Unsteady; House of Anubis *B2*

[90] House of Freedom

"so, we meet again Protector."

"Miss me?" Camilla glared at him, getting a similar glower back from the man, "No? oh well, I can't say the same about you either."

"Give me that Mask!" he shouted trying to move around the girl towards Alfie.

"Over my dead body!" Camilla hissed stepping forward, ignoring the blood rushing from her nose from the spell she and Eddie had performed.

"that can be arranged," Rufus growled back as he stepped forward so they where so close they could almost touch.

There was a noise from the mezzanine which caused Camilla's eyes to dart up to Nina, Rufus followed her gaze causing the man to let out a gasp.

Nina got up groaning slightly. Still wearing the golden mask.

"That's it, that's the true mask!" the man exclaimed, he turned on his heel and bounded up the steps.

"NO, no, no! Rufus stop!" Fabian yelled rushing over to his sister and taking her arm. The man was not getting to sap anything from Camilla, not on his watch.

At this point Victor rushed into the library, seeing his protector looking up and following her gaze too. Feeling her take the sleeve of his jacket as they watched Rufus grab the real Mask of Anubis off Nina's face causing the American girl to scream.

The tears of gold evaporated, but Nina clung to the Mask. Camilla had saved her life too many times to count. She had to save her this time. She couldn't let Rufus get the mask.

"Rufus, you mustn't wear it!" Nina shouted at him tearfully.

Victor called up to Nina. "Let him take it and go!"

Nina glanced down at the man then to Camilla next to him.

"Listen to the old man, child." Rufus sneered.

Victor glanced to Camilla next to him, before looking up straight to Nina, "yes, you listen to this old man."

Something about the man's tone got through to Nina, but it was the trust she knew Camilla had in the man. The trust that he was really the good guy, really on their said. The thing Camilla had spent all year telling them. For once, she listened to The Protector and took a leap of faith.

Nina let go of the mask.

"No!" Fabian cried out until he saw his sister smile slightly as she looked to Victor and the man gave her a wink. They knew something, or Victor did anyway, something the rest of them hadn't figured out yet.

Rufus let out a cry of triumph and pushed Nina to one side, the girl sinking to her knees weakly clutching the bannister.

"Prepare to bow down before me, mortals!" he cried out.

With that Rufus put on the mask. Howling with delight as Senkhara merged with his body, preparing to step into the glorious afterlife.

However, with a powerful rush of air, the same rush they all had come to recognise when Camilla used large amounts of magic, the portal on the mezzanine closed and another portal opened on the library floor by the feet of Victor and Camilla. The pair's hair and clothes flapping wildly around them as the pair looked down at it. From where the Sibuna's were all scattered they could feel the furnace-like heat coming from the dark foreboding portal made of black magic.

Senkhara in Rufus's body writhed in horror as they looked down at the new portal. "Noooo! NO, YOU ARE NOT THE PARAGON!"

Rufus struggled to take off the mask as he screamed a blood-curdling scream of pain, but Senkhara's spirit found him from inside.