Unseen Realm
Cave
Kamchatka,
1960
The ancient evil apkallu council watched Indiana Jones' memories of Emily's facial scars and her injured eye making her half blind, stunned.
"Its a dangerous man who loves his family so much that he'll die for them," one of the apkallu murmured, expecting the others to agree.
"But he's not dead," the second apkallu mused. "We couldn't kill Dr. Jones in India, 1935 because that kid, Shorty - snapped him out of our possession. We couldn't kill him in Egypt, 1947 - because he loved his family too much. We tried by using pawns Edo and Chiba to threaten his daughter Emily - but she got free with only a cut on the back of her neck! She fights as well as her father - maybe better. What makes you think we're going to succeed in killing Dr. Jones now?"
"Because," their leader insisted, "Someone - a human - has to get the Seventh Sword of Diya. And in order to do that - they must die. Those have been the rules of the Unseen Realm since ancient Mesopotamia and King Gilgamesh. Plenty of people... even lesser gods, our own children with human women the Nephilm, the heroes of old, the near immortals have tried to bring their loved ones back. No one succeeds... unless..." he swallowed, feeling them all flicker in fear. "Unless the Treasure Guardian intervenes. And I think we're safe - Jones doesn't believe in the supernatural."
"But he knows about us."
"Yes. He knows about us - but he doesn't know the Treasure Guardian. He doesn't know the rules. He doesn't know that the Treasure Guardian is more powerful than us. He wasn't willing to believe or take that leap of faith. And we need to keep him in that darkness."
"What about his encounter with the Ark of the Covenant?"
"It scared him. And when Dr. Jones gets scared, he purposefully blinds himself to what is in front of him. Humans call it a 'defense mechanism,'" The apkallu leader explained.
"And the Grail Quest? He still doesn't know... Even with the Grail quest?"
"He believed because his father believed. This is different. This is on him. And he hasn't sided with the Treasure Guardian. Until then... he's our pawn."
"What about Lizavet?" A third apkallu asked. "We've been trying to get her to align with us since she was a child. And she won't!"
"She was the reason he was brought here." The leader answered. "I told Edo to capture her. I told Edo where to find her. I told Edo how mix a poison to strike her down and make her speak the secrets that she knows."
"But she won't help us! You saw Lizavet and Emily fight," a fourth apkallu protested. "They teamed up like the original shaman ladies who defeated us the first time, while Shorty and Dr. Jones took out the other half of Edo's ninjas."
"Weak humans." The apkallu leader snarled. "Emily will be devastated and lose all courage when we kill her father. And when we kill Shorty, we can also have Lizavet. Women lose courage when we steal those they love, or don't you remember the days when we had full dominion of the earth?"
"I remember the shamanesses using the Seven Swords of Diya to send us to this underground prison when we killed too many of their tribe's husbands and tried to take them for our own spawn," the first apkallu murmured.
The leader glared at the others in his corrupt council. "I'll let you draw lots for Lizavet. Emily Jones is mine. They will be the foundation of our plan... unwilling as they may be... they won't have a choice. Weak humans. They must always surrender to their fear in us."