Death Comes on Swift Wings
by Xanderphile
Disclaimer: The characters, except Sean, are not mine. The name Anck-su-Namun and the word Hom-Dai are not mine either, they were borrowed from the film The Mummy, where the idea for this story came from. However, the actual curse and Anck-su-Namun’s background are my brainchilds.
Rating PG: 14, some bad language.
Distribution: Yes, as long as you ask me first.
Authors Note: I’d suggest reading my other stories to get the gist of some of the goings on in this story. This is my universe, no Joss Whedon allowed. This is set in Sunnydale since my trilogy was set mostly in L.A.
Part One: The Hom-Dai
"They have found a what?" Giles asked, the man on the other end of the phone was being annoyingly evasive.
"What’s that all about?" Asked Angel, trying to hear what was being said. It was his turn to be the visitor. He smiled at Buffy he really looked forward to the weekends. Buffy did too. This time, Angel had let Sean tag along as the rest of the Scooby Gang wanted to meet Angel and Buffy’s little hero.
"I dunno. Someone has uncovered some ancient sarcophagus and…" Buffy trailed off, not missing the guilty look that had crossed his face. This situation was not far off similar to the uncovering of Acathla.
"Well, I don’t have a lot of experience in that particular area, but I know someone who does. Yes, we’ll come down and see it." Giles continued down the phone.
Sean was talking to Xander about the pros and cons of Mars bars and were nearing a conclusion when Giles addressed them all.
"I’m afraid something very disturbing has been discovered. It appears the sarcophagus contains a…shall we say, unusual skeleton,"
"Unusual how?" Asked Buffy.
"It’s a vampire, and not exactly a skeleton,"
"More Sunnydale action then." Concluded Buffy, sliding out of Angel’s lap.
"Err, having a problem with the concept of a vampire skeleton, they always turn into dust, don’t they?" Asked Sean a little bewildered.
"A vampire of a great age can have a physical structure, as we have discovered," Answered Giles, remembering the Master.
"I’ll take your word for it," Sean muttered
"So we’re going to have a look I take it?" Asked Xander.
"Yes, does anyone know where Willow is?" Giles asked.
"With that Tara girl somewhere. She wanted me to go with them, to practise spells and stuff," Sean spoke up.
"Well, we can go without her," said Buffy, heading for the door.
The sarcophagus itself was nothing amazing, except for the writing on it, which was Romanian.
"That’s why I really needed Willow," Giles explained, "You can’t make anything of it can you?" He asked Angel, who shook his head.
"It says ‘She Who Will Not Be Named" Sean spoke completely out of the blue.
"How do you know?" Asked Xander, surprised.
"He’s been studying curses, a lot of which tend to be Romanian," Angel answered.
"Well, there’s more, can you decipher it, Sean?"
Sean brushed some more dust away gently, and frowned at it. It was faded with age and hard to read, but he eventually translated it all.
"It says she is cursed and if she ever awakens, death will come on swift wings to all mankind, man, this lass was not popular," Sean concluded.
"Having trouble with the awakening part, is she still alive or whatever? Xander a"sked, looking worried.
"Well, lets she the skeleton itself," Said Giles, relieved that the people from the museum had left them to it. They all heaved at the heavy lid and gaped at what they saw.
"That’s no right," Angel said, frowning.
"Too right," Agreed Xander.
"Giles, tell us there is a logical explanation for this," Buffy pleaded.
"There isn’t, it must be part of the curse, Sean, you don’t recognise it at all do you?"
The skeleton still had a lot of skin hanging to it, especially on its head. A mane of long hair was still attached. Considering the fact the body was supposed to be a vampire, this was certainly not normal.
"Well, yes, I think so, but it doesn’t really add up," Sean answered. "You see. It looks exactly the same as the curse known as the Hom-Dai, the worst of all Romanian curses, reserved for their worst enemies. The book I read stated outright that it had never been performed. But the only explanation for this."
"How?"
"Well, Romanians hate vampires, you already know that. This curse was reserved particularly for them. The vampire is burned until it’s almost dead, then there is a load of chanting to activate the curse, which stops the vampire healing itself. Then they just lock it in a tomb or sarcophagus and leave them there for all eternity, but the real thing about the curse is that the vampires mind is still alive, thinking, even though it is totally immobile. That’s why the Romani feared it, because a vampire subjected to the Hom-Dai could rise again,"
"Wow, that bites, WHAT? That vampire can see us?" Xander asked, gazing fearfully at the corpse.
"It hasn’t got any eyes, so I’d say she can’t, she might be able to sense us though," Giles answered, a little bewildered by all this.
"Err, I’m finding this creepy, so I’d like to leave, like now," Said Buffy.
"She can’t be woken up unless someone has a copy of the spell that cursed her. And they would have to read it backwards," Sean said reassuringly.
They left the skeleton and wandered away.
Later that night:
The vampire dropped into the tunnel, followed by the other believers. They stared at the body in awe.
"So it’s true, Anck-su-Namun is not a legend, she’s real."
There had been followers who had survived the battle with the vengeful Romani, they had been searching for Anck-su-Namun ever since, but the Romani had consistently moved the ‘living’ body around, they had known it was in Sunnydale but had not been able to find her. Now here she was, she would be brought back to her former glory this night.
The ritual began.
Several months later
"Do you think we will ever know who stole that skeleton?" Buffy asked casually, but this covered up the anxiety that whoever had taken the body might find out how to resurrect her. For several months now the Scoobies had waited for something to happen, but nothing.
"No. I’d say it was probably vampires though I don’t actually know," Angel replied as they patrolled.
They sat down next to one of the graves and sat in silence for a while. Then Buffy asked:
"Ok, I’ve been to afraid to ask this but, your not mad with me about, well, me moving on so quick?"
"No, that was the whole reason I left," Angel answered, surprised. "Anyway, I thought you were angry at me for leaving," He continued.
"Well, I was a little, but I understand why you left, if you hadn’t we would all be in Hell by now, or you would be anyway," She answered, not missing the guilty expression that crossed Angel’s face. "But that’s not a problem any more, and plus you can see me during the day now, thanks to Harry Potter mark two."
"You really lied about not looking good in direct light, you know, you look even better," Angel said gently.
"Now whose lying," Replied Buffy. The two laughed and kissed gently, then suddenly they both pulled back.
"You heard it too?" Buffy asked Angel, he nodded and the two looked around carefully, but saw nothing.
Then, a female vampire leaped at them from behind a tree, trying to grab Buffy,
"Get away from me, bitch!" Buffy yelled, kicking her hard, it had no affect on the vampire, whose reply was to punch Buffy very hard. Buffy knew the vampire had phenomenal strength when she saw just how far she had flown in the air. Picking herself off the ground and ignoring the pain she prepared for another round, but the vampire didn’t try to attack her, instead she said:
"Slayer, know my name, I am the bringer of death, Anck-su-Namun! Learn it well!"
With that triumphant speech, she was gone.
"I’m thinking that’s our missing skeleton," Angel said, watching her go.
"Question is, who the hell woke her up?"
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