December at the O'Connell's

Kat twirled the remaining contents of her mug around absently, partially melted marshmallows bumping against the porcelain as she stared out the window, her breath leaving a stream of fog on the cold panes. The O'Connell's estate was covered in grey, wet tangles of branches and dead grass that would be beautifully filled with green blades and flowering buds come spring. Everything now was dead. Kat didn't know if that comforted her to see, but the cold glass window against her forehead helped stave off the tiredness and so she stayed and gazed off distantly into the bleak, chilled landscape.

Thump. Thud. Crack.

Kat turned from the window to see Jonathon stumble into the library, fluttering pages of a book twirled on the ground as he looked surprised at the pile of spilt literary works, a glass of festive egg nog in hand, "Oops. Made a mess…not as big ash Evie's though, didchoo know she used to be a librrrarian? Chee knocked the whole place over in one day. I've never… been prouder."

Kat blinked, this man had been a royal prince in ancient times, but even then he had lived about the same way as now: excessive, loud, drunk and exiled under the favorable patronage of his sister. Kat gave a small smile before turning back to the window, eyes tracing the frosted branches of a bare tree.

"Ah, cheer up. Rick and Evie will have a plan to -urp- get chour family outve Germany. In the meanchime, it's the holidays. Let's have something lively." Jonathon stumbled over to the gramophone and sloshed his drink on the table as he cranked it up. Tucking his chin in and eyeing the needle intently he gently placed it on the spinning disc, immediately the it started to sing in the metallic voice of Ray Noble and His Orchestra:

"Midnight with the stars and you

Midnight and a rendez-vous

Your eyes held a message tender

Saying, "I surrender all my love to you"

Kat turned sharply to stare at the gramophone.

Midnight brought us sweet romance

I know all my whole life through

I'll be remembering you

Whatever else I do

Midnight with the stars and you"

The rims of her eyes reddening, Kat looked away. She couldn't do this.

Jonathon frowned and moved the needle up, "That'z not a Christmas shong. I know they've got some here. 'Old on." He bent down and started opening the doors of the stand where the records were kept. "Ophfg!" Jonathon's head thumped against the top of the stand.

Kat set her mug on the window ledge, about to leave when a car horn honked. She peered out the window, seeing the car pull into the long driveway.

Kat stared before slowly a smile crept onto her face for the first time in a long time, "They're back."

"Huh?" Jonathon looked up, rubbing the top of his head, "Who?"

"Alex and Rick."

Today was a special start to the Holiday season, Rick had brought Alex back from boarding school to spend a proper Christmas at home. Kat was no longer the nanny, but she still had strong connections to this family from both ancient and current times and couldn't help but feel her spirits rise as she watched through the window as the car pulled to a stop, the doors opened and the light blonde head of hair she knew so well came bobbing just around the side of the shiny car.

Rick had gotten himself a newer model car after the old one was destroyed. He now took almost every opportunity he could to remind everyone that if they so much as breathed on this new one wrong, he would personally mummify them.

Kat smiled still as she stepped off the ledge and headed for the front door.

In the front hall, Evie was already hugging Alex and kissing his grimacing head, "Merry Christmas, Alex!"

"Mom!" Alex pulled away, his gangly arms crossed sulkily over his chest.

Kat waited in the background as she watched the family reunite, O'Connell thumping Alex's bags down next to the open door that blew in December-chilled English air, "Hun, I know how we feel about trains, but next time I go to pick him up it's either that or he's walking back. Grimy little fingerprints all over the Cadillac's paint thanks to his little school friends."

Kat laughed. Alex's head snapped up, looking at the noise, "Kat!"

"Merry Christmas." Kat said, waving.

"When did you get here?" Alex asked as Evie ruffled his hair before going over to give Rick a welcome-back-kiss.

"A few days before you." Kat pointed up to the intricate decorations of lights, snow globes, ribbons, figurines and pine wreath strings twisted around the banisters, rafters and just about every surface, "I came to help decorate."

"Are you staying?" Alex asked, his expression looking hopeful.

"Yes, I'm spending Holiday with you. My, you certainly have grown since the last time I saw you, haven't you?"

Alex frowned, looking sullen, "'Course I've grown since last you saw me, you've been gone forever."

"Alex, come bring your things to your room!" Evie called out.

"What room? I don't live actually live here anymore, remember? You sent me away."

"Alex." Rick warned.

"I'll help you." Kat volunteered.

"I don't need help, I can do it myself." Alex retorted, the cause for his attitude-shift no surprise for Kat. She had spent more time away from the O'Connells than she thought she would, of course it would have hit Alex hard. She felt guilty frequently but after that day it had just been too painful to look at any of them without thinking of him…. So she had to resign as nanny and move far away, where sand dunes and pyramids would be removed from her in the Italian countryside. Rick and Evie understood. She was only returning to the people that meant so much to her now (which also meant inviting painful memories) when her family needed serious intervention as Germany grew noisier every day.

Kat watched him march up the steps, lugging a suitcase. Rick and Evie appeared beside Kat, Rick's arm around Evie's waist, "Don't take it too hard, he's a stubborn kid you know. But he's glad you're back."

Jonathon suddenly came stumbling into the room from the hall door, the blaring sound of festive Christmas music echoing from behind him, "Hey, I found one! Who wants tuh dance?"

Christmas Holiday at the O'Connell's was a warm affair filled with smells of cooking turkey, wine, cranberries, fresh pine, cinnamon, gingerbread cookies, mince pies, potatoes, stuffing, pudding with sugared violets, gravy, trifle, spiced cider and eggnog. The red decorations draped the interwoven pine strings and candles lit both Rick's outdoor Manger scene and Kat's Menorah. Jonathon took his role of reading Christmas Lore and History out-loud rather seriously each night around the crackling fire with his glass of eggnog always on the nearest side table.

Carolers would sing outside the door every now and again as Kat handed out pudding to them while Jonathon and Alex would spring out of their seats at the first note of "There is No Rose" to sneak up to the chilled balcony to try and throw raisins into the more robust singers' mouths.

Alex and Kat mended hurt broken by time over many games of checkers and crackers and were soon again close friends. Rick and Evie had helped construct elaborate snowmen in the two feet of snow that blanketed the grounds in only a few days.

At night time after a full, delicious meal of hot foods and spiced drinks they digested as they listened to Jonathon retelling old tales around the fireplace before they'd bundle up and gather on the balcony with hot chocolate and coffee as they gazed up at the pristinely clear, starry sky as the snow glowed down below from the warm light of the manor's tall windows.

Afterwards they'd all retire to their rooms, but only for a short time….

Once Alex had had enough time to fall asleep (having opened the Hanukkah gift Kat discreetly slipped him after their balcony gazing-and would continue slipping him for a total of eight nights), the adults would gather in the library to discuss possible ways to get Kat's family out of Germany. It had been agreed that Kat's family would come live in England and Rick and Evie had only to hint to the museum or college of their choice and everyone in Kat's family would be in a self-supporting occupation. Jonathon was more of the mind of taking some with him to China, where he was trying to set up one of several businesses.

Of course, getting them here was the most difficult part due to their unwillingness to leave, though Rick, Evie and Jonathon had all agreed with Kat that it would be best for them to get out of Germany. The tricky part was figuring out when too much would finally be too much for them and just how bad things were going to get for the Jews before her family would finally be ready to leave. Once that happened, if it happened, Rick said that things would probably have to move fast. If Kat's family waited last second to get out of Germany, and things got any worse, their window of time to get them out of there was considerably shortened.

At the first of these nightly meetings Kat felt guilty for pulling the family out of their holiday revelry, but as the meetings continued Kat realized that despite the serious intensity of their planning, the O'Connells seemed almost happy. Deep down Evie lived for daring rescues with impossible scenarios and Rick was always up for the chance to pull a weapon on a supreme evil. If a mummy happened to show up in the midst of all their planning, Kat was fairly certain they might start breaking into carols themselves for sheer joy of it all. Jonathon was usually so boozed up at this point that he was already singing.

The nights almost always ended on a hopeful note and then they really did all go off to their separate rooms to sleep.

...

Most nights Kat slept dreaming about her family all together in England under the O'Connell's 20 foot Christmas tree, but those weren't the only dreams she had. Past memories kept resurfacing, altered by modern life in the blackness of her bedroom while she slept.

Hebrew slaves she had befriended thousands of years ago rushed into her dreams to tell her the Nazis were on the phone asking questions about her parents. These dreams dissolved into her being thrown into an Egyptian cell with her parents, who promptly turned into scarab beetles and flew out the upper window leaving her behind in the darkness as Anck-su-Namun's eyes glared at her through the door slit. In a flash of black curtains her body was suddenly on an embalming table, dressed in her ancient Hebrew slave clothes as Anubis priests surrounded her. The black curtains rustled in the embalming room but she could not turn her head to see the man on the balcony who she knew was there. The man she wanted to see more than any in her dreams. Her stiff neck could not turn on the embalming table and she was frozen in a dead body, unable to move but yet able to see and hear. As she struggled and struggled to turn, she'd find herself suddenly in her bed awake by her efforts. The dark shadows of her room replaced the flickering lights on the embalming chamber her dream had taken her to and the disappointment of not seeing that face was almost greater than she could bear.

Kat's fingers would then reach up under her pillow and clasp around the small green jar hidden beneath. The jar Imhotep had given her under the blistering sun in a time slipping further and further away from her.

And then the flood of thoughts would come back to her as silent tears soaked into her pillow: had he not taken her hand? Had he not let her rescue him from the chasm? Had he not given her that last look that spoke of a realization of all she had ever done for him? A knowing look, a look of regarding her then as an equal? A look that could have developed into…that could have lead to them…but no, it was too painful to think of.

Kat gripped the green glass jar until the tears stopped and she drifted back to sleep until the smell of sausages, eggs and burnt oatmeal would single another day had come. Thus passed her holidays with the O'Connells.

Imhotep's Chamber, Germany:

The room was lit by candles and a crackling fire place, casting dim light over the dark upholstered furnishings. Several candles lit the desk where Imhotep sat, reading through volumes of black books and photographs of ancient markings in tombs and scrolls that few could read, but had the foresight enough to salvage through photography what could not be brought to his room.

Imhotep wore a black uniform, boots and trench coat. He favored his black robes but naturally in the cooler climate they were too light for comfort, so the suits were a fine substitute. He saved his uniformed cap for when he went out in the daylight, which he did not prefer.

He did his best work in the dark, and did not particularly like mingling with the fervor of the Nazi Party, though it was secretly amusing. The clawing and backstabbing to climb higher in the German pecking order was nothing new in human history, particularly when a great power came into being. The differences between time and cultures were many, but not so very much the nature of humans.

Imhotep glanced up curiously from his desk as a car drove by with its lights on, lighting up the room with artificial light as the engine's purr faded down the street.

Times certainly had changed.

Getting up from his desk he strode to the window, black heels clicking against the floorboards. He pulled back the curtain with a black gloved finger and looked out the glass at the early morning, still too dark to see the German city around him. He had been here only a short while, though his strategic positioning to rise higher in the Nazi party could not be better.

He had worked a lifetime in Egypt to rise to a position like this, and here in this day and age he obtained such a place in only a few short years.

Imhotep smirked, while adjusting to this new life presented its challenges, the hardest part hadn't even been leaving Ahm Shere after the oasis had sunken into the dunes, as one might think. Imhotep watched as the flicker of lights from another car flashed across the room, remembering the moment his life had been spared.

(Flashback, The Pyramid of Ahm Shere)

Crumbling stone filled the room, pillars tumbled down with sections of ceiling as the pyramid shuddered in violent spasms. Debris and dust filled the room as Imhotep knelt on the cold stone, the cries of the damned echoing in the chasm behind him. The chasm was called the 'Mouth of Ammut' and to those who fell in there was never a return. And yet…

His eyes fixated on the doorway, where a pillar had fallen after the retreating figures of his slave and the O'Connells. His slave had risked her life to pull him out of the Mouth of Ammut. It had been a very un-slave-like thing to do. In this age with his death she would have been free from servitude, having no family, priests or palace life to give her over to as would have been the custom. Perhaps only his own priests would have done the same.

He had overlooked the slave Katriel. She had eluded him in death, saving him in life…and deluded him throughout. She was not a common slave, not with the faithfulness she had proven to him now after all had abandoned him, even Anck-su-Namun.

Anck-su-Namun! His love, his life! His eyes still wet as the twisted pain at once assaulted him and wrenched fresh in his chest the pain of knowing he had given all, only to be abandoned now. He had defied pharaoh, gave up his prestige, suffered the Hom Dai, died twice and would have taken over the world for a woman whose only interest had ever been for his power. She had not grown to love him, as had been his hope. Even now she ran from him, judging the risk for herself too great and Imhotep could feel his heart breaking inside his chest. His heart would not need to be weighed on the Scales of Ma'at any longer, it was too heavy in his own chest to even allow him to stand.

Though his heart had been wrenched it was his hands that tingled with life, having only a moment ago been pulled by them from damnation by the only one left to stand with him.

And then did not his slave also once try to bring this outcome to his attention? Katriel had been always faithful. Her dignity rivaled at least that of his priests, and then even more so. Slaves were but property, how had he never seen her as anything beyond that all this time?

Another pillar crashed down, shaking the ground beneath him and startling his eyes away from the blocked exit.

Little mattered now. Soon all would be consumed by the desert. The Scorpion King and his army were dead, Anck-su-Namun had abandoned him, he had been stripped of his powers to fight the Scorpion King and now was awaiting his third death.

Imhotep blinked, halting a moment in his grief and inevitable doom as everything he had ever hoped had come crashing down around him with the pyramid. His powers! He had only been stripped of them to fight the Scorpion King, and while having failed, the creature was dead now was it not? There was no longer a need to keep him powerless.

His slave had saved him from himself, had saved him from Anck-su-Namun's betrayal, yet who would save them now? More pillars and stones fell in the violent shakes, the pyramid could not last but a mere few moments more. His slave would never be able to make it out of here, not even Anck-su-Namun could run from him fast enough to save herself.

If anyone had any chance of getting out of here alive, he had to regain his powers.

Imhotep struggled to his feet, wary of the ceiling above him. He looked around, if only he could get to a portal to speak to Anubis…but there!

Behind the doors that housed the Scorpion King, upon the ground Imhotep spotted the dusted seal of Anubis. A new surge of energy pulsed through him, there was a chance!

Backing up a few feet, he ran and jumped over the chasm, the pyramid rocketing beneath him as he landed on the other side. He stumbled, a falling stone grazing his arm. Steadying himself he quickly darted forward, narrowly dodging falling ceiling. Pain shot up his legs as his bare feet ran over the broken pyramid shards littering the floor, but he only ran faster. Lunging past the doors as a pillar fell, smacking the ground he had just jumped from, he landed on the hieroglyphed inscription.

For a moment he lay chest on the floor, feeling the quaking stone beneath him, with nothing happening. And then….

The floor tilted upwards, Imhotep looked up, seeing the seal rising off the ground with him on it. In this inner room, another seal, this one with a feather upon it sank down into the pyramid as if….

Imhotep's eyes widened, he was actually being weighed on the scales of Ma'at! This room had preserved the Scorpion King for Millenniums because it was not a room, it was the scale of Ma'at and Anubis had kept him balanced on it. Now…Imhotep's worth was being weighed. He placed his hands on the seal, unsteadily. The Seal rose with him on it, the scale was tipping in his favor. Then it stopped rising. Imhotep looked around. A shadow rushed towards him, the shadow of his judgement. It rushed into him, a surge of power filling him, swelling and inflating his weak mortal body to the power and strength he had held before. And then it stopped. Imhotep gasped, chest heaving with the power.

He looked at his hands, the fingertips tingling with the surge as the seal lowered back into the ground. The same power was in him again, and yet…it was different. It was powerful, undoubtedly, but still did not fill him as it had that morning. Regardless, it was power.

Imhotep looked up through the doorway watching the pyramid crumble and lifted his hands. He felt his power surge out and into the very stones, searching out and supporting the last largest columns. His eyebrows dipped slightly, and he tensed, releasing more power. The building was collapsing still, but slower now. Frowning he clenched his teeth, lifting the weight with great effort now.

His power was lesser than it had been, sweat trickled down his temple as his arms shook. Apparently he had not been found worthy enough to hold the power he had before, his failure to kill the Scorpion King himself was no doubt a contributor in this decision.

Shaking he grunted, keeping the pillars from falling and fighting off the rising sand that tried to engulf the pyramid from the outside. He could feel Ahm Shere being sucked into the earth around him, but he kept his arms up, fighting to keep it afloat even a little longer. Perhaps Katriel might be able to get away, she was with the O'Connells now and they were resourceful enough.

Sweat dripped down off his face, his arms glistened in the dying light of the room, the pyramid swaying around him and crumbling around despite his hold on it.

And then it came crashing down. Sand engulfed the room in an instant and Imhotep had to let go of his hold, shielding himself as dark sand enveloped him. He tried to transform into sand or wind but his body would not evaporate. He had been denied this power too, the power of the elements. Using his strength he crawled his way up, sand filling his lungs but not affecting him. He had at least retained his immortality. Breaking through stone, statue and jungle trees with his hands he crawled his way up, his inhuman strength driving him forward. After hours and hours of climbing his hand clawed up to find no resistance. Surging upwards he broke through the surface of a dune, black sky and stars above him as the desert wind rustled the fresh air.

He was free.

(End Flashback)

Imhotep watched the black German night through his window. The hardest part of all this had been acclimating to not only the new weather, but the new times and the new languages. Once he had made it back to civilization and heard about the war and Germany's unrest and determination to rebuild, it was clear (with only a little magical help that he could provide) where his next position to rebuild a life lost would come from. He might not have been successful at taking over the world, but he knew how to be second in command to one who could succeed.

Hitler already had him working his supernatural powers to influence the German peoples to be more susceptible to control, and the fervor of the Nazi party had extended past its previous boundaries. This simple act of crowd control had earned him a place in the Nazi party and Hitler's esteem as his new Metaphysical Advisor. Now under Goring he could continue to become powerful, powerful enough to take out Goring and be the true second in command to the rising powers of the world. It was, after all, what he was best at.

Imhotep smirked, letting the curtain fall back over the window as he withdrew back into the room. He walked back to his desk to sit down.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Imhotep looked up curiously as his door swung open, a shriveled old woman came in carrying a breakfast tray, "Dein zeitung, Herr Imhotep."

She set the silver tray down on the table before exiting quietly. Imhotep reached over and took up the newspaper on the tray, ignoring the tea. He did not need to eat and drinking hot leaf water was not a past time he enjoyed along with the rest of this new era.

He unrolled it and casually started to flip through the pages, it was interesting how people kept up with the current events now. Word of mouth and rumors had been the staple for news in the Palace, but here journalism had erupted and with it a whole flood of relevant and irrelevant information. Though the drama was still there, as clearly seen in the titles of articles. He amusedly thumbed through the pages before a photograph stopped him, beneath it read the German caption: Expert Egyptologists Donate Personal Collection to Berlin's German Historical Museum. Imhotep stared at a black and white picture of Rick and Evelyn O'Connell standing next to a pile of packing crates and busts of Egyptian heads.

His eyes widened as his brow lifted. So they did survive? Very interesting….


Writer's Note: Hey all! School is almost done so naturally with the stress of my FINAL set of finals looming I turn instead to kick out about seven pages of this story. School really is the best motivator... Any who, I hope you enjoyed this, I tried to make it longer for you because I know I've been neglecting this and left you on a dangling plot change. I'm not sure how often I'll be adding but this most certainly isn't done yet and I WILL be writing this to the end. Thank you for being patient! You readers are the best! I threw in some Ancient Egyptian symbolism with the Scorpion King's chamber with Ma'at's Scale and Ammut's Mouth, so if I threw you off a little by not explaining more I apologize-I was trying to write from Imhotep's POV and he would have already knew all this. Also, yes, Imhotep has his powers back but they are lesser than before, so taking over the world by himself isn't really an option anymore and he's going to have to mingle with others. But gah! I'm not going to say anymore because I'll give stuff away prematurely! See you in the next chapter :)

Also, do I have any German Translators in my reader base? Please PM me if you wouldn't mind translating some things with credit given for every chapter you help with. Otherwise, I apologize for my lack of proper German grammar :/