Seth opted to stay behind while the others explored the odd place that the blimp had been forced onto. Apparently someone had hijacked the computers.
Considering the magic in his made electronics go haywire, Seth really didn't want to go anywhere near the pods. Instead he went back to his computer and the chat board with his friends the Medjai.
Seth hated the Tomb Keepers, who fawned over the Pharaoh. To the surprise of Marik and Isis, he got along just fine with the Medjai, who once served as the Pharaoh's bodyguards but now served the true gods in protecting the ancient secrets of the desert. They weren't above using the gold of the ancient pharaohs to buy what was needed. So long as it wasn't cursed anyway.
Even Bakura, when he learned of the Medjai, respected them. Unlike the pampered Tomb Keepers, the Medjai followed the ways of true desert dwellers, and fought to survive the same as they had. So long as he didn't try to rob them, the Medjai would treat him the same as they did Seth.
It had taken exactly three months for Seth to learn of their existence and to find them. They weren't happy about it until one of the mages in their ranks saw that he walked with the Old Gods and followed the same path. After that he was welcomed as a friend to the clans.
Bastet and Horus had been inordinately pleased by this.
ChosenofBast: I really don't know what the wizards will try next. I'm almost tempted to spend a year with the tribes to remember half of the things I used to do every day.
ProtectoroftheDesert: These wizards are a bold and arrogant lot. Their hubris rivals the pharaohs of old.
ChosenofBast: and the pharaoh that walks among men once more. I swear Atem is more annoying than Ramses!
ProtectoroftheDesert: has the Lunar One spoken of our problem?
ChosenofBast: she told me once this silly little tournament is over that I will be permitted to go to that time to keep the wizards from causing even more trouble than He-who-should-remain-buried. We really don't need Imhotep to start causing problems along with that European fool Voldemort.
ProtectoroftheDesert: I am relieved. I was worried that the fools would distort time and allow the Creature to walk among men again. Where they found that particular spell I would love to know. If only so we could kill the one who gave it to them.
ChosenofBast: I'll be sure to ask. I'm certain my brother would love to help me geld the fools. While we're on the subject, do the clans have any objections to us robbing Hamunaptra?
(Elsewhere Ardeth Bey choked back a laugh.)
ProtectoroftheDesert: So long as you leave some of it behind so that we may fund our clans, I don't think they'll care. I will ask just in case.
ChosenofBast: (Chuckle) I wouldn't worry about that. You are the only group that once associated with the pharaohs that we even tolerate. At least you understand us better than those fool Tomb Keepers.
ProtectoroftheDesert: Ah yes, our secretive cousins. Tomb Keepers is a poor name for their group. What sort of keeper would allow the blatant raiding of the old and cursed tombs by the goblins?
ChosenofBast: According to Isis the goblins struck up an agreement with the previous clan head and the only way to stop it is to await until Marik reaches 17. They won't listen to him until he reaches the majority of the magical communities and Isis isn't the heir, despite being the oldest.
ProtectoroftheDesert: Just between you and me, we can't stand wizards. Especially when they thought that the children touched by the Gods to wield the ancient power had to be trained by them and not by the clans. We have to fight off the fools and move often every time another is gifted just to keep them from being taken.
ChosenofBast: Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but I would be wary of Ra's children in particular. I shall talk to Bastet later to see if she can give your tribes blessing to keep the children of Ra from stealing the young ones.
ProtectoroftheDesert: Some of our children have been taken that way before. We would be in your debt if you could keep them away from our clans.
ChosenofBast: May the Gods be with you and your clans.
ProtectoroftheDesert: May Allah be with you and your clan.
"So what did Ardeth have to say?" asked Bakura.
Seth grinned evilly. Bakura straightened up, an interested glint in his eye. Usually when his brother had that glint it meant he had juicy information about a heist.
"If all goes well, we'll be allowed to go to Hamunaptra and rob it in exchange for helping the Medjai with a problem they're having with wizards. Oh, and I'll need to talk to Bastet about a protection spell over the clans. Apparently the wizards have been taking children touched by the gods."
Bakura, who had been leaning over the blimp, spat in disgust. Kaiba had been clear about his views of his less pleasant habits. He could kill and gut someone so long as his brother didn't see the mess and the blood was cleaned up quickly. He also told Bakura flatly if he caught the man spitting in the blimp he would strangle him barehanded.
Hence why the spirit was currently up on the top so it went off the blimp. Kaiba had looked serious when he said that.
"Wait, did you say Hamunaptra? As in the Hamunaptra?" said Bakura.
"Yup. So long as we leave some for the Medjai and do our job, they could care less if we robbed the place. You know it's one of the few places to find those scarabs I love."
Seth had a penchant for the deadly jeweled scarabs. Asps were good and fine, but any decent parselmouth could convince them to let them pass and they were highly conspicuous. The rare Jeweled Scarab, which was labeled at the same danger level as a basilisk and pissed off dragon, were much harder to notice and harder still to kill properly. Not to mention the fact fewer still knew how to handle them without them breaking out of the shell.
Before Seth had sent the entire hoard into the Shadow Realm, he had plastered the walls with the things, and since they looked like real jewels, any idiot who tried to take one would be killed within minutes via the scarab eating their heart. Quite a few would be thieves had been killed that way, and the brothers had tossed their decaying corpses outside into the desert without a second thought.
The fact that an unopened, still intact scarab went for 10,000 galleons on the black market didn't factor into his love of the things at all. The goblins, when they learned of how many he hoarded in his treasure, had offered him twice that and another ten for the spell to keep them in the shells until they were placed into the vaults.
Seth had only sold twenty to the goblins. He just liked them because they were great traps and almost impossible to deal with once opened by the idiots. Bakura didn't like them as much, but he did enjoy laying on the roof of the village hearing the idiots die in a very slow and painful manner.
The only problem was that they were almost impossible to find in the present day era and even then they were in the really old tombs. They had been hard to find even in their time.
Seth was quite pleased his collection of scarabs had also made it into the hoard, each jeweled bug plastered on the walls like silent sentinels.
Bakura cackled. There were times he absolutely loved his brother, and this was one of them.
"Count me in! You know I've been wanting to hit that place since I heard of it from the Medjai!"
"I wouldn't dream of keeping you out of this one. Fortunately I have located a spell to give you a temporary body so that you can join me without dragging Ryou from his budding relationship."
Bakura cheered and then went to use the time to make a list of what he would need for the trip. Seth amusedly supplied the year, and with the help of a more cheerful Ryou (who was beyond happy that something would take the cranky spirit out of him for a few months at least) the two got to planning. Seth enlisted the aid of a bored Marik and Marauders to help him with a few potions and enchantments he needed done.
By the time the group who had gone exploring returned, they came with an unexpected passenger. Mokuba, the crafty brat, had found a way to load the spirit of Noah Kaiba who was the biological son of the man who adopted the brothers, onto his magically powered laptop which had been one of the first things Sirius had helped Kaiba with as a test. Kaiba had given it to his brother so he could know whether it would work for magic users.
He planned to make that his pet project for the next month.
(It was part of Seth's magic training. He wanted them to expand and control their magic in new ways, and to do that they needed to do a new project for a month that hadn't been tried before. Ryou had taken to this rather well, as he put his dungeon master days to good use while Mokuba thought of new ways to use old spells.)
Two hours later they were on the site of the old Kaiba corps building which was littered with all of Gozuboro Kaiba's weapons. Kaiba had told Seth he planned to blow up this monument to the past as a show of moving past it.
Noah actually agreed with his idea, which had surprised Kaiba slightly.
"Ugh. Malik is acting like an idiot, again," said Seth tiredly.
To the amusement of Kaiba and Mokuba, Seth had gotten into a game of rummy with Noah once the placement had been made for the finals. Neither of them were interested in watching the Pharaoh win the thing, as it was obvious. Kaiba had decided to join Mokuba in watching the two tally up scores to see who would win once he lost to the Pharaoh.
Seto Kaiba couldn't help but feel pleased by the fact that Seth had dropped out of the tournament at the last minute to work security before the spirit could duel him for Slifer.
Not that Yami Yugi (as the others called the pharaoh since they didn't know his name) knew about the fact he had it until he stopped Ra from damaging Mai's soul.
Eventually the Pharaoh won, with much fan fair from the cheering section (I/E Jounouchi and the others) and Marik did his job as Tomb Keeper.
He was only bound to reveal it to the Pharaoh, not explain what it all said or the ramifications of it. He did have some fun mooning the Pharaoh though.
They made it to the plane in time to find Ryou demolishing the last of the donuts (and Seth was miffed the boy hadn't saved any for him) and they all watched the island be destroyed.
"Knives!" yelled Bakura from his room. Marik had opted to stay with Ryou and avoid Isis, who had begun to realize her brother might like the British boy.
"Fifteen in the bag, six on me and three long ones in the special pocket!" yelled Seth.
"Potions?"
"Three full Extreme Healer's kit, along with some animal transformations and animagi. And three sets of a dozen hangover potions. Sirius left instructions to the animagi one."
"Food?"
"Got enough to feed and army for a month. And enough water to last us three times that long."
"Transport?"
"Got the enchanted statues. Both camel and horse."
"Gold?"
Seth didn't bother to reply, but sent a spell in Bakura's direction. The spirit roared in anger as ice cold water drenched him from head to toe to Marik and Ryou's clear amusement.
"Right, stupid question. What about that letter to the Medjai?"
"I sincerely doubt that they'll bother us once Bastet drops us off near the Museum. I heard the curator is one of them before he was killed by Imhotep."
"As much as I love anyone who pisses off a pharaoh as thoroughly as this fool has, only a true idiot would invoke such a ritual without double checking that there wasn't anyone nearby first," said Bakura.
When informed of Imhotep's betrayal of the pharaoh and subsequent death, Bakura had summed up his opinion rather quickly.
Imhotep was an idiot, though thankfully not on the same caliber as Voldemort or that senile old goat.
"You got the spells ready?"
"Akefia, shut the hell up. We are about to head home to speak to the one tribe of former bodyguards to the pharaohs and hopefully prevent a real mess from forming. I still need to speak to Bast about that protection spell for the clans."
"Do try not to be an idiot, Bakura," said Ryou.
They had settled on what to call each other. Akefia would be called Bakura in public and he would just be Ryou. It made things less confusing.
Bakura cackled, and they headed to the private jet Kaiba had loaned them. Seth had a phone to call them when it was time to come back. Considering Shaadi hadn't been happy he had claimed Slifer, it was safer to ride a jet than travel via the shadow realm.
(Not happy was an understatement. Shaadi was downright pissed. Apparently he viewed the fact that Seth had claimed the card and not the Pharaoh as a breach of the agreement, which had played a part in why he had agreed to help Ardeth with his mage problem.)
Seth quickly walked up to Ardeth and gave the traditional greeting of the desert dwellers to him.
"Peace be with you and your clans, may the light of the gods protect you and yours," said Seth.
"Peace be with you and your clan, may the light of the goddess guide you and yours," said Ardeth.
It was an acceptable alteration, since Seth was the chosen of Bastet the Moon goddess.
A low yowl of a cat was heard, and a long black panther stalked up to Seth.
"Bastet," bowed Seth.
"I hear the desert tribes are having a problem with Ra. And yes Seth I was reading your message to your friend here. If I may meet with each of the tribal heads, I will place a spell of protection over the clans."
Ardeth looked relieved. More and more children were showing signs of being god touched of late.
"Thank you, Great Goddess," said Ardeth with feeling.
"It means I can assist a friend of my Chosen and put one on the old featherbrain. None of the other gods will fault me for placing a spell to keep children with their rightful families. If anything they will start to ask Ra why he allowed his children to do something so frowned upon," grinned the cat.
By the time Seth had a note for the Medjai in Ardeth's handwriting and seal, Bastet had made a round of all the tribes and placed a spell of protection on them. Her timing couldn't have been better, because right after she did the first a phoenix appeared and was about to snatch a child for the Egyptian government she roared to catch it's attention.
The phoenix paused in his task and glared at the goddess.
"Begone foul child of Ra. These tribes are under my protection now, and any who seek to steal from their clans will have to deal with my wrath. You should be ashamed to steal children from their kin!" snarled Bastet.
The phoenix was clearly debating whether or not to steal a child when it shrieked in pain. Apparently they were only doing it because they were forced to. It tried to grab a girl, barely nine years old, when Bastet slashed at it's right talon and severed it.
The phoenix let loose a cry of true pain, and fled.
The girl cried in relief and thanked the goddess repeatedly. The children had been raised with warnings of phoenixes since the government had had the argument with the Medjai about their training practices two hundred years ago.
Seth held onto his brother, and Bastet dropped them off in the museum when the woman known as Evelyn had left with her brother.
"Good lord! What in the name of Allah are you doing in my library!" exclaimed the curator.
"Peace be with you and yours, and may the gods protect your kin," said Seth.
"Peace be with you and yours, and may Allah protect your kin," replied the curator, suspicious.
"I come bearing a message for Ardeth Bey. Wizards have found a forbidden spell that sends them back into the past and he has asked us to keep them from succeeding."
"I will send a hawk. I assume you have proof of this?"
Seth held out the paper with the message to the curator, with didn't mention how he would die. If he lived this time around, it would be by the grace of Allah.
He read the note, and his face paled. Ten minutes later Seth was with Bakura at the hotel that the group would be staying at later. They had to wait until it was time to join Evelyn's group after all.