Imhotep's Key Chapter
By Joseph Black
Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. If you recognize any other character they belong to their respective owners. Original characters belong to me. I make no profit off the following except to have a little fun.
Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.
Authors note 1: I am adjusting the Buffy time line slightly, this fic starts just after "Never Leave Me", moving things back about a month.
Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this '{} anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [] it's some ones thoughts.
Authors note 3: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.
Notes to Reviewers:
Antonio: Glad to be back! The answers to your excellent questions will be forthcoming.
Krismarief: I'll try.
BC1: Thanks!
Harry: The Mummy is coming. Dawn is around. I'll do my best.
Dorothy: Asking? In a BtVS story? The Giles, O'Connell, Medji meeting is coming.
Allen Pitt: Yeah that will be an interesting meeting.
PaBurke: You brought up some good points. Especially about Faith and the White House rules, she does have some balancing qualities though. And I'll try to remember to add a couple of more lines before the start of the story. Sorry about that.
Paladin Steelbreaker: Glad you liked the book. Try Sum of All Fears next. I hope you enjoy the 'training session'.
Joe: Oh yeah, too true.
Majin Gojiira: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.
warren: Buffy not being happy about Faith, oh yeah, you could say that.
StorytellerSJK: Thanks. I'm glad that what I'm writing is getting people to wonder what comes next. It gives me a good feeling.
John: Sorry John, I have other plans for them. There will be a lot of death and destruction though. Glad you liked the chapter.
ED: Yeah, I can truthfully say that she will be less than thrilled.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
Rachel Frazer came to with a start. Jonathan O'Connell was leaning over her with a broken ammonia tablet in his hand. "You okay?" He asked, real concern in his voice.
"Did I just discover that vampires are real?" She asked in a small voice.
O'Connell nodded.
"No," She said plaintively. She laid her head against the back of the couch she was on and stared at the ceiling. "How can vampires be real?"
O'Connell shrugged, "My family dealt with things Egyptian, there were already vampires by then."
Rachel noticed that she was the center of attention with seemingly everyone in the house gathered around to make sure she was okay. "Is she going to be staying on the couch all night?" A blonde in the background asked, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Anya!" a brunette teenager hissed.
"I should probably get her home," O'Connell said as he offered Rachel a hand to help her up.
An older man dressed in a sport coat nodded and said, "That would be a good idea, Lord knows when I found out it's what I wanted to do."
Clark went on as he started heading toward the door too, "I'll stop by tomorrow to talk about how we can cooperate with each other better."
O'Connell nodded as he was helping Rachel to the door and said to Clark, "Could you make the day after tomorrow? I have to go out and talk to the head of the school board and I'm not sure how long it'll take."
Seeing Buffy come up out of the basement he asked, "What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?"
Buffy thought about it for a second, "Nothing much. I'm working at the school till around 2 then I'm off."
"I have to go up and give your big boss a report, he had a break in on Friday night and an heirloom was stolen. We haven't been able to find it yet so I need to let him know personally."
Buffy followed the police officer and the psychologist to the front door and asked, "What do you need me for?"
"André de Vries is a powerful warlock and he has a reputation of not taking bad news well. Ordinarily in this situation I would just take the whole squad to keep things civil, however I think your presence would calm him down and we could avoid some unpleasantness."
Buffy nodded, "Is his place up around the National Park?"
"Yeah, why?" O'Connell asked turning to give her his full attention.
"Friday night a family got treed by a couple of shadow hounds. I helped get them down." Buffy explained.
"I'll have to remember to send Broadman a thank you card," O'Connell muttered putting two and two together. "How many hounds?"
"Four," Buffy replied as she opened the door.
"Too few for Vries," O'Connell thought out loud, "Maybe his apprentice though. We'll check it out tomorrow, it'll give us an excuse for you to be along anyway."
Buffy smirked, "Can't let him think you're scared of him can we?"
O'Connell nodded as he went out the door, "They smell fear and they'll chew your arm off."
Clark waited on the porch to make sure that they made it to their car then started down to his own car to head back to base so he could monitor the patrol. As he was walking down the walk to his car he heard from behind him, "General Clark got a second?"
Turning he saw that Xander had followed him out of the house. He held up and waited for him. "Can I ask you for a favor?" Xander asked as he got up to the other man.
"Sure, you might not get it though," Clark, replied.
Xander nodded that he understood, "To tell you the truth I thought I had lost most of what I had picked up that Halloween. So when WO Benton was testing me today I was surprised because it was like I was practicing skills that I used to know, but hadn't used for a long time. I'd like to train with your men and see if I can 'remember' any more."
Clark thought about it for a half second then said, "I don't have a problem with it, we usually start around 6:30 and go for an hour and a half. Can you do that with your job?"
"I'll have to talk to my boss, but I don't think he'll have a problem with it. He's been talking about putting on a split shift, so I could take the later one," Xander told the other man.
"Okay then I don't have a problem. What about Buffy though?"
"It's more Giles who has a problem with going to outside people for help," Xander said with disgust. "So I figure what he doesn't know won't hurt me. And I have a feeling we're going to need the extra skills."
Clark couldn't argue with that and head for his car. Xander meanwhile turned and went back into the house. Inside he found Buffy being introduced to the Rainbow Troops that would be going with them. Ding saw him come in and introduced him to Ettore and WO Price.
"Only two new guys?" Xander asked.
Ding nodded and explained, "Tonight we are going to be showing the squad leaders around, Kenshin will take over for Pete till he's back on duty, and it turns out that Ettore has experience with this kind of stuff," Ding explained.
Buffy joined them and asked, "Exactly where did he pick that up?"
"You heard the lady Ettore!" Ding ordered the trooper. "Tell the lady how you know about the supernatural."
Ettore nodded and began. "I am not a member of my country's military. I am a member of the Carabinieri; it is our version of your FBI. In Italy the demonic is mostly fought by the Vatican, they have a special group they call the Cestus Deus that handles such things. They however are not set up to deal with large quantities of foes, so when such happens they come to us for help. I have assisted in two raids. I have heard of the Slayer Signorina Summers and it is an honor to meet you."
"Flattery will take you far with me Ettore," Buffy smiled at the tall Italian, who returned the grin.
Turning back to Ding she asked, "What do you want to do tonight? There are no fledglings rising so I was just going to wander through town and see if anything was going on."
Ding nodded, "That sounds good, if you could take us past the local hotspots that would help."
"Works for me, " Buffy said as she started up the stairs. Just give me a minute to grab some stuff and we'll head out." As Buffy was heading up stairs she took a good look at the commandos and not seeing any visible weapons asked, "Aren't you guys a little under equipped?"
Ding smiled and opened up his jacket. Under his left armpit was the butt of the second biggest handgun Buffy had ever seen. Under his right was what looked like a couple of extra clips for it. Ding lifted up the back of his sport coat and showed where he had three stakes made from one inch doweling. He let the coat slip back down and pulled a crucifix and a bottle of holy water out of his coat pockets.
Buffy nodded approvingly, but frowned at the sight of the gun, "You really need to get out of the gun habit Ding. Especially on a patrol; you start relaying on them and they'll let you down just when you need them most."
"We don't have your abilities Buffy. While the guns won't stop most of these things they can cripple them enough so they are easier for us to deal with. Once we've trained with you some more we might change out our weapon mix. Until then we'll stick to what we've trained with."
Buffy lips thinned and she headed upstairs.
1627
Revello Dr.
Sunnydale CA
28Oct2002
2025 hrs
Anck-su-namun eased herself into the churning tub with a sigh. The oils she had added tickled her nose pleasantly and the gel pillow that she had warmed in the microwave soothed her neck. She closed her eyes and basked in the decadence. Seti had nothing to match this in his entire kingdom. The only thing missing was the servants and slaves that should have been preparing this for her. But when she brought her love back that little oversight would be seen to.
She opened her eyes and for a moment thought she was still in the midst of her daydream because her love was standing just inside the door looking down upon her naked form. When she realized she wasn't she exploded out of the tub, managing to keep her feet under her despite the water and the bath oil coating them. She went down on her knees with her face to the floor hands outstretched flat on the tile, "{Forgive me my lord, I wasn't expecting you}," She said in ancient Egyptian.
Imhotep smiled down at his lover and said, in English, "That was impressive, could you do it again?"
Anck-su-namun's head came up off of the floor quickly, anger blazed in her eyes, "My lord will punish you for usurping his form," She hissed.
"Since he's in Hell, where you sent him I might add, I doubt he'll find out," The faux Imhotep replied.
Anck-su-namun got up from the floor; deliberately she went to the light blue robe flung over a chair next to the tub and started putting it on. The way she did it was to show the entity in the room that she was not ashamed of her body, rather that it had no right to gaze upon it. When the robe was tide she turned to her visitor and asked, "What do you want?"
Imhotep cocked his head at the reincarnated Egyptian woman, "Is all as I said it would be?"
Anck-su-namun nodded, "So I have found it."
"Then I am here for the first part of my payment," Imhotep replied.
"First part?" Anck-su-namun repeated, not liking the sound of that.
"This is a minor thing, certainly it does not repay giving you the key," Imhotep smirked when he said that, "to releasing your love from Hell."
Frowning Anck-su-namun asks through gritted teeth, "What do you wish?"
Imhotep's form began morphing, it shrank, blonde hair sprang forth and flowed down off of it's head, the facial features became finer, and the loin cloth that Imhotep was wearing grew and changed color to become a pair of black slacks and a brown sweater with a wide neck. "Do you know who this is?" The creature asked waving both hands down it's front to emphasize what she was talking about.
"The Slayer," Anck-su-namun spat, angry at being treated like a child at show and tell.
"She is to survive, she may be harmed, but she must live. The others I care not for, but the Slayer lives."
"She will be my greatest opponent, I can't guarantee that I will be able to keep her alive," she protested.
"See that you do, you wouldn't like what happens if you default to me," The faux Buffy replied as she vanished.
Anck-su-namun seethed, she looked at the tub but decided that she wouldn't be able to relax enough to enjoy it, so instead she jumped into the shower to get the bath oils off. When that was done she stormed out of the bathroom. She would be ready when the time came.
Main Street
Sunnydale CA
28Oct2004
2215 hrs
So far the patrol had been a bust. The high point for excitement so far was when Ding had presented Buffy with an encrypted radio like the Rainbow guys used and explained how to use it. Other than that they had wandered through a couple of the towns many cemeteries with nothing to show for it. Buffy decided to take them past The Bronze and if nothing was going on there, she would call it a night.
Buffy was walking along with Ding on one side of her and Riley on the other. WO Price and Xander were behind them with Kenshin and Ettore bringing up the rear. Buffy had begun thinking of it as the Great Patrol Parade. She was just about to suggest that tomorrow when they went out it might not be a bad idea if the others stayed back a bout a block when Ding asked, "It just accord to me, Halloween is three days away. How bad does it get?"
Buffy smirked, "We'll just stay away from costume shops and frat parties and we'll do okay."
Ding confused asked, "Come again?"
Buffy was about to explain when a shout of pain came from an alleyway up ahead. Buffy took off running with the commando's in hot pursuit. She rounded the corner and realized she was in the alley behind the Bronze. Three vampires, two males and a female dressed in club clothes had a couple of big beefy guys in UCSD sweatshirts up against the wall. One of the males was about to take a bite when the female slapped him. "The Master needs them unspoiled. He wanted them big and stupid, I think these qualify."
"Hey!" one of the victims said indignantly. "I'm pulling down honors grades!"
The female smiled, "Maybe you'll get to be an officer then."
Buffy tsked loud enough for them to hear her, when they turned she shook her head, "Both of those look like football players, and you're keeping them out past curfew, you should be ashamed of yourselves."
The other male vampire smiled, "Slayer. The Master thought you might come along so he sent some help." The vampire snapped his fingers and about twenty vampires appeared, climbing out from behind boxes and dumpsters, and coming around the corner of alley. "Looks like you could use some help," the vampire smirked.
Buffy smirked right back, "Got some."
Buffy threw her first stake, she wasn't trying for a kill rather she wanted to distract the vampire that was holding on to both of the victims. He was distracted when the stake impacted the middle of his forehead and penetrated. Both of the football players used skills learned on the gridiron to break the grip of the vampire and started down the alley toward Buffy.
To avoid the panicked kids Buffy leapt up to bounce off of the wall. She hit about eight feet up the wall and used the kick off to aim at the female member of capture team. Her aim was true and she took the female vamp down. Grabbing a stake out of her jeans she staked the vampire and rolled to a standing position facing the crowd of vamps that was heading down the alley. She staked the undistracted member of the capture team with a casual backhand stab.
Riley came around the corner running, then, surprisingly the next one around was Ettore Falcone. The tall Italian's long legs gave him a little bit of an edge over the others. As he entered the ally he raised his weapon. The Desert Eagle he had been issued for tonight was a lot bigger than what he normally liked to use. On the other hand the first time he had gone in with the Cestus Deus they hadn't said anything about 9mm being a little light in the stopping power department for what they were likely dealing with. Fortunately he had also been handed a SPAS-12 for that raid so it hadn't been a total disaster. He saw the two football players at the same time they saw him with the monster handgun so they hit the ground diving, both of them figuring a couple of scrapes from sliding along the alley would be a minor price to pay. As soon as they were clear Ettore fired three times in two seconds. All three rounds punched into a separate vampire right below the point of their chin. The big .50 cal slugs punched through their throats and blew apart their spinal columns causing all of them to crumble into dust. The two coming in right behind them were caught by surprise, as they suddenly became the front line. One went down to a quick thrust by Buffy while the other got a face full of holy water from Riley who had not stopped when Ettore lined up for his shots.
Eddie Price and Kenshin came around the corner next; Kenshin had his sword out and was heading down the center of the alley at full speed. Seeing that the left side of the alley was full of Riley and with Kenshin in the center, WO Price moved to the right side. There hadn't been enough of the Desert Eagles to go around so WO Price had opted to carry one of the standard 10mm Heckler & Koch pistols. Training took over so when Buffy moved to stake the vampire exposed by Ettore he fired three rounds into one of the lead vamps on his side of the alley. Two into the chest, and one into the head, if the target had been human it would have been dead, but the vamp was just knocked back a little. It locked eyes with the British commando and smiled, the smile promising awful things. He stopped smiling when Ding came up beside his senior NCO and put a half-inch slug through the vampire's nose. "Legs only with a 10mm Eddie," Ding reminded him as he went back to his radio, "John we need back up. We're in an alley in 300 block of Main St. multiple vamps!"
Buffy plowed forward into the group of six or so vamps fists and feet flying. She managed to take three down with her charge and was trading blows with the other three when Kenshin arrived. They immediately went back to back with Buffy having a stake out and Kenshin doing what he could with his sword.
Riley went after the vamp he had sprayed and quickly staked him, then finished off the vampire Buffy had distracted. Seeing that he would probably just get in the way of either Buffy or Kenshin if he got involved in the fight going on in the center of the alley he dropped back with Ettore to cover Xander as he got the two victims out of the of there.
Ding and WO Price meanwhile were standing at the end of the alley with their guns drawn waiting for opportunities to shoot. In the first couple minutes of the fight several vampires tried to work their way around the fighting duo in the center of the alley. They rapidly found out that that was a good way to get shot. The right side of the alley wasn't too bad, as they usually just got hit in the legs. Annoying, but not instantly lethal. The left side of the alley was a different story. Ettore took up position at the end of the alley and just waited for shots. Riley, after seeing Ettore take down another three vamps said to him, "If you run out of ammo you can use mine." Ettore nodded as he took down his seventh vamp of the night.
The fight was over seconds after that with Buffy staking the last of the vamps she and Kenshin were fighting. A couple was seen running out the other end. A couple of seconds later a SUV pulled up with Osa Sticking up through the moon roof with his M60 down along his leg. Clark jumped out of the passenger side of the vehicle with a Remington 870 in hand. "What's the sitch?"
Ding was just staring into the alley. Buffy was calmly walking out brushing the dust off of her black duster. Looking up she smiled, "John! Nice night!"
Clark looked at his son-in-law and asked, "Where are the vampires?"
Buffy answered, "Three or four got away out the other side of the alley, if you hurry you might catch them. Clark looked at Cory Unger who was driving and nodded down the street. Osa lifted up the M60 and laid it on the roof of the Explorer as they headed down the street.
"Can we go now?" One of the football players asked.
"You okay?" Ding asked recovering.
They looked at each other and nodded.
"Price, Ettore, why don't you see them home?" Ding ordered. Then looking at the two young men he said, "It might be better if you didn't mention this to anyone."
"Mention what?" The one that had identified himself as an honor student replied.
A Sunnydale police car pulled up with the Pete Hill and Bob Lee inside, "What happened?" Pete, who was driving, asked.
Buffy walked up to the patrol car. "We got jumped, you might want to watch tonight if you get a report of a vamp attack, it might be a set up."
Pete's lips thinned, "Okay, I'll pass it on. You guys need any help?"
Ding shook his head, "Nah, we're good."
Pete just nodded and pulled off down the street.
Ding turned back to Buffy and asked, "Is that normal?"
Buffy who was trying to get a blood spot off of her leather coat glanced up and said, "No, I don't remember the last time I ran into that many vamps at one time. Thanks for the assist, that would have been nasty if you guys hadn't been around."
Kenshin had finished cleaning his blade and homed it, he replied for the rest when he said, "No. Thank you Buffy sama, for helping us to learn what we need to know."