On Earth, it was still night on the plateau of Giza. Julia McIntire giggled underneath Robert Holloway, as they lay, balanced precariously near the summit of the great Pyramid.

 "I don't think we're supposed to do that!" she laughed breathlessly. He kissed her again.

 "Well I paid the guide enough money to look the other way. Shift up a bit love, will you? I've got a lump of masonry sticking into my knee." Julia obligingly moved round a bit, then screamed.

 "What?"

 "It's hot!"

 Robert put a hand down on the stone, and pulled it back with a yelp. Julia looked at him with widened eyes. "I don't think it's supposed to do that!"

 "No kidding," he drawled. He rolled off and pulled her on top of him, careful to avoid the sheer drop - the guide had been considerate enough to find him a spot where the pyramid was damaged enough to leave a level spot, but it was a bit on the tight side. She squealed.

 "Robert, it's getting hotter!"

 He opened his mouth to tell her not to be silly, it was probably just the rising sun or something - but never had the chance. The summit of the pyramid began to glow, the sides throbbing with a sudden powerful pulse. If they'd still been alive a few seconds later, they'd have seen the other two pyramids glowing in harmony with their greater partner - and a beam of pure, red light, lance into the sky. In the direction of Mars.

 Of their bodies, there was no sign.

 The Doctor raised his hands above his head and walked forward, stopping just inches from the leader, and staring up at him. "Boo!" he said suddenly, jabbing the man between the eyes with one finger. Startled, the Major dropped his weapon, straight into the Doctor's waiting hand. The Doctor pointed it at him, with what he hoped was a suitably menacing look. "I suggest, Herr Major, you tell your men to drop their weapons. Not even I could miss at this range."

 "Do as he says!" he barked at his men. Reluctantly, they complied. Xicowl's men quickly rounded up the weapons. Under the Doctor's watchful gaze, the Nazis were tied up in the shade.

 "I haven't got time to deal with them now," the Doctor told Jock when he asked why they were leaving them there. "There are far more important threats to this planet than this jackbooted jackanapes and his apes. Clark, stay here and watch them. Jock, Xicowl, you two come with me."

 A gentle insistent shaking. "Come on Miss, wake up, there's a good girl."

 Benny opened her eyes, and wished she hadn't. Marcus and Indy were both staring down at her, looking concerned. It was Brody who was shaking her. She groaned, and tried to sit up.

 "I haven't felt this bad since the faculty Christmas party," she said weakly. Indy helped her to sit up. "That's it, whatever that was, I quit." She looked blearily up at Indy. "The last thing I remember is kissing you."

 Indy grinned. "I've never had that effect before." Leaning forward, he kissed her. "Now we're even. Come on." He pulled her to her feet. It was a measure of how disorientated she still felt, that she didn't give him a quick kick somewhere vital as his little tug 'accidentally' pulled her closer to him as she stood up. Later, she thought.

 Once on her feet, she saw the Hibernation capsule. "How the hell did we get out of that?" she asked. Marcus harrumphed and shuffled his feet.

 "I managed to get away from those indians who attacked me, and ran in here - they carried on down the corridor. - and found the lid just closing on top of you. Fortunately, I could read the hieroglyphs."

 Benny pulled herself out of Indy's casual embrace and hugged Marcus. "I owe you one." She gave him a peck on the cheek. Ignoring his blush, she turned her attention back to the room. "Indy, either my Egyptian is a little rusty, or this inscription is a very strange version of Spell 67 of the Book of the Dead."

 Indy walked over to where she was staring at the wall. "The Chapters of Coming-forth by Day," he corrected her. "And you're right. It should read "The cavern is opened for those who are in the Abyss, and those who are in the sunshine are released; the cavern is opened for Shu. Yet this cartouche explicitly states -"

 "Sekhmet."

 Jock was wandering around anxiously. "What about that chap with the lightning bolts - shouldn't we be worried about him coming back?"

 "Hmm? Yes. Nasty character. Always a problem with partial possession."

 "Eh?"

 The Doctor paused, realising what he'd just said. "Of course!" he snapped his fingers. "Instability caused by a partial operation of the cognitive centres. He's trying to get back to Sekhmet's body, but if part of the conciousness is elsewhere--"

 "You lost me, " Jock told him with a shrug. "But whatever you say, Doc."

 "There'd have to be another dead body for her to possess." Stepping over a pile of rubble, he began examining the far wall. "Aha!" He'd found the carbonised marks left by Zeitflur's hands. Taking a step back he regarded the pictograms amd heiroglyphs incised onto the wall through narrowed eyes. "Human instructions, copied from the Osiran originals. Crude, but not without a certain charm." He reached out and pressed a carving of an ibis. "This one, I think." A section of the wall slid back soundlessly. "Shall we?"

 As the Doctor and his little group moved deeper into the heart of the pyramid, the body once belonging to Cleo Shea smiled in the shadows and moved towards the exit of the temple. Somewhere outside, her ancient enemy awaited. This time, the battle would be to the death. Let the little man search her prison. He'd find more than enough to keep him occupied...

 Indy traced the inscription with a tanned finger, running from right to left. "For in the day of the return, shall the three light up the sky, and in the three places shall point the way and reveal - no, shall be revealed the doorway to heaven, that is the birthplace of the gods."

 "Read on. If I translate THIS bit correctly--"

 "Only in the birthplace of the gods may the lioness be destroyed. The way lies here." He loked quizzically at Benny. "Here? There's nothing. Just a wall." He placed his hand on it. "And it's throbbing."

 "You noticed," Benny said dryly. "It's been doing it for a while." She placed her hand on the last glyph in the inscription. "The way lies here-- let's take that literally.." She pushed.

 "It sure ain't brick." Xicowl was on his knees, arms crossed in front of his chest.

 "It is the wall of the gods!" He wailed. "None of us were ever permitted to pass. Only the worthy--"

 "It looks familiar to me," the Doctor said thoughtfull, examining it closely. "I can't help thinking I've seen this material before..." Something was nagging at the back of his mind. Something that didn't quite add up. A similarity, something to do with the Osirans... He reached out a hand and brushed it over the surface lightly. Under his hand, 5 symbols appeared. "Oh." He remarked, to himself. Now he remembered.

 Mars, in 1911. He'd been standing in front of one of Horus' little trick locks, and Sarah had said - what had she said? Damn his memory. He really ought to be more careful with it.

 "It's like the city of the Osirans!" He yelled triamphantly. His companions looked at him blankly.

 "Of course! I should have realised. Maybe Horus was interfering with my mind back then." Absently, almost, he pressed the second symbol. The wall glowed and vanished - and Indy, Benny and Marcus stumbled into the space it had been.

 "What took you so long?" he asked. Benny just glared at him.

 "After what I've just been through?" She paused. "What was that you yelled about Horus?"

 "I've been played with. And I don't like the feeling." He suddenly looked hard at her "Just where did you three get to?"

 Benny filled him in quickly. "--and the next thing I knew, we were here."

 "Birthplace of the gods..." he mused. "Phaestor Osiris. Not that there's a great deal of it left, after the state Sutekh left it in." He paused again. "I have been manipulated!"

 Sarah's voice again. "It's just like the city of the Exxilons!" "Sutekh, Set, Seth--"

 "I've been played for a fool, Benny." Quickly, he told her about the Oz-like floating heads. "Sutekh is gone, has been for millenia, even if this was a link to a prior time, Sutekh never would have been followed by the other Osirans. All except Nepthys were determined to destroy him. Plus, they revered life. Mostly."

 "And this Sekhmet?" She doesn't seem to have too big a grip on altruism," Indy pointed out.

 The Doctor ignored him, rather pointedly, Benny thought. "I need to check something in the TARDIS archives, come on!"

 "What about this place?" Benny asked. He snorted.

 "Irrelevant. A copy of the originals. If Sekhmet has started the sequence of events needed, she's opening a gateway to Phaestor Osiris itself. And that needs three locations. The Great pyramid and it's complex at Giza, the Pyramids of Mars - Phaestor Osiris - "

 "It's a dead world," Benny pointed out as she and the others followed him back out of the temple. "You said so yourself. Sutekh destroyed it."

 "It's also been a lost world for millenia. No-one, not even the Time Lords knew its true location."

 "You think you've found it, Doctor?" Marcus Brody asked.

 "Yes," the Doctor replied grimly. "I think I've been there. I just didn't realise what I was seeing. It took a friend of mine to spot the truth, and I failed to notice the significance of what she said. When I went against Sutekh on Mars, Sarah Jane recognised the similarity of the logic and the architecture. Phaestor Osiris is the planet Exxilon!"

 It wasn't to be. She never even felt the hand that killed her.

 Sekhmet smiled grimly, and lifted her hand from the smoking corpse. Concentrating briefly, she activated the cadaver that still lurked in the temple. That one would serve to keep the Doctor at bay for just a while longer. Moving silently, she moved around behind the prisoners, careful to keep them between her and their guard.

 For if there was one thing she knew about her ancient foe, he would never allow non-combatants to suffer in their fight. Fingering the bracelet that now adorned her wrist, she connected a chain from it's control centre to the necklace she wore. Overhead, the sky began to darken and crackle. The gateway was forming, and now that her foe was within her grasp, she could call it to her.

 This time, it would be final. She had chosen the battleground long prophesied - and her enemy would be separated from his followers.

 It really was too perfect.

 NEXT WEEK: THE JUDGEMENT OF THE DEAD!