A/N Disclaimer: all characters and plot points from House of Anubis belong to Nickelodeon; don't own, don't sue

As Nina trudged through the woods, she mentally scolded herself for not taking the time to changer her shoes before leaving the house. She had been so anxious to do something, make some sort of progress, that she had forgotten she was still wearing her school shoes. Unfortunately, they had an exceptionally smooth tread on the bottom, and as a result, she was slipping and sliding on the muddy forest floor.

She was so focused on trying not to lose her footing that when she was yanked behind a tree, it caught her completely off guard. She tried to cry out, but before she could, a hand clamped over her mouth preventing her from making a sound. Craning her head to look at her assailant, she saw that it was a boy she had never seen before. He was about Eddie's height, but with a leaner build that was belied by the strength of his grip as he held her to his chest. As she watched, he put his finger to his lips and pointed behind her. At first glance, all she could see was a group of students walking along the edge of the woods. But as she looked more closely, she noticed a paint red haze surrounding their bodies.

"They're possessed," he whispered as he leaned forward to watch the students alongside her. He glanced at her again before continuing. "If I let you go, are you going to scream?"

She shook her head as forcefully as she could with his arm restricting her movement. He let her go but did not move away until the students had receded from view. Nina turned to face him and studied him guardedly.

"Who are you and how did you know that they were possessed? And was it really necessary to grab me like that?"

At that he actually looked somewhat remorseful and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"My apologies if I frightened you. I realize that my manor of approach left much to be desired, but I could not risk alerting the Acolytes to our position. My name is Rami and yours is Nina, right?"

If he had been hoping to reassure her, his words had the opposite effect. She crossed her arms defensively and frowned at him.

"You are, but you still haven't answered my other question. What are you doing here? How did you know my name? And why do you look so familiar to me?"

At her last question he perked up somewhat as if he had been hoping she might say something like that.

"Right to the point," he quipped, "I like that in a person. Well, what you are to Isis, I am to Set. I am familiar to you for the same reason that I knew who you were. You have been having premonitions, correct? I would assume I am in at least a few of yours since you have been in a multitude of mine. I knew who you were before I even set foot in the British Isles."

"That does answer a few of my questions," replied Nina begrudgingly, "and no offense, but isn't Set the bad guy in Egyptian mythology? Something about him cutting his brother up into a bunch of little pieces?"

Rami looked slightly chagrined at her response but rallied quickly.

"It all depends on your point of view I suppose. But yes, he often found himself in conflict with Isis and Osiris. There were times that he was on their side too, however. Actually, that is why he sent me. I have been having premonitions of rising chaos for months now, but only recently have they begun to come into focus. Then two weeks ago, Set sent me a warning that what I had been seeing would happen soon and that you would need me here."

"That's incredible!" Nina exclaimed; all thoughts of caution temporarily forgotten in the face of the new revelations. "I just got a warning from Ma'at earlier today. Did he say what was coming? Ma'at was cut off before she could tell me, but she seemed really scared."

At her words, his face darkened pensively. "He did not, and I have not been able to piece it together from my premonitions either. It is very odd, like something is clouding my vision. All the other parts are remarkably clear but as soon as its presence is made known, everything becomes murky." He shook his head slightly as if to clear his thoughts before continuing. "What Set did say was that he had dealt with it in the past and that I would have to finish what he started. Then he gave me this book of dark magic and sent me here."

"Magic? Can we actually use magic? Because I've never been able to when I haven't been possessed."

He chuckled and made some complicated hand gestures, each of which seemed to fuel the glowing ring that had formed around his fist. Tension seemed to build until finally he pointed his hands at one of the trees nearby and pushed. The glow left his hands and shot at the tree, and when it made contact the tree exploded into splinters.

"I probably should not have done that." He grimaced. "We really do not want to draw attention to our location in case the Acolytes come back."

Nina's life had been pretty weird over the past few years, but this was beyond the pale even by her ridiculous standards. It was pretty probable at this point that this Rami guy was telling the truth because who would make up a story like this? He seemed pretty confident in what he had learned from his visions, but hers had always been murky and unclear. She was honestly impressed he had been able to discern her name because she had never been able to make out more than a few words in a row. It had taken weeks of going over the dreams with Eddie to tentatively decide that the scene they would eventually see at the temple was ghosts escaping from the underworld, and even that was mostly based on context clues. Maybe she should go along with what he said until she found a reason not to. Trust but verify and all that.

"So, what else do you know about this coming threat?" she not so subtly probed.

He smiled slightly as if he had been expecting that question, and given his visions maybe he had, but continued without comment.

"When I was in Egypt, the God Set appeared to me in a dream, gave me this book and told me to come to this school because you would need my help to stop some great imbalance that was approaching. He also told me to be wary of the Acolytes we saw earlier, who are supposedly his servants on the mortal plane that recently escaped from the Underworld and are possessing people. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to study the magical tome, but it is a fair assumption that we will be able to discern more information about the imbalance from it if Set thinks it is important enough to give to me."

At that moment, they heard leaves rustling and twigs snapping from the direction where they had last seen the acolytes. Rami grabbed her arm, pulling her behind him as he began making those hand movements again, crafting a spell around them. Before he could finish, however, several figures burst through the bushes.


Eddie was freaking out. He was trying to do it quietly as to not alert his companions, but he was pretty sure he wasn't succeeding. Ever since Amber had told him that Nina hadn't shown up, every single worst-case scenario had been running through his head. Hell, he'd been worried about Nina since the second he had stepped off of the airplane, but when they'd seen those ghosts escape, that sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach had intensified. He really wished that Nina would've agreed to stay in the US for their senior year like he'd wanted to, but he knew that she would never go for that. She was much too loyal to their Anubis friends to leave them to deal with a situation like this, especially since they had information the others didn't. Nevertheless, if she'd stayed back home, she probably wouldn't be missing right now. Even thinking the words made his anxiety spike, apparently.

Finally, after what felt like forever, he burst through the trees, almost running headlong into Amber. He hadn't realized that he'd been sprinting until he turned around to see Fabian and Patricia wheezing behind him, hands on their knees as they tried to catch their breath.

"Amber!" he cried out after steadying them both, "Have you heard anything from Nina yet?"

Amber pursed her lips, either at his inadvertent invasion of her personal space or his lack of proper greeting but didn't comment. He knew she was just as worried as he was. Well, maybe not quite just, but close enough.

"No Eddie, I have not heard from her in the five minutes since you hung up on me."

'Oh,' thought Eddie, 'That's what she's mad at me about. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have time to apologize after we've found Nina.'

Realizing she was looking for some sort of confirmation he had heard what she had said, he mumbled something indistinct before pulling out his phone to try calling Nina again. He had called her after Amber had called him, but like she had said, there was no answer. After reaching Nina's voicemail once again, Eddie swore and threw his phone at a tree. He regretted it as soon as he saw that his screen was cracked beyond repair and thus would be of no use if Nina tried to call him. He braced himself against the offending tree, shoulders heaving as he tried to reign in the panic attack he could feel building. He jumped slightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder but relaxed slightly when he saw it was just Amber. The sympathetic smile she sent him made him question what she knew about his relationship with Nina, but before he could ask, she had already stepped back and started to take charge.

"Now we all know Nina is no damsel in distress, but let's go see where she's gotten off to, shall we?" Without waiting for a response, she looped her arm through his and pulled him back into the woods. He shot bewildered looks at the others, noticing for the first time that Alfie was also there, but they just shrugged back and followed him and Amber.

While they walked, Eddie was aware that his companions were talking to each other, but he was so focused on scanning the forest for any signs of Nina that he wasn't really paying them any attention. He didn't want to believe that Nina might be hurt, but he couldn't think of any other reason as to why she wouldn't be answering her phone. Thankfully, after not too long he saw drag marks in the dirt, heading off into a dense copse. He pulled Amber to a stop and put a finger to his lips, bringing the conversation around him to a halt. As if on cue, they all heard the sound of a loud explosion from the other side of the trees. Frantically, Eddie pulled a machete out from the sheath he had tucked in the back of his pants. Ignoring the frankly hilarious reactions of his friends at seeing such a large knife produced from nowhere, Eddie made no more attempts at subtly as he hacked away at the bramble that was separating him from a maybe in danger Nina.

When he finally crashed through the thicket, he was met with a scene literally out of his nightmares. A boy he recognized from one of his visons had imprisoned Nina in some sort of magical bubble he seemed to be generating from some very bizarre hand movements. With a cry of anger, he charged forward desperate to get to Nina, whatever the cost. In response, the other guy's movements sped up and a glowing shape began to form around his joined hands. Suddenly Nina burst forward and pushed herself between them, stopping both of the attacks in their tracks.

"Stop it!" she cried out, "You two idiots are on the same side. Don't be dumbasses and kill each other."

Feeling slightly put out that his daring rescue had apparently been for nothing, Eddie grasped her hand to pull her into an embrace. She let him hold her for a moment before breaking free and turning back to the other guy.

"I don't know if you recognize them from the visions or not, but these are the people who have been helping me. You can trust them." She urged him imploringly.

After studying her face for a moment, the other guy nodded his head and put his hands down. Somewhere behind Eddie, he heard Patricia voice what he had been thinking.

"Nina? Who the hell is this guy and why were his hands glowing?"

To Eddie's shock, it was Fabian who responded.

"This is Rami. He's new."

Nina looked at Fabian gratefully before continuing.

"Yes, thank you. This is Rami. He's been sent here by the god Set to help us with this threat that's coming. And his hands were glowing because he knows magic." She seemed inordinately excited by that last part, especially considering the circumstances, but Eddie figured there were other things to worry about at the moment. Although by Fabian's reaction to Nina's words, it seemed like he was missing some subtext.

"Nina," he hissed not very quietly, "I'm pretty sure Set is the threat that's coming."

Rami actually seemed a little hurt by Fabian's words, but quickly schooled his expression back to one of bored nonchalance. Again, Nina jumped to the newcomer's defense.

"I considered that, and I can't really explain it, but I know he's here to help us." At that, she turned back to Eddie with a pleading look on her face. "I know you have no reason to trust him but trust me. I think he's actually on our side."

Just like that, Eddie's resistance crumbled.

"Of course, I trust you. I'm always Team Nina, no matter what that means."