Hello faithful reading people! I am back for chapter 2 of this story, which started out well and unfortunately decided to attack me with it's mallet of writer's block. I did, however, overcome said mallet weilding story, and so come forth chapter 2! (chapter 2 steps forward nervously, not sure why it has been personified.) Ignore my insane ramblings, I just ate a lot of sherbet! Mwahaha, see the dancing bananas!

Ahem, review replies:

mrsblonde1503: thank you nice non-flaming person. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you. Ah, it's so nice when a complete stranger says your work is good.

Disclaimer: You know who wrote the Mummy films, so you know who owns all the characters in this except for Beth O'Connell and Jimmy. Don't rub it in andmake me get upset about my lack of ownership of Ardeth.

"It's a perfectly reasonable deal." Beth huffed.

"I don't care. It's a deal with a Medjai, and reasonable or not, that makes it a bad deal!" Jimmy snapped back at her. They were sitting opposite eachother on a train, gradually making their way to Cairo. Beth couldn't see why Jimmy was so upset.

"What have you got against the Medjai Jimmy?" she demanded. "I'm the only one of us to have ever encountered them, and even I'm not so against them as you are."

"It's just...the things you told me." Jimmy sniffed. "They sound like their always beying for the blood of folk like us."

Beth laughed at her boss. There were times when he was such an ass that he all but grew long ears and a tail. Now was definatley one of those times.

"Good evening, don't mean to interrupt." Rick smiled as he sat down next to Beth. Jimmy scowled at him. He seemed to be hostile towards everyone being on this trip except himself.

"How's everyone doing?" Beth asked him.

"Oh, great. Eve and Alex are looking through some old, dusty book. Jonathon's dealing cards a couple of carriages down, and Ardeth is pacing the halls, muttering to himself about 'the insolence of that woman.', or something like that." Rick grinned. He found Ardeth and Beth's clashing personalities to be rather funny. He had a bet with himself to see which one would crack first, and he bet it would be Ardeth.

"You're happy with this, are you Rick?" Jimmy asked him. "I mean, you're one of us. You know what it is to be on an archealogical dig, find something, and then be faced with the prospect of handing it over to some son of a diminshing bloodline, all because 'the world's at stake?" His eyes were wide, and Beth swore his left eyebrow was twitching slightly. He was really hung up about this damn key.

Rick seemed slightly unnerved by Jimmy. He glanced at Beth and she just shrugged. Didn't this guy get it? "Look, Jimmy. I've seen the dangers we're facing. I know what that key is capable of, and what people are capable of doing to get it. Not only that, I trust Ardeth with my life and the lives of my family, let alone the fate of the world. He isn't just telling ghost stories, Jimmy. Everything he says is the truth. In fact, I swear Ardeth is physically incapable of lying."

The carriage door slid open and Eve stepped through. She smiled and sat down next to Jimmy, then turned directly to Beth. "Okay, I'm confused. Where exactly are we going and why?"

"We're going to go with Ardeth to the lost city of Nak Tahn, and if, when we get there, there actually is a mummy and Jimmy gets actual firsthand proof of that, then we hand over the key. Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to give Ardeth the key and be done with it, but Jimmy here is so obsessed, I wasn't able to. At least this way we all get a small holiday, and some time to get to know eachother."

Eve smirked. She knew what it was like to be caught between Ardeth and an equally stubborn man. She had to congratulate Beth on her diplomatic skills. Ardeth was not the easiest man to reason with, and Jimmy came across as even worse. She wondered how her sister-in-law could stand to work for someone like that.

Ardeth stood in front of a window and looked out as the world outside whizzed past. He couldn't believe he had just agreed to lead two ruthless relic hunters, and a treasure hunter like Jonathon, to Nak Tahn. It was asking for trouble; who knows what they could unleash in their quest for treasure? He would have liked to have just killed them and retrieved the key, but he did not wish to upset Rick by killing his sister and her employer, no matter how much they annoyed him. Besides, the woman was almost too beautiful to kill.

"There you are, Ardeth old boy!" called Jonathon with his pockets looking slightly heavier than before. "You couldn't take a look at this for me, could you." He held out a small scarab, made out of Egyptian blue gold. It looked very expensive...and familiar.

"That looks very much like the scarab that you came across in Hamanuptra." Ardeth smirked. Jonathon's face dropped.

"Ah." he mumbled, suddenly opening the nearest carriage door and discarding the scarab. Painful memories flickered across his panic-stricken eyes. Ardeth chuckled and turned back to the window.

"It's not funny. That could have attacked me at any second, you know." Jonathon whimpered.

Ardeth sighed."And it would have been your fault for being addicted to treasure, my friend. You never know what is a trap and what is cursed." Jonathon coughed and headed off to the O'Connell's carriage, obviously tired of the conversation. Treasure was not a thing to slander in Jonathon's presense. Ardeth didn't care.

Beth stepped out into the corridor, trying to escape from her companions. Rick and Jimmy had just gotten into a rather heated row about the ethics of archeology, and she had left them as Jimmy was explaining the rule of 'finders keepers'. This trip was going to do her head in.

"You too could not stand the bickering?" Ardeth asked. Beth jumped. She hadn't seen him there.

"Ardeth, you scared me!" she gasped. He smiled a warm smile Beth hadn't seen before. It caught her off guard; she was falling for this guy a lot faster than she would have liked.

Ardeth didn't know why he was smiling. There was something about Beth that made him want to smile, and he couldn't for the life of him figure out what. Again, he silently seethed at his weakness, appalled by his feelings for Beth. When he was around her, his sense of duty shrivelled to no more than a nagging memory, and it made him so angry that such a thing could happen. He was a Medjai, a warrior of God, a protector of the people, and one annoying woman was distracting him from all the things he had been brought up to never forget. He had to distance himself from her as soon as possible.

"I'm taking a big risk you know." Ardeth sighed after a long pause. Beth nodded in understanding.

"I'm leading a family known for encounters with mummies and two unknown treasure hunters to a secret lost city that must remain a secret in case the wrong person finds out where it is." he continued.

"I'm sorry you have to take that risk."

Ardeth turned to face Beth. Concern swamped his beautifully dark eyes. "I trust your family. I even trust you, despite what your brother may say. I do not trust Jimmy."

"Not a lot of people do." Beth sighed. She wasn't even sure that she did at the moment. She wished there was some way she could just let Ardeth have the key and take all this weight off everyone's shoulders.

"Do you trust me?" Ardeth asked her.

"More than my own father." Beth replied without thinking. She giggled when she realised that was true.

"Do you trust I would destroy the key within a minute of possessing it?"

"Of course."

"Then give me the key now. As soon as we get to Cairo I can disappear with it and Jimmy never need know."

"I can't. Jimmy has the key, and he won't let it out of his sight for dust."

"Will you try?" Ardeth asked. He was on the verge of begging. How could Beth say no?

"Just for you, Medjai." Beth giggled, patting him playfully on the arm. Then she disappeared to ask Jimmy really nicely for the key.

"No way! No one touches this but me!" Jimmy hugged the key to his chest like the world would end if he didn't.

"Oh come on Jimmy, I just want to hold it for an hour or two! I was the one that found it, and I haven't had a moment to enjoy it!" Beth pleaded. She was on her knees before him, her blue eyes brimming over with desperation. She even had a few buttons undone on her shirt for good measure.

"No! I know why you want it! That Medjai tricked you and now you just want to steal it from me!" Jimmy hollered. Beth hesitated for just one second, shocked that he would guess her game that quickly. That second of hesitation was all Jimmy needed.

"I'm right, aren't I? He played with your mind, you stupid bitch! You let him twist you around his little finger and now you've turned against me! I knew this would happen! I knew you would give in just like that! I knew it!"

Beth promptly slapped Jimmy really hard across his mousy face which was now crimson from ranting. What the hell was wrong with him? He had no right to call her a stupid bitch, and she was not going to let him get away with it.

"How dare you Jimmy!" she shouted. "I had no intention of stealing the key from you. If anyone's turned against anyone, you've turned against me! how dare you accuse me of betraying you after all these years!" She knew she was lying slightly, but she didn't care. She wanted to make him feel bad, and embarrass him infront of Rick, Eve and Jonathon, who were sitting there rather awkwardly, unsure what to do.

"I...I'm sorry Beth." he stammered, stupefied by the slap. "I didn't mean to go off the handle like that." Beth noticed his grip on the key still hadn't loosened. She wasn't going to get it off of him.

"You should be sorry Jimmy." she said, then slunk out of the carriage to see Ardeth again.

"How did it go with Jimmy?" Ardeth asked Beth, a little too un-convincingly.

"You heard; don't pretend you didn't." Beth sighed.

"So there's no slight possibilty that..."

"Nope, no dice." Beth interrupted. Ardeth ran his hands through his ebony curls nervously.

"I guess we go all the way to Nak Tahn, then."

"Yep."

"Wonderful."

You like? You find this chapter pointless? Oh well, I tried my hardest. I was just trying to emphasise Beth's sympathy for Ardeth, and Jimmy's total assholeness (yes, I know that's not a real word).

Review this and i shall give you a cookie, and you will have the pleasure of knowing you made me smile. As usual, no flaming. Flaming makes me sad and just repeats everything i say to myself when I get writers block (which is like, all the time!).

I leave you with this smallword of comfort: Niggle!