AN: I just realized I never did a disclaimer in the first chapter, so I'll do it in the last- I don't own House of Anubis, though, if it isn't too arrogant, I'm going to say that I should.
Chapter 29
Eddie wondered for a second why he didn't feel tortured. Osiris and Nina both had implied that he'd have Hell to pay if he was near Nina after getting the Osirian spirit back. Instead he just felt… actually Eddie felt wonderful. He felt driven, focused. Every one of his senses tightened, his thoughts clarified. He felt right.
He also felt terrified, but that was good. It was great actually. He felt terrified because Nina was terrified. Nina's heart felt ready to explode, and Eddie could feel it!
Nina's terror was the first thing Eddie noticed, but the second thing he noticed was the warm heat spreading across his chest. For a moment he wondered if this was his terrible death, but he didn't feel like he was dying. Eddie felt better than he had in years. He felt like he was on top of the world. No, no he felt like he was the world.
"You're not dying," Nina whispered, moving towards where Eddie and Patricia lie. Eddie realized that he had, at some point, pulled him and Patricia away from the part of the room that had turned sideways, yet he didn't actually remember doing it. Whatever the case Nina was right. He and Patricia were safe. He wasn't dying. "Why aren't you dying?"
"Don't sound so disappointed," Eddie told her with a smirk. He couldn't remember seeing Nina so confused. Her eyebrows wrinkled, her lips bunched up, it was actually really amusing. "But I think it has something to do with these fancy amulets you gave us."
Blinking, Nina reached out to grab the amulet, only pulling back once she sensed its immense power.
Wait, Eddie, how do you know it has immense power?
And yet he did. He couldn't see it, not the way he imagined Nina probably could, but he could sense it. He could hear it calling to him, the same way the tunnels were once again calling to him. Everything let off a little message-safe, not safe, really not safe- and the amulet did as well. It screamed serenity, protection. It held an aura that reminded Eddie somewhat of himself actually.
Well not himself, of the Osirian spirit which was once again in him.
"Am am an idiot," Nina declared, finally breaking into a wide smile. "Of course! The Osirian spirit is cursed so the amulet doesn't do anything about that, because it's a part of you, but the curse on the spirit is separate, and the amulet is blocking it! You're safe. I…"
Fabian moved towards Nina, grabbing her shoulder and squeezing it. "You can stay, if you want. You don't have to stay with me, but you can stay."
When Nina turned to Fabian, Eddie knew that she had forgotten those watching her completely. He had a sense of her feelings, something he could vaguely recall happening in those few days they'd spent together after he'd stopped Senkhara. Nina was… elated was probably the best adjective. He too understood what it felt like to realize that you could spend the rest of your life with someone you loved.
"I want to stay with you. I'm sick of destiny forcing me to leave you. I want… we're not destined but I want to try to make it work. I want to try."
Eddie decided he'd do his little sister a favor and kissed Patricia. It was the perfect distraction. Of course he was too busy kissing the woman he loved to notice if Nina and Fabian took the opportunity for a little kissing themselves, but the feelings Eddie was getting over his bond made him pretty sure that they'd come to their senses.
Good riddance it had taken long enough.
"So everything is good, right?" Patricia asked looking between their little crew. It was a fair question after all. They'd destroyed the room the rod and the Ram had been in. Hell Patricia probably didn't even realize that the name she'd called out had been the wrong one!
"Yes, everything is good. I'm the Osirian again, this amulet is making so being near Nina isn't killing me, Nina and Fabian are going to go hook up…"
"You're horrible," Fabian told his best friend, but the little grin Eddie noted on Nina's face said that, perhaps, Fabian's prudish sensibilities were going to get tested.
Eddie thought he should just tell his dad to move out for the night so they could all de-stress and reacquaint.
"Well, not everything is good," Nina admitted flipping open her bag and pulling out the rod. When she'd first grabbed it Eddie had assumed it was nothing of importance, but now that he was back in touch with his Osirian spirit the rod made his skin crawl. Every cell in his body was screaming that he should steal that rod from Nina and cast it into the deepest pit he could find. It was dangerous. It was very, very dangerous.
Perhaps Nina sensed Eddie's intentions, because she glared at him and jammed the rod back into her bag. "Someone was still willing to kill Cassie to get this, which means it has to be important. It's strange; I almost recognize it."
"We'll figure it out," Fabian promised, and Eddie didn't miss the way he grabbed Nina's hand and gave it a tight squeeze. "Whoever wants that rod isn't going to get it. We'll protect it. We'll stop them. Whatever is coming we'll fight it. Sibuna saves the day, one last time."
Nina shook her head, and a prickle of guilt flooded across her face. She was falling back into her worries, the worries that the past week should have eliminated, yet somehow had failed to do. Eddie and Fabian, apparently, would just have to keep trying to reassure her. "You have to understand that with me… with me it's never the last time. This is my life, and now Eddie is back in it too. It's never the last time."
"Well you're right, I am in this too, and I don't plan on abandoning the purpose I just fought to get back. So if you're stuck fighting for the rest of your life then I'll be right here fighting with you and keeping your Chosen One hero complex from getting you killed."
Patricia stepped forward and practically glared at Nina. Eddie had no doubt that, if there had been some liquid around, Nina would be drenched. "And I'm stuck with this idiot, so you're stuck with me. Besides this all started when I locked you in the attic. If I never did that there would be no Sibuna at all. You can't get rid of me that easily."
Nina turned towards Fabian, desperation in her eyes and quivering lips, "Fabian? You're the only one without some sort of destiny forcing you into this. You can leave, have a normal life, make up with Eva and go back to how things were a week ago."
"You're right, this isn't my destiny, but I'm not leaving. You're not getting away from me one more time. Once you've seen the kind of things we saw you can't live a normal life. This is my normal. This is my life. I'm here, just as Eddie and Patricia are. I'll fight with you for the rest of my life. Hell, we know ghosts exist. If I die I'll come back to fight with you one last time."
"Sibuna?"
Eddie grinned as he raised his hand over his eye. As he did so, a vision passed over him. He saw Amber trying to explain the name Sibuna to Fabian and Nina. He saw the whole Sibuna crew, as they changed and grew, from Alfie to Willow. He saw the Cup of Ankh, Senkhara, Ammutt, Ra. He even saw things he was sure hadn't happened. He saw Amber again, looking a bit older but plenty fashionable, and she was yelling that they'd continued Sibuna without her. He saw Jerome up at Anubis House with Poppy, yelling at them for ever letting her get involved in something that had gotten him in so much trouble. He saw Nina aging, her smile darkening some, but never ceasing to lighten whenever Fabian walked into the room.
He saw fights, and celebrations. He saw friends old and new gathering to work through a world none of them truly understood. He even saw Patricia, Fabian and Nina crying over a gravestone, and he knew it was his, but it was okay, because they were all old. Besides, there were some children there too, and those children were ready to tell the stories of the Chosen One and the Osirian, not for the last time, but for the first.
END
I'm going to be honest- this wasn't the original ending. In fact this was supposed to be only the exposition, the little plot hole Touchstone of Ra created that I had to work through. It ended up be 45k worth of exposition, however, and I just don't think that says anything good about where the rest of the story would go. Sorry if this disappoints you. Perhaps I'll someday write the rest of the story, explain what's really going on with this rod Nina grabbed, or perhaps one of you want to write it for me. I'll give you all my notes, not that I have many. It's an interesting story, but it's not this story. This story was one of our little gang coming to terms with their pasts and their destinies. This was a story of them realizing that it never has to be the last time. We'll all a part of Sibuna-yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We'll never leave that behind, not really, and that is the story I needed to tell.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for reading. You've been absolutely amazing. Those of you who have reviewed- you really keep me going.
Special thanks to Violinrocker12. She was the first person who ever read one of my House of Anubis fanfics, three years ago now, and she's the reason I say people over the internet can become friends. She inspires me to write, and inspires me to always come back to Nina and Eddie. (She also is the first person I ever stalked, so remember to never tell people your name and state over the internet. It took me 38 minutes to find out where she lived, and I was 15. Stay safe children!)
Also thanks to Gryffindork. If any of you have read her reviews, you'll know that she's never actually seen House of Anubis, she's just my 'daughter' aka one of the Freshman at my school I have adopted. Still her firm devotion to this fic led me to write many days when I didn't want to, so I think we can make her an honorary member of Sibuna. I'll be sure to gather her sacrifice and make her take the pledge next time I see her.
But truly, thank you so much to everyone who has read this fic and all my fics. I feel like I'll always come back to writing for this fandom, but I had to do it 'one last time' before I graduated high school. Writing my Ring of Osiris series Freshman year helped me adjust to high school, and so writing one more House of Anubis fic before I graduated seemed like the way to go. Thank you for joining in this journey.
Hope
