A/N: This chapter is essentially the turning point of the story. Beware!
Disclaimer: If I owned Death Note, I'd be one happy clam (:
Chapter 10: Cheaters
I am Anubis, Keeper of Divine Justice!
The half-human, half-jackal creature pounced out of the crumbling sarcophagus, pinning the trio to the corridor wall with one sweep of his gilded three-pronged flail. His golden eyebrows were drawn together in a dangerous scowl.
How dare you deceive the Duat?
Matt nearly pissed himself at the sound of the death deity's all-consuming telepathic voice. When Anubis bared his canine teeth, it was all Matt could do to keep from melting into a frightened, freckled puddle.
Mail Jeevas. Mihael Keehl. Nate River. Each word was punctuated with a thundering, open-mouthed snarl. You are trespassing into the Hall of Two Truths. Explain yourselves!
Somewhere in the back of his mind, Matt sniggered. Nate River? What a dull and commonplace name.
"The Duat?" Mello finally managed to say, shooting Near a questioning glance.
"What?" his now-blond rival intoned. "Don't look at me. I don't know everything, believe it or not."
Mello chose to ignore the slight jibe. "Matt?"
Matt forced himself to concentrate, which was difficult to do when a god was practically breathing down their necks and poking a pointy staff into their bellies. With an unpleasant jolt, he recalled the most difficult portion of The Pharaoh's Vendetta.
The hardened gamer coughed embarrassedly. "Uh..."
The Duat was the demon-guarded, star-lit underworld realm that stretched between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Faced with riddling sphinxes and bloodthirsty spirits, the player of the game would have to successfully endure a series of rites of passage in order to reach Anubis and the final judgment, the Weighing of the Heart.
In the future-present, Matt was stuck on the last boss, a particularly cunning and sly thalocian. The shapeshifting fox demoness was always able to drain all of Matt's luck and dexterity stats before he could maneuver his character close enough to clip her wings.
It was extremely frustrating.
No cheat codes existed for that level yet. The programmers had ensured that the Duat sequence would do justice to its mythological, and apparently historical, counterpart. But here, in reality, someone had obviously found a loophole and skipped over the entire thing.
Either that, or...
Those who take shortcuts go nowhere in life, Anubis taunted, spinning the godly flail in his humanoid hand like a baton. The tips grazed their throats. Or should I say, the afterlife?
"Hey, watch it!" Mello barked, jerking away from the weapon.
The jackal-headed guardian suddenly lashed out with his other hand, which was holding a small, cross-shaped object. Matt recognized it immediately as an ankh, the symbol of life and balance. He watched with morbid curiosity as their captor brandished the metal key before Mello's body in a wand-like fashion.
To Matt's astonishment, Mello's former scars shimmered into view, rippling across his left cheek and down his neck and shoulder. The pink, fleshy tissue disappeared instantly when the ankh was removed from Mello's vicinity.
With another flick of the death god's wrist, Matt's chest was split open and resealed in the blink of an eye.
"What the –?"
Then it was Near's turn to be scrutinized; the teenager went stock-still. Near's mop of curls blanched and darkened like a reversed before-and-after teeth whitening commercial. Anubis snorted.
I can see that you have all been mortally untouched, a sure sign that you have abused the Book of the Dead, the beastly hybrid growled. His black nostrils flared. Who needs bravery when you can cheat?
Matt blinked in confusion. "We don't know what you're talking about," the redhead protested, his Adam's apple jumping up and down very rapidly.
"No clue," Mello added helpfully.
Do not test my patience. Your sins and perils have purposely been removed from your essence. You are not the first to attempt to breach the Hall of Two Truths without completing the journey of the Duat. I should feed your blasphemous souls to Ammut right now, Anubis mused, staring down at the three geniuses.
"Not the first?"
Near's voice now held an icy edge that neither one of his peers had heard before. Something flickered in his eyes. Fury? Horror?
Then it clicked.
Betrayal.
"Someone set us up," Near said quietly. "Someone who didn't want us to succeed."
Matt's jaw grew slack. There was only one person who had the motive and opportunity to hinder Tut's plans to live long enough to bear an heir for the throne. It was the same man that would notoriously marry Tutankhamun's wife, Ankhesenamun, a childless widow, after her half-brother's untimely death. It was the same man that would reign as Pharaoh of Egypt for four years, his non-royal birth overridden by his marital status and unquestioned leadership.
The three men exchanged significant looks. This was like some massive, terrible parody of the future-past cold war that had set everything in motion post-Wammy's House.
"The Grand Vizier," Mello said slowly, "he sabotaged the spells on purpose, didn't he?"
"Aye," Near said dryly. "Ay must be behind all the other priests' failures as well."
Mello's eyes became venomous slits. "That son of a bitch."
Silence! I am growing weary of your babble.
Anubis withdrew his flail from the men's torsos; they each slumped in relief. But it was too early to start celebrating. The jackal-headed death god raised the ankh key once more.
Matt's hands flew upwards to protect his face as a piercing white light blinded him.
A/N: So there we have it. Politically speaking, Tut represents L, Ankhe = Japanese Taskforce, Ay = Kira, Anubis = the Shinigami, Ammut (the heart-eating demon) = notebook. Ta-da! ^_^
Special thanks to the latest readers and reviewers: TheCatchingLightAlchemist, TeamDeanWinchester4Ever, akatsukifan (you're very welcome, thanks a bunch, again! I'm happy you're likin' it :D), Kishimojin, Kira the Wolf (the promised thalocian makes an appearance!), OhMyGeePinkSucksAss~
*Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles* :P