Speak Softly
Helpless

1935: Ardeth Bay is resurrected from the dead. He awakens to a world vastly different, to familiar faces changing and to the knowledge that he is Egypt's final hope for freedom.

He also finds out just how far love and despair can take him.

~~~~~~~

They were moving again, hidden by cover of darkness. The wind was hard and cold, the skies stormy and black. Earlier the weather had done what Jonathan termed 'sprinkling', an event where the rain fell very mildly. If that had been sprinkling, it looked for the world as if it would saturate in short order. Ardeth wasn't quite sure he liked this idea of Egyptian rain. He was unused to being so wet in his own country.

Drawing his robe around him a little more snugly, he mentally kicked himself for leaving the cloak behind. It marked where he had buried the Book of the Dead, but in the end they had little use for it anyway. He needed to take the priest's gift of immortality and only the Book of Amun Ra would gain that. He wondered if Necromancer really had any clue where it was, for no one else seemed to.

The creature seemed to be avoiding him, either that or stalking Rick. It had stayed firmly away for the past few hours at any rate. So had Rick. His friend was still bothered by his choice and Ardeth supposed he had reason to be. Perhaps Evelyn would be angry with him as well and in that would come what Necromancer was terming a betrayal. So far everything the undead Med-Jai had predicted had come to pass. If the future would be as Necromancer claimed then he would be alone. He couldn't deny the small fear of that thought, but firmly kept faith that things would not become so bad.

Rick drew closer to the leader of this small band of warriors, a man near to Ardeth named Ahamad. "I'm gonna go scout ahead," he told him with that edge still concealed in his tone. The thunder rolled in the distance.

Ahamad nodded his agreement and handed Rick a shotgun. Ardeth watched his friend start to leave, knitting his brows as Necromancer began to follow him. The creature hissed at O'Connell's smart expression and said, "I will join you. I have senses you do not." Ardeth thought it strange, but if he wanted to get picky this whole world was strange to him. Let Necromancer befriend Rick if he thought it would get him somewhere.

"Yeah, yeah," Rick sighed, walking at a quick pace. Necromancer betrayed no irritation at that and followed. Within minutes they were out of view.

Jonathan sidled up to Ardeth's right and looked around. "We're in for some nasty weather," he observed and Bay grunted. The Englishman grinned. "Exactly."

The wind picked up and the air started to feel distinctly moist. In moments it would probably rain, adding to the already heavy atmosphere. This was a night that mourned and it made him feel edgy. He needed a distraction and Jonathan was handy to provide it. "Tell me, my friend, how did you and Evelyn come to be Imhotep's slaves and not Rick?"

Jonathan pocketed his hands and rolled his eyes. "Luck, I guess. While Imhotep was off fighting the Scorpion King, his bird Ancksunamun—or Meela as they called her in this life, she was prowling around Cairo looking for some Med-Jai spies. Evy and me, we happened to be there and she captured us. Rick was off with the Med-Jai in the desert, trying to fight both the Scorpion King and Imhotep. We got taken to Imhotep's encampment and as he fought the Scorpion King we just sort of migrated with him wherever he went. He was going to kill us, but then Meela got kidnapped and one night he got word that the Scorpion King had killed her. After that I guess Imhotep needed something to distract him, so he chose Evy. I stayed around as his way of being charitable to her needs." He kicked the sand as they walked.

Ardeth frowned at that. Imhotep charitable? Only to his own gain. The high priest would do nothing unless it was for his own gain. And poor Evelyn was still left behind, still suffering with life at his side. The things that likely went on between them bothered him in a more personal way than it may have before he met Evy. He hated that the creature would know her so intimately—as intimately as he himself now knew her. Ardeth shook the thought from his head and looked up at her brother with a sincere promise, both to he and himself. "I will save her, Jonathan, or die trying."

"I know," he replied with a soft, sad smile. "I also know you wouldn't hurt her and I think Rick knows that somewhere inside that thick head of his, but…"

There was no time for Jonathan to finish his thought. One of the rear guard called out in a panicked voice, warning them of impending attack. Ardeth turned around and saw not less than thirty or so jackals approaching fast. Thirty against a party of ten, eight with Rick and Necromancer gone. Those weren't good odds. Without thinking he ripped his acquired sword from its sheath.

They rushed upon the group in what seemed like seconds, snarling and growling as they began to mix into the shouting warriors. Ardeth saw the first victim—a boy of likely no more than nineteen—cut down before he could get in more than two shots. Someone behind him shot the offending jackal's head off. Beside him Jonathan swore and drew his guns, entering the fray as the creatures continued to infiltrate their surroundings.

Things were happening very fast. Ardeth found himself face to face with two jackals, both bloodthirsty and vicious. Their scimitars thrust and slashed towards him, but he managed well enough. He fought as Mayadeh would have preferred, like a machine that had nothing to lose. Yet despite that he could not shut out the cries going on around him. Their voices screamed in his ears, piercing his heart like nothing ever had. He had been in many battles, but had never been affected like this. He could almost feel their lives being ripped away in cold blood.

One of the jackals managed to scratch his cheek with a clawed slap, causing him to gasp at the pain. It took advantage of his momentary pause and shoved him to the ground, but Ardeth regained himself enough to fend off further attack. Another one of Rick's people died nearby. As long as you can make a difference, Ardeth told himself, ignoring the numbers against him. He swung his sword and beheaded the jackal that had pushed him. Another came up from behind and he killed that one too.

At that point a scream caught his ears sharply. Mayadeh had been the only woman with them. Her cries filled the air and suddenly stopped with a groan and the sound of a body hitting the sand. Ardeth heard Ahamad's anguished shout and his heart lamented. Everything seemed intense to him, the wrongness and the pain of this attack saturating him to his core. It echoed inside of him as his return had like some undesired aftereffect.

The rain that the skies had promised began as a downpour, soaking him quickly as he took care of another jackal that had come upon him. He found himself shivering as he never had, unable to drown out the sounds of death that filled the air as lightning flashed and thunder boomed. Ardeth tried to push his hypersensitivity away, knowing it could get him killed if he failed to pay attention.

Suddenly another sound jolted through him unlike the others. Jonathan cried out and hit the ground, and Ardeth whipped around. Evy's brother had fallen to the sand and there was blood staining his white shirt. His pulse racing with fear that his friend lay dead, Ardeth shoved and slashed his way through fighting jackals until he came to Jonathan's side. Dropping down, he felt for a pulse and sighed in relief. A trail of blood lead down the side of Jonathan's mouth as he gasped and looked up at him. No, not at him. Beyond him.

But it was too late. Before Ardeth could heed the warning Jonathan was trying to give, claws sank into his shoulders. He was jerked from his friend and dragged away on stumbling feet. Ardeth pulled from his captors with as much strength and will as he had ever fought with, but to no avail. The jackals that held him tossed him down to his knees and he looked up. Five of them surrounded with ill intent and weapons drawn.

He had mere moments to let that soak in and take a few breaths. Beyond them there were other circles of creatures, circles where murder was taking place. Terror filled screaming came from every direction and he knew he was next. Ardeth risked a glance at those around him and whispered, "Oh God." They came down on him, pinning him to the earth below with rough hands on his shoulders and ankles.

Ardeth heard his robe being torn in spots, felt immediately his skin being sliced open. He closed his eyes against the rainfall that wept over his body, only able to distinguish that from his blood by the difference in temperature. The rain was deathly cold but his blood hot as it started running down his skin. He swung his arms in a last attempt to fight them off and was punished with a blade biting at his fingers. The burning sensation spreading through him caused Ardeth to yell out and a clawed hand closed over his mouth, silencing him.

He tried to pull himself up, to escape this terrible fate, but the creatures only slammed him back down and continued with their merciless game. He was starting to lose track of exactly where they were hurting him. Everything was becoming a blur, but the sounds of their growls filled his ears. That he could hear and comprehend very clearly. His struggles began to die down now, his breathing ragged and labored.

Ardeth blinked at the pain, groaning in his inability to cry out any louder. Weakly he wrapped his blood soaked, cut up fingers around the wrist of one of his tormentors, looking for something to brace him through this torture for just a moment. Just one moment was all he sought to pretend he wasn't alone. His fingers were easily pried loose and his hand tossed back with cruel laughter. There would be no comfort in this. He dizzily shook his head and thought about Evelyn. O'Connell would have to save her. He would not survive this. None of them would.

He found tears filling his eyes as he felt everything fading away. The pain was becoming unbearable now and his body would give up. One of those clawed hands holding him lifted and he thought to escape, but whatever communication from his brain to his body had been terminated prevented that. He could not get his limbs to respond. His flesh burned and bled, and he realized there was only one other time in his life he had felt this helpless. 1929.

They left him alive, but he doubted he would remain so for very long. His body throbbed as though they were still cutting him and for all he knew, they still could be. It was becoming hard to differentiate between reality and the echoing memory of their triumphant, amused growling. Now free, Ardeth tried to drag his heavy arms up over himself to block off anything further that could be done, but all he could manage was to brush the sand below with weak fingers. The tiny grains were like needles.

Ardeth fought for painful breaths and trembled violently as he realized just how quickly Imhotep had beaten him. In such a short span the priest had managed to rip everything else away from him, as if everything he had already taken had not been enough. The priest had Evy, had killed his friends and now had victory over him. Ardeth's destiny would go unfinished.

He had expected things to be bad, but not this. Not this. Everything was becoming black. He did not even have the strength to whimper or pray. The trembling stopped.

*

The first thing he noticed when he slowly began to awaken was the soft rain. It splashed coolly against his face and felt oddly refreshing. Of course that was probably due to the fact that most of his days were spent underground, hiding. He didn't care what the locals said. Rick liked the rain.

He opened his eyes and saw that it was still dark outside. That could be good in that he hadn't been out too long, or bad in that only God knew how many days might have passed. With a groan, Rick sat up and rubbed his head. No, this wasn't that bad of a hit. He couldn't have been out for more than a few hours or so. His head was killing him, though, a favor he looked forward to returning to that creepish nightmare that hit him.

Rick stood up and squinted in the dark, looking for the creature. Necromancer was nowhere in sight and true to Rick's luck of late there weren't any tracks. "Just great," he muttered, scouting for the shotgun. That at least was left for him. He grunted and picked it up, checking to make sure it was still loaded.

It was time to find the others. For whatever reason they obviously hadn't come by and he had to have been out for at least a good ten minutes for this bad of a headache to develop. The last thing he remembered was walking and asking that thing what it wanted, then suddenly everything went dark. Just what was that crazy dead guy up to, anyway?

Rick sighed and brushed a fallen lock of drenched hair from his eyes, walking back towards where he had left the others. The palace of Imhotep stood grandly in the far distance, showing him the correct path. It seemed awfully quiet out here to him. There should be talking or something. Anything, but there was nothing. He didn't like that one bit. "Ahamad!" he yelled, hoping there wasn't a surprise ambush waiting for him out here. "Ardeth!" No reply. Rick stopped and looked out over the dark desert floor before him. He could see no shadowy forms in the scant light.

He did what any other man would do. He swore and continued, wondering what in god's grief was going on. If the explanation wasn't good he was going to kill someone. Rick scratched the back of his neck and stormed on towards that stupid palace. God only knew he was probably going to have to go all the way back there just to rescue them all single handedly. This wasn't a promising start to the grand defeat of Imhotep.

As the ex-Legionnaire walked, grumbling to himself about life, he kept his eyes firmly fixed ahead. The truth was he was just a bit nervous about this waking up with no one else around. He didn't want to think about where they could be right now. Imhotep could do some fairly nasty things when he was mad enough.

He suddenly got the feeling he wasn't going to have to traipse all the way back to Imhotep's palace. From the distance he was at it looked as if they were sleeping, though they weren't bunched together as a usual encampment would be. He didn't see anyone attacking or anyone even leaving the scene. Rick broke into a light jog, his pulse rising. None of them were moving.

The first person he laid eyes upon was Ahamad. This man who he disliked in some way, who disliked him as equally. His dark eyes stared at the skies, unblinking and unmoving. Blood painted the sand around his body and Rick swallowed his shock. Then it hit him. There were more.

Forcing himself away, Rick walked on through the camp, his eyes moving over every body he passed. It just wasn't registering. This couldn't be. They couldn't be…but they were. They were gone. Dead. He stopped hard when he saw Mayadeh and looked down on her face, unscarred by the torments he'd seen written across the others. In her lovely face he saw her son's. The kid was an orphan now, like him and many others since this war had begun. Quite suddenly his stomach began to hurt. She wouldn't laugh anymore.

Turning around and trying desperately to see through the dim moon glowing through Imhotep's ceiling, Rick made his way through the scene and looked until he found one of the people he was seeking. His heart sank when he saw Ardeth lying out, as unmoving as the rest and attacked more cruelly. No, this wasn't happening. Reality seemed to fade. It was like something out of a nightmare. Rick dropped to his knees and hovered between trying to help and doing nothing. In the shock nothing won out and he sat back on his legs, his crystal eyes filling with wetness as they swept over his friend and the rest of the company.

These injuries were beyond repair even if his friends were alive. "God," he breathed in a thick voice, not sure what to do with himself or anyone else here. His friend was dead again, having been taken to horrible depths of suffering and killed, the world's hope snuffed out. Rick filled with shock and despair and looked at Ardeth, not sure what to feel besides the visions hitting him again and again. "How could you leave us? How could you do this to us again, you jackass," he hissed, misdirecting his anger. He stared with unblinking eyes, thinking of how Evy would take this…how he was taking this. What he had said had been uncalled for. Rick loved Evy, but Ardeth would never do anything to hurt her intentionally. Not anything that would warrant the kind of threat Rick had made out of jealousy.

There lay Imhotep's Fear and his friend, his skin marred and drenched in blood. Rick couldn't even guess how long this torture had taken. Had Ardeth been awake to endure it all? O'Connell jumped when a crack of thunder echoed across the desert. Imhotep's Fear and Egypt's Hope was gone.

Was it Necromancer? Did he do these things? No. Only one type of being could possibly do this level of damage that Rick knew. He could recognize the workmanship. Jackals. Ardeth and Jonathan were gone because of jackals. Did he even want to see what condition Evy's brother had been left in?

Wiping his cheeks and falling back, Rick leaned back on his hands and tried to let everything sink in. This was too much. Imhotep had taken too much this time. His best friends lay out here, attacked viciously and left dead. He had counted on being the first to go, after Ardeth. He had counted on Jonathan and Evy being able to cling to each other through the hardships life brought.

His fists clenched and his head turned, his expression filled with dark purpose. Rick inhaled and pulled himself up, then looked for Ardeth's sword. When he found it, he attached it to his belt and wiped his hair back with a sniff. If Ardeth couldn't be the one to defeat Imhotep, by God, Rick would. He was going to kill him, then raise him and kill him again and again. Let Imhotep feel what this felt like. The first way he would die would be the same as Ardeth and these others. Rick was going to make him suffer unlike he had ever imagined, he…

He stopped and tilted his head, listening. A soft groan came from below and he whipped around. It wasn't too far a jog. Jonathan, not having suffered the same torments as Ardeth, lay on the sand with a pained expression. He coughed and reached out for help. Imhotep could wait.

Rick fell beside Evy's brother and wiped at his rewetting cheeks. "You're alive," he breathed, unable to believe it. He wasn't even sure if he were ready to accept that everyone else was dead. It was better to focus on the good right now while the pain was fresh. "Thank God, Jonathan. Are you hurt bad?"

The Englishman shook his head and took a deep breath, murmuring softly, "Jackals. They came. Ardeth…"

A stabbing pain hit Rick's stomach like he'd been kicked as he shook his head, unable to form the words. "He's…he's…everyone's…"

Jonathan recognized that tone and his eyes widened, then closed. "God help us," he managed and Rick almost felt like laughing. He realized now that it would take a miracle even greater than Ardeth to put an end to this terrible war. It would never end. He needed to get out of here, needed to think without waves of shock slamming into his system. He decided to chance it.

With every ounce of strength he could gather, Rick helped Jonathan up and draped his arm around his shoulder. They were going to have to hide and Jonathan needed a doctor. "We'll go on," he said in a shaking voice, trying to hold up his friend as much as possible. Jonathan nodded weakly.

Rick looked at the long path ahead, then over at Ardeth's lifeless form. Twice he had lost his friend because of Imhotep or his purposes and this was wholly different than the last time. Vastly worse. The expression written across the Med-Jai's features did not even speak of a death that had found rest like Mayadeh's. A few tears slid down Rick's cheeks as he turned away and helped Jonathan.

Imhotep had something new to fear. Him.

~~~~~~~

Disclaimer: No infringement intended. Ahamad, Nashean, Mayadeh, Abul and Sajul/Necromancer belong to me.

A/N: :O I know how it looks, but just remember what this chapter's summary said. "Rick's Betrayal: Ardeth and Jonathan are brutally attacked, and Rick unwittingly betrays his Med-Jai friend when he finds them." It's a cluuuue…it's a cluuuuue! ;D Plus those of you that read my snippets know something's gotta happen…

To Reviewers:

Lula – Well, see Rick's jealous, but the main reason he got so mad at that particular moment was because what Ardeth and Evy had done wasn't done out of true love, necessarily…Ardeth's not sure. So Rick doesn't want Evy getting hurt, ya know? :-) Thanks for the info on PIA. ;-D (Hope you can bring yourself to do more Endless. Miss that story!)

Marx – Thanks! I'm very flattered you think I've got the characters good…I wonder about that sometimes. :-O So it's a very nice thing to hear!! Can't wait for more Hereafter!

Catt – Nice to see a few reader! I'm happy you're enjoying this and I hope you stay tuned. Thanks muchly!!

Marcher – Hehehe. Talk about overwhelmed, huh? ;-) I'd say he's pretty overwhelmed now, moreso. Muahahaha! Thank you so much for your compliments! And for reading my LOTR stories as well…always nice to have a kind word. :-) I'm glad you're getting further with Captain now…kick the computer across the street! Muahaha!

Deana – Heeey..wow. Thanks so much for saying that. Means a lot…especially after I re-wrote a little of the conversations last chapter since you had read it. :-D Always good to get better! Anyhoo, I wonder if you've updated the PM story yet…I should go look, huh? :-O Thanks!