Marik blinked and stared at the man before him. He had heard of this man before, but there weren't any reliable records or tablets aside from a really, really odd one that the Nameless Pharaoh had made about someone he had meet only once. Apparently the guy had a crush on the one person in Ancient Egypt who not only wouldn't give him the time of day, but also threw daggers rather close to him simply for entering the same room.
"So...You're the real Horus of the Desert?" asked Marik.
"I'm Horus...and according to that blood test administered by the goblin clans I happen to be your ancestor. Don't ask me how that happened, because I have no clue," admitted Horus.
"How the hell did you end up in this time? And why do you look so at ease?!"
"Long story short, Bastet threw me into the past where I fell on the Thief King, and right when things were about to go to hell some idiot dragged me back while I had my hand on this damn Key. I haven't been back in this particular time period for nine years," said Horus blandly.
"So what should I call you?"
"Worked it out with the goblins. Just call me Seth, or Set if you want. Better than having my name mangled by idiots," said Seth.
"Why are you in the catacombs anyway? Shouldn't you be terrorizing the Pharaoh?"
"I agreed to a truce with the annoying Keeper who had two Items. I'm a neutral party and won't help or hinder that two bit hack. At least I don't rely on my Item to summon the shadows," snorted Seth.
Marik grinned.
"Wait, how the hell are you my ancestor?"
"Brothels. No idea which one spawned your lineage, but my brother and I hit the brothels rather frequently between heists."
Marik facepalmed. His great and powerful bloodline was from the Thief King's powerful brother hitting a brothel and the girl not losing the child?
"Though to be fair that does mean the Ishtar clan, or to be more specific you and your siblings, do stand to inherit the largest gold cache in Europe," said Seth helpfully.
"How? And why Europe?"
"I'm originally British, and apparently my father was some sort of Lord there. I didn't bother to learn the full details and to be fair I could care less when the people there are absolute idiots," shrugged Seth.
"What now?"
"Now? Now we go have some fun! By the way, is your sister uptight or something?"
"Very. Overprotective and a know-it-all. She took to the Tomb Keeper thing more than me."
"And you are the type of brother who causes her to go gray prematurely, correct?"
"Yup."
"Ex-cellent. Come minion, we have much chaos to cause and not a lot of time before she catches us," said Seth, throwing his arm around Marik's shoulder.
"Why am I the minion? I lead a large gang of thugs!" griped Marik.
"Seniority. Besides what good is a gang of thugs if they can't duel to save their own ass?"
"...I hate it when you make a point," said Marik.
Isis' first impression of her ancestor was that he was a bad influence on her brother. He managed to get Marik drunk off his ass!
Seth took one look at her face and winced.
"Ow... Ra is too loud..." he grumbled.
"Dude, how can the sun be too loud?" groaned Marik.
"Easy. I'm a night owl. Ra likes to yell at me in the mornings," said Seth.
"And you! What do you have to say for yourself!" she barked at Seth, who winced.
"If you're old enough to kill, you're old enough to drink. Be grateful I didn't try to find a strip club," retorted Seth.
Marik winced at the reminder of his father's death...and said nothing.
"But before that... Dharc! You got any hangover remedy left?" Seth asked.
To the shock of both siblings, a boy with a staff appeared and snickered at Seth's predicament.
"It's been 5,000 years. Do you really think the life expectancy covers that long? And what name do we call you in this time anyway?" asked Dharc amused.
"Call me Seth. It's better than having my real name mangled by the idiots in Europe. And I meant have you swiped any from that idiot priest. I know he goes on drinking binges with the other magicians because of that apprentice of his," said Seth.
Dharc snickered and then brought out a hangover remedy from the last time the Dark Magician Girl had him swipe it as a prank.
"Two hangover remedies for the fools who drank too much!" he said cheerfully.
The two fools winced at the loud voice, but drank it anyway.
Marik looked at Seth with bleary eyes.
"Why can't you brew your own?" he asked.
"I hate potions. I was the diplomat and treasurer of the two of us. My brother was the potions master and attack master. He couldn't count to save his life," said Seth blandly.
"What exactly is your plan?" demanded Isis.
Seth looked at his minion and asked "Is she always this crabby?"
"Yes. She seems to think it's a mandatory thing since she's the oldest next to Rashid, who's adopted," said Marik annoyed.
"Right. Are you up to a strategic escape?"
"And avoid her lectures? Hell yes!"
Seth promptly grabbed Marik, made an escape portal underneath them, and bolted. Isis' mouth was open and shut from the fact that they had just ditched her. Dharc just laughed.
"Dear lord...I have another Marik on my hands don't I?" asked Isis faintly.
"Actually he was always the more mature of the two. His brother just liked to kill people and then steal their wallets. If you give him something to read and don't ask about the Nameless Pharaoh he might actually listen to you. Also, don't try to wake him up before noon. He hates that," said Dharc.
"How do you know all that?"
"Most consistent summoner. Plus he sometimes let me and my family out to have a party at his expense. So, he's your ancestor eh?"
"According to the goblin administered blood test, yes," said Isis.
"Could be worse. You could be related to the Dark Lord over in Europe," said Dharc.
"I'm related to a thief. How is that not worse?"
"...You could be related to the idiot who killed his village and made the Items out of the still cooling bodies of his family?"
"What?"
"You didn't know? That's why the two have such a problem with the Nameless Pharaoh in the first place. His uncle created the Items from the still cooling bodies of their village, and they happened to witness the entire thing. They got revenge on the father, but the fact that he wears it and never asked where the power comes from just annoyed the hell out of them," shrugged Dharc.
"Dude, you are officially my favorite ancestor!" said Marik.
"Because I'm fun?"
"No, because you didn't think twice about ditching that stick in the mud Isis!"
"I've lived with only my brother in the middle of the desert, and we haven't had any parental supervision for most of our lives. What the hell makes you think I would listen anyway? Let's see...where the hell is that blasted room I set up?"
"What room?"
"All the pilfered treasure. You really think I would leave my loot in the physical realm where any idiot could find it and rob me?" asked Seth.
Marik blinked. Come to think of it, there never was any real concrete evidence of what happened to the Thief King's loot, and from what records said of his habits, there was quite a lot. And most of the sudden increase of funds came from other pyramids.
"Okay, I'll bite. Exactly how much loot do you actually have?" asked Marik.
Seth paused then turned to look at him.
"First things first. Are you possibly insane enough to rob people blind without a second thought?"
"I have a second more murderous personality that killed my father. What do you think?"
"Do you have any love for the Nameless Pharaoh or his court?"
"It's because of him that I was forced to live underground and have this stupid tattoo on my back without painkillers!"
"Can you use magic, like sharp pointy things to throw at people and have a general disregard of authority figures?"
"Have you seen my sister? Why would I want to listen to people like her?! And as for magic, I can speak to snakes, but I'm not very good at it. As for the sharp pointy objects..."
Marik turned the Rod into it's dagger form, with a manic gleam in his eye. Seth nodded appreciatively.
"Alright, you can come see the loot. My brother and I don't like showing it off like the other rogues, because that opens up attempts to steal it. Had to put you through a small test before you could join our little group."
"Understandable," said Marik.
"Oh to Anubis with this! Maha Vialo! Where did I put that pocket dimension that I left in the Shadow Realm!" yelled Seth.
Marik was surprised that Maha Vialo appeared amused.
"It's good to see you again partner. As for the loot, it's still around here. You placed it right before the opening to the summons realm so we could appear and add to it."
Seth snapped his fingers.
"Thank you for reminding me. How much have you added anyway?"
"Before the Pharaoh sealed the realm off? Without you to regulate what we could and couldn't steal, we raided three tombs and fifty nobles. So about half as much as it originally had," admitted Maha Vialo.
"Yet another reason to hate the prick. Before I forget, Marik, this is my Ka beast. Maha Vialo, this is Marik, my present day descendant who wouldn't be alive if Bastet hadn't thrown me into the past."
"I know. Why do you think he survived? Me and the other monsters who knew you kept an eye on his ancestor when we became aware that one of the women you knew had a child with green eyes. As for the goddess, we got the gist when you were pulled back."
"Ah, good. I don't have to explain that then. Anyway, let's see the loot!" said Seth.
Marik stared. There was no other word for it. He was in a pocket dimension filled with wall to wall gold and he had been lead there by an ancestor who was supposed to be from his end of the time lines.
"You are officially my favorite family member...next to Rashid," said Marik.
"He the adopted one?"
"Yup."
"Is he a wet blanket like Isis?"
"Nope. He only tries to discourage my less than acceptable behavior, but he mostly tries to keep my darker personality in check."
"Perfect! We have a built in accomplice to our possibly illegal activities!" crowed Seth.
Marik cackled and he could sense his darker self crow in agreement. Clearly Seth was one of the very rare people Malik wouldn't kill or mind control on sight.
"Exactly how much gold is in here?" asked Marik.
"Don't know, don't care. All I know is that the accumulation is the best part! Besides, with the age of these beauties, collectors will pay through the nose just for a few gold coins~!" said Seth.
"Do you mean to say that..."
"You and your clan are officially set for life, since from what I know of Keepers you wouldn't dare touch the gold left for the Nameless Pharaoh?" said Seth.
"Would you be offended if I started calling you big brother in public?" asked Marik with starry eyes.
"Not at all. The Thief King wasn't my brother by blood, but we killed anyone who thought it actually mattered to us," said Seth amused.
Seth packed a small bag of gold coins, and then went to find a few buyers. He also packed a larger bag of copper ones, which he had thousands of. He never really liked them that much.
By the end of the month, Seth had enough cash to rival what he had in his goblin protected vault. As a show of good faith, he even bought Marik the motorcycle he had his eye on...but Isis refused to let him get.
Needless to say Isis hit the alcohol rather heavily. Since Seth was in fact their ancestor, the Keepers reluctantly allowed him to remain in the catacombs since he honestly had no use for the Pharaoh's gold. And he had repeatedly told those who thought he would steal the Items that his only interest was to permanently lay them to rest, since the souls of those who were used to create them were stuck until then.
Rashid rather liked him mostly because with Seth around, Malik wasn't that inclined to come out. And Seth had already demonstrated rather painfully that should Malik try to get out of control (which happened only once when Seth had arrived, and Malik quickly learned why he was feared by the Palace mages) he would step in and forcefully put the alter ego back in line. That was the only reason Isis tolerated his presence. Though she was rather dismayed to learn that Seth not only wouldn't listen to her (Marik did, barely) but he would undermine her authority if he felt it necessary.
Seth had actually taken one look at the large gang of Death Eater wannabes and snorted. Malik would have been offended had Seth not pointed out rather loudly that the dark colored cloaks and nasty attitudes were so cliché it wasn't even funny.
About the only true excitement the Tomb Keepers had with Seth having more or less better success than Isis did in keeping Marik from trying to kill people was the arrival of an owl in the middle of July. Seth had taken one look at the name and burned it (and nearly killed the poor owl) before anyone even touched the letter. This was proceeded with Seth vanishing without warning while surfing the internet (another thing that gave Isis headaches, because Malik couldn't use the computer without nearly breaking it, so how the hell did an ancient mage like Seth pull it off so easily?!) only to reappear hours later cursing in Ancient Egyptian about old men and their meddling rituals.
Isis wisely didn't ask what that was about.
It wasn't until Malik started to act out more that Seth took an active interest in him. Apparently he wanted to confront the Pharaoh directly.
"I'll come with you, but don't expect me to help you. My agreement with that nuisance Shaadi prevents active interference when it comes to that pest," said Seth flatly.
All of this had been triggered by an article which had Seth cursing loudly at the fact that apparently the Pharaoh had been reincarnated into some poor kid who likely didn't know anything about the spirit possessing him.