World’s Beginning

We are aware that this story is nothing like what actually occurred in true Egyptian mythology, this is simply a retelling for the sake of the group, using Gods from the original mythology. Most of the information, and roles that exist were changed in order to fit the story we wanted to tell.

## Part I: The Beginning

> "*This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper…*"
> ― T.S. Elliot
>
>

Our story began with a flicker…

A stream of consciousness that came into existence within the darkness of the primordial abyss.

At first, this being knew not what he was, nor did he know how he’d come to be, or even what purpose he held — just that he was alone.

Terribly alone.

For years the being wandered through space like this — without form, without name, and without purpose; consumed by the darkness and isolation of the nothingness around him. For a long time he thought for sure that this was all there was, that he was all there was, and it felt empty, and unfair, and unjust...but mostly it made him angry.

The being couldn’t understand what kind of evil would doom him to such an isolated existence. Why such seemingly beautiful magics that had lead to his creation would force him to live a life as meaningless as the one he was living. He questioned why he was granted such a life if there was to be no one else he could actually *live* it with.

And as the being, in all his anger, cursed the darkness for his despair, and begged for his creator to take back the gift he’d been given, he began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he could mould existence too…

So he did.

With his first breath the being gave himself form, no longer forced to be the bodiless consciousness he’d existed as for all those years, but instead a magnificent God ready to shape time and space itself.

And he did exactly that.

The new God reached out to touch the stars, whispering life into a small cluster of them, and giving them each physical form as he had himself.

Seven children to end his isolation.

**Anubis** was the first created — a powerful, regal-looking Canid God, black as the darkness around them, with eyes that matched the striking beauty of the stars he’d come from.

Anubis was followed by his sister, **Bastet**, a Feline Goddess who took inspiration in the form of her brother, with a coat that was sleek, and ebony; tinged with gold that was befitting of a Goddess such as herself.

**Osiris** came next; a radiant white Cervid God who leapt across the sky to greet the other Goddesses who soon joined them — **Nephthys** and **Neith** — the two beautiful winged sisters split from the same star, who soared proudly through the darkness together.

The wolf-esque Goddess, **Isis**, followed soon after; howling after her family as she dashed with them across the stars stride for stride; her paws leaving a trail of stardust behind in her wake.

**Set** was the last to be created; the reptilian God who quickly made an impression on his siblings with his cruel trickery, and egotism, often creating chaos wherever he followed.

With their creation the Gods then turned to the being who had given them life — their beloved creator. Their Father. Together they named the being **Ra**, dubbing him the bringer of all. A befitting title, they felt, for all he had done for them.

As he gazed upon his family, Ra felt the empty void within him that had been there for so long finally begin to close. He had created, and with it he had found the purpose he’d been searching for for so long: his family.

For Ra it was enough.

But for the other Gods, there was something missing…

Ra soon felt this within his children; each carried the consuming emptiness he’d once felt — a need that they couldn’t describe but that demanded to be satiated.

And the God understood them.

Ra had given his children embodiment, and names, and a family. He had gifted them with the most incredible thing that he had to give — existence — but still there was something else they longed for.

Now the other Gods needed a purpose too, and so Ra gave his children the only other thing he had to offer:

He taught them how to create.

## Part II: Creation

On the first day of days, the world came into existence when Ra painted its shell for his children to build upon. He dusted the empty world with soil, and wrapped it in a brilliant blue sky; with which Ra hung the sun to shine light down on the world below it.

Osiris saw his Father’s beautiful creation and leapt down to the land below, fertilizing the ground so that life could be grown and sustained.

From his hooves grew the vast grasslands, which he spread with grand forests and luscious fauna. He dragged —with his antlers from below the ground — towering walls of stone, and sculpted from them the mountains, which he placed against the horizon. As a final touch to his world of green, Osiris carved out the ground with his antlers and filled it with his tears to create the flowing Nile.

The God stepped back and felt his creation was beautiful, but incomplete.
Osiris wished to create something to share this magnificent land with, something that could explore his forests, swim his Nile, climb his mountains, and dash across his plains.

And so, from his blood and body Osiris gave life to the first beings of our world.

Awed by his brother’s new creations, and wishing to add something of his own to the world, Anubis took a piece of the sun and — with the help of Ra — created the realm Ta Shai; a home for the Gods that they could share with Osiris’ creations, and watch over them from their place in the sky.
Anubis then touched each life his brother had created with his own magic, blessing each one with a soul so that they could travel to the realm of Ta Shai, and be in the presence of the Gods, whilst also living with a piece of them; gifting them with ageless immortality.

In tribute to the place she and her siblings had once held amongst the stars, Nephthys then soared across her Father’s bright sky and painted it in darkness, cascading the world with her beautiful, cold night. In the darkness their brothers and sisters of the galaxy above were able to shine bright for Osiris’ creations to see, and know where the Gods had come from. Nephthys then took a piece of rock from the mountains, and shaped it round with her wings. She hung this creation — her moon — in the sky for the surface realm, so that it may reflect the light of Ra’s sun during her night and cast silver light into the darkness of the land below.

As her last gift — to protect the world and its occupants from the night’s harsh cold — Nephthys breathed her starfire into the surface realm’s core to heat it, and gifted the beings of the earth the skills and tools needed to create fire of their own. She then placed within each of Osiris’ creations a spark, to ensure that even on the coldest of her nights they would always have warmth within them.

With a strong flap of her wings Neith created the winds, spreading them across the earth, and giving birth to the weather. She created the seasons to allow the world time to rejuvenate and be reborn, and collected water from the Nile to spill across the land to form her vast oceans, rivers, and lakes.

The rest of the water she’d gathered Neith used to create soft white clouds, which she streaked across her Father’s sky, in order to cast her gentle rains down upon the land and feed the plant life. As a gift to her Father, Neith pulled feathers from herself and created birds with brilliant wings of their own so that they could soar Ra’s sky as she did.

To the creations she deemed worthy, Neith placed within them the will of the hunt, to add chase to her brother’s plains, and fill his forests with hungry spirit.

As Isis walked amongst the world’s creations, and took in the gifts of her siblings, she realized how much happiness her family had given her, and how she wished to share that with this land too.

Isis blanketed the world with her love with a canopy of stardust, making it so that all of Osiris’ creations would be able to experience it as well, and share it with one another. She then gave the world’s occupants the most precious gift of all — the gift of the Gods — the ability to create. She bestowed each being with her gift of fertility, so that they could have families of their own and witness the joy brought with it; adding to the God’s blessed world with their own creation.

The siblings witnessed their beloved subjects, and how they praised their Gods and the gifts each had given them. They watched them play together, and love one another, and live their lives in utter bliss from the realm of Ta Shai. The Gods welcomed each being who came to visit them there with open arms, wishing to be apart of their lives in every way they could.

They loved their creations, as their people loved them, and they revelled in the lives and discoveries of their subjects.

And they were content.

All except for Set.

The youngest God gazed upon his siblings creations, and he did not love them as they did. Set felt that the world was imperfect, and he hated that the beings he deemed lesser had been given such gifts...

Gifts he deemed only befitting of the Gods.

The world, he felt, was lacking, and soon Set wished to add to it as well, and rectify the impurities, and blissful ignorance his siblings chose to ignore. He wanted to add to it his beautiful chaos.

And so Set descended upon the world, and added his own magic to each of his siblings creations — in his mind making them beautifully chaotic, in the way they should have been from the beginning.

To Osiris’ land, Set created the desert, choking the grass with golden sands, and causing the trees and fauna to wither and die; tall cacti, and brittle undergrowth standing in their wake.

The desert Set created turned much of the formerly fertile land into a near-barren wasteland, making life for Osiris’ creations much harder.

Then, within Neith’s weather, he created the booming thunder and destructive lightning, plaguing the land with vicious thunderstorms that flooded the Nile, and tornadoes that could level whole towns. Set created the desert storms that lay waste to the calmness of Neith’s wind, and created danger for those who were unprotected from the sand.

Set then moved on to Nephthys’ creations, adding cycles to her moon, and making it so that on some nights the light did not shine so brightly, or ceased to be there at all— creating danger for those who travelled at night. He formed eruptions from her precious fire below that would tear apart the mountains with lava, create roaring fires that could eat whole forests, and smoulder the ground in poisonous ash.

To Isis’ love he created pain, suffering and hatred, ruining the thing about the world that had been most beautiful. To some families Set even went as far as cursing them with infertility, halting entire bloodline’s reproductive capabilities.

Finally, Set looked to Anubis’ Ta Shai, and he created his own realm — the unstable Underworld.

He placed within it the realm Abuskhau — a torturous place not even he could venture — and split from it **Amt**, the Devourer, to reside within and cast judgement on the unworthy.

Set then stripped the beings of their ageless immortality by tying them each to a string of life, eventually forcing each existence to end when it came time to sever their thread.

The vile God took a step back and gazed upon each of his beautiful, chaotic creations...and he was at last, content.

The Gods, however, did not appreciate their brother’s additions to the world, and became furious with Set for adding his cursed creations that tainted their otherwise perfect world. Bastet, though, cunning as she was — and still awaiting her chance to give a gift of her own — did her best to correct her Brother’s cruel curse, and tied herself to the mortal realm as its sole protector.

The feline Goddess spent her days fighting off the dangers of the world Set created, restoring balance where she could. She gifted Anubis with his chariot, to guide the worthy spirits of those lost to Ta Shai; where they lived out their afterlife among the Gods until it was time for them to be sent back down and be reborn again amongst the mortals once more.

Bastet kissed the world with her joy, and added to it the beautiful sunrise and sunset, so the mortals would know the Gods had not abandoned them. She sang music into the sound of the leaves in the wind, and the flowing water of the Nile, and even the golden sands of the desert — adding beauty to something that had once been seen as a curse.

The feline Goddess did everything she could to bring happiness to the mortals with her simple gifts, adding laughter to their world in even the worst of times. She did her best to correct the terrors Set had thrust upon the world, adding light where she could.

From his fires Bastet gave birth to new life and abundant land. From his moonless nights she created the fireflies to light the way. From the barren desert she created the black sands of the Nile, for better crops to harvest from.

In every bad outcome Set had created, Bastet found a silver lining, and helped the mortals see it too.

In the wake of her brother’s destruction, Bastet founded restoration.

And for the most part, she succeeded.

And it angered Set, who felt his beautiful chaos had been taken for granted by the mortals and his siblings alike.

In an attempt to bring order to the world, and as a gift to each of his sons, Ra allowed them to rule over the Realms they had each created.

Anubis inherited the realm of Ta Shai, tasked with collecting and guiding the worthy spirits to the realm of the Gods, where they lived in peace until it was time to send them back to be reborn into the realm below.

Osiris was given the surface realm to rule, where he spent his days walking amongst his creations and guiding them throughout their lives. His presence brought them happiness, and wisdom, and the God was deeply revered by each one of his precious subjects.

The souls returned to him were helped with the transitioning back into the surface realm, and given form again through peaceful rebirth, so that there was no risk of insanity through a violent re-entry into the world.

To Set, Ra then bestowed the Underworld, giving the foolish God responsibility over the wicked place he’d created, and cursing him to rule over it for eternity. Set was given the task of collecting the souls of the unworthy and sending them to Abuskhau to be judged for their sins. He became known as a God of death, misfortune, and despair…

And the mortals grew to hate him for it.

Set however, grew to hate his brothers *because* of it.

Set believed he had been cheated, robbed of the mortals love that the other Gods had been given so freely. He hated Osiris and his creations the most, however, for seeing his chaos as something terrible; where Set saw it as something amazing and unique.

The mortals didn’t appreciate his gifts as they appreciated the gifts of his siblings, and it angered the God, who felt his additions were taken for granted. They refused to see the beauty in his lightning as it streaked across the sky, or the magnificent colours that sprang from his volcanoes when erupted, and poured across the land.

It was *infuriating.*

 Set loathed his brothers happiness, but mostly he loathed Osiris and his selfish, ungrateful creations...but when the older brother took Isis for a wife, Set hated him even more.

In the mortal’s and his family’s eyes, Set’s realm — his beautiful world of chaos — and his gifts were lesser. Ra — his beloved Father — had come look down on him in discontempt, but looked at Osiris as if he were the sun itself made form. Set wanted the mortals and his father to love him as they loved Osiris; he wanted Isis to love him as she loved Osiris, and he wanted the surface realm for himself.

It was on that fateful day — with the darkness of greed and jealousy clouding his mind — that Set decided if he wouldn’t be *given* all he wanted…

He would *take* it.

## Part III: The Beat of a Butterfly’s Wing

Perhaps the events that transpired next were always meant to happen…

Perhaps there really was no stopping it, and maybe it didn’t matter if the Gods had seen it coming or not in the first place. Maybe they never would have been able to stop everything before it began even if they had known.

Maybe, in the end, all Gods are meant to fall.

*Maybe.*

But it doesn't matter what could have been — what *should* have been — just what became.

When Set was able to find Osiris alone, the trickster God took on the shape of his sister, approaching Osiris with a fabricated story of reconciliation in order to lead his brother into his trap.

As Isis, Set told Osiris of how he’d spoken to her about his wishes to amend their broken relationship, and of the olive branch he’d offered to show his good faith — rare gemstones found only in Abuskhau, that paled all of the world’s beauty in comparison. He spoke of how he wished to share them with his siblings as a late wedding gift, and how he hoped it would be the first step to correcting their bond as brothers.

Set begged his brother to fetch one of the precious stones Set had spoken of, so he may gaze upon its beauty...and how could Osiris deny his wife...his Isis...whom he loved almost more than his own creations.

Osiris agreed to travel to the Underworld to collect the thing he thought Isis wanted more than anything, and with hopes of fixing his relationship with Set, unaware of the danger he was so freely walking into.

With his plan set in motion, Set reverted back into his own form and descended into the Underworld to await his brother, who’d so easily believed his lies.

Set was all too eager to allow Osiris access into Abuskhau to collect the gift Set had promised to share with him and Isis. Osiris was completely unknowing of the danger the realm posed to the living, or that only the deceased had been permitted by Amt to enter it — a secret Set had kept from his family.

Assuming Set had had a change of heart — and wanting more than anything to fix things between them — Osiris proceeded to enter Abuskhau, where he met his ultimate demise; torn apart almost instantly by Amt and the spirit realm.

Set, riddled with jealousy, had committed the most despicable sin one could ever commit — the ending of a life.

A *God’s* life.

With his brother dead and his plan successful, Set ascended into Ta Shai, where he told his family of the horror that had befallen Osiris.

He forged a story about how his brother had attacked his realm in an attempt to steal power from Abuskhau to gift his own creations back their immortality — upsetting the balance the Gods had created. Set told them how he’d been unable to stop Osiris from entering Abuskhau, despite his warnings that not even he could set foot there; but had ultimately failed to stop his brother, who had been killed instantly upon entry of the realm.

The Gods were grieved upon the announcement that Osiris had met his end, and though they all were suspicious of the truth behind Set’s story — knowing full well of his tricks — there was no way to prove that his tale of Osiris’ demise was anything but true. The siblings couldn’t bring themselves to believe that Set, jealous and destructive as he was, would ever resort to killing their brother just to get what he wanted, so they did the only thing they could:

They believed him.

All except for Isis.

She refused to believe that Set’s story was anything but true, and accused him of his lies, asking her Father to look into Set’s soul and find the truth, but to her annoyance Ra refused her. He *believed* him.

Her initial attempts to bring some semblance of justice to Osiris failed, Isis begged Ra to return Osiris to them so that he could speak truth of what had really transpired in the Underworld. Ra, however, refused this request as well, not knowing the effects of what bringing back the soul of a God would have on the mind.

Isis was furious with this, exclaiming to her Father that if he would not bring Osiris back to her then she would do it herself.

**“You will not!”** Ra’s voice sliced through the protest of his daughter, **“Isis, you know full well that a God’s soul is nothing like that of a mortal’s. There is no way to tell what a transition like that would do to him, nor what you would be bringing back.”**

Ra felt Isis’ grief along with that of her siblings. It matched his own. The God knew the truth behind what Set had done, but Ra had done nothing to stop it. He couldn’t have. It had always been Osiris’ fate, and it would have happened regardless if it were by Set’s hand or not. But Ra did not speak this truth to his children, for they would not understand it.

Even a God such as he could not stop destiny’s wheel from turning.

**“I want him back too, Isis, but it is not an option.”** Her Father’s voice softened, the weight of the loss thick in his eyes, **“He is not forgotten. In time, his soul will return to the stars where he belongs.”** A moment of sympathy before the God stood, his face plastered over with something hard and demanding, **“You must promise me that you will let his soul die, Isis. My only request is that you do not bring him back, lest you condemn him to a worse fate than the one that has befallen him.”** He paused to let his words sink into his grieving daughter, **“Can you do this?”**

Isis paused, drying her tears and matching the face of stone Ra now wore, **“Yes, Father.”**

**“Then I ask nothing more of you.”**

Years went by and Isis kept her promise to Ra that she would not restore the soul of Osiris. Years without happiness, and she succeeded in not breaking the law her Father had spoken despite her despair...but eventually as the years continued on, the void created by his loss did not go away, and the Goddess’ grief eventually got the best of her.

Isis could not accept that Osiris — her love, her brother — was gone. The emptiness he left behind had become too much for her soul to bear...and so she did the thing she swore to her Father she would not do.

She gave Osiris back his life.

## Part IV: A God Reborn

There was nothing beautiful about Osiris’ return…

Nothing incredible about the way his soul was violently dragged from the clutches of Abuskhau’s torturous realm, and slammed back into the body which had yet to become whole.

There was no magic in the way his broken body tore itself apart again and again, until it had returned to its former figure; or in the way Osiris felt each bone break, each muscle tear, and every fibre of his being writhe in pain as he was put back together like the pieces of a morbid jigsaw puzzle.

No. There was no beauty here. No joy in the jagged screams as they ripped themselves from his throat; while the broken God felt *everything* all at once.

There was only agony. And darkness. And *fear.*

Osiris did not rejoice at his return.

The God *wept.*

And as his suffering slowly passed, Osiris thought for sure that there could be nothing more evil in this world than the unbridled torture of his life being given back to him.

But Osiris was wrong.

For as the God tried to leave the cursed Underworld, he found he could not despite his many attempts to. For Isis, blinded by her grief, had forgotten that once a soul is taken by Abuskhau, it can never return to the surface realm.

Shattered in mind, Osiris did his best to put together the pieces of what had happened, and how he had gotten here.

*A betrayal.*

Set had betrayed him. His own brother had lead him to his demise. Surely the other God had known of what awaited Osiris in Abuskhau, and he had done nothing to stop him from entering at the wish of Isis.

*Isis.*

She had told him to go to Abuskhau. She had given him the belief that Set had wanted to fix their link as brothers. Isis had betrayed him as well.

Osiris, unknowing that whom he’d thought had been Isis had really been Set all along, felt the backstab of his siblings boil in his blood. The one he loved most...his Isis...had betrayed him alongside his brother. *She* was responsible for his death, and surely she was also responsible for his rebirth as well.

A cloud darkened his thoughts. His family had abandoned him.

*They are all responsible.*

With anger twisting his mind, and pain in his heart, Osiris closed off the Underworld to the realm of the Gods, casting them out as they had him; believing them all to have betrayed him in some way, and isolating himself in his own prison.

The broken king on a broken throne.

He would get his revenge on the world above him, and Osiris no longer cared what became of his family when he did. He wanted them to feel the loss, and the pain, and the utter desperation that he did as their world crumbled around them; having no ability to stop it as it did. They were going to feel *everything*, just as he did.

*They are all going to pay.*

**“What have you done?!”** Ra hissed at Isis. He had felt Osiris’ pain almost immediately after his return, and soon after the fate’s had aligned before him. His daughter had broken the one request he’d ever asked of her, and they were all going to pay for her selfishness. **“You have broken your vow, Isis!”**

**“No, Father, I have done what you would not!”** The Goddess snapped back, unaware of the cruel fate that had befallen her brother.

Ra’s eyes burned into her as the other Gods watching quietly from the sidelines, knowing well not to interfere, **“You were only doing what your own selfishness drove you to!”**

**“I was trying to save him!”**

**“You did nothing!”** Ra snarled, causing Isis to fall silent as her Father’s voice rang out across Ta Shai, **“You have cursed Osiris and forsaken his soul! You are a fool!”** The God was unable to hide his anger. She had not only doomed Osiris in her act, **“Because of you he did not get to die in peace and return to the stars as he should have to be reborn! You have trapped him here in the most appalling way.”** Ra’s voice spoke truth as he revealed the fate of his son to his children, **“Because of you, Isis, he will never be able to set foot in the surface realm or Ta Shai ever again!”**

There was silence between them, none of the Gods sure of what to say as the realization of Isis’ good intended deed hit them. She had taken away the thing Osiris loved more than himself, even more than any of them — his world.

His creations...they would hate him for what he’d be made to do in the Underworld.

Osiris would have no choice now but to be the harbinger of their end. He would be forced to watch them suffer and die at his own hand; the ones returned to him sent off to their judgement and tortured — never to be reborn into the world ever again...and it would all be his doing now, just as it had been Set’s.

And the Gods had done nothing to stop it.

*Ra* had done nothing to stop it.

**“He thinks we have abandoned him, and now he is lost to us.”**

Ra was somber as he gazed upon his children, feeling the venomous rage that boiled within Osiris’ deepest core one last time, before the God was cut off completely from his son.

Osiris thought his family had betrayed him...

Ra’s eyes fell once more upon his daughter. Sweet Isis. She was so kind, so filled with love, but she was also blinded by it. The God knew she had only been trying to do the right thing, just as he knew she could never have predicted what was to come.

**“You do not know what you have done…”**

## Part V: World’s End

Isolated from the outside world, and all-consumed by his anger and despair, Osiris — over the years as they passed him — slowly began to lose his mind.

The realization that his beautiful creations had grown to despise him only added to his grief, as he was forced to end their lives and send many of them to their eternal torture in Abuskhau. The thing he loved most had been taken from him, and it wilted the God who had degraded into his grief until all that remained was a dark shadow of what had once been.

And he *hated* the Gods for it.

As the twisted son continued to spiral into his insanity, Osiris came to a single conclusion:

The world he’d created, protected and loved so dearly had been lost to him.

So he would tear it away from the Gods just as it had been torn away from him.

And so Osiris began to create once more, only this time his creations were not beautiful, or filled with life, but warped and hollow, twisted by the darkness that plagued his mind — his demonic beings that would ravage the land in an apocalypse that would shake the world to its very core, and he would reclaim it as his own...even if he had to drag it to the pits of hell.

On the first day of the world’s end came famine, a plague that Osiris’ demons brought with them in their wake as he unleashed them on the world. It laid waste to the wildlife, and blackened the sky to choke out the sun. The land, even the desert, slowly started to die, as mountains crumbled, trees decayed, and the beautiful grasslands degraded into a wasteland void of life.

Then came war, Osiris’ demonic beings attacked in force, killing off the creations that had once been so dear to Osiris’ heart, and taking its protector, Bastet, by surprise. Though the feline Goddess tried to fend off the demons, the beasts ravaged the life on the planet, taking out the God’s revenge to its full extent; Osiris continuing to create the things that were to destroy the world he’d promised to protect, in his pain.

The other Gods realized all too late what was happening, descending from Ta Shai onto an already dying world. The realm was falling, and Ra was forced to declare war on his own son.

Neith, the Goddess war and hunting was the first to attack alongside Bastet, she rallied her winds, and with swift beats of her wings formed whirlwinds that slammed into Osiris’ creations in an attempt to hold them at bay. She called to her birds and put a fire in their hearts as they attacked from above with their beloved Goddess and her winged sister; swooping down to try and blind their opponents who seemed to never falter in numbers.

Set attacked with his Father, slamming his power into the ground and splitting the earth down to its core, many of Osiris’ creations falling to their deaths as the God attacked them head on, using his chaos to shove them over the edge and tear them apart while his Father imploded them from the inside out.

Nephthys, with her fiery breath took to the skies with her sister, unleashing her hellfire onto the demonic beings below, and erupting the volcanic mountains Set had created; molten lava enveloping the earth around them, as she burned their enemies alive.

Anubis and Isis followed after their family, using their Godly magics to wreak havoc upon the demonic numbers, as they continued to spill out from the Underworld. The Gods killed the demonic beings in the hundreds with each strike, but it seemed that their numbers never faltered, two sprinting taking the place wherever one fell.

So they rallied the forces of the mortal beings who still remained, begging them to join now and fight with them so that there was a hope they could save this world from the fiery clutches of their brother. And the mortals came, fighting alongside their Gods as Bastet lead them into battle, trying to make a dent anywhere within their ranks and get to the Underworld.

For a thousand years they fought like this.

A thousand years they fought a losing battle with everything they had, as the world they’d worked so hard to create crumbled around them. The twisted creations Osiris had made to destroy it almost entirely succeeding in their task. Their beloved subjects lay in ruin, the souls they’d promise to protect — they were all dying — and soon they too would cease to exist.

The Gods were losing, and knew they would fall too. It was just a matter of time.

Ra watched the world fade around him, knowing that this, in part, had been his fault. He had done nothing to stop it where he might have been able to, and now the world, the mortals...his children...they were all paying for his mistake. He had not fought for his son, and now Osiris had twisted into something beyond his recognition, and it would be the world’s undoing.

Ra had played a part in their destruction by doing nothing.

And if his children died it would be because of him.

They needed a way into the Underworld if they were going to have any chance of winning the battle which had waged on for far too long. They needed something to break the barrier Osiris had created that kept them out.

This time Ra would not do nothing.

So the God did the only thing he knew how — he gave his children everything he had to give.

The true death of a God — one who goes supernova — is not something likely to be seen, and the destruction it causes even more-so, so there was nothing that could have prepared the Gods for what happened next as Ra advanced on the Underworld.

There was little time for everyone to react before Ra’s explosion rang in magnitude. A bright flash of light erupted against the sky, blinding the world in a white light, the heat alone laying waste to much of the land. Then the blast reverberated across the earth, shaking the Gods to their core as the world erupted, and the earth cracked. The explosion levelling the world’s crust, and setting fire to the land around it; burning thousands upon thousands of Osiris’ army into nothing, as they were struck by the raw power of Ra’s dying form.

And then the light was gone, just as quickly as it had appeared, and there was a single moment of deafening silence as everyone looked around them to see the carnage a single God’s dying spark had done to their world.

A single moment before they realized that Osiris’ barrier was now gone, and new demons were rising up from the underworld in response, advancing onto the remaining Gods, as they realized what Ra had just sacrificed to give them the chance they had been waiting to get for a thousand years.

A single moment...and the siblings realized exactly what they had just witnessed...who they had just lost.

Ra.

Their beloved Father.

Their creator.

Was dead.

**“Go Bastet!”** Neith’s cries broke through the Goddess’ shock as the new wave of Osiris’ twisted creations rushed towards them from the Underworld’s depths, **“Go now! We’ll hold them off!”**

At her sister’s command Bastet ran towards the wave of demons coming towards them, Nephthys searing a path for her feline sister as she made her way towards the Underworld, crossing into it and suddenly very aware of the evil within the place where she was.

She could hear the sounds of battle behind her as her siblings also made their way towards the entrance, fighting their way inside. Bastet would end this, she would find her brother and force him to stop his onslaught.

It was up to her now.

**“You are foolish to have come here.”** A familiar voice — one she hadn’t heard for a thousand years rang out.

Bastet turned to face it...and was shocked to see the twisted being her beloved Osiris had become. No more was he the regal stag he’d been, but a horrific shadow of his former glory, and oh, the tortured look he gave her was enough to stop the Goddess dead in her tracks.

Bastet knew what she had to do, knew what she had come here for, and what all was riding of her success, but she could not bring herself to harm Osiris, despite his insanity. He was still her brother, even with all he’d done. She had to give him a chance, but she knew one way or another the war needed to end for the good of everyone.

**“You have to stop this, Osiris.”**

**“*Have* to?”** The God scoffed, discontempt in his eyes though he did not attack Bastet either, **“I don’t *have* to do anything. You don’t command me, sister.”**

**“You are destroying everything we created! You need to stop before there is nothing left! The world is dead, Osiris...”** She paused, looking into eyes she no longer recognized, **“Father is dead.”**

There was a flicker of something almost familiar in Osiris’ gaze, a distant memory of some poignant memory he’d experienced so many years ago as Bastet revealed what had happened to their creator. The God her brother had once been was still in there somewhere, even through the evil, twisted shell she could see it.

For all that he’d lost Osiris still had his soul.

**“Please…”** she pressed, begging him now to put an end to what he’d begun.

But the flicker disappeared, **“Enough!”** Osiris snarled, turning on his sister and smashing her with his horns with such force it sent her careening into rock, **“You dare?!”** He bellowed in his fury, advancing on the fallen Bastet, **“This is *my* realm, and you *dare* come here and try to tell me what to do?”** Osiris slammed his sister again, tossing her across the room from him in his anger; but Bastet did not fight back at first, which further infuriated the God, **“This is all of your faults! You are all paying for your sins! This is what you deserve.”**

The God was broken. Bastet could feel it. His emotions hit her like a tidal wave of pain, and it was suffocating. The Goddess could see everything as if it had been her own experience. All of the horrible things that had been festering in his mind for so long had smashed him down into nothing. There were barely any fragment left of who he was, lost almost entirely to his hatred and insanity. Her brother — who he’d been — was gone.

With a snarl of her own Bastet attacked him, carving into him as they leapt for each other; fighting like primal beasts for what seemed like forever — both out for the blood of the other — until weakness sank into their limbs and no more damage could be done.

The two Gods lay bloodied and battle torn across from each other, each now trying to find the strength to stand and finish the fight.

One of them needed to end this.

Bastet could still feel her brother’s soul through everything, and it was more broken than she ever thought a soul could be. He beloved brother had been torn apart from the instead out, as if someone had come along and scooped out everything that had made him the God he was. Now the Osiris she saw before her was a snarling nightmarish beast who brought nothing but suffering in his wake. He had been betrayed by the ones he’d loved, and it had been his undoing. Bastet seeing this truth through all the shattered pieces of his mind, how he’d suffered, what had lead to him becoming the despicable monster before her, and it was was almost too much to bear.

And she couldn’t stop it. She didn’t know how to help him.

So she tried once more to find in this broken creature’s eyes Osiris, her brother. Bastet pleaded with the fallen God through all of his anger, and agony, in a last attempt to spare his life, and end the war so that they could all still be together. Maybe they could correct the past, and build a better future. Maybe Osiris didn’t have to meet his end in the hell he’d been forced to be apart of for so long.

Maybe she could save him.

**“You were never evil Osiris.”** Bastet said softly, the God looking at her with fatigue and burning hatred knotting in his features. This needed to end, **“None of this was ever your fault. For all you have suffered, you never lost your soul.”** Bastet searched his eyes for something, anything, as she spoke. She needed to be reminded that there was still a part of him in there, **“Please, Osiris, just end this and we can go home and start over. There’s still a chance.”**

As Bastet begged the God for him to end his madness that she found something in Osiris’ eyes. Something that shocked her. He did not want redemption for all he had done. He did not seek forgiveness.

No. Amidst the emptiness of his soul Bastet did not find his absolution. She found his truth. What he wished more than anything.

And it was not for his family to die. Or the world, or his beautiful creations. He did not want them to meet their end.

Osiris wanted to be rid of his burden, and his pain. He wanted to be *free.*

**“You...want to die.”**

Bastet felt the words shake within her as they sunk in, searching his eyes now for any doubt within this wish...but she found none. It was the only thing he wanted now...his only need, and though Osiris did not have to confirm what he knew his sister had come to see, he still spoke in clarity, needing to ensure his torture would come to an end.

**“Please...”** He uttered the simple whisper, almost mortal eyes filled with a begging for someone to to take away his seemingly endless suffering.

There was a brief moment of understanding between the two siblings, Bastet and Osiris each finally seeing one another clearly, for the first time in a thousand years. He had bore his soul to her, and Bastet would not be the one to deny her brother of the single thing he wanted most in this world.

Even if death was the last thing she wanted.

As Bastet descended upon him he did not fight her, but instead watched her approach with an almost peaceful look in his eyes, content that his torture would come to an end soon. She no longer saw darkness in his eyes, but instead the good that had once shone there so long ago.

Bastet would be merciful. She would give Osiris the killing blow he desired. She did not want him to feel pain, so as she reached down to touch him she took it away, dragging anything he felt into herself, as she created the celestial dagger that hung just above her; ready to end the life of the brother she loved so dearly.

**“You will be liberated from this existence…”** Bastet began, looking down as her brother’s breathing quickened — whether in fear, or relief she did not know, but it didn’t matter now, **“...and return to the stars...where you will be free.”**

Bastet shed tears for her brother in that moment. In all he’d done, and became, the being before her was still her Osiris. He had never been truly evil, just broken...his soul still shone within him, even if it was fragmented. All this time, and all he had wanted was to be released from this hell, and they had all been unable to give that to him. They had all been unable to stop what had happened to him. But Bastet would not fail him now. She would make sure Osiris, at last, would get the chance to find his peace. There would be no more pain. No more suffering. She would ensure this for her brother.

And Osiris smiled up at her as he looked into his sister’s eyes, finding only comfort there, and he thanked her without any words of his own, as she plunged the dagger deep into his heart.

As the God lay dying, he returned to himself, perhaps by miracle. His twisted form melted away as he faded back into the magnificent stag he’d been all those years ago.

At last, he would be free.

**“I will return to Father…”** he said weakly, the light in his eyes flickering.

**“Yes.”** Bastet said simply. Her brother would see Ra again when he returned to the stars. **“I’m sure he’s already waiting for you.”**

The sounds of battle were already fading now as Osiris’ life started to leave him, his twisted creations each returning to the nothingness from whence they came.

**“Isis…”** He whispered, not having the breath left in his to say what he wished to, but he didn’t have to, Bastet could feel it. Her brother loved Isis so much.

**“I will tell her.”** Bastet whispered, touching her forehead lovingly to Osiris’, **“I will make sure she knows, I promise.”**

And with that last promise Osiris’ light flickered and died out.

Finally, after a thousand years of torture, and sadness and war, Osiris was free, his body fading away as his spirit drifted off to return to his place back amongst the stars from whence he came. The war was ended, and one by one the remaining forms of Osiris’ twisted demonic creations disappeared entirely, leaving no trace behind that they had ever been there.

But the world...it still lay in ruin, torn apart by the Gods and their war. They looked around at the destruction a thousand years of fighting had caused and they realized they needed to start anew, and rebuild what had been lost.

Bastet emerged from the cave just as the last of the fighting ended, meeting the gazes of all her siblings who were just as battered and bloodied as Bastet, as she spoke to them, **“It is ended…”** She confirmed, relief filling the air.

It was over.

**“...Osiris?”** Isis asked, stepping forward with hope in her voice. What had become of her brother?

**“His soul is with Father now.”**

Understanding and grief filled her sister’s eyes. Her Osiris was dead, **“I didn’t get to tell him…”** she drifted off.

Bastet sighed, touching her sister to try and comfort her, **“He knew, Isis. Trust me her knew, and he loved you with everything he had until his dying breath.”** It seemed to be enough for her sister, who nodded.

The feline Goddess took in the blazing world around them. The ground still split and hellfire erupting from the mountains in the distance. Their beautiful world had met its end. Everything was dead.

She turned to her siblings, **“We must begin again, create a new world...a new race…”**Bastet said, with sadness lacing her voice. She looked around at the thousands of bodies that lay strewn around them of the mortals who had fought and died for their Gods, before meeting eyes with Set. There was no more blame to place though, they had all been responsible, **”...and we will make sure that this time...we do not fail them.”**

After a thousand years, the war was over...but there was no victory, no cry of triumph. They had stopped Osiris’ path of destruction, but ultimately they had lost.

Their Father.

Their brother.

Their people.

Their world.

Each was dead and gone.

So there was no victory.

The Gods may have won, but they had failed their world.

But they could begin again.

This didn’t have to be the end.

And so the earth was given its chance to heal and rise from the ashes of its destruction.

As a reward for ending the war, the new race — Felidae — were created by her siblings in Bastet’s image...and they were beautiful.

It was decreed that the Gods would return to Ta Shai; only to see their creations in their end of days when their souls came to settle in the world of the afterlife. The siblings would watch, but no longer would they be seen by their children. The cats would know of them, but be free to rule themselves and shape their own destiny without the will of the Gods doing it for them — as it always should have been — they agreed — from the beginning.

Thus, of the siblings, Bastet was the only one who remained behind once the broken world had once again started to be made whole. She swore to continue her watch over the land from below, as she had from the first day of days; keeping her tie to the mortal world as their defender.

She would protect them, and watch them from the desert sands as the new race continued to rebuild the world stronger than it had been before. The Gods of Ta Shai watching their evolution, but no longer directly interfering with the fate of their mortal’s.

At night the cats looked up to the skies and saw the place their Gods had come from, calling out to them in praise for the world they had been given, and knowing they were not abandoned and that they were loved; even if their beloved Gods had disappeared from the mortal world back to Ta Shai.

Over time Bastet too disappeared, fading into the golden sands…her golden lands. The feline God forever watching, and protecting, but never to be seen again by her people.

This time, the Gods swore, they would succeed in keeping their beloved world and its creations safe.

They would not allow History to repeat itself.

They would not fail again.