The plane of Torremor was not cooperating with Eliaos' escape plans. Lightning strikes, fire storms, and boulders rained down on them, forcing them to take cover. While electricity was trivial to Kalikekeztra, and she could dodge most of the rocks, the unholy fire took its toll on both her and Eliaos. Though their 'shelter' consisted of a precariously balanced ledge, Keke didn't mind as she and her lover snuggled tightly in the hollow section below it.

"Are we almost there?" Keke asked as she gently stroked the Archon's golden hair.

Eliaos ignored her question as he nervously scanned the surroundings outside. "We're close," he finally replied. Though Keke was annoyed that he wasn't paying her much attention, she could forgive him for that. Afterall, if they failed, torture and death would await both of them.

And it wouldn't be the 'torture' she was supposed to inflict on him, it would be much worse. The madmen of the Onyx city, the scream merchants of Thanatos, or even the torture pits of Abaddon would await them. Even Keke's demonic resolution was tested at the thoughts of the pain and torment that would befall them if they were caught, so much that a shudder ran down her long and sinuous spine.

Eliaos stopped as he noticed her fear. "It will be alright," he said with a reassuring voice as he hugged her.

Though his words would do little against Pazrael's wrath, it oddly comforted and embolden her resolve. With the golden haired Archon at his her side, she would risk eternal suffering for a chance at freedom, an eternity with Eliaos. It troubled her to think so, but she would risk it all for his love though deep down she wasn't sure given her nature if she was capable of harbouring that feeling let alone reciprocating it. She was a Demon after all, a Tanarii of the highest caste save the Demon Lords themselves. Was she merely mimicking love, going through the motions because she desired Eliaos' company and affection? Did she even care? Keke had heard that love meant sacrifice, and not in the traditional Abyssal definition of the word. It wasn't some fancy ritual or ceremonial killing for the dark powers, but a form of giving oneself for another. Could she truly honestly do that? Keke wasn't sure, but was willing to find out.

It was not easy to leave Torremor. Eliaos had magical brands on him to hobble his ability to planeshift, while the Legions of Celestia currently had the Abyss under siege which limited Keke's own power. Though the Legions of Heaven were defeated in their last engagement, their armies were still vigilant, and bolstered by their Eladrin allies, they could very well lead another incursion into the Abyss. While this siege could not last forever, and would most likely be reversed in the next century or two, Kalikekeztra could not wait. There were ways out, tunnels and portals of escape besides the main gates and rivers that snaked their way through Torremor. They would escape now, to the Outlands, Sigil, Axis, the Prime or even Limbo if they must. Anywhere but here with her golden haired Archon.

Kalikekeztra was told to pack light, but that was easy enough. Though she had a treasure room of trophies, she cared not for them. Only her gear and her favoured weapons were the only items of value to her. She didn't even wear any armour, just a battle harness for her weapons. She knew that most venues of the Great Wheel required currency of some sort, she would simply take or steal what she needed. Eliaos frowned when she told him this, but he relented when he suggested that he would take care of monetary matters. Which puzzled Keke, since all he had was his scimitar. Did he have some sort of cache hidden?

As for her contacts and 'friends' , Keke easily abandoned them. The rogue's gallery of demons she knew were more rivals, foes, and enemies than friends. Creatures and monsters that weren't currently attacking was the best description she had of them. The closest thing she had to a friend would most likely be Selexia the Succubus, but even then she was more of a partner in crime than a friend. Their friendship was based simply on similar interests and aligned goals, rather than mutual respect and affection.

Still, Keke would miss her. Selexia's antics, boasts, and rants were amusing to a degree. She could never depend on the Succubus to watch her back, but she never expected to, so was never disappointed by her.

"The storm is breaking," said Eliaos after a flurry of lightning and fire subsided overhead. "We should…."

The Archon was interrupted when hunting horns could be heard in the distance, followed by the uncomfortably close barking of Abyssal hounds.

"…we should move quickly. Make our way to Ribcage," said Eliaos as he finished his statement.

"Ribcage? Isn't that currently under Celestia control? " asked Keke. "They'll let you in, but I don't think they'll feel the same about me. And given, my inability to shapechange, that will be a problem. Or….does a Legion Archon like yourself have some sway over them, " she teased.

"I have some sway….but you are correct, things would not end well if you were discovered there," said Eliaos much to Keke's disappointment. She knew he wasn't who he pretended to be, but it was a game to her. She thought he was some Trumpet or Sword archon, but it appeared he was more likely a high ranking Shield or Legion variety. Not that it mattered, he was hers, that was all that counted to Keke. She would snake out his true identity soon enough, but it was more entertaining for him to reveal it rather than her forcing the truth out.

"I know a secret doorway just outside of Ribcage, used mainly by tiefling smugglers," explained Eliaos. "We'll escape into the Outlands from there. Away from the shackles of the Abyssal armies or the bureaucratic grind of the Celestial Legions."

Keke nodded in agreement and followed the Archon as she slithered up the rocky cliffs of Torremor. They were in a particular perilous part, known for wild Howlers and fiendish beasts, which is why she never suspected such a gate existed here.

As they progressed, the horns and the baying of hounds could be heard closer. At first Keke thought it was a random patrol, but now she knew they were being tracked. Did they make a slip? Where they betrayed? Or did they simply alert some sentry. It was doubtful since her true vision would have detected it, but it didn't matter now. The fact of the matter was that they knew of her presence. They would have to fight or flee, and Keke already knew which she preferred.

As she drew her weapons, Eliaos held her back with his strong hands and a shake of his head. "There's always patrols here, for those tiefling smugglers I was telling you about. They're just interested to shake them down for some jink, nothing more. There's no need to escalate this by slaughtering an entire patrol. Then they'll be searching us with the flyers and the shadow walkers."

Keke wasn't particularly worried about flyers or shadow walkers, and would have happily slaughtered any of them that crossed their path, but she deferred to Eliaos' judgement. She simply sheathed or belted her weapons back onto her harness, and laid low till the hounds grew faint.

As predicted the unseen 'patrol' left and after a few minutes the couple continued up the cliffs. They climbed for what seemed like hours on the endless cliffs, to the point that Keke began to question the existence of this gate, but before she could voice her doubt Eliaos paused before a tangle of withered vines and smiled broadly before hugging Keke.

"We've made it, I..I can't believe we've made it," he said as he kissed her lightly.

Keke accepted his affection but simply stared at the vines in confusion. Her vision could discern magic and illusions but she saw nothing unusual about these dead mundane vines. "Umm…are you sure? They seem quite ordinary to me. Even my snake eyes can't see anything special about them."

Eliaos grinned ear to ear. " Trust me, even your lovely eyes can't spot everything. While I'll concede they can pierce almost any veil, there are somethings that conventional magics let slip. For example certain magics from Sigil, beholder etched items, guru wards,…."

"Your true self…." added Keke with a smug smirk. "Or do you still expect me to believe you're a simple Legion Archon."

Eliaos smiled as he bowed to her. "Aye my true self. It seems you are too clever for my guise, but at least it fooled your friend the Succubus."

Keke rolled her eyes and pointed at the vines. "We'll discuss this at another time, but first…let us be off."

Eliaos gripped her upper left hand and the two leapt through the vines.

While Keke had been through many portals before, there was something very strange about this one. It felt like her body was being torn apart and scattered, and for a second she thought this would be her end. This was not a gate, it was a trap. However, even as she was being destroyed, and her mind screamed betrayal, her heart would hear none of it. Eliaos would not do this to her, someone else was to blame, someone else besides her golden haired Archon was at fault.

As her grip began to weaken under this onslaught, Eliaos' grip grew stronger. His iron grip might have hurt her under normal circumstances, but it oddly lent her strength. Strength enough to drive back the energies ravaging her body, and before she realized it the assault was over.

When she was finally 'whole', pain wracked Keke's body as she writhed on the ground. It felt like she was dismembered and stitched back together, a sensation she had unfortunately suffered before but not across her entire body at once. Through the pain, she had trouble focusing on her surroundings, but she could hear voices.

"Ho! A demon made it through our ward! " shouted a musical angelic voice.

"This cannot be, the Heaven's seal should have destroyed it," replied a similar voice.

"A spy? A sortie? A skirmish? Or an invasion?"

"Heaven's justice, the snake tail, the arms, it's a Marilith!"

"Quick, kill it before it recovers!"

Keke expected the worse. She was fully aware her flight from the Abyss would end in her death, but not like this. Squirming on the ground like a worm, powerless to defend herself. Give her a death with weapons in hand and foes at her face. Something to drive her blood screaming with rage and carnage.

'NO!" came a clear ringing voice that silenced the Angelic rabble. It sounded like Eliaos, but it was clearer, stronger, and tingled all of Keke's scales with an electric surge of danger.

"Lord..Lord Eliaoshinta?"

"We…we thought you were captured.."

"….slain…."

"….feast for the horde…."

"THIS IS MY PRISONER! NO ONE SHALL TOUCH HER!"

"….no my lord Eliaoshinta….", interrupted a soft voice, that oddly bore more power than even Eliaos'. It sounded simultaneously like a soft rain and a thunderstorm, and it made Keke cringe on the floor. Was it a Planetar? A Solar? A Titan? A deva Lord? "…I can no fathom the trials you faced or the hardships you endure, but there is a taint in you. Your judgement cannot be trusted in its current state. You must be purified before we receive your statements."

"…I…I Accept your judgement, Lady Raziel," Replied Eliaos' voice reluctantly. Lady Raziel, the Crusader of Mertion? "But, what of my prisoner. She must remain unharmed, she has important inform…."

" We have the information we need. You have been gone awhile and we feared the worse, but your return makes our withdrawal easier. This expedition was true in cause but poorly conceived by our Eladrin cousins. The enemy is legion and our lines are extended. We are to pull out of the outlands and regroup to Celestia, purging the wicked in our wake. Your prisoner is indeed a great trophy, but we do not have the resources to contain one such as her, regardless of the information she possesses. While you recover, she shall be debriefed by the Astral Devas, before being put to the sword of righteousness and…"

Keke wasn't sure what happened next as the musical voices exploded in a chorus of shock and betrayl. Even Lady Raziel's voice, one of the head Archon generals, was thrown into disarray as Keke heard metal on metal as her body was hefted and thrown through the Angelic ward again.

…..

Keke had lost consciousness. Going through the doorway to the Outlands was excruciating enough, but going back again was just too much. She wasn't sure how long she laid on the cliffs of Torremor wracked with pain, but it was the sweetest moment of her miserable life. She still wasn't aware of her surroundings, but it mattered not since she felt his grip on her middle left hand. Was this Eliaos' love, his sacrifice? She only had a sense of the events that transpired, but she knew he stood up for her, against his people and even his Mistress. The only way she could have survived was to go back through the portal, and he followed her.

Why the Archons did not pursue, she did not know. Did they destroy the portal, or perhaps Eliaos did? It mattered not. They were together, and that meant another attempt at escape. Perhaps this time through the Styx in a smugglers boat or crawl the caves of Pandemonium? She just had to regain her strength, and the two of them would…

Thunder and lightning crashed in the background but the baying and barking of hounds brought her attention to the focus. Keke forced her eyes open to survey her surroundings. Eliaos was next to her, but his body…his body was broken. Cuts, broken bones, and white feathered shafts marred his perfect body. He made his escape, but they did not let him go willingly.

He might have recovered if given time, but the hounds grew close. While Eliaos assured her that they were merely a patrol, Keke could sense several powerful presences approaching.

"Hold on my love, I'll get you out of here," she said as she struggled to pick up his body. Though she had easily tossed him about in the past with ease in their sparring sessions, the combination of her injuries and oddly the transformation of Eliaos strained her effort. Besides his wounds, Eliaos appeared different. More noble, chiseled, and impossibly more handsome than before. He looked like a Planetar, one of the highest ranks of angels save for his golden hair. She had suspected he sealed his power, perhaps to spy on his Abyssal foes or to conceal his presence when he was captured, but she never realized his true might. Whatever the reason for his transformation, he weighed a ton and the best Keke could do was support him as they hobbled off higher up the cliffs away from the approaching hounds.

"…Keke…." Gasped Eliaos as the pair struggled upwards. "That…that was the first time you called…."

He paused as he hacked up blood and fell to a knee. His hands glowed slightly blue and some of his wounds mended but there were too many and they were too grevious.

"Hang in there. We'll make it to the Outlands soon enough. If they get closer I'll fight them, cover your escape, and then rendezvous with you later," she lied unconvincingly when she saw his wounds were too great. She had no idea where they were going or if he could even stumble twenty more feet. Their chance at freedom was zero but she could still fight. That was what she did. If she had breath she could fight and that was the best she could do.

Eliaos didn't care though. He simply smiled and hugged her deeply. "….that was the first time you called me your 'love'…"

"No…I've said it before, plenty of times."

"….and now I felt you truly meant it…"

Keke stopped, and her snake eyes broke out in tears as Eliaos stroked her hair and traced his fingers down her neck.

"My people have based our entire civilization on love, but one of our fundamental paradoxes is that ' you don't choose who you love'. When I was your prisoner, I fell in love with you….your beauty, your fighting spirit, your competiveness, your passion, and in your own way your pure honesty…I was truly your prisoner in body and in my soul, but I …I feared it was not returned. I feared you only value me as an amusement and a thing to slake your lust. "

"I had genuinely wanted to make a life for us, away from this war, selfishly hoped to nurture whatever emotion you had for me, but I was wrong….you always had it."

Keke wasn't sure what to say. "I love you," was the best she can manage, but the look of contentment on Eliaos' battered face showed it was enough.

The hounds were close now, and Keke could smell the brimstone stench of a Balor nearby. This wasn't a patrol, this was a full fledged war party. Keke sat Eliaos down and knew what she would have to do. At the best of times, being caught in a rival's territory meant battle, but abetting an enemy of the Abyss meant death. Word was probably raised of Eliaos escape by now, and she couldn't imagine them showing them any mercy.

She laid Eliaos down on a rock and drew her blades to meet her foes. At least she was given a chance to die in battle in the Abyss, instead of being helplessly struck down in the Outlands. As she readied to face her foes, Eliaos gripped her arm and pulled her towards him one last time.

"The enemy is approaching, I have to do battle…" she said softly to her lover.

"Take this," he said as he handed her his scimitar. It was a serviceable weapon, one that she crossed blades with many times in the past. It was not exceptional in anyway except its durability and edge. It didn't do extra damage to demons, or radiate rays of light in the presence of evil but it was his blade and she would fight with it and make him proud.

As she gripped it firmly to test its grip, she was unexpectedly yanked forward, and the scimitar plunged into Eliaos' chest.

Keke looked in shocked even as Eliaos attempted to smile through his grimace of pain. "My love. You are free…." He said with his dying breath.

Keke simply stood there as her mind snapped.

…

...

...

She could hear the hounds surround her. She could even see Selexia pleading with a giant bird headed man, Lord Pazrael, pointing to how Kalikekeztra corrected her mistake and slew the prisoner before he could escape. She could even see one of the Balors, Mxenhyin she thought his name was, argue that it was no excuse and she deserved death for her incompetence.

She watched as Mxenhyin brought a slew of charges against her, and guessed correctly that she had freed the Archon and was simply covering up his tracks. She did not care when he tossed her aside and pointed at Eliaos' dead lifeless corpse.

She did care however when that stinking Balor dare lay a claw on his corpse.

Despite her injuries, she sprang into action, cutting Mxenhyin down with 'her love's ' scimitar before the Balor could realize what was happening. One of those Molydeus demons with the snake and dog head wielding a vorpal axe attempted to stop her, but she crippled ot with strikes to both sets of eyes, constricted it with her tail, before repeatedly stabbing it through the chest. After killing a few Glabrezu, a troop of Hezrou, and a particularly large Nalfeshnee, it took a dozen Vrock performing their 'dance of ruin' as well as the entangling powers of their spore to finally subdue her.

Keke awoke in a dark tower. Pazrael's tower. She didn't know or didn't care what happened next. She just wanted to be with Eliaos.

She could remember Selexia arguing for her, saying that she tracked down and slew the Archon on her volition, but she also heard the angry mob of demons shouting for her head. For incompetence, for slaying her kin, for trespass, and numerous other crimes too petty or trivial to list. She wanted to add …for love….but it didn't matter, only Pazrael, the lord of Torremor, judgement mattered.

While her crimes were great, Pazreal was moved by her viciousness and brutality, highly valued traits in the Abyss. He claimed she was too dangerous to live, but instead sentenced her to the pits of Abaddon where her mind would be broken and remolded. Her sentence could be either a week, a year, a hundred years, a thousand years. As long as it took till she was rendered serviceable once again.

Keke cared not. Her soul was extinguished, her will was gone. They could torture her body and mind all they want, everything had been taken from her. She blamed the Celestia armies, the Abyssal hordes, Eliaos' heroism, but she mainly blamed herself. Eliaos' death was ultimately on her, but it wouldn't matter soon, his memory would soon be scrubbed from her mind in Abaddon's torture pits.

Kalikekeztra slithered out of the pits. Was she finally being released? Or was it another test, something to give her hope before taking it away and dashing whatever spirit she had left. It didn't matter it had all been taken away a long time ago. Had it been a century, a thousand year, ten thousand years? She did not know and part of her did not care. Considering how many other prisoners had come and gone , she honestly thought they forgot about her, leaving her to rot in this pit, which was fine with her.

Parts of her memory was intact, her ability as a general and her skill at arms, but much more had been burned away. It had to be this way though, she had offended a greater power and such was her punishment, such was her fate.

As she slithered to the top of the pit, an Arcanloth, a wolf headed daemon, flanked by several mezoloths, their chitinous trident wielding lackeys, awaited her.

" Kalikekeztra of Torremor," it said with a snarling voice. "You've been conscripted into the Asura armies of Taraksun the Awakener of Wrath. You are technically a demon, but your particular type and your unique skill set is welcomed in the Asura armies. He has paid good larvae for your services, do not disappoint or you will be returned for more conditioning."

Kalikekeztra ignored his threat. Freedom or imprisonment did not mean a thing to her. Her spirit and passion was supposedly broken in the Pits, but deep down she knew it was broken before she entered.

"Here are what remains of your affects," continued the Arcanloth as one of the Mezoloths produced a battered broken chest. "It was raided by adventurers several centuries ago and most of the valuables had been taken but some items still remain."

The already weathered chest was dropped in front of her and smashed into flinders, spilling the debris and junk of her former life. Kalikekeztra saw a battle harness which she slipped on and a few assorted weapons of various quality. None of them appealed to her, until she caught a silvery glint in the pile. Instinctively she picked up a scimitar of Celestial make, but it oddly didn't burn her hand, its magic wasn't strong enough. It was most likely an archon's blade that she took as a trophy in her past life, but it strangely held her attention as a piece of her spirit and passion returned.