It had taken longer than Ranger had wanted, but a box marked ‘Fragile’ was sitting on the table in front of him. It was hand delivered by Dr. Goldstein, chief Egyptologist at NYU. The man wanted to help Ranger with his investigation following the attack at his office and home. The man also wanted to distance himself from the items in question. Self preservation overrode the man’s thirst for knowledge.

So Ranger sat down at the table in the central library on the NYU campus and opened the box. Dr. Goldstein had said his notes on the ankh and the tablet that accompanied it were enclosed. When Ranger opened the box all he saw was a tablet. The electronic kind. Ranger chuckled to himself and removed it from the box revealing a stone tablet wrapped in cloth and bubble wrap.

With a sigh, Ranger fired up the electronic tablet and as it loaded he unwrapped the stone tablet. It would be a long night for Ranger, digging through the information in the notes.

Once the stone tablet was unwrapped and the electronic tablet was running, and the first page of notes located, Ranger picked up his phone to call Rex. Ranger lowered it from his ear and turned when he heard a phone ringing behind him in time with the rings on his end of the call.

Rex glanced suspiciously beside him as his phone started ringing. “This wasn’t a coincidence, was it?” he grunted as he walked into easy speaking range with Hunter. It was a library after all.

Rex’s companion smiled, the brilliant ruby of her lipstick highlighting the brightness of her teeth. “A lady never reveals all of her secrets,” she said in amusement.

The two were a study in contrasts. Rex wore a black and blue flannel shirt that was tucked into his jeans. He was wearing work boots and a heavy leather belt. A five o’clock shadow and a frown were all the accessories he had. He towered over the woman beside him.

She was decked out in red. A red dress underneath a red longcoat with red boots and a red wide-brimmed hat that cast a shadow over her face, obscuring her features other than her mouth that alway promised secrets but rarely seemed to reveal any.

That was about to change, however. When Rex had stepped into the stacks in the Veil’s magical sanctum, bewildered as to where to even begin looking for magical answers about that Egyptian sorceress he and Hunter had repeatedly encountered, the Lady in Red had approached him with a scroll in hand containing hieroglyphics and more.

She was a master of a branch of magic the Welldrinkers had formally called “Asceision,” a naming convention the Veil had generally continued. It was the branch of magics that focused on knowing and learning things past, present, and future. The Lady had been the former Asceision Supreme as well as the one who’d betrayed the Welldrinkers and led the mystic allies of the X-Men in a ritual to fully release magic into the world, ruining the plans of the Welldrinkers and well as the powers of the Supremes.

Now she seemed to appear here and there, passing out clues and hints when people had questions or needs. Little nudges to get them on the right paths, or at least the paths she thought were right.

That is why Rex was concerned when she began working with him for quite some time, lending her magical expertise to his burgeoning asceision talents as they sought to divine answers about who the Egyptian sorceress was and what her goals were. After researching and casting spells and praying, the two had been able to glean more from the aether and had finally approached Hunter.

This time the Lady went back to her usual tricks and had just given Rex a slip of paper with an address and a time, telling him they needed to be there at that time.

Rex grunted in acknowledgement. He really should’ve expected this from her by now. “Hunter,” Rex said in greeting as he went for a handshake. “This is the Lady in Red. We’ve got information on the sorceress’ plans.”

Walking in as if predestined, Rex had a woman in red with him. While her face was obscured in the shadows of her hat, the eponymous color and too perfect timing had Ranger thinking the woman was the infamous ‘Lady in Red’.

Ranger stood and shook Rex’s hand, “Rex.” Normally Ranger would have replied with Rex’s last name, but there had been a joke shortly before his loss of time. A space marine and an alien going back and forth “Shephard” and “Wrex”.

Then Ranger turned to the woman with Rex, the woman Rex had confirmed was the Lady in Red, he held out his hand and said, ”Ma’am. Nice t’ meet y’. I’ve heard 'thing’ about y’.” before turning to gesture to the tablets on the table, ”Good t’ know. I might have a lead on what she wants, if I can make sense of Dr. Goldstein’s notes.”

Sure, the notes would help in interpreting the tablet, but it was likely that the information was wrapped up in jargon and coded language of the professor’s field of study. Linguistics, especially with dead languages, were not Rangers forte. Troubleshooting was.

The Lady inclined her head at Ranger’s greeting. “I’ve known so many things about you,” she said in reply, her ruby-red lips quirking into an ever-present smile.

Rex grunted. “Right,” he said as he held out a hand to the Lady, who passed him a folder. He placed it on the table with the tablets.

“The woman’s name is Akh,” Rex began, as if reading a report. “She’s a sorceress born approximately 5000 years ago in what is now Egypt. Her primary magical potential is what the Veil classifies as Invocation magic, which covers the areas of creating constructed beings, warping space and dimensions, controlling minds, and more. We saw most of that already, at the museum and the professor’s house. She also has abilities in Asceision magic. That means --”

“Enough of that!” The Lady said with a huff. “Really, Rex, you have no style.” She wagged a finger at him and then dazzled both men with a smile. “This is how you tell a story!”

She pressed the forefinger and middle finger of each hand to her lips and kissed them gently but not quickly. Then she reached out and pressed red-stained fingertips to Rex and Ranger’s forehead, right between their eyes. Instead of fingerprints however, an imprint of her lips appeared. Then she slapped her hands down on the evidence, one hand on the file Rex had and the other hand touching both of Ranger’s tablets.

“In the beginning…” she began as the world spun and went black for the three of them.

The first thing heard was death.

It did not come gently, it did not come quietly. It came from everywhere all at once.

In the time of the first hieroglyphs, when the people of Egypt were still learning their gods and how to engage with them, hundreds and hundreds of years before the land was unified, Akh first walked the earth.

She was a farmer, a harvester, as many in her community were. Her childhood was spent in backbreaking labor under the hot Nile sun, struggling for daily survival as the everlasting wars and raids devoured their food and resources.

When the armies of a neighboring warlord swept through her valley, the screams of all the people she knew and loved filled the air like locusts swarming. The armies descended like a sandstorm, killing, murdering, ravaging. Her family was taken away to be used as slave labor. Their stockpiles of food were captured or left to spoil.

She would’ve been one of them, if not for one man.

Ka.

He found her in the battle, cutting through swathes of the enemy in order to lead her to safety. From their hiding place, they watched the desecration and devastation of her valley. Her life. They watched as the river ran red and the army left, leaving behind fire and soot and ash.

Then she followed Ka as he went after the army.

She followed him as he killed the stragglers and hanger-ons. She followed him as he poisoned their food supplies in the night. She followed him as he released their camels and donkeys into the wilderness. She followed him as he assassinated their vizier and magi in a single, bloody feast. She followed him as he eventually killed every single member of the warlord’s army before finally slaughtering the warlord himself.

She followed him as he freed the last of her people.

She followed him as he moved to the next valley and did the same.

She followed him even when it was no longer just the two of them. She followed him after she drank from a Well and the magic of the gods was bestowed upon her.

She followed him as he established a palace. She was there when he sat on a pharaoh's throne and became a god himself. She was there as other magicians and gods-touched individuals joined him. She stood beside him as other gods acknowledged him.

She followed him as he waged war on every land around him. She helped him conquer kingdoms. She led armies of magic and monsters. She drew upon the very Duat itself and slew gods. Shrines were toppled and temples sacked.

Akh followed Ka as he faced the world and claimed it as his own.

She followed him as new champions arose. She was there when new gods emerged and took to the battlefields. She stood back to back with him as far-flung lands sent their heroes to kill, destroy, and accept no quarter.

She still followed him when his empire began to fracture. She stood by him as civil wars and rebellions erupted beneath him. She was at his side as abominations reached the steps of his temple.

And then her lover ripped her away from her king, her god. Quarry, the shifting man of sand and stone stole her from her lord and savior and they fled. The last she saw of Ka was a sad smile before their enemies flooded the throne room and then she was dust in the wind, later reformed by her lover’s power into sandstone, locked in each other’s arms for thousands of years of silence and weeping.

Then everything went dark.

The Lady in Red didn’t mess around. She had cut Rex off at his debrief and by simply beginning a tale, manifested it for them. Seemingly drawing out details from the intel Rex and Ranger had gathered. Translating, interpreting, and presenting.

Magic was a hell of a thing when handled by a former Supreme.

Ranger looked at the Lady in Red. If she could hijack his experience of reality like that, he did not want to make an enemy of her. ”So Akh is what, tryin’ t’ find her king? Dude’s probably dead, he ain't actually a god. Gods ain’t real. Well, save f’r one but he’s a bit more levantine.”

As the magic collapsed, Rex fell out of the vision and the world returned to normal. Rex immediately turned to glare at the Lady, but she winked before he could open his mouth.

He ended up not saying anything. The lip print on Hunter’s forehead was already fading and Rex assumed the same was happening to him. Having that vision cast upon him was not in the plan, but he had to admit, it was effective.

Rex ever-so-slightly raised an eyebrow at Hunter’s reference to the one true God, but he didn’t dwell on it. He filed it away for later. Instead, he proceeded with a report - he didn’t have vision spells, after all.

He nodded. “We believe Akh is trying to…somehow….use time travel to bring her pharoah to the present,” he said. “Even though I’m told time travel is beyond the powers of mystics. She may also be planning to bring back a pantheon of so-called gods that have been…’lost to time and memory’.”

The Lady sighed and took up the report. “Alas, we were unable to track down any records from that time, and it seems it was deliberate.” Her lips pursed into a pout. “It seems those ancient Egyptians did what they normally did after a sudden regime change - they wiped out all traces of the pharaoh, and even all the references to these gods. Even with all my tricks and skills, I couldn’t learn anything more about what to expect. Mutants? Mystics? Something else? Who knows?” She put a hand on her hip and tilted her head toward Ranger.

“All the oracles just pointed back to that ankh your researcher was studying,” she said. “Would you care to do the honors? Or shall I?”

The Lady in Red asked if Ranger would do the honors or should she. Ranger inclined his head and said, ”I’ll do the honors.”

Ranger worked the electronic tablet for a moment, pulling up a picture of the ankh. ”I hadn’t had time t’ dig int’ the info, but I know this much.” Ranger pointed at the ankh and then as he spoke he highlighted a few phrases in the attached notes to punctuate hiss statements. ”The Ankh of Ascension. The lore on the object was wiped from all but the ankh itself and the tablet. It can ascend a mortal t’ the power of gods, both of the mystic an’ the innate. Magic an’ mutation.” Ranger looked back to Rex, ”Akh will use magic, find someone she can unlock the time shift power in an’ brin’ her gods forward. And her pharaoh.”

Rex crossed his arms. “So now we know what she’s after and how to stop her,” he said, frowning. “We just need to get that ankh from her. After we find out where she is. Can you help us with that?” He focused his frown on the Lady.

“I’d be delighted to,” she said with almost a purr. “I’d hate for my hands to be idle for too long while you boys are busy saving the city from Akh’s army of villains.”

Rex’s frown turned into a glare and faint firelight danced in his eyes. “What army of villains?” he said sternly.

“Put those flames out, dear, this is a library,” the Lady said with a finger wag. “I’m talking about the army of villains Akh has been recruiting since she escaped with the Ankh of Ascension. Did I not mention them already?”

Rex glared. “You did not.”

The Lady in Red. “My oh my, where has my head been? Too much looking at the future and you’ll forget your own past!” she said with a flirtatious chuckle. She reached into her red clutch and pulled out a notecard covered in an elegant handwritten script. “Here you go,” she said as she handed it to Ranger.

The note read:

To whom it may concern,

The territory of New York City is due to be attacked by an army of lawebreakers, criminals, rebels, and ne’erdowells, all under the direction of one Akh, a talented invocation and asceision sorceress. She has hired, tricked, bribed, intimidated, and/or persuaded all of them to do as much damage to the city and its people as possible at the agreed upon time. She had convinced them it will be well worth their time.

This is purely to occupy all law enforcement, military, and vigilante forces in the region in order to give her sufficient time to enact her plan. I recommend haste to ensure minimal destruction and casualties.

Warmest regards,

XOXO

”How long do we have, when’s it happenin’?” Ranger asked, producing his phone. He needed to alert… Everyone,

The Lady in Red looked at Ranger,

“Darling, it’s already started.”