Chapter 1: Present Day

(A/N: I hope you know when I mean present day I actually mean the present of the setting of the movies, so around 1920's to 1930's.)

His eyes were closed in thoughtful concentration as his body stood rigid to the light breeze flowing through the endless plains of sand. It was a calm day, but Ardeth Bey felt a dark premonition wrap its iron fist around his heart. Something horrible had happened; it was as if the wind was whispering its fated plans into his ear. His black Arabian stallion stood beside him, shifting uncomfortably as he noticed the Medjai leader's tense body. Ardeth's black robe was swaying slightly in the uncommon light wind, and the bone in his jaw clenched considerably in deeper thought. He was standing above the dunes, his body facing the rising sun. Ardeth was so intent on his concentration he hardly noticed the body of a second figure clambering up the sand dune. However a leader is always trained to be aware of his or her surroundings, and must always be on guard. No less then five steps away Ardeth whirled around to face his second-in-command, Sefu, also a good friend of years of growing up together. Sefu was panting considerably, and the day's heat was noticeably affecting him. He had obviously been in a rush to see his leader, and Ardeth could see Sefu's horse's body glistened with sweat. Sefu straightened up, calmed his body, and faced his leader.

"Look, at your horse, Sefu," said Ardeth calmly, irritated by his broken thoughts, "What news do you bring to cause such urgency to your beast?"

Sefu took a breath of air before replying.

"I've come in the utmost haste, old friend, Hamunaptra has been disturbed."

"What! What do mean, I posted ten sentries out there! What has happened?"

Sefu wore a look of utter bewilderment.

"I'm afraid I have no response to that. The men under my post watched the City of the Dead vigilantly last night, but when the sun awoke our youngest guard, Pili, noticed some figures lying between the boulders. Well sir, I think this is something you need to see for yourself."

Ardeth brushed by him without saying a word, and swung himself up onto his horse. He clicked his tongue and with a kick of his booted leg the stallion took off, leaving Sefu to tend to his horse. The usually scarce wind rushed by Ardeth as he urged his horse to go faster. His responsibility was to protect the city of the dead, if he failed his duty yet again he would never be able to forgive himself. As he neared closer and closer to the city, he felt dread creep into his heart. Ardeth spurred his horse onto a nearby cliff, impatient to see what had happened. As they arrived to the edge, the world seemed to stop. His stallion stood motionless, aware that his master was in a dire mood. Ardeth stood tall upon the saddle, his stoic face impassive. In the distance he could see his men, black figures outshining the dull sand, move cautiously around the city, awaiting their leader. Hamunaptra itself was a ruined city, ever since that day his good eastern friends defeated Imhotep and killed him. But he could see other figures, not dressed in the Medjai robes; they were on the ground motionless. Ardeth reigned in his horse and galloped towards his men, his eyes on the figures.

As he neared closer and closer, his heart clenched with pity and with confusion. He could make out the bodies of at least 6 bodies, their hands clutching at thin air. His men who were aware that their leader was in sight had moved out of the way respectively. When he arrived to the spot Ardeth swung off his horse, and handed the reigns to the nearest Medjai, his eyes never leaving the figures.

There was still an eerie quiet, after years of mummification and death this site would always be engraved with ghastly memories. The boulders, still magnificent with their size, lay upturned like gateways. Ardeth knew that though the statues and pillars that glorified Hamunaptra was now forever destroyed; underneath it lay centuries worth intricate tunnels, fascinating hieroglyphics and thousands of memories. Imhotep, his priests and his lover were still in there, along with bodies of the not so fortunate when he was re-incarnated. Ardeth knew that the mountains of gold still lay in their useless glory, glinting in their darkness. He moved beyond the overturned pillars and statues, stepping over pieces that had once enshrined a magnificent city. He stepped over to the first body, a man of about 60. The first thing Ardeth noticed was the train of pure white beard, and then the fact that this man was obviously from either European or North American descent due to his pale skin, stretched like smoked leather due to his death. His eyes screamed in terror, and his mouth lay open in horror. However after a quick yet thorough examination of the body, Ardeth could not conclude the cause of death. He stepped around the body silently, and walked by the other victims. Their positions were the same as the elderly man, and the expressions on their face looked like they met a grisly death, but he could not see where pain was actually inflicted. Their ages were an odd mixture, and only two were women. Some of the men were boyish and youthful, whereas some were more serious and distinguished. Only two were women, and as far as he could tell they looked like complete opposites. One was a mousy looking woman, very young but had an aura of strength to her despite her small size. The other was a middle-aged beauty, ravishing despite her obvious attempts with makeup to achieve immortal youthfulness. She clutched onto her silver brooch like a weapon, defending against what, though? Ardeth nodded his head to the side for one of the men to come over. A young man, eager to prove himself to his leader, walked quickly over to him. Ardeth barely glanced over at him. This must be Pili, Ardeth thought, though he seemed more child then man.

"What do we know?" said Ardeth, gazing throughout the ruins.

"Well, sir, some of the other men and I were on watch all night, and we would of…"

"Yes, yes I know," interrupted Ardeth, "you watched all night and the next morning the bodies appeared suddenly. I'm in doubt as to the extent of your vigilance last night, but I will take your word for it. What else do we have?"

Pili shifted uncomfortably, not sure how to articulate his response.

"That's the thing, sir, there's nothing else. There was no campsite, no evidence that anyone even passed through here. There wasn't much of a wind last night, so we thought we would at least see footprints or at least a scuffle. But the sand looks untouched."

Ardeth thought deeply, hiding his furiously confused thoughts behind a mask of nonchalance.

"Did you check their person? Pockets? I am fully aware that the European victims of ours usually take to wearing wallets. There must be some identification or even a slip of paper describing anything."

Pili swallowed, his urge to please his leader dampened by his lack of information. Ardeth was usually a well-tempered man, but when it included a failure to defend his duty of protecting Hamunaptra, he could become quite irate. He turned and stared his impatiently at Pili. When did they start bringing children out to the desert? Initiation involved much more maturity then this. He didn't even have one tattoo yet. Luckily for Pili one of the elder Medjai, a kind, wise man named Baniti, stepped up and saved the boy.

"I'm afraid, my leader, that it appears these bodies have appeared out of thin air. We found no identification and nothing to indicate what has happened. Please do not lash out at Pili; he knows no more then any of the rest of us."

Ardeth was staring beyond his warriors, fully listening to this man he much respected. Something caught his eye, a space between the fallen pillars. He turned back to Baniti and Pili.

"Of course, old friend, the confusion of this is getting to me. It was most likely some bandits, though they cleaned up after themselves pretty well. However I do not believe that they have left us as yet, I believe they are still here, in the City of the Dead."

He placed a comforting, almost father-like hand on Pili's shoulder. But he spoke to all his men.

"Try to look away from the obvious, look over there between the pillar and the fallen statue of Horus. Do you not see the space between them? It is a perfect doorway to enter the City of the Dead. We would have made sure something like that would have been covered up. Perhaps our bandits our hiding in there, waiting for us to leave."

Pili stared numb, cursing at himself for his blindness. Baniti and some of the older Medjai stood doubtfully, their tattooed-ridden faces etched in with caution. They had personally stayed up all night keeping watch, they would have been aware of tragic deaths like these. Ardeth was obviously aware of this, but he did not want to raise concern for a fruitless effort. With a nudge from Baniti, it was Pili who was leading the way to the makeshift entrance, taking pride in his elder's acknowledgement. As a general rule, only 10 of the Medjai entered Hamunaptra, the others to stand guard outside. With their weapons raised, they stepped into the ancient city, the aura already polluted by their presence.

Ardeth felt that he was forced to crouch low, all the while grimacing at his repressed memories flooding his mind. The last time, as he recalled, that he was in one of these passages, he was essentially fighting for his life by scarab ridden mummies. By the will of Allah, he thought with a grim mind, how many other people had to face dead priests and an angry man bent on ruling the world in their lifetimes? Only a select few as he fondly reminisced on the now wedded O'Connell's, and of course Jonathan. Ardeth longed to see them again, though he never got to know them too personally. They were a pleasing group of people, and despite Evelyn's unfortunate tendency to wake the dead, he found himself missing their company. Ardeth would also have liked to meet their five year old son, Alex. Mainly out of his sick curiosity to witness the outcome of when two complete opposites attract. But now was hardly the time to reminisce. His warrior's lives could be in danger, as it was very likely that whoever had caused the damage outside were probably hiding inside. With his weapons raised he trudged on through the musty passage, a sobering mood of thousands of years of death involved. The lights of the torches carried by the Medjai ahead made the hieroglyphics on the wall glisten in their trapped ancient letterings, nobody to read them for centuries passed.

It was pure silence, his men, whom were skilled in the art of war, made no sound though they leaned heavily on the sand. Strange sounds swept passed them, but Ardeth knew they were the sounds of the wind whistling through the entrances. His main fears were of bandits, and of scarabs. In fact, he was more worried about the scarabs then the supposed bandits. At least humans make easier targets. However Ardeth's sharp ears did not miss the gasp emitted from Baniti at the front of the line, and he quickly sidestepped his way to see what the occurrence was. Once he joined Baniti he understood immediately. On what would be considered an ordinary wall was deliberately and carelessly smashed through, an archaeologist's worst nightmare. But it wasn't the brutal rape of thousands of years of history that had bothered Ardeth, it was what was behind the ruined wall that nearly made his heart explore. Or ore likely, the lack of.

"Good God, no." Ardeth whispered to himself in the English tongue, horror possessing his body.

Second of all, to my reviewers:

The kid mdd: lol, well, sorry about that. I had some issues with the internet so I couldn't upload until the next day, but thank you for commenting. Lol, by your review I guess your not a Jonathan lover, well, I hope I'll get you to like him a little bit later on.

Johnnycarnhahan: well, I can see that you're definitely a Jonathan lover, which is a good thing because not a lot of people do. You'll have to wait and see who she ends up with but don't worry cause I'm going to give Jonathan a lot more, humanization, lets say, but I do love him because I think he's hilarious. I've always liked the stories of when the girl ends up with the brave strong man, but at the same time I have also always liked it when the girl ends up with the funny guy, not the main character.

And finally,

dawn1: I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate your reviews. You've been very faithful especially with my other story. It makes me so happy that you review and it means a lot to me.