Still don't own Dark Souls. Non profit work of a fan and all that.

A/N; IT LIVES. Sorta. Tend to write piecemeal and post the pieces elsewhere for review. Finished chapters posted here when that happens which can take a while as you all have probably already noticed.

But yeah. Just because you don't see anything for a while doesn't mean that its dead.

The spark burned and writhed.

Wrong.

It struggled and flickered.

Wrong.

This was not the bleak place of rest, nor was it its place of purpose.

Now a pale shadow of sentience, the spark struggled to find its way back to the place it was needed, yet it was bound by something.

A skeletal hand rose, almost nonchalantly, and caged the spark.

"Abomination. Dark spawn. Mockery of all that I am and rule. Aberration."

The Spark quivered beneath the power of the lord soul... yet was not destroyed.

"Thou dost continue to exist only at my pleasure... and my requirement."

A tendril of flame flicked from the old bones to the spark.

"Thou shalt destroy the traitor."

The Spark struggled.

"Thou shalt return here in flesh."

The bone cage released the soul, and it vanished.

"Thou shalt be my sword where I canst strike. My hands where I canst touch. Thou shalt serve my purpose or be destroyed."

And the aberration lived once more.

*^*
I sat with my back against the wall as I tried to process what i had woken up to.

"What happened. More detail, less feelings if possible"

Felt so dea- Empty. Just like the first time. There was one difference however. Rather then the majority of my hunger being directed at Reah and her rivers of humanity it was directed at Oscar and Petrus for some reason... and someplace down far below. Don't know why right now. Hard to think. This time though, I had my weapon against it. Bach's Air was the song of choice for the moment.

Vince obliged, slightly pale and eyes rather red. "First thing was a flash of light, a huge noise not unlike a crack of thunder, and the wall started to collapse."

I glanced over to the rubble blocking our exit. I wasn't the best judge of that sort of stuff, but it seemed to me that it would take a really long time to dig through, if it was even possible without causing another cave in.

"Then, while we fled the boulders, we were ambushed by... Something. It was huge, shaped like a man, but half again the size, and blacker then the abyss." He shuddered, "A pale light emanated from its head and joints. and it was so fast..."

The only thing that I could think of that might fit that description would be a black knight. But that doesn't make any sense considering that the Knights didn't-

Wait.

Images started flooding back. Silvered armor, bolts of light cast at ancient drago-

OhshittheKnightscanuselightningspear.

Ok, ok. Breath. This is bad, but not entirely...

Nico had stopped talking, and was looking at me warily.

I clamped down on the fear and depression. Those weren't going to help right now. "It's fine Vince. I have a better appreciation for what the creature is that's all." I took my own advice, and took a deep breath. "Please continue."

The other man nodded, "It-it lashed out at Sir Petrus with an axe bigger then any man and..." the other undead started trailing off, though he did gesture over to where Reah was leaning over the cleric.

"... He's not dead yet." I'd seen the havoc wreaked on the two more experienced knights in out party. Oscar was slightly better off, with a concussion and who knew how many internal injuries. "And frankly, I think that your lady will keep him that way."

Vince took a deep breath, then let it go, himself, "Lord Oscar was slammed into the wall by a shield. Then we realized that we were under attack. We rallied and myself and Nico rushed the monster." He looked reluctant to continue.

I can't say I was terribly surprised. I can't say I really saw this going well if the knight wrecked both Oscar and Petrus before they could react. Still, though i more or less had the gist of what happened, i needed to hear it confirmed. Thus i inclined my head for him to continue.

"I drove towards it first," the cleric swallowed, and his voice began to break, "I deflected a swing from that horrible axe, but was driven back... Nico..." He began tearing up again, "Nico, he-"

"That is when the Knight... took Nico." I finished for him.

"Bent him over backwards and broke his spine!" He half wailed half yelled. "Then... Then..."

The tears started falling openly.

I just waited, inwardly cursing. I knew i should be more empathetic, but right now...

There were several emotional responses I could be having right now. The most human was probably 'all of the above'. Currently for me, depression and self loathing was the order of the day. I should have warned them that something like this was coming. I should have been more observant. I should-

NO.

Stop. Focus. Nothing good comes from going own that path.

Nico got a hold of himself enough to continue after a few minutes. "Milady started whispering one of the stories of the gods, and the creature fled... Took Nico, as you said."

Bastard was watching us the whole time. Figuring out the strong points of our party, finding our weaknesses. Waiting for a chance. Why it didn't go right for Reah I'll probably never be able to guess, though it may not have had the time.

"I found you soon after, and restored your humanity once you began stirring. Reah started healing Lord Oscar and Petrus in the immediate aftermath. It is taking quite some time for the worst of the wounds to mend." Vince glanced over towards the girl. "But she'll manage."

"I know that was hard Vince." The words sounded empty, but he took them anyway. "But now I have a better idea of what we are up against."

That was not to say I had any idea on how to deal with it, but baby steps.

I glanced over at where Reah was kneeling by the knights, and wondered just how long It was going to take. I wasn't exactly eager to get going of course, but right it was me and Vince for fighting anything that decided to come knocking. I was also less than cheerful about our chances against anything resembling a cohesive attack. All it would take was a couple of necromancers, and a significant number of skeletons to bar our way and-

Nope. Don't want to go there.

I turned my attention towards other issues. Like why something like a Black Knight would want to grab a member of our party, and moreover, why would it grab Nico in the middle of a fight when it could have grabbed me considerably easier?

Not that I'm complaining about the lack of attention of course.

The only thing I could think of was that it was something significant about Nico, or something that he was carrying. I racked my brain, and couldn't think of anything. I also dropped the idea of pressuring Vince, seeing as how he was having a rough time dealing with this and I wanted him semi-functional. This left me few options, and I didn't particularly like any of them.

Reah might know something, but I really didn't want to reduce our white mage to a weeping wreck by retreading over painful ground the way I did Vince. It also occurred to me that perhaps the reason that the healing was taking so long was because of how shaken the poor girl was, so any plan that involved disturbing her further was probably a bad plan.

Oscar probably wouldn't know much more than I did, so beyond getting a different perspective probably wouldn't do me much good. Also, wasn't terribly keen on dealing with him right now, seeing as I'm a massive hypocrite and don't appreciate being misled whatever then intentions behind it. The details were fuzzy considering how close it was to my… nap, but I still had the general idea.

Which left me with Petrus. He would know pretty much anything I'd care to know about the clerical party, I didn't give a damn about his feelings seeing as how I didn't like the guy, and he'd be hardened enough that he could deal with going over painful stuff if it was relevant. Unfortunately, he was suffering from a case of 'being-hit-with-a-huge-axe-itis' and I didn't know how long he was going to take to get to a state where he'd be feeling talkative.

Which put me back to square one. Awesome.

I closed my eyes and struggled to remember a more upbeat tune. Something to take my mind off the current situation, and my peculiar hunger.

Hunger.

My eyes shot open. Right now, it was pulling me towards Oscar, Petrus, and something down far below. I could point out exactly where it was pulling me in a straight line. Focusing on it now, the hunger towards the thing below was much greater than what was directed at my party members, despite the proximity difference. It wasn't there before I died again, so it must be something new, or an instinct connected with a lack of humanity, or something.

I could only think of two things that could be drawing me so strongly. The first was Nito, and for some reason I didn't think that the ancient lord was it. The second was the Pinwheel -and frankly I didn't know why I made that jump- and that one felt more -accurate- for lack of better word to boot.

I frowned to myself. I'd made logic jumps in the past, but this particular one had me wondering about it. It was almost too easy to make that connection and so little reason for it. Like someone planted the idea in my head. It got me paranoid, not that it was a particularly difficult thing to do. I knew that there was a change in mental state based off humanity, but now I was wondering if I wasn't being led on someone else's agenda.

Still, I reflected to myself as I looked at the pile of debris blocking the way out, it's not like I have a choice in the matter.

Filing all that away for later, I made my way over to our wounded. Introspection and trying to figure things out was all well and good, but I had too few of the puzzle pieces for that to be doing anything for me at the moment. I needed answers, and I'd get those from Petrus, or deeper in the catacombs.

Like it or not, I needed those answers as soon as possible. I just hoped that Reah had mended him enough to talk.

"I need to talk to Petrus, Vince. I suspect that Reah will need a bit of comfort while I go about it." I stood and walked over to where Reah was working, leaving Vince bobbing his head.

Truthfully, I suspected that the girl needed less comfort then he did. Both were clearly hurting though, so giving them time to have a good cry would probably do them both good down the line.

"How is he doing"

Reah flinched at the abrupt sound of my voice, leading me to think that she was so into the healing that she didn't hear me walk up.

"Better" she replied, "but still not up for continuing right now."

I nodded, expecting as much, "Would he be up for answering a few questions though?"

Reah bit her lip as she hesitated, yet it was Petrus himself who answered. "Yes." He coughed a few times, and Reah redoubled the healing in alarm. The church knight chuckled darkly, "Oh be still girl. If I haven't died yet, I probably won't. It will take far more then an axe in the chest to put down a clerical knight."

I touched Reah's shoulder gently, "Vince is having something of a bad time m'lady, perhaps he could use a type of healing that you could provide that the gods can't."

The girl finally turned to look at me, and from how red her eyes were, I suspected that she needed comfort as much as Vince did. "B-but, the wound..."

"Last I checked, Petrus is a cleric too" I pointed out gently, "I'm pretty sure that the god's would be just as willing to listen to his plea."

Reah looked pretty wretched. Her hands and garb were bloodstained, and eyes puffy. The way she was swaying slightly also led me to believe that it was less the god's strength powering her miracles then her own strength of will. Regardless of what she might believe. I filed that observation away too- the metaphysics of how miracles work might be significant to me in the long run, but right now was not the time to dwell on them.

Nevertheless Reah still didn't move until Petrus summoned up his own soothing gold light, and once she did, it was with a great deal of trepidation.

I waited until she had left general earshot to go have a good cry with Vince. Hell, I probably needed a good cry, but right now I was feeling too... empty for more then a blank expression.

I turned my attention to my objective. Noting to myself that beating around the bush was something I was kind of bad at, and the best way to get things done in the shortest possible time was the 'blunt' method.

"Do you know why the Black Bastard took Nico, Petrus?" I tried to kept any trace of accusation out of my voice since I knew the cleric had nothing to do with it, but the implication was there regardless.

Petrus bristled, "Are you-"

I cut him off, "No. It's pretty clear that you had no idea this would happen." I took a deep breath, "but nevertheless, it's pretty obvious that it went for Nico in particular. And if it did, you would be the person to ask."

The wounded man frowned, "State your reasoning." he said slowly.

"If all the thing wanted was a rapidly cooling body, mine was available for considerably less effort." I said bluntly, still not entirely comfortable with the thought, "So given that, there must have been something significant about Nico, or something that he had on him. Maybe some piece of equipment?"

"I see..." The other man went silent as he wracked his brain before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but i can't think of... anything..." I noticed his gaze slide past me to where Reah and Vince were holding each other.

"You just thought of something I missed." I noted, a spike of satisfaction running through me, "Let's hear it."

Petrus glared at me again, "It's clear to anyone with eyes or a soul." I frowned at the less then subtle ad-hominem attack, but let him continue, "It is using Nico to inflict wounds on our hearts and minds."

I nodded slowly. It was trying to break the group emotionally. Made sense. The only one that would have been affected at all by taking me would have been Oscar and I'm pretty sure he'd get over it pretty quickly.

The realization sent a dull pang though me, but I really couldn't feel surprised. Exept for the resident of firelink, no-one in this world would know i had ever existed. Chances were good that no-one except Oscar would care. I also privately expected should I go completely hollow, he probably wouldn't be chewed up by it for terribly long either.

NO. Bad me, stop going down the horrible path.

Regardless, it did put a new perspective on things. And if i had a best guess, I'd say that now that it had Nico, it would use and abuse that form of attack ruthlessly.

Glancing back at the younger clerics I sighed, "I think it would be best if myself and Oscar took point. If killing Nico and taking him away had this kind of effect, I dread what's going to happen when the Knight leaves him for us have back."

It took another couple of hours for Petrus and Oscar to be healed enough to continue, and Reah to rally from the costs of doing so. During this time, I made sure to go over everything I still hazily remembered about the catacombs and attempt to apply it to my current really world issue.

Honestly, there really wasn't much to cover. Necromancers brought back skeletons, traps would be fairly plentiful. Keep an eye on the bridges, some of them might move. Patches may or may not be here, and if he was, would need to be either watched like a hawk, or permanently dealt with. Ghostly skulls may or may not explode, though the former struck me as more likely.

I really couldn't rely on the geography that was in the game, but perhaps generalities could be helpful. It was likely for example that the Pinwheel was the necromancer leader, and probably had the rite of kindling close by him. It was also likely, that he would be near the bottom.

My new-found hunger supported that last statement. That still bothered me, but hey, if its another bolt in my quiver, I'll exploit it ruthlessly.

That left the Black Knight as the last known unknown. Unfortunately, more was unknown then known. It wasn't going to hit us directly if it could help it, but it was beastly enough of a combatant that it could conceivably do so and win. It was also smart enough to hit us emotionally to keep us off balance.

Frankly, it wasn't much, but it was more then I had walking into this.

"It appears that your premonition was again correct." Oscars voice broke me out of my inner diatribe.

I snorted, "You think? Dark holes in the ground will pretty much always hide nastier things that what you would expect." I was still sore about earlier, but now that I had a bit more time to stew on it, he had never really lied to me per say. He let me make false assumptions, which was honestly my fault not his, however intentional it might have been.

I'd find some way of making him pay for that of course, no doubt in some petty way that would make him feel like an idiot. Now was not the time for it however.

"Indeed." Oscar nodded gingerly. Clearly his head was still giving him little grief, "A lesson I will not soon forget." He paused, "What do you think our next course of action should be?"

"..." that was a good question. We should still technically be more then a match for anything we might find down here, other then maybe the Knight. On the other hand, Petrus and Oscar were still not quite at a hundred percent, Reah was going to be pretty raw even with a fair bit of rest, and both her and Vince were going to be hurting emotionally.

I frankly couldn't even call myself an asset here, seeing how useless I am against everything but the necromancers themselves.

On the third, uncomfortably severed hand, our way out has been blocked.

"Gut feeling says we bail." I said simply. Well, not entirely truthful. Gut feeling said I should probably go murder the Pinwheel and devour its precious life energies, but I still wasn't sure how much of that was actually me.

Oscar stiffened. It no doubt chaffed that I would suggest running after we had lost a comrade. Not to mention any knightly honour that would be compromised.

Not that I cared in the slightest.

"Stop that." I chided, "Think about it. We lost Nico. We have no idea on what we are walking into. Half of our party is a wreck, the other half is injured. Frankly, a retreat is pretty much the only thing that makes sense. Or would be if we had the option of backtracking."

The Astoran looked at the rubble, "That is a point. Several points." he admitted. "But given that retreat is not an option..."

I shrugged, "We keep moving. Going down means that we'll probably find things that would rather not be disturbed, but makes it more likely that we'll find what we're looking for, wandering around up top makes it more likely we'll find an exit but won't have much of a shot and finding the rites of kindling." I gave him a level look,

There was an uncomfortable moment where I let him chew on those concepts. I also knew that coming back a second time meant that the Black Knight and the necromancers would have more time to prepare for us, even if it did mean we were more prepared for them. Judging from Oscars expression, he had figured that out himself.

"Also going to note, that I'm not the one in charge of this expedition." I felt the need to add that, more or less so I could wash my hands of any responsibility for our party "That would be either Petrus or Reah."

"Of course." Oscar said and turned towards where the clerics were hing there own little council. "I will let them know of your assessment."

I already knew what the answer was going to be.