Chapter IX: Fraud
Previously: 'A thought crossed her mind. Running away was never a noble thing to do, but it was the only way to keep him at bay. She just had to run to a place he could never follow her to.
Betrayal. It was a sin she committed and a place she frequented. It was what she was committing again by refusing to see the changeling. It was a place he could never enter.
She closed her eyes and summoned a portal to the next circle. She wanted to see her father before retreating to the realm of ice. It was a cowardly thing she was doing, but she hoped that Beastboy would understand.'
Malebolge: A realm of Order and Chaos. Ten castles connected by ten bridges, all in perfect synchronization and unison around the deepest chasm in all of creation.
A realm of fraudulent actions. Ten castles punishing the many forms lies and deceptions take.
A realm of despair and pain. The lord of Terror watching over the sin considered the most conscious of them all. Trigon watched over all in his throne of power.
As per the responsibilities of the Ruler of the Hells, he oversaw everything that happened in his domain. So when he heard of the shapeshifter loose in his lands, he knew that he had to do something about it.
The changeling had much to answer for. He singlehandedly disrupted Trigon's most recent plan to escape Hell and was partially responsible for the first. The lord of Terror once had the chance to make the mortal squeal for a few hours. He wanted to resume that for the rest of eternity.
He most certainly would have killed the green one while in Asmodea's control or apprehended him during the short time in Dis' prison, but his agents failed to act before the escape.
His agents also noted other parties vying for possession of this 'Beastboy'. That piece of information let them survive with their skins intact, an unusual act of mercy even for Trigon.
The assorted interests in the changeling intrigued the demon greatly. When he saw the hero at work, the attempts at bravery were feeble at best and the personality mild and boring. What anyone else saw in him was nothing short of a puzzlement.
His daughters' interest was even more so. The princess of Lust probably saw nothing more than a walking fling, but the princess of Pride? His heir left her old life behind and became dedicated to the politics of the Hells, yet she skirted around the boy's path a with suspicious air of tolerance.
She had appeared barely an hour ago, disheveled and on the run. Her aura was different too. Human. Weak. And then she came to her father, her face distraught and confused. She didn't say much, she didn't have to. He could see everything that she held over her head. Guilt. Regret. Fear. All running through her mind like a plague.
Her commands were short and simple and Trigon had no reason to go against them. She had a plan, foolish as it was, but he would abide by it.
His old eyes still saw everything and he noticed when a small green figure appeared on the cliff top of the seventh circle. They narrowed with anger and memories, remembering all the times he was stopped by the insignificant wretch.
He remembered the satisfaction of the pain he put the changeling through and the dismay when his torture was cut short. He remembered the day on Earth when his daughter's friends caused him so much suffering and anger.
Trigon quaked with rage. If it were up to him, the 'Beastboy' would be torn limb from limb before him, skinned alive and burned so his bones would darken and break. If the Lord of Terror had his way, his blackened skull would decorate his throne.
He dug his claws into the wood of the throne, piercing screams and blood coming from the freshly made gashes. The throne was made from trees hewn in the circle of Violence, each one a punishment for the suicides. The agony lacing the sound fell on his ears like a sweet lullaby and he closed his eyes, relishing the moment.
He relaxed his claws and the screams stopped. The decision wasn't up to him. His daughter was adamant about his survival.
He remembered the green one he tortured, how the changeling squirmed under his gaze. That one deigned to come after her, to breach the dimensions for her was surprising.
No demon would stoop to performing an act for another. The sentiment was pointless and futile. Even the bond between genders never existed for him.
He gave his mother death because that was what she deserved. He gave Arella the privilege of his seed because that was what she was meant for. He gave his daughter rule over all because that was her birthright.
The green man intruding into the Hells confused him and his daughter had no reason for being the way she was. She was nervous and anxious, unsettled for what should have been a clear action. An easy decision, yet she had such trouble making it.
The second that Raven heard of this 'Beastboy', she should have killed or enslaved him. It was engraved into the being of every demon. They formed no bonds. Love didn't exist for them. They didn't dream, contemplate beauty, or believe in something greater than themselves.
He snorted at the stupidity of her actions. This changeling, this green shapeshifter would be a thorn in her side for as long as he was alive. That she was taking such great strides to avoid him was pure nonsense.
It mattered not. Raven wanted him alive and away from her. She ran to the circle of betrayal, a place a mere human could not hope to enter. She hoped to turn him away forever, to flee out of reach and force him to leave her behind. She commanded her father to make sure that he did.
Everything in his physiology told him to do the same thing he had done for millennia. Torment and terrorize. The philosophy that was ingrained into his personality. Everything he had done was akin to it.
The worst part was her fears. He could see what she was afraid of, what she knew would happen if he could reach her. What Raven feared most was not that she would forsake him, but that she wouldn't be able to refuse him.
Now that the harbinger of her worst fears was on his doorstep, Trigon would see him face to face.
He lifted a red hand with a single finger extended and a loud thump came from behind the throne. The finger extended to the top of the cliff far away and the wind fluttered out of place. The sound of heavy wings beating faded to the distance, the lithe form of Geryon flying to collect the changeling.
(Scene Break)
All that work of crossing the impossibly long desert only to find him at the head of a cliff that looked to be steeper than the desert was wide.
Beastboy cursed. It seemed that the deeper he descended into Hell, the larger things got. He remembered what was said about the depths of Tartarus. The Greeks believed that the afterlife was so deep that it would take a bronze anvil nine days and nights to fall to the bottom. They must have had some inside information because that's how far it seemed to go down.
It kind of made sense though, the learning curve for anything increased with the difficulty of it. He just didn't expect the same curve for the trip through Hell to be quite so, literal.
How would he get down though? The cliff looked fragile and unstable and the slightest failure to keep steady would result in a landslide that would only get larger and stronger the further the cliff went down. And just from looking at it, the cliff went down so very far.
The closest place where Beastboy expected he could land safely was miles down the cliff face. A very flat rock jutting out the side of the otherwise unstable and unbalanced cliff side.
It could take hours to get there. He couldn't just fall to it, the impact would cripple, if not kill whatever form he chose to make the descent with. If he were to fly to it and not keep a close eye on his air speed, any attempt to forcefully slow down would rip his wings off.
And if that was just to the first safe haven, how many more would it take before he reached the bottom? How long would it take to rest between jumps? How far could he go without rest? How many more days would pass before he could finally get to his destination. Weeks?
Beastboy sighed profusely. He couldn't catch a break at all. It was just one thing after another, wasn't it? He paced back and forth and weighed his options. Did he fly? Fall and turn into an amoeba seconds before impact? Would that even work at this length? Turn back to find a safer way to the eighth circle?
So many questions were throwing themselves around his head when something large landed behind him. A big and powerful creature from the sound of it. He could hear the sound of its breath, heartbeat, and growl emanating from its throat.
Beastboy whirled around to face it, body tensing to meet it in battle if any kind of fight happened. His eyes widened as he saw the creature.
It was a chimera, an amalgam of many different animals in one body. The paws of a lion, the body of a wyvern, the tail of a scorpion, and the face of a man. The perfect fusion of the natures of humanity, bestial, and reptilian.
A strange feeling sunk into the changeling. The face he looked in was very honest, the sort of face that held nothing but purity in it. A look that had no place in Hell. Whatever it was and whatever it looked like, nothing changed the fact that it wasn't friendly.
They were in a standoff. Beastboy, by principle, didn't attack without provocation and the creature made no attempts to intimidate or tempt the changeling into a fight.
A moment passed before the creature moved, lowering its closest shoulder to the ground as if beckoning the changeling to get on.
Beastboy did a double take. The challenging aura he felt from it had faded away almost as quickly as it had appeared. He knew that it wasn't there to stop him as so many others had tried before and that it wasn't acting of its own volition. It must have been sent to collect him.
The chimera snorted loudly and threw its shoulder around, trying to signal that he needed to hurry up. Beastboy walked towards it but kept alert. He wouldn't trust this creature completely.
As soon as he climbed onto it's back, the creature leapt forwards with lightning fast reflexes. At the distance covered by the chimera, Beastboy didn't think that he would stand a chance against it if they ever had to go toe to toe.
It practically flew over the top of the cliff and soared down with a ferocity and grace that the changeling never expected. Drake-like wings unfurled and caught the wind, gliding with expert motions through the air.
Beastboy was so caught up in the elation from moving so quickly that a thump jolted him back to his senses. The chimera had landed on the nearest solid ground in seconds where he was sure to have taken hours.
It padded from rock to rock, following a path that only one with experience could pull off. The powerful muscles in its hind legs proved themselves as they leapt off of stones and landed on others miles away in mere seconds.
Beastboy noticed an area where he doubted that even it could cross, but was forced to change positions as the chimera extended its sizable wings even further. The familiar feeling of his stomach entering his mouth hit him as it launched into the open sky.
Flying above a rocky cliff felt far better than over a hot desert and in between tall metropolitan buildings. There were no surfaces to worry about crashing into or weather to compete with. There were no predators in the sky to watch for, no prey to hunt for. Only the elation of flying remained.
The joys of flying were amazing as they were fleeting as Geryon made the trip considerably faster than he ever would. The base of the cliff came closer by the second and the chimera unfurled scaled wings to slow down before landing. He could hear the bones creak from the strain but they held firm, slowing them to prevent crashing.
As soon as the ground came close, the creature flew upright, forcing Beastboy from his spot. The changeling tumbled onto stone ground harshly, rolling a short distance away from the momentum.
He got up from the fall and brushed himself off. He could feel some pain from the shallow bruises that were beginning to form, but was otherwise unhurt. He looked around and saw an awe-inspiring sight.
He was on the ledge of a tall castle battlements, overlooking the whole of the circle of fraud.
He knew the circle was large but he could never have guessed how elegant it looked. It was like a combination of medieval architecture and geometric symmetry. Ten gulfs surrounded by ten castles, each one dedicated to the various crimes associated with treachery.
Seducers, flatterers, false prophets, corrupt politicians, hypocrites, and fraudulent advisors, all meeting their damnation in each of the structures before him. Beastboy wasn't surprised that short of those in Limbo not responsible for any major sins, this was where the most sinners were sent.
It was in human nature, to have more than others. It was just unfortunate that so many took what they needed from people without their consent.
Beastboy then sensed a presence behind him. A most terrifying presence and one that he dedicated to one being. The lord of Terror.
He turned around slowly and saw what he feared the most. Trigon sitting high on a throne, ivory crown resting comfortably on his head. Four blood red eyes looking down on him with an air of derision. Hooves pressing into the ground as if pretending that he was beneath them.
"Kneel." Trigon spoke the one word with such a commanding tone that Beastboy could do nothing but obey it.
The presence of the demon in his own domain was almost suffocating and Beastboy could do nothing to assert himself in any way. Everything that would happen would be decided by Trigon the Terrible.
Trigon stared at the changeling, trying to find out how he was able to get so far. "I sense something within you shapeshifter. The being I created within you, yet the essence is unfamiliar. This is the reason you were able to pass by so many of my sentries without notice."
Beastboy knew what he meant. The possession that Trigon instilled in him was scooped out and filled with his bestial nature.
"I have never reversed something I have done for I take no action that deems withdrawal. Regardless, what I placed upon you is not the same as what you have now. Something has changed and I have no hold over it."
Beastboy remained paralyzed, forced to listen to the demon without the chance to retreat or even lift his head. He would just have to pray to live through the encounter.
"I desire to know more about how you came to be here. You remain in the land of the living while walking through the land of the dead. How can this be possible?"
"You must have found a portal here, though how you found one is a mystery. It must have been intentional for none would willingly come. The few who seek my power only wish it in the place where they reside. "
The changeling was able to move his head into the slightest of nods.
"Then it was done of your own volition. How did you happen across the way? No demon in the mortal realm had the power to send a being without an escort. "
A moment of silence passed between them as Trigon waited for Beastboy to answer. It took every ounce of willpower to not whimper in fear and even more to find a response to the question.
His breath shuddered and his body quivered. He mustered up the courage to say one word before lapsing back into a state of paralysis.
"Orpheus."
An angry growl came from Trigon as the name brought the story forth for him.
"I knew of the legend but was unaware the pathway still existed. Something will have to be done about that soon. Portals can learn to open both ways and it would break the truce if a lesser demon slipped into your dimension. "
Beastboy silently cursed to himself. He knew that it would be a long shot that Raven would agree to come back with him and longer still to make it all the way back to the beginning, but he just lost his way back out. For all intents and purposes, he was stuck there.
"I know why you are journeying here. Like Orpheus, you seek one who was wrongly taken away. You should be interested to know she wants nothing to do with you."
Beastboy's ear twitched. Did he hear that right? What could that even mean?
"She came to me expressing a firm desire for independence. She was very specific about what was to be done with you."
He was in turmoil. He could understand her sacrifice. He could understand her accepting condemnation to the realm she was taught to fear and shun her entire life. What he couldn't understand was why she ran and hid from him.
The feeling was slowly coming back to the changeling. "That doesn't sound like her." He thought out loud.
Trigon grumbled, agreeing that he was right, but was unhappy to admit it. "These actions do not befit a daughter of mine."
A low hum emitted from his throat as he remembered how out of character his daughter acted. How very, human, she was.
"Explain why you deserve to pass. Tell of how you plan to convince an accomplished demon to lower herself to your level again!"
Beastboy heard the sneer in the demon's voice. He knew what the stakes were and how much of a long shot it would be to get Raven to come back with him. She already took enormous steps to avoid him and had been in Hell for a number of years. It would take every ounce of persuasion to remind her of her old life and how she needed to get back to it.
Either Beastboy's strength was returning faster than normal or Trigon was withdrawing his aura enough to allow him to talk. He thought long and hard, digging into the many thoughts he had during his long trek.
He had a month on Earth to plan the breakout and the many days in Hell trying to carry it out. He hadn't really thought much into a reason why she needed to come back with him.
He went over the events that led up to her sacrifice and what she must have gone through during that time. One aspect stood out to him and summed up the reason he went down to find her.
"She's here because of me. It's because of my incompetence that Raven was forced to take a drastic action. It was through my weakness that a dragon was set free. And it was through my faults that she was forced to sacrifice herself to save the rest of us."
Trigon looked at the changeling with an interest that he had never held towards the being before.
"I know that it's pointless to throw around blame, everyone has some part in what happens, but she doesn't deserve to be punished for my sins."
A flash of white broke through the emotionless face that Trigon held before. "But those aren't your only sins, are they green one?" He chuckled darkly. As a demon, he could see the guilt hanging over Beastboy's head.
"Lust."
"Pride."
"Heresy."
"Treachery."
As the demon listed each sin, the events that transpired while Beastboy committed them appeared before him.
"You sinned to find the portal. You sinned to enter into Hell. You sinned to pass obstacles that blocked your way, but that isn't the worst sin you have committed, is it?"
A cold chill ran down Beastboy's spine. It was like Trigon knew his darkest secrets. He could hear the demon lord moving off of his throne and move close to him. He could hear the skin of his back stretch and the warmth of his breath as he got close to the ground where the changeling knelt.
"The horn was not given to you freely, was it green one?"
Beastboy's heart almost stopped beating from the shock, both of the proximity of such a powerful creature and of how intelligent Trigon was.
All he could do was shake his head because his voice had been scared away
"Stand, changeling and turn around." Trigon commanded. The changeling obeyed without much choice. "Look below."
Beastboy looked down and saw a horrid sight. The castle he was on contained the thieves and robbers. His keen eyes saw unpredictable and hurried movement in every corner. Thousands of figure running and falling over each other trying to flee from a nest of snakes. The less fortunate were bitten profusely, reacting to the venom with rather vicious swelling.
The victims were all indistinguishable from each other, as if their punishment was to have their very identity stolen from them.
A soft growl reminded Beastboy that he wasn't alone. "Take a good long look below you, green one. This is where you will be damned."
Was he really a thief? Didn't his many years of crime fighting compare in any way?
"No."
Trigon answered as if he heard the question Beastboy just asked himself.
He knew it was a terrible thing he did but he had no choice. He was forced to be thief in the night as he was forced to when he was younger.
He had no choice in the matter. Trigon was right. He made a deal with a Satan worshipping cult to find the tomb. He stole the Spear of Destiny to help fight his way through. He succumbed to the advances of Raven's sister, but that wasn't the worst thing he had done.
He had learned to use the Herald's horn, but was able to do so with the condition of returning it after he survived the other dimension. Yet he had it. He knew that having it without permission made him just as guilty, if not worse than the condemned below.
Beastboy knew that what he had done was wrong. He had stolen what was precious from one of his fellow heroes for the slim chance that it would help him complete his solitary mission. What he did was unforgivable but he resolved to submit to any punishment should he return, successful or not.
The demon lord sneered. "You both are weak, so much so that you are a disgrace to your kin."
Beastboy looked down in shame. He knew what Trigon said was true.
"But perhaps you will be strong enough together to find salvation."
The changeling looked up in confusion.
"You may pass, changeling, but I cannot take you to her. She has fled beyond even my reach." Trigon returned to his throne. "If everything you have worked for comes to fruition, you will need to return to your world."
A pointed ear perked up, an interest falling on it.
"There is a portal in the deepest part of Hell, far beyond where the most heinous of sinners are punished. A boon from God for the select who are worthy enough to deserve redemption."
A thousand thoughts raced through Beastboy's head. He could never have hoped to get past Trigon alive, let alone with another way out.
"Take heed though, young warrior. God holds no love and will give no recompense to those of my kind. Such is our exile and damnation to this realm. I know not what would transpire if a half-breed were to go through it, nor one filled with the power of a demon, as you are."
Trigon lifted a finger and summoned a portal, red energy turning the ground into an abyss. They were both spat out a moment later at the top of an abyss. Beastboy knew that it was the edge of the eighth circle and at the entrance to the ninth.
The changeling looked back at the harbinger of doom. "Why are you telling me this? Why not just kill me?"
"Why indeed?" The demon grumbled to himself. "I certainly would have, long before you even made it past Cerberus, if not for your relationship with her. It is for Raven's sake that you still possess life. Nothing else."
Beastboy blinked. He had always assumed he had been relatively under the radar this whole time. He never thought that he was both known to be there and tolerated at the same time. "Well, uh. Thanks, I guess."
"Be on your way, weak one. Pray that we do not meet again." With that, Trigon summoned a portal in front of him and disappeared into it, warping back to his throne and resting upon it as he always had.
He watched as the shapeshifter looked into the abyss, trying so valiantly to reunite with his companion. Trigon would be interested in what the green one did to enter the forbidden realm. It was a puzzlement, how far Beastboy fell and what he did just to see one person again.
Trigon closed his eyes, shook his head, and muttered. "Humans."
To Be Continued