A/N 9/25/2018: I was originally going to make this a Bella/Imhotep cross, but I was having a hard time coming up with a way to put her in the past...in both pasts. lol I could have done the '30's or so easily enough, but Ancient times...eeehhhh...I may change it...so don't get too hung up on it yet...let me know what y'all think. If I should continue this or work harder for a Bella/Imhotep pairing. ~Angel
Thebes, City of the Living, crown jewel of Pharaoh Seti I.
Pharaoh Seti I rode into Thebes on his chariot to his men bowing and presenting arms as he passed. He rode in as a returning conquerer after yet another campaign with the Mitanni.
Home of Imohtep. Pharaoh's high priest, keeper of the dead. Birth place of Anck-Su-Namun, Pharaoh's misteress. No other man was allowed to touch her.
At the same time the Pharaoh was riding into the city, a young beautiful woman was walking into one of the sleeping quarters. She wore nothing but a cloth over her most intimate of parts. The rest was body paint. A form of cruelty the Pharaoh forced on her, so he would know if she was touched by another. She passed a priest, and he bowed, diverting his gaze. Anck-Su-Namun smirked, loving the superiority she had. But her target was waiting just ahead. Imhotep. Anck-Su-Namun was attracted to power, and while the Pharaoh was the living god on earth, Imhotep had power over death itself. Such power was irresistible to the young woman. She wanted to live forever.
But for their love, they were willing to risk life itself.
Anck-Su-Namun walked right up to Imhotep. She didn't touch him at first, just passed her hand over his face in their greeting. He too didn't touch her at first, bringing his hands down on either side of her, before he finally grasped her arms and captured her lips with his. As he kissed her, his hands rubbed against her arms, smearing the body paint.
Just as the priests were about to shut the door, they felt them being pushed open again from the other side. They moved out of the way to reveal the Pharaoh Seti himself. He had ridden far and wished to see Anck-Su-Namun this night. He looked around to see the priests and was confused.
"What are you doing here?" he asked them, but they did not answer. Instead, he focused on finding Anck-Su-Namun. He could smell her bathing oils from here. Just beyond one of the curtains, he found her standing next to a small statue of Bast. He smiled at seeing her, but turned enraged when he saw her paint had been disturbed.
"Who has touched you?!" he demanded, pointing to her arm. Anck-Su-Namun looked down and noticed her smeared body paint as well. She looked up at the Pharaoh, searching for an answer, but her attention was diverted to Imhotep, who had come up behind him. Seti, seeing her preoccupation, turned as well.
"Imhotep?! My priest!" Seti was incredulous, but in his destraction, he didn't stop Imhotep from taking the Pharaoh Seti's own sword. Nor did he see Anck-Su-Namun raise a dagger and plunge it into his back. Seti screamed in agony. He began to fall, but Imhotep brought a fresh wave of pain when he swung the sword across the injured Pharaoh's side. Again and again the attacks came until he finally fell dead.
Just as the last breath of life was leaving his body, there was pounding on the door. Imhotep pulls the sword one last time from Seti's body.
"Pharaoh's bodyguards," he said through the high of his kill. He wondered how they were able to know so quickly that Seti needed their help.
"You must go! Save yourself!" Anck-Su-Namun urged.
"No," Imhotep stated simply. If they were to die, they would die together.
"Only you can resurrect me!" she tells him, pulling his attention from the banging on the door to her. They looked into each other's eyes until Imhotep's priest came and pulled him away by force.
"I won't leave you! Get away from me!" he commanded, but they didn't let up. Anck-Su-Namun passed her hand over his face one last time in farewell, as the priests managed to pull him away.
"You shall live again," he promised, then yelled from farther down the hall. "I will resurrect you!"
Anck-Su-Namun was brought back to the present circumstances when the Medjai burst through the doors and passed the curtain. They looked down to see the body of their beloved Pharaoh cooling on the floor. They then looked up to Anck-Su-Namun, drawing the obvious conclusion.
"My body is no longer his temple!" she declared, before plunging her dagger into her own midsection.
To resurrect Anck-Su-Namun, Imhotep and his priests broke into her crypt and stole her body. They raced deep into the desert, taking Anck-Su-Namun's corpse to Hamunaptra, City of the Dead, ancient burial site for the sons of pharaohs, and resting place to the wealth of Egypt.
For his love, Imhotep dared the gods anger by going deep into the city, where he took the black Book of the Dead from its holy resting place. Anck-Su-Namun's soul had been sent to the dark underworld. Her vital organs removed, and placed in five sacred canopic jars.
Imhotep and his priests did indeed race into the city, and he did in fact lift the Book of the Dead from where it was kept in state, and now, this daring venture came to a climax as he stepped up to the dais where the body of his love lay, cold and still. He began to read the necessary passage as his priests chanted and bowed repeatedly, offering their own souls to Osiris in payment.
A black shroud of spirit rose from the pool beyond them, and floated over to Anck-Su-Namun on the dais, spreading over her as a shroud, and sinking into her body. This was it! Imhotep had nearly done it. All that was left was to seal the spirit back into her body, by plunging the dagger that took her life into her heart.
Anck-Su-Namun's soul had come back from the dead, but Pharaoh's bodyguards had followed Imhotep and stopped him before the ritual could be completed.
Before Imhotep could finish the incantation, before he could completely bring Anck-Su-Namun back to life, the Medjai quickly grabbed a hold of Imhotep, stopping the dagger's downward trajectory into Anck-Su-Namun's body.
"No!" he screamed in despair as her soul, her Ka, once again rose from her body and dashed howling back into the black pool just beyond.
Imhotep's priest were condemned to be mummified alive. As for Imhotep, he was condemned to endure the Hom-Dai, the worst of all ancient curses. One so horrible, it had never before been bestowed.
The Sah-Netjer was rife with the terrified and dying screams of his priests. Imhotep sent a prayer up to the gods that he would have the strength to see this through with dignity. Not knowing that in their anger, the gods had all but turned their backs on him. The form of mummification the embalmers were using was crude, and meant to cause the most pain possible, so that when the Ka left the body, they left broken and were condemned to wonder the realm of the dead, never to go beyond to be judged by Osiris.
Imhotep endured having his tongue cut out, though how he didn't choke on his own blood, he didn't know. The embalmers didn't heat the blade so it would cauterize as it cut. Compared to that, being wrapped in the cloth for mummification was nothing. This however, was no mummification. Instead of dying naturally, and being painstakingly prepared for the afterlife, the wrappings they were giving him were more of a binding than anything else. Panic began to set in when he heard the tell tale skittering of the scarabs. There was a reason the Hom-Dai had never been done before.
The scarabs were poured into the sarcophagus that was to be both his prison and his tomb. Then the heavy lid placed on top, and a lock turned to seal him in. Twice over.
He was to remain sealed inside his sarcophagus, be undead for all of eternity. The Medjai would never allow him to be released, for he would arise a walking disease, a plague upon mankind, an unholy flesh-eater with the strength of ages, power over the sands, and the glory of invincibility.
…
But through the ages, someone important was lost. Forgotten. Mankind's last hope should the Creature return. Ankhara, Anck-Su-Namun's younger sister. Where the elder sister craved power and prestige, Ankhara desired nothing more than peace. To live a happy life with the man she had given her heart to. But it was not to be, for the man she had given her heart to, what Imhotep.
A young woman with waist length brown-black hair, chocolate colored eyes, and sun kissed skin, ran through the halls of the palace once she heard news that her sister was dead. No details were given, only that her sister and the Pharaoh were dead, and Imhotep was on the run. Seeing her sister laid out for burial sent a knife straight through the young woman's heart. She and Anck-Su-Namun may not get along, but she was still her sister. A hand patted her shoulder and she turned to see the Medjai chieftain standing before her. Ankhara bowed quickly, and a little sloppily due to her distress, but with all respect.
"My Lord Commander. What happened?" she asked him. The man had a sad look on his face.
"The princess witnessed the Pharaoh being murdered from her balcony," he said softly.
"Murdered?! By who? Was it they who killed my sister as well?" The chieftain shook his head.
"No. It was Anck-Su-Namun and Imhotep. They are the ones who murdered the Living God."
Ankhara shook her head. "It is true, child. And for this treason, your family has been dishonored." The chieftain's words were a hammer blow. To be dishonored in the kingdom meant exile. Her mother was already dead, but her father? Her father would be tossed to the streets and no one was allowed to help him, on pain of death.
"What is to happen to Imhotep?" she asked nervously and with dread.
"His sentencing has yet to be determined. Rameses will pass judgment after his ascension. For now, he will allow your sister to be prepared for the afterlife, but she will not have any amenities or guides. She will have to find her way on her own."
Ankhara broke down in tears. She stayed with her sister's body until night fall, when eventually, her fatigue won out. She went to her rooms to try to get some sleep. It was all for naught, however, when she was awoken by bedlam happening out in the halls.
"What's happened?" she asked a passing guard.
"The High Priest Imhotep escaped his quarters and stole the body of the Pharaoh's mistress," he said quickly. Ankhara gasped. Imhotep was a priest for the dead. If he was going to do what she thought he was going to do, he would be heading to Hamunaptra.
Throwing on her sandals and grabbing her little dagger, Ankhara mounted her horse and rode, straight and true...but she was too late. She arrived in time to see the Medjai restrain Imhotep and the spirit of her sister go wailing into the spirit pool beyond the altar.
She stayed, hidden in the shadows, and watched. She watched as the soon to be Pharaoh Rameses was summoned. He decided not to wait and passed judgment there. The priests were to be mummifies alive. Imhotep was to be devoured. The thought made her ill. He may have loved her sister, but she loved him. He was always kind to her. Calling her his little friend. She knew the barest minimum from Imhotep that those who were condemned with this punishment were never to go beyond to meet Osiris. Taking a steady breath, she made herself known to the Medjai chieftain once he was alone.
"Commander," she murmured quietly, and bowing in respect. "I have a request."
"You are not in the favor of the king. What would this favor be?"
"A chance to regain my family's honor, for the sake of my father. The former high priest will be cursed to wonder. He will be a terror should he rise again. I wish to stand guard. I offer my soul to guard his through the ages. To put him back in the ground should he leave it."
The chieftain studied the girl for a moment. "This is not a choice to be made lightly. You know if I allow this, you die this night. And should he rise, you shall too. What of your friend Antonius. I was under the impression the two of you were to be married."
Ankhara nodded. "I know. But it would be foolish to leave him on his own now, thinking he will never be a danger to anyone. Fear not, Antonius and I are merely friends. He will understand."
He studied her once more before nodding. "Very well. We will make the preparations. And we shall do all in our power to ease your passing. We will take care to mummify you so you may be whole as you watch over him. We of the Medjai will also do all in our power to pass on your story. So should he and you wake, you will not be alone."
Ankhara bowed to the Chieftain. "Thank you."
And so it was. Ankhara, sister to Anck-Su-Namun, followed Imhotep. She watched over him as she watched over the changing land. But the chieftain's promise was mostly forgotten. All but one clan eventually wrote her off as a legend. Their most pressing concern would be the Creature. But the line of the original chieftain still held true. Should the Creature arise, Ardeth, son of Arif, would be there to help.