The group follow Evy through the streets, sticking close together so none of them got lost in the crowd of people. The streets of Cairo were sprawling, many small alleys leading off the main roads that don't help tourists to stay on track; several people wander off their path and get lost within five minutes.

After Imhotep tucked tail and ran—er, flew—out of the hotel, they had quickly decided to go to the only man they knew that might actually have some ideas of what to do. Unfortunately for AJ, it was the one man in all of Egypt that she'd rather eat a rusty nail than talk to: Doctor Terrence Bey.

Needless to say, she wasn't a happy girl.

The men were talking over each other as they all walked into the museum, Evy and AJ leading the way through the halls. They could navigate the museum with their eyes closed after spending so much time there as children and it wasn't difficult to know where Bey would be at the time.

"There's only one person I know that could possibly give us any answers," Evy states, mostly to shut the men up. They round the corner into the artifacts room, coming up short when they notice the man Bey was talking to. With dark brown hair that hung in loose waves to his collar, piercing brown eyes, and tattooed cheeks, it wasn't difficult for AJ to recognize the other man. "You?!"

"Fantastic," AJ grumbles as the men behind her draw their weapons," we barely dodge being slaughtered by a mummy only to be slaughtered by a Medjai gone insane."

"Always such a pleasure when you open your mouth, Alexandria," Bey drawls, looking just as pleased as AJ did. "I assume you're all here because you awoke a certain mummy from his sarcophagus."

"You assume right for once." With pursed lips, she turns and grabs her husband's wrist, making him lower his pistol. "What can you tell us about stopping this thing?"

"Would you really like to know or would you rather shoot us?"

"If I shoot you, then we'd be back to square one," O'Connell admits, holstering his gun as the others do the same. "Might as well go on some faith." The leader of a Medjai tribe looks from O'Connell to AJ, the woman crossing her arms over her chest as he took in the bruises Imhotep left.

"He touched you and yet you still live," the leader says evenly, his accent just a little thicker than her own. "Why wouldn't he use you to grow stronger?" AJ makes sure she doesn't drop the man's gaze, not showing an ounce of the fear that had her hands trembling. Humans were something she could handle, they were easy to read, but this man was different. He had an air of intimidation and danger that surrounded him like a second skin, muscles obvious even under his black robes. "Who are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing, sir," she shoots back stubbornly.

"I am Ardeth Bay, one of the men in charge of guarding Hamunaptra."

"Alexandria Henderson." He continued to stare at her, her resolve slowly disintegrating until she let out a sigh and told him about the bruises. That man could be a damn lawyer, able to get confessions just by cocking up a single brow. "Imhotep pinned me against a wall and nearly made me pee myself." Bey and Ardeth share a look before they stride in unison over to AJ, each grabbing an arm to examine the bruises. "Do you mind?"

"Hey," Lawrence shouts, pushing them both away," I don't care if your one of God's own angels, you don't get to touch my wife without her permission!" He puffed his chest out as men were wont to do as testosterone flared to life, one of his hands reaching out to grasp one of hers. "Why does it matter to you that she isn't a bag of bones? The point is we got there in time to save her." AJ looks between the two guardians, sensing there was a silent conversation going on, and then widening her eyes.

"You've known all along, haven't you," she accuses of Bey. "That's why you could barely stand to look at me, you knew who my ancestor was and you hated me for it. Well, let me tell you something, I'm nothing like Nefertari!"

"Your parents never told you the full story, did they," Bey asks, eyes slightly narrowed as he stared at her.

"They told me she was You-Know-Who's little sister that moved to the palace when she was a teenager, that she fell in love with a Greek warrior meant to guard her, and got pregnant with his child. After…. After Imhotep found out, he had Iason executed and she killed herself shortly after the birth of her son." She shrugs, wrapping her arms around Lawrence's waist in the same moment he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, the couple needing the comfort that touch offered.

"As I suspected. Your ancestor didn't commit suicide; she was murdered by one of Imhotep's priests after her brother issued the command. He was ashamed of her dalliance and wanted to wash his hands of her, but he changed his mind once the rage subsided. He arrived in her chambers in time to see the priest lifting a pillow off her face, too late to save her."

"That's awful."

"He was an awful man," Ardeth says with a nod," he would kill anyone that got in his way." Including the man that wanted to take Imhotep's mistress away. "After Nefertari was mummified and secured in her tomb, he went to her son."

"Ibi…. He didn't kill the baby, did he?" All of her dreams stopped with Nefertari's dive off her balcony, but she'd always assumed the baby had been protected. Then again, she'd always assumed her ancestor had committed suicide, but she'd been wrong about that.

"No, Ibi was the last part of his sister he had left."

"Imhotep made a promise to the child," Bey picks up," a promise to protect what was left of his family."

"He obviously saw the features you and his sister shared and connected the dots. He won't kill you even if you were there when the chest was opened, he wouldn't break his promise to his nephew."

"That's great," AJ sighs, tightening her grip on her husband," but I'll still set his moldy ass on fire the second he tries to come after my family."

"Shall we be seated and we'll explain what we know?" Everyone looks to Evy, the unofficial second-in-command, all of them moving to find places to sit around the room at her nod. There weren't many flat surfaces in the room and so they had to make due; Jonathan in Seti's chariot, Evy, Daniels, and Ardeth standing, O'Connell in one chair, Lawrence in the one across from him, AJ on a table, and Bey in the throne chair.

"We are part of an ancient secret society," Bey declares," and we have guarded the City of the Dead for over three thousand years. We are sworn at manhood to do any and all in our power to stop the High Priest Imhotep from being reborn into this world.

"And because of you, we have failed." AJ lowers her head and stares down at her feet, undoing the straps to remove her heels. They were pinching her toes and she'd rather walk across hot coals than keep them on a moment longer.

"And what," Evy demands angrily," you think this justifies the killing of innocent people?"

"To stop this creature," Bey asks sarcastically. "Let me think."

"Yes," he and Ardeth snap in unison. Evy rolls her eyes and walks away from the pair, fed up and disgusted with them. While AJ hated the thought of needless bloodshed, she also understood why the men agreed to do their job. Guilt was eating away at her because of what she'd allowed to happen back at Hamunaptra and she wouldn't be able to forgive herself anytime soon.

"Question," O'Connell says, raising his hand like a child in a classroom. "What's his deal with cats?"

"According to the ancients," Bey says," cats are the guardians at the gates of the underworld. Imhotep will fear them until he is fully regenerated."

"And then he will fear nothing," Ardeth grouses with a dark look at AJ's group. She meets his gaze again without hesitation, knowing what she did was wrong and not about to dispute that fact, but not wanting this man to think he could walk all over her. Women were gaining more respect as the years passed and she wouldn't be the one to set that back.

"Yeah, and you know how he gets himself fully regenerated," Daniels questions, voice cracking in his fear.

"Killin' everyone who opened that chest," Lawrence answers, tone quiet and even as he looked to AJ. She could see the fear in his eyes, the gray darkened by it, and AJ knew he saw them same terror in hers.

"By suckin' them dry!"

"We have to stop him somehow," AJ pleaded," we can't let him finish regenerating. Please, Ardeth, you must have found something that could be of use!" The other man shakes his head with a frown, arms crossed over his chest.

"Perhaps…." Evy trails off, slapping her brother's arm to make him stop playing with Seti's war bow. "I don't know if this is any use, but when I saw him in Hamunaptra, he called me Anck-su-namun. And then he tried to kiss me back in Mister Burns' quarters." Ardeth and Bey share another look, seeming to share an epiphany of some sort.

"It was because of his love for Anck-su-namun that he was cursed," Bey starts," apparently, even after three thousand years—"

"—He is still in love with her," Ardeth finishes.

"As romantic as that is, what does it have to do with me," Evy queried. "He's only seen me twice and I have no family ties to this Anck-su-namun, so why would he focus on me like that?"

"It is because it was you who read from the Book. He has chosen you to be the human sacrifice needed to regenerate the body of his lost love."

"Bad luck, old mum," Jonathan mutters with a sympathetic look in Evy's direction. That look was replaced by one of offense when AJ chucks one of her shoes at his head, narrowly missing when he ducked. "What was that for?!"

"For being an ass," AJ yells at him. She threw her other shoe, but only succeeded in removing Seti's head from the rest of his plastic body.

"If the two of you are quite finished acting like children, perhaps we can continue," Ardeth snaps, picking up one of AJ's shoes and tossing it back to her. "His infatuation with Miss Carnahan could give us more time than we planned to stop him, but tonight is the full moon and we will need all the help we can get." Everyone stands and follows his gaze to the round window far above their heads, watching as a dark shape covered the sun to create an eclipse. "It is the moon of Osiris."

"And he stretched forth his hand towards the heavens," Jonathan recites," and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt."