Breathing hard, Rick clutched Alex to him, letting his head fall back against the stone at his back. The sand beneath him was cold, leeching the heat from his body to replace it with a cool discomfort that seeped up through his cotton shirt. He barely noticed. Seeing the damned bracelet release his son's wrist had filled Rick with a relief so intense that he was beyond such petty discomforts. Instead he focused on the young boy in his arms, the living, breathing boy who would live another day to talk back and drive him crazy with the flashes of intelligence that had to have come from his mother.
He was still basking in the moment when a loud cry brought his head up, exhaustion gone as his body reacted to the pain etched into the sound. Horror blasted through him as he saw Evy hunched over a dark haired woman's arm, a length of metal connecting the two from hand to stomach.
"No!" The denial ripped from his lips, Rick lurched to his feet. He abandoned the cool depths of the pyramid for the baking heat, his fatigue washed away beneath the frantic desperation to reach his wife.
Rick was aware of the woman striding away, but he only had eyes for Evy, who had fallen to her knees, pale hands clutching at her abdomen. He put on a burst of speed as he saw her lean to the side, and he threw him self forward, sliding in beside her to cushion her fall. "Evy!"
Hand cradling his wife's neck and the other pressed over her bloody hand, Rick frantically looked about him. "Jonathan! Jonathan!"
The sound of soft foot falls at his back signaled the arrival of Alex. "Mom!" The boy came to a stop at his shoulder, gasping for air. "You're going to be all right!" Wide eyes took in dark stain darkening his mother's abdomen, her pale face and ragged breaths. "Isn't she, Dad?"
Tearing his gaze away from his wife's face, Rick warded Alex back, even in his terror refusing to let his son see his mother in such a state. She wouldn't want him to see her like this, if anything should happen….no nothing was going to happen. She was going to be fine. "She's going to be all right, Alex."
Jonathan stumbled into view, shaken and wild-eyed as he saw his sister lying prone on the hot sand. Rick gestured at Alex, his voice strangled by his fear. "Just get him –. Take him back –. I can't, don't let him –!"
Rick turned away as his brother-in-law eased Alex back, tucking an arm around his shoulders as he gave Rick and Evy space. He barely heard the other man's mumbled assurances to his son, only having eyes for Evy.
Panic clawed at him as he took in her pale face, the beautiful mouth tight with pain, and her eyes, they were frantic. He eased her hand aside from where it hovered protectively over the spreading darkness and bile crawled up his throat at the gaping maw of flesh he found. "Oh my God, Evy."
Rick tore his eyes away from the bloody hole and found her face instead, a shaking hand reaching out to touch the line of her jaw. "You're strong, Evy. You're gonna make it." The wound was deep, that he could see, and the blood wouldn't stop coming. "You're gonna make it." It was a mantra that echoed through his mind, and he clung to it, refusing to believe in the alternative.
Evy clutches at his hand, her pale lips struggling to form the words that in her time of need had deserted her. Rick returned the hold, gazing down at her fearfully, trying to hold her close with his eyes alone, terrified of pulling her close and causing her even more pain. "What do I do? What do I do, Evy?"
This was not the first time Rick had seen such a fatal blow before, nor was it the first time he had comforted a dying man. But this was no comrade in arms, this was his wife, the love of his life and he could see her blood pouring out into the sand beneath her, the coppery stench of it flooding his nostrils.
Rick could only watch as Evy struggled to breathe, a lone tear sliding down her cheek. Her breath rasped past her dry lips as her eyes beseeched him. "Take care of Alex." It pained her to speak, and her breath hitched again as she struggled to hold on.
Rick didn't feel his own tears, numb to the heat and moisture that slid through dust and sand to drip from his jaw line. His callused hand cradled the side of her face, brushing her hair out of her face. "No. Sweet heart, no. You have to hold on."
He could see that she wanted to, that she struggled to hold onto the life that was even then slipping through her fingers and soaking into her blouse. Her head grew heavier within his grasp and she struggled to draw in another breath. "I love you."
Rick can see that she was losing. Her eyes were fluttering as she tried to stay away, tried to resist the awful lethargy that was spreading outward to her limbs. He touched her cheek again, trying to coax her back to him, anything to keep her from slipping away. There is a moment when she seemed to gather her strength, her body growing tense beside him, only to falter, and she grew lax, her eyes fluttering closed.
Terror swallowed him, and following it was a wave of mind numbing cold that struck his heart and expanded out ward in slick waves of grief that battered against his skin. "Evy?" He shook her gently; lungs tight in his chest as they were crushed by his hope that she would stir, once more look up at him with soft brown eyes that saw so much. "Evy?"
Nothing. She'd grown still against him, too still. Her chest had fallen and it failed to rise again. Sobs shook him as he was forced to face the undeniable, his grief almost too much to bear as he pulled her closer. His heart cried out for her to react, to pull him close as was her nature, but her arms remained still at her side. Shaking and crying, he pulled her against his chest, burying his face in the sweet scent of her hair where the cloying scent of her blood had not yet reached.
His strength abruptly failed him as shock began to set in, and he eased her head back, the dark curls of her hair spreading out beneath her head. Throat constricting with his muted cries, his shaking hand reached out to touch her chin, her bottom lip as he searched for the warmth of her skin against his own.
"Come back. Evy, come back."
The warmth could not be found, her spirit having already fled her body into the sands she loved. Instead a cool chill was already beginning to seep in, an irrefutable sign that his Evy was no more. Sorrow rose up in him, threatening to choke him with its pressure, and he leaned his head against her chest. Head bent, he continued to sob, tears streaming down his face as he mourned the loss of his best friend, his wife, his beloved.
Ardeth breathed a silent sigh of relief when he reached the edge of the oasis, bright patches of blue gleaming within the backdrop of jewel green. He'd been running nonstop since he saw Rick make off with Alex, Evy and Jonathan close behind them. As much as he wanted to remain with them and make sure the boy was alright, he had pledged to assist O'Connell only until he found his son, and found him he had.
Now he had another duty to fulfill, and must find his people and lead them to the edge of the Oasis, where the Army of Anubis would arise for its new master. Ardeth prayed to Allah that its new master would be O'Connell, and that the Westerner would promptly send the terrible scourge back to the Underworld where it belonged. Such darkness had no place upon this earth. If it were any other man facing such a challenge, Ardeth would have feared that the temptation to control such a destructive force would be too great to resist. However, O'Connell had already proven him self loyal to the cause of the Medjai.
Ardeth's mouth twisted up into the parody of humor. Not to mention the Westerner had exhibited such scorn for anything 'magical' that Ardeth doubted the man would ever tolerate the presence of an army fashioned out of myth itself. No, he trusted O'Connell would do the right thing.
The Medjai was just approaching the stark border between lush greenery and barren sand when terror slammed through him with all the finesse of a sandstorm. So sudden was the attack that his legs failed him, and he sagged to the forest floor, a hand clutching at his chest as the other gripped the hilt of his sword. Instinct bade him hold the wicked blade outwards to defend against his attacker. It took a moment for him to realize that the 'attack' as it were was coming from the new bond nestled within his mind, the edges still raw and tender to the touch.
Having been bonded to Horus for almost six years before the bird's untimely demise; Ardeth was no stranger to dealing with emotions that were not his own. Some bonds, after a certain amount of time, enabled both sides to feel the other. From time to time he had caught Horus's hunger, or joy of flight, but those fleeting impressions did nothing to prepare him for the raw pain that roared through him now.
Fearing the possibility of being drowned beneath it, Ardeth fought it off with every ounce of will he possessed, struggling to bring up his shields and block the connection that writhed and spasmed in his hold. Trying to handle the horror and grief that rattled through him was like trying to handle liquid fire, and it scalded him, burned the edges of his mind black and seared it numb.
Head bowed and gasping for air, Ardeth gradually won out, pushing the foreign emotions back inch by slow inch. Concentrating so intently on protecting his mind from the raging onslaught of Rick's terror, Ardeth was not prepared for the sudden image that crystallized within the depths of his mind. For a fleeting moment he did not see the lush greenery around him, or the distant horizon of endless sand stretching out before him. He saw Evy's face, eyes wide and face tight with pain.
Ardeth moaned and clenched his eyes shut against the awful image, knew without a doubt that Evy was dying, her life sucked away with every gush of blood that stained her front. He felt Rick's horror and as the sharp sorrow washed over him, Ardeth's mind wrenched, and his hands were not clutching sword and wet earth, but a cold hand slick with blood.
Another moan, only this one was different, pitched higher. "No, Evy. No."
Cold terror, Ardeth's own, slid down his spine as he realized that he was seeing out of Rick's eyes, was inside the Westerner looking out. Fear of being consumed beneath the other man's grief spurring him on, Ardeth yanked his mind back, dropping into his own body with a jolt that had his teeth clacking together.
The Medjai wasn't aware of falling onto his side, his focus turned entirely inward as he frantically shored up his side of the bond, his will forcing Rick's sorrow back to keep from overwhelming him. The intensity of it, as well as the effort of holding it back drained Ardeth, and soon he was panting, his hands clenched into white knuckled fists as he struggled to hold the barrier between his mind and Rick's.
Gradually his shields began to take the brunt of the Westerner's pain, and it became easier to breathe. Once Ardeth was sure that he would not be consumed, he opened his eyes to see the sun filtering through the dense tree tops overhead. He was shaking from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. Never before had he ever encountered anything like this, although he feared he knew what it meant.
With such a new bond, Ardeth thought that there was very little to fear from its existence. It had allowed him to know if Horus was in good health, and it had allowed the falcon to find him, no matter where he was. On occasion he had felt the bird's hunger, or fury as another invaded his territory, but they had all been vague. Bare flickers of emotion that had faded almost before Ardeth realized that they were there.
What had just happened though, it boded complications that Ardeth had never thought possible. In hind sight he should have realized. He had hoped that the bond would remain light, a brief touch that would allow a sense of familiarity and trust between him self and O'Connell, a brother in arms. But he had not accounted for any strong emotions, such as the death of the other man's wife, and the sheer strength of Rick's grief had slammed through the bond and into him. In the process it sank the edges of the bond deeper into both their minds, searing it in place thus making it a two way channel that both their emotions could travel down at will.
A sign of how deep the bond had become was the vision he had glimpsed. For a second he had 'seen' Evy's face, as if she were lying right in front of him. He had seen through Rick's eyes, had in fact been Rick if only for a few moments. A few moments that had changed the course of his life forever.
Ardeth would never have guessed that the bond between them was capable of reaching such depth, and now it was too late to change what had already been done. Even attempting it would damage both his and Rick's souls indefinitely. They were stuck together, their souls connected and Rick had no idea.
Rick. The other man's grief had yet to abate, had only seemed to grow more intense the longer Ardeth lay there. The Medjai could feel it straining against his barrier, feel it itching to swarm out into the darkness of his own mind in order to relieve the pressure. It was difficult to keep the Westerner out when his own grief grew heavy on his chest. Evy had been a woman to respect, her keen intelligence and steadfast determination admired by all who knew her. Ardeth mourned her loss, his eyes clenched shut as his sorrow threatened to weaken the wall holding back Rick's pain.
Taking a deep breath, Ardeth forced his eyes open, steeling him self as he dragged him self to his feet, his legs shaking and twitching beneath him. He was going into shock, he knew. The human body was capable of being pushed to the breaking point by emotions alone. Throw another person's feelings into the mix and Ardeth was mildly surprised that he could manage to stand at all.
Falling back on training, he pushed away his own grief, balling it up and shoving it down to deal with at another time. It was hard, the emotion wanting to leap about and rip him apart from the inside out. Instead he strove for the center of calm he had built for him self, a sanctuary he retreated into when he knew he would be demanding more than his body could give. Now was not the time for emotions. There was nothing he could do for Evy.
If he got to the Medjai army in time, he might be able to save Rick and the others.