CECE AND MELINOË have been waiting for the god and his Knight's return. Even Luke and Macaria joined them curious to know how it went. Macaria is leaning against a tree, looking at her nails in deep thought.
"There is a reason why we aren't meant to have links with humans," she keeps saying. "Have you seen Zagreus with her? He's going to get hurt."
Luke, sitting opposite Cece in the field, criss-cross, looks up at her, arching a brow. "Didn't you die for one?"
She stops looking at her hand to stare at him. "It's like you want me to kill you."
"Those are pretty archaïc views," Melinoë agrees, voice light. "Humans aren't just here to serve us after death."
"We're not here to serve you in the first place," Cece huffs. "I wonder how Noor did it, 10 years with that guy."
"I wonder why Zagreus stayed in the first place," Macaria tells her.
They become dead quiet when Zagreus drags Noor outside of the Duat, Noor just staring at the closing door with bloodshot eyes and an open mouth.
The others stand up, confused. Except for Luke, who takes one look at Zagreus and quietly goes. "I know how she did it." Cece jabs her elbow in his ribs.
The second the door closes, Noor pushes Zagreus away, huffing and puffing. She knows she left Marc willingly – for the most part – but coming back to a place where the soulmate mark on her finger is gone is harder than she thought.
This is not the kind of world she wants to live in.
"Where are your soulmates?" Cece asks, tactful as ever.
Noor spares her a glance, before gritting her teeth. She can't yell at a child, can she? "They'll come back, both of them."
"They're not with you?" Macaria asks, frowning.
Zagreus steps forward. "Macaria."
Noor just stares at the tall, brown woman who looks at her like she's nothing but the mud on her perfect boots. "So you risked my brother's life for nothing? Impressive."
Well, that's a grown woman Noor can yell at. "Coming from the one who killed him, that's rich." Macaria's glare turns deadly. "I gather you're not helping us with Ammit, are you?"
Melinoë shakes her head. "We have a strict non-interfering policy."
"Well fuck you and your policy."
"Noor!" Zagreus cries out.
"And fuck you most of all!" She turns back to the two goddesses, now looking at her with anger and sadness. "I mean, thanks for the help with Marc and Steven, but you guys are freaking hypocrites."
This time, Macaria almost smiles. "Oh, so you found out."
"Macaria, stop this," Zagreus asks.
Noor just scoffs. "No, this is stellar. So, really, everyone knew about your lies but me, awesome." She takes a deep breath, fighting back the urge to curl up in a ball and cry. "Let's get this over with. If you don't want to help," she tells Melinoë, "that's your choice. But we need to get to the pyramid of Giza real quick to free Khonshu."
Melinoë nods, her usual impish smile gracing her lips again. "That, I can do."
Cece groans as she walks to her, mirroring her movements to open the door to the pyramid of Giza. "Whatever's going on out there, have fun."
"I guarantee you I will not."
Noor steps through it, not looking back. If she has to wait for Marc and Steven to come back, which they will or she's going to lose it, she has to buy them some time, on top of freeing Khonshu. That includes paying Harrow a friendly visit during which she promises not to kill him on sight.
Macaria tries one last time to reason with her brother. "Why are you doing this? Staying, I get that. Father was awful and now Hell is closed for us." She gestures to the space around them. "But this? This is doing too much out of guilt."
He almost recoils at the thought. "This has nothing to do with guilt. I owe her for what I put her through. For lying about it because I was scared."
"So now you're going after Egyptian gods to make up for it?" She clenches her jaw. "I'm worried."
He pats her shoulder, offering her a lopsided smile. "Don't be." He looks back at Melinoë. "We should do this more often, yeah? Maybe next time, Noor won't be, you know. Traumatised by the loss of her soulmates and feeling the irrepressible urge to kill me."
His youngest sister nods with a smile. "Be careful."
"Tried it once. Ever so dull."
He steps halfway through the door, when Macaria calls out to him. "When I said you were doing it out of guilt, I was being kind."
Zagreus lets her words seep in him, chest constricting. "I know. I'll be fine."
When Zagreus steps through the door, letting it close behind him, he finds Noor crouched down behind a huge rock. It looks like the same one she was hiding behind the first time, except on the other side, and, well. Wearing shoes.
His hand ghosts above her shoulder, but he can't touch her anymore, and he really fumbled it the last time they could. "What's going on?"
Instead of his voice calming her down like it used to, he can practically feel her tense up. "Harrow just bursted in, what do you think is going on?" She stares at the scene, at the men with guns. "Do they really think they can just shoot the gods up?"
Osiris prepares himself to attack, but Harrow walks forward, cane glowing in purple. "You're judges, not warriors," he tells him. "This doesn't need to happen."
Noor can feel the hatred course through her veins at the sight of him. "I'm going to enjoy caving his face in."
"Woah, woah, when did that become the plan?"
"When I saw his fucking face."
The gods and Harrow start their fight, and Noor sees it as the perfect opportunity to dip out and find Khonshu's ushabti.
She follows the first corridor she sees, and decides that some gods are on her side because it was the right one.
About a dozen little statues are waiting in cavities of the wall, waiting to be freed from their stone prison. Noor finds the one that makes her think of a pigeon, resisting the urge to tell him to 'come here you little bitch.'
From the main room, they can hear the soft whooshes of power with a menacing purple glow. "She's free," Zagreus breathes out.
Noor wishes on a lucky star as she grips Khonshu's stone prison, and smashes it on the ground.
The wind picks up the sand, swirling around until Khonshu stands before her. She doesn't even flinch. At this point, she has seen much worse.
"I do not sense Marc Spector in this world," he states.
She breathes in, and out, the sharp pain of the hollow soulmate bond in her chest. "I'm going to have a fucking fit if everyone keeps reminding me."
Khonshu nods at her. "He died fighting, no doubt."
No, he died because he was an idiot trying to protect everyone he cares about. Which just makes her all the more frustrated. She needs him back. "Can't you just shut your face, he's coming back," she tells him.
He tilts his head to the side. "How?"
"Zagreus and I paid him a visit," she quickly shortens. "By the way, thanks for the heads up about the puny Greek god."
Zagreus sighs, long and hard. "Can we just move past it for now?"
She doesn't answer, settling on glaring at him.
This seems to amuse Khonshu, or at the very least, give him a wonderful idea. "If Marc is truly gone, I am in need of an Avatar. Would you, Noor Dhawan, protect the travellers of the night..."
"Finish that sentence and I'll take your bloody floating head and pin it to my fucking wall." Zagreus has to hide his laughter, sensing that if he chuckled, he'd only be making it worse for him. "You actually thought I was going to say yes? You turned Marc's whole life into a living nightmare, so you can just shove your offer up your bird arse."
Khonshu decides to move past the very unsettling threats Noor keeps making. "You won't win against Harrow and Ammit alone."
Noor clenches her jaw, sparing Zagreus a, somewhat, soft look. "Well, my god may be a fucking arsehole, and believe me, I am definitely angry and I fucking hate him–"
"Can we go to the nice part?" he asks, clearing his throat.
She lets out a sigh. "But he's my problem. Whether I like it or not, I'm not alone. So it's a hard pass on your offer."
"Marc was in crisis over you," Khonshu tells her. "His lack of focus got him killed."
"Yeah, well, your attitude is going to get you fried."
"You need a plan," Khonshu maintains. "Little bug, what I offer..."
"I said no!" she cries out. "I saw what you did to Marc. How you manipulated him. So it's either you work with us, or I'm putting you back in the stone statue."
Slowly, Khonshu nods. Zagreus whistles. "Well played."
"We must rebind Ammit," the god of the moon says.
She hums. "Okay, how?"
"Only an Avatar can do it."
"I will shove your sceptre up your a–"
Khonshu disappears before she can even finish her sentence. Oh well. Noor sighs, resting against the wall.
She huffs. "He really can't take a hint, can he? Well, it's just us against Ammit then. Fun times." She notices that Zagreus keeps looking at her intently. "What?"
"For all it's worth," he starts, slowly, testing the waters. "I am sorry for not telling you. And for what I said about your father, that was out of line. I was only thinking of myself, and I know I changed, but I was a bloody arsehold back then. I was scared to tell you, because I was..." He swallows thickly, ignoring how his throat constricts. "I was terrified of losing you. And now I know that's how I ended up losing you in the first place." He nods for himself. "So I'm really, truly sorry."
Noor closes her eyes. She doesn't have a lot going for her, right now, what with her soulmates still stuck in hell, Zagreus' betrayal, and the rise of Ammit. Not a lot of opportunities to process her emotions, that's for sure.
"I don't forgive you," she says, and his heart breaks in his chest. "But you haven't lost me."
He almost visibly buzzes with hope and joy, trying his best to refrain from smiling. "So can we talk about how you kissed Marc?"
"Don't push your luck." She pushes herself off of the wall. "And anyway. We have a god to fight off, so let's focus on that."
"The kissing Marc part is much more interesting."
"I said don't push your luck."
Author's Note: I can't help it I love Zag too much to live properly