Author's Note: Thanks to my lovely beta, blucrayons. love ya girlie!

Chapter 69: Infiltration

"Everyone remember the plan?" Piper asked standing outside the entrance to the temple devoted to the god Seth. Irisi, Mike, Micky, Peter and Davy all nodded as they stepped outside the caravan they'd travelled in. Piper had told Micky and the others she knew every corner of the temple; Isis had shown her in the vision she'd had in the pool. She knew where all the guards were so she would be ready to freeze them when they came upon them. They could easily just slip past and get to the stone. Mike and Irisi would follow her directions and find Isis, escape with her, and wait outside by the caravan.

"Got it," Mike nodded.

"And what happens if we run into trouble?" Davy asked.

"We won't," Piper said. "I know where all the guards are."

"What about Seth?" Irisi asked.

"According to my vision, he's not here," Piper answered.

"Well, maybe we should have a contingency plan," Micky said. "Just in case."

"Fine," Piper said. "Contingency plan: fight like hell to get Isis and the stone. Meet here in half an hour. If we're not all back by then, come in fighting."

"Right," the four of them said together.

"But I doubt it'll come to that," Piper said. "I have faith we'll be fine."

"Ok, so what are we waiting for?" Davy asked. "Let's go!" They all carefully crept into the entrance to the temple, looking around for guards they didn't expect. They hadn't reached any by the time they had to separate.

"You go down that hallway," Piper told Mike and Irisi quietly. "You shouldn't run into too many guards, but you can easily distract them with those marbles." Mike patted his pocket reaffirming he had them before they each separated. Piper's plan had been for them to throw a marble down the hallway if the two of them came across any guards. The guards would go investigate the noise and Mike and Irisi could slip past them.

"How far do we have to go?" Peter asked.

"Not too far," Piper answered as they continued the other way. They walked down a long hallway with beautiful hieroglyphics on the walls and it was hard for Micky not to stop and admire them. In the present, most of these were gone or degraded. This was a once in a lifetime chance to see them in their prime. But he had to force himself to focus on the task at hand. When they reached the first intersection, Piper motioned for them to stop before she flicked her wrist around the corner to freeze the guards. Then they carefully made their way past the frozen guards; completely unseen. Everything was going perfectly until they reached the end of a hallway. There were no guards here, but the giant stone doors were open allowing them to see inside.

"I thought you said no one would be here," Davy said as they approached cautiously.

"There isn't supposed to be," Piper answered. Micky couldn't see who the people were since there was no light in the room, save for a few torches. They each huddled along the sides of the door and peeked in to watch. They heard a low mumble: two people speaking in hushed tones. Micky thought the outline of one of them looked vaguely familiar.

"Please tell me that's not who I think it is," Micky whispered.

"Contingency plan," Piper said. "We fight like hell."

"With what?" Davy asked. "We don't have any weapons."

"Uh, guys?" Peter said staring open-mouthed into the room. "What are they doing?" Micky turned and looked inside again. There was a stone sitting on a pedestal and the two men were standing on either side of it. The stone started glowing as one of the men poured something over it.

"I really don't know," Piper said. "But it cannot be good. I didn't see any of this in my vision."

"Which must mean the Devil is interfering," Micky said. "We have to stop him. We fight with our fists and Piper's power."

"Hold it, Micky," Piper said stopping him before he could charge in there. "That's more than likely Seth. I can't fight a God."

"That's why you have us," Micky said.

"You can't fight a God," Piper answered.

"Well, we can't let this continue," Micky said as the man he assumed to be Seth moved to grab a knife. "Who knows what he's doing."

"He's got a knife," Peter said hopefully. "Maybe he'll kill him?"

"I doubt that," Piper said. "It's probably a ritual that requires bloodletting. Besides, we can't let him die. We don't know if the rules have changed. As much as I hate to admit this, we have no choice but to run in fighting. Get the Devil away from the stone, break it and then we get the hell out of here." She let go of Micky and the two of them charged the room first. Piper flicked her wrist and froze the room just as Seth sliced a deep cut into the Devil's hand over the stone. The Devil was the only one who froze, however.

"What's this?" Seth turned to them with a smile. "Another priestess of Isis come to save her. When will you silly women learn that your tiny little gifts are no match for me?"

"He didn't freeze?" Davy asked behind them. "Why didn't he freeze?"

"Cause he's a God!" Piper answered attempting another means of fight; she waved her arm and sent a stone bench hurtling through the air towards Seth and the Devil. Micky narrowly ducked under it and tackled the Devil to the ground. Unfortunately, Seth also avoided being hit by causing the stone bench to shatter. Pieces of rock rained down on the room. The stone sat untouched on its pedestal feet from Micky.

The Devil unfroze as he hit the ground, but his head bounced with the force of the tackle dazing him. Micky finished the job and punched him in the face, mustering all his hatred and anger for the man. This time as Micky's fist made contact, he felt a crack beneath his hand and blood immediately spewed from the Devil's nose. The Devil roared in pain beneath Micky gripping his nose. Micky wanted to punch him again, but thought better of it. He needed to get the stone.

He jumped up quickly to see Piper was now trying to hurtle tables and chairs at Seth. Davy and Peter had rushed over to the stone and Peter lifted a piece of the broken stone bench over it. Seth didn't seem to be paying much attention to them, but Micky wasn't quite sure if that was because he didn't think they could break it or if he was too distracted by Piper's onslaught. Peter brought the rock down on the stone, but nothing happened; the stone remained intact.

Piper had run out of big objects to throw at him with her power, and Micky could tell she was starting to wear down. She was throwing clumps of debris at him now, but that wasn't really working any better. Davy and Peter tried to break the stone against the ground, but that wasn't working either. Micky's mind raced as he tried to think of something to do. That's when he saw the glint of the knife Seth had used against the Devil tucked into a makeshift leather sheath around his waist. This gave Micky an idea.

Micky grabbed a broken piece of wood on the ground and ran toward Seth intending to try and knock him down and grab the knife. Seth saw him coming, however, and ducked under Micky's swing causing Micky to tumble to the ground from his own weight. The double attack worked a little different than Micky expected. Seth lost his focus on fending off Piper's blows, so the two of them were pummelled with debris from the stone bench. It finally managed to knock Seth off his feet and Micky took the opportunity to grab the knife from the sheath. He jumped up and ran toward Davy and Peter who were still trying to break the stone, but felt himself get yanked backward by an invisible hand.

"Davy!" Micky yelled throwing the knife through the air as time seemed to slow down for him. He admitted it might be a bad idea, but he somehow thought this knife was magical since it had been used in the ritual. It might have the power to pierce and break the stone and he had to get Davy and Peter to try. Davy turned back toward Micky as the knife flew through the air. Micky prayed that even if Davy didn't catch it, he'd still not be hurt by it. He landed in a heap at Seth's feet just as Davy managed to catch the blade miraculously by the hilt.

"No!" Seth roared in anger. He'd apparently hoped that just stopping Micky from getting to the stone, Micky wouldn't be able to attack it. He hadn't apparently planned on Davy being able to catch it. Piper kept Seth distracted by throwing more debris at him allowing Davy to stab the stone. It glowed bright and split apart before shattering into a thousand tiny pieces.

"You did it!" Peter cheered rushing over to try and help Davy. Seth was now furious however and as he roared in anger, his entire body morphed and grew. He nearly doubled in size and his face contorted into that of a jackal, but with a more curved nose. Micky tried to get up and run away out of fear, but the entire room shook and rumbled. Apparently, Seth had been holding back and was now unleashing his full power.

"Run!" Piper exclaimed running towards Micky who was having a hard time getting up. Davy and Peter were already standing and ran towards the entrance, though it was hard because the floor was shaking beneath them. They paused in the doorway looking back at Micky and Piper trying to get off the floor.

"Micky!" Peter and Davy cried, but it was no use. Micky couldn't get up with the ground shaking as much as it was. Piper tried pulling him up, but within a flash, Seth roared in anger and a bright white light blinded Micky. He felt like it was only a few seconds, but when he could finally see again, the room was in shambles around him. He could barely move and was buried under a pile of debris, but a table on top of him had saved him from being crushed. His legs and arm hurt and his ears were ringing but he faintly heard someone calling his voice.

"Micky!" Mike yelled. "Micky, where are you?!"

"Here!" Micky yelled back. "I'm here!" Within a second, he heard people clamoring over debris to get to him.

"Are you ok, Mate?" Davy asked as Micky heard them start moving stones and rocks from around him.

"Fine," Micky said. "I think. Just a little sore."

"We're getting you out of here," Peter said.

"Where's Piper?" Micky asked knowing she'd been right next to him and now she wasn't.

"We're almost there," Mike said not answering his question. After only a few seconds, Micky could finally see them. Most the debris had been cleared off him and he realized that the entire temple had collapsed on top of him. He felt lucky not to have been crushed. But now he was worried about Piper. He saw Peter, Davy and Mike hovering over him taking the rest of the debris off him, including a large stone that was pinning his leg down. Even Irisi and another woman in the distance that he assumed to be Isis. But no Piper.

"Where is she, Mike," Micky demanded as Mike and Peter pulled him up carefully.

"We can't find her," Mike admitted. "We've been calling for both of you for several minutes. We had no trouble finding Isis, but then the whole place came down on both of you. Isis fought off Seth, but then we couldn't find either of you."

"No," Micky breathed.

"She's over there," Isis said suddenly pointing at a large pile of rocks on the other side of the room. "She's unconscious."

"Stay here," Mike said allowing Micky to sit on the ground. Micky tried to get up to help them, but his leg hurt too much. He couldn't move it at all. He could only watch as his friends moved the rocks aside, but it didn't take them very long to reach Piper. Micky nearly lost it when they pulled her limp form from under the rubble. Her face was covered with blood and her whole body looked broken.

"Set her down," Isis ordered and Mike, Peter and Davy complied putting her at Micky's feet. He slid next to her to at least hold her, tears pouring out of his eyes.

"Is she alive?" Micky asked. It was hard to get the words out, but he couldn't see her chest moving.

"Barely," Isis answered kneeling next to them.

"Can you help her?" Micky pled. "Please don't let her die. She could have escaped, but she didn't. She was trying to save me. You can't let her die because she tried to save me." Micky was more broken now than he had been under the pile of debris. The Devil's words echoed through Micky's mind. He'd told Piper that Micky would only hold her back. That she'd end up getting hurt or killed because of him. And now it was coming true. She'd run for him to save him instead of running away.

"Yes," Isis answered and held her hand out over Piper and closed her eyes.

"We both wanted to run back for you, too," Davy said wrapping his arms around Micky. "But by the time we realized you couldn't get up it was too late. We wanted to, we really did. But the building had already started collapsing."

"I'm glad you didn't," Micky said, "because if you had run back for me, you'd be under that, too. I don't think I could deal with that."

"Did either of you see what happened to the Devil?" Mike asked Peter and Davy.

"He took off," Davy said. "During the fight. Before we broke the stone. He was long gone, but Micky broke his nose."

"The Devil?" Irisi asked.

"Another man from our time," Mike answered. "A demon, like Seth, but not as powerful. I doubt the Devil can cause this much damage."

"Why isn't this working?" Micky asked Isis. "You said you could help her."

"It may take some time," Isis answered.

"May?" Micky repeated. A lump formed in the back of his throat that cut off any other words. That word suggested that Isis may not be able to save Piper. That Piper may die in Micky's arms because she'd come back to save him. And if she died because of that, Micky wasn't sure he could live with that. He leaned down and kissed her forehead, not caring her face was covered in blood. He just wanted her to at least know that he loved her. Especially if she wasn't going to pull out of this.