Up Rise and Downfall

Chapter 1

"What's he doing here!" Panic asked Hades, pointing a finger at Dante.

"Didn't you hear?" Dante asked, hopping off the table and walking towards the teal imp. "I'm working for Hades, now. Besides, I just had to come home to you, hon!" He put his arms tight around Panic's body. "I've also got you to thank for my freedom... Remember that little spell you thought would finish me off?"

Panic quickly realized his mistake. "No... Wait--how did you find your way down here?"

"Lets just say a friend of yours gave me directions to here," The black demon answered.

Before Dante could continue any further, Pain asked, "Who's this creep?"

When the black demon turned toward the magenta imp, scowling, Panic answered Pain's question. "You remember what I told you earlier about Dante?"

Pain's eyes widened. "This is him?" He pointed at the demon.

"You got it." Dante answered, letting to of Panic, the teal imp immediately scampered away. "Oh, and don't point fingers at people," He pushed Pain's finger with his hand. "It's rude."

Pain could only pull his hand away. "Yeah, you would know alot about that!" He glared into the other demon's eyes.

"Wait, hold it, hold it!" Hades interrupted them, breaking up their little fight. "First off, how do you know Panic?"

"I guess you can say he's my boyfriend." Dante said, pulling Panic closer to his side, scratching his chin (or if he had one).

Hades was a little surprised by this. "Since when did you have a boyfriend!" He asked.

"He's NOT my boyfriend!" Panic pulled himself away from Dante. "He is my ex-friend." Dante tried scooting towards Panic, who in response stepped back away from him, then the teal demon took cover behind Pain.

"Well I don't care what he is," Hades said. "You guys just settle your little differences and show him around. Got it?"

"Got it," The two imps sighed. They and Dante walked down the hallway, giving the new demon a tour of the Underworld, and told him how things worked there.

The whole time, Panic didn't trust Dante at all, nor did Pain. After the events on the island, he was highly suspicious of his motives. Was he coming back for revenge? He had to be, there's no way he could suddenly have a change in heart, plus he remembered what Dante swore before he left.

After showing him around the Underworld, Dante finally asked Panic, "What's wrong?"

Panic whipped around, an angry look on his face. "You wanna know what's wrong? It has something to do with a bastard named "Dante" who once back stabbed me, that's what!" With that, Panic stomped off. He never wanted to see Dante's face ever again.

"Oh, but Panic," Dante stopped Panic in his tracks. "That's all in the past now, and besides, it really did hurt me to think I had to hurt you at that time. But never again. You know I'd never ever want to hurt you. I love you too much." His voice so soft. He stroked Panic's body with his hands, Pain noticed it.

"Hey, paws off, pal!" He shoved Dante away from Panic, obviously a little annoyed.

A glare appeared on Dante's face when the magenta demon stood in his way. "Who is this?" He asked, his voice very low.

"My partner in crime, and friend, Pain." Panic told him.

"Oh, so this pink blob is the friend you told me about..."

"Who are you calling a 'pink blob'?" Pain asked, feeling very insulted.

Dante only glared for a few seconds before saying anything. "Well," He began, putting one arm around Pain's neck, almost choking him. "Any friend of my boyfriend, can a friend of mine, as well." At first Pain struggled to get loose, but in the end, just crossed his arms and pouted, while Dante gave him a fake, friendly grin. He knew that Dante was up to no good from the tone in his voice.

"For the record, friend," Pain said to Dante. "He's not your boyfriend!"

"Sure he's not," Dante said sarcastically, looking over at Panic. The teal imp could only turn away.


Panic took his clipboard and headed down the hallway with Pain, off to do another checkup on the Titans. Just then, Dante came out of nowhere, right behind Panic, startling the imp, and nearly made him drop his clipboard. "Where are you going now?" He asked.

"Me and Pain gotta do another checkup on the Titans," Panic answered. "But I don't think you want to come along, it's pretty dull and boring."

"Nonsense," Dante insisted, gesturing with his right hand. "Any job with you along isn't boring at all..."

Panic sighed. "Fine, you can come," This filled Dante's heart with joy. "But no fooling around."

"You got, baby," Dante said in an almost seductive voice. Panic just tried to ignore it.


When the imps and Dante reached a dark rocky cliff, Pain stopped at one ledge of the cliff, and looked down to the crystal blue ocean, every once in a while the water splashed against the bottom cliff. He hesitated and whispered to Panic in private, making sure the black demon didn't hear a word.

"Panic," He said in a quiet voice. "Incase anything happens up here, just give me a yell, okay?" Panic nodded.

Then Pain morphed into a magenta fish and dove into the sea. Panic watched Pain swim down into the water, while Dante only leaned against the rocky wall, never taking his eye off of the teal demon holding the clipboard. Grinning, he walked over to who he thought was his 'boyfriend'.

"So," He started. "What do you and Pain normally do after a job-well-done?"

"Head back to the Underworld," Panic answered.

"That's it?" Dante asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Don't you do anything else with your time?"

Panic turned toward the dark demon. "Yeah, I hang out with Pain."

Dante only responded sarcastically, "My, what an exciting life you have..." Panic shot him a quick glare.

A few minutes later, Pain jumped out of the water, and morphed back into his normal form. Panic ignored Dante for a moment and turned his attention to his magenta friend.

"How's the Titan status?" The teal imp asked.

"The same as usual," Panic answered. "All the Titans are sound asleep."

Panic checked off the Titans' names on his check board with a feather pen. "Did you check all the Titans?" Panic asked.

"Yep, every single once of them." Pain reassured his partner, crossing his arms.

Dante began to feel a little out of the group, so he decided to start another conversation. "Great," He said to them, putting an arm around Panic. "So what do you say we take a break or something, you know? It'll be my treat."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Panic brushed Dante's arm off of him. "We have to get back to--"

"Back to the Underworld, or Hades will throw a little fit?" Dante asked, interrupting Panic's sentence.

"Yeah, he would." Panic told Dante. "Besides, we don't have time for any of that."

"Man, do all you guys do is work?" The black demon asked the two imps. "When do you guys ever get to have a little... Fun?"

Panic didn't answer, while Pain just scowled at Dante, of course the dark demon scowled back.

"Maybe," The teal demon said. "But for now, he have to be heading back." Both Pain and Panic flew off, Dante followed, muttering to himself.


In the Underworld, Panic had finished the last of the work Hades told him to do. On his way out of one of the rooms in the place, he bumped into that black demon, he dropped some of the papers he was carrying. Dante's arms were behind his back, trying to look innocent, but looks couldn't fool Panic, at least when it came to Dante.

"Is that a paper in your hand, or are you just so happy to see me?" Dante asked the imp, smirking.

Glaring, Panic picked up some of the fallen paper off the floor and walked off out of Dante's way, but that didn't stop the black demon. "Hey, what's the hurry?" He asked, grabbing Panic's shoulder.

"Nothing," Panic replied. "I just got some work to do." Panic was starting to get a little irritated by Dante.

"More work?" Dante asked. "Aww, but all work and no play usually makes little Panic a dull boy..." He began fondling Panic's shoulders.

"Hands off!" Panic swatted away Dante as he continued out to the hallway. Then he felt the black demon grab his shoulders.

"Im just trying to be a little polite," He told Panic. "What do I have to do to get a little trust around here!" The black demon hissed. Panic only pushed Dante away from him.

"Maybe you can start by trying to earn it." Panic said to Dante's face, and with that, he walked out into the hallway on his way to tell Hades the latest news in the Underworld. Dante only stared off at the teal imp, with an unpleasant expression on his face as he only muttered to himself, walking to opposite way.


When Panic was done with most of his work, he decided to check up on Pain, but he couldn't find him anywhere, nor could he find Hades, either. It was pretty strange, too, since him and Pain always worked together, where could he be?

After checking most of the rooms in the Underworld, he thought that maybe Pain was in Hades' throne room. When he got there, he spotted near Hades' stone chair, there, leaning against the bottom of it, was Pain, his back facing the teal demon. When he saw his partner there, he was much relieved, though he wondered what he was doing there. Maybe he's just taking a nap, Panic thought to himself. He went over to the magenta imp, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Pain," He whispered. "Are you okay?" He pulled the other's arm, Pain's body turned, revealing a horrifying sight to Panic.

His stomach was gashed open, his ribs showing, some of his organs ripped out and hanging out, and his eye balls were missing from the eye sockets, and blood leaked out of them, as well. The teal imp screamed seeing his friend mutilated, it hurt to look at such a repugnant sight. He fell down the stairs, due to the shock and his clumsiness, and into the deep gap that was in floor of the room. But instead of falling into a bottomless pit, he plunged backwards into a pool of thick black liquid of some sort, it was almost like blood, it sure felt like it.

He surfaced, gasping, coughing and hacking out whatever it was he fell into. Panic tried hard to swim to the other side, but for some reason he felt dense in the black water, but he pulled all (or whatever) strength he had and swam over to the opposite side of the room, got out, and ran off to find whoever did this to Pain. And he had a pretty good clue of who was behind it.

"Dante!" He yelled out as he reached the hall. "What did you do!" Panic wasn't at all happy of what he saw, and he knew Dante had to have done it. As he ran down the dark hall, which felt like forever, he felt something drop on his long nose; that stopped him in his tracks. When he rubbed his hand on the spot, he looked at his fingers to find smeared blood. Now he became terrified, his eyes grew wider, he looked up to find the ceiling dripping with the dark red blood, some of the drops landed on Panic's face.

It became creepier when blood began leaking through the walls, some of it spread on the floor, making a thin pool of blood, it was like looking into a crimson waterfall. The imp covered his eyes with his hands, shutting his eyes tight, but still peeked through in between his fingers. "This can't be happening!" He tried telling himself. He couldn't find a way out, he found himself trapped between the bloody walls. Just then, he heard something that sounded like children singing, very monotonously.

"He's coming for you,"

Panic couldn't believe what he was hearing at all, he clamped his hands against his head trying to cancel out the chanting, leaning against the wall. "Stop it," He muttered.

"You better hide,"

The teal imp shook his head, he just wanted the voices to go away, to leave him alone. He couldn't figure out where they were coming from, after all, he was all alone... Wasn't he? "Leave me alone!" He shouted, digging his fingers further into his head.

"Get a crucifix,"

Finally, the teal imp decided to run further down the hall, hoping to escape the voices, while kept following him.

"You gotta get away,"

Eventually, he couldn't take any more of it. The imp slammed his fists against the wall, which was still pouring blood, pounding his head against a large mirror, keeping his eyes shut, he could still hear the voices. "STOP IT! MAKE IT STOP!"

"Never be alone again,"

"SHUT UP!" He pounded his fists even harder into the wall, they began to feel numb and sore. The voices began to fade away.

"Don't ever be alone, again,"

Then he raised his head and looked into the mirror to see himself in a mess, covered with the black liquid and a bit of blood, too. "Please, wake up!" He said to himself, already on the verge of breaking into tears.

Suddenly, the mirror shattered before him, and in the many shards of the glass, came out Dante, lunging at Panic, grabbing him by the throat, pinning him to the ground. As surprised as he was, Panic tried all he could to loosen the black demon's grip on his neck, but it was no use. It was hard to breathe.

"Panic,"

He nearly forgot about Dante strangling him when he heard Pain's voice calling out to him, but from where? He glanced around trying to find the source of where his friend's voice was coming from.

"Pain," He tried to speak, with Dante's hands around his neck, digging his claws into his skin. "Please, help me!"

"Panic!"


"Panic, wake up!" Pain said to his friend, who was lying on the table in Hades' throne room, shaking him by his shoulders. After shaking him enough, Panic's eyes snapped open, gasping, and looking around the room to find everything normal, or at least normal for the Underworld. His gaze led up to Pain, who still had his hands on the imp's shoulders. Once the fat, magenta imp came to his senses he let go of Panic, while the other sat up, realizing he had been sleeping on the table the whole time.

Whiping some of the sweat on his forehead with the palm of his hand, he turned to Pain. "When did you get here?" He asked.

"When I heard you screaming from the other side of the Underworld." Pain answered. "Did you have a nightmare that had something to do with Dante?"

"Why do you ask?" Panic asked.

"Because, when I came in here, you were kicking in your sleep and yelling something about him. I think that might've given me a clue." Pain answered, with a "No duh" tone in his voice.

"Oh right," Panic responded. " It's just that first I had nightmares before he came, and now he's here. It's like this guy's haunting me! By the way, where is he?" He was a little nervous from his dream.

Pain noticed this, and wanted to ease the teal imp. "The last I saw him, he was kissing up to Hades." Panic was relieved by this. "Don't worry, pal, I know you don't trust him; to be honest, neither do I. It'll be all right, I won't let him hurt you."

"Why would I do that?"

The two imps whipped around to see Dante enter the throne room. It seemed like the demon had heard them speaking before he came in.

"How long were you standing there?" Pain asked.

"I just came in," Dante replied. "But don't worry, I was'nt listening in on you guys."

Pain and Panic only glanced at each other before Panic asked, "What are you doing in here?"

Dante only stared at him for a few seconds before answering. "I was just about to ask the same thing." He continued. "Hades has been expecting you two an hour ago..."

Both imps looked at each other, and ran into the hall in a hurry. Panic must've slept on the job and didn't realize it until now. Alot of the work can really tire out someone, even him.