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"AAAAGH!"

Marc and Steven unconsciously pushed (Y/N) behind them as the three yelled out of horror, holding their hands in front as a way to show defense. The hippo standing a few feet away was also startled by the sudden yells but didn't think too much of it and walked forward with a smile.

Marc backed a few steps back and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Oh, man! Wow, these meds are really amazing."

The hippo looked at Steven and (Y/N), a hint of confusion rising in its features. "Is he always so intense?"

"Who, him?" Steven asked "Yeah, pretty much."

"You have absolutely no idea," (Y/N) cleared her throat from all the yelling and crossed her arms.

The hippo glanced between Steven and Marc, pretty evident that it was confused by them having the same face but different attitudes and accents.

"So, are you two, like, twins?" the hippo asked.

Marc removed his hands from his face. "No."

"Well, yes, sort of," Steven answered at the same time, his nose scrunching up over the nerves. His words made Marc look back at him with an angry look before catching his breath again.

"Okay, great," the hippo gave a toothy smile. "That's really cleared that whole situation for me," then its eyes fell on (Y/N)'s form in between the two boys and it raised its paw in the air again. "And you're a fine young lady."

(Y/N) couldn't help but feel flustered by the comment but she shook her head after that. "I still don't get it. Because I thought I'd been shot to death just a few minutes ago."

"Which was very stupid of you, by the way," Marc interrupted like there wasn't a hippopotamus standing right next to him. "I could've handled it. I would've been alone in this situation."

He wouldn't say it out loud in front of her, and he thought he never had to, but seeing (Y/N) getting shot directly in front of him was a memory that made Marc's blood boil whenever he thought about it. He didn't find it fair for her, nor for him.

(Y/N) scoffed at his words. "Well, I'm sorry for thinking your life was much more worth saving than mine."

"Oh, gosh! This will really bake your noodle, but I think you were just taking a little time-out," the hippo said enthusiastically. "I'm afraid you're actually quite dead."

(Y/N) felt her stomach drop right where she stood. The sentence made the hair in the back of her neck to rise out of the shock, and she frowned since she didn't quite understand it all.

"I'm sorry, what?" Marc froze.

"But. . ." A realization flashed in Steven's eyes.

"I'm dead," Marc repeated. "We're dead?"

"Yes," Steven breathed out with a nod. "Yes, Marc. I think she's right. I think we died."

"I actually. . .I have. . .Hold on a sec," the hippo paused and began to search in her robe's pockets. "It's been a minute since we've had a soul, well two, pass through here.

"Bit distracted. . .Excuse me," The hippo pulled a sealed papyrus from her robes and began to roll it out in order to being able to read it out loud.

"Aha! Okay, here we go," she cleared her throat and extended her right paw in a greeting manner. "Welcome, gentle traveler. . .Travelers, to the realm of the Duat."

"Duat?" Steven couldn't believe his ears. "The Egyptian Underworld. This is Taweret, goddess of women and children. . .and she's guiding us through our journey to the afterlife."

The goddess Taweret smiled at the mention Steven gave her and gave a quick bow before returning back to her natural posture. (Y/N) thought this was all a weird dream and she would wake up like nothing happened, but this was too specific to be a dream of hers.

"Wow," Steven whispered.

"Okay," Marc said instead in an unamused tone. "Right. So, this is the afterlife? The afterlife?"

"An afterlife. Not the afterlife," Taweret corrected him and followed him when Marc walked away. "You'd be surprised how many intersectional planes of untethered consciousness exist."

(Y/N) nodded as she took the information in and then a thought came into her head. "Like the Ancestral Plane?"

"Exactly! Oh! Just gorgeous. See, she knows about it," Taweret exclaimed enthusiastically before trying to change the subject. "Anyway."

(Y/N) could see from the corner of her eye how Marc cradled his head in his hands because of frustration while Steven had his hands tied together and looked up at Taweret with a hint of fascination. They were so different, yet they still caught her eye in the same way.

"I do actually have cards for all this if you just wait, and. . .I'm sorry. Wait. Bye," Taweret began to toss the useless papyrus cards away to try and find the one that could help her move on. "Because the Duat's true nature is impossible for the human mind to comprehend. . ."

"Right," Steven nodded.

". . .you may perceive this realm as something more easily recognizable to you."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, it's no surprise that my half of it looks like a hospital," (Y/N) clasped her hands together and moved a few steps to stand closer to the boys. "Even when I'm dead I'm still the sick girl." 

"Again, you're correct," Taweret grinned and took a look around the white tiled hallway. "A psych ward's a first for me, but, hey, we can roll with it, right?"

"Why would we imagine this realm to be a psychiatric hospital?" Steven frowned.

Marc backed away from Steven and (Y/N) with his hands on his hips, a tight smile on his lips before he spoke up. "Because we're insane."

(Y/N) rubbed a hand up and down Steven's arm when she noticed the look he had in his eyes when Marc said those words, them and Taweret watching how he began to drift off.

"We're insane," Marc repeated. "This talking hippo, talking dead bird, you're outside of my body, now. And now the afterlife, right?"

Marc continued to walk backwards into the hallway while speaking, raising his arms every now and then to add dramatics to what he was saying.

"That's the reality and this. . ."

"But Marc, Marc — "

"The hospital. That's the imagination."

Steven glanced back at Taweret with an embarrassed look. "Sorry, he's — "

"Oh, man," Marc shook his head. "Dr. Harrow's right."

"Dr. Harrow?" Steven and (Y/N) questioned out loud at the same time, both for two different reasons.

Marc nodded. "This is an organizing principle."

"Is he a doctor now?" Steven mumbled.

"I'll prove it to you," Marc began, moving onto the closest two doors and walked over. "So, like, right through these doors, for example, we go through here, there's gonna be patients, and there's Crawley probably about to yell bingo!"

He ignored everyone's protests and opened the doors wide open, only to find a scenery much more different than the one he had imagined.

Instead of the vision he had in mind, Marc was surprised with the sight of a purple and yellow shaded sky all around, and stepping into the outside of what seemed to be an old boat.

"Oh, my God!" he yelled out. "Oh, my God."

(Y/N) and Steven joined him outside and neither of them could believe what they were seeing right now. The sight was breathtaking to (Y/N), yet a part of her felt a hole in her stomach at the scene. This meant it all came to an end, and she wasn't sure if she agreed or not.

(Y/N)'s eyes drifted over to what was standing in a pedestal a few feet away from where she stood and noticed how it was an ancient scale to measure the weight of whatever was placed in the plate. If this was just like her father's books said, this would determine how she would spend the eternity in.

"What is this?" Marc knocked her off her thoughts.

"This is the underworld," Steven answered.

"I'm not crazy," Marc grinned happily and grasped Steven's shoulders. "I'm dead. Where did you say we're going?"

"We're sailing to A'aru," Steven explained, his stutter breaking out when he stared at the goddess. "To the Field of Reeds, right, Taweret?"

"Ah, so he's the smart one, hey?" Taweret pointed at him before continuing. "Well, if your hearts' balanced in life, then you will spend eternity in paradise. The Field of Reeds."

This confirmed (Y/N)'s inner thoughts and continued hearing what the goddess had to say. "But before we get there, I've just got to do a quick little. . ."

She hesitated for a moment but then she reached her large paws into the trio's chests, her hand phasing right through their body as she tried to pull the heart out carefully.

Taweret gasped once she held three identical hearts out, and the strange thing was that they weren't the color they were supposed to be. The hearts were a white, crystallized color and they weren't dripping from blood or anything else.

"Oh, goody! It worked! Look at that!" she gasped. "Here was little old me worrying I'd blow your chests wide open."

"Sorry, what?"

Taweret walked away from the trio and marched right up where the scales were, the grin never faltering from her features as she held the hearts in her paws.

"Wait, what's she doing?"

"She's weighing our hearts on the Scales of Justice and the Feather of Truth," Steven explained before they all moved to watch closely to what Taweret was going to do.

"You see, the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the sign of who you really were in life," he continued. "If the Scales balance by the time you end the journey, then a soul is permitted to pass into the Field of Reeds."

"What if they don't balance? We get thrown overboard, right?" (Y/N) asked from his right.

"Just like that. Whoo!" Taweret made gestures with her hands. "The dead will drag you down into the Duat, where you will remain forever, frozen in sand."

Marc marched over the edge of the boat to peak down at the dunes of sand the boat was rowing through. (Y/N) didn't hesitate in moving to see for herself and Steven joined them in a matter of seconds, all three looking over the edge.

"No unbalanced souls on my boat. Them's the rules," Taweret reminded. "Fingers crossed for you guys, hey?"

Marc stared at the sand before leaning down to lower his voice loud enough for (Y/N) and Steven to hear. "I don't care what this hippo says. There's no way we're ending up down there. And we're not going to the Field of Reeds, either."

"All right," Steven mumbled. "What are you proposing?"

Marc looked behind his shoulder. "If it comes to it, kill the hippo, steal the boat."

"Marc, are you crazy?" (Y/N) asked incredulously in a whisper-yell. "You're not killing an ancient Egyptian goddess."

"I said if it comes to it," he defended.

Before (Y/N) could argue any further, Taweret interrupted with a slight change of tone from her cheery one. "Um, fellas?"

The Scales weren't sit still in one placed balanced, it shifted its weight with the Feather of Truth from side to side every passing second. Their three hearts were placed on one side of the plates while the other held the feather, and the thought of having their Scales balanced was growing fainter.

"What? Why is it doing that? Why is it moving like that?" Steven frowned at the sight.

"I don't know," Taweret stuttered to think of an answer. "I do not have a card for this."

She reached out to grab the three hearts from the Scales and noticed how it balanced with the feather alone. "Oh, it's the hearts. They aren't full. And trust me, I'm a goblet half-full kind of gal, but. . .It's like they each feel incomplete."

(Y/N)'s shoulders tensed from beside Marc and noticed how he almost looked uncomfortable at what Taweret had said.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"Without balanced Scales, the Duat will eventually claim your souls," Taweret replied and placed the hearts back in the Scales.

Marc gave Steven a knowing look, still suggesting the idea he had in mind of stealing the boat, but Steven wasn't going to let that happen.

"Do you have any other suggestions?"  Steven asked before anything else happened.

"This boat contains all of a life's memories," Taweret gestured to the inside of the boat. "Now, I don't know what you three people have been hiding, but my advice, get in there and show each other the truth."

The thought of that made (Y/N) shift her weight from foot to foot every now and then while Marc and Steven gave each other a weird glance and eyed her change of demeanor.

"Balance your Scales before we arrive at the Field of Reeds, or your souls will be destroyed."

(Y/N) groaned. "Can't i just jump off the boat now and get it over with? I don't need an Egyptian underworld to tell me how terrifically amazing my life was!"