Chapter 18

By Hdogg

Told by Jenny Ramo

It Couldn't Be Worse

A/n: Sappy getting to adventure chapter. The next chapter or chapter 20 will be the last chapter for the first Act of Diablo Two. Who loves this story? Anyone?

Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo Two. Though I wish did since I lost all my characters. ::grumbles:: Damn the limit…All well. Blizzard owns all!

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                Things couldn't have been worse. I was trapped in a world unknown to me excepted through a game. It was a pretty world…when there were no monsters. The food wasn't too terrible but that was beyond the point.

                He was mad at me.

                I don't even why it bugs me so! I mean he's always been a friend but when I'm around him…I don't know. I'm too young. Least that's what the society says though what do they know. I just didn't know.

                I sighed and sat down on the green, grassy hill. I ran my hand over the blades of greenery. It seemed so real just like the pain, and the words, and everything else in this forsaken world!

I clutched the grass in my fist as I yanked it out. "Damn it all." I murmured to the air around me. It was stiff, moist, and the hottest it had been for awhile. "I just want to go home."

Someone patted me on the head. "Likewise, Jen girl." Mo mumbled sitting down next to me. "Chocolate?" She held up a Hershey's chocolate bar.

I looked at the piece of my world. "Where…how…"

She shrugged. "I brought a lot of different with me to this world. Including my stash of sweets which I haven't eaten or given to anyone yet." She held it out for me to take.

I shook my head though I longed for the chocolate. "No, it's yours. I can't take it." I pushed the bar away. My fingers brushed the smooth, cool wrapper. They lingered for a moment before I drew them away.

She snorted, "Who ever said you were taking this from me?" She shoved me a bit in the shoulder. "Girl, you need some cheering up. Chocolate always does that." She was smiling slightly though her smile seemed to reach the sky and beyond. It was just a comforting, reassuring thing to see in this world. A bit of happiness that shone.

"Well…I don't know…I mean it is yours." She handed me the candy bar. I looked at it as an idea came to mind. I broke it in half. "I'll only eat this, if you will."

She laughed and shook her head. "You never make anything easy do you Jen?" She took her half and carefully began to unwrap it.

I did the same with my own. It was so cool to the touch. I wondered how Mo kept it from melting all this time. I took a little bit of it. It was so good, almost heavenly. I glanced over at Mo.

She was sitting there nibbling on the chocolate bar, smiling happily. "Hmm?"

I sighed. "Nothing."

She stopped for a moment. "What's wrong?" She looked at me with her innocent, loving eyes.

I just sighed and looked to the half-wrapped candy in my hand. "It's about Dru…I don't know what to do anymore…" I looked off towards the camp and saw him standing the entrance.

Mo glanced over her shoulder. "Oh…" She looked at me and I looked to her for some sort of guidance. "Hmm, what happened? I mean before we saved you two."

I half choked and looked at my hands. "I…well…"

"You weren't doing anything were you?" She questioned me with a slightly hard look.

I felt my face go red and looked her straight in the eyes. "No. We were not." I said firmly, though shaking a little inside. Maybe that was why he was mad…that I wouldn't do anything more then kiss him lightly on the lips.

            Mo patted me on the head. "Don't worry. He's probably a guy moment." She smiled so reassuringly that I was almost ready to believe here. She winked. "Just like us girls have our moments." I had to laugh. She was so right about some things it was scary. She smiled. "PMS, guy style." I laughed more. It felt good to laugh.

                Mo dragged me up. "Come on!" She ran ahead of me a bit. "Well, come up slow poke. Let's go play basketball!"

                I looked at her like she was nuts. "What are you talking about?"

                She ran back to me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me along back into the camp. "I'll show you." She slipped out under a flap, dragging me along with her.

                My mouth dropped open. There was a full sized basketball court. Not concert, just hard packed earth but granted! Something from my world! The hops weren't too shabby either. I had bets that Stuart and Dan worked on it. "Is there a basketball?"

                Mo plucked one up from the ground. "Yup! Made it myself. All animal skin with air." She bounced it. "Works like a charm."

                I laughed and shook my head.  "And when on earth, did you have time to make this?"

                She shrugged. Her green/blue eyes twinkled with her over abundant happiness. "Danny, Stu, and I made time. We thought we all needed a little break from the game." She never referred to this world as a reality, only as a game.

                I watched her as she shot the ball. You could never tell what she was thinking. She was always so silent about things like her thoughts. Sometimes you had to wonder if she thought at all by the way she acted. I have learned though, when she acted stupid or dumb it was only to get you to laugh. She was thoughtful person though sometimes blinded by her thoughts of 'worldly happiness'.

                "Jen!"

                I snapped at my thoughts and looked at her. "Oh, sorry." I half-smiled. "One on one?"

                She snorted. "Naw, you on offense. I wanna play defense." She passed me the ball and positioned herself at half court. I looked at the ball in my hands. It was brown and boring but it acted like a basketball when I began to dribble it. I maneuvered around her pretty easily and set the ball into the hop with an easy lay up. "What? That's all you got?" I smiled, passing her the ball.

                She laughed. "Well, hold on." She pulled off her blue vest. That thing was awesome. It was silver trimmed and went right down to her ankles. Its sleeves were also cut off at her shoulder so it'd give her easy maneuvering room for her arms when she was casting a spell. She worked forever on her vest. Her other outfit, the green one, was one given to her by Akara. She of course tailored it to her fashion. Aly and I had brought our clothes to her and she whipped up into a good fashion for both of us.

                "Mmm, much better." She said stretching her arms. "You know that thing is heavy since I also added chain mail into the fabric."

                "You did?" I asked. I hadn't known that.

                "I did with everyone's outfit. Didn't you notice?" She asked with a smirk.

                That was why my outfit felt so heavy half the time. "Umm…no."

                She shook her head and laughed. Her brown hair caught the sunlight, making it the blonde in her hair shine. "All well. Guess I'm good at concealing things." She snatched up the ball from the ground. "Ready?"

                I smiled. "Anytime." She dribbled two feet then I stole the ball. I laughed and shot, missing. "All well." I shrugged and ran after Mo as she chased the ball.

                "Get back here you silly thing!" She shouted at it.

                I smiled. We played until Mo smelt food being cooked. She ran off and I followed slowly. I replaced the ball into its little hold where Mo got it from. As I walked slowly to the campfire, I looked about me. The camp seemed more alive then it was at first when we arrived. Ever since we completed the fifth quest, life seemed to be slowly coming back to this camp.

                I stopped a ways from the fire. Dru was there, eating silently and looking right at me. I gulped. He set down his plate, got up, and walked towards me. I stood there, frozen like a deer caught in headlights. He glanced at me and nodded to the entrance of the camp. He continued to walk and I followed. His beautiful brown hair caught the light of the rising moon. I didn't know it had gotten so late.

                He stopped in a meadow of flowers. He kept his back to me as he stared at the rising moon. It was at three-quarters. In another few days it would be full. "Beautiful night, isn't it."

                I stopped behind Dru and sat down on the damp grass. My back was facing him. I looked out towards the camp. "Yeah…" The bonfire blazed in the distance. "I guess…" I looked up. The stars twiddled soundly, unaware of this dismal little world below them.

                "Do you…I don't know…" He started then trailed off. His soft voice carried over the flowers and brought warmth to my cold skin.

                "Do I hate you?" I asked quietly, drawing my knees to my chest and resting my wary head on top of them.

                "Yeah…"

                I sighed. "No…but why are you so distant when I try…" I couldn't finish. I didn't want to finish. What if he didn't have the same feelings I had for him? What if all he wanted was just a friend…not nothing more.

                "When you try to get closer." He wisphered in my ear. The warm breathe sent shivers down my spine as I jumped up in fright. His half-smile lighted his dark features. "Did I scare you, Jen?" He asked putting a hand on my shoulder.

                I shrugged and sat back down. "Maybe." The grass crunched under Dru's weight as he sat next to me. "Are you okay?"

                I felt Dru's troubled eyes watching me. "Even if I don't answer truthfully, you know the answer."

                "Any reason?" I asked softly looking at my hands. They looked so small in the moonlight. Even a little waxy like I hadn't been getting any sun.

                "Many…things I've seen, memories that haunt me…" He took my right hand and started to play with my fingers. "Feelings that elude me…and send me lost looking for the answer." He titled my head and the moon bounced off his eyes. They glittered a deep gold that held endless depths of love. His eyes closed as he leaned closer to me. The moment caught up with me as  his lips pressed against  mine. He drew back and looked into my eyes. I could feel the love burn inside of him.

                My heart jumped into my throat as I clung to his hand. I felt like I was falling. Falling into something that I knew would change how I acted and lived. Falling into something I wanted to get into. I rested my head against his shoulder trying to breathe. 'Think…think…not working…thinking process is down…' My thoughts would not come neither would my senses. What was I doing falling in love at the age of fourteen? What I was doing falling in love with someone that was like a brother to me? What was I doing thinking I was in love?

                "Jenny?" Dru shook me. His voice filled with worry. "Jenny, are you all right?" He withdrew his hand from my neck where he was gently massaging it. "Did…did I do something wrong?" His eyes looked like a lost puppy's.

 I buried my head in his chest. I felt his firm muscles tighten then relax again. "Not at all…" I mumbled, sighing. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around my waist. I just relaxed and closed my eyes. The night time sounds filled the silence as he held me. I felt safe and strong. Secure in the arms of someone I loved that loved me back.

In the time that Dru held me, I fell asleep. In my sleep…my mind showed me things I didn't want to see.

~

I blinked as I looked around. Torches drove the darkness away from this cavern of blood. I shuddered as a drop of crimson liquid dripped onto my arm. The walls bled the blood of those that had come before us and had failed to slay the evil. I looked to my friends. Aly and Devak were up front with Stuart, Danny, and Larry in the middle. They looked different…like they were older. Dru was standing by my side.

                "This is the end…" He wisphered, clasping my hand tightly. I looked down. His hands were older and scarred horribly. I wondered why. "We're almost home." Home? But we were barely through the first Act…how could we almost home?

                But then my thoughts were drowned when my heart leapt. Home. My mom. I looked to Dru. Would things change after we made it back? I made a fist with my left hand. Something cold touched my palm. I glanced down and saw a thin gold band with small diamonds encircling it. It was on my ring figure. 'What…' I had no time to ponder its meaning when we walked into a room that was more gruesome then all of the rest of this horrible game. The carnage of the battles that were fought long ago still left marks across the walls and floors. Skulls, armor, weapons. All it of lay around a dark, ominous portal. It made of throne of death and welcomed all that dared to challenge it…and die.

                In the  portal a blurred beast guarded it with sharp cries and whipping of its tentacles. The beast vaguely reminded me of something I had seen long ago. I blinked as I tried to remember where I had seen it. I couldn't even remember what my computer looked like or the site that it was on. This game was slipping my mind away from me! The blurred  beast snapped a long tentacle at me. It flicked past my face as I sliced it with my…I looked at my weapons as acid dropped off them. How could I have a scissors katar?

                Something wrapped around my leg. I looked down and saw a tentacle before the pain  sent red into my sight. Acid seeped through my leggings and burned in my blood. My heart beat faster trying to rid itself of the poison. I fell as the tentacle burned through my armor and drug me to the portal.
                "DRU!"
                I couldn't even hear myself shout. A deafening roar blocked out everything. All I could feel was the pain seeping into my body and destroying my power. I tried to turn around and slash off the tentacle but more had wrapped around me. I could do nothing but scream.
                "DRUUUUU!"
                ~
                "Jen!"

I screamed and sat up. My leg burned with memory from the nightmare. I rubbed it shakily as I tired to forget what I had seen.

Dru smoothed my hair and hugged my tightly. "Shh, it's okay." I leaned into his embrace and let him comfort me as best he could.

I shuddered as I saw the beast clearly now. It was the clone of Baal. I did not want to think of what lay ahead of us.

 Dru titled my head and looked into my eyes. "What'd you see?"

I blinked as the image started to fade with the raising sun. "Red...blood red and blackness…pitch except for torches…the a blurred monster." I stammered watching the sun raise over Dru's ear. I giggled. It was rather comical. It a flame or a firefly rested on his ear as it slowly grew, swallowing his head. I looked into his eyes and giggled again. 'He must think I am insane now.'

Dru chuckled and shook his head as he looked over his shoulder. "Looking to the sunrise for answers instead of me, eh?" He smiled mischievously.

'What is up to…' I wondered. This was oddly different.

His hands to seemed to spring from nowhere as he started to tickle my sides. "Gonna say uncle?"

I giggled as he swooped me up in his strong arms, still tickling me. This was the side that was so hard to find. Maybe…just maybe, he would let me in.
                "Uncle?" He asked again, tickled my feet. Somehow, my shoes and socks had disappeared. He went to my sides again. I continued to laugh harder. Tears started to run down my cheeks. "C'mon, you gotta say it sooner or later." He was wrong. I didn't have to say it. At that moment, Mo came running over the hill, shouting at us.

"Come on you lazy bags of bones! We're leaving!" She bounced along the trail, doing a flip in the air eventually. "Weee! Tis a splendid day! A wonderful day to vanquish evil and gain one more foothold on the way home!" She flicked her back length hair over her shoulder. "I'm so happy! Oh so happy!" She started to dance.

Dru snorted.

I elbowed him in the gut. "Mo…did someone give you…sugar again?" I questioned watching the bouncing nutcase that I called friend.

"Of course! Stuart found a good ol' bag of it!!" She bounced over and sat down next to me. "Come on! Tis time to fit Andy and the evil minion peoples!" She tugged on my arm, trying to detach me from Dru. Unfortunately, she was taking my arm instead of all of me.

Dru laughed. "C'mon, let's go." He wisphered in my ear. He lifted me, grabbed my shoes and socks, and walked briskly towards camp. I rested my head under his chin. Mo bounced along Dru's side chattering like a parrot. She looked like a hobbit from this height.

I giggled. I was so on a 'happy high' as the 'hobbit' said. My dream meant nothing it was just my nerves working into my system. I snuggled into Dru's arms. Mo was right. One more footstep to secure our way home. This was only Act One how could anything bad happen?

Dru sat me down on a log by the fire and handed me my boots(not shoes, what was I thinking?) and my socks. "I'll be back in a moment." He picked up his armor and proceeded to the 'changing room' as we dubbed the makeshift hovel of a thing. After he came back, I took my own armor and war clothing and change.

I set my extra pair of clothes on the bench. I would tend to them when I came back. I fit on my gauntlets and put on two little katars. They seemed small and inefficient as opposed to the scissors katar I had in my dream.

I shook my head. "I am not going to think about that…" I grumbled marching out of the tent. I snatched up my helm from the ground and put it on. I smiled as I looked at my reflection in a make-shift mirror. I had gotten bored and burned arcane figures into my helm from no reason. I knew they meant healing and protection and that was about as far as my knowledge went. For the heck of it, I did a back flip with a high kick in the air.

"Someone seems ready to beat up evil." Aly mumbled while she twirled her spear. "Hehehehe. I am going to have tonight."

Mo pole vaulted over a stack of logs with her staff. "Weeee! Here I come for a little fun! No one can beat the insanity mistress that is the Baka!" She bounced along with a giddy glee as she pounced on Larry's back. "Boo!"

Larry snorted and reached behind him. He grabbed Mo by the waist and flipped her upside down. "What you going to do?"

Danny laughed, shaking some of his brown hair away from his face. "Careful man. She has a fiery temper." Mo proved him right as she yelled, 'Fireball!' and scorched Larry in the behind.

"Yoooow!!" Larry screeched dropping Mo on her head.

Stuart shook his head. "Yet 'nother dose of brain damage for Mo. Poor girl."

She just bounced right back up and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Onward to Victory! We the champions that come from the heavens shall vanquish all evil!" She yelled twirling her staff high above her head. It made a whistling sound that reminded of the Kender from Dragonlance.

Larry and Dan roared in agreement while Dru nodded. Stuart shook his head as he continued to pack our medical kit. Aly just laughed as she struck her spear on a rock.

                Dan held up his hands for silence. We all complied. "Now…We have the waypoint to get into the second level of the catacombs." He pulled out a rough made map. "I used my knowledge, Larry's, and Stuart's to draw this. We need to avoid these hotspots," he pointed to different rooms on the map, "that have always contained monsters. We're going to spilt into three groups. Larry, Stuart, and Aly will be in one group. Mo and I another and Dru and Jen in the last one." He looked at us for agreement. Most of us nodded. "Okay, good. Stuart will send two skeleton mages with the other two groups he's not in. They'll add protection and carry medical supplies. They will rely messages to Stuart who will tell everyone what to do." He looked at us. "Be careful." He looked to Mo practically, "We don't want to lose anyone."

                Dru gripped my hand tightly as he avoided my katars.

                "It's time." Dan said quietly as he rose. "I'll send a town portal so we all don't have to use the waypoint." We nodded. None of us liked that thing. It was like a jerky roller coaster ride compared to the smooth ride of the town portal. A moment later he was gone and a town portal had arrived. Everyone went in but Dru and me.

                Dru hugged me tightly as I set my head on his chest. Through his armor I could hear his steady heartbeat. "Be careful…stay in one piece." He whispered softly in my ear. I looked up into his eyes as he leaned towards me.

                Devak snorted behind us. "Hurry up love birds. I have to shut the portal and get down there too."

                I jerked away from Dru and looked at him. "You're coming?" I asked the tall, dark haired young man.

                He laughed. "Well, duh. I am the smartest, strongest,"

                "Most conceited" Dru added softly.

                Devak glared at him, "And talented magi here. Now if you two would go through the portal I would like to close it and get down there." The wind started to pick up. I looked to the sky. It was clear but now darkness started to cover the land.

                Miss Akara wandered past to talk to Cain muttering, "And the heroes will enter the clutches of death and despair as they make their way to victory."

                Devak frowned as he rubbed his forehead. Once Akara had pasted he mumbled to himself, "The prophecies will come true…" He looked at us with a glare. "Get going!"
                "Moron." I grumbled pulling Dru with me into the portal. This ride was different from all the others I had been through. It felt like I was being pulled in different directions. Some of the times it felt like I had lost an arm or a leg or sometimes my head. It hurt like nothing else I've felt and it wouldn't stop! Then  Dru's hand was jerked from mine as I landed in a dimly lit room. My head slammed against the cold, hard floor and a voice filled my ears.

                "Death will come when all seven become none." An acidic voice wisphered close to my ear. I could smell the acid dripping onto the ground from somewhere above me.

                Purple and green dots danced in front of my eyes. I couldn't tell if it was from me or something from the sky. Whatever it was I didn't find out. My head hit the ground as I lost all memories of reality. The nightmare would never end.

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The first of the seven has fallen into the clutches of a power of the darkness. Where has Jenny the Assassin gone? Did Dru make it through the portal all right? Why is Devak being a jerk? Time will tell in this tale of love, adventure, and humor.

Onward to Victory!

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A/n: It's time for some of the Twiddlements of the Baka! You just got to love them. Remember that book that Stuart found? There's going to be a lot of references to that. Two more chapters!! Then we are going to get to Act Two! I gotta think of a title for that. Are you liking this story?? Do you like it enough to send me suggestions? I like ideas that I can play off of. ^_^ Hope ya all like!

The Days:
Chapter 18: April 3rd-4th