Chapter 2: Rekindling the Past, Part 2

By Jen M. aka Kalia

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Ra sighed in relief as he saw the first of the six guardian awake. His spell had worked, they would quickly gain their memories back once their amultes detected their presense. Rapses would have his protectorites again, but it would take some time.

The almight God stood up from the throne, and by moving his hands apart created something of a whirlwind in the center of the room. The blinding light that spun with all of his spells cast dark shadows on the stone walls as another image appeared to him. The light transformed into pictures showing up on an invisible screen. On it he could see the vague outline of the Pharaoh prince sitting inside what looked to be a cubicle of glass. Ra's brow furrowed in anger towards Scarab for doing something like this. The god couldn't look at it anymore, and he banished the picture to thin air so that he would not have to watch.

" And now it is the guardians that need the guidance." He spoke out loud, slowly placing his fists on opposite shoulders. Once they touched, the same light that had been circulating throughout the tornado over took him, and the form of the mighty god Ra fizzled and disappeared. In his place a very small glowing orb remained, but it need not stay for too long. He had a job to do, on the outside, beyond the Western Gate.

The orb shook from the inside as if vibrating, and then with a flick of the very air it was suspended in it took off through the room, breaching a small hole in the temple's pyramid-shaped roof and soaring through the Ancient atmosphere towards the twin busts which showed the opening to the real world...

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" Ugh.. ouch... euh..." She groaned loudly as she pulled herself to a sitting position and looked around at where she was. It was so hot out, and she had the largest headache she had ever recieved in her life. She squinted in the bright light, for that was only adding to the problem.

After they adjusted to the shining sun she slowly stood up, supported by a tall brick wall beside her. She stood up and then quickly jumped back in shock at the faint sight of dried blood against the building. Shaking her head to free any lost memories she wiped her brow with the back of her arm and surveyed her surroundings.

The site made her heart beat even faster. She was in a place that she had never been before - a very large parking lot, there was another office building across the road, and there were quite many a car speeding along the road... only on the wrong side of the road.

Puzzled, she looked down at her amulet hanging loosely around her neck, and slowly grasped it in one of her slender hands. The second that she did this her headache was immediately gone. The turquoise jewel on the pendant suddenly glowed a bright white light, and images passed through her mind, both threatening and comforting. She saw their final moments, her experiences in San Fransisco, moments from Ancient Egypt... it was as if it were giving her her memories back. The light died down and only the aqua- colored pyramid remained. She looked down at it with teary eyes as she realized what had happened to them, who she was. She was Lyris, Jackal Guardian to Prince Rapses.

She let the amulet go from her hand and looked around the entire area. A worried expression showed on her face, and panic rose in her heart. Where were the others? Where were her companions she had run into battle with? Quickly Lyris ran out from the alleyway and into the parkinglot to find any answers that she could.

The sandals on her feet clicked on the pavement as she ran, determination welled inside her. Once she was in the lot it didn't seem as if it would help her out very much, but then a ruffled pile of belongings caught her eye to the left. One of them was a purse, beaten and ripped. Another was a long case that had been crushed as if stepped on. The muse walked up to them and bent down beside the instrument case. The second that she got the slightest bit close to it the amulet that she wore sparked. Now, more hurried than ever Lyris reached for the latch and flung the case open to reveal what it had inside.

It was an old giutar... a very old guitar. It could have been beautiful except that now it had a huge breaking mark in it's center. No doubt made by someone's footprint. She wondered what would cause someone to to that to an instrument...

Her turquoise eyes caught something in the shattered top of the case. The muse picked it up and looked at it. It was a line of Heiroglyphics written in gold marker... or something that resembled gold marker. She was no scribe, she couldn't read the writing off the top of her head, but she did understand her own name. The writing clearly said 'Lyris' in heiroglyphics, but the part below it confused her.

" The... answers... Sphinx..." She tried to read it out, but there were some symbols that she didn't understand. The amulet around her neck shimmered once more, and the muse jumped back in surprise as the writing suddenly began to transform from Ancient Egyptian to Modern-day English.

After the morphing was complete, she looked at it again. This she could understand. It was funny that although she had lived her entire life in the times of the Pharaohs she had learned more about letters in the past year or so than she had back then. Lyris ran her finger along the bottom of the writing, her eyes widening as she did so.

" The... answers to... your questions... are best found... at... the Sphinx." Well, she had gotten it almost right. She sighed and looked away from the box. What could it mean? Did it mean to return to their headquarters? Perhaps the remaining guardians would be there.

Lyris stood up and brushed herself off, noticing finally what had become of her. She was no longer covered in old bandages, and her skin was not the steel-gray tint that showed off her inhuman appearance. She was a deep tan now, perhaps a little lighter than she rememered, but she was wearing normal twentieth-century clothes. And she was alive... no wonder she could feel the warmth of the sun when she had woken up.

She looked back out to the street, and saw what the building across it was really for. There was a large sign, reading in both English and another language that she didn't understand. It read, " Nile River Ferry Boat rides, Cairo Division... A Glimpse at the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx of Egypt."

Lyris thought for a moment, and then recognition came clearly to her. The Sphinx, the great pyramids... the ones that she had seen ever since her youth... she was in Egypt. Cairo to be exact. But how did she get there? Her head hurt from all those questions, and she leaned against the brick wall in slight exaustion.

The writing had said all questions would be answered at the Sphinx, perhaps she must travel to find her true calling. " What do I have to lose? I'm already a stranger in an unfamiliar land... no matter how long I have lived here."

Shrugging her shoulders she stepped over the broken guitar case and trotted across hot asphault. Even the immense size of the constructed buildings and the people and cars around this wealthy part of the city could not dispell her interest in the Tourist Information Beaureau across the way. She was going to find out everything she wanted to know...

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The room was perfectly silent, except for the annoying drip of water from a tap at the other end of it. A small lamp hung over files and papers strewn about the long desk, an unfinished cup of coffee waited for it's drinker to return.

From under the white sheet on the stretcher that had rescently been wheeled in, there came a faint white glow, a glow shaped in that of a triangle. It gleamed there in the shadows until finally slowing down and leaving, the luminescence dieing and then disappearing altogether. Every thing was still quiet in the morgue, still with the dripping tap.

A low groan immerged from under the sheet, and the figure underneath it began to move around, slowly at first but then faster and faster. He seemed almost restless, so with one large push a hand came out from under the fold of the sheet. It pulled back the blanket and sent it fluttering to the floor in a heap.

Groggy, he shook his head to clear an unusual amount of fuzz that was collecting there. He looked around the room and suddenly became very perplexed. He had never been in a place like this before... well, once but that was an experience he wanted to forget. Slowly he pushed himself off the large stretcher, and jumped onto the floor with a loud slap.

He gazed over anything that he had missed, there wasn't anything that seemed familiar there. He walked a little ways down the wall, and then stopped at something on it. Hanging on a small nail was a mirror, not perticularily big, but a mirror. He looked at himself in it and was shocked at what he saw. It was him, of course, but not him... the features were the same, but he never remembered having a haircut like that... and his skin was so dark, the bandages that he was accustomed to were nowhere to be seen. Some way or another he was alive... Armon, Ram Guardian to the Pharaoh Prince.

" I don't get this at all." He shook his head, still the signs of shock appearing on his face. The warrior put a hand on his head to show great confusion in the recollection of what had happened, and urgency that he didn't see any of his fellow comrades around him then... wherever he was.

Seeing a door he was just about to walk through and get some help elsewhere, Armon turned to leave. Suddenly there was a very faint tapping noise in the room, one that sent shivers down his spine. Slowly the ram guardian turned around to see what was making it, but only saw row after row of mortuary doors, housing those from the hospital and beyond. The noise grew bigger, it sounded more like tapping... pounding.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to live with himself unless he knew what it was Armon walked back to the end of the room and slowly wandered through the columns of doors. As he walked the noise seemed to increase... it was now accompanied by a muffled sound, almost voice-like.

He stopped at one row, and grabbed a handle to a cabinet door. Using his immense strength he easily pulled the door open to see who was inside. " Ah!" He shouted loudly when he saw the white body of an old man lying there. As quickly as he could and feeling like he was going to be sick Armon urgently closed the door and slammed it shut.

" I'm never doing that again." He told himself, then realizing that the noise was coming not from that door, but the one below it. And it was quite fierce then, loud pounding and shouting almost...

The warrior gripped the handle, and hoping that it wouldn't be another person like the one above slowly pulled the handle and opened it up. The first few inches were bare, so he pulled more eagerly looking at the white sheet.

A hand whipped out at him, making Armon quickly move away. The cubicle floor flew out from the cabinet, and the figure that was on it jumped off and before landing or seeing who was there spun around with their foot high in the air. The guardian gave a startled exclaimation and hardly had any time to move from it, but succeded. The new person stood there for a moment, arms up in a fighting pose and feet spaced apart while a long- strapped purse hung at her side.

The small gold amulet that she wore around her neck began to glow with a very bright shining. It sparkled white and caused them both to turn away at it. The light stayed for but a instant before dwindling and then finally going out. She held her head in pain as the light passed through her mind, telling her of this and that, tidbits that had been lost in the transformation. What had happened, the bomb, Scarab...

Once the light had gone and still gripping her head she looked up with a helpless expression. Living those memories through once was bad enough, but having to go through them again was ten times worse. She looked in front of her and saw a familiar... yet unfamiliar face gazing back at her.

Armon took a step forward, not knowing whether he should be the first to talk. When the attacker's amulet flashed and faded, she looked up at him almost as a lost child in a shopping center. His mouth fell open in recognition, and it was hard to keep from the curiosity once more. " Kal? Is that you?"

She squinted in the dim light and caught a glimpse of his features. Her look of slight terror changed to intimidation, quickly followed by recollection, and then glee. " ...Armon?" She asked quietly, thinking that it looked so much like him. She looked down at herself and nearly jumped with fright. She wasn't herself anymore, she had dark skin, and even then could see even darker brown locks falling around her face. She had on clothes she had never seen before, and seemed... shorter?

He smiled and nodded. " Yup. Are you... you?"

Knowing that she was herself on the inside she looked back up to him. Kalia, the Gazzelle Guardian to Prince Rapses. She knew who she was, and who he was. " Yes." She replied as a smile creeped onto her face. " I thought you were a shabti!"

" I thought you were an old dead guy." Armon laughed, and in a fit of happiness for them escaping the large blast that he had remembered last, brought the artist up in a big bear hug, suspending her over the floor a good foot. " We're back! You're here, I'm here...!"

Kalia nearly choked and tried to squirm free. It was like being in the clutches of an anaconda. " Yeah, I... I can't breathe hun!" She told him with as much breath as she had.

" Oh sorry." He replied pleasantly, letting her go from his grip and landing on her feet on the tile floor. She breathed in and out greatly, and then gulped. " It's just that when that blast came at us, I thought that we were done for."

She ran a hand through her hair and nodded. " Me too... how'd we get here? I don't remember being brought down to the mortuary, getting changed into different clothes.. and oh ya, coming back to life." The usual sarcastic tone was coming back in her voice. Kalia looked over the rest of the room, searching. Finally she turned back to him. " Where's everyone else? If we're here then they must be around somewhere."

Armon shrugged his shoulders. " Dunno. I just woke up in here. At first I didn't think anyone was in here, but then you were poundng on the door, so I opened it up." He gave her a sideways smile. " How'd you manage to get in there?"

She crossed her arms across her chest and gave him a compitent look. " I don't know, but it's an experience that I'd like to forget, believe you me!" She turned away and walked into the main portion of the room, complete with the mortician's desk, files and cold coffee. She sniffed the cup and scrunched her nose. " Ew, black... Ahem, at any rate, we should probably at least try and find the others. I mean, if we don't try then it's our own fault if we can't find them."

Armon walked over to where she was and stood next to the desk while the artist went through some of the files on the desk. " But where are we going to start looking? I mean, San Fransisco's a big place..."

Kalia's eyes suddenly grew wide and her face drained slightly of color. Concerned, the warrior looked down to what she had in her hand and she graciously showed him. It was a title on top of a pair of death certificates that read, " Cairo General Admittance Hospital."

Armon read through and he as well became perplexed. " Cairo? We're in Cairo?"

" What did they do while we were gone?!" She exclaimed loudly, in a fit of annoyance scrunching the certificated in her fisted hands and dropping them to the floor. " We leave for... I don't know, a few minutes, and all of a sudden we're in Egypt?!"

Armon scratched his head. " This is too weird."

" That and then some..."

" But why are we in Egypt? Who brought us here? Why are we alive? Where are the others?" The warrior just started to ask freely, jumbled of questions spilling out into the open.

Kalia sighed and shook her head. " I don't know... maybe if we went outside and tried to find everyone else than we might get something acomplished."

Armon looked at her funny. " Isn't that kind of nieve?"

" Well do you have a better idea?" She snapped back, still agitated about the entire ordeal and that she didn't hold any of the answers. " All I know is we're here, the others are who knows where... but they're not here with us, so that means we have to go back and find them. Which means..." The artist continued to jabber on like that trying to get Armon into the same state of mind that she was in.

The warrior didn't have a long attension span for this, so when he knew that she was going to be talking for quite some time he turned away and walked back to where they had come. In an unusual act of discouragement for him, Armon closed the door that had been keeping Kalia with a loud bang, alerting his companion and nearly shaking the room.

" OK, that was not part of my plan." She reminded him and pointed a finger. " No bringing down the hospital."

He looked down at the door and groaned. Suddenly something caught his eye and he jumped back from the door in defense. On the polished stainless- steel surface something was appearing out of thin air. Like it were being written by and invisible hand.

When he didn't answer her Kalia turned around and walked to him instead. " So, are we going or no..." Her voice trailed away as she saw what he did, and her mouth fell open. Something invisible was writing lettering- heiroglyphics to be exact, on the center of the door in deep gold-colored paint. They both looked to each other, deeply awed and kept quiet until it was finished. The heiroglyphs finished and the gold paint just left, nothing else occured.

Armon looked at the words and shook his head. " What do you think that was all about?"

Kalia shook her head again. " It was, it's..." Her violet eyes skimmed down the words on the metal, and the curiosity was replaced with intrigue. " It was a message, a message for us to follow."

" Huh?"

" See, here." She pointed to the set of lettering at the top. " Those are my name and yours... and below them, the rest of the symbols say, 'All of your answers will be answered at the Sphinx." The artist stood up fully and crossed her arms, taking a little bit of accomplishment in that.

Armon shook his head this time. " We can't get to the Sphinx, we're in Cairo. Just a bunch of cities and pyramids..." A smile started to spread across his face. " ...and a real Sphinx, the one at Gizeh."

She slapped her forehead with her palm. " Of course! All questions will be answered at the Sphinx... not the one on San Fransisco, the real one." Kalia held her hand up and then grabbed the purse, whipping it around to her back. " So that's where we'll be going... anywhere to get out of this morgue." A shiver shot down her spine as she walked away from the back wall and towards the swinging doors.

" What? You don't like being in a box?" Armon asked sarcastically, pushing the doors open so that they could both walk out. The lowest hallway in the hospital and there were barely any people around to see them. The two guardians headed for the nearest elevator to reach the surface, still in hope that somehow things would be made alot clearer to them by nightfall.

At the Sphinx...

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" Why do things like this always end up happening to me?" He asked himself in a groggy voice and turned over onto his back. The very bright sun glared back at him and he immediately shut his eyes closed. He felt absolutely terrible, every part of his body ached, and it was too hot.

Thinking that it was better the way he was before he rolled onto his side, and then his stomach to get up. Slowly getting up to his feet he felt a terrible pain in his leg, but as seconds passed by it seemed to fleet. He braced himself against the bark of a nearby palm tree and stood up shakily on his feet.

The amulet that he wore around his neck began to glow, such as all the other had. The bright light was just as bad as the sun, but this time there was no chance of turning away. The light increased and then suddenly disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a green emerald stone in the center of the pendant.

Feeling dizzy he leaned against the tree instead of beside it just to get his head straightened out. Now all of a sudden there were images, a past that hadn't been there ten seconds ago, and it confused him. Memories strewn about everywhere, memories of a place just like this, of a large city, a fight for survival... explosions, dark magic and a feeling of failure. And then oblivion.

But they hadn't left. They hadn't gone where they were suppose to, the guardians of Rapses. They had just stayed behind and wandered the earth while their past lives were erased from their minds. But they were back, and they had a job to do. Now, a little more confident, but all the same perplexed by the predicament he left the side of the tree and stood up fully while the clouds in his mind quickly fleeted.

Before him now was the River Nile, slowly flowing through it's path towards the Aegean Sea. It didn't look as crystal clean as it had before, way back when pollution wasn't even heard of yet. Now it was a sort of dull-blue as the cloudless sky gleamed off of it... but through that he could tell that it was the Nile, only a river mighty as that could have looked almost the same after over 3500 years.

" Egypt. Why?" He thought out loud in deep wonderment. Five minutes ago they have been in the outskirts of San Fransisco, and now in North Africa? In a confused way he put a hand on his head to work every thing out, when the sudden thought of why it was so hot came to him. He looked at the back of his hand, then turned it over to the front, then switched again. It was no longer the same deathly gray color that it had once been. Now it showed off as a dark tan, almost caramel color in the light of the sun's rays. That and breathing, an action that the guardians had never missed because of how involuntary it was, but was now apparent. A heartbeat, pulse, the ability to feel such things as a hot day. Not only wasn't he in America, but he was alive again. Rath, the Cobra Guardian to the reborn Prince Rapses.

A voice shouted from behind him and he circled around to see who it was. It was a shorter man wearing a red robe and holding up cloth in his hands. " Buy! You buy now!!" He shouted over and over again.

Rath gave the man an unusual look and then just ignored him, slowly walking down the river's edge to try and sort everything out. The man still called but finally gave up, seeing as how shouting hadn't sold him anything the last time.

A booming sound overhead showed a large International plane fly past the rushing waters and overtop of a glowing city building, skyscrapers edging to the stars and blocking out the sand dunes beyond. This definitly was not old Egypt.

" So, to the docks, then the bomb, then to Egypt, that means..." The scribe spoke quietly to himself in an attempt to understand the situation. The only motive that he could come to was magic, but there were only really three people on that earth at the time that knew such power, and two of them woudn't have wanted to see Rapses Guardians unharmed.

Rath stopped at a sign by the water, which read, " Cairo Boat rides, see the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx" but he passed by it without a second thought. Now as he reached the more heavily-populated area of Cairo's main district, there seemed to be more billboards and signs up around the water's edge.

He passed around two more, and then stopped at the third in the line. It was an advertizement for Cairo's History Museum, housing the artifacts from Tutankhamen's tomb and assorted other treasures. The top showed the sign in English, and below that were supposid Heiroglyphics, not really meant to mean anything. Rath stopped short and gave the writing a second look.

It may have been there for a reason, or it could have been the world's greatest coincidence. Showing in the ancient symbols at the top of the list was his very own name, written as it would have been thousands of years ago by anyone. Below that there was a message, plain and clear that might have been the answer to dozens of thoughts.

" All the answers you seek will best be found at the Sphinx." He read to himself, still shocked at what was going on. " The Sphinx? They expect me to go back to San Fransisco because of a billboard?!" He crossed his arms and looked out to the Nile again, not quite getting the message that whatever almighty force that was controlling this was telling him. Off in the distance, next to long rows of houseboats lining the river's docks there was a slightly small ferry drifting back from the other side of the Nile.

Rath looked back, out to the first board that luckily had it's message on both sides of it. Nile River Ferry rides, to visit the Pyramids... and the Sphinx.

" Oh." He realized, rolling his eyes in agitation. " I knew that." Noticing how close the boat was to the shore, and how they had runs probably twice a day there would be no time to waste in getting on it and finding out the so-called 'answer' to the facts. The scribe walked around the billboard and saw a long clear path nicely decorated with flowing grass. It was the practical backyard of the Cairo International standing tall behind bushels of palm trees.

The boat was just about to dock, so quickly he walked down the path to the meeting area, where already there looked to be a crowd gathering. Still watching the water Rath jumped down from a steep rise in the path and down to flat ground again. At the other end of the River there looked to be yet another boat carrying passengers back, so even if he missed the first one there would still be an extra available.

He got up to where the crowd was, and without hesitation fell onto a bench. This might have been the hottest he'd ever been. " Who wears long- sleeves to the desert?" He asked the sky incoherently. In the background the ferry boat's horn sounded and the anchor was dropped as it pulled into place to allow some to leave and others to get on it's clear decks...

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She groaned, and then rolled over onto her side. This turned out to be a huge mistake, for she didn't know she was on a bench and instantly the seat fell away. She yelped as she fell, slamming onto her stomach as she hit the ground.

" Ugh." She snorted, rubbing her chin where it had hit against the hard soil. She sat up and leaned against the seat of the bench, just looking around at the world around her. This didn't seem like San Fransisco...

The amulet around her neck began to pulsate with bright light. She tried to escape from it, but it nearly blinded her, so she pulled over the red shirt to tone down the luminescene. Once the light was going she felt an opening in her mind as assorted facts just passed through her memory. All the good times, all the bad, the fighting and her hidden identity back in Ancient Egypt. The heartbreak that she had suffered by the paths that she had chosen, all of the friends that she had lost.

" Stop it, stop it!" She shouted, grabbing the amulet and watching the stone fade and then the brightness die away to just reveal a garnet pyramid in the center of a cat's head. She hung her head and closed her eyes, feeling the slight curse of tears in her eyes at the last few moments that she could remember... of a battle, a bright light and an emptiness that frightened her so. But then, there she was, sitting there in this wonderful place, the warm sun on her back. Was she dead? Was she, Nefer-tina, Cat Guardian to Rapses dead again? She couldn't help but release a sob or two from her throat at the pang of loneliness that she felt then, and carefully adjusted her backwards hat so that the visor was over her eyes.

She sat there for minutes, just remembering and how it seemed peculiar that she hadn't known about these thoughts since the amulet had brought them back for her. She never bothered looking up at the wonderous fountain in front of her, or the loving families that walked by hand in hand. All she could concentrate on was the past.

Suddenly, Nefer-tina felt a gentle, yet secure hand on her shoulder and she looked up from her lap. Who it was, she didn't know, but she was thankful that they were there, otherwise the trauma of having all these thoughts going through her might have consumed everything.

" Are you alright miss?" The voice asked.

Nefer-tina froze and her deep gray eyes widened in amazement and recognition. She had heard that voice somewhere before, she had talked with that voice somewhere before. Sometime back... in her memories. She tipped back the hat's visor and looked up to who it was.

She gasped and jumped away from the hand, quickly standing up with the very quick support of the bench's seat. Wide-eyes she looked back to him with an agape mouth and slowly shook her head. She just couldn't believe it.

The man looked back at her as well, but then the same sense of realization came to him as well. She looked so familiar, a face that he hadn't see in mere minutes but it seemed like generations. And she seemed to agree, it showed in her eyes.

Nefer-tina took a step forward, not knowing how to react to this. " I..." She began, but couldn't start the sentance off. She just blurted out and said it. " Ja-kal?"

His eyes became wide too, amazed that she remembered him. " Nefer-tina?" He asked as well.

She sighed and a slow, bright smile came onto her face. Finally the last piece of the puzzle fell into place, and she didn't feel quite so alone anymore. " Uh huh... what's it to ya?" She chuckled to him as she tried to keep up the reckless exterior that she was so use to. Nefer-tina's smugness vanished and she looked over her leader again. He looked exactly the way he had in Egypt, but there were slight differences here and there. But the most surprising part was that he was alive. " What happened to you?" She asked in wonderment.

Ja-kal smiled at her, glad that he had found another member of his team, and that she was safe. " Nefer-tina, I... it is good to see you again." He looked himself over and seemed puzzled, then realized that she must have been talking about him being alive. He looked back at her. " What happened to me? What has happened to yourself also?"

Perplexed, Nefer-tina looked down at herself, and was instantly shocked by what she saw. Her skin was a light tan, and what hair she could see down her shoulders was a light smokey black. The clothes that she wore were something to be considered, but besides that she seemed normal. " I... Ja-kal, we're alive." She gazed back up to him. " But how?"

" I don't know." He confessed, rubbing his head and looking around the park with weary blue eyes. " The last thing I remember is being at the waterfront, ad then waking up in this paridise."

She thought, a pang sounding in her mind. " Ja-kal, where are the others? Where did they go?!"

He sensed the urgentness in her voice, and wished that he knew the answer. " Nefer-tina, I am as clueless as you are about this entire ordeal, the idea is to not lose our trains of thought and find out what happened calmly and quickly."

" Calmly nothing, how come we're here and they're not?!" She snapped back with her spunky personality. She thoughtlessly pointed out towards a very large building next to the park, saying that it was the International Cairo Hotel. Ja-kal had looked over that sign dozens of times before in figuring where he was. Now Nefer-tina knew as well that they were not in San Fransisco, but once more returned to Egypt.

He glanced back to her, the amazement gone from his face, and replaced with the usual sterness that made Ja-kal Ja-kal. " We must go and find some answers. Come." He led them past the long bench and away from the shining fountain. Nefer-tina watched him leave and she reluctantly followed. A deep worry passed over her as she wondered if the others were anywhere near there or not.

They both walked up to the steps of the hotel, valets and bellboys helped people in and out of cars, their arms full of bags and food trays. The leader pushed the door open for Nefer-tina and she walked through into a completely different climat, soothed with the cold of air conditioning.

When they went through the doors they reached the lobby. In front of them there was a long avenue of tourist attractions that others could see when they got to Cairo. Signs about the Museums, Gyms, Health Spas, Monuments, Ancient Buildings and relics left behind from the great Pharaohs.

" Reminds me of Vegas." Nefer-tina told Ja-kal dryly as they walked past them. No one even bothered giving them a second glance because they were all too busy with their own ordeals. The couple just seemed to be another of visiting tourists.

Ja-kal looked around the room, knowing that the other guardians weren't there and probably had never been there. " Nefer-tina, we should best look somewhere else, they aren't here." He spoke to her, just then turning around and seeing something over her head. It was an advertizement for the Nile River Ferry Boat rides across the way to Gizeh. Above it was written in English, but below that there were Heiroglyphics written in dark blue paint. They didn't look at all professional, but as he looked at them he began to see sense in the symbols.

The charioteer looked at him, and then up to the billboard that was keeping his attension. She had never been the best at spelling, so she couldn't make anything out of it. She glanced to him, confused. " Uh, Ja-kal? Hello, earth to Ja-kal!"

" It's a message." He told her, turning away from the board and looking at her now. " It's addressed to us, it has our own names on it."

" C'mon, get out of here, why would tourist beaureau guys want to drag us on a boat?" Nefer-tina contemplated and turned around in a circle just for the heck of it.

" All of your answers will be found at the Sphinx." Ja-kal read again, the last part of the puzzle throwing him off once more. " I believe that they want us to go to the Sphinx."

" Maybe it's one of those mind thinker things when there's a double answer to it. They could mean the Sphinx all the way back in San Fransisco, or..."

" Or they could mean Kahfre's Sphinx by the Pyramids!" Ja-kal interrupted, putting a hand on his head and facing her. " We must get there as quickly as we can, if this sign is some type of omen, then it must have been sent by the Gods to help us in our quest!"

Nefer-tina crossed her arms and looked at him oddly. " In the immortal words of Armon... huh?"

The leader reached out and grabbed her arm, quickly pulling her away from the signs and back towards the door. " Come, we must hurry! Only the quickest of the lion's hunters is able to bring down the brave gazelle so early in the morning."

She rolled her eyes and chuckled. " Oh yeah, the lion/gazelle speech things..." He pushed the front door open and still pulling her around made their way to the outside and the very unwelcome scortching heat.

" There's something I didn't miss in oblivion..."

*

********************************************* *

Huffing and puffing as she reached the dock Lyris looked around at her surroundings. Luckily for her the Hotel was closer to the waterfront than she had expected, so the muse hadn't needed to much less stop on her way there.

In front of her there were a bunch of people waiting in line to get on the boat. All were wearing shorts and T-shirts, barely any were wearing pants for it was far too hot. She herself was glad to be wearing cooler clothes in the blistering heat.

" Everybody on!" A voice shouted from the decks. Crewmembers of the ship slowly pulled the doors open and the gangplank separating the shore from the boat's small decks was in place. The line in front of her moved slowly up the boards to get on the boat.

" Please don't let there be an entrance fee." Lyris whispered to herself when one of her sandals connected with the hard gangplank. She had realized half way there that she didn't have any money on her, and that meant that if there was a fee she wouldn't be able to board the small boat, who's name was printed on the front of it, the Sakhemst. She didn't think that the Captain would buy her ' going to seek out destiny at the Sphinx' story.

The man in front of her walked through the door and onto the rough deck of the Sakhemst. With a deep breath the muse did the same, trying to look as confident as she could. The officer of the boat didn't bother giving her a second glance, and was more concerned about a pair of pushy children boarding. Lyris sighed with relief and quickly walked away from the area, to the other side of the boat if possible.

Most of the passengers were inside where it was cool, so unfortunately to keep her 'stowaway' secret she would have to stay outside, away from practically everyone. She found a bench on the port side of the boat in the shade, and she graciously fell upon that and slumped down in it. " I'm amazed the boat hasn't melted yet." The muse groaned with a chuckle, and looked out over the shining River Nile. So many years before had she walked along it's fertile shore and tossed stones into it, played songs on her lyre about it, swimming in it. It was the same river that had passed through her legs over three thousand years ago, because it was strong. She hoped that after reaching the Sphinx, she as well could learn something from the great Nile.

" Please help me find my way again." Lyris prayed out loud to anyone above and beyond that could hear her. Off and away from the other bank she could just barely see the tip of the Great Pyramid, even from miles away. Someone had to be listening to her otherwise she wouldn't have been there in the first place. " Please help me find the others."

The deck began to vibrate underneath the seat and her feet, and the muse looked to the stern, watching as once and awhile a boat member would walk out to check something. Up front three men were bringing up the Sakhemst's great anchor from the muddy depths of the Nile to get underway. The engine revved once more, and Lyris could very slowly see the scenery change as the boat slinked it's way out of the harbor.

*

********************************************* *

" Come on, come on, move your butt!" Kalia muttered as they got out of the taxi. Armon groaned and slammed the door behind him, perhaps bending the frame of it slightly as he did so. The cab driver wasted no time in counting the money that the young lady had given him before slamming the gas pedal and screeching away from the curb.

The artist turned around and her shoulder's slumped at the sight she saw. In front of them, down the grassy hill and beside a small parking lot absolutely packed with cars they could see the ferry... slowly pulling away from the shore and out into the open Nile.

" Wonderful! And now we're too late!" She gave Armon an annoyed look. " I told you you didn't need to stop off at that drive-thru window to grab lunch!"

" What would you rather have? An angry Armon without food, or a happy one with food?" The warrior asked as he crossed his arms and gave the artist back the smug look.

" I'd rather you just shut up and us be on that boat that's pulling away!" Kalia snapped, throwing her hands up in frustration. " Argh! I can't believe that this is happening to us! You'd think that being brought back to life and thrown into a somewhat unfamiliar town would have been enough, but no... now we have to be stranded here without any hope of rescue."

" I know for a fact that we are going to be able to get across that river." Armon told her straight and forward. The warrior turned and began to trudge down the steep back to the docking area.

She gave him another agitated stare. " How would you know that? You volunteering to swim? Because there is no way that..."

" Because of that." He cut her off, and pointed to the Nile's shore. Where the first ferry was slowly pulling out and away to open waters, another, though smaller was quietly taking it's place, complete with a little crowd of it's own.

Kalia's shoulder slumped in defeat. " Oh... well if I hadn't been busy trying to talk sense to you then I would have noticed that."

" Sure you would have." Armon rolled his eyes playfully and led them both down the grassy knoll to the small white ferry. He jumped a ways to reach the secure pavement and then looked over the tiny boarding area. Even from a short distance away the ship seemed little. It was more like a large yacht than a travelling vehicle.

Kalia jumped down from the grass and nearly fell over, cursing her uncomfortable heeled shoes. She looked up and saw the boat, unable to surpress a laugh. " Whoa... watch out Titanic, I think we have a winner." The artist glanced at Armon sarcastically and walked forward to join the rest of the tourists.

The warrior gazed at the small white boat as it pulled up, the name Pinti painted on the side. It fit the ship completely. " Titanic never looked like that." He shrugged his shoulders and trotted up to Kalia, already in line to get in.

" If this thing doesn't have air conditioning, I'm going to have to hurt someone." The artist told him smugly while the group became less aparently littered around the dock...

*

********************************************* *

" This is ironic, the hotel's right next to the shore. Finally a stroke of luck for us." Nefer-tina commented once her and Ja-kal rounded the brick corner and found that the dock was already in sight. She jumped down from the grassy bank and touched the hard sandy shore next to the river. " Kind of brings that whole afterlife fortune thing into perspective."

The leader rolled his eyes and hopped from the grass as well. At the moment he was more concerned with getting on a boat and reaching the Sphinx than anything else. " We don't have time to wait around, the longer that we stay..."

" Yeah, yeah, the longer the lion goes hungry, or something like that." She giggled and took the cap off her head to cool it off some.

Ja-kal watched over her shoulder at the scene before them. All seemed alright until a sight caught his eyes and it was almost as if the guardian had jumped right off the ground. He pushed past her and started to run toward the edge of the sandy bank. The charioteer didn't know what was going on, but figured that it had to be something important to run in heat like this so she picked up her heels as well and ran after him.

Ja-kal stopped just when his shoes were about to reach the water. An air of dispair hung over his person then, as if their last chance of hope had been done away with in a mere moment's notice. Nefer-tina came rushing up next to him, and being overheated now removed her dull red pullover.

" What? Ja-kal what is it?!" She exclaimed with curiousity, gazing out over the Nile and wishing that she had a pair of sunglasses. Her eyes spotted something there, and she mentally kicked herself. The ferry that they were suppose to take to reach the other shore was gone from the wooden deck, already out to sea with her propellers pushing waves of water from behind.

" That... that was our boat, wasn't it." She stated dryly and placing her hands on her hips. " Well, I take back everything about that afterlife fortune crap I'd just said."

He looked down at her and shook his head. " There's another way, there has to be another way." The leader glanced to his right and saw someone that looked like a crewmember for a boat waiting next to a steak in the ground. Rushing over the dry plain he walked up to the man, trying to sound as calm as possible.

" Excuse me, but do you know when there's suppose to be another ferry coming around by here to take people to Gizeh?" He asked hopefully.

The man just looked at him, and nearly spat in Ja-kal's direction. " The ferry? Sorry but you just missed the ferry. Both of them. They're coming around early tomorrow morning again if you want to do another tour."

Ja-kal turned around to Nefer-tina, who as well had a look of dispair. The two wandered away from the crewman and walked over to a long bench stationed right in front of the Nile's edge. " There has to be some way that we can get across." He thought out loud, sitting down in a discruntled heap.

She still stood, mearly shrugging her shoulders. " I don't know. Maybe we should just come back early tomorrow and find out whatever we have to at the Sphinx."

" Nefer-tina, when the Gods give you an order you do not put it off." He told her sternly, leaning back in the seat.

She crossed her arms. " Well sorry Ja-kal, but the only way that we're going to get across is if we do wait until tomorrow. You can't order an entire boat full of people to come back and pick us up." In a huff the charioteer turned away and back to where the ferry would have been if it were still docked. All along the shore there were small houseboats parked, people occassionally came to and from them, but in the heat of the day they pretty much stayed inside. One vessel especially caught her eye, it was a small sail boat and her owner was hard at work scrubbing the side of it with vigor.

A slow mischevious look creeping onto her face. Nefer-tina looked down at Ja-kal, who was still in deep thought about their predicament and not even noticing that she was there. She walked away from him, and headed out to the edge of the dock, and the clean white boat floating peacefully in the water.

The charioteer walked up so that she was practically behind the owner, and cleared her throat to show him that she was there. " Nice day, huh?"

He turned around at her, and though curious smile back. " Yes, very hot. Boat is very dirty."

" Oh no, it's really beautiful." Nefer-tina charmed, walking up to it and putting a hand on it. The owner didn't seem to mind, for he was too busy trying to scrub a green tint off the hull. " I was wondering, do you do favors?"

He looked up at her oddly. " Favors? What favors?"

" Oh, well me and a friend of mine were just five minutes too late to catch that ferry over there." She pointed out to the Nile, where a nearer ship, as well as one farther away could be spotted creeping their way up the rushing river. " And we have to get to the Pyramids today, but the ferrys aren't going back out until tomorrow."

" So you need ride?" He asked from his work. She nodded and he just looked down at the boat again. " I no give ride, take too long, too much spending to travel so far."

Nefer-tina reached into her left pocket and pulled out a small amount of cash that she had found there once her and Ja-kal had tried to raise money for a taxi, without the need to. " Well, we could pay you, if you would take us in. And you wouldn't even have to stay there, we'd get a ride back on the ship."

He looked at her the same odd way again, then at the wad of money in her hand, then back up to her once more. Finally he stood up and took the bills from her hand. " Go to pyramids, we go now."

Nefer-tina smiled brightly at him and nodded widely. " Yes, yes thank you so much!" She nearly jumped to turn around, and rushed back to Ja-kal, still thinking on the bench.

" Come on, I've got us a ride!" She exclaimed, grabbing his arm and pulling hard on it for him to follow.

The leader glanced at her curiously. " What? How Nefer-tina? Where were you able to..."

" Will you stop it with the 20 questions, I said that we've got a ride to the pyramids, and you were the one that was complaining about it so let's go!" She pulled on his wrist to guide him with to the small white boat, and not seeming too sure of her he followed.

They reached the boat, and the owner of it was just preparing the sail to cast away from the dock. He motioned for them to come on, and threw a guide rope to Ja-kal, whom still surprised caught it halfway to the ground. He looked at Nefer-tina and just grinned slightly. " You never cease to amaze me."

" I know, I even amaze myself." She laughed sarcastically, carefully grabbing the side rail and pulling herself onto the wooden deck.

" Come, we leave!" The owner shouted as he pulled against a thick rope to bring the sail all the way up. A white tarp flew above their heads, and very slowly at first but gradually picking up speed they began to move slickly through the water.

Ja-kal, still gripping the rope quickly jumped on as her owner steered her away from the shore and into deeper waters. Knowing that it was to keep the sail secured he pulled on it, finally finding it's hook and tieing it onto it.

" Smooth sailing ahead!!" Nefer-tina shouted from her standing position on top of the cabin. She held her hands up above her head in thanks for the cool breeze passing over them all as their speed picked up.

" And onto Gizeh." Ja-kal told her, he as well looking towards them and even past the two ferrys quickly scurrying along the Nile towards the Great Pyramids and Kahfre's Sphinx.

*

********************************************* *

After the ferry began it's round trip to the pyramids, there was finally a warm breeze blowing over everything and everyone out on deck. Unfortunately only the reception area beside the gift shop on the boat was equiped with air conditioning, and he didn't much fancy waiting around in there with nothing to do. It was just as good waiting out there with nothing to do.

There was something deeply puzzling Rath at the moment, and it all had to do with getting on the boat. To get on they asked for a boarding fee, luckily for him he had a wallet on him... but it was what was in the wallet that he was looking over this very minute. There had been quite a few bills, credit cards, insurance numbers, driver's licence, company passes to places that he had never even heard of before. But what was the most puzzling was that they were all in someone else's name, someone else's writing on most of the important documents.

After skimming through cards falling from the wallet in a surprisingly long list he rolled them back up into the leather cover. The scribe walked slowly down the deck, noticing that there was no one else out, probably all inside where it was cool. This was probably a lucky thing, it gave him a chance to think about this.

Trying to put four and four together, all the information that he had, Rath was in deep thought as he rounded a corner of the ship and never bothered to look at what was behind it. After getting past the bend he slammed his knee into the side of a wooden bench, and with a curse jumped from it to the side. Beside him he heard a loud 'oof' as someone else was also in the way and went sprawling toward the side of the ship.

" Oh, I... ouch, I mean, sorry about that." The scribe told whoever it was as he leaned against the corner and just grimaced at the pain shooting up his leg.

" No really, it was my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going." The other replied, also seeming apologetic for the incident. " It's just that I had not seen anyone else on deck today..."

" They're all inside." He interrupted, finally standing up and straightening himself out before continuing on. " It's too hot out to be doing anything..." He suddenly stopped short in mid-sentance, a large speech in mind about the heat of Egypt, but the words suddenly escaped his mind. The stranger was looking down at the floor, turned away as a probable second thought to leaving.

It was as if a memory that had been long buried for hundreds of years had been re-opened. It was quite confusing, he couldn't tell if it was real or not because the idea itself was almost nonexistant. Causiously Rath took a step forward towards them, forgetting for a short moment about all of the information that was still left unanswered.

The stranger was turned away from him, looking out at the open waters and probably thinking that he had left to head back on in where it was cooler and bustling with activity. Only when he took a step forward did they realize they were not alone, and spun around to meet him. Silence followed for long moments, each unable to answer all of the questions.

Whom he had run into, the scribe knew now was a young lady, probably up to shoulder height. Seconds after she had turned around she as well had a confused expression in her face, probably how he looked then as well. She was thin, wearing a yellow top and orange skirt, light auburn curls grazed her face as the slight wind of the Nile pushed past her. They had met before... why was it so hard to remember.

Lyris looked at the stranger for what seemed like hours. He seemed to be as confused as she felt, but made no motion to prove it all that much. She searched her mind for what it might be, how come she could remember what the street beside the Sphinx was named, but couldn't remember any of this, what she knew she had to understand from somewhere. She took a step forward as well, a small squint in her turquoise eyes searching for realization.

He knew her, it was certain. the face, the way she moved... but for all he did remember about the past this young lady must have been overlooked, for he didn't even recall her name. " Do..." He began, trying to be careful about what to say, just in case. " Do I know you?"

The muse opened her mouth to speak, but didn't know what to say. ' Yes, of course you do, I'm Lyris'... but then again, the idea about returning with ' I don't know who you are though, but that's OK' didn't spell joy into her heart. She was mentally tracing back her entire life, and all the people in it.

" I think..." Lyris began, and while going back through her thoughts a floodgate broke free, sending images, ideas, memories and feelings through her once more. It wasn't just the sights of the battles and that she was part of a team going around inside her now, she could feel for the past again, remember actually feelings, an aura that you got when you were around someone. She sighed greatly, her voice trembling as she did so. " Yes." She looked up to him again, the very inkling of a smile starting to spread on her face. " Rath, it's me."

The scribe was taken aback by this. Now it was he that was at a loss, and not both of them as it had been before. He still couldn't remember, but there was a certain way, the way that she spoke, the way that she said his name. That was even more recognizable than her face.

One name came into mind. " Lyris?"

The muse, still overcome with the shock of realizing that she was no longer alone slowly nodded positively. Why hadn't she remembered this before? Why had it been so difficult? Even if she had been knocked out than she would have at least remembered him, one of the people she was the closest with on the entire earth. She nodded again, taking another step to him. The man that she had once new was there, but seemed... different. She couldn't explain. Almost embarrassed she looked up to him with a small grin, catching a glimpse from his eyes. Still deep green, domineering and sharp. It couldn't have been anyone else.

Rath watched her, noticing that while she was the young one that played hymns on her lyre out back, there was an unmistakable change in her. Her voice, now less innocent as it had once sounded, a tangle of incandescent freckles covering her nose and cheeks, almost unrecognizable. Her hair, now slightly lighter than before along with her light cotta skin. But her eyes, her eyes were still the same... still the same rich blue with lime tinting as had been before.

She gulped and bit her bottom lip. She wasn't just concerned and perplexed now... she was scared. Why this? Why had it taken so long for them to remember everything, and why did they seem so different? She was sick of all these questions.

" Rath," She began, almost-fear trapped in her voice. " What happened? What happened to you?... to me?" She felt like a child asking such obsurd questions.

He waited a moment. " I don't know." He confessed to her, all the while thinking the same thing himself, and getting no answer. He looked out at the Nile all of a sudden, and the muse followed suite. The river boat was just passing around a large sand dune, at the stern of it the city of Cairo was just starting to disappear in the distance.

" But if you've the same mindset, I believe that we'll find the answers in Gizeh..."

*

********************************************* *

" What do you think we'll see when we get there?" Armon asked her as he looked out the window from the small boat Pinti. It was so cool in there, the air conditioning was on full blast, and that made traveling through Egypt quite pleasant.

Kalia looked away from her spot at the same long pane. " What do you mean?" She asked, crossing her arms and still watching the rushing waters with her violet eyes. " You don't think that there might be some sort of... danger going on there?" The thought had never crossed her mind. Going to the Sphinx might be what they were told to do, but who knew what was awaiting them out there. For all they knew Scarab could have been there evily setting a trap for them to fall right into. She gripped the purse strap that much harder.

The warrior shrugged. " Actually, I was wondering if they had a food vendor, but that's something to think of too." He glanced to her with a little half-smile. " Do you think they will?"

" Ugh! Oh really Armon!" Kalia exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. " Why do I even bother? I mean, we're on the way to quite possibly meet our destinys, but you're wondering if they have cheese ding-dongs in Egypt?!" In a discontented mood she fell upon a small red seat next to the window.

" Don' t have a cow." He told her a little louder. " I was just wondering..." His statement was broken off as a loud beeping noise echoed through the small cabin. Everyone quieted down, for that was the signal for the Captain of the Pinti to speak to it's passengers.

" Attension everyone!" He called to them, with far from perfect english. " We will be arriving in Gizeh momentarily. Please ready yourselves for leaving the ship and meeting the guides..." The voice continued, chattering away in both Arabic, French and Spanish.

Armon walked over and sat down in the seat next to her. " So, as I was asking before, what do you think we'll find there? You know, besides food vendors and stuff like that."

The artist looked over to him, the angered look gone from her face. " Wish I knew." She sighed, glancing out the window now and then just to ensure herself that they were reaching Gizeh. " It could be anything, if we're going to find our answers at the Sphinx, then we could meet a fortune teller, or maybe even a God."

" You don't think Scarab'll be there do you?" He asked, aprehension in his voice, but also a deep twinge of anger that no one seldom heard in the warrior's voice. Three more sirens echoed in the distance, telling the boat's passengers that it was almost time to dock. Many of them got up from their seats to get a closer view of the sand dunes, while most just gathered up their belongings, said good-bye to the cool air-conditioning and made their ways out on deck.

" I doubt it." She re-assured him, slowly getting up from her seat and stretching. " When Scarab has an idea, he sticks to it, taking weeks to plan it out... he wouldn't have anything too dangerous up his sleeve in just a few short hours..."

*

********************************************* *

The small boat was surprisingly wracked by the slight waves over the Nile, her tall sail blowing freely in the breeze and her captain keeping them all on course for Gizeh. Nefer-tina was leaning up against the mast of the sail, looking out over the cornflower-blue waters surrounding them. It had been a fancy of hers to watch the Nile when she was younger, but that too had been left behind when she had taken the role as guardian.

Ja-kal was gripping the ropes attached to the bearing of the ship, standing on the starboard side of her and actually feeling the spray of the river upon him as they continued onward. He, unlike Nefer-tina was not concerned with this however, frankly, he was looking down at a small pendant that he was holding, the amulet of the mighty Falcon God Horus hanging around his neck.

The chariteer noticed this, and drew her attension away from the senery. " What's up?" She asked innocently.

He glanced away from it, and to her gaze. " What do you mean?"

" Well, you've been looking at that thing on and off for the last half hour, almost like you didn't know what it was." She herself had taken the cat amulet out from under her clothes and to the open air, it felt more comfortable that way. At the moment she had the red pullover next to her on the deck, along with the baseball cap.

Ja-kal removed his hand from the rope and walked over to her, falling to the ground next to her, in a way that was definitly unlike his character. " Ever since the battle, and our return to Egypt, I have been feeling... very different indeed." He confessed to her. Another thing that was unusual, since the leader wasn't the greatest at sharing feelings such as this.

" You mean like you're really somewhere else, almost that you're a mistake and you aren't suppose to be here?" He looked at her with perplexed eyes, wide with comprehension. The charioteer nodded slowly, gazing down at the rough floor. " Yeah, I know. I feel it too. Not alot, but once and awhile. It's like there's a part of me missing."

" And it scares you?" He asked. She looked up at him with sharp eyes, telling him that he was dead on, but to drop the subject entirely. Ja-kal nodded and turned away from her. " We will discover all of this at Gizeh, it will not be long now."

" But how do you know that?" She snapped suddenly, the spunk in her voice returning in full force. " How do you know that when we get there we won't learn the entire truth... how do you know that there will be anything at the Sphinx period?!"

" Almost there!" a voice called from the back of the boat. The guardians glanced over to the owner of the vessel, steadily turning the wheel back and forth to keep them on course. " Another little minutes and we there!"

Ja-kal looked back to her, Nefer-tina in embarrassement still looked at the floor. She hadn't meant to blow up like that. " There is no turning back now." He told her quietly, now he as well leaned against the mast, out the portside of the boat. " What we learn will have to do, the rest we will have to discover on our own."

" If we can." She finished off, glancing to him, then to the water, such as she had dozens of times before soul-searching for what she knew wasn't there...

*

********************************************* *

The Sakhemst's mighty engine was suddenly cut off, the giant hull quietly coasting up against the pier at the otherside of the Nile. After almost an hour of travelling upsteam from Cairo, the destination was finally reached. In a matter of minutes the tour group would be stepping out on the shores of Gizeh, and later still... the Sphinx.

" ...and then I woke up in an alley, not knowing what happened or if everyone was alright." Lyris continued to tell her tale with a pang of sadness. She never once said that the ordeal had frightened her, but it showed in her reminising about the recent past.

Rath nodded, watching below how crewmen on this side of the river were still just as eager as those on the other. With a large splash the ship's anchor was thrown into the shallow water, ropes were strewn about in an attempt to pull the vessel close enough to shore to allow people passage to the soft sand. " And that's when you saw the message?"

The muse stopped short and looked up at him. He looked back with a type of guilty expression. " Yes..." She replied slowly, still unknowing how he knew that. Finally, she decided to just come out and ask him. " How did you know that I saw a message?"

" Well, how would you have known to come to Gizeh?" He stated ignorantly. " The same thing happened to me... on a large riverside promotion sign... they find the most unusual ways of getting out attension."

Lyris laughed at this, the scribe watched her in a confused manner. He hadn't meant for it to be all that amusing, he was serious about it. She covered her mouth with her hand, giggling under her breath. She hadn't meant to, and it hadn't been all that funny, she was just happy to have someone to talk to, to know that one of her companions was safe. And this gave hope, hope that everyone else was safe too.

The deck suddenly shifted, moving back and forth violently, and then remained still. The guardians gripped the railing to keep steady, and then looked around at what had happened. The crewmen were finished securing the boat to the dock, and the taunt rope showed that it was what caused the jolt. They were officially at Gizeh.

The muse had a frog caught up in her throat. Ever since Cairo she had been hoping for this moment, but ever since they had seen the sight of the Great Pyramid in the distance a thread of dread passed through her. What if it wasn't what they had expected? What it was a disappointment?

Rath watched her face as she looked around the deck, then the dock, then even beyond that, to the tips of the great structures that were awaiting them. She looked the same way he felt, how were they suppose to know what to do, besides head to the Sphinx... logically speaking, the possibilities were endless.

" We'd better get going." He told her matter-of-factly. The scribe pointed down to the entrance of the ship. A gangplank was being assembled and brought up to the tall hull, allowing those on it to walk on the Egyptian soil once more. " Unless you'd rather spend another day on this god-forsaken boat."

She smiled and shook her head. " No, let's go." The muse let the railing go, the knot in her stomach tightening moreso. " I just hope... hope that everything'll be alright in the end."

" Ours is not to judge it," He told her solemnly. " But to make due with what's given to us." It sounded like something off of an ancient scroll, but at the time it was the only way that he knew of to make her understand. She nodded once more, knowing this also and turned around to head into the lounge, through the hallway and back out the way she had come it.

Rath followed behind her, the older ideas about the credit cards and identification coming back to him. It was still puzzling, and even if the answer was provided at the Sphinx, then it would still need quite some research...

*

********************************************* *

After thanking the kind man that had given them a ride all that way, Ja-kal and Nefer-tina started to trudge up the tall sandy hill towards the plateau where the ancient monuments stood. The charioteer still waved to their new friend as he sailed back downstream, and once and awhile he looked back and did the same.

" It's great to know that even with all the problems in the world, there are still people around that'll do something absolutely crazy just to help us out." She giggled slightly, fitting the crimson cap on top of her smokey hair.

Ja-kal glanced back to her, just the tiny incling of a grin on his face. " Nefer-tina, you told him that you would pay him."

" And I did... but he still didn't have to agree to it." She stated, still smiling wide. The leader shook his head and turned around so that he could see where they were going. The day was still hot, though now that it was the late afternoon it wouldn't be getting warmer moreso in the future. The light sand poured over the tops of their shoes as they walked, getting in through the laces and socks. It was nothing they hadn't felt before... but was still somewhat uncomfortable.

The cat guardian jumped up to reach the top of a dune easier. When she did this her amulet of Bastet flew out from under her pullover and rocked back and forth with her body motion. The metal pendant was heavy enough to make her collarbone hurt, and she gripped it to keep it steady. " So," She began, realizing that she was actually panting in the hot sun. " What's the plan? Are we just going to go to the Sphinx and... wait?"

" I don't see any other options open to us," He replied to her, able to make it up the dune faster than her, and reaching a hand out for her to take. " The message was very vague, but we still must follow it." Nefer-tina pushed forward and caught his hand. Ja-kal easily pulled her slim figure up the last few feet, and to where he now stood. The charioteer smiled wide.

Up ahead of them, the great Pyramids of Gizeh stood tall as the mightiest buildings. The smaller structures, though also impressive could not hold a torch to Khufu and Kahfre's masterpieces, here it seemed since the dawn of time. Though in the guardian's day they were once covered over with a shining white casing of limestone, they were now bare, showing chipping sandstone. It was only slightly disappointing, for they both knew that among all of the ancient sites on earth, this one was the most well-preserved.

" They're magnifiscent." He announced with a voice full of awe.

Nefer-tina laughed a little once more. " I thought I'd never see them again... but here we are. Against our will mind you, but we're here."

Ja-kal turned to her, a new light in his deep blue eyes. Maybe it was the excitement of being back in Egypt, or perhaps the sight of the pyramids... maybe it was both or neither, she could never seem to tell. All she knew was that there was new hope for them both.

" Come," He told her, returning to his same stern voice. " The Sphinx is over in this direction..."

*

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" I'm underwhelmed." Nefer-tina told him flatly as they stood next to the tall statue. The face of Pharaoh Kahfre was in ruins, to say the least, and with all of the stones waiting around beside him there was no wonder that tourgroups didn't allow anyone that close to it. The guardians were standing inbetween the mighty Sphinx's long front legs, where the small door in it's chest came to the open air. And there was nothing there.

" Perhaps we must wait." He told her, whiping an arm over his brow in the heat. Ja-kal looked up to the sun, silently cursing where they were as it trailed overhead, without the slightest inkling of leaving. The heat would remain.

The charioteer yawned, then glanced apologetically at Ja-kal. He didn't seem to notice, so she did it again. Looking around the place, she saw a small stone slab, walked over to it and began to dust it off for sitting.

The leader shook his head, his eyes wandering back to the open Nile. " The Gods must be playing games with us... we do as they have commanded and still we don't hold the secrets which we were promised."

" Maybe the gods are too busy trying to solve world hunger and devistation to bother with us." Nefer-tina sighed as she placed her head in her hands. " Maybe this was just all a mistake... we shouldn't have gotten our hopes up, you know? Every single time we're given a break in life something's just pushed in our way." Her tone began to get negative, her once optimistic attitude fading with the heat of the sun. " We should have just stayed in Cairo..."

*

********************************************* *

The tourleader was a large, stern man wearing the basic robes and headress of the Arabic people. Everyone that got off the ships were meant to trudge up the long hill and reach the pyramids and their guide. Well, they had found their guide, now it was simply a matter of trying to get away from him.

" The pyramids were built long ago, the first around 2600 bc," He began, definitly a memorized speech that he must have recited dozens of times that week alone. " They were used as tombs for the royals..."

" Why does everyone believe that?!" Rath asked quietly to himself, but just enough to make a few people in front of them turn around and wonder.

" Shh!" Lyris told him, placing a finger over her mouth such as she had everytime he had to just come out and say something. " Exnay on the oudlay alkingtay."

" The what?" He asked again, this time even louder. The guide stopped for a moment and looked at them both. Showing that he was clearly discruntled he turned back to the crowd. " Now, the Great Pyramid was built by Pharaoh Cheops..." And the words rambled on.

The scribe looked around them, how they weren't in the dead center of the crowd, but were pretty close to it. The tour wasn't going to be centered around the Sphinx, they would be traveling to the pyramids, so they had to make a little detour of their own if they wished to reach them as their messages had intended.

Almost as if she was thinking the same thing, Lyris tugged on his arm ever so slightly. " We have to get out of this mob." She explained. The muse cocked her head to the side a few times, over in the direction of the large statue sitting behind them, such as it had thousands of years before. " I'm pretty sure they won't let us get to it anytime soon."

" Agreed." He nodded, glancing around the crowd once more, before slowly starting to move away from the speaker, and to the back of the group. Rath motioned for her to follow as well. " Come, this way."

Lyris gazed to the guide, by then he had forgotten about their little outbursts and was deep in thought conversing about the structural techniques used for the pyramids. She did the same as he had done, not turning around, but sort of slinking away and hoping that no one would notice and stop them.

" Excuse me." He asked someone who was almost on the outside of the group. The young lady moved over and Rath walked out of the crowd and onto open sand facing the large, long back of Kahfre's Sphinx. Even from there the statue looked in dire need of repair, it was almost a disappointment after knowing it so many years before, recognizing it's beauty before it had been taken away.

" Pardon me," Lyris told the same person, and still, though with a twinge of suspision the lady cleared the way so the muse could get through. She felt the hot sand seeping into the holes in her sandals, and sighed with a slight grin on her face. How long had it been since she had felt the Egyptian sand under her feet like this?

She didn't have time to think for long unfortunately. Rath glanced over his shoulder at her, and at the large group and tour guide. No one except for the young woman seemed to know that they were even there, no one was watching. " Come, we have to make this as quick as possible or risk being found out." He told her matter-of-factly. The scribe reached out and grabbed her arm, suddenly jerking forwards and walking quite quickly to the great Sphinx.

Lyris nearly tripped once, but stayed her couse. She was practically jogging at this pace, but she never once argued with him. The sooner they did get to the Sphinx the better... she only hoped that the answers that they would recieve would be the ones she was so searching for...

*

********************************************* *

Impatiently, Ja-kal walked back towards the body of the Sphinx from it's feet. His mind was going a mile a minute, the hot sun wasn't helping matters much either. When they had been given that message, he had been so sure that it was a sign... perhaps it might have just been a coincidence that their names were on that sign...

" I'm baking like one of Armon's deep-fried burgers." Nefer-tina told him with a sigh, casually fanning herself with the back of her hat. She leaned against the side of the building and sadly shook her head. " Ja-kal, maybe this was just one large mistake... there's nothing here. We've been all around this stupid statue and there's nothing! No Gods, no signs, no letter, no nothing."

The leader looked away, nodding slowly with what she was saying. It was almost as if they were on the same wavelength. After being in that type of sun for almost an hour his patients was tried, and he himself was just tired. " Nefer-tina... you're right." He confessed, once more circling to face her. " Perhaps this is not the way to go about finding out what happened." Ja-kal faced away, suddenly a fiery look in his eyes. " But it's quite discouraging!"

She watched him with some worry. Knowing Ja-kal... and she did, he was no doubt blaming himself for everythign that had happened. All the time, he took the well-being of the team to great heart. Not knowing what happened or where they were must have scared him. It must have... it scared her too.

But they were also impatient for what they didn't yet know, and because of that, staying there was like a slow form of torture. With a sigh Nefer-tina stood up from her makeshift seat and headed his way, to bide time before they were supposidly to find their answers. She met him halfway, and the two locked eyes for a moment or so before Ja-kal was the first to turn away.

" Something's wrong." He assumed to himself, but also knowing he had spoken loud enough for her to hear. " Something is not right with the world... we left it as outsiders, now we are suppose to be drawn into it. The others... where could they be? If we were to find the answers at the Sphinx than one would think we would have less questions than before."

" What can I tell you, sometimes life stinks." She tried to console, but she wasn't the greatest at it. " When you think you can't get any lower something gets right on top of you, when you've hit rock bottom someone throws you a shovel... but I know. I just know that we were suppose to be here. I don't know how Ja-kal, you could call me a crazy, deranged lunatic for all I care. But this is right." She looked up at the leader again, now seeing that his eyes were on her... was that a hint of impression in them?

Nefer-tina shrugged it off and walked past him again, down to the feet of the Sphinx. Ja-kal watched her, now feeling quite a fool. He was to have faith, when you have faith you had everything, and he had lost his. In his mind he thanked her for that, and then continued to walk around the area to keep himself occupied. Fatih may have been one thing, restlessness was another...

*

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" This doesn't make any sense." Rath pointed out to her once they had left the prying eyes of the tourgroup. They had journeyed over the top of a small dune, and were almost directly beside the great statue. Lyris had taken the lead for the last few steps, but after hearing this she turned around and glanced at him curiously.

" What doesn't make sense?" She asked.

Such as he was so use to doing, the scribe was busy fiddling around with a watch strapped securely to his wrist, pressing buttons and just basically looking the entire thing over. It was one of those very fancy metal ones, the type that told you the time, date, temperature, heartrate and the amount traveled in miles for the entire day. " What day is it?" He asked incoherently.

The muse put her hands on her hips and looked up to the sky as if thinking. " Um, well... I think it's the... twelth? Is that right?"

Rath tinkered with it for a moment or so trying to find out what was wrong with it. " No. It isn't." He stated flatly, surprised to find that the date of which they thought it was, wasn't. As a matter of fact, it was over a month from when they thought it was. A troubled thought rose in his stomach, and he could only hope that the date on the small machine was incorrect.

" I can't remember." Lyris defended. She looked over her shoulder and saw the great head of the Sphinx nearly right in front of her. Though years of hard times had nearly rendered it looking like a broken porcelain doll, she could still see the clear view of a mighty Pharaoh on it. " And right now, if you don't mind me saying so Rath, I don't really care."

Understanding this he nodded to her and let his wrist down to follow, quickly rushing up so that he was next to her and the two continued onward. The hot sun was even worse then than it had been on the Sakhemst because now there was no wind, just intense heat. Before when they had lived in Egypt it hadn't seemed quite so bad, but now it was almost unbearable. Yet very questionable... why?

The muse jumped over the bottom of the dune and found herself at the base of the Sphinx. The intense feeling she had been feeling before, if possible, had trippled in the last few seconds, enough so to almost make her physically ill. She wanted to run away and hide, but stayed. Curiousity and a means for knowledge always outsmarted everyone.

Rath walked up past her, enough so that he was but a few feet away from the ancient rock. He wondered really what sort of answers they would find here. They were here then, why wasn't anything going on. " Perhaps they meant inside the Sphinx." He thought out loud towards her.

Lyris shrugged her shoulders. " Or maybe we were suppose to go to another side of it."

" Well we don't have all day!" He exclaimed loudly, brushing a hand up along the smoothed sandstone. " If they didn't want us to get confused that the person or persons who wrote the messages should have been more specific."

She shook her head with a sigh and walked around the front of the statue's paw. Even then she still felt dwarfed by it's immense size, but now disappointment was showing up. They had been promised answers but were left with nothing. The muse didn't know if they were meant to stay there and wait, or if something had gone afoul.

She turned the corner and nearly jumped back in surprise. With all of her soul-searching she hadn't been watching where she was going, and had almost bumped into someone, miraculously on the other side. She gave the stranger an apologetic look. " I my goodness! Oh, I'm so sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going."

" Naw, that's fine." The other replied, waving her statement off. " We're not perfect. If we were than what would be the use of erasers on pencils?" The stranger was a taller young woman with dark hair and fair skin. When she smiled at Lyris she couldn't help but smile back. There was just something about her.

" So true." She pointed out with a small laugh. The two stood there for a moment. The muse watched her a little more closely, knowing that her instincts were trying to tell her something. There were no tourists allowed in this area, and if they were than there was no other group around. " We were told to come here... for a meeting." She explained, knowing that it must have sounded fake.

" Really? Same here." She replied with a laugh, but then suddenly her face grew solemn, her laugh ceases, and she looked as though she were as well looking Lyris up and down, watching what she looked like and how she talked.

"...looked around the entire side of it and there is not a trace of anyone or anything." A voice came over from behind the muse. Looking frazzled Rath stepped out beside her, as well surprised to find that she was not alone. " Who's this?" He asked, at the moment not really caring what Lyris said.

She looked up at him, and then at the stranger. " I don't... I know." She stated bluntly, continuing to tell herself that even as she spoke. " I do know, I know you."

Nefer-tina raised an eyebrow at her and then looked up at the tall stranger that had just come. " I think she's been out too long in the sun, we've never met." She brushed a few strands of dusty hair away from her face. " Then again, maybe I'm just one of those people that looks like someone you know."

" Perhaps," The scribe replied, now sounding annoyed that they were spending so much time on this and not getting down to business. Hastily he took the muse's arm and tried to pull her away from her new companion. " Come along Lyris, we still have to check the other side... and good day to you." He quickly nodded to Nefer-tina.

The charioteer went ridgid, her grey eyes widening with amazement. Deja vue flowed through her mind as when she had been lying on the bench and not knowing what was going on. A floodgate in her head had broken down, and it seemed that there was another doing that just then. Memories that she thought she had known suddenly had just disappeared and she couldn't remember them. They were coming in something similarily to waves - they'd come any go without a moment's notice. Now they were back.

" No! Wait!" She called to them as they had begun to depart. Rath stopped pulling Lyris along, and she graciously stopped to wonder what this new face had suddenly shouted about. Nefer-tina rushed up to them, looking worried. " I think... I think I know her too."

The scribe shook his head, he didn't know who she was. Alright, so she did look slightly familiar, but then again, there was an idea of her just being 'one of those people'. He didn't give her a second thought.

Lyris, on the other hand, nodded to her. " I know. It's a familiar feeling..."

" Like we've met before, like we've... fought before..." Nefer-tina told her, knowing that she had overstepped her boundaries, but it seemed to be the only way that she could maybe get it across to her.

Rath watched them both, still looking completely in the dark. " You've both gone crazy!" He exclaimed, turning around and throwing his hands up in the air. " The sun has gotten to you and you're delusional. I would have never expected this from you Lyris! Nefer-tina maybe, but not..." He suddenly caught himself midsentance, shocked at what he had just said. Slowly he turned around to look at them both.

The charioteer's weary face brightened then, and she couldn't help but surpress a loud shout. Her eyes looked to get somewhat glassy, but never the threat of tears falling. " We've missed you."

The name shot back at Lyris, and she too got imotional. " I know, we missed you too!" She exclaimed, not knowing what else to do but step forward and throw her arms around the charioteer's neck in a large embrace. " I never thought I'd see you again!"

" I know!" Nefer-tina shouted too. " After the blast and everything was dark, I felt so alone, but we traveled here and now we've found you!"

Rath was busy summing everything up in his head to notice that any of this was truely going on. He shot a glance at them as they finished the hug, and were now in deep conversasion about everything that had happened. " We? Who's we?" He asked her.

Nefer-tina smiled back to him. " We, me and Ja-kal. We've been here for almost an hour. And man! Does it get damn hot out here for that long!" She laughed again before Lyris joined in unison. Rath just rolled his eyes and looked up to the sky.

The charioteer left them both and nodded in the direction of the Sphinx. " C'mon! I know he'll be just as thrilled to see you two as I was!" In haste she took both their arms and started to pull them to where she had seen Ja-kal last, heading to the door in the Sphinx's chest.

" Nefer, Nefer-tina stop!" The scribe told her, yanking his arm away and leaving them both for a moment. The girls exchanged confused gazes. " We cannot just go rushing in at him and expect him to remember."

" What are you talking..."

" It fits together now." He explained, glad then that after an entire day of thinking things through he had something to show for it. " We were told to come to the Sphinx, it wasn't 'drop in when you have the time', it was be at the Sphinx. Now. Something happened back in San Francisco, but it seems that the longer we're away from everyone else the harder it is to remember. When Lyris and myself met on the ship we didn't know who we were, and then just now it took almost five minutes to figure it out."

Nefer-tina was about to argue this, but she realized that maybe this was what was going on. " When I met Ja-kal in the park a few hours ago we didn't know who we were either, but it didn't take this long."

" See? We've finally found a use for you." Lyris giggled at the small joke. The scribe mearly cast an eye at her and continued.

" Apparently now we are here to meet up with you, but we have to do it subtly. If it's too rushed or too lingered we will have no chance at it."

The muse's brow furrowed. " OK wait... if this means that we will have to convince everyone and ourselves to remember what happened... how long do we have before we won't remember who anyone is?"

" Most spells are cast until the setting or rising sun. Since we were... brought back earlier today, it only makes sense that it will end with the setting of the sun, the end of the day. That means that in order to convince Ja-kal now, as well as the others will all have to be before Ra sets."

Nefer-tina nodded in acknowledgement. It didn't seem that difficult, after all, if they were all suppose to be there, than they were all going to be there. All six of them... she gasped in realization, that even though she knew clearly who the others were, she could not place what they looked, sounded or acted like.

Rath crossed his arms and looked at her carefully. " Do you think you can handle that?" He asked sternly.

The cat guardian simply laughed a type of high-class snicker. " Oh, don't worry. Subtle's my middle name. Nefer-tina Subtle somethin'-er-other." To show she was serious she put her hands on her hips and raised her chin, just to show how gallant she could be.

He shook his head and looked up at the sky. " We are in so much trouble."

" Just as long as Ja-kal knows who we are we're out of danger." Lyris told them, stepping away from behind Nefer-tina and she herself lead the way to the Sphinx. The other guardians simply glanced at each other and followed with the realization that the longer they pondered what to do, the harder their decision was going to be to carry out.

The muse walked past the large lion paw of the statue, no longer preoccupied with it any longer since they already knew why they had come. She let her hand trail along the corner of it so it was easier to turn in. Lyris peered around at the surroundings, a block of rock there, cluttered stones here and everywhere. She was just about to continue when she saw who she was looking for. At a distance of course, if she hadn't known it was him, than she would have dismissed the person standing there. She waited for a few more moments, remembering how this person was Ja-kal. It still got to her how she could never recall many of the important people in her life easily.

Nefer-tina walked past her and turned around, now walking backwards towards Ja-kal. " I'll go... introduce you guys. Maybe you should stay here for a sec while I go get him."

" Subtley Nefer-tina." Rath reminded her, standing next to Lyris and really not showing that much confidence that everything was going to fall into place according to plan. " Remember..."

" I think I know that already." She explained to him through clenched teeth, whirling around and walking straight towards the leader, mumbling under her breath. " You've only reminded me seventeen times in the past two minutes." But all the same she was proud of herself, content that after all of that waiting the two of them were finally going to get what they bargained for - a small piece of the truth they were promised.

Ja-kal was turned away from her in his usual 'thinking' pose attempting to sort this crazy mess out. Nefer-tina approached him from behind and casually tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to look at her, and was confused. Even though she was told to be gently with the truth, the charioteer could still not hold back a huge smile on her face, signifying that there was something she knew that he didn't.

" Nefer-tina?" He asked slowly, a perplexed tone in his voice. " What is it? You look like the young lion that has ventured out and caught his first gazelle this morning in..."

She laughed, sounding almost giddy. " I'll show you, come on." She pulled on his arm for him to follow. Ja-kal hesitated for a moment or so, but then followed her, though their pace was slowed down some.

" What is it?" He asked, still confused. A thought of realization came to his mind and the leader stopped short in his tracks. Nefer-tina spun around to see what was keeping him, and he looked back. His expression showed astonishment as well as the same puzzled look combined. " Nefer-tina, did you find something having to do with the message? Did you find what we were searching for?!"

The cat guardian shrugged. " Maybe... but you're going to have to come with me to find out." If that didn't spark his interest than nothing else on this green earth ever could. As a matter of fact, he grabbed her arm and quickly pulled her to the direction she had come from, quite impatient to find out the truth he had thought they would never find.

She couldn't help but laugh a little while being pulled in any which direction. After all, he was about to meet two people that he wouldn't know, but they'd know him in possibly every way. It was ironically amusing.

Ja-kal turned the paw of the Sphinx in hopes to spy what Nefer-tina had been secretly putting towards him. When he did he was met with something of a shocker, and a near-collision. Before him there were two people, a tall man and a younger woman. Both glanced to him, and the leader was taken aback. The way they took to him looked almost as if they knew his every secret, and it was unnerving.

Carefully he let the charioteer's arm go, and stood there, looking perplexed but as well holding up his steriotypical guardian calm. " Nefer-tina, who is this? Do they have something to do with why we're here?"

" You could say that." Rath spoke before she could, and walked away from the statues immense paw. He came right up to the leader, and finally noticed how unusual it was to be standing there with him, alive, in the hot Egyptian sun. " We're here for the same purpose you are."

Ja-kal shook his head and just looked back. " I do not know who you are, but if you know of what we are here to find out than please guide us along the way."

" Ja-kal," Lyris suddenly chimed in, trotting up beside him. Now he was completely surrounded, Nefer-tina and her on either side, the scribe in front. " Please, you must think to yourself. Why else would others be here searching for the same truths you hold so dear?"

The leader shot a stare at Nefer-tina. " How do they know us?"

Nefer-tina tried to say something, but couldn't accomplish it. After all of this time, tip-toeing around the truth she was about ready to blow, even if she wasn't suppose to. " Open your eyes Ja-kal!" She suddenly snapped, alerting the others. " Take a good, long look at them. What do you find similar? Remember, before the blast, there were six of us, there was you, myself, Rath and Lyris..." She pointed them both out inbetween pleading. " Remember them! They are Rapses Guardians too! We've found them again!"

Rath rolled his eyes and couldn't help but put his head in one of his hands. " After all that... do you even know what subtle means?!"

The muse shook her head a little, then reached up and touched Ja-kal's shoulder. The leader quickly looked back at her, and started to draw away... but something stopped him. This was familiar, he couldn't place it. Even the ideas that Nefer-tina had just spoke up were fuzzy. To stop his head from spinning he shook it, and lurched forward against the statue.

" Ja-kal?" The three seemed to say all at the same time. The scribe shook his head in defeat. This was what happens, they must have come on too strongly... who knew what was going to happen.

The leader closed his eyes for a bit, welcoming the darkness from the bright, blazing egyptian sands they had been trudging for the past hour or so. He didn't know why but meeting these two others was suddenly drawing his mind into a blank state of being. It hurt... yet there was nothing going on. This was about to continue moreso when suddenly it was like a blast of lightening exploded from his mind, and he grimaced at it. Lights flashed, sounds echoed through his ears at a quickened speed, vast retellings of everything past and present that happened in his life in but a few short seconds. Screams, energy flying, an immense heat, and then the emptiness of the dark beyond...

Lyris watched him uneasily, then looked to Nefer-tina. The charioteer gazed back, looking quite concerned for their leader. She was in remorse about what she'd done- being too impatient and then ending up in this way. The muse then turned to Rath, knowing that if anyone did have the answers, he did. Instead, he glanced back to her without any. The only person that could tell them what they wanted to know was Ja-kal.

The lights vanished, lazers lost in the night. The cries stopped, washed away to a sea of nothingness. Ja-kal opened his eyes into a new light, still the same bright sun bowing down upon them... but for the first time actually seeing things clearly. He straightened up some, and after a quick shake of his head looked to the others. Only seconds before he hadn't known them, but he did now. An inviting feeling.

Nefer-tina, still concerned, took a step forward towards him, and once waved a hand across his face to make sure he was all there. " Ja-kal?" She asked, still on shaky grounds. " Are you... alright? Do you feel OK?"

He looked down at her, then averted his gaze to the next guardian on the right. Rath watched him with a type of aprehensive awe and confusion, but still remained almost emotionless. To the left Lyris never left his sight, gazing at him with wide eyes, screaming for answers in this unusual time.

Slowly, he nodded, unable to hold back a proud smile any longer. " It's good to be together again..."

*

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