Chapter 11
Persephone was a queenly beauty clothed in soft, flowing silver-grey. Her dark hair was swept up in an elaborate, conical bun at the back of her head, interwoven with tiny pearls and elegant lace. Her skin was smooth and marble white, and the material of her dress whispered as it slid across her arms and legs. Around her neck she wore a silver, six-pointed star with a black stone set in the middle.
"Father of my husband, I am glad to see you well", she said in a lovely, lilting voice. "Hades wishes that you return to the Elysian Fields soon. The souls there are getting restless."
"Persephone", Kronos said, "you remember, do you not, the message written in the stars three millennia ago?"
"Of course", she replied. "It was of such significance, how could any of us forget it?"
"It has come to pass – all of it, save the last."
"Oh?" Her eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.
Kronos nodded. "And they are here. You have had three ages to prepare your answer; are you certain you know what to do?"
"I am certain, Grandfather", Persephone assured him. She turned to the expectant heroes. "Welcome, all of you", she said to them. "Three thousand years ago, a story was written in the sky. It was a story of valour and courage, of hope and strength, of goodness and heroism, of friendship and love. It was a grand tale, full of mysteries and wonders, and its impact reached over three millennia. All the gods, past, present, and future, could not have failed to see the message in the heavens. And now, it has come to this. We are powerful, yes, but gods alone cannot accomplish the immense task placed before us today. If you are to have any hope of bringing the Daughter of Titan back from my husband's realm, you must play your part."
"Wait", Beast Boy said tentatively. "You mean she's already there? In the Underworld, I mean."
Persephone gave him a long look. "Nay", she responded. "Her soul waits in the outer hall, attempting to restrain her entry. But she is tiring, and every hour brings her closer to the gates of Hades' kingdom. Should ye fail in your appointed task, when the sun sets on the morrow, The Daughter of Titan will be one of the Underworld."
An apprehensive silence filled the unnaturally quiet atmosphere of Rhea's moon. Persephone, Kronos, and Rhea were the only ones who seemed unperturbed by the prospect of Saturn Girl hovering on the brink of entering the Underworld.
"What do we have to do?" Triplicate Girl asked in a small voice.
"Would ye hear of the task destiny has laid out before you?" Persephone asked of them. "It will be no mean accomplishment, and great is the price should you fail."
"We're ready for it", Cosmic Boy stated, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.
Persephone flashed him a glance, and then she reached into the folds of her silken dress and drew out a parchment scroll, yellowed with age and bound by black ribbon, which she gave to Cosmic Boy. "Your mission is outlined for you there. Each of you has a specific part to play, and once you have all accomplished your various tasks, then will we intervene. But be warned, each of you may only perform one task, and you may not help with any others before or after; you may only observe. You would do well to hope that whoever selected you for this group chose well" - Bumblebee gulped a bit - "And you must bring the Daughter of Titan to the planet Saturn, where we will be waiting, one hour before sunset tomorrow. Fare well, heroes. From now until the designated time, you are on your own."
Then the Queen of Hades' kingdom vanished suddenly, as did Kronos. Only Rhea was left, and she walked deliberately away from the team of heroes.
They looked on after the Titan goddess mother's retreating figure for a time, then Raven said, "What does it say?"
Cosmic Boy shook his head to clear it. "What?"
"The scroll", Raven explained patiently. "What does it say?"
Cosmic Boy undid the black ribbon and carefully unrolled the scroll, which was quite long and covered with an assortment of small, obscure glyphs. He turned it this way and that, and then finally said, "I can't read this. It's too darned dark here. I don't even know what these are supposed to be."
Brainy walked over and took the parchment from him, being careful not to grip it too tightly. He laid it flat on the ground and produced a narrow, silver cylindrical object that was the electronic blue-white ray flashlight of the future.
"I always like to come prepared", Brainy remarked as he shone the bright light of the torch onto the parchment. The symbols traced onto the parchment were much clearer now, but they still didn't make any sense.
"How are you going to read that, Brainy?" Phantom Girl asked. "It looks even more complicated to understand than the prophecies were."
"Simple", the twelfth-level intellect replied. "It's a picture language, and just like any picture language, the glyphs each represent something, and they would have to be logical representations. Therefore, all I have to do is decipher what each glyph stands for."
"That could take ages", Cornelia objected.
"Not necessarily", Brainy disagreed. He pointed at a spiky symbol. "This glyph here with the sun and this plant represents the 'color of the sun', which is golden, or yellow. I've arrived at this conclusion because this plant is the one the ancients used to make dye, and this –"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, Brainy. Do you think you could hurry it up a little?" Bouncing Boy asked pointedly.
Brainy chose to ignore that. Instead, he pored over the scroll for a few more minutes before picking it up and saying, "Let's go back to the cruiser. I've got a fair general idea of what it says, but I'll need match it up with other glyphs on the computer to get more detailed information."
So they went back to where they had left the Legion cruiser. Brainy immediately proceeded to run the parchment through the computer and analyze each and every symbol.
It was early afternoon by the time Brainy had finally finished translating the scroll. He then explained to the others what it said.
"Basically, we have to hunt down some ingredients to make a sort of potion that will help revive Saturn Girl", he told them. "Some of these instructions don't make any sense, but I'm almost certain they will when it's time to carry them out. I've transcribed the directions into English for easier interpretation. I've no doubt that when the time comes, we'll want to be able to understand quickly."
"Okay", Will said. "So what's the first thing we're supposed to do?"
"Actually, the first task has already been completed", Brainy informed her. "My job was to translate the scroll, which I have done."
"Great. So does that mean you can't tell us what to do?" Batgirl asked.
"I didn't say that. But I think, to play it safe, I shouldn't." Brainy thrust the paper with the translated instructions to Lightning Lad.
"'Follow the horizon of the mother's moon to the deep dark space'", the Winathian native read. "Okay, that alone doesn't make any sense at all."
"Explaining the clue doesn't count as a task, does it?" Batgirl asked Brainy. He shook his head.
"Lightning Lad, in Greek mythology, Rhea is the mother of all gods", the red-haired crime-fighting teen explained patiently. "'Mother's moon' would mean Rhea's moon, which is here. 'Following the horizon' would simply mean traveling parallel to the horizon here. 'Deep dark space' could mean a crater, but I'm not entirely certain. Still, it's a start."
"I'll set a parallel course from the horizon", Bouncing Boy said promptly, and he turned to the control panel and punched in some coordinates while Triplicate Girl looked something up on the computer. The cruiser began moving.
"We'll have to look out for a big hole or a crater or something", Batgirl was saying. "Something that looks deep and dark."
"The biggest crater on Rhea is just a few miles ahead of us", Triplicate Girl reported.
"Is it deep?" Cosmic Boy inquired.
"Fairly."
"I think that's our place. Let's figure out the next sentence. Read it, Garth", he said to his friend.
"'To go where no man has gone before, keep the flower of snow with you'?" Lightning Lad recited quizzically. "Brainy, are you sure you translated this right? It doesn't seem to be related to the previous sentence at all."
"How should I know why that is?" Brainy asked exasperatedly. "The gods have higher intelligence levels than I do, Lightning Lad. I don't know everything. I just translated it to the best of my ability and put it down in our language. It's the best translation I could get."
"Wait, are you actually admitting that you don't know all there is to know?" Beast Boy joked. He then cowered under the terrifying glare Raven gave him. "Ah…just trying to…lighten up the mood…a bit…" He gulped.
"Well, if you look at it this way", Will said philosophically before the argument could progress further, "we're trying to do what no one has ever done before: to revive someone from death. That would be the phrase, 'where no man has gone before'. No mortals have achieved that feat."
"What about 'flower of snow'?" Beast Boy queried, still eyeing Raven warily. "There isn't any flower made of snow, is there?"
"I honestly don't know", the Guardian admitted. "There could be, for all I know. But I do know that the flower we're looking for is white. The description could be literal, or it could refer to the color of snow, which is white."
"You sound like Taranee", Cornelia commented.
"I must be having too many study sessions with her."
"Would this flower be in the crater we're looking for?" Bumblebee asked.
"You got me." Will shrugged. "But it should be, if these instructions are in chronological order."
"Whose task is it?" Raven asked Lightning Lad, who was still holding the paper.
"It doesn't say", he replied. "I suppose we'll know when we get there."
"Which is in about a minute", Bouncing Boy told them from his pilot's seat.
Sure enough, they began the descent toward the crater approximately sixty seconds later.
"Bouncing Boy!" Brainy howled. "Are you trying to crush the flower, if it is in there?! Don't land in the crater, land beside it!"
"Oh." Bouncing Boy looked sheepish. "Sorry." He adjusted their landing route. "In my own defense, I wasn't listening to what you were saying", he said once the cruiser had touched the ground. "In case you didn't notice, I was piloting the cruiser. It's not that easy, you know."
"That's what the auto-compensators are for", Brainy said pointedly, crossing his arms and sounding slightly triumphant, as if he had won a debate with a well-placed argument. He had been trying to get the bouncy hero to use that subsystem ever since he designed it three years ago.
"But what's the fun without a little risk?" Bouncing Boy asked as he stepped onto the ramp to exit the cruiser. Brainy rolled his eyes as he followed his friend out. Humor. Even if he spent a hundred years as a human, he doubted he would ever understand that strange concept.
In front of the cruiser was a large, deep black hole. In the inky darkness, Cornelia sensed a flower.
"Guys, there's a flower down there", she said to the others.
"Is it white?" Batgirl asked. Cornelia planted her feet on the ground next to the crater, trying to recall what Kadma, the former Earth Guardian, had told her about identifying plants.
"It's white", the Keeper of Earth confirmed. "I think that's what we're looking for."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Lightning Lad asked, jumping into the crater. Immediately some unseen force pushed him back, and he landed on his back about five feet away from the hole.
"Ouch", he groaned, rubbing his back.
"Cornelia, what's the report on the flower?" Will asked.
"It…seems to have some kind of force field around it…" Cornelia's eyes were closed, and her face was peaceful as she swayed gently. Will wasn't alarmed – this was what happened when Cornelia connected with any plant.
"Where exactly is the force field?" Brainy asked.
"It fills the entire crater", Cornelia replied.
"So none of us can get in or penetrate it?" Raven asked.
"No – I mean yes", Cornelia said, opening her eyes. "Not even your telekinetic powers could reach it."
"Then how do we get it?" Bumblebee asked peevishly. She wouldn't admit it, but she was feeling a little worried. Persephone had said they would do well to hope that the one who had chosen them had chosen well. Bumblebee had chosen the team, and she was feeling rather anxious. What if she hadn't picked right?
"We need to raise the flower up to our level – out of the force field. This is my task", Cornelia said determinedly.
They looked at each other doubtfully. What if it wasn't her task and she was needed much more for another task later on?
Their expressions must have given them away, because Cornelia demanded, "Look, no one else can raise the earth or control plants, can they?"
Guiltily, they exchanged glances and then looked at her.
"I didn't think so." Cornelia sounded just a bit smug. "Now step aside, people, and prepare to be amazed."
She stepped toward the crater and placed her hands on the ground. Then she concentrated, using all the power at her disposal (Will had transformed the two of them for the mission) to raise the crater. At first nothing happened. Then, slowly, but surely, the crater began to change. The middle, deepest part of it was gradually forming a dome, atop which was the tiny, snow-white flower. The earth that bore the flower continued to inch its way upward at Cornelia's command. All eyes were on that rising section of earth, and they held their breath as they waited.
Finally, Cornelia collapsed, due to the amount of energy she had used, but it was enough – if only just. The flower was just above the rim of the crater.
While Beast Boy turned into a bird and flew to the flower, Will and Batgirl were helping the exhausted Cornelia up.
"It's okay, Cornelia", Will was saying. "You did good."
Beast Boy returned with the flower in his beak and gave it to Raven, who looked puzzled as she took it. Then he glared defiantly at Cosmic Boy.
"Well?" he said.
"I didn't say anything", Cosmic Boy said.
"It doesn't violate any rules, does it?"
"Don't think so."
"Good."
Then the heroes made their way back to the cruiser to decipher the next clue.
A/N: Hi all! Told you it'd come on Wednesday, didn't I? Sorry if it's a bit short, but it was appropriate to end it here.
Disclaimer: Look, if I owned any characters above, I'd be exceedingly rich and wouldn't be posting this up on FanFiction. Does that tell you whether I own anything?