Krista - April 26, 2002
As Jonathan and Gabrielle remained on one side of the gate, the others continued forth in the rescue of Alex. As Evelyn and Olympus silently walked, Rick watched his wife quietly from behind. She was still somewhat covered in blood by her battle with Anck-su-namun. He frowned, thinking to himself how some of the wounds would get infected. Then he frowned again as he thought of holding Alex, who was worse than his mother's present state. Glancing down at his hands, Rick realized for the first time that his hands were covered in a light coat of dirt and possibly his son's blood.
'How long have my hands been like this?' He wondered.
Evelyn glanced over her shoulder at Rick, sensing him slowing down. She thought it odd immediately, since he was the first to want to go after Alex immediately. Now suddenly, a man with such amazing strength and stamina was slowing down? That merely meant that he was troubled...
"Rick..." Evelyn said softly.
He glanced up at his wife upon hearing his name. His eyes were dulled with sorrow and yet they shimmered with anger and self-loathing. Rick closed his opened hands and slid them against his sides, as if to hide what he had on his hands. Evie slowed a bit to stand beside him, and tipped her head as if to ask what was wrong, despite she knew already.
"Don't worry, we'll get Alex back. You said so yourself. If anything, I'm the one who should be worried. After all, I always am." Evie said, putting an arm around Rick's waist.
Rick sighed. "It's not just that Evie..." he said as he opened a hand and put it in front of himself. "I've just realized what a monster I've been..."
Evelyn blinked. "A monster, Rick"
Rick nodded. "My hands are coated in blood and dirt. And it's not even my own. It's Alex's...it's yours...God, I feel like a murderer. Hell, if you count my time in the Foreign Legion, I AM one..."
"Ohh, Rick you're not a monster. You did what you had to in the Legion to stay alive! And as for the blood of Alex and I being on your hands...well..." Evie paused to think of a way to phrase what she was about to say. "The blood of our son is not only my blood, but your blood as well. Don't think of his blood being shed on your hands as your fault...you're his father, Rick O'Connell. You and I both know no harm would ever be caused by us onto him. If anything..."
Rick glanced at her when he realized she stopped. "If anything"
"If anything, I think that represents Alex's strength. Our son is in a very troublesome situation, and could be killed... yet when he was with us, he knew he had to be brave...for you and for myself. Perhaps Alex's blood on your hands is meant to remind you to be strong. To remember why you're fighting..." Evie said quietly, taking Rick's hand into her own.
Rick looked at her, gazing into her soft and gentle eyes. "And what about your blood"
She smiled. "My blood? Maybe it's the blood of Egypt... meant to remind you of who you are. Not a monster, but a great and wonderful man. And also who you are defending. After all, Mr. O'Connell, what's a life without love? From what I was told as a girl, monsters do not love or are loved."
Rick couldn't help but smirk. "Evie, even in the most horrible of situations you somehow manage to be philosophical. I dunno how you do it."
Evie smiled faintly. "Talent. Now then...are you ready to defeat evil once again and rescue our child"
Rick himself smiled this time. "Do you think I would deny you the pleasure of watching me battle again"
"Never."
"I should hope not."
"My friends" Olympus called quietly. "We must move quicker than this, the time is growing shorter"
Rick nodded and began to quicken the pace, grabbing Evie's hand as he dashed into a jog. Evie kept up the pace as well, watching the back of her husband silently. She smiled at Rick's renewed valor. It was times like these she was glad she married the adventurous American man. It, in turn, gave her a renewed sense of valor. No longer was she the meek, feminine Evelyn whose glasses were firmly planted at the end of her nose. She was now the wife of an adventurer, a thrill-seeker, a gun-toting, terrible grammar using American. And a cute one to boot...
"Come on Evie, faster, we've got to stop the ritual." Rick called.
"I'm coming as fast as I can! I"
Evie was suddenly interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. The trio stopped short and gazed in the direction of the scream. Only one person could make such a horrified scream that it would reach the distance they were at.
"Jonathan" Evie and Rick gasped in unison.
Milo (pen name milo-n-vaughn) April 27, 2002
It had all happened so fast. One minute they had been teasing each other playfully the next...it was all over. Jonathan sat down as soon as Rick and Evelyn were out of sight to avoid any of Rick's 'lazy ass' comments. He was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed when he heard Gabrielle laughing softly to herself.
"What is so bloody funny" Jonathan asked, opening one eye.
Gabrielle tilted her head slightly to glance at him"I'm just thinking of what you said...earlier when we were...you know."
"And what was that, pray tell"
Pushing away her smile, Gabrielle acquired a dramatic facial expression, doing a very good impression of the passionate Jonathan"Do not be afraid my love..." She mocked"Know that you may tell me to stop at anytime and I will."
Seeing his face after he turned bright red with embarrassment made Gabrielle start laughing again, which was exactly what she had been doing when an arrow zipped strait past her head and into a nearby tree trunk. Jonathan screamed and jumped to his feet, but Gabrielle was already engaged in heavy battle with the guards, sent to kill her by Imhotep.
Gabrielle crouched down to pull the sais that she had tucked in scabbards in her boots out and immediately was whipping them around, slashing at the guards with lovely grace. She added to her already fierce fighting skills a few wild kicks and punches that landed in all the right spots (head, groin, foot...you know.) And did all this while still keeping an eye on Jonathan...
...who had realized that he didn't have anything to fight with, snapped off a tree branch and started swinging at everything he could, actually getting lucky a few times and hitting something. He took care of few of the guards, while Gabrielle took out well over half. The fight was finally dying down when Imhotep, accompanied by several guards walked up out of the fog. (Yeah I know, random fog, but there's always got to be some fog in a battle scene).
Gabrielle looked at the priest with eyes blazing with fury. "Imhotep." She breathed angrily, and in an unthinking moment of hate and rage she charged him, twirling her sais and letting out a tremendous yell.
He waited a moment before he reacted. She slashed his face with her sais, making a deep cut in his right cheek, and as soon as the blood came to the surface, out of nowhere, so it seemed, Imhotep drew his sword and thrust it into the thief girl's stomach.
"Gabrielle" Jonathan yelled, after it was too late. He watched her fall to her knees in front of Imhotep, watched the content smirk on the high priest's face, and watched him turn right around (along with his guards) and walk away like the coward he was.
It took Jonathan what seemed like years to get the feeling back in his body. He couldn't move for a moment. He just looked at her, Gabrielle, the one woman he'd ever really cared for, lying there with blood pouring from her wound, not able to move. It had really taken him about five seconds to get to her side, but he always remembered it taking much longer than that.
"Gabrielle..." He whimpered helplessly. She was still alive, her eyes were open and her breathing scattered and rough. Jonathan took her head in his lap and whisked her dark hair back from her pretty face. How could she look so beautiful...even now...when her end was so near? Jonathan tried so hard to smile, to let her know that she was going to be okay, and that he wouldn't let her die, but he was too shocked and frightened to even begin to smile.
But she did it for him. She smiled at him and reached her hand up to touch his face. She wiped some of the dirt from his cheek and smiled. "Jonathan..."
The controlling mood kicked in"No Gabs, don't talk...please don't talk..." He said, trying to be strong and sound strong.
"I love you." She told him, her eyes now glistening with nearly forming tears.
Jonathan's brow crinkled and he could feel himself starting to break down from the inside. This is it, he told himself, this is the last thing I'm ever going to be able to say to her. "I l-love you t-too Gabrielle." He sniffed, tears coming fast to his eyes. "Please don't leave me."
He heard footsteps shuffle behind him and a woman gasp. He looked up to see Ardeth and Nefret looking down at him.
Deana Lisi - April 27, 2002
Ardeth had never before seen such anguish in Jonathan's face. He sighed, as the stricken man turned back to the dying woman, whose eyes were now closed.
Jonathan gathered Gabrielle into his lap, and sat rocking her. "Gabrielle…" he moaned. "Gabrielle…"
Nefret looked at Ardeth, with tears in her eyes. She saw the compassion in his face, and he looked at her, neither of them speaking.
Suddenly they heard footsteps, and turned to see Rick, Evie, and a stranger running towards them.
Evie gasped when she saw what had happened. "Jonathan!" she cried. "Who…"
"It was the creature," said Ardeth, before realizing that the priest was a mortal man at present, and, as such, had a name. "Imhotep."
Evie crouched next to her brother, who was silently cradling Gabrielle, and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait a minute," Rick suddenly said, "How did you two get here? Last time we saw you, Ardeth, you were unconscious."
"I could not lie in bed while you may require my help," Ardeth told him.
Evie gasped, the situation having made her momentarily forget the injuries their Med-jai friend had received. "Are you all right?" she asked, having known Ardeth long enough to see that he didn't look as healthy as he was trying to appear. "Should you even be here?"
Ardeth sighed, knowing that Evie could obviously see through the 'mask' he'd put on, so that they wouldn't be able to tell that his head was splitting, his leg was aching, and it hurt to talk. "I am fine," he lied.
Suddenly the stranger spoke, for the first time since entering the scene. "We can not waste any more time!" he cried, impatiently. "We must hurry!"
Evie tried to pull Jonathan up, but he didn't move, clutching Gabrielle tighter. "No!" he said.
"Jonathan…" said Evie. "We have to prevent the ritual…we don't have much time…"
Jonathan was shaking his head, Evie's words obviously not sinking in. "I won't leave her! I won't!"
Rachel (pen name Evie of the Nile) April 29, 2002
Evelyn has slippers on but kicked them behind a statue as she, Rick, and Olympus entered the 'sacred lake' fenced in area. She didn't want to make noise and moved as quietly as a cat as on the other hand her husband trudged in with good heavy 'running' boots on.
Olympus and Ardeth went their own ways around the perimeter where in the middle of the large area you could see all being done. Nefret had stayed back with Jonathan to comfort him. Both Rick and Evie's hearts sank as they saw the woman known to them as Bonnie bring a half starved and very gaunt looking Alex out toward the pool of water. "Oh hold me back Rick." Evelyn warned as she sneered at the woman.
"Shhhh." Rick replied as he held out an arm in front of her, just in case. "We need to take them by surprise...but we all need to be ready ourselves." He breathed to her as he lowered his head toward hers.
Alex was in shackles, attached to his wrists and ankles, they all connected with a long chain that dragged on the ground and caused him to trip a couple times. "Speed up boy, we only have a couple minutes" Nephthys snapped as she grabbed the back of his neck and pinched, hard.
Evelyn heard her son's cry of pain, the back of the neck had been a main target with the whip, and now that it was tender, very tender; Nephthys used it as a means of getting her way. Rick felt his wife tense up at the sound and got a better grip on her, when he saw Olympus positioned across the area, he knew they had to get going.
When Olympus and Ardeth disappeared into an opening in the wall, Rick realized that there was something else going on other then what played out in front of them. Therefore leaving just Rick and Evelyn to do this themselves. "Alright, honey, here's your chance, I'll go after the guy reading the scripts. You get your wench." Rick reluctantly allowed.
Evelyn nodded. "It would be a pleasure." She announced, then without warning, left her husband's grasp. He caught up to her, however, and pulled her back to the wall.
"Not yet" Wait a moment, see if Olympus and Ardeth come back out."
Alex sped up his walk when he was pinched in the back of the neck. Now he was lead to the edge of a huge deep pool, just as the worse of his fears came to him he was suddenly pushed in.
He only had on a thin cloth around his waist, therefore no heavy clothing was keeping him under, but the chains were very awkward and sort of heavy, therefore treading water was a struggle.
In between being pulled under the water, he heard Seth start to chant out something in Egyptian, as he started this, Nephthys took the stairs into the water. The stairway stuck about three feet out from the corner it was in, so she stood on one of the lower steps getting in the water to about her waist. She then took hold of Alex beside her, where he couldn't touch bottom.
When Seth started to repeat one line, she did the deed and pushed Alex under, holding his hair and the back of his neck directly under about a half a foot.
Marion (pen name GiantPygmyGirl) April 30, 2002
Nefret stayed with Jonathan, calming him. It was something she had had a lot of experience with in her life. Her parents had been devastated with her sister's death, and she had had to cope with their sorrow as well as her own. Right now she was hugging the sobbing man, her intentions were just to comfort him, nothing more. She let him cry into her shoulder, not really understanding what he was saying for she had never heard his language before. When they had been traveling together she had relied solely on Ardeth's translation and now she wished that she could understand what Jonathan was saying.
But, before she even had a chance to worry about what he was saying she heard rustling behind her. Quickly, in one stealth-like movement she unsheathed her scimitar and drew it, shocking Jonathan in the meantime. She turned around very quickly, facing the direction that the noise had come from, battle stance assumed. Her eyes took in everything despite the darkness surrounding her. Her heightened senses allowed her to witness things that other people weren't entitled to, and right now she was very thankful for them.
Just then her fears were confirmed as Seth jumped out of the bushes in front of her.
"Well, well pretty little girl, what have we here? I see your comrade is very upset..." Seth began to laugh. "What did you do to get him to embrace you so...? Did you rape him too like you did your little Med-Jai"
The anger that surged forth from Nefret at that instant was tremendous. She could feel it controlling her emotions, even her actions, but she forced herself to remain calm. Gradually the ferocious grip that she had held her weapon with relaxed. She said nothing.
"Well, we didn't succeed in killing the boy, but soon his mother will die, for Nephthys is killing her as we speak" The glimmer in his eye was apparent.
Nefret breathed a sigh of relief that Alex whom she had heard Ardeth talk so much about had not been murdered. Seth noticed and was very quick to respond.
"You know, ever since I took your sister away from you fifteen years ago, I have dreamed of this day. The day that the whole world will come under my control all of Egypt will be mine and I can watch you die beneath my blade like you should have so long ago." With that Seth drew his own sword mocking Nefret's rigid stance. "You won't be able to do it you know. You can't kill me, because a part of her lives in me, I touched her and in that simple touch that took the life away from her she became mine like you soon will be."
"You are wrong! Nothing as pure as my sister could live in something as foul and bastardly as you! You are a liar, a murderer and worst of all a dead man" With that Nefret plunged her Scimitar towards her enemy, striking right below his sternum. She thrust slightly down, making a small incision. Seth leapt backwards, his free hand automatically going to the gash that she had created. His light desert tunic was instantly torn, red blood spilling forth. He gasped in pain, knowing that the worst was yet to come. "My sister..." Nefret said through clenched teeth as she circled up again, gathering strength for a new attack. "is not dead, and she never will be. You took the life away from her but you did not take her soul. As long as I am alive she will live on. When you die you will be dead, completely; no one will remember you, not even I. Your soul will be condemned to an eternity in Hell! Yah" With this Nefret parried her way towards Seth who was backing up against the bushes, her face was lit with fury. Seth's strength was already dissipating and she could feel that from his pathetic swings and blocks.
Seth had finally backed himself up against a bush, the hard wood was the only thing behind him, and he had no way to escape. She saw her opening; he wasn't blocking his arm with his sword. He was too busy focusing on where her blow would land to kill. She lunged forward, her breath coming ragged as she plunged her sword into his forearm, pinning him helplessly to the wood behind him. His scream was primal as metal crushed bone.
"You didn't truly think you could live out a normal life after what you did...did you" She asked her words filled with rage.
"Your... sister... was a whore" Seth managed to spit in between gasps.
"That does it" she screamed withdrawing her scimitar from his arm. She raised it above her head, going in for the kill. Her weapon came down with effortless ease sliding into his chest. He twitched, his whole body jerking as it went in. Just seconds later blood poured forth from his mouth. She then grabbed his neck, choking him. "My sister was...not... a...whore. She was an angel." She released her grip on his neck. He died shortly thereafter. When she was sure he was gone she cut off his head, and then slid to the ground in a sobbing heap her hands covered in her enemy's blood.
Jonathan, having witnessed this all, looked at Nefret's body on the ground saying "Whoa, I have got to learn how to do that" Then, he rushed to her side, picking her up into her arms whispering the little Egyptian he knew "Hasheesh Nefret, hasheesh."
