The Ex-Eternals were now sitting in the guest room inside the estate. Sersi was quite baffled at the house, Ikaris too, although he didn't quite see it. They sat down on the sofas, and Reginald brought tea for them. They drank the tea slowly, it was quite an expensive tea, as Pluto quite liked tea…
At first, Pluto asked them about the last time they met. Sersi talked about what Ajak said to them, which made Pluto sighed.
“Can’t say I didn’t anticipate it.” Pluto stated casually, sipping tea from his cup. “Quite a coward she is.”
“She’s Ajak Pluto, must’ve had her reasons.” Sersi defended.
Pluto chuckled in amusement as he shook his head. “Trust me, her reasons are selfish.”
“And you know what the reason is?” Sersi raised her eyebrow.
Pluto just glanced at Ikaris, to which the demigod slowly shook his head, refusing to tell her, which made Pluto raise his brow.
Sersi noticed it, and turned to Ikaris. “What?”
“Nothing Sersi.” Ikaris sipped his tea guiltily. “Nothing.”
“Well, you’ll know soon enough.” Thena interrupted. “Whether someone likes it or not.”
Ikaris frowned at Thena’s words, and put his cup on the table. “Right, let’s not talk about that… you two, how come?”
“What?” Pluto asked back.
“The house, the money, everything.” Ikaris added.
“Business.” Pluto said. “Mining, I’m investing in metallurgy too, slowly. Although the money just comes to me now, Reginald took care of the annoying things.”
“How do you know all this?” questioned Sersi.
“Unlike you two, I have experience.” Pluto hummed. “I was abandoned for 1000 years if you remember, I got to make a living in those years.”
Sersi just nodded awkwardly, and Pluto put down his tea cup. “So, now I’m asking the questions, why are you here?”
“Honestly… a change of air…” said Sersi. “We got tired of moving every five years, and we’re trying to figure out how to live peacefully without moving…”
“I could talk to the king if you like.” said Pluto, making Ikaris and Sersi surprised. “Grant you the privileges that me and Thena got… but… there are some drawbacks…”
“Pluto, you realise what you’re doing is breaching our code right?”
“The mission is done, Ikaris.” Pluto smiled innocently. “We don’t have to do it anymore… unless… there’s another mission that Ajak didn’t tell us…”
“Pluto…”
Pluto sighed. “We’re not a team anymore Ikaris. You can’t tell me what to do anymore, especially now that you’re in my home.”
Ikaris frowned and stood up. “Can we talk?” Ikaris then looked at the two women in the room. “Alone.”
Pluto raised his brow, and crossed his legs. “Fine.” he said, before he and Ikaris were enveloped by blueish mist, and disappeared from the guest room, leaving Thena and Sersi alone.
Thena just stood up, and smiled at Sersi. “Come, I’ll show you something, we collected some things from our travels…”
Sersi just nodded absentmindedly, and walked with Thena, towards the basement of the home.
Meanwhile, Pluto and Ikaris appeared in Pluto’s study room. Inside of the place was a desk, a chair, and many bookshelves. Behind the desk, at the wall, there was a painting, of a blonde woman, drinking tea, and behind her was a pond, and a blooming sakura tree.
Pluto was sitting on his chair, legs still crossed, and arms on the chair, while Ikaris was standing up, a bit confused at the sudden teleportation.
“What do you want to talk about?” Pluto questioned calmly.
Ikaris looked around for a second, and stared at Pluto. “Did you–”
“Tell Thena?” Pluto continued Ikaris’s words. “Yes. I did.”
Ikaris frowned. “How is she dealing with it?”
“Fine.” Pluto hummed. “Because of the Mahd Wy’ry, I told her the truth. She took it well.”
“And what is she planning to do?”
Pluto stood up from his chair, and walked up to Ikaris, slowly, hands behind his back. “What? Do you want to kill her if she wants to stop it?”
“Answer the question Pluto.”
“She said she’ll do what I’ll do.” Pluto leaned on the desk, crossing his arms. “Snap out of it Ikaris, the cost of Arishem’s design is not worth it, never been.”
“If you stop it… you are responsible for trillions of lives!” Ikaris pointed his hands at Pluto, shouting.
“Is it though?” Pluto questioned. “They’re not born yet. And I could say the same thing to you Ikaris, if you don't stop it, you are responsible for the death of millions of humans in the present, and the unborn humans in the future. The Celestial inside the earth is just one, while on earth, at the time of the emergence, the human population would be billions.”
“That being is a god Pluto!” Ikaris refuted. “It creates life! You interrupting the cycle will disturb the lives of millions of other beings!”
“Like I said, if you use that logic, I could use the same logic as you.” Pluto walked up to him, stared at Ikaris’s eyes deeply. “What if humans became a galactic civilization in the future, and their populations reached Trillions as well? You know the Kree right? From Ajak’s lecture? Where are the Eternals on that planet? Did they rebel? Were they killed? Or simply weren’t chosen as a seed planet? Asgardians too, where are their Eternals?”
“We’re talking about Earth, Pluto, not other planets.”
“I just said to you, what if Earth became a galactic civilization?” Pluto repeated. “Does Arishem’s grand design take account of that?”
“It’s an ‘if’ Pluto, it might not happen.” Ikaris refuted.
“That’s the thing isn’t it.” Pluto chuckled as he backed off, leaning on the desk again. “If the Emergence happens, we will never know truly.”
Pluto then sighed, and looked at the window outside, where he saw Thena and Sersi talking to each other while walking through the garden. “Are you not guilty Ikaris? Hiding that secret all this time? All for a so-called god that never even talked to you.”
Ikaris walked towards the window, also watched the two talking. “You have no idea… how painful it is…”
“Then tell her.” Pluto stated.
“I cannot bear the consequences of it Pluto, you know that.” Ikaris closed his eyes. “If she chose a different path as me…”
“There’s still time.” Pluto walked towards the door, and opened it. “I’ll convince you, mark my words.”
“It’s useless… when the time comes, you either have to kill me, or join me.”
“We’re family Ikaris.” Pluto smiled. “I might not be the friendliest to you… but you’re my family. Even though we fight, all bloodied, on the brink of death, I will always pull my punches. What’s the point in fighting, when you can talk it out?”
Ikaris just shook his head in amusement. “Then I’m looking forward to our fights to come.”