Mokuba was having a blast, taking all sorts of pictures with his digital camera. Beside him Ryou and Marik were looking around with interest.
Seth took one look at the scene around him and cursed.
"What was that for?" asked Ryou confused.
"We're right in the middle of the damn Blood war that Tom Riddle is waging against the old goat. A little warning would have been nice Bastet."
"And miss your reaction to the truth? You do realize that you can meet your own grandparents in this time."
"Right, first things first, let's find the O'Connell family."
"Why?" asked Akefia.
"Because you know Imhotep is going to be pissed when he wakes up."
"Point. Let's go see Rick then."
By the time Horus found the O'Connell family's house, they could hear someone shooting inside. Horus looked at his brother.
"Marik, Ryou, keep an eye on Mokuba. Allah knows his brother would have all our heads if he was in the middle of a gun fight," said Horus. Ryou chuckled.
"Anyone comes to close with a gun, I'll set Malik on him," grinned Marik evilly.
"You get into any trouble, use the Ring to summon me. Got that?" said Akefia. Since Horus' arrival, Ryou found the spirit much easier to live with. Akefia treated Ryou like their innocent younger brother, which suited him just fine because he didn't fear his black outs anymore.
Akefia and Horus split up. Akefia went to help Rick while Horus went to assist Evy.
"Horus!"
"Hello again Evy!" said Horus, cheerfully using the sword he stole from Hamunaptra to cut off hands.
"Mum! Who's that?" asked a small blond boy.
"Ohho! I see you put the treasure we gave you to good use!" said Horus grinning.
"Now's not the time! They're after the bracelet!"
"Which one?"
"Anubis!"
Horus blinked.
"You were dumb enough to find the bracelet of Anubis during the year of the Scorpion? Anyone who puts it on will end up only having seven days to find the oasis and get to the temple before it kills them!" said Horus incredulous.
He was the only one to hear the boy's gasp of surprise.
During the commotion, Evy was taken and so was the chest. Horus grabbed the boy while Ardeth covered his back.
"Okay, now can someone please explain what the hell you woke up this time?" complained Akefia.
"I can take a guess. If Ardeth is here, then Imhotep is as well. Your tribe's primary duty is to insure creatures like Imhotep stay buried, since your tribe has the largest number of god-touched in each generation. Am I right?" said Horus.
Ardeth merely nodded. The protection Horus gave him the last time they met primarily protected his tribe from the Ministry. Because of this, their numbers had jumped to nearly double.
"So, how long has it been since we last saw each other?" asked Akefia.
"Nine years. Why?" asked Rick, who took a closer look at his old friends.
"We time jump. Apparently Tom hasn't given up on using Imhotep, so Bastet sent us back again. We bring friends this time too," said Horus.
"Can we come out now?" complained Mokuba.
"The shooting's over with," Horus called back.
"Who're they?" asked Rick.
"I know what one of them is," growled Ardeth.
"Ardeth, back off. Marik hates the Tomb Keepers as much as you do, and he was born into them. His sister is the one who takes pride in being a half-assed guardian," said Horus.
"Normally I would try to defend them, but he's right. I never wanted to be a Tomb Keeper, and the only reason we haven't been able to stop the goblins raiding the tombs of the mages is because they refuse to renegotiate the deal my father made until I reach 17. That being said, I have more respect for the Medjai than I do my own clan."
Ardeth's glare dropped a bit at that.
"That being said, let me introduce my friends here. Pale boy here is Ryou Bakura, Akefia's younger brother, Mokuba Kaiba, who asked to come along next time we went to stop Imhotep, and Mari Ishtar, my descendant."
"What?" said Rick and Ardeth.
"Long story short, I was raised around the same time as the Nameless Pharaoh and forceably dragged back a few years ago. Before that time, I had a friend named Peri who ended up having my kid, resulting in Marik's line."
"Still can't believe my many times great-grandmother was from a brothel..." grumbled Marik.
"Actually, Peri was an herb seller. The problem was that she was so plain-looking no one wanted anything to do with her. Fortunately for her, Horus is a nice person," snickered Akefia.
"Peri was a cute girl," nodded Horus.
"So what do we do now?"
"Now we have to retrieve Evy and find out where the hell Amh Shere is. Otherwise whoever's wearing the bracelet is going to die on the seventh day," said Horus.
"Bracelet? What bracelet?" said Akefia.
"The one that lead to the Scorpion King. You know, that one idiot who ran Gomorrah until the plague hit?"
"Dear Bast, that story is as old as we are! Wasn't that the guy who killed the barbarian and married the Seer?" said Akefia.
"The Akkadian. One of the last," said Horus nodding.
"You two sound like you've been there," said Rick.
"Well, not really, but that story wasn't nearly as old. In fact it was something of a bedtime story for children when we were growing up. Legend has it an Akkadian named Mathias killed the barbarian king who had been decimating the nearby kingdoms and united them until a plague hit. His queen was a powerful Seer, and was one of those killed. He wandered around for a few years before saving a jungle kingdom and marrying the princess. And that was before he got it in his head to try to reunite the place all over again, which lead to his defeat. That happened roughly fifty, maybe seventy-five years before I crashed into you?" asked Horus.
"It was in my grandfather's time, and he watched the King burn down a palace from the streets," said Akefia.
"...You two sound like old fogies," said Mokuba flatly.
Alex, Rick's son, snickered in agreement.
"Maybe, but we're still a hell of a lot more fun to be around than your brother. Coincidentally, don't tell him we dragged you into the middle of a gun fight when we get back."
Mokuba snickered.
"Hey I know him! He's the curator! He works at the British Museum!" said Alex, looking at the photo Ardeth had.
"Are you sure?"
"You better believe him, he spends more time there than he does at home," said Rick annoyed.
"So where's the bracelet?" asked Akefia.
"Ask Alex here. I noted that you seemed unusually interested in what happens when someone puts on the bracelet."
"Well Alex?" asked Akefia.
Alex pulled up his sleeve to reveal a tacky looking gold bracelet around his wrist.
"Ugh...I wouldn't steal that unless someone paid me," said Akefia.
"It is rather tacky," admitted Horus.
"My car only seats five," said Rick.
"Oh don't worry about that. We'll just make the Aurors work overtime obliviating any who sees us," said Horus.
"By putting that bracelet on you have started a chain of events that could bring about the next apocalypse!" said Ardeth.
Alex gasped. Mokuba snorted.
"My brother keeps ending up in the middle of that nonsense quite a bit. Apocalypses generally aren't as bad as you think," he snorted.
"He has a valid point. End of world events happen all the time and are averted at the last second even more often," said Horus.
"You, lighten up. You, big trouble. You, get in the car," said Rick, to Ardeth, Alex and Jonathan respectively. Horus snickered.
Horus, Akefia, Marik and Ryou landed while Mokuba stayed in the car with Alex.
"Right. Marik, you want to flip with Ryou to see who guards the car with these two?" asked Horus.
"Nah. I've seen enough museums for a lifetime. I'll stay here," said Marik.
"How about you, Malik?" asked Akefia.
Rick and Ardeth blinked and next to Marik was a doppelganger beside him, only he looked much more evil and insane.
"Will I get to shoot people?" asked Malik in Arabic.
"Only if you avoid Nefertiti and the people here. Deal?" replied Akefia.
"Wait, did you say Nefertiti? I thought we were here to rescue Evy?" asked Jonathan.
"Your sister happens to be the reincarnation of Nefertiti. Since Malik is a creature of the Shadow Realm, he would recognize her soul faster than he would her more modern counterpart. Particularly since she was the guardian of the bracelet Alex has," said Horus.
"Remember Malik, aim for anyone who isn't coming in with us, or the reincarnation of Nefertiti," said Akefia.
"I get to shot people. You think I'm going to give you a reason to take the gun away?" asked Malik.
"You only listen to Horus because he tends to brain you with blunt objects," said Akefia.
"Which reminds me. Marik, if we come out running you'll need something to brain people with," said Horus. He summoned his favorite bat and Malik winced, taking half a step back.
"What about me?" asked Ryou.
"Ryou, I know for a fact you have your wand on you. If anything that isn't one of us here comes out, or worse a mummy, start casting fire spells as fast as you can. Mummies tend to go up in flames rather quickly. And I know they wouldn't be stupid enough to try to bring my babies here," said Horus.
"You and your bloody scarabs..." muttered Akefia.
As they walked through the museum, they were in a rather odd grouping. Ardeth and Rick took point, Malik in the middle with Horus and Akefia took the back. Malik was only in the middle by din of fact that Horus wouldn't hesitate to brain him if he did something stupid, and he didn't want to have to reach past his brother to do it.
They could hear chanting, and Horus grimaced.
"Those idiots are casting a spell from the Book of the Dead in the middle of a museum filled with lesser mummies. At least most of those are in cases," said Horus.
"How can you tell?" asked Ardeth.
"Only a high priest can memorize spells from either book. However, Chosen are considered high priests in their own right," explained Horus.
By the time they reached the area where the chanting was coming from, Imhotep had just been revived...and Ankh-su-Namen's reincarnation was there as well.
"You know, a couple of years ago this would have seemed really strange to me," said Rick, patting Ardeth on the shoulder.
Horus spotted Evy, and pointed her out to Malik. The wild-eyed spirit grinned, and marked her in his mind. Now he wouldn't hit her when he started to shoot.
(Meanwhile, back at the car...)
Alex was describing to a rapt audience about the Scorpion King's pyramid and about a massive diamond. Mokuba was disenchanted with the idea. Marik and Ryou were playing Duel Monsters on the trunk on top of a piece of cloth that Ryou had spelled to remain dry.
So he changed the subject to games Alex liked.
The two were soon having an interesting debate about games, some of which Alex had never even heard of because they were from the future. Still, at least Mokuba wasn't bored anymore.
Horus frowned as they went to burn Evy. He rather liked the woman, and from what he could tell she was in enough shock that she hadn't thought to cast the flame freezing charm.
Finally Evy came to her senses and cast it wandlessly. Which meant even if Rick couldn't get to her in time she would be fine. Rick actually leaped across the flames to rescue her.
Soon it became an all out gun fight with Ardeth and Marik shooting at anyone who wasn't friend while Akefia and Horus used their ability to appear from the shadows to slit throats indiscriminately.
Horus popped beside Malik long enough to tell the spirit he could mind crush whoever he damn well pleased so long as they hadn't been marked as friendly before hand.
And with that, all bets were off.
His insane cackling sent shivers of fear down the spines of those who sought to awaken Imhotep and use him to command the Army of Anubis. Magic, bullets and knives were thrown around like party favors. Horus noted that a few wizards were caught in the fray, likely minions of Voldemort sent from the future.
It wasn't until Imhotep summoned the mummified guards that the curator had dug up that things changed for his side.
"DESTROY THEM!" roared Imhotep.
The mummies roared in reply, and ran towards the group.
"I HATE DEALING WITH MUMMIES!" yelled Akefia.
"MALIK! FIRE SPELLS NOW!" roared Horus, running for his life.
Malik started to run awkwardly as he shot fire spells behind them, most of them missing by a mile. However, they did destroy a few of the lesser mummies that had been awoken by the ceremony. It would be interesting to see how they explained the scorch marks.
The second Horus saw what Jonathan had stolen in place of Rick's car, his jaw dropped and he resisted the urge to laugh hysterically with great difficulty.
Trust a squib to steal the Knight Bus. The shrunken head was cussing Jonathan out big time.
"What happened to my car?!" demanded Rick.
"This idiot broke the key in the ignition out of hysterics!" said Mokuba.
"HE WHAT?!"
"Shut up and get on already! Jonathan, budge over! You won't be able to handle driving this damn thing!" said Horus.
Jonathan was handed a gun, and everyone piled in. Malik, Ryou and Akefia took the top, ready to shoot fire spells at anything that came near them while Rick reloaded his guns next to them. Ardeth, Marik and Jonathan got theirs ready while Evy kept an eye on Alex and Mokuba. Horus was better at driving at high speeds, which was the only reason he was able to get his pilot's license. As such, he was deemed driver of the bus while everyone else took out the mummies chasing them.
Rick watched the mummies run on his car, crushing it and he looked pissed.
"Oh I hate mummies..." he growled.
"Glad to see me now?" asked Ardeth.
"Just like old times, huh?" quipped Rick.
The escape had begun.