(Originally written for AU August - 23 - Historical. I chose to write on a subject close to my heart and re-tell the story of the Pharaoh, so it makes sense in both the Miraculous world, and the real world. Well, what we know right now about that time period. And I had some fun in doing it.)

Khepri: Egyptian Scarab God - Ladybug

Maahes: Egyptian Lion God – Chat Noir

Miraculous: Tales of Khepri and Maahes

A gentle wind blew through the courtyard of the Palace, making the lanterns flicker against the walls of alabaster stone. A young man looked out over the Nile, taking a deep breath before turning to the tiny goddess beside him.

"I hope I'm wrong, Tikki," he said heavily. "And I wish I could do this as myself, but…."

"I know you don't like to change into a girl as Khepri," the little goddess chirped. "But it's for your own protection. Everyone is looking for a female of the royal blood who has taken the title of Sacred Scarab. You are overlooked and unnoticed."

"Whereas Maahes is free to come and go whenever he pleases," the young man sighed with envy as he thought of his feline superhero partner. "Ah, the freedom of not being part of the royal family. Even if it's only a distant cousin."

"Your information and insight are critical to our missions," Tikki said firmly, kissing him on the nose. "Especially this one. Now, are you ready? You promised everyone you'd meet at sunset."

"Right, right. Tikki, transform me!"

The young man felt the power wash over him and once again sighed as he looked down at his now-decidedly-female body covered in spotted linen. Fortunately, Khepri's kalasiris (sheath dress) allowed for much more movement than he'd thought possible, and he effortlessly jumped from building to building as he made his way to the meeting place.

Being a female as the superhero (goddess) Khepri wasn't so bad, really. The change was useful in keeping his identity secret, but he might've been able to enjoy it more if—

"There's my beautiful lady bug!"

-he hadn't accidentally told Maahes about the change. Now, the cat-themed superhero had taken it upon himself to tease Khepri about it whenever he could.

"Shut up, you drunk old cat!" he—she—spat, tossing her yoyo at him. The catboy easily moved his head to the side to dodge it, fully-aware that Khepri wouldn't actually hurt him. "Were you followed?"

"Was I—was I followed?" Maahes asked in mock-outrage. "I? The Great Hunter? The Protector of Ra? The—"

"Careful, Eater of Captives," Khepri warned him lightly, landing beside him and playfully flicking his nose. "You collect many more titles, you won't be able to keep track of them all."

"For the last time, I didn't eat him!" Maahes exclaimed. "I used my power at the last minute and it just looked like I did!"

"Whatever," Khepri said, dismissing the subject. "We have more important things to worry about right now. Like whatever the Pharaoh is planning over at the palace that has all the soothsayers in a tizzy."

"You think Apep is behind it?" Maahes asked lowly, referring to the supernatural villain they'd been after for years.

"Unfortunately, yes," Khepri admitted with a grimace. "Somehow, he's gained influence with the Pharaoh himself. And we can't just ignore it this time. We'll have to do something. Something drastic." She was about to say more, but she heard a rustle in the shadows that indicated the other person they were supposed to meet with tonight had arrived.

"You realize what you're talking about, right? Assassinating the pharaoh?" Maahes growled, making a sign against evil. "A living god? And one with no sons to boot! His lineage will be ended forever! You'll destroy Egypt! There'll be a civil war! At least!"

"Believe me, I know."

"So, you got a plan for getting past this? Tell me you have a plan. I know you've got a plan."

Khepri heard a soft sob from the corner where her informant was still waiting to be called forward, and she grit her teeth as she pushed forward with the conversation. It was better if this came from the mouths of "gods" anyway.

"Tut has been a puppet king most of his reign. Why not simply put the puppeteer in power?"

"Oh, sweet Hathor preserve us," Maahes exclaimed, running his claws through his hair. "That's your plan?!"

"You got a better one?" Khepri asked, her eye starting to twitch.

"Take control!" Maahes exclaimed. Khepri sighed in exasperation. "You said it yourself, you have some royal blood—"

"No."

"—and we already know we've been chosen by the gods for the good of the kingdom," the cat superhero added, indicating his suit.

"And I've already told you, I have no interest in ruling," Khepri reminded him. "I don't even want a shrine as Khepri. I just want to do my job."

"And if your job includes ruling Egypt?"

"I already have someone in mind."

Maahes looked taken aback. "Who? Who could possibly be better than us?"

"Someone who is already officially in power. Your majesty, will you join us?" Khepri gestured to the shadows behind her. "Maahes, may I introduce, by the grace of Ra, Pharaoh's Great Royal Wife, Ankhesenamun."

The young woman stepped into the light just long enough for them to see her, and then lost her nerve to be standing before actual living Gods. She fell to her face before them.

"Have mercy, Eyes of Ra!" she cried. Maahes chuckled a bit as Khepri quickly attempted to coax the young queen back to her feet.

"Peace, my queen," the scarab-themed heroine said soothingly. "We'll not hurt you. We simply wish to ask you some questions about your beloved husband."

"Beloved?" Ankhesenamun choked out. Tears streamed down her face. "Yes, he called me beloved once. I was his and he was mine. Together for eternity, we said. But now… I am unable to give him any heirs. Now he thinks I am weak. Cursed. Now, I am replaced by my own mother! One whom the Sun God has already claimed. Has always claimed! Nefertiti is dead, and still I feel her presence all around. He calls her his sweet, long-lost princess! Says he wants to bring her back from the Land of the Dead! MAY RA FORGIVE HIM THIS BLASPHEMY!" The young queen broke down, crying, not seeing the uneasy look the two superheroes shared.

"Did he, um… say how he was going to bring her back?" Maahes asked slowly, wetting his lips.

"No, Lord of Slaughter," Ankhesenamun sniffled.

Maahes groaned and Khepri smothered her laughter at the cat god's least-favorite title.

"Actually," Maahes said slyly, stepping forward and wrapping an arm around Khepri's now-feminine shoulders, "I prefer the title 'He Who Is True Beside Her.'" He waggled his eyebrows at Khepri and received an elbow in his gut for his trouble.

"Please ignore the son of Sekhmet," she said irritably. "He's obviously been drinking. Any information you can give us about the Pharaoh's plan would be helpful, your Highness."

Ankhesenamun swallowed. "He said… something about sacrifice," she said slowly.

"Does this have anything to do with the mysterious disappearances lately?" Maahes asked, suddenly all business.

"Disappearances?" Khepri asked, whirling to look at her partner in surprise. "I thought those were just rumors!"

"I've been doing some sniffing around downtown, milady," the cat said with a saucy wink. "Turns out, they're all true, more or less."

"How many?" she demanded.

"About 90 people?" he shrugged. "All within the past three months."

Khepri cursed. If Tutankhamun had gotten ahold of the Scroll of Spells like she thought he had… well, he was dangerously close to something unforgivable.

"My queen," she said quickly. "It pains me to ask this of you, but can we, the protectors of the gods, count on your help?"

Anhkesenamun hesitated. "Do you have to kill him?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"I will try not to," Khepri assured her, smiling sadly at the young woman, so obviously still in love with her husband. "But, if worse comes to worse… I must think of Egypt first."

The next day….

Khepri swore as she raced across the courtyard, her yoyo already in hand. Already, there was a gaping hole in the sky and a group of mummies were carrying the queen high above their heads, even as she sobbed and begged Tutankhamun to stop.

She felt her gut churn. His own wife. He was willing to sacrifice his own wife because he wanted someone more powerful, more beautiful. But it had to be her. Even after all the pain she'd been through, she loved him more than anything.

And only one with a pure heart could love so deeply.

Even now, Ankhesenamun didn't fight as the reanimated mummies placed her on a beam of light, all of them chanting.

"My lady!" she heard Maahes cry across the courtyard. He was trying to take out as many mummies as possible, hoping to disrupt the spell. But, a spell like this… they needed to take out the source.

"You cannot stop me, you vile insect!" the Pharaoh shouted, turning to face her. Idly, she noticed that Apep's power had given him muscles and reflexes that the true Tutankhamen had never had in his short life. He blocked her kick easily, and she barely dodged his swing, springing backwards to get out of his range. Tut started laughing, mad with power. Khepri narrowed her eyes and began twirling her yoyo behind her.

She had promised the queen she would try, but if it was a decision between saving Tut or saving Egypt….

"You are nothing but a pathetic. Little. Lady-bug," Pharaoh spat.

Instead of becoming angry and arguing back, Khepri just smiled at him and nodded.

"As you say, Pharaoh."

She brought her spinning yoyo down hard on his thigh, not bothering to see how much damage she did as she sprang for his scepter. He bellowed in pain and then in anger when he realized he'd been tricked. Praying for a new, purifying spell, Khepri activated the scepter again, this time with her own true magic.

"Sacred Scarab!"

The void to the abyss and the beam of light disappeared. Tutankhamen's sacrifice fell from the sky. Maahes displayed his cat-like reflexes when he jumped and caught Queen Ankhesenamun. As one, the one-hundred mummies surrounding them collapsed as the scepter in Khepri's hands was purified.

"My love!" the queen cried, racing over to Tutankhamen. He turned away from her, still sitting on the ground and clutching his leg.

"Don't look at me," he muttered sullenly, as he turned back into teenage king that was his true form. "I hurt you. I listened to Apep's empty promises and betrayed you."

"That was not your fault!" Ankhesenamun insisted. She looked at Khepri desperately. "Tell him, goddess!"

"You are neither the first, nor the last man to fall victim to the forces of evil," Khepri agreed, regarding the Pharaoh solemnly. He seemed to be in a lot of pain from the injury she'd given him earlier. "Do you wish me to heal your leg?"

"No, Goddess Khepri," Tutankhamun ground out, trying to stand. His wife rushed to his side to help him and he leaned on her, gasping. "This is the symbol of my great sin. All those people… my beloved…." He looked at his wife mournfully. "I will bear this pain. Even in the afterlife. It will weight on my soul forever."

"There is no need for that," Ankhesenamun protested. Tutankhamun shook his head at her and turned back to Khepri, even as Maahes also made his way over to them.

"Please, goddess, if it is the will of Ra, keep no record of this horrific incident," Pharaoh pleaded. Khepri bowed her head.

"I cannot do that," she said regretfully. "But, if it is any consolation, the record I must make will be buried deep in the record halls of the gods. Along with this," she said, indicating the scepter of power she had stolen from him.

Tutankhamen nodded, resigned. "If you must, please make it look like a legend, instead of something I actually did…."

Khepri smiled. "I'll do my best, my Pharaoh."

Less than a week later, the Pharaoh Tutankhamen was dead, having never recovered from his injury.

Khepri took caution as she strode into the palace, where the queen still grieved.

"You did this," Ankhesenamun sobbed. "It's your fault. You promised not to kill him!"

"I promised to try," Khepri said, stoically keeping any emotion from her voice.

"It's still your fault!"

"It is," the superheroine agreed.

"I should set the guards on you! Have them hunt you throughout the kingdom!"

Khepri didn't bother to reply, and just leveled the queen with a dry stare. She was technically a goddess. The guards would throw their weapons down and abandon their queen before daring to lay a finger on her. Ankhesenamun gasped in a deep breath, trying to steady her sobs.

"But I won't," she said, her voice still shaking a bit. "Because it will do no good. Not against you."

"Have you sent for your grandfather?" Khepri asked, hoping to get to the reason she'd even bothered to come here today.

"I sent for him days ago; just after the… ceremony."

"Very good." Khepri turned to go.

"I will erase you from history," Ankhesenamun called after her. "You will get no shrines. No monuments. In the parts of history I allow to remain, you will be a minor god, lost in the glory of Amun!"

Ah, the irony. Khepri carefully hid her smile.

"As you say, my queen."

Maahes was waiting for her on a rooftop nearby. "Have I told you how brilliant you are today, milady?" he asked, falling into step beside her.

"Considering I've spent the past few days holed up, recording what happened before the pharaoh's successors try to rewrite history, probably not," Khepri said, allowing herself to smile at her partner as they headed away from the palace.

He smirked back at her. "And considering you just got the most powerful woman in the country to give you exactly what you've always wanted, what do you want to do now?"

"We should probably lay low for a while," Khepri said, thinking. "The Pharaoh's successor will want to keep the queen happy to earn her support, and that may mean promising things…."

"Like your head on a plate?"

"Mmm, exactly."

Maahes grin turned into a leer. "You can always come live with me, milady—"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Maahes? I'm a man! I'm actually a man!"

"And you'll find I'm as flexible as a cat," her partner said, waggling his eyebrows at her.

Khepri facepalmed. "I certainly hope Tikki's future charges don't have to put up with anyone like you. Or your awful puns."

"Sorry, milady," Maahes said, cheerfully throwing his arm around her as they headed off into the sunset. "You're doomed. Doomed for all eternity…."

Khepri elbowed him in the gut and threw her yoyo to the nearest building.

"Only if you can keep up, cat!" she sang, flying away.

He laughed as he chased her. "Bring it on, milady!"

End.

A/N: I did a lot of research on this, and used knowledge that I've already had for years, so I apologize if anything is confusing. If I lost you somewhere, or you just wanna chat, feel free to send me a message!