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Sikander Aziz Not part of Riordanverse

The following article/section is from the Sikander Aziz series continuity under Rick Riordan Presents and not the Riordanverse canon.

I know what it’s like to lose the one person you love more than anything. Mo was my world. Everything I looked up to, everything I wanted to be. Then he was gone, and I was so angry. Angry at him for going, at my parents for letting him, at everyone and everything. Myself most of all, for not making more of every moment we'd shared. But don’t let that anger eat you up, it’ll destroy you.

–Sik to Belet on losing a close loved one in City of the Plague God.

Sikander "Sik" Aziz is a fourteen year old boy and the protagonist and narrator of the Sikander Aziz series under Rick Riordan Presents.

History[]

Sikander was born to Iraqi immigrants. When he was younger, he enjoyed reading the Arabian Nights stories. He had an older brother named Mohammed. When the two were younger, they would reenact the Epic of Gilgamesh in Central Park. Mo would be Gilgamesh and he would be Gilgamesh's sidekick Enkidu. The pair even went trick or treating as the hero and sidekick for Halloween when he was five.

At one point his brother forced him to watch JAWS with him and he became terrified of the water. The following day they went canoeing in Central Park, and half an hour in he became petrified and his father had to wade through the pond to get him. On the way back to shore his father tripped and they both fell into the water.

His brother would send back seeds of whatever plant specimens he would find, one of these plants unknowingly being the Flower of Immortality. Somehow the plant got into his system and Sik slowly became immortal.

When he was eleven, Mo died in a motorcycle accident in Iraq. Later, Mo's friend Daoud moved in with the Aziz family and stayed in Mo's room. Sometimes, Sik will start talking to Mo even though he's not there.

Sikander Aziz series[]

City of the Plague God[]

Sikander is closing down Mo's, his family's deli, with not much help from Daoud, his brother's friend who moved in with them. As Daoud talks about an after party for Hamilton Sikander says he has a zit and he rushes to the bathroom. When he is alone he has a conversation with a memorial wall his parents set up after Mo's death while he wipes down the tables. He hears something in the back alley and he grabs a wok and goes to investigate. After seeing a white-eyed tabby cat, he sees two strange looking men in the dumpster and over hears them looking for him. He swings the wok at them when he hears they want to kill his family. He locks them in the dumpster and calls for Daoud to call the police. The two reveal they're Asakku, Mesopotamian demons, as one of them uses his tongue to unlock the lid and they break out, soon a figure starts to form at the end of the ally and they tell him their boss has arrived. When Sik sees the boss, a man made of shadows, he bolts inside. He tries to convince Daoud to help him, but Daoud panics and runs away to call the police. To stop the intruders, he barricades the door with a refrigerator. Flies and cockroaches swarm into the deli, and the shadowy man gets in. He and his demons trash the deli looking for something, tearing Mo's flowers off the walls. He chokes Sik, demanding he tell where it is. Then a girl dressed as a ninja. She demands Nergal to let Sik go. Instead, the shadowy man tells his demons to take care of her. She then proceeds to beat up Nergal's Asakku, and Nergal decides to release Sik and leave. He collapses from exhaustion as Mina and Nadeem Aziz barge in to help Sik. When they see he's alright, Mr. Aziz yells at Sik for fighting Nergal, while Mina hugs Sik to make him feel better. Sik watches as Daoud sees the destruction of Mo's flowers. Daoud tries to take a flower out of a broken frame, but it crumbles in his hands.

After speaking with police and making an appointment to look at mugshots, he and his parents clearly up to rotted food and dead insects. Mr. Georiou, the owner of the pizzeria across the street, drops by with four pizzas and asks how they are going, when Sik says he is doing fine, his mother makes him go to school. He sneaks in half way through social studies while the teacher, Mr. Grant, is arguing with the new student, Belet Amari, about Thomas Jefferson stealing his ideas from Cicero. He runs into his friend Jake, who begs him to hang out with their friend group again. After he laughs at something Belet says, Grant sends him and Belet to the principal's office. As they walk, Belet gets a call from her mother and they are harassed by three bullies, Zack, Hobbs, and Clyde. As Zack demands Belet's phone, she spin kicks him in the head and knocks him out and Hobbs and Clyde let them pass. As they exit the school, her mother arrives and Sik is captivated by her beauty. The woman introduces herself as Ishtar. Sik is shocked that he is speaking to someone named after a Mesopotamian goddess and he mentions what happened to his family's deli last night. She confirms that her brother-in-law was responsible and offers to tell him more, if he comes with her and Belet. Sik is hesitant at first but agrees when Belet says it is his only chance. He and Belet get in the backseat of Ishtar's Jaguar and he is taken to their house.

When they arrive, Sik is mesmerized by the layout of the mansion. When they enter, he sees many cats and recognizes one from the night before. Belet informs him that his name is Sargon. As Ishtar tries to find the kitchen, Belet reluctantly shows him around. They get separated and he finds a room full of weapons and armor dating back to the Stone Age. He picks up a sword and cats start to swarm him as he hears a voice telling him to put the sword back. Soon Belet arrives and introduces him to the first sword, Kasusu. After realizing it was the sword that was talking and he realizes Belet's mother is an actual goddess, he thinks they crazy and goes to leave. However Ishtar stops him and shows him a vision of different wars she was a part of. He collapses in shock as Belet looks him over. Ishtar offers to pay for the damages as they ask him what Nergal might have been looking for. He becomes angry when they suggest Mo might have smuggled something out of Iraq and refuses to help them. He takes the subway home but when he arrives he sees his parents being put in ambulances. When he tells the paramedics he is their son, they ask how he is feeling and have him put on protective gear and take him with them. As his parents are put on life support and placed in quarantine, Sik is tested for any illnesses but they find nothing wrong with him but is placed under twenty-four hours observation. As he paces around his room, Ishtar and Belet barge in and tell Sik he must come with them if Nergal is to be defeated. He is hesitant about leaving his parents, but they reassure him Nergal will keep them alive as a bargaining chip. He agrees to go with them. He wakes up at Ishtar's house to find Daoud making pancakes. Daoud informs him that his patents are stable but nothing has changed as he reveals the only reason he was working at Mo's is because he promised Mo that he would look after Sik. But before Sik can pry more, Ishtar and Belet arrive and the goddess gets Daoud to leave by saying a modeling agent for France is there to see him. When Daoud leaves, she tells Sik that they must defeat Nergal to save his parents. As she leaves to look for Nergal alone, he and Belet decide to search for Nergal themselves.

As they travel, he learns that the same sickness that his parents have is going through the school with Zack being hospitalized and the students blaming him. They arrive in a masjid in Little Egypt in Queens and meets with his local imam and starts to serve food to the disenfranchised. Soon Ada, a homeless girl his age with knowledge of bizarre current events in the city, arrives and he serves her food to get her to talk. After she eats, she informs him of a shipping container filled with dead refugees at Gravesend in Brooklyn. They arrive at the docks and sneak in. They reach the shipping container and inspect it. They find cuneiform etching that reads “Gilgamesh lied” and some couplets by Sidana. Soon they are found by three dockworkers and the pair realize they have been transformed into minions of Nergal. As Belet fights them, he sees one about to hit her with a chain and uses his body to shield her. After taking out the last of the minions, she checks on him and is surprised that he is still alive. She helps him up and they leave. When he tells her the ballet lessons paid off, Belet laughs but quickly catches herself and stops.

The following morning, Belet wakes Sik up for combat training and is bewildered by his lack of combat training. She leaves to get equipment and he speaks with Kasusu. The sword tells him the feats of Gilgamesh were watered down and that he once rejected Ishtar. Kasusu tells him to fight Sargon, but Sik refuses and cat attacks and overpowers him just as Belet returns with wooden swords. Later he meets up with Daoud and tells him he wants to see his parents. Daoud agrees to get him in and out unnoticed. As they ride the subway, he tries to contact his friends but they don’t reply. Due to massive track shutdowns, they end up walking through Washington Square Park and see city workers cutting down diseased trees and flowers covered in sludge. When they arrive they find the waiting room packed and set people waiting inline for vaccines. Daoud distracts a nurse while he goes to see his parents. As he watches them Idiptu arrives with a threatening message, give Nergal what he wants or his parents die. Still not sure about what the Plague God is after, he slams the demon against the wall and says he will stop Nergal.

When he returns he finds Belet demanding Ishtar tell reveals her plan, she remains tight lipped and asks Sik if Mo took something from Nergal. He becomes defensive and says his brother would never steal anything. Ishtar becomes offended by his tone but Belet calms her down. Later he and Belet move his mattress into her bedroom and she is shocked to learn how small and sparse it is. Belet says she and Ishtar move around a lot and tells him about her birth parents. When he learns she is from the same district of Baghdad as his grandfather, he tells her about the time his grandfather asks the occupying American troops for water in his underwear. Later he walks around the halls and runs into Ishtar and asks about the other war orphans she adopted. She takes him to a room filled with paintings and photographs of all the children she adopted through the ages. She gives him a ring with the king's seal on it and tells him to return it to it’s owner in Central Park and to look out for Belet. Just then Sargon and the other cats alert her to Nergal's arrival. Sik realizes she was using Daoud as bait to lure Nergal to them and Ishtar tells him to get Kasusu. He gets Belet and he chases after her and they exit the house. They find Nergal and his demons at the end of the block street and the Plague God demands Sik, as Sik tries to talk his way out of things the cats transform into big cats with wings and Belet reveals they are actually guardian spirits called Lamassu. Soon Ishtar arrives and, after Belet hands over Kasusu, the two gods fight. As the fighting destroys the block, he and Belet urge the neighbors and Daoud to evacuate. They encounter a few demons, but Sargon and Belet take them out. Unfortunately, Ishtar is wounded and turns into stardust soon after. Sik urges a distraught Belet to run and, when she is out of sight, he surrenders.

He is brought to a junkyard in Queens and Nergal demands he give him what his brother stole, which he denies and has no idea what it is. As the demons suggest different methods of torture, he looks for an escape route and finds a hole in the fence. He lies and says Idiptu had it all alone and Nergal's forces start fighting among themselves. He uses the opportunity to escape, he gets through the fence but he trips on a set of trains tracks and is hit by an oncoming train. He drifts in and out of consciousness, hearing the voices of the track workers and Belet talking to someone. When he comes to he finds himself in a body bag in a morgue and gets out, startling the coroner and finds a pair of scrubs and sneakers to wear. He calls Belet, who thinks it is a prank, but he gets her to believe him and she reveals they are having funeral prayers for him at the masjid. They agree to meet at a restaurant. After that she hugs him and they head to a hotel owned by a friend of Ishtar's and head to the penthouse. She explains the the train accident was three days ago and that Nergal's plague is transforming those infected with it into his servants. Just then Daoud emerges from the bathroom and hugs Sik. He is happy to see him until he learns he had Belet identify his "corpse" when he chickened out. He berates him for it until Daoud gets a call from his agent about auditioning for a Mexican drug lord and leaves. Sik gives his condolences and says he knows what Belet is going through, but she says a God's death is much more devastating than a mortal's. Kasusu gives Belet a pep talk and says they need a plan, and Sik soon thinks of one.

They head to Central Park to find the owner of the ring and find it converted in a camp for those trying to escape the plague. They find Sidana and Idiptu with some plague dogs and hide. Unfortunately the plague dogs find their sent and they run, with him pulling Belet with him, while the demons are in shock over seeing someone they thought was dead. He and Belet take shelter in a glass ziggurat that the demons and plague hounds can't detect. As they explore, they come across a gardener who reveals the ring Sik has belongs to him. They ask for help defeating Nergal, but he refuses. When Sik asks for his name, he says he is Gilgamesh. Sik is awestruck that he is face to face with Gilgamesh and the King of Uruk invites him and Beltran for vegan sweets. He explains how he actually did eat part of the Flower of Immortality and fed the rest to a snake before faking his death. He and Belet plead with him to help them defeat Nergal, but he reveals he gave up fighting and took up gardening instead. He also tells Sik that the snake he fed the flower to helped create more and the his brother took one and it somehow made its way into his system, making him immortal. Ski says he planted the seeds in the community garden and he and Belet head out. Before heading out, he is told by Gilgamesh that Nergal needs the flower to regain his former self and not vanish and the Sik will have to pay a price for cheating death. As they walk, it starts to rain he wonders if his not being born in Iraq made him an outcast in his own family. Belet gets a cab and they ride to the garden, however they find a news segment calling Sik patient zero and the cabdriver freaks out and a crowd forms around the cab, only disbursing when he threatens to cough on them. When they make it to the garden, find it bulldozed into a parking lot for new condos. As he thinks of their next move, Belet heads out to fight Nergal herself as he tries to stop her. She blames him for not tending to the garden enough and he blurts out he promised Ishtar he would look after her. Belet starts to tear up and takes out the picture of her birth parents and rips it up. He is stunned as she reveals it is a magazine clipping of actors from a soap opera, something she knew for years but faked not knowing to give Ishtar a sense that the girl was not alone. She gets in a cab and he chases after her. He loses her but finds a working subway and decides to see his parents. He runs into an old man named Harry who refers to himself in the past tense and they walk on to the platform with other people referring to themselves in the past tense. Soon a subway with cuneiform graffiti pulls up and he is dragged on, realizing to late that it is a train to the afterlife.

The doors close and the train takes off as Sik becomes horrified and tries to think of how he might have died. The ghosts depart to their own afterlives until it is just him and Harry. The train stops in a desert and Sik disembarks after saying goodbye to Harry. He finds the remnants of long eroded buildings before a figure says his name from behind. As the figure reveals his face, Sik is happy to see Mo again. They talk in some ruins and he explains how Mo's final shipment contained the Flower of Immortality and that Nergal has brought a plague to the city. When Mo asks about the garden, he reluctantly reveals that it was turned into a parking lot. His brother berates him for not tending to it and he fires back by saying he always left him behind while he went on adventures. Soon a pride of Ugallu arrive with the ruler of Kurnugi, Erishkigal, and someone else. They tell the brothers to bow and just before the goddess of death can order their deaths, Ishtar stops her. As he explains everything that happened since Nergal attacked them, the Queen of Night wants to kill him while Ishtar pulls her aside and thinks of an alternative. They decide to have the brothers go to the Sea of Tiamat to find the original flower in a cave in the Rock of Nisir, but they need to fight Humbaba, a creature immune to attacks. Later he and Ishtar talk about Belet and the girl's desire to trade places with her and warns Sik not to get a second exposure to to the flower would do it him. He and Mo fall asleep and wake up in a forest with Gilgamesh's boat where they run into Humbaba. The brother try to think of their next move as the giant thinks of eating them. Mo thinks of the Baghdad sauce Sik unknowingly has been offering him all this time and they trick the giant into drinking it. When he drinks it, he becomes overwhelmed by the taste and searches for water. The brothers try and fail to move the boat as the sea comes to them. They cling to the boat as they are pummeled by waved and they pull themselves up when the current calms down. When they find the Rock of Nisir, the water gets rough again and they abandon ship. While he makes it to shore, Mo gets swept out to sea and he throws his bag at Mo, which turns into a net, and he pulls his brother to safety. Mo examines the bag and finds the symbol of Shamash, the patron god of kings, who had a net that can catch anything. They brace themselves and dive into calmer waters. He losses his breath for a second but he quickly realize he doesn’t need to break. They swim deeper until they find a hole leading to a grotto with a tree and find the flower. He picks it and puts it in his jacket as Mo senses something outside, they proceed with caution as they encounter a shiver of sharks and the Basmu Serpent. The brothers do what they can to evade the beast until he uses the bag and successfully tangles the serpent in it and they head to the surface as the serpent sinks. When they arrive, a Raven appears to guide Sik back to the land of the living. Sik is reluctant to go and offers to trade places with his brother, but Mo talks him out of it and vanishes. He follows the raven back home.

He follows the raven until he ends up in the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. He pulls himself on dry land and comes face to face with a snow leopard. They stare each other down until Belet arrives and fills him in. She explains that he was gone for two weeks and the city has nearly been taken over by Nergal. They go back to the ziggurat and meet back up with Gilgamesh. He shows him the flower and talks about his time in Kurnugi. As Gilgamesh prepares to make an antidote to put in the City's water supply, Nergal's forces finds them. The three stand down the demons and poxies as they demand their surrender. As Gilgamesh warns them to leave and they ignore his warning, the demigod unleashes lightning and hurricane level winds to scare them off. He tries and fails to convince Belet to retreat with him as Sidana attacks him and Belet kills the rat demon, but not before being dowsed in his poison and scratched by his claws. As Sik tries to use one of the flower's petals to heal her, Idiptu snatches it out of his hand. He picks up Belet and runs out of the park. When he stops she chastises him for losing the flower and running away. He agrees and puts her in a shopping cart and sets a course of Manhattan General Hospital to treat Belet and, if worse comes to worse, be with his parents in the end. He passes the deli to find it boarded up after being burned and vandalized with hateful graffiti. He sees cats inside and calls out, only to be answered by Daoud. He goes around back and, when Daoud lets him in, he is shocked to see Daoud missing teeth and hair. When he says he needs to take Belet to the hospital, he says it is overrun with the infected and they patch her up in his parent's room and they eat dinner in Daoud's room. He is surprised that Daoud kept it as Mo had, with only a few fashion magazines and products around the room. He finally looks at Daoud's portfolio and sees pictures of Mo and the Flower of Immortality. Daoud says he took it before the garden was turned into a parking lot turned the rest into a fragrance called Mo's Promise. He puts some in an eye dropper and gives it to Belet, who looks like she is about to die. After a few seconds she is healed and they explain to Daoud that the flower grants immortality, which he did not get due being careful not to make skin contact with the flower. They wonder if they should give the meager amount of what is left to Daoud or try to make more to cure the city, they chose the latter and Daoud gets his kit. As Belet inspects her now healed wound, she asks him if she is immortal or not.

He and Belet wait in Ishtar's Jaguar for Daoud to make more perfume. He pushes a button and the car turns into a chariot. The lamassu are automatically hooked up just as a hoard of poxies attack. They take flight as the lamassu swat the infected away and he stops the flying big cats from killing them. Just as Daoud comes out with a pint of perfume, Sik tells him to get on the chariot as Idiptu emerges from Georiou's to kill them for killing Sidana. As they head to the hospital and avoid the poxies, he asks Daoud if he tested the perfume on himself, which he did not as he didn’t want to waist a drop. Soon they are ambushed by Idiptu and crash in an abandoned office building leaving two of the lamassu, Simba and Shere Khan, out of commission. As the fiat demon threatens to eat Daoud and the perfume is about to roll out a broken window, he and the other two lamassu, Sargon and Bagheera, kill Idiptu as Belet saves the perfume. They tell him to take the chariot to the hospital and he does so. As he rushes to the hospital, he encounters a rejuvenated Nergal, who asks Sik why he is waisting his time trying to heal those who hate him. When the god notices the jar and demands he hand it over, Sik refuses and is stabbed in the shoulder and thigh as he flies to the top of a nearby storm cloud and jumps in, opening the jar and watching the perfume mix with the rain as he falls. Sik wakes up to Belet nudging him as it rain. He soon realizes the perfume didn’t work as they are surrounded by Poxies and Nergal. As the Plague God is about to finish them off, his body starts to evaporate as the poxies are cured. He watches as Nergal begs Belet to spare him and evaporates before she can finish him off. He soon rushes to his parents at the hospital, which has been barricaded, and slips inside to meet them just as they are waking up.

About a month later, he, his parents, and Daoud are preparing the deli for its reopening. As he and his father are painting, his father tells him that he and his mother, while in their comas, had a dream about him and Mo in a boat in rough waters and their eldest son telling them to hang on for Sik. Soon his father and Daoud trade places just as a man selling water from the night Nergal was defeated, called by many as the Big Rain. He walks over to the deli and without realizing who he is talking to, tells them his desire to have Sik, who he believes to be dead, endorse him. As Daoud leaves after getting a call from his agent about him getting the lead role in something, Belet arrives and, blushing, hands him a box of flowers from Gilgamesh. She reveals her plan go to Kurnugi to get her mother back and she tells him to stay with his family. However Belet agrees to come in to pet Sargon, who is now living with Sik and his family, and to try a new sauce he made.

The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities: New Stories About Mythic Heroes[]

The Loneliest Demon[]

In the months following the Big Rain, he and Belet have been working on eradicating any of Nergal's demons that remain.

As he is preparing lunch for a customer, a demon stands outside Mo's, a demon demands Sik fight her to the death. After days of the demon demanding a fight, and annoyed that Sargon is sunning himself on the roof, his parents tell him to humor her. He tells his father he does not need the shovel and they head out back. After freeing herself from the dumpster lid, the demon introduces herself as Rabisu, a one of Nergal's followers and a demon associated with discomfort and back pain. As Sik tells her he is immortal, Rabisiu attacks. However he sidesteps and Rabisu hits three trash cans. Sik's mother comes out and scolds him for not showing compassion for Rabisu, referring to the demon as a Djinn, and takes her inside as she cries about not being able to kill anyone and has Sik clean up. As Sik protests, he questions how Rabisu was able to topple multiple trash cans at once. After finishing he returns to his apartment to find, to his horror, Rabisu wearing his best jeans and favorite Narvana T-shirt with a hole in the back. After asking what she wants, Rabisu explains how the other demons left for Kurnugi without her and how she was camped out at the Canal Street Subway station for weeks trying to open a gateway home. She asks Sik to help her and, at his mother’s silent urging, he reluctantly agrees. Sik calls Belet Amari, who is in London having tea with Elizabeth II, and asks for her advise on how to get to Kurnugi. She says Erishkigal has beefed up security and is not letting anyone in or out. After explaining that he encountered one of Nergal's demons and that he cannot kill her, she tells him to contact her brother Petar, a historian. She texts Sik his address and he and Rabisu head out.

Sik and Rabisu arrive at The House of Heroes, a comic book store, and enter. They are greeted by Petar and he takes them to his office. After explaining how modern heroes were inspired by myths around the world, he says that Gilgamesh was temporarily ruler of the land of the dead and anyone with his seal can pass through any realm he ruled over. Sik says he has the seal at home and Rabisu becomes overjoyed at the prospect that she could return home. Petar says to meet him at the United Nations building in an hour. They meet up in the visitors lobby and, in an attempt to get an elevator to themselves, they claim Rabisu is suffering from the sickness that infection New York the previous year. They succeed and Sik are Rabisu get in. Sik puts on the ring and pushes a button. Nothing happens and, after a series of prolonged sarcastic goodbyes, the doors close with Sik still inside. As the elevator descends, Sik tries desperately to get out. Soon it stops and the lights go out. They come back on and they hear countless heartbeats. Rabisu starts to panic, thinking they were banished for eternity. The doors start to open, and they see Petar in the United Nations lobby. After Petar says it did not work, they describe what they heard to him and Petar becomes unnerved. When Sik asks what “they” are, Rabisu says they are the Anunna. They head to a bench by the East River where Petar explains how the Anunna are beings who existed before the birth of the universe. After explaining the multiverse, Sik is surprised that it exists. Petar explains that the are safe as long as they do not meddle with the seven gates guarding the underworld. After telling Rabisu they can not take her home after all, she throws a tantrum and starts to cry when she learns Sik is immortal.

After thanking Petar, Sik and Rabisu head to Mo's. As they walk, Rabisu explains the fun times she and the other demons had together, such as one planting maggots in her head, another biting off her tail, and one throwing her in a lake of molten metal that turned her into a skeleton for a decade until her flesh grew back. Sik says her friends are toxic, but she says toxic friends are better then none. When they reach the deli, Sik is horrified to find it so backed up. He gives Rabisu the keys to let herself into the apartment and rushes over to help his parents, telling his mom he could not help Rabisu as a customer demands his food. After the last customer leaves, Sik and his mother head upstairs while his father cleans up. His mother asks him to check on Rabisu. He goes to his door and knocks, but gets no response. He goes to his mother, telling her Rabisu is asking for the impossible, but says he has done the impossible before. Sik goes back to his room and enters to find the window open. He searches for Gilgamesh's ring but does not find it. He realizes that Rabisu is going to Canel Street to get home.

Ski grabs Abubu and rushes to the ruined subway station as fast as he can. He hopes on a train on Spring Street and not long after the car stops and the power goes out. The riders remain calm for a few minutes before some start to get sick. Everyone starts to panic as Sik uses the shovel to break a window. Everyone gets out as Sik hears a noise and goes towards it. The father in he goes, the colder it gets. He bumps into something, upon inspection he realizes it is Rabisu covered in fresh brand marks. She tells Sik the Anunna were waiting in the space between words and attacks her when she opened a portal. She tells Sik they are still trying to figure out his world and to run, but he asks where the ring is. Rabisu says she dropped it and he says he will get it. Impressed by his heroism, she agrees to help Sik. After a mischief of rats passes them, they find the portal. As the Anunna take physical forms, Sik attacks as he looks for a ring. Rabisu finds it and goes for it. After nearly hitting a kid on a unicorn, Rabisu causes back pain in on the the Anunna before grabbing the ring. Sik falls into the multiverse, he uses Abubu to destroy the ring. Sik wakes up singed and missing his hair to Rabisu slapping him and the demon helps him to a nearby bench. After promising Rabisu he will get her home one day, he tells her to come with him.

When Sik returns home, his horrified mother practically shaves his head to give him a better haircut. Rabisu stays with Petar for a few days before heading to the deli. She pets Sargon while saying he disemboweled and ate her fellow demons. She returns his shirt, mended, and says she is going to explore the country. Sik gives her a Statue of Liberty T-shirt, her first ever present, and welcomes her to the United States of America

Fury of the Dragon Goddess[]

Appearance[]

Sikander is a skinny teenager boy of Arabic descent with wavy black hair, dark eyes, and an olive complexion.

Personality[]

Sikander is a hard working teenager who cares greatly for his family, but is also resentful of his brother at the same time for not including him and stealing his spotlight. He has a tendency to worry for others, increasing his stress. He only wants to live a simple life and help out his family. Sik is friendly and calm with those he talks to, such as when he was getting information out of Ada. Sik also is not much of a fighter.

Despite his tendency to run rather then fight, he will fight is his loved ones are in danger. He is a tactical thinker, being able to manipulate moderate sized crowds and quickly find an escape route.

Abilities and Tools[]

  • Multilingualism: Sikander speaks both English and Arabic.
  • Culinary Arts: Raised at the Aziz family deli Mo's and helping out at the local kebab kitchen, Sikander possesses above average skills in cooking Middle Eastern cuisine. He also has a varied culinary palate, favored towards sweets and meat.
  • Mathematics: Sikander's specialty at school is math because knowing numbers at Mo's cash register means business is better or not. He is even a member of his school's Math Club.
  • Botany: Influenced by his brother's college major and childhood hobby, Sikander has a decent foundation in botany and can take care of a garden. Also, through his family's culinary arts, Sikander has a basic understanding of herbs.

  • Immortality: Unintentionally, Sikander became immortal like Gilgamesh by "ingesting" a piece of the flower of immortality. Sikander's botanist brother Mo unknowingly gifted pieces of the discovered descendant desert hybrid flower from the desert of Basra to Sikander, who coincidentally assimilated it through the flower's petals, sap or pollen, thereby becoming immortal (less than Gilgamesh's, requiring 24 hours to slowly heal). However, like Gilgamesh's immortality, Sikander's immortality forces him subconsciously, or environmentally, to fix the imbalance and fulfill every death he cheated by sending himself to the Mesopotamian underworld, Kurnugi, as repentance. After being enveloped by Mo's Promise to end Nergal's plague, Sikander received a double dose of the desert hybrid flower of immortality. Therefore, Sikander's immortality reached the same level as Gilgamesh's. Sikander no longer needed sleep or gets tired, while bruises and cuts heal within seconds. His vitality also increased. In Fury of the Dragon Goddess, Sik retains his immortality even after his destiny is altered. While he still dies from fatal injuries, Sik revives within moments and is left briefly overflowing with life force as a side effect which enhances Sik's abilities before it wears off. Lugal briefly uses the Tablet of Destinies to strip away Sik's immortality, making him mortal again. However, after the tablet is wiped clean, Sik's immortality is restored once again, instantly healing his wounds from the battle.
    • Self-Healing: Sik's immortality causes any non-fatal injuries to heal very quickly, especially after his immortality was boosted by getting a double dose of the flower. After regaining his immortality following the defeat of Lugal and Tiamat, Sik's injuries from the battle while he was mortal almost instantly heal.
    • Superhuman Strength: During the brief surge of life force after reviving from death, Sik is able to throw a serving tray across a room hard enough to cut off a scorpion man's tail and embed the tray in the far wall.
    • Immunity: Sik's immortality gives him a partial immunity to the powers of the Tablet of Destinies, allowing him to recall the original course of events even as everyone around him forgets anything but the altered destiny. However, as time goes on, this begins to wear off and Sik struggles to remember as the Sik from the altered destiny starts to overwrite the original Sik more and more. After using the Hulupuu Tree, Sik gains the memories and skills of his altered destiny self, but he still retains the memories and personality of his original self which doesn't get overwritten.
    • Dreams: In Fury of the Dragon Goddess, Sik experiences the moment that Tiamat gave the Tablet of Destinies to Lugal in a dream. However, Lugal appeared to be aware of Sik's presence as he addressed him at the end of the dream.

  • Sik's use of the Tablet of Destinies temporarily granted him powerful abilities, although most of it was accidental.

    • Reality Warping: Sik's use of the Tablet of Destinies altered destiny itself. Due to his powers from the Flower of Immortality, Sik was partially immune to the changes he wrought unlike everyone else around him.
      • Chronokinesis: In order to fulfill Sik's wish that his brother Mo is still alive, the tablet alters time so that Mo is only severely injured in the accident that killed him and left with amnesia. However, the ripples through time cause Sik and Mo's parents to never get out of the refugee camp that they were living in and die of tuberculosis, altering Sik and Mo's destiny to be raised by Ishtar instead while Belet Amari is raised by Lugal.
      • Resurrection: After the tablet is wiped clean, Sik is able to use it to resurrect Mo by writing "my brother lives" on it in cuneiform before the tablet sets which resurrected Mo without any consequences or time and destiny alterations.

    Due to his destiny being altered by the Tablet of Destinies, Sik grows up as the adopted son of Ishtar and gains a number of skills that the original Sik lacks, turning Sik into a powerful fighter. At first, Sik doesn't have full access to these abilities as his two destinies clash, occasionally tapping into them subconsciously, but after speaking to Ishtar through the Huluppu Tree that Dumuzi turns into, Sik gains access to all of the abilities and knowledge of his altered destiny. Even with his immortality stripped by Lugal, Sik is able to take on Tiamat and her army of creations. Sik loses these abilities when the tablet is wiped clean. However, Sik believes that some memories of his upbringing as Ishtar's son still linger, although he no longer has the skills.

    • Ballet: Growing up, Sik developed an interest in ballet, making him light-footed, flexible yet powerful, and he had perfect balance and muscle memory which was the perfect foundation to build on as a fighter. After being restored to his original destiny, Sik tells Belet Amari that his ballet skills are gone and with it, his knowledge of how to dance.
    • Fighting Skills: Unlike the original Sik, this Sik has expert skills in fighting from Ishtar's training. By playing with Ishtar's cats, Sik learned speed, grace and deadly reaction as well as perfect poise and how to go from utter stillness to explosive action from the ballet classes. Ishtar taught Sik everything from how to make a fist to how to pirouette when delivering a hook kick to the head.
    • Swordsmanship: Sik was trained by Ishtar in how to properly wield a sword with the goddess giving him Kasusu on his eleventh birthday. While inside of Tiamat, Sik was able to take on her army of creations with the sword and a fang-armed Mo as his only backup. This was a skill that the original destiny Sik was lacking with Sik having only ever been able to clumsily wield a sword before he gained access to his altered destiny self's skills and knowledge.
    • Latin: Sik has a knowledge of Latin and is able to understand it. Even when Sik doesn't have conscious access to these knowledge and skills, he occasionally sprouts a Latin phrase in conversation. When his original destiny is restored, Sik appears to retain this to at least some degree, recalling a Latin phrase while looking out at the restored world.
    • Cuneiform: Sik is shown to have some knowledge of cuneiform, able to write "my brother lives" in it on the Tablet of Destinies. It's most likely a holdover from his altered destiny as Ishtar's son like Sik appears to have held onto his knowledge of Latin since he previously only had knowledge of English and Arabic.

  • Ishtar's Heart: A flower species cultivated by Gilgamesh. Several stalks were gifted to Sikander as a deli-warming present. The flower has a green stalk with white velvety petals. The petals are pointed and narrow like swords and flecked with gold. The smell reminds others of their favorite dream.
  • Gilgamesh's Royal Seal: A golden ring fashioned with the seal of a man and lion, worn by Gilgamesh during his reign as the King of Uruk. The royal seal was delivered along with the Ishtar's Heart stalks in a rustic wooden box by at Gilgamesh's request. With the seal, Sik is able to access the multiverse and portals to Kurnugi as the seal grants the bearer access to all of the kingdoms that Gilgamesh once ruled. Sik is later forced to destroy it with Abubu in order to stop an invasion by the Anunna.
  • Abubu: At some point after Nergal's defeat, Gilgamesh gave Sik the Sky Cutter.
  • Kasusu: When Belet is abducted by Lugal, Sik recovers the sword and hangs on to it. In an altered destiny, Sik is given the sword on his eleventh birthday by Ishtar instead of Belet who is adopted by Lugal instead. It's used by Sik to battle Lugal and Tiamat, destroying the dragon goddess. After everyone's original destiny is restored, Kasusu is presumably either magically returned to Belet or Sik gives it back to her later.
  • Tablet of Destinies: After the tablet is wiped clean, Sik uses it to resurrect his brother and holds onto the remaining piece of it.

  • Relationships[]

    Love Interest[]

    Belet Amari[]

    Belet RR

    Belet Amari, his love interest.

    At first, Sik thought Belet was just a rich girl who attended his school, but as he spent time with her trying to stop Nergal, the two quickly grew close. When they were at the harbor Sik shielded her from a chain that was going to hit her, showing his concern for her. Shortly before the goddess is killed by Nergal, Ishtar made him promise to look out for her.

    They got into a small fight after they supposedly lost the Flower of Immortality and she becomes upset after Sik says her mother made him promise to look after her, he chases after Belet when she gets into a taxi. After he was revealed to have survived being run over by a train, she hugs him, and again after he returns from Kurnugi. When she is poisoned by a demon, he gets her to safety and manages to find a cure for her, who Daoud's help. He thanks Belet for funding the restoration of the deli and offers to join her in saving her Ishtar from the afterlife, but she tells him to stay with his family.

    In Fury of the Dragon Goddess, Kasusu realizes that Sik has fallen in love with Belet, something that he at first denies, but later admits to himself. During the battle with Lugal and Tiamat, Sik refuses to fight Belet and convinces her not to give in to her adoptive father. After the defeat of the two gods, Sik and Belet share a dance in front of the deli.

    Family[]

    Sikander is close with his father, often giving up time to hang out with friends to help him and his mother out with the deli. After he is stricken with Nergal's plague, Sik worries that his father won’t survive.

    Sinander is close with his mother, often giving up time to hang out with friends to help her and his father out with the deli. After she is stricken with Nergal's plague, Sik is concerned that she won’t survive.

    Sikander misses his older brother since his death and thinks of him often. He has imaginary conversations with his memorial at the deli. While he has idealized Mo his entire life, Sik has a slight resentment towards his older brother for not taking him on his trips with him. When they meet up again in Kurnugi, he is exited to see Mo again, but also berates him for leaving him behind to travel the world. After getting the Flower of Immortality, he is reluctant to leave his brother in the afterlife and only goes when Mo urges him to.

    In Fury of the Dragon Goddess, Sik uses the Tablet of Destinies to resurrect Mo, setting off a devastating chain of events. After defeating Lugal and Tiamat with Mo's help, Sik uses the tablet, now wiped clean, to resurrect Mo again before it sets and brings Mo home to his parents.

    Friends[]

    Prior to Mo's death, Sik would hang out with Aaron and their other friends, but he stopped to help out with the deli. He misses his friends, but feels he is needed more at the deli.

    Sik and Jake miss hanging out together with their friends, but he feels he is more needed at the deli. Jake often begs him to hang out but Sik rejects him.

    Rabisu

    Rabisu, a demon Sik befriended.

    At first, Sik was annoyed by Rabisu's constant demands that he fight her to the death. After he easily defeats her, Sik decides to help the demon return home. After coming face to face with the Anunna when Rabisu fails to return home, they fight them off together. After the battle, the two grow closer with the demon deciding to explore the United States and Sik giving her a t-shirt with the Statue of Liberty on it as a welcome gift.

    During their fight against Lugal and Tiamat, Sik often finds himself annoyed at Rabisu, snapping at her at one point. However, they eventually make up and become closer friends.

    Gods[]

    Ishtar

    Ishtar, the goddess of love and war.

    When he first met Ishtar, Sikander did not believe she was a Mesopotamian goddess. After she proves that she is who she says she is and shows him her past, he ran back home. After he and his family were hospitalized, she and Belet liberated him and brought him to their house. As the goddess brought Daoud to various upscale venues and events to find Nergal, he questioned her methods. Shortly before she was killed by Nergal, he promised the goddess that he would look after Belet.

    After the two reunite in Kurnugi, the two greeted each other warmly after she stopped her sister from killing him and warned him about a double exposure to the Flower of Immortality.

    In Fury of the Dragon Goddess, Ishtar is his adoptive mother in an altered destiny.

    Nergal

    Nergal, the god of disease and destruction.

    Sik hates the plague god for destroying his family's deli and getting his parents sick. He managed to escape the god's forces whenever the two came face to face, either with the help of his friends or if the god thought he was dead. During their final encounter, the god promised to cure his parents if he handed over the cure for the city. When Nergal's immortality is canceled out by a double dose of the flower of immortality, Sik simply watches with relief as the god dies.

    As part of his plans to raise Tiamat, Lugal manipulates Sik and pits him against Belet. Lugal is also able to use the Tablet of Destinies to remove Sik's immorality. However, Sik refuses to fall victim to the god's induced madness. Instead, Sik convinces Lugal to turn himself human for a moment and shows Lugal humanity from his own perspective, namely the better part of it. Sik's kindness, something that Lugal had never before experienced, causes the god to finally find peace within himself and he gives Sik the tablet before fading away. Even though Sik was unsure if there was anything left of Lugal's essence to hear him, Sik wishes him peace.

    Others[]

    Gilgamesh-RR

    Gilgamesh, a figure Sik has idealized through out his life.

    Sikander has always admired the legendary King of Uruk. When he finally met Gilgamesh after returning from Kurnugi, he was awestruck that he was meeting his childhood hero. However he was shocked that Gilgamesh became a pacifist. When the ziggurat was surrounded by Asakku, he was amazed by Gilgamesh's power. A month after the plague was stopped, he has Belet deliver flowers to Sik.

    Daoud-RR

    Daoud his brother's friend.

    Sik feels that Daoud is a lazy dreamer. He is annoyed by his focusing on wanting fame and finds it makes him vain. After learning he chickened out on identifying his "corpse" and having Belet do it in his place, he becomes enraged by it. Despite his hatred of Daoud, Sik is jealous of his closer relationship to his brother then him. After finding out that he kept Mo's room as it was and that he kept pictures of Mo in his portfolio, Sik starts to lighten up on Daoud.

    In Fury of the Dragon Goddess, they have become close friends.

    Etymology[]

    • Sikander is a Persian name derived from Alexander, which is often translated as "defender of the people", but which is translated in the book as "defender of the world".
    • Aziz is a masculine given name and surname of Arabic origin meaning "strong, powerful".

    Trivia[]

    • Sikander is the first main character in a work under Rick Riordan Presents to share a hometown with a main Riordanverse character (Percy Jackson).
    • Sikander's immortality was initially degraded due to the difference between the desert hybrid and the original flower of immortality, until the end of the City of the Plague God.
    • Sikander is the second protagonist in a Rick Riordan Presents book to deal with the death of a close friend or relative, the first being Tristan Strong in the Tristan Strong Trilogy.
    • He is on his school's math team.
    • Sik's favorite food is kofte wrapped in homemade pita.
    • He is a fan of the Indiana Jones films, his favorite being The Last Crusade.
    • Sik plays Dungeons and Dragons.
    • Aside from his flower granted immortality, Sik possesses no extraordinary powers of his own as he was just a regular mortal before encountering the flower of immortality.
      • In Fury of the Dragon Goddess, Sik gains fighting abilities that he originally lacks when he alters destiny. However, Sik loses these abilities when his original destiny is restored.
    Sikander Aziz series
    Books: City of the Plague God | Fury of the Dragon Goddess
    Main Characters: Sikander Aziz | Gilgamesh | Belet Amari | Mohammed Aziz | Daoud | Rabisu
    Secondary Characters: Kasusu | Sidana | Idiptu | Nadeem Aziz | Mina Aziz | Sargon
    Minor Characters: Tirid | Ada | Humbaba | Zack | Hobbs | Clyde | Mr. Georiou | Bagheera | Shere Khan | Simba | Achilles | Florence | Saghulhaza | Mr. Khan | Farouk Khan | Duncan | Charlie Yen | Jake | Mr. Grant | Brian Walker | Helen of Troy
    Mesopotamian Gods: Nergal | Ishtar | Erishkigal | Dumuzi | Lugal | Tiamat
    Magical Creatures: Asakku | Lamassu | Ugallu | Poxie | Basmu Serpent | Humbaba
    Related Content: Sarwat Chadda | Rick Riordan Presents | The Loneliest Demon
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