Disclaimer: Of the characters I can claim only very few of them as my own - namely Rebecca. I do not make any claim on the characters featuring in "The Mummy".

Chapter 10 - Understanding

The bullet disintegrated in a flare of light as it reached the corona surrounding the young woman. Dumbfounded he fired again. And again. Once more he fired, desperately trying to have some effect, only to realise, with the hollow click that echoed through the chamber, that the gun was finally out of bullets. A six shot gun, Rick must have fired three outside.

The lightning bolt finally ended, and the chamber rang with the aftermath. The chamber was dark now - the storm clouds still covering the sky blotted out any sight of the sun. He took a deep breath and, dropping the useless gun, began to advance towards the woman who stood, apparently lost in thought, staring at Ardeth's body.

He stopped when she looked up.

So much power, so much knowledge. Rebecca's face twisted with pain as she tried to find some way of coping with it all. The power and knowledge of a god flooded through her, overwhelmed her, and was finally mastered. She drew in a deep, ragged breath, and smiled at Jonathon, then tossed the knife away. It clattered against the stone walls, and fell to the ground.

I did it." Her voice echoed through the chamber, made the walls and floor tremble with the controlled power she held.

"Congratulations." Jonathan's voice was bitter, his heart frozen.

"Believe it or not, I am sorry. It is always hard to lose those you care about. But, truly, Jonathon. You don't need them. You don't need anyone. I know you - there is so much you could achieve, if you wanted to. If you tried.." She smiled, but there was an uneasy, ragged edge to her smile. She lifted her hand, brushing her hair away from her face.

"You don't know me" Jonathon said hoarsely, glaring at her. "You don't know anything about me, except what other people have told you, and what you've decided for yourself."

Rebecca gave him a sharp smile. "I know everything." Again she lifted her hand, brushing her fingers lightly against her forehead as if trying to smooth away, before again tugging at her hair. She knew everything. She could hear Jonathon's voice, could see the chamber before her, but she could also "hear" Jonathon's thoughts, hear the mind of everyone, blurring into one great echo of sounds. She could "See" everywhere, could glance at the floor and see people, and places - everything that occurred. Gods were omnipotent - they knew everything, and now, so did she.

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind, to focus on the man stood before her. His mind was clear - singing a song of doubt, and fear, and desperate courage. She frowned at what lay beneath it - fear of her, hatred, anger at what she'd done. She looked deeply into his eyes, wondering what to do with him.

Jonathon stared into her eyes, frozen by fear and doubt. He had no idea what to do. Her eyes were so beautiful, so captivating. He wanted to give up. What was to be gained from fighting a god? Her eyes shimmered in the gloom. Such a beautiful colour - he'd never seen anything like it before, except … on the pendant. He glanced away from her eyes, down towards the pendant. Where before the stone had shimmered in the sun, now it flared brightly in the dark, pulsing with malevolent light. A sudden desperate hope shot through his mind, and as he saw the quizzical frown begin on the woman's face Jonathon reacted.

He hit her.

Rebecca reeled backwards in shock, mortal instincts taking over a second as her eyes teared with pain and shock. And before she could recover and bring her power to bear, Jonathon lunged forwards and grabbed the pendant, ripping it from around her neck as she stumbled off balance, and fell to the floor.

The look of shock and horror on her face told Jonathon that he had guessed right, that the power wasn't in her, but rather in the pendant she wore. The golden snakes encasing the stone seemed to writhe in his hands, and as he stared in fascination the stone began to change colour, changing from dark blue to … the colour of his eyes. As the stone laid claim to Jonathon he felt the power surge through him. With this he could achieve anything - become whatever he wanted. Dark voices whispered through his mind, snaring him, seducing him. A sound made him look up, to see that the woman had climbed to her feet, had unsheathed her sword and even now began to attack him.

Carelessly he used his new found power to throw her away - the force flung her back against the opposite wall with bone crushing force and holding her there for a moment before slowly sliding to the floor - a gruesome parody of the way she had treated Ardeth. She lay on the floor, moaning softly in pain from what felt like a broken arm, a fractured ankle. But even with her mind fogged with pain it was, for the first time in years, clear in another way.

She understood now why the god had been killed, so long ago. Because he was insane. And along with his insanity he had possessed absolute power, which had bred absolute, insane corruption. Somehow, some part of him had been in the pendant, and when she had taken it, she had gained that power, and that insanity. He was that which had led her to try and become a god.

She began to cry softly. She hadn't wanted this. She'd wanted revenge, yes, but not at the cost of everything else. It was Ardeth she'd hated, and the Med-jai, but not everyone else. She recalled the shy, quiet and misunderstood girl she'd been all those years ago, and despaired of what she'd become. Of what she'd done. But perhaps it wasn't too late.