My version of what happened after the defeat of Diablo beneath Tristram… cackles madly.

Also I liked this line from the former version of this story, and I wanted to share it with you:

Darkness raised an eyebrow. 'Sure, sure, when I got up Rhune Lance wasn't asleep.'

Rowan looked surprised. 'What? Was he staring at you?'

Oh, and this one:

They did however encounter a colony of Fallen demons, their Shaman and a uniquely coloured Shaman, apparently called Bishiboshi, who looked like he had been vomited on backwards and dragged through a oversized patch of thistle and then for the effect, dumped in radioactive gunk to make him glow a rather putrid shade of green.

Needless to say, that was VERY quickly discarded.

Oh yes, and WARNING: MAJOR GHEED HATE IN THIS CHAPTER!

Chapter 3:

The Legacy of Blood Raven

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
- Sydney J. Harris

'WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN 'YOU'RE NOT COMING?'' Darkness yelled. The 'reason' that she couldn't follow the others on the mission to the Sisterhood's graveyard throbbed on the side of her neck. The wound she had received from the mutant zombie, Corpsefire, was taking its sweet time to heal.

'We mean exactly what we said, Darkness.' Owen, the Paladin, his arms crossed, and a rather irritable tone crept through his voice, 'You're still injured, and we know that it's giving you migraines. And hell, we don't need that in the field. Archangels help you if you get dizzy after two seconds of swinging your sword.'

The Barbarian hefted an axe, 'and we don't need you getting in the way either.'

That comment just earned him a death glare.

'But you're leaving tomorrow, I will be fine, and the only way I can train properly is in the field.' Darkness' Draconys-Necrosian pride wouldn't let her back down from her failure in the Den of Evil. She also resented the fact that they were taking the Necromancer, Lance, with them; graveyards were as much her area of knowledge as they were his. In the back of her mind she knew that it was because between the two of them, there was such abhorrence that it would ruin most strategies that they developed.

Like hell she was going to admit it to them.

No matter what she could have said, nothing would have worked, so here she was, sitting against the bailey of the encampment. It wasn't like Darkness had given in, she had just gone along with what everyone else wanted. Played nice. But who was she kidding? After the 'serious' words from Rowan she gave in. It was hard, he reminded her of her sensei.

He was also a little reminiscent of her old man.

'Damn.' Her concentration had broken. Darkness opened her eyes and stared at the sky. So far she held only two people even slightly in respect, which was Rowan and the Viz-Jaq'taar, Tareshi.

The Sorceress, Sailis, was edgy around her; most likely because she knew of the Draconys' magicks and culture. Probably also because Darkness was a bitter cynical turd as well, but who wouldn't be?

She pretty much blatantly hated both the Paladin, and the Necromancer. Neither Owen, nor Lance had any decent qualities in her opinion.

There was no good news in Necromancers. Yeah, sure, their clans used to get along, but that was before that stupid Necromancer bastard went and destroyed all bonds between the clan in some political kafuffle, betraying both clans and causing a huge gouge of mistrust.

There was that word again. Schism. There was a great Schism between the two clans because of it. It only got wider. Darkness remembered when a Necromancer had killed her mother. Her father died from fatal wounds and a broken heart shortly afterwards. Almost every Necromancer that she had ever met had done something terrible. Now was no time to trial trust on one.

The Paladin? He might have been alright if he wasn't like an icy pole with a sword up his ass instead of a stick. She had nothing against their religion, as most people seemed to think, but she just couldn't stand him. Darkness had known a few Paladins in her short life. One with firey hair that had helped forged En'ubys along with her father. She had apparently moved to some desert place, slightly closer to the Paladin's homeland, but still distant across a stretch of water. Now, she was a Paladin that Darkness respected.

The Barbarian was a Barbarian. Enough said. Oh, and he was blunt. That got right up her nose.

As far as Darkness was concerned so far; Kiyana, the Amazonian warrior…she was just there.

Darkness stood, stretched her legs and surveyed the near vicinity, away from the general centre of the camp, where most people were. Even with the bailey wall between the people and the demons and undead outside, they still kept their distance.

She found what she wanted, a nice flourishing lavender plant. Darkness sat down in the 'half lotus' position adjacent to the bush. She placed her hands on it and closed her eyes. She slowed her breathing until it was slow and deep, she pushed her heart rate down.

Darkness concentrated on the wound in her shoulder, she felt for the 'death energies' clotting the area, with the feeling of the death energies in mind, she searched for any other area in her body that had the same feeling, even a small one. All her wounds had been treated while she was unconscious, but there was no problem with speeding up the healing process a little.

Darkness sent her senses to search for the life energy strands in the plant, all life was the same, so she could use whatever living object she needed, for now, and it was the lavender bush. Darkness tugged on the life energies in the bush until they were loose; she then pulled them into her body and used them to replace the death energies that were in her wounds. She needed a large amount to replace the energies in her zombie bite, so she moved the death energies from her to the plant and the life energies from the plant to her.

She opened her eyes to find the sun starting to dip below the horizon, a sickly pale colour slinking though the clouds gathering in the west. The lavender bush in front of her was now half dead. Only half though, so she pulled off all the dead parts and deposited them in the nearest convenient place. She then stretched and was pleased to find that the bite no longer ached.

She smirked. And then walked off to find and irritate the Barbarian. Or the Amazon.

For some reason the camp was unusually quite, she almost wanted to wreak some havoc just so there would be at least some sound. Some sign of life.

Darkness took it upon herself to explore areas of the encampment that she hadn't yet visited. The northern corner seemed like a good place to start; in passing she had only seen that there was a wagon of wares, a musty sign that couldn't be read from the distance she had been from it, and a double tent.

It seemed harmless enough, but possibly interesting enough to quell her boredom.

Close up, however, the tent and wagon seemed even more boring than she first though. The wagon held some mildewed pillows with boxes piled up on them, and some wares hung around. Most of them were identifiable only to the point that she knew that they were boots, or belts or some form of weapon on shield. She couldn't tell much otherwise.

'Well, g'evenin' teh ya m'dear.' A colloquial accent with a man attached to it came around from the back of the wagon.

He was…rotund, and garbed in beige and brown, not seeming to be badly done in the money department.

Darkness realized how comfortable En'ubys felt on her hip; the man continued forward, greedily smudging his palms together.

'M'dear, I'm Gheed,' Darkness remembered the name being spat from Kashya's mouth earlier in the week, 'are ya 'ere to examine mah wares? Or are ya 'ere to examine, summin' else?' He tongue slimed his lips, he continued walking towards her, slowly biding his time.

'No, actually, I was looking for, what's her name? Kiyana. The Amazon. It seems I've got the wrong area of camp.' Darkness, feeling a great amount of dis-ease while being around the near area with…this Gheed thing in it, she spun on her heel and made to walk off, in earnest to find Kiyana or the Barbarian…or someone.

A bloated hand landed on her shoulder, 'But m'girl, I'm not 'alf done wit' ya.' Darkness went to pull away, 'besides, I'm sure you'd like mah tent, it's nice and big.' Darkness stiffened, Gheed slipped his hand around her waist.

And felt a scabbard of a sword.

Ice cold metal met with his throat, it pressed against his skin with a threat that washed like frost over him. Darkness turned so he could see the left side of her face, she wasn't looking at him, more away, towards the fire at the centre of camp.

'Well, Mister Gheed, it seems that we have come to a form of stalemate. However, I do know a way,' she looked at him, her eyes glowed the colour of acidic golden yellow, a sadistic smile slid onto her face, 'oh yes, I do know a way that we might end this little stalemate of ours, and do a few others a lovely favour.' The sickly sweet tone she used, and the venom in her eyes made Gheed cringe, he broke out in a cold sweat as the creature before him pressed the sword a little harder against his gullet.

A huge shadow loomed behind her, a strong hand gripped the arm holding En'ubys, the Barbarian grabbed Gheed's arm and spun the paralysed man away, he hit the bailey wall of the encampment and gasped. The wind knocked out of him.

Vorak passed a stern glance at Darkness, who only continued her poisonous glare at Gheed, and then marched forward, grabbed the frightened man by the collar and told him, in short words, exactly what Darkness could have, and would have done to him.

Gheed disappeared inside his tent shortly afterwards.

'Come, I'll get you a drink.' Vorak said as he walked back towards the centre of the encampment.

Darkness shook herself. She blinked and felt her face, something wasn't right. There seemed to be less light, just moments ago she could have sworn that the light was as bright as if it were day.

Vorak and Darkness sat by the fire, both with a hearty mug of thick mead in hand.

Vorak chugged down a quarter of his mug and chuckled. 'You couldn't drink all that. You've got such a small body.'

Darkness looked mildly amused. 'Well you see here, the Draconys people have a very strong metabolism for alcohol. I could drink at least three of these and still be completely sober.'

Vorak ceased chuckling, 'What? A fully grown Barbarian could only take two before becoming a little drunk.'

'But you're not a Draconys.'

'Great, you must drink a lot of alcohol then.'

'No, actually.'

'So there's no side effects, you're immune to the effects of alcohol?'

'Not immune. But after about three and a bit mugs, you may start to burp fire.'

There was nothing.

'Just kidding.' Darkness finished her mug, and retired to the tent that she and the other women were designated to sleep in.

The next four days passed much like the last. Darkness practiced simple manoeuvres with En'ubys. She joined the rogues being taught to wield a bow with magic, sometimes watching, sometimes participating with a basic short bow and no magic. She cleared off any small creatures that threatened the encampment, and maybe practiced some of her own magic. There was a spell she was eager to try, called Breath of the Cockatrice, when used it sent a jet of gas towards the target and on contact would paralyse it.

She used it to catch a few rabbits for the supper meal for the rogues.

The fifth day heralded the return of the five who had been on the mission to banish Bloodraven.

Darkness watched with removed amusement as Sailis handed Kashya a shiny round object with a ruby inset in the centre. 'That must be Bloodraven's amulet. All rogue captains seem to have one. Kashya's is copper with a greenish stone in it. Turquoise, I think.'

A glance from Tareshi brought Darkness towards them, Kashya was talking.

'Come, down to the fire, I'll tell you what I know of why Bloodraven turned on us like this.'

The sun waned in the sky as dense clouds bunched in the air. Rumbles of thunder and a rare flash of lighting told of rain to come.

Around the fire the Eight sat, lending an ear to a battle hardened heart with a story to tell.

'As far as I know,' Kashya began, she sat on a log facing them all across a fluttering fire, 'there were three who did battle in the finale deep in the catacombs beneath Tristram. Only three, the others, the armies that were sent into the labyrinth under that forsaken cathedral were all but killed or converted into the hordes of evil creatures.

The three heroes that faced Diablo were the only that survived; a sorcerer from the deserts of Lut Golein, a freelance warrior and Bloodraven, our rogue captain.

'I couldn't tell you of the horrors that befell those three heroes in the catacombs, I was defending the town of Tristram, but I can tell you that the three when they emerged, looked as if they had been murdered and brought back to life.'

Kashya took an offered mug of mead from a young rogue, passed a nod of thanks and continued.

'They celebrated the win against the massive evil for days, and Bloodraven returned to us. I do not know what happened to the other two but, as I accompanied Bloodraven back to the monastery I felt as if she were…someone, no something else.

'Many times she woke in the night, upon our return, screaming something about 'the pass' and some 'maiden' who was to come. We thought that she was just reliving the nightmares she had seen beneath Tristram, but it seemed to not be so.

'The strange Wanderer passed through, we thought nothing of it, and he went on his business, on his way through the monastery. After that Bloodraven disappeared.

'At the same time, the hell creatures, the undead and…and the evil beasts appeared and took the rogue monastery.

'So many died, and so few escaped. More than both were converted to corrupted rogues, and they dart in the fields killing our scouts.'

Kashya took a swig of the mead, she breathed for a bit and no one spoke.

'It seems that more happened beneath Tristram than any of us thought. Diablo must have influenced Bloodraven to have become the evil that she was…'

Kashya finished her mead and stood.

'That is all I know, and I must thank you for releasing Bloodraven. I'm sure she will pass on to a better place. Without the torment forced upon her.'

That's all for this chapter folks.

Feel free to tell me how this chapter could be improved. I may not change this chapter, but I certainly will use what you say in future chapters

I hope you like my interpretation of what happened to Bloodraven, and that she wasn't just walking in a field and randomly decided that, 'hey, maybe I'll be evil for a bit' and go and raise some zombies and shit in a graveyard.

This is the longest chapter yet. Wow. I didn't know I could write so much crap in so…much time.

Flames will be used to cook banana bread.

R+R

Arcanus Deus Necros