Editor's note: as the origin story comes from the original writer's bible, the original premise of Andrea working as a criminologist rather than a science teacher remains intact in this retelling.

Before joining the criminology team, Andrea Thomas had been on expedition to Egypt to satisfy curricular requirements for her minors in Archaeology and Egyptology. One night as Andrea slept in her tent in the Valley of the Kings, she was awakened by a crying voice.

In mid-air inside her tent was a shimmering point of light that danced before her and then sailed out into the night air over the sand. Andrea followed it for nearly an hour, mesmerized by the colors in the light and by its faint crying voice.

At last, it stopped in a side canyon, fell to the sand, and disappeared. Andrea dug there quickly and, within three feet, discovered a jeweled golden box. Inside was the Hat-Shep-Sut necklace. Andrea never had seeen anything so beautiful or mysterious. And then the light reappeared, irising out into a view through time. And Andrea watched as she saw Egypt in the time of the pharoah, Thutmose, an in-between dynasty marked by war and hardship on the Egyptian people. Thutmose's daughter, Hat-Shep-Sut, was a compassionate teenager who saw the plight of her people and wished that there was something she could do to help them. A wizard came to her, told that he had heard of her wish, and then asked, "is it true that, if you had the power, you would help our people?" "Yes, yes," she said, "but even Pharoah is so occupied by the wars that there is little to spare and almost nothing left to help."

The wizard returned with the amulet necklace and he told Hat-Shep-Sut that with the necklace, she could assume the form and powers of the goddess Isis, and then would be free to go out among the people to help them. That very night Hat-Shep-Sut commanded the necklace to change her into Isis and she flew out 'on the forces of the wind' to help her people.

A plague of locusts was blowing in from the south and it threatened to empty the few fields of grain that the people had left. Isis changed the direction of the winds and the plague was blown far out into the Mediterranean. Sandstorms were moving toward Egypt and Isis commanded that they fly directly upward into the atmosphere, where their passage drew moist winds from the sea and brought rain instead. Over time, Hat-Shep-Sut listened to all the gratitude that the people gave to Isis and was happy to know what and how that gratitude was earned.

But an evil wizard, Khufan, also heard that Isis somehow had returned from the ancient times and was among the people as their rescuer. In a magic pool, he saw the events as they had happened and then he knew that he must possess that amulet necklace, for it was empowered by the very wizard who had denied him his greatest power. Khufan was gifted with a lifespan that reached all the way forward and backward into time, and he had the ability to appear at any given moment within that lifespan. But for all his power, he still was mortal and always had to be careful, lest someone that he displeased or defrauded take his life and end his beautifully crafted evil. That necklace, he discovered, could render him immortal and he truly would become a power that anyone in any time on earth could not oppose.

And he mesmerized a house slave and sent him into the Pharoah's city to try to steal the necklace, as Khufan could not enter the city under pain of death. While Hat-Shep-Sut slept, the slave quietly slipped into her bedroom and fled with the golden jewelbox that held the necklace. But the wizard who had gifted Hat-Shep-Sut with the necklace was awakened in his dungeon and instantly he knew that he had to stop Khufan from obtaining the prize. Summoning the storm gods, he called for massive rains and, as the slave ran through a valley on his way to Khufan, a flash flood swept through the valley, drowing the slave and burying the necklace deep under the shifting sands.

The lighted view through time faded away and Andrea was left where she stood, holding the box and the necklace. She thought for a moment: Thomas? Thutmose? A connection? Was there some long-lost branch of her family descended from Hat-Shep-Sut and thus was she the one to whom the amulet necklace was returned? Andrea called upon the powers of the amulet and immediately became Isis! She tested her powers and her own wisdom and found that it would be some time before she would be wise enough to use the necklace as it was intended.

Andrea returned to the United States and finished her studies in Forensic Chemistry and Criminology, only to find that her thesis papers had been brought to the attention of Dr. Elias Barnes, who offered her an immediate position with a criminological consulting team he was founding. Andrea accepted the offer, and thus was begun her challenging and exciting life as Andrea/Isis.

Editor's note: Khufan was intended to be a recurring villain on the show. To find out more about Isis' arch enemy, I can only say stay tuned!