As Lapis and Thea ran through the winding corridors of the partially completed pyramid, they could hear Chisisi shrieking at people arguing with him. They all sounded far away.

"But you'll die!" an unknown, far away male voice said.

"I don't care!" Chisisi ranted. "I'm dead anyway! Do as you're told! Seal it now!"

"But—"

"DO IT!"

Lapis grabbed onto Thea's forearm, forcing her to stop. Taking her by both shoulders, Lapis looked absolutely panicked. "Thea—they plan to burry us in here! There's no way out! We're going to die in here!"

For a long moment, Thea's mind went blank. Lapis was right. As the sound of sifting, falling sand was heard, and Chisisi's diabolic laughter began to bounce off the chamber walls, Thea knew this was it.

She had failed. Feeling utterly crestfallen, the weight of reality bore down on her, sinking her into deep despair. Aqen had chosen her, and she had failed. She was going to die here, in the past, Rose and her family wondering what ever happened to her. Lapis was going to die with her. She was sure the faux guards had orders to complete their mission, Chisisi or not. Ankh was going to die anyway.

Thea felt foolish. Perhaps that's what this entire thing meant. Maybe one truly couldn't change time. Ankh had been meant to die. Maybe Aqen had been wrong. Maybe Ankh had been right, that time was a constant static, always there, always moving forward, never changing. Perhaps mortal lives were like Thea and Lapis right then; they were to be buried in the sands of time. Once something happens, it's supposed to be. Ankh was to die, so he was a stuck pawn just as much as they were, doomed in this pyramid.

Yet even as Thea's mind grasped that these intangible thoughts, something didn't sit right with her. Struggling to keep her wits about her, she thought hard. Her mind had ran away with her and the analogy, but she felt like there was something there. What, exactly, Thea didn't know.

"Thea?" Lapis asked tentatively.

"Sh!"

Lapis went silent.

C'mon Thea, think! she scolded herself.

Ankh was supposed to be dead. The sands of time had trapped them, toys being buried in a child's sandbox. Aqen had been wrong. They put together the shards at the museum, but still nothing had changed. Aqen had been wrong. Aqen had been wrong...

Could a God be wrong?

Thea's mind whirled. She had never seen the final outcome of the vases and canopic jar. The paintings on them had in fact changed. Ahmed saw it. Thea witnessed the change with her own eyes. Yes, the outcome still showed Ankh dying...

Thea gnawed on her bottom lip. Yes, he had been shown to still die, but a fact remained—the pictures had changed! The outcome was the same, but the path there had been altered. Altered by Thea, through her own actions.

"What?" Lapis pressed, but Thea shooshed him a second time.

Maybe...Maybe Aqen wasn't wrong at all. Maybe it wasn't that things were stuck in sands of time—maybe the things Thea had done simply weren't enough. Maybe if she just pushed harder...Maybe if she were able to change the path enough, she could push it out of the way entirely, and set up a new path, one in which they all lived.

"Thea!" Lapis said desperately now, the sound of sand becoming louder and louder.

Sand. Sand... Like the Nile. Like this pyramid itself. The architects had made tributaries to guide the flow of the Nile in a way that suited them. They made paths to transport the huge slabs of limestone more efficiently. The Nile was still the Nile, sand was still sand, but...

All at once Thea's head sort of fell into place. The abstract thoughts solidified into one cohesive plan. They were stuck in the sands of time—sand wasn't static though. It was like water. Put it in a hourglass and it all collects, but still able to slip through the tiniest of crevices.

Aqen hadn't been wrong at all. Things could, in fact, be changed.

But how?

"Survival," Thea muttered.

"What?" Lapis breathed.

Thea came to her senses, a frantic urgency taking her over. She laughed once, clutching onto Lapis' forearms. He, rightly so, looked at her as though she were mad.

"Lapis—how good are you with directions and heavenly bodies?"

"What?"

Thea clutched him harder. "Lapis! I'm bad with directions, but I've seen the layout of this pyramid! I think I remember it well enough that I can get us out of here! But, I need a firm grasp on my directions."

Lapis blinked, seeming to not comprehend what she was saying. Thea shook him violently, trying to get him to get out of his crisis.

"Lapis! I need you! You are perhaps one of the most gifted minds I have ever known! I know you can do this, and I know I can get us out of here, but—"

Lapis still appeared to be in some sort of shock. Crying out in frustration, Thea craned her head back. Not able to have a clear view of the sky, she dragged Lapis down the corridor a few feet. She then tapped Lapis on the shoulder and pointed to the sky.

"There! That bright star right there—you know it, yes?"

"Of course," Lapis admonished. "that's Thuban. It's what we base some of our architectural math upon so we can—"

"Yes!" Thea cut him off, equally excited and desperately. In ancient times, Thuban was their equivalent of the Northern Star. "So you know how to read location based on its position?"

Lapis looked confused, still from shock, poison, or both. "Yes, but why—"

"Listen to me," Thea said. "There is a trap door in the ground close to us, to the south east, if I'm remembering correctly. It's a passageway they're going to bring in canopic jars through once it's time. It leads directly outside! It isn't sealed yet, but we have to get to it before this entire place fills with sand!"

Lapis seemed to finally understand her. He smiled, but it was only briefly. He spun her around, pointed, and gave her a shove. "That way!"

"Are you sure?" Thea checked as they sprinted down the corridor.

"Yes! Quickly!"

After only a few hiccups wherein they had to find another way around, they found what they were looking for. Unfortunately, there were two obstacles in their way. Thea stopped, feeling completely hopeless.

The door they needed was on the floor, quickly being covered over by a shute dispensing sand into the chamber. Chisisi stood over the hatch, beneath the sand, arms outstretched as he laughed completely unhinged, the sand showering all over him.

"Give me the knife."

It had been but a whisper, but still Thea jumped. She looked wide-eyed at Lapis.

Still speaking softly so they could not be heard over the rushing sand and the mad man's crackles, Lapis said it again.

"Give me the knife, Thea."

Thea was once again struck by just how big Lapis was. While skinnier, he was a good head taller than Thea, the same height as Chisisi. Lapis continued to speak through pursed lips, the glinting depths of Hellfire burning deeply within his dark eyes.

"I will be fine, Thea. I am athletic, and he is wounded. Let me dispatch this evildoer. Let me be the one to do it. I deserve to do it after what he's done to me."

Thea couldn't argue with that. Looking away, Thea handed the weapon to Lapis, hilt first. Lapis took it gratefully. While Thea watched Lapis, stalking like something hunting it's prey, not making any discernable sounds, she couldn't bring herself to watch the actual act. It was done in an instant, though the surprised sound Chisisi had made at first would never leave Thea's nightmares.

Once the deed was done, Lapis ushered Thea to help him with the hatch. Not bothering to glance at Chisisi's lifeless form (her minds eye filling in the blanks given how utterly covered in blood Lapis was), Thea did so. They rushed into the tight floor, shutting the hatch quickly over their heads, and crawled their way to freedom and out of death's claws.