Raven was still in a some what dream like state as she made her way to the top of the keep. She shook her head trying to clear her mind, she wondered briefly what Tyrael was going to tell her.
"Why did you let your guard down?" That soft voice whsipered in her ear.
"I didn't" Raven glanced at her sister.
Her sisters face twisted into an angry distortion of what it was before. "Don't think I didn't see it!" She hissed. "The way he looked at you, they way you let him touch you."
Raven shook her head. "Oh, Leila, there's nothing between us, he was simply being helpful." Raven paused halfway up the steps and brushed her sister's cheek. "You get this way every time. None of them mean anything to me." Raven laughed and continued to walk. "I learnt along time ago that there is no room in our short lives for anyone else. You made sure of that."
The crisp cold air hit her face and helped clear some of the haze from her mind.
"Adria why?"
She heard Tyrael's voice shouting, other sounds settled on the breeze and Raven's stomach twisted. Something was so very wrong. She ran up the rest of the steps, something wrapped around her legs and she stumbled forward.
"Ah, you decided to join us, Nephalim." Adria's voice was no long the soft voice of a loving mother but edged with darkness and spite.
Raven's eyes widened as magical chains wrapped around her and lifted her into the air. She glanced around and realised Tyrael had also been trapped like this. Leah stood screaming, twisting in agony in a magic circle. It dawn on Raven. She hung her head limply.
"Oh the Nephalim realises." Adria laughed, she turned to Leah and grinned. She squeezed her fist and both Raven and Tyrael let out a cry of pain, the chains wrapped tighter around them. "20 years go I went to Tristram." She squeezed tighter, the pain in Raven's chest made speck of white and black apear on her vision.
I will not cry. I will not show weakness.
"When Aiden came to me I saw Diablo within his heart and I swore myself to him." She laughed squeezing again, this time with suck force the chains snapped and they were thrown back. Raven had no idea if Tyrael was conscious, she was barely so. Adria turn her back on them and turned onto her own daughter. "Cain suspected, I suspected you were Diablo's own daughter." Raven gasped and crawled over the Tyrael, she could taste blood in her mouth and for a brief moment wondered if she was dieing.
"Tyreal...You must wake up" She whispered and shook him. Raven winced as she heard Leah scream in agony, she bit her cheek hard, forcing back the sickening lump in her throat. "God damnit angel, wake the fuck up!" She shook his more franticly now, and watched as Diablo in Leah's body opened a portal to the high heavens. Raven let out something that sounded like and sobbed, her arms giving way under her weight.
"You failed little bird." Liela stood over her. "Or maybe you succeeded. Maybe you destiny was never to help destroy the evils, but create the prime evil." A alabaster hand brushed under Raven's chin, Raven pulled away instantly sickened by the touch.
Something brushed her arm and Raven almost snapped at her sister, only to turn and See Tyrael was coughing and had grasped her arm as she pushed himself up. "I am a fool." He said.
Raven shook her head and stubbornly got to her feet. "Go after him you fool! I'll get the others, we'll follow after you as soon as we can." She pulled Tyrael to his feet. "I wont go down without a fight." Tyrael nodded weakly and grabbed his sword launching through the portal.
It took a moment for Raven to gather her wits before seeking help. By the time she and the others passed through the portal she found Imperius arguing with Tyrael.
"The heavens burn Tyrael and you are to blame!"
Raven aproached the pair and Imperius' eyeless gaze fell angrily on her. She could feel the heat boring a hole into her.
"Look at what you kind is capable of Nephalim, look at the destruction your kind bring to everything they touch." The angel hissed, flashing of almost blinding orange light forced her to shield her eyes. She heard the clatter of something metal on the ground, the light faded and she looked for the source of the sound.
Tyrael had fallen to his knees and held his face in his hand. "It is true, I am to blame." He spoke softly, barely loud enough to hear. Raven felt a pang of pain in her chest. She knew what is was to see your home burn, but that pain and hardened her, made her stronger. She stood infront of him.
"Tyrael, get to your feet!" She snapped.
Tyrael looked up at her. "Why?" He snapped back. "Imperius is right, Had I never supported your kind, none of this would have happened. Your kind united the prime evils and released an unstoppable Diablo." He spat angrily at her.
Raven knelt down in front of him and placed her hands either side of his face. "I know what it is to see my home burn at the hands of demons." She lowered her eyes for a moment. "It almost destroyed me, but others found me, friends found me. They made me what I am today." Tyrael tried to pull away from her, but with all her strength she forced him to look at her.
"It's too late little bird." Raven glanced forward as her sister draped herself over the angel and giggled, even as she never took her eyes off Raven. With ease, she ran one of her alabaster hands over Tyrael's face. "Oh don't you remember that face sweetie. That completely and utter look of hopelessness." Raven didn't know why but it sickened her: the way her sister moved over him like that.
She stared at the angel. "Tyrael, please don't give up." She held his gaze for a moment before being pulled away from him. Something inside Raven snapped, something inside her urged to scream at him, at them both! How dare her sister latch onto him like some kind of trophy. How dare he just give up after everything! She dropped her hands away from him and looked away bitterly. "Fine, weep for your city angel, I would weep with you, but I'm actually going to doing something about it."
"Kormac Leave him, he's a pathetic excuse for an angel and a man." She barked. Kormac hesitated but grabbed his spear. "I hope your arm is in working order."
"Eirena, set the bones with magic, I'm a bit slow but.." He stretch his arm out and swung his spear. "I'm up for some demon slaying if you are."
Raven nodded before turning her attention to Eirena who had just started to lean over and talk to Tyrael, but as soon as Raven met her eyes she straightened up. "Stay with Lyndon, make sure nothing else gets in and nothing gets out." Raven lowered her eyes to Tyrael and curled her lip at him, he caught her look at him and looked away from her. Perhaps it was shame or anger. Did he hate her now. She turned her back on him and walked away. So be it. If he was going to turn his back on them then they would do the same.
Tyrael leant against one of the crumbling walls, even though Eirena and Lyndon remained they knew they'd been forbidden to talk to him. Raven was right, he was pathetic, he hid his face in his hands. Oh how he was starting to hate being human, every emotion collided, each one of them more powerful than the last. Shame, guilt, anger. His cheeks were damp with tears, something new to him, angels didn't cry, they were incapable of it.
"She doesn't mean it." A soft voice spoke to him and he looked up at the pale face of Eirena. She stood hand on the hilt of her blade, ready for battle.
"She's right." Tyrael answered.
"About a lot of things, but not this." Eirena looked up and across the heavens. "She's right you should fight.." Eirena knelt down in front of him. "She cares too much, that's the problem. She pretends not to. She pretends we're all disposable, replacable. I almost believed she did, but..." She paused hesitating. "When came to get us, after what happened with Leah, I knew other wise. She has her issues, but she's scared of loosing anyone else.." Eirena lowered her gaze and got to her feet. "You know she's the most lively after you'd upset her some how, god you irritate her like a tick on a dog, but you are, were the only thing any of us could rely on."
"You heard what her ladyship said, leave him in his own self pity." Lyndon shout to Eirena.
Eirena nodded and placed her hand on her blade again. "When you turned away from her when she needed you the most, more than you needed her, you cut her deep. Even diamonds will crack eventually." Eirena walked away from Tyrael and he was left on his own again, alone with his thoughts.
Raven grunted as she was thrown against the wall of the hell right, the Mallet lord and hit her hard but it was weak and already dieing. She aimed a bolas shot at it's head and watched as it twitched and tumbled down. Kormac was suddenly stood over her and held his hnd out to her. "Are you okay."
Raven laughed. "Not really, I should have been passed out from drink and in the arms of one or two of those guards at the keep." He pulled her up to her feet. "You know the usual we just saved to world celebrations."
Kormac raised a brow. "You don't come across as the one night stand kind of woman."
"I don't come across as a lot of things, but believe me I would have been very drunk and very eager to please. Alas fate is not kind to this one." She shook her head. "Bah, maybe those guards and that ale will still be there tomorrow, eh?"
Kormac laughed and patted her on the back. "Let us hope so."
Auriel hovered a few feet away. "Quickly, you are not finished Diablo storms the silver spire. He must not reach the Crystal Spire!" The urgency in Auriel's voice pushed the laughter from Raven's heart.
"We will stop him, or we will die trying." Raven said definitely, she believed it in her heart of hearts.
Auriel opened up a portal for them and she stepped through, for a brief second panic over come her as she stared up at a demon, snarling and ready to pounce, she stepped back and nearly tripped over Kormac who'd just passed through the portal. Before she had a chance the even grab her knives the demon howled in pain was something silvery and shiny with it's blood broke through it's chest before being yanked back with a sickening crack of bone. The demon dropped, and like a curtain being lifted Raven's pale blue eyes met with vengeful hazel ones. For a brief second she was relieved and happy to see Tyrael stood there, but she quickly remembered the way he'd looked. She pushed past him. "Finally grown a pair I see." She snapped.
"We should thank him, at the very least." Kormac protested at her rudeness.
Tyrael lay a hand on Kormac's shoulder. "It's fine." Kormac tried to protest.
"We would have been fine without his help, I was about to grab my knives anyway." Raven hissed, not looking back until something grabbed her arm and stopped her from moving. She swung around her fists balled, had Tyrael not caught her fist he had no doubt she would have struck him. "Tyreal, we don't have time for this let me go, NOW!"
"Not until you listen to me." He held her arms tightly as she struggled. He was almost amused by her stubborness. "Please." He said quietly. She stopped struggling and glared at him.
"Make it quick." She hissed.
"I'm sorry." He spoke softly, as if those words for her ears alone. "I was wrong to let despair take hold of me like that. You were right, I was pathetic, but you and Eirena made me realise something." He let go of Raven. "You both made me realise what it is to be human. Your kind face death and despair every day of your lives, and yet you can the gain courage to move past it." Tyrael looked at her hard for a moment, as if trying to read her.
Raven laughed. "What?" She turned. "Am I supposed to fall for that crap? I've heard some bull shit in my time but that takes the cake." She shook her head. "You are not one of us, you will never truly be human, you will never understand us and you can stand there and try to sweet talk yourself out of it all." She looked over her shoulder. "But I've seen the real you, I saw what could have been me." She turned away and began to walk off. "The difference is, when someone offered me their help, offered me a chance to kill the bastards that destroyed my life, I took it with a firm grasp and never looked back."
Tyrael let his arms fall to his side as he watched her walk off, Kormac lay and hand on his shoulder as he passed. "Give her time, she'll come around." His hand slipped away and Tyrael looked at him.
"I don't think she will." Tyrael's heart sank as Kormac moved to catch up with the demon hunter, in that instant he realised how deep the wound he'd caused was. Eirena was right, when she was trying to get him to his feet, it was not because she wanted to help him alone, it was because she needed him more, she'd been asking him to help her fight through this and he;d turned away from her. He flexed his fists in frustration and anger at himself. He could never repair this damage, he could never heal this wound. She been betrayed twice in one day and it sickened him he'd played a part in it. He would at the very least support them at the very least for as long as she would put up with his presence.