Author's note: Here's an update to this story, fellow readers. Warning: One part of this chapter will give you goosebumps.
I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Mummy. Kingdom Hearts belongs to both Square Enix and Disney, while the Mummy belongs to Universal Studios.
Chapter 2: A Warning.
As the group dusted off the sand and dirt that still slightly covered the coffin, or sarcophagus, though Riku and Mickey both still had a terrible feeling of this thing. They wanted to believe that Evy was right that dead people don't cause any problems, but they knew better than that.
"So um, who is it?" Mickey asked.
"'He That Shall Not Be Named.'" Evy read the ancient writing and translated. Rick blew more dust off, to reveal a star-shaped thing that looked like an ancient fashioned keyhole. The group quirked eyebrows at this.
"This looks like some sort of lock." Rick thought.
"I'd never seen a keyhole like that before." Mickey thought.
"Me neither. What kind of a person would've made a keyhole like this shape?" Riku wondered.
Jonathan then commented, "Well, whoever's in here sure wasn't getting out."
"Yeah, no kidding." Riku agreed.
Rick nodded in agrement as he commented, "It would take us a month to crack into this thing without a key."
"Yeah, a key that's shaped like that." Mickey agreed. While he knew well that the Keyblade can unlock any lock, he wasn't about to risk in opening this thing. He'd rather spend a month cracking into this thing than unlock it with his Keyblade.
That's when something hit Evy as she muttered, "A key...?" before realising something as she then went to her bag, babbling, "A Key! A Key! Now that's what he was talking about!"
"Huh?" Mickey asked.
"Who was talking about what?" Riku asked to Rick and Jonathan who both shrugged in similiar confusion.
"The man, the one on the barge, the one with the hook! He was looking for a key!" Evy replied, in a hint of crazy excitement as she opened it's strange wings.
"Hey, that's mine!" Jonathan pouted.
Evy didn't listen as she placed it onto the keyhole. It was a perfect fit. The others looked at her, impressed.
"Whadd'ya know." Mickey thought, blinking while impressed.
Evy looks at them happily and proudly. Suddenly a few seconds later the Warden's scream was heard and echoed through the halls, alarming everyone. They all immediately rushed to investigate, while Jonathan stumbled back to get his box before following the others.
When they entered the passage, the Warden came out of another room, holding his head as he continued to scream, before he ran passed all of them, screaming away as he hands waved around like crazy, crawling his hands on his head before he then ran right into the wall in front of him, ramming his head into it and then just dropped backwards, and just layed there on the ground, his scream cut off into a deathly silence.
The group stared in shock, horror, disbelief and confusion. Just then Riku sensed something and turned half-way to gaze behind him, and could've sworn he caught the glimpse of red and black from around the same corner the Warden had came from during his screaming fest.
He expected something to appear, but then again, whoever else was around the corner, must've hid before they were caught. Or maybe it was his imagination.
"What's matter, Riku?" Mickey asked, once he looked away from the Warden who was now dead and he didn't want to think about it. Though seeing his friend gaze at the corner thankfully eased away the thoughts of a dead man before him and the others, though he still felt rather sick in the stomach.
"I thought I saw..." Riku began, before shaking his head and shrugged, "No, nevermind. Probably just my imagination."
"I think we should call it day." Rick decided. "Let's go."
Everyone else nodded, while Evy was a bit shocked and feeling a bit sick herself.
However, when the five of them re-entered the coffin room, little did the group know that it was Axel who had just followed the Warden only to hide when Riku nearly caught him. So the kid was here, with that king. The redhead frowned as he peaked around the corner again, and saw that the man that layed on the ground was indeed dead.
Hiding again, he thought deeply on the situation of whatever darkness was here. Axel could feel the powerful scent of darkness within the other room more than Riku's darkness. 'If that guy died just because something was in his head, then this place really is dangerous. Worse part is, that kid that brought me here blocked off all passages. How did he do that, though?' he thought to himself.
Whatever it was, Axel started to think that it would be overwhelmly powerful as Riku, and possibly more stronger than the Superior.
Riku, Mickey, Rick, Evy and Jonathan returned to the campsite and while Rick went to talk to the rival campers, the rest of them were talking about the events that happened today. Riku could still sense the powerful darkness, but neither he or Mickey said anything.
"What do you suppose killed him?" Evy asked.
"I noticed he was holding his head like something was...well, you know." Riku shrugged.
Mickey frowned in concern and agreed, "I think Riku's right. Besides, it couldn't have just been a normal headache for somethin' like that to happen."
Rick by then returned and seated between Riku and Evy, and said, "Seems our friends had a little misfortunte of their own today." before continuing while looking every uneasy, "Three of their diggers were uh...melted."
"What?" Evy exclaimed in disbelief, while the others held looks of disbelief and horror.
"But how?" Mickey asked.
Rick answered, "Pressurized salt acid. Some kind of...ancient booby trap."
Mickey swallowed nervously as he gazed around, and muttered, "M-maybe this place really is cursed." while Jonathan threw a small piece of dirt into the campfire, and just seconds after that, an erie gust of wind blew across the fire. He, Mickey, Rick and even Riku all pulled faces of discomfort.
Evy rolled her eyes at their expressions. "Oh for heaven sake, the four of you!"
"You seriously don't believe in curses?" Riku asked with a quirked eye-brow.
"No I don't." Evy answered, "I believe that if I can see it and I can touch it, then it's real. That's what I believe."
"Yeah, well, I believe in anything that's impossible is really possible." Riku decided to say.
"I believe in being prepared." Rick said as he cocked his shothand expertly with one hand.
Mickey shuddered a little, "Well I believe in all kinds of ghost stories. You never know which one of them could actually happen."
Riku smirked a little, saying, "I don't think all of the ghost stories are real, but you do have a good point."
"I wonder what our friend the Warden believed in." Jonathan thought once he found nothing in the dead man's bag...except for a broken bottle he then found and pulled out. Reading the lable, he smirked, "Glenivet. Twelve years old! Well, he may have been a stinky fellow, but he had good taste." before taking a drink.
Rick, Riku and Mickey all rolled their eyes at Jonathan's habits of berverages, when suddenly all three of them heard the whining of horses and turned to look behind them and the others.
"Uh oh! We've got company!" Mickey gasped.
Immediately Rick handed his shotgun to Evy while saying, "Stay here." before going off to investigate.
"I'm going too." Riku decided and quickly followed.
"Riku, wait for me!" Mickey cried out, leaping to follow the others.
"Wait, wait for me!" Evy added.
"Evy! 'Cuse me, but didn't O'Connell just say 'stay here'?" Jonathan protested as he followed his crazy sister and companions.
As soon as the five of them left, Axel peaked out from the hole the group had came from, since he followed them and had waited for the right moment to finally get out of the tunnels and into the open air so that he could figure out what was going on. Seeing the group just left to investigate on something, he sighed as he came out completely.
"Finally!" Axel sighed. "I thought I'd have to sneak out while everyone was sleeping." only to hear some kind of whooping fill the air and looked into the area below him from the hill he was on and his eyes widened as a bunch of men in black robes and masks attacking everyone while on horseback, their weapons were either swords or guns. Curious to see what was going on, Axel went closer until he hid behind a tall stone piller to make sure he wasn't seen.
All around there was a fight going on, the campers fighting back, though there was casualties like diggers being sliced or shot to death.
What caught Axel's attention, however, was Riku who had secretly summoned his Soul Eater and clashed against one of the robed men's swords, dodge-rolling out of the way before kicking at his opponent's legs which caused the man to stumble over and fall onto the ground. Riku then quickly got up and knocked the back of the man's head with the back of his weapon, briefly rendering him unconscious.
Riku then rolled out of the way when another came before he leaped into the air and knocked him off his horse and whacked him in the face, rendering him unconscious as well.
Mickey was knocking out the invaders as well, not wanting to kill anyone since he sensed that these people were not evil, though that begged the question on what was really going on. He did a triple-air-somersaults while knocking one of the men out with his Kingdom Key-D Keyblade.
Suddenly he caught off-guard when another man knocked his Keyblade out of his hand, much to his shock. Mickey had to leap backwards to avoid this man before he realised he began to have trouble in dodging.
"Mickey!" Riku cried out as he leaped in and grabbed hold of the king while avoiding the sword from the other man, before Rick jumped onto the man and knocked him off his horse.
"Are you okay?" Riku asked his friend as the two stood up.
"I'm okay. Thanks, Riku." Mickey smiled briefly, before he and Riku both turned to see that Rick had brought out a dynamite that was close in going off. The man who's mask fell off and was known as Ardeth Bay, glared at Rick.
He then decided to briefly surrender and called out, "Enough!" making everyone stop. Ardeth then glared at Rick, Riku and Mickey before saying, "We will shed no more blood. But you must leave. Leave this place or die. You have one day."
With that, Ardeth climbed back onto his horse before shouting something in another language, then took off with his men and left the stunned campers and away from the ruins. Even as the men left, Riku looked very concerned and Mickey suddenly had a gut feeling that there was more to this place than the two of them thought when they first came here.
"Who were they?" Riku asked.
"Desert people." Rick replied as he helped Evy up when she fell to the ground after shooting dead one of the robed men in her panic. "They value water, not gold."
"Gosh, I wonder what that fella was talking about?" Mickey thought, before thinking about it and came up with a theory, "Maybe they know that this place is so dangerous they don't want anybody to be here."
"If that's the case, then I wouldn't blame him." Riku said, though he did add, "On the other hand, I can't understand what is here that is so dangerous, though I do have a feeling that we're going to regret it."
While everyone was poundering over the incident that just happened, Axel, still from his hiding spot was thinking about what the man that confronted Riku, Mickey and Rick. If those people wanted everyone to leave the city, then that meant it confirmed Axel's supicsions.
'Maybe this place is more dangerous than I thought. If only I could RTC and tell Saix about this.' Axel thought to himself.
Either way, he was stuck.
Later that night, everyone went to sleep while possibly dreaming or maybe thinking about tomorrow's events, though that still left Riku very uneasy, and Mickey certainly didn't like this place very much at all. Either way, the two of them were not having such a good night's sleep at all.
In Riku's case, it was worse than that.
Riku didn't know where he was or how he got here. All he knew was that he was being restrained and he was practically terrified. He could hear screaming from terrified men all around him, while other men were doing torturous things to them. Two men were holding him by the shoulders, and then, to his horror and disgust, they were forcing his tongue to be sticking out.
His eyes then widened in terror as another man, in some kind of helmet that was shaped like...like the head of Anubis, approached him. Riku tried to fight his way out, but it was too late, and he shut his eyes tightly, tears escaping as he gurgled as scream as his tongue was cut off.
Then seconds later, he found himself being wrapped tightly in white cloths of some kind before his vision was darkened and he could feel being put into something. He muffled a scream as he felt the familiar claws of Heartless slash at his chest, attempting to claim his heart.
He then heard laughter...evil laughter...of Ansem.
"I told you, Riku." Ansem's voice spoke evilly. "Your heart is mine!"
Biting back a scream, Riku jolted up right and panted as he could feel cold sweat on his forehead. Seeing that he wasn't wrapped up, and not imprisoned, and also making sure that his tongue was still intact and in his mouth, and remembering where he was, with his sleeping companions around him, he sighed in great relief.
'It was just a nightmare.' Riku thought to himself. Sighing and still feeling the intensed rawness from the nightmare, and shuddering when he thought he could still feel the claws of the Heartless on his chest, he just knew that right now, he wouldn't be getting any more sleep.
"Yikes!" Mickey's startled cry startled Riku who turned to see that his friend had jolted awake, and by the king panting and paranoid glancing around, it was easy to see that he had just woken up from a nightmare as well.
"You okay, Mickey?" Riku asked as he approached his friend, before taking a seat next to him.
Realising that the teen was awake, and that he had just escaped from a nightmare, Mickey sighed in relief before chuckling nervously, "Y-yeah, I'm okay. Just had a terrible nightmare." shuddering as he tried to not think about it.
"Same here." Riku sighed.
"Gosh, I don't think I'll be going back to sleep any time soon now." Mickey thought, rubbing his arms as though he was freezing.
"Who would? After nightmares like ours, I certainly don't plan on getting back to sleep either. Looks like we're in for a rough night." Riku agreed.
Sighing, Mickey grumbled, "Aw, I hate it when I get nightmares that feel so real. Haven't had one so scary in a real long time."
'Tell me about it.' Riku thought. He just had a feeling that, ever since Evy told them, Rick and Jonathan about how mummies were made, that he'd be having nightmares. Turned out he was right.
What he didn't know, however, was that there was more to his dream than he thought. There was also Ardeth's warning to leave this place. But Riku and Mickey both had no idea what it was, though.
At another part of the City of the Dead, Axel had found a decent place to rest and sighed, having just woken up from an unusual dream himself. Since then, he couldn't get to sleep much either, especially since the rocks at this place were practically uncomfortable.
"What wouldn't I give to get home and sleep in my nice, cousy, bed." Axel grumbled, yawning as he, thankfully, began to feel drowsy again.
From a hill just outside of the ruins, the boy in the red and black outfit smirked evilly as he said to himself, "I have a feeling that tomorrow will be the night that those idiots will regret in ever coming here."
A/N: Sorry that it's a bit shorter than the last chapter and the fight scenes aren't as good as I thought, but I was running out of ideas of this story at the time and I'm edging to continue my other ones or start on my planned new stories.
Hope you fellow readers still liked this chapter.