AN: Holy shit, it's been over a month. I'm so sorry, everyone. This chapter will just be about Raven, but the Tarkus chapter should be out by Wednesday. I'm really trying to play catch-up here.

Chapter Seven: Battles Lost

Raven awoke to a massive, throbbing headache. After a moment, she realized that she was curled naked next to Oscar in bed, and her cheeks flushed. She promised herself that she would never again get herself drunk. Raven extricated herself from Oscar's sleepy embrace, and he mumbled indistinctly before rolling over, falling back asleep. A quick assessment of the room allowed Raven to locate her clothes, but first she was worried about this awful headache. She found her satchel in the pile of clothes, and pulled out an Estus Flask, taking a swig. She wasn't prepared for the awful, reviling taste. It seemed to burn her mouth and throat horribly, worse than even the three mugs of brandy she had had last night, almost like she was drinking liquid fire. Raven breathed heavily, and the sensation faded quickly, but... what the hell? It hadn't had any healing effect. Raven felt her heart racing. Wait, a heartbeat? And she had actually gotten drunk last night. In a trancelike state, she raised a hand to her bare chest, where her darksign should have appeared on her left breast. It wasn't there.

In that surreal moment, Raven laughed, and immediately regretted it. Her headache immediately magnified, and she cringed, dropping to her knees and putting her head between them. She felt like begging someone to kill her, before she realized that, without a darksign, she wouldn't be able to come back to life. She shakily got up, putting her gambeson back on and sorting the armor, but not putting it on. On the other end of the room, Oscar groaned.

"Raven, what... Oh, gods. I had forgotten that strong drink has a nasty kick the next day. Wait, how the hell did we-" Oscar abruptly came to the same realization that Raven had, feeling at his chest and noticing that his darksign was gone. Seeing him standing there, in innocence, naked, rekindled the desire that she had felt in Anor Londo, and again last night. It was all she could do not to tackle him back onto the bed and tear off her clothes not a minute after she had gotten into them. A few discreet deep breaths calmed her, giving Oscar the chance to put on his own gambeson and stack his own armor, removing her temptation. Raven couldn't believe herself. It was far too soon to say that she really loved him, or even really had any lasting feelings for him. It could be her instincts kicking in, trying to create a bond with the first person she met who might be willing to help her, in any way that she could. Raven chased the thoughts away.

"Well, now there's no cause to return to Lordran, is there? I'm pretty sure that my undead mission is devoid if I'm suddenly not undead, and as for you..." there was a question in the end of Oscar's statement.

"What, the legacy of the Father of Giants? To hell with that," Raven said, choosing her words carefully so as not to drive Oscar away with the newfound guilt she had developed at their sexual encounters.

"I want to make a life here, or... better in a different city where we don't have to dance around the culture. Astora, or Catarina, maybe? Perhaps we'll go to Vinheim, or the Great Swamp?" Raven threw out a few suggestions.

"I think that Astora would be wonderful. Amazing city, that," Oscar said with pride.

"I know. I've been there," Raven told him, and he raised his eyebrows in shock.

"Just how many places have you been?" Oscar demanded, "Here, Carim where you were born, now you mention Astora..."

"All across those three, and that's about it, excluding Lordran. I'll tell you all about my past while we're on the road. Just a warning, I've never made an honest living in my life. I still have my old tricks, ingrained well enough to perform them while drunk, apparently. I think I robbed everyone in that common area blind. Not every cent they had, mind you, only a few coins from each person. But more than enough to buy two horses, a donkey for carrying baggage, supplies, and a map," Raven told him quietly.

"Ok. Just promise me one thing," Oscar told her, looking her in the eye, "Don't even think about stealing a single copper once we've settled down."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Raven responded, "I only ever stole because I had to. If I have a chance to make a solid living, I can promise I'll go straight right away." Oscar smiled, and went to open the door. He immediately flinched from the bright light from the windows in the hallway, shutting it and ducking behind the door again. Raven had to admit, it had been painful even from where she stood.

"Ugh, more of the teeth of a strong drink. This'll be unpleasant for a while. Well, might as well brace ourselves and push through it. We should be fine a few hours from now."

Oscar's word was true. Raven talked to the innkeeper again, saying that they would be back for a few belongings they had left in their room and asking him to please not give it to someone else. As they shopped for supplies throughout the city, Raven saw the effects lessening, until as she parted with the final coin that they would need to spend in the city, it disappeared entirely. By the time they had gotten back to the inn, Oscar had perked up, as well. Raven ran inside to grab their armor, and they were on their way. They hadn't made it out of sight of the inn when the city alarm bells started tolling. Raven hurriedly slid her armor over her gambeson, and Oscar did the same. They rushed to the sound of the clamor.

"Aye, siwmae," a city guard announced, "A good day to you, but I'm afraid this isn't the time. The city is being assaulted by hordes of skeletons, led by some sort of three-headed monster. Unless you care to help-" the guard didn't even finish his sentence before Raven snapped into motion, rushing for the city walls, mounted on her newly purchased horse. On the wall, archers were going strong, blowing through skeletons like they were nothing. The wall was only about ten feet high, and some giant skeletons were looming in the distance, the archers desperately trying to take them down. Raven tied her horse off, dismounting and rushing to the top of the wall, Oscar close behind her the entire way.

"They won't die!" archers shouted, as the waves and waves of skeletons they mowed down just got back up. Raven rushed to the top of the wall, offering her help.

"Does anyone have a greatbow?" Raven shouted over the clamor. Someone immediately produced a greatbow and a massive quiver of at least 20 arrows. Perfect. Raven planted the one end right on the edge of the wall, took aim, and fired. A skeleton's head exploded, and it didn't reform. Raven concentrated her fire on the giant skeletons, dropping three of them before they reached the wall. Eventually, though, she ran out of arrows.

"Oh, screw it," she said to herself, casting worry of dying aside as she leapt off the wall and into the fray, raising her Zweihander. Skeletons immediately jumped at her from all directions, but a large, fiery arc of Zweihander ripped them all apart. More skeletons were met by more swipes, and Raven waded through the mass of skeletons, pushing for their leader, who was indeed a 3-headed, six-armed, monster that seemed to be casting necromantic spells and... what in Gwyn's name? It was creating copies of itself. Raven's distraction was punished severely as a skeleton kicked her in the chest, causing her to stumble backwards, tripping and falling over the bones of a few defeated skeletons, landing prone on the ground. The skeleton raised it's scimitar, preparing to end her newfound human existence, but in a moment, Oscar was there, lopping off the skeleton's head and stomping on it, killing the monster permanently. He extended a hand down to her, and she pulled herself up.

"Thanks," Raven told him, picking up her Zweihander yet again. Damn, she needed to find a way to keep a better grip on the thing. It seemed she dropped it every time she took a hit.

"It's no problem. Everyone needs someone watching their backs," Oscar replied, "And Zena finally has something to be joyous about: The fact that we're here to watch theirs. Now, let's go kill us a necromancer." With determination and resolve, they rushed through the mass of skeletons, creating a path of destruction. Behind them, Raven noted that other warriors of Zena had followed their lead, jumping from the wall and hacking through skeletons. Raven and Oscar were virtually unopposed as they waded through the mass of skeletons; none of them were much of a threat. The same couldn't be said about the monster. Or, well, monsters. Raven and Oscar broke through the line of skeletons, coming onto an open field, and coming face-to-face with a total of eight 3-headed necromancers. Each head wore a distinct mask... one of them was identical to Arthur's mask. That was Raven's cue. In a single stroke, she sliced one of the things that must be Pinwheel in half.

"That was easy. Wait... why are the skeletons still alive?" Oscar was struck in the chest by a large fireball, which exploded and knocked him to the ground. The other Pinwheels doubled. There were now 14 enemies to face, and Raven had to kill them all. Multiple pinwheels waved all of their arms, far too many for any natural creature to have, in the air, and fireballs flew everywhere. Raven dodged through a few of them, but there were just too many. One bolt of flame caught her in the shoulder, knocking her off balance and costing her a second explosive charge to the chest. It hit hard, blowing her backwards. Raven rolled to her feet quickly, but saw that Oscar was struggling to rise as skeleton after skeleton jumped at him, each one getting closer to connecting with a lethal strike. Raven knew that he didn't have long, and turned away from the pinwheels, rushing to Oscar's side and smashing a skeleton, giving him time to get to his feet.

"We need a plan!" Oscar exclaimed, blocking another firebolt from Pinwheel, "because I'm terrible at multitasking!" Raven spun to chop a skeleton's skull in half, and glanced backwards towards the wall, where hundreds of warriors had now entered the fray. They were pinned against the walls, however, by the hordes of skeletons, and seemed to be barely holding their own. She and Oscar were hardly faring better, Raven realized with a start, as Oscar pivoted to kill another skeleton, leaving Raven exposed to another fireball, which she rolled under. She just so happened to roll through a skeleton, though, and an explosion of bones behind her distracted her just long enough for another bolt of flame to hit her in the back, knocking her to the ground again. To her credit, she kept hold of the Zweihander, for once. Unfortunately, said Zweihander dug point-down into the soft dirt, and cut partway into a rock just beneath it. She used it to pull herself to her feet quickly, but it was stuck fast, and would take far too long to pull free. It would be useless for the rest of the fight.

"Well, that leaves fighting fire with fire, then," Raven muttered, flames bursting from both of her hands. She concentrated them together, creating a yellow-black ball of flames which she flung at a pinwheel. It exploded violently, and Oscar rushed to her side, still defending himself from skeletons.

"Cover me," she told him, before charging towards another pinwheel. She created a wall of black flames in front of her which served as a large shield, effortlessly deflecting a fireball that the pinwheel summoned. Then, she shoved her other hand forwards, and the wall exploded into a massive gout, reducing the pinwheel to ash. Twelve remained. Oscar dispatched another skeleton which jumped at her as she focused, blocking three more fireballs. Raven analyzed the way that the fireballs deflected off the shield, and adjusted it's shape accordingly. The next fiery charge that was flung was mirrored perfectly back at it's caster, who howled in pain before dissolving. Raven flung the wall at another pinwheel, who also was destroyed. That left ten. Suddenly, Raven felt dizzy, stumbling backwards. For the second time in as many days, the world faded to darkness.

Raven saw a blinding white light, and immediately winced away again. The light shrank into a blur.

"Oh, thank goodness," an unfamiliar voice announced, "she's coming to." Then Oscar's familiar, endearing, concerned tone was audible.

"Raven? Raven!" The world came into focus, and Raven saw Oscar, with his chiseled face and dirty blonde hair, leaning over her. She was in a bright, torch-lit room. She sat up suddenly and was instantly hit by a wave of nausea, groaning and putting a hand to her temple.

"Oh... that wasn't a good idea," Raven commented as she leaned back onto the bed. It was a comfortable bed. She could live with that. Wait... why was she here? Raven started to panic, trying not to move but at the same time struggling to identify her surroundings.

"Raven, calm down. You're safe. For now, at least," Oscar told her, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She felt her heart racing, still an unfamiliar sensation.

"Where am I?" Raven demanded, fear filling her voice, "How- how did I get here?"

"Raven, what's the last thing you remember?" the unfamiliar man was surprisingly calm. Too calm. Why was he so calm? Raven started to pull herself out of the bed, but Oscar pinned her down.

"It's all right, Raven," he told her, even as her instincts screamed at her that it wasn't all right. There was nothing right about this situation. "Can you answer his question?"

"The last thing I remember..." Raven gasped and tried to sit up again, but Oscar was still pinning her down. He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

"We were fighting Pinwheel... I suddenly felt dizzy, and then I passed out. Why..." Raven trailed off as the unknown man began to laugh. He barely managed to force words out between his laughter.

"Why?... You were stupid enough to use BLACK PYROMANCY, and you have the guts to ask WHY you passed out? Girl, you're lucky you're not DEAD. How could you be so stupid? I mean... BLACK PYROMANCY?" Raven's eyes went wide.

"I've never had issues before..." Raven trailed off. That wasn't an accurate criteria. She hadn't had issues before because she quite literally had been dead. Now she was human again, and her actions had consequences. Clearly, the same thing had just gone through Oscar's mind, as he bit his tongue.

"On top of all of that, you had the stupidity to use a sword infused with a chaos flame? Who do you think you are, an undead who can just crush a humanity sprite and replenish your supply? I'm sorry, that's terribly rude of me..." A look of panic crossed both of their faces.

"Holy shit... you two... showing up in town the day before this nightmare... straight out of Lordran... this on top of it all... you are undead, aren't you? But... then this wouldn't happen. You would take a swig of your estus flask and keep going. So how is this possible?"

"It's not," Oscar replied, "A botched bonfire warp plopped us in the field outside of Zena yesterday. We found out that we were missing our darksigns this morning. We were just about to leave when this nightmare showed up."

"I knew it!" the man exclaimed, "I knew this had something to do with you! Now, the question is, what are we going to do about it? Well, what are you going to do about it? I'm not much of a fighter, myself." Raven knew that that meant she had to move. She gritted her teeth against the wave of nausea, and sat up, thankful that Oscar wasn't pinning her down anymore. Very quickly, she wished that he had, as she stumbled and fell, leaning on him for balance.

"Are you sure you should be up and about?" Oscar asked, looking concerned. Raven realized that she was back in just her gambeson, and she was grateful. She didn't trust herself trying to bear more than her own weight.

"I probably shouldn't be," Raven commented, "but... we don't really have a choice, do we. Now, I need a weapon. I assume the Zweihander is still stuck out there in that battlefield?"

"Unfortunately, it is, right along with a majority of your armor. I don't see much here, besides my sword, which I don't think you can use. It's imbued with divine energy, and it might reject you," Oscar replied, "So, do you know of anywhere you could get something nearby?"

"I'd need a map to figure it out. I have a resource cache here in the city. It's pretty much depleted, but it's where I stashed my katana when I got hit with the curse. If it's nearby, I can grab it. Otherwise, the best option is trying to snatch a sword off of one of the skeletons outside the walls," Raven explained.

"Raven," Oscar began, "the skeletons aren't outside the walls. They're on the streets." Raven jumped backwards at the news, and instantly regretted it, as she lost Oscar's support and nearly fell over, reeling from another wave of nausea. Oscar managed to catch her, but it was bad enough that she was glad her stomach was empty.

"Raven, you're in no condition to fight," Oscar said sternly, "I don't see how you can stand up to those skeletons if you can't even, well, stand."

"In that regard, I may be able to help," the unknown man, who seemed to be a physician, announced, "I have some herbs that will temporarily restore your physical abilities, but they're no miracle cure. Your dizziness and nausea will be back with a vengeance when they wear off."

"It's better than nothing," Raven told him, "I'll take it." The physician hurried about, grabbing herbs and making a tea.

"Oscar, find a map," Raven told him, sitting down on the bed and breathing calmly to settle her stomach and spinning head. Oscar began rummaging through things, and he moved out of sight. Just then, the physician came over, holding a cup.

"Here. It'll help with the dizziness and nausea, but only for about four hours. After that, though, it'll be even worse than it is now. Good luck," he said, as Raven drank the tea down in one gulp, before retching. Oh, gods, it tasted awful. But it did the job. Raven stood up, and instantly found that she was able to balance on her own. Her stomach was no longer churning. She jumped experimentally, and landed on her feet instead of flat on her back, like she would have a minute earlier.

"A-ha! I have it!" Oscar emerged from the back room with a map of the city. Their location was marked with a red dot. Raven looked at it for a second, and nodded.

"Ok. The cache is close enough. Only a few buildings away, actually. We can make it. Shall we?" Raven walked to the door, and Oscar picked up his sword and shield after putting on his helmet.

"Stay behind me," Oscar told her before opening the door. Immediately, his shield became useful as a skeleton leapt at them. Oscar chopped its head off. They were immediately surrounded by four more skeletons upon stepping out of the building. Raven noted that it was dusk - not a good sign, for the sake of their own survival.

"To hell with this," Raven muttered, jumping between two skeletons and breaking into a run towards her cache. Oscar shouted after her, but she was already too far away. Multiple skeletons jumped and slashed at her, but she nimbly dodged and rolled through the crowd until she reached a partially burned down building with boarded-up windows. This was it. Raven pulled the door open, and snatched her katana from a hidden slot inside of it, spinning to decapitate a skeleton just before it impaled her. Now it was time to help Oscar. Raven saw that he had managed to kill one of the four skeletons assaulting him, but he was barely holding out against the other three, hiding behind his shield to avoid a flurry of quick slashes and thrusts. Raven, now armed, rushed back through the skeletons, this time breaking them apart as they attacked her, rather than simply dodging. She reached Oscar in a matter of seconds, cutting through one of the skeletons' skulls expertly, and separating it in two. Oscar took the brief opening as an opportunity to lop a second skull in half, and Raven deflected a scimitar strike from the third before slashing through its skull as well.

"I don't understand why you try this shit," Oscar scolded her, "especially now that death will be..." Oscar trailed off as he saw the bones that she had left between the cache and where Raven was. She gasped herself when she realized just how many skeletons she had killed.

"You couldn't have accomplished that even with the Zweihander. We could have gotten you one of those in Lordran, you know," Oscar commented.

"Not like this one," Raven told him, "this sword was crafted specially in the far east, and then imported to the best smith in Vinheim, on order from a lord in Carim, specifically for me. It's a perfect fusion of steel and sorcery, not sacrificing a bit of it's sharp edge to make room for it's enchantment," Raven explained. Sure enough, the closer Oscar looked, he noted that the blade had a blue, glowing aura.

"Wait... how did you get a member of nobility to make you a gift like this?" Oscar asked, eyeing her suspiciously. Oh, shit. She had walked right into that one. Raven sighed in resignation.

"He was my father," Raven admitted, ashamed.

"Father? You're nobility? Why didn't you tell me? And... how did you wind up as a thief?"

"Because he would hate what I've become. He was a servant of Velka, but... he was hit with the curse shortly after I was born. He had the sword made for me at birth. Of course, because he wasn't actually dead, I inherited nothing else, leaving me in poverty. I started by begging on the streets. Of course, in Carim, everyone is suspicious of beggars, so no one helped me. Eventually, after a few months of near-starvation, I was forced to take matters into my own hands. I started stealing, and I was banished from Carim soon after, when I got caught trying to sell a holy relic that I had stolen from Velka's chapel. I moved on to it's outlying regions, but, of course, I got banished from them, one by one. I moved to Astora, and tried to start over, make a living normally. Then the same thing happened to me in Astora, except with a church of the Way of White - I left before they could even try to banish me. Finally, I arrived here, in Zena. I managed to become a servant to a middle-class merchant. I'd been here for about three years when the curse hit me, and I was promptly shipped off to the undead asylum. Waited around a few months before you showed up to rescue me. That enough for you?" By the end of her story, she was in tears, her mind filled with painful memories that she had just unburied. It had all come out in a rush, Raven having been unable to contain her emotions any longer.

"I'm sorry," Oscar muttered, hugging her in an attempt at comfort. It helped a little. Some hidden part of her, buried deep amid her mental walls, was actually glad that she had told Oscar. The rest of her at least was willing to admit that he deserved to know - with the physical intimacy that she had shared with him, it was only fair that she shared her emotions as well. Before she could talk herself out of it, she pulled his visor up and kissed him on the lips - the first kiss, or any other intimate gesture, that actually meant anything. The first time they had been intimate, both of them had simply lost self control, and they had agreed to move past it as if nothing had happened. The second time... well, they had been drunk, and that was the only excuse for it that existed. But in that moment, Raven chose her feelings, chose Oscar. She pulled away after a moment, and forced her mind away from the euphoria that was currently pouring through her, back to the matter at hand. In just the few minutes since they had left the makeshift hospital, the sun had set entirely, and Raven heard the bones rattling of skeletons coming to investigate the deaths of their friends.

"How many people are left alive?" Raven asked, and Oscar shook his head worriedly.

"Only about a few hundred," he replied, "They gathered at the citadel, and they're trying to hold there. There are a few people still scattered throughout the city, who have locked their doors, hunkered down, and hoped for the best. Zena sent out riders everywhere, moving as fast as they could. The reinforcements from the outlying villages should be here come morning." The skeletons rounded the corners from both sides of the streets.

"I don't have that long," Raven answered, as the skeletons began to charge them, "We'll need to find Pinwheel and put an end to this. We fight to the citadel." Raven and Oscar spun back to back, to meet the twin waves of skeletons head on.

AN: I hope you enjoyed the first piece back from my extremely long break. I'm trying to get three chapters published a week until Christmas, by which point hopefully I'll be able to bring this to a conclusion.