Valentine landed heavily on her feet, while Raven came to a gentle descent with nary a sound. Above them, a pool of red swirled angrily, bathing their immediate location in a gross crimson, not unlike Otherside. The room itself was an inverted imitation of the library, the two of them standing on the upside down ceiling, while floor still held the now red pool, through it, they could see the ceiling of the library of the mortal realm.
"This is the Underworld?" Raven scoffed.
"Sorta. Even though Sparda's Seal is in place, the dimensional fabric is still pretty thin here. This room is only a bridge which we're using to punch through into the Underworld."
Valentine walked over to the inverted double doors that sat high up against the "ceiling" of the room.
"Rae-Rae, could you float the two of us up there?"
Nodding, Raven held up a black burning fist, a dark disk forming underneath the two of them and drawing them up to the upside down doors. With a heave, Valentine pushed hard against the imitation wood, forcing them to open outwards.
And lo, it stretched out beyond them.
The endless wastes.
Valentine tilted her head with a knowing grin, "Welcome home, Rae-Rae-chan."
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V For Vendetta: Acte 2
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The first thing Raven recognized was how… strange the air was. In the realm of light, you could at least say it was hot, or cold, or humid, or anything else. But there was nothing to feel in the air here. It was like there was truly empty space in the atmosphere around them.
It was also dark. Dark not in that there were shadows hiding from light. No, there was no light here. The dark was like that of hiding under your blanket, one that allowed you to see, but at the same time one that seemed to mask everything with an aura of featurelessness, like everything remained just out of touch until you touched it.
There were statues everywhere, as far as the eye could see. Split and fallen, nothing remained in one piece, torsos with their heads nearby, cracked arcades and columns and whole altars and unidentifiable obelisks and rubble that stretched forever into the distance. Even above them, the endless ruins hung upside down from the far away intangible night blue above them that was both sky and ceiling. Everywhere something had fallen from its greatness.
And there was the water. As the two of them stepped out of the doors embedded in one statue, Raven looked down the see endless miles of drowned statues that kept onwards into the blood red abyss. However it worked, the water Raven and Valentine stood on seemed to support their weight as if it were dry ground, though their soles still sloshed with the contact.
Above all, Raven felt uncomfortably comfortable here, as if it were safer here to lie down and fall asleep than anywhere else she'd ever been. Not even her room compared.
Not even Azarath.
"This place is called the Room of the Fallen Ones. It's essentially a hub dimension that stretches on into infinite, but around here there's some portals peppered about that might lead us to Trigon's realm."
"And you know the way?"
Valentine shrugged, "Not really."
"I thought you were an expert in traversing this place." Raven deadpanned.
"Sure I am, Queen, but this is the first time I'm actually walking around here on my own. Whenever my soul got called down on business, God of Time always directed it straight to the realm I needed to be."
"So… we're lost before we even began."
Valentine vigorously waved the accusation off, "No! No! Don't be so negative, Rae-rae-chan! What we gotta do is follow you! You'll probably instinctively know the way!"
"Me?"
"Yeah! Just… concentrate or something!"
"I suppose between the two of us, I'm the only one capable of such a feat."
"You're so mean!" Valentine pouted. Raven merely ignored her servant as she closed her eyes and stretched with her mind to sense… whatever she was supposed to instinctively know.
She faintly began to feel the presence of her father ahead. Raven opened her eyes and turned back, "Let's go."
"Alrighty then!" Valentine cheered, one hand adjusting the grip of the rucksacks on her shoulders, the other fisting into the air.
Approximately five minutes later, they were into their first fight.
Around them, plumes of water exploded about them, until several beasts emerged from their sudden arrival and landed around the pair. They had thick bodies and thin limbs, their flesh ashen pale until the colors mixed into a gory crimson at the limbs and along the spine of their backs, tail, and top of their heads, crowns of horns sprouting from their heads and upper back. In their claws were bloody tridents, with a flaming scythe of energy affixed between the forks.
Raven apprehensively eyed the creatures posturing around them, swinging her eyes one way and the next, "These are?"
"The Abyss. They're fairly commonplace in the Underworld, and can be used by anyone. I suppose your Dad set them up to give us a warm greeting." Valentine haughtily noted, one hand on her hip, before she reached under her thick black robes to pull out a magic scarred FAMAS and a M16 rifle for each hand.
Raven raised an eyebrow, "And we aren't running because…?"
"They can jump after us even if we flew, you know. And you said you wanted to rip your way through." Valentine petulantly argued.
"Fine, we'll clear this group and then get going."
"Hai, hai, hime-sama."
The creatures rushed forward.
Black showered, barrels roared, and life in the Underworld went on its merry way.
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"I can't believe she'd just leave like this!" Beast Boy's voice whined over the communicator as all four of the Titans searched the city for their missing compatriot, "I mean, doesn't she get how much we busted our butts on trying to figure out what Slade was after, and she just LEAVES? Dude! Come on!"
Down on the streets inside his car, Cyborg spoke back through his arm, "You have to admit, though, when you're the official end-all of anything, you'd feel a little responsible about the matter. Not that you'd understand anything about responsibility, Grass Stain."
Beast Boy turned into a bull for a few seconds to give out a monstrous snort, before turning back to speak, "I bet that's why she's never in a good mood anyways."
Starfire's voice came though the static next, "Friends, but should we not honor friend Raven's request to not look for her? Not only is this matter personal to her, she should know best, if she is truly of Trigon's kin."
"Dude! You wanna leave her to take on a super powerful demon guy by herself?"
"Well, she did say she was not alone in this endeavor…"
"Yeah, but she doesn't even trust the only guy on her side, whoever it is. She's not exactly in a winning situation, and whether she likes it or not, I'd rather like it if she got some help to even the odds, even if it's a demon she's up against." Cyborg called back.
"But she's in a whole 'nother world! What's searching the city going to do?" Beast Boy honestly wondered.
Robin's voice cut in sharply, "How she disappeared was to abrupt for her to leave the city, so there has to be something in the city that allowed her to go to this other world Raven talked about. We are going to find her, and we will bring her back."
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A spinning scythe blade of energy slammed into Valentine's SPAS-12. The sacrifice spell planted on it made sure it absorbed the majority of the blow instead of the Foundation witch, but nonetheless, it was enough to send her back against one toppled statue with a grunt, shattered bits of falling from her fingers.
"Tough, are you? Take THIS!" Valentine sneered through gritted teeth, and produced a gold orb topped with a small crucifix, which she pulled off. Hurling the hissing weapon at the approaching crowd of Abyss, Valentine was please at the sight of the magic explosive tearing the beasts to bits, their unmoving forms sinking back under the red water while she reached into her full metal jacket to randomly grab a pair of likewise rune-scraped mini Uzi's and jumped into fray, firing in two directions at once, until those were quickly destroyed and more guns came out.
Raven handled herself well enough, throwing rubble at high speeds and letting manifestations of Soul Self out from her body as various clawed hands, crushing foes about her.
But the process was irritating her. The moment the current party they were entertained with was finished off, they would only make short progress before more of the Abyss came. Thus, she shouted back to Valentine.
"We're wasting our time! We're going!"
"Coming!" Valentine obediently responded, hurling another smoking gold orb at their pursuers. At the sight of Raven taking to the air, Valentine also pulled out her immense tome and hopped on after her queen. At the sight of the fleeing prey, the surviving Abyss moaned in their echoing voices and leapt after them. Even at the height of several meters, the pair was hard pressed to dodge to flying strikes or blades, while trying to delay them with returning fire and magically toppled statues.
"Can't we just fly higher?" Raven shouted between dodging flight paths. Valentine shouted a big no to that.
"Do you want the guys up there to go after us too?" Valentine shouted back, pointing to the ceiling of broken ruins above them.
"There are demons up there too?"
"The laws of physics aren't exactly solid here, you know-"
An Abyss latched onto the bottom of Valentine's flying book. An AK-74 point-blank promptly took it off. As pursuit wore on through the vast desolation of the Room, Raven felt the presence of her father grow stronger and stronger, until an obvious presence showed itself not far off in the distance.
"Valentine! There!" Raven pointed ahead to an upright glistening surface edged on all sides by intricate metal, giving the appearance of a body-sized mirror, though the inside had no reflection, rather a faint image of domain covered in red, ash, and fire.
"Yeah! That must be the portal into Daddy's personal domain! AGH! Too late!"
Raven looked up in the direction of Valentine's horrified yelp, and saw they had most likely accidentally risen to the altitude Raven's servant had forbidden. Now emerging from the ruins embedded in the "roof" of the room was a quickly enlarging mass of flying demons, contradictorily covered in angelic white bird wings, a stern roman head jutting out of one end of the body, while a single feathered arm clutched blazing blue swords.
"And those are-"
"REALLY, REALLY NASTY! ARGH!" Valentine roared as she brought her armaments upwards firing at the flock. The rounds merely bounced off the wings covering the aerial bodies.
Raven and Valentine took that as a cue to really start running.
Unfortunately, with distance crossed closer to their exit, it seemed that the oncoming surge demonology only got closer to them, while the portal seemed to inch slowly towards them.
"Queen! Heads up!" Valentine shouted, unlatching the rucksacks apart and slinging one off. With a great double-handed heave, the witch had hurled the black sack behind her into the spearing pile of claws, scythes, swords, and teeth.
Instantly, Valentine ripped a M79 grenade launcher and fired it truly into the side of the bag.
Then there was light, as all the beasts surrounding the ignored sack was promptly erased in a magical chain reaction that created an explosion so large it was enough to fling Raven and Valentine yelling into the portal the rest of the way by itself.
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They rolled to a halt along the crumbly, uncomfortably warm red stone ground.
Raven was up first, spinning around to look at the portal.
"Ah, don't worry about that, Rae-Rae-chan. They can't come in here. Daddy's presence is too strong for them."
That seemed like enough excuse to lie on the ground panting for a while. Super villains were one thing, but they weren't exactly a wall of unrelenting bestial desire to rip your flesh to bits while you were still alive because it tasted better while you died in fear and agony.
"So… what did you exactly blow up?" Raven gulped down, while she lay upright on her side, propping herself up with her arms while her cape spilled about her.
"Just all the guns… which is a lot of bullets igniting all at once, plus the magic inherent in the guns…plus the shrapnel… oh, and the general dimensional instability that might occur when you explode a hammerspace. Lots of weird physics and stuff, don't ask." Valentine explained, panting on her back.
"Like I even want to know."
"Either way… that was like a thousand different guns I just blew up at once… mou, that's so annoying!"
"For some reason, I'm not surprised you'd say something like that."
"Hmph… you know Raven, you look kinda sexy in that position."
"Shut up."
"Yes, your highness."
There was an unusual comfortable silence, as they lay there, uncaring of the possibility of being attacked while they were off-guard like this.
"Valentine?"
"Naaaani?"
"Why do you do this?"
"Do what?"
"Black magic. Work with demons. And don't say it's for fun. That reason couldn't carry you for so long by itself."
"Family." Valentine simply put it, shutting her eyes in confidence.
"Family?"
"Of course! The Valentine family has always been a bunch of bad eggs. The original family's from England, but my family actually came here to settle in. Of course, it doesn't change anything, no matter how big the ocean is."
"…And all of you do this?" Raven couldn't help but feel sickly amazed at seeing only one facet of a tree of corruption.
"All of us, Rae-Rae-chan. Of course, we all do some things differently, but most of us take it to the magic. Family, and all that, you know? I think over in Britain, a good deal of my cousins are joining in with some magic war on the side of some snakey guy with a nose like this-"
The witch pulled back on her nose with one finger to imitate a flat lack of it, comically revealing two snorting nostrils before she reverted back to normal.
"-And of course, I have my two uncles who decided to become artificial vampires… I wonder what happened to them…"
"What about your immediate family?"
"I decided to strike it out on my own when I was young. Stole my book and hitched it out into the desert. Don't worry! Delinquency is simply family tradition!"
Raven ruefully looked into the distance, "Family…"
"Yeh! We're like totally cut from the same cloth!"
"Perhaps…"
"That's why you need to relax more and like your boiling blood! Nothing wrong with doing what's normal in the heritage!"
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When they finally collected enough air out of the impossibly warm environment back into their lungs, the pair tentatively collected themselves off the ground and surveyed their next stretch of the journey.
Lava flows. Nothing but it. The land fumed pyres of ash and sulfur high into the red sky, tongues of flame lighting up from the rivers. From their cliff edge, it seemed that only half-cooled rock structures existed for solid footing, alongside various broken canyons that were struggling to stay afloat in the sea of molten rock.
In the distance was a towering stone column.
Raven already knew what it was, "That's my father's throne room, right?"
"If you're going to make an official statement, we have to fly there. Gosh, look at all that fire… your daddy would be stupid not to have a few Phantoms here for lieutenants…"
Raven batted an eyebrow at her new servant's finger-to-mouth ponderings, but decided to dismiss it.
"Never mind that Valentine, the sooner I can finish up business with my father, the sooner we can leave this place."
"Aww, is Queen getting sweaty?"
"You're one to talk."
"I am! I had cooling spells sewn into our clothing before we left."
"So why did you taunt me if you already knew the answer?"
"Because, you're cute when you get all huffy. I half expect your cheeks to start getting pink dots on them like in anime!"
"…Let's just go already."
The two floated high over the shifting plain of flames, eyes cautiously scanning around them for the next welcoming committee.
Raven felt it first.
Down Below.
Without even blinking, Raven had already pulled out the Colt Government that had since lain dormant by her hip and swiveled around to squeeze off a shot that felt like nothing at all.
The round impacted against a fireball, prematurely detonating it. As the smoke cleared, Valentine was in awe.
"How did you know!"
"I… just did."
"Maybe you're comfortable here or something…"
"Shush, here they come."
Out from the magma piles a screamed erupted, while somethings exploded from the quiescent surface. It was a swarm of beak-faced floating stony torsos headed up towards them, their trails marked by the bright flames that trailed off the ones that were still scorching their bodies.
"Minions of my father, or just some indigenous demon garbage?" Raven impassively asked.
"Both!" Valentine cackled, as she pulled out a pair of full-sized MP5Ks. Raven joined her thunder with her own magic tempered with the Colt Government. The initial wave was quickly reverted to broken piece of molten rock under the fire, but they served as a remarkable shield for the next group, that opened up their mouths to spit back concentrated jets of flames, which Raven and Valentine only barely fluttered about.
The two parties dueled about the red sky of the realm for a while; trading fire while Raven and Valentine slowly approached the rocky and irregular citadel that formed the core and center of the dimensional plane. As they circled about they seemed to find issues, between the what not of the flaming bird-faced fire demons.
"I don't see a way in!" Raven shouted back to her servant, who was busy ripping through the hoard behind them with a Thompson in each hand.
"What!" Valentine shouted back, trying to hear over the rip-roaring of her handy work.
"I don't see an entrance!"
"Make one, then!"
At the prompt, Raven shut her eyes fiercely for several seconds, trying to reach the heat of hatred within her that she had forgotten.
I want them gone! I want them to disappear! I wan this stupid place to open up! OBEY ME!
The river of flaming demons was ripped out of its source in the middle of trying to defeat the witch on her floating book. To Valentine's look of surprise, she watched the flow glowing deep black.
Raven, eyes blazing red and insignias crawling across her body, screamed and threw her hands.
The mass of fire demons was directed many miles per hour into the wall of the fortress with no doors, creating a great burst of smoke and an ensuing explosion.
Raven and Valentine lowered the arms that were shielding their faces from the blast as the winds fluttered to a halt. A crumbling hole was slowly widening in the spot where the cumulative power of several hundred pounds of fire demon magic had hammered. Valentine didn't seem overly impressed.
"For something I'd assume to be the base of the big boss… that was too simple to penetrate." She snorted in disdain.
"So that means he's expecting us."
"Daddy wants to settle this personally, huh? Well after you, Rae-Rae-chan."
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The inside wasn't what one could exactly call a fortress. At any rate, it was better compared to the inside of an ant nest, endless round passages that seemed to have been formed, rather than carved, throughout the body of the solid stone fortress.
Suddenly, one side of the tunnel opened up into a fanged overhang that exposed the passage to something below. Sensing the potential danger, the two quickly pressed themselves up against the edge of the tunnel wall before it ended, carefully peering around.
Down below was an uneven chamber, two sides of the walls rising up out of a pool of lava, while a single strip of stone stood out from the molten pool and stretched onwards to pass under the half demon and witch's hiding spot, and onto the unknown. What was in view though, was the bridge spreading out onto a small shore that had enough room to hold a giant cast iron double doors that were fast shut, the mark of Scath scored into the metal. On either side of entryway was a pair of hulking gray skinned demons in the guise of a human, wearing large barrel like helmets that completely destroyed any concept of a human head above the shoulders, and each holding a giant flaming pole arm, blades adorning each side.
Raven craned slightly to get a better view, "What's that? Is that the entrance to the throne room?"
Valentine hummed, but quickly dismissed the theory, "Too small. It looks like something for humans and less important demons to handle directly. Something below Daddy's dignity to operate directly… I think this is Daddy's chamber of contracts."
"Contracts?"
"Yeah, whenever you ask for a service from a demon, or vice versa, the eventual reward for either party is kept in there to keep the contract in place. As long as whatever they want is in there, they gotta keep working for it."
"Slade's a servant of my father. His contracts probably in there too." Raven suggested to herself. Valentine turned to look at her at this.
"Slade?"
"An enemy of mine. He's the one that put the portal inscription on me."
"Ah, the suitor. I don't like him."
Valentine expressed this by wrapping her arms around Raven's hips and pouting, "Rae-Rae-chan should date people her own age…"
Raven's eyes flashed an irritant red, "Get. Off."
The servant took that order very seriously, coughing into her hand as she moved on, "Still, you know how a guy like him got a contract?"
"I don't know. He should be dead, though."
"Then Daddy probably gave him a contract to fully restore him to life, and it's in there."
"Hmm… let's get going."
"Yes, Queen."
The pair ducked low and scurried past the guards below, hiding in the shadows cast by the jagged spires lining the edges of the exposed tunnel side until they reached the other side.
"Valentine, you said you have a contract with the God of Time?"
"Yeh?"
"What does he have that you want?"
"Easy. My work is its own reward."
The tunnel in front of them decided to make this a good time to suddenly explode, as a pillar of flame ripped upwards, pulverizing a new pair of exits above and below.
A man floated up from the below one.
"You shouldn't have come here, Raven."
Thick armor, yet not bulky. Heavy padding at the joints, a distinctive tinge around his body from the magic surrounding him. Two tone armor of orange and black, all the way to his armored face, where a single eye and a grate for a mouth showed out.
Raven performed her customary glare-at-villain, "Slade-"
Then Valentine was suddenly throwing an arm around her shoulder, hanging off while pointing a finger at the man, one eye closed in cheerful disdain, "Gomenasi, Oji-chan! Queen was just tearing herself to bits for disobeying you and Daddy's orders! You and I know just how much she wanted to follow orders until her dying breath!"
The single eye narrowed, "And what… are you supposed to be?"
"The servant of Raven. She's going to be the new ninth high princess of the Underworld very shortly."
Slade metallic voice clucked disapprovingly, "My, my, Raven. What sort of ideas has this thing managed to feed you? Images of grandeur and freedom? You can't defeat Trigon. Go back, the only thing you can do is fulfill destiny-"
A bullet sparked off Slade's face, jerking his head back.
Valentine kept her 1911 trained on the other servant's face, "Maybe we should leave the family matters to the family, neh, old man? On the other hand, I'm sure family servants can have banter between themselves…"
The witch tilted her head slowly to her master, "Leave this guy to me. Looks like Daddy's already expecting us, so just go to him. Meet you later."
"Careful. I need you in one piece so we can get back home."
"Hai, hai."
Raven pointed a glare at Slade, "I'll deal with you later."
With that, Raven let her red-caped body turn into the familiar black amorphous mass that swooped through the roof of the tunnel.
Slade made a motion to follow, "This conversation isn't over-"
Another bullet. Slade made sure to catch with his hand this time.
Valentine sneered, "Now, how do they say it again in the shows…? Oh yes…"
Dropping her gun, Raven's servant pulled free two P90s, shaved down to hold pistol grips and large scopes and silencers. Both pointed themselves at the armored figure.
"…Your opponent is me."
"Do you think you can actually beat me?"
"Probably not. Raven wanted to deal with you later anyways, so all I have to do is keep you alive 'till then, yeh?"
Slade's eye narrowed, and the rest of him proceeded to blur forwards, wreathed in flame. Valentine opened up her guns indiscriminately, bullets melting before the heat, and she didn't care.
And he was in her face; flaming palm smashing downwards, guns shoot forward, and the tunnel exploded.
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Raven's blackened form emerged from the lava like some sort of demented phoenix pulling from of the ashes, before throwing its head back and emerging as a woman, cape fluttering.
All around her was a chamber that defied proportion. Below her, the massive lake of burning fluid that never ceased to be in the realm. All about her, high walls glowing red, stretching into upwards into a dome darkness.
Before her, a most massive throne, shadows obscuring the upper half of the bright blood red body as it sat, one hand propping its head.
Four red eyes burned into Raven.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER RETURNED HERE, CHILD."
Raven snorted, and let her hand have a slight comfort in feeling the gun pressed up against her side.
"Nice to see you too, dad."
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Chapter 13: "V For Vendetta: Acte 3" – The time has come. The old has to go, the new has to come. Come and defeat your father, Raven. Your kingdom is awaiting with bated breath.