An insult above all others. There was only one who could say that. 

Silas looked back at Faust with a single squinting eye. He clenched his teeth against the tension building in the arm that held the chains. 

"How do you like my collection?" Faust motioned to dozens of corpses hanging in the wire dome around Sky. "Every Soul Collector sent on Lucifer's orders to find me. Find me they all did, stop me none of them could." 

With a pleasant turn, Faust cranked the gears tighter, allowing them to consume more chain. A strained expression was growing on Silas' face. 

"And then there was you." Faust grinned. "You, who are different. When I heard rumors of you from across the world, whispers of a man without a soul who was chained by the Devil's contract to a ghost, I had to see with my own eyes." 

Another crank of the chains. There was a fire beginning to burn in Silas’ arm.  

"Stop!" A frantic Sky was pleading behind the electric wires of her prison. 

"A ghost," Faust repeated with a twisting grin, casting a glance to Sky, trapped in the cage he himself created. He remained close to Silas' face and ear. "that I, myself, began to dream of meeting."

Gnashing his teeth with his head shaking in vexation, Silas roared against the chair and the bonds that held him.

"Release this one!" Silas snapped, his marked hand clawing at the chair's metal arm. 

"Soon," Faust smiled, his black glasses reflecting the Collector's face.

Again the call of the Raven rose on the air. With several flaps of its black wings, the bird was at Faust’s shoulder. Drawing back, Faust stroked the corvid’s cheek with a finger. It turned its head to look straight at the trapped Collector while the good Doctor gave another playful turn to the crank. Turning away for a moment, he brought his focus back to Sky who was dangerously close to the wires. Trying to get back through the way she came was impossible without touching the charged lengths of twisted metal. 

“I know what you are, Sky Lark. Lucifer's little experiment. I wager he was pushing the limits of what  rules he could and could not break in that silly truce between the Fallen and Divine. Another amusing piece in the never ending games they play. Ghosts are rare and transitory creatures that can cross the planes. Mindless otherworldly souls that missed their chance at Heaven and Hell. Sustaining themselves for a time on the little spare life force they can consume from the living before eventually, they fade away and disappear. But you are different. Anchored to this plane by Silas Meier and his chains. I watched how you separate the soul from the body and consume it in its entirety. Truly beautiful. I wonder what other abilities lie hidden within you? I'm hoping that we may discover them together."

Sky hissed at Faust and his games, peering down at him in through the wires.

With a heavy sigh, Faust's hand fell upon the second crank to which he had not yet touched. With several turns, the end of Sky's chains were drawn forward. The ghost girl was pulled, arms first into the electric wires. There was no time to protest. She hit the current, and her mind went blank. Reality bent from the electricity, tearing Sky apart from within. She wanted to scream but there was only silence. Reeling the crank back, Faust mercifully allowed Sky relief in release of a small length of chain. You couldn't kill a ghost. But there were many things one could do to discipline it.  

She pulled back as far as she could to save herself. Silas was caught again in a turn of the first crank, wincing at the further strain put on his arm. Heaving, sweat began to bead his brow and he did what he could by shifting his height in the chair to keep from being pulled further. 

"You see, my Silas, you misunderstand," Faust smiled. "I never wanted you but I had that Gypsy in the Dark Markets tell you that I wanted you dead. If you had known my true intentions, you would have hidden her from me."  

Silas' breath went still at Faust's words. The Doctor looked past the Collector, Rathanael not forgotten.

"And you brought me the Divine sent for Sky at her death. Incredible."

Wide eyed, Silas could do little as Faust's hand reached forth into the inner pocket of the jacket the Collector wore and fished out the Angel's Egg.

"Did you figure out how to use it?" Faust asked, waiting for Silas to say something but not overly surprised when the Collector said nothing. Disappointed, Faust's smile faded. Perhaps his expectations for Lucifer's last resort had been too high. Reaching down, he snatched Silas' chin in his grip, forcing the Collector to look into his face and his own reflection in the Doctor's black glasses. Bringing his face in close to Silas, Faust sneered in a long snake-like hiss, 

"You thought you could catch me? You thought I would run? Hide? That I wouldn't play a game of my own? Did your Master not tell you who I was? Or was it all just classified papers of nothing you were given to try and figure it out?" 

He knew the Devil. Shaking his head at the thought of the absurdity of the paperwork the Soul Collectors had been given in order to prepare them for their meeting, Faust continued,  

"You may have questioned this entire affair if only those files told you the whole story. If only you’d known that I am a Soul Collector too. The only difference between us is that I broke free of my chains and took back what was mine." 

Faust removed the glasses that concealed his gaze, revealing the black eyes with white pupils that matched those of Silas. Peeling the gloves from his hands, revealed Lucifer’s Sigil Faust bore across his own palm. Just like Silas. 

From its perch, the Raven flew to Faust’s outstretched hand,

“Together, my Orev guided me back from Hell’s depths.” 

Drawing away from the Soul Collector in a wide turn, the bird took flight again, Faust, his feet light as if he were dancing, twirled in a swirl of black feathers. He looked to Sky again,

"How this fool loves you." Faust said, mocking the connection between them. "He fears losing you. But he wastes you and we can't have that. You are exactly what I need to set in motion my greatest act against Lucifer. I will take control of these chains of yours and together we will devour the world." 

The chains in Faust's hands. The thought of someone other than Silas holding the chains was inconceivable. In the contract he held with the Devil, there could only be one master and that master was Silas.

"Silas will never let go!" She screamed, knowing that Faust could never pry or pull the chains free of Silas' stone grip. 

"We'll see," Faust replied smugly. His fingertips brushed down over the links that stretched from Sky to the box of gears that entangled the chains. Sky felt the vibration at once. Someone else forcing their way in. 

Faust’s power pushed past Silas. A snake entering the burrow of its prey. Faust's fingers, one by one, curling around the chain's links, gathered the two tethers into one palm. With a deep breath of concentration, he disrupted the connection. The quiet still ocean that had belonged to Silas was drowned out by the raging waves of Faust's thoughts that quickly came down upon Sky. 

Hands to her head, Sky’s entire form shook and trembled in mid air. 

"Sweet creature, let me feel you," Faust's thoughts spoke to her, his voice between her and Silas. Loud, its command taking her thoughts from her.  

"Not you!” She cried through clenched teeth. Faust's touch raked across her mind, ignoring her objection and leaving her thoughts left raw. No one denied him. He saw her truths. Her secrets. Her fears. He saw her past. Their past. 

Faust's grin twisted with devilish success. He could hear both Sky and Silas' thoughts through the wire simply by touching the chains. The chains were their lives and memories tethered together. 

Both Silas' eyes, injured and uninjured, flew open as wide as they had ever. He was gasping for air that wasn't there. His white pupils were nothing more than contracted pinpoints yet they were focused on the silhouette of his captor in the corona of blinding light. 

"Let go," Silas heaved for air. “Let… go!” 

His heart was pounding so hard in his chest, he thought for certain it would explode.

First, immobilize. 

Second, interrogate.

"Tell me your secrets," Faust's voice cooed. Inside their memories. Pulling forth what they kept buried. Faust raped their minds just by touching the exposed chains. Every link a memory of their creation and a million thoughts exchanged. Faust's hands wandered down across all the metal rings within his reach. Down towards the ends within Silas' grasp.  "How does it feel when they are touched?" 

Silas' eyes said it all. The black tears he could not hold back in being force fed those thoughts again. A wail left Silas as he arched his back in protest of having his memories replayed for him and his captor to watch. 

The guilt and the regret. 

From her place in her cage, Sky could do nothing but bare witness to it all. The sin for which Silas could never be forgiven and the one memory that revealed all. The pain. Through the wire and metal to the torture Faust handed down. 

The memory of the moment Sky died.  

"Oh, I see," Faust hissed with delight. His sightline boring into Silas. Leaning forward, Faust drew close so that Silas could see him and his grip on the chains.

It was your fault.

"You killed her." 

"No." hissed the Collector. It wasn't that simple. Silas nearly broke his own arm as he pulled for release. If only he could break free and grab Faust by his throat. He wouldn't be laughing. Struggling like a dog in a bear trap, Silas was unable to break free. Sky could hear every word. In the sight line through the cracks of her fingers and the twisted metal of her cage of death, she stared down at Silas, forced to confess the memories that killed him from within. Memories that not even she knew.

It made Faust curious. 

"Get out." Silas howled between breathless gulps of air. His chest was rising and falling faster and faster.

"You sold your soul to keep her with you, but for everything to be set in motion, you were forced to collect her first. Fascinating. Like Thanatos of Greek tragedy. To prevent the demise of any mortal to which you are enchained. And each link that you drag with you holds its own memory of your nightmare. What a great weight you have carried." Faust's hands traced the metal lines. Everything that dripped from Faust's lips was meant to poison Silas. To kill him from within. “You don’t have to carry that weight any more.”

And, finally. The time had arrived. 

Third, separate. 

Held between Faust's fingers before Silas' face was the Angel's Egg. 

"Let me show you how it works." Faust said, moving past the trapped Collector to the Divine he had nailed to the wall. "It's simple, really." 

Walking up to the unsuspecting Rathanael, Faust gave the Divine a hard backhanded slap across his face, splitting his lip. Blood was sent gushing from Rath’s nose. Grabbing the blind Rath by his hair as his head was knocked to the side, Faust brought the Divine’s focus back to him, 

“Don’t do it…” Rath hoarse voice objected weakly. A sneer left the Good Doctor. 

As the blood dripped from Rathanael’s face, Faust positioned the egg below his chin. Drops of crimson life fell onto the egg's shell, setting it instantly alight. It began to glow with an aura of gold. It wasn't that one needed to be of pure Divine blood to use an Angel's Egg. Instead, one only needed pure Divine blood. 

Returning to Silas, he placed the necklace over the Collector's head and onto his neck. The egg still glowing, Faust explained, 

"You are the man of the dawning hour, my Silas. The migration of crows will arrive with the sun but they will never arrive at their final destination. No. They will be coming here, thanks to you and thanks to Sky. I need that Egg charged with all the souls of the dead that are about to enter this world. I wanted you to share in the experience as your Sky's hunger is magnified, channeling the entire murder of the living world's dead through you, my catalyst, and into that Egg. It will be spectacular. But for it to begin, for all of this to happen, I need you to let go of the chains."

"Never." Silas seethed through his clenched teeth. 

"Very well." Faust shrugged. "Then allow me to break the connection for you."

Sky and Silas heard him clearly yet Silas was no longer looking at him. He was staring at Sky through the blinding light. Faust, not missing a moment of the Collector's agony, followed the line of Silas' gaze to the ghost girl's helpless expression. With one more turn of the crank, a terrible crack pulled Silas' shoulder from its socket. Yet still he would not let go. 

In that Warehouse of nightmares, Silas' scream shook the air. His head flew back on his shoulders before slumping forward. The echo of his' pain filled Faust with such delight that it was evident a shiver of pleasure rolled through him. The torture was rapture.

Silas was reaching his breaking point and it was exactly what Faust was waiting for. As his head hung forward, he began to whisper. Low at first, again and again the Collector began to repeat. Calling to the darkness within. His Master. For as Sky had pointed out, Silas had been given many things by the Devil. Many abilities and many words. Many of which until that day had gone untested, but Silas knew they rested within him. Waiting to be released when needed. Words that no one had ever heard him speak. Not even Sky. All along, the raven cawed with feverous glee. It was just what Faust had been waiting for. It was time for them to part.

"Good bye, my Silas. Tell your Master that I am far from finished. And that neither he nor anyone else in this god forsaken realm can stop me." 

Faust's timing was perfect. 

As dawn broke across the sky of that Other world and the thousands upon thousands of crows began their journey, Faust pulled the first of the two levers standing at the side of the gear box. The generators he had built within the Warehouse, that up until that point had gone unnoticed as just other large pieces of indistinguishable machinery, roared to life as behemoths of power. The air shook. With one final glance to Sky, Faust readied to pull the second. 

"No, no!" Sky screamed in terror. "Don't!!" 

She reached for her Silas, screaming across the divide through the deafening hum of electricity in that wire prison. Through black tears and the ink rising in his throat, he raised his eyes to the raging light and to his Sky. Bracing for what was to come. Gripping the links of the chains that bound them until his knuckles turned white. He would never let go.

Ignoring the cries of lovers, Faust pulled the second lever and turned the two cranks at the gear box as far as they could go. 

"Silas!" Sky cried for her Collector as tendons were torn and bones were shattered. An explosion of blinding light and energy filling the hall.

The breath was torn from Silas as his world was suddenly ripped from him, dissolving into the black of Sky's never ending scream.