Chapter 2
"The Day the Sword Spoke"
Roddy Adelphia loved ancient artifacts, especially Egyptian. She spent a whole summer in Egypt prior to coming to Russia and the cold climate was far worse than anything she'd ever faced in the desert. However, everyone in Russia seemed to love Egyptian art as well, because it was the second largest turnout in the Moscow Museum's history.
She beamed angelically as she stared at all the visitors surveying the archaic Egyptian artifacts. The biggest attraction was the large, golden sword that had ancient hieroglyphics on it that no one could translate except for her. She remembered the day that she and the rest of the team had found the sword.
*Flashback*It was days of living in tents and searching through moldy caves. The sarcophaguses and tombs of Egypt were not pretty during the summer. The hot beaming sun shining down trying to claim the entire group of stupid archaeologists with heat exhaustion; Roddy would surely be its next victim.
She sighed and stretched as she dug through the rubble, finding nothing but scarab beetle remains (which they had enough of, it was their first find) and dust. She needed a vacation. Who was she kidding this was her vacation. Three months in Egypt on an archaeological dig was always exciting, NOT! She kept digging, as if she were going to find something. It had been three months and they hadn't found a damn thing since the first day; she just wanted to go home early. Until, she felt something, her pick hitting a hard place in the dust. She dug some more, hoping that it wasn't a fossilized scarab beetle that was making her this excited.
Thankfully, it wasn't. It was a large, gold broadsword that had archaic writings on the hilt and the blade and was perfectly preserved. She called her head scientist into the cave, absolutely excited with what she'd found. Maybe now she would get some respect. Unfortunately, all she got was a pat on the back and Frank, the head linguist, took the beautiful sword and tried to translate it. It took Frank a whole month and he only had the first three words.
"What does it say Frank?" the head scientist asked the head linguist.
"Well, the language is so old and a mixture of ancient Arabic. I've come up with an idea. The gods are behind me and my revenge… It's like a fortune or a saying of wisdom" Frank was utterly confused. This find was definitely older than anything they'd found. Roddy looked at the sword the words and pictures suddenly becoming clear.
"Actually, it's a prophecy…"Roddy piped up, "…I will slay you and your kind and eradicate them from the earth when I am reborn. By Ra, I will be avenged." Everyone was speechless. After that day, she was the head linguist and a damned good one.
*End Flashback*
Her life was finally starting, traveling with her find. She was sure that she would receive some kind of award from the World Anthropological Society; she pictured the tour in her head. In three months she would be heading to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., there she could finally see her beloved Trowa again. She could hardly wait.
"You look absolutely beautiful." A voice came from behind her and she felt strong arms encircle her waist. She turned around in the loose grip to meet with green eyes.
"Trowa!" she screamed, making the small murmur of the crowd stop. She didn't care; she was with the love of her life.
"I see your exhibit is going well." He said, she finally let him breathe.
"Yes. I told you that I'd be in D.C. in three months, why are you here?" she asked.
"Business. See, I brought Quatre with me." Trowa said smiling down at the blonde and waving at him from the top floor. Quatre smiled back and gave Roddy a sweet smile.
"You brought Blondie along with you? I can't believe that you two are still friends. " she said as she brought his head down for a simple kiss on the lips.
"I missed you. I had to see you so I jumped at the chance to come to Moscow." Trowa said taking her hand in his.
"I have to get to work. But I'll meet you tomorrow, is that alright?" She asked.
"Yeah. How about Brunch tomorrow at ten?" Trowa kissed her hand and they both parted ways.
****
Quatre was admiring the exhibit when he noticed four strangely dressed women and a man. They were all clad in black and looked a bit out of the loop, even for Russians. Luckily before Quatre's curiosities got the best of him, Trowa joined his side.
"What's wrong?" Trowa always had a good sense of when Quatre was not feeling safe.
"My heart is telling me that those people over there are vamps. But vamps can't walk around during the day." Quatre said, glaring at the group of people.
"Quatre, sometimes I just think you're paranoid." Trowa said.
"So, what did she say?"
"Brunch. Hopefully she'll invite me back to her hotel room and much more." Trowa said wriggling his eyebrows.
"You haven't slept with her yet and she probably won't sleep with you tomorrow night either." Quatre said still staring at the strange group.
"Oh ye of little faith." Trowa joked.
"I hope it's not just about the sex, Trowa…"
"It isn't. I love Roddy, it's just that a man needs sex, it's a part of his being."
"It's not a part of mine. I do not need sex to survive." Quatre said.
"Will you stop staring at those people? They haven't done anything to you."
"I don't know, Trowa, I just have a strange feeling about this." Quatre was still staring.
"You're going to get us into a fight. Okay, stop staring because they're walking this way." Trowa said, nudging Quatre. The blonde looked away for only a second before he turned his gaze back. He couldn't stop staring. Those people had to be vamps. The way their pale skin contrasted with the black of their pants, except for the one clad in white. They all had on sunglasses; they were inside for Allah's sake. Either they were a mainstream Russian punk band that just so happened to have an appreciation for ancient Egyptian Art or they were vamps. Quatre was sure it was the latter.
"You know Blondie, if you take a picture it'll last longer." The redhead clad in white said, ruffling Quatre's hair and walking right past him. Quatre stared into her sapphire blue eyes and was instantly in love. Nevertheless, she was gone before he could respond.
"One day in Moscow and already you're picking up chicks. You're a stud Quat. Come on let's go we need to get some sleep before tonight." Trowa said.
"Work as usual?" Quatre asked.
"Work as usual." Trowa said and they caught a cab back to the Adolphus hotel.
****
"I don't understand why we have to go to a boring museum." Duo said talking to the back of Heero's head.
"There was an Egyptian artifact found." Heero said.
"So what? I thought we were here to hunt Vamps. How the hell does Egypt pertain to that? They did mummies Heero, you've got the wrong monster." Duo said standing next to him looking around at the surplus of people.
"Don't you know the history?" Heero asked.
"Of course I do. But Vamps came from Croaovia, Romania, not Egypt!"
"The Queen of the Purebloods is from Egypt." Heero said looking at an ancient fertility statue.
"Oh. So that's why we're spending our day looking at the Ancient Egyptian Artifacts exhibit, you're hoping to find a mythological queen that if she were real has been dead for over ten thousand years?" Duo said sarcastically.
"No. I'm looking for clues as to why vamps have decided to invade Russia." Heero said and finally noticed the golden sword. He smiled.
"You're smiling at a sword, why?" Duo asked.
"Hn." Was all he said and walked towards the door.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Duo said hurrying after him.
"That's the sword of Queen Hadilah Badri, I saw its likeness in one of the Vamp books I was studying. That explains our vamp surplus. Come on, we need to get some sleep, something tells me we're going to have a busy night." Heero walked outside of the museum to catch a cab. When Duo followed him outside, he noticed a group of strangely dressed people.
"What are you staring at, Maxwell?" Heero asked.
"Those people look strangely like vamps, but… I guess I'm just going crazy." Duo said the dark-haired one smiling at him and waiving.
"I think she likes you." Heero said, finally getting a cab's attention. Both men got in and headed for the Adolphus hotel. It was going to be a long night.
****
Roddy sat in her small, temporary office in the museum. It was around eight o' clock and the museum had been long closed. The only people there were the two night guards and they were horrible at their jobs. She's spent the last three nights doing paperwork and this night was no exception. However, the cold night air held a certain excitement in it and she felt the need to roam around the museum.
She leapt from her desk, telling herself that she needed a rest from the annoying paperwork, and walked towards her exhibit. She smiled when she saw the accent lights were the only things on, giving the exhibit a certain intimacy that it didn't possess during the day. She entered the room, not having been through the museum without the crowds and they'd changed a lot since opening day. She was truly impressed with her handiwork. She loved Egypt and she hoped that when people left her exhibit they would love it a little more too.
She entered the room that held the sword, the fascinating blade shining golden in all of its glory; it was her most precious find. She sauntered over to it like it was an old lover; like she would do to Trowa. Thankfully she'd turned off the alarm on the particular room because her next move would have been fatal. She leaned across the glass partition that kept the artifact safe from thieves and little children alike, and rubbed her fingers over the smooth, cool metal.
Suddenly, all of her memories came rushing back, her birth, her Egyptian childhood, her coronation, a simple blur from the past. But Roddy couldn't be Queen Badri this was just a fantasy. But the visions were too strong, the wars, the forced marriage, the death of her body before she sent her soul to her vessel, her final damning words to her husband. The visions were so powerful that she didn't even hear the sound of glass breaking or the sound of a sword being unsheathed. She only felt the pressure of a knife in her back and reacted like a cat.
Roddy grabbed the large, golden sword and fought her attacker with it, the two people dueling and fighting with precision. Roddy was wielding her sword with unknown grace and skill, and it finally dawned on her that she didn't know how to fence. But she wouldn't let that minor detail distract her she was facing an attacker. Roddy didn't stop until she had her attacker on their knees, the blade of the golden sword pointed neck high.
"Who are you before I call the police?" Roddy asked, snapping out of her trance.
"My name is Jinakel, my Queen. I humbly serve you." Jina said without moving or looking Roddy in the eye.
"What?" Roddy said, still holding the sword at Jin's neck.
"You are Queen Badri of Egypt. Only she could manipulate that sword with that much skill." Jin said raising her head up so that her eyes could meet Roddy's.
"You're crazy, I'm going to call the police." Roddy said motioning for Jin to get off her knees slowly and to stay where she was. The blade was still on Jin, only it was on her back as Roddy slowly forced her forward at sword-point.
"Please, believe me, I am telling you the truth. When you touched the sword you had visions, didn't you?" Jin said, trying to convince Roddy.
"What difference does it make? You tired to kill me, I'm still calling the police." Roddy responded.
"That won't be necessary." Said a husky voice from the shadows.
"Hello Zechs, I didn't know that you liked Egyptian Art." Jina rolled her eyes.
"I would have visited earlier today, but I haven't got the powers to day walk." Zechs said finally coming out of the shadows.
"Do you two know each other?" Roddy asked confused.
"Yes, he's a sadistic vampire asshole. And he's going to kill us, aren't you Zechs?" Jina said still not facing Zechs with the blade still to her back.
"Look, I may believe in a lot of things, but I do not believe in vamp… ahhhhh!!!" Roddy screamed as she saw a hoard of snarling vamps coming towards her. She didn't know what to do. Was this real?
Without warning an arrow went through a vamp's chest, sending blood splattering all over the white floors of the exhibit. A knife and two Chinese stars flew past Roddy's head. It didn't take long for Jinakel to notice that her friends had arrived and that she needed to help them fight.
Jin pulled her sword from the floor where she'd left it and cut Zechs on the face, the wound healing quickly after it was made.
"En guarde!" she said. Zech's blade sliced through the air and hit hers with a metallic clink. They fought like this all of the Purebloods and the Tainted, Roddy hid in the alcove of one of her smaller exhibits hoping that a vamp wouldn't see her; just for safe measure she took the sword with her.
"If it's a war you want Zechs, it's a war you'll get!" Jin screamed as their swords met again.
"You purebloods are few, you'll never be able to be victorious. Master Treize is invincible." Zechs wielded his sword towards her neck, but Jinakel evaded it by sprouting her wings and levitating. Zechs, to the surprise of everyone in the museum, sprouted his own wings and continued the duel with Jin.
"Yes, I have wings as well pureblood!"
"Holy shit." Sally said from the ground as she pulled out her small kukri knife and stabbed a vamp.
The excitement was mounting as Roddy watched from the sidelines, hoping that no one noticed her. This was all too strange for her, and she suddenly wished that she were back in Egypt digging up relics. The natives of Russia were just too strange. Suddenly, a Chinese man ran up to her and grabbed her hand.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked, quickly holding the sword in defense.
"It's okay, I'll not harm you." Wufei said and grabbed her hand. He turned around and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
"Let her go!" was the reply.
"Trowa?" Roddy's eyes went wide. Trowa took his eyes off Wufei and shrugged at Roddy in apology. Wufei took this moment to take advantage and pulled out his sword, starting a duel with Trowa. Quatre, in the meantime, was fighting some vamps off with his saber, right next to the feisty redhead he'd seen earlier.
"You're a vamp. I knew it!" Quatre said, turning his sword on Catherine. Being an excellent knife fighter, she held him off.
Roddy couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her lover and Blondie were fighting with swords? There were two people, if they could be called that, with wings and suspended in air over her head. Blood was splattering left and right and to make matters worse… BANG!!! Came a gunshot from above her.
Duo and Heero had just arrived, noticing that they were a bit late.
"Definitely surplus, Heero." Duo said as he slid down the rest of his rip chord, shooting vamp after vamp through the heart with custom bullets. Blood was everywhere. Heero slid down the zip line and kicked a vamp to the floor and killed it.
"Who are you?" Quatre asked, holding his saber to Heero's neck.
"Hn." Heero pulled his sword from its sheath and began a duel with Quatre. Duo was meanwhile fighting with Hilde, seeing as that Zech's minions were either all dead or retreating. Zechs saw this and fled with them, but the fights still raged below Jin.
Roddy was cowering in the corner, the usual dullness of the sword glowing a gleaming gold, then turning a hot orange. Roddy was frightened and frustrated and she wanted answers as to why these strange people had ruined her exhibit. Did they not like Egyptian Art?
The sword now glowed red, taking on the emotions that Roddy held in her heart. The frustrated woman screamed to the high heavens, the pitch so loud and shrill that a shockwave shook the museum breaking the rest of the glass ceiling and sending all parts of the exhibits flying off the walls and crushing the fragile artifacts into rubble and dust. The fighting stopped.