Disclaimer: This is a story from an actual role-playing game known as "Exalted" (from a series called White Wolf). It's basically a game where you grab a character sheet, make a character, and play that character out. Since this is a story from a game, by all technicalities, it's a fanfic. Look, it's my little loophole. Leave me alone. I do not own the role-playing game itself, but I do own the characters (well, actually, I own a few characters, my brother owns another, and a few are actually from the Exalted game itself, but that's beside the point) within it. I actually got this entire plotline just from creating my character (how cool am I?). I think that's about it for the disclaimer.

(Oh, if any of you ask questions about my Digimon fanfic(s), I will kill you all.)

Prologue:

Requietum In Pacis

By now the millions of screams had stopped. All noise ceased. A fallen warrior lay on the ground— No, not a warrior, but a mere child. A small girl lost in the sea of lifeless bodies, her unsteady breath shrilly escaping her mouth. Finding air was becoming more difficult for her. The sky she was staring directly at that was once bright red, like the blood that was spilled on the ground, began to turn grey and hazy.

The massacre…Everyone…Everyone I know…Everyone's…dead…

Blood began flowing from her mouth as she coughed weakly to make room for more air. The blood, her liquid of life that she needed to survive, was escaping in copious amounts through her quavering chest as well. She could feel the wetness of blood on her scalp, mingling with her short ink-black hair. The small shard of glass she had used in battle was still gripped tightly in her right hand, cutting deep into her palm. Also to her right (though she could not see) was the warrior she had stabbed many times with her piece of window glass; he was sprawled out on the grassy hill, motionless, already dead. Still somewhere among the pool of corpses were five other evil men she had slain before being struck down.

I, I can't keep…going…It hurts so much. Please, let me go. Let…me…die!

"Yes, let it all go. Let everything fade away. Let the pain, the suffering, and the agony leave you."

A voice was heard. A man's voice. After the tone entered her head, every physical feeling seemed to stop. The searing pain in her chest and the aching of her muscles; it all stopped. Everything was simply light. She felt like she was barely there.

"Yes, you are right in thinking so. You are dying. Dead, in fact. Look at me, child. Face my visage."

The girl painfully opened her violet eyes; she had been enjoying the feeling of nothingness. Before her was nothing but blackness. No, there was someone there. Someone beside her…She turned her head to face the person, the man who was speaking to her. "Who…?"

"Who am I? I am a Deathlord, my child. A ruler of the Underworld. I am known by many names, but you may address me as Walker in Darkness. And you," she watched him shake his head slowly, "are about to become a lifeless corpse, like so many around you." The girl watched as he drew closer, as though he were whispering in her ear. "I've been watching you, Jinx. You're a very brave little girl. You sacrificed your life to save your mother and baby brother. I have seen such valor in few others, but never in a child such as yourself."

The girl known as Jinx struggled with her words as they escaped her throat. "How do you…know my…name?"

The Deathlord grinned widely at this and proceeded to get closer to her. "You have passed on to the realm of the dead, young Jinx. I now know everything about you. I must say, I have never been more impressed. For that, I am leaving you with two choices: You may either lay here and submit to Death, or you may come with me and rise to greatness."

Jinx didn't know how to answer. What could she do? She knew her mother and brother were dead, regardless of her efforts. What good would continuing on do for her? Wouldn't it be better to just pass on? Yes, slip into the valley of the dead, where maybe, just maybe she could find her family waiting for her.

However, even with the resolve firmly in her mind, her outright fear of the unknown world of Death spoke for her, almost as if it were against her very will. "I wanna…live, great Walker in Darkness."

The Deathlord smiled once again and held out his palm. "Then take my hand, Jinx. Take my hand and you will experience a world of power, a new life, and a new name. Take my hand, my Prince of the Vicious Seas."

"Prince of…the Vicious…Seas…" She smiled meekly at this new name, the Prince. She dropped the shard of glass from her bloody hand, and held it out to grasp the firm, strong hand of the Deathlord, her new lord.

She knew pain like none other. A final smile from the Deathlord was the last thing she saw before being hurled into a realm of agonizing torture. Thousands of shards being thrust into her body and through her heart; that's what it felt like. The terrible, unearthly pain continued for what seemed like hours before…it just died away. Everything stopped, and a warm sensation flooded her being.

Beneath her she could feel a cold, hard substance: Stone. She dared not open her eyes in fear of what she might encounter. However, a familiar voice called to her, beckoning her into reality.

"Prince…dear Prince, wake up. Prince of the Vicious Seas, wake up!"

The Prince opened her eyes to her new identity. The first thing she saw was the pair of sharp orange eyes of Walker in Darkness. The air around her was cold and clammy; it was then that she realized she had no clothes on. She sat up as quickly as her shaky body would allow her and felt her chest where a deep hole from a sharp blade should be. There was none.

"The wound is gone, my Prince. Your body has recovered from the terrible damage it has taken from the battle." Walker in Darkness knelt down to the Prince's level and covered her pale body in a deep violet robe. Prince of the Vicious Seas stared around in complete awe. Everything around her felt so strange and new; even the Deathlord before her looked a bit different, now that he was more visible.

Long pallid hair fell over his shoulders, and his skin was so pale, it almost appeared a light blue. His face was young and his build was that of a military war machine. Walker sensed the Prince's admiration and revealed that smile that she had seen before being pulled into the Underworld. That kind of intelligent yet cruel grin that made her slightly uneasy.

The Deathlord then reached forth and grabbed the Prince's face. He inspected her closely. "Hmm, so courageous and yet so…ugly."

The young Prince responded to the comment with an odd blink. What was that supposed to mean? She opened her mouth to respond when the Deathlord gripped some of her hair.

"What you need, my Prince, is some form of aid to help with your charisma. Yes, I know just what you shall have." Walker in Darkness gripped the Prince's hair even tighter, causing his servant to wince.

"My Lord…?" Prince of the Vicious Seas could not keep in her gasps of pain.

"Hush, my servant. My work is at hand." Walker's fingernails dug deep into the Prince's scalp, causing her to yelp. It felt as though his fingers were driving themselves into her skull. "Behold my gift to you!" The Deathlord released his grip from her head, and moments later, Prince of the Vicious Seas shrieked ear-splittingly in pain.

Something else was now tearing through her skin. She fell on her hands and knees and watched as her own blood began dripping onto the stone floor, along with her forced tears. Something was sprouting from her head. It was a terrible realization that made her wonder if she was going to die. It wasn't long before the ripping feeling subsided, replaced by an awful throbbing sensation. She was alive; her body was shaking and she felt as though she were going to vomit, but she was still alive.

The Prince looked up at her master with watery eyes. What she saw stunned and hurt her: Walker in Darkness had an expression of pure amusement. He then chuckled heartily and pat the Prince on her sore head. She could tell he was feeling whatever it was that had sprouted from her skull. "Look at you, my Prince. Admire now how beautiful you are."

The Prince obeyed her master and gazed bemusedly into the puddle of her own blood. She gasped in total shock. While she couldn't see her features clearly, she distinctly made out two giant lumps protruding from her hair. She reached up and felt two hard, curved horns. They were not typical horns, either; they were horns that would belong to an animal such as a ram.

Walker in Darkness caught the Prince's attention once again when his boots made a scuffling noise as he stood. "Come, my servant. The day is young, and there is much you must learn about this world in order to survive. I have given you the horns of a ram; they will demand respect and help you receive it, but there is still much you don't know."

Prince of the Vicious Seas rose with her lord. Though she stood strong, her head still rung with the pain of her new…assets. "My Lord," the Prince began as she walked behind him out of the lonely stone room, "Why have you given me such as name as 'Prince'? Won't that cause confusion among others?"

Walker in Darkness replied in an offhanded manner. "It may, but it most certainly doesn't matter. Though you are brave, strong, and have much potential, at your size, age, and gender, you will be hard pressed to find those who will obey your orders or listen to you and take you seriously. I gave you such a name to bring out your strength and your true ferocity."

The Prince looked down to take all of the information in. Then she thought for a moment and blurted out, "Jinx."

"Hmm?"

"Jinx. That name is stuck in the back of my head. It's so familiar, yet…" The Prince raised her horned head to her master, who gave her quite a stern look.

"Jinx is your material name, your former name. It is now a sin to look back upon it. You may not acknowledge yourself as such a person anymore. Jinx is dead, and only the Prince of the Vicious Seas remains. Remember this, my Prince."

Walker in Darkness' servant nodded obediently. "Yes, my Lord."

Requietum in Pacis: Rest in Peace (Latin)

Yes, my first fanfic in quite a while. I hope it's relatively worthy of the masses out there. Let's hear some feedback. It's not a Digimon fanfic, but somehow, I think you people will live. Don't be put off by all of the doom and gloom of this prologue. It will soon get better. I don't know if the atmosphere will change (it is the friggin' Underworld), but there is bound to be some comedy within these pages.