Sorry, switched from night shift to day shift and it's been an adjustment. Also, I've been working on the original. It's becoming some kind of Netflix's "Sandman" meets Game of Thrones brutality/violence and it's not even a little bit like FSO besides Ra being imprisoned.
Some more past/present fluctuation here.
-41-
Anubis
The Present
"... just saying. You have no idea. Father was a hardass. That's why I made him reabsorb just after Horus dragged you off to South America."
Mune's face was priceless. Jaw slack, eyes wide. Ah, the feeling of stunning someone speechless. He shrugged, loving the one on one time with his sister and enjoying being able to actually speak to her again. He abruptly dropped her hand so he could wrap an arm around her shoulders as they walked. Mune's arm automatically snaked around his waist and he smiled.
"Well… part of the reason." He continued. "The real reason was because he told me I wasn't allowed to help you when Apophis tried to invade Ra's space in your soul. Osiris told me no. I told him yes. A fight ensued. Isis got involved. It was a whole thing." He waved his free hand as if batting this away, as if forcing Osiris to reabsorb was inconsequential. And to him, it was. "I won, obviously."
"How the hell did you overpower Osiris in his own realm?" Mune asked, still shocked. Anubis laughed, pulling her hair lightly.
"Oh you and I are much stronger than Osiris. I learned a lot of family secrets in my first century in the underworld. One of which being that Nephthys wasn't our mother."
"I'm sorry, what?" Mune stopped moving and Bis hadn't, so he lurched forward and was pulled back with a grunt.
Bis rolled his eyes and urged her along, she went but not without a glare in his direction. That was fine. She could glare all she wanted, as long as she wasn't actually upset with him.
"Evidently, father was promiscuous. Which makes sense. Isis. Nephthys. He got around. Our mother, however, doesn't actually procreate. We were… manifested. She took some parts of Osiris' portion of the consciousness to make us, because she'd taken a fancy to him I guess. I've never spoken to her. It's difficult to communicate with anyone in the underworld. A primordial? Forget it."
"...Amaunet?" Mune asked softly after a brief pause.
"Or as the Greeks call her, Nyx." He nodded as they turned down another suburban street. "Had the four of Egypt not gotten involved and scooped us into their Pantheon we would've been known as Aether and Hemera, instead of Anubis and Amunet. We're supposed to have completely different jobs. Unfortunately, things got shaky when Nephthys decided to take us in. Not that I mind having dominion over the soul."
"So what you're saying is…"
"We were never mortal, and when we reach full potential, we will be primordials." Bis said, guiding them down another street.
The Ancient Past
Apophis was upon them.
The sky rained fire. All was ash, the empire crumbling into rubble and clouds of dust.
The five mortal children of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys held the line of soldiers, but none moved. The screams and the smell of burnt flesh were all they could comprehend as the magnitude of the destruction rendered them immobile.
All was lost. Hopelessness and sorrow burdened their hearts. Anubis weaved his arms around a trembling Amunet, both unable to look away as Apophis shattered the world around them.
There was nothing they could do. They'd staved off the majority of Apophis' demonic horde, only to have the destroyer himself enter the battle and make everything they'd accomplished obsolete. That fleeting moment of victory crushed under the sheer devastation that was laid out before them now.
How does a mortal fight the God meant to destroy all creation?
They can't.
Their weakness had never before been laid out so starkly before them.
The four had sheltered their children.
Apophis flew above them, sending thousands of little fireballs to the earth below, explosions rocked the desert and the Egyptians couldn't even flee to escape. The enormous serpent swung around, the beat of his wings and the sound of his cries rocked Anubis to his core and he clung tightly to Amunet as their inevitable death descended upon them.
And then Set was there, raising some kind of shield that encircled Apophis, encasing him in blue light and ancient runes unlike anything Anubis had ever seen.
The Present
"But wait, there's more!" Bis grinned, steering them to where he knew Kai to be hiding out, pretending not to know anyone had entered his prison. Mune gave him a flat look and he kept smiling, ignoring it completely and shaking the arm he had around her shoulders. "I'm kidding, that's it for now."
Mune groaned as he ushered her into the grocery store. "You're taking it better than expected," he observed with a critical eye, checking to ensure she wasn't ready to have some kind of mental breakdown.
"Nephthys was never as nurturing with us as she was with the other two. In fact she wasn't really around. She abandoned us at five, if you recall, to help Emeric. She seemed to love him more. Then the twins came and she ignored us completely. I guess it doesn't really matter. She's been gone as long as we've been immortal," Mune shrugged, "as for the whole 'primordial' bit, I don't really care. So long as I can remain here on Earth then it won't bother me."
Anubis nodded, accepting this. He felt the same way about Nephthys, and so long as he could be with Mune he didn't particularly care about a change in title and status. If Mune wanted to stay on Earth, he would ensure it would be so.
"Okay, good. Just making sure we're on the same page–" they turned past the registers to see a whole camping section laid out before them, "- hello there Kai Parker. Fancy meeting a soul like you in a place like this."
Kai sat in a camp chair, legs up on a cooler shifting through some old outdated magazine. His brows lifted as the twins came to a stop in front of him.
Bis had watched Kai grow up from the moment he was born. He actually liked the guy, too. Totally fair that he wanted to kill his family for treating him like a monster without trying to get to know him or understand him. Bis wanted to kill his whole family, except Mune, too. But that would upset Mune, at least right now while she doesn't know the full truth of what they'd done forty five hundred years ago, so he wouldn't.
Not until she gave the okay.
"Welcome to prison, food restocks itself, rent is due never." Kai quipped, flipping his magazine shut and throwing it over his shoulder, Bis watched it crash against the display windows as Kai dropped his feet and sat up. "I never thought I'd have roommates." He sucked his teeth and played at a bashful smile. Fluttery eyelashes and everything. Bis appreciated it. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to act. You're both really good looking."
"I've had roommates. Not worth the hassle." Bis said, releasing Mune and taking a few steps closer to Kai, leaning down to eye level and letting the soul bond lock into place. It tickled. Kai's shocked look was worth the fanfare, he decided. "I'm Jack Alexander, this is my twin sister Isolde. It's good to meet you, dear. My sweet sister," he gestured to where Mune was smirking behind him, "is going to spring you, and you're going to watch over her and help her out for me so I know she's safe with someone I can trust until she can put my soul back in my own body."
"Someone you can trust? You don't trust the Mikaelsons?" Mune interjected before Kai could speak.
Bis swiveled his head, smacking his hands on his thighs and raising back to full height, holding a hand out to help Kai to his feet. He took it. Bis grinned at him.
"Usually I would. But they're in the middle of a stroll down memory lane and I'm not so sure they'll be rational by the end of their walk. Well, I'm not so sure which ones will be rational. Money's on Finn, of course. The other three… couldn't say."
"Hey, uh, hi- I feel like I'm coming in at the back end of some kind of epic saga." Kai mentioned stepping around the Bis and Mune to look at them both. "But you're acting like I've been here the whole time? Just to clarify, I have no idea what's going on besides Jack being my soul bond."
"How good are you at rolling with life's punches, Kai?" Mune asked with that soft, kind smile that had drawn people to her over the many centuries.
"Higher than average?"
Mune clapped once. "Great. Things change fast in our lives," she shoved her hand out for Kai to take, "I'm so glad to meet you, Kai Parker."
Kai's stunned face softened Bis' heart for a moment, watching him slide his hand into Mune's hesitantly, his eyes shuddered and distrustful but hopeful all the same. It was the same look that crossed countless numbers of broken people who'd come to her, begging for some kind of solace in a cruel world.
Amunet had always been a beacon of hope to the lost. He watched Mune take the hand she now held in hers and wrench Kai in close, dropping his hand so she could hug him tightly. "I'm thrilled to welcome a new brother to the family. Oh gods, I love you already."
Kai's face switched between many emotions quickly, his body stiff and eyes wide as saucers.
People had been afraid to touch him his whole life. Now here was Mune, embracing him and holding on tight even though he was siphoning magic off her in droves.
It was unsurprising to Bis when he saw, after a solid forty five seconds, Kai's body sag like all the anxiety and years of pent up rage and aggression just fell right out of him.
"I wish I had a camera." Bis said with a great big smile as Mune laughed and released a reluctant Kai. "That was a Kodak moment."
The Ancient Past
"Now boys please don't be upset. My memories are serving a purpose…" Abubis' voice rang out in the vast emptiness of the void. Mikaelson's heads swiveled to him but before they could speak, he threw them into further chaos – his own thoughts as a sequence of vivid images flashed the events leading up to Amunet's imprisonment like a bad B level horror film. "… hear me. See what I have seen."
Trading places with his sister so she could stay in Egypt and he would descend to the underworld was nothing to Anubis. All he really cared about was Mune's happiness and she wasn't going to be alright alone in the under with only father and Isis for company.
And the dead, of course, but for someone as vibrant as Mune, being surrounded by the dead might as well have been a death sentence in and of itself.
Anubis was okay with being alone. He missed Mune but he was happy by himself, too. He learned to use the ripples in the void to spy on his family and it hadn't taken long to realize that he probably should've let himself remain ignorant.
But that wasn't in his nature. Knowledge was power, and he would one day return to the surface. Ignorance would not serve him then.
Still, the stomach churning horror of what he was seeing now had him plotting a way to return to the surface world to destroy a god.
Thoth's betrayal would cut Amunet deep when she learned of it. Anubis watched on as Thoth arranged for Mune's first born son, Harim, to be killed in the streets of lower Egypt.
All because Harim, like his father, wanted to free the Hebrew from slavery. All because he was steady keeping Amunet's attention on the slave trade and she was on Horus about not allowing slavery in Egypt any longer.
Thoth saw that allowing all slaves their freedom meant an economic crippling would become inevitable. Thoth wanted what was best for Egypt. His rationale was that, since Moses had already left with most of the slaves, that should've been enough.
But Harim wanted paid labor, and better living conditions for those who'd chosen to remain in Egypt. He wanted them to receive natural citizenship and the same treatment as any other Egyptian– and access to the judicial, education, and other systems that they were currently unallowed to utilize.
They wanted citizenship and freedom and fair compensation for their work, and they expected that having stayed in Egypt and been loyal to Pharaoh, they should've earned at least that much.
But to Thoth and most of the nobility, this was a tall order. One he would not fulfill, even though 'Rameses' (as Horus was calling himself at the moment) was softening toward the idea with Amunet's constant lobbying in favor of it. To Thoth, granting slaves citizenship and wages wasn't in Egypts 'best interests' especially after having allowed the Exodus already. 'Any slave who had wanted to leave should've done so at that time.' Thoth had said this to his assassins.
In short, Harim was getting in the way. And despite him being Thoth's nephew– Thoth wanted him gone. He'd pick up the pieces of his sister in the aftermath. She had other children. People lose their kids every day to disease or the heat or a crocodile. It wasn't as though she'd be the first to lose a child. She'd get through it.
All things Thoth had told Ma'at when he told her of his plan.
And she'd gone along with it. Ma'at the goddess who stood as the pinnacle of justice. Who knew what lies and deceit could do. Still, she silently went along with Thoth's plan.
Anubis watched as his hatred for the twins and his lifelong suspicion of them became utterly warranted as they stood back, hidden in the palace while Amunet rampaged over all of Egypt.
Blood splattered everywhere as Amunet called upon the full force of the darkness she could wield. The one and only time she'd ever tapped into that primordial dark energy– the only time Nyx had allowed it.
And Anubis watched as Horus threw her into the tomb– thousands of kilometers away from home, across the sea, on an undiscovered continent. Watched Amunet beg and plead.
Please don't leave me here alone, Horus. Don't leave me.
Watched as Horus slammed and sealed the tomb with magic Anubis didn't know Horus could wield.
Then he watched Horus return to Egypt. His first act upon his return was to banish Amunet's remaining children to the desert. Sripped of titles, clothes, shoes, everything.
One by one they died, all within weeks of their banishment.
Azdia, the second born, was bitten by a scorpion protecting the younger ones. Anubis welcomed her into his home, under his protection, her reunion with Harim was gut wrenching, even to Anubis who didn't particularly care about anyone but their mother. His niece and nephew joined him in watching the rest of their siblings die, awaiting their arrivals.
The youngest was next. Ishmael. Just four years old. He died whimpering for Amunet, curled in on himself and clutching his parched throat in agony. He took his place with his eldest siblings, and hugged Anubis like he'd always known his uncle.
Tamar, Vashti, and Phut were the last alive and they were murdered by a band of vagabonds. Anubis didn't like getting into the details of what was done to Vashti before she died. It was horrific and he waited patiently for the day those men died, too. When they did, they never saw a peaceful afterlife.
Amunet was told, fifteen hundred years later, that her children had all died of old age. Even Samael had lied to her, to spare her the pain of the truth.
When she learned the truth, real justice would be doled out. The likes of which Ma'at couldn't begin to fathom.
"... and now you know what I know…" Anubis released his hold on the Mikaelsons. ".. yet there is one last memory to share."
Present Day
"... and now you're caught up." Anubis spread his arms wide with a grin. "Welcome to the shit show."
Kai's laughter bubbled out of him and he took a step forward, gesturing with his hand. "You two are gods, your siblings are gods, there's a war that just got started. Your whole family has now found soul bonds and the god of chaos has been hanging around which is a key indicator that the world destroyer will be coming soon… and you're currently inside of your sister's body to protect her from being overtaken by said world destroyer." He trailed off, his mouth forming a grin that stretched his whole face and lit his eyes, "... This is the best thing that's ever happened to me."
Mune poked her head over his shoulder, having been browsing the isle for a snack while Anubis was explaining everything that was going on to Kai. "I like your attitude, Kai Parker."
"Twins work differently in my family," Kai turned to meet Mune's eyes, "you two… don't seem to care about merging for power. Yet you," he looked to Anubis, "merged a part of yourself inside your sister to protect her."
"I don't want his power–" Mune began, the same time Bis said; "-I don't want her power."
"I love my brother, more than anyone could begin to understand," Mune said, her voice taking on a serious tone as she spoke directly to Kai, "if he needed my power I would give it to him without hesitation."
"It just so happened that she was the one in need of mine," Anubis stepped around to be close with both of them, hands clasped behind his back, "and I love her more than words could express. I'd make the world decay and fall to ruin if it would give Isolde a second longer to live."
"Let's not be too hasty, a city. Perhaps a country, even. Not the entire world."
Anubis turned to Kai and mouthed 'the world' with a nod and a smirk. Kai smirked back. "So to move forward, Kai, because I am running out of time to hold this form. I am keenly aware that you want the Gemini coven destroyed."
"It's the first thing I'll do when I get out of here."
"I must ask you to wait."
Kai gave a pinched frown.
"For me," Bis elaborated, "wait for me. I wish to aid you."
"How long is that going to take?" Kai asked, folding his arms over his chest.
"Oh not long," Mune responded, lowering herself delicately into Kai's vacated camp chair, looking regal regardless, "now that I know the being inside of me is Bis I'll be heading to where I stashed his body within a few days of leaving this… charming prison."
"And then there's a couple battles that need to be fought, a couple weeks at most. So about a month, maybe two, and I'll be able to devote my time to helping you avenge yourself upon your family." Anubis added, leaning back against the nearest grocery checkout.
1001 AD
The Underworld
Anubis sat upon a throne of rolling dark aether. His crown of bones perfectly arranged upon his head, a stave made from the spine of Osiris casually held beside him. He cut a terrifying image, he knew.
He would have it no other way as he stared down at the souls of the five Mikaelsons whose mother thought to cheat death and create the first non-deity immortals.
"Are you death?" The youngest male, Kol, asked him in a shaky voice with a straight spine. Bold enough to speak first but terrified of the answer.
"I am more than death." Anubis answered slowly, eyeing the men he'd chosen for his sister and the woman who was born as a match for Thoth. "I am judgment, and life after death. I am, as your culture would say, Hel. This…" he gestured all around them, "would be Niflheim. I welcome you to the Underworld."
"Father killed us," Rebekah's eyes filled with tears and she stared across all her brothers, "Mother's spell failed."
"Yes. And No." Anubis called their attention back to him. "Your mother's spell succeeded. I am keeping your souls from returning."
"For what purpose?" Niklaus asked, his eyes wide and his body shaking like a leaf, arm wrapped tightly around Rebekah's back, his opposite hand gripping Elijah's sleeve. His way of trying to protect his closest siblings in an unsure situation.
Anubis was silent for a moment, watching them. He'd decided a decade ago he liked them all. That all their suffering would make them strong, and capable. Now he was faced with solidifying the bonds that he'd considered for his sister.
But Amunet would be furious if he robbed them of their intended soul bonds without first asking for their thoughts on the matter. So a choice, he would give them.
"You will live for a thousand years," he paused while they digested that, "and it will be an existence filled with strife, chaos, fear, hatred, and bloodshed."
Finn looked the most bothered by this. The rest weren't unbothered, however, and they all shifted, looking between each other.
"At the end of it, only two of you five will survive."
"Why tell us of this?" Finn asked, his arms raising to cross over his chest.
Anubis looked over the man who was his sister's true soul bond. He'd liked Finn since day one, liked him quite a bit less after Freya was taken and he'd clung to his mother's skirts like a leech. But Anubis knew Finn's potential, so he did his best not to judge him too harshly on his behaviors whilst a solemn, traumatized child.
"I offer a choice. The same life but a different ending. A happier one. Where fear and strife become a distant memory. Where chaos calms, and hatred burns away. Where bloodshed is less necessary."
"What must change to make such a thing possible?" Elijah asked, ever the one to ask the right questions; the practical ones. "What are we giving up, to gain a brighter future?"
With an approving smile, Anubis showed them.
He showed Finn his multiple deaths. His dissatisfaction with his relationships, both with Sage and with his family. He showed Finn how his mother manipulated him and used him.
And then he showed Finn Amunet. Her kind acceptance of him. How she would comfort him after his mother's death one day. How he would feel when he bent the knee and swore fealty to a woman he couldn't believe had come into his life. The happiness he feels when she smiles at him.
He showed Elijah all the lovers he'd kill, and the mental anguish he'd suffer in realizing he'd done so.
And then he showed Elijah Amunet. The way she would help him in protecting his family. The way she let him take control when he needed it. Showed Elijah that there was nothing he could do that would kill Amunet, that she was more durable than anyone. That she didn't need fixing but she would accept his aid. That she would be there for him whenever he needed her, and that she needed him, too.
He showed Niklaus that the only real bond he developed was a daughter who suffered immensely when he died. Who carried on with a weight on her shoulders. Who was better than him in every way, and yet she cried each night after losing both of her parents in such a short amount of time.
And then he showed Niklaus Amunet, the understanding and the love that would grow between them, and the children they'd have together. All free of suffering. All better than him. And he thrived with a family that loved him so completely that Klaus was often overcome with the headiness of the feelings that lightened his chest.
He showed Kol the beautiful love he'd have– and the death and tragedy they had to fight through to make it to the happiness at the end of it all. And then he showed Kol how the vampire suffered when Davina, inevitably, died a final death at the age of two hundred and seven. She'd successfully extended her life, but she was not immortal. And Kol spent the next century searching for any morsel of white oak remaining to follow her in death.
And then he showed Kol Amunet, and that the day they first slept together was the day she had intended to kill herself. That his presence in her life lit her face like the sun for the first time in millenia, and that Kol, too, was happier in her company. That he would know real acceptance, and he wouldn't be made to feel inadequate or lesser than his brothers. That she would love him, and he her, just as strongly as he'd loved and been loved by Davina.
He showed Rebekah Marcel, and all the strife and fighting they'd done before they could be together. He showed her her own descent into madness with all her brothers dead. He showed her how her own niece and husband were eventually forced to destroy her after she'd exposed the vampire race to the world by slaughtering an entire city on live television.
And then he showed her Thoth, and the strife of her life continued. But she had found a deeper, more meaningful love with him than she had with Marcel. And that the suffering that comes is far less in comparison to that which she'd endure should she chose to not meet Thoth.
"What say you?" Anubis demanded softly when they all came out of what was yet to be.
"To one I am a harbinger of death and suffering," Kol was frowning deeply, and he ran his hand over his face, "to the other, I am… hope. Knowing this… I would choose the new path."
And so Kol was the first to choose Amunet. This warmed Anubis to him even more and he smiled at the youngest Mikaelson brother.
Niklaus was eying Kol critically when he spoke. "I too would choose the new path, to be a better father to my own than Mikael was to us."
"I need no convincing. I shall take the better path. I'll suffer for however much I must so long as I get to her by the end." Finn stated boldly, shoulders back and head up like he was marching into battle for the hand of his Queen.
Anubis supposed that was exactly what Finn was doing.
"And I, too, would accept this new path. A brighter future for us all." Elijah said with a tone of finality.
Anubis nodded once, and glanced over to Rebekah.
"And what say you?"
The youngest floundered with a pinched frown, looking at her feet for a moment. Her brothers all stared at her in confusion until she took a deep breath and looked up at Anubis with steady determination in her gaze.
"I choose the path that ensures my family lives."
Anubis smiled. "So it shall be."
Theon/Vera's betrayal… Emeric's punishment and the banishment of Isoldes children.. Yikes. All the big twists are out. Now we deal with the fall out. (And just to clear it up, Isolde doesn't know. The Mikaelson boys do.)