At Silas’ feet, Rathanael's metal truncheon. The Collector didn't touch it. It was an omen to the trail of blood and feathers leading in through the empty doorway of the refinery. 

Stepping over the baton, Sky in hand, Silas walked into the shadowed entrance that was their path into Faust's world. Looking only forward into the brick monolith that stood in wait for them, the black devoured their figures as they entered. 

It would be rude to keep the good Doctor waiting. 

Onward, Collector, ghost and chains moved as one. Quiet and cautious with each step. 

The innards of the brick beast was a skeleton of metal with organs of iron and steel. Everywhere lay pipes, beams and rusting equipment. A million places to hide. But there was only one path. 

Silas was following the blood.

Across the dirtied concrete floor and up the steps of a grated metal staircase. 

Faust was leading them. 

As Sky remembered, the stairs led to the biggest open space within the building. The Warehouse. Now it was Faust's factory of nightmares. 

Ascending the first flight, Silas stopped at its first turn. 

"Does my Sky taste life?" He asked suddenly. Sky tasted the air. There was something and it was above them. Sky quietly nodded to her Collector. She never made a mistake but Silas couldn't help but ask,

"My Sky is certain?" 

Sky looked at him, confused. Her eyes traced the ceiling above them which in turn was the floor area of the Warehouse. She was able to pinpoint the warmth of the soul even at a distance. Even through walls and flooring. She nodded again. 

Silas took another step but paused once more. Something was very off. He took another step. There was no mistaking it. It was the smell of Death and with every step the Collector took upwards on those bloodied grated stairs, the smell grew stronger. 

The Collector continued to the top of the stairs with Sky and the chains. Through the opening in the ceiling, the staircase came to an end at a trap door in the ceiling that led to crowning top floors, the Warehouse. The smell of Death was overpowering and Silas was near retching. 

"Disgusting," The Soul Collector heaved. In reflex, he brought the sleeve of his inner elbow to cover his face and block the stench burning at his nose. Silas then pushed the doors open. 

More machines and equipment filled the great open space to greet them while above, hanging from the center of the Warehouse ceiling, was a colossal cage. A convex dome of twisted metal and exposed wire where within, hung from chains and rope nooses were the bodies of dozens of dead. All in different states of decay. Some bone. Others fresh. 

All victims of Faust. 

The Collector had never bared witness to such a disregard for the dead. Putrid and rotting flesh dripped to the ground near his feet. 

"Did he do this?" Sky asked in a whisper for Silas. She felt his grip on the chains tighten. It was all wrong. 

"There's no doubt, and knowing him, they are all hanging there, inside that thing, for a reason." He cautioned in a low voice, motioning to the twisted metal that formed the cage cocooning the dead. 

Below it, connected by hanging wires, a metal chair with a cage attached to its right armrest. It was further joined to a strange contraption of interlocked cogs and gears with two crank handles at its side. There was another two levers attached to a metal box next to it on the floor. It didn't appear they turned on their own as nothing seemed to be working at all. 

Another game of insanity. 

There was no movement yet Sky had unmistakably tasted life. 

The Collector's gaze traced the hall.  

"He is here. This is certainly the snake's lair." 

When Silas stepped further into the open space of the Warehouse, he saw it. 

A lone figure at the far end of the giant hall. 

Pale white and bloodied. His remaining wing was outstretched and nailed into the wall with iron spikes. With wrists shackled to the floor, Rath was blindfolded with bloodstained cloth. 

Silently heaving, but very much alive and despite the torture to which he'd been subjected, Rath eerily remained still. 

A gasp escaped Sky as Silas' eyes narrowed. 

Faust clearly enjoyed his cruel side. 

Staying from being directly beneath the monstrosity of death hanging at from the Warehouse ceiling, Silas walked toward the Angel on bloody display with guarded steps, Sky in hand. Silas' sight never wavered from Rath while Sky's worried attention looked to the dome of wires and corpses.

When the Collector came to a slow stop before the Divine left broken, he scanned the Angel's predicament without word. His black eyes to his surroundings and again the strange contraptions around them.

"Rathanael?" Sky timid voice asked from Silas’ side. 

Instantly, his head stirred, his limbs trembling.

"Sky?" He asked. Even with his sight blindfolded, he knew her voice. Silas reached in with his marked hand to take hold of the crude bloodied cloth covering the Divine's eyes, ready to pull it off. When Rath felt the touch at his face, he jerked his head away. 

"No. Don’t." Rath hissed in a panicked whisper, pulling back in the little space he had. He let out a pained breath. Silas' hand fell away. "H-He took my eyes."

Horror struck Sky. 

"What?" Sky asked, nearly not believing the Angel.

"He said I wouldn't need them anymore." He tried to move, but only making it apparent how trapped he was. Hunched in a twisted, half bow, his nailed wing immobilized him while the chains trapping him made it impossible for him to rise beyond his knees. 

When Sky made the attempt to free the Angel, pulling at his bonds, Rath jerked from her touch, 

"Stop. There isn't time." He barked, his head bobbing up and down as he heaved to speak. His words pushed her back. "Get out of here. Both of you."

"We can't leave you here." Sky hissed back in return. 

"Yes, you can!" Rath snapped back. “You need to go! Now!”

Sky, wide eyed with Silas at her side, floated back from Rathanael in fear. His voice died away on the still air of the Warehouse.   

Then there was a sound. 

A muffled moan. Sky turned her head from Rathanael, looking towards the monstrosity of twisted wires and metal hanging from the ceiling. Within, there was movement. One of the hanging corpses was beginning to struggle. A twitch at first and then a full on writhing against the noose around their necks. There was a quick glance shared between Sky and Silas. Was there life? The Collector's gaze questioned but Sky only shook her head. There was only emptiness emanating from the cage. How could they be moving? 

"How is it possible?" She questioned. Silas pulled Sky closer but it wasn't seconds after she spoke that another body began to move. Then another. And another. Until the hall of hanging corpses was a storm of muffled moans, clawing at the Collector and his Sky. Their voices were a tide of death and pain on the air yet Sky could not feel any life from the bodies. 

"What are you waiting for? Save yourselves. Go! Run!" Rathanael shouted, before letting out a tormented cry. 

With Rathanael's desperate plea ringing out, the Warehouse went silent once more. The moving bodies went still. 

In that silence, the deep caw of a Raven. Its voice low and a rumbling purr before several loud croaks filled the air. An amused laugh from the bird. Trying to pinpoint its sound, what little time they had left was wasted. Its sound echoed across every surface. 

"Oh God. He's here!" Rathanael hissed in panic upon hearing the bird. 

With a ruffle of movement and another loud caw, as both Collector and his ghost turned to pinpoint the sound, the bird had already cut through the air and was at Silas' face with its talons. Hooking skin, the bird managed to tear a slice across the Collector's face, scraping into one eye. Silas' hand flew to his face.

“Ah!” Silas seethed, doubling forward as he tried to protect his sight from the bird's attack that ended as fast as it began. 

Sky's primordial instincts took over. A ghost's weakness. Hissing, she grabbed for the Raven. With a quick turn in the air, the bird doubled back and out of reach and the ghost girl immediately flew after it. As Silas wiped his sight clean, Sky was suddenly out of reach. 

Finally understanding how Faust had been able to hide from her, Sky gave chase. 

Following the animal in a fast circle and then upwards, Silas was too late to protest as the creature flew through an opening in the dome of wires and metal hanging from the ceiling. Sky in pursuit. With a marked palm to his blinded eye, the Collector looked to the monstrosity and his Sky who was then squeezing past the twisted wires in an attempt to catch the bird.

Silas’ body turned and before he shouted, Rathanael screamed first,

"The Raven will deceive you!" 

The Raven was Faust's soul. 

"My Sky!" Silas called, his gaze following to where she had gone but his voice was now worlds away. 

Sky’s sights were locked on the bird who had found its perch on the limb of one of the hooded and hanging bodies. If only she could catch it. The nightmare would be over. Everything would be finished. Faust would be gone and they could be free. Together. 

Eyeing Sky, the Raven cawed again at length at the ghost's approach. They were nearly face to face. Sky floating into the forest of the dead hanging still. Ignoring the decay, she couldn't smell as Silas could anyway. 

The body on which the black bird perched twitched with movement. 

Sky stopped. Knocking suddenly against its bonds, it scared the raven away yet Sky did not follow. Her thoughts turned to the body and the questions she had.  

"H-help!" She heard a voice plead in a rasping whisper to be heard. Sky reached for the hood covering the head that knocked from side to side.  

"My Sky, return to your Silas!" Silas shouted his command. The roar of his voice hit her like an ocean wave at the moment she pulled the hood free. Silas' shout crashed into her hearing yet with round eyes, Sky could not look away from the one she had unmasked. 

Faust. The slaughterer of lambs, hanging as bait within his abattoir. Sky was frozen. Her voice dead in her throat. 

Silas felt her fear and waited no longer. With his marked hand from his eye and face, he grasped the chains and in an instant, reeled them back. 

"You made it," Faust smirked, his eyes still obscured by black glasses with his sights on the ghost before him. It was the moment he had long waited for. His gloved hand reached to stroke her cheek just as she was pulled in a sharp jerk away from him, her eyes wide with fear. 

Faust released himself from his fake bonds and like a stone, his body plunged downward, past Sky and the chains. Transforming into a churning cloud of black feathers, he fell through the wires of the cage. It was too late to escape. Upon his release a trigger was set and his trap came to life. 

Flood lights in the complex's hall came on at once. They were blinding. Their brilliance seeped into every corner and crevice. The light filled Silas' sight and his eye had no time to adjust. He could not see as the black flurry of feathers churned in the air, flowing easily past the cage's metal. They swirled around the chains like a flock of birds before Faust reformed as himself in mid air. Allowing gravity to take him, he descended. As the Collector blindly tried to focus, Faust grasped the slack left in the chains and pulled them down with him. Chains in hand, Faust's action caused Silas' body to tense. Flashes of memories filled his thoughts. Only a moment of distraction was needed. 

Down, toward the contraption sitting below the cage of wires. A chair, best described as a throne of more twisted metals.  A box of interlocking cogs at its side connected by a caged arm rest. 

Faust landed before it. 

Pulling the chains with one sharp yank, Faust fed the writhing links into the turning gears controlled with one crank of the lever at the box's side. It was enough that Silas was led forward, near stumbling as he resisted. Closer to the good Doctor as Faust was quick with his work, turning the first of two cranks in a fast turning motion without pause. The cogs consumed the chains. Bringing the length of the links shorter and shorter at Silas' end until very little slack remained. 

Sky was at the other end, trapped in the cage, feet from the exposed wire. With the lights coming on, the distinctive hum of electricity came alive in the wires. A current snaking its way through the metal and wire of the cage Sky couldn’t find another way out. When she returned the way she came to the twisted bars of the prison of corpses, she put her hands to the metal, only to be thrown backwards in a surge of electricity that prevented her escape. She was no longer able to pass back through, trapping her inside the strange wire monstrosity. Through the holes of electric wires  and above the glow of hanging lights, Sky looked down at the illuminated nightmare unfolding. As Silas shook his thoughts clear, trying to focus his sight, Faust was feet before him. 

When Silas caught his silhouette in his blurred sights, he swung. No contact was made, and as his height staggered to the side, a kick at his back sent him forward into the side of the metal chair. It was attached to the floor and made no movement against Silas' fall. A hand grabbed hold of the Collector's arm that held the chains and pulled him forward further before grasping the marked hand. Silas tried to push his marked palm forward to make contact with Faust but his force was diverted and used against him. 

"Please, have a seat," Faust said, his voice calm in the Collector's ear. Silas fought back but Faust's strength used Silas’ force against him. Easily, his due Collection moved him as he pleased. He was pushed back into the chair and his neck locked against it. A strap across his chest and his legs. The hand that held the chains was locked into the caged armrest. Restraining the marked hand to the other arm, no time was wasted in turning the crank further to bring the chains even shorter.

Silas found himself suddenly immobile. 

"Silas!" Sky screamed. 

Faust's plan was flawless in its execution. 

Again Sky tried to get out the way she came but again the shock wave of electricity in the live wires hurled her back. 

"Let me out!" Sky shrieked. With the chains tether, there was no other way to get out than the way she came. She had effectively trapped herself. Faust cast a glance upwards with a smirk.

"Rare birds should be kept in cages," He said, clicking his tongue. 

Silas struggled against his bonds as the Doctor spoke but Faust paid little mind. Sky was looking at Faust with a mix of fear and loathing. The chains pulled tighter the more Silas pulled back and with every shift of his arm in the cage, he was losing more and more precious length of chain as it was fed into the turning metal gears. 

Facing Silas, Faust was smiling at him. How could he not? Drawing in close, Faust eyes devoured him. Silas Meier, Lucifer's last Soul Collector. No other had made it this far. 

"Thank you for coming, my Silas."