A bit of a filler chapter again.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Quick question, do you prefer I write ANs or no? I'm not usually a social person to be honest, but I don't want to be rude to my readers either.

bhut- Thanks! I think I might be about done with filler chapters, so it should hopefully get better from here. (Key word: hopefully.)

aaquater- I may even touch on an fight between Walt and Anubis over Sadie. I haven't honestly decided yet.

-Julius Kane-

Hot, searing pain from my upper left arm helped me realize I was waking up and not dead. However, I woke up to complete darkness, having to use a divine word to light up a nearby torch. Once the area was illuminated in the yellow glow, I pushed myself to sit up.

Blood seemed to cake my arm, I didn't realize it until I grabbed at it with my right hand, trying to ease off the pain of moving the arm in the first place. I chose to ignore it for the time being, my surroundings were more concerning.

It appeared to be a small room to a pyramid, one with an air shaft thankfully because it didn't seem like there was an open door yet. Even then, it was still stuffy, and I highly doubt the fire I just made to light the room somewhat is saving any oxygen.

It appeared to be a fake room, one meant to lead robbers astray. Hieroglyphs still coated the walls; however there was nothing actually in the room. Except for the passed out figure of Sebastian Dredger.

You can't blame me for the mental debate I had for a few minutes. The guy broke into the Kane Mansion, and then proceeded to sneak around the First Nome. Something had clearly tipped him off that he wasn't safe there because Michel and I wound up chasing him down in Cairo. He wasn't going to turn himself over. Then wound up getting captured by Torsten's men, one admitting that he was the spy Dad had been so worried about finding.

On the other hand, he was clearly not on Friedrich's side. He also got us here, though as to why he allowed himself to go unconscious from it is beyond me. Michel had seemed determined to free him at the camp too, a clear sign that he knows something and honestly will probably never tell me about it.

My arm pulsed angrily at me for neglecting it further, caving to cleaning it and wrapping it tightly in gauze. Before you continue, yes, that is all I'm really capable of doing when it comes to caring for myself. I hadn't considered that studying basic healing spells would ever be of use to me while I was an initiate, and I'd be lying if I said I don't regret that.

My focused aimed back on the unconscious companion of mine. It's better to be safe than sorry, I considered using my Ribbons of Hathor. My sword had been abandoned at the camp, being as Friedrich had ripped it out of my grip within a few seconds.

He could also be a potential ally. That would be quickly destroyed if he woke up in the pink entrapment. Besides, someone who dislikes Torsten has to be someone of decent consciousness, right? More friends means a bigger chance to push the psycho back if needed.

Why trust him though? He could have been a former underling of Friedrich. Probably got greedy and ran from whatever punishment Torsten had planned out for him.

However… There was that woman we had met a month ago. Sabrina Laflamme, daughter of the man that had been massacred along with his Nome in Orleans. By some chance, my brother had made friends out of her during his 'stay' in their underground hideout on the outskirts of Hamburg. Turns out she had been spared, being only ten when she witnessed her father's death. Torsten 'treated her with kindness' and in return she obliged to whatever orders he handed her. She managed to break free from the brainwashing and made a significant difference in our chances to escape that hell.

I sighed out of annoyance. Amos would know what to do. He would have done it already even, and be completely stubborn about it if I chose to fight it. He'd more than likely try a diplomatic approach, even if it turned out that the bastard wasn't someone to place trust in.

He'd call me an idiot for pointing it out, but my brother is hopelessly ignorant sometimes. He believes that everyone has an ultimate good goal, even behind the most evil actions. Sure, there have been a few people that are actually like that. Not everyone.

Here's a good example: Set. The God of Chaos had managed to slip into the world; there were definite hints in the state of Nevada, mainly in the Las Vegas area. However, my old man insisted we stay back and allow another group to find the host before we could do anything. After all, the god is known to be deceptive, and we honestly had no experience when it came to someone like Set.

Michel chose to take on teaching us as much as he could before they found him. Amos went further and did outside research on the deity, then attempted to counter everything I pointed out as his flaw. The point was to find weaknesses, not to defend him. Anyways, in the end it didn't matter, we shoved him back into the Duat.

I'd hate to even consider that Amos is searching for Torsten's reason for being an utter ass. I just hope he wakes up and realizes that there is such a thing as evil, and it dwells even beyond the Lord of Chaos' reach.

"L'ennemi de mon ennemi est mon ami." That's what Sabrina had told me directly before she had left Cairo. I didn't have Amos to translate it; he was recovering in Miami at the time. Michel hadn't been around too, he went to the mansion to explain what had happened to my mother. For some reason this woman had me so interested as to look it up myself, I even remember the exact words in French. "An enemy of my enemy is my friend."

I owed her, big time. I gave up on my brother's chance of survival; he almost died on the way to Hamburg's Nome. However, this woman, after distracting a good number of Torsten's men and handing us good directions out, managed to hunt us down in the blizzard and eased Amos' breathing. Then proceeded to help us get to the Nome safely, even followed me through the portal to Miami when I told her she didn't have to.

Michel joined up with us the next day, looking beat up due to distracting Torsten personally. He talked with her quite a bit, mainly while Amos was sleeping. We stayed there for another day before my father called around, demanding I report in and bring the woman with me. At first I was ready to fight my old man for her sake, but it turned out that Iskandar had requested to see her himself. That's when she had left for her home, the Nome of Orleans, stating she felt she needed to help them recover.

I wondered if she would beat the daylights out of me if I didn't abide to her words. I quickly decided that wasn't something I wanted to experience anytime soon. I won't hesitate to sock him if he tries anything.

Speaking of which, the man still had yet to make any noise or movement from when I woke up. I sighed inwardly and closed in on him. He was still breathing; his chest was rising like a normal person. He looked exhausted though, visible bags told of it under his eyes. I could see why though, I probably wouldn't sleep too well if someone like Torsten was chasing me down too.

I took in the room again and decided I'd better map a way out. Maybe he'll wake up when I get back. I might get extra lucky and he'll answer some of my questions this time.

I needed to use a wall for support to stand up. Then summoned my staff, I rarely use it except when I need to. I wasn't planning to tire myself lighting all of the torches along the way, only a few so I don't get lost. With crossed fingers towards not triggering a trap, I slowly made my way out of the empty room.

-Jabari Kane-

My eyebrows furrowed to this news. Since when was it okay to recruit magicians aligned with chaos? Friedrich had been trained to sniff this type out and how to properly handle them. I took pride in teaching the entirety of my squadron this.

"Kane," the magician that had done my scouting seemed to be hesitating to add on to the news. "He was destroying their tents; I don't think he was working with them."

I huffed in annoyance, "He was still breathing, was he not?"

He seemed confused by the question, "Last I saw he was."

"Torsten knows how to halt and eliminate a chaos magician." The man was too young to understand. "He is using him for something, even if this threat to Ma'at is refusing to oblige."

"A rescue mission should be made in response-" He continued on.

I stood up, silencing him up rather quickly. "The day that I allow a chaos magician to breathe the same air as me is the day that Iskandar accepts godlings. Do you understand? We cannot allow anything to tip the balance we've managed since the Romans charged in."

He looked as if he was going to push his side. Thankfully for his own good, he swallowed his words down and nodded in understanding. "Good work. Rest well knowing I'll be sending a group to sweep this camp off like the grains of sand it sits on top of."

His jaw clenched before he spun around and slammed the door behind him. I simply rolled my eyes, he'll see once he gets older. They always do.

The day we accept Set is the day we die.

On a positive note, I now know the camp's exact location. Also that he is in possession of a chaos magician, though as to why he is keeping one is still beyond me.

Iskandar will wave this off. He's still being hung up on this Hebrew prophet that Thoth stated wanted to see him. Well, not if I have anything to do with it. The last time we welcomed one to the Hall, he wound up bringing plagues. Another example of Set's work.

Iskandar will have to stay blind. I'll let him keep his head clouded with this suspicious man. I'll just send a few good men to attend to the real issue at hand. I just have to wait until Julius and Desjardins get back from chasing down the spy. I want to make sure Julius has a shot at further fame before anyone else.

I sighed after finalizing that being my starting point. Do you really want to put them through more?

It had only been an hour after Julius's report. I am still fuming; my oldest is being stubborn again. Their last mission was about a supposed beast terrorizing a small village in Russia. From what they had gathered, it was clearly fake. I had a much better one waiting for him; hints of Sobek's release into the world have become clearer.

He turned it down. Julius refused to believe that his brother had ditched the mission, allowing his hysteria to run the rest of the way. Honestly, I trust Amos is going to be the death of Julius' success. Julius knows how to follow orders, but once his brother seems to get tossed into it all is when the leash slips right out of my hands.

I'm saying 'brother' loosely. No child of mine would fail miserably at combat like that one. I can't vocalize much though, I did once and the Chief Lector himself threatened to banish me to the Duat.

It turned out that Julius had been correct. I received a rude awakening in the form of Torsten Friedrich attempting to worm his way back into the Per Ankh, and he was choking Amos Kane to get me to comply.

He was a fool to think it would work. I taught him to use any means to get your way. How dare he try to use it on me! Though despite the wall I presented to him, I felt torn watching him beat down on my youngest born like he was just a doll. However, I kept my ground, providing to him that Iskandar would not allow it considering he had massacred a nome for no given reason.

Torsten was never fond of the word 'no'. He continued anyways. What had turned it around was when Amos offered to do whatever it was he was asking of me.

Torsten laughed, kneeling beside him as he took in how badly the teen was shaking. "You'll pardon my name and allow me into the Per Ankh?"

He cupped his chin and forced Amos to look up; making it the first eye contact we had the entire scrying. My façade died, there was so much pain held there that it hurt too much knowing it's my fault. My mind already formed a list of attacks, but I couldn't use any of it. So instead I started pacing, but my eyes seemed to keep looking right into his.

"Only the Chief Lector can do that, Amos." Torsten was talking down to him as if he was five. If anything, the kid had the intelligence of a twenty-year-old by now. "Your father is in the position to urge it to fall through. What power do you have towards the Chief Lector?"

"Don't you fucking do that!" I was quick to interject. I didn't want any information as to Amos' training under the Chief Lector to go beyond the family and a few selected people, it was best I spoke before Amos could. "You are speaking to a Kane, Friedrich; don't think you can talk down to any of us."

"Oh," Torsten laughed as he finally dropped his hand, "now you decide to show weakness. Took a lot out of poor Amos here, he's shaking quite a bit-"

"You don't give a shit, stop pretending."

He stood up, but kept beside Amos as a threat. "We finally at an agreement, Kane?"

I stopped pacing, locking eyes with the hurting brown ones. I still couldn't let him win, though it meant his life. My hands clenched into fists, wanting very badly to destroy the scrying bowl at this point. I wished he could understand. I hoped with every bone in my body that he could see why I still stood my ground. He wouldn't get it though; he hadn't heard anything about Friedrich up until now.

"No."

Torsten was slightly taken back by my answer before allowing a sly frown to appear on his expression. "What a shame. Well, do you prefer I send you pieces of your son back? Perhaps each month, start with a finger, then the next might be a toe-"

"Herr Friedrich," I interrupted quickly, not wanting to hear the rest of that thought. "With the way you've contorted your thinking, you won't even get a friendly greeting from Anubis."

He immediately laughed, pacing behind Amos that it made me worry that he'd tighten the length of rope he had wrapped around Amos' neck again. "We run out of threats already?"

So far the rest of the family has been kept in the dark. I personally pulled Amos to the side when he was well enough to return to New York to fully recover, he was too traumatized that I'm certain he has yet to say anything. I had asked him if Torsten mentioned anything beyond the scrying, which he quickly supplied a no. I didn't keep him any longer; he was clearly spooked by the way I was acting.

I'm fully aware that Julius despises my denying of Amos' kidnapping. I do not blame him; I was a fool for waving it off when the mission he had 'run from' happened to have been false. As of now, he is still at the stage of rebelling against me, which is frankly getting old. It's the reason I told them to take a week off, I wanted level heads, not a group of wild and haunted thoughts.

I didn't want to pry them back simply because of Friedrich's recent movements. However, they at least understood what they were going to face compared to anyone else I could send. I shouldn't have been surprised that it was just going to end up being another session of fights.

With the addition of a chaos magician thrown into the matter, it's made the Kane Squadron far more valuable. They've already dealt with Set himself; a mere chaos magician should be an easy matter in comparison.

That's whenever they have either captured the spy or officially lost him. I suspect they are still after him; otherwise they would be back with news. I could have sent someone else to do that. My fingers tapped on the desk, eyes fixed on the door in wishful thinking that it will hurry them up.

-Julius Kane-

I managed to make my way back easily. We weren't really far from the doorway, so much so that I questioned if it was a trap or the real thing. Took me longer to decide to push on it anyways and see, thankfully I was correct. Even better was the fact that I knew which pyramid it is. It's kind of hard to ignore the bricks coloration of the North Pyramid of Dahshur, or the Red Pyramid.

I was quick to slip back in, leaving the door slightly ajar. If anyone from the nearby military camp saw us, it was just going to be another headache I don't want to deal with.

I opened the door, halfway expecting that Dredger was still passed out in the middle of the room. Instead, it stood empty, the torch on the verge of killing the flame I had made earlier. Either he's up, or someone else is here with us.

I slowly entered, keeping myself on edge for a surprise. I managed to reach the torch with nothing to strike further suspicion. I let out a deep breath, relighting the torch. As the hieroglyph dispersed in the air, an excited bark sounded off from directly behind me.

I jumped, turning to come face to face with rope and a series of divine words following. My hands somehow wound up behind my back, and I wasn't able to loosen the rope any.

"Sorry, but I'm not taking chances for my luck to change just yet."

Sebastian entered from the shadows of the room, closed in on me just to grab the staff I had managed to still keep in my right hand. "Hey!"

His right eyebrow rose a little, "It's not like you have a use for it when your hands are behind your back, Julius." He shortened it and tossed it into the Duat.

He stood there for a moment, scanning me for something I wasn't sure of. "He got your arm?"

It took me a moment before I could remember the poor job I did to clean up the slice I woke up to. I hadn't answered; he took another step closer and started to untie the gauze. My instincts kicked in and I went for a kick to his shin. He noticed rather quickly and managed a grip on my leg to trip me, releasing just as fast.

I groaned to the hard connection with the cold floor. Dredger sighed before kneeling, a foot away this time. "Seriously, I don't want to hurt you. I'd even let you go without the rope, but you have a high chance of tripping traps. Don't make me have to restrain you further."

A soft whimper sounded off, a white pharaoh hound moving in from the shadows as well, sitting on its haunches to the left of Dredger. Electric blue eyes pleading, it gained attention of its obvious master by nudging his arm, letting out another whimper when his brown eyes settled on it. "I don't want to hear it, Subira," was his immediate response.

The name set off so many alarms, even the dog matched the Subira I know. She is a shabti; one that Amos takes heavy pride into having. He's a dog person, and he seemed to like the concept of having a shabti that would stand beside him without a second thought.

I like the dog as well. Well, I pretty much stand in awe to everything he makes to be honest. But the dog won blue ribbon. My eyes are not as critical as to Statuary's, but it appeared flawless. Another Statuary magician would judge the fact that it's a dog lacking color with the exception of its eyes. I probably wouldn't love it half as much if it was with normal coloration.

Subira would only listen and stand by one person, Amos. I closed my eyes and opened to focus on the details of Sebastian. His dark clothes were filthy with sand grains and dried blood. Hat and shades were missing, finding a familiar shade of brown eyes. Braids lost most of the obsidian beads; there were even some stands of hair that wasn't braided anymore. His hair was going grey, but I could guess their original color was black.

My breathing went shallow. I still hadn't seen Amos since I met this guy. "A-Amos?" I somehow managed to ask through the heaviness of the air.

"I was wondering how many run-ins it would take for you to see it," he smirked down at me. "I wouldn't have made it so obvious this time, but I'm sitting in a really tight situation that's going to require your help."

He gestured to Subira with his right hand. "I don't appear to have my own Duat locker here."