AN: Hi all, so in the last chapter I realized that I had been spelling 'Wedjet' incorrectly, and will be fixing it to it's correct spelling which is 'Wadjet'. Just giving you a heads up. Enjoy!
"Well, it looks like I may need to raid the weapons vault," Kelly said.
"Yeah, like that's going to help," Rick muttered.
"You got a better idea, genius? The least it could do it buy us some time if he's missing an arm," Kelly snapped at him.
Fallon stayed where she was, covering her mouth with a hand in deep thought. There was so much to take it. Not only was a cursed mummy walking the streets of Cairo looking for them, she had just found out that the dreams she had been having for the past year were prophetic dreams that tied her to a Medjai, making her some form of Oracle of an ancient Egyptian Goddess. Why couldn't this have been all a bad dream? Why couldn't she have woken up to find that she was just a simple librarian working at the Egyptian Museum, and Jonathon hadn't found that damned key? Or better yet, why couldn't she have woken up to 3 years ago before Kelly signed her up for than damn Legion? It was too late to be putting blame on anybody. There was nothing she could do about it now. Just like a lot of things that had happened.
"Fallon?" She heard her brother say. She snapped out of her head and noticed that Adam was right in front of her.
"Does any of this have anything to do with Mom and Dad do you think?" He asked.
"I-I...not directly I don't think. But there is something that I do need to tell you concerning that. Now that I believe I have as many answers as I can get right now, I think it's time for me to tell you." She took his hands. "Mum and Dad were indeed killed at Hamunaptra. I...I found a diary that I never showed you because I...well it was Mum's diary. When I read it she wrote about the experiences that she had, and they weren't all good. She wrote entries that when I read it I thought...that the Medjai killed our parents-"
"WHAT?!" He shouted. His hands squeezed hers and before she could stop him, he had let go and started going after Ardeth. "You killed our parents and then you have the gall to continuously mess with my sister?!"
"Adam, please!" Fallon shrieked and grabbed his shoulders to try to pull them back. Ardeth had pulled his scimitar and looked prepared to use it if he had to.
Kelly jumped on Adam to restrain him, seething. "Adam, this needs to stop! It's getting old! Listen to your freaking sister!"
"Listen to me!" Fallon demanded. "He and his people didn't kill our parents!"
Adam suddenly stopped and turned his head to look at Kelly and Fallon. With another look of contempt at Ardeth he shook off their hands and turned to his sister.
"Thank you," she huffed. "Now, he didn't kill our parents, it's what I thought because by reading Mum's journals that's what she made it sound like, and I jumped to that conclusion. But, he didn't. It was the workers. They knew a lot about the city, they seemed like they were trying to lead our parents to try to find the Book of the Dead and Imhotep to bring him back, but when our parents didn't go along with it, they raided them and killed them. That's what happened. I don't know who those diggers were, but they someway or another knew about Imhotep and wanted him to be awoken. I don't think it's all connected to the dreams and whatnot, but...well it is a strange coincidence considering Mr. Ardeth Bay here was also there at the time. In fact, he was the one who gave me Mum's diary."
Adam, at first did not say anything. He stood there biting his lip, shifting his gaze between Fallon and Kelly and even Rick. He then turned and looked at Ardeth who gave him a nod.
"Am I the last one to know this?" Adam asked.
"No!" Fallon told him. Kelly bit her lip. "Well, that information at least. I only just found out today about what really happened to our parents. I had been telling Kelly about some of the updated information but I didn't want to tell you until I knew the truth. I knew you would react like this. As soon as I found out the information I was going to tell you and Kelly and Rick, I swear. That was my full intention."
He nodded. "Alright. Thank you for telling me, sis. We can, um, talk later about this." He pulled her into a hug. Out of the corner of Fallon's eye she could see Kelly smiling and giving her a nod.
"Well, we should probably get somewhere safe for now," Rick said. He gestured to Ardeth and the curator. "You guys can continue, uh, doing your thing while we figure out what we need to do next, since, like you said, it's our fault that we woke this Imhotep guy up."
"We can go back to my apartment," Evy suggested.
With everyone agreeing, Adam pat Fallon's shoulder. "Come on, let's go."
"Um, actually, I think that I should stay here. I need to research some things," Fallon denied.
"Fallon, this isn't the time for work," Adam said.
"No, there's still so much I need to find out. You all can go figure out what you need to figure out, but I need to do it my own way. Please, I just need some time to myself," Fallon told him.
"It's probably not safe here," Adam protested. "You'll be safer with us." He glanced warily at Ardeth.
Kelly stepped up to him. "Don't worry, Adam. There's a lot for her to take in. And besides, with Mr. Medjai she's probably safer here than she is with us. Remember, there's nothing to worry about with him."
Adam hesitated. "Alright, well I'll come and look for you later then."
Fallon smiled in appreciation and grabbed his hand to give it a squeeze. The curator approached.
"Perhaps, this might be the best time for you and Ardeth to find any research on the curse if you can, and perhaps discuss the dreams again, maybe try to find more parallels and information in them about how to kill the Creature," Mr. Bey told her. Kelly gave Fallon a look.
"I don't see any harm in that," Fallon agreed reluctantly.
As they parted ways at the entrance doors to the museum, even Rick told Fallon that if she needed anything, or if anything happened, she shouldn't hesitate to find help or even kick Ardeth's ass. She realized that it would take a little bit longer for people to completely trust him, given they all had tried to kill one another at some point. She assured him that nothing would happen, and that everything would be fine. Despite her constant changing perspectives on everything in the past couple of weeks, Fallon felt her mind was finally settled on a position conerning the Medjai, and particularly Ardeth.
"Don't get too cozy," Kelly's last remark was to Fallon and Ardeth was as she shut the doors behind her. Fallon, on the other hand, was starting to settle on the position of wringing Kelly's neck. Now wasn't the time to be making flirty jokes about her and Ardeth. Nor were they completely justified.
Fallon and Ardeth searched the shelves. She picked the books she had dropped to the floor when she ran into Ardeth last. They were still useful books so she placed them on the desk.
"What should we be looking for?" Ardeth asked as he skimmed the books on the shelves.
"Anything about oracles, ancient Egyptian curses, or Hamunaptra," Fallon replied as she hopped on the ladder to examine higher shelves.
Ardeth came around to her aisle and looked up at her running her fingers along the spines of the books. "The dreams and the oracle still weighs heavily on your mind."
She huffed. "Of course it does. It's not every day you find out that your dreams are prophetic and connected to someone you had never met before. The more we can find out, perhaps we can figure out why it is happening to us."
"Is it hard to believe that fate can be a simple answer?" Ardeth asked.
She chuckled, grabbed two books off the shelves, and looked down at him. "Well, a little, yes. I've never been too fond of the possibility." She began to step down the ladder. "Coincidence is far more believable and even then it's still...What's the word?" He took her hand gently to help her down the last few rungs and she found herself facing him at an uncomfortably close distance once more. "Eerie?"
"It may be perhaps that this was meant to happen. Your dreams told you about the dangers of Hamunaptra, that there were things that needed to be protected and that needed to be remained hidden. They were telling you that there was someone whom you needed to find to ensure that. My dreams of you were foretelling me that you were someone important and needed to be found and protected so that I may ensure that the secret of Hamunaptra remained hidden. It may just be possible that you were chosen to be a protector of Hamunaptra. And I was chosen to find you to ensure the protection. It fits, I am already a protector of the the City, but you had premonitions that something would happen so you could do something about it."
"Well, I didn't do a very good job of it," Fallon admitted. "Imhotep was awoken and I developed trust issues with you. So...so much for finding the protector of the city and not following my gut instincts."
"Either way, we were brought together so that we may fix our mistakes. There is a way to kill the Creature, and we can find it," Ardeth said, confidently. Fallon realized that he was still holding her hand from when he helped her down off the ladder. She took it out of his and clutched the books in her arms tightly, starting to feel awkward. She turned away to head to the desks.
"Well, I certainly hope so," Fallon said as she sat down.
She had found a book about mysticism in the ancient Egyptian times. She hoped that she may be able to find some information about the Oracle of Wadjet since it seemed the thing that would appear in this book. As she searched the index and the table of contents, she could feel her hands start to shake. She wasn't sure if it was because Ardeth made her nervous, not in a scared way, just a different way. Or if it was because she was worried about Imhotep. She had only found out about the Oracle of Wadjet because of what he said to her on two different occasions. He knew. He knew she was the oracle and that made her very scared. He seemed to be more interested in Evy because of some weird ritual he wants to do to bring his dead lover back to life, but he still addressed her equally each time he saw her. How did he know and why was he interested?
When she found a chapter about temple mysticism and religion she quickly turned to the page deep within the book and began to read. She read and reread the first paragraph of the chapter but she couldn't seem to read anything that it said. Her hands were still shaking wildly and to try to make them stop she clutched the edge of the book and held her hair behind her ears, which kept falling into her face. Out of the corner of her eye she could something blue and catching the light of the low lamps. When she looked she found Ardeth standing next to her, holding a blue silk scarf out to her.
"My scarf," she said, blinking a few times and taking the tail end that billowed out of Ardeth's hand.
"You left it in here earlier today. I held on to it for you," he said.
"Thank you," Fallon said. "I completely forgot about it."
Thinking for a second while holding the scarf, she slipped it around her neck and then took the tail ends and pulled it, with another hand smoothing her brown waves back and then tying the silk scarf into a bow in her hair. That way she wouldn't be constantly pushing her hair back. A single cheekbone length curl did escape the bow and hung next to her eye, but she decided it wasn't of any consequence to try to fix it again now.
With a steady breath out she tried to return to the book, but again, she couldn't bring herself to concentrate. She flipped through the chapter and finally saw a header that caught her attention: The Oracle of Wadjet. She jumped in her seat.
"Here!" She said, her heart skipping a beat. Quick information, just what she needed to get the butterflies to settle. Ardeth leaned over her shoulder, placing a hand on the table to balance himself.
"Have you found something?" He asked, eagerly.
"A section on the Oracle of Wadjet," she explained. She hardly noticed him peering over her to read the section along with her. "Nothing right now that is new. Ah, right here! It says that they were approached by the common Egyptian people for advice on issues that they had. Most were basic, like how their crops would come in, or if they should marry so-and-so and whatnot. But it also says they were heavily believed to hold real psychic abilities, such as visions and the clairvoyant dreams. They would also hold visions?" Fallon tried reading some more and her hand began to shake again.
"Your hand is shaking," Ardeth observed. When she realized how close he was by peering over her shoulder, her breath caught in her throat and she took her hands and hid them under the table.
"I-I'm fine. Just...a little nervous is all," she stuttered, hoping he didn't hear.
"I can understand, the thought of a cursed mummified priest coming after you and your friends would make anyone nervous," he said blankly.
Fallon bit her lip. 'Thank you Mr. Optimistic.'
"Um, yes, it is rather unnerving."
"There is something else that is unnerving you," Ardeth noticed.
"Well..." Fallon trailed off. It would be extremely rude to tell him that he especially made her nervous. And she didn't want to admit to herself that she may now have an idea of why. She felt herself flush in the cheeks, heat rising to them and down her neck and throughout her torso.
"What is it?" He asked. All she wanted was for him to stop inquiring.
"It's nothing, I assure you-" Fallon began.
"It does not seem like nothing," Ardeth interrupted, concerned.
"My goodness, it's you! You make me nervous!" Fallon blurted, standing up from her chair. Silence.
"I make you nervous," he said, taking it in for a second.
"Yes! Now I don't think that's too hard to understand, I mean you did attack us while we were in Hamunaptra, we have some strange dream connection, you were there when my parents were murdered, you gave me my mother's diary for heaven's sake, and I thought you were the one who killed my parents, and you are also extremely attr-!" She slapped her hand over her mouth before she could say anything more. She was about to say something very dangerous that she knew she would never be able to take back once she said it.
"I'm also extremely what?" Ardeth asked.
Don't say 'attractive' was what she was thinking to herself. "Ummmm...attentive."
He squinted his eyes in thought. "Attentive?"
"To...details yes," Fallon tried to play. Much like you could probably tell that I'm lying.
"Alright, then. I apologize if I make you uncomfortable, but now is not the best time to be thinking about comfort. We have valuable information at our fingertips. Answers now, comfort later," Ardeth told her.
He was right. Fallon was being ridiculous. This wasn't the time to get distracted. She took a deep breath and nodded. "You're right, I'm sorry. Just...the nerves are getting to me. A lot has happened today and it's hard to concentrate on what really matters. Let's get back to serious matters." She sat back down and looked back down at the passages about the Oracle of Wadjet. "So...some questions that I have are: why would he have any interest in me? And how would he know that I'm the oracle?" Fallon asked, getting straight back to work.
Ardeth straightened himself, his eyebrows knitted together in thought. "I cannot say how he would know. I can imagine being in the underworld for over 3000 years would have an influence over how he would see things. But he also seems to know who opened the chest and where they are so that he may kill them. It has something to do with the curse. I'm certain if we search other ancient texts we may be able to find something. As far as why he would be interested in you, I'm sure it would be written there as well."
"Well, if the oracle really can have visions as this source says they can, then it is possibly means that the oracle can learn things about the future or certain events, be able to find things," Fallon mused.
"Find the Book of the Dead, find the Book of Amun-Ra," Ardeth pondered, with a sense of enlightenment.
"Why would he want the Book of Amun-Ra?" Fallon asked.
"If the Book of the Dead can give life..." Ardeth started.
Fallon's eyes widened. "Then the Book of Amun-Ra can take it away!"
"If he had the oracle he would be able to find it," Ardeth continued.
"And if he found it before anyone else then they wouldn't be able to use it as weapon against him," Fallon said.
"Because the Book of Amun-Ra can be used to kill him!" Ardeth finished.
AN: Thanks for reading everyone, and thanks for the wait! The next chapter will be of Kelly while Fallon and Ardeth are in the library. Please Favorite, Follow, and Comment!