ZAGREUS WAS THE one to come up with the idea of a Last Breath. One last chance to prove themselves before their untimely death. It warranted him the title of God of Rebirth that he used to hold so dear, before the Curse, before the Bloodlust.
Nowadays, he has Noor. Noor is always renewing herself, evolving before his eyes, becoming the woman she always wished to be. She'd say that it was thanks to him, for being there all this time, and he'd brush it off.
But as he looks at her, standing up straight and ready for anything, he finds himself proud of being the one who helped her. Finds himself hoping that the title of God of Rebirth still held some sense.
Across from them, Harrow stands up with difficulty. "What happened to him?" Layla asks, staring at his bloody face.
"I did," Noor simply says.
Steven thinks, going by Marc's soft screeches in his head, that it's a good thing he's the one fronting.
Noor gets her blade, and he starts smiling in very misplaced excitement. "Hey, I'm really jazzed about showing you these new skill sets we have."
Zagreus can't help but huff. "Seems like Marc was very jazzed about showing his own skill set."
Noor tries her best not to choke the god. Not that she could in the first place, but the need is very much there. She pats Steven's back, putting the red scarf that comes with her cape all the way up her nose. "Okay, show me what you got, big boy."
He immediately summons his mask, and takes out two batons from behind his back. He charges forward, Layla unfolding her wings, and flying, taking one side. Knight Mare twirls her blade and settles on taking the left side.
As expected, Zagreus' ability turns her into a killing machine. But Zagreus is transfixed as he watches her. He could practically feel the way she held back. Her punches don't have enough strength to knock their teeth out or shatter the bone. Her blade swifts through the wind with a clear chime, slashing the skin of enemies to incapacitate them long enough for her to get what she wants. But never killing them.
He was never able to do that. He doesn't know if it's because the Curse had always been there, so much that he never knew what being normal meant, or if Noor has so much willpower that it's able to deflect it, especially when fighting the people who went after her soulmate. Maybe a bit of both.
He thinks that, if this had been any different, Noor would have made a stellar Goddess of Rebirth. She would have been better than him. Is, better than him.
The fight comes to a quick halt as they realise that they've made their way halfway through, Marc now fronting and Zagreus thanking Eros for giving him the strength to stay away from Noor. Zagreus doesn't need another trauma.
He feels the Knight bond, tethering him to this life, flicker, and Noor staggers, eyes flashing a deep purple before going back to red. Marc holds her up, Layla turning to her with concern. "You okay?"
Noor shakes the dizziness out of her mind. "Yeah," she says, but it's really not all that convincing. "I think I should stop skipping breakfast every morning, especially if I'm supposed to kick people's ass, you know?"
Not one of the three people around laugh it off, but there's no time to really think it through. Well, at least for Layla and Marc, because Zagreus has plenty of time to worry, being a fly on the wall and everything.
He watches over her as she springs back into action, using his abilities to somersaults over someone, push her foot against a wall, and abruptly slams her blade down Harrow's axe. It clangs with a deep metallic sound, Layla immediately coming up and doing the same with her swords, before Marc jumps over Noor, armed with his crescent moons.
Noor feels the axe dig harshly into her stomach before she sees Harrow jab her, a groan escaping her lips. And she's been playing so nice.
Before the Bloodlust can even think of making her jab her blade through Harrow, he slams the end of his cane on the ground, a purple wave of power sending them flying back.
Noor collides with a wall, and goes straight through it, glass shards and rubble falling on her. And that should have been okay – well, no, but she is godsdamn Knight Mare, she should walk it off.
Her eyes flash purple, and she lets out a growl of pain, her whole body set ablaze. And it hurts. So much that she's pinned to the ground, writhing in pain, blade clattering to the side as she drops it, muscles contracting.
Zagreus is by her in a flash, worry painted all over his face, a heavy feeling in his stomach. "What is it? What's going on?"
The scarf falls from her face because of how much she's moving, letting him see her lips twist up in pain, her pupils dilated, almost swallowing the purple whole.
Zagreus feels a cold sweat run down his spine. With an awful sense of dread, he turns towards the sky, where a giant Ammit and Khonshu should be fighting. Except Khonshu is down, and Ammit is staring right at Noor with a smirk.
This is her doing. She's incapacitating Noor long enough for Harrow to kill her. He can see him now, walking to her as she whimpers. Ammit knows to deal with the most powerful one first. Knight Mare would easily overpower Harrow if Noor wasn't holding back the Bloodlust, this is a known fact.
Ammit needs her off the board.
Zagreus rushes out of the building, where Marc is knocked out on a car. He immediately makes himself visible to him, and to any Avatar. Now is no longer the time to fret over people going after Noor if they know of him. Someone is going after her, and he has to do something.
"Hey!" he cries out as loud as he can. "Hey, wake up Hannah Montana!"
Layla, standing up from the ground, groaning, stares at the man in a three piece suit yelling at the top of his lungs. She grips her swords tighter, just in case. "Who are you?"
Zagreus turns to her sharply. "I'm... Zagreus, can you please just get Harrow away from Noor?"
This has the benefit of springing Steven into action as he fronts, sitting up straight quickly, looking around for his soulmate. When he sees Harrow creeping up on her, he breaks out in a sprint, slamming into him and getting him away from her. Layla follows suit, swords ready to defend Noor.
But as long as Ammit has the upper hand on Khonshu and is able to focus on hurting Noor, this is bad. He trusts that Moon Knight and Layla would be strong enough to handle Harrow, but Zagreus does not care, he only cares about Noor.
"What is she doing?" he presses as Layla and Moon Knight make sure to keep Harrow away from Noor. "What's happening to you?"
Noor does her best to talk through her gritted teeth. "It's like... she's branding my soul," she chokes out. "Trying to weigh it. It bloody hurts!"
He shakes his head, swallowing around the lump in his throat. "The Armour is keeping it from killing you," he realises.
But this is so much less than a temporary fix. She can't go on like this for much longer, if her body won't break, her mind will. Either way, if he doesn't do something, if he doesn't go to help Khonshu, then Noor is gone. And he can't have that. The world doesn't deserve to spin if she's not in it. So he knows what he has to do.
She told him that she didn't believe that he wouldn't let her die. But the truth is, he was never lying about that. Or when he said that he'd do anything for her. She comes first. She will always, always come first, no matter what. No matter who he has to sacrifice to do so.
The Last Breath is a tricky thing. There's no telling for how long Zagreus will be reborn, brought back to his former glory. He just knows that after that, he'll be gone. To the void, that place that terrified him so bad that he never even told Noor about it. That he never even told her that he could leave, for fear of going there again.
Noor had once asked him what a god believed in. If there's one thing he had to pick, just one. It'd be her. He has to hope that it'll be long enough for Ammit to be killed or at least neutralised, and maybe, if he's lucky, to say goodbye. He just has to trust that she'll be okay. He has to trust her when she says that they'll be okay.
Maybe the title of God of Rebirth did hold some sense after all.
"Tο μου μισό άμοιρη," he calls, forcing her to look at him. "I'm going to do something very stupid, but you'll have to promise me that you won't be mad, okay?"
She hears the fear in his voice, and it's almost enough to shake her out of her pained trance. She's known Zagreus for a long time now, but she's never heard him this scared. Scared for her yes, but not like this. Not like he's about to confront his worst fear.
And that's enough to make her scared. "What are you saying?"
"When Khonshu gets off his bony arse and distracts Ammit long enough, I'm going to sever the Knight bond."
Fear. Cold, white fear washes over her entire body. She can't just... lose the Knight bond. He can't just sever it like this, not like this. He can't leave her when they're barely making up.
It may have started with lies, and he may have stayed with her for his own best interest, but he was there. For more than a decade, he was there, holding her together. This bond, Zagreus, it's all she's ever known. All she's ever truly had.
He might as well be cutting off a piece of her.
She aches so bad, the idea excruciating, that she doesn't even notice that her physical torture has stopped. "You can't do this," she says. "You can't. You can't, there is no me, if there is no you."
He smiles sadly, everything in him begging to listen to her, to just listen and stay with her, but he can't. Not when she'd die. "Out of all the selfish things I did that hurt you, let me do one selfless thing to save you."
"No," she immediately says, tears gathering in her eyes.
She can't let him take on the Curse again, not when he'll be the only one to bear the pain of it.
"Tο μου μισό άμοιρη," he whispers softly, taking her hand to kiss the back of it. "I already did."
The Armour leaves her body, and his eyes flash a crimson red. He helps her back up, his new corporeal identity allowing him to just hold her, like he wished to do for so long.
If fear and frustration grow in Noor's body, she's not hopeless yet. This is temporary. It doesn't need to be forever. "You come back," she tells him, and it's not a question. "You come back and put the bond back into place, you get me?"
It breaks his heart, to kiss the top of her head and nod. "Of course."
She lets him go, watches as he runs away to Ammit, to stop her before she starts torturing her again. She watches as he summons shadows to dance around the goddess, to trap her in his grip, no doubt spewing some threats and insults for daring to go after his Knight. Former Knight?
But he'll come back. He has to, or she will have a fit, and she knows how much he hates it when she cries, so he'll be back, and everything will be perfectly normal again. Just her, her soulmates, and the Greek God living with her.
She doesn't dare to think of what would happen if this was not the case.
Author's Note: I respect Ammit for taking one look at Knight Mare and going "oh shit man I have to get her out right now"