I'm sorry all of you who reviewed and didn't get their virtual pie until yesterday. I kinda forgot... *smiles sheepishly* Anyway, enjoy! For you Zarter lovers, it starts NOW! *maniacal laughter*

15 Years Old

"Walt, have you seen Sadie anywhere? I need to talk to her. It's kinda urgent." It was more than urgent, it was life or death. For all of us. I just didn't want to push the guy. He's been getting a lot worse and if I'm right, he'll need his strength tonight.

"I think she's in the library." Man, he sounded horrible, too. I hate asking him to help us out, but we need him.

"Thanks." I ran into the library and collided with Cleo. "Cleo, I'm sorry. That was my fault."

She didn't seem to mind. "Actually, I was looking for you. I wanted to talk to you abou-"

"Cleo, I'm kind of in a hurry at the moment. Later."

"But this is important!"

"Cleo, later. Now where is Sadie?"

"It's about Apophis!" The temperature in the room dropped. She caught my attention now.

"What about him?" My meeting with Sadie could wait. If Cleo wanted to talk about something like Apophis, then it's probably important.

"I think I know why he's attacking certain museums. I did some research on the museums that he attacked, and saw that they all have one artifact in common. The Book of Overcoming Apophis. The one written by Prince Khaemwaset, or Setne, which is how most people know him. Only six of them exist. Well, now only two."

"Does, does Toronto have it?" If they did, then Cleo was right about what Apophis was after, and that meant we would be one step closer to winning this war.

"Yeah, I don't know about the others, but I'm sure about Toronto." I was so happy, I wanted to hug her. But, I needed to find Sadie and tell her the news.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"You heard Apophis talking about Toronto?"

"Yep."

"Cleo figured out what he's after?"

"Yep."

"And this is going to happen in a few hours?"

"Yep."

"Then let's go." Sadie was taking this better than I expected. I was almost expecting her to argue with me about something. Sadie usually doesn't agree with anybody until you fight about it for a bit. Except Walt. "Are you coming or not? We don't have much time!"

It took longer than I would have liked to round up our team of misfits. Felix wouldn't stop messing with his penguins, Alyssa refused to come until this clay bowl she was making was finished, and Walt was moving as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast. But, eventually we were all piled in the boat that was pulled by my maniac griffin, Freak, and we were on our way. To what, though, we didn't know.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

We got there in the middle of what looked like a fireworks show. It was close enough to the Fourth of July that people probably thought it was. Which is why we needed to end it before people started to come.

I stood up in the boat (which wasn't easy) and started giving orders. "Alyssa, take advantage of the gardens. Walt, do you have any amulets that can help?"

"Of course."

"Good. Felix... Summon some killer penguins or something." I looked at Sadie. "Ready?"

"Not like I have much of a choice." Way to sound upbeat Sadie.

"Great. Let's go."

We dropped down into the middle of the battle. The Toronto magicians were in full-out battle mode with Apophis' demon army. I saw hieroglyphs, sticks, shoes, and cheese flying all over the place. On the magicians' side, I saw combat avatars and staffs morphing into lions. On the demons' side, I saw some with horseshoes between their shoulders and others with tattoos that said "DEMON PRIDE" and other things I'd rather not repeat.

Sadie and I ran to the Egyptian exhibit, trying to avoid demons and such on the way. We managed to get there with minor cuts and bruises. There was just one problem. We couldn't find the scroll. "It should be here!" I didn't see any scroll anywhere and the room was strangely clean and quiet compared to the rest of the museum. That should have clued me off immediately that something was wrong. But, of course, it didn't.

"You're too late Carter and Sadie." The voice from my nightmares was echoing throughout the room. Apophis. "You cannot beat me. I battled for eons with Ra and I'm still strong. Do you think two children can defeat me?" I could feel his power radiating through the room. I could feel myself growing tired and I kept thinking, "I just need to give up. It's the only way."

Apophis had definitely grown stronger since we last met. I was about ready to surrender to Apophis (and I'm ashamed of myself) when Sadie yelled some choice words. I won't tell you what they are, but use your imagination.

Sadly, that didn't even phase him. "Sadie, Sadie. Don't you know it's not nice to yell at your elders? I'm going to have to punish you for that." Sadie had about a millisecond to react before she was attacked by some of the artificial mummies in the room. I heard her say, "Not again!" before I was standing in... My living room. From when we lived in Los Angeles.

I looked around and saw my family. Complete and living. "Isn't this what you want Carter? A normal life, where you don't have to worry about war? I can make that happen. Yield to me and what you see is what you'll get. Think of it as a birthday present."

I have to say, it was tempting. I've been yearning for a normal life since I was seven. Then reality broke my daydream. "You really think I'm going to believe you? I may not have a normal life, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Got it?"

"Then don't expect to live another year. Goodbye Carter Kane." The "normal Kane family" dissolved and I stood facing a miniature Apophis. Now remember how big Apophis can be. When I say miniature, I don't mean a three foot tall snake. I mean a thirteen foot tall, killer snake, that was out for my blood. My day kept getting better and better.

I summoned my combat avatar, but before I could do anything Apophis was ha-died by none other than my annoying sister, Sadie Kane. That definitely caught his attention. "Come and get me you spineless snake!" She caught my eye and I nodded. Time to go round up the others.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"You're going back. Sadie and I will be fine." Walt, Felix, and Alyssa refused to go back to Brooklyn without us. But they were going to and they just hadn't realized it yet.

"Carter, you can't handle this on your own. You need our help!" Walt was trying to get me to let them stay when he looked ready to drop any second. He wasn't helping himself.

"Walt, have you seen yourself? You're going back to Brooklyn House." He opened his mouth, but Felix whispered something in his ear that made him stop.

"Fine. See you at Brooklyn." With that, he got in the boat and Freak took off, flying far away from Toronto.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

The Egyptian room was a mess. Sadie didn't help anything when she collapsed the roof on Apophis' head. She also didn't help me by collapsing afterward. "Sadie," I muttered to myself, "you've got to stop doing that."

After dragging her out of the mess she made and laying her on the only flat thing I could find, I took in the destruction of the One Hundredth Nome. Nothing was left. Nobody was left. The only thing that stood out among the rubble was a red hieroglyph. Isfet. Chaos.

"Did I do it?" I turned around to see Sadie sitting up and rubbing the back of her head. "Judging by the lack of a giant snake, I'll say yes." She took one look at my face and said quietly, "No one?"

I shook my head. "Let's get out of here." I opened up a portal to Brooklyn House, preparing myself to tell everybody the news.

I wasn't expecting anybody to be on the roof, so when I stepped into a surprise birthday party, I was, well, surprised. "What the Horus is going on?"

Walt walked up to me and said, "Dude, did you not hear us yell 'Happy Birthday Carter?' You need to pay attention more."

Sadie came through the portal. "Did you know about this?"

She just laughed at me. "Oh, brother dear. You can be so naïve. I planned it." She looked very pleased with herself. "Now run along and open the present we got you. I'm going to go wash up."

Shelby runs up to me and says, "Follow me!" She grabs a few of my fingers in her tiny hand and pulls me to the table. On it is a giant cake (enough to feed everybody) and a bowl. Shelby climbs up on a chair, picks up the bowl, and hands it to me. "Happy Birfday!"

"Um, thanks, for the, uh, bowl." I take it from her and realize it was the bowl Alyssa was making earlier today.

"It's more than just a bowl. It's a scrying dish. I meant to make you a new one earlier since it kinda got knocked over a rail a few months ago. I just haven't had time. I have the oil upstairs if you want to try it out. I also think Sadie planned a chat between you and Zia."

I could feel my heart speed up. "Of course she did. Let's have cake first, I think Felix is about to have a heart attack." Sure enough, Felix was staring at the cake like it was the last sugary thing on earth.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

A piece of birthday cake and a ginger ale later, I was talking to Zia Rashid.

"Sadie told me it was your birthday." She looked beautiful. Her hair was longer since I last saw her and her amber eyes were shining. And she was smiling at me, which almost made me forget about earlier today. Almost. "I heard about Toronto. You know everybody's going to blame you."

"Yeah, a great way to spend a birthday, right?"

She laughed (I love her laugh) and said, "I'm sorry, Carter, I have to go. Amos wants to see me over at the First Nome."

"Tell him I said hi." I was disappointed and yet relieved that Zia had to go. I was disappointed because this is the first time we've talked in months and the conversation lasted two minutes. I was relieved because I had no clue what to say.

"Bye Carter." Zia waved her hand over the oil and her face disappeared.

"Bye."

So that was my longest chapter so far! I feel accomplished. I'm going to try and update ASAP. Now, REVIEW! Please?