Daniel stepped out for the Jeep, stretching his arms wide as though trying to hug the desert sun. Inhaling deeply he bounced on his feet, staring across the excavation site with the glee of a child, bouncing on the heel of his boots. "This place is amazing! Look! Look over there! It looks as though they found some ceremonial urns. And over there they discovered some jewelry! That looks like a headpiece but I've never seen the design before! This stuff is ancient! This may in fact be the discovery of the oldest relics yet! This is amazing!"
"Daniel. Focus. Remember why we're here." Jack tumbled out of the Jeep. He inhaled the desert air and promptly started coughing. "Really Daniel, I don't know what you saw in this place."
"I agree with O'Neill. The landscape appears formidable."
"Sir, where should we start?" Sam glanced around. The excavation site was huge, with trucks and supplies constantly coming and going. Small tents dotted the landscape, fluttering in a light breeze. People milled about everywhere. From a tactical stance this place was wide open. There was no apparent security and it seemed as though the dig teams where operating separate from each other. There didn't seem to be anyone in charge.
Jack stared at the site, looking completely out of his element. He turned to the archeologist at his side. "Daniel, this is your show. Make stuff happen."
"Jack you know that is not the way this works. I can't just magically wave my hands and have everything we need," snapped Daniel, demonstrating the gesture.
"Excuse me but are you lost?" The team looked down. A slight teenager with outrageous hair, a dark red that was almost purple, styled in short spikes with long blonde bangs, stared up at the group with wide violet eyes. He was dressed as the dig teams were, and the shape of his eyes betrayed his Asian descent.
"Actually yes," Daniel shifted uncomfortably, "We are looking for whoever is in charge. It is important that we speak to them immediately."
The boy gave a quick bow, his hair dancing wildly with the movement. "You are looking for Isis-san. If you would like I can show you to her."
"Thanks kid." Jack turned to Daniel. "You were saying?" He took off after the child before Daniel came up with a response.
"Sir," Sam whispered in Jack's ear the moment she had caught up with him, "isn't he a little young to be working a dig site?"
"It's fine, Carter. Besides we have more important things to be doing than worrying about who they have playing in the dirt here. Head in the game, Carter."
"Yes sir," she fell back a bit, biting her lip to keep her from saying more.
Teal'c looked around with an eyebrow raised as Daniel started rattling off facts about the various items and people they passed. "Oh! See that! Those daggers were likely used for the mummification process! That slab over there could have been the table they used! Look, over there! It's the remains of a pillar, and judging from the craftsmanship-" Teal'c heaved an internal sigh, resign himself to be the victim of Daniel's prattle.
"So what brings you to the desert? Obviously you are not here for the excavation."
"What makes you so sure?" Sam leaned in a bit, eager to catch her small guide's response.
The boy turned, a sparkle in his amethyst eyes. "Excavators do not wear guns." Then he turned and bounded off before any of them could respond, waving at two approaching figures. One was a woman dressed in a simple white gown complete with a headpiece. The outfit was decorated with gold embroidery along the neckline and the belt line. An eye rested on the brow of the headpiece, giving the eerie impression that she was always watching. The other figure…
"Sir, did you see that?!" Sam stopped in her tracks.
"See what, Carter?" Jack turned to the confused expression of his subordinate.
She blinked, hard, and looked again. "I'm sure I saw…" She shook her head as the lone woman approached, their guide still frantically waiting. "Sorry sir… must have been a trick of the light."
"Head in the game, Carter."
"Yes sir." Still, she kept a close eye, looking for things unseen.
"Isis-san, Isis-san," the boy bounced up to the woman, stopping just short of running into her.
She murmured something in Egyptian and rubbed his head. Then she frowned, muttering in a disapproving tone. The boy opened his eyes wide, slipping into Japanese as he responded. The woman, Isis, sighed and pushed away the boy who bowed and danced off again, headed for one of the tents. She fondly watched the boy disappear before turning to her guests.
"Forgive his abrupt departure. Mr. Mutou is easily preoccupied." She bowed her head low, speaking in a sultry voice. "I am Isis Ishtar, leader of this expedition. What is it that brings you to the desert?"
Jack stepped forward, cutting off a vibrating Daniel. "I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, this I Major Carter," she gave a slight wave at her introduction, "Daniel Jackson," who was too busy gawking to even realize he was being introduced, "and Murray," Teal'c lowered his chin in greeting.
No emotion crossed Isis's face as introductions were made. Her poker face would have given Teal'c a run for his money. "You have not answered my questions. Why are you here?"
Jack shuffled, trying to make eye contact with Daniel, who was still ogling the work being done. Jack sighed. He hated explanations.
***
/Yugi, who were those people?/
*They were Americans.*
/Like Bandit Keith?/
*Yes.*
/Is it wise to leave them with Isis?/
*I'm sure she'll be fine. But if you are concerned you could watch her. I'm sure I can manage to get a meal without getting myself killed.* Yugi could feel Yami's worry, the spirit hiding himself with in the puzzle.
/Do not joke about such things Aibou,/ Yugi could feel Yami's frown through their bond. /But I will watch Isis. I am curious about your Americans./ And with that Yugi felt Yami move, the distance increasing a pressure in Yugi's chest. It was uncomfortable but not painful. The distance that Yami could travel had been increasing over the years but being apart always made Yugi feel a little uneasy. Perhaps he had just grown too use to having someone else living in his head.
***
He had approached the encampment with ease, walking through the camp in his newest host, a local inhabitant of this area he had picked up in the airport. He liked his newest form. It was strong yet the frame was compact enough as to not draw attention. It knew much about the local inhabitants customs, making it easy to move with relative stealth. It blended into the excavation site with little effort.
***
Isis stared at the strangers, the American soldiers, her suspicions towards them rising. They came with a tale of plague that threatened her campsite. Some American experiment that had gone awry and landed in the hands of the enemy. Apparently they had received intelligence that whoever was responsible was going to unleash here as a testing ground.
They were lying. That much was obvious. The plague story was flimsy and poorly rehearsed, the men obviously covering the wholes in each other's versions to try and patchwork a ragtag tale.
But they were also worried. It did not seem to be the nervousness of petty crooks. These people seemed use to violence, and as Yami had pointed out, all of them carried concealed weapons with ease. He stood behind them, watching for sign of hostility. So far there had been none. Though their story was false perhaps there was truth behind it. They certainly walked with the air of soldiers.
At least most of them.
"So you see that's why it's important that you, uh, leave." Daniel pointed behind him to their Jeep.
"I understand." Isis bowed her head, deep in thought. "Will you allow us to move our discoveries as well?"
O'Neill huffed, bouncing from side to side. He could tell from the way she was standing that there was going to be a fight over this. "Fine." He snapped. "But make sure you're quick about it. We don't have all day." Instead of relaxing the woman's shoulders stiffened even tighter.
"Fine." Isis bowed her head again as she came to her decision. It was like watching a tree bow. "I will order my people to-" She spun suddenly, all of her attention on the water tents. Then she turned and ran, cursing in Egyptian.
"Daniel? What's going on? What did she just say?"
Daniel pushed up his glasses. "I'm not sure, but it can't be good." Then he took of running.
"Dammit!" Why couldn't they ever get easy assignments?
***
He had waited in the water tent. It had seemed to be a place of high traffic, rendering his continued presence there inconspicuous. It also provided him with an opportunity to survey the enemy, as weak was they were, and search for his target in relative peace.
His efforts had not been in vain, he noted, as a juvenile of the planet's inhabitants stepped through the curtain, moving straight over to the liquid dispenser without even noting the other's presence.
Apep took a step forward. The child spun, dropping his water, wide eyes staring up at the host. He began to back immediately, as though sensing the alien's intent. Which was impossible of course. Humans lacked those capabilities.
But still…
Apep reached forward as the boy turned to run, snagging the small figure by the throat, effortlessly lifting him off the ground. The boy twisted and kicked, gasping for breath and clawing at the hand that held him aloft. He tossed the boy to the sandy floor.
Yugi twisted again as the large figure bore down on him, the bigger man using his knees to pin Yugi in place on the ground. He scooped up Yugi's hands in one of his own, pinning them above his head as the man used the other to cover Yugi's mouth. Yugi bit down hard on the flesh covering his face, trying to ignore the sickly feeling the man radiated. It was the same feeling Bakura had always given him. Something wet, slimy, oozing off of his skin.
The man on top of him hissed in pain but didn't bother to move his hand. Instead he leaned in closer to the boy's struggling figure.
* Yami!* Yugi screamed in his head, pulling as hard as he could on their bond.
"I found you." The voice of his attacker was strange, unnaturally hollow. His eyes glowed with gold.
Yugi screamed the moment the hand left his mouth, his cry shortened by lips that pressed against his. He could taste the blood of his attacker as something large fell into his throat. And started wiggling.
*YAMI!* Yugi's mind screamed the name over again and again as pain over took him. He could feel as something burrowed deep into the back of his throat, feel his control over his own form slipping. He tried to claw his way out from the now still body on top of him but could only watch in horror as his own arms went slack, numbness spreading up from his fingertips. His lungs burned but he couldn't even gasp for breath. His body shook as though in seizure. Yugi watched as his vision narrowed, his world shrinking to a pinprick of light, then disappearing all together. His only awareness of a sibilant voice echoing somewhere within his own mind.
#Now I claim you.#
***
Horror was all Isis could feel as she pulled open the flap. A body was lying on the floor, an Egyptian man she did not recognize. He was obviously dead, his dark eyes glazed over and blood seeping from his mouth.
Yami cradled a second figure, gentle shaking the figure and screaming his name. He glanced up as Isis approached and she could see that his irises were not the only part of his eyes that were red. "Isis, I can't- he won't- I can't reach him! I can't hear him!" He shook his head, then squared his shoulders with determination. "I'm going in Isis."
She nodded. "Good luck Pharaoh."
Yugi's body slumped into the sand as its only support disappeared back into the puzzle. The young man's skin was sallow but he was breathing. Barely, but he was. She could see the line of drying blood running along his chin. She crouched down by the body, reaching out to touch him, to prove that even if he wasn't well he was alive.
"Don't touch him!" A hand clamped around her wrist, puling her back from the body.
"Let go! Release me!" She swung with her other hand, her fist connecting with the man's face. She heard him grunt in pain but he didn't loosen his grip.
"Jack! A hand!" The figure was joined by another, more hands dragging her away from her charge.
"Teal'c, check the kid! Carter, get on the CV. Let them know we have a situation here. Make sure no one gets in or out."
"Yes Sir!" Sam disappeared to the outside of the tent.
"O'Neill, the child appears to be alive."
Jack crouched down by the boy's body, his inner monologue screaming curses. "Is he infected?"
"I believe so."
Jack pulled of his hat, running a hand through his hair. "Dammit. Carter!"
"Sir?" the voice drifted in from outside.
"We need a containment unit. ASAP."
Jack turned to Daniel, who was trying desperately to restrain Isis. Jack wasn't a linguist, hell, he had problems with English, but even he could tell that Isis was swearing at Daniel in several languages, none of them English.
"Hey. Hey, Isis!" he grabbed the wrist she was using the wail on Daniel, with quite a bit of success too. The archeologist had a bloody nose and it was likely he would have at least one black eye.
"Let go of me you son of a bitch! Release me!"
"Come on now." Jack lifted the woman, half carrying, half dragging her out of the tent.
"No! He needs me! Let go!"
"Dammit Isis! Calm down! You can't touch him!"
"Why not?" The woman spun in his grip, her dark gaze gouging into him. "Why can I not be there?"
"He has the plague!" Jack shouted. "If you touch him you'll die!"
"You left your friends in there!" She started trying to twist out of his grip again. She was a wild cat! "They were touching him!"
"They're immune! You're not." She sagged against him, going limp like a doll in his hands. "We'll take care of the kid. It's why we're here."
Isis stepped back, staring at the tent, then at the America. She stared at the man known as O'Neill. "I am holding you responsible for this," she spoke the threat calmly, like she was telling him what she had for breakfast. "If anything untoward happens to that child I will find you." She stepped closer, her nose an inch from the Colonel's. "I will find you and I will use your stomach as a water skin and wear your teeth as a necklace."
Jack raised his hands. "I'll take care of the kid. I promise. We'll do everything we can for him."
"But now we need your help," Carter cut in, Isis's laser gaze swinging to the fair blonde. "We need to jeep this thing from spreading and we need to do so without eliciting panic. These people trust you Isis. We'll need your help keeping them here until we can make sure that none of them are infected. We can provide treatment, but only if we know who is sick."
The Egyptian woman glanced back to the tent one more time.
"Please Isis." Carter begged, her smoky blue eyes pleading.
"Fine," Isis hissed. "Fine." She inhaled, resettling into her unemotional disposition. "How can I be of assistance?"
***
The room was light and airy, sunlight pouring in from an unseeble sky. The walls were a creamy yellow. A toy shelf sat in one corner, a thing layer of dust covering the various puzzles and gadgets. Various plants were growing by the window, the beautiful blooms sparkling with a light sheen of water. The air smelled fresh, like spring, and the bed across from the door was large and springy. Underneath the bed huddled a figure, curled up into a ball, seeking the safety of the only shadows in this room. He knew it was only a matter of time until this place was discovered.
Yugi pulled his knees up to his chin, trying to keep his breathing regular as he broadcasted one thought over and over again.
*Yami.*
***
Whoa, these chapters seem to be long. This arc is fairly long too. And I'm making up words. And using them. I love freedom of expression.