"Bahira, how are you feeling now?" Terrence asks the little girl as he offers her a small glass of water.
He helps her sit up and drink the water. "I'm feeling better, Papa," she answers quietly after he takes the glass away.
"That's good," he breathes as he sees a glaze over her eyes he is unfamiliar with. "Bahira?"
Her eyes take on shadows he is unfamiliar with. "Medjai?" she asks in confusion.
"Rania," he greets, before switching to Ancient Egyptian. "Are you truly a part of Bahira?"
"I am," she replies, though still confused. "What is going on? I have seen the faces of many I know, but do not recognize their names anymore?"
He sighs, settling in for a long discussion. "What you are experiencing is reincarnation. Who have you recognized thus far?"
"Nefertiti, Kafele, Khalid, Latif, Pili… Bes," she whispers, almost embarrassed. "Why is this happening now? Why don't they recognize me?"
"Bes, now known as Ardeth, came to the same conclusion of your identity only recently," he explains gently. "Bahira has only been seeing your memories for two weeks, and only very few."
The little girl housing the spirit of a fifteen-year-old shivers. "I don't want her to see what happened to me. It could destroy her," she whimpers. "I don't want her to be seen by whatever has become of Father!"
"I will not willingly allow it." He then realizes what she has said. "What he has become?"
"He has been awakened, and the plagues are coming," she informs him. He stares at her in disbelief. "Do you not remember that I was guided by Anubis himself, and that I alone was able to travel to Ahm Shere?"
"I had not been sure if that was merely a fairy tale, for none since your murder have returned from the accursed oasis," he breathes.
She shakes her head with a frown. "I promised to go back to Ahm Shere before Father and Anck-su-namun killed Pharaoh Seti. I was on my way there when my murderers found me only a day away." She meets his eyes slowly. "In the underworld… it was horrible, seeing the evil suffer for their crimes, but Anubis and Osiris found me, and took me away from where I had been sent. They showed me kindness, and promised I would return to my home someday."
"Where did they send you until now?" he asks hesitantly.
"To Hamunaptra to watch over the city sometimes, occasionally the temples and cities of Ancient Egypt, but I spent the majority of the time in Ahm Shere to keep Matthias company." At his frown of confusion, she offers a smile. "You might know him better as the Scorpion King."
He recoils immediately. "As in Anubis's warrior, and the ruler of his army?" She nods, rolling her eyes. "But he is almost pure myth. Any relics of his existence have vanished or been destroyed with time!"
"That was part of what I was doing at Hamunaptra. Treasure hunters throughout time have tried to find information on him, but he doesn't want to be found unless it happens to be in the year of the Scorpion. Thus, I went ahead and brought anything relating to him back except for what Nefertiti was to guard." She looks rather sheepish in his opinion. "I… simply couldn't bring myself to take what she put so much work into protecting."
"Rania, listen to me now. I need to know all you can tell me of why you have taken over Bahira."
She sighs, closing her eyes. "The reincarnation of Nefertiti, Evelyn, read from the Book of the Dead tonight. He had been discovered, and awakened with the reading of the spell she read aloud. He has begun to bring the plagues, and fulfill the curse to restore him to his former self." She shakes her head, eyes remaining closed. "Anubis sent my soul back to offer aid, which should explain your Bahira's dreaming of me."
"By Allah…" he breathes, before she begins to fall from the bed, eyes shooting open to reveal the clear green eyes of Bahira as he catches her. "Bahira, are you alright?"
She blinks up at him. "I'm okay Papa," she answers at last, before wrapping her arms around his neck. "I'm scared, Papa," she whispers. "Something bad is gonna happen."
He holds her tightly. "I know, Bahira. I won't let anything hurt you, I swear it," he whispers into her hair.
"Oh no…" Evy breathes, seeing a dark wave of something buzzing makes its way towards Hamunaptra. Before Rick can grab her hand, she manages to snag the small paper with the drawings Bahira had mentioned might protect them if something bad happened.
"What are you doin'?!" Rick shouts, grabbing her and leading the siblings to their entrance to the city.
"I would say something bad has happened, and we could use the drawings from Bahira!" she pants as they dash around the corners of the halls.
They pull to a stop when the city shakes around them, nearly throwing them off-balance when a mound of sand rises in the ground before them.
"I don't want to know what that is!" Jonathan shouts, grabbing his younger sister and charging back down the way they came, taking a turn into another room with a path bordered by darkened chasms on either side, and a small alcove across from two pillars halfway up the path. "Jump, Evy!" he shouts, letting go of her to go to a pillar, whereas she goes into the alcove, pressing herself against the stone wall.
She has only a moment's warning from the grinding stone behind her before losing her balance as the wall gives way from behind her. She cries out as she falls into a short tunnel, sliding down into a new, dimly lit room on her rear. She tries to catch her breath as her eyes adjust, and nearly chokes on air as she hears a moan emanating from behind her. She turns around the corner of the wall she leans on now, finding only Mr. Burns standing there, his back turned to her.
"Oh Mr. Burns," she sighs, relaxing in the presence of a familiar person. "I was getting so worried, I lost everybody," she starts, when he turns around.
She stifles a gasp as she sees his empty eye sockets staring at her, as he moans, "My eyes." She backs away slowly from him, when she feels her back hit something she knows can't be the wall. Whipping around as Burns falls to the ground, she screams as she finds the mummy she had discovered to be very much alive, and now with the eyes that belonged to Burns.
She backs away from the mummy, hands rising to cover her mouth in horror, unknowingly losing her grasp on the paper. The mummy, having seen the paper flutter to the ground, removes his gaze from Evy in favor of examining the paper, kneeling to pick it up and turn it over, only to stare in disbelief at the symbols he never thought his daughter would ever have use for. He vaguely recalls their code for someone they wished to give protection and favor to, and to be untouchable to those who recognized the symbols.
"Rania!"he gasps, before turning his attention to where he had backed the woman into the corner, only to find himself alone in the room with his first victim, with echoes of Arabic filling the halls and room, light coming closer to his location. Keeping a grasp on the paper, he leaves just before the Medjai enter and find the helpless man lying in the sand.
"Let's get him out of here before the Creature returns," Ardeth orders his men. Two of them pick up Burns by the arms, gently guiding his steps as they escort him from the City of the Dead. "By Allah, I pray we can end this before he finds Bahira," he mutters, unaware of the mummy hidden from sight in the tunnel Evy fell through, listening to his every word.
'So this Bahira knows where to find my daughter. But where do I find her?' he thinks to himself as he moves further into the tunnel, sensing a disturbance in the chamber of Anubis.