Disclaimer: Any characters you recognize do not belong to the authors. Some of the ideas were inspired by Xanthia Morgan's wonderful fic, Brother of My Soul.

Archiving: Please ask first!

A/N: This story is coauthored by Rina and Shade—we hope you enjoy it! Thank you so much to everyone who posts reviews. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

If you go to my profile, you will be able to read all of the stories together, along with seeing some artwork and joining a Med-jai Chronicles community! We currently have 14 stories of the Med-jai Chronicles done, and more are coming all the time, but most of them are not edited. We are nearly done with another story that will be added there soon!

Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 20

There were shouts behind him, and some bullets flew past his head. Ardeth was just behind him.

Rick wove back and forth, dodging behind crumbling edifices whenever possible. He winced slightly as a near-miss grazed his arm. 'Almost there!'

'Keep going—I'll activate the defenses as soon as we're inside!'

After a few moments Rick crossed the threshold, recalling in his mind the instructions that Ardeth had given him and beginning to follow them.

As soon as Ardeth was over the threshold, he whirled and faced out, raising his hands to either side of the door, willing the protections active.

Vek and his men were all racing after the boys, guns blazing. Rick had made it safely past the pitfalls and was waiting for his brother.

A blue shimmering sheet of energy sprang up in the doorway, reacting to the desperation in Ardeth's plea for protection.

Some of Vek's men faltered at the sight of the strange blue field. Vek barked at them harshly. "Get him! Now!"

One of the braver men started for the doorway, and Ardeth rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't. Only a Med-jai can pass through this doorway without dying."

The man stopped cold, turning to look at his superior. The look on the man's face was livid. "Bring him to me now!" The man swallowed hard and tried to pass through the door.

Ardeth crossed his arms. "Your funeral,"

The man stopped cold before the blue wall of energy. He waved his gun through it, testing it.

Ardeth rolled his eyes, and started for the other room. He had been more than kind—he had warned the men.

Seeing Ardeth moving away, Vek growled. Oh yeah? We'll see if your force shield technology can stop this! He snatched the staff weapon that one of his agents had been armed with, aimed at the boy, and fired into the field.

Ardeth jerked and cried out, falling to his knees, as the blast from the staff weapon caught him in the back.

Vek smiled cruelly in triumph as the prince fell to the ground. Rick, having heard Ardeth's cry and felt his pain surge through their bond, retraced his steps and found his brother sprawled out on the ground. His heart was racing, terrified at the sight of the gaping wound. Ardeth was lying face down on the floor, the flesh of his back singed and bleeding heavily. Rick quickly wrapped his arms under Ardeth's and pulled him as best he could out of the line of fire and back into the room. Once they were safe, he laid Ardeth's head in his lap, carefully cradling his brother in his arms. "Ardeth?" his voice trembled and his breath hitched in his chest as he spoke his brother's name.

The boy was gasping for each breath, and barely able to focus on Rick's face. 'Sorry, Rick,' he whispered through the bond, loosing the fight to stay with the brother of his soul.

Rick felt Ardeth's death and the loss winded him. He shook his head, his eyes glistening with tears. It wasn't possible. "No," he breathed as the tears began to flow down his face. "No, Ardeth, come back!" he pleaded. When no reply came, he drew his brother's body to his chest and began to sob, his cry of pain echoing mournfully through the catacombs. 'You can't die!' he screamed through theirs bond. 'I can't lose you again, David!' He shut his eyes tightly, clinging to Ardeth's body as the words of a sacred Med-jai incantation began to spill from his lips. He could hear the translation in his mind even though he did not know where it came from. "By most sacred of Med-jai rites, the deepest of brother bonds, every drop of blood I give to you, every breath I draw, every ounce of strength. On behalf of kindred love, I bid you brother of my soul to live."

The younger boy shuddered for a moment, then gasped in a breath of air, the giant wound on his back slowly closing. 'Rick? What happened?' Ardeth whispered through the bond, completely bewildered.

Rick's eyes widened for a moment, stunned, and then a smile burst across his face. 'Ardeth,' he breathed, choked with joy, but his vision was rapidly failing and everything seemed to be drifting away. All sound became muffled as his body began to shut down. His eyes rolled back into his head and he fell lifelessly to the floor.

'Rick? Are you alright?' Ardeth asked, too weak himself to check on the older boy. Unfortunately, when Ardeth had died, the protections that he had raised had fallen, so the NID could get into the tunnels.

As Rick fell back, he knocked over an urn which fell to the floor and shattered. A strange snake had been inside it and writhed about on the floor for a second now released from its confines. Seeing Rick lying prone on the floor, it slithered over towards him.

Hearing the strange noise, Ardeth stirred a little, trying to find the energy to sit up and figure out what was going on. Outside, the NID agents had finally noticed that the shield was gone.

The snake got close to the older boy and then attacked him, burrowing into his neck. Rick's eyes opened briefly, and he gasped in pain, his eyes glowing suddenly. But they shut and the boy went limp again. He had expended every ounce of his energy and it would be a long while before he would gain it back. At that moment, the NID agents piled into the room, weapons aimed at both the boys. Vek stared at Ardeth wide-eyed to see that he was still alive and, what's more, that the huge, bloody staff blast wound on his back had vanished. He had assumed from the way the boy had fallen and from hearing what he had thought was Rick's cry that Ardeth had died. But Rick was lying seemingly dead on the floor surrounded by shards of broken pottery and Ardeth was unharmed.

"Go away!" Ardeth rasped, managing to sit up a little and glare at the men.

"Shut up!" he snapped at Ardeth. "You have no idea how much you will both pay for this deception." He nodded at his men who picked Ardeth up and dragged him out to the jeep. Another agent knelt to check Rick's pulse, careful to keep his gun aimed at the kid in case he was trying anything. "He's alive, barely," he reported, feeling an incredibly weak pulse. Vek shook his head. He was so furious that he was tempted to kill Rick anyways. But after a moment, he nodded to his men. "Bring him," he grated out.

The man picked Rick up and draped him over his shoulder, then brought the boy out to the jeep. Both boys were handcuffed again, and Ardeth fought to stay awake.

Vek grabbed Ardeth by the hair. "One more mistake and I promise you, boy, I will carve open your brother's stomach and leave him to bleed to death in the sands."

Ardeth hissed in pain as the man's movement pulled on the new skin on his back. "I understand," he ground out, reaching out through the bond to make certain that Rick was fine. His brother's energy levels were low, but there was something strange about him.

The NID agent glared at him for a moment before releasing his hair and climbing into the jeep himself. Rick stirred slightly, jostled as the jeep started moving.

'Rick? Are you alright?' Ardeth whispered, leaning back against the seat, too exhausted to try to stay upright.

Rick responded strangely to Ardeth's use of their bond. His face tensed as if he were under a great strain, and sweat beaded over his forehead. His breathing quickened slightly. 'Ardeth,' Rick's thought came weakly, but urgent as if in fear and warning.

'What's wrong, my brother?' Ardeth demanded, sitting up a little straighter and reaching farther into the bond.

But suddenly, Rick's muscles relaxed and his eyes opened a little. His end of the bond had gone suddenly silent, but the feeling of fear remained. Something was very wrong. He breathed slowly still seemingly exhausted from bringing Ardeth back to life. After a moment, Rick's thoughts stretched out to him again, 'I'm okay. Are you alright?' He looked over at Ardeth his face filled with concern.

'I'll be fine, I'm sure. What happened? I died, didn't I?"

Rick shuddered. 'Yes, but you're alive now," he replied with a small smile, a tear running down his cheek as he faced his brother. 'Ardeth, I can't see anything,' he breathed, somewhat alarmed but trying not to show it.

'What do you mean?' Ardeth asked, thoroughly alarmed now.

'I'm blind somehow,' he shook his head not understanding it himself. 'I can't see. I can barely hear your voice. And I'm very, very dizzy.'

'Just relax for now. I'll figure out what's going on, I promise. Try to sleep—that will replenish your energy levels.'

Rick reached his hand over blindly searching for his brother's hand. Finding it, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. 'You're alive,' he whispered as he lay his head back what little he could against the seat in the jeep.

'Sleep my brother.' Ardeth commanded, squeezing Rick's hand reassuringly. 'I'll keep watch for both of us.'

"Rick" lay back smiling inwardly. It may have been a few thousand years, but he still had his ability to fool and manipulate the simple-minded Tauri. He could feel Rick, the real Rick, raging in the area of his host's subconscious that he'd suppressed him to. He taunted him cruelly, telling him of how, when the situation turned to his advantage, he would be certain to let him watch as he killed his brother with his own hands.

Ardeth leaned back against the seat, watching Rick from the corner of his eye. The younger boy closed off his part of the bond—something wasn't right with Rick.

Now that the compass wasn't leading them astray, Vek had managed to get his bearings and get the jeep headed for Hamunaptra again. Apparently, his warning had sunk in, because he didn't have any problems with the two brats in the back seat. He kept an eye on them, but his level of frustration seemed to be going down. "Rick" slept soundly, more than willing to let Ardeth bear the burden of having to keep watch as long as the boy was willing to. He would play along and pretend that his host was unaltered, but he was trying to regain enough strength to overtake them all by the time they reached their destination. He also had not noticed that Ardeth had closed himself to the bond that he and his host usually shared. But underneath, Rick was still fighting to free himself from the goa'uld that had possessed him.

Ardeth started searching for any reason for Rick to have changed his aura so suddenly, keeping half his attention on Vek and the other men.

The older boy slept without stirring, unaware of the prince's probing. He was still recovering from the incredible drain yesterday. At present, it was taking every ounce of his energy simply to suppress his host, and this worked in Ardeth's favor. As the jeep rattled its way over the dunes, his head rolled heavily to one side revealing, a small cut on the back of his neck.

"Oh, curses," Ardeth whispered, swallowing hard. He had absolutely no idea what to do now. There had to be some way to get the creature out of Rick—maybe SG-1 would know.

As SG-1 approached the City of the Dead in their own jeep, Daniel looked at the mesa in awe. "I still can't believe it really exists!" he said shaking his head.

But as they got close enough and the jeep pulled to a stop about a hundred yards away from the entrance, Jacob got out and surveyed it. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the mesa. "There's not much left of it," Selmak said cautiously. "It looks as though the city was destroyed."

"It was destroyed, many years ago," A lightly accented voice said from behind them. "Welcome to Hamunaptra, my friends."

The six of them turned around to see two men at the head of a group of warriors robed in black. SG-1 balked as they realized they recognized the two men. Jack was the first to find his voice again. "Boys? Ardeth? Rick? Is that you?" He pulled his sunglasses off, convinced that he was seeing things.

Ardeth smiled at them. "Yes, it is us. Our younger selves will be arriving shortly, and they have had quite a difficult time of it. How are you at extracting symbiotes?"

Selmak's face darkened, not liking the feeling he got when the Med-jai king asked him that. "I am able to extract them fairly easily. Why do you ask?"

Rick groaned, looking down and shuddering at the memory. Never in all his life had he been so scared with the exception of the times that they faced Imhotep himself.

The Med-jai king rested his hand on Rick's shoulder, reassuring him. "I am afraid that young Rick was implanted with a symbiote after bringing me back from the dead, so he was too weak to fight it off. Come, I will show you where we will wait to ambush the NID."

"Whoa, wait!" Jack stammered as they all started to follow the Med-jai warriors. "Rick's been implanted? Brought you back from the dead? Ok, Ardeth when this little battle of ours has been fought and won, you two...or four...have some storytelling to do!"

The man laughed quietly. "You must have patience, Jack O'Neill. After all, you don't get to my age without learning some of life's little tricks."

"Yeah, no kidding," Rick chuckled as they took up positions. He pulled out a shotgun, armed to the teeth as usual.

Sam looked at the men comparing them to the boys they knew. They didn't look as old as they should, and they seemed unnaturally strong for their age. "We came here with an idea that we may be able to join forces with your people to rescue you two, but we never expected to find you here as well."

Ardeth nodded. "Yes. I remember what a shock it was to see all of you here to rescue us, along with our adult selves. It still confuses me some."

"Join the club," Jack said with his usual dry manner.

"But it's good at least to know ahead of time that things are going to turn out alright," Jonas said, feeling the irony of that statement as he remembered his brief week when he could predict the future.

"Very true. Come, the jeep is almost close enough for them to spot us. Get comfortable!" Ardeth instructed, lying down behind the remnants of one of the pillars, scimitar out and in his hand.

The jeep carrying the boys and the NID agents had traveled non-stop, and finally the mesa of Hamunaptra loomed in the distance. Vek stood in the jeep, grinning broadly. "Now we're making progress," he purred. He looked back at Rick and Ardeth, pondering what to do with them now that they were no longer necessary to find Hamunaptra. His cruel eyes flitted over the two boys. No, he would keep them a while longer and then the second either proved troublesome, he would kill them both. The goa'uld stirred when he felt the jeep come to a stop. He was annoyed that his vision was still a bit hazy, but he could discern things now if they were close enough. He sent a jolt of pain to his host, punishing him for resisting him. If it wasn't for Rick's stubborn nature, he would have regained his sight completely by now.

Ardeth stared at Hamunaptra in confused dismay. It looked like the entire place had been destroyed! "What happened here?" he murmured in Ancient Egyptian.

"I don't know, I can't see it. What do you see?" the goa'uld answered back without thinking in Ancient Egyptian. As a system lord, he knew Ancient Egyptian and forgot that his host hadn't started learning that language yet.

Swallowing hard at the reminder that his friend was in serious trouble, Ardeth scanned the area looking for any clues. "My best guess would be that the Creature awakened, and the self destruct was initiated."

"Rick" was about to ask more questions, but the enraged NID leader turned on them, hoisting Ardeth out of the jeep and shaking him violently. "You've wasted my time, boy, and sent me on a wild goose chase through this desert, endangering me and my men's lives!" he bellowed in the boy's face. The goa'uld shrunk away from Ardeth, not wanting the man's wrath to affect him.

Ardeth let his bewildered eyes meet Vek's. "Hamunaptra was whole when I was here last! But that was in 1917—anything could have happened since then."

The man tilted his head and with a chilling calmness said, "Too bad for you." He threw the boy to the ground and pulled out the staff weapon again. "I don't know how it happened last time, but this time I will not miss."