Hey guys, so here is chapter 3! I chose to make this chapter slightly more light-hearted than the other two have been. The whole idea for this story is that it deals with a really kind of dark and disturbing side of Ahkmenrah, so I try to make it happy-go-lucky when I can. I also chose to include more of the main characters besides Larry, Nicky, Ahkmenrah, Teddy and Sacagawea (btw I decided to go back to her native way of spelling her name rather than the Americanized way). Anyhoo, I hope you like this chapter. It's far longer than the last two were :)
Also, don't forget to review.
NadasKa: Sorry, your review just posted yesterday on my end for some reason. Anyway, I'm glad you like the story and the "chariot race."
EgyptianAngel: Actually, Nicky wasn't a proper teen until the third movie. In the first he is roughly 9, in the second he is a pre-teen so about 11 or 12, and then in the third he is like 17ish. As for seeing more of him and Ahkmenrah as brothers, well I have plenty of that planned but I had to get the ball rolling first. Thanks so much for your kind review and words of encouragement.
Larry Knocked lightly on the heavy cherry wood door of the museum director's office. He checked his tie in his reflection coming off of the shiny brass surface of Dr. McPhee's huge name plate. He knew that if he was about to make a request like this, he was going to have to make his boss listen to him, which incidentally meant that he had to make sure that he looked like he was worth listening to. After all of the situations that had happened in the past, Larry had learned that the best thing to do was to keep a fresh suit in his locker back in the security office, along with a basic toiletries kit, so that in case ha had to make an emergency early morning meeting such as this one, he would be ready to plead any case to McPhee. After all, he was the only voice the exhibits had once the sun came up, and they needed him (now more than ever) to use it.
"Who is it?" Groaned a very put off sounding British voice.
Larry pushed the door open gently, and peeked his head around the corner. Across the room, sitting behind a giant wooden desk in an archaic looking black leather arm chair, a pudgy and stuffy Englishman with perfectly slicked back hair was shuffling through a huge stack of papers looking rather frantic. His eyes flicked up from his paperwork and his expression faded to one of exasperation when he realized it was the Night Guard there to see him.
"Oh, it's you." He stated flatly, "What do you want?"
"Uh," Larry started nervously, "Well, actually I was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk."
Dr. McPhee nodded at the other arm chair sitting across from him, "Take a seat. What did you do this time?"
Larry settled into the comfort of the huge chair, praying that his nerves would settle. Of course, they would not. "Why did talking to McPhee always have to be such a production?"
The look on the director's face mirrored this thought. Why did their conversations always have to be a big production?
"I...I haven't...I haven't done anything." Larry finally stuttered his response.
"Really?" His boss's look was skeptical.
"Honestly. Nothing. I haven't done nothing."
"Anything." McPhee corrected, "You haven't done anything."
"Right, yeah. I haven't done anything."
There was a short pause
"It's a double negative." McPhee broke the silence
Larry looked confused, "What?"
McPhee rolled his eyes, "You can't say that 'You haven't done nothing' because it's a double negative. You are then saying that you have in fact done something."
"Oh...right." Larry nodded along trying to make it seem like he knew what the other man was talking about.
"You haven't the foggiest idea what I'm on about, do you?"
The night guard shook his head, looking like a child who just got caught stealing from the cookie jar, "No..." he answered slowly.
McPhee sighed one of his 'If you weren't the best damn night guard I've ever had I would fire you for being such a moron who can't even (insert topic every person is taught in school here)' sighs. In this case that "insert here" box was filled with the words "manage basic grammar."
There was an awkward pause before the doctor decided that his time was being wasted and got to the point, "Why are you here Mr. Daley?" He asked rather irritated and impatient.
"Well," Larry began, twiddling his thumbs, "I read through the paperwork you asked me to read through yesterday and I came across something that really, kind of...confused me."
"Why doesn't that surprise me, Mr. Daley."
Larry took note of how much his boss sounded like every school principal he had ever had growing up.
"What is it that you don't understand.?"
"Well, um...I don't understand why Ahk's exhibit is being sold?"
"Who?"
"Ahk...um sorry, Ahkmenrah. The Pharaoh...I sort of...I sort of gave him a nick name."
"You do realize that he is dead, right Mr. Daley? And that he is a Pharaoh...a king?"
"Yeah...sorry. I won't call him that anymore." He made a mental note to only refer to the Egyptian ruler by his nickname when around his son and other museum exhibits.
"Good." The director continued, "Now, to answer your question, if you had read the paperwork carefully you would have seen that the reason why the exhibit is being sold is because the Museum has lost a great deal of money in property repairs these past few years. More visitors means that the exhibits need more routine cleaning done, and since you have been working here, a lot of other random property damages have occurred." He gave Larry one of his standard "I'm on to you" glares, "In short, we were broke before and now that we have even more visitors, we are even more broke. It wasn't truly my decision to sell the Pharaoh back to the Egyptian government, it was the board. Quite frankly I like our Egyptian exhibit, and it seems to be a public favorite as well, but in order to keep these doors open, something had to go and Ahkmenrah and his tablet are the exhibit we can make the most money off of."
"How much are you selling him for?" Larry demanded.
McPhee raised his eyebrows and scoffed, "Not any amount a night guard has in his savings I can assure you."
'Not with the salary you pay me' Larry thought to himself, "I know that" he argued, "I still would like to know how much."
McPhee hesitated, "Typically that would be confidential information...but since I know how you feel about these exhibits..."
'Actually, you have no clue how I feel about these guys'
"The Egyptian government and the board are trying to haggle the price to be between 25 and 30 million"
Larry gasped. That was not just a lot of money, that was a crap ton of money!
McPhee smiled arrogantly.
"Look," Larry started, "You are right. I don't have that kind of money. No one in the state of New York has that kind of money...except for one family." Larry couln't believe he was about to listen to Teddy and go here " The Rockefellers."
McPhee burst out laughing, scaring the night guard half to death. This was a new sight for him.
"You think...we haven't...haven't tried?" The typically stuffy man gasped between bursts of laughter.
"Well, I mean..."
McPhee stopped short and wiped a tear from the outer corner of his eye with a quick movement, "Look Mr. Daley, we have tried begging and pleading with the wealthy families and corporations of New York, but right now every one has been putting aside their donation money for the new 'Universal Studios' theme park the city would like to open. Apparently Spider Man and Harry Potter hit a little bit closer to home than a 4000 year old mummy."
Larry sighed heavily. He understood perfectly, but he refused to give up.
"Okay, well what if we raised the money?"
McPhee looked at him haughtily, "You think that the museum can raise 30 million dollars based on it's own fundraisers?"
"I mean...we will never know until we try right?" It was a long shot, but it was better than nothing.
The museum director pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and his thumb. He could already feel a stress migraine coming on and it wasn't even 7:30 in the morning yet.
"And who is going to take on this project Mr. Daley? Who do you suggest takes care of all the brain storming and presenting and managing of these projects?"
Larry knew where this was headed, but he figured it was better this way than not trying and taking the risk of losing Ahk, and leaving the rest of the guys lifeless forever.
"Some people were born great. Others had greatness thrust upon them." He mumbled to himself, "Teddy, you had better be right about this." He sighed heavily and spoke up, "Dr. McPhee, I will take care of the fundraising."
The museum director smiled a "I knew you would do this, you are such a sucker" smile
"Good. Come up with a list of detailed ideas and present them to me before your shift at the end of the week. I am putting you down on my schedule for an hour meeting, so don't be late and don't blow me off. I'm very busy."
"Yes Dr. McPhee. Don't worry about a thing." Larry got up and headed for the door.
"Oh and Mr. Daley," The night guard stopped short, "Make sure the ideas are actually good. Not like all of your inventions. I really would like to keep my Pharaoh."
Larry shot him a smile that read both "thanks for this opportunity to save my friends" and "piss off" (mostly the later) before turning and half storming out of the office. It wasn't until he was back in the security office changing into his regular clothes that he realized how mentally and emotionally exhausting that entire conversation had been...not to mention how positively screwed he and the exhibits really were.
"Attention all exhibits! You are all to come to the main lobby for a family meeting immediately! I repeat, family meeting in the main lobby immediately! Every one is to attend. No skipping out. This is urgent and concerns everyone!" Larry's voice rang loud and authoritative over the museum's P.A. System.
"Dad, don't you think that your announcement was a little much? You are going to put everyone into a panic." Nicky inquired from the edge of the lobby desk where he was seated.
"Nicky, everyone needs to find out what's going on with Ahk's exhibit. They have a right to panic; they are about to find out that their whole 'coming to life at night thing' is going to end forever if we don't do anything."
"Yeah but still, what ever happened to letting them down easy?"
"I'm not letting them down Nicky."
"Well, I mean you kind of are..."
"Nicky! Don't go there. I had a nice long discussion with McPhee this morning about what can be done. That's what this meeting is about."
"What did he say?"
"You are about to find out..."
Just then, Ahkmenrah burst into the main lobby, clutching his tablet close to his chest, and screeched to a halt just in time to avoid slamming into the front desk.
"I came as fast as I could, Guardian." He panted, fire in his eyes, "What is the matter? Has some one broken in? If they have, I swear to you that they will not live another day! May Osiris have mercy on their soul, for I'm most positive their heart is far heavier than a feather."
Larry noticed the curved, and deadly Khopesh that dangled from his tunic belt and took mental note to never piss the good king off.
"No Ahk, it's nothing like that."
The Pharaoh breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "Then what is this about?"
"Your exhibit. I had a little chat with McPhee this morning."
Ahk's expression darkened, and he handed his precious tablet to his ten year old best friend.
"Never scare me like that again, Guardian. One word from you and I would have gone to war...and you know how I despise conflict."
Larry raised an eyebrow. The Egyptian was truly full of surprises these days.
"I told you people would panic." Nicky smiled his 'I told you so' smile at his father.
Larry shot him a 'keep talking and you're grounded' glare.
Ahkmenrah hopped up onto the desk and took his place next to Nicky. A few moments later, Texas's hooves could be herd echoing off the walls as Teddy and Sacagawea appaeared in the lobby. Panic was in their eyes too. Larry didn't have a chance to explain though because the Huns came rushing in shouting their battle cry with Rexy hot on their trail. Jed and Octavius were the next to arrive, followed by the rest of their miniatures and the cave people. Columbus arrived on the back of an elephant and the African tribal people rode in on the back of Zebras. The Inuits herded the mammoths and lions into the lobby followed by the civil war puppets with llamas on lead ropes. It was defiantly interesting sight, especially since Nicky had been right and everyone was in a panic.
"What's going on here, Gigantor?" Demanded Jed.
"Where is the threat, My Liege?My legion is ready!" Octavius added from the driver's seat of the remote control Hummer.
"Guys!" he called over the roar of confusion and chaos. Nobody was listening. "Guys!" He tried again. Still nothing.
He got up, grabbed Nicky and Ahkmenrah by the wrist, pushed his way through the crowd and up to the balcony. "Guys!" He shouted again. Still nothing. The exhibits were so panicked that they had resorted to a state of anarchy much like state they were in the night Ahk's tablet had bee stolen by the old guards.
"I really should invest in a megaphone" he thought to himself. He turned and looked to Ahk for help. Even the young king was helpless. He didn't have the kind of "fear of Ra" that he could put into his subjects here that he did back home...mostly because no one here except for his Jackles were really his subjects.
"QUUUUIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" Roared a deep gravely voice. There was instant silence, "My dumb dumb want to speak."
The night guard looked over at the Easter Island statue with gratitude. This was the second time his friend had saved him from having to ask Ahk to get his Jackals involved.
"Thank you." He nodded at the giant Moai.
The statue just smiled.
Larry turned back to the crowd, "Alright, every one just calm down! I said that this was urgent, not that the apocalypse had started." He ran his fingers through his hair before continuing, "Here's the deal everyone, I got some paperwork from McPhee the other night with some concerning information written on it. Apparently, the museum has lost quite a bit of money lately trying to update and make repairs so that the public will still want to come here as much as they have been these last few years. Business is booming, but not booming enough. The museum was going bankrupt before, and now it's even more in debt. In fact, it's about 30 million dollars in debt."
There was a collective gasp. Even for those who didn't really have a good concept of American currency (such as Ahkmenrah and Columbus) understood that the debt was far more than a small fortune.
"So, as a result, the museum board has left McPhee no choice but to sell off some of the exhibits."
There was another loud, collective gasp...and then the chatter started.
"Hey guys! Quiet!" Larry shouted over them. The room fell silent again. "Now I hate to say this, but the exhibit McPhee has decided he can make the most money off of without having to get rid of anything else just so happens to be the tomb of our great Pharaoh, Ahkmenrah...and his tablet would be going with him. McPhee wants to sell him back to the Egyptian government." He paused to let that information sink in.
Ahk held his head high as he looked down over the people he called family and the museum he called home. The idea of being sent back to Egypt, although it sounded somewhat grand, tugged at his heart strings. He could feel a lump forming in his throat and tears stinging at his eyes, but he refused to let his mask of propriety falter. If he looked afraid, their fear would only be amplified, and he couldn't allow that. He was a king, he had to keep order. This museum couldn't handle another outburst of anarchy, not now.
Ahk's fear and heart break registered in the eyes of his friends and family. Sacagawea and some of the Inuits actually began to cry. Everyone else just looked really mopey and terrified.
"What are you trying to say Gigantor!?" Jed demanded, his voice cracking as he fought back tears himself.
"What I'm saying, is that there is a good chance that in six months time Ahk will be leaving us...for good. This whole 'coming to life at night' thing will be over forever."
More tears began to streak down wax faces. Even Teddy removed his hat in mourning. The way everyone was acting, it was as if it had just been announced that their best friend had just perished in a terrible accident.
"However," Larry began, trying to muster more hope in his words than he actually felt, "There is a chance we can fix this."
"If I may ask, how do you suppose we do that, My Liege? No one here has that kind of money." Octavius interjected.
"You're right. In fact, not many people in the entire state of New York, or the entire country of The United States of America have that kind of money. In fact, I'm sure even those of you who were once great rulers or wealthy nobles never had that kind of money in your life time."
Ahkmenrah nodded in agreement. A long, confused pause fell over the crowd.
Larry sighed heavily, "We do have a chance to fundraise, however. In fact, McPhee has put me in charge of that. So why don't we all put our heads together and come up with some ideas on how we can earn some money for the museum and fix this."
"Laurence, I don't mean to play devil's advocate here, but it really isn't likely that the museum can raise that kind of money on it's own. Even if it could, it would take years and we have but a few months." Teddy added.
"Teddy, you are the one that told me we had to try,so that's what I'm doing. We don't really have very many options. It's not like we can walk on down to the bank and ask for a 30 million dollar loan. Now...who has some ideas?"
Jed climbed atop a desk lamp and started jumping up and down, waving his hands above his head. Had he been in a pool, Larry would have assumed he was drowning.
"Yes, Jed."
The tiny cowboy bent over gasping for air before answering, "How about we have ourselves a hoedown!"
Larry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I should have known. All they ever want to do is party."
"Yes, I agree! A festival would be quite nice!" Octavius agreed.
Larry ran his fingers through his hair, "Guys, come on. You have to take this seriously. If all you do is spend the next six months partying, then nothing will ever get done and these next six months will be your last six months."
"We are taking this seriously, Gigantor. You just aren't listening. Look, I like parties. Toga boy likes parties. The outside world likes parties, brother. If we threw a great big one and charged people to get in, we could make some decent cash."
"Indeed, My Liege. The revenue would be nothing to sneeze at."
"Guys, that's a great idea but I highly doubt McPhee will allow us to host a party in the museum during operation hours."
"Then we don't host it during operation hours." Teddy jumped in.
"Teddy, are you suggesting that we turn the museum lobby into a night club?"
"Of sorts."
Well...I see two problems with that idea. First, McPhee will probably say no because of how clean he likes things kept and parties can get pretty out of hand, especially with strangers. Secondly, what are we going to do to explain you guys? We can't exactly tell the guests that you come to life at night, someone would try to steal the tablet or lock us all in a mental institution...or both. Actually, probably both."
"But My Liege, we have wild parties here all the time. McPhee never knows the difference."
"Exactly you crazy giant, all we have to do is make sure we send everyone home a few hours before sunrise, and take care of all the cleaning up ourselves like we always do."
"And Laurence, as far as our guests seeing us up and moving about, it wouldn't matter if they were all in costume as well."
Larry looked at Teddy quizzically. "Does he even know what side he is on? One second he tells me that fundraising is a bad idea, and the next he is jumping on Jed's bandwagon. I wish he would make up his mind."
"Yeah!Yeah! That's a great idea!" Jed started bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet in excitement, "We could host a couple parties during the few weeks leading up to that strange holiday Gigantor Jr. Celebrates. You know, the one where people who think they are fancy buy pumpkin spice flavored everything and little kids get free candy."
Larry looked at his son for understanding.
"Halloween, dad."
The night guard nodded in agreement, "Right, so you guys want to throw a Halloween party. Is that right?"
"Yeah!" Cried Jed as he jumped up and down on top of the lamp again.
"Alright, great, can someone write that down for me?"
"Already done, Guardian." Larry turned to see that Ahkmerah had replaced his golden tablet with a big yellow Legal pad and pen. He had been taking notes the entire time.
"How long have you had that Legal pad?"
"Since you told me the meeting was about my exhibit. I borowed it from the desk in order to take notes. This way you knew exactly what you were bringing back to . Sometimes these nights can be long, and if you get caught up in resolving a conflict between exhibits you might forget some of the things you mean to bring back to the director."
Larry smiled at his Egyptian friend and gave him a hearty squeeze on his shoulder, "Thank you Ahkmenrah. You really are responsible aren't you."
"But of course. I was the ruler of an ancient kingdom. Egypt would have fallen apart if I hadn't been responsible."
Larry turned to his son who was still clutching the Pharaoh's tablet, "Pay attention Nicky, you could learn a thing or two from Ahk."
Nicky stuck out his tongue.
"Right, so" Larry continued, "Jed get off that lamp before you either fall and get hurt, or the light bulb melts you."
"Yes mom." Jed mocked as he shot his lasso around a near by pencil holder and used the rope to climb down.
"Does anyone else have any ideas?"
Columbus called out in Italian.
"Okay...Ahk, can you translate that?"
"Sorry Guardian, I'm not the best person to ask. Perhaps Octavius could help? Latin is closer to Italian than Egyptian is."
"Octavius, could you translate that? Please."
"Of course, My Liege. He either says that he thinks it would be wise to talk McPhee into having a whole week of museum hours dedicated to Ancient Egypt with fun crafts and things for the children to do, or that he can't find where he put his pants."
Nicky giggled.
"I'm probably going to say that he was trying to promote Egypt week." Larry stated, "Ahk, make sure you write that down."
"Would you like me to add in the other translation as well?"
"No thank you..."The night guard shook his head exasperated, "Anybody else?"
Attila was now the one to shout out.
Ahk nodded his head in agreement with whatever the Hun had said, "Actually that isn't a bad idea."
"Ahk, there is a language barrier...remember?" Larry prompted.
"Right. My apologies, Guardian. He said that there should be a children's day where a magician walks around and preforms some simple tricks. He also suggests that you find someone who can twist thin tubes full of air into representations of basic animals."
"He wants me to find someone to make balloon animals?"
"Yes, I think so."
"Alright, add 'magician' and 'balloon artist' to the list as well as 'children's day.'"
"As you wish, Guardian."
Larry turned back to the crowd, "Okay, now we have a list of things that will pull people with children in, what about the adults without kids? What about the 'cultured' people McPhee is always talking about?"
"What if we had a multicultural festival?" Sacagawea jumped in.
"And what would that include?"
"You could pass out fliers asking for volunteers to come in and set up booths and presentations about their cultural backgrounds to share with the public. This could be either during the day, or a few hours after closing. If the festival was hosted here in the lobby, we could all spend those few hours in the back half of the museum until the visitors left. You could come up with an excuse that we were being cleaned or something of that nature."
"Sacagawea, that idea is brilliant!"
She blushed a little and Teddy gave her a proud, but gentle pat on the back.
"Anyone else?" Larry prompted.
There was a long silence.
"No?"
More silence.
"Okay then. If anyone comes up with any ideas about how to earn some extra money for the museum, please come find either myself, Nicky or Ahk." He quickly turned to the Pharaoh, "Ahk, you don't mind helping me by listening to their ideas do you?"
"Of course not. Listening to the ideas of my people was one of my responsibilities when I was alive, and I do not intend to neglect it now that I am not."
"Thanks, buddy." He turned back to the rest of the exhibits, "Alright guys, try to have a good night and don't let the time restraint get to you too much. Now lets do this people!...and animals...and weird faceless puppet things! Let's save Ahk's exhibit, and the museum as we know it!"
The crowd gave out a loud cheer. Ahkmenrah's heart filled to the brim with appreciation. Never before had he had such a group of people who cared so much about him. He couldn't have asked for anything more, and he thanked the gods for the good fortune they had sent his way in this dire time of need.
Yet, all positive feelings aside, he still felt as if something was off. He couldn't shake this feeling that something was changing inside him, and that something evil and foreboding was headed their way. The feeling shot a shiver down his spine. If his stomach had not been put in a clay pot after his death, it would have turned to ice. He stood there for a moment, and let this restless and foreboding feeling over come him. It wasn't shaken until he saw her...
Just for a moment, she was there and then gone: The most beautiful girl Ahkmenrah had ever set eyes on. She was young, with short cropped brown hair, huge brown eyes, pale skin, and the most absurd choice of clothing he had ever seen a woman wear. Dressed in a male suit of armor the girl mingled on the fringe of the crowd if only for a moment, talking to no one, before she slipped between two elephants and seemed to disappear into thin air.
Early that morning, as the sun was about ready to rise, Ahkmenrah lay alone in his sarcophagus distressed. All foreboding and uneasy feelings forgotten, he was still restless. All he could do was lay there and ask himself, "Who was she?"
*Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Night at The Museum, or Universal Studios. Thanks :)*