Balance
Part one
Disclaimer:They aren't mine, I just want to play with them for a while. :-)
Hi folks. This is my first Mummy fanfic, the first of several parts, and the first I've posted to
fanfiction.net.
The story takes place after The Mummy Returns and is obviously AU.I'm sure there will be
gaping plot-holes as I haven't actually seen the Mummy Returns yet. I have read the script on-line
and gathered what information I could from fansites and other sources. (At least until the
video/dvd is released, that is.)
I've taken quite a lot of liberties with history and myth, but I hope you can forgive that. Let me
know what you think!
In the end Evy wasn't sure why she'd done it. The ancient priest was poised to fall into the pit of
souls to die once more. More than ready, willing, betrayed by love. Perhaps that was why she had
reached out and commanded that he take her hand. It was as much a surprise when he had done
so. Rick had protested, but he helped her pull him to the relative safety of the ledge anyway.
He'd asked why, but she never answered him. The temple crashing down around them
forestalled that. They had fled to the surface, finding Meela's body on the way. Irony of ironies,
she had fallen to scorpions. She was dead. The priest had gone to his knees beside her body,
stricken. He probably would have stayed and died with her had Rick not forced him to move. The
oasis temple had disappeared. They had watched as, like Hamunaptra, Egypt swallowed it.
It seemed like a dream now; an unreality that refused to lay quiet in her mind. She had taken her
family home to England and they'd gotten on with their lives. The Med-Jai had taken charge of
Imhotep, though they had gotten word that he had disappeared from their custody last year.
According to Ardeth Bey, he was no longer a threat anyway. A mortal man, nothing more.
Ankh-Su-Namun had been his purpose. She was gone, and he was aimless. Probably dead,
Ardeth had suggested, it had been what he wanted. Evelyn knew he wasn't.
Sometimes in her dreams, she was in that other life, Nefertiri, daughter of Seti the first.She was
never sure if these dreams were imagination or memory. For a time, they faded, only visiting her
on rare occasions, but lately they were making a resurgence. They were strong now, vivid as life
and frequently terrifying.
She dreamed that the earth was trying to disgorge something evil; threads of some dark matter
oozed from the ground in a dark birch forest. The dark threads came together, mingled and
reformed into a seeking wraith, flying through the whispering trees, until it came upon a pack of
wolves. The animals seemed to sense it's presence and scattered through the trees. Evy watched
in horror as the wraith caught up with one of the wolves, an old female that couldn't run as fast as
the others. She collapsed as the wraith fell on her, screaming and yowling as the dark matter
forced its way into her body; through her eyes, her ears, her skin. Mercifully, after a few seconds
of this, the animal lay still. The rise and fall of its chest ceased. Dead? The wolf rose, clumsily, as
if unfamiliar with its own limbs.
For one heart-stopping moment, it seemed to look directly at Evelyn.Its eyes were vacant, at
first, then glowing with a sickly red light. It snarled at her, before running off. This was not an
animal fleeing aimlessly. The creature that had killed it to use its body knew where it was going.
She followed it for a time, and the creature knew it. She watched it run the dead wolf's body until
it disintegrated. The wraith left this shell, seeking another body. It found a farmer working his
fields. His poor wife saw the wraith take him, and she had tried to run when her husband came
for her.
The raw enjoyment it seemed to take from slaying her revolted Evelyn, but she couldn't make
herself look away. This was all important somehow. She felt compelled to bear witness. She saw
this same basic sequence of events
repeated over several nights dreaming,in many lands. The wraiths were a powerful evil, but what
was their purpose?
Evelyn tried to dismiss the dreams as her unconscious, worrying over the war that now seemed
to be inevitable. Then the dreams of Egypt had started to intrude on her dreams of the wraiths.
Now she was Nefertiri, citizen of Thebes, walking in Seti's golden palace. At a meeting of
corridors Imhotep joined her and walked with her.
"You are playing a dangerous game." She told him. Nefertiri had refrained, only just, from
blurting out, 'She is using you.'He had not answered, though he looked at her, then away,
quickly. She, or rather Nefertiri knew that he held a grudge against Seti, old and deep and strong.
He didn't hold it against her, however, or any of her siblings. "I don't like being in the middle.
You put me in a difficult position, Imhotep."
"For that I am sorry," he said, "I would not hurt you."
'But you will.' Nefertiri had thought, 'If you and she are caught it will hurt me.' Nefertiri had a
strong connection with the high priest, but Evelyn didn't know what exactly it was. In the wake
of their encounters she had researched Imhotep,and Ankh-Su-Namun, but she still knew next to
nothing about them. She suspected that Rameses, Seti's successor had erased them from any
records that existed. Even Nefertiri was a mystery to her. For the daughter of a pharaoh she was
very ill-documented.
Imhotep carried a circlet, heavy gold with a central sun disc. Cheek pieces of gold and lapis
beads hung down, and clicked together gently as he walked. It was a very odd design; as if it
were not quite Egyptian.Nefertiri thought it strange too. It provided a perfect escape from the
subject that made both priest and princess uncomfortable.
"What is this? I've never seen anything quite like it."
"An artifact, a piece of an ancient puzzle, and a powerful weapon."
"Tell me about it."
"Good and evil are eternal forces at work on life, beyond even the Gods and Goddesses.The
world of men is but the balance between the two. It is said that in ancient times, evil and good
grew out of balance. Evil rose from all of the corners of the earth, driving men who had been
brothers, friends to war. Kingdoms which had existed peaceably since before time was recorded
now were bent on destroying each other. Plagues rose, killing the weak; crops failed, and herds
died. Kingdoms fell and disappeared, leaving only ruins in their wake.With every death Evil
grew stronger and stronger, and began to form itself into a single entity, intent on wiping life
from the face of the earth.
"Faced with this horror, the wisest men and women in the kingdoms that were left gathered to
find a way to bring good and evil back into balance.
Drawn by dreams and visions, priests from Egypt travelled east with Hittites, Sumerians,
Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Scythians, following the Silk-Traders road to be met by priests and
scholars from the Eastern Kingdoms in a place its inhabitants called the Pastures of Heaven."
In a luminous flash of another's memory, Evelyn saw Imhotep as a young man, telling Nefertiri
the small child stories. The telling of tales was comfortable and familiar to both, a place to retreat
from this situation that pained them both.
"In many languages, among many gods and spirits, the priests and scholars contrived a solution
they hoped would stop the Evil.Through spells and prayers to their gods, they concentrated the
powers of light in three sacred objects. From the eastern kingdoms, a sword made from a fallen
star, given supernatural strength by creatures they called dragons, givers of life, keepers of the
elements.
"The Mycenaeans, Minoans and Hittites called upon their great mother goddesses, those who
bring forth life, to give their strength to a dagger of gold, as the sun, and silver, as the moon. The
blade can pierce any armour, and it will never dull.
"The Egyptians and the Sumerians created this crown, calling on Ra, and the Sumerian Utu,
gods of the sun, to imbue it with their power, which would protect its wearer from mortal
weapons."
"What good would a dagger, a sword and a crown do against this evil?" Nefertiri asked.
"By themselves, they were nothing. A vessel was chosen; one who would wield these three, one
through whom the power that lay in each would flow. This one would face the Evil personified
and force it back into balance with good, restoring the world to normal. They met on the Pastures
of Heaven on the winter solstice to do battle."
"And good won?"
"We are all still here."
"How did this chosen one defeat the Evil?"
"Only the chosen and the gods know that."
"What if it comes back?"
"It will. That is the Evil's nature."
"Is it soon? Is that why you have the crown?"
"No, by the time it returns you and I will have been dust for thousands of years. Your father
wished to see it, so I brought it from where it is kept hidden."
"The other pieces are hidden in their own lands?"
"Hidden and tended for the time when they will once more be needed. I am returning this now."
"Where? Is it a long journey?"
"So many questions, Nefertiri." He smiled, "You were always full of questions."
"Well?"
"I go into the Western Desert.That much I can tell you."
"I wish I could journey with you." Evelyn felt her longing to leave the city of life like it was a
pain. "I imagine I could feel free in the desert," she mused.
"We are none of us free." He spoke heavily, almost apologetically. Nefertiri hung her head. She
knew this too. She was a pharaoh's daughter; she could only be free in death. "Fate has plans for
all of us. We cannot escape them."
Part one
Disclaimer:They aren't mine, I just want to play with them for a while. :-)
Hi folks. This is my first Mummy fanfic, the first of several parts, and the first I've posted to
fanfiction.net.
The story takes place after The Mummy Returns and is obviously AU.I'm sure there will be
gaping plot-holes as I haven't actually seen the Mummy Returns yet. I have read the script on-line
and gathered what information I could from fansites and other sources. (At least until the
video/dvd is released, that is.)
I've taken quite a lot of liberties with history and myth, but I hope you can forgive that. Let me
know what you think!
In the end Evy wasn't sure why she'd done it. The ancient priest was poised to fall into the pit of
souls to die once more. More than ready, willing, betrayed by love. Perhaps that was why she had
reached out and commanded that he take her hand. It was as much a surprise when he had done
so. Rick had protested, but he helped her pull him to the relative safety of the ledge anyway.
He'd asked why, but she never answered him. The temple crashing down around them
forestalled that. They had fled to the surface, finding Meela's body on the way. Irony of ironies,
she had fallen to scorpions. She was dead. The priest had gone to his knees beside her body,
stricken. He probably would have stayed and died with her had Rick not forced him to move. The
oasis temple had disappeared. They had watched as, like Hamunaptra, Egypt swallowed it.
It seemed like a dream now; an unreality that refused to lay quiet in her mind. She had taken her
family home to England and they'd gotten on with their lives. The Med-Jai had taken charge of
Imhotep, though they had gotten word that he had disappeared from their custody last year.
According to Ardeth Bey, he was no longer a threat anyway. A mortal man, nothing more.
Ankh-Su-Namun had been his purpose. She was gone, and he was aimless. Probably dead,
Ardeth had suggested, it had been what he wanted. Evelyn knew he wasn't.
Sometimes in her dreams, she was in that other life, Nefertiri, daughter of Seti the first.She was
never sure if these dreams were imagination or memory. For a time, they faded, only visiting her
on rare occasions, but lately they were making a resurgence. They were strong now, vivid as life
and frequently terrifying.
She dreamed that the earth was trying to disgorge something evil; threads of some dark matter
oozed from the ground in a dark birch forest. The dark threads came together, mingled and
reformed into a seeking wraith, flying through the whispering trees, until it came upon a pack of
wolves. The animals seemed to sense it's presence and scattered through the trees. Evy watched
in horror as the wraith caught up with one of the wolves, an old female that couldn't run as fast as
the others. She collapsed as the wraith fell on her, screaming and yowling as the dark matter
forced its way into her body; through her eyes, her ears, her skin. Mercifully, after a few seconds
of this, the animal lay still. The rise and fall of its chest ceased. Dead? The wolf rose, clumsily, as
if unfamiliar with its own limbs.
For one heart-stopping moment, it seemed to look directly at Evelyn.Its eyes were vacant, at
first, then glowing with a sickly red light. It snarled at her, before running off. This was not an
animal fleeing aimlessly. The creature that had killed it to use its body knew where it was going.
She followed it for a time, and the creature knew it. She watched it run the dead wolf's body until
it disintegrated. The wraith left this shell, seeking another body. It found a farmer working his
fields. His poor wife saw the wraith take him, and she had tried to run when her husband came
for her.
The raw enjoyment it seemed to take from slaying her revolted Evelyn, but she couldn't make
herself look away. This was all important somehow. She felt compelled to bear witness. She saw
this same basic sequence of events
repeated over several nights dreaming,in many lands. The wraiths were a powerful evil, but what
was their purpose?
Evelyn tried to dismiss the dreams as her unconscious, worrying over the war that now seemed
to be inevitable. Then the dreams of Egypt had started to intrude on her dreams of the wraiths.
Now she was Nefertiri, citizen of Thebes, walking in Seti's golden palace. At a meeting of
corridors Imhotep joined her and walked with her.
"You are playing a dangerous game." She told him. Nefertiri had refrained, only just, from
blurting out, 'She is using you.'He had not answered, though he looked at her, then away,
quickly. She, or rather Nefertiri knew that he held a grudge against Seti, old and deep and strong.
He didn't hold it against her, however, or any of her siblings. "I don't like being in the middle.
You put me in a difficult position, Imhotep."
"For that I am sorry," he said, "I would not hurt you."
'But you will.' Nefertiri had thought, 'If you and she are caught it will hurt me.' Nefertiri had a
strong connection with the high priest, but Evelyn didn't know what exactly it was. In the wake
of their encounters she had researched Imhotep,and Ankh-Su-Namun, but she still knew next to
nothing about them. She suspected that Rameses, Seti's successor had erased them from any
records that existed. Even Nefertiri was a mystery to her. For the daughter of a pharaoh she was
very ill-documented.
Imhotep carried a circlet, heavy gold with a central sun disc. Cheek pieces of gold and lapis
beads hung down, and clicked together gently as he walked. It was a very odd design; as if it
were not quite Egyptian.Nefertiri thought it strange too. It provided a perfect escape from the
subject that made both priest and princess uncomfortable.
"What is this? I've never seen anything quite like it."
"An artifact, a piece of an ancient puzzle, and a powerful weapon."
"Tell me about it."
"Good and evil are eternal forces at work on life, beyond even the Gods and Goddesses.The
world of men is but the balance between the two. It is said that in ancient times, evil and good
grew out of balance. Evil rose from all of the corners of the earth, driving men who had been
brothers, friends to war. Kingdoms which had existed peaceably since before time was recorded
now were bent on destroying each other. Plagues rose, killing the weak; crops failed, and herds
died. Kingdoms fell and disappeared, leaving only ruins in their wake.With every death Evil
grew stronger and stronger, and began to form itself into a single entity, intent on wiping life
from the face of the earth.
"Faced with this horror, the wisest men and women in the kingdoms that were left gathered to
find a way to bring good and evil back into balance.
Drawn by dreams and visions, priests from Egypt travelled east with Hittites, Sumerians,
Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Scythians, following the Silk-Traders road to be met by priests and
scholars from the Eastern Kingdoms in a place its inhabitants called the Pastures of Heaven."
In a luminous flash of another's memory, Evelyn saw Imhotep as a young man, telling Nefertiri
the small child stories. The telling of tales was comfortable and familiar to both, a place to retreat
from this situation that pained them both.
"In many languages, among many gods and spirits, the priests and scholars contrived a solution
they hoped would stop the Evil.Through spells and prayers to their gods, they concentrated the
powers of light in three sacred objects. From the eastern kingdoms, a sword made from a fallen
star, given supernatural strength by creatures they called dragons, givers of life, keepers of the
elements.
"The Mycenaeans, Minoans and Hittites called upon their great mother goddesses, those who
bring forth life, to give their strength to a dagger of gold, as the sun, and silver, as the moon. The
blade can pierce any armour, and it will never dull.
"The Egyptians and the Sumerians created this crown, calling on Ra, and the Sumerian Utu,
gods of the sun, to imbue it with their power, which would protect its wearer from mortal
weapons."
"What good would a dagger, a sword and a crown do against this evil?" Nefertiri asked.
"By themselves, they were nothing. A vessel was chosen; one who would wield these three, one
through whom the power that lay in each would flow. This one would face the Evil personified
and force it back into balance with good, restoring the world to normal. They met on the Pastures
of Heaven on the winter solstice to do battle."
"And good won?"
"We are all still here."
"How did this chosen one defeat the Evil?"
"Only the chosen and the gods know that."
"What if it comes back?"
"It will. That is the Evil's nature."
"Is it soon? Is that why you have the crown?"
"No, by the time it returns you and I will have been dust for thousands of years. Your father
wished to see it, so I brought it from where it is kept hidden."
"The other pieces are hidden in their own lands?"
"Hidden and tended for the time when they will once more be needed. I am returning this now."
"Where? Is it a long journey?"
"So many questions, Nefertiri." He smiled, "You were always full of questions."
"Well?"
"I go into the Western Desert.That much I can tell you."
"I wish I could journey with you." Evelyn felt her longing to leave the city of life like it was a
pain. "I imagine I could feel free in the desert," she mused.
"We are none of us free." He spoke heavily, almost apologetically. Nefertiri hung her head. She
knew this too. She was a pharaoh's daughter; she could only be free in death. "Fate has plans for
all of us. We cannot escape them."