A/N: Just watched The Deathly Hallows – my eyes are still recovering from its greatness. Wow, just… gah! Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to those in the States! :)

Disclaimer: Disclaimed.

Chapter 8: Paradox

The vizier frowned at Mello as though he had cotton stuffed between the ears instead of an alleged genius brain.

"Again, impossible. Do you not understand the magnitude of time traveling and magic?" Ay scoffed.

Mello returned the vizier's contemptuous glare. "Yes, I do, actually."

"Then you must realize that our priests must never be allowed to come into contact with you three. Their powers to foresee the future are very limited; they can only predict outcomes – the what – rather than the events themselves – how, when and why," Ay explained swiftly, inclining his head toward King Tut to emphasize his point.

The doomed pharaoh flinched.

Ay's face darkened. "The gods would be most displeased if the high priests were found meddling with more than what they were blessed with: the ability to foretell deaths. It was very lucky that the ignorant guards came across the three of you before anyone else could."

Near cocked his snowy-white head. "Meddling?"

"When my scribes discovered your existences," Tut elaborated, "the priests became very excited. We had to remind them that they were forbidden to approach you with the intents to glean knowledge of and from the future. Such data can create ripples in the time line, or worse, a time paradox."

"Hypocrite," Near said sleekly.

Matt gaped at him. Near had never been one for decorum, but to directly challenge a famed leader…?

Tut's bronzed skin flushed with anger. "I will use the nectar wisely," he defended himself. "I only wish to live long enough for my wife to bear a son, and to watch them grow old."

"How lovely," Mello remarked, sarcasm dripping from each syllable.

Near smiled slightly. Of course Mello wouldn't pass up on an opportunity to match or outdo his rival's audacity.

Matt's eyes, on the other hand, were trained on the young woman standing by Tut's elbow. Ankhe appeared to be physically affected by Mello's words; her hand had drifted to her flat belly, gemmed bracelets barely jingling, and her face had become slack with a dreamy, faraway look.

With a start, Matt recalled reading about Tut's puny and hastily prepared tomb, and the possessions that the supposedly-murdered pharaoh had been buried with. Along with childhood toys, an arsenal of bows and arrows, armor, pottery and other valuable treasures, the archaeologists had found two embalmed fetuses.

They had both been females, stillborns, robbed of any chances of life, much less their deserved royal one. Egyptologists had always proclaimed that Tutankhamun's family had been the most unfortunate in history.

Matt's vote went to another.

Gods and goddesses in any parallel universe or messed up timeline forbid if the two Yagami women should ever find out they were blood relatives with modern-day Hitler.

Mello barreled on. "Besides, I thought ambrosia granted eternal life?"

"It does," Tut said dryly, "only as everlasting youth. It does not, however, protect one against physical damage. Once a body dies, the soul departs. Which," he hastily added, seeing their alarmed expressions, "will not how you three will make entrance into the Hall of Two Truths."

Matt finally spoke. "Alright then, what are we waiting for? Mello, you in?"

"Well, it doesn't seem like I have a choice," the blond ground out, much to the Egyptian pharaoh's visible relief.

It'll be okay, I swear…

But Matt couldn't bring himself to say those words. He knew it would only be a hollow promise, like the one that came out of Mello's mouth just a few days ago.

"Let's get started as soon as possible," Near agreed. "I have, ah, important matters to return to."

Matt had to force down a knowing, telltale blush; the SPK chieftain was obviously still unaware of Halle's connection to the two rogue masterminds. Mello shot the redhead a warning look.

"So?" Near prompted Tut, who had cracked open the large book that the queen had brought him.

The young pharaoh glanced up fleetingly. "This is the Book of the Dead. With the right incantations, your souls will be transferred into the afterlife. Are you ready?"

"Wait! What are we supposed to do?"

"Just relax."

Before Matt could even articulate a response, he and his two genius companions were blasted clean off their feet, landing unceremoniously in the titan-sized ornamental fountain on the far side of the room.

"Ugh!" Mello spluttered, emerging from the deep basin and shaking out his wet bangs.

Near was still splashing away; his feet were clearly unable to even graze the bottom. Matt quickly pulled him over to the edge of the miniature pool for anchorage. With a grateful nod, the younger teenager calmly plucked a goldfish out of his soaked curls and tossed it back into the water.

"What the hell?" Matt bellowed. "Next time, give us a heads-up!"

"We did," Tut called from across the palace chamber.

And as if to both contradict and prove the king's words, flames erupted all around them, effectively imprisoning the three boys in the fountain.

"Fuck this!" Mello yelled, paddling frantically to the rim of the fountain in a blatant attempt to escape, but immediately recoiled. The fire had already become a brilliant, impenetrable wall, separating the spell-casting Egyptians from their view.

"Calm down!"

The heat of the soaring flames slammed into their faces until they could take it no longer. Matt was the first to plunge back into the watery depths of their elemental confinement, his lungs full of precious oxygen. His fingers briefly brushed against the bed of decorative pebbles.

What now? Matt's mind was racing.

Nothing seemed to be happening. Seconds stretched out into minutes, and Matt's chest felt ready to burst. There was no point in surfacing for breath unless he wanted to die from smoke inhalation, ironically enough.

The redhead choked back a sob; a smattering of bubbles issued from a nostril. To be purposely taken to the brink of death with only "Just relax" to go on was not the greatest idea.

Flanked by two murky shadows that Matt knew to be his friends, he swam and waited for the afterlife to claim them all.

A/N: While the classical 'air, fire, water and earth' concept is credited to ancient Greek philosophers and scientists, its beginnings are rooted in earlier civilizations' (including Egyptian) practices of alchemy and witchcraft.

Special thanks to the latest readers and reviewers: Dai Uzimaki, Kira the Wolf, Kishimojin, TheCatchingLightAlchemist, Eternally1Yours, akatsukifan (heh heh, it was meant to add to the suspense xD), Sailormercury117 (yay thank you :D), SpinnerBeech~

Reviews are much appreciated. They bring the fire, quite literally (: