A/N - HIIII LOVES IM BACK AGAIN!!!

there will be updates mostly every day now since i'm on holidays so prepare the tissues and prepare to be overloaded with the new chapters!! <33

(Y/N), Steven and Marc continued to scream, the girl getting pulled back by both males away from the talking animal.

"Hippo! Hippo!" Steven exclaimed, seeing Taweret bend down to fit through the doors.

"Oh, man!" Marc breathed out. "Wow, these meds are really amazing." He ran a hand down his face, bewildered.

"Is he always so intense?" The goddess asked the other two who remained calm, hands still interlocked.

"Who, him?" (Y/N) pointed her thumb at her fiancée, "Yeah, pretty much." She chuckled quietly.

Marc releases a troubled exhale, shaking his head as Steven agreed with his best friend.

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

"No." Marc shaked his head again.

"Well, yes, sort of." Steven replied making his so called twin give him a stare and (Y/N) snort.

"Okay, great." Taweret says happily, "That's really cleared this whole situation up for me."

"Well, that makes two of us." Marc's voice rumbles out, "Cause, just a second ago, I thought I'd been shot to death and lost my fiancé."

(Y/N)'s head turned to him at this, watching him for a moment as the male avoided her stare.

"Oh, gosh! This will really bake your noodle," The goddess started talking again, hands on hips. "But I think you were just taking a little time-out."

The three stare at her confused, waiting for an answer.

"I'm afraid you're actually quite dead." She tells them blunty, chuckling a little at their stunned faces.

Marc's eyes widened, "I'm sorry what?" He turned to the other two, seeing Steven in disbelief and a lost (Y/N).

"But.." Steven mumbled out.

"I'm dead? We're dead?" Marc questioned in bewilderment, then he glanced over at (Y/N) who stared back with anxious eyes, "She's dead?" His voice was wavery.

"Yes, Marc. I think she's right. I think we died." Steven breathed out, confirming the claim.

(Y/N) stumbled for words, "I didn't get shot though-" She stutters, breathing picking up which alerted the boys either side of her.

Taweret smiles cheekily at the girl, "You're not dead, (Y/N). You're here to find out why." She reassures her, ears flickering seeing the (H/C) haired girls scared expression.

(Y/N) shakes her head, ruffling her ponytail with her free hand as the other one was still tightly in Steven's trembling one, "I don't understand."

"You will soon, dear one." The goddess chimed in and goes to take something out of her armour, "I actually.. I have.. Hold on a sec." She gestures to wait and grabs a scroll, "It's been a minute since we've had a soul pass through here. Bit distracted.. excuse me." She stumbled with opening the scroll and finally got it open after pulling the string off, "A-ha! okay, here we go."

She takes a deep breath and waves a hand over her head, "Welcome, gentel traveler... travelers," She fixes up her words, seeing the three of them in front of her. "To the realm of the Duat."

(Y/N) gasps at this, excitement pumping through her veins as her love for Egyptian started showing, "Duat? The Egyptian underworld?" Her and Steven exclaim loudly and gesture to the hippo, "This is Taweret, goddess of women and children.."

"Uh-huh." Marc made a sound of listening, the male not understanding but loved hearing his fiancé gush about this.

Taweret did a little bow as the two continued, "And she's guiding us through out journey to the afterlife."

"Wow." Steven breathed in awe, sharing a bright grin with his best friend who was just amazed as him - despite her growing bad feeling.

"Okay." Marc grumbles and looks around the white hallways, "Right. So, this is the afterlife?" He walks past the goddess and continues to the other hallway, gesturing with his arms in the air, "The afterlife?"

"An afterlife. Not the afterlife." The hippo corrects the non-believer. "You'd be surprised how many intersectional planes of untethered consciousness exist."

"Yeah." Marc scoffs, hands on his hips as he still observed the place.

Taweret gasps, "Like the Ancestral Plane. Oh! just gorgeous. Anyway." She shakes her head, ears flickering as she gets back on track, "I do actually have cards for all this. If you just wait, and... I'm sorry." She starts to flick through the pages, the ones not needed falling on the floor.

She gasps sofly again, finding the one she needed to tell the group. "Okay, so.. because the Duat's true nature is impossible for the human mind to comprehend.."

"Right." (Y/N) and Steven nod, understanding what she was saying.

"You may perceive this realm as something  more easily recognizable to you." Taweret took a look at the clinical white walls around them, "A psych wards' a first for me, but, hey, we can roll with it, right?"

Steven looked confused and as did (Y/N). The girl internally shaking her head at the many times she's felt that recently. "Why would they imagine this realm to be a psychiatric hospital?" She asked to the talking hippo.

"Because we're insane." Marc dragged his words out, answering his fiancé's question as the other two snapped their heads in his direction.

He rolled his eyes and exhaled heavily, throwing his hands up in defeat. "We're insane. This talking hippo, talking dead bird, you're outside of my body now." He gestured to Steven who was glancing at the floor, "And now the afterlife, right? That's the reality and this.. the hospital. That's the imagination." He kept his insane rant as he slowly moved down the white hallway.

(Y/N) sighed and turned to the goddess who was watching amused, "Sorry, he's.." She grimaced and gestured to the male.

"Oh, man. Dr. Harrow's right." Marc confirms as he looks back and forth between the hospital rooms.

"Dr. Harrow?" Steven repeated in question, not understanding.

Marc threw his hands up again, "This is an organising principle."

"Is he a doctor now?" (Y/N) asked with raised eyebrows, growing more concerned for the male who wasn't realising this was, real.

"I'll prove it to you!" Marc exclaimed, wanting his fiancé to believe him the most as he didn't want her thinking he was crazy. "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 BINGOOOOH MY GOD!"

As the male shoved the massive white double door open, he was met with stepping onto the wooden deck of a boat. It being magically drifted across the sandy dunes while the violet-hue sky was filled with a starry night that stretched as far as the beautiful desert went.

Marc stood their flabbergasted as his mouth opened in shock at his surroundings. (Y/N) and Steven hurriedly joined him on the deck, their hands in a tight embrace still as they to, took in the breath-taking environment.

"What is this?" Marc asked sharply, his body automatically moving close to the (H/C) haired girl.

"This is the underworld." (Y/N) responded as her eyes took in the wonderful view, despite her knowing that something was terribly wrong.

"I'm not crazy." The male breathe out in relief, turning to (Y/N) and placed a sloppy kiss against her cheek, taking her by surprise. He pulled back and grinned hysterical, "I'm dead!" 

The girl felt her heart sink a little at his realisation. She knew how unwell her boys were, but she didn't think that Marc was more scared of being insane rather than dying.

"Where did you say we're going?" Marc's question brought (Y/N) back out of her sadden thoughts.

"We're sailing to A'aru." Steven answered his friend and pointed in the direction of the place he said, then he turned back to the goddess. "To the Field of Reeds, right, Taweret?"

Taweret giggled and pointed a finger at Steven, impressed. "Ah, so he's the smart one, hey?" She teased as (Y/N) smiled at the interaction.

"Well, if your heart's balanced in life, then you will spend eternity in paradise. The Field of Reeds." She explained happily then clasped her hands together, getting serious. "But before we get there, I've just got to do a quick little.." Her voice trailed off, reluctant to share what she was going to do.

Suddenly, the goddess reached forward towards Marc and Steven.... and her hands plunged straight into their chests.

(Y/N) yells in alarm, dropping the hand Steven held as she watched with wide eyes as the goddesses hand's disappeared into the boys chest, their chests' actually glowing somewhat also.

And in a split second later, Taweret safely removed her hands and outcome their hearts clutched in the hippo's hands. The trio all had horrified expressions as the male's chests went back to normal.

Taweret gasps, "Oh, goody! It worked! Look at that!" She cheers happily for herself, showing off the boys hearts. "Here was little old me worrying I'd blow your chests wide open." She casually told them and then walked over towards the scales that were swaying in the center of the deck.

"I'm sorry, what?" (Y/N) exclaimed, biting back her nausea of nervousness with what could've happened to both boys. 

"Wait, what's she doing?" Marc asked quietly to the best friends.

Steven glanced at Marc and took hold of the (H/C) haired girl's hand again, something he didn't feel comfortable without. "She's weighing our hearts on the scales of justice and the feather of truth," He started explaining as he gently pulled along his best friend with Marc on the other side of the girl,  "You see, the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the sign of who you really were in life. If the scales balance by the time you end the journey, then a soul is permitted to pass into the Field of Reeds."

The trio ended up in front of the scales, seeing the two hearts on one side and the other side held a white feather.

"What if they don't balance?" Marc questioned skeptically.

"You get thrown overboard. Whoo!" Taweret blunty answers as she makes a getting thrown off gesture and noise. "The dead will drag you down into the Duat, where you will remain forever, frozen in sand. No unbalanced soul's on my boat. Them's the rules. Fingers crossed for you guys, hey?"

(Y/N) swallows nervously at the goddesses answer. There was no way she lose Steven and Marc to that, no way she let that happen. Not if she had any say about it.

Marc gently grabbed (Y/N)'s elbow and pulled her over towards the side of the boat, with Steven following so they could talk in private.

"I don't care what this hippo says." Marc grunted under his breath, whispering to the two next to him, "There's no way we're ending up down there. And we're not going to the Field of Reeds, either."

"All right." Steven whispered back, voice low. "What are you proposing?"

"If it comes to it.." The other male glance back over his shoulder, making sure Taweret wasn't ears dropping. "Kill the hippo, steal the boat."

(Y/N) shook her head instantly at the idea, "I don't have my powers in here! I can't protect you two if something happens." She half whispered, half yelled at her fiancée. It was true though, she for some reason couldn't get her powers to work or get them to develop for some reason. It was like something was blocking her - something was stopping her.

Steven also didn't like the idea as his face paled with horror, "Kill the..?" He trailed off in a whimper noise but Taweret's voice stopped the conversation from continuing.

"Um, fellas?" She called from where she was standing near the scales as the machinery started rustling.

The trio all shared a look and walked up to join the hippo near the scales that were swinging up and down in a frenzy movement.

"What? Why is it doing that? Why is it moving like that?" Steven asked confused.

Taweret stuttered for words, her ears twitching. "I don't know." She admitted, "I do not have a card for this." She laughed nervously as she went to pick up the two hearts, seeing the scale coming to a stop. "Oh. It's the hearts. They aren't full. And trust me, I'm a goblet half-full kind of gal, but.." She trailed of, scaring the poor (H/C) haired girl more as she wanted her boys safe and away from this mess.

"It's like they each feel incomplete."

"What does that mean?" Marc snapped, arms crossed over his chest.

Taweret shook her head sadly, not liking the next words she said. "Without balanced scales, the Duat will eventually claim your soul."

Marc shared a knowing look with (Y/N) and Steven, his eyebrows raised as his face practically radiated wanting to act his idea to kill the hippo. (Y/N) snorted quietly and looked away from him.

Steven shot Marc a look back then turned to Taweret, wanting to find a different approach. "Do you have any other suggestions?"

The goddess turned around to them, "This boat contains all of a life's memories. Now I don't know what you guys have been hiding, but my advice, get in there and show each other the truth." Her eyes drifted to (Y/N) who was looking around like a lost puppy, "Show her the truth."

Marc's head casted down at this, his knuckles clenched at his sides while Steven furrowed his eyebrows, not getting what the hippo meant about his beloved. But Marc did. Oh, he sure did.

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