Chapter Text
Dark Universe
Princess of Egypt
Written by Andrew Downs and Thomas Lapeyrouse III
Deep in the Sahara Desert during the Ancient days of Egypt, a bright full moon shined upon a hidden immaculate temple, where a woman’s screams echoed out. Amunet, princess of Egypt, bound within a sarcophagus, was mummified alive by treacherous priests, while the Vizier Imhotep clutched the Scroll of Thoth (a powerful god-made relic that could resurrect the dead). The priests removed four vital organs from Amunet (each holding a fragment of her soul; her Sheut/ Shadow, Ba/ Soul, Ib/ Heart, and Ren/ Secret Name) and placed them inside canopic jars (which glowed with blue magical light). Before they could remove her Ka/ Spirit (and thus her last soul fragment), Amunet’s eyes flashed with golden energy, the temple shook like an earthquake, and the ceiling began to collapse with chunks of falling rubble, killing the traitors. During the chaos, the Scroll magically flew out of Imhotep’s hands and into the sarcophagus as the lid fell and sealed it, trapping Amunet. Only four priests managed to escape the collapsing temple, each carrying one of the four canopic jars (their glow dimmed as they got further from the temple). As they fled and the temple was buried under the desert sands, Amunet’s screams roared out into the night.
In 1937, a team of Egyptologists, including linguist Dr. Henry Carter, cartographer Helena Atiz, ex-British soldier Nico Conahan, and Helena’s goddaughter and apprentice Gracie Rashida, searched for the hidden temple. Even though the team had one of the canopic jars from the prologue and a map created by Helena’s father, they’d been unable to find the entrance to the temple, and time was running out for their excavation. Unfortunately, Preston B. Carnarvon, the excavation’s sole financier from Zaleska Indus., arrived ahead of schedule and informed the explorers that he was ending his funding for their excavation. Though Carter and Helena urged him to give them more time, Preston informed them that they were to shut down the excavation and return to Cairo in the morning.
That night, as the others reluctantly prepared to leave, Gracie (not wanting to be separated from the others and return to her strict all-girls academy in London, England) stole the map and canopic jar when no one was looking and searched the excavation site on her own. After some time of finding nothing, Gracie threw away the map and jar, deeming them useless. However, in the light of the crescent moon, the jar began glowing towards the outskirts of the dig site. Curious, Gracie picked it up, followed, and dug where it shined at its brightest; unfortunately, after Gracie dug a few feet deep, the jar began to magically shake on its own and the sand shifted, forming a large hole that she fell into. The sound of the collapsing hole alerted the other explorers, who rushed to see what’d happened. After Gracie recovered, she saw that the hole had opened a tunnel leading to the temple entrance. As the other explorers arrived, Gracie excitedly told them she’d found the entrance.
Seeing the door was sealed, Nico brought out a bag of dynamite; however, Carter told him it’d be too dangerous and could collapse the entrance. Instead, he ordered the workers to unblock the entrance, with Nico setting aside the dynamite. Once the entrance was cleared, Carter led the other explorers and several workers into the temple while everyone else, including Preston, stayed outside to handle the artifacts they’d bring out. As they explored the temple, led by the magical glow of the canopic jar, they saw several ancient corpses littering every room they passed. Reaching the main antechamber, they found the room filled with priceless ancient artifacts and a dozen corpses crushed under ceiling rubble, all centered around one large sarcophagus. As the workers removed the rubble, Carter and Helena led the cataloging and extraction of the artifacts out of the temple. Gracie, being given little to do, grabbed a torch to explore more of the temple on her own. Though Nico stopped her and warned her not to leave the group as per Carter’s instructions, he let her go after she convinced him that she wouldn’t venture far.
As Gracie went on her own, Carter (who set down the canopic jar), Helena, and a few workers opened the sarcophagus. Inside they saw the shriveled and mummified body of Amunet with the Scroll on her chest (an Ankh had been burned onto her chest by the Scroll, and she had no shadow). Carter took the Scroll and read it aloud as he and Helena walked away from the sarcophagus, thinking it might’ve been a log record and might give them a clue as to what had happened. No one noticed as Amunet crawled out, took the canopic jar, slipped into the shadows out of sight of the explorers, and headed towards the hallway Gracie took.
Meanwhile, as she was drawing hieroglyphics and wall paintings into her notebook, Gracie reached a dead end. Turning around to return to the others, she saw down the hall Amunet illuminated by the torchlight. The mummy was hunched over, breaking the canopic jar, swallowing the organs inside, and regaining her Sheut/ Shadow, which restored her partially to life and reformed her shadow. Gracie, terrified, dropped her torch, which alerted Amunet. As Amunet approached her, slowly and cautiously, Gracie fainted and fell to the ground before Amunet could reach her.
In the main antechamber, Carter, confused, finished reading the Scroll and told Helena that it wasn’t a log record but a spell scroll. Suddenly, everyone stopped as they heard the dead bodies moan and move. Outside, the crescent moon turned into a full blood moon, and dark storm clouds surged with blood-red lightning. Over the horizon, a massive swarm of undead locusts spilled out over the dunes heading for the campsite and temple, where they started attacking everyone outside, who fled into the temple. Back inside, the previously dead bodies began to rise and attack the explorers and workers. As several workers were killed, Carter and Helena managed to escape while Nico shot his way through the undead; however, Carter and Helena were separated from Nico and took different tunnels. Meanwhile, several undead rushed at Amunet, who killed them while protecting Gracie. Hearing more undead approaching, Amunet grabbed Gracie and covered her in her mummy wrappings on her back before crawling along the walls and ceiling towards the exit.
As Nico and several workers fled the undead, many were picked off one by one. As he ran, Nico ran into Preston, who demanded to know what was going on before a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed him. Nico tried to save Preston, but Preston’s terrified face triggered Nico’s WWI PTSD, and Preston was dragged away, screaming into the darkness. Just as Nico was about to be killed by more undead, Carter and Helena arrived and saved their friend. As Carter, Helena, and Nico ran, Helena asked Nico where Gracie was. When Nico told her that he’d let Gracie go off exploring on her own, Helena angrily yelled at Nico, asking him how he could just let Gracie wander off like that. Carter pulled her off him, telling her that arguing wouldn’t save Gracie or help them escape.
Reaching another large chamber, the explorers stopped as Amunet suddenly dropped from the ceiling in front of them. Startled, Carter and Nico shot at Amunet, who attacked back. However, Helena ran between them to stop the fight and pointed out that Amunet had Gracie wrapped up on her back. Before the explorers could make sense of what was going on, more undead poured in from the halls. As Amunet and the explorers fought against the undead swarms, the Scroll was knocked away from Carter. Seeing the Scroll, Amunet pushed her way through the undead, grabbed it, and ran off down a hallway. Helena chased after Amunet for Gracie, but as more undead poured in and separated the princess from them, Carter grabbed Helena’s hand and led her and Nico down another hallway toward the temple exit.
Along the way, the explorers found Preston, wounded and unconscious, lying on the ground and Nico lifted him onto his back. When they reached the entrance, Carter saw Nico’s bag of dynamite and lit it, exploding the chasing undead and sealing the temple entrance behind them. Elsewhere, Amunet ran down a corridor as several undead chased her and Gracie, coming to a dead end. Seeing light shine through a crack in the wall, Amunet drilled into the hole with her wrappings to open it up before pushing Gracie through and crawling after. Just as Amunet exited the hole, the dynamite’s explosive shockwave caused the hole to collapse behind her.
Safe outside, Carter and Nico took a breather before they heard shouting. The two turned back to the hole that led to the temple and saw Helena as she called out for Gracie and looked for a way back inside. Quickly Carter rushed to stop her and sadly told her that Gracie was trapped inside and probably dead. Helena screamed out in desperation before turning to Carter and attacking him, saying it was his fault for reading the Scroll. After getting her anger out, Helena calmed down and fell into Carter’s arms, tired, exhausted, and in mourning for her goddaughter. After she was done, Helena, Carter, and Nico (with Preston on his back) returned to the campsite, grabbed whatever supplies they could find, and drove away headed back to Cairo.
Elsewhere, Gracie woke to find Amunet hunched over her. Gracie screamed at her and ran away from Amunet, who scurried away and hid behind a boulder. Gracie stopped and watched Amunet for a moment before she cautiously approached her, holding out her hand to show she meant no harm. After Amunet accepted her hand, Gracie asked her who she was. As Amunet struggled to remember, her eyes glowed with golden energy. Amunet screamed, grabbed the sides of her head, and fell over in pain as the memories returned to her. One was of herself, younger, and her father as they looked out over Ancient Egypt as he told her that it’d be her responsibility to protect her home and people when she became queen. Then she saw her father on the throne being attended to by the priests as he looked ill. Another memory flashed with Amunet crying over her father’s deathbed. Lastly, Imhotep entered her chambers telling her it was time for her coronation as queen, with Amunet holding back tears.
As the pain from the memories faded, Amunet slumped against the boulder. Gracie rushed to her side, asking if she was alright and what had happened. Amunet pointed to herself and struggled in ancient Egyptian to say her name. Gracie (being fluent in ancient Egyptian from her lessons with Carter) understood Amunet and introduced herself. Amunet (her words becoming clearer as she spoke) asked how long she’d been gone. When Gracie told her she’d been gone for centuries, Amunet, shocked and devastated, fell to her knees, screaming in despair as sand violently swirled around her. Once Amunet calmed down, Gracie approached and asked who she was. Amunet started to say that she was the Queen of Egypt, stopped herself, and then instead said that she was the Princess of Egypt. Amunet then asked if her kingdom still stood, to which Gracie told her yes and that she was from Egypt herself. Amunet asked Gracie to help her return home and, after returning to the campsite and seeing that the others had left for Cairo, Gracie agreed.