Season 1: Beginning of the End | Act 1: Modern Conditioning
Hey, guys! New story, I guess. Don't expect quick chapters. I don't exactly have a schedule. Sorry.
Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo 3 or Overwatch, those belong to Blizzard Entertainment. I do, however, own any and all OCs as well as twisted plot/Canon. I also own the personality I have given this character, as I have changed it slightly to make sure Li-Ming acts in the way I have imagined her to change into throughout Diablo 3.
Timing: Post Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, prior Overwatch recall.
Now, for the love of God, let this Fanfiction begin!
-= *Recruitment* =-
Li-Ming felt dazed, eyes flittering as she found herself numb to feeling. She squinted as she sat up slowly, seeing a strange light filter down from metal of a strange polish she had never seen before. In front of her was a table of metal, hands chained to this.
As she noticed this, she shook her head a little in order to gain awareness, blinking quickly in order to see clearly. She moved slightly to try and stand in shock of being bound by hands, but she found the chair bound to the floor, her legs attached to its own.
Around her was a white brick wall seemingly uncleansed in a long while, moss and dirt trailing up the sides. A wide, black window extended down the long wall on her right, as a light from the other side of the room emanated dimly from a strange lamp, near a metallic door.
Where was she? Who would dare bind her? But, she took a breath of calm, believing the misunderstanding that could exist of her and took time to rationalize herself to any interrogator that come walking through that door-
The door opened with a loud clang and screech of unoiled hinges as a man in strange, black clothing sporting a strange insignia on his shoulder, with red, glowing eyes upon a helmet that covered entire faces. She found him walking quickly to her, steps calm, unwavering and footfalls heavy. A strange board was in his hand, most likely to write down notes of some sorts.
He sat down in the chair across from her and she straightened her form, seemingly professional. Another thing she noticed was that she was still clothed in her normal armor, but sword and shield nowhere near her.
"Hello," the main politely began, placing the strange board on the desk with a light clang. She took notice of the strangely pure white the paper was, with black ink that seemed almost perfect! He continued despite her discoveries that made her curious. "We're here to..." he wove his hand in the air to form the words on his mouth, "...recruit...you," he ended, earning a strange look from her. "We have noticed your strange aptitude for power, despite your lack of consciousness. I assure you, no harm will come of your...sword and shield," he finished.
She rose a brow, "And, 'We,' has a name, I'm sure," she said smoothly, almost with a sense of humor, though this was shot down almost instantly.
"We're a group known as Talon," he stated calmly, expecting a reaction out of her. Instead, her brow rose even higher, unquestioning. "Hmm," he hummed confusedly. "Usually, people start freaking out at that name."
"Why?" she questioned.
"We do...questionable things, but for the greater good."
Li-Ming began to level a small, undetectable glare to him, head slightly lowered to add to it. She had heard this excuse before.
"You're a corrupt group," she stated.
"No," he waved her off, "that's just what most folks say. We're just here to rid the world of the tiresome and threatening Omnics."
"What are Omnics?" she asked.
"Wow," he noted on the parchment in front of her with a strange type of pen, "you must've really lost some memories from that fall you took."
"Fall?"
"You fell from the cliff outside of our base," he elaborated. "We took you in and tried to treat your head, but you healed at an immense rate. We'll make good use of you as an agent."
Use. She doesn't like that word. "I am not some pawn," she said simply, standing up, ripping away from the now orange cuffs that snapped off, her Fire Walkers quickly melting off the chains around her feet. He stood quickly, chair scraping against the floor and falling over. He tried to back up, but tripped over said chair.
She flipped over the table acrobatically, as the ceiling was high up, and quickly landing on his chest and formed into a roll as to not completely kill him, but incapacitate. She had little information as of the present, and she had to find the truth of things.
She made headway for the door and pulled on the large metal handlebars on the side, but she heard an audible snap of metal upon metal, and finding the door without budge, she quickly realized she was locked inside.
Not today, she thought quickly, before backing up and firing a Ray of Frost at the door, freezing it.
The door became quite frozen as the ice brought it down below freezing temperatures, and she burst forward in a speed close to that of the Monk who taught her on the way throughout Sanctuary.
She quickly stuck a leg out after turning her body (not direction), smashing the door into pieces and her momentum carried through on the icy floors. Several men awaited on the other side, in similar black clothing and beady red eyes, each with a skinnier, blacker, slicker version of a crossbow, sans cross and string.
"Freeze!" one yelled, and the others, in strange tongues, rattled off other halting words.
"Hmph," she harrumphed, finding irony as to what she was about to do. "Gladly!" she yelled, lowering her hand and raising it high with a swish, an oval of hexagonal ice shields appearing around her and disappearing in but a moment, a real ward surrounding her perfectly around her form as activated by armor piece, another activating as four small, spiky orbs of arcane orbiting her form.
The floor become cold, instantly freezing all within radius. She flinched as several loud bangs and lights appeared from the weapons before her, metal whisking towards her at unknown speeds and bouncing off the shields. They would not hold long.
Quickly activating Frost Nova, she blasted them with a radii of ice, freezing them in place with bone chilling temperatures. She used Teleport to phase out of the way of the next hail of metal as these...weapons...still aimed true in her direction.
She felt a pull similar to that of her sword and shield and sprinted through the halls of this strange place. She had not the time to sit idly by and study these strange features, as she must hurry to her weapons. They guided her through a small portion of the facility and led her right to a strange room.
She lifted a leg, and with inhuman strange, kicked it open. Inside, lay her weapons, in the hands of strange machines, white clothed people standing around it like a study.
She would not have this! She quickly teleported into the room, spreading out clones of herself to push back the strangely clothed humans, and rested the sword, Maximus - a brutal, large, flaming weapon - upon her back, and her white, Sacred Shield, over it.
She exited the room without another word. She knew she must try to remember how she came here, and if she really did fall off of a cliff as the recruiter said, but she knew she had to exit the area first.
She made her way through a large door and into a larger, almost cylindrical room. However, above, it seemed that there was a large cap and several metal catwalks along the way. What was this, she wasn't sure.
Spotting a door on the other side of this place, she made way for it, only for it to seemingly close on its own, a squeaky hinge echoing before controlled slam.
She heard a sound, similar to the revenant's of Malthael's army, swarm around her. Black mist swirled around her for a moment, she low and calm, hands ready to deal magic. The black mist quickly darted for an area, passing through her and dazing her for a moment, before she turned to meet the amalgamation of a creature.
A black garmented creature, with two larger version of the small crossbow-ish weapons she had met earlier pointed in her direction. She found the skull reminiscent to an owl, an omen, but seen as wise, creatures, in her society. But, with that aside, her eyes grew wide.
"Malthael..." she said slowly, before scowling.
The head tilted slowly to the left, confused, before giving a hearty laugh different from Malthael's voice. "My name is Reaper..." he said hoarsely.
"I'm the Nephalem," Li-Ming replied, "and I will put you down like I did the Angel of Death!"
Without letting him register her comment, she sprinted forward in a flurry, his firing on her, but finding her form disappearing like the copy it was, and a blow to the right of his head sent him to his left, crashing through several crates.
As he recovered and stood from the amalgamation of boxes, with a grunt, he saw her approach quickly, hands in a claw formation, face furrowed as she charged.
For a moment, he saw flashes of an orange creature engulfing her own appearance, an almost demonic creature that sent terror even in himself.
Li-Ming charged, unaware of what she had looked like in flashes, and threw out her claw-shaped hands that threw Spectral Blades that streaked the area in blue, ripping his armor to shreds.
With a guttural groan, he stood up quickly and shoved her off, throwing his black weapons into her face to daze her, disappeared in an unholy column of dust and reappeared in front of her as she turned, and, with a fist, threw it at her unsuspecting face.
Caught of guard, she flew a distance, but time seemed to slow as she flowed, tumbling mid air, before time sped up again and she found herself acrobatically throwing herself back onto her feet, unabated.
"You're good, girl," she creature hoarsely commented, before he pulled out a new pair of weapons (she gave a screwed up face, wondering where they had come from), crossed them over his chest, and-
-= *line break* =-
Reaper was usually good at dispatching problems like this. Perhaps they needed to brainwash her like they did to Amelie in order to get her to cooperate. There was a sense of heroism in this girl, and she posed this sense well in her abilities.
What he found most strange was that she made him fear. No one does that to the Reaper of Souls, which he was aptly named after.
He had a sense of pride, and it was not often that it was actually insulted. Now that it was, however, he was ready to unleash full fury, regardless what the higher up say.
He had pride. And she damaged it.
She would pay-
Strangely, she began to scream, shuddering as her hands upped her face, a strange dark blue, dull shining, smoke began to engulf her.
"What the fuck?" he questioned aloud, before the dust settled.
In front of him was a near identical version of himself, sans mask and only darkness. Intricate armor and several times larger, stood an almost floating form of himself in dull grey and blue armor, sickles presented before him over his chest.
When Reaper had crossed his shotguns over his chest, he was beginning to teleport.
And he was regretting being in front of this thing now.
-= *line break* =-
Malthael, after so long, found himself lingering within the Nephalem's heart, seemingly floating in an expanse of memories that show heroism, pride, and a willingness to protect her people.
Nothing of which he found in any of the angels that used to surround him, in their own, strange, twisted version of this pride. Nothing of which he found in the demons lurking below, who drone about doing each and every task their respective demon lords gave them in fear.
He felt this feeling for a while now, and in only desperate situations did he experience new emotions. Happiness, sadness, anger.
Fear.
That was a strange one from the Nephalem. He didn't expect that.
Out of everything she had ever experienced with him stuck inside the Black Soulstone reanimated in her heart, Fear was one of the fewer ones.
Couldn't have been any of the Seven demon lords. For they looked confused as well.
He felt danger reach out to him, the feeling of it, anyway. He felt a requirement of himself, so he rushed forwards toward a strange, eerie glow. A white glow that appeared in the middle of nowhere.
He found himself near this strange glow, and looked into the glass, seeing a stranger, smaller version of himself.
He also had a pride, he remembered.
This one emulated it, and unknowingly insulted Malthael's looks and pride.
So Malthael became furious and reached through the looking glass, and, found himself confused as he was pulled through.
-= *line break* =-
"What the-" said the human in front of him who copied him, reappearing in front of himself. "-fuck?" he finished.
Malthael took a moment in confusion, sans movement.
Malthael slowly looked down towards his opponent. Quick and dirty, he thought in relent.
He shot out his hands to decapitate the man, but he quickly jumped back in confusion. He regained his bearings and charged Malthael, the angel extending his wings and charging forwards with a gust of wind from his wind-like wings.
Reaper was caught off guard by Malthael's low swing and flipped over it as graciously as he could, but ended by in another bundle of boxes as Malthael's other sickle landed where he would have been without said boxes.
Reaper truly had fear now. This girl they took in had powers not even she could control.
At least, not yet. They could teach her and gain an irreplaceable ally!
But that wasn't happening soon. Reaper knew he would be killed shall he continue, so he turned himself into mist and disappeared behind panels before Malthael could send another slice in his direction.
Now sanguine and ethereal, Reaper had some time to think to himself as he passed through the vents.
This is gonna be one hell of a verbal beatdown from the higher ups...
-= *line break* =-
Malthael could feel the small wizard trying to regain control of her body and relented. He found himself on the other side of the looking glass again and sighed at her distressed feeling. He would have to help her eventually.
For she had piqued her curiosity with her newfound power over the Black Soulstone, and with the feelings he learned from her, he was now in her debt.
She would teach him the ways of pride not in himself,
But in his people.
-= *End of Chapter 1* =-
That's it, I suppose. Tell me what you think.
Not too many people actually like Diablo 3, and Blizzard hasn't been making anymore major updates, so I decided to and mix it with something they're kind of obsessed with right now.
And mostly to be the first one with this kind of crossover.
That aside, don't expect a second chapter so soon. I'm a pessimist and procrastinator, and I have to break those habits.
Anyways,
And now, for the love of God, let the next Fanfiction begin!