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MoonScarab is the het ship between Marc Spector and Layla El-Faouly from the Moon Knight fandom.
Canon[]
Season 1[]
THE GOLDFISH PROBLEM[]
After finding that a table had been dragged around in his apartment, Steven finds a hidden phone and a storage room key in a hollowed section of his wall. Upon charging the phone and opening it, he sees nearly 100 missed phone calls, most from Layla. He calls back to hear Layla's voice referring to him as Marc, relieved he is alive, and reprimanding him for not texting or calling her back for months, explaining that she was worried about him. She hangs up confused and annoyed after hearing Steven reply to her, insisting that he is not Marc.
SUMMON THE SUIT[]
Steven and Marc talk to each other in Marc's storage locker about Marc's occupation before Steven takes his bag of mercenary belongings and leaves the locker. After Khonshu chases him out of the building, Steven trips and falls right in front of Layla on her motorcycle, driving by. She picks him up and drives him back to his apartment. Layla tells Steven, still assuming that he is Marc, that they are married, and she tracked his location by his cell phone. She explains that she was frustrated and worried about his well-being while he was gone, worried that he had been kidnapped or was in danger, and that she was in a "spiral." Upon reaching Steven's apartment, Marc even insists to Steven that Layla being there is dangerous for all three of them.
After Steven and Layla speak for a bit, Layla tells Steven that she has the divorce papers Marc sent signed, and she needs his signature. She adds that the divorce is "what [Marc] wanted." Steven disputes the papers and Layla asks what is going on. Steven starts to try to explain the situation, to which Marc protests and tries to make Steven stop. He is only successful when telling Steven that the scarab in the bag from the storage locker will end up getting Layla killed if she knows about it. However, Layla is already intrigued and pushes Steven aside to find it on her own after he tries to tell her it was nothing after all. She finds the scarab and explains that it was something that Marc and her had been working together to find for years, and her frustration that Marc had found it on his own and hid it from her. Steven begs her for help and to take it from him, and she asks if he really doesn't remember the years of adventures Marc and Layla had together trying to hunt the scarab down.
After Steven is kidnapped by Harrow's men and taken to one of his compounds, Layla finds him and tries to get him to switch to Marc to take down Harrow and his men. Steven collapses under the pressure and panics as both Marc and Layla try to pressure him to give up control. He is unable to do so, and Layla tells him that they will find another way to escape. Steven is able to summon the suit after being attacked by an invisible jackal and he and Layla fight together against the jackal in the street. As the jackal begins to overpower them, Steven lets Marc front and lead the jackal away to kill it after Layla presents the idea.
After Marc successfully kills the jackal, he transitions out of the suit and him and Steven have an argument. Steven accuses Marc of abandoning Layla, to which Marc argues back that he only "abandoned" her to protect her from being manipulated and taken over later by Khonshu when Marc leaves, because Khonshu wants Layla as Marc's replacement.
THE FRIENDLY TYPE[]
Layla complains to her mother while she creates a fake passport for her that she's worried about Marc getting into trouble while in Cairo, implied that she's making the passport to follow him to keep an eye on him. While walking around the bustling streets of Cairo looking for information about the location of a sarcophagus to help him find where Ammit is buried, Marc is confronted by Layla. She is aware of his motives and tells him that she has the connections to help him find the sarcophagus. He is hesitant to agree because he worries about Khonshu trying to hurt her, but he eventually complies.
On a boat to visit the man who owns the sarcophagus, one of Layla's old black market friends Mogart, Layla and Marc argue about Marc leaving her suddenly both for Cairo and previously when Steven was fronting. She chastises him for not being able to give her an apology for his behavior instead of just excuses, then tells him that she's only doing this for the people about to be hurt by Harrow finding Ammit's tomb before them. Marc apologizes then, and Layla says nothing. On the boat they are on, a small group of people are having a party, and Marc makes a statement about their wedding, which prompts Layla to soften up and tell him that he should have told her about Steven and what he was struggling with. Marc says that he had it all "under control" until recently, with an event that he refuses to mention to Layla. She holds his hands and tells him that they could have worked through it together, whatever it was. He says that he has troubles opening up to people and that was the reason he left instead of telling her.
When finally given access to the tomb, Marc and Layla are unable to decipher the hieroglyphs, so Marc asks Steven to help after sending Layla away so she doesn't see it. When one of Mogart's guards sees Marc trying to take the cloth pieces needed to find Ammit from the sarcophagus, he goes to attack Marc, who grabs his gun and points it at the guard. Soon, Layla and Marc are surrounded by armed guards ready to kill them both. Just as Mogart is ready to have them killed, Harrow walks over to them, showing Mogart the scarab and describing its properties. Harrow also attempts to manipulate Marc and Layla, mentioning that Marc has been keeping his disorder from Layla because he fears that Layla will no longer love him, and that he's hiding more from Layla that he hasn't told her.
While everyone is distracted, Marc dons the suit and takes down some of the guards with Layla's help. They take down everyone at the site and leave with the information needed from the sarcophagus. In a car driving away from the site, Marc and Layla have a conversation about the manipulation Harrow tried earlier. Marc tries to assure her that Harrow's talk was all lies, but Layla is uncertain. Marc shuts the conversation down, indicating that he doesn't want to talk about it. The two drive into the middle of the desert to try to piece together the information they found in the sarcophagus. They can't figure it out and Marc gets frustrated, and Layla tells him that they should consult Steven about the information because he knows more about it than they do. Marc begrudgingly agrees and lets Steven front.
THE TOMB[]
Steven and Layla find where the tomb is and go towards it. Steven tells Layla that he won't let Marc front anymore, and Layla first gets upset with the proposition before warming to it, considering that Marc would probably try to commandeer his way through the tomb anyway. When looking for supplies in the empty camp outside the tomb set up by Harrow's followers, Steven and Marc argue about the former not giving the latter control of the body. Marc accuses Steven of being in love with Layla and threatens him with death/suicide if he ever tries to make a move on her.
When Steven and Layla are separated trying to make it through Ammit's tomb, Harrow finds Layla and the two have a discussion. Harrow tells Layla that he knows who killed her father at his excavation site. He tells her that it was Marc that shot Layla's father. Layla doesn't believe him at first, thinking that he's manipulating her again to divide them. However, when Harrow brings up details about her father that only someone there would know, she realizes that he's telling the truth. She lets a few tears fall as she leaves to find Steven.
She does finally meet up with Steven at the tomb room, with Alexander the Great's sarcophagus. Steven excitedly tells her that he found Ammit's ushabti before Harrow, but she is not interested. She asks if Marc can hear her, and starts yelling at him to talk to her. Marc comes to front and hurriedly tells her that they have to go. She thinks that he's avoiding the question and demands to know if he killed her father. He tells her that he didn't, but that he was there when he died. He explains to her that his partner at the time killed everyone at the site, including trying to kill Marc. Marc tells her that he tried to save her father, but he wasn't able to. Marc says that he wanted to tell her since they met, but he couldn't find a time to. She claims that they met only because Marc had a guilty conscious. They are interrupted by Harrow coming into the tomb, and Layla hides elsewhere in the tomb while Marc grabs an ax from the sarcophagus to defend himself. After a brief conversation, Harrow shoots Marc twice in the chest, killing him. Layla hears and watches from her hiding spot, silently crying.
GODS AND MONSTERS[]
Layla watches as Harrow's men pull Marc's body from the water of the tomb and they take Ammit's ushabti, which they will use to resurrect Ammit and have her claim all unworthy souls. When Harrow and his followers leave, Layla runs to Marc and cries over his body. She hugs him and kisses him on the forehead, taking the scarab that Harrow left on his body, which now points to the location of Harrow and his followers, since they have the ushabti. Layla disguises herself as one of Harrow's followers and follows him. When she attempts to kill him, Taweret speaks to Layla through a dead body and tells her that Marc is trying to tell her to break Khonshu's ushabti to resurrect him and allow him to resurrect Marc. She refuses, confused at the interaction, and insists that she can take down Harrow on her own.
When Harrow and his followers break into the Pyramid of Giza to kill the other gods' avatars and release Ammit, Layla sneaks off to find Khonshu's ushabti. She breaks it, releasing Khonshu. She tells Khonshu that he is responsible for Marc's death, and starkly refuses when Khonshu asks her to be his new avatar. Khonshu argues back that Marc died because of his alliance to Layla, which the god claims got in the way of Marc's judgement. Layla still refuses to "enslave" herself to Khonshu, citing that she doesn't trust him because Marc didn't trust him, either. The two agree to work together equally, rather than Layla working under Khonshu as his avatar, to bring Marc back and destroy Harrow and Ammit.
With goddess Taweret's help while Marc and Steven are in the Egyptian underworld after their death, the two are able to be brought back to life since Khonshu was now freed and could heal their body. The two meet up with Khonshu in the desert and make a deal that Khonshu will release them from his servitude after they defeat Ammit. Meanwhile, Ammit and Harrow's disciples begin killing the residents of Cairo by searching their souls. Harrow and Moon Knight battle, and Layla, as the Scarlet Scarab (Taweret's temporary avatar), saves Marc from nearly being beaten by Harrow. The two hug and Marc says that he was worried about Layla. Marc, Steven and Layla then fight Harrow together.
Harrow eventually begins to gain ground, and has Marc about to be killed. Layla is unable to save him, and at the last moment, Marc blacks out and returns after almost killing Harrow. He and Steven tell each other that neither of them were in control for that portion of time, and Layla seems scared and concerned. Marc tells her that he blacked out, and she tells him to bring Harrow's body with them, as she knows how to rebind Ammit to her ushabti. They bring his body into the destroyed remains of the Pyramid of Giza, and begin an incantation spell to rebind her into Harrow's half-dead body. The spell works, and afterwards, Khonshu tells Marc to kill Harrow to kill both him and Ammit. Layla stops him, saying that he doesn't need to kill again, since him and Steven are now free from Khonshu's grasp, per their earlier agreement. Khonshu seems to let up, letting them go.
Fanon[]
Fans gravitated towards this ship partially because Layla was one of the few other characters in the show besides Steven and Marc. She was already in an established relationship with Marc before the events of the series, meaning that the ship had previous history for fans to draw from. MoonScarab is the third most popular ship under the Moon Knight (TV Series) tag on AO3, and is the most popular ship for Layla El-Faouly and second most popular ship for Marc Spector.
Fandom[]
FAN FICTION
- Layla/Marc tag on AO3
Trivia[]
- While the Moon Knight television series is based loosely on the Marvel comics of the same name, Layla is not present in the comics at all. She is a show replacement for the love interest for Marc in the comics, Marlene.
- Layla El-Faouly is both the first Egyptian Marvel character and superhero as the Scarlet Scarab.
- The ship name "MoonScarab" can also be used to refer to the poly ship of Marc, Steven, and Layla collectively.
