Marik and Ryou were getting into the swing of killing the Anubis Warriors while Akefia and Horus kept an eye on Mokuba. Mokuba was there for one reason...he wanted to help Imhotep once he realized that the boy had been right all along about his reincarnated lover.
Imhotep had been having doubts ever since he saw the woman's look when he lost his powers. Those doubts had only grown stronger when she refused to stand by him to confront the Scorpion King.
Suddenly Rick caught the Scepter of Osiris, and stabbed Mathias in the stomach with it while being directly above a pit that lead to the underworld. If he fell in there, he would be taken straight to the underworld without question. Imhotep was too close to the pit, so when the floor started to rumble underneath he nearly fell in.
Mokuba tensed.
Akefia and Horus waited for the women to choose. Would they possibly sacrifice themselves for their lovers, or would they flee?
Evy didn't think twice. She went to her husband's side. Ankh-Su-Namen, however, was more interested in survival than helping Imhotep. Imhotep was devastated.
Akefia and Horus appeared by the pit and grabbed the priest. Once he was out, Horus turned to Evy and Rick.
"Get out of the pyramid as quickly as you can. Anubis plans to reclaim the oasis once the remainder of his power vanishes. We'll take care of Imhotep from now on. Mokuba, you got the other book?"
"I have the Book of the Dead. I grabbed it once Alex resurrected his mom."
"Right then. Let's go pick up the others and be off. Hopefully we won't have to make another trip back to the past again," said Horus.
"You're taking him with you?"
"I daresay we can handle a former priest. By Bast, we outdate him Rick! Now get going!" said Horus amused.
"You two about ready to leave?" asked Akefia.
Ardeth shot Imhotep a look.
"Relax Ardeth. Imhotep was robbed of his powers by Anubis. According to Bastet, he will have to live out the remainder of his life as a mortal wizard, just like I have to. He won't be around to bring back anymore, since we're taking him with us," said Horus.
"I suppose this is goodbye," said Ardeth.
"Not particularly. When you get a user ID, remember to keep an eye out for the name ChosenOfBast. We'll talk again once you realize what I'm talking about," said Horus.
Ardeth nodded, though he hadn't a clue what Horus meant.
Imhotep looked so out of his league when he entered the plane. It wasn't surprising, since most of the technology was far beyond what they had at the time he was awakened.
Mokuba, however, eased the way by introducing him to Duel Monsters, which was the modern equivalent of the Shadow Games. Even if he had some trouble translating the rules, Akefia was so amused by his attempts that he helped the kid.
"So Mokie...did you get a picture of the Scorpion King?"
"Yup. Once I did, I handed it to Ryou and he got some Anubis Warriors on there too."
"That reminds me...we swiped some weapons from those things that looked interesting," said Ryou.
"And they didn't disappear?" asked Akefia.
Marik held a few up.
"Huh. Seems Anubis didn't care if you kept them. They should have vanished once their previous owners died."
Bastet appeared, and the look on Imhotep's face was highly amusing. He looked like he was about to bow before her if it didn't look like he would be foolish in doing so.
"Anubis only allowed it as a lesson to the fools who lost them in the first place. If they can't keep onto their weapons in battle, then they don't deserve to have them. He wants me to inform you that you can keep them as trophies for all he cares."
"Did he say anything about the treasure?" asked Horus, not taking his eyes off in front of him.
"He could care less. He knew the price of allowing you anywhere near the pyramid and said that you were free to have it. Though he was annoyed by the fact that fool stole the diamond off it."
Horus nearly jerked the plane.
"Jonathan actually snagged that huge diamond?" he said in surprise.
"He grabbed it at the last second while the dirigible was just barely above the sand."
"That guy is almost at our level," Horus whistled.
"Wait, why didn't you take that diamond?" asked Mokuba.
"Too heavy and it would be impossible to sell without alerting the cops. Even the goblins wouldn't touch that thing. The only thing that rock could be used for is a glorified paperweight," said Horus flatly.
"Sadly he's right. Not to mention the fact that it was unbelievably tacky even for us."
"So then why did Jonathan take it?" asked Ryou.
"Because it would be easier to sell the thing during that time than it would in ours," said Horus.
Kaiba took one look at the bald Egyptian and said "Friend of yours?"
"More a friend of Mokuba than ours at the moment," said Seth.
"Right. Did anything bad happen to my brother on your trip?"
"Would you relax Seto? He's nowhere near as annoying as Yugi's darker half or worse Jounouchi," said Mokuba.
"Word of warning, he only speaks Ancient Egyptian, so you might want to have Set speak to him," said Seth.
Seto blinked, and Mokuba could tell there was a different person in control.
Set looked Imhotep in the eye and asked him something in Egyptian. Imhotep was surprised, but answered anyway.
"Fine. He can stay, but he isn't living in our house," said Seto flatly.
"Lucky for us, I happen to have a house in Domino thanks to the goblins that we were planning on moving into anyway. Imhotep can have one of the bedrooms."
"Fine by me. You can get the priest acclimated. I want him speaking plain English or passable Japanese before I hire him," said Seto.
"Deal."
"So how bad was the fallout?" asked Bakura.
Seto grimaced.
"The idiot Pharaoh got his better half captured just to bail his ass out," said Seto.
The thieves looked at each other before snickering.
"You know what this means don't you?" asked Seth.
"We'll be rid of him sooner than we hoped for at the rate he's going!" crowed Bakura.
As it turned out, Imhotep was a quick study when it came to languages. It didn't hurt that Mokuba was willing to help him, since the former priest identified with the boy faster than any of the others. Since everyone in Seth's new seven bedroom house could speak Ancient Egyptian, it took little time for Imhotep to get used to the new times...though it took a bit longer for him to finally speak Japanese and English.
One of the first things Seth did once he got back was stop by England and raid the Department of Mysteries. He stole a few Time Turners and destroyed the rest, along with the notes on how to make more. He also ruined the research into the modified ones, which meant it would take years before they could recreate it since their only working models had been stolen by Death Eaters in order to capture Imhotep.
Imhotep didn't mind working as the bodyguard for Mokuba, since it meant he would spend more time with one of the few people he could actually get along with.
Of course there was a bit of an issue when he finally had a run in with the Pharaoh.
Anzu was eager to see if they could convert Mokuba's newest bodyguard Siris to their team. Seth had been quite annoying in claiming all the interesting players for himself.
At this point there were two groups associated with the past that Yugi dealt with.
Those that stood by the Pharaoh, and those who acted as neutral parties. Seto Kaiba, during their last encounter during the whole Ancient Civilization mess, had told the Pharaoh rather bluntly that he was on Bakura's side, not his.
Anzu had not been pleased. Seth had gathered some of the most powerful allies the Pharaoh (whom she still had a crush on) could have on his side, yet they only helped when their was either something in it for them or they had no other choice.
Siris was a rather handsome, if clearly foreign man who spoke barely passable Japanese. It was clear he shaved his head, because you could see where the hair would grow normally. He also had a habit of wearing what was clearly authentic Egyptian symbols and jewelry...and after spending so much time with Isis and the Pharaoh it was hard not to miss it.
What bothered Anzu the most was that Isis had absolutely no idea who Siris actually was, just that he popped out of nowhere after the mess with the dragons was over and Mokuba came back. He was strangely loyal to the younger Kaiba, though he was genuinely respectful to the older one, which was both odd and rare in itself.
The real surprise was that Seto Kaiba showed him the same respect back, even when it was Set that was doing the talking. And that alone was beyond odd, because Set and Seto had the same idea of whom to give respect. Seto barely tolerated Yami and Set barely tolerated having to be around Yami's friends.
Yet they willingly dealt with Siris without issue.
She spotted Siris at a local cafe enjoying a cup of ice tea.
The second he saw her, his face turned into a frown. She could only hope that Bakura and Marik hadn't turned him against her before she could say a word.
Imhotep was enjoying the relative peace of his day off. Seth had been the one to come up with his new name so he could fit in better, since apparently if the local priestess heard his name she would have kittens about them bringing him with them.
Imhotep was just surprised that the God of the Dead didn't take offense to the fact that Seth, who he knew as Horus, had chosen to give him a name like Osiris or Siris to everyone else. In fact most of the other guards, once they got over the fact he had trouble speaking Japanese or English, got along rather well with him.
They seemed to put him on the same rank as Seth, which is to say foreign. They could care less if he spoke Ancient Egyptian or the fact that his lover had stabbed him in the back when he actually needed her.
He found drinking some of the modern fair and reminiscing about the good times with the other guards rather therapeutic, since they were actually quite sympathetic to his problem. The longer he stayed in the present, the more he was glad his plans had never actually succeeded...right up until the point the woman his comrades had warned him of came up to him in hopes of getting him to join their cause.
Five minutes of listening to her friendship speeches, and he was very, very glad he could barely understand a word in five since he didn't have a translation charm on at the time.
He knew enough to order tea and had been walked through how to use a credit card to pay for his drink, but that was about it. He was currently trying to read a rather simple book about Egyptian Mythology (which was given to him by Horus because it made anyone who knew Bastet and the other gods laugh) which was in English to improve his ability to read.
It was slow going, but at least he made an effort to learn.
Once the girl realized he wasn't paying her any attention, she huffed indignantly and left. Ryou had been hiding, since he had spotted her nearby, and he gave his sympathies to the former priest.
Imhotep waved him off. The girl had been annoying, but her voice had been on the level of a fly at best. Irritating, but easily ignored with practice.
When Seth heard about the run in with Anzu, he winced.
"What did he do?"
"Barely paid her any attention and kept trying to read that book you gave him," said Ryou.
"Wait, so he blatantly ignored her? That's going to piss her off," said Bakura.
"She seems to take it personally that you snatched anyone remotely powerful away from his little group," said Marik.
"...We could always let him stab her or something and claim that we were too busy teaching him the language to think about warning him of murder..." said Seth.
There was stone silence...then Marik broke it.
"Think we could actually get away with it? I mean her voice and rants are on par with that chick from that ninja series who was completely useless until the time skip," he said.
"If you mean Sakura Haruno from Naruto, I completely agree. I say we do a wait and see approach. If she continues to pester him, then we can lay the blame entirely on her. If not, then we'll have to deal with it. Either way we won't go out of our way to protect her from Imhotep," said Seth flatly.
"Then there's the fact that the Pharaoh has no idea who Siris actually is," said Bakura snorting.
They heard someone come down. It was Imhotep, and he looked vaguely annoyed.
"That woman was most irritating."
"We know. She seems to live in a world of sunshine and flowers. Frankly none of us can tolerate her presence for very long before we get the desire to stab her," said Seth flatly.
Imhotep had an odd look on his face.
"Anything against attacking her or otherwise shutting her up?"
"If she continues to bother you, then it's her own damn fault. The only reason she's still alive is because we would rather not deal with the Pharaoh bitching about it. Well, that and Shaadi would get on my ass about interference," said Seth.
Bakura realized something.
"Come to think of it, his interference is solely based on Shadow Realm issues. Despite the fact that you are from the past, he wouldn't have any actual jurisdiction on you or your actions, and neither would that damn Pharaoh because you were after his time. You know what this means, don't you?"
"Not a clue," said Imhotep, vaguely amused.
"It means that you can kill that bitch and not suffer the consequences of the Pharaoh. You don't have Shadow Magic, so he can't exactly punish you to the extent he can us. Hell, his Puzzle's ability is strictly limited to punishing anyone who harms his lighter half... I don't think it covers his friends!" said Seth with barely restrained glee.
"Does this mean we don't have to deal with the Friendship Whore anymore?" asked Marik.
"As long as Imhotep is here, never again. Imhotep, if she keeps bothering you we'll cheer you on if you kill her in the most painful way imaginable. Just leave the short, spiked kid with the gold upside down Pyramid alone and the Pharaoh will have trouble touching you," said Seth with glee.
"I'll keep that in mind. But what makes you believe she'll come back again?"
"The fact she wants to add to their group. They barely have any players who could help their precious Pharaoh during the end of world schemes that continue to pop up. Having you on their side would be quite a boon," said Marik flatly.
Imhotep looked visibly ill at the thought of dealing with that fool girl any more than he had to.
A/N: Imhotep is here to stay people. As for the fact that I'm making him relatively immune to the Pharaoh's Mind Crush and Shaadi's interference, here is my reasoning.
Imhotep came long after the Pharaoh's reign, and has never had any contact with Shadow Magic until Horus came along. Even the method they used to travel through time isn't Shadow Magic, but rather a gift from the gods to do work for them when needed.
And, according to Canon, Shaadi has never bothered anyone who wasn't after an Item or had Shadow Magic, and as long as Imhotep, now Siris, doesn't try to learn it he is immune to punishment from that end. Which means he can act as a wild card for Horus/Seth to use in events that would cause his little truce with the Keeper of the Scales to be broken.
Also, I really, really don't like Anzu. So don't be surprised if I traumatize to the point that she is no longer in the story anymore.
I hope this clears up any questions as to why Imhotep will be appearing more often in the story, since I don't intend to make them go to China to deal with the Dragon Emperor from the third movie.