Disclaimer: I do not own The Mummy or it's characters. If I did, I wouldn't be so poor. Prompts are from "The If You Dare Challenge" on HPFC.

Author's Notes: This is my first Mummy fic and as such, please bare with me. I caught the movie on tv a few weeks ago, and though I've seen it in the past (it's a great movie!), I never quite considered it's potential as fanfic inspiring until now. As such I've spent the last couple weeks reading LOTS of Mummy's fics and plotting a story of my own in my head.

I noticed that a lot of plot-lines include either Rick or Evy having a sibling. So I'm going to try to write something a bit different. Hopefully it will be enjoyable. And hopefully my OC won't be a gun-toting, tom-boy cliché. But enough of a feminist... without making her an anachronism for the era and setting.

Warnings: Intermarriage in families was, I believe, a fairly common practice in royal families in many cultures of the past and as The Mummy deals with Ancient Egypt, I have seen fit to include it in this story. Therefore incest will play a bit of a role in this story. However, I have no intention of... focusing on it in depth or going into the subject matter graphically, but I still felt a warning should be included. SO no flaming because of the references to incest, please!

Prompt: A Promise Is... (#176)

Yours Completely

Chapter 1:

Dreams and Old Friends Return

Little feet silently glided on the ground. A slender figure moved through the dark night, her small, skinny silhouette barely discernible from the night.

A flash of lightning briefly lit the room, showing for a brief second the rooms two figures. One, a small girl no older than five; with hair of pitch black, falling straight to skinny little shoulders.

The other, a boy of fourteen or fifteen, stretched out and asleep on a pallet. His bald head tilted in her direction, his handsome features relaxed in his peaceful sleep.

A loud clap of thunder followed some moments later; the young girl jumping out of her skin and scurrying quickly to the sleeping figure and kneeling next to the prone figure, shaking the large shoulder with small, delicate hands.

"Sekhet?" the figure asked in an ancient tongue, thick with slumber. Dark eyes blinked steadily awake and stared with hooded lids at the smaller figure.

"Can I sleep with you? I'm afraid," the girl replied in the same language, her voice small with fear.

The boy, given to being moody for being woken, merely gave her a look before sighing and scooting over, gesturing for her to lay down with him.

A small appreciative smile tilted the small corners of her mouth as she quickly moved to lay down next to him; her small head, covered with silken hair, rested on his shoulder. A strong arm, wrapped around her shoulders, while the other rested on his stomach as she pressed her own small palm on his bare chest.

"Imhotep?" the little girl called.

"Yes, Sekhet?" the boy asked, his voice deep and tinged with irritation.

"I don't want you to leave," she whispered, her voice smaller and colored with her tears that now blurred her vision. Her little heart clenched at the thought of losing her older brother who she adored and looked up to so much, though she knew he must go to learn and train.

"I must, little one. But it won't be forever," he responded, his voice softening in understanding.

"You promise?" Sekhet asked, tilting her head up so that she could look up into his handsome face.

"Yes, I promise. How else will I always protect you unless I return?" he asked. Sekhet smiled, as Imhotep moved to place a kiss on her forehead. "Now go to sleep, Sekhet."

"Of course, Imhotep. I love you."

"And I, you."

~X~

For a moment, Aria Nazari was unsure what had woken her. Head still buried in her pillow, she paused, grasping at the remnants of her dream as she tried to remember something, though she was unsure what. A few seconds later, she sighed as she sat up and ran her fingers through her straight, black hair that fell a few inches past her shoulders.

Large, dark eyes cast a look about her spartan bedroom as a frown covered her tan face. It had been years since she'd dreamt of being a little girl named Sekhet and of her brother Imhotep. As a child, she'd had them quite frequently. Her dreams creating an entire lifetime, that was far happier than her own existence.

As she grew older, the dreams came with less frequency, until finally coming to a complete stop during her mid teens. By then, Aria had learned to tell herself that her subconscious was merely providing a lonely, orphan child with dreams of a family in order to comfort herself at the loss of her own when she was but five.

The fact that the dreams felt so startlingly real, or were so vivid and clear, had never quite bothered her until just that moment.

However, further introspection came to a complete stop as a sudden pounding started up again. The sound had been what had woken her, she realized now.

Jumping to her feet, Aria grasped a pair of black leggings and tossed them on her bare, slender legs before reaching beneath her pillow and pulling out a revolver. Checking to make sure it was loaded, she exited her mostly bare bedroom, crossed the small and equally bare living room and reached her front door.

Leaning into the peephole, Aria's slender, black brows shot to her hairline as she quickly pulled back to open the door. Stashing her gun at the back of her pants, swift hands began to unlock the door and then pull the chain from its place, before turning the handle and yanking the door open. She stared wide-eyed at the dirty man on her doorstep.

"As I live and breathe," she stated ironically in slightly accented english, as she looked the man over from head to toe. Brown, matted hair fell in dirty ringlets past his cheekbones and chin. Blue eyes, shone all the more magnificently through the grime that covered his face. His clothes were in tatters, barely hanging to his tall and muscular frame. An unholy stench, radiated from the man who stared at her with an unamused expression.

"You goin' to invite me in?" he asked in bad temper.

Aria stepped aside, raising a black brow. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked as he stepped inside and she shut the door behind him.

Thought it had been at the very least three years since she had last seen Rick O'Connell, she'd know the man anywhere. Having grown up in the same orphanage, and then trying to make it living in the streets of Cairo, their bond was one difficult to break, even if years passed without a word between them.

Rick wasn't startled by the younger woman's language, or the fact that she was wearing tight trousers and a man's, long-sleeved, button-up-shirt. Cairo's orphanages and streets didn't breed perfect little gentlemen and ladies. And Rick certainly hadn't helped matters where Aria's upbringing was concerned, after all, he was the one that taught her how to handle various weapons, not to mention taught her how to throw a punch and a few kicks.

But for all her wearing of men's clothes, Aria Nazari was far from manly. Her figure was far too petite to be considered anything but feminine, even if her curves were small and lost under the large shirts she regularly wore. And when the situation called for it, she was perfectly capable of wearing skirts and blouses and pretending to be a proper young woman.

At five foot four, Aria was quite short, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders. Her figure was slender, perhaps from years of barely being able to eat enough to survive. She had straight, black hair that though usually worn in a ponytail or in braids, was actually rather pretty. Her features were of decidedly Egyptian origin, and though not head-turning beautiful, they were pretty enough.

Her loveliest feature perhaps being her large, black eyes, covered with dark sooty lashes with heavy lids that gave her an either permanently bored expression, or a seductive one, depending on whether or not she was smiling; or her lips, which were shapely and a very dark pink, her lower lip being slightly plumper than the top one.

"Long story, I'll tell you later," he replied as he made his way towards her bathroom, making himself completely at home. "You happen to have any of my clothes laying around here?"

Aria didn't say anything as Rick called to her before disappearing into her bedroom and heading to her closet. Apart from her bed and a trunk at the foot of her bed in which she stored a lot of weapons, many of them belonging to Rick, there was little else in her room.

Digging in the back of her closet, Aria emerged moments later with a clean white shirt, larger than the one's that she wore, and a pair of beige trousers, also much larger than the one's she wore. Heading out of the room, she walked into the bathroom, where the door was closed and pushed it open without warning.

"Ari, what the hell!" Rick exclaimed, as he was down to his underthings, trying to cover up. Aria smirked as she raised a brow once more, though taking time to take in the sight. And it was quite a sight. Rick seemed to be all muscles, and his creamy, unblemished skin brought to mind as many fond memories as the bulging muscles of his arms and thighs.

"Rick, you don't have anything I haven't seen before," she replied with amusement tinging her voice, and a smirk on her face, placing the clothes on top of the closed, toilet lid. "There's some scissors and an unused razor beneath the sink. Help yourself," she stated in her usual, quiet and neutral tone before turning and heading to the kitchen to make something quick to eat, both for herself and Rick, as she imagined that he was in need of food.

As she set about her task, she briefly wondered about the last time she'd seen Rick. A gnawing sensation started in her stomach as she wondered whether or not Rick had forgiven her for breaking up with him. Though they had promised to never let anything to ruin their friendship when their relationship took a less-than-platonic turn, it couldn't have been a coincidence that weeks after they'd broken up, Rick decided to join the French Legion and then disappeared until now.

Running her fingers through her hair, she finished and started to set the light meal on plates which she then took to her small round table and took a seat. She tried to tell herself that Rick wouldn't break that promise. He was a man of his word, and a promise to him meant everything... he wouldn't break it, no matter how much his heart had been broken at the time.

Besides, on some level, she was sure that Rick knew that she was doing the right thing by ending their relationship. She was just so... filled with jealousy. She was so... possessive over him and and she knew that Rick, no matter how much he attempted to not let it get to him, that he'd eventually end up hating her. For all the fights that she caused. And they would have been miserable.

It hardly mattered that Rick was the only man that she ever loved, perhaps the only person she'd ever really loved, or could remember loving. It didn't matter that she was in love with him since she was thirteen. She had to end it with him, or risk losing him forever.

No, if Rick hadn't come to see her until now, it had to be for another reason.

"Sandwiches? You still can't cook, Ari?" Rick asked as he strode in, now looking every bit the handsome man that she remembered. She looked up at him and shrugged, completely unabashed at her inability to cook.

Rick didn't complain much as he took a seat opposite her and started to shove the food in his mouth without further complaint just as Aria started to eat, though at a slower pace and with smaller bites.

"So, you going to tell me where you've been?" Aria asked between bites. Rick sighed, quickly finishing what was in his mouth before pushing away the remnants and starting to tell her about his company's trip to Hamunaptra. Aria raised a disbelieving brow. Though an uneducated street urchin, Aria was still more than aware of the fabled, lost City of the Dead.

"So now I've been roped into going back there, thanks to the broad that saved my life. Lot of good that will do, if we get ourselves killed out there," he finished, turning his attention back to the rest of his uneaten meal and going back to it with disgusted gusto. "Which is where you come in."

Aria, who had been busy trying to absorb the fact that the city of legend was real, because if Rick said it was it had to be as the man was not given to flight of fancies, startled. "Me? How do you figure that?"

"Well if I'm going, I'm dragging you with me," Rick replied simply, through a mouthful.

"Excuse me?" Aria asked, scandalized by his assumption that she was just going to hop to orders like some kind of soldier in a regiment. "You do realize I have my own life, not to mention work, I can't just drop it, and pick up and go anytime I want."

"Yes you can!" Rick snorted. "Your an acquirer of ancient artifacts, in other words, a professional thief. You acquire artifacts, usually stealing them from other digs or museums. You work on your own schedule. This is really, right up your ally, kid. Besides, I need you there to watch my back and we promised to always have each other's back."

Aria paused for moment, her tongue twisting itself into knots in her mouth. In reality, she wasn't entirely sure why she was so reluctant to join Rick on his new adventure. He was right, though. She was a professional thief. Her small stature, exceedingly quick nature, and years of practice as a child, had rendered her perfect for the profession. And Hamunaptra was the holy grail of sites to grave-rob.

However, as non-superstitious as Aria liked to believe she was, she didn't like the idea of it.

Looking up into Ricks startling blue gaze, his presence the one constant in her life, she knew that there was only one response she could give. After all, they had promised to always look after one another as children. How could she do anything but honor that promise?

"When do we leave?" she asked with a crooked smile, which Rick returned brightly.

TBC...

A/n: So that's all for now. Unfortunately I don't have internet at the moment, so I won't be able to update as much as I would like. But I'll try to put up another chapter soon. Perhaps even this weekend.

Anyway, please review! I would really love some feedback so have a heart!