tenochtitlan, to the stars and the moon and all the way to the Milky Way, and she had always wished for the Gods to stop all of it because she is not capable of hurting him, before... she didn't wanted to say a word to him about his thoughts about her because she knew better than to argue with someone so important to her, it's a laughable scenario that Anitun felt the need to love everything around her, including him, because he was a family, he used to be a family, and they used to love each other's company, but not anymore.

This started right after they had awoke in the Domo thousands of years ago, the dead silence was immediately filled with Ikaris's and Ajak's voice, talking about something, talking about her... she never had the time to properly hear everything because she was occupied with someone, but she knows well that it had been about her, about that new Eternal I do not know the name of, that Eternal everyone else is with as of the moment.

Ikaris had shaped her in the way he had always feared her to be, a monster ─ Anitun wanted to flip him off and push him off a cliff, but she knows better.

"We need your help to protect this planet and decide it's future" Sersi softly spoke, not trying to break whatever atmosphere there is in the place, careful to draw attention to her word, staring at Anitun timidly. "Your beloved planet" Ikaris immediately added. He was about to add any other words when Anitun had cut him off.

"Give me a fucking break" she spat, words directed to Ikaris, never to Sersi.

Anitun immediately went back to the kitchen, agitation carved on her face and body ─ She didn't even had the time to mourn for her mother figure properly, it almost seemed as if Ikaris didn't cared about the Prime Eternal's fate, but it wasn't such a surprise... he had always been quite the selfish being, it was one of the few things Anitun despised about him, the Eternal was too insisting, he would always be the one to push her buttons and annoy her on days end, almost as if he was the one to invent the act of annoying the hell out of people even before it actually existed.

Anitun looked at Kingo and his little assistant who was staring at her the whole time "Do you want this?" she offers her bowl of cereal to the both of them in which Kingo shook his head at immediately, "Cold food on a cold weather? No... what about you, Karun?"

Karun hesitates, "Anything works fine, sir." he smiled softly, avoiding Anitun's gaze.

She sighed softly, taking some bread and toaster out, looking up at the ceiling, keeping her mouth in a straight line as she tries her hardest not the burst out laughing at how stupid the outlet looked above her, it was definitely a sight, she wasn't exactly the one who built this house, and the real owner is no longer here, so Anitun wouldn't be able to question the existence of the silly thing on the ceiling,

"There is not enough outlets in this place..." she murmured.

Kingo followed her gaze before snickering, "How romantic can it be if someone kissed me under the mistletoaster" he said, glancing at the toaster in Anitun's grasp, with a wide grin.

"Why is that even there in the first place..."