-51-

Jack

Jack was a little offended that his sister's soul bonds all tried to grab her and scamper off the second the roof caved in.

Did they really think he would let any of them get hurt now that he'd finally accomplished the most difficult of his goals? Honestly, out of everything there was left to do, getting back to his own body had been the hardest part.

It would be smooth sailing from here.

As he held them all in a bubble of swirling dark aether rising out of his mastaba he spotted the assembled army and amended his last thought.

Well, relatively smooth.

He set everyone down gently, leaving Isolde shrouded in his aether until she was ready to step out of it.

The second she did, it would be glorious. He could feel the anticipation increasing, like jitters tingling through his body.

How strange it was, to feel sensation again.

"Good afternoon!" Jack called out to the gathered, angry mass of berserkers who'd gone silent watching their ascent. They must have been in shock because they hadn't bothered opening fire. Jack's voice carried over them, tone taunting. "Aris, I would have a word if you'd be so inclined."

He couldn't help it, he was amused by all this.

What a pathetic display of force.

Horus' military forces, thousands of men and women he'd bestowed a portion of his own power, all piled together knowingly following the command of a traitor. A man that had kept Horus' confidence for almost two thousand years.

No matter how Jack felt about Horus, such betrayals could not be allowed to stand.

It was too embarrassing, and it set a precedent that such behavior was condoned.

It wasn't.

(Also, he would be glad to rid Horus of his third in command. Isolde killed Gaius. Jack could kill Aris. Emeric would be down to no one left he could hope to trust. Glorious.)

A figure toward the front of the crowd stepped forward with a smirk on his long, pointed face. He was dressed in camouflage and sporting so much decoration upon his breast that it was no wonder the man had gotten too big for his britches.

Aris' body language screamed confidence. As if he hadn't just consigned himself and all his followers to death. Literally.

Jack felt Isolde shroud into the shadows of the building ruins behind them, leaving his aetheric protection behind. Kai and the Mikaelsons none the wiser, still assuming she was under the aetheric barrier he'd left up. Jack left it spinning to keep up the pretense while Mune got ready to merge.

"Quite the band of pillaging marauders you have assembled, sir." The man shouted, remaining 'safely' tucked away into his crowd of berserkers. Hiding behind heavy artillery and the hope that his opponent was about as strong as Renenutet had been.

Jack noticed Renenutet. Jack used his soul sight to check on Renenutet. Poor dear. She wasn't yet dead, merely in agony. The giant snake was crushed and bleeding beneath a concrete slab. Destroyed during the bombing. Well, there was nothing for it until Isolde could get to her. She would simply have to suffer for now.

Oh the mortal press was going to have a field day with this if they didn't find a way to cover it up fast. This was a solitary, abandoned ruin on the outskirts of Alexandria. If they could wrap it up quickly they might be able to blame an earthquake or something.

Regardless, Emeric would be furious to know this had happened without his permission, let alone his presence.

Jack couldn't bring himself to be upset about that. A headache for the eldest was a morale boost for him.

"Well that's simply not true, Aris." Jack adopted a teasing, friendly tone, though he was feeling anything but. "I was here long before your charming facility. Pity you didn't know it, we could've had tea. Unfortunately you're trespassing the sacred grounds of my tomb and, well, since my sister built it by hand for me I find I'm quite possessive of it." Jack snarked, reveling in this feeling.

The flow of life returned to him more each passing second as his soul settled into his body as if it had never left.

All the while Elijah's blood revitalized his organs and his strength was returning, and fast.

"I can't lie to you. I'm upset about it." Jack continued, the corners of his mouth uplifting at the fearful ripple that surged through the crowd. "I'd give you a chance to return home and call off your attack but, well, you and your legion have betrayed House Alexander and, though I find it funny that my elder brother has been taken for a fool, that is unacceptable, Aris."

That seemed to stun Aris into speechlessness and he guffawed for a moment before stammering, red faced; "W-who are you?"

Jack's lip twitched, watching Isolde slowly emerge from the balcony of a destroyed building behind the army.

"You'll see, and then you'll regret asking." He taunted, then raised his chin. "You're only watching what's in front of you." Jack told them, as he watched his sister step out into the light of day, into the dawning of a new era. "You've forgotten to check what's behind you."

All heads turned just in time to see the fire explode around Isolde.

"Thus, as a phoenix from the ashes she rises." One of the brother's said behind him, he was pretty sure it was Elijah. Sounded like something Elijah would say.

Jack found he had to agree with that. Without further delay, he clapped his hands and spun to face the men behind him.

"Not that I don't believe you're all capable of helping, but I would prefer you all stay out of the way." He told them, smiling even as their faces adopted offended expressions. He held his hands up. "I wish to take this opportunity to spread my wings, so to speak. I was never healthy enough to join in before and I'd like to unleash uninhibited destruction. I can't do that if I worry I might trample any of you without noticing. Indulge me. More battles are on the horizon, you shall have your chance sooner than you think."

Kol

There was no choice but to give Jack a nod and acquiesce to his request.

The God wanted to fight beside his sister for the first time when illness no longer prevented him from doing so. Who were they to try and tell him no? Kol suspected that any arguments presented would've fallen on deaf ears and Jack would force the issue.

But Kol was concerned about Jack's promise that there were more battles on the horizon.

After today Kol wanted this all to be over.

Cliché as it was, he was hoping for at least a hundred years of quiet, peaceful times with Isolde. A time where they weren't worried about anything more than the next time they could get their hands on each other and wile away an afternoon without a care. He was beginning to miss the last few weeks when he'd had the opportunity to simply be in her presence without all this heavy stuff happening.

But now she was merged with Ra and based on the amount of sheer power he could feel coming from her all the way where he stood, his dream was going to be crushed by the bitter reality.

"You will have what you seek." Jack said, drawing Kol out of his Gods eyes were trained on him, face more severe than he'd yet to see it. Right, Kol forgot Jack had complete dominion over the soul and with that came the ability to know what he was thinking. "But first, there are some things that need to happen. You don't know me yet, but I know you. You'll fight for that future. Won't you?"

Of course he would. He wasn't giving up, he was just hopeful that they could get to that point sooner rather than later. He was tired of the constant fighting. It had been a thousand years of this, he was quite ready for it to end.

Kol blinked at the God, then huffed good-naturedly.

"Well, for the sake of that promised better future I suppose we should get this over with and get a move on, right mate?"

"There are things that require our attention elsewhere." Klaus added, hands behind his back. "Plans to conspire, people to kill, battles to win."

"Absolutely." Jack grinned at them. "I'm going to snag Aris from the crowd before Isolde kills him. I'll send him your way. I'm sure there's a lot of information worth torturing out of him and I know you'd all be happy to do that"

An echoing, unhinged laugh came from above them like two voices at once before they could respond.

Kol's eyes snapped up to see Isolde, hovering above the army now, grinning down at them. The fire had dissipated from around her but she looked no less intimidating now than she had been a minute ago.

"Hello Aris."

The look on her face was more wicked than Kol had ever seen it and between that and the way a shudder of fear ran through the assembled militants… gods it was like a shot of adrenaline and lust straight through him.

How was it that each time he thought Isolde couldn't get any more attractive that was exactly what she went and did?

"Empress." Aris, the traitor Legatus, acknowledged with a respectful nod. Kol could see the faint tremble in the man's shoulders from this angle. He wondered how frightened he looked up close. "Congratulations on your merge."

Whatever Kol had thought would come out of the enemies mouth, that hadn't been it.

"Thank you." Isolde responded with a gracious nod. "It has been a long time coming."

"Is she serious?" Kai asked, glancing between them all with raised brows. "Is she really being civil right now?"

"Hush." Jack commanded with an edge to his voice that made Kol weary. Each of their backs straightened at his tone. Whether they all knew it or not, Kol couldn't tell. But right now, Kol was more intimidated by Jack than he'd been Emeric and that was saying something. Jack turned to look at them with a raised brow. "Watch. Listen."

"For nearly two thousand years of service and friendship, I would humbly request a quick death." Aris continued, and he sank to his knees. Each and every one of the soldiers stared at him in uncomprehending shock. Kol couldn't see the look on Aris' face, now that he was buried in the crowd.

"For two thousand years of service and friendship…" Isolde began and from behind him he heard Klaus grumble she better not. "I grant you nothing. For those two thousand years were rife with betrayal and manipulation. You, and Gaius, and Marcus. Conspiring against my family. Doing untold damage to our reputation, to our system, and to the world at large. You cannot escape punishment for these crimes so easily. That you seek a lesser judgment makes you more coward than man."

Even Kol flinched at Isolde's last remark, though he did not disagree.

"I will grant you your death." Isolde nodded, smiling down at the men who shifted uncomfortably. "But it will be far from merciful. In fact, I want to play a game." Isolde's taunted, and her dual voice echoed across the desert. Masculine and feminine in one. "You might know it. It became popular a few decades ago. It's called… the floor is lava."

And with a lazy flick of her wrist, the Earth rumbled and sand began to shift and smolder underneath the men as lava erupted up from underneath.

Jack chortled with glee, screaming with all the exuberance of a child with a sugar rush; "Wait for me, I'm joining you!" Before turning back to Klaus and the rest. "I'd recommend putting at least a half mile between yourselves and us. One of you will help Kai, yes?"

"Yeah, one of you take me, please. That lava's getting closer to us and I really don't wanna be vaporized." Kai told them, pointing out that more lava was bursting from the ground and it was beginning to spread outward.

Finn stepped forward and put an arm around the young siphoner. "I'll take him."

"Good good, thank you Finn. See you soon!" Jack waved at them and was gone in a mere blink.

Kol had a moment to watch Jack reappear in the center of the chaos in front of them. He watched in fear and incomprehension as Isolde's twin brother started growing and reshaping until before them stood the God Anubis, complete with the jackal head, towering over the shattered buildings all around.

"You know what, I'm into it." Kai said, breaking their concentration and reminding them that they should move. "Is it weird I think that he's really hot like that, too?"

"Yes," Nik deadpanned.

They were just about to move when Jack dipped his hand down into the panicking army, plucked Aris up from the ground, and tossed him underhand toward them. They allowed the two thousand year old to smack the ground near them in a mess of flailing limbs, sand blowing everywhere, and they only moved to retrieve him when he stopped rolling.

"I'll keep him from using any power." Kai volunteered, wrapping an arm around Finn's back in preparation for transport.

Nik and Elijah acknowledged Kai with a nod and were on Aris in an instant. Nik had him up by the neck as they escorted him farther out into the desert, choosing a tall sand dune from which to watch the chaos in the city below.

Isolde

Ra's wrath was all consuming. She could feel it, gripping her like a vice and pulling her along regardless of how she felt about it.

Why was he so angry?

She received her answer the second the flames had swarmed her body. As they danced and licked across her skin they told a story of loss and betrayal. Of sorrow and mourning the likes of which even she could never begin to understand.

Like each of the Creators, Ra had lost everything as life was drained from his planet to protect the galaxy from Chaos' creation - Apophis. Unlike the rest of them, who'd descended to the Earth and had each other, Ra had been alone. Left to live upon the remnants of the Sun, amongst the ruin of what was once a joyous home surrounded in the love of his people, in total solitude.

Lost in his loneliness, he'd sought a vessel that could contain his essence so that he might stave his loneliness and create a stronger bond with his Earthbound 'siblings.'

He'd tried, for hundreds of thousands of years, but no creation of Yahweh, of Earth, could ever house him. Thus, he'd gone to the primordial of night and of darkness to aid him in forging a vessel that could carry the burden of his essence.

Isolde and Jack were created, one to house Ra and the other to potentially house Darkness, Erebus, should he decide to bind himself to Earth one day.

The other Creators, afraid of the outcome of Ra's presence on Earth and his strength, grew fearful of what he would become once firmly inside a proper vessel. They worried that he would crush them under heel, steal their territories for himself, and there would be nothing they could do but be held under his weight for eternity.

So they'd searched for a way to keep Ra from his vessel. To manipulate a situation viable enough that the young, freshly created lesser deity would be sealed away from Ra and unable to complete the merging of souls.

They'd gone to Osiris and convinced him to take her to the Underworld with him. But their first attempt failed. Anubis had taken her place in the Underworld and they were thwarted.

Their second attempt, however, had worked out perfectly.

For a time.

Until now.

Isolde came back to reality with a sharp gasp and a sudden awareness of the screams of dying men all around and hot, bubbling heat coming from below her.

She'd known it hadn't been Theo in Bis' memory. It couldn't have been. Theo wasn't home during that time, he'd gone to Madagascar as an emissary to broker a new trade agreement and he'd taken Vera with him.

"What the hell happened here?" Isolde asked aloud from where she hovered.

The last thing she remembered was deciding it was long past time to step into the sun while Bis was distracting Aris and the army.

I had much to show you. As you were preoccupied I took it upon myself to handle these traitors for you.

Isolde paused. Comprehension dawned with the realization that Ra was speaking to her mind.

Having been connected to the wrong being for some time I gather a perfect merge would be an adjustment for you. Ra was saying, his voice a soothing rumble at the back of her mind. Isolde's hand swiped through the air and the lava sputtered… forming little dragons of fire that took to the skies all around, raining flames down upon the men below.

She hadn't done that.

Ra was controlling her body.

But Ra continued speaking nonplussed by her rising panic.

It was for me that you were created, this partnership will be far easier than it had been with Anubis. Most often you will not notice that I am there, but I shall always be.

Isolde didn't know what she should say to that. No one had told her what the merge would be Iike and she'd suspected it would've been much like her merge with the 'monster' had been.

She was quite wrong.

I will only take control in extenuating circumstances, you have my word.

She didn't know if she believed that. She had no recollection of what had happened to bring things to this point. How the lava was spawned beneath her and why thousands of berserkers were dying.

"I told Yahweh I would harm no one…" she mumbled.

…that did not seek to harm you and yours, I know. Fret not. These men had every intention of harming you and yours. As angry as I am, I do not seek to turn that fury upon the innocent. You and I are alike in many ways. Such was the intention behind your creation.

Isolde softened. There was something about this presence, despite the inferno of his rage that boiled beneath her skin and in her very soul, that she found soothing. She trusted what he was saying, and hoped he was not lying to her.

I'm not, for I have no reason to lie. You will come to trust me fully in time.

"Okay," Isolde responded to him, noticing something out of the corner of her eye. She whipped her head around. "Is that my brother over there?"

Anubis was juggling four soldiers.

Literally juggling four men.

Well she supposed that she did that as well, didn't she?

Twin behavior, for sure.

Yes. He wished to join you. As you can see, he's having the time of his life. Your bonds are interrogating Horus' traitor General half a mile southeast, away from the fighting.

"I think we should put an end to this. There are some questions I have for Aris that the boys won't know to ask."

As you wish. Mark this as your first official lesson in Creation. Follow the flow of my movement.

Isolde breathed and followed the way her muscles bunched, but it felt sloppy and uncontrolled. Like a child learning to walk.

That is fine. You must begin somewhere. Ra encouraged her. Now, help set the intentions. What shall you create to end this once and for all?

Isolde thought for a moment, mind running through about ten different ways she could put a stop to this. She went with the most simple idea.

Very well. Now allow that intent to flow through you like water in a stream, gathering into a pond. Once you feel that pond getting ready to overflow, release it.

It didn't feel quite like Ra's pond analogy but she kind of understood what he meant. Let the power flow through the body and allow it to charge.

She released it as soon as it felt as though she'd charged it long enough.

Everything below her stopped moving and slumped to the ground, a sudden blockage in each of their aortic valves stopped their blood flow.

Well done. Now allow the lava to spread a few moments longer. It will destroy the bodies and the scientists that come to analyze what happened here will see the vast underground Volcanic system and there will be no surprise that it had a sudden eruption.

"You created a volcano underneath Alexandria?" Isolde asked, impressed while the little flame dragons dissipated.

The rest of the Creators had previously impressed upon me the need to keep our existence from humanity. So I did my best.

"Anyone who comes forward saying there was never a Volcanic system here would be called a crackpot after new readings. They'll assume the previous readings were due to malfunctioning equipment or something. And we're far enough away from the city that no one should have any usable footage of all of this. You did well." Isolde praised, drifting down until she was able to land away from the cooling lava.

Isolde looked toward Anubis, who was still juggling corpses.

"Bis, we're done here!" Isolde called out to her jackal headed twin, his head swiveled to her, tilted to the side, ears perked. "Come on, let's go see what the boys are up to!"

She cracked a smile when the giant turned and tossed the corpses over his shoulder into the lava.

Do not forget your promise to Renenutet.

Right. In all the insanity of the last half hour and the story Ra had given her she'd forgotten the snake goddess.

While Anubis was powering down and shrinking back to size, Isolde stepped around the rubble and ruin of what was once a small cluster of buildings that she'd constructed as a home away from Cairo and the rest of her siblings. Her refuge, at the time.

Most of what she built originally had been destroyed and replaced long ago, so not much was leftover of what she recalled in Alexandria, but she was not saddened by this. It had been a long time since she'd considered any part of Egypt home.

She hoped that didn't bother Ra. Isolde had no intentions of settling here.

You intend on returning to Italy and remaining there. I see no problem with this.

Well, that was good, then.

Isolde jumped over some treacherous looking sheet rock and saw Ren crushed underneath a slab of concrete.

"Do you still wish for me to end your life, old friend?" Isolde asked in the old tongue, place a hand on Ren's snout. She had swelled in size since returning to the surface and her head was larger than Isolde's body.

"I tire of this world. Please, give Sobek my apologies."

"I will deliver your apologies personally and ensure Sobek knows this was your will," Anubis said, stepping up behind Isolde. He placed his arm around her back and laid a hand on Ren's snout right beside Isolde's.

"I am heartened to see you have returned, Anubis. Take care of your sister. She was not the same once you left us."

Anubis blinked, and looked down at the ground suddenly bashful. He was unused to kindness being directed at him and Ren's words were sure to have an impact. When he raised his head, he smiled and Isolde knew it was genuine.

"Go in peace, Renenutet," Bis told her, "I await you in the Underworld. You shall have a peaceful afterlife."

Isolde didn't need Ra's direction this time.

Finn

Finn was wrist deep in Aris' liver when Niklaus called down to them.

"They have finished fighting. The fire dragons have dissipated." Niklaus informed them from his vantage point higher up on the dune from where the rest of them were. Kai was beside him, spectating from a safe distance. "They're disposing of the bodies by allowing the lava to flow over them."

He'd been giving a play by play of what was happening during the battle while Finn and Elijah commenced torture and interrogation on the two thousand year old Legatus.

"Well that's one way to do it." Kol sighed. He was sitting in the sand with his elbows resting on his thighs and his head in his hands. The youngest brother had been seated like that since some concerning information came to light during their questioning of Aris. "Isolde is alright?"

"She seems to be."

Seeming to be well and being well were two different things where Isolde was concerned and they all knew it.

Elijah was wiping blood off of his hand with his handkerchief. "Do we have a strategy for how to inform her of what we just learned?"

"What would the point of that be?" Kol scoffed, looking up at Elijah. "Soften the blow? You saw how that worked with the information about Theon earlier. She did not believe it."

"Believing that her brother has the capacity to order the assassination of her child and believing what Marcus has been up to are bound to inspire wildly different reactions." Finn said, pulling his hand out of the elder immortal's body with a sick, wet, squelch. Aris wasn't dead, but he was well on his way. "Isolde is a kindhearted person. She would deny the first allegation. How could she not? In all the time we've known them, Theon and Isolde have seemed close."

"Not quite. She feels as though she's a burden on Theon and Vera. She settled in Virginia to be close without being overbearing." Elijah informed them.

This was the first opportunity they'd had to discuss the topic of Theon's alleged betrayal where Isolde could not hear them. But Finn thought that they shouldn't be talking about Isolde like this without her here.

"However, I do agree with Finn, I don't find this situation comparable to that of her siblings' betrayal." Elijah said, eyeing Kol. "But that's not the reason for your upset."

Kol raised his head to glare at them, jaw set. Whatever was bothering him, he wasn't in a sharing mood. Perhaps it was something he'd rather keep between himself and Isolde? Finn could understand that.

"They're coming." Niklaus called down to them, descending the dune with Kai on his heels. "At a human pace, for whatever reason."

"Catching up, probably." Kai shrugged, dropping to sit next to the sulking Kol. "What's wrong with you?"

Kol pursed his lips. "You're lucky Isolde likes you."

The underlying threat did nothing to phase Malachai, who's face broke into a wide grin and he clapped a hand on Kol's back with a sharp smile.

"Trust me, I know."

"Ignore Kol, he's grumpy because he does not have Isolde's undivided attention. Finn, I do believe our guest is waking up." Niklaus drew attention from Kol and Kai, stepping up behind where Aris was beginning to stir as his body recuperated. "Let's fix that shall we?"

The bit of camaraderie they'd established whilst Finn helped Niklaus accomplish the task he'd wished to do earlier evaporated and Finn scowled.

"We should be well past the time we dangle our individual relationships with our bond as bait for each other, Niklaus."

All heads swiveled to him and Finn set his stance and bore his gaze directly into his brother. "It does nothing for us but create division and competition, which in turn weakens us. We have no need for it."

Klaus looked at him for several seconds. Long enough that Finn thought the hybrid would attack.

So he was in complete shock when Niklaus backed down with a single nod.

Progress.

Isolde

"You're sure they're fine if we take our time?" Isolde asked, walking side by side with Anubis through the sands.

They were walking at a human pace to where the Mikaelsons and Kai were. Taking it slow so they could have some time alone together, but that didn't mean Isolde wasn't worried about her bonds and how they were doing.

Today had been a lot, and all she really wanted to do was get them all somewhere safe where they can rest for a few hours.

"They're fine." Bis assured her, offering his arm. She took it. "I'm sure they're not going to fall over dead in the fifteen minutes it's going to take for us to get there, Mune."

She pushed her elbow into his side, a light reprimand for making fun of her, and he laughed.

"I'm glad to have you back." Isolde told him, looking up at his face. She mapped the shape of his jaw and the planes of his cheeks like doing so would keep him with her forever no matter what the future held.

One thing was certain, she wasn't letting him go again.

He wasn't much taller than her, but he was tall enough that he had to tilt his head a little to make eye contact.

"I never wanted to leave." Jack admitted, wrapping his opposite hand over hers on his arm. "But I'm glad I did because it gave me the opportunity to protect you from not only Osiris but Apophis as well."

"Thank you. You didn't have to but thank you." She shook his arm to punctuate her point.

"Of course I had to. You're my Mune." Her brother said it like he was telling her a universal truth. The sky was blue and water was wet. "I love you."

"I love you too. I'd do the same for you, you know that right?" Isolde asked as they hiked up a small dune.

"I want to be sure you never have to."

I like him.

Isolde cracked a small smile. "Ra likes you."

Bis' brow rose. "So he can talk to you, then?"

"He can talk to me, show me things, and teach me. It's like talking to my inner voice. Nothing like when you were in there and I only had the faintest insight. This is… it's far more." She paused for a second, trying to decide how she should say this next bit. "He took over when I was out of commission right after we merged. That was him, not me. I wasn't even aware of it until I came to, after you'd already transformed and most of the soldiers were already dead."

Bis was quiet for a few moments, and like a twin he knew exactly what she was feeling about that. "It frightens you that he can do that."

"He's assured me that it's an emergency only thing."

"It sounds similar to what I've done to you, then. When I would burst forth to protect you and you would end up in the recesses of your own mind waiting for my rampage to conclude."

"Yeah," Isolde agreed, squeezing his arm a little, "I suppose you're right. Maybe that's why I'm not as worried about it as I should be. I'm already used to it. But with you I could see what my body was doing. I didn't have a clue what I'd done until he filled me in."

"Well he's listening in, right? You should ask him if there's any way he can do for you what I did, so that you're not clueless when he's done."

Of course.

"Really that easy?" Isolde directed this question to Ra, and Bis looked at her strangely. She waved a hand at her torso and he nodded in understanding.

This is your earthly body. It has been your soul that has occupied it since your conception. You have final say.

"It doesn't seem to work that way for all the others." Isolde said, frowning.

She didn't know the names of the people the other Creators had taken as vessels, and that had been a question she'd never thought to ask. It seemed like the Creators were all the ones in control, but she'd assumed by the name 'Amun-Ra' that she would merge and still be herself.

Which was deplorably lazy and trusting of her. She was glad she hadn't discussed anything about that topic with the Mikaelsons. They already thought she was far too trusting and naïve. That would certainly prove it.

The others fit themselves inside mortal creations and superseded the mortal souls in doing so. They took over. In contrast I had a strong vessel created with a large portion of consciousness from the beginning, then you were granted more when your body was matured enough to handle it. At that point I was to merge - though I waited until you were settled into your own power. Unfortunately things happened to stall the merge. But in any case, the other Creators and their vessels are not the same. I never intended to cast you aside and steal away with your body.

Isolde was stricken with a sudden realization. A parallel between herself and Ra. It was in his words, if one could read between the lines of what he was actually saying.

He didn't mind sharing her body without taking it over because he'd been lonely, too.

When you say it like that it sounds desperate and foolish.

She didn't think of it like that. In fact it warmed her heart.

Ra had made her to be a built-in friend for him.

That makes me sound pathetic.

"You're not. You're anything but." Isolde reassured him, then turned to her brother to explain what Ra had said about how the other Creators had taken vessels versus how Ra had. "I understand."

Isolde felt Ra's warmth spread through her chest and she knew that her acceptance had made him happy.

Bis' brows rose again, then he grinned. "Well I guess I can say that I like him, too. Since we didn't do all this work to get you merged just for me to have to find a way to expel him to get my sister back."

Isolde laughed, but she had absolutely no delusions that that was exactly what Anubis would do should Ra try to take her body and expel her soul.

Noted.