Spring of Evil
"You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will." - Epictetus
Egypt
"A Medjai must train to perform beyond the limits of normal human ability," Ardeth instructed Alex, as they stood at the edge of the desert. Taking his sword, the Medjai drew a line in the sand at the teen's feet. "Jump."
With a noise of wild exertion, Alex threw himself across the sand in a long jump.
Ardeth measured the distance by taking a few steps and counting in his head. "Twelve feet. Commendable."
Alex was pleased with himself, and stood tall with pride.
"But we both know you're capable of more," his teacher added, deflating his satisfaction. "Much more."
He held up the last remnant of the burned Scrolls of Thebes, and Alex took it. The teen sighed as his eyes glanced at the now-very familiar hieroglyphics again.
" 'Walk among the birds at the hand of Osiris'," he quoted as if exhausted. "We've read it a thousand times; it makes no sense."
He looked up and discovered that Ardeth had vanished.
"Hey, where'd you… go?"
Looking around, the teen found a river at the base of a gorge in the hardened, dry sand. A wooden rope bridge connected the two regions, and Ardeth was standing on the other side.
"I believe that scroll fragment is the key to unlocking a new power of the Manacle," Ardeth explained. "It is time to put this theory to the test."
Alex took a few steps onto the bridge when Ardeth drew his sword and sliced the ropes tying the wooden beams together. The teen scrambled back to safety as the bridge fell apart.
"What'd you do that for?" Alex demanded, his heart pounding.
"Jump," his instructor replied.
The redhead backed away from the gorge. It had to be a good thirty or forty feet across. "You're kidding, right?" he yelled over the rush of the water below.
" 'The hand of Osiris' refers to the Manacle," Ardeth explained. "And to 'walk among the birds' means that – "
"I can fly?" Alex cut him off with a shocked yell.
"No, but I believe you can leap great distances by harnessing the Manacle's power."
Alex looked down at the fast, gushing river in fear. Even to fall into the water at that distance would be painful, never mind the fact that he would be swept away by the current in an instant. "Uh… maybe we should double-check the translation first," he said with hesitation.
"The issue of distance exists only within your mind," Ardeth informed him. "To the Manacle, a jump is a jump."
As he was still talking, a whirlwind approached him and Imhotep appeared out of it.
Ardeth turned and immediately drew his sword, but the Mummy knocked it away. The two of them struggled ferociously, but Imhotep was clearly far stronger. It didn't look optimistic for the Medjai.
Alex looked down at his wrist in panic. "Come on, please work," he begged the dusty relic. Taking a good five steps away from the river's edge, he all but shouted the incantation and hurled himself over the gorge.
The teen shot through the air. It was as if someone had thrown him across the wide river. It felt like he had taken flight. It felt like adrenalin was the only thing keeping him conscious.
It felt completely awesome.
Alex knocked the Mummy over as he tumbled onto the ground. He turned back to look at the distance across the river in astonishment.
"Whoa…" he couldn't help but say. "I jumped that?"
"Next time, look before you leap, boy," Imhotep snarled, towering over him. Fire swirled in his hands, but before he could throw any Ardeth tackled him. He managed to get some distance between them and Alex before Imhotep knocked him off the gorge, and the Medjai clung to a piece of rock that jutted out to avoid falling into the rapids below.
Imhotep swung his arm out, sending out a burst of aura that knocked Alex backwards. The wind whipped against his snakeskin suit, pulling him towards the Mummy as a tornado appeared. He wasn't able to avoid being sucked in to the wind, but he used his new understanding of the Manacle to leap out of danger.
Ardeth heaved himself back to safety, and the two of them managed to knock the Mummy into the river.
"Come, Alex," the Medjai ordered. "We must get you back to safety."
The pair of them returned to the training camp, and Imhotep pulled himself out of the current. Water dripped down his decaying flesh and ran into rotten gaps of skin.
"Perhaps there is a way to turn the boy's new-found abilities to my advantage," he said, a plot forming in his mind.
Later, in the cool of the night, Imhotep arrived at Nizam Toth's former lair. A young teen was standing on guard, feeling important and brandishing his staff at every gust of wind, and the Mummy appeared in front of him suddenly. Half the life scared from the boy, Imhotep threw him close to forty feet into the nearby oasis before entering the cave.
In the chamber where Ardeth had been held captive, the Mummy pulled open a door on the ground. The golden seal around it shattered, and he leaped into the fiery trench. Materializing a tornado on his way down, he landed gently on a niche in the pit.
"Nizam Toth," he announced, attracting the Dark Medjai's attention.
Toth's golden eyes opened suddenly, flashing with ire. "Who dares awaken me?" he demanded.
"I need to know the location of the Shadow Temple," Imhotep stated.
Toth was on his feet and spun to face the Mummy in one smooth motion. "And why should I tell you?" he demanded.
"Because you and I share common enemies."
A sickened expression darkened the Medjai's face. "Ardeth Bay."
"Mmm," Imhotep agreed. "As well as his Medjai in training, Alex O'Connell."
"The boy does wear the Manacle of Osiris," Toth didn't see the teen as much of a threat. "But his powers are limited without the Scrolls of Thebes."
The Mummy pretended he hadn't planned anything, and was coming up with a strategy at that moment. "Perhaps if he were turned by the Temple's dark energy… he could prove to be a useful asset."
"And what do I get?"
"Ardeth Bay. To do with him as you please."
Toth didn't need to consider the arrangement for long. His smile showed his acquiescence.
#~#~#
The next morning Alex and Ardeth were sparring in the Medjai training grounds, and although Alex had vastly improved his skills he was being easily backed into a corner. Glancing at his wrist, he grinned and used the Manacle to leap over his teacher's head. Unfortunately he didn't jump high enough, and Ardeth hooked his staff around the teen's ankle and tripped him. Alex fell with a painful thud.
"Do not separate the Manacle's power from your combat skills," Ardeth advised, helping him up. "Utilize both together."
He struck him again, and Alex ducked before quickly using the Manacle to jump onto an arch behind Ardeth.
"Good!"
The teen jumped down, whacking Ardeth's staff away with his own. In the same moment he swung his leg into Ardeth's, landing on the ground as his teacher fell heavily.
"Gotcha!" Alex triumphed.
"Bravo, Alex!" he heard his uncle's voice as well as an applaud. Jonathan and Rick walked in, accompanied by an exhausted-looking Jena.
"Well, he does come from a long line of Medjai, you know," Rick commented proudly.
"So I've heard," Jonathan replied in a bored voice. "Many times."
Alex laughed. "See that? I almost kicked Ardeth's butt!"
"I can't believe the progress you've made," Rick congratulated.
"It has been remarkable," Ardeth agreed as he stood up. "But, Alex, you still have much to learn. For example, a Medjai is humble about his skills."
"Yeah, I know, I know," Alex dismissed, turning to his family. "So what are you guys doing here?"
"Taking a test," Jena replied drolly.
"Your mom's still at that conference in Cairo," Rick explained.
"What test are you doing?" Alex asked the other teen.
"Time," she replied. "It's another race test, except the area around me is like a chess board with time dilations. Each square is a different time; and if I hit a certain object, the time zones are all scrambled and changed. The real pain is that I have to catch Time in a certain frame. If I'm in the right square but the wrong time zone, he won't be there."
"Sounds complicated," Jonathan looked dizzy at her explanation.
"Yeah," she agreed.
"How long have you been doing this for?" Alex asked.
"Not long," she admitted. "Time needs so much power that it's really draining, so I have to keep taking breaks. On top of all that, Time keeps mixing up the board every so often." She paused. "Where's my brother?"
"He and his class are training in the desert," Ardeth replied.
They heard a horse at that moment, drowning her reply, and an exhausted teen rode up to Ardeth before collapsing in a heap.
"Rashid, what is it?" the Medjai asked in alarm.
Rashid quickly explained that, after pulling himself out of the oasis at his post, he had crept inside and seen the exchange between Imhotep and the Dark Medjai.
The five of them immediately drove to Toth's former prison, where there was a clue to their whereabouts that was as subtle as a brick.
"A whirlwind trail," Ardeth stated, looking at the disturbed sand. "Interesting that Imhotep would leave something so obvious."
"Unless he wanted us to follow him," Rick surmised.
"Imhotep thinks he can trick us, but he's underestimating my new powers," Alex bragged. Jena rolled her eyes when he faced away from her, but she didn't say anything to him. "I am gonna kick his dusty mummy butt."
They followed the trail across the countryside, driving in the small topless truck. Jena ran alongside them, and every few seconds the scenery around her changed. She could be speeding beside the truck, then she would enter a different time field of ten years before. The grass was greener, and the air cleaner. Then she would enter a new zone, where the world was a few hundred years younger. Every few time zones, she would revert back to the place where the truck was. She couldn't see any sign of Time, but then again, while they were moving she wasn't really looking.
"We've been following these tracks for hundreds of miles," Rick commented when they had been crossing Nigeria for a good half hour. "How do we know they aren't leading us on a wild goose chase?"
"I am afraid the Shadow Temple is located nearby," Ardeth admitted. "That must be their objective."
Jena narrowed her eyes at the nearing presence. She could swear she recognized it, but at the same time it was like nothing she had ever come across. Part of her told herself that she could sense both Imhotep and Toth ahead, but she knew it was more than that. She knew the presence of the Shadow Temple from somewhere.
And more than anything, it was going to annoy her until she found out.
#~#~#
"Of all the places in the world where dark energy flows from the earth, this is the most powerful," Toth explained as he and Imhotep arrived at their destination. "Let the veil be lifted."
At the sound of the passphrase, energy flashed throughout the landscape. The Dark Temple appeared, rippling over the surroundings as the illusion evaporated. It was an enormous building that looked intimidating from the outside, and was enveloped by gravestones. The nearby animals fled as soon as the foul aura was unguarded.
"I was a young Medjai when I first discovered the wellspring," Toth continued as the two of them walked inside. Their footsteps echoed ominously off the smooth stone floor. "Immediately I knew that with its dark power, the Medjai would be unstoppable. But the elders feared it would corrupt the Order."
His eyes narrowed at the memory. "Small minded fools. I made them see the error of their ways."
Imhotep caught one of the hawks that was flocking away and infused his aura into it. The bird grew twice its size, the foul energy changing its wings to a dirty green color, and took flight into the air. It flew until it was soaring above the group, transmitting every move they made back to the Temple.
"They are drawing near," Toth said as he watched the screen. "Imhotep, I need time to open the wellspring."
Outside the Temple, Imhotep began a spell-accompanied command. "Beasts of foot, become instruments of my wrath!"
Aura shot out of his hands and was absorbed into the rhinos outside. They began to mutate, their leathery skin turning a sickening shade of green, and their bodies grew to twice their original size. Extra horns tore from their faces, beside their ears and on their heads, until they were true beasts of rage and anger.
About a mile away, Jonathan looked to the side of the truck and saw one of the giant, mutant rhinos charging straight towards them. "Uh, is that the local wildlife?" he asked in shock.
Everyone turned to see what he meant.
"A little too wild, if you ask me," Rick replied as he on the accelerator. Another rhino loomed ahead of them and he had to swerve sharply to avoid the imminent collision.
Alex unclipped his seatbelt and stood up in the moving truck.
"Alex, what are you doing?" his father demanded.
"Relax, Dad," the teen replied as he picked up his staff. "Just field-testing this new Manacle power."
Launching himself out of the truck, Alex landed deftly on the rhino's thick neck. Bouncing in his seat as the beast continued to stampede, he took a few moments to balance himself and steer it away from the car's path. The monster didn't like how he controlled it, and shook his great head violently to throw the teen to the ground.
He managed to leap off it as it threw him, and land on his feet before turning to face it.
"Show me what you got, you one-horned freak," Alex taunted, not seeing the second rhino behind him.
Jonathan got Rick's attention and pointed it out to him.
"Alex, look out!" Rick shouted.
"Don't worry, I got him," the confident teen assured them.
Rick stepped on the gas, driving straight towards the rhino charging at Alex. Unclipping his seatbelt, he shouted, "Jump!"
Right before the collision he, Jonathan and Ardeth all tumbled out of the car as Jena reappeared from one of her time zones. With a cry of "Watch out!" she landed beside Alex and snatched him up before leaping out of the way. The truck crashed into one of the rhinos, knocking it over, as the other ran into the pile-up and fell beside it in an unconscious state.
Alex and Jena landed safely and looked at the car and the beasts behind them. The truck was a complete write-off, but at least neither animal was moving.
"See, Dad?" Alex said proudly. "Told you not to worry."
"Your recklessness destroyed the truck and put us all in danger," Rick lectured sternly.
"No, I had it under control," the teen dismissed. "I knew that other rhino was there all along. I was just playing with him."
Jena knew he wasn't being truthful, because of Libra, but she just frowned and didn't say anything. But boy, would she have loved to.
"You can't run away on your own like that. We work together, as a team, Alex."
"Yeah, and every team needs a leader, right?"
The arukatasu couldn't help but mumble quietly, "Just because you're wearing my Manacle, doesn't mean you're anointed as god."
She would have said it out loud, too, except for the most recent one-sided conversation she had had with her father when she was home last week.
Jonathan heard her speak, but couldn't distinguish words. "What was that?"
"You must remember, Alex," Ardeth interjected before she could reply. "A Medjai is daring; never foolish."
Walking away, Alex muttered, "Sounds like that Medjai's a little jealous."
Back at the Temple Imhotep was watching the scene unfold on an illusionary screen, and he smiled to himself. "The boy's overconfidence shall be his undoing."
In the main chamber, Toth was concentrating hard on the wellspring while quietly muttering an incantation to open it. The well itself was a large, pyramid-shaped ornament about four feet wide along the bottom, and it was glowing faintly with a violet energy.
As the Dark Medjai continued his chant, the top of the pyramid opened in four sections and several beams of light shot out from their prison. They escaped through a small skylight in the ceiling, and a dark cloud gathered in the sky surrounding the Temple.
Now a quarter mile away, Rick looked up at the birds flocking over their heads.
"Those birds," he commented. "They're migrating in the wrong direction."
Ardeth looked over the nearby hill and saw where they were fleeing from.
"Just as I had feared," he announced. "The Shadow Temple, where inside is a wellspring of evil energy. We must seal it off. If not, Toth and Imhotep could use the energy in ways we could not even imagine."
"They'll be expecting us," Rick said worriedly.
"Even if a trap awaits us, it is a risk we must take."
He sighed, knowing the Medjai was right. "All right. But everyone stay on your toes and keep out of sight as we approach."
Alex didn't like that. "Sneak around like a scared cat?" he scoffed quietly. "Heck of a way for a Medjai to go into battle."
Jena felt Time's aura ripple across the countryside. "I wish I could help you with Illusion," she began. "But it looks like my test won't allow it."
No sooner had she finished talking did she vanish from sight, instantly transported to another time zone, and the other four began making their way towards the Shadow Temple. They stayed out of sight of the ominous place, ducking behind large boulders in the ground for cover. Imhotep was standing at the entrance as a watchful guard, waiting for them, until they were about a hundred yards from the gate.
"We're out of cover," Rick whispered. "We'll have to make a run for the entrance. Go!"
They all sprinted quickly as Imhotep was looking the other direction, and suddenly stopped short as two enormous lions came prowling down the steps. They were at least eight feet tall, and had been mutated by the Mummy's foul energy like the rhinos. Vicious horns and spikes had grown out at the side of their faces, and their sharp teeth had lengthened dangerously.
Jonathan gave a high-pitched squeal. "Anyone have a large ball of yarn?" he asked anxiously.
Imhotep, standing at the top of the stairs, turned menacingly towards them.
"You will go no further!" he announced harshly.
Everyone backed away from the beasts, except Alex. "Time I teach this old Mummy a few new tricks," he grinned.
"Alex, stop!" Rick shouted as the Manacle glowed, but the teen had was already high in the air by the time he had taken a few steps towards him.
Alex landed on the stairs in front of Imhotep.
"A glutton for punishment, huh?" he taunted, brandishing his staff like a weapon.
A whirlwind formed around Imhotep, and he quickly traveled further inside the dim passageways. Without another thought, Alex chased after him.
"You can run, but you can't hide, Mummy," Alex mocked as he ran through the passageways. As he arrived in the chamber with the wellspring he called out, "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
In response, both Imhotep and Toth loomed out from behind two pillars and walked towards him slowly.
"So nice you could join us," Toth smiled, drawing his flaming scimitar. He ran forwards suddenly while swinging the blade, and Alex ducked to avoid the blow. The teen fought him off with his staff, and he was actually slightly impressed by his combat skills.
"You're good, but not good enough, boy."
Imhotep approached him quietly from behind, and Alex shoved the butt of his staff behind his back, striking the Mummy sharply in the abdomen, before he whacked the full shaft against Imhotep. The teen quickly spun himself around so that he wasn't between his two enemies.
"Looks like your plan backfired," he grinned, now standing close beside the wellspring.
"Quite the contrary," Imhotep replied as he advanced. Alex backed away, and suddenly vines of aura shot out of the beacon and grabbed his arms and legs. He struggled as the arms pulled him into the violet light, but in vain.
"Let me go!" he grunted as he thrashed violently. His staff fell to the ground, and the glowing tendrils snaked towards his body and were absorbed into him.
Imhotep laughed in triumph as he continued to squirm. "You really believed you could defeat us? You have sealed your own fate."
"No one can resist the dark energy," Toth agreed. "Soon, he will be with us."
Alex fell to the stone floor, having absorbed all he could. He lay there motionless as the energy coursed through his veins, possessing all of him and causing adrenalin to rush through him.
"Arise, my disciple," Imhotep said.
The teen slowly got to his feet, and his eyes were black.
He inhaled deeply, drinking in this new feeling of euphoria. He forgot his family, struggling outside. He forgot his teacher. All he could think about was this feeling, and how he could keep it.
"I've never felt so much power!"
"And you shall have even more," Imhotep promised. "But first you must prove your loyalty to me."
Alex didn't react.
"I'm listening."
#~#~#
Jena was standing right beside Rick, outside the Temple, but two hundred years before. Even with the separation, her connection to his time zone hadn't been severed - and she could feel the Manacle being polluted within the Temple. She felt her throat close. It felt disgusting! It was like she was being tainted by something evil, foul…
Time changed the playing field again, and she found herself staring at an enormous red lion with horns and fangs the length of her head. With a squeal, she sent a burst of fire at it. The cat was thrown backwards forcefully and hit a gravestone before falling to the ground, where it didn't get up.
The other lion pounced on Ardeth, pinning him to the earth. Before it could bite his head off, Rick snapped his whip and wound it around the beast's mouth. Jena kicked it away, and the four of them turned to the entrance.
"Let's get Alex," Rick said.
"Is he inside?" she asked anxiously. "Something's happening to the Manacle."
"What do you mean 'something'?" Jonathan demanded. "What is it?"
"I don't know!" she defended. "But it's gross, and we need to hurry."
Jena took off running and passed through a couple of different time frames before she finally entered the main chamber.
She hadn't been in this zone before. The temperature of the room was high, and the air felt thick and heavy. As soon as she saw she wasn't alone she instantly brought up a shield to contain her presence, and an illusion to make herself invisible. She was in the past; she didn't want to step on a bug and change history irreversibly, or something equally disastrous.
There were two men in the chamber. One, clearly the superior, was tall and broad-shouldered, and his dark hair was so short that it was almost shaved against his head. He was wearing red armor, making him seemed even more intimidating, and his expression was cruel and greedy.
The other man was Chinese. For a brief, terrifying second she thought it was Chase, but it wasn't. His skin was too dark, although he bore a striking physical resemblance to The Destroyer's Apprentice.
She realized the truth in a second. He was The Destroyer's Apprentice; Chase's ancestor. His presence was unmistakable. This time zone was close to three and a half thousand years before Alex' time, and a hundred and fifty or so years before her own. That meant that the other man was…
Jena had recognized the energy presence coming from the Temple, but she hadn't been able to place it. The Destroyer must have taken what energy he could, and changed it to make it stronger, bend it to his will, and do what he wished. He had changed the energy so that she couldn't place it, or she wouldn't have dreamed of coming to such a dangerous place!
She began to let out a high-pitched shriek of terror before Time changed the board again. She could see her agent sitting on a small stone not far from her, but between them was a time dilation. If she stepped over it, her agent would vanish.
Moving wasn't a problem, actually. She was trembling after seeing The Destroyer. She half expected that, after glimpsing even the back of his head, her eyes would burn out.
Jena turned her head slightly. She could still sense the tainted Manacle beside her, and that was top of her priority list. Even above her trial.
"I have to help Alex," she informed Time anxiously. "Can we take a break?"
Time stood up, his long brown cloak ruffling. He wore robes that completely shrouded him, and even his face and long grey beard could barely be distinguished under his lengthy hood.
"You're close," he informed her. "You only have to strike a few more timeshift items to catch me."
She wished he hadn't told her that! Jena closed her eyes as if in pain, but she knew that she would have to hunt for the items. She didn't know what they looked like, or she would be really, really tempted to try. It was tempting to try.
"I have to save Alex," the teen repeated urgently. He had saved her family from being killed; she owed him everything.
"Your priorities are commendable," Time replied, raising his hands that were covered in his brown clothing. An hourglass materialized in them, the sand in it traveling upwards into the higher compartment. "I am not one of the elements; you may resume again when you have recovered. I have all the time in the world."
The hourglass spun several times, and Jena found herself in the present day.
#~#~#
Rick, Jonathan and Ardeth all hurried inside the Temple, making their way through the many passages before they arrived in the main chamber. Alex was standing beside the wellspring, facing it with his staff in his hand, and breathing deeply.
"Alex?" Rick said hesitantly.
Alex turned, brandishing his staff. They could all see the darkness gleaming in his eyes, and his hunger for more power.
"Alex, what did they do to you?"
"They gave me the power to unlock my true potential," Alex replied in a dark voice, which was distorted by the energy. Flying high into the air, he landed on the ground beside his uncle, striking him with his staff in a quick, sharp movement that would have been exceedingly difficult for even Ardeth to block or dodge. Jonathan was instantly knocked down with a small cry of pain.
Alex turned to his teacher with a hungry, craving smile.
"Fight it, Alex," Ardeth encouraged urgently. "The mind is a Medjai's greatest weapon."
"And what I do with mine is nothing to you!" He struck Ardeth with the same sharp blow and quickly moved on to his father.
Rick managed to stay a step ahead of the teen's staff, and the first chance he got he hid behind a pillar with Jonathan.
"I see you have met my new disciple," Imhotep gloated as he and Toth loomed out from the shadows of the room.
"This evil ends now!" Ardeth ran at the pair of them. Toth pulled out his flaming scimitar and parried the blow.
"Twice you have defeated me," the Dark Medjai's eyes gleamed with a burning fire. "This time, victory will be mine. Reveal the Medallion's location, and I shall make your demise mercifully quick."
"Never!"
Jena appeared with a flash of aura. Weakened by giving so much energy to Time, she fell into a semi-faint.
"Jena!" Rick left the pillar's protection. Imhotep hurled a flaming piece of aura at him, but he ducked and rolled under the blast until he reached the teen and helped her stand.
"I'm okay," she hurriedly assured him, looking up at her friend. She inhaled sharply when she saw the darkness in his eyes. "Is he possessed?"
"Yeah, by the dark energy."
She stared at him in horror. The Destroyer had had a large enough Mahou to control the energy and had absorbed it willingly, but Alex hadn't. The energy was controlling him, making him not think straight. He was being forced to fight his family, forced to have a hunger for more power that surpassed all other feelings.
"Unforgivable," Jena said quietly. She thought of Chase, also possessed and had been for over three millennia. He had attacked his only friend, he had nearly killed the only friend he had ever had. "That's unforgivable," she repeated, a little louder.
She lifted her head, and her eyes were filled with the pure, white energy she had used only once before.
"That's completely unforgivable!" she screamed, and the white energy shot towards the Manacle. She didn't even need to direct it; it seemed to move of its own accord. The relic glowed brightly, and its tainted aura was purified.
Alex jerked his arm, as if attempting to shake off the feeling. Jena's Mahou was completely diminished with that last burst of power, and she collapsed into a dead faint.
"Jena…" Alex took a step forwards. The darkness was still emanating from his eyes, but he seemed more in control of himself. The Manacle's purified energy seemed to be balancing the dark energy, allowing him to think clearly and more rationally.
"You can fight this, Alex," Rick said, hoping that reasoning would now stand a better chance. "Don't let the evil win."
"Finish him," Imhotep opposed. "And rule the world by my side."
Alex circled Rick and Jena, spinning his staff in one hand as he seemed to be debating what to do. He indicated Jena. "Is she okay?"
"She's weak," his father answered, encouraged by a spark of humanity. "She needs to rest and recover her strength."
"She can't oppose me," the redhead replied. "She can't do anything to stop me like that. I can kill her right now, and get her out of the way. With her gone, I could keep this power."
Alex stopped circling them, brandishing his staff. "I want to keep this power," he stated. "But I don't want to kill her to do it."
"You don't have to," Rick said. "You don't have to do any of this. Is having no morality or standards worth all that power?"
The teen's staff came to a slow halt from its swift rotation, and his grin was slowly wiped from his face like chalk from a blackboard as he made his decision.
"No," he replied slowly. "No, it isn't."
The blackness in his eyes vanished, disappearing quickly. The white energy that was purifying the Manacle suddenly left the relic, returning to the unconscious arukatasu, and she woke up with a sharp intake of air.
"Jena, are you okay?" Alex knelt beside her.
Breathing deeply and trying to regain her natural respiration, she nodded. "My energy's a little low. Welcome back."
Toth stared in astonishment. "No one has ever overcome the dark energy!" he stammered with disbelief. "Not even a Medjai!"
"Well, I had help," Alex grinned at the Manacle and its creator.
"We must cap the wellspring!" Ardeth said from his position across the room.
"Got it covered," Rick said, setting up a stick of dynamite beside every pillar in the round chamber.
Jena looked at the violet aura. She was in no condition to use Fire or any element and was tempted to absorb it and regain her strength, but could she control it? Did she have as much Mahou as The Destroyer?
No, she decided. It wasn't worth the risk. They could escape some other way; they always had before.
Growling at Toth at the failure in his plan, Imhotep barked, "Make the dark energy invade them all!"
He needn't have spoken. The tentacles overflowing from the wellspring were already shooting in all directions, reaching further and further from their source for a new prey.
Imhotep advanced on Alex again, hoping to throw him in to the tendrils' grasp, when Jonathan made a dash from the pillar he was taking shelter behind. Once his speed was up, he skidded across the stone floor and knocked the Mummy over.
"Thanks," Alex helped him up a little sheepishly.
"Anytime, mate," Jonathan replied. "That's what favorite uncles are for."
The vines caught Imhotep, in his state of unbalance, and pulled him towards the wellspring. One by one Rick's dynamite exploded, and the entire Temple shuddered as each of the pillars tumbled to the ground. They crashed into the center of the chamber, partially cutting off the glowing veins of energy from the wellspring. The energy swirled around like a dying swan, pulling in both Imhotep and Toth. Everyone else had enough sense to steer clear of the tentacles.
"You must stop these things!" the Mummy struggled.
"I can't!" Toth replied, fear entering his voice. "The energy is too strong!"
"Now you tell me! You imbecile!"
Two of the pillars, when they had been knocked down, had fallen across the entrance and blocked them in.
"Now what?" Alex shouted over the noise. The rubble was coated with dark energy, and the Manacle couldn't touch them. He was supporting Jena and her arm was draped over his shoulders, as she wasn't in any kind of state to use either Move or Power.
She pulled herself free and knelt on the ground. "Let me see the Manacle," she requested.
Alex knelt beside her so he wasn't standing over her, and gave her his wrist. Jena touched the golden relic, and it glowed with a warm golden light.
She was comforted its familiar presence. It was a part of her, and she could communicate with it and with the spirit of anyone who had ever worn it. And… that other person; the one who had helped her form the relic. She could feel the presence of Osiris, and the countless people who had attempted to use the Manacle over the years. No one had been able to contain it with their Mahou, and the energy had killed them as soon as they put it on. The Manacle was sad about that. But it was happy with its new master, and that it could be near her again.
"Please," Jena pleaded with her relic. "Let me borrow your power for a bit."
The warm glow of aura encased her slowly, and she felt her strength return to her - strength, and a familiar presence that comforted her.
Chase, she couldn't help but smile.
Halfway across the world, Chase Young froze as the same feeling washed over him.
Standing, Jena faced the aura-coated pillars with gold-tinted eyes and she stretched out her hand. The pillars shot into the air and crashed into the walls, leaving the exit clear.
The golden energy returned to the Manacle as soon as she no longer needed it, and Jena once again slumped weakly against Alex.
Looking back at the wellspring, Alex saw the veins suddenly take the image of whips of fire. They swished together and formed a silhouette that looked vaguely like a statue of Anubis. Not The Destroyer, although they were the same person – the image the Egyptians had given their god of death.
"Look," the teen pointed. "Those tendrils are forming some kind of creature."
"What are you talking about, sport?" Rick asked. "They look like they always have."
"Looks like Anubis," Jena agreed with the redhead. "Another vision?"
The ground gave an extra strong tremor.
"The dark energy is imploding on itself," Ardeth said.
"Not just that," the arukatasu burst out in panic. "Because the opening is covered, it's building up. It's going to erupt like a volcano!"
Jonathan was already sprinting ahead of them. "Time to go!"
The five of them raced for the exit, and they didn't escape a moment too soon. Not a second before Jonathan's foot hit the grass of safety did an enormous fulmination ripple through the air. The violet energy shot into the sky like a huge beacon, streaming upwards in an endless river of aura.
"Keep running!" Rick shouted over the din. The others could barely hear him, but none of them had any intention of doing otherwise. The hair on the back of everyone's head was painfully on end, and they could feel the force of the wellspring on their backs.
With one final explosion, the energy ceased flowing. What remained was sucked up to the sky, into space, and vanished from sight. Jena drew on what little energy she had left to produce any kind of shield to protect them from the force of the blast.
There was silence, and the teen collapsed into a semi-conscious heap on the ground.
"The Temple's vanished!" Jonathan exclaimed. With the danger passed, there was no need to escape anymore.
Jena shivered from where she was lying in the dirt. It had left some pretty awful residual energy. Anyone who could sense Mahou would be swarming around this place for the next year, until it vanished.
"And Toth and Imhotep with it," Ardeth added.
"Good riddance, I say."
"My battle with them isn't over yet," Alex said grimly.
"I think you mean our battle," Rick corrected.
"No, I mean my battle, Dad."
Still feeling guilty about attacking his family, the teen turned away and wouldn't speak with anyone. But he remembered what it had felt like. The energy, the bloodlust, the anger. Every negative feeling he felt had been enhanced until he had swelled to a mass of fury and hatred and bitterness. And a craving for more power… a craving that was probably insatiable. If Imhotep felt any of these things, which he did, Alex knew that he would never stop until his existence was ended, or until he succeeded in his goals. His family, though determined and resourceful, lacked the power to help him. Jena was busy with trials most of the time and he couldn't always rely on her being present to rescue him.
So he stood alone, against Imhotep and the world of evil.