AN: Sorry, if anyone was paying attention, for the MAJOR edit. I decided I wanted to change the weapon that Raven was going to use throughout the series, and I realized that it was probably an opportunity to extend the chapter a little. If I made you re-read some, I apologize. I hope you can understand that it's worth it for the sake of a better story down the road.

Chapter Two: Asylum Abdication

Raven and Oscar were pressed awkwardly together between the massive crow's claws.

"You think maybe we could have had a crow apiece?" Oscar asked, somewhat rhetorically. Raven watched the terrain go by below them, and, pressed so close to Oscar as she was, suddenly felt the urge to kiss him. She decided against it for a combination of two reasons: she was a decaying zombie, not having had the opportunity to restore her human form yet, and he was still wearing his helmet. Her once- wavy blue hair, now reduced to clumps and wisps as her body rotted, blew around in the wind, batting Oscar in the face constantly.

"Any way you could maybe restrain your hair? It's getting annoying," Oscar complained. Suddenly, Raven's stomach lurched as the crow began to descend. She craned her neck to look around Oscar, towards the ground, and saw a small, decaying shrine with a bonfire in the center and a few small, nearly dead trees scattered around it. There was a man in chain mail armor sitting a ways away from the fire. The crow dropped them both brutally on the ground in front of the fire, and they landed in a tangle on the ground. Raven hastily extricated herself from the tangle of limbs, trying far too late to avert an awkward situation.

"Well, we're here," Oscar commented, as Raven helped him up

"Well, well. This is certainly new. I've never seen two arrivals at once," the man in chain mail said in a dreary, resigned voice. Raven hated that tone. It was the tone of someone who had given up. Someone crestfallen.

"I'll figure out what that's about. Take a rest at the bonfire, get your human form back, and spend some of those souls," Oscar told her. Raven looked at him quizzically in response.

"Last thing I have to explain, I promise. Souls you absorb from the deaths of others can be used to reinforce your being. Offer them to a bonfire, and in exchange something about you is strengthened, whether it's your vitality, your strength, your endurance, or a number of other things. You can choose what to enforce with souls," Oscar explained, before walking over to the crestfallen warrior. Raven sat down at the bonfire, filling her own estus flask. She offered the humanity she had absorbed earlier to the fire, and immediately felt her body restore to what it had been before the curse had settled on her. She felt amazing. Her blue hair, previously some wisps and clumps, filled out into the rich waves she remembered. She offered the souls she had absorbed next, choosing to commit them to her physical strength so she could wield something larger than her knife. She stood up, looking over to Oscar and the crestfallen warrior, who were arguing heatedly. Oscar seemed to be getting frustrated with the warrior's downtrodden attitude. He stormed off, moving back towards Raven, and stopped dead, seeing her in human form.

"Wow," he said, quite dumbfounded and at a loss for words. He stammered a few times, but seemed to be unable to come up with anything else to say.

"What's the news on Mr. Crestfallen?" Raven asked, trying to divert the conversation. It seemed to snap Oscar out of his stupor.

"Damned coward won't come with us, and he talks in circles, besides. It took a while to actually get something useful out of him, but I did manage it, after a while," Oscar explained, still frustrated.

"And?" Raven asked, prompting him to continue.

"I never did tell you why I wanted to come here. My goal was to ring the bell of awakening, and receive my undead quest. He told me that there are actually two bells of awakening. One's up above, in the Undead Church. Fitting, isn't it? The other one is underneath us, in the depths of Blighttown. He made it out as some awful, disease riddled place. Can't say I've heard much about it, myself. The parish, on the other hand... well, I do know how to get there. Bought a map from a now-hollow merchant in the Undead Asylum. Shall we?"

"First things first. I need a better weapon than this," Raven said, holding up her knife.

"What's on your mind?" Oscar asked.

"I'm not too strong, right now, but... I'd like something big." Raven said.

"That's rather vague, but... I think I know just the thing. I caught a glimpse of it on the way in. A massive Zweihander, plunged into the ground in what looked like a graveyard. It's a short distance from here, and unless you have a problem with taking something that's most likely placed as a memorial for a grave...?" Oscar trailed off, waiting for Raven's response. Raven vehemently shook her head. She hadn't ever even had enough scruples to stop her from robbing from the living, much less the dead.

"Wonderful. Let's go!" Oscar said cheerily, turning back towards the crestfallen warrior, jogging past him, up some stairs, and into a flooded building which appeared to be, at one point or another, a church. He looked around a second, then saw a gap in the wall, and led her through it. It was down another set of stairs, carved into the earth, and they were in the graveyard.

"Gods... this place is a mess," Raven commented, glancing at the piles of bones strewn around the graves. She could see the Zweihander, sticking up from the ground in front of a rather large grave, and moved towards it.

"Go ahead and grab it. I'll look around to see if there's anything else of value here. Since we're taking something, might as well go all the way, eh?" Oscar broke off from Raven, turning towards a pile of bones that looked promising. Raven walked up to the Zweihander, and paused to read the inscription, muttering it aloud.

"Here lies the father of giants, a legend in his own right," the inscription read. Raven chuckled, noting the size of the sword. It was fitting that such a large sword should belong to a giant. Raven placed her hands on the hilt, and heaved upwards, yanking the sword out of the ground. It was just light enough that her new, soul-enhanced muscles allowed her to wield it with both hands. She discarded her nearly useless shield. Then she heard the rattling.

"What the..." Raven started, as she saw the bones around her quiver, and then form into some skeletons. There was one skeleton which was especially large, and Raven swiped at it in desperation. The Zweihander sheared through it's leg bone effectively, causing it to fall over and explode into separate bones again. They continued to shake and draw back together, but Raven had other problems in the skeletons that had already formed around her.

"Oscar!" she called, but was answered by the sounds of sword striking bone, indicating that he was in a similar predicament.

Well, let's see just how effective this thing is, Raven said, running away from the skeletons and turning back to face them, so she could see all four at once. One skeleton rushed at her, swinging it's light scimitar wildly. Raven raised the Zweihander to block, and the scimitar bounced harmlessly off of the blade in front of her. She raised the blade further, and brought it crashing down in an overhead slam. The skull and several other bones exploded into fragments, and the skeleton disintegrated, it's bones staying in scattered bits. The one-legged giant skeleton had fully re-formed now, and was hopping towards her ominously, but it wasn't the immediate threat. A second skeleton chose that moment to dive at her, before she had managed to bring the Zweihander up from her massive ground slam. She twisted out of the way, but the scimitar clipped her shoulder, drawing blood. The skeleton landed behind her in a pile of bones, and Raven stomped on the skull, which shattered. The rest of the bones stopped quivering.

Interesting. Break the skull, and they can't re-form, Raven noted, raising the Zweihander to block a third skeleton's flurry of attacks. She swung horizontally, shearing the top half of the skull off. The skeleton crumbled. Raven dragged the Zweihander back to it's resting position on her shoulder just as the giant skeleton reached her, swinging it's fist downwards.

No weapon? Raven thought as she sidestepped the blow, before realizing that she probably held the weapon that belonged to what must be the remains of the father of giants, then. She pulled upwards on the Zweihander as she realized that it had slipped off of her shoulder again as she dodged the skeleton's attack. The fourth standard skeleton jumped at her, swinging downwards, and by pure luck the blow bounced off of the Zweihander as Raven lifted it back to her shoulder. Raven spun, bashing the skeleton in the face with the pommel of the Zweihander. The skull caved in, and the skeleton crumbled, leaving her in a one-on-one fight with the remains of the father of giants.

I really need to come up with a simpler term for him, Raven thought, and immediately the phrase 'Giant dad' popped into mind. It works, she reasoned, raising the Zweihander to block. Sadly, it didn't do much against the giant skeleton's massive punch, and it sent her flying backwards, crushing a headstone and probably breaking several bones. Raven hastily took a swig of estus before she rose, feeling it's restorative effect course through her as she prepared to counterattack while the giant dad was off-balance. She jumped and swung overhead, not reaching the head but hacking through several of the giant dad's ribs, causing it to crumble. She raised the Zweihander into the air, bringing it slamming down on the giant dad's skull, shattering it. The bones stopped quivering. At that moment, Oscar rushed to her side, panting. He bore several gashes where his armor wasn't as thick, and was bleeding profusely from several of them.

"I came to help, but... It seems you fared better than I did," Oscar said wearily. He took a swig of estus, emptying his own flask, but it was only enough to heal some of the wounds.

"I'm going to be a bit more cautious when it comes to grave-robbing in coming days," Raven commented, setting the Zweihander comfortably on her shoulder, and Oscar seemed to recognize it, seeing it closer.

"The sword. You know it?" Raven asked, wanting to know more about it's history.

"Yes. It has quite the reputation. Belonged to the father of giants. Say, is that his grave there? I'll tell you more about it later. Shame that it didn't keep it's enchantment over the years, though. Used to be enhanced with a chaos flame. Ah, well. A formidable weapon regardless. Let's get out of here before we anger more of these bags of bones." Oscar turned to leave, then stumbled and fell. Raven gasped in concern.

"I'll manage. Just need a short rest at the bonfire, and I'll be good to go," Oscar said, climbing to his feet. They walked back to the bonfire in silence.

AN: Did you like my take on the original giant dad? Please state your opinions, and whether or not you think that the Zwei is more fitting for Raven than a Katana, which is what I was going to give her previously.