Disclaimer: I'm sure you guys are expecting some kind of witty remark about how I don't own this and how I wished on my lucky stars that I did. Well, I've got nothing. ^_~
-Full- Summary: Things are not well at the museum when a new exhibit arrives. With a new artifact comes new curses, new magic, and new friends. At first, things are great, and the museum is more popular then ever! But suddenly things take a turn for the worst when three all-powerful ancient Egyptian gods get involved, wanting revenge on mankind.
Now it's up to Larry and the gang to stop these misfit deities from taking out everything and everyone in their path, all before sunrise!
A/n: Another chapter….yays…Well, actually I'm a bit excited. I've got four new reviewers. ^^ Before, I only had three. Now I've got seven.
…It's sad that I'm excited about that.
Anyway, the first part of this chapter got inspired while my mom and I were painting our house. (My house is seriously old, and the only thing keeping the wood from crumbling to pieces is the paint.) And so I thought, hey, I needed to introduce Greg somehow, and this happened. And yes, I totally stole that hand-behind-the-back thing from Bruce Almighty. Shoot me.
The student's faces were lines with shock. Mimi remembered how terrified she had been, but not because she'd been scared of The Committee—it was a different kind of terror—a more complicated kind of fear. It was the terror of finally knowing the truth. She saw the same on the newest members' faces. They were embarking on a journey into the darkness inside themselves.
-Elissa De La Cruz, Blue Bloods
Jessie had just walked out the door of his house when his cell phone rang. He unlocked his car, got it out of his back pocket and answered it.
"Hello?" he asked, his voice groggy. It was eight in the morning, and he had to work all night the night before.
"Hey Jessie," Viola's voice sounded at the other side of the line. He immediately perked up. "I was going to ask what you were up to, but now I kind of want to know if you're tired. You sound tired."
"I am tired," he replied, clamoring into the driver's seat. "Had to work all night last night."
"Don't you do that ever night?"
"Every night I have coffee. I didn't last night because there was this huge car crash near the McDonalds that I normally go to and I didn't want to go through all that traffic," he said, resting the phone between his shoulder and cheek to start his Volvo.
"So what are you doing today?"
"Um…My buddy Greg's mom is a real estate agent, and she wants him to paint some of the rooms in the house. I owe Greg, so he decided that I could help him."
"Sounds cool," she said. She thought panting sounded cool? Viola was so different then the other girls he ever dated. "Can I help?"
The question took Jessie by surprise, which is why he nearly crashed into his dad's car while trying to back up. Viola wanted to help?
"Do you really want to? I mean, I'm sure that Greg wouldn't mind, but you do realize that we're probably gonna be doing this all day, right?"
"Yep," Viola said, sounding cheerful, not missing a beat.
"Um…ok. Actually, that's great, because then we could get done faster. Do you want me to pick you up?"
"Sure. Well, heh, yeah I hope you do because I have no idea where the house is," Viola said nervously. A small smile spread across Jessie's lips.
"Alright. I'll be there soon. Oh, and I almost forgot—if you're gonna paint, you probably should wear something trashy. Er—no, I don't mean that, I mean wear something that you wouldn't mind getting paint on."
"Gotcha. See you later."
"Yeah, bye," he said just before he heard the click of her hanging up. "Alrighty then," he said to himself as he pulled out into the street.
Forty-five minutes later, Jessie pulled up into the driveway of the house that they were painting in. It was a one-story, white house with at least eleven windows. It also had a two-car garage and a small garden out in the front. It looked like the ideal house for newlyweds.
Jessie glanced at Viola; apparently, her messy clothing was overalls and a white shirt. Her hair was up, tied into two braids. It wasn't the fact that she was dressed that way, it was just…she looked really pretty, even if she was going to get paint all over the outfit by the end of the day.
"Wow," she said, getting out of the car. "I would totally buy this."
Jessie got out of the car as well, and waved when Greg came out the door of the house. Greg was the same height as Jessie, with unruly brown hair, deep brown eyes and olive skin. Greg and Jessie had been friends since middle school, and they were planning on going to college together.
"Took you long enough. I was about ready to—," Greg stopped when he saw Viola. "Um…hi. Oh, hey you must be Viola," he said, coming over to them.
"Yep, that's me," Viola said awkwardly.
"Jessie won't ever shut up about you."
"Okay Greg," Jessie intervened. Viola giggled. "Yeah, this is Greg. Greg, Viola." He clapped his hands together. "C'mon, aren't we supposed to be painting?" Jessie walked over to the door and went inside; Viola and Greg followed, but not before exchanging glances.
The house was empty, and that made it look bigger then it did on the outside. There were two bedrooms, one bathroom, another room that looked like a small closet and a large living room/kitchen.
"Alright, mom and I set up all the stuff last night," Greg said, walking into the living room, the blue tarp that was laid out on the floor crunching underneath his feet. "All we need to do is paint this room white, the bathroom pink and one of the bedrooms blue. She said that those were the only rooms that needed touch-ups."
"So it'll basically take all day?" Viola asked.
Greg nodded. "Pretty much."
Viola smiled. "Awesome."
Viola needed something to distract her. She didn't really know if the night before was real or not with the giant snake and the gods, but she knew one thing for sure: if it was real, she didn't want to meet Loki or any other god for that matter at a store somewhere. So she figured that if she stayed with Jessie or someone that she knew, they would leave her alone.
Greg glanced at Jessie, who shrugged. "Ok," Greg said, grabbing a paint brush and throwing it at Jessie, "let's get started."
Three hours later, Viola was lounged across a covered couch. It was too big for Greg and his mother to move out of the house by themselves, so they decided to just put a tarp over it rather then moving it. The couch was in the living room, so she could watch Jessie and Greg paint.
She had finished painting the bathroom and a quarter of the bedroom, much to the boy's surprise. They hadn't finished painting the main room yet. (Maybe it was because every thirty minutes or so, one would throw something at the other, and they would end up dueling with some paint roller extension poles, acting like they were Jedi's. Viola was laughing so hard that tears came to her eyes.)
"Ok, I say that we take a break," Jessie said, wiping some of his hair out of his eyes, getting paint on his forehead in the process. Viola giggled, got up from the couch and threw a rag at him. He caught it and wiped his forehead.
"Yeah, I think we can all go for lunch or something," Greg said, grinning slightly. "With Wonder-paint-Woman over here, I think we can afford to stop."
Viola smiled and put her hands on her hips. "Well at least I can concentrate on my work and not play Jedi every three seconds," she teased.
Greg kicked an extension pole and he caught it in mid-air. Then he pointed it at Viola. "Don't diss the Force," he said, his face as serous as possible.
"Hey!" Jessie said, and grabbed the pole out of Greg's hands. "If anyone is gonna use the Force against my girlfriend, it's gonna be me."
Viola laughed and playfully hit Jessie on the arm. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, bringing his hand up to smear paint on her cheek with his thumb. She blushed slightly.
"I say that we go to Applebee's," Greg said quickly.
"I could do that," Viola said, wiping at the paint on her cheek.
"Yeah, I haven't been there in a while," Jessie said.
"Awesome, let's go before you two start making out."
The three of them headed out of the house and into Jessie's car. Viola sat in the back, and used the excuse that she could hit them upside the head if she needed to that way. It didn't take long for them to get there, but there was a slight lunch rush that they had to deal with.
When they finally got their table and ordered, the lunch rush was about over. Viola was kept busy the entire time waiting for their food, talking and laughing with Greg and Jessie. She could see how they were such good friends; they had a lot in common. Plus, they were both funny together. Even when their food arrived, she almost choked what she was chewing a few times because of them.
She got halfway through her meal before she saw him.
The sight of Ahkmenrah's "brother" caused her to cough up a bit of her soda. Jessie patted her on the back until she was finished hacking.
"You alright?" he asked, concern in his eyes.
"Yeah, it just went down the wrong pipe is all," she said, forcing herself to smile. "Um, I think I need a minute," Viola said, getting up out of her chair and walking out of sight.
Jessie watched her go, a grin spreading across his face. "So? What do you think?" he asked Greg. Greg opened his mouth, but Jessie cut him off, so he rolled his eyes and sipped his drink. "She's different, Greg. She's funny, beautiful, smart, sexy…I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't do anything without thinking about her." He glanced at the direction that Viola went moments ago before adding, "I think I'm in love! I kind of want her to meet my Dad."
Greg quickly swallowed his soda and shook his head. "No, man! Stop it! Stop liking her! Stop liking her right now!" he said, pointing a finger at Jessie.
"What?" Jessie asked, pushing Greg's finger out his face.
"We have to make them like us, not the other way around!"
Jessie rolled his eyes and his grin widened. "I know, I know, but…I've never felt this way for a girl before. I mean, yeah I've dated a lot, and I thought I fell in love, but…," he leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. "She's somethin' else, dude."
"How long have you known her? Like, five days? You can't fall in love within five days! (Well, I mean chicks can, but they believe in that 'love at first sight' crap.)"
"Will. Can. Did."
Greg sighed and leaned back in his chair, wondering what about Viola had made Jessie act this way.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?" asked Anubis as Viola stalked over to him. He was standing near the back of the restaurant, where not very many people were. Thankfully, Jessie and Greg were no where in sight.
"Me? Why are you here?" she shot back.
"I'm attempting to watch you."
Viola shook her head. "No. You aren't real. I have no idea if last night was real or not, but you—the gods—aren't supposed to exist."
"Well we do," he said. "So I suggest that you get used to it."
"Okay," Viola said, narrowing her eyes. "If you're a god, then you should know stuff, right?" He didn't answer and she put both her hands behind her back. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
"That is completely degrading, I'm not doing that," he said, rolling his eyes.
"Hey, if you can't do it because your not real, then—"
"Three," Anubis snapped, cutting her off.
Viola re-arranged the order of her fingers.
"Five," he said again. Again he was right.
She switched her fingers again.
"Ten."
"Ok," Viola said. Her voice sounded annoyed, but inside she was getting scared. "How about," she held up seven fingers, "now?" She put down two.
"Seven," Anubis said.
"Ha!" Viola said, whipping her right hand around to show him her hand—which now had two additional fingers on it. She yelped in surprise and jumped backwards. When she blinked, her hand was normal again. Her eyes darted from her hand to Anubis, whose face remained expressionless.
"W…what are you?" she asked quietly.
"I'm a god, and if you want to keep breathing then I suggest that you come with me. As I said before, Apep attacks multiple times, and he has learned to do it spontaneously over the years. It would be quite a shame if you died because you didn't listen to me," Anubis said. He kept his voice smooth, his face expressionless, and his eyes seemed to dark for Viola to see any kind of emotion in them. This made her think of something: what if the gods didn't have emotions?
Speaking of emotions, a certain and sudden fear was rising up in Viola's chest at the thought of encountering Apep again. She was scared, but it took everything in her not to show it.
So instead, she acted annoyed, scoffing and saying, "fine, I'll go with you. But I can't just leave my friends; they'll wonder where I am. What am I supposed to tell them? That I'm blowing them off with an Egyptian god?"
"Make something up. Doesn't your sister call you for pointless activities that she can do herself?"
"Yeah, sometime—hey, how'd you-?"
The right tip of the god's lips twitched up ever so slightly. Viola barely noticed it. Then he turned around and walked away, calling over his shoulder, "you've got three minutes."
Viola frowned and made her way back over to the table, where Jessie and Greg were arm-wrestling. Jessie looked up at her arrival, which in turn let Greg slam his fist down on the table.
"Ow!" he cried, shaking his hand. "Hey, you ok, Vi?"
"Um, yeah, but my mom just called. Something about a family emergency, and she said that I need to be there. She's on her way to pick me up, so I'm afraid that you guys are gonna have to finish without me," she lied. Viola felt guilty; Jessie looked so concerned.
"Oh man, that sucks. Do you want me to come with you?" Jessie asked.
"No!" said both Viola and Greg in unison.
"I...I mean, I think Greg needs you here to help," Viola said quickly.
"Yeah dude, don't blow me off," Greg said.
"You sure?"
"Yes," they both said again.
"Ok," Jessie said, unsure if he was making the right decision by not going with Viola.
As it turns out, Anubis wasn't going to watch Viola. He said that he 'had better things to do', but Viola wondered who would want to do anything with him because of his attitude. He had taken her to a library in a city that Viola later learned was Hoboken. She had never exactly been out of New York, but a city that seemed right on NY's doorstep did seem a bit ironic.
"Wait, so why am I here?" Viola asked as the god pulled up In front of the library. (He had driven her in a black Sedan, but he was a violent driver and Viola wasn't even sure if he was old enough to drive. Well—he didn't look old enough.)
"Because Thoth is going to watch you, not me," he said, not missing a beat.
"So the point of me leaving my friends was so that I could be kidnapped and babysat. Wow, this day just keeps getting better and better," Viola said sarcastically as she got out of the car. "And you really need to work on your driving. You almost hit, like, five people!"
"That isn't necessary my concern," he said, suddenly appearing right next to her.
"Oh really? Then what is?"
"Getting back."
"Getting back where?"
"Do you ever stop talking?"
"Well maybe I would if someone would answer my questions!"
"I'm sure Thoth would be happy to," he said, and followed her as she walked up the steps to the building.
"Well then I'll ask him," Viola said, violently yanking on the library door. It didn't move.
"It's a push," Anubis said flatly, his face still blank.
"I knew that," Viola snapped, pushing open the door. However, she blushed, but turned her head at an angle so he couldn't see. She walked through the door and prepared herself for the god's next remark, but it never came.
"Oh hello Sulipica. I was wondering when you were going to show up," Thoth said, coming out from behind a bookshelf, a large and old looking book open in his left hand. Viola nearly jumped at his sudden appearance; he didn't pop up out of no where like the night before, but the library was so quiet it seemed unnatural.
"Um, yeah, Anubis brought me...," she said, turning her head around. "Hey...where'd he go?"
"Back to the Underworld, I suppose," Thoth said, snapping the book shut and it disappeared out of his hand with a shower of gold vapor. "He doesn't like to mingle in the Overworld very much."
Viola started to say something, but suddenly stopped. She quickly reviewed the words in her head, her brow furrowing.
"Wait, what did you call me?" Viola asked.
The tall god looked at her over his glasses, cocking his head ever so slightly. "Your name," he said simply.
Viola blinked. "No, you said...something else," she said.
"Sulipica," Thoth repeated slowly, sounding out the syllables.
"Yeah, that was it. My name's Viola, not Sulipica," Viola said.
Thoth looked a bit surprised, but Viola didn't know why. "So he hasn't told you yet. Quite odd, unless he's simply expecting you to remember. Not very likely though, considering the fact that your immunity seems to be preventing you from fully remembering."
Viola stared blankly at him. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "Who hasn't told me what yet? And what do you mean, 'fully remembering'?"
"Fully remembering your past life, of course," Thoth said simply, as if they were only talking about the weather. "All mortals have past lives, but most of them are too caught up in the modern world to pay attention to their memories. You once were a young scribe named Sulipica back during Ahkmenrah's time. In fact, you were very close to him and his brother. You were one of the very few women who could read and write. Ah, you had such potential—I was always quite fond of you.
"My nephews had a different name for you, though. It was...Sully, I believe."
Viola felt something inside her jump. It all made sense. The dreams, the look alike Ahkmenrah, the odd recognition when she had first met him...
It was because she already knew him.
"But that doesn't make any sense!" she protested weakly. She hadn't really meant to say it out loud, but once she did she cringed slightly, wondering about the god's reaction.
However, Thoth didn't look angry. He merely looked calm, if not a bit puzzled for why she couldn't understand this the way he could.
"Look at it in reverse," he said. "If you recognized someone from your elementary school, you would want to go and talk to them, wouldn't you?"
"Um...yeah, I guess..."
"Well that is why Ahkmenrah has become so attached to you. He knows you, or at least the other you. And I suppose he might also feel a bit guilty, considering the fact that you were murdered by the Romans—,"
"What?" Viola cried, the color draining from her face. "I—she—was murdered?"
"No, that didn't come out right at all," Thoth mused. "I suppose your going to at least want to know what happened if not how you died..."
"I thought you said that I was murdered!" Viola said. She shook her head. "No, no—she was murdered. I'm still not believing you about the reincarnation thing."
"Oh but you are a reincarnation. Almost everyone now a days is. It's so much easier to simply redirect a mortal's soul into another body rather then creating a whole new being. And you were murdered," he added simply, walking over to a nearby table and sitting down in one of the chairs. Viola unconsciously followed suit, but she wondered if she had moved or if the god had moved her—Viola's legs felt like the weighed five hundred pounds. He pushed his glasses up further on his nose and went on.
"Ahkmenrah's father had constructed a supernatural gateway between the Overworld and the Underworld as an anniversary present to Isis. He wanted to make it so that she could travel back and forth between the two worlds whenever she wanted. (Of course, we can automatically teleport, but doing it so many times can sometimes drain us of energy. Well—at least it did back then.)
"Now Isis has a way of influencing her children. She may not mean to, but she does anyway. So, Half-Bloods or not, both of my nephews naturally had a strong impulse for magic. It wasn't necessarily surprising that for years they both fought over the Tablet and the Gate. It was later that we finally had to intervene. But I'm getting off track.
"When you provoked the Tablet, the Gate opened and—"
"They fell through into the Underworld," Viola muttered quietly to herself, looking down. The second the words were out she realized her mistake and her eyes shot up. A wide grin lit up Thoth's face.
"You do remember!"
"No," Viola said quickly. "I...I just..." Obviously her stuttering was getting her no where, because she felt her face heat up. "Ahkmenrah told me about it," she lied. "Um, but he never said the specifics." Viola wanted to hide her head in her hands, or better yet just fall out of her chair and die right there. Lying to a god, Viola later learned, was a terrible idea, especially if said god happened to be the god of knowledge.
Thoth's grin had turned into a sort of sly smirk. "He did?" he asked. His voice was coy, as if he was testing her. She was failing at it miserably. And he probably knew it, too. He spared her, however, not letting her answer before he went on.
"Kahmunrah and Ahkmenrah also unfortunately inherited my sister's knack for causing trouble. It wasn't fifteen minutes they were in our realm and they already had some of us wanting to slit their throats. You were simply trying to be the peacemaker; saying that all that you three wanted was to get back to your home. You were able to locate the Tablet, and I showed you the way back to the Gate.
"By then, the Romans had intervened. Apollo and Mars ended up fighting with Horus and Set, and well...Horus being Horus and Set being Set, things didn't turn out well. You had just gotten back into the Overworld when they lead the Roman army into Egypt."
"There are Romans?" Viola asked, her voice quiet and raspy. She was afraid of what she was going to hear.
"Yes," Thoth sighed, "and we've always had a problem with them. Actually, I think it was that very incident that made us have such a complication with them." He was quiet for a moment, as if thinking.
Then he went on. "Where was I? Oh yes—the Roman army. At the same time, some of us had went to war with the Romans, which actually why our people were fighting. They reflect us in a way, you see. (I had stayed out of the fight, but it became inevitable that we were loosing.) Kahmunrah and you went back into the Underworld for a second time. You brought back the army of Horus, and it helped you mortals get the upper hand.
"However, unlike their people, Mars and Apollo infiltrated the palace as an attempt to take it down from the inside out. A wonderful battle tactic, but not a smart one in this situation. Mars ended up tearing up half the palace. I think he was looking for the Tablet, but he's…rash. At least Apollo had the sense to actually look rather then blast everything to smithereens.
"You, for some reason, had stayed behind with the Gate and Tablet. I'm not exactly sure why, though. And when Apollo tried to take the Tablet, you stalled him. He got fed up and ended up stabbing you."
"And I—she—died?" Viola said, catching herself.
"Not quite yet, but you were close. Apollo ripped the Tablet from the Gate. He tore some of the edges off it in the process.
"Now, when we had originally made the Tablet, it was to benefit mankind, not curse it. However, it seemed to do just that. We each put a bit of our power inside of the Tablet, but I suppose that we never suspected the Romans to come into contact with it. The result was catastrophic. Our power and the Romans power was never meant to mix."
"Wait," Viola cut in. "The Tablet has your power in it. That I...," she hesitated. She did really believe any of this? Of course she did, it all made sense. But she would never admit it. "Understand. But Apollo is just one god. Why did his power cause a 'catastrophic result'?"
Thoth's glasses slipped down his nose as he leaned forward, his face so serious it was almost deadly.
"Apollo is a very powerful god, Sulipica. All the Romans are, and so are we. But because we transferred our power into the Tablet, of course we're not as strong as we used to be. The Romans—well, they never really saw men like living beings. They saw men as serfs, if not lower then that. They never wanted to help mankind; they wanted to remain on top. I suppose that's why they became so bloodthirsty."
Viola swallowed and her eyes widened. "Bloodthirsty?" she repeated, her voice wavering.
"Yes, why else do you think that the Romans built the Coliseum and tore people apart for the fun of it?"
Viola had never thought of that. True, she had learned about the Roman Coliseum and how people would fight lions and such, but none of the textbooks had suggested it was built by the influence of the gods. So she had to ask…
"What about the Norse?" It was out of her mouth before she realized it. Thoth seemed surprised by the question and blinked once.
"What about them?"
Viola absentmindedly bit on her lip. She had to word this carefully. She got the feeling that it wasn't a good idea to tell Thoth about Loki.
"I…I mean, are they real? Are there anymore gods?" she asked as casually as she could.
"The Norse are real, but there's no one else. The Norse aren't as powerful as us or the Romans, but their there. They almost never cause trouble. At least, most of them almost never do. Loki does, but he's always got things up his sleeves. You learn to just learn to outsmart him.
"Anyway, when Apollo ripped the Tablet, it had a counter effect on the dimension, and…well; I suppose you could say that the universe was ripped in half. Literally. That of course stopped the fighting. I suppose Mars and Apollo panicked, because they soon fled back into the Underworld. Ra fixed the Rip, and we ended up erasing everyone's memories of the event. It wasn't necessarily one of our best battles, being as it was so bloody. Although, we let the royals keep their memory. It only seemed fair. Besides, at least this way neither of my nephews would go wondering about the Tablet's power again. Er—at least, not until later."
"And that was it?" Viola asked. "I got murdered by Apollo and…Mars…?" She squinted, trying to remember if she had heard that name before. It was a planet of course, but she didn't know what god it was.
"The Greeks know him as Ares," Thoth explained. "For some reason, historians think that the Romans based their gods off the Greeks, but it was the other way around. There is/was no Zeus or Poseidon or Hera; the Greeks came up with them. Somehow they became more popular in today's pop culture, which I don't understand at all. Apparently neither do any of the Romans; they frequently complain about people forgetting them. All the more reason for them to hate mankind."
"Wait, so why did the Romans intervene in the first place?" Viola asked. "If Ahk and the rest of them were going back to…here, why start a fight?"
"Well I suppose it's because you were in the Underworld in the first place. Live mortals were and are forbidden to be in our realm. It was one of the main rules that we established while creating the universe. Mortals were to stay on their side of the universe, we would stay on ours. However, upon entering the Underworld, it sent the Romans off on a roll. They, unlike us, began to breed with mortals, creating Half-Bloods."
"Half-Bloods…You mean like Hercules?"
Thoth leaned back in his chair and pursed his lips. "I suppose. We originally never really did anything like that, but after Isis had Kahmunrah and Ahkmenrah…well, quite frankly, they were too much trouble, and we never wanted to mix with the mortals like that again. We decided among ourselves that loving mortals would be forbidden. Of course, Anubis broke that law when he fell in love with Ann—," Thoth suddenly clapped his hand over his mouth. The sound made Viola jump slightly—it sounded like someone had smashed two rocks together. His blue eyes were large, but he wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the floor, as if he was expecting something to rise up out of it at any second and eat him.
He remained like this for what seemed like hours. Or maybe it only seemed like hours to Viola because he was so still. At one point, she thought that the god had turned into a statue.
However, Thoth slowly moved his hand back down off his mouth. He cleared his throat and picked up where he had left off.
"Another reason is that you accidently crossed into the Roman territory of the Underworld."
"Territory?" Viola said.
"Yes, we all have our own way of dealing with people who die. When someone dies on our territory, it gives us the power to decide their fate. An example is the Hall of Two Truths, but it's called many different things. That's where—,"
"Someone's heart gets weighed on a scale thing with a feather," said Viola. She wanted to slap herself for slipping up again. Thoth's eyebrow shot up, but he didn't question her.
"And the Romans have their own way—the Greeks based their believes off it as well. Going to Pluto—that's Hades in Greek—and being judged by him, excreta, excreta. The Norse don't really have a way of dealing with people who die, because no one really inhabits their territory. We split the modern world up so that we could all live in it and not bother one another—the Norse, who are accustomed to the cold, got the North and South poles. The Romans got from Portugal to Japan, and most of the rest of the upper Eastern Hemisphere. We got Egypt over to the very end of California. We don't trespass, because there's really no need to. Besides, if anyone did, they would most likely be killed on the spot."
Viola blinked. "The gods can be killed?"
"Yes and no. We can't really destroy each other, but we can tear each other up into pieces and get sent so far down into the Underworld that it will be a few centuries before we can see daylight again."
"I never thought..." Of course she didn't. She was having so much trouble taking all this in at once, it seemed too much to put on her little shoulders at once.
Even if she was Sulipica's reincarnation, it helped Viola to know that Apollo couldn't cross over into the Egyptian territory to kill her again.
Viola woke to darkness. She started to panic, but then recognized where she was. She was back in her room, in her bed and tucked underneath her covers. She had no idea how she ended up back here, because the last thing she remembered was being in Thoth's library—
Wait. He must have taken her back. Either that, or she was too tired to remember coming home.
She wondered if her mother knew that she was home. She was about to move, but froze when she heard someone speak.
"I still can't believe you told her," Anubis's voice drifted in her room from the hall. "What ever happened to not interfering directly with the mortal's lives? That's a rule, you know."
"I'm aware, Anubis," Thoth's voice replied quietly, "but with Ahkmenrah and Apep...do you really think that we could have hidden it from her? Eventually your brother would have told her."
"He wouldn't have."
"How do you know? The boy is blinded by love. You had the same traits when you were with Annaliese—"
"Don't say her name!" Anubis suddenly sounded deadly. "You almost said it today. Don't mention it again." Then she heard him scoff. "It would be so much easier if we could just kill her."
Viola's breath hitched. They were going to kill her? The blood drained from her face.
"And then what? Watch Ahkmenrah mope around for the next thousand years because he lost Sulipica yet again? And the second he finds out that you killed her, he'll never forgive you. Or any of us!" They were both yelling at each other. Er—whisper-yelling, more likely.
Viola didn't quite understand. Did she really mean that much to Ahk? And who was Annaliese?
There was a long pause, and Viola wondered for a moment if they had left. But finally, Anubis said,
"Fine. I'll get Horus to put another spell on that damn museum—the other one is gone. That's how Apep got in. Maybe he did it as a practical joke, I don't know or care. Just..." Viola strained her ears to hear the last part, but she never caught it. She could hear his murmuring voice, but couldn't understand what he was saying.
She wondered what exactly they were going on about, but not before she was hit with a wave of sleep.
A/n: OMG YES I FINISHED THIS! I swear, this chapter was hard. I love Anubis and his attitude. Lol and Viola and his banter. Now Apollo may not seem like a bad guy in your POV, but in this story I'm taking a different view on the Roman/Greeks. Apollo has been hit with being the ladies man/music lover for too long in my book. He needs to be bad-ass. Which he is in this story.
Thoth is by-far the hardest character to write for me. When I first got the idea for this story, he was a brunette. Then he was blonde, and somehow morphed into a dark-haired guy along the road. A few days ago I had a dream about the end of this story (lol I think God is telling me to wrap it up), and Thoth was BLONDE. WTF. So now when I picture him, he's blonde. Grr.
Review please!