We are Moon Knight
Layla was pressing herself to Marc's body while feeling its energy getting drained from it. The life fainting away in her hands. She could feel the tears rolling down her face, could feel her heart beating in her chest while Marc's heart was pierced by a bullet.
She didn't know what she should do. How could she leave him here while he was dying? How could she save him even though she knew, deep inside, she would lose him again. The bullet prevented his heart could beat. She leaned down and kissed him on his forehead.
"Oh, Layla! Here! Down here— a bit to the left my love... Uh, no. That was too far. Here, no—" a high pitched voice talked from a distance. At least that was what Layla thought. There was no one else in this room, who still could talk beside her.
Scanning the room with a glare on her face, she carefully moved her hand towards her knife, squeezing its hilt tightly. "Who is there?" She asked cautiously. Her other hand still holding Marc, pressing him against her body, letting his head rest against her abdomen.
"Right here! A bit down, yes! Hi!" The voice, that definitely did not belong to the body of the dead man, said. "Layla. So due to me now having your attention, thank you by the way. Uh— where was I? Ah! Oh-" the man sagged into himself as another one came to life, looking sadly towards the man lying in her arms. "That doesn't look too good?" The voice asked with a sad tune in it, even though it was more a observation than a question.
Great observation. As if I didn't know that already...
She glared at the corpse, pointing her knife towards it. "Who are you?" The corpse did an awkward smile before answering with shining eyes, "Oh! I am Taweret, goddess of childbirth and fertility. Marc wanted me to speak to you, to help... But," the corpse's eyes travelled again to the body of Marc and Steven. "He— they? They were in the Duat. Went to the fields of Reeds but got a chance from Osiris as far as I know-"
Layla sighed, "We don't have time for this! What do you want? Why would..." She took a shaky breath, continuing, "Why would they get another chance only to have to die again because Khonshu is not there to heal them!"
She felt her emotions take over without her consent. The tears started to fall again as she tried to suppress a cry that wanted to tear itself out of her throat.
"They thought... You know- Uh.. Marc told me great things about you! You could be my Avatar. We could help, you would be a great Avatar," Taweret announced. She still sounded somewhat sorry about the circumstances they are finding themselves in.
Layla looked down towards the pain contoured face of her husband and then again to the corpse which was used from Taweret so the Goddess could talk to her. She thought about what to choose, what would be the right decision to make?
After some long and exhausting moments which felt like hours, she let her shoulders sag down and let her eyes close. The feeling of her husband in her arms was suffocating.
She let go, stood up and looked into the eyes of the corpse which contained Taweret. "I... I will. But only temporary. You hear me?"
The corpse slumped to the ground and Layla could feel an invasive presence in her body. "Gladly! You will be fabulous, I am sure of it!" Taweret spoke through Layla's body. "We will be the best team, I promise!" She continued and let Layla have again full control of her own body.
Inhaling a big breath, Layla wobbled a bit to the side as she got the control back. She couldn't really explain what that feeling was but she knew that she never had felt it in her whole life.
The feeling ascended to her body and she closed her eyes. It was a feeling of power and safety, and with that, she felt protected. Opening her eyes again, she could see the change of her clothes and the heavy but at the same time the light weight of two swords and wings at her back as she opened her arms with a smile.
Layla could feel Taweret's enthusiasm in her whole body. Taking a deep breath in and turning to leave, she felt a weird feeling in her gut. The feeling was accompanied by a weirdly white glow in the room.
⊰᯽⊱┈──╌ •| ⊱✿⊰ |• ╌──┈⊰᯽⊱
Looking around, the only thing that could be seen was white. White walls, white ground. White sky. No doors or windows that could show them where they are. No real light source to give shadows. Everything was plain white, whit the only contrast being them.
Steven started rushing towards Marc but got hold of by Jake as he silently shook his head. He had a grim look on his face as he tried to figure out where they are,
This is our mind space, right...?
And what exactly was happening with Marc? They were just about to die again and suddenly they are in their mind while Marc was crumbled on the ground, muttering to himself and hitting himself with his hands repeatedly. As the latter occurred, he let go of Steven and went to Marc himself.
"Marc, Marc stop that," Jake said, just to be ignored by Marc as if he was not hearing them. "Marc, please stop. You are hurting yourself," Steven then tried only to be met with a violent headshake and more muttering.
They were now able to hear some few words of the muttering, consisting of: I'm sorry, I will fix this, Moon Knight, Khonshu and probably more that they still couldn't make out due to Marc slurring all words together as if in trance.
Jake sighed heavily and stepped towards Marc, kneeling down and taking Marc's arms into his hands and holding those away from Marc's head.
"I don't know why you are doing this but I— we will not be watching while you hurt yourself, Marc. What the fuck is going on?" Jake asked and got Marc to look at him. He wouldn't admit to it later, but the dead look in his brother's eyes scared him. What was the use of Steven and him if the one they should protect deems themselves dead?
Shortly after looking at Steven, who kneeled beside him and laid a hand on Marc's knee, he figured that it scared Steven too.
They watched as he came back to himself, still holding him, and the faraway look in his eyes got taken over by a hurt one.
"I will.. I will fix this— We..." He took a short intake of air, closed his eyes to recollect himself and continued, "We got a second chance and I won't— I can't just let it go to waste like this. Layla needs us. Khonshu... Khonshu needs an Avatar. We can help. I— I can help."
Marc stood up from the surface, still a bit wobbly on his feet but standing. He looked straight ahead and then to the other two that stood in front of him.
"I am Moon Knight. And as long as I will get accepted as that, I will do whatever is needed to be done."
Jake and Steven looked towards each other and then again at Marc, smiling sadly.
"We. We are Moon Knight. You are not alone in this, Marc," Steven said, parting him on the shoulder.
Suddenly the ground opened up under them and the only thing they could feel after that was the air as it flew past them as they fell downwards.
The next thing Marc knew is the unbearable pain in his chest turning into a piercing pressure. How the ground cut into his back, the sound of water. He slowly rose from where he stood, having his eyes closed, but still being able to feel the energy flowing through his body.
He could feel how the white wrappings of the suit enveloped his body and how the pressure in his chest was soothed for the time being.
Breathing was still difficult and he could still feel the bullets in their chest but he could get enough air into himself to stand, to fight. He slowly opened his eyes as he registered that, yes, his heart was still lacerated by the bullet in it.
He could feel the panic set in again, just to be met by strong arms around him and a voice that called his name, crying. After his eyes focused, he could see that it was Layla who was hugging him, crying out his name.
Slowly and carefully he moved his arms upwards, laying them around her waist and back, sagging into her touch.
"Hey, hey... I am here, yeah? I'm here. We are here, it's fine," Marc whispered into her shoulder as he buried his face in it. Taking a deep breath in, he let go of her and stepped one, or two steps backwards. "You good, babe?"
Layla raised her head to look at her husband and asked, "If I am good? If I am good!? You just... Marc! I thought... You died there, you just almost died again. How am I supposed to be good?"
Furrowing his brows, he gradually bends down to kiss her on the forehead. "Yeah.. Sorry about that?" He said tentatively. Giving her a once over to make sure she was fine, that the bleeding from before had stopped, he figured that she had other clothes than before he collapsed.
Seeing his confused glance, she smiled slightly, setting in for an explanation, "You know the goddess Taweret, yes?" She asked, more like a statement. Marc opened and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say. If what he thought was true, she just accepted being the Avatar of the hippo Goddess. He didn't know how to feel about that, but her reassuring smile and the enthusiasm that Steven showed towards that was enough to slightly ease the unwelcoming feeling of hurt.
Taking in his surroundings he slowly raised his hand towards the moon shaped blade on his chest, right above his still heart. He closed his eyes, going inward and calming himself in the presences of Steven and Jake, he opened them again.
"So... How do you have the suit? Is Khonshu back?" She asked, looking back to Marc, who just looked as puzzled as she felt. "I don't know. He's not— I can't feel him, the armour is also not healing so I will count that as a hint on him not being here." Marc casually said like it wasn't a big deal that he couldn't heal from the bullets pitched in his chest.
"Marc. Marc are you saying the bullets are still... In you?" She questioned. After receiving not more than a one-shouldered shrug she let out a loud sigh.
He is standing, he is talking so... Maybe the armour is healing him plenty enough to not die from it until they can get Khonshu to take care of it.
Layla was not fond of the idea to let Khonshu again on Marc and Steven, but she couldn't see another way.
"Then let us get out of here and kill some estúpidos!" The grin on Jake's face was dark but still somewhat reassuring and Marc smiled carefully towards the reflection in the water below.
"Maybe... Let us talk about that killing part again, yeah mate?" Steven asked, but Jake already didn't listen to him anymore, continuing to inquire that they leave.
"Yes, yeah, we will leave, Jake," Marc muttered, shaking his head in delighted exasperating. Ignoring the confused look on Layla's face and pointing towards the entrance.
Layla nodded her head and walked out first, listening to Taweret's muttering about how it shouldn't be possible for Marc to summon the suit while Khonshu was not there. How they shouldn't be able to still connect with Khonshu's powers after he got ripped from them and imprisoned in his ushabti.
She again looked behind her to Marc, who was walking right behind her, looking around. She saw the slight limp he tried to conceal as soon as she started to watch him and some spots of red on the otherwise white and golden robe.
After they got out of there and they ran back to the car because they couldn't find another way to get back to the Pyramid of Giza faster, they started the car and drove as fast as possible towards it.
"So, do you want to talk about what the hell just happened? And who is Jake?" Layla asked, shortly looking at Marc, whose breathing kind of sounded off. She offered him a silent glare, due to him still not taking the mask off. She wasn't sure if it made his breathing easier or if he was stubborn and didn't want to be seen in his current condition.
"I... Don't know. Not exactly? We died. We came back to life. And Jake is another one in here," he said, pointing his left arm to his head and moving his finger in a circle action.
Marc kind of sounded apologetic about how he said it, but he couldn't think straight and he just didn't know how else to explain their situation.
"Oh? Okay, well... Tell him I said hi? Can they hear us talking? Are they good? Or are they also just "fine"," she said, her voice growing heavier as she got to the last part.
"Ohhh, tell her I'm good! Worried to hell and back, but good!" Steven announced, watching from the side mirror. "Yeah, me too. Would feel better if some tonto would give me the body so he can rest for a fucking minute!" Jake exclaimed, glaring at Marc from the rearview mirror.
"They say they are good. Steven's worried, Jake," as the last part of what Jake said started to set in he glared up at the rearview mirror and continued, "you too. He's being a jerk." He finished, coughing.
The next few minutes of the drive were silent as they passed some dead bodies. Taweret said that they didn't have much time anymore, that they had already freed Ammit.
Jake and Marc cursed at the same time, frustration getting to all of them.
As the pyramid came into view, they also could start to feel the pain. The anxious feeling of being too late. Of already having failed.
They stopped the car, got out of it and went as fast as they could towards the pyramid. A strong gust of wind came from behind them, which helped them get towards the pyramid faster.
They got some members of Ammit's worshippers and fought them, killed just a few and went further towards the pyramid.
Marc looked around and saw how the souls of the maybe, maybe not innocent people went out of their bodies and how they flew towards the top of the pyramid and into it. While Layla searched the entrance that Harrow probably used to get into the pyramid, Marc sprinted further onto it.
"Oh bollocks, we are a bit late, aren't we? Oh man, we are gonna die..." Steven whispered in their shared headspace, only to be met by a grumble from Marc and a slight slap on his head from Jake.
"Vamos a atrapar y matar a esos hijos de puta," Jake just declared, again watching for dangers that were coming for them.
All three of them were able to hear the loud crack below them and after that voices that were talking. One booming, female, one that sounded suspiciously like Harrow and other few that we're too silent to make out.
The ground below their feet broke in and Marc fell.
Mierda.
Oh bollocks!
Why the fuck are we always falling?