Title: Red Willow, Red Sands
Author: AriellaGiselle
Rating: R, for violent imagery and situations.
Distribution: my site, fanfiction.net, anyone else who wants it.
Spoilers: maybe tiny ones for the movie and 'The Gift' and 'Bargaining' for the series.
Summary: A member of the Scooby Gang is destined to save the world, and this time, it's not Buffy. The Mummy Returns/Buffy crossover.
Author's notes: AU. Fudged timeline: I'm assuming Alex O'Connell was born in November, 1928, and Sheila (Rosenburg) O'Connell was born in January, 1944. Alex's birth here doesn't coincide with his age in The Mummy Returns, but this works well for me.
AN2: This takes place between Buffy S5 and S6. Yes, Buffy's still dead.
AN3: This is in response to Echo's challenge concerning Ardeth's child or grandchild. (Willow is the daughter of Ardeth's goddaughter.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Buffy belongs to Joss, the Mummy belongs to Universal. No copyright infringement is intended.
*****
--1949--
"Ardeth!" The girl's cry permeated the tepid night air.
The two desert siblings trudged through the sand, on a mission to find their godfather. The boy, Alex, was now 20, his once spun gold hair now a duller, sandy blonde, his eyes still a piercing blue. In his arms, the sobbing form of a girl, five years of age, cradled tightly to his chest. "Ssh, Sheila, we'll find him," he whispered in her bright read hair. She sniffled and looked up at him, her green eyes shimmered with tears. Her little head bobbed up and down, and her arms slid around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.
In the distance, Alex saw a man in dark robes sitting nobly atop a black Arabian, Sheila's favorite horse. He heard some miscellaneous commands being shouted in Arabic, and he allowed himself to collapse into the sand, his knees impacting the ground softly, rolling onto his back. Alex's lips brushed over the girl's soft, pale forehead, "We're home."
*****
Ardeth Bay stepped out of the tent, leaving the exhausted youths to their restless beds. He sighed and began walking toward the group gathering a few feet away. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. Opening his mouth, he addressed his people with a shaking voice, "Richard and Evelyn O'Connell are dead."
*****
In the years since Ahm Shere, Rick came to accept his place with the Medjai, joining Ardeth in command. Evie, Jon, and Alex natually moved to the desert to be together. When Alex was 14, and Evie was beginning to accept her fears that she would never have another child, she found out she was pregnant.
The birth was much celebrated among the family and the Medjai tribes. Alex loved the girl from the first time he held her in his arms, wanting to be the best big brother he could.
That was in 1944.
Evie discovered a scroll in late 1946, describing in more detail, the ritual curse of the Hom-dei. It outlined the curse and the effects should the Creature rise again.
Her translations were flawless, as usual, and they revealed an unknown clause. Those that would defeat the Creature would be blessed with an extended life span, due to their knowledge of defeating him. That included Rick and herself, as well as possibly Ardeth. The clause also stated that if those blessed with the life were killed by natural forces of evil, such as murder, the blessing would pass on to the leader of the 12 Medjai tribes, that definitely meant Ardeth, Evie had mused over the passages.
What was to be their last dig lead them to a small shrine 40 miles from Karnak. Evie was determined to find more writings to confirm the clause.
While Evie and Rick searched, Alex took Sheila to explore the shrine.
He hadn't known anything was wrong until he heard his mother's scream. He scooped Sheila into his arms and raced toward the shriek.
What he found shocked him and destroyed his heart and soul. The treasures of the shrine were gone, stolen. His mother laid, unmoving, run through with a sword. His father's skull, a shattered mess, torn by a bullet propelled by greed.
His profound and desperate love for his baby sister was the only thing that kept him from laying down and dying with them.
She was his only reason for living now; his only excuse he could find for not sliding his father's gun into his mouth and easing back on the trigger. He had to get to their godfather, the man that would care for them.
*****
Ardeth pulled the blanket over Sheila's petite form, holding back tears from Alex's accounting of the tragedy. He had sent a message to Cairo, telling Jonathan to come immediately to the camp.
Alex's eyes were puffy and red from his tears, and his body was numbing slowly, not wanting to deal with the pain, wanting only the sweet denial, swearing his disbelief at his parents' death. Images of their lifeless bodies haunted his mind, the spectres taunting him with their brutality. He brought the cup of water to his lips and drank, the liquid spilling out onto his shirt slightly.
"Alex?" the soft, concerned voice accented by years of living in the desert asked him. His head pivoted to stare unseeing at his "other father," as he'd come to know him. Ardeth sat next to the young man.
"You know? Mom and Dad never knew where I got my blonde hair from, or where Shels got her red from. I mean, they were both brunettes..." he trailed off, a fresh round of sobs racking his lean, muscular frame. He scrubbed at his face with his palms, the pale scars of a life of roughhousing with Medjai warriors' children on his hands gliding on his flush cheeks. "How could this happen, Ardeth? Why did it have to happen?" Alex leaned in as his godfather wrapped him in a soothing embrace. The blonde head dropped wearily onto the robed shoulder, soaking the clothes with salty tears and sorrow.
"It will be dealt with, my son, I promise you that. Your father was my brother, your mother, my sister. May Allah have mercy on those bastards' souls..." he whispered, placing a fatherly kiss on the mess of sandy hair. "I promise..."
*****
--2001--
"Damn!" Willow cursed quietly. {Spike! To your left! Behind the VanMaanan crypt!}
She stood stop Spike's crypt, sending out messages like a cell phone satellite. {Giles, round up the others and go help Spike. He's seriously outnumbered.} Calling upon all the magicks at her disposal, she muttered, "Incinderae!" A vampire that had been climbing the wall of the crypt at her back burst into flames, falling onto the dewy grass, exploding into a shower of dust.
She looked down to see Giles and the others, a fine coating of vamp dust covering their clothing and hair, looking appropriately dishevelled and exhausted. "Let's get you guys home. I'd like to do a little tweaking to the BuffyBot before I hit the hay."
They each shot her looks of disbelief and annoyance and began trudging home. Willow jumped down from the crypt, floating the last couple of feet, landing easily in front of a tombstone.
A pair of dark eyes watched the scene unfold from behind a tall, Gothic-looking tombstone. He stood as a small smile crept over his tattooed cheeks. "She looks like her mother."
*****
Author: AriellaGiselle
Rating: R, for violent imagery and situations.
Distribution: my site, fanfiction.net, anyone else who wants it.
Spoilers: maybe tiny ones for the movie and 'The Gift' and 'Bargaining' for the series.
Summary: A member of the Scooby Gang is destined to save the world, and this time, it's not Buffy. The Mummy Returns/Buffy crossover.
Author's notes: AU. Fudged timeline: I'm assuming Alex O'Connell was born in November, 1928, and Sheila (Rosenburg) O'Connell was born in January, 1944. Alex's birth here doesn't coincide with his age in The Mummy Returns, but this works well for me.
AN2: This takes place between Buffy S5 and S6. Yes, Buffy's still dead.
AN3: This is in response to Echo's challenge concerning Ardeth's child or grandchild. (Willow is the daughter of Ardeth's goddaughter.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Buffy belongs to Joss, the Mummy belongs to Universal. No copyright infringement is intended.
*****
--1949--
"Ardeth!" The girl's cry permeated the tepid night air.
The two desert siblings trudged through the sand, on a mission to find their godfather. The boy, Alex, was now 20, his once spun gold hair now a duller, sandy blonde, his eyes still a piercing blue. In his arms, the sobbing form of a girl, five years of age, cradled tightly to his chest. "Ssh, Sheila, we'll find him," he whispered in her bright read hair. She sniffled and looked up at him, her green eyes shimmered with tears. Her little head bobbed up and down, and her arms slid around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder.
In the distance, Alex saw a man in dark robes sitting nobly atop a black Arabian, Sheila's favorite horse. He heard some miscellaneous commands being shouted in Arabic, and he allowed himself to collapse into the sand, his knees impacting the ground softly, rolling onto his back. Alex's lips brushed over the girl's soft, pale forehead, "We're home."
*****
Ardeth Bay stepped out of the tent, leaving the exhausted youths to their restless beds. He sighed and began walking toward the group gathering a few feet away. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat. Opening his mouth, he addressed his people with a shaking voice, "Richard and Evelyn O'Connell are dead."
*****
In the years since Ahm Shere, Rick came to accept his place with the Medjai, joining Ardeth in command. Evie, Jon, and Alex natually moved to the desert to be together. When Alex was 14, and Evie was beginning to accept her fears that she would never have another child, she found out she was pregnant.
The birth was much celebrated among the family and the Medjai tribes. Alex loved the girl from the first time he held her in his arms, wanting to be the best big brother he could.
That was in 1944.
Evie discovered a scroll in late 1946, describing in more detail, the ritual curse of the Hom-dei. It outlined the curse and the effects should the Creature rise again.
Her translations were flawless, as usual, and they revealed an unknown clause. Those that would defeat the Creature would be blessed with an extended life span, due to their knowledge of defeating him. That included Rick and herself, as well as possibly Ardeth. The clause also stated that if those blessed with the life were killed by natural forces of evil, such as murder, the blessing would pass on to the leader of the 12 Medjai tribes, that definitely meant Ardeth, Evie had mused over the passages.
What was to be their last dig lead them to a small shrine 40 miles from Karnak. Evie was determined to find more writings to confirm the clause.
While Evie and Rick searched, Alex took Sheila to explore the shrine.
He hadn't known anything was wrong until he heard his mother's scream. He scooped Sheila into his arms and raced toward the shriek.
What he found shocked him and destroyed his heart and soul. The treasures of the shrine were gone, stolen. His mother laid, unmoving, run through with a sword. His father's skull, a shattered mess, torn by a bullet propelled by greed.
His profound and desperate love for his baby sister was the only thing that kept him from laying down and dying with them.
She was his only reason for living now; his only excuse he could find for not sliding his father's gun into his mouth and easing back on the trigger. He had to get to their godfather, the man that would care for them.
*****
Ardeth pulled the blanket over Sheila's petite form, holding back tears from Alex's accounting of the tragedy. He had sent a message to Cairo, telling Jonathan to come immediately to the camp.
Alex's eyes were puffy and red from his tears, and his body was numbing slowly, not wanting to deal with the pain, wanting only the sweet denial, swearing his disbelief at his parents' death. Images of their lifeless bodies haunted his mind, the spectres taunting him with their brutality. He brought the cup of water to his lips and drank, the liquid spilling out onto his shirt slightly.
"Alex?" the soft, concerned voice accented by years of living in the desert asked him. His head pivoted to stare unseeing at his "other father," as he'd come to know him. Ardeth sat next to the young man.
"You know? Mom and Dad never knew where I got my blonde hair from, or where Shels got her red from. I mean, they were both brunettes..." he trailed off, a fresh round of sobs racking his lean, muscular frame. He scrubbed at his face with his palms, the pale scars of a life of roughhousing with Medjai warriors' children on his hands gliding on his flush cheeks. "How could this happen, Ardeth? Why did it have to happen?" Alex leaned in as his godfather wrapped him in a soothing embrace. The blonde head dropped wearily onto the robed shoulder, soaking the clothes with salty tears and sorrow.
"It will be dealt with, my son, I promise you that. Your father was my brother, your mother, my sister. May Allah have mercy on those bastards' souls..." he whispered, placing a fatherly kiss on the mess of sandy hair. "I promise..."
*****
--2001--
"Damn!" Willow cursed quietly. {Spike! To your left! Behind the VanMaanan crypt!}
She stood stop Spike's crypt, sending out messages like a cell phone satellite. {Giles, round up the others and go help Spike. He's seriously outnumbered.} Calling upon all the magicks at her disposal, she muttered, "Incinderae!" A vampire that had been climbing the wall of the crypt at her back burst into flames, falling onto the dewy grass, exploding into a shower of dust.
She looked down to see Giles and the others, a fine coating of vamp dust covering their clothing and hair, looking appropriately dishevelled and exhausted. "Let's get you guys home. I'd like to do a little tweaking to the BuffyBot before I hit the hay."
They each shot her looks of disbelief and annoyance and began trudging home. Willow jumped down from the crypt, floating the last couple of feet, landing easily in front of a tombstone.
A pair of dark eyes watched the scene unfold from behind a tall, Gothic-looking tombstone. He stood as a small smile crept over his tattooed cheeks. "She looks like her mother."
*****