CHAPTER NINE Witch-King's curse backfires
As Garibaldi looks at Delenn, he has heard of some of the strangest things, but this tops his entire list. "Cursed, but what, how?"
Delenn looks down at the floor. "You know the Witch-King, he cursed us to suffer, and to never be like any other species, I believe there was more he wanted to say, but then he turned into dust."
Garibaldi puts down the paper. "To dust?"
"Yes, ash to ash."
Kosh Nanarke looks at Delenn and Garibaldi and speaks. Kosh Ulkesh speaks in command. "ENTER NOW!"
Garibaldi looks violently at the impatient Vorlon. "Now?"
Kosh Nanarke speaks softly. "YES…NOW!"Kosh Nanarke and Ulkesh Kosh puts Delenn and Garibaldi in tubes, the fifty are now complete. As the Vorlon's go to the C&C the shield is put at full power, nothing of matter can get in and nothing can get out—except them.
On K'ha'dum in the city of Khazad'dum, Asron gives permission for the Soldiers of Darkness to begin moving. As Anubis rides towards Minbar, his partner, the Witch-King has already left and has just arrived on Minbar. As he rides in the night, he is wearing his black cloak which helps him blend in the night, as the Witch-King enters Tuzanor, he sees that Valenra has been uncovered and it is completely alive, as he rides towards the main heart of the city, he takes out his sword and waves it in the air as he chants, as the sky clouds up, the lightning hits the Witch-King's sword and it is on fire. As he looks back he sees the other eight on approach to his location, the fate of Minbar has been decided, as is the rest of the worlds. As the first ship lands, Anubis joins the Witch-King. As the Witch-King looks at Anubis, the Witch-King makes the first order. "Send the Soldiers of Darkness, leave…none alive!"
As the Soldiers of Darkness begin their assault, there is crying, screaming, and yelling—the slaughter of Minbari-kind has begun. At the Grey Council Complex, the place is on fire. "Master, the city of Tuzanor is under attack and the city of Yedor and Lenna have reported attacks."
The leader looks at the Warrior Caste Grey Council Member, surprised that it is not Neroon. "By whom?"
"By the Soldiers of Darkness Master."
There is a siren in the Grey Council Complex as a Minbari covered in blood enters; he is dying with a sword sticking out his back. "Master, the dog warriors of death have breached the Grey Council Complex."
As the sword goes in a out his body he falls dead. As the room is filled with Soldiers of Darkness, they do not kill him, they just stand there taunting him. As the Soldiers of Darkness quiet down, in walks Lord Anubis who is looking at the advanced technology and then at the Master Minbari who seems small compared to the massive Human-jackal hybrid. "You the leader?"
The Grey Council leader looks up from the dead corpse on the floor and while holding the staff he affirms. "Yes, I am the leader, who are you?"
"Anubis, Lord of the dead, get on your knees and worship me you mortal!"
The Leader looks at Lord Anubis, "Never, no Minbari will ever serve you—you disgrace!"
Lord Anubis walks closer. "Is that so?" Lord Anubis shows the destructions on Minbar and its citizens. "Look, I see the death of an empire, I smell fear and the burnt remains of your people, and I taste the souls of those who have died till I am drunk with pleasure. I taste your soul old fool."
"So you are going to kill me, you better do it, for I will not serve you!" Anubis signals the Soldiers of Darkness to rip the Minbari apart. As the screams of the elders echo throughout Minbar, the Witch-King cannot find Delenn, ever since his confrontation on the tower of Minas Morgul, he has wanted his revenge, but completing the curse seemed more awarding, and he searched, he knew that no one could kill him, and that only one contained the power to banish him back into the darkness…Delenn, if she died, the curse will plunge her influenced into illness and death, Asron would be glad that he killed the one who caused so much pain for him. As the Witch-King rides to Valenra he arrives to look at the place…it was protected by a shield that no matter could enter, and darkness to be entrapped in a cocoon, but it was enough to make the Witch-King want to go forth. As he unrobed himself, all that could be seen was clear dark plasma of energy. As he pressed his body against the shield, it lets him in, but in doing so coated him in a energy field that makes him powerless within this protected area, sort of like saying—you can look but not touch, but this was still okay with him, he was able to breach Valenra, but not it physically. As he entered the complex it was very much alive, it hated him and wanted to hurt him, but could not touch him, for he was here, but also not, all that he was, was lying outside Valenra's shield on the ground, so he was only a witness, who did not want to run upon one of the care takers of Valenra, because it could do some harm to him. As he felt a strange energy, it felt like one of his doings, it was the curse…it was calling him to complete the change. As he looked at the glass tube, it was her, Delenn, as he went to grab the lever to open the tube he could not do it, his own curse was stopping him, it made him paralyzed—with disease! As the energy hits hit, it was tearing him apart adding disease a pond disease, first muscular dystrophy, then cystic fibrosis, then asthma, and so on, the curse backfired on him, he can't kill them, he has no power against them—for he is them. As the Witch-King ran out of the room, the energy bans were entrapping him and hurting him, the curse was breaking the curse applied by Asron so long ago for his immortality. As the energy forced him to the ground, he watched his skin tear apart, and as he tried to leave it seemed as if the complex was grabbing him and trying to trap him within Valenra. As it held him for a while, the energy changed, it was the energy of a powerful Vorlon, Ulkesh Kosh. He had to get away, as he pushed against the wall it released him and he went rolling out the complex and down the hill, as he rolled out of Valenra he went immediately back to his black robe after the horror he has just been through, but as he tried to put it on it burned him, it is as if all matter reacts badly to him. As he takes the black robe off a dead Warrior Caste member he at least can put it on. As he feels himself, he is beginning to see flesh and scales again except for the scales; he is losing his immortality given to him by Asron, and is turning into a fish of some sort with flesh and scales. As he covers his scaly face and body, he makes sure none of the other Nazgul can see his new weaknesses, but it is to late, Asron already knows that the control against the Witch-King has ended and tells Anubis to find the Witch-King and kill him…he is becoming light. Anubis has no problems with this order…finally he is able to kill the only one who stops him from reclaiming the title of 'Lord'. As the Witch-King began to feel things his body has always been shadowed to feel, it was evident that the darkness was being filled with a strange force of light, this energy had much more power, but it was also making him back into a mortal, this worried the Witch-King. As the Soldiers of Darkness and Anubis walked towards the Witch-King, he knew that he was in trouble, because now the Nazgul were now standing with Anubis. "Witch-King, a message from Asron, you have failed him, you personally went into Valenra to break the curse, so he wants you dead."
The Witch-King looks at Lord Anubis. "No…fool…I won't…die, I see clearly now, no more shadows of lies…leave Asron, join me, and we will…take this…as our own!"
Lord Anubis looks upon the Witch-King with fear, no living man can kill him, no mortal or immortal man to cause harm to him. "No, I do not disobey my master now die."
The Witch-King un-sheaves his sword, "No…you…die in vain." The Witch-King takes out his white knife, it looks much different, it is now bluish-white with ancient text written over it, he can't make sense of it, but has a feeling it is the dark language of Black Speech, it has red letters on it that pulse out the spelling of this text:
The knife in the dark, the knife of curse!
As he points it at Anubis, he began a chant. "Speak now…and…die, I curse you to live…to see defeat by no…one but…me, but be blinded by the light."
Lord Anubis points his sword at the Witch-King of Angmar. "Hold your tongue, your curses can't work against me, or the Soldiers of Darkness!" The Witch-King laughs hysterically, "What is so funny?"
The Witch-King speaks in a really low voice. "You…think I mock you?"
The Witch-King stabs himself in the chest. As his body falls to the ground, there is a silence, but Anubis is confused of the act the Witch-King just did.. "What did he say? Speak now and die." As he thinks this he immediately turns into black ash as he jumps in the air, and as a cloud of fire rushes away from the dead body of the Witch-King he is about 20,000 feet above him. As the Soldiers of Darkness look at the body, there is an explosion of light, and the Soldiers of Darkness are vaporized. As the white explosion rushes towards Lord Anubis, Anubis leaves Minbar and the darkness of space with the assistance of Asron forces the wicked soul of the Witch-King to remain on the now dead planet of Minbar, for as long as Lord Anubis lived, the Witch-King would have to live out his days on Minbar, as a mortal—freak and no longer as a king, a curse for a curse.
In Valenra, Ulkesh Kosh knows that the Witch-King had made his presence in Valenra and has been changed. As Kosh Nanarke looked at the tubes, he begins the information download. As Kosh Nanarke pressed "Finished—YES", a blue fluid mixed in the clear fluid in the tubes which contains small chrysalis's that adds on the extra transformations to the prophecy bodies. The chrysalis begins, and the final transformation has commenced. Kosh knows that adding the diseases sounds like a stupid idea, but the upside to the disorders is that it creates further evolution, and builds self-defenses that can be used to protect themselves from the Soldiers of Darkness and Asron. As Kosh Nanarke looks at the tubes the liquid is fully mixed and the process begins. Outside Valenra, the Witch-King is hurt from the sudden thrust of the hand of Asron, his scaly flesh has been torn and he is deeply breathing due to the rush. He has been forsaken by his master all because he is the type who wants to learn all he can. As the Witch-King looked around, the planet was on fire, the smell of rotting Minbari flesh fills the air he is now breathing, it is so bad that the odor makes him gag—he has been so use to living as energy that he has forgot the daily struggle of breathing. As he turns and looks to Valenra, the site still remains untouched. As the Witch-King falls to his knees he releases a mix of a scream and the scream of the Nazgul, the type of scream that can pierce the ears. As he gets back up off his knees, he immediately is thrown down back to the ground because the pain of the transformation is causing him to lose control of his legs as the flesh begins to tear out of the plasma-like-energy, the pain is overwhelming for the Witch-King. But as quickly as the onslaught of pain came, it went and the transformation period was over—for a while. As the Witch-King of Angmar walked to the ruins of Yedor, Minbar's capitol, he looks in awe of the mass destruction of the city. As the Witch-King looked due north he saw the smoldering remains of a stone complex, which was once the Grey Council Complex. As he climbed the hill he entered a mist, it was high in electrodes and the Witch-King could feel the energy pulling at his formal self, trying to rip him apart. Being careful not to touch anything he finally arrives out of the cloud and the complex is just in sight. As he finally reaches the complex, he is out of breath and is struggling to breathe as if his lungs were filled with slime, this discussed the Witch-King, but then it dawns on him that the toxic fumes would have killed him if he was still a normal king of Angmar like he was before his transformation into the Lord of the Nazgul. As he reached the complex, its true size was massive. As he entered the complex he saw a strange group of Minbari wearing only ugly grey encounter suits. As he took off his outfit, all his form was concealed by flesh and yellowish scales, he could no longer stand the look of his body and took one of the dead Minbari ugly robes and put it on him, it draped all the way to the ground and the hood was specially made so he could see through it. As he looked at himself in a glass pillar, he saw a lighter form of his prior self. As he looked back to his former black suit of head Nazgul, he walks slowly to it. As he touches the black suit, the robe of the head Nazgul catches on fire, as he juts back to escape the flames, he looks at the fire and strangely sees his past: in this vision he witnesses his reign in the north, near the ghostly mountains of Angmar, as he listens he hears the voice of millions of people screaming—all his victims he slaughtered, he hears the name of Witch-Lord, Black-Captain, Dark-Lord, and the well known name…Witch-King! As he watches his tower fall he watches himself march to Khazad'dum where he seek to reign over Asron who tricked him to take one of the nine rings of death—the Nazgul. As he saw his formal kingdom, Minas Morgul, he sees himself being used as a weapon by Asron to drive the iron-fist of war. The Witch-King now in the past Grey Council Complex watches the final dying amber die and all that is left in the smoldering ash is three items, the helmet, the gloves, and the ring of men, the one ring that had took over his body, mind, and soul. As he reached for the ring, it burned him, he had a strange feeling that it was only pure evil, so with the attempted and failure to obtain the ring that had always belonged to him, he decided to touch his gloves. As his fleshy fingers rubbed pass the smooth warn metal, it did not hurt him, so he picked them up and puts them on a table, next he tests the helmet, and it to does not hurt him so he picks it up and places it also on the table. As he looks at the silver ring, he talks to it. "We have been made for one another, yes I have been a fool, but I will reign this miserable cold planet to rebuild our lost kingdom of Angmar." Asron's eye disappears and the mind flash is over, the evil has been defeated, and the ring is pure for the Witch-King of Angmar. As the Witch-King looks at the silver ring, he smiles and slips it back on his finger. As he feels no more darkness within him he is free of the curse of Asron's Nazgul. As he looks around the complex he decides to build his complex here, he will call it Angmar, in memory of his once empire Angmar of the North, and will rebuild the planet's cities in memory of the Minbari who were slaughtered here, he will clean up the planet of its dead and prepare for the return of the 50 from Valenra. Hopefully they will see his greatness and will accept him as the new Witch-King of Angmar, Minbar. As he takes off his helmet and gloves he begins to clean the old Grey Council Complex, which is now called the Carn Dum, which was once his keep in the Hithaeglir or known as the Misty Mountains on the planet K'ha'dum before his defeat at Carn Dum by his worse enemy, Anubis. As the sun rises on Minbar his morgul life turns to a mortal life.