[CONTENT WARNING/TRIGGER WARNING: Implying of r*pe and an attempted r*pe. IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO THIS TOPIC, SCROLL TO THE '+++' PAGE BREAK.]

Thea regained consciousness to a pounding head. The amount of times she had woken up like this in the past few months made her hope she never woke up like this again. She stirred, trying to gain her bearings before opening her eyes.

Where ever she was, the ground beneath her was smooth and cool. The air held no breeze, and it was a comfortable temperature overall. While she wasn't entirely sure, her senses gave her the distinct impression that she was inside somewhere. Even with eyes closed, she still felt the world teetering around her. The feeling made her feel sick again, and she swallowed thickly, choking on the still vile aftertaste in her mouth.

When the world stopped spinning and she felt assured that she wouldn't throw up should she move, Thea opened her eyes. For a moment her vision blurred and spun, but then righted itself. Directly above her hung the night's star-filled sky. It was framed by a narrow square. Though she knew where she was, she slid her eyes down the side of the wall. Her uneasiness was confirmed; large limestone bricks made the room she was in, and she saw sketches on the walls, outlines for where pictures and hieroglyphics would be painted.

Thea looked down past her feet. Ankh stared at her evenly, eyes on fire. He sat on his haunches, cruel smile screwing up his face. With the small amount light that filtered in, something glinted and caught Thea's attention. He held a knife between his legs.

Carefully Thea propped herself up on her elbows. Once sure she wasn't going to have an adverse reaction she sat up further, hand pressed over her throbbing head.

"Good morning sunshine," the man drolled, grin growing dangerously.

"Chisisi, I presume?" Thea said, her voice raw. She tried her best to look utterly unimpressed.

"That was easy," he chuckled. "This is why I shall never love; it blinds you."

"There's just one thing I can't figure out," Thea croaked out. "Why?"

Chisisi laughed, standing from his hunched position. Thea hated the fact he looked exactly like her beloved Ankh. He approached her, knife glinting against the starlight. Gulping, Thea moved back.

"People are so strange," Chisisi said. "Why? Why what? Why did I kill my own mother?"

Thea scurried back further, eyes wide open. Chisisi advanced on her.

"She was useless," he explained as though this were an idle conversation. "She failed to give me what I wanted. So I left. She was such a lovely woman, however, she couldn't bare not being close to her son. She thought she could repair me and decided to pay me a visit."

"Visit you?" Thea repeated, horrified.

Chisisi began to pick under his nails with the tip of his knife. "We had private correspondence. I had found a beautiful land, filled with beautiful people, beautiful things... Beautiful animals and beautiful poisons."

Thea further backed away, wishing he didn't block her only way to the exit.

"She came to me, attempting to smooth things over." He chuckled. "That would be her undoing. Truthfully, I had willingly forgotten my life here in Egypt. I had sent message back home after I had left, telling her our family need not bother themselves anymore with my personal affairs. My statement had been genuine; I let her know where I was, that I was safe and whole, but that it would be our last correspondence. I had implored her to not reach out to me. However..."

Thea shivered as Chisisi shrugged. "My name precedes me? She still feared my wrath. She still feared that I would return and become meddlesome."

Chisisi stalked over, standing directly over Thea, both legs on either side of hers. "I truly wanted to leave that world behind, however...She followed me and found me. She came to Qin, where it was not difficult to find the only other person who held the same dark skin as she herself did."

Thea froze as Chisisi dropped to his knees, still looming over her. "She begged me to leave them alone. She knew I was still bitter over Ankh being declared King and not me."

Thea wanted to tell him how pathetic he was for harboring such deep-seeded jealousy, but she knew she was in serious trouble, trouble she wasn't sure how she would get out of.

"I was nice to her in those final days," he continued, sounding strangely proud and triumphant. "I sent her back with three very important things; one, the information for Egypt to start bartering with Qin. Second was sending her home with lavish gifts—fine pottery made only in Qin, glorious dresses and robes, trinkets, both for her personal pleasure and to bestow upon Memphis and Heliopolis."

Chisisi leaned forward, placing his palms flat next to Thea's ears. Hunching forward, their noses almost touching, he was all smiles. "Last, but the most important, was sending her home poisoned." 

A cold tear coursed down Thea's temple.

"You see, I had been poisoning her, little by little. One of the most tantalizing things about Qin was all their new plants and animals, all their glorious dangers."

Chisisi lowered himself onto her, sitting on her thighs. She whimpered.

"They are so lovely over in Qin. Clearly I wasn't native. They warned me of which animals were dangerous and which were not. Which plants were nice to smell, touch, and eat, and which I should not even brush up against."

Thea heard a muffled moan from somewhere. She was too terrified to call out.

"I slipped poison to her, little by little, just a pinch in each meal. By the end of the week there was no way she would survive. Shortly thereafter, I received word of her passing, so I came back to Egypt." He smiled wickedly. "You know, to pay my deepest respects to my dearly departed mother."

"Monster."

"Lapis, oh dearest Lapis!"

There was another moan, barely audible. Chisisi put a cupped hand to his ear. "Our girl here called me a monster. I don't think she knows just how right she is. Care to share your personal experiences with me?"

"Run," Thea barely hear Lapis from another room, close by but still rather muffled. "Thea--run."

"She can't," Chisisi called out in a sing-song voice. "I'm sitting on top of her. I'm pinning her, Lapis. Sound familiar?"

"The Gods will never allow you into the afterworld," Thea spat through her tears, saying the worst thing to say she could think of. "In fact, they won't even consider your name. You'll be fed to Ammit without a moment's consideration." 

The grin immediately melted from Chisisi's mouth. He laid down on top of her fully now, painfully pinning her with all of his weight. He brought the knife to her cheek and dug it in. 

"Thea," she heard Lapis say, sounding heavily drugged and struggling to speak. "Don't. Do not--do not anger him. You do not know what he is capable of."

"Oh," Chisisi said, eyes turning slitted like a viper, "she's about to find out."

A scream ripped out of Thea's throat and she began to thrash violently. Chisisi suddenly looked like he was having fun. She was no match, and he put the knife down. With ease that showed he had done this many, many times, he grabbed both her wrists with one hand, pinning Thea's arms above her head. She continued to scream and thrash.

"You're nothing!" she shrieked, violently moving her face side to side as he tried to kiss her. "You were born dead--you're a mistake, never meant to be!"

"Thea," Lapis sobbed now, "please, just stop. You're only going to make it worse for yourself."

Thea never had the personality to go down without a fight. It was clear she was doomed, so she wanted to do as much emotional damage to Chisisi since there was nothing physical she could do.

Chisisi, however, had caught on, and decided to join in. "Are you enjoying yourself Lapis?" Chisisi called out. "Just like old times right? I wanted to make sure you could hear this before I killed you!"

"You never would be fit for a Pharaoh," Thea shrieked, earning her a swift knee in the ribs. The wind rushed out of her. In sheer stubbornness, she continued to scream. "You would have just brought Egypt to ruin! Your name would be known throughout time not for greatness, but for how quickly you decimated one of the greatest countries that ever existed!"

"Thea, stop!" Lapis begged.

"You will never be as good as your brother!"

That apparently was too far. Chisisi began to strangle her. Thea tried to breath, tried to gasp. Her airway, however, was effectively constricted. Groping frantically, she found what she needed.

Swiftly she plunged Chisisi's knife into his thigh. He yowled in pain. Thea had been hoping he would have gotten off of her, but he at least stopped strangling her. In that split second, Thea knew this would probably be her only chance to escape. She needed him off her—but how?

++++

All at once Thea remembered pankration and the rules. One of the only things that was disallowed. Thea grabbed Chisisi's face and plunged both thumbs into his eyes as hard as she could. 

That worked. Chisisi screamed, violently throwing himself back away from her. Thea stayed on top of him as he tried to move away. She knew the shock of her attack would only give her an additional few seconds--so instead of fleeing, she lunged forward, grabbing him once more and dug her thumbs into his eyes once again.

Again Chisisi screamed in absolute agony. Thea tried not to think of how effective her right thumb had been; she could process that trauma later. Instead she grabbed the knife sticking out of Chisisi's thigh, gave it a hard yank (causing Chisisi to further howl), and then ran as fast as she could out of the chamber.

Not meaning to, Thea smacked against the wall. Terrified, Thea turned around, pressing herself against the wall. She saw Chisisi, groping around and yelling as blood poured from both his eyes. Despite his blindness and wounded leg, he began to struggle to his feet. Gasping and clutching the knife to her chest, Thea took off running.

"Lapis!" Thea screamed as loud as she could, frantically looking around her surroundings. She followed the wall, periodically looking above at the night's sky. She also looked over her shoulder, making sure Chisisi wasn't there. "Lapis, where are you?"

"Thea!" Lapis screamed frantically, and Thea heard a noise that she assumed was Lapis slapping his open palm against the wall. "Thea, are you alright? What is going on?"

"We need to get out of here!" she screamed. "Keep talking until I can find you! I'll follow your voice!"

For minutes that's what they did. At one point Thea turned a corner, having to clamp a hand over her mouth because Chisisi was there, arms outstretched, groping around blindly. She turned and fled the way she came from.

After what felt like forever, Thea turned a corner she could have sworn she did before. However, it looked new. Still clutching the knife to her, she ran forward. Gratefully Lapis' voice had become clearer. 

She ran past a small chamber, skidding to a stop. "Lapis!"

Lapis spun around. Besides a bloody nose, he appeared unharmed. He blinked, hardly believing his eyes. "Thea!"

Thea ran forward and grabbed his hand, yanking him towards the doorway. "We have to leave--now!"

"What happened?" Lapis pressed as the pair began to sprint back down the hallway. "Are you hurt? He didn't--"

"No," Thea said, a brief swell of pride taking hold. She knew they were both still in very grave danger, so she could pat herself on the back for her quick thinking some other time. "I'll explain everything once we're out of here."

"Guards!" the pair could hear Chisisi screaming from somewhere. His voice was high-pitched and strained from pain. "Guards! Seal the chamber! Seal the chamber!"