"What?" I said.

I was so surprised that I glanced over at Mirabi, but quickly forced my eyes back down my gun sights.

"What?" said Ra. A single flicker of doubt showed on his face.

"I was there when it cloned Erik," said Mirabi, gesturing at me. "I brought it back from the future. Look at him. How old does he look?"

Ra's eyes narrowed.

"...Twenty-six, twenty-seven?" said Zeus, from behind me.

"He came out of the cloning process as a twenty year old," said Mirabi. "That was five years ago. That's the limit on the technology. You're not going to clone an identical twin. You're going to clone a 20 year old version of yourself. But the body in there is the same age you are. The clone's going to be too young."

Ra's eyes went wide. His face trembled. The knife shook in his hand. Megan tried to lean back away from it, pressing into him. His eyes flickered between me, Mirabi and the sarcophagus.

"No," he said. "No."

"Unless you're planning on waiting twenty years before you send him back, yes," said Mirabi.

"It doesn't have to be this way," I said. "There could be another solution. Another way out of this. One that doesn't involve killing anyone else."

"No," said Ra, visibly shaking now. "No!"

My words hadn't reached him. He staggered backwards towards the time teleporter room, dragging Megan with him.

"Everyone stay back," said Mirabi to the others.

"Doctor Ra, listen!" I said as we followed. "Tawaret told you about me. I've been down this road. I thought I was going to die for years. And this morning. But I wasn't. There was a solution for me. We can find one for you."

"I am not going to die! Stay back!"

"Julian, please! Let her go!" shouted Zeus.

We reached the doorway and Ra backed down the room towards the teleporter pads, keeping Megan pinned in front of him. He released the arm he was holding her with to operate the controls, keeping just the knife at her neck.

"Doctor, listen to me," I said. If we were going to do anything, it had to be now.

"Shut up, Midgard!" Ra shouted. He glared at me and I was surprised at the hatred in his eyes. "You are not going to be the only one who gets to cheat fate!"

Megan suddenly grabbed his arm with both hands and pulled the knife down away from her neck. She twisted out from under his arm and Ra abandoned the controls to grab at her as Mirabi and I threw ourselves at him. The four of us collided and we all fell backward onto the teleporter pads, me gripping Ra's knife arm with both hands, holding it away from Megan. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Mirabi's boot bounce on the teleporter controls. White light swirled around us. The screen on the controls flashed that we were heading to Pre-programmed Destination 12 and we backstepped into the past.