Title:  Fury - Chapter Ten – The Arms Of Those Who Remember Us
Rating:  PG13 prolly eventually
Author: Angel - ninthsaturn@yahoo.com - http://oocities.com/saturnfiction
Summary:  Evy finds a secret temple that holds an ancient deadly force.  Cataclysm ensues.
Notes:  Set about a year after The Mummy.  An alternate "Mummy Returns" of sorts.  At this point I have a vague idea of where this story will go, so bear with me...and possible name changes. :D  I haven't written Mummy in a while, so if this little prologue sucks, I apologize. :D
Disclaimer:  No infringement intended.
Codes:  Imhotep/Evy, Ardeth/Meela

*

Meela and Ardeth stood together in the lobby of the hotel.  She was decorated in a fine, long dress of silken white and wore a brimmed hat that was also white but dressed in black trim that matched her coat.  Her lips were stained in that every present red she seemed fond of.  She smiled at Ardeth and looked him over.

Ardeth didn't return the smile, but turned away and looked at his reflection in one of the large mirrors in the grand lobby.  His clothes were black, non-descript but nice.  They were close...very close to the other seal.  All that would be left is the one in Cairo, assuming O'Connell didn't have it.  But Ardeth had a feeling that his American friend would in fact be in possession of it.  He was resourceful and quick, and headed towards the right city.  Something must have tipped him off.

The plan was, for now, to get a hotel room and settle in.  He scowled at the idea of spending another moment with her, much less sharing a room.  But he was keeping his temper in check.  His worn emotions had gotten the best of him before, but never again.  He would obey without question until he found a window - and there would be one - and then kill her or find some other way out of this mess.  She wasn't going to win.  Final.

"Excuse me, ma'am," said a soft female voice from the front desk.  Ardeth had never laid eyes on so many pale people in all his life.  They had escaped the sun blasted deserts of his origin and it showed.  He looked down and winked at a little girl no more than three, who had platinum hair and the lightest blue eyes he'd ever seen.  She smiled bashfully and batted her eyelashes, hiding behind her father's leg.  "Can I help you?"

Meela stepped up to the front desk and inclined her head.  "Yes, please.  My name is Niyati Aggarwal and this..." she paused to look at Ardeth as he turned around, "this is my husband Amar.  We would like a room, please."

Ardeth sighed as Meela made the arrangements.  She seemed to like the irritation it caused him whenever she referred to him as anything close to being hers.  Placing his hands in his pockets, he strolled off, ever aware that she'd ordered him for the time being not to enter another room without her.  The spell kept him bound to this lobby and eventually to their room and wherever else she wanted.  "Amar?" he heard faintly and almost didn't respond to the alien name.

With a frown he turned and looked to her expectantly.  She watched him with bright eyes, a sly expression on her face.  "Are we ready to go to the room?" he asked curtly.

"Yes," Meela replied shortly, pointing a bell boy to their small luggage.  "We will follow him upstairs and unpack.  The two of us have much planning to do."  She flashed a friendly smile to the handsome youth that took their suitcases.  "I'm very excited about touring London and I bet you know all the best places to have breakfast?"  She seemed to have a way with people he noted.

Ardeth stopped paying attention to the chatter being exchanged and followed in silence.  It was colder here in England.  Today was a gray and rainy day and the air was cold.  A far cry from the desert life he was accustomed to, but he found it pleasant to experience the home of the Carnahans' finally.  He sighed, remembering Evy.

He pushed her from his memory as they came upon their room.  It was decorated serenely in shades of blue that were calming to the eyes.  Meela gave the attendant some money and sent him out, closing the door behind her.  Ardeth sank into a chair, not removing his coat.  The rain had chilled him.  She pursed her lips and watched him thoughtfully.  "I suppose the first thing we should do tonight is find out whether or not our friends are here.  It's possible they don't know we knew to come here."

"And if they are?" he asked in low tones.

Ancksunamun came to him and touched his face gently, making him glare up at her.  "I could make you love me, Ardeth."

He gripped her wrist and pushed it away.  "It would not be me that loved you."  His gaze softened as he looked into her dark eyes.  They seemed almost vulnerable sometimes.  Certainly Ancksunamun had never known true love, or even if Imhotep had really loved her that much, by then she'd given herself to Set.  "Why do you delight in evil?  You can find happiness without solitude."

She only held his eyes a moment longer, then pulled away from him.  She seemed bothered as she stalked to the window and drew back the drapes.  "We have work tonight.  Get up.  We're going to go pay the Carnahan residence a visit."

Ardeth stood quickly and waited while she threw her suitcase onto the bed and opened it.  Rifling through it's contents, she pulled the Seal of Horus out and hid it within her coat. She must mean to keep it safe, he observed, still wondering what was going on in her mind.  Maybe violence wasn't the way to deal with her.  Maybe something else entirely would work.  He'd have to consider it carefully.

The ride there wasn't long.  They'd gotten on a bus and after Meela provided the driver with directions, the ride hadn't been but five minutes away.  The bus stopped a ways off from the main part of town, before a few small businesses.  Left in the rain, Ardeth drew his coat around him and followed without question as she started down a side road that had some few homes built down it.  They were large manors that made Ardeth wonder about the families inside.

His hair was starting to get damp in the sprinkling mist of rain and his body felt colder, almost like a fevered chill.  "Is it far?" he asked.  She shook her head in reply, but offered nothing else.  Meela didn't speak until they came before a large gate.  He peered inside at the large, lifeless house.  Then he eyed the lock on the gate meaningfully.  "This is their home?"

Ancksunamun nodded and looked through the bars.  "It's in the middle of the day.  At this time the gate should have been open.  They are not here."

He grunted at that.  "Shall we return to the hotel?"

"Not right away," she replied, rubbing her bottom lip thoughtfully.  She smiled and toughed the large lock with her hand and began murmuring softly.  Ardeth watched what she was doing, wondering how she was going to manage breaking into the estate.  Before his eyes something began taking shape in her hand...a key.  She turned it and the gate opened.  "An illusion," Meela supplied at his questioning glance.  "The spell felt the shape of the lock and created a temporary key for me.  Let's go inside the house and look around."

Ardeth inhaled deeply and followed, wondering what she had planned.

*

Evy looked at herself in the mirror, fiddling with her hair and trying to get it to mind.  She'd pinned it up, as per usual, but it was having a little problem with staying in place.  Rolling her eyes, she stepped back and looked at the whole effect.  The air above water was chilly, so she'd taken to wearing a nay blue sweater over her white shirt and black skirt.  Overall it was satisfactory, she decided.

Putting the top back on her powder jar, Evelyn folded her arms and exited the room.  She supposed paying the boys a visit would do her some good.  This morning had been dreary and the weight on her shoulders had added to the down atmosphere.  The hallways of the boat's interior were white and pleasant enough, but she really looked forward to getting home.  They would arrive at England sometime in the middle of the night and she was very grateful for that.  Perhaps being home would take some of the pressure off.

Rick, Jonathan and Imhotep were bunked in a large room together.  Of course Rick had been against Imhotep being there.  He'd even suggested - jokingly, Evy hoped - that they leave the priest on the deck.  But Jonathan had brilliantly remarked that if Imhotep were in the same room, he could be watched.  And so Rick relented.  Evy knocked at the door and waited.

To her surprise it was Imhotep who answered.  He was wearing black, had insisted his new clothes be black, and looked as uncomfortable in the modern attire as unnatural.  He looked at her and went back in, sitting on a couch in the small sitting room.  "Nefertiri," he greeted, picking up a book and looking through it.  He had it upside down, Evy noticed and smiled.

She sat down beside him and took the book, turning it the right way.  It was a book of abstract drawings.  She handed it back.  "Why do you call me that?" she finally asked.

He blinked, looking up at her from a strange picture.  "It is your name," he answered simply, watching her.

Evy smiled at him and looked down, raising her eyebrows.  As far as she knew Evelyn and Nefertiri never shared any common background.  "You do realize that the others call me 'Evy', right?"

"Yes," the priest said, nodding.  He reached up and she moved away, but he frowned sternly and reached again.  She let him this time.  His fingers delicately traced her hairline and traveled through her hair.  The pins she'd worked so hard on getting placed were removed quite easily and she scowled.  "Do you not know who you are, princess?"  She shook her head and he sighed.  "I knew you once, a long time ago.  Daughter of Seti, you were proud and beautiful.  We...were friends.  Now you are here, reincarnated and different, yet the same.  Do you remember when I first took you from your people, I said, "Come with me, my princess" and held out my hand?"

"Yes," she answered, swallowing at this knowledge he was revealing.  She was an Egyptian princess?  "Maybe I just look like her."

Imhotep shook his head.  "I do not think so.  You feel like her.  When I first saw you, the eyes I had were not clear, but I could sense I knew your soul.  This is why I mistook you for Ancksunamun.  Later I saw your face and knew you to be Nefertiri."  He watched her expression, seeing she still was doubtful.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he suddenly pressed his hand to her forehead.  Evy tried to back away, but he wrapped his other arm around her waist and didn't let go.  He started chanting, but for the life of her Evy couldn't make out what he was saying.  She felt dizzy and distant, like she wasn't even really all here.  When he stopped, she slumped and caught her breath.  "What have you done to me?"

Imhotep didn't make any move to be sure she was okay, merely watched her struggle.  "I have created a link from your spirit to your mind.  The memories will come to you slowly and we shall see who you really were."

Instinctively, Evy searched her mind for anything out of the ordinary.  It seemed silly, she knew, but she had to know what he'd done.  Apparently this was different than what had happened to Meela.  Meela had seemed to virtually change into Ancksunamun, but still held the memories of her present incarnation.  She sighed and looked him over, having mixed feelings about him being here.  "Why did you save my life?" she asked him.

The priest swallowed and furrowed his brow, searching himself.  Apparently he was having trouble deciphering his reasoning too.  Finally he looked away, resting his eyes on the stucco walls.  "I find betrayal to be distasteful," he told her finally.

She had to say it, even though it likely wasn't a good idea.  "Like you betrayed my father?"  My father?

He appeared distinctly uncomfortable with that statement and anger flashed through his expression.  Yet he didn't take it out on her, but merely stated, "I do not claim to be without blame.  I've suffered for my transgression and now so will the Med-Jai for what he did to you."  His fist tightened as he focused his anger of ages on Ardeth.  Evy wasn't sure what to feel about that.  The bond she had felt for Ardeth made her against Imhotep avenging her, but there was a part of her that was furious at the Med-Jai for causing her to ache inside.  He'd taken something precious from her - his friendship.

It was too painful.  She couldn't think about it right now, so she changed the subject.  "Where are Jonathan and Rick?  Did they leave you all alone?"

Imhotep nodded, his eyes no less hard.  Not until he looked at her.  Then they grew soft, an expression she remembered him having just before he tried to raise Ancksunamun.  "Your brother invited me to drink with them, but the Greek Med-Jai would hear nothing of it."

She blinked.  "Greek Med-Jai?"

The priest smiled at her surprised stature.  "Rick," he said, frowning at the taste of the alien word.  "I knew him too."

Evelyn stood up and gazed at the door.  "Why don't you and I wander around and see if we can find them?  Rick would like to hear this, I think."  She held out her hand before she even thought not to.

Imhotep took it with a small grin and went with her.  Evy pursed her lips and wondered what memories of her past awaited her, and why she seemed a little more comfortable with this dreaded priest than before--almost as if she knew him.

*

Ardeth paced down a hallway, examining the pretty pictures that hung on the walls.  Exploring the Carnahan home proved to relax him - as much as one could relax in his place.  This was frustrating and maddening and any other bad emotion you could imagine yourself having.  It was hell.

She'd left him here.  Meela had left him here, waiting for his friends to return home.  Waiting to kill them if he could.  The Book of Amun Ra was in his hands; he couldn't leave it behind at command, and would be his means of getting rid of Imhotep.  And once the priest was mortal again, Ancksunamun had commanded that he kill him, then his friends.  The pull at his will drove him to madness.  He couldn't kill them.  He wouldn't!

And yet the spell made him hunger to do it.  He stopped, forcing himself to relax.  Being angry would cloud his judgment and make matters worse.  He had to find a way to keep himself from causing them harm, but what?  If they happened to come home anytime soon, he would be forced to act out the commands that the spell had on him.  Meela would go in the morning, by herself, and get the seal from the museum.  She would kill people in order to get it, and he could do nothing to stop that, much less stop himself when his friends returned.  That was if they returned.

It was that 'if' he was counting on.  With every ounce of hope within he was praying they didn't know where the final seal was and wouldn't think to come back.  But what if they did?  What could he do?  His mind raced, trying to come up with a way to cover all the bases.

His dark eyes glanced up, meeting a photo of Evy on the wall and the pain of her death washed over him once more.  The memory of her face and the reality of what he'd done.  She was gone.  And then it hit him.  Meela had commanded that he stay in this house until the job was done or she came for him, but she hadn't commanded that he live.  A chill passed through him at the images of possible ways entered his mind.  End his life that they may live.

It made his pulse race and his stomach hurt.  He didn't want it all to end here.  His mind flicked to Abdu and he trembled at the thought of not knowing how the young man grew up.  And what of the rest of his people, his friends and family?  Would the last thing he laid his eyes upon be this house in a strange land?  Would they even do him the honor of giving his body to his people to rest where his home was?

He began walking again, unnerved by the conclusion he'd come to.  Everything in him cried out against dying, but he had to do whatever he could to keep everyone safe.  Ardeth descended the main stairs and wandered into a living room with large, comfortable couches.  He could simply lay upon one and take his scimitar...

Someone banged on the door and Ardeth jumped at the unexpected interruption to his dark thoughts.  Forgetting his private wonderings for the moment, he turned and headed towards the main entrance.  Who could it be and would they make an issue of him not being one of the usual inhabitants?  He silently thanked Meela for obviously forgetting to lock the gate back.  Hopefully he would get arrested.  He opened the door.

A young man stood in a navy uniform.  His eyes widened at the sight of the large and built Med-Jai.  He held out a piece of paper.  "Telegram for Rick O'Connell."

Ardeth clasped the paper and held to it, nodding.  "Thank you."  The young man eyed him for a moment, then turned away.  Ardeth closed the door and held the paper up to the light.  What he saw made his blood run cold.  Apparently he and Meela had been seen leaving Egypt and Ali had sent this telegram to warn them to be mindful.  That meant they were on their way...could get here very soon.  He simply had to find a way to stop himself from hurting them.

But how?

*

Imhotep watched Nefertiri sleep soundly on the chair.  They hadn't planned on going to bed, but apparently she had needed a nap.  Her arms were on the arms of the chair and her body slumped down.  She looked like a queen that had fallen asleep on her throne and he smiled.  Nefertiri whimpered in her sleep and he knew she was dreaming of what was.  What would she think of who she had been...who they had been?

And in what they had been lay why he had given her back her life.  She'd caused the greatest pain in his life - twice, yet he couldn't remain angry right now.  Something always brought them together, even if they hated each other passionately.  He idly wondered what moment she was reliving now.  "Sleep on, my princess," he breathed, finally pulling his eyes away.  Carnahan and O'Connell were playing a game with cards.  Neither had heard him whisper, nor cared that he was mesmerized by the dozing woman.

And so he continued his private vigil, wondering to himself what she was seeing in her dreams.

*

Nefertiri gazed at her reflection in the small pool of water in the gardens beneath her apartments.  Her hair was in place and her makeup was nicely done.  Her body had been bathed in the scent of flowers.  All in all she was satisfied with her appearance.  She smiled slyly, hearing deliberately quieted footsteps.  Her hearing was very keen.

Even still, she pretended to startle when he knelt down behind and wrapped his arms around her.  He cupped his hand over her lips in an attempt to scare her, but she remained still.  "You look lovely today, Princess."

Nefertiri pushed his hand away and turned around in his arms.  The High Priest of Osiris was lavish in the attention he gave to her.  They had been good friends since she'd been a young girl of fourteen, but as time passed she perceived a change in their relationship.  She put on a pretty smile and touched his cheek.  "Thank you, High Priest," she laughed at his formality.

Imhotep was a kind man, complex and strong.  Handsome.  His smile was enough to make her pause and stop breathing.  He looked her over, still holding her close.  "I mean what I say, Nefertiri.  You look...amazing."  His voice was soft.

"What has gotten into you?  More wine?" she asked playfully.

His smile didn't fade, but he held her closer now, looking at her lips.  "How long will you make me wait?" he asked with a sly grin.

This was one of Imhotep's more pleasing sides, even if he were only playing with her.  What should she say to this?  She wanted him to mean it, but of course he never did.  Well, if he could joke, so could she.  "No longer," she replied dramatically, wrapping her hand behind his neck and leaning forward to kiss him.

Expecting him to be making his usual jest, she was surprised when his lips actually did press over hers.  Definitely not joking.  Her eyes closed as he parted her lips and sent his kiss deeper while his hands found other places to explore.  "Imhotep," she breathed when he let her lips go to find her throat.  She pulled him closer, reveling in the seriousness of what they were doing.

"I could not have waited longer," he mumbled between kissing her bare shoulder.  He gently pushed her to the ground and looked into her eyes, hovering on his knees above.  "The joke is over, Nefertiri.  I cannot hide myself from you anymore.  What would you have me do?  Leave you now or love you?"  Imhotep's gaze was now unguardedly hot and his emotions clearly displayed.  What did she truly want?  Her decision would be final, she knew.  If she told him to leave he would and likely never return.  If she told him to love her...

Slowly her hand traveled his thigh and to his loincloth.  She gripped the top near his belly button and with a smile, yanked him down.

*
Another chapter ended..whew.  Again, truuzt me.  Please. :)  And Montana, yer last threat didn't work cause I'm a person that who, if I had been Evy, when Imhotep reached his hand out and asked her to come, would have raised my fist, jerked my hand down and cried, "Yes!"  ;)  Glad you're all enjoying and sorry I hurt Ardeth for a while, but such is the nature of Meela.  Just think of it as "character growth", my friends.  And thanks for the reviews...they let me know what you all are thinking and how to proceed. :) -Angel