Everyone rushed to the side of the bridge and looked down.

"F'lair!" yelled Nefertina unable to believe what he had just done. Her desperate cry was echoed by Presley and the other mummies, but they were answered only by the thunderous roar of the waves lashing in from the sea far below.

Heka's "Oooh, nasty..." was drowned out by Scarab's enraged roar.

"NOooo! The Staff!" All the sorcerer could think of was the power the Raven Staff could have given him and the ease with which he would have overrun the world with vast armies of the undead. And, more immediately, he no longer had the means to simply banish the mummies' spirits from this world. Now that opportunity lay at the seabed, his only consolation being that Shade had met with the same watery fate. "Then I'll just have to destroy you the old fashioned way." he said, completing his line of thought out loud.

Unleashing a mighty barrage of mystic bolts and ordering the shabties to attack, Scarab caught the mummies off guard forcing them to concentrate all their efforts into defending themselves without their weapons.

"Is sneaking past them really your style?" inquired Heka as Scarab, seeing the prince isolated at the other side of the battle, took to the air and passed over the distracted mummies.

"It is when it gives me the chance to do this." he smiled evilly as he landed near to a shocked Presley and began to invoke the Pharaoh's spirit "Spirit of the true Rapses. Come to me. Bring me immortality."

Too late Ja-kal, who was closest, saw what was happening "The Prince!" he cried in horror, realizing that they were about to lose Rapses to Scarab's evil once more. Even as he and Nefertina jointly finished off the last shabtie standing in their way they knew that they couldn't cover the distance between them and the sorcerer in time with their powers temporarily drained as they were.

"You've failed, Guardians. Immortality is mine!" announced Scarab triumphantly.

"Not in my lifetime pal...(pardon the irony)" said a defiant voice apparently out of nowhere. Scarab turned just in time to see his shadow suddenly billow upwards from the ground, altering form slightly as it solidified and finally revealed itself to be F'lair with the Raven Staff gripped tightly in his right hand.

"How did he do that?" Armon asked Rath as he held off another attacking shabtie.

"I...it's...oh, you wouldn't possibly understand." was the flustered reply as the snake guardian backpedaled out of the way of two attacking stone warriors, leaving them to crash into and shatter each other instead.

With the sorcerer's concentration broken, Presley was released from the spell. "You'll pay for that, wretch!" Scarab threatened with murder in his eyes, raising his hand as he prepared to fire a round of projectiles from their housing in the armour near his shoulders at F'lair.

"I think not..." Shade gripped the ancient ebon Staff with both hands thinking If it works for the mummies, then something along those lines should work for me...I hope "...um...WITH THE...er... POWER OF RAVEN!" he yelled, feeling slightly silly. For a worrying second nothing happened. But then a hideous shrieking sound, almost like laughter, emanating from the main gem in the headpiece filled the air. This rapidly escalated into a deafening roar, the like of which could only be borne from a dragon's throat, that forced everyone to cover their ears. And then black lightning exploded outwards from the Staff, coruscating along its length and enveloping the Daemonslayer in its dark brilliance.

When it receded he suddenly felt a lot heavier. Besides feeling more powerful, his clothing had changed as well: Other than his jeans, boots, and kneepads, he was now clothed in a necromancer's typical long black, grey and red outer robe with shoulderpads formed from numerous inhuman skulls. Mixed in with this was what appeared to be some kind of dragonbone armour and a tattered cape that held a batwing-like quality. To finish it off the head armour was a dragon's skull, similar in design to Rath's and Ja-kal's helms in that his eyes could be seen, but the lower jaw was twisted so his nose, mouth and chin were hidden.

"Shade! Look ou*" shouted Nefertina, seeing that F'lair was too distracted to take note of Scarab preparing to attack. Her warning was cut short though as a shabtie made a lunge for her. She jumped up into the air, gracefully somersaulting over its head to land behind from where she kicked as hard as possible at the back of its leg, causing the appendage to crumble. The shabtie toppled over and shattered on the tarmac.

Before Scarab could open fire Shade spun the Raven Staff round with unnerving ease for what should have been a heavy and cumbersome object and leveled it at the sorcerer, a chill, evil smile fixed on his face. "You think you can destroy me, mortal? I hold the very Spirit World at my behest! I*" roared F'lair, suddenly stopping himself short in surprise when his mind caught up with what his mouth was saying. What's happening to me? he wondered, panicking for a moment as he realized that hadn't even been a human voice he'd spoken with. It occurred to him that perhaps Raven's power wasn't all he'd invoked with the Staff. Still, if it meant saving himself and his friends... "Destroy our enemies" the Daemonslayer whispered, letting the magic surging through him dictate his actions.

Restless spirits summoned by the Staff manifested themselves in the form of a multitude of spectral ravens that materialised out of nowhere and descended upon Scarab and his shabties. Whilst he and Heka barely managed to make a joint effort to either burn or blast out of existence any of the wrathful spirits that came too close, the shabties were all shattered in seconds. The sounds of the destruction were drowned out be the supernatural ravens' hollow, sinister cries, like lost souls.

"Are you okay Presley?" asked Armon, shielding him from flying bits of shabties.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's happening - this is like a bad Hitchcock movie or something!"

"It would appear our lycanthropic friend has unlocked the Staff's power." commented Rath as he joined them with Ja-kal and Nefertina close behind, "Thank Horus it wasn't Scarab" he added, ducking involuntarily as an eerily glowing raven zipped past overhead, nearly knocking off his hat.

Ja-kal, noting the sudden, inexplicable change in the werewolf's demeanour, couldn't help but wonder at what cost F'lair had gained this control.

As the spell faded the unnatural birds dematerialized, returning to the netherworld, leaving Scarab alone without his usual plethora of animated stone warriors to do his fighting for him.

"Wanna see what else this baby can do?" grinned F'lair, hefting the Staff menacingly. His normal more paranoid attitude put on hold for the time being as he rode the overwhelming and intoxicating surge of dark magical power. The voice, the words, had been his - but the emotions through which they were spoken belonged to someone...something...else. Raven.

"I think now would be a really good time to leave, Scarab." whispered Heka and then the golden cobra spat out a fireball at Shade who gasped and hit the dirt to avoid it.

With the Daemonslayer distracted and the mummies gathered protectively round Presley, Scarab took this as an excellent opportunity to make a speedy getaway.

"Hey! Beetle-head's escaping!" yelled Presley, but Scarab was already gone before they could react.

There was a brief flash of light from Shade's direction, and then he was back in his own clothes. F'lair was left standing shakily and leaning heavily on the jet black Staff. Suddenly his legs gave and he collapsed back to the ground where he lay, unmoving.

'Are you alright? Say something!' As F'lair was already technically dead, it was difficult for anyone to tell his condition. Fortunately the anxious voices roused him.

'Did anyone catch the number of that chariot?' he groaned, still semi-conscious. Waking up fully, he added, 'Wow! What a rush!'

Nefertina handed him his sword but there was still a definite look of concern in her eyes, "Are you sure you're okay? When you jumped we thought you were..."

"Gone?" ('dead' probably wasn't quite the appropriate term for the undead werewolf) "You really think I would leave my bike behind?" he half-joked "Besides, I've got a friend up in New York who'd probably chase me all the way to the Spirit World if I went and abandoned him here to make his own way home." Knowing Blackjack, Shade had the feeling that this could well not be an exaggeration.

'What happened to your eye? And what's with the spare ribs?' asked Presley, noticing that some of the bone armour had remained as an external ribcage and also that Shade's right eye was now black with just a small yellow-green pupil, 'No offence or anything, but it's kinda freaky.'

He took a casual look at his reflection in his sword, and then did a double-take in shock, 'Aagh!!! I can't go round looking like this!!'

Helpfully Nefertina tore off a strip of bandage, 'Here, you can cover it with this.'

'But what does it mean?' wondered Rath, his intrigue still not satisfied.

Troubled, F'lair shook his head as he tied the bandage round, having it slanted so that it covered his right eye, 'I honestly don't know,' and do I really want to find out? he thought silently. He was slowly realising that he felt...different...as though there were another presence within him, and the ever-present hollow sensation he had experienced deep inside since losing his soul in the Spirit World had lessened. But something stopped him from telling this to his friends - he felt he needed to find this out for himself. Although he suspected that he already knew the truth but didn't want to face it.

Ja-kal, too, was wondering as to what the implications of these changes were, 'So what will you do now?' he asked.

'Carry on and hope things are okay. I guess I got what I came here for,' he held up the Staff, and then looked at Nefertina, 'Much as I want to stay, I still must go...I'm sworn to hunt demons, and there are none here. The Blood Oath means I have to move on.'

'Will we ever see you again?'

The werewolf grinned as he jumped onto his bike and gunned the throttle, making the engine roar, 'Count on it - we Daemonslayers turn up like bad pennies! Especially when there's a demon in town.' The goodbyes were finished as the Eastern horizon glowed gold with the imminent arrival of the new day and then it was time to part ways.

Blue fire spat from the exhausts as the Steed sped along the Golden Gate Bridge. At the instant the sun's life-giving light hit the bridge F'lair was gone in a burst of darkness and blue light, leaving a fast-discorporating trail of shadow in his wake as he teleported away.

As the chill late-autumn breeze stirred what was left of the leaves in the trees and the sun's warmth burnt off the last remnants of the pre-dawn mist from the bay, the mummies and their Prince stood quietly for a few moments, each lost in his or her own thoughts. Finally Armon broke the silence, unable to contain himself any longer, 'Does anyone else fancy breakfast?'

'Breakfast? Omygosh!!' Presley clapped a hand over his eyes, 'I sure hope Mom didn't wait up for me last night!'

'We'd better get you home o'prince,' said Ja-kal as he climbed into the Hotra with the others, 'Nefertina?'

Taking her cue, the Cat Guardian revved up the engine, 'We'll have you home in two shakes of a lion's tail!' and, putting the pedal to the metal, the Hotra peeled away, leaving the Western Gate behind them for another day.

FIN

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Legal stuff (you know the score): Mummies Alive is owned by those who possess the copyright, ie, not me. This story is for entertainment purposes only (no money is being made.::sigh::) etc.
Just a word on continuity...I've no idea where this story would come in the MA series (we haven't seen all the episodes yet where I am).

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All characters, places and anything else portrayed in this story is copyright 2004 to the author, Isabelle Davis (Drakhenliche), and may not be used without express permission. Meccha/Soul (c) Elsa Lai 2004

Comments, questions, whatever, can be addressed to me at the www.NecroDragon.com forum.