For those of you who don't know, November is the month when an important character here comes power in occult lore. Too bad I got this in kind of late for it, though. Anyway, the name says it all. To Hell, and back.

"'The banners of the King of Hell Advance'

Closer to us,' my master said; "so look

Straight ahead and see if you can spot them.'"

- Dante Alighieri, Inferno Canto 34, Lines 1-3

"L'enfer, c'est les autres."

- Jean-Paul Sartre

"Absolutely not." The Fire Demon bluntly told his apprentice, leaning his chair forward in his private study. "Your little freak friends aren't coming with me on my trip to Baator. You're welcome to come, but they can stay here. Hell is not for mortal eyes to see."

"Kresk, I'm not going without them." Raven protested. For the past three days, the Fire Demon had been preparing for a trip into the Nine Hells of Baator, which could mean only one thing; paperwork. For Hell was ruled by a strict legal system, and anyone that the aristocratic devils caught, much less a demon, without proper papers, could send to one of Hell's numerous prisons, publicly executed, enslaved, or worse. Devils had had an eternity to come up with new and profoundly disgusting tortures. So needless to say, Kresk was getting ready. And during his trial of preparation, the young Raven had seen to mysteriously berate him for a chance to allow the other Titans and her to accompany the Fire Demon on his expedition. Details were sketchy, but Raven was fighting to the last. Kresk snorted, "Is that a hint of loyalty in your voice? How droll! Nonetheless, I stand by what I said. I'm going into Hell, with or without you."

"Why do you even need to go in the first place? You don't even like Baator! You wrote a nine-page thesis on how it was an economical, political, and social wasteland. You literally said to Drake, and I quote, 'I am never setting a hoof on this gods-forsaken crap-heap of a plane for as long as I live.' Why the sudden change of heart?"

"(Ugh) You're just not 'gonna quit 'til I spill it, are you? Alright, fine, you really want to know?" The Fire Demon shifted his eyes, for he considered this confidential information, then leaned in and murmured, "You know what Hellfire is, right?"

"Of course. It's the pure essence of Hell, a magical fire that is especially harmful to good creatures and anarchists."

"Yeah, yeah, that stuff. Well, I have an anonymous buyer who is willing to pay me a HUGE amount of money if I can provide him some solid Hellfire. What that boils down to really is rock super-heated by the stuff and flowing out like lava. Once its cooled, it's essentially a magical rock that can be used for various purposes."

"But that doesn't make sense. Basic geography states that magma and-"

"Ah! But there's the rub, child of mine! You're thinking with rules for this dimension. Step on to another plane and it becomes a whole 'nother ball game. But back to the point: I know of a merchant who comes to a particular town in Avernus once every year. He sells all sorts of rarities for extravagant prices, including these Hell rocks we're looking for. I'm going to go find him and get those stones, and I repeat, with or without you."

"Why do you even need the money? You have enough as it is."

"Heresy! There's no such thing as too much money! And besides…why shouldn't I? Think of the thrill, just like my old adventuring days. Slipping behind enemy lines, without so much as a disguise or alibi. Traveling to some obscure mountain town guarding one of the rarest resources on the Lower Planes. Being forced to synchronize with a mysterious agent to purchase rare treasure, than slip back out to Sigil and smoke a cigar at the Styx Oarsmen, all in a day's work. Just like the old times…"

"Have you taken into account that in the 'old times' you weren't morbidly obese, your lungs weren't full of phlegm, and your legs weren't half-chaositech?"

"I may have put that it in the 'minor details' part of the review. Look, why are you fighting for this so hard anyway? What difference is it to you if I take you and your thralls to Avernus with me? They can take care of themselves, Hells, they managed to limp along for three weeks without you quite fine!"

"I just think that you all need to know each other better. You're uneasy with them here, they don't feel safe with you here; don't you at least want to try and live peacefully?" Indeed, Kresk and the Titans had been waging what was essentially a silent cold war with each other since the Fire Demon had hijacked electricity and caused several magic runes to explode in Robin's face. Nothing had happened yet, but the air was thick with tension in median area between Kresk's portal and the upper rooms of the Tower where the Titans lived. Raven was a monk, a natural a peacemaker, and so sought to allay any fears and suspicions before it came to bloodshed. And what better way than with a little trip to Hell?

"You're just trying to get your cake and eat it too, you mean." Kresk retorted. "Why do you always have to say that? I'm just trying to find a balance, for everybody's sake. You don't say we should get rid of Sigil just because it's the center of the multiverse. Think of it that way." Raven tried to note. The Fire Demon was only egged on; hissing out, "Don't drag Sigil into this! A hole in my head errand isn't the City of Doors, and you're not the Lady of Pain! Face it, you're not gaining an inch here, a single inch! And just think for a moment; do you really want me to lug your friends to the middle of nowhere, in Hell might add, so they can rile me until I snap? Or is this some beautiful dream where you want me to butcher them all and you're just being discreet about it? Oh, I would dearly love that…"

"No, it isn't."

"Oh well, a demon can try. But seeing as that's the case, than let me give you new perspective on the matter. No."

"How is that new perspective?"

"I consulted a new voice in my head. Now scram, unless your gonna' generate some good ale in the next six seconds." Kresk leaned back and returned to his paperwork. Raven would be miffed at him for a few days, but she would get over it. She would bounce back, she always did. And so the Fire Demon didn't notice his apprentice walking over to his bookshelf and taking out an old grimoire. She looked at the cover, to make sure it was the right book. A camelopard reared on the front, dancing over an inverted moon. Raven flipped open the tome and flipped through the crisp, yellow pages until she reached just the right spell. This was a meretricious tactic, but her stubborn demonic nature was determined to get her way. Even Kresk called her bluff, the paranoia would sit with him long enough for her to make some ameliorations. Out loud, she said in a clear voice, "Huh, the instructions for a spell of stone to flesh. Interesting this should be here. Now if only we had someone petrified to use it on…"

Kresk's eyes widened in horror and rage. But deep down inside, a part of him laughed that he could raise an apprentice to go from mantras to blackmail, harmony to cheap cruelty. The conflicting emotions hit each other with the force of a bull. Kresk unsheathed his claws and heated them to glow orange, and dug them into his chair, trying to restrain from striking a blow to Raven…

The Titans were disturbed from their afternoon by Kresk bursting through the door, a false smile plastered on and his left eye twitching in revulsion. Raven was close behind, and she only grinned with vaingloriously as the Fire Demon bellowed out, "Pack your bags, boils and ghouls! We're going to Hell!"

Trust me, this is going somewhere.