I'm With You - Druig

Present Day - Northern Ireland

     Ada's car hums as her eyes focus on the empty road ahead. Green hills stretch for an eternity, no nearby cities for miles. After she left Gilgamesh and Thena, Ada moved around a lot, experiencing different cultures and exploring different parts of the world. In the end, she settled on Northern Ireland. There wasn't really a reason why she decided on there specifically. She just liked the landscape is all. Her favorite color was green after all, and she loved how much green blanketed the earth there.

     She is on her way back from town after picking up a few things, and is minutes away from her house. Lucky for her, it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere and that's how she liked it. The only two people who knew where she was, were Ajak, for obvious reasons, and Gilgamesh because he was the last person she spoke to before heading to Ireland.

     In her peripheral vision, she sees something big moving. She takes a quick glance out of curiosity before returning her eyes to the road. Her stomach drops and her head whips around to look again. Ada's eyes widen when she sees a Deviant running at her car full speed, ramming its body into the driver's side door. She reaches her hand out, trying to brace the car for impact, but doesn't have time to slow the car before it's launched off the road and rolls to a stop upside down. Broken glass litters the ceiling.

     Ada groans in pain and touches her fingers to her forehead. With blurry vision, she sees a red liquid dripping off her finger tips. Her head was pounding and her body felt like jelly, but she knew she had to get out of the vehicle and take care of the Deviant.

     She crawls out the window and struggles to get up, barely standing on her own two feet. The Deviant charges at her again. But this time, she raises her hand, lifting the crumpled car and sends it soaring at the Deviant.

     "Oh wait, my groceries!" She almost regrets throwing her own car at it, but quickly remembers that her life is currently on the line.

     The car slams into the side of its body, briefly knocking it down. It doesn't surprise her that the creature gets back up. What does surprise her, however, is that the wound on its back heals almost instantly.

     "What the hell?" She whispers aloud to herself.

     Ada wasn't afraid before, but she definitely is now. She's never had to fight off a Deviant before, especially not by herself. The others usually took care of that. She used to just come in and clean up the aftermath. Even if she was attacking, her abilities worked best at a distance, giving her time to find things to throw. But now, she isn't awarded the pleasure of distance or time. The Deviant was persistent. And to make things worse, it could heal itself now, which she can't even begin to wrap her head around. They were never able to do that before.

     The Deviant runs at her again, with steam blowing out its ears. She didn't have any nearby objects anymore. With a quick decision, she uproots the tree beside her, sending it flying at the Deviant. It does far less damage than the car and it crawls through the branches without hesitating.

     Ada's mind turns blank as she tries to think of what else to do, forgetting completely about her one secret weapon that could win her this fight. Her feet carry her backwards as she tries to put more distance between her and the Deviant. Unfortunately for her, it's in front of her in seconds. Its tail swipes around, knocking her off her feet. Her head slams into the ground and everything blurs again.

     The Deviant wastes no time and pins her body underneath its feet. In a moment of desperation, she attempts to lift the creature off her body, not believing it would actually work in her weakened state. She's able to send it flying off of her, but it only flies back a few feet. Within seconds, it's back on her. If she was thinking correctly, she would've done that sooner instead of  trying to throw the tree. But she chooses not to beat herself up about it, she didn't have too much fighting experience and she was injured.

     Her vision clears up in time to see three tentacles dive into her body. One in her stomach, one in the side of her ribs, and one in her shoulder. She cries out as it begins draining the power from her body.

     Something shoots at the Deviant, sending it rolling off of her. Ikaris flies overhead, shooting more beams at the beast. Kingo and Gilgamesh run in, helping Ikaris. It takes all three of them working together to kill it.

     Sersi crouches beside her, "Are you okay?"

     "I will be." Sersi helps Ada to her feet. "What's going on? Why are the Deviants back? I thought we killed them all centuries ago?"

     Sersi explains everything they know about the Deviants and the Emergence.

     "Wait, where's Ajak?" Ada asks.

     "She's dead. A Deviant killed her," Sprite tells her. Tears prick her eyes.

     "What?" It barely comes out as a whisper.

     The tight feeling in her chest returned. She found it difficult to breathe, like the Deviant was sitting on her again. Her eyes flicker back and forth between her friends, searching for a lie. Maybe she's joking. She has to be. Ajak can't be dead.

     "We need to get everyone back together so we can stop the Emergence. We need your help Ada," Sersi tells her.

     "Do you know where Druig is?" Ikaris asks, expecting her to know.

     "No, I-" she takes a deep breath and wipes the tears, still processing everything they told her, "I don't know where he is, I'm sorry."

     "Well why not?" Sprite interjects rudely. "You call yourselves friends and you don't even talk to him?"

     "Sprite!" Ikaris warns.

     "Just because I don't know where he is, doesn't mean we don't talk. You guys don't know where he is either, so that doesn't make you any better," Ada fires back, her emotions taking over.

     "If you two still talk, then why don't you know where he is," Kingo asks curiously, though Ada can sense a tinge of annoyance in his tone.

     Ada sighs, trying to calm herself down. "It never came up. And I never asked, so he never told me," She explains unbothered. The two of them talked pretty often, staying in touch over the past few centuries. Ever since he apologized, they had been talking to each other almost weekly. The distance never broke their friendship.

     "Well can you just ask him where he is so we can go already?" Sprite asks, her tone still not dying down.

     "What ever happened to asking nicely?" Ada grumbles to herself.

     The others walk to the edge of the road and sit down. Sersi pulls Sprite aside to calm her down. Now, Ada's alone again, allowing her to focus on projecting her voice into Druig's mind.

     "Ada? To what do I owe the pleasure of speaking to thee, m'lady?" Druig's voice fills her head.

     "The Deviants are back. We need to get everyone together again so we can figure out what to do," Ada explains, leaving out the specific details.

     "What do you mean the Deviants are back?" he asks, confused.

     "I don't know how, but they're back. We need to know where you are, Druig."

     "The Amazon." He doesn't need to add anymore, Ada knows exactly where he is. She walks back over to everyone and informs them of Druig's location.