Rating: PG13 prolly eventually
Author: Angel - http://www.geocities.com/ninthsaturn
Summary: The ending of the Scorpion King changed and expanded upon. The O'Connells meet up with some strange people that look very familiar. Almost too familiar.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Mummy or it's characters. But I would give a whole heck of a bunch to own Imhotep and Ardeth. ;-)
*
Evelyn sat back, away from the others, as the firelight made it's way to her shadowy spot and flickered across her face. The question on everyone's mind right now was how to proceed. They hadn't even finished searching through the Med-Jai for survivors, so vast was the army of desert warriors. The younger of the two priests also sat away from the camp, his dark eyes searching the starry heavens. Alannah had awakened him, just like Evelyn. It seemed her fate was tied into this monsters, whether for good or ill. This time it had been for the worse, but soon the creature would find his redemption.
Rick looked pretty appealing in the light of the fire. His eyes sparkled nicely and his skin was just the perfect shade. Something wasn't right. She could feel it and could tell that her husband could as well. Those blue eyes she loved so well met hers briefly and he seemed to know what was was thinking. "My question is this," he said, turning his eyes back to the elder Imhotep, who to Rick's vast relief spoke English. "Can he be killed by conventional weapons?"
The answer didn't come right away, which served to make her husband sigh. Imhotep lowered his eyes as if to consider it. "He can be killed when he is in half-form, but when he is a man he is more powerful somehow." The priest's eyes were grave, an expression she'd seen before. When Rick had fired his gun at Hamunaptra, characteristically announcing his presense loud and clear. "When I am fully powerful, he would be no match in either form." A wry smile spread across his face. "If you could defeat me, you could defeat him. It is a shame we could not have come before these warriors were defeated. The effort in keeping his army going would have drained his power."
"I don't understand that," Evy spoke up, for the first time in a while. She leaned forward and dipped her fingers into the sands. "How could his powers drain?"
Exhaling, Imhotep gazed at her, his expression becoming that of a teacher, a mentor. A priest. Somewhere inside her Nefertiri recalled that look on his face. "When an immortal being casts spells or uses their power to hold sway over creatures, whether dead or creatures of the underworld such as these Anubis beings, it comes at a cost. When you push a door open, it uses energy. Using one's powers are no different." He looked out in the direction of the battlefield. "I strongly suspect that having two of them occupy the same time has somehow lessened the power that they get from Anubis. He would not give up more of his power, merely because there are two of them. Therefore the power is split."
Her husband nodded in grim satisfaction at that. "There's an advantage. When do we kill these bastards?" Evy knew when Rick felt like this he would have little rest until the 'problem' had been 'taken care of'. Already this Scorpion King had taken Rick's friend and her brother and had now taken out nearly an entire people. Rick was tired of him and wanted him out of the way.
But this new Imhotep wasn't as eager to jump into the fray. For him to be so cautious must mean that the Scorpion King wouldn't easily be dispatched. His younger self didn't seem to care at the moment, one way or another. He had nothing now that Ancksunamun wasn't his. The little story his elder had spun of betrayal and false love had obviously wounded the younger to the core. At least he wasn't putting up a fuss anymore. But every once in a great while Evy would see him glance at Alannah with both distaste and curiousity.
"We can not simply go and kill this man," Imhotep was saying to Rick, shaking his head. "He is armed with ancient knowledge, things that even I do not remember. His guard is up. He knows we seek to end his life. It is going to take very thorough planning to finish him."
Pushing herself up, Evy waved Rick's questioning glance off and strolled away. She couldn't listen right now. Too much planning, too much worrying. Her son lay sleeping, his face so innocent and beautiful. All she wanted was to be at home with her son and husband, tucked safely away from these evil things. Why did she and hers have to be the guardians of the fate of mankind? Right now Evy didn't feel like planning. Rick would take care of it and she would trust in his decision.
It wasn't long before he came to her, his eyes concerned and still sparkling like she liked. She smiled at his approach and greeted him with a hug. He rubbed her back, asking softly, "You okay?"
Evy nodded her head and pulled back, placing her hands on his cheeks and rewarding his love with a kiss. "I'm all right. Just tired. Did you two make a plan?"
Her husband shook his head, his eyes still interested in that kiss. He pushed her further away from the camp and laid little kisses on her cheek and jaw. "No," came his whispered answer, a whisper full of many emotions and suggestions and longings. He looked into her eyes and she could see it there. Her chest hurt, knowing what he was going to do.
"Rick, don't you even think about it," she commanded, letting the full extent of her new worry show.
He hushed her with his lips, pulling her to the sand with him. "Don't," he pleaded, running his fingers down her side and kissing her again. "Don't talk."
Evy closed her eyes and held him close to her, silently granting his want that she not speak of what he would do. He would do what had to be done to save her, their son and everyone else. Even if that meant the unthinkable. Perhaps she could get Imhotep to knock him out. Later.
*
Jonathan and Izzy studied the television with great enthusiasm. They were quite engrossed in what was called a 'movie'. It amazed the three men from the past just how real everything looked. The pilot still shook his head every now and then. "You know," he said to Jonathan in conspiring tones, "if we took one of these babies back to our time and figured out how to make more..." He left it at that, a hungry look in his eyes.
Carnahan's brightened, however. "I say...now that's a thought." He rubbed his hands together.
"Never mind," Ryan told them both. Sitting in a chair near the two, he shook his head and gave them both a flat expression.
Ardeth smiled, rubbing at his chest as if the wound were still there. Every now and then he caught himself running fingers over the line from his incision. Apparently Imhotep's healing didn't cover scarring. He grinned as Izzy nonchalontly leaned into Jonathan and whispered, "He's got to fall asleep sometime. We'll get one then." Jonathan nodded and continued watching.
Ryan seemed a bit pensive and edgy just now and Ardeth couldn't agree more. The Scorpion King had returned some time ago and had taken Michael away with him. They had been gone for nearly two hours and the Med-Jai couldn't help but worry. The Scorpion King didn't exactly like his counterpart, that much had been apparent when he had looked upon his enemy.
There hadn't been any reason given as to why Michael was to join him. Merely a command and a meaningful glare, one of hate and death and promised despair. Not even Ryan could have guessed exactly what could be happening. Ardeth wandered over to where the doctor was sitting, his eyes gazing lifelessly at the screen as if his mind were a thousand miles away. "If Michael does not return, we will have to find out what happened."
The man to his right snorted, not looking up. It amazed Ardeth how like Rick he could be and yet sometimes how different. "We'll find out all right. I'm sure that steroid induced abomination has the same sort of things planned for you and your friends here."
He was kind of pessimistic, unlike Rick who seemed able - even through infrequent complaining - to walk into the most hopeless situations with the intent to win. The warrior could only guess what he'd been through at the hands of this monster. Ryan had told them of the strange transition. He'd woke up one morning and everything was changed. Yet familiar. He had two sets of memories, one of a happy life with his friends and family and the other filled with the horror of being born into the palace of King Mathayus. Ardeth sighed. "Then you believe he has taken Michael to be tortured?"
Ryan grunted and looked up. "That's the thing with Mathayus. You never know what he's going to do. When you expect him to devastate everything you've ever known he can come to you with gifts and rewards unlike anything you could imagine. And other times he can twist a knife into your heart with a friendly smile on his face. For all I know, he and Mike are discussing the weather over drinks."
"He must be stopped," Ardeth said with resolve. Despite all the odds, he was never one to give up.
The doctor frowned at that and looked to the warrior. Suddenly a smile found it's way to his usually downturned lips and Ardeth was reminded of the ex-Legionnaire back home. "I suppose you're going to drag me into this." He rolled his eyes and rubbed his face over. "Well, hell. I can't think of a better way to die. Give it a few hours. Then I'll see what's up if I can."
*
Michael was sitting, quite uncomfortably so, inside a small cell across from Imhotep. Not far down the hallway outside his door, he could hear the sounds of metal scraping against metal. They were sharpening the instruments of his torment. Now would be the perfect time for his friends upstairs to rescue him. Not that they had any clue on earth where he was.
Sitting on his bed, Imhotep gazed at the wall listlessly. This was not the man he knew, nor did he believe this was the man Ardeth had known. The fire was gone. Seventy years of slavery and torment could do that to a man, or so Michael supposed. He sighed and got up, wandering to the front of his cell to talk to him. "What happened?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair. He didn't even know which Imhotep this was.
The priest looked up, wariness in his dark eyes. "Mathayus and his armies came. Destruction fell upon everyone in his path." Looking at the floor again, he leaned back against the bars behind him. "He killed the O'Connells and tormented the blue Nefertiri before my elder." His face grew ironic. "It is strange, to watch one's self in such agony. After her small body gave up under the pressure of her pain my other self was killed. And so was I, but I was raised again with the Book of the Dead."
"There was nothing you could do," Michael said into the injured atmosphere, not really questioning as much as musing. But this wasn't the Imhotep he'd grown to know. This was the rash one, the one who had no love for Nefertiri. The psychologist looked up at the priest. "Was there?"
A small amount of anger flashed through those sometimes infuriating dark eyes and Michael reassessed just how much of the fire was gone. But instead of answering with some smart remark, Imhotep merely looked away. "There was nothing I could do." He raised his wrists up, showing the great black cuffs and chains attached to him. "I have worn these chains for nearly a century. You think I would do such a thing willingly? There is no glory in this. I am a slave - nothing more."
Michael sat back down and rubbed his face. He and this priest were always hurting each other, whether it be between a High Priest and a guard of Pharaoh, a power mad creature and a duty bound Med-Jai, or two men that loved the same woman. But this man had never known love for Alannah. Had she even been born into this time, now that history had changed? Things couldn't end up this way. Something had to be done. She had to be saved from this altered fate. "I am sorry, Imhotep. Do you know the spell that can send me back to the past? There must be something that can be done to change things."
Imhotep shook his head regretfully. "I was never told the spell, nor was I ever even aware such a spell existed. King Mathayus has the spell written upon a scroll in his throne room, guarded by laser alarms and warriors. It is encased in glass that all may see it and remember his triumph over time itself." He grunted and wiggled his foot, clicking the chains bound to it. Again his eyes met Michael's, grave and still wary of a man he didn't know. "You must do something to repair this. O'Connell went in the night to kill him and failed, alerting Mathayus that we were close. If he can be stopped, it must be done quickly and with certainty. I do not know how close Rick got to the Scorpion King that night, but I know he never left that pyramid alive."
Exhaling in thought, Michael leaned back and tried to think his way through this. It was tough, not knowing all the facts. Had Rick fallen victim to guards or was it not possible to kill Mathayus? Even if they did manage to get to the past before Rick went to the pyramid alone, how were they going to stop the Scorpion King? All these questions swirled around within him, but one thing remained constant. Alannah's face was etched in his mind. It didn't feel like she was long dead.
This had to be changed. It couldn't end this way. Of course anyone in this bad a situation would feel that it was wrong, but very few he suspected could actually know that this was not what destiny had laid out. Standing up again, he tried to peer around his bars. There had to be some way out of this, but what? Knowing himself, or his counterpart rather, Ardeth was also trying to muster up some sort of escape. Michael could only hope he could meet him half way.
*
Heyas...thanks Sarah, Marcher, wildcard, Kat and chianna!! You all rock! Kat G, the Imhotep you are reading about in the future, is the Immy from the past. Ardeth, Mike, Jon and Izzy left the two Immy's....and went to the future...so they are learning of/experiencing the effects of what happened in the past. Hope that clears it up a bit. :-D Anyhow, thanks everyone!!! :-D You guys are kewl! - Angela