On Anur Khufos, priests and architects were designing murals, scrolls and statues of the incredible events that happened last night and the day before, of how the Tennysons were summoned here, the sickness, and the entire planet's efforts to stop Set. Ben would have been pleased to see himself and his watch depicted in the Egyptian-like sideways profile always seen in real Egyptian murals, not to mention a statue of his likeness alongside those of his grandfather and cousin.
Ja'Kaal hoped Neferti's vacation wouldn't take too long, but felt confident that this was a time of peace for everyone, and relaxed just the same. Raht had been discussing ideas as to what their next course of action could be, one of which could be expeditions to other planets, or perhaps special guardians for the next person for the throne. But the commander told him that nothing was set in stone yet.
The planet's government would have to go over a lot of work to choose who would be the next pharaoh, but thrown into the debate was the nearly-unanimous suggestion of rewriting the class structure so that slaves would no longer be necessary for labor, and servants would be treated more fairly. If massive monuments like pyramids were to be built, then construction machines would be used instead of manual labor.
Many people found better lives for themselves as well. Those two gossipy servants were already given promotions ahead of time, allowed to choose new careers for themselves. Valerian joined the Rigil clan alongside Ilais, and Rel'Hathor found a well-paying job at a local spa in Mos Isis. Even Undyyne joined the planet's military regime, helping Captain Drexel train his soldiers.
Whoever would assume the throne next and be linked to the gods' telepathic presence, it was certain that this new class system would take effect on that day.
Later that night, Set had to finish what his father had done in his place: Fighting Apophis. Upon being dumped into the snake's pocket of space-time, Set just dropped to his knees and screamed in agony, realizing this that he couldn't leave it.
"Hello, my crazy nemesis," the snake laughed, coiling himself around the dwarfed chaos god. "I've missed you, where have you been all this time? Last I recall, your father and his boring gods were the ones to evade me, by sheer luck!"
"I have always fought you off, what are you talking about?!"
"Not always – you have popped in and out of existence and only barely deterred me. Distracted, I would say," the snake laughed. "Tell me, what has kept you? I am DYING to know!"
"A pitiful human mortal wanted to join me, and...I had fun with it."
"Well, now your fun is over! Shall we begin our ritual? Or would you rather finally let me go so that I can-"
"Never!" Set screamed as he conjured his sword and swiped at Apophis, "I have been scorned and mocked enough already in the mortal realm! No one there seems to care about MY worth, I do not need your input on top of that!"
"I AM you, weakling! Do not deny it for a moment!" Apophis snarled. "No matter how many times you may defeat me, or how you are blind to my gaze, chaos penetrates all and you know it! You are just a bumbling child who cannot possibly understand what it means to be loved!"
"Nor do you, abomination!"
Horus just groaned from Ra's boat, thinking, "Get on with it, brother!"
So the fight continued into the evening, while both planets slept in the mortal realm.
On early Monday morning on Earth, a portal in Rehnenset's tomb opened, through which came Elastamun and his new girlfriend, towing the scribe's dead body and coffin, laying it to rest in the pit where it was meant to be. Remembering those scrolls still at his underground house, tablets and other items here bolstered the dead man's claims along with them.
As Elastamun took pictures of everything with a digital camera, Neferti giggled, "They will never know the truth, will they?"
"No, but that is for the better. The truth would be so complicated it would be even harder for humans to understand."
Later, back in Giza, Elastamun started dismantling his home under the satellite pyramid of Khafre, knowing someone was going to find it sooner or later. Taking down all his murals, statues and other accoutrements and shoving them through the portal on a hover cart, and boxing up his terrestrial belongings, Elastamun was effectively moving everything out of this space to a house he rented in Mos Isis. Two-thirds through the process, he pulled on his human clothes, checking its pockets for items.
"You have to wear that to blend in with humans?" Neferti asked, on the verge of giggling.
"Yes, but it will be easier in a moment," he answered, opening his wallet and taking out his driver's license. Remembering the instructions provided by Jek'yll, he took out the mask and set it to scan the photo in his license card. The mask's computer pinged, "Sample acquired. Now extrapolating...Identity ready."
Then, still clothed, Elastamun turned the mask around so that the front faced out, and placed it over his face, having to hold back a gut reaction based on what he'd just experienced. Once the mask made contact with his face, it pneumatically clung to his head and projected a full Egyptian male body over every inch of his own, an exact, flawless match to the simple ID photo.
As he turned around, Neferti gasped, stating, "Wow, that...I certainly was not expecting a form like that!"
"Why don't you try it?" Elias Amsude pointed to her mask, his voice still the same, but now conveyed with a visible, moving mouth.
Neferti had been given a data file earlier with an appropriate female persona to use, already loaded into the mask. Slightly nervous, she donned hers, and within seconds, there stood the pristine figure of Neferet Tamimi. She walked over to the deactivated crystal viewer, and gasped at her own human form. "Why, I'm...I look..."
"Beautiful?" Elias playfully guessed.
"Amazing!" She provided her own answer. Turning around, slightly giddy with this thrill, she elaborated, "When I asked to know about humans, I did not know it would mean looking like one, as well!"
"Just wait, I think it's time we paid my friend a proper visit. I can take you to his workplace very soon, in fact."
The journalist carted off the last of his possessions to Anur Khufos, then carefully stuffed the papyrus scrolls into a bag, slinging it over his shoulder. He checked the now empty room to make sure he hadn't missed anything, then nodded, using his gauntlet to tell the people on the other side to shut the portal, what with the previous one dismantled. He'd signal them to pick him up later.
Then, unlocking the front door and leaving it open, Elias mounted his motorcycle, started it, and beckoned, patting the passenger seat. "Come here, there's a seat right behind mine."
Neferet did so, though her boyfriend realized at the last minute that he'd need to buy a second helmet later. Then, tapping the remote, the ramp lowered, and he drove out of this pyramid for the final time.
The girl gazed at the terrestrial sun and blue sky, marveling at the ancient human pyramids, and enjoyed the ride towards the urban part of Giza.
Elias felt like, as the gods said, everything was going to get better from here on. The traffic on the highway was fine, the skies were clear, air wasn't too hot. It was perfect. Then it hit him that he remembered he was only here to give his girlfriend a taste of what he'd experienced for 15 years, in the best way possible: A 7-day vacation. Even if he couldn't pass through borders, this place and the rest of Egypt was enough for her.
The journalist parked his car in front of Ahmed's curio shop once again, and to his delight, his friend was alive and well behind his counter once again.
Passing an old man carrying a shopping bag coming out of the store, Elias greeted his friend again, who replied, "Elias, welcome! How was your weekend?"
"Well, firstly, I met someone," he held Neferet's shoulder, "Ahmed, I'd like you to meet Neferet, my new girlfriend."
He reached out his hand, and the girl returned it.
Ahmed greeted her, "It's a pleasure to meet you, miss. You must be a very lucky woman, Elias is a good friend of mind."
"I can imagine," she smirked, eyeing the various bits and bobs from various cultures under the glass counter.
"She found the answer to your scribe, actually," Elias smirked, knowing more about it than anyone else would know.
He reached into the bag and returned the papyrus scrolls, along with prints of the photos he took.
Elias made up an alibi, "Neferet found the scribe's casket and body, apparently whoever dug those scrolls up missed them."
"You did?!" Ahmed gasped with awe. "How?"
"Oh, it was just there," she fibbed. "Those archeologists just didn't look closely enough."
Fanning out the printed photos, Elias went on, "The evidence we gathered says that the scribe's name is Rehn-en-set, who worked for Ahmenhotep I, and wanted to overthrow him as a worshipper of Set. Apparently the pharaoh's followers caught him and executed him for that."
"Wow, sounds like a nasty fellow," the antique dealer remarked. "You'd best tell your newspaper about this! Anyone who makes a new historical discovery earns a finder's fee, after all."
"I certainly will," Elias nodded. "Heh, maybe some of the proceeds can go to you! That's why I want to sell these scrolls back to you, actually." He made sure to have the receipt next to them.
"Well, I can't give you much, so will 100 pounds do?"
"Yes, that's fine," Elias accepted as his friended handed over the money.
As the man did so, he muttered, "Funny, I had this strange dream that I was in real Ancient Egypt, or some alien planet based on it, and I was a mummy. And you said we were in a hotel."
Neferet giggled, "Dreams are funny like that."
"Well, I can't keep the paper waiting!" Elias finished as he began to leave the store.
"If you find anything else, you'll call me, won't you?" Ahmed called as his friend left.
"Yes, of course I will. Have a nice day!"
Throughout the day, the newspaper analyzed the new information he reported on Rehnenset's tomb, and within a few days, it hit the front page. They didn't actually get a finder's fee – since their discovery of the tomb was technically illegal and had no paperwork to back it up, but they did get credit at least for donating the photos and solving this mystery, resulting in a payment from his editor at 1,500 pounds, on top of his own 1,100 pounds, since Elias wasn't intending to stay on Earth much longer, having resigned from the paper on his way out.
Their week-long vacation around Earth Egypt was a thrill for Neferet, allowing her to witness the similarities to her planet and this one, just as he did. The hotels weren't too bad, movies and food were impressive, the various plants and animals piqued her interest, and in the end, they both had a great time together.
But when Friday came, Elias knew he had to make a big decision before he left for home. When the two of them parked at a small overlook on the Nile, gazing out across it, Elias took out his mobile phone and called Ahmed's number.
"Hello?"
"Hi, it's Elias. I'm sorry to say this...but I can't stay here anymore."
"Oh. Why is that?" The old man sadly asked.
"It's..." He tried to make up a plausible explanation, "I really love Neferet, but she's not from around here. Our vacation's up, and she said she has to go home, and I want to go with her."
He lowered the phone, and the woman nodded knowingly, figuring that was a good excuse.
"Don't worry, I know how you feel. If you love her and you want to make her happy, then I think you should go for it. That's what I did when my wife was still around," his friend advised.
Elias hesitated, almost crying, then asked, "Be...Before I go then, I need to tell you something."
"Yeah? What?"
"I...that dream you had?" Elias told a white lie, "It happened, sort of. When I was coming back from the tomb with Neferet, I saw this...terrorist guy attack you in the desert. Real bad. I couldn't just stand there and watch you die, so I called 911 and brought you to the hospital. You wouldn't know because you were unconscious the whole time. But it's true."
The line was silent for a moment, and Elias stared at the sunset across the west side of the Nile, descending on the distant pyramids. Then Ahmed answered, "My goodness, no wonder I found this odd stitch on my chest this morning. Well, Elias, if you saved my life, that's a reward in itself! I really don't blame you for leaving if you had to witness something like that, honestly. Heck, I've been thinking about doing the same anyway, I'm too old for this job." He cleared his throat, "But in all seriousness, don't burden yourself with the past. Even if I'm just a dealer in historical artifacts, it's not the past that matters, it's the present. That's our own history in the making, you have yours and I have mine. So if you want to make history somewhere else in the world, go for it. I won't forget you."
The former journalist sighed, then finished, "Thank you, Ahmed. I'll remember you, too. Maybe we'll meet again sometime. Heh, I might even be a father be then."
"Wouldn't that be something?" the old man chuckled. "Well, it's been nice talking to you, but it's getting late. Thanks for making my job interesting these past fifteen years."
"No, thank you for getting me interested in ancient history. That's something I definitely won't forget."
"I'm glad to hear that, my friend. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, Ahmed. Have a nice night," Elias finished as he hung up the phone.
He looked at his girlfriend, who stated in awe, "That really touched my heart! For a moment I thought you were going to tell him the truth!"
Elias answered, "I know, I really wanted to. It hurt enough having to lie to my only human friend, but the truth would have only ended in disbelief. You don't know what it's like to spend fifteen years here and not get to go home until then."
"And we all know who to blame for that," Neferet grumbled.
"I was consumed by all the things Ahmed sells, relics from human history, because I really dislike what the Middle East has turned into – that's mainly why I want to leave. But...seeing how much you like it here, I..."
"Don't worry about that, it was great while it lasted, and that's all that matters to me. Trust me, though: Anur Khufos is better for the both of us. We can start a whole new life there."
"I know." Elias opened one of the saddlebags on the bike and dumped all his possessions into it, leaving the keys in the ignition, and writing a little note that said, "To whoever finds this, this bike helped me start my life over again. Take good care of it."
Sticking the note into a small crevice in the dashboard, Elias reached for his gauntlet and activated the signaler. Immediately, the portal opened near where he stood, and the two disguised Thep Khufans stepped through, returning to their true homeworld for their new life, happily forever after.
-[THE END]-