The gate, when it finally opened far enough for Damien to see through the doorway, opened out into a vortex of storm clouds and dust. There was no up or down, nothing beyond the grey green swirl of clouds that light up by unseen light. Dust swirled there, merging and breaking away. Tiny black particles that held no form or shape. Damien couldn't tear his eyes away. It was horrible yet so beautiful. 

"Ash to ashes, Dust to dust. Skin to bone and steel to rust", he quoted under his breath. It fit. For it seems that they were nothing more than dust in the end. He wondered if parts of his soul was swirling amongst that maelstrom. Tiny parts of himself that he never knew were missing. If something was missing then how could you know if if you did not know what was missing in the first place?

"Welcome to the new rein of Kahmenrah. Fifth king of Egypt and now the world! Horus! Ra! My warriors come forth!" As the words echoed around the room the swirling dust seemed to condense as it drew closer to the door. Everyone watching in stunned silence as the dust took shape. Men dressed in Egyptian armour and holding spears in their hands came marching through the doorway two at a time. Or they were men, if it wasn't for the large bird heads with plumage of browns and golds where hair would be. They large avian eyes gazing unblinkingly at the crowd. Damien spotted people backing away. Even Napoleon, Ivan and Al hurried to the edges of the room despite their alliance with the madman in charge. 

"Send my brother and his friends to their doom!"  The command was answered with a bird screech that made Damien wince. The avian soldiers' feet loud on the stone floor as they circled the room. Ahk and Damien trapped in the centre. Their numbers still growing until they had circled them once, twice, three times. Damien counted around fifty soldiers. Their ranks filling the empty spaces in the room. 

Kahmenrah shouted a command and the soldiers all stopped, the butts of their spears stamping into the floor in unison to make a loud clang. Damien tried to sit up further in Ahk's arms but pain lanced through his nerves and he slipped back with a gasp. Ahk's hold tightening on him in concern. With another order, the Avian soldiers closest to the group had their spears up an aimed at their throats. Ahkmenrah glared at the offending weapons as he kept his arms around the blonde. 

"Halt!" A familiar voice echoed around the room. Damien tilted his head to peer between the soldier's feet in an effort to spot the miniature roman solider. To his side, he distantly heard a cry of joy from the tipped over hourglass.  

"The mighty Octavius has returned! I ride on the back of nature's most fearsome creature. I ride the mighty squirrel!" The squirrel reared up with a litany of squeaks before scurrying across the floor towards Kahmenrah's feet. Damien grinned, far too tired to laugh. He pressed his hands to the makeshift bandages and winced when they felt damp.

Kahmenrah was looking down at squirrel with a face of confusion. His nose was still bloodied and Damien was pretty sure that the man's finger was broken after he had hit him with the tablet. The reminder made his grin wider. "Do you wish to surrender honourably? Or must this end with the spilling of your blood?" Octavius demanded, sword drawn. 

"That's my partner!" Jed crowed from the sand timer. 

Kahmenrah turned to the three men. Ahk on the floor cradling Damien and Jed in his prison. "Why brother, this is your big rescue?" 

"Oh no. This is!" Octavius shouted. Glass smashed and Ahk shifted, lifting Damien slightly to turn them towards the broken windows. The hole in the glass left by the plane was large but what was coming through was much bigger. The shards tinkled as the giant stone figure of Abraham Lincoln stepped through. This time, Damien couldn't help but laugh. It was a weak sound for it hurt too much to put more breath into it, but still he laughed. As the men around them, Avian, French, Russian and gangster, all stepped back. 

"What is that thing?" Kahmenrah gaped. Damien heard Ahkmenrah chuckle. 

"The name is Abraham Lincoln and you sir, are in a heap of trouble". The giant stature wagged a finger at them disapprovingly. 

"Attack it!" Kahmenrah ordered. The birdheads looked at him. "Caw Caw!" He corrected. That, they seemed to understand. Spears came flying but bounced harmlessly off the stone man. Not even a chip to show it. 

All it seemed to do was annoy the man. Abraham crouched down and with aa disgusted comment of "disgusting half pigeons", he flicked two soldiers away and promptly swiped ten of them off their feet. 

The rest of the avian soldiers paused, then promptly reevaluated their new lives and seemingly decided that it wasn't worth it. As one they began running back to for still open door to the afterlife. "Adios bird brains", Jed called. 

"Goodbye strange bird men", Abraham waved them out. 

"No no no. Do not return to the underworld!" Kahmenrah tried. 

"Yes yes. Do return to the underworld", Octavius laughed. "Thank you for coming. Goodnight". Then the last Avian was grabbing the door and pulling it shut behind them. The doorway to the underworld sealing again and leaving the rest of them standing in a sort of confused silence. 

Abraham Lincoln dusted off his hands. "It appears my work here is done". He leaned down to gaze at Ahkmenrah and Damien on the floor. "May I wish you two good luck". Then he was stepping back out of the window and into the night. 

"What do we do now?" Ivan broke the silence. 

Kahmenrah snarled. "It seems that I will just have to be satisfied with watching my brother and his lover die", he gritted as he drew his sword and strode towards the two men on the floor. Damien felt Ahk instinctively grip him tighter, pulling him as close as possible as the madman grew closer. He glanced around wildly, searching for anything that may help Ahk. 

The avian soldiers spears had bounced off Abraham and now lay all over the floor, forgotten by their owners and abandoned. One had fallen nearby, a few inches from Damien's feet. He stretched out his feet, grunting in pain at the movement, and hooked the heel of his shoe around the weapon to tug it closer. "Ahk", he alerted. He didn't have to say his name twice. Ahkmenrah was grabbing the spear and bringing it up just as Kahmenrah reached them and brought his sword down. It hit the steel protected guard of the pommel with a clang. 

It echoed around the room. Ahk half crouched on the ground, one arm supporting Damien and the other holding the spear above them. For a moment they were locked together then a second sound then another shout broke it. Kahmenrah rolled his eyes. "What now?"

Damien peered over Ahk's shoulder to see Larry, Amelia and all their friends, as well as a few others of all shapes and sizes standing at the end of the room. As one they unleashed a war cry and came charging into a collide with Kahmenrah's henchmen in a mess of noise and limbs. "It appears our friends are here to save us", he grinned. 

Ahk looked up as Kahmenrah was rugby tackled away from them by a very angry Attila and laughed. As around them, a battled broke out. 

unedited