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queenclaudiabrown · 1 year ago

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Living Legend | Chapter Nine: The Missing Tomb

Content warnings: canon events and triggers, including gore. Uncensored language. Media: Moon Knight S1E4 “The Tomb” Word count: 4,472

They drove back across the sand the way they’d come. Silence had reigned since the women had explained that Khonshu was gone. “We can’t lose more time. Harrow must be headed back to the tomb.” Layla said. “Look, if he is, we’re gonna need Marc, yeah?”

Steven responded vehemently. “No.”

“‘No’?” Layla repeated, casting a look at him.

“No. See, the thing is… we made a deal, Marc and I, that when he was done with Khonshu he would disappear for good.”

“You guys made a deal that he would just disappear from my life?” Layla began. “And you didn’t think that maybe I should’ve been… made aware of that?”

“Oh.” Steven seemed to realize the implications of the deal, which Sarah guessed had been made before he met Layla. “Well… hadn’t he disappeared from your life already?”

“Steven!” Sarah hissed, taken aback. “Not nice!”

“Yeah. I mean, whatever.” Layla responded, clearly fighting back her emotions. “His suit was his best feature, wasn’t it? Didn’t even have that anymore. Plus I know him. He’d wanna lone wolf this whole thing. It’s not happening, we’re not gonna do that.”

“We are not.” Steven agreed, and Sarah got the impression he was rubbing it in Marc’s face. “It’s just you and Sarah and me and the open road.”

No sooner had he said that did Layla slam on the brakes, causing Steven to nearly eat the dashboard and Sarah to almost somersault into the front seat.

“We’re gonna go on foot from here.” Layla announced.

“Yeah, alright.”

“Whatever you say.” Wheezed Sarah, shakily lowering her arms from where she’d planted them against the seats in front of her, stopping herself as she had pitched forward.

They got out of the truck, and they donned their bags. They entered the comparatively narrow canyon in the massive rock formations, the cool shade a welcome relief from the scorching sun. Birds cawed as they flew overhead, and the odd mountain goat could be seen lurking up above.

Layla was the most comfortable and confident, having grown up in this country. Sarah relied on her past experiences in Egypt to help her manage the terrain, and poor Steven was still quite drained and had never actually made it to Egypt- not as himself, anyway- so he was struggling quite a bit.

They left the winding chasms and emerged back into the hot light once more. Finding themselves on a rock formation at least a dozen meters off the ground, they could see Harrow and his cult’s campsite. “There they are. Let’s keep moving.” She led them down a narrow and unpleasant path on the side. “It looks like they’re already inside. We’ll need to find another way to beat them to Ammit.”

The campsite was indeed deserted when they reached it, save the camels- which Steven awkwardly greeted as if they were people. Still, they remained on alert in case any cultists had remained behind or returned for any reason. They spotted more tent structures situated very close to the mouth of their cavernous destination. “Let’s check for supplies.” Suggested Layla.

The three of them went into separate tents, and Sarah was able to locate a torch, a multitool, and several spare batteries. Rejoining the others, she was glad to learn that equipment for their descent had also been gathered. Sarah helped Layla get into hers, but had to relieve herself before the other woman returned the favor, leaving her to handle Steven’s gear.

Sarah returned to find Layla stepping away from Steven, their cheeks pinkened. She eyed them suspiciously, but said nothing, and within a few minutes she was geared up. “I’m gonna go down first.” Layla decided.

“Okay. Yeah, great.”

“Before I belay.”

“Thank you. What’s- What’s ‘belay’?” Steven questioned timidly.

“She, uh, she’s gonna fix the ropes so they’re steadier. Or something like that.” Sarah explained.

“I still can’t tell when you’re joking or not.” Layla laughed, clipping the rope to her harness. A moment later, she was descending. Steven leaned over to watch her go, but a few seconds later he quite literally punched himself in the face.

“Er… what?” Sarah questioned as Steven swore in pain.

“I guess Marc can control parts of the body even when I’m in control.” Steven mused, evading the question.

“Yeah, that’s interesting, but… why did he punch you?”

“Er…” he looked at his feet. “I kissed Layla.”

Sarah facepalmed. “You are the biggest sodding idiot I’ve ever met.”

“I also told her that Marc was pushing her away to keep her safe from Khonshu.”

“My previous statement still applies.”

A moment later, Steven yelled, and Sarah took the hand off her face in time to see him kick himself backward into the hole- likely Marc operating the legs. Sarah ran to the edge and peered down. “Steven? Are you alright?”

“Yep, I’m fine.” He called up.

Relieved, Sarah clipped herself to the rope and lowered herself down, landing carefully behind Steven. “Oh, wow, look at you.” Steven breathed, looking at the rock sculptures and hieroglyphs behind Layla.

The Egyptian turned to see what he was looking at. “Oh, yeah, there’s…. Gorgeous, aren’t they? They’re just, like, been standing guard for centuries.”

“Bastet.” Sarah presumed, noting the feline shape of the stones.

“Right?” Steven replied to what Layla had said. “Like, I can’t, I can’t even- so if they sprang to life right now and asked me a riddle for passage, I’d be thrilled.” He said excitedly. “I’d shit myself, but I’d be thrilled.” He amended. Sarah snorted, but didn’t disagree. “What’s this?”

“What’s what?” Sarah asked, looking away from the hieroglyphs to see what he was inspecting- something drawn in the sand on a rock near the ground.

“Did you do that?” He asked Layla, not accusingly.

“What? Oh. Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s for my father. He would’ve loved to be here.” Layla replied.

“Oh yeah? Big history buff, is he?”

Sarah winced. In the chaos of Harrow’s numerous murder attempts and shows of power, Marc and Layla fighting, Marc being generally evasive, and Marc and Steven switching back and forth unexpectedly, Sarah had lost track of who knew what. Steven apparently hadn’t gotten the memo that a) Layla’s father was dead, and b) Marc was possibly connected to it, if not responsible for it.

“Oh, so much worse. Archaeologist on a mission.” Layla replied. They moved deeper into the tomb. “And to him it was a dream worth dying for. And he did.”

Steven stopped, realizing. “Oh… I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, no, it’s fine, really.” Layla brushed it off.

“Yeah.”

“It’s fine. Happens.”

“I bet that he’d be positively beaming right now, standing in the proof of it.” Steven told her.

Layla smiled, perhaps indeed somewhat comforted by his words. “Yeah. I think so.” She blew out a breath. “Well, it’s not such a bad way to go, is it?” She exchanged looks with them. “Let’s find out?” She suggested, almost a tad excited by the prospect.

“Yeah.” Steven murmured, less enthusiastic, as she headed down the passage again. “Yeah, let’s find out.”

Sarah playfully bumped his arm with hers as she passed. “Relax. Forget about the possibility of impending death and destruction and try to enjoy this dream come true.”

He only muttered under his breath in response.

“Strange.” He observed a few minutes later, studying the yellowish walls that seemed to glow green under their blue-tinted torch beams.

“It’s a maze.” Layla noted.

“It’s a-maze-ing.” He joked in reply.

“No, like, there are six paths.” Layla explained.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, six points.”

“What would they be shooting at?” Layla queried, crouching down off to the side.

Sarah stepped up behind her and shined her own torch beam down at the bullet casings Layla was looking at. “How old would you say those are?” She queried.

“Pretty recent. Harrow’s guys, I’d say.”

They stood up, exchanging concerned looks, and turned their attentions back to Steven, who was drawing with his finger in the sand covering a slab of stone up to their thighs. Upon further inspection, Sarah saw that it was the Eye of Ra. “This whole structure… is a symbol.” Steven was musing.

“That’s the Eye of Horus.” Layla said.

Sarah frowned. “I thought Horus’ eye pointed to the right and Ra’s was to the left, like this one.”

Layla shook her head. “No, it’s the opposite.” Sarah shrugged. Maybe it was another little difference between her world and theirs, like the Ennead discrepancy.

“Look at that.” Steven said, as the symbol shone green on the ceiling above the slab.

“What?”

“Wow, that’s bonkers.” Sarah commented.

“Right?” Steven agreed. “It’s the royal symbol- protection in the afterlife.”

“I mean, like, the resources needed to build this thing….” Layla trailed off, and the three seemed to reach the same conclusion at the same time. “Her final Avatar was a pharaoh.”

“Whoa, a bloody pharaoh!” Steven gushed in excitement.

“So, what, you think it’s a map?” Layla theorized.

“Yeah, well… right, so the Eye of Horus is also the eye of mind, yeah?”

Sarah nodded. “Right. It’s supposed to represent health, wellbeing, protection, that sort of thing.”

“Representing the six senses- six points.” Steven continued. “So you got the eyebrow that denotes thoughts. Pupil- sight, obviously. This point here is, uh, hearing.” He touched the corresponding points as he listed them.

“Touch is here, and smell here.” Sarah joined in, pointing to those places.

“And this long line ending in a spiral… is the tongue.”

Layla nodded. “The Avatar would be Ammit’s voice.” She reasoned.

“That’s right.” Concurred Steven.

“So, we find the tongue point of this place, we find the ushabti.” Sarah summarized.

They came almost immediately after to a much larger chamber, which was several stories tall and open. An altar was present, and mummies- likely of the pharaoh’s servants- in the wall on one side.

“Oh, wow.”

“Oh! Heka priests, judging by their masks and ceremonial stance.” Layla recognized, shining her torch above the mummies to show the drawings there.

“I think you’re right.” Agreed Sarah. “But that’s not what these mummies are.”

“The heck’s a Heka?” Steven questioned. Sarah whirled on the spot and shot him an incredulous and genuinely shocked look.

“Sorcerers of their time.” Layla replied for her. “They’ve been down here for centuries. These must be some of the unlucky souls who crossed their path.”

“Right. An impressive sendoff.” Steven said. Turning his torch to the altar, he abruptly gagged and covered his mouth. “Oh my God, oh God. Is that fresh blood? Isn’t that little chunks of meaty bits?”

Sarah tensed, directing her own beam to the same place that he and Layla were looking. Abruptly, an image flashed into her head- a trail of her own blood on the alley floor, the night too dark for it to be immediately recognizable as red and blood. She inhaled sharply, turning her head for a moment as she collected her wits.

“Oh, yeah.” Layla confirmed grimly. “Oh. Sarah, come here.”

Reluctantly, Sarah complied. Crouching beside Layla, she took in the sight of several canopic jars gathered at the base of the altar, their lids shaped to represent different deities- mostly Anubis, which made sense. Horrifyingly, several of them were smeared with fresh blood as well.

“Canopic jars.” She told Steven, standing up. “Some… may have been recently filled. I don’t want any more information on that.”

“Let’s keep moving.” Layla suggested, unsettled now.

“Yeah.” Agreed Steven and Sarah in unison.

However, Steven came to a halt almost immediately, prompting them to do the same. “Um, just a minute. Uh, just a minute. Uh… I’m just, like, just saying what I see, and I see lots of bones and blood going that way.” He indicated out the doorway, the same way they’d intended to go. “So I’m just thinking, like, what if there’s maybe another- um, there’s like another- there’s an opening up there. You see that?” He shined his torch on what seemed to be a passageway on another level of the chamber.

“Yeah.” Layla confirmed.

“Should we check it out?”

“Yeah, let’s check it out.” Agreed Layla.

“Alright.”

“Alright. You go.” She urged.

“Me?” Steven asked, flabbergasted.

“You.”

“Yeah, alright. Yeah.” It was obvious to both women that he really didn’t want to prod around up there.

Sarah forced herself to move. “C’mon, I’ll go with you.” She crouched beside the wall, clasping her hands to make a foothold for him to step onto to better lift himself up onto their target platform.

“What’re you doing?” He questioned.

“Helping you. You step on my hands and go up first, and then you can pull me up, yeah?”

“Er- well, alright, yeah.” He agreed. Reluctantly placing one foot on her joined hands, he reached upward, and she hoisted him as he clawed at the wooden platform to pull himself onto it. “Alright, yeah. I did it, I’m up.” He announced in a whisper a moment later.

“You good?” Layla asked.

“Yeah. Your turn, Sarah.” He turned around, reaching both arms down.

“Do you need a boost?” Layla offered.

“I’m fine, thanks.” Sarah replied, wrapping her hands around Steven’s arms below the elbow, his hands clasping her arms in the same fashion. After a moment, the edge of the platform was digging into her stomach, and she let go of Steven with one hand to plant on the wooden boards and assist her in pulling herself up. “Alright, I’m up.” She called down to Layla.

Standing, the pair immediately trained their lights on the hieroglyph-covered wall. “So, according to the ancient texts, Ammit should be bound to an ushabti- those statue thingies.” Steven began. He turned around, his torch’s beam catching on the long strips of fabric hanging from the ceiling and swaying lightly in the air.

“How’s it looking?” Layla called up.

“It’s looking amazing.” Steven replied in a slightly horrified wonder as he turned his attention to the table (possibly altar) set up on the platform. Sarah’s eyes traced over the items on it and immediately looked away as she repressed the urge to vomit. “I mean, this… it looks like a freshly-filled canopic jar, and snake skins, and self-regeneration-” Steven began describing exactly what she’d seen.

“Steven.” Layla interrupted. “Steven?”

“Yeah?”

“The exit?”

“Yeah.” He realized, getting back on track. Sarah cast one last reluctant glance at the gory table, shuddering at the human arm and still-wet vermillion blood she saw there, and followed Steven. “It’s mental.” He muttered. Peering through a curtain-like arrangement of cloth strips, he drew back a moment later. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can go this way.” He confirmed excitedly.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief, but before she could voice it, the silence was broken by a gunshot in the distance. The sound startled all three and put them on high alert. Sarah tossed her torch from one hand to the other, her dominant hand going to the pistol tucked into the back of her waistband. A few more gunshots were fired off.

“Harrow.” Layla realized.

“What are they shooting at?” Steven wondered, equally baffled and worried.

“Probably whatever the others were shooting at.” Sarah suggested. “Those bullet casings we found- someone was here before us and they shot at something, which we already knew, but whatever it was, we didn’t encounter it. Unless…” she shot a third look at the table of offal.

“Unless what?” Steven pressed, not understanding her train of thought.

“Unless those Heka priests are out there and we just missed them.” She blurted, heart suddenly pounding. She did not want her innards to be put into canopic jars in this horrible place.

A sudden eerie clicking, clucking, tapping noise from the chamber’s entrance kicked up all their anxieties another notch. “Hide! Hide!” Steven urged, switching off his torch.

Layla did the same as she and Steven made to conceal themselves, but although Sarah shut hers off also, she took a wary step toward the edge of the platform, only to see a vaguely humanoid figure creeping into the chamber, like Gollum or one of those foul future predators. Horrifyingly, it was dragging an even more humanoid shape. Terrified, she scurried backward, but kept it just barely within her sight as it dragged its victim toward the altar in the middle of the chamber and heaved the person up onto it.

A moment later, the Heka priest plunged a blade into the cultist’s gut.

The night before had shaken Sarah more than she cared to admit, with the violence and death all around her, directed toward her and her friends, committed by her and her friends. But the ritualistic killing of that man was not like the night before. It wasn’t the actions of the deluded and greedy believing they were doing right; it wasn’t an adrenaline-driven act of desperation and survival and self-preservation. It was a sickening pagan practice that Sarah was in equal parts intrigued and horrified to witness. She tried to detach herself from her emotions (namely her fear and empathy) and view the gruesome spectacle through the lenses of an Ancient Egyptologist who should really be fascinated by a real-life Heka sacrifice happening before her eyes. But Sarah was an empathetic person by nature, and watching someone be butchered and dissected- even someone who was a psychopath and a complete nutter- wasn’t something she could detach from. Regrettably, she could not tear her eyes from the gruesome spectacle.

The Heka priest continued making its awful noise as its gory ritual continued, and Sarah could see Layla edging carefully around the altar, which she had had no choice but to hide herself beside. Fear muffled her disgust and horror, and dread at the thought of Layla being caught and subjected to the same cruel fate made her hands shake.

Clucking loudly now, the priest abandoned its task, slowly moving around the side of the altar in the same direction that the apparently unaware Layla was. Had it heard her? Seen her? Smelled her? No matter the reason, it was about to discover her.

But even as Sarah opened her mouth to shout a warning to her friend and distract the priest, it abruptly jumped up onto the altar. It jumped again, and again, rapidly ascending the layers of the tomb chamber- right toward Steven.

Steven shoved to his feet, wordless noises of terror coming from his mouth. Sarah backed up and moved rapidly toward Steven, her eyes just barely catching blackened fingers between the floorboards of the platform as the Heka priest made its way toward the edge. A few moments later, it had reached the edge, and its arms came up over the top, ready to climb up and claim Steven and Sarah as its next sacrifice.

Something abruptly shattered, and the priest halted, dropping back to the floor a moment later. “Run!” Steven called to Layla, who had presumably created the diversion. “We’ll find you!” The sound of running feet down below confirmed that Layla was fleeing, but as Sarah dared to take a glance over the edge once more she realized in horror that the Heka priest was pursuing her. Steven moved in Sarah’s peripheral, shoving the table off the platform in an effort to kill the priest. “I squished it. I squished it.” He repeated, both to reassure himself that he had done it and saved Layla and in surprise at himself.

“C’mon, we need to go!” Sarah urged, seizing his hand and yanking him toward the exit they’d found. They ran, and all Sarah could do was pray to whoever was listening that Layla would be alright.

On and on they went, until the path narrowed, and then opened again, spilling into a large room with a sarcophagus in the middle. “Oh my days.” Steven breathed. “First ones in. Tomb fit for a pharaoh.” Their torchlights swept across the chamber, illuminating hieroglyphs, statues of various sizes and characters, and more that Sarah couldn’t even begin to describe. “Thutmose II… Nefertiti… it’s gotta be one of the big’uns.” His excitement- elation, was clear in his voice, and reflected just as strongly in Sarah’s heart and mind. Abruptly, he stopped, and Sarah frowned and looked over her shoulder to find him staring down at a puddle.

“Marc?” She guessed.

“Yeah. He’s right cheesed off at me.”

She raised her eyebrows. “For kissing Layla?”

“Yep.”

“Gotcha. I’ll let you two sort that out.”

“What’re you gonna do? Try and drown us now?” Steven queried a moment later. He began moving again. “Yeah. Oh wow, look at that. All these relics. Sarah, come look.”

She removed her gaze from the walls and ceiling and followed him toward the sarcophagus. “Macedonian? No. What? No way, that’s not right. That can’t be right.”

“It is, though.” Sarah realized, inspecting the same writings he was. “It is. It’s Macedonian, which means…”

“The only pharaoh… but, I mean, he insisted on calling himself Egyptian.” Steven continued, struggling with the same mind-boggling conclusion that Sarah had already reached. “But…” He stood up from where he had crouched and moved closer to the ornate head of the sarcophagus. “Sarah, I think we’re looking at the long-lost tomb of-”

“-Alexander the Great.” They finished in unison. They exchanged an awed glance, their eyes wide with mutual glee and fascination, then returned their gazes to the head portion of the sarcophagus lid. It was similar, of course, to most like it, but Sarah still traced over every detail with her eyes like it was the first time she’d ever seen even a picture of one. The represented headdress was remarkably preserved, shiny and golden in the light with an ornate cobra in the middle above his head, blue painted onto the snake’s hood. The color of the shaped face was still intact- if a little dusty- and detailed with gold. The braided beard, also outlined with gold, was unscratched and unchipped.

“It’s beautiful.” Sarah remarked, hesitantly letting her fingertips run over the engravings and carvings and lines and ridges of the coffin. Dust collected unpleasantly on her sweat-damp fingertips, but she barely even noticed, too engrossed by what lay before her- every Egyptologist and probably many archaeologists’ wet dream- to care about anything else. Her hand reached the face, the pads of her fingertips tracing across the carved full lips. “They’re smooth, even after all these centuries. Minimal damage to anything. Compared to other tombs I’ve seen, there’s not even that much dust. I mean, I’ve seen more collect in a single year than what’s on ol’ Lex here. It’s incredible.” She turned her eyes to Steven. “We need to open it and look for the ushabti. I doubt they’d just leave it lying around.”

Steven nodded in agreement. He braced his hands against the edge of the lid and rapidly began drawing in breaths to hype himself up, but after a moment shoved away from it. “Everything inside me is like, screaming not to open this thing.”

“Best case scenario, he wakes up looking like Rami Malek and helps us on our quest.” Sarah joked.

“Alright, alright, alright.” He blurted out a moment later, earning a confused frown from Sarah. She realized after a few seconds that it was probably Marc’s input again.

“C’mon, we’ll do it together.” Sarah suggested, placing her hands near the feet, making eye contact with him across the coffin. “On three, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“One… two… three!”

And together, their combined strength shoved the cover of the sarcophagus out of place, leaving it balanced across the middle yet still granting them access. Inside, Alexander the Great’s body was mummified, a number of important items on his bandaged form. The smell was unpleasant to say the least, but he was remarkably well-preserved.

“Oh, man.” Steven spoke, completely awed.

“I can’t believe we’re seeing this.” Sarah agreed.

“No, well, if you’re gonna hide it for all eternity, you’d probably put it in a place where the average looter wouldn’t think to look.” Steven said. After a moment, he blinked and looked up at Sarah. “Ushabti- any guesses?”

She frowned, peering down at the pharaoh’s corpse. “I mean, it could’ve been hidden among any of the ceremonial items entombed with him.” She suggested. She leaned closer to his exposed feet and shined her light over what she could see. “If any jars or vessels were put in with him, it might’ve been hidden in one of them, or even put on his body before he was mummified.” She cast a wary look at Steven. “I really don’t wanna unwrap a corpse.”

He made a face. “Blergh, neither do I.” A thoughtful frown covered his features, and his gaze moved back to The Great’s head. “Alexander was the voice of Ammit.” He said. He nodded to himself, shuffling in place, and reached for the mummy’s head. “Alright, I’m gonna try something, I’ll do something here.”

“Steven. What the hell are you doing?” Sarah questioned as he began unwrapping the pharaoh’s face.

“Sorry. Oh, God, so sorry. Sorry, Mr. Great.” Steven began profusely apologizing to the corpse. “Er, I’m thinking that maybe-” the bandages around the corpse’s jaw tore, and a moment later an unpleasant cracking sound followed. Steven tore the entire facial covering off, revealing a skull underneath. “-I’m thinking that maybe the ushabti’s in his mouth.”

Sarah tipped her head, considering. “You may be right. It’s worth a shot, anyway.”

Steven nodded, and his fingers pried at the mummy’s closed mouth. “Alright, open up.” Abruptly, the jaw entirely detached, and Sarah made a muffled noise of revulsion, bile rising in her throat. “Oh, sorry Mr. Great. Sorry. Couldn’t be more sorry.” He continued, gingerly reaching into the now much bigger mouth, fingers probing for the ushabti.

“Do you- Do you want me to do that?” Sarah offered hesitantly.

“Nope, nope, I’m already knuckle-deep here.” Steven returned, and Sarah shuddered. The visual was unnerving enough. Within a few moments, Steven’s arm disappeared into the corpse up to the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt, and Sarah pressed a hand over her mouth as bile rose in her throat. Steven wasn’t faring much better, turning his face away and gagging. However, after a few long moments, Steven turned back to the corpse, concentration etched into his features. “Hang on, I can feel something.” A moment later, he extracted his arm, and in his hand was a small stone figurine of none other but the demon goddess herself.

“You got it.” Sarah breathed, unable to tear her eyes from the ushabti. “Holy shit, Steven. Holy shit! You did it!” She threw her arms around Steven, the sarcophagus between them ignored.

“I couldn’t have done it without you.” He told her sincerely, earning a joking eye-roll from Sarah as she pulled back.

Neither of them knew how badly their luck was about to go.

The symbol Steven draws is the Eye of Ra, but since it’s the Eye of Horus in the show (look up the difference if you want). Since the Ennead was also slightly incorrect, which I’ve previously mentioned, I’m just writing it in as a difference between universes.

The Rami Malek comment is a reference to the first Night At The Museum movie, although he appears in most of them.

#living legend #moon knight #primeval #sarah page #steven grant #layla el faouly #alexander the great #queenclaudiabrown #ushabti #heka priests

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