Sersi always hated silence. The spirited noises and sounds of the world made it more beautiful under her eyes. Even battlefields of old have the crowing of scavengers in murders.

But now, having learnt the truth, no one wanted to speak first. At least silence shields them from the uncomfortable answers and conclusions they'd have to come to.

Druig reclines on his chair lazily with Makkari's arms draped over his shoulders, her eyes beaded with tears. Phastos sits stiff-backed with crossed arms. Kingo, his cheery disposition down for the count, leans onto the table. Worst of all was Sersi, bent over with both hands over her eyes with Thena laying a supporting hand on her shoulder.

"I don't even know where to start," Sersi breathes out.

"Then let me," Druig joins in, sitting up straighter. "This place, these people, aren't worth saving."

"Druig…" Sersi had expected herself to be angrier, but found her own voice faltering.

"Sersi, he has a point," Phastos cuts in. "Let him make it."

"What I saw in Tenochtitlan, what drove me from you all last time," Druig intones slowly, every word dripping with indignation. "Utterly pales in comparison to what these people have done to each other for centuries. These aren't man-made tragedies. This is a gigantic empire actively using Deviants as weapons to oppress everyone else who isn't them. They would have taken over the entire world had it not been for the king giving up. The next flight we take on the Domo should be the one out of here."

"There are, after all, many more worlds with sentient life out there for us to care about." Reclining back to the chair once more, Druig chomps on an apple he had plucked from the table earlier. He did not notice Makkari moving away from him in disbelief.

"You saw the people in the ghettos, behind those walls, armbands on," Sersi replies. "Are you so ignorant of history that you're not seeing what's going on? They are as human as the ones we left behind!"

"As much as I hate to agree with Druig, I have to," Phastos enters the conversation. "Sersi, these people may not be at fault for being born who they are, but this is a completely different story. They've actively chosen to embrace their Deviant side to establish and expand their empire. Eldia falls, Marley takes over and it's still the same. It's very, very tragic but it's just that the Eldians have just landed on the wrong side of the cycle of hatred and exploitation they started. Marley might not last forever, which just means another rising empire would just pick up where it left off. It never ends. The thing is we arrived way too late to solve the problem and anything we do now would just amount to…"

"...interference? Is that what you mean, Phastos?" Sersi grits out, staring at Phastos. "This, coming from an Eternal who has a human spouse?"

Phastos eyes bulge out of his sockets. He points an accusing finger at his leader. "That is TOO far, Sersi."

"You think you're the only one who has learnt more about humanity by loving one of them?" The Eternal Prime presses on. "You know why I was absent from our 1945 reunion? I was busy watching newsreels of the Holocaust. Watching the aftermath of people being worked to death, starved to death, gassed and cremated because they were considered inhuman for being born who they are. Never in my life I have never regretted more the chance to not interfere. You know we saw the exact same thing happen down there, with the armbands and the walls, and you expect me to say nothing?"

Phastos' face softens, killing the angry retort forming at his throat. Rehearing how Sersi coped after such a horrifying discovery was always a sour subject among the Eternals. The sudden sound of Kingo clearing his throat interrupts his thoughts however.

"I get what you both are trying to say, I really do," the actor makes his view known. "Their past sins, their faults… doesn't take away the fact that they're human, Phastos. That they have feelings, emotions… to be tossed aside like that. But Sersi, if you really want to save those Eldians stuck in the ghettos, you're basically taking the side of one section of humans over the other. We can't have that kind of division when the Emergence is just on the horizon."

"Why are we even talking like this?" Makkari signs, her distress throughout the night obvious to see. "We are Eternals. Damn what the Celestials have to say, our duties should be helping humans, whenever they need it."

"I refuse to give up on this world." Sersi was resolute. "I refuse to believe that a world is too far gone to save." She stares at Druig and Phastos, her gaze piercing. "I am staying."

"What, to solve all their problems?" Druig replies pithily, while taking another bite out of his apple. "When the Emergence could've solved it all for them."

"Druig, STOP." Thena's forceful voice gets everyone's attention. "Before you all go back to mouthing off to each other, here's some food for thought."

She continues, voice firm. "Ajak has shepherded Emergences, long before this world, long before Earth. In all her years of shepherding them, one after another, does she grapple with dilemmas like these? The weight of the fact that a species, a civilization will have to be destroyed at its prime, with nothing left? Think about that. We all have things we have come to love about Earth, and thus we prevented the Emergence there. Now we come to a world where things are not what they seem, where the actions of their inhabitants cloud more doubts in our minds for good reason. And yet, when Sersi speaks up for them and wishes to protect them, you mock her. For what? Being overly idealistic? Naive?"

Thena, the hardened warrior she is, bears her stern gaze at Phastos and Druig. "You know what Ajak would've done after taking one look at this world and its baggage? She would've shaken her head and condemned it all to destruction by the Emergence. The fact that Sersi still sees something inherently good, something worth saving in this world and its people makes her a thousand times more kind and compassionate than all of us. That is why Ajak chose her. That is why we look to her as we tried to stop Tiamut from Emerging, and beyond. That is why, whatever decision she makes, I will stand behind it."

She turns to Sersi. "Now, the question remains. What should be our next course of action? You have..."

Thena suddenly freezes mid-speech as golden light flashes across her forehead and temple as her eyes flicker gold. Sensing trouble, Sersi quickly moves away from her friend as the rest of the Eternals do the same.

Mahd Wy'ry… why now…

"No… no no no…" Kingo was not going to die in a stranger's house, slaughtered by one of his oldest friends. "Phastos, tell me you have something…"

The scientist merely nods as he prepares his tech within a hidden hand.

Makkari, fleet footed as a fox, sneaks up behind Thena for good measure.

Sersi holds up a placating hand, the same way she recalled Gilgamesh used to do.

"Thena, it's me. Calm down. Remember who you are."

Her head whips back as a cosmic spear whizzes itself dangerously near her face. She could only sidestep in time as the spear came down again, cleaving a chair clean in two. A much more heavy slash was quickly dodged by Sersi as it shaves off a large chunk of the dinner table.

"PHASTOS, NOW!"

Makkari, briefly activating her super-speed, strikes Thena behind the knee, before she could make another swing. Trapping Thena's hands in place while dodging her weapons, she swings her head to Phastos, who launches makeshift handcuffs, similar to the one he restrained Ikaris with in their fight, latching itself onto the warrior's wrists and ankles. As the cuffs spring forth cosmic energy bands, connecting together with a low hum; the rest of the Eternals could only watch in apprehension as Thena continues to thrash about on the ground, the various weapons she was frantically creating making deep gashes on the floorboards.

"DRUIG! Put her to sleep!"

The mind controller, at Sersi's urging, steps forward, taking care to not lose a foot over Thena's mindless thrashing.

His eyes glow gold, freezing the warrior in place with his stare. Slowly, but surely, Thena's eyelids flutter as her consciousness slips away

Sersi cannot help but note that it took even longer this time for Druig to put her friend away.

Before all present could sigh in relief, a soft click is heard as the lock to the house's front door opens softly. The Eternals watch as the homeowner, one Zuras, has returned from his nightly walk. The man merely stared at the chaos unfolded before him, the perpetrators standing in the middle and very sheepish.

"I know you lot are quite the lively bunch, but this is a little bit over the top, don't you think?"


The noise of crashing waves and billowing sea winds fill Sersi's ears. After leaving the unconscious Thena to the care of her friends, Sersi requested they walk to the sandy beaches and talk there.

She tried to apologize profusely for the damage incurred to Zuras' house, with the old man brushing it off with a smile.

They walk down the shoreline slowly, taking in the scenery. It was a cloudless night, with the moon bright and full on display.

"Are the nights of your Earth this beautiful?"

"Yes," Sersi replies, her heart growing heavy. "After 7000 years, it all still looks beautiful to me. But now I can never see it again."

Zuras raises an eyebrow. "How come? You never exactly told me why," He moves to confirm his suspicions. "Is it because you tried to stop the Emergence of your world?"

"I didn't try anything. I succeeded," Sersi replies, sadness creeping into her voice. "And in the process, I killed the Emerging Celestial." Seeing Zuras' widening eyes, she tries to explain herself. "I had no choice. He was coming out so quickly, it would've…"

The old farmer rubs his eyes in disbelief. "This… is serious business, Sersi. I am surprised your Celestial did not vaporize you and the planet the first chance he gets."

"He chose to spare us and Earth, on the condition that we leave and never return." The young woman's voice returns with purpose. "We decided to look for worlds with sentient life that might fit the conditions for the Emergence and inform its Eternals."

"Which led you to me." Sersi nods. "I see. How did you learn when the Emergence was to occur in the first place?"

"After our last Prime Eternal, Ajak… died…"

Noticing a slight hitch in her voice, Zuras waits for her to continue.

"She chose me as her successor and left her communication sphere to me, in which Arishem, our Celestial, appeared to me and, well, explained everything."

"Hmm," the old man rubs his chin. "I fear then I may not be of much help in that department."

"Why?"

"Because I have not been in contact with my Celestial, Skathirim, for nearly 2000 years now."

Sersi's eyes widened in surprise. She was too used to Ajak communicating with Arishem on the regular to hear such a thing had happened.

"It was radio silence ever since the day I made the choice to retreat…" Zuras recalls, "I could not contact her with the comm-sphere nor did she reach out to me. At first I thought nothing was wrong, but decades came, then centuries… Now, nearly two millennia later, I could not have ever known if I had taken the right course of action or not…" He gives Sersi a look of assurance. "But I will try to keep an ear out. Something as pivotal as the Emergence cannot be ignored, even by her."

"Thank you."

"Now, back to you. I see you have had quite the lively discussion while I was gone. Have you come to a final decision?"

"Yes, I have made my decision and was about to tell them before…" Sersi leaves the last part out. "Our next destination will be Paradis Island."

The flat cap does not hide well the old man's befuddlement. "Sersi, I am not one to question the choices of others, but Paradis Island? Why?"

"Before the Emergence comes, I wish to save the Eldians," Sersi states. "They do not deserve to suffer for the egregious mistakes of their forebears. But I cannot fight against an empire. Marley would sooner burn its own ghettos down rather than let us liberate one. So I turned to Paradis and only saw that it was a gigantic ghetto of its own."

The memories of the Holocaust came back with a vengeance, but Sersi held on.

"Mindwiped and boxed into the Walls with Deviants roaming freely, it's a hellish existence. The truth about the outside world must and will come out someday. If they manage to venture outside the Walls and realize the truth, it will put them square in the sights of Marley," The younger Eternal Prime closes her hand into a fist, placing it over her heart. "I must protect them from Marley. I have to."

Zuras hums in understanding as their walk takes them to a field filled with coquinas, flat platform-like rocks, of various shapes and sizes. Picking one flat enough, they both sit down on it as they continue where they left off.

"I admire your heart and spirit, young one," he harrumphs. "If you insist on going to Paradis, then you must know the enemy that roams its lands."

"The Titans." Sersi frowns slightly.

"Yes. As you may know, Eldians, sharing the bloodline of Ymir, are the only race capable of transforming into Titans. There are two ways to do this: with the power of the Founding Titan or with an injection of Titan spinal fluid. The former method can be easily reversible with another command from the Founding, but the latter method," Zuras explains. "is permanent. Unless…"

"They inherit one of the Nine Titans. Any Titan who devours a holder of one of the Nine immediately inherits the power and returns to human form. They can also change into their Titan form at will."

More barbarism. Sersi could not help but shudder even though she was not surprised.

"The normal Titans, called Pure Titans, are much evolved from the Deviants we used to face," Zuras explains. "They are much more ravenous, just as fast and can heal instantly from any injury, no matter how grievous. They are commonly active in the morning and return to a state of hibernation at night."

Just like that Deviant we encountered back home, she thinks.

"But they have a weakness." He holds up a finger. "The nape of their necks. Anything from an accurate cut to full on destruction of it will kill them permanently."

So there is a way to kill them…

"There is something you need to know. I have spoken about Eldians being used as weapons of war in battle by Marley," the former Eternal Prime continues his explanation. "But the best of them, the elite, brainwashed by the state and trained extensively to take on the powers of the Nine… They are called the Warrior Unit."

Sersi perks up in dismay. "Marley currently is in possession of seven out of the Nine: the Jaw Titan, the Female Titan, the Colossal Titan, the Armored Titan, the Warhammer Titan, the Cart Titan and the Beast Titan. Only the Founding Titan remains on Paradis, but with the vow renouncing war, it might have as well be nigh useless."

He proceeds to explain in detail the individual abilities of each one. As Zuras proceeds with each explanation, Sersi begins to worry. Her Eternals, bereft of its strongest hitters, their main illusionist and their primary healer, might just meet their match. How can they protect Paradis if they are easily bested by these Deviant skinchangers?

"You… missed one."

"The only one left is the Attack Titan. This one is so unpredictable, not even the Fritz kings knew how to properly control it. After Marley took over and acquired it, they lost it in their first military campaign. It has been considered lost ever since."

Instead of elaborating, Zuras opts to continue.

"Marley was content to dump the Pure Titans onto Paradis to cull the inhabitants and keep them crammed in… but lately they've grown desperate. They are gradually losing the arms race against other nations, who have developed technology powerful enough to fend off even the Nine. I wouldn't put it past them to risk it all to take the Founding Titan…"

He turns to look at Sersi, his gaze deadly serious.

"There may be a chance that you will encounter, and inevitably combat, members of the Warrior Unit infiltrating the Walls. Are your Eternals up to the task?"

Sersi meets his eyes, her determination shining through. "We will be ready for anything. Anything at all."

The old man smiles. The spine on this girl…

"Luckily for you, you may find help on the island." Zuras reveals. "One of my Eternals, Aurelle, lives inside the Walls. I know that for a fact because she checked up on me about 10 years back. One of my best Eternals, combat wise. In your fight against the Deviants you will find no better person to watch your back."

Sersi felt herself being filled with hope. It was two birds with one stone. Gaining an ally in their fight while revealing to her the truth about the Emergence. But one problem remains.

"Will… she accept the truth?"

"You've proven yourself to be a much better leader than me in the short time we've known each other. She's smart, kind and has a good head on her shoulders. Tell her and convince her of the truth and she will follow you."

The younger Eternal Prime sighs in relief. "Thank you, Zuras."

Sersi stands as she begins to make their way back to the farmhouse.

"One last thing, Sersi," The question stops Sersi in her tracks. She turns to see a concerned look on the old man's face. "About your friend. Thena, isn't it? Was it Mahd Wy'ry?"

Sersi hesitates to answer. "Yes."

"How long has she had it?"

She hesitates to answer. "...Over 500 years now."

Zuras' consternation deepens. "Figures. I saw a glint of madness in the corner of her eyes when we first met, but I've no idea it would be this bad." He rubs his chin. "She's a strong one then. I've heard horror stories about Eternals succumbing completely to Mahd Wy'ry after just years, but she has lasted centuries with it…"

He asks Sersi: "How do you deal with her Mahd Wy'ry episodes?"

"Our mind controller, Druig, puts her to sleep. He's done it before."

"It is commendable for her to last this long with her sanity intact, but I must warn you," Zuras' tone is deadly serious. "Should she lose herself the next time, or the next one after that? It's over. She will lose herself completely to Mahd Wy'ry, a mad beast driven purely by jumbled memories and instinct. In this state, the only way to stop her would be…"

Sersi fully understands the implication. "I know, sir," She could not meet his eyes. "We should get back."

"Yes, let's."


Another round of apologies erupted from Kingo, Makkari and Phastos, three of the more responsible Eternals towards the homeowner as he re-enters the house with Sersi, with the man himself waving off their concerns.

Thena had been carefully placed in one of the house's guest room's beds, still out from Druig's mental knockout. She has yet to wake. The remaining Eternals gather in the main hall, expressions pensive, awaiting Sersi's decision.

Zuras had graciously given her the floor as he went upstairs, leaving the newcomers alone once more.

"So, uh, Sersi," Kingo breaks the silence. "We were in the middle of something before Thena did her thing… then you left with the old man. What were you talking about?"

"I was asking him about the threats we're going to face where we're going next."

"Uh," Phastos, fixing his spectacles, decides to join in. "May I ask: where are we going next?"

Moment of truth. Sersi takes a deep breath and straightens her back.

"We're going to Paradis Island."


AN: Sersi has her first big disagreement with her friends and makes her choice. Pretty obvious where's she's going. Can confirm both the next several chapters will cover the Trost arc. Lots of canonical changes will occur as Sersi and co. make their mark on the world. Comments, follows and favs please.

Also to the Guest who thought this would end after 4: the train keeps on rolling.