Imhotep's Key Chapter 13
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.
Authors note 4: In the American Civil War the Union and Confederates often had different names for the same battle.
Notes to Reviewers:
Croaker: Yes it could refer to ol' Ripper couldn't it.
Dorothy: I hope there will be some surprises with the prophecy. You can defiantly have some fun writing Riley.
Joe: You are a very perceptive person. Sorry no Dawn/Stargate in this fic. You'll have to go over to 'She Meant Everywhere' for that.
Allen Pitt: No SGC in this fic. Also drat budget concerns. Buffy vs Dragon would have been awesome. Hank should be showing up either next chapter or the one after.
Paladin Steelbreaker: Thanks for the complement for my writing. Prophecies are fun! Of course there will be surprises.
Harry: You have a good point; I think it might be a little easier to secure her in those places though. Of course all things considered I doubt it would be much of an inconvenience to either of them.
Antonio: Thanks for the review. The answer on the invisibility ray and other trinkets they have collected will be answered in a future chapter.
War90: Ginger is a multipurpose dog, as will be explained.
JA Baker: Promise, no SG-1 riding to the rescue.
Duchess67: I'd already had Xander abuse Riley enough. But you are right, it was defiantly a Xander line.
Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.
"Dawn!" Buffy said, clearly annoyed.
Dawn turned to her sister, "What? We were going to have to tell them eventually anyway and you would have just danced around it for the next hour."
Buffy scowled at her younger sibling.
"What exactly is this Key?" Clark asked hoping to stop a sibling spate before it got started.
"The Key is an ancient magical artifact that drops the barriers between dimensions," Giles began as he took off his glasses and started cleaning the lenses.
"We believe that Anck-Su-Namun will use the Key to pierce the barrier around Hell and release the Creature," Ahmed Bey explained.
"It can do that?" Ding asked.
"Oh, easily, the problem is it's not selective. It will drop all dimensional barriers everywhere. The portal would continue to spread and eventually all would fall to chaos."
"If it would destroy the world why would she use it?" Clark asked perplexed as he considered Dawn.
"She may believe that she can control it, or that she can close the portal after she recovers Him," Ahmed postulated. "Unlike her other incarnations, this time she is a mage of no small power."
"This keeps getting better and better," Xander muttered.
"Back to my original question," Riley stated, "When, did this happen?"
"About the time that we fought Dracula, we've never been able to pin it down closer than that," Buffy told him. "The monks that guarded the Key knew that Glory was getting close and they decided that I would have the best chance against her so they stuck it into something they knew I would defend. The way they did it meant that Glory couldn't detect it which is why she was ripping up the town."
"That doesn't work," Sam Finn said. All of the Scoobies turned as one and stared at her.
"What do you mean it doesn't work?" Clark demanded.
Sam licked her lips at the sudden scrutiny and nodding in apology to Buffy and Dawn said, "A human body couldn't hide an artifact of that power, it would be like trying to hide a search light with mosquito netting. Anyone with the sight would know at glance that there was something there. Since Glory knew what she was looking for the first time she laid eyes on Dawn she would of known, unless…," Sam looked up quickly at Dawn with a look of shock and wonder in her eyes.
It was all Buffy could do to stop from launching herself at Riley's wife. Willow narrowed her eyes, Xander shifted so he could defend Dawn better and Spike moved out of the doorway until he was directly behind Dawn glaring at the non Scoobies in the room.
"Unless?" Clark asked impatiently, ignoring the Scoobies' defensive posturing.
"Unless the vessel was constructed explicitly to hide the Key," she finished quietly.
"That's impossible Sam," Riley told his wife. "I knew Dawn for weeks before we ran into Dracula."
Samantha Finn turned to her husband and shook her head sadly, "No hon, you only think you did."
"SHE, IS, MY, SISTER," Buffy said with a fierce determination. "You aren't doing anything to her."
Clark turned back to the Slayer, surprise on his face, "Do anything? What do you mean?"
"It doesn't matter how she got here, she my sister," Buffy replied in the same dangerous tone.
"Listen to me Buffy," Clark began, motioning with his hands to his men, who had begun to ready themselves in response to what the Scoobies were doing. "We aren't going to do anything to Dawn beyond trying to protect her. You're right, it doesn't matter how she got here, she's here. If you are ready to put your life on the line for her, that's good enough for me."
All of the others in the room nodded.
O'Connell cleared his throat. When everyone was paying attention to him he began, "My sister Meredith is researching the ceremony they will perform and as soon as she gets something she'll give us a call. Meanwhile why don't we sit down together and start discussing how we are going to cover Dawn."
"We got some Egyptian manuscripts in right before the Magic Box was destroyed," Anya said. "I think some of them might be on Seti the First so they might have info on this Imhotep guy or what's her name. Could someone go with me? I really don't want to run into Crudge by myself."
Willow got up, "I'll go with you. It's my fault the stuff is up there anyway."
"Be careful," Giles told the women as they collected their purses and where heading out the door.
Clark thought about calling the base and having Benton and a couple of the men meet them at the storage site, but with Willow there they would probably just be in the way.
The group moved to the dining room after Ding went out to their rental and returned with maps of Sunnydale, Sunnydale High School and it's surrounding area.
There was some friction at first when Giles pointed out that they really didn't want a strong military presence around the house to which Clark had suggested they tell the newly arrived Potentials that since there was a Hellmouth to contend with the US Government kept troops in the area to cover it. Giles hadn't looked happy but Clark was right. Plus there was no way that they would be able to completely hide the Rainbow troops so that explanation worked.
They were just starting to discuss the best way to approach Robin Wood, the principle of the High School, about the possibility of stationing some people in the school when O'Connell's cellphone went off. Deciding that there was too much noise in the dining room he moved off into the kitchen.
"Andrea will have some ideas how to do this," Clark said, almost to himself. There were alarms going off that told Clark he was missing something, he just couldn't see what it was.
"Andrea? Price?" Buffy asked.
"Hmm?" Clark asked distractedly. "Andrea Price will be here in a couple of hours, she wants to talk to Willow."
"And you are just mentioning it now?" Buffy asked, as she looked around at the state the house was in.
"Sorry, I meant to tell Willow when we got here but I was sidetracked by Ahmed and the Medji.
Buffy made a command decision. "Kennedy? Grab Annabelle and Molly and see what you can do with the downstairs."
Kennedy opened her mouth to make a comment, but Molly just grabbed her sister potential's arm and drug her toward the living room.
O'Connell came out of the kitchen with a smile on his face.
Xander noticing asked, "What's got you in such a good mood all of a sudden?"
"We caught a break," O'Connell said, "She's after the wrong thing." That got everyone's attention. "They have a flawed translation. Dawn's not off the hook, but if they get her they won't be able to bring Imhotep back."
"Well that's something I guess," Dawn said, not seeing the bright side.
Clark had to agree with her; after all they could still end the world if they activated this Key thing, hardly a better option.
"What do they need if it's not The Key?" Sam Finn asked.
O'Connell took out his not book and opening it he stared at the page for a minute, turned the book sideways and finally up side down. Shaking his head, he shrugged, "I can't pronounce it, but Meredith says that it's a witch that's preformed a resurrection." He shrugged again, "How many of those can there be around?"
123 Front Street, apartment 254
Raleigh NC
29Oct2002
1750hrs
"Wait a minute," Diggs said looking at the prophecy again. "Are you telling me that when you translated this thing it rhymed?"
Cindy nodded, "First time I finished it I thought my student advisor was having some fun with me so I thought I'd have some fun with him so I got in touch with the Vatican Library to see if I could have someone send me a copy of the original in Hebrew. I translated that one and that's what I got."
"Did you pick this out yourself?" Diggs asked.
Cindy shook her head, "My student advisor suggested it. He knew it had been translated from Hebrew into Greek, then Latin, and from Latin into German and French. Since no one had ever done an English translation I wouldn't be able to cheat on the translation."
Diggs was impressed, "You speak all of those languages?"
Cindy smiled and shook her head again, "No, I can read Hebrew, Latin and French. I swapped out with another student for the Greek and German."
Diggs sat there with a frown on his face.
"What are you thinking Mary?" Eddington asked.
""That stuff that looks to good to be true usually is," Diggs replied.
Cindy looked indignant, "Are you saying I'm trying to set you up?"
Diggs held up his hands, "Not you specifically. I'd like to talk to this advisor, see where he got this thing from."
Mollified Cindy went and got her organizer out of a desk drawer.
"Billingsly would have to be one subtle planner if he stuck something like that on Cindy, just on the odd chance you'd talk to her."
Diggs nodded his agreement; "The problem is that Billingsly isn't the only player in this one. There's this thing that calls itself The First Evil. From what I gather it's capable of this kind of subtlety."
There was a thump and both Diggs and Eddington turned to where Cindy was standing, her hands to her mouth, her organizer on the floor, "The First is in Sunnydale?" She asked quietly.
"You've heard of it?" Diggs questioned.
Cindy barely nodded, "Only very quiet rumors, it's not talked about. I can ask around, but when people look into the First, well bad things tend to happen to them."
"We have some locals that deal with this stuff. If you have anything on this thing bring it. They might appreciate it."
Cindy nodded, "I may have some things." She leaned down and grabbed the organizer off of the floor. She opened it and put the book in front of Diggs.
"His name is John Running-Bear," She said pointing to one of the entries. "He's Canadian, About three months ago he got a position at the University of Ottawa. His mom lives near their main campus and she's not doing well. He wanted to be close incase she needed anything."
Diggs copied the info into his notebook. He'd pass it on to Secretary Brentano and see what he could find out about this guy. This could be crucial information but it was just too good to be true.
Eddington had been thinking on this as Diggs was getting the information from Cindy. He wanted to doubt it too, but, "You know Mary," he said, "we could be looking at a cigar wrapper."
Diggs started, "Antietam?" He asked.
"Sharpsburg," Eddington agreed.
"Do you want to try that again in English rather than Militarieese?" Cindy requested.
"Its shocking the state of education in our country Col. Eddington," Diggs said in a mock disgusted tone.
"It is indeed Gen. Diggs," Eddington agreed sadly.
"Yeah, Yeah," Cindy replied in a mock cross tone, "you know I majored in Languages not History."
Eddington took pity on his niece, "In the fall of 1862 Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Maryland with intent of forcing it out of the Union. There were strong secessionist feelings in the eastern part of the state around Baltimore so it was hoped there would be a fair amount in the west as well. If they succeeded then Washington D.C. technically wouldn't even be in the US anymore. It was further hoped that such a victory would bring recognition from the European powers of the Confederacy. The problem was that the Army of Northern Virginia was a lot smaller than the Army of the Potomac, the Union's main force in the area. So Lee came up with a plan, he would split his forces up and try to draw the union commander, General George McClellan into doing the same. He would then bring his forces together at a predetermined point and time and hopefully be able to crush a portion of the separated Army of the Potomac evening the odds. Because of the careful timing involved Lee wrote out his orders to make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do. Unfortunately for the South one of the copies of the order was lost, then even worse it was found by a union soldier who recognized what it was and passed it up the chain."
Diggs took up the narrative, "McClellan had in his hand what every general dreams of, a complete roster and time table of the other side. He knew where every unit of the enemy was, and more importantly where they were going to be."
Cindy had retaken her seat as her Uncle began, she frowned and turned to Diggs, "Uncle Nick said this was 1862, if he had this information why did the war last three more years?"
"McClellan outsmarted himself. He believed that Lee outnumbered him. He convinced himself that the order that had been found was deliberately planted and that Lee was waiting to pounce with the rest of his forces as soon as he was fully involved with the forces listed in the orders so he kept a good portion of his own force in reserve, in doing so he turned what could have been the decisive battle of the Civil War into a marginal Union victory."
"Okay but what do cigar wrappers have to do with that?"
"The orders that were found were wrapped around some cigars," Eddington finished.
"So what Uncle Nick was saying was, 'Sometimes you get lucky?'" Cindy asked.
"Or don't disbelieve something just because it's exactly what you need," Diggs replied.
"How soon will you be available Cindy?" Diggs asked.
"Give me twenty minutes and I'm yours. I can call school and let them know I won't be back. Trankard will probably turn cartwheels."
"What about Granny's library? Eddington asked. "Aren't you going to need it for research?"
Cindy smiled and reaching down pulled a metal briefcase out from beside her chair. She set it on the table and popped the latches. Inside there was a laptop and about one hundred CDs in individual holders. "My project last summer was to set up a database with Granny's library. It took me almost two months but I got over ninety percent of it on file in the laptop. The disks are the back up."
Why didn't you get the rest?" Diggs asked.
Cindy was on her way back into her bedroom. Turning back to the General she said, "There are some books that aren't meant to be read General, Gran had a couple of those. I didn't want to find out if scanning equals reading."
1630 Revello Drive
Sunnydale CA
29Oct2002
1800 hrs
Buffy was heading for the door almost before O'Connell was finished speaking. Clark was perhaps half a heartbeat behind her reaching for his cell phone. The Scoobies where in motion almost as one with Riley and Sam Finn moving at the same time. The others in the room where looking confused but the three potentials came out of the living room when they heard the movement and slotted in with the rest.
"Judging by the reaction, one," O'Connell answered his own question in a disgusted tone. He started moving with the rest of the Rainbow people and reached for his radio. "Break, Break, Break," He barked into the receiver. "This O'Connell I am declaring a Code Crimson, I say again, Code Crimson."
"All units, we are at Code Crimson, go ahead Lieutenant," the voice of the dispatcher said.
"Buffy!" O'Connell called as Buffy was heading out the door, "Where are they?"
"Secure Store," Xander called over his shoulder.
Clark stopped as he came to the door; turning to O'Connell he cocked an eyebrow at him.
"It's at the junction of Route 46 and 14," he told him.
Clark nodded his head and started out, "Benton get the men loaded up and head to the Secure Store at Route 46."
Thumbing his radio O'Connell barked into his radio, "I need any unit in the vicinity of the Secure Store facility to respond there. They are to locate Willow Rosenberg and Anya Jenkins and place them into protective custody. Rosenberg is 5'5, has red hair and is wearing a brown peasant blouse. Jenkins is 5'6" and is wearing a blue and white top with blue jeans. Officers are not to allow anyone but me to approach them. Anyone who does not obey instructions to keep their distance is to be considered armed and dangerous. I am eight minutes out."
Mendi was waiting in the car outside with the motor running in case a quick exit had been required. He had heard the Code Crimson so he had the car in gear and waiting for the Lieutenant and Ahmed to pile in. As soon as they did he pealed out with the Siren blaring.
Buffy, Xander, Dawn, Giles and the potentials managed to fit in Xander's SUV. Xander got it going and put it into gear then waited.
"What are you waiting for?" Buffy almost screamed, "Go!"
"I'm waiting for O'Connell," Xander told the Slayer. Before Buffy could say anything O'Connell's car peeled out of its space siren blaring. "With the siren he can clear the road better than me just running people off of the road," he said as he threw the car into gear and tore off after the speeding police car.
The other cars where right behind them. Clark, Ding, Alistair, and Pete were in the lead car, Riley and Sam in the car behind. Clark was back on the phone to their Helicopter Pilot, CWO4 Carl 'Badger' Cole, to get him in the air. After a moment he cursed and started dialing again.
"What?" Ding asked, never taking his eyes off of the road.
"That was Badger, our chopper's fuel pump started acting up on the way up to Fort Irwin. I need to find out if we can borrow one of the 11th Armour Cav's," He explained to Ding. "This is General John Clark, I need to speak with Col. Hamm immediately please," he said into the phone.
In the lead vehicle O'Connell wasn't giving anyone a break. He didn't actually hit anyone, but there were some very close calls. They were three minutes out when over the radio came, "This is Car Ten we are at the gate of Secure Store," The cops voice lost its bored tone thou when the next thing out of the radio was, "We are under fire! Car is disabled we are taking cover!" The next message was worse, "Officer down, Murphy's been hit, I'm pinned and can't reach him!"
Mendi grabbed the mike and keying it said, "We're a minute out Richards, hang on!"
"I'm not planning any long walks!" the replay came back.
The convoy came around the corner and O'Connell quickly looked the storage site over. Like most of its ilk there was a chain link fence surrounding the property with double strands of barbwire strung along the top. There were two entrances, the main one, which let out onto Route 46, and a back gate that led onto a service road. There were four lines of lockers, more like small garages strung together with an office/apartment for the on site manager located at the front of the lockers. There was a white van parked in front of the office with several red turbaned figures loading something limp and red headed into the back of the van. There were perhaps twenty of the turbaned figures in doorways or behind over turned trash cans that were pouring fire into the Sunnydale PD car that was parked across the gate. Both doors of what was left of the cruiser were open; the driver hadn't gotten two steps before he had been hit. He was lying partially under the car and O'Connell could see the blood pooling under the body. The front of the car was so pot marked with bullet holes that it was starting to become difficult to know what the original paint scheme was.
The turbaned shooters switched targets before they could even come to a stop. Mendi turned into the fence a hundred feet before the gate and managed to knock down two segments before the wire of the fence got caught up into the wheels and locked them. O'Connell unlocked the shotgun form the dash and fired a couple of rounds off to keep heads down as he, Mendi and Ahmed ducked to the back of the SUV. Mendi had popped the trunk from inside and pulled out two FN-Fals batte rifles. Handing one to Ahmed they started peppering the office to keep the bad guys heads down.
Xander pulled off the road on the opposite side from the storage before piling out thankful that so far no one had marred the paint on his vehicle, bullet holes were so hard to explain to bodywork people. The others poured out of other side of the vehicle. Buffy turned to Dawn and the potentials and said, "Stay here, and stay down." Xander moved to the back of the Explorer and opening the trunk pulled out a battle axe and handed a second to Buffy.
Ding pulled in back of O'Connell, but kept his vehicle paralleling the road forming a 'T' with O'Connell's jeep. Reaching behind the seat he took his Marlin that Pete handed him. After his encounter with the group of vamps the night before he had decided that the Marlin was going with him anywhere he could bring it. Pete also passed over the bandoleer with the thumb-sized cartridges for the gun. He then followed Alistair and Clark out of the doors. Clark pulled the Desert Eagle out of its shoulder holster and began returning fire with both arms extended using the hood of the Suburban as a brace. Both Alistair and Pete were both armed with 10mm pistols so the range was a bit far for them they got down and waited if the bad guys rushed them.
Riley pulled in behind Ding and he and Sam both popped out of her side of the car as it started taking fire immediately with round holes popping up in the front fender and windshield. They slid to the back of the sedan and opened the trunk. Riley reached in and pulled out two MP-5's and handed one to his wife. They moved back to the front of the Lumina and using the engine block for cover started to return fire on Anck-Su-Namun's people.
Anck's troops had a mix of AK-47s and some kind of submachine guns. While the Marlin wasn't that long ranged of a gun, the ranges they were shooting at were well within its capabilities. His first two shoots dropped two of the other side. The leader of the group, who Ding realized was a black haired woman turned and looked in his direction. She reached into the van and pulled out a vase of some type. Ding was just lining up the shot on her when she plunged her hand into it and pulling out some dust flung into the air and pointed at the rescue party. The dust whirled around and then settled into a bunch of humanoid forms, brown, wearing some kind of bronze armor and armed with swords. She said something else and the figures started loping over the ground at an astonishing speed. Anck-Su-Namun climbed into the van and it started toward the gate. Ding heard Buffy yell something like, "I got the van!" as she took off across the field. Ding cursed and screamed, "Mad Minute!" As he fired off the last three rounds in his rifle as fast as he could work the action at the turbaned bad guys that were trying to hit Buffy as she tore across the field trying to intercept the van. The others hearing his call did the same.
As Ding dropped down to reload he caught sight of the mummies that Anck had summoned, at least he thought that was what they were, barreling across the open grass that surround the storage lockers and felt betrayed. Mummies, anytime he had seen them in the movies were always these slow shambling things. These things, and there were at least ten of them, where coming with all of the power and grace of an Olympic hurdler. As he thumbed a couple rounds into the chamber of his rifle he hoped they had lied about how bullet resistant these things were too.
Buffy heard a couple of bullets come close, but nothing touched her. As she neared the far fence three figures suddenly rose up in front of her. Two where armed with some kind of gun, they were sliver and the stooges held them in both hands. Both of them started shooting at her immediately. The other stooge had a large curved sword that he was holding in a guard position as she came in. Buffy zigged and zagged as the two with guns were shooting and but none of the rounds came close. She ducked under the swing of the swordsman and used the flat of her hand to hit him once under his solar plexus. The air whooshed out of his body as he flew fifteen feet landing in a limp pile. The guys with guns tried to turn with Buffy trying to keep themselves on target with her so as she crossed their position they managed to shoot each other. Buffy never noticed. She cleared the eight-foot fence in a single graceful move and hit the road on the other side of the fence running.
In the van the minion that was tasked watching behind them said, "Mistress, the Slayer pursues."
Anck-Su-Namun was kneeling besides Willow was withdrawing a needle from her arm, "Faster," she ordered the driver not looking up.
"If we are to make the turn at the intersection I can not Mistress," he called back.
"Give me your gun and open the door," she ordered the one at the back of the van.
"But… But… Mistress, you said she wasn't to be harmed," the minion stuttered.
"I failed our Master once, I will not again. Give me your gun," She snarled.
He handed her the mini-uzi he carried and popped the handle on the door. Bracing herself on an overhead bar Anck-Su-Namun started squeezing shots off at the pursuing Slayer.
Buffy was closing on the van, when the back door opened and the dark haired woman started shooting at her. Buffy started weaving again, she saw though that this was letting the van start to pull away. Buffy also noticed that the shots weren't coming anywhere near her. She decided that with how the shooter was getting bounced around they would have to be very lucky to hit her, so straitening out she started closing on the van again.
Anck-Su-Namun hit the lottery on her sixth shot.