As Ardeth raises the canteen to his lips in Dr. Bey's office, he sees his uncle spit out the tea he had been drinking in disgust. He forgets about his own beverage as he stares at the red liquid in the teacup. "Blood…" he whispers, before dropping the canteen of what he now knows will be blood, rather than water. "Terrence, Bahira is in danger!"
"Go, bring her back here. She will be in Fort Brydon, one of the apartments with those of the American treasure hunters," he informs his nephew hurriedly.
Ardeth wastes no time in rushing from the museum, the citizens on the streets of Cairo blurring as he runs to the British fort. He ducks inside the apartment building just as the fire and hail begin to rain down on the city, being a much louder indicator of the Creature's presence in the city, for those who had not gone to drink anything recently.
He draws his scimitar at the faint sound of a little girl shrieking loudly, a jumble of syllables he couldn't hope to make out in a voice he knows all too well. "Bahira!" he shouts, running through the bar, past the stunned Hamunaptra groups, to the courtyard, where he finds anything flammable burning away merrily, and the ratty man struggling to run down the stairs with her in his arms.
The little girl catches sight of him, and fights harder. "Ardeth! Help!" she cries, using her nails to try scratching at the Hungarian attempting to get away with her.
"Beni!" the American who led the smaller group shouts from behind the Medjai. "Let go of her!" He emphasizes the order with the ominous clicking of his revolvers.
He is quickly distracted from his former comrade by the deep roar of the Creature, and Evy's scream of terror. Beni, also startled by the sound of his Master sucking the life from one of the Americans he led to Hamunaptra, loosens his grasp on the child, who tumbles out of his grasp, and rolls down the remaining half of the stairs below. Already knowing the fate of the blind American, Ardeth rushes to Bahira, disregarding the Hungarian as he runs past him and the rest of the treasure hunters as they make their way to the apartment up the stairs.
"Bahira!" he whispers, holding her close as she shakes in his arms, crying as she locks her small arms around his neck. He hears the sound of rapid gunfire as he rubs her back gently, shifting so that he kneels rather than crouches, allowing himself a small relief. "It's alright, Bahira. I'm right here," he whispers to her in his native Arabic.
It soothes the terrified child in his arms, and she begins to calm down, only whimpering in pain from her fall down the stairs rather than from fear. "My ankle hurts, Ardeth," she whimpers into his shoulder.
He removes her arms from his neck and sets her gently on the second step, before reaching down to her ankles, feeling the left ankle already swelling. "Your ankle is very hurt," he agrees, before meeting her eyes again. "Does anything else hurt?"
"My head, a little," she mutters.
He quickly runs his fingers over her head, running gentle fingers over her scalp until she winces when he touches the back of her head. "A small bump. Are you dizzy at all?" he asks, worry for her having a concussion growing at an alarming rate.
She shrugs. "Only a little," she informs him, before they hear gasps from the top of the stairs.
"You?!" Evy shouts, as the Americans and her brother pull their guns on him. Then, seeing the girl he kneels before, lower the weapons. "What are you doing here?" she nearly snarls, but fakes calmness for the sake of her employer's daughter.
"Saving Bahira from the servant of the Creature, it seems," he informs her coldly, before said child wraps her arms around his neck, more gently this time. He rises to stand before them once more, wrapping his arms securely around his precious cargo. "You will have more answers if we go to the museum, I promise you." He then looks at the lowered guns. "Unless you would rather shoot me now," he mutters.
Rick is the first one to holster his weapons. "I think I'm willing to go on a little faith, after what we just saw," he answers, meeting the gazes of his fellow Americans as they nod and follow his example. "Jonathan, where'd you park?"
"Uh, just around the corner, O'Connell," Jonathan pronounces carefully, indicating his having drunk more than a couple of shots before the alcohol turned to blood. He pulls out his keys rather quickly, only to have them snatched by his sister before he can take a step downward.
She glides down the stairs and goes straight to Ardeth, and thus Bahira. "Are you alright?" she asks the child.
The little girl in the man's arms nods slightly. "I'm okay, Miss Evy," she mutters, before burying her face in his shoulder. "I want Papa," she whispers to him.
The Medjai nods. "We are going there now, Bahira," he tells her, before turning his attention to the British woman. "Lead the way, Miss Carnahan."
Rick lifts the sleeping child from Ardeth's arms, allowing the desert man to get out of the car easily. The other two Americans, rather pale, follow their lead and hop out of the car, followed by the British siblings. The Medjai allows the American to carry the girl, and leads them into the museum, straight to the exhibit of Seti the First, where Dr. Bey awaits them, seated in a golden throne next to the horses pulling the chariot.
He rises and steps closer to the American holding his daughter. "What has happened?" he asks, noticing the protective hold the man has on Bahira.
"Our buddy Beni tried to get away with her, and dropped her down some stairs," he informs the curator, moving past the older man to lay his cargo down in a vacant throne to the left of where Dr. Bey had previously been sitting. "Your friend here said her ankle is at least sprained, and she's got a concussion."
Bes watches the much younger girl as she smiles up at the Pharaoh, who smiles warmly in return, unable to help but do so with the innocent charm of the seven-year-old child of his most trusted advisor. He knows better than to be focused on the child, but she is always the exception that the elders and even the Pharaoh allow, knowing she must be favored by one of the gods, yet unable to determine which one as of yet.
She shyly offers Seti a small papyrus journal, giving a small curtsy as she does. "My Pharaoh, I would like your approval for this gift for your daughter, Princess Nefertiti, for her birthday gift, if it is of no trouble to you," she asks, humble in her request, though shaking slightly with nerves.
He takes the journal with a greater amount of curiosity than he lets on, and opens it to reveal a small masterpiece of a portrait of his daughter smiling, turning the page to find another of the familiar landscape of Karnak, and another of Philae, before a breathtaking drawing of the Nile from what could only be Nefertiti's balcony.
"Child, these earn my approval and highest respect," he informs her, closing the journal gently. "Where did you learn to draw so well, Rania? I simply must know."
Even with her best efforts, a small blush forms on her slightly chubby cheeks. "I learned from Nefertiti and Father, my Pharaoh."
The sky suddenly darkens, and thunder roars just over the palace-
"WHERE IS SHE?!" an inhuman voice cries with the thunder, a voice that strikes fear into her heart. She turns to find her father, half decayed from what she knows could only be a curse.
She screams as she falls back.
"PAPA!" she shrieks as her eyes shoot open.
It shocks them all, and only Dr. Bey is able to move. She latches onto him, crying, and he can only try to soothe her. "It's alright Bahira, you are safe," he whispers to her.
She shakes her head. "He's coming, Papa!" she wails. "He wants that girl! The one I was dreaming about!"
He stiffens as the mention of her dreams. "What girl is she dreaming of, Dr. Bey?" Evy asks, voice shaking slightly.
He tightens his grasp on his hysterical child. "It is his daughter, who was forced to watch as he was cursed three thousand years ago." He trades a worried glance with Ardeth. "He must have found out Bahira knows something about her."
Evy frowns in thought. "He was saying something about a Rania in Mr. Burns room, and holding the drawing Bahira gave us before we went to Hamunaptra," she mutters, catching Ardeth's attention.
"Were you able to understand what he said?" he demands, standing protectively behind the girl and his uncle.
"Most of it. He was demanding to know where we got the drawings, and something about why Rania would want me safe…" she frowns at that. "Bahira mentioned that her drawings would keep us safe if something bad happened. How would she know about a code from over three thousand years ago that Imhotep would acknowledge?"
Ardeth glances at the child sobbing in his uncle's arms. "I myself am not entirely sure, but she might have read a Medjai legend about Rania's short life where it could have been mentioned," he answers slowly. He simply can't bring himself to say that he knows it must have been Rania taking control of Bahira.
"But why is he tryin' to find his daughter? He knows she's dead doesn't he?" Henderson asks quietly, examining his shining revolver.
Rick glares back at his fellow Americans. "What if he wants to bring her back to life like he tried with that Anck-su-namun?" he suggests to Evy.
She shivers at the thought. "I don't think we want to let that happen."
"It would be impossible for him to bring her back," Ardeth informs them.
She turns her glare back onto the Medjai. "And why is that?"
He glares right back. "Only the Medjai know where her final resting place is, and they don't even know where the entrance is anymore. Not to mention her body was not complete when she was laid to rest," he growls, before realizing what he's said.
"Ardeth?" Terrence asks, holding his whimpering little girl, frowning in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"How would you know something you say your people don't?" Rick asks, frowning as he levels his own glare on the Medjai.
He turns away from them, and stalks over to Bahira. "It is not for you to know."
"Ardeth," she whimpers, reaching her arms out to him.
He obliges almost without thought, holding her close and trying to release the tension in his body. "What is it, Bahira?"
"Bes," she whispers.
His eyes widen at the name he hasn't been addressed as since his last incarnation. "Rania, what is it?" he asks just as quietly.
"They have to know something. Tell them it was a family secret, it's not far from the truth," she whispers in a voice not her own, before she buries her face in his neck.
He closes his eyes for a moment, as Rick steps closer to him. "How do you know that information?" he asks more heatedly, a question he refuses to ask in his eyes.
"A family secret, passed down from the Chieftain's family since Ancient times," he mutters, eyes flashing as he sees something… familiar in Rick's eyes as he gazes at the child. Something from his Ancient self.
"Secret?" Rick whispers with narrowed eyes. "Then why do I recognize you, Bes?" he hisses in Arabic, too fast for anyone else to catch.
Ardeth's breath catches in his throat. "We must discuss this later, my friend," he whispers just as quietly as Bahira's breathing returns to normal, her shaking subsiding.