Chapter 11
Steven?" Chase knew they were in the safe space. They knew they were sleeping too. But they needed to be here, to relax and destress.
The scenery wasn't sunny Greece anymore. It was their flat. Safe. Known.
Chase fell onto the sofa, grabbing the blanket that was resting on the back and dragged it over them, then curled into a ball.
"Think chase…this can be used to your advantage" chase murmured out, jumping slightly at the hand that was on their head.
"Hey kid. What you muttering about now?" Chase scrambled up, tears threatening to spill over and threw themself into a hug that Marc had to reciprocate, "hey, hey what's all this about?"
"I fucked up. That's what" chase sniffed out
"Okay. Tell me what's happened"
And chase did. Told Marc about him going missing, about meeting Nyx and the events that led up to now.
"I..Marc I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm losing.."
"You're not though. Are you?" Marc ran a hand through chase's hair, and chase let a small hum out.
"Explain, please?"
"Well. You got this far by sheer determination and spite."
"Half Of it was spite because of khonshu" chase admitted
"See? There we go. Don't give up because of this now. Use what this Nyx person said to your advantage" Marc explained.
"How did you get so smart?" Chase chuckled out, glancing up to Marc who just grinned
"I have my ways, chase. Steven's about, if you wanna talk to him that is"
"When have I ever rejected an invite to speak to Steven?"
"Alright then. I'll go fetch him" chase wondered if they could stay here forever. They'd rather do that. Stay away from the real world.
"Chase! Hey hi, Marc said you weren't feeling great"
"Yeah well that's Marc for ya. Worried about everyone else but himself" chase chuckled out, shifting about so they could snuggle with Steven
"So, khonshu's latest avatar, huh?"
"Temporary avatar" chase corrected, "take him back I hate it" they then huffed out
"Once the bird brains your god. He unfortunately stays with you"
"Ugh. What a nightmare" chase grumbled out, an amused snort left Steven at that.
"You can do this, chase. You're stronger than you think you are"
"Mmm…what if I'm not?"
"Then that's a lie. All that does is stop you from being amazing."
"Steven?"
"Yes, love?"
"Stay with me a bit longer?"
"Of course I will"
___
"I have a plan." Chase hadn't even let Layla calm down from the jumpscare chase had caused when the kicked the bedroom door open.
"Oh my god-
Does the plan require me to die by any chance?!"
"No. But it involves the scales" Chase sat opposite Layla, a grin on their face and that scales In their hands
"...explain" Layla urged Chase to explain.
"Taweret has been weighing souls for a while now, right?" Layla nodded, chase continued, "taweret can bind souls to this chunky thing"
"You think she can?" Layla asked
"Yeah. She knows death magic, she can use it through you, to our advantage"
"Right…how- how can we do this?" Chase looked towards Layla
"We'll need to trap Nyx. And bind her soul to this thing. Think of it, like binding Ammit to harrow." Layla nodded, then glanced back to chase.
"And if it doesn't work?"
"...I hold her while the chant is being done and you shoot the both of us"
"A wise decision, young chase" khonshu rumbled out
"For our last resort, khonshu." Chase pointed out. For some reason, chase knew that would be the resort they had to use.
Chase's phone rang and the duo jumped in surprise, then chase answered their phone
"Miss knight speaking." Chase stuck their phone on loud speaker
"Hey uh- miss knight we- we have a situation in times square?" That's the spider kid. Layla and chase looked to each other and Layla was the one to speak
"What kind of situation?" They didn't need an answer as the groans were more than enough of an answer.
"Does she ever give up?" Chase grumbled out, "we'll be there soon. Get everyone to safety" chase hung up, placing the scales on the coffee table and looked to khonshu, "Khonshu, I need your full cooperation."
"And you will have it young chase. The time for fighting against each other is over" glad dust bird got the memo finally.
"Menhit, I'll need to use you. I can't take the chance on Nyx getting khonshu, however annoying he may be"
"Understood young cub."
"Chase, we need to go, now."
"Okay. Alright let's get going" chase hit their chest, menhits armour covering them and the last piece to come to their body was their mask, the bright gold eyes glinting in the midday sun.
___
Time square was…well. Swarming. Teeming with undead.
This was ridiculous.
"Miss scarab!" The kid. Spiderman landed in front of them, looking to Layla and then chase, then chase saw the mask frown, "where's Miss knight?"
"She's doing something else, she asked me to come and help" chase explained. Two secret identities were hard.
"This is Menhits warrior, the golden Lion. What's the situation?"
"There's hundreds, miss scarab, the girl from the smuggler raid is there too, right- right in the middle of it." Spiderman explained, panic evident in his voice.
Chase gently held his shoulders and let their mask fall, a soft smile now coming to their face, "we have this. If Dr. Strange isn't here, call him immediately. We'll cut the wall back as far as we can"
"M-miss chase-" chase held a finger up to their mouth, winked and the mask went back on, smacked their chest with a fist and looked towards menhit.
"Menhit, take khonshu, find Anubis."
"Already on it, little cub. Come on, bird brain" menhit vanished and khonshu shook his head
"The cat should stay by its owner. But I suppose I should go and help" and khonshu vanished swiftly after.
"Layla, help as many people as you can. I'm going for Nyx." Layla grabbed chase's arm and looked to her friend
"Please come back. I can't lose another part of my family" Chase's heart squeezed. Layla considered them family? Eyes scanned over Layla's face and chase hugged her
"I'll be back. I promise you, I'll annoy you so much you'd wish I'd go away. But we need to stop this first." Chase pulled away from the hug, looked at Layla one last time and ran, their mask going back up
___
"Your punching is terrible chase" marc observed, holding the punching bag steady and looked to chase, "try again" chase stared at Marc
"You're crazy-"
"If you're to be an Avatar of a god, you need to have strength in those puny arms of yours" khonshu stated and chase went to punch khonshu
"Puny arms huh? Gimme your beak you brainless bird."
____
Chase sliced and kicked their way through the mass of undead bodies, punching some across the jaw and stabbing some in the head with their sai's.
Nyx was in their sight.
Chase kicked the undead they were dealing with in the chest, falling into another one and they ran into the middle where Nyx was, lungs dragging breath back into chase's body, and let their mask fall.
"Nyx, baby please stop this"
"Chase? You're-" Nyx glanced about, "of all people why you"
"Hey c'mon. Stop this now, and- and we can talk, yeah? But you're hurting innocent people, people who've done nothing wrong" chase held their hands out to Nyx, slowly inching forward to her and Nyx narrowed their eyes.
"No. Oh no I know what you're doing" Nyx hissed out, "I'm not getting detained by the avengers because of you"
"No one is detaining anyone honey. Please just- stop this" chase held Nyx's forearms gently, their thumbs rubbing circles on the fabric of Nyx's outfit and pressed their forehead against hers, "you don't have to do this. You don't have to hold onto the trauma. The- the memories. You don't need to." Behind them, Menhit and Khonshu were side by side fighting Anubis and had seen the god of death being thrown into a nearby building
"I can't let this world be run by the people who've corrupted everything they've touched. I can't let murderers walk about free. Ammit failed…but, but I know what I'm doing. I know how to cleanse this world chase and- and I want you by my side"