All rights for the Soul Calibur series belong to Namco.

I based a lot of my content from the background information I have read to try to make the story more accurate. I suggest reading the Soul Calibur wiki on some of the mentioned characters if you are confused by some of it or don't understand where I am getting all of this from. If some of my information is incorrect please let me know.

Ch. 1

Viola knelt in the damp dirt that edged the murky pond of the woodland area that she frequented. The fortune teller observed her rippling reflection. Pale skin, small nose, gentle soft lips, and crimson eyes: the face of a young woman who's heart was broken, if she even had a heart, she could not remember.

News had come early that morning: the war was over. Nightmare was defeated, his armies destroyed. The letter had said that the new wielder of Soul Calibur, Patroklos, had shown up and just after he and his haunted sister vanished in the ash of battle as the dark skies turned pure and the malfested army died. But at what cost? The letter had also stated Viola's darkest dreams. Z.W.E.I.'s whereabouts were unknown. Why could she not have seen this? She could see everything else, but not this. Had she been competent enough…maybe she could have warned him. Why had she stayed behind at the camp with Hilde? Why hadn't she went with them? She could have saved him.

Z.W.E.I. was her best friend…her only friend. He was the only person who made her feel more than hollow. Now he may never come back to her.

Viola wasn't used to feeling. Her demeanor was always cold and indifferent, and there was a reason for that. The darkness of her past fogged her emotions. Nothing seemed real to her. She was empty. But now she felt sadness covering her like a thick blanket, weighing her down and crushing her. She wanted to cry, but she wasn't sure if she could. She did not ever remember crying before. She had never really felt sadness before, not like this anyway.

The dampness on her cheeks surprised her. But as the tear rolled down her face and dripped onto her hand she came to the realization that she was really crying. She didn't know she could even do that. The water reflected her image back up at her, and she could see the water that leaking from her eyes.

"Oh Z.W.E.I.," she whispered into her soft palms. Tears began to flood from her crimson eyes as sobs overtook her, shaking her body violently. Her palms soaked with her sadness as her heart ached with her loss. She had felt emptier than ever before. She did not know that such a thing was possible.

Raphael stood in the dark shadows of the trees as he observed the gates of the Schwarzwind camp. He observed the clumsy guards as they stood with their backs straight looking only forward. They lacked the observation to notice the creature of the night standing just off to the side. He pondered the best way to bring about their deaths. Swoop in from the side, take out the close guards legs, and stab the other before stabbing the former. They would not even have a chance to fight him off. He knew that if he got himself inside he would only have a few lower scale fighters to take care of. Most of the mercenaries had marched on Azure Knight weeks ago. Siegfried and the black headed swordsman had left with them, leaving only a few stragglers and the lady Knight inside to defend the camp and the civilians. He would have no problem fighting them.

This had to be it. Raphael had been everywhere else. Where else could she be?

His memory was fuzzy of what had happened before he had awoken in that dark run down prison. He could pull upon only pieces of it.

He had been close, so very close to the sword when his castle was stormed by Siegfried and his band of misfit fighters. Apparently the young swordsman didn't appreciate Raphael's plans to liberate Soul Calibur from his possession. Siegfried had been smart. He had moved first.

Raphael's thralls had stood in defense of their master, but the Dark Lord refused retreat. Though he begged her to leave his side, his young beloved stared up at him with her crimson eyes and pledged to stay by his side to the end. Raphael would not turn her away. He knew that she would stand by his side no matter what. Auguste, Jacqueline, and Marienbard fell to Siegfried and his soldier's swords leaving Raphael and his love to stand alone. Raphael loved a good fight. He smiled. Siegfried took Raphael alone, evening the playing field. But she interfered. Raphael's memory of the fight was hazy, but he did remember her falling. She was bleeding and gasping.

"Stay down," Raphael ordered her. He didn't want her dying in his defense.

The sound of metal clashing was dominate in Raphael's memory from there, that was until the sharp stinging etched across his chest. He touched the pain with his gloved hand. He could feel the wetness even through the leather that covered his hand. He looked down. Glistening red ooze soaked his shirt. He slowly looked up at Siegfried.

"This is not the end," Raphael said in a flat emotionless voice.

Siegfried shook his head.

"Yes, Raphael, yes it is," said the icy knight. With his words he drew Soul Calibur up and back down across the Dark Lord's chest. The blow not only sliced his skin open, but cut into his muscle, crushed his bones, and splintered into his heart. Raphael dropped, crumpling to the ground in pain.

"Raphael!" her voice screamed from behind him. He heard movement and felt her soft hands touch his face. "No! Please don't."

"Step away from him, child," Siegfried said nearby.

"No!" she screamed. "How dare you!" The fiery redhead snatched Raphael's sword from the ground and darted at the much much larger man with a much much larger sword.

Raphael had trouble focusing from there. He felt his body dying, his soul slipping from its earthly home. But he peeled his eyes open long enough to see the young girl holding her own against the armored blonde. Raphael was proud. He had taught her well, but he didn't want anything to happen to her.

"A-a…am…" he tried to gasp out. "S-stop… D-don't."

His words caught the youthful fencer off guard. She turned to him and in the moment when her guard was down. Soul Calibur's hilt met her face. She fell to the ground still.

"Amy!" Raphael managed. The fencer's crimson eyes found the blue eyes of Siegfried. "I'll destroy you," he hissed.

"Unlikely," the knight rebutted before slamming the hilt of his sword into Raphael's face mimicking Amy's K.O. Darkness encased him.

Raphael had awoken to black stone all around him. He was completely healed, and completely alive. The ground was hard below him. He was in some kind of abandoned prison. Of course it was easy to escape from, but he had been asleep for a long time.

Before him was a different world, a world of darkness, a world of malefestation. How long had it been?

It took him a while to figure out that fifteen years had passed since he was last conscious. He had lost so much time.

Where was Amy? Was she ok?

He had to find her.

That was when his search for his beloved began. He went first back to his castle, but the sight he found was dismaying. His mansion was barren and parts of it were rotting away. Amy was not there. Next he checked the impoverished village of which he had originally found the child, but her presence was absent from the town. He searched everywhere. All of Europe, all of Asia, everywhere, but he could not find her. Amy was gone, but his search never ceased. What if she had been killed? No. He knew Siegfried too well, and he would not murder a young girl just for her association with an enemy of his. His heart was just, and Raphael knew that. He would not end his search. The last place he ever really thought to check was Siegfried's bandit camp, but that was his last chance. He wasn't really sure if Siegfried would be foolish enough to keep Amy as a prisoner, and Raphael knew that Amy wouldn't stay with him willingly. However, this was his last logical place to check. Plus, Siegfried had made this personal, and Raphael desired to destroy the knight's happiness just as the knight had destroyed his.

He had been scouting the Schwarzwind camp. That was not the kind of place to just rush into, but now was the perfect time. He would wait for the cloak of night and then he'd attack. He hoped eternally that his beautiful young love would be behind its walls, but if she wasn't then he would just have to take joy in burning it to the ground.

A smile spread across Raphael's face.

"I am coming Amy," he whispered into the wind before disappearing into the woods.