Damn but this one took awhile. Went through a ton of revisions with Trigon's dialogue before I got it to a barely satisfactory state. Hopefully I kept his performance true to form.
Chapter 7- Dealings with the Devil
Behold Dis,
And behold the place where thou
With fortitude must arm thyself
Divina Commedia-, Inferno canto 34
The whispering echoed through his mind as a faint roar came from the darkness. The noise increased, and he recognized the growing crescendo as the approach of something massive. The black portal gave a shuddering ripple, and for a moment it took the form of a screaming human face. It vanished as quickly as it came, and the darkness began to push outwards as a burning light replaced it. The fiery glow enveloped the portal, seeming to burn a hole into the very fabric of reality. When the light subsided, Beast Boy found himself staring into Hell.
It was a place he had hoped never to see, much less in his mortal life. Through the portal he could see ash and dust churning endlessly through the stifled air. It was an infinite expanse of rock and lava, bottomless valleys gaping into blackness while jagged peaks seemed to rise forever. Below were millions of figures, their features hidden by the light of the fires. His vision blurred from the distance, but he could hear the dismal sounds rising up even from the bottom of the vault; it was a blended mix of human screams, a dirge of pain and sorrow that nearly shattered his consciousness.
The roar was growing louder, its rumble beginning to rise over even the screams of the damned. He tried to concentrate on it, focusing every sense on its direction, fighting to tune out the sights and sounds of the inferno below him. The rumble was almost upon him, and beneath it he could hear the thundering booms of footsteps. A gigantic shape suddenly reared up and into view, its size filling the portal. He caught a glimpse of white hair and red skin rising past his sight, and then a yellow blazing eye loomed up before him.
The eye narrowed slightly, and a tremor crept up his spine as it focused on him. He thought it had been bad before, when Trigon had followed him as a disembodied spirit. This was far worse. Now he could hear the growling breaths, see his own terrified reflection in that eye, and understand just what was examining him. He felt like an insect being frowned upon by some uncaring god, and perhaps that was all he was to this demon; an insignificant pest.
The demon rose to his full height, stepping back from the portal to afford itself a better view. With what little stability remained in his mind, Beast Boy tried frantically to estimate the size of the monster. It was larger than his own T-Rex transformation. It was larger than the fire creature Slade had summoned while tricking Thunder and Lightning. It was even big enough to have crushed Malchior in the palm of its hand! Trigon's face bent inwards, and Beast Boy caught a glimpse of the mouth, full of gleaming, dagger teeth. Each of those fangs was larger than he was!
The cavernous mouth gaped open, and a hot wind smelling of carrion and blood roiled over him. He could dimly tell that Trigon was speaking to him, but the words seemed to come from far off, as though he was rapidly moving away from his living body. His heart still felt as though it would burst from his chest, but the feeling seemed to grow fainter and fainter by the moment. A massive gust of wind crashed into him, and he hardly felt the impact as his body collided with a wall. The cold waves of panic around him were dulling into a heavy fog, and as he felt the last remnants of his consciousness beginning to tear, he saw Trigon lifting a hand the size of a tanker truck and leveling it towards him.
Trigon gazed through the portal, a malevolent smirk crossing his face. The boy had shown great courage earlier, but it had been the same foolish bravado that all mortals possess when they are unaware of the true danger before them. He could see the fear now, that primal terror that locked his body in place, helpless to do anything but stare in awe and dread.
"As you demanded, so have I revealed myself. Tell me again, brat, how you intend to banish me from your home? Explain how you intend to defeat one such as me? You are small, weak. Your life wanes and vanishes in a moment while I am eternal. You have no idea what true power entails, yet you presumed to challenge me? ME!" His last word was a bellowing roar that knocked the boy clear off his feet, blowing him across the room and into a wall.
Trigon laughed mockingly, waiting for the child to react. When no movement came, he looked closer, suddenly anxious that he had mistakenly caused more harm than he intended. He let out a disdainful snort as he realized that the boy's sanity was on the verge of collapse. How could he have been so foolish? With all the anxiety and fear and confusion that the boy had endured, it was only natural that the stress would be too much for his feeble mind to bear.
This would not do. Though he loathed admitting it, he required this mortal's help if he was to proceed. Lifting a hand, he pointed towards the boy and focused. A soft, blue glow surrounded his fingernail, a soothing light that seemed utterly out of place coming from him. The demon's brow furrowed in concentration, and Beast Boy was suddenly enveloped in the same blue light. His breathing gradually slowed, his heartbeat dropping back to normal. As the glow dissipated from his body, his blank and lifeless expression cleared, and with a series of blinks his bright, green eyes had returned. He glanced around in confusion before his gaze returned to the portal. At the sight of Trigon he let out a high-pitched yip and pressed himself back against the wall. The smell of fear no longer radiated from him, replaced instead by a surprised caution. At least now his mind was stable and he was no longer in danger of a complete mental breakdown. Trigon smirked in triumph. Perhaps now they could speak earnestly.
"I trust you'll find me less overwhelming now?"
"What did you just do to me?"
Trigon chuckled. "What I did, boy, was bolster your mind to withstand my presence, saving you from succumbing to the grip of insanity. My daughter is not the only one capable of healing."
Beast Boy's eyes widened in realization. "Whoa! Healing like your daughter? Do you mean Raven? Wait, then that means you're that big red dude from her mirror! The one who was stomping around shooting lasers and shouting 'Rage shall consume you' over and over again! Wait, why do you got antlers now?"
Trigon paused in surprise. The boy had ventured into his daughter's mindscape? This mortal was becoming more intriguing by the minute.
"What you encountered was the manifestation of my daughter's demonic nature. A pale imitation, but physically quite similar. You'll find that I am far more real and more dangerous." He chose to ignore the question about the antlers.
Beast Boy grinned, hoping that he looked more confident than he felt. "Yea, but Raven clobbered the other you all by herself! With all of my friends working together, you're gonna go down so fast it'll make your antlers spin!"
Trigon feigned an expression of shock, looking as though such a possibility had never entered his mind. "No! How could I have been so blind as not to see my inevitable defeat? With you trapped inside this room, and your friends unable to even sense my presence in this world, how could I possibly hope to succeed?"
'Great, now he's mocking me. I guess that's where Raven gets her sarcastic side from. Could this get any worse?' He was right though; Beast Boy was still stuck in here alone with him.
Pushing away from the wall, he stepped back to the portal and locked eyes with Trigon. At least, he tried, but found it difficult to decide which one to look at. He finally settled on the bottom right.
"So you wanted to talk, I'm listening."
"Excellent. I trust that with this confinement and the preservation of your mind, you have gained an idea of how important you are to my goals. Knowing this, I hope you will come to your senses and realize that there is no option but to obey me and agree to my request."
Beast Boy paused before replying. With his fear of Trigon slowly melting away, he found himself becoming more and more annoyed at being spoken down to by the demon. Maybe it was his turn to throw a few insults around, and if he was as important as the big guy said, it's not like Trigon could risk hurting him.
"Alright, fine. Since you're not letting me out of here, how about you tell me what exactly you want?"
Trigon's eyes narrowed. "Have I not already made my intentions clear? I desire escape from-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Beast Boy cut him off with a wave of his hand. "You want to get out, and you need my help. I got that the first time. How 'bout explaining what you want me to do? Am I supposed to click my heels together or something?"
The demon scowled. "I warn you, mortal. Speaking to me so insolently is a very unwise act."
"Man, sorry for trying to make a little joke. It's not my fault you were being all confusing earlier with your little smoke visions."
"Boy, your cheek is beginning to vex me."
"Hey dude, you're the one who screwed with my head or whatever so I wouldn't be afraid of you…" He paused as a wicked grin spread across the demon's face.
"True, and I could remove that mental reinforcement just as easily." His hand once again began to lift, and Beast Boy waved his arms frantically.
"No, wait, that's alright! No more backtalk from me!"
Trigon nodded, his hand falling back to his side. "A very wise choice. Now, if you are through chattering, I will explain what will be required of you. As I tried to explain earlier in that… 'little smoke vision' as you called it, I have been seeking an escape from my own imprisonment. My mortal servants, however, were unable to communicate with me, as weak and dull as their senses had become. Though I had previously created the means of my release, I am still unable to achieve them. For this, I require a mortal's aid.
Beast Boy raised his hand. "Um, question? You still haven't told me what you want me to do yet, and-"
"SILENCE BOY! Your impatience is truly infuriating." He watched Beast Boy in silence for a few moments, making sure that there would be no more interruptions.
"Your ultimate role in my escape is unclear. I only know that you will have some part to play when my time comes. Until then, you will have a different purpose. As you see me now, I remain trapped in this underworld."
He gestured around himself. "The only place in your world through which I can manifest is the crypt you encountered tonight. Even then, I am capable of interacting in the mortal realm only through my ephemeral state, and I cannot tarry long before my essence is forced to return. What I require is a mortal body to carry that essence, a host which I might use as an anchor for my spirit. I have chosen you."
"So you want to possess me and make my head spin around and vomit pea soup and crawl on the ceilings!" A measure of panic had begun to push its way back into his mind as an image of Linda Blair appeared in his thoughts.
Trigon growled. Where was the boy coming up with these ridiculous conclusions? "I will not directly possess your body. My spirit will reside within you. We will be capable of telepathic communication, I will see through your eyes and listen through your ears, but I will not be capable of manipulating your physical form."
Beast Boy missed the unspoken 'yet' in Trigon's words, but his mind was already made up.
"Sorry, but no thanks. I never really wanted an imaginary friend, so a big growly devil in my head doesn't sound that great either. Guess you'll have to find somebody else."
"Are you trying to deny my will?"
"Yea, pretty much! Go on now, poof back into smoke and go to your library. Shoo, shoo! I'm not helping ya."
Trigon leaned forwards. "And tell me, mortal, what makes you think you have a choice?"
Beast Boy found himself being lifted bodily into the air. As he was pulled up to the portal, he saw that Trigon had moved closer, with only those four glowing eyes visible. He tried struggling, tried shifting into larger forms and breaking free of the hold, tried slipping away as smaller creatures, but with every change he remained frozen in place. With no other options, he reverted to a human and looked into Trigon's eyes. They suddenly flared with a blazing light, and then he was falling, deeper and deeper into a darkness that seemed to have no end.
A shape formed in the blackness, and he barely caught a glance at it as he hurtled past. It had looked like a chunk of rock. More objects sprung from the void, and he was soon plummeting down through a swarm of floating asteroids. Another one appeared below him, far larger than the others. As it loomed closer and closer, he realized sickly that he wouldn't be avoiding a collision with this one. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to brace himself for the impact.
His momentum shifted in the final moments of his descent. He wasn't sure if he had changed direction or the asteroid had somehow rotated, but he slammed into the rock at a shallow angle instead of head-on. His body crashed into the grey earth and skipped back into the air like a stone before coming down again. On the third landing he stayed in contact with the ground, tumbling and rolling to a painful stop. He lay prone on his stomach; eyes clenched shut as he waited for the pain to subside. When he no longer felt in danger of vomiting, he blinked the tears from his eyes and tilted his head to the left to examine his surroundings.
The grey stone of the asteroid stretched out blankly around him. The sky above was black and filled with stars, and he could see the shapes of smaller asteroids zipping across the horizon. Beast Boy groaned and dropped his head back to the ground, watching the motes of dust that blew away at his breaths.
'Great, just great. I mouthed off a little too much to the big, the red and the ugly and he sent me to another dimension. Now what do I do?'
Pushing himself to his knees, he was about to turn and look in the other direction when he noticed a shadow falling over him. From the corner of his eye, he could tell it was a humanoid, nearly as tall as he was, standing motionless to his right. It must have been there since he had fallen. With no way to tell if the person was friendly or hostile, he figured his best option was putting some distance between them. Throwing himself to the left, Beast Boy somersaulted across the ground before leaping to his feet and facing the figure. His mouth dropped open in shock.
"Raven!"
Couple of notes on Trigon- Yea, I know that in Season Four he has red eyes, but I never really liked that look as much, bit too monochromatic and all. I think the yellow eyes he had in the Nevermore episode work better, so that's what I'll be sticking with. Speaking of Nevermore, how come when Rage was impersonating him he didn't have any antlers? Did she just not like the look of them? I guess it could be that even though she's the mental personification of anger, she still has some femininity in her and she wanted to look as nice as possible. That would also explain the lack of mutton chops, and the rich, baritone voice he was using at the time.
At any rate, hope you enjoy the chapter, and with any luck the next one won't take quite so long.
Cro
