NOOR HUGS ZAGREUS as tight as she can. She got so scared. Scared that he didn't make it, but he's fine. He's fine, and she's holding him, and everything will be alright now.
She can barely make out the words said behind her, as Khonshu frees Marc and Steven, too engrossed by his presence. Zagreus hugs her back, and she feels him shake slightly, but pays it no mind. It would be stupid to think that he got out of this unharmed.
They stay like this for Gods know how long, Zagreus taking everything in, her scent, the way she hugs him like she wants to envelop his entire body with hers, and protect him from the inevitable.
For a second, everything in the world is right.
"We're good now," she tells him with a smile, parting. "You can snap the bond back into place."
It finally hits Zagreus, that this is not right. None of this. Because he knows that Noor wants nothing more than for things to go back to normal, and it's going to be so, so far from that.
"I can't," he says.
Her smile falters, and she shakes her head slightly. "What do you mean?"
He swallows around the lump in his throat, heart hammering in his chest. It's starting, he can feel it. But if he can feel it, so will she, through the bond, and he won't do that to her.
"I can't," he repeats, detaching each syllable. "Because I don't want you to feel me die."
Noor steps back, confused, because why would he say that? Everything is fine, they're going to be fine. "Come on, don't be an idiot."
She tries to take his hand, do something, anything, but he steps back, head hanging low. "Noor, please. Let me do this."
"Let you do what?" she huffs, growing agitated, not understanding what on Earth is going on.
"Please just let me say goodbye to you."
She scoffs, taking a step back again. "Stop this. Stop this, everything is fine."
"Noor."
She starts trembling, shaking her head frenetically. "What's going on?" Marc asks.
Zagreus raises his teary eyes to his. "I never was supposed to survive breaking the bond," he says. "This is just borrowed time."
"Stop this," Noor hisses again.
"I'm dying."
Her chin wobbles, and she looks everywhere but him because of course he's not dying, why would he be dying? Everything is alright, Harrow and Ammit are going to be dealt with, Marc and Steven are free, and Zagreus is going to be fine.
"Why are you doing this?" she asks, closing her eyes. "Don't do this."
Zagreus aches for her, as he steps to her, trying to get through to her and make her understand that no, everything is not fine, far from it.
He's dying, and he's leaving her behind.
When it finally hits Noor, she presses the heels of her palms into her eyes, huffing and puffing as she holds back sobs. "Why are you doing this?" she cries out, but she's not sure who she's talking to, really.
Zagreus tries to make this easy for her, tries to make this as painless as he possibly can. "Come on. Come on, you'll finally be rid of me, yeah? No more Love Island, no more Armour, no more lies."
"I don't care about that!" she screams out, face red and eyes almost bulging out her sockets. "I don't care about any of it. I didn't care that the Knight bond was in my blood," she tells him. "You picked me. You chose to be friends with me. Me. I had no one, and you can't leave me like this." She runs a shaky hand through her hair, trying to find the right words. "It's not about the Armour or – or the powers that came with it. You've been my best friend for 10 years. You want to leave me, then you explain to me – tell me why you're going to leave me."
He doesn't know the right words, doesn't even know the right feelings at this point. He can't do anything to save the broken shell that's becoming Noor. "I thought you were still angry at me," he tries. "You said you didn't forgive me."
It breaks her heart that he'd ever think that of her, but she deserves it. "I know I'm hard and stubborn, but you're wrong. Of course I forgive you. Of course I do. I love you." She licks her lips, breathing heavy. "And sure you lied and betrayed me, but you're also kind and selfless. You're funny and you're one of the best people I've ever met." She starts pointing at him. "And above all, you never give up. Don't you dare give up now."
Zagreus can almost feel the way desperation sinks in him, as he hurriedly steps forward and hugs her against his chest. She doesn't cry, she can't cry, because this is simply not happening. "Listen to me," he asks. "I've killed thousands of people in all my life."
"I don't care about that!" she immediately retorts, almost breaking free of his embrace.
"Please, please just let me end it by saving yours." He can feel his tears roll down his cheeks, but he's past caring that everyone can see. "Noor, I died a decade ago. Both my sisters are dead. You're the only part of me that is still alive, that's worth saving, and I was never going to risk that."
Noor genuinely doesn't get it. "You should have," she tells him. "I'm not worth your life." She finally hugs back, clinging to him, trying to keep close to her. "Don't do this, please."
He threads his hand through her hair, trying to calm her down. "You think I want to?" he laughs, his voice filled with tears. "Noor, I'm terrified. I've never been more afraid in my entire life."
She holds back her tears, nodding to herself. If he's scared, she won't cry. She doesn't want to make this worse for him.
He's going to die, and she doesn't want him to suffer.
They part, and he softly kisses her temple. "There we are," he says, despite the fact that his face is flooded by tears. "If Noor Dhawan can persevere through it all, so can I."
She wipes the tears from his face, doing her best to help. "I remember someone saying that crying in front of a girl is emasculating."
An involuntary laugh escapes him. "You're not any girl, you know."
She lets out a teary laugh, before pressing her lips together to stop them from trembling. "I'm sorry. Gods, we shouldn't laugh."
"Yes, we should," he tells her with a soft smile. "We should always laugh. And we should always care, even when it hurts."
She knows what he's doing. Saying goodbye like this, telling things he hopes will get her through the years without him. When she thinks of it that way, everything hurts.
This isn't the worst day of her life. At least, she has something to do. It's all the days he'll stay dead that are going to hurt. She doesn't want those days, not a single one of them.
He slowly takes off the big ring on his finger, the big one with intricate carvings, silvery. "This holds my Sight," he tells her, offering it to her. "I got an inkling that your soulmate isn't done with everything, and I want you prepared for the very possible occasion that will arise."
She takes it, sniffling. His now naked ring finger sits in her hand, and she feels her heart hammering in her chest. Something inky, almost faded rests there, on the side of his finger.
An impossible, heartbreaking thought makes its way to her brain, and she gapes, Zagreus already knowing what her next question will be.
"Zag," she says in a breath. "What does it mean? That Greek you keep calling me."
Tο μου μισό άμοιρη.
Zagreus calls her 'το μου μισό άμοιρη' when he's serious, sometimes. When she needs grounding. She's asked what it means countless times, but he never told her. She doesn't know the Greek alphabet all that well, and without being able to translate it, she's stopped asking.
He doesn't answer. He never does, not when she asks personal questions. She doesn't push either. Billions of years alive, you have to carry your fair share of trauma, and she doesn't want to force it out of him.
She wishes she did, though, sometimes. When she catches him staring in the void like he's doing now, playing with his ring, big sad eyes filled with whatever memory he's having. He opens his mouth, and for a second, she thinks he's finally going to speak up about whatever is haunting him, but it's never the case.
Thing is, you have one romantic soulmate. That's it. Just the one. Just like aromantic people have only one platonic soulmate – a kind of soulmate is unique to everyone. But there is only one person meant for you in this way. One romantic soulmate. One platonic soulmate, one twin flame, one unrequited love – though, those are rare, and painful.
"'My unlucky half'," he reveals, voice trembling softly. "It means my unlucky half."
And there, on his ring finger, are her initials.
If she didn't see it plain as day, Noor would never have believed it. She doesn't know how he did it, really.
He had to watch her find her own soulmates, two of them at that, knowing fully well that he could never be one of them. And he smiled all the way through it. Because that's what you do when you love somebody.
You smile, even if it kills you inside.
So Noor smiles softly, and holds him against her as he cries. They fall to the ground, the weight of his own body becoming too much for him.
"Marc, Steven, you better take care of her for me, or I swear–"
He's cut off as pain overcomes his body. It's starting. He's already half-dead.
"I'll be okay," Noor tells him, even though she won't be.
"I have to tell you," he chokes out, the words almost impossible for him to get out.
Noor shushes him, holding his face in her hands as he lays on her lap. "Shush... Everything you're about to say, I already know."
Still, he forces through the pain for her. "It was never a mistake. The Knight Bond was never wrong." Tears roll down his temples and into his hair. "Knowing you... changed me. Gods were never meant to care, or to feel, but you taught me how to." He winces, a particular wave of pain too powerful to bear. "And there's nothing I love more than you. You're the best thing that happened to me, and I am lucky that you were my Knight."
She exhales a laugh, shaking her head, doing her very best to hold back the tears. "We had a good story, didn't we?"
She can't believe it, but he smiles. "Shame that it was a sad one."
"Nah," she says. "It's only sad when it's over."
"Tell you what," he forces out, voice growing ever so thin. "I love sad endings... That's how you know the story mattered."
Noor clenches her jaw, and smiles, nodding, soothing him. Slowly, his eyes close, but his smile doesn't leave.
The next second, the Underworld reclaims his body, and Noor's arms fall flat against her sides as he disappears. She doesn't cry, just stares at the ring in her hand, confused at how quick it was.
He was there, and then he was just not, and Noor didn't know what to do with herself.
She feels arms around her, trying to make her stand up, trying to move her, but she can't move.
"Come on," Marc tries, his heart breaking for her, at how unresponsive she is. "Come on baby. It's over. He's gone."
The words sound weird in her head, because it doesn't make sense. He was just there, he was just talking to her, and now...
Zagreus is gone, and so is she.
When it hits her, a sob escapes her lips. "Oh my gods," she breathes out, clinging to Marc for dear life. "Oh my gods, he's gone."
It's not fair. He was always here. She doesn't even remember life before he came into it. There was Zagreus, and then there was not, and she never wanted to know what it would feel like.
Panic constricts her chest, and suddenly she can't breathe, thrashing in Marc's arms, crying and kicking and sobbing because oh my gods, her best friend just died.
"Noor, Noor, breathe, please," Layla cries out, coming to help.
"I can't," she chokes out, rocking back and forth, forcing Marc to kneel down next to her and just hold her. "I don't know what to do. I've been his Knight for a decade. I've always been his Knight, it's in my blood. Now that he's gone, who am I supposed to be?"
They don't know what to answer, and how could they? Something had been torn from her very being, there was no coming back from it.
Noor stayed there, unmoving. Trying to convince herself that none of this was real, to deny that any of it happened, but there was no avoiding this. After hours crying, she finally stopped, because she no longer had any tears in her body.
It all ended, walking out of the pyramid, with Marc carrying her out. The sun was rising in the East. Noor had tried her best to deny it, and had wanted nothing more but to escape her fate. But fate caught up to her, and here she was.
It was sunny. It was the end of their Greek Tragedy.
Author's Note: The epilogue should be up around tomorrow afternoon, fucking sobbing over here!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel like his death was very much not a secret, but the fact that Noor was unrequited soulmate? BAHA
gift while you wait;
( this is not a gift this is pain in disguise, young noor and zagreus take me out)