I'm back! Right after all the stress of Chapter 8, here's Chapter 9!

Chapter 9 the Apprentice's Apprentices

"Apprentice!" "Apprentice!"

The Master of Games strutted down in hast along the empty halls of his dome.

"Apprentice!" he called out again, and came across an old sock on the ground. He reached down and picked it up. It had two buttons on the top, and a big patch at the end. The Master of Games carefully stuck his hand in the sock, and made the little sock a puppet with button eyes and a sewn-on nose.

"Apprentice! There you are! Why did you not come when I called?" he yelled, harshly, at the sock on his hand.

"I'm sorry, Master," the sock replied in the Master of Game's squeaky, sing-song voice. "I was busy, checking the results of the tournament."

"Well, what are the results?" the Master of Games replied to his apprentice, impatiently.

"Well," the puppet said and made a smashed, flat face. "You called me before I could check…"

"Oh," the Master of Games thought and then his face became stern once again. "Let's go then!" he gestured down the hall to the control room.

The Master of Games walked on past the apprentice who made a face behind his back.

"What did you just do…" the Master of Games stated smartly.

"Oh, nothing," the apprentice rolled his eyes and followed his master.

They walked along several rows of hallways to the opposite end of the manor. Nothing was said between the odd two, but the puppet broke the silence, abruptly.

"Why are you doing this tournament again?"

"Hmm?"

"You know, with all that happened last time…" the puppet started.

"Last time," the Master of Games said bringing his hand to the puppet's throat (or his other hand), "will not be discussed if you know what is best for you…."

"Well exuuuuse me, Master," the puppet said smartly.

Then there was silence again, which was interrupted, again.

"Why are you called the Master of Games?"

"What?"

"I said why are you called the Master of Games? It's not like you ever fight in your own tournament, 'cept at the end when you have all the contender's powers to your advantage…"

"Well, before I hosted tournaments," the Master of Games started. "I was extremely passionate with games. I never lost," he smiled.

"Never?"

"Never."

"Never?"

"Never."

"Yugi Mouto eat your heart out…"

"What games did you play?" the puppet inquired.

"Oh, the best games with the best of villains. I remember it like it was just yesterday…"

Flashback

"I will defeat you Slade!"

"Who are you?" Slade asks at the figure.

"I am the Master of Games," he states grandly.

"Ok, I accept!" shouts Slade quickly and gests into a fighting stance.

"Bring it on," Master of Games states and makes a stance.

Slade lunges at him. Master of Games pulls something out of his pocket.

"Hungry! Hungry! Hippos!" he shouts.

"What?" Slade says doing a double-take.

"You heard me! You! Me! Hungry-Hungry-Hippos! Bring-it-ONnnnn!" screams Master of Games like a pro wrestler.

Slade stops and stares at the little game.

"You can't back down a challenge!" yelled the Master of Games with a smile.

Slade sits down on chair across the Master of Games and starts game, much to his dismay, tapping the little button while the cute colorful hippos eat little metal balls.

"Yeah! I won!" shouts the Master of Games in glee.

Slade is thoroughly confused.

Master of Games is thoroughly big-headed doing the chicken-dance.

end flashback

"Wow that was a very revealing flashback," yawns the Master of Games stretching his long, hairy arms.

"It reveals you're an idiot!" shouts the apprentice.

The Master of Games swats his apprentice and yowls in pain.

Then they came to the control room. The sock puppet pressed a few buttons with its nose and four screens appeared.

The Master of Games read. "The current winners are Lilith, Starfire, Aquagirl-"

"What of the demon girl…" the puppet stated cautiously.

"What of it?"

"She did win right?"

The Master of Games tapped a few more buttons with his hairy hand.

"Yes. Yes she did."

"Figured so…" the puppet mumbled quietly.

"What was that?" the Master of Games inquired his apprentice.

"She is far better than the others," he started. "More than she would like to admit."

"And that is why we want her," came two voices from the door. Two dark figures came up into the room and shown themselves.

One was a young looking boy with hair whiter than moonlight and spiked like icicles. He had pale skin and was thin, but well-built and had an intelligent face. One red eye shined, while the other was covered a black bandana on his head, and his warm smile curled up with a fang. He wore a sleeveless, black Chinese style vest with silver embroidery and black pants that tampered into black boots with silver and blue flames crawling up the ends of it covered with many, many silver buckles.

The other was a girl who also had white, shimmering curls that fell down a little lower than her shoulders so it was relevant that they were related. However, her eyes were red and peevish and covered with a cool eye-patch. Her lips fell into a disgusted frown. Her skinny body was clothed with a black, long sleeve turtleneck with a metal armored plate and a white short skirt hooked with many silver chains that ended with sharp looking daggers.

"Unfortunately, you've meddled into matters far from your concern for long enough," stated the girl glaring at the Master of Games.

The Master of Games swung around at the two teens. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Name's Venim," said the girl.

"Viice," said the boy.

The Master of Games took a good look at the two and his eyes widened.

"You're vampires!" he screamed.

"No, we just naturally look like this…." Viice frowned.

"We're demon hunters, and that demon girl….we want her!" Venim yelled into the Master of Game's hairy ear.

The Master of Games rubbed his vibrating ears and turned to his apprentice.

"Who are they?"

"My apprentices, so technically, they are your apprentice's apprentices," the sock puppet said.

"Hey! We're not exactly working for you!" Venim yelled into the sock puppet's ear, however imaginary it may be.

Viice put his hands on Venim shoulders and restrained her.

"Relax baby sister," he whispered into her ear. "Selling your soul to a sock puppet may suck, but it has been worthwhile…" he said slowly before Venim shoved him off.

"Worthwhile?" said the Master of Games.

"Yeah, it sort of goes like they do what I say till I get your job and they get mine, and I point them towards vulnerable demons ripe for the picking," the apprentice explained.

"So why are they here?" asked the Master of Games.

"That demon girl, Trigon's only daughter and the heir to all his chaos and kingdom, well we require her, or actually her soul self…," explained Viice in his cool, charismatic voice.

"You took her before we could get her!" growled Venim.

"So this was our plan," continued Viice over his sister. "We wait till the end of the tournament, when she is most weak and vulnerable. By then you will have received the powers of all the heroines, but even then you won't be strong enough…

"However, we have a few safety nets, like this," he held up the familiar blood red amulet from which the Master of Games can suck the power of all the titans. "It is armored with our blood making a dark barrier. If the demon girl breaks it, instead of the heroines escaping, it will destroy those inside."

"And plus, you have us," Viice pointed out. "If something goes wrong, you will give us the amulet. We will overpower the demon girl easily after all it is what we do best. Plus, with that witch inside the amulet, we can suck her soul self and will be unstoppable."

"That was looooong Viice," groaned Venim. "If you need my to dumb it down for any of you insects just give me a heads up…"

"Nope fine here," answered the wide eyed Master of Games.

"The only thing you need to worry about is-" said the boy.

"Yes…?"

"The only thing you need to worry about is to make sure that the demon girl wins. She must win!" he finished.

The Master of Games smiled.

"But of course, I will see to it that she wins by all means possible. But like my apprentice said earlier, she is far superior from the others…."

"Very well, we'll be on our way," said Viice respectfully.

Viice and Venim gave their master and the Master a polite bow, while Venim stuck out her tongue as an addition, and left.

When they got out of the room, they closed the door and walked across the quiet hallway where they passed by several dorm rooms probably occupied by the heroines. They got outside the Master of Game's dome where the moon shown and everything was still.

Venim gave Viice a small shove to the shoulder.

"You're one smooth talking idiot! Why did I ever get you to talking me into this? We don't need to listen to those bozos! We should be well better off, and you know it!" she screamed.

Viice stared at her with empty eyes but stayed silent.

Venim burst into tears and clung herself to her brother's chest.

"I know we should be better off…." he said to his sister. He lowered his head and inhaled his sister's fragrant white hair.

"I know we should be better off," he repeated. "But this is the best I can do at the moment. You know I try so hard to make life better for us, better for you," said he.

She buried herself into Viice's arms. "I hate them! I hate them all!"

Viice reached up to Venim's face and stroked her cheek gently. Then, he reached down firmly to her chin and pulled it to her face grabbing her attention.

"Listen! You just continue hating and someday everything will be alright! My whole life I have strived to make our pathetic lives better, because I know you deserve better! I promise you! Oh, Venim, I promise! I promise I will continue to try!"

She listened to him in awe and fear. Then, she turned her face away and pried his hand from her face.

"Alright," Venim croaked.

Viice sighed and shook his head.

"S-Sorry got carried away," he smiled downward.

She looked up and a smile stretched in between her ears. "It's a-alright."

Viice sighed once again. "Good."

Venim nodded, and they both stood by the moon for a while.

"You know, there was another element to the plan that I did not bring up," said Venim to her brother.

"Really? What?"

"Well, we are dealing with no ordinary demon, even if she is a half human. She is the daughter of Trigon. The Trigon! Even if once we get her soul self we've got it made, you and I both know she won't be easy to break down," she said pausing for her brother's feedback. Viice nodded and Venim continued.

"So I was thinking, half demons may be even stronger than full demons in some ways, but their weakness relies in the heart the human implement that separates them from any demon," Venim said.

"What are you saying...?"

"I know you almost never get any complements from me, but you are actually a major hottie."

Viice grew silent.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" said Viice.

"It may be the only way, c'mon she's just a demon," she pleaded to her brother.

"No, you know I'm not like that! Can't we break her with a quick, clean cut?" Viice yelled, exasperated, but from the look of his sister's eyes he knew that it was not only the maybe the only way. It was, regrettably, the only way. The only thing that separates his sister from a happy life he has strived for.

He sighed and lifted his hands to the back of his head.

"Well, let's just see how powerful she is…"

"So that's a yes?"

"No."

Venim frowned.

"That's a maybe."

Venim smiled.

Meanwhile in the bushes nearby a figure was watching the two from a distance. A figure that was listening in on everything, the Master of Games, the plan, and what was going to be done with Raven.

……………………………………………………………

O.C power coursing through my veins! The apprentice is a sock puppet who "does whatever the Master of Games says." The Master of Games is hairy. The two teens are Venim and Viice who are demon hunting vampires who want Raven's soul self. Let's see… Venim is the girl who has issues…. Viice is the guy from the last chapter and has issues…. Did you know all the characters in Teen Titans have issues? Oh well.