The Ninth Circle
by
Draco's Daughter
Disclaimer: I don't own Hellboy. Wish I did, but I don't. Grr. All original characters belong to me and me alone. Ahahaha!
AN: I was inspired to write this when I was looking up Hellboy on Wikipedia. The entry had a summary of the comic time line and it seemed like every other issue dealt with Werewolves. I began work on this as a werewolf story but, instead, turned it into something a bit more magical by mixing in some Greek myth as well as some interesting ideas of mine own. This is set in the universe of the movie because I've never read the comics.
"The deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers."- Capt. Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
If I had words grating and crude enough
that really could describe this horrid hole
supporting the converging weight of Hell,
I could squeeze out the juice of my memories
to the last drop. But I don't have these words,
and so I am reluctant to begin.
To talk about the bottom of the universe
the way it truly is, is no child's play,
no tasks for tongues that gurgle baby-talk.
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy Volume One: Inferno
Translated by Mark Musa
Chapter One: Everyone Lives But Us
Shots rang out in the quiet of the sewer systems. A large form covered in white fur came barreling down the sewer tunnel, panting hard from its wolf-like muzzle. Not far behind it ran another form, this one much more man-like. He could have passed as a human, if it wasn't for the red skin, shaved-down horns, and tail. Indeed, Hellboy was again on the hunt.
"Werewolves," the Demon muttered, "why does it always have to be werewolves?" The werewolf he had been chasing for the past few hours had been spotted by humans on several occasions and had been deemed a threat by the B.P.R.D. So, naturally, they sent Hellboy to deal with it. The werewolf had been easy to find, in the company of another werewolf and several pups. The other Were and the pups had been able to elude Hellboy and the other agents but this one was now cornered, Hellboy knew for a fact that this tunnel was dead-end; the group had been armed with schematics of the sewer system before the mission had started. They had hoped to round them all up here and then head in for the kill when they were sure than none could escape. It would be very wise to attempt to find and destroy the younger ones so that they wouldn't become threats later on. The werewolf that Hellboy had been following was exhausted, taking in great breaths as it faced the demon. It nearly looked human now that he could see it up close. Taking careful aim with the Samaritan, Hellboy fired a shot straight into the creature's brain.
"Sorry, White Fang, but that's what ya get when you mess around with humans," Hellboy stated before placing the Samaritan back in its holster, turning, and walking away from the body. When he reached the crossroads, another was waiting for him. This werewolf was much bigger than the white one and its fur mimicked that of a Grey Wolf's.
"Crap." Was all Hellboy could manage before the beast leapt at him. They wrestled for a few moments, the werewolf skillfully wigging out of Hellboy's grasp whenever the demon attempted to strangle it or break its neck. The creature was incredibly intelligent, as if it had been in many other fights exactly like this one. It boiled down to an epic "clash of the titans" in which Hellboy was thrown five feet away from the Werewolf so the beast could attempt to get at the demon's throat. This gave Hellboy the room he needed to pull out the Samaritan and aim it. Hellboy attempted to get a clear shot but the Werewolf was smart. It knew what would happen if it was shot and, as soon as it saw the gun, the beast turned tail and ran on all fours. Hellboy again gave chase and managed to get a shot at it. The bullet landed in the creature's right thigh, pulling a high-pitched squeal from its mouth. The creature, however, did not stop running; it merely limped as quickly as it could down the tunnel. Hellboy stopped running to catch his breath, knowing that the werewolf would leave a visible trail of blood as well as eventually tire or drop dead from the blood loss.
"Hellboy?" Came the voice of John Myers from the communicator.
"What, boy scout?" Was the Demon's form of a greeting.
"We heard gun fire. Is the Werewolf dead?" Myers asked.
"Yeah, its down and out but another one jumped me. I was chasing it before I managed to get a shot in. It won't be too hard to find. What about that other one and the pups?"
"We can't find a trace of them. They're probably long gone by now."
"I'm gonna go take care of Jumper then I'll meet back up with you guys at the manhole."
"Okay. Be careful." The demon scoffed as he again set off to find the injured Werewolf.
--------------
The werewolf stumbled down the tunnel, satisfied that he had put enough distance between himself and the demon. With a painful howl he began the transformation back into a human man. This human man was known as Ralph to both normal humans and his werewolf pack. The pack was made up of blood and "bite" related werewolves who lived together and worked as a communal and familial group. They used the sewers as a "play pen" for the younger blood-wolves because humans did not regularly travel into them. Several of the teenaged generation of the pack had thought it funny to go out and scare some of the local humans and that was what had brought down Hellboy on their community.
Ralph looked down at his thigh, in which the bullet was firmly lodged. With a grimace he began to strain his leg muscles and the bullet began to work itself out. The feeling was probably close to giving birth, and every werewolf agreed that it hurt like hell, but doing so made sure that Ralph's leg would heal properly, as well as allowing him to escape the sewers with his life. As soon as the bullet was out of his flesh, Ralph began to stagger away from the site, leg fully healed back so he would not leave a bloody trail for Hellboy to follow. When he reached a secret panel of wall, Ralph pressed a certain brick, opening the wall and allowing him some time to rest. The werewolves had installed "hidey-holes" in order to keep from being discovered if humans came into the area. Ralph slumped down as the wall closed behind him and fell into a fitful slumber to recover strength and allow his body to heal before heading back to the den.
In his sleep Ralph kept repeating the phrase: "Hellboy lives, Abraham lives, Everyone lives but us."
------------
The blood trail staggered around the tunnel, as if the werewolf had crashed into the walls in its pain-induced rush to get away from Hellboy. The demon followed the blood trail, the Samaritan drawn and ready to be fired if the creature came from the shadows and leapt at Hellboy.
"How much blood can one werewolf have?" Hellboy mused. The trail finally stopped where a small amount of blood pooled around the silver bullet Hellboy had fired at the creature. The demon picked up the bullet, examining it. "You'd think if it had dug this thing out they're be patches of fur and a lot more blood." Hellboy looked around for another sign as to where the creature had gone. After a few moments, he decided that this werewolf just wasn't worth it.
"Yo, boyscout," Hellboy said into the communicator.
"Yeah?" John replied.
"Jumper's pulled out my parting gift and he's split. I say we pack up and call it a day. Make sure to bag that other werewolf body. Don't want anyone seein anything. Clean up's gonna have a hell of a time with this one. Jumper's left a big mess," Hellboy said.
"We're not going to pursue the second one?" John inquired.
"Nah. Jumper's earned a few more days. We'll find him eventually. How many Werewolves can there be around New York?" Hellboy stated. "He'll turn up eventually. Weres are the revenge-takin type. Finding someone who attempted to kill them is like a goal in their lives."
"Alright, come on back, we'll pack up and head out," John replied. Hellboy began trudging back to the manhole they had all come down from. He stopped to take a last look at the White one and noticed a woman crouching next to the body.
"Hey? Who're you?" Hellboy asked. The woman was dressed in leather pants and a leather top. Her hair was short and choppy, colored bright crimson red with streaks of purple and yellow.
"Not the kind of soul you should worry about, young one," the woman replied, stroking the white fur as if admiring it. "Such a waste, such a terrible waste. She was so beautiful."
"Lady, I don't think you understand. No one besides B.P.R.D. personnel are supposed to be down here. Take your hands off the Werewolf carcass and get out of here," Hellboy ordered, the woman finally looked up at him.
"Hm. You appear to not be schooled in manners of your Kyn. If you had been you would know who and what I am and leave me be. It is apparent that you do not know what you have slain," the woman stated, standing and placing her hands on her hips.
"I know what I killed. It's a werewolf, an animal, nothing more," Hellboy said, defiant as ever. The woman shook her head.
"You call her an animal, I would think that, because you are of our Kyn, that you would have a little more respect; but my thoughts prove wrong. Learn from this lesson, you will need it to face the coming storm," the woman said. In the blink of an eye she was gone, leaving no trace of her presence.
------------
An old griffin paced along one of the smaller stones in the center of Stonehenge. In three hundred years the monsters had had no reason to assemble at their ancient meeting place. What had once been a powerful group of ninety-nine different representatives had dwindled down over the years as humans caused extinctions of mythical monsters, sometimes the extinctions were unintentional, sometimes they were direct. All of them were tragic. The griffin remembered the day the last of the dragons was slain by St. George. If humans kept polluting the waters then the Sea Serpents, Ichyo Centaurs, sirens, and other sea monsters would soon be gone as well. The council could always tell when a particular mythical race was dead: a stone in the ring completely disappeared. As the leonine beast paced along the stone, an elf watched from one of the standing stones.
"Boreas, the meeting isn't for another forty-eight hours. Shouldn't you be in hiding?" the elf asked, coming closer.
"I needed to think. Depending on how we rule on the matter we'll likely have to reveal ourselves. Haven't you noticed how humans keep coming closer and closer to finding us?" The griffin asked, stopping his pacing.
"Aye, its bad enough that our ancestral homes and ranges have been destroyed or are denied us but with this demon, Hellboy, killing us off one by one under the guise of a protector of humankind its even worse," the elf replied, a somber expression crossing over his face.
"Look at us, Hayen, being so negative before the meeting even begins. How is your wife?" Boreas asked. Hayen smiled warmly as his thoughts shifted from the darkness encroaching upon their world to the small ray of light that made everything worth the effort.
"She's not due for another week or so. I hated to leave her but she 'forced' me to come, Razel is like that when she thinks I need time away," Hayen replied.
"First full-blood in a while, am I correct?" Boreas inquired, Hayen nodded. "Sometimes, that's all that's needed, a little purity, to make the corruption around us cease." As the two talked a third figure came striding up. It was a man dressed in the light traveling garb of a werewolf from one of the ancient packs that stretched way back into antiquity. His color was purple and a steel sword in its scabbard was slung over his shoulder.
"Ninety-nine bottles of elf wine on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of elf wine! Ya take one down and pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of elf wine on the wall!" The man sang in a loud voice. He held a bottle of elf wine in each hand.
"Swiftbolt, hush you," Hayen chided. The werewolf smiled hugely, handing one of the bottles to the elf.
"Why? That's no fun. Let the humans hear. We three can take them, easy," Swiftbolt replied, smiling hugely, obviously he had been drinking. Hayen shook his head before opening his bottle and taking a long drink.
"Actually you mean I could take them easily. You're plastered drunk, Swiftbolt, and the elf soon will be leaving only me to fight them off for you two," Boreas replied, leaping off the stone slab and onto the grass in front of the two. "Come then, if you two are to drink, drink in the company of others also doing so." Hayen and Swiftbolt turned and started walking away. Swiftbolt was slurring something about how he loved elves for their wine-making skills and Hayen in particular. Boreas shook his head as he too began to walk off.
"Boreas," a gentle voice called. The griffin's lion-ears perked up and swiveled behind him before he turned to face a woman perched on the same stone slab he had been pacing on.
"Lady Alecto. How do you fare on this grand night?" Boreas asked. He respectfully dipped his head in a sort of bobbing bow.
"Boreas, you do not have to prove unto me that you are an eloquent speaker, it is as plain as the mane you bear. I have come to ask of you something very important concerning the upcoming council," Alecto replied.
"Anything that I, as weak and frail as I am, can do for you, milady, all you needs must do is ask it of me," Boreas said.
"I need you to make a proposal about the punishment of the one called Hellboy, who, I assume, is the main concern of your meeting," Alecto stated.
"What is this proposal?" Boreas inquired, eyes narrowing. Alecto let out a laugh at the griffin's suspicious nature.
"All you must do for me, for my sisters, is to request that we be allowed to show Hellboy the err of his ways and we will need much help from the council members, and the individual races they represent. Please, Boreas, it will turn out well. Put your faith in me," Alecto replied, nearly pleading with the wizened old griffin. It was Boreas's job to be wary. He was a senior member of the council with nearly a thousand years of service to his name. Boreas was well respected and whatever he had to say was taken into careful consideration. It was for this reason that Alecto had elected to go to him instead of one of the main heads.
------------
"I know what I saw," Hellboy stated through clenched teeth. With the mission mostly accomplished, Dr. Manning had once again required a thorough debriefing. Hellboy had brought up the mysterious woman and, as always, Manning was skeptical about what the demon really saw.
"Yes, but you have no proof there was anyone in that tunnel besides you and the werewolf carcass," Manning retorted, smug at finally having secured a victory for himself. Hellboy fumed for a minute before deciding that this was one battle that he didn't need to win. The red demon moved on into the library where Abe swam around in his tank, waiting around for Hellboy to tell him how the mission went. Abe didn't need to read the demon's thoughts as Hellboy stalked into the library.
"Manning up to his old tricks again?" The Ichyo Sapiens asked. Hellboy grunted in reply. "What was it about this time?"
"I was heading back for the manhole when I saw a woman messing with the body of the werewolf I killed. She disappeared without a trace right in front of my face. Manning, being the idiot he is, doesn't believe me," Hellboy replied.
"Would you like me to take a look?" Abe inquired.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt, but it probably won't change Manning's mind," Hellboy said. Abe, however, had already begun to delve into Hellboy's short term memory. He went past the debriefing, the truck ride back to the B.P.R.D., and the exiting of the sewers; but before he could reach the memory Hellboy was talking about, something blocked him.
'You will get your chance to encounter one of us soon, Abraham Sapiens,' a distinctly feminine voice said.
"So, whatcha find?" Hellboy asked, looking at the confusion on Abe's face.
"A mental block. Whatever you saw doesn't want to be discovered, that I can say. I can also say what whatever that woman was, she was not human. No human could or would have that kind of power, especially over long distances," Abe commented. "Very curious. I have the sinking feeling that this was only the first encounter."
---------
A/N: This is my first Hellboy Fanfic. Constrictive criticism is much appreciated, thanks!
