[Syrian Desert]
A long line of people were marching through the hot Syrian Desert on a scorching summer day as a group of armed soldiers escorted them by force. The people were thin, frail, barely clothed, and on the brink of death, yet the soldiers forced them to move anyway.
If anyone dropped to the ground exhausted, either they'll be left alone, or the soldiers would just kill them to not waste time. Bodies littered the path that they took, be it men, women, or children, they didn't care.
Then, from the far west, the soldiers could see someone approaching. He was cloaked, his head covered in a turban, and he had a big muscly build. He approached the group slowly, his cloak waving from the desert wind, and his sharp eyes visible between the turban.
The soldiers frowned as they saw the man.
"Hey!" a soldier shouted. "Are you lost!?"
The man didn't answer, instead, he kept approaching the entourage, slowly walking on the sand.
"An escapee maybe?" whispered a soldier to another soldier.
The soldier just hummed, and he walked towards the man, stopping in front of him.
"State your identity." said the soldier, pointing his rifle at the man. "Greek? Armenian? Assyrian? Turk?"
The cloaked man frowned. He took off his cloak, revealing his face.
"Asian?" exclaimed the soldier. "What is an Asian doing in the middle of the desert?"
"Hunting pigs," he said.
"Hunting what?"
"Hunting pigs." he repeated.
"There are no pigs here, are you insane?"
"No, there's a pig." stated the big man. "Right in front of me."
The soldier frowned. "The fuck did you just say?"
The man walked up to the soldier, who kept pointing his rifle at him. The man stopped just right in front of the barrel of the rifle, placing the barrel at his chest.
"Try." the man said. "See if you can do it."
"Are you suicidal?" the soldier scoffed. "You must be crazy."
"You are the crazy one." said the man calmly. "Marching entire groups of people to their deaths…"
The soldier got ticked off by the words, and pulled the trigger. The loud boom echoed throughout the empty and vast space of the Assyrian desert, but… nothing happened. The man was still standing, and the bullet dropped the ground, flattened.
The soldier's eyes widened as he saw it, but he had no time to react, as the man grabbed his rifle, and threw it away. The man's hands then started to glow golden, the sound of an engine started to roar, and he slammed his fist towards the soldier.
The soldier dropped to the ground hard, the sands around him swirled from the force of the impact, and the man's body shattered to pieces from the impact.
The entire soldiers started to panic, and the line of people scattered wildly, trying to protect themselves. The soldiers tried to calm them down, but it couldn't, so instead, they just let them be, and focused on the strange man.
The man who just killed a soldier stood straight again, his legs glowing golden, and he jumped high towards the other soldiers, slamming himself to the ground as fissure lines started to form on the sands.
The soldiers shot their rifles towards the man, only to dread as they saw the bullets bounced off of him. The man kept going, crushing every single soldier with the most brutal way possible, making his cloak drenched with blood, and his hands painted red.
Red sands soon stained the desert, with mangled and crushed bodies scattered everywhere, and the people that were once a line looked at the man in fear and hope. The man looked at the sky, breathing deeply, catching his breath to calm himself down.
Then, a sound came from behind him, and he saw a blue light appear. As he looked at the source of the blue light, he saw a raven-haired man and a blonde woman that he knows very well, along with barrels of water, food, and clothing behind them.
"Well Gil." said the raven haired man, looking at the bloody scene around him. "Seems like you've outdone yourself…"
The man, whose name was Gil, just shrugged at the raven-haired man's words.
—
Many camps have been set up around the area as Pluto and Thena arrived at the scene. Gil was now sitting solemnly in front of the campfire with the two Eternals as the moon shines brightly above.
"I was staying with them." Gil spoke softly. "They were friendly, you know, good food as well, and learned a bunch from them… these Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians… they were bullied by the Turks, but they don't really mind it, they are just silently trying to get away from their grasps… but…"
"The war happened." Thena continued calmly, but Pluto could tell she was a bit enraged as she saw those starving men, women, and children.
Gil hummed, drinking from his mug. "The Turks thought they betrayed them… so they're 'Deporting' them now."
"You call this deportation?" Pluto scoffed.
"It isn't." said Gil, crushing his mug as he thought about the memory. "They force-marched them through the deserts, or to the sea, dangling the hopes of survival… but no… they were just trying to kill them. They're not deporting them to Russia through the black sea, they are deporting them to the black sea…"
"Look at them…" Thena murmured, her eyes glistening as she saw the children eating the food that they brought happily. "They were starving…"
"Only given 3 pieces of bread for the whole trip," said Gil silently. "Events like this make me wonder… Did we even make an impact towards humanity? We were supposed to protect them, yet we can't even protect them from themselves…"
"I wonder about it myself…" Thena said calmly. "But Pluto said that between goodness, there will always be darkness that looms around it…"
"It's true…" said Pluto solemnly, looking at the humans around him. "But… kind of feels… disappointment… we've worked so hard to make them prosper, only to see them squabbling among themselves, killing each other for the sake of artificial hatred."
"I'm done with this." said Gil suddenly, standing up.
"What?" Pluto questioned.
"After this… mess…" he said, looking around. "I'll just hide myself… maybe go to Australia, new land there, hide myself there…"
"Don't be like that Gil." stated Pluto.
"No man…" Gil sighed tiredly. "I'm tired of this… I can't see this anymore… it's torture…"
"Gil." said Thena suddenly. "Do you love… these humans?"
"Love?" questioned Gil. "I… honestly don't know anymore, Thena… but… I suppose I do, don't I? If I don't love them, I'd not feel this way… disappointment… rage…"
"Do you want this to continue?" Pluto questioned.
"Well, I don't have a choice but to leave them alone, right?" Gil chuckled desperately. "Arishem's command and all… I could only help the innocents, if I could kill those Pashas, I would, but I can't."
Pluto hummed, and walked towards Gil. he hugged him, patting him on the back. "Sorry… about all this…"
"It's not your fault man." said Gil with a smile. "Maybe visit me once in a while. I heard you want to make a baby, good luck with that, invite me when he or she is born."
Pluto smiled. "Will do."
Gil turned to Thena. "Thena, good to see you again."
"Good to see you again, Gilgamesh." she said, also hugging him.
"Well, I will give everything to you now…" Gil said sadly. "Take care of the others, yeah? Especially Phastos and Sprite…"
"Well, I can't stop them if they want to do anything… but I'll try to convince them."
"Good enough for me." said Gil as he turned away from the others, walking through the dark deserts of Syria.