Thebes - 3067 B.C

"5,000 years ago, before the time of Zahra, a fierce warrior known as the Scorpion King, led a great army on a campaign to conquer the known world.

As the great army of the Scorpion King, led by the warrior king himself, was preparing to attack the city of Thebes to conquer it and force the people that they would allow to live to serve under their ruler, like other kingdoms before it, the soldiers of Thebes were also preparing for battle to defend their city at all costs.

The Scorpion King, who was in possession of the Bracelet of the God of Chaos, Set, had been formally known as the Akkadian assassin Mathayus, who had once killed the ruthless tyrant Memnon, freeing an entire nation from his iron rule and taking his place as king. But, like Memnon himself had, Mathayus, in an ironic twist, had allowed the power of a king to go to his head, eventually becoming a tyrant in his own right in Memnon's place: with the goal of uniting the entire world under him and had been successful so far. But Thebes would be the beginning of the end of the former hero turned tyrant's campaign against the world.

The 2 armies stopped 50 feet away from each other before they all began letting out loud battle cries while raising their weapons, 1st by the Thebes soldiers and followed by the Scorpion King and his army, with the warrior king ordering his army to attack. "DESTROY THEM ALL!"

The armies then charged forward, with 1 aiming to defend and 1 aiming to conquer. And in a couple of minutes, the armies collided with each other and began to fight to the death, with the Scorpion King himself fighting well as he was killing everyone who came at him. It seemed as if the Scorpion King and his army were going to win, but unfortunately for them, that was not to be.

7 years later

"After a vicious campaign which lasted 7 long years, the Scorpion King and his army were defeated, and driven deep into the sacred desert of Ahm Shere."

Despite fighting well against the soldiers of Thebes, it wasn't enough to stop what was left of those that hadn't been killed in the battles from being driven into the Ahm Shere, the sacred desert, where they were wandering aimlessly through hot sand and sun with no end in sight until, slowly but surely, all but the great warrior king himself had died from dehydration, hunger and heat stroke.

But despite going on for longer than his now dead army, the Scorpion King himself was eventually to the brink of death as well. And so, knowing he didn't have much time left, and out of desperation, he called out to the Egyptian God Set as he raised the Bracelet of Set. "Great god Set! Let me live on to conquer my enemies, and my soul will be yours!"

"1 by 1, they slowly perished under the scorching sun…until only the great warrior himself was left alive. Near death, the Scorpion King made a deal with the dark god Set. That if Set would spare his life and let him conquer his enemies, he would give him his soul. Set accepted his offer and spared his life.

And, as if Set was answering, a small black scorpion emerged from the sand close to the dying tyrant and was moving towards him. And, in desperate need of food, he picked the lethal insect up and after a few seconds, ate half of it. But immediately after that, green grass and trees began to grow all around him as he got to his feet in bewilderment and turned around to see the grass and trees surrounding him. And it was then the tyrant knew that Set had accepted his offer as he let out a mighty, victorious roar. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Sometime later, in Thebes

After the Scorpion King had recovered from near death, Set had given him command of the army of Anubis, 1 of the most noble, honorable and fairest of the gods. And after marching them back to Thebes, they proceeded to pillage the kingdom and slaughter all its people, man, woman and child alike, which brought the Scorpion King great joy as he watched the senseless destruction and death with a huge smile, as he felt that the world would finally be his with the army of Anubis at his command.

"Set gave the Scorpion King command of the 1 of the fairest, honorable and noble gods, Anubis' army. And like an evil flood, they washed away all that lay before them."

But, Anubis himself, not wanting this chaos to go on any longer stepped in and, with a wave of his hand, took the soul out of the unsuspecting Scorpion King and banishing it to the Underworld for all eternity for his sacrilege, while also returning his army to oblivion, which would allow the survivors of this horrible event to rebuild their city so it would thrive as it once did.

"But Anubis himself, outraged by this unspeakable evil, had stepped in and taken the soul of the Scorpion King to the Underworld to rule out his eternal punishment, while returning his army to the sands from whence they came…where they wait…silently…to be awakened once again."

5,000 years later, in 1933, inside the now ruined city of Thebes

A very familiar man was searching through the tomb, while pulling 1 of his guns out and cocking it before pulling spider webs down, revealing himself to be Rick O'Connell. The American had a torch in hand with his gun and was cautiously walking a darkened hallway, listening and looking for any signs of danger. But he was finding nothing before he turned around and got scared when he saw the face of a 9 year old boy, who was his son, fell on his back. "Alex?"

"What were you thinking? A mummy had come back to life?" Alex asked his father.

"I'll tell you a story sometime." Rick said while helping him up. "What are you doing down here? I told you to wait for us up in the temple."

"But Dad, I saw your…"

"No buts. It's dangerous down here, Alex."

"But I saw your tattoo." Alex said while reaching for the gauntlet his father wore on his right arm.

"You saw what?"

"On a wall by the entrance." Alex answered as he took off the gauntlet, revealing an ancient looking tattoo. "There's a cartouche just like it. With the pyramid, and the eye, and the 2 kings and everything."

"Really?" Rick asked with a bit of interest.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Well, I'll be up to take a look at that in a minute." Rick said while gesturing to his son to go back to where he was. "In the meantime I want you to wait for us up there."

"But…but…"

"No. Pick up your stuff, and I'll see you at the temple."

"But…" Alex said before his father pointed in the opposite direction and mouthed "go" before he picked up his things and began walking back.

"Go on."

"And…and what should I do?" Alex asked.

"I don't know, surprise me. Build a better mousetrap." Rick answered.

"Okay." Alex said before turning around and walking back to the upper temple.

"While your mother goes and disagrates another tomb." Rick said to himself. "Man, I really wish that Zahra was here. She'd be able to make her stop and leave…just like that." He said while snapping his fingers. He couldn't deny that not a day went by where he, nor his family didn't think about Zahra in some way, with them wishing she could be here to see how far they'd come over the past 9 years. They'd even often tell Alex about her and ever since then, he'd always wanted to meet her, even though he knew that would be impossible, as the Book of the Dead was buried along with the City of the Dead. And while it wasn't intended, they perhaps knew that Zahra would have probably wanted it that way. But still, they always prayed in their hearts that she was happy where she was now, as wherever it was, hopefully was better than anything this world had to offer.

Meanwhile, in another part of the tomb

Evelyn Carnahan, now Evelyn O'Connell, was brushing dust off ancient hieroglyphs when she heard a hissing sound and turned around before looking down, seeing a snake crawling towards her. But, in a very drastic change than how she would have reacted a decade ago, she just scoffed and said to the slithering reptile. "Go away." Before kicking it away from her, with Rick barely dodging it.

"Those are poisonous, you know." Rick said to his wife.

"Only if they bite you." Evy countered before asking. "Now what was all that about?"

"Ah, nothing. Alex wanted to show me something." Rick answered as he put his things down. "I swear that kid gets more and more like you every day."

"You mean more attractive, sweet and…devilishly charming." Evy asked sarcastically while walking up to him.

"No, he's driving me crazy." Rick said before giving her a brief kiss. "Now, where were we?"

Evy picked up a small hammer and chisel and offered them to her husband. "Hammer and chisel." But when Rick took the little objects, he gave her a look that she knew all too well before taking them back and giving him a bar. "Oh, all right, all right, let's do it your way."

"Thank you." Rick said before Evy looked away as he broke the ancient wall down to reveal a dark room that was full of scorpions and spiders, as well as bones from long dead people.

Evy began to carefully move past the insects while talking. "Ever since I had that dream, this place is…all I can think about."

"And ever since you had that dream, I haven't had a decent night of sleep." Ruck said with a sigh while following her, while being less careful.

"I feel like I've been here before." Evy said as they reached the end. "I know I've been here before."

But Rick wasn't convinced. "Evy, nobody's been here before. Not for at least 3,000 years. Except for these guys." He said while referring to the long decayed dead people in the room.

Evy pulled a lever, opening a door, as if somehow she knew just what to do. "Then how do I seem to know exactly where I'm going?"

Meanwhile, outside

3 men on horses had arrived, with guns and 1 of them having a very lethal dagger. "Let's go." Their leader said after they dismounted their horses, heading into the temple.

Meanwhile, in the upper temple

Alex was doing what his father said, building a better mousetrap that he was sure would surprise him as he put a piece of cheese on it as the final touch. But then, he heard voices and went to the entrance, seeing that someone was coming by their shadows. And from what he could tell, they weren't his parents. He then quickly grabbed his things and climbed up the ladder to an old structure and hid himself before he saw 3 non friendly looking men enter the temple.

"Knock knock, anybody home?" Their leader asked threateningly while he and his friends had their guns out before he told them while walking to the entrance where his parents were. "You 2 check out that stuff and see if it's there. I'll sort out the O'Connells." Making Alex gasp quietly.

Meanwhile

While was close behind, Evy was walking through the hallway, a torch in hand, until she entered a room before stopping and closing her eyes. She moved her torch fast enough to where her surroundings changed, making the room more alive and untouched by time. She watched as the door a few feet away from her opened with 2 women coming out, seeing 2 guards standing on opposite sides of a platform that a cheat was placed on, both having swords at the ready. The woman came out and closed the door, locking it by using an ancient combination mechanism before beginning to walk towards her.

But that was when Rick came in the room, walking up to the door like he wasn't seeing what his wife had as her vision dissolved. Evy then did what she did before, swinging her torch left and right real fast but nothing happened, which Rick noticed. "You know, if you do that fast enough, you could almost write your name."

"I just had a vision. It was…like my dream, but it was real. It seems like I was actually here in ancient times." Evy explained.

"Well, if you actually were here, would you know how to open this thing?" Rick asked while trying to open the door with his bar.

Evy walked up to the door and gave Rick her torch. "Hold this." Before using the combination mechanism to open the door, like she saw in her vision, except the door was covered in webs, until it opened.

"Okay, now you're starting to scare me." Rick said with worry.

"I'm starting to scare myself." Evy said in agreement.

Meanwhile

As the other 2 thugs were sorting the old junk out, as if they were looking for something, Alex, like the immature child he was, hit the 1 with the hat in the head with a pebble from his slingshot, making him yell out as the other 1 pulled out his gun in alert.

"Jacques! Something hit me head!"

"Shut up, Spivey! This place is cursed." Jacques told him quietly, as he believed in the ancient curses of Egypt. "We don't want to wake the gods."

But while this was happening, their leader, Red Willits, was looking for Rick and Evy, having just stepped into the scorpion and spider infested room. He looked down to see a few of them crawling on him, making him whimper before he hurried to get out of the room.

Meanwhile, with Rick and Evy

Evy uncovered a golden emblem of the mythical Scorpion King and was amazed at seeing it. "That's the emblem of the Scorpion King. But he's supposed to be a pure myth. No trace of him has ever been found before. No artifacts, no archival evidence."

"Maybe they didn't want anybody to find him." Rick guessed, thinking that was the case if no single trace of this Scorpion King had ever been found.

Evy became curious about what was in the chest and said. "Let's open this."

But Rick, still remembering what happened a decade ago, was against it. "Evy, I've got a really bad feeling about this 1."

"It's just a chest. No harm ever came from opening a chest." Evy countered, saying almost the exact same words she did when she read from the Book of the Dead.

But Rick knew otherwise. "Right. No harm ever came from reading a book. You remember how that 1 went. And do I need to remind about a certain someone's spirit trying to warn us all and stop us from unleashing hell on Earth. If this kinda thing is gonna happen again, I'm just reminding you that this time, we won't have her to back us up, and it won't do any good wishing we did."

Evy, despite being reminded of Zahra and her doing her absolute best to stop what happened before, couldn't stop due to her overly curious nature. "Oh, come on, we can't stop now."

Rick, despite wanting to stop her, very reluctantly went along with this. "Just remember I was the voice of reason here, and that since a certain girl Mummy friend of ours, or her ghost isn't here to warn us, you're hearing my voice, but she's the one who's talking."

Evy took the bar and said. "If something does happen and we die, you're not going to be the one that'll be lecturing me for all eternity…she will."

"Okay. Just remember: I'm gonna be laughing and saying I told you so, along with a certain…other Mummy that our very dear friend was in love with. If he's even there and has learned his lesson."

"I…highly doubt that, but…who knows, he might have." Evy said.

Back at the temple

Alex shot Spivey again with another pebble, this time in his butt, making him yell out as the foolish and careless child laughed once out loud, making Jacques look around in suspicion that someone else was in the temple, and really close by the sound of what he'd just heard.

Back with Rick and Evy

As Evy was trying to pry the chest open with the bar, Rick saw something in the long dead guard's on the right hand and thought that it must be the key to open the chest. "Hon." He said, getting her attention. "Let's do it your way."

Evy took the key and used it to unlock the chest before it opened, spreading dust before she fully opened it, revealing the Bracelet of Set itself inside. "The Bracelet of Set." She whispered out in surprise.

Back in the upper temple

When Alex foolishly tried to hit Spivey again with another pebble, this time, Jacques, in an act of quick reflexes, caught it before it hit before he and his friend looked and saw the now afraid child. When a mad Spivey tried to advance on him, Jacques stopped him and moved forward. "I'll take care of this."

Back in the chest chamber

As Willits, who'd caught up with Rick and Evy aimed his gun at the unsuspecting parents and archeologists while Evy was holding the Bracelet of Set, the chamber started to rumble because of the sacred artifact being disturbed. "Oh, my God." Evy said in alarm before putting the bracelet back in the chest and closing it.

"Well, it's a bit late for that, isn't it?" Rick asked sarcastically.

Evy picked up the chest. "Put it in your sack!"

"What? I got a better idea: let's just leave it here!"

"I think it's a bit late for that!" Evy said, while an afraid Willits quickly ran back the way he came, not liking whatever was about to happen.

"What's it say?" Rick asked before Evy read the words on the chest.

"Any who disturbs this bracelet shall drink from the Nile." Evy answered. "Oh, that doesn't sound too bad."

Willits just barely managed to run by a wall that a flood of water burst out of, while Rick and Evy, who tried to get out, saw that the water was coming at them, making them run another way.

Back in the upper temple

As Jacques was climbing the leader, with his dagger in his mouth, Alex was trying to shake him off while Spivey taunted him. "Jacques' is gonna make a nice filet out of you, my son."

But as Jacques got to the top, Willits called out to them while running to the entrance they came in from. "Spivey! Jacques! Let's get the hell out of here!"

"Come on!" Spivey told his friend while running after his leader.

Jacques looked at Alex before sliding down the ladder and kicking away the block that was holding the old platform up. "Goodbye!" He said while joining his fellow thieves.

And while Rick and Evy were still running from the flood, Alex was holding on before the parents came to a dead end before the flood finally got to them while they embraced each other. And when the platform finally fell, Alex fell on the old pillars next to him, making it fall onto the other pillars like a set of dominos, just like how his mother made the bookshelves in the Cairo museum fall 9 years ago.

"Whoa." Was all Alex could say.

Meanwhile

As Rick and Evy were trying to open the grate, with no success, Rick said to his wife. "This is bad, Evy!"

"We've had bad before!"

"This is worse! Especially since our certain friend isn't here to help us out!" Rick countered, thinking Zahra would be a very big help right now as the water covered their heads!

Meanwhile, Alex saw that a halfway still standing pillar was about to fall and ran to it, trying to stop it, even though it was of no use while his parents were close to drowning. And when Alex realized the pillar was coming down faster, he quickly ran as far away from it as he could as the pillar hit the wall, releasing the flooded area and saving his parents ironically as they were thrown by the rushing water to their surprised son's feet. He looked around before saying to his gasping mother and father. "Mom. Dad. I can explain everything."

Meanwhile, in the long buried Hamunaptra

A large group of people in red outfits and turbans, as well as a large number of diggers, were digging around the buried ancient city, as if looking for something…or someone, with many of the cult members having guns out for any signs of danger.

A black man in a turban, who'd found the Book of the Dead, grinned evilly. "The Book of the Dead gives life."

Then, a woman, with a very strong resemblance to Anck-Su-Namun, brought the Book of Amun Ra and laid it beside its twin. "And the Book of the Living…takes life away."

"I thought that was my job?" The black man asked with a smile.

The woman gave a smile of her own, knowing that whatever or whoever they were looking for was in their grasp. "We're getting close."

But, in another part of the dig site, another man with a goatee beard the horn of a truck coming and turned around before Willits, Jacques and Spivey got out of the truck. "Did you acquire it?" The man in the red turban asked before the ground began to rumble.

And in the next few minutes, In the hole next to him, several cult members and diggers saw the sand in the middle of the hole that they'd dug began to come up in a very familiar way. And a few seconds later, Scarab beetles swarmed out of it, with their leader yelling out in its language. 'FOR ZAHHHHHRRAAAAA!" Before the entire swarm began to advance on the cult members and diggers as the humans tried to get out of the hole, with a majority of them getting eaten alive by the insects, especially 1 who got out of the hole that took off to reveal several of the scarabs crawling out of him from his mouth as he screamed in agony, while the man with the goatee looked on with no remorse whatsoever.

The woman heard all of the yelling and screaming and was even more delighted. "We're getting very close." She said as she entered a vehicle.

And as some of the cultists used flamethrowers to drive back the Scarabs, the leader of the cult heard someone yelling in Arabic, making him gasp. "We've found him." Before he and everyone else ran to where the man had called out. "We've found him! We've found him!" Before he got to where 2 large chunks of amber-like material were lowered to the ground. "Step aside! Out of the way!" He said, bypassing the 1 who lowered the material and examining what or who was in them, smiling at the 1 on the left. "Imhotep. It's him! It's Imhotep!"

The woman smiled with evil delight as she ran her hand over the top of it, the same way Anck-Su-Namun did with Imhotep 3,000 plus years ago. But then she looked at the other material. "And this 1…must be Zahra."

"Yes. Indeed." The black man answered while giving a blue urn to 1 of the cult members. "After we burn her, we can raise those that serve Imhotep and bring him back."

But the woman was against that idea. "Not yet! We must unlink her from Imhotep, that way what happened to him before won't happen again."

"She is right. We cannot kill Zahra until she is unlinked from Imhotep. The Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun Ra are the only things that can unlink them. But we cannot have Zahra threaten our plan." The leader said before ordering 3 cult members. "Put Zahra in the containment box in the truck." Making them do just that.

That was when Willits, Jacques and Spivey walked up to them, getting past the crowd. "Get outta the way. Get outta my way. Get outta my way or I'm gonna shoot you in the face."

"He means it. He shot someone before." Spivey said.

"Give it to me." The cult leader said to his hired thieves.

"The, uh, opportunity passed us by." Willits said unhappily.

The leader was not happy to hear that. "We need that bracelet."

"And we need it before it opens!" The black man said while beginning to draw out his sword, causing the 3 thieves and some of the cultists to draw their guns.

"Enough!" The woman said, making everyone put their weapons away. "My dear Hafez, I told you I should have handled it."

"I did not want your…past history to cloud the issue." Hafez explained.

"Don't you worry ma'am. We know where it is. We'll take care of it." Willits assured her.

But Hafez said otherwise. "No, we'll take care of it! I have a different chore for you now."

"Where is the bracelet?" The woman asked.

"It's on its way to merry old London." Willits answered.

Hafez then said before walking away. "Then London is where we must go."

But unknown to him, a hooded and cloaked Ardith Bay was in the crowd. Having heard of what the evil cult was trying to do. And after they'd just found the Creature and Zahra, along with the location of the artifact, he knew that his old friends would soon be in danger, along with Zahra, unless he could think of a way to get her to safety so that when she would be brought back to life once again, she could help him and his old friends save the world from an evil that he and the entire Medjai order had long feared would rise again, and it wasn't just Imhotep.

There you go, my dear friends, the 1st part of the Mummy Returns is complete. Just thought I'd get this part out of the way since me and everyone else who's seen it know what happens. The next part is where the plot changes and twists really start coming in, as it involves a certain female Mummy, who, unlike Imhotep, really won't be happy to be brought back a 2nd time, especially when she finds out what Evy did, even though she should've known better. Rate and review. See you all next time, my dear friends.