Hey! Whoa, my second day at work is finally over. Yay! It's great because I can sleep until 8.30 a.m. now ^-^ Much better than school! I feel really bad when I think about the day I have to return to school. . . *shivers*

To Molly-chan: You always give me such niiiice ideas. . . *hugs* I do wonder who she killed, too. I'm not even sure she did it. We'll see.

To GraveRobbers Aman: What have I done to poor Mariku. . . I hope you forgive me, Mari-sama? Please? Whatever. . . uhm, thank you ^-^ I thought it might be cool to see how the others do work.

To little-kat-girl: YAY! Strawberry milk! That's my favourite, besides vanilla milk!! *hugs you* I'll read your new story as soon as I can ^-^

To Lee-chan ^-^ : Nope, I wanna keep the title! But I keep updating.

To kaz: Thank you ^-^

To Fluffy: Yay! Malik rocks!

Malik: *blushes* Thanks. . . ^-^

To RaineKitsune: Okay, I'll rise the rating. Uhm, I guess I won't put a lemon in here! And Mariku's Malik's brother, because there are no hikaris and yamis in here. I can't decide who died, there are so many who died already -.- But I will. Soon.

To pocketfirefairy: *sniggers* Hey, that's my secret how to keep readers!

To snow-shadow-wolf: I'll try to get some more humour in the fic ^-^ Oh, and I don't think Malik's really in love with Mariku, he just knows that his big brother's there for him. And I thought it was fair to put some other POVs in here ^-^ It's fun!

To Yami-Ryou: Thank you ^-^

*puts some flowers and marshmallow-cookies on the Shrine*

*~*

Isis's POV

My brothers? Yes, I remember their childhoods as well as I remember my own. It was way too short. . . It was hard for my eleven year old self to raise three boys, two rebellious, one timidly. They kind of obeyed me, though. At least they knew I was the oldest, so I had to be the leader.

Now we were on a mission in Egypt, and I felt like home. The pyramids were so familiar to me, as was the sun, and the sand. Even the black scorpions who stuck their heads and pincers out of the sand. The scorpions had been the favourite animals of Isis*. I carry her name, so I guess that's why I like scorpions and act a bit like a mother. Back in the plane some of those memories had come to my mind, and I had started humming my brothers' favourite song. I used to sing it to them when they were small and frightened. Malik had liked it, though.

I don't know why Kaiba chose us to "rob" the pyramids. I had preferred the Red Sea. I love the sea. It's nice and warm and. . . well, you get the idea. But Seto sent Bakura and Ryou down there to do the diving work. While I stood in front of ancient spells and had to de-spell them. It didn't help when Malik came up to me.

"Need help, sis?"

I didn't answer him, and he shrugged and strolled over to Mariku. These spells were powerful, I noticed. I'm glad my mother had taught me how to use some kind of magic before she died. . . so it didn't take much time to open the hidden doors.

"Malik! Mariku! We can go in now!" My brothers walked up to me, their hair even brighter in the sun. I smiled softly. They resembled my father, who had light hair and violet eyes as well; I resembled my mother. So we didn't seem like we were related to each other. But in our hearts and blood we were. And even if I wasn't related to Bakura like this, I loved him equally. You know, this kind of feeling of comfortable warmth you get every time you look at them, with a hint of pride that they were *my* brothers, that *I* had to take care of them, that they loved *me* as their sister and nobody else. I would give my life for them.

I started to walk inside the dark pyramid, coughing after I took the first breath of old, spent air. This pyramid had been closed for a very long time. . . since the night Egypt had been doomed, to be exactly. All the people who had been in there had died inside, because the ancient spells started to work again to protect the pharaohs' graves and closed every exit at once. The great wonders of the earth were gone then, at least the pyramids of Gizeh, the lighthouse of Alexandria and the Chinese Wall, destroyed by the own heirs of their builders. Because people started playing this game again, our country died. The grand hope of mankind failed in sealing away the Shadows, and within two nights there was nothing left in Egypt. No people, no cities, no nothing. All gone.

Mariku took my arm and stopped me before pushing me to the side gently, taking the lead. I knew I was supposed to protect them. . . but this time I would let them protect me. It was hard for Mariku to show his feelings; that was for sure. But he did it the moment he passed me and gazed shortly into my eyes, smiling softly and barely visible. I nodded shortly and shoved Malik in front of me; maybe it was okay for Mariku to be unprotected on one side, his front in that case, but it wasn't okay for Malik that his back was unprotected. He showed small sights of paranoia.

Mariku brought flashlights, handed me one, and I started to look around in awe. The paintings on the walls were as colourful as they were when they had been painted onto them; they became brighter when I ran my index finger over them and removed century old dust. Malik didn't rip his gaze off of them, too, and soon tripped over something. Mariku caught him before he could reach the ground, and I pointed the flashlight onto the thing Malik had tripped over. . . I gulped to stifle a scream.

A skeleton. A human skeleton. It laid on the ground now, but I was sure it had been leaning onto the wall, with his face buried in his palms; that's how the once-human had died, full of desperation. Maybe he or she had died from starving; maybe they had died from lack of oxygen. Both ways were terrible and cruel and made my throat tighten. I felt like crying when Mariku pointed his flashlight down the slightly gradient corridor, a shocked Malik still in an one-armed, yet tight embrace. There were more skeletons; tall ones, small ones, some male, some female. . . even children, snuggled against their mothers, waiting for the death to get them. Malik yelped softly and buried his face into Mariku's shoulder. I know he had seen many terrible things in his young life, but I guess he had the same thoughts as me, thoughts about in how cruel ways they had been dying.

"We. . . we have to go further.", I said, my low voice echoing strange within the corridor. How long was this? Yes, the pyramids were really huge, but it sounded like they deeper under the earth than anybody would've guessed. Mariku absently stroked Malik's back.

"I know. Let's find whatever we're searching for and then let's get out of here.", he stated. I nodded and took the lead again; I knew even Mariku was terrified. Even he couldn't stand such cruelty though he was master of torture.

More skeletons. Dozens of them. I nearly could sense their fear, still hanging in the spent, dusty air, could hear their cries and yells for help, wanted to cry already cried tears of children who were afraid and mothers who spent their tears for their children to drink them. Finally, after what seemed to be hours for I lost my sense of time, we had to stop because of a dead end.

"What's going on?! Don't you tell me we have to go back!", Mariku yelled. I couldn't resent it to him, even my nerves were about to rip apart, and I've got the patience of an angel.

"No, we don't have to go back. Give me a sec."

"You sure you can handle it, 'Nee-chan?", Malik asked in a hushed voice. I flinched slightly; he never called me 'Nee-chan. He always said "sis", or "Isis". When he was at the age of thirteen, it had been "'Nee-sama", for that was the time he really looked up to me because he realized how strong I've been. . . but when he was a child and afraid of every thing unusual, he had called me this. And back then inside the pyramid my heart nearly broke; I knew he was really terrified. I started thinking of right or wrong to bring him down here, but Mariku nudged my shoulder gently, begging me silently to continue. And I did.

A few minutes later some stones moved and there was another corridor. . . another then, and another. "I hope you guys remember the way out", I said meekly after we had walked about two hours. Fortunately, Malik wore a clock. There were no more skeletons down here; I started to wonder how they could be skeletons still. They were supposed to be powder. But then I remembered that there was little to no oxygen in here, so they rotted slowly and some of them still were I guessed. . . that explained why there was bad air around here.

Finally, we stood inside a huge room. There was a little, synthetic lake in the middle of the room with what looked like an island in the middle of it. Gold glimmered every where we pointed the flashlights, even the sand on the ground seemed to be made of gold. For a second all of us forgot about the skeletons and just looked around in awe.

"Th-that's. . . that's amazing. . . ", Malik whispered, as if he was afraid to speak any louder. Mariku dragged him along as we both made our way to the lake. The water seemed vapid, and still there was some kind of a boat; the kind of boat the fishers in ancient Egypt used. Mariku went to the edge of the water and examined a snag lying quietly in the water, black and kind of armoured, with evil yellow eyes that peaked out of the water. . . and I could pull him back on the collar of his shirt before the alligator could rip off his arm.

"Whoa, I didn't know this thing was alive. . . ", he murmured wide-eyed.

"And I didn't know they can survive without food", I stated pensively. The alligator glared at us for not being his dinner and turned back, sinking into the water with his deathly elegance until he vanished.

"D'you think there are more of them?", Malik asked. I merely shrugged and pointed at the island. "I guess we have to go there to find what we're searching for."

"Go *there*? With *that*?", Mariku said, pointing towards the island first and then to the boat, looking at me like I was insane. "Of course, or would you prefer swimming?"

"Nah, I don't think so. Not with that kind of pals down there." The alligators were gliding through the water or just lie there, but there weren't any of them on the island.

"Let's go then." Mariku and I climbed into the boat, telling Malik to stay away from the water.

"Can't we just shoot them down?", he asked as he pushed the boat towards the island with the staff that lie in the boat instead of rudders, eyeing the alligators carefully.

"If they don't die from starvation, I don't think they die from your blaster."

The reptiles came nearer, gliding around the boat. I don't like alligators. They're cruel in a primitive way; scorpions on the other side poke you with their poison sting. That's much nicer.

When we arrived at the island, we could see two large coffers in the middle of it. One had the shape of those ancient pharaoh masks; the other was female, maybe for the queen.

"Do you think their heads are in there?", my brother asked, an excited glint within his dark violet orbs. I just rolled my eyes and went to examine the queen's mask. Mariku simply shoved the upper shell away and stared at the content; I soon did the same with the queen's coffer.

On a pillow of deep red velvet there was a golden necklace with a decorated Eye of Horus** in the middle. That must be one of the items Seto wanted. I lifted it carefully and stared at it. The necklace sent out a special kind of aura; it was rather creepy. I put it on though, because I had no pockets. When I turned to Mariku, I saw that he was holding a rod with the same emblem on it, and he looked quite horror-struck, like he sensed the creepy aura too.

I nodded as he threw me an inquiring gaze and we returned to the other edge of the lake, where Malik still eyed the now immobile alligators. We climbed out of the boat; my flashlight flickered.

"We have to get out of here.", I stated, but I was cut off by Mariku's hand which he put over my mouth. "Shh. . . don't you hear it?", he whispered. I listened. And then I gasped.

Sounds came nearer, through one of the other corridors. Like big, clawed paws shuffled over the stony ground. Like an enormous body squeezed itself through the narrow corridors. Whatever it was, it had to be immortal and some kind of warden.

And it was searching for those who had disturbed the eternal sereneness of the pyramid.

It was searching for us.

*~*

Uhh, what is it?? Well, you might be surprised, but I know it already ^-^

Isis is the goddess of the sky, the wife of her brother Osiris, and the mother of Horus. She had seven scorpions to "serve" her. (Befen, Matet, Mesetet, Mesetetef, Petet, Tefen, and Tjetet) I guess they were her "pets".

** I couldn't remember if the Sennen Items had the Eye of Horus or the Eye of Ra on them, but both eyes look the same, so I chose Horus. (I like him better than Ra ^-^ He's the son of Osiris and Isis and the god who protects the pharaoh. Once he was the god of Sun and Sky. Ra on the other side is the god of the Sun and father and master of all gods and goddesses.)

. . . Did I mention before I engage myself with Egypt a lot? *grins* Anyways, review please!