Ok people. I finally decided to post this. This is a spin off of my brother's story. He doesn't really talk about Dread Lady who is the character based off me. (I decided that should be the name of my darker personality as opposed to Dark Lady since I know someone named Dark Lord and that would be weird...)

It is not mandatory that you read my brother's story, "Training under Darkness." We both go in opposite directions. Plus he hasn't written any more than two chapters so if our stories contradict in the end, it's his fault! : |-

Dread Lady

By: RedLady (Imagine that.)

Prologue

She looked into her crystal ball. She looked into it everyday. But she never saw anything useful. Until one day...

She gazed into it on this day and saw a boy. Not so much a boy, but almost a man. He was a warrior. But he wasn't just any warrior. He was studying to be a Warrior of Darkness... She had been a warrior once... But now she was content with making amulets and staring into her crystal ball in order to help other warriors.

She still killed things... mostly little demons that hid until you were close to them and popped up causing the victim a startling, but otherwise harmless experience. She hated these little demons. They were the only things she ever enjoyed killing. Every other Warrior of Darkness went on quests and killed larger demons and evils, but she simply stayed in her cave and watched her crystal ball waiting for the little demon pest to pop up and then she would kill them with a crude formed weapon that shot iron pellets at them. Either the creature died of the foreign object that penetrated it's skin or through poisoning from the metal.

She knew the one who she saw in the crystal ball was important. It was an omen of some sort and she had to let the Masters of Darkness know. But how long had it been since she had talked to any of them? For the past 3 years she had locked herself in the cave making amulets, shooting pesky demons, and gazing into her crystal ball. The once beautiful maiden that caused others to dread had transformed into an older figure who clothed herself in grayish ash colored clothes and barely ever ventured into the outside world sticking mainly to the shadows in isolation of her own mind...

Some said she was crazy and who knew if that was far from the truth. But she was sane enough to know that the crystal ball told things of great importance.

So she summoned the only one she could think of. A boy... no a man. The one who had introduced her to darkness. The one who was now one of the strongest among all of the Masters of Darkness. Dark Sin.

Her voice rang out in the dim dark cave as she muttered a spell. Pressing her hand upon the crystal ball and waving her dozen amulets around she called out these words...

"I summon you, Dark Sin!"

He came. Whatever he was doing at the time, he immediately stopped because he had been summoned. It was one of the strongest spells of summoning that he knew and he was forced to come not really against his will, but it was one of those spells that are only used for the strictest emergency because they caused so much strain upon the one who performed the spell.

He immediately transported to the place he had been summoned to. It was a dark and damp cave. Water dripped off the walls and his breath could be seen in the dim light from the candles lining the wall, covered by spider webs and dust.

He looked around as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. He was in a room. He looked to the far corner and saw a small table and on the table was a huge crystal ball. He grumbled to himself because those associated with crystal balls were mostly tricky gypsies and gypsies meant trouble. Adjacent to the table sat a chair but other than that there was no other equipment in the room.

But behind the table stood a person he never thought he would see again.

Dread Lady.

Or the Lady of Dread. She used to be named by the latter name because she was an excellent warrior and caused those she fought to dread. Even the mention of her name caused hearts to fear. But that was more than three years ago. Who knows if anyone remembered who she was now. His name had spread farther than hers now and nobody had ever known where she had gone three years ago. She had simply disappeared and hadn't told anyone of where she was going. Dark Sin had suspected she was dead, but seeing her now confirmed that he had been wrong.

"Dread..." He murmured still surprised by her presence.

She bowed slightly. He noticed that she wore flowing robes as opposed to the warrior attire she had worn as a Warrior of Darkness. He looked at her confused by her attire, the cave, and mostly her silence. She had been a talker during her time as a dark warrior.

He turned serious. Something was wrong. He could sense it.

"Why have you summoned me?" He ordered her more than asked.

"I have knowledge of things that are of importance." She said a little mysteriously smiling like she had all those years ago.

"And how did you acquire this knowledge?" He said doubting that she knew anything since she was no seer. He motioned over to her crystal ball. "Do not tell me that is what told you. Crystal balls are not trustworthy especially since they are associated with gypsies, a rather rambunctious group in themselves."

She simply smiled goofily and nodded her head happily. "I've gazed into it for a long time. I've lost track of how long... but only until recently has it told me anything of great importance."

"You've been gone for three years!" He practically shouted. He hadn't really mourned for her "death," but he had missed her just the same.

"Is that how long it's been?" She asked not really interested.

"What have you been doing? I thought you were dead!"

She held up a variety of decorative necklaces and charms. "I've been making amulets." She said almost happily and looked on them as a mother looking upon her babe. He couldn't believe his eyes. Dread Lady had always been interested in the shiny things that go around her neck, but now she seemed obsessed with them. She walked into another room of the cave leaving him alone. He followed wondering what she was doing.

He entered the next room and was surprised in what he saw. The whole room was covered in jewelry. Amulets and charms were strung on the ends of necklaces. Some were plain and small and others where long and decorative. She pulled out a blue one and a silver one. She went up to them and placed them around his neck.

"What...?" He asked about to take them off but she stopped him.

"The blue one makes your blade freezing cold and the silver one makes it sharper. Together, it is as if you have a blade made of ice, cutting and freezing your enemies at the same time."

"But I..." He began because he didn't really want the two gifts but she put her finger to his mouth and turned sharply and walking back into the room with the crystal ball.

She sat down in front of her crystal ball and stroked it lovingly. Then she began to laugh. It wasn't the joyful laughter one laughs when happy. Nor the chuckle one does when you find something amusing. It was more of the maniacal laugh a mad man or crazy woman would laugh while rocking back and forth in a corner. She ended her laughter in a growl and continued to stare into her crystal ball.

Dark Sin had observed all this in shock. Dread Lady no longer seemed to be the great warrior he had once known, but some sort of madwoman obsessed over such things as amulets and her crystal ball.

"Dread?" He said hoping that perhaps there was some sanity left in the woman he once knew. She growled in response.

No, she was not the same woman he knew before. This is what the Lady of Dread had been diminished too. He didn't know how or why, but there didn't seem to be any sense left in her. He turned to go, but Dread stopped him.

"There is a boy you must see..." She yelled at him.

He turned startled by her clear and seemingly intelligent voice.

"He could be a Warrior of Darkness. His master has trained him as such. But he is close to the line that separates the darkness and the evil." She seemed to be in a trance as her eyes were glazed over and she clutched the table as if the earth were shaking.

"Find him and direct his path." She continued.

"What are you talking about?"

"And do not kill him!" She yelled ignoring his question. She paused breathing heavily. He simply stared at her in confusion. "We were siblings in a past life, you know." She said. He scoffed at her. If she believed in such things as crystal balls and past lives then she no longer lived like an average Warrior of Darkness.

"Who is it?" He asked not knowing if he should take her words serious. "How will I know where he is?" He said deciding that he would hear her out. Who knows if her words held importance.

"There will be a disturbance in the Darkness..." She said. "This will lead you to him. But beware... people will die... he will suffer... and though he looks weak he is not and perhaps even stronger in some ways than you are, Dark Sin."

He looked at her skeptically. But was interrupted as a small demon popped down from the ceiling. It was one of those demons he didn't even bother killing because they were so tiny and harmless. But Dread stood up quickly and he looked at her in surprise.

With a twist of her wrist a strange weapon appeared in her hand. It was a long stick like weapon similar to that of a cross bow, but it had no wires or string that held the arrow, rather the bolts seemed to be placed inside a hollowed out area of the stick. She pointed it at the small demon and pressed a trigger, which quickly fired a small piece of iron at it. It fell dead instantly.

He looked up at her shocked and she rushed over to the small demon and picked it up and threw it out of her cave in anger.

"I hate those creatures!" She growled. "They call them pop demons because they tend to pop up on their victims!"

Then she sat down in front of her crystal ball.

"Dread?" He asked. "What happened? Why do you live this way?"

She looked at him in surprise. But she shook her head and went back to staring at her crystal ball. He could get no answer from her as she started to laugh again and growl and mutter to her crystal ball shaking various amulets at her side.

He shook his head sadly wondering what had happened to the once dreaded lady, Warrior of Darkness and transported back to his student, Brute Soul.

She didn't think she would ever see him again and continued to stare into her unresponsive crystal ball. "Goodbye, Dark Sin." She whispered as tears welled up in her eyes.

She had been speaking of an assassin that Dark Sin was to see. He was a warrior in training. His name was Miamotason.

And there you have it. Miamotason is my brother's character for those of you who don't know. But you'll have to read about his story under his profile name of Adro14. I think the story is called, "Training under Darkness."

This was just the Prologue. The next chapter will take a different approach so don't be surprised. This part was mainly written to tie our two stories together and to grab your attention. Did I get it? I hope so. I hope you will all stay to read the next chapter coming soon. Hope you enjoyed and any comments or suggestions can be left in the review.

Look out for a bunch of symbolism and "dark" themes later on. Hee hee hee.

~RedLady