Summary: Clío, for the briefest of moments, feels her heart is lost forever.
Warnings: Heavy Angst with the smallest hint of fluff
A/N: I wrote a small snippet of what happened to Clío in the aftermath of the Emergence and what she went through. This is more angst felt than fluffy, be warned :)
You never thought you would loose your voice, not for as long as you were on Earth.
Your hands were shaking from both exhaustion and adrenaline, dried blood was matted against your exposed skin and your hair, and your eyes were drilling onto the rolling ocean that almost mirrored the inner rage that was festering inside of you. Even your ears were roaring from all that was nestled inside of you that was left, since you were drained all the energy that was left. In fact, you felt like a shell, so hollow and not yourself after all that you went through on that beach. Stopping the world from being torn apart from the near birth of Tiamut, fighting Ikaris whom was a member of your family.
Druig….your husband and the love of your life…..lost.
All you wanted was to save the world, the same world that you have loved and adored from the moment you walked onto it’s soil from The Domo ramp. But of course it wouldn’t be so easy, not with all that was thrown against you and your family. It hasn’t been easy for the past 500 years, maybe even before that when you saw humans turning on one another and bringing nothing but pain and turmoil. Yet you loved it all the same, even when your family split apart and you went to the Amazon with Druig since he couldn’t handle the pain of doing nothing anymore. He was your better half, your best friend, the very being that was the definition of “Love” in your life, so you would move the Earth and even the Heavens for him.
When you both were called to come back to the family to save the world, you went together. Convincing Druig to go back, after being away from them for 500 years and having your own life together, it was hard to do. Yet he knew he had to help the humans, even after loosing Gilgamesh and hearing that Ajak was killed. You saw that fire in him to stop Tiamut and to defy Arishem, who told you the truth of your purpose and life. It was a lot to sink in and digest, and Ikaris turning on all of you made it worse since he wanted the Emergence to happen.
Now….now at the end of all of it….you were lost. Lost with Ajak and Gilgamesh, lost without your home…..without Druig.
It replayed in your head over and over, Druig being hoisted into the sky by Ikaris with his hand around his throat and then throwing him to the earth. Your world was shattered, watching him fall and Ikaris shooting his beams into him in such a vicious manner. Everything else in your mind ceased to exist, you only focusing on your husband and what you could only about was his death. Makkari’s scream was high in the sky, yet you were silent for the briefest of moments from the pure shock of it all as his body spiraled to the ground. Finally, the hoarse scream of pain that came out of your mouth sounded so brutal and gut wrenching, it was almost like you were the one being murdered. You were, in a sense, since the better half of your heart died in front of your eyes. All you loved and adored was taken away from you, and everything inside of you that seemed good and kind ceased to exist.
It was almost like a switch, the light was gone and darkness consumed you.
As soon as you saw Ikaris lower back down, your rational side died. All that pain and anger you had for him, for turning on your family, for killing Ajak and now your husband, it was about to unleash within moments as you opened your mouth. The banshee scream that escaped from your lips seemed unreal, almost unworldly with the sheer volume and sheer will power that was unleashed from deep within your core. The entire beach shook from the use of your power, Ikaris flying back a bit from how the wave after wave of your scream hit him hard like a punch, yet all that mattered was that Druig was taken away from you.
Ikaris took your life away, and something primal inside of you wanted to do the same for him.
Now, at the end of it all and a stillness was placed over the beach, you were watching the waves from your very spot being calf deep in the water, The pure pain in your throat was evident, making it unbearable to even move your throat or try to speak. It was all used with no hesitation and nothing hold you back, not to mention the sensation of your heart breaking over and over again like a sickening mantra. You never thought you would experience heartbreak, true and organic heartbreak that would shatter all that you knew to be good and true. Nothing else seemed to give you hope or cheer, not the notion of saving the world or having your family all together in peace. There was no peace in your heart: your heart was Druig and now it was gone.
“Clío?” You heard your voice being called as you were watching the rolling ride going in and out of the beach, your head feeling rather heavy and you feet being cemented to the ground where you stood, as if you were going to sprout your own roots to never let you go. But that voice was familiar and concerning, so you had to look over and see it was none other than Phastos walking over to you. It was etched all over his face: sadness and pain. Even the way he was walking over to you seemed so cautious and almost careful, maybe he was afraid to provoke or frighten you.
He saw what you did out there on the beach against Ikaris, how rage engulfed you and made you lash out at Ikaris over and over again with no sign of slowing down. Maybe he even felt the pain that was engrained deep inside of you like a disease, and now that the anger was gone…..all that was left was sadness.
Phastos held you as you weeped, his arms around you like a shield and almost like a cloud to give shade in the blazing sun. You had no voice, yet the sobs that were coming out of your mouth sounded raw and almost painful. There was pain, the kind of pain that you never thought you would ever experience ever. Your soul felt fractured, too broken o be fixed or nurtured back to health, and all you could do was cry. What was there left to do now that half of your life and soul was gone?
“I got you, okay? I got you,” Phastos said over and over to you as you clung to him like a lifeline and wept into his chest. Maybe he knew you had to let it out, keeping it bottled up inside from all that occurred and using it as a weapon against Ikaris, and now you had to drain it all out. There was no light in sight for you, not even in the arms of your friend whom show no sign of letting you go. You could float away into the sky if you could, let the vastness of space consume you since you felt no need to hold on any longer.
Not with your love. Not without your soul.
You paused hearing the tremor in Phastos’s voice, sounding so shocked and yet in disbelief as you looked up at him. Was something else coming your way? Was there another danger? Yet when you peered up at your friend, Phastos’s eyes were wide and looking right behind you along the surf of the beach. Slowly and carefully, you turned in his arms, feeling his arms drop from his embrace on you. Something told you to look fast, to see what it was.
As soon as your eyes moved, you felt like you were dreaming or hallucinating. Your mind must have been tricking you, from all the screaming and how drained you felt since you could collapse to the ground from a soft breeze. Yet one sole silhouette was there, amongst the end of the beach near the edge of the water. The softness of the armor that floating in the wind, the calmness in how the silhouette walked towards you, your heart raced and your face crumbled in both devastation and in joy.
Your body reacted before you could, before your brain could catch up. No matter how exhausted you were, how you felt like fall to the ground to let the waves wash over you, your legs were moving and tears were streaming down your face to mix in with the blood along your neck. He was right there in front of you, so close and yet so far as you were now walking so fast that you could fall to the ground if you tripped. Yet Druig was the one you ran to you, his face etched in relief and yet pain from seeing you in such a state as you were sobbing and yet barreling over to him. Your mind was running so quickly it was tripping over itself, your heart was slamming so hard against your chest your thought it would jump through your skin and armor, and all of the pain was melting away in a instant as your husband was now holding you in his arms.
Safe. Druig was safe in your arms.
His embrace was familiar and home to you, reminding you the plenty of night in the Amazon when you tow would be wrapped up in one another. The firm chest and yet gentle arms cradled you, the very chest that you engrained your touch to in both the throws of pleasure and gentleness of pain, was there in front of you now with a hand along your neck and the other around your lower waist protectively. Every touch felt familiar to you, so you knew that this was real and you weren’t hallucinating any of this. Even breathing in the distinct scent that was Druig made you cry every more as you hid your face in his neck, feeling his rapid heartbeat along your nose as you two held one another.
So many days together under the jungles trees just holding hands, so many heartbreaking moments when you held him as he mourned and cried over the humans, they were all coming back to you at one time like the waves on the shore you two were still in. Seeing his smile, hearing his voice, it was all familiarity and all consuming for you to never let go. For that split moment, you thought he was gone forever and you would forever walk in a haze.
But he was there now, and you could only weep.
“I’m right here, Clío,” You heard against your head from Druig, the sound of his voice alone made you gasp out and feel beyond relieved. He sounded emotional, raw himself in his tone and how his neck vibrated against your head as his fingers clutched your armor tightly. He said it a few more times as you two were rocking a bit, still calf deep in the surf and forgetting about the rest of the world.
Finally, after a long moment of hiding your face, you moved your head and felt his fingers go to caroled your jaw, moving your head to have you two lock eyes. There he was, a deep cut in his cheek but he was real and holding you close as if you were the long who could disappear. His hair pushed off to the side, the flushness of his pale cheeks and the pristine blue eyes that you fell utterly in love with for 7,000 years were drilling into your own eyes.
Druig said nothing for a solid second before he pressed his forehead against yours, your eyes closing as you both were still embracing one another. HIs fingers pressed against your neck, near your vocal chords as you felt your lips moving, trying to form words and trying to talk yourself. You had so much to say and it was all coming out at once.
You’re alive….you’re here……thank God you’re alive….
You were saying it over and over again, but nothing was coming out of your mouth. Your voice was shot, purely shot to hell, and all you could do was mouth thew words since the intense pain of your throat and vocal cords was nearly unbearable. Inwardly you were screaming and pleading at Druig to stay, to be alive and not be some kind of dream. But you looked like you were just wording it out loud, voiceless in the wind but pouring out all you had within you.
You opened your eyes, seeing Druig watching you with a hint of sadness since you had no voice for him to hear. It made you curse Ikaris all the more, knowing you used all of your ability against him merely because you thought he murdered your husband. Yet Druig took in a solid breath, moving his fingers to be near your neck along the sides to almost feel your voice. You blinked, the cooling touch of his fingers against your battered skin.
“You…you can’t,” He said almost in a mourning tone as you grimaced. You saw the pure evidence in his eyes: the pain of not hearing your voice telling him that you loved him. He then leaned back into you, kissing both cheeks soothingly and with a hint of determination as you both closed your eyes again. Druig once again stayed close to you as you clung onto his arms, his fingers sprawled along your neck and jawline as your felt the wisps of his hair against your forehead.
For a moment, it was silence between you again, but then you heard it: His voice in you head.
I’m right here, my darlin’
Druig….Druig I thought you were gone forever! I almost lost you!
No no….nothing can keep me away from ya, Clío.
Please don’t ever leave me again, Druig. Please!
Hearing his voice in your mind was almost as soothing as honey, as calming as a gentle breeze in the first hours of the morning. You knew he swore never to invade your mind unless it’s completely necessary or an emergency. Yet it felt right for him to talk to you this way since you had no other way to speak to him. So you both were speaking to one another within the mind, whispering reassurances to one another and trying to come back together as one.
I’m got ya, Clío, Druig’s voice floated in your mind as he was kissing away the tears in your eyes, I won’t ever do that to you, never again.
You knew he was telling the truth, and you had to let that fleeting moment of grief go with the wind.
“Where are we going to go?”
“Ajak’s Farm. We can rest there,”
You were all sitting together in the Meeting Room of the Domo, all in a circle with a broken statue of Arishem in the middle of it all. You were listening in silence, your head nestled against Druig’s shoulder as he was listening to Thena and Sersi speak to one another. The ship took off from the beach some time after your reunion with Druig, Sersi thinking it was best to find a place to lay low for some time. Things needed to cool down, and knowing the humans were going to ask questions and wonder what happened.
Once again, you all had to hide in the shadows.
So much has happened since the dust settled and things were calm again: Ikaris sacrificed himself when he saw all that he did and realized the faults that he made. Sersi conducted the Uni-Mind, getting immense power from it to the point fo taking Sprite’s Immortality and Eternal abilities to make her human. It was her only wish, to know what it’s like to be fully human and grow up since she was stuck in a pre-teen body for thousands of years.
“What about Arishem?” Your eyes went from Sersi over to Phastos, whom was sitting next to Makkari and Sprite as they all looked from him to Sersi. She was the new leader of the family, it was clear from how she along made the Uni-Mind work and brought the Emergence to a halt. Even turning Tiamut into marble stone before he could breach the surface entirely.
“We’ll deal with him when the times comes,” Sersi replied to the group, looking over at everyone before finally settling over at you. She knew what you went through on the beach, hearing the piercing screams that you inflicted on her ex-lover and the sheer agony in your fighting against him. Yet she never held you back, nor did she have ill feelings about it. She knew your pain from thinking Druig was killed.
Now she was watching you, your head against Druig’s shoulder as his arm was around your protectively and your shared hands were in your lap. The pure sense of love and devotion you had for one another was evident in the room, and no one dared to defy it. Druig was watching Sersi, almost mentally telling her not to say a word about the pair of you being cuddled together on the bench. You both knew she wouldn’t say anything, she was in fact happy to see you both together and happily married when you reunited in the Amazon.
“We find some rest at the farm and we’ll go from there,” Sersi said to the group, giving Druig a singular node before she went to go talk to Thena and Phastos about something. You breathed out heavily, Druig pressed a kiss into your hair as if he felt your uneasiness there together.
You felt a hand on your leg, you looked over to see Makkari standing in front of you and grinning. You smiled back as she held out a hand for you to take. As soon as you did, Makkari’s smile widened a bit as she signed with one hand.
You fought really well out there, She signed to you, Druig squeezing you a bit tighter now wheels eh kept going, He….he didn’t stand a chance.
She didn’t have to say it, but you knew she was talking about Ikaris. She was just as vicious and brutal to him too in the fight, her speed and agility was second to none when it came to going up against him. You felt it too: the fire in her belly to stop him from not only harming another person but from letting the Emergence happen.
You both fought hard, and now you could breath.
Thank you, ‘Kari You signed back to you slowly, grimacing a bit from the pain you were feeling in your throat. Makkari walked away, leaving you to be with Druig again as he was watching you with a hint of concern. Your energy was nearly done, even sitting on that bench you could topple over if you could. Maybe Druig sensed it, moving to stand up on the bench and then take you in his arms. You wish you could protest, to tell him that you were fine, but of course your voice was long gone. He moved to scoop you in his arms, your arms around his neck then to not fall over as his arms were on his back and under your legs.
“We’re going to rest. Let us know if anything changes,” Druig said to the others as he walked and carried you bridal style down the hallway. Once again you felt helpless, not being able to tell him to put you down and let you walk. However, you knew Druig far too well to not care for you, so you were letting him take you down the familiar hallways that lead to your old chambers.
The familiar scents of the room indeed your nose as Druig kicked the door shut behind him, the cool feeling of the bedsheets made you sigh as he lowered you to the bed, and the low humming sounds of the Domo energy made you be calm again while Druig slowly stripped your armor off your body. It was almost his way fo showing he loved you, his own act of service. Finally, as you were in your undergarments and feeling as thought you could melt into the mattress beneath you, you watched with heavily lidded eyes and with adoration as Druig stripped his own armor off with ease.
It was almost torture for you to watch him when he seemed so far away from you, yet he was a mere foot away. Finally, after what seemed like so long, he was down to his own undergarments and he crawled onto the bed to be next to you. Within a posit second you pulled him into your arms, feeling his fingers glide along your skin and his kisses were pressed along you eyelids, cheeks and jawline. You pushed your own fingers along his arms and chest too, almost needing physical evidence that he was there.
You both needed to feel each other, to be reminded that you were alive.
“Sleep, Clío,” Druig urged you as you tucked your head against his own.
I’m afraid to, what if you’re not here?
“I’m never going to leave you again,” Druig vowed against your forehead, your eyes fluttering shut as he held you softly and possessively in his arms. Finally, your felt your entire body give into the temptation of sleep and you dreamed. The softest dream of the pair of you back in the Amazon, basking in the jungle warmth together and having peace in your lives together. You mentally wished that you could never relive those long lost moments of Druig not being in your life.
Druig vowed to never leave you again, and you vowed the same as you slept in his arms while he watched on.
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