Fixing Up Horus - [with Anubis' help]
Somehow, it always seemed to come down to this. Set, the god of the desert, of chaos and destruction, he of great strength, the adversary of Heru and Osiris, always ended up just making things work. Wasn't it he who fought the serpent Apep to protect Ra? Was it not he who strove to preserve the power of the Egyptians when it seemed that of all the gods were waning? Nevermind that it hadn't precisely worked as he had planned, no one else had been moving to do anything about it!
And now, when Heru was broken, it was yet again up to Set to right things. He really should just let the bird-bastard remain as he was but...
...well, he had his reasons for not wanting things to be that way. So here he is, waiting for Anubis who insisted on tagging along. On watching. It remained to be seen whether Anubis planned on actually helping. Either way, it was, or should be, a simple task. Call on Horus, have Anubis keep his attention, and go fetch the body that once held Heru. Kill the body and encourage what remained of Heru within it to go and join the rest of Heru, the god.
He was going to regret this, he just knew it.
Well, that was what Anubis did, wasn't it? He watched. He took part if he had to but, mostly, he escorted and watched. There was probably a joke to be made here about escort services, but without Star or Ishtar there Anubis couldn't be bothered to formulate it.
Anubis was there also to make sure Set didn't do anything unexpected or untoward, or otherwise to screw things up. Not that he expected Set would on purpose... well, maybe he did a little. Set and Heru got along like sodium and water. Two very unmixy things. It wouldn't surprise him if Set had something in mind to make sure Heru didn't bother him again. It also wouldn't surprise him if Set intended to do exactly what he said he would for the sake simply of having more of them around. But Anubis was cautious. Set had been batshit crazy up until pretty recently, after all.
Okay, Anubis was paranoid. After the events of the past lifetime he figured he had a right to be.
Set nodded to Anubis. The jackal had always usually been punctual. Probably a death thing. "You call Horus here. After I go." So the bird won't expect anything. Not from Anubis, not like he might from Seteh.
Prudent of him, but perhaps not prudent enough.
Anubis arched Paul's eyebrows at Set. He was in an abrupt and demanding commanding mood tonight. Or maybe he was just way too sensitive to Set's personality shifts, after the last couple of times. Probably a bit of both.
"As you wish," Paul muttered, with perhaps a bit of a hidden grin. Not that he expected Set to get it.
He wondered if Heru would respond to purely a mental call. The power he didn't so much question as the focus. My king, my old friend, are you there?
Heru wasn't doing much aside from reading. He was re-educating himself on the ins and outs of the world. He knew the worlds history, in a way, but there was so much about the world he'd never learned while locked away in one mortal body after another.
But Anubis' call, though, interrupted his studies. Appearing before Paul, he closed the book slowly. //Not the person I expected to call.//
Only one eyebrow arched, this time. //You expected...// He resisted the urge to quote a Saturday Night Live sketch on the basis that Heru probably wouldn't get it. //Set, I presume?//
He didn't know who he had expected, really. Anubis had not seemed all that thrilled the last time they had spoken, though, and left the impression that he'd rather Heru was not too involved in his life.
//Perhaps,// he shrugged, //What was it you wanted, then?//
//Just to talk.// It was never just to talk, of course. But Anubis hadn't much of an idea what Set intended, at least in terms of specific action. And he did have some questions for Heru. //You and Set seem to have the monopoly on information these days, or at least, the relevant information to our situation.//
//We have never sat to 'just talk', Anubis.// Heru almost seemed annoyed by the idea, too. But the rest of what Anubis said, well that made some sort of sense. Anubis wanting information was less suspicious than 'just talking'. //What is it that you want to know that Set wouldn't tell you. You always seemed to prefer asking Set, than me.//
//What is going on, for starters. He seems to have become impatient with me,// there may have been just a tad bit of testiness in that. //Or simply decided again that I was too... something. For his tastes. One day he was possessing the body of one of Ishtar's people...//
Marek, from what he'd heard of the boy second and third hand, would still have choked on that.
//And the next he was very near to his old self again. Is this a sign that we should expect company? Is this some secret knowledge to the two of you, or our family?//
Before Horus could respond, Set did them the dubious favor of returning, poofing back into existence nearby with an unconscious Akana in his arms, a cut IV cord and various other wires still dangling from her body.
Set smiled at them both, a predator's smile, and before either had time to react beyond turning to look at him, he killed the body he carried, twisting her neck in such a way that muscles tore, her spine snapped, and her windpipe was crushed before dropping the broken body to the ground like a discarded toy, her head lying at a completely unnatural angle. A feat that would have been nigh-impossible for a human, he'd done with less effort than it took to break an egg.
Now, he turned his gaze on Heru, watching avidly for signs of what would occur next. Would his brother-nephew be restored? Or would he be ruined?
It was an interesting experiment.
//What are you talking about...// Heru started, giving Anubis a rather befuddled expression when suddenly he felt a familiar and haunting presence come into the picture. Felt the snap of Akana's neck as if it were his own, eyes rolling back even as the woman's soul (and the remaining half of himself) erupted from the girl.
Even as he fell back, though, the rest of his essence blasted into him. Knocking him back as it seemed to bore into him phsyically.
Well. That answered that question.
Still, Anubis half-glared at Set irritably as he watched Horus fall back, casting about with that other sense that perceived such things to be sure that neither unwanted attention had been drawn nor that Horus had gotten distracted, detoured, or made off with between the space above his body and his body itself.
//That was hastily done,// he said, which was also half a rebuke.
Anubis' half-rebuke merely elicited a uncaring shrug from Set, //Still, it was done.// Is done. Whichever. And he was still watching Heru, waiting for the other god to recover.
It was even odds whether he'd set in on a fight here and now that the balance was restored.
Heru was rather slow about coming around. Mostly it was because there was a sudden awareness that he was himself, and the rest was because he took the time to think over his most recent actions. The least of which was that he'd freed...Set.
He pushed himself up on one elbow with a frown as he blinked...looking between them both.
Oh hell.
Anubis slipped his hands into Paul's pockets, Peter's number on speed-dial-one. If anything was going to happen he did not want it to get to the police, and he preferred that no one be injured. Peter could call in the others and help with that. Maybe. Then again... given these two, and what they now were, maybe not.
... oh hell, indeed.
Set was beaming, his smile a little too wide, his eyes a little too bright. //Now I may call you brother-nephew.// Now as opposed to before.
He cocked his head at Horus, //Though perhaps not for long if you continue to lie at my feet.// Not that he minded. Not in the least.
His eyes were hard, certainly lacking the soft, childlike look they had before. Standing in a fluid motion, rolling his neck as he licked his lips. //Seti...// He frowned, turning to look at Anubis for a moment, //Anubis...//
//Heru.// Damn. Damn, damn. He was going to have some hard decisions ahead of him now, and he didn't like what they seemed to be. And he didn't like the prospect of trying to keep these two from tearing up the world around them. Really, he didn't like much of any of this. At all. //You seem... whole.//
//That's because he is.// Set sounded almost cheerful as he stepped over Akana's discarded body toward them both. //That was the idea//. One of his ideas, anyway.
//Is that all you have to say, Heru?//
Heru cut a sidelong glance at Anubis, raising a brow more at the question than indicating he cared to answer. Besides, Seti seemed more than willing to answer Anubis' question anyway. No reason for them both to answer.
//Should I say more?// He turned his gaze back to Seti, flexing his fingers as if he were unaccustomed to his body.
Anubis shrugged, still watching. Still waiting, perhaps anticlimactically, for something to happen. He hadn't really asked a question, anyway. Just made an observation.
Set's smile was still there, hardly wavering. Though, perhaps it was a bit smug. Or a lot smug. //A thank you would not go amiss.//
//Thank you,// Heru said without missing a beat. He turned away from them then, rolling his shoulders, licking his lips as he glanced around. Well, this was interesting...if not how he had planned his return to Godhood, but he was here none the less.
//Are you nervous, Anubis?//
Both eyebrows, this time, and a bit of a snort. //Is there some reason I should not be? You two have never exactly been the best of friends, and your fights are legendary.//
'Fights' here used in the same tone and context as 'two five year olds squabbling over a toy.' Anubis was nothing if not quasi-practical and snarktastic.
Set provided a full-on snort. //You worry too much.// And so what if they caused a spot of mayhem, anyway?
// I don't see a reason to worry,// Heru commented, turning to look at Anubis. He really didn't see anything worth fighting Set over. At least...not at the moment.
Hmph. //If you say so.// Of course, some of them were still mortal. Not that Anubis had any intention of bringing that to their attention. At all. Ever. He liked his life. He didn't mean to change it, and he didn't know what they would do if that were made an issue.
//What do you intend to do now?//
Who knew whether that question was directed at Seteh or Horus. Set chose to answer it. //Whatever I damn well feel like.// and punctuated it by disappearing.
He'd catch up with Horus later. Most likely.
Heru watched as Set disappeared, before sighing softly. What now, indeed. //Does it matter what happens now?// He asked, turning his attention to the body of the woman. He had been her for 30 years...it was a strange feeling to look down at her as if she were nothing more than a doll.
//What part did you play in this, or were you just here to watch?//
//To make sure the transfer was performed correctly. Set's specialty is more creating the death than dealing with the processes of the moment of death and after.//
//You didn't trust him not to do something more, you mean.// Heru raised a brow, his good eye focused on Anubis. //Why don't you trust him more?//
//Because he has spent the last several lifetimes becoming increasingly more damaged and erratic.// Paul would have said batshit crazy. //Because I do not know what he is planning or what he would want in this world. Because things are changing far too fast for me to treat them with anything but wariness, at the very least.//
//You've never known his plans, and he always moves recklessly. As I recall, it was part of the reason some of you supported me. At least a little.// Not that Heru was any better. At least when it came to sharing his plans. He could be distant...but then again that was his name. 'The Distant One', how could they expect him not to be?
//He seems better off now. No more or less than he has been in the past. Though, I suppose, the question remains: do you trust me, brother?//
//You are my King.// Anubis said it simply, matter-of-fact. As though that answered the question, and he rather hoped it did. And then again, he thought with a faint inward smile, perhaps he'd been hanging around Peter too long.
Nah.
//That isn't really an answer though, is it?// Heru smiled a bit darkly, tilting his head the other way as he regarded Anubis. //One can be a king and not be trusted...no one should trust their king. Not completely.//
Maybe he hadn't been hanging around Peter for long enough. //I do not know you as you are now, brother. I trust you as my brother, as my King. But I do not know you. It will take time for me to come to trust you as you are.// And hope that his honesty didn't get him killed.
//Did I change, and left unaware?// He raised a brow, his eyes locking onto Anubis'. His pale eye lacked a clear focus, but it bore in all the same... //What is it you wanted to know, then, Anubis?//
//We have all changed.// Anubis sighed. //I want to know what is going on. Why we are here and aware, why you are suddenly returned to your former selves...// or as much of them as they were going to get. Not that he'd say that.
//The reason you are stuck in a human form is simple,// he said softly, shrugging. //We all came to the end of our roads. Perhaps it would have been better to have faded than to be become prisoners of a mortal shell. Someone cast a spell to save us, but like most spells it did not go as planned. Just as I found a spell that reversed it.//
//And now what do you intend to do?//
//To learn what there is to learn about this world...What else is there to do? My Kingdom exists no more, my people are more content to stay as they are than to return to their places.// He shrugged, before laughing softly to himself. //But I have balance now...what is the worst that can happen?//
Anubis actually relaxed a little at that. It seemed a benign enough plan or goal. Perhaps goal was a lofty word. But. //If you require my assistance...// he offered with a tiny smile. Tiny, tired smile. He had no interest in empire building, himself. Far too much effort for no reward whatsoever, and what had he to do with empires? They all came his way sooner or later.
//Then I'll call.// Heru smirked a little, before he disappeared from the scene. There was no need to discuss things further.
And now, when Heru was broken, it was yet again up to Set to right things. He really should just let the bird-bastard remain as he was but...
...well, he had his reasons for not wanting things to be that way. So here he is, waiting for Anubis who insisted on tagging along. On watching. It remained to be seen whether Anubis planned on actually helping. Either way, it was, or should be, a simple task. Call on Horus, have Anubis keep his attention, and go fetch the body that once held Heru. Kill the body and encourage what remained of Heru within it to go and join the rest of Heru, the god.
He was going to regret this, he just knew it.
Well, that was what Anubis did, wasn't it? He watched. He took part if he had to but, mostly, he escorted and watched. There was probably a joke to be made here about escort services, but without Star or Ishtar there Anubis couldn't be bothered to formulate it.
Anubis was there also to make sure Set didn't do anything unexpected or untoward, or otherwise to screw things up. Not that he expected Set would on purpose... well, maybe he did a little. Set and Heru got along like sodium and water. Two very unmixy things. It wouldn't surprise him if Set had something in mind to make sure Heru didn't bother him again. It also wouldn't surprise him if Set intended to do exactly what he said he would for the sake simply of having more of them around. But Anubis was cautious. Set had been batshit crazy up until pretty recently, after all.
Okay, Anubis was paranoid. After the events of the past lifetime he figured he had a right to be.
Set nodded to Anubis. The jackal had always usually been punctual. Probably a death thing. "You call Horus here. After I go." So the bird won't expect anything. Not from Anubis, not like he might from Seteh.
Prudent of him, but perhaps not prudent enough.
Anubis arched Paul's eyebrows at Set. He was in an abrupt and demanding commanding mood tonight. Or maybe he was just way too sensitive to Set's personality shifts, after the last couple of times. Probably a bit of both.
"As you wish," Paul muttered, with perhaps a bit of a hidden grin. Not that he expected Set to get it.
He wondered if Heru would respond to purely a mental call. The power he didn't so much question as the focus. My king, my old friend, are you there?
Heru wasn't doing much aside from reading. He was re-educating himself on the ins and outs of the world. He knew the worlds history, in a way, but there was so much about the world he'd never learned while locked away in one mortal body after another.
But Anubis' call, though, interrupted his studies. Appearing before Paul, he closed the book slowly. //Not the person I expected to call.//
Only one eyebrow arched, this time. //You expected...// He resisted the urge to quote a Saturday Night Live sketch on the basis that Heru probably wouldn't get it. //Set, I presume?//
He didn't know who he had expected, really. Anubis had not seemed all that thrilled the last time they had spoken, though, and left the impression that he'd rather Heru was not too involved in his life.
//Perhaps,// he shrugged, //What was it you wanted, then?//
//Just to talk.// It was never just to talk, of course. But Anubis hadn't much of an idea what Set intended, at least in terms of specific action. And he did have some questions for Heru. //You and Set seem to have the monopoly on information these days, or at least, the relevant information to our situation.//
//We have never sat to 'just talk', Anubis.// Heru almost seemed annoyed by the idea, too. But the rest of what Anubis said, well that made some sort of sense. Anubis wanting information was less suspicious than 'just talking'. //What is it that you want to know that Set wouldn't tell you. You always seemed to prefer asking Set, than me.//
//What is going on, for starters. He seems to have become impatient with me,// there may have been just a tad bit of testiness in that. //Or simply decided again that I was too... something. For his tastes. One day he was possessing the body of one of Ishtar's people...//
Marek, from what he'd heard of the boy second and third hand, would still have choked on that.
//And the next he was very near to his old self again. Is this a sign that we should expect company? Is this some secret knowledge to the two of you, or our family?//
Before Horus could respond, Set did them the dubious favor of returning, poofing back into existence nearby with an unconscious Akana in his arms, a cut IV cord and various other wires still dangling from her body.
Set smiled at them both, a predator's smile, and before either had time to react beyond turning to look at him, he killed the body he carried, twisting her neck in such a way that muscles tore, her spine snapped, and her windpipe was crushed before dropping the broken body to the ground like a discarded toy, her head lying at a completely unnatural angle. A feat that would have been nigh-impossible for a human, he'd done with less effort than it took to break an egg.
Now, he turned his gaze on Heru, watching avidly for signs of what would occur next. Would his brother-nephew be restored? Or would he be ruined?
It was an interesting experiment.
//What are you talking about...// Heru started, giving Anubis a rather befuddled expression when suddenly he felt a familiar and haunting presence come into the picture. Felt the snap of Akana's neck as if it were his own, eyes rolling back even as the woman's soul (and the remaining half of himself) erupted from the girl.
Even as he fell back, though, the rest of his essence blasted into him. Knocking him back as it seemed to bore into him phsyically.
Well. That answered that question.
Still, Anubis half-glared at Set irritably as he watched Horus fall back, casting about with that other sense that perceived such things to be sure that neither unwanted attention had been drawn nor that Horus had gotten distracted, detoured, or made off with between the space above his body and his body itself.
//That was hastily done,// he said, which was also half a rebuke.
Anubis' half-rebuke merely elicited a uncaring shrug from Set, //Still, it was done.// Is done. Whichever. And he was still watching Heru, waiting for the other god to recover.
It was even odds whether he'd set in on a fight here and now that the balance was restored.
Heru was rather slow about coming around. Mostly it was because there was a sudden awareness that he was himself, and the rest was because he took the time to think over his most recent actions. The least of which was that he'd freed...Set.
He pushed himself up on one elbow with a frown as he blinked...looking between them both.
Oh hell.
Anubis slipped his hands into Paul's pockets, Peter's number on speed-dial-one. If anything was going to happen he did not want it to get to the police, and he preferred that no one be injured. Peter could call in the others and help with that. Maybe. Then again... given these two, and what they now were, maybe not.
... oh hell, indeed.
Set was beaming, his smile a little too wide, his eyes a little too bright. //Now I may call you brother-nephew.// Now as opposed to before.
He cocked his head at Horus, //Though perhaps not for long if you continue to lie at my feet.// Not that he minded. Not in the least.
His eyes were hard, certainly lacking the soft, childlike look they had before. Standing in a fluid motion, rolling his neck as he licked his lips. //Seti...// He frowned, turning to look at Anubis for a moment, //Anubis...//
//Heru.// Damn. Damn, damn. He was going to have some hard decisions ahead of him now, and he didn't like what they seemed to be. And he didn't like the prospect of trying to keep these two from tearing up the world around them. Really, he didn't like much of any of this. At all. //You seem... whole.//
//That's because he is.// Set sounded almost cheerful as he stepped over Akana's discarded body toward them both. //That was the idea//. One of his ideas, anyway.
//Is that all you have to say, Heru?//
Heru cut a sidelong glance at Anubis, raising a brow more at the question than indicating he cared to answer. Besides, Seti seemed more than willing to answer Anubis' question anyway. No reason for them both to answer.
//Should I say more?// He turned his gaze back to Seti, flexing his fingers as if he were unaccustomed to his body.
Anubis shrugged, still watching. Still waiting, perhaps anticlimactically, for something to happen. He hadn't really asked a question, anyway. Just made an observation.
Set's smile was still there, hardly wavering. Though, perhaps it was a bit smug. Or a lot smug. //A thank you would not go amiss.//
//Thank you,// Heru said without missing a beat. He turned away from them then, rolling his shoulders, licking his lips as he glanced around. Well, this was interesting...if not how he had planned his return to Godhood, but he was here none the less.
//Are you nervous, Anubis?//
Both eyebrows, this time, and a bit of a snort. //Is there some reason I should not be? You two have never exactly been the best of friends, and your fights are legendary.//
'Fights' here used in the same tone and context as 'two five year olds squabbling over a toy.' Anubis was nothing if not quasi-practical and snarktastic.
Set provided a full-on snort. //You worry too much.// And so what if they caused a spot of mayhem, anyway?
// I don't see a reason to worry,// Heru commented, turning to look at Anubis. He really didn't see anything worth fighting Set over. At least...not at the moment.
Hmph. //If you say so.// Of course, some of them were still mortal. Not that Anubis had any intention of bringing that to their attention. At all. Ever. He liked his life. He didn't mean to change it, and he didn't know what they would do if that were made an issue.
//What do you intend to do now?//
Who knew whether that question was directed at Seteh or Horus. Set chose to answer it. //Whatever I damn well feel like.// and punctuated it by disappearing.
He'd catch up with Horus later. Most likely.
Heru watched as Set disappeared, before sighing softly. What now, indeed. //Does it matter what happens now?// He asked, turning his attention to the body of the woman. He had been her for 30 years...it was a strange feeling to look down at her as if she were nothing more than a doll.
//What part did you play in this, or were you just here to watch?//
//To make sure the transfer was performed correctly. Set's specialty is more creating the death than dealing with the processes of the moment of death and after.//
//You didn't trust him not to do something more, you mean.// Heru raised a brow, his good eye focused on Anubis. //Why don't you trust him more?//
//Because he has spent the last several lifetimes becoming increasingly more damaged and erratic.// Paul would have said batshit crazy. //Because I do not know what he is planning or what he would want in this world. Because things are changing far too fast for me to treat them with anything but wariness, at the very least.//
//You've never known his plans, and he always moves recklessly. As I recall, it was part of the reason some of you supported me. At least a little.// Not that Heru was any better. At least when it came to sharing his plans. He could be distant...but then again that was his name. 'The Distant One', how could they expect him not to be?
//He seems better off now. No more or less than he has been in the past. Though, I suppose, the question remains: do you trust me, brother?//
//You are my King.// Anubis said it simply, matter-of-fact. As though that answered the question, and he rather hoped it did. And then again, he thought with a faint inward smile, perhaps he'd been hanging around Peter too long.
Nah.
//That isn't really an answer though, is it?// Heru smiled a bit darkly, tilting his head the other way as he regarded Anubis. //One can be a king and not be trusted...no one should trust their king. Not completely.//
Maybe he hadn't been hanging around Peter for long enough. //I do not know you as you are now, brother. I trust you as my brother, as my King. But I do not know you. It will take time for me to come to trust you as you are.// And hope that his honesty didn't get him killed.
//Did I change, and left unaware?// He raised a brow, his eyes locking onto Anubis'. His pale eye lacked a clear focus, but it bore in all the same... //What is it you wanted to know, then, Anubis?//
//We have all changed.// Anubis sighed. //I want to know what is going on. Why we are here and aware, why you are suddenly returned to your former selves...// or as much of them as they were going to get. Not that he'd say that.
//The reason you are stuck in a human form is simple,// he said softly, shrugging. //We all came to the end of our roads. Perhaps it would have been better to have faded than to be become prisoners of a mortal shell. Someone cast a spell to save us, but like most spells it did not go as planned. Just as I found a spell that reversed it.//
//And now what do you intend to do?//
//To learn what there is to learn about this world...What else is there to do? My Kingdom exists no more, my people are more content to stay as they are than to return to their places.// He shrugged, before laughing softly to himself. //But I have balance now...what is the worst that can happen?//
Anubis actually relaxed a little at that. It seemed a benign enough plan or goal. Perhaps goal was a lofty word. But. //If you require my assistance...// he offered with a tiny smile. Tiny, tired smile. He had no interest in empire building, himself. Far too much effort for no reward whatsoever, and what had he to do with empires? They all came his way sooner or later.
//Then I'll call.// Heru smirked a little, before he disappeared from the scene. There was no need to discuss things further.