Chapter Ten

Blinking rapidly, Lillian awoke. She felt something cold around her wrists and ankles and looked upwards, finding her wrists chained to an altar. She squeezed her eyes closed and refused to panic, as she turned her head slowly to her left and dared a peek at what lay next to her. She let out an involuntary shout of surprise, at the sight of another sarcophagus laying next to her. She could only guess that the mummy was what was left of Anck-su-namun.

She heard an explosion from somewhere near to her, but Lillian was soon distracted by the fact a circle of undead Egyptian priests had formed around the altar she was chained to and had begun to chant. Imhotep walked towards the altar, the Black Book of the Dead in his hands and a dry, serious look on his face. Lillian gulped, fearing that O'Connell might be a tad too late in saving her. She really didn't want to be a mummy. The whole idea did not appeal to her in the slightest.

"Anck-su-namun." Imhotep said, before caressing the decayed cheek of the long dead corpse of his mummified lover.

Lillian allowed herself to panic when he opened the book with Jonathon's key, which he hides back in his robes.

"O'Connell! Jonathon!" She shouted, pulling on her restraints, trying her best to break free. She knew that it was useless, but she wasn't going to die without trying.

Another explosion filled her with hope that her rescue party was still coming to save her, but Imhotep's chanting began to dissipate any hope that she had. Lillian turned her head to the left, and noticed, for the first time, pit just beyond the altar that was filled with a black kind of sludge. As Imhotep chanted an aura or spirit rose from the pit and soared over her and settled into the sarcophagus of Anck-su-namun, who promptly rose from the dead with a scream.

Lillian screamed in fear, as the undead mistress of Seti the First turned her head towards her, but looked above her. Lillian looked up, and tears pricked her eyes as Imhotep hovered above her with a knife in both hands.

"With your death, Anck-su-namun shall live," Imhotep murmured in Ancient Egyptian, and Lillian fought against her restraints once more, though her heart had sunken into her stomach. There was no escape for her now. "And I shall be invincible!"

He raised the knife above his head, and Lillian prepared herself for the inevitable blow that would end her life. Except…it never came.

"The Book of Amun-Ra! I found it, Lily! I found it!" Jonathon cheered, and Lillian let out a sigh of relief, yet something still niggled in the back of her mind. Where was O'Connell?

"The Book of Amun-Ra." Imhotep said, as he lowered the knife, leaving it beside Anck-su-namun's head and moved towards Jonathon.

"Shut up and get me off of here, Jon!" Lillian yelled at him, still not satisfied that Imhotep wasn't going to kill her now just because Jonathon was here, waving about a golden book. "Open the book. It's the only way to kill him. Do it, Jon! You have to open the book and find the inscription."

"I-I can't open it! It's locked with something!" Jonathon replied, loudly enough that his sister could still hear him, as he struggled with the book. He wished Evy had stayed with them instead of going with Ardeth. She could help him with this and he'd know that she was safe and alive. Yet he knew that she had made her choice, that she had somehow fallen in love with the Mejai leader and him with her and nothing was going to stop her from following him, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Shaking his thoughts away, he stared back down at the book before realisations sprung upon him. "We need the key, Lily!"

"It's inside his robes." Lillian shouted, before her attention was drawn away from her brother and to a leaping O'Connell, who launched himself over an undead priest and sliced down one of her manacles to release her arm.

"O'Connell!" She cheered, knowing now that she was going to be saved. For once, Lillian thought that being looked after was not such a bad thing.

Imhotep ordered the priests to attack O'Connell, in Ancient Egyptian, and Rick's attention was snatched away from Lillian and to protecting them from the mummies that were zeroing on him. As Lillian struggled with her remaining cuff, O'Connell fought off the priests with the ancient Egyptian sword he had stolen from a statue. Occasionally, he'd send a mummy flying over Lillian, and she'd grit her teeth as she tried to get her arm free to help him, feeling completely useless as she simply watched him defeat their enemy.

Rick looked at Lillian after he knocked one of the mummies' head off, and smirked at her.

"Mummies." He said, as if it was explaining something, and then raised the sword to cut down on the manacle on her arm…but he was pulled to the ground by a mummified priest with no lower body. The mummy pulled O'Connell towards its, and Lillian became almost frantic as she tried to escape. He couldn't reach his sword anymore, and he needed her help, especially when another half-mummy grabbed him around the shoulders.

"Look out!" Lillian warned, as she caught sight of a full mummy carrying a large, heavy stone tablet, clearly it's intention is to crush O'Connell underneath it. "O'Connell!"

Lillian used her free hand to grab her gun from its holster, and aimed it at the legs of the mummy, just as it raised the tablet to drop on O'Connell. She fired twice, one bullet for each leg. The bullets tear holes through the mummy-priest's thin legs, which cause it to teeter backwards and fall. Lillian laughed as the mummy is then crushed underneath the same tablet that could have killed O'Connell. Rick glanced up at her, and she smirked at him, before she shot the mummy clinging to his legs straight through the head, which allowed the American to escape.

O'Connell jumped to his feet, grabbing the sword from the floor, and bringing it down on her remaining shackles. Lillian quickly scrambled off the altar, thanking Allah and every other god there was for Rick O'Connell, and Rick grabbed her hand, ready to rush away. However, Jonathon read an inscription off of the book and the doors Lillian and Rick were headed towards swung open to reveal mummified soldiers of the undead, which marched towards them and stopped, holding their scythes and spears threateningly over their heads.

"This just keeps getting better and better." Rick commented, and Lillian silently agreed. They could not catch a break. She quickly checked her ammunition, and groaned when she realised she only had four bullets left.

"Jonathon, do something." Lillian said, as she and O'Connell backed away slowly.

"Me?"

"You can command them." Lillian replied, raising her gun with one hand and clutching at Rick with the other. She was slightly nervous. Men she could deal with. She was once forced to kill a man and managed to shoot him through the eye. These weren't men, or hadn't been men for a very, very long time. The rules were different in this situation, so she was holding on to her lifeline - otherwise known as Rick O'Connell - for dear life.

"You have got to be joking." Jonathon exclaimed in pure disbelief. His sister didn't really think that he could command an army of dead Egyptian foot soldiers, did she?

"Finish the inscription on the cover, you idiot, then you can control them." Lillian shouted at him. They were in a life and death situation, and her elder brother was trying her patience.

"Right." Jonathon replied, before disappearing behind a column.

Lillian and Rick continued to back away from the advancing mummified soldiers, until suddenly, they heard a shriek from behind them. Lillian jumped away from O'Connell, and just dodged an attack from the reanimated corpse of Anck-su-namun wielding the sacrificial knife.

Lillian ducked away from another slash of the knife, and raised her gun to fire at the undead female, but Anck-su-namun knocked the gun from her hand before she had the chance. Imhotep gave the order for the mummy soldiers to attack, which meant that Rick couldn't help her. She was on her own in this fight, which was something that she was used to. She heard Rick yelling at the mummies, but before she could see if it was him trying to intimidate them or if he was hurt, Anck-su-namun attempted to skewer with the knife.

Lillian tried to remember some of the combat training one of her fellow explorers had tried to give her, and somehow managed to kick the knife out of Anck-su-namun's hand, which filled her with confidence…until the mummy retaliated by grabbing her and throwing her across the room. Lillian scrambled to her feet, and darted away from the advancing mummy, trying to put some obstacles between them, like a wall.

"Hurry up, Jonathon!" Lillian practically begged, as she skirted round a corner to get away again.

"I can't figure out this last symbol!" Jonathon called to her, as she ran around a pillar only to get grabbed around the throat by Anck-su-namun.

"What does it look like?" She yelled, as she struggled to break free from the mummy's hold. She was surprisingly strong for a mummy who had just been resurrected.

"It's a-uh-a bird, a stork!" Jonathon announced, and Lillian racked her brain for the translation. She was finding it a little hard to think as Anck-su-namun attempted to crush her windpipe.

"A-a-ahmenophus!" Lillian choked out, hoping it would be loud enough for her brother to hear her, as she clawed at Imhotep's lover's hands around her throat. Just as she thought that Anck-su-namun might actually win the fight, Lillian remembered her knife that was strapped to her trousers. She let go of Anck-su-namun with one hand, and blindly reached for the knife. When she felt the handle, she squeezed her fingers around it tightly, pulled it out of its sheath, and shoved it upwards into Anck-su-namun's ribcage.

The mummy was surprised enough to let go of her, but Lillian couldn't do much but move a little ways away and cough as the air started to fill her lungs again. However, she was soon forced to her feet again, as she had unwittingly given the undead female a new weapon, and the mummy had grabbed her again, forced her to her feet, and Lillian was once again fighting to stop herself from being stabbed to death. Anck-su-namun had another choke grip on her, and was trying to plunge the knife down into Lillian's chest, but Lillian used her free hand to hold the knife back.

"Uh…Hootash im Ahmenophus!" Jonathon read aloud, which stopped the soldiers just before they killed O'Connell.

"Destroy him! I command you to destroy him!" Imhotep yelled at the soldiers, who had stopped their attack and were awaiting orders.

Lillian had pushed Anck-su-namun away from her, and had her back against a wall, but each time the undead woman tried to stab her, she managed to move out of the way until Anck-su-namun backhands her round the face and sends Lillian stumbling into the opposite wall.

Jonathon gave the order for the foot soldiers to attack Anck-su-namun, which sent hope soaring through Lillian's heart, but dread into the heart of Imhotep.

"Anck-su-namun!" He called, taking her attention off of Lillian and to the advancing soldiers. "Give me that book!"

Imhotep goes to attack Jonathon, but stops when he hears Anck-su-namun's scream. Lillian backed away from the scene in front of her; Anck-su-namun forced to the ground as the soldiers stabbed and sliced at her repeatedly until the reanimated corpse stopped moving once more.

Furious, Imhotep turned and angrily headed towards Jonathon, who had stupidly backed his way into a wall. Lillian grabbed her knife that had been knocked out of the re-dead hand of Anck-su-namun and replaced it in its sheath, as she headed to go help Jonathon. Imhotep had grabbed Jonathon and lifted him up by his throat, pinning him to the wall.

Without warning, Jonathon had been dropped to the ground, but Imhotep's arm was still around his throat. He shrieked and pushed it off. O'Connell had come to his rescue, and sliced the mummy's arm off, which didn't seem to bother it as much as one would assume. He simply looked at the American, like a cat would a pesky fly, and grabbed him and tossed him across the room, like he weighed no more than a feather.

Lillian watched in disgust as Imhotep picked up his arm and reattached it like nothing happened, as he headed towards O'Connell.

Jonathon climbed to his feet, spied his sister staring at the creature with a look akin to horror or revulsion.

"Lillian, I've got it!" He said proudly, holding the key up with one hand as he used the other to massage his throat.

Lillian rushed over to her brother, grabbed the key out of his hand and turned to look in O'Connell's direction.

"Keep him busy!" She told him, knowing her words would not amuse him at all, as he was thrown across the room again and into a stone pillar.

"No problem." Lillian barely heard him reply, as she unlocked the golden gilded book that Jonathon held in his arms. She yanked it open and immediately scoured it for the inscription that would take away Imhotep's immortality. She flipped the page, starting to panic for the American she had come to love, her eyes flickering every so often towards him to make sure he was still alive.

"Hurry, Lily, hurry!" Jonathon rushed her, as Lillian tried her hardest not to make a mistake in her panic.

"Jon, you're not helping." Lillian replied, her voice rising an octave as she watched Imhotep lift O'Connell in the air by his throat, squeezing the man's windpipe.

"Now it's your turn." She heard Imhotep say, before she found the inscription.

"I've got it!" She cheered happily. "Kadeesh mal! Kadeesh mal! Pared oos! Pared oos!"

Imhotep dropped O'Connell as they all heard a whip crack, and the ghostly spectre on a ghostly horse drawn chariot race towards Imhotep. Lillian watched with a smirk on her face, as Imhotep's immortality was painfully taken away and he chased after it, only to stop when he realised there was no use.

Rick stumbled to his feet, grabbing his discarded sword from before, and took a defensive stance in front of Lillian and her brother.

"I thought you said it was gonna kill him!" Rick almost growled, as Imhotep, furious at the loss of his immortality, marched towards them.

Imhotep snarled as he neared them, only to grunt pathetically as Rick drove the sword through his abdomen. He glanced down at the blade sticking out of him and at the blood coating his hands in confusion, as though he didn't realise that losing his immortality would leave him that vulnerable.

"He's mortal. He is as vulnerable as any man." Lillian explained.

Rick yanked the sword out of the mummy, and the three humans watched with wary, guarded expressions as the mummy stumbled backwards. Imhotep staggered back into the dark water that Anck-su-namun's spirit had risen out of, and sank down into it. The water seemed to eat away at his body, turning it back into the gooey, decayed flesh it had been when they had first seen him. Just before his head is decayed again by the water, he speaks in Ancient Egyptian, and then his head disappears beneath the surface of the pool.

"'Death is only the beginning'." Lillian translated for them, and they are all left with an uneasy feeling within them. Yet that is quickly beaten by the relief that they won. They won the battle and saved the world, but before they could enjoy that feeling the whole room seems to shake. All three of them look around the room and see the ceiling slowly descending…which would leave them trapped if they took too long too move out.

"Time to go!" O'Connell announced, grabbing Lillian's hand and pulling her along behind him, with Jonathon behind her.

Lillian hears Jonathon groan, and glanced back to see him on his hands and knees and the golden Book of the Living falling into one of the pools. Lillian ran back, and helped him to his feet.

"I can't believe you lost the book! Evy is going to murder you, Jon!" Lillian said, as Rick grabbed her arm again and yanked her forward again.

The trio raced through the passageways, ignoring the sand that rained down on top of them and ducked under a closing barricade, before they came into the treasure room. Lillian and Rick ignored the temptation of the sparkling jewels and the glittering gold, but Jonathon skidded to a halt. He spun slowly around in a circle, lamenting how much they could have, before Lillian and Rick ran back and grabbed one of his arms each.

"Couldn't we just-"

"No, Jonathon!" Lillian scolded him, as she and O'Connell shoved him forward up the stairs that led to the next room. They had to duck down a little to make it under one of the descending doorways, then having to dive into the next room into safety. Jonathon went first, and then pulled Lillian through, leaving O'Connell to slide in next.

"O'Connell!" He heard Beni shout, and he turned, laying on his stomach. "Wait!"

"Come on, give me your hand," He called to Beni, holding his own hand out, though he doubted that Beni would make it to the door in time. Beni dropped to his stomach, but the doorway closed and Rick had to pull his hand away. "Good-bye, Beni."

He scrambled to his feet, and ran after Lillian and Jonathon, who had waited just down the next passageway for him. Despite how much danger they were in, Rick did manage to notice the look of relief on Lillian's face as she saw him alive and barrelling down the passageway towards them.

He took her hand again and together with Jonathon, they rushed out of the entrance, only to have to duck and dodge the falling columns and archways and the sand falling away underneath their feet. They chased after the camels as Hamunaptra caved in on itself, and finally they stopped running to stare at the massive cloud of sand and dust that billowed upwards from the destruction and the ending of their whole ordeal.

They watched Hamunaptra sink into the ground, until Jonathon shouted in surprise, which, in turn, startled both Lillian and Rick. They spun round, thinking they had another enemy to deal with, but it was just Ardeth and Evy perched atop a camel…looking suspiciously happy, in Lillian's eyes at least.

"Ah, thank you very much." Jonathon said sarcastically, as he held a hand to his rapidly beating heart.

"You've earned the respect and gratitude of me and my people." Ardeth said to Jonathon, but his eyes were on Lillian and her narrowed eyes which seemed to be glaring at his arm around her sister's waist.

"Yeah, well it was nothing." Jonathon replied, faking modesty for once in his life.

"May Allah smile upon you always." Ardeth said, and went to bless them, but Lillian's voice ceased all movement on his behalf.

"Evy, what are you doing?"

"Oh, Lily, I spent so much of my life stuck in a library, reading scripture and memorising ancient texts…I didn't know what the real world was truly like. I read about all these fantastic ancient love stories, but I never dreamed of living one myself. You know what I mean, don't you?" Evy gushed to her elder sister, and saw her gaze soften, and Lillian caught herself looking over her shoulder at Rick.

"Yes…I know what you mean…but Evy, do you really know what you're getting yourself in to? Are the Mejai even allowed to love?" Lillian questioned, turning her gaze away from the American and back to her sister and her new love.

"The Mejai leaders are allowed wives, and I am a leader," Ardeth saw that Lillian still wanted to protest about Evy leaving with him, so he moved quickly to quench her fears. "I promise, my friend, I will never hurt her and she will be very protected with me and my people. No harm shall ever befall her."

Lillian still wanted to fight this. Evy was her little sister and ever since their parents had died, she had always babied Evy, treating her like something more precious than any of the jewels in all of Egypt, and she was, but Lillian realised that she needed to let Evy go and follow her heart. Lillian had followed hers her whole life, going off on adventures and now with Rick…she couldn't hold her sister back from what could be a once in a lifetime love.

"She will have to write to me all the time, and if I ever hear anything terrible has ever happened to her, even if it's a scraped knee or a tiny disagreement…I will not hesitate to hunt you down and hurt you in a way every man fears, Ardeth Bay. Do we have an understanding?" Lillian questioned, her eyes as hard as steel. All three men gulped and resisted the urge to protect a certain sensitive area that they all knew she was referring to.

Ardeth nodded, and Evy grinned down at her sister. Ardeth finally blessed them; he kissed his fingers, touched them to his forehead and then gestured to the trio on the ground.

"And…yourself." Jonathon replied, trying to mimic his action. Jonathon hadn't said anything about Evy leaving them to stay with Ardeth, because he knew it would be useless. Lillian and Evy were two of the most stubborn women on the planet, and once they set their minds to something, there was no changing them.

Ardeth clicked his tongue at the camel and steered it away from them, his arms still around Evy. Evy glanced back at them, over his shoulder, and waved goodbye to her family and friend.

"Yes, anytime!" Jonathon said.

"Stay out of trouble." Rick said to Ardeth's back, waving back at Evelyn.

"Don't forget to write!" Lillian called to her younger sister, who just grinned before turning round.

Lillian felt a slight heaviness in her heart as she watched her sister shrink in to the distance, but knew that Evy had made the right choice for her, and she respected that. Her sister was an adult and Lillian knew that it would have been a matter of time before she was dragged away from her books by some handsome man. Thinking on it, there was no one she trusted more with her sister than Ardeth. He was a strong, level-headed warrior who could protect her from anything. Her thoughts quashed any lingering doubt she had left, and Lillian found herself smiling at her sister's good fortune.

"They're just leaving us here," Jonathon moaned, before he looked back at the space where Hamunaptra used to stand. "I guess we go home empty-handed again."

"I wouldn't say that." Rick murmured, and Lillian looked up at him as she felt his gaze on her. His eyes stare deep in to hers, and Lillian felt her heart start to hammer in her chest.

"Oh, please." Jonathon says as he looks back at his sister and their American friend staring lovingly into each others eyes.

Neither of them seemed to hear him, however, and, almost hesitantly, they both leaned in and softly pressed their lips together. Lillian didn't bat his hand away, as he pulled her closer to him, the kiss remained soft and loving, very different from the first one all those days ago in a Cairo prison. She melted in to his embrace, wrapping her arms around his neck as they broke apart. Rick gently rubbed their noses together, the sweet action bringing a gentle smile to Lillian's face.

By the time the new lovers had finished with their intimate moment, Jonathon had already climbed up onto one of the camels and was waiting for them, more patient than Lillian had ever seen him. Rick climbed into the saddle of the remaining camel - all the others had scattered when Hamunaptra began to fall into the ground - and then pulled Lillian up into the seat in front of him. She smiled up at him, as the camel rose to its feet, and wrapped an arm around his waist. He grinned down at her, snapping the reins to push the camel forward, and caught her lips once more in a sweet, loving kiss as they 'rode' away together in to the sunset, none of them knowing that they hadn't left Hamunaptra as empty-handed as they thought.

A/N

Hey guys! Okay so this is the end of the first Mummy movie, but the story shall continue! We still have so much more to find out about Lillian's back story and her past life and her relationship with Rick. I hope you liked the twists in this chapter, and I hope you guys will continue reading now that I'm going completely off script. And...that's about it...I'm gonna stop rambling now.