Alright, here it is! As many of you are probably already aware, I lost my flash drive a few months back, one that held many of my novel works on it (personal and fanfictions alike) and a total of fifteen years of hard work. The sequel to my first 'Mummy' story was also on there. Thankfully I was able to get my very old flash drive to open up one last time long enough to grab all the old copies of my stories from before it kicked me off. So I don't have to start from the beginning! YAY!

Anyhoo, after that, my new flash drive has been throwing tantrums left and right and not allowing me to save my work correctly so I had to restart lost chapters of the 'Mummy' sequel TWICE but I persevered! So I finally finished the sequel after FOUR tries and I can now present you with my finished work. I hope you enjoy it...despite the frustration it's caused!

Also, I'm sure you've noticed (well, you have to have noticed since you're opened the story) that, unlike the last 'Mummy' story I did, this one doesn't have a forward. I decided against it since this second part will be ended with an afterward...maybe. I'm not sure yet if I want to add it in since it doesn't have anything to do with the story. The whole story is finished but I just also wanted to give y'all a heads up that my work hours have been increased so I may have to upload a few chapters at a time instead of posting the whole thing as I did with the first part.

And for your enjoyment, I also added in a few remarks in the story that were influenced from some of my other favorite books and movies. Comment when you find one!

Thanks a bunch for your patience!

-Ravyne

(Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the 'MUMMY' movies or any of their characters. Just my characters Katherine and Bastet belong to me.)

Life Forsakes Her

Chapter 1:

You know your life is pretty much over when you spend six and a half straight months following someone on their heels for information on a guy that's supposed to be dead and buried under countless feet of sand and rock.

Yeah, that's her life now.

Kat brings the cup of coffee to her lips and takes a sip of the vile liquid casually as she flips the page of her book. Despite her hate of the drink, she forces herself to swallow for the simple show of being just another random citizen enjoying the morning coffee break before work. Sadly, it's the only cover she could put on in order to get close enough to her target to eavesdrop on the conversation taking place.

It's the man she's been following, dressed in a dark suit but sporting a headdress with a red, sheer scarf added to it that flows down his back, but today he joins a woman at the table a few paces away. She wouldn't have been paying the woman a lick of attention if she hadn't caused a pang of recognition in the back of Kat's mind. There's something familiar about the woman's dark olive toned skin, dark eyes, and straight dark hair, and it makes Kat's skin crawl.

She flips another page of her book, gazing down at the unseen letters, and takes another sip of coffee from the delicate cup as her ears strain to pick up the hushed conversation nearby.

The man sets down his cup and opens his hand towards the woman, revealing something round resting on his palm, "We've broken through to the next chambers. We should be nearing the exact room soon. Everything is just as you said."

"I knew it would be," the woman smiles darkly, picking up the round object in her delicate fingers and twirling it so that the light from the morning sun gleams off the top. Kat fights back the urge to look over and find out what she's holding. "We are right on schedule—it's almost time."

"We have only to get the bracelet from the O'Connell's and we'll have everything we need," the man nods in agreement.

This is all Kat needs to hear; knowing that her brother is involved now officially puts her involved. From here on out, she's no longer an eavesdropper. She sets down her cup, pulls out enough money to no doubt cover the bill and the tip, and then stands up casually so as to not draw attention to herself. She waves bye to the kind waitress and passes through the tiny gate they have set up around the patio in front of their shop. The vendor along the street outside of it passes her a flower which she trades for a few coins and thanks him warmly before bringing the tiger lily to her nose to smell it, a grin pulling at the corner of her mouth.

The sky is dark by the time she comes into sight of the mass gathering before her but bright spotlights have been lit that fill the night with unnatural light for the workers below to see by. The dig site has been going on for a while, Kat can tell by the massive holes the diggers have produced, but it's obvious they haven't found what they are looking for. They'd be celebrating by now if they had.

Moving deftly through the shadows made by the sand dunes along the edge of the dig site, Kat makes her way towards a tent along the edge of the massive hole. Shadows of people moving inside dance along the tent walls, voices murmuring quietly as they hurry along with their business, but none of them appear outside, giving her the perfect opportunity to make her way behind a stack of crates.

She pulls the material of the tent apart carefully where it's tied to the wooden posts and peeks inside. Two people are within the tent lit by lanterns while two guards stand outside. One she recognizes, the woman from the coffee shop a few days ago, but the other doesn't register. He wears the dark black and red of the other guards so he must be with the rest of them…perhaps they're all part of some kind of cult?

He turns around first, setting down a heavy looking book onto the table top in the center of the tent. Kat bites back a hiss; she knows this book. "The book of the dead gives life," he states.

The woman joins him by his side as she too sets down a nearly identical book, if not for the fact that it was made of gold instead of onyx, and smiles, "And the book of the living takes life away."

"I thought that was my job?" the taller man beside her replies darkly, his fingers wrapping around the sword hilt tucked inside his belt at his waist.

The woman returns his sinister leer as she stares down at the books with a look that says she knows way much more than she should, "We're getting close."

Kat ducks down behind the crates as two guards walk by, letting the shadows swallow her from their sight, and starts to work through all the information she's gathered so far.

These people have gathered both the book of the living and the book of the dead, they're still digging deeper through the remains of the lost city of the dead, and they were after a bracelet her brother apparently has in his current possession.

She's seen a few pieces of treasure from the hidden rooms the Pharaohs' used to hide away their riches in under Hamunaptra so they have clearly made it to that point of the temple, and yet they still dig further.

If gold is not on their list of things they're after then there's only one other thing they're here for. They're after Imhotep.

Rick had assured her that they had taken care of the mummy, that he had been buried with the city as it sank under the sands forever, so why are they after him if he's actually permanently dead now?

Kat swallows and starts to chew at her thumbnail, a nervous habit she's picked up recently. There's no way they could bring him back to life. Rick made sure of it. He promised me, she tells herself.

A loud choir of exclaims and outbursts make her jump in alarm and tuck herself closer against the crates as people rush by in a flurry of chaotic movement. The shouts turn to cries of pain and screeches of agony but she keeps herself huddled away out of sight despite the terrifying sounds beyond. She'd wait until all were out of the way and then she'd make her way back towards the horse she had hidden away a few sand dunes away.

That plan, of course, changes the second she hears the woman inside the tent chuckle victoriously, "We're getting very close!"

The tent empties out as they all move towards the cars nearby and start the engines. She watches them from the shadows drive down a road dug out so that they could pull trucks into the pits as they dug them and disappear into the hole below. Kat uses the chance to sneak into the tent and take the books before they could use them for anything bad…only to find the books gone from the table.

Shoot!, she curses, looking back over her shoulder through the tent's doorway which they have positioned to overlook the dig site. Below, the cars have stopped at the bottom of the dig site and the doors are opening just as cheers begin to erupt nearby. A huge crane starts to pull something up nearby and the cheers become louder.

A few seconds later, what looks like a jagged, misshapen hunk of amber is hoisted up and then lowered a few feet away from the deep, dark hole it had come out of.

"We found him!" Distantly, Kat can hear someone below speak above the roar of the applause, "It's him! It's Imhotep!"

Kat's eyes widen in alarm as she backs out of the tent slowly, I've got to get out of here. Rick has to know! This is bad!

She pushes the motorcycle up to the big oak tree at the edge of the backyard and quickly finds a big branch to cover it with. Better to tell Rick herself that she's taken to riding the machines than him seeing it and making some crazy assumption.

Pulling up her hood again that had fallen to her shoulders after the short work, she flips it up over her hair to block out the mist hanging in the night air as she gazes up at the house before her. A few of the dark windows are lit up, giving away the presence of life inside, so she starts across the backyard and along the side of the huge house. She'll never understand why Rick wanted such a mansion; it's just so much more to clean!

Then again, he probably has enough to afford a maid so that wouldn't be too much of a bother for him. Evie on the other hand…Kat can't picture her allowing another woman, or anyone for that matter, in the house handling any of the antiques they have acquired over the years. As she passes by Rick's car, she runs her hand silently over the hood. It's still warm; the engine must've been just recently shut off.

They must've just gotten home not too long ago.

Distant thunder claps dangerously through the storm clouds rolling in above and Kat glances up at them warily. Movement catches her eye as she strolls by the next window and she pauses.

Alex is walking backwards through the room past the doorway beyond from where she stands by the window. She smiles happily, she hasn't seen her nephew in the last year and she's excited to see that he's still looking as cute as ever; sadly, he's grown another inch or two...or three.

The look of horror on his small face registers a second later in her mind and Kat's blood turns cold in her veins. There's a crashing sound of metal on metal from inside and it jars her into action. She pulls the wrap around her neck up over the bottom half of her face as she kicks off into a run. Her boots pound the ground as she races along the side of the house and around to the front door that has been left open. Two unknown cars are parked out in the front.

Please don't tell me they got here first!, she curses. The front doormat is kicked off the steps as she races over it and into the first front room of the house. The sounds of struggling become louder and she skids to a stop, trying desperately to figure out which room it's coming from.

Something heavy slams into the floor above her and she jerks her eyes to the ceiling in alarm. What the heck is going on?! How many of them are in the house?!

A machine gun starts firing off upstairs and a loud scream echoes from downstairs nearby.

"Whoa! Mom, where did you learn to do that?!" Alex yells from a few rooms away.

Her hands slip the knives out from their holsters hidden away along her belt under her shirt and she flips them silently into the air, taking a centering breath. Racing down the hall past the stairs, the sounds of metal on metal from an apparent sword fight get closer and closer as she runs. A man dressed in black and red, just as the cult members from the dig site had been, spins around as she approaches and starts to pull out a sword but she quickly leaps at him. Throwing her foot up against the wall, she pushes herself up into the air and quickly sweeps a kick to his face.

He falls to the floor with a heavy thud as she leaps over him and carries on down the hall. Skidding around the next two corners, she throws open the next door just as Alex is screaming out for his mother.

"Mom, look out!"

A man dressed in black and red attacks Evie from behind just as she's picking up a hefty looking chest and she falls to the floor unconscious. The man picks up her limp form and tosses her back over his shoulder as he carries her off down the hall and out of their sight before anyone can make a move to stop him.

Kat would have moved to go after them if not for the cult member who rushes at her from her right. She does a quick back step to avoid the blade coming down over her head and as the guy is thrown off balance, she shoves him forward into the wall where his head makes contact with a sharp crack.

She winces sympathetically.

Turning back to the only other pair left fighting in the room, Kat is forced to a stop and a cold sweat slips down the back of her neck at the man before her.

It's Ardeth. The very person she has tried so hard to avoid and forget for the past nine years. So long she's made herself numb to any thought of him, to any memory of him, to anything that would remind her of him. None of that training of course prepared her for actually seeing him in the flesh again.

She's just not ready for this—her heart shudders in her chest. She fights back the memories she has tried to block and forget from so long ago; their time at the library had been short but much too comfortable.

Things had gotten a bit out of hand…

No! Stop it, Kat! This is not the time!, Kat shakes her head against the onslaught of the memories trying to push their way back into her mind and she bites her tongue. Refocusing on the battle before her, she winces as Ardeth's opponent slices open his shoulder with the long sword and knocks him back over the back of a couch. His body lands with a dense thud.

Ardeth rolls quickly to his side and on to his feet as he grasps his injured shoulder and leans heavily against a wall for support. Kat swings her eyes back over to the other cult member, a tall man with a dark complexion. He spins around, flipping out a lethal looking knife, and Kat gasps.

It's the tall man she had seen with the woman at Hamunaptra. Seeing him in the full light of the house lamps and with the gleam of the blade in his hand, she finally recognizes him. She's seen him once before. He had been with the man she's been following for the last six months once before, a long time ago. He had caught her spying and thrown a knife at her, nicked her flesh just a hair as she had retreated, but had lost her as she dove into the river to escape.

She's seen him before, and she knows he'd remember her too…if he saw her face.

The man flips the blade and hurls it across the room at Ardeth who tenses up in alarm when he spies the attack too late. Kat moved long before he had though and catches the blade right before it can bury into Ardeth's face. Spinning around to gain momentum, she sends the blade flying right back at its owner.

He side steps the attack and the dagger embeds stiffly into the wall behind him. He throws a scowl at her just as Kat lowers the mask down off her face to rest again around her neck.

The man's expression flips from recognition to an even deeper anger, "You!"

Fighting back a grin, Kat flips out her own knife and readies to throw it at him only for him to spin in a flash and race down the same hall the other cult member had disappeared down. Growling in frustration, she rushes after him and hurls her knife at his vanishing figure but he dodges around the corner and her blade digs into the wall with a thunk.

"Aunt Kat!"

The voice of her young nephew startles her, making Kat spin around just as he comes racing up to her before she can bound off after the men, and she sinks to her knees to embrace him. Her arms tighten around him and his familiar warmth; geez, how she's missed him. His hugs had always been the first thing she wanted whenever she came to visit. She's been away far too long this time.

Coming to realization again of the issues going on around them, Kat grabs his shoulders and pushes him back out of her hug so she can look him over frantically, "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?!"

"No, no! I'm fine!" Alex groans, rolling his eyes in clear annoyance.

Kat sighs in relief, climbs to her feet and kisses his forehead swiftly before hurrying down the hall after the intruders, "Good, stay here!"

"No way!" Alex cries as he hurries after her.

"Ugh! You get more like your mother every day!" Kat argues as she snatches her dagger out of the wall as she passes.

Author's Note:

Just FYI:

Italicized words: personal thoughts or sounds or words said in Egyptian language.

Italicized/Bolded words: power infused words of otherworldly beings said in Egyptian language (AKA: Imhotep or Bastet)