Author's note: Again, not much to say.
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 6: Darkness of Imhotep.
The next day, while still lingering over yesterday's events and the motivations of both Imhotep and Vanitas, Evy had suggested that the group would seek out a meeting to demand for answers from her employer, Terrance who is the head of the Cairo Museum which also acted as a library. Without any other leads in the situation and noticing that Allen had been absent since their arrival in Cairo, most likely with the Book of the Dead, Riku and the others agreed to head over to the Museum at once.
Axel still didn't get the chance in asking for answers from Mickey, but he decided that, despite not having a heart and knowing that he needed one to have emotions, that even he is still recovering from yesterday's craziness.
Instead, he opted to speak up in the one thing he and everyone else did notice about the undead bad guy. "You know, that walking, ugly corpse sure seems to have a thing for you, ma'am." he said.
The others agreed.
"Gosh, he even tried to get to her when Evy and I first saw him." Mickey remembered, while trying to rid the memory of the intensed fear that made him realise that mummies were about as scary as ghosts.
"But," Riku began in concern, "What does he want with Evelyn?"
"Yeah, what's that about?" Rick demanded as well.
Evy shook her head, and answered, "I don't know, but there's only one man I know who can give us any answers." as she led them into one of the ancient egyptain exhibits, hoping to find her boss.
Turns out he wasn't the only one they would find.
With her boss, an old man in a black robe and a red fez, was a familiar younger man they didn't think they'd see again so soon, let alone alive. The group's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
"You!?" Evy cried out, shocked, her eyes locked onto Ardeth Bay, who seemed to have been having a conversation with Terrance. Riku, Mickey, Rick and the others all tensed at the sight of Ardeth.
"Miss Carnahan." Terrance greeted Evy, though his tone sounded more like mocking. "Gentlemen."
"What is he doing here?" Evy demanded, as she and her group glared at the Medjai.
The two men glanced at each other, before turning back to the group and Terrance asked in return, as though he was facing enemies than an employee, her brother and friends, "Do you really want to know?"
The group relaxed just a little, Rick then replied, "After what I saw, I'm willing to go on a little faith here."
"Do you two know each other?" Riku asked to Terrance and Ardeth.
A short time later, the group settled a privite seating around the exhibits of one of the late rulers Seti the First, as Terrance revealed that he too is a Medjai, working as a double agent for the Museum as a secondary job behind everyone's backs, even his employees.
"We are part of an ancient secret society. For over 3,000 years, we have guarded the city of the dead." Terrance said as he sat down in one of the chairs, continuing, "We are sworn at manhood to do any and all in our power to stop High Priest Imhotep from being reborn into this world."
"Now because of you, we have failed." Ardeth concluded, glaring at all of them.
"Hey, I had nothing to do with it." Axel pointed out, glaring at Ardeth in return. How many times did everyone had to point fingers at him and assume that he's guilty for this mess. "Blame that spiky-haired kid who brought me here in the first place."
"And he's the one who read that book too." Riku added, "But even so, none of us really knew that the legend of the curse was true." he admitted.
Mickey shook his head and asked Terrance, "But even so, do you think it's actually better to hurt innocent people instead of just warning them about the dangers?" incredulously and slight disgust.
"To stop this monster? Let me think." Terrance pretended to think for a second, before answering in unison with Ardeth coldly, "Yes!"
"You know, you could've always just built a ten-foot wall with a sign that says, "Keep Out" or something. Would've made things a lot easier and those signs usually do the trick." Axel pointed out as he sat slouched in one of the chairs, as though stating the obvious. "Or, I don't know, never mentioned about that place to the public and kept it secret?"
'Like you care.' Riku thought bitterly, but kept those thoughts to himself. On the other hand, a ten foot wall with a keep out sign or never mention hints and riddles about the city itself to the public really would've made things a bit easier. Or both for that matter.
While Rick was in agreement with Axel's suggestion, he instead asked with a skeptical look, "Question. Why doesn't he like cats?" remembering how Imhotep ran off screaming at the sight of a cat-almost literally.
"Yeah, that poor little fella would've been in more danger than the mummy himself." Mickey added. "Unless he was small, which I can understand, but the mummy has dangerous powers, while the kitty...well...she would've just only used her claws or hissed or run off in terror."
"Perhaps normal cats, but Imhotep doesn't know that yet." Terrance explained, "You see, cats are guardians to the gateways of the Underworld. He will fear them until he is fully regenerated."
"And then he'll fear nothing." Ardeth concluded.
'Don't remember Hades mention anything like that.' Riku thought to himself, remembering the uncomfortable memories of when Maleficent used him and how he was stuck with several villians from other worlds who all had been defeated. Then again, Riku never went to the Underworld and didn't plan to at all. He figured that it was almost just as bad as the Realm of Darkness.
Instead, he said aloud, "So as long as he doesn't know about normal cats not doing much harm, and as long he's still...well, you know, might use the cat to scare him off a bit the next time he comes back."
"Unless we bring in a giant cat who could most likely eat him before he gets the chance to recover." Axel joked with a smirk.
Mickey, Evy, Jonathan, Rick, Riku, Henderson, Daniels, even both Terrance and Ardeth stared at him with mouth-gapping looks of disbelief at such a joke. While the joke itself is very unlikely, it was still...well, rather disturbing despite that the idea itself wasn't half-bad. But still. A giant cat eating an undead walking corpse.
Ew.
Deciding to forget the joke, Daniels began, "Well, you know how he gets himself fully regenerated?"
"By killin' everyone who opened that chest." Henderson grumbled.
"And suckin' them dry, that's how!"
Well that certainly explained what happened to poor Burns, Mickey realised. He was one of those who opened the chest which was the first key to unleash the curse of Imhotep. Vanitas must've known this. The king now wished he'd known sooner about this situation that was no doubt causing this world to fall into darkness. He visibly shuddered as he closed his eyes, trying to block out the memories of the empty eye-sockets of the late adventurer.
He was brought out of his thoughts when Evy spoke up again, "When Mickey and I first saw him alive in Hamunapta, he called me...Anck-Su-Namun."
The name of Anck-Su-Namun had Ardeth and Terrance pause, their expression turning into a mixture of surprise and realization, which allowed Evy to continue, "And just yesterday at Burn's quarters he...tried to kiss me."
"Please don't remind me of that." Riku groaned, placing his hand onto his face as he still tried to rid the images of that scene that was still stuck in his head.
Axel quirked an eyebrow and asked, "Who is An-whatever it was?" unable to speak the unusual name properly. Whoever this Anck-Su-Namun was, one) it was very obviously a woman, and two) if Imhotep called Evelyn that name, then she must resemble to someone the bad guy knew in the past.
Terrance, realising what this means, said, "Anck-Su-Namun was to be Seti's wife. But she was the cause of that he was cursed." he looked at Ardeth and added, "Apparently, even after 3,000 years..."
Ardeth nodded in agreement, "He is still in love with her."
"Are you saying that she and the mummy were in love?" Mickey asked, once again shocked. Ardeth and Terrance both nodded to confirm his suspicions.
"Tough romance." Axel shook his head. Why did love had to be so complicated? When he meant complicated, he meant that he'd vaguely seen a human girl having a relationship with a beast and that, he had already decided, was weird and complicated.
Riku was thinking along the same lines, and the hidden guilt for confronting the Beast in Hollow Bastion hanged deeply in his heart. He himself kidnapped the princesses, away from their lovers, just for Maleficent and all because of lies just to reuight with Kairi, had been lied that Sora gave him and Kairi up, while in reality, Sora kept on looking for him and Kairi.
"Well, yes, that's very romantic, but what has that got to do with me?" Evy questioned.
Mickey thought about it, then shrugged and suggested, "Maybe he thought you kinda looked like Anck-Su-Namun and mistaked you for her."
"After 3,000 years?" Axel asked, skeptically. "His girlfriend's obviously dead by now."
Ardeth seemed to agree, because he said to Terrance, "Despite this, he could once again try to raise her back from the dead."
"Again?" Mickey, Rick, Axel and Riku all asked. Did that mean Imhotep tried to revive his lover before?
"Anck-Su-Namun and Imhotep both killed the Pharaoh Seti the First, before Anck-Su-Namun killed herself." Ardeth explained as he turned to face the four of them.
"And lemme guess," Axel sighed, suddenly thinking where things started to go bad, "The bad guy decided to bring her back but didn't get the chance, right?"
"Wait a minute." Mickey thought. "The book of the dead can being dead people back to life, and he tried to use that book to bring back the girl he really loved, but then that means..."
"He was cursed to suffer the curse." Riku concluded, also coming to the same conclusion.
Axel shook his head, grumbling, "This is something out of a tragic play."
"Yes," Terrance agreed, and gazed his eyes at Evy and concluded, "And it appears Imhotep has chosen his sacrifice." which Ardeth also gazed at the now speechless woman. Mickey and Riku both glanced at each other in shock. Imhotep was planning on sacrificing Evy to bring back Anck-Su-Namun?
"Why would he do that?" Riku asked.
"Simple." Axel realised, "Since his girlfriend's body is a decayed mummy now, he needs a human girl's body to place his said girlfriend's soul into, by killing the body's original soul."
"And he nees the book the of the dead to do that." Riku realised, despite that he wanted to smack himself for agreeing with a member of the Organization. "That'll take him a while to patch things up with himself."
Terrance stood up as he said, "But it may give us enough time to kill him."
"We'll need all the help we can get." Ardeth stated, staring up at the glass ceiling. "His powers are growing." causing everyone else to look up as somehow the moon was blocking out the sun's light, forming an unusual eclipse.
Axel blinked, "First blood through the plumming and now this?"
"They're were the two plauges; rivers and waters in Egypt ran red...and were as blood." Jonathan quoted, before quoting again about the eclipse, "And he stretched forth his hand towards the heavens, and there was darkness throughout the lands of Egypt."
'Darkness...he's spreading his darkness to this world quickly.' Riku realised in horror.
Time was running out.
In an abandoned empty building in the streets of Cairo, Vanitas, Imhotep who once again rore the black cloak and Beni discussed the next step of the goal to restore Imhotep to his human form and find the rest of the canobic jars as well as the Book of the Dead to revive Imhotep's lover, Anck-Su-Namun.
"So you're saying that all cats are guardians to the gateway of the Underworld?" Vanitas asked in ancient egyptain after Imhotep explained why he ran away from the white cat in Burn's room earlier. At the undead mummy's confirmed nod, the raven-haired boy rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance and slight disbelief. Didn't this guy realise that mortal cats were less capable to do as what immortal cats could do?
Even King Mickey could tell the difference and he was a mouse for crying out loud! Talk about ridiculous!
"Why do you look so annoyed with this? They can send me back to the Underworld before I get the chance to restore my original form!" Imhotep angrily pointed out.
Vanitas wasn't fazed by the angry outburst, and, deciding that explaining that detail about mortal cats being in more of a risk than anything else would be a complete was of time, and shrugged, "Whatever. At least you can easily get away from them with your sand-teleport spells. In the meantime, it's that book and the rest of the canobic jars and three other victums we'll be looking for, right?"
Calming down a little on getting back onto the important parts of their goal, Imhotep nodded, and added, "And bring me Anck-Su-Namun's resurrected body."
Nodding in agreement, Vanitas then turned to Beni who just stood there, only having a vague clue on what the two of them were talking about, and the former told him in english this time, "This is how it's gonna work. You go find that egyptologist guy and get the black book where his office is. His royal highness and I are gonna split up to search the streets for whoever else has the jars and opened the chest."
"I can find his office easily. He could be there too and he hugs that book like a teddy bear." Beni replied, as he walked out the empty building to begin his search. All he had to do was ask around and then scavage through the office to find what they're looking for.
Once Beni was out of earsdrop, Vanitas and Imhotep glanced at each other again and both smirked. In reality, they were counting on Beni to have an encounter with the ones in this situation to be distracted while they find the remaining ones under the curse.
"Time for round 2." Said Vanitas.
While Imhotep did not yet know about the modern world's words, he still nodded in agreement.
Back with Riku and the others...
After returning to Evy's room, the group discussed about what to do next in order to prevent Imhotep from restoring his human form and who to save whoever opened the stupid chest.
"Alright, who opened that chest?" Mickey questioned to Henderson and Daniels, while everyone else either seated or stood in the room.
"Well, there's me and Daniels here." Henderson answered, before quickly remembering, "Oh, and Burns."
"And that Egyptologist feller." Daniels added.
Rick, who had been staring out of the window while listening to the conversation, turned to look at the rivals and asked, "What about my buddy Beni?"
"Nah, he scrammed outta there before we opened it." Daniels shook his head.
Henderson nodded in agreement, "Yeah, he was the smart one."
"Then there's that guy Vanitas to worry about too." Riku spoke up. "I don't know what he wants, but he's not going to get away with using the book to wake up the mummy."
'Or keeping me trapped in this world.' Axel added in his mind. He had a bone to pick at that black-spiky haired kid. Which also confused him on why no one else in the Organization were alerted by his absence or the pressence of Vanitas. Maybe everyone thought Axel himself had perished too.
Nah, only the Dusks would give out that misunderstanding. Those weaker Nobodies never get things right, and they seemed to love playing jokes on Roxas.
"If we find the Egyptologist, we can bring back to safety of the fort." Evy told the group.
"Sounds like a plan." Riku agreed.
"Right." Rick nodded in agreement, before firmly ordering, "She stays here, the rest of you, come with me." and while Riku and Mickey both nodded and made to move to follow Rick, Axel groaned, and everyone else had a problem. Jonathan, Henderson and Daniels didn't want to leave and Evy didn't want to stay behind.
"Who put you in charge!?" Evy protested angrily, "You can't leave me behind like some old carpet bag!"
"Ugh, I've had it." Axel groaned as he stood from his leaning position and went over to Evy and easily lifted her over his shoulder, carrying her into her bedroom despire her protests, and Axel caught the slight smirk on Rick's face.
"Axel! What do you think you're doing!?" Evy yelled, before crying out to her brother.
"Uh, sorry." Jonathan said, a bit scaredly. "But he's taller and scarier."
Riku and Mickey both glanced at Rick who shrugged, as Axel plonked Evy onto the bed and made it out of the room just as she got up and followed him, but the time she did he closed the doors behind him and locked it shut and locked her inside, while Evy continued to yell and banged onto the door, furiously demanding to be let out.
Seeing the others' expressions, Axel shrugged and said, "She was giving me a headache already."
Deciding not to question it, Rick then turned to Daniels and Henderson, telling them while handing the former rival the keys after Axel give it to him, "That door doesn't open. She doesn't come out, and no one goes in. Right?"
"Right." Daniels and Henderson both nodded.
Sastified, Rick told Riku, Mickey, Axel and Jonathan, "Let's go, guys." and while the other three nodded and followed(though Axel was still grumbling), Jonathan just stayed in his seat.
"Oh, I think I'll stay here." said Jonathan.
"Jonathan!" Riku and Mickey both said.
A bit freaked out, Jonathan quickly stood up and told the other two, "Uh, we're uh, we're gonna go save the Egyptologist." and followed the other four out of the room to begin their search for Allen and the Book of the Dead before Imhotep and Vanitas could.
As the five of them just exited the hotel and onto the streets, to their frustration three bulky Heartless appear in front of them. While Jonathan jumped in fright and nearly hid behind Rick, the latter quickly drew out his guns, Mickey summoned his Keyblade, Riku summoned his Soul Eater and Axel summoned his Chakrams ready to eliminate the Heartless as quickly as possible.
To their surprise, however, an unfamiliar woman suddenly jumped from the side and gave out a single punch and two kicks at all of the three Heartless who all just vanished instantly. When she was done, she flicked her fringe of her long black hair out of her eyes, and turned to the stunned group who all held shocked and incredulous expressions on their faces.
This woman, aside of her long black hair down to the back of her knees, which was tied up to a very low and loose ponytail, had chocolate red-brown eyes, pale-ish skin, a white tank top with a shoulder belted black shots, red and black fingerless boxing gloves, and black boots.
The boys were speechless and dumbfounded. They'd never seen a woman fight the heartless with just her, obviously, martial arts skills before.
"Uh...wow." Riku muttered.
"Are you guys surprised?" The woman asked. She was no older than 21 years old.
"Well, yeah." Axel answered, awkwardly. "That...was absolutely amazing."
"How'd you do that?" Rick asked as he put his guns away, while Mickey and the others de-summoned their weapons, and Jonathan blinked.
The woman shrugged, "I trained." before asking, "Anyway, I'm looking for somebody. Have any of you seen a guy with spiky hair?"
The group blinked, before looking at Axel who tugged one of his hair spikes slightly. The only other spiky haired guys he knew so far were Sora, Roxas and Vanitas.
Giggling, the woman explained again, "Spikier and blonde, and about a year older than me."
"Nope. Sorry, ma'am." Mickey shrugged apologetically, while the others shook their heads as well. "But we were gonna look for somebody else too, and, well..."
"Let's just say there's a real-life mummy on the loose." Axel continued for the king. "Literally."
The woman blinked in confusion, before glancing a skeptical but questioning look at the others who nodded to confirm that Axel was telling the truth. Sighing, she placed her hands on her hips and grumbled, "Why doesn't that suprise me? After everything I've seen so far, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that mummies are real too."
"Well, at least you're smart to believe in curses." Rick sighed, only for Riku, Mickey, and Axel to cast him annoyed and warning looks, which caused him to shrug cluelessly, "What? What'd I say?"
While she did look a bit annoyed, the woman then thought about something and then spoke up, "Maybe I can help you find this person while I'm here." much to their surprise.
"What? Um, are you...sure about that?" Riku asked, awkwardly.
"Well, we can't just let her go out in the dark all by herself and it is getting late." Mickey quickly agreed once he thought about it for a moment. "Besides, the mummy could hurt her and he can't go away until we find a way to stop him."
"He has a point." Jonathan agreed.
"I have no objections." Axel shrugged. Even he knew better than to underestimate women, having been stuck with a grouchy one named Larxene before Sora, Donald and Goofy defeated her at Castle Oblivion.
Riku and Rick both glanced at each other, before giving up and sighed, and turned back to the woman and nodded.
They just hoped this woman wouldn't get in their way or cause any problems. One woman to worry about was bad enough.
A/N: Recongise this female character? *winks* It just came to me and I thought, what the heck? Might was well, I thought to myself.