The Ink Family Legacy: Generation 5, Chapter 1 Part 3
I'm used to being done after Part Three. This generation has just started and it's gonna kill me. XD
Please read Part One and Part Two first!
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Sparrow was trying her hardest to make Isis feel at home after they had all but abducted her from her imprisonment in the Sphinx. Isis appreciated the sentiment, but to be honest she wasn't used to being around people in her real body and was extremely uncomfortable.
"Are you feeling okay, Isis?" Row said.
"Ah?" she replied, startled out of her thoughts. "Oh, er, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You keep looking down."
"Ah, that's because I don't see very well." Isis responded. "There was an accident when I was very young - it gave me this scar and all but ruined my vision. Under normal circumstances I can't see more than a few feet ahead of me. Looking at the floor is comforting since that's still clear."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!"
"No, don't be. You're very kind, but that's wasted on me, I'm afraid."
Meanwhile, the boys were having a conversation of their own.
"So what do we do now?" Seth said.
"We can keep her here for the night, can't we?" Noah asked. Abel and Seth were surprised - it was unusual for Noah to be concerned about anyone outside their family.
"I'm not saying that she can't..." Abel started.
"...but what about after that? We leave tomorrow night. What do we do with her then?"
"If we take her back to her relatives here, they'll lock her up again."
"And if we send her to Riverview, they'll send her back here." Seth added.
Noah frowned - this was more complicated than he thought it would be.
"Well, let's sleep on it then. Maybe in the morning we can ask around and see if there's a safe place she can stay." Noah offered.
"Fine by me." Abel responded. "But we only have four beds here, so one of us-"
"I can take the couch." Isis interjected.
"What? You're sure?"
"Please. It's much more similar to my bed at home than your beds, at least. I'll be more comfortable here."
That didn't make them feel much better at the prospect of returning Isis home, but that was an issue for the morning. For now, they slept.
The night wore on, and everyone was sound asleep...
...except Noah.
The day's events kept buzzing around in his head, making it impossible for him to sleep without tossing and turning. He thought that meeting Isis in person would put to rest his intense curiosity about her, but it only made it more intense. He never would've imagined that his ghost companion was a fragile, scarred Egyptian heiress of some sort. One that clearly wasn't treated very well by the family she belonged to.
Noah sighed and slid off his bed. Maybe a walk would clear his head.
So much for a walk clearing his mind - Isis was gone.
Seeing a flash of yellow outside his window, Noah climbed back onto the bed and looked out. Well, Isis hadn't gotten far - she was shuffling along, stumbling all the time. Looks like she wasn't kidding about her vision.
For a moment, she stopped and bowed her head. Noah wanted to run down and stop her from doing whatever she was going to do, but he was worried about what she would do in the few seconds she would be out of his sight.
A worry made more real when she flagged down a taxi.
"God damn it!" Noah hissed under his breath, taking off for the stairs.
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It wasn't easy - tracking a taxi on foot, in the desert, at night would be difficult for mature vampires - but Noah finally caught up to where Isis was going. He was surprised to find her destination to be the same oasis the quads had visited a few days ago.
"Mind telling me where you're off to in such a hurry?" Noah growled as he approached her. Why was this woman always throwing him for a loop?
"Found me already, huh?" Isis chuckled. "I thought I had a few hours more, at least."
Noah grabbed her shoulder and whirled her around to face him. He felt bad about it, though, when she had to take a few moments to refocus her eyes.
"Isis, what the hell is up with you? First you say you're a ghost when you're not. Then you want me to go on all these crazy ghost adventures, but when I quit you're fine with it. You're getting locked up by relatives, running away from me..."
"Well, when you say it that way, of course it's going to sound bad." she responded with a nervous smile.
Noah's expression remained angry, causing her smile to fade.
"I told you that you'd regret taking me out of there." she muttered. "I'm nothing like you imagine."
"Well, considering that I don't think I know who the hell you really are, why don't you start with that?"
Isis winced and Noah knew he was being harsh. He didn't know why her lies seemed to cut him deeper than most.
"Well, I really am Isis. Only child born to the head of the Chioma family. I was born frail, so I probably would've been abandoned if it weren't for my power."
"Your ghost form?" Noah guessed.
Isis nodded. "No one's had it in over one hundred years, and they thought it died out. I guess in ancient Egypt the family was using it to communicate with the ancestors for guidance. Heavy stuff, right? But since I was born with this body - one that got worse after I pissed off a ghost, by the way..." she pointed at her scar with a grimace. "...I haven't exactly been the ideal heiress, you know? That explains my extensive knowledge of the supernatural, though."
"But that doesn't explain what you've been doing in the cemetery in Riverview." Noah said.
Isis bit her lip nervously. "Here's where you'll get mad at me."
"Just tell me!" Noah snapped.
"Okay, okay." she replied.
"Well, you knew from the beginning that we were using each other, right? You wanted to see your parents, but I never told you what I wanted out of you." she began hesitantly.
Noah faintly remembered that - it was over four years ago now. "Did you ever get it?"
"No. Er, I was kind of hoping...to use you to get out of an arranged marriage."
"...what?!"
"Here's the deal - since I'm such an unfit heiress, my father's all about picking an appropriate husband to continue the line and all that. I could only get out of that if I could find someone with stronger paranormal ability than me, someone who was bound to make the family stronger."
"You...you were planning to..."
"I wasn't going to make you!" she interrupted nervously. "I was going to cut you a deal. We'd get married only long enough for me to take control of the family. I'd change the rules around, give you some of my inheritance, and we'd go our separate ways. No harm done, you'd become stronger and get some money out of it, I wouldn't have to marry a stranger. Everyone wins."
Isis sighed and buried her face in her hand. "Of course, I realized very quickly that it wouldn't work. My parents would never believe that the local player settled for someone like me - they'd see through it in an instant."
She lifted her head and offered a weak smile. "But I still wanted to help you. Unlike me, you were honest. Mean as hell, but honest. A genuine guy."
"But this is the end." Isis murmured. "I've had my fun, but my parents have caught on that I haven't been spending all that time sleeping. I'm sure the second that I come back from my 'purification trip' the whole process will start."
For some reason, Noah didn't feel betrayed. Not even angry. Surprised, definitely. And sad. Sad for that smile that seemed so resigned to her fate.
Four years. Nearly every night for four years Noah had left his house and spent time with her. He knew that, no matter what craziness they got into, she always had his back. Isis was always there.
Always.
Noah had once caught her, in the early hours of the morning, leaving incense by his parents' grave not long after his incident in the red room with the imposter ghosts. He asked her what she was doing there.
'Just something to put their souls at ease.' she had replied. 'I can tell that whenever you're upset, they'll be troubled as well.'
'How could you know that?' he had asked, skeptical.
She had smiled then. 'I know a bit about communicating with the ancestors. They may not be able to form ghosts on this plane, but their feelings are still very clear.' She glanced at Jin's grave, then back to Noah. 'Isn't that right, Green?'
Isis was always there, doing what he least expected her to do. Without fail, until he came to expect it. To care where she was, even when she wasn't with him. Especially then.
It took him four years, but hell, he cared about what happened to her.
"I won't let you go back to that kind of life, Isis." he said finally.
Isis blinked in surprise. "Oh? I mean, I'm glad that'd you're worried about me and all, but I don't think there's anything to be done, Noah."
But an idea had occurred to him. A crazy idea, but he couldn't be stopped when he got going.
"What if I knew a way to make you stronger? Not by turning you into a vampire-" he said in response to her panicked look. "-but something almost as good? Wouldn't that make your family consider you okay to take over the family?"
"Well, I guess if I weren't so blind and weak, they'd take me more seriously..." Isis said cautiously. "...but they're looking to marry me off in the next year. There's no medicine that's going to work that fast, if at all."
"Vampire blood would."
Isis flushed red and stuttered. "Bl-blood. From you."
"I offered, didn't I?"
"Don't vampires only offer that kind of protection to, er, their mates, for lack of a better term?"
"Not necessarily." Noah proceeded to give her a look that said, 'but usually'.
"I don't think-"
But Noah wasn't quite the type to tiptoe around an issue.
It took Isis all of half a second to respond enthusiastically to the kiss. It seemed like there was more than blood transfer going on here.
"Don't you ever take no for an answer?" Isis said breathlessly. "Or is this your normal way of ending arguments?"
Noah split into a grin, and Isis was startled - that was rare.
"Well, I have to say this is the first time I care about what we say afterwards."
"You're terrible."
Noah raised an eyebrow. "Says the girl who knew that and kissed me back anyway. Surprisingly well, I might add."
Isis smiled brightly. The sun was coming up, casting stray beams of light into the small oasis. And to her surprise, she found that could see Noah's face clearly, and a few feet further from him as well! She hadn't seen that well outside of her ghost form since before her accident.
"What now?" she asked.
"Well..." Noah replied, still grinning like an idiot despite the more serious topic. "I have a plan for that too."
"Do tell."
"You have to return to your family, considering that you're still sixteen." Noah said. "But I'll be back in Riverview in a couple of months. If you think you can put up with me, meet me in the cemetery, okay? Hell, I'll even talk to those parents of yours. I've decided that I like you, so I'm going to see this through."
"Long story short, go home, wait for me. I'll come back for you."
Isis laughed self-consciously, using her free hand to smooth her bangs over the scarred side of her face again. "Sure you want to come back for someone like me?"
"A smart ass who manages to order me around despite how stubborn I am? A girl who never gets mad at how mean I can be, even laughing when I go too far?" Noah teased. "I think I can manage that much."
He then leaned forward, kissing her scarred cheek, then her lips. "I promised, didn't I? And I don't lie."
And Isis believed him.
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The rest of the quads when Noah returned around noon, sans Isis, but he waved off their concerns, saying that everything would work out. And as curious as they were, there was no time to think about it - they had a concert to perform in!
The concert was on the south beach of Al Simhara, with some fans going as far as anchoring boats in the harbor to listen!
The backdrop of the ancient temple was so impressive that it almost outshone the performers there that night.
But Nicotine Dreams soon commanded the total attention of the crowd!
Not to be upstaged, Blue Amnesia strived to create as much as a splash as Nicotine Dreams did. They had half the members, but Reese and Kira definitely had a lot of energy and stage presence. They had been in the business longer - they knew how to work the crowd.
Blue Amnesia had a harsh edge and a polished sound - exactly what they were known and loved for.
Thus the tour's stay in Egypt came to an end with a bang! It was on to the next destination!
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Champs Les Sims was next!
Ah France, a country near and dear to the Inks, hmm? Not as much to this generation as the last, but it's effects were still on the mind of the family.
Case in point - the half French Levi! He was actually useful in this country, able to work out the directions and places of interest straight from the locals in their language.
"Je suis à la recherche d'une colline. Le plus grand des kilomètres." Levi said to the shopkeeper. "Je sais que c'est dans cette ville, puisque mon père a été à elle. J'entends elle a une vue très agréable et je veux prendre ma copine là-bas."
"Ah, si c'est un endroit romantique que vous recherchez, alors c'est un très bon endroit pour aller! J'ai entendu dire que le célèbre acteur Miles Croix proposé à sa femme là-bas." she cooed.
Levi smiled - if only she knew. "Sonne comme au bon endroit. Savoir où il est?"
"Oui, bien sûr! C'est juste au sud-ouest d'ici, à travers la rivière."
"Merci beaucoup!" Levi called back as he led a confused Rhyme out the door.
Yes, their destination was the ever famous hill! The same spot where Miles proposed to Filly and the same place Ethan and Paige climbed to just before Clover was born. It looked the same as always, unchanging.
"Well? Did I or didn't I pick the best view in all of France?" Levi said with a grin.
Rhyme smiled. "I'll give you this one. It really is beautiful here. Too bad we didn't plan ahead - we could've gotten married in France! I know your mom would've gotten a kick out of that."
"Actually, I've been thinking about our wedding." Levi said.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. What if we had it in China? I hear that Shang Simla is extremely beautiful. Plus we could go all out and have a Chinese themed wedding!"
Rhyme giggled - he seemed really enthusiastic about this.
"Plus..." Levi added. "I want to get married to you as soon as possible."
"Nothing much would change." Rhyme teased. "I'll still be Rhyme Ink."
"Yeah, but I want us to be married so I can brag about how I have the most beautiful wife in the world." he replied cheekily.
"Alright." she laughed. "Let's get married in China."
Levi cheered and picked Rhyme up, swinging her around in a circle. It was hard for him to imagine himself being any happier than he was right now.
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Just like it had been in Egypt, there was about a week of downtime before the concert was scheduled to start. France had fewer natural wonders, but they still had quite a few sites worth visiting.
Noah could stand to cut down on the plasma fruit wine, though.
Although, now that they thought about it, why was there plasma fruit wine there anyway? It made humans sick...
"Okay guys, scoot a little closer together!" Abel called, camera in hand.
"Cheese?"
"Noah, you have to smile."
"This is almost smiling."
"It looks like your smile died, bro."
Abel could tell that France would be amazing. Who knew what surprising things he'd see?
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Somehow, Egypt became half of this update. The scenery was just too pretty, okay? It's also the only vacation place I haven't taken the Inks.
For some reason, whenever I see a picture of Noah smiling normally, I can't help but feel like it's out of character for him. What kind of guy did I create that I think smiling is weird for him? XD
Alright, now onto Part Four! And then, finally, you're done.