Hello minna. Finally, an update on 'The Gundam Mummy'. Good news, chapter three has been finished. Bad news, it still needs to be typed up. Considering the number of hand-written pages (ten) and the amount of time I have to spare for typing (not much at all), the chapter will not be finished until after the New Year. Until then, here is a bit of a teaser to hold you.
Also, I will be doing author's notes at the end of this story, right after the epilogue. If you have any questions on how I wrote things, or any random comments, send them to me and I will do my best to answer them in the author's notes. They, along with the epilogue, will be posted within a month of the posting of chapter three.
Thank you,
Lady Koneko

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Disclaimers - Gundam Wing and all characters associated with it belong to Sunrise, Bandai and Sotsu Agency. The Mummy and all characters and plot associated with it belong to Universal pictures. Sefic and any characters or situations not belonging to Gundam Wing or The Mummy belong to the author, Lady Koneko and may ~not~ be used without her expressed (and written) permission.

Questions, C&C are welcome.

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The Gundam Mummy

Chapter Three: Return to the City of the Dead

By Lady Koneko

Quatre unbuckled his seatbelt with a relieved sigh. Takeoff had gone smoothly, unlike most everything that had occurred since they first accepted this mission. He looked around the jet. Trowa was sitting next to him, looking out the window at the miles of sand below them as they flew to Hamunaptra. Heero was sitting several seats behind them, scowling darkly at the empty air in front of him. Heero was not someone to approach right now. Wufei was in the cockpit with Treize, none of them felt comfortable with an OZ soldier piloting the jet unless one of them was right with him. Then his eyes fell on the lone female on the plane, the only person he had seen since this unfortunate business in Egypt started that casted an honest-to-Allah aura of mystery around her. Sefic Carnahan.

She was sitting on the opposite side of the jet, next to the window, Duo's kitten sleeping in her lap, fidgeting slightly. Ever since he had first met her last evening, he had been bothered by something -of what he was not sure- but something about the Egyptology student did not ring true to him. He had noticed something about her the moment he laid eyes on her, the feeling that she was not what she seemed, and it had not gone away. In fact, it had just gotten worse as time went by and he noted little discrepancies in what she said and did, and what she didn't. No one else seemed to notice but him, and he could not figure out a way to voice his concerns to the others when he didn't even know what exactly to be concerned about. Even their introductions had not been exempt from his suspicions. She had given him and Trowa wide-eyed smiles when they first met, and she had given him a warm, knowing smile when she had introduced herself, and then her eyes gleamed a bright gold when she had said that ~she~ was no relation of Howard Carnahan. He smiled warmly in reflex, though a cold shiver had made its way down his spine. How had she known? That Howard Carnahan was his many times great-grandfather? And there were other things. While not knowing where The Golden Book of Amun Ra was hidden at Hamanaptra, she displayed knowledge of the layout of the City of the Dead, and familiarity of the spells contained in said book while pleading ignorance on the spells in the Black Book. Her rather cold-blooded announcement that they could kill the now deceased Major Daniels to gain time had been unsettling, even more unsettling was that he had known that if it had called for it, that she would have done it. She certainly had tried to behead him when he had been pulled from the vehicle. What bothered him the most about her, strangely enough, was none of the above. It was her sobering account on what would happen to Duo if they failed, and the look in her eyes, the distress and the smothered pain that only he had felt.

A soft sound caught his attention, and Quatre watched as Sefic lowered her head to whisper something to the small cat on her lap. When they had left the cistern the night before, the carnage in the square was unbelievable. Normally the detonators they used were for structures, on earth and in space, and none of them -well, he certainly hadn't- thought about what kind of damage their detonators could do to a human. The square was literally covered in bits of bone, flesh, limbs and blood. He had nearly become sick at view and the smell, and he had seen that Wufei and Treize were similarly affected. Trowa's eyes had closed, as they did on occasion when he wanted to block something, and reading Heero was hard in the best of times. Sefic, she had looked around the square, eyes opening wide at the carnage, then she had casually shrugged her shoulders and delicately picked her way across the square the way they had come, taking Duo's kitten out of the Hummer as she passed it. Heero had followed her, and soon they had acquired a new vehicle and went to prepare for the next day. Sefic had disappeared not long after, reappearing as they were leaving for the airfield in a new set of cloths.

He watched as she absently glanced out the window, and shuddered, quickly adverting her eyes. Without even realizing it, he was rising from his seat. Trowa glanced at him, noticing where his attention was focused, and turned back to his observation of the desert.

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"Are you enjoying the flight?"

Sefic quickly looked up, surprise and slight unease mirrored in her eyes. A second later she smiled at the blond Arabian. "Quatre, hello." The young man sat next to her, taking her smile as an invitation. "Sort of," she shrugged lightly. "I have never flown before, it is a bit unsettling."

Quatre's eyes widened. She had never flown before? In this day and age? "But I see you are holding up just fine."

"As long as I don't look out the window." Sefic shook her head wryly. "I don't believe that people were meant to fly, if they were, they would have been born with wings." Her lips twitched self-mockingly. "And I certainly wasn't."

"What about Hee-chan?" Quatre asked, reaching over and rubbing his hand over the supple form. The kitten cracked open an eye, saw who it was, and began purring.

Sefic gave a low laugh. "Oh, she doesn't care one wit. As long as she has eaten and is comfortable, she is just fine."

"Yes," Quatre replied, watching the cat. She seemed the only one not bothered by recent events.

"You are worried about Duo," Sefic said suddenly, looking straight into Quatre's eyes, "aren't you?" Quatre nodded, of course he was worried, and who wouldn't be in this situation? Sefic sighed, breaking eye contact and looked back down at the small cat in her lap. "So am I. This has become quite the mess," she muttered under her breath. Quatre gave her an enquiring look, which she missed, lost in her own thoughts. "I can't believe that so many different things could go wrong. . . and ~he~ is involved. . . after all these years. . . I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to this in the first place. . ."

"Ummm. . . is there something the matter?" Quatre finally broke in, totally confused. What was she talking about? Sefic looked up quickly, and Quatre was surprised to see a pink flush bloom in her cheeks.

"NO! Nothing is the matter, nothing at all. I was just thinking out loud." The blush grew darker, and Quatre watched as Sefic quickly cast around to change the subject, his brow arched in interest as she began to babble, her British accent nearly non-existent in her desire to keep Quatre from asking questions about her unwitting rambling. "So, I didn't ask earlier, but have you gentlemen come up with a plan of action once we reach Hamunaptra? Going in and finding the book guns blazing is rather skeletal in the way of plans, don't you think so? And so very obvious, well, at least to my thinking. We don't want Imhotep to know we are there until after we get the book. . ."

Quatre just let Sefic talk in total amazement. She hadn't paused to take a breath since she started talking, and she was actually babbling. Besides Duo, he didn't know anyone who did that when they were nervous, and he ~knew~ at the moment she was highly nervous. What had she been muttering that having him overhear bothered her so much? And what had happened to her accent? Quatre took a deep breath; he might as well ask some questions while they had the time. And he no more wanted to listen to her babble than he did Duo. "So, I am curious. How did you come to be Dr. Collins assistant? Pardon me for saying so, but you do seem a bit young for such a position.

Sefic blushed again, but at least she stopped babbling. "Well, I am a student of Egyptology at Amun University in Memphis. I am here for the summer term to work on my thesis, and Dr. Collins took me on as a junior assistant."

"On your thesis?" Quatre asked, leaning back in his chair but still looking at her. "What is it about?"

She gave him a smile markedly lacking in humor. "Actually, it is about the interaction of the ancient gods and their subjects; and how their priests interacted between the two. The priests were the true power of Egypt, you know."

Quatre arched an eyebrow. "Actually, no, I did not. What of the pharaoh? He was reputed to be the Son of Ra."

Sefic nodded. "In many texts yes, but the priests were the actual mouths of the gods, and had much power, even the Pharaoh dared not cross them."

"What about Imhotep?" Quatre and Sefic both turned. Heero had relocated to the row behind them and had been listening in on their conversation.

"Imhotep murdered the Pharaoh, indeed a punishable crime, but he defied the gods will when he went about resurrecting Anck-su-namun." She gave Quatre and Heero a steady look. "The ancient gods are powerful, and not very forgiving. Imhotep forgot that; and that was his biggest mistake."

"No," Heero said coldly as he stood, "his biggest mistake was going against us."

Sefic regarded him, studying his statement for a long, silent moment, then nodded. "Yes, for when all is considered, regardless of the powers he now holds, Imhotep is just human. The gods no longer look favorably on him, and he has no true understanding of what he is against." Sefic turned from the two Gundam pilots, both who were looking at her with blank looks as they tried to understand what she was talking about. Her eyes reflecting gold in the window, Sefic stared out at the expanse of sand below, her entire being signifying that the conversation was over.

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Duo was going to be sick, there was no question about it. The pilot training that Professor G had subjected him to and the time flying Deathsythe had no way prepared him for being tossed around like a plastic sack in a whirlwind for hours on end. Right when he decided that his poor body had enough, the wind slackened, tossing him hard onto the hot sand. At least his fall had been partially broken by the thin frame of Imhotep's pathetic servant, Benni.

"Get off. . . can't breath. . ." the Hungarian wheezed. Duo took his time moving, waiting until his stomach was somewhat settled before propping himself up. Slowly he climbed to his feet, being sure to gouge an elbow hard into Benni's stomach as he did so. He smirked nastily to himself as Benni gagged, rolling over in the sand and messily emptied his stomach.

"Serves you right, ya little bastard," Duo grumbled, dusting off his cloths and grimacing as he felt his braid. He gave it a quick shake, and nearly cringed as he watched sand fall to the desert floor. It was going to take ~hours~ to wash out all the sand. Duo's skin crawled and he felt and immediate need to bathe right then. Several feet away, moaning slowly as though he was in great pain, Benni crawled to his feet, muttering curses in various languages under his breath. Duo arched an eyebrow at him. The Hungarian, while not much of anything else, was at least a proficient curser. Some of the oaths he used were new to Duo, and he made a quick mental note of them. Good curses were hard to come by. Still listening, Duo spared some attention and looked around, his eyes locking on a mass of swirling sand some twenty feet from him and Benni. Benni's eyes were also locked on the whirlwind and his whispered curses faded as the whirlwind shrunk, becoming smaller and more compact. As Benni began to pray in several languages (Duo silently joining in, it couldn't hurt any) the mass of sand transformed, changed. Pale sand taking on color, mineral into flesh, and Imhotep stood before them. Proud, whole, dressed in a white loincloth and a flowing sleeveless black robe of the finest linen.

"Shit!" Duo spat, quickly getting his bearings. They were back at that hellhole. Hamanaptra. Well, hell. . . Duo quickly thought, his eyes flicking from the distant city to the mummy to his flunky. Then at the not so distant cliffs. If I get lucky, maybe I can make a break for it, get to Deathscythe before mummy man can do anything. A few well placed, ~large~ detonators and the fucking City of the Dead is toast. It was a good idea, and considering what would be happening to him in his near future, he didn't have much to loose. What could Imhotep do to him after all? Kill him? Duo was just getting ready to make a break for it, Imhotep was looking at the city and Benni still had that green tinge under his skin signaling that if he so much as moved, he would retching his guts out again. Now would be a good time. . .

The soft roar of a jet engine broke through Duo's thoughts and he looked up into the sky at the dart of silver making its way to the ruined city. He smiled smugly, trained eyes quickly noting that the approaching jet was an OZ jet, one that he had been on a couple days ago in fact. Well, whaddya know, they were coming for him.

Benni also recognized the jet, "OZ," he muttered under his breath. He was clutching several of the religious icons that hung from around his neck. Imhotep was one thing (and a bad thing at that) but two of those people on that jet were fiends from hell. He knew his odds were better with his undead lord than with the teens on that jet.

Imhotep was possibly taking the presence of the jet even worse than his sniveling servant was. He gave the plane an evil scowl, one that had it been delivered by a Gundam pilot would have sent any OZ or Federation soldier to praying for his life and soul. He stood facing the rapidly approaching aircraft, arms raised high to the sky, and called out something, what Duo and Benni didn't know, and caused the desert to come alive, a massive tsunami of sand reaching for the silver jet.

"Oh SHIT!" Duo spat.

In the jet, the urgency of the situation was quickly apparent to all, as it was hard not to note when the desert rose up in a massive wave intent on submerging you.

"Allah protect us!" Quatre fervently prayed. Fighting OZ was one thing; nature herself was quite the other. He quickly bucked his seat belt and stared out Trowa's window, straining to see. Heero quickly went to the front of the jet, joining Wufei and Treize in the cockpit. He noted Sefic on his way up; she was sitting with the kitten clutched tightly to her chest and was whispering under her breath. The only reason he did not disregard her and her whisperings -as he usually would have done- was because it sounded as though her whispered words were in ancient Egyptian. He gave her a suspicious look as he passed her.

In the cockpit tension was running high. Wufei had taken control of the plane from Treize, who was watching Wufei between quick looks at the instrument panel and out the window.

"We must land the jet," Wufei told Heero levelly, all his concentration on keeping the plane on course. The strong tail winds were buffeting the plane severely; and they would only get worse. "This jet was not made to maneuver or handle such extreme winds. The sandstorm will tear it apart if we stay aloft."

"Nnng," Heero quickly took a seat, buckling himself down. Wufei, with a quick glance out the window, saw that time had run out for them. He grabbed the throttle firmly with both hands and held the jet as steady as he could as the sand engulfed them.

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