Raven took little notice of Tyrael as they battled up the silver spire. It seemed the higher they got, the closer to Diablo they got the more Leila tormented her. In her mind she was creaming at her, begging her to stop! To leave her. She was becoming easily distracted and as another battle ended with Kormac and Tyrael cleaning up and her on her ass she grew frustrated. Tyrael stood above her and held his hand to out her, though lowered his eyes as not wanting to meet hers. She scoffed at his hand and pushed herself up. She paused momentarily as she passed him. "I will never take your hand." It was said so quietly that only he could hear it, so low, so poisonous. "So stop offering it. It's pathetic the way your moping after me, like a faithful hound kicked by it's master."
She still wasn't sure why she was so pissed at him. Perhaps it wasn't him she was angry at, perhaps it was herself. Deep down she knew Adria was too good to be true. It was easy to make him the target of her anger, how dare he act like he cared for any of them and just... Abandon them like that. She clenched her fists, gods she wanted to scream at him, to let him know exactly how he'd made her feel. She wanted to scream at that bitch she called her sister for tormenting her. Her knuckles ached and her nails bit into her palms. She choked back an angry sob and repeated her mantra in her head. I wont cry. I wont look weak. "Come, we're not far." She raised her head. "I feel it in my heart, he's near."
She glanced back at Kormac and Tyrael, she sharply turned away at the presence of her sister, she was taunting her again. How could someone like Tyrael not sense that foul creature around him. She inhaled sharply and pushed through the pain, both physical and emotional, but it was so had. She was exhausted, she was growing tired of this stupid war. "I'll tell you what Kormac, if I actually get through this day I'm going need something a little stronger than that ale." She sighed relaxing a bit. "I know Haedrig has a bottle of barrel aged Brandy from the tavern in Tristram." She said half to herself half to Kormac.
Tyrael glanced at Kormac who nodded. "Aye, I could do with something stiffer than ale myself." He gripped his spear and looked at Tyrael. "We'd all better get a move on then.."
The final portal lay just up ahead, Raven gave a sigh of relief as she passed through it, but it didn't last long. Imperius stood angels either side him, his fiery sword raised an aimed at Raven. She was sure that if she could have seen his face, if he had human feature that she'd recognised that twisted expression of hate, anger disgust. "Nephalim I WILL kill you if you continue you any further."
Raven moved swiftly around his sword and before anyone could stops her, because both Tyrael and Kormac had reached out to grab her arms. "You know what, any other time I'd be happy to go toe to toe with you." Imperius stood his ground, but moved to stare down at the much smaller woman. She felt dwarfed by him, she was by no means a tall woman, but in all his armour he made her look positively child like. "But you know, I've had enough of your kind and your virtues, The only two of your kind that have actually been useful are Auriel and Ithereal, but I still wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them." She curled her lip up. "You claim to be courage, to be valour, but do you know what I see. An immortal coward!"
Raven stood back and pushed past him. "And personally, it it wasn't for the fact he'd come to Sanctuary when he was finished here, I'd let you all rot with him." She heard Imperius growl raising his hand to strike her.
"Insolent Neph-" He went very still, Raven stopped as the world seemed to shake around her. "No! He's reached the Crystal Arch!" Imperius howled trying to push past Raven, but as seemed as though every step he took was pained.
Raven stepped back, her eyes wide as the angel fell, no, not him. The shell of his armour fell. Empty, the sound of clanging metal echoed around her so loudly is hurt her ears and her mind. She covered her ears and spun around, each and every angel had fallen into a heap of armour and weapons. Raven was sure her sanity had finally slipped away, and for once her sister wasn't there to taunt her, perhaps she realised there was no need too. Someone had grabbed her arms and snapped her out of her daze, it was those cursed hazel eyes, they looked so troubled, but not as hopeless as they were earlier.
"Raven we have to go before he completely destroys the arch!" There was urgency in Tyrael's voice, urgency she understood but she still pulled back from him.
"I don't want your help! Stay with your own kind, angel." She backed away and waved form Kormac to follow her, she paused briefly only to pick up one of the swords from on of the heaps. She was not adept at using a sword but she had no doubt she would need it.
Tyrael grabbed her wrist, and she turned to look at him, she wasn't sure how she'd looked in that briefest of moments, but he had begun to speak, she couldn't hear what he said, maybe she didn't want to. Almost instantly he let go of her and let his hand fall to his side, he must have realised she wasn't hearing him.
Raven caught up with Kormac in time to see, what she could only describe as black twisted horns surround him and pin him in place. She hacked at them with her newly acquired sword. "Go!" Kormac said. "I'll catch up with you when I can, but you need to finish him." Kormac's face softened slightly. "If we don't make it out of this alive, I just want to say it has been a great honour to have come this far by your side."
Raven nodded and reached through the bars, she didn't need to share words, it was all said in a gesture. She would make sure her friends got through this even if she didn't. Friends, what a foreign word to her and yet. Kormac, Lyndon and Eirena, they had fought by her side, had cultivated a friendship with her.
Everything I touch wilts and dies eventually.
Those words echoed through her mind and she turned away from him and began up the steps. Something defiant rose inside her. Not this time. She gripped her sword and stood, the great Diablo hovered before her, absorbed into crimson light, watching her rise up the steps. Raven sneered as he lowered to the ground.
"It's magnificent isn't it, Nephalim." He held his arms arm. "All the evils combined into one being. The Prime Evil! I am Legion!"
Raven wasn't ready for the speed at which he charged at her, one minute he was feet away, the next he was so close she was staring into his wild amber eyes, it took every bit of strength to pull her eyes from his, just in time to raised her sword and blocked one of his many arms from swiping at her. She blocked one arm to have another clawed hand swipe at her side knocking her to the side. She yelped feeling that freshly set bone move and crack in new places, she pushed the mind numbing pain away and jumped to her feet dodging another clawed hand. She swung her sword and fired the crossbow strapped to her left wrist. The sword met with the soft flesh on the underside of Diablo's arm, she smiled darkly taking pleasure in the sound of tearing flesh. Diablo pulled back and briefly inspected his arm.
When he turned back to the demon hunter, it was with new fury, each attack came stronger and faster than the last, Raven blocked and slashed as best she could, but she was no angel or demon, she was just a woman. Every so often Diablo would break through her defence and throw her back, tear at her flesh with his claws. In a split second Diablo was in front of her and then suddenly behind her. "Enough Nephalim, let us see how well you do in our own realm."
Raven was stunned, paralysed and unable to move as the world spun around her, at the burning city of angels twisted and gave way to the darkness. When her mind was finally able to focus again she found herself in a darkness so thick she could barely see what was in front of her. "You're a coward Diablo, like the rest of them." She screamed into the darkness.
Diablo laughed from some where in the distance. "You are in my world now Nephalim." Raven spun as she saw a flick of a tail out of the corner of her eye, she spun again as something brushed behind her. "You will succumb to your own terror and know you can never leave your madness.!"
Raven Heard voices, not Diablo's, but familiar, she shrunk back as each figure surrounded her. She backed away until she hit something firm, not a wall, at least on a stone one. She was circled by people she had know, still knew. Leah, Cain, her mother and father, her younger brother and of course she sister. "You could have saved us all." It was Leah's voice she heard, her head was spinning. "But you let your own selfish reasons cloud your judgement."
"You brought a stranger into our house." It was her mothers voice, so bitter and twisted. "You brought a demon to us and we ll paid for your mistake."
"Mother I didn't know." Raven reached forward for the shadowy visage, but don't hard hit her in the back.
"We all followed you, we all tried to help you and you pushed us away." Raven realised it was the hilt of a sword that had knocked her down. She didn't need to look up to see the owner of that voice of that deep voice.
She dug her nails into the ground. "I have done everything you asked of me, I sought out the soul stone, I fought my way through demons and demon lord." She spat. "But in the end you turned your back on us all." She pushed herself up to her knees and felt the back of an armoured hand strike against her cheek, it was hard enough that she felt her face instantly swell from the force. She gasped and grabbed her sword. "You all pushed me away, you all thought you were better than me." She got to her feet.
"You failed us all."
"No." Raven got to her feet. "None of you could ever live through what I have lived through." She swung her sword at the angel who had struck her twice. "None of you will ever be as strong as I am." The sword sunk into the shadowy flesh of Tyrael, and for a brief second she felt as though she'd made a mistake, that this wasn't a shadow being but the man himself. For a moment she doubted her mind, what if Diablo had manipulated her into attacking the real thing. His hand wrapped around the blade, Raven was suddenly very aware that of the twist of pain in his eyes, but another hand and another grabbed the blade.
Diablo howled in pain gripping the sword and pulling it from his gut, his already injured hand grabbed her by the throat and tossed her to the side. She felt that same sickening feeling as the darkness faded around her, she heard the clang of metal on the floor, her sword. She began laughing, she wasn't sure what was so funny, but she laughed anyway as she pushed herself to her feet. "God you picked HIM?" She heard Diablo let out a howl of anger and frustration. "You picked HIM! Of all the people from my life, you chose him." She pushed herself to her feet. She was over come with emotions, why had she suddenly doubted her actions, why had she panicked at the thought of killing Tyrael? Diablo had under estimated her, but perhaps not as much as she thought he had.
She let out a strangled scream as Diablo kicked her back across the floor. "I will not loose to you Nephalim."
Raven curled her lip and got to her feet. "My name is Raven." She spat. "You'd do well to remember it." She reached down to her thigh and gripped one of the knives that lay there. As Diablo closed in and took another swing at her, she sliced at hi arm, and ducked around him, embedding the knife in his side. Diablo screamed, raven was sure whether it was from pain, anger or the sheer frustration of letting her injure him. She picked up her sword, Diablo had already turned and was charging at her, she waited. As soon as he was close enough she leapt into the air, her feet pressed against his thigh forcing her up, she raised the sword and thrust it with all her might into the demon's chest, something met with her face and she let out a scream of pain, blood filled her mouth and she was sure she'd drown on it.
She hit the ground with a thud and listened, waited, she heard the screams of Diablo and as she looked up, half blind, she watched him tumble backwards off the silver spire, her sword embedded up to the hilt between his ribs. She smiled and let her arms give way beneath her. She barely registered that someone was over her, shaking her. She could hear the distant voices around her. She took a deep painful breath and with a raspy, exhausted voice, whispered. "Is it over."
She felt someone lift her from the cold floor,. "Yes, it's over." She smiled and let out a long sigh.
"Good. I hate loosing." She didn't register who had spoken to her, just that the deep voice was somewhat comforting in this moment, she was to exhausted to even fight against them, to even try and walk. Instead she decided to just close her eyes and sleep.