All around was chaos. The vessel rumbled and heaved, as if a ship on stormy waters; it seemed cries of many voices and the song of steel against steel rang out from everywhere at once. Elven infantry converged on the Seat of the Naaru from the Exodar's myriad passages, quickly cornering the scant hundreds of draenei who had made it even this far. In the midst of battle, however, was where the two of them were most at home: a pair of vindicators, a man and a woman, standing back to back.
KRA-AK.
That sound of rent metal and shattering bones accompanied the scream of an elf as he soared over his comrades' heads from the force behind the hammer strike. Riaan stood resolute, parrying the blade of another foe, forced into a defensive position as they made to surround him; before they could even hope to overwhelm him, his partner leapt into the fray, smashing another with a colossal tower shield, running another through with her blade, and delivering a punishing armored backhand to yet a third. "Where would you be without me, beloved? Certainly not keeping up with me - as if you needed any assistance in lagging behind," she called over the din, finding a moment even here for a jest at his expense.
"Must it always be a competition, Elysa?" His exasperation was only moderately sincere; given enough room to manuever by her interference, he moved his hammer to a two-handed grip and went into a broad, sweeping attack, decimating the remnants of the rank in front of him. "So be it!" Both of them were bloodied, marred by blades and arrows, but they would not - could not - fall. Not so long as their people remained in danger, not when the Light stood with and sustained them, nor when they were at each other's side. Not even as they hurtled through the Nether without destination, against a force many times their number. The thought of what she would say - 'Bah! They needed the advantage, this is already too easy!', he could easily hear in his mind - brought a smile to his face.
The Exodar bucked again as crystalline chimes joined the existing cacophony. Another voice called, "They've activated the stasis pods! Retreat! Everyone, retreat!" They met each other's eyes, hers sparking with the heat of battle, his measured and calm in the face of adversity. They were so different, and yet fate had seen fit to bring them together. They moved as though an extension of one another, overpowering any opposition as they slowly backed down the ramp leading into the vessel's heart; even from this distance, they could hear the pneumatic hissing and the clamor of people being ushered into the sustaining pods. "Hold them off just a little longer! We are nearly ready!"
They glanced at one another again, as Riaan drew his own shield. "If it is time you need, then you will have it. Shall we, beloved?" Elysa laughed aloud as they locked into a miniature shield wall. "As though you even need to ask." As one, they drew upon their holy energies, and from their position rose an immense, shining wall of light made solid. Sweeping in unison as though to bash with an individual shield, the elves who pursued them were pushed back, the unluckiest among them crushed in their armor between metal and light. Together, they were truly immovable, even as the enemy slashed, only to retreat, burned by the Light, or fired upon them ineffectively with arrows that incinerated on impact. Still, the technique was taxing; neither would say it aloud, but the sweat increasingly dappling their brows with each blow that landed was telling.
"That should do it! Get to a pod!" The engineer's voice came again, and again they retreated, towards one of the few remaining. The wall had begun to fracture, hairline cracks forming in their nigh-impenetrable defense. "We will need to move quickly," he said to her through gritted teeth. "On my mark, we release the shield and -"
BOOOOOOOM.
The Exodar shuddered once again. "There is no time! This whole place is coming apart. Go - I will cover your escape and join you later." Hers was no less strained, and indeed, she physically staggered as the next barrage of arrows made purchase. He opened his mouth to object, but the ferocity in her glare forestalled him. "Our people need one of us alive more than both of us martyred. Now go, damn you!" She broke formation to stand in front, shoving him backward as she now maintained the barrier alone. "You'd better not die, or I'll pull your spirit back from the Light and kill you again!"
Riaan reached out to her, managing only briefly to touch her shoulder before she snarled defiantly, no less at him as the throng of elves still trying to breach the barrier. He murmured a phrase in ancient eredun, one weighted with all that he felt for her in that moment - and then the distinct hissing as the pod began to seal. Already he could feel his movements slowing as the chamber was flooded with the substance used to induce sleep. He lifted a hand to the front-facing window, pressing it against the glass. She turned, smiling gently at him as she allowed the shield to fade, and returned the gesture, placing her hand against his. In those last few moments of consciousness, panic overtook him as he realized what he had missed in her smile.
It was not an expression of assurance, but of acceptance.
"Elysa! NO!" he managed to bellow, feeling as though from a great distance, feebly pounding a fist against the door. As oblivion began to claim him, he saw with excrutiating clarity as a blade was driven through her chest, and the light faded from her eyes.
"....no...."
