Sadie

(") Where were we? Oh right. Crazy sphinx tried to kill us then the Greeks kidnap Carter..Not that I mind. Shame they didn't keep him longer really…. Though I wish they could have waited a tad later. After the fight was won perhaps. He left us hanging out with a giant cat that was trying to maul us. After that, we get back to Brooklyn House to sit, and watch over sleeping beauty while our initiates used scrying bowls to find Carter. In the meantime, Walt bandaged my ankle in mummy linen. New fashion trend.(")

Anywho, Carter came back with unexpected guests for us to entertain. I swear to Ra, we should burn the outside dining table. Every time we have a sit down meal outside, we always pair it with the "The world is ending speech" and I'm a trifle tired of that.

Before Carter left with the Greeks, he told me about his dream with Horus.

We paced around his room. "Ok, so Setne needs to be alive to make himself immortal. To be alive, he needs the tomb of Osiris which he is hoping you will lead him to. You need to find the tomb to stop him but only Isis knows the location, and she won't help if we work with the others. The other issue is that according to Horus, the Greeks can lead us to the crown to stop Serapis, but we don't have enough time to stop Setne and Serapis. "

"We have to choose, Carter."

"But how? We have to do both."

"Split up?"

"Bad idea, remember last time?"

I shivered. "Evil roman mummies."

"Yeah. Bad idea."

"Then what? I asked.

"Dunno."

"How helpful."

To make matters more annoying, Carter decided to join the guests with their rendezvous with the Romans. Therefore, he left Walt and I in charge of the ankle biters, and her majesty, the stiff. More annoyingly, she was awake now and helpless. I guess I was hoping the spell that Isis whispered to Walt would wake her and also revive her. Unfortunately, she woke much like Ra did. Ra was senile but mobile, the girl couldn't life her head from her pillow.

Walt kept a constant eye on her like he was afraid she'd take off, a joke considering how weak she was. On our way back to Brooklyn House, Zia mentioned something about preparedness for when she woke up. Honestly I didn't think she'd wake. I know we've faced the impossible before and the Egyptians created Cinderella so why not Sleeping Beauty? Still, tad rather irresponsible to bring home a pet without first providing the essentials?

(") Wow. I sound like Carter, the epic dork.(")

I met Zia downstairs in the Great Room.

"Perhaps we should move her back to Egypt." Zia mused.

"Why?"

"Safer there in case something happens."

"In case someone happens." I corrected.

"Yes.

"She's not well enough to be moved."

"We can't wait long. Setne won't wait."

I looked at the spray of kids in the room. Julian helped the younger kids with their homework while our newer initiates Liliana and Talibah were practice fighting with wands. Neither of which had decided on a path yet. Liliana seemed to be a natural at sky magic, turning into an blue form covered by an array of stars and constellations. She could vanish and appear at will. Talibah was a descendant of Hatshepsut, and was considering following the pharaoh's example and choosing the path of Ma'at. Whatever spell Liliana cast, Talibah could simply absorb the spell.

Zia shouldered a pack she had summoned from the Duat and looked at me. "I need to inform Amos of what has happened here and about the Greeks. Maybe he can advise us with our choice. At the least I've got some shopping to do at the market."

"You need to go to Egypt to shop? We have 5th Avenue here."

"Food market. People in Ancient Egypt didn't eat double cheeseburgers."

"Sucks for them." I noted.

"Agreed but our new house-guest can't eat modern food so we'll have to collect some things that the ancient Egyptians ate. Lucky for us, most modern Egyptians eat the same things that their ancestors did. "

"Guess they don't get out and try new things. Haven't they heard of living a little?"

"Perhaps not. I should go though. I'll be back in a few hours."

I nodded. I hated when people left me in charge. I never wanted to be the leader, still don't. Carter fits that role. He's suited for it, the big dope. I made my way to our practice room to work off the mountain of frustration I felt building.

"Heqat." I spoke and my staff speared into my hand. Walt had assembled a new supply of shabti for practice fighting. Thankfully or not, the new shabtis could fight and fight well, but they went down too easily for me. The first one rushed me. Obviously not the smartest piece of play doh in the factory. "Ha-Wi!" I yelled , and the hieroglyph for strike blazed before me. Mr. Play doh number one lost his head. The next two shabtis attacked me. " Tas!" I threw my piece of twine at them and it grew and wrapped them up together. One strike with my staff and they blew to dust. The last shabti stood on the other side of the room waited for me. Obviously, he was the smartest Mr. play doh around. I waited for him to make a move but he just stood there. I got tired of waiting and blew him apart with my favorite spell. "Ha-Di!" The shabti exploded around the room like play-doh in the microwave. Thanks to Shelby, I know how exactly how that looks.

Magic therapy, works every time. After my shower, I stopped back by the infirmary. I really hate that place by the way. Jaz was trying to give the queen another sip of a healing potion. Steadying my nerves, I walked into the room. Her breathing had gotten calmer and more even. She spent the time after the guests left to fight against us. Panic perhaps for waking up in a new place surrounded by strangers. I guess she thought we abducted her or something. Suppose she was right on the money.

She stretched out her right hand towards the glass of water but she couldn't fully extend her arm to grasp it. Jaz helped her up from the pillow and motioned for me to help. Babysitting in a new degree. I handed her the glass, which she dropped. I refilled the glass and helped her drink her from it. It was hard to ignore those eyes staring at me. She kept staring at me like she knew me and I could feel Isis churning around underneath my skin. Perhaps the queen could feel her presence in me….Creepy.

Quickly as I could, I left the infirmary and went out to the balcony to visit Phillip. Ever since Carter's adventure with the son of Sobek, where he met Percy, we ended up with a new baby crocodile. We drew names out of a hat to pick his name. Zia managed to pull the name Shelby suggested. Snaps. Shelby swore it was a good crocodile name. It also happened to be the name of the cereal she was eating at the moment we wrote down name suggestions. Fair point, Snaps always attempted to snap my fingers off for feeding time.

I brought out the package of bacon and unzipped the bag. Immediately a set of milky eyes broke the surface of the pool and I smirked. "Looks like I have your attention now. Ready for some lunch?" He gave me a toothy grin about the time that Snaps started squawking like a bird. Mr. Jealously that he is. I tossed a few a slices of bacon to Phillip who proceeded to do flips with each catch. Snaps chewed on his one piece of bacon, and snarled when Phillip splashed him with water. I laughed at the look he gave me. I tossed him another piece of bacon that Phillip stole. Snaps chased Phillip around the pool and into the house, repeatedly biting his tail. Phillip flicked his tail, and Snaps went flying across kitchen until he landed on the table.

"Why is there a crocodile in the kitchen?" Annabeth asked.

I grinned evilly and looked at Snaps. "I was thinking of trying some crocodile for dinner tonight. They say it tastes like chicken. I wanted to test that theory." Phillip grunted and waddled back to the pool while Snaps jumped from the table and followed him. "Finally." I huffed.

"How was the meeting with the Romans? Any heads go rolling down the stairs?"

Carter groaned. "That girl is scary. Are all Romans like that?"

Percy shook her head. "Reyna is intense but reasonable. Frank is nice but when Reyna is on a roll, there is no stopping her. She gets what she wants."

Annabeth laced her hand in his. "Not always."

"So.. Do they have the crown of Ptolemy or not? I asked.

Annabeth sighed. "Reyna says no, the Romans don't have the crown. So she says and I believe her."

"Reyna said they buried the crown with Cleopatra and Marc Antony near Alexandria." Percy added.

I racked my head. "Ok, so we go to Egypt and find the crown. Piece of Cake."

"Not exactly. " Carter interrupted.

(") Of course because nothing is allowed to be simple.(")

"Horus gave me a warning last night. He said that Setne is after the tomb of Osiris to make himself living so he can perform the spell to become a god. If he becomes a god, he'll be unstoppable . We can't allow it. We also have another problem at hand. Serapis isn't done causing problems. He's gathering strength to strike. He'll attract the Greek and Egyptians Gods and then absorb them. He'll do it soon and we can't let that happen either. No matter how annoying our gods can be, we still need them sometimes. We couldn't take down Apophis without the Egyptian gods. You guys needed your gods to take down both the titans and the giants and Gaea. History repeats itself. Old Enemies rise and we need both sets of gods to keep the monsters away. We need to solve both problems, and they lead to Egypt but I don't know how to do both?"

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows in thought. " In 2010, Egyptologists believed they found Cleopatra's tomb. It took a lot of work with radar to narrow down the exact area but I am pretty sure it was along the east harbor. Abusir I think. There was a temple nearby Lake Abusir that Ptolemy had built. It was rumored to be where the Romans buried them, according to my scholars. Camp Jupiter records say that Cleopatra and Marc Antony were buried together in a temple near Alexandria. So, looks like we'll be going to Egypt."

"Horus hinted at the idea that perhaps the tomb of Osiris is on the island of Philae but only Isis knows where exactly and he said she won't help if we're working with.. well.. You guys"

(") Subtle, Carter. Real subtle.(")

"What's wrong with us?" Percy asked.

"The Egyptian gods are a bit biased. They don't forgive easily .Most Egyptians don't believe in forgiving. Isis especially doesn't warm easily. I explained.

"Nice lady." Percy muttered.

I laughed. "You have no idea what is she is like."

A yell echoed down the stairs and forced us to cover our ears.

"What the Hades was that?!" Percy yelled.

"Sleeping beauty doesn't speak English so she figures that the best to communicate that she doesn't like something is to scream? Can we send her back?" I asked.

Carter rolled his and playfully pushed my shoulder. "You're annoying too."

I stuck my tongue out at him.

When we ended up in Egypt, we went through the annual ritual of spitting out sand like clumps of kitty litter. Gross. Carter swore up and down that we were about 50km from Alexandria. I swore up and down that we were lost beyond words. Perfect.

"We can ask for directions maybe." Carter muttered.

(") A guy asked for directions. Yep, the world is about to end. Notify the press."

I looked around and all I saw was sand and camels. "We don't speak Camel." Annabeth replied. "But Percy can speak horse and fish."

We turned to look at him and he blushed. "Cool. Carter speaks history geek and 6 different variations of dork."

"Sadie!" Carter yelled.

"What?" I feigned innocence.

Since I embarrassed him, Carter proceeded to drag us through the desert sand while refusing to tell us how much farther we had to go.

To make matters worse, Percy kept whining about the heat. "Hot, Hot. It's hot. Why is it so freaking hot?"

"It's freaking Egypt. Not Iceland. What did you expect? We have the freaking sand and the freaking sun. Pretty sure Greece is freaking warm too." I smirked. He stuck his tongue out at me. Boys.

"Why couldn't we make a portal here again?" Annabeth panted.

"Complicated magic. Thanks to the fall of the Egyptian empire, Alexandria has been… tainted by Egyptian magic. Magic gets confused there so it isn't safe to use portals unless you're like a god or something. Mortals can't control them and it would probably have killed us if we tried." Carter explained tiredly.

Finally we reached the small structure just as we were all about to drop. Despite the exhaustion, we ran towards the temple and into the shade. Carter and I walked the circle in the foyer and touched each offering sink. "Maw." Each empty sink filled with clean water for us to drink. We spent a minute to rest before exploring the corridors. After a few moments, Carter jumped to his feet and tried to play coach. "Come on, guys. We need to hurry up and get the crown . If Serapis gets it and destroys it…."

"All is lost." I finished. We get it, Carter but not all of us grew up in Egypt, okay? We did walk through the desert to get here and it a lil hot. We can take a breather. Chill."

"Fine."

Carter paced for a good ten minutes until we all couldn't handle it and got up. "How many tunnels?" Annabeth asked.

"Two big ones that break off into a total of four." Carter answered. His patience stretched out to the max.

"Ok. So two teams of two. We'll go in groups and then break off into the four tunnels. Greeks and Egyptians then each of us on our own." Annabeth supplied.

"What?" The rest of us asked."

She sighed. "We don't have enough daylight left to explore everything as a whole, one tunnel at a time. I am not walking between here and Alexandria twice so it has to be done today. We have no choice gut to split up. Most temples, Greek and Egyptian have many entrances to entice and look pretty but ultimately, they always end up combing into one or two corridors at the most. If this follows the same layout, then we will all meet up together in roughly and hour or so. Okay?"

Percy looked confused and I was too tired to really care but Carter nodded in agreement, obviously excited that someone understood statistics and logic. Annabeth, as different as her world was from ours, she was the closest thing to dad. From what little I remember of him, he was always the cautious and careful one, like Carter. Mom was more reckless, like me.

With no better idea, we formed out groups of two. Based on experience of working together, Annabeth suggested that Carter and I group up while she took the right tunnel with Percy. One hour walk, fine. One hour to annoy Carter . Works for me.

Author's Note: Sorry for the cliffy, kind of need it for the next chapter. Anyhow, thanks for the reviews and the views. Much appreciated.

Howtobook101: Considered bringing the queen around but considering how damaged a body is after a few years in a coma, I don't think she's ready yet to be out and about. Her knowing Chiron ? hmmm interesting. I didn't consider this considering she went to sleep before Egypt began a relationship with Greece. We'll see

Guest: Good catch with the language. Translating hieroglyphs is fairly easy after a while but to make up sentences in ancient Egypt is really hard. Until I know a great deal of the vocab and grammar, I need a substitute. The last of the ancient Egyptian language, is Coptic. Few people know it and the dictionaries are usually a few hundred dollars. Persian and Arabic are similar but I don't like the look of them on paper so I picked Swedish as a temp. language because I like the sounds of it.