Author's note: Hi again, guys! Welcome back. Okay, first off, sorry about my last comment in the previous chapter, but I had to close my poll due to problems.
Secondly, I just found out early this week, but on Saturday of March(this month), of the 28th, is the day that I became a member of the fanfiction site two years ago! I forgot about my 2nd Anniversary!
Finally, to Puffgirl1952, thanks for liking the story so far(and thanks to you as well, Amanda27A.g), it makes me happy, but um, I just want to ask. When you said, "Nice touch with the blue guy", did you mean Wobbuffect? I just got a bit confused, so don't worry.
Anyway, let's continue. I don't own anything here. There's even some references to Cardcaptors as well, which, again, I don't own.
Chapter eight: "Leave or Die."
Back to Serena and her group, they decided to take a break for a while to rest up on their digging, and were completely unaware of the screams and horror above them, though Raye was still sensing great evil which was just as close as before, though she had no idea why. In the meantime, Jonathan opted to play golf, using one of the digging tools as a club and each time hits rocks, aiming to the wall. Evy was explaning a few Mummy details to the rest of the group, which Serena, Mina and Lita were all cringing about, and hey, who can blame them? Rick certainly doesn't.
"So let me get this straight." Lita eventually ventured nervously, shivering, "They take out your guts and place them inside jars?"
"Sounds like something out of a bad horror movie." Serena shivered.
Evy nodded, "And they take out your heart as well." which made Serena cringe loudly in disgust, automatically placing her hands to her chest where she felt her own heart. To her and everyone else's dismay, Evy continued, "Oh, and you know how they took out your brains?"
"Evy, I don't think we need to know this." Jonathan said as he looked as his sister, before continuing to play golfing to distract himself from hearing something that'll no doubt give him(and the rest of the group) nightmares.
Evy ignored him and continued, "They'd take sharp red-hot poker, stick up your nose, scramble things about a bit, and rip it all out through your nostrils."
The Sailor Scouts shivered in horror at this, looking at Evy with disturbed looks as she didn't seem all fazed as she discribed this. They looked at her like she was crazy.
Rick in the meantime, in horrified sympathy, held his own nose gently, muttering, "Ooh, that's gotta hurt."
"It's called mummification." Raye pointed out in a hint of annoyance. "You'll be dead when they do this."
"That's certainly not happening to me!" Serena shrieked.
"Tell me about it." Lita nodded in agreement.
Mina also nodded, muttering, "Ditto."
"For the record," Rick spoke up to Jonathan, in a hint of nervousness in his tone, as he agreed with the teenagers, "If I don't make it outta here, don't put me down for mummification." sounding a bit a like a girl himself.
"Likewise." Jonathan replied, having the same thought as the rest of them. He then took another swing, and seconds later, for some strange reason, the force from it caused a large object to fall and crash down before them, startling Serena and the others who all jumped in fright, the sheer blessing that it didn't land or crush or injure either of them. Everyone's eyes widened in dumbfoundment, and Jonathan slowly turned around in a hint of embarrassment at what just happened.
"What's this?" Lita asked.
"It's a sarcophagus." Raye replied slowly, having another but much larger powerful jolt of evil pressence hit her, and she froze.
Serena blinked, "Where did it fall from?" before she and the others looked up to see the hole in the ceiling, making them all realise one thing.
"It was buried at...the base of Anubis." Amy classified.
Everyone looked at the coffin again, and for some reason, Serena was having another sense of the weird deja vu' which she still hasn't figured out how or why. This was her first time seeing a coffin that wasn't in a museum. Other than that, she felt that something wasn't right, and her guts were telling her not to go anywhere near closer to the thing.
"Must've been someone with great importance, right?" Lita asked.
Evy, a bit unsettled herself, added, "Or he did something very naughty."
"Naughty is a strong word, especially when it comes to bad guys." Serena pointed out. "The others and I should know, because we fought against evil guys who tried to take over and/or destroy the entire world." as the others then began to dust off the sand, dirt and dust all mixed in through out the years.
"So, who is it?" Raye asked carefully.
Evy read the ancient message on the coffin, and translated, "'He That Shall Not Be Named.'" before Rick blew more dust off, to reveal a star-shaped thing that looked like an ancient fashioned keyhole.
Serena carefully peered over, and quirked an eyebrow. "Why is there a star-shaped hole?"
"It's some kind of a keyhole, or a lock." Amy stated.
"If that's the case, then I wouldn't be in here." Mina thought.
Jonathan nodded as he said, "Well, whoever's in here sure wasn't getting out."
"Yeah, I'll say." Serena agreed, still a bit dumbfounded. "It'll probably take about ten years to open this thing without a key."
That's when something hit Evy as she muttered, "A key...?" before realising something as she stood up and then went to her bag, babbling, "A Key! A Key! Now that's what he was talking about!"
"Who was talking about what?" Rick asked to the others who shrugged in equal confusion, while Evy stood up again, with the same puzzle-box from earlier.
"The man, the one on the barge, the one with the hook! He was looking for a key!" Evy replied, in a hint of crazy excitement as she opened it's strange wings(and Jonathan protesting like a child, "Hey, that's mine!") and she placed it onto the keyhole. It was a perfect fit. The others looked at her, impressed.
She looks at them in happiness. However, just moments that, the Warden's loud scream was heard and echoed through the halls, alarming everyone. They all immediately rushed to investigate, while Jonathan stumbled back to get his box before following the others. When they entered the passage, the Warden came out of another room, holding his head as he continued to scream, before he ran passed all of them, screaming away as he hands waved around like crazy, crawling his hands on his head. Everyone just stared in confusion and concern.
It seen ended horribly however, as the Warden just then ran right into the wall in front of him, ramming his head into it and then just dropped backwards, and just layed there on the ground, his scream cut off into a deathly silence.
Serena's eyes widened in sheer horror, as she covered her mouth with her hands. The others stared in similiar horror, none of them having any idea on how the man, whom they didn't like, had suddenly ended up...dead.
Later that night, everyone camped out outside of the tunnels, and Lita was still trying to comfort Serena who was still in upset shock that a man, while disgusting and gross, had suddenly just ended up killed. It was a mystery that'll keep her awake all night.
"What do you think killed him?" Amy asked, in similiar sadness.
Mina pulled a face, and said, "I noticed the way he was holding his head strangely. Maybe something happened to his head."
"Maybe we should just forget about that." Lita said in a stern tone. "Serena's upset enough as it is." as she was protective to the blonde she was currently comforting. Not only Serena was her Princess, but was also one of her very dear best friends.
Rick then came back as he had gone to talk to the rivals and sat next to his group, having listened to the conversation and said, "Seems that our American friends had a little misfortunte of their own today."
"What do you mean?" Raye asked.
"Three of their diggers were, uh...Melted." Rick answered.
"What?" All of the women asked.
"How'd that happen?" Serena asked, seemingly to finally snap out of her upset daze, and was shocked that three more deaths occurred.
Rick looked uneasy, as he answered, "Salt acid. Pressurized salt acid. Some kind of...ancient booby trap."
"Maybe this place really is cursed." Jonathan mumbled, as he then to throw a small piece of dirt into the campfire, and just seconds after that, an erie gust of wind blew across the fire, and Serena, Lita, Mina, Raye, Rick and Jonathan all just froze for a moment, more spooked. Amy sighed, but she understood the others' fears.
Evy on the other hand, got annoyed and told them like they were children, "Oh, for goodness sakes, the lot of you!" rolling her eyes.
"You seriously don't believe in curses, do you?" Serena mumbled, now spooked out as her fear of the place being haunted returning.
"No I don't." Evy told her, while Rick picked at the fire with a stick, as the older woman continued, "I believe that if I can see it and I can touch it, then it's real. That's what I believe."
"I believe in being prepared." Rick said as he cocked his shothand expertly with one hand. He looked at the others and asked, "What about you kids?"
Serena sighed, before admitting, "I know this'll sound lame, but I believe that a lot of the ghost stories are real, especially since Amy, Raye and I went to stay at this cheap motel with scary monsters who were serving us two years ago."
"Serena, they were ordinary people wearing costumes! Besides, if anything, they were equally as freaked out in the mystery of that place as you were." Raye pointed out. "Are you still not over that?" she asked.
"Well, I didn't think about that, until recently." Serena admitted sheepishly. "Come to think of it, I think I had a dream of being in a haunted mansion where a group I don't know about and me finding a basement, finding a vampire in a coffin." which caused Raye to slump(anime-style) with a huge sweatdrop in annoyance.
"Let's see what our friend the Warden believed in." Jonathan sighed as he grabbed the dead man's bag they found earlier and dug into it. All of the sudden, he gave out a scream, scaring the others, which made Serena and the other women shriek and Rick alarmed as they turned to look at Jonathan, Amy demanding, "What's wrong!?"
"A broken bottle." Jonathan answered, pulling the said bottle out, which half of the top was broken and a cork capped in. Everyone else sighed in relief. He read the tag on it, "Glenivet. Twelve years old!" In a sastified, 'Ah' he yanked the cork out. "Well, he may have been a stinky fellow, but he had good taste." before taking a drink.
"And that's why he was drunk the day we met him in the museum." Serena sighed in annoyance, and Raye and Lita both nodded in agreement. Then she and Rick both heard the sounds of horses and turned around. Something was wrong.
They had more unwanted company. Rick handed Evy his shotgun and went to investigate, telling the others to stay where they were. However, Serena and her guardians, nodding, all carefully transformed into Sailor Scouts and followed Rick. Evy, in her curiosity which is considered dangerous, quickly went to follow them, telling them to wait for her, soon followed by her brother who cried out, "Evy! 'Cuse me, but didn't the man just say 'stay here'?"
In the sound of whooping, the Medjai had arrived with torches, guns and swords, all riding on horses and begin to destroy everything. Allen, Beni and Team Rocket, in fear, all quickly ran and hid to save themselves, while everyone else began a battle, more deaths on both sides happening.
The Sailor Scouts joined in the fight, and while Sailor Mercury were quickly tending to the wounded of their group of the fight, the rest of them fought against the invading Medjai. Sailor Mars leaped into the air and sky-kicked a Medjai who fell to the ground and off his horse. Sailor Venus unleashed a Cresent Beam Smash at a piller to at least scare five other Medjai who quickly ran out of the way from getting crushed. Sailor Jupiter punched and kicked and smacked more Medjai's, defeating them quite easily.
Sailor Moon was using the Wood-Clone-Card she had recently rescued from the Shadow Souls and used it to trap some of the Medjai in wooden cages that were made. She had no intention of anymore deaths, if she could help it. She was born to protect humanity, whether they were good or bad. That was her nature. Rick was shooting Medjai with his hand-held guns from where he was standing.
"I wish I had the Sleep Card!" Sailor Moon grumbled as the fight continued. "I could easly put them to sleep like Sakura could do-"
"O'Connell!" Jonathan's scream cuts her off, and when she looked, to her horror, he was being chased by another Medjai who rode on his white horse and sword in hand, ready to kill the englishman who ran for his life, with the bottle still in his hand.
"Jonathan!" Sailor Moon screamed, as she then quickly, with Rick who saw the same thing and heard Jonathan's scream, jumped onto the Medjai, all three of them falling to the ground and off the horse. They all stood up, and the Medjai's mask falls off, revealing himself to be Ardeth who prepared to fight, but his sword was knocked away by Sailor Moon who knocked it with her clone-sealing staff.
Another Medjai came behind Sailor Moon and Rick who the latter shot with his gun, before Ardeth knocked away the gun, and Sailor Moon and Rick both rolled way, before Sailor Moon then accidently pulled out her Moon-Stick she had recovered, with the Silver Crystal once again placed on it, and she held it out. She had an idea that if she could cleanse these people, maybe they'll understand.
However, at the sight of the Crystal, Ardeth froze in shock, before he called out to his men, "Enough! Yallah!" making everyone stop. Ardeth then glared at Sailor Moon and said, "We will shed no more blood, but Princess, you and your people must leave. Leave this place or die."
Sailor Moon froze. Did this guy...but how did he know she was a Princess? "You have one day, Princess!" Ardeth said before he climbed back on his horse, ordering in Arabic, "Yallah! Nimshi!" and with that, all of the Medjai left everyone confused and baffled, but none were more confused as Sailor Moon who puts away the moon-stick and silver crystal, still stunned.
"Sailor Moon..." Sailor Jupiter approached her friend, and at her leader's nod, the Sailor Scouts quickly leaped away and secretly back to camp where they could turn back into their normal-selves.
"Princess?" Jessie and James asked in unison as they and Meowth all carefully came out of their hiding place.
"Sailor Moon's a Princess?" Meowth asked, dumbfounded and confused. He then shrugged and muttered, "No wonder she's the leader of the Sailor Twerps. Who'd have thought that girl was actually a princess?" while Serena and her group returned, this time in their normal idenities, and rushed over to Evy, who, in the attack, had accidently killed a Medjai while falling backwards in her fear, but she was alright, even as Rick joined them to help her stand up.
"See, that proves it!" said Daniels, "Old Seti's fortune gotta be underneath that sand!"
"For then protect it like this, you know there's treasure down there." Handerson added.
Raye sighed, stating, "I don't know what just happened, but these guys were desert people, and out in the desert, water is their treasure, not jewerly and stuff."
"She's right." Amy added, "People who lived and grew up in deserts vaule water the most."
"If that's the case, then why did they attack us out the blue for?" Jessie asked.
James, not realising that the Sailor Scouts had turned back to normal, said sheepishly to the five teenagers, "At least you twerps had a smart idea to hide too."
The others ignored this, while Serena was still in daze, resisting the urge to bring out the Moon-Stick again. She thought deeply about what Ardeth just said. How could he know about her true idenity as a Princess? Was because he recongised the Silver Crystal? But she never met him before, not even in her previous life.
Or did she?
A/N: Ardeth knows about the Silver Crystal! What does this mean? Only time will tell. In the meantime, please continue your great reviews, guys, and I'll see you again in the next chapter.
