NOOR IS PANICKING. Her eyes fly from Steven's unmoving body, to the initials – stilltherestilltherestillthere – and then back to him. "Steven, wake up, please," she begs, shaking him around. "Wake the fuck up!"
"Noor," Zagreus calls, running to her. "Someone's coming."
She hurriedly relays the information to Layla, and as a last resort, they start dragging him in the sand, groaning and grunting under the effort.
Soon enough, they're caught in the headlights of a car like deer waiting to be shot, and they start to lift him as best as they can, dragging him away and them with him, to safety.
Shots are fired and land near them, barely missing.
They reach the top of the dune, and Layla turns to Noor, out of breath. "Drop and roll down!"
She doesn't have much choice – Steven's weight sends her tumbling down with him, sand flying in her mouth and eyes. They land, further down than Layla, and she wipes her face hurriedly. There's not much time, the car is already coming for them.
"Come on!"
Layla grabs her hand, forcing her to leave Steven despite her immediate whimper, and leads her to a ditched truck, quickly before the car turns around and shines its light on them.
They hide behind it, going around before getting in the back, pressing themselves against the stuff and each other.
Noor, out of breath, gasps and heaves as they go around the truck. Layla, experience, grabs a flare. She shuffles to get outside.
"What are you doing?" Noor whispers hurriedly.
"Trust me."
Layla lures them towards her, before running the other way, and sending a flare in their truck. It triggers the explosives inside, and blows up the truck.
Noor, still completely panicked by the chain of events, shyly slides down and sits up, opening the door.
She sees a man standing in front of the truck, and instinctively throws her fist in his face. "Noor don't!"
Steven falls back on the ground, holding his nose. "Shit!"
"Steven?"
Zagreus stares at the scene, and shrugs. "I tried to warn you."
"Yeah," Steven says, still holding his face. "You punch pretty hard you know?"
Layla, catching up to them, frowns. "What are you doing?"
"Noor punched me in the face!"
Noor hurries out of the truck, and helps him back up, an arm around his waist. "Are you okay?"
"I think you broke my nose."
"I did not break your nose."
AFTER THE FIASCO that was the night before, Layla, Steven and Noor took off to Ammit's tomb in the truck they stole. Noor is at the same place she was, lying down in the backseat, reflecting on everything. She does that a lot. But at least, now she has Steven on her side.
Not that she's in denial about missing Marc. No. And the fact that this remark came out of the blue means nothing at all, by the way.
"We can't lose more time," Layla says, thankfully taking her mind off of whatever she was thinking of. "Harrow must be headed back to the tomb."
Noor grits her teeth. "That's flipping stellar," she breathes out. "I've missed his rat face."
Zagreus, sitting next to Noor, as always, frowns. "We'll probably need Marc if he comes here."
"Yeah, or we can work with people we trust," she remarks. "If you can't trust the people in your team, that's when you fail, you know?"
"What are you talking about?" Layla asks.
"Zag said that we might need Marc."
Steven can hear his alter agreeing from the side view mirror. "You have a point," he tells Noor.
Noor stands up straight. "I do?"
"She does?" Layla adds.
"See, the thing is..." Steven starts, taking a deep breath. "We made a deal, Marc and I, that when he was done with Khonshu, he would disappear for good."
In the mirror, Marc lets out almost a thousand swear words. This was not how it was supposed to go. "But that deal didn't involve you getting Layla, Noor and us killed, did it? That's not gonna fly with me."
He's not sure what's worse. The way that, instantly, Layla straightens up, scoffing, saying that "You guys made a deal? That he would just disappear from my life? From his soulmate's life? And you didn't think that maybe we should've been made aware of that?"
Or the fact that Noor hasn't budged, arms cross, looking into the distance. Of course Marc would do something like that. The first night they met, he tried to pull the whole 'I'll put you in danger because I'm a superhero' thing. It's just a recurring theme isn't it?
He doesn't think he deserves love so he can't bear to put anyone who would try to love him in danger.
Steven quickly realises his mistake. "Oh. Well, hadn't he disappeared from your life already?" he asks Layla, but mainly to piss Marc off. "And Noor, I mean, he didn't exactly bring joy in your life."
"I'd rather someone that leaves for those he loves, than someone that stays for himself." Steven sends her a look, a bit taken aback by her answer. "Marc thinks he doesn't deserve love, I'm not going to give him the pleasure of agreeing with him."
She can feel Zagreus' eyes on her too, but ignores it. She's not in the mood for banter of any kind. She gets the motive, gets the reasons, but won't agree with it.
Not if it means never seeing Marc again, gods forbid her thinking that.
"He'd wanna lone wolf this whole thing," Layla says. "It's not happening. We're not gonna do that."
Steven nods. "We are not!" he agrees. "It's just you, me, my dearest Noor and the open road."
She slams the breaks. "We're gonna go on foot from here."
This gets Noor back up straight, eyes wide. "Oh what? Really?"
"What's up with you?" Zagreus asks, turning to her.
"I have the cardio of a newborn."
THE ROAD TO Ammit's tomb is sinuous, with no apparent road. It takes them a few hours of walking in the desert to find the settlements of Harrow's militia, and the entrance.
"Let's check for supplies," Layla tells them, and they each get to a tent.
Of course, Zagreus goes with Noor. She's the only person he can bother with his most valuable remarks.
Though, he senses, she's not in the mood for fun. "Are you okay?"
"Everyone keeps asking me this question," she erupts suddenly. "I mean, I thought characters in movies were dramatic for saying it got on their nerves, but I'm about to start throwing punches." She takes a deep breath, to calm herself down. "I'm sorry."
Zagreus shrugs. "No, let it out. I'm not going to stop you from expressing yourself."
Still, she stops talking and starts rummaging through the stuff on the makeshifts desks.
He waits. Noor can never stay silent for so long when something is bothering her. That is, with him. She can hold it back if anyone else is in the room, unless the situation is dire. She hates being seen, people seeing right through her.
Unless it's him.
"I hate that it makes sense for Marc and Steven to make this deal," she ends up saying, picking a stray carabiner. "Steven wants nothing more than to live and Marc doesn't believe he, himself, deserves it."
"It upsets you," he says.
She sighs, looking back at him. "Something like that."
Zagreus leans against a thin wooden beam, arms crossed. "Why?"
"What do you mean why?" she asks, arms crossed. "Because he's... you know."
"Yeah, I do." He pushes himself off the beam, walking to her. "D'you know, I've never heard you, not once, call him your soulmate."
Noor feels her face redden. "Yeah and? He hasn't either, as far as I know."
"He wasn't the one who said to his face that the bond was wrong."
"Are you trying to make me feel worse?" she lets out with a humourless laugh. "Because it's working."
"I'm not!" he defends himself. "I'm just saying that... Listen, you live in the official State of Denial. I'm trying to help you understand why it pisses you off."
"Because they went behind my back!"
"And not because you might never see Marc again?"
She stops whatever she was doing, and looks down, apprehension and frustration flooding her body. She doesn't think Steven would actually obliterate Marc from his mind, but Marc would be stubborn enough to stay away until they die.
Noor stashes what she found in her pockets. "Whatever. It's not like I'm in love with him."
She starts to leave, but Zagreus stops her, calling out to her, "But he's your soulmate."
She doesn't look back as she walks out, meeting with Layla and Steven. Because this has nothing to do with what she feels for Marc, and everything to do with the fact that he hid something from her the whole time they were getting to know each other. That's stuck in her throat.
He could've said something at any point, to tell her not to get attached – not that she is! – or at least warn her of their deal, but no.
If he fronts again, it's going to be different from the day they spent together.
And the worst is, he knows it.
"He wants to throw us off a cliff," Steven tells her out of the blue when she walks up to him.
She frowns. "What? Who?"
"Marc. Also, he's sorry for not saying anything."
"I bloody hope he is," she scoffs. "Let's focus on the tomb we're about to walk in, yeah?"
Anything to distract her from her own feelings, and keep her safely tucked in her blanket of denial.
"Hey," Layla calls for them, holding harnesses up. "Come here."
Layla helps them put their harnesses on, making sure that they're properly secured.
And Steven, in contrast from Noor, is buzzing with excitement.
"I have to say, I feel like I've been waiting for this my whole life," he says, sighing dreamily. He nudges her. "Adventure."
She shakes her head. "I'm not that enthusiastic about desecrating Ammit's tomb."
Zagreus, now sitting on a wooden box, snorts. "Why aren't you? Don't you just love walking in a place with one entry and one exit with potential murderers inside?"
She stares at him. "If you don't want me to get in, just say so."
Layla looks at her, but Steven gestures at her to stay silent.
The Greek god shrugs. "I don't want you to go in. I don't want you to rush head first into danger without my Armour to protect you."
"A day ago you wouldn't even tell me it existed," she reminds him. "Now you want me to use your murder suit? No thanks, love."
"Your morals are going to kill, just give them up."
"That's incredibly disturbing."
"I can't protect you if you won't let me."
"I don't need your Armour to protect me."
"That's what I told Marc!" Suddenly, Everyone turns to Steven, who realises that he spoke without thinking. "He's trying to protect you from Khonshu."
This gets Zagreus' attention instantly. He jumps from the box, and walks closer to the group, Noor frowning. "From Khonshu? What does the dead pigeon want with Zag's Armour?"
Steven shakes his head. "He thinks that if Khonshu doesn't get you as his Avatar, he'd force you to wear the Armour-thingy. Khonshu wants you as an ally, and he won't let that happen." She blinks, falling deeper and deeper in confusion. "It's all right. I just felt like you should know that."
Noor just stares, Zagreus' concern growing. "The flying rat wants your help? Has he considered the fact that I'll have his chicken wings for dinner?"
"That makes no sense," she butts in. "I'm helping you and Marc, I'm already an ally."
"Maybe he was talking about the future, I don't know. Sorry."
She steps back, fumbling with her harness. "Why are you dropping information here and there? Why now?"
His face scrunches up in guilt. He doesn't want to hurt her. "I don't know. I just thought you deserved to know."
Noor holds back the frustration that threatens to overwhelm her, and exhales deeply. "Yeah. I just wish it came from Marc."
"Either way, it wasn't his call to make," Layla says, supportive, rubbing her arm soothingly. "Okay. I'm gonna go down first, before I belay."
The two friends blink at her. "What's 'belay'?"
She laughs. "I can't tell if you're joking."
And apparently she doesn't want to find out, because she starts to rappel down the side of the cave. Well, it's their turn now.
Noor turns to Steven. "Thanks for being honest," she tells him, and he kisses her cheek in answer. "Now I'm going to try to rappel without dying."
Steven watches, sending her a supporting thumbs up. He feels something crawl from the depth of his mind, and suddenly his own fist is colliding with his face. No need to wonder where it came from.
"Oh no, Steven!" Though he can't hear him, Zagreus bursts out laughing. "Oh I gotta tell Noor. Before she kills herself trying to save your asses."
Author's Note: Oh no, Noor is going to kill Marc the next time he fronts! Gee, I wonder when's the next time...................................