Greetings all! Thanks a lot to my reviewers! You guys kick ass!
Faerie of Egypt: Glad everything worked out all right. I've read through some of your stories when I got the time. I've been real busy with school and had to wait until the weekend to get this chappie in. Very entertaining they are. Good work.
Wintersong: Hehe. You'll have to wait to see who shall suffer the wrath of the Slayer.
immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: Very perceptive you are. God why do I always end up talking like Yoda? But nice catch there in the chapter before.
lilylynn: Why thank you.
Also thanks to Dirbatua for reviewing.
Chapter Six Title: A Life Once Lived
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Alex could not believe people could travel in such conditions. It was absolutely horrific in the train, with the heat and the dirty walls, and the flies buzzing about and the company was not too great either. Out of boredom he decided to do what all eight-year-old boys are experts at doing: annoying people.
"Are we there yet?" he asked Lock-Nah, his permanent jailor it seemed.
"No," Lock-Nah growled irritably.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
Instead of answering this time Lock-Nah lunged forward and slammed his knife down on the sill. The blade was stuck right between Alex's fingers. The boy's heart nearly stopped for a moment.
Suppressing a whimper he said, "Cor, that was amazing! Incredible aim."
Lock-Nah withdrew his knife and sneered at the boy. "What are you talking about? I missed."
Alex's sky blue eyes widened considerably.
Lock-Nah settled back down in his seat across from Alex and began to drum his fingers on the table. Alex repeated the drumming and when Lock-Nah did it again Alex followed, instigating a whole other round of irritation.
Lock-Nah lunged at Alex again and the boy reeled back while quickly saying, "I have to go to the bathroom!"
Lock-Nah growled and dragged Alex to the small, squalid bathroom with stuff all over the walls he didn't even want to fathom its nature. The boy glanced into the toilet and a frown of disgust formed on his face.
"God! Doesn't anyone here know how to flush?"
Lock-Nah waited at the door. Alex folded his arms. "I can't go when someone's watching."
The man rolled his eyes, but turned around.
"I don't trust you, you'll look!" Alex cried.
Lock-Nah huffed indignantly and slammed the door shut, leaving Alex to do his business which really had nothing to do with emptying his bladder. He flushed the toilet and watched the mess swirl down onto the tracks below noting that the bottom of the toilet opened right up onto the train track. Excellent. Ignoring his initial revulsion at the state of the bathroom, he grabbed the toilet and heaved it aside to expose the hole. It was big enough for him to fit through. He yanked a chain in the bathroom causing the train to slow down and eventually stop before jumping through the hole.
A few cars away from where Alex was making his escape Imhotep—newly reanimated into full human guise after sucking the lives out of Red Lasher, Spivey, and Jacques—and Meela were sharing a passionate moment. When the train suddenly stopped they were both startled before Imhotep mumbled in ancient Egyptian, "The boy."
He slid his compartment door open to see the temple of Karnak standing before him and the O'Connell boy running towards it full speed while red-turbaned men on top of the cars shot at him. Imhotep, furious that his orders in the boy not being harmed were being disobeyed used his telekinetic powers to run the men headfirst into the stone columns of Karnak. The boy wouldn't get far.
Alex had hit the sand running and never stopped as bullets whizzed by his head and shouts for him to stop were heard. He made it all the way into the interior of the temple of Karnak before the bracelet lifted his wrist up and released another vision. He saw Karnak as it had looked thousands of years ago, newly built, before the vision moved forward to the Temple Island of Philae circa 2000 B.C.
Striding through the vision was a bronze-skinned, handsome Egyptian man that Alex knew instinctively was Imhotep as he had looked as a mortal. The high priest lifted a hand up and Alex was lifted from the ground by invisible hands as Imhotep stared into Alex's face with disapproving black eyes.
The mummy wagged his finger in admonishment and clucking his tongue in a truly modern fashion. Alex found himself wishing suddenly that he had used that toilet.
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Dusk was quickly approaching as Ardeth Bay, Rick O'Connell, and Elizabeth sat near the bow of Izzy's dirigible cleaning and loading a small armory.
"If a man does not embrace his past, he can have no future," Ardeth Bay intoned.
Rick rolled his eyes. "Even if I am this holy warrior, Masonic Templar guy you keep talking about, what good is that going to do us now?"
Ardeth seemed to think the answer was obvious. "It is the missing piece of your heart. If you accept it, if you embrace it, you can do anything."
"How come when I finally accepted my destiny as the Vampire Slayer I still couldn't get through my first lesson of piano?" Elizabeth queried wryly.
"Yes, cuz knowing how to play the Fifth is going to save your ass in a fight," Rick drawled sarcastically. He snapped his butterfly knife shut and clipped it on to his belt. "Now, about our old buddy Imhotep: What problems can we expect from him?"
Ardeth Bay sighed. "His powers are returning quickly. By the time he reaches Ahm Shere even the Scorpion King won't be able to kill him."
"What about a slayer?" Elizabeth asked quietly.
Ardeth Bay contemplated. "Perhaps, perhaps not. It is hard to tell. I would imagine that not even a mighty warrior as strong as the Slayer could defeat him."
"Damn," Elizabeth cursed. Well, at least I'll leave a pretty corpse, she thought to herself knowing it would be particularly daft of her to mutter that aloud.
"So, this Scorpion King guy's pretty tough, huh?" Rick asked lamely.
Evelyn joined their conversation. "According to legend, after he lost his soul, he betrayed Anubis and was cursed for all eternity."
"Thus rendering him more powerful," Elizabeth added ironically.
"Yeah, it seems to me that cursing them always makes them stronger," Jonathan agreed.
"What is up with that? Why not just kill the bastards out right?" Rick said.
"I find physical torture followed by an extremely painful death gets the message through perfectly," Elizabeth interjected casually.
Evelyn informed them anxiously, "The Scorpion King's curse was so horrible that it has never been described."
Everyone exchanged worried looks. Elizabeth sighed in resignation and put on a large crucifix even knowing that it would do no good, but finding comfort in its weight nonetheless. Everyone went back to their work, while Evelyn went to stare off into the horizon lost in her thoughts. As she stood alone at the front of the blimp, her ears picked up a strange chanting sound and she began to drift off into memories from long ago that were not her own and yet were at the same time.
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Sitting before a sacred pool were Imhotep and Meela. The black Book of the Dead lay open before Imhotep and he was saying to Meela, "It is time to remind you of who you are, of who we are together."
He waved his hand over the pool and both Evelyn and Meela were sent hurdling back to their former lives as the two Egyptian princesses engaged in combat before the Pharaoh, Imhotep, and others.
The two stood facing each other wearing golden masks with their sais poised in a defensive stance before both turned away from each other simultaneously. At the signal for the fight to begin the princesses attacked. With a skill not even matched by the Egyptian soldiery the two young women traded blows. They parried, feinted, and lunged trying to keep the other from gaining the offensive. One princess tripped the other and she fell heavily to the floor.
Imhotep stood beside the Pharaoh watching the mock battle eagerly. The princess that had fallen to the floor pulled her mask away to reveal a face that was the startling replica of Evelyn Carnahan O'Connell's. In Izzy's blimp, still caught up in the trance, Evelyn's eyes widened in disbelief. The other woman removed her mask as well and said in the language of the time, "Put your mask back on. We wouldn't want to scar that pretty face."
It was the face of Meela, only this time Meela was Anck-Sunamun, the mistress of the Pharaoh.
Anck-Sunamun's words seemed harmlessly bantering enough, but the woman on the floor knew that there existed a tense rivalry that was ever more losing ground to pure loathing between the two. Anck-Sunamun would love nothing more than to scar that pretty face. With a surge of determination the princess on the floor kick-flipped back to her feet and twirled her sais around, preparing to battle with her opponent once again. She lunged at Anck-Sunamun who brought her sais up to deflect the other's blows and batted the sais one after the other out of her opponent's hands. The woman glared at her before cart wheeling out of her grasp and grabbing a battle axe on the other end of the arena. Anck-Sunamun flung her two weapons away and grabbed a spear.
The two princesses circled each other grasping their new weapons before lunging again. Blow after blow was executed by both young women before Anck-Sunamun flung the other's axe out of her hands and threw her to the ground, pointing her spear at her neck, a lunge away from ending the woman's life. How Anck-Sunamun longed to make that lunge, but she simply smiled and said, "You've improved, Nefertiri. I'll have to watch my back."
Nefertiri, breathing heavily and longing to turn that spear on the woman standing over her to shove it into her ribs, replied, "Yes, and I'll watch mine."
"Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!" the Pharaoh praised jubilantly as he approached the two women.
Anck-Sunamun backed away and held out her hand to help Nefertiri to her feet. The princess on the floor yet again did not accept and rose on her own. Both the women stood tensely before the other, each feeling her own intense desire to kill the other.
"Who better to protect the Bracelet of Anubis than my lovely daughter, Nefertiri?" the Pharaoh decreed as a servant took the chest with the bracelet inside away. The Pharaoh draped an arm over his daughter's shoulder and looked to Anck-Sunamun.
"And who better to protect me than my future wife, Anck-Sunamun?" A bout of applause followed and Anck-Sunamun bowed submissively to the Pharaoh.
Pharaoh embraced his daughter and whispered affectionately, "Well done, daughter."
Over her father's shoulder Nefertiri saw Imhotep, her father's high priest, saunter past Anck-Sunamun. For a brief second her future step-mother and the high priest stared into one another's eyes causing Nefertiri to frown in suspicion.
It was night, and Nefertiri had wandered onto a balcony of the palace breathing in the night air. Across the courtyard she saw Imhotep and Anck-Sunamun in her father's private chambers. What was going on? Imhotep embraced Anck-Sunamun and they began to kiss passionately. Nefertiri glowered and clenched her fists in anger at the betrayal she was witnessing, but at least she could finally be rid of that vile, treacherous woman and that arrogant high priest now that the cat was out of the bag. Her pulse quickened in fear when her father entered the room. Imhotep and Anck-Sunamun had heard his coming and the high priest had gone to hide. As Pharaoh stood in front of Anck-Sunamun and glared at her accusingly Imhotep came about and attacked him.
"Medjai!" Nefertiri cried. The bodyguards looked up from down below to see what was distressing their master's daughter. "My father needs you!" The princess pointed to the Pharaoh's private chambers and the men ran towards them.
Every stab she witnessed caused the young woman to whimper in despair. She cried out "No!" and lunged forward.
Four thousand years later, having witnessed the same tragedy, Evelyn cried out "No!" and fell over the railing of Izzy's blimp.
Elizabeth's quick reflexes enabled her to reach her mother in time before the woman tumbled down the long drop to the ground. Yet she unfortunately had to jump overboard to catch her. Rick, Ardeth Bay, and Jonathan leaped to the two ladies' aid and Rick grabbed onto his daughter's boot who held onto her mother's with one hand.
"Going somewhere, you two?" Rick asked sardonically.
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At Karnak, Meela was still in a trance.
Anck-Sunamun and Imhotep stood over the Pharaoh's dead body when they heard the Pharaoh's bodyguards clambering about outside the room. Imhotep's priests surrounded them trying to take him away.
"Go! Save yourself!" Anck-Sunamun cried.
"No! I will not leave you!" Imhotep protested. "Get away from me!" he ordered his priests.
"Only you can resurrect me!" Anck-Sunamun exclaimed, the bodyguards were inside the room now.
The priests managed to drag Imhotep out of there before the Medjai came in and saw their master's dead body and his mistress standing over him grasping a bloody sword. She sneered at them all and declared, "My body is no longer his temple!" With that said, she stabbed herself.
Four thousand years into the future Meela stabbed herself with an imagined sword and kneeled prostrate beside Imhotep as he chanted from the Book of the Dead. From the underworld came Anck-Sunamun's soul and it infused into Meela's flesh. With a gasp the woman opened her eyes and looked around in confusion. When she saw Imhotep she blinked back tears of joy. She was Meela no more, but Anck-Sunamun resurrected.
"Imhotep?"
"Anck-Sunamun."
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After pulling mother and daughter to safety, Evelyn, after a strong drink—which Elizabeth was refused much to her disappointment even after she kept attesting to the fact that with her superior stamina she could hold liquor better than any of them—explained about what she had seen.
"Evy, I know you haven't exactly been yourself lately what with all these dreams and visons—" Rick began.
Evelyn cut him off. "No, they're memories from my previous life. Honestly, I'm not losing my mind. It all makes perfect sense now."
"So, that's why we found the bracelet?" Elizabeth inquired.
"Exactly, I was its protector," Evelyn confirmed.
"And that's why my middle name is Nefertiri?" Elizabeth asked, wanting to know why her mother had come up with that since forever.
"I suppose it is. I remember when you were born and I needed to give you a middle name and that name just came to me," Evelyn mused, glad that that mystery was finally solved.
"Thank God I was the one to give her her first name," Rick muttered.
Evelyn rolled her eyes. Rick had been the one to name Elizabeth because she had guessed that their firstborn would be a son and Rick obviously had to take the opposite stand being her husband and all. So the two had made a deal. If the firstborn were a boy, Evelyn got to give the first name and if the firstborn were a girl, Rick got to name her. Much to Evelyn's relief he had given their daughter a respectable name after an admirable woman, the famous Queen Elizabeth of England. Evelyn had decided to name their son, Alexander, after Alexander the Great of Macedonia for Rick's sake.
"Now do you believe, my friend?" Ardeth Bay asked Rick. "Clearly you were destined to protect this woman."
"Yeah, Evy's a reincarnated princess and I'm a warrior for God," Rick replied dryly.
"And your son leads the way to Ahm Shere and your daughter is the Chosen One, a warrior for God as well. Think of the convenience of having the Slayer for a daughter when such a perilous journey lies ahead of you. You, your wife, and your son make up the three sides of the pyramid while Elizabeth guards you all," the desert warrior explained. "This was all preordained thousand of years ago."
"How does the story end?" Evelyn asked.
Ardeth shook his head. "Only the journey is written, not the destination."
Elizabeth snorted. "Isn't that just bloody convenient?"
"How else do you explain Evy's visions or that it is your son whom wears the Bracelet of Anubis? How else do you explain that it was your daughter who was Chosen out of all the girls in her generation for the vocation of Vampire Slayer? How else do you explain Evy's new fighting skills or your mark?" Ardeth asked.
Rick shrugged. "Coincidence."
Ardeth Bay smiled. "My friend, there is a fine line between coincidence and fate."
Elizabeth began to laugh. When everyone stared at her as if she had suddenly grown another head she said, "He sounds like my watcher."